Just like the 12-digit Aadhaar number for every Indian, the Narendra Modi government is set to assign each of the country’s milk-producing cows a cheap UID, first proposed in 2015.
Deliverable targets in this year’s Union budget show Rs 50 crore for the project to cover 40 million cattle.
A dairy department official, requesting anonymity, said the agriculture ministry, which will implement the programme, has already acquired the UID technology that comes with a cheap, tamper-proof polyurethane tag containing the cow’s biological details such as breed, age, sex, height and special body marks. Each card will cost between Rs 8 and Rs 10.
Named Pashu Sanjivini, the animal UID scheme is part of a larger programme for the dairy and fisheries sectors.
