Nobel Winner Paul Romer Hailed India's Aadhaar As A Groundbreaking Innovation

Paul Romer, the 2018 Nobel Prize laureate, has hailed India’s Aadhaar system as a transformative force in technological innovation during his address at the NDTV World Summit.

He believes Aadhaar has fundamentally changed the way government services operate, especially in terms of direct benefit transfers. At the summit, Romer commended the Indian government for its proactive use of technology to serve the public good.

He pointed out that government-controlled platforms in India have facilitated efficient and transparent benefit distribution to citizens, contrasting this with the situation in the US, where monopolies in the private sector have obstructed similar efforts.

"What people in India saw is that they could build a platform of Aadhaar that was controlled by the government and could be used for the benefit of the people, not to generate wealth for just a...small subset of people," he said.

He continued, saying, "In the West, we are too hamstrung by the judiciary."

Additionally, in light of the geopolitical landscape, Romer issued a cautionary note about the increasing influence of powers like China and Russia. He urged India to assert its sovereignty and champion a global order based on independent nations rather than spheres of influence.