AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9137 - Aadhaar can spur financial inclusion by enabling low-cost transactions: Jayant Sinha

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

Sunday, December 6, 2015

9137 - Aadhaar can spur financial inclusion by enabling low-cost transactions: Jayant Sinha - Live Mint

Aadhaar can spur financial inclusion by enabling low-cost transactions: Jayant Sinha

Junior finance minister says the cost for meeting know-your-customer rules is too high, which can be brought down using Aadhaar

Saurabh Kumar

Bill Gates, co-chair and trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks as minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha looks on during a panel discussion on ‘Transforming India Through Digital Financial Inclusion’ in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: PTI

If India has to achieve financial inclusion, the cost of transactions need to fall—a process in which the Aadhaar unique identity numbers will play a crucial role, junior finance minister Jayant Sinha said on Friday.

Aadhaar can be used to meet know-your-customer (KYC) rules by any financial institution through online biometric authentication, reducing the cost of paperwork.

“We need to get to a price point wherein every stakeholder can participate. Right now, the cost of KYC is too high, which can be brought down using Aadhaar,” Sinha said, while talking about the emerging payments infrastructure of the country, including the payments bank permits issued recently by the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI.

Right now, the barrier to inclusion is cost as most the transactions are of low value and large volume, according to R.S. Sharma, chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

“Digital transactions need to be cheaper as it will be frugal in nature. If mobile companies can enable Rs.10 top-ups and make them sustainable cost-wise, I am sure that with the help of technology, a Rs.10 banking transaction can also be made sustainable,” he said.

On 19 August, the central bank gave initial approval to 11 companies to set up payment banks, which includes Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd from the stable of Bharti Airtel Ltd which has a customer base of 235.2 million in September, and Vodafone m-pesa Ltd, a part of Vodafone India Ltd which has 188.1 million customers, and the Department of Posts, which has 155,015 post offices across the country, of which 139,144 are in the rural areas.

Sinha and Sharma were speaking at a seminar, Transforming India Through Digital Financial Inclusion, organized by software lobby Nasscom and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity, in New Delhi.

Speaking at the event, Bill Gates said that when paperwork is reduced, the cost of providing services and credit goes down dramatically, as is evident in China and the US.

“It is possible in a digital environment,” Gates said.

A constitution bench of the Supreme Court will decide whether the right to privacy is a fundamental right, which relates to the Aadhaar programme.

The bench is yet to be constituted. The apex court had restricted the use of Aadhaar numbers to certain schemes through two orders issued on 11 August and 15 October.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Friday, communication and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Aadhaar is a well-designed and robust data security system is in place. “The architecture of Aadhaar ecosystem has been designed to ensure data security, privacy, non-duplication, data integrity and related aspects. Additionally, security audits are also conducted,” he said.

Saurabh Kumar