AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9679 - Technology will be the great unifier of government programmes

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, March 30, 2016

9679 - Technology will be the great unifier of government programmes - Hindustan Times

Technology will be the great unifier of government programmes

Arvind Gupta | Updated: Mar 28, 2016 21:47 IST

The Budget this year is a milestone for the Central government. It addresses issues relating to Bharat with time-bound pro-poor, pro-farmer programmes, creates productive capacity through public investment without cutting expenditure, and provides a roadmap to a stable and transparent tax regime. The government has shown its commitment to ‘minimum government, maximum governance’, using ‘technology’ as the catalyst.

The Digital India programme augments the priority areas around the rural sector, skills, job creation, and financial sector reforms identified in the Budget. A Digital First ecosystem is being created, and in it the government is a major user of technology for rolling out schemes, project management, data empowerment and government-to-citizen interfaces.

Read | The new digital consumer will be rural

With Aadhaar receiving legislative backing, the Narendra Modi government has shown its commitment to move to a single number-linked platform to ensure that the benefits reach the deserving. The passage of the Bill shows the government’s commitment to use technology to fix the plumbing and reduce leakages from the expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India.

The seeding of the Aadhaar number in various government-to-citizen databases and strengthening the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile framework for developing social security platforms are transformative. After a successful rollout of direct benefits transfer (DBT) for LPG, the government is encouraged to introduce DBT on a pilot basis for fertilisers in a few districts across the country.

A Unified Agricultural Marketing e-Platform has been proposed to provide a common e-market for wholesale markets, which will connect up to 250 ‘mandis’ by September this year, and another 335 by March 2018. This is in line with the goal of doubling farm income in the next five years. To ensure that the benefits of technology reach the grassroots, a Digital Literacy Mission Scheme has been announced to cover 60 million additional households in three years.

With the revamping of the National Land Record Modernisation Programme, the major components of computerising land records mutations, digitising maps and integrating textual and spatial data, updating all survey and settlement records, computerising registration and its integration with the land records maintenance system will be linked to Aadhaar. This will lead to better tax realisation and help in dispute resolution, better credit facilities, etc.

Read | Aadhaar will benefit government in war on black money, benami deals

A Financial Data Management Centre is to be set up and it will help in streamlining tax collections and act as a hub for recording and analysing the data collected. The continued emphasis on self-certifications and e-assessment will also pass on the benefits of technology efficiency to the citizens as well as overloaded government departments.

Harnessing the power of the JAM trinity, payments infrastructure, paperless culture, big data and internet technologies, both horizontally and vertically within the government, can transform processes and result in knowledge-based governance. While the challenges faced by governments are colossal, these technologies provide opportunities for enhancing the power of the government to take decisions and provide transparent, cost-effective, accountable, time-bound solutions and services to its citizens and businesses.

Arvind Gupta is a digital entrepreneur, Eisenhower Fellow for Innovation, and is heading the BJP’s information and technology cell