8912 - Supreme Court decision on UID to bring several government projects to a halt - Economic Times

Supreme Court decision on UID to bring several government projects to a halt

By Surabhi Agarwal, ET Bureau | 8 Oct, 2015, 10.16AM IST

Hearing a batch of 11 review applications, a three-member SC bench, however, refused to immediately lift the restriction of Aadhaar.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday not to allow wider use of Aadhaar and refer the matter to a wider constitutional bench will bring several social initiatives of the central government to a screeching halt, officials said.

"Even though the court has not rejected the review applications, it is a major blow," said a government official.

"It will definitely impact all existing linkages and new projects which were in the pipeline. Work has stopped for now for Aadhaar," said the official who requested anonymity. The Supreme Court had, in an interim order passed in August, restricted the use of Aadhaar to just food and LPG subsidy, virtually making all other linkages illegal. The Centre, four state governments, and five regulators including the RBI, Sebi and Trai had filed review petitions, pointing out that banks, stock exchanges and telecom companies accept Aadhaar as proof of identity.

Hearing a batch of 11 review applications, a three-member SC bench, however, refused to immediately lift the restriction of Aadhaar.

According to experts, usage of Aadhaar by state and private agencies will now come to a standstill and many projects will be affected. "It could take months or even a year for some clarity to come on the issue," said an expert who requested anonymity.

Already, over the last one month, many agencies have issued directives to reconsider or halt their linkages with Aadhaar to avoid contempt of court.

The list includes the Election Commission (which was seeding the entire country's voter identity cards to weed out fakes and duplicates), Employees Provident Fund Organisation (that had linked the unique account number with Aadhaar), ministry of rural development (MGNREGA funds were being disbursed through Aadhaar-linked bank accounts), and the finance ministry administering the Jan Dhan Yojana (that was providing the overdraft facility to Aadhaarlinked accounts).

Many other schemes including DigiLocker, e-sign and Jeevan Praman, too, are linked to Aadhaar and are confused about its status after the SC order. Unless the current order is modified, even the voluntary usage of Aadhaar for any other purpose except for LPG and food subsidy by citizens will be disputed.

Even though the options with the government are now limited, it is likely to approach the court on Thursday to request the constitutional bench to be formed at the earliest.

8787 - After praising Aadhaar in US, PM Narendra Modi calls for 100% enrolment by December - Economic Times

After praising Aadhaar in US, PM Narendra Modi calls for 100% enrolment by December

By Surabhi Agarwal, ET Bureau | 1 Oct, 2015, 02.53AM IST

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for a review meeting of Aadhaar enrolments soon after returning from the Silicon Valley, where he heaped praise on the unique identity project. At the meeting held Wednesday afternoon, Modi asked state governments to expedite the enrolment and issue Aadhaar numbers to 100% of their population by December, officials in the know told ET. 

Chief secretaries of all states joined the meeting under the Pragati initiative, which was started to monitor and review important projects of the government. The review coincides with Aadhaar completing five year of issuing the first number in September 29, 2010. "Already around 92 crore numbers have been issued, which constitutes 77% of the entire population of the country and 92% of the adult population," a government official privy to the development told ET. Of people who are yet to be issued Aadhaar, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number at 8 crore, followed by 5 crore in Bihar and 2.9 crore in West Bengal. 

Meanwhile, many more states and regulators have joined the central government, the Reserve Bank of India, and market regulator Sebi in filing applications for review of a Supreme Court order that limited the use of Aadhaar to just food and LPG subsidy transfer. The Supreme Court had on Tuesday agreed to hear a batch of pleas next week filed by the banking and markets regulators, along with the governments of Gujarat and Jharkhand, which sought clarification and modifications of the order. 

According to officials, Maharashtra, Haryana and Rajasthan are also planning to file similar review applications. They are likely to be joined by telecom regulator Trai, insurance watchdog Irda and provident fund and pension regulator PFRDA which use in various capacities, said an official aware of the developments. "It is a massive show of support for Aadhaar," said the person who did not wish to be identified. 

Despite criticising the scheme before coming to power, the Modi government has adopted Aadhaar — a pet scheme of the earlier UPA regime — for many of its marquee projects. 

Speaking in the Silicon Valley, Modi had said the scheme has helped in reducing gas subsidy leakages of nearly .`29 lakh crore at older gas rates. "Earlier, nearly 19 crore people used to claim gas subsidy and the government had to pay for it. When we joined Aadhaar and Jan Dhan account, it came down to 13-14 crore," he told a packed auditorium at the SAP centre. "This is part of my JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) Yojana." ET had reported last week that the Centre and some state governments are planning to seek a review of the order which has virtually made all other linkages except for LPG and Food illegal. 

RBI was the first to file the application in the top court seeking clarity on whether banks can continue to use the unique identification number as an identity and address proof for opening accounts. Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan is representing the central bank in this matter, while Harish Salve is arguing on behalf of the government of Gujarat and advocate Tushar Mehta is appearing on behalf of Sebi. 

Over the last one month, Aadhaar has received blow after blow. The Election Commission, Employees Provident Fund Organisation, ministry of rural development (MGNREGA), and the finance ministry administering the Jan Dhan Yojana have issued directives to reconsider or halt their ongoing linkages with the project to avoid contempt of court. In August, the Supreme Court had ruled that Aadhaar will not be used for any other purposes except PDS, kerosene and LPG distribution system. It also said that the information received by UIDAI shall not be used for any other purposes, except in criminal investigation with the permission of the court. 

While RBI has sought clarification as to whether an account can be opened in a bank on the basis of the Aadhaar for providing the benefit of pension or for getting paid for the job guarantee scheme under MNREGA, Sebi wanted to use Aadhaar voluntarily in the securities market for know your customers (KYC) proof. Raising issues similar to the RBI, Jharkhand, in its plea, sought to use Aadhaar in payments of pension and seek a declaration from pensioners that they are alive. 

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49175282.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

8729 - Centre, states plan to approach Supreme Court for saving Aadhaar - Economic Times

Centre, states plan to approach Supreme Court for saving Aadhaar

By Surabhi Agarwal, ET Bureau | 21 Sep, 2015, 03.59AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Centre and some state governments plan to approach the Supreme Court seeking a review of its recent decision to restrict the use of Aadhaar to just food and LPG subsidy, virtually making all other linkages illegal. 

The governments have the backing of the Reserve Bank (RBI), which has already filed an application in the top court seeking clarity on whether banks can continue to use the unique identification number as an identity and address proof for opening accounts. 

"The order is a little ambiguous, it is unclear on what they mean," said senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, who is representing the central bank in this matter. He said that RBI is seeking clarity on what should its approach be if a resident wants to voluntarily use Aadhaar for banking services and has no other means of identification. "What are we supposed to do in such a case, say sorry, you can't use it (Aadhaar), get something else?" said Bhushan, who is also brother of activist advocate Prashant Bhushan .. 

Over the last one month, Aadhaar has received blow after blow. The Election Commission, Employees Provident Fund Organisation, ministry of rural development (MGNREGA), and the finance ministry administering the Jan Dhan Yojana have issued directives to reconsider or halt their ongoing linkages with the project to avoid contempt of court. 

On Saturday, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said, "We need greater clarity on the matter, especially after the recent Supreme Court ruling which says having Aadhaar card is not mandatory for availing of benefits." Making a case for Aadhaar, Rajan said its usage can help a deserving person get credit, avoid over-borrowing by individuals and plug leakages. 

In the last few years, use of Aadhaar as a valid proof of address and identity has found great acceptance among banks for disbursing financial services and had become one of the largest use cases for UID. There are over 21 crore Aadhaar linked bank accounts in the country currently. 

