Can a number change a Nation?

Aadhaar, the name given to the Unique Identifier project in India, has winner written on it all over it right from the choice of Nanadan Nilekani to lead this initiative. India gave the concept of Zero to the world and that revolutionalized the understanding of Mathematics.

Now, India is again on the brink of giving a number to its entire population that will revolutionize the way benefits have traditionally been handed over to the masses in need. The role that Aadhaar envisions is to issue a unique identification number (UID) that can be verified and authenticated in an online, cost-effective manner, and that is robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities. Consider this number to be equivalent to US Social Security Number that identifies each and every citizen and is utilized to pay the benefits whenever required, except the fact that Aaadhar will be much more technological advanced in identifying any individual (a crying need in India)

According to a Govt study, India is going to have 800 million people in its workforce by 2020. In order to ensure that they are a source of valuable human capital, India must connect them effectively to the services they need in health, education and employment. The reach and impact of the Aadhaar has the potential to transcend traditional approach to identity verification in India. The identity infrastructure in India today is a patchwork of multiple documents that are used as proofs of identity and which include voter cards, PAN, and driving licenses. One unique number has the potential to change forever, how poorest of the poor can be empowered to benefits provided by the State.

The number to be given under Aadhaar will be a 16 digit number out of which the last 4 will be hidden or will not be required for any normal identification process. These 4 hidden numbers will be used in offline verification against the central database in case of problems with fake identities. An iris scan will be used along with fingerprints for collecting biometric data of citizens. About 10 fingerprints, a photo, and iris scan will be collected as part of biometric data per person

Aadhaar will offer significant advantages for children. Child-related programs in India have relied on often inaccurate, aggregate data at school/village /block/district levels, making these programs inherently ineffective. The concept of Universal Child Tracking – the ability to track every child and ensure their all-around development – is gaining ground. An accurate database of children with UID would be immensely beneficial to programs linked to eliminate child labor. Similarly, a massive outreach program to reach out to disadvantaged women and get them a unique number can subsequently be used as a unique handle for a variety of services to be rendered to these women.

Government statistics estimates that India has over 60 million disabled people, and identity for this population is a massive challenge. It is difficult to enforce the law, In spite of a clear law about a certain percentage of employment for the disabled due to lack of clear identification of such individuals. A lot of organizations working for the disabled population will promote the UID, and enable residents with disabilities to register for a range of benefits. India has a significant tribal population of approximately 90 million tribals, mostly concentrated along a few states. The Government has many programs for the notified tribes, and the UID can ensure that help reaches the intended tribals.

In India, unlike in the West, there is no ritual to assign a name to the newly born immediately. These later results in very costly procedure of identifying individuals. Aadhaar can force things like this to change and have the parents assign a name immediately after a child is born so that a unique number can be allocated and inserted into the birth certificate itself. Since the birth certificate is the original identity document, it is likely that this number will then persist as the key identifier through the individual's various life events, such as joining school, immunizations, voting etc. Since the name is a mandatory field in the Aadhaar database, it is essential that the child be given a name before applying for the Aadhaar number.

There are clearly immense benefits from a mechanism that uniquely identifies a person, and ensures instant identity verification. The need to prove identity only once will bring down transaction costs for the poor. A clear identity number would also transform the delivery of social welfare programs by making them more inclusive of communities that are now cut off from such benefits due to their lack of identification. It would enable the government to shift from indirect to direct benefits, and help verify whether the intended beneficiaries actually receive funds/subsidies. A single, universal identity number will also be transformational in eliminating fraud and duplicate identities, since individuals will no longer be able to represent themselves differently to different agencies.

I personally see no reason why this simple number will not transform India to take care of its citizens the way help reaches to the citizens in the western world. This number will help India to further catapult itself out of the tentacles of poverty and ignorance. I invite my readers to think about the application of this unique number that will help transform India into a more egalitarian society.

Tribute to BMT – Can we come together to harness the power of 1990 batch

Just a few months back, when Naresh connected the entire 1990 batch through a simple process – I realized what I was missing all along. I am sure each one of us has over a period of time has developed big professional network but the eagerness with which I read each and every email posted through Naresh’s Google digest has often surprised me as well.

