News Excerpt

Taking forward India’s offer for a grant to the former Rajapaksa regime to fund an Aadhaar-like identity verification system for its citizens, Sri Lanka has entered into an agreement with India to start work “on basic level issues” on the project.

More details on the news:

• In February 2022, Indian government had offered to provide a grant to the Rajapaksa government to implement “a Unitary Digital Identity Framework”, apparently modeled on India’s Aadhaar cards.
• The Sri Lankan cabinet had approved the idea which was expected to introduce a personal identity verification device based on biometrics.
• In March that year, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries to carry it forward.
• The new digital ID card to be funded by India would cost Rs 400 crore, and would include biometric data, such as the holder’s eye colour, fingerprints, and blood type.
• Earlier, 76 biometrics were needed for digital IDs, but the updated version will need only six.
• The Sri Lankan Government aims to first issue the updated digital ID card for new applicants and then gradually introduce it to the entire population.

Aadhaar varification/authentication

• It is a process by which the Aadhaar number along with demographic information (such as name, date of birth, gender etc) or biometric information (Fingerprint or Iris) of an individual is submitted to UIDAI’s Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for its verification and UIDAI verifies the correctness of the details submitted, or the lack thereof, on the basis of information available with it.
• UIDAI uses face authentication as a process by which an Aadhaar number holder's identity can be verified.
• A successful face authentication confirms that a person’s physical face which is being scanned for verification matches the one which was captured at the time of enrolment when a person’s Aadhaar number was generated.