Unique Identification Number could become mandatory

Oct 17 (PTI) The 16-digit Unique Identification number that the government proposes to give you could become mandatory for opening a bank account, getting your passport or even your driving licence, among others. The Unique Identification Number (UID) scheme, which is expected to roll out the first number in 12-18 months, however, will not confer on anyone any rights, including citizenship, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani said.

Stressing that the UID at present is completely voluntary, Nilekani, the Infosys co-founder who quit the IT firm to head the ambitious government project, said the number will become "pervasive and ubiquitous" in future. "When you to get a passport, they will say where is your UID number, when you go to get a driving licence, they will say where is your UID number, when you go to tax, they will say where is your UID number, you go to open a bank account, they will say where is your UID number.

Sooner or later you will have to get your UID number," Nilekani told PTI in an interview. He said that in the coming years, all the above mentioned documents will start displaying the UID number, which proposes to weed out duplicate identities in the system, and hence the "number will become pervasive and ubiquitous.

It will become embedded in all these documents." He said, "It is not mandatory but more applications will make it a prerequisite.

So sooner or later your life becomes simpler if you have the number."