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, February 7, 2018

12851 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 6th February 2018



Economic Times
NEW DELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said today in a statement that the Plastic or PVC Aadhaar smart cards are often not usable as the QR code commonly becomes dysfunctional during such unauthorised printing at some vendor/shop. Also, there could be a possibility of ...



NDTV
Aadhaar card can be linked with mobile phone connection or mobile SIM via an IVR system-based method, among other modes. Many telecom companies have set up a toll-free service that enables the customers to link their Aadhaar number with mobile number, as directed by the government. This an ...



NDTV
Aadhaar is to be mandatorily linked with bank accounts by March 31, 2018, a deadline set by the Supreme Court. The top court has set March 31, 2018 as last date for linking of Aadhaar number - the 12-digit Unique Identity Number (UID) issued by the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) - with ...






Live Law
As the hearing in the string of writ petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Aadhaar Act of 2016 resumed on Tuesday before the five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, Senior Counsel Shyam Diwan, appearing on behalf of one of the petitioners, drew the attention of the bench to the ...






The Indian Express
Devi was talking at a public hearing on Monday about the impact of Aadhaar being made mandatory for ration in Delhi. The machine she was talking about are the electronic point of sale (e-PoS) machines installed across all 2,254 ration shops in the city. Since January, beneficiaries have been asked to ...






NDTV
According government directives, it is mandatory to link Aadhaar and PAN to your LIC policies, India's largest life insurer says on its website. LIC offers both online and offline facilities to its policyholders for linking Aadhaar and PAN to their policies. In the online way, a mobile number as registered with ...






Times of India
Sources said of the seven crore operative bank accounts in the state, around four crore are already linked with Aadhaar, while the verification/authentication of two crore of the Aadhaar-linked accounts with thumb impressions of the account holders (also called seeding of the Aadhaar numbers with ...






Moneycontrol.com
Soon, around four crore cows in the country will get Aadhaar-like Unique Identity (UID) Cards. The program, which is named Pashu Sanjivini is part of a larger mission for the dairy and fisheries sectors by the Ministry of Agriculture. According to a report in Hindustan Times, about Rs 50 crore has been set ...






Moneycontrol.com
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the state government would begin Aadhaar based transaction from next fiscal for availing benefits of all state government schemes on Monday. The state government has been directly making payments to around 3 crore beneficiaries' bank accounts ...






Livemint
This will be a cashless, Aadhaar-enabled scheme with 60:40 centre and state share. As far as tentative timeline of the scheme is concerned, the scheme will be finalized after further consultations with state governments, preparation for fraud-proof information system, states' preparation for beneficiary ...






Firstpost
Lucknow: Nearly 1,000 Nepali students enrolled in madrasas in the state might not be able to take the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board (UPMEB) exams due to lack of Aadhaar cards, which is mandatory for the test, a madrasa teachers' body said on Tuesday. The situation also prompted the ...






Hindustan Times
An Aadhaar-like UID number for cows might raise many eyebrows, and sounds odd at first. However, full marks to the government for intent. But, intent alone is not enough. The intent behind setting up PHCs, taluk hospitals and medical college hospitals across India is that no one is denied access to ...






NewsBytes
One of the biggest announcements in Budget 2018 was the National Health Protection Scheme, or 'Modicare,' the "world's largest government-funded program." It will have 50cr beneficiaries. In comparison, the LPG subsidy scheme has just 14-15cr subscribers. Even as the SC hears petitions against ...






TelecomTalk (blog)
Leading telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, after a long wait has finally introduced the online Aadhaar reverification with mobile connections for senior citizens, physically challenged and non-resident Indians. Currently, the online-based reverification service is not applicable for every Airtel subscriber as it's ...






BGR India
Lately, security has become a hot topic of discussion – be it among organizations or at an individual level. Apart from companies being worried about getting hacked, individuals too are in danger when using public Wi-Fi networks, or sharing their Aadhaar details. Even children these days are prone to ...






The Hans India
Show Aadhaar for medicines at UPHC. Charminar: Urban Public Health Centers (UPHC) in old city are asking Aadhar card from the patients to issue medicines and it has invoked mixed response from the people. Staffs of the health centers are demanding for Aadhar from every patient to dispense ...






Zee News
Interested candidates seeking employment in the Railways need to have their 12 digit Aadhaar number at the time of filling up the online application form. Those who have enrolled for Aadhaar but have not received Aadhaar Card may furnish 28 digit Aadhaar Enrollment ID printed at the Aadhaar ...






MediaNama.com
To the first two questions, he has replied that “Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure and there has not been a single case of data breach from Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)'s database. The report in media about “Rs 500, 10 minutes, and you have access to billion Aadhaar details” was a ...






The Hans India
Aadhaar is such an issue today. Through Aadhaar, the state is collecting the private information of common people with unseen coercion, while even under RTI the state refuses to give basic information about public servants like recruitments, charge sheets and complaints or actions against them under ...






Times Now
The issue had emerged out of the multiple litigations challenging the Aadhaar Act, in which Bhatia had made his entry into the Supreme Court by working for Datar, challenging the linking of an individual Aadhaar number to the holder's PAN card. While the Supreme Court is still to decide on the validity ...






Luxora Leader
Akhilesh said, “They (BJP) caused hatred and difference between OBC castes by propagating that maximum benefit of OBC quota had been grabbed by Yadavs and Patels. Now we demand to link all of us with Aadhaar and utilize their digital India programme to give caste wise data of population and ...






The New Indian Express
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, inundated by complaints about Aadhaar data being breached, was similarly at pains to explain how secure everyone's biometric details were. He cited how it was not the government but the Supreme Court which made submission of Aadhaar details mandatory for ...






NDTV
... the payment of wages to the workers, such as timely release of funds, payment through national electronic fund management system for direct payment of wages into workers' accounts. He also informed that all wages under MGNREGA were not paid through Aadhaar-based payment system and those ...






Times of India
“For several reasons, including for want of Aadhaar, income proof and permanent addresses, we face difficulties to process applications of inmates housed at the old-age home. As soon as these inmates are issued Aadhaar number, which is mandatory, we will forward their pension application to the ...