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, October 30, 2015

9010 - How Safe Is Your Identity Under Aadhar? - Money Life


SUCHETA DALAL | 28/10/2015 02:14 PM 

A lot of people believe that Aadhaar is just like – or even better than -- the Social Security Number system of US. This is a big myth

Awidely-held misconception in India is that the US social security number (SSN) is a perfect identity that simplified government administration. And that UIDAI’s (Unique Identification Authority of India) innovation of adding biometrics to the Aadhaar number has made it foolproof. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consider a few facts. 

The US started issuing SSN in 1936 for social security programmes and retirement benefits; it quickly went on to become a national identifier and authentication number. It is now used for medical records, health insurance, bank accounts, credit cards, driving licences, utility accounts, marriage and death certificates and even private sector employee filings. 

9009 - Gurgaon announces mandatory Aadhaar cards for LPG connections - Economic Times

By PTI | 7 Oct, 2015, 11.11PM IST
Post a Comment


GURGAON: The Gurgaon administration today announced that Aadhaar cards are now mandatory for obtaining LPG cylinders in the district. 

Making the announcement, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner T L Satyaprakash said that the orders have been sent to the LPG distributors in the district and they have been asked to ensure compliance in letter and spirit. 

He said that time and again the district administration had been requesting the residents, especially the cooking gas consumers to g .. 

Read more at:

9008 - It's an erroneous impression that Aadhaar no. is mandatory to get UAM filed: MSME Secretary - KNN India

KNN Bureau | 29 10 2015 01:29:47 PM IST


New Delhi, Oct 29 (KNN) Government is willing to extend help and financial support to people who come up with an idea to revive industrial units that have turned sick, MSME Secretary Anup K Pujari said. Further, he also said that it is an erroneous impression that Aadhaar number is mandatory to get Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum filed.

“If there is a specific idea in your mind and need some financial support to revive sick units, you may come up with a proposal,” said Pujari during an event on Wednesday.

“Among the companies who have turned sick, if their business proposition is good but it has not been executed correctly, they may very well revive,” said Pujari.

He also said that the one-page Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum notified by the government which must be filled online by all micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is getting large response from people.

“There are some people who are criticising us because it is called Udyog Aadhaar, it is an erroneous impression that Aadhaar number is mandatory to get Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum filed,” said Pujari. 

“While an Aadhaar number is required because you are filing electronically and we need to validate that, it need not be the Aadhaar number of that entrepreneur or the enterprise because it is given only to an individual,” he added.

“Any incorporated company will have an authorised representative who files for them, we want that person’s Adhaar number, it is to ensure that whatever is being filed is not a ghost filing,” further said Pujari.

“We also have a checking system on that by which we take the bank details and the IFSC code of that, I do think this will simplify ease of doing business,” he said.

Stressing on the need to promote entrepreneurship across India, Pujari said “Today we need, not job seekers but job creators i.e. a person who is going for profit, a successful entrepreneur.”


He also said that industry should focus on carrying out proper research and innovation and produce products with better quality control thereby carrying out business with ethics and these things should be inculcated in budding entrepreneurs. (KNN Bureau)

9007 - National DigiLocker reaches nearly 1M users - Medianama

By Vivek Pai on October 28, 2015


The Government’s National DigiLocker has reached nearly a million users, just a thousand short of the milestone at the time of writing. Overall, the website has stored over 1.069 million documents, indicating that on an average users store less than 2 documents on the platform. The most uploaded document is the Aadhaar card, which is required for signing up on the platform in the first place.

Note that the platform only offers each user dedicated 10 MB of space, which is likely why most people can upload nothing but a high-res scanned copy of their Aadhaar cards. 10 MB per user for a million users equals to about 10 TB in storage, which is slightly less than double the storage space available on my desktop. We really wish the platform provided more space to store other documents as well, buying a few HDDs shouldn’t be this much of a problem for the Government.

On logging in, users can also view issued documents. The platform claims to have issued 4.36 million documents via 2 issuer organizations, the majority of which are income certificates, integrated certificates and residence certificate. Other than this, it also issued caste certificates, one-and-the-same certificate, possession certificate and nativity certificate among others. The two issuing agencies are Mee Seva AP and Kerala eDistrict.

Growth in users peaked in July: Interestingly, the digital locker saw a spurt of growth from May to July, with the number of registered users jumping up from ~200,000 to nearly 900,000. Post this period, and especially in September and October, the registrations have slowed down significantly. Documents uploaded also saw significant growth from May to July, which it continued to witness in the last couple of months, despite the slowdown in number of registrations.

More than 10% of the users came from Maharashtra: State-wise, the highest number of registrations came from Maharashtra with over a 114,000 users, the only state to have over a 100,000 users. Maharashtra is followed by Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Kerala. A few states saw registrations of less than 1000 per state, including Goa, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, while few others didn’t even have 100 users registered on the portal. These include Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and surprisingly New Delhi.


The DigiLocker was launched by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) in February this year. Every user gets 10 MB of dedicated free personal storage space, which is linked to their Aadhaar details. The URI (Uniform Resource Indicator) for every document is also stored in the e-locker, allowing government agencies to directly access the document from the repository.

9006 - Guidelines on PoS person issued - The Hindu

HYDERABAD, October 28, 2015



Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has come out with elaborate guidelines on Point of Sales (PoS) person, who sells non-life products such as motor and home insurance.

In doing so, it has mandated that such representatives be identified by their Aadhaar (unique identity) number or PAN (Permanent Account Number) cards.

As per the guidelines, announced on Monday, the PoS person can sell only pre-underwritten products. This comprises motor comprehensive insurance package policy for 2-wheeler, private car and commercial vehicles; third-party liability policy for such vehicles; and personal accident, travel insurance and home insurance policies besides any other policy specifically approved by the regulator. Every policy sold through the representative would have to be separately identified, by the insurance firm, and pre-fixed with POS followed by name of product. With the intervention needed for sale of pre-underwritten products minimal, the training and examination for such representatives could be of a lesser degree, the Authority said stipulating that a POS person should be at least 10{+t}{+h}class pass.

Either the insurance company or the insurance intermediary for whom the representatives work should sponsor them to the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) for undergoing online training specified for POS Person. On clearing its online examination, the Institute would certify them. While renewing the certificate conduct of the POS Person on their rolls will be considered.



9005 - The unambiguous benefits of cash transfer - Live Mint

Tue, Oct 27 2015. 08 32 PM IST

Most arguments against cash transfer don’t stand up to closer scrutiny


The Karnataka government said last week that it would digitize its ration shops within three months. The Aadhaar data of all ration card holders in the state will be fed into a server that will be linked to the public distribution system (PDS). The idea is to use biometric information to reduce subsidy leakages.

