5616 - Could Aadhaar be the game changer for footloose labour? - India Together

INTERNAL MIGRANTS

Could Aadhaar be the game changer for footloose labour?

Several recent studies bring out the abysmal deprivation from entitlements among India’s vast internal migrant population. Shambhu Ghatak throws light on the problems faced by migrants and explores if the UID can indeed live up to its promise of making mobility a smoother process.

26 June 2014 -

When a friend moved to a new address in Delhi recently, he had to go to the nearby police station for verification. On showing his Aadhaar card as proof of identity, the police personnel insisted that he still has to provide some proof of a ‘permanent’ address. 

Luckily, the gentleman had the electricity bill of his native residence located in another state. Had he been homeless or sold out the flat he owned, the police verification process could have been stalled.

This is because the person had been living in various rented accommodations in Delhi since the last 15 years. This particular incident warns us that Aadhaar may be incapable of solving the problems of identity faced by migrants, despite their undergoing finger printing and iris scans during the procedure of applying for one.  

UID: A tortoise in disguise?

In his speech during the National Lecture Series entitled ‘Analysing and Envisioning India’ on 25 February 2011,  Nandan Nilekani, then Chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India informed the audience that one of the chief purposes behind the Unique Identity Number (UID) project had been to address the problem of mobility of migrants.

Given the high rate of migration presently (as well as in the future) due to urbanisation and climate change, the UID project was conceived of to provide proper identity records to residents in villages or remote rural areas. The problem of portable identity of migrants from rural areas could be solved through this, claimed Nilekani.

Bills such as these, distributed by private brokers in Chhattarpur, Delhi contradict claims that one can get a UID free and also throw a cloud over the transparency of the process. Pic: Shambhu Ghatak

A little more than three years have passed since the above lecture was delivered by Nilekani. As per the data from Census 2011 website (accessed on 4 June, 2014), nearly 17.52 crore Aadhaar IDs have been generated so far. Had the Aadhaar identities generated as per the National Population Register (NPR) - the comprehensive identity database maintained by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India - been evenly distributed among all Indians, then only 14.5 per cent of the entire population would be covered hitherto.

If it is assumed that all NPR-based Aadhaar numbers/cards generated belonged to internal migrants alone, that is migrants who move within national boundaries and whose projected population was 40 crore in 2011, close to 44 per cent of the migrant population within the country would be covered so far.

Even if one takes into account that as many as 63 crore Aadhaar numbers (according to the UIDAI) have been issued so far, just about 52 per cent of the Indian population would have been covered till now.

These figures reflect how tardily the UID project is progressing—a project that started on the very premise and promise of improving efficiency and speed of Government service delivery.

According to the UIDAI, between 2009-10 and 2013-14 (up to February 2014), approximately Rs. 4181.51 crore has already been spent on the project. More money is expected to be spent from government coffers on the UID project, but without any proven improvement of the real situation of migrants in the country, as the anecdote shared at the very outset shows.     

Access to entitlements by migrants

According to a UNESCO report entitled Social Inclusion of Internal Migrants in India(2013), three out of ten Indians are internal migrants. The population of internal migrants in India went up from 309 million in 2001 to 400 million in 2011. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu are identified as the lead source states of internal migrants, whereas key destination areas are Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Karnataka.

The report finds that existing state policies have failed to provide legal or social protection to the migrating population, in part due to serious gaps in data on the extent, nature and magnitude of internal migration. Due to the absence of proof of identity and residence, internal migrants (both men and women) are unable to claim social protection entitlements and remain excluded from a large number of government-sponsored schemes and programmes. Their children face disruption of regular schooling, adversely affecting human capital formation among them and contributing to inter-generational transmission of poverty.

   

Among the multiple constraints faced by the migrant population are lack of formal residency rights, lack of identity proof, lack of political representation, inadequate housing, low-paid, insecure or hazardous work, extreme vulnerability of women and children to trafficking and sex exploitation, exclusion from state-provided services such as health and education, and discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, class or gender.

The same report mentions that in order to address the issue of identity crisis, a large number of NGOs working in the grassroots such as Gramin Vikas Trust in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and Aajeevika Bureau in Rajasthan had issued informal identity cards to migrant labourers. Such proofs of identity were recognised as valid by local authorities and had started much before the advent of Aadhaar.

Given this background, it is interesting to study the situation of internal migrants in terms of access to entitlements in two Indian metros—Gurgaon and Kolkata, based on observations made by some recent specific surveys.

GURGAON: For the study entitled Exploring Rural-Urban Dynamics - A Study of Inter-State Migrants in Gurgaon (2014), a survey was conducted among 200 migrant workers in garment, construction, auto parts sectors, and also among domestic workers and self-employed migrants.

Migrants from five districts in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand – namely, rural Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Nalanda, Nawada and Hazaribagh - were selected for the purpose of this study, given their predominance among migrants in Gurgaon. 81 per cent of respondents were male workers and 78 per cent married. Among the respondents, 80 per cent belonged to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) group, 14 per cent belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC) group and 4 per cent belonged to the Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The survey done by Society for Labour and Development and sponsored by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung found that most respondents migrated to Gurgaon in order to escape the unemployment in villages. The lack of address proof was a key commonality among them.

This, again, is prevalent largely due to three reasons, according to the report. Firstly, as a result of frequent migration from one place to another, workers are unable to apply for a local ration card or voter ID card. Secondly, migrant workers are seldom supported by their employers or house-owners. House-owners do not agree to certify that the worker is living in their house as a tenant on rent, which is a major impediment in getting voter ID, bank account, LPG connection etc. Because of the same reason, the scope for introducer-based verification for Aadhaar enrollment gets bogged down.

Thirdly, the uncertainty of employment in an urban area and their claim on the land in their native villages prevent migrants from surrendering their original ration card or voter ID card and apply for new ones in the city. As a direct consequence, most migrant workers are unable to access cheap ration, LPG connections and social security schemes implemented by the government in the absence of address proof.

The study finds that a meagre 2 per cent among respondents have a ration card, 3 per cent have voter ID cards and 4 per cent have bank accounts. Only 3 per cent of respondents own an LPG connection and the rest rely on buying cooking gas at the market price, which comes to Rs 1450 a cylinder. Lack of address proof has also prevented a number of migrants in getting their children admitted to schools.

Interestingly, 27 per cent of these migrant workers possess an Aadhaar card/ number, but they are unable to reap any benefits under social welfare schemes of the government since the Aadhaar is not valid as an address proof, pinpoints the report. This contradicts the claim made by Nandan Nilekani in his speech on 25 February, 2011 that Aadhaar will act as a magic bullet for migrants.

