Delhi police's new 'identity'

Force to get non-clonable ID cards in the run up to the Commonwealth Games

Force to get non-clonable ID cards in the run up to the Commonwealth Games

Apart from strengthening the defences of the city in the wake of the Commonwealth Games in October, the Delhi Police is also ensuring that there should be no breach in its own ranks.
A new kind of identity cards were unveiled on Monday for the force which cannot be faked and will help those sitting in the control room track the location and identity of the cop possessing the card.

Sam Pitroda (C), Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information
Infrastructure, unveiling the non-clonable ID cards for Delhi Police in
New Delhi on Monday.u00a0PIC/MID DAY

Known as non-Clonable Ids, the cards will have a unique digital fingerprint made of composites of micro and nano particles. These fingerprints will be in the form of a label or a tag on the card and will render the card useless if tampered with by anyone.

The card was unveiled by Dr Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister on public information infrastructure and innovations along with the guest of honour Dr R Chidambram, principal scientific advisor, Government of India. But Delhi Police Commissioner Yudhbir Singh Dadwal was conspicuous by his absence and so were other senior police officials.

The cards are being developed by Bilcare Technologies, which holds the trademark for the non-clonable technology in the country. While top notch officials from other sectors i.e. pharmaceuticals, medicines and agriculture were present during the ceremony no one from the Delhi Police attended it.

The name of senior scientific officer, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) Vanita Yadav was though mentioned in the list of the guests but she too missed the programme. The Bilcare officials sprang a surprise by informing that from the Delhi Police's side the programme is headed by Karnal Singh, Joint Commissioner of Police, Northern Range.

Sharing the details of the plan, chairman and managing director Bilcare Limited Mohan Bhandari said, "Total 77,000 cards would be developed for the Delhi Police before the Commonwealth Games (CWG). The similar technology is used by the president's security force of Indonesia."

Business Head of the company Atul Mehrotra said, "Forty per cent of the job related to this programme would be implemented by the Delhi Police itself which includes taking care of the hardware and setting up a hub to monitor its activity and presence in the field."

Renowned nuclear scientist Dr R Chidambram also mentioned the usefulness of the cards in preventing terror attacks in cities. "Security is a big issue today. As it happened during 26/11 the top priority is to prevent the penetration of unwanted elements," he said.

But the fact that a private company is developing the cards also raises a serious question over sharing of important details of the security apparatus with an outsider.

Call of duty

With the help of the new non-clonable ID card the cops would be able to plan their duty hours in advance with its unique features of duty planning. Initially the cards would not be connected with the GPRS technology but once the technology is embedded with the special digital fingerprint, the nerve centre or the hub would be able to keep a tab over the activities of its personnel. "You can actually pin point the presence of a person in the field and keep a tab over his presence and activity," said an official.

A security expert attached to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), wishing anonymity, said: "Such cards are helpful in maintaining the law and order scenario in a city but at the same time no one can take the risk of sharing important details to be fed into the microprocessor chip of the cards with a private party," he said.

He added that in other countries also private companies develop the cards. "But the role of private companies is limited up to the development of the technology blueprint only. Rest of the job including the implementation is taken care of by the police force itself," he added.