‘It could have been built for $ 20 million …’: the founder of Hotmail, knows Bhatia, says that $ 1.3 billion wasted in Aadhaar

The Hotmail co -founder knows Bhatia, called Aadhaar an expensive false step, claiming that the unique identity project, which according to the reports cost $ 1.3 billion, could have been built for only $ 20 million. He made this comment during his recent appearance at Prakhar Ke Pravachan, a podcast presented by Prakhar Gupta.

Bhatia criticized Aadhaar’s dependence on biometric data, which suggests that the project overlooked simpler and more efficient technological solutions. “Aadhaar took all your biometry, but where is that used?” asked. According to him, a video and voice printing technology, which each smartphone already admits, would have been a more innovative approach to a cost fraction. “You can build it for less than $ 20 million,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq_3yy2ZPP8

He questioned the technical experience behind Aadhaar, declaring: “Whoever has done, this is not a technologist. They do not know technology; They have never codified in their life, so there is this problem. I know, I have built things with my own hands. I know what technology should be used for what purpose and what innovation should it be.

Bhatia elaborated his idea of ​​using voice and video impressions as unique identifiers. “Our voices are unique, our videos are unique,” he explained. “The voice impression stored in a database would be a unique identifier. At the airport, at the time someone enters, they would not need to show a card. The system would recognize it and say: ‘Welcome to Mr. Prakhar, you’ I have already been verified.

During the podcast, Gupta also asked Bhatia for his UPI version and how he could inspire similar systems abroad. Bhatia ruled out UPI as “nothing more than venmo”, pointing out its basic functionality compared to existing global payment platforms.