KOLKATA: Based on a primary survey of 1000 households (500 each for migrant and non-migrant families) in selected authorised and unauthorised slums of Kolkata city, the study entitled Children of Migrant Poor in Kolkata: A Study on Human Development Perspectives (2014) by the Institute of Social Sciences and UNICEF finds that 96 percent of families migrated to the city in search of employment.

Most migrant families were engaged in two dominant activities: daily labour and domestic work, the former being done mainly by men and the latter being performed mostly by women. It has been found that migrant slums have relatively larger numbers belonging to the scheduled castes or backward population, and also religious minorities such as Muslims even though Hindus still comprise the largest religious group in both migrant and non-migrant dominated slums. Around four-fifths of the migrant families in Kolkata came from other districts within the state of West Bengal.

A look at the access to entitlements by these migrant families reveals a sad reality, especially when compared with non-migrant counterparts.

Documents	No. Of Families
	Migrant		Non-migrant
	No. of Families	%	No. Of Families	%
Having Ration Card of BPL Category	96	19.2	92	18.4
Having General Ration Card	36	7.2	343	68.6
Having No ration card	368	73.6	65	13.0
Having Voter ID	342	68.4	428	85.6
Having no Voter ID	158	31.6	72	14.4
Having Aadhar Card	178	35.6	343	68.6
Having no Aadhar Card	322	64.4	157	31.4
Having KMC’s Health Card	4	0.8	32	6.4
Having No KMC’s Health Card	496	99.2	468	93.6
Having Job Card (100 days)	23	4.6	3	0.6
Having no Job Card (100 days)	477	95.4	497	99.4
Having Birth Certificate	368	73.6	372	74.4
Having No Birth Certificate	132	26.4	128	25.6
The Residential Address of Voter ID card as well as Aadhar Card of Migrant families is not revealed.

Source: Children of Migrant Poor in Kolkata: A Study on Human Development Perspectives (2014)

From the above table, it can be seen that almost three-fourth of migrant families do not have any type of ration card, 64.4 per cent do not possess Aadhaar card/number, and 31.6 per cent do not have a voter ID. When pitted against entitlements accessed by non-migrant families, the condition of migrant households appears pitiable.

Nearly 64.2 per cent of migrant families have no BPL/APL cards because they are either not aware of their entitlement to one or do not have the knowledge of how to get it. Almost half of the migrant families could not get it for their children as the mother did not have a ration card.

The survey study conducted in Kolkata finds that only 40.2 per cent of children from migrant families, as against 50 per cent of children from non-migrant families, attend the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres. The percentage of those who attend pre-school is even lower—34.6 per cent for migrant households and 41.7 per cent for non-migrant households. 28 per cent of migrant households reported that there is no ICDS centre nearby as compared to 3 per cent of non-migrant households. 

A majority of migrant and non-migrant families do, however, have voter ID cards and almost all of them cast their vote. Almost three-fourth of the families of both categories have availed birth certificate. Nearly 92.2 per cent of non-migrant households have an electricity connection while only 53 per cent of migrant households avail this facility. 88.6 per cent of households in non-migrant slums have access to concrete roads as against a mere 26 per cent of households in migrant slums.

So far, there is little evidence that Aadhaar has been beneficial in increasing their access or ease of it to any of these entitlements.

Women migrant workers and entitlements

Yet another study -- entitled Migration and Gender in India and conducted by Indrani Mazumdar, N Neetha and Indu Agnihotri (2013) as part of a project on Gender and Migration at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi (CWDS) -- provides one the status of women migrant workers.

Based on the primary level data that was generated by a series of micro-surveys conducted between 2009 and 2011 by the CWDS across 20 states, it is revealed that at their destinations, 76 per cent of all the women migrant workers (both rural and urban) did not possess any ration card, 16 per cent had below poverty line (BPL) cards, less than half a per cent had Antyodaya cards and 7 per cent had above poverty line (APL) cards.

However, in the source areas from where they migrated, the corresponding percentages looked like this: 34 per cent had no ration cards, 40 per cent had BPL cards, 6 per cent had Antyodaya cards and 20 per cent had APL cards. This clearly establishes that women migrant workers lost their public distribution system (PDS) entitlements when they migrated.

The CWDS study finds that 91 per cent of the women migrant workers had never availed of any public housing scheme, 79 per cent had no National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) job cards, and 96 per cent had never been employed under any public employment programme or scheme.

Although three-fourths of women migrant workers did have electoral cards, roughly 75 per cent had their voting rights at area of origin and only around 28 per cent of those with electoral cards had voting rights at destination areas.

Can Aadhaar help these migrants?

A person without an identity or address proof is viewed with suspicion not only by law enforcement agencies but also by other members of society, particularly those from the higher echelons. However, history has also taught us that migrant-friendly destinations pull the best workers from all over the world, and the latter contribute significantly to a nation's economy in the course of time.

According to rough estimates in a study by Priya Deshingkar, circular migrants contribute 10 per cent of India's GDP. Therefore, it is time that India came up with an inclusive policy in place for migrants. The hassles they face in getting address/ identity proof should be addressed and not neglected.

• "Compelling citizens to take an Aadhaar card is unconstitutional"
• Your identification, please

In fact, it often boils down to the classical 'chicken or egg' problem when it comes to getting an ID and address proof. Unless one has proof of his present address, important documents like ration card, voter ID etc. cannot be made. Even the address on Aadhaar cannot be updated without an address proof. 

Ironically, as a recent Cobra Post revelation shows, illegal immigrants to India are able to make their Aadhaar cards without any proof of identity and residence by simply bribing officials at Aadhaar enrollment offices. Clearly, this makes life even more difficult for genuine migrants.

At the same time, it should be remembered that papers and documents are meant to make life easier for our citizens and not to harass them. Since India has recently embraced a rights-based entitlements approach to development, it cannot deny its own citizens access to government services if they lack identity/ address proofs including the Aadhaar. These records/ documents should not become tools of exclusion.  

If governance is reduced to proving one's identity and address independently at each and every step, it is bound to give rise to corruption and nepotism. The thin line between legality and illegality will be crossed over just by spending a few bucks to grease the palms of lower bureaucracy. This will not only entail a high cost for the poorest, but very importantly, will also mean that Aadhaar is unable to live up to its promise of reducing corruption. In effect, poor migrants will continue to live like second class citizens in the land.

