8248 - The Vyapam scam exposes the underbelly of a criminalised and weak state - First Post

The Vyapam scam exposes the underbelly of a criminalised and weak state

http://www.firstpost.com/author/jagannathan

Even as the cacophony over the Vyapam ‘killer’ scam gets louder, sane people must ask themselves a basic question: why? It is perfectly all right to demand justice and send the corrupt and the guilty - both those who participated in the Vyapam examination scam and those who may be involved in bumping off inconvenient people who may know too much - but if we do not ask the deeper ‘why’ question, we would have missed another opportunity to fix the problem at the roots.

Why are so many people dying in Vyapam? What is so special about this examination-related corruption scandal that so many people are paying with their lives, and in full view of the media and the court of public opinion?

To me it is simply not credible to suggest that all this is happening because someone higher up is trying to silence people who know who did what in the scam. The fact is too many people knew too much – which means the scam was an open secret for years - and predates Shivraj Singh Chouhan. 

Moreover, even criminal minds do not continue bumping off people when the whole world is watching.

The only logical answer to the ‘why’ question may be this: the system has gone so rotten, that the state has become a semi-criminal enterprise, aided by the apathy and amorality of the less powerful and the powerless. I would also argue that we have ourselves - citizen and media - compromised so much with a criminal system, that we no longer have the moral authority to protest, never mind how much Arnab Goswami may yell and scream and hector on the TV screen. He is merely adding to the din by playing Cacofonix No 1.

We thought change was at hand with the exit of the corrupt UPA and the rise of a Narendra Modi, an Arvind Kejriwal and an Anna movement that preceded their rise. But the problem clearly is larger than both of them. And Anna certainly did not have all the answers. A Modi in Delhi can do little when the states are run by other powerful politicians, and a Kejriwal can do little if the centre is at loggerheads with him most of the time. Centre and states are paralysing each other, wrestling each other to a standstill while the corrupt system continues to squeeze us all.

File photo of Shivraj Singh Chouhan with Narendra Modi. 

AFP

The central message coming from the Vyapam scam - where despite hundreds of arrests, people are still dying - is that the law no longer matters. The state has become so weak, that individuals, both powerful and not-so-powerful ones, are able to ignore the law and suborn the system. The line separating state actors from criminals is now deeply blurred. Even if Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the Madhya Pradesh BJP fail to survive Vyapam, the corrupt system will. A weak state is custom-built for a criminal system to operate as a super-state.

The characteristics of a weak state are the following:

One, the law and institutions matter less than powerful individuals. Look around you: every political party is headed by a powerful personality, who dominates it solo.

Two, weak states use strong, anti-liberal laws to maintain order. India is nothing but a weak state run by draconian laws - from the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) to SC/ST laws to anti-dowry and anti-domestic violence laws to draconian black money control laws. You can go to jail under these laws even with very little evidence against you, and only the powerful can find a way around it.

Three, a weak state can coerce the citizen using a faceless, inflexible rulebook. Consider the case of Aadhaar, the unique ID system. With no law to back it or any guarantee about the privacy of your personal data, Aadhaar has been pushed all over India using the bureaucracy even though the Supreme Court has said it cannot be mandatory; if you protest, you won't get anywhere as the legal system is out-of-reach and expensive. A weak state can be tyrannical by indirectly empowering the babu at the last mile to play god with the citizen. The peon at the registrar's office, who denies you a registration for want of an Aadhaar, will, if you protest, simply tell you he is following rules. Your bank will keep exhorting you to link your accounts to Aadhaar. Reason: they don’t want to get into a tangle with their ministry bosses.

Four, a weak state can easily be taken over by criminal elements for those who threaten bodily harm to unprotected government officials, whistleblowers or the ordinary citizen will carry clout with everybody. The citizen no longer expects much help against criminals from the police; if your daughter is being threatened by local goons, you have a better chance of protecting her by paying the goon's boss than by filing a report with the police. Not only are the police compromised, but we simply do not have enough policemen to give us even a modicum of protection. This is why even when there is so much scrutiny of Vyapam, people are running scared. There are too many people who need protection, and no one can be sure if the people providing the protection are themselves compromised or not.

Five, more than the centre, it is our states that have become really criminalised. A Modi will be subjected to national and international scrutiny, but not a Akhilesh Yadav, a Mamata Banerjee, a Navin Patnaik, a J Jayalalithaa, or a Nitish Kumar. 

Move away from the big metros, where the big media are based, and you have jungle raj in most states. It's not just about Madhya Pradesh. Most state-level crimes everywhere go under the radar. At best they get local coverage, unless the rise in body count suddenly catches the national media's eye, as it did in the case of Vyapam. “Discovering scams” is also part of the system. Every political party runs its own unaccountable media, both to support a personality cult around the boss and to “unearth” scams that will target the ruling party. Once governments change, the system merely passes to other hands. This is how the media becomes a law unto itself, and is also a covert supporter of the system.

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Six, the weak state is not just about the executive. It is about all institutions of the state, including the judiciary. Those who think the judiciary is the key to change will find only limited success. 

Ask yourself: 

why is it that even after so many Supreme Court-monitored investigations, nothing much has come to light in any scam? 

Also, how is it that so many Supreme Court judges find easy employment on various quasi-judicial bodies after retirement? Why is it that a Shanti Bhushan can openly allege that eight former chief justices were corrupt, but the court, far from hauling him up for contempt and attempt to intimidate the judiciary, merely shrugged and never inquired into it. 

Why is it that despite anecdotal evidence of judicial corruption, no judge has ever gone to jail? 

Why is the Supreme Court even now battling to retain the opaque collegiums system of judges appointing judges when the overwhelming vote of parliament and state legislatures was against it?

Clearly, a weak state is underpinned by a weak judiciary. The fact that it sometimes comes up with roaring judgments does not mean it is powerful enough to uphold the law unequivocally.

I don’t know how this can be reversed, but the tell-tale signs of a change will be the following: the police will be reformed and given functional autonomy with no political interference; the state will focus on governance and providing public goods (clean air, water, law and order, justice, economic reforms, infrastructure), and not private subsidies (oil, power and food subsidies to the undeserving); the judiciary will restrict itself to interpreting the law and not try to interfere in every other area of executive action (gleaning the Ganga or chasing black money is not its job); government reduces direct interface with the people by making some kinds of permissions automatic or through e-portals; policy-making is separated from running public enterprises; elections are publicly funded – among other things.

Till we start doing these things, India will continue to be a weak state.

7860 - Parliamentary panel suggests dismantling planning ministry - First Post

Parliamentary panel suggests dismantling planning ministry

Apr 24, 2015 20:19 IST

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has asked the government to make the recently-created NITI Aayog an independent body and dismantle the Ministry of Planning, saying it has no more any significant role to play.

Parliament of India. AFP

"The committee would recommend that NITI Aayog should be made an independent body while dismantling the Ministry of Planning as such, which is now left without any significant function or mandate," Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance said in its report tabled in both the Houses.

In another report, the panel expressed its reservations against earmarking Rs 20,000 crore in the Budget for the current fiscal for allocations to be made to states on the recommendations of NITI Aayog.

The panel said it was "at a loss as to understand the deployment and utilisation of such a large corpus, which will be disbursed on the recommendation the NITI Aayog that has replaced the Planning Commission."

It further said that if the newly-constituted NITI Aayog is to perform allocative function similar to the function attached to erstwhile Planning Commission, "it is not clear as to why the Planning Commission was dismantled in the first place."

