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A report on : Aadhaar Conference-
Opening of a billion opportunities
held at ISB on 22nd Oct 2011

By : Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship
Development (WCED)

10/26/2011

Kumar Ashish, Piya Bahadur, Muzzafar Hussain WCED



Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED)
AADHAAR- OPENING OF A BILLION OPPORTUNITIES, OCTOBER 22, 2011

The Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED) and The Srini Raju Centre for
Information Technology and the Networked Economy (SRITNE) in collaboration with The Identity Initiative
(IDI), organized a one day conference Aadhaar- Opening of A Billion Opportunities on 22
nd
October 11
at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. The conference was aimed to bring out insights on
UID by bringing together Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) officials, academicians and the
corporate world on one forum and to showcase entrepreneurial opportunities thrown open by UID.
Sukhmeet Singh, Associate Director, WCED and Reema Gupta, Associate Director, SRITNE welcomed
the delegates to the conference and said that the Aadhaar Conference would explore possibilities of
capturing value of UID and creating business value out of that for economic transformation.
OPENING NOTE
The opening note was delivered by Dr. Krishna Tanuku, Executive Director, WCED and Prof. Arun
Sundararajan from the New York University. Dr. Tanuku, in his address outlined some of the challenges
that he hoped the Aadhaar initiative could tackle and expressed his hope in the notion that Aadhaar while
opening a billion opportunities would also serve to raise a large number of people along the social-
economic continuum. He pointed out that in India, the nation with more than a billion population, only
small fraction of citizenry has any of formal ID cards like PAN Card, passport, unique bank account,
driving licence etc. UID project seeks to assign a Unique Identity (UID) number to each resident of the
country that is nationally portable and remains a permanent identifier right from birth to death. He
emphasised that the UID initiative would be able to address some of the challenges like legitimate access
to banking facilities, formal education and to get the rightful place and access to opportunities. In view of
the expanding infrastructure of UID-linked infrastructure, a new landscape of opportunities is set to come
into the existence. While UID will have major impact to bring down subsidy leakage, usury, banking
exclusion and black money this will also enhance opportunities in ICT, IT consulting & implementation
and other businesses and hence will accelerate the rate of employment generation. He felt that while
Aadhaar can be used to enhance the economic prosperity of the country at various levels, there would be
challenges of changing mindsets and understanding vested interest across various levels of society.
Aadhaar can and does open a billion opportunities but it needs imagination, innovation and
entrepreneurial mindset to act as a solution not from the technology point of view but from a perspective
to solve larger problems of the nation.
According to Prof. Arun Sundarajan, The real game changing benefits of UID are in the longer run, as it
creates and strengthens basic national institutional underpinnings. He introduced the IDI- The Identity
Initiative, which has come as a result of MoU between UIDAI and ISB to carry out research and thinking
Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED)
on UID and Aadhaar. IDI is multi institute, multi-disciplinary research effort to study the socio-economic
impact of the UID over the next decade. IDI aims to bring out the determinants of success, to measure
the impact, to facilitate the robust economic assessment and to develop evidence based theory in the
context of UID. Major projects are followings:
To measure the impact of UID adoption on household welfare during 2011-15
To model the adoption and diffusion of the UID across the country
To measure the business impact of UID adoption
To analyze platform strategy for open government system
Prof. Arun said that UID project is a fascinating example of public private partnership and such a
partnership has never existed before. With the inception of Aadhaar numbers, he believes, the common
people will begin to rely more on formal institutions than on informal ties. He also held the view that the
growing eco-system will be able to create value system from the Aadhaar numbers with a potential to
transform banking and financial inclusion, communication system, public disbursements, health care,
employment generation and so on. He concluded saying that this transformation is not going to be
initiated by the government; but rather, it is going to emerge from industry and entrepreneurs. The
Government is merely laying the foundation or Aadhaar for the industry to build applications upon.
FIRST PANEL: FUNDAMENTALS OF AADHAAR AND ITS ECOSYSTEM
The welcome note was followed by presentation by a distinguished panel of speakers associated with the
Aadhaar project on Fundamentals of Aadhaar and its Ecosystem. The first of them was K. Devarathna
