Hit with allegations in the western media about unethical practices in conducting clinical trials, The Indian government and regulatory authorities are making a bolder move planning mandatory biometric identification for clinical trial volunteers in India.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare plans to ask all clinical research organisations to enforce biometric identification for the volunteers they recruit for their clinical trials, according to officials at the ministry. Data from the trials will then have to be made available for scrutiny by regulators, civil society groups and the clinical trial industry.

Incidently the government is already started working on a The national Unique Identity Card project (popularly called UID project), mooted on the lines of Social Security Numbers in US.  Heades now by former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani who said to have influeced the Book the World is Flat by Friedman. The Indian UID project is project is expected to cost $ 30 Billion USD.

According to the plan, govt proposes to issue a unique identification number to all citizens by 2011. The Unique Identification Authority of India shall own and operate the unique identification number database and also look after its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis. In the beginning, the UID number will be assigned based on the National Population Register or electoral rolls. Photographs and biometric data will be added to make the identification foolproof

read on the details at http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/govt-may-make-biometric-id-mandatory-for-clinical-trials/378554/