Posted on 05 February 2011 by Bamboo Offshoot
By Harsh Vathsangam
Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Technologies and current chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, is spearheading the movement to provide all Indians with an identification number. Photo: Times of India
On the September 29, 2010, Rajna Sadashiv Sonwane from the tribal village of Tembhli in Nandurbar, India, received a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She had been allotted the number 7824-7431-7884.
This set off what could be described as arguably the most ambitious national identification program the world has ever seen.
The program is called the Unique Identification (UID) project, or Aadhaar (meaning “foundation”), and aims to give every one of 1.2 billion Indians a unique identification number. The number is linked to the person’s demographic and biometric information. It can be used to identify them anywhere in India and allow them to access a host of benefits and services.
The benefits of such a scheme in a country where millions of people do not even have addresses or surnames let alone documentation of their existence cannot be highlighted enough.
The organization entrusted with this responsibility is the Unique Identification Authority of India . At the helm of affairs is Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Technologies and a poster boy of India’s recent IT-driven economic success and a much-admired technocrat with a well-established track record. The appointment of Nilekani to the post of chairman lent much credibility to the organization’s motives and continues to be a driving factor in its success.
Over the next 4 years, UIDAI plans to issue 600 million UIDs – twice the population of the United States – specifically targeting India’s rural and marginalized regions. At its peak, at least 1 million names will be added to the database per day.
To further comprehend the sheer scale of this exercise: when fully implemented, each person’s identity will have to be verified against 1.2 billion others to check for authenticity.
The Aadhaar project aims to give a voice to the unheard.
“The ‘Aadhaar’ unique identification number will enable inclusive growth and development for the deprived and will act as an instrument of social inclusion,” said Nilekani at a lecture organized by The Editors Guild of India .
If successful, India has much to gain. Government-run public services are notorious for widespread bribery, corruption and lack of transparency. For example, a shocking two-thirds of government distributed grains never reach the poor due to theft and adulteration at the middle levels. Providing infallible proof of identity with UIDs and biometric markers when collecting rations would improve accountability and make it difficult to fool the system.
Similar controls could be used during elections to curb voter fraud. The UID is also expected to be an important enabler for another of India’s ambitious projects: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme , which guarantees 100 days of work to any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled labor. Often the 41 million beneficiaries of this scheme cannot think of opening a bank account let alone setting up deposits, since they possess no form of identification. Using the UID would greatly smooth the payment process.
The UID will also be linked to existing identity databases such as passports, voter IDs, drivers licenses, border IDs, and more. Financial, health, communication, and educational organizations will have the option of building services on the basic UID platform to universalize customer identities across the nation and allow for the transfer of records. It is easy to see that the sky is the limit when it comes to the potential benefits of the program – if successful.
Critics of the project argue that it will lead to an invasive state and cause clashes between individual privacy and national security . The use of a centralized database heightens the risk of misuse of personal information. These are valuable points that need to be addressed eventually and the onus is on the government to back up this exercise with clear, well-established laws to preserve the rights and privacy of its citizens. Drafts of such laws are already available online .
Others point to the sheer size and scale of the project, implying that inaccurate, repeated or corrupted data are inevitable. Often, these critics make comparisons to similar attempts in other regions such as the United Kingdom. Even in places like the UK, which is more developed and has a smaller population, such projects have failed .
The government for its part is sparing no measure to ensure that this project is a success. A sum of U.S. $ 21.7 million was approved in the 2009-2010 union budget to fund the agency in its first year. This was further increased to U.S. $400 million for the following year – numbers that are likely to increase.
However, numbers only convey half the story. The most remarkable aspect of this venture is that the majority of the team members involved are volunteers, accepting either minimal or no pay and often taking sabbaticals from their regular jobs. Leading from the front is Nilekani himself, having relinquished the chairmanship of one of the most successful companies in Indian corporate history to join the project in 2009.
Closer examination reveals a myriad of profiles, each a story in itself. Take for example Raj Mashruwala, who first moved to the U.S. in 1976 to pursue a master’s in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and founded successful companies in the software manufacturing industry. Or Michael Foley, a celebrated Bangalore-based designer who created the baton for the Indian Commonwealth Games 2010.
Lawyers, corporate consultants, journalists, students barely out of college (and not all Indian) have mailed in their applications, hoping to make meaningful contributions. In a sense, this exemplifies what the government has been trying to do for decades: getting talented, world-class citizens to work for the benefit of India with no apparent gains other than the satisfaction of having made a difference.
