What's in a name?
"Why
haven’t you got your Aadhar yet?"
So I was asked.
Aadhar
is a 12 digit unique-identity number issued to all Indian residents
based on their biometric and demographic data. With over 1.33 billion
Indians (99% of the Indians aged over 18) enrolled into it as of 31
March 2017, making Aadhar easily the world’s largest biometric ID
system.
Belonging
to the remaining 1% who had not contributed into the world’s
largest biometric ID system, I headed to the nearby village centre to
get myself digitized into a valid Indian resident.
Took
a copy of my passport as the valid document to support the
demographic identification. While standing in the queue to get
enrolled I glanced through the passport copy and realized that the
passport number was not fully visible. The lady at the nearby
photostat centre had missed the edge of passport during scanning,
leaving my passport number partially clipped off.
Hesitant
to come out of the queue I went ahead and submitted it. I figured if
the verifying authorities had any issue they would ask me to
resubmit. In a week’s time I got a text notification that my Aadhar
number had been generated.
Wow!
Without the passport number the credentials had been validated just
by the name.
A
Shakespearean soliloquy, with Juliet lovingly explaining to Romeo :
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Hilariously,
the name and identity in modern times will be mapped into a number.
From
here on, this 12 digit number generated would supposedly
be the social security equivalent for an Indian resident - from tax
filings to bank accounts and other welfare schemes.
Why
supposedly?
Well,
with the Supreme Court of India still contemplating the legal
validity of Aadhar on right to privacy grounds, its not a mandatory
ID, yet.
On
the bright side, the government has linked the Aadhar with a
digilocker application. Now a person can store documents directly
issued from an authority with E-signature capability onto the cloud
and access them over their smartphone when required.
With
the motor vehicle department joining the party, a person can display
their DL, Vehicle Registration when prompted by inspectors through
this mobile application.
In
a recent update from the Income Tax department regarding linking
Aadhar with PAN, it seems most people had trouble linking due to
differing naming patterns. Some had their PAN card name with initials
expanded, others had submitted with their name as on Passport, while
some others had used their name before marriage etc. The solution for
any minor mismatch can be changed online, after verification from
UIDAI (the authority behind Aadhar).
Come
to think of it, its a situation most of us have faced. One name in
the school certificate/Ration card/VoterID, another in the
Passport/Driving License, and yet another in the Aadhar/PAN card.
Let
me put it this way, the naming pattern could have been either :
-
One with the First name and Last name.
-
One with the Surname/Caste included.
-
One with the initials not expanded.
-
One incorporating spouse name post marriage
To
top it all, the column to fill the name at times is not specific, as
whether to fill it with ’Name’ or ‘Full name’. Imagine all
the permutations that your name could possibly have, and factor in
the context of the supporting document to be included.
The
verifying officer begins with something like, “Is
this your name, are your sure?”
To
reaffirm “Are you sure about
your name”, while
getting into a meditative trance, my response would be something like
:
“If you don't know, who you are then you ask me, who are you. Then if you don't know who am I then you ask me who am I. Then I’ll tell you who you are and who am I.”
Times
have changed, from IDs that used to be printed in booklets to ID
cards to biometric cards and access via cloud.
With
India still having a lot of catching up to do in terms of Aadhar
being a social security equivalent after successful linking to other
local IDs - many advanced countries globally have successfully
implemented National ID numbers/cards a long time ago.
For
example, the U.A.E government has a very successful Emirates Identity
Program which issues Emirates ID card to all citizens and residents
that encapsulates Biometric Identity and provides multitude of
features like replacement for Bank Cards, Driving License and
Travelling Document among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
With more features being added to it continuously like medical
records etc.
They
also implemented the Biometric or E-passport, where the individual
can pass through an E-Gate or Smart Gate at the immigration without
any human intervention.
Is
India ready for an elegant All-in-one Identity solution for every
citizen, such as the concept mentioned in this article, with a
conceptual design of an Indian Passport card:
I
have felt carrying many cards in a wallet to be cumbersome, and hoped
there to be a digital credit-card sized biometric card. One that can
be powered ON using fingerprint and stores as many card’s
information as needed. For security and privacy concerns, its best
not connected over the internet.
Just
an offline digital card, that aggregates every other card.
The
verifying authority can scan a secure QR-like code and the decrypted
data becomes visible to them. It could be called a ‘Blank card’.
If that sounds dull, the technology behind mirror TV can be used to
create this card. In this way it doubles as a mirror when not
powered.
A
credit-card sized mirror when OFF and an all-in-one card when ON.
The
future with AI and Internet of things (IoT) most certainly is going
to have numbered devices communicating with each other, and humans
already numbered to reciprocate.
Its
going to be fun, and neither Superman nor ordinary man will be
spared. When Superman jets past skyscrapers, with onlookers
wondering, “It’s a bird …
It’s a plane …”
A
nearby bot would nonchalantly relay, “It’s
Clark Kent.”
