All the hype about Indian IT sector makes it hard to believe that it is Pakistan, not India, which has widely deployed biometric identification technology to issue multi-purpose national ID cards and e-passports to its citizens. Is this just another case of the proverbial shoemaker's children going barefoot?
In fact, Pakistan is among the first few countries of the world to issue biometric national ID cards to 83 million citizens. Pakistan has also issued over 7 million e-passports to its citizens since October, 2004. These Multi-Biometric Electronic Passports, containing an RFID chip, facial and fingerprint images of the passport holder, PKI and other security features are compliant with ICAO standards.
Established in the year 2000, NADRA, the National Database and Registration Authority, is Pakistan's state-owned IT services company that specializes in implementing multi-biometric national identity cards and e-passports, as well as secure access verification and control systems in both public and private sectors. It is recognized among the top 50 IT firms in the world by the ID World Congress.
NADRA's database is among the largest, if not the largest, fully integrated databases in the world that supports both an Automatic Finger Identification System (AFIS) & a Facial Recognition System:
• National Data Warehouse
• Storage Capacity of 60 Terabytes
• Processing Speed of 18 Trillion Instructions/ Sec
• Multilingual Support of English/ Urdu/ Sindhi
• AFIS with a matching speed of 16 million/sec
• World's largest Facial Library of 83 million images (ICAO)
• Network Infrastructure
• Highly redundant, scalable and mission critical
• Connected with more than 8000 computers
• Equipped Terrestrial, VSAT, and DVB RCS/2 network Links
Beyond the national ID cards and passports, other current NADRA projects are motor vehicle registration (VINs or vehicle ID numbers), driver licenses, law enforcement, gun licensing, credit reporting, authentication of various transactions, statistical data, birth/ marriage/ death registration, GIS, e-Governance, disbursement of grants and planning at federal, provincial, district and local government levels using the national database.
NADRA's domestic public sector clients include the Ministry of Interior, Directorate of Immigration and Passports, National Highway Authority, Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehab Authority, UNHCR-Pakistan and Benazir Income Support Program for the poor.
NADRA issued Watan cash cards as part of a recent project to hand out Rs 28.8 billion among 1.527 million flood affected families in rural Pakistan last year. It is now working with the FBR, Pakistan's tax collectors, to catch millions of income tax evaders.
NADRA's corporate clients are Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Charter Bank, PTCL, IESCO, SNGPL and SSGPL.
International clients of NADRA include governments of Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Sudan. NADRA Technologies has recently entered into a agreement with Global Defense, a Turkish company, to pursue biometric IT services opportunities in Turkey and other European and Middle Eastern nations.
PTCL, another state-owned company, is rolling out fast broadband access at low cost, and building data centers in Pakistan to enable cloud computing on a large scale. PTCL has recently started rolling out 50 Mbits/sec broadband service in several cities and towns, and built large data centers in Karachi and Lahore.
IT sector is alive, and it is focusing on solving real problems in Pakistan. And the state-owned enterprises like PTCL and NADRA are building IT infrastructure and developing and deploying information and communication technology to lead the way for both public and private sector companies in the country.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
NADRA Case Study
Pakistan's $2.8 Billion IT Industry
PTCL Data Centers
PTCL's 50 Mbps Broadband Access in Pakistan
Mobile Internet in South Asia
Media and Telecom Sectors Growing in Pakistan
Internet Service Providers of Pakistan
Poverty Reduction Through Telecom Access
Pakistan's Telecom Boom
Pakistan Tops Text Message Growth
WiMax Rollout in Pakistan
Mobile Internet in Pakistan
Smartphones in Pakistan
Threre are more reasons to migrate to Canada
1 year ago
20 comments:
There was no need to compare with India.
But just to let you know, the UID project is way WAY more advanced, ambitious and on a much larger scale than NADRA will ever take
For starters, the NADRA project just takes one fingerprint and facial data
UID takes fingerprints of all ten fingers AND a retinal scan
Look, Pakistan in down in the dumps and you're putting up all kinds of good new to raise people's spirits But comparison with India will only invite ridicule
Here is a DNA India story on India's UID project, aka Aadhaar:
Is the government of India’s ambitious Unique Identification (UID) Card project as robust as it pledges to be? Can it ride over the omnipresent hurdles posed by the country’s massive population and technological shortfalls? Some of these questions have been put forth in a working paper of by Prof Rajnish Dass of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). The project aims to provide a unique 12-digit number to 1.2 billion residents of India.
