This week we saw the Indian Biometric ID card scheme getting off the ground. As ID card systems start to spread I’d like you all to think about who benefits from these systems and what the real drivers are.

In India ID cards are being justified on the grounds they will reduce corruption and poverty, allowing aid to be distributed to the right people[1]. Due to Indian societies inequality people need aid, and in order to deliver that the same large companies who profit from cheap Indian Labor can now supply them with ID cards so they can get their aid.

“Corruption siphons as much as 80% of the funds meant for India's poor, according to studies from Harvard Business School and the World Bank.”

Nandan Nilekani is one of the men behind the scheme in India, a former member of the infamous World Economic (WEF) Foundation Board who propagate neo-liberal values and promote globalization. Nandan is now head of India’s Unique Identification Authority and granted the rank of cabinet minister. Nandan was listed as one of 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, 2006 and is co founder of Infosys.

Infosys just happens to be one of the companies bidding for the £3bn contract to set the scheme off.

£3bn may not seem like much compared to our scheme that costs £5bn but scale that down to the Indian GDP and it’s a huge amount.

“The halls of IBM, HP, CSC, Accenture et al reverberated this same desire. Projects this big are rare in today's credit crisis outsourcing market. India must not close its doors to competition” - That's right folks as the world gets more dangerous and poverty increases as a result of failed neo-liberal economic polices it's security provision where the big $$$ lie

Here in the UK the current manifestation of ID cards really kicked off after the 9/11 attacks. In early part of this decade fighting terrorism was the key reason we needed them. As the fear of terrorism has diminished fear of fraud and moral panics over underage drinking have become the new problem they can be solved. You can be sure whatever the security concern supporters of ID cards will have the answers.

Civil servants have seen an entire new Identity and Passport Service created, and with enrolment offices and an income stream from charging for ID checks it’s helping to secure some major little Whitehall empires[2]. Of course the civil servant Sylvanus Vivian created the idea of requiring people to register on a scheme to obtain documents in 1934 and actually called it “parasitic vitality”. That sums it up the civil servants and companies are vampires on the backs of working people, forcing us onto a ID registration scheme that will make them a huge profit whilst simultaneously placing us under surveillance reducing our capability to organize and protest.

They seem to be getting their way as Corporate interests are doing nicely out providing the infrastructure for our surveillance society. Thales everyone favorite French arms giant have netted a cool £18 Million[3], whereas CSC will gain a massive £385 Million and IBM a neat £265 Million. [4]

IBM are not stupid, they are right on the ball with providing systems to cope with the numerous ‘shocks’[5] our economy faces. In fact they have a research lab working on Governance & Compliance.

“Governance has become a huge topic in the business world. Key drivers are increasing regulatory pressure, needs for better risk management, and a purely economic desire of enterprises to monitor and influence their business performance faster. As governance may touch almost all parts of an enterprise, it is a complex issue that benefits from a carefully planned framework. We support IBM in developing a Unified Governance Framework (UGF) intended to cover the entire space of enterprise governance, with a focus on the role of IT-related services and components therein.
The underlying regulatory pressure is an answer to the high-profile incidents of corporate accounting fraud, security violations, terrorist acts, and disruptions of major financial markets that we have seen in recent years.”[6]

There are plenty of interests at work here, The International Biometric Industrial Association lobbies hard, whispering in the ear of politicans eager to show they are being tough on providing security. IBIA has it's own philosophy where they openly seek to promote their abilty to determine status and power

"From earliest times, man has sought means to determine who was and who was not a member of a particular group; or who was to be accorded specific rights and privileges as a result of his relationship with or status within a group."[7]

In an unequal society those with power and wealth need to distinguish themselves from those who our powerless and poor. As E-Border schemes help to keep out the poor from the nation, so will ID cards help to control who gets granted status and power.

Authoritarian States call on the International Security Industries to provide them with their infastructres of opression. As the world is plunged further into chaos through the inequality, environmental destruction, and exploitation. Globalised capitalism helps create a further need for security, and the Identity & Security industries are there waiting with waiting arms to provide us with survillance, ID cards & arms.

Links

[1] http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/07/27/237048/indias-id-cards-challenge.htm

[2] http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/index.htm

[3] http://www.itpro.co.uk/605115/thales-wins-first-id-card-contract
£5.3bn

[4] http://www.itpro.co.uk/610443/ibm-and-csc-win-big-id-card-contracts

[5] http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

[6] http://www.zurich.ibm.com/csc/security/compliance.html

[7] http://www.ibia.org/biometrics/