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

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

5621 - Aadhaar lives on: RBI tests UID-based mobile fund transfers - Business Standard

Aadhaar lives on: RBI tests UID-based mobile fund transfers
Banking regulator to decide on initialising the payment system after reviewing the functioning of pilot projects commissioned in April


Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  June 29, 2014 Last Updated at 00:37 IST

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Unique Identity (UID) project, or Aadhaar, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is testing a mobile-based payments system linked to this platform. Remittances through this platform skip the traditional banking channel and are aimed at including the unbanked in the financial system.

Pilot projects related to this system, under way across various parts of the country, are studying whether telecom operators such as Airtel and Vodafone can successfully transfer money between their so-called pre-paid wallets linked to Aadhaar. Seven operators including Airtel, Vodafone, ItzCash and Oxigen are running these pilot projects.

This is how the system works: A person with an Aadhaar number and a mobile phone can open a mobile wallet by visiting a store of a wallet operator, and load cash into his/her account. Following this, she/he gives directions for the transfer, through SMS, to a recipient with an existing Aadhaar-linked mobile wallet. The recipient goes to a store (the operator’s own or a licensed kirana or telecom store), authenticates herself/ himself through the UID number and biometrics, and receives the cash.

The pilot projects in this regard, commissioned in April this year, will run for a couple of months, after which the RBI will decide on the matter.

Aadhaar, a flagship scheme of the United Progressive Alliance government and the pillar on which the project is based, is currently under a cloud. Several reports have said the National Democratic Alliance government wants to merge the project with the National Population Register to ensure only bona fide citizens enrol under it.

ALSO READ: RBI allows banks to appoint NBFCs as biz correspondents

However, there has been no word from the RBI, which has already mandated Aadhaar as a valid proof of address and identity for banking, to suggest its discontinuation. The central bank did not respond to email queries regarding the pilot project.

Sunil Kulkarni, deputy managing director of Oxigen, said an estimated 75 million migrant workers in India found it difficult to send money to their friends and families living in remote villages as bank branches were far and in most cases, banking correspondents, too, weren’t present in these areas. “But the retail agent network is huge… there are over 50 million grocery stores in the country,” he said.

The plan is to enable small shop owners with a biometric device attached to a mobile phone. For the receiver, the device can aid in authentication and act as an automated teller machine. Kulkarni claims the platform of his company alone has 130,000 operators, against a total 150,000 bank branches, adding the combined networks of all operators such as Airtel and Vodafone could cover the entire country.

For those who didn’t have bank accounts, the only ways to transfer money were through post, the informal channel or hawala operators, said an official involved with the pilot. Also, the RBI is concerned it is becoming difficult to track payments through mobile wallets, as their KYC (know-your customer) data are not considered adequate.

“With Aadhaar, the RBI will know who is transacting the money,” the official said. Linkage through Aadhaar will enable a system of ‘cash withdrawal’ by the receiver, a facility currently not allowed for pre-paid wallet operators. UID will provide the required KYC and ensure an audit trail.

Airtel, which runs the Airtel Money wallet, did not respond to queries, while Vodafone declined to comment on the pilot.

In an emailed response, a Vodafone spokesperson said given the large number of mobile users in India, mobile banking had the potential to emerge as a game-changer in terms of costs, convenience and reach. The company claims its M-Pesa is the largest business correspondent network in India, with about 65,000 agents and 1.4 million registered customers. Currently, a customer can only use the wallet services to pay utility bills.

Kulkarni, however, said he wasn’t concerned about the uncertainty surrounding Aadhaar. “The database built by Aadhaar is apolitical and too valuable to give away,” he said, adding Aadhaar was likely to continue, though the government might choose a different name for it. This, he said, was because Aadhaar had already been mandated as KYC by many financial sector regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

HOW IT WORKS
  • Small shop owners will be enabled with a biometric device attached to a mobile phone
  • A person with an Aadhaar number and a mobile phone opens a mobile wallet through a wallet operator’s store
  • She/he loads cash into account
  • The person gives directions for the transfer, through SMS, to a recipient with an existing Aadhaar-linked mobile wallet
  • The recipient goes to a licensed store, authenticates herself/himself through the UID number and biometrics, and receives the cash
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