1447 - The Headlong Rush to Aadhaar by Bibek Debroy- Source - Inclusion

Column - Bibek Debroy

Aadhaar is constantly referred to, as if it is a magic wand that will solve all of India’s problems. Except in fairy tales, there are no magic wands. Aadhaar is a limited tool. Bibek Debroy explains

Let’s backtrack a bit. There was originally a Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) idea, started under the NDA government.  This was meant to be a card issued to all India’s citizens and the Citizenship Act was amended and Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules were notified in 2003. 

This was driven by security motives and a desire to curb illegal migration.  While MNIC has been subsumed into the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Aadhaar, and we may eventually get a register of Indian citizens, one remains skeptical.  Do political parties wish to curb illegal migration?  Had we really wished to do so, we would have instituted a system of legal work permits for neighbouring countries.  Low-skill migration is often seasonal and legal work permits also facilitate return of migrants.  

Apart from the minor issue that we will have numbers rather than cards now, this has been a major change.  Unique identity numbers (UIDs) will be given to residents and not citizens.  Sure, as the name implies, “Aadhaar” is only a base and we can build on that.  Perhaps Home Ministry will eventually use UIDs to sift residents from citizens.  Until then,  since Ajmal Kasab was one of the first to be enumerated in Census 2011, he will also presumably be one of the first to get UID.

We move on to the second idea now, one also stated in Nandan Nilekani’s book “Imagining India”. While this is an old idea, it was pushed under UPA, at least in thought, if not in deed.  There is a lot of public expenditure in India, such as on subsidies (food, fertiliser, petroleum products, power, road transport).  This is inefficient.  Subsidies meant for BPL go to non-BPL (sins of commission) and genuine BPL are not included in lists (sins of omission).  If we can only resolve this and perhaps move to direct cash transfers, we will weed out both leakage and high administrative costs of delivery.  

That’s a fair point.  When one says only 15% of public expenditure reaches target beneficiaries, one often assumes remaining 85% is leakage and corruption.  That’s not quite true, because 85% also includes high administrative costs of delivery, PDS being a case in point.  PDS is a good instance of what goes wrong.  If subsidised food-grain is “leaked” to non-BPL, that’s sometimes because BPL are not included in lists.  Hence, this isn’t quite “leakage”.  The prices granted to ration shops are also so unrealistic that the system builds in leakage.  Otherwise, no one would run a ration shop.  

 But to get back to the point, there are two problems with this subsidy and cash transfer idea.  First, we have to agree on what is BPL.  We have gone round and round in circles on this one, despite it having been argued since 9th Plan that decentralised identification (on basis of identified criteria) is the route to take.  So we have quibbles between Planning Commission and Rural Development Ministry.  Here again, “Aadhaar” is no more than a base.  What we do with it is a function of other policy decisions and there is no particular reason for optimism.

Second, for this to work, UID has to be mandatory, not optional.  Within the country, because of procedural and other costs in obtaining numbers and fears that this will work against the inclusion idea, no one has ever suggested Aadhaar will be mandatory.  However, in Davos, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission did suggest it would be mandatory.  If the subsidy idea is going to work, Aadhaar has to be mandatory and we can’t continue to beat around the bush.  Indeed, there are problems of inclusion.  The entire system is demand-driven, through registrars.  Consequently, those who have passports, driving licences, bank accounts, PAN numbers, mobile connections, EPFO accounts and voter ID-s are likely to get UIDs first, thereby excluding under-privileged.  But the counter-factual is also important.  The under-privileged are excluded even today.  Other than subsidy-targeting, another advantage of Aadhaar is that it unifies procedural requirements across a variety of government documentation and identity proofs.  UID becomes a common base.  But there again, for this to work, Aadhaar has to be mandatory.  While inclusion is an issue, and there has been talk of offering fiscal incentives to poor people to get enrolled in Aadhaar, there is always a centre and a periphery.  As long as the radius is becoming shorter and the periphery is becoming incrementally integrated with the centre, should we worry?  By insisting de jure that it is optional and hoping de facto that it will become mandatory, we aren’t solving the problem.

There is a point that Nandan Nilekani can legitimately make.  While BPL identification remains contentious, Aadhaar will eliminate multiplicity.  After all, there cannot be two people with the same name, date of birth, residence and biometry.  There is an issue here about why we want residence data. On its own, Aadhaar doesn’t create any entitlements and residence is a tough one for many poor people.  If residence proof is required for some other government purpose, it can always be added on to Aadhaar.  For this hypothesis of multiplicity being reduced to be acceptable, one has to assume that biometry is reliable.  One also has to assume that delivery points have required biometry readers.  On neither of these is one convinced.  There are privacy and accuracy issues connected with data too.  In pilots, data are being collected that are much more than UIDAI’s core mandate.  Why are these being collected?  What are they going to be used for?  What is the guarantee that such data are not going to be misused?

But there is a broader issue.  The National Identification Authority of India Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in December 2010.  It isn’t legislation that has been passed by Parliament.  Take an example from the Bill. “Demographic information includes information relating to the name, age, gender and address of an individual (other than race, religion, caste, tribe, ethnicity, language, income or health), and such other information as may be specified in the regulations for the purpose of issuing an Aadhaar number.”  The name, age, gender and even the address are fine.  But what is this “other information” and how has UIDAI been authorised to collect this?  The “regulations” aren’t known yet.  The point is a simple one.  This is a major initiative, with the potential to change several things.  However, there are several issues to be sorted out too.  Therefore, the enactment of the legislation and the formulation of regulations and rules are critical.  Neither is known and a Bill is only a draft.  It isn’t law.  Given this, what was the need to fast forward the process and begin to issue numbers without statutory backing?  

 We should ask Ranjana Sonawane what she has got out of it.  In case we have forgotten who Ranjana Sonawane is, she was the first one to get an Aadhaar number, 782474317884 to be precise.  She lives in Tembhli village in Maharashtra, and with ten other tribals, she got the number in November 2010, even before the legislation was placed in Parliament.  The Prime Minister told her, “This scheme for the common man is a symbol of new and modern India. Now you will get the benefit (of government schemes) that you didn’t get so far.”  Given what has been said, is this true?  And if not, what was the point of the farce?  Shouldn’t we ask Ranjana Sonawane what she has got so far for this piece of paper?  Aadhaar represents the use of technology and it can be empowering.  But it is no more than a tool.  It doesn’t get us much until other problems are sorted out, including that of governance.  Why create the euphoria and the hype and the unwarranted expectation?

