Biometric Designs for Increasing Inclusion and Decreasing Corruption: Learnings from India's Food Security System

Preeti Mudliar (IIIT Bangalore)

  • Date: 20 JANUARY 2021  from 17:00 to 18:00

  • Event location: Online | Zoom Platform

  • Type: BIT-ACT Seminar Series

Registration and Link for the Online Seminar

Our monthly seminars are hosted on Zoom, last 1 hour, are open and free of charge.

Those who are not part of the University of Bologna's academic community can register HERE.

Link to access the online talk: HERE

In case of any doubt, please contact Anwesha Chakraborty (anwesha.chakraborty3@unibo.it) and Fernanda Odilla (fernand.vasconcellos@unibo.it). 

Talk Description

The centrality of the biometric point of sale (POS) machine in the administration of food security in India invites scrutiny for its primacy as a non-negotiable artefact in the monthly food distribution process. While biometrics were introduced into the food security administration with the twin agenda of increasing targeted inclusion and decreasing corruption in this talk, I will draw on my fieldwork to critically examine how the POS machine emerges as a site for varying imaginaries about a technologically mediated welfare system for the three primary stakeholders of the PDS, consisting of the food security beneficiaries, dealer intermediaries, and state administrators.

About the guest speaker

Preeti Mudliar is Assistant Professor at the International Institute for Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B). Her current research interests include technology access and use with a focus on gender, infrastructures, biometric systems, platform economies, and news processes. She publishes mainly in the domains of ICTs for Development and Human-Computer Interactions for Development.