The scene is set for another modern Indian classic. It
involves previous failures, deep systemic corruption,
anti-terrorism, political ideology and ambition, at least two
billionaires, a cast of 1.2 billion people, and a battleground for
local and global outsourcing giants competing for the spoils of a
multi-billion-dollar set of contracts and a truly life-changing
three-year project that the eyes of the world will be watching and
scrutinising for ideas and copycat re-enactment elsewhere,writes Robert Morgan, director of outsourcing
consultancyHamilton
Bailey.
Act One - the presidential palace in New Delhi 25 July
2009, the two billionaires meet. Bill Gates and former Infosys
Technologies founder and co-chairman Nandan Nilekani against the
background of the conferment ceremony of the Indira Gandhi Peace
Prize. The talk is of Nandan's new role as government minister in
charge of the Unique Identification Authority of India.
The talk is of ID cards as critical to improving the delivery of
social services, subsidies and other government programmes while
also strengthening national security. Some1.2 billion people
unified by biometrics and plastic.
Corruption siphons as much as 80% of the funds meant for India's
poor, according to studies from Harvard Business School and the
World Bank.
Gates' ambition was made clear with the words: "I'll certainly
commit, Microsoft wants to be a partner.".
"It's the mother of all IT projects," said Nandan. The gauntlet
has been thrown down.
The halls of IBM, HP, CSC, Accenture et al reverberated this
same desire. Projects this big are rare in today's credit crisis
outsourcing market. India must not close its doors to competition -
but it will be a first for India, having reaped huge benefits from
the world's free market
Could this be the first real project where Microsoft's move into
formal structured and head-on competition for the provision of
outsourcing services is finally displayed?
Closer to home, Infosys has not hidden its ambition, although
Nandan will not participate in supplier selection.
Tata Consultancy Services is also interested. In 2007, it issued
ID cards to rural workers with short-term government contracts in
Andhra Pradesh state. Wages of 2.5 million workers, previously
outside the formal economy were deposited into Indian Post Office
accounts. "This resulted in verification of identification and a
clampdown on fund leakages," said S Ramadorai, CEO at TCS.
Act Two - The pilot programme. Around 100 million
identity cards are expected to be handed out as part of an extended
pilot - almost twice the size of the UK's dying ID cards
programme.
India believes that it can roll out this IT project for 1.2
billion people for around £3bn, against the UK's £5.3bn - a
bargain.
India has around 100 million internal migrants who often fall
foul of corrupt territorial officials. Selling the scheme to
central and state-level ministers and their minions, Nandan
concedes, will be his first big test. Ministerial powers should
help - a bit
Avoiding an outsourcing-UK-style NHS contract disaster will be
the second big test. The Indian government has very little
experience of outsourcing contracts of this size and complexity
Success however will be a true revolutionary leap forward for
the world largest democracy. As George W. Bush said, "A billion
people, in a functioning democracy. Ain't that something." If this
programme actually delivers, then the world will have to agree
"Ain't that something!!" and be very humble.