The US social security number (SSN) hasn’t overnight become what it is today. The exercise started in 1936 and the first person who got it was someone named John David Sweeney. It still isn’t mandatory and till the 1980s, was never used to prove identity. During the New Deal period, SSN-s were issued through employers.  A country where employer-employee relationships are the norm is somewhat different from a country that is rural, with substantial levels of self-employment.  If Aadhaar is being issued to better off sections, so be it, though they need it less.  But if it is being issued to poorer sections, and de-facto mandatorily, are we imposing compliance costs and crowding them out? Something that goes in the name of inclusion can actually lead to exclusion.  That’s the reason we should have been a bit more circumspect and careful, not plunged in headlong.

Bibek Debroy is Honorary Fellow, Skoch Development Foundation
 

1446- India ahead in snooping: Google- Deccan Herald

Big Brother watching
 

India ahead in snooping: Google
M Arun and L Subramani, Bangalore, June 28, DHNS:

Democracies such as India and the United States are ahead in keeping a close tab on what their citizens do online, suggests the latest Transparency Report from internet giant Google.

Indian government officials, who are seeking more surveillance powers, made 67 requ­ests to remove 282 contentious items from various Google services, such as search, You Tube and Blogger between July and December 2010.

The US and UK made 54 and 38 similar requests, respectively. Defamation, privacy and pornography were some of reasons cited behind these requests. 

Google’s created Transparency Report to track the demands of the various governments to remove content or seeking information about users.  With 4,601 requests, the US topped the list in seeking user data. With 1,699 requests India came third just behind Brazil’s 1,804. The Indian requests for user data have been steadily increasing from 1,061 since July-December 2009 to 1,430 by January-June 2010.

Brazil topped the request list with 263 demands. But as Google points out its Orkut, the  social networking site, which has declined elsewhere, continues to be popular in Brazil, thus accounting for the unusually high number of requests.

Germany also made 118 requests targeting Nazi propaganda, extreme violence and pornography.

Requests go up

In India, the requests are not only high but also increasing steeply. The number of requests which stood at 30 in January-June 2010 more than doubled over the next six months. At 142, the number of requests from Indian government was much higher in the July-December 2009 period, probably because of the local popularity of Orkut, which has since ceded ground to Facebook.

Only six Indian government requests were backed by court orders and the rest were demands made by police and other executive agencies — a damning statement on the lack of judicial protection to privacy in the country.

Google is known to resist government requests, which are dubious and not in sync with the letter and spirit of the law. In India, Google said it complied with only 22 per cent of the requests, while in Germany, the compliance stood at 97 per cent.

Google said it had received requests from different agencies to remove items, in particular videos, that were critical of chief ministers and senior officials of different states.

“We did not comply with these requests,” a statement from Google said.  Indian officials have tried to controversially guard the reputation of politicians in the past as well.

Google says the requests for user account information usually come as part of criminal investigations and have increased year after year.

1445 - UID and National Population Register - Voluntary or Mandatory? Can NATGRID Access this Database?

UID and National Population Register - Voluntary or Mandatory?
Can  NATGRID Access this Database?

 

09 May 2011

Dear all,
Last November I had sent out an email alert about the proposed National Identification Authority of India Bill (NIAI Bill). Readers may wish to refresh their memory by accessing this email alert at:  

http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/ai/rti/india/national/2009/email_alerts/india%27s_uid_related_bill_designed_to_trump_the_rti_act_on_transparency_nov_26_2010.pdf

 
The main point of that email alert was to caution readers about the manner in which the NIAI Bill sought to trump the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) in terms of giving access to information about people. The Bill was subsequently introduced in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) on 3rd December, 2010. According to the financial memorandum attached to the Bill, an expenditure of Rs. 3,023 crores (USD 680 million approx) may be incurred in the second phase of the scheme. An expenditure of about Rs. 147 crores (USD 33 million) has already been incurred during the first phase.  A recurring expenditure of Rs. 477 crores (USD 107 million) may be required to keep it running.

The text of the Bill is accessible on the Rajya Sabha website at:http://164.100.24.219/BillsTexts/RSBillTexts/asintroduced/national%20ident.pdf
 

PRS India has uploaded a summary of the Bill on its website at: http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/National%20Identification%20Authority%20Bill%20Summary.pdf

This Bill has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for detailed consideration. No notices have been issued inviting people's comments on the contents of this Bill.

I am sending this email out to readers expressing three concerns:

1. Will Aadhaar numbers be voluntary or mandatory?

2. Will Aadhaar database be accessible to intelligence agencies?

3. Need for a law on data protection and privacy.
 


1. Will Aadhaar numbers be voluntary or mandatory?
UID and the Aadhaar numbers: According to the NIAI Bill identity information about individuals that will be collected by the NIA has two parts demographic and biometric information. What kinds of biometric information will be collected is left to the NIA to specify in the regulations. This may include a range of data such as thumb and palm prints, iris recognition, DNA data and other similar means of identifying individuals that may be developed by science in future. Demographic information includes- name, age, gender and address of an individual. Demographic information will be collected from the photo electoral rolls initially. But even children could apply for this number and card.

The NIAI Bill seeks to establish the National Identification Authority (NIA) for the purpose of spearheading the exercise of giving Aadhaar numbers (unique identification numbers for every 'usual resident') and identity cards to individuals residing in India using this database. This project has already started udner the aegis of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). According to the Bill Aadhaar numbers and identity cards would be issued to people on a voluntary basis upon receiving payment. I had expressed doubts about whether this will truly be voluntary if the Aadhaar number is made the basis for people, especially the impoverished, to access benefits under various welfare schemes and development programmes. Prof. Jean Dreze had written publicly expressing serious concerns about this mammoth project.
His article is accessible at: http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/25/stories/2010112563151300.htm

The National Population Register: The latest Annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs strengthens the suspicion that Aadhaar may be made mandatory. Please check the section on the National Population Register (NPR) at page 260 of the Report (extract attached).
The complete text of the Report is accessible at:  http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/AR(E)1011.pdf

The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has been empowered to create a National Population Register (NPR) of all individuals who are usual residents above the age of five years. According to the Report April 2011 onwards, in addition to adults, kids above the age of five will be required to give their photographs, iris information and ten finger prints (what if they have 11 or 12 digits like some popular figures we know of? Which 10 will be counted?) A consortium of Central Public Sector Undertakings and the Department of Information Technology will be responsible for collecting this data. The exercise of collecting photographs and biometrics may have begun in April 2011 according to this Report. After making public this database for inviting objections from the public, it will be finalised and handed over to UIDAI or the proposed NIA for de-duplication. After this debugging UIDAI or NIAI will issue Aadhaar numbers to all usual residents above the age of 18. There is no sense of voluntariness in this paragraph. Looks like Aadhaar numbers and id cards may become compulsory for all.

