Life-Line to Citizen (LL2C)

The brazen display of hard cash on the floor of the parliament given as bribe in the cash for vote is a shame on Indian democracy.

We are living in kleptocracy. One Telgi scam could cost the exchequer Rs. 30,000 crores. the non performing assets of nationalised banks is a whopping Rs. 200,000 crores.

Corruption and bribery is the order of the day. Demonetize currency. Ban currency circulation. Introduce Biometric Smart card linked to a single bank account as Debit Card for all transactions and make it public to root out corruption.

Liberate India from all predators out to swindle the nation and keep us free from corruption.

Labels: bribery, corruption, democracy

http://www.kamat.org/community/profile/?BlogURL=http://ll2b.blogspot.com

ID cards get smarter

People like them

Geetanjali Krishna June 14, 2008

There's something about innovative ideas that gives me a huge buzz, and as a writer, I've seen my fair share. Some are the sorts whose time has come. Some come after their time has passed. But once in a while, I come across that rare idea whose time is bound to come. Kris Dev and his biometric smart cards fall in this category.

Think about it. We have pan cards and ration cards, driving licenses and voter ID cards. Lose one and you're in big trouble — to get one made may take months of battling bureaucratic red tape. Yet, even with all these cards, there is no foolproof identification of citizens. According to estimates, around 15 lakh of the four crore PAN cards issued are duplicated — by the simple expedient of providing different addresses, father's names and suchlike. Another case of identity theft came to light recently. After the 2005 floods in coastal Andhra Pradesh, an international NGO decided to give Rs 500 each to affected villagers. A local middleman put his thumbprints across 135 names of affected villagers before he was caught!

Kris Dev has come up with a solution to this — Biometric Smart Cards for all. An e-governance consultant and ex-SAIL official, Chennai-based Dev believes that these would herald the end of corruption and the beginning of e-governance in India. This card would contain a set of fingerprints (all 10 fingers), parent's names, date and time of birth, place of birth, blood group, identification marks, height, weight, address, and digital photo. Whenever the smart card is used, a computer would compare the fingerprints registered on it, with those of the user. "It will make the identification fool proof," says Dev.

Smart I-Cards could fulfil many purposes — they could be used as voter ID cards, track income, expenditure, insurance, and PDS benefits, among others. "Moreover, they could help to keep track of movement of people, particularly in sensitive areas, thereby avoiding cross border infiltration, and minimise terrorism," he says.

In addition, says Dev, they would reduce corruption by eliminating personal contact with officials. All transactions can be seen live on the Internet and citizens can track for themselves the progress of various complaints, schemes and payments. It is no wonder, then, that Dev's biometric smart cards won the 2006 Manthan award for creating India's Best e-Content in the category 'E-Inclusion and Livelihoods'.

It all sounded very good, I thought, but what about implementation? Last week, when Delhi had yet another voter card registration drive, there were lines of people waiting just to be photographed. What would happen when all of India's billion-plus citizens have to be not just photographed, but finger printed too? Dev believes that issuing smart cards will not be substantially more difficult than issuing voter cards. All that's needed, he says, is a biometric device costing about Rs 20,000, a laptop computer, a webcam or digital camera — and personnel for operating these devices of course. Each card would cost between Rs 150 to 200, depending upon the amount of information it can contain on it, and can run on a simple 12-volt car battery or rechargeable battery.

Dev's smart cards have already been successfully tested on small village populations in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. "People think that smart cards are too hi-tech for rural India, but I found that villagers were very receptive to them," says he.

While writing this column, I read that the finance minister has reiterated his pledge to issue only biometric pan cards to new applicants. Maybe Dev's smart cards are an idea whose time will come … and sooner than I'd thought.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=BO&autono=326049

Kris Dev.

ps. Geetanjali is a thinker and thought provoking writer on issues affecting the common man and woman.

Labels: accountability, biometrics, smartcard, transparency, unique identification

Amithanallur Village in Ellapuram Block of Thiruvallur District, Tamil
Nadu, India is struck by a new Tsunami - the "Community Awakening
Tsunami".

The village is poised for a big change - It is waking up from its
slumber. The sleepy community is now turning vibrant thanks to the
initiatives of the community themselves led by their leader Mr. G.
Karunanidhi, Panchayat President and the initiatives of Social
Activists and NGOs.

In the Grama Sabha meeting held on Gandhi Jayanthi day (October 2,
2007), it was resolved to set up a Community College christened as
"Amithanallur Community College (ACC)" by the community, of the
community and for the community. A Self Help Group (SHG) was set up to
administer the affairs of the College in a meeting held by the
community on November 18, 2007 (a few photos attached).

