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A new system could soon ensure PDS items are delivered to the right beneficiary, and that too without paperwork.
A Delhi-based tech firm has developed a system that uses biometrics to authenticate consumer identity at PDS outlets.
If the application developed by Innefu Labs gets adopted, one can walk into a government-run fair price shop and purchase foodgrains without carrying a ration card or a smart card. This will happen through a mobile app that will authenticate a customer visiting a public distribution system (PDS) outlet using facial biometric technologies.
“When completed, this could be perhaps the largest use of facial authentication technology implemented anywhere in the world,” said Tarun Wig, Co-Founder, Innefu Labs.
Demo in HaryanaThe authentication security firm, which has been working on the technology since 2012, has demonstrated a proof-of-concept in a district in Haryana.
Innefu Labs is now awaiting approvals from the National Informatics Centre, the government’s premier science & technology organisation, to start pilots.
“We are using technology to assist the PDS, which mainly touches the lives of common people. If the pilot is successful, we will extend it to other districts in the State and later in phases to other parts of the country,” Wig added.
The information security consulting company, started in September 2010 by entrepreneurs Wig and Abhishek Sharma, intends to close the pilot phases by March 2016. It will take another five-six years, after getting regulatory approvals, for this to be rolled across all the PDS outlets in the country.
How it worksInnefu Labs intends to provide the app on a smartphone to the PDS outlet, rather than on the customer’s device. The app would conduct the verification of the person using facial biometric technology and data from the Aadhaar card database. “Apart from the convenience the app offers, this is also cost-effective as issuance of smartcard for PDS needs a lot of infrastructure support,” Wig said.
Innefu Labs is also in talks to raise $2.5-3.5 million in venture capital funding in exchange for up to 20 per cent stake. The company intends to close the ‘Series A’ funding (first institutional fund raising) in the next three months.
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