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 1, 2018

13406 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 1st May 2018


The News Minute
Over the last few months, cell phone users must have grown all too used to telecom companies sending persistent messages, urging them to link their Aadhaar. This, even as the Supreme Court has said that linking of the Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory as long as the arguments against its ...


Times of India
On the one hand, Aadhaar has helped to cut down the time taken for brokers to complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) process from a few days to just a few minutes. On the other, the launch of Reliance Jio in September 2016, which led to cut-throat competition in the telecom space, also helped these ...






Times of India (blog)
Well-meaning activists opposing private Aadhaar use are trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Inflammatory articles notwithstanding, there are genuine concerns with privacy which should be constraints on the use of Aadhaar and other data services, but not by banning private companies from ...






The Indian Express
A day after Aadhaar and cellphone numbers, names of pregnant women and recent mothers were allegedly leaked and appeared on the state Women and Child Welfare Department's website, the Andhra Pradesh government on Monday launched an operation to secure data with 33 departments.






Scroll.in
Good that the Supreme Court finally confronted the government on the deceit (“At the very end of SC's Aadhaar hearings, government admits it has been dishonest all along”). Being an avowed no-Aadhaar person, I have been diligently following developments in the case and even I, a lay person, knew ...






India Today
While the discussion on making Aadhaar card mandatory is still on, the Andhra Pradesh government has made Aadhaar a must for all those visiting the state Secretariat's office situated in Amaravati. On Monday, the state government issued an order asking visitors to produce only Aadhaar card as the ...




The Tribune
A patient did not submit the Aadhaar card during his first visit, so I asked him to bring it on his next visit. But on his next visit, he started misbehaving and refused to submit the same. It is my duty and I was doing the same,” said Dr Veenu Khanna, Ayurvedic Medical Officer at Jawahar Nagar dispensary.






Beebom (blog)
It appears that the stream of Aadhaar data leaks is not going to stop anytime soon. Last week a government website in Andhra Pradesh leaked Aadhaar data of around 7 million children, and just a few days after that another state government portal leaked the Aadhaar details of over 10 million social ...




Business Today
A study by consulting firm Microsave, commissioned by NITI Aayog on the performance of the ongoing pilot direct benefit transfer in fertilizer (DBT-F), programmes shows improvement in success rates of Aadhaar authentication but slippage in real time Aadhaar authenticated transactions. A gradual ...






Economic Times
The government plans to encourage whistle-blowers to inform it about suspicious activities at corporates and is working to link Aadhaar details of ... The Minister of State for Corporate Affairs said linking of Aadhaar details with company filings would help ascertain the authenticity of the individuals ...




Asia Times
India's all-pervasive digital identity programme Aadhaar appears to be facing a fresh security scare. The concern may also have national security implications, as suggested by material accessed by Asia Times. The key to the latest security breach comes from a modified Aadhaar enrolment software, ...






News18
Finally, the uncertainties and vulnerabilities of rural life have recently been compounded not only by the demonetisation blunder but also by growing chaos in the banking system as well as the disruptive effects of Aadhaar on the PDS and other welfare schemes. The recent wave of starvation deaths in ...






Livemint
The rush to get Aadhaar linked to bank accounts, before the Supreme Court deferred its implementation, was an eye-opener to a lot of non-resident Indians ( NRIs) settled overseas. Emotions ranged from panic, as there were no plans to visit India and thus no way to get an Aadhaar, to the operational ...






BuzzFeed News
Compromised copies of a computer program used to enrol more than a billion Indians into Aadhaar, the country's controversial biometric ID program, are ... letting anyone with access to the program add new entries to the Aadhaar database or modify their own existing entry with no checks and balances.






Business Standard
This led to a financial loss for village-level entrepreneurs, who used to earn a substantial amount by providing Aadhaar-related services. It also led to job losses. An official in the IT ministry said railway ticket bookings would offset the losses CSCs suffered due to withdrawal of Aadhaar work.






Livemint
1. Download Umang App from Android, iOS app store: The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has hosted its services on Umang app. Launched by ministry of electronics and information technology, it is a common platform for various government services such as Aadhaar, crop insurance, ...






The Wire
To get their meagre wages or pensions, they have to submit numerous documents, link their accounts with Aadhaar, go through e-KYC again, stand in queues for hours, and run from pillar to post when their money is held up due to technical problems. According to the NREGA's management and ...






Financial Chronicle (press release) (blog)
The government plans to encourage whistle-blowers to inform it about suspicious activities at companies and is working to link Aadhaar details of stakeholders with filings made under the company's law, Union minister PP Chaudhary has said. Embarking on multi-pronged efforts to clamp down on illicit ...






India Today
As a sample, he also sent ten Excel sheets of citizen information containing their names, addresses, PAN, Aadhaar, mobile, SIM and even economic details. "If anyone is in job and if their CV is put up on a job portal, then you'll get whatever you want," he revealed. If anyone has a credit card, I'll get that ...






MediaNama.com
Kotak Mahindra Bank's 811 service, a zero-balance digital savings account that can only be opened by downloading the bank's app and authenticating oneself with Aadhaar and a one-time-password, had more than 13 million customers as of 31st March 2018, up from 12 million by the end of the ...






The Telegraph India
Initially, Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system will not be launched but later, the system will be made Aadhaar-based. The corporation also has decided to cut salaries of sanitation workers on the basis of their biometric attendance," said a senior official, wishing anonymity. The official added: "As ...






The Hindu
The bank had apparently used his Aadhaar to trace his other bank account. “They had earlier forced me to take an Aadhaar card,” he said. He has repaid Rs. 75,000 of the loan amount. Mr. Prabakaran has also been guiding other aspirants in his village to clear competitive examinations. Bank officials in ...






Deccan Chronicle
Hyderabad: Rachakonda Police on Monday arrested a 30-year-old Rohingya national at Balapur for allegedly possessing a fake passport and Aadhaar card. The suspect is identified as Mohammed Hussaini. In 2018, more than 20 Rohingyas were arrested by Balapur Police on various charges.






Deccan Herald
... government/state government/PSU), bank or post office passbook with photo, PAN card, smart card by RGI under NPR, MNREGA job card, health insurance card issued by the Ministry of Labour, pension document with photo, photo voter slip, ID card issued to MPs, MLAs/MLCs, and Aadhaar card.






Economic Times
They don't believe in Aadhaar, which they started. They don't believe in the Supreme Court, which is the prime institution. They don't believe in Election Commission, which all parties have confidence in. Party tickets have been given to eight members of former mining baron Janardhan Reddy's cohorts.