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

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

12846 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 20th February 2018



Biometric Update
The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) has declined to renew its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the country's network of common service centers (CSCs) to provide Aadhaar enrollment services, The Quint reports. CSCs were established in 2006 to provide services to rural areas to ...






Times of India
The plea, filed by advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, has sought direction to the Election Commission of India to take appropriate steps to implement an 'Aadhaar based election voting system' to ensure maximum participation in election and curtail fake, bogus and duplicate voting in ...





Times of India
AHMEDABAD: Allegedly, tampered Aadhaar cards were used to sell off two pieces of land in Daskroi, Ahmedabad, by a group of fraudsters who ... office to obtain the documents submitted in the land sale, including the Aadhaar cards of 18 persons to whom the complainant had paid asum of Rs 26 lakh.






The Indian Jurist
Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium resumed arguments for the 11th day of the Aadhaar hearing on behalf of the petitioners. Adding to the thread of earlier arguments in the case, he began by saying that the Aadhaar Act is unconstitutional. “After the Puttaswamy judgment read with NALSA and ...






Moneycontrol.com
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear after four weeks a plea seeking a direction to Election Commission to implement an Aadhaar-based voting system in elections to curtail bogus voting and link Aadhaar with movable and immovable property documents to curb corruption, black money ...






Telangana Today
Nizamabad: District Collector M Rammohan Rao asked tahsildars and MPDOs to complete Aadhaar seeding of farmer's bank accounts by February 24 in Nizamabad district. Collector Rao and JC Ravinder Reddy conducted a video conference with various mandals tahsildars, MPDOs on Farmers bank ...






Economic Times
Unlike China, mobile payments in India are being built on public infrastructure like UPI and Aadhaar that allow open-architecture and an inter-operable payment system to evolve. “With 800 million bank accounts now linked to mobile, existing bank accounts should be mobile-transaction ready.



India.com
New Delhi, Feb 19: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has made it mandatory for aspirants of NEET Exam 2018 to have Aadhaar card to apply. The move had rattled the aspirants and their parents but the board also made some exclusions for the students to allow them to appear for the test ...






The Telegraph
Asked, the rural development minister said that he had directed officials to expedite the work on this front and it had come to the light that Aadhaar details of more than 50 per cent beneficiaries of the scheme had been deposited with the banks and very soon these would be linked with their bank ...






Business Standard
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has "twisted" some of the things in the digital revolution, such as "forcing digital transactions" on people and insisting on linking Aadhaar with everything, says M. M. Pallam Raju, a minister in the earlier Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ...



Moneycontrol.com
With over 1 lakh villages linked with optical fibre, 120 crore Aadhaar card-holders and 50 crore Internet users, India is the best place to leverage the power of technology and leap forward into the future, he said. "Digital India is a journey bringing about digital inclusion for digital empowerment aided by ...



India Today
In branches, this hand held device could be used to authenticate the Aadhaar, eKYC, e-KYC account opening, Aadhaar-based transactions through biometric authentication from the UIDAI data base. PTI CHS. This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire. Do You Like This Story?






Economic Times
On the business side, look at what is happening in India with the prime minister's initiatives. You can argue India has made some of the biggest investments whether it is Aadhaar or eMudhra for signatures. Digital technology will transform all businesses here, whether it is financial services, telecom, retail ...






The Hindu
With over 1 lakh villages linked with optical fibre, 121 crore mobile phones, 120 crore Aadhaar and 50 crore internet users, India is best placed to leverage the power of technology and leap-frog into the future,” he declared. “Technology has transcended power point presentation and has become an ...






Kashmir Reader
JAMMU: Stressing upon implementing agencies to strictly adhere to set timelines for completion of Electronic Public Distribution System (ePDS) in the state, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) and Tribal Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali on Monday directed M/S Linkwell ...






Mumbai Live
Recently, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) made it mandatory for its employees to link their Aadhaar card to register their attendance. But this is not the same for corporators who till this period, sign in a muster. BMC group leaders are of the view that there are many corporators who sign ...






Times of India
Dwelling at length on his government's tech push, he spoke about how the JAM trinity of combining 320 million Jan Dhan bank accounts of poor with Aadhaar and mobile with direct benefits of welfare measures had saved 57,000 crore, how around 22 million digital hospital transactions across 172 ...



The Hitavada
“With over one lakh villages linked with optical fibre, 121 crore mobile phones, 120 crore Aadhaar and 50 crore internet users, India is best placed to leverage the power of technology and leap-frog into the future while ensuring empowerment of every citizen.” He said Digital India was a journey bringing ...








Times Now
The AAP claims the meeting was called to discuss "faulty implementation" of Aadhaar that "deprived about 2.5 lakh families of ration", while Prakash claimed TV advertisements were the discussion point. According to sources, the Chief Secretary was manhandled and physically assaulted by at least two ...



The Hindu
The key findings included: the Aadhaar authentication strike rate increased to as high as 97% in three attempts; 85% of farmers received transaction receipts, and 98% were charged the same amount as mentioned in the receipt; and the grievance redress mechanism has improved and 79% retailers are ...






5 Dariya News
Regarding the status of Aadhaar seeding and distribution of ration cards among the consumers, the Minister directed Joint Director, FCS&CA to expedite the distribution of rations cards and complete the process of Aadhaar seeding in stipulated time frame.The Minister directed to establish a dedicated ...






Economic Times
... at a government hospital in Edappadi in Salem district. Samsung said it had also partnered with Government of Karnataka and has provided 1,000 tab IRIS to the public health centres in the state. The tab IRIS was the first commercial IRIS integrated tablet to be approved by UIDAI for Aadhaar, it added.