AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5717 - Is India a perfect test bed for piloting Big Data projects?

In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Friday, July 25, 2014

5717 - Is India a perfect test bed for piloting Big Data projects?

Is India a perfect test bed for piloting Big Data projects?

Srikanth RP Executive Editor, InformationWeek India

Given its vast population and multi-lingual and diverse culture, the scale at which India operates is massive. Thus, providing the perfect opportunity to test innovative Big Data projects in

While many Big Data projects are being piloted across the world, India with its vast population (volume), variety (multi-lingual and diverse culture) and velocity (the pace of data being added on a daily basis), appears to be perfectly positioned for piloting Big Data projects.

One of the first Big Data projects of massive complexity is India’s UID or Aadhar, as it is commonly known. Everything about Aadhar, which aims to provide a unique identity to 1.2 billion residents, is ambitious. Aadhar’s scope is to capture 12 billion fingerprints, 1.2 billion photographs, and 2.4 billion iris scans. Aadhar enrolment module processes about 1 million enrollment every day. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has already issued 56 crore Aadhaar numbers, with an average generation of about 13-14 lakh Aadhaar numbers every day.

Aadhar exhibits all the values that are characteristic of Big Data. The size of the data is huge and it is estimated that this database will be 10 times larger than the largest existing biometric database, which is created by FBI from the U.S. Once the system is fully developed, it can become the foundation or the platform to check an individual’s identity across multiple services such as free education, public distribution systems and pension schemes.

The Big Data angle was also apparent during the recent elections, where major political parties used Big Data analysis effectively to improve the efficiency of their campaigns. By mining social media effectively, political parties like the BJP managed to read the pulse of the voters accurately, which played a major role in their success.

More recently, Hyderabad-based startup Modak Analytics, built a Big Data-based electoral data repository of 81.4 crore voters. When you put this data in perspective with respect to other countries, the U.S. has close to 19.36 crore voters, Indonesia has 17.1 crore voters, Brazil has 13.58 and U.K. has 4.55 crore voters. Clearly, the scale at which India operates is massive. Apart from the volume, the startup had to deal with variety (12 languages) and velocity (due to frequent data changes).

Used effectively, Big Data analytics can significantly improve governance and efficiency of public services. For example, India with its rapid population growth and economic development is facing a serious water crisis. Can Big Data analytics come to the rescue?

A case in point is the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which is using Big Data and predictive analytics technology from IBM to create systems for monitoring water distribution systems. Bangalore’s massive population growth (from 5.4 million in 2000 to over 10 million) has put tremendous strain on the city’s water supply and distribution systems. In partnership with IBM, the BWSSB has built an operational dashboard which serves as a “command center” for managing the city’s water supply networks. Around 45 percent of the water supplied by the BWSSB goes unaccounted. Implementing this solution will help minimize unaccounted water by detecting large changes in water flow, through real-time monitoring. While Big Data is certainly no ‘silver bullet’, India’s scale, variety and velocity of information flow, offers service providers the perfect opportunity to innovate and test out innovative solutions.