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) was created by the government on January 1 with a cabinet resolution to replace the erstwhile Planning Commission.

However, the Ministry of Planning continues to exist and is playing the role of an interface between NITI Aayog and Parliament.

The panel has also recommended that the Aadhaar scheme presently under Ministry of Planning should be moved to the Ministry of Home Affairs for a better convergence of the UID and NPR schemes.

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National Population Register (NPR) is a digital database of citizens which is being implemented by the home ministry.

In the present scenario, under the NPR project, the home ministry will issue the national multipurpose identification card to the entire population besides enrolling people and collecting their biometrics details.

The UIDAI is also enrolling and collecting biometrics data of the residents in 24 States/UTs. It would generate Aadhaar numbers for entire population using the NPR data also.

Similarly the NPR will issue the identity cards bearing Aahaar numbers using data collected by it and UIDAI.

The panel observed that out of the total Plan expenditure of Rs 2,114.52 crore of the Ministry of Planning for the current fiscal, a major chunk of Rs 2,000 crore has been made available to UIDAI.

The committee also recommended that the National Rainfed Area Authority should be transferred to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation instead of shelving the project altogether.

PTI

7460 - How govt hopes to get subsidies to poor: Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile numbers - First Post

How govt hopes to get subsidies to poor: Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile numbers

by FP Staff  Feb 27, 2015 13:28 IST

The Economic Survey, which was released a short while ago, has recommended that the government needs to look at a union of Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile numbers or the JAM trinity, in order to ensure the benefits of subsidies reach those who deserve it.

According to the survey, even though there are subsidies for a variety of products like rice, wheat, pulses, sugar kerosene, LPG, naptha, water, electricity, diesel, fertilizer, iron ore, railways but the poor are often unable to get the benefits.

Representational image.

The survey notes that for instance price subsidies in electricity can only benefit the relatively wealthy, while in the case of LPG, only the poorest 50 percent of homes only consume 25 percent of LPG, while the majority of (51 percent) of subsidised kerosene is consumed by the non-poor.

It adds that price subsidies allocated to water utilities- upto 85 percent- are spent on subsidising private taps, even though 60 percent of poor households are dependent on public taps for their daily water needs.

The below chart gives a sense of how leakages in the Public Distribution System continue to run into thousands of crores for items like Wheat, Kerosene, and Rice.

PSD Leakages in India

Leakages in the public distribution system in India.The data is in crores for each item.

Created with Raphaël 2.1.2

Wheat

5,000

10000

10,000

12600

Wheat

5800

Rice

10000

Kerosene

Source: Economic Survey 2015.

Source: Public Subsidy Leakages Get the data

A possible solution? The survey notes that combining the Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile numbers can help reduce this leakage. It points out that by December 2015 the total number of Aadhaar enrolments in the country is expected to exceed 1 billion (it stood at 720 million in December 2013) and that linking an Aadhaar Number to an active bank account is key to implementing direct income transfers to the poor.

The Jan Dhan Yojana scheme aims to increase the number of bank accounts and is specifically targeted at the poor. According to the survey, two alternative financial delivery mechanisms that could reduce leakages in the PDS system are mobile money and post-offices.

India has over 900 million cell phone users and close to 600 million unique users (people with just one SIM), and in such a scenario mobile money can help deliver the direct transfer benefits to the poor. Also linking Aadhaar to a mobile number will reduce the amount of work required.

The other solution points out that India's Postal Network (which is the largest in the world with 1,55,015 Post Offices of which 89.76 percent are in rural areas). These can also be linked to the Aadhaar-related benefit schemes. The survey notes that "the Post Office can seamlessly fit into the Aadhaar linked benefits-transfer architecture by applying for an IFSC code which will allow post offices to start seeding Aadhaar linked accounts."

According to the survey, the way to reduce leakages in the PDS system is by increasing the direct transfer scheme, which can be utilised better if Aadhaar, Mobile and Bank accounts are linked more efficiently.

7299 - Revenge of the babu: Will PM Modi's insistence on punctuality hurt BJP in Delhi? - First Post

Revenge of the babu: Will PM Modi's insistence on punctuality hurt BJP in Delhi?

by Sanjay Singh  Jan 30, 2015 13:39 IST

The introduction of a bio-metric system to register entry-exit time and a strict adherence to reporting for duty at 9 in morning may arguably have improved work culture in government offices and pleased a number of people, but the new measures by the Modi government have deeply annoyed substantive sections of  government employees.

They are extremely upset that they even had to report to work on Gandhi Jayanti for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cherished Swacch Abhiyan, and also about the rigour some of them had to undergo for his other pet schemes like Jan Dhan Yojna and ensuring that his interaction with children went live on Teachers Day.

AFP

Firstpost spoke to a a cross section of employees and found that for once these grievances are not group or class specific. There is a rare unanimity of views on this matter between both highly officious IAS and lowly class IV peons. In fact, this angst is greater among middle and lower ranking employees because most of them have to travel longer distances to get to work. 

Added to that was the rumour, further stressed by the Aam Admi Party that a BJP government in Delhi would reduce retirement age to 58. The newly elected BJP government in Haryana did it two months ago. In fact, PM Modi had to devote few minutes to the issue,  clarifying or denying “manufactured lies” and asserting that no such move was in the offing.

It’s true that pampered and relatively secure government employees have got used to a lethargic, leisurely mood centric work culture and their arguments may be devoid of any merit and completely misplaced. However it's election time in Delhi and they have a chance to vent out their anger. And in terms of numbers, they are quite significant.

As per the Census of Employees 2011 figures,  There are around 1.5 lakh regular employees affiliated to the Delhi government and various autonomous bodies. Another few thousand are contract and ad-hoc employees.

The Census Enquiries for regular employment suggest that as on 31 March, 2009, Delhi housed 6.55 percent of India's 31 lakh regular central government employees. That means there are over two lakh central government employees in Delhi. Add that to the number of employees in the Delhi government, and the figure goes up to around five lakh government employees, if contractual employment is included in the same category.

The BJP, however, has a silver lining.

Despite the disgruntlement, many employees don’t think Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party is a good alternative to the BJP. 

Returning to Congress’s fold could have been an option but since the party is out of the reckoning, they don’t want to waste their votes. The other option, as some suggest is to sit idle and not vote.

The BJP, AAP or for that matter the Congress’s challenge now will be to make them come out and vote in their favour.

The other area of BJP concern would be the AAP making inroads in rural areas of Delhi, particularly among Jat voters in Outer Delhi. In the last elections the AAP had drawn a blank in this region. But since then they have roped in their Harayana unit leaders to work with voters, and their Gramin Morcha has also been very active. In the last elections the Jats had decisively favoured the BJP not only in Delhi but also in Rajasthan and UP in subsequent parliamentary elections.

If AAP is trying to poach the BJP’s Jats votes, the BJP is working hard to make a significant dent to AAP’s outreach among Dalit voters.

Twelve of Delhi's 70 assembly seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes. The community forms nearly 25 percent of the total 1.3 crore voters. Previously the community was split between the Congress and the BSP, but in the last elections, AAP emerged as their favourites and made huge gains in reserved seats, winning nine. The BJP could win only two. But Modi beginning his cleanliness drive from a Balmiki (dalit) locality and their subsequent pitch holding various meetings and roping in Udit Raj (already a party MP) and Krishna Tirath (Congress’s dalit face in the Capital) may boost its prospects.