Shambhu Ghatak

26 June 2014

Shambhu Ghatak is a researcher on development issues like food security, employment, livelihood security etc. He works with the Inclusive Media for Change Project, www.im4change.org

5615 - Swagato Sarkar : The Unique Identity (UID) Project, Biometrics and Re-Imagining Governance in India - PDF

Swagato Sarkar : The Unique Identity (UID) Project, Biometrics and Re-Imagining Governance in India

Oxford Development Studies
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cods20

The Unique Identity (UID) Project,
Biometrics and Re-Imagining
Governance in India
Swagato Sarkara

a Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, O.P. Jindal Global University, Swagato Sarkar, Sonipat Narela RoadHaryana 131001 (NCR of Delhi), India. Email:
Published online: 17 Jun 2014. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-E4CLtzu4ynWmEzNUN3RjEteWc/edit?usp=sharing

5614 - VS Seeks Probe into Transfer of Aadhar Data - New Indian Express

VS Seeks Probe into Transfer of Aadhar Data

By Express News Service

Published: 24th June 2014 07:48 AM

Last Updated: 24th June 2014 08:23 AM

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan has demanded a detailed probe into all aspects of transfer of Aadhar data to private agencies.

In a statement here on Monday, VS said that there were major mysteries and allegations regarding transferring of Aadhar-related information to an agency.“The Aadhar data is first stored in the state data centre and from there transferred to the Central server.

The Keltron was entrusted with the task of preparing software for storing data in the state servers. There was an agreement between the Keltron and the IT Mission on the same. Also, there were strict regulations over sharing the data with anyone else. 

However, contrary to the agreement, Keltron made an agreement with a private agency, thereby handing over the control of the database to them,” VS alleged.“The govt claims that the data, being encrypted, can’t be shared. However, since the software for encryption was made by the company, they can decode the same, VS said. 

5613 - Feds' Data Retention Found 'Unreasonable'

Feds' Data Retention Found 'Unreasonable'

By ADAM KLASFELD

MANHATTAN (CN) - Holding an accountant's computer data for 2½ years before sifting through the files for signs of tax evasion is an "unreasonable seizure," the 2nd Circuit ruled this week.

     "If the government could seize and retain non-responsive electronic records indefinitely, so it could search them whenever it later developed probable cause, every warrant to search for particular electronic data would become, in essence, a general warrant," U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin wrote in the 37-page majority opinion.

     The finding wiped the convictions of Connecticut accountant Stavros Ganias, who was sentenced to two years in prison after a jury found that he ducked $160,000 in federal income taxes.

     Stanley Twardy Jr., with Day Pitney LLC, representing Ganias, said his client was on bail pending appeal when the decision was released Tuesday.

     "We're pleased that the Second Circuit ruled that while technology changes, the constitutional rights of citizens, specifically those under the Fourth Amendment, remain inviolate," Twardy wrote in an email.

     In late 2003, Army investigators made forensic copies of the files on three computers that Ganias owned, in a probe of two of his clients, American Boiler and Industrial Property Management, a military contractor.

     Storing the data on two sets of 19 DVDs, Army investigators never purged the files that were unresponsive to the warrant, and later asked the IRS to join the investigation.

     "Further investigation in 2005 and early 2006 indicated that Ganias had been improperly reporting income for both of his clients, leading the government to suspect that he also might have been underreporting his own income," the opinion summarizes.

     The IRS eventually obtained a warrant to search the data that Army investigators had gleaned 2½ years earlier, but which had not been covered under the prior warrant.

     "The Fourth Amendment was intended to prevent the government from entering individuals' homes and indiscriminately seizing all their papers in the hopes of discovering evidence about previously unknown crimes," Chin wrote. "Yet this is exactly what the government claims it may do when it executes a warrant calling for the seizure of particular electronic data relevant to a different crime."

     Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the ruling was a "very important decision" that he believed could resonate, given the controversy over the National Security Agency's mass collection of data.

     "I would certainly argue that it calls into question the whole collect-it-all-and-sniff-through-it-later practice," he said.

     In partial dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Peter Hall agreed that the government held the data an "unreasonable" amount of time, but he disputed that the evidence should have been suppressed.

     He also questioned his colleagues' conclusion that Ganias, 72, is "not a case of a dangerous defendant being set free."

     Citing Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme as an example of the "serious and nefarious effects of money fraud crimes on society," Hall wrote, "I am loathe to conclude that guns, drugs and/or contraband are the only indicia of a dangerous defendant."

     Tom Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut, said the office was reviewing the decision.

5612 - House approves effort to limit NSA searches of U.S. data

House approves effort to limit NSA searches of U.S. data

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to limit the National Security Agency’s ability to search U.S. records, after a similar provision was stripped out of a bill intended to rein in the agency.

The House, by a 293-123 vote late Thursday, approved a bipartisan proposal to limit the NSA’s surveillance programs by requiring the agency to get a court-ordered warrant to search U.S records in its possession.

The proposal, offered as an amendment to a Department of Defense funding bill, would close the so-called “backdoor search” loophole in the FISA Amendments Act, a law allowing NSA surveillance of overseas communications. The final vote on the defense bill is expected Friday, with the bill next moving to the Senate if it passes the House.

The FISA Amendments Act authorizes overseas surveillance of online and telephone communications and prohibits the agency from intentionally targeting U.S. residents. But the law does not prohibit the agency from querying U.S. communications inadvertently collected under the foreign surveillance program.

Intelligence officials have acknowledged in recent months they do conduct warrantless searches of U.S. records under the program, leading to protests from civil rights and privacy groups.

““Yes, we need to protect our country, but we also need to honor our Constitution.”

The NSA amendment, offered by a group of representatives including Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, would also prohibit the NSA or other U.S. agencies from using any funds to request or require a company to build a back door into any product or service in order to allow surveillance. News reports based on leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have suggested the agency has approached tech companies about building back doors into products.

The warrantless search of U.S. records violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibiting unreasonable searches, Massie said on the House floor. “The American people are sick of being spied on,” he said.

The warrant search provision was originally part of the USA Freedom Act, a bill aimed at limiting the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone records, but negotiators stripped out the provision under pressure from President Barack Obama’s administration in the daysbefore the House passed the bill in late May.

The amendment drew support from several liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. The amendment’s point was, “yes, we need to protect our country, but we also need to honor our Constitution,” Lofgren said.

Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, a New Jersey Republican and chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, opposed the amendment, saying it didn’t relate to the defense funding bill it was added to. “There’s nothing in this amendment about funding,” he said. “The goal is to change policy.”

The USA Freedom Act contained “carefully crafted reforms” negotiated between House leaders and intelligence officials, and the Massie amendment would upset a “closely negotiated” compromise, said Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The USA Freedom Act already limits what the NSA can do with the U.S. data it collects, he said.

The amendment would “make our country less safe,” added Representative Dutch Ruppersberger from Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Earlier on Thursday, the House, by voice vote, approved an amendment to the defense funding bill that prohibits the NSA from engaging in any activities that undermine encryption standards developed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology. In late 2013, news organizations reported that the NSA had tampered with NIST’s process of choosing encryption algorithms.

Representative Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat and author of the amendment, said the provision will help restore faith in NIST’s standards-setting process.

