AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 10409 - Government announces plan to digitize academic records

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, September 11, 2016

10409 - Government announces plan to digitize academic records - Live Mint

Last Modified: Sat, Sep 10 2016. 11 11 AM IST

Government announces plan to digitize academic records

Degrees, mark sheets, migration certificate, skill certificate, etc., will be digitized and put in the national depository

A file photo of human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar. The academic depository will share students’ details with anyone—like an employer or background screening firms—only after getting consent from a student. Photo: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: The Union government on Friday announced to digitize all academic records from secondary to tertiary-level institutions and will hire National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and Central Depository Services Ltd (CDLS) for implementing the move.

The move comes almost five years after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government initiated the process, and will address concerns, including academic frauds, and facilitate job verification and background checks on candidates seeking employment or further education.

“It will be a reality soon and will be beneficial for all stakeholders. NSDL and CDLS will work on this,” said human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar.

“All educational institutions, including universities, will implement the scheme. It will be hugely beneficial for students,” the minister said.

The digital depository will be established on the lines of security depositories.

Javadekar said the security depositories in the country have already made dematerialization of financial securities such as stocks of companies and have been ensuring the safety of the financial wealth investors. This system can now be replicated for educational awards, he said.

Degrees, diplomas, mark sheets, migration certificate, skill certificate, etc., will be digitized and put in the national academic depository (NAD).

Higher education secretary said the depository will share students’ information with anyone—like an employer or background screening firms—only after getting consent from a student. But companies have been complaining about frauds in job applications, including academic frauds, and because of the lack of a national system that can help them verify academic records online by paying a nominal fee.

A so-called “discrepancy analysis” by First Advantage, a global background screening company, found that the rate of discrepancies in 2015 were at a five-year high with some 11.5% of job-seekers having fudged some of their data last year.

The discrepancy trend for the previous four calendar years—2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014—showed an average of 10% discrepancy in the first three years, rising to 10.5% in 2014.

The NAD will authenticate records, eliminate the menace of fake and forged awards without flouting privacy.

The ministry is looking to tag the academic records with the Aadhaar number to facilitate verification, e-KYC and retrieval.

Suraj Saharan, co-founder and chief people officer of Delhivery, a logistics company catering to e-commerce firms, had said on Wednesday that India needs to have a database of workers to facilitate clean hiring as background checks on employees is a tedious process.

The HRD ministry said NAD will start operations from 2017 with the 2016 academic records as its base and from the next academic year, the government will make sure that all institutions and school boards issue digitized certificates with digital signatures to facilitate the process.

The depositories—NSDL and CDLS—will ensure integrity of the data lodged in the NAD.

Educational institutions can lodge the data with any of the two depositories but there will be “inter-operability”—meaning, institutions, students and other stake holders can access data from either of the depositories.

While educational institutions will be registering the students data online, students can themselves log in to the NAD and put their previous academic records by linking their Aadhaar number and fulfilling an e-KYC.

Prashant K. Nanda