In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Showing posts with label RIC - Resident Identity Card. Show all posts

Friday, April 5, 2013

3208 - Turf war hits MHA’s smart card project

Turf war hits MHA’s smart card project

By Yatish Yadav | ENS - NEW DELHI 05th April 2013 10:01 AM

Rollout of the Resident Identity Card (RIC) may be further delayed, as a Group of Ministers formed to apprise the Cabinet on the National Population Register and Aadhaar is yet to decide on discussing the security implications of the proposed smart card with RIC officials.

Sources said the jumbo GoM, headed by Defence Minister A K Antony and comprising 14 other members, met only once in the last two months. The GoM was constituted by the Prime Minister in February after some ministers questioned the validity of the RIC.

“The reason behind the delay could be the turf war between the Nandan Nilekani-headed UIDAI and the Ministry of Home Affairs. In its first meeting, the GoM was informed that Aadhaar was not a card but only a number and the RIC was the only legal identity card,” a sources said. An official source said the first GoM meeting held on March 13 was a non-starter as the Cabinet ministers and special invitees had other engagements. Only a brief session was held to discuss the `5,500-crore proposal which has serious security implications. The Centre has already covered 3,331 villages in 13 coastal states and issued 62 lakh smart cards to check infiltration, he said.

“We gave a presentation explaining that it is mandatory to register every citizen and issue an identity card to him/her as per Section 14A of the Citizenship Act,1955. There are security concerns and the entire exercise must be expedited,” he said.

The presentation, copies of which were distributed among the GoM members, explained that the 12-digit Aadhaar number would be printed on the RIC to ensure the smooth delivery of welfare services. “The mandate of Aadhaar is limited. People have mistaken the UIDAI letter carrying a number and photo for a card. Since the first meeting hadn’t enough time, we couldn’t explain the security concerns and how the entire project is different from Aadhaar. We are waiting for the next meeting,” the source added.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel , Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Law Minister Ashwini Kumar, Social Justice Minister Kumari Selja and Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo are members of the GoM.

Friday, June 22, 2012

2626 - Nilekani blocks Chidambaram’s ID card project - DNA

Nilekani blocks Chidambaram’s ID card project

Published: Thursday, Jun 21, 2012, 9:30 IST
By Manan Kumar | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA

The Union Home Ministry’s ambitious Resident Identity Card (RIC) project, already running late, has hit a fresh roadblock after being questioned about its efficacy to be used for multiple offline applications, for verification purposes plus cost factor.

The objections have been raised by the Unique Identity authority of India (UIDAI) and department of electronics and information and technology (DEIT).
The Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI contends that online platform using Aadhaar number is better for smooth delivery of targeted schemes. Whereas, many government departments claim that in the Indian scenario where internet network is still not trustworthy, offline platform with the help of hand-held devices is a better bet.

A high powered expenditure finance committee (EFC) has constituted a committee under the director general of National Informatics Centre (NIC) Dr BK Gairola, to examine if the proposed RIC, primarily meant to serve as a security tool, can also be used as a platform for multiple usages like the delivery of targeted services like MNREGA, public distribution system, health insurance, other financial purposes and for election purposes.

Projecting RIC as the national identity card, the home ministry is seeking extension of the scheme in the rest of the country and has sought Rs6,790 crore to fund the programme. The RIC smart card uses a 64Kb chip that carries photographs, biometrics and data of a usual resident.

Informed sources said that the committee is expected to give its report in two months after which the EFC will sit for the third meeting and take a decision.

However, the MHA officials, after seeing the usage of similar card in Malaysia, are upbeat and are confident about its efficacy to be used as an offline card for prompt delivery of various schemes.

“When the 80Kb chip Malaysian card is being used for all kind of offline applications, we are sure that our 64Kb chip card can be used for at least 4-5 offline applications with the help of handheld devices.

Moreover, for additional schemes software can easily be downloaded on the hand held devices that can be tailor made for each area,” an official told DNA.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

2484 - Resident I-Cards run into Aadhaar roadblock - Live Mint

Resident I-Cards run into Aadhaar roadblock - Live Mint

EFC meeting fails to clear costing of the project because of objections from UIDAI and the IT department

Sahil Makkar

New Delhi: Divisions between the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI, or Aadhaar) and the home ministry grew wider on Thursday after the Nandan Nilekani-led entity and the department of information technology (DIT) raised objections to the Resident Identity Card (RIC) scheme.

Numbers game: A file photo of residents being enrolled for the UIDAI project. By Hemant Mishra/Mint

Three high-ranking officials, who spoke independently and on condition of anonymity, said a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) to clear Rs. 6,790 crore for the home ministry’s RIC project remained inconclusive. A fresh date is being sought to resolve the differences between the key stakeholders.
The meeting, called by expenditure secretary Sumit Bose, was attended by home secretary R.K. Singh, DIT secretary J. Satyanarayana, UIDAI deputy director general Anil Khachi, Planning Commission member secretary Sudha Pillai, Registrar General of India (RGI) C. Chandramouli and officials of various ministries and public sector firms.

