Executive Committee member of the People’s Struggle Alliance (PSA) - Wasantha Mudalige, has alleged that there is an attempt to award the tender for Sri Lanka’s proposed digital National Identity Card (e-NIC) project to an Indian company that had previously been blacklisted during the administration of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
He stated that while there is no objection in principle to the introduction of a digital ID system, they strongly oppose the potential transfer of highly sensitive biometric data of Sri Lankan citizens to a foreign entity.
Elaborating further, Mudalige said, "We don't have an objection to a digital ID. But we have recently raised this serious criticism regarding the collection of highly sensitive biometric data, such as iris/retina scans and fingerprints, under the guise of digitalisation and providing it to an Indian company. After the President visited India, a tender was issued to select a company from India to develop Sri Lanka's digital identity card. This was initiated in October 2025, and the tender concluded in October, with the award made a month later. Based on that agreement, 05 Indian institutions had submitted bids. There were 06 companies in the list to be made public on March 13, 2026. The sixth company is the one that had previously been blacklisted in relation to an earlier digital ID tender during the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration."
He further claimed, "Now the tender is going to be given to this company. Who is giving this to India? India is calling the tender, India is evaluating the bids, and India is developing the supplier software. The government says this is being done because India is providing Rs. 1000 billion. Eranga Weeraratne and others previously responded to criticisms saying that there was no issue with the digital ID as the system in Sri Lanka is very much secure. However, we now see they are raising concerns most recently over possible cyber vulnerabilities, including hacking and data breaches."
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Concerns raised over e-NIC tender award to a blacklisted Indian firm
