Data protection law fundamental for federated ID: IDEMIA India head

Data protection law is a fundamental requirement for the development of 'Federated Digital Identities', proposed by the government to sync multiple identities including Aadhaar, passport etc into one unique ID, a senior official of identity technology firm IDEMIA said on Thursday.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has proposed a new model of "Federated Digital Identities" under which a citizen's multiple digital IDs like PAN, Aadhaar, driving licence, passport numbers, etc can be interlinked, stored, and accessed via one unique ID.

IDEMIA India Regional President and Executive VP for branding and communications Matthew Foxton said that there will be aspects of biometrics involved in proving the identification of a person but the technology alone will not be sufficient for the development of a federated identity structure.

"The data protection law that we have mentioned, it's not there yet. It's on its way, but it's a fundamental part of the federated digital ID structure and is a must-have that structure moving forward," Foxton said.

He was speaking at a webinar on the proposed new ID system.

"India has massive advancements, particularly in terms of national programmes and as a country is well-positioned to build digital identity-based solutions and services, Even though a digital identity is required for a wide variety of activities online, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to implement ID and access systems," Foxton said.

Meity in its draft for InDEA 2.0 (India Enterprise Architecture 2.0) has proposed the creation of a new unique id system.

The InDEA 2.0 proposes to create a framework that enables governments and private sector enterprises to design IT architectures that can span beyond their organizational boundaries and enable the delivery of holistic and integrated services to the customers.

"The core value proposition of InDEA 2.0 to the governments is in terms of more rational planning of IT investments, cost savings due to reusable and interoperable systems, and better architectures designed faster. To the citizens, it means a more holistic and seamless experience across organizations. And to the industry, it holds out the immense promise of innovation," the draft framework says.

Andhra Pradesh IT secretary Saurabh Gaur said the government programmes have a federated architecture from the policy perspective.

"We have a lot to learn to understand from the private ecosystem, where innovators contribute, pick up the practices and make them a part of our enterprise architecture systems and this change has happened in the last few years. Every government policy that comes out today goes through a very thorough and elaborate process, with a built-in stakeholder consultation process," Gaur said.