Mr. G. Karunanidhi, Panchayat President of Amithanallur, a local resident
of the village (son of a freedom fighter and Village Head of
Amithanallur for fifteen years,after independence), is truly following
his father's foot steps and the driving force behind the community
college. He was proud to present us his development activities for the
community and the women of the community were all praise for him.

Panchayat Presidents of three other neighbouring villages viz.
Thirunilai, Akkrampakkm and Madura vaasal are members of the SHG. They
were supported right from the beginning by Mr. K. Rangaiyan, Retired
Block Development Officer of Ellapuram Block, Mr. Pal Arasu, a
Gandhian worker from Kanniya Kumari District with more than 40 years
of dedicated community service and Mr. H. Ramalingam, President and
Mr. Purushothaman, Secretary, and members of GCT78, (alumni of Govt.
College of Technology, Coimbatore 1978 Batch), a not for profit NGO
set up for Benchmarking Engineering Services in Social Sector.

Mr. Kris Dev, ICT & e-Gov Consultant, Life Line to Community /
Business offered to extend development support to the Community
College, to set up Village Knowledge Centre.

The community college will cater to all the people in the Ellapuram
block of Thiruvallur District, consisting of 53 Village panchayats and
Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA), the project
anounced by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Honourable Prime Minister, in his
speech on 15th August, 2003 on the concept promoted by Dr. Abdul
Kalam, Honourable President of India, to bridge the rural-urban divide
and achieving balanced socio-economic development.

Anbarasi, K, a married woman with a child, who has passed the 12th
standard, came forward, to become the first Principal of the College.
She is determined to pursue her higher studies and obtain a doctorate
degree and lead by example. Her husband. Sankar, D., who has studied
up to 5th standard and working in a factory as a loader, is also
determined to take up vocational course as part time student.

One of the first few enrollments, was Aravind Nehru, a sixth standard
student, who desires to become a Collector. Another was Ganapathy
Govindarajan, a 11th standard student who wants to become a doctor, as
the village has no doctor. The community volunteered to extend support
to deserving students.

The Community College passed the resolution to conduct various
informal courses to empower the community members in their chosen
field of specialization. Informal certificates named "Kanavu Pura
(Dream Bird)", "Vellai Pura (Peace Bird)" and "Seyal Pura (Action
Bird)" would be given to deserving citizens in the next Gram Sabha on
26th Jan 2008.

Amithanallur Community College, a transparent community initiative,
through its Grama Sabha, would truly empower the marginalized rural
poor and deserves support from all including central Government, State
Government, National and International NGOs, NRI Community,
Educationists and Educational institutions, corporates as a part of
their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

A NDTV video clipping can be seen at
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G2GMi0ziP1Y.

Kris Dev,
ICT & e-Gov Consultant,
Manthan Awardee 2006 for e-Inclusion & Livelihood Creation.
Life Line to Community / Business, Chennai, TN, India.
(http://ll2b.blogspot.com) Ph: 91 98 408 52132 / 1 (206) 274 1635 (VOIP)


Co-Founder, International Transparency & Accountability Network (TrAcNet)
http://TrAcNet.blogspot.com

Labels: Community Cenrti Sustainable Development, Poverty Alleviation

Epoch making changes in the offing in India

Bihar, was a notorious state in India, for its bad governance, for decades, is in for a new wave of change, under the dynamic leadership of Mr. Nitish Kumar its gentle yet no nonsense Chief Minister.

Recently under the directive of the Chief Minister, the Minister for Rural Development, Mr. Vaidyanath Mahto, the State Administration headed by Shri. A.K. Chaudhary, IAS, Chief Secretary and Department of Rural Development headed by Mr. Anup Mukherjee, IAS, Principal Secretary, embarked on a plan to root out corruption in its grass root poverty alleviation programme - National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a centrally sponsored scheme, for generating employment opportunities in rural districts, for creation of assets for sustainable living, to alleviate poverty.

An article in the e-World of a leading daily on the topic "Biometric Tracking Gives Tamper Proof Identity to villagers" by Jaya Menon, featuring Kris Dev, a Management and ICT Consultant, specializing in decentralization and e-Governance, Co-Founder of Life Line to Business (LL2B), Chennai, recipient of the prestigious Manthan Award 2006 instituted by the Digital Empowerment Foundation, a national chapter of the World Summit Award, Austria, in the framework of the United Nation's World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in association with American India Foundation, for creating India's Best e-Content in the category 'e-Inclusion and Livelihood creation', for his pioneering work "Biometric tracking of payments under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act" for the grass root initiatives among poverty stricken and calamity prone in backward tribal hamlets of rural Andhra Pradesh, said "Kris is still waiting with crossed fingers for the first invitation to a village in India for implementing the project".

