Emerging ID concensus

The twin pillars of international cooperation on economic and financial order have recently been making positive statements about India's UID project.

IMF: Direct cash through Aadhaar to save 0.5% of GDP for India (The New Indian Express)

World Bank chief: Aadhaar to help eradicate poverty (Business Standard)


Former Chief of Staff to President Clinton, John Podesta also goes on the record with Casey Dunning for the Guardian:
We can end poverty, but the methods might surprise you

New technologies mean that states can craft their programs to help specifically the most vulnerable populations, and that they can do so efficiently. The widespread use of mobile phones, analytics and biometric technology lets a country implement social safety nets with far greater speed and efficacy than previously imagined. The government of India was able to enroll 200 million people in a national biometric ID effort in less than two years, modernizing a vital system that provides the poorest of the poor with food assistance, education vouchers and job opportunities.

Throw in the Center for Global Development Lecture: Technology to Leapfrog Development, by UID chief Nandan Nilekani, and it looks like an emerging international development consensus is emerging around the idea of "ID as Development."

800,000 Biometric ID's Facilitate Development Schemes in Pakistan

Revolution on the cards (Dawn)

At first the government distributed the money through the Pakistan Post Office, the only system viable and available at the time the programme was implemented. Surprisingly, there was remarkably little abuse of the system thanks to the targeting and safeguards implemented into the scheme with the use of the poverty scorecard.

Plans are now under way to shift from using the post system to making transfers by electronic debit card or smart card into a bank account held by the women (transfers by cellphone had also been considered); the electronic debit card is biometric, tied to the owner’s thumbprint so that nobody but the legal holder of the card can use it.

So far 800,000 hold this biometric debit card and by the end of 2012, this number will go up to four million women.

Biometrics are really taking off among global development types.

World Bank urges India to maximize Return on Investment

Smart cards to address social protection initiatives mooted (Deccan Herald)

Observing that smart card system could facilitate individual identification and remote transaction processing/storage, the global lender says, these could be redeemable also at approved private traders and/or fair price shops.

Stating that despite recent economic progress, India is not getting the “bang for the rupee” that expenditure warrants, with needs of population groups partially addressed, it said, while India spends significant resources on its safety net programmes, these safety nets have remained primarily “nets” rathar than “ropes” or “ladders” promoting sustained movement out of poverty.