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The incredible story of the UID project.

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The incredible story of the UID project

The Making of the World's Most Ambitious Information Bank (This article
appeared in Forbes India Magazine of 03 December, 2010)


When Ranjana Sonawane, a 30-year-old housewife from Tembhli, a tribal
village in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra was allotted the UID number
7824-7431-7884, the team at the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) would have been quite justified in feeling a little pleased with
themselves. A small team - 160 people - had achieved the first milestone of
a very ambitious project in a very short time.

The UIDAI is a government body mandated with the task of assigning every
single one of India's 1.2 billion citizens a Unique Identity (UID) number.

If you're beginning to wonder what the big deal really is, consider this: By
2014, the government wants half of India's population to be allotted UID
numbers. To do that, the Authority will photograph a staggering 600 million
Indians, scan 1.2 billion irises, collect six billion fingerprints and
record 600 million addresses.

Let's put this simply. No system in the world has handled anything on this
scale. Period.

Think about it.

When the 600 millionth person is assigned a unique 12-digit UID, the system
that generates it will have to compare it against 599,999,999 photographs,
1,199,999,998 irises and 12,999,999,990 fingerprints to ensure the number is
indeed unique.

By the time the system reaches out to cover every Indian resident, the
complexity, well, doubles. When in full flow, the system will be adding a
million names to its database every single day until the task is complete.

Now, here's the question: There's nobody in the world who's handled anything
like this. Because it is government-owned, there are no private profits or
stock options to be had for cracking the problem. In fact, if the current
government loses at the next polls, there is a chance the next one may think
the idea a waste of time and money and simply disband the project, and the
team may lose five years of their lives.

Assuming for a moment all goes well, the only tangible gain most of the team
on the project will have is the pleasure of knowing they worked on the most
complex data management problem the world has ever known. And perhaps the
warm glow that comes with knowing they tried to change the world. After
which, they will go back to wherever it is they came from. How many people
do you know who'd have the spunk to be in full-time on an assignment like
this?

When Raj Mashruwala heard that the PM had parachuted in
<http://connect.in.com/nandan-nilekani/profile-411.html> Nandan Nilekani to
head UIDAI, he immediately sent him a congratulatory note and offered to
assist. Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, was Mashruwala's junior at IIT
Bombay. Mashruwala, 58, now an investor and mentor to a few companies in
Silicon Valley, had first moved to the US in 1976 to pursue a Masters in
engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He stayed on,
founded a few companies in the manufacturing software space and did well for
himself. Nilekani wrote back right away and asked Mashruwala to join him and
an assorted bunch of people from various parts of the world to discuss a
broad framework for the project.

The two had a common friend: Srikanth Nadhamuni, an engineer from the
University of Mysore who, like Mashruwala, had pursued a Masters in the US
and had put in 15 years in Silicon Valley. In 2003, Nilekani and Nadhamuni
co-founded eGovernments Foundation, a non-profit organisation to help
municipalities deliver better services to citizens using IT. When Nilekani
left Infosys to head the UID project, he invited Nadhamuni to head the
technology centre.

At Nilekani's invitation, Mashruwala flew down to Bangalore in July last
year, to attend a conference organised by the UIDAI. In the room, there were
bankers, professors from Ivy League colleges, technology professionals,
people from NGOs, even representatives from the Life Insurance Corporation
of India (LIC). And of course Nilekani's many friends and acquaintances,
such as Nachiket Mor, co-President, ICICI Foundation.

The diversity floored Mashruwala.

Ram Sevak Sharma, the designated CEO - or the Director General as he is
called at the UIDAI - graduated with a masters in mathematics from IIT
Kanpur in 1976. He went on to join the Indian Administrative Services (IAS)
in 1978. Sharma was perhaps the first officer in Bihar to introduce a DCM
10-D computer (in Begu Sarai where he was the district magistrate). He
computerised, in succession, the treasury department in Purnia district,
Bihar's public grievance system and the National Rural Employment Program.
His passion for technology pushed him to take a sabbatical from the IAS in
2000 and pursue a degree in computer science at the University of
California, Riverside.

Then there was K. Ganga, from Indian Audit and Accounts Services, who among
other assignments had served as financial advisor to the President of India.
When Nilekani, who was introduced to her through a mutual friend, asked her
if she could give five years of her life to the project as deputy director
general (DDG) in charge of finance, Ganga agreed, but with one caveat. She
didn't want her role to be limited to handling finances. She wanted to be
part of the team that created the project ground up. She got her way.

