May 20, 2012 at 4:45 pm | Posted in Nandan Nilekani | Comments Off on No decision on Nandan Nilekani as Indian candidate for World Bank chief
Nandan Nilekani left IIT to get into Patni, left Patni to establish Infosys, left Infosys to setup UID, now we hear he is going to World Bank… certainly sticking around and being loyal to an idea for long is not his game isn’t it….I think the office of Indian Prime minister is not that bad, after all if a Manmohan can make it, why not a competent technocrat like Nandan Nilekani!
No decision on Nandan Nilekani as Indian candidate for World Bank chief
Soma Banerjee & Vikas Dhoot, ET Bureau Mar 12, 2012, 04.16AM IST
NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding the chatter in the blogosphere about Nandan Nilekani’s possible candidature for World Bank president, the Indian government has not taken any decision in this regard and has so far not sounded out the former Infosys CEO who now heads the country’s ambitious unique identity number (UID) project.
Two government officials said no discussions has been held on whether India would be interested in nominating a candidate for the World Bank’s top post and added that no names have been mentioned. But foreign minister SM Krishna on Friday said that the Bank’s leadership should be decided on merit and mustn’t be restricted to American candidates.
A person close to Nilekani said he had not been sounded out and that he wasn’t interested in being nominated. “He is more keen to take his pet project of creating the world’s biggest electronic delivery platform, to its logical conclusion,” said this person.
Nilekani has been the chairman of the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) since 2009. The authority has been tasked with the responsibility of assigning a unique identity number to every Indian resident, creating an electronic delivery platform that could alter the way the state spends Rs 3,00,000 crore ($60 billion) each year by way of subsidies or wages under programmes such as MGNREGA.
The president of the World Bank has traditionally been an American and the Bank has invited nominations from its 165 shareholder nations by March 23 for a suitable replacement for current incumbent Robert Zoellick whose term ends this June. Among the likely US contenders for the job are Hillary Clinton, Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Sachs and even Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi.
Though some believe that the US would refuse to accept a non-American candidate for the Bank’s leadership in an election year, India could have a better negotiating position as it had supported the developed nations’ candidate to lead the International Monetary Fund last year, said a senior government official.
Over the past few days, think-tanks such as the US-based Centre for Global Development (CGD) and syndicated columnists have expounded on the credentials of Nilekani to find solutions for the complex global problems of the day.
Calling Nilekani ‘India’s Bill Gates’ CGD president Nancy Birdsall praised his commitment to philanthropy as well as his current efforts to deliver welfare benefits to the poor through biometric technology solutions.
Birdsall and her colleague Arvind Subramanian described Nilekani as a ‘highly qualified candidate’ to lead the World Bank. The two also suggested another non-American candidate for the job – former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
But a senior Bank official in Washington said Nilekani was not considered a serious candidate “rumour mills are working overtime. There is no indication here that Nilekani is a serious candidate,” said the official, speaking on conditions of anonymity. Telephone calls to India’s representative on the World Bank board, executive director Mukesh Nandan Prasad, did not elicit a response.
October 17, 2011 at 11:12 am | Posted in Nandan Nilekani, UID Propaganda | Comments Off on Our desire is 1.2 bn Indians get a UIDAI number as soon as possible: Nandan Nilekani
Our desire is 1.2 bn Indians get a UIDAI number as soon as possible: Nandan Nilekani
Vikas Dhoot, ET Bureau Oct 10, 2011, 05.55am IST
Tags:
Unique Identification Authority of India
As the government seeks a radical transformation in how it transmits Rs 3,00,000 crore of annual welfare spends, a lot rests on the shoulders of former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani. As the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), he has to assign unique identity numbers for all Indians before a new subsidy regime of direct cash transfers can take off.
But the UIDAI has run into its first spell of rough weather in recent weeks. The finance ministry has rejected its Rs 15,000 crore demand to capture biometrics of 1.2 billion residents through its registrars, citing duplication of expenditure as the census office is also doing this for the National Population Register (NPR). The Planning Commission, accountable to Parliament for the UIDAI’s expenditure, has said the authority’s structure goes against government procedures.
In a freewheeling chat with Team ET , Nandan Nilekani sought to set the record straight about the controversies swirling around the UIDAI ‘s operations. He has asserted that the UIDAI is accountable to Parliament, follows all government procedures and is flexible about which agency collects the biometrics of all 1.2 billion Indians. The full transcript of the interaction…
ET: You have permission for enrollments upto 200 million people as of now. So will the Census office that is building the National Population Register (NPR) do the other billion?
Nandan Nilekani: No, no… What we really do is the technology-led backend activity. The enrolment at the front-end is done through our partners. We have around 50 active registrars like state govqernments, banks, LIC, oil companies and so on.
We reimburse these registrars at the rate of Rs 50 per head. So if a state government enrols one crore people we will pay them 50 crore and they in turn competitively give it to some enrolling agencies. So when we say we can enrol up to 200 million, (it means that) the multiple registrars of UIDAI can enroll up to 200 million people for which reimbursement will be given.
The matter (of whether NPR or UIDAI should do the biometrics) is in front of the cabinet. For the backend, there is no issue because whether the data comes to us from NPR or from our other registrars. What is in question is only whether beyond 200 million, whether we can reimburse registrars at Rs 50.
ET: If the cabinet decides that NPR will do enrolments, is it not a setback to the UIDAI project?
Nandan Nilekani: Our desire is 1.2 billion Indians get a number as soon as possible, so that the applications can roll out. That is all I care about.
ET: How did this question of overlap with the NPR arise?
Nandan Nilekani: The issue has been there from the beginning. When we were ready with this technology, the cabinet last May gave us permission to enroll up to 100 million people, pending the data coming from the NPR. A committee was set up to converge the two (NPR and UIDAI). That committee is giving its report now. I do not want to discuss what it is saying but fundamentally the CC-UIDAI will look at it for the future.
ET: Why did the finance ministry reject your Rs 15,000 crore proposal?
Nandan Nilekani: What we said was let us go with the multiple registrar model upto the extent we need it. We said we will have a system of convergence where you get your number with an Aadhaar registrar or any other, we will ensure non-duplication. Their view was stop at 200 million and thereafter, let the government take a view on how it will be done. So there’s nothing – the difference between what they are approving and what we asked is one billion enrollments.
Nandan Nilekani: The Registrar General of India, as far as I know, has a plan to enroll a few hundred million very quickly. So I am sure we will meet or exceed that.
ET: What prompted you to push for multiple registrars to do the entire population’s biometric capture?
Nandan Nilekani: No, no… When we said let’s do 1.2 billion, we didn’t say we will do 1.2 billion. It was a variable thing. As long as the biometrics came from somewhere, it was fine with us. So the idea was only to go to that much which was the shortfall from other sources. So it was not that we would do the whole thing. It was more variable. Since you seem to have looked at all the documents, you might want to look at our proposal to the EFC. It was a variable thing.
So let’s say that some other partner gave us 600 million, we would do 600 million through this. If they give 800, we do 400 through this. The idea was never to duplicate, but to go upto the limit because there was a certain momentum that we wanted to keep going. The incremental money that we wanted on a variable basis was Rs 5,000 crore, maybe Rs 7,000 crore for the cost of the enrollment and the Aadhar letter dispatch and printing. And that was only to be spent if we did not get data from other sources. It’s very thoughtfully done, please understand.
We also have to look at the big picture. Remember, at the end of the day, this number is going to be central to the public services delivery reform process. So it’s the very essence of the reform process. For whatever cost of the project, you are getting 1.2 billion people into a system of online ID which is the basis of fundamentally re-architecting Rs 3,00,000 crore of annual spending, plus other benefits. So whatever way you look at it, it’s very high value for money.
ET: Last week, Home Minister P Chidambaram said that he has asked you to propose to the Cabinet who is best-equipped to do the biometrics for 1.2 billion. Is the UIDAI ready to take on this role?
Nandan Nilekani: He’s absolutely right. This issue will now be taken up by the Cabinet.
ET: How much is your expenditure for enrolling one person?
Nandan Nilekani: Our expenditure per enrolment is Rs.100 to Rs.150. It is approximately that range because we are now in the process of appointing our managed service providers, so we have not really seen the financial proposition yet. This includes the Rs 50 paid to registrars and the cost of the letter and the postal delivery charges, which is Rs 22 as of now. The rest is all technology, de-duplication and all that.
ET: What was the provocation for the Planning Commision to write what it did about you being an attached office? Are you not showing them your financing proposals?
Nandan Nilekani: I cannot respond to what is someone else’s motivation. We are an attached office of the Planning Commission and the powers we have are powers which are delegated by the appropriate authorities. So my power to do what I do is delegated by the prime minister in his capacity as the minister for planning. Our Director General (DG) Ram Sewak Sharma’s powers are delegated by the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. Our independent financial advisor, K Ganga’s powers have been delegated by the Expenditure Secretary. So there is a very clear delegation of power.
ET: The Commission’s concerns seem to be not so much about the actual delegation of power, but the financial advisor’s other roles and responsibilities in the UIDAI. Usually, such advisors are kept out of discretionary decisions so as to get independent perspective on proposals…
Nandan Nilekani: I would advise you to read a regulation released by the finance ministry on June 1, 2006, about the role of an integrated financial advisor. It explains clearly what role a financial advisor (FA) must play and actually says the FA should be closely involved with the activity of whatever department to make sure that department does its financially prudent activity. Let me assure you that everything the finance advisor does is in line with that notification.
ET: The annual confidential reports (or ACRs on the basis of which government employees are appraised) of financial advisors are typically written by the expenditure secretary, but the UIDAI DG writes the ACRs of the financial advisor. This creates a conflict of interest where the advisor has to clear proposals put forth by the same official who will write her confidential reports.
Nandan Nilekani: This I have not heard. I can check this out. But let me tell you that the government has many departments that have attached offices, which have independent financial advisors. And I assume therefore there will be CRs process in place and ours will be no different from that.
ET: If all this is in place, what is the issue then?
Nandan Nilekani: Search me. Why are you asking me this question?
ET: There are several concerns about privacy…
Nandan Nilekani: First of all, the data we have is very simple – name, address and biometrics. Second, it is used only for authentication. It is not like you can go online and look for data about a person. Today, when you open a bank account, your bank knows how much money you have. When you take a insurance policy, they know your health condition. If you withdraw money, the bank knows, Aadhaar doesn’t. The architecture is all broken up and much more secure – it is not one large database with everything in it.
ET: Doesn’t a single number make discrete databases comparable?
Nandan Nilekani: Only through the consent of everyone. If the Aadhaar number is common to the health database and the bank database, is your point that someone can concatenate these two databases and construct… That is possible today also. That is what credit rating companies are doing. You are right in saying it will probably become easier. But both those guys have to collude to combine databases. it is not that simple. I have proposed to the PM that we need a data privacy law. So that is also on the anvil.
ET: Since you are giving Rs 50 per enrollment to registrars, don’t they have an incentive to bypass the paperwork and ramp up numbers?
Nandan Nilekani: No, there’s a huge process. Every enrolment is recorded. The document that is provided for enrolment is kept in a document management system and we can audit the whole thing. And finally you can only get one number. So the individual has an incentive at a personal level to get that one number properly.
ET: You represent a corporate style of functioning. How has it been working with the government?
Nandan Nilekani: I think I have made the transition relatively painlessly. I am from the private sector, but my leadership team is all committed people who have been in the system for 30 years with high integrity. We come under all the forms of the government – RTI, CVC, CBI, CAG, Parliament, media. We are publishing daily updates of how many enrollments we have done. This level of transparency is hard to find. Every quarter, we publish our financial expenditure statements. This is run in a very highly ethical, high-integrity, high-transparency governance and we have essentially married speed and responsiveness to an existing, robust architecture of the government.
ET: Do you think that you are being pulled down by multiple vested interests?
Nandan Nilekani: I don’t think so. When I took up this job at the invitation of the PM, a set of operating principles were defined – that I would report to him directly, that I would have functional autonomy, that there will be a PM’s Council to oversee this. There were some 7-8 things and the PM instantaneously agreed to all of them. And that was the basis on which I had taken up this job. And I can say with complete confidence that the PM and the Cabinet has fully supported and endorsed those principles. I am operating with those principles and will continue to.
ET: The enrolments under UIDAI are voluntary. So, at no stage can we be confident that they are covering the entire universe. How do you then move to a system of direct cash transfers?
Nandan Nilekani: You have to understand that this is a massive change that is being tried. there are multiple stakeholders. all of whom are autonomous decision making authorities. So it will take time. Different agencies will come to the conclusion that they would like their delivery systems to be Aadhaar-based. Then they will encourage their stakeholders to get an aadhaar number. Then, they will say from a particular date, unless you have an Aadhaar number, you caNandan Nilekaniot get that service. This will play out at different speeds for different projects.
ET: So it will move towards becoming mandatory?
Nandan Nilekani: Over time, our view is that the value of this number is so compelling that people will want to have it.
ET: The Aadhaar letter is very shabby compared to a driving licence.
Nandan Nilekani: Please think of it as a number and not as a letter. the important thing is the 12 digits on the letter. Remember that it already costs us Rs 22. So you tell me what you want. you want me to save money or you want a good letter?
ET: We want you to spend money sensibly.
Nandan Nilekani: Believe me. I have run a business. i know how to spend money sensibly. Anyway, there is no issue on the back-end capability of UIDAI. There is no question that there will be an application infrastructure built around Aadhaars. The fundamental issue is how will 1.2 billion indians get enrolled.
ET: You have said that Aadhaar is an online identity that one can use on a mobile phone, on an Ipad tablet or a computer in the future. How does it matter if it is online?
Nandan Nilekani: For the first time in the world, you have an ID whose authenticity can be verified online. There are three kinds of authentication – who you are, what you know and what you have. Biometrics are who you are. A Debit card or cell phone is what you have. Its password or pin number is what you know. Now there will be applications on the mobile phone, on the internet, where they will use these factors as a mix and match to verify your identity. there will be all kinds of applications that will suddenly become useful to you. mobile payments, peer to peer transactions, all that will start happening with this. a lot of stuff that we have not thought about. All of which will make these numbers attractive to you. till then, you might just keep this in your pocket.
ET: We understand that you have told the task force on direct transfers of subsidies that Aadhar caNandan Nilekaniot be used as of now for such transfers.
Nandan Nilekani: In February 2011, the FM created a task force to look at direct subsidies of fertilizers, kerosene and LPG. That committee submitted a report on July 5, 2011. That essentially laid down the architecture and the strategy for fertilizer and LPG in a phased approach. That is being piloted. The final report will be submitted by December or January 2012. Subsequently, the finance ministry issued an extension requesting the same group to look at PDS – because kerosene is in the PDS and food also has to be looked at as it is in the food security Act which is going to come soon. So a separate report will come out in the next few weeks on the IT part of the PDS reforms.
About two weeks back, the ministry extended the task force’s mandate to another area – a micro-payments architecture which will look at how to make electronic payments to people’s bank accounts, banking correspondents and all that. That group had its first meeting yesterday. So now what’s your question?
ET: So is Aadhar ready for use in such a micro-payments system, given the penetration of Aadhar so far?
Nandan Nilekani: Yes, it will be an Aadhar-enabled platform. The country is undertaking a massive transformation in the way it delivers public services. This is a major thing because at one level, we are addressing the identity issue and giving people a nationally portable mobile identity. At the second level, you are addressing financial inclusion. You are using Aadhar as KYC and giving bank accounts to people who didn’t have one.
At the third level, you are building an electronic payments system so that benefits can be sent directly to those bank accounts. Fourth, we are building a nationwide network of business correspondents so that people can withdraw money conveniently. Then we are looking at the whole issue of fertilizers, kerosene, food, LPG… how do you re-engineer the delivery in a way that it reaches people. These are not trivial issues… Rome wasn’t built in a day.
ET: Aadhaar numbers would change the subsidy delivery systems. Is there any rough estimate on how much the government can save?
Nandan Nilekani: It is difficult for me to say because a lot will depend on the implementation and the speed and all but to give some sense of it, the total value of benefits to individuals either in cash or in kind is approximately about Rs 300,000 crore a year. Rs 150,000 crore of that is cash payments made to individuals under the MGNREGA, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Indira Awaas Yojana, pensions, scholarships
The government’s vision is how do we take this Rs 300,000 crore and fundamentally architect in a way that it goes through this pipe that we are building. So when that happens obviously there will be some benefits as it will reduce leakages, and improve schemes’ reach to the right people. What is the value of that, I caNandan Nilekaniot say at this point but whatever it is will be well worth whatever we are spending on this project.
ET: A whole lot of people may have issues with their Aadhaar number and biometrics being used by government agencies. Your comments
Nandan Nilekani: The value of this number is different for different people. You are working in The Economic Times… you have a driver’s licence, passport, credit cards and all that stuff. So, for you, it is just one more ID proof. But look at the millions of Indians who do not have an ID. They have grown up in this country without any identity. Then, there are120 million migrants coming from small villages who do not have access to any government service, because they have no ID. So the value of the ID is disproportionately larger for the excluded.
Look at it from their point of view, if you are 25 years old and you do not have any ID and you get this ID for the first time, you have an acknowledgement of your existence by the state. So it is a huge thing for them. So the people who depend most on the state are also the people who are most ID-challenged by the state.
ET: In that case, why are you targeting urban areas and people like us who have enough identification proof? Its so much easier to enroll all of us rather than people who actually need an ID proof.
Nandan Nilekani: I am not targeting you. There are lots of services that you are also availing…you use an LPG cylinder at home? There are 120 million households in India which use LPG. Those are subsidized. Piped gas is also subsidized… so everyone who uses LPG would need an Aadhar tomorrow if they want the subsidy. So what I am saying is that – you are right in saying that we should not touch you people and only do the poor.
ET: That is what the original plan was, when talks began in government about this project in 2006.
Nandan Nilekani: No, it’s actually meant for every Indian. The way to work is – once you start rolling it out for MGNREGA payments, then they will come in. Once you roll it out for old age pension, those beneficiaries will come in. Once you start rolling it out for widow pension, widows will come in. Once you start giving it for disabled, school children, minorities… they will come in. Essentially, what will happen is the rollout will drive the inclusion of that category.
Let me assure you that we are doing it in rural areas also. For example, in Tripura, one of our progressive states has already covered 70%-80% of a mostly rural population. In Andhra Pradesh, our number one state (for Aadhar number issuances) is mostly rural. So we are doing rural, urban, urban slums – everything. It is not that we discriminate against against anyone. I am just saying that the value of this for an ID-less poor person who is a migrant is much more.
Other key points made by the UIDAI chairman
On the design challenges of the UIDAI project: We had to design a platform with scale, speed, quality, low costs and innovation. In other words, scale to reach 1.2 billion people, speed to do this rapidly, cost to keep it as low as possible and our cost for enrolment today is about Rs 100 to Rs 150 per person. Quality – because if you are going to give a number to everyone and that number will be with them for life, the data quality had to be good.
A platform for innovation because we felt that while we give the basic identify infrastructure, the applications for this would keep emerging and therefore we had to build an open application platform. So people could build newer and newer applications for people to get the services, so broadly these are the goals.
So we design an architecture that is scalable at the front-end by adding more enrolment stations and scalable at the back-end by adding more computers. That is why we would be able to go to a million Aadhar issuances a day because we had 20,000 enrolment stations feeding data and correspondingly, we have to add more hardware at the back.
On delays in Aadhar issuances: We have issued 40 million Aadhaars but we have
100 million enrolment requests. So our backend infrastructure had to be upgraded. So recently, in the month of September we had actually shutdown our systems for a couple of weeks and upgraded the hardware. So now we are clearing the backlog but while we do that, new people are coming in for enrollments. So we think that for sometime, there will be a longer lead time between enrollment and getting the Aadhaar letter. But once our backend is fully upgraded and we catch up, then the letter will come much faster.
On UIDAI’s technology platform:
The technology platform is extremely sophisticated because we are doing something that has not been done before. The world’s largest biometric database is 120 million, while this is going to have 1.2 billion peopleand what we are doing is a process for de-duplication which is we are saying that the person must not get two numbers. The way we are doing de-duplication is by comparing the biometric pattern of an individual’s biometrics to all the biometric patterns to see that there is no duplicate.
To give you an idea of the scale of the issue, let’s say two-three years down the road, we have 400 million people in our database and one million new people come and enroll. Each of that one million has to be compared against all 200 million to make sure there is no duplicate. This has never been done at the scale we are doing, so that is why we have put three biometric de-duplication engines at the back-end. We cannot only have competition among three engines, but also balance the workload. This whole platform was built and rolled out in 14 months from the time that we were set up.
We think of this project in three parts, there is an enrollment front-end – the 20,000 enrolment stations that will collect data from people. There is a back-end that is essentially the technology infrastructure to do de-duplication and issue numbers and send you the letter and then there are applications. On the application side we are rolling out the applications because what we are doing with this identity is we are giving people an online ID. So in some sense, we are leap frogging from a world where millions of people have no ID to an online ID world. So the real strategic value of this is the online ID. Once we will have online ID then I can do online authentication of your identity using various factors of authentication.
Now authentication is done remotely on the Internet or the phone through three methods – what you have, what you know, and who you are. For example, an ATM card is what you have which also serves as proof that you are the person, though you can give the ATM card to somebody else too. When you enter a bank ATM, you swipe your card and enter a PIN number — which is what you know. So when you operate the ATM you combine a swipe of a card with the PIN. This is called a two-factor authentication, based on what you have plus what you know, and is supposed to be more secure than a single-authentication.
What Aadhaar offers is a third factor authentication of who you are. So if you go to an authentication point and do a biometric authentication, then we will confirm who you
are. So we basically feel that applications can be combination of what you have, what you know, who you are and you can combine and mix and match them into factors based on the strength of authentication that you want. We are going to be launching this in the next few weeks and so this will be used as a basis for financial inclusion so that people can go and withdraw money from a bank account.
So that is subsidy reform will allow the farmer to buy any subsidy therefore you will have more sustainable architect agriculture, you have increased production. So in some ways though it just a number, it is like the zero in mathematics. Though it is just a number, zero changed modern mathematics. Similarly, Aadhaar number is central to the reform agenda of the government. It is central to establishing identity, which is the basic issue. It is central to financial inclusion, it is key to subsidy reforms. So it has become very central to this re-architecting of the way we deliver public services.
So, broadly, we have the enrolment challenge which is getting a billion people in, the technology challenge of de-duplicating and making sure people get unique numbers and then the application challenge or building applications that use the online authentication capabilities of this system to re-engineer public services delivery. The back-end is ready and we keep improving it. When the applications start rolling out is when we are going to see a lot of the transformational benefits of what we are doing.
This will be used for PDS reforms so that you can both use Aadhaar to remove host and duplicates in your database as well as use it as the basis for authentication. So this will be used for changing the subsidy regime, where the government wants to move from subsidising the manufacturer to subsidising the beneficiary directly. This is a huge challenge. If you take the fertiliser subsidy, for instance, today companies get the subsidy, tomorrow 100 million farmers will get the subsidy in small amounts.
ET Awards: Nandan Nilekani, the right man for a unique challenge
ET Bureau Oct 5, 2011, 03.29am IST
Tags:
UIDAI|Nandan Nilekani|ET awards|Aadhar
Nandan Nilekani is the man entrusted with giving every Indian a unique identity number. For some, this project, called Aadhaar, will mark liberation from the tyranny of multiple ID documents. For a majority of Indians, especially the poor and those living in villages, this 12-digit number is a vehicle of empowerment, which would deliver welfare and commercial services they have never received as promised.
An opportunity to bring about this transformation made Nilekani leave the safety net of Infosys, the IT company he co-founded and lifted to great heights, and throw himself into the hurly-burly of government in July 2009.
“There was no hesitation in my mind as I had always dreamt of this,” he says of the offer that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made him. “As a child, I had watched my father and uncle closely, and heard family conversations on public policy.”
The move from CEO to, effectively, a cabinet minister heading the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) presented unique challenges. A CEO in the private sector engages with a small group, like a board of directors or management. But public policy requires engaging with an array of stakeholders: politicians, bureaucracy, civil society, media and the intended beneficiaries of a policy, among others. Says the 56-year-old Nilekani: “The challenge lies in how you navigate the mosaic of different points of view and how you evangelise them to a wider section of people, the stakeholders.”
The UIDAI has encountered many points of view about its work, especially lately. Its initial mandate was to just issue Aadhaar to 1.2 billion Indians based on their biometrics. Along the way, it offered to also collect biometrics of 100 million Indians till the time the National Population Register (NPR) was ready. It subsequently offered to do 200 million, and the government agreed. But its recent demand to do all 1.2 billion biometrics has been turned down.
The difficulty, says Nilekani, lies in showing various stakeholders it is a win-win. “We have tried to make each stakeholder, like state governments, banks and other ministries, an ally so that differences are minimised,” he says. “You have to know the drivers and then work on them. No one can say they are against public good.”
Former Infosys CEO and chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project Nandan Nilekani recently criticized the all popular Anna Hazare-led campaign as a “naïve” way to tackle corruption.
After a successful career at Infosys Technologies Ltd, Nilekani is now heading Government of India’s technology committee, TAGUP.
Image from Reuters
In an interview to CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose, Nilekani said that tackling corruption needed to be done in a “more holistic and strategic manner.” The Jan Lokpal Bill is “absolutely not” a magic wand against corruption, Nilekani said emphatically.
Calling the Anna movement unjustified, Nilekani said that their bill for the Unique ID authority that was placed before parliament had gone to the Standing Committee for Finance. He said that he had a chance to make presentations before it on more than one occasion. The proceedings although remained confidential, he was confident of the extraordinary job that the parliament does. “I’m very impressed with the quality of the questions, the homework, the due diligence – and it’s all bipartisan: you don’t know who is from which party.”
As the former Chief Minister of Karnataka BS Yeddyurappa used to call him, “The pride of Karnataka”, Nandan Nilekani, oversaw the innovative Aadhar project that was first initiated by this man.
Being both a biometric and retina scan based system; Aadhaar is a unique project, the kind that has not been tried by any other country. The all ambitious project aspires to secure unique identification numbers for 1.2 billion people in India. The project hopes to look into the idea of substituting subsidies for petro-fuels, fertiliser and, ultimately, food, with direct cash transfers.
These are some of the honours awarded to Nandan Nilekani:
• One of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board in January 2006.
• Forbes “Businessman of the Year” for Asia in 2007.
• He, along with Infosys founder (and currently non-executive chairman) N. R. Narayana Murthy, also received Fortune magazine’s ‘Asia’s Businessmen of the Year 2003’ award.
• Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors awarded by the Government of India – 2006.
• Was presented the ‘Legend in Leadership Award’ by the Yale University in November 2009. He is the first Indian to receive the top honour.
• Was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto on the 31st of May, 2011.
August 19, 2011 at 1:33 pm | Posted in Nandan Nilekani | Comments Off on Jan Lokpal bill: One among many ways to fight corruption, says Nandan Nilekani
19 AUG, 2011, 02.49PM IST, IANS
Jan Lokpal bill: One among many ways to fight corruption, says Nandan Nilekani
NEW DELHI: The Lokpal bill which is before parliament is only one of the many ways of tackling the menace of corruption, said Nandan Nilekani, chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Friday.
“I think if we want to do something about corruption, we have to do it in a much broader manner, where the Lokpal bill just becomes one of many things (tackling corruption),” said Nilekani in an interview to a news channel.
“I’m very much for removing corruption, but to say that this is the only way to do is very impractical,” he said referring to activist Anna Hazare’s demand for a stronger anti-corruption bill.
Parliament would decide on the shape of the bill and the protesters should work through that system, Nilekani said.
Corruption happens when people try to avail benefits like subsidised grains and pensions, he said.
“That is where an Aadhar ID comes in,” he said referring to the unique identification the UIDAI will provide to every Indian citizen.
In the battle against corruption, the country needs more reforms, said the former chief executive officer of IT bellwether Infosys.
The need is to create more choices for the people for a variety of services, he said.
Nilekani explained that there was big ticket corruption when the state interfaces with business for large resources and land. “And there is the small ticket or retail corruption where millions of people interact with the state….”
Hazare has been demanding a Jan Lokpal bill which includes the prime minister, higher judiciary and the conduct of MPs inside parliament within the ambit of the Lokpal (ombudsman).
The government’s Lokpal Bill, 2011, which was tabled in parliament, lacks these provisions.
Nilekani’s daughter to wed her Yale senior
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Express news service
Tags : chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, Nandan Nilekani
Posted: Wed Aug 17 2011, 01:41 hrs
New Delhi
Nandan & Rohini Nilekani’s older daughter Jahnavi has just got engaged the day-before-yesterday. Nandan Nilekani, one of the co-founders of Infosys, is currently the chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
She is to wed in June 2012. Jahnavi is enrolled for her PhD at the Kennedy School in Harvard. Her fiancé is Shray Chandra, her senior at Yale, and son of an employee of Tata Steel. His mother is a school teacher.
Shray is currently working at a tech start-up in Bangalore , while Jahnavi is taking a sabbatical from her PhD and has relocated to Bangalore until the wedding, where she will work with an non-governmental organisation (NGO). The couple wants to move back to the US after the wedding when Shray hopes to enroll for his MBA and Jahnavi will resume her PhD.
The Nilekanis also has a younger son, who is currently studying at Yale. Jahnavi owns 0.29 per cent of Infosys, as does her brother Nihar.
Shray, who grew up in Jamshedpur, had graduated in economics and computer science from Yale and has earlier worked as a risk analyst at JP Morgan Chase.
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He believes in the power of technology and challenges, which is why Nandan Nilekani was appointed by the Prime Minister to lay the foundation for the world’s largest and most ambitious identification program. Two years into his job as the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Nilekani delivered on his promise of rolling out the Aadhaar number.
The unique identification project like most innovations faces admiration and skepticism both alike. On CNBC-TV18’s Young Turks, Nilekani decodes the UID, says with 9.2 million people on board, the critics can keep calm now.
Below is a transcript of Nandan Nilekani;s interview with CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.
Q: How has life changed for you?
A: It has changed in many ways. I have left the private sector and joined the government. I went from a situation where I was leading a 100,000 person company to doing a start up all over again but a start up in government. It has been a great experience. I have learnt a lot in the last two years.
Q: How do you function? How have you been able to reorient yourself?
A: I have had an absolutely unhindered and unencumbered two years in the government. I was given a job and I also have guidance. We will do 600 million people by 2014. I am going to stick to the guidance. We had another guidance that we will launch within 18 months. We beat that guidance by launching in 14 months.
Q: What is the current status? How many numbers have you rolled out?
A: We have enrolled 9.2 million people. We have an online portal that is real time, which tells you the status every morning, therefore as of today it if 9.2 million people across 11 states.
Q: Confidentiality is one of the apprehensions that are being expressed. The UID is to become compulsory and not voluntary. What is your take?
A: UID gives an ID, it doesn’t really give anything else and it gives an online ID that you to authenticate that ID in a mobile banking application or online web application. It is a very limited thing and it’s designed for giving benefits to people. 9.2 million people have received a letter from us with a number. Many of them have never had an identity in their lives. Therefore, for the first time they are having an ID that enables them to open a bank account, to get a mobile connection and so on. People are seeing the value of this from the point of view of entitlements and benefits. A lot of the skepticism is therefore tapering off.
Q: The other apprehension is where or whom will this data eventually go to? Will it go to India or American business houses?
A: The database we have has your name, your sex, your address and your date of birth and on an optional basis your e-mail and mobile number if you want to be contacted. It’s a black box. All that you can use it for is authentication. There is no question of sharing this data. This data is inside this black box. Only when XYZ comes to a point of service and says I want to confirm I am XYZ – you get some authentication token or a biometric and we will confirm that your are XCYZ — that’s all.
Q: Besides the UID — who can access this data or who can the UID authorize to access this data? Can a government agency or individual ministry access this data?
A: The data base is only used for authentication. In the interest of national security which is there is there in any country — if there is a certain request under a due process which requires the government for reasons of finding a terrorist or whatever — they can access that data with a request which is also audited.
Q: How do you ensure the security of this data?
A: This database is behind a perimeter of partners. Therefore this database is not exposed to the world. It’s only talking through trusted partners who in turn may have front end services where the use is only for authentication.
Chennai: Nandan Mohan Nilekani, co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Infosys Technologies (Infosys) and current chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has picked up a minority interest in the Kerala-based Dhanlaxmi Bank. This may perhaps be Nilekani’s first financial investment in a business venture outside Infosys, the country’s second-largest technology services firm in terms of business volumes. Dhanlaxmi Bank is among the half a dozen odd private sector banks in the country which does not have any domestic or foreign promoters.
According to the latest shareholding pattern filed by Dhanlaxmi Bank with stock exchanges, Nilekani holds 9,93,827 shares in the bank which translates into 1.17% of the total outstanding stock of the private sector lender as on March 31, 2011. Nilekani had picked up the stake from the open market. Nilekani could not be reached for comments, despite repeated attempts.
Nilekani and his family holds 3.15% stake in Infosys, the second-largest promoter share holder in Infosys after its founder chairman and the poster boy of India’s software revolution, NR Narayana Murthy and his family.
Besides Nilekani, Birla Sun Life Insurance Company has picked up close to 3% in Dhanlaxmi. State Bank of India, the country’s largest banker, has also increased its stake through its subsidiary SBI Mutual Fund. SBI Tax Advantage Fund has bought 9,10,000 shares of Dhanlaxmi Bank through the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2011 which translates into a tad over 1%. SBI Mutual Fund, through its investment vehicle Magnum Global Fund is holding 1.62% stake in Dhanalaxmi as of the end of the last financial year. Together, SBI and its affiliates hold 2.69% in Dhanlaxmi.
Nilekani, who left Patni Computers with N Narayana Murthy, was CEO of Infosys from March 2002 to April 2007, when he moved up to become co-chairman, leaving the CEO post to Kris Gopalakrishnan. He left Infosys on July 2009 to become the chairperson of UIDAI at the rank of a cabinet minister on an invitation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is the co-founder National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) and the Bangalore Chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Incorporated in 1927, Dhanlaxmi Bank, with its 210 branches, is one of the old-generation private sector lender sans promoters based in Thrissur in Kerala. The bank recently launched a campaign to shed its regional tag by going for a brand makeover with plans to set up more branches in major cities outside south India. The bank had clocked a total income of R1,053.19 crore for the year ending March 2011 and netted a profit of R26.06 crore.
