Proud of Nandan

Well I am not referring to self.. but the other Nandan, Nandan Nilekani. At the height of his career as the head of Infosys, India's second largest IT company, this gentleman leaves it all to give back to India and its people. I was never happy about Congress policies.. but hearing Dr Singh wanting more intellectuals like Nandan to join the government and bring about change.. it made me change my views.

Can NN make the difference and create India's equivalent of a SSN (US) or NI number (UK). will he be able to cut through the hazaar red-tape and corrupt officials to get the task done professionally and transperantly. Its a big risk more by the Congress govt than NN. Yes, you can say NN has by quitting Infosys and joining govt as a Cabinet minister actually raised Infy brand value. And knowing the high moral values advocated by Infosys, he would not be biased in awarding the multi-million contract to the organisation he founded. But if he is unable to progress on a massive IT and logistics project of creating a card for every Indian citizen..it will expose the inadequacies of the corrupt babudom that plagues govt administration.

I would go even one step further, link all bank accounts, credit cards, mobile phones to ISN (Indian Security number) or unique identifier.. in that way you get to know all financial transactions of film personalities, politicians, businessmen, cricketers, etc. Havala transactions can be then made extremely difficult.

Will the ISN as I call it.. weed out the lacs of Bangladeshis living in the country illegally.. or will it be as easy as getting the ration card by greasing a few palms. But the beginning itself is exciting and I wish to remain positive that a 'Few good men' maybe finally able to change India's destiny.