Bangalore: The slogan of "bijli, sadak,
pani" is a passe; 'virtual things' like UID number, bank account
and mobile phone are the in-thing, says Chairman of Unique
Identification Authority of India Nandan M Nilekani.
The information technology veteran said that in India,
the 'model' has changed, from "roti, kapada, makaan" (food,
clothing, shelter) in the 1960s and 1970s, to the slogan in
the last several years of "bijli, sadak, pani" (power, roads,
water).
"Today, it's all virtual things - it's about UID (unique
identification) number, mobile phone and bank account,"
Nilekani, best known for his role in building Infosys, said
after Citizen Extraordinaire Award 2010, instituted by the
Prestige Group in association with Rotary Bangalore Midtown,
here Saturday night.
He said "if we can get everyone to have UID number, if we
can get everyone to have bank account and if we can get
everyone to have mobile phone, then we are giving them tools
of opportunity. With that, they can access services, benefits
and their rights."
"We have gone from (the earlier slogans) physical things
to abstract things (UID number, bank account, mobile phone),"
Nilekani said, adding, though they look abstract, they really
are very, very important and "real foundation".
"We believe soft infrastructure is as important as hard
infrastructure," he said.
Terming UID number as a 'foundation' and 'like building
soft infrastructure,' Nilekani said it is a technology project
with tremendous social and economic implications.
He said UIDAI has started floating basic design,
technology and process for enrollment of people for UID
numbers.
"In the next few months, we are going to do
proof-of-concept to figure out how to make this technology
work on the ground," he said.
"By sometime latter part of the year (2010) we are going
to build prototype so that we do on a small scale and
somewhere between August 2010 and February 2011, we will start
rolling out UID enrollment and our goal is in the next five
years or so to cover more than 600 million people with these
numbers."
Pointing out that unless the UID number benefited people,
it is of no use, Nilekani said some of the public services -
ration cards, rural employment guarantee scheme (job cards),
PAN number, bank account - need to be reformed, redesigned and
re-engineered to have UID number in them.
He said UID number would give hundreds of millions of
Indians, who have no means to prove their identity as they
do not have birth certificates, education certificates and
things of that nature, 'acknowledged existence' so that they
can access services and benefits that they are entitled to,
and which otherwise they don’t get.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, February 14, 2010, 11:39