But the UID is about much more than enabling the poor to access government programmes and more even than cutting corruption and waste in government. The UID can be leveraged for use in a number of other applications, something UIDAI boss, Nandan Nilekani, is well aware of. The agenda for financial inclusion, for example. Along with a 12-digit number, people signing up for the programme can also opt to get a bank account number. Banks may not have the incentive to reach out to people with only limited financial resources on an individual basis: the transactions costs would be too high. But the UIDAI can cut costs by offering banks multiple potential customers with proven IDs and account numbers in a single window. The next step would be to combine the UID’s database with the outreach of mobile service providers to enable secure mobile banking that will act as substitute for the costly process of setting up more bank branches. Channelling the savings of the unbanked into the financial system can yield enormous gains for GDP.
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.
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, September 30, 2010
634 - What’s in a number? - Indian Express
But the UID is about much more than enabling the poor to access government programmes and more even than cutting corruption and waste in government. The UID can be leveraged for use in a number of other applications, something UIDAI boss, Nandan Nilekani, is well aware of. The agenda for financial inclusion, for example. Along with a 12-digit number, people signing up for the programme can also opt to get a bank account number. Banks may not have the incentive to reach out to people with only limited financial resources on an individual basis: the transactions costs would be too high. But the UIDAI can cut costs by offering banks multiple potential customers with proven IDs and account numbers in a single window. The next step would be to combine the UID’s database with the outreach of mobile service providers to enable secure mobile banking that will act as substitute for the costly process of setting up more bank branches. Channelling the savings of the unbanked into the financial system can yield enormous gains for GDP.
633 - Aadhar And UIDAI Are Fraud On Constitution Says Praveen Dalal - Techno Legal news
An initiative by a single person can transform into a mass action and people’s movement. The same happened in the case of Aadhar project of India or UID Project of India. Aadhar was formerly known as unique identification project of India. It is managed by Nandan Nilekani through unique identification authority of India (UIDAI).
Praveen Dalal has been the first and foremost opposer of Aadhar project and he expressed his concerns by providing the civil liberties aspects of Aadhar project. He maintains that civil liberties of Indians in cyberspace have been outlawed by converting the sole cyber law of India into an endemic e-surveillance code.
Since the Indian government is well committed to impose illegal and unconstitutional projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc, Praveen Dalal launched the exclusive civil liberties protection initiatives in cyberspace in India.
When asked about the rationale for the same, he informs that there has been a disturbing trend in India of imposing unconstitutional projects upon Indians by Executive with great disregard to the Indian Constitution.
In fact, projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc are “Fraud upon the Indian Constitution” where limited and regulated Executive powers have been transformed into absolute powers by the Executive. The role of Parliament has been completely ignored and eliminated in an Anti National manner by the Congress led government, warns Praveen Dalal.
It seems time has come to say no to the Aadhar project and UIDAI and put collective pressure upon the Congress led government to scrap anti national projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc.
632 - Aadhaar: How to get your unique ID from govt of India - The Times of India
The setup
The enrollment officer (EO) sits at right angles to you and enters data into a laptop. The insight of the Aadhaar team here is that the person getting enrolled must see what is being entered. Thus there's a monitor in front of you, which mirrors the enrolment officer's screen so that you can point out spelling mistakes or other errors. If the person getting enrolled is illiterate, he or she can nominate someone to accompany and verify. There's a small laser printer behind the EO's laptop and a webcam, fingerprint reader and iris scanner account for the remainder of the hardware setup. Unless, of course, you count the light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a white "roll-up" chart behind you for the "passport photo studio" effect!
Compulsory information
Name (first and last name compulsory but middle name optional), Gender (Male/Female/Transgender) and Date of Birth are the compulsory fields. Whereas postal address is also required, it's more for the sake of mailing your UID number than strictly being a proof of residence. The EO asks you for a PIN code and the city/district fields are automatically populated. The rest of the address is entered manually.