Michael Foley, the celebrated Bangalore-based designer who created the baton
for the *<http://connect.in.com/commonwealth-games/profile-543083.html>
Commonwealth Games 2010, was in too. As design head of Titan, he had created
watches (among them, the Titan Edge, the world's slimmest watch), sunglasses
and other lifestyle products. He subsequently founded FoleyDesigns where,
among other things, he works on lighting systems and waste disposal. Foley
went on to design a portable kit for the UID project that houses a laptop,
camera and iris- and fingerprint-scanners.

Sanjay Swamy, CEO of mCheck, had written an email to Nilekani on how the
project ought to evolve; then he realised he didn't know what the email ID
was. So he posted it on a blog instead, which caught Nilekani's eye. When
they finally touched base, Nilekani told him, "Before you get on to your
next venture, spend some time to help us with the micropayments module."

Over the next 12 months, the diversity only grew.

A young lawyer working in Brussels and a Harvard graduate volunteered for
the communications team; an executive with just about a year under his belt
at McKinsey signed up to work on processes and operations; a chartered
accountant with 21 years at Infosys UK behind him came in on the project
management unit; an IIM Ahmedabad graduate who'd put in 11 years at GE and
Genpact wanted in on the Human Resources team.

It wasn't just folks from the private sector, though. Nilekani and Sharma
cast their net wide within sarkari circle and got in people from the
government's various departments: The railways, postal services, income tax,
audit & accounts, even BSNL.

Two problems existed though. First, they could only look at people eligible
for central government postings. Second, bureaucrats aren't interviewed for
assignments. Ashok Pal Singh, DDG - Logistics in the UIDAI, explains that
this is because in government, the basic premise is that one person is as
good as another. But Nilekani and Sharma not only conducted extensive
interviews, they made background checks and even collected references before
appointing people.

"In terms of perks, privileges and pay, this place has nothing more to offer
than any other job in government. In many respects, it is worse off," says
Singh, an alumnus of St Stephen's, Delhi and Mayo, Ajmer. "And yet everyone
is here because they want to be." He was Deputy Director General in the
Department of Posts, where he had nurtured the dream of getting every Indian
a bank account and an email ID. When the project was announced, he sought a
meeting with Nilekani and Sharma to discuss how the UID project could fulfil
those two objectives. They ended up hiring him for the project, to drive
financial inclusion.

The signals weren't lost on Mashruwala. He originally thought he'd go back
to California and coordinate volunteers from there. At best, he reckoned,
he'd be needed for three months. But 10 days after he left, Mashruwalla was
back to Bangalore with no house or plan. He ended up renting an apartment in
the city, not far from the houses of Nadhamuni and Pramod Varma (an old
Infosys hand who was on the project as its chief software architect). That
house also doubled up as UID's tech centre in the early days. They now
operate out of their official premises on Sarjapur Ring Road

in Bangalore.

Govindraj Ethiraj is your dyed-in-the-wool veteran journalist who's done
time with big name brands like the Economic Times, CNBC-TV18 and
Bloomberg-UTV (where he was editor) before he took over as Head, Industry
Outreach at UIDAI. Over an informal chat with a colleague of ours in Mumbai
two weeks ago, Ethiraj told of a unique culture evolving within the UIDAI.

On the one hand, there are those who live in the black-and-white world of
the government, with comforting, unchanging hierarchies and systems, away
from the chaos of the private sector. On the other, you have white-collar
executives with their own notions of who is blue-blooded, plus a deep
distrust of red tape. Put that together and you have an environment ripe for
mistrust and conflict.

Nilekani, says Ethiraj, has worked hard at convincing colleagues from both
sides to let go of notions they've nurtured and, instead, learn to
collaborate.

He put down a simple guideline: No silos. How they would operate now,
Nilekani told the team, is their problem, not his. So far, they seem to have
done just fine. Consider, for instance, the kind of team that has come into
place to drive financial inclusion, which is arguably one of the most
important objectives of the project.

Barely 20 percent of Indians have bank accounts. Problem is, to open a bank
account you need proof of identity, something millions of Indians just don't
have. But if banks start to accept the UID numbers - which capture most of
the information required - it becomes easier, and cheaper, to open an
account.

