FB pixel

Sri Lanka to begin procuring digital ID equipment from India with Indian money

Sri Lanka to begin procuring digital ID equipment from India with Indian money
 

The Indo-Sri Lanka Joint Project Monitoring Committee (JPMC) has launched the procurement process for the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity Project (SL-UDI) after government ministers met with the Indian High Commissioner, report outlets including the Daily FT.

The scheme is expected to resemble India’s Aadhaar and run on MOSIP (Modular Open-Source Identification Platform), inspired by  Aadhaar.

“Major automated biometric systems” will be implemented under “the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka’s full supervision and consultation,” state media reports. Biographic and biometric information – facial, iris and fingerprint – will be collected in 2024 entered into a central system. A new card will be issued within 18 months.

Coverage states that this was the second meeting of the JPMC on this project as an extension of the MoU the two countries signed in March 2022, where the digital ID scheme was one of six areas to benefit from financial and material intervention.

An opposition politician raised concerns about whether identity information gathered would be visible to Indian authorities. It is believed only Indian firms will be eligible to apply, although U.S.-based IriTech has been involved in iris recognition pilots in the country.

Previous reporting stated Indian funding for the digital identity project to the tune of Rs 300 million (US$3.6 million). The latest reports state Rs 3 billion ($36.5 million), although this could be a mistake in converting Indian numbers into the Western system. Other reports seem to suggest the software will cost Rs 3 billion while the whole scheme will cost Rs 12 billion. MOSIP is free to use, but countries using it face implementation costs.

Tender documents do not yet appear to be available. Previous terms of reference for selecting a consultancy to prepare the software for the upcoming digital identity project, revealed details such as a plan to register 16.5 million people within two years across 1,600 centers and prepare for MOSIP integration.

Previous domestic efforts to launch biometric identity schemes in Sri Lanka have failed. The government sees the new scheme as a way to “enable dramatic leaps in service quality and massive efficiency gains for governments, as well as drive financial and social inclusion to a maximum extent by providing citizens access to citizen services and benefits of healthcare, education, and other government programs,” as per the previous tender documents.

The government has previously announced plans to develop a digital wallet alongside digital ID as certain payments become digitized. It has made progress in issuing digital birth certificates with the system ready to convert these into national IDs at the age of 15.

Related Posts

Article Topics

 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 

Latest Biometrics News

 

Humanity Protocol CEO talks Moongate acquisition, expansion into ticketing

Humanity Protocol has acquired Moongate, marking a move into the ticketing and access market. For Terence Kwok, CEO of the…

 

Half a million shoplifters can’t be right

By Professor Fraser Sampson, former UK Biometrics & Surveillance Camera Commissioner When Napoleon said that we were a nation of shopkeepers,…

 

Fight misinformation with IDV for tiered anonymity on social media, paper argues

Social media and its effects on our society is an ongoing conversation. Some governments are considering banning social media for…

 

Hackathon spotlights role of Philippines national ID in effective service delivery

Institutions that are yet to integrate their services with the Philippines national ID Authentication platform have been called upon to…

 

Sri Lanka promotes outcome-based procurement for a robust digital economy

A significant transformation in Sri Lanka’s public procurement system, is paramount in the journey to advance Sri Lanka’s digital economy,…

 

Private, effective age verification is possible: Australia age assurance technology trial

“Age assurance can be done in Australia and can be private, robust and effective.” This is the key finding of…

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Biometric Market Analysis

DIGITAL ID for ALL NEWS

Featured Company

ID for ALL FEATURE REPORTS

BIOMETRICS WHITE PAPERS

BIOMETRICS EVENTS

EXPLAINING BIOMETRICS