India’s navy is equipping fishermen with biometric identification in an effort to improve coastal security.
Speaking to press on Navy Day, Chief Admiral R.K. Dhowan explained that the program was implemented in the wake of a 2008 terror attack involving a hijacked fishing vessel. The navy has now established 87 automatic identification stations, which complement 46 radar stations in an overall effort to detect illegal intruders at sea. Fishermen have been asked to act as the navy’s “eyes and ears” on the water, and have been outfitted with biometric identification presumably to help ensure that they can be effectively identified as friends of the state. Chief Admiral Dhowan estimated that the work to equip all the fishermen with biometric IDs is somewhere between 60 and 70 percent finished.
The efforts reflect a broader trend in the country that has seen the government implement biometric identification for a wide range of purposes, largely through its Aadhaar national biometric registry of citizens. While some recent biometric identification applications in the country have proven controversial, as in the case of a time and attendance tracking system for faculty at Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, this new security deployment seems unlikely to cause much of a stir, given its obvious utility and the widespread presence of biometric identification in the country generally.
Source: Business Standard
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