The fact the BJP is going in 'all guns blazing' in the last week of campaigning is a pointer that the party is not willing to take any chances. The Delhi polls have become hugely prestigious for it.

Though Kiran Bedi’s integration with the party and its thought process continues to be a concern for the leadership,  the party is trying to give an impression that it is working cohesively, by marshalling all its troops for the final leg of the polls. The voices of potential dissent have been silenced but the problem is that party workers were not feeling ignited, something that was in complete contrast to the December 2013 assembly polls or the May 2014 parliamentary polls.

The BJP also has to watch out for the Middle Class. ALthough they may have recaptured some of the votes of this section, they may no longer possess the same degree of enthusiasm that saw them standing in long queues to vote. The party hopes that the momentum generated by Modi’s rallies in different parts of the city, beginning from January 31 would correct these fault lines.

5493 - The curious case of the voter ID card: Good for everything but voting - First Post

The curious case of the voter ID card: Good for everything but voting Apr 25, 2014 

Take a voter identity card. 

It has your photograph, your father’s or mother’s or husband’s name, your full address, date of birth with age at the time the card was issued, and the Assembly constituency of which you are a voter. The concerned returning officer’s signature and seal is affixed. What it lacks is your thumb impression and retinal image that the Aadhaar card required. There is a tamper-proof hologram as well. And yet, it is of no use to vote if your name is not on the voter rolls. That is, it has everything, including, a statement, ‘This card may be used as an Identity Card under different Government Schemes”. 

This should irk voters, not insignificant in number, who were turned away in Amravati, Pune and Mumbai from the polling booths during the Lok Sabha elections, perhaps in other places across the country. It raises a fundamental question: if you are not a voter, you wouldn’t have got the ID. If you had the ID, why are you not on the voter’s list? 

Reuters 

To a voter wanting to discharge his duty, this becomes a crisis. 

If an MP, Ram Jethmalani, who had used the same voter details to get elected in 2010 to the Rajya Sabha, could see him deleted from the list, imagine the plight of the rest. The number of such deletions is so large that this cannot be dismissed as a mere error that occured while the list was being updated. Errors cannot be on this scale. 

The precise number of such deleted voters is anybody’s guess but a figure of two lakhs for Mumbai and probably twice that in Pune are being bandied about in the public domain. Which means that even in an electorally lethargic city, if these people had voted, the voting percentages could have been better than the improved numbers. 

Questions arise because the voter list’s sanctity is critical to a fair election. TS Krishnamurthy, former CEC has in fact found this enough of an issue to 'review' and seek a better way to register voters. Speaking on a call-in programme on CNN-IBN, he admitted that there was room for improvement. Yes, keeping a proper electoral list is the responsibility of both the EC and the voter. He wondered why the process of issuing a show cause notice before deletion was not followed. When the EC itself was campaigning to increase voter participation, this poor status of the list was a surprise. 

In a country where in a first past the poll system candidates have won or lost by very narrow margins, deletions are a cause for grievance. 

In the 2004 Assembly polls in Karnataka, B Rachiah lost to R Dhruvanarayan by one vote. In 2008, CP Joshi, aspiring to be a CM, also lost by a single vote in Rajasthan. 

It is ironic that the ‘Voter’s ID’ as we know it, is actually an ‘Elector Photo Identity Card, which has been abbreviated by the Central Election Commission itself as EPIC. Scaled down voter’s rolls for whatever reason is unacceptable. After all, adult franchise is on the basis of one-man, one-vote. The perception is that one vote levels the voter and the candidate in a democracy. 

Of the several reforms due, the EC needs to focus on this first. It can’t be that despite having a voter’s card, one cannot vote. The IDs were issued during TN Seshan’s time to avoid impersonation which is a grave electoral offence. Technically the ID is a secondary condition, but in the popular mind it is a single condition since it is issued only to eligible and registered voters. 

I have voted since 1970 despite having changed residences and cities as often as, in a manner of speaking, changing into a clean shirt. However, I have never been stopped from voting for not having an EPIC. In the last two elections, with only a PAN card as an identifier of my voter credentials, I have voted although the system persisted in listing me in a building where I does not live. My wife has been listed in yet another apartment block. 

The fact is neither of us has been issued such a card, which is not for want of applying. After three previous votes cast, I found my photograph on the list yesterday, but the EPIC remains elusive despite applying twice to sort it out. When the card will arrive is no longer relevant, because it is not the EPIC but the PAN Card which helped me establish my credentials. The EC has to devise a way, such as possibly opting for smart cards with details embedded in them. Such cards will have to be renewed periodically, not just before the elections. Possession of such a valid card can mean automatic presence on the list via dynamic updating. This is not impossible. We are after all, a country which supplies techies to the world. 

After each elections, the Election Commission is viewed as being generally successful in conducting a free and fair elections but this remains unarticulated because by now, it is a given. 

Politicians may crib like Azam Khan did and rage like Jairam Ramesh saying it cannot “be a government” because of vigorous implementation of the model code of conduct. The raps on the knuckles are taken in the stride after apologising, like Sharad Pawar did after his ‘vote-twice’ call or Amit Shah after begging forgiveness for his “no-ball”. It can drive a Giriraj Singh into hiding till he seeks bail after poisonous diatribes. People may feel it is not enough but there is consciousness that the process is generally even-handed. But it needs to attend to this flaw of errors in the list because a deletion can amount to disenfranchisement even if unintended. Since the EPICs are not universal even after over two decades of issuance, they may even be done away with because, as of now, they serve no purpose except for other schemes. Save the money and get the act clean, including the lists.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/the-curious-case-of-the-voter-id-card-good-for-everything-but-voting-1497195.html?utm_source=ref_article

4995 - IB warns govt, says foreigners may obtain Aadhaar card -First Post

IB warns govt, says foreigners may obtain Aadhaar card by FP Staff Dec 5, 2013

The Intelligence Bureau has raised objections to the possibility of Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and foreigners living in the country obtaining Aadhaar cards and has said the issuance of such cards was not based on proper verification of the applicant.

According to a report in the The Economic Times, the IB, during a meeting with senior government officials including those from the home ministry and UIDAI, said that unlike the National Population Register, where an official visits the residence of the application for verification of details, obtaining an Aadhaar card was relatively easier as it involved just verifying documents at the enrolment centre. "The IB feels that since ultimately both UIDAI and NPR data have to be collated and de-duplicated, it is feared that the issue of nationality may crop up as a major hassle at a later stage," a home ministry official told the business daily. However, it is not just the IB that has raised questions on the effect such a move could have. The Supreme Court, in an order dated 23 September said the card should not be issued to immigrants living in the country. It had also ordered that the card was a voluntary one and therefore the government could not make it mandatory for availing its schemes. The government in an affidavit to the Supreme Court in October said over 53 crore residents have been enrolled under the scheme and it would help benefit those from the marginalised sections of society. "The fact is that in enrolling more than 53 crore residents in less than three years and setting a speed of enrolling 10 lakh residents per day, the UIDAI has conclusively established the ability to cover the entire population expeditiously and in a record time," the affidavit had said. You can read the entire Economic Times report here.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/ib-warns-govt-says-foreigners-may-obtain-aadhaar-card-1268089.html?utm_source=ref_article

4994 - Relax, CIA is not snooping into Aadhaar via MongoDB - First Post

Relax, CIA is not snooping into Aadhaar via MongoDB 

by Samir Alam Dec 5, 2013 

Once again Aadhaar finds itself mired in shady discussions of privacy and security – and this time the CIA is involved. The Economic Times reports that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has contracted MongoDB – an American open source cross-platform document oriented database system startup, in an unspecified database management capacity. The otherwise innocuous business deal has suddenly reached espionage status since MongoDB is partially funded by the not-for-profit venture capital firm of the CIA called In-Q-Tel (IQT). 

