[Reader-list] Israeli IT firms to bid for unique ID card project- 154

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Pankhuree,

The view of a State turning towards a dystopian society and an
Orwellian future is a well documented one. I'd be very surprised if
all Indians, (actually...ummmmm..... we don't really know who an
Indian- exactly is-, at least legally) but for the sake of an
argument- all Indians, could be documented accurately without any
fault.

We are a very poor country, although there are many of us brave fellow
citizens who like to believe that India is  the next superpower. I
feel that it is a worthy dream.

Let me tell you that I deeply desire that one day all Indians,
irrespective of their caste or creed could actually shop in the
comforts of these air conditioned malls.

Maybe then I wouldn't mind at all,  if these shops were to project
some commercials tailored to the needs of a billion plus consumers.

 However I fear that in a rush to create a database of our
fingerprints and what not, is our government not fulfilling its basic
obligation towards these companies, which is- to first convert a
billion plus electorate to a billion plus consumers.

A billion consumers who are at par with anyone else in this world.

It appears as if, by introducing UIDC and by placing Nandu there at
the top, our government is tailoring to the needs of only one sector-
IT sector, at the peril of ignoring all the other sectors particularly
, the nascent retail sector.

As things stand now, you tell me, what use could a data comprising of
under-nourished, poor consumer would be, to the Tescos, the Tatas, and
the Toyotas of the world?

So sure, dystopian society it would be- but it would be funny in a
way, wouldn't it, to see a whole lot of manual scavengers, farmers on
the verge of suicide, tribals (who are full on organic BTW), urban
poor, migrants laborers  and naxals...yes them lot too...just hopping
around the country with smart digital tokens of Automatic
Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) technology and other assorted
Card Technologies, Data Communications Technologies, Bar Code
Technologies and Radio Frequency Identification Technologies etc.

These days they are issuing ration documents for people who are Below
the Poverty Line  in the name of Sania Mirza later maybe during the
period of utopia ushered by UIDC we may issue cards in the name of
Mahtma Gandhi :)

Thanks for your reply, though.

Warm regards

Taha