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 14, 2018

12956 - Aadhaar Related Articles dated 13th Feb 2018



Economic Times
The other ways to clean up these databases was to create an Aadhaar-like system at the back-end. The only way to ensure uniqueness with a very high degree of accuracy is to use technology. This would have meant duplication of an Aadhaar-like infrastructure and would have been expensive and ...






The News Minute
Investigators have found that one of the phone numbers being investigated – presumed to be of the prime suspect in the case - had been linked to the Aadhaar card of another unrelated lady, without her knowledge. A cheating case has been registered at the Whitefield Police Station against Reliance ...



Livemint
Aadhaar was designed to give a unique, digital identity to a billion people. But today, we are caught up debating the identity of Aadhaar itself. There are many who want to tell us it's a savings scheme, and then go on to tell us how it is an ineffective savings scheme. But as someone who had some part to ...






Economic Times
The purchase data of buyers and sellers of the virtual currency can then be traced through either the Aadhaar ID or the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of the user. Details such as the total number of cryptocurrencies held, the value thereof as well as the pattern of buying and selling by individual ...



NDTV
Those not having a mobile number registered with their Aadhaar card can complete the Aadhaar reverification process at the company store of their mobile service provider. This was said by the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) - the issuer of the 12-digit Aadhaar number as well as Aadhaar ...






Economic Times
"Aadhaar is big platform which leads to good governance and savings but I would like to say there is law of Aadhaar. This law says that you cannot deny benefit to anyone for want of Aadhaar. If the person is not having Aadhaar ask him to get Aadhaar but you should give him benefit using alternative ...






Times Now
New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Tuesday continue hearing pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the enabling 2016 law. The Supreme Court had during the last hearing stated that that issues such as denial of benefits to citizens for either want of Aadhaar or due ...






newsindiatimes.com
In the past, Pandey has addressed the questions and concerns of Indian Americans about banking in India, property inheritance without Aadhaar and handling financial and investment accounts. Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey talks about Aadhaar (Courtesy: BJANA). Indian Americans also raised concerns ...






Deccan Herald
1cr bogus beneficiaries of the national nutrition schemes detected. A major scam in the Centre's national nutrition programme has been detected. A whopping one crore "bogus beneficiaries" of the supplementary nutrition under the Center-sponsored scheme has been found out by the Women and Child ...






Lexology
Recently, in the case of Thiagrarajan Kumararajan vs Union of India, the Madras High Court opined that Aadhaar number is necessary to file Income Tax returns. It dismissed a plea by Preethi Mohan refusing to allow filing of Income Tax return without producing Aadhaar number and enrolment ID.






The News Minute
To get membership in Aawaz migrant labourers should produce Aadhaar card or Election identification card or any other valid identity proof. The labour officer has urged employers in the district to ensure that the workers are enrolled in the scheme and received their smart cards, reported The New ...






Mumbai Mirror
It is February 5 in the Supreme Court. Senior advocate Shyam Divan sums up his case in front of a nine-member bench. He makes two points about Aadhaar and what is at stake: First, personal autonomy. Are we going to cede complete control of the body to the state? The second point is about ...






Daily News & Analysis
The Union minister also said that use of Aadhaar has brought good governance by eliminating fictitious beneficiaries and ensuring that benefits of government schemes reach the real beneficiaries. He also took a dig at detractors of Aadhaar saying that one cannot tolerate corruption and terrorist ...



ETtech.com
The purchase data of buyers and sellers of the virtual currency can then be traced through either the Aadhaar ID or the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of the user. Details such as the total number of cryptocurrencies held, the value thereof, as well as the pattern of buying and selling by individual ...






Asia Times
The nine-judge bench convened after the government argued in an Aadhaar-related case that privacy was not a fundamental right under the Indian constitution. Aadhaar is an ambitious project to issue a digital identity to every resident of India. The Supreme Court overturned past judgments by stating ...






Forbes
Amritansh Raghav heads the Skype Consumer Division. Raghav's mission is to make Skype the best way to communicate and do things together in work and in life. My company Snaps was thrilled to work closely with Raghav and his team to build the Saveur chatbot on the Skype platform. Our team had ...






The Hindu
Unaware of the tragedy, the five-year-old boy fell asleep on the hospital bed beside his mother's body. Moved by the scene, a group of volunteers intervened to trace the woman's family. They found that the boy had his mother's Aadhaar card, identifying her as Sameena Sultana, a construction worker.






Hindustan Times
Based on an Aadhaar card found on the body, police identified the man as Indrajeet Saroj, locally known as Raju. They said he is a resident of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh. “It is difficult to ascertain what happened, but evidence at the spot led us to suspect that Saroj was in an inebriated condition and ...






The Hindu
A set syllabus has been given to schools, which covers a wide range of aspects of being a consumer — from buying a product such as a water bottle to the concept of MRP, booking railway tickets and even getting an Aadhaar card. The module requires teachers to, among other things, tell students what ...






Moneycontrol.com
The Rajasthan model uses 2 levels of identification --- one is a separate insurance card and the others is any photo ID like Aadhaar, Pan Card, Driver's License etc., but Ration Cards are not allowed and this, many believe, has led to wide-spread exclusion of the poor. So, is this new health scheme the ...



Business Line
A large part of the demand is also coming from government's push to go digital with initiatives like demonetisation, GST and Aadhaar linkages. “The government's push has helped us and to put it in perspective, we have sold out our accumulated IT infrastructure capacity over the last 9 years, in a single ...