It is quite clear to me that I relate myself better to the network of our college friends than the professional network that I have since developed. I feel excited to receive emails from each one in our batch, feel content after picking up the phone and talking to them and look forward very eagerly to speak and meet with everyone at the next opportunity. Even banter between Pranav and Sanjay over the email was quite enjoying (sorry no pun intended!)

And then all of a sudden one afternoon read a very cryptic message from Naresh about BMT and then got to know from others that he was no more. It's extremely hard to believe that some one amongst us can die in our 40's, whatever the cause may be apart from accidents. In the hum drum of life we sometimes tend to forget how deep and caring relationship we have all developed amongst each other – whether we were close to each other in Sindri does not matter any more. It was a wake up call for me as well as I never cared to think about life after I am gone; what happens to my dependants. After giving up my job in SAIL, I have been in IT industry which is famous for sucking the blood out of you (of course in the short run they pay you well) and then trash you out when you are no longer useful to them. Whatever may be the reason for BMT’s demise at least I am happy that he died while working for a public sector unit in India which will take care of his immediate family members reasonably well to lead a meaningful and respectful life.

While we are extending our hands to support BMT’s family, some of us also thought about how to harness this network’s strength to the advantage of all the members of this group. I am proposing to create a BITS90 foundation and let that foundation help us in need including the financial need that we are talking to help BMT’s family. Please read some elementary thoughts on the role of foundation and how can it be sustained.

Some of you may not agree with this thought and that’s ok. We can all agree to disagree. However, I am sure all of us agree to do something to create a structure that supports us in time of need. Personally I would like to see that this important step that Naresh has cared to create becomes stronger, has the ability to outlive all of us and keep helping our posterities. This will also be a nice tribute to BMT, in addition to whatever little we all are trying to do for his family.

Why this Foundation
In this digital age, having a strong network is an asset. There are numerous examples where network has been harnessed to achieve some common goals. BITS 90 has the potential to become a strong network of college buddies currently scattered across the globe. Most of BITS90 alumnus is currently into leadership positions across an array of domestic and global companies. It is certain that in the next 15 years many of us will end up leading companies and senior leadership positions

What this Foundation will do
1. Pool incremental resources of its members to provide / create intelligent investment opportunities for long term wealth creation
2. Create group life insurance policies to ensure that in the unfortunate event of demise of any of its members, the policy provide a lum-sum grant of Rs. 50 Lakh (or any other agreed upon amount) to the spouse / immediate dependants of the deceased members
3. Harness the network of its members to bring opportunities to its members and their families in need, especially like BMT's son ongoing education needs.

How this Foundation will survive and grow: I propose a Rs. 500/month to Rs. 1000/month only membership fee that will help the foundation achieve its objective in the long term. I am sure each one of us can contribute this amount for getting great advantage for self and others

Why will this foundation fail : Though this is the last thing in my mind right now it is nonetheless important to recognize the cause of failure. In my opinion the foundation never will see the light of the day or the foundation will fail for two primary reasons:
• if we don’t agree on the objective
• if we don’t believe in the power of group

Hope this idea becomes the nucleus for the remaining thoughts to come together,be debated, coalesc and grow to a vibrant community that even our childrens be proud of.

How India is slowly moving away from sustainable development

There is hardly any place now a days where you don’t hear the echo of global warming messages. Scientist claims that the world is getting hotter and a very delicate balance of the eco-system is getting disturbed leading to catastrophic changes in the climate.

It looks like the summer is getting hotter and the winter is getting colder. The 5 hottest year in California happened just in the last decade. Similarly, the last 5 hottest year in Patna happens to be all in the last decade. All this is happening when countries across the globe are trying to reduce carbon footprint. Is this effort coming a little too late? Have we already crossed the tipping point?

As the disposable income in India is rising, and so is the appetite to mimic westernized world to embrace the modern day comforts without thinking what could be the long term effect of such choices. A slight introspection of my own lifestyle when I was growing up shows the sustainable life we were leading in India just 2 decades back that now is getting increasingly forgotten in the hum drum of blindly copying everything American. I am certain there are multiple such simple and common examples that my readers can contribute.

