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, December 5, 2017

12454 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 1st December 2017



Economic Times
Online retailer Amazon has asked customers to upload their Aadhaar numbers to track lost packages. A Bengaluru-based car rental platform Zoomcar has said it won't accept bookings without Aadhaar as proof of identity. While Amazon and other internet companies are now making the 12-digit unique ...



The Hindu
The Andhra Pradesh government is rolling out Aadhaar-enabled distribution of fertilizers through Electronic Point of Sales (E-Pos) machines from Friday. The subsidy would be credited to the manufacturers of fertilizers, only after the farmers procure the fertilizer from the dealer. In Guntur district alone, ...






findBIOMETRICS
Amazon is now asking Indian customers to provide their Aadhaar information in order to find lost packages, according to a new BuzzFeed report. Amazon Demands Aadhaar Info to Track Lost Packages in India. Aadhaar is the largest and most ambitious national biometric ID program in the world.






Moneycontrol.com
Noting that Aadhaar is helping in bringing about an "irreversible change" in the interest of the people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Unique Identification Number will work as a "big weapon" in the fight against benami property too. Aadhaar has a played a "big role" in ensuring that ...



Hindustan Times
Saying he was ready to pay a political price for fighting corruption, Modi described Aadhaar, which is facing legal challenges over privacy concerns, as an irreversible change, a term he used to play on the HT summit's theme of The Irreversible Rise of India. “By linking Aadhaar to mobile and Jan Dhan, ...



Firstpost
We understand Aadhaar is the most widely held. So it is our preferred one.” Amazon has not made Aadhaar mandatory and added that “If a customer is unable to share a government-certified identification proof, Amazon, as a customer-centric organisation, will continue to process the request based on ...






Outlook India
Mumbai, Nov 30 The Maharashtra circle of the Department of Posts today started its Aadhaar enrolment facility at select post offices across the state. The facility was inaugurated at the GPO today by Chief Post Master General (CPMG) H C Agrawal. Four-year-old Soham Sonawane became the first ...






NDTV
Establishments with large number of new joiners every month are facing problem in generation of UAN due to mismatch of input data with Aadhaar," the notification said. So EPFO has provided a functionality at Unified Portal "through which any citizen (prospective employee) can generate his/her UAN ...






Greater Kashmir
The minister said this while chairing a meeting of the Information Technology Department convened to review the progress made regarding Aadhaar enrolment for the population of the state, according to an official spokesperson. It was informed in the meeting that the department has disbursed money to ...






Hindustan Times
The government is pushing for mandatory use of Aadhaar for various schemes and services, including bank accounts and phone numbers, saying it is necessary to plug leaks in its welfare programmes and curb corruption. But activists say the law and the government's decision infringe individual privacy ...






Zee Business
Clarification was sought from the telecom major after allegations that the company was using Aadhaar data to open Airtel Payments bank accounts. Airtel said mobile re-verification and Aadhaar were two separate transactions. Airtel's shares were marginally lower in the early trade session on BSE ...



Business Standard
As per the Government of India notification, all mutual fund folios must be linked with Aadhaar number before December 31 this year, failing which the folios will be frozen. Following this, FundzBazar launched this facility for its investors to link Aadhaar number to their Mutual Fund folios across all Asset ...






Hindu Business Line
Aadhaar has facilitated the disbursal of $38.3 billion in direct benefit transfer under various schemes so far, said Manoj Sinha, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Communications. Addressing the first edition of the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) Symposium, Sinha said studies have ...






Scroll.in
While it is compulsory for each child to have an Aadhaar card, no child will be denied service at any anganwadi, Women and Child Development Secretary Rakesh Shrivastava said. “But simultaneously, the Anganwadi worker will get the child's Aadhaar made,” Shrivastava said. “We are giving an ...






Business Today
India's economic growth in the second quarter (July-September) of current fiscal rose to 6.3 per cent compared to 5.7 per cent in first quarter (April-June). The GDP growth is in line with Forecasts made by SBI Research, Ficci, Reuters poll and Bloomberg. Moments after the GDP data was released, ...






The Telegraph
To book sand, one would have to visit www.mines.bih.nic.in or call up 0612-2215266 between 10am and 5pm on weekdays, a source in the mines and geology department said. Aadhaar number would have to be provided to book sand. In case of commercial use, one would have to provide PAN details ...






Afternoon Voice
About 210 websites connected with the state and centre including the educational institutions have made Aadhaar information public. It is stated that for the knowledge of the public these information's are being made public. The information contained in the Aadhaar is confidential. No other person ...







India.com
East India Comedy (EIC) is back with another parody, and this time they are trying their best to convey the government's message (adj: infamous) unto us. After striking the right chord with their audience with the widely watched 'Modi song' in March, this one on Aadhaar card will equally entertain you.





Times of India
"Mahaonline is the nodal agency that carries out Aadhaar enrolment. The operators have been directed that even if the fingerprints are not read by the machine, the receipt generated along with the documents submitted for Aadhaar should be forwarded to me. I would then forward them to UIDAI and we ...






The Hindu
Lauding the success of Aadhaar and ISRO, Mr. Ambani said, “With nearly 1.2 billion enrolled members, Aadhaar is the world's largest and the most sophisticated, biometric ID system. India has created this infrastructure from scratch within a decade. In this area, India is now a clear leader, and Aadhaar is ...






NDTV
Aadhaar number is mandatory for registration. CBSE has made it mandatory to have an Aadhaar card to apply for the exam. Such candidates who already have an Aadhaar card will have to enter their aadhaar number in their application form. Those who have applied for their Aadhaar but have not ...






Moneycontrol.com
While registering for the scheme, the citizens may have to fill in the required details such as name, area, Aadhaar card number and so on in the application form. Once the application is filled, the customer will receive an application number which can be later used to track the status of the application.






ETTelecom.com
UIDAI asks Airtel to explain by Dec 4 opening of bank A/cs sans consent KOLKATA: Aadhaar authority has set a December 4 deadline for top mobile operator Bharti Airtel to explain why action must not be taken against it for allegedly opening bank accounts of its customers without their informed consent ...