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, May 23, 2014

5537 - NIC should become a strategic advisor to govt instead of writing codes: Ram Sewak Sharma - Business Standard

NIC should become a strategic advisor to govt instead of writing codes: Ram Sewak Sharma
Q&A with Secretary, Dept. of Electronics & IT


Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  May 20, 2014 Last Updated at 19:40 IST



In his first interview after taking over as the Secretary of the Department of Electronics and IT, Ram Sewak Sharma talks about the need for the department to reinvent itself and relook at projects initiated several years ago as they may not be relevant anymore given the changing nature of technology. In an interview with Surabhi Agarwal, Sharma, who was formerly the Director General of UIDAI and served as Chief Secretary of the Jharkhand government in his last assignment, also talks about the need for organisations like National Informatics Centre to just act as technology advisors to the government instead of focusing on non-core activities like developing software. Edited Excerpts…

What insights do you carry to this new post from your past interactions with the department as the chief secretary of the Jharkhand government and director general of the UIDAI?
It is a good experience to work with the state government before assuming this role. Because, it’s from there, you can see how the projects are being implemented; how the interface of the states with the NIC (National Informatics Centre) takes place; what are the deficiencies and pain points. So that experience will help in fine-tuning, restructuring, redesigning some part of the projects under the National E-Governance Plan.

What are the key gaps that you have identified so far?
The first phase of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006; eight years have passed since then. A lot of things have changed – both in software as well as hardware. Mobile has now become a very effective delivery medium. So, I think we need to redesign or restructure various projects, which have become obsolete in terms of their structure. For example, many of the programmes were developed on client server technology and now you have cloud. We have to leverage cloud and deliver services through mobile, tablets etc. So, a lot of restructuring is required. One of the important points that I want to make is that currently there are huge silos. We need to create more information interchange protocols to bridge the gap. I think data driven decision-making or data analytics is one area which is lacking. Over the years, states have created a lot of data such as property, taxes, treasury etc. We need to have this data analysed to draw patterns, trends, fraud or tax evasion analytics.

What are the other areas in which you envisage a re-look?
I think NIC should become an advisor to the government rather than an application developer. In many of the states, you will find that NIC employees are developing applications, writing codes. That paradigm has to change. NIC is a strategic partner, and they should provide advice while application development should be done by others. NIC shouldn’t be writing codes. We should also be able to develop many more platform applications. For example, Aadhaar – which is like a platform on which you can develop applications. States can just ride on it, create a login and get going. For example, payment gateways, SMS gateways, PDS and transport applications can be easily standardised. This will lead to simplification of the design architecture and reduction in the duplication of works.

How do you look at the new government and its technology vision?
The new government will have its own policies or priorities. So, we will have to redesign or reorient the policies in accordance with the priorities of the new government. I am pretty hopeful that this area, especially governance, will become a huge focus of the new government. Electronics manufacturing is also a priority area. We can provide employment to a huge number of people besides cutting down on our electronics import.

What is going to be your strategy to address issues of cyber security, internet governance as this is an emerging area where India has a lot of catch up to do?
Internet governance is one area where we would like to have an important role to play considering that we are the largest users of this infrastructure. The customer base of Internet in India is very high. Efforts are on and we have articulated our views. We are also trying to put some institutional frameworks to ensure better cyber security.