UIDAI

The book encompasses the physical or paper forms of identity, together with the benefits and pitfalls of Aadhaar - a multimillion biometrics enabled UID project of the Government of India. Taking into account the central, federated and self-sovereign models of digital identity, the self-sovereign model has been explained, in detail, for identification and access management leveraging blockchain technology.

At various points in its existence, the Indian state has deployed technologies to govern the nation. Recently, the state has undertaken a number of large-scale projects to make use of digital technology. The most controversial of these is the Unique Identity (UID) project, which is registering biometric, along with demographic, information about residents. This paper seeks to understand what is at stake politically in this technological intervention. It aims to explore the political logics and consequences of such a biometric system. It argues that UID re-imagines the economy and the state–citizen relationship as a series of transactions. Theoretically, the main thrust of this paper is to understand the “general economy of power”, as Michel Foucault calls it, which is unfolding in India around the issues of capitalist growth, inequality, social protection and terrorism—and UID signals the technological potential for the convergence of these concerns.

Digital ID with Electronic Surveillance System: In any developing country, one needs to have an infinite number of documents, at each level; some of which call for periodical renewal. To fetch those documents either one stands in long queues or goes online. Here again, every e-site generates and asks for a new ID and password. This is how, instead of making things simple, these documents and online processes make life more confounded and miserable. The government officials are bogged down with applications for Aadhar, Licenses, Samagra-ID, Ration Card, EPIC, Passport, Bank Pass Books, ATMs, Vehicle Registration, Registries, Reports, Certificates and so on.  Over and above, verification of these documents, at each level, is another deadly exercise.

Till date, not a single system, device or App has been invented, in any part of the world, to save humanity from the drudgery of stacking documents, followed by their photocopies, attestations, and verifications - a never-ending process. The present innovation has been conceived and designed to void this gap.