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India does not have something like the American Social Security Number and multiple forms of identity documents exist in India. India is a country of 1.2 billion where only 33 million pay taxes and 60 million possess a passport (Parker, 2011). There are millions of Indians who do not possess any form of identity proof and remain excluded from the formal economy. There is a growing stream of researchers who view inclusive innovation as a solution to this inclusion problem.
In literature, inclusive innovation is being proposed as an important and socially relevant concept. However, it is still in its nascent stage of conceptualization (George, McGahan & Prabhu, 2014; Foster & Heeks, 2013) and this paper is an attempt to add to the growing body of knowledge in this area.
The objective of this paper is to first present a review of literature on inclusive innovation. The second objective is to study the case of Government of India’s Aadhaar project using the lens of inclusive innovation. The paper presents a discussion of the Aadhaar project and its operations. The paper also explores the inclusive innovation ecosystem around the Aadhaar project and discusses is potential to address institutional voids in India.