'Aadhaar Is $1.3 Billion Ill-Spent,' Says Hotmail Co-Founder Sabeer Bhatia

Hotmail co-founder said that a better way to solve the problem of unique identification of individuals would be a video and voice printing technology which every smartphone user already has.

By : Aashish Kumar Shrivastava | Updated at : 09 Feb 2025 02:15 PM (IST)

Aadhaar 1 3 Billion USD Ill Spent Hotmail Co Founder Sabeer Bhatia Podcast Prakhar Gupta 'Aadhaar Is $1.3 Billion Ill-Spent,' Says Hotmail Co-Founder Sabeer Bhatia

Sabeer Bhatia also said that UPI is not that great of an invention as it essentially is like Venmo only.

The Hotmail co-founder, Sabeer Bhatia, in a recent podcast, said that Aadhaar is $1.3 billion ill-spent. Bhatia recently appeared on an episode of a popular podcast series called Prakhar Ke Pravachan, hosted by Prakhar Gupta. During the podcast, the podcaster asked Bhatia about UPI and how it will be used by foreign countries to take inspiration for if they wish to set up a similar mechanism. The Hotmail co-founder responded by saying that UPI is nothing more than Venmo. He then went on to say that Aadhaar is $1.3 billion ill-spent as the unique identity mechanism could have just been built in around $20 million.

While explaining his response, Bhatia said, "Aadhaar took all of your biometrics but where is that being used? A better way to solve the problem of unique identification of individuals would be a video and voice printing technology which every smartphone user already has. You can build it under $20 million bucks."

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Bhatia said, "Whoever did this is not a technologist, they don't know technology, they have never coded in their life that's why this problem exists. I know, I have built stuff with my own hands. I know what technology should be used for, what purpose, and what innovation should be. Innovation would be, taking a voice print of every Indian to just say, 'Mera naam Sabeer Bhatia hai aur main is jageh ka rehnewala hoon'."

He then added, "Our voices are unique, our videos are unique. The voice print stored in a database would be a unique identifier that could be used to identify them at the airport. The moment somebody walks in at the airport, with the videos of people walking in, guys won't even have to check your card, they would say 'Welcome Mr. Prakhar, we already know, you already have been verified.' That's technology and that can be built inexpensively."