The country should take up a revolutionary step toward assigning a Social Identification Number (SIN) to every citizen. The base could be voter ID card system which has the widest coverage and reach in India.

The proposed card should necessarily contain the following information about an individual. Name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, parent’s name, mother tongue, photograph, social identification number.

The social identification number and card should be made mandatory to obtain a driving license, to open a bank account, to have provident fund account, to have an ESIC card, to process any kind of loans from any bank, to get an appointment letter from any government or private entity, to have a telephone or mobile connection etc.

Besides, furnishing of the card should be made mandatory to buy things like computer, television, motor vehicle, insurance or health plans, residential or commercial space.

Production of social cards should be made necessary to obtain services like credit card, booking of road/rail/air tickets, to obtain any sort of concessions from government schemes (gas, civil supplies, un-employment wage, pension etc)

Admission to any educational institutions should be done only after production of the SIN. The process to capture details of a person should begin when a birth certificate is issued to a new born and track growth and progress of that individual.

If social identification number is made mandatory for all of the above, 80 percent of the Indian population can be covered under the program, in a span of 6 months. Usage of the card/number for any of the above goods or services should reflect in the central database.

The system or process should be under the direct supervision of the district collector. The office should be owned, operated and managed by a separate department under the office of the President of India, something like the Election Commission of India. Central/state governments or regional administration should not have any say in the matter. Arrangements should be made to receive an application for a card on demand, at every ‘ward’ in our panchayath / corporation / municipality limits. And the process to obtain a new SIN card should be over within 7 days. People should not be made to re-visit the centre unless the information provided was found to be wrong or misleading.

The entire database should be web-enabled and individuals and public should be able to view basic information about a cardholder in the internet. There should be a facility to update personal particulars of an individual like, educational details, marital status, re-location status, employment status, professional status, social status, caste status, religion status, economic status, physical status, tax-paid details, health status, blood group, criminal back ground, details of court cases & punishments, traffic offences, etc. A procedure should be implemented where in merchandisers, service providers and law enforcement agencies send weekly updates to the district collectorate to upload the information. There should be 24 hours call centers in all Indian languages to clarify / provide information about the card holder.

Implementation of the scheme would be vital in the social and economical security of the nation. It would broaden revenues for the government in the long run. It would prevent fake transactions and identities. Law enforcement would be very easy and can easily identify and track habitual offenders. Status and progress of the nation can be made available on demand and at the finger tips of the administrators!! Once the system is implemented, people in India would find the country as a nice place to live in!!!