The Aadhaar Card — Indian ID Concept
The elegant All-In-One Identity solution for every Indian Resident.
India is a developing nation and there are many intitatives going on to come on par with other more developed nations. One face is citizen’s identity.
CURRENT ID
The most recent and positive initiative by Government of India was introducing Aadhaar Number under UIDAI.
This is not the only one form of Identitfication as there are many and after a point it just gets plain confusing and difficult to manage.
Before Aadhaar, India used a few incomplete ways of identifying citizens like following, none of which is available to every citizen:
- Passport — with citizens only who travel internationally;
- PAN Card — above age 18;
- Driver’s License — once you pass driving test at age 18+;
- Voter ID Card — available only if you register yourself as a voter (which should not be a required task once a citizen turns 18 years of age.);
- NPR Card — National Population Register Card, an initiative to identify every citizen like this concept, which may or may not see the light of day.
- Ration Card — Not the best way;
- MNIC — Multipurpose National Identity Card, initiative by Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India.
Now that India finally has given (or plan to) National Identity Number to each citizen with biometrics, we can take the next step.
CATCHING UP WITH WORLD.
Countries across the globe have implemented and have been successfully using National ID numbers/cards for decades now. USA, UAE, South Korea, Countries of EU, UK and many more have some version of National ID number in place to link all local activities to.
India has entered the race with Aadhaar but there is a lot catching up to do. Currently Aadhaar only serves as a ID number but there is minimum linking to other government services.
U.A.E government has a very successful Emirates Identity Program which issues Emirates ID card to all citizens and residents which encapsulates Biometric Identity and provides multitude of features like replacement for Bank Cards, Driving License and Travelling Document among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. More features are being added to it continuously like medical records.
Using a Biometric card, an individual can quickly pass through an E-Gate or Smart Gate at Immigration without any human interference. These kind of immigration is successfully offered by Dubai Interantional Airport in United Arab Emirates.
This kind of immigration solves quite a problems. It avoids long queueing or need of multiple immigration officers. The process is simple and doens’t end with passport pages full of ugly stamps.
THE SOLUTION — AADHAAR CARD
The Aadhaar Card which contains all information and benefits of National ID, but is compact and fits in your pocket replacing any other bank card or driving license.
I tried to design the Indian National ID (Aadhaar) card. While designing, I researched many national IDs, the requirements, the guidelines, the design and the technology. Mostly impressed with what I witnessed, I went on creating designs which could serve as base model to all states.
All cards are made in 2 languages, one is English and other is the most common language spoken in the respective state.
For e.g. Aadhaar Card of Gujarat will have information in English and Gujarati.
Aadhaar Card contains all vital information spread across front and back side in multiple languages (if required).
- Front Side: Flag of India, Nation’s Emblem, Title, Aadhaar Logo, Contactless Payment Symbol, EMV Chip, Aadhaar Number, State Code, Document Type, Full Name, Date of Birth, Sex, Nationality, Color Photo, and Digital Signature.
- Back Side: Date of Issuing, Date of Expiry, Place of Issuing, Card Number, Permanent Address, Issuing Authority, and Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) with Biometric logo.
- Both sides: Flag of India, Nation’s Emblem, Governement Title, and Aadhaar Logo with Voluntary Design.
- Inside: RFID/Biometric Chip containing required info, color photo and set of finger prints.
Let’s discuss the benefits of a Aadhaar Card one-by-one.
WALLET SIZE
A size that fits in Wallet. According to International Standards (ISO_IEC_7810), Passport Booklet size is 125.00x88.00 mm (ID-3) in size, where as a normal debit/credit/identity card is 85.60x53.98 mm (ID-1) in size.
That’s even less than half the size of the booklet.
Imagine, a passport in the same size of a credit card that easily slides in and out of your wallet.
TECHNOLOGY
- EMV Chip: EMV cards are smart cards that store their data on integrated circuits. This integration can be useful to replace banks cards. This also allows special card readers to read card biometric and other data (normally used by government or govt.-affiliated companies).
- Contactless Smart Card: To store Biometrics. Also can be used for contactless payments or terminal tagging (like keyless entry in office buildings or metro-rail stations).
- Machine Readable Zone (MRZ): The area covering bottom one-third of card’s back. This zone contains text formatted in certain way that a machine/scanner can read the most important data quickly. Normally, Passport booklets have 2 rows of data but on Cards, the data is divided in 3 rows.
This technology is relative for now but will soon be completely replaced by the others mentioned here. Then maybe, the aadhaar card can be redesigned better with more space.
WEB PORTAL & MOBILE APP
Every Aadhaar holder will be able to use the Web Portal or a Mobile App to track all their activities.
CONCLUSION
- A single smart card to replace all cards (bank, license, registrations, national ID, Voter ID, etc.) using in-built technology like EMV Chip, RFID Biometrics Chip & MRZ.
- Compact in Size — fits in wallet.
- Works with Smart Gates for immigration.
- All information including details, and connected services can be well managed by a web portal and mobile app.
