PUNE: Given the size and diversity of India, coupled with the urgency with which problems need to be solved, technology and innovation are the only way forward. And the best way for this to happen is that the government should build platforms and let innovation happen on them. This is what Nandan Nilekani had to say at the release of his book, Rebooting India in Pune. The former chairman of the UIDAI was speaking at an event organised by the Pune International Center He pointed out that internet and the global position system (GPS) were the best examples of this kind of innovation that had been built on platforms created by the US government. "Building the platform itself is an innovative activity - create startups within the government to create a platform. Aadhaar was a startup within the government, as was the NHAI or the space and nuclear programme," said Nilekani.THe Aadhaar card could be one such platform that could be used to build on, given that 970 million Indian citizens already had a card and this was likely to go up to a billion in the next few months.Nilekani said the unique identity platform will help in a big way to realise the government’s strategy of JAM – Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile- which aims to make financial transactions and service delivery presence-less, paperless and cashless."While the government is expanding the arena of banking services by issuing new bank licenses, the use of smartphones is on the rise and the confluence of these two with unique identity will unleash umpteen possibilities to make people’s life better," Nilekani said.Aadhaar can now be the base of any transaction that requires ‘know your customer’ documents, application of electronic signatures or creation of digital lockers which will hold all the documents about a person in electronic form, Nilekani said. He said Jeevan Pramaan - a service to facilitate the annual submission of life certificate by senior citizens will soon be made available using which a senior citizen can simply state his Aadhaar details and upload biometric data (fingerprint and iris) to communicate to banks that he/she is alive.There can be many commercial applications which start-up businesses can develop using the unique identity platform, Nilekani said.