UID Project in India

Back to blogging again...

I was going through the information available on UID over the Internet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_Identification_Authority_of_India

Some questions just ran through my mind (real fast)...

1) What is the purpose of this project?
2) Who is going to benefit?

The Purpose...
As I understand it, this is system is going to b e put in place to provide a "Unique Identification"to every Indian citizen. To help people against identity theft. and the list goes on.

Who is going to benefit...
Every citizen. Period.

My take on this
Some where I read that the testing is being done in a remote village in Karnataka. Where fingerprints and Iris samples of villagers are being taken. Also read that the team is having a hard time explaining to the people the benefits of this.

We do it always, everytime. Why dont we ever learn, a simple fact that different creations require different test beds different environment.

Our people are now going to an environment, which might have about 20-30% of exposure to technology. Trying to make understand things that have no immediate gains for them. Why would they respond? Are we testing just because they will never ask any questions? Just because they will never have any objections?

Lets understand this, they are not enabled to understand this stuff.

Why does an Indian citizen require "ANOTHER" Identity.
We are trying to impose something on someone who dont have a clue of whats going to happen with that. If I was
in a position to effect any changes to this, I would to the following.

• What is the required?
• Who requires it?
• Where do I start?

The first two questions have already been answered The last question is very important. Logically speaking the area that requires most interaction, is international travel. Your identity is checked every time you are in and out of an airport or a port.

The best start would have been to enable biometrics on Passport. Our first identity worldwide, is our passport.

A biometric passport, could facilitate many things including, curb on terrorism, identity theft. The major benefit is that there will be live test bed. Most of the people who use their passport also understand the implications.

a comma here so that I can rethink and come back on this.

Just some thoughts.. I dont know how this fairs

Unity in Diversity a BIG Question Mark?

Honestly speaking I am literally fed up of going around the World and saying. Well this is my India, We are United even though we are a Diversified...

Not that I am not Proud of India... Not that I want to portray something bad... but it hurts... it hurts to see, hear and read about facts and people around the World talking crap about India. Feels like ... (ok no violence here)

Bottom Line it hurts, bring tears and pains a lot

How united are we?
No one including me has an answer to this. We keep beating the drum, everyone, including all the biggies, people from the entertainment industry, all people living abroad, well I mean every individual... goes around beating the drum "Hum Sab Ek Hai!!" (We all are one or united).

Why do we keep fooling ourselves? India has a Golden as well as a devastating history, where at one point it was called the "Sone ki Chidia" (Bird of Gold) and at the other, where many a clans sought the opportunity to invade at relieve India of all its treasures, natural, physical and human.

The British, I suppose were the smartest, they were the ones who caught the nerves of India. They exactly knew what the problem with India was, or what was to their advantage. Yes the huge amount of Diversity, and yes of course and more Diversity in already existing Diversity. Yes and that's correct again back to thinking.

People always thought, and still are thinking, lets expose our Diversity and keep beating the Drums of Unity.

But then think again, what are we exposing, we always have been exposing our Weakest point. That is our Diversity and our Complete inability to keep it together. We fight over State borders, fight over river waters, fight over religion, language, cast and creed. We want different states, based on language, Caste and Sub caste and what not... We want all kinds of restrictions, reservations...

What we dont want to do is...

• Fight Crime... our country has one of the highest crime rating
• Fight Child Labor...
• Fight the system of not providing education... not even the basic education
  
• Fight against Corruption... no matter what the religion, color or creed a person is or what language is spoken.. a corrupt person is a CORRUPT PERSON. Understands only one language MONEY.
  
• Fight against female infanticide
• Fight the notorious "Outsiders" who go on blabbering about us.. with no evidence
• The list goes on and on...

However what we eagerly want to do is...

• Fight amongst ourselves, beat are very own people and yes allow ... every one who knows the trick to break into our Diversity for their own benefit.
  