This article set the ball rolling and Mr. Anup Mukherjee wrote to Mr. Kris Dev as follows: "Just read about your exploits,,,. Very exciting. It says, you are still waiting for the invitation to a village in India for implementing the project. If your solution does all that the article describes, it would be ideal for Bihar where people find ways to beat all systems. In fact we are also thinking of biometric muster rolls for our Rural Employment Guarantee schemes. Would you be ready to start a pilot project in Bihar"?

In the meantime, more articles appeared in leading Indian newspapers and magazines on Biometric Smart Cards for NREGP implementation.

Bihar State Electronics Corporation Ltd., (BSEDC), a Govt. of Bihar Undertaking, invited Life Line to Business (LL2B) to give a demo of the biometric tracking to the officials of Rural Development Department. Based on the satisfactory demo, Life Line to Business (LL2B) was recently asked to conduct a proof of concept for 100 NREGP beneficiaries in a rural block of Bihar, between June 5 and 8, 2007. Kris Dev and Ashwin V.G.of Life Line to business (LL2B), went from Chennai to Patna to do the field work, carrying their laptop, web cam, scanner, biometric device, etc.

The villages identified for the proof of concept was Kurkuri and Dhuparchak Musahari, most under developed, in Gonpura Panchayat, Phulwarisharif Block of Patna district. The proof of concept was done among 170 men and women who are registered beneficiaries and having NREGP Cards with photographs. The registration and verification was done using different optical biometric devices.

The first biometric device used was a Fingkey Hamster computer linked optical finger size biometric device for registering all the ten fingers (twice each finger for getting the best value of minutiae counts) and a photograph of the beneficiary taken and all his personal data such as name, father / mother / husband name, date of birth, address, etc. registered and their NREGP Card with the photograph and details was scanned and attached to their details, for creating a permanent database.

After the registration process was completed, the verification was done immediately, by entering the NREGP ID number and the beneficiary was asked to place any finger on the biometric device. Lo, the individual's photo would instantly pop up from the database on the computer monitor. This gave a high level of confidence to an illiterate labourer, as seeing their own photo popping up on placing any finger, was believing that biometric registration of all ten fingers gave them unique identity.

The photograph would pop up in the computer monitor, every time any finger was placed on the biometric device, by entering their NREGP ID number, when a one to one match of any of the ten fingers takes place. Simultaneously, the attendance was marked as 'in' or 'out' depending on whether it was the first or second entry and a permanent record created in the database, for attendance tracking. The photo popping up on placing a finger and the attendance tracking, and a simultaneous print out of the attendance could also be made available.

For the field work, it was desired that a mobile optical biometric device with its own battery power back up would be more suitable for daily attendance tracking. A stand alone hand held biometric device that can run with rechargeable batteries and store 1,500 finger prints was used for the registration and verification. The device also had the capability to register the NREGP ID and all the ten fingers (each 3 times for getting the best minutiae count).

Registration and verification of finger prints was 100% successful with both the devices. It is also possible to integrate finger print registration with a smart card which can store the finger prints and personal data for use any time any where. If the smart card is linked to the post office or bank account, then the payments can automatically credited into the post office or bank account and the multipurpose smart card used as a biometric debit card for making purchases or for drawing money from ATMs.

The poor citizens can track by themselves the attendance, the work done and the payment received. No one would be able to cheat them, as the smart card and the print outs are permanent records of all transactions.

Bihar would have the unique distinction of becoming the first state in India to introduce biometric tracking for NREGP to root out corruption, empower the poor and alleviate stark poverty.

The citizens of India are now waiting with crossed fingers for Nitish Kumar to show the way, for the transformation of Bihar that could pave the way for empowerment of poor citizens in all sectors such as health, education, noon meal scheme, employment, old age pension, etc.

The Indian Express Tuesday June 12, 2007

Front Page Story

Bihar shows smart card way to cleaner rural job schemes (in India)

Jaya Menon

Posted online: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs

Villagers working under NREG scheme get tamper-proof identity cards through biometric authentication

CHENNAI, JUNE 11: Devanti Devi, Dilip Shaw and Bisuandayal Manjhi of the Gonpura panchayat in Bihar will soon be sporting smart job cards that also double up as ATM/debit cards. They are workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme (NREG) and are among 170 men and women in two villages who would be the first to be registered as NREG members through a foolproof biometric verification device.