The central government and some states such as Jharkhand are also preparing the ground to file review petitions. 

A senior official in the know said the Centre's office of Direct Benefits Transfer is readying to file a review. "We are trying to find a solution to address the court's concern on privacy which should help in getting some respite for Aadhaar," the official said, adding that a decision will be taken within ten days and. 

The move is aimed at ending the confusion in departments and ministries over Aadhaar. 

In August, the Supreme Court had ruled that Aadhaar will not be used for any other purposes except PDS, kerosene and LPG distribution system. It also said that the information received by UIDAI shall not be used for any other purposes, except in criminal investigation with the permission of the court. 

"This order is affecting us badly," said an official of Jharkhand government, which has linked Aadhaar for transfer of old age pension, scholarships and was planning to use it for monitoring the midday meal scheme also. 

Jharkhand plans to file an appeal in the court to request modification of the order so that it can continue to use Aadhaar for delivery and monitoring of its welfare schemes. "Aadhaar is used for not just availing of benefits but also for effective implication of existing schemes. Which other means enables a government to monitor how many children actually ate their midday meal and give funds to the school accordingly?" the state official said. 

So far more than 90 crore people have enrolled for Aadhaar. 

It has also found great support in the Narendra Modi government. 

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49038748.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

8628 - Can the Aadhaar juggernaut be stopped now? - Business Standard

Can the Aadhaar juggernaut be stopped now?

By restricting the usage of Aadhaar to just two schemes, the Supreme Court seems to have missed out on the wide usage that Aadhaar has acquired in the last couple of years

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi 

August 29, 2015 Last Updated at 15:44 IST

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court passed an order on Aadhaar restricting its use by the government to just delivering cooking gas and food subsidy. It also said that the government must communicate widely that the unique identity number is not mandatory but voluntary. 

The impact of the order has been minimal so far with most schemes continuing to operate like earlier. However, the Aadhaar project which has found great support by the Narendra Modi government, suffered a jolt with this order. It greatly restricts the scope of the project which is slowly becoming ubiquitous in the country. 

While the advocates of privacy are hailing the move, supporters of Aadhaar are looking at it as another clog in the wheel in its journey which has been far from smooth. Though the court order which is in response to a petition that claimed that residents are being denied services for the want of Aadhaar may have addressed the main issue, it seems a little out of sync with the realities of today. 

ALSO READ: SC okays Aadhaar with restrictions

The petition was filed in mid 2013 when less than half the country was enrolled under the project which justified the argument that a vast majority of people were out of the system. However, as government data shows almost 90 crore people have Aadhaar numbers now, which makes the “not everyone has Aadhaar” argument almost redundant. 

As far as restricting the usage of Aadhaar to just two schemes is concerned, the Court seems to have missed out on the wide usage that Aadhaar has acquired in the last couple of years – be its use in central government for attendance, in banks for opening accounts or delivering welfare schemes other than LPG and PDS -- some of which are proving to be hugely beneficial. If the intent of the Court in restricting the usage of Aadhaar is to tackle the privacy issue and therefore minimize the security concerns associated with it, then perhaps addressing the root cause of such concerns would be a better solution. 

ALSO READ: Is Aadhaar enough?

Despite the fact that the present government has lent massive support to the project, it has failed to pass the UID Bill in the Parliament which defines the penalties in case of a breach. The bill also provides a solid legal backing to Aadhaar which is so far being run on an executive order. The Privacy Bill which contained detailed dos and don'ts on data protection with sensitive schemes such as UID and NatGrid has also not seen the light of the day for the last three –four years despite being redrafted several times. 

If the government moves fast on these two legislations, it is maybe able to provide some comfort to the court as well as paranoid residents who are still not convinced about Aadhaar and its benefits. Perhaps, its time to address the issue once and for all. 

7404 - Aadhaar works well where put in use - Business Standard

Aadhaar works well where put in use

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  February 17, 2015 Last Updated at 00:26 IST

Clocking 317.8 million online real-time biometric authentications through 170 user agencies for a project that has been mired in uncertainty since its inception is no mean feat. But despite the handsome numbers and the generous praise by those who have deployed Aadhaar-based authentications, its use is restricted to a handful of states such as Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand. Government welfare programmes like pensions and job guarantee schemes have been linked to it, but only in small patches of the country.

Considered to be one of the prime uses of the unique identity number (UID) number in the long run, Aadhaar-based authentication matches biometrics such as fingerprints or iris scans of people with the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI)'s servers at the back end to check their veracity in real time. It has a response time ranging from one second to 20 seconds. However, rough estimates suggest that almost 75 per cent of all authentications so far are taking place in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for disbursing payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and old age pension by India Post. While around 4 million pension payments are disbursed every month in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the number for MGNREGA stands at around 1.9 million.

The real-time biometric attendance system implemented by the central government is another large user of the platform on which 101,488 government officials mark their attendance twice a day. The state of Jharkhand, in fact, was the first to adopt the biometric attendance system that is accessed by 30,000 employees each day. There are also some pilots of public distribution system (PDS) disbursements in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand along with some banks in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh that are using it for disbursing banking correspondent payments.

Despite its existing users waxing eloquent about the benefits of Aadhaar authentication, a majority of the states are not employing it in a big way. After Aadhaar was notified as a proof of address and identity, most of the agencies are only using it in the physical format, where a photocopy or print out of the Aadhaar card has to be submitted, without biometrically authenticating it. However, this may be susceptible to fraud because a significant number of government certificates and attestations can be easily forged.

One of prime reasons for the hesitation of states could be the long spell of uncertainty shrouding the Aadhaar project. The Supreme Court's direction that the UID number should not be made mandatory for government services is adding to the uncertainty. Moreover, states that have been slow to adopt this service are also the ones with not a very high percentage of Aadhaar enrollments.

However, those who have used the technology swear by it. A Babu, collector of the Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, who has spearheaded some of the initiatives in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, says there are several proposals in the pipeline to further escalate the use of Aadhaar in the state. The unique number can better target subsidies and weed out fakes and duplicates from the system, he says. For instance, vehicle and property owner databases are being seeded with Aadhaar, just like beneficiary lists of people living below the poverty line. "A simple query across the databases can rid the government of thousands of undeserving beneficiaries."

By March, the state's PDS platform will also be expanded to 6,000 fair price shops in Andhra Pradesh while voter lists of the entire state will be linked with Aadhaar numbers. Babu, who claims savings of anywhere between 10 and 25 per cent on projects linked to Aadhaar, says the technology tool is the "best gift to an administrator like me".

N N Sinha, principal secretary (information technology) of Jharkhand, adds the system is being expanded to cover PDS in all districts of the state and large sections of the MGNREGS along with old-age pension payments. There are huge savings derived from it, however connectivity is an issue. "Otherwise the system is very smooth and is hardly lethargic," adds Sinha.

The National Optical Fibre Network, which plans to connect each of the 250,000 gram panchayats in the country with broadband, could solve the connectivity issue.

The fact that since coming to power, the National Democratic Alliance government has been providing unprecedented support to the project will further prompt more states to come on board. Moreover, as the project nears its target of covering the entire country by March this year, the case for Aadhaar-based authentication is expected to become stronger. So far, over 758 million Aadhaar numbers have been generated. But for further growth to happen, the project will have to fight hard to keep another controversy to stop its march.

7329 - Soon, you can punch in your Aadhaar number to get a SIM card - Business Standard

Soon, you can punch in your Aadhaar number to get a SIM card

Project approved for testing; however, home ministry and IB have long had reservations on proposal, for security concerns

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  February 5, 2015 Last Updated at 00:26 IST

After almost a year's standoff with the ministry of home and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), there has been some headway in a proposal to use Aadhaar-based electronic Know Your Customer (KYC) data for allotting mobile telephone SIM cards.

