Google and Yahoo want a piece of Unique ID Project
India's unique ID project has got much attention. Unlike any other e-government project in India. It started with the appointment of Nandan Nilekani (pictured) to head the project and continues with every tiny bit of news. There was even speculation that mobile numbers can be used as unique IDs as a mobile number is the only unique number covering the maximum number of people. After which India was running out of mobile numbers and that did not hold any water.
The unique ID will be a 16-digit number and will cover 600 million Indians in the next 12-18 months. The project is huge and complex and the risks are many. Most importantly the project has to be outsourced. A lot of technology majors have evinced interest in doing this.
Cisco and Microsoft have made their own comments. The latest to join are Google and Yahoo. Google's philosophy of organizing the world's information will be met with a project like this. A unique ID will be given to every Indian and will be recognized from anywhere - possibly through a central database available online. And this is where Google fits right in.
Whatever Google does it simplifies things and makes a product doubly useful. Take Gmail as an example. But a philisophical question has to be asked. For all India's IT and outsourcing prowess, where do Indian IT majors stand?
Google says that it has an advantage as it already recognizes Indian accents with its Google search by voice. I am not sure how much of this will help the unique ID project but it says something about Google. It understands India well. Now, do Indian IT majors understand India well?
If we look at the IT projects of India, IBM is still the leading vendor followed by TCS. IBM has the early mover advantage and stuff but Indian IT majors have not tapped India as they should have. Much of it can be attributed to India Inc's non-willingness to embrace IT as an enabler. But that is changing. Indian IT companies will do well to bid aggressively for any e-government projects and private projects too. It will be one more option to hedge besides US, Europe and Japan.
There is no reason why the Unique ID project should select an Indian vendor for implementation. And there is no reason why an Indian vendor will not qualify for the project.
And why is Google after India anyway? (Source)