INDIA

SMART CARDS FOR NATIONAL ID IN INDIA; NEED FOR SINGLE ID? IMPACT ON MOBILE BIZ
Six years after the Indian Citizenship Act was amended to issue a national identity card to every citizen in the country, the government has constitued a Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to launch and run the scheme. In 2006, Section 14A was added to the Citizenship Act of 1955 to issue a national identity card to every citizen of the country. Yesterday, the Cabinet approved the creation of the post of Chairperson of the UIDAI, and the Prime Minister approved the appointment of Nandan Nilekani of Infosys as Chairperson, in the rank of Cabinet Minister. Nilekani will step down from the board of Infosys in July, and assume charge of the UIDAI, he told CNBC-TV18. Pilots have been attempted, but no large scale implementation has taken place. The project was initiated to keep out illegal immigrants West Bengal, which is home to many Bangladeshis, is one of nine states along with four Union Territories selected for the first stage of roll outs. Rs. 1 billion will be spent on the project, which is expected to be completed by early next year, Business Standard reports.

NEED FOR A SINGLE ID?

The National ID will be similar to a Social Security Number in the US; at present, multiple IDs are in use in India ration card, drivers license, passport, voters ID card, PAN card for taxpayers. There have been several instances of both fake ID cards being used by terrorists and criminals, that have been used for procuring mobile phone connections etc. During the recent general elections in India, there were reports of Voter ID cards with mistakes as well. The problem is this no single ID is comprehensive, and each relies on another form of verification. There is a need for consolidating all of these into a single ID. At the same time, the government needs to ensure that these IDs are not replicable (protection of identity), and access to information about individuals is limited (privacy). Implications For Mobile Industry One of the key issues with getting a mobile connection is the verification of the individual getting the connection. Particularly in rural areas, and with a migrant population, authentication of individuals is an issue; people may not possess any ID at all. A national ID card may not only reduce issues with getting a connection, but a smart card may also do away with verification costs for mobile operators. E-Commerce & Payment Industry Authentication is a vital step in e-commerce transactions and the more options there are, the easier. The biometric card will be used in a multiplicity of situations to register for offline services such as a loan or an insurance plan, while buying a car. Travel will the first service that will be affected by the citizenship card, which can be used to validate identity at airports, checkposts and while booking tickets. Railways currently requires you to carry one of five documents if you have an e-ticket, the smart card will be added to the list. Issues have been raised in the past about Know Your Customer norms for Cash Cards like Itz Cash and Done Cards. Itll be interesting to see if the National ID is made mandatory for validation all payments. Banks currently offering m-commerce transactions are using tokens to increase security and may opt to include the new id card to the process.

The additional data required will only add to the process, and increase the complexity of transactions. e-Governance Various government schemes on health and education can be accessed using the smart card which will reduce cases of identity theft in the country. It could also be used as a tool for justice by keeping an up-to-date record of a persons criminal record or fines and driving offenses, as is done in other countries. Malaysias MyKad smart card is also being used as a passport.

