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

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

12927 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 4th March 2018



Times of India
A specified date is fixed once in a month to secure appointments to furnish papers, due to which people from far-off places in Quepem and Sanguem talukas are facing hardships in getting their Aadhaar cards issued. “When people approach the office, they are not given appointments, but are told to ...






NDTV
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has recently announced UAN-Aadhaar linking facility for members through the UMANG Mobile App. UMANG or Unified Mobile Application is an app that provides access to various government services (central, state and regional) at one place, ...



Moneylife
In a bold order that comes as a relief to thousands of pensioners who might be harassed for not linking Aadhaar to their pension account, the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) has stated that such information comes under Section 7 (concerns `life and liberty') of a person and should be given ...






NDTV
DigiLocker, a government initiative is aimed at the concept of paperless governance. According to the official DigiLocker website-digilocker.gov.in, DigiLocker is a cloud-based platform for issuance, storage, sharing and verification of documents and certificates in digital form which enables select ...






The News Minute
Ajay Seth, additional chief secretary, department of health and family welfare said that either Aadhaar or ration cards could be produced to avail the benefits of the scheme at the government hospitals where it is applicable. A unique ID called the ArkID would be generated on the first visit of the patient.



The Tribune
Also, technology entrepreneur Abhinav Srivastava, an MSc graduate from IIT Kharagpur, and also the prime accused in the online Aadhaar data theft in 2017 spoke as to how he astonished the investigators by explaining the shortcuts he used to hack the government website to get Aadhaar data.






Nagpur Today
The state government is seeding Aadhaar numbers with PDS cards and has achieved over 86 per cent seeding so far. A senior official from the food and civil supplies department said, so far, 15 districts were live on the AePDS platform, namely, Ahmednagar, Akola, Aurangabad, Bhandara, Hingoli, ...






Zee Business
How to file income tax returns (ITR) continues to be one of the most asked questions and news about tax acquires prominence in daily conversation. While the process itself has been made easier over the years, still it is quite convoluted and there are many pitfalls taxpayers need to be aware of.




Business Standard
Even less numbers came to our booths to submit Aadhaar details or called our agents home. It has been a struggle getting people on-board,” said a senior executive of a mobile fintech entity, which has over 150 million users. Last year, Alibaba-backed Paytm had raised close to a billion dollars from ...


Gadgets Now
All e-wallet companies are accepting Aadhaar card as one of the documents for verification. But other than that, e-KYC can also be done with documents like Passport, Driving License, Pan Card, Election ID card. Users can still complete their KYC. In case they dont, they will not lose their money, but they ...






The New Indian Express
With an Aadhaar card for every household and the successful completion of property assessment survey in 72ULB areas in which every house was surveyed and geo-tagged, the plan now is to formalise this geo-tagging number into a usable scientific door numbering system that creates a standard ...






Business Standard
Earlier this week, Modi had also demanded that the software currently being used at fair price shops should be replaced, as it "sometimes fails to read the fingerprint and Aadhaar card details of the beneficiaries, forcing them to return without their monthly quota of subsidised food grains". However, state ...






The Better India
The UIDAI and its subsidiaries haven't done the best job in protecting the Aadhaar details of millions in this country. One hopes the EC has a more robust security architecture. Read also: How Are Your Votes Counted? Are They Secure? Here's How It All Works! Under the erstwhile system, if I want to ...






Hindustan Times
There are plenty of previous instances, focusing on demonetisation, Padmavat, Aadhaar and much more, and all within the past 18 months. Given that this is, and has been, a cottage industry in India, you would hardly think that imports are necessary. But as the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ...






Deccan Herald
Proceedings of cases that involve the privacy of individuals or national security issues or certain kinds of criminal cases are not for public viewing. The petition is only with respect to cases of national and constitutional import like those about the Aadhaar scheme, triple talaq and Section 377 of the IPC, ...






NewsBytes
Modi also demanded the software used at fair price shops should be replaced, as it "sometimes fails to read the fingerprint and Aadhaar-card details of the beneficiaries, forcing them to return without their monthly quota of subsidized food-grains". However, Gujarat's Food and Civil Supplies Minister, ...






AMBCrypto
Bitbns founded recently in December-2017 has made the purchase of Monero [XMR] available in India. Monero [XMR] is available in India at the price of 1 XMR = 23,001 INR as on Saturday 3rd March at 11:51:12 AM. The prices have been toggling between 24,997 to 23,001 INR. Monero being a ...