National Population Register (NPR) of India

India needs to use smart cards to plug leakages in subsidies, especially those aimed at feeding the poor, the annual Economic Survey said.
The system has to be based on a unique identification for all residents, the survey said. The government approved the setting up of the UID Authority of India and last week selected Nandan Nilekani, former co-chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd., to head the authority.
The smart cards will contain entitlements of subsidies and record their usage, the government said in the survey for the year ended March 31. These cards will improve the efficiency of administering the various programs of the government, the survey prepared by the finance ministry said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who returned to power for a second successive five-year term in May on pledges including poverty reduction, is seeking faster growth to help cut the number of poor. The government, which spends a 10th of its budget on subsidies including food and fuel, will seek to focus its support to the poor and provide them with cheaper food, access to health-care services and education.
“These population groups have not only to be brought into the economic and social mainstream but made active participants and legitimate beneficiaries of the development process,” the Economic Survey said. “Ultimately, a healthy, educated and an empowered population contributes to improved productivity which, in turn, sustains economic growth.”
To bring transparency to the disbursement of funds and prevent leakages, the government needs to have an Internet- accessible public accountability information system for each of its programs, the survey said.
“This system should be accompanied by an integrated smart card system which empowers the citizen to demand approved/budget entitlements as right,” the survey said.
The identification database may initially draw on the electoral rolls with the Election Commission of India, the body that conducts elections, the survey said. It will then establish linkages with databases of the department of food and public distribution and the ministry of rural development’s list of people below the poverty line, the survey said.
The number of poor in the year ended March 31, 2005, declined to 27.5 percent from 36 percent in the year ended March 31, 1994, based on a 30-day recall period, according to the survey. The per capita consumption expenditure of 60.5 percent of the population was less than 20 rupees (42 U.S. cents) a day in the year ended March 31, 2005, compared with 68.1 percent of the population in the year ended March 31, 2000, it said.