13129 - Can Cambridge Analytica get hold of Aadhaar Data - News Click

Newsclick Report 26 Mar 2018

Can Cambridge Analytica get hold of Aadhaar Data - News Click

                       Newsclick Image By Nitesh

Aadhar data leak stories keep appearing in India, but an investigation of the US companies that handle Aadhaar’s biometric data collection and processing has thrown up a shocking revelation: not only are they deeply intertwined with the US intelligence and defense establishment but there are known links with Cambridge Analytica, the UK firm accused of harvesting Facebook data and using it to fix elections. In other words, these service providers to Aadhaar are potentially in a position to access Aadhaar’s personal information database, and use it for other purposes.

The recent expose of how Cambridge Analytica (CA) harvested Facebook data for use in election campaigns of President Trump has shown how personal information has now been weaponised by profit hungry companies, to be deployed not just for selling products but for political gain.

It is well known that in 2010-2012, Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) awarded contracts to three US companies for collecting biometric data (fingerprints, iris scans) from all Indians, cleaning up the data and maintaining the storage. 

These three companies were: L-1 Identity Solutions, Morpho-Safran, and Accenture Services Pvt. Ltd.

These three companies have an intricate web of relationships with Cambridge Analytica and the biggest of data collating and analysis firms, Palantir Technologies which is the front runner in data mining technologies and works almost exclusively for the US (and maybe UK’s) defense and intelligence agencies including the NSA, CIA, FBI, and various other arms of the US govt.

Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, an investor in Accenture, had funded the formation of Cambridge Analytica in 2013 as an arm of an existing firm SCL. He was instrumental in getting Cambridge Analytica to tie up with the Ted Cruz presidential campaign in the US primaries. At that time, the campaign’s chairman was Chad Sweet who had earlier worked for the CIA’s National Clandestine Service and then was chief of staff at the US Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). His boss at DHS was Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security during the Bush years. After Obama’s win in 2009, Chertoff and Sweet left DHS and set up the Chertoff Group. Another member of the Group was Jay M.Cohen who was president of the board of directors of Morpho Detection. Sweet, on the other hand was strategic adviser on mergers to L 1 Identity Solutions. Sweet’s wife Julie was CEO of Accenture North America. Incidentally, George Tenet, CIA chief during the crucial years 1997-04, became director of L 1 during 2006-2008.

So, all three of the biometric service providers for UIDAI, were interconnected and deeply tied to the US defense-intelligence establishment and the slew of private companies that receive money from it in out contracts. Cambridge Analytica was part and parcel of this network.

Now Morpho was acquired by Safran, a French defense conglomerate in 2009. In 2010, UIDAI signed the contracts with the three companies. A few weeks later Safran acquired L 1 Identity also and merged it with MorphoTrust. Who acted as strategic adviser to this? None other than Chad Sweet. 

Meanwhile L 1 sold its intelligence arm to BAE, the British aerospace and defense giant in 2010, and a few months later Chertoff joined BAE on its board of directors.

Morpho formed a consortium with Techmahindra owned Satyam, and along with L1 and Acceture provided biometric software to authenticate enrollments and they designed, configured and maintained the system for Aadhaar till 2012. After that they continued to maintain and service it.

The trio was also contracted to de-duplicate the data which necessarily means that they had access to all the data. Although UIDAI has argued that biometric data and demographic data are kept separate and not matched contracts with the trio seem to indicate that they were responsible for tagging “all the data relating to an applicant, together with the photographs and biometrics”, according to media sources.

The trinity of L1-MorphoSatyam-Accenture is also tasked with protecting the data. Although UIDAI has repeatedly assured that the data is safe and impenetrable, L1 had reportedly said in its filings before the US Securities Exchange Commission that “security measures used in these systems may not prevent security breaches”. This is of course standard disclaimer lingo but the fact remains that the company is not dismissing leakage or breaches as readily as UIDAI.

(This report is based on investigations 

conducted by Fountainink .)

12015 - Firms involved in biometric database in India contracted by Irish government - Irish Times

Firms involved in biometric database in India contracted by Irish government

Morpho and Daon provide services for Irish public services card and passport systems

Sat, Sep 9, 2017, 06:33

Elaine Edwards

Dermot Desmond’s firm Daon has provided services to the Irish Government for the public services card and passports.

Two tech firms – one owned by businessman Dermot Desmond – involved in the creation of a controversial biometric database in India, are providing services for the Government’s public services card and passports.

Known as the Aadhaar project, the Indian scheme is the world’s largest ever biometric database involving 1.2 billion citizens. Initially voluntary, it became mandatory for obtaining state services, for paying taxes and for opening a bank account.

However, India’s supreme court ruled last month that privacy was a fundamental right, following a challenge to the mandatory nature of the huge biometric identification system. The ruling is likely to test the validity of the Aadhaar project.

Desmond’s firm Daon produced software selected in 2010 for use in the Indian scheme. It has since provided services to the Irish Government for the public services card and passports.

Another firm Morpho described as a major contributor to the Aadhar project, formed Biometric Card Services in 2009 along with DLRS Group and Conduit to produce some three million Irish public services cards.

Daon, which describes itself as a “biometric enabling technology company” was also awarded a €1.9 million contract by the Department of Foreign Affairs last year to provide a “facial recognition solution” for the passport service.

Watchlists

Tender documents show the Department of Foreign Affairs required software that would, among other things, match photographs with other photos in its database, allowing it to create “one or more watchlists”.

The Department of Social Protection also uses facial identification management software provided by 3M Ireland.

Privacy and technical experts have called for clarity about the biometric software and hardware being used by Irish officials after Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty said last weekend the Government was “not holding biometric data”.

Dermot Casey, a former chief technology officer of Storyful, said that if the Daon system was used to store the data and carry out the facial matching then the Government “appears to have purchased a biometric database system which can be extended to include voice, fingerprint and iris identification at a moment’s notice”.

Katherine O’Keefe, a data protection consultant with Castlebridge, said if the departments were using images of people’s faces to single out or identify an individual, they were “by legal definition processing biometric data”.

There was “a much larger question of what other data is being shared”, she said.

“There may be many potential benefits to having a “single view” or “universal identifier” for interacting with the State, but it would have to be extremely carefully constructed with risks assessed and mitigated to ensure it does not violate fundamental rights.”

11979 - AADHAAR, DATA SECURITY AND BREACH OF PRIVACY - DAILY PIONEER

AADHAAR, DATA SECURITY AND BREACH OF PRIVACY

Tuesday, 05 September 2017 | Sandhya Jain | in Edit

An RTI reply has punctured the UIDAI's assertion that no private entity had access to unencrypted Aadhaar data. While it is not clear who controls the data; certainly it is prone to misuse

A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Bengaluru-based Col  Matthew Thomas, a petitioner in the right to privacy case before the Supreme Court, reveals that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), custodian of Aadhaar data, signed contracts with foreign firms giving them “full access” to classified data and personal details of citizens, which they were allowed to store for seven years.

The Centre must direct the UIDAI to make a full disclosure of the project since its inception, including contracts signed, and who selected the firms recruited for the task. The then UIDAI chairman  Nandan Nilekani must explain why the technology (hardware and software) for collecting and storing the data was not created domestically when India is supposed to be the hub for information technology services.

