AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 10514 - Direct benefit transfers will become the norm: Arun Jaitley

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

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

10514 - Direct benefit transfers will become the norm: Arun Jaitley - Live Mint

Last Modified: Mon, Oct 03 2016. 01 39 AM IST

Direct benefit transfers will become the norm: Arun Jaitley

If anyone wants benefit of public revenue through subsidies or any other form, the authorities can insist on production of the unique identity, says Arun Jaitley

Komal Gupta / Suranjana Roy

A file photo of finance minister Arun Jaitley. Photo: Mint

New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday emphasized the importance of Aadhaar for cashless transactions and government schemes at a conference on digital payments.

“Eighty percent of people have mobiles in the country; we have crossed the one billion mark. Aadhaar card enrolment has reached close to 95% mark as far as adult population is concerned,” Jaitley said at the ‘Digital Payments: Inclusion, Growth and Opportunities’ meet.

The meet was organized by the Observer Research Foundation, a global think tank, in association with the Better Than Cash Alliance, a tie-up of governments and organizations that seeks to accelerate the transition from cash to digital payments to drive inclusive growth.

Direct benefit transfers, where subsidies and other benefits are directly paid to the benefiary’s bank account, will be the rule, Jaitley said.

“If anyone wants benefit of public revenue through subsidies or any other form, the authorities can insist on production of the unique identity,” added Jaitley.

Aadhaar will help rationalize, target and implement subsidies better.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was an exemplary programme with nearly 240 million people being enrolled within weeks, Jaitley said.

“No Indian can really today say that he didn’t have the facility of a bank account,” he added.

The Digital India initiative, along with the JAM, or Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile, Trinity, and Less-Cash India, are examples of such inclusive growth efforts.

Jaitley on 6 July released the ‘less cash campaign road map” of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which has launched a nationwide campaign to promote the usage of digital payments .

With over a billion a mobile connections, a quarter of a billion bank accounts (Jan Dhan) and a digital identity database (Aadhaar) of a billion, the aim is now to give a strong push to the digital future of the country.

Niti Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant shared similar views in his speech during one of the sessions.

“Nothing is going to transform India other than the spread of Internet, in a rapid and fast manner. The habit of using cash has to do away,” he said.

With the help of four game changers namely Digital India, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), JAM and the expansion of Point of sale (PoS) terminals, India should move towards a completely digitized payments by 2025, Kant said.

“We have around 1.2 million PoS terminals in India. We need to take it to around 20 million in the next two years,” Kant added.

A lot of innovations in the payments landscape have happened such as doing away with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for transactions up to Rs10,000, exemptions of wallets from two-factor authentication and use of regional languages in payment gateways. ‘The right of way’ policy which will be finalized by the government soon is expected to be another game changer.

However, digital payments still constitute just 22% of all consumer payments. The aim should be to scale this Rs50 billion industry to Rs500 billion by the end of 2020.

Komal GuptaSuranjana Roy