Tracking Aadhaar

Book review of 'Aadhaar: A biometric history of India's 12-digit revolution'

Aadhaar

A biometric history of India’s 12-digit revolution

Shankkar Aiyar

Westland Publication Ltd 

266 pages; Rs 260

Among those T-shirts sold on India’s footpaths, there is one which is particularly funny. It says: “Come to India. A billion people cannot be wrong!” By that logic, there should be no debate about Aadhaar. As of June, over 1.15 billion people have already agreed to be part of a database which holds the fingerprints and iris scans of individuals so that when the time comes it is possible for the government to ascertain that a person is truly who he says he