By SiliconIndia, Wednesday, 23 March 2011, 03:06 Hrs
Nandan Nilekani & family claimed the 692nd position with a personal asset of $1.8 billion. He belongs to the breed of new generation politicians, who really mean business. He is currently employed with the new Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), as its chairman. He even crafted a successful career at Infosys Technologies Ltd. He also presides over the Government of India’s technology committee, (TAGUP)
March 5, 2011 at 3:24 pm | Posted in Nandan Nilekani, UID Propaganda | Comments Off on Bangalore: Honorary Doctorates for Nilekani and Sreedharan
Bangalore: Honorary Doctorates for Nilekani and Sreedharan
By Team Mangalorean
Bangalore, Jan 10: Nandan Nilekani, formerly of Infosys and currently chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and Metro chief engineer E Sreedharan have been selected by the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum to receive Ph D (honoris causa). The university has sent the recommendation to the state governor and ex-offiicio chancellor, said vice chancellor Dr H Maheshappa.
E Sreedharan and Nandan Nilekani
The honour will be conferred on them during the convocation which is planned to be held in the second week of February 2011. Union finance minister Pranav Mukherji has been requested to deliver the keynote address. Once the confirmation of dates is received, exact date and details will be announced, said the vice chancellor.
He further said that several improvements have been made in the set-up. For the first time, evaluation of papers has been digitalized. The answer papers are being scanned and stored in computers. This will minimize occurrence of errors and hasten evaluation, he added.
March 5, 2011 at 3:15 pm | Posted in Nandan Nilekani, UID Propaganda | Comments Off on Unique Identification will bring social inclusion in India, says Nandan Nilekani
New Delhi, Dec 3 (ANI): The Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Nandan Nilekani, has said that the authority will empower the people of India to take full benefits from welfare schemes, in due course becoming a tool of development and social inclusion.
Addressing the annual Rajinder Mathur Memorial Lecture here on Thursday, Nilekani said: “The UID will put an end to the dysfunctional identity structure in India by providing a social welfare net for all.
“It is important to realise that this is a platform that is very important to address inclusion, mobility, efficiency of expenditure, ranging of public services and provide for innovation. That’s broadly what it is, I do not want to get into the technical part of it but it is important to realize that it is important for social change and social inclusion,” he added.
Pointing out that penetration of banks was quite low in rural areas, he said the UID can facilitate extending banking to every village.
“The UID would also be beneficial for people who migrate from one part of the country to the other,” he added.
Answering queries about possibility of data being misused, he said that the only service provided by the UIDAI was authentication.
“UID is one part of privacy issue. We need a larger privacy and data protection law,” he said.
Nilekani said he wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue in May and the government has come out with an approach paper to elicit people’s views.
He said the authority’s target was to provide the UID to 600 million Indian residents in the next four years. (ANI)
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, December 03, 2010
First Published: 09:28 IST(3/12/2010)
Last Updated: 09:31 IST(3/12/2010)
It costs the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Rs 100 to generate each “aadhaar” number, which will help address the challenges of inclusion, the authority’s chief Nandan Nilekani, said in New Delhi on Thursday. It costs the authority Rs.50 to enrol each individual for the Unique ID
(UID) and another Rs.50 on back-end costs, he said.
In his address at the annual Rajinder Mathur Memorial Lecture here, Nilekani said that the aadhaar number will help in making public expenditure more equitable and in building new services for the people.
Nilekani, who took questions after speaking of benefits of the UID, said the country needed well-defined privacy laws to prevent any malicious use of data.
Answering queries about the demand by social activists like Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze against linking the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) to the UID, he said that the number should not be used in a way that it denies benefits to anyone.
“Aadhar should not be a basis of discrimination,” he said.
The social activists had, in a statement, said plans to link MGNREGA to Aadhaar should be revoked as it “threatens to cause havoc” in the fragile structure of the scheme that provides for 100 days of jobs a year to rural households.
Nilekani said the UID can be sufficient identity to open a bank account or get a mobile phone SIM card. Pointing out that penetration of banks was quite low in rural areas, he said the UID can facilitate extending banking to every village.
The UID number will also be beneficial for people who migrate from one part of the country to the other, he added.
Answering queries about possibility of data being misused, he said that the only service provided by the UIDAI was authentication.
“UID is one part of privacy issue. We need a larger privacy and data protection law,” he said.
Nilekani said he wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue in May and the government has come out with an approach paper to elicit the people’s viewse.
He said the authority’s target was to provide the UID to 600 million Indian residents in the next four years.
The lecture was organized by the Editors Guild of India.
February 8, 2011 at 1:50 pm | Posted in Nandan Nilekani, UID Propaganda | Comments Off on 600 million people to get ‘Aadhaar’ number in 4 years: Nilekani
600 million people to get ‘Aadhaar’ number in 4 years: Nilekani
BHUBANESWAR: Around 600 million Indians will get the much-cherished Unique Identification Number (UIN) in the next four years, helping implementation of various social welfare schemes.
“About 40,000 to 45,000 people have been enrolled by September 29, 2010. Many more will get the facility in one year and about 600 million in the next four years,” Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani said here today.
UID, also known as Aadhaar number, will be helpful in opening a bank account , passport and ration card and many other things, he added.
“The Aadhaar number will be of much help to the people migrating from one place to another,” he said.
Stating that out of the 1.8 billion people, about 120 million migrate in search of jobs and other activities, Nilekani said migration affected about 480 million people in the country.
The UID number, therefore, will help people in getting essential services like PDS, bank account, LPG connection and other jobs in new places, he said.
Terming the exercise as the biggest event in the world, Nilekani said that bi-metric system would prevent duplication.
“We have de-duplication exercise which will include or exclude people from the list of people in the UIN list,” he added.
UID project may get brand ambassador PTI, Oct 11, 2010, 11.07am IST
Brand ambassador to promote UID Project
MUMBAI: A brand ambassador for the Government’s highly-ambitious Unique Identification Number (UID) project could be on the cards if a line of thought in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is any indication.
Given the complexities involved in the task, especially that of positioning of the project and relevant communication to 1.2 billion Indians, a well-known brand ambassador would be of great help, a senior UIDAI official said.
“We want to promote the campaign and make the masses aware of the importance of the UID. This would require marketing expertise. If need be, we would also think about hiring a brand ambassador for the drive,” said UIDAI’s Head-Demand Generation, Communication and Awareness, Shankar Maruwada.
There would be an extensive campaign to push the project and a lot of expensive and operational resources will flow into these campaigns, he said.
In April this year, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), headed by Nandan Nilekani, had given the brand name ‘Aadhaar’ to the project with its own logo.
Under this project, all the residents of the country would get a unique identity number, which would enable them to have access to a host of benefits and services.
V Shoba , Uma Vishnu
Tags : Nandan Nilekani, Jeevan Bima building, Infosys
Posted: Sun Oct 10 2010, 03:13 hrs
There’s a story that’s now old hat on the third floor of the Jeevan Bima building in Connaught Place, central Delhi. Of how, when Nandan Nilekani, the freshly-minted chairperson of the Unique Identity Authority of India and someone with the rank and status of a Cabinet minister, got his sarkari car, he took one look at it and asked for the lal batti on top to be removed. Here he was, talking of issuing every Indian resident an identity and doing away with that red, bulbous identity that Delhi’s power circles bask in.
“It’s a start-up, ya…,” says Nilekani, looking relaxed on a sofa in his room at the Delhi headquarters of the UIDAI. He is talking of his big switch, that “restart button” he pressed at 54 when he moved from being CEO of Infosys to heading a venture that still seems to most people an abstract idea—issuing a number to each one of India’s 1.2 billion people, a number that can potentially empower people. A year into the “start-up”, the idea has rolled out, taken the shape of a 12-digit number and got itself a name—Aadhaar, which in most Indian languages means ‘foundation’.
On September 29, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched the first set of Aadhaar numbers in Thembli village in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district. A couple of days later, on October 2, 40 homeless people were enrolled in Delhi.
“Now that you have this number, what do you do with it? That’s what we are looking at next—the application. At a fundamental level, the number is an application that offers identity, mobility and authentication. So there are two major areas where this can be applied—how can the number help you open a bank account, which is what financial inclusion is about, and how can it help get you a SIM card? We are looking at other such applications,” says Nilekani.
When he says that, the number assumes a practical air, an aadhaar that any democracy should have offered its people anyway, the ability to open a bank account, buy a cell phone, get the money you worked hard for or get your face on a ration card without having to fake your identity or pay a few hundreds of rupees to get one.
But for people who have been outside of the system for so long, a hint of any such ‘identity’ can be tantalising.
Ganga Kapavarapu, Deputy Director General (Finance), who was among the first few people to join Nilekani’s team, recalls an incident at the Delhi launch of Aadhaar for the homeless. “A man came up to us and asked if the number was his passport, if it meant that he could now get a ration card, a PAN card, a driving licence and a string of other cards he had only heard of. We don’t make any such claims but what do you do with such huge expectations, expectations that are valid because he has a right to them as much as any one of us does,” she says.
It turns out then that the number wasn’t just Nilekani’s restart button. If the idea works, that homeless person in the Delhi night shelter must have just found his.
An idea takes shape
Aadhaar has its origins in a discussion paper of the Planning Commission in 2006. Around the same time, Nilekani had come up with a similar idea in his book, Imagining India, describing unique identity as one of the key steps for getting the poor and the marginalised into the system. Three years later, in July 2009, the Unique Identification Authority of India was established with Nilekani as chairman. With Brand Nilekani at the helm and the romantic idea of a number, there were enough people willing to join the project but it was important to choose the right mix of talent and enterprise.
R S Sharma, a Jharkhand-cadre IAS officer from the 1978 batch, was the first to join. As district magistrate in Begusarai, Bihar, Sharma had developed a curious “hobby”—writing computer programmes. He wrote one that helped him track stolen firearms in the district and he solved 22 cases in a month. He took his hobby seriously enough to get a Masters in Computer Science—“at the age of 42”—from the University of California. After a stint in the Finance Ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs, Sharma joined UIDAI around the time Nilekani came in.
Today, around 150 people are at work on the number—people like Sharma, Kapavarapu and BB Nanawati (DDG, Technology) from within the government set-up, those on sabbatical from their organisations, volunteers who walked out on flourishing careers to be a part of the UID team, interns from universities across the world—all convinced about the transformational potential of the number.
UID’s Technology Centre on the Marathalli-Sarjapur Outer Ring Road in Bangalore is where the best IT brains, all inspired by Nilekani’s prodigious idea of a universal ID infrastructure, have made Aadhaar possible. Here, Srikanth Nadhamuni, the head of technology for UIDAI, emerges from a crowded conference room, the door shutting behind him to muffle what sounds like a heated discussion into a murmur. He says the biometry workshop he just left is tuning the next generation of biometrics for Aadhaar.
The tech centre looks and functions like a start-up, with a core team of 15-20 that works at blazing momentum, little organisational hierarchy, and a lot of whiteboards on which, over the last 12 months, the technical feasibility of the UID has been established.
Nadhamuni, a Silicon Valley veteran of 16 years who returned to Bangalore to form the e-Governance Foundation with Nilekani in 2003, joined in July 2009. “Some of the best people came to us as volunteers, others came on a sabbatical, and many brought with them over 20 years of experience in the industry. They didn’t care about the money they wouldn’t be making, this was a nation-building exercise they wanted to be part of. We took our pick of the best,” Nadhamuni says.
One of the first to join the core team in Bangalore and lead the biometrics arm, Raj Mashruwala, founder and mentor of several Silicon Valley start-ups, agreed to move from California, where his family lives, for three months; he stayed on for 13. Arriving in Bangalore with two suitcases, he met Nadhamuni at an appliance store to pick up a refrigerator and a microwave and move in to an apartment complex on Outer Ring Road, where, for the next three months, they would eke out the essentials of a project ten times the size of the US-VISIT biometric identification service. “When we started out in the apartment, we had two tables, whiteboards, six chairs and a shoerack that served as additional seating when corporates visited. The maid would bring us tea in a flask from my house. We didn’t need anything else at that time,” Nadhamuni says.
Today, the office hosts 60-70 employees from the three consortia of biometric service providers UIDAI has partnered with—led by Accenture and MindTree; Mahindra Satyam and Sagem Morpho Security; and Hewlett-Packard, L-1 Identity Solutions and 4G Identity Solutions. “Since the project went live on September 29, UIDs are being cranked out of our Central Identification Data Repository (CIDR) in Whitefield as we speak. The challenge now is to ensure that the biometrics have enough randomness so that no individual is mistaken for another—what is commonly known as de-duplication. At peak load, say, when a million people register in a day, it might mean matching billions of biometrics,” says Nadhamuni.
The sheer breadth of the exercise is unnerving, but it’s not something Pramod K. Varma, chief architect for the project, is worried about. A specialist in complex inventory management systems and former chief technology architect for Sterling Communications, who has built highly distributed computing systems for Walmart, JC Penney and Target that process millions of orders a day, Varma heard about the UID project in July last year, and within a week, was ready to imagine India a la Nilekani.
The project has drawn change-makers from across the world—from Sanjay Jain, who made the switch from being product manager for Google Maps and Google News to one for UIDAI; to Bala Parthasarathy, co-founder of the Web photo service company Snapfish, and many others.
Unlike other government set-ups that had the luxury of time, at the UID office, everything had to be done simultaneously—hiring and training staff, meetings and workshops with registrars and enrollment agencies, setting up the tech centre and the CIDR in Bangalore, and meetings and MoUs with state governments. Nilekani travelled extensively, to 23 states, and made PowerPoint presentations to 15 chief ministers. All this with an eye on the calendar—UIDAI’s commitment to the government was that the first set of numbers would be rolled out between August 2010 and February 2011.
The tech team is now working on the next set of biometric features—authentication services, address updates and registering children as and when they turn five—as well as prototypes of applications of UID in NREGA, PDS, banking, microfinance, micro-ATMs, education and healthcare.
As for the devices, four to five of each kind—iris scanners, fingerprint scanners, cameras—have been certified by the UIDAI, in accordance with its multi-vendor policy to encourage healthy competition. Along with a laptop, they fit neatly into a portable kit—one of the many open-source designs for a self-contained biometric unit—voluntarily designed by Michael Foley, who also designed the 2010 Commonwealth Games baton and Titan’s slimmest watches.
Back in Delhi, Kapavarapu, DDG (Finance), insists she is proof that it wasn’t just people in the private sector who have glamourous stories of chucking their jobs for the pure passion of working on an ‘idea’.
Kapavarapu, an ’81-batch officer of the Indian Audit and Accountant Service, was principal Accountant General of Himachal Pradesh before she joined UIDAI in October 2009. She opens her laptop to show a picture of her earlier workplace—the gorgeous British-era Gorton Castle in Shimla. “This is something I show people when they say you guys are with the government, you wouldn’t have had to give up anything to come here,” she jokes.
When Kapavarapu and Nanawati joined the project, they worked out of a small room in Yogana Bhawan, the Planning Commission office. “Three of us shared one room, a quarter the size of this room, one PC and one table. We took turns to work,” says Nanawati.
Though the project has raised concerns of profiling and of the state infringing on citizens’ privacy, Nilekani says the stress should be on the benefits that are “overwhelming, while looking at how the risks, if any, can be mitigated.”
Nilekani knows only too well that the expectations from him are huge, especially when anyone who recognises him—at airports and other public places—walks up and asks when he is getting his card. Nilekani has had to politely remind them that it’s not a ‘card’, but a ‘number’ that will give them an identity in a crowd of over a billion.
Rajashekara S First Published : 26 Sep 2010 08:27:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 26 Sep 2010 03:37:33 AM IST
It is said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wanted Nandan Nilekani to head the Unique Identity Development Authority of India (UIDAI), because of his uncontroversial nature, business and personal credentials and unquestioned integrity. In that sense, you could say that the two are mirror images of each other. Oh, and of course, the PM wanted a technocrat to head UIDAI because of the magnitude and complex nature of the project.
Nilekani was closely associated with the Karnataka government when S M Krishna, now external affairs minister, was chief minister, and this proved to be a big advantage. In fact, Krishna’s camp in the Congress says it was his suggestion that resulted in Nilekani’s appointment. Besides these two, Nilekani also had the backing of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. And it didn’t hurt that Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh was his quiz partner at IIT Bombay. This appears to be one case of a happy combination of track record and the old boy network at work.
Another reason for choosing Nilekani is that he has the experience to co-ordinate with various private agencies for effective implementation and act as an interface between government and the private sector. For this is not Nilekani’s first stint in the government sector. He was chairman of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), a private-public initiative that was set up to improve city governance and bring Bangalore on par with the world’s best cities.
As head of the BATF, Nilekani co-ordinated with stake holders like the Bangalore City Corporation, Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Metropolitan Corporation, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Bangalore Electricity Company, Bangalore City Police and the BSNL.
Nilekani tried for a Private Public Partnership (PPP) to create the necessary synergies for improving city
infrastructure. Indeed, there were visible changes in the city when he was at the helm. The more significant of these include the self-assessment scheme for property tax, a fund-based accounting system in the Corporation, and Nirmala and Swachcha Bangalore (cleaner Bangalore).
The UID journey has been an incomparable one: Nilekani
Mokshada Batra, September 7, 2010 (Bangalore)
After 30 successful years in the private sector, Nandan Nilekani has completed a year on the other side of the fence as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India and like he says, in spite of his experience he had to learn from the start.
“When I joined UIDAI, I was “employee no. 1” in this organisation so it was like a start up for me all over again. And I didn’t know anything, so I had to learn words like CCA, ACC, central staffing scheme, deputation and cadre controlling authorities. I mean I know my stuff! I know who’s on offer, cooling off period, you name it and I know it!” Nilekani says.
Comparisons between the old and new are only but natural.
“I think in government we need to look at a lot more collaboration. There’s a lot of great stuff happening but somehow we need to bring it all together and this happens in the private sector too,” Nilekani says.
Nonetheless, he says the UID journey has been an incomparable one.
The unique identification number or Aadhaar project, which attempts to give a unique identity number to the country’s over billion people and expected to be rolled out shortly, was set up in June 2009. The project would help in delivery of government’s welfare schemes, boost financial inclusion besides enabling other service providers like banks, insurance, to tap on the UID for authentication purposes.
The UIDAI had promised to issue the first batch of UID numbers between August and February.
“The UID project was a great experience. The only way we can bring scale change is through public service and government, as we can’t do it through the private sector,” Nilekani said.
The Aadhar project which is set to be launched soon in no doubt will be yet another chapter in his an already illustrious career.
Express News Service First Published : 07 Sep 2010 03:33:13 AM ISTLast Updated : 07 Sep 2010 09:11:23 AM IST
BANGALORE: Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday said the first lot of 16-digit UID or the Aadhaar numbers would be issued in the coming weeks.
“The first lot of the Aadhaar numbers will be issued in the coming weeks for a million people. In the next four years, over 600 million people will be enrolled,” he said at the inauguration of a lecture series.
Nilekani, however, did not disclose the date for the issuance of the first lot of numbers.
He promised that the database of the individuals, which will be collected u n d e r t h e UIDAI, would not be disclosed.
“The UIDAI database is a lot more private when compared to others.
Under the law, the database of UIDAI cannot be looked into by anyone apart from those in the national security agencies,” he said.
As ID proof to get SIM cards
He said that UIDAI was negotiating with the department of telecommunications so that the Aadhaar numbers can be used as identity proof for getting cellphone connections.
Micro ATMs
He also said that there was a proposal to distribute micro ATMs as part of UIDAI which will result in inclusion of the poor in the banking system. “Using micro ATMs, people in villages can draw and deposit money from government appointed business correspondents in villages,” he said.
UID to be ‘number for life’ for Indians: Nilekani
PTI, Aug 28, 2010, 01.38pm IST
MUMBAI: The unique identification number (UID) will be a ‘number for life’ for millions of Indians who are now excluded from access to public schemes, according to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani.
“The domestic movement within India is slated to escalate due to development and climate change that would drive migration. Due to lack of identity proof, 100 million people are unable to avail of public schemes. It is here the unique identification number will make a difference as it will be the ‘number for life’ for them,” Nilekani said.
He was speaking at a lecture on ‘India: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ organised here on Friday evening.
“With technological development, as the paper work reduces, the cost of technology also goes down and capability goes up. Once you make everything electronic, the prices drop. It is when more number of people make use of technology,” Nilekani said.
The UID would be given to every Indian irrespective of their financial or residential status, he said.
“The main aim of issuing these numbers is to ensure better service delivery to those who have been excluded from public schemes, be it related to finance or food,” he said.
UIDAI will roll out a biometric database of beneficiaries, Nilekani said, adding, the data can be used by banks and post offices for generating their own UID numbers.
As banking services cannot reach each of the six lakh villages in India, there will be micro ATMs where people can withdraw or deposit money, he said.
The UID or Unique Identification Project promises to make every Indian count by given them an identity – a single 12-digit number – which will take away the need to have multiple proofs like PAN card, ration card, voter ID cards, etc.
Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), tells Bloomberg UTV’sMini Menon that not only will it make life simple, but it will also ensure that each Indian has access to the basics.
Is the UID project a change agent?
Nilekani: This one is about inclusion because a lot of people who don’t have any form of identity are being left out of so many things. There are 75 million homeless people who don’t have access to any public services. There are hundreds and millions of migrants who don’t get services when they migrate. So, this is a very powerful tool for them.
Once they have a UID, it will be easier for them to have a bank account, mobile phone, ration card or whatever. So there is a big inclusion factor there, which is very important for us. The other factor is efficiency of public services. We are spending lot of money as a country on beneficiary-oriented services like NREGA and PDS. It is very important that the benefits go to the right people.
Do lots of private companies want to take part in this UID project? Do they see a lot of benefits in terms of what the UID could do for rural connectivity?
Nilekani: LIC is a good example of how they see benefit. Even the banking sector has been a great partner. We have talked to the Reserve Bank of India, the Ministry of Finance, the Indian Banks Association, the chairmen of most of the banks and there is a whole financial inclusion piece related to the UID, which we hope to roll out very shortly.
This is again part of financial inclusion. It allows people to open accounts everywhere and withdraw money using biometrics. So, all that is very exciting stuff. A lot of banks are keen on that.
By when will that roll out? Is it simultaneously on the way?
Nilekani: Yes, already the pilots are going on. The NPCAI, along with the banks and vendors of what we call as “micro-ATMs”, has started pilots and we hope that it will be an integral part of our roll-out.
What has been the most challenging part of this entire procedure?
Nilekani: The one thing I find very different from the private sector is the number of stakeholders. They are much, much more… they have different level of understanding of the issue.
So the amount of time you have to spend in building a consensus and getting a buy-in is huge. That’s really been the big part. One of the earliest things I did was visiting all the state governments. Every week I would go to some state capital – Raipur, Ranchi, Dehradun, etc — to meet with the government and the chief minister. So, you have to invest a lot in creating a consensus of opinion around the project.
What is the difference between the private and the public sector? What would be the lesson for those who are inspired by you?
Nilekani: In the private sector, if the board or the management committee decide, they just go ahead and do it. Here it’s just not that simple. We have to go out and get buy-ins, approvals, permissions and approvals of budgets from other agencies of the government, cabinet approvals so on and so forth.
It requires a lot of investment to drive the change, but it’s fun. What makes it so attractive is the possible impact you can have. One thing is our team, which is really a bunch of great people – from the government and outside. They are all very committed and very passionate, working at a very hectic pace and they are really impressive.
And you think this is going to create opportunities for IT companies because it will open up a huge new area?
Nilekani: I think there is a whole new ecosystem around UID and other e-governance initiatives that are also going to be there.
May 28, 2010 at 12:08 pm | Posted in Arguments For, Nandan Nilekani | Comments Off on Identity will help the poor participate in economic growth: Nandan Nilekani
Identity will help the poor participate in economic growth: Nandan Nilekani
26 May 2010, 0305 hrs IST,Shelley Singh & Pramugdha Mamgain,ET Bureau
Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani spoke to ET soon after the launch of Aadhaar the new brand identity for the UID project
. Excerpts:
What difference does this make to the country?
Fundamentally, lack of identity is an obstacle, especially for the poor and the marginal in India to participate fully in the economic and social growth. Identity becomes a bottleneck if one wants to have a ration card, driving licence, passport, bank account or a mobile connection. This problem is compounded as large number of people do not have birth certificates. UID number will help bring financial inclusion to the poor, regardless of where they live and give better mobility within the country. It will enable poor residents to access multiple resources including education, health and financial services
.
How can the UID help in financial inclusion?
The government plans to issue 600 million Aadhaar numbers over the next four-and-a-half years through various registrar
agencies. UIDAI is also in talks with banks to make sure that the Rs 100 is directly credited to people’s bank accounts. This way, people who are not financially included will also be allotted a bank account number.
NGOs will act as introducers to make sure enrolment happens across the country. Have you identified any NGO so far?
We are having a series of civil society outreach initiatives. We would like to work with NGOs who will act as outreach partners. We have been conducting meetings in Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Delhi on the same. They know these people and are aware of the challenges and will work with us and registrars to enrol the homeless into our system.
A child’s fingerprint do not develop till the age of 15. How are you tackling this problem?
There are many reasons for taking the iris test. One reason is, we can start biometrics at a younger age. We’ll be posting a document on our website shortly, which will explain the iris rationale. The identity number will help get a child admission in school. Other biometrics will be added once the child attains the age of 15.
Draft bill on UIDAI to be ready within a month: Nandan Nilekani
12 May 2010, 1352 hrs IST,ANI
NEW DELHI: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani has said the draft bill on the Unique Identity Project would be made ready for public discussion within a month’s time.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here on Tuesday, Nilekani said: “We need a UIDAI Act to govern the regulatory bodies; for that purpose we are drafting something, which we will put out in the next three to four weeks for public discussion.” “The project would address issues of multiple identities and thereby plug leakages in various welfare schemes mooted by the government, he added.
“Right now we are doing proof of concept in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. Then starting some pilot roll out in next few months and we have told earlier we will have UID roll out between August of this year and February of next year. We intend to stick on to these dates,” he said.
The Unique Identification Project has two aspects – one to provide a unique identification number to all Indians and second to provide online authentication.
Once the unique identification number starts to be accepted as an identity proof, it will benefit millions of poor Indians without any identification, access public services.
The identification would be biometrics based and the database would be a private database which could be used only for authentication.
The first set of identifications is expected to be rolled out by February 2011 and around 600 million Indians would be enrolled over the next four years.
UID Round-Up: All The News on AADHAAR : For IT, Against It?
By Siddarth Raman • May 26, 2010
Recently, the UIDAI (Unique ID Authority of India), lead by ex-IT Czar Nandan Nilekani, was renamed Aadhaar. It also has a new logo, the halo of the Sun bearing the imprint of a thumb. In the words of Mr. Nilekani : “We wanted a name that had a national appeal, could be recognised across the country and resonate in different languages, besides being easy to remember and speak. Aadhaar is a door to open all other doors.”
While initially there people assumed that there would be one major IT vendor, who’d take care of all the tech requirements (we’d also blogged about biggies like Microsoft, Google among several Indian companies showing interest), new reports confirm that the UIDAI has split the project into many small ones and distributed them to speed up work. No single IT contracat is likely to cross Rs. 30 crore.
A few notable contracts:
Ernst & Young bagged the consulting partner for 7.05 crore. MindTree outbid Accenture to secure a Rs. 19 crore contract for the development of the core software application. What is remarkable is that MindTree outbid Accenture by 71 crores. Business Standard interviewed the head of a global IT and consulting firm who commented that for most companies, bagging a single UID contract was a certificate that would ensure their future participation in other government contracts. This, by extension explains why companies would bid as low as conceivable, which in turn helps the nation.
The scale of this project is huge. Mr Nilekani has commented “Funds are not an issue” as the 13th Financial Commission plans to allot 3,000 crores over the next 5 years. The entire project is estimated to offer over Rs. 15,000 crores in terms of opportunity to the IT and hardware industry (for biometric implementation)
A recent interview with the Economic Times, Nandan Nilkenai spoke about how the UID will overcome the fundamental obstacle of a lack of identity, especially for the masses.
Though nowadays a lot of procedures like procuring a driver’s license or passport have simplified, there are still a lot of issues people face when it comes to original documents and/or police verifications. The 12-digit UID hopes to give access to better resources like education, health and financial services.
A few other noteworthy points from the interview :
* 600 million Aadhaar numbers will be issued over the next four and a half years.
* Banks will credit Rs. 100 directly to those who are not financially included, thereby ensuring that everyone has a bank account number
* NGOs will be involved for social outreach
While earlier, there was speculation regarding whether identification would be done via finger printing or iris scans, the verdict is out. It’s both!
The cabinet recently allowed use of Biometrics. The reason for using Iris scans as well as Fingerprints is that children below 15 yrs don’t have fully developed prints (there is also an issue with labourers and others who might have got their prints erased due to extensive application of pressure).
The ongoing national census will collect demographic data for the project. Of course, any biometrics procured will have to be updated regularly.
Now, Government Kiosks, which are already being setup to offer digitized government services, will also be used to aid in data collection for the UID projet. Companies like NIIT and Educomp all ready vying contracts for training employees who’ll be responsible for collecting data.
The UID is a major overhaul to India’s current system. Like any major change, it brings with itself a ray of hope, and huge clouds of doubt.
I read this nice piece in the Economic Timesa on how the UID could benefit the town of Nalanda. But, while Mr. Nilekani talks of briding the rich-poor divide in India, there is quite a lot of opposition to the idea.
There is in fact, a website setup for Citizens against UID. Their major arguments against the project:
1. It’s techno-racketing which will profit the IT industry and the biometrics industry.
2. It costs crores when 400 million Indian citizens live below the poverty line
3. The appointment of the person in charge was not transparent.
4. It violates the privacy of the individual
5. The project and its goals might be heavily influenced by private players looking at profits.
Of course, like we’ve commented before, the misuse of this number has great consequences, especially a person’s entire identity depends on it. However, as far as I understand, the UID will only “aid” identification, it will not be the only identity of the citizen.
May 27, 2010 at 8:12 am | Posted in Nandan Nilekani, Thoughts | Comments Off on On my view of Nandan Nilekani
As a person who has achieved much in his life, I have nothing else but
deepest respect for him. Mr. Nilekani is a product of India’s foremost
technology institute. In 1978 he passed out from IIT and started his
professional life. His first job was with Patni Computers. He was
given a salary of 1200 Rupees a month. Today his net worth is one
thousand and three hundred million dollars. The journey which he has
undertaken in a short span of thirty two years is simply remarkable.
We all know how he got in touch with Mr. Narayan Murthy and what
happened after that. So I wouldn’t bore you that story.
As far as my view of Mr. Nandan Nilekani as a businessman is
concerned, I think he is a sharp, smart and a very successful man. I
would also like to think of him as a master craftsman. He seems to me
to be a man who has over the years cultivated a desire to make wealth
with zeal of a yogi.
He seems to be indifferent to his wealth. He does not come across as a
person who is drunk on his wealth. He practices his craft, that’s for
sure. One can see marks of ‘nirantar abhyas’ (or constant practice) in
his work but at the same time one cannot but admire the vairagya
(indifference) that he exudes. This journey which began by
accumulating 1200 Rupees a month to result in a fortune of 1.3 Billion
must have been not been easy.
I assume he must have faced many self doubts. He must have failed many
a times. His colleagues, His near and dear ones must have expressed
their anxiety to him. But he didn’t lose his focus. He kept on
practicing what he had set his mind for. He wanted to make money for
himself and for others. He wanted to create wealth. He did that. For
thirty years he did that.
I can imagine day in and day out his mind must have been plagued by
questions: ‘How to make infosys work?’ ‘How to get a contract?’ ‘Who
to talk to in order to get this job done?’ ‘Who to employ?’ ‘How to
exploit this opportunity?’ ‘How to invest?’ ‘How to increase the
return on investments?’ ‘How to get around a tricky policy?’ ‘Who to
network with to get the more opportunities?’
It must have been a difficult ride. Life of a yogi is not easy. It’s a
hard life. For thirty years he must have strategized with others like
him to ask the right questions so that he finds the right answers.
Answers which could help him create wealth.
Now whenever I read Rohini Nilekani’s views on those days, I admire
the zeal of Nandan to do anything which could lead to creation of
wealth. Rohini, for instance, says : ‘Earlier, when the children were
small, I thought the downside was that Nandan was just not around. I
mean in the early days, certainly they were all so busy that
personally I don’t think he had much time for us. Obviously, Infosys
had to take precedence over other things.’
(http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/management/nandan-helps-me-think-logically-rohini-nilekani_283584.html
) Even Nandan acknowledges this, ‘As a father I am unable to spend
much time with them’
(http://www.domain-b.com/people/profiles/20021108_meticulous.html )
So you see, to me he comes across as a driven person. As a person who
did not care about anything else. Did what he had to do in order to
create wealth in order to live a dream that one day. One Day. Infosys
can becomes a name to reckon with.
To me Mr. Nandan Nilekani comes across as a brilliant method actor. He
comes across as someone who as the ability and tact to get into the
skin of a character to deliver an outstanding performance. For thirty
years he is been acting out one role which is that of wealth creator.
And I salute him for that.
But at the same time I wonder how come a man who has spent his life
trying to exploit opportunities to create wealth be suddenly made in
charge to distribute wealth and we are supposed to applaud that? Isn’t
he performing out of character? Isn’t he at a wrong stage?
How can a man who has spent his life thinking about ways and means to
create wealth be given a responsibility to distribute wealth. What
will be his instinctive response, tell me? What will he be thinking?
1,50,000 crore rupees are at stake with this UIDAI. This money is
largely going to go to IT sector. A sector which has failed to prove
it’s mettle in global trade. This is a sector which made up more of
ITES services rather than IT. If the GOI wants to distribute wealth
then are there no better ways to do it?
The life of any person who sits on a public office deserves to be
thoroughly examined. It should be a matter of public interest to
everyone of us.
Just as Kasab is a terrorist and his place is in a penitentiary, just
as Ranbir Kapoor is an actor and his place is in bollywood, then why
can’t we think that the place of a creator of wealth cannot be as same
as that of a distributor of wealth?
Or lets take the master craftsmen argument. MF Hussain is a painter. He is a master at his craft. It has taken him years and years of abhyas to get where he is right now. His work has been to create art.
A curator distributes other people’s art. Can MF Hussain become as much a great curator overnight?
So I don’t know what to do here, how could I trust what Mr. Nilekani
is doing is right when for all I know he may not be the right man for
the post.
May 11, 2010 at 8:56 pm | Posted in Arguments For, Nandan Nilekani, Process | Comments Off on UID: A Door to open Doors for the marginalized : Nandan Nilekani
UID: A Door to open Doors for the marginalized : Nandan Nilekani
India Infoline News Service / 15:49 , May 11, 2010
The schemes would also be able to achieve better targeting and greater enrolments.
Elaborating on the benefits of ‘unique identification’, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Planning Commission, Government of India, said that the Project would help the marginalized and the migrant access public services. It would address issues of multiple identities & ghost identities plugging in leakages in various welfare schemes. The schemes would also be able to achieve better targeting and greater enrolments. Mr Nilekani was speaking at a CII interactive session today at Delhi.
