AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9052 - After Aadhaar Card, now Nandan Nilekani lays road map for improved India

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, November 20, 2015

9052 - After Aadhaar Card, now Nandan Nilekani lays road map for improved India - One India

After Aadhaar Card, now Nandan Nilekani lays road map for improved India

Posted by: Shreyas Updated: Wednesday, November 11, 2015, 8:11 [IST]

Bengaluru, Nov 10: A new book, authored by Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah, extensively talks about challenges that the new India is facing. The book, "Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations", was launched at Taj West End Hotel in Bengaluru on Monday, Nov 9. Outlining studied road map to invigorate India, the book proposes for the romancing between positives of technology and the government. Though Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys and former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India(UIDAI), takes critical stand against snail-like system of bureaucracy, he admits there are many goods in the system which has to be amalgamated with technology to see the emergence of changed India. "We have lot of aspirations and aspirations are non linear. With the 19th century of bureaucratic system alone, it is impossible to meet all the aspirations," he observes. The book that is also co-authored by Viral Shah spreads broad light on bringing fertilizer subsidy of farmers under Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme (DBT) as to save travel expenses of backbone of India to collect the subsidy amount. "While me and my team was touring in Uttar Pradesh, we witnessed an untoward incident of police resorting to lathi charge to control flooding farmers to collect subsidized sack of fertilizers," Viral narrated. He asks when urban class can avail technology to see ordered materials coming at their door step, why can't same be applied for the rural mass, especially farmers. Roping young intellectuals Viral and Nandan were addressing an elite gathering, which was attended by noted personalities like, co-founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy, former MP Divya Spandana (Ramya), hostorian Ramachandra Guha and others. Nandan envisaged in the book only integration of technology open doors to innovative India. The book, however, proposes ten challenges for India and suggest start-ups within the government itself. "As many as 100-200 young intellectuals should work on technical front to revolutionize techno-government system." Nilekani proposed. Bureaucratic receptiveness The authors in the book write about how the government regulatory bodies has to encourage new kinds of business emerging on the back of technological revolutions. The rigid bureaucratic system has to be changed in order accommodate aspirations of new business ventures to reboot India, the book reads. Besides, the book has a chapter on political economy and implications of centralized voting system to eliminate the problem of constituency constrain at the time of voting and end corruption at the time registration of voting rights. Intellectual Property Diverse key sectors-health, education, election, transportation, energy, finance and others has to be enabled with improved technology to change the lives of lay man of the nation. Nandan and Viral in the book floated the idea of cash-less and paper less system. Ahead of materializing the project, it is impending to create intellectual property to set the stage to transform the system. The technology lends speed to the government institutions that has been marred with bureaucratic apathy for many decades. He cited the example of success of Aadhar by the UIDAI and the work the team underwent before realizing the project. He opined, though Adhar was introduced by the UPA (United Progressive Alliance), the incumbent Modi government has been reaping the benefits. He divulge he met PM Narendra Modi to convince not to drop Adhar. Net Neutrality Nandan Nilekani stands firm by the side of net neutrality as he fear of few Internet giants slowing whole digital network of the globe. "I am for net neutrality and I fear, if the aspect was neglected there is a massive threat of few Internet barons of Silicon Valley controlling global digital network." Watch videosof the exclusive interviews: