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

Monday, February 12, 2018

12937 - SEBI's clean chit to largest Aadhaar enrolment agency Vakrangee raises eyebrows - India Today

SEBI's clean chit to largest Aadhaar enrolment agency Vakrangee raises eyebrows

  • Virendrasingh Ghunawat
  • Mumbai
  • February 9, 2018
  • UPDATED 18:06 IST
  • Follow @vsghunawat
  • HIGHLIGHTS
  • Founded on May 29, 1990, Vakrangee was named as one of Asia's 200 'Best Under a Billion' company
  • Since past eight days, the stock price of Vakrangee has crashed by almost 60 per cent
  • Reports of SEBI investigation against Vakrangee and Aadhaar data leak have hit the company's market value
  • Allegations of price manipulation have surfaced against Vakrangee
Reuters
Dalal Street

This is an interesting story of a listed company in stock market, which was once a penny stock of 50 paise in 2009 and went straight into the Forbes list in six years.

Forbes had named Vakrangee Ltd among Asia's 200 'Best Under a Billion' companies for 2015 with market capitalisation of USD 821 million. Till January 25, 2018, with the stock price of Rs 505 per share, Vakrangee Ltd was nearly a Rs 40,000 crore company by market value.

Founded on May 29, 1990, Vakrangee is a technology-driven company and a major player in providing e-governance services such as Aadhaar biometric cards, passport and railway tickets across India.

THE FALL
Over the past eight days, the stock price of Vakrangee Ltd has crashed by almost 60 per cent and is locked in a 10 per cent lower circuit at Rs 192 per share. Due to heavy selling of shares, more than Rs 27,000 crore (market cap) of investor's money in Vakrangee stocks has been wiped out.

Vakranjee's stock price rose exponentially on January 25, 2018 only to crash later.

WHAT WENT WRONG?
Vakrangee's management in an official statement said that due to baseless news reports on Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) investigation against Vakrangee for alleged rigging and manipulation of the company's share prices the share price fell.

Market analysts, however, believe there is more to the story. Many felt that the "news report of Aadhaar card's data leakage" also affected the company's value as it is the largest enrollment agency for UIDAI.


As Vakrangee's stocks plummet, high net worth individuals (HNIs) and investors have become vigilant. Some of them have started hiring "smart brains" on Dalal Street to conduct an internal investigation into the dealings in Vakrangee Ltd.

One senior stock broker told Indiatoday.in: I have got an assignment from a leading investor who has invested around Rs 200-250 crore in Vakrangee Ltd. This investor is worried if the company is bonafide, and if his investment is safe.

A market analyst said: How the company makes money, God only knows. It is a case where promoter himself gives money to people to purchase shares of his own company. Perception of Vakrangee is bad in the market, but surprisingly, the stock prices are going up without any fundamentals and big names are seen in its shareholding list.

WHAT DID SEBI DO?
According to National Stock Exchange (NSE), it had submitted three analysis reports (kind of complaint) to market regulator SEBI pertaining to insider trading and price and volume manipulation in November 2009, May 2012 and July 2016.
The third analysis report filed by NSE (the copy is with Indiatoday.in) before SEBI highlighted that during period January 2016 to June 30, 2016, a group of 22 clients related to each other as well as to the company was seen continuously buying and selling, together accounting significantly to the market gross.

"On a daily basis, the group accounted for as high as 74.87 per cent to market gross on certain days", the report said.
"The average quantity traded per day by this group of clients during the period July 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 was 4.25 lakh shares buy and 5.19 lakh shares sell which increased significantly by almost 70 per cent to 8.05 lakh shares buy and 8.16 lakh shares sell during January 2016 to June 30, 2016," the NSE report informed. Of the 22 clients, 18 had more than 90 per cent trading activity in this scrip only.

SEBI began its preliminary enquiry. The Integrated Surveillance Department (ISD) of SEBI observed that large group of connected entities hasbeen contributing significantly to the gross traded volume, with significant percentage of trade happening among themselves and several of them having 100 per cent concentration in Vakrangee scrip only. ISD expanded the list of connected clients from 22 to 119 clients based on the available information.
After finding suspicious trading, ISD forwarded the matter to Investigation Department (IVD) of SEBI to ascertain whether there was any violation of the provisions of SEBI Act, 1992 and SEBI Regulations, 2003 in the trading by 119 suspected entities in the scrip of Vakrangee Ltd during the investigation period.
In a confidential report (the copy is with Indiatoday.in), SEBI highlighted its findings before giving a clean chit to Vakrangee Ltd. These findings were:
  • Total synchronised trades by the suspected entities on BSE and NSE was 12.34 per cent and 1.97 per cent of total market volume of the respective exchange during the investigation period. Thus, the percentage of synchronised trades to total market volume by suspected entities in BSE and NSE is insignificant.
  • On circular/reversal of trade issue, no specific trading pattern such as circular of trades/reversal of trades was observed during investigation period.
  • LTP contribution by suspected entities on BSE/NSE is not substantial.
  • No major off market transfers have been observed during the investigation period.
  • No adverse inference is drawn from the analysis of trading of suspected entities.
  • Based on findings of the investigation, it is recommended that we may not pursue the matter any further.
Queries sent to SEBI officials by Indiatoday.in remain unanswered.
SEBI CLEAN CHIT RAISES EYEBROWS
While talking to Indiatoday.in, market analysts on Dalal Street suspect foul play. Some contrasted Vakrangee's case with earlier manipulators in the stock market and how SEBI dealt with them.
In March 2009, SEBI examined the trading data of the Futures and Options (F&O) segment in the NSE for January to March 2007. It was observed that some stock brokers were buying and selling almost equal quantities of contracts within the day and such buy/sell was synchronised in nature.
"The time difference between the buy and sell order is only in seconds. Most of the orders were matched in a time gap of 1, 2 or 3 seconds and many orders have matched to the exact second i.e. time difference of zero. This is proof enough to establish the existence of synchronisation of trades", SEBI's order against Rakhi Trading Pvt Ltd said. SEBI is currently challenging this case in the Supreme Court.
A senior stock broker said that in the Rakhi Trading case, SEBI pointed out artificial trading, the same seems to be the case with Vakrangee but here the decision looks "managed".
A market analyst said, "It is a clear-cut case of price manipulation and rigging. Why has SEBI ignored (these) is questionable? I have heard that pressure is mounting on two independent directors (ex-LIC and ex-SEBI) to resign from Vakrangee's board before further action is taken against the company. How much of this is true, only time will tell."
Out of ten directors on Vakrangee's board, six are independent. Among them are Ramesh Joshi, former executive director of SEBI and Thangavelu Sitharthan, ex-Chief of Legal at Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).
If sources are to be believed, a fresh complaint was filed by a set of investors-cum-shareholders (including few FIIs) against Vakrangee Ltd in November 2017 with allegations of price manipulation. SEBI has started looking into the matter.
The Income Tax department is also keeping a close eye on Vakrangee Ltd. A senior I-T official told Indiatoday.in that "if the shareholding patterns of last 10 years (of the company) are examined, then one would find names of some entities who are not only holding majority of shares but also rigging the price on behalf of promoter".
The I-T official said, "If NSE's bulk deals are examined, then there are huge deals done by these entities, where shares were sold in crores of money. Where the money gone has gone, that needs to be investigated".
VAKRANGEE DENIES CHARGES
Replying to a detailed questionnaire by Indiatoday.in, the spokesperson of Vakrangee Ltd said, "We are not aware of any NSE report. We have not received any communication with respect to any complaint/investigation from the NSE and SEBI related to inside trading and price manipulation. The rumour of the company involvement in price volume manipulation is completely untrue and baseless."
Vakrangee denied allegations about role of independent directors in getting clean chit from SEBI.
The company said, "The independent director from LIC and Ex-ED of SEBI are respectable people with high integrity. Thus, these are completely untrue and baseless allegations".

Vakrangee claimed that it is a debt-free company. "At the peak, the company debt was Rs 1,142 crore i.e. short-term debt of Rs 750 crore and long-term debt of Rs 392 crore. In fact, we are in the process of getting the status of debt-free company updated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA)," the company stated.
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