Mumbai, December 24, 2011 : A critical look at two of government’s very critically acclaimed high profile project which was suppose to change the way the country is governed has gone bad. NREGA is operationally alive but did not achieve the desired result atleast from productivity point of view and UID has failed to take-off for various reasons.

Very interesting analysis of the timing of proposing such a projects and the fate of such an ambitious projects.

NREGA was suppose to provide minimum of 100 days of employment to rural workers. The calculation is perfect as any rural worker who is getting assured employment for 100 days is going to empower him economically and in turn more spending power and more demand from rural india where 70% of india lives is going to kick off. This in turn going to feed in to very large consumer market and give every reason to invest in to india and that is how “Great Indian Consumption Story” has taken shaped.

On the other hand UID was dubbed as the master plan of India and will be at par with the Social Security Number Project of United State of America. UID popularly known as “Aadhar Number” will be hence forth used as single reference point for anything and everything. More importantly it can be used as debit card to buy goods from any kirana shop in rural area where Banking culture is still missing. The beginning of UID was quite impressive and professional managers such as Nandan Nilkeni was the best man on job but as drama unfolds various flaws within the data collection and more so in implementation has leave the project high and dry.

Performance of NREGA should be evaluate and leakage should be blocked in order to ensure desired result. It should not be merely a political mouth piece of the most influential family in Politics(I hope Rahul Gandhi is listening).

Possible Solution
First of all the government of India should come out in strong support and under any circumstances such a an important project should see the day of light. If government is determined to make UID a reality, that would send a strong signal to various section within system and the people who would benefit by the failure of such a project would be on toes.

Secondly government should persuade and try to bring more and more prominent people from corporate india and may rope in high profile bureaucrats. Why only Nandan Nilkeni various CEOs and Chairman of top IT companies can be roped in.

Thirdly, let us not question the very basis of the project after so much consideration and implementation. Consider this project as purely national importance whereby consideration could not only be monetary but benefit could be far reaching.

Last word
Success of UID project is so critically important because the burning question is India is the major IT solution provider to the world but when it comes to domestic implementation, Can we find a solution to our own problem?