Sharing the concept of the Unique Identification Project, Mr Nilekani said that the project has two aspects – one to provide a unique identification number to all Indians and second to provide online authentication. Once the unique identification number starts to be accepted as an identity proof, it will benefit millions of poor Indians without any identification, access public services. It will reduce the transaction costs in the economy as the need for establishing identity for every individual service will get eliminated. The online identification process will enable re-engineering of different applications to deliver public services in a different and more efficient manner.
Explaining the security features, Nilekani said that the identification would be biometrics based and the database would be a private database which could be used only for authentication. The draft UIDAI act would soon be ready for public comments and would define the framework for the entity, he added. The first set of identifications are expected to be rolled out by February 2011 and around 600 million Indians would be enrolled over the next four years, said Mr Nilekani.
Mr Nilekani also presented the CII President’s awards to Mr U K Sinha, Chairman CII National Committee on Mutual Funds & CMD, UTI AMC ; Mr R S Sharma, Chairman CII Public Sector Enterprises Council, and CMD ONGC; Mr P S Bhattacharya, Chairman CII Sub Committee on Sustainable Development & CMD, Coal India Ltd; Mr Harpal Singh, Immediate Past Chairman CII Northern Region and Mentor & Chairman Emeritus, Fortis Healthcare Limited; Dr Naushad Forbes, Immediate Past Chairman CII Western Region & Director, Forbes Marshall Pvt Ltd; Mr Mukul Somany, Immediate Past Chairman CII Eastern Region & Joint Managing Director, Hindustan National Glass & Industries Limited and Mr C R Swaminathan, Immediate Past Chairman CII Southern Region & Chief Executive, P S G Institutions. President CII Awards are an annual feature and are presented to individuals making outstanding contribution to CII.
Earlier while delivering the opening remarks Mr Venu Srinivasan , President CII said that the UID project was indeed a very complex project because of its sheer scale and the complex technology platforms. CII welcomes the project and believes that it would immensely benefit the common man.
A chat with Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of outsourcing powerhouse Infosys who now heads India’s program to address poverty through technology
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Nandan Nilekani is the de facto chief information officer for India. Last July, he left Indian outsourcing company Infosys (INFY), where he was serving as chairman after spending five years as CEO, to become chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, an ambitious government project to create IDs and supporting biometric data, such as fingerprints, for more than 1.1 billion Indians. Nilekani, 54, and his team of several dozen engineers hope to launch next year and provide 600 million IDs within the first five years. Meantime, he has also started advising other parts of the government—including the Finance Ministry and Transportation Ministry—on how to use information technology to improve their operations. He recently spoke to Bloomberg Businessweek Asia regional editor Bruce Einhorn in New Delhi.
You were the CEO of Infosys, one of the top IT outsourcing companies in the world. Why give that up to create IDs?
My life has been a series of happy accidents; this is one of them. When the prime minister asks you do something, you can’t refuse.
Well, some people could figure out a way. What made the offer attractive?
It’s a humongous project, the mother of all projects. The purpose is to give a number to everyone, [including] the large number of Indians who don’t have an acknowledged existence by the state. There are 75 million homeless, without birth certificates; many of them don’t have the badges of identity that the rest of us have. If you are going to have all this [economic] growth, all these people who are marginalized should be given a chance. Unless you have an identity, you can’t get a phone, a bank account, or public services. You don’t get a ration card. This needs to be set right.
How does your project do that?
We think the unique ID has the advantage of helping to improve the efficiency of government spending as well as giving identity to people who were denied the chance to participate in the national economy. It’s the door that opens all doors.
In the U.S., people have been getting Social Security numbers for decades. So what’s the tech angle to what the Indian government wants to do now?
When Roosevelt put in massive social welfare programs, they had to have a good way of identifying people. The Social Security number came out of that. One of the first users of computers was the Social Security Administration: They had to keep track of everybody. In some sense, it’s like back to the future. We are going to give one number per person: It’s a Social Security number, but it also has biometric stuff. The fingerprint is on the server.
You’ll be verifying people’s identity online. What will that enable?
Once you have this online authentication, it opens a whole new area of applications. That’s the real strength, the real payoff is from that.
Similar to apps for the iPhone?
It’s like an open platform. People can build applications for a variety of purposes.
For instance?
We have 600,000 villages in India—and only 6% have bank branches. The revenues in these areas don’t pay for the costs, and therefore banks are reluctant to open branches. So a bank without a branch in a remote village can appoint an agent … a grocer in the village who’s dealing with cash anyway. A customer can go to the agent, put his finger there [to verify his ID number], then connect to his bank account and withdraw 500 rupees. The agent is like a branchless extension of the bank. This will cost less than 10,000 rupees; an ATM costs several hundred thousand or more. ATMs need electricity, cash to be replenished, security, shatterproof glass, guards. It all adds up.
You’re also working with the Finance Ministry and the Transportation Ministry, providing them with advice on how to use IT to make their operations more efficient. Some people say you’re effectively India’s chief information officer. Do you think you’ll be able to address India’s biggest problem, the poor state of infrastructure in the country?
I’m focusing on some of the soft infrastructure components. If we can give everybody a unique ID number, if you can get people a bank account, a mobile number, this gives them a leg up, a set of tools to meet their aspirations. You can think of this as soft infrastructure. If we are able to implement a good, clean design for creating a national toll network, that has an impact on hard infrastructure: Trucks will move smoother, faster. One of the projects on the financial side is reengineering the way taxes are paid in India. They have all kinds of spin-off benefits.
In a country that’s home to Infosys and so many other IT outsourcing companies, the Indian government has been slow to embrace technology. Why now?
This is actually a very exciting time. There’s an acknowledgement by the government that large transformations need technology and need a whole new approach to implementation. The fact is, over the past three decades, the IT industry in India has become more and more sophisticated—world-beating and all that. In some sense, if you add up all that, plus my role, this is an opportunity to bring to the Indian system some of the benefits, some of the experiences, that Indian organizations have gained globally. We are marrying these two worlds.
And how’s the marriage working out?
So far it’s great. I’m having a really good time. The government has been really supportive.
Bangalore: Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has allayed fears that the Unique ID (UID) will legitimise illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries.
The UID would only be a foolproof identification of a person and not a document conferring citizenship, he said while interacting with mediapersons on Monday. The UID would curb the misuse of identities and public funds, he said.
Nilekani said the UIDAI was partnering with various government agencies for the UID project. This would ensure that only genuine citizens got the identification proof, he said. He also dismissed apprehensions that the UID would interfere with the privacy of individuals. The UID, he explained, would have both personal and biometric information of a person, such as, name, sex, date of birth, nationality, marital status, current and permanent address, occupation, photo and fingerprints.
The UID cards will be given to every individual above 15 years, including NRIs and foreigners.
The greatest advantage of the UID was that employers or agencies could verify a person’s details online from anywhere.
The UIDAI had formed a joint committee with Census India 2011 to make the census data available in the format needed for UID, the UIDAI chairman said. He said he had toured 25 states and had interacted with several hundred organisations, NGOs, governmental agencies and individuals regarding implementing the UID project.
The UIDAI, a team of 100 people, would take up a massive awareness drive to clear doubts about the UID cropping up from many quarters, Nilekani said.
Addressing members of Credai (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association-Karnataka) on Monday, Nilekani said their cooperation was needed to cover the 50 million construction workers, who form the second-largest workforce in the country after those employed in agriculture.
Credai members said the workers were not convinced about the need for a UID. They said the UIDAI should help the association undertake a massive campaign to create awareness about UID among the workers. Nilekani said all material and educational clips would be made available to Credai.
He said the exercise would improve delivery of major government welfare programmes and public services, especially to those who were poor and marginalised, like workers in the construction industry.
Nandan Nilekani | We will issue first set of UIDs by February 2011
As one of the biggest projects happening in the world, the UID project is generating a lot of excitement, says Nandan Nilekani
Shereen Bhan / CNBC-TV18
New Delhi: The Indian government is moving forward with plans to provide citizens with a Unique Identification (UID) number.
The project involves biometric authentication behind the system, which will mean creating the world’s largest biometric database covering around one billion people.
Estimating savings: Unique ID Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani says though he cannot put a number around the savings the UID project would lead to, it will be substantial. Rajkumar / Mint
The project will be one of the most ambitious marketing exercises undertaken in India.
The ambitious project is now gathering pace. Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), is confident that the first unique IDs will be issued by February next year. Edited excerpts of an interview:
What is the progress being made at the UIDAI?
We’ve selected Ernst and Young as our consultant and they are on board. We have signed a contract with them and they have started working with us on the RFP (request for proposal) for the managed service provider, who is going to manage our database for us.
We put out a tender for an application software developer. We gave the specifications of our software and that is in the process…We are working in three states on checking out the details and actually how it’s going to work. Details like how enrolment will happen, how we will capture finger prints…So all that is being done.
What would it actually lead to in terms of savings for the government? Because I was reading somewhere that you know on account of what the government will just save on subsidies for LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders, it could amount to around Rs1,200 crore. That’s how much is lost on account of duplication or fraud. What could the savings be?
See, it is difficult to put a number on this because it is not really us who is going to implement those savings. So savings depend on implementation.
But if you look across the board—if you look at systems like the PDS (public distribution system), NREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), kerosene subsidy, LPG subsidy, fertilizer subsidy and old-age pensions. We have a whole gamut of social welfare programmes and subsidies. I think the savings will be fairly substantial. I can’t put a number around it but it will be substantial.
I think you yourself pointed out that this is only an identification number, a lot will really depend on how the delivery mechanism is actually engineered to deal with this. How do you see things moving?
We have started signing MoUs (memorandums of understanding) with state governments. Recently we signed our first MoU with the state of Madhya Pradesh and that MoU is on our website.
So that tells exactly what is the relationship between us and the state. We are signing with other states.
Now, we are also in discussions with the ministry of rural development to make sure the NREGA tie-up happens. We have had discussions with the food and civil supply’s department on the PDS. But ultimately a lot of this is also at the state level because the state runs the PDS, the state runs NREGA, state runs RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana), the state runs old-age pension.
The finance minister (FM) in his Budget speech said we would see the first numbers being rolled out any time between August of this year and February next year. Do you now have a more specific timeline?
That’s our commitment. Just to retrace a bit, the Budget speech of FM last year in July 2009 had very clearly said that the first UIDs would roll out in 12-18 months. For us that clock started ticking on August 12. So 12-18 months from August 12, 2009 to August 2010 to February 2011…So we are absolutely sure and we are very comfortable that we will issue the first set of UIDs before February 2011.
What about the revenue generation model as far as the UID is concerned?
We talked about this and the argument is that for basic authentication it should be free. But if people start using UID for address verification—suppose you go to a bank to open account and you give an address, the bank wants to verify that the address you have given to them is the same as on the UID master file.
Then they can make a request to us and if we want …they can pay…also today the KYC (know your customer) process for opening an account or getting a mobile phone costs them anywhere from Rs50-200.
But more than the revenue thing it is putting accountability on us to have high-quality data and that’s really more to create the feedback loop that the data is good quality.
Even though revenue generation is not the purpose really behind this project, what would the revenue be? I understand it is going to be about Rs300 crore annually.
That is a guesstimate. In our draft approach we have put an estimate of Rs288 crore.
What has really transpired in your conversations especially with the global information technology firms? How are they looking at this project at this point in time?
This is one of the biggest projects happening in the world anywhere. The scale—one billion people and the biometric. So I think there is a lot of excitement about that and I do get a lot of visitors from both India and abroad.
We have a very open policy. We share our road map with everyone.
I went to Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies) in February and laid out our plans…We are having a big vendor conference in April where we are going to invite all potential suppliers of our ecosystem and we are laying out the road map as to what biometrics and enrolment are we going to do and what is the revenue side approximate.
So this is a very transparent methodology where everyone knows what’s happening and everyone is welcome to participate. We are saying these are the tenders that are going to come out and RFPs, you guys bid and let the best company win.
Nilikani claims numbers will be doled out by 2011-
Should we take all that Nilekani’s is projecting abut UIDAI as truth claims?
Given that India is an overwhelming under-documented nation, people do not have a robust tradition of keeping records, remembering birth dates and so on.
To issue first set of UIDs by Feb 2011: Nilekani
Published on Thu, Apr 01, 2010 at 21:35 | Updated at Fri, Apr 02, 2010 at 18:45 | Source : CNBC-TV18
The Indian government is moving forward with its plans to provide its citizens with a Unique Identification (UID) number. The project involves biometric authentication behind the system, which will mean creating the world’s largest biometric database covering data of over 1 billion people. The project will be one of the most ambitious marketing exercises undertaken in India.
The ambitious project to issue identity numbers to all Indian residents is now gathering pace. Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Nandan Nilekani is confident of rolling out the first unique ID’s by February next year.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Nilekani spoke about the progress that has been made at the UIDAI.
Here is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video.
Q: What is the progress being made at the UIDAI?
A: We’ve selected Ernst & Young as our consultant and they are on board. We have signed a contract with them and they have started working with us on the RFP for the managed service provider, who is going to manage our database for us.
We put out a tender for an application software developer. We gave the specifications of our software and that is in the process. Then we are working with our consultant, we are going to come out with a RFP for the final – you know the people are going to run the whole database.
Then our proof of concepts have started. We are working in three states on checking out the details and actually how it’s going to work. Details like how enrollment will happen, how we will capture finger prints, how we will capture the iris. So all that is being done.
Q: What would it actually lead to in terms of savings for the government? Because I was reading somewhere that you know on account of what the government will just save on subsidies for LPG cylinders, it could amount to about Rs 1200 crore. That’s how much is lost on account of duplication or fraud. What could the savings be?
A: See it is difficult to put a number on this because it is not really us who is going to implement those savings. So savings depend on implementation. But if you look across the board, if you look at systems like the PDS, NREGA, kerosene subsidy, LPG subsidy, fertilizer subsidy and old age pensions. We have a whole gamut of social welfare programmes and subsidies. I think the savings will be fairly substantial. I can’t put a number around it but it will be substantial.
Q: There is this speculation that may be, perhaps even to the tune of about Rs 20,000 crore a year. Would that be a safe figure to work with?
A: No I think, it is all theoretical and sort of all estimate oriented. But there is no reason why the savings cannot be fairly large.
Q: I think yourself pointed out that this is only a identification number, lot will really depend on how the delivery mechanism is actually engineered to deal with this? How do you see things moving?
A: We have started signing MOUs with state governments. Recently we signed our first MOU with the state of Madhya Pradesh, and that MOU is on our website. So that tells exactly what is the relationship between us and the state. We are signing with other states. So over the next quarter we are gone to signup with all the states. That’s one aspect.
Now we are also in discussions with the Ministry of Rural Development to make sure the NREGA tie up happens. We have had discussions with the food and civil supply’s department on the PDS. But ultimately a lot of this is also at the state level, because the state runs the PDS, the state runs NREGA, state runs RSBY (Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana), the state runs old age pension.
Q: The finance minister in his budget speech said that we would see the first numbers being rolled out anytime between August of this year or February next year. Do you now have a more specific timeline?
A: That’s our commitment. Just to retrace a bit, the budget speech of FM last year in July 2009 had very clearly said that the first UIDs would roll out in 12-18 months. For us that clock started ticking on August 12. So 12-18 months from August 12, 2009 to August 2010 to February 2011. That is why those dates. So we are absolutely sure and we are very comfortable that we will issue the first set of UIDs before February 2011.
Q: The pilot project is on track for June?
A: Yes. But the thing is that a project of this size has a lot of implications. The biometric capture you need it to be efficient and high quality, how do you capture the iris, how do you verify people who don’t have good documents and a lot of things to figure out. So we have to test these things out in the field.
Q: What about the revenue generation model as far as the UID are concerned?
A: We talked about this and the argument is that for basic authentication it should be free. But if people start using UID for address verification, suppose you go to a bank to open account and you give an address, the bank wants to verify that the address you have given to them is the same as on the UID master file.
Then they can make a request to us and if we want for that something if they can pay for and also today the KYC process for opening an account or getting a mobile phone costs them anywhere from Rs 50-200.
But more than the revenue thing it is putting accountability on us to have high quality data and that’s really more to create the feedback loop that the data is good quality.
Q: Even though revenue generation is not what the purpose really is behind this project but what would it be, I understand it is going to be about Rs 300 crore annually?
A: That is a guesstimate. In our draft approach we have put an estimate of Rs 288 crore.
Q: Any technology company you would speak to whether it’s a domestic IT company or a global IT company everyone has the UID project on their minds and everyone is trying to get an appointment with you when they come from Microsoft to the CapGeminis of the world, what has really transpired in your conversation especially with the global It majors, how are they looking at this project at this point in time?
A: This is one of the biggest projects happening in the world anywhere. The scale 1 billion people and the biometric. So I think there is a lot of excitement about that and I do get a lot of visitors from both India abroad.
We have a very open policy. We share our roadmap with everyone. I went to Nasscom in February and laid out our plans, both me and my colleague Ramsevak Sharma went and spoke to them. We are having a big vendor conference in April where we are going to invite all potential suppliers of our ecosystem and we are laying out the roadmap as to what biometrics and enrolment are we going to do and what is the revenue side approximate.
So this is a very transparent methodology where everyone knows what’s happening and everyone is welcome to participate. We are saying these are the tenders that are going to come out and RFPs, you guys bid and let the best company win.
Unique ID to give poor greater access to govt schemes: Nilekani
21 Mar 2010, 0029 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: The Unique Identification Number likely to be rolled-out in 2011, will help the poor to access the benefits of various government schemes
Nandan Nilekani
What’s the unique ID card?
Nilekani Album
Nilekani: Zero wealth to billionaire
with greater ease, Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman, Nandan Nilekani has said.
“This project is pro-poor and inclusive and targeted mainly towards the poor. The middle-class and the rich have some form of identity. People on the margins are getting lost because of lack of identity,” Nilekani said at an event here yesterday evening.
The ex-Infosys official who now heads the UIDAI, said the aim of the project was to provide a robust system to eliminate duplicate and fake identities.
“Exclusion of the poor from the mainstream is mainly due to lack of identity and the UID will help them to get all sorts of benefits,” Nilekani said.
The 16-digit unique number is likely to be rolled out in 2011.
“UID is not just a number but a passport that opens many doors,” he said.
A three-member team of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) students showed a presentation on UID scheme to Nilekani at the event.
According to students Nilekani should make use of NGOs and SHGs for promoting UID among the urban and rural poor besides eliciting services of post office and the All India Radio for easy penetration in rural areas.
“Also, you (Nilekani) should co-ordinate with FMCG companies to propagate this information on their products like soap and salt….,” they said.
TimePublished on Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:41 in India section
New Delhi: Privacy will be protected under the Unique Identity (UID) project and personal data will not be accessible to everybody, insists Nandan Nilekani, chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority.
“We are also conscious of the privacy issue. In fact the UID database cannot be read by anybody. The only thing you can use it for is authentication. We are making all efforts technically and legally to see privacy is protected,” Nilekani, a former Infosys co-founder, told IANS in an interview.
“At the same time we need a larger debate of privacy and what laws we need in the country. Today we don’t have any privacy laws,” said Nilekani who quit Infosys last year and was handpicked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the authority.
The first of these UIDs for India’s billion plus citizens, says Nikelani, is expected to roll out any time between August 2010 and February 2011.
In the just announced union budget, the government allotted an expenditure of Rs.19 billion for the UID project. A number of Indian service providers and some multinational companies like Microsoft have said they would like to be involved in the project.
Legal experts are sceptical about the protection of private data once the rollout of UID numbers begins towards the latter half of the year as they fear the number, which will be issued based on personal information given by a person, might be leaked to various other agencies.
The centralised nature of data collection inherent in the UID proposal, they fear, heightens the risk of misuse of personal information and therefore potentially violates privacy rights.
“There may be a requirement for certain frameworks but we are cognisant of the issue of privacy and we are making sure of the design and in a way that when it is used, a person’s personal details are not divulged,” says Nilekani, who was last year in Time 100’s list of World’s Most Influential People.
For the moment Nilkani maintains that opting for a UID number will be voluntary. However, over the years other agencies could well make it mandatory.
“For a long time, many systems will allow both. But over time as more and more applications require UID for giving the service, people will have to get the number. The UID is a demand-led solution. We expect people to take the number because it is in their interest to do so,” he says.
“Some time in the future if some government service says UID is required, then it becomes essential. But that is many years down the road, only after government agencies give you adequate time to come on board.”
The project, which will cover even children, is aimed at establishing citizenship, reducing identity-related frauds, addressing security issues and preventing leakages in different government schemes.
“We definitely think it has great value, especially for the poor and the marginalised, because they are the ones that are suffering today due to the lack of acknowledged existence by the state,” says Nilekani, who has already met up with officials in 26 states, telecom operators and micro-finance institutions to help build the UID database.
The Authority will identify target groups for various flagship programmes of the United Progressive Alliance government, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, the National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman.
“At this point, it will give an identity to a large number of people who are poor and marginalised, who don’t have an identity, who are not able to access public services. That is a very important requirement in inclusive growth,” Nilekani told IANS.
“Our challenge is to build our database from scratch mainly because we have to collect the biometrics, but the demographic information, if we are able to pre-register from other databases, we will be happy to do that.”
Forbes India: Nandan Nilekani on how he gets things done
Subroto Bagchi / Forbes India
TimePublished on Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 11:56, Updated on Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 14:23 in Business section
TagsTags: Nandan Nilekani, Unique Identification Authority Of India
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THE DOER: Nilekani says when the problems seem immense he steps back and finds solution.
THE DOER: Nilekani says when the problems seem immense he steps back and finds solution.
Photogallery
Temple stampede kills 63 in Uttar Pradesh
March 04, 2010
Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, plays for the “long haul” and when he feels weighed down by the expectations everyone has from him he remembers the lines of a Japanese song. “Each time, I knew I am at the precipice, I have simply hunkered down, I have set myself to rethink everything and then I have gone back to make sense of what I am doing, to reflect on what has gone wrong here, how did I mess it up, then how do I solve the short-term problem of getting back my stability and then the long-term need of not repeating the mistake,” he tells Subroto Bagchi on Zen Garden
Subroto Bagchi: Nandan, welcome to the Zen Garden. Where have you come from?
Nandan Nilekani: I was born in Bangalore and lived there until the age of 12. My father used to work for the Minerva Mills. But soon he had to leave town because his company ran into difficulties. It was taken over by the National Textile Corporation. I was sent to my uncle’s farm in Dharwad. He was a radical humanist and a follower of M N Roy. I was there with him through my SSLC [tenth standard exams]. Then I spent two years at the Karnataka College doing PUC [twelfth standard exams]. From there I went to IIT, Mumbai. In the process, I became independent at a very young age. Secondly, I made a transition from a city to a small town. Because, in 1966 Dharwad was a very small town and the cultural shift for me was sharp. At my uncle’s home, I was transported to an environment of discussion and debate. There was reading and discussion on politics, society, development and such larger issues. These started influencing me even before I realised.
I think the shift from Bangalore to Dharwad, from the factory to the farm was like deconstructing yourself. A lot of people fall short of their potential because they have inherent difficulty deconstructing themselves. Deconstruction is the ability to press a “reset” button at periodic intervals. Never thought of it like that but now that you say it, it is so true! I think in many instances I have pressed my “reset” button. From Bangalore to Dharwad and when I went from Dharwad to the IIT and then on to my professional career–it was another reset button and now this work is the latest reset in my life. So, I think my early experience gave me the self-confidence that I could go into a different environment and pull it off; that I can press the reset button.
Subroto Bagchi: When did you first realise your capability to do so?
Nandan Nilekani: It was when I landed up at the IIT. Going to the IIT was a huge thing. The guys who got in were from big cities. Academically, I didn’t do too well. But, socially I did very well–I became the General Secretary, I networked well. That was the second time when I went into an unknown situation and was able to come to the top of the heap in some sense. After that I realised that I could walk into a completely new, completely unknown environment and figure the game out. I realised I had some sort of skill and that actually freed me up completely. I felt free.
Subroto Bagchi: If we took Nandan Nilekani apart and looked at the parts closely, what would they tell us?
Nandan Nilekani: One thing is that I play for the long haul. I have a huge capacity to postpone gratification. I think that is very critical if you want any substantive rewards. People are generally impatient for the rewards of what they are doing. The second is really the Dharmik thing, which is focus on what you do and that your rewards will be your by-product. I have done it all the time. Whenever I have just focussed with full commitment, the rewards have happened. I have never asked for anything but it all comes to me.
Subroto Bagchi: Have you ever felt that life is about to destabilise you?
Nandan Nilekani: Yes, it has happened to me many times. Each time, I knew I am at the precipice, I have simply hunkered down, I have set myself to rethink everything and then I have gone back to make sense of what I am doing, to reflect on what has gone wrong here, how did I mess it up, then how do I solve the short-term problem of getting back my stability and then the long-term need of not repeating the mistake.
Subroto Bagchi: How does one hunker down?
Nandan Nilekani: You build capacity. It is a gradual, practiced process. You look at crisis in the context of the bigger goal. Suddenly, your setback does not look that big anymore. When you step back and see things in the context of your long-term goal, it helps you to re-calibrate the size of the problem. It is not that it is an inherited trait or something–I have learnt it over the last 30 years. The other thing is that I just do what I need to and I do not worry. Think of the new job I have taken up. If I sit down and start analysing the size of the challenge, I will get a heart attack!
Subroto Bagchi: Sometimes hunkering down also requires the presence of a hand on your shoulder. And that is about the ability to receive.
Nandan Nilekani: Yes, indeed. I am eager to receive and eager to learn. If I meet someone and find that the individual has the attributes of the heart and the mind, I try to think how I could gain from him or her. And if you do that with all the people around, you are learning all the time.
Subroto Bagchi: Some people find it difficult to outgrow their mentors. Have you felt that anytime?
Nandan Nilekani: I didn’t grow up with a dominant authority in my life. I develop everything on my own view and experiences. I am supremely confident of myself. I don’t wait for any approvals. If I feel it’s the right thing to do, I will do it.
Subroto Bagchi: A little while ago, you spoke about your “toolkit”. Show us your toolkit.
Nandan Nilekani: I have very strong analytics. I can step back from the problem, detach and look at it from another person’s view. I constantly re-evaluate my priorities and focus. I learn from mentors constantly. I have built a huge network. My network is not just within the software industry. Through my network, I find that I am amplifying my capacity. I think the key thing for a leader is to amplify his capacity. It appears to an outsider that I am getting a lot of things done. But it is not true. I am projecting a certain vision as to what needs to be done. And, through my network, I am attracting the people who are invested in my vision and are thrilled to be part of it. So, suddenly the job looks much easier. Because it is not just me.
Subroto Bagchi: Tell us about how you model your network.
Nandan Nilekani: My model is Open Source. Ultimately, if you have a genuine interest in the other person, the bonding is immediate. That is number one. You back that up with good memory. That is not easy. If I meet a person, I recall about the person instantly. My ability to reconnect is instant. I back it up with homework. I remember when I went to Davos and was meeting with 20 chief executives, I had their full bio-data with me. I prepare for it. The other part of networking is the linkages. If I meet someone today and meet another person tomorrow, and if I feel they both can add value to each other, I link them up. There is a biblical statement, “You cast your bread in water, and it comes back to you.”
Subroto Bagchi: Do you feel weighed down by the expectations everyone has from you?
Nandan Nilekani: There is a Japanese song that “Freedom is having nothing left to lose”. I feel that “Freedom is having nothing left to prove”. That is freedom. That is the capacity to do what I have to do.
Existing identity databases are fraught with problems: Survey
Press Trust of India / New Delhi February 25, 2010, 17:01 IST
The Economic Survey today said existing identity databases are fraught with problems of fraud, duplicate and ghost beneficiaries.
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Mentioning the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the survey said the authority in order to prevent seeping of duplicate names into the UIDAI database plans to enroll residents with proper verification of their demographic and biometric information.
“This will ensure that the data collected is clean from the start of the programme,” it said.
The Survey said UIDAI will ensure that ‘know your resident’ standards don’t become a barrier for enrolling the poor and will devise suitable procedures to ensure their inclusion without compromising on integrity of the data.
The Survey said UID number will only provide identity and not citizenship and that it will have a pro-poor approach as it will help bring in large number of the poor and underprivileged into the UID system.
It said the enrolment in UID will not be mandated but would be demand-driven and that it will issue a number and not a card.
“The adoption of UIDs is expected to gain momentum with time, as the UID number establishes itself as the most accepted identity proof in the country,” the Survey said.
Big boost for UIDAI
Sujay Mehdudia
New Delhi, February 26, 2010
The Centre has given a major fillip to its ambitious Unique Identity project for citizens, by proposing a Rs. 1,900 cr. budgetary allocation for it, a nearly 16-fold increase.
Part of this would be used to fund an incentive of Rs. 100 for every enrolled person below poverty line.
The project headed by Nandan Nilekani was allocated Rs. 120 crore in the last budget.
Welcoming the allocation, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) said it would help build technology and implementation infrastructure and establish its operations in time to start issuing UID numbers to residents by August 2011.
Part of the budget of 2010-11 would be spent on one-time expenditures in building the technology infrastructure — in terms of building secure biometric, network, storage and search solutions in the UID central database, and in the registrar systems, UIAI said in a statement.
It pointed out that the 13th Finance Commission also recommended that an incentive of Rs. 100 per person would encourage people below the poverty line to register for the UID and the State governments may accordingly receive money to provide such incentives during the UID enrolment. The Authority said the budget allocation was in line with the government’s mandate to expand spending on India’s welfare schemes and to improve the delivery of the country’s flagship social schemes, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Efficient method
The UIDAI said its approach of enabling multiple registrars across the country to simultaneously clean up their databases through the central UID system was an efficient way to eliminate leakages from individual registrar databases. “The resulting savings from implementing the UID system for the government will be substantial, eliminating leakages which now cost the public exchequer substantial amount of the money spent on welfare programs,” the statement added.
The UIDAI has already issued tenders for an application software development, maintenance and support agency and for the supply, installation and commissioning of biometric devices for resident enrolment. The UIDAI was established under the aegis of the Planning Commission for which a notification was issued in January last year.
The Authority will soon release an estimate on where the allocated funds will be spent, and also publish a full accounting of the amount spent in financial year 2010.
Privacy will be protected under UIDs: Nilekani
28 Feb 2010, 1306 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: Privacy will be protected under the Unique Identity (UID) project and personal data
will not be accessible to everybody, insists
Nandan Nilekani
What’s the unique ID card?
Nilekani Album
Nilekani: Zero wealth to billionaire
Nandan Nilekani, chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority.
“We are also conscious of the privacy issue. In fact the UID database cannot be read by anybody. The only thing you can use it for is authentication. We are making all efforts technically and legally to see privacy is protected,” Nilekani, a former Infosys co-founder, said in an interview.
“At the same time we need a larger debate of privacy and what laws we need in the country. Today we don’t have any privacy laws,” said Nilekani who quit Infosys last year and was handpicked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the authority.
The first of these UIDs for India’s billion plus citizens, says Nikelani, is expected to roll out any time between August 2010 and February 2011.
In the just announced union budget, the government allotted an expenditure of Rs.19 billion (US$409 million) for the UID project. A number of Indian service providers and some multinational companies like Microsoft have said they would like to be involved in the project.
Legal experts are sceptical about the protection of private data once the rollout of UID numbers begins towards the latter half of the year as they fear the number, which will be issued based on personal information given by a person, might be leaked to various other agencies.
The centralised nature of data collection inherent in the UID proposal, they fear, heightens the risk of misuse of personal information and therefore potentially violates privacy rights.
“There may be a requirement for certain frameworks but we are cognisant of the issue of privacy and we are making sure of the design and in a way that when it is used, a person’s personal details are not divulged,” says Nilekani, who was last year in Time 100’s list of World’s Most Influential People.
For the moment Nilkani maintains that opting for a UID number will be voluntary. However, over the years other agencies could well make it mandatory.
“For a long time, many systems will allow both. But over time as more and more applications require UID for giving the service, people will have to get the number. The UID is a demand-led solution. We expect people to take the number because it is in their interest to do so,” he says.
“Some time in the future if some government service says UID is required, then it becomes essential. But that is many years down the road, only after government agencies give you adequate time to come on board.”
Nandan Nilekani to test the waters for unique IDs
1 Mar 2010, 0046 hrs IST, Shelley Singh, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the ambitious project that aims to give every citizen an identification card, is
Nandan Nilekani
What’s the unique ID card?
Nilekani Album
Nilekani: Zero wealth to billionaire
about to launch a series of tests to demonstrate its feasibility as a precursor to the actual rollout later this year.
The project, which received an outlay of Rs 1,900 crore in the budget, will kick off the so-called proof of concept projects in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka this month. The tests will parse different aspects of technology including biometric systems, security, data centre linkages and servers and address key issues such as duplication and fraud.
At least 60,000 people in these states will be covered by the tests before they lead to a prototype sometime in July.
UIDAI, headed by tech czar Nandan Nilekani, had a budget of Rs 120 crore for this fiscal. But keeping in mind the greater costs involved in the rollout, the finance minister has spiked its budget by over 15 times for the next fiscal. The money will be used to set up registrars, enrollment costs, servers, data centres, a central data repository in Delhi, a data backup in Bangalore, regional offices and for other related activities.
UIDAI aims to provide a unique 16-digit number ID card to at least 600 million residents over the next five years starting from August.
The agency, whose regional offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad are already functional, will set up six more in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Gauwhati and Ranchi.
These developments come in the midst of the agency’s expansionary moves. UIDAI will add 11 experts from the industry for functions spanning HR, knowledge management, process and operations this week.
The experts will be part of the core project management team comprising chief architect Pramod Varma, technology head Srikant Nadhmuni and Shankar Maruwada who leads UIDAI’s demand generation and marketing activities. With the new hires, UIDAI’s total workforce will increase to 30, or 10% of the planned 300 employees it will eventually have.
UIDAI also roped in Ernst & Young (E&Y) as consultant last week. E&Y will help in formulating a business strategy and revenue model for the project.
“With E&Y’s appointment, the project will now move faster towards meeting the August 2010-February 2011 commitment for issuing the first set of numbers,’’ said a person familiar with the development who requested anonymity.
E&Y will give a road map for the Central ID Data Repository (CIDR), select a managed service provider and help in related activities.
Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India Nandan M Nilekani : Slogan of ‘bijli, sadak, pani is passe
The slogan of “bijli, sadak, pani” is passé; ‘virtual things’ like UID number, bank account and mobile phone are the in-thing, says Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India Nandan M Nilekani.
The information technology veteran said that in India, the ‘model’ has changed, from “roti, kapada, makaan” (food, clothing, shelter) in the 1960s and 1970s, to the slogan in the last several years of “bijli, sadak, pani” (power, roads, water).
“Today, it’s all virtual things – it’s about UID (unique identification) number, mobile phone and bank account,” Nilekani, best known for his role in building Infosys, said after Citizen Extraordinaire Award 2010, instituted by the Prestige Group in association with Rotary Bangalore Midtown, here last night.
