Freeing the Reforms Genie Standards & Privacy Law to Assuage Concerns It Is Welcome That the Minister for Information Technolo- Vernment
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https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS 16 THE ECONOMIC TIMES The Edit Page THE ECONOMIC TIMES | BENGALURU | THURSDAY | 4 MAY 2017 Needed, Standards New institutions are changing the way GoI channelises financing resources across sectors for Aadhaar Data Freeing the Reforms Genie Standards & privacy law to assuage concerns It is welcome that the minister for information technolo- vernment. NIIF will invest along dif- ferent strategies, as a direct investor, gy, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has held out the assurance that in a fund of funds format, into opera- the biometric data collected for Aadhaar are safe, encry- ting assets as the sector deleverages pted and secure, even as the Aadhaar database is used for and in strategic greenfield projects. Intensity This remarkable forward-looking authentication with the permission of the individual initiative offers foreign investors the of Faith concerned. But it is also a fact that government websites comfort of having a material voice at the table, a strong pipeline of propri- have published Aadhaar numbers, alongside the names T G L IYER Jayant Sinha etary deals, and government support of beneficiaries under assorted government schemes. in speeding up projects. A devotee asked Ramakrishna This shows two things. One, the essential mistake that s part of Reforms 3.0, India LTIF: Small and fragmented farms Parmahansa, “Sir, is God real any cyber security primer would point out, of obsessing has created institutions for means that the ability of farmers to and can I see Him?” Ramakri- long-term pools of capital ac- come together and create large-scale shna replied, “Yes, God is real. over technological fixes while glossing over the proto- A ross a range of sectors ran- irrigation infrastructure is low. Und- I see Him just as I see you or cols of process and procedure that people need to be trai- ging from infrastructure to erthese circumstances, it is necessary any other object around me.” agriculture, from startups to educati- for the government to step in to aug- O ned in, to secure sensitive data and data systems. Two, T The devotee continued, “Can on. The National Infrastructure and ment financial and organising abili- O I also see Him as you do?” Said the need for a strict law to penalise breaches of privacy, Investment Fund (NIIF), the Long- ty. LTIF has, hence, been instituted in PH the sage, “Yes, you can, if the LE I including via Aadhaar. Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF), the Hi- the Nabard as part of the Pradhan F intensity of your longing for If someone’s Aadhaar number and a one-time password gher Education Financing Authority Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana. Therein lies the rub God is equal to the intensity of (Hefa) and the India Aspiration Fund drowning man longing for fresh sent to the linked phone number are sufficient to comple- (IAF) are changing the way govern- Money on Tap `.1,000 crore each as equity. This SPV of IAF are made to funds that invest air; or the intensity of a mother te a financial transaction, as has been reported, that wou- ment channelises financing resourc- A total of 76 lakh hectares of land is is expected to leverage equity to raise at least half their corpus in MSMEs, longing for the life of her only `. ld clearly be inadequate. Since Aadh- es to these critical sectors. These ins- estimated to be brought under irriga- up to 20,000 crore for infrastructure including early-stage enterprises. child in the grip of serious ill- titutions empower key groups like stu- tion through 99 identified incomplete development of world-class laborator- The Small Industries Development ness; or of the miser longing for aar allows for verification using bio- dents, farmers and job creators, and major and medium irrigation projec- ies at IITs, IIMs, NITs and such other Bank of India generally contributes more wealth. If your longing metrics, financial transactions using enhance the quality of hard and soft in- ts. Over a period of four years betwe- institutions. Hefa can also mobilise between 10% and 15% of the fund. VC for God is at least a fraction of Aadhaar should ideally make use of frastructure available to the country. en 2016 and 2020, the central and state corporate social responsibility funds funds floated by experienced fund the longing that Radha had for NIIF: The NIIF’s mission is to cata- governments will invest `. 31,342 crore from public and private corporates. managers and institutional asset ma- Krishna, then you will see God.” this capability, with point-of-sale equ- lyse long-term capital to the infrastru- and `. 