 "Satya Nadella, Microsoft")
However, the main reason global tech giant Microsoft’s India-born chief executive officer (CEO) Satya Nadella came to the national Capital on Monday was to push linking of Aadhaar to Microsoft’s video-calling platform Skype, according to sources in the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology.
Nadella met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in separate meetings.
“If Microsoft wants to come out with a new model of Aadhaar-based digital identity, we are okay with. It, however, has to be according to the rules of the land and should benefit every section of the society. A nod has already been given for a pilot project and based on that, we will decide if Skype could be linked to Aadhaar,” said a senior official with the IT ministry.
In February this year, Microsoft said it was working with the Indian government to link Skype with the Aadhaar database. Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer at Microsoft Corporation, had said the company would merge the two services and see if Skype’s video calling facility would be used as a way to authenticate various services of the government.
Smith had termed the government’s unique identity programme a great initiative and that the company would stand by the system.
“We have been pursuing work, initially on a pilot basis, to use this specific technology and integrate it with Skype. We see Skype evolving in a way that will enable someone at home to authenticate themselves using that ID system with a fingerprint or iris scan and then communicate with someone on the other end, maybe even a government agency, which will know that the person is the same as he or she is claiming to be,” Smith had said then.
According to Microsoft, this will enable people to testify in government-related matters and that they would not have to travel long distances as they would be able to do so in front of a computer.
According to market experts, Microsoft wants to increase the usage of Skype as it wants to increase the revenues.
“More users mean more advertisements and more ways in future to monetise the service. Aadhaar linking is one of the ways to increase eyeballs,” said an expert on condition of anonymity.
Nadella, who is in India for a day, also said that developers and entrepreneurs from India are playing a key role in driving innovation - both in the country and outside - and that the company wants to be the platform for creators here.
Nadella is not the only global technology CEO who is courting India for business. The chief executives of Apple (Tim Cook) and Google (India-born Sundar Pichai) have made trips to India in the past six months, seeking market access as well as to announce plans to set up development centres in the country.
All the three executives have courted Modi, who has launched the Digital India campaign that aims to increase the use of digital services for governance.
“It’s so inspiring for me to come here to see this broad spectrum of student developers, entrepreneurs, artists and even some big brands, e-commerce companies who are all changing the landscape of India and thereby, the world,” Nadella said, while delivering keynote address at Microsoft’s ‘Tech For Good, Ideas for India’ event.
He added that it was a ‘privilege’ to be “a platform underneath this Indian success”. “Our mission is to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. It's not about celebrating our technologies. It’s about celebrating technologies that you all in India create. In fact, I want us to be the platform creators that foster ingenuity of what is happening in India,” he said. This is Nadella’s third visit to the country since he took over as Microsoft CEO in February 2014. In December 2015, he was in Mumbai and had also visited the T-Hub in Hyderabad.
Talking about the changing landscape of technology, Nadella said the “idea of conversations as a platform” was a transformative change in computing.
“When you change the way you see the world, you change the world you see,” Nadella added. Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, who was also present at the event, said technology is a platform of growth for India.
“If you innovate in India for India, you are going to be able to innovate for the world, India can, then, become the entrepreneurial engine for the next six billion people on the planet just like the US is the entrepreneurial engine for the top one billion people. That’s the opportunity we have, and that is India's economic future,” Sinha said.
Nadella is also expected to attend a session with some key industry executives at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
MACROMAN AT MICROSOFT
ON INDIAN CREATIVITY POWERING THE WORLD
“Our mission is to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. It’s not about celebrating our technologies. It’s about celebrating technologies that you in India create. I want us to be the platform creators that foster ingenuity of what is happening in India”
ON ENCOURAGING DEVELOPERS TO BUILD UPON THE MICROSOFT BOTS PLATFORM
“What if all you did was spoke or texted to get work done? That’s the world I think you can create. In fact, you will build bots that have this fundamental understanding of human language”
ON PASSION FOR POETRY, COMPUTER SCIENCE
“Whenever I read (Ghalib’s) hazaron khwahishen aisi ki har khwaish... I interpret it differently. There is so much to it... It also tells us that it is not just your dreams that need to be fulfilled. It's also your ability to dream that is worth dying for”
