4951 - Six Aadhaar lessons from Maharashtra - Governance Now

Six Aadhaar lessons from Maharashtra

State has set the golden standard in best practices in enrolment setting a high bar for other states

GEETANJALI MINHAS | MUMBAI | NOVEMBER 01 2013

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Farzana Pathan (right) withdrawing money transferred to her Aadhaar-linked bank account under Janani Suraksha Yojana.

Farzana Pathan will always remember December 28th of 2012. On that day the young mother received money from the government directly into her account minutes after delivering her baby in the hospital. Not only that, she was also able to withdraw her Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) subsidy almost immediately with the help of a business correspondent (BC) carrying an Aadhaar-linked handheld micro ATM. Pathan’s Aadhaar-linked bank account made all the difference.

Santosh Thakur had almost given up on his attempts to open a bank account. He came to Navi Mumbai as a migrant worker a couple of years back and is today employed as a driver. With no documentation to prove his identity or address, each and every bank that he approached closed its doors on him. It was only after he enrolled in Aadhaar that he was finally able to open a bank account in Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Farzana and Santosh are two of the countless examples of unique identification (UID)-enabled financial inclusion that’s taking place in Maharashtra. 

“The state was the first to start UID in 2011 when it piloted it in the Thane district,” recalled Maharashtra information technology (IT) secretary Rajesh Agarwal proudly. Aadhaar was nationally launched only in 2013. “Wardha also become first district in the country to implement an end-to-end UID-linked direct benefits transfer (DBT) facility,” he added. The state is the leading registrar for UID enrolments, with Aadhaar numbers generated for 67 million out of the state’s total population of 73 million. There’s something that it is doing that’s yielding such spectacular results. It’s not often that one encounters such a large-scale government initiative implemented in such an efficient manner. So, what’s Maharashtra got right so far, which can be a beacon of hope for other states wanting to implement Aadhaar effectively and efficiently?

First, the state government involved public sector banks and the National Securities Depositories Limited (NSDL) to work as registrars to drive up enrolments. This single step enabled the process of final enrolment to be carried out by agencies appointed by these organisations. “After an open and transparent tendering process, agencies were appointed as L1 agencies on the basis of lowest bids,” said state IT director Virendra Singh. “Moreover, 13 agencies empanelled with UIDAI were appointed on the same rates through tenders. The district collectors (DCs) were also asked to appoint local agencies meeting the parameters.” As a result favouritism was eliminated and agencies meeting standards, and engaged through non-state registrars like public sector banks and NSDL, were allowed to start registration. This step also removed procedural delays associated with obtaining permissions from DCs.

Second, the policy regarding ‘know your resident’ (KYR) norms was changed. The earlier policy required the recording of additional data like ration card number and details of MNREGS job card. This was done away with, as this additional data would go to UIDAI’s Bangalore office to be processed slowing down the registration itself. Guidelines were also issued to do away with the requirement of a dedicated government verifier and the job was entrusted to enrolment agencies to have their own supervisory staff for verification.

“We also set up a UID innovation lab with state-of-art infrastructure where experiments relating to biometric cards and seeding of databases and bank accounts with Aadhaar are conducted,” said Agarwal. Maharashtra is the first state to establish a state resident data hub (SRDH) repository and will have standardised and cleaned data related to demographics, names, places and photographs that will help facilitate data integration with other social welfare services.

Third, the state did not hesitate to press into service extra computers and biometric capture machines when required. Maharashtra rolled out 4,000 computers for enrolments; the highest number of machines in the country. Such a rollout turned out to be a win-win for all parties involved. “Every successful UID generates money for the private company. Hence there was an incentive for the private sector companies to increase the footfalls at a centre. It also made private operators reach areas that otherwise would not have been reached,” explained Maharahtra’s principal consultant for IT Devroop Dhar. “As UID enrolment is a continuous process, 2,000 additional machines have been procured by the government to be installed at permanent UID centres.”