ID CARDS PLANNED FOR INDIA'S 1.1 BILLION

India is to embark on an ambitious plan to provide each of its 1.1 billion-plus citizens with a national identity card and has picked an industrialist who helped to spearhead the country's IT revolution to lead the project. Nandan Nilekani, the entrepreneur who helped the best-selling author Thomas Friedman to coin the phrase and book title "The world is flat", was asked by the government to help to create what would be the largest citizens' database in a democracy. Only China has a larger scheme. The government believes that the scheme, to be finalised over three years, will help in the delivery of vital social services to the poorest in society who often lack or are at least told they lack sufficient identification papers. The government has long complained that most of the money set aside for the neediest is diverted as a result of corruption, and it believes the cards could help to tackle identity theft and fraud. At a time of increased concern over the threat of militant violence, the government also hopes that the creation of the scheme will boost national security and help police and law and order officials. The creation of the ID or Unique Identification Number (UID) was a major plank of the manifesto of the ruling Congress Party during the recent election. Yet the scheme is not without controversy. Some observers have questioned how the cards will actually improve the delivery of services, even if the identity of recipients can be proved. Some have also expressed concerns that the scheme could be divisive. "It cannot be denied that the system of proving identity in India is complicated and confusing. But a system of national ID cards can technically introduce a new route to citizenship," said Charu Lata Hogg, an associate fellow of the Asia programme at Chatham House. "This could be used as a security measure by the government which leaves migrant workers, refugees and other stateless people in India in limbo, without access to public services, employment and basic welfare." The recruitment of Mr Nilekani, 54, a founder of the Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies, is a coup for the government of Manmohan Singh, who contacted him earlier in the month with an invitation to join a planning commission. The premier said he was keen to recruit and utilise talents outside the government to help with the country's development a novel move in India. Though he turned down that offer, he was inspired to take up a public role. Mr Nilekani will stand down from his position as co-chairman of Infosys to avoid a conflict of interest, and will serve on a specially formed commission the Unique Identification Authority of India with the rank equivalent to a cabinet minister. It was Mr Nilekani who inspired Thomas Friedman's treatise on globalisation, The World Is Flat (2005). Mr Friedman recalled: "I

was in India interviewing Nandan Nilekani at Infosys. And he said to me, 'Tom, the playing field is being levelled' ... and it hit me: Holy mackerel, the world is becoming flat."

BANGLADESH
NATIONAL ID CARDS IN THE INTEREST OF SURVEILLANCE?
The current regime's voter registration list has, in all probability, lessened the likelihood of fraudulent votes. But it also has, in all likelihood, laid the groundwork for installing a new regime of surveillance, one that will be deployed against the citizens of Bangladesh, writes Rahnuma Ahmed A non-fraudulent voter list, 'a priceless gift to the nation' Praise was due. And it was given. Ms Renata Dessallien, UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative, at a function marking the celebration of the successful completion of voter registration, organised by the Election Commission on July 22, spoke of it in glowing terms. It was 'a truly historic achievement,' because never before 'have so many people been electronically registered in such a short time,' in any other country in the world. What was impressive was the immense scale of the undertaking, the accuracy of the list, the elimination of duplicate and fraudulent entries. 'If there were a Nobel Prize for voter lists, Bangladesh would be the clear winner!' The chief adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed termed it a 'milestone,' one that would enable not only the upcoming elections to be 'free, fair and credible' but also, future ones, by setting high standards. The chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, called it a 'memorable event in the annals of country's history.' At an earlier event, 'Celebrating the halfway mark of voter registration,' held in early March, the chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed had voiced hopes that it would 'lay the foundation for building a meaningful democracy.' A similar nationwide voter registration venture had failed in 1997 because the names and pictures of most people did not match, and many had failed to turn up to register at the appointed time. The nation, as a result, had been Tk 115 crore poorer. A proposed integrated project of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) and National Identity Cards (NID) in 2005 had been budgeted at Tk 1,400 crore. Its completion would take 5 years, the first year would be a 'test' period. The 2006 voter list, prepared by the past CEC Justice MA Aziz for the 2007 elections had been faulty, it had registered an excess of 1.2 crore voters, leading to a political impasse that helped usher in the current military-backed Fakhruddin government. In comparison to all previous efforts, the current effort has yielded a faultless voter list, one that is computerised, consisting of a data-base of 80 million 500 thousand 723 voters with photographs and fingerprints. It has cost only Tk 424 crore, one-third of the 2005 estimate, and has been successfully completed in a mere 11 months. The Election Commission was the sponsor and the coordinating agency, the Bangladesh army was the operational agency. Together they coordinated the huge logistics in a 'very tight time frame', as major general Shafiqul Islam, military secretary, Bangladesh Army, said in an interview, `we required 12,000 laptops to be deployed throughout the country, 8,000 printers, paper, toner, train a staff of