2. Will Aadhaar database be accessible to intelligence agencies?
Even more worrisome is how this data will be protected from misuse. The NIAI Bill is silent on how Aadhaar data will be shared with other agencies. The NIAI Bill contemplates situtations where the identity information of Aadhaar number holders will be shared with agencies engaged in delivery of public benefits and public services. The NIA has the power to make regulations to define these procedures.  An officer of Joint Secretary rank and above can authorise disclosure of this data to any person- even without the consent of that individual. An individual - if at all he/she gets to know that information about him/her has been ordered to be shared with some other State agency can appeal this decision only in courts. Even this procedure is not specified in the NIAI Bill.

What neither this Bill nor the MHA's Annual Report tells us is if this database will be linked to the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). The Government has set up NATGRID as an attached office of the MHA. 39 staffers have been appointed according to the MHA's Annual Report. Its terms of reference are not available in the public domain. According to the MHA's Annual Report NATGRID has been set up to link databases for constructing actionable intelligence to combat terrorism and internal security threats. According to the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs: "NATGRID will enable the security forces to trace patterns and habits across a wide spectrum to meet security needs." For the complete text of the interview please click on: http://inclusion.in/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=602

Will this NPR/Aadhaar database be made available to NATGRID? There is no official word about this on the website of the MHA. Section 4(1)(c) of the RTI Act which requires disclosure of all facts and figures while announcing important policies and decisions that affect the people is being observed in the breach. Under the NIAI Bill the NIA will be the sole authority to determine whether access to Aadhaar information will be granted or not. The Central Information Commission's role will be tested as and when an information request for Aadhaar is made under the RTI Act. According to media reports the Finance Ministry has expessed reservations about linking up banking information to the NATGRID as it would erode the confidence of customers who are assured protection for their privacy under existing banking laws. Again there is no official word about this in the public domain. Makes me wonder if the Government is serious about proactive dislcosure on a day to basis at all beyond the PR exercise it does through the Press Information Bureau.

3. Need for a law on data protection and privacy:
The RTI Act and the NIAI Bill fall under the administrative jurisdiction of the same ministry, namely, the Ministry of Planning and Personnel. NPR falls under the MHA. Last year the Ministry of Personnel floated a discussion paper on the right to privacy and the need for a data protection law. For our email alert and comment on this issue circulated in October 2010 please click on: http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/ai/rti/india/national/2009/email_alerts/dopt's_approach_paper_on_a_privacy_law_for_india_oct_21_2010.pdf
This paper did not even look at the jurisprudence on the right to privacy developed in the Supreme Court and the High Courts. It focused mainly on the concerns of service providers who are worried about hacking, data theft etc. These are valid concerns no doubt. But what is missing from this debate is the 'PEOPLE' whose data  is sought to be protected by this proposed law. We have not heard anything more from the Department in this regard for a long time.

It is high time we demanded more transparency in matters that will affect even our children.

In order to access the our previous email alerts on RTI and related issues please click on: http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=84 http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=84>
 

You will find the links at the top of this web page. If you do not wish to receive these email alerts please send an email to this address indicating your refusal.
 

Thanks
Venkatesh Nayak
Programme Coordinator
Access to Information Programme
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
B-117, 1st Floor, Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi- 110 017
Tel: +91-11-43180215/ 43180200
Fax: +91-11-26864688
Skype: venkatesh.nayak
Website: www.humanrightsinitiative.org

1444 - Nandurbar misses UID registration target, collector blames project firm-Mumbai Mirror

Yogesh Naik 

Posted On Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 02:11:07 AM

The implementation of the Unique Identification (UID) programme has been poor in the very district where it was first launched in the country.

Nandurbar district, the model region for the scheme, has missed its target of UID registrations by more than half.

Upset with poor UID enrolments, District Collector A T Kumbhar has written to Tera Software - the company responsible for the scheme’s implementation - seeking reasons why it should not be blacklisted.

The work of registering people, collecting biometric data and issuing UID cards began in the district in January this year.

A target of providing cards to 3.5 lakh people was set by authorities. However, so far only 1.17 lakh have been covered under the programme.

Kumbhar said Hyderabad-based Tera Software’s failure to provide adequate machines for gathering biometric data, iris images and fingerprints, was the main reason behind poor UID registrations.

“We have repeatedly asked the agency (Tera Software) to provide at least 300 machines, so the target can be achieved. A few days back, we had only 30 machines. After much prodding, the company installed 24 more machines, he said. Kumbhar has also complained about the Hyderabad based firm to the State IT Department.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi launched the UID scheme in Nandurbar district’s Tembli village last year.

The region was declared a model district for the implementation of the programme. Central and state officials have been seeking regular updates about the scheme’s progress.

“I have received several complaints that the registration process is very slow. I have warned the company that it could be blacklisted if the situation remains the same,” the district collector said, adding that IT department would take the final call on the firm’s association with the UID project.

Kumbhar first wrote to Tera Software on February 22. In the letter, he complained about project coordinators’ shoddy job. He sent another missive on April 1. “I have reports that eight units have been fitted in Nawapur, but only three are working. The official representatives of your company do not communicate with tehsildars,” he stated.

On May 2, the Nandurbar district collector wrote the State Government, expressing displeasure over poor UID registrations. He also stressed on the need for more machines to collect biometric data.

“We didn’t have enough machines and personnel. Now, we have got some machines, but the problem of manpower still exists,” said Amir Walvi, who represents the company in Nandurbar. Mayuresh Kolankar of Tera Software claimed that Kumbhar had not written to the firm. “Who said that the Nandurbar collectorate officials complained about us? The collector has spoken to us, but he has never written to us,” he said.

1443 - Will UID dream become a REALITY?? - ZIMBIO

Written by bengani on Jun-26-11 10:36pm
From:  freshnews.in

With the implementation of the Unique Identification (UID) programme , India willl become the first country in the world to implement a biometric-based unique ID system for its residents on a national scale. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi launched the UID scheme in Nandurbar district’s Tembli village last year.

But the implementation of the Unique Identification (UID) programme has been poor in the very district where it was first launched in the country. The work of registering people, collecting biometric data and issuing UID cards began in the district in January this year. A target of providing cards to 3.5 lakh people was set by authorities. However, so far only 1.17 lakh have been covered under the programme. Nandurbar district, the model region for the scheme, has missed its target of UID registrations by more than half.

Hyderabad-based Tera Software’s is responsible for the UID registration. It is held responsible for failure to provide adequate machines for gathering biometric data, iris images and fingerprints. Tera Software was asked to provide at least 300 machines, so the target can be achieved. But only 30 machines were provided till few days back. After much prodding, the company installed 24 more machines.

Upset with poor UID enrolments, District Collector A T Kumbhar has written to Tera Software — “the company responsible for the scheme’s implementation — seeking reasons why it should not be blacklisted.”