The UID kit includes a laptop, a monitor for a person who is registering, a printer for giving acknowledgement slip, an IRIS and fingerprint scanner and a web camera. In rural areas an inverter or generator is also provided.

Fourth, the state’s IT department came out with innovative measures to keep the project running in a self-sustaining manner. After all, enrolments require real hard cash. “The central government gave us Rs 50 per enrolment,” explained Agarwal. “The steps we took increased our efficiency resulting in us spending only `28 per enrolment last year. This saved us `22 per enrolment. This year the central government reduced their funding to `40 per enrolment, and our own cost has gone up to `28 per Aadhaar number. But we are still saving `12 per person.” With 67 million enrolments completed, the state government has saved over `90 crores till now, and more is expected. “It’s only from these savings that we were able to deploy an additional 2,000 machines on a permanent basis to deal with births and deaths,” said Dhar.

Fifth, the state created a proactive monitoring mechanism of checks and balances to ensure that the private agencies were uploading encrypted UID data and documents within a specific time-frame to the central servers in Bangalore. Agencies that were lagging behind were penalised, which created a sense of urgency among every stakeholder in the enrolment process. To ensure quality random survey and audit was done at the ground level and such checks were video-recorded and uploaded on the central servers. “This helped us to cross-check claims of the agencies with the actual progress at the ground level,” said Dhar.

Sixth, there was a special effort to rope in as many people as possible within the ambit of Aadhaar. During enrolments it was observed that in urban areas of Mumbai and its adjoining municipalities and Pune elderly people and others who went out to work were getting left out. “To plug this gap enrolment centres were set up in housing societies and company offices,” said Agarwal. “Mega centres with up to 25 UID machines were set up in certain urban centres that were overcrowded between 7 pm and 9 pm.” To enrol differently abled people mobile vans were put in service, and special camps were held for leprosy and oral cancer patients. “In order to increase our coverage potential an android-based application was also developed and deployed,” said Singh.  “Our teams also noticed that villages off highways and railway stations were being left out. To enrol this population in a planned manner a certain number of machines were exclusively deployed in those villages.”

The stupendous success achieved by Maharashtra is being noticed. The UIDAI itself has adopted the concept of self-seeding introduced by the state. “Under this concept `1 is transferred to a beneficiary bank account for the first time,” explained Agarwal. “It’s only when we get an acknowledgement does the rest of the subsidy amount get transferred.” This has eliminated duplication and as well as false beneficiaries. Several states have expressed interest in learning from Maharashtra. “We feel vindicated and are happy to lend our expertise to other states,” said a beaming Agarwal.

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4935 - National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2013 to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament - Governance Now

National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2013 to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament

The Bill will provide a legal backing to the UIDAI

| NOVEMBER 09 2013

All necessary steps have been taken for introduction of the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2013 in the winter session of Parliament likely to commence from the 1st week of the next month. The Union Cabinet has already approved the proposal submitted by the Ministry of Planning for moving official amendments to the Bill last month, according to an official release by Planning Commission of India.

The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 3rd December. The Speaker, Lok Sabha in consultation with the Chairman, Rajya Sabha referred the Bill to the Standing Committee on Finance. The Standing Committee presented the Report to the Lok Sabha and laid it in Rajya Sabha on 13th December 2011.

The UIDAI has been functioning under an executive order issued by the Government in January 2009, establishing UIDAI as an Attached Office of the Planning Commission. The Bill proposes to constitute a statutory authority to be called the National Identification Authority of India and lay down the powers and functions of the Authority, the framework for issuing Aadhaar numbers, defines offences and penalties and matters incidental thereto through an Act of Parliament.

The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, inter alia, seeks to provide, among other things, specific details of the demographic information and biometric information for enrolment for Aadhaar and the processes for their collection and verification. It also aims to provide accurate details of these data collection agencies and ministries, said the release.