5611 - On table: Aadhaar for citizens, not residents - The Telegraph India

Front Page > Nation > Story

On table: Aadhaar for citizens, not residents NISHIT DHOLABHAI New Delhi, June 18: Aadhaar numbers and cards will be issued only to Indian citizens and not “usual residents”, the government today proposed in a departure from the UPA’s policy.

The proposal was made at a meeting chaired by Union home minister Rajnath Singh and attended by the registrar-general of citizenship registration, C. Chandramouli.

The new policy will necessitate changes to a cabinet decision taken by the UPA, besides clearing confusion over the fate of the Aadhaar cards that are issued to residents and are not proof of citizenship.

Sources said it might take over a month for the proposal to be fleshed out and placed before the cabinet.

Over 60 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to “usual residents” — those who have stayed in a locality for at least six months and intend to do so for another six months.

The unique numbers will remain in place. However, if the cabinet clears the proposal, the numbered residents will be issued citizen cards only on the basis of additional death and birth registration data.

Today’s decision would limit the UIDAI’s role to generating the unique numbers and conducting a de-duplication exercise to weed out individuals getting more than one number. The UIDAI eventually may not hold camps to issue Aadhaar cards if Singh’s decision is ratified by the cabinet.

The UPA government’s plan was to derive the subset of citizens from the National Population Register (NPR) after verification of citizenship. However, the NDA government feels that there should be a single exercise leading to a national register of Indian citizens.

Singh said effective steps should be taken to create the national register of citizens, an official release said.

He instructed officials that all proposals, including update of the database through linkages with the birth and death registration system and the issuance of national identity cards to citizens, be brought for approval at the earliest, sources said.

Over the next month, the Registrar-General of India is expected to prepare a roadmap to issue citizenship cards. “The Centre feels unique numbers and cards should be issued only to citizens and there is no need for two types of cards,” a source said.

Since 2010, numbers and cards were issued after collection of biometric data (iris scan and fingerprinting) by two authorities: the RGI’s office under the National Population Register scheme and the Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI. Nilekani, who was the face of the UPA’s Aadhaar programme, resigned as UIDAI chairman on March 13 before contesting on a Congress ticket from Bangalore. He lost the election.

The Aadhaar numbers were aimed at improving the use and implementation of benefits and services provided under government schemes, planning and security.

There was some confusion when the UPA decided to allow two agencies to collect data of residents. The UIDAI collected biometric data and issued Aadhaar cards while the NPR also gathered the data. P. Chidambaram and Nilekani had run-ins over which agency would enrol residents.

Plans of the previous government to legislate the UIDAI virtually stand scrapped after today’s meeting.

Getting an Aadhaar card from the UIDAI was optional but enrolment under the National Population Register scheme is mandatory under Citizenship Rules. Often, residents were confused whether they needed to go to an “NPR camp” if they had been to an “Aadhaar camp”. They will have to, according to rules.

The resident is required to visit a National Population Register camp with the unique Aadhaar number, provide additional personal information and undergo verification for registration in the population.

“The enrolment will now be done completely under the National Register of Indian Citizens by the RGI’s office,” said a source.

5610 - Security risk? Maintenance of Aadhaar data in the hands of a private company in Kerala - Medianama

Security risk? Maintenance of Aadhaar data in the hands of a private company in Kerala

By NT Balanarayan on Jun 17th, 2014  |   Post a Comment Email Email  anonymous tip off

  

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aadhaarlogoAadhaar information collected from people in Kerala has been handed over to a private company, reports Malayala Manorama.

According to the report, Keltron, the Kerala government owned IT company allegedly sub-contracted the rights to store Aadhaar data to a private company for Rs 70 lakhs. Note that four state governments including Kerala were given the right to hold on to the Aadhaar data, apart from maintaining that data at UIDAI data centres. The private company was given sub-contract to maintain this server. The software used for storing this data is also allegedly under the control of this private company, which is also in charge of maintaining the servers at Thiruvananthapuram TechnoPark that holds data related to the state government.

Keltron was appointed as a Total Solutions Provider (TSP) in 2011 as part of selecting agencies for collecting Aadhaar data. As per the contract, the company was also supposed to appoint ten people for Aadhaar software development and management.

According to the publication, Keltron had also signed an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to ensure that the information would not be shared with third-parties. The contract with the private company by Keltron is reportedly in violation of this NDA.

Medianama take

There are several measures in place to ensure safety of Aadhaar data: For one, it is encrypted and then there are limits on the number of queries that can be made by an individual. For example, you can’t access data of more than ten people with a query, which essentially prevents scraping of Aadhaar data. Even with such steps, having direct physical access to the data brings up new risks.

There is no way to ensure that this data won’t be leaked by one employee from the private company? What is the guarantee that this data won’t then be integrated with other personal information like this election database scraped by a marketing firm? How do we know that this data won’t be used to spy on us? All these risks are there, but they are moot points. Since there was always the risk of someone within UIDAI using the same information and leaking it as much as an employee in a private company.

Though well intentioned, the whole concept of Aadhaar and UID in itself were full of privacy risks. The only reason a lot of people got the id was because they needed LPG subsidies and not because they needed another ID card. If that doesn’t prove the failure of the concept, what does? What’s worse is that it is not possible for an individual to remove Aadhaar data from the database. A lot of people have been mulling that option ever since the Supreme Court ruled that Aadhaar card cannot be tied to any government welfare schemes.

BJP had said in the past that NPR data should be used for welfare schemes, but do note that NPR information will be used in NATGRID, the government’s new intelligence gathering project. While the government discontinued the cabinet committee on UIDAI and handed over the charge to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, its currently not clear on whether they are looking to scrap the Aadhaar project and UIDAI or not.

Last November, RBI had started a pilot for using Aadhaar-based biometric data for authenticating card transactions at point-of-sale units. However, after facing some technical issues, this project was put on hold last month.

5609 - Why need Aadhaar when NPR is here?

Why need Aadhaar when NPR is here?

25 June 2014, New Delhi, Shivangi Narayan

With the government’s renewed interest in national population register (NPR), looks like it is the end of the road for Aadhaar

Union minister for home Rajnath Singh has today said that steps would be taken to make the national population register (NPR) project to its logical conclusion. The minister reviewed the project and directed that proposals to populate the register with data from the birth and death registration database and to provide a national identity card to people be made and approved from the ministry of home (MHA) at the earliest.

C Chandramouli, registrar general of citizen registration made a presentation on the project and outlined its importance for national security. NPR is also the biggest e-governance and national security project in the world.

The urgency of the home ministry and in turn the government’s on the NPR project indicates a waning interest in a similar identity initiative – Aadhaar. Speculations are rife, after the Modi government scrapped the cabinet committee on UIDAI, that the projects would see its end in the new government.

