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

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

9997 - Two years of NDA government: Aim to install e-PoS devices at all PDS outlets by 2019, says Ram Vilas Paswan - Financial Express

When we took over, only 11 states had rolled out the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

By: Sandip Das | Updated: May 16, 2016 10:13 AM

When we took over in 2014, only 2% of the ration cards were seeded with Aadhaar.(PTI)

In the last two years of the NDA government, the focus has been on reforming the public distribution system (PDS) through measures such as digitalisation and Aadhaar-seeding of ration cards and linking of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns through an online platform. These measures have led to weeding out of more than a crore fake ration cards. Union minister of food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan spoke to Sandip Das on the wide range of issues concerning his ministry. Edited excerpts:

Q: In the last two years, how much has been the progress in terms of PDS reforms?
When we took over, only 11 states had rolled out the National Food Security Act (NFSA). At that time, the work related to digitisation of ration cards or their seeding with Aadhaar or online allocation of foodgrain to states, computerisation of supply chain management etc, were not initiated. The 11 states, just out of political compulsion, had launched the NFSA to garner votes in the 2014 elections. The Act was rolled out in these 11 states just to show that grains are being distributed at Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 1 for coarse cereals, and nothing was there in the name of reforming the PDS.
When we took over in 2014, only 2% of the ration cards were seeded with Aadhaar. Today, it has risen to 53.04% as on April 19, 2016. Now, if you go by state-wise progress, states and UTs like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chandigarh have seeded all their ration cards with Aadhaar. I want to stress that no state has achieved less than 50% Aadhaar seeding of ration cards with the exception of UP and Bihar. In Bihar, Aadhaar seeding is just 0.06% and in Uttar Pradesh, it’s only 37.82%. The worst performer is Bihar, which is also among the poorest state in the country.

Similarly, online foodgrain allocation was on in nine states, today it has risen to 26 states, supply chain was computerised just in four states, but today, almost 15 states have computerised supply chains. Besides, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in PDS was not there, but now it has been started in UTs — Puducherry, Chandigarh and the urban areas of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The FCI’s depot online was not initiated then, but by July 2016, all the 550 FCI depots would be come under an online platform.

Q: What is the progress in terms of modernising PDS outlets and what is the vision for the next three years?
The electronic point of sale (e-Pos) devices was there in just 5,835 ration shops as on May 2014, but as of April 24, 2016, it has increased to 1,01,435 shops. Bend of March 2017, e-Pos will be set up in 3,00,000 shops and by 2019, all the 50,00,000 ration shops in the country would be connected through point of sale devices except may be in some hilly areas.

Q: Could the better implementation of NFSA in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have prevented some of the reported hunger-related deaths in these states?
It’s the state’s responsibility to identify vulnerable and poor families to be covered under the NFSA and the Centre’s task is to fix criteria about percentage of population to be covered in the urban and rural areas. Had the states done the identification properly even under NFSA, no poor would have been left out of the mega food security scheme. There will be no starvation death due to Centre’s laxity. Still, if there are starvation deaths despite the NFSA being implemented, it means the concerned state government is incompetent and the entire onus lies with them.
Doubts are being raised that the government is unlikely to meet the wheat procurement target of 28 million tonne for the 2016-17 rabi procurement season?
We are keeping a close watch on the situation, but whether we can meet the target will be known in few weeks’ time, but any drop in procurement would not impact our PDS distribution and the retail prices would not go up as we have more than adequate wheat stocks with FCI.

The spike in price of pulses remains a worry for inflation managers. What are the measures the government is taking to deal with the situation?
On pulses, I have very clearly said if pulses’ prices rise, it would be responsibility of the state government. I can accept the pulses prices (specially urad and arhar) till Rs 120 per kg, but if there is a price increase beyond Rs 120 a kg, it will be the responsibility of the state government, as we have already directed states to give their requirement of pulses which we will provide from our buffer stock. States also have a role to play in growing pulses. We have also tightened the noose around importers and directed the revenue department to take strict action against hoarders.

What about the recent issues concerning Punjab’s PDS system which led to delays in banks providing cash credit limit to the state? What are the steps being taken to resolve the issue?
I won’t go into the quantity (of amount payable to Punjab from FCI), but would only deal with the policy part of this. The Centre pays Punjab in two ways— one is through the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is paid immediately and there is no dues from any state on that front. The second expenditure relates to transportation and other incidentals. In it, we pay 90% of the expenditure immediately which includes that for gunny bags etc, the entire problem is of the remaining 10%. We are trying to sort this out and have held discussion with the states and also in the PMO. As far as dealing with the banks is concern, the Centre can’t intervene in that.