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

Monday, July 29, 2013

4444 - Virar shocker: Aadhar cards

http://freepressjournal.in/city-round-up-28/

Virar shocker: Aadhar cards

found in garbage bin


Bhayandar: Less than 20 days after bundles of MSEDCL electricity bills were found lying with a scrap dealer in Nallasopara, around 60 Aadhar cards were recovered from a garbage bin in Virar (East) on Tuesday. The cards, wrapped in a black polythene bag, were spotted by a rag-picker in the Sai Dutt Nagar area of Virar (East). The rag-picker informed local resident Balmukund Mishra, who rushed to the spot and was shocked to find the cards dumped in the garbage bin. Incidentally, Mishra was on his way to the Virar Post Office to inquire about his Aadhar card, when the rag-picker informed him about the abandoned cards. And to his utter disbelief, Mishra found six cards, belonging to him and his family members. Although Mishra is happy to get hold of the long-awaited government document, he is worried about consequences of such a careless attitude of concerned authorities. “Aadhar is a vital identification document for Indian citizens, had it not been misused if fallen in wrong hands,” questioned Mishra.

4443 - Card payment may require biometric check - Financial Express



KIRTIKA SUNEJANEW DELHI, JUL 25 2013, 05:40 IST



The next time you swipe your debit or credit card at a point-of-sale terminal, you may be asked for biometric authentication. This is because your Aadhaar number will soon be linked to your bank account to reduce cases of fraud.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will begin the process of mapping Aadhaar numbers with card numbers at the backend once it receives the green signal from the Reserve Bank of India.

According to UIDAI officials, biometric authentication will be done using a USB biometric scanner costing R2,000, which will be connected to the card swipe machine at point of sale (PoS) terminals.

In fact, the RBI had proposed — though at the pilot project level — double authentication of credit card transactions through Aadhaar as the move would make transactions at ATMs and PoS or merchant terminals more secure.

Based on the recommendations of the Gowri Mukherjee-led working group — formed for securing card-present transactions — the RBI said that banks
could consider the Aadhaar biometric authentication, along with the MagStripe (magnetic stripe), as an additional factor for authentication for card-present transactions at ATMs and POS terminals.

Magnetic stripe card and biometric (Aadhaar finger print) data checks protect against both domestic counterfeit (skimming) and lost or stolen card fraud.
The biometric data, captured by the UIDAI, can be used as authentication for protection as the cardholder has to be physically present at the POS terminal/ATM to authenticate the transaction.

Even if the card is counterfeited, the fraudster will not be able to use it as the biometrics of the customer would be required.

The authority had done a pilot project in January when a few thousand transactions were conducted using Aadhaar authentication.

“New issue of cards need not happen if the biometric authentication can be done simultaneously. However, a few banks are not supportive of this scheme. If banks want to issue new cards, then the Aadhaar number will be integrated with it,” a UIDAI official said.

At present, EMV machines or the card swipe terminals depend on cards with embedded integrated circuits or chips.
These are better than cards with magnetic strips, whose data can be skimmed relatively easily, say experts.
However, these chips and pin codes are no match for biometric data which is unique to each individual.

4442 - Do not rush to enrol for Aadhaar: MLA = The Hindu


Do not rush to enrol for Aadhaar: MLA
UDUPI, July 25, 2013

People wait in queue in front of head post office to get tokens for Aadhar enrolment in Udupi.

‘Those enrolled for NPR cards need not again enrol for Aadhaar cards’
Udupi MLA Pramod Madhwaraj on Wednesday urged people not to rush to the head post office here to get enrolled for Aadhaar. In a press release issued here, Mr. Madhwaraj said that those who had already enrolled for National Population Register (NPR) need not apply for Aadhaar. Since both cards would have same details, it was not necessary again to stand in a long queue in front of the head post office for the Aadhaar.

Already 30,000 NPR cards had been distributed in the district, while the remaining NPR cards would be mailed in the coming days. Hence, the people need not become anxious on this issue, he said. According to Additional Deputy Commissioner Kumara, of the population of 12,08,835 in Udupi district, data of 8,62,731 persons (74.95 per cent) had been collected for NPR cards. The second round of NPR enrolment had started in Kundapur taluk last week, he said.

He had been watching the long queue in front of the head post office here for the last two days. Many people had returned empty-handed in spite of standing in the queue for long hours. Mr. Madhwaraj said he discussed the issue with K. Jayaprakash Hegde, Udupi-Chikmagalur MP, M.T. Reju, Deputy Commissioner, and Sudhakar G. Devadiga, Superintendent of Posts. He said he would take up the issue with the Centre so that Aadhar system is made more efficient.

Only 50 families could be enrolled at the head post office for the Aadhaar card daily. There was no last date for enrolment for Aadhaar, he said. As many as 50 tokens would be issued everyday at the head post office here for enrolment for Aadhaar. The enrolment of these 50 persons, who had been issued tokens, would be done on the same day.

LONG QUEUES
Many people, including women and senior citizens, were angry that they had to stand for many hours at the Head Post Office just to get the token. Only the first 50 persons standing in the queue can get a token.

The enrolment process, which stopped on April 19 this year, was restarted on July 22. Many people in the queue complained that they had come on Monday also to get the tokens.

John D’Souza (64), a retired private sector employee, said he had come from Karkala at 6.40 a.m. and was waiting to get the token. He had also come on Monday and waited from 7.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. but could not get the token. “I wish the enrolment of Aadhaar was done at Karkala. It is 10.20 a.m. now, but I am still waiting,” he rued.

Ghulam Dastagir, who had come with three other family members from Uchila village at 6 a.m., said on Tuesday, “We had come yesterday also at 9.30 a.m. Since we did not get the tokens yesterday, we came earlier today. It is difficult to bring family members, especially women, and make them wait in long queue for four hours.”

4441 - Meghalaya suspends biometric enrolment of people



Meghalaya suspends biometric enrolment of people
Meghalaya,Politics, Thu, 25 Jul 2013
IANS

Shillong, July 25 (IANS) The Meghalaya government Thursday decided to keep in abeyance the National Population Register (NPR) biometric enrolment after student activists disrupted the NPR camps across this mountainous state's capital.

"We have decided to keep the NPR biometric enrolment on hold after the Khasi Students' Union (KSU) activists disrupted the NPR enrolment camps in the state capital," the principal secretary in-charge of census operations and NPR, Peter W. Ingty, told IANS.

The Khasi Students' Union (KSU) has asked the Mukul Sangma-led government to put on hold the proposed enrolment drive as the state first requires stronger mechanisms to check the influx of people.

Moreover, the students union has also suggested that the government involve heads of traditional institutions in helping in the verifying process to determine both genuine and non-genuine citizens for the purposes of enrolment in the National Population Register (NPR).

"Our demand is to stop this biometric enrolment and implementation of Aadhaar. Our focus is on the need to have strong mechanisms to check the influx (of illegal migrants). This enrolment will defeat the purpose of checking the menace of such influx," KSU supremo Daniel Khyriem said.

He alleged that the NPR biometric enrolment or implementation of Aadhaar will only facilitate "outsiders" to strengthen their claim to being genuine residents of Meghalaya.

However, Ingty clarified that NPR biometric enrolment was carried out mainly to contain the details of all usual residents, whether people from India or foreigners, so as to be able to identify foreigners and genuine citizens.
"But nonetheless, we (government) have decided to involve heads of the traditional institutions to assist the government in the verifying process to determine both genuine and non-genuine citizens on implementation of the NPR in the state," he said.

The NPR biometric enrolment will lead to the implementation of the Unique Identification number (UID) in the state. After the enrolment comes to a close, each individual will be provided with the UID number.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) aims to provide UID or Aadhaar, a 12-digit ID number, to all residents on a voluntary basis.
The NPR biometric enrolment in the state commenced on June 21 from Raj Bhavan where Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary was the first in the state to have completed the process.

The biometric enrolment in the state is part of the second phase of data collection for the NPR. The first phase of this national exercise was completed in 2010 along with the housing and house listing operations for the 2011 census.


4440 - Direct Benefits Transfer scheme shifted to Finance Ministry



Shift will enable direct supervision of the rollout of DBT across the country and resolution of inter-ministerial issues

In order to improve inter-ministerial coordination and hasten the rollout of the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) programme, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has approved the shifting of the Mission Director and his officers from Planning Commission to the Ministry of Finance.

This shift will enable direct supervision of the rollout of DBT across the country and resolution of inter-ministerial issues.

The Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) programme was rolled out on January 1, 2013.

It began from 43 districts and has now been expanded to 121 districts from 1.7.2013. Transfer of LPG subsidy through DBT was rolled out from 1.6.2013 and now covers 20 districts. In LPG, over 2.8 million DBT transactions valued at Rs 116 crores have taken place in 7 weeks.

While approving the DBT programme, the Prime Minister had approved the creation of an overarching architecture for managing the programme consisting of a National Committee chaired by the Prime Minister and an Executive Committee chaired by the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister.

At the time of creating this architecture, the DBT programme was initially housed in the Planning Commission. DBT is a programme that cuts across all ministries and only Planning Commission or Finance Ministry would have the necessary reach to make the programme successful. Consequently, Secretary, Planning Commission was made the Convenor of the Executive Committee and the Planning Commission supported the initial phase of the DBT rollout.

