The RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan batted for Aadhaar in his speech at the CK Prahlad Memorial Lecture last Friday, saying that in 2009 (he wasn't the RBI Governor then) and Prahlad, along with Abhijit Banerjee, had written to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, "advocating, among other steps, accelerated efforts to bring out a unique ID in India. Perhaps, therefore, we all had a small role in the Prime Minister setting up the Unique ID Authority, headed by Nandan Nilekani." Rajan believes that the UIDAI is taking India towards a universal unique identity, and believes that "it would be sad if its use were severely restricted. Other countries like the United States have used unique IDs, such as social security numbers, without serious allegations of violations of privacy." In doing so, Rajan chose to ignore the criticism of the Aadhar project by a Parliamentary Standing Committee, under the Chairmanship of the BJP's Yashwant Sinha, and the fact that the United Kingdom had shelved its Unique Identity project following privacy concerns. Rajan said that India needs to see how it can satisfy the concerns of the Supreme Court without undermining the value of the unique ID, given the economic benefit, particularly, for the bottom of the pyramid. "For instance," he said, "not only can UIDs expand the access of the poor and young to credit as they borrow against the collateral of their future good name, it will also allow the regulator to detect and curb over-lending to individuals by asking…
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RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Aadhaar, Payments Banks, Over-Invoicing, Spectrum Auctions & More
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