A few years ago, the Government launched a huge initiative, whose aim was to give every Indian a unique identification. Like most initiatives there were several skeptics who labelled it as yet another initiative doomed to fail and one that would only benefit the contractors who would have made obscene amounts of money.
The first surprise move was the choice of Chairman. The chosen was was Mr. Nandan Nilekani, who had just given up his position as CEO as part of the Infosys tradition of allowing new leadership to take over every few years. The next question was whether the Government bureaucracy would allow him to work with the efficiency he was used to whilst managing Infosys.
It all started when Nandan wrote his book "Imagining India". I'm assuming that people in the Government, who I maintain are amongst the smartest in the country, saw that the author could probably deliver what they had in mind. They also probably figureed out that one way to get something done, could be by having people who didn't carry the negative baggage run it.
Nandan accepted the challenge and in his usual quiet and efficient style, went about creating what they sought to do. Last year a friend of mine who had got his Aadhaar done, had talked about what an awesome experience it was. Last week, I along with the rest of my family had my Aadhaar registration done. And all I can do is repeat what my friend had said, "Amazing experience".
The registration campaign started a temporary office in a school in our residential colony. My daughter Reia had gone in the morning and submitted the Aadhaar form, a simple 1 pager. The registration officer told her that we could go there around 12.00. Around that time she and I went there, waited for around 30 minutes, and the process from start to finish took around 5 minutes for each of us.
The operator keyed in the data, with a screen facing us where we could see what was being keyed in. After checking that the data was correctly entered, the attached camera took a photograph, a eye scanner captured the eye biometrics, and a finger printing device, took all fingerprints. The software guided the operator at every stage, even letting him know when the quality of the eye biometrics or the fingerprints were not good enough digitally. Once that was done, a printout of the data and the registration number was given to us. Ivy and Freia went in the evening and they were luckier. They had to wait just 5 minutes.
As of now 114,623,329 Aadhaars have already been issued. Yes you read that correctly. 114 million Aaadhaars have already been issued. And the UIDAI, which is an acronym for the "Unique Identification Authority of India" is on track to complete its targeted registration, on time in the next couple of years.
Interestingly, very few people know what the Aadhaar is. Most people are under the impression that its a Unique ID card. Its not. Its just a 12 digit number.
Let me just give below what the UIDAI says the Aadhaar is and isn't.
The first surprise move was the choice of Chairman. The chosen was was Mr. Nandan Nilekani, who had just given up his position as CEO as part of the Infosys tradition of allowing new leadership to take over every few years. The next question was whether the Government bureaucracy would allow him to work with the efficiency he was used to whilst managing Infosys.
It all started when Nandan wrote his book "Imagining India". I'm assuming that people in the Government, who I maintain are amongst the smartest in the country, saw that the author could probably deliver what they had in mind. They also probably figureed out that one way to get something done, could be by having people who didn't carry the negative baggage run it.
Nandan accepted the challenge and in his usual quiet and efficient style, went about creating what they sought to do. Last year a friend of mine who had got his Aadhaar done, had talked about what an awesome experience it was. Last week, I along with the rest of my family had my Aadhaar registration done. And all I can do is repeat what my friend had said, "Amazing experience".
The registration campaign started a temporary office in a school in our residential colony. My daughter Reia had gone in the morning and submitted the Aadhaar form, a simple 1 pager. The registration officer told her that we could go there around 12.00. Around that time she and I went there, waited for around 30 minutes, and the process from start to finish took around 5 minutes for each of us.
The operator keyed in the data, with a screen facing us where we could see what was being keyed in. After checking that the data was correctly entered, the attached camera took a photograph, a eye scanner captured the eye biometrics, and a finger printing device, took all fingerprints. The software guided the operator at every stage, even letting him know when the quality of the eye biometrics or the fingerprints were not good enough digitally. Once that was done, a printout of the data and the registration number was given to us. Ivy and Freia went in the evening and they were luckier. They had to wait just 5 minutes.
As of now 114,623,329 Aadhaars have already been issued. Yes you read that correctly. 114 million Aaadhaars have already been issued. And the UIDAI, which is an acronym for the "Unique Identification Authority of India" is on track to complete its targeted registration, on time in the next couple of years.
Interestingly, very few people know what the Aadhaar is. Most people are under the impression that its a Unique ID card. Its not. Its just a 12 digit number.
Let me just give below what the UIDAI says the Aadhaar is and isn't.
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