Supporting documents
The UID team acknowledges the fact that a large number of people may not have any supporting documents to prove their identity. In this case, one is allowed to bring another resident who is already in possession of an Aadhaar number to be an "introducer" by vouching for the person seeking to enroll. Of course, there is scope for fraud either with a colluding introducer or by just using fake supporting documents. However, the whole point of Aadhaar is that one can only fake one's identity once and this prevents large-scale "ghost identity" creation, which is the bane of most Indian government schemes. The great PAN (Permanent Account Number with the Income Tax department) card scam after all involved a single person creating thousands of different PAN numbers.
Photograph
A photograph is taken of the person getting enrolled, purely for the purpose of printing it out on the enrolment receipt, so that illiterate residents have some way of knowing that the receipt indeed belongs to them. Beyond that, the photograph serves no biometric or authentication purpose.
Biometrics
First there's an iris scan where you look into a binocular-like device held up to your eyes by the EO. After that it's the four fingers of each hand, followed by both thumbs (a process familiar to those entering the US) for your 10 fingerprints.
The wait
The EO makes you review the data entered one final time before giving you a laser-printed receipt. Whereas the residents of Tembhali, the "Aadhaar village", were to get their numbers today, the rest of us won't be that lucky. We'll only get to walk away with our receipts and have to wait for the actual number to be delivered by India Post!
(Courtesy: TECHNOHOLIK.COM)
631 - Stiff resistance dogs India's ID plan - Asia Times
KOLKATA - Tembhali is little known beyond its neighborhood in northern Maharashtra. Yet, as Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi descended by on Wednesday, the tiny hamlet with less than 1,500 residents suddenly became the center of attraction in the global arena of e-governance.
India's prime minister and the ruling Congress party's leader were helicoptered in to officially flag India's most ambitious attempt to transform the way the state reaches its citizens - and also the world's largest identity program.
The so-called Unique Identification (UID) mission, which has been dubbed locally as "Aadhar" ("foundation"), the project will create
Ambitious yet highly controversial, UID numbers will be linked to fingerprints, iris scans, personal information, a microchip for easy scanning, and more. Led by a new government agency called the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the project is spearheaded by Nandan Nilekeni, one of India's most famous techie-entrepreneurs as the co-founder of Infosys, who has been given ministerial powers and a magnanimous (rumored to be US$3 billion or more) budget to implement the grand plan.
According to Nilekeni, among the scores of advantages for the country's people, the millions of India's poor who are without access to the government's plethora of welfare schemes would benefit the most from the new identification system. Much like the mobile telephony, the UID number would connect the poor to the broader and advancing economy of India, he says.
"The government has taken up this project for two reason; one is there are large number of Indians specially those who are urban migrants and rural poor who do not have any form of acknowledged existence by the state and therefore they face the challenge of harassment in their lives. They do not get access to public services either. So the one of the main purposes of this program is to make life easier for the millions of poor, migrants and marginalized (expected to be over 300 million) people. As well as to give inclusion to them," said Nilekeni.
The other is to make all government welfare schemes far more efficient by ensuring that they reach "each and every deserving poor", he says.
Even as the impoverished tribal farming community in Tembhali - many of whom do not even own the land they till - wonder how a unique identity, as Manmohan declared on Wednesday, "can change their lives", UID is meeting stiff resistance from civil liberties groups, privacy advocates, and legal eagles.
Critics condemn the UID as a blatant intrusion to privacy, a tool that will increase bureaucracy and corruption, and say that in addition to being hugely expensive and even illegal, the UID goes against basic human values.
"This project, has been initiated without any prelude: there is no project document; there is no feasibility study; there has been no cost-to-benefit analysis and there are serious concerns about data and identity theft," said Gopal Krishna, Member Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties.
Worse, Krishna added, a project "that could change the status of the people in this country, with regard to security and constitutional rights has been initiated without any legal authorization; just on the basis of an executive order".
The strongest opposition to the project has been generated by the fact that it aims to create a huge digital database containing sensitive personal information in one central location. This is a security risk of "immense" proportions, according to critics.