Aadhaar/UIDAI was started by the UPA government but never got parliament’s approval. The whole exercise of enrolling 60 crore people on a budget of Rs 3,500 crore was carried through an executive order. With future of Aadhaar at stake, state governments are chalking out a way to work around services integrated with the identity scheme.

According to official sources, R S Sharma, secretary, department of electronics and IT (DeitY) has invited IT secretaries of all states next week to ponder on the future of Aadhaar. States like Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, where Aadhaar enrolment is close to 100 per cent would have to chalk out future strategies for the use of existing databases of enrolment.

States like Maharshtra and Andhra Pradesh and union territories like Chandigarh have many services currently being provided using Aadhaar. They will have to think about alternative platforms, even NPR, to keep these services alive.

NPR is similar to Aadhaar as it collects identity and biometric data of all citizens. However, it has legal backing and is only for bonafide citizens of India. Even before, Aadhaar was considered as a duplicating the efforts of NPR, which continued even after states were divided into being enrolled either into Aadhaar or NPR. Modi government will probably put an end to this confusion.

By arrangement with Governance Now

5608 - Rahul Jacob: The Aadhaar tragedy - Business Standard

Rahul Jacob: The Aadhaar tragedy

Rahul Jacob  |  New Delhi  June 25, 2014 Last Updated at 21:44 IST

There has been a recent surge in very satisfied customers at Food World supermarkets in Bangalore who praise the staff for being efficient and professional and for the fact that long queues are non-existent. Food World has not cracked a new retail management code. Rather, this is an innovation in governance: these customers are people with ration cards who have been able to buy inexpensive rice, wheat and sugar at the stores, thanks to a new Karnataka government initiative. They cannot help counting their blessings, because they are accustomed to government-run ration stores.

This Indian Express report came just a few days after news last week that Aadhaar is likely to be transferred to the home ministry to ensure that those with Aadhaar cards are bona fide citizens. This is a backward step, a reversion to the mindless turf battles of the Congress-led government where P Chidambaram's home ministry questioned the need for Aadhaar using similarly warped logic. Aadhaar was always about transferring benefits to those below the poverty line in an efficient and transparent way. It could have worked like the United States' social security number. The pilot programme involving transferring cash to the accounts of Aadhaar users to compensate them for buying gas cylinders at open-market prices worked well, despite some teething problems and having been rushed through. That is about the only litmus test that ought to matter.

As with any project that is revolutionary, Aadhaar would have hit roadblocks. Yes, there would have been implementation problems in its completely online system, because internet connectivity in many parts of rural India is a problem. And not just in our villages: on Tuesday, a demo by Google of the new range of voice commands for smartphone users foundered because the internet connection went down - in the ballroom of The Oberoi in New Delhi. There was, in any case, an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, inspired by the Aadhaar rollout seeking to provide, say, Bluetooth access to people in villages powered by solar energy to get around the connectivity problem and help people open bank accounts. Of course, in this country with more than its fair share of people scamming the system, the definition of who was poor would have been abused. Nor should anyone be excluded from legitimately receiving benefits just because they did not have an Aadhaar number. These are all reasonable objections and in the full glare of public scrutiny, Aadhaar would have had to deal with them.

But the home ministry makes none of these objections. It proposes to put the names of those with Aadhaar numbers on neighbourhood noticeboards and then invite comments on whether they are citizens or not. This Kafkaesque approach, called "social vetting", sounds just a little impractical. (Memo to my neighbours: you may not know me because, like most people, I am in the office much of the day, but please vouch for the fact that I do strange aerobic exercises in the park in the morning.)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would seem just the sort of party that would embrace Aadhaar. Every other page of its manifesto makes some reference to changing governance in this country. "Our government will be a government of the poor, marginalised and left behind", it says, in a prelude to its promise of delivering poverty alleviation programmes through "convergence, transparency and efficiency". On another page, it promotes e-governance for being "easy, efficient and effective". Among the most energetic states in Aadhaar enrollment and experimentation in the past few years have been the BJP-ruled ones such as Gujarat and Jharkhand (which was later under President's rule).

Given all this, why is there no discernible difference in the positions of the BJP-led government towards Aadhaar and the dysfunctional approach of Mr Chidambaram under the United Progressive Alliance? The common thread is that, as Sir Humphrey Appleby often reminded us in the TV series Yes Minister, governance often has little to do with the people. Then there is a problem peculiar to Lutyens' Delhi: most of the people who offer loud opinions have staff to do their shopping and have never been anywhere near a supermarket or kirana store, let alone a ration shop. Those of a more conspiratorial bent believe there is an industry of smartcard providers eager to benefit from the vacuum created by disabling Aadhaar. The BJP manifesto also offers clues in a section labelled "External Security - Its Boundary, Beauty and Bounty". It promises "punitive measures to check illegal immigration". This is laudable, but is it not then inconsistent to also be allowing unilateral entry to Bangladeshi trucks as the commerce department is planning to do, even if that furthers the cause of our $5 billion in cross-border trade?

What Aadhaar sought to do was create a system where the, term, "bounty" of subsidies was redirected from unscrupulous middlemen to the rightful beneficiaries. Instead, in the real and imaginary battle against Bangladeshi immigrants, we are now apparently prepared to throw out a biometric system that has enrolled about 639 million citizens at laser speed so that we can continue to dehumanise hundreds of millions of India's poorest citizens by making them queue and beg and petition for the paltry benefits the state sends their way.

Twitter: @RahulJJacob

5607 - One week deadline set for job card-Aadhaar linkage - The Hindu

NATIONAL » ANDHRA PRADESH

RAMPACHODAVARAM, June 22, 2014

Updated: June 22, 2014 15:04 IST 

One week deadline set for job card-Aadhaar linkage

14 watershed projects have been sanctioned for Rampachodavaram division

ITDA Project Officer Gandham Chandudu has directed the Assistant Project Officers and filed officers to complete the process of linking job cards of employment guarantee scheme with the Aadhaar numbers within a week.

Reviewing the progress of linkage process and construction of individual toilets in Rampachodavaram on Saturday, Mr. Chandrudu said that there were 1.61 lakh job card holders in seven mandals in the division and linkage of 75,860 job cards with Aadhaar numbers had been completed so far. He cautioned the field officers to be careful in collecting Aadhaar card details and take the 28-digit card from the beneficiaries. Reviewing the works pertaining to individual toilets, he made it clear that 30 toilets should be completed in every mandal in every week.

Later, he took part in an awareness programme on the construction of watersheds taken up under the Integrated Water Management Project (IWMP). He informed that 14 projects had been sanctioned for the division under the IWMP-- 13 were being taken up by the ITDA and one would be taken by the Dwama. He said that three to four micro watersheds would be set up as one cluster and 5,000 acres land could be irrigated through one cluster.