He said “if we can get everyone to have UID number, if we can get everyone to have bank account and if we can get everyone to have mobile phone, then we are giving them tools of opportunity. With that, they can access services, benefits and their rights.”
“We have gone from (the earlier slogans) physical things to abstract things (UID number, bank account, mobile phone),” Nilekani said, adding, though they look abstract, they really are very, very important and “real foundation.”
“We believe soft infrastructure is as important as hard infrastructure,” he said.
Terming UID number as a ‘foundation’ and ‘like building soft infrastructure,’ Nilekani said it is a technology project with tremendous social and economic implications.
He said UIDAI has started floating basic design– technology and process – for enrollment of people for UID numbers.
“In the next few months, we are going to do proof-of-concept to figure out how to make this technology work on the ground,” he said.
“By sometime latter part of the year (2010) we are going to build prototype so that we do on a small scale and somewhere between August 2010 and February 2011, we will start rolling out UID enrollment and our goal is in the next five years or so to cover more than 600 million people with these numbers.”
Pointed out that unless the UID number benefited people, it is of no use, Nilekani said some of the public services – ration cards, rural employment guarantee scheme (job cards), PAN number, bank account – need to be reformed, redesigned and re-engineered to have UID number in them.
He said UID number would give hundreds of millions of Indians, who have no means to prove their identity as they do not have birth certificates, education certificates and things of that nature, ‘acknowledged existence’ so that they can access services and benefits that they are entitled to, and which otherwise they don’t get. Lack of acknowledged identity acts as a “barrier” for them to access entitlements and benefits. “There are 75 million homeless people in India who don’t have an address,” he said.
“Lack of identity, lack of acknowledged existence by the State is excluding people from participating in the fruits of progress.”
Nilekani also said that the UID number would enable the Government to target its rural employment, food and education programmes to their beneficiaries – by identifying them in a robust way — more efficiently and effectively, and would cut “duplication”.
News » National
NEW DELHI, February 10, 2010
Nilekani urged to head panel on highway toll
Special Correspondent
The Road Transport and Highways Ministry is contemplating seeking the services of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani to develop the software for collection of tolls on national highways and expressways.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath has requested Mr. Nilekani to head a committee to devise a technology to go along with the decisive thrust initiated for construction of highways and expressways to achieve the targeted GDP growth rate.
The Ministry is keen to evolve a system to ensure that it receives its share of the toll collected as presently the estimated leakage is in over Rs. 1,500 crore annually due to leakages.
Bifurcation
That being a cause the Ministry is also contemplating separating the tolling process from the contractors who construct the roads to do away with the leakages.
The aim is to have a tolling system which will be on par with international standards particularly because Mr. Nath is striving to get major players from across the globe to invest in the country and get their knowhow too.
It is not jut a question of ensuring a commensurate return on the investment to be made in the years to come but also ensure a seamless travel for commuters in general including commercial vehicles. Collection of toll at only one point is being envisioned.
The Ministry has also proposed a national permit for commercial vehicles to do away with time loss and harassment to these private operators. The Ministry is seeking to revamp the Motor Vehicles Act hoping to improve the road sector to international standards.
Budget boost on cards for Nilekani’s UID
Neeraj Thakur / DNA
New Delhi: The Unique Identification (UID) project initiated by the UPA government is expected to get a massive hike in budgetary allocation for 2010-11.
The finance ministry is learnt to have approved a budgetary support of Rs 2,000 crore for the project, as against Rs 120 crore allocated this fiscal — an increase of 16 times.
Besides social sector schemes, UID is among the few government projects identified for getting such a significant hike in a year of fiscal consolidation.
The finance ministry is walking a tight rope in allocating funds to ministries and departments as it seeks to bridge the steep fiscal deficit, estimated at 6.4% (based on 2004-05 as the base year). Most ministries run the risk of either getting a minimal increase in allocation or no hike at all.
Sources said the UID project requires huge investments, estimated at over Rs 15,000 crore. However, the actual investment required for providing UID cards to 1.2 billion people is still being worked out. The front-end IT support system for the UID project itself is estimated to require Rs 4,000-5000 crore.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the implementing authority for the project, plans to cover 600 million people in the next five years.
The authority is gearing up to roll out the first batch of electronic cards by August 2010 and the second batch by February 2011.
It will finalise the consulting agency for the project in a month’s time.
An empowered group of ministers headed by the then external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee (now finance minister), had approved the establishment of the UIDAI. Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys, was appointed its chairman in June, 2009 with the rank of a cabinet minister.
India in Transition
Unique Identity Numbers: The Enabler of Policy Reform?
Sudhir Krishnaswamy
02/01/2010
The creation of the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) and the appointment of Mr. Nandan Nilekani (former CEO of Infosys) as its Chairperson, have generated a great deal of excitement around the Unique Identity Numbers (UIN) project. The Authority’s commitment to produce the first batch of UINs within a period of two years has prompted a celebratory round of applause in the media. It would certainly be a significant technological and logistical feat to meet this self imposed target. However, the UIDAI runs the risk of meeting the target but failing to create a UIN which will serve as a platform for a revolution in public service delivery or the radical overhaul of internal security. In order to achieve these substantive outcomes, the UIDAI must identify the key constitutional, legal, and institutional policy challenges and then resolve them in a democratic and participatory fashion, as the economic and political costs of correcting or redesigning the key parameters of the project may be so high that a mid-course correction may well be ruled out. Hence, the UIDAI has a critical window of opportunity to engage and resolve these interconnected policy questions at the outset. Three such issues demand serious attention: institutional design, privacy, and citizenship. A UIN project that fails to respond to these issues substantively will inevitably fail to bring revolutionary change to governmental process.
I begin with a consideration of the institutional location of the UIN project. The UIDAI is an executive authority created by Executive Orders which functions as an independent agency under the auspices of the Planning Commission of India. It is noteworthy that the Planning Commission is itself constituted by a Cabinet Resolution and does not have a constitutional or statutory status. However, it is inadvisable to vest arguably the most important database of Indian residents in a body that does not have a determinate legal status. UIDAI will be responsible for the creation and maintenance, and possibly the utilization of the database, and hence it is critical that its legal rights and obligations be spelled out in careful details. The guardian of the UIN database cannot exist in a legal grey zone.
A preliminary issue that all national ID systems have to contend with is whether the ID card or number is mandatory or voluntary. The Chairperson of UIDAI has announced that the Indian system will be voluntary. By allowing residents to elect to have such an ID number or not, the UIDAI substantially respects a central tenet of privacy law: that information should be accessed with the consent of the information giver. However, for this consent to be meaningful, the information subject should have full information about the uses for which the information is being given. In other words, the functions and potential users of the UIN must be determined in advance and be available to information subjects before they give up information. While ensuring that control over access to personal data is a useful tool to protect citizen autonomy, we must go further to allow the information subject control over the use of the information: when, where, and how it is used. Hence, at each point of use, the information subject should be requested to furnish consent and some key information without which the UIN cannot be accessed by any person or agency. Without these protections the voluntary character of the UIN is illusory. When one considers that the UIDAI hopes to ensure that the UIN is indispensable to access basic services, then voluntary subscription alone does not adequately protect information subject autonomy.
A related issue that impinges on the privacy of information subjects is the quantum and quality of data that UIDAI will collect and organize as well the identifier chosen as the UIN. The data collected in order to grant a UIN may be linked to the purpose of the identity verification or linked intrinsically to the person. The UIDAI has indicated that they will utilize data intrinsic to the person, including biometric data. Further, personal data including the name, date of birth, place of residence, and community identity, among others may potentially be linked to the biometric data to create unique identity. This range of data may be thought necessary for the number of functions that the UIN has been proposed to serve.
However, the choice of the quantum or nature of information sought to be collected and the institutional guardianship of this data is critical to evaluate the potential impact on the privacy of the information subjects. Any proposal to collect this range of personal information and to integrate it into a single database and allow a single institution to utilize this data raises the serious prospect of a surveillance state. As a general rule, it may be proposed that as little correlated data as possible must be made available to a single institution or agency. In the event that it is thought expedient to collect all this personal information, then it is essential that this be vested in different databases, maintained by different institutions with rigorous institutional protocols of access of sharing that follows legal due process. Barring these institutional and process protections the UIN database will violate the rights of privacy which are integral to the right to life in Article 21 of the constitution. The absence of statutory protection for a privacy right does not give sanction to the UIN project. It only elevates the nature of the legal challenge to such a database from the realms of administrative law to one of a constitutional character.
The choice of identifier to be used as a UIN is critical to maintain the anonymity and privacy of the citizen subjects. As the UIDAI has indicated that it will use a random rather than systematic identifier, this will avoid the worst excesses that may result from easy traceability. The Rwandan genocide and the Gujarat riots used ID cards and voter lists respectively as the bureaucratic aids through which collective violence was organized. As any student of politics and constitutional law learns, it is insufficient to rely on the good intentions of those in power to ensure that the UIN is not put to such use. The UIN database and its custodian must be ring fenced from ever being able to put to such heinous purposes.
For the UIN to be the governmental process reform enabler that it is designed to be, there needs to be an active interface between the UIN and other legal markers of status and identity. The primary legal marker that the UIN will need to integrate is that of citizenship. However, there is confusion about whether the UIN will be available only to citizens or to all residents. The early announcements by the UIDAI suggest that it will not address the difficult problems that relate to the determination of citizenship. The earlier efforts of the Home Ministry through the pilot projects of the Multi Purpose National Identity Cards project led to the introduction of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 under Section 18 of the Citizenship Act, 1955. These rules seek to bring clarity to the process of issuing ID cards on the basis of citizenship.
The reluctance of the UIDAI to trespass into the territory of the Home Ministry to resolve the messy state of the law relating to citizenship is understandable. The history of the disputes relating to citizenship and domicile status is evidence of the difficult legal and political problems that need to be resolved in this sphere of public policy. However, the delivery of public services to the poor is inevitably tied up with the determination of the particular legal status of the claimant to the entitlement or benefit. This legal status may be citizenship, residence, income levels, caste or religious background. Further, the social unit which is entitled under each scheme may be the individual, family, household or community. Any improvement in delivery of public services is conditional on the official determination that the legal entitlement or benefit is properly claimed. Hence, the UIDAI will need to resolve difficult problems, not avoid them in order to be bring reform to public service delivery. If not, the UIN will play no significant role in public service delivery reform.
In the next twenty-four months, the UIDAI may well succeed in issuing the first UINs. However, unless the UINs are statutory legal entitlements of all eligible residents or citizens, it may well become burdensome to acquire, and therefore another opportunity for rent seeking government or government authorized operators. Moreover, for the UIN to be an enabler of social reform through improved service delivery and through intelligent law enforcement, it will need to critically analyze and overhaul the dysfunctional legal framework in the fields of privacy and the legal status of claimant. We can have a UIN that does not tackle any of these policy muddles, but that will not be the game-changing initiative it promises to be.
Sudhir Krishnaswamy is Professor of Law at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, and the author of Democracy and Constitutionalism in India: A Study of the Basic Structure Doctrine (Oxford University Press 2009).
GRADUATION DAY OF COTTON BOYS
TNN, 30 January 2010, 01:08am IST
BANGALORE: It was joyous but pensive day for the graduating class of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School on Friday. Even as the young boys were looking
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forward to enter the next phase of their lives, it wasn’t easy for them to bid goodbye to their friends and teachers who stood by them through their school years.
Students expressed their heartfelt gratitude towards teachers and shared fond memories in school. What made the occasion even more memorable was the presence of old Cottonian Nandan Nilekani, now chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India.
Nandan explained his project to the awestruck students: “If a person wants to buy a ration card or even withdraw money, he can get the fingerprint reader or mobile phone. For example, if X has the unique number of 123, he can give his fingerprint through the device. Within a few seconds, there will be a message confirming whether he’s X or not.”
There are, however, two challenges ahead: the huge Indian populace has to `acknowledge its existence’ __ like passport, driver’s licence, birth certificates, etc. “There are a good percentage of Indians who do not have any such acknowledgements. For the homeless, there is no address or for someone who never went to school, there are no certificates. It’s such people who need this identification.”
Nandan hopes to issue the identification numbers from August 2010 to February 2011. “In the next five-and-a-half years, we are targeting 600 million people. But this is a massive task considering the country’s 1.2 billion population. This is where the challenge lies.”
Another challenge is to make sure there is no duplication. “For instance, if someone is given a unique number and then he comes back again for a different reason, how are we going to verify it considering there will be massive data. In 3-4 years, there will be 400 million records,” he added.
Expressbuzz
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 4:45 PM IST
Technology an enabler: Nilekani
Express News Service
First Published : 30 Jan 2010 07:42:24 AM IST
Last Updated :
BANGALORE: “We must see technology as an enabler and not as a retardant.
When computers were initially being brought in to India, there was resistance from various quarters fearing job losses. But slowly, people realised that technology is an enabler,” Nandan Nilekani, chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said on Friday.
He was speaking at the annual graduation day ceremony of outgoing students of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School. On the difficulties he and his colleagues faced when Infosys was founded in 1981, Nilekani, also an alumnus of Bishop Cotton, said, “We even had to call them (computers) ledger posting machines because back then it would have not gone down well with the people.” “Slowly, people started realising that computers were actually helping and now you have them everywhere,” he added.
He also spoke about the Unique Identification project, its goals and objectives.
Nilekani may head panel for choosing toll technology
31 Jan 2010, 1220 hrs IST, PTI
DAVOS: The government has decided to rope in IT experts, including UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, to develop an India-specific technique for
collection of tolls on highways.
“I have requested Nandan Nilekani to head a committee as its chairman to decide on the best tolling technology, most appropriate for India,” Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath told.
Nilekani had left India’s premier IT company Infosys to head the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), entrusted with the task of providing unique identification number to over one billion people in the country.
The country has embarked on a major drive to build highways, including toll roads, under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
Nath said institutions in the West, including Japan’s Nomura, have shown interest in investing in India.
He added that talks were also on with Malaysian government for roping in construction companies for the road sector.
Sources said an MoU could be signed between the NHAI and a Malaysia consortium of road firms.
India has over 70,000 km of highways and proposes to significantly enhance the network by constructing 20 km of roads every day in the next five years. Currently, NHAI has been able to put under toll about 10,000 km of highways.
Sandeep Adhwaryu
Opinion
A Big Bang Approach
Negotiation and accommodation, that’s our strength
Nandan Nilekani
One thing common between India and the US—and not that many countries have that rare kind of commonality—is that there is an idealism infused in the creation of the nation
state. I am amazed at what our constitution-makers have accomplished. The Americans talked about life, liberty and all sorts of happiness when they set up their constitution and we talk about equality, liberty. In some sense, that idealism is really what acts as a check-and-balance against its abuse. That’s the greatness of what has been created.
India’s challenges are not constitutionally induced in that sense. To me, more than the Constitution, the choice of representational democracy, the choice of one person, one vote, are much bigger, more profound things. To give everybody a right to vote is a remarkably bold move in retrospect, because if you look at the history of voting privileges in western societies, it didn’t happen in one day. Here, we tried a big bang approach.
From a constitutional perspective, there’s one thing we could have done differently—empowering and giving legitimacy, power and money to the third level of government—panchayats and municipalities. While the Centre-state relationship got established, the cities and villages became subordinate to this. So they were disenfranchised in some sense. The large reason why our cities became what they are is because they didn’t have power.
Rajiv Gandhi did something about this—after he died, the Narasimha Rao government pushed the 73rd and 74th amendments, which gave a constitutional bearing to cities and villages. But even those powers are only given when the state agrees. In other words, local governments have been the loser. As a result—because we have weak cities and villages—the last mile of people’s contact has been the weak link. After all, governance is judged by what one sees at that level.
One could also argue—what if one had a presidential system, or proportional voting—but these are major structural issues. You had to make certain choices, and in retrospect, those choices have been fine ones. Look at reservation. We have lived in a society that has practised social and economic exclusion for thousands of years. And any society where that has happened—and which now sees itself as a society of equal people—has to do some restitution for that. It was required. In a perfect world, there has to be equal access to education, healthcare, opportunity and infrastructure. You do that so that over time the imperfections are ironed out.
Protection of identity, be it linguistic or religious, is a continuous goal. The reorganisation of our states in the 1950s is a great example of that. The driving identity then was linguistic, which became the basis for deciding what goes where. Now, it has gone beyond that. This whole argument in Andhra is between two groups who have the same language. What that shows is that our definition of identity is not static. The newer states were formed for different reasons. Now we are seeing a new phenomenon—perceived economic inequality. Tomorrow, the basis for identity could be something very different.
Here, English acts as glue because it is a neutral language. English was a compromise to ensure everybody had an equal footing. Later, it became a language of aspiration and opportunity because of globalisation and IT. We even have English groups among Dalits, for example, people like Chandra Bhan Prasad say English is the language of empowerment for Dalits. But I am not saying that there should be English at the expense of everything else. People must continue to have their own cultures and their own languages.
We have a large, young population that aspires to get ahead. But opportunities are not keeping pace with that rise in aspiration. When the aspirations-opportunity mismatch happens, discontent starts. That’s why we have to increase the pace of opportunity to match the pace of increase in aspirations. The fact that we have various tools for negotiation and accommodation is part of India’s strength. See what’s happened in countries where you have different ethnic and linguistic groups and they are not able to negotiate. You’ve had civil wars and unrest. It’s great that we have negotiations all the time. It’s part of the fabric of this extraordinary, diverse country.
Graduates can do internship with UIDAI: Nilekani
By Sudarshan Kumar
Friday,22 January 2010, 03:45 hrs
Bangalore: Taking one step ahead to help young graduates gain the industry experience, Nandan Nilekani has started internship program for these graduates in UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India). UIDAI was formed in 2009 by Indian Government to provide unique identification code to every Indian citizen. Graduates just have to post their resume to the email address mentioned on UID website. Nilekani is all set to roll out first batch of the Unique Identification (UID) number by August 2010 and second set by February 2011.
Speaking at TechVista, Microsoft’s annual research symposium Nilikani, Chairman of Unique Identification of Authority said, “Taking first step towards making unique identification number (UID) available to every citizen of India, we are all set to launch first set of UID August 2010.” He also said that UID plans to cover 600 million people in next five years.
Describing the importance of UID, Nilekani said, “In a country of more than 1.2 billion people, our first aim is to make every citizen of the nation to participate in public services. There are more than 50 percent of populations of this country, who are unable to get benefits being offered by Government.” To help in making Government benefits to reach right people at right time, Government plans to appoint a business correspondent in the village, where there is no any bank. These business correspondents will act like a low cost ATM for the villagers. Once any fund comes, villagers will be informed by the business correspondent, and they can come and collect their money by showing their identity (UID number).
Government is also planning to collaborate with every government office to make sure that every citizen of this country gets UID number. For instance, if a person visits bank to deposit money, he will be asked his UID number, if he says that he is yet to register himself for UID, he will be asked to fill a form consisting required details for UID. Once he fills the form, his details can be inserted in UID database from bank itself. UID plans to appoint registrar, who will be visiting government offices to insert the details in UID database.
If UID manages to achieve every citizen of this country being registered, India would be the first country to have any kind of Identity card for more than 1.2 billion people. Nilekani said, “It is big challenge for Government, as in India more than 50 percent of people don’t have any type of identity card.” Nilekani also asked industry to come ahead and help in making venture success.
Governtrepreneur: Nandan Nilekani
Published on Wed, Jan 06, 2010 at 12:05 | Updated at Wed, Jan 06, 2010 at 14:13 | Source : Forbes India
Picked up business sense at IIT-Bombay; helped build Infy; now, Nandan Nilekani brings the spirit of entrepreneurship to the business of governing
For Rohini Nilekani life seems to have come a full circle. Arghyam, her elegant house in suburban Bangalore has been turned into the unofficial headquarter of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Ever since her husband Nandan Nilekani gave up the co-chairman’s job at Infosys, the USD4.6 billion (revenue, in 2008-09) company he co-founded with six colleagues in 1981, to take up a role in public service, there has been an endless stream of visitors at Arghyam. Although UIDAI’s official headquarter is in Delhi, the technical team is based in Bangalore. Nandan Nilekani splits his time between Delhi and Bangalore and just like in the early days of Infosys, where the founders often met at each others homes, lot of brainstorming on the project happens at the Nilekani household. “For 30 years Infosys consumed him and now it is UIDAI,” Rohini Nilekani says only half seriously.
The day we meet him at his house, Nandan and Rohini Nilekani have just returned from a workshop at the National Law School in Bangalore where he brainstormed with a group of legal experts on how to create the legal framework for the UIDAI. A week ago he was in Bihar where he had a 90-minute lunch meeting at chief minister Nitish Kumar’s house. The day after our meeting, Nilekani is flying off to Mumbai to meet the Maharashtra chief minister. In the last four months he has met 12 CMs to explain to them the intricacies of the UID project and ask for their support in enrolling people into the programme.
In between meeting the CMs, Nilekani attends seminars and workshops like the one organised by the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla where he met a bunch of sociologists, NGOs and political scientists to evangelise his UID project and to understand how it can be used to create inclusive models of development.
“This is my Bharat Darshan”, he says, “I had seen more of America than India before this”. That time he was selling Infosys to the Fortune 500 crowd, now he is selling the concept of a national identity programme to the grassroots politicians and bureaucrats. It is a far cry from the life he led just six months ago and yet it somehow seems he has been doing this for years. Even Rohini is surprised by how well he has transitioned into the new role.
EMOTIONAL PARTING
Leaving Infosys was not an easy decision. “As founders we had the understanding that if somebody had to leave it would be with the consent and approval of others. When you have been together for 30 years you just don’t walk off and leave,” says Nilekani. Initially, he says he felt an emotional void, and even today he has to remind himself not to use the pronoun “we” when describing Infosys. “I was very comfortable in my world. I was doing well and could have stayed on at Infosys till the age of 60. I didn’t have to do this” he says.
So then why did he? Part of the reason was that he was restless. “I thrive on challenges and new intellectual issues. I had to show that I could execute something outside my normal world. So there was that desire to prove myself again.” The other was the feeling that he needed to give something back to the country. “I come from that part of India which had a good run. I had the right education, went to IIT, and was here when liberalisation happened. I was fortunate to be an entrepreneur in that time, rose to the top of my company and benefited hugely in many ways,” he says. He felt it was now time to give back.
Although Rohini is well ensconced in the not-for-profit world, Nandan Nilekani didn’t want to go down the philanthropy route. “If you want to bring change on a large scale, which is material to many people you have to do it through the public space. There’s no other way to do it” he says.
Some of this became evident to him while researching his book, Imagining India, a 511 page tome on the big ideas that could transform India. The rest of it was gained through his experience of working with the government as on outsider. For 10 years, Nilekani had been operating on the fringes of public policy. He had served on various committees for S.M. Krishna, ex-chief minister of Karnataka, as well as been on the Prime Minister’s urban renewal mission and national skills mission. It was during this time that he was noticed by the PM which ultimately led to his latest appointment.
Building CONSENSUS
In roughly a year from now, the first UID number will be allotted. The plan is to cover about 200 million people in the first two years. In four years about 600 million numbers would have been issued. According to a UID report, the enrolment of each resident will cost between Rs. 20-25 which puts the total enrolment cost at Rs. 3,000 crore.
Technocrat To The Fore: Nandan Nilekani
Reporter
16-Jan-10
Moving from the corporate world to the world of bureaucracy is no easy task, especially for someone of the stature of Nandan Nilekani. For a man whose last role was co-chairman of IT services pioneer Infosys Technologies, it has been a steep learning curve. His home in Bangalore is the de facto headquarters of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), with a constant stream of visitors which defines it as a beehive of activity. The co-founder and former co-Chairman of Infosys and his wife now split their time between Bangalore and Delhi, and it reminds them of the early days of the IT giant. But the ease with which he has slipped into the role surprises even his wife Rohini.
The couple is on constant tour, attending workshops, brain-storming legal and social experts on the creation of the UIDAI framework and meeting the political heads of various states and parties to drive awareness of the change a project like UIDAI can bring to their constituencies. With a grassroot level approach to evangelizing the project and using it to drive inclusive growth, the tour has taken them to parts of the country few people ever have the opportunity to visit in a lifetime. Nilekani calls it his Bharat Darshan.
Moving out of a company where you have spent 30 years among friends is never easy, and so it was for the Nilekanis. But he is a person who in his own words, thrives on challenges, and after reaching the summits of Infosys, the urge to take on a new issue drove him in this direction. Combined with the need to give back something to the country, the role offers him a chance to prove himself all over again in a field where he starts as rank outsider.
He could have chosen the philanthropy route, and indeed his wife Rohini is well ensconced there. But Nandan Nilekani believes that bringing widespread change is only possible through the public route, a point he is out to prove. Some of these ideas came to him while working on his book Imagining India and through his interactions with the government through membership of various committees for Karnataka ex-CM S.M.Krishna and the PM Manmohan Singh. It was during this period that he was identified as an ideal candidate for the current role.
The challenges the program faces are daunting. The plan is to cover 200 million people in the first two years, and 600 million by four years. Nilekani knows he cannot do this single-handedly and has been roping in resources from schemes such as the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana) and the Public Distribution System. The UID will help deliver benefits to the millions of urban and rural Indians who cannot avail of the benefits of government schemes as their identities need to be established. Getting a buy-in from political parties and the state and local administration is also crucial, as the scheme is currently not a compulsory one.
Building networks and arriving at a consensus has been Nandan Nilekani’s core strength through his years at Infosys, and he is using it to good effect here. Though the variety and interests of the various stakeholders is far beyond the scope of what he worked on in his company and its management, he has proved himself equal to the challenge. He realizes that the successful completion of the UID project has far reaching benefits and is betting big on making it through to the other side. And this is one gamble all of us would like to see him pull off.
UIDAI has a poser; want to give it a try?
Click Here
Jayadevan PK
First Published : 02 Jan 2010 08:43:30 AM IST
Last Updated : 02 Jan 2010 09:19:17 AM IST
BANGALORE: Want a piece of action from the nation’s biggest and most challenging IT project? Here’s your chance: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has thrown the first challenge which it calls the ‘introducer problem’ to the public and has sought innovative solutions.
UIDAI is in the process of contemplating “certain challenging situations” that it might face in the implementation of the ambitious project which envisages a unique identification number to every Indian citizen.
It will be posing a series of challenges and seeking solutions from the public.
The present poser is related to ‘introducer system’ that has been detailed out in the demographic data standards and verification procedure committee report in the committees tab of the UIDAI website. Probable reactions/solutions can be sent to webadminuidai@nic.in.
To get a UID, a person goes to a registration booth being operated by some agency, to get registered. If he/ she has some documentary proof of his/her identity, he/she produces that before the registrar. He/she may also produce another proof of his address. If both these documents are found satisfactory, the registrar will collect the details and biometrics of the person (photo, fingerprints and possibly retinal scan also).
For those who do not possess any documentary proof of their identity or address, there is another mechanism which has been put in place.
This is called the ‘introducer based verification system’ similar to opening a bank account.
Stating the problem, the UIDAI says, “Now the problem is, suppose we have an authorised introducer X who is ready to introduce Y. Y goes to a particular registrar and says that he would like to be registered for a UID. He claims that X, who is authorised to introduce (and also has UID) is ready to introduce him.
If X is also physically present at the place of enrolment, X can give his biometric and introduction process can become foolproof incorporating the nonrepudiation aspect too. However, this will require physical presence of X at the registration site which may be difficult and inconvenient, especially when introduction is purely voluntary.” “In this situation, can we evolve a communication protocol preferably using mobile (one can assume that both the registrar and the introducer will have the mobile phone) or any other system so that the introducer’s physical presence can be dispensed with, while not compromising the authenticity of introduction?” UIDAI asks on its website.
“We should also not require immediate response from the introducer as the registration process is going on.
He can respond a little later also, if he feels somebody has misused the facility. This is possible because UIDs are not going to be issued in real time and will take overnight,” it adds.
Manoj C G Tags : Nilekani, EPFO database, UID project Posted: Saturday , Jul 18, 2009 at 0400 hrs New Delhi:
As Nandan Nilekani starts work on providing a unique identity card to India’s citizens, the Labour Ministry has offered him a ready database to begin with.
The Labour Ministry, it is learnt, has suggested to him that he can start his work by providing identity cards to the nearly 4.2 crore subscribers of the Employment Provident Fund as the EPFO possesses a readymade database of its members.
Sources said Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge and Labour Secretary Sudha Pillai had a meeting with Nilekani to discuss the proposal. Besides the EPFO, the Ministry could also offer the database of over 1.2 crore members of the Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
“This is an opportunity for us to get ID cards for the subscribers of EPFO and ESI. We would like the EPFO subscribers to be first beneficiaries of the Unique Identity Card (UID) project,” a senior Labour Ministry official told The Indian Express.
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The issuance of unique identity cards to provident fund subscribers would be an added advantage to them as the EPFO is already planning to make EPF accounts available online by the end of this year.
The Ministry has also sounded out the EPFO to keep the database updated.
The Labour Ministry’s suggestion comes even as the UID authority that Nilekani heads looks at existing databases of PAN card users, passport and driving licenses holders, ration card owners, and people having household gas connections to start the ambitious project with.
The Labour Ministry also hopes to take the UID’s help to issue identity cards to over 45 crore workers in the unorganised sector, a legal obligation the Government has to fulfill under the Unorganised Sector Workers’ Social Security Act.
UID: Correlation of data may result in abuse of civil rights
4 Aug 2009, 1219 hrs IST, Kiran Karnik,
The metaphysical, existential question, “Why am I?” (the purpose of life) has intrigued humans only marginally more than the psychosocial
query “Who am I?”.
Shakespeare’s answer (“… a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”) would gladden the generics industry, but offend individualists. For those with a taste for the absurd or macabre, the metamorphosis of Kafka’s Gregor Samsa raises deep questions of identity. Now, instead of psychologists, sociologists or philosophers, the government of India will help you answer the question.
At long last, after years of dithering, the government is going ahead with the project of providing a single, unique identification for all adult residents of India. Like the TV commercial of a telecom company, multiple, often divisive, identities (caste, religion, region, role) will be subsumed into a single number.
While many parameters are yet being defined, few projects anywhere match the scale and complexity of this effort. What is known is that the Unique Identification Authority (UIDA) will itself not, as was commonly presumed, issue any kind of ID card; it will confine its role to providing a number, as a unique identification, to each individual.
Identification will be through biometric characteristics: probably multiple-finger prints as also face. To ensure non-duplication, the system must be capable of comparing each new set of biometrics with those already stored, which will ultimately be hundreds of millions, so as to determine if it is unique.
Thus, apart from massive data storage, the system must also have the capability of doing such complex comparisons in quick time. In addition, the data will not only need to be backed-up in a disaster recovery site for “business” continuity, but must also be protected from hacking or other security infringements.
It is not yet clear whether children will be included and issued an ID; apparently, discussions are on and a decision is yet to be made. Amongst the challenges is the fact that biometrics recorded at this age will change over time.
Yet, having an ID for children is critical, for this will enable recording and tracking of individual data on health, education, etc., facilitating follow-up at individual level and appropriate planning at the macro level. Given the importance of this, one hopes that a solution will be found, either technologically or sociologically (for example, through the identity of the mother or guardian).
An ID from birth to death will facilitate a whole host of applications. It will make possible the tracking of vaccinations, school entry, health and nutrition status, age at marriage and a range of other parameters.
While aggregated data would provide valuable inputs for monitoring specific projects, individual data can be used to ensure appropriate attention to each person. In all this, UIDA’s role will be crucial, but limited to providing the universal , unique ID for residents of India (hopefully, including those below 18 years). It will be for others to evolve and implement various applications
.
Thus, while creating an ID database is absolutely necessary, true value will emerge only if others use it to do things better and, more interestingly, do new things. More often than not, high valueadded applications will require the working together of different organisations.
For example, the simple process of crediting wages into the bank account of a NREGA beneficiary will require that the bank, local administration and NREGA authorities work together, with the UID serving as the base for authentication, payment and opening of bank-account. More complex applications, correlating transactions with an individual, will require greater coordination, access to each other’s databases, and information-flows across organisational or ministerial divides.
SUCH applications will necessitate sharing, and occasional ceding, of turf and free flows of information. It will require re-engineering of processes and of organisations; gate-keepers will lose power and many hierarchies will be demolished . Training and change-management will be essential, as will a major shift in mind-set.
If this can be handled well, the pay-off can be huge. Transparency, efficiency and accountability will be spinoffs ; better delivery will change the life of the disadvantaged; migrants will get an identity; financial “inclusion” will move from concept to reality. Doubtless, this will have a positive impact on GDP. More importantly, it will be a big step towards greater social and economic equity.
These are exciting prospects. What provides hope that they are not mere dreams is one name: Nandan Nilekani. With an outstanding record of entrepreneurship and management, and a clear and optimistic vision, there could be no better choice for this onerous task.
Navigating the shoals of bureaucracy and channelising the divergent forces of politics will, of course, pose major challenges. A universal smart-card project has been talked of for many years. Each time, it has floundered on the excessive or proprietary requirements enunciated by various ministries, and the inability of apex levels to get them to agree to minimum commonalities as a basis for moving forward.
Persuading various departments and state governments to cooperate with each other and even cede turf is, therefore, not going to be easy. In this, he might find useful the successful experience of organisations like Isro, which has coordinated and orchestrated similar “horizontal” efforts in space applications projects related to education , health, rural development, etc.
Along with the immense and obvious potential of UID, one must also note the possible concerns. Prime amongst these is the fact that correlation of all the data about an individual from various databases can easily result in abuse of civil rights. Of course, in these days of security-mania, such individual rights are easily trampled upon, with minimum protest; yet, it is noteworthy that many European countries have safeguards against possible misuse and even in UK, there has been much debate about whether to have a common ID at all.
While the US has had a Social Security number for decades, the safeguards against abuse have traditionally been strong. We need serious thought to make sure that UID does not become a means of infringing on individuals’ rights and privacy.
India’s social ills soothed by outsourcing leaders?
By Saritha Rai, Special to ZDNet Asia
Monday, August 17, 2009 09:48 AM
perspective A handful of India’s technology entrepreneurs have put the country on the world map as a global outsourcing hub and a technology force to be reckoned with. Now one of them has, unusually, crossed the divide between private enterprise and public service.
Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and until recently co-chairman of the country’s number two outsourcing firm Infosys Technologies, has just taken over as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India.
The authority is tasked with providing a unique, validated identity to Indians who either have a befuddling assortment of government-sponsored identities, or belong to the illiterate poor with no documentary proof whatsoever of their own existence.
Nilekani’s crossing to the public sector has put the spotlight on whether technology and outsourcing leaders can help with some of the country’s challenges, including dealing with poverty and providing education, healthcare and even basic facilities such as running water and sanitation to the population.