Subsequently, a full time Mission Director has been appointed for DBT to manage the extensive work involved in rolling out DBT across the country. The Mission Director is supported by a Joint Secretary and additional officers. The office of the Mission Director is located in the Planning Commission at the moment.

The two Government departments which have the maximum interface with DBT are the D/o Expenditure which is in-charge of all Government funds being transacted through DBT and the D/o Financial Services which is responsible for financial inclusion and managing the cash transfer process through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge. The other two departments which have a common role are UIDAI which does Aadhaar enrolment and DIT which provides technical support.

The bulk of the work in DBT at the moment is in digitization of databases, re-engineering government processes for automating financial transactions, enrolling in Aadhaar and ensuring that every recipient has bank accounts seeded with Aadhaar. The re-engineering and automation of financial transactions processes have to be facilitated by the D/o Expenditure. The opening of bank accounts and seeding them is the responsibility of D/o Financial Services.


In this context, the Prime Minister decided to place the office of Mission Director (DBT) and his officers within the Ministry of Finance. This would improve the coordination between the DBT programme and the Dept of Expenditure and Dept of Financial Services. This would make the DBT rollout far more effective and quicker

4439 - Rs 27 per day: India's new rural poverty line

Rs 27 per day: India's new rural poverty line
2 Comments
Date:Jul 23, 2013


New poverty estimate claims fastest ever decline in poverty during UPA's regime

There were 326 million poor in 2004-05; in 2011-12 the number fell to 216 million, registering a decline of 110 million, says Planning Commission 
(Photo: Surya Sen)

The Planning Commission has declared the new poverty line for rural and urban areas. It is Rs 27 a day for rural areas and Rs 30 a day for urban areas.
Just a year ago when the Commission suggested a poverty line of Rs 22 a day for rural areas, there was a national outrage over it. Subsequently, government scrapped the poverty estimate based on a survey carried out in 2009. The current estimate is based on survey carried out in 2011-12.

269 million Indians are poor
According to the new estimate, some 216.5 million people in rural areas are poor while 52.8 million in urban areas are poor. This means out of the country's total population, 269 million people survive on Rs 27-30 a day.

Going by the press note released on Tuesday by the Planning Commission, poverty level has shown steepest ever fall in recent history. Since 2004-05, coinciding with the UPA's ascent to power, 138 million people have escaped the poverty trap. In rural areas the dip in poverty is stark: there were 326 million poor in 2004-05; in 2011-12 the number fell to 216 million—a decline of 110 million.

The political message in the new estimate is hard to miss. “It can be concluded that the rate of decline in the poverty ratio during the most recent seven-year period—2004-05 to 2011-12—was about three times of that experienced in the 11-year period between 1993-94 and 2004-05,” says the report. The earlier period of comparison coincides with the Opposition BJP's tenure in government.

Poorest states
Chhattisgarh is the poorest state in the country with close to 40 per cent of its population being below the poverty line.  However, the geography of poverty remains the same. Seven states – Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – account for 61 per cent of India's total poor. These states traditionally host India's poorest.

4438 - NPR and Aadhaar - a confused process

July 22, 2013

NPR and Aadhaar - a confused process
R.Dhinakaran

R. Dinakaran heads the Internet edition of The Hindu Business Line and writes on technology and social media.

As all (or at least most) of Government schemes and plans go, the enumeration process of Aadhaar and NPR is being carried out in a manner in which nobody seems to have any clue about what's happening or is being done.

There are enumeration camps, but neither the Government nor UIDAI has bothered to inform the people of the location of the camps. The Aadhaar web site is silent on the location of the camps. UIDAI too has not bothered to update its site. For instance, the districts list under Tamil Nadu has just one – Puducherry (which is a Union Territory).

Though the camps are functioning, the privacy concerns have not been sorted out. The Government does not seem to be bothered at all. In fact, the question in the Aadhaar form asking for ‘Information Sharing Consent’ (see picture) has ‘Yes’ by default. You realise it only after you get the acknowledgment slip in your hand after the process is over. And by the time it is over, you are so exhausted that you want to get away from the place that you don’t really bother about the small check mark that takes your consent for sharing information for granted.

Isn’t there supposed to be Aadhaar forms to be filled up, which will ask for our consent for ‘information sharing’? No. There are no forms. Your data from the NPR enumeration done a few years ago is taken for Aadhaar and is pre-filled in the system.

Do you have any doubts about NPR, Aadhaar or the process itself? If you have, you have to live with it. The enumeration camps are run by the contracted agencies and there are no senior officials present to clarify your doubts.

Now that both Aadhaar and NPR have been merged, are the camps for Aadhaar or NPR? Looks like it doesn’t matter anymore, because of the merged data, but the acknowledgement slip given after the enumeration has the e-mail ID and web site address of the Census Department. If you have the NPR enumeration slip and an identity document such as the ration card or driving licence, it is enough.

NPR and Aadhaar have discounted the fact that people live in apartments, too. If you try to give your apartment number (well, the card is going to the mother of all address/identity proofs), you are told only the ‘house number’ will be recorded.

Though you are told that “any correction” has to be carried out within 90 days, a message posted at the enumeration centre gives you a friendly warning: “No Corrections”. Yes, now you have to hunt for the place where they will make corrections, if any, including insertion of the apartment number.

Now, is Aadhaar mandatory? What about NPR? Isn’t it mandatory for all citizens to register for NPR? One report says that if you have registered for NPR, and not for Aadhaar, you will anyway get a card. And because NPR and Aadhaar data have been merged, does it mean that you are automatically registered for Aadhaar if you are in the NPR list? Some say yes, some say no. But none of the officials is sure. Neither are we.

Keywords: AadhaarNPRAadhaar formsidentity cardcensus department

4437 - Lessons Learnt From UID Data Loss

by Robin Chatterjee 22nd July, 2013 in Security
        
In April 2013 when Maharashtra government admitted to the loss of personal data of around 3 lakh applicants for Aadhaar card, it served to highlight just the tip of the potentially disastrous, catastrophic iceberg we are sitting on. The possible misuse of citizen data, containing Permanent Account Number (PAN) and biometric information, has raised question marks around trusting UIDAI’S IT infrastructure with the data of a billion. And more importantly, around the government’s empathy and understanding on the issue of data privacy. Three months down the line, we take a peek into the measures undertaken by the government machinery to avoid such incidents in the future, and bring to the table some suggestions from an expert.

The Facts

As per media reports, the data was lost while being uploaded from Mumbai to UIDAI server in Bengaluru. “While the transmission was in progress, the hard disk containing data crashed. When the data was downloaded in Bangalore, it could not be decrypted,” the newspaper report said quoting an official from Maharashtra Information Technology (IT) department, which is overseeing the enrolment of citizens. According to Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra, the number of individuals affected is expected to be less than 1 percent of total enrolment done.

Measures Undertaken

Many analysts term this incident a case of extreme irresponsibility. From the very first phase of enrolments, several flaws were detected. But, the question is has the government learnt from its past mistakes and what is it doing to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself? According to Aggarwal, in Phase II some fundamental changes have been made to eliminate most of the irregular practices. For instance, now the operator has to authenticate himself/herself before starting the enrolment; hence, no unauthorised person can do the enrolment.

On the question of delayed sync with the national server, Aggarwal explains that the enrolment agency is supposed to sync the machine within 10 days of enrolment; else no further enrolment is possible on the machine. The packets need to be uploaded within 20 days; else there is a huge penalty. The agency is now pro-actively uploading the data packets quickly and within time, which significantly reduces the chances of hard disk failure, data loss, etc.

What More Can Be Done

With applicants getting added to the system by the thousands and lakhs on a continuous basis, scale is going to be critical. “Irrespective of what the agency believes, it seems that most of the IT infrastructure that UIDAI has was not meant for this scale. The agency should think of scaling up the existing infrastructure so that trivial things like a hard disk crash can be averted,” says HP Kincha, Former Secretary IT, Government of Karnataka and Chairman, Karnataka Innovation Council. 

He further adds that dependency on IT is critical to effectively manage a process of such scale as the Aadhar project. Hence, IT awareness among operators needs to be given due importance. The government also needs to figure out how to backup the data and re-use the same in cases of urgency.

There isn’t an iota of doubt about the criticality of the data that is at potential risk in the entire Aadhar operation. But data loss due to trivial failures such as a hard disk crash only raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the government machinery. In the end, we expect our government to be pro-active in matters of data security and privacy.  But, we also recognise the fact that continuing to criticise the government alone is not the answer. Let the government take up this particular incident as a wake-up call to rectify existing flaws within the system and avoid such mishaps in the time to come.



4436 - Aadhaar-LPG link costs consumers - Deccan Chronicle

DC | 15 hours 37 min ago
   
Hyderabad: The Centre’s much publicised Direct Benefit Transfer scheme has turned out to be a “Direct Burden Transfer” scheme for hundreds of LPG consumers in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy.

That’s evident from the way the financial burden on consumers has increased from Rs 25 per cylinder to Rs 83 per cylinder since the DBT scheme was launched on June 1. 

