AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5463 - MONGODB: AADHAAR’S ORIGINAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT & ANALYTICS PARTNER -

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

Saturday, April 19, 2014

5463 - MONGODB: AADHAAR’S ORIGINAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT & ANALYTICS PARTNER -

MONGODB: AADHAAR’S ORIGINAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT & ANALYTICS PARTNER

April 10, 2014 – Posted by Charles H.

As Aadhaar continues to enroll thousands of Indians each day and add terabytes of data to its Central Identity Data Repository, MongoDB and other data management and analytics software providers continue to produce insights that will aid Aadhaar and the lives of millions of India’s BoP citizens.

In November 2013, it was announced that MongoDB’s CEO, Max Schireson, was in New Delhi to complete talks with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in order for MongoDB to be one of the approved partners for the Aadhaar program. MongoDB Inc., formerly known as 10gen prior to its name change in August 2013, is a software company founded in 2007 in the United States that is most well-known for its product, MongoDB, a cross platform NoSQL database. MongoDB’s customers include companies such as Disney, the New York Times, Cisco, MTV, Forbes, Craigstlist, ADP, AstraZeneca, FourSquare, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, McAfee, UnderArmour, and eBay. According to DB-Engines.com, and Japersoft, MongoDB is the most popular NoSQL database management system today and the fifth most popular database management system, preceded by Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL, and PostgreSQL.

MongoDB is an example of a startup company that leverages its expertise in data management, processing, and analytics to provide services to UIDAI’s Aadhaar program across the fifth and sixth stages of Aadhaar’s value chain (See further details of Aadhaar’s entire value chain).

Aadhaar chose to partner with MongoDB (in addition to other vendors such as Hadoop, MySQL, HBase, and Solr) for several reasons. First, MongoDB increases database efficiency with its NoSQL approach, which enables Aadhaar to capture, process, search, and analyze large unstructured datasets faster than most other management software would allow. Second, MongoDB can efficiently store large volumes of biometric data and images, whereas many other management systems, such as MySQL, are less suited for image storage. Third, Aadhaar’s data processing analytics cannot depend solely on a single software supplier. As a result, UIDAI diversified its systems reliance across multiple vendors and leverages each vendor’s strengths. Aadhaar has therefore been less dependent on MongoDB and has decided to share more of the data processing volume with its other management vendors.

Nonetheless, MongoDB has been performing well financially and has gained the attention of many venture investors over the years, including NEA, Seqouia Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Union Square Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intel Capital, Salesforce.com, Red Hat, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, and Altimeter Capital. In its most recent venture round in October 2013, MongoDB had a valuation of approximately $1.2 billion.

Although MongoDB’s sales have never been released, in May 2012 sources stated that the company’s quarterly sales growth over five quarters averaged about 50 percent, suggesting an annual growth rate of ~400%. Lastly, a report by Wikibon estimates that MongoDB’s sales in 2012 were approximately $40 million, which is in line with statements that mention the company’s current sales are in the “tens of millions” and sales could potentially more than double by 2014-15. In addition, MongoDB’s staff continues to show strong growth in numbers from 100 employees in 2011 to having about 400 employees now.

With its sights on expanding into Asia-Pacific, Australia, and Europe, MongoDB’s partnership with Aadhaar makes sense financially as well as strategically to prove to potential customers that they can handle even the largest of data sets such as those housed in Aadhaar’s Central Identity Data Repository (CIDR). With strong momentum and promotions from its current customers, market leadership of approximately 3x over its closest (NoSQL-based) competitor, and investments from some of the world’s most successful venture capital firms and technology companies, MongoDB is positioned to succeed in the coming years as it continues to support Aadhaar, the program’s profound efforts, and future startup companies founded on Aadhaar’s data.

Additional Resources