MHA to setup pan-India National Fingerprint Database

Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided to establish a pan-India National fingerprint database to aid in the speedy identification of criminals and investigation of crimes across the country.
Key facts

• The database will have fingerprint records of nearly 28 lakh convicts from all the states including of those who were arrested for criminal offences.
• The National Informatics Centre (NIC) will be nodal agency for creating this cloud based national record by linking finger print database of all States and Union Territories bureaus.
• The integration of all fingerprint databases will help police from any part of the country to furnish criminal finger prints record on real time basis.

Presently, the Delhi-based Central Finger Print Bureau (CPFB) has digitized data of over 9.7 lakh finger print records of convicted or arrested persons. While Gujarat has the biggest database of fingerprints with nearly 12 lakh records followed by Andhra Pradesh which has 5.3 lakh records and Madhya Pradesh 3 lakh records.
In future, MHA is also considering to integrate this National fingerprint database with other biometric techniques like palm prints, digital images and auxiliary biometric like Iris records.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015