18,000 computer and enrollment personnel, in a situation where on an average data was collected on 300,000 to 400,000 people daily.' The resulting electoral rolls, perhaps one of the largest electronic databases in the world, will definitely be the largest among developing countries. A survey of the voter registration process funded by the UK department for international development (DFID) announced it to be of international standard, in the words of one of the consultants, 'a list of quality no less than that of America or England.' The UN is said to be considering replicating this model in other developing countries.The current voter list, as one of the national English dailies commented in its editorial, is 'a priceless gift to the nation.' The National ID Card, 'an offshoot' The EC project was titled the Preparation of Electoral Roll with Photographs and Facilitating the Issuance of National Identity (ID) Card. In the words of Mike DePasquale, chief executive officer of BIO-Key International Inc, a US-based company which is a leader in fingerbased biometric identification and wireless public safety, the NID was 'an offshoot' of the voter registration project - a 'co-operative venture' between BIO-Key in the US, Tiger IT in Bangladesh, and the Bangladesh army. Brigadier general (retired) Shahedul Anam Khan, a defence analyst, thinks the government did well to undertake both projects simultaneously. Up to a stage, 'the modalities involved for the preparation of both,' like basic data collection and cross checking, are similar. The ID card was a 'spin-off,' which, if it had been put off for later, would have cost more. But, for people on the ground, the two were not as separable. M Sakhawat Hussain, one of the Election Commissioners, puts it in words closer to how we, as potential voters, experienced it, 'No one will be listed as a voter without the registration of the name on the electoral roll and no one will get the national ID card.' Advocates of e-government are also advocates of national ID cards, for instance Farooq Sobhan, M Shafiullah and others write in a Study of eGovernment in Bangladesh (Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, April 2004), 'Bangladesh should take active steps to initiate a project for national ID,' because it will provide an important base for the provision of eGovernment services 'efficiently and in a personalised way,' to citizens who will have unique ID numbers. I came across several Bangladeshi bloggers who seemed to hold similar views. According to one, it would be 'a solution to many problems,' a national database would hold information from voter lists to tax records, it would make easier many tasks from machine-readable passports to criminal investigations. According to another, the digitisation of national-level information would make governance procedures 'more scientific.' The EC has drafted an ordinance making national ID cards mandatory for citizens, 'for getting any services from the government, its departments and institutions or from any statutory government offices.' Twenty two services are listed, these include the issuance and renewal of passport, driving licence, trade license, tax identification number, business identification number and bank account. It also states that nobody will get government subsidy facilities, allowance and relief if they do not have identity cards. Very recently, the council of advisers approved the formation of the National Identity Registration Authority Ordinance 2008. It authorises the home ministry to provide national ID cards. Under the proposed ordinance, the EC will hand over all information that has been

