Varad Pande is the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to India’s Minister for Rural Development, Mr Jairam Ramesh, where he advises and supports the Minister on issues including sustainable livelihoods, resilience, institution building, social security, water and sanitation. Varad is also a member of the Government of India’s Expert Group on Strategies for Low Carbon Inclusive Growth which is charting the roadmap for India’s low carbon development. Before joining the Government in mid-2009, Varad was a Team Leader at the strategy and competitiveness consulting firm Monitor Group doing projects in Africa, Middle-East, Europe, and Asia. Varad has an MPA in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School (’05).

Varad Pande elucidated the utility of the Aadhar scheme, the Government of India’s unique identification project. Apart from giving out the salient features of the project model, the speaker gives a look into the various goals of the project, the current coverage and the various challenges, with a focus on the available logistics. He further explains why the projected benefits are critical to the effective implementation of all government programmes in the future.