In a country where successful business leaders rarely make the transition into the government, the much-admired Nilekani’s move could have a cascading effect. Where previously just a few successful outsourcing industry professionals were making the switch from ‘doing well to doing good’, his shift could make the practice commonplace.
Nilekani, 54, certainly has the credentials for the job. As co-founder of Infosys, a company with more than $4bn in sales last year, he helped revolutionise the technology outsourcing industry worldwide. He famously inspired author Thomas Friedman’s bestselling volume on globalization, The World is Flat. In his own recent book, Imagining India, he outlined plans for improving governance in the country.
India’s proposed unique identification is along the lines of the American social security number or the British national insurance number. However, the task of establishing the identity of 1.2 billion Indians is infinitely more complex.
Urban, educated Indians have a multitude of identification cards provided by the government such as passport, driver’s licence, income tax payee card and voter’s card. No single ID card is widespread, though. For instance, less than a 10th of the country’s residents pay income tax.
Even worse, for a slice of impoverished, illiterate Indians, who can prove neither their date of birth nor their place of residence, a lack of identity makes it near impossible for them to access government subsidies, jobs and even bank loans. Many of them are simply excluded from development.
Nilekani has long spoke out about the revolutionary social possibilities of technology. A unique identity could reduce graft, improve governance and make economic growth more inclusive, he has pointed out.
But Nilekani now has to walk the talk. “Properly executed technology-based transformation initiatives can have a beneficial impact on some of India’s challenges,” he said in a recent interview.
As if acknowledging India’s tortuous bureaucracy and its corrupt political system known to blockade change, Nilekani added, “Technology is only one piece of the puzzle”.
Technology will provide scalability and security in the ID project, which will include a massive database of personal information, photographs and biometrics to ensure that every Indian, whether living in the remotest corner or the densest urban sprawl, is assigned a single and unique number.
“Technology can handle scale very well, unlike the paper and pen systems used in India until now,” says Arun Ramu, who quit as Infosys’ product engineering and testing division head to join Bangalore-based eGovernments, a foundation that partners with city and town municipalities across India, using technology to improve services to citizens.
Ramu is witness to a slow drift of outsourcing executives to the non-profit social sector. The trend is driven by both the economic downturn as well as the reward of improving social circumstances, Ramu says.
Outsourcing industry executives like Ramu bring with them competencies in team building, problem solving and rolling out change. In India, they could just make the much needed difference.
Saritha Rai is a business and technology writer based in Bangalore, India. This article was first published on ZDNet Asia’s sister site, Silicon.com.
Forbes India
Nilekani’s Ice-Breaker
Rohin Dharmakumar, 08.17.09, 06:00 PM EDT
To start his work, the boss of India’s unique identity project doesn’t need to look beyond his mobile phone and voter identity card.
Now that the government has decided to assign a unique identity to each citizen in a bid to target social security services as well as assure internal security, the 1.16-billion population is waiting with bated breath. Issuing identities to all of them is a laudable, but a very long-term exercise. The day when the last Indian has been given the record will surely arrive, but we need a more modest goal post to start the project with. So, what is the minimum number of identity records that Nandan Nilekani, as the head of Unique Identity Authority of India, can issue without much sweat using the existing databases?
We say it is 300 million.
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There are several places Nilekani sahib could be looking for: the databases of PAN card, passport, driving license, ration card, voter I-card and so on. But the first three cover only a small part of the population and the ration card data is subsumed in voter card data.
The database of voters is a credible starting point. Almost 586 million people have this card. But there is another database which is equally powerful: the mobile subscribers.
”You get 40 percent penetration straightaway and this data has been verified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI),” says Guru Malladi, partner, Ernst & Young. Mobile connections of 427 million, however, do not mean subscribers. Some subscribers have more than one connection. Research firm Gartner estimates that 10 percent of connections fall in this category. Based on recent Department of Telecommunications audits of leading mobile operator’s subscriber bona-fides, anywhere from 5 to 10 percent might turn out to be invalid. Assume 5 percent as the conservative estimate. Then there are connections being used by companies for their business operations. Add another 5 percent. The number that remains is 350 million.
So now we have two large databases, one with 586 million people in it and the other with 350 million people. There will be common entries in these two databases. You call in the experts at de-duplicating. A de-duplication expert at IIT Bombay, who has worked on government database projects, reckons when such databases are merged and the common entries removed then the size of the database can become half or even one-fourth of the total entries. Let us assume that in this case the size will be a third of 586 million and 350 million put together. That number is 312 million. If the top 5 percent of the population really isn’t dependent on the services that this new identity scheme will deliver then 300 million is a good target for Nilekani.
100 days later, miles to go and many promises to keep
Tags: By Murali Krishnan New Delhi
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(Source: IANS)
Published: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 at 13:15 IST
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By Murali Krishnan
New Delhi: The performance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government in the first 100 days of its second tryst with power following an electoral verdict that amazed pollsters and Congress members alike has been a mixed bag – high on intent but inconsistent in terms of delivery.
After hiccups caused by the deadlock in negotiations with some of its pre-poll allies over portfolio allocations, Manmohan Singh put together his full team, combining youth and experience to get down to the business of governance. Clearly, the emphasis has been on the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) unfinished agenda, especially in the infrastructure and development sectors, and announcement of a fresh stimulus package to pull the economy out of the present global slowdown.
Giving a push to its rural development and employment programmes – a major factor for its renewed mandate, a whopping Rs.391 billion ($8 billion) was set aside for the UPA’s flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a jump of over 114 percent from the previous outlay in addition to increased allocation for the Bharat Nirman programme that seeks to improve infrastructure in villages.
Besides, the government saw through a historic Right to Education Bill that ensures free and compulsory education to children aged between six to 14 years, ushered a revamped Companies Bill and unveiled a draft direct tax code that will replace the nearly five-decade-old Income Tax Act.
According to historian Ramachandra Guha, 100 days could not be a yardstick to judge a government’s performance but he was optimistic.
“I am not sure if we can evaluate the government on what they have achieved and what they have not. Many things have happened and policies have been framed. I will give them 50-50,” Guha told IANS.
Recognising that the lack of identity proof has resulted in harassment and denial of services to the poor and marginalized, the prime minister is according high priority to the newly constituted Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that will provide a single identity number and card to each of the country’s 1.17 billion people.
“Things are being put in place, policies are at different stages of implementation. In some cases, financial allocations are being made while in other cases approvals are needed from competent authorities before legislation,” said Sriram Khanna, a professor at the prestigious Delhi School of Economics.
“The jury is still out on how the 100 days have passed but the moot point is that people will want this government to deliver and live up to its promises.”
In the midst of the slowdown that is showing signs of recovery, the government has also had to focus its energies on a drought, the worst in nearly two decades, and battle with the problem of containing swine flu that has claimed more than 75 lives and affected over 3,000 people.
A deficit of more than six million hectares has been reported in paddy, which is the worst affected crop, and almost 252 of the 626 districts in the country have been declared drought-hit.
“This is clearly a big crisis that the government faces and somehow it is not showing the urgency that is required. Sharad Pawar, the agriculture minister, has not been able to act and there is a gaping hole in his ministry,” said Meghnad Desai, British economist and Labour politician, who claims to be a good friend of Manmohan Singh.
“He (Singh) has several competent ministers in Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram and even Murli Deora but somehow despite India being a rising power, we do not have a cabinet that reflects a super power,” Desai told IANS.
On the security front, having described the Mumbai terror strike as the tipping point to revamp national security, Manmohan Singh has continued to stress on putting in place critical strategies, fill police vacancies and strengthen intelligence systems to thwart further attacks. However, there is still a long way to go to secure the country.
The government had to face some uncomfortable moments after Manmohan Singh’s trip to the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Egypt where a joint statement delinked terror from the composite dialogue with Pakistan and also included a controversial reference to trouble-hit Balochistan.
Though the opposition claimed it was a surrender of “national interest”, the prime minister stood his ground saying he had not broken national consensus and pointed out that the only way forward to mend relations with Pakistan was to begin to trust despite all that had happened in the past.
“Not trust blindly, but trust and verify,” he said, borrowing a signature phrase of the late US president Ronald Reagan.
The challenges before the government are plenty and, in many cases, difficult. Soon after he was sworn in, Manmohan Singh quoted French Romantic writer Victor Hugo as saying that “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come”.
How he and his government turn that idea to purposeful action will be keenly watched.
Making a Difference in India
Rahul Sharma (Lunch at Capital Club)
30 August 2009
NANDAN Nilekani has been asking questions for the longest time. Many of the issues he worried about, he raised and tried to address in a bestselling book Imagining India.
Now, in his role as the head of a newly launched organisation to give more than a billion people a unique identity number, he finds himself in a position where he could help trigger a social change — just as he wanted.
“It’s like doing a start up again, in a different context but with less time. Every day is ticking. It is fun, it is energising, it’s like a dream job,” the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India told me in his spartan office in a government building in the Indian capital last week.
Empty book shelves, a huge desk with a laptop, a few chairs and a sofa make up his office on the first floor of Yojna Bhawan, home to India’s Planning Commission. This is a temporary arrangement, says Nilekani, adding that he was trying to find new offices and set up systems and processes missing in the new organisation.
It’s a huge change for the co-founder of the Indian software giant Infosys — almost a leap of faith — but he is relaxed and seems to be enjoying the new challenge. Given his profile, expectations are high. He says he has tight deadlines to meet in the three-phase project that could enable direct benefits to hundreds and millions of people through what he calls “people-centric governance”.
“The first part is, of course, designing the technology and infrastructure highways to collect data. We would then get users to enroll and the third stage, which could be never ending, is to use it all to bring about social changes,” he said.
When he was given his new role, Nilekani made his last blog entry. “Many people have asked me why I accepted this appointment. I have long been a champion of a reform approach that is inclusive of the poor, and in my book, I described unique identity as one of the key steps for achieving this goal. Giving every individual in India a unique identification number can go a long way in enabling direct benefits, and fixing weak public delivery systems, giving the poor access to better healthcare, education, and welfare safety nets,” he wrote.
That, in essence, encompasses the ideals and ideas of a man who has been listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and who Thomas Friedman calls a “great explainer”. According to Friedman, it was Nilekani’s “insight that the global playing field was being levelled by technology” that inspired him to write his book The World is Flat.
Nilekani currently has only a handful of people in his team, but expects the number to eventually rise to a few hundred as he brings together people from the government and the private sector into a project that means a lot to him.
“There are just three of us. We are like a start up inside the government,” he says, adding that he is enjoying the entire process defining the organisation and identifying and selecting the right people who would stay with the team.
“A lot of the administrative side and partnerships for enrolment will be from the government. Legal, technology and marketing will be from the private sector. The challenge would then be make these two ends work as a seamless team,” he says, adding that the technology phase is expected to be completed in 12 to 18 months.
Nilekani, who spent a large chunk of his life in India’s technology capital, Bangalore, is in New Delhi four days a week meeting bureaucrats, ministers, and state officials to discuss his plans. “I have a tech team in Bangalore. I do my technology meetings and reviews on the weekends.”
Nilekani’s Imagining India gives the insight into the mind of a man who strongly believes that economic growth alone cannot define a nation’s future. Continuous reform and innovations in public life and good governance play an important role as well. In the book, Nilekani says he got thinking when a visitor asked him why roads in Bangalore were so terrible when those in the Infosys campus were so good? The visitor also wondered why entrepreneurs like Nilekani could not get into politics.
“I told him this was not the United States, where a Michael Bloomberg could be the CEO of a large company one day and get elected New York’s mayor the next. Being an entrepreneur automatically made me a very long shot in Indian politics, and an easy target for populist rhetoric. I was, I said, quite unelectable,” he writes.
Today, he might not have contested an election, but he’s right in the middle of politics and his project — as he is well aware — could also attract a huge push back in a system that is inefficient and corrupt at several levels. The transparency and the social change an identity number could bring to India will definitely not be very welcome in quarters that have for decades thrived on the lack of it.
But that’s only for later. For the moment, Nilekani has his plate full setting up a team, finding an office and working to deadlines as people both in and outside of the government expect him to deliver within the deadline.
“We are not in the card business, we are in the number business,” he explains, adding that while his organisation would generate the database and the identity numbers, the cards will be issued by several government organisations that deal with people at all levels in urban and rural India. It’s like being a Visa International or Mastercard that issue cards through various banks.
“What is so exciting is the impact you could potentially have,” Nilekani says, adding that while he still finds the new scenario bizarre, he does like the many facets of the job.
“One day I will be meeting some chief minister and discussing how to introduce (the cards) in some state; one day I am digging deep into technology issues and then on another in socio-political issues. Third day bureaucracy issues,” he says.
I ask him what does the direct involvement of somebody like him from the private sector in the government signify? It is the manifestation of “the openness of the government, change and the willingness to try new things and get people from outside.” The big question to ask here: Has India, straining under the weight of its many challenges, finally managed to more than scratch its potential? Nilekani’s success or failure in the government could be an indicator.
Editor Rahul Sharma savours the idea of mixing work with pleasure for this column. You can write to him at rahul@khaleejtimes.com.
New umpires for economy
The regulators of the socialist era tried to control prices and output. The new set is drastically different
Cafe Economics | Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
Are we seeing the first welcome signs of a new regulatory architecture in India?
Every game needs rules and rule keepers—and the economic game is no different. Just as cricket has seen new regulatory tools such as third umpires, slow motion replays, listening equipment that can catch the faintest snick, tools to visually track the progress of a ball from the bowler’s hand to the stumps and heat sensors, so has the Indian economy seen a new set of umpires to ensure that the game is played fairly and safely.
Many institutions that were set up to control and direct the economy in the old socialist era are now either already irrelevant or hurtling towards it. Think of the Controller of Capital Issues, the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices, the National Development Council, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission—and even the Planning Commission, that is trying hard to reinvent itself.
Most of these regulatory dinosaurs from the Nehru and Indira Gandhi eras tried to set prices, control capacity and curb industrial expansion: These are goals that do not fit in a more open and globalized Indian economy.
We saw the first set of new regulatory institutions come up in the 1990s. Most of these were microeconomic regulators that tried to oversee a particular market rather than the entire economy: the stock market, telecom, ports, insurance, and so on. But there are now some early examples of new macroeconomic oversight and policy bodies that are coming into play.
Let’s start with the central bank first. Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set up a financial stability unit to conduct stress tests on Indian banks and prepare periodic financial stability reports. The Indian central bank was ahead of its global peers in recognizing that maintaining financial stability is as important a task for a central bank as inflation control and credit flow are.
Meanwhile, there continues to be raging debate about whether RBI should continue as the government’s investment banker or whether its debt management function should be transferred to another independent unit. The current debate is more about the timing: Floating a new debt management office is not a good idea when bond sales by the government to fund its huge fiscal deficit threaten to overwhelm monetary policy. But the core idea is a good one.
In New Delhi, for example, there are new institutions such as the Competition Commission of India to protect consumer interests, the Unique Identification Authority of India to assign each citizen a card that will help national security and ensure that welfare programmes reach the intended beneficiaries rather than local elites, and state-level information commissioners to allow citizens to access government files.
Then there are new advisory bodies such as the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council and RBI’s monetary policy committee, both of which have independent economists as members. Meanwhile, economist and diplomat Jaimini Bhagwati wrote in a recent column in the Business Standard that the government should have a chief financial adviser on a par with the chief economic adviser; the financial adviser will “give the finance ministry a more in-depth picture of the health of financial markets and provide inputs on the state of accounting and corporate governance”. This suggestions reminds me of a suggestion made a couple of years ago by the World Economic Forum that, like companies, countries too should have chief risk officers.
Another suggestion I read recently was that India needs something equivalent to the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which is an independent and non-partisan agency that examines government finances and provides forecasts on national debt.
CBO is independent of the US treasury. Its recent report on what the Obama administration’s huge spending plans will mean for the debt burden of future generations in the US was at odds with the administration’s own claims. Given the proclivity of our own finance ministry to habitually underplay fiscal and public debt risks, an Indian version of the US CBO is a worthwhile idea.
As is obvious, there is a huge difference in what these new institutions—both that have already come into existence and those that are on various wish lists—are drastically different from the regulators and planners of the earlier era. They do not set out to fix prices and quantities but instead try to maintain open and orderly markets. They have new concerns such as financial stability, should improve the flow of information between governments, markets and civil society as in the case of the unique identification authority, and should fully be independent on the government system as in the case of a strengthened monetary policy committee or a local CBO variant.
They could be the new umpires for a new economy.
Your comments are welcome at cafeeconomics@livemint.com
Aanchal Bansal
Posted: Sep 03, 2009 at 0010 hrs IST
New Delhi While the World Bank has offered to assist the government in re-structuring the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Delhi government is set to soon initiate a pilot project to launch its ‘cash for food’ programme in the Capital.
This is seen as the first step in overhauling the system.
The scheme is in line with the idea floated by the Centre earlier this year of giving food subsidy in cash to families below the poverty line. The proposal aims at checking losses due to pilferage of foodgrain meant for distribution under PDS.
As part of the scheme, the government is to open bank accounts for ration card-holders from families both below and above the poverty line. The idea is to deposit the difference — between market prices of grains and controlled prices — in the accounts of card-holders.
The idea was floated by the Centre after the Supreme Court-appointed Justice D P Wadhwa Committee called PDS an “inefficient and corrupt” system. The committee, set up in 2006 to check the functioning of PDS, said there is an “unholy nexus between transporters, fair price shop owners and officials of the Department of Food and Civil Supply”.
About the cash for food scheme, Delhi government officials said the Centre has given a go-ahead in principle. They said the Food and Supplies Department has been asked to identify a district to launch the pilot project.
“We will begin with a part of the city and are roping in organisations and agencies to assist us,” Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said. He said the government may include global networks like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as part of the project.
Following recent reports of bogus and multiple ration cards, the idea is to make the system more transparent and ensure subsidies reach the poor, for whom PDS was designed, according to officials.
There are about 14 lakh ration card-holders in Delhi, officials said. And as per a recent survey by the government for the Mission Convergence Scheme to ensure that welfare schemes benefit people who deserve them, there are 3,99,122 people in Delhi in the Below Poverty Line category.
According to an official, the cash amount to be deposited in a beneficiary’s bank account would be calculated on the basis of subsidy given. For instance, if a ration card-holder is saving Rs 200 through subsidies provided by the government, the department will deposit Rs 200 in his account, the official explained.
Nilekani: Unique I-cards in 3 years
The Delhi government will share details of its database compiled for the Mission Convergence Scheme, officials today said. This came after Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the National ID Authority of India, met Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta and gave a presentation on all aspects of the project. According to officials, Nilekani said with the state government’s cooperation, Delhi residents could get their unique identity cards within three years.
Biometric cards help to check social benefit frauds in Himachal
Shimla: Unique identification number for each citizen may take awhile to get started but a pilot project of issuing social pensions through bio-metric cards is already ushering in a hi-tech revolution by ensuring transparency, checking fraud and misuse in depriving a beneficiary of state welfare benefits.
“The project was started as a pilot in Una tehsil on January 1 and by April the whole district was covered,” said Lokender Chauhan, additional director, social justice and empowerment department.
The project has been rolled out by State Bank of India and for a start is disbursing about 12,000 pensions in the district.
“To obtain the pension, the beneficiary has to implant his finger impression on a device with a business correspondent engaged by the bank and only if the impression matches with the one to whom a bio-metric card has been issued, then only the amount is released,” said SBI bank official.
In all the department is giving out 2,52,048 social pensions across Himachal for which an budget of Rs 103.72 crore has been marked. A three month advance pension of Rs 330 per month is given to aged persons who have surpassed 60 years of age and widows. A disability relief allowance is given to persons with more than 40 percent disability.
“Success of the pilot has made us look at expanding the project to other districts,” says Chauhan. As more and more banks are showing interest in the scheme, we are in the process of putting a proposal before the government for including other districts under the bio-metric card for delivery of social pensions, he added.
Earlier these very pensions in Una were dispersed by the postal department who were charging 5 percent commission for the service. But there were loopholes as it was not a full proof system and frauds came to light as some pensions in Mandi district being drawn for years after the death of the actual beneficiaries.
Not only the bank is charging 3 percent commission for the service which the business correspondents hand out at a delivery point and handicapped and infirm individuals are made a door to door delivery.
The Una biometric project is one of its kinds in entire north India and perhaps a forerunner for the unique identification number project for which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has roped in Nandan Nilekani.
Here to make a difference, not to give Infy contracts: Nilekani
Asha Rai, TNN 6 September 2009, 03:09am IST
Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was in Bangalore last weekend to be part of his mentor N R
Nandan Nilekani
Nandan Nilekani.(AP)
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Narayana Murthy’s daughter Akshata’s wedding festivities. He spent the better part of one whole day running around collecting different types of identities for himself! He dropped by the Bangalore Club to collect his permanent membership card before rushing to the RTO to collect his driving licence. The next time he renews his licence, it should sport his unique ID.
In a way, that sums up the scope of the task Nilekani has set himself. Of providing Indians with a unique number that will pop up on their passports, ration cards and PAN cards. Singular yet universal.
In a wide-ranging interview, six weeks after moving to New Delhi, Nilekani talks to TOI about the challenges of the job and more so, about living and working in New Delhi.
Q. You still don’t have a Delhi phone number, an official e-mail ID. What gives?
A. (Laughs) We are a start-up!
Q. Have you got your Ambi with a siren?
A. I removed it. I have a Tata Indica…
Q. Why?
A. We are a start-up. I have to get on with my job. The car I drive is not important.
Q. And gunmen?
A. (Looks shocked at the idea) Of course not. How can I roam around with them? I like my anonymity.
Q. How much are you paid?
A. I don’t know. But whatever I get I will give to the prime minister’s relief fund.
Q. How do you find Delhi after Bangalore?
A. Obviously it is a very different world. It is a move from the private to the public sector. To government. That itself is a very major shift. Second, it is a move from Bangalore to Delhi. Third, in a curious kind of way, though I am moving to government, it is like moving to a start-up. Moving from an established situation to a start-up.
Actually that for me is the most unsettling. At Infosys I had all the systems in place. Those have to be re-built and should take a couple of months. Meantime, work cannot stop. I am in that in-between period where I have to do many of the things that in Infosys I would have delegated.
Q. Have you figured out how the system works from the inside?
A. It’s a steep learning curve. For example, getting people. How you get officers allotted to you? There’s a process to be followed. How do you get office space? How are meetings organized? How do you document these meetings? All these are new in a government sense.
Q. You are supposed to get people from private sector in addition to government officers.
A. That again is a process. You have to put in place a recruitment process to select the right people. In principle, the idea is accepted that it will be a combination of talented people both from government and outside. The challenge is mixing these people from different backgrounds into one team.
Q. Will your family move to Delhi full time?
A. No. But Rohini (his wife) will start coming often. She’s there next week. My kids were both home on summer break (they study at Yale University). We have a challenge in moving fully to Delhi. My mother, who is 84, is in Bangalore and at this age we can’t disturb her. We have a 9-year-old dog. Rohini has to hold the fort in Bangalore. I am shuttling. I leave for Delhi on Monday mornings and am in Bangalore over the weekends. I am also developing the technology team in Bangalore, so it is work-related too.
Q. Does this job require a lot of networking ?
A. I have been meeting ministers, secretaries, CMs. The plan is to meet all CMs. Central side have met most of the people. This is a cooperative project. This isn’t a project where you work in a corner, in an isolated environment and build something. Because it touches every Indian resident and every government department, it can work only in close cooperation with them. A lot of it is networking, diplomacy and meeting people.
Q. Isn’t the Rs 120 crore allocated too little?
A. For time being it is adequate.
Q. Tell us in brief about the project: investment, partners, vendors, people, technology ?
A. Investment, I don’t know yet. People, a few hundred from our side. The main thing is it’s a partnership model. UIDAI itself will be in the business of giving numbers. The card, or whatever is the device, will be issued by the respective partners who will deal with the Indian residents. Let’s say NREGA. It has given job cards for 65 million families. They will be our partners. They will use UID as identification as part of their application. Similarly, income-tax will use UID on the PAN cards. Same with the PDS system.
Q. So UID won’t be a card like a PAN card?
A. We might send you a letter with a number and say please keep this letter safely. That is just information. Usage happens when say, the passport has the UID number. Eventually what will happen is that UID number you get will start permeating the system. It will become ubiquitous. What’s important is that you get the UID only once, then you can use it anywhere. That’s the big change. You enrol once and get an identity for life. That’s the big USP. That’s how it reduces transaction costs, improves service for the people.
Q. Timeline for this?
A. In 12 to 18 months we want to roll out the first set of numbers. We will work with the registrars. Depending on which registrar comes on board first and starts issuing will decide who gets it first. We have very strong partnerships happening with NREGA, PAN, health insurance
.
Q. There’s talk of thousands of crores worth of business this will generate. Can we have some clarity on this?
A. First of all, the investment will be distributed. It is not just UID authority. In fact, the partners will be the ones issuing the cards, the ones investing in biometric equipment, etc. We are forming a biometric committee shortly to come out with biometric standards. A lot of work in this area has already happened in India. It isn’t as if we are doing it all new. We need to aggregate it.
“Unique ID will enable more effective public delivery”
We need one single, non-duplicate way of identifying a person and we need a mechanism by which we can authenticate that online anywhere because that can have huge benefits and impact on public services, says Nandan Nilekani in an interview to Karan Thapar, on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate.
Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate. Why do we need a unique identification number and does the proposal itself make good sense. That’s the key issue I shall explore today with the Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority, Nandan Nilekani.
Mr Nilekani, let me start with a simple question. It is said that 80 per cent of Indians have Election Commission identity cards, others have ration cards, some people have BPL cards, others have driving licence and passports, and there are even PAN cards. Why on top of this do we need a unique identification number?
Nandan Nilekani: We need one single, non-duplicate way of identifying a person and we need a mechanism by which we can authenticate that online anywhere because that can have huge benefits and impact on public services and also on making the poor more inclusive in what is happening in India today.
Karan Thapar: When you say one online way of identifying a person, am I right in assuming what makes the unique identification different to anything else is that in addition to name, age, sex, date of birth and address, you actually have the individuals biometrics which are unique to that individual?
Nandan Nilekani: Absolutely. It is a combination of most probably fingerprints and picture and a biometrics committee will finalise that but finally that makes it unique. And we will also make sure that there are no duplicates. That’s another important decision.
Karan Thapar: Let’s come to the problems that are inherent in this task. First, the issue of technology. Quite simply, does the technology exist? I ask because the London School of Economics did an analysis and survey of a similar project that was being considered by the British Government and this is the conclusion that they have come to: “The technology envisioned for this scheme is to a large extent untested and unreliable. No scheme on this scale has been undertaken anywhere in the world. Smaller and less ambitious systems have encountered substantial technological and operational problems that are likely to be amplified in a large scale national system”. Now, if that is true of Britain it has to be true of India in spades?
Nandan Nilekani: There is no question that this is a project where we are going into uncharted territories, the technological challenges are immense and one of the risks of this project is the technology.
Karan Thapar: The technology is so essential to the project that I put it to you, this is not just uncharted territory, and this could end up being a case of India’s ambition outstripping its ability. After all, even today, we can’t issue identity cards with a guarantee that the name is correct or that the address hasn’t been misspelled. We could end up making a complete hash of biometric details.
Nandan Nilekani: There are certain risks in this project but I think given the enormous opportunity and developmental benefits that it can give, it’s worth taking on the project and trying to mitigate the risks so that we get the outcomes that we want.
Karan Thapar: But you do accept that the technology is not just uncharted but at this moment not actually fully known?
Nandan Nilekani: There is no other country in the world where a billion peoples’ biometrics have been captured and stored in an online database. In that sense, it has not been done before.
Karan Thapar: We actually have to invent the technology for this size and scale of operation?
Nandan Nilekani: No, we don’t have to invent the technology; we have to scale up the existing technology to work at this scale.
Karan Thapar: But it’s such a fantastic scaling up that it’s almost a reinvention.
Nandan Nilekani: It’s not a reinvention but a scaling up.
Karan Thapar: The second problem inherent is the problem of cost. Once again, the London School of Economics (LSE) did an analysis of a similar project that the British government was thinking of, and that remember is a country which is one-twentieth the size of India and the LSE concluded that the probable cost for Britain would be between 10 to 20 billion pounds. Frontline magazine believes that the government in India has a guesstimate of somewhere around Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Is it worth it at that cost?
Nandan Nilekani: I don’t agree with that estimate. I don’t know what the exact figure is but it is much less than that by a factor of 10.
Karan Thapar: If you don’t know the exact figure, how can you say it is lesser by a factor of 10?
Nandan Nilekani: The bulk part is certainly going to be lesser than that.
Karan Thapar: But it’s a guess that you are giving me, isn’t it?
Nandan Nilekani: It’s a guess but it’s an informed and educated guess.
Karan Thapar: So the truth is we don’t know what the exact cost will be?
Nandan Nilekani: We don’t know what the cost will be but I am very confident that whatever the cost is the social, economic and efficiency benefits of it would make it well worth it.
Karan Thapar: Let me question that. India is a poor country. I put it to you that this order of money could be better spent if you expand education, health and sanitation or if you use it to feed the 40 per cent of Indian children who are chronically malnourished.
Nandan Nilekani: We certainly don’t want to take away money from important social programmes but remember that as we expand our social programmes, the efficiency of the social programme depends on the fact that they reach the right people and that there are no duplicates who are taking away the benefits which are meant for the poor. We need to make them more efficient. So you need the infrastructure at the bottom to make that happen.
Karan Thapar: There is no doubt that the unique identification number could play some role in targeting benefits better at people who deserve it, but when in India the prime need is education, health and particularly health for women and children, sanitation (700 million Indians do not have proper sanitation facilities), surely this money could be better used.
Nandan Nilekani: The investment of money in this project will actually make all those other monies be spent more efficiently. Think of it as an infrastructure for enabling you to spend money more effectively.
Karan Thapar: All of that depends on the assumption that technology can tackle these problems. Despite all the positive potential benefits of the project, the assumption that technology can actually tackle the ills of social inefficiency and social problems — that’s a huge assumption.
Nandan Nilekani: Certainly it’s a huge assumption.
Karan Thapar: Maybe an unjustified one?
Nandan Nilekani: Look at it simply. You talked about maternal care, we have 10 million women who get health benefits under the JSY programme but we have to make sure that the right women get it before their pregnancy so their health will improve, the quality of the delivery will improve. These are all real social problems that this information can help you to solve.
Karan Thapar: Let me tell you why that is an inadequate example. You can only target better those women who are actually availing of the benefits but not receiving them fully. Take the example of BPL; it is a much better quoted example. The real problem in India is not that people who should receive BPL assistance do not get it properly and that there is leakage. The real problem is that there are a vast number of people who qualify and are not included in the BPL threshold at all. How will you be addressing the second problem?
Nandan Nilekani: What happens today in a particular state is that there may be more BPL cards than the population of the state because there are multiple cards issued to an individual. With the UID, you will be able to actually trim that down to one card per individual and therefore we will actually know who is not getting this now.
Karan Thapar: But what you can’t do is to identify the people who should have BPL cards and do not have them because they are outside the system, they have been ignored. Technology won’t improve that?
Nandan Nilekani: This (UID) is not a panacea for all the problems. This is an enabler which will allow more effective public delivery.
Karan Thapar: Which is why I say to you that the order of sum of money involved could be better spent in targeting education, sanitation and health not to mention child malnutrition because you would actually then get real benefits rather than what I am describing as ‘notional benefits.’
Nandan Nilekani: Suppose in a country we are spending 100 to 200 thousand crores a year on different kinds of subsidies and social benefits, to make investment which is a part of that one time, to make those investments more efficient is definitely well worth it.
Karan Thapar: Is it a one-time investment? In fact, the Frontline magazine says that the government’s estimate of Rs 1.5 lakh crore does not include recurring cost. The recurring cost could add to that and we don’t know by how much?
Nandan Nilekani: On the scale of money that we spend on public programmes and the ability of the project to deliver better public programmes it will be well worth it.
Karan Thapar: That is the debate. We are leaping in the dark in the belief that technology would help us deliver our programmes better. But as you say the technology is not known, it has to be upgraded in such an enormous scale that I call it a reinvention although you dispute that. The cost itself is unknown, you agreed to that. And therefore I put it to you again, there are so many imponderables about technology, size and cost that is it wise for a poor country like ours, where there are huge levels of poverty (Arjun Sen Gupta Committee report says that 80 per cent of India live under Rs 20 a day), should we therefore be spending this sort of money on this project?
Nandan Nilekani: The Government has come to the conclusion that this project is stragetic and worth it. I have been invited to lead this project. I believe that it is viable and I will do my best to make it viable.
Karan Thapar: Let me come to the third inherent problem in the unique identification number project. How can you ensure that the database that you are creating will be secure and that it won’t be misused and it won’t, worst of all, result in an invasion of privacy?
Nandan Nilekani: That is a very legitimate concern. We are looking at the design as to how to make it secure. We are saying that nobody can read this database. All they can do is verify the authenticity of an identity. You can ask a question like — is x x? and the only answer we will give is yes or no. So there is no data coming down from the pipe. But there is no question that once the UID is implemented and the UID becomes ubiquitous in many applications, then there are challenges of privacy and I think along with this project, we have to put in other checks and balances, including laws.
Karan Thapar: Can you ever put in sufficient checks and balances? You said that people can only verify against this database. They won’t actually be able to read it, but professor Ian Angle of the LSE, a world renowned authority on precisely the creation of such database, says with relevance to England, and it will apply even more to India, that what you are going to end up with is the “Olympic games of hacking.” You are going to provide people the biggest challenge to hack through. No one believes in the perfectibility of computers, so hackers will hack and succeed.
Nandan Nilekani: This again is a legitimate concern but we will have to design it as good as possible.
Karan Thapar: Can you design it to prevent hacking?
Nandan Nilekani: We can certainly create checks and balances.
Karan Thapar: The risk of hacking can never be removed hundred per cent?
Nandan Nilekani: In every system, there will be people who will try to hack on it. Some are impenetrable, some are not. The important thing is — is the risk of hacking and privacy large enough not to do this project? And the view is that the project has so many significant benefits for the poor in making it inclusive and in giving them a chance to participate in the country’s progress that it is worth it and we have to mitigate those risks.
Karan Thapar: In India, you are creating a system which in the wrong hands would be a powerful tool for either religious or caste profiling. How can you ensure that unscrupulous politicians won’t misuse it for their benefit and against your intentions and the best interest of the Indian people?
Nandan Nilekani: We are not keeping any profiling attributes in our database.
Karan Thapar: You mean you won’t have any details of people’s caste?
Nandan Nilekani: No.
Karan Thapar: In which case, how can you say to me that you will better target benefits at BPL and other categories because if you don’t know someone is SC or ST, if you don’t know that they are OBC, how can you ensure better targetting?