Consumers are paying Rs 930 per cylinder, while the oil marketing companies are crediting only Rs 435 (per cylinder). So, consumers are forced to shell out Rs 495 to get the refill as against the pre-DBT price of Rs 412.50.

The reason, the subsidy amount of Rs 435 was fixed when the market price of the cylinder was Rs 880, but now it has increased to Rs 916, which is subject to revision every month. Last year, the market price touched Rs 1,020.

Though the original market cost per cylinder is Rs 916, the delivery men collect Rs 930 (per cylinder) from the consumers saying that Rs 920 is the price of the cylinder and Rs 10 is paid as service charges.

Besides, several DBT beneficiaries are yet to receive subsidy amount into their bank accounts although they had received cylinders few weeks ago. 

“I paid Rs 930 to get a refill but I received the subsidy amount of Rs 435. What benefit did they transfer me with this scheme,”said P. Murali Mohan, a resident of Chikkadpally. 


However, D. Ashok Kumar, president of the Greater Hyderabad LPG Dealers Association, said that consumers had to pay only Rs 916. “If users are paying Rs 930, they should bring it to the notice of the agencies.”

4435 - Benefits scheme battles systemic quagmire



Surabhi Agarwal  |  New Delhi  July 20, 2013 Last Updated at 00:43 IST

Lack of coordination, bureaucratic lethargy, banking linkages come in the way

The ambitious direct cash transfer scheme kicked off with much fanfare on January 1 this year. However, the complex project is turning out to be a victim of ill-planning, hurried execution and lack of coordination.

According to a Cabinet minister closely involved with the project, the successful implementation of Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) for cooking gas subsidy has shown the technology behind DBT works and is scalable. "However, other schemes are just prodding along because of systemic problems."

The minister added the response so far has been so low because among the top five welfare schemes under the entitlement programme, only scholarships was taken up in the first phase, which stands in the fifth position. While the largest scheme, the Public Distribution System, has not been included at all, the second largest - cooking gas - has recently come on-board, while the third on the list, MGNREGS (job guarantee scheme) is still not ready. From pensions (fourth largest), only three schemes were added, last week. "In most of the current schemes under DBT, transactions are episodic. If cooking gas, MGNREGS and pension schemes were on board from the beginning, better value could have been derived from the project so far." (THE SPREAD OF DBT)

Business Standard spoke to over half a dozen officials working at the field level and most said while at the fundamental level, the scheme is surely a "game-changer", an unprecedented level of coordination is required to make it work. "There are some schemes which have migrated their systems on the DBT platform on their own initiative and are doing very well," said a government official working with the project. "At the end, it boils down to which state/district/department really has the intent to roll it out," added another.

Even as the second phase has been flagged off, which covers one-fifth of the country, there are recurring challenges such as penetration of Aadhaar, lack of cooperation from banks, issues in seeding the account number with Aadhaar and digitising of databases. (KEY ISSUES WITH DBT)

Jairam Ramesh, Union minister for rural development, said some districts are doing well and the big issue is with banks, which are not cooperating much. "There is confusion regarding the fee which the banking correspondents will be paid and the model of multiple banking correspondents with multiple banks has not happened yet."

The minister stressed that the aim should be to route all transactions through the Aadhaar-based platform to have a real impact. In some schemes, money is being directly transfered to the bank accounts as their seeding with Aadhaar is taking time. However, the linkage with Aadhaar is essential to eradicate ghosts and fakes from the system.

Ramesh said issues have also cropped up with states like Tamil Nadu raising alarm over the Centre trying to bypass them by directly transferring payments to people. However, that is not the intention.

Despite the fact that the government has pulled out all stops to roll out the scheme, "in some cases it is just bureaucratic lethargy," is acting as an impediment.

Browsing at the latest numbers in a particular state and looking somewhat disappointed at what propped up at the computer screen, one government official sighed and remarked: "In some districts, the administrators claim they are not able to locate the beneficiaries. These are the same people who know their territory like the back of their hand. Maybe the project has now started touching where it hurts the most - at the lowest level of corruption in the country."

LPG: Cooking a success story

Within six weeks of its rollout in about 20 districts, cooking gas subsidy transfers recorded 2.3 million transactions with Rs 90 crore sent directly into the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of consumers, turning it into a DBT success story. The scheme’s “technological high ground” worked in its favour, say experts and officials.
The database of LPG consumers had been fed into computers since 2000. Though the list was “primitive and corrupt,” the exercise to clean it up had started few years ago. However, most other schemes are still struggling with digitising databases. Moreover, its supply chain, to the last mile of delivery is automated.

As a result, from zero per cent seeding of beneficiary bank accounts with their Aadhaar number in December last year, the ministry could scale up to 65 per cent as of now. Though it has been able to migrate only 35 per cent of its target base on DBT, it claims to have already saved roughly Rs 2,000 crore by blocking allegedly 6.3 million bogus connections.


However, officials say the support of banks in seeding Aadhaar and delivering the payments to the consumers in un-banked areas, consumer awareness and, finally, penetration of Aadhaar will pose challenges even in their case if they have to expand the scheme to the whole of India.

4434 - స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌కూ అదే ‘ఆధార్’!







ఇంకా ఆధార్ కార్డు రాని విద్యార్థులు స్కాలర్‌షిప్ పొందాలంటే ఇక వెనుక వరుసలో నిలబడాల్సిందే.
7/19/2013 3:40:00 AM

- ఆధార్‌తో దరఖాస్తు చేసిన విద్యార్థులకే తొలి ప్రాధాన్యం
- ‘నగదు బదిలీ’కి ఎంపికైన 13 జిల్లాల్లో ఆధార్ తప్పనిసరి
- ఆయా కళాశాలల్లో ఆధార్ నమోదు కేంద్రాల ఏర్పాటు 


సాక్షి, హైదరాబాద్: ఇంకా ఆధార్ కార్డు రాని విద్యార్థులు స్కాలర్‌షిప్ పొందాలంటే ఇక వెనుక వరుసలో నిలబడాల్సిందే. ఆధార్ కార్డును దరఖాస్తుతో జత చేసినవారికే మంజూరులో తొలి ప్రాధాన్యం ఇవ్వనున్నారు. వారి తర్వాతే ఆధార్ లేని విద్యార్థులకు ఇవ్వాలని సంక్షేమ శాఖల ఉన్నతాధికారులు ప్రాథమికంగా ఓ నిర్ణయం తీసుకున్నారు. కేంద్ర ప్రభుత్వం ప్రవేశపెట్టిన ప్రత్యక్ష నగదు బదిలీ (డీబీటీ) పథకాన్ని స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌లకు వర్తింపజేసే అంశంపై గురువారం సచివాలయంలో సాంఘిక సంక్షేమ శాఖ ముఖ్య కార్యదర్శి రేమండ్ పీటర్ నేతృత్వంలో ఆర్థిక శాఖ, ఇతర సంక్షేమ శాఖల ఉన్నతాధికారులు, లీడ్ బ్యాంకు అధికారులతో సమీక్ష సమావేశం నిర్వహించారు.

నగదు బదిలీ కింద రెండు దశల్లో ఎంపిక చేసిన 13 జిల్లాల్లోని విద్యార్థులకు ఆధార్ పేమెంట్ బ్రిడ్జి ద్వారా ఈ ఏడాది నుంచి స్కాలర్‌షిప్ ఇచ్చే విషయమై ఈ సమావేశంలో చర్చ జరిగింది. నగదు బదిలీకి ఆధార్ తప్పనిసరి అయినందున ఆధార్ ఉన్న విద్యార్థులకే తొలి ప్రాధాన్యం ఇవ్వాలని అధికారులు అభిప్రాయపడ్డారు. అలాగే ఆయా విద్యార్థులకు ప్రతి నెలా వారి బ్యాంకు ఖాతాల్లో స్కాలర్‌షిప్ జమ చేయాలని, ఆధార్ లేనివారికి మూడు నెలలకోసారి వచ్చేలా ఏర్పాట్లు చేయాలని ఆర్థిక శాఖ అధికారులను కోరారు. అందుకు వారు కూడా సమ్మతించినట్లు తెలిసింది. ఇక ఆ 13 జిల్లాల్లో ఆధార్ నమోదు వివరాలను పరిశీలించి, కళాశాలల స్థాయిలో ఆధార్ కేంద్రాలు ఏర్పాటు చేయాలని ఈ సమావేశంలో నిర్ణయించారు.