The New York based company set up in 2007 known for its expertise with large database analytics and management, has 320 employees, 600 customers, market valuation of USD $1.2 billion and has just raised USD $150 million in its latest round of venture finding – of which the CIA’s In-Q-Tel subsidiary has contributed an unspecified sum. Reasons To Be Concerned? The concern over this deal is clearly based on the clandestine nature of the CIA and the valid concerns over security and privacy when dealing with the personal data of Indian citizens. It’s a genuine fear that in a post-Snowden world, the sanctity of international agreements on sovereignty and digital privacy not be taken for granted and scrutinized to ensure national autonomy. 

Image: ibnlive 

However, so far, none of the parties involved - IQT or MongoDB or the UIDAI have made a statement regarding this connection. And even though no specific information has been disclosed regarding the nature of the agreement between MongoDB and UIDAI or the nature of influence the CIO or IQT would have over MongoDB operations, it hasn’t stopped speculation to fill the void. Investigating the nature of this CIA entity presents us with an interesting start. 

IQT was established in September 1999 to “identity, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the Central Intelligence Agency and broader U.S. Intelligence Community.” Since then it has invested in more than 175 companies and now publicly lists 90 actively engaged companies, of which MongoDB is one. In fact, the investment in MongoDB was publicly announced on 17 September 2013 and highlights the confidence IQT had in MongoDB’s technological offerings. “The ability to store and query both unstructured and structured data with performance at scale makes MongoDB an important addition to our strategic investment portfolio,” said Robert Ames, Vice President of Information and Communication Technologies at IQT in the release. “MongoDB is built to leverage big data and holds great promise for the development of new storage and processing capabilities.” It is a fair assumption that when UIDAI was looking for a solution to managing the information of over a billion people it went for the best and discovered this press release and knew that MongoDB had CIA money backing it. It is also fair to assume that in its talks two weeks ago with Max Schireson, the chief executive of MongoDB, the UIDAI expressed its concerns and sought clarifications. Of course, we are not privy to the internal dealings of governments and private companies, so the details still seem murky. Who Are IQT Anyway? Another manner to consider this concern is to look at the history of how the IQT has conducted business in the technology realm since its creation. In its early history prior to 1999, IQT existed as a division of CIA Directorate of Science and Technology and was concerned with bringing the technology quotient of the agency at par and ahead of the world. However, as technological innovation moved outside of universities and government think tanks in to the private sector, it made sense for the CIA to also become involved, but it could no longer do so in secret. “We decided to use our limited dollars to leverage technology developed elsewhere. In 1999 we chartered…In-Q-Tel…While we pay the bills, In-Q-Tel is independent of CIA,” said George Tenet, former Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the CIA in his book At the Centre of the Storm. “CIA identifies pressing problems, and In-Q-Tel provides the technology to address them. The In-Q-Tel alliance has put the Agency back at the leading edge of technology,” it noted. Since then IQT has invested in companies that have gone on to become mainstream, such as facial recognitions softwares used in Las Vegas casinos, big data webcrawlers that companies like Amazon use to make readership recommendations and many others across the board investments involved in technology areas like communications, cyber security, data analytics, videos and imaging and much more. The most well known of which is Google Earth – developed by a company called Keyhole – partially owned by IQT and then acquired by Google. A Failure of Common Sense? Just like most venture capital firms, IQT also invests and divests its interests in technology enterprises while adapting and adopting the technologies that it funds. IQT and the CIA between them possess sizable budgets, expertise and vision to know how different technologies can be used for national defense purposes. In the scheme of these investments, MongoDB is a small fish - an open source solution that can be adapted and scaled for different databases, it is independently used and commercially licensed which significantly diminishes potential for back doors. Its potential for clandestine operations is nearly non-existent unless Indian agencies take software that is handed to them without so much as an anti-virus check by its own clandestine organisations like the National Technical Research Organisation (part of RAW). So the idea that the CIA is covertly back dooring its way in to the UIDAI via MongoDB seems a bit premature and frankly, absurd. And if we expect the CIA to have a tap on the personal information of Indian citizens then we might as well fear Samsung. If not for reasons that its devices simply hold more personal information of Indian users due to its market penetration, then for it’s investment in Cloudant – a cloud based mobile provider that is also partially funded by In-Q-Tel and soon to be part of the mainstream Samsung cloud network. There are far more serious technologies foreign intelligence agencies have made that should give us cause for concern like – the TOR network, created by the US Navy and used by Bitcoin fans world over or miniature flying drones being developed by the US Air Force or the series of interconnected computer network made by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, United States Department of Defense – commonly known as “the internet”.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/economy/relax-cia-is-not-snooping-into-aadhaar-via-mongodb-1268077.html?utm_source=ref_article

4994 - Relax, CIA is not snooping into Aadhaar via MongoDB - First Post

Relax, CIA is not snooping into Aadhaar via MongoDB 

by Samir Alam Dec 5, 2013 

Once again Aadhaar finds itself mired in shady discussions of privacy and security – and this time the CIA is involved. The Economic Times reports that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has contracted MongoDB – an American open source cross-platform document oriented database system startup, in an unspecified database management capacity. The otherwise innocuous business deal has suddenly reached espionage status since MongoDB is partially funded by the not-for-profit venture capital firm of the CIA called In-Q-Tel (IQT). 

The New York based company set up in 2007 known for its expertise with large database analytics and management, has 320 employees, 600 customers, market valuation of USD $1.2 billion and has just raised USD $150 million in its latest round of venture finding – of which the CIA’s In-Q-Tel subsidiary has contributed an unspecified sum. Reasons To Be Concerned? The concern over this deal is clearly based on the clandestine nature of the CIA and the valid concerns over security and privacy when dealing with the personal data of Indian citizens. It’s a genuine fear that in a post-Snowden world, the sanctity of international agreements on sovereignty and digital privacy not be taken for granted and scrutinized to ensure national autonomy. 

Image: ibnlive 

However, so far, none of the parties involved - IQT or MongoDB or the UIDAI have made a statement regarding this connection. And even though no specific information has been disclosed regarding the nature of the agreement between MongoDB and UIDAI or the nature of influence the CIO or IQT would have over MongoDB operations, it hasn’t stopped speculation to fill the void. Investigating the nature of this CIA entity presents us with an interesting start. 

