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Episode details

World Service,31 Oct 2011,17 mins

SeriesBeyond The Abyss

India's e-governance project

Discovery

Available for over a year

Angela Saini reports from India on the country’s vast e-governance project aimed at driving out corruption, reducing bureaucracy and getting the nation’s 1.2 billion people online. Everything from a country-wide unique ID scheme (based on the iris system – Biometrics), to a roll out of service kiosks where everything from a parking fine to a death certificate can be issued. One of the main drivers behind this is immense task reducing both corruption and bureaucracy by going electronic - that's the idea - does it stand up? She asks critics as well as proponents. This can be thought of as a kind of Click special - and combines some of the science and technology with the impact and implications on society.

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