L-1 Identity Solutions, a provider of identity solutions and services, received a notification of award as one of the Biometric Service Providers (BSPs) to India’s Unique Identification Number (UID) program, or AADHAAR. The notice was received after a thorough competitive process involving multiple bidders.
L-1 Identity Solutions, a provider of identity solutions and services, received a notification of award as one of the Biometric Service Providers (BSPs) to India's Unique Identification Number (UID) program, or AADHAAR. The notice was received after a thorough competitive process involving multiple bidders.
The UID program seeks to gather basic demographic and biometric (iris and finger) information from residents in India to establish the uniqueness of that individual in order to issue them a twelve-digit identification number that will serve as verification of identity anywhere in the country. The UID can be used for access to goods and services, such as food, education, telecom, medical care, banking and financial services. This is particularly critical as much of the poor and underserved population of India lack identification documents and the UID may become the first form of identification these individuals receive.
L-1 was one of three providers notified of an award, which is expected to include a two-year prime contract in favor of L-1 from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as part of the first stage of the program. With it, L-1 intends to use the multibiometric platform to perform a one-to-many search of new enrollments against those already in the database to ensure that the identity does not already exist under another name or alias, eliminating identity fraud and preserving the integrity of various entitlement programs. A total of 200 million identities are expected to be de-duplicated by a combination of the three BSPs in the first stage of the program. The specific allocation of transactions among providers will be determined based on the throughput performance of each system. Each BSP will receive Rs 2.75 per deduplicated identity for the service. Upon expiration of the two-year contract, which is in the final process of negotiation, it is expected that L-1 and the other two BSPs will exclusively compete for the deduplication of the remaining one billion identities included in this voluntary program.
L-1's consortium members on the UID program are 4-G identity solutions, which is providing L-1 with critical services, and Hewlett-Packard India Sales, which is providing L-1 with middleware and hardware. Funding for the hardware required as part of the de-duplication process is provided by the Indian government and is in addition to the Rs 2.75 per enrollment transaction.
Separately, L-1 is marketing its mobile iris cameras and 10-fingerprint slap devices for use in the enrollment process. The devices will be available for purchase by authorized registrars and enrollment Agencies throughout the period of the enrollment process, which is expected to continue over the next five years.