Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia criticised India’s Aadhaar and UPI systems on a podcast, calling Aadhaar "$1.3 billion ill-spent" and UPI overrated. He argued cheaper, smarter technologies like voice and video recognition could have been used. Bhatia clarified he meant no offence but urged better resource use, questioning the expertise of those who designed these large-scale digital projects.