The RTI reply punctures the UIDAI’s assertion that no private entity had access to unencrypted Aadhaar data. The contract with US-based biometric service provider, L-1 Identity Solutions Operating Company Private Limited (now owned by French transnational Safran Group), clearly says that the firm was given Aadhaar data access “as part of its job”. Other firms given identical contracts from 2010 to 2012 include Morpho and Accenture Services Private Limited.

In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was persuaded that Aadhaar could expand the reach of his social welfare programmes exponentially. But recently, when data breaches became glaring, Nilekani dismissed the problem saying data security is challenging in a digital age and ran back to his parent company. The unanimous verdict of the nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court, upholding right to privacy as a fundamental right, reportedly reflects this belated understanding at the top echelons of the Government.

The contract’s Clause 15.1, ‘Data and Hardware’, says the firm “may have access to personal data of the purchaser (UID), and/or a third party or any resident of India...” Clause 3, which deals with privacy, says the biometric service provider could “collect, use, transfer, store and process the data”. Also, the biometric service provider shall process all personal data in accordance with applicable law and regulation and should not disclose such information. The contract does not define ‘personal data’.

However, according to UIDAI, personal data includes biometric (fingerprints, iris) and demographic data (name, date of birth, address, mobile number), and could include bank details, licence number, PAN number, passport number and other information furnished as part of Know Your Customer (KYC). A clause in the contract says the firm should maintain the biometric template created by it and on termination or expiry of contract, “transfer all the proprietary templates to UIDAI”.

The UIDAI claimed it had purchased the software and hardware for the Aadhaar programme but the contracts show that the biometric service providers provided hardware for the first one crore enrollments. It is not known if the hardware was checked to ascertain if data could be stolen via a back door. UIDAI’s assertion that no data ever left its servers and premises cannot be trusted as the language of the contracts clearly shows that foreign firms had access to raw data.

But is this surprising? In a Forward to a Credit Suisse study (Ideas Engine Series, June 29, 2016), Nilekani wrote, “Once in a while a major disruption or discontinuity happens which has huge consequences. In 2007, the Internet and the mobile phone came together in a whole new product called the smartphone... (which) could support Over The Top applications. The messaging solution for the smartphone…came from WhatsApp, a start-up”.

Nilekani argued that Indian banking is experiencing a ‘WhatsApp’ moment, as smartphones could reach 700 million by 2020 and over one billion Indian residents have the online biometric identity, Aadhaar. Hence it is possible to “visualise a future where every adult Indian has an Aadhaar number, a smartphone and a bank account”.

More insidiously, Aadhaar provides on-line authentication using fingerprint or iris, which can be done from anywhere, making transactions ‘presence-less’. Aadhaar’s eKYC feature enables a bank account to be opened instantly by using one’s Aadhaar number and biometric; something prone to misuse. In Jammu & Kashmir, illegal immigrants (Rohingyas) have acquired Aadhaar and ration cards.

Extolling many facets of the new technology (the India Stack), Nilekani states, “as data becomes the new currency, financial institutions will be willing to forego transaction fees to get rich digital information on their customers (italics added)”. This would accelerate the move to a cashless economy as merchant payments will also become digital.

Commending Credit Suisse’s “insightful report”, Nilekani agrees that there is a $600 billion market capitalisation opportunity possible in the next 10 years, which will be shared between existing public and private banks, new banks and new age non-bank financial companies (NBFCs). “It may even go to non-banking platform players, which use the power of data to fine-tune credit risk and pricing, and make money from customer ownership and risk arbitrage”. He expects a serious challenge to public sector banks which currently enjoy a 70 per cent market share.

The Payment Bank (Paytm), launched in 2016 (Alibaba holds 40 per cent stake), and the Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-powered payment interfaces, hope to encash the shift towards digital transactions, and get their share of the coveted $ 600 billion pie. Credit Suisse anticipates that private banks, NBFCs’ and fin-tech players will be its prime beneficiaries.

Credit Suisse explains that financial providers will become data rich in just two or three years as they receive data via transactions made through their apps, digital footprints left by individuals, smartphone data and online tax information, as three  to five billion invoices go digital with the Goods and Services Tax. Forecasting consumer debt to rise to 25 per cent of the gross domestic product from the current 17 per cent on the back of new data availability, the SME lending market could grow from $620 billion to $3,020 billion over the next decade. Aadhaar seems tailored to benefit private bankers.

This writer was invited to enroll for the National Population Register vide acknowledgement slip 130, form number 02046115, household block no. 0021, household number 128, by Enumerator OP Singh, dated May 26, 2010. Aadhaar was supposedly for BPL beneficiaries. It turned out they were one and the same.

Now, it is not clear who controls the data; certainly it is prone to misuse. The Sonia Gandhi-led UPA regime unleashed this menace through lies and deception. The Modi-led Government must fix this treachery. No country in the world has allowed bankers and corporations such totalitarian access to intimate data about its citizens.

(The writer is a political analyst and an independent researcher)

9790 - Morpho Celebrates Billionth Aadhaar Enrollment - Find Biometrics

Morpho Celebrates Billionth Aadhaar Enrollment

Posted on April 8, 2016

“Morpho has been a major a major contributor to the project, offering biometric scanning technologies.”

Morpho (Safran) is celebrating a major milestone for India’s Aadhaar project. As of the start of April, the national biometric ID program has now reached a billion citizens.

First initiated in 2010, the project was aimed at creating a new national biometric registry as a means of verifying citizens’ identities; and as part of the ongoing Digital India project, it’s being used for a range of important purposes including facilitating access to government services, tracking government employees’ time and attendance, and reducing corruption and graft in the delivery of public subsidies.

Morpho has been a major a major contributor to the project, offering biometric scanning technologies. The company also recently provided technology for an Aadhaar hackathon aimed at further leveraging the power of Aadhaar with new digital projects, and in December won a contract to use Aadhaar to enroll subscribers of Airtel, the country’s largest MNO.

With a billion citizens enrolled, Aadhaar has now reached 93 percent of the country’s adult population and, amazingly, 17 percent of the world population. It’s evidently been a huge undertaking, offering Morpho good reason to celebrate.

—

April 8, 2016 – by Alex Perala

9704 - People of South Asian countries are subjected to slavery by mass biometric surveillance like Aadhaar’ - Two Circles

‘People of South Asian countries are subjected to slavery by mass biometric surveillance like Aadhaar’

Submitted by TwoCircles.net on 31 March 2016 - 10:56am

By TCN News,

New Delhi: In order to ponder light on various aspects of mass biometric identification projects in South Asian countries, a Press Conference on “Are Aadhaar like biometric identification projects in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan legitimate?” was organized here at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia, New Delhi.

On Wednesday many eminent personalities shared their views with the media included P D T Achary, former Secretary General, Lok Sabha, Dr Usha Ramanathan, noted jurist, Dr. M Vijayanunni, former Registrar General and Census Commissioner and Dr Gopal Krishna of Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL).