కేంద్రం నిధుల బదిలీపై తర్జనభర్జన..
కేంద్ర ప్రభుత్వం ‘నగదు బదిలీ’ పథకం కింద విద్యార్థుల స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌లకు నిధులు ఇవ్వనుంది. ఆ నిధులను విద్యార్థులకు ఎలా బదిలీ చేయాలన్న విషయమై సంక్షేమ శాఖల అధికారులు తర్జనభర్జన పడుతున్నారు. ఎస్సీ, ఎస్టీ విద్యార్థులకు మొత్తంగాను, బీసీ, మైనార్టీ విద్యార్థులకు కొంతమేర కేంద్రం సాయం చేయనుంది. అయితే ఈ మొత్తం కలిపి దాదాపు రూ. వెయ్యి కోట్లు నేరుగా విద్యార్థుల ఖాతాలకే బదిలీ చేస్తామని, వారి వివరాలు పంపాలని కేంద్రం కోరుతోంది. రాష్ట్ర అధికారులు మాత్రం అది సమంజసం కాదని అంటున్నారు. విద్యార్థుల స్కాలర్‌షిప్‌లో బీసీ, మైనార్టీ, ఇతర వర్గాలకు కేంద్రం చేసే సాయం గోరంతేనని, దీనికోసం ఎంతమంది విద్యార్థుల వివరాలు పంపాలని ప్రశ్నిస్తున్నారు. కేంద్రం ఇచ్చే నిధులకు సరిపడా లబ్ధిదారుల ఎంపిక ఎలా చేయాలన్న దానిపై ఒక స్పష్టమైన నిర్ణయానికి రాలేకపోతున్నారు. ఎప్పటిలాగే ఆ నిధులన్నీ తమకే ఇస్తే తామే విద్యార్థులకు పంపిణీ చేస్తామని చెబుతున్నారు. కేంద్రం దీనికి అంగీకరించట్లేదని సమాచారం. ఈ నేపథ్యంలో స్కాలర్‌షిప్ బదిలీ ఎలా చేయాలన్న విషయంలో ఇంతవరకు ఒక స్పష్టత రాలే

4433 - CPI(M) launches praja ballot for cash transfer and Aadhaar




The Hindu CPI (M) city unit launches a praja ballot on linking of cash transfer scheme with essential commodities supplied at fair price shops, in Vijayawada on Sunday. Photo: V. Raju

The party will seek the opinion of public on the CTS and public distribution system

The Communist Party of India-Marxist CPI(M) has launched a praja ballot on cash transfer scheme (CTS) and linking of gas and ration supply with Aadhaar cards and CTS, in the city. During the three-day praja ballot that began on Sunday, the party will seek the opinion of public on the CTS and public distribution system.

On the occasion, CPI(M) city secretary Ch. Babu Rao on Sunday said that the government decision to link the gas and ration with Aadhaar cards and bank accounts has led to chaos. The price of cylinder increased by Rs. 50 following linking the supply with bank accounts. There was no clarity on issues--subsidy, how long it will be extended etc involved in the scheme. Likewise, there was no clarity on subsidy given essential commodities supplied at fair price shops.

The government has wicked plans to phase out the fair price shops in the State. If the cash transfer scheme were to be linked with the public distribution system.

The people would not benefit with the cash transfer scheme as the fluctuations in the prices of essential commodities would not reflect in the CTS, he said.

Keywords: praja ballot, CPI (M), cash transfer scheme, Aadhaar cards, public distribution system, Ch. Babu Rao

4432 - LPG consumers to get LPG subsidy through DBT from October 1




The government has formulated the plan to transfer the subsidy amount of LPG cylinders of 14 crore consumers through Aadhaar based platform from October 1. According to the sources as the number of LPG consumers are large, time will be needed to open bank accounts of them and link them with the Aadhaar numbers. Banks have also been asked to get ready for such implementation. The bank account of each LPG consumer will be credited with Rs. 4000 annually as the subsidy amount for a total of 9 subsidised LPG cylinders. UIDAI has issued 32 crore Aadhaar numbers till now but the problem is that only 80 lakh bank accounts have been linked with Aadhaar numbers in the country. The scheme will be launched as a pilot project in 20 districts from 15 May. Consumer has to buy LPG cylinder at the market price while the subsidy amount will be credited into its Aadhaar linked bank account. The government is hopeful that this implementation will bring an end to the problem of fake LPG connection and misuse of the LPG cylinder.

The Maharashtra government has taken the decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for government employees in six districts including Mumbai city, Pune, Wardha, Amravati and Nandurbar. The employees have been given the time till June for obtaining their Aadhaar number. The decision will also be applicable on government aided educational institutes. The salary and pension amount of the beneficiary will be transferred directly into the Aadhaar linked bank account. This will prevent those employees who are taking advantages of illegal income through different sources. According to an analysis such a decision will save a sum of Rs. 5 crore every year for the state government.

In the Ambala district of Haryana about 92% people have enrolled for Aadhaar while 70% have been issued their Aadhaar numbers. The district authorities have asked the people to enrol themselves for Aadhaar as early as possible because Aadhaar will be needed in the future for accessing various welfare schemes from the government. The district administration has urged people to enrol for Aadhar card as it will be required for various schemes whether it is LPG subsidy, pension scheme, scholarship or any other programme.

4431 - Infy, iGate others in queue for Rs. 1,00,000-cr govt IT contracts


Manu P Toms, Hindustan Times  Mumbai, July 14, 2013
First Published: 21:10 IST(14/7/2013) | Last Updated: 21:15 IST(14/7/2013)

While visa restrictions and business slowdown pose challenges in their traditional strongholds, such US and Europe, upcoming mega government projects seem to offer a degree of comfort for the Indian IT companies.

Indian IT service companies TCS, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and iGate and multinational companies such as IBM, Accenture, HP and Dell are vying for a sizable pie of various e-governance projects, the total cost of which would run into anywhere between Rs. 80,000 crore and Rs. 1,00,000 crore.

“For Indian IT industry, the government continues to be the major source of business,” said CN Raghupathi, vice-president, India business, Infosys. “With various e-governance initiatives at its nascent stage, the opportunity is enormous.”

“The rollout of Aadhar itself provides a lot of opportunities,” said Apporva Ruparel, head, India business, iGate. “There are 17 categories of direct cash subsidy… to be rolled out in 643 districts. In value terms this would throw up a huge number.”

Apart from Aadhar, various Central and state e-governance projects, such as digitisation of land records, implementation of smart-grids in electricity distribution companies and the computerisation of state treasuries will result in sizable contracts.

Tamil Nadu has finished bidding process for computerisation of its state tax department. Other states including Maharashtra are soon expected to come up with bids. For the smart-grid implementation, eight bids are underway.

All this does not necessarily mean a smooth flow of business for IT companies. "There is a fair degree of unpredictability as these are government projects," said a senior executive, who wished to be not identified.

The government is expected to play a major role in the future of the Indian IT market.

India’s IT market is expected to grow from $10.3 billion (Rs 61,800 crore) in 2012-13 to $13.4 billion (Rs 80,400 crore) this year, and to touch $20 billion (Rs 120,000 crore) by 2020.

Ruparel hopes that iGate’s India revenue would grow three-fold this year.

“The government is looking to leverage IT to improve citizen services, efficiency and lower the total cost of operations,” said Dhamodaran Ramakrishnan, director, IBM Smarter Planet Solution. IBM is involved in providing technology for traffic management, smart grids, water systems, health care, and currency risk management, he said.


"India is at a nascent stage of utilising the power of IT," said Ravi Bharadwaj, executive director, Dell India.

4430 - Ousted dalit worker of UIDAI fears threat to life

Arunav Sinha, TNN | Jul 15, 2013, 04.19 AM IST


LUCKNOW: A former dalit staffer, who was allegedly forced to quit from the Unique Identification Authority of India has expressed threat to his life. The developments come almost two months after the National Commission for Scheduled Castes sought an answer from the Lucknow regional office of the UIDAI on complaints of 'casteism' being practised within its precincts.

In the letter (dated July 8, 2013) addressed to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC)-a copy of which is with TOI-former quality control operator Vijay Kumar has expressed threat to his life from Abhishek Mishra, an assistant at the Lucknow regional office of the UIDAI. "Some days back, I had a meeting with one of my former colleagues at UIDAI, who conveyed to me that Abhishek Mishra is gunning for my life. A signed affidavit of the former UIDAI staffer in this regard bears testimony to the fact that my life is in danger from Abhishek Mishra," said Kumar, urging the NCSC to initiate stringent actions against Mishra.

Tarun Khanna, assistant director of NCSC, when contacted by TOI, acknowledged that the NCSC has received a letter from Vijay Kumar, and said, "The commission on its part will take necessary action in this regard."

Prior to this, in a written reply furnished to the commission in June, Kumar had doubted the neutral credentials of the probe and said, "The probe by assistant director general CS Mishra is not free and fair, as he is facing charges too. Both CS Mishra and Abhishek Mishra are extorting statements in their favour from various contractual employees at UIDAI office." He has urged the UID headquarters to constitute a high-powered committee, which would carry out a balanced and neutral probe in this regard.

In his written reply to NCSC, Kumar also pointed that CS Mishra had doubted the credibility of TOI, and termed the news published on May 12 baseless. "By doubting the news report published in TOI, CS Mishra has in fact questioned the genuineness of NCSC," alleged Vijay Kumar. In the probe report submitted to the NCSC on May 21, CS Mishra had stated, "He (Vijay) along with other deputees, whose services have been discontinued, are also trying intentionally to pressurise and defame this reputed organisation through publication of false and baseless allegations through media."


Rubbishing the charges levelled by CS Mishra, the assistant director of NCSC told TOI, "The allegation that the news item is baseless is devoid of any solid foundation and valid reason." Kumar also claimed that the outsourced staff was subjected to step-motherly treatment. "In the UIDAI's answer (dated May 21) to NCSC, CS Mishra had said that there is no employee-employer relationship between UIDAI and the outsourced staff. So, there were no grounds for office memoranda to be issued to us. It is doubtful whether instructions pertaining to us were routed through the agency handling the outsourced work," Vijay said and alleged arbitrary and step-motherly treatment was rampant at the UIDAI's regional office.

