MindTree consortium leads race to bag UID biometric contract
14 Jul 2010, 0701 hrs IST,Harsimran Julka, ET
NEW DELHI: A consortium led by Bangalore's MindTree Ltd and US-based Accenture has emerged the frontrunner to win a contract from the Unique ID Authority of India to perform biometric verification duties of more than a billion Indians, scoring a stunning upset over a handful of tech powerhouses, including Tata Consultancy Services.
The contract is valued at nearly Rs 200 crore initially as 10 crore Indians are due to get their Unique ID numbers in the first phase, but has the potential to grow substantially as more people are enrolled in the ambitious project.
The MindTree team, which includes biometric providers Daon of Ireland and Lithuania's Nueurotechnologia, pitched the lowest at Rs 2.75 a biometric authentication, according to details of the financial bids available with ET.
MindTree's bid is set to help it beat out at least eight companies such as TCS, the country's largest software services exporter, Hewlett Packard, Mahindra Satyam and Unisys Corp, which were fancying their chances of grabbing UIDAI's largest contract yet. The earlier one, an applications development contract worth Rs 30 crore, too was awarded to MindTree.
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Mahindra Satyam partnered France's Morpho to bid Rs 8.76 a transaction while HP, US-based L1 ID Solutions and India's 4GID together bid Rs 9.75. Cogent Systems of the US allied with France's Steria to bid Rs 23.30. TCS, also India's largest e-governance provider, was technically disqualified for a second time. Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies, the country's second and third-biggest IT companies, stayed away from the bids.
Under the contract, the winner will handle all de-duplication and verification requests from private and public agencies such as banks and insurance companies at peak load rates of 10 lakh an hour. The government will pay the winning consortium a quoted price when a verification request is sent. A senior UIDAI official said the government was in the final stages of evaluating the bids, adding that the contract could be awarded as early as this week.
MindTree CEO Ashok Soota declined to talk about the bid. "If you have got to know of my win, you can congratulate me," he said. If MindTree lands the contract, the development will be as much about a $272-million company trumping a $6.4-billion giant like TCS as about the latter's debarment for a second time. TCS declined comment, but other bidders that lost out and companies that stayed away have raised concerns about the conditions in the tender documents issued by UIDAI.
The tender had strict clauses, including putting in place a team within 15 days, and unlimited liability on the vendor in case costs escalate, due to which his company stayed away, said an e-governance head of a large IT services company. Daon, which also teamed with a consortium led by Unisys, bid about Rs 11.75.
"Ultimately the question remains whether the most complicated solution in UID project will be procured on the basis of sheer low bids or capability to meet the technology challenge," an e-governance official of another large company said.
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
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
