Biomatiques Identification Solutions, India’s first and only manufacturer of retina scanning-based cattle UID ( Pashu Aadhar ), has offered its home grown technology to the Government for creating a retina-based Aadhar database for providing cows and their progeny unique identification (UID) for tracking purposes.

“We have indigenously developed this technology and are currently at an evaluation stage at a Tirupati-based college since the last one year,” Umesh Panchal, Vice President, Biomatiques Identification Solutions Pvt Ltd, told BusinessLine .

Biomatiques’ retina scanning and recognition technology for cattle identification was launched as part of the Andhra Pradesh Government’s e-governance conclave along the lines of the Digital India initiative of the Central government. With the company’s“Cattle UID”, or retina scanning-based biometric technology for identifying cattle, every cattle can be given a unique ID which will also qualify them for insurance, to the relief for dairy farmers, government and insurance companies alike. The pilot project involved nearly 100 cattle at Tirupati, he said.

The concept of animal identification is not new, however. Among the cattle identification and verification techniques used so far globally were the radio frequency identification (RFID), microchips, ear tags, ear marking, neck tagging with transponders, branding, painting or tattoo-making using hot iron or freezing methods. Some of these are often cruel, unsecured, unsafe and posed health hazards to the speechless animals everywhere, something which does not occur in retina scanning.

Safe and harmless

“Unlike these drawbacks, biometric retina scan is secured, safe and harmless for cattle identification or verification for building services and applications and facilitating greater support to the rural economy. Besides, retina-based biometric data, as in the case of UID, could be kept in safe custody and cannot be tampered with or stolen.”

Panchal said India had an estimated 35 crore cow and its progeny. It will be a huge task to collect their Aadhar database. Besides, there are issues like the cattle’s and its owners’ “cooperation” in getting their retina scanned, their buy-and-sell cycle, death and insurance matters, among others.

“While we offer our technology, we also need hand holding by the Government. No country in the world has attempted this so far. So there is no benchmarking, unlike other established identification techniques like finger-printing or iris-recognition for biometric identification purposes.”

Recently, the Centre submitted a report to the Supreme Court on cow protection and smuggling, saying "each cow and its progeny across India should get a Unique Identification Number for tracking". The Centre also recommended special care for cattle beyond the age of milking and stressed on the launching a scheme for distressed farmers. The move will help in tagging and tracking cattle so that they are vaccinated on time and scientific intervention is made available for better breeding and increasing milk production, doubling income of dairy farmers in the process by 2022.

There are only 12 companies in the world offering iris and retina-based technology as a method for biometric recognition.

The Surat-based Biomatiques is the first and only Indian company in this field which has received the Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) from the Union Government’s Department of Electronics and Information Technology. It has also offered the Iris Recognition Technology (IRT) at the cost of finger-printing technology.

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