Panacea is an idea which proposes a political solution based on IT initiatives from Indian Government to solve most problems faced by the country, society and economy.

1. „PANACEA‟ – A POLITICAL SOLUTION
or
HOW TO ELIMINATE CORRUPTION, CRIME, CORPORATE FRAUDS, CROSS
BORDER TERRORISM ............... & CYBER THREATS
It was June 2002 in Mumbai. I had taken a month‟s leave to complete my MBA project work
before 30th
June. Dozens of ideas were floating in my mind, but the common theme was
“finding an omnipotent political solution to solve problems faced by the Country and the
Society”. 10 days before the deadline, I forced myself to write down my thoughts on paper
and in the next few days, they evolved into a practical, implementable solution that would
bring about a paradigm change in all walks of life in the Country, Society and Economy.
I tweaked the idea with a slant on Banking, and named it in a vague but academically
acceptable title viz., “I.T. Based Banking Structural Reforms - A Conceptual Model” and
submitted it towards successful completion of my MBA from ENPC - Ecole Nationale des
Ponts et Chaussees, Paris through IIS Institute of Management, Cochin.
I thought my idea was a brilliant one (who doesn‟t think so of their own ideas?) , but I also
had a doubt deep within myself that this could be a stupid idea and I could end up being
ridiculed by all. So I labelled my thesis paper as “Confidential – Not for public view” while
submitting it to my university.
So, What is this great „Panacea‟ idea ? This post gives a gist of Panacea. Complete details
are available in my thesis paper here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzGsD_SLCMxBdVl4RnpFOVk4dEE/view?usp=sharing
Panacea is framework built on 4 pillars that, when implemented, would bring about
paradigm changes to the rules of engagement in all walks of public life.
The 4 pillars are :-
1) Unique National Identity Number. (UNIN)
2) Multi Application Smart Card. (MASC)
3) Unique Single Transaction Account. (USTA)
4) Transaction Bank of India. (TBI)
The first two pillars will be e-governance initiatives from Indian Government, while
the last two initiatives will have to come from Reserve Bank of India.
The first pillar of the model is UNIQUE NATIONAL IDENTITY NUMBER (UNIN):
 It will be a Unique Citizenship Number that would be given by the Sovereign
Authority to every Individual Citizen (IC) including Non-Individual Entities
(NIE).
 UNIN would serve as a permanent, verifiable, irrefutable evidence that can be
produced for all monetary and non-monetary transactions.
 UNIN would contain details such as the Photo, Name of the citizen, Place and
Date of birth, Sex, Biometric details, Religion, Caste, Mother Tongue, Address,
Details of Occupations etc.,

2.  The UNIN for an Individual Citizen (IC) would be a 24 digit number, of which the
first six digits would represent Place of Birth of the individual, the second six
digits would represent his/her Date of Birth, the third six digits would be the
running serial number of the Register of Births for that particuplar day in that
particular area as identified by PINCODE/Postal Code), the next 3 numbers would
represent the status of the UNIN holder, and the last three numbers would
represent Security Number generated by the Computer by performing algorithmic
calculations on the first 21 digits.
 Similarly, the UNIN for a Non-Individual Entity (NIE) would be a 24 digit
number, capturing Place of Incorporation, Date of Incorporation, Registration
Serial Number from the Register of NIEs, UNIN status and the Security Number
in a similar fashion.
 UNIN Status will be 000 for Individuals, and would range from 001 to 999 for
NIEs (such as Proprietor, Joint Account, Professional, Skilled/Self Employed,
Partnership, Private Company, Public Limited Company, Government
Organisation, Statutory Body, Public Sector Undertaking, Banks, Trusts,
Societies, Associations, NGOs, Self Help Groups, Educational Institutions,
Foreign Entities, Court appointed Custodian etc.,).
 The UNIN Infrastructure and Database will be managed by “The Registrar of
Births and Deaths” or by an independent authority set up specifically for this
purpose.
The second pillar of the model is MULTI APPLICATION SMART CARD (MASC) :
 Since UNIN will be used constantly by Individuals and NIEs for all monetary and
non-monetary transactions in all walks of life, the design of the UNIN carrier
should be secure, robust, handy, compact, lightweight and providing for storage of
information that can be easily verified, if required.
 The natural choice for UNIN will be Smart Cards, which have the capacity to
store lot of data and programs in a secure manner.
 UNIN Smart Cards will be issued to all Individual Citizens and NIEs.
 Multi Application Smart Cards (MASC) will store UNIN as well as a wealth of
information on the cardholder. The card will consist of several applications
enabling the user, the government, the registration authority, the regulatory
authorities, the banks, the creditors, employers, police, court and other authorities
/ authorised persons to read, write, modify and erase appropriate information on
the card, with several layers of security.
 It will be a single reference point for verifying the credentials of the cardholder.
 The MASC will contain Individual‟s permanent personal data, variable personal
data, employment data, medical data, police crime records, passport details, bank
Transaction Account details, bank Asset & Liabilities details, bank Contingent &
Indirect Liabilities, private creditors‟ details, details of movable assets and
immovable properties, details of court litigations & statutory disputes.. For more
details, please see the thesis paper at the link given above.
 MASC for NIEs would, in a similar fashion, capture and store similar information
of the NIE.