Time will tell whether the project will succeed or fizzle out as a failed exercise in good governance. But one thing is for sure: the Aadhaar project reflects the aspirations, needs and sheer gall of a country that marches into growing world power by going where no country has gone before.
What’s at stake is the welfare and livelihood of the 1.2 billion people that call India their home.
For more information on the Aadhaar project, visit http://uidai.gov.in .
Watch Nandan Nilekani’s talk about India’s future at the 2009 TED Conference here .
By Harsh Vathsangam
Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Technologies and current chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, is spearheading the movement to provide all Indians with an identification number. Photo: Times of India
On the September 29, 2010, Rajna Sadashiv Sonwane from the tribal village of Tembhli in Nandurbar, India, received a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She had been allotted the number 7824-7431-7884.
This set off what could be described as arguably the most ambitious national identification program the world has ever seen.
The program is called the Unique Identification (UID) project, or Aadhaar
The benefits of such a scheme in a country where millions of people do not even have addresses or surnames let alone documentation of their existence cannot be highlighted enough.
The organization entrusted with this responsibility is the Unique Identification Authority of India
Over the next 4 years, UIDAI plans to issue 600 million UIDs – twice the population of the United States – specifically targeting India’s rural and marginalized regions. At its peak, at least 1 million names will be added to the database per day.
To further comprehend the sheer scale of this exercise: when fully implemented, each person’s identity will have to be verified against 1.2 billion others to check for authenticity.
The Aadhaar project aims to give a voice to the unheard.
“The ‘Aadhaar’ unique identification number will enable inclusive growth and development for the deprived and will act as an instrument of social inclusion,” said Nilekani at a lecture organized by The Editors Guild of India
If successful, India has much to gain. Government-run public services are notorious for widespread bribery, corruption and lack of transparency. For example, a shocking two-thirds of government distributed grains never reach the poor due to theft and adulteration at the middle levels. Providing infallible proof of identity with UIDs and biometric markers when collecting rations would improve accountability and make it difficult to fool the system.
Similar controls could be used during elections to curb voter fraud. The UID is also expected to be an important enabler for another of India’s ambitious projects: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
The UID will also be linked to existing identity databases such as passports, voter IDs, drivers licenses, border IDs, and more. Financial, health, communication, and educational organizations will have the option of building services on the basic UID platform to universalize customer identities across the nation and allow for the transfer of records. It is easy to see that the sky is the limit when it comes to the potential benefits of the program – if successful.
Critics of the project argue that it will lead to an invasive state and cause clashes between individual privacy and national security
Others point to the sheer size and scale of the project, implying that inaccurate, repeated or corrupted data are inevitable. Often, these critics make comparisons to similar attempts in other regions such as the United Kingdom. Even in places like the UK, which is more developed and has a smaller population, such projects have failed
The government for its part is sparing no measure to ensure that this project is a success. A sum of U.S. $ 21.7 million was approved in the 2009-2010 union budget to fund the agency in its first year. This was further increased to U.S. $400 million for the following year – numbers that are likely to increase.
However, numbers only convey half the story. The most remarkable aspect of this venture is that the majority of the team members involved are volunteers, accepting either minimal or no pay and often taking sabbaticals from their regular jobs. Leading from the front is Nilekani himself, having relinquished the chairmanship of one of the most successful companies in Indian corporate history to join the project in 2009.
Closer examination reveals a myriad of profiles, each a story in itself. Take for example Raj Mashruwala, who first moved to the U.S. in 1976 to pursue a master’s in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and founded successful companies in the software manufacturing industry. Or Michael Foley, a celebrated Bangalore-based designer who created the baton for the Indian Commonwealth Games 2010.
Lawyers, corporate consultants, journalists, students barely out of college (and not all Indian) have mailed in their applications, hoping to make meaningful contributions. In a sense, this exemplifies what the government has been trying to do for decades: getting talented, world-class citizens to work for the benefit of India with no apparent gains other than the satisfaction of having made a difference.
Time will tell whether the project will succeed or fizzle out as a failed exercise in good governance. But one thing is for sure: the Aadhaar project reflects the aspirations, needs and sheer gall of a country that marches into growing world power by going where no country has gone before.
What’s at stake is the welfare and livelihood of the 1.2 billion people that call India their home.
For more information on the Aadhaar project, visit http://uidai.gov.in
Watch Nandan Nilekani’s talk about India’s future at the 2009 TED Conference here