All stakeholders have agreed to conduct a project for testing the efficacy. Based on the findings, a decision will be taken on the way ahead.

According to a government official, an experiment will be conducted in the five circles of Bhopal, Kolkata, Delhi, Lucknow and Bengaluru by telecom operators. These include the state-run BSNL and MTNL, plus private companies Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance and Idea.

Under the proposal, a person would get a new SIM card issued on his or her name instantaneously by punching in the Aadhaar number and biometrics, without needing to present a physical documentary proof. The Unique Identification Authority (UID) servers from the back-end will verify the antecedents.

The Aadhaar letter has been recognised as a valid proof of address and identity for issuing of SIM cards. However, the IB and home ministry had reservations about allowing e-KYC for this. The concern is misuse by terrorists or criminal elements.

The government official said e-KYC was more robust than physical documents. “No one person can own more than nine SIM cards and E-KYC will ensure a way to track the number of SIMs issued on one person’s name, difficult in the case of physical documents.” It has been reported that in one instance, 7,000 SIMs were found to be issued on the basis of one document, the person added.

All major telecom operators involved are pushing the initiative, as e-KYC will save them a significant cost in data storage and verification. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India imposes heavy fines on operators for not maintaining adequate KYC. They are expected to initially deploy authentication devices in company-owned outlets.

However, another government official said the security concerns were valid. For, SIM cards would be issued on the basis of the address in the Aadhaar database, which in many cases is not correct. “There is an inherent flaw in the database and cases of mixed biometrics and fake identity are being reported.” The person added extreme care needs to be taken in the case of SIM cards. “Bomb blasts are triggered through SIM cards,” the person added. The project is being emphasised since the government's Digital India project seeks to link mobile SIM cards with the UID number.

Earlier, a government official had told Business Standard that a mobile phone number was being considered a medium to act as an identifier for all government schemes. “Till the time a person disputes it, the government will use the number to disburse information about that person's transactions with the government,” the official had said.

7133 - LPG benefit transfer to roll out today - Business Standard

LPG benefit transfer to roll out today

Surabhi Agarwal & Sudheer Pal Singh  |  New Delhi  January 1, 2015 Last Updated at 00:46 IST

The government will roll out Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for cooking gas across 676 districts on the first day of the new year, despite preparations on the ground being dissatisfactory.

Of the 153 million liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) customers in the country, only 63 million, or 43 per cent, have been linked to the new system so far under which cooking gas subsidy will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Government officials, however, defended the situation by saying they do not anticipate problems, since the customers will get three months of "grace" period to migrate to the new system. However, it was because of ground-level implementation issues that DBT in LPG was stopped at its first roll-out during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The scale of the project that time was only half of what it is now - it covered only 292 districts.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government restarted DBTL in 54 districts in mid-November. So far, the department of petroleum has transferred subsidy worth Rs 624 crore to the bank accounts of two million customers.

States with high linkage of LPG connections and bank accounts include Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The ministry of petroleum needs to catch up in Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A government official said preparedness at the ground level was not bad as the government had learnt its lessons from the previous time.

"There is more communication, better control over information and grievance redressal mechanisms have also been improved," said the official.

The ministry of petroleum has a much better hold over the project now than last time and has been closely monitoring the progress through regular communication with the district collectors, said the official.

Also, under the current scheme, consumers will get three months of grace period to link their connections with a bank account and Aadhaar. And, even after March, if their bank account details are not available, they will have to buy the LPG cylinder at the market price. However, the subsidy for the next three months will be stored in an escrow account, which they will receive as soon as they link their connections.

"So, they will not lose the subsidy but it will start pinching them. And we expect people to come onboard then," said the first official.

Under the current scheme, linking the beneficiaries' bank account with Aadhaar is not mandatory even though the government is encouraging consumers to link their connections with both bank accounts and the UID number.

Linking with Aadhaar is expected to weed out fakes and duplicates from the system. Out of the over 60 million consumers linked so far, 50 million have furnished both bank account and Aadhaar number details, while the rest 10 million have linked the connections through their bank accounts only.

Another official added that the numbers are increasing rapidly. "Instead of mass level campaigning, the government has chosen to do subtle messaging this time through SMSs etc, which is more targeted," said the second official.

Aadhaar has so far enrolled 728 million people and claims to have covered 75 per cent of the population in 16 states and union territories including Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi among others.

5889 - Restarting DBT might first need SC nod - Business Standard

Restarting DBT might first need SC nod

Solicitor-General seems to have also thought so, given an earlier direction that Aadhaar could not be made mandatory to get the subsidy

Surabhi Agarwal  &  Sudheer Pal Singh  |  New Delhi  October 21, 2014 Last Updated at 00:44 IST

The government might have rushed the announcement, against cautious legal advice, on re-starting cash subsidy transfers for cooking gas (LPG).

The problem stems from a Supreme Court (SC) order that the Aadhaar (Unique Identification) number should not be mandatory for availing of government services.

Since Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) in LPG had required a mandatory linkage of the Unique Identity number, a petition was filed by a former MLA, alleging contempt of court.

In response, the government had informed the SC that the scheme had been put into abeyance.

“This is why it will have to go to the court once again,” an official said, adding “perhaps the government should not have hurried this up (the announcement).”

The solicitor general, Ranjit Kumar, had in fact advised against implementing the project before taking the SC approval. Yet, on Saturday, the Cabinet said a modified version of the DBT scheme in cooking gas would begin from mid-November in 54 districts, and in the rest of the country by January.

The government had earlier sought the opinion of the solicitor general on re-starting the project, frozen by the former government in January. In a letter dated September 11, Kumar warned that restarting work on the scheme “may invite the court’s contempt”.

The government should first place the report of the committee appointed to study the project (headed by former Indian Institute of Technology director Sanjay Dhande) before the SC and seek an amendment to the court’s order, it was advised.

Business Standard has reviewed a copy of the letter.

It should be noted, though, that the government has only announced its intent to restart the project. Actual implementation is a month away.

A government official said the Centre was likely to approach the Court over the coming weeks and was “hopeful” of an okay to the modified version before mid-November. Another official said the government might not have to take SC permission for a re-launch but it would still keep the court “informed”. The court had said Aadhaar would not be mandatory for entitlement schemes, the second official said.

“We have done the same thing. We are saying the consumer will get LPG supply entitlement whether or not he/she has Aadhaar,” the official added.

Ground-level implementation challenges were cited as the main reason by the previous government for putting the scheme on hold. It had also formed a 12-member panel for a course correction.

The committee gave its report in May, suggesting the project was beneficial for containing subsidies. Before it was put in abeyance, DBT in LPG was operational in 290 districts and Rs 5,000 crore of subsidy had been transferred directly into the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of consumers.

The modified scheme will only start, as noted earlier, in 54 districts in the first phase. These have been chosen based on high penetration of Aadhaar numbers and its seeding with bank accounts
.

5806 - Cloud still hangs over Aadhaar's future - Business Standard

Cloud still hangs over Aadhaar's future

Nilekani probably managed to save the project by a persuasive talk with Modi, but the concerns haven't gone away

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  August 25, 2014 Last Updated at 00:30 IST

It is widely believed that Nandan Nilekani’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saved the ambitious Aadhaar project from oblivion or a takeover by the home ministry.

Within a couple of days of the meeting, Modi gave directions to expedite enrolments through Aadhaar, along with the direct benefits transfer (DBT) project linked to the unique identity number (UID).

