How can corporates aid the UID project?

Excerpts from India Business Hour on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Mah Satyam shortlisted for UID project: Dilip Jha UIDAI calls for quotations for first IT contract: Sources UID's first enrolment to take place by Aug '10: Nilekani Nifty BSE | NSE 28/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Q: So are you going to take people off the big market share battles that are being waged out in the FMCG space? What can be done here and what are the opportunities that you see from exactly where HUL is?

Paranjpe: I would just add on to what Nandan said. He said everyone can help, I would add to that and say everyone not just can help but needs to help and should help. This is such a big initiative that we have to all go beyond our narrow respective roles that we are performing in the companies that we are running and find ways to contribute to this cause. It will transform India and I think we can all play and must play a role in that.

Talking specifically about what we can do, I think in many ways everything that I could have said has been said by the participants who are here and they've talked about all the things we can do. They've talked about the fact that the products like tea, salt, soap reach almost everyone in this country and there is a role that we have got in terms of spreading the message.

We through our infrastructure have the good fortune of reaching a large number of retailers, we have over 50,000 Shakti Amma's which could go to100,000 in times to come. Each one of these could go to 4-5 villages in the neighborhood, when you get to 100,000 you have really covered six lakh villages in this country. So it is the sheer capacity of the infrastructure which you have got, to translate the message which you have got and convert on ground.

In the end there are two roles which are involved there is a role in terms of providing the message and there is a role in terms of the conversion which can take place. So there are many ideas.

Q: Is this a picture as win-win for everyone as it is sounding?

Biyani: I think we are going to reach 750 million cell phone customers. So that number can be a UID number for everyone. So I don't know why we are making so much fuss about that. Secondly if someone has a UID number, I believe the government will give all the subsidies and shopping vouchers to people to shop at our stores. So we are happier.

I think that would be a big challenge to reach to India. I believe numerical codes don't work there and for me I think Nandan would have to write his own new religion, which has to come out of symbols and rituals and storytelling. I don't think any media can reach those people without symbols or some rituals which are created.