Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail, believes that the $1.3 billion spent on developing Aadhaar cards was excessive, especially since the biometric data collected was never utilised. The entrepreneur said that the entire unique identity project could have been completed for just $20 million.
Bhatia shared his thoughts during a recent appearance on ‘Prakhar Ke Pravachan’, a podcast hosted by Prakhar Gupta. He described Aadhaar as “$1.3 billion ill spent,” adding, “Because Aadhaar took all of your biometrics, where is that being used? A better way to solve the problem of unique identity would be a video and voice printing technology. Simple. Which every smartphone user has. You can build it in under $20 million.”
He further stated, without naming anyone, “whoever did this is not a technologist”. “They don’t know technology. They have never coded in their lives. That’s why this problem exists.”
Explaining how costs could have been reduced in the unique identity project, Bhatia suggested that collecting voiceprints from individuals could have served as a unique identifier stored in a database, which could even be used at airports. “At the airport, the moment somebody walked in, with the videos of the people walking in, the guys [security personnel] would not even have to check your card,” he said.
When asked if he was concerned about upsetting those behind Aadhaar, Bhatia responded that it wasn’t his intention to anger anyone. However, he said, he would “humbly” suggest they should “use their brains.” “This is ill money ill spent. $1.3 billion! Are you kidding me?” he concluded.
What Is An Aadhaar Card?
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on behalf of the Government of India. It serves as proof of identity and address throughout India. Both the Aadhaar letter received via India Post and the e-Aadhaar downloaded from the UIDAI website are equally valid.
Any individual, regardless of age or gender, who is a resident of India and completes the verification process set by UIDAI, is eligible to enrol for an Aadhaar. Enrollment is required only once. In case of multiple enrollments, Aadhaar will be generated based on one of the enrollment IDs, while the others will be rejected as duplicates. Aadhaar enrollment is free for all residents of India.
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