IQT was established in September 1999 to “identity, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the Central Intelligence Agency and broader U.S. Intelligence Community.” Since then it has invested in more than 175 companies and now publicly lists 90 actively engaged companies, of which MongoDB is one. In fact, the investment in MongoDB was publicly announced on 17 September 2013 and highlights the confidence IQT had in MongoDB’s technological offerings. “The ability to store and query both unstructured and structured data with performance at scale makes MongoDB an important addition to our strategic investment portfolio,” said Robert Ames, Vice President of Information and Communication Technologies at IQT in the release. “MongoDB is built to leverage big data and holds great promise for the development of new storage and processing capabilities.” It is a fair assumption that when UIDAI was looking for a solution to managing the information of over a billion people it went for the best and discovered this press release and knew that MongoDB had CIA money backing it. It is also fair to assume that in its talks two weeks ago with Max Schireson, the chief executive of MongoDB, the UIDAI expressed its concerns and sought clarifications. Of course, we are not privy to the internal dealings of governments and private companies, so the details still seem murky. Who Are IQT Anyway? Another manner to consider this concern is to look at the history of how the IQT has conducted business in the technology realm since its creation. In its early history prior to 1999, IQT existed as a division of CIA Directorate of Science and Technology and was concerned with bringing the technology quotient of the agency at par and ahead of the world. However, as technological innovation moved outside of universities and government think tanks in to the private sector, it made sense for the CIA to also become involved, but it could no longer do so in secret. “We decided to use our limited dollars to leverage technology developed elsewhere. In 1999 we chartered…In-Q-Tel…While we pay the bills, In-Q-Tel is independent of CIA,” said George Tenet, former Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the CIA in his book At the Centre of the Storm. “CIA identifies pressing problems, and In-Q-Tel provides the technology to address them. The In-Q-Tel alliance has put the Agency back at the leading edge of technology,” it noted. Since then IQT has invested in companies that have gone on to become mainstream, such as facial recognitions softwares used in Las Vegas casinos, big data webcrawlers that companies like Amazon use to make readership recommendations and many others across the board investments involved in technology areas like communications, cyber security, data analytics, videos and imaging and much more. The most well known of which is Google Earth – developed by a company called Keyhole – partially owned by IQT and then acquired by Google. A Failure of Common Sense? Just like most venture capital firms, IQT also invests and divests its interests in technology enterprises while adapting and adopting the technologies that it funds. IQT and the CIA between them possess sizable budgets, expertise and vision to know how different technologies can be used for national defense purposes. In the scheme of these investments, MongoDB is a small fish - an open source solution that can be adapted and scaled for different databases, it is independently used and commercially licensed which significantly diminishes potential for back doors. Its potential for clandestine operations is nearly non-existent unless Indian agencies take software that is handed to them without so much as an anti-virus check by its own clandestine organisations like the National Technical Research Organisation (part of RAW). So the idea that the CIA is covertly back dooring its way in to the UIDAI via MongoDB seems a bit premature and frankly, absurd. And if we expect the CIA to have a tap on the personal information of Indian citizens then we might as well fear Samsung. If not for reasons that its devices simply hold more personal information of Indian users due to its market penetration, then for it’s investment in Cloudant – a cloud based mobile provider that is also partially funded by In-Q-Tel and soon to be part of the mainstream Samsung cloud network. There are far more serious technologies foreign intelligence agencies have made that should give us cause for concern like – the TOR network, created by the US Navy and used by Bitcoin fans world over or miniature flying drones being developed by the US Air Force or the series of interconnected computer network made by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, United States Department of Defense – commonly known as “the internet”.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/economy/relax-cia-is-not-snooping-into-aadhaar-via-mongodb-1268077.html?utm_source=ref_article

4994 - Relax, CIA is not snooping into Aadhaar via MongoDB - First Post

Relax, CIA is not snooping into Aadhaar via MongoDB 

by Samir Alam Dec 5, 2013 

Once again Aadhaar finds itself mired in shady discussions of privacy and security – and this time the CIA is involved. The Economic Times reports that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has contracted MongoDB – an American open source cross-platform document oriented database system startup, in an unspecified database management capacity. The otherwise innocuous business deal has suddenly reached espionage status since MongoDB is partially funded by the not-for-profit venture capital firm of the CIA called In-Q-Tel (IQT). 

The New York based company set up in 2007 known for its expertise with large database analytics and management, has 320 employees, 600 customers, market valuation of USD $1.2 billion and has just raised USD $150 million in its latest round of venture finding – of which the CIA’s In-Q-Tel subsidiary has contributed an unspecified sum. Reasons To Be Concerned? The concern over this deal is clearly based on the clandestine nature of the CIA and the valid concerns over security and privacy when dealing with the personal data of Indian citizens. It’s a genuine fear that in a post-Snowden world, the sanctity of international agreements on sovereignty and digital privacy not be taken for granted and scrutinized to ensure national autonomy. 

Image: ibnlive 

However, so far, none of the parties involved - IQT or MongoDB or the UIDAI have made a statement regarding this connection. And even though no specific information has been disclosed regarding the nature of the agreement between MongoDB and UIDAI or the nature of influence the CIO or IQT would have over MongoDB operations, it hasn’t stopped speculation to fill the void. Investigating the nature of this CIA entity presents us with an interesting start. 

IQT was established in September 1999 to “identity, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the Central Intelligence Agency and broader U.S. Intelligence Community.” Since then it has invested in more than 175 companies and now publicly lists 90 actively engaged companies, of which MongoDB is one. In fact, the investment in MongoDB was publicly announced on 17 September 2013 and highlights the confidence IQT had in MongoDB’s technological offerings. “The ability to store and query both unstructured and structured data with performance at scale makes MongoDB an important addition to our strategic investment portfolio,” said Robert Ames, Vice President of Information and Communication Technologies at IQT in the release. “MongoDB is built to leverage big data and holds great promise for the development of new storage and processing capabilities.” It is a fair assumption that when UIDAI was looking for a solution to managing the information of over a billion people it went for the best and discovered this press release and knew that MongoDB had CIA money backing it. It is also fair to assume that in its talks two weeks ago with Max Schireson, the chief executive of MongoDB, the UIDAI expressed its concerns and sought clarifications. Of course, we are not privy to the internal dealings of governments and private companies, so the details still seem murky. Who Are IQT Anyway? Another manner to consider this concern is to look at the history of how the IQT has conducted business in the technology realm since its creation. In its early history prior to 1999, IQT existed as a division of CIA Directorate of Science and Technology and was concerned with bringing the technology quotient of the agency at par and ahead of the world. However, as technological innovation moved outside of universities and government think tanks in to the private sector, it made sense for the CIA to also become involved, but it could no longer do so in secret. “We decided to use our limited dollars to leverage technology developed elsewhere. In 1999 we chartered…In-Q-Tel…While we pay the bills, In-Q-Tel is independent of CIA,” said George Tenet, former Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the CIA in his book At the Centre of the Storm. “CIA identifies pressing problems, and In-Q-Tel provides the technology to address them. The In-Q-Tel alliance has put the Agency back at the leading edge of technology,” it noted. Since then IQT has invested in companies that have gone on to become mainstream, such as facial recognitions softwares used in Las Vegas casinos, big data webcrawlers that companies like Amazon use to make readership recommendations and many others across the board investments involved in technology areas like communications, cyber security, data analytics, videos and imaging and much more. The most well known of which is Google Earth – developed by a company called Keyhole – partially owned by IQT and then acquired by Google. A Failure of Common Sense? Just like most venture capital firms, IQT also invests and divests its interests in technology enterprises while adapting and adopting the technologies that it funds. IQT and the CIA between them possess sizable budgets, expertise and vision to know how different technologies can be used for national defense purposes. In the scheme of these investments, MongoDB is a small fish - an open source solution that can be adapted and scaled for different databases, it is independently used and commercially licensed which significantly diminishes potential for back doors. Its potential for clandestine operations is nearly non-existent unless Indian agencies take software that is handed to them without so much as an anti-virus check by its own clandestine organisations like the National Technical Research Organisation (part of RAW). So the idea that the CIA is covertly back dooring its way in to the UIDAI via MongoDB seems a bit premature and frankly, absurd. And if we expect the CIA to have a tap on the personal information of Indian citizens then we might as well fear Samsung. If not for reasons that its devices simply hold more personal information of Indian users due to its market penetration, then for it’s investment in Cloudant – a cloud based mobile provider that is also partially funded by In-Q-Tel and soon to be part of the mainstream Samsung cloud network. There are far more serious technologies foreign intelligence agencies have made that should give us cause for concern like – the TOR network, created by the US Navy and used by Bitcoin fans world over or miniature flying drones being developed by the US Air Force or the series of interconnected computer network made by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, United States Department of Defense – commonly known as “the internet”.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/economy/relax-cia-is-not-snooping-into-aadhaar-via-mongodb-1268077.html?utm_source=ref_article

