[Reader-list] Notes on plumbing individual identities- 208

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Rajen

I think taking this incident which you shared with us regarding the
PIO case as a case study it seems like identity as a concept needs to
dealt with far more clarity. It is clear that the GOI regulations
governing some procedural aspects of identity distribution and
categorization are not clear therefore it's consequences can be felt
socially.

With UIDAI/MNIC too we seem to be facing this problem. Nandan is
saying he is a plumber when he should be verifying the water first.
This is clearly deeply disturbing. His colleagues on the other hand
are distributing all sorts of smart identity cards. One can clearly
see that with this single act- multiple distribution of smart identity
cards by various departments, the GOI is openly and deliberately
creating a context for future market capitalization.

If various government ministries start to act on their own accord then
apart from a semi-conductor and ITES sector which seems to be the
biggest recipient GOI's benevolence we can see a potential for a
companies offering specialized services for merging and purging of
data and subsidiary services for verification of individual identities
gleaned from this exercise.

Given the size and scale of GOI and assorted departments we can safely
speculate an opening up of a mult-million dollar industry based on
providing services, in the near future.

This basically means that lakhs of crores of public money will again
be re-distributed in the name of straightening of data.

To dream about chances of data remaining scattered and homogeneous is
not a possibility because such a dream goes fundamentally against the
logic of business since that data, which we assume- could be accessed
on a real time basis, apart from being a public good is also a
precious source of market intelligence.

The question therefore we need to ask is- is the government of India
acting in a fair manner by allowing distribution of identity documents
be various government departments ? Should this distribution be not
stopped immediately? Will this not lead to further channeling of
public money to simplify artificial, policy made complications of
existence of multiple data entries? Is multiple distribution of
identity documents not an open endorsement of market led pressures for
more GOI contracts in the name documenting individual identity?

Warm regards

Taha