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 12, 2010

420 - From Flat World to Imagining Unique India - Dataquest

7. Nandan Nilekani: From Flat World to Imagining Unique India
 
One man who ran Karnik close to being Indian IT's “Man of the Decade” is the chairman of the Unique ID (UID) Authority of India set up under the aegis of the Planning Commission and the former CEO and co-founder of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani. It was in March 2002 that he took over as Infosys CEO from the iconic Narayana Murthy and presided over some unique milestones for the company. Overseeing Infy's biggest ever acquisition (Australian telecom services vendor Expert) in 2003, touching the billion dollar topline mark in 2004, then subsequently $2bn and $3bn in 2006 and 2007...., expanding its global delivery model across newer geographies-Nilekani could take credit for many of Infy achievements during the decade.

On a more strategic level, if Narayana Murthy could be credited for leading the entrepreneur-founder in the 90s to lay the foundation for a scalable Infosys, Nilekani led Infosys 2.0 during the noughties in grooming the next-gen leaders, empowering them and creating career plans for them till he handed over reins to Kris Gopalakrishnan in 2007. He devised the theory of organizational longevity that focused on creating a set of leaders such that “collectively they were capable and individually they were more capable in some of the things.” (reinstating the Infosys principle of the sum being more equal than the parts). Another leadership trait in Nilekani that shone through the decade was his ability to connect dots at various levels and then correlating it to present the big picture along with a strategy to match. Nothing illustrates better throughout the decade than his obsession with creating the longevity of the corporation-going beyond generations of leaders-while continuing to thrive, prosper and retain its value and culture, the basic DNA.

But it would be demeaning to Nilekani to restrict his contribution only to the growth of his own company. As one of the global faces of Indian IT, he has performed stellar role for associations like Nasscom and TiE (he founded the Bangalore chapter); in fact nothing could illustrate his global image better than when Tom Friedman acknowledged him to be the inspiration and the face behind The World is Flat (arguably the business book of the decade). Accolades like Forbes “Businessman of the Year” for Asia (2006), Fortune “Businessman of the Year” for Asia (2003) as well as being one of the youngest entrepreneurs to joing Global Top 20 leaders on the World Economic Forum Foundation in 2006 further enhanced his image as India's face on the global business map. In 2009, he was placed in the Time 100 list of “World's Most Influential People”. The icing on the cake was the Padma Bhushan in 2006.

But again, it would be erroneous to judge Nilekani only as a business champion. After all this is one man who admits that he has been unusually lucky to achieve so much success. While his personal aspirations are fulfilled, his larger public goal is to contribute in whatever way he can to help India take advantage of this “historical opportunity. “India is unusually placed to do well in terms of outsourcing, demographics and the global economy. This is something that comes to a country once in a millennium.” (from his 2009 book Imagining India) And in 2009, he walked the talk by quitting his plum position in Infosys to become the chairperson of the unique ID authority at Manmohan Singh's behest where he enjoys the rank of a Cabinet Minister. The UID program will provide an identity card/number to every citizen like the Social Security system in US and Europe; to lead a project of such magnitude it's almost impossible India could have found anyone else.
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