Lydia Polgreen of The New York Times has a detailed article on India’s national ID system, and how it will presumably improve life for India’s impoverished citizens. Reading her article, some of the lofty ideals sure sound swell, but I remain skeptical that creating a mandatory identity database is necessary – and it is certainly not sufficient – to really begin to equalize the inequities in India’s economy and control of power. Like all technology, such things have the potential for good or evil, and by now, I don’t see government databases as generally being a source of good in this world. See what you think when you read it.