The Aadhaar Effect Why the World's Largest Identity Project Matters

Identification vs profiling; state welfare vs state surveillance; privacy vs transparency -- the idea of Aadhaar has bitterly polarized India since its launch eight years ago. No other project has captured the imagination of the people-or inspired such awe and anxiety-in recent memory. Aadhaar began life with a singular mandate: offer an identity to those Indian residents who didn't have any. Along the way, it evolved into the welfare state's flagship technology and altered forever how government, business, and society interact. The Aadhaar Effect is the story of the visionaries-bureaucrats, technologists, activists-who created or challenged India's biggest juggernaut. It is equally the story of humans conflicted about complex choices that may make the world a better place. Award-winning journalists N.S. Ramnath and Charles Assisi dive deep into the 12-digit number that has touched 1.2 billion lives and counting-and in the bargain, made the world sit up and take note of India's ambition.

N.S. Ramnath is a senior writer at Founding Fuel. His main interests lie in technology, business, society, and how they interact and influence each other. A Polestar 2017 award winner, he writes a regular column on disruptive technologies, and takes regular stock of key news and perspectives from across the world. He is also involved with data analysis and visualization at a start-up, How India Lives. Prior to Founding Fuel, Ramnath was with Forbes India and Economic Times as a business journalist. He has also written for The Hindu, Quartz, and Scroll. He has degrees in economics and financial management from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. Charles Assisi is a co-founder at Founding Fuel. Assisi stays engaged in conversations with people across the world and writes a column for Mint, a daily business newspaper. His work has earned him the Polestar and Madhu Valluri awards. He does stints as a writing coach when time permits and speaks on public forums as well. In his last stint, Assisi was part of the founding team at Forbes India. He lives in Mumbai with his wife and two young daughters. Founding Fuel aims to create the new playbook of entrepreneurship. It identifies as a hub for entrepreneurs, the go-to place for ideas, insights, practices and wisdom essential to build the enterprise of tomorrow. It is co-founded by veteran journalists Indrajit Gupta and Charles Assisi, along with CS Swaminathan, the former president of Pearson's online learning venture.