Unique Identity Cards for All Indians

The former CEO of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, has taken up the challenge of heading a Government of India initiative that seeks to provide all Indians with an unique identity card (ID).

In February 2009, the Government of India envisioned a project for providing unique IDs to all Indians. To bring more accountability to this massive project, it asked the former CEO of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, to head it.

The decade-long project, which Nandan calls, “the mother of all IT projects,” seeks to provide each of India’s 1.2 billion people with an ID card embedded with a microchip. This would help build a massive national database and bring a new accountability to the system. Most importantly, the project could enable millions of poor Indians to gain access to much-needed financial aid and social services.

Read more about the pioneer and his project in this interesting BusinessWeek article titled The Man Behind India’s ID card program