Kumbhar first wrote to Tera Software on February 22. In the letter, he complained about project coordinators’ shoddy job. He sent another missive on April 1. “I have reports that eight units have been fitted in Nawapur, but only three are working. The official representatives of your company do not communicate with tehsildars,” he stated.

On May 2, the Nandurbar district collector wrote the State Government, expressing displeasure over poor UID registrations. He also stressed on the need for more machines to collect biometric data.

“We didn’t have enough machines and personnel. Now, we have got some machines, but the problem of manpower still exists,” said Amir Walvi, who represents the company in Nandurbar. Mayuresh Kolankar of Tera Software claimed that Kumbhar had not written to the firm. “Who said that the Nandurbar collectorate officials complained about us? The collector has spoken to us, but he has never written to us,” he said.

 

1442 - Aadhar forms cause major confusion- Deccan Chronicle

June 28, 2011 

June 27: Chaos prevailed at the post-offices which issued Aadhar enrolment forms on Monday. The enthusiasm of Bengalureans to get a permanent identity proof was met with lack of preparedness on the part of the officials. While Bengalureans queued up in large numbers at the centres, there were only a few forms issued. Many people had to go back without a form.

A major source of confusion was regarding the validity of forms downloaded from the website and photocopied from the original forms. The General Post Office had put up a notice in the morning saying that applicants could download and print forms or get photocopies of an original form. However, when people turned up with filled-in forms, they were told that downloaded and photocopied forms were not valid and an original form from one of the seven post offices across the city, was a must.

“After a meeting of UID officials in the afternoon, it was decided that forms other than the original ones issued by a post office, are not valid. There were complaints about people obtaining forms in bulk and selling them. Some photocopy shops were selling photocopies as well,” an official at the GPO said. Getting an original form proved to be a hit-or-miss affair on Monday as the GPO decided to issue only 60-70 forms a day. Eager applicants who did not get a form on Monday, were asked to come back for a form only on Thursday. “Forms are out of stock, the new set will arrive only on Wednesday, you should come to collect one on Thursday,” said an official at the GPO.

However, he later clarified that the post office is issuing a limited number, considering the time required to process a form. “In case we issue a thousand forms at one go, we will have a thousand people at a time queuing up for processing of forms. This will lead to chaos and a longer wait. It requires at least 20 minutes to process a form and we can process less than 30 forms in a day. Therefore, it has been decided to issue only 60-70 forms a day.” Considering that the GPO alone had issued over 250 forms till Monday evening, the GPO has planned to issue only 30 forms on Tuesday. The GPO will require at least 10 days to process all these forms.

This has put many to inconvenience. “Forms at RT Nagar post office were over at 10.30 am. I came to the GPO and was asked to get a photocopy of an original form and come back with the filled-in form before 6 pm. When I returned at 3 pm, I was told that the photocopy was not valid and I could get an original form only on Friday,” said Felix Royan, a resident of Lingarajapuram. “I have taken a day off from my work at the airport and travelled over 40 km to come to the GPO. Now, I’m being asked to return on Thursday to collect the form. Then, the form will be processed after which they will issue a token for verification,” complained Ramesh Singh, an employee at Bengaluru International Airport.

“This is a trial-and-error method. I did not get any forms today. How do I ensure that I will get forms on Thursday? I’ll have to come and queue up at 8 in the morning,” said Purushothaman R, an employee of the secretariat, who came to get 50 forms for the education department.

1441 - Chaos at post offices as hundreds queue up for UID- Deccan Herald

Nagashree Gururaj and Sajith S J, Bangalore, June 25, DHNS:

Staff unprepared to face flood of applicants Saturday morning

 

The enthusiasm of people to enrol for the unique identification number process at GPO took the staff completely by surprise on Saturday.

The postal department on Friday announced that people could register for “Aadhaar” at 20 post offices in the City. However, the staff seemed unprepared to face the hordes of people in the morning.

Deccan Herald witnessed people waiting since 8:30 am till afternoon in the General Post Office (GPO). They complained about the lack of information and directions from the post office staff. Philip (name changed) said he had rushed to enrol himself as he had a holiday on Saturday. “I am really disgusted at the lack of arrangements,” he complained.

An agitated woman who had come in at 8:30 am, said: “The situation is very chaotic. When VIPs and kin of officials tried to break the queue discipline, an angry crowd interfered and called the police. But police did not make any difference.”

Another woman said the customer care number did not do “us any good. No one knew how to go about it.”

Runs out of forms

Matters were made worse when people, who had approached other post offices, were directed to the GPO. At 1 pm, the post office put up a notice saying people had to get their own enrolment forms as they had run out of them.

Looking at the surge, the staff issued tokens to deal with the confusion. “Only 30 tokens were issued and they are taking a very long time to complete the process, it’s only token 11 now and it’s already 3 pm. They have only one person to deal with the whole process,” said Mala, who had arrived early morning.

The beleaguered officials said the role of the post office was only of verification, the front end work was outsourced to a private company. “Officials of the Life Team Care have to come over and upload the information of each card holder in Kannada and English, take thumb impressions and photos. Each process takes about 15 to 20 minutes. All we do is verify the documents,” the official claimed. The process of registration also includes scanning of iris and fingerprints and clicking a photo.

10 centres

Postmaster (General Business Development), Vasumitra said around 10 centres are operational now. “We can enrol only 40-50 people at each centre in a day. There is nothing we can do to increase that number,” he added.

T S Shivakumar, a resident of R T Nagar, said that he and his wife went to the R T Nagar post office by 10 am. They were greeted by a “No Forms” sign and the clerk at the counter told them to go to the photocopier shop next door to get a copy of the form.

1440 - UID: we do have doubts, concerns and confusion - The Hindu

AAKASH MEHROTRA
 

A mammoth project that would lead to millions flowing out of the exchequer definitely needs to be debated at the national level.

 

Interesting, isn't, when you have people asking for your identity or rather say you are supposed to present your proof of existence. Doesn't it sound like breaching into someone's personal life? A 12-digit number will decide whether you remain a person or an unperson. Oh, I am not hinting at a sci-fi movie, but referring to a biometric reality. Let me welcome you to the ‘Biometric Prison Planet.'

Before I get into the aadhar of ‘Aadhar', I would like to present a fact that this whole idea has faced heat all around the world. But Aadhar is not just another ID card; it is a number, a number to tell you that you are in fact you. With this article I would like to bring to light some of the jokes that Aadhar is bringing to the fore. 

Well, let's start with the biggest joke — the much-hyped bill was thankfully presented in Parliament in December 2010 and is yet to face the standing committee. Further, the strongest resistance to Aadhar is coming from two eminent members of the National Advisory Council, Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy. A mammoth project that would lead to millions flowing out of the exchequer definitely needs to be debated at the national level. It is a pity that though we are striving on to move towards e-governance, we are missing on e-consultation.