4991 - West Bengal resolution wants Aadhaar delinked from DBT - First Post

West Bengal resolution wants Aadhaar delinked from DBT Dec 2, 2013

Kolkata: The West Bengal Assembly today passed a resolution on Aadhar cards, that said the Centre should immediately withdraw its decision to link the cards with Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. The resolution, moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee, mentioned that only 15 percent people of the state had got the Aadhar cards. Aadhaar logo. Image courtesy UIDAI In such a scenario, 85 percent of the people would not be able to get nine subsidised LPG cylinders as the Centre had linked the Aadhar card to the direct cash transfer to the respective bank accounts. The decision of the Centre would put the common people into tremendous hardship, according to the resolution. Leader of the Opposition and CPM member Surya Kanta Mishra supported the resolution moved by the ruling party, saying a lot of issues relating to Aadhar cards were still unresolved. Mishra said that the Centre legally cannot make biometric enrolment mandatory and that the entire process was unscientific as there was a scope for margin of error to the extent of 20 percent. PTI

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/economy/west-bengal-resolution-wants-aadhaar-delinked-from-dbt-1262403.html?utm_source=ref_article

4895 - BJP attacks Aadhaar scheme, says it violates right to privacy - First Post

BJP attacks Aadhaar scheme, says it violates right to privacy 

Oct 22, 2013 

 New Delhi: 

The UIDAI, which has run into controversies recently, came under fresh attack with the BJP alleging that the Aadhar card issued by it to citizens as a unique identification does not have Parliament’s approval and has been rejected by one of the key committees of the House. “The reality is that the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, which gives sanction to this particular card was rejected by the standing committee on Finance,” BJP Vice President Smriti Irani said, alleging that the programme violates the constitutional right to privacy. 

AFP She was speaking at a programme on Aadhar here. “The reality is striking for me as an Indian that a concept which does not have the sanction of Parliament today is collecting bio-metric data which violates the constitutional right to privacy,” she said. 

BJP has questioned the Aadhaar scheme and argued that it should not be given to those who do not have bona fide papers and citizenship. It has alleged that several illegal migrants have got Aadhaar cards. “While the Aadhar card is one of the most ambitious projects that the government speaks about, the reality is that they are awaiting a Supreme Court decision regarding this,” Irani said. She went on to add that governance was not only about ‘what’ but also about ‘how’. 

The BJP leader said that while the country celebrates the rising level of literacy, the reality is that the latest figures reveals that 50 percent of our children — boys and girls– drop out of school at the secondary level. “In rural areas, only six percent are graduates and in urban areas, it is only 22 percent and I say this today because for a nation’s journey to be fruitful one can determine the milestones when one totally accepts the stark reality and challenges that are before us today,” she added. Speaking at the same programme earlier, UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani had said the authority will beat the target of generating 60 crore Aadhaar numbers before schedule in the next few months. 

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman said 46 crore Aadhaar numbers have been given so far. “By 2014, there was a target to generate 60 crore aadhar numbers. We will beat this before schedule in next few months. So far 46 crore Aadhar numbers have been given. In September we added 2.5 crore Aadhar numbers,” Nilekani said.

4886 - Aadhaar to facilitate paper-less bank account opening Oct 24, 2013 - First Post

Aadhaar to facilitate paper-less bank account opening Oct 24, 2013

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/investing/aadhaar-to-facilitate-paper-less-bank-account-opening-1192525.html?utm_source=ref_article

Mumbai: A new feature added to Aadhaar will now enable the card-holder to open a bank account without any paperwork. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar’ cards, has added the feature in a bid to push for electronic-driven economy. Explaining the facility, UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani said a person can walk into a bank branch, tell his/her 12-digit individual identification number (Aadhaar) and walk out with a bank account.

The bank will connect with the UIDAI using an authorised service agent, generally a payment gateway, which in turn connects up with the UIDAI database, he said. The only detail a customer has to give at the bank branch will be his/her fingerprint impression, Nilekani said. The facility is safer than the current practice of submitting photocopies of documents, Nilekani said, adding all the work happens electronically at the back-end. “Fundamentally, all the infrastructure is falling into place now for creating a much more electronic, much more digital cash kind of an economy,” he said, adding it has long-term ramifications, including making the economy cashless. The authority, set up four years ago with the Infosys co-founder as its head, has rolled out 460 million Aadhaar numbers till now and is targeting to take this to 600 million (half of the country’s population) by early next year. Using the numbers as the base, it has helped rolling out a host of services, including direct subsidy transfer and person to person fund transfer using mobile phones. The UIDAI chief said the e-KYC facility launched today has huge “strategic implications”. Private sector Axis Bank became the first lender to offer the e-KYC (know your customer) account opening facility. One Nitin Shah of neighbouring Thane district became the first person to open his bank account using Aadhaar. “Anybody can walk into a branch, give his finger prints and walk out with a bank account,” Axis Bank managing director and chief executive Shikha Sharma said at the launch. Nilekani said the bank will roll out this facility across all its bank branches in ten days’ time. However, he parried queries on expansion of the facility at other banks. The idea is to expand the e-KYC facility from here on, he said, adding it is possible for getting an insurance cover and applying for mutual funds using this feature. PTI

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/investing/aadhaar-to-facilitate-paper-less-bank-account-opening-1192525.html?utm_source=ref_article

4841 - Now UIDAI moves SC on Aadhaar card for not making it mandatory - Firstpost India

Firstpost India 

Now UIDAI moves SC on Aadhaar card for not making it mandatory 

Oct 15, 2013

New Delhi: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has joined government and PSU oil firms against the Supreme Court order making Aadhaar card not mandatory for availing social benefits saying, its directive has “very serious implications” in implementation of welfare schemes. 

The UIDAI also contended that its order dated September 23, putting the onus on it to check that Aadhaar card should not be given to illegal immigrants, impinges on the jurisdiction of the appropriate authorities that are entrusted with the task of veryfying citizenship.

In an application before the Supreme Court, the UIDAI submitted that Aadhaar is stated to be a proof of identity and there are other agencies to perform the task of verifying citizenship and detecting illegal immigrants. 

“UIDAI has been mandated to provide Aadhaar to resident of India as a matter of conscious policy decision of government. Aadhaar is upfront stated to be a proof of identity not citizenship. It may be mentioned the government has specific agencies to perform the task of verifying citizenship and detecting illegal immigrants,” it said. 

“The interim order of the court in directing UIDAI to check the citizenship status of a person applying for Aadhaar and identifying illegal immigrants impinges on the jurisdiction of the appropriate authorities under law that are entrusted with this task,” it said while pleading with the court to modify the interim order against which Centre and Oil PSUs have already approached the apex court. 