collected - data and biometric features of the citizens - to NIRA, a statutory body. The ordinance declares false information, forgery, having more than one ID card a criminal offence, punishable by three months to seven years rigorous imprisonment, along with monetary fines. That confusion exists among people in general the beneficiaries of the national ID card was revealed during the four city corporation and nine pouroshobha elections held recently. Voters had come to the polling centres with their national ID cards, and were confused over why the serial number of their ID cards did not tally with the voter serial numbers. This resulted in delays in vote casting, and in long queues. Voter identity cards had been given in the 90s, or torn-off slips containing registration numbers, and as a newspaper report states, during the recently-held local-level elections, the common perception had been that the `ID card was to be used for voting purposes.' Reports say, polling officers had been similarly confused. M Shakhawat Hossain, election commissioner, blamed the media for publicising what in effect was a 'national ID card', as a 'voter ID card', even though, according to him, the EC had carried out a huge campaign to clarify the differences between the two. The 'largest biometric database in the world' What is less public knowledge is that the four fingerprints of each voter that was captured with BIO-key's fingerprint ID software, and FBI-certified fingerprint readers, has already generated over 300 Million ISO fingerprint templates. Combined with the 400 million projected to be generated, it will become by far the largest biometric deployment in the world. Duplicate registrations are being accurately identified says Ziaur Rahman, managing director of Tiger IT BD Ltd. (Tiger IT), a company that is a leader in both prepackaged and customised software solutions and was BIO-Key's 'systems integrator on the ground,' at a speed of 'one million matches per second on a single processor.' Tiger IT Bangladesh's website provides further information on the national ID card (by the way, the domain tigeritbd.com was registered as recently as August 2007). The card includes a standard barcode which is encoded with ISO fingerprint templates, and PKI digital hash. These can be used to quickly verify the identity of the cardholder while ensuring the integrity and authenticity of the ID card. The Cognitec Facial Recognition Software has been used to capture facial images. While Renata Dessallien enthuses over how 'modern technology' enables the prevention of vote theft, and DePasquale prides on how BIO-Key's patented technology is 'performing better than anything else in the market for finger matching,' I have simple questions to ask: who owns my fingerprints? how will it be used? can NIRA transfer it to government departments within Bangladesh without my knowledge? or, maybe even outside the country's borders? As the British government did when it passed more than 500 samples of DNA to foreign agencies, but when asked 'no one seemed to know' to which countries. The European Commission recently proposed the harmonisation of security features on passports across the European Union. The proposal, introduced in October 2007, requires member states to take measures to introduce biometric features, including fingerprinting, on passports and travel documents. The fingerprints would be stored in a centralised database. The European Union data protection supervisor, Peter Hustinx, who is in charge of safeguarding the personal data and the right to privacy of EU citizens, has expressed his concern since it fails

to 'adequately safeguard the right to privacy of EU citizens.' He says, the Commission failed to consult with his office prior to submitting the proposal, as required by EU law. The current regime's voter registration list has, in all probability, lessened the likelihood of fraudulent votes. But it also has, in all likelihood, laid the groundwork for installing a new regime of surveillance, one that will be deployed against the citizens of Bangladesh.

UAE
EMIRATES ID CARD
Instead of having multiple identity cards like driving licences, work permits, employee cards, passports, e-cards, the UAE Federal Government created a single national identity card in April 2006, with in-built smart features including biometrics and advanced ID features that will eventually eliminate the need to carry multiple cards. At a later date, it can be used as a travel document within the GCC. Emirates Identity Authority(EIDA), a federal government organization, has already rolled out the first phase and second phase of the national identity card, as part of a comprehensive three year plan to provide National ID cards to three categories: UAE nationals, GCC citizens living in UAE and other UAE residents. Registration is currently open for UAE nationals, GCC citizens working or residing in the UAE, expatriate government staff and professionals (anyone with a degree) in the private sector. All categories including skilled and unskilled workers can be seen in the calendar provided by EIDA which gives time till 2010 for some categories. For registering your family, you must ensure that your child has his/her own passport. Maids/domestic staff in your household are not included and separate dates will be announced for their registration later. Criteria & Validity You must be either a UAE national, a GCC citizen working or residing in the UAE, or a UAE resident and above 15 years of age. The card is valid for lifetime for nationals (with renewal every five years) and validity for other residents depends on the validity of the visa. However, the same card can be used, once the residence visa is renewed. Steps Book an online appointment or visit an EIDA service centre. Before going for your appointment, fill up this online application form from EIDA website and take a printout, using only a laser printer. Or download the UAE EIDA Preregistration Application download (3.5 mb zipped file) and fill it up offline. Another option is to visit any Emirates Post Office, purchase a special envelope for AED 40, fill up the form inside and submit to the post office. See media update Visit the nearest EIDA service centre and pay the registration fee, while submitting your form. Allow bio-metric and fingerprinting to be done and get your original documents scanned. Congratulations. You will have your National ID card sent to you by Empost after 7-14 days.

Documents & fees UAE Nationals: Original Family Book & Passport. AED 100 UAE Residents: Original passport. AED 100 per year of visa validity. Additional charges if purchasing form (AED 40) and for Empost delivery (AED 20) Lost or damaged card: AED 300 The Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) has been given the responsibility of initiating a system in which all residents, nationals or not, must be in possession of a UAE ID card.

