BACKWARD, CORRUPTION RIDEN UGANDA CAN LEARN LESSONS FROM THE ONLINE IDs BELOW

The Science of Delivering Online IDs to a Billion People: The Aadhaar Experience

FEATURING

• 
  Dr. Jim Yong Kim
  World Bank Group President
• 
  Kaushik Basu
  Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank Group
• 
  Nandan Nilekani
  Entrepreneur and Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India

DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 TIME: 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. (13:00 – 14:30 GMT or convert time) LOCATION: Online and World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC

As part of the Bank's Development Economics Lecture series, Nandan Nilekani, one of the world's leading entrepreneurs in information technology, will speak on Aadhaar, India's massive initiative to create a unique system for the biometric identification of its residents. Aadhaar has already assigned 12 digit identification numbers to over 300 million people and will eventually enrol all of India's 1.2 billion residents.

Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Kaushik Basu will chair, introducing the speaker, the topic and its implications for development. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim will deliver opening remarks and comment on the importance of the subject to the World Bank Group. Questions and answers will follow Mr. Nilekani's talk.

The Unique Identification Authority of India created the system with an open programmable interface so that multiple applications can be built. The first major application Direct Benefits Transfer will electronically distribute money to millions of people by the end of 2013. Over the next few years a large number of applications providing transformational benefits to residents of India are expected to be developed by public and private entities.

The Aadhaar initiative uses the most sophisticated technology (Internet class architecture, multi-modal biometrics, ubiquitous data connectivity, tablets, etc.) to solve the most basic of development challenges. The project is being implemented as an open ecosystem, where enrollment will drive applications, and more applications will drive enrollment. The Aadhaar project is an example of doing a very large development project which requires, scale, speed, quality, and low costs goals to be met.