Ashok Pal Singh drives that initiative at the UIDAI, with a team drawn from
both the public and private sector. Rajesh Bansal brings in the regulator's
perspective (he came in from the
<http://connect.in.com/reserve-bank-of-india/profile-543591.html> Reserve
Bank of India). Viral Shah, a PhD in Computer Science from Santa Barbara, is
an expert in Financial Economics. Pavan Sachdeva, an investment banker with
19 years of experience, volunteered for few months before returning to
Singapore; Charu Anchlia, interned with UIDAI for two months, and is now
doing her Master's in Public Administration from Harvard. Swamy of mChek
came in as an expert in mobile payments. "This imparts speed and quality to
the project. Because you are not grappling in the dark, you hit the right
solution quickly," says Singh.

UIDAI's headquarters is in Jeevan Bharati, a building, in Connaught Place,
Delhi; that's where all the policy decisions are taken. The technology
backbone of the project is in Bangalore. The contrast between the two is
dramatic.

The Delhi office is a traditional government setup. Officers sit in large
rooms separated by plywood partitions. Nameplates on the doors display their
designations. Peons and assistants move files between different officers and
usher in visitors. Hand-towels protect chair upholstery. Conversations are
largely in Hindi and work gets conducted in a polite, orderly way. People
are addressed and referred to by their titles: "Chairman, I need your
approval" or "DDG said..." for instance.

At the tech centre at Bangalore, the doors and partitions are gleaming
glass. People rush around energetically. Even at 8 p.m. lights blaze,
visitors stream in, and impromptu meetings are place in the corridors.
English is the default language, everybody is on a first-name terms and the
ambience is collegial.

It is this irreverence that first bothered, then fascinated and now amuses
the bureaucrats in Delhi. "Our bosses will never praise us in public," says
K. Ganga, "But our colleagues in the private sector openly praise each other
and give credit. I think we ought to adopt that culture."

Other things still bother the bureaucrats.

Hierarchy, seniority; these are the very fabric of government life. Private
sector people don't seem to respect that. How, for instance, can a junior
recruit directly address Nilekani or Sharma when they don't report directly
to them?

Anil Khachi who joined as a DDG earlier in April this year, says he is
surprised how casually Nilekani, a cabinet minister, comes into his room for
a chat or stops him in the corridor to get an update. It isn't something
that happens routinely in government circles. "I insist they don't behave
like me," says Singh. "People in the government call me Sir, but people from
the private sector call me Ashok, and I am okay with that. Twenty years I
worked with people of the same kind. I am enjoying this diversity."

Then there is the cult of email. Government decisions are conveyed by files,
which always move in a certain order: Bottom to top and then the same way
back. As K. Ganga says, "We only talk through files and files don't have
names and faces. I am just a designation." People from the private sector
perceive this as a rabid fixation with maintaining a paper trail about
everything.

In the early days at Bangalore for instance, meetings usually happened
either at Mashruwalla's apartment, or if it was a bigger, more formal
meeting, Varma would tap his friends at various companies to lend him a
conference room. Delhi, however, would insist on getting an estimate of the
number of cups of coffee served at these meetings, the cost of lunch and the
mode of transportation participants would need. From a bureaucrat's point of
view, a record of all expenses is important because it is taxpayer money
being spent, and they are accountable for every paisa. As cabinet minister
in charge of this project, Nilekani can be asked questions in parliament if
any norm is violated. "We are covered by the Central Vigilance Commission
(CVC) and the Right to Information (RTI) Act," says K. Ganga, explaining why
every decision made at the UIDAI has to be documented. "If an Infosys
engineer wrote a program for Burger King, he isn't answerable to the public.
I, on the other hand, have to answer parliamentary questions. And I keep
reminding everybody of this."

To keep track of the pulls and pressures this hybrid culture places on the
system, Sharma meets his six deputies informally every Tuesday. After
working together for a year, both sides have come to respect each other.

The bureaucrats admire the private sector for their speed and polish; the
corporate volunteers are awed by the number of people a government office
reaches and the impact an official can create. And they have quickly figured
out they are dealing with some remarkably smart people. Samant Veer Kakkar,
a young volunteer on the communications team, who gave up his legal career
to work on the project, says every stereotype that he had of a bureaucrat
has been busted ever since he started work at the UIDAI. The engineers from
MindTree, the Bangalore-based IT firm which created the enrollment
application for UIDAI, are constantly amazed that even at 4 a.m., Director
General Sharma personally reviews their software code.

