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

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

10061 - Modinomics has made India a stronger economy today - Daily O



In the last two years, our ranking in terms of 'global competitiveness' and 'ease of doing business' has jumped by leaps and bounds.

Sanju Verma

Comparisons can be odious and yet they abound, especially in the case of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His perception is subjective to the different socioeconomic sections that view him through their own characteristic lenses.

It is, however, the uniqueness of "Modinomics" that runs through these perceptions. For, PM Modi welcomes FDI in insurance, railways, food processing, banks, retail, defence, etc, and yet he very well knows the importance of agriculture in Indian economy.

It is this emphasis for the farm sector that explains why his government has earmarked more than Rs 87,000 crore in the Budget for rural India and an additional Rs 2.2 lakh crore will be the government's spending on infrastructure in 2016-17.
Doubling farm incomes by 2022 and housing for all are not jumlas, as naysayers would have us believe. PM Modi has already taken the ambitious step of dismantling APMCs (agricultural produce market committee) and launching, e-NAM (e-National Agriculture Market) which will initially cover 21 wholesale markets in eight states across 585 mandis and gradually spread out a la Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc.

Pradhan Matri Jan Dhan Yojana is one of the many inititaives taken by Modi sarkar to empower the masses. (PTI)
In contrast, all that an inept Congress-led UPA government did for the farming class was to keep doling lucrative MSP (minimum support prices) hikes year after year when statistically it has been proven that the benefits of MSPs rarely reached the small and marginal farmers.

Big farmers and middlemen looted the MSP bonuses and leakages in some cases were as high as 60 per cent. The MSP hikes only led to higher inflation with rich farmers getting richer, while the poor getting poorer.

Targeting subsidies through JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile number) and DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) will ensure money from government coffers reaches those who need it most.


These moves, howsoever small-ticket moves they may seem, have improved the country's economic outlook. So much so that the likes of S&P and Moody's have upgraded India's economic outlook from stable to positive, which is a far cry from 2012 when S&P had downgraded India's outlook to negative.
In the last two years, India's ranking in terms of "global competitiveness" and "ease of doing business" has jumped by leaps and bounds.

More than $95 billion in FDI in last two years is a towering testimony to how the Modi juggernaut is transforming India.
Also, Startup India has given entrepreneurs a fresh lease of life, even as Mudra Bank has empowered lives of over three crore ordinary individuals.
Modi baiters have often opined that "Modinomics" is inequitable and anti-minorities.

This is nothing but a bunch of concocted lies. Even as the Gujarat CM, Modi's growth model boasted of lowest poverty ratio amongst Muslims at just 7.7 per cent.
Infant mortality rates had reduced to below 38 per cent versus the national average of more than 41 per cent. Five crore LPG connections to women by 2019 and the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, which secures the financial emancipation of the girl child, are just a few examples of how "Modinomics" marries compassion with economic sagacity.
Critics have also slammed Modi for "jobless growth", which is again a myth. Ten lakh youth have already got enrolled with 70 per cent having completed their training for taking up meaningful jobs, under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.
By 2017, 24 lakh youth would have got jobs as part of the Skill India mission. World Bank says that every ten per cent rise in broadband penetration leads to 1.38 per cent growth in GDP, with creation of millions of jobs. The Modi government has already started the process of digitising 2,50,000 gram panchayats.

Broadband users have risen from 60 million to 120 million in barely two years and internet users have grown to 400 million from less than 150 million in 2014.
A knowledge economy that "Modinomics" is working towards, will not only bridge the urban-rural divide but also create at least five crore new jobs in next few years.
Under the UPA, India had a lost decade as growth fell from nine per cent to below five per cent, industrial growth came down to barely 0.5 per cent, consumer inflation soared to above 11 per cent, and fiscal deficit was well over four per cent.
Under Modi, growth has risen to 7.6 per cent and heading north, current account deficit is 1.3 per cent and heading south, consumer inflation is below four per cent, and fiscal deficit is sub four per cent.
And, to top it all, we have a balance of payments surplus with record forex reserves at $360 billion and growing.
In two years, India is not only more vibrant and strong economically, but also the world now takes us much more seriously than ever before.
And it's just the beginning of "achhe din" PM Modi has promised.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)
*The copy was updated on May 30, 2016.