However, the uncertainty surrounding the project hasn't yet been cleared. For, there has been little official communication detailing how the new government sees the project.
It was widely expected that Modi's Independence Day speech would contain several important announcements pertaining to DBT, financial inclusion and health. While Modi did launch a scheme on financial inclusion called the Jan Dhan Yojana, the link with Aadhaar was not spelt out.

UNCERTAIN PATH

Nandan Nilekani’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saved the Aadhaar project from takeover by the home ministry   Modi gave directions to expedite enrolments through Aadhaar along with the direct benefits transfer project   The uncertainty surrounding the project hasn't been cleared yet. There has been little official communication detailing how the new government sees the project   The cabinet approved the blueprint for the Digital India project, which envisions a “cradle-to-grave digital identity for every citizen of the country — unique, lifelong, online and authenticable”   Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is also said to have been tasked with clearing the many legal issues surrounding the project

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the blueprint for the Digital India project, which envisions a “cradle-to-grave digital identity for every citizen of the country— unique, lifelong, online and authenticable”.

This announcement was also thought to give a fresh lease of life to the Aadhaar project. However, a government official said the link with the UID number is not certain. “It could be any working digital identity”, he said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in its pre-election campaign had rapped the Aadhaar project. When the BJP-led government took charge, there were strong doubts over the project’s continuity.

Also, the home ministry bid strongly to bring control of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under its ambit. It also wanted to merge UIDAI’s database with that of the National Population Register (NPR), a project which has always been at loggerheads with the former.

Work had almost stopped at the UIDAI headquarters when its former chairman and chief architect Nilekani sought a meeting with Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley. According to people aware of the matter, Nilekani sought the meeting in his personal capacity and not at the behest of the organisation.

He was not accompanied by any officials, contrary to what was reported. During the meeting, in the first week of July, Modi is said to have mostly listened to Nilekani explaining the benefits of the project in the areas of containing subsidies, financial inclusion and tracking financial transactions through online authentication, among others.

Modi did not make many comments and just had a few “good questions” relating to the issue of citizenship and related matters. Soon after at an inter-ministerial meeting, Modi asked officials to fast-track Aadhaar enrolments and the DBT scheme. Jaitley is also said to have been tasked with clearing the many legal issues surrounding the project. Another official, who is more optimistic, claims the government is now, more or less, convinced about the benefits of Aadhaar. “It is not that Modi was not at all informed about the Aadhaar project. It was running in Gujarat when he was the chief minister. But Nilekani’s meeting acted as the catalyst,” said the official.

Despite having given up the post of UIDAI chairman and joining the Congress party, Nilekani did not give up the cause of Aadhaar. He would read the newspaper reports which cast doubts about the project’s future and call officials to enquire. And, then, took it upon himself to do the final convincing.

“It was a meeting between a man who knows the project inside out and the man who has to take the final decision on it.” It showed his commitment towards the project, added the official.

On the issue of what the Congress party thought of Nilekani’s move, a leader said one should not misinterpret it. “He met Modi the prime minister and not Modi the politician.” Another leader added that Aadhaar was Nilekani’s baby and he was a technocrat who “stepped in for a project of national interest”.

Nilekani might have managed quell the initial uncertainty about Aadhaar by meeting the Prime Minister but a lot still needs to be stated by the government in terms of how this project fits into their larger agenda. “If you look at it dispassionately, nothing has changed,” said a not-so-optimistic government official. UIDAI was earlier mandated to enrol 900 million people, the PM has just given directions to complete one billion faster.

There is status quo on the DBT project and there is no clarity on DBT in liquefied petroleum gas. A serious overlap between the UID and NPR continues. “It was the weakness of the earlier government that it did not solve the dispute and even the current one is not interested in resolving it,” said another official. There continues to be several process-related loopholes in the project, which are still not being addressed, despite several warnings.

While one side claims UIDAI’s weak enrolment system could create national security issues in the future, the other side thinks the home ministry wants to control the database since it is so valuable. “Speed is good but accuracy (in collecting data) is paramount, as this data will be used for decades to come,” added the person.

All eyes are now on the rollout plan of the Jan Dhan Yojana and Digital India to see where Aadhaar fits in the Modi government’s scheme of things.

5742 - Aadhaar-linked gas subsidy caught in legal tangle ) Business Standard

Aadhaar-linked gas subsidy caught in legal tangle

Surabhi Agarwal & Sudheer Pal Singh  |  New Delhi  July 31, 2014 Last Updated at 00:44 IST

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan may be rooting for Aadhaar-linked cash transfer of subsidies for cooking gas, but a case in the Supreme Court poses a hurdle in reviving the project.

According to officials aware of the matter, restarting the project could mean inviting the court's "contempt" as the case - in which the Supreme Court has held that biometric identification cannot be a criterion for a citizen's access to welfare - has still not been closed yet. However, they argue the infrastructure for cash transfers in 292 districts is in place and all they need to do is switch it on.

Over Rs 5,000 crore of the cooking gas subsidy was transferred in cash before the scheme was put on hold. The government could have saved over Rs 11,000 crore in subsidy and interest costs had the scheme been kept alive. Cash transfers are expected to save the exchequer around a fifth of the Rs 46,000 crore cooking gas subsidy each year.

"There are so many imponderables, including the court case and the views of the finance ministry and Planning Commission. Unless there is clarity on the modifications required, if any, there is little we can do," said a senior official close to the implementation of the scheme who did not wish to be named.

Experts say the government has the option of introducing a law in parliament so that the court's decision becomes irrelevant. The absence of any legislative backing is a major irritant for the scheme. Alternatively, the government could ask the court to allow the scheme to run for cooking gas while it looks at the issue of citizenship separately.

The Supreme Court had last September dealt upended the United Progressive Alliance's showpiece welfare reform by ruling biometric IDs could only be issued to Indian nationals and could be made mandatory for accessing public services or subsidies.

The government recently expanded Aadhaar's role to cover four new states, including the populous Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. "We have rolled out Aadhaar numbers to 90 million people in 292 districts. We hope the number will cross 160 million once these four states are covered," said the official quoted above, adding the dispensation on Aadhaar within the government was "far more positive" now than before the general election.

5736 - Govt may link food subsidy with Aadhaar Surabhi Agarwal - Business Standard

Govt may link food subsidy with Aadhaar

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  July 29, 2014 Last Updated at 00:57 IST

The proposal to link the food subsidy offered by the government with the Aadhaar number is learnt to be back on the table. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's endorsement of Aadhaar and the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme - both were launched during the previous government's tenure but lost momentum due to an uncertainty around the unique identity (UID) project.

DBT for food subsidy has been a much-debated issue, with many experts arguing against replacing food with cash for the country's poor. Under the current proposal, the government could continue offering foodgrains while linking the Public Distribution System (PDS) with Aadhaar to contain leakages.

In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.

RECLAIMING AADHAAR?

Feasibility: PMO wants the Planning Commission to give a report on feasibility of implementing direct benefits transfer for cooking gas, pensions, scholarships, NREGS and PDS   Reach: A report on Aadhaar's penetration and digitisation of records is to be given for 300 districts   Timing: An announcement on this is likely during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden Independence Day speech on August 15   Leakages: At present, almost half the subsidy offered by the government for food does not reach the intended beneficiaries   Target: The government has budgeted to give Rs 1,15,000 crore as food subsidy to over 180 million households   Benefits transfer: Before DBT for cooking gas was put in abeyance, around Rs 5,000 crore was already transacted through this channel; the fuel subsidy bill can be lowered by an estimated 20% through this scheme

The Prime Minister's Office has asked the Planning Commission to work on a report on the feasibility of implementing the benefits transfer project in five key schemes - those for cooking gas, pensions, scholarships, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and PDS. According to a government official, details of the extent of digitisation, Aadhaar penetration, etc, have to be provided for almost half the country, or 300 districts. "During his first Independence Day speech, Modi is expected to make an announcement in this regard," the official said.

