Unique Identification Authority of India; Opportunities and Challenges

Anybody who has been following the print or television media of late couldn’t have missed the celebration that followed the appointment of I.T. czar Mr. Nandan Nilekani as the Chairperson of the UIDAI. The Dr.Manmohan Singh government came in for praise from wide quarters for tapping the corporate sector in search of technological acumen and managerial prowess. The blogosphere is overflowing with open letters to Mr.Nilekani from eager engineers; all wanting to do their bit for what could very well be the single largest e- governance project till date.

The euphoria in the media is not exactly unfounded as seldom has our government come forward with a strong policy announcement of this scale. The success of the Indian I.T. sector and the telecom revolution were facilitated by a series of incremental policy measures. But here, interestingly the government is playing the role of an initiator, thereby giving the programme a stamp of legitimacy. The celebration in the I.T. sector may well be attributed to the fact that the implementation of the project would bring in serious business opportunity to all the major Indian I.T. companies.

Why exactly do we need a new unique ID? Finance Minister Mr.Pranab Mukherjee hailed the project as a major step towards improving governance and better disbursal of public services. The other benefits foreseen are the integration of the current IDs like the ration card, PAN, Passport, Drivers License which would avoid redundancy of data stored in various government databases (leading to savings for the government and perhaps better monitoring of revenue collection). Experts are of the opinion that a unique ID would help counter illegal migration and terrorism. In the long term a unique ID could be used by private players like banks, Insurance companies, hospitals, FMCG players etc to get a credit or medical history of the person. Imagine a situation where you've just shifted to a new house; you fill in a request form and within ten days (after a verification) you get a ration card, driver's license, PAN and Passport with your new address!! Every single one of these ambitious objective can be met, but only after ensuring that each Indian has been allotted a unique ID.

If the government had not initiated such a programme, one of the key policy questions in e- governance would have been whether to follow a decentralized model or to adopt an integrated approach. The decentralized model would never have the advantages mentioned in the paragraph above but would nevertheless have brought with them a whole lot of advantages that one would generally associate with e-governance projects. One should also not discount the fact that the country has successfully implemented many such projects. Now that the government has gone ahead with the project, that debate can be laid to rest.

The challenges in front of Mr.Nilekani and his team are huge. Who would maintain the project after they are done with? How effective will the team be in coordinating such a huge effort across various government departments, especially at the local body level? How long will it take the UIDAI to allot every Indian an id? The analysts are pessimistic about the 12-18 months time frame announced by the FM during his budget speech. IT analysts have tentatively put the overall cost at above Rs.10, 000 crores. The UIDAI would have a minefield to negotiate when it finally comes down to choosing the technical platform and the various subcontractors who would execute the project.

Mr.Nandan Nilekani built one of India’s most respected companies, but this time around he’ll need the good wishes of an entire country. All the best Mr.Nandan.