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

Thursday, February 15, 2018

12805 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 15th Febriuary 2018



The Hindu
After the Supreme Court decided to take up together the 27 writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme, a five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan began hearing ...




The News Minute
The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru could soon use Aadhaar for identification and allow travellers to board their airplanes without a ticket in hand, by the end of this year. Speaking at an interaction with representatives of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and ...



The Hindu
At an interaction with representatives of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) on Wednesday, Hari Marar, managing director and president of the BIAL, said their “exciting project” would use the “powerful tool” of Aadhaar identification to eliminate the need for paper ...






Moneycontrol.com
"The effective date for mandatory submission of PAN and Aadhaar number with requisite documents at the time of opening new folio or account, will now be April 1, 2018 instead of February 15, 2018. "Accordingly, no new folio account will be opened without the said documents effective April 1, 2018," ...






Business Standard
The Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI's) decision to not renew its agreement with common service centres (CSCs) for Aadhaar-related services could possibly hit thousands of jobs and investments worth millions. More than 50,000 jobs could be at risk as Aadhaar enrolment and updation ...



India Today
Thanks to the poor security system of maintaining confidential database of the citizens, after Aadhaar data leak it now appears your voter ID details can be illegally accessed and sold for 50 paise to Rs 2.50. By using certain commands on the computer, all the confidential data such as the mobile number, ...






Business Standard
While the Supreme Court is hearing a case on Aadhaar, it seems this identity card is fast becoming mandatory for journalists who wish to attend press conferences hosted by various ministries. Or at least to get an entry into one of the various post-Budget interactions of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.






Jagran Josh
The Aadhaar project was recognised as the world's largest biometric enabled identification programme, which provides access to service income tax, passport services, bank accounts, social services benefits aimed at providing 1.2 billion citizens unique identification card with fingerprint, eye-print and ...






The New Indian Express
BENGALURU: In a medical seat fraud racket busted by Mico Layout police, they have found that the accused used fake Aadhaar cards to create bank accounts to cheat post-graduate medical seat aspirants. According to police, accused Rajath Shetty and Jayaprakash Singh changed their names and ...






Times of India
Amid calls from telecom companies for linking his Aadhar to the phone numbers, an 81-year-old retired Class I officer, SM Agarwal in state capital is worried that his mobile service would soon be deactivated, as it could not be linked to Aadhaar. Agrawal had a harrowing time running from pillar to post for ...



The New Indian Express
ADILABAD: Lack of mobile phone network, which is causing problems in disbursement of PDS essential commodities at some places, has claimed the life of a woman who went to purchase ration from a Fair Price Shop (FPS).With failing mobile signals, several ration shop dealers were putting their Point ...






Daijiworld.com
Ahmedabad, Feb 15 (DHNS): Prahlad Modi, president of Association of Fair Price Shopkeepers in Gujarat and elder brother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday repeated his threat to close down fair price shops across the state over glitches in linking of Aadhaar with accounts of ...






Bitcoin News (press release)
Indian cryptocurrency exchanges are reportedly planning to create a database of crypto traders and their transactions. User account data would be tied to either an Aadhaar ID or a Permanent Account Number. This proposal comes amidst the Indian government actively working on crypto regulations.






Business Standard
Net profit of Aadhaar Ventures India remain constant at Rs 0.02 crore in the quarter ended December 2017 and also during the previous quarter ended December 2016. Sales rose 291.89% to Rs 2.90 crore in the quarter ended December 2017 as against Rs 0.74 crore during the previous quarter ended ...






NYOOOZ
Also, she was denied the test for the want of an Aadhaar card.Sources said a two-member team, which is said to have completed its probe in the matter, had found the two guilty of negligence. And both the doctor and the nurse were likely to face strict action, they added.The team, comprising Dr Suraj ...






Times of India
Indore: Indore cell of state cyber police on Wednesday arrested two persons for duping e-commerce websites of lakhs of rupees by making purchases and seeking refunds by claiming that the items were not received. The accused transacted using SIM cards linked with Aadhaar cards of unsuspecting ...



Cherry Grrl
Mr Kapil Sibal was trying to convince Justice D Y Chandrachud about the need for striking the Aadhaar legislation but the judge could not be convinced. Mr Sibal was talking on behalf of one of the many petitioners against Aadhaar on how the Aadhaar number violated the citizen's fundamental right to ...






Times of India
On Monday, the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee (BACC) said it would look at proposals for further compliance with the Finance Ministry with user database, transaction records apart from Aadhaar and PAN card submission. With Indian exchanges like Unocoin, Zebpay, Coinsecure, keen on ...






eGov Magazine | Elets (satire) (press release) (blog)
We are working very closely with the Governments and are the only company to issue PAN Cards and Aadhaar Cards on behalf of the Government of India. For Aadhaar Cards, we do handle the entire registration process as Registrar for Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), says Gagan Rai, ...






Times of India
The documents provided to the other bank were in the name of Rajesara, but Patel had tampered with the photos on the PAN card and Aadhaar card to get the credit card issued. “We swung into action after Rajesara approached us and nabbed Patel, a resident of the Vasna area of the city,” added a ...






Times of India
Taking a strong note of the reported fraud being committed by affiliated teachers' training colleges in the state, the chancellor's secretariat has already directed the universities to link the salary accounts of teachers serving in different training colleges with their Aadhaar numbers in order to check the ...






ISBuzz News
To accommodate that increase, the government implemented a standard set of APIs (Aadhaar, eKYC and DigitalLocker, etc.) and even rolled out its own payment app–Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM)– in late 2016, to enable payments from any bank 24/7 in real-time and expedite the move towards a ...






India TV
There were 5 people in the room,out of which one is injured & has been sent to hospital. Their purpose can only be identified after investigation. One aadhaar card & pistol have been recovered from room: Avkash Kumar, #Arrah SP on explosion at Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharmshala #Bihar pic.twitter.com/ ...



Afternoon Voice
The wife of the constable, who died in Kargil War, has passed away in a hospital in Haryana as she was not given treatment on time just because of not having Aadhaar. There are a lot of such stories! The question remains, Aadhaar or any rule or construction is formed for the ease of public or to harass ...