Dr. Pramod Varma, Co-Chair of the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure in India, explains the fundamentals of a Digital ID, which Sri Lanka also plans to introduce. He spoke of how the Indian government streamlined the process of providing government aid to the general public through the digital ID. Joining ‘At HydePark with Indeewari Amuwatte’, Dr. Varma, who led India’s ‘Aadhar’ Digital ID program in 2009, explained how laws were ensured to protect personal information and privacy of data of individuals. Dispelling recent rumours, he also assured that data of Sri Lankans will not be shared with the Indian Government through Sri Lanka’s programme to introduce digital IDs to citizens, launched in collaboration with India. Also joining the program, the Secretary to the Ministry of Technology, Dr. Dharmasri Kumaratunga, assured that all data collected will be secured within Sri Lanka and that it will be used to streamline the process of welfare distribution. He assured that the digital ID will only be used to identify individuals, strictly for use when providing government services.