Bill Gates wants a slice of the Unique ID project

Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft Corporation, said the software giant was keen on participating in the Unique ID programme launched by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Addressing a conference organised by NASSCOM in New Delhi today, Gates said he would be meeting Nandan Nilekani, head of the UIADAI, later in the evening to hear how he planned to take the project forward.

The UIDAI project plans to provide every Indian citizen a unique identity card bearing a 16-digit ID number. The card would provide financial, educational and health-related information.

Gates said he would commit that Microsoft would want to be a partner in the project and help out in it. He said there was a need to be sure that it connected up to the health programme the right way and that the database remains very accurate.

He added hat even though the privacy bit could be overdone one needed to have that discussion about how exactly was it going to work. 

Gates also spoke about Microsoft and its India operations. He said that when Microsoft started in India, the company started with three goals, to be world-class in terms of advancing, contributing to Microsoft products and being a great corporate citizen while also playing a significant role in the move towards doing more research in the country.