New Delhi: The Information Technology (IT) Department, in its new draft policy document titled 'India Digital Ecosystem Architecture 2.0' has proposed that each customer should have the freedom of using one ID of his choice for availing of government services instead of the present system of separate ID number or card for each facility.
The draft document recommended that a Single Sign-On (SSO) facility would be given to customers to enable them to log in all government services. This single sign-on ID can be his or her Aadhaar number or mobile number or e-mail ID or any other such valid cards or numbers.
This will free the public from the discomfort of remembering different IDs at a time. According to the expert committee appointed by the IT Ministry, the different databases containing Aadhaar numbers, PAN Card numbers and Passport numbers will have to be linked for implementing the SSO system.
There will be time till February 27 for the public to give their views on the draft policy document. The draft report strongly opposed the move by various government departments to issue separate ID cards and numbers for each service.
The IT Department has come up with such a draft document at a time when the Central and State Governments are developing separate digital IDs based on Aadhaar Card, PAN Card and different categories such as labourers and farmers.
Single Sign-On
On many websites, you can see the facility for login using FaceBook, Twitter and Google. This enables you to login in on such websites using the existing IDs available and that too without creating a separate ID.
[Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication method that enables users to securely authenticate with multiple applications and websites by using just one set of credentials.]
The IT Department's recommendation is that just like the above said method, there should be a single login method for using government services without resorting to giving separate login and authentication for each government service.
In the United States, the Social Security number (SSN) is the common identification number for multiple purposes including taxation. In Canada, the Social Insurance Number (SIN) is necessary to access government programmes and benefits. Both these are nine-digit numbers.