India agrees to provide Unitary Digital Identity framework to Sri Lanka

10 Feb,22 9:30 am
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Unitary Digital Identity framework: India has recently agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka for implementing a ‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’.

Key Points:

  • The Unitary Digital Identity Framework is apparently modeled on the Aadhaar card.
  • Sri Lanka’s Cabinet decided that the Rajapaksa government will “prioritise” the implementation of the Framework as a national level programme.
  • Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers on 7th February 2022 granted the approval to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India to obtain a grant to implement the Unitary Digital Identity framework.
  • Under the proposed Unitary Digital Identity Framework, a personal identity verification device is set to be introduced based on biometric data - a digital tool that can represent the identities of individuals in cyberspace, and the identification of individual identities that can be accurately verified in digital and physical environments by combining the two devices.
  • It also comes amid substantive economic assistance from India — totalling $ 1.4 billion since the beginning 2022 to Sri Lanka, to help the island nation cope with its dollar crunch, and import food, medicines and fuel amid frequent shortages.

Background:

  • During the bilateral talks between the President and the Prime Minister of India in December 2019, the Government of India (GoI) agreed to provide a grant to implement the Unitary Digital Identity framework.
  • Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal made by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Technology, to work towards the signing of a MoU to obtain the said grant and to implement the proposed project under that grant.

Digitization of identities in Sri Lanka:

  • This is not the first time that Sri Lanka is trying to digitise identities of citizens.
  • President Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe administration launched a similar Electronic-National Identity Card (E-NIC) during 2015-2019 but this card was opposed citing that the state would have full access to personal data of citizens in a central database.
  • Former Mahinda Rajapaksa government too tried to initiate this project in 2011, but it could not be implemented.

About Sri Lanka:

  • Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia.
  • It is located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea.
  • The capitals of Srilanka are Colombo and Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte.
  • Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital while Colombo is the largest city and center of commerce.
  • The currency used here is Sri Lankan rupee.
  • The current President and Prime Minister of Srilanka are Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa respectively.

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