The question and answer round between Nandan Nilekani and Karan thapar worked as an eye opener on UID project and its future prospects in Devil’s Advocate programme on the CNN-IBN.
There is “legitimate concern” about the security of the Unique Identification Number’s database, chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, Nandan Nilekani said. He said, they are looking into the design for making it secure. Nilekani is passionate about the UID concept and the need to implement it as soon as possible in India.
On being asked how it could be ensured that the data base would not be misused and will not effect in the invasion of privacy.
On possible misuse by hackers, he said it is a legitimate concern and in every system there would be people who would try hacking it. “The important thing is: the risk of hacking and privacy large enough not to do this project?
And the view is that the project has so many significant benefits for the poor in making it inclusive and in giving them a chance to participate in the country’s progress that it is worth it and we have to mitigate those risks.” This was told by Nilekani in an interview to Karan Thapar.
He said on the issue of technology that there is no question that this is a project where they are going into unexplored territories, the technological challenges are huge and one of the risks of this project is technology.
“There is no other country in the world where a billion peoples’ biometrics have been captured and stored in an online database. In that sense, it has not been done before.”
He further said that they do not have to invent the technology but have to scale up the existing technology to work at this scale. No country in the world have peoples’ biometric captured and stored in an online database. Basically, it has not been done before.
On being asked about the system which in the wrong hands could be a powerful tool for religious or caste profiling, he said: No profiling attributes of any are kept in the database.
On the cost of the project Mr. Nilekani said he doesn’t agree with the estimate of around Rs 1.5 lakh crore by Frontline magazine. He said the figures are too high and the cost would not be that high. He said that he doesn’t know the exact figure but it would be less than that by a factor of 10. The guess is informed and educated guess. The social, economic and efficiency benefits of it would make it well worth it. He said he is confident about that.
On being asked on the investment of money in this project be invested in some other project as is better used for education, health for women and children and sanitation programmes, he replied “We certainly don’t want to take away money from important social programmes but remember that as we expand our social programmes, the efficiency of the social programme depends on the fact that they reach the right people and that there are no duplicates who are taking away the benefits which are meant for the poor. We need to make them more efficient. So you need the infrastructure at the bottom to make that happen. The investment of money in this project will actually make all those other money’s be spent more efficiently. Think of it as an infrastructure for enabling you to spend money more effectively.”
He concluded saying “We are trying to make sure that all the checks and balances are there. We will have a very wide consultative process. We will involve everybody. We will make it public. All these are legitimate concerns and we have an obligation to meet these concerns.” He was questioned that London School of Economics reviewed a potential British concept along the lines of what is being done in India “The success of a national identity system depends on a sensitive cautious and cooperative approach involving all key stakeholders, including an independent and rolling assessment and regular review of management practices,” and the LSE concluded that did not exist in the UK.
If it does not exist in the UK, that environment certainly doesn’t exist in India?
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