"Given that the country has hardly any capability in securing its digital database, and an absence of privacy laws, UID's plans of storing its data in one centralized database is an immense risk," said Sunil Abraham, an activist at the People Union for Civil Liberties. "The trouble with a centralized infrastructure is that if it is compromised, then all of it will be compromised, which can result in the collapse of the country's information systems."
Nilekeni deflects these criticisms, saying that the UID Authority will use "the best expertise for security and we also have a policy of proactively publishing strategy policy report and committee reports on our website as well." But arguments against the project stretch on.
"The other opposition is the use of biometrics for ID," says Abraham. "Our fear is that most parts of the country do not have power and if the system mandates that every time a rural resident has to prove his identity biometrically for say collecting subsidized food, chances are that the process will be slower and more prone to failure because of lack of infrastructure."
That, according to critics, could give rise to newer complication or even manipulation of the biometric data - and hence an additional opportunity for corruption.
"A typical unlettered person does not understand the complexities of biometric data collection and verification," says Jiti Nichani, a researcher and an advocate, Alternative Law Forum. "Given the rampant bureaucracy and corruption in the country, this would give yet another reason for the corrupt to siphon off the largesse of a welfare scheme elsewhere; corruption will increase manifold as a consequence."
Still, its flip side is not really devoid of selling points; some of UID's beneficial characteristics are undeniable.
For one, experts say, for every rupee spent on the government's welfare schemes, lack of identity of a poor Indian results in just 15 paisa reaching them. UID then can really revolutionize the way government services are delivered.
Besides, inability to prove identity is not only one of the biggest barriers that prevent the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies, or stymie the government from reaching out to the deserving. It also stops the government formulating appropriate welfare polices, plugging leakages, and above all, eliminating fraud and duplicate identities.
UID, say its proponents, will no longer allow someone to represent themselves differently across a number of agencies, which could solve a lot these problems.
"A UID will enable the poor grab the right to education, get jobs on migration, get medical benefits and even open a bank account and get a mobile phone connection," said Nilekni. "The transformative capability of the UID scheme can be enormous."
Nevertheless, providing an identity to one billion plus Indians in a country so devoid of basic infrastructure is a Herculean task.
Its real challenge may not lie in the concerns that critics have raised, but perhaps in the politics of governance and its reforms. Experts say the success of the project depends on the effective use of political authority, and how Nilekeni and Manmohan manage to address corruption in the political and official systems.
Nilekeni though is undaunted. "I am aware that there are a lot of challenges and this is a humongous project," he said. "But there is a lot of political will and support, and the government is firmly convinced that this project could change the face of India."
Indrajit Basu is a Kolkata-based correspondent for Asia Times Online.
630 - Angry villagers to boycott UID rally - India Today
Just 2 km away lies Navalpur and Chandsaili, which were shortlisted as two of the three Maharashtra villages for the historic function to take place in.
"Our village was the first choice. The state government officials came here, did a survey and selected a couple of residents to receive the cards from the PM. The school got a fresh coat of paint, our kids got new uniforms and we were so excited," says Navalpur's Sudam Pawra.
The state machinery started work in Navalpur a month ago: concretisation of kuchcha roads started, the sole water tank was given a fresh coat of paint and social service messages were splashed on the walls of houses.
But the script went sour for Navalpur at the last moment. No sooner had the word came that Tembhli would host the historic function than work on all ongoing projects were abruptly dropped. The main approach road was left as it was - full of crushed stones - a sorry reminder of what could have been.
Angry villagers decided not to attend the Tembhli rally on Wednesday. "Our village was No. 1 only a week ago. Now it's back to zero. Tembhli will get all benefits… we have been deprived," a bitter Ransingh Gansingh Thakar said, adding that most of the Navalpur residents work as casual labour in Gujarat because they don't get jobs in the village. "Here, we hardly earn Rs 50 a day, that too, if we get work."
The story at Chandsaili, a By Deepak Lokhande in Nandurbar village about three km from Navalpur, is no different. Last month, the BSNL hurriedly installed a public telephone booth and the state electricity board installed new electricity meters. The touch- up job continued only till the news came that the PM was not coming.
