11429 - ‘Aadhaar eliminated bogus beneficiaries’ - The Hindu

‘Aadhaar eliminated bogus beneficiaries’

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD, MAY 18, 2017 00:55 IST

It answers the question, ‘Who are you’, says UIDAI Chairman

From a modest beginning of enrolling a crore of the population of the country in September, 2010, the number has reached a staggering 114.08 crore of an estimated 128 crore India’s population.

These were figures disclosed by Chairman of the Unique Identity Development Authority of India (UIDAI), J. Satyanarayana in his presentation at the celebration of the World Telecom & Information Society Day here on Wednesday, organised by the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) and the Centre for Telecom Management & Studies (CTMS).

The former Union Information Technology Secretary said while the investment on Aadhaar cards as the ultimate proof of identity was about ₹7,000 crore till now, the return on investment could be easily over ₹50,000 crore.

Fake identities

Explaining further, he said that with Aadhaar cards leading to a drastic reduction in fake identities, the savings in terms of different benefits from Government ending up in the wrong hands was erased. Simply put, an Aadhaar was a citiziten’s online digital identity.

For example, in Telangana the numbers of duplicate, ghost ration cards identified and deleted were 38.63 lakh. This had led to a savings between January and July, 2016 of about ₹55.6 crore in the form of 23,177 metric tonnes of foodgrains, he pointed out.

As for Andhra Pradesh, the number of cards reduced on Aadhaar seeding was 8.58 lakh.

Earlier, CTMS Director and telecom expert T.H. Chowdary was felicitated and Mr. Satyanarayana delivered the 13th ‘T.H. Chowdary – CTMS Endowment Lecture’, followed by a panel discussion on ‘Big Data for Big Impact’.

Forensics

Later, K.P.C. Gandhi, a forensic science expert and founder of Truth Labs, made a presentation on how important forensics had become in solving different types of crimes today. He cited the example of how investigators had solved the crime concerning the Italian ship that rammed and killed Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala.

IETE chairman G. Laxminarayana explained the importance of the World Telecom & Information Society Day and outlines IETE’s activities. Others who spoke included senior vice-president of the Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce Gowra Srinivas.

11408 - Aadhaar is completely secure; UIDAI chairman J Satyanarayana explains why - Financial Express

Aadhaar is completely secure; UIDAI chairman J Satyanarayana explains why

The question of data breach and security issue doesn’t arise at all in the government’s ambitious unique identity programme, stresses J Satyanarayana, chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and advisor (IT), government of Andhra Pradesh.

By: Sudhir Chowdhary | New Delhi | Published: May 15, 2017 3:55 AM

The question of data breach and security issue doesn’t arise at all in the government’s ambitious unique identity programme, stresses J Satyanarayana, chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and advisor (IT), government of Andhra Pradesh. Satyanarayana has been associated with the design and implementation of over 20 major e-government projects at the state and national levels; he is best known as the founder of eSeva, a one-stop-shop for citizen services in Andhra Pradesh. A key speaker at the Oracle Open World in New Delhi last week, Satyanarayana tells Sudhir Chowdhary that India’s digital transformation will significantly improve the quality of government services and increase transparency in its style of working. Excerpts:

The Digital India programme was announced in 2014. How is it keeping pace with an extremely dynamic technology world?

Digital India is more of an approach and a philosophy. It was sufficiently generic when it was originally designed. The very purpose of designing Digital India was deliberate so that it can be adaptive to technology. It is reasonably future-proof.

So, as some of these government projects are being put in place, they are designed in a manner to not only embrace the latest technology but also remain relevant for the next two to five years or even more. A case in point is the Aadhaar project conceptualised in 2009-2010; robust, scalable and future-proof largely. The Aadhaar cards and data are expected to last a citizen’s lifecycle. Technology progression and innovations should not be seen as potential threats to legacy applications and should be able to co-exist and adapt to each other.

What is e-Pragati project and what lessons can be drawn from it in the larger context of government of India?

