Two months after leaving Infosys Technologies, the company he helped establish 28 years ago, to take the reigns of the unique ID project, Nandan Nilekani on Thursday announced the project?s first partnership with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Describing the partnership as being vital to empower the underprivileged, Nilekani said that the unique ID for every Indian citizen can bring about both financial and social inclusion. In an exclusive interview with FE?s Surabhi Agarwal, Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, talks about his plans to prepare the data base, which he describes as the ?mother of all problems?. Excerpts:

How do you plan to draw up the database for the project?

The UID database has essential demographic and biometric information. It also has the date, number, date of birth, mother?s name and father?s name. We plan to get the data through partners like the NREGA. For example, a national scheme like NREGA will enroll people into the database. Our goal is that all NREGA families will get the unique ID and we will partner them. So, when people come for NREGA, we will give them the number, and this will reflect on their job card and on the muster rolls. The linking of the bank accounts to the UID will bring about a lot of financial inclusion, especially in the rural areas.

What are the other schemes and the departments that will be tapped into?

The NREGA is a very powerful scheme. Also, there is the LPG cylinders? database of the petroleum ministry which is another big scheme. Kerosene is also a part of the public distribution system (PDS) and we are also looking to tap this programme. Then there are others schemes like the health insurance programme, the income tax department, banks and Life Corporation of India . We have identified at least 25 schemes and departments till now which could be used for constructing the data base and there could probably be more.

When do we see the first set of unique IDs being given out?

We are committed to the deadline that the finance minister gave in his Budget speech, which is within 12 to 18 months.

Is there a timeline for the final completion of the project?

I can?t share that, but in the next five years, we expect a few hundred million IDs to be given out.

There are some states like Andhra Pradesh and some coastal areas which have their own unique ID projects. What will happen to them?

It is basically a volunteered programme. We believe that once the benefits and standards of what we do become apparent to all, everybody will become a part of our programme.

What about the execution of the project? What opportunities do you see for software companies?

It is still premature to talk about that. Moreover, the design I talked about is not a final one, it is just a concept. We will have to conduct a lot of consultations and discussions before finalising it.

Now that you have been in it for the last two months, how challenging is the task?

It?s the mother of all problems. But I am enjoying it. I like challenges.