SAUDI ARABIA
1. Citizens are not allowed to have more than one civil record, single ID card and a family register. A citizen is not allowed to use an ID card or a family register that belongs to someone else. Violators of the rule will be punished according to the established law. 2. No Saudi government agency or public institution, including universities, institutes and schools; companies, associations and private institutes and individuals, is allowed to accept or use the service or receive in any capacity any Saudi who completed (15) years of age unless he holds National ID card. 3. Since the national ID card and the family register are mandatory only inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), citizens are not allowed to take them outside the Kingdom; while travelling abroad, citizens are allowed to carry only their passports. Violators of the rule are punished according to the established law. 4. If the national ID card or family register is lost or damaged due to any reason, the incident must be reported to the nearest Civil Affairs Department within 15 days. Loss or damage of national ID card or family register must be reported immediately to the police and national defense administration. After this, a request for replacement can be submitted to the Civil Affairs Department. 5. The validity of the old national ID card issued to male citizens is untill 9/5/1418H. For female citizens who have not been issued the new national ID card, the old one will be valid untill 9/5/1427H. 6. Sanctioned period for reporting births and deaths does not include national holidays 7. National ID cards are valid for 10 years from the date of issuance, replacement or renewal. The national ID card can be renewed for 10 years only if renewed within 180 days before the expiry date. 8. Citizen is not allowed to pawn the national ID card, family register or the old national ID card. Violators, including the owner of the document and the person who accepts it as security, will be punished according to the established law. 9. Producing and / or having an identical copy of the national ID card or the family register is prohibited; possession of such a copy and any one producing such a copy will be punished according to the established law.

10. Individuals who have a common father cannot have the same name of father if both of them are alive. One's name cannot be the same as his father's name if both are still alive. Names contrary to Islamic laws are invalid.

GEMALTO PROVIDES NATIONAL E-ID CARDS TO THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

Gemalto selected for the second phase of Saudi Arabias National ID Card initiative Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mar 30, 2009 - Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced it is delivering electronic ID cards to the National Information Center (NIC), the IT entity of Saudi Arabias Ministry of Interior. The Identification Card-Phase 2 program extends the countrys initial electronic ID initiative launched in December 2007. As part of the new contract, Gemalto will provide NIC with e-ID cards for the next three years, as well as support and maintenance for the centralized personalization center in Riyadh. The national ID card is mandatory for all citizens above 15 and valid for ten years. The Saudi Arabia national ID card is a wallet-sized card that embeds a microprocessor containing the cardholders digital information such as demographics, facial image and fingerprints. It also features a bar code and an optical stripe to ensure enhanced security to citizens. The national ID card can be used as a travel document that facilitates legitimate travel within all GCC countries. In addition, the e-ID card offers strong authentication to enable citizens to prove their identity. Digital signature is also available through a Public Key Infrastructure application. In the first phase of the ID program, Gemalto delivered high-end e-ID cards and its Coesys Issuance personalization solution. Gemaltos Coesys Issuance consists of the combination of software, hardware and integration services to enable NIC to personalize and issue the e-ID cards with the highest level of security. The company also installed the centralized card personalization system operated by NIC in Riyadh. Gemaltos references in e-ID programs include notably the following countries: Bahrain, Belgium, Finland, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Sweden and UAE. In addition, Taiwan has selected Gemaltos digital security technology for its smart card-based resident card, the electronic Alien Resident Card (ARC). About Gemalto Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2008 annual revenues of 1.68 billion, and 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 40 countries. Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and workanytime, anywherehas become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure. Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, electronic passports, and USB tokens for online identity protection. To complete the solution we also provide software, systems and services to help our customers achieve their goals. As the use of Gemalto's software and secure devices increases with the number of people

interacting in the digital and wireless world, the company is poised to thrive over the coming years.