E-Pragati is again a philosophy with the vision of creating ‘One’ government. It follows the approach of adopting enterprise architecture principles not only with the purpose of delivering services but good governance in particular. The sole purpose of ‘One’government is to streamline multiple departments and hundreds of agencies to work in tandem with each other for better governance of the state and the nation.

Translating this into reality is fairly simple and I would draw its analogy with the way and manner in which global multinationals function. A conglomerate can have multiple offices and an array of businesses but it follows similar processes, is bound by same principles and is identified by a common brand and set of brand values. The same blueprint can be applied to governance. E-Pragati is a step towards that at a state level. March 1 this year has been declared as the year of e-Pragati and gradually all government departments are expected to transcend towards convergence.

What is the status on e-Pragati currently?

We are currently in the process of submitting our recommendations for this project. It has been christened ‘IndEA—India Enterprise Architecture’ as the idea is to create resonance and value for this project within the citizens. We have designed different models and will be submitting our technology framework proposal to the government for a national rollout. While e-Pragati in in the process of being rolled out in Andhra Pradesh, it is currently still a concept at the national level and only at the stage of submission to the central government.

Is Aadhaar secure? What potential changes or additions can be done to improve its privacy and security?

It is completely secure. The moot point is that Aadhaar isn’t connected to the internet. Most people believe that your biometrics is taken, put on the internet and is visible and accessible to all. This is technologically not feasible, legally not permissible and organisationally not possible. So I would say it is 300% secure by nature. Data is captured, immediately encrypted and passed on to the data centre, where it is taken to our servers in UIDAI. UIDAI servers are not on the internet. There is a wall separating them from the SAs and infrastructure of UIDAI. It is a physical demarcation. Hence, the question of data breach and security issue doesn’t arise at all.

Coming to the second part of your question, improvement is an ongoing process. We have a professional unit in place managed by PwC to oversee and evaluate various security aspects and threat situations on a 24×7 basis. We have a significantly strong and large security operation centre based in Delhi, overseeing the infrastructure at Bengaluru and the disaster recovery at Manesar. We have deployed about 7,000 servers, accessible at our centre in Delhi round the clock.

Could you throw some light on how technology and Digital India will address employment, skill development, rural and agricultural growth in the country?

Digital India is not about e-governance; it isn’t about electronics, IT, servers or mobility. These are actually various components and definitely contribute towards Digital India and what it seeks to achieve. However, at the end of the day, if you have good governance, it yields results. So, in all these areas like agriculture, healthcare, and employment, the respective domain needs reform and re-engineering.

It is the government that needs to change and the change needs to be fast signifying re-engineered and re-imagined processes and freshly designed innovative services. Technology cannot overhaul things overnight. The lesson is to introspect first and then embrace the right technology and IT.

10509 - 1.05 billion Aadhaar cards issued, challenge to enrol remaining 20 crore: UIDAI - Financial Express

1.05 billion Aadhaar cards issued, challenge to enrol remaining 20 crore: UIDAI

With 1.05 billion Aadhaar biometric ID cards issued till date, the government and regulator are ahead of the curve in the use of IT to set up a national digital payments infrastructure, a senior official has said.

By: IANS | New Delhi | Published: September 29, 2016 5:09 PM

“With the Aadhaar Act passed by parliament, being notified earlier this month, the challenge now is of enrolling the remaining 20 crore people, who are still out of the Unique ID (UID) system, people mostly in difficult to access, remote areas,” Chairman UIDAI J Satyanarayana said. (PTI)

With 1.05 billion Aadhaar biometric ID cards issued till date, the government and regulator are ahead of the curve in the use of IT to set up a national digital payments infrastructure, a senior official has said.

“With the Aadhaar Act passed by parliament, being notified earlier this month, the challenge now is of enrolling the remaining 20 crore people, who are still out of the Unique ID (UID) system… people mostly in difficult to access, remote areas,” Chairman Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI) J Satyanarayana said via videoconference, addressing an event on Wednesday evening, organised here by the Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion (CDFI).

