Identity Project's List: Business Standard

"Both Nandan Nilekani and his well-wishers are today, two years after he set out on his unique identification (UID) journey, wiser if not a more disillusioned lot. Right at the outset he had acknowledged concerns over privacy issues, saying, “India does not really have a privacy law. So all this will act as an impetus to define the privacy framework for Indians.” That gaping hole is still staring us in the face but the UID project progresses and sticks to its schedule, thanks to Mr Nilekani’s managerial and institution-building capabilities. What do you say to those who are concerned with protecting civil liberties demanding that the project be halted until a privacy regime is in place.

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UID was sold as a way to include (give an officially recognisable and verifiable identity) those who are outside the system. That would also include those who are not destitutes but have no address — the income earning pavement dweller in urban areas or the migrant construction labourer moving from site to site. “There are 75 million homeless people in this country, 75 million tribals. So if we are able to help them get the number, then we can actually empower them,” Mr Nilekani had said. But if you want to provide subsidy in cash to the homeless, they will need to open bank accounts. For that the Reserve Bank of India says you will need proof of current address. No problem, says Mr Nilekani, the letter bearing the allotted UID number will have the address. But what if a person has no address?

Inclusion will be aided, leakages stopped by eliminating duplication, as with duplicate and spurious ration cards. It will usher in a new way of paying out Rs 3 lakh crore in subsidies. But as has become clear with the growing discourse on the number of the poor, assessing income levels to determine whether a person is above or below the poverty line is also an important issue which has nothing to do with eliminating duplicate identities."

"Q&A: Mihir Shah, Planning Commission
'NREGA 2.0 seeks to make work a legal guarantee'
Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi October 9, 2011, 0:36 IST

Mihir ShahMihir Shah, member of the Planning Commission and chairman of the committee to redraft rules and guidelines of NREGA, tells Sreelatha Menon that the Act may also cover farm labourers.

The consortium of NGOs that recommended changes in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was founded by you, but your suggestions have been criticised. You seem to consider it a lack of demand rather than a supply problem.
First, you should recognise that NREGA is a historic break from the past, from the relief programme mode. Earlier, one got work when the government chose to make it available. NREGA seeks to make work a legal guarantee. But, even in the last five years under the Act, it was not demand-driven. It was still top down. The first change that should be brought about is capturing demand. There is no system to record demand. We have suggested multiple channels and agencies (all approved by the gram sabha) who would record demand and give dated receipts to job-seekers.

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But why would states agree to this, as they have to pay an unemployment allowance when they don’t have the capacity to provide work?
The committee is redrafting the rules and guidelines under NREGA, so that the entire system gears up to respond to demand. The insistence that states pay an unemployment allowance will also push them to respond."

"Now, you can track your LPG dealer online. With the government preparing to restrict the number of subsidised cooking cylinders, oil marketing companies have launched a ‘transparency’ portal that allows customers to keep an eye on the number of cylinders sold in their account by the dealer.

Indian Oil Corporation (http://indane.co.in/transparency/index.php), Bharat Petroleum (http://www.ebharatgas.com/pages/footer/Transparency_portal.html) and Hindustan Petroleum (http://dcms.hpcl.co.in/ConsumerPortal/Transparency/Transparency.aspx) have made records available of all cylinders sold to the130-million subscriber base since June on the portal.

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The launch of the portal is complementary to the government’s proposal to cap the number of subsidised cylinders to consumers. Right now, the portal has only one head, that shows the number of cylinders sold to a consumer. “The portal is aimed at enhancing transparency, visibility and auditability of the distribution of cylinders across the country. This transparency portal is accessible to the public and shows details of all the customers of LPG who are receiving subsidised cylinders, distributor wise,” said a petroleum ministry official."

"A government panel has refused to fund the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to independently collect biometric details of 1.1 billion Indians a second time, and asked the authority to stick to 200 million residents as decided earlier. The Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI had
asked for Rs 14,840 crore to enable the authority to collect biometrics – scan Iris and ten fingerprints – of residents by 2017, independent of the National Population Register (NPR).

The UIDAI proposal would have duplicated the efforts of the census commissioner, who has already collected identity details of all residents and is in the process of collecting their biometrics. The census commissioner has the mandate, by law, to create a register of all residents and issue them cards."