Similar experiments in other states underline the efficiency gains from Aadhaar, especially when it is teamed up with the Jan-Dhan Yojana and mobile payments. The truly radical possibilities will be revealed when the Indian government begins to give primacy to direct cash transfers in its welfare system.
Critics argue that the cash transfer cannot bring about any drastic reduction in leakages and corruption. Moreover, the leakages and corruption can be curbed to a great extent, they say, by enhancing the state capacity and reforming the subsidy delivery systems.

A study done by three economists—Karthik Muralidharan, Sandip Sukhtankar and Paul Niehaus—conclusively establishes the benefits of a biometrically authenticated payments infrastructure. They studied the impact of a randomized rollout of smart cards in Andhra Pradesh. The biometric smart cards brought about a substantial decrease in the number of “ghost” beneficiaries and achieved a faster, more predictable and less corrupt payments process. The reduction in leakages amounted to eight times the cost of implementing the smart-card-based system.

More than the actual quantum of leakages—which are large anyway—the benefits of social welfare programmes are lost because of poor targeting. The result is a combination of inclusion and exclusion errors. A study by the Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research, finds that in the fiscal year 2010-11, the four states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, accounting for 59% of the total rural BPL (below poverty line) population, could avail of only 34% of total person-days employment generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). In the same year, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, together home to only 8% of the rural BPL population, generated 23% of person-days of employment. The extent of leakages and inefficient targeting warrant the intervention of technology.
Reforming the state delivery systems and checking corruption using conventional means in large states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with entrenched vested interests is easier said than done. On the other hand, technology-enabled solutions can help not just plug leakages in laggard states, but lower the enduring leakages in better-performing states as well.

Another argument against cash transfers is that there are fewer bank branches than other means of availing benefits, say PDS shops. It is nobody’s argument that PDS shops will be replaced by cash transfers without adequate support systems. The government has made it clear that it intends to shift to cash-based transfers with the help of the JAM trinity—Jan-Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile. The revolutionary spread of mobile phones in India offers an unprecedented opportunity for redesigning state delivery mechanisms. Governments across the developing world are now using mobile phones to deliver state services.

A last argument against cash transfer is against cash itself. Replacing food, for instance, with cash is deemed as abstinence by government from providing the essential goods and services. To the contrary, cash empowers the beneficiaries to make their own choices. The last thing a government should do is to behave as a nanny to its poor citizens and dictate their choices. A related argument is that the beneficiaries will squander the cash on liquor and drugs. Multiple studies dispel this apprehension. An analysis of 19 studies across the world by David Evans and Anna Popova of the World Bank did not find cash transfers leading to any statistically significant increase in spending on alcohol or tobacco.

Meanwhile, in India, the Supreme Court as well as a number of activists have raised concerns over the possible breach of privacy with en masse collection and storage of biometric information. Indeed, the government should address the privacy concerns by introducing an appropriate legislation. Most of the other criticisms of cash transfer, however, fall flat on closer scrutiny. The Supreme Court has, for now, allowed the use of Aadhaar cards for MGNREGS, Jan-Dhan Yojana, pension and provident fund schemes, along with subsidy transfer for foodgrains, kerosene and cooking oil. The government should persist with efforts to broaden its ambit, as it is a goal worth pursuing.

Is cash transfer an effective way to deliver welfare benefits? Tell us at views@livemint.com


Thursday, October 29, 2015

9004 - Modi urges states to finish Aadhaar process by January 26 - Asian Age


Worried over poor registration of population mostly below 18 years of age under Aadhaar enrolment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged upon the states to complete the registration process of all such people by January 26, 2016, the next Republic Day.

The Prime Minister is learnt to be more keen on ensuring registration under Aadhaar of those people who have now become bonafide citizens of the country after signing of the Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh recently.

Mr Modi discussed the situation recently with top officials of the department of electronics & information technology (DEiTY), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the Registrar General of India (RGI), and according to sources aware of the details, expressed concern over the poor penetration of Aadhaar registration among the young population of the country, which has largely remained uncovered despite the government having set up specialised Aadhaar centres in various parts of the country, especially in rural areas.

People residing in conclaves located mainly in Assam and West Bengal, who now are part of India, should be enrolled under Aadhaar on priority basis, Mr Modi is said to have conveyed to the officials during the meeting, sources informed this newspaper.

He directed DEiTY to coordinate with the Assam government to expedite the process of enrolment of such citizens and ensure that their Aadhaar cards are issued as soon as possible.
Sources even said that the Prime Minister has asked DEiTY to submit a consolidated follow up report on the matter to him by end of this month.

Meanwhile, calling upon other state governments to try and complete the enrolment process by January 26, 2016, Mr Modi is learnt to have directed DEiTY to shift Aadhaar kits from states where registration work has been completed to all those states which require them.


It was also discussed in detail during the meeting that states should take the matter seriously and it was felt that enrolment camps in schools, colleges as well as aanganwadi centres in villages should be set up on priority basis to ensure that all those below 18 years of age are registered under Aadhaar.

9003 - Wait becomes longer for opening NPS accounts online - Live Mint

Wed, Oct 28 2015. 02 33 AM IST

With the SC not allowing the use of Aadhaar for the NPS, PFRDA has put on hold its plans of using Aadhaar-based e-KYC for opening accounts online


New Delhi: Subscribers looking to open an account online with the National Pension System (NPS) will have to wait longer to access this facility.

With the Supreme Court not allowing the voluntary use of Aadhaar for the NPS, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has put on hold its plans of using Aadhaar-based e-KYC (know your customer) for opening accounts online.

“The plan to move forward through an Aadhaar-based e-kyc will remain on hold,” said R.V. Verma, member, PFRDA.
In its interim order on 15 October, the Supreme Court only allowed the use of Aadhaar for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, pension by central and state governments, and the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme, in addition to the public distribution system (PDS), cooking gas and kerosene. The court has set up a constitutional bench to hear various petitions challenging the use of Aadhaar in various social security schemes of the government.

Meanwhile, PFRDA is exploring alternate options to make this facility available to its customers. “We are looking at alternative measures to see how account opening can be facilitated online but haven’t arrived at a decision yet,” said Verma.

The Supreme Court order will delay PFRDA’s plan of allowing subscribers to open an account without needing to go to the various agencies designated as points of presence by the regulator. The plan was to allow subscribers to fill a form online while taking care of the KYC requirements through e-KYC. E-KYC service provided by the Unique Identification Authority of India is recognized as a valid document by the government for all financial services under the Prevention of Money-laundering Rules.