“The second challenge is of activating systems to keep these 1 billion-plus data updated, as required in two diverse time-cycles of five and 15 years. And the other big challenge is how to promote the use of Aadhaar,” he added.

Describing developments in this area as being “revolutionary” in the sense of “momentous change”, the government said dynamic changes were accelerating transformation which, for the first time in India, was being orchestrated by government and the regulator.

“For the first time, what is accelerating transformation in India are the two agents — government and regulator,” Secretary Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MeitY) Aruna Sundararajan said while addressing the gathering.

“What is driving this change … innovation and disruption, and the technology initiatives of the government are way ahead. Today government and regulator are ahead of the curve,” she said.

“We’ll move all transfers (subsidy) towards digital Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) payments,” she added.

CDFI, which has just completed two years of existence, almost coinciding with the second anniversary of the government’s Jan Dhan scheme for financial inclusion, is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Tata Trusts, among others.

In his address, Deputy Director BMGF Daniel Radcliffe, said India is much ahead of other countries in Asia and Africa in setting up a digitised system for implementing financial inclusion.

“India is way ahead of many other countries… We are convinced that India will teach the world about financial inclusion,” Radcliffe said, referring to the phenomenal “intersection of financial inclusion and digital technology” in India.

“What is unique about India is the way the government is playing a pro-active role in building a payments and ID infrastructure. This has opened the space to private players for a supportive structure of payment banks, fintech, mobile money,” he added.

FinTech, or financial technologies, is a rapidly growing sector in the Indian economy, led by an innovation-driven ecosystem, and a large consumer base.

CDFI, a non government think tank working on research, innovation and dissemination in the area of digital financial inclusion, is currently assisting MeitY and other departments in the process for digital payments enablement.

CDFI is assisting the government in the conceptualization and overall branding of the Social Security Platform.

It is asking the government to adopt some of the innovations and applications it has developed like the Financial Inclusion MIS and Dashboard that provides a platform to measure the performance of bank business correspondents and other stakeholders against predefined parameters.

10507 - Full Aadhaar enrolment a major challenge, says new UIDAI chairman - Live Mont

Last Modified: Thu, Sep 29 2016. 09 31 AM IST

Full Aadhaar enrolment a major challenge, says new UIDAI chairman

J. Satyanarayana, the newly appointed chairman of UIDAI, says achieving full enrolment and continuous updating of birth and death records will be the major challenges

Suranjana Roy

With more than 1 trillion electronic or digital transactions by next year, what is needed is a progression from e-governance to real-time governance. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

New Delhi: With the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsides, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 notified earlier this month, achieving full enrolment and continuous updating of birth and death records will be the major challenges going ahead, said J. Satyanarayana, the newly appointed chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Speaking at a panel discussion on financial inclusion and benefit transfers at an event organised by the Centre for digital financial inclusion late evening on Wednesday, he also talked about the need for education among people under the Aadhaar Act.

“There are 3 key challenges that need to be addressed. Firstly, the remaining enrolments must be completed. We are moving at a very slow pace currently and this needs to speed up,” he said.

Secondly, the system must be updated with over 1 billion records. “The birth and the death rates must be continuously updated. Other than that, the age group of 5-15 years is also a crucial point,” Satyanarayana added.

Also Read: Is Aadhaar’s use mandatory?

Lastly, the use of Aadhaar has to be promoted within the ambit of the provisions and regulations of the Act. These regulations contain procedures to ensure enrolment, authentication and use of Aadhaar and data and privacy protection which must be strictly in accordance with the Act, he said.

With more than 1 trillion electronic or digital transactions by next year, what is needed is a progression from e-governance to real-time governance.

“ Real-time governance indicates that we should not wait for the service to happen, it must be delivered at real time to us,” the chairman added.

Other members of the panel were Aruna Sundarajan, secretary, ministry of electronics and information technology; R. Chandrashekhar, president , Nasscom; and Peeyush Kumar, secretary, Direct Benefit Transfer mission.

