AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8545 - From an Aadhaar perspective by R S Sharma

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, August 19, 2015

8545 - From an Aadhaar perspective by R S Sharma - Economic Times

From an Aadhaar perspective

18 Aug 2015

RS Sharma

Chairman, TRAI

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had promised to issue 600 million Aadhaar numbers by the end of 2014. It, however, managed to do so nine months ahead of the schedule. It worked with an employee strength less than one-third of what was originally sanctioned. And it worked with an accuracy of 99.99%.

In less than five years from the date of issuance of the first Aadhaar ID, the country now has 900 million people with such numbers. And there is an addition of one million every day. It is the largest biometric database ever created anywhere and with a biometric de-duplication capability never seen before.

It happens to also be the most costeffective ID solution too. The total cost per ID is $2 compared to more than $100 per ID in advanced countries. With the total expenditure of less than Rs 10,000 crore, the project has the potential to save at least Rs 50,000 crore annually by plugging leakages. Such an impressive record notwithstanding, Aadhaar continues to remain one of the most misunderstood projects. I would like to throw some light on some of the lesser understood aspects of the project by answering some questions.

*Why is the UID only a number and not a card?

Aadhaar has been designed to be a next-generation online identity visà-vis a smart card. The latter is an offline token that has a shelf life with limited value. In the online and connected world we are moving towards, offline cards are becoming obsolete.

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We could have gone for a smart card model. But there is a cost issue. Each smart card costs nearly Rs 100. Smart cards also have a number of life-cycle management issues. Cards can be lost. Update of demographic or biometric data will require issuance of new cards, etc.

Hiding Behind a Number
As this was meant to be an ID that could be combined with any transaction, it is best that it is promoted as a number that can be linked to existing systems like the public distribution system (PDS), permanent account number cards, electors’ photo identity cards and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) job cards.

* Why is it a random digit and not something ‘intelligent’, like a number containing a state or district code, or gender of the Aadhaar-holder?

A digit is something that everybody understands and is easy to remember.

For a multilingual society like ours with a high level of functional illiteracy, having a number as an identification is a huge advantage. The UID number has also been designed not to disclose any personal information. Embedding some intelligence would have violated this. Designing UID as a random number makes it impossible to guess.

The current system has a provision to generate 80 billion numbers available to accommodate needs for years to come. Only 1% of the available ‘number space’ will be exhausted even after issuing numbers to everyone in the country. This makes the guessing even more difficult.

What is authentication and what is its use case?

Haven’t we been complaining about benefits of government schemes not reaching intended beneficiaries? Here is a mechanism in place to reach out to real targets of benefits. So why is there such a hue and cry? The purpose of authentication is precisely to reach targets. Take the PDS, notorious for leakages for decades. With the help of the Aadhaar platform, leakages can be plugged. A ration cardholder reaches the shop. He authenticates his identity either through his fingerprint or iris and provides the details of items he wants to buy.
At the back-end, the authentication packet is transmitted to the UIDAI. The UIDAI confirms the ID of the person and then the PDS back-end allows the transaction of ration purchase to take place. The transaction is traceable and transparent, cutting out any scope for foul play. What is more, benefits are portable too.

Aadhaar does not provide any kind of entitlements: no citizenship, no ration, no pensions. Then what, you may say, is the use of such a ‘worthless’ ID document? All existing documents that we normally use as identity are essentially eligibility documents and ID is an implicit attribute of these documents. However, there are various problems associated with such documents.

A Card with Attitude

One, there is no guarantee of their uniqueness. People have multiple PAN cards and ration cards. There is no guarantee of uniformity of information. These IDs can be easily faked as there is no foolproof way to verify their authenticity without following an arduous process.

And, finally, these are not universal. Aadhaar has been designed to be a universal and basic identity platform on which eligibility applications can be built. Its availability on the digital platform makes it amenable to be used in multiple domains.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETTelecom.com do not necessarily subscribe to it. ETTelecom.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

About RS Sharma

R S Sharma is the current Chairman of TRAI and worked as a secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.