Ministry looks at Nilekani's UIDAI for online birth registration

Roping in the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the union health ministry is planning to launch a portal, which will make it easy for parents of newborns to obtain a birth certificate online.

The 'national health portal' will also help disseminate health-related information to the public, minister of state for health and family welfare Dinesh Trivedi said.

"Standing in queue for registering a birth will soon be over as the portal will help you file the application online and get the certificate online," he told the seventh 'global knowledge millennium' organised by the associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) in New Delhi.

He added that the health ministry is also looking to UIDAI, headed by the co-founder and former chief executive of IT firm Infosys, to help provide separate e-health cards for children from poor backgrounds to track their progress.

The cards would be given to parents or guardians of the children and they would form part of the database. This would enable them access free medical treatment in all state-owned hospitals, including primary healthcare centres. The decision was formalised on Wednesday at a meeting between Nilekani and Trivedi.

"The health ministry has decided to assign the job of creating a database for children born under the open sky to Nandan Nilekani. He would have to share the database with the health ministry. The ministry can, in turn, refer and issue electronic health cards to these children of humble background," Trivedi said.