For three days from last Tuesday, after the initial hostility and scepticism, villagers in Kurkuri and Dhuparchak Mushahari in Phulwarisharif block of Patna district, gathered at the Panchayat office to place their fingers (all 10) on a Korean-made biometric device. Each finger was registered twice for getting the best value of minutiae counts (the whorls and ridges on a finger).

Then the villagers were photographed and all their personal data was registered on their NREG Card. With the photograph and details scanned and attached to their names, the state created a permanent database on the workers.

After the registration process was completed, the verification was done immediately by entering the NREG ID number, and the beneficiary was asked to place any finger on the biometric device, a small machine that is easily portable to the worksite. The individual's photograph instantly popped up from the database on the computer monitor.

"The technology has been proven through a transparent system. Now we have to link it to our NREG process which will give every member a job card or a smart card and cover entire Bihar," Anup Mukherji, Commissioner of the Rural Development Department, told The Indian Express.

All that a panchayat would need for implementing a fool-proof registration and verification process is a biometric device costing about Rs. 20,000, a laptop computer of about Rs. 25,000, a webcam or a digital camera and a personnel for operating the devices.

With Nitish Kumar keen on making the poverty alleviation programme a success in his state, his government had initially hit on the idea of fingerprinting each of the NREG workers at the time of registration and during payment of their wages. But this was hardly effective since verification of the fingerprints was a mind-boggling process and required a forensic expert to certify each of them.

It was around this time that an article in The Indian Express on January 28 this year on a biometric tracking concept devised by Kris Dev, a Chennai-based e-governance consultant, caught the attention of the Bihar administration. Mukherji got in touch with Kris Dev and asked him to prove to the state government that the technology worked at the ground level. "If your solution does all that the article describes, it would be ideal for Bihar where people find ways to beat all systems," Mukherji told Kris Dev.

Dev went to Patna in February to make a presentation to the Bihar State Electronics Corporation and later at two villages. On June 7, Nitish Kumar watched the demo in the two villages that Kris Dev presented and gave a spot clearance for the concept to be implemented throughout Bihar.

"It is surprising that Bihar should become the first state in India to introduce biometric tracking for NREG," said Dev today.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/33365.html

Forwarded by:

Kris Dev, ICT & e-Gov Consultant, Manthan Awardee 2006 for Creating India's best e-Content in the category 'e-Inclusion & Livelihood' creation. http://ll2b.blogspot.com. (0) 98 408 52132.

Biometric tracking gives a tamper proof identity to villagers

Jaya Menon - Chennai

Remote Gurrampeta, a tribal hamlet, seemed hardly the ideal place to distribute smart cards after an experiment with sophisticated personal tracking or access control systems. The backward village with 150 families was poverty-stricken and calamity prone. All that the tribals here wanted was a decent livelihood that would give them at least a meal a day. So, when Kris Dev and his IT savvy team from Chennai hit this rural reach of Andhra Pradesh, carrying their 'access technology' equipment, comprising a biometric device, a 9" by 6 "equipment weighing barely 500 gms, and a laptop, the villagers did not exactly jump with joy.

''In fact, after setting up the equipment to start their experiment, it suddenly struck us that there was no power supply to Gurrampeta village,'' says Kris Dev, a management and ICT consultant, specialising in decentralization and e-governance, co-founder of the Life Line 2 Business (LL2B). He recently won the Manthan Award in the category of 'e-inclusion and livelihood creation.'' The April 2006 experiment by Kris and his team in three villages of Andhra Pradesh, Gurrampeta (V R Puram Mandal in Khammam District), Mohammedabad and Jakulla Kootha Palli (Amadugur Mandal in Ananthapur district) coming under the National Rural Development Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) for 'Biometric Tracking of Payments under NREGA and others' was adjudged the best among 25 states in India.

Back in Gurrampeta, Kris and his colleagues, found a 6-volt car battery and kicked off their experiment which promised to usher in radical changes at the grass root level ''where villagers working in agricultural fields, construction sites or factories were always being exploited by greedy, corrupt middlemen.'' Their village initiative had been possible only after several rounds of counselling and explanations. It was quite understandable, as the villagers had only recently been taken for a big ride.