The regulator was looking to make it easier for subscribers to open NPS accounts by facilitating online account opening, as it expects more people to open accounts this fiscal to capitalize on the Union budget sop that allowed extra tax deduction for investments in NPS, as reported by Mint on 6 May.

To encourage old age saving and pension, finance minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to provide a deduction of up to Rs.50,000 over and above the saving limit of Rs.1.5 lakh under section 80C, for contributions made to NPS.

Though NPS has more than 10 million subscribers with total assets under management of more than Rs.1.1 trillion, the majority of subscribers are central and state government employees for whom it is mandatory to invest in the scheme.





9002 - Bengaluru cops to use aadhaar data to trace accident victims' kin - Economic Times


By Umesh Yadav, ET Bureau | 27 Oct, 2015, 10.27AM IST

BENGALURU: She was about 20 years and died due to injuries sustained in a bike accident in front of the Satellite Bus Station on Mysuru Road earlier this month. Her identity is unknown and no one came forward to claim her body from the Victoria Hospital where she breathed her last. 

The young man, on whose bike she rode pillion, abandoned her and sped away. She barely opened her mouth during the one week that she spent at the hospital before breathing her last. 

The Bengaluru police did their best to trace her family members or relatives but have been in vain because there is no "missing complaint" registered anywhere. Now, they are trying to use a new technique: trace her family members using her fingerprints and iris with those of her parents which, they hope, have been captured by the Aadhaar authorities. 

If this experiment turns out to be successful, police will use the same method to trace all the unidentified bodies in the city and even police in other states may follow the same procedure. 

Last week, the Supreme Court observed that the Aadhaar card may be used to avail government schemes like pension, bank accounts and employment guarantee apart from pur chasing kerosene and cooking gas but Bengaluru police are trying to show the utility of Aadhaar data can be extended beyond the purposes of subsidy disbursal. 

Speaking to ET, Kengeri traffic inspector NM Dharmappa, who is handling the case, said they tried in every possible way to trace her family members. Even the bike number, taken down by passersby , was incorrect. "It was then that we got the idea of matching the fingerprints and iris with the victim's Aadhaar card. We have sent the information to the department concerned. We are going to follow this system to trace families of all the unidentified bodies," he said. 

Officials from the Unique Identity Project at Karnataka's Centre for eGovernance, hailed the initiative. "If it is helping to trace the victim's family , the department is ready to share all the information which available with us," a government official said. 

According to Unique Identification Authority of India figures, there are about 6.46 crore people in Karnataka, of which 5.12 crore have Aadhaar cards. In Bengaluru alone, there are 74.77 lakh people with Aadhaar cards. 

9001 - UP steps up pace to complete Aadhaar card project - TNN


IANS | Oct 27, 2015, 11.07AM IST

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh government has fixed March 31, 2016 as the deadline to complete 90 percent of the Aadhaar card work, an official said on Tuesday. 

UP Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan has asked district magistrates to ensure early completion of the Aadhar card project. 

He said that enrolment of children up to five years of age should be done through tablets in Anganwadi centres and those above five years should be covered in teaching institutions. 

Aadhaar cards of 12 crore out of 20 crore population of the state have already been made.

9000 - ‘Focus has to be on protecting sensitive data’ - Financial Express

Cheri McGuire of Symantec on cyber security best practices and the need to protect sensitive Aadhaar data

By: Nandagopal Rajan | October 26, 2015 12:11 AM

It is not a question if you are going to be hacked, but when. 

When this statement comes in relation to India’s Aadhaar unique identity system, the largest digital identity database in the world, we better listen. “When we talk about critical information infrastructure it is always about hardware and software, when it is actually only about the data,” says Cheri McGuire, vice-president, Global Government Affairs & Cybersecurity Policy, Symantec, who has seen how countries implement similar systems around the world and helped them protect that data.

“The important thing to remember is that it does not matter which platform or device, as in the end it is about the data. It is really about how the data is protected. You are not getting rid of endpoint protection, you still need those, but the emphasis in on those protecting the core,” explains McGuire who leads global security giant Symantec’s public policy agenda and government engagement strategy that includes cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection (CIP), and privacy.

She says a broad toolkit will be needed from encryption, multi-factor authentication and data loss prevention technologies that give you visibility across your networks to protect data at this scale. McGuire is impressed that the implementation of Aadhaar is happening very quickly, and thinks some of the lessons learnt by India will help other countries who are looking to implement similar identity management infrastructure.

On whether it is a good idea to have a single number at the core of a lot of services, McGuire says it ultimately depends on culturally what is acceptable. “I do think there are some concerns when you tie everything to a single number as it does open you up a bit more. You have to look more closely at how you intend to protect the unique ID database and ensure that all those personal IDs are encrypted both at rest and transit, and to access things you should be using multi-factor authentication.” Plus she highlights that you need to have modern security software, as “five year old security software only gives you protection from threats that are five years old”.
McGuire says it is important to understand the psychology behind the cyber criminals and the threat landscape. She says the game has changed with nation state, organised crimes groups and hacktivists also becoming a threat along with everyday criminals.

The Symantec official also warns about the insider threat, especially in the context of what has happened in the US with Edward Snowden. “That is where data loss prevention technology is important to be able to segment controls over who has access to what data, keep logs, tag data to see to if something is moving around. The old just-don’t-put-a-pen-drive-in does not work anymore as everything is wireless these days,” she says, underlining how it is also important to train people to be vigilant. Plus, governments are dealing with numerous technologies that can sometimes create additional vulnerabilities, which she says is becoming more complex with the advent of BYOD, IoT, wireless inter-connectivity.

Symantec alone secures a billion IoT devices across the world. “We have a lot of experience in IoT, but also some concerns. There are great devices and applications coming out, but we believe there is a small window available now to ensure security and privacy are built in before it becomes ubiquitous like the Internet. We know the Internet was not built with security in mind and we have an opportunity to change that with IoT.” She adds: “We don’t want to slow innovation, but we also believe the security technology should be engineered into those devices and you are not trying to bolt it on later. It is proven that building technology at the front end is not just easier but also more effective.”
On the smart cities front, McGuire says it is a positive sign that nations are not just blindly going into instituting these “great new things without being mindful of security and privacy”. Symantec believes there must be a global standard so that there is a level playing field for all players.
First Published on October 26, 2015 12:11 am

8999 - Maharashtra government targets schools to complete 100% Aadhaar enrollment - DNA


Sunday, 25 October 2015 - 7:00am IST | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Dhaval Kulkarni

Maharashtra has a population of 11.23 crore, according to the 2011 census, and over 88% have already enrolled for Aadhaar, higher than the national tally of over 75%.

