55 - Tue, 18 May 2010
Hi Guys, I hope u don't mind my butting in & giving my comments (marked below in italics, red font). The topic is live one & I am tempted ! Just cant resist, you see !!
Lets just remind ourselves that this is the market segment that is driving the current telecom, white consumer goods & automobiles boom in India. Illiterate, may be but definitely smarter generations who are well informed. They are much more aware of how the political parties siphoned off monies in the name of so many well intended schemes.
One of Our late ex-prime minister (Mr. Rajiv Gandhi) had arranged for one survey conducted, some time in mid-eighties, exactly on this topic. Results were, of course, shocking !! As per this survey mere 8-10% of the amount spent reached the intended sections of the population !! Those were the days when babudom with the political parties in power combined together to defeat the implementation of such schemes.
Yes, what you are saying is that Mr. Nilekani had this grand vision & thru his book he has reached out to all of the intellectuals including the PM. Let us concede it - It is a really grand , mega vision. Mr. Nilekani has not only given the idea (or the design) but also volunteered to execute the project himself.
The IT guys have done so much for the development of the country in the last 2/3 decades nothing is impossible !! This is mere cake walk for our IT guys.
The nearest parallel is with one Mr. Sam Pitroda convincing RG of unleashing the telecom sector in the mid eighties & we are all aware of what it has achieved !!
We are all Engineers & all very well aware that the project definition & scope undergoes major mid-course changes & the end result is most of the time way beyond our initial & original visualisation. It will be more so in such social projects as 'UID'.
Perhaps, you are right here about MNC's. But again the major beneficiaries are & will be Indian software & hardware companies with or without overseas partners.
By the way guys, there is already ATMs in villages (my guess is every 1 in 3 or 4 villages has at least 1 ATM) & post offices network can be made good use of for the purpose. Post office network also is changing (most of these changes are forced on them because of survival ) & will be too happy to get involved in the party. Likewise, rural banking networks can also be made good use of for the purpose.
Dear Sir, times have changed back home in India !! you will be surprised (as I was during one of my visits to Chennai & Bangalore) how you can hear (reasonably) good Hindi being spoken in the offices, markets & hotels; good north Indian food of your choice; Hindi, Gujaraty, Marathi & Punjabi TV channels registering reasonable viewership pn Chennai, B'lore or for that matter in Kochi.
Best Rgds,
V N Markande, IITB
