The Government has earmarked Rs 100 crore in the interim Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament today to kickstart its ambitious Unique Identification Project.
"The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is being established under the aegis of Planning Commission for which a notification has been issued in January 2009. A provision of Rs 100 crore has been made in the annual plan 2009-10 for this," Mukherjee said while presenting the interim Budget.
The project envisages assigning a unique identification number to each resident in the country. It aims at eliminating the need for multiple identification mechanism prevalent across various government departments.
The government has been working on improving arrangements to ensure that development deliverables reach the intended beneficiaries, Mukherjee said. In order to do so efficiently, effectively and economically, a comprehensive system of unique identity for the resident population of the country has been worked out, he added.