It takes a while for it to sink in that Aadhaar turned 15! As an end user now, I always feel joy when I get notified of a UIDAI authentication for KYC or other uses of proving my identity- portable, online. 15 years ago I celebrated for not more than 5 minutes when we (Mindtree team) won a well contested RFP process to build Aadhaar. Celebration followed with worry, concern in building a national infrastructure that was said to be a game changer - the scale was unprecedented and failure was much more impacting than just one's own career. Really happy to see how Aadhaar turned out. For me, the trivia of writing the Aadhaar number generator will remain a cherished work for life - enough to bore my grandkids in my old age. Thank you Srikanth Nadhamuni , Nandan, Pramod Varma , Sanjay Jain - for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
15 years ago, I quit my job to join as a fulltime volunteer with the Aadhaar Project. Yesterday was 15 years of the launch of the Aadhaar Project. Aadhaar is probably the fastest scaled startup in history. Zero to a Billion Users (not just signups) in 5 years. I had a small part to play too. :-) Having returned from the US and seen how SSN (Social Security Number) was a key enabler to deliver government and private services, it was clear Aadhaar will change India forever. Mr. Nilekani was just starting the project and my previous boss and mentor Shankar Maruwada was also part of the initial core team. I still remember the day when Nandan first called and I almost crashed the car when I heard "Hi Sudarshan, this is Nandan Nilekani". I decided then to quit my job and join as a full time volunteer. Money and Career could wait. Those 2 years still remain among the best and hardest work that was put in, even though we were in the "government". We even put out 2 documents - Communicating to a Billion, and Building an analytics infrastructure at scale. Mr. Nilekani, and his core team of techies (we were the non techies) have done more for India than we will ever know. Aadhaar to Authentication to India Stack to UPI to many more. What stands out about these stalwarts? Vision and selfless work for purpose. And how Boldness and Humility can be together. Aggression is over rated. My view is that we should also contribute our "skills" to nation building. In whatever form. That and your time is far more valuable than taxes and status messages. Shankar Maruwada, Srikanth Nadhamuni, Pramod Varma, Jagadish Babu, Sanjay Jain Vivek Raghavan
Regunath B you played a key role as architect of Mindtree developing the Aadhaar system. You did much more than write the Aadhaar number generator.
Team Aadhar, you people changed India! 🫡
Congratulations Regu! Commendable milestone for the Team Aadhar!
So proud 💗💗
The story of mindtree and aadhaar is one of the lesser told stories. Well deserved kudos
Good work is good memory. :) Regunath B
Congratulations and thank you for building this wonderful , world changing innovation Regunath B
Glad to know; magical contribution
"For me, the trivia of writing the Aadhaar number generator will remain a cherished work for life - enough to bore my grandkids in my old age." - Wow, never knew this trivia about you. Wondering if the RNG lent itself to easy identification of its numbers for PII detection algorithms to work.
While at Mindtree I was not directly involved at Aadhaar, it had a huge impact for me. 2 of my most senior architects were overnight transferred to work for the Aadhaar project leaving me to explain to my US customer why that is a more important project! And then at Thoughtworks life came a full circle as I was leading our team at Aadhaar. Like you Regunath B , that's the story I can tell my grandkids, although we were not doing something as foundational as the Aadhaar number generator.