But the Congress grip in the village was apparent as almost all the men attended Wednesday's event at Tembhli.
What angered the people of Navalpur more was the unofficial reason government officials gave for the PM's skipping the village - it seemed to be flourishing on its own with "big houses". "Look around sahib ... do you think these are bungalows?
Only the state transport bus conductor and this contractor have pucca houses here. Yes, we don't have thatched roofs, but does that make us richer?" Thakar asks, pointing at his hutment.
It seems Navalpur's status as a rehabilitated village did it in. The village was resettled at the new site after the original one submerged in the dam waters. The state gave the villagers cash in compensation and land for resettlement.
As a result, the village has a new look, unlike Tembhli
629 - 'Aadhaar', the Unique ID project goes live!- The Times of India
The country's most tech savvy initiative called 'Aadhaar'(base) to provide the unqiue ID cards was hailed by Singh and Gandhi aat the launch function as a "historic step" to provide identity to every Indian citizen and make delivery processes transparent.
Biometric-based data including from fingerprints and an iris scan is being used for the first time anywhere in the world to provide a cost-effective nationally valid and verifiable single source of identity proof through an authentification infrastructure
"Nowhere in the world, technology has been used in such a big way. I hope every citizen will get this number very soon," Singh said kickstarting the multi-billion project in the backward Tembhli tribal hamlet in western Maharashtra, about 300 km from Mumbai.
Singh also said the rolling out of the unique numbers displayed a symbol of a new and modern India. "We are moving fast in the field of technology."
He said the issuing of unique identity cards is a beginning of a big effort for the welfare of the common man.
"The poor did not have any identity proof. Due to this shortcoming, they could not open bank accounts or get ration cards. They could not avail the benefits of government welfare programmes because of this and many times, these benefits were pocketed by others," Singh said.
The 'Aadhaar' number will be for lifetime and can be used anywhere in the country, the Prime Minister said, adding the project will help in National Integration.
"I hope that soon every Indian will have a Aadhaar number," he said.
Gandhi said "The project launched from this village today, will reach over a billion people and is a historic step."
"Our goal is not only development but inclusive growth," she said.
Late Rajiv Gandhi dreamt of a 21st century India where Information technology will improve life of 'aam aadmi', she said, adding that Tembhli village is a symbol of "Rajiv's vision".
"We are using technology to better our lives. It can make the system transparent and ensure speedy delivery of resources to the needy without any malpractice," she said.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chief Nandan Nilekeni, the former co-chairman of Information Technology major Infosys, was also present at the function.
UIDA said the government plans to give every Indian a number in the coming years after they submit their personal details, including fingerprints, an iris scan and photograph, to a vast Internet database.
It said the scheme would provide a cost-effective, ubiquitous authentification infrastructure to easily verify identities online and in real-time.
"Today there are a large number of residents, especially the poorest and the most marginalised, who face challenges in accessing various public benefit programmes due to the lack of possessing a clear identity proof," it added.
Fingerprints and iris recognition will help agencies and service providers across India clean out duplicates and fakes from their databases, it said.
628 - Orissa to add 12 more specifications to UID
Bhubaneswar, Sept 30 (PTI) Orissa government today decided to include at least a dozen more specifications to the Unique Identity (UID), christened as "Aadhaar", a national project launched to document profile of every individual in the country.
627 - Inside India's first 'Unique Identity' village -BBC News South Asia
BBC News, Tembhli, Maharashtra
Arman Qureshi, who was one of the first 10 recipients of UID cards, showed his off proudly to journalists and bemused villagers.
Using the latest biometric technology including an iris scan, over the next five years the cards will log details of India's population of more than one billion people on a central database.
Traditional and modern
The idea behind the multi-million dollar scheme is to provide better security, fairer distribution of food handouts and more equal employment opportunities.
In the village of Tembhli - 400km (248 miles) north of Mumbai - it was perhaps a classic example of traditional India meeting its modern counterpart.