3. The third pillar is the UNIQUE SINGLE TRANSACTION ACCOUNT (USTA) :
 Every Individual Citizen (IC) and NIE would have just one Unique Single
Transaction Account instead of multiple operative accounts in multiple Banks.
 All monetary transactions will take place exclusively and mandatorily through this
account.
 All transactions would be electronic. Cheques and other Negotiable Instruments
will be abolished.
 Operative accounts (Savings Bank, Current Account, Over Draft & Cash Credit
accounts) belonging to ICs and NIEs in commercial banks will be closed and the
balances lying in such accounts will be transferred to their respective USTA
accounts with TBI – Transaction Bank of India (See fourth pillar below).
 The account number of the USTA will be unique, consisting of Bank Code (3
digits), Branch Code (5 digits), and the UNIN of the Individual Citizen (IC) / NIE
(24 digits). The Bank Code and the Branch Code will help in identifying the
origin of USTA accounts.
 The USTA will be accessible to the account holder from anywhere through
internet.
 The USTA will represent the disposable, liquid funds of the customer, meant for
day to day monetary transactions. The extent of the liquidity of this account is at
the discretion of the customer, who may transfer the surplus funds from non-
interest bearing USTA to better interest yielding portfolio outside TBI.
 Debits to USTA will be by the ICs / NIEs ie., USTA can not be operated by
anyone other than its legal owner ie., the Individual Citizen himself in respect of
his own account. In respect of NIEs, USTA will be operated by Authorised
Signatories as registered with UNIN Authority/TBI.
 TBI cannot debit the USTA on its own ie., it will have no Right of Lien and Set
Off.
 Balance in the USTA cannot be attached by any authority other than a court.
 There will be no stipulation of minimum balance. Balance can be zero.
 Overdraft will not be allowed under any circumstances ie., account holder cannot
draw more than the balance available in the account at any point of time.
The fourth pillar of the model is the “TRANSACTION BANK OF INDIA” (TBI) :
 Payment and Settlement is an important function of Banks. Millions of such
transactions are concluded every day and Banks settle claims against each other
by Clearing House mechanism, where Banks physically exchange cheques and
settle the claims on net basis.
 In 2002, there were 954 Clearing Houses in India, of which 14 were managed by
Reserve Bank of India directly, 934 were managed by State Bank of India and its
Associates and 6 were managed by Nationalised Banks.
 Funds are transferred by a hierarchy of network of clearing houses ultimately to
R.B.I. which controls the liquidity in the economy.
 Panacea proposes that RBI should carve out of itself an exclusive body to handle
settlement of transactions on nationwide level. The new body will be called
“Transaction Bank of India - TBI ”.
 TBI will be set up as an exclusive body to deal with payments and settlements at
national level.
 Every citizen and legal entity (IC / NIE ) will have just one USTA with TBI.

