Crafting “Integrity”: The Implications of Authentication through Unique Identification Databases

Abstract

Supporters of Aadhaar, the unique identification scheme that aims to use biometric information and a 12-digit number to catalogue every Indian resident, have often commented on the tremendous amount of “fraud” that this program has curtailed since its introduction nearly a decade ago. Four years before the first Aadhaar number was issued, this discourse of ensuring authenticity was similarly deployed by the Indian information technology (IT) industry’s employer association, NASSCOM, which inaugurated its own unique identification project to verify potential and current employees. Known as the National Skills Registry (NSR), this database utilizes biometric identification to create individual profiles of IT employees, each of whom is assigned a unique number called an ITPIN. In this paper, I draw on interview and observation data collected during nine months of fieldwork in Chennai’s IT industry, as well as a detailed analysis of industry reports and documents, to dissect employee and corporate narratives on the NSR. I interrogate the overarching discourse of employee “integrity” operating within the industry to deconstruct the myth-making, misconceptions and self-disciplining generated by the existence of this database. As a result, I provide a comparative framework through which to conceptualize Aadhaar’s implications for safeguarding individual privacy, while also commenting on the power of private players under neoliberal capitalism and the increasing ubiquity of surveillance strategies in the lives of Indian residents.