I’m feeling hopeful that once the project starts, people will realize how difficult the whole thing is and there’ll be a backlash against it from the common people. Nandan Nilekani of all people should know how difficult it is to get people to follow a system when it’s new.

He’s apparently open to the idea of retina scans as well. Land o Goshen!

Having given my fingerprints several times (for purely educational reasons) and taken others, I know it’s not always as straightforward. If you do it with a live-scan machine, it’s expensive – more accurate, but you need training on the machine.

Taking prints traditionally, on a fingerprint card, also requires training which I doubt every bank employee, civil servant, etc, will recieve.

I also once worked with someone who had no fingerprints, who almost wasn’t hired because he couldn’t pass a background check.

Finally, what about the person who has no arms? Will they be able to get the services they need? Or be denied banking and other services like this Floridian?