The project has so far been rolled out only for cooking gas, pensions and scholarships. The government will take a call on how feasible it would be to extend the project to food subsidy, as well as the job guarantee scheme, based on the Planning Commission report.

The subsidy provided by the government for food is believed to be the most wasted. According to estimates, 40-50 per cent of it does not reach the intended beneficiaries. In the current financial year, the government has budgeted to offer Rs 1,15,000 crore as food subsidy to about 180 million households.

An earlier paper on linking Aadhaar and PDS had argued this would ensure delivery of the entitlement to the right beneficiaries and tracking of foodgrain movement.

However, many experts see rollout of an Aadhaar-based scheme for PDS as complex and unnecessary. Himanshu, an assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), says Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have managed to drastically cut pilferage by employing technologies like SMS-based tracking and the global positioning system. "Currently, Aadhaar penetration is also weak in states like Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where PDS is the most required," he adds.

The government might already be working to address some of the concerns pointed out by Himanshu. Aadhaar's role has been recently expanded to cover four new states, including the most populous ones of UP and Bihar. "This is where the meat is. It will add 300 million population to the UID rolls," said the government official quoted earlier.

Linking ration cards with the unique identity number was also a prompt way to eliminate fakes and duplicates from the system, the official added.

"There are states where the total number of ration cards is greater than population," he said. Several of them have already started using biometrics and the UID number to clean their databases.

The government spends the most on subsidy towards food, jobs and cooking gas. Streamlining these payments could help it contain its subsidy bill and, thereby the fiscal deficit. Before DBT for cooking gas was put in abeyance, around Rs 5,000 crore had already been transacted through this channel. It is also estimated that almost 20 per cent of the fuel subsidy bill can be saved through this scheme.

However, lack of banking access to the country's poor is the biggest roadblock in the success of this project. But the government is understood to be already working on addressing some of these concerns. During his Independence Day speech on August 15, Modi is expected to make an announcement around financial inclusion and mandate two bank accounts per household.

Linking UID with Aadhaar has been in the pipeline for long. In 2010, the government had created a committee to prepare a road map for computerisation of PDS and linking it both to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the UID Authority of India. This had come after a Supreme Court order asking the government to consider computerisation of PDS "in consultation with the specialised agencies."

So far, UID has given out Aadhaar numbers to 650 million residents of the country.

(With inputs from Sanjeeb Mukherjee)

5682 - Smart cities or wiretap ones? - BUsiness Standard

Smart cities or wiretap ones

Government may have to address privacy concerns arising out of project

Surabhi Agarwal & Aditi Divekar  |  New Delhi  July 12, 2014 Last Updated at 22:37 IST

The government allocated upwards of Rs 7,000 crore for building 100 smart cities in the country in the Union Budget, leading to huge opportunities for corporate houses, especially technology-centric ones. 

According to experts, once the jubilation around the business prospects settles down, the government may have to address privacy issues that a project of this nature may throw up. India still does not have a privacy law that spells out no-go areas for the government in this kind of surveillance.

"We have a euphoric attitude towards technology and what it can do, but this is a good time to raise these issues," said Parminder Jeet Singh, executive director of IT for Change, a think tank dealing with technology issues.

A smart city's roads, traffic, electricity, water and sewage  are connected through a technology platform and controlled at an integrated centre. This helps not only in better urban planning but also improves use of resources. However, considering these cities will have to be ring-fenced through closed circuit cameras and lots of equipment in homes and offices will contain electronic chips to transmit information, there could be privacy concerns. The government may end up collecting too much data about citizens that could be misused if not protected.

R Chandrashekhar, president of technology industry body Nasscom, said, "We have the right to information but the other side of the coin the right to privacy is not there." The former telecom and IT secretary has been part of discussions on a privacy bill, first mooted in 2010 and re-drafted several times, whose future is not clear under the new government.

Last year, camera footage of a couple travelling in the Delhi Metro was leaked on the Internet creating a huge public outcry. Issues such as how much can the government record; who can access that data; for how long can it be stored; and what are the penalties for misuse need to be defined clearly. Even though India has an Information Technology Act that deals with some of these issues, Chandrasekhar said a comprehensive law was  needed that would be binding on public authorities and individuals.

Singh added that we should have clear policies around privacy before the government decided to go in for such massive surveillance. "Considering these cities will involve the Internet of Things, there will be personal information on a grid that needs to be dealt with carefully," he pointed out.

However, technology companies, which see an investment opportunity around smart cities, differ.  Anand Navani, country manager of video intelligence solutions at Verint System, said keeping public places under surveillance was in the interest of citizens and could not be considered as an intrusion on privacy. The company participated in the Surat Safe City Project. "When implementing the project in Surat, we  along with the authorities had identified public spots in the city that need to be under check. These places were not schools or college campuses or even manufacturing or industrial areas that could be considered evading privacy," said Navani.

Safe cities uses all key resources the government agencies had to make them livable, added Andrew Chi, head of public safety solutions at NEC India.

Cyber law consultant N A Vijayashankar said even though an individual had no claim on privacy in a public place, there must be a way for citizens to uphold their rights in case of a breach. "The IT Act does provide safeguards, but it does not spell out for how much time the information collected by the government can be stored and what are the security measures that need to be put in place to ensure against misuse." The leaked tapes of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia were an example of such a breach, he added.

INDIA'S TECHNOPOLIS
| The government has allocated Rs 7,000 crore for building 100 smart cities
| This is a huge opportunity for corporates especially technology firms
| Citizens' privacy could be an issue as India still doesn't have a privacy bill
| A smart city will be an integrating infrastructure and services through a technology platform and controlled through an integrated command centre

5680 - Aadhaar 2.0 NDA should not repeat UPA's mistakes - Business Standard

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/aadhaar-2-0-114071400336_1.html

Aadhaar 2.0

NDA should not repeat UPA's mistakes

Surabhi Agarwal  July 14, 2014 Last Updated at 13:01 IST

Last week Narendra Modi’s government quelled concerns over the Aadhaar project. Not only did Prime Minister Modi rule out any merger (or scrapping) of Aadhaar, he also directed officials to speed up the enrolment process. The direct benefits transfer (DBT) project, which was being rolled out through the Aadhaar platform also has to be expedited. It is being joked that Aadhaar has received more support from the current government than from the Congress led regime which fathered it. 

But, this is where the Modi government has to exercise caution in not repeating its predecessor’s mistakes. 

Instead of pulling out all stops to get cracking at Aadhaar once again (which is expected post Modi’s vote of confidence), the government needs to first step back and look at all the structural issues concerning the project. After all, these are the very concerns which led to the current mess. 

First and foremost, the legal sanctity of Aadhaar has to be established. The National Identification Authority of India Bill has been pending for several years now. This is the same piece of legislation on which the BJP leader Yashwant Sinha chaired Parliamentary Committee had serious objections. The Modi Cabinet needs to quickly debate the Bill and pass it as soon as possible before any more fingers are pointed at the legality of the programme that is still run by an executive order. 

As it details and debates the Bill, the current procedure followed by UIDAI in enrolling the citizens needs to be closely scrutinized. If there are any short-comings because of which the system is being gamed, those gaps need to be filled 'now'. It will be advisable to further strengthen the enrollment process but the government has to ensure it doesn’t come at the cost of excluding the genuine. While it studies the UID architecture, it is important to draw clear lines between the home ministry’s National Population Register project and UID project. The two warring agencies will be at it again unless their roles are clearly defined. Both can coexist. Let UID cover all residents and NPR should tell us who is a genuine citizen. 

