Infosys had a nice farewell party to Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and vice-chairman; after 28 years Nandan decided to resign from the Board and take the position of Chairman of UID Authority with the government of India. Nandan put it very nicely “I lost my identity today”; yes, for 28 years he was so identified with Infosys, he must have felt so on the eve of resigning from Infosys.
We wish him a great second innings; we are confident he will succeed and UID will be a transformational project
July 11, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I wish him all success. However, government’s intentions are doubtful, until it puts the framework of this project with its feasibility report on its website, so that the public can find out where and how the money is spent, and whether there are major loopholes in its feasibility. Reasons follows:
Unique ID Card: A 150,000 cr or Rs. 10,000 cr Project
On 29 June 2009 the PM announced the Unique ID Card project, with an estimate of Rs. 150,000 cr. In Sep-Oct 2000, the then Prime Minister had announced the same project under the banner of “National ID Card”, with an estimate of Rs. 6000 cr. On 26 June 2009, certain sections of the media (Like Siliconindia.com) had reported that this project had the estimate of Rs. 10,000 cr. In April 2009, the media had reported on the same project after talking to bidders of the ongoing PAN smartcard project, in which each card was supposed to cost Rs. 67. The latter card is similar to the UID Card except little inexpensive memory overheads. The centralized citizen’s date bank and related software for type-II query was also contained in the year 2000 project. So, the potential bidders, who have been in touch with the nodal agency – the NIC, had correctly reported the project estimate Rs. 10,000 cr.
The framework of year 2000 project had suggested a pilot in at least a city of size Delhi. The then PM Vajpayee had announced for pilot tests in 8 cities. Till date the government has not conducted any pilot in any sizable city or state. So, how could the government be confident of the estimate or the feasibility of the project? Small pilots aren’t enough; success of small-scale typing jobs was no proof of large-scale failure of 1994-95 voter-card project with more than 20% errors, as reported by the then acting CEC Krishnamurthy to the TOI in the autumn of 1996.
The year 2000 project was based upon a framework developed by the NIC, and the MHA (Home ministry), and its feasibility report was obtained from an Indian IT giant. Then the government had introduced the bill to the parliament. However, in Oct 2000 the Home ministry got convincing feedback that it was neither financially viable, nor legally nor technologically feasible, and so the bill, and the project were put into the cold storage. The NIC has been providing wisdom to the government on similar issues since the disastrous 1994-95 voter card project, in which Rs. 1000 cr was wasted. Several PSUs were contractors in many states then, and they also had more than 20% errors in 1994-95 voter card project.
So, the government should put the framework with its feasibility report on its website, so that the public can find out where and how the money is spent, and whether there are major loopholes in its feasibility.
July 23, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Infosys may have lost a great man but India has gained development in the form of initiatives, my only sincere hope is that these politicians leave this Nandan alone and allow him to do his job HIS WAY alas I believe that is too much to ask fron the politicianxs,
I am sure the whole nation would endorse my view (well almost not countng politicians) and would wish you all the best !!!!
Regards
Arvind