The meeting was inconclusive “in a sense that costing of the project was not cleared. Usually, approval comes in the first meeting and second meeting is not required to clear any project,” said one of the three officials mentioned above.
“But there was a broader consensus on the off-line mode of the project. Objections from the DIT and UIDAI were finally laid to rest on the grounds that RIC is a necessary security requirement. The meeting was told that RIC does not come in way of online verification of Aadhaar number,” the official said.

Another official said a meeting of potential users of the card will now be called. “The users will give their suggestions on kind of applications required to be loaded on the card. There were suggestions to roll public distribution system and MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) schemes through the card,” the official said. “A meeting of different users will be called before another meeting of EFC to resolve the remaining issue.”

“The modalities to issue cards are still to be worked out. I think EFC will clear it in the next meeting,” said the third official, who was present in the meeting.

This is the second time the RIC scheme has run into trouble after opposition from UIDAI and DIT. Nilekani and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had opposed the RIC project in the past.

Earlier, the home ministry on the one side, and the Planning Commission and the UIDAI on the other, had fought a bitter and all-too-public battle over the scope of the Aadhaar project because it overlapped, in some aspects, with the National Population Register project (NPR).

A compromise was finally reached on 27 January that allowed the scope of the UIDAI project to be expanded to 600 million and seemingly prevented duplication in the collection of biometric information.
UIDAI director general R.S. Sharma and DIT secretary Satyanarayana refused to comment on the developments.

“We have made our points in the EFC and I don’t want to add anything more,” said Sharma.
The officials cited earlier said the next EFC meeting will take up another controversial proposal—that the RICs carry the Aadhaar number, making it unnecessary for UIDAI to send out letters to all enrolls.

Mint on Wednesday reported UIDAI’s objections to the proposal. “A letter is completion of our process,” an UIDAI official said in the report. “In a sense a letter delivered to a resident is a check that he exists. The letter is the final closing piece in Aadhaar cycle and it should go to every resident.”

The RIC programme was launched in India’s nine coastal states after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The home ministry is seeking to extend the scheme to the rest of the country and has sought Rs. 6,700 crore to fund the programme. The card uses a chip that carries data, photographs and fingerprints of the holder.

sahil.m@livemint.com

Thursday, March 29, 2012

2479 - Plan panel nod to RIC may reopen home ministry-UIDAI battle - Live Mint

Plan panel nod to RIC may reopen home ministry-UIDAI battle

Posted: Wed, Mar 28 2012. 11:15 PM IST

The panel also recommended that RICs carry the Aadhaar number, said a govt official

Sahil Makkar

New Delhi: The Planning Commission’s recommendation that the expenditure finance committee (EFC) approve the home ministry’s resident identity card (RIC) project may have reopened the fight between the home ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

A senior government official who didn’t want to be identified claimed that the Planning Commission has also recommended that RICs carry the Aadhaar number, making it unnecessary for UIDAI to send out letters to all enrolls. Mint couldn’t independently ascertain this.

Planning Commission member secretary Sudha Pillai had previously publicly raised issues about UIDAI’s inadequate financial processes only to have these dismissed by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Last week, Ahluwalia said an appraisal note had been submitted to EFC and that he wasn’t opposed to the RIC project. He said he was unaware of other details.

UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani couldn’t be reached for comment.

A senior UIDAI official who didn’t want to be identified said it would oppose any plan that meant not sending out a letter to enrollees. “A letter is completion of our process,” the official said. “In a sense a letter delivered to a resident is a check that he exists. The letter is the final closing piece in Aadhaar cycle and it should go to every resident”

The official added that UIDAI’s other objection has to do with the fact that RICs will only be given to people above the age of 18. “What will happen to people who are below this age?” he asked.

The home ministry, on the one side, and the Planning Commission and UIDAI on the other, had fought a bitter and all-too-public battle over the scope of the Aadhaar project because it overlapped, in some aspects, with the National Population Register project. A compromise was finally reached on 27 January that allowed the scope of UIDAI’s project to be expanded to 600 million and seemingly prevented duplication in the collection of biometric information. The National Population Registry, being put together by the Census department that falls under the home ministry, is to form the basis of the RIC project. Ahluwalia and Nilekani had previously opposed RIC.

The government official cited above said carrying the Aadhaar number on RICs would save the Rs. 22 UIDAI currently spends on sending each letter with the numbers to enrollees.

However, the UIDAI official cited above said the home ministry’s project would take time and is also against the spirit of the country’s information technology (IT) policy. “RIC will be delivered after a fairly prolonged process that could be couple of months or an year from now,” he said. “Also, we raised the point that we should adhere to the national IT policy that says we should move towards the online verification process in future. The RIC process is getting redundant.”

A home ministry official said the RIC despatch system would cost less since it would consolidate all the cards being sent to a family, rather than seek to deliver them individually as with the UID.

The RIC programme was launched in India’s nine coastal states after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The union home ministry is seeking to extend the scheme to the rest of the country and has sought Rs. 6,700 crore to fund the programme. The card uses a chip that carries data, photographs and fingerprints of the holder.

A second home ministry official said off-line verification was more feasible and effective than online methods.

“Not every one is online in the country. There is no uniformity of Internet and mobile services. This problem is worse in the northeast and bordering areas.”

sahil.m@livemint.com