The space program eventually led to the development of satellite telecommunications, GPS and many other benefits. Moreover, the benefits of these technologies are not confined to the United States.
India'a population-level biometrics programs stand to confer a huge benefit to countries all over the world, too.
There's a very important way in which the analogy doesn't hold, though.
With the space program there is a sense that if the United States didn't do it, nobody would or could.
With the Indian ID projects there is a sense that if India can do it, anybody can...
"[...N]ot because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone..."
- John F. Kennedy
India faces challenges that make UID harder to accomplish there than anywhere else I can think of. If India can do it, other countries will find following in India's footsteps a much less formidable challenge than following in Neil Armstrong's.
India gives globe tips on UID (Hindustan Times)
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is assisting the government of Papua New Guinea, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean close to Australia, in starting a national identity scheme. Two UIDAI officials — deputy director general BB Nanawati and additional director general Anup Kumar — spent a week there this January to guide the country's government in providing biometric identity to its residents.