"

Aadhar part of wider remit to Nilekani panel on direct subsidies
BS Reporter / New Delhi September 21, 2011, 0:26 IST

To provide a delivery mechanism for better targeting of subsidies, the Union finance ministry on Tuesday expanded the terms of reference of the Nandan Nilekani task force to recommend a unified architecture for direct transfer of subsidies to beneficiaries using Aadhaar, the new citizen identification number.

“It has been decided to extend the terms of reference to include an Aadhaar-enabled unified payment infrastructure,” the ministry said in a statement here."

"Around 1.7 million people have enrolled for the Aadhaar, or the Unique Identification Authority of India (UID) card, in Himachal Pradesh.

Out of this, 700,000 cards have already been issued.

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This was stated by Rajwant Sandhu, state chief secretary on Thursday at a state-level bankers committee meeting here.

She urged banks to issue UID-enabled smart cards as a prospective model so that financially excluded people could be brought into the formal banking fold.

Sandhu said banks have disbursed fresh credit of Rs 2,074 crore to 97,706 units under various activities in the state, surpassing targets by 125 per cent.

“Bank deposits have gone up by 21 per cent over previous years reaching Rs 41,853 crore. Advances have grown by 13 per cent, reaching a level of over Rs 18,492 crore,” she said."

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is worried by the “permissive” mood that has been created in the country, in which the government is unable to implement its agenda because of a constant barrage of criticism in which facts are mixed with opinion, with the media playing the role of “accuser, prosecutor and judge”.

Manmohan SinghThis became clear when, breaking his silence of many months, Singh met five editors at a 90-minute interaction on Wednesday morning. However, it also became clear as the session wore on that the prime minister continued to have an active economic agenda, and that he was fully engaged with a range of domestic and international issues.

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Singh’s mood lifted noticeably during the interaction. He began on a somewhat worried note but became cheerful towards the end, fielding questions with disarming frankness."

"Financial problems have forced Indian Railways to look at restricting subsidy and concessions to the deserving. It is now looking at a solution from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for ensuring accurate identification of the beneficiaries of its low-cost services.

The railways have already held a meeting with UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani. The plan is to link the UIDAI’s database to the ticketing system of railways. “We have already had one meeting with Nilekani. Once this (linking) is done, we will be able to ensure that people who are not beneficiaries of discount services for poor, like the Izzat scheme, are not benefited by low fares,” said a senior official from the railway ministry who did not want to be named. He, however, declined to share details, as the proposal is still at preliminary stages.

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The issue of identification in the railway ticketing system assumes importance due to the huge differential in rates. Lower class fares are typically between 12 and 14 times less than the fares in upper class services like AC first class.

The last Railway Fare and Freight Committee, which gave its recommendations as far back as 1993, had advocated a highest-to-lowest passenger fare ratio of 9.6.

Under the Izzat scheme, introduced in 2009-10, uniformly priced Monthly Season Tickets (MSTs) worth Rs 25 are issued for a distance up to 100 km to a per

"The government has approved a three-step strategy to create a foolproof system for transferring fertiliser subsidy directly to farmers.

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The decision was taken yesterday by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

“The plan will be carried out in three phases,” a senior Department of Fertiliser (DoF) official told Business Standard.

In the first step, the government plans to track the movement of fertilisers from factories to farmers via retailers. This is expected to be over by December. After this, based on the collected data, it would start paying retailers.

According to DoF, there are around 230,000 retailers who will be paid based on the quantity of fertiliser they receive from companies or through the wholesale route. In the third stage, the government would gradually start paying farmers directly.

"

"Mobile identity technology firm MaxID has joined forces with Indian ID and security company I.D. Solutions to address the growing market for identity hardware and software driven by the efforts of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

"MaxID is extremely fortunate to be working with I.D. Solutions in the Indian marketplace. The UIDAI opportunity is one of the largest in the world for companies in the identity market, and I.D. Solutions has built a very solid reputation and track record in the Indian Subcontinent. We look forward to a fruitful and prosperous journey together," said Brian Skiba, President of MaxID Corp US. "

"Amid technical and infrastructural constraints, Maharashtra has rolled out 1.2 million Aadhaars, but the beneficiaries have been able to make little use of these numbers

Ashok Bhil, a 25-year-old graduate from Navalpur, 7 Km from Tembhli, is disappointed with the way the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is rolling out Aadhaar in Maharashtra.