4429 - The right to ration cards by Sreelatha Menon

Sreelatha Menon  |  New Delhi   July 13, 2013 Last Updated at 21:38 IST


The food security ordinance would empower poor urban migrants to challenge denial of ration cards


The new Food Security Ordinance provides virtually nothing and yet quite a lot. What it provides is food as a legal right.

And that means a lot for a poor migrant in a city chawl, with no local address proof, having left all identity cards back in their native village and unable to claim anything in the place he/she lives in.

Add the fact that this migrant cannot read or write or make much of an enquiry to press his/her case for a ration card. So, while people who are much better off might get cheap grains, these poor domestic workers will continue to buy wheat and rice at market rates.

Maybe now their case is not as hopeless as it used to be. The new law gives those without a ration card, the right to fight his/her case in court and demand that they be given the rights in the place where they live.

That is not only a huge victory for the poor migrants in terms of being granted cheap food, but more importantly it would open doors to establish his/her identity in the place where they work and live.

An entire market is laid out right in the middle of several multi-storeyed residential blocks in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad everyday at six in the evening.

The sellers are all migrants, from different parts of Uttar Pradesh living in the Delhi suburb. The day the Ordinance was announced, it came as a surprise to these people. "Is it true that rice would be given at Rs 2 a kg?" they ask. While their eyes lit up, they were immediately crestfallen. "But we don't have ration cards," they say and begin talking to each other on how to go about getting one.

They all have cards in their native villages, far away in districts like Shahjahanabad and Bareilly. Their relatives live there but they have no documents here, though they have been here for some time.

National Advisory Council member N C Saxena agrees the failure to establish their local identity is the tragedy of the urban migrant poor. He says there are families in Delhi, who despite being in the same place for 20 years were unable to get even voting rights.

"The only hope for all these people is the 'Aadhaar' which does not insist on local address proof," he says. He feels the Food Ordinance could pave the way for the poor to get ration cards through court. "They can always challenge denial of ration cards in court, once the right to food becomes a legal right. It might be a game-changer for migrants . They can always demand that they be given ration cards on the basis of their Aadhaar cards," says Saxena.

In Chhattisgarh, the government has used technology to make ration cards function like roaming telephone numbers. Their 'smart' cards can get them ration in any shop in the districts where the cards are being used. Food officials in the state love to show off statistics that reveal the number of outsiders who are using a particular ration shop.

However, smartness seems to be exclusive to the Chattisgarh administration as no other state has started seeing merit in freeing the ration card from the constraints of space.

The Chhattisgarh administration had designed its smart cards initially but then it thought it was wiser to use the smart cards of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, the health insurance scheme. The health insurance smart cards allowed people from any town to claim reimbursement - when they fell ill - since the card is linked to the insurance companies through a central server.

Why the same formula cannot work for foodgrains is a question that the new law will now force governments to address.

4428 - Part XIII - In the name of the poor by Usha Ramanathan - The Statesman


The Statesman
28 Jul 2013
Usha Ramanathan

In the beginning, and for some time thereafter, the UID project based its claims of legitimacy on the 'inclusion' of the poor. In marketing the project, phrases such as giving identity to those without an identity, being "recognised in the eyes of the government", the "lack of identity" as "especially detrimental (to) the poor and the underprivileged", and the people who live in India's "social, political and economic periphery" have been used liberally.

The movement away from the promise of inclusion to the threat of exclusion if a person is not enrolled for a UID came later, beginning tentatively in 2011 but becoming aggressive and vocal in 2012. It was January 2013 before the poor were led into panic when UID-linked bank accounts were made mandatory for receiving entitlements by cash transfer into banks. Many of them had IDs that recognised their entitlements, for instance ration cards, NREGA job cards, voter ID, post office accounts - but they were now being told that they could not reach their entitlements if they did not have a UID number.

Enrolling the undefined class of the unidentified poor is a complicated exercise. The N.Vittal headed Demographic Standards Committee recognised this, and suggested an approach where "approved introducers" could introduce a person to the system and "vouch for the validity of residents' information." This idea was borrowed from the account opening procedure in banks; with a significant departure. An introducer must have a UID number; must be easily accessible to the resident; must be above the age of 18 and must not have a criminal record. NGOs were encouraged to act as introducers. But, while an introducer needs to be "approved" by the Registrar, there is no requirement that the introducer must know the person to be enrolled. This might have seemed a pragmatic resolution of the issue of enrolment of the poor and those without identity, but it was bound to raise its own set of problems.

A case in point is the well-documented instance of the homeless in Delhi. In January 2011, I visited the Pul Mithai enrolment centre to understand how the poor were being enrolled. Under the Delhi Government's 'Mission Convergence' in which the government and NGOs share a platform for policy-making and implementation, a survey of the homeless had been carried out using the benignant though inexperienced services of an informal roster of young persons. At that point in the exercise, which had covered about 80,000 people, a "provisional ID card under Homeless Survey" carried the name, gender, age and a photograph along with an ID number which ran like this: 10HP 58/1G. 3042397. 'HP' stood for 'homeless people' and 1G for the place where they had been surveyed as sited on the Eicher map. 1G was Mori gate, 1B was Yamuna Bazaar and so on. On the reverse were a series of caveats and explanations, including this: "This ID card has been issued on the basis of self-reported information by the cardholder." The UID enrolment was done on the basis of this card.

The actual enrolment was a parody. The names were not complicated, but there were some discrepancies; for instance, where a card recorded a woman as Pooja Devi, she insisted that she was just Pooja. Gender was the easy part. Age was less certain. It often went by approximations and in some cases, the age recorded in the survey was plainly in error - a lady whose daughter had married recently couldn't be 26! We did a 'panchayat' to help her arrive at her age.
The columns for the name of the father, and of the mother were left blank. The young lads doing the enrolment explained: "Yeh log NGO ke hain" or these people belong to the NGO, a new version of mai-baap. Where fingerprints did not work, and iris did, the system 'accepted' the fingerprints after the fourth try - in what is called 'forced capture'. Those enrolled had no idea of the consequences.

The address posed a problem. What is the address of a homeless person? The street where they are when surveyed? A pavement they occupy until a 'clean-up drive' chases them away? 

On the UID form, another option was used. The homeless were given the address of an NGO that out of benevolence was willing to lend its name. Except the NGOs are in places in South Delhi while Pul Mithai is near Old Delhi railway station and the address for delivering the UID letter, and for the UID linked bank account, would be that of the NGO. The two "introducers" at the enrolment centre were young and motivated but had no idea where those they were helping to enrol could be reached. 

So, many UID letters stayed undelivered - where the name and photograph did not help locate persons; or where, as in Geeta Colony, there was a 'clean up' drive between the enrolment and the UID letter reaching the NGO; or in Nizamuddin, where labourers engaged on works for the Commonwealth Games had moved to another site and could not be traced. Later, the Homeless Resources Centre became the address. But the problems are generic and won't vanish; and the HRCs are linked to projects with a limited shelf life after which they may cease to exist, or may morph into an altered entity.

This may have "enrolled" the homeless, but not in ways that gets them into an identity system that will help them.

Those in poverty live in a twilight zone of (il)legality. To them, an identity document is an especially valued possession. That is one reason that the voter ID was so sought after although not having a voter ID was no disqualification for voting; one among a plethora of ID documents would serve for the purposes of voting. The casualness with which the identity of the poor is being trifled with by the UID, and piggybacking on the poor in carrying on an experiment is, to use a euphemism, less than fair.

NILEKANI'S ELLIS ISLAND
The dependence on an introducer who doesn't know the person being enrolled holds the potential to actually distort identity. At his World Bank talk in April 2013, Mr. Nandan Nilekani gave a description that has the virtue of simplicity but not quite of accuracy. An introducer, he said, "will say 'I know this person, he's Ram Singh approximately born in 1977, so, we give a date of birth. He has a home, he has a home; otherwise, if he is a homeless person, we'll give him an address c/o Homeless Shelter or whatever. Basically, then, the introducer stands as some sort of guarantee in some sense for that person. Then that person's data is entered, and he gets an ID. So, that's how these people get into the system… Remember, fundamentally you get only one ID in the system. So the ID that you give at the time of your enrolment is your name in this system for the rest of your life…which is why I refer to this as a 21st-century Ellis Island…what happened at Ellis Island, let's say in the 19th century or Nova Scotia in Canada in the 19th century? 

“You had all the boatloads of people coming from Europe, Eastern Europe, Croatia, Poland, wherever, Ireland, Italy, all that. And they would land at Ellis Island and they would have very complicated names. And the immigration officer would say, ah, no, I think from now on you be Sam David. And, from that day onwards, in the New World, he would be Sam David, no matter what his name was in the Old World. So, we do the same thing, you know. This person was out of the system, except physically he is in the same place, but virtually he is outside. He comes in and gets a name and that's his name in our system for the rest of his life. So think of it as a 21st-century version of the Ellis Island."

