AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 4963 - Aadhaar-based PDS experiment takes officials on a steep learning curve

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, January 10, 2014

4963 - Aadhaar-based PDS experiment takes officials on a steep learning curve - The Hindu

KOCHI, November 20, 2013

Updated: November 20, 2013 11:44 IST

Aadhaar-based PDS experiment takes officials on a steep learning curve

M. P. PRAVEEN

The State government’s ambitious project for an Aadhaar validation-based public distribution system (PDS) would have to address critical technical issues before it could be rolled out.

The system put to trial, which the civil supplies department would like to call a pre-pilot phase, in six ration shops in Thiruvananthapuram more than a month back has thrown up technical challenges, which took the department through a steep learning curve.

“Based on the experience we are likely to launch web-based concept on a pilot phase by the end of December. Considering the administrative feasibility and the ground work already done, the pilot phase will also be run in Thiruvananthapuram after which it would be rolled in rest of the State,” S. Jagannathan, Civil Supplies Commissioner, told The Hindu.

Communication between the Aadhaar central server and the point-of-sale machines for Aadhaar validation was among the major technical issues encountered during the pre-pilot phase.

The Aadhaar server communicates only with the server of the sole Aadhaar validation agency for each State, which in this case is the Kerala State IT Mission, recognized by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

The Civil Supplies Department was initially under the impression that Aadhaar validation was possible directly from the point-of-sale biometric device. But the protocol involved in such a scenario presented a threat of compromising the security of Aadhaar validation.

“Therefore the need is to establish a protocol whereby the application server hosted by the department communicates with the IT Mission server, which in turn communicates with the Aadhaar server and get the Aadhaar validation through the point-of-sale machine,” the official said.

Another hurdle is the Supreme Court’s verdict that Aadhaar should not be made mandatory for welfare benefits. So the question is how to move forward in the event a PDS beneficiary declines to enroll for Aadhaar. In such case there should a clear policy on what else can be used instead of Aadhaar .

Uninterrupted connectivity at the level of ration shops is another critical factor for ensuring Aadhaar validation-based PDS. At present, the print of all ten fingers is read using the machine and the clearest finger print is used for Aadhaar validation. The process, besides being a bit time-consuming, calls for uninterrupted connectivity so that the process is completed and validation is made possible.

There needs to be an alternate mechanism because beneficiaries cannot be asked to return later citing connectivity problems. With the National Food Security Act identifying only two types of beneficiaries — priority and excluded — the existing PDS beneficiaries classified into various categories would have to be restructured.