Google in race for UID project; awaiting govt response
New Delhi, Nov 12 : Internet search giant Google today said it is awaiting government's response for participating in India's unique identification number programme, a multi-billion dollar project headed by IT czar Nandan Nilekani.
''We will be happy to help...we have approached various policy makers for extending our help in implementation of UID (unique identification number),'' Google India Managing Director Shailesh Rao told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
He said the company is in a position to help in the project with its expertise in various fronts, including software development, database, language technologies, SMS and voice-based products.
Not only Google, other IT giants have also envinced their interest in participating in the government's UID project.
Earlier, networking giant Cisco Systems, which recently made an entry into the data centre business, said it is in talks with UID Chief Nandan Nilekani for a share of the data centre implementation and connectivity part of the project.
Yesterday, another internet giant Yahoo had offered its help for the implementation of the project.
Its worldwide Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and expressed interest to partner with the government in the project.
Software giant Microsoft had also offered to be a part of this ambitious project.
Another technology player Intel has also expressed its interest and is in talks with Mr Nilekani to what role it can play in this project.
According to estimates, the UID project is estimated to offer a Rs 15,000-20,000 crore opportunity to computing, database, smartcard and storage vendors, besides systems integrators.