The pending court case in the Supreme Court needs to be closed sooner than later too. In its earlier order, the court had said that no resident should be denied government services due to unavailability of Aadhaar. As the new government revives old schemes which were linked to the UID number, this order is bound to weigh on the minds of the bureaucrats. The sooner the government clarifies its stand on making Aadhaar mandatory for government services, the better. 

The genesis of the court case lies in the past government’s rush to link Aadhaar with possible government welfare payments without studying the ground realities. This government will do better to draw up a priority list of schemes that will gain the most out of being linked through the UID number. And the list needs to be rolled out on the basis of priority. It is a good idea to link Aadhaar with marriage registration, but lets open more bank accounts and streamline most leaking subsidies first. Ensuring that there is enough penetration of the number where these schemes are introduced and people are reasonably educated about the project and its use would also be the start point for the second phase of the DBT. 

However, before any of that happens, the government needs to speed up the Privacy Bill. Once financial transactions, welfare payments and myriad authentication services are rolled out through the Aadhaar platform, there are bound to be concerns about misuse. The government needs to pre-empt such scenarios and bring out a solid legislation on privacy and data protection to deal with such issues. 

Lastly, all this has to be done in a short period of time. The country has lost enough resources while the previous and the current government flip-flopped on this project of national importance. 

5621 - Aadhaar lives on: RBI tests UID-based mobile fund transfers - Business Standard

Aadhaar lives on: RBI tests UID-based mobile fund transfers

Banking regulator to decide on initialising the payment system after reviewing the functioning of pilot projects commissioned in April

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  June 29, 2014 Last Updated at 00:37 IST

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Unique Identity (UID) project, or Aadhaar, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is testing a mobile-based payments system linked to this platform. Remittances through this platform skip the traditional banking channel and are aimed at including the unbanked in the financial system.

Pilot projects related to this system, under way across various parts of the country, are studying whether telecom operators such as Airtel and Vodafone can successfully transfer money between their so-called pre-paid wallets linked to Aadhaar. Seven operators including Airtel, Vodafone, ItzCash and Oxigen are running these pilot projects.

This is how the system works: A person with an Aadhaar number and a mobile phone can open a mobile wallet by visiting a store of a wallet operator, and load cash into his/her account. Following this, she/he gives directions for the transfer, through SMS, to a recipient with an existing Aadhaar-linked mobile wallet. The recipient goes to a store (the operator’s own or a licensed kirana or telecom store), authenticates herself/ himself through the UID number and biometrics, and receives the cash.

The pilot projects in this regard, commissioned in April this year, will run for a couple of months, after which the RBI will decide on the matter.

Aadhaar, a flagship scheme of the United Progressive Alliance government and the pillar on which the project is based, is currently under a cloud. Several reports have said the National Democratic Alliance government wants to merge the project with the National Population Register to ensure only bona fide citizens enrol under it.

ALSO READ: RBI allows banks to appoint NBFCs as biz correspondents

However, there has been no word from the RBI, which has already mandated Aadhaar as a valid proof of address and identity for banking, to suggest its discontinuation. The central bank did not respond to email queries regarding the pilot project.

Sunil Kulkarni, deputy managing director of Oxigen, said an estimated 75 million migrant workers in India found it difficult to send money to their friends and families living in remote villages as bank branches were far and in most cases, banking correspondents, too, weren’t present in these areas. “But the retail agent network is huge… there are over 50 million grocery stores in the country,” he said.

The plan is to enable small shop owners with a biometric device attached to a mobile phone. For the receiver, the device can aid in authentication and act as an automated teller machine. Kulkarni claims the platform of his company alone has 130,000 operators, against a total 150,000 bank branches, adding the combined networks of all operators such as Airtel and Vodafone could cover the entire country.

For those who didn’t have bank accounts, the only ways to transfer money were through post, the informal channel or hawala operators, said an official involved with the pilot. Also, the RBI is concerned it is becoming difficult to track payments through mobile wallets, as their KYC (know-your customer) data are not considered adequate.

“With Aadhaar, the RBI will know who is transacting the money,” the official said. Linkage through Aadhaar will enable a system of ‘cash withdrawal’ by the receiver, a facility currently not allowed for pre-paid wallet operators. UID will provide the required KYC and ensure an audit trail.

Airtel, which runs the Airtel Money wallet, did not respond to queries, while Vodafone declined to comment on the pilot.

In an emailed response, a Vodafone spokesperson said given the large number of mobile users in India, mobile banking had the potential to emerge as a game-changer in terms of costs, convenience and reach. The company claims its M-Pesa is the largest business correspondent network in India, with about 65,000 agents and 1.4 million registered customers. Currently, a customer can only use the wallet services to pay utility bills.

Kulkarni, however, said he wasn’t concerned about the uncertainty surrounding Aadhaar. “The database built by Aadhaar is apolitical and too valuable to give away,” he said, adding Aadhaar was likely to continue, though the government might choose a different name for it. This, he said, was because Aadhaar had already been mandated as KYC by many financial sector regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

HOW IT WORKS

• Small shop owners will be enabled with a biometric device attached to a mobile phone
• A person with an Aadhaar number and a mobile phone opens a mobile wallet through a wallet operator’s store
• She/he loads cash into account
• The person gives directions for the transfer, through SMS, to a recipient with an existing Aadhaar-linked mobile wallet
• The recipient goes to a licensed store, authenticates herself/himself through the UID number and biometrics, and receives the cash

5537 - NIC should become a strategic advisor to govt instead of writing codes: Ram Sewak Sharma - Business Standard

NIC should become a strategic advisor to govt instead of writing codes: Ram Sewak Sharma

Q&A with Secretary, Dept. of Electronics & IT

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  May 20, 2014 Last Updated at 19:40 IST

In his first interview after taking over as the Secretary of the Department of Electronics and IT, Ram Sewak Sharma talks about the need for the department to reinvent itself and relook at projects initiated several years ago as they may not be relevant anymore given the changing nature of technology. In an interview with Surabhi Agarwal, Sharma, who was formerly the Director General of UIDAI and served as Chief Secretary of the Jharkhand government in his last assignment, also talks about the need for organisations like National Informatics Centre to just act as technology advisors to the government instead of focusing on non-core activities like developing software. Edited Excerpts…

What insights do you carry to this new post from your past interactions with the department as the chief secretary of the Jharkhand government and director general of the UIDAI?
It is a good experience to work with the state government before assuming this role. Because, it’s from there, you can see how the projects are being implemented; how the interface of the states with the NIC (National Informatics Centre) takes place; what are the deficiencies and pain points. So that experience will help in fine-tuning, restructuring, redesigning some part of the projects under the National E-Governance Plan.

What are the key gaps that you have identified so far?
The first phase of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006; eight years have passed since then. A lot of things have changed – both in software as well as hardware. Mobile has now become a very effective delivery medium. So, I think we need to redesign or restructure various projects, which have become obsolete in terms of their structure. For example, many of the programmes were developed on client server technology and now you have cloud. We have to leverage cloud and deliver services through mobile, tablets etc. So, a lot of restructuring is required. One of the important points that I want to make is that currently there are huge silos. We need to create more information interchange protocols to bridge the gap. I think data driven decision-making or data analytics is one area which is lacking. Over the years, states have created a lot of data such as property, taxes, treasury etc. We need to have this data analysed to draw patterns, trends, fraud or tax evasion analytics.

