There are some challenges to address. You still have to deal with the bureaucracy. E.g. I went to apply Aadhar for my wife at my local municipality office. The person who was distributing the application form asked me to come after 5 hours. The reason he gave was there is some meeting going on and he can't give the form to me until the meeting was over. I had to then involve my ward councilor and the chairman(mayor) to get the form. Now official gave a different reason. People are wasting the forms, so we are not distributing it. I thought you must be kidding me. Since I knew the elected officials I got these forms. Think about people who don't know important people in that office.
There are privacy concerns about Aadhar. Government need not collect biometric information for Aadhar. They should have made Aadhar similar to US social security number instead of collecting biometrics.
[1] https://digilocker.gov.in/ [2] https://twitter.com/deepakshenoy/status/744208624545763329
Yes, change has happened, and it got much faster after the 1991 reforms, but what has that to do with digital india?
Calling Jugnoo/uber/ola = companies serving customers.
Pay bills for water/elec/banking = same as above.
Residential ownership digitized - as are several other records, and this has been going on for a while.
To get a phone you need proof of ID, and aadhar isnt the only one.
BUT - in my life time I have seen it become compulsory to provide ID when you go to stay at a hotel (this is from before 2005), extensive ID to buy... well almost anything.
Want to know who got what medicines, then got onto a flight, and went to which hotel, along with other persons who went to the same place?
Well thats the system we are building.
And the aadhar team has by design (and I know that some of those guys probably come to HN) created a "market place" style system. Anyone can and is supposed to use their infra to validate ID data.
Thing is, I am old enough (and not even that old) to remember when you didn't need it. When there were not scanners in front of malls and in front of hotels (post 26/11 additions. I saw them come up).
The west built their success with systems which worked, not tech magic bullets, and thats always what counts in the end
However, I am curious about your experience in India. I browsed through your comment history and I sense your loathing mixed with pessimism of all things Indian. Would you care to share your experience ? How did your experience shape you ? I am genuinely curious.