But there was no doubting that people in this Congress party stronghold were excited about seeing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The occasion was marked by newly constructed roads and an array of posters and banners displaying the UID symbol, which was also painted on numerous mud houses.
"Yes, yes, I shook hands with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," said Arman Qureshi.
"We were told that with the card everything will be easier.
"I'm not literate so if I just show my fingerprints I will be able to access bank accounts anywhere in India."
However, his enthusiasm and knowledge is not necessarily shared by other residents of this village - where many in the population of about 1,500 people live below the poverty line.
Jijabai Thakre's house is next to the enclosure set up for the visit of the national leadership.
Nervous
As she sits outside her house watching the activity, she has some serious questions.
Most of the residents work in the neighbouring state of Gujarat during the four to six months of the farming season.
They have a common query - does this get us more food grain at lower costs?
Anil Thakre, a 12-year-old schoolboy who was also one of the first 10 to receive cards, appeared nervous as the media gathered around him to ask about his meeting with the prime minister and the benefits of the UID cards.
"It will help us," he confidently proclaimed, "and I can open an account."
Officials say that UID cards will reduce overlapping documentation when processing voters' cards, ration cards and below-poverty-line cards.
They say that people who do not have these cards will not be left out of welfare schemes once they have UID cards.
However, it does not guarantee jobs or loans, which the villagers are far more interested in.
And to make matters more complicated for them, it has emerged that some of the information on their UID cards may be inaccurate.
Kailash Manatre sums up the fears of many.
"We used to hold a BPL card which allowed us to buy food grain at a cheaper rate," he says.
"But my brother received a different card when he got married. So what information will appear on his UID card? And will we not get previous benefits? This must not lead to a scaling down of efforts to provide adequate affordable food."
As Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh entered the village there were loud cheers as people craned their necks to get a glimpse of Soniaji.
Disappointed
In this Congress stronghold there is love and support for the Gandhi family.
Aravind Sonawane, a 20-year-old man, stood up and spoke to Ms Gandhi. He told her that the new roads built nearby the village had been constructed because of her.
"But soon they will forget about us. So we should be able to find work in our village. She heard me out and said 'OK'," he said.
Women who had gathered to see and speak to Sonia Gandhi were disappointed.
"We waited here for such a long time but the police did not allow us to speak to her. We wanted to tell her so many things - about our village and our life," villager Haseena Ansari said.
"We wanted to tell her that we were happy to see her but even that was not allowed. How will she know about our problems if we don't talk to her?"
After the dignitaries departed, villagers waited for their UID cards to be distributed.
More than 1,200 cards were handed out, making Tembhli the first UID-compliant village in India.
Soon after that, a dust storm tore through the village, removing many of the specially located posters.
With that the villagers had to return to their normal way of life - although this time they do so with a unique identity number in their hands.
626 - UID cards should be made for Indians only: BJP - IBN Politics
Posted on Sep 29, 2010 at 19:04
625 - Tembhali: A stark reminder of what we have forgotten- Rediff News
"Vishal Namdev Pawar," he says coyly when asked his name. "Baada (12)," he says instead of 'Baara' (the correct pronunciation of number 12) about his age, when the group of women, including his mother, begin to giggle at his lisp.
Vishal, a class VII student, scores more than 80 per cent marks in mathematics, science, social science and Marathi, the language of instruction at the local tehsil school.
"Our dreams don't mean anything much to us ," Vishal speaks like a mature person when asked about his dreams and aims in life.
"It makes no difference if we dream or we don't," his mother Shamabai interrupts without any trace of anguish or agony in her voice. "We know they will never be fulfilled."
With just Rs 50 per day of work, once or twice a week and the annual migration to Saurashtra by her husband, it's a straight choice between hunger or education for the Pawars
"Sometimes our school teacher drives my son out of his class if his uniform is dirty," says Shamabai adding that he has only one uniform which he washes after every three days and uses it again the next day.
So, what do you do at such times, you ask Vishal. He quietly covers his face with both his hands and cries.
The irony of Vishal's existence is that though he is poor and he dares to dream.