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

Saturday, June 2, 2018

13634 - Can Big Data Help India Generate $1 Trillion In Digital Revenue By 2022? - Analytics India Mag



Can big data help create a trillion dollar economy for India? According to a report by IBM and Kalaari Capital, India has the potential to generate $1 trillion in digital revenue by 2022, and $1 trillion of economic value from the digital economy by 2025. The report adds that looking at the current numbers, it seems like India is well on its way to becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy with the adoption of new technologies which are driving digitisation. India has a robust business ecosystem and all sectors are participating with a varying degree of adoption. But it is the startups who have seized the opportunity and are charging ahead in the race, big time.

According to a McKinsey report, the suite of emergent technologies has the potential to add an economic value of $550 billion to $1 trillion per year in 2025. India’s adoption of 12 general-purpose technologies and applications such as digital payments, cloud-based services, internet of things, automation, mobile internet and adaptive learning, among others, will bring about a transformation. Much of the value created by these empowering technologies will also help the poorer sections of the population.



Key Factors Which Can Pave The Way For A Trillion-Dollar Economy:
  • Expanding digital infrastructure
  • Data explosion
  • Increasing technology adoption
  • Digital consumption
Digital Infrastructure For A Digital-First Economy: With India moving ahead towards a digital-first economy, a robust infrastructure will enable India to have similar economic opportunities as other developed global economies will help achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth. A recent news report indicated that India’s Aadhaar project, flawed as it may be, helped in creating digitised identities for the unbanked population in India.
According to industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Aadhaar enabled companies to acquire a million customers a day. The next step, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), enabled monetary transaction with mobile phone and personal identification number replacing the need for a credit card. The next Indian initiative India Stack pegged as the technology for 1.2 billion Indians, is a series of secured and connected systems that allows people to store and share personal data such as addresses, bank statements, medical records, employment records and tax filings, among other, and enables the digital signing of documents. The user controls what information is shared with whom, and electronic signature occurs through biometric authentication.
India’s Data Explosion: According to Open Signal, 2017 was the year 4G exploded in India. The country is billed as one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world with the current subscriber penetration estimated to be 40 percent which is expected to double to 80 percent by 2022. Smartphones kicked off a massive data explosion and the trend is expected to continue with a Cisco report stating that IP traffic in India will reach 4.0 exabytes per month by 2019. Mobile data traffic is also expected to increase and M2M connections are estimated to triple, reaching 10.5 billion by 2019.
Tech Adoption By India Inc: According to the IBM and Kalaari Capital report, there is a rapid change in the Indian business ecosystem with Tier I leadership teams increasingly focusing on digitisation (Wipro launched Holmes while Infosys launched Nia). Indian startups who are finding a niche in the global markets are also providing an economic push, resulting in growth in emerging tech. These disruptive technologies are bringing about new business models. For example, India’s banking sector is credited for using technology to digitise business operations and to create new delivery models, such as online brokerage, mobile banking, and online insurance sales.
Capacity Building And Digital Literacy: India has made sustained efforts to strengthen the physical infrastructure that will help the country re-engineer some of the core government processes and also integrate other services on technology platforms. An expanding digital infrastructure provides a strong base for a data-driven economy and it can also facilitate in realising a trillion-dollar digital economy. The government also needs to address the barriers to technology adoption and foster digital literacy.
Digital literacy can be achieved by setting up special-purpose government-sponsored technical organisations which are focused on training and capacity building. In due time, the government will also have to provide policies and regulation and create standards with laws on copyright, data ownership and intellectual property. The country is already following global best practices for implementing large-scale innovations.

R&D Spending: Another area which can help the country realise a trillion-dollar economy from data and physical infrastructure is investment in R&D. Presently, the R&D spending in India, at just 0.87 percent of GDP, and is exponentially lower than countries like Brazil, China, US, UK and even South Korea. India should attract more R&D investment, forge tie-ups with global corporations and the domestic private sector. The government should also tie up with the private sector to build technical know-how and expertise in areas such as data analytics and setting up CoE.