The paper titled ‘Unique Identity Card Project in India: A Divine Dream or a Miscalculated Heroism’ brings out the crucial point of need to consult stakeholder groups, to understand IT readiness and expectation gap for a project like this, and hold public debates since huge cost and effort are being put into the largest project in the world.
“A concrete execution plan of the project can be designed by clearly mapping the efforts and resources of the project with the intended benefits and presented to the people of the nation. In light of the perceived cost, feasible benefits and perceived risks, this should further be publicly debated in order to understand the readiness of the nation in taking such an initiative,” states the paper.
The paper suggests that in view of the huge implications in terms of cost and effort, it becomes mandatory to put forward a detailed cost-benefit report before the people. It is because the nation has to look into other priority areas prior to initiating and executing such a task.
Involvement of people or feedback about the significance of it is important, because if citizens do not find value in such cards or the government processes are not scaled up to match the working of such identification, the mammoth efforts and money spent on the project would be seriously questioned, says
the paper.
The paper points out four challenges before the project. The UID project has gathered criticism which is stated in the paper under four heads. First, the project would necessarily entail violation of privacy and civil liberties of the people.
Second, it remains unclear whether biometric technology- the cornerstone of the project-is capable of the gigantic task of de-duplication. The Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) "Biometrics Standards Committee" has noted that retaining biometric efficiency for a database of more than one billion persons "has not been adequately analysed" and the problem of fingerprint quality in India "has not been studied in depth".
Third, no cost-benefit analysis or feasibility report for the project has been made till now. Finally, the purported benefits of the project in the social sector, such as in the Public Distribution System (PDS), are "largely illusive," says the paper.
The paper also says that outrageous costs, technology gaps, privacy issues, political challenges, and lack of clear vision and mapping of the perceived benefits that can be accrued out of such an exercise are some factors that hinder viable and sustainable implementation of a national identity programme. Talking about the limitations and risks involved in the massive scale programme, the paper says that the complexities of a unique identity scheme become multifold for a nation like India, with over 1.2 billion population spread across 32,87,263 sq km, more than 35.16 per cent being illiterate (2001 census) and speaking 22 different languages, and following various religions.
It is a minor detail that NADRA gave the database to the viceroy and his men. That may be the greatest identity theft in history. Another feather in the cap of NADRA. (Does that explain the speed with which the data has been computerized? I do not know.)
Khalid: "It is a minor detail that NADRA gave the database to the viceroy and his men."
If NADRA did it, it must have been a political decision, and it doesn't take away from the technical capabilities and accomplishments of Pakistani IT engineers who built the system.
Besides, NADRA denies any such transfers, according to The News:
ISLAMABAD: National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) Chairman Brig (retd) Saleem Moin on Tuesday said that Nadra never transferred its data to any country, including the United States.
“Nadra has no link with any department or organisation of the United States,” he said in response to a question at a news briefing here. “Neither Nadra received such a request nor did it provide anything from its data to any other country, including the United States,” he added.
The Nadra chairman said that in the normal circumstances the authority did not provide its data to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) but it had to share the data with the bureau when a court orders. “As per the Privacy Act, we cannot provide any data to any organisation,” he added.
Regarding the Nadra projects, he said that the authority would start working on a project assigned by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in July for registration of Afghan refugees after getting compensation amount.
“The $5.2 million project will also include issuance of computerised registration cards to Afghan refugees,” he said. He informed that the Punjab government had also assigned a project to Nadra for computerised census of provincial government’s employees. In this connection, the pilot project would be launched in Faisalabad district.
The official said that Nadra had already started working on two projects of World Bank for creating Management Information System (MIS) for distribution of cash to October 8 earthquake-affected people. In this connection, Nadra has so far enlisted 120,000 victims in two separate lists, who have received compensation in cash. “We will have complete record of earthquake affected people including their addresses and accounts who have received compensation,” he said.
