Monday, January 16, 2012

UID: Only a Billion to Go

The Economist: Asia editor and South Asia bureau chief discuss India's efforts to use biometrics in distributing public resources
...much more efficient and much more streamlined than you would find, not only in the Indian civil service, which is famous for its buraeucracy and its slowness, but I think more efficient than you would find almost anywhere else on the planet.
To roll out the enrollments of a population the size of Brazil in a single year counts as quite an amzing feat, and to do that for less than half a billion dollars over five years counts as a tremendous success.
I wish I could embed the audio here, but I can't.

If you have followed the UID project in India, I highly recommend the interview (audio, 13 min. 43 sec.) which discusses the scale and organization of the effort as well as some of the motives of those who oppose the project.


h/t @m2sys