It Made Sense – 3; Nandan and the Unique ID*

A small piece of plastic with a number and biometric signature for every resident of India; the national Unique Id project has been announced by Government of India. This will be the first experiment in the world to issue a biometric based id for a population of one billion. A journey that ‘no man has ever made before’. A small card for every resident; but a ‘giant leap for India’ even for the mankind?

It makes sense in a number of ways…

Financial Sense

Once I am given a unique id card, it saves enormous cost and avoids a lot of headache of multiple identity verifications every time I enroll myself for services where I have to prove that ‘I am who I am’; from opening bank account to investing in mutual funds, when I want to get a driving license, apply for my insurance and even for my BPL card if I turn pauper:-)

This saving itself will justify every rupee spent on this project.

There will be no need for the Income tax department to issue Unique Transaction Number (UTN) for every transaction in the withholding tax (TDS) return for those poor taxpayers who don’t have a PAN. He can now quote this unique id.

This can also help in fraud detection and reduction; Organizations like CIBIL who track credit history of individuals has now a key to uniquely identify every individual.

Moral Sense

Ensuring that the various benefits that the government doles out goes to the intended person will become easier and I am sure that this can act as moderating factor in the subsidy budget of government of India.

We may also be able to track who is enjoying the multiple benefits that he is not entitled to.

Security Sense

When I walk in to a hotel to check-in covering my face with a dark glass and a black backpack, officer who will assist me to check-in may be able to verify my UID from a central system. He can then feel a little less tensed.

Biometric mapping will surely help in preventing multiple ids for same human being. I will find it difficult to be Koshy and Anand. I have to decide who I want to me

Opportunities are far reaching. As Nandan may point out, it will help in ‘Imagining India’ better:-)

Governance Sense

The decision to make Nandan Nilekani (Co-Chairman and
Cofounder of Infosys) to head this project with the rank of a Cabinet Minister also makes enormous sense and demonstrates the seriousness the government attaches to this project.

Lucky for us, we now have a professional with the right experience in technology and institution building (that too enormously successfully) to head this technically complex project instead of empire building bureaucrats or politicians (I don’t consider that all bureaucrats and politicians are only interested in empire building empire building is not good). I hope he is given the freedom to percolate this commitment to professionalism down the line to build a team that can deliver.

I am sure with such vast experience that he possesses he will not attempt to do this project like the way a ‘tambram’ would cook ‘Thairu Sadam’ (curd rice) mixing the electoral database with the PDS database and the BPL database with little regard to the sanctity of the identify verification (KYC) at the time of enrollment with a hope that it will get cleaned by along the way. I was happy to see his interview in which he appears to say that he doesn’t claim to posses any magic for issuing one billion card in two years and be ready to for his next ‘political assignment’. Let us give him time so that he can do a good job and not a great idea in paper.

Tailpiece: I am indebted to the classic ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ to have inspired in me the title of this article which is about an idea that is too good to be true.