National ID cards could trade privacy for security

Stuart Loory, Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies, Missouri School of Journalism:  The government of India wants to keep track of all the people living in that country — all 1.2 billion of them. It plans to issue plastic identity cards with a microchip in each that would contain biometric information about the holder. The information would perhaps contain an eye scan, fingerprints, national status, credit history or criminal records. The idea is to give each Indian a unique identity, one that would not be stolen or used by others. Into that database the government could store anything about everyone. Can it really be kept private, or would this become a goldmine for hackers? This kind of identity card is catching on around the world, used in about 100 countries at present. Is this kind of card a benefit or a problem? Is it true that Indians need to carry as many as 20 different identity cards and will this one replace any of them?