India turns to technology to extend a guaranteed identity to its poor (CBC)
Yet even as the Indian economy produces its annual crop of new billionaires and races ahead statistically, many people are left behind.
One-third of the population, 400 million people, lives on less than $2 a day. Less than half of households have toilets. In even fewer can residents drink water from their own taps. One in four is illiterate.
An almost greater concern is that hundreds of millions of Indians are virtually invisible to the state.
They have no ID. They may have ration cards or election cards but no real identification.
Imagine trying to sign up for government help or open a bank account — less than half the population has one. What's more, only about three per cent of Indians pay income tax.
