The Unique Identity project, headed by Nandan Nilekani, is one in which the public and private sectors have come together in the spirit of a start-up
WHY WE DID THE STORY: From the time Nandan Nilekani took over as chairman of the UID project, there was a lot of interest in how the project would shape up. How would one of India’s richest men work inside the bureaucracy? We were eager to tell that story, but Nilekani and his team were not. Convincing Ram Sevak Sharma, director general, UIDAI, was the toughest task. The government, he said, is run by faceless bureaucrats and basking in the spotlight is not something they are comfortable with. What was most impressive was the meshing of the public and private sector cultures that saw bureaucrats working late hours, overcoming differences and keeping their eyes firmly on the goal. It was the first time that the government enabled so many volunteers from the private sector, academia and civil society to work on a project.
(You can read the original story here )(This story appears in the 03 June, 2011 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)