To meet its ambitious target for 100% Aadhaar enrollment by the year-end, the state government is formulating intervention strategies to register children in schools and anganwadis. Apart from identifying schools where the enrollment for the unique identity program is low, it is also planning to train anganwadi supervisors to enrol infants and universalise the Aadhaar card.
Maharashtra has a population of 11.23 crore, according to the 2011 census, and over 88% have already enrolled for Aadhaar, higher than the national tally of over 75%. However, around 1.40 crore population, largely those below the age of 18 years, is yet to enrol for the national unique identity number, thus necessitating the focussed interventions. In contrast, the coverage of people in the 18 years and above category is almost 97%.

Recently, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, director general, UIDAI, met senior state information technology (IT), women and child development department and education department officials in Mumbai to speed up the registration of children. "Our main focus will be on anganwadis and schools. The education department will identify schools where the enrolment is low," IT director M Shankarnarayanan told dna.
"We are considering using anganwadi supervisors to enrol children in the zero to five years age group… and build capacity in anganwadis like it has been done in Himachal Pradesh," he added, noting that however, these supervisors would have to be trained first.
This intervention strategy will largely take place in rural areas where mobility is a problem and inhibits access to Aadhaar enrolment centres, unlike urban pockets. The state government is also planning camps in areas with poor Aadhaar coverage. Around 77 lakh children below the age of five, and 68 lakh below the age of 18 are yet to be registered for the program.
Officials admit that they also need a mechanism to tackle new births and population inflow. Maharashtra already has 2,000 functional kits for permanent enrolment procured by the state government and placed on the ground in the citizen service centres, which are identified by the Maha e-Seva Kendra brand name.
Around six villages are covered by one such CSC, which offers government to citizen (G2C) and commercial services. To meet the registration targets, the state has decided to add 1,929 more machines, taking the total number to 3,929.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched an Android-based software to register children below the age of five and this will enable the deployment of tabs to enrol children below the age of five. These tabs will be used to photograph children and collect the fingerprints and the Aadhaar numbers of the parent for validation. The Maharashtra government plans to deploy around 500 such tabs.
The state government will also give inputs to district collectors about villages and blocks where the Aadhaar enrolment is low. This will enable the deployment of enrolment kits to ensure their optimum utilisation instead of using them at locations where the footfalls are less.
To ensure optimal use of these machines, the district collectors will evaluate the enrolment data, evaluate non-performing machines and ask the VLEs to pull up their socks. Officials admitted that ensuring 100% coverage by December-end would not be an easy task.
"The demand push is definitely there and initial reluctance among people has been overcome. However, infrastructure issues like power supply still persist," said an official.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

8998 - Why does Right to Privacy needs a re-look? 23-OCT-2015 - Jagran Josj


 23-OCT-2015

In the second week of October 2015, a five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) was formed under the Article 145 (3) of the Constitution to debate and decide upon two important questions-
1. Whether there is any “right to privacy” guaranteed under our Constitution?
2. If such a right exists, what is the source and what are the contours of such a right as there is no express provision in the Constitution delineating it?

Why the issue came into limelight now?
The court decided to take up the matter while hearing the Justice K S Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Vs Union of India & Others case that dealt with Aadhaar Card Scheme. Under this case, it was contended that making the Aadhaar enrolment as a precondition to avail social security benefits is unconstitutional as it encroaches upon citizens right to privacy.
As per the petitioners, Aadhaar enrolment requires submission of demographic and bio metric information and thus, it violates individuals to right to privacy.

Contradictions with respect to Right to Privacy
The Supreme Court took up the matter as it came to its observation that there is an apparent unresolved contradiction in the law as declared by this Court in relation to the Right to Privacy.
While a nine-member judge bench of the Supreme Court led by the then Chief Justice MC Mahajan in 1954 held that Right to Privacy is not recognised by the Constitution makers as a fundamental right, and so there is no need to strain to make it one.
This judgment was delivered in the MP Sharma Vs Satish Chandra case which was further reinforced in the Kharak Singh Vs State of U.P. case in 1963
However, in later judgments, the SC pronounced that the Right to Privacy is a fundamental right as enshrined in the Constitution.
The most important of such cases are R Rajagopal Vs State of Tamil Nadu (1994) that is popularly known as Auto Shanker’s case and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Vs Union of India case of 1997.
While in R Rajagopal’s case it was held that the “right to privacy” is implicit under Article 21 of the Constitution, in PUCL’s case it was stated that the “right to privacy” insofar as it pertains to speech is part of fundamental rights under Articles 19(1)(a) and 21 of the Constitution

Arguments in favour of Right to Privacy
1. Right to Privacy is an inalienable part of the Article 21 of the constitution. Further, as India is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights of the UN, in which the right to privacy is a part, she should respect it.
2. Its breach is an anathema to Democracy as the privacy is a sine qua nun for self expression.
3. Since the state agencies are equipped with powerful surveillance apparatus, the personal data (like bio metrics) is prone to be misused by the ‘elite’ in the political and administrative set up against their opponents.
4. Though the intent of the policy makers to ‘know’ their citizens better is bona fide, the lower level bureaucracy may misuse the data for petty monetary gains. Frequent news of BPO operators selling information of clients to fraudsters is a case in point.

Arguments against Right to Privacy
1. The right has no legal standing as it is no where mentioned in the Constitution of India.
2. When citizens/residents have nothing to hide, what is the problem in subsuming their privacy to legitimate institutions for greater good of the country?
3. Instead of terming it as a breach of privacy, the initiatives should be understood as the government’s genuine effort to know their citizens in a better way which is essential for efficient allocation of scarce resources to the needy population in a diverse country like India.

Why the re-look is important?

Ambit of right to privacy is no more limited to search and seizure at the physical level as construed a few decades ago (1954 MP Sharma Case). With the growing presence of individuals and the corporate in the digital sphere, coupled with the ‘monopoly’ of the government over the internet it is high time to define the role of the state vis-à-vis citizen in matters of privacy.

Though such instances of abuse of administrative powers or extreme encroachments on citizen privacy have not reported in India so far, taking a cue from the international experiences like-NSA’s surveillance of citizens as revealed by Edward Snowden in the post 9/11 period, Rupert Murdoch-led tabloids snooping in the UK and European Court’s order to Google on Right to be forgotten show how vulnerable citizens privacy in the modern society.

Conclusion
The Constitution of India begins with and represents We the People. Nevertheless, citizens should understand that, even in democracy, no right is absolute and they have to subsume a part of their rights to enable the government to function in an effective manner. On the other hand, the government should show restraint while dealing with citizens’ private space and must establish credible procedures to deal with instances of breach of privacy for illegitimate reasons.

