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, April 5, 2011

1206 - HP, IBM: UIDAI tender process unfair - Source-The Economic Times

5 APR, 2011, 06.13AM IST, 
HARSIMRAN JULKA,ET BUREAU 

NEW DELHI: The world's two largest technology companies - US-based HP and IBM - raised concerns in a meeting at Unique ID Authority of India (UIDAI) last week over their technical disqualification, in a Rs 200-crore storage solutions contract, that is won by Wipro Technologies. As a result, bids for the Rs 2,000-crore managed-service provider contract , which were due to be submitted on April 8th, are now postponed by a month, due to disagreement amongst bidders.

In a meeting of world's largest technology companies held last week to discuss on the formalities of the upcoming Rs 2,000 crore UIDAI tender for managed service provider, heads from HP and IBM raised the issue of technical disqualification in the previous tenders, citing UIDAI's tender process as being unfair to them.

HP also raised the issue of the UIDAI picking up a technology which it says will become obsolete in three years. A senior head from a US-based tech major in the meeting went ahead to term the piece of hardware procured by the UIDAI for storage as 'junk'.

UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani remained absent from the meeting, which was attended by heads from Accenture, Ernst & Young, Wipro Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services , HCL Infosystems and HCL Technologies , besides heads from HP and IBM. A top UIDAI official cited large scale deviation in specifications to be quoted in the tenders of both HP and IBM as major reasons for technical disqualification.

"We had meetings with both companies especially with HP, at least twice, to understand what went wrong. We don't undermine the repute of these large tech majors, but we award tenders on what is presented to us on the table," the official said. He added that the selection is done by an inter-ministerial group, and is not the prerogative of the authority alone.

The UIDAI apparently went with SATA storage devices to be supplied by Cisco and EMC which are partners to Wipro Technologies in the tender. HP and IBM have complained that since SAS is the way forward for storage devices, India would be locked in a technology which might become obsolete in next three years. "We selected SATA and FC storage, as we don't need SAS which is still costly and no used in prevalence. Numbers once generated would not be needed too frequently and SATA storage is apt for such storage," reasoned UIDAI top official.

In a letter addressed to Nilekani, contents of which were reviewed by ET, HP complained that it is perceived that the UIDAI mandates and propagates only one OEM solution (EMC and Cisco) and all shortlisted bidders have to necessarily quote that only. "While it is an extremely risky and unfair preposition for a government project to be solely dependent on one OEM technology only, it also deprives the government from getting competitive rates," said HP in the letter.
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