World Bank wants India’s ID body to share its experiences

World Bank wants India’s ID body to share its experiences

The World Bank has asked the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to inform other countries on the benefits of the country’s biometrics-backed identity programme.

Nigeria has been the first country to send a delegation to learn about the process under the World Bank’s plan, and a Tanzanian one is expected this month, UIDAI chief executive Ajay Bhushan Pandey told the Economic Times.

"This is happening under the World Bank's Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative. We will offer all help to visiting countries by way of knowledge exchange," Pandey said.

The World Bank confirmed this to the newspaper.

"ID4D has sought the experience and lessons from UIDAI implementation to share learnings with interested countries".

A senior government official, on the condition of anonymity, told ET that the international interest in Aadhaar stems from the fact that India now has the biggest biometric identity database and has "leapfrogged" over the efforts of many other countries in Africa and Asia who do have a database of citizens, but in the form of paper-based register records.

"Countries are eager to know how a 104 crore-strong biometric database was built and will be used for determining identity,"he said.