8997 - IT has not cut banks' costs: Rajan - TNN



TNN | Oct 24, 2015, 05.29AM IST

Rajan pointed out banks are capturing lot of customer data and now the challenge is, how do banks use the vast data to better serve customers?


HYDERABAD: Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has questioned the pricing of IT deals that banks have entered into. Pointing out that the IT revolution has not brought down expenses for banks, Rajan said this could be because the structure of fees is such that cost reduction is not reflected in the bottom line. He also said that banks need to restructure and branches cannot be run as they were during the days of the ledger system. 

According to Rajan, the present 'market structure' consisting of IT companies, who provide technology and, at times, run crucial IT operations for banks, has not been very helpful in bringing down costs of operations. 

"We can see the effect of the IT revolution everywhere in the banking system, except on the expenses side... why aren't the expenses coming down? 

We need to look at whether technology is really bringing down costs. But there are two factors that may prevent from bringing down costs - one of them is market structure. It could be the structure of key players that are involved in technology and the structure of fees that you have to pay is such that the cost reduction does not get translated into a bottom line reduction. 

The second factor is the human factor - wherein the way business is organized has to change. We cannot run a branch as if we are still living in the days of the ledger system," Rajan said while delivering the keynote address at an Institute of Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) event here. 

Rajan pointed out banks are capturing lot of customer data and now the challenge is, how do banks use the vast data to better serve customers and mitigate risks while forwarding loans? He hinted that banks need to be cautious about aggressively forwarding home loans. 

"Tremendous amount of information about the customer is being made available through the system... but are we figuring out how to serve customers better using this data... We had a large setback in a number of large project loans. So increasingly, the flavour of the moment is housing loans. Of course, in housing loans, you need to be careful that you are not picking up high-risk home loan applicants and venturing into an area that is already well served through traditional means," he said sounding a note of caution. 

Speaking about the usage of IT in the banking sector, He said, "IT and IT usage has not penetrated into the banks as fully and as properly as we would like. Banks are still not fully integrated in terms of IT usage". so that on a daily basis, it can spin out what the details of the loans are... if you do not know the picture on a daily basis, there are activities that can pile up over time, which can be extremely risky for the bank." 

Meanwhile, lauding the Jan Dhan Yojna in the area of increasing financial inclusion, he also batted for Aadhaar usage. "The Aadhaar system is under a bit of a cloud right now... but hopefully the Supreme Court will see value in permitting wider usage of Aadhaar," he added. 

On the RBIs proposed IT subsidiary, Rajan said that it will focus on cyber security and monitor IT-related functions in banks. "RBI, because of the importance of this area (IT) and the need to improve our supervision and regulation of IT-related factors as well as cyber security, is in the process of setting up an information technology subsidiary. We will actually hire people directly from the sector, who have expertise and can build the expertise within the RBI," Rajan said.



8996 - Aadhaar will help in financial inclusion: Raghuram Rajan - Economic Times


 23 Oct 2015, 6:54PM IST


The Reserve Bank of India is setting up an Information Technology subsidiary soon. The subsidiary will help RBI to harness IT for effective use in regulation and supervision, the RBI Governor, Raghuram G Rajan said. Further referring to the recent initiatives like Aadhar and Jan Dhan, he said: "I hope the Supreme Court will finally see value in widening of Aadhar."
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8995 - Now schools roped in for Aadhaar drive - TNN

Vinayashree Jagadeesh, TNN | Oct 24, 2015, 03.46AM IST

CHENNAI: Now, schools in the city are being roped in as part of an Aadhaar enrolment drive in the city. A notification by the education department a week ago instructed several city schools to collect aadhaar card details of their students and their parents. Camps are being held in selected school centres of Tamil Nadu to enroll those who don't have an aadhaar card.

G J Manohar, headmaster of MCC Higher Secondary School said they are collecting details from across classes. "Camps too are being held in selected school centres to enroll those who don't have an aadhaar card into the scheme," he said. Collectors will visit centres to guide students through the fingerprint and photo procedure. 

However, this doesn't seem to have gone down well with some of the parents who expressed concern over providing such personal details to schools. "I want to know why we are being asked to provide these details to schools. It is after all a very private document," said Priya, a parent of St Bede's School. 


A representative of SBOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School, who wished to be anonymous, said it was becoming very difficult for them to collect details. "Many parents have come and said they cannot share such confidential information. It is not an easy process," the representative said. 

While there have been reports of aadhaar being linked with exam procedures and even roll numbers, Tamil Nadu education department officials maintained that the Aadhaar details will only be linked with the EMIS (Education Management Information System) number. Commissioner of Revenue Administration, Atulya Misra said, "Aadhaar card based attendance systems are followed in many central government offices. The government is keen on providing enrollment facilities for aadhaar. 


It is completely voluntary." With 59.9% of the city's population having aadhaar cards, Chennai ranks low when compared to other districts in Tamil Nadu. Census department statistics show that 27.7 lakh people of the 33.89 lakh in Chennai who registered for aadhaar have obtained the cards. In TN, a total of 5.39 crore aadhaar cards have been distributed so far. 

Saturday, October 24, 2015

8994 - Google Freaks out After Alex Jones Storms head quarters














  • Big Brother gets nervous when little brother watches back
    Paul Joseph Watson
    Prison Planet.com
    October 23, 2015

    While Google has become notorious for spying on Internet users, when Alex Jones attempted to film inside the company’s headquarters in downtown Austin, he was immediately asked to leave.



    Within seconds of entering the building for an event being held by Google, Jones and his film crew were told that the company didn’t allow video recording, despite the fact that a huge sign on the wall made it clear that Google was recording everyone in the vicinity.

    When Jones pointed out that Google had secretly installed software on computers that can listen to people’s conversations without them knowing, Google reps became nervous.


    “How can he say we shouldn’t have a camera in here when Google is all about selling our data?” asks Jones.
    Another woman working at the event then attempts to grab Jones’ microphone and physically remove him, before she walks away to call the police.


    When Jones and his film crew return to the building and point out that Google openly states it is recording everything that takes place inside, an event coordinator states, “I’m not sure everybody here would like to be on camera.”
    “But there’s a sign saying that Google videotapes you inside,” responds Jones.
    The exchange illustrates how while Google is perfectly content to take on the role of Big Brother, when little brother tries to watch back, different rules apply.




