Nandan Nilekani, founder Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, a mammoth bio-metric infrastructure that establishes the identity of an individual vis-à-vis the Indian state (aka the Aadhar), engaged with a full room audience on the benefits of effective technology at scale. Nilekani spoke at length about the social development benefits the Aadhar can and is yielding in the public and private sectors in India by encouraging financial inclusiveness and the elimination of middle men when implementing public sector schemes for the under-served. Nilekani also spoke about the Aadhar model being replicable in a favorable political environment and addressed questions around the effectiveness, cryptic nature and data security of the technology involved.
-Shivani Mangal, Harvard College Student