The IT industry bigwig Nandan Nilekani
became the Chairman of the Unique
Identification Authority of India in September
2009. Things have changed a lot
in the past one year. The Unique Identity mission
is now called Aadhaar. The countdown is on for
rolling out the Aadhaar numbers, initially to 100
million Indians. But how sure is the UIDAI Chairman
about the implementation of the project?
Moreover, will the demography restrain him in
his gigantic task? Bureaucracy Today has the answers
from Nilekani himself.EXCERPTS:
Are you satisfied with the pace of the project?
Yes, I'm satisfied. We have completed the entire design and developed the technology platform, now integrating them into biometrics. We have come out with a strategy to roll out the project and shared it with all the registrars like state governments, the National Population Register (NPR) and other clients. We had said that within 12-18 months we would roll it out. We are sticking to that deadline.
What are the things that are crucial for its timely execution?
Our Registrar agreements have been signed. We have empanelled enrolling and training agencies and we have started the process of certification of devices. Some things we'll only find when we get into the field. There are always some unexpected developments. We will have to be ready for that. We have to learn from that and create a loop of information.