The sad part is that sooner or later we all will have a 12-digit identification number pinned on our chests at the cost of our privacy. One bold statement that has always been presented in defence of the UID (Unique Identification Number) is that it is not mandatory; but ironically it is ubiquitous. So far in India about 15 different types of ID work, but the UID is projected to have the entire database of information of Indians. The real fear is access to such a data would give the government a free hand to profiling, segmenting and targeting a sect, group or religion. This could lead to dangerous consequences. This data, if slipped into the hands of corporates, could be used to serve various purposes.

The UID promises to give the poor their identity, it is a tool for profiling the beneficiary in the PDS, streamlining payments to be made under the MGNREGS and enabling the achievement of targets under the Right to Education or any such government scheme. Service delivery is what it guarantees. But serious doubts have been raised about its being able to rationalise the PDS. Going on the same line, the UID has been advocated as a tool for the poor to avail themselves of the services of the PDS from any part of the country. The distinct reality is that every PDS has a limited amount of ration with it and will in no case be able to answer the numerous calls of migrants. Another aspect being voiced in favour of the UID is its efficacy in streamlining direct cash transfer to the poor by effectively segmenting the poor and the needy. But whether it can really fill the lacunae of governance is the real question.

Apart from that, there is exactly no strong edifice of biometrics on which this mega-structure is to be constructed. Patterns of iris change with age, disease and health; fingerprints can easily be tapped and copied.

Herculean task

Moreover, the problem will come in reduplication of the structure. A register of more than 100 million identities sounds a distant dream. It's a herculean task to build such a colossal database. It is a critical piece of information infrastructure that has to come in place. So far, the project has seen less of IT and infrastructure building and more of politics. Advocated as the biggest step towards social development, the project requires efficient planning at the granule level.

The UID is about convergence of silos of information. The biggest concern, however, at my end is about human ethics — India is home to more than eight million people with corneal blindness and many more have corneal scars and many more suffer from cataract.

Authentification of fingerprints is questionable — there are thousands born without or have lost their hands; or even the workforce involved in manual labour or agriculture has its fingerprints marred. The entire framework is not in place and fails to answer how much of the data collected from fingerprints will be authentic. We can suffer huge technology risks. No question has been raised about the millions of homeless people or the persons who come under the category of third sex, who may not opt to or may not be able to give the information. The project fails to answer many such questions. Questions can always be raised on the abuse of information available with the government.

Many developed countries have retraced their path on the project owing to the issues of citizen privacy. The U.K had to repeal an Act of national identity register following large-scale protests from the citizens. Hungary and Germany look upon the project as a violation of privacy. Political pundits in these countries have termed it the “national e-surveillance act.”

The government has shown sheer urgency in going for the UID project. If the project fails to confront the various questions and doubts being raised, it would hurt democracy. This is a dark joke making its rounds in the political corridors with the idea of investing an identity in every citizen. It is prudent at this stage for the government to have a frank debate on the matter and to put in public the entire structure before it goes into investing this enormous amount of money which could otherwise be used to lift millions out of poverty.

(The writer's email is trulyakash@gmail.com)

1439 - Sanovi bets big on DRM software - The Hindu

June 24th 2011

Sanovi Technologies, a leader in disaster recovery management (DRM) software sees a big demand for this product in India especially in the small medium enterprises (SME) segment. To ensure that a business runs smoothly in spite of external risks such as natural disasters and climate changes, there is need for a strong disaster recovery management solution, according to Chandra Sekhar Pulamarasetti, Founder and CEO, Sanovi Technologies.

In an interaction with The Hindu he said after the economic slowdown a lot of corporates have realised the need for disaster recovery management and were making it as one of their top priorities. “In an IT environment, a disaster can cause extreme downtime, total interruption of processes, disruption in business operations and loss of revenue,” he said. In the next three years, the DRM market in India would be of the order of Rs. 250-300 crore with major demand coming from both the government and corporate segments. With eight states in India adopting e-governance there would be more than 200 projects requiring data recovery management, Mr. Chandra Sekhar said.

Sanovi DRM enables data recovery monitoring, reporting, testing and workflow automation of complex IT infrastructure and applications, Mr. Chandra Sekhar said. Recently the company has launched Sanovi DRM 4.0 product suite, a next generation product which enables business continuity processes easier for organisations. The upgraded software delivers advanced applications and services for the data centre, leverages virtualisation to simplify business continuity planning and testing and reduces the risk and complexity associated with executing disaster recovery workflows. Its agent-less technology would enable customers to deploy Sanovi software without the need for any additional software on their mission critical infrastructure, he said.

Sanovi has more than 60 clients with majority of them from the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) segment. The company has won the recovery management contract for Phase I of India’s unique identification (UID) project, ‘Aadhaar’. It would provide DRM software that combines monitoring, reporting, resting and drill automation capabilities for this data-intensive UID project.

1438 -Excerpts from the press release on 22nd June from NAC

excerpts from the press release on 22nd June from NAC


IV  Pre Legislative Process

8.   Smt Aruna Roy ,Convener on Working Group on Accountability and Transparency 
mentioned that   as part of strengthening participatory democracy, it is important to   go
beyond the existing Parliamentary consultative process and directly involve the people in the
formulation of important decisions, policies and laws drafted in the name of the sovereign.
All proposed policies and laws should be opened up to public discussion before finalization,
with the scope of discussion being determined by the scope of the proposed policy or law.
There needs to be a clearly defined process that mandates public participation and
consultation at every stage, from the time a decision is taken to draft a policy till the time it is
represented as a Bill to be tabled in Parliament. The principles and need justifying the policy
decision, suggested framework and scope etc must be widely and pro actively shared with the
people concerned, by the Government.  The NAC decided that the Working Group of NAC
on Transparency, Accountability and Governance will evolve a policy on ‘pre-legislative
consultative processes’  for recommending to the Government.

1437 - Sreelatha Menon: Who will catch the cop? by Sreelatha Menon-Business Standard

The Lok Pal Bill draft holds little for the aam aadmi who has to pay bribes for almost everything
 

Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi June 26, 2011, 0:30 IST

Last week, an enterprising resident welfare association in Ghaziabad organised a registration camp for unique identification (UID) numbers. It found people queuing up till midnight for a week with infants, grandmothers and some with domestic workers in tow.

No one had a clue as to how UID was different from the several other identity documents each of them had been scrupulously accumulating and treasuring. They were initially informed that all they needed to do was get their thumbs and eyes photographed. But it turned out that they also required to carry a proof of address and photo identification. UID is being considered as the government’s magic bullet to beat corruption in every sphere of society. A bigger solution than the Lok Pal, it is the super Lok Pal, says a resident.
 

