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

Friday, June 29, 2018

13757 - Aadhaar linking boosts NREGS: Modi’s JAM trinity fast tracks workers’ payment disbursals - Financial Express


Narendra Modi government’s apparent insistence on mandatory linking with Aadhaar may have drawn criticism from various quarters with people raising eyebrows, but the project has given a big boost to rural employment by aiding assured jobs and quicker disbursals of payments under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

By: FE Online | New Delhi | Published: June 28, 2018 3:22 PM
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Aadhaar linking boosts NREGS

Narendra Modi government’s apparent insistence on mandatory linking with Aadhaar may have drawn criticism from various quarters with people raising eyebrows, but the project has given a big boost to rural employment by aiding assured jobs and quicker disbursals of payments under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The NREGS benefitted from faster wage transfers and easier allotment of work due to the biometric Aadhaar identification, which nearly 90% of the country’s population has already received, a study by the Indian School of Business shows.

NREGS, previously known as MNREGA, was floated in 2005 for the rural farming population, mainly to help the people tide over any farm distress due to harsh conditions, such as drought. The scheme mandates the state government to offer minimum 100 days of employment for at least one member of each family that asks for it.

“The interesting part of NREGA is that it does not have the biometric authentication requirement because the job card is directly linked to the Aadhaar and the bank account, the wages are paid directly into the bank, so there is no need for biometric authentication,” said professor Ashwini Chhatre, Executive Director, Indian School of Business.

JAM session
“We did not expect such a big effect,” Ashwini Chhatre told FE Online when asked if the researchers had expected this result. “What we thought was that expenditure will go up, because of the efficiency improvement — but not that it will be the opposite of what it was before or the change to be this swift. Even we did not expect this magnitude of difference!” he said.
NREGS was launched to increase employment opportunity during the times of distress, thus making it counter-cyclical. But after studying NREGA data of the Financial Years 2011-2017, it has been found that prior to the advent of JAM trinity of Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile linking, the employment scheme used to work in a procyclic manner. That is, average employment decreased with the increase of drought and distress.
The possible reason behind this is the long process of payment reimbursement by the government — which included gram panchayat, mandal, district administration and state government, which meant the workers had to work for days, practically without payment. Thus, many used to back out from availing the scheme or used to opt for schemes that would pay much less.
However, since the Jan Dhan Yojana, which covered 90 per cent of the country’s population under the mainstream banking system, and linking of the biometric identity proof of Aadhaar, the payment reimbursement has become faster and easier, and the scenario has changed. Since the introduction of Aadhaar-linked payment the blocks, where the study was conducted, showed a substantial increase of 19.21% in the number of households applying for the scheme during the time of adverse weather conditions or drought. The increase in the years unaffected by drought was 18.9%.
While the total fund dispersed in FY2015 was Rs 92 billion, it jumped to Rs 140 billion in the consecutive year when Aaadhaar was implemented — a significant jump of nearly 50% in a single year, stated the study. Persons and households working also increased by 12 and 17 per cent, stated the report.

The JAM trinity — linking of Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar Card and Mobile phones — has led to the wages reaching the workers’ bank accounts within estimated 15 days of employment as compared to as long as a month previously, the study shows. Further, the direct transfer of wages to the bank accounts also facilitated into removing any caste-based bias that prevails in various parts of the country while it comes to payments, and even the amount of work done by the backward classes also increased subsequently, said the study.