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, January 3, 2018

12601 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 2nd January 2018



NDTV
The Aadhaar card, a 12-digit unique identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), is mandatory to be linked with a host of essential services. The Aadhaar card, which is based on the biometric and demographic data, of Indian citizens, has to be linked with bank ...






Pune Mirror
Maharashtra government is taking its fight against sex determination and female foeticide to neighbouring states through the Aadhaar route. Couples, who often choose the relative security of Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Dadra and Nagar ...






NDTV
Have you linked your Aadhaar with bank accounts yet? In the last month of 2017, the Supreme Court extended the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes, including mobile phone (SIM) and bank accounts. The top court set a March 31, 2018 deadline for ...



The Hindu
Nearly a fortnight after nationalised banks in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada failing to link the Aadhaar connected account numbers of 3,500 dairy farmers with the National Payment Corporation of India came to light, there is no headway in making the farmers get the milk incentive due to them. Hence ...






Live Law
To this end, he contends, “It is most respectfully submitted that the Aadhaar Act and the scheme of the entire mechanism set up under that statute shakes the very legitimacy of the political unit of the welfare state of India, inasmuch as the same fails to account for and be responsible for the welfare of this ...






Zee News
Many banks have been asking customers to link their Aadhaar with their accounts. If you have already submitted your Aadhaar details at your bank branch, there could stil be a possibility that the linkage was not done correctly. Here is how you can check if your bank account is linked with Aadhaar.



Hindu Business Line
Even as banks struggle to get accounts linked to Aadhaar and customers face a tough time, insurers are making it relatively easy for customers to link their policies with Aadhaar numbers. All insurers have been mandated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) to link insurance ...






National Herald
His widow Shakuntala Devi died because she did not have an Aadhaar card. He was killed in action during the Kargil conflict in June 1999. She died on Friday after a private hospital in Sonepat refused to register her as a patient because her son was not able to furnish the number of her Aadhaar ...



Sikh Siyasat News
Chandigarh: A 55-year-old Shakuntala Devi, widow of an Ex-serviceman from Haryana died after allegedly being denied treatment has she was not carrying her Aadhaar Card with her. It said that she was suffering from a heart ailment and was taken to the Tulip Hospital in Haryana's Sonipat. There, the ...






The Hans India
Vijayawada: Aadhaar counters in some areas of the city have failed to deliver services such as registration and providing the updated details. While the counter at Head Post Office in One Town area is closed for transactions citing a software issue as the reason, another counter in Mee Seva at Cholera ...






The Hans India
The CPIO, Dr D K Gupta, wrote a letter on 5.8.2016 demanding the proof of identity and proof of address by producing Aadhaar Card, Voter's ID Card or Passport as proof of citizenship. He did not say anything about giving information sought. No information was given within 30 days. The applicant who ...






Economic Times
He also said that the new system will have a robust mechanism for verification of beneficiaries through the Aadhaar authentication, having features to ... order to provide ease to the beneficiaries whose Aadhaar authentication either fails or who still do not possess Aadhaar cards," the minister also said.



The Telegraph
Fertiliser retailers as well as the farmers will have to provide Aadhaar details under the new system. Farmers not having Aadhaar numbers will have to provide Aadhaar registration details along with either a copy of the farmers' credit card or voters' ID. In Bihar, 82 per cent of the population had Aadhaar ...






Deccan Herald
The Centre has suggested all technical institutes to install Aadhaar-linked biometric devices for recording attendance of their "regular" faculty members online. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), however, has left it to institutes to avoid a direct conflict with the teaching community.






Oneindia
APY is open to all bank account holders. For opening APY account, one has to approach the bank branch/post office where he or she has savings bank account. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had extended the date to link Aadhaar with services and benefits under direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes ...






THE WEEK (satire)
Days after the widow of a Kargil martyr was denied treatment for not carrying her Aadhaar card with her, the ministry of defence has issued instructions to all ECHS (Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme) centres, directing them not to insist on the Aadhaar card of patients. On December 30 ...






COUNTERVIEW
Denial of ration to Etwariya's family is yet another example of the disruptions in the Public Distribution System (PDS) caused due to its mandatory integration with aadhaar. Dealers have started tampering with digital records in order to hide accumulated stocks. One way they do this is to separate ...






Google (blog)
A day after the reports about Facebook seeking Aadhar credentials from new users, the social networking giant said they are not using Aadhaar data. Facebook denied the reports suggesting the company is integrating Aadhaar data with user accounts. The company said it has no plans to integrate or ...






Hindu Business Line
The All India Bank Officer's Confederation (AIBOC) has decided to say “no” to Aadhaar enrolment work. D Thomas Franco, General Secretary, AIBOC, told BusinessLine that the confederation has decided not to take up Aadhaar enrolment work as there was paucity of manpower and no adequate ...






Economic Times
Currently, the top issuers of Digital Locker are the Unique Identification Authority of India, which administers the Aadhaar project, the ministry of road transport and highways, which issues driving licences and vehicle registration certificates, and the ministry of petroleum, among others. States such as ...






Down To Earth Magazine (press release) (blog)
The family was denied their monthly entitlement of 25 kg of rice under the National Food Security Act. In October, Usha Devi's fingerprint failed to get authenticated in the Aadhaar-based biometric Point of Sale (POS) machine at the local ration shop. Mush to the family's dismay, she was asked to come ...






Moneycontrol.com
Last month, Union Cabinet approved a proposal that government will bear the merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on transactions up to Rs 2,000 made through debit cards, BHIM UPI or Aadhaar-enabled payment systems to promote digital transactions. "Happy Digital 2018. December Quarter BHIM ...



The Wire
This is a debate that predates Aadhaar, as evidenced by the early line of Supreme Court judgments on privacy, starting with Kharak Singh and extending to PUCL vs Union of India, where the state's right to conduct surveillance, either physically or electronically, was challenged. The growing protests ...






Free Press Journal
New Delhi : The Delhi government on Monday said that the ration distribution in all 2,254 fair price shops here has been made online and will now be managed through the electronic Point of Sale (e-PoS) devices. The Aadhaar-based e-PoS machines would use biometric identification to ensure that ...