No one knows how this is to happen. The enthusiasm of the government to give each citizen an UID is comparable with its lack of enthusiasm to open up the entire bureaucracy down to the constable to scrutiny under the Lok Pal/Lok Ayukta Bill, as proposed by activists led by Anna Hazare.

It did it once through the Right to Information Act. But it refuses to go any further. It wants to restrict it to the deputy secretary and upwards. Besides, it has no plans to have a central Lok Ayukta Bill which would cover state officials.

It is the scrutiny of the officials in the police, food department, transport, health and education departments which would bring relief to the common man.

If crores are looted during the Commonwealth Games, it makes people angry, but not as much as when they are asked to pay Rs 500 for the verification of their address for a passport by a constable.

Recently, the criminal investigation department (CID) and police officials in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram area arrived for the verification of the address of a journalist for the purpose of an accreditation card to be issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB). Both parties demanded Rs 500 each. The implication was that a denial would lead the PIB card to an unknown fate. The same happened when the cops and CID officials came to verify the address for the issuance of a passport.

Activists have demanded that a Lok Ayukta Bill be enacted as a Central legislation along with the Lok Pal Bill. Without a Lok Ayukta Bill with strong powers, it would be business as usual for the entities mentioned above.

Says social scientist Ashwini Kumar of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, “It is important that the Lok Pal and Lok Ayukta have powers to take action.” He cites the example of the Bihar government, which recently seized the premises of an official accused of corruption and turned it into a school. It was, however, done after an approval was taken from the home ministry, as the official concerned was under the respective ministry. Citing the model of the Election Commission, which can marshal its resources when it wants, he says while the activists are looking for a radical interpretation of the Constitution, the government is focusing on centralised corruption. Instead of opening up the entire officialdom to scrutiny, it wants to rely on technological solutions such as UID for dealing with decentralised corruption. But, can 300 million people be protected from corruption with just a UID number, he asks.

Meanwhile, some residents queuing up for UID launched into arguments against the non-inclusion of the prime minister under Lok Pal, and began dissecting every scam that was in the news lately. Amid the heat, it is your turn for photographing your iris and your thumbs… under the UPA’s scheme for reaching out to the last man/woman on this land.

1436 - Push for food price hedging - Indian Express

Posted: Thu Jun 23 2011, 01:48 hrs

By Javier Blas in London

The World Bank is taking the rare step of encouraging developing countries to buy insurance in the derivatives markets against sudden changes in food prices with a deal that should allow the nations to hedge some $4bn worth of commodities.

The deal, struck with investment bank JPMorgan, comes as countries such as China and India weather a second surge in agricultural commodities prices following the 2007-08 food crisis.

But the initiative, timed to coincide with the first ever G20 meeting of agricultural ministers, could prove controversial as lawmakers in countries from the US to France try to clamp down on what they describe as excessive speculation in commodities derivatives.

Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, said on Tuesday that the “agriculture price risk management” tool showed what “sensible financial engineering” could do. “We have been in a period of extraordinary volatility in food prices, which poses a real danger of irreparable harm to the most vulnerable nations,” Mr Zoellick said, adding that food prices were “the single gravest threat” facing developing countries.

The facility will target the private sectors of developing nations, including farming cooperatives and food processing companies. JPM would offer simple hedging instruments.

The World Bank will underwrite $200m in credit risk under the initiative while JPM, one of the largest dealers in commodities in Wall Street, will take on a similar amount. The World Bank said this should enable countries to gain up to $4bn in price protection. The institution said that other banks were likely to join later.

G20 agriculture ministers are set to agree at their Paris meeting that hedging “would provide an important contribution” to agriculture, according to a draft of the group’s communiqué obtained by the Financial Times, but the G20 remains split in other areas such as biofuels.

The use of financial insurance—or hedging—in agricultural commodities prices is common in the developed world, particularly in the US, Canada, Australia and France, and was behind the birth more than a century ago of the Chicago Board of Trade and others commodities exchanges.

But many developing countries have little experience using derivatives, both at the sovereign and companies level.

Mexico, however, took earlier this year the unusual step of disclosing it had bought futures contracts in Chicago to insure itself against the effect of rising corn prices on tortilla, a food staple in the country.

1435 - UIDAI “AADHAR” Authentication API For Software Engineers- Source - Crazy Engineers

Posted by Kaustubh Katdare on June 25, 2011

The AADHAR or UIDAI (aka Unique Identification Authority Of India) API (aka Application Programming Interface) has been released for software engineers free of cost. For the uninitiated, UIDAI is India’s ambitious project to identify every Indian citizen uniquely and provide them with an identification number which can be used across India to avail facilities and services. The project is being headed by Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys – India’s leading IT services company.

The project has already began rolling out Ids to people and simultaneously aiming to create an ecosystem of software services around it. The UIDAI will provide a central authentication system to all the services in its ecosystem. Nilekani’s idea is to accelerate this process by opening the API to independent software developers and vendors. Developers will now be able to build applications that can authenticate users based on their AADHAR ID. Using this API, developers will be able to send the UID of a user to the servers and the server will respond with YES/NO. For added security in banking transactions, the API will also allow passing biometric information along with the unique ID.

UIDAI also provides with Demographic Authentication  API which would be useful in verification of resident’s address. A typical application of demographic authentication API would be in issuing of credit card where the bank needs to verify the applicant’s residential address.Mr. Sanjay Jain who is the chief product manager of AADHAR said that they have identified several vendors and agencies to take care of various functions thus enabling UIDAI to execute the project more smoothly without any interference. Those who wish to learn more about the API may refer to the following link -

AADHAR Authentication API Specification 1.2

1434 - Of mice, men and numbers- Source - Thought Alive Blog

JUNE 25, 2011 · 1:05 AM

There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good. Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) Taxation No Tyranny

This seems to be the guiding philosophy behind all agencies, technologically empowered to gather information for their own ends. Governments have been, for very valid reasons, collecting in-depth information about the citizens, their location, education, well-being  and so on. It is now groups with less benign motives who gather information for their own ends. Not public information which is available from different sources, but invasive, personal information about routine activities that create a profile as X-Ray or MRI examination do of body.

Data – in itself an abstraction (meta-data?) – has come to represent materiality. Its value has outgrown that of idea. Lust for bits of insignificant reality has led to disregard and disdain for the individual. It was the idea that created a set of conditions known as democracy. Following the eternal ethos, Mahatma Gandhi stressed on purity of means to attain the desired (pure) end. Time and again his followers were frustrated by his insistence on absolute respect for this principle. It is evident in most everyday situations, the harm caused by neglect of this. The greatest harm, one that creeps in silently, is that impurity of action corrodes the mind.

