Log out
My profile and settings
My bookmarks
Comment history
Please complete your account verification. Resend verification email.
today
This verification token has expired.
today
Your email address has been verified. Update my profile.
today
Your account has been deactivated. Sign in to re-activate your account.
today
View all newsletters in the newsletter archive
today
You are now unsubscribed from receiving emails.
today
Sorry, we were unable to unsubscribe you at this time.
today
0
0
Back to profile
Comment Items
You have not left any comments yet.
title
you replied to a comment:
name
description
Saved Posts
You haven’t bookmarked any posts yet.

Benin is faced with one of the highest burdens of malaria in the world.

Read more
Become a Gates Notes Insider
Sign up
Log out
Personal Information
Title
Mr
Mrs
Ms
Miss
Mx
Dr
Cancel
Save
This email is already registered
Cancel
Save
Please verify email address. Click verification link sent to this email address or resend verification email.
Cancel
Save
Email and Notification Settings
Send me updates from Bill Gates
You must provide an email
On
Off
Send me Gates Notes survey emails
On
Off
Send me the weekly Top of Mind newsletter
On
Off
Email me comment notifications
On
Off
On-screen comment notifications
On
Off
Interests
Select interests to personalize your profile and experience on Gates Notes.
Saving Lives
Energy Innovation
Improving Education
Alzheimer's
Philanthropy
Book Reviews
About Bill Gates
Account Deactivation
Click the link below to begin the account deactivation process.
If you would like to permanently delete your Gates Notes account and remove it’s content, please send us a request here.

POSITIVE ID

Making the world’s invisible people, visible

An ID can help improve the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

|
0

How do you prove you really are who you say you are? In the U.S. and many rich countries, that’s easy. We have many ways to prove our identity: a birth certificate, a driver’s license, a Social Security card, or a passport.

But imagine for a moment that you are one of the estimated one billion people in the world—most of them among the poorest and the most vulnerable—who have no official identification. No birth certificates. No official ID documents. Nothing.

Without a way to prove who you are, you would face huge problems going to school, seeing a doctor, receiving government services, getting a bank account, finding a job, traveling across a border, or having access to many other rights and services most of us take for granted. Without an ID, you would be nameless in the eyes of the government and largely ignored.

For the last decade, Nandan Nilekani has been working to make these “invisible people,” as he calls them, visible by giving them access to official identification. One of India’s leading technology entrepreneurs, Nandan joined the government of India to lead the launch of India’s national biometric ID system, which uses fingerprints and other biological traits to verify the identities of the country’s more than 1.3 billion residents. This ID system, known as Aadhaar (Hindi for “foundation”), is the world’s largest biometric identification system and has become a valuable platform for delivering social welfare programs and other government services.

Now, Nandan is working with the World Bank Group to help other countries build their own digital identification systems. Advances in biometrics, data management, mobile phones, and other technologies are making it possible to provide people with a verifiable digital identity simply, quickly, and securely. At the same time, there is growing awareness in the global community that with a proof of ID, the world’s poorest people have a powerful tool to be seen, heard, and improve their lives. Giving everyone access to a legal identity is one of the targets of the Global Goals. And more donors, including the Omidyar Network and our foundation, are supporting efforts to achieve this goal.

I first met Nandan more than 20 years ago when he was working to grow Infosys, a technology and consulting corporation he co-founded. I was impressed by him then and continue to be amazed by how he has lent his entrepreneurial passion to philanthropy and public service over the years. (With his wife, Rohini, Nandan also co-founded the EkStep Foundation, which seeks to improve education.)

Nandan’s early thinking about the importance of identification was sketched out in his bestselling book, Imagining India, which explores India’s potential to bridge the gap between rich and poor as it undergoes dramatic economic growth. Verifiable IDs, he predicted in 2008, would be transformational for India’s poorest people. By acknowledging the existence of all its residents with a national ID, he said, the government would be compelled to improve the access and quality of all its services that can uplift the most vulnerable people.

At the time, the government of India was in the process of planning a unique national ID system. In 2009, Nandan was tapped by the government to turn this vision into reality. No one had ever tried to create a digital identification system on this scale before. His team was tasked with gathering fingerprints, iris scans, and a photograph for more than one billion residents of India. Each person who signed up was issued a unique 12-digit identification number that could be used along with their biometric information to prove their identity. This system ensured that someone’s identity could not be faked or duplicated, which had been a common problem in India’s largely paper-based government social welfare programs.

A decade later, Aadhaar has enrolled nearly all residents of India. With a trustworthy system to verify identities of beneficiaries for everything from pensions to food subsidies, the government has been able to save billions of dollars because of reduced fraud and corruption.

Of course, India’s ID system has not been without controversy. There were many privacy concerns, including criticism that the Aadhaar system was a mass surveillance tool and that personal data would be misused. Last year, a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of India found that the program did not violate the privacy rights of the country’s residents. But in order to prevent misuse use of personal data the court placed tight limits on how the ID system could be used and shared.

Nandan stepped down from his government post in 2014. But he continues to lend his voice, both as a writer and speaker, to improve access to digital identification for the world’s poorest people. And as an advisor to the World Bank, Nandan is sharing his experience with Aadhaar to help other countries design and roll out their own digital identification programs.

