AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 10605 - IRCTC Jumps Into Cashless, Paperless Mode

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, December 23, 2016

10605 - IRCTC Jumps Into Cashless, Paperless Mode – Trak.In

Last updated: November 14, 2016 at 16:23 pm

IRCTC Jumps Into Cashless, Paperless Mode – Tickets May Soon Be Booked Via eWallets Like Paytm, Airtel Money

Mohul Ghosh3 Min Read

Indian Railways can soon launch a massive paperless, cashless initiative of their own, wherein passengers can book unreserved train tickets directly from e-wallets such as Paytm, Airtel Money, Jio Money, Freecharge and other e-wallets.

This move can be one of the biggest ones from IRCTC to promote cashless and paperless ticketing system. And the reason is sheer volume.

Unreserved Tickets Hold The Trump Card

Indian Railways ferries more than 2 crore passengers in a single day. However, out of this number, only 6% opt for reserved route of booking tickets. Whooping 94% of the tickets sold by IRCTC are unreserved ones, and it is this massive market which Indian Railways wants to tap and convert paperless.

One senior railway official said, “We want to tap this sector through e-commerce”,

After PM Modi unleashed a direct war against black money by banning Rs 500, Rs 1000 currency notes, a new wave of cashless economy is slowly but gradually engulfing the whole nation.

IRCTC’s move to enable unreserved tickets via mobile wallets would certainly compliment this mission, and enable a more solid foundation for cashless economy.

IRCTC’s Own App Fails

Last year, Indian Railways had launched their own mobile app to enable cashless, paperless booking of unreserved tickets. Currently, this app can be used to book unreserved tickets in sub-urban regions such as Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi-Palwal.

In fact, early this year, Indian Railways launched UTSOnMobile app as well, which allowed passengers to download their tickets into the app, and avoid taking a printout of the same.

However, it seems that IRCTC didn’t receive enthusiastic response of their mobile app for unreserved tickets, as sales didn’t pick up like that of IRCTC’s app to book reserved tickets.,

There can be several reasons for the same; and one of the primary ones is the mandatory usage of Indian Railways’ own e-wallet to book tickets. Unlike IRCTC’s app/website to book reserved tickets, the app for booking unreserved tickets required the passenger to first load money into the IRCTC’s e-wallet, and then book tickets.

This certainly proved to be a major hindrance for the audience of unreserved tickets, who are mostly non-technical, rural users.

The proposal to partner with commercial e-wallet players like Paytm, Airtel Money etc came up after Railway Officials realized that these apps are anyways being heavily used to book cinemas, events and paying utility bills. Hence, integrating unreserved tickets into their platform will make complete sense, rather than pushing IRCTC’s own e-wallet for making the bookings.

Right now, talks are on to embed a bar-code based ‘fool-proof’ system for booking unreserved tickets, and creating a platform which can support more than 1 crore unreserved tickets which are currently booked pan-India.

There were lots of resistance and anger when Indian Railways declared that Aadhaar Card needs to mandatorily submitted for issuing any type of train tickets. Resistance was quite obvious, as those passengers who don’t have Aadhaar Card can face problems while booking train tickets.

But the benefits of such moves are slowly starting to appear. Using one Aadhaar Card, rail passengers can soon book reserved as well unreserved tickets, and pay via e-wallets.

Will this plan work for Indian Railways? Can paper-less and cashless economy in India improve after such partnership is finalized? Do share your views by commenting right here!

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