The author is an academic activist. She has been researching the UID and its ramifications since 2009.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

4427 - Part XII - Card or number? Crow or cuckoo? by Usha Ramanathan - The Statesman

The Statesman
26 Jul 2013
Usha Ramanathan

Four years into the UID project, on 31 January 2013, Ministers in the Central Cabinet were asking, what is the UID? A card? A number? Or both? 

There has been much perplexed questioning in these four years. 
Is the UID project about identity or identification? 
Is it about control and tracking or transparency? 
Is it about information or data? 
Is it a unique identity (UID) or a “Know Your Customer” (KYC)? 
Is the UID voluntary or mandatory? 
Is the information collected kept on a government database or with private companies? 
Is the UIDAI part of the state, or an entity that transits through the Planning Commission to become a private company when it reaches “steady state”? 
Is the UIDAI a back office for the National Population Register (NPR), or is it a competitor in the race to enrol? 
Is the UID part of a surveillance apparatus, or is it only to deliver entitlements? Is biometrics unimpeachable or this an experiment? 
Is it a game changer or an app? 
Is it a crow or a cuckoo? 

Despite the opacity of the project, its encounter with Parliament being disastrous, and many questions being raised about it, the project has surged ahead. How did that happen? 

Mr Nandan Nilekani answered that in his April talk at the Centre for Global Development in Washington. “Our view was that there was bound to be opposition,” he said. “That is a given. So, how do we address that? 
One was, do it quickly... 
Second was, do it quietly ... 
Third was, we said in any case there is going to be a coalition of opponents. 

So is there a way to create a positive coalition of people who have a stake in its success? So, one of the big things here is that there is a huge coalition of, you know, organisations, governments, banks, companies, others who have a stake now in its future. So, create a positive coalition that has the power to overpower or deal with anyone who opposes it.” 

Quickly.  It was announced very early in the project that the numbers would begin to roll out between August 2010 and February 2011. Enrolment actually began on 29 September 2010, well within target. This was a demonstration of efficiency which was to show up the difference between the UID project and any other such task undertaken by the government. The problem, of course, was that this haste left no time for field testing, or to verify the feasibility of the project or its details. Details such as, biometrics as unique identifiers across the swathe of population and across time; introducers who do not know the persons they are introducing to the system but who are “approved introducers” because they are known to the Registrar; “biometric exceptions”, that is persons for whom neither fingerprints nor iris work to enrol or to authenticate; the errors that rampant outsourcing was introducing into the system; the leakage that One Time Passwords has made likely, and the faked and spoofed fingerprint and the ease of identity fraud. 

These were still in the realm of the little known or unknown, but decisions to adopt biometrics had been made even before the experiment was to begin. Haste has meant that an untested system has been imposed on an entire population, and whether it will work or not will be known after a passage of time. The problem is compounded by the fervour with which the UIDAI, and Mr Nilekani, have been working to have the number seeded in all databases, and to have systems re-engineered to accommodate the UID. 

Quietly. There has, in fact, been no public debate on the project. The government has not spoken except to make the UID mandatory. Mr Nilekani and his team have been hard selling the UID to individuals and institutions, so that their adoption of the UID number would push up enrolment. The quiet on the consequences of the project is especially deafening, and no amount of questioning has produced more than a sullen silence. That explains why Aruna Roy has been speaking out against the project as being disrespectful of the poor and imposing on them a project about which they have been told nothing, the implications of which are unknown to them, and where they have been informed - after being initially told that this is an inclusive project - that they will lose their entitlements if they do not enrol and get themselves a number. 

The silence has been used effectively in the non-provision of information. When information was requested on the “full name, address and websites of the foreign companies which are of US and non-US origin or control”, there was something brazen about the response that “there are no means to verify whether the said companies/organisations are of US origin or not”. These companies were Sagem Morpho, L1 Identity Solutions and Accenture Services - with close ties with foreign intelligence agencies such as the CIA and Homeland Security! RTI activist Rakesh Dubbudu asked for the  Detailed Project Report which Ernst and Young produced for the UIDAI, but it was denied to him, citing breach of privilege of Parliament as the reason - presumably because the UIDAI had made it part of its submissions to the Standing Committee of Finance. When the contracts with companies that are holding our data were asked to be disclosed, commercial and competitive interest was cited while refusing to give information. 

Creating a positive  coalition to overwhelm opposition: state governments, central ministries and departments, banks, oil companies, the medical establishment, schools ... the list continues to grow of those who are being encouraged to demand the UID as a prerequisite to services. On 29 June, Mr Nilekani reportedly said in a speech at the IIM Bangalore that they were in preliminary discussions with embassies to use the UID number to “simplify visa application procedures”. The passport, it would seem, is not sovereign document enough! 

Is  anyone in government  listening? 

In May 2010, a team of corporate heads including the leadership from Chlorophyl, Pidilite, Future Brands, and Procter and Gamble with a few others put together a document for the UIDAI titled “Aadhaar: Communicating to a Billion”. 

The UID was a product to be branded and sold, and the group's prescription was to “create a simple uncomplicated construct that is not open to multiple interpretations”. The message of basic data + biometrics producing an identity was indeed simple. When it did not generate the enthusiasm that the UIDAI had perhaps hoped it would, mandatory enrolment did the trick. Alongside, by dwelling on the corruption and leakages that are commonly perceived problems in service delivery, and the `last mile' being somewhat intractable, the UID has been promoted as the wand that will wish all this away. At the Centre for Global Development, in April, Mr Nilekani fed the audience a wild fantasy: “Today, we have reached a point where large intractable social problems - not all problems but many of them - can be solved using what we have.” May be it was hyperbole; just may be. 

Mr Nilekani says to “think of this (the UID) as an app that answers the question ‘who am I?’ and then you can build all kinds of applications on it.” 

This is how the business model is being currently marketed.

The author is an academic activist. She has researched the UID and its ramifications since 2009

Sunday, July 21, 2013

4426 - Part XI - What is the cost? And who benefits? by Usha Ramanathan - Statesman


The Statesman
21 Jul 2013
Usha Ramanathan

There was no feasibility study and no cost-benefit analysis that preceded the launch of the UID project.

In August 2010, a year and a half after the project was set up, there was a question in the Lok Sabha: "whether any pre-feasibility study or cost benefit analysis was done before the notification for creation of UIDAI was issued on 28-01-2009;  if so, the details thereof." Mr Narayanaswamy, in his capacity as Minister of Planning, responded, on 18 August 2010: "An Empowered Group of Ministers which was constituted in December 2006 .... decided that a Unique Identification Authority of India be constituted under the Planning Commission and be made responsible for implementing the project which would aim at better targeting of welfare services, improving efficiency of the services and better governance. 

The benefits accruing out of the project should far outweigh the cost of the project."
That was it.

In September 2010, a "statement of concern" signed by Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Romila Thapar, Justice AP Shah, SR Sankaran, Aruna Roy and 12 others expressed reservations about the project proceeding without either a feasibility study or a cost-benefit analysis. "Before it (the project) goes any further," they said, "we consider it imperative that the following be done - Do a feasibility study:
There are claims made in relation to the project, about what it can do for PDS and NREGA, for instance, which does not reflect any understanding of the situation on the ground.  The project documents do not say what other effects the project may have,  including its potential to be intrusive and violative of privacy, who may handle the data (there will be multiple persons involved in entering, maintaining and using the data), who may be able to have access to the data and similar other questions." And: "Do a cost-benefit analysis:..."

In an interview in April 2010, Mr Nandan Nilekani was saying: "I think the savings will be fairly substantial. I can't put a number around it but it will be substantial." In later interviews, when the challenge to the project was more audible, he was saying: "Now every year India spends 3000 crores on entitlements and subsidies (which) will keep going up in future. And if you can bring in using aadhaar numbers, you make sure that you eliminate ghosts and duplicate numbers among beneficiaries." 

These were aspirational and hypothetical. No formal figure emerged from any deliberations. Perceptions of inefficiencies in governmental functioning, leakages in service delivery, and endemic corruption offered a credible basis for assertions that the UID would clean up the system; but these were untested and unqualified assertions. As for surveillance, Mr Nilekani would only say, "no comment".

When the Standing Committee on Finance, in its report rejecting the National Identification Authority of India Bill, commented adversely on there not having been a cost-benefit analysis of the project, that became difficult to ignore.
It was November 2012 when a paper emerged from the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy on "A cost-benefit analysis of aadhaar". The paper did an "estimate of benefits" in PDS, NREGA, education, fertiliser subsidy, LPG subsidy, Indira Awas Yojana, scholarships, pensions and Janani Suraksha Yojana, ASHA and ICDS. The paper, which was characterised as a `study', was then `presented' to the Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission. It was hosted on the Planning Commission website. It was widely reported, as the PIB release said, that "after taking into account all the costs, and making modest assumptions about leakages, the study finds that the aadhaar project would yield an internal rate of return of 52.85 percent to the government." A remarkable figure, that. Except...

In February 2013, Reetika Khera, an economist who works on the PDS and NREGA and who has been challenging the claims of the UIDAI on what its project will achieve in cleaning up the system, published a critique of the NIPFP paper in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW). In March, the EPW carried a response from the authors of the paper, who had remained unnamed so far, and Reetika Khera's counter.

The problem with the `study' is that it is based on no, or outdated, data. It falls back on assumptions. 