Suranjana Roy

10436 - Legal backing to Aadhaar notified, NDA free to use it for government schemes - Live Mint

Last Modified: Wed, Sep 14 2016. 11 47 AM IST

Legal backing to Aadhaar notified, NDA free to use it for government schemes

Expectations are that with this, the ongoing legal challenge to Aadhaar pending in the Supreme Court will be restricted to the issue of privacy

Komal Gupta-Suranjana Roy-Apurva Viswanath

The government can now use Aadhaar to identify beneficiaries of social welfare schemes. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

The government has notified all but one of the remaining sections of Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsides, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, giving legal backing for its use in various government schemes.

On 12 September, it had notified sections pertaining to the mandatory use of Aadhaar.

Expectations are that with this, the ongoing legal challenge to Aadhaar pending in the Supreme Court will be restricted to the issue of privacy. The Constitution bench is yet to be constituted, though the reference was made a year ago on 11 August.

The government’s top law officer, attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, confirmed the notification of the legislation will override all concerns.

“The earlier challenge against mandatory use was against an executive notification that conceived Aadhaar. Now, the law takes care of all concerns surrounding potential misuse.”

Consequently, the government can now use the 12-digit unique identification number for identifying beneficiaries of social welfare schemes and disbursing subsidies.

All the provisions of the legislation have been formally notified, with the exception of the one dealing with salaries of employees of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the issuer of Aadhaar.

As of now, the use of Aadhaar is restricted by interim orders of the apex court to the transfer of cooking gas subsidy, the public distribution system, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), all types of pension schemes, the employees provident fund and the Jan Dhan Yojana.

Legal troubles have followed the legislation, with both the apex court and the Delhi high court hearing pleas against the government’s mandatory use of Aadhaar for schemes such as scholarships for students and food distribution. It will have to be seen if these cases will be resolved with the notifying of the Act.

S.L. Rao, a Bengaluru-based sociologist and former director general of the National Council for Applied Economic Research, said, “I think it is a good move if Aadhaar is being made compulsory, but people need to be assured about Aadhaar being an authentic form of identification, as biometrics can be misused.”

Another case, challenging the passage of the Aadhaar law as a money bill, is also pending in the apex court. A money bill does not need the consent of Rajya Sabha, where the government is in a minority.

In March, the government got the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill passed, after introducing it as a money bill. Earlier, UIDAI was backed by a 2009 notification of the now- defunct Planning Commission.

Last week, as part of provisions of the Act, the government appointed former information technology secretary 

J. Satyanarayana as part-time chairperson of UIDAI, and Rajesh Jain, founder and managing director of netCORE solutions, an IT-based firm, and Anand Deshpande, founder and chief executive officer of Persistent Systems, as part-time members.

As of now, the enrolment in the Aadhaar scheme has reached 1.05 billion.

Priyanka Mittal also contributed to the story.

10427 - UIDAI approves rules under the Aadhaar Act, to be notified soon - Economic Times

UIDAI approves rules under the Aadhaar Act, to be notified soon

By ET Bureau | Sep 12, 2016, 08.52 PM IST

J Satyanarayana, was on Thursday appointed as the part-time Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) which runs the ambitious Aadhaar project.

NEW DELHI: After the getting the Aadhaar Act in place, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has finalized the rules under the act with respect to enrollment, authentication, data security and sharing of information among others. These rules are expected to be notified in the upcoming weeks. 

Last week, Former IT secretary to the government of India, J Satyanarayana, was on Thursday appointed as the part-time Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) which runs the ambitious Aadhaar project. 

Satyanarayana, who is a retired IAS officer was administered the oath by union minister for electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad. The government also appointed Rajesh Jain of NetCore and Anand Deshpande of Persistant Systems as part-time members of UIDAI. 

"Approval of the regulations is an important landmark. These regulations contain procedures to ensure that enrolment, authentication, use of Aadhaar and data and privacy protection are strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Aadhaar Act. People can use Aadhaar to receive various services, benefits and subsidies directly from the government without any intermediaries. On the other hand, it will help governments to ensure targeted delivery of benefits to the deserving individuals and bring transparency and good governance in their systems", said Ajay Bhushan Pandey, chief executive officer of UIDAI. 

