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

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

7911 - AngelPrime and NASSCOM to Host the First-Ever Online Aadhaar Hackathon on June 6-7, 2015 - News Now

AngelPrime and NASSCOM to Host the First-Ever Online Aadhaar Hackathon on June 6-7, 2015
AngelPrime, a seed-stage Venture Capital Fund based in Bangalore and ...
INDIA-KARNATAKA-BANGALORE
DT:30-04-2015 5:58PM

Business Wire India
AngelPrime, a seed-stage Venture Capital Fund based in Bangalore and NASSCOM, in collaboration with UIDAI, will host an online “Aadhaar Application Hackathon” from June 6-7, 2015. Developers are invited to participate in this unique online coding event which will look at building compelling applications that leverage the Aadhaar platform.

The aim of the Aadhaar hackathon is to encourage and promote the development of applications that utilize the open Aadhaar APIs. The online hackathon is open to participants across India and will require them to take an online entry test to ensure they meet minimum eligibility criterion. The event will see qualified participants indulge in a non-stop 2 day coding marathon. Starting from June 6-7 2015, developers will build products under any of the following categories: Government Benefits, Financial Services (banking, insurance, and brokerage), Payments, Healthcare, FMCG, and Online + Offline (O2O).

Aadhaar APIs such as Biometric Authentication, Biometric eKYC, Demographic Authentication, OTP Authentication and OTP eKYC will be exposed to all developers. Both Biometric Authentication and Biometric eKYC require approved biometric sensors for which the participants are free to procure their own devices (UIDAI approved). USB- based biometric sensors are being made available by Morpho with their SDK for Android and Windows at the cost of Rs.3000. Khosla Labs will be partnering with AngelPrime for the Hackathon by opening up the APIs of its product - Aadhaar Bridge to enable the participants to integrate these Aadhaar services on their apps. Aadhaar Bridge provides for a developer friendly API along with SDK that supports multiple UIDAI certified biometric devices.

Developers can choose to participate from the comfort of their homes or can walk into any of the offline venues that will be announced on May 20, 2015. The Aadhaar Hackathon will be administered via the HackerEarth Sprint, a unique tool developed by HackerEarth for conducting large-scale online hackathons. All applications will be required to prove the successful use of the Aadhaar APIs and will be judged automatically for quality of code and sophistication of the application. A team of experts will judge the top 5 applications in each category and pick one winner from each category on 8th June. 

The Hackathon is backed by some of the biggest names in the technology industry, led by AngelPrime as the title sponsor. The event is also supported by NASSCOM’s 10,000 start-ups, Khosla Labs and Morpho.

Supporting Quotes:

Shri Vijay S Madan, Director General & Mission Director, UIDAI “The Aadhaar platform provides ‘authentication’ and ‘eKYC services’ in respect of over 825 million Aadhaar holders, on a real-time-basis. Not only is this verification service unparalleled in the world, there exist immense possibilities of its usage by National and State Government agencies, businesses and other institutions to deliver benefits, services and products, across the country instantaneously. Aadhaar platform is based on a robust technology that rides on mobile connectivity and enables ubiquity. It offers a great opportunity to its stakeholders; the growing community of technology developers, the start-up eco-system and the investor groups to maximize user experience in a variety of fields. I wish NASSCOM and its partners a great success in Aadhaar  Eco-System Diffusion Project.”

Shri. Nandan Nilekani, Former Chairman, UIDAI “Aadhaar was designed as a platform both for Government applications as well as innovative applications from diverse developers. The on-line authentication as well as the electronic KYC capability has the potential to put India at the forefront of service delivery transformation. I'm pleased to see an online hackathon by NASSCOM and AngelPrime that will help spread the opportunity to innovate on Aadhaar to the far corners of India and wish the event all success".

Mr. Ravi Gururaj, Chairman, NASSCOM Product Council “This initiative in collaboration with AngelPrime and NASSCOM driven by UIDAI, is a positive and important step towards utilizing technology for effective and scalable delivery of services. The Aadhaar Application Hackathon will enable a vibrant technology ecosystem that brings together key stakeholders to build on the identity infrastructure and create applications in areas like education, healthcare and payments. We are proud to be a part of this initiative and are hopeful that it will go a long way in evangelizing startups and driving an innovation ecosystem.”

Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner, AngelPrime “It will be exciting to see applications being built on the Aadhaar platform. I have always believed that the architecture of Aadhaar makes it an enabler not just for benefits administration, but also fundamental infrastructure for the future of any and all services in the country. By administering the hackathon online, we are targeting getting participation from 10,000 developers and ensuring a wide range of applications.”

Quick Snapshot:

  • Date: 6-7 June, 2015
  • Registrations: hck.re/aadhaar
  • Last date for procuring Biometric Sensors: 25 May 2015
  • Announcement of winners: 8th June 2015
  • Prizes: Total Prizes of up to 2 Lakh Rupees

About AngelPrime

AngelPrime is a Bangalore-based seed fund and incubator led by serial entrepreneurs Bala Parthasarathy, Sanjay Swamy and Shripati Acharya. The fund is focused on building disruptive product companies out of India, and addresses a much needed gap in the Indian startup ecosystem - by bringing a combination of first-hand entrepreneurial experience, operating expertise and meaningful capital. AngelPrime partners have also incubated other exciting startups including ZipDial (acquired by Twitter), Ezetap, Smart Owner and HackerEarth.

About Nasscom 10k Startups

10,000 Startups aims to enable incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology startups in India over the next ten years. The program’s vision is to foster entrepreneurship, build entrepreneurial capabilities at scale and strengthen early stage support for tech startups. The initiative brings together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, startup support groups, mentors, and technology corporations. The program is supported by our founding partner Google for Entrepreneurs, Microsoft Ventures, Intel, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IBM. 

Source: AngelPrime
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