The NIPFP authors do not deny this, claiming that they have been "elaborately careful in pointing out its limitations", which includes not having adequate data. It also does not consider alternative technologies that "could achieve same or similar savings, possibly at lower cost", to quote Khera. But, the authors protest, "the primary objective of the study: its central question was to ask whether the expected benefits of aadhaar outweighed its total expected costs", so they did not concern themselves with considering alternative means of problem solving, even the ones that are already in place in states such as Chhatisgarh and Tamil Nadu!

In addition, of course, the biometrics reports were out by then, and the implications of biometrics that may not authenticate, one-time passwords, re-enrolment of biometrics and the range of problems in the last mile are not anywhere in the paper. 

And, since this is about cost and benefit, it does not take within its ambit matters relating to surveillance, tracking, convergence, tagging, violations of privacy and matters of personal safety and of identity fraud.

There is a further charge that is placed at the door of the authors of this paper - conflict of interest, and non-disclosure of the relationship of the group of authors with the UIDAI. There is a "NIPFP-UIDAI programme on financial inclusion", revealing collaborative activity between the two institutions.
Non-disclosure of this relationship is explained away by the authors as something that "should preferably have been made in the study itself. "At the same time," they say, "the group's affiliations are public knowledge on its website."

What may these affiliations be, apart from the UIDAI- Macro/finance group working together? The Chairperson of the NIPFP is Dr C.Rangarajan, who is the Chair of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. The Governing Body has a representative of the Planning Commission, and a representative of the NCAER and that is officially termed a `collaborative institution'. The UIDAI is located in the Planning Commission, and the Prime Minister and the Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission are its strongest proponents. The Chairperson of NCAER is Mr Nandan Nilekani.

The NIPFP paper is being projected as an authoritative study, and the press has been given the figure of over 50 per cent savings as if it were a fact. One of its authors, writing in a national daily, even said, in December 2012: 

"When these estimates are put together into a formal cost-benefit analysis, they demonstrate that the internal rate of return on building UIDAI is around 50 per cent in real terms," a position of certainty from which the authors quickly backtracked when challenged. Mr Nilekani, in his talk at the Centre for Global Development in Washington in April this year, told his audience: 

"There's a study, by the way, by NIPFP, which is an independent study on what is the return on this investment." This may, mildly stated, be called a misrepresentation. There is still no study on the implications of the project for the citizen/resident, nor any cost benefit analysis.

(The author is an academic activist. She has researched the UID and  its ramifications
since 2009) 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

4425 - Part X - Aadhaar Unmasked ~ Making a business out of government data by Usha Ramanathan - The Statesman

The Statesman's Exclusives
Aadhaar Unmasked ~ Making a business out of government data (18th July 2013)

The Statesman
19 Jul 2013

Usha Ramanathan

Nandan Nilekani was appointed as Chairperson of the UIDAI on 2 July 2009. In an extraordinary gesture, he was simultaneously, and in addition, given the rank of Cabinet Minister. This gave him the status, protocol and privileges of a minister, without having to meet the constitutional requirement that a minister has to be a Member of Parliament: "A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a Member of either House of Parliament shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister," it says in Article 75(5) of the Constitution. In any event, since the Chairperson of the UIDAI is an office of profit, Nandan Nilekani could not have been both the Chairperson and a minister. This device, by which he was given the rank of Cabinet Minister without the constraints of the position, was used to facilitate lateral introduction of corporate leadership into the government.

Then, having been given the dual status of Chairperson and a person with the rank of Cabinet Minister, he was appointed the head of several committees in which capacity he would be able to steer state policy towards the adoption of the UID, while pushing the Prime Minister's agenda of cash transfer and the phasing out of subsidies along with advancing corporate business agenda. The committees included the Task Force on direct transfer of subsidies which produced an interim report in June 2011 on kerosene, LPG and fertilizer, and a final report in October 2011 by which time the Task Force was reporting on an "IT strategy for PDS and an implementable solution for the direct transfer of subsidy for food and kerosene". This was quickly followed up, in February 2012, with the report of a Task Force on "an aadhaar-enabled unified payment infrastructure" for the direct transfer of subsidies on kerosene, LPG and fertiliser, of which Mr Nilekani was the Chair, pushing the agenda of UID ubiquity and revamping the subsidy structure. Then there was the Technology Advisory Group of Unique Projects (TAG-UP) which turned in its report in January 2011; and the IT Strategy for Goods and Services Tax Network which, it seems, has resulted in a company being set up to take control over governmental data and to make a business out of it along the lines of the TAG-UP report. There have been other reports, too, such as the report of the Apex Committee for Electronic Toll Collection Implementation in which RFID and the "unique identification" of vehicles are part of the recommendations, but this does not directly impact the UID or subsidies, even if  it could have a bearing on tracking, for instance.

In January 2009, when the UIDAI was set up by executive notification, it was described as "an attached office under the aegis of the Planning Commission." The "initial core team" was to comprise 115 officials and staff, with the officials drawn from Central and State bureaucracies. The Director General and Mission Director, for instance, was to be from the level of the Additional Secretary, Government of India. Nandan Nilekani's appointment in July 2009, and the overlap of project head, cabinet ministerial rank and chair of multiple committees changed the nature, and ambitions, of the enterprise. Yet, even in January 2009, the notification said that the UIDAI "shall own and operate UID database…" This signalled a shift from when the state held data in a fiduciary capacity, and limited to the purposes for which the data was being collected. This was an open claim that data was emerging as the new property.
The National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 in its draft form, and as introduced in Parliament in December 2010, gave the first indications of the structure intended for the UIDAI. It bears a remarkable resemblance to what was the being worked into the TAG-UP report.  After its rejection by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in December 2011, however, the NIAI Bill went into deep freeze. 

There had been no enthusiasm for a statutory framework anyway, and once the Standing Committee sent the Bill back to the drawing board, it just vanished from the agenda.

In the meantime, in January 2011, the TAG-UP Committee chaired by Nandan Nilekani gave its report. It described a framework for the handing over of data that is with the government to private companies set up for that purpose. This is no longer a hypothetical model. In the 2012 budget, Mr Pranab Mukherjee announced that the "GSTN (Goods and Sales Tax Network) will be set up as a National Information Utility", and it seems it has already been established in March this year, with no public discussion or disclosure, and with private banks and insurance companies as shareholders.

The entities to be created are called `National Information Utilities' (NIU). NIUs will be a "class of institutions" that will be "private companies with a public purpose: profit-making, but not profit maximizing."

Government projects involve two major tasks at the top: policy making and implementation. Government should make policy, but leave implementation to NIUs. NIUs should have at least 51% private ownership, and government at least 26%. The advisory group had been tasked to deal specifically with five areas in the customs and tax arenas, but the report expands the reach of the report "also (to) other projects that may be launched in the future". Repeatedly, the report draws on the UIDAI as the model to be followed, and the elements of an NIU have been derived from how the UIDAI is structured. The UIDAI to be formally designated as an NIU is merely a half step away. 

The congruence of the UIDAI and the NIU is further in evidence. NIUs, the report says, are "essentially set up as natural monopolies". And then, in a salute to the free market vocabulary of choice, it says, that "as a paying customer, the government would be free to take its business to another NIU, if necessary", although `natural monopolies' that have governmental data as their property are less than unlikely to have competitors.

As with the UIDAI, "the project should be rolled out as soon as possible, and iterated rapidly, rather than waiting to roll out a perfect system". And, in a statement that should have produced a great deal of public debate but which has so far met with a stodgy silence: "Once the rollout is completed, the government's role shifts largely to that of a customer." And: "On the one hand, governments by virtue of their shareholding are owners. On the other hand, the same governments are customers."

To ensure a buy in into the project, officers from the bureaucracy are to work on deputation and be paid an additional 30% as `IT professional allowance'.
Again, as with the UIDAI, the government is to provide what it takes - in funds, buildings, credibility and coercive power and what the UIDAI notification mentions as `logistics' and `planning'-- for the project to reach `steady state', after which it will become an NIU and take off as a business venture -- dealing with data as property, and with the government as its primary customer.

(The author is an academic activist. She has researched the UID and its ramifications since 2009)

Sunday, July 14, 2013

4424 - Has Aadhaar managed to plug leakages? Experts discuss


Aadhaar scheme of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) currently covers 367 million Indians and continues to have 15-20 million enrollments every month. State governments have been attempting to use Aadhaar for providing efficient delivery of their benefit oriented schemes.

CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh spoke to RS Sharma, Formerly Director General at the UIDAI's office and now Chief Secretary of Jharkhand and Sanjay Jaju, IT Secretary of Andhra Pradesh. Both of them have been attempting to trim down the leakages in the distribution system via linking Aadhaar with benefit schemes. However, it (linking Aadhaar to data records) also has raised doubts after reports on wrong linkages of numbers to bank accounts and whether maintaining huge records without errors is a possibility. 

Sharma believes that the linking has led to substantial savings in schemes of direct benefit transfer (DBT), public distribution system (PDS), and old age pension programmes and so on. It has been due to the reduction of duplicates or fakes from the database systems, he says. "With the same money, one can do a much larger coverage of beneficiaries and it can be the same case in other sectors as well", he says. Jharkhand has also decided to link Aadhaar to land deals from January 2014.