The release also stated the issuance of Aadhaar was based on the opinion of the Ministry of Law and Justice and the opinion of the Attorney General of India who had stated that the UIDAI can continue to function under the executive order issued by the Government and there is nothing in the law, or otherwise, which prevents the Authority from functioning under the executive authorization.

The release said that with respect to the concern of the Standing Committee on unauthorised access and misuse of personal information, provisions have been made in the Bill for protection of information.

As regards the apprehension that service/benefits might be denied to individual who do not have Aadhaar, it has been clarified that Aadhaar number is an enabler, with a purpose of effective delivery and benefits by establishing identity of the resident, said the release.

The actual requirement and the use of Aadhaar will be determined by the implementing ministries/agencies.

Among the procedural issues raised against Aadhaar are untested and unreliable technology; global experience of identity projects; high cost; absence of study on financial implication; duplication of effort with National Population Register exercise; and inability to in covering full or near full the marginalised sections. These issues have been answered by planning commission which has said in the release that cost projections for the UIDAI project were approved by the Government of India for total amount of Rs 12,398.22 crore as compared to Rs. 150,000 crore according to some media reports.

The total cumulative expenditure incurred by UIDAI, since inception of the project, is Rs. 3490 crore as on 30th September 2013, said the release.

It pointed out that a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Aadhaar Project conducted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) shows that the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), in real terms, generated by Aadhaar would be 52.85%.

In January 2012, it was decided with the approval of the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI, that NPR and UIDAI enrolments should proceed simultaneously.

4826 - If PFRDA can run on executive fiat, why not UIDAI: Nilekani - Governance Now

If PFRDA can run on executive fiat, why not UIDAI: Nilekani Advocates information technology, which will provide India an opportunity to leapfrog and redesign the system of governance, as a panacea for all of India's problems

SHIVANGI NARAYAN | NEW DELHI | OCTOBER 10 2013

Even as the cabinet gave its nod this week to the revised national identification authority of India (NIAI) Bill, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani defended the absence of legislative backing to the authority so far. Referring to the pension fund regulatory authority of India (PFRDA), which has been running on executive fiat, he said, “If PFRDA could run for ten years on an executive order, why not UIDAI?"

The PFRDA was set up by the government in 2003, but the pension bill, which provided legislative back up, was passed only this year.

Nilekani was delivering a public lecture on “India and the Third Industrial Revolution” here on Thursday, laying emphasis on the technology intervention in universalising services and refining the beneficiaries’ database, referring to Aadhaar enabled service delivery model.

In a lecture which lasted for half an hour, Nilekani mentioned UID not even once but referred to a new and improved identity scheme needs to "leapfrog" to. He did not comment on the supreme court judgment stating that the matter was sub-judice. 

The constant lack of transparency in implementing Aadhaar and the current hurry of the government have been reported with much zeal in the media. However, neither did Nilekani try nor could he provide any clarity on the deepening mystery of Aadhaar. Instead, he chose to tread the safe path of elaborating the advantages of technology. He said that the government was well within its powers to run the UID project with an executive order.

Elaborating on the significance of technology in service delivery process, he said the present system provides for high entry barriers and no exit (of beneficiaries). The barriers are used in a discretionary format to exclude people, he said. With technological intervention (through Aadhaar enabled system), he said, the entry barrier is reduced and it leads to higher exit as the government is able to catch hold of bogus beneficiaries through integration of databases.

He said that the information technology has provided India with an opportunity to again, "leapfrog" (to a better system of governance) and redesign the system of governance, as it has missed to capitalise on two industrial revolutions. They benefited from the first industrial revolution with the invention of steam engine and invention of power, which he termed as the second industrial revolution. These countries later provided better health, education and social security to its population.

The third industrial revolution is the use of wide-spread information technology, he said.

Referring to the downward movement in the cost of the technology and an upward movement in social security spending of governments, he said that India could use the tools of the third industrial revolution and build modern health care, deliver nutrition and education across geographies.