[Reader-list] Nandan's Blog and UIDAI - 199

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All,

Here's from the man himself. Please read the view presented by Mr.
Nadan Nilekani on his appointment as chief of UIDAI. In addition to
this I'd like to present two responses which Mr. Nadan Nilekani  got
for this blog post.

Regards

Taha

1. Jay Shetty Says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm

Sir, 30 to 40% of Indian use cell phone now, i think this will reach
very close to 70% in couple of years time. There is much scope to link
this unique id with cell phone number ( also mobile number portability
is coming in effect)and keeping autority of allocating the mobile
number with Govt will improve the security. Which will help to
information sharing with common people. Now we have lot of voice based
service in Telecommunication which will enable us to keep common man
informed about his benefits from Govt and other messages which unique
to him. They don’t even need to know to read and write to use this
features.
I also belive we should start the CHANGE from the schools, it is very
easy to start your unique number allocation starting from the schools.
We need to then extend it to banks and other organizations. Which will
easy the implementation effort.
Thx, Jay
(I work as solution manager mobile commu.)

2.  Anand Saraf Says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:26 pm

Dear Mr. Nilekani,

I think it’s wonderful that the PM asked you - but even more fantastic
that you accepted! I can only imagine the all the weighing of pros and
cons to arrive at such a difficult decision.

My two bits of suggestions for the UID project:
We should first attack at the base so that no new data gets generated
wrongly. In other words - at hospitals at the time of birth - make it
mandatory that every child when born gets a Unique ID - in the birth
certificate - like a Social Security Number in the US.

Next attack the other end - people dying need a death certificate -
make sure each such event gets logged into the UID - either tagged to
someone already in the system or by creation of a new record in the
system - print the UID in the Death certificate.

This will at least get the new data correct - and then begins the
onerous task of getting the existing population into the system.

For existing data, a good way to quickly get off the ground would be
to provide a self-service portal where people with existing ID (like a
passport) can logon and self-register, provide proof-of-ID and submit
an application. This will make it much easier than to do a data
collection effort. The applications can be scrutinized against the
other ID database (passport) and if okay - can be integrated into the
UID. I think the NSDL model is a great approach for this.

Of course that would take care of more urban than rural population -
the primary political target for the UID. But there will be ways - for
example take the Yashashwini database in Karnataka and you will get a
good bunch of the population into the system with relatively “correct”
info!

All the best!
Anand




http://imaginingindia.com/2009/07/23/last-post/

Last post

As you may have heard, I’ve been appointed as the Chairman of the
Unique Identification Authority of India. I’m grateful for all your
congratulations and best wishes.

In my new role, I can no longer comment on government policy. So this
means the end of this blog. The blogging format was new to me, and I
greatly enjoyed writing here and listening to your thoughts these past
few months.

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. When Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh offered me the opportunity to head the UIDAI,
I saw it as a chance to help enable ideas I have supported for a long
time.
Since the UIDAI aims to enable a people-centric approach to
governance, I will approach the rollout of the initiative in the same
way. I’ve been overwhelmed in the last few weeks by offers of
assistance and help from Indians around the world. The UIDAI will be
setting up a website soon, which will chart out ways for people to
volunteer and engage with the project. I hope that together, we will
be able to make this initiative an enormous success.