The Unique ID Authority has so far acted more like a professional firm and less like an authority; partnerships have been restricted to the government and public sector
Friday, October 08, 2010
When Nandan Nilekani was appointed as the chairman of Unique ID Authority of India, it was a pleasant surprise for many, especially in the IT community. After taking over as the chairman, Nilekani has shown that he means business, quite literally. So far, each of the steps that he has taken has got the typical business approach. However, one thing that he has avoided rightly is to openly highlight issues within the government and the frustrations. Most honest and efficient professionals and bureaucrats often lose out on this aspect, making more enemies than friends.
When it comes to following government processes and procedures, he has followed it to the T. However, that has not restricted rapid progress in rolling out the project. With key contracts like software applications and biometrics solutions finalized and the managed services provider contract on the verge of finalization, the back-end technology part is progressing smoothly.
But, that is something that even a critic would expect from someone like Nilekani as he comes from a technology background and understands it thoroughly.
Partnership Approach
Nilekani understood and stated it publicly quite early that the biggest challenge in creating a national citizen database is not creating a huge data center or even putting together biometrics solutions. The biggest challenge is the process of registration or enrollment of people.
When it comes to following government processes and procedures, he has followed it to the T. However, that has not restricted rapid progress in rolling out the project. With key contracts like software applications and biometrics solutions finalized and the managed services provider contract on the verge of finalization, the back-end technology part is progressing smoothly.
But, that is something that even a critic would expect from someone like Nilekani as he comes from a technology background and understands it thoroughly.
Partnership Approach
Nilekani understood and stated it publicly quite early that the biggest challenge in creating a national citizen database is not creating a huge data center or even putting together biometrics solutions. The biggest challenge is the process of registration or enrollment of people.
What made that even more challenging is the way the UPA government positioned the project. Unlike BJPs Multi-purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project, UPA positioned it not as a security-focused project but one that was positioned to address its top agenda item: financial inclusion. So, that means it is not about a few border districts and large cities that one can start rolling out the project in. It has to reach out to the most remote areas in the country, right from day one. It has to be inclusive.
Nilekani realized that it would not be viable either in terms of cost or time of rollout if it was controlled centrally. So, he chose the partnership model.
As he recently admitted about himself in a CIO forum, Once a salesman, always a salesman. He used his sales skills to convince potential partnersstate governments and businesses that have huge customer basesto partner with UIDAI so that the fruits can be shared.
As the head of a central government appointed body with the rank of a cabinet minister and yet not a political person, one option he had was to try out the more traditional route. But, he chose to go to each stakeholder as an individual entity and signed memorandum of understanding with each one of them. Even the core NeGP did not try this route and initially, there was skepticism about this approach. Many believed it would take a long time. But, thanks to Nilekanis charisma, sales skill and quick execution by the body headed by RS Sharma, we have seen close to forty such MoUs being signed in less than six months.
Initially, it started with statesAndhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka that are in the forefront in most e-governance initiativesagreeing to be registrars for the UID Authority. Today, except for a few states like Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland, most others have already signed MoUs with the Authority.
However, the MoU spree of UID has spread beyond the state governments. Most of the large public sector banks have also signed up as registrars. In fact, in the end of July, UIDAI signed two MoUsone with Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and one with a Consortium of Societies. The partnership with the Ministry is regarding the involvement of oil marketing companies like Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL in the registration process.
Beyond the Government
What, however, dilutes the story is that so far it has not signed MoU with any of the private sector players. While the absence of Indias second largest bank ICICI Bank can still be understood considering its comparatively smaller presence in tier-3 cities and rural areas, what is surprising is the absence of telecom companies, including state owned BSNL from the registrars list.
But, looking at the pace at which these MoUs are going, they may well be in the list by the time this issue reaches your hands.
A Dataquest report
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in
Nilekani realized that it would not be viable either in terms of cost or time of rollout if it was controlled centrally. So, he chose the partnership model.
As he recently admitted about himself in a CIO forum, Once a salesman, always a salesman. He used his sales skills to convince potential partnersstate governments and businesses that have huge customer basesto partner with UIDAI so that the fruits can be shared.
As the head of a central government appointed body with the rank of a cabinet minister and yet not a political person, one option he had was to try out the more traditional route. But, he chose to go to each stakeholder as an individual entity and signed memorandum of understanding with each one of them. Even the core NeGP did not try this route and initially, there was skepticism about this approach. Many believed it would take a long time. But, thanks to Nilekanis charisma, sales skill and quick execution by the body headed by RS Sharma, we have seen close to forty such MoUs being signed in less than six months.
Initially, it started with statesAndhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka that are in the forefront in most e-governance initiativesagreeing to be registrars for the UID Authority. Today, except for a few states like Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland, most others have already signed MoUs with the Authority.
However, the MoU spree of UID has spread beyond the state governments. Most of the large public sector banks have also signed up as registrars. In fact, in the end of July, UIDAI signed two MoUsone with Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and one with a Consortium of Societies. The partnership with the Ministry is regarding the involvement of oil marketing companies like Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL in the registration process.
Beyond the Government
What, however, dilutes the story is that so far it has not signed MoU with any of the private sector players. While the absence of Indias second largest bank ICICI Bank can still be understood considering its comparatively smaller presence in tier-3 cities and rural areas, what is surprising is the absence of telecom companies, including state owned BSNL from the registrars list.
But, looking at the pace at which these MoUs are going, they may well be in the list by the time this issue reaches your hands.
A Dataquest report
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in