Kumar, Assistant Director General, UIDAI Regional Office at Hyderabad, who started off his speech by
clarifying that Aadhaar is not a citizenship-driven programme. Instead, it is meant to provide a unique 12
digit identification number to all the residents of the country to establish uniqueness using technology and
to provide online cost-effective, ubiquitous authentication services across country. UIDAI was established
in 2009 as part of the Planning Commission. Talking about the context of UID, he said that UID will serve
as a robust, reusable ID, especially to those who dont have any ID proof and will help in cleaning up
other existing databases through uniqueness and will be able to solve the issue of duplication and fake
identities. According to him, Aadhaar is a pro-poor and truly inclusive approach with special programs to
include, for example, jail inmates, residents of leprosy colonies and physically handicapped people and
groups that have thus far been excluded. Using the example of the PDS (Public Distribution System), he
highlighted the inefficiency underlying the programme and ruled out the possibility of any such
inefficiencies creeping into the rolling out of Aadhaar numbers. This will result in improved targeting and
delivery of welfare services with reduced cost. Coming to the issue of incorporation of public opinion to
further develop the project, he said that everyone can conceive an idea to further develop the project and
that UIDAI would be happy to receive such participation. He also elaborated on the system of Introducer
Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED)
that has been introduced within the initiative. Concluding his talk, he said that this is an unique
opportunity for India to be global power and all should be part of this.
The next speaker, S. Rajendra Kumar, Assistant Director General, UIDAI Technology Centre, Bangalore,
started his speech by saying that UIDAI is producing raw materials for finished products and these
finished products, according to him, are the applications which can be developed on the premise of
Aadhaar numbers. He said that 5.3 crore Aadhaar numbers have so far been rolled out; 10 lakh Aadhaar
numbers are generated everyday and by 2014 target is to cover 60 crore residents. However, instead of
basking on this success, he commented that the process needs to scale up and stressed upon the
urgency for this number to reach a critical mass so that applications can begin.
He also commented upon how the Aadhaar is a paradigm shift from a card-based identity to a number-
based identity. Aadhaar enrolment collects demographic data- name, age, date of birth, gender, address
and biometric data- face, all ten fingerprints and iris capture. It is not a card; this is a number called the
Aadhaar number with no chance of duplication as its authenticated by biometrics, and therefore a more
robust identification system. He emphasized that Aadhaar, the national identification infrastructure, is
valid throughout the nation and will play the role of enabler for inclusive growth. This power of identity will
enhance access to services and direct benefits to poor, marginal groups and those who are left out.
Sighting an example, he said that in rural areas 1 day in a week is wasted in collecting wages, which is a
huge loss for household and the nation at the aggregate level; inclusive convenient banking system
needs to be developed and Aadhaar can be incorporated for this purpose. Presently, Aadhaar is
accepted as KYC for opening no frills bank accounts, PoI/PoA for new mobile connections, KYC for LPG
connections and many other applications are to follow. Commenting on the hugely debated issue of
personal data secrecy, security and misuse, he emphasised that the data is indeed securely stored.
Further, he sought to clear the misconception of having an Aadhaar number as being a necessity. He
said Aadhaar is not a necessity. It is like any other means of identity. It is not going to replace any other
prevailing identity documents.
The third speaker on the panel was Sanjay Jain, Chief Product Manager, UIDAI Technology Centre,
Bangalore. He primarily described how the system worked technically. He addressed the issue of data
security in detail and said that the devices used for capturing biometrics do not have access to the data,
as only encrypted information travels over the wire; data is never sent out of CIDR. The data stored in the
devices is encrypted in such a way that the data gets revealed only at the Aadhaar Offices. He pointed
out that the US Social Security system is currently the largest identification programme existing in the
world with 120 million people. He seemed optimistic that UIDAI will cross this number very soon. Aadhaar
enrolment is optional and voluntary and the initiative is to adopt federal authentication system which will
act in conjugation with existing authentication systems and cant be used for purposes which are criminal
and anti-national in nature. UID enrolment is simple not only for practical reasons to include all residents
with or without any formal ID but also due to its biometric base.
Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED)