The Press Conference was held even as the order of Chief Justice of India headed by 5 Judge Bench in the Aadhaar matter awaits compliance and High Court Division of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court is also seized with a matter related to biometric identification project. In a related development a Panel of Nepal’s Public Accounts Committee is examining the issues related to biometric data based Voter ID project.

In the matter of Aadhaar Act, 2006, P D T Achary, former Secretary General, Lok Sabha said that it “comes under the category of financial bills under Article 117” and not under the category of Money Bill. He said, “Article 110(3) confirms finality on the speaker’s decision on the question of whether a bill is a money bill. But this constitutional provision cannot be seen as a convenient tool to deal with an inconvenient second chamber.”

He said that Supreme Court will have to examine whether Lok Sabha has the competence and power to expose people to grave risks. Speakers’ power is not absolute under the Constitution of India. It can be challenged in a Court of law.

In his statement Dr. M Vijayanunni, former Registrar General and Census Commissioner and former Chief Secretary of Government of West Bengal said, “China, which is comparable to India in terms of size and diversity of population, abandoned its universal ID system midway in the face of insurmountable problems encountered during its implementation, despite the supposed advantage of their totalitarian system in pushing through such a humongous but ill-advised project.”

He also stated, “The real pressure for continuance of the scheme will be from the police and secret surveillance systems to pry into the privacy of everyone which gives them unlimited powers over the lives of helpless individuals and enjoy unchallenged supremacy in the days to come. That will sound the death-knell of freedom and democracy.”

Dr Usha Ramanathan, a jurist said, “Biometrics, unlike passwords or pin numbers, cannot be replaced. What is a person supposed to do if their biometrics get compromised? This is a risk that is being foisted on the people, and no one else is willing to accept liability for the harm and loss that this may cause.” She also said, “in making biometrics compulsory for the poor, the poor are being told that they do not have any interest in privacy, and that they should only care about the money they may get from the government or the food that may be provided. This reduction of citizenship of the poor person to a rightless welfare recipient is itself unconstitutional.”

She further stated, “This project has made it necessary to remind the governments that the Constitution is not about the power of the state over the people. It is about the limits of state power.”

Col. Mathew Thomas, a defense scientist and a petitioner before the Supreme Court of India against Aadhaar said, “Putting the biometric and demographic data of all Armed Forces personnel into a database, which is accessed by foreign private companies, hands over the entire deployment of the Nations Defenses to foreigners. I think that UID is more dangerous than Masood Azhar. He can at best try a terror strike. UID makes our nation subservient to a foreign power. It takes away our freedom. Is there anti-nationalism that is worse than handing over the entire biometric and demographic data of the Nation to private foreign contractors and hiding the fact from us?”

“The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has repeatedly said that UID is a threat to national security. The danger to national security is not only from illegal immigrants entering UID database, but from the foreign private companies who are providing biometric technology to UIDAI. These foreign firms were founded by former CIA and FBI officials and are contractors to US intelligence agents. Clauses 15.1 of Annexure ‘A’ and 3.1 ‘B’ of the contract of UIDAI with M/s L 1 Identity Solutions Operating Company, a foreign company, provide it access to ALL personal data in the UID database and the use, transfer, processing and linking of the data with personal data of specific individuals”, he added.

“India and Pakistan are two countries which are using the same foreign private companies for biometric technology for setting national databases – UID in India and NADRA in Pakistan. No greater stupidity can ever be imagined. With this India will not just be “re-booted”, it will be booted (kicked) into a vassal state of a foreign power along with its neighbor, Pakistan,” he strongly contended.

Dr Gopal Krishna of Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL) said, following the footprints of Pakistan, Government of India set up Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI) of India in January 2009 for biometric identification of Indian residents. The transnational companies like Ernst & Young. L1 Identities Solution, Safran and Accenture are involved in it. Ironically, these companies are taking the personal sensitive information for “seven years” and Government is paying for it. 

Government’s ambitious Digital India project seeks to link mobile SIM cards with the unique identity number (UID) or Aadhaar. The development comes close on the heels of the Cabinet approving the blueprint for the Digital India project.”

The conference held that the section of political class which has resisted the Faustian bargain so far must examine following questions and put these biometric agencies to rigorous scrutiny to make them subservient to people’s will:

Is it a coincidence that the similar schemes are unfolding in South Asia? Isn’t there a design behind persuading and compelling developing countries to biometrically profile their citizens? Is it too early to infer that international bankers, UN agencies and western military alliances wish to create profiles in their biometric and electronic database for coercive use of social control measures? Is it not true that uninformed citizens, parliamentarians and gullible government agencies are too eager to be profiled and tracked through an online database? Would freedom fighters have approved of mass surveillance by any national or transnational agency? Is it not clear that UN agencies, World Bank Group, transnational intelligence companies and military alliances are working in tandem to create the bio-electronic database of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi as per their pre-determined design? Is this design structured to safeguard the interest of present and future generation?

It also added that the citizens must compel these national governments to explain how national security of US, France and their allies converge with the national interest of India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

There is evidence in public domain that indicates that under the influence of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and World Bank, Governments of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been compelled to adopt biometric identification for its residents. In the aftermath of disclosures by Wikileaks, Edward Snowden, Citizen Four, Glenn Greenwald and the surveillance by unaccountable institutions, now that the fearful ramifications are visible on the horizon, the question is who is stopping, the political class in the region to desist from allowing subjugation of their fellow citizens to be subjugated by transnational imperial powers.

Now that Aadhaar Act, 2016 has been notified in the Gazette after it received the President’s assent, the press conference tried to examine the constitutionality and legitimacy of such initiatives in a global and South Asian context. Supreme Court of India is seized with the matter. Election Commission of India has refused to link Aadhaar with Voter ID in compliance with Court’s order. Governments of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal appear to have been compelled to adopt biometric identification for its residents ignoring the fact that countries like UK, USA, China, Australia, and France have abandoned either their identity projects or indiscriminate use of biometrics. But the same has been bulldozed in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. Mass surveillance is harming democracy, the conference opined.

How it is working in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal

One of the most successful examples of implementation of biometric identification is Pakistan. Even SIM card for mobile in Pakistan is done based on biometric identification. Pakistani authorities May 16, 2015 said they have authenticated 75.5 million SIM cards through biometric verification. In an interview, Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks informed Imran Khan about the grave act of omission and commission. Assange said, “…we discovered a cable in 2009 from the Islamabad Embassy. Prime Minister Gilani and interior minister Malik went into the (US) embassy and offered to share National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) – and NADRA is the national data and registration agency database. The system is currently connected through passport data but the government of Pakistan is adding voice and facial recognition capability and has installed a pilot biometric system as the Chenaai border crossing, where 30,000 to 35,000 people cross each day. This NADRA system is the voting record system for all voters in Pakistan. A front company was set up in the United Kingdom – International Identity Services, which was hired as the consultants for NADRA to squirrel out the NADRA data for all of Pakistan. What do you think about that? Is that a…? It seems to me that that is a theft of some national treasure of Pakistan, the entire Pakistani database registry of its people.” The interview was conducted on June 19, 2012.

