Perhaps, therefore, we all had a small role in the Prime Minister setting up the Unique ID Authority, headed by Nandan Nilekani. As an aside, given how far Nandan’s UIDAI has taken us towards a universal unique identity for India, it would be sad if its use were severely restricted.
Other countries like the United States have used unique IDs, such as social security numbers, without serious allegations of violations of privacy. Learning from worldwide experience, we need to see how we can satisfy the concerns of the Supreme Court without undermining the value of the unique ID.