For some reason, governments - as well as the development ''industry'' as a whole - have always had a tendency to look for universal panaceas, particular silver bullets that will solve all or most of their implementation problems and somehow achieve the development project for them. The latest such initiative bullet that seems to have been accepted as a silver bullet is the Unique Identification Project, which is now seen...

OVER 2.5 crore job card holders registered under Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) could be affected by the rural development ministry’s decision to introduce biometrics to the scheme. The job cards of beneficiaries in 200 districts across India are set to expire in 2011. The process of job card renewal under the biometric system would take six months to two years. This would deny the registered people 100 days...

MasterCard Worldwide, a leading global payments company, today said it has developed a payment solution for ‘Aadhaar’. ‘Aadhaar’ is a 12-digit Unique Identification Number (UID) that captures basic demographic and biometric information of Indian residents. The UID will make it possible for residents to establish their identity with financial institutions thereby providing them a gateway into the formal banking system. This payment solution will enable Aadhaar holders to perform payment...

The district supply office department will go online with the data on inflow of grains and available stocks in city fair price shops. The new system, brought in as part of modernisation of the public distribution system, is expected to put up the data by December 20.“We will put up the entire data online on www.mahafdopune.in, and this will enable citizens to check on the available stocks; this will ensure...

It is quite likely that a few weeks from now someone will be knocking at your doors and asking for your fingerprints. If you agree, your fingerprints will enter a national database, along with personal characteristics (age, sex, occupation, and so on) that have already been collected from you, unless you were missed in the “Census household listing” earlier this year. The purpose of this exercise is to build the National...