In a related development, on December 16, 2015 Bangladesh introduced: mandatory biometric registration for all SIM card owners. With this new system in place, every mobile phone SIM card will be associated with its user's identity as it appears in the national identity card database of the Election Commission. Every SIM card owner will be asked to verify their identity by providing their fingerprint, which will be checked against the fingerprint data associated with their national identification. Each person will be allowed to register a maximum of twenty mobile phone SIM cards to their national identity card. This scheme connects communications data together with individual, government-assigned identities. By implication it allows the government to have unprecedented oversight on daily lives of Bangladeshi citizens.

Responding to a complaint Nepal's Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) raised a national security concern over the contract to be awarded to Morpho Safran, a French company working in India, for preparing the national identity card on January 4, 2016. Its members argued that any firm belonging to, or working in India or China, should not be awarded such a sensitive project as preparing the national identity card that contains all vital information on Nepali citizens. The National Identity Management Centre (NIDMC) has chosen Morpho Safran to print the national IDs, the same firm that had been disqualified earlier for a conflict of interests. Only Morpho Safran was deemed “technically eligible” to set up infrastructure and print the ID cards. While the selection has to be approved by the funding agency, Asian Development Bank (ADB), the fact that only one firm was found to be technically eligible has raised many an eyebrow. PAC members claimed that Morpho’s subsidiary firm is involved in many projects in India including in preparing a similar kind of national identity card (Aadhaar).

The NIDMC of Nepal's Home Ministry qualified Morpho Safran technically among five other bidders namely, Gemalto (France), IRIS Corporation (Malaysia), Informatics (Sri Lanka), Dermalog and Arjowiggins (France). Nepal’s PAC formed a panel to see if there are irregularities in picking only one firm. In June, 2015 the Nepal Government had called a global tender for procurement and installation of hardware at its offices and all project sites. The Asian Development Bank extended an $8 million loan for the project while the rest is to be financed by the World Bank. The report is yet to see the light of the day.

It is evident that governments of Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India are following the footprints of an experiment which was tried, tested and failed in the developed countries.

For instance, has NADRA been made accountable for this theft of national treasure of Pakistan? Will these governments be made accountable if “rich data assets” are stolen or sold? Has anyone been made accountable till date in such situations?

9647 - Safran signals Morpho sale

Safran signals Morpho sale

Ben Vogel, Cologne - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly

15 March 2016

   

Safran is considering the sale of its Morpho biometrics activities, a few months after revealing it is open to offers for the Morpho Detection aviation security technology business.

CEO Philippe Petitcolin, previously CEO of Morpho, said on 14 March that Safran's future lies in aerospace manufacturing and defence but did not rule out any options for Morpho. 

Petitcolin indicated that Safran has received multiple expressions of interest from potential buyers of Morpho Detection.

Safran in February 2016 reported record results for 2015, including a 22.7% increase in sales across all its security activities to EUR1.88 billion (USD2.1 billion).

Morpho's latest orders include a contract for biometric technology at Singapore Changi, announced on 15 March during Passenger Terminal Expo in Cologne.

9292 - A tale of two presidents - Hollande's visit to India is more important than Obama's was - Telegraph India

A tale of two presidents - Hollande's visit to India is more important than Obama's was

Diplomacy K.P. Nayar

The contrast between the presence of the French president, François Hollande, at the Republic Day celebrations and a similar visit last year by Barack Obama, president of the United States of America, is emblematic of how misplaced India's public perceptions are of where its core interests lie. Without an iota of doubt, France represents the most important diplomatic relationship for this country at its present stage of growing up. Here are a few examples that cover a large expanse of India's foreign engagement. Fifteen years ago, Capgemini - a pioneering company founded by the legendary entrepreneur, Serge Kampf, in the French city of Grenoble in 1967 - employed a mere hundred Indians. As Hollande and the prime minister, Narendra Modi, reflect within a few months on their decisions made in New Delhi this week, Capgemini's work-force in India would have crossed one lakh men and women. Aadhaar is now a household word in India. Even the poorest of the poor, who may still not have the national identity card, have heard Aadhaar mentioned at some point. Aadhaar, which is fundamentally changing the way transactions of all variety in daily life are being conducted, would not have become a reality without help from a French company, Safran Morpho, founded in 1924 under its original name of Sagem. This company uniquely developed for India's "unique identification number" project the necessary biometric technology: it was one of the biggest challenges of its kind in the history of the human race, registering over a billion people under one scheme. In these times of terrorist threats all round when even one's own shadow can be suspect, Safran Morpho helps keep India safe. It supplies explosive, narcotic and threat detection systems for this country's major airports. It also helps secure the Indian air force, the ministries of home and external affairs in addition to public sector undertakings which have a security component, such as the Electronics Corporation of India Limited in Hyderabad. When Hollande told Modi in a conversation in Chandigarh on Saturday that one in every three Indians is able to telecommunicate because of a Safran Morpho subsidiary, Syscom Corporation, the prime minister thanked the visiting president for the parent French company's role in helping to run the national rural employment guarantee scheme and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna. It is an irony in political terms that Modi, who is attempting to transform manufacturing in India into a national mission with his "Make in India" slogan, is finding that Bihar, where his party recently got a thorough drubbing, is forging ahead significantly in creating factory jobs. It is a French company, Alstom Transport, which will manufacture 800 electric locomotives for Indian Railways at a new plant it will build in Bihar's Madehpura. To start with, jobs are guaranteed there over the next ten years that it will take to supply these locomotives. Investment in this project is estimated at Rs 19,800 crore. Alstom Transport was the first firm to offer foreign direct investment in rail projects after the government liberalized foreign direct investment in the railways. Similarly, after the Modi government raised permissible FDI in the insurance sector from 24 to 49 per cent, France's AXA was the first to respond. It immediately applied to the government to enhance up to the new limit its stake in the joint ventures with the Bharti group, bringing in fresh foreign capital. There has lately been criticism that the National Democratic Alliance government is neglecting public health and is insensitive to the welfare needs of the poor. In pharmaceuticals, even the previous United Progressive Alliance has been under pressure from big pharma to dilute India's self-reliance on medicines for those who cannot afford the high cost of vaccines and drugs.  Therefore, it is refreshing that last month, Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical giant, announced that it will manufacture an injectable polio vaccine in Hyderabad, not only for domestic use, but also for export. For such activities, Sanofi made Shantha Biotechnics an Indian affiliate of the parent French company in 2009.  For those unfamiliar with Sanofi, it was originally the multinational, Hoechst, which has been operating in this country since 1956. Notwithstanding such an impressive French record in helping India meet its vital needs, Hollande's visit did not generate even a fraction of the public interest that Obama's visit generated at this time last year. Weeks before Obama was to arrive for last year's Republic Day celebrations, everybody who thought of himself as 'important' left no stone unturned and went to incredible lengths to secure an invitation to attend President Pranab Mukherjee's banquet in honour of the US president. The pressure on Rashtrapati Bhavan was so intense that Mukherjee's staff had to shift the banquet from the usual ornate and historic hall to a new facility, which was far less impressive but many times larger. State banquets, by their very nature, cannot be carnivals, so invitations for the Obama dinner had to be limited. Those who were disappointed then tried for invitations to the president's traditional "At Home" on January 26 so that they could get a glimpse of Obama, even if they could not get to shake his hands and those of the First Lady. The listing above of Indo-French engagement is only a partial enumeration of how important Hollande's visit is. The strategic nature of Indo-French relations has been dwelt upon in this column in great detail since France was the only big power - not even Russia, initially - to support Atal Bihari Vajpayee's decision as prime minister in 1998 to conduct the Pokhran II tests, which eventually ended India's nuclear winter. For that reason, it deserves no repetition. It was commendable that the foreign secretary, S. Jaishankar, made it a point to emphasize on Monday that "France is the original strategic partner of India. It was the first country to be so designated. We have very close relations with them in defence, nuclear energy, space..." It is a sad reflection on the state of strategic thought outside the government in this country that until the foreign secretary said so, none of the pundits who become highly voluble at a passing mention of the White House thought it necessary to mention the unique nature of political relations between New Delhi and Paris. Similarly, when history was made at Tuesday's Republic Day parade with a foreign military contingent - French - marching along with Indian soldiers, none of the live television commentators, most of them retired high-ranking military officers, could explain its context, history or relevance. For Mukherjee, although he is now out of active policy-making in Rashtrapati Bhavan, this must have been a moment of intense satisfaction. As defence minister in the Manmohan Singh government, it was he who opened up India's military to greater international engagement that went beyond routine joint military exercises or goodwill port calls by naval vessels. It is worth remembering with Hollande in our midst that India is today in the club of developed-cum-emerging nations, the Group of Twenty, because of what the French initiated in 2003. On a balmy June morning that year, thanks to the far-sighted and out of the box invitation of Jacques Chirac (then president), Vajpayee tentatively took his seat at a meeting of eight industrialized countries, collectively known as the Group of Eight, at the historic Hotel Royal in the resort town of Évian-les-Bains on the banks of Lac Léman. Chirac's invitation set in motion a train of events that culminated in the creation of the G-20, of which India is now a full member. With rare exceptions like the nuclear deal, the Americans only make promises that are short on delivery. But it is the French who either deliver for India or show how what they cannot deliver themselves can be realized. telegraph_dc@yahoo.com

