AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 11989 - Aadhaar Pay yet to find base in country; BHIM, UPI preferred more

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, September 6, 2017

11989 - Aadhaar Pay yet to find base in country; BHIM, UPI preferred more - TNN

Aadhaar Pay yet to find base in country; BHIM, UPI preferred more

Rachel Chitra | TNN | Updated: Sep 4, 2017, 10:51 IST

HIGHLIGHTS

Transaction gateways like UPI, which was launched a full year after Aadhaar Pay, are showing faster growth
As of July 2017, Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System processed only 69 lakh transactions worth Rs 1,409 crore
UPI on other hand, is growing at 12 per cent month-on-month to 1.2 crore transactions

CHENNAI: Going beyond knowing your customer (KYC) application, have payments via Aadhaar taken off? According to recent figures, a majority of Indians are still using Aadhaar only for e-KYC verification and not day-to-day payments. Data from National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) also shows that transaction gateways like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which was launched a full year after Aadhaar Pay, are showing faster growth and are processing three times higher volumes and transactions.

As of July 2017, Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System (AEPS) processed only 69 lakh transactions worth Rs 1,409 crore. In comparison, consumers used the Aadhaar platform five times more for e-KYC at 449 lakh transactions for the same month. Aadhaar Mapper-Enabled Services (AMES) and Aadhaar overdraft verification service, both, saw about 74 lakh and 3.3 crore transactions respectively. While UPI is growing at 12 per cent month-on-month to 1.2 crore transactions worth Rs 3,411 crore, AEPS grew at 4 per cent. Another interesting aspect is the average ticket size of transactions — users of the Aadhaar platform seem to be using it for smaller transactions when compared to users of BHIM and UPI. Customers seem to be withdrawing on average a sum of Rs 2,044 using AEPS compared to average usage of UPI at Rs 2,932 per transaction and BHIM at Rs 2,946 per transaction.

Banks say that in the evolution of India's payment journey, Aadhaar's focus has been strongly for financial inclusion. "Banks are using Aadhaar primarily for three reasons — e-KYC, authentication of a customer, and payments. In this journey, there has also been an array of other products like UPI, BHIM and Bharat QR Code. It does not mean they are competing products, but that they have been designed to address different customer needs. UPI, for instance is easily integrable with many of the bank's existing mobile apps. But Aadhaar relies more on the network of business correspondents and micro ATMs for last-mile payments," says Deepak Sharma, chief digital officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Another important factor that might be influencing adoption patterns is the nature of the services. "UPI and BHIM transactions are mostly person-to-person or person-to-merchant. These payments systems can be used independently by bank customers themselves via their smartphones. For Aadhaar payments via micro-ATMs, it is as, on date, an assisted service — customers have to rely on bank personnel or a business correspondent for these biometric transactions," says Sharma.

In future, Aadhaar Pay is also expected to work as a viable alternative for point-of-sale (PoS) retail payments for customers who face difficulties using cards or smartphones. P N Vasudevan, founder, Equitas Small Finance, which is focused on low- and middle-income households, says, "Nearly 80 per cent of our KYCs are being filed online when Aadhaar number is provided, as Aadhaar eliminates any need for more documentation or verification. But the way forward is payments using biometric authentication."

Industry experts also feel that the December 31, 2017 deadline for linking Aadhaar to bank accounts will prove to be a game changer. Kotak's Sharma adds, "If there is large-scale seeding of Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts, then it can really push payments via this platform."