4.  Their operative accounts (SB, C/A, OD & C.Cr accounts) in commercial banks
will be closed and the balances lying in such accounts will be transferred to their
USTA accounts with TBI.
 Once TBI goes live, all Individual Citizens and NIEs in the country will become
customers of TBI.
 Customers (ICs & NIEs) can conduct business among themselves and make
payments to each other without TBI‟s intermediation.
 Every Transaction between the Customers will be routed through USTAs in TBI.
Transactions outside the scope of USTAs will neither be permitted nor feasible.
 A Payment Transaction will be a simple, instant, internal transfer of funds from
one USTA to another USTA within TBI in realtime and status of transaction will
be known to both parties instantly. Counterparty risk is totally eliminated.
 The nature of Transaction is like a cash transaction, but much better – easy, direct,
instant, sans intermediary and sans inherent dangers of cash.
Advantages to Economy, Society and Country :-
The first pillar UNIN will help in identifying and suitably dealing with terrorists, illegal
immigrants, refugees and aliens.
The second pillar MASC will help in irrefutable authentication of ICs and NIEs through
Smart Card Reader Terminals and Biometrics, and eliminates unauthorised, fraudulent and
benami (proxy) transactions.
The third pillar USTA will help in routing all transactions in the economy through USTA
accounts of ICs / NIEs, eliminating corruption, black money, hawala, money-laundering,
terror-financing, financial frauds, income hiding, tax evasion, etc.,
The fourth pillar TBI would help in monitoring the „Economy in Motion‟. RBI and
Economists can get accurate and realistic statistics and trends for Macro-Economic indicators
viz., National Income, Gross National Product, Gross Domestic Product, Aggregate Demand,
Aggregate Supply, Income Distribution, Money Supply, etc., As all sectors of the economy
are brought under TBI including the informal sector, the Operational Risks (arising from
unreliable and inaccurate macroeconomic indicators) and the consequent Strategic Risks
(arising from wrong / improper economic decisions) are mitigated. More importantly,
Panacea would usher in Cashless Economy and therefore, no more printing of currency notes
and coins, and no more Currency and Coins component in M0 and M1 types of money
supply.
When all the pillars are laid, Panacea would have tremendous social, political and economic
impact affecting every walk of life. In my thesis, I had focused on Banking Industry and
dwelt on changes in Cash Reserve Ratio, Statutory Liquidity Ratio, Bank Rate, Prudential
norms on Capital Adequacy, Income Recognition, Asset Classification & Provisioning, Asset
Liability Management, Securitisation, Credit Information Bureaus, Asset Reconstructions,
Debt restructuring, Non Performing Assets management, Working capital assessment,
deposits, advances, trade finance, KYC for account opening etc.,
Readers of this post are encouraged to visualize and ideate how Panacea could solve
problems in their area of work / interest / specialisation. For example, how about conducting
general elections using UNIN and MASC ensuring 100% voting online as well as offline and

5. get results by end of the day, without requiring polling booths, officials, voting machines
etc.,; or how about a flexible tax system viz., income tax or expenditure tax or Turnover tax
based on credits or debits or summations in USTAs in TBI, ensuring 100 % tax levy on 100%
of ICs and NIEs; or how about protecting your Intellectual Property Rights and fight Digital
Piracy using UNIN and MASC based DRM (Digital Rights Management) technologies
without requiring „Persistent Online Authentication‟; or how about using UNIN, MASC,
USTA and TBI in combo to identify and eliminate cross border terrorists and their local
financiers; and to identify, regulate and track refugees and illegal immigrants till their
eventual settlement or deportation; or how about using UNIN based Social Media to
eliminate identity theft, social engineering, cyber bullying, trolling, online predators, peer
pressure, age-inappropriate contents, bots etc.,
Panacea is slowly becoming a reality:
Initially, I toyed with the idea of commercializing Panacea by seeking support from
Gemplus (now Gemalto) for Smart cards and Microsoft for Smart Card based access systems.
But, fear of ridicule and failure held me back from contacting them. Also, I knew that much
more needs to be done to bring the idea to reality and that it may be beyond my capacity.
Most importantly, this political solution could only be implemented by an honest, selfless,
determined, passionate, committed, confident mass leader of impeccable integrity, and in
2002, I did not see any such leader in the National Political Horizon. So I did nothing further
and continued with my life.
However, in the following years, whenever I came across stories of national importance
(Corruption, Crimes, Corporate Frauds, Illegal Immigration, Terrorism, Naxalism, Black
Money, Counterfeit currency Notes & Coins, Money Laundering, Population Census,
Financial Inclusion, Economic Development, Unemployment, Unorganised sector, Judicial
reforms, Electoral reforms, Tax Management System, Banking Reforms, Piracy (Software,
Audio & Video), Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, Blackmailing & Ransom, Bank
& ATM Heists, Human Trafficking, Hoarding & Black Markets etc.,) I used to wonder
whether my idea could solve the problem at root level and every time I ended up concluding
that the problem would not have arisen in the first place had “Panacea” been implemented.
16 years down the line, I am happy to see that my idea is slowly becoming a reality, though
not in the way I envisaged. Also, many of my predictions in the thesis had come true.
Let me compare Panacea with real life state of affairs in India :-
S.No Panacea‟s Propositions Reality & Differences
1 Pre-requisite for Panacea‟s
implementation is a honest, selfless,
determined, passionate, committed,
confident mass leader of impeccable
integrity.
Emergence of Sri. Narendra Modi on the
National Political Scene in 2014 made
Aadhaar (Unique Identity of Residency)
a reality.
2 First Pillar – Unique National
Identification Number (UNIN) is the
single Proof of Citizenship. It is also
National Identity Proof, Age Proof,
Domicile Proof and Photo Id Proof all
rolled into one.
“Aadhaar” Card is a Unique Identity –
Proof of Identity and Proof of
Residence, not Proof of Citizenship.
That‟s all. Nothing more.