9166 - Morpho and Airtel to test Aadhaar-based mobile phone sign-up - Biometric Update

Morpho and Airtel to test Aadhaar-based mobile phone sign-up

By Rawlson King

December 11, 2015 - 

Morpho (Safran) has been chosen by Airtel, a leading Indian telecom operator, to become its key partner in an electronic know your customer (e-KYC) pilot project operating in Uttar Pradesh.

In March, Airtel launched an Aadhaar-based e-KYC initiative in the Indian state for subscriber verification. e-KYC is a process that enables banking and telecom customers to open and access accounts by way of their Aadhaar number. Customers in Uttar Pradesh will be required to use their Aadhaar number along with a biometric identifier, such as an iris scan or fingerprint, in order to activate a new prepaid or postpaid mobile phone.

Aadhaar, the world’s largest universal Civil ID program, is the biometric database used by the Indian government to provide social services. To date, Aadhaar has issued 630 million Aadhaar numbers, and has enrolled approximately 850 million people. The database is actively used for monitor school attendance and issue natural gas subsidies to India’s rural poor. The government however intends to use the system for a range of other purposes, including as a means of identification for healthcare insurance beneficiaries, bank accounts, and the issuance of passports and mobile SIM smartphone cards. This pilot project by Airtel will be a key test of Aadhaar. Airtel selected Morpho to develop a new, digitally-based, paperless mobile phone subscriber process.

Sanjeev Shriya, Senior Vice President, India, at Morpho, said: “India is currently one of the best possible global markets to establish cutting-edge technologies. This project with Airtel perfectly demonstrates Morpho’s global leadership in biometric-based solutions for mobile network operators. Strong KYC solutions are at the heart of future mobile ID business trends. They will allow mobile network operators to deploy a whole new set of services by knowing their customers better.”

Advertisement

Morpho is showcasing its relationship with Airtel, since the telecom is the leading mobile network operator in India, with the country’s largest installed subscriber base, pegged at 228 million end users. The Airtel pilot project will be tested at various retail points in Lucknow, which is the Uttar Pradesh state capital. The pilot will use Morpho’s managed services, along with the biometric firm’s branded MorphoTablets. Airtel subscribers are expected to benefit from greater convenience, by avoiding the need to provide paper identification, thereby allowing quicker activation of mobile subscriptions.

Yves Portalier, Vice President and General Manager Telecom Business Unit of Morpho, said: “Morpho has placed great emphasis on developing a solution that is paperless, flexible, fast and cost effective. Mobile network operators can establish more sophisticated services through strong, trusted ID management, thus avoiding fraud. As people and objects become more and more connected, security and authentication have taken on a new dimension. Morpho is focused on digital ID solutions that enable service providers to reinforce authentication processes and guarantee secure access to multiple devices and accounts.”

8720 - UPA Awarded Aadhaar Card Projects Over Rs 13,000 Crore Without Tenders: RTI - Indian Express

UPA Awarded Aadhaar Card Projects Over Rs 13,000 Crore Without Tenders: RTI

By IANS

Published: 19th September 2015 04:44 PM

MUMBAI: Aadhaar card projects of the UIDAI worth over Rs.13,000 crore were awarded without issuing tenders by the previous UPA government, according to a RTI response, an activist said here on Saturday.

RTI activist Anil Galgali had submitted queries under the RTI to the UIDAI officials, Public Information Officer S.S. Bisht and Deputy Director-cum-PIO R. Harish who provided the replies about the amount spent on the projects which was then headed by technocrat Nandan Nilekani.

In the reply, the UIDAI officials disclosed that total project contracts worth Rs.13,663.22 crore were awarded without any tenders of which an amount of Rs.6,563 crore has been already spent on issuing 90.3 crore Aadhar Cards till May 2015.

They further informed that a total 25 companies were awarded different responsibilities for the massive project and their empanelment was done under the process guidelines of Request For Empanelment of May 19, 2014.

"This is shocking as various sections of people, including the Supreme Court and civil society groups have expressed serious concerns about the right to privacy with sensitive personal data of 125 crore population going in the hands of private companies," Galgali told IANS.

He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a probe into the UIDAI to ensure transparency in the award of contracts for Aadhaar cards.

"The sensitive datas of finger prints and iris of each and every Indian could be unsafe with private companies," cautioned Harsheet Shah, cyber law expert-cum-researcher.

According to the information, some of the companies awarded more than one project works include: Tata Consultancy Service, Mac Associates, Wipro, HCL, HP India Sales Pvt. Ltd., National Informatics Centre, Sagem Morpho Securities Pvt. Ltd, Satyam Computer Services Ltd, L1 Identity Solutions, Totem International Ltd., Linkwel Telesystems Pvt. Ltd. Sai Infosystems India Ltd, Geodesic Ltd, ID Solutions, NISG, SQTC, Telesima Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Others which secured a single contract include: Reliance Communication, Tata Communications, Aircel, Bharati Airtel, BSNL and Railtel Corporation of India Ltd.