While progress is being made to launch more identification systems, many people around the world still lack identification of any kind. According to the latest estimates by the World Bank, there are one billion people in the world without an official proof of identity, including 45 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa and 17 percent of South Asia’s population.

Thanks to the work Nandan is doing the world is moving closer to the day when everyone will have access to an official ID. The sooner we can achieve this goal, the sooner the world’s poorest residents will not only be able to prove who they are, but also realize their aspirations for better lives.

Meet more of my heroes in the field

Discussion
Thank you for being part of the Gates Notes Insider community.
Not seeing your comment? You can read our policy on moderating comments here and learn about our Gates Notes badges here.
Badge
📌
Pinned by
Gates Notes
Badge
ʼʼ
0 responses
Sort by
all
all
most
top
old
Comments loading...
CTW
Thanks for visiting the Gates Notes. We'd like your feedback.
Become a Gates Notes Insider
Join the Gates Notes community to access exclusive content, comment on stories, participate in giveaways, and more.
SIGN UP
Already have an account?
Log in here
Logout:


Become a Gates Notes Insider
Become a Gates Notes Insider
Join the Gates Notes community to get regular updates from Bill on key topics like global health and climate change, to access exclusive content, comment on stories, participate in giveaways, and more.
Already joined? Log in
Please send me updates from Breakthrough Energy on efforts to combat climate change.
On
Off
LOG IN
SIGN UP
Title
Mr
Mrs
Ms
Miss
Mx
Dr
This email is already registered. Enter a new email, try signing in or retrieve your password
Why are we collecting this information? Gates Notes may send a welcome note or other exclusive Insider mail from time to time. Additionally, some campaigns and content may only be available to users in certain areas. Gates Notes will never share and distribute your information with external parties.
Bill may send you a welcome note or other exclusive Insider mail from time to time. We will never share your information.
Sign up
We will never share or spam your email address. For more information see our Sign Up FAQ. By clicking "Sign Up" you agree to the Gates Notes Terms of Use / Privacy Policy.
Street address
City
postal_town
State Zip code
administrative_area_level_2
Country
Data
Gates Notes Insider Sign Up FAQ

Q. How do I create a Gates Notes account?

A. There are three ways you can create a Gates Notes account:

  • Sign up with Facebook. We’ll never post to your Facebook account without your permission.
  • Sign up with Twitter. We’ll never post to your Twitter account without your permission.
  • Sign up with your email. Enter your email address during sign up. We’ll email you a link for verification.

Q. Will you ever post to my Facebook or Twitter accounts without my permission?

A. No, never.

Q. How do I sign up to receive email communications from my Gates Notes account?

A. In Account Settings, click the toggle switch next to “Send me updates from Bill Gates.”

Q. How will you use the Interests I select in Account Settings?

A. We will use them to choose the Suggested Reads that appear on your profile page.

BACK
Forgot your password?
Enter the email you used to sign up and a reset password link will be sent to you.
This email is already registered. Enter a new email, try signing in or retrieve your password
Reset Password
Reset your password.
Set New Password
Your password has been reset. Please continue to the log in page.
Log in
Get emails from Bill Gates
Send me updates from Bill Gates
You must provide an email
On
Off
Email me comment notifications
On
Off
On-screen comment notifications
On
Off
This email is already registered
Finish
We will never share or spam your email address. For more information see our Sign up FAQ. By clicking "Continue" you agree to the Gates Notes Terms of Use / Privacy Policy.
You're in!
You're in!
Please check your email and click the link provided to verify your account.
Didn't get an email from us? Resend verification
Upload a profile picture
Choose image to upload
Uploading...
Uh Oh!
The image you are trying to upload is either too big or is an unacceptable format. Please upload a .jpg or .png image that is under 25MB.
Ok
Title
Mr
Mrs
Ms
Miss
Mx
Dr
Cancel
Save
This email is already registered
Cancel
Save
Please verify email address. Click verification link sent to this email address or resend verification email.
Email and notification settings
Send me updates from Bill Gates
You must provide an email
On
Off
Email me comment notifications
On
Off
On-screen comment notifications
On
Off
Select your interests
Saving Lives
Energy Innovation
Improving Education
Alzheimer's
Philanthropy
Book Reviews
About Bill Gates
Finish
Confirm Account Deactivation
Are you sure you want to deactivate your account?
Deactivating your account will unsubscribe you from Gates Notes emails, and will remove your profile and account information from public view on the Gates Notes. Please allow for 24 hours for the deactivation to fully process. You can sign back in at any time to reactivate your account and restore its content.
Deactivate My Acccount
Go Back
Your Gates Notes account has been deactivated.
Come back anytime.
Welcome back
In order to unsubscribe you will need to sign-in to your Gates Notes Insider account
Once signed in just go to your Account Settings page and set your subscription options as desired.
Sign In
Request account deletion
We’re sorry to see you go. Your request may take a few days to process; we want to double check things before hitting the big red button. Requesting an account deletion will permanently remove all of your profile content. If you’ve changed your mind about deleting your account, you can always hit cancel and deactivate instead.
Submit
Cancel
Thank You! Your request has been sent
Page https://www.gatesnotes.com:443/ secs = 0.0156275