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 29, 2017

12573 - 2017: The year of the customer - Live Mint

2017: The year of the customer
Wth fintechs challenging and working together with traditional financial institutions, the picture looks promising for the consumer
Last Published: Tue, Dec 26 2017. 05 14 PM IST

Vivek Belgavi

Year 2017 proved to be a significant milestone in the growth of financial services in India in general, and for fintech in particular. Demonetization sowed the seeds for rapid adoption of digital payments and banking. Fintechs have helped accelerate the growth immensely through innovative products and solutions. Investments in the fintech space in India also witnessed frenzied activity this year, with total value of investments jumping by 388% from $383 million in 2016 to $1,868 million in the first three quarters of 2017, according to industry database CB Insights. This got further impetus due to a number of favourable guidelines by the regulators in consumer facing sectors. Multiple events and activities in the fintech sector crystallized together, and carved out an interesting journey for consumers in 2017.

Better access to finance
With over 1 billion mobile phones, 325 million broadband connections and 306 million new bank accounts, India became a case study in digital financial inclusion, driven by the Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile (JAM), as reported by the communications ministry. Such efforts brought more people into the formal banking ecosystem and fintech innovation helped create solutions that could be customized for particular strata of customers.
The alternative lending industry—which focussed on people who did not have access to formal credit lines due to lack of sufficient credit history—continued to attract attention. More than 225 alternative lending companies were founded in India in 2017 and the segment was the second most funded in India’s fintech space, as per data from an industry database Tracxn.
Earlier, one of the biggest challenges that firms had faced was the lack of regulatory support for new lines of business. The year marked a significant shift in this space as well, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) releasing guidelines for person-to-person (P2P) lending. RBI’s directions were a significant step towards creating a differentiated and sustainable lending model in India.

One of the roadblocks in user experience in the past years was the inefficient, costly and broken verification processes at the time of customer registration. This is now history thanks to the advent of Aadhaar and India Stack. According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), eKYC verifications have jumped almost 77% to 84 million in FY18 over FY17, speeding up the on-boarding process and reducing costs significantly.
The next stage was the transaction environment. The growth story of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was one of the key highlights of the year. As per NPCI data, UPI volumes stood at 105 million in November 2017, an exponential jump of more than 10 times in just 6 months. Quite a few companies such as Paytm, PhonePe, and Google have rolled out innovative solutions utilizing UPI. Along with this, there were two other significant developments in the government’s push for digital payments. One was the lowering of merchant discount rate (MDR) for smaller merchants and subsequently waiving MDR for transactions up to Rs2,000. Many fintech firms are also contemplating offering EMI and direct debit options over UPI.
Many banks also moved to virtual assistance and chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI), and we can expect more localised and intuitive avatars in 2018. Watch out for emergence of voice as the new interface.
Over the past 2 years, traditional financial institutions started perceiving fintechs as collaborators rather than competitors. In 2017, almost 46 strategic partnerships and deals took place between lenders, payments companies and fintech innovators. Some of these were the tie-ups between Paytm and ICICI Bank for short-term interest-free credit lines; Amazon India and Bank of Baroda for unsecured micro loans; Mobikwik and Bajaj FinServ for offering all features and benefits of Bajaj Finserv EMI cards over a digital payments wallet; Fisdom and Lakshmi Vilas Bank for a robo-advisory platform; and between Senseforth and HDFC Bank for chatbots.
Retail investment has also seen a steep rise this year. According to data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), mutual fund folios have grown by over 9.5 million in the first eight months of the current fiscal year to an all-time high of 65 million by November-end. Apart from consumers looking at mutual funds as a preferred destination to park their money post-demonetization, this growth can also be attributed to a variety of factors, including better offerings by incumbents, and the rise of robo-advisory platforms.

There’s more to come
Along with the segments mentioned above, a few others could also emerge and will be exciting to watch. One of the areas currently with low digital penetration in India is insurance, but there are many new online insurers and marketplaces coming up that seek to offer seamless and digital distribution models. Traditional insurance companies are looking to partner with them to expand penetration, and are scouting for data partnerships with drone, wearables technology, IoT, telematics and other types of tech startups to augment risk assessment and offerings.
PSD2 (second Payment Services Directive) guidelines around open banking in Europe may see a positive impact in India as well, with banks and fintechs further collaborating over innovative application programming interfaces (APIs). We can also expect more data related partnerships. Blockchain is poised to enter mainstream with use cases such as digital identity, cross-border payments, and enabling trade finance powered by platforms from enterprise application providers. .
In retail investing, discount brokerages and robo-advisory platforms will continue to fuel growth and low-cost investment options. Whereas cryptocurrencies and ICOs are an emerging area across the globe, and have also seen interest from retail investors in India. But most are treading with caution as it is a regulatory grey area.
Overall, the picture looks promising for the consumer and they should continue to remain the king with FinTechs challenging and also working together with traditional financial institutions to provide better, faster, larger and more secure catalogue of innovative services.
Vivek Belgavi, partner—financial services (fintech and technology consulting leader), PwC
First Published: Tue, Dec 26 2017. 05 14 PM IST
CLICK ON TITLE TO SEE ORIGINAL ARTICLE - Posted by