Interestingly, the report points to the shelving of a similar identity project in the UK because of the huge costs, unreliable and untested technology and the risks to the safety and security of citizens.

BBC: Is India's identity number scheme unravelling?

The Human Genome Project he helped to launch decades later is an ambitious project to discover the identity and order of every one of the three billion or so key components of the double helix.

BBC: DNA pioneer is honoured

The studies carried out under the Project have shown that identity, seen from a long-term perspective, cannot be viewed as a ghetto or an enclosure, but as the result of whole process of synthesis and encounter between peoples and cultures.

UNESCO: Culture

PR, the cornerstone of the project and of Lib-Dem identity.

ECONOMIST: The Liberal Democrats

It was a gigantic project with a goal of providing an identity number to all resident Indians.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

In a town of some dozen art museums, it has never been able to project a clear sense of its own identity, of what it can offer the museum-going public that no other institution can.

WSJ: Corcoran Gallery of Art | Another Museum Mulls Pulling Up Stakes | By Eric Gibson

Project 1709 is scheduled for a full public launch in 2013, when the platform identity and additional features will be unveiled.

ENGADGET: Canon launches Project 1709: a strangely named photo service with deep Facebook hooks

The lack of certainty about Shakespeare makes him a blank canvas on which others can project their own emotions, and Dr Leahy says this can create very strong feelings if this identity is challenged.

BBC: Shakespeare scholars try to see off the Bard's doubters

But those behind the project are eager to point out that they may never have conclusive proof of the body's identity.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS