Alternatives to Aadhaar-based biometrics in the Public Distribution System.
By Rakesh Allu, Sarang Deo, Sripad Devalkar
Economic and Political Weekly | March 2019
Citation
Allu, Rakesh., Deo, Sarang., Devalkar, Sripad. Alternatives to Aadhaar-based biometrics in the Public Distribution System. Economic and Political Weekly .
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Economic and Political Weekly, 2019
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Abstract
States across the country are taking steps towards providing digital identities to beneficiaries of their Public Distribution System. In doing so, use of Aadhaar based biometrics seems to be the preferred choice of method. However, this method has been widely criticized for several reasons such as high implementation cost and frequent transaction failures. It is important to note that this is not the only method for providing digital identities to the beneficiaries Several other methods exist and have been adopted by different states at different points in time. States currently embarking on the journey of providing digital identities to their beneficiaries might benefit from evaluating all alternatives before making inroads into any specific method.

Sarang Deo is a Professor of Operations Management at the Indian School of Business (ISB), where he also serves as the Deputy Dean for Faculty and Research and as the Executive Director of the Max Institute of Healthcare Management (MIHM).

His primary area of research is health care delivery systems. He is interested in investigating the impact of operations decisions on population-level health outcomes. Some of the healthcare contexts that he has studied include the influenza vaccine supply chain and the phenomenon of ambulance diversion in the US, HIV early infant diagnosis networks in sub-Saharan Africa, and formal and informal pathways for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis in India. He regularly collaborates with international public health funding and implementation agencies such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and PATH for his research. He currently serves as a member of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on TB (STAG-TB).

Prior to joining ISB, Professor Deo was an Assistant Professor at the Kellogg School of Management. He holds a PhD from UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, and a B Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. Before entering academia, he worked with Accenture as a management consultant.

Sarang Deo
Sarang Deo

Professor Sripad Devalkar is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at the Indian School of Business (ISB). His research interests fall under two broad themes - agricultural operations and Non-profit and public sector operations. Within these thematic areas, he is interested in understanding issues related to supply chain management and how the interaction of operational, financial, and risk management decisions affect outcomes.

He teaches the core Operations Management course in the PGP programme at ISB, as well as, an elective course on Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Sripad Devalkar (1)
Sripad Devalkar