He said that Automated Border Control (ABC) system is also ready for installation at all exit and arrival points at airport, railway station and other routes. According to this system, every Machine Readable Passport (MRP) would have an electronic chip having complete record of travellers.
http://www.thenews.jang.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=1134&Cat=13&dt=6/3/2006
Here's NY Times revelation of Air India's basic safety violations:
NEW DELHI — When Bob Haygooni paid a midflight visit to a cockpit at his new employer, Air India, he was shocked. The pilots, he said, had completely covered the windows with newspaper to keep out the sun.
“All you had in the cockpit was this yellowish glow, as the light permeated the newspaper,” Mr. Haygooni recalled, saying it was a visibility hazard he had never seen before in 30 years of flying.
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Interviews with more than a dozen experienced pilots hired in the last three years by Air India to work new international routes describe an airline with problems. But theirs are not the only complaints
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And the nation’s new civil aviation minister, Vayalar Ravi, vowed in an interview Wednesday not to close or sell the airline. “There is no question of Air India being shut or privatized,” he said. He said vested interests who “want to exploit the people for their own profit” were behind suggestions that India’s government give the airline up.
Still, Mr. Ravi said the airline had been mismanaged in the past — including the merging in 2007 of India’s domestic and international state-run airlines. “Nothing positive came out of the merger,” he said, and Air India has bought too many planes.
But the airline does “not make any compromises with maintenance and security,” Mr. Ravi said.
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Even some once-loyal customers are giving up on Air India.
“I think all Indians should just boycott the airline,” said Harjiv Singh, co-founder of Gutenberg Communications, a public relations company with offices in New York and Delhi.
Mr. Singh said he used to fly Air India’s business class regularly. But now he flies Continental’s direct flight to Newark, or one of a host of European carriers that stop in Europe before going on to New York.
Even inside the company, some executives are quietly calling for the end of government control. But Air India is popular with India’s central government because ministers and politicians can demand routes to connect their home states with the capital, New Delhi, even if they lose money.
“I feel like a woman with 1,000 husbands,” one male Air India executive complained, referring to the constant demands from government officials.
As in many other emerging-market countries, India had a severe pilot shortage about five years ago, as the number of passengers and airlines grew faster than the country could churn out new pilots. Airlines here responded to the pilot shortage by hiring expatriates, including hundreds from the United States, where — until the rules changed in 2007 — commercial pilots were forced to retire at age 60. In India, as most everywhere else, the retirement age has long been 65.
For many of those who joined Air India, the culture clash has been severe. Dozens left before their three-year contracts expired. Of the 186 foreign pilots hired since April 2007, Air India has just 36 left, the company said.
Pilots interviewed for this article expressed safety concerns about basic operations at Air India — particularly its training procedures, which many said were not adequate for teaching the hundreds of new pilots the airline needs for its expansion. Some, like Mr. Haygooni, spoke freely. Others insisted that their identities not be revealed because they said the industry did not reward whistle-blowers.
Air India is “just so far behind the ball I don’t know how they will ever catch up,” said Alexander Garmendia, 64, who joined Air India in 2009 after retiring from American Airlines. He trained at Air India’s headquarters in Mumbai for six weeks, but said he left in part because he was worried about safety.
...
Air India deserves to die. Our private carriers are far better. Let its death send a signal to all that India's growth in the last two decades has been due to its enterprising spirit of private enterprise and not useless govt enterprise.
It is reputed that the Chinese overwhelm by sheer numbers. In their confrontations, there would be 300,000 men - only 3,000 were equipped - the rest were the obfuscation factor.
So now there are 160 mill new identities in the data base - good!!!
I am sure there will be many duplications and phantoms in there. Let Silicon Valley create algorithms to discern the good Mohammeds, Muhammads, Mohammads.......... from the bad.
So what - if the viceroy has the yellow pages and white pages combined in a 60 terrabyte searchable database with data of birth and family details thrown-in? Attitudes of the 160 million become apparent even without analyzing raw data of their names, addresses etc.
Identity concealment is an obsession with conservative "rednecks" here. I have never been convinced that there is any benefit to such concealment of identities.