UID is not going for any profiling of individuals and will serve only as a national identity infrastructure. A
chain of contracts has been planned for monitoring of its uses. He said that National Authentication
Authority of India Bill 2010 has been passed by the Parliament and a bill regarding data security will be
tabled soon. He ended his speech by saying that with the introduction of local language computing would
change the way we deal with technology. He also emphasised that this is a great time to build business
around the bottom of the pyramid.
The final speaker on the panel was Arpita Khare, General Manager, NISG, Hyderabad, who elaborated
upon the UIDAI Ecosystem and the various linkages between the various public, government and private
actors and the Authenticating agencies. She described the six scenarios and the multiple approaches for
getting an authenticated Aadhaar number. She did however mention that there is a lot more work
happening in the ecosystem.
Andhra Pradesh is targeting to provide UID to all citizens by 2012. Unlike, Social Security Number in US,
Aadhaar is identity theft proof as this will be linked with various schemes and is combined with various
levels of authentication assessment. There will also be provision to update data such as address through
proper mechanism and even if some issues with biometric is found the same can be updated.
BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION:
The panel discussion was followed by Aadhaar competition which saw business plan presentations using
opportunities thrown open by UID and presented insights to tap these opportunities through changes in
existing business models or innovating on completely new solutions. Team Garfunkies from ISB
presented the CRESCITA model to take retail business to the rural India. Easy Montra team and
VISHWAAS team presented simplified banking solution especially for rural people. The Central Data
Services tam presented the business plan to make depositories of records that can be useful for
educational sector, microfinance sector, credit bureaus and others. The business plans- Aadhaar
Universal Healthcare Scheme, Electronic Medical Records, Milan, Aadhaar REACH and Sanjivani Buti
were to improve the health infrastructure in the country. ARPDS team presented the model to bring out
efficiency in PDS. Aam Janta business plan was to work as employment exchange for workers in
unorganised sector.
SECOND PANEL: AADHAAR AS AN INNOVATIVE PLATFORM FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
ENTERPRISE
After the competition, a distinguished panel discussed on the issue of Aadhaar as an Innovative Platform
for Public and Private Enterprise and was moderated by Ravi Bapna, Executive Director, Srini Raju
Centre for IT & the Networked Economy. Srini Raju, the serial entrepreneur, said that UID would act as
catalyst for the nations progress. Although, some sections are opposing this initiative, its largly due to
their vested interests. He cited the example of AP where for 8 crore population, 1 crore White Cards have
Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED)
been issued which means that at an average every family has a white card; in a village he found that only
2 family didnt have white card and both of them were in government services. The implementation of UID
will curve leakage of subsidy and will ensure that needy people are served appropriately. Sreeni
Tripuraneni, Chairman & CEO, 4G Identity Solutions, gave an example where in AP, a large chunk of
ineligible BPL card holders were identified due to identity initiatives. Lax Gopisetty, Practice Sales
Manger, Infosys emphasised the need to fully support the Aadhaar project financially and to link various
public services with UID. Srikanth Nagulapalli, CEO, Arogya Sri Health Care Trust, accepted UID as a
wonderful idea and said that it should match its aim in appropriate way. Talking about the problems, he
said that there is lack of statutory body for UID and this initiative needs to be linked with the census
exercise for effective outcome. He further emphasised that there should be clear ways on how other
departments would utilise UID. Taking the discussion further, Raman Taneja, Technology Head, IFMR
Rural Finance, said that UID will be extremely useful in financial inclusion; its a win win situation for
banks and viability issues for the financial inclusion process will be solved. Stopping fraud transaction can
be a reality after the UID implementation. UID need to be integrated with mobile, PAN, passport etc.
WINNERS:
Dr. Krishna Tanuku was invited for declaration of the business competition results and for giving the
concluding remarks. The winner teams were Easy Montra (first), ARPDS (second) and Viswaas (third).
Concluding the Aadhaar conference, Dr. Tanuku observed that the Aadhaar initiative is poised to act as
sub-additional services to change the socio-economic scenario in the country.
NEXT STEPS:
The learning/discussions from the Aadhaar conference would be taken forward in the following ways:
1) Research activities on UID through SRITNE and Identity initiative with collaboration from Aadhaar
team
2) Incubation of few business ideas which were presented during the finals of business of competition