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

[pankhuree dube]

Dear Taha,

I apologize for the delay in responding but I have been mulling over your question: "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?"

 

 

Maybe it is not that India's poor will be instantly transformed into consumers, maybe it is possible they will be consumed. I liked the piece you sent out some time ago where a middle-class Indian man is trying to order a pizza and the delivery boy manages to read off his entire life story by processing the ID number. Already, we know of poor Indians donating their kidneys to wealthy people over the internet. Perhaps the ID card will become a way of matching the services a poor person could willingly or unwillingly render with the highest bidder. 

 

 

 

Naomi Klein and others have convincingly argued that in the future wars will be fought over resources such as access to water and that wealthy people will inhabit green zones which resemble airports and are barred to the outside. It occurs to me that these ID cards, with all their technical errors, may also be a way to keep Big Babu's eyes on the masses and keep the rabble in line. 

 


 

Just some scary thoughts,

Pankhuree
 
> Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:37:57 +0100
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Israeli IT firms to bid for unique ID card project- 154
> From: 2tahamehmood at googlemail.com
> To: pankhuree at hotmail.com
> CC: reader-list at sarai.net
> 
> 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

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