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 16, 2014

5685 - Know Your Customer (KYC) Norms / Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Standards /Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) / Obligation of NBFCs under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 Recognising E-Aadhaar as an 'Officially Valid Document' under PML Rules - RBI



Date : Jul 14 2014


Know Your Customer (KYC) Norms / Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Standards /Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) / Obligation of NBFCs under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 Recognising E-Aadhaar as an 'Officially Valid Document' under PML Rules




RBI/2014-15/122
DNBS(PD).CC.No 400/03.10.42/2014-15

July 14, 2014

All Non-Banking Financial Companies

Dear Sirs,

Know Your Customer (KYC) Norms / Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Standards /Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) / Obligation of NBFCs under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 Recognising E-Aadhaar as an 'Officially Valid Document' under PML Rules

Please refer to paragraph I (11) of Master Circular DNBS (PD) CC No. 387/03.10.42/ 2014-15 dated July 1, 2014 on Know Your Customer (KYC) Norms / Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Standards/Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) / Obligation of banks under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 which states that letter issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) containing details of name, address and Aadhaar number, may be accepted as an ‘Officially Valid Document’. Further, while opening accounts based on Aadhaar, NBFCs must satisfy themselves about the current address of the customer by obtaining required proof of the same as per extant instructions.

2. In order to reduce the risk of identity fraud, document forgery and have paperless KYC verification, UIDAI has launched its e-KYC service. Accordingly, it has been decided to accept e-KYC service as a valid process for KYC verification under Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005. Further, the information containing demographic details and photographs made available from UIDAI as a result of e-KYC process (';which is in an electronic form and accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference';) may be treated as an 'Officially Valid Document' under PML Rules. In this connection, it is advised that while using e-KYC service of UIDAI, the individual user has to authorize the UIDAI, by explicit consent, to release her or his identity / address through biometric authentication to the NBFC branches. The UIDAI then transfers the data of the individual comprising name, age, gender, and photograph of the individual, electronically to the NBFCs, which may be accepted as valid process for KYC verification. The broad operational instructions to NBFCs willing to use the UIDAI e-KYC service on Aadhaar e-KYC service are enclosed as Annex. Such NBFCs are advised to have proper infrastructure (as specified in Annex) in place to enable biometric authentication for e-KYC. Physical Aadhaar card / letter issued by UIDAI containing details of name, address and Aadhaar number received through post would continue to be accepted as an 'Officially Valid Document'.

3. Further NBFCs may accept e-Aadhaar downloaded from UIDAI website as an officially valid document subject to the following:

a) If the prospective customer knows only his / her Aadhaar number, the NBFC may print the prospective customer's e-Aadhaar letter in the NBFC directly from the UIDAI portal; or adopt e-KYC procedure as mentioned in paragraph 2 above.

b) If the prospective customer carries a copy of the e-Aadhaar downloaded elsewhere, the NBFC may print the prospective customer's e-Aadhaar letter in the NBFC directly from the UIDAI portal; or adopt e-KYC procedure as mentioned in paragraph 2 above; or confirm identity and address of the resident through simple authentication service of UIDAI.

4. Physical Aadhaar card / letter issued by UIDAI containing details of name, address and Aadhaar number received through post and e-KYC process mentioned in the circular referred in paragraph 2 above would continue to be accepted as an 'Officially Valid Document'.

5.NBFCs may revise their KYC policy in the light of the above instructions and ensure strict adherence to the same.

Yours faithfully,

(Sindhu Pancholy)
Deputy General Manager
Encl: as above






Annex


Operational Procedure to be followed by NBFCs for e-KYC exercise






The e-KYC service of the UIDAI is be leveraged by NBFCs through a secured network. Any NBFC willing to use the UIDAI e-KYC service is required to sign an agreement with the UIDAI. The process flow to be followed is as follows :


1. Sign KYC User Agency (KUA) agreement with UIDAI to enable the NBFC to specifically access e-KYC service.

2. NBFCs to deploy hardware and software for deployment of e-KYC service across various delivery channels. These should be Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Institute, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India certified biometric scanners at NBFC branches as per UIDAI standards. The current list of certified biometric scanners is given in the link below :
http://www.stqc.gov.in/sites/upload_files/stqc/files/UID_Auth_Certlist_250613.pdf

3. Develop a software application to enable use of e-KYC across various NBFC branches, as per UIDAI defined Application Programming Interface (API) protocols. For this purpose NBFCs will have to develop their own software under the broad guidelines of UIDAI. Therefore, the software may differ from NBFC to NBFC.

4. Define a procedure for obtaining customer authorization to UIDAI for sharing e-KYC data with the NBFC. This authorization can be in physical (by way of a written explicit consent authorising UIDAI to share his / her Aadhaar data with the NBFC for the purpose of opening deposit account) / electronic form as defined by UIDAI from time to time.

5. Sample process flow would be as follows :

a. Customer walks into branch of NBFC with his / her 12-digit Aadhaar number and explicit consent and requests to open a deposit account with Aadhaar based e-KYC.

b. NBFC representative manning the branch enters the number into NBFC's e-KYC application software.

c. The customer inputs his / her biometrics via a UIDAI compliant biometric reader (e.g. fingerprints on a biometric reader).

d. The software application captures the Aadhaar number along with biometric data, encrypts this data and sends it to UIDAI's Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR).

e. The Aadhaar KYC service authenticates customer data. If the Aadhaar number does not match with the biometrics, UIDAI server responds with an error with various reason codes depending on type of error (as defined by UIDAI).

f. If the Aadhaar number matches with the biometrics, UIDAI responds with digitally signed and encrypted demographic information [Name, year / date of birth, Gender, Address, Phone and email (if available)] and photograph. This information is captured by NBFCs e-KYC application and processed as needed.

g. NBFCs servers auto populate the demographic data and photograph in relevant fields. It also records the full audit trail of e-KYC viz. source of information, digital signatures, reference number, original request generation number, machine ID for device used to generate the request, date and time stamp with full trail of message routing, UIDAI encryption date and time stamp, NBFCs decryption date and time stamp, etc.

h. The photograph and demographics of the customer can be seen on the screen of computer at NBFC branches for reference.

i. The customer can open deposit account subject to satisfying other account opening requirements.

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