What are the other areas in which you envisage a re-look?
I think NIC should become an advisor to the government rather than an application developer. In many of the states, you will find that NIC employees are developing applications, writing codes. That paradigm has to change. NIC is a strategic partner, and they should provide advice while application development should be done by others. NIC shouldn’t be writing codes. We should also be able to develop many more platform applications. For example, Aadhaar – which is like a platform on which you can develop applications. States can just ride on it, create a login and get going. For example, payment gateways, SMS gateways, PDS and transport applications can be easily standardised. This will lead to simplification of the design architecture and reduction in the duplication of works.

How do you look at the new government and its technology vision?
The new government will have its own policies or priorities. So, we will have to redesign or reorient the policies in accordance with the priorities of the new government. I am pretty hopeful that this area, especially governance, will become a huge focus of the new government. Electronics manufacturing is also a priority area. We can provide employment to a huge number of people besides cutting down on our electronics import.

What is going to be your strategy to address issues of cyber security, internet governance as this is an emerging area where India has a lot of catch up to do?
Internet governance is one area where we would like to have an important role to play considering that we are the largest users of this infrastructure. The customer base of Internet in India is very high. Efforts are on and we have articulated our views. We are also trying to put some institutional frameworks to ensure better cyber security.

5424 - Aadhaar: UPA-II's pet project faces rough weather - Business Standard

Aadhaar: UPA-II's pet project faces rough weather

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  April 4, 2014 Last Updated at 00:09 IST

It was one of the biggest projects undertaken by the United Progressive Alliance government in its second term, but the idea to give a unique identity number to every resident of the country is embroiled in controversy.

The government launched the unique identity, or Aadhaar, project in 2009 and appointed former Infosys chief and co-founder Nandan Nilekani to head it. Under Nilekani, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) promised to give Aadhaar numbers to 600 million Indians by 2014. And the UIDAI did meet its target one week before Nilekani stepped down as its chief. However, there are many challenges the project faces as it scales up and moves to the next level.

The government launched cash transfers in late 2012 with an eye on the 2014 general elections as the idea of transferring subsidies directly into the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of beneficiaries seemed promising. However, the government hurried through the scheme, which required a complete re-engineering of welfare delivery, severely challenging its implementation.

The government spends over Rs 3,00,000 crore every year on social welfare and a significant portion of it is diverted. Cash transfers promised to fix the leakages and were turning out to be one of the biggest uses for the Aadhaar number.

However, the government's decision in February to put in abeyance cash transfers for the cooking gas subsidy in the wake of ground-level implementation challenges was a big setback. The cooking gas subsidy was the showpiece of the Aadhaar-based payment system, covering 291 of the 640 districts in India. According to government statistics, 17 million consumers had received Rs 3,000 crore as cash subsidy for cooking gas by the the end of January.

Cash transfers were launched in January last year for 26 government welfare schemes. The cooking gas project was rolled out in June and scaled up gradually. It already constitutes between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of all cash transfers. The scheme is not being pushed by the government after the Supreme Court ruled Aadhaar could not be made mandatory for availing government services.

To be sure, the UIDAI has done remarkably well when it comes to meeting its enrolment target: it has already crossed the 600 million mark - a goal it had set for itself when it first started out. Moreover, the Cabinet has also expanded the mandate of the UIDAI to enroll more than 600 million people. Over 60 million bank accounts have been seeded with Aadhaar already, and over 100 agencies are using it for authentication services. This is expected to rise further.

The Reserve Bank of India has also recently asked banks to put in place the infrastructure required to ensure that Aadhaar-based biometrics can be used for authentication of card transactions. After an initial resistance, banks have largely accepted Aadhaar as proof of identity and address, and some have also begun to launch applications based on its payment gateway and authentication services.

However, one of the biggest roadblocks for Aadhaar is the petition in court questioning the rationale for making it mandatory for government services. This has turned into an argument on the need for a unique identity number, with the very fundamentals of the project being questioned in the Supreme Court. Moreover, the UID Bill, which gives the project statutory backing, is yet to be cleared by Parliament. Another piece of legislation, which is required to douse the privacy concerns pertaining to the project, the Privacy Bill, seems like a distant reality, too. The Bill, which would have addressed issues such as misuse of information collected for the UIDAI by third-party agencies, is pending approval.

And the implications of it are already being felt. In a case of a gang rape in Goa, a court there had asked the UIDAI to share biometric data of residents in the state. The UIDAI moved the Bombay High Court against it, but it did not prevent the sharing of Aadhaar details with the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Finally, on March 24, the Supreme Court directed the Centre not to share Aadhaar details with any agency without the consent of the holder. It also asked the government to immediately withdraw all orders that had made Aadhaar compulsory for registration of marriage or property or availing of the subsidy on cooking gas cylinders or any other service.

5416 - Experts hail new Privacy Bill more though it favours govt agencies - Business Standard

Experts hail new Privacy Bill more though it favours govt agencies

The 2014 Bill recognizes the Right to Privacy as a part of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and extends to the whole of India

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  April 1, 2014 Last Updated at 19:12 IST

Read more on:    Surveillance | Interception | Privacy Bill | Niira Radia | Right To Privacy

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After four to five attempts in the past, the government's latest draft of the Privacy Bill is being called a refined one by experts even though it creates some wide exceptions for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to collect personal information of individuals.

While the first draft of the Bill released in 2011 extended the Right to Privacy to citizens of India, the 2014 version has expanded its ambit to cover all residents of the country. The 2014 Bill also recognizes the Right to Privacy as a part of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and extends to the whole of India. The 2011 draft Bill did not explicitly recognize the Right to Privacy as being a part of Article 21, and had excluded Jammu & Kashmir from its purview.

ALSO READ: Saving privacy as we knew it

Both the drafts include a list of circumstances under which authorisation for the collection and processing of sensitive personal data is not required. While the list is the broadly the same between the 2011 and 2014 bills, but the latest version exempts insurance company and Government Intelligence agencies which are collecting or processing data "in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, security or the strategic, scientific or economic interest of India."

A Bangalore based Internet think-tank Centre for Internet and Society said it welcomes many of the changes that are reflected in the Privacy Bill 2014. However, it is cautious about the wide exceptions that have been carved out for law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the Bill.

"The 2014 Bill carves out another exception for Government agencies, allowing disclosure of sensitive personal data without consent to Government agencies mandated under law for the purposes of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation including cyber incidents, prosecution, and punishment of offences," Centre for Internet and Society said a note analyzing the provisions of the Bill.

The privacy Bill was originally conceptualised to ensure that data collected by the government under various new projects such as Aadhaar or the National Information Grid (NATGRID) is not misused in any way. But following incidents such as the tapping of phone conversations involving lobbyist Niira Radia prompted the government to expand the ambit of the privacy law from just being a data protection law to also cover surveillance and interception.

However, it was unable to reach a consensus due to inter-ministerial conflicts as the law was superseding various provisions under several existing legislations. The government also a committee under retired Delhi High Court Judge Ajit P. Shah in the aegis of the Planning Commission to study international best practices on privacy and surveillance. This committee submitted a report in 2012.

Some noteworthy additions to the new Bill include the term personal identifier which is defined by any unique alphanumeric sequence of members, letters, and symbols that specifically identifies an individual with a database or a data set.

The current Bill has also re-defined, sensitive personal data to denote personal data relating to physical and mental health including medical history, biometric, bodily or genetic information, criminal convictions, password, banking credit and financial data, narco analysis or polygraph test data and sexual orientation.

