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, December 31, 2014

7102 - India needs at least 3 lakh ATMs: NPCI chief - The Hindu Businessline

India needs at least 3 lakh ATMs: NPCI chief
K RAM KUMAR

Abhaya Prasad Hota, MD and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India

‘With so many accounts and debit cards being issued under Jan Dhan, the ATM infrastructure needs to be ramped up’
MUMBAI, DECEMBER 22:  


With banks opening millions of accounts and issuing the home-grown ‘RuPay’ debit cards under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the ATM network in the country could see a ramp-up from the current 1.82 lakh to three lakh in the next one-and-a-half years.

Reason: debit card acceptance infrastructure needs to be created so that they can be used for transactions such as withdrawal of money and remittance.

Predicting a jump in ATMs, Abhaya Prasad Hota, MD and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India, said it is important that the card acceptance infrastructure, especially ATMs, is built up.
“How do we build the (card) acceptance infrastructure? That is where the big challenge is…With so many cards being issued, where will they be used unless ATMs are installed? Once the ATM infrastructure is in place, the card usage will increase,” said Hota.

A long way to go
The NPCI chief observed that for such a vast country as India, the current 1.82 lakh ATMs is still a small number. The country needs to have a minimum of three lakh ATMs.
According to latest World Bank data, in terms of the ratio of number of ATMs per lakh adults, India, at 11.21 ATMs, is way below Brazil (118.60) and South Africa (59.93).

“Ideally, per lakh adults, there should be about 20 ATMs. We have got about 11. So, we have a long way to go,” said Hota. As on December 19, banks collectively opened 9.66 crore basic savings bank deposit accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana, which is the Centre’s financial inclusion drive for vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low-income groups.

Kicked-off in August-end, the Yojana seeks to ensure access to financial services, namely, banking/savings and deposit accounts, remittances, credit, insurance and pension in an affordable manner.

Banks collectively have issued 6.92 crore RuPay debit cards to new account holders. RuPay is the home-grown card payment scheme launched by NPCI, the umbrella institution for all retail payment systems in the country, to rival global payments processing giants Visa and MasterCard.

Non-bank ATMs
The NPCI chief said the increase in the number of RuPay debit cards will encourage the seven white label ATM service providers (non-bank entities which set up, own and operate ATMs) to ramp up their ATM network.
“They (white label ATM service providers) are not making good money.
“But now with so many cards coming, possibly their business sentiment would be revived and they would start installing ATMs,” he said.
PIN, biometric enabled
Since ATMs cannot be installed in every village, the services of business correspondents (BCs) are being engaged by banks to reach out banking services to the hinterland.
These BCs have biometric hand-held devices that are integrated with the bank’s core banking solution platform to enable seamless banking transactions such a withdrawal/ deposit of money, remittance, etc.
According to Hota, the new RuPay debit cards which are being issued under the Jan Dhan scheme are PIN-enabled, and wherever Aadhaar number is available, they are also biometric-enabled.
So, in rural areas the new hand-held devices which have been introduced can accept Aadhaar as well as PIN authentication.


(This article was published on December 22, 2014)
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