Since the time the project was announced 16 months ago, the UIDAI has
received 1,000 applications from people across the world. From these, 23
have come in as unpaid volunteers, 14 have taken sabbaticals from their
jobs, and 23 took massive pay cuts to join the Project Management Unit (PMU)
for the UIDAI set up by the National Institute of Smart Government. The
tenure of volunteers ranges from a few months to a year; those in the PMU
stay longer. (The added advantage of working with volunteers and people on
sabbaticals was that because there were no salaries to be paid, the project
got off to a start even before the budgets had been sanctioned.) Another 140
others have been drawn from the government.

The core is managed by civil servants, heading all departments and taking
all the policy decisions. They are aided by experts from the private sector,
lending their services to the project in various ways.

In hindsight, the only way that the project stood a chance of working was
this new organisational model, which the government hadn't attempted until
then. While the government has used volunteers in, for example, the Planning
Commission, they are limited to a handful; not the kind of numbers that are
in UIDAI.

The team includes some of the fine minds in the world, from academic
institutions, the private sector, and hand-picked candidates from the
government who've done remarkably well for themselves, entrepreneurs who can
build business applications around the UID number so that it evolves into a
viable, self sustaining model. They deal with complex technical problems,
biometrics, models of financial inclusion, privacy laws and communication.
At various times, different roles took priority. In the run up to the
project, it was the technologists. Once enrollment picks up steam, it will
need people to work with regulators and businesses to find ways in which the
UID number can be used.

Whether it's Nilekani's persuasive skills or Sharma's insider knowledge and
experience of government systems or
<http://connect.in.com/manmohan-singh/profile-311.html> Manmohan Singh's
seeing merit in the argument and clearing the way for it, the truth is that
the UIDAI has come a significant distance with the project. When the first
UID number was allotted, the 160-strong team was just 40 percent of the 384
people the UIDAI is allowed to hire. Definitely worth a round of applause,
even from hardened critics.

But it would be premature, even naïve, to hail the project as a total
success already.

The complexities that it must still deal with are remarkable, not just in
terms of scale or the massive challenge of assembling a capable team and
keeping it together but in the sheer audacity of its objectives.

At just the government level, the project is expected to check corruption
and stem leakages from government remittances, while simultaneously meeting
developmental goals like financial inclusion. Beyond that, UID numbers could
be used, for instance, by telecom and insurance companies to offer their
products to people. Then there are issues from concerned bodies around
privacy and security of data to contend with, valid concerns in this day and
age.

Whatever the final outcome, the UIDAI has convincingly demonstrated there is
an outstanding case for public-private partnership models. And that if the
intent is clear, people will come, no matter what the constraints.
 
I think they have to show proof of citizenship.
Remarkable sophistocated technology nonetheless :tup:

Anyone know when it'll be functioning?

Ration cards (Fake ofcourse) are available for 500 INR apiece in Assam and North WB.
 
this project have a lot of problems and it is facing them.for ex-those who do labour work ,after some time it's hard to find out their thumb prints.and ppl are not educated enough to hold this and to know the importance of this.
 
this project will create loads of problem specially regarding thumbs ..... because most of the working class in india is farmer or factory workers or even if we take example of housewives(Because of household work) thats why their thumb impressions will be below accepted quality.

If you're beginning to wonder what the big deal really is, consider this: By
2014, the government wants half of India's population to be allotted UID
numbers. To do that, the Authority will photograph a staggering 600 million
Indians, scan 1.2 billion irises, collect six billion fingerprints and
record 600 million addresses.
Well half of the population also include more than 25&#37; below 18 and minors which will only get UID but i dont think u ppls will capture their fingerprints and IRIS so it wont b 1.2 billion iris or 6 billion fingerprints.
 
Dude..Pakistan already accomplished this in what..like year 2005? we have NIC with barcodes, biometric, RFID and tamper proof cards made of fire proof material!
 
There is huge amount of money involved in this project.i'm waiting for another massive scam to to surface in UID project.
 
well IRIS is used as backup but it is used when person is available ... like if a person do robbery of kill someone u can match finger prints from weapon of any other thing but u cant find IRIS ... Pakistan started this UID project in 2000 and now it is pretty much mature and 90&#37; population is covered .. but IRIS is of no use to capture terrorists we only get help frm fingerprints.
 

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