AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12117 - View: World looking to learn from India’s digital leap Mobile Aadhaar-based technology and the upcoming privacy law will radically transform financial services industry in the country.

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

Monday, September 25, 2017

12117 - View: World looking to learn from India’s digital leap Mobile Aadhaar-based technology and the upcoming privacy law will radically transform financial services industry in the country. - ETCIO.com

View: World looking to learn from India’s digital leap

Mobile Aadhaar-based technology and the upcoming privacy law will radically transform financial services industry in the country.

ET CONTRIBUTORS | September 23, 2017, 09:05 IST

At #ChampionsOfChange, a recent Niti Aayog Initiative for 200 corporate CEOs to interact with the Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke eloquently about using technology to solve India’s challenges and driving the change we want to see in India.

He cited the example of the Government e-Market (GeM), an online marketplace for government tenders that aims to curb corruption by bringing transparency to public procurement.

He described the role of Aadhaar in reducing leakage in government subsidy schemes.

As a financial services entrepreneur aiming to enable access to financial products for every Indian, I feel strongly that secure mobile Aadhaar-based technology combined with the upcoming privacy law will radically transform the financial services industry for the betterment of every Indian.

The Government of India, through the development of the Aadhaar-based financial access India Stack, has created the ecosystem in which financial institutions can offer consumers paperless access to all financial products on their mobile phones.

This world-class infrastructure will power innovation in financial services and financial inclusion for decades to come. This point of India having built what is arguably the most powerful framework globally to enable innovation in delivering services to Indian citizens has been best made by Infosys co-founder, & non executive chairman, and former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani.

He described this phase as the Indian financial services sector’s ‘WhatsApp moment’, and his words were that “Banking as we know it will stand on its head in the next 10 years.” India Stack impacts all stakeholders in the financial industry starting from large banks, insurers, asset management companies, and FinTechs.

Built on the foundation of Aadhaar, this India Stack infrastructure includes e-Sign, e-KYC (Know Your Customer) via OTP (One Time Password), DigiLocker, Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and can also be extended to eNACH. This set of tools which allows one to authenticate identity, sign documents electronically, provide proof of age, and set up electronic EMI instructions is admired by many nations which recognise the power of India Stack to transform India when combined with mobile internet and paperless financial services.

The uniqueness of this Indian technology is that most developed countries do not have government-owned and managed secure infrastructure for instant identity verification, or electronically signing documents.

Per Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff ’s comments in the media “the world has much to learn about from the Aadhaar project”. The world is looking to learn how India’s digital infrastructure has leapfrogged developed economies.

These services are securely made available based on strict access conditions for user authorised transactions when consumers apply for loans, insurance and savings. Using the above services you can get secure access in seconds to a health insurance, a mutual fund, a savings account, a fixed deposit or a loan without a single piece of paper.

This use of mobile technology for paperless financial access will drastically reduce operational costs associated with physical branches, paper document pick-up, manual processing, and ensure access to financial products for every Indian.

Thanks to this digital infrastructure, India will leapfrog the rest of the world in financial services delivery by ensuring that every citizen can access any financial product in minutes on their mobile phone —without paper, cash or physically signing documents. The government has enabled the infrastructure with tremendous foresight and an eye on financial inclusion and information security.

(The writer is CEO, BankBazaar.com)