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Comment by ocean3 | Hacker News Reader

There would be odd cases it's not like everyone is climbing trees.

It made getting a SIM a 5 minute process with no documents needed. And I'm sure it works perfectly millions of times per day and maybe once in a year some guy has to climb a tree. Unfortunately people love criticizing anything new.

Ask why it took so much documentation to get a Sim before.

Before you say "Pakistan", think about it for a second. Don't fall for the security theater.

I am not opposed to tax reform but I think we are not addressing the root problem here.

Also, to say that I will forego privacy to get a SIM for 5 minutes is quite myopic. I mean you can get your SIM card in 1 minute by using an embedded chip inside your body. It doesn't mean we should do it.

It works great for reliance too. All your browsing habits are now linked to your Aadhar, and can be freely sold to pretty much anyone and shared with government since i have never heard of any real privacy protection laws in India.

I'm happy that everyone isn't climbing trees. But casually dismissing "odd cases" where people who live hand to mouth are starving and excluded from society due to "software errors" is extreme apathy. Like I said, life is not software.

consider that they actually have the opportunity to get the benefit today. I remember times not too long back where all of it disappeared in corruption.

Consider that some other people are not getting their benefits today. Earlier, some people were not getting benefits; now some others aren't getting it. The reasons have changed - the situation remains.

Numbers matter. If you go from 95% to 99% that's massive progress. So saying someone or some people is meaningless.

> If you go from 95% to 99% that's massive progress.

I haven't seen any number that suggests so.

Very rarely is there any effort in India to collect statistics. We don't know how effective welfare programs were pre-Aadhaar and we won't know post-Aadhaar either. All we'll get from either side of the political divide is rhetoric.

Not disbelieving you, but would you have a citation documenting the progress ? Or were you making the point that if (hypothetically) it moved the needle from 95 to 99 that would be progress. Its not clear which one you meant.

Sorry, yea this was a hypothetical. But, as a rule India is really bad about collecting this type of data.

My point, is they really need to collect data or both sides are just going to keep spouting meaningless crap without any clear way to find an answer.

Sorry but there are lot of people starving before and after the change. Simply blaming a software is doing a disservice to the issues at hand.

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