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Comment by rams | Hacker News Reader

I had predicted here ( http://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2009/06/all-honourable-men.htm... ):

"As the good old days of inflated head counts and billing rates comes to an end for Indian outsourcing companies, the big outsourcing companies will bid for, and push for huge local government projects."

It's amazing how uncritically such huge projects are treated by the press in India - privacy issues, potential conflict of interest for the person leading this effort (Nilekani). Public discussion in India in general is very worshipful of proposals like this or the usage of voting machines - there is little to no discussion of the meta issues like privacy, corruption, etc.

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Nilekani is the current CEO of Infosys. He has already stated he is going to step down from Infosys before taking up the effort to create an India wide UID. Bidding for this mega project will be an international one, with some Israeli companies already showing interest (in addition to Indian majors like Infosys, TCS, Wipro...).

So the question is not as much as about conflict of interest as it is about the success of the project. This will be the third such attempt - Seshan's voter ID, the PAN card and now the UID.

From anti-corruption point of view, this is really going to be helpful. Any government aid etc can be tracked using the UID (i.e. to see who the beneficiary was). Currently a majority of such funds are eaten up by the politicians and bureaucrats. So perhaps that will get reduced. As a state, India is currently a failure: perhaps the UID will help make some ammends.

The implementation is going to be a challenge - currently there are options that are doing rounds: a smart card approach or using a mobile sim card (a govt reserved security domain in every sim card - the sim ID can act as a proxy for UID).

Actually he has long stepped down as a CEO of Infosys. He, however, continued to wield the title of co-chairman until now.

He has resigned now.

> From anti-corruption point of view, this is really going to be helpful. Any government aid etc can be tracked using the UID (i.e. to see who the beneficiary was). Currently a majority of such funds are eaten up by the politicians and bureaucrats. So perhaps that will get reduced.

"perhaps"? That's your plan? Hope is not a plan.

Unless Indian pols,grifters, and the like are significantly less competent than American ones, an ID card won't have any effect on corruption, waste of govt aid, and so on.

And you have quoted Nilekani, what more would do you expect. You need to appreciate he is taking this up giving up a definitely more profitable & less frustrating job of heading an IT major.

Given this is not a no-brainer job and involves utilizing technology efficiently whoever would fit the bill would have some past associations which might conflict. And real business people know how to keep them separate.

And for the meta issues I would believe the team responsible are more informed & concerned of it than any of us would be.

Media in India is wrongly influencing us to doubt everything and vehemently debate every issue as if we are the experts in that area. I agree to some extent it is necessary to question to control corruption and such. Doing it just for the sake of TRP is bad for the country than the question being raised.

The notion of profit depends entirely on what you're trying to achieve.

In this case, perhaps it's political power without the tedium of going to the polls... EU style.

agree. but it is definitely not for political power. If he wanted to I think he probably had a good chance to win standing for MP elections in Bangalore.

I guess getting the political power was more of necessity here because without that authority things might not move among bureaucrats & probably also to be commanding to ensure there is no infiltration of evil influences of other ministers in the system.

That is how it always starts, a megalomaniac "reluctantly" and "temporarily" taking power for the good of the people.

There has to be good balance and checks introduced in the system. Perhaps even make it open source, after all it is a public work. This way, there will be no room for problems such as voting machines rigging ( http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/jul/04/was-election-2009-... )

I don't consider open source to be a panacea but w.r.t. government programs, I think it is an option that should be actively considered.

I don't really see how this is a bad thing. The government will not use these cards to track you or anything. It's just a universal ID card. Proving that you exist is a big problem back here, mostly because everyone has their own definition of "proof of identity". If one universal proof of identity exists, you can just show the middle finger to anybody who makes you jump through bureaucratic hoops.

The ID in and of itself is not a bad thing. However, there needs to be a full and thorough discussion of the issues such as privacy, duplication, theft etc. From what I can see, this scheme seems similar to SSN's in the US, and using them as an example, you can easily see how the aforementioned issues can come into play. IMO, there needs to be a rigorous debate in the media about this scheme and also a detailed explanation from the government on how they plan to address these concerns.

Knowing what Indian Media is like I would rather not want this to be debated. Given Nilekani is heading it and the fact that the government is actively working to bring in any relevant person or advise I would assume they would do a good job of analysis the pros and cons and the feasibility of it in a country like India.

Things have to start - we cannot keep debating. I understand revising or doing it again is costly in India. But whatever the current investment into this pays of in just one use of this - ensuring the facilities are not misused. I bet there is more money people are shelling out in bribes as a whole to misuse than what is required to prevent it. One investment of govt I would not complain about even if I have to pay a nominal fee for it or raise funds.

> The government will not use these cards to track you or anything.

While there are some instances where a govt has resisted the temptation to use technology to its fullest for its own interests, the majority are limited only by their competence.

It will be used for tracking because it can be used for tracking and that's one thing that govt folk like to do.

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