Jul 23, 2011, 04.43am IST
By Raktim Dutta
Nandan Nilekani prefers to describe Unique Identity (UID) project as a technology-intensive governance transformation process. The ambitious exercise of capturing the standard demographic and biometric details of 1.2 billion Indians has already shown enough promise to become mother of all e-governance projects. It seeks to bring about data-based approach to managing governance in a longer term horizon.
In a country like India, democratic way of living often throws up lot of cynicism whenever such a mammoth plan sets to roll out. Even the utilitarian aspect of locating the identity of every individual was no exception.
In a country like India, democratic way of living often throws up lot of cynicism whenever such a mammoth plan sets to roll out. Even the utilitarian aspect of locating the identity of every individual was no exception.
Initially, the project was viewed as having a veiled threat of invasion to privacy (courtesy Amartya Sen, Jean Dreze and others). Then, it was increasingly seen as an attempt to address the security-related concerns like combating illegal immigrants to terrorism and even fraud.
Thus, in course of journey, the Multi-purpose National ID Card (MNIC) had to meander past many such glitches to finally resurrect into Unique Identity Number; where the entire scheme had to be repackaged in a developmental garb of social inclusion to make it acceptable to the disapproving intelligentsia. In its new incarnation, UID spoke more of eliminating marginalisation, ensuring vastly leakage-free delivery of targeted subsidies as the overriding objective.
The technology spin-off, no doubt, is substantial. It proposes to create a low-cost online identity infrastructure that even takes adequate care of the portability needs of migrant Indians. It also obviates the need for the prevailing scheme-by-scheme enrolment for government programmes. More importantly, it envisages putting in place a soft machination that enables seamless cash transfer to the poor, replacing the age-old concept of subsidy and PDS.
The financial inclusion for the underprivileged includes the notion of doorstep banking, where, in a networked India, even a kirana store at remote villages would act as banking correspondents. Critics see it as retrograde step, though. They apprehend formal banking concept to land once again in the hands of banias!
Thus, in course of journey, the Multi-purpose National ID Card (MNIC) had to meander past many such glitches to finally resurrect into Unique Identity Number; where the entire scheme had to be repackaged in a developmental garb of social inclusion to make it acceptable to the disapproving intelligentsia. In its new incarnation, UID spoke more of eliminating marginalisation, ensuring vastly leakage-free delivery of targeted subsidies as the overriding objective.
The technology spin-off, no doubt, is substantial. It proposes to create a low-cost online identity infrastructure that even takes adequate care of the portability needs of migrant Indians. It also obviates the need for the prevailing scheme-by-scheme enrolment for government programmes. More importantly, it envisages putting in place a soft machination that enables seamless cash transfer to the poor, replacing the age-old concept of subsidy and PDS.
The financial inclusion for the underprivileged includes the notion of doorstep banking, where, in a networked India, even a kirana store at remote villages would act as banking correspondents. Critics see it as retrograde step, though. They apprehend formal banking concept to land once again in the hands of banias!