    8993 - Ghost Savings: Govt data shows consumption of subsidised LPG going up - Money Life



    MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM | 23/10/2015 06:21 PM

    Irrespective of the Petroleum Ministry's inflated claims, during FY2015, actual consumption of subsidised LPG cylinders increased by 18% while the same for unsubsidised refill fell 19%. Even the government's so-called saving claim contains simple arithmetical error of Rs1,205 crore

    The Central Government, especially the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG), while patting itself for saving thousands of crores due to its direct benefit transfer (DBTL or PAHAL) scheme, continues to show misleading figures. So much so, the clarification issued by the Ministry too contains arithmetical mistake. Not only this, according to the data available in public domain, contrary to the Ministry's claims, actual consumption of subsidised LPG cylinders has gone up by 18% during FY2014-15.


    8992 - Rajasthan reaps benefit from Aadhaar-seeded PDS and bank - IBN Live

    Posted on: 09:29 AM IST Oct 23, 2015



    While Aadhaar seeded Public Distribution System and Aadhaar linked bank accounts are still at an initial stage in Rajasthan, people in Tonk district are beginning to benefit from it. But there are still a host of issues that need to ironed out in terms of teething troubles.



    8991 - Karnataka’s public distribution system to go digital within three months - Live Mint

    Last Modified: Thu, Oct 22 2015. 01 34 AM IST


    The state is mapping and feeding Aadhaar and biometric information of ration card holders into a server


    The move comes in the backdrop of similar digital initiatives undertaken in states such as Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to ensure transparency and plug PDS leakages. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

    Bengaluru: Karnataka food and civil supplies minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Wednesday said the state’s fair price shops will go digital within the next three months.

    The state is mapping and feeding Aadhaar and biometric information of ration card holders into a server. All transactions in the public distribution system (PDS) will have to be authenticated digitally, using point-of-sale machines at shops, said Rao.

    The move comes in the backdrop of similar digital initiatives undertaken in states such as Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to ensure transparency and plug PDS leakages.
    “The public distribution system in Karnataka is already IT-enabled. We have updated our database in a server through NIC (National Information Center) and already, some 3000 shops are running on it,” he said.

    “We will only give the specifications; we won’t purchase the (PoS) device. The shopowner is free to buy it from different companies. It will be a one-time expenditure for him and in return, we are going to more than double the commission (for shopowners),” said Rao.

    Karnataka has more than 1.5 crore ration card holders getting subsidised rice, pulses and oil from around 20,000 shops across the state. A pilot run of the project will be kickstarted in Udupi soon, the minister said.

    “In the last two months alone, as part of the digital initiatives, the government has removed some 2.7 lakh BPL cardholders, including about 800 top government employees, who are not eligible for subsidies. The state was also able to recover more than Rs 50 lakh as penalty during the process,” he said.
    “On an average, we are removing 3,000 cards per day. We are doing this by various methods including cross-checking database of government employees and database for ration cardholders,” said Rao.



    8990 - Aadhaar card mandatory for govt school students? - TNN

    Shivani Saxena, TNN | Oct 21, 2015, 09.52PM IST

    DEHRADUN: To check cases of fake registration in government schools, the education department has urged DMs of all 13 districts to ensure that each and every student has an Aadhaar card by the end of this year. 

    An education department official said that recent surprise inspections in government schools have shown several cases where students' names are mentioned on paper but they do not exist. 

    Taking serious note of this, the department has decided to introduce a software which will keep a tab on students, but for this, it will need unique identification of each and every single student enrolled in government schools across the state. For this purpose, Aadhaar cards are being considered to avoid any duplication or fraud. 

    Education department officials said that all the state's district magistrates have been requested by DG, school education, Senthil Pandiyan to direct agencies, involved in making Aadhaar cards, to ensure that all government school students have their own Aadhar card by December 31. The state education department will give the necessary assistance to expedite the process, they added. 

    Government school principals and students have welcomed the announcement. Neelam Joshi, principal, government girls inter-college (GGIC), Lakhibag said, "We have around 750 girls in our school and more than 50% of them have got their Aadhaar cards since September. I feel it is a great step by the education department." 

    Education authorities added that Aadhaar card would give much-needed identification to students as they usually do not have pan cards, driving license or other documents. 


    Akansha Thapa, a government school student from Doon, said, "I feel all grown-up having my personal identification in the form of Aadhaar card. Almost all students in our school have submitted applications for making Aadhaar cards." 

    8989 - Over 29,500 plastic Aadhaar cards issued - The Hindu

    October 22, 2015 05:34 IST
    • STAFF REPORTER
    A total of 29,571 plastic Aadhaar cards were issued to the applicants in the district through the Common Service Centres functioning in 12 blocks in the district.

    District Revenue Officer S. Selvaraj along with officials visited the centres in Pethanaickenpalayam and Vazhapadi blocks here on Tuesday.

    Addressing media persons, he said that the e-centres run by the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation were started in February this year in Salem, Salem West, Salem South, Vazhapadi, Attur, Gangavalli, Yercaud, Mettur, Omalur, Sankari, Edappadi and Pethanaickenpalayam blocks. He said that people could fill up application forms for obtaining passport, register for Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and also obtain plastic Aadhaar cards.

    The DRO said that certificates issued by the Revenue Department including community, income and nativity certificates, certificates to first graduates of a family, destitute women and widow and certificates issued by Social Welfare Department such as marriage assistance for women and girl children assistance programme could be obtained at these centres. Also, people could pay their electricity bills at these e-centres.

    People could also submit applications for obtaining pan card, making corrections in electoral identification card applications, and payment of premium to LIC and for taking copies of patta and chitta.

    Since the inauguration of these centres, a total of 50,082 certificates and 29,571 plastic Aadhaar cards were issued, he added.

    8988 - Fact check: Will restricting Aadhaar now affect crores of welfare recipients?- Scroll.In


    Last week, the government told the Supreme Court that the biometrics programme has already become critical for paying wages and pensions. Its data suggests otherwise.
    Anumeha Yadav  · Oct 22, 2015 · 12:30 pm


    Has India’s biometrics-based identity project Aadhaar already become essential for the implementation of social welfare schemes? The Modi government steadfastly suggests so, even though there is no evidence on the ground to prove this.

    On October 15, when the Supreme Court was hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of the project, the government defended Aadhaar vehemently. It pointed to the court that the Aadhaar card has become the most widely held identity document in India, with an enrolment of around 92 crore people. More importantly, it claimed that Aadhaar is used to provide wages to 1 crore workers under the national rural employment guarantee scheme and to reach 30 lakh pensioners.

    Disrupting the unique identification system now by limiting it to voluntary use, the government claimed, will shut off social schemes to a large section of the population. It requested the court to instead permit it to make Aadhaar mandatory in around 80 social schemes.

    Once the arguments were heard, the Supreme Court permitted the voluntary use of Aadhaar in four schemes: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and schemes related to pension and provident fund. The court reasoned that if the Aadhaar card could be voluntarily used to avail LPG subsidy and ration – permitted through a court order on August 11 – then why not other social schemes.