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Last September, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government chose Tembhli, a small village in the predominantly tribal Nandurbar district, to launch its ambitious Unique Identification (UID) project — now known as Aadhaar — giving it a special mention in history.

The pre-launch days saw a flurry of activity in this sleepy village. From new roads and electricity to a freshly-painted water tank being set up, the village got it all. On the other hand, Navalpur, one of the villages shortlisted for this pilot, wore a deserted look. The concrete coating work, which had been initiated on the dirt roads there, was left mid-way. Bhil, who is among the few graduates in Navalpur, and his friends, all educated at least till matriculation, believe they would have made better use of UID cards.

"

"The government has set a deadline of March 2012 from when subsidies will be directly handed out to the targeted individuals. This was done by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who clearly laid out a roadmap for proper utilisation of oil, food and fertiliser subsidies, expressing serious concern over it not reaching those who need it the most.

The minister also said the task force set up under Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan Nilekani was working out a feasible model to ensure an effective mechanism to dole out subsidies to targeted beneficiaries. The panel includes secretaries from the ministries of finance, chemicals & fertilisers, agriculture, food, petroleum and rural development.

“The government provides subsidies, notably on fuel and foodgrain, to enable the common man to have access to these basic necessities at affordable prices. A significant proportion of subsidised fuel does not reach the targeted beneficiaries and there is a large-scale diversion of subsidised kerosene oil,” Mukherjee said while presenting the Budget for 2011-12."

"When the Oracle of Omaha speaks, India – from top billionaires to the aam admi (people who buy motor insurance on Berkshire’s online portal) – will get an equal opportunity to listen.

Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s legendary chief and the world’s second-richest individual, who begins his three-day India visit next week, will meet India’s richest next Thursday and the policy-holders (Berkshire Hathaway is a corporate agent of Bajaj Allianz) the day after.

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Buffett is not coming to only talk foreign direct investment in insurance and invest his billions in Indian equities. His primary aim is to convince the likes of Mukesh Ambani, Savitri Jindal and her sons Navin and Sajjan, brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia, Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy to consider sharing a large part of their wealth in their lifetime under an initiative called Giving Pledge. "

"Alternate energy may become key. Keep an eye on telecom operators.

Many corporates have disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place. So do many nations. However the Japan disaster will stress-test the global economy's disaster recovery mechanisms. A triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster hitting the world's third-largest economy is bad enough. It doesn't help that there's a civil war in Libya.

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Looking beyond the human dimensions of the tragedy is tough with thousands dead and lakhs homeless. But a realignment of the global energy mix is now almost guaranteed. There has already been a surge of anti-nuclear opinion. Nuclear projects in India (and elsewhere) may be shelved, calling into question the economic logic of the US-India nuclear agreement. "

"SANJAYA BARU: Welcome to the discussion on the Union Budget. The initial reaction of the capital market was very enthusiastic but subsequently there’s been a certain moderation. The finance minister himself claimed that this was not a Budget speech in which he was coming forward with major initiatives as such but he was making use of the opportunity of an improved growth performance to manage his fisc, reduce the revenue and fiscal deficit, to bring about transparency in tax administration and to initiate steps toward tax reform and introduction of goods and services tax as well as financial sector reforms, and hopefully a greater opening up of the economy with foreign funds flowing into infrastructure and mutual funds. My question to all of you, to begin with, is whether the Budget is below your own expectations or above it and whether it addresses the challenges the finance minister has himself identified."

"Last year, the cover of the pre-Budget Economic Survey depicted the concept of coupons equilibrium. Economists had defined the printed diagram as an important concept providing micro-foundations for Keynesian macroeconomics. The concept roughly means that distributing vouchers or coupons to a target group is a more effective option than reducing market prices to help the poor.

This year, the Economic Survey used on its cover the classic IS-LM diagram developed by well-known economist, John Hicks, to elucidate Keynesian macroeconomics. The diagram helps economists demonstrate the relationship between interest rates and the real output in the goods and services market and the money market."

"It often takes several hours to complete a single transaction in villages.

Technology is playing spoilsport for banks’ efforts to provide financial services to rural masses.

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While banking transactions were conducted on a real-time basis in urban centres, it often took several hours to complete a transaction in villages, leaving ample scope for errors and misuse of funds, industry players said.

At times, in remote villages, depositors seeking to withdraw money from their accounts were asked to come the next day because of poor internet connectivity and power failure, said a senior Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official in charge of customer service."