The regulations which have been approved include Unique Identification Authority of India (Transaction of Business and Meetings) Regulations, 2016, Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations, 2016, Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations, 2016, Aadhaar (Data Security) Regulations, 2016, Aadhaar (Sharing of Information) Regulations, 2016. 

In a statement, UIDAI said that so far 105.15 crore Aadhaars have been generated and around 6 lakh Aadhaar enrolments are being done on a daily basis while over 60 lakh authentication based on Aadhaar happen every day.

10415 - Ex-BJP campaign strategist now part-time UIDAI member - TNN

Ex-BJP campaign strategist now part-time UIDAI member

Sep 10, 2016, 07.12 PM IST

NEW DELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has inducted as part-time member Rajesh Jain, founder of digital marketing solutions company netCORE Solutions and an ex-BJP election campaign strategist. A long time BJP-backer, Jain was among those handpicked to  drive the BJP's social media and digital campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. 

Jain is among the three new part time members inducted into the UIDAI. Joining him is entrepreneur Anand Deshpande, who heads IT company Persisent Systems. Former IT secretary J Satyanarayana, a retired IAS officer of the 1977 Andhra Pradesh cadre, will now serve as a part-time chairperson of the UIDAI for a tenure of three years. The three were sworn in for their new roles by Union minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad in the capital on Thursday. 

Jain is considered to be among the dotcom pioneers in the country. In November 1999, he sold his website Indiaworld.co.in (it brought together a clutch of websites aimed at NRIs) to Sify for Rs 499 crore. In June 2012, the IIT Mumbai alumnus' firm NitiDigital started a right-leaning politics and policy news website, NitiCentral. It also launched india272.com, aimed at coordinating volunteers for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election campaign. 

NetCORE provided the tech back-end for creating a database of BJP supporters. The much talked-about campaign for the same required those wanting to volunteer to register with a "missed call". The callers would then be contacted for personal information and registered. Voter ID details were part of the database created.

Addressing a question about the possibility of conflict of interest of UIDAI members owing to personal businesses, Prasad pointed out that they would have to abide by section 19 (5) of the Aadhaar Act, 2016. This section mandates that members who happen to be directors at private companies disclose any direct or indirect monetary interest in any matter being considered by the UIDAI.

On Jain's blog Emergic, which has been inactive since 2012, one can find several posts mulling the best electoral strategy for the BJP. In an August 2012 post, the 48-year-old wrote about giving more time to politics as a "peripheral" player. He wrote: "As an entrepreneur and change agent in the political sphere, working to build what I think of as the third pillar of the Indian Right (sic). BJP and RSS are two powerful pillars, but there needs to be a complement to get centre-right policies and transform India." A June 2012 post on his blog suggested a strategy for the BJP to win 275 seats. "Winning 275 needs a dramatically different strategy from trying to win 175. To get to 275 seats out of 350-odd seats, the BJP needs to ensure a "wave" election with a 75% hit rate," it says.

10398 - Aadhaar enrolment figures rises to 105 crore - Live Mint

Thu, Sep 08 2016. 05 19 PM IST

Aadhaar enrolment figures rises to 105 crore

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announces the milestone in a tweet

Komal Gupta and Kshitiz Goliya

New Delhi: Enrolment in the government’s Aadhaar card scheme has reached 105 crore, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a tweet on Thursday.

“I am delighted to share with you all that today out of a population of 125 Crore, India has 105 Crore #Aadhaar holders @UIDAI,” Prasad tweeted.

Accoding to Prasad, 98% of Indians have been enrolled for Aadhaar.

The announcement came soon after J. Satyanarayana, the new part-time chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and part-time members Rajesh Jain and Anand Deshpande were administered their oaths of office.

Satyanarayana succeeds Nandan Nilekani, who was the first chairperson of UIDAI and held the position from 2009 to 2014. The post of chairman had been vacant since Nilekani quit.