Multi Use Bag / Baskets : I remember having 2 or 3 multi use bags / baskets in my home just till a couple of decades back that would remain is use for years. These bags were either made of clothes or jutes and used to last very long time. These bags used to be washed regularly and were reused for every day’s groceries to any other adhoc purchases. There was hardly any plastic and hence no need to recycle anything. Just imagine for a moment how long will it take for all the households in US to revert back to multi use bags after getting used to the convenience of single use and throw plastic bags. While every county in US is trying to ban the use of plastic bags, we in India were already leading a sustainable life without the need to think of recycling plastic. However, in our effort to catch up to the modern day living we forgot our roots and blindly copied western culture and have since then landed in a soup as we still lack the sophistication and will power of the west to recycle materials.

Regular Blankets : When I was growing up, each year our community would be invariably visited by weavers around fall who were skilled in cleaning raw cotton that used to be stuffed inside the blanket / comforters for providing warmth. These weavers would take all blankets from a household, open the sutures of blanket and take out all the cotton. They used to then beat the cotton with the help of a string (like when you play a guitar and vibrate the strings of guitar). After doing this repeatedly for some time, the bad cotton used to get segregated from the good ones. The loss of bad cotton used to be compensated by adding new cotton that these weavers used to carry with them. Finally, they would put all the cotton inside the blankets, sew it up, change the blanket cover if you so desire and you are ready for the next winter in style. This way of recycling cotton used to save a lot of wastages unlike now when the old blankets/comforters are discarded for a brand new one. Don’t you think that it was a more sustainable way of living than discarding the entire blanket/comforters and contributing to the global warming? If yes, then why we are continuing to move towards one time only use & throw concepts and ruining our future generations with wastes that would be extremely difficult to properly dispose.

Carpets: If you have visited anyone in the United States, you will invariably find wall to wall carpet in most of the homes. Each and every floor of offices/malls in the western world is lined with carpets. If you think for a moment then you will realize that these carpets are energy hugger because of the need of using vacuum cleaner to clean them. However, there is atleast a reason in countries like US to extensively used carpets given very cold temperatures. India, however, is blessed with tropical climate. Then why are we increasingly using the carpets in India? There were hardly any floors in India that were built using carpets when I was growing up. The floors were invariably made of concrete and/or marble.. Carpets were used just for decorative purpose. Have you ever noticed why the western world has very high level of allergies than any where else in the world inspite of such a high standard of living? One of the reason is the carpets that traps lots of pathogens and bacteria that just sits there. It’s a double whammy – on the one hand lots of energy is used to vacuum clean the carpet and on the other hand, we see very high incidence of allergies that needs billions of dollars of medical care every year. I am a little disappointed to see that many urban households in India are similarly moving towards increasing use of carpets when it’s long term use will only increase global warming and increasingly deteriorate the health of the people.

While we can’t unwind the clock and go back in time it is completely within our control to slowly remove products and life style practices that contribute even remotely to unsustainable living.

Irfan Alam - A Social Engineer

Today I met, Irfan Alam here in Santa Clara who is credited with revolutionizing the socio-economic life of rickshaw puller’s across India. He was being felicitated by the members of AODB for his contribution towards empowering one of the weakest section of our society.

There are few things that stuck me the most while listening to him

1. He has a brilliant academic record in addition to what he has achieved as an entrepreneur – a rare combination
2. Support from his family during his early years in his beliefs

3. His belief in his own dream - to build the most valuable company of the poor

4. Uncompromising on his goals – even rejected Rs. 150 Lakhs ($300 M USD) offer from Zee TV after he won the reality show called "Business Bazigar"

5. Proud of his roots in Bihar - in a very dignified way and not shy to confront the wrong perception about Biharis

In response to one of the question from the audience regarding the profits that his foundation SammaN earns, Irfan said that his profits are made of the blessings of tens of thousands of people for whom the life is slowly changing for better because of his work. These kinds of words coming out of a 28 years old really gives an idea about his upbringing and values. When the corporate world is worried only about gross margin, IRR, top line and bottom line, having blessings as your company’s profit reiterates that money is only a means to achieve the goal not a goal by itself.

There is no need in India for the development to blindly follow the way the West has gone. Empowering the people will create a massive platform for future growth the way the likes of Irfan are concieveing and creating. Irfan has galvanized the entire rickshaw pullers of India in a business model that not only is helping all the rickshaw pullers stand on their own but more importantly giving this poor section of the society the confidence and self- respect that has the power to change the status quo.

When Tanya and Tanvi went to him to get an autograph, he wrote "Believe in your Dreams". My best wishes to Irfan and SammaN for the yeomen services.