8125 - News Roundup: Novelty, Integration, Innovation - Find Biometrics

News Roundup: Novelty, Integration, Innovation

Posted on June 8, 2015

Last week at FindBiometrics the news was international in scope, with top stories from India, China, Nigeria, Canada and the U.S. New integrations, new implementations and new inventions kept the biometrics conversation dynamic and exciting as we began Healthcare Month.

Novelty and Innovation

Biometric facial recognition is finding its way into San Antonio animal shelters with new technology that can be used to identify lost dogs. It’s a novel concept that’s actually proving to be quite innovative, something that can also be said of Google’s big news from last week: that it has patented iris-scanning contact lens technology.

Speaking of innovation, we received update on the upcoming Windows 10 operating system, which will feature multimodal biometric support, and Fingerprint Cards let known its involvement in developing the fingerprint technology used in Android M. We took a look at how facial recognition is being explored in detecting pain, and in congratulatory news, Sonovation CTO Rainer Schmitt received an award from IEEE for pioneering ultrasound based fingerprint biometrics.

Dog Face Biometrics Market Continues Expansion

Facial Biometrics Could Help Doctors Manage Pain

Iris-Scanning Contact Lens Patented By Google

Windows 10 to Feature Advanced Biometric Interaction

FPC Helped Develop Android M’s Fingerprint System

Sonavation CTO Receives Industry Award

Payments and Banking

In payments news, last week we reported on PayPal’s support of Touch ID for user authentication while Credence ID partnered with ADO Technologies to deploy new banking solutions in Panama and Columbia. In China, meanwhile, a university has developed what is being hailed as the world’s first biometric ATM.

Facial Recognition ATM to Debut in China

Credence ID Teams With Developer For Biometric Banking

PayPal Announces Touch ID Support

Biometrics International

On an international scale last week, the industry was talking about border control and privacy. Canada is expanding its biometric screening processes, the American DHS is testing new border control tech, and MorphoTrust held an enrollment event at a golf championship.

Outside of background checks and border protection, national ID made headlines. In India, an Aadhaar hackathon will be taking advantage of Morpho (Safran) biometric technology. NEXT Biometrics announced the its intentions in targeting the Indian market through a new partnership with AqTronics and EyeVerify got a reseller to bring its Eyeprint ID tech to the Turkish market.

Canadian Gov’t Seeks to Expand Biometric Screening

Morpho Lends Tech to Aadhaar Hackathon

Credence ID to Authenticate Nigerian Students

Olcsan Scores EyeVerify Re-seller Rights

PreCheck Convenience Offers Relief from Frustrations of Golf

DHS Tests Biometric Border Screening

NEXT Biometrics Aims at India With AqTronics

Integrations Make it Happen

Finally, in integration news last week, Integrated Biometrics’ Columbo sensor was chosen for a new access control solution. BioSSL, in the meantime, announced that it is integrating Card_Labs’ Biometric Bank Card into its secure platform.

Biometric Card Complements Web Security Platform

Access Control Specialist Integrates Columbo Sensor

Stay posted to FindBiometrics this week as we continue to bring you the best in identity management news. Be sure to follow us on Twitter so you don’t miss a beat.

—

June 8, 2015 – by Peter B. Counter

4702 - SC rap welcome, but Aadhaar fight continues - DNA

SC rap welcome, but Aadhaar fight continues

Tuesday, Sep 24, 2013, 12:59 IST | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Malavika Velayanikal  

Activists and others who have been opposing Aadhaar want UID project to be scrapped

Many Bangaloreans are gladly saying “I told you so!” since the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Unique Identification Card cannot be mandatory to avail benefits of government schemes.

There have been several active campaigns against Aadhaar, and some of the campaigners, besides petitions, have even filed suits against the government on the UID project. For them, the SC ruling has come as a welcome move. It is the first step towards halting the faulty project, they say.

Colonel Thomas Mathew, one of the first to file a civil suit on this in early 2011, vows that the fight is far from over. “The SC ruling today is the first step in the right direction of course. But we will continue our fight. We had asked the court to put a stop to this Aadhaar project. Instead the SC has said that the registration for the identity card was purely voluntary and government departments cannot demand the card in order to provide a service.”

WHERE’S THE LEGAL SANCTITY?
There is no law or ordinance regarding Aadhaar. “If the government links ration, LPG or scholarships to Aadhaar, what right to food or right to education do we as Indian citizens claim to have?” Colonel Mathew asks. “If a stranger asks for your name and address, you do not give, and yet you willingly run to fly-by-night operators to submit your biometrics. Did you check who will make use of your information? Which company made the instruments which recorded the biometrics? Will your data be used by other countries? The public are stupid to give all their information to contract employees who are there today and gone tomorrow,” he rues.

The reason why he filed a suit instead of a PIL, he says, was to expose the fraud and corruption involved in the whole process.

WHO GETS THE DATA?
“Everything about it is wrong. The government has been misleading the public about it. It entrusted the process to two companies, L1 Identities Solutions, which was bought by Safron and renamed as Morpho Trust, and Accenture Services, both of which have been mired in fraud. Both of them have been found guilty on several counts and had to pay huge penalties.

Nandan Nilekani was given ID Limelight Award in Milan for his work on the UID project. A key sponsor of the award was Safron Morpho. How can we trust them with such sensitive information?” senior advocate BT Venkatesh, who filed the suit for Colonel Mathew and Somashekara, asks.

He defines the UID project as a “criminal conspiracy by the state”.

The suit was dismissed once, and the appeal on it will be heard in October. “All the people involved in this project should be sent to jail,” he says.

NOT A PENNY MORE
Vinay B, an urban reform researcher, who has been actively fighting for the Say No to UID Campaign, says that Monday’s SC ruling proves that “the government has been misleading people.

By making citizens feel threatened that they would lose out on benefits if they do not have an Aadhaar, the government has treated people badly. They spread so many misconceptions about this project. For example, most people believe it to be a card, when it is just a letter. The whole UID exercise shows how people need to be aware. I hope the people will take the government to task now,” he says.

Crores of rupees have been spent on the project already. Not another paisa should be spent on it anymore, these campaigners say.

3086 - Morpho (Safran) signs agreement with the State Bank of India during official visit of French President François Hollande to India

Morpho (Safran) signs agreement with the State Bank of India during official visit of French President François Hollande to India

Companies referenced in this item: Safran Group

Be Sociable, Share!

During the official visit of French President, Francois Hollande to India, Morpho (Safran) through its Indian subsidiary Smart Chip, signed an agreement with the State Bank of India for the provision and maintenance of a biometric authentication solution. The agreement was signed yesterday in New Delhi by N Jambunathan, Chief General Manager, State Bank of India and Sanjeev Shriya, Managing Director of Smart Chip, in the presence of French President François Hollande and Jean-Paul Herteman, Chairman and CEO of Safran.

Under this agreement, Smart Chip will implement a biometric authentication solution comprising fingerprint sensors and biometric matching software to verify the State Bank of India’s employee credentials before granting them access to the Core Banking System of the bank. This solution will enhance security of the entire banking infrastructure. The system will be implemented across State Bank of India and its Associate Banks to provide biometric verification in over 21,000 branches.

