Lessons from Michigan: David Eaves writes about the government of Michigan initiative to create an innovation fund to create software useful to the government through collaborative projects that involve public, private and not-for profit organizations. He laments at the same time that the executive order does not require the software to be made open source, even though the government is paying for the creation of the software. Incidentally, I had a conversation with a former Principal Secretary for Municipalities in the undivided Andhra Pradesh (this was in early 2014). He mentioned that they had given a contract to a firm to develop a software for monitoring the collection […]
Governance & government
Implications of registering, tracking, profiling by Usha Ramanathan: Usha Ramanathan argues that UID should be seen in the context of NATGRID that will enable security agencies to track personal information including travel, finance, immigration, etc. It infringes on privacy and creates scope for misuse. At a time when routine acts of life of the poor are criminalised, such projects can condemn large sections of the population to a life of perpetual illegality.
Not all that unique by Reetika Khera: UID has limited scope for reducing corruption, even if it works as intended; but as things stand. Development and reduction of corruption are used as a smokescreen for what is mainly a project driven by security establishment and corporate interests, argues the author.