Jaju sees savings already taking place in Andhra Pradesh. The state also has been upgrading their databases from National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) schemes, PDS and others. He says, “We have created a state resident data hub where we have put the entire Aadhaar and demographic information pertaining to the residents of the state.” Bankers in the state have also been asked to validate data to reduce errors in entry, he adds.

Also read: Govt direct benefit transfer scheme starts to bear fruit

Below is the edited transcript of their interview to CNBC-TV18.

Q: You have been Director General in the UIDAI's office. Now you are Chief Secretary of Jharkhand. You just heard our story. We understand that Aadhaar-based LPG cylinder distribution has led to a 3 percent fall in LPG consumption, indicating weeding out of ghost cards and duplicates and maybe even fraudulent cards. Do you think this can be extrapolated into food and fuel subsidy distribution? Can you just draw up the benefits that you think possible?

Sharma: Let me make a general comment. We were absolutely convinced even when we were doing the project that the extent of duplicates and fakes in various beneficiary database systems in the country varies somewhere 10-20-30 percent. It certainly is a substantial percentage.

LPG is just one of the examples of that situation. Almost in every domain; be it the public distribution system (PDS), welfare, scholarships, old age pensions, widow pensions, disability pensions, all the beneficiary programs which aim at benefitting the people either by way of subsidy, wages or by other means, have certain percentage duplicates.

In fact, in my own limited way in Jharkhand, we started the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in the pensions and scholarships. Substantial saving in these areas is seen immediately. The idea is that; with the same money, one can do a much larger coverage of beneficiaries. So I am quite convinced that this story is going to be repeated in almost every sector we are going to touch now.

Q: What is the extent of the population that you have covered for Aadhaar? What is the target for the year?

Sharma: Jharkhand has a population of 3.2 crore. We already have about 2.25 or 2.3 crore Aadhaar enrolments done. It means about two-thirds of the population of the state is covered. Now we have about a crore of the population left and we are doing enrolments at the rate of about 80,000 per day. That should take about 120/130 days.

Even if we proceed slowly, by the end of this financial year, we would have completed the Aadhaar enrolment throughout the state completely.

Q: Linking these to banks accounts may have been tougher in a state like yours where electricity and financial inclusion is rather low? What are the statistics in terms of bank accounts linked Aadhaar?

Sharma: No you are right. Basically what has been done is that at the time of enrolment you have enrolled people. But seeding them into either bank accounts or even the beneficiaries' databases is a difficult task. This one time seeding has to be done.

So we have put in place certain tools which can accelerate the seeding work. We have a tool called remote Aadhaar seeding framework, which will accelerate the seeding of Aadhaar numbers into beneficiary databases.

Similarly, we are meeting continuously with banks to link Aadhaar number with the bank account because that is what is required for direct benefit transfer (DBT). So in a sense, yes it is a little tedious and difficult. But the good part of this is that this has to be done only once. So we are proceeding. The figures as of now are not very encouraging, but we are accelerating the seeding pace.


Q: Can you start by delineating the progress of Aadhaar in Andhra Pradesh? I understand you are the only state insisting on online enrolment before you take the biometrics.

Jaju: In terms of the enrolment, we are almost at 90 percent now. Out of the whole population of 8.5 crore, we have enrolled about 8 crore people already in the state. Of course the Aadhaar number generation is still going on. There too we have more than 6 crore 30 lakh people who have been actually given Aadhaar numbers.

We had this system of slot booking especially in the urban towns in Hyderabad and metropolitan area of Hyderabad where we allowed the facility to citizens to book their slots online. But all that is a thing of the past. In the next two-three months, we plan to wrap the entire enrolment.

Of course, now the toughest part would be to do this residual work of mending this 90 percent to become 100 percent. At the same time we are also planning to establish permanent enrolment stations so that this residual population will have the facility to get them enrolled in future.

Q: I want your view as an IT man. We know that Aadhaar cannot help targeting. It is only an identity. But have you been able to marry your databases on social security, or land ownership or education to the Aadhaar numbers and create a socioeconomic profile which may eventually help targeting subsidies?

Jaju: That is the exactly the reason why we went in whole hog for the Aadhaar programme. We wanted to make use of Aadhaar as an essential piece of identity into our welfare programmes and Andhra Pradesh has large number of welfare programmes belonging to both the central as well as the state sector.

As part of this, we have created a state resident data hub where we have put the entire Aadhaar and demographic information pertaining to the residents of the state. We are also pooling in and bringing in all the state welfare department databases like social security, pensions, scholarships, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) or civil supplies and now the process of seeding these databases with Aadhaar number is currently on.

Once that part is complete, then we would come to know the extent of duplicates and ghost IDs or bogus IDs which are there in these databases and subsequent to this would come in this entire post-Aadhaar world wherein bank accounts and DBTs and other things would follow.

Q: You spoke of errors in the Aadhaar database linked with the banking system. What was the percentage of errors?

Jaju: It is not very significant right now, but we have been noticing that various dealers have been getting complaints with regards to the wrong seeding of Aadhaar numbers. They are not really wrong Aadhaar numbers, but they are not Aadhaar numbers pertaining to that particular consumer. So to that extent that is why we have advised the bankers to validate the Aadhaar numbers before they seed it into their databases.

Q: Is Aadhaar being used in any creative ways in Jharkhand? I hear you guys are using it for land transactions?

Sharma: In Jharkhand, as we know that Aadhaar coverage can become 100 percent by end of December 2013, we have actually taken a policy decision that there are three types of areas in which one can use Aadhaar. One is regulatory area.

Regulatory areas are in terms of driving license or registration of properties and other kinds. Similarly, the other area is benefit delivery area like old age pensions, scholarships and NREGA wages and PDS and others. The other area can be like health, education, midday meals and children other benefits.

All these areas, we have taken a decision that benefit oriented schemes must start riding on Aadhaar. So, December 31, 2013 is the cut off date given to the departments. The cabinet has taken a decision that we should converse towards that situation where every benefit delivery is linked to Aadhaar.

This will ensure (a) elimination of duplicates; (b) it is also very good for monitoring these schemes. For example, if you want to monitor the immunisation program, the same child has to be given those three-four doses of polio. Now if you tie up with a number, then to that extent it becomes very easy to monitor.

So, we are very proactively taking steps to ensure that we fully leverage Aadhaar into benefit delivery systems and other social delivery programmes.


Q: Have you already seen any savings in your entitlement programs because you are distributing them via Aadhaar and are you able to save on leakages?

Sharma: First area where we have done this is the national social assistance programme (NSAP) in a large manner. We have started seeing the substantial savings already. We have not fully implemented it as yet. So, I cannot really say a fixed percentage on that. But we have maybe about a million beneficiaries under the NSAP.

Now the whole issue is by the same money, now I can cover more people. So it is savings in terms of reducing the leakages, but the saving is not really by way of cutting off somebody's benefits. It essentially means covering more people in the same amount.

Q: What about in Andhra Pradesh? Any numbers on how much money you have saved or may save by transferring your social benefits through Aadhaar-based identification? Have you been able to weed out ghosts and duplicates?

Jaju: Because the process of seeding is still continuing, we would come to know about the duplicates only when it is completed. Then, only those who have not been seeded with Aadhaar numbers would come up with fake identities.

Right now it is premature for me to put a number. Of course, we have some pilots in our state. We estimated that because the savings to the range of at least about 20 percent will be there.

Q: Will we be able to get better quality statistics on say unemployment or poverty figures. Do you see that happening as we start linking Aadhaar to the social security benefits that states give?

Jaju: This is the first time in the country that we have done a massive exercise of identifying our residents. I am not talking about citizens because Aadhaar is about the residents. Once this process is done, on top of it we can build layers of databases and programs.

As an IT secretary, I can only talk in terms of systems and software. We can actually build layers on top of it. It would allow lot of these interfaces to be captured. For example, if you are talking in terms of trying to find out the unemployment details, then we need to build our employment database or the employment system around the Aadhaar data that is already around.

What actually would happen is you will get accurate assessment of some of the economic fundamentals. Besides this we will also be in a position to arrive at conclusions with correct information which currently is not the case.


Q: Since you have seen both UIDAI and micro level administration from close quarters, give me your vision of how Aadhaar can change our economy

Sharma: India has taken an extremely innovative step in creating this infrastructure because people don't understand the whole (idea) of it. It is not only giving identity to those who don't have an identity, it's actually creating an ID infrastructure which is online.

We are proceeding from a no ID to an online ID situation. This identity is verifiable online. Using a mobile phone, you can verify your ID. Verification of ID and giving immediate response on the identification of a citizen can be used in all kinds of situations at direct benefit delivery points while proving.

E-KYC is a service which UID has started recently. So essentially wherever you require identity proof, this can be done. Secondly, it is an online ID which means that you can remotely deliver services without the person being present, like coming to the bank branch; you can deliver services to the bank villages.

So, for security purposes, access controls, attendance things, you just name it. This is the largest transformational project taken anywhere in the world. And the way it is being rolled out, I do appreciate that always there is a time lag between the technology and its application.


So it will take a little while, but once it comes up, I can tell you it will have serious transformational impact on the service delivery scenario in the country