Nandan Nilekani: That is the responsibility of the applicant that provides those services.
Karan Thapar: So then they will add in that feature into your detail?
Nandan Nilekani: That is outside our system. Our system has only basic attributes like the name, address, date of birth.
Karan Thapar: When you say that it’s outside your system, you are providing the fundamentals for someone else to misuse? But misuse, if not at your end, will happen later on.
Nandan Nilekani: There are databases today which are accessible and therefore along with this we have to create the necessary laws, checks and balances, the citizen oversight to guard against these things.
Karan Thapar: The first thing that you conceded or accepted is that even if there is no misuse at your end, there is a huge potential of misuse at the end of other people who have access and use it and add to it. What you are doing therefore is that you are creating a weapon which you may not misuse but others could?
Nandan Nilekani: Today itself we have electronic databases in the country which potentially can be used the way you are suggesting. We are not doing something different from what already exists.
Karan Thapar: You said a moment ago that you would create checks and balances. I put it to you that you can never create sufficient and the reason say is this — In the UK, in the US and in Australia, because the authorities couldn’t respond to public concerns about misuse, they have effectively put on the backburner consideration of similar schemes for those countries. Now if developed countries cannot tackle the problem of misuse, then how can India, where 35 per cent of the people are illiterate and 22 per cent live below the poverty line? How can India claim that we can tackle these problems?
Nandan Nilekani: What these developed countries have put on hold is giving national ID cards to people. But the countries, US and UK have a number. For example in the US, you have the social security number, in the UK there is the national insurance number. They already have a numbering system, which is what we are going to propose.
Karan Thapar: Except for the fact that it is nowhere near as extensive or as complete in terms of the biometeric details as what you are proposing in India. The national insurance in Britain has been around and developing slowly but it doesn’t have any details that could lead to an invasion of privacy. It doesn’t have any details that can be misused for profiling. Yours could have both?
Nandan Nilekani: As I said, these are legitimate concerns and I think we have to address them in the public as well as in the laws and so on. But notwithstanding these concerns, the social benefit, the inclusivity that this project will provide for the 700 million people in this country who are outside the system is immense enough to justify doing this project.
Karan Thapar: Can I challenge that justification? You are making it as an assertion, you are making it perhaps as a system of belief but what’s the proof that the benefit will actually justify the risk?
Nandan Nilekani: The benefit is a profound benefit because the poor who don’t have identity in this country will be able to get an identity, it will empower them, it will help to meet their aspirations, they are the people for whom this is being done and I do believe they will benefit greatly from this number.
Karan Thapar: You talk of giving people an identity but the problem is you are not a demographer, you are a technocrat. How are you going to handle the inevitable problems of internal migration or illegal immigration which are going to bedevil your scheme. How are you going to ensure that the wrong people aren’t captured in your system and given an identity and made Indian?
Nandan Nilekani: Having this number does not confer any rights, benefits or any entitlements. All it does is confirming that X is X.
Karan Thapar: There are hundred ways of doing that. Why are we spending close to Rs 1.5 lakh crore on this project just to be able to claim X is X?
Nandan Nilekani: To have a system which uses a unique identifier like biometrics, having a system which ensures there are no duplicates and having a system that provides online authentication is, we believe, something that can have a lot of social benefits for the poor.
Karan Thapar: I won’t question that belief although I call it a catechism of faith. One either accepts it on faith or one doesn’t
Nandan Nilekani: I am not a high priest of technology.
Karan Thapar: I will end by quoting the conclusion the LSE came to when they reviewed a potential British concept along the lines of what you are doing in India: “The success of a national identity system depends on a sensitive cautious and cooperative approach involving all key stakeholders, including an independent and rolling assessment and regular review of management practices,” and the LSE concluded that did not exist in the UK. If it does not exist in the UK, that environment certainly doesn’t exist in India?
Nandan Nilekani: We are trying to make sure that all the checks and balances are there. We will have a very wide consultative process. We will involve everybody. We will make it public. All these are legitimate concerns and we have an obligation to meet these concerns.
Karan Thapar: I Hope you succeed. A pleasure talking to you.
‘There is no dispute that we are going into uncharted territories …but the benefits make it worth it’
Q&A: NANDAN NILEKANI
Business Standard / New Delhi September 14, 2009, 0:55 IST
There are concerns on technology, cost and privacy in the decision to allot a unique identification number to every Indian. In a talk with Karan Thapar on the CNN-IBN television channel’s Devil’s Advocate programme, NANDAN NILEKANI, who has agreed to head the newly-created Authority to plan and implement this project, concedes these are legitimate concerns. And, that these can be addressed and the project is worthwhile. Edited excerpts:
Eighty per cent of Indians have Election Commission identity cards, others have ration cards, some people have BPL cards, others have driving licences and passports, there are even PAN cards. Why on top of this do we need a unique identification number?
We need one single, non-duplicate way of identifying a person and we need a mechanism by which we can authenticate that online anywhere, because that can have huge benefits and impact on public services and also on making the poor more inclusive in what is happening in India today.
In addition to name, age, sex, date of birth and address, you actually have the biometrics which are unique to that individual?
Absolutely. It is a combination of, most probably, fingerprints and picture and a biometrics committee will finalise that, but finally that makes it unique. And we will make sure there are no duplicates.
The London School of Economics (LSE) did an analysis of a similar project being considered by the British government and this is their conclusion: “The technology envisioned for this scheme is, to a large extent, untested and unreliable. No scheme on this scale has been undertaken anywhere in the world. Smaller and less ambitious systems have encountered substantial technological and operational problems that are likely to be amplified in a largescale national system.” IIf that is true of Britain, it has to be true of India in spades.
There is no question that we are going into uncharted territories, the technological challenges are immense and one of the risks is the technology.
Not just uncharted territory, this could end up being a case of India’s ambition outstripping its ability. Even today, we can’t issue identity cards with a guarantee that the name is correct or the address isn’t misspelt. We could end by making a complete hash of biometric details.
There are risks but, given the enormous opportunity and developmental benefits it can give, it’s worth taking on so that we get the outcomes we want.
You accept the technology is not just uncharted but not actually fully known?
There is no other country where a billion peoples’ biometrics have been captured and stored in an online database. We don’t have to invent the technology; we have to scale up the existing technology to work at this scale.
The second problem inherent is cost. Once again, the LSE did an analysis of a similar project the British government was thinking of and that is a country one-twentieth the size of India. The LSE concluded the probable cost for Britain would be between 10 and 20 billion pounds. Frontline magazine believes the government in India has a guesstimate of somewhere around Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Is it worth it at that cost?
I don’t know what the exact figure is, but it is much less than that by a factor of 10.
If you don’t know the exact figure, how can you say it is lesser by a factor of 10?
The bulk part is certainly going to be lesser than that.
But it’s a guess?
An informed and educated guess.
So, we don’t know what the exact cost will be?
We don’t know, but I am very confident that whatever the cost, the social, economic and efficiency benefits would make it well worth it.
India is a poor country. This order of money could be better spent if you expand education, health and sanitation, or if you use it to feed the 40 per cent of Indian children who are chronically malnourished.
We don’t want to take away money from important social programmes. But, as we expand our social programmes, their efficiency depends on their reaching the right people and that there are no duplicates taking away the benefits. You need the infrastructure at the bottom to make that happen.
You can only target better those actually availing the benefits but not receiving these fully. Take BPL. The real problem is not leakage, but that there is a vast number who qualify and are not included in the BPL threshold at all. How will you be addressing the second problem?
Today, in a particular state, there may be more BPL cards than the population of the state, because there are multiple cards issued to an individual. With the UID, you will be able to actually trim that down to one card per individual and therefore we will actually know who is not getting this now.
But you can’t identify those who should have BPL cards and do not because they are outside the system, they have been ignored. Technology won’t improve that.
This (UID) is not a panacea for all the problems. This is an enabler which will allow more effective public delivery.
Which is why the order of money involved could be better spent in targeting education, sanitation and health, not to mention child malnutrition, because you would actually then get real benefits rather than what I am describing as notional benefits.
In a country where we are spending Rs 1,00,000-2,00,000 crore a year on different kinds of subsidies and social benefits, to make investment which is a part of that, one-time, to make those investments more efficient, is definitely well worth it.
Is it a one-time investment? Frontline magazine says the government’s estimate of Rs 1.5 lakh crore does not include recurring cost. And we don’t know by how much.
On the scale of money that we spend on public programmes and the ability of the project to deliver better public programmes, it will be well worth it.
I put it to you again, there are so many imponderables about technology, size and cost, that is it wise for a poor country like ours, where there are huge levels of poverty (the Arjun Sen Gupta Committee report says 80 per cent of India live under Rs 20 a day), to be spending this sort of money on this project?
The government has come to the conclusion that this project is strategic and worth it. I have been invited to lead this project. I believe it is viable and I will do my best to make it viable.
How can you ensure the database you are creating will be secure, that it won’t be misused and won’t result in an invasion of privacy?
A very legitimate concern. We are looking at how to make it secure. We are saying nobody can read this database. All they can do is verify the authenticity of an identity. You can ask a question like, is X, X? and the only answer we will give is yes or no. But there is no question that once the UID is implemented and becomes ubiquitous in many applications, then there are challenges of privacy. And, with this project, we have to put in other checks and balances, including laws.
Professor Ian Angle of the LSE, a world renowned authority on precisely the creation of such a database, says with relevance to England, and it will apply even more to India, that what you are going to end up with is the “Olympic games of hacking”. You are going to provide people the biggest challenge to hack through. No one believes in the perfectability of computers, so hackers will hack and succeed.
A legitimate concern and we will have to design it as good as possible. The important thing is — is the risk of hacking and privacy large enough not to do this project? And the view is that the project has so many significant benefits for the poor, in making it inclusive and in giving them a chance to participate in the country’s progress, that it is worth it and we have to mitigate those risks.
You are creating a system which, in the wrong hands, would be a powerful tool for either religious or caste profiling. How can you ensure unscrupulous politicians won’t misuse it?
We are not keeping any profiling attributes in our database. No details of people’s caste?
No. In which case, how can you say to me that you will better target benefits at BPL and other categories? If you don’t know someone is SC or ST, if you don’t know they are OBC, how can you ensure better targetting?
That is the responsibility of the applicant that provides those services.
So, then they will add in that feature into your detail?
That is outside our system. Our system has only basic attributes like the name, address, date of birth. You are creating a weapon which you may not misuse but others could?
Today, we have electronic databases in the country which potentially can be used the way you are suggesting. We are not doing something different from what already exists.
In the UK, the US and in Australia, because the authorities couldn’t respond to public concerns about misuse, they have effectively put on the backburner consideration of similar schemes. If developed countries cannot tackle misuse, how can India, where 35 per cent of the people are illiterate and 22 per cent live below the poverty line?
What these developed countries have put on hold is giving national ID cards to people. But both the US and UK, have a number. In the US, you have the social security number; in the UK, there is the national insurance number. They already have a numbering system, which is what we are going to propose.
Except that it is nowhere near as extensive or as complete in terms of the biometeric details as what you are proposing in India. The national insurance in Britain has been around and developing slowly but it doesn’t have any details that could lead to an invasion of privacy. It doesn’t have any details that can be misused for profiling. Yours could have both.
These are legitimate concerns and we have to address them. But the social benefit, the inclusivity, this project will provide for the 700 million people in this country who are outside the system is immense enough to justify doing this project.
How will you handle the inevitable problems of internal migration or illegal immigration? How will you ensure the wrong people aren’t captured in your system and given an identity and made Indian?
Having this number does not confer any rights, benefits or any entitlements. All it does is confirm that X is X.
There are 100 ways of doing that. Why are we spending close to Rs 1.5 lakh crore just to be able to claim X is X?
To have a system which uses a unique identifier like biometrics, having a system which ensures there are no duplicates and having a system that provides online authentication is, we believe, something that can have a lot of social benefits for the poor.
The LSE conclusion, when they reviewed a potential British concept along the lines of what you are doing in India, was: “The success of a national identity system depends on a sensitive cautious and cooperative approach involving all key stakeholders, including an independent and rolling assessment and regular review of management practices”, and the LSE concluded that did not exist in the UK. If it does not exist there, that environment certainly doesn’t exist in India.
We are trying to make sure all the checks and balances are there. We will have a very wide consultative process. We will involve everybody. We will make it public. All these are legitimate concerns and we have an obligation to meet these concerns.
Chennai, Sept. 30 Businesses will benefit from using the Unique Identification Number that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) hopes to issue to all residents of India, the Chairman of the Authority, Mr Nandan Nilekani, said on Wednesday.
For example, a telecom company could save costs of verification of the identity of each new mobile subscriber, Mr Nilekani said.
Another example: the State governments typically spend between Rs 20 and Rs 50 to issue a ration card. They could use the UIN and save substantially.
Speaking to journalists of The Hindu group of publications here, Mr Nilekani said that the Authority expects to issue the first UIN anytime between 12 and 18 months from now.
It expects to have at least 600 million-strong database in four years from then.
Mr Nilekani stressed that all that the Authority would do is to provide online authentication of identity. The number is only for identification, and not for any other purpose such as proving citizenship or entitlement to State benefits.
While there are other countries that have issued identification numbers to citizens, the system of ‘online verification of authentication of identity’ is unique, he said.
To work with partners
Explaining the features of the unique identification project, he said that the Authority would give only a number, not a card, to residents. To reach out to the masses, it will work with ‘partners’.
The partners could be any organisation that is in touch with the public – such as banks, insurance companies, government departments and passport offices.
In fact, the biggest ‘partner’ of the Authority is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Authority, which works with 80 million families or about 200 million people across the country.
These partners will ‘enrol’ the people they deal with. For example, a bank may ‘enrol’ its new customers into the UIDAI database.
Standardised process
The process of enrolment will be standardised and simple. Prints of all the ten fingers, a picture of the person and some basic demographic details – such as address, age – will be collected and fed into the UIDAI database. There will be penalties for those who seek UIN on false data.
Once enrolled, the person will be given a randomly chosen number.
Thereupon, whenever a need arises for verifying the identity of the person – like opening a bank account or checking into a hotel – the person would only need to give the number and press his fingers into a biometric reader.
Within seconds, the verifier would get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. No details will be provided. Similarly, address verification is also possible. Asked about the cost of this mammoth project, Mr Nilekani said the Authority as yet had “no fix on the cost”. However, he said, the costs are a one-time incurrence, but the benefits would flow in perpetuity.
Huge savings
The project would bring in good and more inclusive governance. Mr Nilekani gave the example of LPG connections, where about a fifth of out of the estimated 110 million connections are under non-existent names. Assuming an annual subsidy payout of about Rs 800 per cylinder per year, the unintended subsidy paid works out to over Rs 1,600 crore – on only one commodity, LPG.
Also, over time, the Authority intends to charge for address verification.
Mr Nilekani said that a law would have to be brought in to enable the project and the Authority is working on it.
Favourable response
He said that he had been meeting with top officials of various States, (the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, for instance, on Wednesday) and the response has been entirely in favour of the project. Further, there is a big offer of support from well-settled Indians abroad, for the project which is seen by them as both beneficial to the country as well as “technologically stimulating.”
“Unsolicited, I have received a few hundred e-mails from people all over the world who want to work with us on the project,” he said, pointing out that the project work itself is very pioneering, a voyage into unchartered territory.
Giving an idea of the complexity of the operations, Mr Nilekani said that suppose after four years, the Authority has a data base of 400 million persons and on a particular day there is a demand from 3 million people for enrolment, then each of the data of the 3 million will have to be checked against the 400 million data fields to rule out duplication – in one night. This will require huge processing power, he said.
We are doing online authentication: Nandan Nilekani
20 Oct 2009, 1052 hrs IST, Shelley Singh & Shailesh Dobhal, ET Bureau
Nandan Nilekani, 55, is running one of the most watched projects in the world — giving every Indian a number. Sounds simple, yet it’s one of the
most complex jobs in the world. Challenges span creating a foolproof technology platform that will enable desktop to mobile device authentication, besides eliminating duplication, the bane of all cards issued in India. Out of his spartan first floor, number 124 office at New Delhi’s Yojana Bhawan, Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI), is tapping the world for the best skills, technology and ideas. The former co-chairman of Infosys talked to ET about the project, why global majors are interested, his hunt for the best available talent in the world to execute the project. Excerpts:
There’s a global interest in the Indian unique identity (UID) project. What exactly will the number do?
We are going to give a number. There’s no card to be issued by UIAI. The card will be issued by a body that has a purpose of benefit, like PAN card, passport, NREGA job card. These are products which have a purpose. They will embed the UID number in their products. UID number is not a separate card, but every one of these products will have the UID number. The value of our system is that we will have a centralised database and make sure that there are no duplicates. The bane of all our (card) systems today is the large number of duplicates, ghosts of all kinds and impersonations. Once you have a unique number per person, you can ensure there are no duplicates.
The whole world has shown interest — Microsoft, Intel and most Indian companies. What’s the size of the business?
We don’t yet know the size of the business, but there’s a role for the managed service providers who will run our outsourcing. We are going to outsource the data repository function. There’s a huge role for parallel processing computation because we have to do de-duplication. Authentication has to be online, real-time and these are very compute-intensive functions. There’s lot of technology there. There’s a huge role for biometrics as we have to capture the biometrics at the point of enrollment. There’s a huge role for connectivity. We will depend on the mobile network to actually carry the traffic for authentication.
We are not giving out the business. We are not going to buy a single scanner (for say, biometrics). It will be bought by our partners. We will just have some standards for scanners or whatever will be the enrollment equipment.
What’s the biggest challenge. Designing the technology, the legendary Indian red-tape, privacy concern or what?
Technology is cutting edge. A project of this scale has not been done before . The largest biometric data base is 120 million in the US. We are doing 10X, that is 1.2 billion. That itself is unprecedented. We are doing online authentication. Nobody is doing it online . We are doing cell phone authentication . Nobody has done that either. It’s doable as technology is there, but nobody has put it all together. It’s a huge task and de-duplication is a big challenge.
Let us not underestimate the complexity of this technology, which is challenge number one. There’s a challenge of enrollment as well — how do you give 1.2 billion people a number? For that we need partners. Partners will be state governments, LIC, SBI and so on. A lot of the time is going in evangelising the UID concept with stakeholders so that they understand the value of UID and agree to a winwin with us. Lot of time goes in building the stakeholder consensus. The response has been very positive.
How about deleting from the database, say someone who has died.
If we get the death certificate we put a flag in the database and say deceased. If not, there will be no activity on that number and the number won’t be reused. The data just sits there.
There have been reports that you are looking at only government for hiring.
There’s a central office here (in Delhi ) with the director general and some deputy DGs. There are eight regional offices which will work with the states. The technology centre is in Bangalore which will look at the technology platform. Among all these people we will have a wide number of registrars.
There will be mix of people from government and from the private sector. We are looking at good people from both within the government and outside — it will be a mixed team. It is a four people team at present and eventually will be a few hundred people.
What are you looking at in the people you are picking up for the project?
Good caliber, intellect, high integrity and people who are enthusiastic. This is about change. We are trying to bring change in the country through this project. We are looking for people with `can do’ spirit.
Would there be a CTO of the project?
Yes, there will be. We have a lot of technology people already helping us. At present we are interviewing people (for the CTO position). Plus we have support from top professors of Indian origin from around the world . For example Professor Sanjay Sarma, from MIT, who is an authority on RFID, Prof. Abhijit Banerjee from MIT, Prof Sendhil Mullainathan at Harvard and Prof Raghuram Rajan at Chicago. They are all top guys, world famous in their fields, who are informally helping . We are thinking of forming some global academic councils. All these people are giving us very free and plentiful advice.
How is the UID going, Mr Nilekani?
Manjula Pooja Shroff
Saturday, October 24, 2009 8:25 IST
India’s technological giant Infosys has already established its keen interest in the area of corporate social responsibilities. It has set standards for other business houses to follow with its exemplary work in areas of literacy, mid-day meal scheme for government schools and uplifting women.
Yet, one of the biggest sacrifices Infosys made a couple of months ago to the cause of social development was when Nandan Nilekani stepped down of its co-chairman to head the Unique Identification (UID) Authority of India.
The UID card is India’s gigantic plan to codify and officially register its one billion people, besides having additional multitude benefits of checking leakage in the public subsidy system and to emphasise the gains of poverty alleviation projections such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). An additional goal is to check illegal immigrants and thereby keep a check on terrorist threats.
The budget of the project is Rs120 crore. Given that India already has multiple agencies issuing cards such as ration cards, PAN cards issued by the income tax department, election voting cards, and now NREGA cards, consolidating all these into one UID card is an impending task ahead for the project.
This undertaking of registering all Indians, especially villagers from rural and the remotest corners of the nation for the cost of Re1 per citizen is as challenging as any assignment can get.
Similar to the social security number in the United States, the UIDs will have the basic information such as date of birth, permanent address, name of parents, photographs and biometrics. With increasing terrorism in the world, the American security system has begun to record four finger prints rather than just thumb nail prints.
It remains to be seen if the UID will use the biometrics for more than the thumbprint.
Since the project is working on a demand based process, which essentially means that each citizen will have to apply for the registration of the UID, one can only hope that villagers living in secluded locations see the benefits of this process.
For instance, if a villager travels to any city, the UID number will identify him, there will not be any further need for him to prove his identity and the benefits of child immunisation, ration subsidies and a job guarantee through NREGA – all this is proposed to be streamlined through the UID.
The existing corruption levels in India, where a ration card can be bought for Rs500, puts additional load for the UID to verify for authentic data. Another challenge is to ensure that the information of the citizens captured in UID is not misused and that complete privacy is maintained.
While we are eagerly looking forward for the first phase of the project to roll out the first lot of UID, Nikelani is kick starting his project by setting up offices, recruiting a team of experts and creating the architecture for the design of the project. Heading the UID gives Nilekani a cabinet rank, but in his own words in an interview to India Abroad, he says that he still misses the Infosys, where he spent over 30 years. He misses the camaraderie, his colleagues, the ambience and the Infosys work culture.
Yale varsity to honour Nilekani with Leadership Award
3 Nov 2009, 2132 hrs IST, IANS
WASHINGTON: Nandan Nilekani, Infosys co-founder and chairman of India’s Unique Identification Database Authority, is set to become the first
Indian to receive Yale university’s prestigious Legend in Leadership Award.
The award of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute will be presented to Nilekani by varsity’s president Richard C. Levin at a ceremony in New Delhi Nov 6, the New Haven based business school announced Tuesday.
The Yale CEO Leadership Summit will bring together over 100 world-renowned business leaders in New Delhi Nov 5-6 to discuss the theme of “Navigating the Global Oceans of Opportunity for Indian Business.”
The universal ID card project under Nilekani, who co-founded IT bellwether Infosys in 1981 and served as its CEO from 2002 to 2007, is expected to help ensure that most of the billions of dollars India and other organisations spend on aid reach the people for whom it was intended.
In 2009, Time magazine placed Nilekani on the Time 100 list of the World’s Most Influential People.
He is the inspiration for New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s book “The World Is Flat”.
Nilekani’s own book, “Imagining India,” dissected a range of political, economic and social issues confronting the country.
In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honours awarded by the government of India.
The Legend in Leadership Award was created 20 years ago to honour current and former CEOs who serve as living legends to inspire chief executives across industries, sectors, and nations.
Past winners of the award include: Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, Robert Iger of The Walt Disney Company, Stephen Schwarzman of The Blackstone Group, Roger Enrico of PepsiCo, John Pepper of Proctor & Gamble and Don Keough of The Coca-Cola.
The Yale CEO Leadership Summit is an invitation-only event that is held each June and December in New York city by The Chief Executive Leadership Institute, part of the Yale School of Management. The Institute is the world ‘s first school for incumbent CEOs.
The New Delhi summit, The Chief Executive Leadership Institute’s 60th programme and its first in India, is organised in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The US-India Business Council is a strategic partner for the event.
Supporters of the event include: PepsiCo, UPS, HSBC India, Modi Enterprises, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC), GAIL (India) Ltd, and the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL).
The Man Behind India’s ID Card Program
Can Nilekani, the former head of Infosys, cut government bureaucracy with his visionary new scheme?
By Mehul Srivastava and Steve Hamm
BW Magazine
Bangalore – As a pioneer of the outsourcing industry and a co-founder of Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies (INFY), Nandan M. Nilekani was among the first to unleash the potential of modern India. Now the 54-year-old billionaire is shifting his focus to the vast majority of Indians who haven’t benefited from the tech boom. For his latest scheme, Nilekani is venturing into a sector he has criticized for years: India’s sprawling government bureaucracy.
On July 13, Nilekani, who has given up his board seat at Infosys, assumed a post as a $2,000-a-month government employee in New Delhi. From his makeshift office, he is launching a massive effort to provide each of India’s 1.2 billion people with an ID card embedded with a microchip. Nilekani sees this decade-long project leading to a vast national database, packed with info from facial scans to financial accounts. “It’s the mother of all IT projects,” he says. The goal is to help bring masses of India’s poor into the formal economy, where they can gain access to financial and social services.
Equally important, a smart card for every Indian could bring new accountability to government bureaucracy. Corruption siphons as much as 80% of the funds meant for India’s poor, according to studies from Harvard Business School and the World Bank. In Nilekani’s plan, card scans could verify that goods and money make their way from local administrators to the people.
Naturally, such a change runs against powerful entrenched interests, from corrupt contractors to government employees who leech from the system. So the political challenges Nilekani faces are every bit as daunting as counting India’s people—one-sixth of humanity—and providing each with a high-tech tool. To boost the effort, India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has invited Nilekani into his government, granting him nearly the power of a Cabinet minister. The initial budget is $20 million—a mere down payment on a total that should run into the billions.
Similar efforts have stumbled. Nine years ago the government distributed voter ID cards featuring a grainy photograph of the voter, partially verified addresses, and tracking numbers. That program is now rife with corruption, with millions of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Nepal buying the ID cards on the black market to get food rations and residency permits. A taxpayer ID, called the PAN card, is still being rolled out, but only a fraction of the population—the 10% with bank savings or jobs in the organized sector—can get one, and fake cards go for $14 on the black market.
POSTAL ACCOUNTS
But one earlier pilot project shows promise. In 2007, Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest info-tech company, issued ID cards to rural workers with short-term government contracts in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It insisted that wages be deposited into bank accounts managed by the Indian Post Service. “This resulted in verification of identification and a clampdown on fund leakages,” says S. Ramadorai, CEO of the outsourcing giant. What’s more, the program led 2.5 million workers who were outside the formal economy to open their first bank accounts.
That number is a rounding error in Nilekani’s massive scheme. In the first three years alone, 100 million cards are expected to be handed out as part of an extended pilot program. Companies from India and around the world, including Nilekani’s Infosys, are hoping to win a piece of the action. (Nilekani promises to recuse himself from contract decisions.) Only as the project unfolds will we start to see if the man who redefined Indian business can leave an even larger impact on the country.
Srivastava reports for BusinessWeek from New Delhi. Hamm is a senior writer for BusinessWeek in New York and author of the Globespotting blog.
Paying some extra money allows people to choose the number they want for their vehicles or cellphones. But there will be no such provision when it comes to the unique identification (UID) number which the government will implement soon. The unique ID numbers would be generated by the system randomly and could not be changed by any means, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani asserted here today.
Speaking at the BangaloreIT.Biz 2009, Nilekani said the UID number would have no intelligence and there would not be any special provision to get a desired number.
UIDAI plans to come out with a manual which will provide detailed guidelines to the organisations that are planning to use the unique identity numbers to make them UID-ready. Nilekani said the manual which was expected to be made public in the next six months, would help the partners to modify the existing applications in their systems to make it compatible with the UIDAI software.
“If you are going to become our partners, and want to put the UID numbers in the database, then you will have to fit our enrolment software into your applications … all these will come in a manual on how to become UID ready which will be out in about six months from now,” Nilekani said.
On the progress of the unique ID project, Nilekani said two committees had been appointed to expedite the process. The first committee on biometric is being headed by National Informatics Centre Director General B K Gairola, while the data standards and verification committee which oversees the data enrollment and verification process, is being headed by N Vittal, the former chief vigilance commissioner of India.
Both the committees were expected to come out with their reports in the next couple of months, Nilekani added.
Besides, UIDAI is soon going to appoint a consultant who will help it in preparing the request for proposals and selecting the managed services provider who will manage the data centre.
The UID is a complex and ambitious project with technology sophistication and scale of 1.2 billion people. The department would work on private-public partnership (PPP) model for various tasks and process. The UIDAI will be the regulatory authority managing a central ID Data Repository (CIDR) which will issue UID numbers, update resident information and authenticate the identity of the residents as required.
Nilekani said that the first set of UID numbers was expected to be issued within the next 12 to 18 months from August 12 this year. In the first 5-6 years, UIDAI aims to provide unique identity numbers to at least 600 million residents. Even though UID has not been made mandatory in the beginning, the government would revisit the decision when the number becomes ubiquitous in the next 5-10 years, he added.
Need ID card info, pay: Nandan’s revenue model
Smita Aggarwal Tags : Unique Identification, UID project, Nandan Nilekani Posted: Wednesday, Nov 18, 2009 at 0938 hrs New Delhi:
Nandan nilekani
Nilekani has weaved in annual revenues of Rs 288 crore in UIDAI — money that will make the project self-sustainable.
The co-founder of Infosys Technologies has weaved in annual revenues of Rs 288 crore in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), of which he is chairman — money that will part-offset project costs estimated at Rs 3,000 crore, and make it self-sustainable.
The unique identification number will authenticate an individual to private companies and public sector entities for a small transaction fee. The UIDAI proposes to charge user companies Rs 5 to verify each address, and Rs 10 for every biometrics confirmation, once the system is fully in place.
The UIDAI may also explore the option of charging beneficiaries of the cards to offset enrolment costs. The Authority estimates it may cost Rs 20-25 to enroll each resident, adding up to Rs 3,000 crore.
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Nilekani told The Indian Express that “by providing identity authentication, the UIDAI will be taking on a process that costs agencies and service providers hundreds of crores every year”.
“The Authority will charge a fee for its authentication services, which will offset its long-term costs. Registrars and service providers will also be able to charge for the cards they issue residents with the UID number,” Nilekani said.
A physical verification of an address and other information about an individual generally costs a company between Rs 100 and Rs 500. The basic identity confirmation will be provided free to firms, which would merely generate a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to confirm the identity based on the UID number, name and an additional parameter. This service could potentially be of use to airlines to check in passengers.
Paid-for authentication services like address verification and biometrics confirmation would begin after the central database has been sufficiently strengthened. According to the UIDAI, address verification may fetch Rs 159.55 crore per annum, and biometrics confirmation could bring in another Rs 128.60 crore per annum.
UIDAI thinks this service could be used by banks, credit card companies, mobile operators and government agencies that issue passports, PAN cards and gas connections. Government agencies may be given a subsidised rate, Nilekani said.
To address security and privacy concerns, the agencies which request a resident authentication service will have to be registered with the UIDAI, and follow strict guidelines in using the service and managing resident information.
ID card agency to rope utilities to enroll people
November 19th, 2009 – 1:00 pm ICT by ANI
New Delhi, Nov 19 (ANI): Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chief Nandan Nilekani has said that various banks, tax authorities, utilities and other service providers would be roped in to enroll people for the issue of unique identification numbers.
Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Nilekani said: “UIDAI will roll out the gigantic scheme in one-and-a-half year’s time and would cover 600 million people in five-and-a-half years.
“We have lots and lots of agencies that issue some kind of a product to the people and we see them as our registrar, they will help us to enroll into a system, which means that NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), which is a partner, says that for a particular date in future they want all their job cards to have UID then anybody comes for a job card but doesn’t have a UID, NREGA will enroll that person on our behalf,” he added.
Nilekani said the UIDAI would not issue any ID card to the 1.2 billion people across the country but the various agencies could issue the biometric card mentioning the UID Number to individuals for which the agency could charge nominal fees.
“It is not a card, it is just a number. If the agency issuing the number has a fee then they will charge. Like for example Pan Card, if they charge a fee, then they may charge, but for the poor, hopefully, there will not be any charge,” he said.
The government has allocated rupees one billion to the UIDAI in the current budget to March 2010.
The Unique Identification Number is an innovative project of the Central Government whereby every bonafide citizen will have a unique identification, biometric signature and other details.
It aims to eliminate the need for multiple identification mechanism prevalent across various government departments and ensure that each Indian citizen will carry a permanent identifier from birth to death. (ANI)
UID: Authentication to fetch Rs 288 cr annually
BS Reporter / New Delhi November 18, 2009, 0:52 IST
The Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) pegs its annual revenue potential through both address verification and biometrics confirmation at Rs 288.15 crore.
Nandan NilekaniIn a draft document of the authority, the UIDAI has identified three transaction types. The basic ID confirmation will be free, where potential user agencies could be, for instance, the airlines which do passenger check-ins.
The second type of transaction is that of ‘address verification’, which will cost Rs 5 and can be levied by banks when users open accounts. The third one comprises ‘biometrics confirmation, for which Rs 10 can be charged. Its potential user agencies can be credit card companies, states the draft paper.
“The revenue estimates are based on the current expenditure of various agencies on Know Your Resident (KYR) processes, which would be replaced by the authority’s authentication services. It also takes into account the expected growth in demand for mobile connections, bank accounts, etc,” the draft paper states.
For basic identity confirmation, which is free, the authenticator will provide the UID number, name and one other parameter, such as the date of birth of the person, after which a central database will confirm the identity with either a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ response.
In address verification, the UIDAI will offer the UID, name and address to the Central ID Data Repository, which will confirm the address. Hence, the agency that requires the address proof will not have to do a physical address verification.
For biometrics confirmation, the agency that needs a person’s biometrics can send the scanned photograph or fingerprint (based on the security level required) together with other demographic details to confirm the identity of the person.
“The authority will charge a fee for its authentication services, which will offset its long-term costs. Registrars and service providers will also be able to charge for the cards they issue residents with the UID number. Such pricing will be within UIDAI guidelines,” the draft states.
600 million to be covered in 4 yrs
The UIDAI will start issuing UIDs in 12-18 months and the authority plans to cover 600 million people within four years from the start of the project and India will be the first country to implement a biometric-based unique ID system for its residents on such a large scale.
Enrolment for the UID number is expected to reach a critical mass of around 200 million residents in two-three years.
Moreover, the UIDAI will employ a GIS internet-based visual reporting system to track enrolment trends and patterns across India.
Once the UID number is assigned, the authority will forward the resident a letter which contains his/her registered demographic and biometric details and a tearaway portion, which has the UID number, name, photograph and a 2D barcode of the fingerprint minutiae digest. If there are any mistakes in the demographic details, the resident can contact the relevant registrar/enrolling agency in 15 days.
In addition to the enrollers, the UIDAI will also partner with the Registrar General of India (RGI) who will prepare the National Population Register through the Census 2011 to reach and enroll as many residents as possible.
