If a billion people were to be given numbers, the number would need to be ten digits at least. Eleven digits would cover a population of 99 billion – remember, world population would only touch 11 billion after 2050. The UIDAI team decided they would go with a 12-digit number, and that the issue of numbers would be random – to preclude pattern and detection of gender, geography, ethnicity, religion, and so on.20 The team also decided no number would ever be re-issued, even after the person’s death.
