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Watch How India’s Ambitious Aadhaar Identification Program Often Fails to Deliver

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Can Technology Solve India’s Biggest Problem?

India’s government is giving a unique ID to each of its 1.2 billion citizens, creating the world’s largest biometric data set. But some are questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to use technology to solve the country’s most critical problems: poverty and corruption. Photo: Karan Deep Singh/The Wall Street Journal

By

Gabriele Parussini


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India’s government is forging ahead with an ambitious plan to provide every citizen with a reliable form of identification, something the world’s second-most populous country has been trying to do for decades.

A Wall Street Journal story Friday looked at the many problems that have come out of the process of trying to use high-tech biometrics on India’s low-tech telecommunications infrastructure.

Residents say the fingerprint scanner installed as a part of the government's rollout of digital identification program 'Aadhaar' often fails to recognize their fingerprints.
ENLARGE

Residents say the fingerprint scanner installed as a part of the government’s rollout of digital identification program ‘Aadhaar’ often fails to recognize their fingerprints.


Photo:

KARAN DEEP SINGH/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

As the new ID system is rolled out, many complain that fingerprint scanners make things harder than before. As seen in this video, shot in Mehram Nagar, a centuries-old village close to New Delhi’s international airport, Aadhaar has made life harder for ration-shop owner Om Prakash and his clients.

60-year-old Daya Chand leans on the bark of a plum tree where officials tucked the machine to issue receipts for subsidized food in the patchy lanes of New Delhi's Mehram Nagar.
ENLARGE

60-year-old Daya Chand leans on the bark of a plum tree where officials tucked the machine to issue receipts for subsidized food in the patchy lanes of New Delhi’s Mehram Nagar.


Photo:

KARAN DEEP SINGH/The Wall Street Journal

For breaking news, features and analysis from India, follow WSJ India on Facebook.

(via WSJ)

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