It hopes assigning 600 million of its people a 16-digit identification number will help get food and government services to the poor, says the Indian government.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that at the same time, the government hopes the identity project will cut corruption in a country where officials often plug fake names into welfare databases to steal money that's supposed to go to the poor.

The government also said that by preventing thefts, the system will save $4 billion a year.

Bibek Debroy, an economist at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, said, "It has the potential to plug the hole in the leaking bucket that delivers government services and benefits to the poor. The current identity databases are not clean and have many fake names and addresses and duplication."

The move will also bring more people into the banking system, increasing the number of people paying the country's 5 percent income tax, government officials said.

The 600 million Indians are to get their identification number by 2014 in the project's first phase. Fingerprints and iris scans are to be done within eight years.

The Post further said that voting, income tax and passport databases are now kept by different departments, which rarely share information.

"We do not want an intrusive, surveillance state in India. Information about people will be shared with intelligence agencies, banks and companies, and we will have no idea how our information is interpreted and used," said Usha Ramanathan, a lawyer who has written and lobbied against the project. (With Inputs from Agencies)