“We are happy to embrace Morpho’s biometric technology. The users of our core banking system are extremely confident of the enhanced system security with the introduction of biometric authentication,” stated N. Jambunathan, Chief General Manager, State Bank of India.

“We are pleased to be selected once again to deploy our world-class biometric technology in the Indian banking market,” said Sanjeev Shriya, Managing Director of Smart Chip. “With Morpho’s strong local presence, heavy investments and foundational role in the Aadhaar project, we believe that we are contributing significantly to the large-scale adoption of biometrics for the Indian market.”

In addition to its involvement in the Aadhaar project, Morpho is also a leading provider of biometric terminals, smart cards and SIM cards in India. Morpho has also deployed more than 500 explosives, narcotics and chemical detectors across India to protect people and property in some of the most challenging environments.

Morpho, a high-technology company in the Safran group, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of identification, detection and e-document solutions. Morpho is specialized in personal rights and flow management applications, in particular based on biometrics, a sector in which it is the world leader, as well as secure terminals and smart cards. Morpho’s integrated systems and equipment are deployed worldwide and contribute to the safety and security of transportation, data, people and countries.

For more information: www.morpho.com - www.safran-group.com

3085 - European Commission Selects Consortium of Accenture, Morpho and HP to Maintain EU Visa Information and Biometric Matching Systems

Wed  Feb 20   2013

European Commission Selects Consortium of Accenture, Morpho and HP to Maintain EU Visa Information and Biometric Matching Systems

Be Sociable, Share!

BRUSSELS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The European Commission Directorate General for Home Affairs has awarded a consortium of Accenture (NYSE: ACN), Morpho (Safran) and HP, a contract to maintain the European Visa Information System (VIS). The contract is for three years with a possible one-year extension to a maximum value of €70 million (approx.US$93 million).

The project will support the exchange of visa data across border management authorities by ensuring the processing capacity of the system and the availability of high levels of search and matching capabilities required for visa applications. The VIS system went live, on schedule, in October 2011 and has since experienced increased usage by consulates in non-EU countries and external border crossing points of Schengen states.

 “Accenture has in-depth experience working with border agencies around the world in helping them meet the challenges of managing the growing numbers of travelers and increased visa application complexity,” said Mark Crego who leads Accenture’s global Border and Identity Management business. “We are pleased to have been chosen by the European Commission to lead this consortium of suppliers over the coming years.”

 As consortium lead, Accenture will assume overall project responsibilities, overseeing the integration of functional, technical and operational maintenance to the VIS, and Morpho will provide biometric matching services. Accenture and Morpho (as the Bridge Consortium) have worked with the European Commission since 2007 on the development and support of the biometric matching engine of the VIS.

 “Morpho is proud to have been chosen, once again, to supply the biometric matching services for the VIS,” said Jean-Paul Jainsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Morpho. “Biometrics has become a key element for effective border management, and as the world leader in biometric technology, we are committed to developing state-of-the-art solutions to meet the current and emerging needs of this market.”

 HP has worked with the European Commission since 2005, deploying the HP Converged Infrastructure solution and associated technology services for the VIS as well as the archiving and back-up solution. Under the new contract, there is the potential for additional HP network support with associated consulting and IT support services. Subcontractors to Accenture are Daon and WCC Smart Search and Match who will provide IT support and services.

 Border security and citizen protection is becoming increasingly important,” stated Peter Ryan, senior vice president and managing director, HP EMEA. “HP’s mission-critical Converged Infrastructure is key to delivering multi-national IT projects in the public safety domain.”

 VIS is at the core of the visa application process to the Schengen area and enables Schengen States to store and exchange alphanumeric and biometric data relating to visa applications of third-country citizens. As a subcomponent of VIS, a Biometric Matching System (BMS) enables the accurate identification of visa applicants through matching biometric data, such as fingerprints, to identities to establish and verify visa applications.

Learn more about Accenture’s Defense & Public Safety industry, Turning Insights into Outcomes, Accenture Border and Identity Services and Delivering Public Service for the Future.

 About Accenture

 Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 259,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2012. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT Infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

Morpho, a high-technology company in the Safran group, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of identification, detection and e-document solutions. Morpho is specialized in personal rights and flow management applications, in particular based on biometrics, a sector in which it is the world leader, as well as secure terminals and smart cards. Morpho’s integrated systems and equipment are deployed worldwide and contribute to the safety and security of transportation, data, people and countries.

For more information: www.morpho.com - www.safran-group.com

 Contacts

Accenture: Joe Doyle, + 353 87 2507583, joe.x.doyle@accenture.com
HP: Anneleen Holleweg, + 32 475804006, anneleen.holleweg@hp.com
Morpho: Christelle Kinkead, + 33 0 1 58 11 87 44, christelle.kinkead@morpho.com

3048 - Rafale has an Aadhar connection

Rafale has an Aadhar connection

JOYEETA BASU  NEW DELHI | 5th Feb 2012

M88-2 Rafale engine

Rafale, the French medium multi role combat aircraft (MMRCA), which was selected by India for a $18 billion deal has an interesting link with the unique identification project. One of Rafale's most important manufacturers belongs to the Safran group, which is closely involved with Indian unique identification card, Aadhar, project. Safran is also part of other significant deals that the French have struck with India.

The Rafale is manufactured primarily by a consortium of three French companies, Dassault, Snecma and Thales. Of these, Snecma, which manufactures Rafale's engine, is a Safran group company. The French government has 30.2% stake in Safran.

The Safran group, which specialises in defence, aerospace propulsion and equipment, and security, also has Morpho among its many companies. Morpho specialises in biometric identification systems, explosive detection systems (EDS) for hold baggage, smart cards, etc. In India, Morpho is best known for its tie-up with Mahindra Satyam. In July 2010, Morpho and Mahindra Satyam were selected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as one of the key partners for the initial stages of the UID project. According to a 30 July 2010 Mopho press release, "Mahindra Satyam and Morpho will develop and maintain systems that will cross-check every new application by sifting through the biometrics database, preventing accidental or fraudulent duplication and ensuring that each identification number is unique. Morpho will provide the biometric technology while Mahindra Satyam will integrate and provide support across platforms and databases."

In July 2010, a US company, L1 Identity Solutions too was selected for the "implementation of biometric solution for UIDAI". Interestingly, in September 2010, Safran announced that it was acquiring L1 Identity Solutions for $1.09 billion. L1 would join Safran's security business and would be renamed as Morpho Trust. So France now has a significant business interest in the UID project.

In fact, there are several other Safran angles to India-France business ventures. Snecma, which has designed, developed and produced the M88-2 engine for Rafale, is also the manufacturer of the M53 jet engine that powers the Mirage 2000 family of aircraft. India has more than 60 such engines in service.

Snecma is also closely associated with the ongoing upgrade of 50 ageing Mirage aircraft. The deal for this was signed during Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to India in December 2010.

Snecma also has a 50:50 joint venture with HAL, which supplies some components for the commercial CFM56 engine that the French company manufactures. It also has a mechanic training centre in Hyderabad, the fourth such in the world. The other three are in France, China and the US.

