Bill Gates Praises India’s Sweeping Digital ID System as a Model for Other Nations

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. 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…Bill Gates Praises India’s Sweeping Digital ID System as a Model for Other Nations