    But how factual were the government’s arguments in court? Has Aadhaar already become an indispensible welfare delivery system? Official data shows it hasn’t really.

    Even now, Direct Benefit Transfers – subsidies given directly to people through their bank accounts – is carried out through the National Electronic Funds Transfer, not through Aadhaar. Contrary to the government’s claim, therefore, restricting the project even at this stage would neither impact a large section of beneficiaries nor disrupt their payments.

    Ways of welfare delivery

    The government wants to use the Aadhaar project in social schemes in three ways.

    1. Every time a person enrols for Aadhaar, their biometric and demographic information is recorded and checked against the Aadhaar and welfare databases to weed out duplication. Called “de-duplication”, the idea behind this process is to identify and remove fake entries in the rolls and those who have duplicate cards. However, the procedure has counterproductively struck off genuine beneficiaries from welfare schemes, simply because they either missed Aadhaar enrolment or were not interested in it.

    2. The second planned use is the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System. Under this, a welfare beneficiary’s unique Aadhaar number is added to – or “seeded in” – the government database. Banks carry out the same procedure, linking the Aadhaar number to the bank account number of their account holders. Next, banks report this “seeding” to the Reserve Bank of India’s National Payments Corporation of India to add it to a “mapper”. Once these steps are over, the government can make a Direct Benefit Transfer – that is, transfer benefits such as wages and pensions directly into a beneficiary’s bank account – using the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System.

    3. The third use is doorstep delivery, or the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. The government is giving accredited agents, called banking correspondents, a hand-held micro-ATM to take banking services right to the doorsteps of beneficiaries. These agents authenticate beneficiaries’ biometric information against the Aadhaar database on the micro-ATM using real-time internet, allowing on-the-spot payments of wages and pensions. This idea too has run into many problems – including poor mobile and internet connectivity, slow bank technology upgradation, problems in hiring enough banking correspondents.

    Limited in reach

    The second use of the unique identification project, the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System, has its own set of problems – it is still at a nascent stage and the government has found it difficult to scale it up. Concerted enrolment drives since 2011 have helped government enrol crores of people in Aadhaar. But officials acknowledge that the number of welfare recipients for whom seeding has been completed and who hold Aadhaar-mapped accounts is too low for the government to shift to the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System.

    Given the lack of legal framework for Aadhaar and the many Supreme Court orders specifying that it can’t be made mandatory for social schemes, the government could not seed beneficiaries’ welfare schemes data at the time of enrolment. Even after beneficiaries enrolled in Aadhaar, a senior government official explained, they had to be physically located a second time to collect their data for seeding. In most states, however, banks did not deploy staff to seed data at their end, or they didn’t forward mapping requests to the National Payments Corporation of India.

    As a result, the government couldn’t push Direct Benefit Transfers through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System. Instead, it is making these transfers through the National Electronic Funds Transfer, which does not use Aadhaar.

    Data from the Ministry of Finance shows that in both MNREGA and National Social Assistance Programme on pensions for the poor, the government is transferring funds using Aadhaar only in minuscule cases. Most funds are being routed through National Electronic Funds Transfers.

    Finance Ministry data also reveals that although 65.3% of MNREGA beneficiaries have an Aadhaar number, their details have been seeded in 16.3% cases only. As for pensions, while 55.1% beneficiaries have enrolled in Aadhaar, “seeding” has been done for 10.6% of them.

    In March, for instance, 98.3% of MNREGA workers received wages through NEFT. Only 1.6% of wages were paid through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System, and 0.1% through another system, called the Public Financial Management System, which again doesn’t require Aadhaar.


    Direct Benefit Transfers (in crores).

    For social pensions, the government directed 92.6% of Direct Benefits Transfers through NEFT in March and only 5.2% through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System.


    Direct Benefit Transfers through various modes (%).

    “Direct Benefit Transfer does not need Aadhaar. They can proceed without Aadhaar,” said Reetika Khera, an economist at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi. “Most of the DBTs so far have been using the NEFT transfer route very successfully.” Khera adds that in the last few years, corruption has reduced significantly in public schemes such as the Public Distribution System and MNREGA through simpler technology such as SMS alerts and computerisation of records.

    Senior officials acknowledge that the actual number of Aadhaar payments is very low and the number of Aadhaar-seeded accounts even lower. They say the government is trying to bring every worker with an Aadhaar number under the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System and, for this, it needs the court to include “voluntary use” of Aadhaar in a greater number of social schemes.

    “The court order has laid the ground for continuing our immediate work in Aadhaar,” said a senior official in the Direct Benefit Transfer department, which was recently placed under the Cabinet Secretariat. “We will continue to push banks and different ministries and departments to achieve higher seeding in MNREGA, pensions, Jan Dhan. We have discussed a proposal to draft a law for a new legal and statutory framework for Aadhaar.”

    We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in



    8987 - Aadhaar gets a boost - Business Stadard


    Govt should now bring forth an effective privacy law
    Business Standard Editorial Comment  |  New Delhi 

    October 21, 2015 Last Updated at 21:41 IST

    The Supreme Court's modification of its order on Aadhaar, expanding the use of the unique identification system to four additional welfare schemes - provident funds and pensions, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Jan Dhan Yojana - is a welcome step. The court's earlier decision this summer limiting Aadhaar to the public food distribution system and fuel subsidies had thrown authorities like the Ministry of Rural Development and the Election Commission into confusion. They were reported to be pulling back from using the biometric system as it was feared they would be seen to be in contempt of court. The earlier order ruled that Aadhaar could be used for food and fuel subsidies but not for other purposes, limiting the use of this potent tool to contain subsidies leakage.

    Aadhaar is best understood as a technology foundation upon which India can build a better, more-targeted and less-leaky subsidies system - food and fuel subsidies have been grossly misdirected over the past several decades. It can also help achieve radically higher rates of financial inclusion. In Bengaluru, efforts by a non-governmental organisation has seen construction labourers, among others, open bank accounts late at night at small grocery stores and remit money to their families in rural India. By being able to do so without paying onerous commissions of as much as Rs 100 for a remittance of Rs 1,000 has made them eager adopters of a financial inclusion effort that uses Aadhaar as a backbone. Aadhaar thus enjoys support at both ends of the policy spectrum: the poor without bank accounts, who are delighted to have access to services that are often elusive, and policymakers, who see larger goals such as reducing the fiscal deficit and wasteful expenditure. Not surprisingly, the judgment last week was welcomed by both the central bank governor and the finance minister. Chief Justice H L Dattu put forward an elemental question: if Aadhaar was to be used for the public distribution system and cooking gas supplies, "why not extend it to other activities?"

