A while back I was wondering how India was going to enrol 1.2 Billion people in its planned national Biometric ID card scheme. Well, I should have guessed that the answer was that it would combine it with a national census. This is apparently exactly what is going to happen, according to the BBC. The next Indian national census will be the first one not just to count and classify individuals with written answers, but will also take biometric details. These will then form the basis for the new ID database, with its 16-digit unique identifying number. And the process has already started – the only thing I can think of that will cause it significant problems is not any civil liberties opposition but rather the ongoing revolutionary movements often called ‘Maoist’ but really a lot of different loosely affiliated rural-based organisations…
ubisurv 
Indeed, a massive exercise. Much more information can be found at a blog run by the “common man”. Though it is unclear who is responsible for the content it seems a reliable source: http://nprindia.blogspot.com. Meanwhile first biometrics-based service applications are rolled out such as ATM machines for rural banking: http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20070312/technology01.shtml.