The individual, deconstructed into bits (and bytes), ceases to exist as a whole. In past two decades, with threat of major war averted, terrorism has come up as cause of great fear. So great is this fear, that statesman all over the world overlook what is near and at hand for a remote future possibility. It is well known that fear unites against a common enemy; and so, with unreal made real they can avoid the burden of facing the actual truth. Suspicion lurks everywhere. A perfect scenario for profit and control. It appears that along-with opportunities for trade and commerce the commodity of fear has best been globalized. And the natural way to answer it, is anger. On other hand protest is born out of pain. If the individual pains are to be overshadowed it is best achieved by a common anger. The few voices that still rise occasionally may be labeled hysterical outbursts and disregarded.

“We can conclude that the three types of tests are measuring incommensurate quantities and therefore [we] should not be at all surprised when the values for the same technologies vary widely and unpredictably over the three types of tests.” – WaPoMa (Wayman – San José State University, Possolo – US National Institute of Standards and Technology Mansfield -the UK National Physical Laboratory)

“We have set a target of enrolling one million citizens a day by October to issue the UID number for about 600 million people over the next three years,” state-run Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI) chairman Nandan N. Nilekani said. With billions of people going without proper food, potable water, adequate shelter and minimum healthcare, huge amount of money is spent on collecting information purported to alleviate dearth of same. Like a cat landing on its feet, Technology somehow finds ways to foster its own progress. In the past century, data has constantly been moved from one format to another. That it is a unit for creation  of actual plans, services or goods is conveniently overlooked by all concerned. The more the data, greater the ‘letter’ of law to bury its ‘spirit’ beneath. Exercise is so very physical that this attributes succeeds in obliterating the real idea of health.

Metrics has always existed as account of actions performed and proposed, but bio-metrics is taking things too far.  Specially, when the very science, used to emphasize their solidity, admits unreliability. In the race for material existence, elements that vie with each other to propel growth in particular direction, are control and profit. They are more likely to cooperate than conflict. Human dignity and well-being are the prime sufferers; though knowledge, tradition and gentler human emotions are equal prey. One is forced to take the cudgel when it is a matter for survival. A total of 730,887,511 citizens in 35 states have been registered as voters  by Election Commission in India as on 2010.  These people are responsible for the live and vibrant state of democracy in India. Shortfalls, pitfalls and hard-calls have been subsidized by these people of whom 456 million are estimated by World Bank to live below poverty line. It is on behalf of these people who have little to lose but their lives, that grand projects for security and surveillance are taken up. It is said car crashes kill 400 times more people than international terrorism does in developed countries; possibly some exaggeration. But, one of the reasons given for creating a national database that records every individual perfectly through use of finger-print and iris-scan, was to ensure they received payment for their labour under MG-NREGS scheme. The national rural employment guarantee scheme has been beleaguered by reports of corruption and misuse every now and then.   A Bangalore based Socio-tech thinker points out flaw in such a policy.

Surveillance in any society is like salt in cooking — essential in small quantities but completely counter- productive even slightly in excess. Blanket surveillance makes privacy extinct, it compromises anonymity, essential ingredients for democratic governance, free media, arts and culture, and, most importantly, commerce and enterprise. The Telegraph Act only allowed for blanket surveillance as the rarest of the rare exception. The IT Act, on the other hand, mandates multitiered blanket surveillance of all lawabiding citizens and enterprises. Sunil Abraham

David Moss does not really need the research report Fundamental issues in biometric performance testing but this does simplify his argument against expenditure undertaken by politicians without understanding true import of promoters of concerned technology. In his article, he raises relevant questions:

Why are the UK Home Office spending taxpayers’ money on the biometrics in ePassports and in residence permits for non-EEA nationals? (That’s £650 million of taxpayers’ money, split between IBM and CSC.) Why are the Home Office paying VFS Global and CSC to register the biometrics of millions of visa applicants all over the world like so many schoolboy stamp collectors? Why are UK nationals paying three times the correct price for a passport?

Why has Pakistan bothered to register the biometrics of 96 million citizens and to issue 70 million of them with biometric ID cards? All that effort. And the result? Not the harmonious state of law-abiding politically tranquil domestic peace and efficient public services sometimes touted as the automatic consequence of ID card schemes.

Why is India spending billions on Aadhaar, which depends on biometrics whose reliability is, so say the titans,  utterly unknowable? And will the Unique Identification Authority of India ever answer my question how they can claim to offer unique identification when, based on their own figures, they would have to perform 18,000,000,000,000 manual checks to prove uniqueness? And why do they think Aadhaar will eradicate corruption, rather than automate corruption?

Even if the corruption does not get automated, exploitation is sure to rise. The ideal of justice has not been realized to this day, where chances of its need and denial rise with poverty. When in ’80s an Indian politician first spoke of ‘age-of-computer’, it turned into a decade long joke. It was turn of the millennium with successful battle of Indian engineers with Y2K , that the country accepted this machine. But the vision of the leader has yet to be fulfilled.

Email rides a Snail

Departmental head in capital sends email to 400 state offices. Same mail is cc:d to 40 offices by 10 regional offices. 4 Sub-regional offices forward mail again to 10 local offices. Local office replies sub-regional office with cc to regional office and State office. The local office replies are collected, collated and sent by sub-regional office regional office with cc to State office. Till all intermediary offices have collected replies at all levels and sent collated report, State office is assumed to not have received information.

Almost whole of Indian bureaucracy has been trained in use of computers, the training was merely instructional. The  bureaucracy steeped in triplicate carbon copies, wax sealed envelopes, binders and files, uses computers in same way. It accepted this technology only when ‘budget’ was allocated to purchase equipment. For a few years the stand-alone PC purchased with the meager budget was kept under lock and key. Next, it was kept on the office head’s table as a prestige symbol. Now that the bosses have learnt to command their secretaries to ‘email it’, the hired help down the line sends the mail using security passwords meant for office-head. Partly due overwork, lack of education and curiosity, partly due their simplicity, these hired hands have not embarrassed their bosses in any grave manner so far to the notice. The Indian office-worker has adapted these gadgets to the office-routine. Use of paper (no longer the cheap rice-paper or recycled ream) has gone up; add new varieties of consumables – ribbon, cartridge, toner etc. for printers, diskettes, cd and dvd packs, covers, storage box, spare mouse and keyboard. There was a time when one had to seek approval and sanction before purchase of a USB drive, but with costs coming within ‘purchase limit’ of the D.D.O. (Drawing & Disbursing Officer), they are almost treated as consumables now. The gadget which is every official’s favorite is the Scanner. Many of the still tech-challenged  bureaucrat have come to add sixth word to their technical vocabulary – pdf (after PC, mouse, Window, email and Excel). So look up any departmental website and after first four primary pages, all links lead to a wait while the pdf document gets loaded to reveal a slip-shod scan of a manually typed, handwritten or smudgy printout. Even the ‘right-to-information’ section is a bundle of surface-mail received marked cover page with rest scanned without removing stapling pins on many a websites. The only person who manages to meet his goals is the ‘vendor’. From devising specifications, testing tools, conditions, limitations to providing the actual product: it is his to reason why, theirs to do…