I may not have traveled the entire world, but yes I have gone to parts of the world that have given me a very clear picture of what people outside our country think about us. Believe me its not good what they think of us. No one and absolutely no one thinks that we are UNITED at all...

These are the things that give way to "Outsiders" to start THINKING, how they can penetrate into the cracks created by our very own people.

Corruption...

As per Wikipedia Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_India, India is ranked 85 out of 179 countries. Well India is half way neither here nor there... seems to be a good sign... but not good enough.

My Views...
As again, it is the THINKING that counts.. but there is more to it than just thinking... First lets think about the thinking.

People while trying to the process of being corrupt go through multi-level of thinking:

Level 1: I need more money to help my family survive... my job doesn't pay me enough
Level 2: (When the money starts coming in) I need to build a future for my family and my children... my job doesn't pay me enough for the secure future of my family
Level 3: (When there is loads of money coming in) I need to give my family a luxurious life .... my job doesn't pay enough ...
Level 4: (When there is oodles of money coming in) That friend of mine or that colleague of mine is making more money than me... my job doesn't pay me enough...

At all levels, the underlying thinking is all about "Me", I need it, I want it, I desire it... and now I have it... Its all about I, me, mine.

That's about the thinking part, Lets think about why does corruption penetrate so deeply within the our system.

1. Like any other commercial thought process, its all about DEMAND and SUPPLY.
The DEMAND
As per Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_of_India "India's population of approximately 1.17 billion people (estimate for July, 2009) consists of more than one-sixth of the world's population" and the number is still growing. All the government organisations, bodies etc. need to cater to that huge a population. Thats a unimaginable number of people who require Government Organizations to cater to their requirements.

The SUPPLY
There are about estimated 18.7 million people working in Government Organisations. Thats about 1.6 % of the total Population which means for every 100 persons to look after we have only, 1.6 person. Thats so unfair, and still expect everything to be a miracle.

Well that says that the SUPPLY is far far less than the DEMAND hence it becomes a major factor.

2. Second Major Factor, the Compensation Offering
The compensation for the Private Sector is way too high than the Government Sector. But then the question why the comparison. The Government Sector has far more benefits, leaves... Yes leaves... we will talk about it, perks extra facility, and some of them being in some functions for example, the legal system or legal enforcers, have their own self proclaimed benefits. But still there is a comparison because still the compensation in the Private Sector is far higher than Government Sector. As for Leaves.. India is the only country with so many leaves (combined together) on average available for Government Staff.

The race between who earns better, who has more, its all about comparison. And the comparison is not because it is obvious, its because a person earning Rs 3000/- pm gets a different treatment than Rs 30000/- pm and more different for a person earning Rs 300000/-. And again it boils down to thinking....


3. Technology Support
Technology helps and helps much with reducing the human baggage of delivering outputs. Technology serves as a great tool to cater to variety of requirements. Sad, but true even though India being one of the largest Software and IT Services still cannot cater to the requirements of India itself.

But its not just the technology, but the implementation itself. Our IT companies can implement the best of Services as well as Infrastructure for other countries or other companies but not for the Government. There could be several reasons probably could be ranging from non-competent people deciding what to do and where to do, or no proper implementation. Whatever the reason be, the fact remains that we do not have the "Instinct" to do it the right way.

Ok now for me to give the solution, this is my solution:
Point wise
1. Demand and Supply, create more jobs so that the number country's Government Staff can cater to the requirements of the people in a proportionate manner (I will take the second point last)
3. Enable technology in such a way it is beneficial for the mass, however Education plays a major factor in this...

Here comes the big one...

2. COMPENSATION: Kaatein se Kata nikalta hai, Lohe ko loha kaatta hai aur Heere ko heera taraash ta hai. (Translation: Thorn is used to remove a thorn, Iron is used to cut Iron, A diamond is used give dimensions to a diamond)

Corrupt the system, in the correct way. Pay the Staff such that their needs and desires are taken care of. But how do you change the system, because systems cannot be changed instantly or radically. I understand this completely and with all faith. I too don't have a complete solution.