2599 - Safran( morpho ) completes acquisition of L1 Identity - Was UID the reason ???

Safran( morpho ) completes acquisition of L1 Identity - Was UID the reason ???

France's Safran has completed a $1 billion purchase of U.S. face-recognition software maker L-1 Identity Solutions (ID.N) and said it was now the world leader in biometric identification.

The French aerospace and defense company said on Tuesday that L-1, whose products are used by border security agencies and by financial institutions, would join Safran's existing Morpho security business and would be renamed Morpho Trust.

The deal, first announced in September. Its completion follows a probe by a U.S. panel responsible for vetting foreign takeovers of firms in sensitive industries.

Connecticut-based L-1 generated sales of more than $450 million in 2010, and its results will be included in Safran's from July 26, Safran said in a statement.

L-1 is the latest in a string of mid-tier security and defense companies that have been snapped up by traditional arms suppliers.

As top contractors face tumbling defense budgets, they are looking to acquire smaller companies with niche technologies in cybersecurity, civil security, surveillance and intelligence -- a deliberate shift in focus from bombs to bytes.

Under the deal, Safran paid $1.09 billion in cash for L-1 and its core biometrics business. L-1's government consultancy business was acquired by Britain's BAE Systems (BAES.L).

The use of biometrics, allowing machines to identify people through physical characteristics unique to each individual, is spreading quickly as security fears escalate, despite growing privacy concerns slowing their adoption in some markets. 

Both Safran & L1 play a vital role in India's UID Program

2526 - SAFRAN : Morpho first to receive provisional certification in India for single fingerprint scanners

SAFRAN : Morpho first to receive provisional certification in India for single fingerprint scanners

18.04.2012

Morpho first to receive provisional certification in India for single fingerprint scanners PRESS RELEASE
Paris, April 18, 2012


Morpho (Safran group) is the first company to receive provisional certification in India for its single fingerprint scanners. The provisional certification, granted by India's STQC*, confirms that the devices meet the Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) requirements for reliability, safety and security.
Morpho's single fingerprint scanners have successfully passed the tests under the STQC's Biometric Device Certification Scheme, designed to facilitate availability of quality assessed biometric devices to identity verification agencies.
The provisional certification covers a compact biometric module (MorphoSmart™ CBM-E), a USB scanner (MorphoSmart™ Optic 1300 E) and a device combining a fingerprint scanner and a smartcard reader (MorphoSmart™ Optic 1350 E). These all-in-one compact devices not only capture high quality fingerprint images, but also embed powerful biometric feature extracting and matching algorithms.
In addition to being a trusted partner in Aadhaar's enrollment phase, Morpho is also a key solution provider for the multiple biometric verification applications currently being deployed in India. Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric project designed to secure the identity of 1.2 billion residents of India.
MorphoTop™, Morpho's ten fingerprint scanner already received official STQC certification in 2011.
*STQC: Standardization, Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate for Government of India's Department of Information Technology (DIT) and the UIDAI
* * * About Morpho
Morpho, a high-technology company in the Safran group, is one of the world's leading suppliers of identification, detection and e-document solutions. _ Morpho is specialized in personal rights and flow management applications, in particular based on biometrics, a sector in which it is the world leader, as well as secure terminals and smart cards.
Morpho's integrated systems and equipment are deployed worldwide and contribute to the safety and security of transportation, data, people and countries.       

2424 - IT vendors including Accenture-NEC, L1 ID and Mahindra Satyam-Morpho lock horns with Unique ID Authority - Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/services-apps/IT-vendors-including-Accenture-NEC-L1-ID-and-Mahindra-Satyam-Morpho-lock-horns-with-Unique-ID-Authority/articleshow/12173497.cms

Harsimran JulkaHarsimran Julka, ET Bureau | Mar 7, 2012, 01.09PM IST

NEW DELHI: Biometric vendors de-duplicating Aadhaar numbers have refused to work with Unique ID Authority of India after finishing their contract next month. The vendors were eliminating duplicate or redundant information in the Aadhaar IDs at the price of Rs 2.75 per number fixed with the agency.

The deadlock over price threatens to create an uncertainty for the second phase of enrollments, which starts post-April, for about 40 crore citizens, even as new service provider is yet to come on board and take over UIDAI's IT operations. Three consortiums, led by Accenture-NEC, L1 ID Solutions and Mahindra Satyam-Morpho, are providing the biometric de-duplication for the Aadhaar scheme for about 20 crore Indian residents.

All the IT consortiums have told the UIDAI to revise charges due to a hike in price by their biometric partners. "There are only four biometric providers present in India. All of them have hiked costs due to high imports costs, leading us to quote a price of Rs 8 per number," said an official of an existing provider.

Less than six companies in the world are capable of providing biometric solutions at a large scale, and at high quality standards. Biometric companies NEC, L1, Morpho and Cogent passed the UIDAI's biometric standard test, and were eligible to be partnered by any IT vendor. Some others had failed the standard test.

A UIDAI spokesperson did not revert on ET's queries as to the plan to run operations post-April without a biometric vendor. The official, however, added on price hike that vendors will have to negotiate it with their registrars.

HCL Infosystems, which has emerged as the lowest financial bidder for the managed service provider contract, has been learnt to have quoted a price of Rs 2.75 per number to the government in its bid. The MSP contract is to store data, de-duplicate and issue Aadhaar numbers for 70 crore people. "Even a price hike of 1 will mean a hit of Rs 70 crore on HCL Infosystems' balance sheet," said another IT vendor who had backed out from bidding for the MSP contract.

"We are requesting the government to let existing biometric providers work with MSP. Handing over the private data of citizens in the hands of an untested technology might pose great risk," said a biometric vendor. "Trial and error will create backlog," he added.

HCL Infosystems doesn't have its own IP on biometrics and is learnt to have partnered with Morpho for biometrics. About 13.5 crore people have been issued Aadhaar numbers, and the rest will be issued over coming weeks. UIDAI plans to start the next phase of enrolling additional 40 crore people by June 2013, from next month.

2204 - India issues 100 millionth UIDAI number using Morpho's technology - News Track India

New Delhi, Wed, 18 Jan 2012

New Delhi, Jan 18 (ANI): Morpho (Safran group) has announced that its technology played a support role in enabling the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to close 2011 with an important milestone of issuing its 100 millionth unique identification or Aadhaar number. The issuing of numbers continues to proceed at a good pace with one million being enrolled per day, a significant achievement by the Morpho-Mahindra Satyam consortium, which has played a pivotal role in the program for issuance of unique identification numbers.

 

Jean-Paul Jainsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Morpho, said: "We are truly proud that our cutting-edgebiometric technology has allowed the UIDAI to hit the 100-million mark in this large-scale project. This achievement highlights the efforts and commitment of all the partners involved to make the Aadhaar program a success."

 

Officially launched in September 2010, Aadhaar is the world's largest biometrics-based identity program. The identification number has the laudable objective of providing India's 1.2 billion residents with secure access to benefits and services (education, telecom, medical care, banking and financial services) as well as political and economic rights.

 

The UIDAI plans to enroll 600 million Indian residents by March 2014. (ANI)