“To prove uniqueness, every single Indian would have to investigate and resolve 15,000 false positives. Long before they had finished, many of them would be dead, many more Indians would have been born, and the task would remain incomplete. Using UIDAI’s own figures, India can be confident that the proof of uniqueness is not achievable. Not in the real world.” David Moss

Navigation is a concept that has not found the bureaucratic shores yet. Data is sent from offices, compiled, authorized and sent to central network officials on compact disks who upload it on the departmental website. All autonomous departments contract web-management out to service providers. Data of one office often gets displayed on the web-pages of another located elsewhere. As the municipal corporations and other revenue-collecting agencies have begun to digitize data, consumers have been penalized in all possible manners. This is one place where Moore’s law works with its corollaries. There are reports of people committing suicide because an electricity power company billed them a thousand times or so, insisting on pay-first-then-settle clause.

To a brotherhood whose commitment to serve (well, who.. people? state? itself?) was never clear in the first place, the abstraction – ‘rules’ – have just gained more of same. The ambiguity between order received digitally and in print creates new dichotomy that makes it harder for people to benefit from the office. That computers can be used to automate and streamline routine business is alien to most.

None of them were educated about possibilities of technology. In the usual brash manner, they were thrown as babies into water to learn swimming. Only catch was that unlike babies, they had the burden of their primary duties to perform. That is why that as they mastered the new gadget, they molded their traditional moves  on to it.

"UID can be an easy way for verifying one’s Twitter and Facebook account,” Nilekani added. He had clarified that the API calls will remain free for the next couple of years. medianama

It is with such a setup that the great challenge of creating a single database is being undertaken. A simple adage followed even by these people is not to put all eggs in one basket. A state of mind that would scarcely notice humanity going remiss, yet is fraught with ‘human errors’ is not ready for the giant leap. Pressing for one single national cards implies lack of those very skills that are required to keep data secure. Secure, from whom? The project plans to give the data free for the first two years. It is an investment in panacea with false hope and no logical notion as to how it would improve anything?  And in all these calculations, has anyone included the question of responsibility. If at end of this exercise, a citizen suffers in any way due to flawed idea itself, how would he be recompensed for tangible and intangible losses? Forget the individual, has any study been made what would happen to country on the database becoming available to inimical interests? A worst-case assessment should still be presented for public appraisal. Is not that what right-to-information ensures?

Ideas broken up into instructions / regulations / practices, like leaves snatched from trees, shrivel and die. Some do live on as signifiers of their original selves between pages of a schoolgirl’s diary. A man whom the world has come to revere, had rebelled in Africa against being turned into a number; he lit the lamp of non-violent protest,  first illumined India with glow of independence and then suffused the world. Would this man have accepted to be labeled ‘unique’ with a number pressed on ISO/ IEC  7810 sized ‘id’ card?

Is that what is happening to the idea of freedom? Some are quick to point out that it needs to be sacrificed, in order to be secure or safe or healthy… How is such a thought-process different from open-shut logic of local goon or mobster? If I have to pay my brother for my liberty, then we are not equals  –  the triad together constitutes true freedom. It was to do away with balance tilting in favour of any, that monarchs were removed to welcome people’s government.

Michael Moore recalls that on his foreman’s salary in a factory, his father had managed to pay off mortgage on his house, could afford a decent life for his family, taking care of their health and education expenses. This feat is no longer possible in America.

If the idea is stale and not practicable any more, why do we cheer and hale the Arab Spring? Why when a non-political thinker raised his voice against trying tyranny of corruption and was joined by all and sundry, did we begin to hope for an Indian Summer?  After all, what great facility / reward / boon have the people received that they are expected to give back a whit more of their freedom. The elusive answer, authoritative in paradox is:   Progress.  You may refuse to take this answer, but it shall be proved to you (you guessed it, with perfect data) that human kind in 2011 is in much better shape than a century or millennium back.  Planets are not similes in songs but tourist destinations. There are more democratic countries in the world – 190 without dispute regarding sovereignty out of 213 nations according to UN.

If the world today exists and functions on principles of liberty, equality, fraternity then should not the ‘cost’ of ‘progress’ be calculated in advance and citizens informed rather than being charged/ penalized later for a service they neither needed, demanded nor would have chosen knowing the costs. 1984 has gone but its dystopia is yet a cherished dream for some. Is it necessary for this nightmare to come real for those who never dreamt of it?

It all boils down to simple truth. Choosing matter over mind, Mammon over Muse and expediency over fairness. We have to publicly accept that all our actions are towards celebration of man and not machine, system, progress or whatever label the profit-control greed may choose to hide itself. Cherish the idea of uniqueness of man, not number. The nearest good is not that near and no good at all.

1433 - Basic Aadhaar Authentication API to be available for free- Watblog

By Rounak Jain • June 24, 2011

India’s ambitious UID project named Aadhar intends to create an ecosystem of applications and services that center around the idea of authenticating users through their UID. Nandan Nilakeni, Chairman, UIDAI plans to do this by opening up the Aadhar API to third party developers.

An API or application programming interface is a set of rules that software programs follow to communicate with each other. So the opening up of the Aadhar API means is that based on your UID number the software will be able to verify your identity. Through the API an individual’s Aadhar number is sent to the authentication server and it returns a yes or no depending on whether the identity is true or not. In addition to this, services like banks and payment gateways that require a higher level of security can also pass in biometric information along with the Aadhar number to ensure accurate identity. The whole communication process would be encrypted and if encryption standards aren’t matched the API pops up an error.

The yes/no API (basic API) is being provided for free by the UIDAI to encourage the growth of the ecosystem. However, the UIDAI also offers address verification and biometric verification APIs which would be chargeable. For example: opening bank accounts would require address verification and issuing a credit card may require biometric verification. The UID is rolling out gradually with villages being the main target in the initial phase. The documentation talks about how the API could be used in rural ares to give payments to people enrolled in the National Employment guarantee scheme. Nandan Nilakeni also pointed out that the UID could also be used to verify people’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The documents on the Aadhar site also talk about privacy and how the government would protect an individuals right to privacy by using the information only to authenticate users. With hackers increasingly becoming anti- government, we hope the Aadhar database servers have robust security measures in place to avoid any sort of data theft.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!