Former chairman of the UIDAI Nandan Nilekani, elucidates how Aadhaar could become the spine for alternative banking and could replace government services with cash benefits.
The government on Friday issued rules allowing linking of electoral roll data with Aadhaar, making electoral law gender neutral for service voters and enabling young citizens register as voters four times a year instead of the present one.
The government will push for the passage of a long-pending bill to provide statutory status to the Unique Identification Authority of India in the winter session of Parliament.
'By taking fingerprints, iris scans and other details of citizens, the State is becoming the custodian of its people.' 'The State can use this data according to its whims and fancies, which is not good in a democracy.' 'When the State looks at all the activities of its citizens, it becomes a police State.'
A number of exhibitions at the Bharat Mandapam, the convention centre which will host key G20 summit meetings, will showcase India's technological prowess and innovation, and offer a multitude of unique experiences to the visitors.
Aadhaar now has legal backing but it still faces challenges of privacy and data sharing
President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint sitting of both the houses of Parliament at the Central Hall on Thursday.
In a nation divided by many things, the 12-digit unique identity number is holding lives to ransom.
The linking of biometric UID/Aadhaar number to all public services makes "We, the People of India" worse than slaves, says Gopal Krishna.
'The striking down of the use of Aadhaar by private companies implicitly calls for the deletion or erasure of all personal data vested in the servers of the private service providers.'
The government would have to assure the Supreme Court that collection of biometric data under Aadhaar does not violate privacy.
India's sprawling digital public infrastructure received a glowing endorsement from billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Wednesday as he praised the country's "great" digital network, reliable and low-cost connectivity, and said this will be the cheapest 5G market. Under the G20 presidency of India, a session on 'Building resilient and inclusive economies- the Promise of Digital Public Infrastructure' was held on Wednesday in New Delhi, where the Microsoft co-founder spoke of India's digital identity Aadhaar, its payment infrastructure, and rapid strides that the country has taken in bringing more people into formal banking system. "India in particular, by laying the groundwork for digital public infrastucture starting with identity system, allows people to build on top of that.
'If your data is hacked you cannot go to court. Only UIDAI can go to court.' 'UIDAI is lying that Aadhaar is completely secure.'
Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the legislation was not against any NGO and is an effort to maintain transparency. This amendment is in the interest of good NGOs which want to do good work in the country.
To validate and continue using the existing PAN cards, citizens will have to link them to Aadhaar. Or else, they will be permitted to use Aadhaar instead for filing returns and while making other high-value transactions, specified under the Income Tax Act.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a petitions challenging Aadhaar, said no system in the world was secure and the issue was not as to how data is collected, but how the information so collected are used or misused.
GSTN said those who do not want to give their Aadhaar numbers would have to undergo physical verification.
The amendment says that UIDAI can now give directions as it may consider necessary to any entity in the Aadhaar ecosystem
Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani said the Aadhar number "dramatically improves the convenience" and makes the life "simpler".
"Aadhaar Act has withstood the judicial scrutiny and the purpose of the Act is legitimate," it said.
The amendment of around 40 central statutes makes the Finance Bill, 2017 unique
The statutory status will provide a legal foundation to Aadhaar.
Political reactions poured in shortly after the Supreme Court declared the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme constitutionally valid.
Not only is your privacy stripped stark naked, says Mitali Saran, the system itself is illegal and vulnerable.
Sources said the two Acts will be amended to provide for voluntary sharing of the 12-digit identification number for obtaining new mobile phone connections and for the opening of bank accounts.
'The most valuable personal sensitive information of present and future citizens has been made available to foreign data firms and governments and non-State actors for all time to come,' says Gopal Krishna.
It pulls out past Supreme Court orders that run contrary to the latest one.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra is heavily banking upon a six to 10 per cent shift in voters -- mostly women -- in its favour to return to power with anywhere between 160 and 170 assembly seats, say four MLAs belonging to Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
The judgment was reserved after a marathon hearing which went on for 38 days spanning four months.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes has issued a notification expanding the list of documents admissible as proof of identity and address by including Aadhaar Card. Aadhaar is a 12-digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the government of India.
Unless the judges factor in the ungovernability of technologies and their beneficial owners, present and future Presidents, prime ministers, judges, legislators and officials handling sensitive assignments may become redundant with reference to their age-old roles for securing 'national resources and assets', warns Dr Gopal Krishna.
The CPI(M) has asked the Centre to withdraw its decision to make Aadhaar cards compulsory for providing various benefits like cooking gas subsidy to people.
Today even those who support Prime Minister Modi feel there is a certain sense of listlessness in this government. What is it intending to achieve? This is not easy to say, notes Aakar Patel.
His colleague and Law & IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the court has held that the purpose of issuing Aadhaar to all Indian citizens is legitimate and no surveillance is possible.
This is likely to put a brake on the fast pace at which Aadhaar cards have been issued so far to more than 400 million people.
Extension of the deadline from December end this year till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those people who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it.
The outfit suggested that the government amend the Information Technology Act to classify all such content as pornography, which people should only be able to access by punching in their Aadhaar details or their fingerprints. Archis Mohan reports
In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
Pandey is a Maharashtra cadre IAS officer of 1984 batch.
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