India
To combat corruption, a small group of entrepreneurs in the Indian government called the Unique Identification Authority has been rolling out a program to use biometrics — a technology that was once a hallmark of science fiction — to accurately identify its 1.2 billion residents. At present, India’s departments work in isolation, maintaining a separate database to track delivery of government services to residents. Over time, systematic corruption and mismanagement have bred bad data, false information, and outright fraud. Poor laborers and migrant workers, in particular, are forced to travel far from their homes to collect their wages and benefits, having to dole out bribes to predatory middlemen along the way. Read the full story at Venture Beat.