    The thorny question of whether Aadhaar is a threat to privacy and indeed whether privacy is a fundamental right has again been referred to a larger bench to adjudicate. Many observers have criticised the government for muddling the issue of using Aadhaar by arguing that there was no fundamental right to privacy. Indeed, the government might not have had to embark on this long and tortuous road of protracted legal challenges to Aadhaar if it had legislated adequate laws to protect privacy. Aadhaar has been something of a case study in enrolment - some 920 million Indians have an Aadhaar identity - but its safeguards and benefits are poorly understood by many in the middle class. The use of it for a "know your customer", for instance, stays within the banking system. When an authentication is done, the system does not know the purpose for which it was done. No system this large is immune from, say, a hacker, but what it replaces was riddled with abuse. But that is no excuse for not putting in place a privacy law to prevent anybody from misusing individual data. The court's decision allowing a wider use of Aadhaar should ensure improved governance that is both more humane and pragmatic in dispensing welfare benefits. The government should now urgently get down to the task of framing an effective privacy law to address all doubts and concerns over data security.


    Thursday, October 22, 2015

    8986 - Apple, Google and Twitter among 22 tech companies opposing Cisa bill - The Guardian


    Many of the world’s top technology companies are against cybersecurity plans before US Senate on privacy grounds, according to a new poll

    Senator Ron Wyden has been scathing in his distaste for the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act currently before the US Senate. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
    Sam Thielman in New York

    Wednesday 21 October 201522.37 BS

    Twenty-two of the world’s top technology companies are firmly against the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (Cisa) now on the floor of the Senate, according to a new poll by internet activists Fight for the Future.

    The poll lists Apple, Google, Twitter and Wikipedia as opposing the legislation while Comcast, HP, Cisco and Verizon are among the 12 companies who back or have remained silent on the bill. Cisa is aimed at tightening online security but has been criticised as infringing on civil liberties and privacy.

    The bill could come up for a preliminary vote as early as Wednesday. Within the Senate itself, Cisa has both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition. US Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon was succinct in his distaste for the legislation before the body on Tuesday afternoon, addressing his comments to President Barack Obama: “I heard for days that this bill would have prevented the OPM [Office of Personnel Management] attack,” Wyden said. “After technologists reviewed that particular argument, that claim has essentially been withdrawn.

    “There is a saying now in the cybersecurity field, Mr President: if you can’t protect it, don’t collect it. If more personal consumer information flows to the government without strong protections, my view is that’s going to be a prime target for hackers.”

    Even the Department of Homeland Security, designated the entry point for all the information from the bill, has come out strongly against it, saying that it “could sweep away important privacy protections”.

    Few companies that support the bill have issued public statements in favor of its current version, though many lobbied on an earlier version of the bill. Some of those companies, notably Apple, Facebook and Google, now oppose it.

    Apple in particular came out swinging against the bill on Tuesday evening, issuing a statement saying that it did not support “the current Cisaproposal,” to the Washington Post. “The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don’t believe security should come at the expense of their privacy.”

    With respect to the apparent policy reversals of companies that have supported the bill in the past, Fight for the Future campaign director Evan Greer said she thought private industry had simply read the writing on the wall.

    “I think these companies recognize that this is a supremely unpopular piece of legislation among their users,” she said. 

    “Internet users have been opposing this kind of legislation for years; I think the Senate should consider that the same users that led revolts against these companies are also voters.”

    Tech giants warn cybersecurity bill could undermine users' privacy

    The bill would allow private industry to share user information with the Department of Homeland Security, which would be compelled to share it across “relevant government agencies”, presumably including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The bill has been touted by its supporters, notably the US Chamber of Commerce, as entirely voluntary, but in fact, as Wired points out, other such “voluntary” programs mandate the kind of data reported and the frequency of the reports.

    Restrictions on the kinds of data private industry can compile from customers are significantly more lax than those within the government itself, and the granular levels of detail businesses could offer the government about user behavior – which are currently used primarily for advertising – have become a heated topic of debate.

    Fight for the Future’s list doesn’t just cover Cisa; the group also breaks down industry support for the NSA-backed plan to insert “back doors” into cryptography and whether respondents support reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA (Reagan-era legislation which allows law enforcement to request all electronic messages older than six months by serving the provider with a subpoena, rather than a search warrant).

     Fight for the Future’s scorecard highlights where companies land on mass surveillance.

    With respect to the ECPA, Microsoft is currently in the midst of a pitched legal battle with the Department of Justice over its demands for access to emails held on a server in Ireland. Microsoft argues that the case has broad implications for the ability of American companies to conduct business internationally.

    Three of the companies surveyed by Fight for the Future, Verizon, Xerox and Priceline, take the government line (or refused to answer the survey) on all three issues – cryptographic back doors, voluntarily sharing user info with the US government, and keeping old user info easy to obtain by authorities.

    But far more in the industry oppose the whole batch of programs, largely through their proxies at industry trade associations, some of which have had changes of heart over the bill’s long life:
    • The Computer and Communications Industry Association, representing Google, Facebook, Yahoo and several others: “Cisa’s prescribed mechanism for sharing of cyber threat information does not sufficiently protect users’ privacy or appropriately limit the permissible uses of information shared with the government. In addition, the bill authorizes entities to employ network defense measures that might cause collateral harm to the systems of innocent third parties.”
    • The Business Software Alliance (BSA), representing Apple, Adobe, Dell and HP, among others, did an abrupt about-face. From August: “It is important to advance legislation that removes the legal barriers that discourage information sharing between the public and privates sectors while protecting consumer privacy, and that’s a critical balance to reach.” And then, from September, after negative coverage: “For clarity, BSA does not support any of the three current bills pending before Congress, including the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (Cisa).”
    • Salesforce, represented by the BSA, felt the need to go further: “Salesforce does not support Cisa and has never supported Cisa.”
    • More broadly, Microsoft’s chief legal officer, Brad Smith, said that US attitudes toward privacy had become damaging to the ability of the tech sector to work abroad. Calling the right to privacy “fundamental”, Smith wrote: “It is untenable to expect people to rely on a notion of privacy protection that changes every timesomeone else moves their information around. No fundamental right can rest on such a shaky foundation.”
    • And Twitter, the day before the bill was reintroduced:
    Greer said objections to the bill extended to concerns about basic competence. Cisa, she said, would put sensitive information in the hands of a government that is regularly and easily hacked “at a time when people’s online data is so fragile”.


    “The concerns around this bill go so far past privacy,” Greer said. “People don’t trust the government or large corporations with their data anymore. We need mechanisms to hold them accountable and this bill goes in the exact opposite direction.”