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

Friday, December 28, 2012

2717 - Govt explores direct cash transfer without UID - Live Mint


A UIDAI official said that a final decision has not been made on the matter
   
First Published: Mon, Oct 22 2012. 12 44 AM IST


Updated: Mon, Oct 22 2012. 01 04 AM IST

New Delhi: The government may directly transfer cash subsidies to even those domestic cooking gas connection holders who don’t possess Aadhaar numbers—a position the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) doesn’t agree with.

UIDAI issues the Aadhaar numbers that will give each resident Indian a unique digital identity, around which the government is planning a host of welfare schemes.

The decision on the cash transfers was made at a meeting called by Pulok Chatterjee, principal secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, earlier this month to expedite the process.

UIDAI officials at the meeting opposed the move but it was decided that direct cash transfers couldn’t wait for the Aadhaar numbers to be issued to all. So far, 200 million people have been issued Aadhar numbers, or about 16% of India’s population.

A UIDAI official said that a final decision has not been made and a committee was formed of joint secretaries to compile different views and submit a report by 16-17 October. The report has been submitted and UIDAI has said that it can meet the deadline of LPG subsidy cash transfers by January 2013 in 51 districts and in 18 states (where UIDAI is mandated to enrol people) by April.

“While UIDAI has high penetration in 50 districts where Aadhaar numbers have been issued, there the cash transfers will be made only through UIDAI-linked bank accounts. For other places where Aadhaar numbers have not been issued, one can’t indefinitely wait,” said a petroleum ministry official, requesting anonymity.

A pilot scheme is already on in one district to examine the feasibility of transferring cash subsidies in this manner.

The meeting was attended by officials in the ministries of finance, petroleum, home and representatives of UIDAI and the Planning Commission.
The “principal secretary came to the conclusion that keeping in mind all the views that had been expressed, cash transfers need not necessarily wait for Aadhaar numbers to be issued”, show the minutes of the meeting reviewed by Mint. “However, it is preferable that cash transfers are based on Aadhar numbers as and when penetration levels cross 80% as the Aadhaar based system provides multiple benefits.”

The government recently capped the supply of subsidized cooking gas to six cylinders per household per year to pare its subsidy bill. It wants to transfer cash subsidies directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries of the various government schemes to ensure the benefits reach the intended target.
UIDAI is mandated to issue 600 million Aadhar numbers by 2014.

“UIDAI’s second phase has already been delayed by five-six months. Our reading to this is that the government is in a tearing hurry to transfer direct cash subsidy to people’s bank accounts because of the uncertain political situation and 2014 general elections,” said another government official who also didn’t want to be identified.

“You have to understand that things can’t be implemented overnight in this country, 51 districts are good enough to start implementation. Theoretically, something may look okay, but you can’t implement something overnight for 10 crore people,” countered a UIDAI official, also requesting anonymity.

There are 140 million LPG connections in the country, of which 99.57% are for domestic use, comprising 14.2kg LPG cylinders, according to official data. The LPG customer population covers around 56% of India’s total. There is an exercise on to eliminate multiple connections, with around 20.6 million such connections already identified.

The department of financial services was of the opinion that “it is better to delink Aadhaar from cash transfers and transfer subsidy by directly having a link between LPG customer databases and bank account databases”, according to the minutes of the meeting.

“What they would be doing in test phase is matching their database with digitized database of National Population Register (NPR). If the data matches, then they would take the account details of the person on whose name gas connection is registered. The difference between the market value and subsidized gas cylinder will be transferred to the bank account,” said the government official quoted above.

UIDAI, chaired by Nandan Nilekani, was set up to assign 12-digit unique identity numbers. But the initiative led to intra-government dispute bringing it in conflict with data collection under the NPR.

The total loss from selling fuels below cost last fiscal year was Rs.1.44 trillion. State-run retailers are compensated by the government for selling diesel, kerosene and cooking gas at fixed prices that are significantly lower than the cost of production.

India subsidizes the prices of most fuels and its annual subsidy bill towards this is expected to be Rs.1.67 trillion this year.
Surabhi Agarwal and Shubham Shivang contributed to this story.