AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: Visa Card

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 Visa Card. Show all posts

Sunday, February 3, 2013

2906 - Visa offers network for distributing cash subsidies to Aadhar cardholders

2 JAN, 2013, 03.50AM IST, GULVEEN AULAKH,ET BUREAU

Visa offers network for distributing cash subsidies to Aadhar cardholders

NEW DELHI: Global electronic payments firm Visa International has offered the use of its nationwide network for the government's ambitious direct benefit transfer scheme aimed at distributing subsidies directly to beneficiaries.

Last month, the company, together with a consortium of banks, rolled out Saral Money, a payment service that allows Aadhaar cardholders to deposit and withdraw money from their low-cost bank accounts through existing ATMs, point of sale terminals, bank branches and proposed micro-ATMs. The banks Visa has tied up with include the State Bank of IndiaBSE 0.91 %, HDFC BankBSE 0.40 %, ICICI BankBSE 1.19 %, Indian Overseas BankBSE 1.83 % and Axis BankBSE 1.73 %.

Last month, it partnered with UIDAI to allow an Aadhaar cardholder to instantly open a bank account using biometric recognition or fingerprints for authentication of personal information. The cardholder will get an instant Visa debit card which can be used for depositing or withdrawing cash at any of the 500 business correspondent outlets that Visa is setting up across the country.

"We're in talks with the government through the consortium of banks that we have tied up with. We're talking to them for trying to use us in any of the 51 districts or any of the schemes they are planning," said Visa's group country manager for India and South Asia, Uttam Nayak.

"We have told the government that you give us a file of Aadhar numbers and the money credited to them and we will push the money to the account of whoever has a Saral Money card. Those who do not have an account, we will offer to instantly create a bank account. We will make sure that we create bank accounts for everybody who is getting benefits from the government," Nayak added.

The government on Tuesday launched its direct cash transfer scheme under which subsidy payments will be directly transferred to bank accounts of some 2 lakh beneficiaries across 20 districts across the country. The first set of payouts will come from seven schemes.

These include scholarships for SC, ST and OBCs students, the Indira Gandhi Matrutva Sahayata Yojana, Dhanalakshmi scheme and a stipend scheme for SC & ST job seekers. The direct benefit transfer scheme will eventually include payouts from 26 schemes. Starting next month, 11 more districts will be covered and another 12 districts will be covered from March 1, taking the total to 43

Saturday, February 2, 2013

2864 - Aadhar gets link with Visa, five banks for easy account opening

Aadhar gets link with Visa, five banks for easy account opening

The government on Wednesday announced the launch of Saral Money, which brings banking services for the unbanked by tying five banks through a Visa payment gateway, using the Aadhar unique ID number as a proxy for cumbersome Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.

The five banks that are part of Saral Money scheme include SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Axis Bank.

The key to the new solution is Visa network, which integrates and links the different systems being operated by banks with the government's national identity database. This means Saral Money is not restricted to a specific bank or region.

"This is a perfect example of how the public and private sector have come together to… develop India's payment ecosystem," said Uttam Nayak, Visa's group country manager for India and South Asia.

The system works by enabling an individual with Aadhaar number to be issued a Visa Instant Account that simplifies the KYC criterion. Prior to this customers would have had to provide numerous documents to fulfill KYC requirement, which was a big deterrent for marginalised.

The service aims to target the 210 million Aadhaar holders and expand them to 600 million by 2015.

The benefits to the consumer come from the ability to receive payments direct to the Saral Money and use it to withdraw or remit those payments to family members. For the government, it helps improve transparency and efficiency while driving the country's electronic payment and financial inclusion agenda.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

1165 - Visa cards for those registered with UIDAI - Source - Economic Times

16 NOV, 2010, 04.34AM IST,ET BUREAU

MUMBAI:

Unbanked individuals will soon be able to have payment cards, with card company Visa building a system where an individual who has been registered by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be entitled to receive a card from a Visa partner bank, based on UIDAI biometric identification.

Visa is partnering TSYS — a US-based tech company that focuses on credit card transactions — to help it use biometric verification for issue of cards. With this technology in place, the card company can check the applicant’s credentials by verifying his fingerprints or iris impression.

The UIDAI, through the Aadhaar scheme, aims to provide every Indian with a unique identity number which can be ascertained by his fingerprints or iris impression. The authority plans to issue Aadhaar numbers to 600 million residents over the next four years, with a 100 million expected to be enrolled in the first year.

According to Visa, a very small proportion of the Indian population has bank accounts. As a part of the proposed solution, once an individual enrolls into Aadhaar, the partner bank can issue a Visa payment card (linked to his/her Aadhaar).

Visa group executive Elizabeth Buse said: “Many Indians have little or no access to the banking system in India. Now they will be able to benefit from all the security, reliability and convenience that a Visa payments card has to offer. This is a ground-breaking initiative and a great example of a public-private partnership in action. I am delighted that Visa is part of such an important project in India.”