To start his work, the boss of India's unique identity project doesn't need to look beyond his mobile phone and voter identity card
Now that the government has decided to assign a unique identity to each citizen in a bid to target social security services as well as assure internal security, the 1.16-billion population is waiting with bated breath. Issuing identities to all of them is a laudable, but a very long-term exercise. The day when the last Indian has been given the record will surely arrive, but we need a more modest goal post to start the project with. So, what is the minimum number of identity records that Nandan Nilekani, as the head of Unique Identity Authority of India, can issue without much sweat using the existing databases?
(This story appears in the 28 August, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)