In fact, as the science of genetics progresses, there should be benefits in the ability to identify and research blood-lines etc. This is in addition to the current benefits listed in Riaz's article. All of this would be impossible without the existence of centralized data bases. And if NADRA is at the leading edge - more power to them.
NADRA is an arm of the Military to keep track of the civilian population. Financing and know-how is directly from the Military which eats up 16% of every Rupee in our country's budget!
Pakistani IT companies win recognition in Malaysia, according to The Express Tribune:
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani information technology (IT) companies won seven awards at the 10th International Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Pakistani companies secured the highest number of total awards.
The Silver Awards were secured in the Security Applications, E-Inclusion and E-Community, Financial Applications, Communications, E-Government and E-Health categories.
Pakistani companies won in the face of stiff competition from companies from 16 countries including Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. The Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE) won the Silver Award in E-Government, Security and Communications while Avanza won the Silver Award in the highly competitive Financial Category and Cure MD won the Silver Award in the E-Health category. Aerocar and Solotech showed won the Silver Award in the E-nclusion & E-Community category.
Secretary Information Technology Nagib Ullah Malik invited the winners to discuss ways and means to bolster the IT industry in Pakistan and increase the adoption of locally developed IT products. He also praised the winning companies for earning a good name for the country while acknowledging the depth and creativity of the companies.
The chairman of Pakistan Association of Software Houses (PASHA) Ashraf Kapadia, Member IT Tariq Badshah and Managing Director Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) Zia Imran were also present at the occasion.
Malik also said that the wins at APICTA are a solid evidence of the support that the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) has provided to spur innovation in Pakistan. He recommended the PSEB to look into additional IT industry support programs including greater adoption of locally developed products in government and private sectors.
Malik added that minimal regulation and maximum incentives are needed to compete with countries such as Vietnam and Brazil.
The article by DNA just criticises the policy, not the technology. I have read similiar criticisms in many magazines. These are activists who are only concerned about privacy laws, not the benefits. The UID is the most advanced system and for your information it is possible. Nobody said it would be done in a day. It would take atleast 5 years.
Do you know how fingerprints are being taken now. Today in any government office whether license, registry, it is mandatory to collect fingerprints. Also when you open an account in banks. The data garnered from all these sources will be fed in the system along with photographs to.
The same way India is going to develop NATGRID. Indian IT companies are totally world class and are quite capable of implementing it. Come and visit India some time, don't go on info given by others all the time.
Totally off topic, but since you have blogged about this often, institute of chemical technology in mumbai has been ranked 4th as per research standards in the world..here is a link..
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ict-ranked-4th-in-research-standards/136824/on
^^
Yup and IISc has been ranked #93 in the world for Science R&D.Overall it has a rank of 400+ because it has zero output in economics,social sciences etc etc which is what u would expect in a dedicated science post graduate institute.
I think your confusing yourself with policy benefits and technological prowess.....You need to go back to the drawing board with your thought process..on this one...your best option is to visit India and see the change happening first hand.....opinions in news articles and just that....they are just opinions.....India being a large sleeping Giant takes time to change....perhaps will take another 2 generations to see tangible change like what you see in china
While Pakistan fares badly, ranking 103 on a list of 125 nations, on CII-INSEAD Global Index of Innovation for 2011, it is included among the top 10 countries for the Innovation Efficiency sub-Index. These countries are Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, Moldova, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, India, and Bangladesh.
This places Pakistan in 4th place on CII-Insead's Global innovation efficiency sub-index, 5 places ahead of India in 9th place, according to Economic Times of India:
India has improved its ranking in the global Innovation Efficiency Index to 9th position in 2011 from 101th last year on factors like political stability, R&D, market and business sophistication, according to a study.
Surprisingly, Pakistan was placed ahead of India at 4th position, the CII-INSEAD study said.
However, India has slipped on its ranking in the Global Innovation Index to 62nd position out of 125 countries in 2011 from 56th last year while Switzerland was at the top,
It said that a lot of Indian talent is returning home to the country and the youth in urban India are now more global than ever, "and they are quite in tune with new technologies, even ahead of the curve in many cases, as early adapters".
