Opinion | Aadhaar Mark 2

Nothing is novel about home minister Amit Shah’s proposal of a “multipurpose ID card” for Indians, a card designed to subsume all other identification documents and help aim state handouts better at the intended beneficiaries of various schemes. That was the job of Aadhaar, cards for which were issued long ago. The difference could be that only bona fide citizens will get this card. Is that enough, however, to justify another exercise of this scale?

Another new aspect of the proposed card is that it will either contain (via a memory chip) or be linked with data from the next Census, due in 2021, which itself is expected to be hooked up with the National Population Register, a comprehensive database of Indian residents that will be up and running from 2020. If you join the dots, the grand plan is to consolidate multiple databases to create a single repository of information on everyone in the country.