6. 3 UNIN should be managed by Registrar of
Births & Deaths or an Independent
Authority specifically set up for this
purpose.
„Unique Identification Authority Of
India‟ (UIDAI) was established
specifically for Aadhar project.
4 All Individual Citizens and Non-Individual
Entities should have UNINs without any
exception.
All residents of India are required to
have Aadhaar. But this is being
challenged in Supreme Court. Aadhaar
is not applicable for legal entities.
However, 10 years after my thesis,
following collapse of Lehman Brothers
and consequent financial crisis of 2007-
08, G-20 endorsed Financial Stability
Board‟s (FSB) proposal for “A Global
Legal Entity Identifier (GLEI) for
Financial Markets as a Unique
Identification System for parties to
financial transactions worldwide. GLEI
is a 20 digit unique number. In India,
RBI has directed banks to make it
mandatory for corporate borrowers
having aggregate fund-based and non-
fund based exposure of ₹ 5 crore and
above from any bank to obtain Legal
Entity Identifier (LEI) registration and
capture the same in the Central
Repository of Information on Large
Credits (CRILC). Its implementation is
to be completed in phased manner by
Dec 2019.
Please note that GLEI is only for Large
Corporate Borrowers (Non-Borrowing
Corporates and all other legal entities in
the country are not included).
5 UNIN is a 24 digit number based on Place
of Birth/Incorporation, Date of
Birth/Incorporation, Birth/Incorporation
Registration Number, Status and Check
Digits.
Aadhaar is a 12 digit number. It is just a
random number which is free at the time
of registration (ie., not already allotted)
6 UNIN database would contain
comprehensive information on the
Individual Citizen as well as
comprehensive information on Non-
Individual Entities.
UIDAI database contains only
demographic details viz., name, date of
birth, gender & address and, biometric
details viz., fingerprint scan of 10
fingers, iris scan, and photograph.
7 UNIN is the only Identity that is required
for an Individual Citizen and will be
universally accepted in the entire country.
All other identity systems will become
redundant and should be abolished.
Aadhaar is just another identity card
among dozens of identity systems.
There is no consistency in acceptance of
these multiple identity documents across
the country.

7. 8 UNIN is also the Bank USTA number.
Being the unique identity, UNIN will be
used for Mobile Number, Passport
Number, Income Tax Permanent Account
Number (PAN), Electors Photo Identity
Card Number (EPIC), Driving Licence,
Ration Card Number, Insurance Card
Number and for every other purpose where
citizen‟s identity is required.
Government is gradually implementing
mandatory requirement of linking the
Aadhaar with Mobile Number, Bank
Account, PAN, EPIC etc.,
9 Second Pillar – Multi Application Smart
Card (MASC) will be the UNIN carrier.
No comparable parallel system in place
as Aadhaar does not use Smart Card as
carrier.
10 MASC is neither a Debit Card nor a Store
of monetary value. They are foolproof
Personal Identifiers and Access Enablers.
They are also storages of different types of
data relating to the holder.
Aadhar is a document and a proof of
residence.
They can not be used for electronic
validation / authentication of the holder.
11 MASC will be used for Online
Authentication of the Cardholder.
Aadhaar can be used for offline user
verification.
12 MASC is a repository of most information
relating to an Individual Citizen or NIE.
The data recorded and residing in MASC
will have several points of origination (like
various Government Authorities, Banks,
Police, Hospitals, Courts etc., and several
points of Custody & Storage (like
different Databases with different
authorities). (For more details of MASC
storage, please see the project report).
The important points are :-
1. The IC /NIE can disclose information
from the MASC repository to relevant
interested parties on need-to-know basis.
2. No one (other than the Sovereign
Authority in exceptional cases, based on
legal grounds or for national security) can
read or extract information from MASC
without the consent of the holder.
3. Privacy of data is therefore assured.
Aadhaar contains only demographic and
biometric information of the individual;
nothing more is envisaged.
13 Third Pillar – Unique Single Transaction
Account (USTA) – Only One Bank
Operative Account for one Individual
Citizen / Non-Individual Entity.
No comparable parallel system in place.
However, Central Government has
directed that all Bank accounts should be
linked to Aadhaar. This means that a
customer should map his multiple bank
accounts to his unique Aadhaar.
14 Fourth Pillar – Transaction Bank of India
(TBI) – a Single Bank in the country
exclusively for all monetary transactions
in the country and their Gross Settlement
No comparable parallel system in place.
However, RBI is giving „on tap licences‟
to set up Payment Banks to speed up