5606 - Over 4 lakh still waiting for Aadhaar - TNN

Over 4 lakh still waiting for Aadhaar

TNN | Jun 23, 2014, 12.54AM IST

GURGAON: More than four lakh people are yet to get Aadhaar enrolled in the city even though the administration claims that 83% citizens have already received their card.

"Three lakh in Gurgaon block, 41,000 in Pataudi, 22,000 in Farrukhnagar, 29,000 in Manesar and 46,000 in Sohna are yet to get Aadhar card," said a press release issued by the administration.

Deputy commissioner Shekhar Vidyarthi has directed the district officials to complete the process before August 31. The district administration added that it has only 24 biometric enrolment machines compared with the requirement of 74 machines

Vidyarthi has asked the official to send a request to Unique Identification Authority of India's Chandigarh office to send additional 50 machines for timely enrolment. "The new machines will be installed in the areas under the MCG's jurisdiction," the press release said.

Five private agencies working on behalf of the administration, to issue Aadhar cards, have been asked to make an action plan consulting the respective SDMs and the MCG joint commissioner.

They will organize special camps to issue Aadhaar cards in Gurgaon for which a notification will be uploaded on the district website and an advertisement will be given in the local newspapers so that the citizens are informed in advance about the camp.

5605 - NDA govt planning to merge UIDAI with NPR - India Today

NDA govt planning to merge UIDAI with NPR

Abhishek Bhalla   |   Mail Today  |   New Delhi, June 22, 2014 | UPDATED 09:43 IST

The UIDAI project was conceived by the Planning Commission during the UPA rule.

The new government is contemplating whether the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) responsible for issuing Aadhaar should be replaced with National Identity Cards under the National Population Register (NPR) project of the Home Ministry.

Sources said a plan is being discussed and it is likely that NPR will take precedence over UIDAI. The NDA government had launched the NPR project in 2003, but it faced hurdles during the UPA tenure. The UIDAI project became the UPA government's flagship programme. With the NDA in power again, there are indications that the revival of NPR to issue National Identity Cards will be speeded up.

On Wednesday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed NPR which the NDA government claims to be the biggest security and e-governance initiative in the world. He was given a presentation that stressed its importance to national security. The current status of the project and further course of action were also discussed.

Effective steps

A voter's card is one of the many documents Indians possess to establish their identity.

Singh directed officials to take effective steps to take the NPR project to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of the National Register of Indian Citizens. He instructed that all proposals, including the updating of database through linkages with the birth and death registration system and the issuance of National Identity Cards to citizens, be brought for approval at the earliest.

While identity cards have been issued by the Registrar General of India in coastal areas, the same could not be achieved in other parts of the country. There were security concerns raised over Aadhaar as there have been irregularities reported in the biometric data. The biometric data captured by NPR is said to be more reliable and scientific. This is one of the reasons being given for preference to NPR.

A sum of Rs.3,500 crore was spent on UIDAI and dumping it now could further escalate the controversy over the scheme, which has been opposed by activists on grounds that it was illegal since a project like this should not have come through an executive order as it needed parliamentary consent.

People who have been issued Aadhaar will need to go through the more accurate and secure parameters being followed by NPR. While Aadhaar follows five parameters, NPR requires 16.

Sources said while a proposal to issue National Identity Cards through NPR will be sent to the Cabinet for approval, abolishing UIDAI might not happen.

"There is a plan to merge both projects. The data gathered by UIDAI can be used by NPR. It's not that the entire project will be scrapped," a home ministry official said.

Violation

With the Home Minister giving his consent, activists resisting the move have written to Singh, reminding him that PM Modi had earlier opposed the move in a letter written to former PM Manmohan Singh on October 6, 2011. Activists are arguing that an identity card like this violates constitutional rights and that many countries have abandoned such projects.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nda-govt-planning-to-merge-uidai-with-npr/1/368006.html 

5604 - NDA set to eclipse UPA's Aadhaar programme - NDTv

NDA set to eclipse UPA's Aadhaar programme - NDTv

The news is breaking that the BJP Government will be going to introduce the National Identity Number to the citizens of India to exclude the non Indians and at the same time the doubts are arising over the present Aadhar system in which more than 60 crore people are invloved to enroll them with Aadhar . The question arises over the huge amount of effort and the resources that go waste and also questions arises whether India really can afford that huge waste of public resources . The debate will be taken up on this issue of NDA eclipsing the UPA's Aadhra programme . Watch out .

5603 - HomeMin likely to take over Aadhaar biometric data - Business Stadard

HomeMin likely to take over Aadhaar biometric data

Nitin Sethi/New Delhi 20 Jun 14 | 12:58 AM

The home ministry is likely to move a Cabinet note asking for a takeover of the biometric data collected so far by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). If the proposal is approved, it will go for physical verification of the 640 million Aadhaar card holders to set up the National Registration of Indian Citizens and distribute national citizenship cards.

Since the new system is meant to ascertain citizenship of individuals - and not only their identity - verification of data gathered by UIDAI will have to be carried out by sending enumerators to each Aadhaar number holder to match the information against the biometrics collected.

Home ministry sources told Business Standard the pilot project, 'Multipurpose National Identity Card', undertaken during the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime (1998-2004) would be used as template to build the protocols for the citizenship register programme. The project had used 19 different criteria to establish identity but these, too, would have to be looked at again to determine the proof an individual could provide for his 'citizenship'.

The NDA government will also need to approach the Supreme Court to get an order on sharing of biometric data reversed.

In an interim order in March this year, the apex court had held that UIDAI could not share biometric data with any authority or agency without the permission of individuals concerned. The previous government had appealed for relaxation in this order but failed to get any relief.

The citizenship register is also to be made a 'live register' by linking it with the birth and death registration process across the country through a tehsil-level electronic platform. According to regulations, it will require regular update of information, including citizens' addresses.

These steps, approved by Home Minister Rajnath Singh at a meeting on Thursday, will now require a series of Cabinet approvals. The ministry is expected to start work on background paperwork and modalities shortly.

At the meetings, Singh was apprised of security weaknesses in the Aadhaar enrolment process. The Intelligence Bureau's earlier concerns over safety of data and the ability of other countries to access data collected by foreign firms were also highlighted.

Home ministry officials expressed aversion to absorbing UIDAI within the home ministry, though it was understood the authority's set-up would practically grind to a standstill as the citizenship register took off. Questions still remain about what would happen to the schemes currently being undertaken on the direct benefits transfer programme and the safety of biometric and other databases already existing at different nodes involved in the Aadhaar programme.

The home ministry is not the coordinating agency for Aadhaar. During the previous government, it was driven by the Planning Commission and the Prime Minister's Office, and overseen by Rahul Gandhi's team in the Congress party.