"Multinational corporations are making large investments in R&D outside of their headquarter countries, setting up R&D sites in low-cost emerging countries such as China and India to access global talent and take advantage of their proximity to target markets," the report said.
Indian major players such as Tata, Godrej, and Mahindras are shifting their focus towards the rapidly expanding middle-income group of customers by coming up with frugal innovations, keeping in mind the price sensitivity of Indian consumers, it said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/india-moves-up-to-no9-on-global-innovation-efficiency-index/articleshow/9085252.cms
http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii/GII%20COMPLETE_PRINTWEB.pdf
http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/12/intellectual-wealth-of-nations.html
http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/10/pakistans-28-billion-it-industry.html
Here's an Express Tribune report on Pakistan's Census 2011 currently underway:
The Statistics Division has requested some 0.2 million Pakistan Army officials to assist in providing security to the staff conducting the census and to help in collecting data, in case they are required.
“Army personnel will only respond to distress calls of enumerators in case they face resistance in sensitive areas of the state,” Secretary Statistic Division, Asif Bajwa, said on Thursday. Addressing a press conference, Bajwa said, “The Pakistan Army, Rangers, Frontier Constabulary, Levies and other paramilitary forces have offered to support the survey teams.” He however ruled out any resistance from miscreants in volatile areas of the country especially in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal belt. The census will cost Rs5 billion. After the 1998 census, Pakistan’s population was estimated to be 132 million while according to recent data the population has risen above 175 million. Apart from Pakistan, 73 countries have started the process.
Bajwa said that the first phase of the census, which is now underway, includes house listing. In this phase three forms will be distributed among the population and summary sheets of house materials will be compiled by 19th April. The main operation will begin on October 6 during which form 2A – a questionnaire related to demographic and social characteristics, literacy, geographical area, economic characteristics and fertility – will be circulated. The division has stated that no details will be made public till the completion of whole process.
“For the process, 146,270 enumerators – 90 per cent of which are teachers – have been appointed,” Bajwa said adding, “The final census report will be released in December.”
The staff conducting the census will be supervised by 3,626 district officers and tehsildars. Some 22,408 circle supervisors will also collect details of houses to conduct a detailed survey of urban and rural areas, Bajwa said.
He said that teams will conduct surveys in 25 divisions, 139 districts, 424 census districts, 533 tehsils, 62 towns, 1,470 urban union councils, 50,612 villages, 6,055 rural union councils, 62 towns of city districts, 174 municipal committees, 286 town committees and 43 cantonments.
Data will also be conducted in 14 tehsils of volatile Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa which include Chitral, Dir, Malakand and Kohistan. House listing in various villages of Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan will also be undertaken. Bajwa said that the flood affected population will also be included. “We will go into every tent of the IDPs to ensure their count,” he said.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/145470/census-2011-army-to-respond-to-distress-calls-of-census-takers/
The Lahore-based Pepper.pk and Five Rivers Technologies made it to the number one spot across all categories on BlackBerry’s AppWorld on August 3 with their game Ninja Fruit Bash, developed for BlackBerry smartphones, according to a report in Express Tribune:
This was the third BlackBerry app developed by the local company to make it to number one on BlackBerry AppWorld.
Their other apps to reach number one include Photo Editor, an app that allows users to edit photographs from their hand-held devices, and LED Notifier, an app that blinks different colored LED for different contacts.
Mahe Zehra Husain, the Head of Operations and Product Management said “We are thrilled at this achievement. We already have two world number one utilities on BlackBerry AppWorld and adding a game to our family shows that not only can good code be developed for software utilities in Pakistan we can actually make amazing games as well!”
Ninja Fruit Bash Storyline
Ninja Fruit Bash follows the quest of a Ninja as he travels across China slicing tainted and poisoned fruit in order to save humanity.