Jain is founder and managing director of netCORE solutions, an IT-based firm, while Deshpande is founder and chief executive officer of Persistent Systems, which specialises in software product development.

UIDAI enrollments rose by more than a crore of within a month, up from 103.8 crore by July end, with the current rate enrollment touching 6 lakh per day, UIDAI said in a statement.

Overall, 82% of Indians have been enrolled, which besides adults also includes children, at the current rate of 6 lakh enrollments per day.

While 17 states have more than 90% aadhaar coverage, the rest of 11 are still between 75-90 percent.

UIDAI has already missed two deadlines of June 2015 and December 2015 for universal aadhaar coverage.

Prasad also administered the oath of Office and secrecy to newly appointed UIDAI part-time Chairman J Satyanarayana, who became the first person to occupy the post since Nandan Nilekani resigned in March 2014.

About 3.8 lakh authentication devices were deployed in August 2016 and 241.6 crore authentication transactions have happened since the service started in 2013, UIDAI said.

The government has paid Rs25,113 crore under Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG (DBTL) or Pahal scheme, as of August 31, leading to savings of Rs22,000 crore in last two financial years, UIDAI said in a statement.

The total number of Unique aadhaars linked to bank accounts stood at 31.7 crore at the end of August.

Total numbers of banks using Aadhaar Payments Bridge (APB) stood at 786, with 131 crore transaction done using the APB.

APB is a payment system implemented by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which uses Aadhaar number as a central key for transferring the government subsidies in the aadhaar linked of the intended beneficiaries.

Mint had earlier reported that UIDAI has been organising special camps to increase the rate of enrolment.

Komal Gupta and Kshitiz Goliya

10397 - New Team Takes Charge Of Aadhaar - NDTV

New Team Takes Charge Of Aadhaar

All India | Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: September 08, 2016 16:34 IST

J. Satyanarayana was appointed as part-time Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India.

NEW DELHI:  Retired IAS officer J. Satyanarayana was today appointed as part-time Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar, an official statement said.

"Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad administered the oath of office and secrecy to J. Satyanarayana, who has been appointed part-time Chairman of the UIDAI," a statement from the ministry said.

Mr Satyanarayana, a former IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, has close to four decades of experience in varied areas of governance having served as the Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology from 2012 to 2014 before superannuation.

He has been instrumental in training the political leaders and policy makers on the concepts and principles of e-governance, it said.

On the occasion, Rajesh Jain and Anand Deshpande were appointed as part-time members of UIDAI.

Mr Jain, an electrical engineer from IIT Bombay, is the Founder and Managing Director of netCORE Solutions, an enterprise communication and digital marketing solutions company.

"He (Jain) has been part of many technology ventures and is a well-known figure in the technology industry and a sought-after speaker at national and international forums," it said.

Deshpande, a Ph.D. in Computer Science from US' Indiana University, is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of IT firm Persistent Systems.

10390 - Ex IAS officer J Satyanarayana appointed part-time UIDAI chief - Indian Express

Ex IAS officer J Satyanarayana appointed part-time UIDAI chief

Besides him, technocrats Rajesh Jain and Anand Deshpande have been appointed as part-time members of the UIDAI.

By: PTI | New Delhi | Published:September 6, 2016 9:33 pm

Former IAS officer J Satyanarayana was on September 6 appointed as part-time chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), tasked with issuing Aadhaar numbers.

Former IAS officer J Satyanarayana was on September 6 appointed as part-time chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), tasked with issuing Aadhaar numbers.

The post has been lying vacant following resignation of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani’s resignation in 2014.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved Satyanarayana’s appointment as part-time chairperson of UIDAI, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.

Satyanarayana, an IAS officer of 1977 batch belonging to Andhra Pradesh cadre, retired as Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

Besides him, technocrats Rajesh Jain and Anand Deshpande have been appointed as part-time members of the UIDAI.

Jain is founder and Managing Director of netCORE solutions, an Information Technology based firm.

Deshpande is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Persistent Systems, a global company specialising in software product development services.