Google 'happy' to be part of UID if asked by the govt

Internet search giant Google today said it will be "happy to help" India in implementing a project to provide unique identity numbers to citizens, if asked.

"It would be very arrogant for us to say that we can help in the project. If the UID authorities feel that Google can add value to it, then we will be very happy to help. But we are not proactively approaching the government to be a part of it. It's up to them to decide how we can help," Google India Managing Director Shailesh Rao told reporters here.

Google's rival Yahoo had yesterday offered to be part of the project headed by Nandan Nilekani.

Talking about the expertise Google can bring to the table, Rao said, "At Google, we are good at software development, hosting data and language technologies. We run our product on more than eight regional languages in India.

"If the project has a mobile dimension then also we can help. At Google, we have developed voice-based search capabilities," Rao added.

The UID project aims to provide a unique identification numbers to the country's over 1 billion people.