AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 7218 - A safe ride home

In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Friday, January 16, 2015

7218 - A safe ride home - Financial Express

A safe ride home

By Sudipta Dev on January 15, 2015

While safety processes, technology features and stringent verification of drivers are important factors, significant effort and investment needs to be made in training drivers across the country to bring about a change in their behaviour By Sudipta Dev

Siddhartha Pahwa

The recent Uber cab incident in New Delhi, has not just shocked the citizens of the country, but has also shaken up the regulators who have been coming up with many new dictats. It is however not just the stringent rules that can ensure the vulnerable segments (women, children and elderly) can reach their destination safely, but the problem has to be tackled at different levels, the first being training of drivers. “The drivers are mostly migrant workers whose value system at times is not developed for a large city. Therefore it is important to make them aware of how things are in the large city,” says Siddhartha Pahwa, CEO, Meru Cabs. The company has a four-day training for drivers which includes modules on defensive driving, etiquette and soft skills with special focus on how to deal with women passengers. Significantly, almost 40 per cent of the company’s passengers happen to be women.

Further, complaints made against a driver are categorised and every six months the driver has to undergo a refresher training. “The behaviour pattern of the driver is analysed with regards to the type of complaints. We specifically work on those areas so that focused improvement can be made,” mentions Pahwa, pointing out that as a leader of the industry, Meru Cabs has been working with regulators across the country, asking them to spend on the government side to improve the overall training of drivers. He reminds that when Beijing Olympics happened the Chinese government spent three years in training drivers and significant change was seen in their behaviour. “We have been working with the National Skill Development Council for now more than a year. Even if the drivers are not working with us we have gone and imparted our training to them so that overall quality of drivers in the country go up. We have been requesting the government and regulators to keep a centralised database of all drivers to whom commercial licenses have been issued and if there is a way to link criminal records with them then that should happen,” states Pahwa. An important aspect is good quality identification process of drivers, which includes their address proof, police verification, PAN card, Aadhaar card, etc.

Technology for safety

Technology plays a critical role in improving safety and reliability. “We also use technology to create safety features for passengers, not just women passengers but even for elderly people and children,” affirms Pahwa. In March 2013, the Trip Tracker facility was launched. The second feature introduced was the In Case of Emergency button, which sends an alarm to two trusted people, who can know the location of the traveller and at what speed she/ he is travelling. The next important implementation is using the Aadhaar data of the drivers and their biometric verification. “The data is already stored in the Aadhaar data bank. Every time a driver would want to start a trip in the morning, they would need to identify themselves using the Aadhaar card, their finger print, etc. And only then they will be able to start the trip. Finger print scanning and retina scan of the driver can be done inside the car,” informs Pahwa. The company has already done the test pilot for this and is in discussions with Khosla Labs, which is developing more comprehensive solution for the system. “Our intent is that by January 2015 we will start implementing this feature in our vehicles and by March next year we will complete it in all our vehicles,” adds Pahwa.

Pointing out that many of the technology features are not expensive and even smaller operators can implement these safety solutions, Pahwa says, “The mindset of an organisation and a team should be that it has to be followed and implemented. This is only a one time expense, and does not cost too much. For example, a trip tracker facility costs Rs two for every trip. For a trip of Rs 200, can we not spend Rs two for the safety of passengers?”

Meru has been growing a city a month and will continue this growth rate. The target is 50 cities in the country where radio taxis services are required.