Let me cite a sample solution:
For Example: We have IT inspectors, one of leading ones always caught in a bracket of corruption in one way or the other.

1. Give them a handsome salary package (not too much)
2. Give them a HUGE incentive, by that VERY VERY HUGE incentive.

By this encourage them to catch hold, in a right way, of people who evade tax. People take money from these people to make their pockets heavier, why doesn't government make the pockets heavier.

What will be the resultant, it will be that there will be more and more people willing to pay tax and add to the revenue of the government, the IT officials will have a heavier pockets and thus will not be tempted to go the corrupt way.


... Will continue on this more as and when I get my thoughts....

The Start

All of 34 years of age I sit and reflect and ponder on my thoughts about my country, my very own, India. No no, dont get me wrong I am not going to talk about the Indian culture, we all talk about it, we all know about it, very very rich culture. History, not about that too we all know the history, very interesting, somet tragic some heroic. Well, however it is all things of the past. Today we need think about TODAY and tomorrow to come.

With my first post on this blog of mine apart from my professional ones I want to pic a very sensitive topic Terrorism. In the later posts I will try and put across my thoughts, for very small points that we keep ignoring. Well everyone is talking about it, its the hottest topic.... blah blah.. the fact is I want to put my thoughts across, as I hate violence and terrorism is the peak of voilence. Some day we need to scale and get it under control.

Today is India in a position to scale the peak, my honest answer like every normal citizen of India NO. We are not! We ask too many questions, like how can they do it to us, why us, this and that ... and the list of questions goes with no answer to it.

For me, as a country we have not even touched the exact problem, and we are trying to find solution, to a problem quite unknown to us. The problem is not terrorism, then what is it? The problem is thinking :)

Many who read this will be amused, am I starting some philosphical thought. Yes I am. Read on if interested.

Like an other action terrorism is also an action that leads to devastating results. However do we ever think where does it all start. It all starts with thinking.

We allow the terrorist to think that:

• They can get into India
• They can disturb the harmony
• They can raise communal violence
• They can dirupt, vandalise, murder n number of citizens in the name of religion
• They can maime, orphan, and leave people with no where to go

No one can ever believe that so much thinking goes into this. For me yes it does. We allow them to think.
I liked the movie "Sarkar", however the most I liked was that dialogue "Sarkar ko maarne se pehle uski soch ko maaro (Before killing Sarkar, kill his thought process)". This line carries so much weight. To think about, yes to think about it. We are leaving these people with more than one choice of thinking.

I read so many news about people infiltrating, people carrying out acts of terror across the world. But when I think about it, it is all in the thinking process. We catch one terrorist, we get complacent, thinking we have won a huge battles. Then there are rows of why someone died, and how he died, how we could have saved him. Why are the bullet proof jackets not good, why was the communication not good, why did the reserve force arrive late. Ah too many questions to think about, but no answer to them.

But we never think, about an old constable, at CST trying to get against a pyschotic terrorist handling an AK57. Still we demand an answer as to why he couldnt gun him down.

Post 26/11 I still have shivers in my spine thinking about what I was seeing, when I was seeing the live telecast of the acts of terrorism. But it kept me thinking all this while, and yet I have no concrete answers. Probably I dont know too well about what we can do. But yes I know one thing I know, is that if you see all the major acts of terrorism, be it the 1993 serial bomblasts, 11/7Mumbai local train bombblasts, 26/11 Taj seizure by terrorists, its all in the thinking. We allowed them to think and they thought, and did it. Today we put our head high and say we Indians fear no one we get back to everyday after every massacre, but deep within we still hate, want to revenge, and want those people to face the highest level of penalty.

But then still we allow such acts, or rather we allow such thought processes...

I will continue this post with multi view of things that are missing... in India that could probably help in making India a stronger country, and grow for the benefits of the citizens, rather than live in everyday fear for life...

To be continued...