The Authority said it is following a sound verification method for enrolment for Aadhaar and there is no proof that it has opened the “floodgates for entry of illegal migrants into the system”. 

“Having enrolled over 53 crore residents, there is no empirical proof to suggest that the adopted methodology is not robust and has opened the floodgates for entry of illegal migrants into the system. Exceptions, aberrations and anecdotal cases cannot be reasons to doubt, malign or undo government schemes and administrative measures manifestly serving desired public policy ends,” said the UIADI application. 

The apex court had on September 23 said, “In the meanwhile, no person should suffer for not getting the Ada card in spite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory and when any person applies to get the Aadhaar card voluntarily, it may be checked whether that person is entitled for it under the law and it should not be given to any illegal immigrant.” 

The order had come during the hearing of a PIL filed by Justice K Puttaswamy, former high court judge, seeking to restrain the Centre, Planning Commission and UIDAI from issuing Aadhaar cards by way of an executive order of January 28, 2009. Citing various benefits of the Aadhaar card, the Authority submitted that “as part of its pro-poor approach the UIDAI focuses on enrolling India’s poor and under privileged community for many of whom Aadhaar may be the first form of identification but no one gets enrolled for Aadhaar without undergoing the prescribed method of verification.” 

It said that as on September 30, more than 53 crore residents have enrolled for Aadhaar and an amount of Rs 3494 crore has been incurred on the programme by the Center and Oil marketing companies have detected around 45,000 duplicate LPG connections on the basis of Aadhaar numbers which would save the exchequer around Rs 23 crore per annum. 

“The introduction of Aadhaar needs to be seen in the same vein and as a part of the continuing quest of the government to improve efficient and transparent delivery of public services. 

“The government recognises it as a strategic policy tool for social inclusion, public sector delivery reform and for managing the fiscal deficit,” the UIADI said. It submitted that Aadhaar is a technology driven effort of inducing efficiency and accuracy in identified government services and “Aadhaar is the official proof of identity programme of the Centre and its special identity programme needs to be acknowledged and preserved”. 

Pleading for modification of interim order, the Authority said, “The interim order has very serious implications in the implementation of the Aadhaar scheme and has created doubts in the minds of the several crores of residents of India who have already enrolled under the scheme.” It further submitted that no person is denied any service for want of Aadhaar and it is made conditional only for getting subsidies. 

“The instructions issued for implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) clearly states that no person should be denied service for want of having Aadhaar or Bank Account. Care has been taken to ensure there is no denial of service by introducing this scheme only in districts with a reasonable coverage of Aadhaar,” it said. 

“There is no disruption of service (supply of LPG at market price) to consumers who do not provide Aadhaar as only subsidies and not service has been made conditional on providing Aadhaar number,” the Authority said. “An elected polity is responding to the felt needs of its constituency. This task has to be left to the wisdom and best judgement of a representative government which will ensure that adequate time and opportunity is given to individuals to obtain Aadhaar before its use is mandated for any government application,” it said. 

The Centre, on October 8, had failed to get any relief on Aadhaar card being made compulsory for availing social benefits, particularly gas cylinder subsidies, from the Supreme Court which turned down its plea to modify its interim order that no person be deprived of any schemes for want of Aadhaar. 

A batch of top government lawyers including Attorney General G E Vahanvati and Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran, who represented the Centre and various oil PSUs, tried unsuccessfully to convince the court to modify its order, saying that it would severely affect grant of gas subsidies and the entire distribution system in 97 districts would come to a standstill. PTI

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/now-uidai-moves-sc-on-aadhaar-card-for-not-making-it-mandatory-1173531.html?utm_source=ref_article

4839 - Nilekani weighing ‘all options’ after Aadhaar: he should pick politics-Firstpost India

Firstpost India Nilekani weighing ‘all options’ after Aadhaar: he should pick politics by FP Staff Oct 15, 2013

Amid reports that he may join politics, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani today said he was considering all options post-Aadhaar. “I am considering all my options as I look at what I do post-Aadhaar,” Nilekani told PTI when asked about his plans on joining politics. Nilekani, an IIT-ian who left Infosys to join the government as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said, ”Having a strong corporate background has been beneficial but there were few adjustments I had to make accordingly to work in the government sector.” Nilekani is currently writing a book. Reuters Nilekani, 58, is currently working on his next book which would be based on how to set a link between technology and the government. Media reports last month said that Nilekani may join the Congress party and contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Nilekani may have chosen to keep his cards close to his chest when it comes to taking the plunge into politics but as a Firstpost column said his arrival in politics could even give a party like the Congress a stamp of credibility. At the time of speculation that he would contest on a Congress ticket we had noted: It’s about time therefore that Nilekani poked his (much sharper) nose into the business of politics. There are things to be done beyond giving a billion Indians an unqiue identity number. And they need doers like Nilekani (not talkers like professional politicians) to get them done. Still, it helps to be in electoral politics. It lends legitimacy to actions which mere technocrats would never have. It also helps in the task of building the ‘coalitions’ necessary to affect change in complicated India. Read more on why Nilekani should enter politics.  with inputs from PTI 

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/nilekani-weighing-all-options-after-aadhaar-he-should-pick-politics-1172277.html?utm_source=ref_article

4710 - No Aadhaar required: Food security experts praise SC order - First Post

No Aadhaar required: Food security experts praise SC order 

by Pallavi Polanki Sep 24, 2013 

Right to food activists and civil society groups have welcomed Supreme Court’s order that Aadhaar is not mandatory for availing of government services and entitlements. They say the order comes as a huge relief to citizens who were being denied their rightful entitlements simply for not having an Aadhar card. “Certianly, for people who were being denied their entitlements simply because they did not have an Aadhaar card, this is going to be a very positive step. Whatever one might say, getting an Aadhaar card was not so easy for people who are migrants, destitutes, the homeless. And very often these are the very people who need to be covered in a food security scheme,” said Anjali Bharadwaj, founder of the citizen’s vigilance group Satark Nagarik Sangathan. 

The Sheila Dikshit government, despite the many questions raised over the legal basis for Aadhaar and the authority issuing it, made Aadhaar compulsory in Delhi this year. “Aadhaar Card is compulsory from 1st January 2013 for access to every government service” warned a public notice by the Delhi Government published in leading newspapers in December last year. (Read full report here) Despite the many questions raised over the legal basis for Aadhaar and the authority issuing it, the Delhi government made it compulsory in Delhi this year. PTI The food security scheme, which the Delhi government has taken the lead in launching, makes it mandatory for beneficiaries to have an Aadhaar card to avail of food entitlements. 