DATA RETRIEVAL

* Home Minister Rajnath Singh has approved steps for the citizenship register plan; now, a series of Cabinet approvals will be needed

* 640mn

Aadhaar card holders who will have to be approached for physical verification

* Protocols

To be built on the template of an earlier citizenship programme undertaken during the previous NDA regime

* Hitch

The govt will need to approach the Supreme Court to get an order barring sharing of biometric data reversed

5602 - Identity crisis: End of road for Aadhaar - Deccan Chronicle

Identity crisis: End of road for Aadhaar

DC | MUKESH RANJAN | June 21, 2014, 07.06 am IST

New Delhi: With no representation from the Planning Commission in the reconstituted Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), the Modi government has sounded the death knell for the UPA’s ambitious unique ID project.

The plan panel used to be the secretariat for the UIDAI programme and all proposals for its smooth functioning were taken to the Cabinet by the panel.

A sources in the government said, “The plan panel has so far functioned as the financial and administrative controller of the UIDAI. This was so because the authority does not have legal backing. Under the given scheme of things, the deputy chairman of the panel used to present UIDAI proposal in the Cabinet.”

Since the newly reconstituted CCEA does not have representation from the planning commission, this could well be seen as the end of the road for the UPA’s cherished programme.

The Modi government first scrapped the Cabinet committee on UIDAI and, in its official communication, said that the issues relating to it would be dealt in the CCEA. But now, by excluding the Planning Commission’s representation in the CCEA, the government has “virtually sealed the fate of UIDAI,” sources said.  

Even home minister Rajnath Singh, though indirectly, had hinted at ending the role of UIDAI earlier this week when he asked for the long-pending proposal for issuance of national identity cards to be brought for “approval at the earliest.”

The Union home ministry, is an official statement had said, “The home minister directed that effective steps be taken to take the project to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of the national register of Indian citizens. He instructed that all necessary proposals, including updating the database through linkages with birth and death registration system, and the issuance of national identity cards to citizens be brought for approval at the earliest.”

5601 - Editorial: Aadhaar is not equal to citizen card The Financial Express

Editorial: Aadhaar is not equal to citizen card

The Financial Express | Updated: Jun 21 2014, 11:11 IST

SUMMARY

This confusion will kill cash transfer scheme

Given how Aadhaar-based cash transfers are the best way to reduce the galloping subsidy bill—the LPG cash trials in pilot districts provided enough proof of concept—the home ministry’s proposed takeover of Aadhaar is unfortunate. 

The plan is to physically verify if the 640 million Aadhaar-number holders are bona fide citizens. This would entail, for instance, putting the names of Aadhaar-number holders up on a notice board in a locality and then inviting comments on whether they are citizens or not—in short, it will be a long and dispute-ridden process. 

While a citizen card is a good thing, Aadhaar is quite distinct from the home ministry’s National Population Register (NPR) which is where the citizen card would emerge from. Ideally, they should have been part of the same project but they were separated for reasons of speed—right now, for every three Aadhaar numbers, NPR has issued just one. While it is still not clear the NPR’s detailed surveys of an area and its residents before doing biometrics will actually weed out non-citizens—it would be a good idea to see how it works in

Assam—Aadhaar’s job was to get biometric data of people, regardless of whether they were citizens or not.

So even if an illegal Bangladeshi migrant got an Aadhaar number, what Aadhaar’s de-duplication software did was to ensure there were no two persons with the same biometrics that had different Aadhaar numbers—the software was robust enough to allow points of sale like ration shops to SMS the biometrics of a user to check on her identity and get a reply within a few seconds. So, in the case of LPG cylinders where oil company officials believe a seventh of the registrations are fake—one person has more than one LPG account—use of Aadhaar would help cull these out. Putting all Aadhaar numbers through the NPR filter will ensure it can’t be rolled out for direct cash transfers for several years.

Even the NPR, it has to be pointed out, can be misused when it comes to giving cash transfers to just the poor if the local authorities aren’t doing their job well. If an area has 100 people of which 10 are poor, neither Aadhaar nor NPR can determine whether the chosen 10 are in fact poor—that is something the local administration has to do. All that either scheme can do is to match the 10 persons chosen for the subsidy with their biometrics. In which case, the best would be to go ahead with Aadhaar-based cash transfers to reduce subsidy leakages; and give the Aadhaar data to the NPR for its detailed surveys to prepare citizen cards. The two schemes are distinct, so let’s keep them that way.

5600 - Five Reasons Why Aadhaar Must Live On - Computer Financial Express

Five Reasons Why Aadhaar Must Live On

By Sanjay Gupta on June 18, 2014

Once again, as the critical reports surrounding Aadhaar do the media rounds, some suggesting that the ambitious project can even be scrapped, I feel compelled to write about its technological and economic significance.

In my opinion, the Aadhaar project is too huge and significant to be done away with just like that. I do not mean to equate it with the “too big to fail” phenomenon of banks during the economic downturn, but here are a few solid reasons why the unique ID show must go on:

1. Expenditure and milestones: The government is already said to have spent around Rs 4,000 crore on the project and over 63 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued. A poor country like India should not waste an expenditure or effort on this scale, especially at this late stage.

2. The power of digitisation: While there has been talk of digitising other documents like passports, PAN cards, ration cards, etc, it is for the first time that a 12-digit number can unlock the value of technology and economic benefits at a huge scale. Once the seeding of this number with many more public and private enterprise services takes off in a big way, the multiplier effect by way of speed and cost-effectiveness will run into billions of dollars.

3. Mobile as a delivery channel: Linking the Aadhaar number to the mobile number of a person and using similar authentication mechanisms as used by banks and telecom firms can not only extend the reach of e-governance services but also make them convenient and quick.

4. Power to the individual: While some criticise Aadhaar as invading a person’s privacy by taking their biometrics data, on the contrary, Aadhaar authentication can empower hundreds of millions to seek their entitlements from the government. To my understanding, they can haul the authorities to court if they find out that the details linked to their Aadhaar numbers are incorrect or the due benefits are not being given to them. The self-service portal of UIDAI allows people to take control of their own profile data (with due authentication). This is something that never happened before and the control was always with authorities or third-parties. Privacy laws are a work in progress in India, but holding that bugbear to scrap an immense project like Aadhaar will not be of much use.

5. Improved security: Rather than split hairs on Aadhaar numbers being given to illegal immigrants, a more practical approach would be to let the whole database stabilise and then, with proper passport and border controls, segregate the data of those who indeed have infiltrated the borders unlawfully. I wouldn’t go into the politics of what should be done with the data or with those to which it belongs.

It is understandable that a big hue and cry is being raised because of the change of government. Even if supposing there are flaws in the way data was collected or in the accuracy of data itself, which organisation on earth could have undertaken such a humongous exercise with zero error?