Soon after the 2005 floods in coastal Andhra Pradesh spread over Khammam district, the Hyderabad-based Centre for World Solidarity, a NGO, announced solatium of Rs. 500 each for many villages including Gurrampeta. ''A middleman, authorised to distribute the relief money, put his thumbprints across 135 names of affected villagers and pocketed funds worth Rs. 75,000,'' says Kris. Only 15 villagers actually got the relief. Kris explained to the disillusioned villagers that this would never happen with a biometric device where each of them would have a 'unique identity' by registering their thumbprint into the machine and their photographs integrated through software. So, every time they put their thumb on the optical scan for verification, their photographs would pop up. The biometric device has a provision to enter the citizen's ID and displays the ID and name on a LCD screen.

''When a villager signs in for work, he registers on he biometric device. He does the same when he finishes work. So, there is an official record of the man days he puts in which cannot be tampered with and he has to be paid for work done on those days. We have work records (muster-rolls) in villages showing how supervisors have tampered with number of working days of villagers so that they could pocket the extra cash,'' said Kris. ''A biometric-based smart card where the citizen uses the information of what he has, what he knows and what he is, ensures a high level of security,'' he added.

Now, villagers of Gurrampeta, neighbouring Mohammedabad and J K Palli are thrilled with their new identity. But this was just an experiment. Convincing the policy makers to introduce the process on a permanent basis has proved to be more difficult. In fact, one officer wanted to know if the biometric device would work as well with work-worn hands as it did with his 'soft' fingers. ''We showed him that the device worked with everyone —a villager working with machines in a factory, whose work-roughened palms were full of corns and those working in cement factories,'' points out Kris. So, while he had convinced villagers that a unique 'biometric' citizen identity would dramatically change their lives, the greater challenge has been to convince the various state and district administrations.

The investment would be a mere Rs. 20,000 in every village for a battery-run biometric device in conjunction with a suitable software that can register citizens uniquely, avoid duplication, create a data base of citizens and permit online transfer of information for the district and state administrations to view online. Kris is still waiting with crossed fingers for the first invitation to a village in India for implementing the project.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/21904.html

The Hindu Business Line, India.

Monday, Mar 19, 2007
ePaper

eWorld - E-Governance
Info-Tech - Interview

The `BSC' of identity

Paromita Pain

A biometric smart card device can be a fool-proof ID for citizens, says this ICT consultant.

Talk of free and fair elections and likely the sceptical scoffing will be accompanied with jibes like `Maybe Krishh (the superhero Hrithik Roshan played) can help you get there.'

Well, folks, sceptics and all those ready to vote out there, we have news for you. Kris is here to help solve voting problems.

eWorld recently chatted up Kris Dev or Gopala Krishnan Devanathan, ICT (information and communication technology) and e-Governance Consultant, and NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) Implementation Activist on his Biometric Smart Card (BSC) device. The device won the 2006 Manthan award for creating India's Best e-Content in the category `e-inclusion & Livelihood' for Biometric Tracking of Payments under NREGA.

Over to Kris Dev:

"Today there is no unique and foolproof identification of citizens. A Biometric Smart Card is the answer to this. The process is simple. Every citizen could be uniquely registered by a Citizen ID and all their particulars — such as name, father's name, mother's name, date and time of birth, place of birth, blood group, identification marks, height, weight, address and their digital photo can be made available," says Dev.

All this information can be put into a database and stored in a Java 32kb contactless smart chip and issued as a Citizen ID card, he explains.

Whenever citizens go for voting, they need to carry the BSC. The authentication is done using any finger, by placing it on the finger print verifier and comparing with the finger print in the chip. The record of voting can be stored in the chip as well as the voting machine and downloaded to a computer and transferred to a central server.

Besides voting, the biometric card has other uses. It can be used by an individual literally from birth to death, to track all transactions including medical history, education, skill training, employment, income and expense tracking, insurance, compulsory savings, income tax, old age pension and PDS benefits, among others, says Dev.

"It can help to keep track of movement of people, particularly in sensitive areas, thereby avoiding cross border infiltration, and minimise terrorism," he says.

The card can also be used for G2C (government to citizens) transactions and to register citizens' grievances online using the proposed 600,000 Community Service Centres of the National Alliance for Mission 2007 - `Every Village a Knowledge Centre' project of the Government of India.

Such a device, says Dev, will minimise corruption, by eliminating personal contact with officials. All transactions can be seen live on the Internet and citizens can track, for themselves, the progress of various complaints, schemes and payments.

Easy to apply

Implementing the card process is seen as not too difficult since the peripherals required are minimal and cheap.