A wag of Nandan Nilekani's tale: Aadhaar funds up
TNN Mar 17, 2012, 05.24AM IST
If there was a clear political winner in the budget, it was Nandan Nilekani. The finance minister peppered his budget speech with several references to how the corporate honcho-turned techno-politician's plans will become central to the subsidy schemes in the country and become the framework for payments under different schemes.
"I propose to allocate adequate funds to complete another 40 crore enrolments starting from April 1, 2012. The Aadhaar platform is now ready to support the payments of MGNREGA, old age, widow and disability pensions and scholarships directly to the beneficiary's accounts in selected areas," Pranab Mukherjee said.
The allocation for Aadhaar was increased from the previous year's Rs 1,470 crore to Rs 1,758 crore for 2012-13.
While Nilekani might still have to fight the battle of detail with the bureaucracy over his various plans, the signal from the top was clear. The recommendations of the task force headed by Nilekani on IT strategy for direct transfer of subsidy got the thumbs up from the finance minister. A mobile-based Fertilizer Management System (mFMS) along the lines that Nilekani had envisaged will be rolled out countrywide in 2012 to directly transfer subsidy to retailers in the first phase and then directly to the farmers.
Mukherjee mentioned the successful pilots of transferring cash against purchase of LPG cylinders in Mysore, for kerosene in Alwar and validation of PDS beneficiaries in Jharkhand. "It will be our endeavour to scale up and roll out these Aadhaar-enabled payments for various government schemes in at least 50 selected districts within the next six months," the FM said.
Nilekani's UID plans had got locked in a turf war with the National Population Register which is overseen by the home ministry and his institutional framework for computerization of PDS had also not found favour with the food ministry. But Nilekani found support from the highest quarters of the government, the results of which were evident in the budget speech.
Mukherjee also said, "To ensure that the objectives of the National Food Security Bill are effectively realized, a Public Distribution System Network is being created using the Aadhaar platform. A National Information Utility for the computerization of PDS is being created. It will become operational by December 2012."