However, linking Aadhaar to food security was only adding to the difficulties of the beneficiaries, said Dipa Sinha, an activist with the Right to Food Campaign in Delhi. Speaking about the Aadhaar-related problems that beneficiaries of the food security scheme were facing, Sinha said, “The SC order that Aadhaar is not necessary to get entitlements is a very positive development because it has already been creating a lot of confusion in Delhi. With the launch of the food security scheme, every member of the family is required to get an Aadhaar card because now the entitlement has become individual. Many families have had problems with getting their Aadhaar numbers, there’ve been problems with biometrics, in cases where there is a disabled member in the family, they haven’t been able to go. So based on the experience so far, it is not right for it become a condition.” Added Sinha, “Also, with Aadhaar there was also a concern that it would become an additional excuse to keep people out of the scheme. Earlier, it was BPL. As far as that goes, it is a good thing it is not compulsory.” Describing how the Aadhaar linkage to the food security scheme was affecting rightful beneficiaries, Bharadwaj said, “A lot of families had members who didn’t have Aadhaar cards. Since the food security scheme is an individual entitlement of 5 kg of grain per person, names of family members were not being accepted for the ration cards because they didn’t have an Aadhaar card. For example, a family of five with two members without an Aadhaar card was getting only 15 kg instead of their rightful entitlement of 25kg of grain. Now with the Supreme Court order, such people will be covered and will be able to get their entitlements.” On the broader positive impact of the Supreme Court order on the scope of the food security scheme, Bharadwaj said, “The purpose of the food security legislation is to bring in the homeless, the destitute and the poorest of the poor. Now a lot of those people are having tremendous difficulty in getting Aadhaar cards because they don’t have an identity proof, an address to share and so on. We now hope that they will be covered under scheme more easily even though they don’t have Aadhaar card.” 

But is there a danger that the Supreme Court order could halt the implementation of the scheme, leading to beneficiaries being denied entitlements? “To halt the scheme would imply a violation of the Supreme Court order because the order clearly states that benefits must flow to people. And Aadhaar can’t be used be used an excuse for to giving them that entitlement,” said Bharadwaj. Explaining why there shouldn’t be any problems identifying beneficiaries in the absence of Aadhaar cards, Sinha said, “In Delhi, currently the food entitlements are being given to those who are existing ration-card holders. And so the government already has the database. With the Aadhaar-linkage what is happening is that those who have ration cards but don’t have Aadhaar cards are worried that they might be removed from the list. 

Legally, there should be no reason to deny anyone their rightful entitlement.” Taking on the government’s often repeated claim that Aadhaar will check leakages and corruption in the PDS system, Bharadwaj said, “There are many ways to reduce pilferage and enhance transparency….If there is an effective and functioning grievance redress machinery and there is accountability mechanism that is in-built, which is entirely dependent on political will, you don’t need Aadhaar.”

4700 - Supreme Court’s order trashes UPA’s Aadhaar logic - First Post

Supreme Court’s order trashes UPA’s Aadhaar logic by FP Editors 

The Supreme Court has in an interim order said that Aadhaar should not be made mandatory and asked the government not to link it to welfare schemes. It also said that illegal immigrants should not be issued UID numbers. The Supreme Court’s order on Aadhaar has brought relief for common people and troubles for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The order comes at a time when the UPA is stepping up its efforts to roll out subsidy schemes based on Aadhaar across the country. The plan was to make Aadhaar the basis of all its welfare schemes in the long run. It also was hoping to reach out to the poor through these direct benefit transfer schemes just ahead of elections. The Supreme Court’s order on Aadhaar has brought relief for common people and troubles for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). PTI However, the Supreme Court order seems to have poured water on these plans, said media reports. “…The Aadhaar card cannot be made mandatory. If anyone applies for Aadhaar card, then you have to verify whether he is a citizen of India or not. These cards cannot be issued to illegal migrants,” a report in the Times of India quoted Justices B S Chauhan and S A Bobde as saying. The order has been issue in response to a petition filed by retired Karnataka High Court judge KS Puttaswamy. According to a report in the Business Standard, the petitioner has alleged that the Unique Identity Scheme was rolled by the executive with no discussion in Parliament. He also said it impinged on the right to privacy of individuals. 

There is no assurance of confidentiality of the biometric data being collected by private agencies. Moreover, non-citizens are also likely to get benefits such as subsidy transfers and illegal immigrants will be legitimised. There is no way the government can verify the nationality of an individual apart from relying on the documents he or she submits. The government’s contest of the petitioner’s allegations was meek, says the ToI report. The report quotes Solicitor General Mohan Prasaran as saying that the enforcement machinery has been tightened. One or two instances reported in the media are just aberrations, he submitted. The government counsels also insisted that the cards were issued on voluntary basis and were not mandatory. This is contrary to a few recent media reports which said Maharashtra has made Aadhaar mandatory for government employees to receive their salary. 

There are also cases where Aadhaar has been made mandatory for LPG connections and even marriage registrations. According to the ToI report, the Supreme Court expressed surprise at such developments as the Centre itself has said that Aadhaar is not mandatory. As social activist Nikhil Dey says in the BS report, the scheme is voluntary, but there is nothing voluntary about it. For the ease of rolling out welfare schemes through Aadhaar cards, government officials were forcing it on the citizens. A case in the point is Neeraj Mittal, joint secretary in the petroleum ministry, telling senior officials in the Kanpur Collectorate that Aadhar should be made compulsory for LPG consumers. According to a ToI report, he said customers who have no Aadhaar should not be allowed to avail of the subsidy. 

The direct impact of the order will be felt in Maharashtra, where the government was gearing up to launch Aadhaar-linked LPG subsidy payout across the state soon. According to this report in MoneyLife, the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had held a meeting to review the progress of the scheme with senior officers of the state government, all divisional commissioners and district collectors, senior officials from UIDAI and senior officials from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. The court’s order is clearly spoiling the UPA’s plans to take advantage of direct benefit transfer at the 2014 elections. 

But it is also raising doubts about the fate of the cards already issued.

4690 - Aadhaar voluntary, cannot link govt services to it: SC raps Centre - First Post

Aadhaar voluntary, cannot link govt services to it: SC raps Centre

 by FP Staff Sep 23, 2013 

 While states have been linking multiple government services like admissions and gas connections to the Aadhaar number, the Supreme Court today said that the registration for the identity card was purely voluntary and government departments could not demand the card in order to provide a service. The apex court’s directions came in response to a PIL filed by a former judge questioning the legal sanctity of the Aadhaar card. The apex court told the Centre not to make the Unique Identification Card mandatory in order to provide the benefit of government schemes. The court said that the identification card could not be mandatory for states to provide services either , reported CNN-IBN. Not compulsory any more. AFP The Supreme Court also told the Centre not to issue the identification cards to illegal immigrants in in the country, reported CNN-IBN. 

 A retired judge of the Karnataka High Court, KS Puttaswamy, had filed a PIL alleging that the government is bypassing Parliament by going ahead with the distribution of UID numbers and cards to all residents. The PIL alleged that through the Aadhaar scheme, even non-citizens are likely to be given benefits such as cash transfer and illegal migrants residing in India are likely to be legitimised, thereby jeopardising the security of the nation. Multiple government departments, despite the UID scheme being voluntary, have been insisting on Aadhaar cards for various government welfare schemes and other services. As Firstpost‘s R Jagannathan had noted in an earlier piece, the rush to enrol people through the UID scheme may stem from the fact that the UPA government is hoping for the widest possible implementation of the direct cash transfer scheme for subsidied before the next elections. He noted: While the political advantages of giving money to voters in the name of economic efficiency is understandable, the UPA has completely lost sight of one simple thing: there is currently no legislation in place to make the Aadhaar scheme’s collection of private biometric data legal; even though the scheme is being promoted through administrative fiat, the fact that so much personal data will be obtained using private agents is giving privacy advocates sleepless nights. 

While the process of enrolling people for the Aadhaar scheme will not stop because of the Supreme Court’s judgement it may stop government units forcing people to get a UID card. While there are obvious benefits to having a Unique Identification card for every citizen, addressing the concerns surrounding the scheme wouldn’t hurt.