Sunday, February 5, 2012

2338 - UID Aadhar: Why Aadhar needs to succeed - IBN Live

SRIRAM BALASUBRAMANIAM
Tuesday , January 31, 2012 at 12 : 13



The Aadhar debate has been settled for now. With an consensus emerging on the biometric data, there seems to be an agreement with the establishment on the way forward. While the recent criticism on Aadhar has been forthcoming, as a common apolitical citizen, I feel that Aadhar has to succeed and the success of it has important ramifications for us as a whole. Here are the reasons why:

Time and money spent:
The UID Aadhar scheme was started a couple of years ago and it had a steady start when the UID numbers were issued a couple of years ago. This month, the UID Aadhar is going to enroll its 200th million number. By the end of the year, it is expected to touch 400 million which accounts for almost 1/3 of the population of the second most populated country in the world. It costs us less than half a billion dollars over a period of 5 years. A significant portion of resources and energy has been spent on this project. The project has been also projected as the next big thing in our attempt to reach the poor of India. With so much money spent and so many resources spent, wont it be diabolical for us if we didn't succeed in it? Beyond the monetary resources involved in this project, the impact potential of the project is immense.

Immense Impact on Rural India:
This project has the ability to reshape the way the poor in the country receive their benefits. The biometric data makes the identity exclusive and it also ensures that migrants within the country can get the benefits. Most of todays workers or lower middle class people are migrant workers. By bypassing the middleman, this could ensure that the benefits reach the people with limited leakages in the system. Considering that most of the corruption in the country is at the lower middle man level, the potential of this impact is massive. Unfortunately, most of the intellectual discussion has been polarizing and not inclusive. For example, if there are issues with the biometric testing, why are people talking about scrapping the entire thing rather than discussing about how it can be improved or made more robust? Another major concern is about the lack of a data privacy act. Being an advocate of stringent privacy laws, I agree with this view point. The issue I have here is why is the discussion again being polarized? Why can't the critics come up with a draft of a data privacy law which can aid the functioning of the UID? The concerns voiced by critics are no doubt valid. These concerns need to be addressed at the respective forums but being an active civil society; I think we need to adopt an inclusive approach to make the implementation of the concept of UID better. The sheer potential for impact of Aadhar is so massive that it has the potential to reduce corruption by a significant margin. Besides the impact, it is also crucial that Aadhar succeeds due to the man at the helm.

Benchmark for Corporate India:
Mr Nandan Nilekani is a corporate czar beyond excellence. Having been at the helm of one of India's most successful corporate ventures, he has had immense exposure to the global technological trends. He has the knowledge that is second to none, a vision that has developed dreams and the integrity that no one questions. Most importantly, he sets a precedent by being one of the few corporate India icons who has crossed over to governance. The success of Aadhar would reflect how corporate excellence can integrate with governance in this country. It would be a benchmark for the corporate community to shift over and help in the governance of the country. Aadhar's success would be the impetus that most of Corporate India is looking for, the example of seamless integration of corporate governance into a bureaucratic organization. It is imperative that Aadhar succeeds so as to encourage fellow corporates to help in governance in various other capacities. It would also be an ideal stepping stone for bringing professionalism to governance in the country. Aadhar's success is very critical for this inflow of corporate might into helping the national cause.
Aadhar is a brilliant concept and has the power to cleanse a generation of woes. It is by no means perfect; it has its flaws like any implementation. The social dialogue should be constructive and not polarizing in bringing together the concept for the benefit of the nation. The inclusive idea influx can help to mitigate the potential of this massive project. More than all this, the success of Aadhar is imperative to bring about corporate India's professionalism into governance in various other initiatives.
Aadhar should succeed and hopefully will succeed; after all rural India, corporate India and the world are watching.