Digital India - Cashless India

The Reserve Bank of India yesterday (Jan. 08) announced the creation of a five-member committee to facilitate the “deepening of digital payments” in the country. For many, the committee’s composition reignited longstanding concerns.

Two committee members drew the bulk of the criticism. First was its chairman, Nandan Nilekani—the architect of Aadhaar, India’s controversial biometric identity database. The second was Sanjay Jain, a former chief product manager of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the body that administers Aadhaar.

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Both Nilekani and Jain have ties to a small but powerful interest group: the Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable, or iSpirt—a lobby of volunteers, several of whom were once part of the UIDAI. iSpirt has been the primary promoter of India Stack, a clutch of software applications that underlie Aadhaar’s ecosystem. Nilekani was a mentor to iSpirt, and Jain is still a volunteer.

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Earlier this week, digital outlet Asia Times published a leaked recording that suggested iSpirt members had early access to information about the policies the government would enact on Aadhaar.

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