AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 368 - Nandan Nilekani: Governtrepreneur

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

Monday, August 2, 2010

368 - Nandan Nilekani: Governtrepreneur - Forbes.com

Nandan Nilekani: Governtrepreneur
Mitu Jayashankar, 01.07.10, 06:00 PM EST

Picked up business sense at IIT-Bombay; helped build Infy; now, Nandan Nilekani brings the spirit of entrepreneurship to the business of governing.

HE IS the chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and co-founder of Infosys Technologies
LAST JOB: Co-chairman, Infosys Technologies
THE CHALLENGE: The UIDAI, too, is like a start-up. My prior success in no way guarantees success in this world and if I don't deliver then the consequences could be large

For Rohini Nilekani life seems to have come a full circle. Arghyam, her elegant house in suburban Bangalore has been turned into the unofficial headquarter of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Ever since her husband Nandan Nilekani gave up the co-chairman's job at Infosys, the $4.6 billion (revenue, in 2008-09) company he co-founded with six colleagues in 1981, to take up a role in public service, there has been an endless stream of visitors at Arghyam. Although UIDAI's official headquarter is in Delhi, the technical team is based in Bangalore. Nandan Nilekani splits his time between Delhi and Bangalore and just like in the early days of Infosys, where the founders often met at each others homes, lot of brainstorming on the project happens at the Nilekani household. "For 30 years Infosys consumed him and now it is UIDAI," Rohini Nilekani says only half seriously.

The day we meet him at his house, Nandan and Rohini Nilekani have just returned from a workshop at the National Law School in Bangalore where he brainstormed with a group of legal experts on how to create the legal framework for the UIDAI. A week ago he was in Bihar where he had a 90-minute lunch meeting at chief minister Nitish Kumar's house. The day after our meeting, Nilekani is flying off to Mumbai to meet the Maharashtra chief minister. In the last four months he has met 12 CMs to explain to them the intricacies of the UID project and ask for their support in enrolling people into the program.

In between meeting the CMs, Nilekani attends seminars and workshops like the one organised by the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla where he met a bunch of sociologists, NGOs and political scientists to evangelise his UID project and to understand how it can be used to create inclusive models of development.

"This is my Bharat Darshan", he says, "I had seen more of America than India before this". That time he was selling Infosys to the Fortune 500 crowd, now he is selling the concept of a national identity programme to the grassroots politicians and bureaucrats. It is a far cry from the life he led just six months ago and yet it somehow seems he has been doing this for years. Even Rohini is surprised by how well he has transitioned into the new role.

EMOTIONAL PARTING
Leaving Infosys was not an easy decision. "As founders we had the understanding that if somebody had to leave it would be with the consent and approval of others. When you have been together for 30 years you just don't walk off and leave," says Nilekani. Initially, he says he felt an emotional void, and even today he has to remind himself not to use the pronoun "we" when describing Infosys. "I was very comfortable in my world. I was doing well and could have stayed on at Infosys till the age of 60. I didn't have to do this" he says.