One Cannot Improve Human Beings but One Can Improve Systems

In the spirit of the Wired article we drew attention to on Tuesday comes another thorough overview of India's UID project.  

Unique Identity Scheme: India scans 2.4 billion eyes (NDTV.com) 

Here are a couple of choice quotes:

The identity project is, in a way, an acknowledgment that India has failed to bring its poor along the path to prosperity. India may be the world's second-fastest-growing economy, but more than 400 million Indians live in poverty, according to government figures. Nearly half of children younger than 5 are underweight.

and

"One cannot improve human beings," said Ram Sevak Sharma, the director general of the identity program. "But one can certainly improve systems. And the same flawed human beings with a better system will be able to produce better results."