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

Thursday, August 5, 2010

394 - UIDAI releases revised Aadhaar Handbook for Registrars

UIDAI releases revised Aadhaar Handbook for Registrars
AUGUST 4, 2010
in BUSINESS INDIA

The Unique Identification Authority of India( UIDAI) has released a revised handbook for registrars and organisations that want to know more about how the government’s ambitious projcect Aadhar will be implemented. The handbook provides an overview about Aadhar along with it’s various applications.

The report also includes information about Aadhar based micro payments system and Aadhar applications which will soon be functional. The manual is mainly aimed at Aadhar Registrars which would include both Government and Private Sector Agencies.

Download Aadhaar Handbook for Registrars

Aadhaar Handbook for Registrars – PDF – 2.3 MB – 35 Pages

What is Aadhaar ?

1. Introduction to Aadhaar

The inability to prove identity is one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies. No nationally accepted, verified identity number exists in the country that both the residents and agencies can use with ease and confidence. Different service providers also often have different requirements in the documents they demand from the residents, the forms that require filling out and the information they collect on the individual.

Such duplication of effort and identity silos increase the overall cost of identification and cause inconvenience to the resident. Any process that uniquely identifies a resident and ensures instant identity verification would help to reduce transaction costs, transform delivery of a host of social welfare programs and help to eliminate duplicate identities and fraud. The savings on this account can be immense and today when States are fiscally stressed, freeing up of resources would provide the desired flexibility in either extending the welfare net or increasing the benefits under the existing programs or simply improving the fiscal situation .

Keeping the above in mind, the Unique Identification number (Aadhaar) has been conceived by the Government of India as a means for residents to clearly and uniquely verify their identity anywhere in the country. This handbook is meant to give an overview of Aadhaar, the process to generate Aadhaar numbers, use its authentication services and update it on an ongoing basis. Detailed process manuals, which will be available on the UIDAI website, may be referred for implementation.

Previous attempts at building ‘unique’ databases have been beset by quality issues and challenges in the lack of consistent implementation. This project therefore has defined detailed guidelines and templates for the same; especially keeping in mind that Aadhaar will be built through a network of Registrars and enrolment agencies dispersed across the country. The success of the project will be strongly determined by the quality of data collected; as such all partners may therefore keep in mind the need to adhere to these guidelines.

As our partners, Registrars are requested to share feedback extensively and engage with the UIDAI in making this a robust and successful exercise. The handbook and the manuals will be updated on the basis of feedback and will be posted on our website on a continuous basis.

2. Aadhaar Overview

Aadhaar, which means ‘foundation’ in many Indian languages, has the following Features and Benefits:

1. One Aadhaar = 1 beneficiary: Aadhaar is a unique number, and no resident can have a duplicate number since it is linked to their individual biometrics; thereby identifying fake and  ghost identities which result in leakages today.  Savings from eliminating duplicates and fakes through Aadhaar-based identification will further enable governments to expand benefits to other eligible residents.

2. Portability: Aadhaar is a universal number, and agencies and services can contact the central Unique Identification database from anywhere in the country to confirm a beneficiary’s identity.

3. Inclusion of those without any existing identity documents: A problem in reaching benefits to poor and marginalized residents is that they often lack the identification documents they need to receive State benefits; the ‘Introducer’ system which has been approved for data verification for the UIDAI will enable such residents to establish an identity.

4. Electronic benefit transfers: the UID-enabled-Bank-Account network will offer a secure and low cost platform to directly remit benefits to residents without the heavy costs associated today with benefit distribution; the leakages in the current system will also be stemmed as a result.

5. Aadhaar-based authentication to confirm entitlement delivered to the beneficiary: the UIDAI will offer online authentication services for agencies who wish to validate a resident’s identity; this service will enable confirmation of the entitlement actually reaching the intended beneficiary.

6. Improved services through increased transparency: Clear accountability and transparent monitoring would significantly improve access and quality of entitlements to beneficiaries and the agency alike

7. Self-service puts residents in control: Using Aadhaar as an authentication mechanism, residents should be able to access up-to-date information about their entitlements, demand services and redress their grievances directly from their mobile phone, kiosks or other means.  In the case of self-service on the resident’s mobile, security is assured using two-factor authentication (i.e. by proving possession of the resident’s registered Mobile Number and knowledge of the resident’s Aadhaar PIN). These standards are compliant with the Reserve Bank of India’s approved standards for Mobile Banking and Payments.  (Please see Annexure for how mobile phone can be used for Aadhaar enabled applications)

For the rest – Download the Aadhar Handbook for Registrars at the link below

Aadhaar Handbook for Registrars – PDF – 2.3 MB – 35 Pages
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