8. on Realtime basis. Financial Inclusion.
15 All Four Pillars in combination – would
enable self-serving, Peer to Peer
transactions (ie., IC to IC, IC to NIE, NIE
to NIE) through electronic mandates in
real time in the economy.
The UPI (Unified Payment Interface)
product from NPCI (National Payment
Corporation of India) has not only come
very close to my idea but has surpassed
it by its simplicity, ease of use, use of
Virtual Payment Address, 24x7
availability, Peer to Peer collect request,
use of mobile platform and
interoperability between Banks.
However, UPI is mostly for Personal
Banking and not for Corporate Banking.
16 RBI should carve out of itself an exclusive
body to handle settlement of transactions
on nationwide level. The new body will
be called “Transaction Bank of India -
TBI ”.
5 years after my thesis, RBI and IBA
(Indian Banks Association) along with
10 promoter Banks established NPCI
(National Payments Corporation of
India) which is „an umbrella
organisation for operating retail
payments and settlement systems in
India‟...„with an intention to provide
infrastructure to the entire Banking
system in India for physical as well as
electronic payment and settlement
systems.‟
However, NPCI is neither a Bank nor a
Bankers‟ Bank.
Despite Government‟s sincere efforts, implementation of Aadhaar is getting delayed due to
severe resistance from „Privacy‟ lobby and „other interested parties‟ and consequent court
battles. On 6th
April 2018, Supreme Court told the Centre that “.... Aadhaar may have other
utilities but will not be able to stop frauds”. Yes, Aadhaar alone cannot stop frauds, it needs
more support viz., the 4 pillars of my panacea.
In fact, it is the comment of the SC that propelled me to write this post !
Panacea for Cyber Security :-
It was December 2015. I was in Melbourne babysitting my grandson when I saw a TV News
programme on cyber security. As usual, I was thinking how Panacea could help in
eliminating cyber threats. The combination of 4 pillars of Panacea would assure that the ICs /
NIEs on the internet are Trusted Entities. But how do we ensure that Internet Environment
itself is safe, secure and trustable? What is root cause of all evils associated with internet?
How and Why do hacking attacks happen even in Organisations having the best network
security systems and technical personnel? Can we think of a different approach /
supplemental approach to cyber security other than the traditional defences viz., Anti-Virus,
Intrusion Detection Systems, Intrusion Prevention System, Next Generation Fire Walls,
Virtual Private Network, Encryption, Public Key Infrastructure etc., ? Where to find a
solution for cyber security problems – in physical world or in cyber world ? Why should the

9. responsibility of cyber security be with the users, and not with the Government ? Can
Internet be governed by respective Countries without stifling innovation?
To understand the issues involved, I started reading about internet technology and network
security. Being a dummy, I started with Networking for Dummies by Doug Lowe, TCP/IP for
Dummies by Candace Leiden and Marshall Wilensky, TCP/IP guide by Charles M Kozierok
and lot of other resources on the internet. The best book, of course, which made learning
„Networking‟ easy and fun was “Head First Networking” by Al Anderson and Ryan
Benedetti. I thank all Gurus for enlightening me on networking.
By the end of 3 months stay at Melbourne, I had succeeded in „creating‟ 4 more conceptual
pillars to Panacea! These additional 4 pillars would, in my humble belief, establish a safe,
secure and Trusted „Internet Ecosystem‟. These 4 pillars of “Trusted Internet Ecosystem”
along with 4 pillars of “Trusted Entities” would make Internet safer for everyone by
eliminating cyber threats.
The additional pillars are :-
Pillar No. 5. UPSIPA
Pillar No. 6. IPALMM
Pillar No. 7. PIPALISP
Pillar No. 8. IPVSWNAT
Details will be in my next post – Part II – Panacea for Cyber Security.
-x-s