India’s digital ID system may have its critics among those opposed to digitization of people’s identities, but it has received praise from Bill Gates as one of the country’s innovations that are “changing the world.”
Gates, as well as EU and UN officials, refers to such systems as digital public infrastructure (DPI) – a buzzword for introduction of digital ID and payments by 2030.
Gates announced on his blog that he is visiting India, and made sure to note that the Gates Foundation is involved in what he calls “efforts that are saving millions of lives.”
This is a reference to India’s production of another of Gates’ “passions” – vaccines. As for DPI, Gates expressed his “admiration” for the country’s massive biometric identity DPI component, Aadhaar, and the fact that over 12 billion transactions are processed by it.
Related: IMF praises India’s controversial digital ID system, Aadhaar
And, the Microsoft founder has another “passion” – agriculture. He made sure to note that he would be visiting a monitoring center where agriculture meets Aadhaar. More whopping numbers: the government uses the center in Odisha that has a registry of 7.5 million farmers to give them “real-time guidance,” Gates said.
It sounds like a surveillance state dream, at least as far as the “right” infrastructure is concerned: “Officials can keep track of who is growing what,” Gates continued, but he says this is done for the sake of providing those farmers with “advice.”
It has almost become a rule that projects like DPI effectively get tested in developing countries, orchestrated by globalist financial institutions like the World Bank.
Gates mentions that the developments around the implementation of DPI in Odisha are monitored by the World Bank, as well as Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, ostensibly in order for the example to be replicated there.
Related: Indian citizens that don’t link account numbers to Digital ID will soon face financial blacklisting
Last fall, the United National Development Program (UNDP) unveiled a campaign called “50-in-5” that aims to “help” 50 countries “design, launch, and scale components of their digital public infrastructure.”
This effort is one of those where the Gates Foundation shows up as a partner, while the program is supposed to promote “safe, inclusive and interoperable DPI” introduction in those countries.
When the campaign was announced, India was mentioned as a “success story” in the world of DPIs, while Africa was singled out as a particular target for “greater development of DPI.”
