By May 2014, the Unique Identification Authority of India will have a permanent home and data centre in Bangalore. This data centre, which will be the primary one, where Aadhaar’s biometric and citizen data will be stored after processing, was inaugurated here on Thursday.
At present, the UIDAI has a data centre in Whitefield and a tech office in Marathahalli and a regional office in Racecourse Road, all of which currently run out of rented buildings in the city.
The new location is in Tatanagar Main Road, off NH-4. Technological capabilities here will include 4,000 storage servers, which is slated to cost Rs. 116 crore. The facility will be spread across 3.14 acres of land.
The UIDAI will deploy open and vendor-neutral architecture in order to ensure interoperability, enable the use of open source technologies and to allow the ecosystem to build libraries to standard APIs. “Ënd-to-end security of resident data has also been given major priority,” said Ashok Dalwai, Deputy Director-General, UIDAI.
Speaking at the inauguration of the new centre, UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani said that as of June 2013, 35.24 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated. Under the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, around 1 million transactions have been completed. He pointed out that in July this year, the authority completes four years.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said 50 per cent of the population had enrolled and 36 per cent had been given Aadhaar numbers. By the end of the year, the government hoped to catch up with the backlog. He said it was a scheme that would empower the “poor and the disempowered sections of society”. “We know that this scheme will help reach welfare benefits to those who deserve it.”
