31 - Wed, 14 Jul 2010

This looks one-sided. You have captured the costs associated with UID, but did not attempt to look at direct / indirect benefits for years to come.
-Piyush, Batch of '99. IIT-B.

Thu, 15 Jul 2010   

Piyush,
great. I agree. However I cannot help as I have no info to base this on. UIDAI to this date has not provided a cost benefit analysis. Perhaps you can help put a value on the benefits so we get a clear picture of costs Vs benefits

Ram

Thu, 15 Jul 2010   

Ram,  It's certainly not easy to put a value on benefits. While costs are reflective of the real numbers (atleast of the same order), benefits will be vague estimates only, since all of them are indirect benefits.

If UIDAI publishes a benefits calculation, they will only end up inviting trouble from multiple corners. Because when it comes to indirect benefits, people tend to get too opinionated and they have lots of ground to refute numbers.

So my guess is that NN and FinMin have done a CBA, before it all started, but it is not publishable.
Maybe if we continue discussing, we will reach a point where we will share with the group our respective take on benefits.

Best,
-Piyush
Batch of '99. IIT-B.