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

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

730 - UIDAI and How Indian Companies MINT

I am a taxpayer for this country. My money will be a part of the billion dollar profits every major software company declares at the end of the financial year. It will never end up in the roads that will be built, or communications, education, military and electricity infrastructure. But I cannot stop it:(

Since 2000, thanks to Y2K, Indian Banking system has undergone major change. Indian IT firms positioned themselves as the knowledge center of the world ( We are not….Apple exited long back…good thing). Anyway, the survey posted in one of the UIDAI website says, an account creation cost is Rs 40 at a minimum and maintainance is Rs 100 per year, if no transaction takes place??? Our fixed deposits and Interest rates have come down, which was never the scenario before ( banks say they cannot work it out…although regulated by RBI). What are these banks doing? Why has it all been this way, since Y2K? What does the future hold with UIDAI coming soon?

Bill Gates taught the world that the biggest money is in software. We just took the concept and went on giving multi crore softwares, to these banks. We had to train our computer illiterate clerks and managers. We invested a lot more on core-banking, e-banking etc etc. We gave enough number of ATM’s, running on AC’s for 24 hours in every corner of town. We had to get leased lines at a whopping cost from public sector but at 1/20th bandwidth rest of the world gives for the same amount and the gunmen for security services. I can list more but I will stop here. 

Whats the running cost for all this?? Can the banks really work out at this rate? Nope… first of all software+support is huge. Plus you need to e-enable rest of the (most fortunate) branches. That is a huge infrastructure headache with again computers, licenses and installation, leased lines and blah blah…. No wonder why our whole banking system is sunk in this software funda…. No wonder why I am getting lesser satisfaction at computerized branches than non-computerized ( The reasons are many… ‘internet down sir’, ‘UPS back up illa sir’, ‘Power down sir’, ‘Cannot connect to server sir’….)… 

What about online banking? ’503 Service Unavailable’, ‘Virtual directory access denied’, ’404 Not Found??’, ‘Questions to which I have no answer’… ‘Rule Id’s that I haven’t heard of nor made aware of’….

India needs infrastructure mate…. Not the big buck software…. you need that first when you give a solution…..

Everytime I think about these software biggies, I cant stop wondering…. when will it all end…. They have made our lives so miserable….. Every year they hire 200000 fresh engineers!!! And for what? Mostly tech support(do not forget the banks and outsourcing) and voice processing? Banks are like cash cows… When Lehman sunk, somebody in India lost a 100 million dollar… (whoooph….thats a lot of money)…

Software IT guys and gals, with no heads, getting a bloated pay…. They have really spoiled it all for rest of us mortals…. I cannot have a decent lunch in Bangalore for less than Rs 100…. Students cannot stay in a good rented house for less than 5-6k per month…. People from all over Karnataka used to go to Bangalore for education, medicine etc… but now its something that my people here cannot afford…. Engineering degree has become a lucrative business…. 

Dowry goes up to 50 lakhs to a crore, if he wears a software MNC tag…. There is no parent giving his daughter to a farmer… only MBBS or BE…. Colleges charge upto 50k per year for a mediocre B.E (which was before, the 4 years approximate total for the degree)…. I want Obama to visit our colleges and compare us with ones in US… We can only war with you on small stones….nothing more….

Coming to UIDAI…. thats probably the worst to happen…. We are being blocked for Visa’s,  financial meltdowns elsewhere in the world… what do our biggies do?? 

Suddenly Govt said, we want a “non-compulsory” Unique number scheme for everyone…. Several more billions were pledged… Call center deals for another billion…. Software companies charging Rs 2.75 per registration ( this is one number which I cannot figure out yet….is the XML Webservices too heavy for you to handle??) 
won the deal……. more than a billion transaction per day will happen in future (at what cost…?? another rupee??), given that our Reserve bank and all banks have an MoU for micro-ATM’s and micro-payments… read the docs on the UIDAI website….its true….And on top of it, some company (which I do not want to name here) has already published full compliancy with UID system on their website…when not even 100 villages have been enrolled… nor the security aspects of the whole UID system finalized(forget finalized, not even discussed in the draft)….. nor are the regulations approved….

This project though spearheaded by a very respectable person…probably to me… is another opportunity for the biggies to mint money, in the name of UID compliancy…. People who won the deals, congratulations for taking us further down the hole… I only hope not… God save us all….God save the banks….. They will need a Nattha card…. people who are in the verge of the suicide…. But if all goes well, regulated, every taxpayer money counted and running cost thought about, this really will show the power of software….
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