The fruit is poisoned by the evil spirit of Orochi and is fatal if eaten. Orochi has turned fertile fruit gardens all over China into poisonous wasteland and our Ninja is on a mission – to return all the fruit gardens to their former glory.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/224923/pakistan-it-firm-tops-world-ranking-with-blackberry-game/
Here's more from Blackberrycool.com:
There’s a growing trend of taking iOS successes and porting them over to BlackBerry. We believe the trend was started by Smarter-Apps and from a strictly business perspective it makes a lot of sense. Sure, you could spend a long time working on a risky app that may or may not be a success, or you could take something that obviously makes money on another platform and bring it to the 40 million or so BlackBerry users. Considering the huge success of this strategy, as proved by Angry Farm, it makes you realize that a lot of these iOS developers are listening to the analysts more than the users.
Ninja Fruit Bash is the latest in this strategy and they’ve taken the success of Fruit Ninja to BlackBerry users. The app isn’t 100% of the fun you get on the iOS version and there are some limitations on the BlackBerry side such as the fact that not all devices have OpenGL support for 3D graphics. Ninja Fruit Bash on the Torch was a pretty smooth experience and it’s definitely a good start. The company will have to work a little harder to bring more of the user experience and graphics to the game but as a start it’s awesome.
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2011/07/21/ninja-fruit-bash-is-the-latest-ios-success-to-blackberry-clone/
NADRA has issued over half a million cards for Rs. 20,000 cash to each flood affected family in Sindh so far, according to The News:
The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has said 47 centres of its total 62 centres are operational in six districts, while the other centres have completed their task and are entertaining complaints from genuine applicants who
were unable to get themselves registered for the Pakistan Card.
Nadra Deputy Chairman Tariq Malik pointed out on Friday that Nadra’s centres were working in Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan, Shaheed Benazirabad Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar and Sanghar, while 15 other centres were addressing complaints from those people who did not get themselves registered for Pakistan Cards.
He stated that throughout the process, Nadra ensured strong checks so that only deserving families belonging to the provincially notified calamity-hit areas could obtain the Pakistan Card.
Malik informed that Nadra had so far issued 592,651 Pakistan Cards to heads of rain-affected families in Sindh, 105,455 in Mirpurkhas, 240,227 in Badin, 79,946 in Tando Mohammad Khan and 156,324 in Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah), 8,011 in Tando Allahyar and 2,684 in Sanghar.
He said that Nadra had launched a mobile SMS service in collaboration with the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and all operating telecom companies to determine a person’s existence in the beneficiary list for the Pakistan Card project to facilitate the rain-affected people in checking the status of their requests.
The eligibility of the applicant for the Pakistan Card can be checked by simply sending his/her CNIC number to the designated short code (i.e. 9777). In response, a text message will be sent from Nadra’s central server confirming CNIC existence in the beneficiary list. The intent to use this service is to assist the provincial and local governments in curtailing the rush at the centres and helping the flood victims by using the technology while this service was for free, he added.
Nadra, in addition to setting up centres, has also mobilised its mobile resources MRVs (Mobile Registration Vans) to process the CNIC for free in all the affected areas in coordination with the public representatives and district administrators, he added. He said that Nadra had also issued 77,833 CNICs for free to flood/rain-hit victims so far.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=77118&Cat=4
NADRA offers SMS verification service to check flood affectees, according to APP:
Islamabad—National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has initiated a mobile SMS service determine and check existence of flood-affected persons in the beneficiary list for Pakistan Card.
This service has been launched in collaboration with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and all mobile phone operators with the objective to assist provincial and local governments to curtail down rush at the centers and help the flood victims by using technology.
A senior official at NADRA on Monday told APP that the eligibility of the applicant for Pakistan Card can be checked by simply sending his/her Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) number to the designated short code i.e. 9777.
In response, a text message will be sent from NADRA central server confirming CNIC existence in the beneficiary list, the official said and added the Authority ensures strong checks in the software so that only deserving families belonging to provincially notified calamity hit areas could obtain Pakistan Cards. He said the process of issuing Pakistan Cards is in progress as around 598,600 such Cards have been issued to flood affected families in Sindh.
Giving further details, he said around 105,455 Pakistan Cards in Mirpurkhas, 240,227 in Badin, 79,946 in Tando Muhammad Khan and 156,324 in Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah), 8011 in Tando Allahyar and 2684 in Sanghar have been issued.