Residents can also update their information with the UIDAI. The UID number is a lifetime number, but the biometric information contained in the central database will have to be regularly updated. Children may have to update their biometric information every five years, while adults update their information every 10 years.
Need to link UID with actual service delivery
However, implementers of the project have also highlighted its limitations.
“While the UID can provide the strongest form of pre-verification and identity authentication, it cannot ensure that targeted benefit programmes reach intended beneficiaries. The pro-poor impact of the UID, consequently, will not gain traction unless there is a mechanism to link the UID process with actual service delivery,” the draft notes.
Nilekani pitches UID to offset bogus ration cards
fe Bureaus
Posted: Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009 at 0114 hrs IST
Updated: Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009 at 0114 hrs IST
New Delhi: Even as agriculture minister Sharad Pawar revealed on Tuesday that over 1.5 crore bogus ration cards have been unearthed in the last two months alone, Nandan Nilekani is trying to get states to log on to the unique identification platform to ensure that subsidised PDS foodgrain reaches intended beneficiaries.
“We are working with the food & civil supplies department in the agriculture ministry to explain to states the advantages of using UIDs for schemes like PDS. We have held one workshop in the Capital attended by all states. We have also visited 12 states and explained to them how the UID would work,” Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani said at an Idea Exchange programme hosted by The Express Group.
Nilekani, co-founder and former chairman of Infosys Technologies, refused to name the states that have evinced interest in the UIDAI’s pitch so far. However, from what Pawar told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, some states have begun to take the problem of fake ration cards seriously.
“In September, we wrote to states asking them to verify their ration card holders’ database after two separate reports–by the programme evaluation wing of the Planning Commission and independent research firm ORG-Marg–pointed to large-scale discrepancies in beneficiary lists and diversion of foodgrain sent by the Centre,” Pawar said.
The minister, however, lamented that not all states are serious about cleaning up PDS beneficiary lists. “In some states, the number of beneficiaries is more than the Centre’s estimate. In Tamil Nadu, the entire population has been given BPL cards. In some states, we are getting complaints that the quantum of grain given is less—20 kg or so–compared with the 35 kg (per BPL household) we send,” he revealed.
fe Bureaus
Posted: Friday, Nov 27, 2009 at 0000 hrs IST
New Delhi: The health ministry has sought the Unique Identification Number Authority of India project head Nandan Nilekani’s assistance in creating a database of children from humble background who could be allotted electronic health cards. The cards would be handed over to parents and guardians of the children who would form part of the database. This would enable them access to free medical treatment in all the state-owned hospitals including primary healthcare centres. The decision was formalised on Wednesday at a meeting between Nilekani and minister of state for health and family welfare Dinesh Trivedi.
“The health ministry has decided to assign the job of creating a database for children born under the open sky to Nandan Nilekani. He would have to share the database with the health ministry. The ministry can, in turn, refer and issue electronic health cards to these children of humble background,” Trivedi said at Assocham Knowledge Millenium Summit.
The health ministry would work towards increasing the ratio of health expenditure to national GDP, in consultation with the finance ministry, for the electronic cards. These cards once issued would entitle targeted children to avail free medical treatment in all state-owned hospitals.
Also, the health ministry has asked the UIDAI project head to work out modalities for setting up a national health portal that would house all medical facilities available in state-owned hospitals. This would serve as a one-point platform for the population and offer people all possible options to access medical information related to hospitals, doctors and specialty among others.
Besides disseminating health-related information among the masses, the National Health Portal would also help registering births by applying online. “Standing in the queue for registering a birth certificate would soon be over as the National Health Portal would help one file the application and get the certificate online,” he said.
Tags : theideaexchange, column Posted: Sunday , Nov 29, 2009 at 0550 hrs
Nandan Nilekani
Nandan Nilekani
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MIHIR SHARMA: What exactly does the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) project seek to achieve?
The most important feature of UIDAI is that it will issue a number, not a card, to every Indian resident. It will be a random number. When you look at the number you won’t be able to make out anything about the individual. We want to make sure there are no duplicates. If you look at other databases, like the ration card database, you find a lot of duplicates. We plan to have one number per person and we propose to do this by using biometrics. We will have all 10 fingerprints, a photograph of the face and possibly of the iris too because we need something that really gives us uniqueness. To make sure there are no duplicates is the most complex technological problem. If three years from now our database has 400 million names and we get one million new people who want a number, each of those one million records has to be compared against the 400 million to check for duplication.
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The database will carry biometric information and very simple biographic/demographic information: name, date of birth, sex, address, etc. It will have no profiling attributes, it is just for verifiability of identity. The challenge is that a large number of people don’t have good documentation of their identity. A poor person who is homeless and uneducated typically doesn’t have a birth certificate or an address. Since the purpose of this project is inclusion—to give these people an identity—we have to be prepared for the lack of documentation. We will do the basic verification of identity; each individual application that uses this database can do additional verification that is relevant to their application. For instance, when you go for a passport, you have to undergo police verification, etc. We’ll also provide online authentication of ID—if somebody wants to authenticate himself to operate his bank account, that person can be authenticated in real time at the location. The authentication point will have a device with a mobile phone and a fingerprint reader. The person will give his name and number, put his finger on the fingerprint reader. This will lead to an online call to our central database centre that, within a few seconds, will verify the man’s identify.
ARCHNA SHUKLA: The database will have basic information which is already there on the voter’s ID card. Won’t this be a duplication?
This is only for verification and you cannot read the database. The only answer the database gives is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Also, nobody can read this information even if they know your details. Only you can see your own data.
ARCHNA SHUKLA: With a mammoth database, how will you ensure privacy?
We’ll secure it. People may want to hack into it and that’s a technical problem that we’ll have to solve. The online authentication is unique; as far as we know, no country has this technology.
COOMI KAPOOR: This database could be of great help to the police if you allow them to use it.
The primary purpose of this is to improve public services. This will allow us to authenticate people and ensure that the deserving get the benefits. The authentication service can be used by anyone. We know that verifying an ID is a common challenge across all our applications, be it issuing a ration card an NREG job card or applying for an LPG connection, etc. We will face certain challenges with documents. One is that documents are, in some sense, against the poor. Secondly, documents often tend to be circular in nature: for a ration card, they ask you to show your driving license; for a driving license, they ask you to show your passport—it’s a kind of loop which is difficult to break, especially for those who don’t have the documentation. Thirdly, documents are often ‘created’ or fabricated. We’ll create and verify only the ID of every person. This will be an ID verification service that can be used by anyone in the country who needs to verify someone for a variety of purposes, both in the public and private sector. All residents of India, including infants, who meet the verification norms we’ve got will be given the number. Infants don’t have fully developed biometrics so we’ll have to recapture their biometrics when they reach adulthood. To track infants, we’ll have the mother or guardian’s number along with the infant’s number. UID is not mandatory. The mandatory nature of this number depends on the user. Basically, we remove the cloak of anonymity of the individuals.
AMITABH SINHA: The database number would be of 12 digits. Since you are not issuing a card, how will people remember their numbers?
The number will be of 16 digits (12+4)—12-digits will be in the public domain, four digits will be the PIN that will be personal. So it can be memorised. Also, every product you get will have this number: ration cards, job cards, etc. Also, you’ll be issued a letter from us mentioning your UID number. The number will so ubiquitous, people will find ways to memorise it. The idea is to be inclusive. Today, the upper and middle classes in India have many forms of identity—credit cards, driving license, PAN cards but the poor often don’t have any form of identity. There are 75 million homeless people in the country and a lot of nomadic people—all of them don’t have an ID. We think UID will enhance their access to public services. It will clearly help us enhance our flagship schemes most of which are individual-oriented: NREGA, JSY for pregnant women, etc. It will also reduce the fraud in the system as there will no duplicates or ghosts who’ll be claiming benefits. It will strengthen security as anyone without the number will be noticed and can be tracked under the appropriate laws.
VINAY SITAPATI: Your focus is on the welfare aspects of the UID. But the idea originates from the Vajpayee government’s desire to curb Bangladeshi migration, and got a fillip after 26/11. Isn’t the main purpose security?
You are right, the government in 2003 did modify the Citizenship Act to create the National Citizenship Register, which is now the National Population Register (NPR) but that’s primarily an initiative by the Registrar General of India. This government took an initiative to have a unique ID for developmental purposes. UIDAI came out of that initiative.
This initiative came out of the desire to develop public services and give an identity to those who don’t have one. It is part of the 11th Plan. This is a massively complex project as our biometric database will consist of 1.2 billion records which is 10 times larger than the current largest biometric record. A lot of the technology issues are not yet sorted out. This has implications for the privacy and security of individuals.
VIKAS DHOOT: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has said states have found 1.5 crore bogus ration card holders milking the Public Distribution System. Can the UID help fix such situations?
UID by itself will not solve the issue. The application of UID in a given context will solve it. If a state decides to have UID in all its ration cards, then somebody who has a ration card with the UID cannot come again on another ration card with another UID. So UID will ensure there are no duplicates. We are providing a capability to agencies to re-engineer their public service deliveries but the decision to re-engineer has to be theirs.
SURABHI AGARWAL: How will you motivate the upper- and middle-class to register for this as most of them already have different kinds of documentation?
Suppose the income tax department decides to incorporate UID in the PAN cards. If someone doesn’t have a UID, it will act as an enroller on our behalf. If a person already has a UID number, it will issue a PAN card with a UID number. Initially, you may not need a UID but sooner or later, you’ll get in touch with an agency which is UID compliant.
ARCHNA SHUKLA: But you said UID is not mandatory?
UID is not mandatory but a given application/ agency that uses this number in their operations may decide that UID is a must. We think that UID will be demand driven. Once you have your ID for life, it can be authenticated anywhere in the country. People will want to have this number, especially the poor. This system will be self-cleaning: there will be one record per person, so you will have an interest to make sure your data is clean. It will also have benefits for registrars like banks or states. It will help to control leakages in public delivery systems, it will reduce the verification costs for the agencies. It will be easier to reach anybody and would thus make social programmes more accessible. Also, for those arms of government in the revenue business like the income tax department, it will help them to increase the taxes. Over time, everyone will have an UID and thus it’ll become difficult to evade taxes.
SHEKHAR GUPTA: When did the idea of the UID first come to you?
I had written a whole chapter on this in my book. Over time, the design has become more sophisticated. And the government decided to set up the UIDAI under the Planning Commission. So it was a good fit.
AMITABH SINHA: Is the design of the scheme complete now?
The broad design is over. Now we are in the phase where we are receiving feedback from different agencies.
SHEKHAR GUPTA: The central argument of your book, Imagining India, is that in India it takes a long time for an idea to be debated and discussed before it is implemented. Has a critical mass of debate and discussion preceded this?
Absolutely. The idea has been around for a long time so it has reached maturity. Increasingly, our social programmes are getting into direct benefits: health insurance, education for all. We are moving towards cash transfers. As more public spending moves in that direction, it needs to be more efficient. With the concept of inclusive growth, it is important to carry everyone with us. So from the people’s side and state’s side, the time has come for this. Technology has reached a level that makes it possible to pull this off. Whatever we’re proposing now couldn’t have been done five ago.
M.K. VENU: According to income tax records, there are barely four lakh people in this country with an income of Rs 10 lakh and above a year. Potentially, the number should be five million and above but they don’t come under the net because they don’t want to. Will UID help in the regard?
Different arms of government will see the benefits and implement it in their sphere of influence. The banking system may say that every account should have a UID. This will happen over time and it will ensure that the money in the system is accounted for.
M.K. VENU: Could this act as an incentive for people to come under the tax net and accrue the larger benefits arising out of it?
Yes. Also, at the top end, you’ll need this to get a driving license, a passport, a ration card, a PAN card or a bank account. People getting benefits will need this too, so from both sides it’ll become a prerequisite.
DHIRAJ NAYYAR: Is it not a possibility that banks may continue to deny bank accounts to the poor even after they have UIDs? They may insist on other requirements?
Both the public and the private sector banks and the RBI are part of our verification committee. We are trying to see how having a UID can give automatic benefits. We have already announced a tie-up with NREGA. We think this has the potential to get a couple of hundred million people into the system.
UNNI RAJEN SHANKER: Will this be linked to the Census?
We have an agreement with the Census Bureau, the ministry of Home Affairs and the RGI. As part of next year’s Census, there will be something called the National Population Register (NPR) and we have an agreement with the Home Ministry that the data feeds which are common to us will be synchronised. This is the how we can ensure a number to everybody.
SMITA AGGARWAL: What will be your liability towards the agencies since they are paying you for the data?
No, they’re not paying for the data. We plan to charge for the address verification and not for basic verification. Basic verification will be free.
PRAGATI VERMA: The database management will be outsourced. Who will be responsible if there is a security breach? Have you laid down the security and privacy norms?
No, it is being done. We’ve had consultations with the government agencies, which cover identity in some form or other, as well as with all the regulators—SEBI, RBI, PFRDA, IRDA, TRAI and 12 state governments. By January, we hope to meet all the states and the Election Commission. In the next 10-12 months, we aim to build the platform, the technology, and approve the biometrics. Within the next 18 months, we hope to issue the first set of numbers. And four years later, our goal is to have 600 million people in the system.
SMITA AGGARWAL: It’s about six months since you’ve been in this job. What have been your frustrations in being part of the system?
I have no frustrations at all. I have had excellent cooperation from everyone and extraordinary support from the PM. I’ve no complaints.
COOMI KAPOOR: What were the things you had to leave before taking up this job?
I quit all my private sector responsibilities, stepped down from all international boards, put all my money in non-discretionary organisations. Basically, I had a clean slate before coming here.
Banking heavily on the use of biometrics, the ten-digit Permanent Account Number (PAN) and the 16-digit Unique Identification (UID) Number are set to be linked up. The government has decided to link the plan for biometric PAN cards with the UID project. The finance ministry has already begun talking to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in this regard. “We are having discussions with the finance ministry. Both projects will be using biometrics, so it is a good choice,” UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani told FE.
The move comes at a time when both the income tax department and the UIDAI propose to use biometrics to verify the identity of citizens and avoid duplication of cards. More importantly, it would help the UIDAI get easy access to the nearly 70 million PAN cardholders.
It is free for airlines; banks, card companies et al must pay
Unique ID authority will charge fee for data
Subrahmanyan Viswanath, Bangalore, Dec 15, DHNS
The enrolment cost, under the ambitious Unique Identification (UID) project, is expected to cost a whopping Rs 3,000 crore, according to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), spearheaded by Chairman Nandan Nilekani. Further, enrolment of each resident is likely to cost between Rs 20 to Rs 25.
As a result, to meet the humongous cost, the authority, will levy transaction fee on potential user agencies availing its services. According to the confidential UIDAI working paper, made available to Deccan Herald, while it will provide authentication services to government agencies at subsidised rate, other user agencies would be levied transaction fee.
The authority proposes to provide chargeable authentication services of two types — address verification and biometrics confirmation. While for airlines it would offer free service for basic ID confirmation, banks, would have to pay Rs 5 for address verification for account opening, and credit card companies Rs 10 for biometrics confirmation.
Revenue scenarios
Likewise, projecting possible scenarios of steady income from service fee, it estimates total annual revenue of Rs 288.15 crore. From address verification Rs 159.55 crore and from biometric confirmation Rs 128.60 crore.
According to preliminary projections, from new mobile connections it expects Rs 19.59 crore, from PAN cards Rs 1.20 crore, from gas connections by PSUs Rs 1.50 crore, from passports Rs 6 lakh, from new LIC policies Rs 10.16 crore, from credit cards Rs 70 lakh, from bank accounts Rs 11.55 crore.
Justifying levying service charges, the authority says, it takes both government agencies and private sector firms anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 500 for address verification. Furthermore, it is usually done through physical visit besides another enquiry to confirm information provided. Hence, address authentication service by UIDAI will be valuable one.
Big ticket savings
Similarly, it observes that, issuing credit card or granting a loan, needs confirmation of resident’s identity, involving submission of photographs and other documentation.
With UIDAI, however, the agency (card companies / banks) can send scanned photograph or fingerprint (based on security level required) together with other demographic details to confirm identity.
Incidentally, the authority says, the revolutionary single, universal ID number by eliminating fraud and duplicate identities, will save the government exchequer upwards of Rs 20,000 crore annually.
Citing an example, it says Ministry of Petrolum & Natural Gas can save over Rs 1,200 crore a year in subsidies reportedly lost on LPG cylinders registered under duplicate or ghost identities.
The National ID Card Challenge for Nandan Nilekani.. Part I
Posted on June 27th, 2009
by naavi in All News, Country News, India News
Read 1,549 times.
It was a pleasant surprise to know that the Government of India thought it fit to pick a professional like Mr Nandan Nilekani and appoint him for one of the important projects such as the National ID Card (NIDC) Project. Our good wishes to Mr Nandan for a successful stint in this new role.
It may be recalled that the idea of National ID Card has been floating for some time and already pilot projects had been initiated in at least two states at enormous costs. The issue became a talking point during the elections when BJP announced in its manifesto the implementation of the “Multi Purpose National Identity (MNIC) cards”. Now Congress has grabbed the opportunity as the ruling party and one should appreciate the alacrity with which the Government has acted immediately on taking charge.
So far, this project of National ID has been a project which was driven by the Smart Card manufacturers who saw a golden opportunity of crores of smart cards being used in the project. Now this lobby will again be active and bringing pressure on Mr Nandan to ensure that their commercial interests are protected.
The undersigned has been repeatedly suggesting that the Citizen ID card project does not necessarily require a “Smart Card” with a large memory in the Chip. Naavi’s suggestions have also been examined closely by the Central Government (Ministry of Human Resources). Even the NeGP also seems to hold views similar to what Naavi had expressed earlier.
While Mr Nandan as an experienced IT professional can be expected to lead the project team to the most optimal solutions, we will be failing in our duty if we donot bring to the discussion board some of the suggestions which had been placed before the Government earlier even if they had not been considered for implementation earlier. It is our desire that the new project team under Mr Nandan should again evaluate these suggestions and reject it if not found suitable. I am therefore reproducing the salient parts of these suggestions.
Naavi’s suggestion of the use of a ZeMo card or what is called Zero Memory Card instead of the traditional smart card is built on the following key principles.
1. The essence of the NIDC project is the “Trusted Data Base”. Card is only an instrument of identity for the access. The success of the project therefore lies in building and maintaining a reliable data base.
2. In many applications it is not necessary for the “Data” to be “Embedded with the ID”. “Data” can be stored elsewhere and the ID can provide a pointer to the Data.
3. In many applications, unsatisfactory “Data Synchronization” between the memory based ID device (such as the Smart Card) can make the system dysfunctional.
4. Stored memory on ID cards which are in the hands of the public are amenable for manipulations which are more difficult to prevent and diagnose than manipulations of data in the hands of the Government in a data base.
5. Memory based Cards for a massive project such as NIDC can be a crippling burden on the economy.
6. A massive project of national interest has to be technology and vendor neutral
7. A security sensitive project such as NIDC need open source hardware and software solutions to ensure data integrity and information security.
Let’s now discuss each of these points in a little more detail to open up issues for discussion. The undersigned presents one point of view in the following paragraphs which are not necessarily correct or complete and readers are open to add their suggestions so that there would be a set of information available to the Nandan Committee to take decisions on…[To be Continued]
EDITORS, 08 Jul 2009
Questions for Nandan Nilekani: Chairman of UIDAI
Dear Nandan,
The central government recently appointed you, a Bangalorean, as the head of the ambitious Universal Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and you accepted. Congratulations. Please address one key question to set the right expectations amongst citizens early on.
In your book, Imagining India, you have rightly recognised that we are a country full of random, disconnected procedures for IDs and ‘ID proofing’. Everything from passports, to phone lines to ration cards to driver licenses, voter rolls, water connections, BPL cards, gas connections, bank accounts and more involves citizens interacting with a local, state or central government agency, PSU or private utilities. A change of address can be a nightmare. And as many, including yourself have noted, our government departments work in isolation, each having its own database with no linkage to other government databases.
The databases are usually not in good shape – problems of data entry, duplicate entries, dead entries, and more. Voter rolls and BPL cards are examples. More importantly, citizens have always had to deal with inconvenience when getting IDs. Given all this, the argument for a universal ID system cutting through crawling bureaucracies and dusty government departments was always going to have appeal, and emotive appeal even.
Our question
From what we can gather, in the first phase, the UIDAI is going to focus on helping central government benefit schemes better target hundreds of millions of citizen beneficiaries. This is laudable, but what about state government and local government schemes?
You know well that plenty of transactions at the local level are administered by state and local governments. These could definitely benefit from a universal ID too. In your book, you proposed a cross-cutting approach: whenever a citizen approaches any government agency (local, state, national), PSU, bank et cetera, a Universal ID for them could be issued. Are you going to start off with a pilot-like focus on central government schemes or are you going to straight away go with a multi-level programme across centre, state and local?
It may be worthwhile clearing this up right away. Wish you all the best.⊕
EDITORS
Nandan Nilekani: Exporting Indian innovation
Nandan Nilekani has been recently inducted into the government by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. To head the Unique Identification Authority of India, a new agency set up by the government to issue national biometric identity cards across the country.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Nilekani is former co-chairman of Infosys. Lately he has been on the global talk circuit discussing his book, Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation, which describes the ideas that guided India’s development and the challenges to cementing India’s future as a global power. He spoke with David Talbot, Technology Review’s chief correspondent, about the use of technology to revitalize Indian society and the potential for exporting Indian innovation.
The text of the interview appears in the July 2009 issue of the Technology Review, the first ever English edition of the 109-year old journal from MIT brought to India by technology publisher CyberMedia.
David Talbot, Technology Review: If you were the Prime Minister of India, how would you use technology to address growth and solve problems?
Nandan Nilekani: I think there are many roles for technology, particularly information technology, in the Indian context. First, we can use it for better delivery of public services – whether it is government, health care, education, or whatever. Second, we can use technology for identifying beneficiaries, especially the poor, so the correct people get entitlements from government.
There is the whole issue of using technology for land records so that we can have much smoother land transfers and reduce litigation. You can use IT for improving national security.
You can use it for tax collection. There is a proposal in India to implement the goods and services (GST) tax, which can only be implemented using IT. Throughout government, technology can play a very big role.
DT: Can India become an important supplier of new technologies, delivering innovation to the rest of the world?
NN: Already, it is. Many Indian companies have created innovative business models that are fundamentally disruptive, for example, ICICI Bank and Bharti, which are now getting exported globally. ICICI Bank offers services in the UK and Canada and Bharti is seriously looking at servicing international markets.
DT: What telecom innovations are you referring to?
NN: Telecom companies have been able to create very profitable operations and at the same time dramatically reduce the price of phone calls as well as the value of each recharge. They have been able to create high volume, very low cost, high quality solutions. And as they go and offer these abroad as a service, they will be competing aggressively with local providers.
They have managed to come up with ways of sharing infrastructure, for example, making investments in technology on a variable basis. Instead of spending a lot of money buying capital equipment, they pay their technology partners on the basis of the usage of the equipment – the partners are paid for each minute that is spoken. So they are able to transfer a capital cost into an operating cost. This has created a whole new business model that is very elegant and disruptive. And this came out of necessity – everybody couldn’t afford to invest capital in rural areas.
DT: What about innovations in banking and health care?
NN: ICICI Bank is able to offer banking transactions at much lower cost than any existing banks. So when they offer their transactions in a foreign country, they are very competitive on phone banking and Internet banking, because everything they have done efficiently leverages technology. In electronic banking and mobile banking, the number of innovations is very high and can be transferred.
In health care, many of the Indian hospitals, such as Narayana Hrudayalaya, have come out with the ability to do a high volume of operations, including heart surgery, at a very reasonable price.
DT: Beyond exporting efficient business models, can India become a major exporter of new technologies?
NN: Yes, many people are developing products in health care and communications that could be exported. Some estimates hold that 750 million Indians will own mobile phones in the next few years.
DT: What impact can or might these numbers have on India?
NN: Mobile phones are already having a huge impact in India. When you look around you see people from all walks of life using them. Ninety percent of mobile phones in India are prepaid and 40 percent have recharge of less than 10 rupees. I think this is empowering people in many ways. It is enabling them to get employment; enabling them to find prices for things they are selling, so they can get the best possible prices; enabling them to get information on weather and farming.
DT: One of the great visions is that phones will allow even the poorest – or almost the poorest – Indians to secure bank accounts and loans on fair terms.
NN: Yes, it can provide financial inclusion by giving everybody access to banking services, to get a loan. It can provide for ways to get cash transfers from the government to the poor. The mobile phone applications are limited only by our ability to conceive of things that can be done. Yet many of the efforts in this direction are still just pilot projects.
DT: What has to happen to implement them at large scale?
NN: The reason we have so many pilots is that every pilot is being done by different institutions with different technologies. Very much like the U.S. health care system today – there is no common way for hospitals to exchange medical records. Similarly, if you really want to do financial services on a mass scale, you need standardization of financial records, standardization of citizen identification, rules for interoperability of data, and so on. Since those are lacking, you end up with a lot of fragmented applications but nothing which is scaled up.
The reasons for such challenges are often not technical – they are either political or economic. In government departments there is a normal tendency not to share data. We fundamentally need to get out of that mindset. Where businesses are involved, there is commercial interest in not wanting to share the data. Governments have a huge role to define the sandbox in which you will play. They need to define the framework with common data formats, interoperability, and formal technical standards. Within that, of course, businesses can innovate and develop solutions. The key is aligning multiple stakeholders in different segments to come together and bring about standards.
DT: Let’s talk about Infosys specifically. What challenges need to be overcome to make Infosys the largest IT services company in the world?
NN: I think Infosys is fundamentally extremely well positioned to become the trusted partner of choice for business transformation for companies around the world. We want to keep accelerating change in our business model because the world is developing fast. We need to offer software-as-a-service and more platform-based services. One of the solutions we now offer is procurement.
Instead of just providing the IT for procurement, we tell customers we will take over the procurement function and share in any savings they are able to get.
DT: Infosys caught the IT services wave. Is there a new technology opportunity for the young companies in India today?
NN: The IT services industry is going through a fair amount of metamorphosis. We are seeing the rise of things such as cloud computing, software as a service, mobility-based solutions, and sensor-based transaction tracking where sensors monitor goods and the movements of things. Indian IT services firms often claim they
have tons of innovative new technology – but that they can’t talk about it very much, because what they build is the property of their clients.
DT: Could you talk, at least generally, about some of the emerging technologies Infosys has built for clients?
NN: Many of our applications, especially our newer applications, are based on mobility – using mobile phones, synchronizing mobile phones. We are doing a lot with social commerce using the context of social computing to give businesses far more intimate contact with their customers.
We are also building an application where we are essentially making retail stores more intelligent by putting sensors on goods so we can see what customers are buying. Based on people’s choices we can point out for them, on the mobile phone, special offers in the aisles they are in at the moment.
DT: Infosys has sometimes suggested that its real value to clients is in the new business processes they’ve helped develop. Could you give us a specific example?
NN: We are working with Alstom, which is a French power company. We are working with Cisco on things such as order processing, and we’ve been able to bring in process transformation there.
Govt will take steps to end ID card duplication: Nilekani
Press Trust of India / Bangalore July 13, 2009, 12:58 IST
Nandan M Nilekani, who was appointed as head of Unique Identification Authority of India(UIAI), today said the government would take steps to end ID card duplication leading to fraud and create a network of verification and authentication.
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“The UIAI would create a centralised, national database of Indian residents,” the former Infosys co-chairman told reporters here after meeting Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who felicitated him on his new assignment.
The key issue was to ensure that there were no duplicates, he underlined.
“The big problem today with identity is that many systems have lot of duplicates which lead to fraud.”
The idea is to use bio-metric, fingerprints or whatever to make sure that people have a unique number, Nilekani shared. The UIAI would then create a national network of verification so that “people can verify that somebody is who he claims he is,” he said.
Nilekani parried questions on immediate key challenges for UIAI, saying, “First I have to go and find an office.”
On the timeline to complete the project, he added, “Let me go and take stock of the situation.”
The UIAI would create a national authentication and enrollment capability and an identity system, an “infrastructure” on which Centre, state governments and private sector can have “value added applications”, he said.
Giving an example, he explained, a state seeking to implement a scheme can use this database to identify beneficiaries.
Giving Indians an identity
Nandan Nilekani, TOI Crest 26 December 2009, 09:57am IST
In the months since I took on my role at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), our team has presented the concept of the unique identification (UID) number to a variety of people – politicians, public administrators , businessmen, civil society groups, students and at public forums. An interesting trend we noticed across audiences was that the technological aspects of the UID model captured their imagination. Audience members – whether business leaders or traditional women from self-help groups – would evince keen interest in the technology, and question us on aspects of the IT systems and biometrics.
This pro-technology mindset that cuts across income groups and communities may seem curious in a developing country such as ours. One cause for our positive attitude may be the unique role that information and communication technology (ICT) has played in India. For us, technology has been a source of reform and empowerment, a way out of entrenched, difficult-to-navigate institutions . This has held true since 1984, when a reformist Indian government, led by the youngest prime minister in Indian history, turned to technology to implement its propoor agenda. Rajiv Gandhi railed against “the brokers of power and influence” that dominated India’s economic institutions, and saw technology as a way to loosen their hold.
What followed, among other initiatives, was the public call office model, implemented by Sam Pitroda , which transformed access to telecom in the mid-1980 s, and established technology in a now familiar role – as a means of enabling greater access to resources and services at lower costs.
WONDER OF ELECTRONIFICATION
The most noticeable impact of electronification has been in expanding the circles of access within the economy. The transition that technology has helped enable in India fits into economist Douglass North’s description of the shift of a limited access economy – where access to resources is controlled by a small group of elites – to an open access model, where resources and skills are widely attainable.
The economic structure until the 1980s in India was a restrictive one, where government and an oligopolistic market controlled much of the resources through a licensing system, state-dominated production and centralised institutions. Entry costs into the economy were high – access to resources such as finance, subsidies and business licenses were restricted to those who had patronage networks. Access depended on ‘who one was, and who one knew’ .
Technology has played a crucial role alongside reforms since then, in expanding circles of access. It has enabled India to move from markets where access to resources and institutions was limited – such as stock markets where trading was controlled by brokers, and agricultural supply chains where crop prices were determined by middlemen – to democratised, open access systems that have empowered individuals. Electronic stock markets have allowed individuals to execute their trading orders from anywhere in the country, and widespread access to mobile phones has meant farmers can call up mandis to negotiate prices.
The impact of technology on our institutions and markets has been most apparent in the way it has helped disseminate economic power, by bringing information to poor and rural communities. Information asymmetries are quickly vanishing – one NGO worker recently described how at a village self-help group meeting, a farmer checked an SMS on his mobile phone and told the meeting that a Bollywood superstar had taken ill – information he received at the same time it was being broadcast by news channels . The impact of such instant information access cannot be underestimated: by connecting more people to information and knowledge sources, we are creating a cycle of innovation and productivity.
THE CHALLENGE OF IDENTITY
One piece of technology is turbo-charging electronification in India – the mobile phone. It has dramatically brought down the costs of plugging into the information network. As device costs continue to fall, we can envision the possibility of a smart phone in every village in the next decade, and in the hands of every Indian in the next fifteen years. We can expect that in less than this time, connectivity will be pervasive. In the near future, we will have unprecedented, universally accessible computing power, which can tap into information flows across a ubiquitous network.
We have to build the tools to take advantage of this emerging reality. Even though ICT infrastructure has expanded rapidly over the last decade, we are yet to leverage it fully. The impact of telecom access in India for example, has remained limited to the access and delivery of information. Using the mobile phone for transaction and delivery of services such as banking has remained largely untapped.
A challenge we face in such service delivery is tackling risks that have emerged with open access systems. In economies with limited access, transactions depend on organised relationships, face-to-face interaction, identity verification and patronage networks . Anonymity is low, and systemic trust – a prerequisite for transactions – is easier to enforce.
Open access systems, however, come with greater anonymity. Service providers can’t automatically trust individuals, since they have no history of business with them, and poor customers also often lack identity documentation. Remote transactions complicate these challenges further. Consequently, service providers now spend large amounts of money on KYC – know your customer – processes to ensure that the transaction with the customer is a safe one.
POSSIBILITIES OF UID
The UID number, with its ‘anytime, anywhere’ biometric authentication, addresses the problem of trust within a transaction for both face-to-face and remote service delivery. Making identity easy to verify brings down the risks associated with enabling open access systems. The UID’s online verification can also make geographical distances irrelevant to delivery of services. The ability of individuals to prove their identity anywhere in the country becomes valuable as migration and urbanisation intensify.
The UID allows agencies across a variety of sectors , such as banking and finance, to provide remote services. Removing the need for multiple verification processes reduces costs for service providers. Additionally , replacing brick and mortar infrastructure with low-cost technology applications
will lower transaction costs even further. By facilitating such remote, easy verification of identity, the UID number becomes the glue for service providers to bring together existing technologies and create end-to-end , low-cost , electronified models, where individuals can transact with micro amounts – as small as Rs 10 – equipped with little more than a mobile phone.
Such a low-cost , accessible model would be inclusive , bringing millions into India’s burgeoning economy. As the UID network becomes ubiquitous, the applications on top of it will increase, expanding into a variety of services.
The UID opens up a vast array of new possibilities for our technological future, and offers a foundation on which a host of applications can be built. For example , the UID number of each resident can be linked to a bank account through which the government can provide direct services, such as health and education, through digital vouchers and cash benefits . Such service delivery also enables governments to establish relationships directly with individuals, rather than interest groups. The increased negotiating power this enables for individuals will mean fairer , more transparent public delivery systems and stronger, more enforceable rights.
The implementation of UID comes even as demand for electronification in India is increasing. Until the 1980s, the infrastructure focus of Indian governments used to be on providing basic necessities – roti, kapda aur makan (food, clothes and house). Since reforms in the 1990s, the emphasis moved to broader, community infrastructure – bijli , sadak, pani (electricity, roads, water). Today, people’s aspirations have shifted to ‘mobile, bank account, UID’ . The demand is for infrastructure that empowers the individual, and provides economic opportunity.
The UID is soft infrastructure, much like mobile telephony, internet connectivity and financial access, important to connect individuals to the broader economy, and critical for people to leverage opportunity and access.
IMPLICATIONS OF ACCESS
The impact of the falling transaction and entry costs that accompany electronification and UID has long-term implications for our growth. Economies become more efficient as transaction and entry costs move towards zero. These falling costs are important drivers for development and equitable growth thanks to the higher impact of every rupee spent in the economy. Additionally, lowering these costs means greater inclusion as more people can afford to participate in our markets and institutions.
Such inclusion will intensify competition, motivating us towards innovation and new ideas. The ‘platform’ nature of UID – where its identity systems enable a variety of applications – can become a potent source of empowerment for the individual, as individuals, businesses and governments build applications suited to local needs and innovation.
