After a delay of over 12 months, the Unique ID Authority on Friday finally awarded the managed service provider contract to Noida based IT hardware and system integration firm HCL Infosystems Ltd. The IT firm will manage the IT infrastructure which will contain data records of 1.2 billion Indian residents, and issue UID numbers. It will be the largest project in the world of its kind. The letter of intent was awarded by UIDAI earlier this year, but it finally signed the contract with HCL Info on August 7, after negotiations.