AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8078 - Aadhaar application hackathon goes online

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

Monday, June 1, 2015

8078 - Aadhaar application hackathon goes online - Business Standard

Aadhaar application hackathon goes online

Over 3,500 have registered for the event, including 150 Indians from the US, UK, China & Europe

Shivani Shinde Nadhe | Pune May 30, 2015 Last Updated at 23:02 IST

About 150 Indians from regions such as the US, the UK, China and Europe are among the 3,500 participants who have registered for a two-day Aadhaar application hackathon to be held in the first week of June. The event is the first-of-its-kind online hackathon. HackerEarth will be scanning these codes in real-time.

At the event, teams of students, engineers and coders from India and abroad (of Indians with Aadhaar numbers) will be coding for two days to come up with applications based on the Aadhaar platform.

ALSO READ: Aadhaar not mandatory for voter i-card, EC clarifies

According to data from HackerEarth, the highest participation within India is from Bengaluru (about 1,000), followed by Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Participants from tier-III cities such as Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), Hassan (Karnataka), Amritsar (Punjab) and Asansol (West Bengal) have also registered. Haridwar, Chandigarh and Kolkata account for a substantial number of participants.

Pramod Varma, chief architect of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), believes hackathons such as these will help create awareness and popularise the use of applications. “We have reached a milestone of about 850 million people with Aadhaar numbers. I think this is a good enough database to really start popularising it. Last year, we, along with Nasscom, decided to start a series of hackathons. The idea is to let the next generation create these apps. This is the most efficient and cheap way of creating application on Aadhaar APIs (application programme interfaces) for the benefit of several users,” he says.

ALSO READ: Aadhaar not mandatory to claim any state benefit, says Supreme Court

The target is to complete a billion Aadhaar registrations by the end of this financial year, he adds.

The hackathon is being conducted by AngelPrime, a seed-stage venture capital fund based in Bengaluru, HackerEarth, Khosla Labs, Microsoft Ventures, Nasscom and UIDAI. This is the second hackathon for the Aadhaar application. Earlier this year, Khosla Labs, Nasscom and UIDAI conducted an offline hackathon, in which 100 developers participated.

To popularise use of Aadhaar APIs for building applications, UIDAI and Nasscom plan to hold six to eight major hackathons through this year and the next. They also plan to hold small awareness programmes.

ALSO READ: Aadhaar, the paradox

Sachin Gupta, founder of HackerEarth, says with online hackathons, the reach becomes easy. “With offline hackathon, place is a concern. Since we want to reach out to as many developers as possible, the online route is the best,” he says.

Aadhaar APIs to be exposed to participants are e-KYC (know your customer) and authentication using biometrics. At the competition, developers will be asked to build products in categories such as government benefits, financial services, payments, health care, fast-moving consumer goods and online plus offline. Additionally, the hackathon will have four offline venues, too — Paytm, Delhi; Ezetap, Bengaluru; Nasscom start-up warehouse, Bengaluru; and Microsoft Ventures, Bengaluru.

Sanjay Swamy of AngelPrime says so far, Aadhaar has been used only by governmental agencies and institutes. Such events will allow developers to build apps that can be used by businesses; also, start-up firms could be set up. If an idea appeals to an angel investor, the application might be funded, too.

He cites the example of the Maharashtra government, which has come out with an application for change of name using Aadhaar. “Usually, the name-change process takes four month but the usage of an app has brought it down to a few hours. Once you open the APIs to the public, more case scenarios will emerge,” he says.

The Aadhaar hackathon held earlier this year had 100 developers; at the end, three emerged winners. The event in June will also have three winners, as well as a special prize for a unique use case. “The winners will be selected on the basis of how well they use Aadhaar, the value proposition and how good the team is,” Swamy said.