I believe that we are now at a transformational moment, where the immense potential of these technologies is becoming clear. Aided by technology , we are moving from an economy that constrains access to goods and services, to one where access is democratised, open and inclusive.
India may be uniquely destined to leverage technology in a multitude of ways. Electronification triggered enormous changes in the US and Europe – countries that saw these technologies emerge late in their development – and intersected with their development arc at a time when traditional infrastructure and business models were well entrenched.
In India, the arc of technology is intersecting with the developmental arc at an early stage. India is not yet a ‘settled in’ economy: Our market systems are a little more than a quarter of a century old, and our infrastructure and supply chains are yet to be established. We have the opportunity to leverage technology far more ambitiously and intensively , and build truly inclusive, transformational infrastructure and institutions. Electronification can play a big part in determining the kind of society we are going to be over the next decade.
It’s new life for me, says Nilekani on the ID card project
26 Jul 2009, 1049 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: IT icon Nandan Nilekani, handpicked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to create a national database of identity details of citizens,
feels he is beginning a “new life” and the world around him would be different from what it used to be in Infosys.
Nilekani, whose appointment marks induction of a competent corporate professional into a Cabinet rank post, said the assignment will be full of challenges as it will require him to interface with a large number of people in the government circle.
“It is a new life for me,” he told PTI when asked whether he would miss Infosys, a company he had co-founded 28 years ago along with N R Narayana Murthy, now chief mentor of the IT giant.
Asked how he will cope up with the multi-layered decision making process in the government circle, Nilekani, who resigned from Infosys to lead the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) said he knew it would be a different world.
“I certainly think it is a different world,” the 54-year-old IT expert said expressing confidence that his friend Ram Sevak Sharma who takes over as Secretary and CEO of UIAI will help him navigate the Government system.
PM heads Unique Identification Authority of India council news
03 August 2009
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has set up a council headed by prime ministry Manmohan Singh to advice the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and ensure coordination between the ministries, stakeholders and partners.
The members of the council include: finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, minister of agriculture, food and civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution Sharad Pawar, home minister P Chidambaram, external affairs minister S M Krishna, Law minister M Veerappa Moily, human resources development minister Kapil Sibal, rural development and panchayati raj miniser CP Joshi, Labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge, communications and information technology minister A Raja, planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani.
The Council will advice the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on the programme, methodology and implementation to ensure coordination between ministries/departments, stakeholders and partners, a government release said, adding that the council will also identify specific milestones for early completion of the project.
The authority is tasked with creating a database that will help in issuing unique identity cards. The issue of the unique ID cards would avert the need for multiple proofs of identity for citizens while availing any government service, or for private needs like opening bank accounts or seeking telephone connections.
It is also expected to enhance national security by helping to identify illegal immigrants.
Nandan Nilekani was personally selected by prime minister Manmohan Singh to head the project with the rank of a cabinet minister.
ID card agency to rope utilities to enroll people
By ANI
November 19th, 2009
NEW DELHI – Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chief Nandan Nilekani has said that various banks, tax authorities, utilities and other service providers would be roped in to enroll people for the issue of unique identification numbers.
Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Nilekani said: “UIDAI will roll out the gigantic scheme in one-and-a-half year’s time and would cover 600 million people in five-and-a-half years.
“We have lots and lots of agencies that issue some kind of a product to the people and we see them as our registrar, they will help us to enroll into a system, which means that NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), which is a partner, says that for a particular date in future they want all their job cards to have UID then anybody comes for a job card but doesn’t have a UID, NREGA will enroll that person on our behalf,” he added.
Nilekani said the UIDAI would not issue any ID card to the 1.2 billion people across the country but the various agencies could issue the biometric card mentioning the UID Number to individuals for which the agency could charge nominal fees.
“It is not a card, it is just a number. If the agency issuing the number has a fee then they will charge.
Like for example Pan Card, if they charge a fee, then they may charge, but for the poor, hopefully, there will not be any charge,” he said.
The government has allocated rupees one billion to the UIDAI in the current budget to March 2010.
The Unique Identification Number is an innovative project of the Central Government whereby every bonafide citizen will have a unique identification, biometric signature and other details.
It aims to eliminate the need for multiple identification mechanism prevalent across various government departments and ensure that each Indian citizen will carry a permanent identifier from birth to death. (ANI)
UIDAI to issue cards from Feb 2011, to cover 600-mn in 5 years
22 Dec 2009, 2031 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) plans to issue 600-million identification numbers over the next
five-years.
The Authority will start issuing numbers from February 2011 for which a team has already been formed, its Chairman, Nandan Nilekani, said at a meet held here today.
“We will start issuing numbers from February 2011 and within the next five-to-five-and-half-years, we will have given UID numbers to 600-million persons across the country,” Nilekani said.
He said that the Authority is tying-up with banks, oil companies and other national institutions which would either be a partner or a registrar and enroll individuals for the Unique ID on behalf of the Authority.
“There will be multiple touch-points and we intend to do this with a set of partners or registrars like banks or oil companies who will enroll individuals on our behalf,” Nilekani said.
The Unique ID programme is an ambitious initiative by the Government to provide every individual in the country with an exclusive multiple-digit number to authenticate the identity of the person.
Nilekani said the project had huge challenges in terms of technology and implementation risks and fear of a back-lag.
Mumbai, Sep 9 At least 60 crore people would get their Unique Identification Numbers (UIDs), a much-touted initiative of the Government, in the next 4-5 years, its project chief Nandan Nilekani said today.
“We expect to give UIDs to at least 600 million (60 crore) citizens in the next 4-5-years. It is a challenging job and we are managing multiple risks,”Nilekani, Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said.
UIDAI is an agency set up by the Centre to undertake the UID project.
Nilekani said the initiative would help in providing a transparent, effective and transformational governance.
The authority would issue the first UID in the next 12-18-months, he said at a FICCI-IBA Banking summit here.
Nilekani said banks would be a key partner in the project and UIDAI would publish standards and protocols for the project in the next six months.
” Banks are a key partner in the project. They can be registrars as well as users of the authentication service,” Nilekani said.
Under the project, UIDAI will be issuing numbers to each and every citizen of the country but not cards, he said, adding that the issuance of the number will be demand-led.
He also said there is an immense potential to merge the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) programme with the UID initiative.
SmartCards 2009 Expo debates on UID project
12 Sep, 2009, 1824 hrs IST,ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: In view of the National Unique ID project initiated by the government, and its bearing on the smartcards, RFID, biometrics,
e-Security sectors in India, SmartCards Expo 2009 has been organised in the capital from September 11-12.
The government may use biometric features like iris scan and hand geometry for recording secondary details for the National UID project, said officials at the SmartCard Expo 2009. Face readers which can scan even the face of a hijab clad woman, or a man wearing a beard from his or her original face, new smart cards, iris scanners and printing technology, were showcased at the event in this regard.
Technology majors like NXP, ST Microelectronics, Texas Instruments, Sagem, Base Systems, Bartronics, Lipi Data Systems Ltd, HiTi Digital, Infineon participated in the event. However the absence of any representative of the UIDAI (Unique ID Authority of India) was severely felt at the event, inspite of the importance of this Conference, which was fully devoted to the subject of UID.
Greg Pote, Chairman, Asia Pacific Smart Cards Association mentioned the in his view, various governments are still searching for what they can do with the national ID cards beyond ID. But most governments have a privacy commissioners and monitors, and they limit what the government can do with the details. He said that the registration number is the key driver for the card. That creates problems, with resistance from privacy bodies. His estimate is that smart cards in India are 5 years behind Europe.
Dr B K Gairola, Director General, National Informatics Centre touched upon the role of the government and the importance of the UID Project to India as a whole. He mentioned the it is like a 16 lane highway on which all applications could ride. He talked about the earlier experience of the MNIC – Multi Application National ID Project and also the importance of the creation, operation and maintenance of a Unique ID Database and the challenges associated with it.
Accenture’s Ravinder Pal Singh mentioned that Bluecasting might be a better alternative to start with because people have mobile phones, especially in villages in north India. Mobile phone is much more authentic and secure, according to him.
Biometrics involving fingerprints and other biometrics feature such as face recognition, DNA shape identification, etc were also extensively discussed.
Gemini Ramamurthy, Chairman of Cyber Society of India said that a set of 12 parameters has been issue by the UID, but the only paramete
r that cannot be duplicated is the biometric one. While it is important to achieve uniqueness in identification of persons, it is equally or more important to be able to establish secure identification. This means the identification of a person has to protected against misuse.
The challenges to the ID project are many. Mere possession of a unique identification number belongs to that person. It has to be established beyond doubt that the particular unique identification number belongs to the particular person and no one else. In other words, there should be a secure way to ensure that no other person can carry that identification number.
And then, if these security features have to be matched with the database contents of a particular individual, it requires a very efficient and robust facility of data base storage and retrieval with a highly reliable remote connectivity.
A more plausible is to provide a smart card, which will carry the unique identification number and the various additional security features that can be checked to further establish the uniqueness of identification of the individual. Many countries have already implemented smart card based identification programmers emphasizing the unparallel security provided by smart cards.
The government is thus considering splitting the UID database into two sets of paramters – the primary database will be accessible on the Internet and used for access purposes and verification, while the secondly database is likely to be kept offline, and in multiple formats, and be used only if the primary data is in dispute. Secondary data could have multiple biometric features including Iris scan, hand geometry, and additional data including names of grandparents and great grandparents, because the hacker may not be aware of these things, Mr Ramamurthy added. Since the UID data is in digital form, it may be useful to include an email ID as an additional data parameter.
“The appropriate audit trail, and what was the value of the data before and after the access needs to be stored, as well as the mode of access to that data. These should be available for judicial scrutiny, and certified for integrity. Companies from countries suspected of cyberwarfare against India should be avoided in case of this project.” Mr Ramamurthy said adding that a pilot project for the UID is being planned in Bangalore.
An eminent panel of experts debated with a sizable audience about the UID and technologies of relevance to India. The Panel was chaired by Pradeep Kumar, Vice President, Asia Pacific, STMicroelectronics. Panelists were from Sagem Securite, WYSE Biometrics, UNISYS, Bartronics, NXP Semiconductors
, Barnes International, and ASK France.
School admission across the country may not be the same again from 2011. It may be impossible without the Unique ID (UID) if the Centre accepts a proposal of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
The UIDAI, chaired by Nandan M Nilekani and his second-in-command Director General Ram Sewak Sharma, has stressed the need for making it mandatory for children to have the UID at the time of admission to school once the process of issuing the UID gets under way.
The rationale behind the proposal is that children can be tracked for academic progress besides being targeted for direct benefits.
According to the UIDAI, India being a young country with over 400 million residents below the age of 18, the government needs to specifically target that segment of the population.
The authority, in its confidential paper, which was accessed by Deccan Herald, says the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme could be an ideal platform for the enrolment of children (of the age group of 6-14) under the UID.
The paper notes it will enable better child tracking and improvement in the mid-day meal scheme. Observing that the concept of universal child tracking is gaining ground, the advantages of the UID would be immense for children, according to the paper.
Database
It says enrolling children under the UID must be made mandatory as an accurate database of children with UIDs will be beneficial to track their progress, especially in government schools, besides eliminating child labour.
Further, the paper observes that registering new births will be a challenging task as approximately 60,000 babies are born in the country every day.
Since their biometrics is not stable, the document says they have to be re-scanned later. As names are often not given at the time of the registration of birth, the child’s biometrics should be taken at the age of five, and it should be updated every five years until the age of 18.
One way to resolve the issue, according to the paper, is to ensure that the UID number is included in the infant’s birth certificate as the number will remain the key identifier throughout the individual’s life. Likewise, it says the child should be named before applying for the UID number to ensure it can also be allotted at birth.
[Editor’s note: The Business Case Faceoff is a feature exclusive to india.wsj.com in collaboration with students at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. It is designed to delve into the most important business and economic issues facing the country and to assess them through the lens of an MBA case study. We welcome your comments and suggestions – please register for free and use the Comment tab.]
THIS WEEK: Debate on whether India’s Unique Identity card project will provide a basis for a positive and accurate identification of its citizens or infringe their privacy and human rights.
INTRODUCTION: Nandan Nilekani was recently handpicked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India. No one doubts the immense potential of the project nor does one doubt the impeccable credentials of the man chosen to lead it. But given the powerful nexus of entrenched politicians and bureaucrats who stand to lose their power and influence, will this project really see the light of the day? Mr. Nilekani’s bold endeavor may mark the beginning of a new era where distinguished private citizens take on challenges of national importance or he may end up becoming a disillusioned man. We look at the underlying dynamics that may make or mar this project. Is this the right project at the right time in the history of our nation or should we scale back our ambitions to focus more on what is achievable rather than merely aspirational?
Krishna Chilukuri: UIAI and India’s First Steps Towards e-Governance
India has finally taken on a bold challenge to create a unique identification for all Indians and appointed IT business leader and visionary, Nandan Nilekani to head the task. This is a big vision project through which government services can be provided, tracked and accounted for along with enabling a multitude of private sector products and services that rely on accurate and positive identification of consumers.
In order to enable the next phase of growth, India has to tackle domestic issues of corruption, inefficiencies, lack of strong enforcement of the rule of law and internal security. There is a strong correlation between countries that are on the top of the United Nations e-Government Readiness Index with their success in lowering corruption and having a high quality of life as measured by the Human Development Index. Most e-Government implementations rely on positive and accurate identification of their citizens and the interconnection of databases and information across government bodies and services. The unique identification program is the first step towards creating the infrastructure for e-Government services in India. The goal should be no less than aiming to be in the top 10 countries on the UN e-Government readiness index which will have a positive effect on not only the economy but also on human development in India.
The core task for the Unique Identification Authority of India is to assign a unique identification number to each resident in the country and to eliminate the need for multiple identification mechanisms. This unique number will be the basis for a positive and accurate identification of citizens on which e-Governance platforms and services can be built around. One such project is the Citizens Smart Card Project, which will enable citizens to avail subsidies on food, energy, education, etc. depending on their entitlements, according to the 11th report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission.
e-Governance also has the potential to tackle corruption which is at the root of the problems that currently are a drag on our economic growth. Our government departments work in isolation, each having its own database with no linkage to other government databases. These databases are usually not in good shape with problems of data entry, duplicate entries, dead entries, and more which make data reconciliation difficult. Most recently India was ranked 74th in the International Corruption Index and international companies often cite corruption and government inefficiency as reasons for not investing in India. It is imperative for India to tackle this issue and e-Governance built on unique identification is the right strategy for India.
A project of such magnitude is inherently challenging and difficult to implement. It will require tremendous resources and effort and success is not always guaranteed. There are many challenges to overcome in its implementation, specifically issues related to privacy, misuse of data, excessive government oversight and possibility for discrimination and bias. The sensitive nature of some of these challenges call for impartial leaders and managers who are not politically motivated or biased and who have high integrity and public trust. The current government of India could not have chosen a more appropriate leader than Nandan Nilekani to lead this project.
Nandan Nilekani has proven himself in the corporate sector, building one of the most admired companies in India and earned public appreciation with his book “Imagining India – Ideas for the new century.” He is a Padma Bhushan award winner and was named among the ‘World’s most respected business leaders’ in 2002 and 2003, according to a global survey by Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Nandan Nilekani has both the passion and dedication for India’s future as well as the technical expertise and managerial skills to tackle a problem of such magnitude and is the right person to lead this effort.
As Mr. Nilekani has said in an interview with Knowledge@Whatron, “The other important thing, I felt, was that India had a very small window of opportunity. It has this huge demographic dividend and this young population, but that demographic dividend could well become a demographic disaster if we did not make the right investments in our human capital.”
The time has never been more critical for India to break out of its shackles and strive towards a better future for all its citizens. The unique identification project is only the first step in the right direction – we need many more.
Vignesh Nandakumar: Unique ID Scheme – More Politics Than IT
One of the UPA government’s biggest announcements after a landmark electoral victory was that of appointing Nandan Nilekani as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The Unique ID opens up enormous possibilities for India at this stage of its growth. However, the real challenges of implementing such a project in India need to be addressed credibly so that this project fulfills its objectives.
[Vignesh Nandakumar]
Vignesh Nandakumar
The project plans to use state-of-the-art biometric and Information Technology on a phenomenal scale, and will have its share of technological challenges. However, the project itself is less about technology, and more about the politics and processes of providing every Indian with a Unique ID.
The biggest stumbling block to national IDs in many advanced countries has been the violation of privacy rights guaranteed under their respective constitutions. Two of the largest populated countries in the EU, Germany and Hungary, have not implemented one for these reasons. The USA Patriot Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress, to vastly increase powers of surveillance and implement a biometric identification system, faced enormous opposition and has since been scaled back. Biometric identification systems have been rejected in advanced countries due to concerns over efficacy in enhancing security and high implementation costs. The Unique ID scheme could potentially lead to large scale abuse in a country like India in the absence of effective legislation providing adequate safeguards to prevent misuse.
Though originally mooted to address our security needs, the scope of the ID has been expanded to aid delivery of social sector schemes to deserving citizens. This complicates the implementation because it combines both authentication and identification with the same ID.
There are systemic challenges germane to India. The legislative and delivery control over social sectors is divided between the states and the center, making the ID effective only through agreement from all the state governments. The citizen service centers at the district level have to be equipped with technical and manpower capability to use the ID while administering services such as birth and death registrations, land records and employment insurance. This is a Herculean task considering the level of granularity that needs to be achieved. The lack of stable 24 hour power supply across the country will hinder access to the central databases for authentication. It is unclear if these systemic issues have been addressed, failing which the ID scheme will be ineffective.
Aligned to the issue of privacy is the issue of saliency that arises when certain aspects of a person’s identity are publicly highlighted. Identifiers such as caste, religion and place of birth will be required for social sector schemes. Numerous social studies show that knowledge of these identifiers adversely impacts delivery of services such as education and health care to disadvantaged citizens, defeating the very purpose of the ID. These contradictions, which is unique to India, have to be reconciled to prevent selection bias.
However, these challenges do not take away the high impact of this idea, if well executed. With a person of Mr. Nilekani’s capability and stature heading this project, one expects some of these issues to be already tabled for action. While his appointment is a welcome step, the current organizational structure of the UIDAI, headed by Cabinet Minister rank Chairman, reporting to the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Commission, also of Cabinet rank is politically unsustainable. The country also lacks a legal framework permitting the involvement of a person from neither the political spectrum nor the administrative services in what is essentially a political scheme. Continuity of this structure beyond Mr. Nilekani’s involvement could be a problem. The government of India should enact clear processes for capable private citizens to hold office, perhaps through the amendment of the IAS system, so that the government and the country can benefit from these talented leaders.
The Unique ID is a critical piece of information infrastructure that India needs to boost its growth. However, the above issues need to be addressed satisfactorily to ensure it doesn’t create more problems than it solves. The central and state governments must enact legislation for adequate safeguards and operating processes for sharing of the databases amongst states, before the Unique IDs are issued. Failing this, there will be few users and takers for the scheme.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Krishna K Chilukuri is currently pursuing the post graduate program in management at ISB. He has over 15 years of work experience in the corporate world encompassing stints around the world and in many different roles. Mr. Krishna’s interests include Strategic thinking, marketing 2.0 as well as game theory and its practical applications in decision making.
Vignesh Nandakumar is currently pursuing the post graduate program in management at ISB. He has over eight years of experience in the high-tech industry in various parts of the world. He is passionate about the prospects universal education and renewable energy offer for empowering growth in India. He holds a keen interest in the role of technology in public policy and governance.
The opinions expressed in this article are entirely the personal opinions of the students which were formed on the basis of an interpretation of facts and data available in the public domain. The ISB, as an institution, does not subscribe to these views in whole or in part.
Nilekani gets cracking from Day 1 in office
24 Jul 2009, 1030 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: The government will issue identity numbers instead of cards to Indian residents under its unique identification (UID) programme,
Nandan
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Unique Identification Database Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani said on Thursday. ( Watch )
“This unique identity number will soon eliminate the need for existing identification cards for opening bank and post office accounts
or taking electricity connections,” Mr Nilekani said while taking charge as the first chairman of UIDAI.
The identification number, which will primarily help to “authenticate” an individual in the country, will be issued to Indian residents on voluntary basis. Any Indian can get the number by showing a residence proof. This can be used for government and private use, Mr Nilekani said.
He said the immediate task of the authority was to put its office in order. The UIDAI chief also introduced Ram Sevak Sharma as the secretary and chief executive officer of the organisation who will assist him in rolling out the programme across the country in phases.
The newly set up organisation is looking for talent. “We will look for people both from the government and the private sector. We need people in biometrics and advanced technologies to meet the best global standards,” Mr Nilekani said.
“It will take a few weeks to get the team together and examine the strategy to issue the UID numbers. The design of the project will be based on biometric identification to authenticate the identity of the person,” he said.
As announced by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech, the first set of database for the project will be ready within 12-18 months.
Mr Nilekani recently met communications and information technology minister A Raja and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to discuss the blueprint of the project.
The UID project plans to create unique identification numbers for all Indians by 2011. Currently, India does not have any standard identification card or number to authenticate an individual’s identity.
Express News Service Tags : Unique Identification, UPA, Nandan Nilekani Posted: Friday , Jul 24, 2009 at 0423 hrs New Delhi:
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Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani on Thursday formally assumed charge of his new assignment as the Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and exuded confidence that the Authority would be able to roll out the first set of UID numbers within 12-18 months for the country’s more than 1.7 billion population.
“This will be a nationwide system of authentication. We hope to roll out the first set of UID numbers within 12-18 months,” Nilekani said about the UPA government’s ambitious project. “The Finance Minister in his Budget speech has said that ID numbers would be issued in 12-18 months. We take that as very strong direction and commitment. So we intend to abide by that.” He said that it would be an enabling infrastructure for other identification schemes and will conform to different applications.
Arguing that identity was important for everyone, especially for the poor, he said UIDAI would provide a database of residents. Nilekani said the UIDAI would not issue biometric cards itself but the database it will create would help government agencies to undertake that task. He said the UID number would help the government in identifying targeted beneficiaries for PDS, extending subsidy on kerosene or for providing new LPG connection. Departments can use the number for issuing cards.
He said the key objective of the project was to minimise the need for multiple identity proofs for citizens while availing any government service, or for private needs like opening bank accounts or seeking telephone connections. “We have several options on biometrics like fingerprint, face identification, retina identification, DNA testing etc on devising the database,” he said.
Nilekani would spend the next few weeks setting up the requisite administrative infrastructure to deal with the project. “We will pick up talent from both government and outside,” he said.
ENS Economic Bureau Tags : microsoft, UID project Posted: Saturday , Jul 25, 2009 at 0227 hrs New Delhi:
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Lauding the unique identity (UID) project as a great initiative, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates today said the software giant wanted to partner with India in the ambitious project that will give a unique identity number to each of its 1.17 billion people.
“Microsoft wants to be a part of the unique identification project,” Gates told a conference organised by the IT industry lobby, Nasscom, here saying he was excited about the project. He said he would meet the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani to discuss the details of the project.
Gates, who is here to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf of the Gates Foundation, however, said the applications in banking and healthcare were yet to come up in a big way.
UID will be a nationwide system of authentication and the UIDAI is aiming to roll out the first set of numbers in 12 to 18 months. “The finance minister in his Budget speech has said that ID numbers would be issued in 12-18 months. We take that as very strong direction and commitment. So we intend to abide by that,” Nilekani had told reporters yesterday after assuming the charge of his office. UID would be an enabling infrastructure for other identification schemes and will conform to different applications.
UIDAI would provide a database of residents containing very simple database in biometrics. The authority will not issue biometric cards itself but the database it will create would help government agencies undertake that task. The UID number would help government identify targeted beneficiaries for the PDS, extending subsidy on kerosene or for providing new LPG connection.
NIC raises concern over privacy of UIDAI database
Press Trust Of India / New Delhi December 14, 2009, 0:38 IST
The National Informatics Centre has raised concerns over privacy and security of proposed database of Unique Identification Authority of India(UIDAI), headed by Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani.
The newly established UIDAI would be hosting information of all residents of the country on a private data centre, which NIC believes raises concern about privacy and security, official sources said.
In a letter dated November 6, accessed by PTI, NIC writes, “It has been proposed to hire the data centre services for PoC (proof-of-concept) and prototype on rental basis. It is presumed that the data related to UID will be hosted in a government Data Centre. If not, the issues related to privacy and security with respect to UID data may require to be taken into consideration.”
UIDAI replied that hosting the data on a private network “does not necessarily lead to violation of privacy and security”.
“There will be appropriate SLAs (Service Legal Agreements — both legal and technological) to ensure that the data is protected. It is to be mentioned that a number of sensitive database (Income Tax and PFRDA, to name two of them,) which ensure security and privacy, though they are not necessarily housed in the ‘government’ Data Centre,” the Authority replied.
It said UIDAI approach envisaged 24 Technical posts (Director Technical, Principal Systems Analyst and Senior Systems Analyst). “This will ensure adequate technical capacity to ensure both security and privacy concerns,” it said.
Nilekani tours to demystify ID plan
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Nandan Nilekani
New Delhi, Dec. 14: If India’s plan to get each of its 60 crore adult citizens a unique identification number sounds puzzling to many, Nandan Nilekani has been touring the states to demystify it for anybody who will listen.
After taking over as chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India in July, the former Infosys honcho has travelled to 16 states, meeting chief ministers, bureaucrats, lawyers, venture capitalists, industry bodies, even doctors.
He plans to finish meeting the policy makers of all the states and Union territories by February. On Wednesday, he will explain the project to the country’s MPs.
“We do not want the enterprise to be Delhi-centric. We decided we would go and meet the stakeholders rather than organise conferences in Delhi,” an official said.
Mindful of working on a tight budget, the authority has decided that Nilekani and a senior official travelling to the states is cheaper than holding conferences in Delhi.
The authority hopes to start issuing the unique numbers from August 2010. The initial target is to issue the numbers to 5 crore people who voluntarily register with the authority. For that, it will recruit consultants and volunteers.
The volunteers and NGOs will be asked to help create awareness, particularly among the underprivileged. “They will help the enrolment process by addressing misgivings, if any. We will have full-time and part-time volunteers,” an official said.
The modalities are being worked out and will soon be posted on the authority’s website — uidai.gov.in.
The site answers all the frequently asked questions such as how the unique number would reduce the need for sundry government identifications when applying for, say, a bank account, passport or driving licence.
The number will not replace these documents, what it will do is establish a person’s identity authoritatively, relying on biometry. The unique number will have a citizen’s details and fingerprints and can be accessed and verified online from anywhere in the country.
Many people now have more than one identity in government records, which makes it difficult to stop corruption and fraud, such as a citizen acquiring driving licences in different states under false identities. The unique number will also check illegal immigration and make it easier to track criminals operating under aliases and weed out multiple voter I-cards.
UIDAI invites bids for CIDR, MSP
The move is aimed at appointing consultant for designing a programme management strategy and implementing the roadmap for the UID project
Published on 12/16/2009 – 08:48:34 AM
By Pravin Prashant
New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has invited proposals from IT consulting companies for providing consultancy services to UIDAI for setting up of Central ID Data Repository (CIDR) and selection of managed service provider (MSP).
The consultancy firm will focus on designing a programme management strategy and implementation roadmap for the UID project. It will also formulate strategy, business models, and implementation roadmap for CIDR of the UID project.
The authority has floated three requests for proposal (RFPs). First, RFP focuses on selection of data center construction agency to design, construct, erect, and commission the CIDR facilities (physical infrastructure). Second one focuses on procurement of interim co-location facilities for the CIDR and the third RFP focuses on selection of managed service provider (MSP) to implement and manage CIDR.
Details of the RFPs are available on UIDAI website.
The UIDAI will be the regulatory authority managing CIDR which will issue UID numbers, update resident information, and authenticate the identity of residents as required.
In addition, the authority will partner with central and state government departments and private sector agencies who will act as Registrars for the UIDAI.
The registrars will process UID applications, and connect to the CIDR to de-duplicate information regarding residents and receive UID numbers. These Registrars can either be enrollers, or will appoint agencies as enrollers, who will interface with people seeking UID numbers.
The Government of India (GoI) has embarked upon an ambitious initiative to provide a Unique Identification (UID) to every resident of India and has constituted the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for this purpose.
The timing of this initiative coincides with the increased focus of the government on social inclusion and development through massive investments in social sector programs, and transformation in public services delivery through e-Governance programs.
Unique identification number from February 2011
16 Dec 2009, 2229 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: India will become the first country in the world to issue a unique identity number for each of its residents from February 2011 which
will allow an on-line verification, a top official said Wednesday.
“We will start issuing the unique number by February 2011,” Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said here Wednesday at a talk organized in the Parliament House Library.
He said that giving a unique number to each Indian was a big challenge as UIDAI will make sure that there is no duplication. The project estimated to cost around Rs.30,000 crore will cover the entire population of the country.
Nilekani said that biometrics will be used to prevent duplication and the authority will keep the same kind of information as is mentioned on voter I-card. “We want to keep minimal information,” he said, adding that there will be no invasion of privacy.
He said the unique number will enable the UIDAI to verify identity of a citizen online and India will become the first country in the world to have such a system. “No other country has done it. It will be gateway to open up public services to the people.”
He said under the present system, verification process is being done over and over again.
Terming the project a “massively complex project,” he said the authority will use state governments, banks, insurance companies and other such institutions as partners in enrolment.
The unique number will not give any rights or entitlements but can be later used for the purposes of citizenship, he said.
“It is a voluntary number. Even infants will get it,” he said, adding that identity of mother or guardian will be used alongside in case of children as biometrics are not fully developed in them.
Nilekani said the verification process will be kept pro-poor and inclusive.
“I think it is a very powerful and inclusive idea. It will help the poor have better access to public services and will be a great enabler for their financial
inclusion. The flagship welfare schemes of the government can be made more efficient,” he said, adding that it will help strengthen national security, reducing fraud and increasing tax collection.
Giving an illustration of the use of the unique number in banking sector, he said it can help people make money withdrawals easier virtually leading to an ATM in every village.
Nilekani, who took questions at the end of his talk, said the country should formulate a comprehensive privacy law.
The talk, organised by the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training of the Lok Sabha secretariat, was attended by several MPs and officials.
Bangalore, Dec 19 (PTI) Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani today called on Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to discuss the process of issuing unique identification cards in the state from February 2011.
Nilekani told reporters that he sought the state government’s cooperation in launching the programme from Karnataka.
Yeddyurappa has promised to render all possible assistance, he said.
Karnataka gets its unique National Identity Number in 2011
Srikanth Hunasavadi & MK Madhusoodan / DNA
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Bangalore: Nandan Nilekani, chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) set up to issue unique identity numbers to Indians, is set to begin the project in Karnataka. On Saturday, Nilekani met chief minister BS Yeddyurappa to seek support for the project. Assuring the state’s cooperation, Yeddyurappa told Nilekani that the project implementation would begin without delay.
Karnataka has been selected for a pilot project to implement the ambitious project. “After I assumed charge as a head of UIDAI, I am meeting all the chief ministers, seeking their support for the project. The CM has assured full cooperation,” said Nilekani.
The UIDAI would begin issuing unique ID numbers by February 2011, and intends to issue IDs to 600 million citizens in four years. “India will be the first country to implement a biometric-based unique ID system for its residents on such a large scale. In the beginning, we selected three states, including Karnataka. We’ll implement the project first in Karnataka,” said Nilekani.
On Friday, the UIDAI floated tenders to shortlist service providers for the project. The authority has invited IT consulting companies to provide “consultancy services to UIDAI for setting up Central ID Data Repository (CIDR). The CIDR will issue UID numbers, update resident information and authenticate the identity of the residents as required. The notification also sought selection of managed service provider (MSP).”
“Since Bangalore is the IT capital of India, the world is looking at the city. We are planning to set up a technology centre for the UID project in Bangalore. From here, we will send the cards to other states,” he added. “The last date for submitting tender forms for both services is January 15. The forms for the request for proposal (RFP) document can be downloaded from the UIDAI website or can be procured directly from the UIDAI deputy director-general’s office in New Delhi,” said an official.
The department of e-governance is expected to execute the project in Karnataka. The department is in the process of identifying two districts — one urban and one rural — to begin the project. There’s also an attempt to get information from the department of food and civil supplies. The proposed ID cards will be ‘smart cards’, which will carry information of each individual, his/her finger biometrics and a photograph.
A unique National Identity Number will be assigned to each individual, including those below 18 years of age.
Infosys to bid for UID projects; nobody to succeed Nilekani
Tue. July 28, 2009; Posted: 12:13 AM
Bangalore, Jun 26, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) — INFY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — Infosys Technologies on Friday said it would bid for multi-crore rupee projects under the Unique Identification Database Authority, which would be headed by the company?s former co-chairman Nandan Nilekani, as it sees no conflict of interest.
Ending speculations on who would succeed Nilekani, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan also told the mediapersons that nobody is slated at present to fill Nilekani?s shoes and the former co-chairman?s responsibilities would get distributed among the brass.
A day after the Centre announced Nilekani?s appointment in the rank of a Cabinet minister, Gopalakrishnan said the outgoing co-chairman had been handling some customers and was involved in brand initiatives and heading strategic teams.
?So, it (Nilekani?s responsibilities) will get distributed to other leaders in the company. Nobody is at present slated to be the co-chairman. So, it will get distributed to all of us,? Gopalakrishnan said,
The NASDAQ-listed company also said it Infosys had handled transitions in the past seamlessly and was confident of doing so this time also given its depth of leadership.
Gopalakrishnan said Infosys would bid for projects under UIDAI like any other e-governance projects, but saw no conflict of interest though the authority would be headed by a former company top executive.
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PM constitutes council for Identification Authority
(Source: IANS)
Published: Mon, 03 Aug 2009 at 17:29 IST
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday constituted a council under his chairmanship to advice the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and ensure better coordination between ministries, stakeholders and partners.
“The council is expected to advice the UIDAI on the programme, methodology and implementation to ensure coordination between ministries, departments, stakeholders and partners,” said a release from the Prime Minister’s Office.
It will also identify specific milestones for early completion of the project.
Nandan Nilekani, the 54-year-old co-founder of Infosys Technologies, took charge as the chairman of the UIDAI last month and started work on the government’s ambitious project to provide a single identity number and card to each of the country’s 1.17 billion people.
The main task of the authority would be to create a database that will help in issuing unique identity cards.
Members of the newly appointed council are Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sharad Pawar, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Law and Justice Minister M. Veerappa Moily, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Minister C.P. Joshi, Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani.
The main purpose of this ambitious project would avert the need for multiple proofs of identity for citizens while availing any government service, or for private needs like opening bank accounts or seeking telephone connections.
It is also expected to enhance national security by helping to identify illegal aliens.
Nilekani was personally selected by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the project with the rank of a cabinet minister.
Image from Reuters
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