Once a privacy law comes into being, the government or a private agency will have to adequately inform citizens before collecting data, stating the reasons and only collecting as much information as is necessary for the purpose. It will also have to clearly define the time period for which the data will be stored and the security measures taken to protect the data from misuse. The law also lays down the penalties in case of a breach.

Read more on:    Surveillance | Interception | Privacy Bill | Niira Radia | Right To Privacy

5172 - Is it the end of the road for Aadhaar? - Business Standard

Is it the end of the road for Aadhaar?

Government's decision to suspend Aadhaar-based cash transfers in LPG has dealt a fresh blow to the project whose utility has always been questioned

Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi   February 05, 2014 Last Updated at 23:15 IST

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win…" go the famous words by Mahatma Gandhi. 

Every stage of the saying fits the evolution of the Unique Identity or Aadhaar project, except for the last part - winning. 

Each time in its four-year journey - which has been no less than a roller-coaster ride - the ambitious project seems to be turning a corner, a controversy here or a revolt there threatens to stop it in its tracks.

Last week, the government decided to put in abeyance direct benefit transfers in cooking gas subsidy - one of the biggest showcases for UID-based payment system in the wake of ground level implementation challenges. Optimists dismissed it as just another setback for the Nandan Nilekani led-Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), but a 360-degree view of the project reveals the shaky grounds on which it currently stands.

A petition questioning the rationale for making Aadhaar mandatory for government services has turned into a full-fledged argument on the need for the unique identity number, with the very fundamentals of the project being questioned in the Supreme Court. The court's interim order that no one should suffer for not having the number has also dampened the government's enthusiasm for the direct benefits transfer (DBT) project. The scheme, which has been piloted in only a few regions, is no longer being pushed by the government with the same aggression.

Nilekani has been the face of the project and is credited with meandering through various challenges to scale it up. But he has announced his intentions to switch to the political side and contest in the forthcoming elections. Moreover, the UID Bill, which gives the project a statutory backing, is yet to be cleared by Parliament. Given that the current session will focus on the Interim Budget and will also be the last for this government, the Bill is unlikely to be taken up. Another piece of legislation, which is required to douse the privacy concerns pertaining to the project - the Privacy Bill - looks like a distant reality too. The Bill, which would have addressed issues such as misuse of information collected by UID by third-party agencies, is still pending approval.

To add to this is the uncertainly surrounding the political landscape in the country. What if the UPA government is voted out of power? A Bharatiya Janata Party-led government may not prove to be the most favourable for the project's future. The Standing Parliamentary Committee, headed by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, which studied the UID Bill, had raised many concerns including the very need for UID.

Aadhaar on steady ground

"What is the threat?" counter-questions a UIDAI official when posed with the various questions facing the project. The official who does not wish to be identified argues that putting DBT in cooking gas subsidy on hold does not mean that it is being scrapped. He says Aadhaar will continue to be used to identify LPG customers, even though the payments will not be made directly into the bank accounts. As far as the Supreme Court order is concerned, he says, all the pertinent questions regarding the project will be answered once and for all. "It has created an opportunity for our detractors to shut themselves." The official adds how the Supreme Court's interventions have actually helped decide matters like privatisation in the telecom sector and the spectrum issue subsequently. "Any change in the world has always been resisted like this, so it's nothing unusual."

The project has been constantly under fire since its very inception, more from inside the government than outside. While the Planning Commission - of which UIDAI is an attached body - was the first to raise objections about administrative matters, the project entered into a fierce battle with the Union home ministry's Registrar General of India - which is creating a National Population Registrar - on the issue of collecting biometrics. Then headed by P Chidambaram, the home ministry had also raised security concerns over UIDAI's enrolment process. The two entered into a compromise later to resolve the matter.

"It was the government which did not allow UID to work," says a former UIDAI official, adding that the opposition was due to the fact that Aadhaar was turning into a huge cleansing agent in the government (direct transfer of subsidies to Aadhaar-liked accounts would have minimised the leakage in welfare payments apart from bringing transparency in government functioning). The official who is saddened by the decision on DBT in cooking gas says that he is still "optimistic" as the government is in an "election mode" and doesn't want to antagonise anybody. However, "the project is irreversible now with almost 600 million residents enrolled."

In late 2012, the government decided to roll out DBT on a war footing where the subsidy money would directly go into the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of the intended beneficiaries. That was perhaps the only time when the project seemed to have solid backing from the Congress as well as from most wings of the government.

However, issues with ground-level implementation and the subsequent Supreme Court order sapped DBT of its initial momentum. Some bureaucrats attribute the issues that UIDAI has faced to the "hurry" in which the project was implemented. Another former official says the correct way for the government to roll-out direct transfers was to ensure significant saturation of Aadhaar first in an area and then link it with welfare payments. "Without that, public resentment had to be there," the official says, adding that even though Aadhaar has a lot of potential, the DBT scheme was not well thought out. "States were not consulted enough, which is now showing through public feedback."

Another former government official who worked closely with the authority says that in a hurry to meet its target, the authority did not regard "government protocol," which is the prime reason for the bureaucratic resistance it faced. "The utility of Aadhaar was not thought through before rolling out such a large project, its usefulness is still a mirage for people."

However, some are optimistic. Srikanth Nadamuni, chief of Khosla Labs, a start-up incubator who was roped in as a technology advisor by UIDAI, says that the project is in a flux right now and there is bound to be some pushback. "This is an in-between phase for the project, and people will soon see the usefulness of it."

The positives

To be sure, UIDAI has done remarkably well when it comes to meeting its enrolment target: it has already covered 572 million people and will soon touch the 600 million mark - a target it had set for itself when it first started out. On Tuesday, the Cabinet also expanded the mandate of UID to enroll beyond 600 million people, which means that more residents will come under the project and faster. UID officials argue that 60 million bank accounts have been seeded with Aadhaar already and over 100 agencies are using it for authentication services. The number is now expected to see another spurt.

The Reserve Bank of India has also recently asked banks to put in place the infrastructure required to make sure that Aadhaar-based biometrics can be used as an additional factor of authentication for card transactions. After the initial resistance, banks have largely accepted Aadhaar for proof of identity and address, and some have also begun to launch applications based on its payment gateway and authentication services. However, they have protested against the latest Reserve Bank of India directive.

Praveen Chakravarty, former head of investment banking at Anand Rathi who worked with UIDAI in the area of financial services, says that banks are opposing the move as it will be an additional cost factor for them, especially when business is strained. "But, if you look at the current political leadership, they are spending 30-40 per cent of the campaigning time talking about how Aadhaar can help reduce corruption." He adds that therefore saying that the project doesn't have political backing in view of all the opposition it has faced does not hold true.

Even as the jury is out on whether the ruling United Progressive Alliance government supports the project or not, opposition-ruled Gujarat has been enrolling 100,000 people every day. This is up from 17,000 to 18,000 earlier, says a government official. The state has already enrolled 26 million people. "This happened after Gujarat chief minister and BJP's prime-ministerial candidate Narendra Modi took stock recently and pushed for it to be fast-tracked." This seems like the biggest hope for the project right now.

MAJOR ROADBLOCKS

* Its purpose has been challenged by a petition seeking Aadhaar not be made mandatory for availing of government services

* UID's biggest utility-direct benefits transfer- has suffered due to implementation issues and the interim order of the Supreme Court. In one year only around Rs 500 crore has been transferred through DBT

* DBT in cooking gas, which has seen transactions of over Rs 3,000 crore, has been put on hold

* The UID bill, which will give UIDAI a statutory backing, is awaiting Parliamentary approval

* Banks have opposed RBI's move to make Aadhaar-based biometrics as second factor authentication for card transactions, citing cost issues.