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=125035
Is India's unique ID scheme unraveling? asks Soutik Biswas of the BBC:
...two years after it launched, a parliamentary committee has given a thumbs-down to the setting up of a statutory National Identification Authority to bolster the scheme. A bill had been introduced in parliament last December to set up the authority.
The committee, in a recent report, raised concerns about access and misuse of personal information, surveillance, profiling and securing confidential information by the government. UID authorities say that appropriate steps have been taken to ensure security and protection of data.
That's not all. There appears to be a valid concern about the possibility of illegal residents getting identification numbers. (The number is not proof of citizenship or residency. It only confirms identity after authentication.)
The parliamentary committee fears that "at a time when the country is facing a serious problem of illegal immigrants and infiltration from across the border", the number was being given out to every resident. "The committee is unable to understand the rationale for expanding the scheme to persons who are not citizens," the report said.
The committee has even questioned the implementation of the scheme, which has been held up as a success story by the authorities. It says it was originally meant for the poorest of the poor and then extended to all residents. But the committee says better-off Indians already possess many other forms of identity, and so asks how the number helps them. Authorities say the number will be a general proof of identity.
Also, the report wonders, how will the poorest of the poor be given numbers? For one, the authorities don't have proper data on the very poor - officially, 37% of India's 1.2 billion people live below the poverty line. But there are various estimates of the exact number of poor in India and one suggests that the true figure could be as high as 77%. So how does the number help in identifying the genuine beneficiaries?
Interestingly, the report points to the shelving of a similar identity project in the UK because of the huge costs, unreliable and untested technology and the risks to the safety and security of citizens. A London School of Economics report says that the UK project could turn out to be a "potential danger to the public interest and to the legal rights of the individuals".
Nandan Nilekani, head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, believes that the number can transform Indian politics by curbing theft and leakage of public funds. "It would make porous distribution mechanisms and our dependence on the moral scruples of the bureaucrats redundant," he says. But, clearly, a number of crucial questions need to be clarified before India can continue to crunch out the identity numbers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16177163
The State Bank said on Wednesday that the value of e-banking transactions aggregated to Rs12 trillion during the second half of 2010-11, showing an increase of 19 per cent as compared to the first half of the year, according to a Dawn report:
The Payment Systems Half Yearly Review released by the State Bank here noted speedy rise in e-banking transactions in the country.
The volume of such transactions during the period under review reached 125.9 million depicting an increase of 15.5 per cent as compared to the first half of FY11, the review said, adding that the payment system infrastructure has maintained an overall growth trend for the second half of FY11.
However, the review also said that the volume and value of paper-based retail payments during the second half of FY11 were recorded as 177.3 million and Rs84.6 trillion respectively, indicating an increase of 3.5 per cent in the volume of transactions.
“The value of transactions has increased by 13.3 per cent as compared to the first half of FY11. The contribution of paper-based payments in total retail payment transactions was 58.5 per cent in terms of volume and 87.5 per cent in terms of value,” it added.
The review said the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), which are the largest channel of e-banking transactions, showed 16.5 per cent increase in number of transactions and 19 per cent increase in value raising the share of ATM transactions in total e-banking transactions to 58.8 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively, the review said.
It said the number of Real-Time Online Branches (RTOB) transactions grew by 14.7 per cent and the value of transactions increased by 18.8 per cent as compared to first half of FY11. “These transactions contributed 31.6 per cent in total volume of e-banking and 93.2 per cent in the value of such transactions respectively,” the review observed.
According to the review, as many as 466 more Automated Teller Machines were added bringing the total number of ATMs to 5,200 while 380 more bank branches were converted into Real Time Online Branches (RTOBs).
“A total of 7,416 bank branches (78 per cent) are now offering real time online banking out of a total of 9,541 branches in the country. The number of plastic cards at 14 million also registered an increase of 6.2 per cent during the period under review as compared to the numbers during the preceding half year,” the Review added.
The overall increasing trend in payment system infrastructure was also witnessed in the large value payments settled through Pakistan Real-time Inter-bank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM), which increased by 14.8 per cent in volume and 21.9 per cent in terms of value as compared to the first half of FY11.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/29/electronic-payments-reach-rs12tr.html
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