www/content/datengarten/45.md

---
categories: ["Datengarten"]
series: "Datengarten"
title: Datengarten 45
no: 45
subtitle: "Aaadhaar: What kind of 'database state' is the Indian government creating?"
date: 2014-07-04T00:00:00+02:00
event:
  start: 2014-07-04T20:00:00+02:00
  end:   2014-07-04T22:00:00+02:00
location: CCCB
speaker: Sumandro Chattapadhyay
language: en
streaming: no
---

A discussion of the Aadhaar project as a digital identity platform for
governance

Abstract
--------

As part of my larger academic interest in the history of electronic
governance and computing by the Government of India since 1960s, I have
been studying the making and activities of the Unique Identification
Authority of India (UIDAI). UIDAI was instituted in 2009 to assign
unique biometrics- linked identification numbers, branded as Aadhaar
numbers, to all the residents of India. The growing literature about
this Aadhaar project focus on various topics such as implications for
citizenship, for efficiency of governmental services, for formalisation
and unification of unorganised banking and welfare-accessing practices.
As opposed to socio-legal critiques offered by most researchers and
activists in India, I discuss the technological imagination and the
materiality of the database system being designed and deployed as part
of the Aadhaar project. I argue that it is crucial to develop a close
understanding of the specific form of data collection, management,
archiving, sharing by the Aadhaar project and the software
infrastructure it is building to enable various government and
commercial agencies to implement a single identity platform for tracking
their interactions with citizens/consumers.

Like all 'new' technologies, the Aadhaar project involves a continued
engagement and negotiations with older technological infrastructures and
socio-technical practices. I will argue here that this newness is to be
found in the idea of the digital ‘identity platform,' as opposed to the
demographic and biometric data it gathers. In my exploration, I closely
study the official reports and technical documents published by UIDAI to
understand its techno-infrastructural proposals and their potential
consequences in the context of the recent history of electronic
governance and national identity card policy in India. My research is
also guided by the project's self-description as an 'identity platform,'
which needs to be understood within the specific technological paradigm
of information production and circulation as captured by the notion of
the 'platform' as a site for capturing and monetising user behaviour
data. In conclusion, I reflect on the potential nature of the database
state being conceptualised and realised through the Aadhaar project.

Biographic Note
---------------

I am a researcher interested in the history and politics of informatics
in India, media and technology studies, and political economy. I am a
Research Associate at The Sarai Programme in the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies, Delhi, India, and contribute to the ongoing
research project on 'media and information infrastructures.' I also
periodically work with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore,
on topics of open data policy, open access and Internet governance.
Previously, I have worked with MOD Institute on issues of affordable
housing, urban security and ICTs and urban governance; and have led a
data analysis and visualisation team at the Azim Premji University,
Bangalore, India. I studied economics in Visva-Bharati, Shantiniketan,
and in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

Links
-----

-   Personal Website: [ajantriks.net](http://ajantriks.net)
-   The Sarai Programme: [sarai.net](https://sarai.net)
-   Centre for the Study of Developing Societies: [csds.in](http://csds.in)