46,253 crore respectively. All centrally funded higher educa- nagement companies are eligible for When your thoughts accumu- ipment that can scan and authentica- cture sector in India. The fund is pro- LTIF’s initial corpus of about tional institutions are eligible to bec- coverage under IAF. late, they become your beliefs, `. `. te biometrics by querying the Aadha- posed to be 40,000 crore ($6 billion) 20,000 crore will be further augment- ome Hefa members to receive funding and the beliefs haunt your mind. initially, wherein the Indian govern- edby way of budgetary resources and support. Institutions should agree to Seeding the Money Plant The mind is a vast ocean of po- ar database without such data getting ment would invest 49%, or around market borrowings. The initial seed escrow a specific amount from their Converting a budgetary ‘grant’ from tential. You can dive into that, locally stored and being used without the data owner’s `. 20,000 crore ($3 billion). The NIIF contribution will form the contribu- internal accruals to Hefa for a period the government into financial reso- surf it; float on it, swim in it, explicit permission. This would be possible only with a will raise third-party capital for the re- tion from the central government of 10 years. These secured future flo- urces for financing such institutions play and have fun in it. God sp- maining `. 20,000 crore, from long-term that can be leveraged by LTIF to raise ws will be securitised by Hefa for mo- significantly leverages budgetary re- eaks through dreams, hunch- combination of technology and standards of data securi- international investors, such as sov- debt funds from the market. bilising funds from the market. Each sources. The government estimates es, instincts and inner voices, ty on the lines of, and possibly superior to, the Payment ereign wealth funds, insurance and Hefa: Building world-class univer- member institution will be eligible that with appropriate leverage and opening closed doors. Card Industry Data Security Standard. These could sp- pension funds, and endowments. sities requires significant financial re- for a credit limit as decided by Hefa profit generation, GoI has been able to Joseph Murphy, who spent NIIF Ltd, the investment manager sources. Indian institutes of higher le- based on the amount agreed to be esc- multiply manifold (2-5 times) funds many years in India, writes, ecify who can and cannot ask for Aadhaar data — today, to the NIIF, shall be majority-owned by arning, dependent on the governme- rowed from internal accruals. allocated from the budget. “The law of your mind is the nursery schools demand the parents’ Aadhaar numbers. investors in the fund other than the nt for meeting their annual running IAF: Entrepreneurs take risks to Seeded initially using budgetary re- law of belief itself.” Whatever create new markets, build new prod- This would stem from clarifying to what end the govern- government. It shall be operated at expenditure, do not have access to sources, these new institutions exte- we feed our subconscious mind, an arm’s-length basis from GoI. NIIF long-term capital to invest in physical ucts, find new consumers and, most ndcontributions of equity or debt co- false or true, good or evil, will ment is enrolling everyone into Aadhaar. Ltd is managed by an independent and human infrastructure. importantly, create jobs that requir- ming from other entities like sovere- register as a fact. So, be careful Preventing misuse of Aadhaar — for example, using team of professionals recruited from Hefa has been formed as a special es high-risk-taking financial capital. ign wealth funds, state governments about misfortune, as the sub- The venture capital (VC) industry ra- just the number to collate the data that resides in stand- the market with relevant experience purpose vehicle (SPV) with the gov- and public sector enterprises. With conscious has no sense of hu- and backed by the support of the go- ernment and Canara Bank putting in ises funds globally to invest in India. multiple stakeholders contributing mour and the misfortune can alone silos for health, finance, taxation, etc — calls for an The country lacks its own sources of financially and intellectually in each occur if the mind figured it in explicit law on privacy that goes beyond Aadhaar. Aadh- high-risk equity capital. such entity, these institutions distil the beginning. Murphy refers IAF has been set up as a fund of fu- aar would be rendered more wholesome by swift enact- the sector’s requirements and help to the rituals of ancient India Seeded using budgetary resources, the new institutions nds that invests in VC funds for meet- create a win-win for all participants. with the mixture of incantati- ment of a rigorous law to protect privacy. extend equity or debt contributions coming from other ing the equity requirements of micro, ons and repetitions that con- small, medium enterprises (MSMEs), The writer is minister of state, verts suggestions into realiti- entities like sovereign wealth funds, states and PSEs especially startups.