If one were to think of the new government as a new tenant in the house of democracy, and imagine this tenant to be a little upset that the furniture is not arranged according to their wishes or because there are some cracks here and there—would it be advisable to throw it out the window (including the window?) and go buy some new expensive stuff?

Or would it be more prudent to sit down (perhaps on a chair with no cracks), take stock of the situation calmly, make the necessary course corrections, and then press the pedal for further development and growth?

5599 - NDA’s inhabitant ID cards might kill UPA’s Aadhaar proj - Indian Radios

06-24-2014

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HOME BUSINESS NDA’S INHABITANT ID CARDS MIGHT KILL UPA’S AADHAAR PROJ

NDA’s inhabitant ID cards might kill UPA’s Aadhaar proj

Posted about 5 days ago | 0 comment

NEW DELHI: In a pierce to aim supervision gratification schemes and subsidies on adults of a country, a Union home method has asked a Registrar General of India (RGI) to brand a ‘citizens’ and ‘non-citizens’ while scheming a National Population Register (NPR). The NPR authorities will commence a door-to-door corroboration practice opposite a nation in this regard.

The citizens’ register, to be called a National Register of Indian Citizens, will offer as a database for inhabitant temperament cards carrying a singular inhabitant temperament series for any citizen of a country, besides other marker fields.

TOI has learnt that NPR authorities will lift out a inhabitant corroboration practice to settle a citizenship of any and any chairman on a race database. A list of 19 papers – including birth certificate, genocide certificate, land records, propagandize annals – have been identified for explanation of citizenship.

While theatre 1 of a NPR plan – origination of an electronic database of residents – is over, a second stage, covering collection of biometrics, is underneath way. The capitulation for a third stage, that will now cover corroboration of citizenship, will be sought next. Once a National Registration of Indian Citizens is prepared, a inhabitant temperament label will be released to any citizen. As for non-citizen residents of a country, there is a offer to emanate them proprietor temperament cards, that will be of a colour opposite from a inhabitant temperament cards hold by citizens.

The go-ahead for origination of inhabitant register of Indian adults by linkages with birth and genocide registration and distribution of inhabitant temperament cards to all adults came during a assembly on Wednesday hold by Union home apportion Rajnath Singh to examination a NPR scheme. Singh’s call for “taking a (NPR) plan to a judicious conclusion, that is a origination of a National Register of Indian Citizens” is being seen as a vital denote that a due inhabitant temperament number, rather than Aadhar, would be a new basement for disbursal of supervision benefits.

Sources indicated that Singh concurred a lacunae in a UPA’s flagship Aadhar scheme, quite a fact that it envisaged distribution of Aadhar series to all common residents of a country, including unfamiliar nationals and bootleg immigrants. This would grant them to advantages underneath schemes like MGNREGA and subsidies by approach money transfers.

Notwithstanding a panel’s reservations, common by afterwards Union home secretary and now BJP MP R K Singh, a UPA supervision promoted Aadhar in a large way, even dividing a biometric collection practice for origination of NPR between UIDAI and RGI authorities.

Sources in a supervision indicated that UIDAI, that administers a Aadhar scheme, might shortly see a purpose discontinued due to de-duplication, even as NPR focuses on biometrics collection. The supervision will also take a call on either a existent Aadhar database is to be handed over to a NPR authorities, that might afterwards lift out an residence corroboration in line with a confidence norms.

The examination meeting, during that RGI and Registrar General of Citizen Registration C Chandramouli done a minute display on a NPR plan and emphasized a significance for inhabitant security, saw Singh conclude a confidence facilities of NPR intrigue vis-a-vis Aadhar. Incidentally, this emanate was progressing lifted by a parliamentary station cabinet headed by comparison BJP personality Yashwant Sinha, that criticized a miss of any corroboration of residence of Aadhar field and “introduction” complement for enrolment.

Article source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/ndas-national-id-cards-may-kill-upas-aadhaar/articleshow/36809562.cms

5598 - NDA's national ID cards may kill UPA's Aadhaar - Samachar.com

NDA's national ID cards may kill UPA's Aadhaar

Bharti Jain, TNN | Jun 19, 2014, 05.30AM IST

NEW DELHI: In a move to target government welfare schemes and subsidies on citizens of the country, the Union home ministry has asked the Registrar General of India (RGI) to identify the 'citizens' and 'non-citizens' while preparing the National Population Register (NPR). The NPR authorities will undertake a door-to-door verification exercise across the country in this regard.

The citizens' register, to be called the National Register of Indian Citizens, will serve as the database for national identity cards carrying a unique national identity number for each citizen of the country, besides other identification fields.

TOI has learnt that NPR authorities will carry out the nationwide verification exercise to establish the citizenship of each and every person on its population database. A list of 19 documents - including birth certificate, death certificate, land records, school records - have been identified for proof of citizenship.

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READ ALSO: Rajnath hints at merger of NPR and Aadhaar

While stage 1 of the NPR project - creation of an electronic database of residents - is over, the second stage, covering collection of biometrics, is under way. The approval for the third stage, which will now cover verification of citizenship, will be sought next. Once the National Registration of Indian Citizens is prepared, a national identity card will be issued to each citizen. As for non-citizen residents of the country, there is a proposal to issue them resident identity cards, which will be of a colour different from the national identity cards held by citizens.

The go-ahead for creation of national register of Indian citizens through linkages with birth and death registration and issuance of national identity cards to all citizens came at a meeting on Wednesday held by Union home minister Rajnath Singh to review the NPR scheme. Singh's call for "taking the (NPR) project to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of the National Register of Indian Citizens" is being seen as a major indication that the proposed national identity number, rather than Aadhar, would be the new basis for disbursal of government benefits.

Sources indicated that Singh acknowledged the lacunae in the UPA's flagship Aadhar scheme, particularly the fact that it envisaged issuance of Aadhar number to all usual residents of the country, including foreign nationals and illegal immigrants. This would entitle them to benefits under schemes like MGNREGA and subsidies through direct cash transfers.

Notwithstanding the panel's reservations, shared by then Union home secretary and now BJP MP R K Singh, the UPA government promoted Aadhar in a big way, even dividing the biometric collection exercise for creation of NPR between UIDAI and RGI authorities.

Sources in the government indicated that UIDAI, which administers the Aadhar scheme, may soon see its role diminished due to de-duplication, even as NPR focuses on biometrics collection. The government will also take a call on whether the existing Aadhar database is to be handed over to the NPR authorities, which may then carry out an address verification in line with its security norms.

The review meeting, during which RGI and Registrar General of Citizen Registration C Chandramouli made a detailed presentation on the NPR project and emphasized its importance for national security, saw Singh appreciate the security features of NPR scheme vis-a-vis Aadhar. Incidentally, this issue was earlier raised by a parliamentary standing committee headed by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, which criticized the lack of any verification of address of Aadhar applicants and "introduction" system for enrolment.