Manmohan Singh will call a Cabinet meeting on Friday to take final call on extension of the Unique Identification Authority of India project, under which national identity cards are issued to entire population.
Home Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia rejected reports that they were locked in a turf war over the ambitious UIDAI project to give every Indian resident a unique ID number Aadhar.
Since the first Aadhaar number was issued in September 2010, more than 1.33 billion Aadhaar cards have been generated till June 2022. With the Aadhaar enrolment of adult Indians nearing 100 per cent, the main objective of the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), which was to give Unique Identification numbers (UID) to all residents of India, is almost achieved, said a senior government official. "Enrolment will now be much more update-based, because people keep updating their mobile numbers and addresses.
So far, 758 million Aadhaar numbers have been generated.
Activist Gopal Krishna makes a case that the Unique Identification Number project is a gross violation of fundamental human rights and points out that a similar project/law in Britain is going to be repealed.
There are unprecedented political implications of identification based on 'biological attributes of an individual', such as employed by Aadhaar, warns Gopal Krishna.
In a serious data breach, personally identifiable information of 815 million Indians has been up on the dark web for sale, according to a report by US-based cybersecurity firm Resecurity. Details such as Aadhaar and passport information along with names, phone numbers and addresses are available for sale online, it has said.
Amritsar-based Sohan Singh and Mohan Singh who are joined in the hip exercised their franchise for the first time in the Punjab assembly polls on Sunday.
The Home Ministry said that 'Aadhaar' is strong on ensuring unique identity, 'however, uniqueness of identity is not a necessary condition to ensure authenticity of identity or genuineness of other entries or records of Aadhaar number', sources said.
The sensor lies embedded underneath the OLED display which is almost invisible.
Supreme Court allows more instruments to use the biometric card.
The OTP will be sent on the registered mobile number and email of the individual
'This updated NPR database along with Aadhaar Number would become the mother database and can be used by various government departments...' the home ministry declared in July 2015. 'UID/Aadhaar has been used as a fish bait to ensnare and entrap present and future generations of citizens,' warns Gopal Krishna.
The attorney general told the apex court that the invasion of privacy was very minimal in Aadhaar and it may not even be considered as an invasion.
'Maybe the State wants to be watching people all the time. But when they are watching, others too may be watching!' 'The State is becoming more and more secretive while throwing people to the wolves.'
UIDAI claims 99.9% accuracy rate, says this incident makes up less than 0.1% of cases which slip through system.
The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that securing Aadhar cards, being issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), was optional and it has not made it mandatory for the citizens.
Infosys co-founder and face of the United Progressive Alliance government's flagship 'Aadhar' programme, Nandan Nilekani resigned as chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, on Thursday three days after joining Congress.
'The focus needs to shift towards the ability to collect payments, particularly in tier-3 to tier-4 areas where acceptance is still lacking.'
New software will ensure that anyone with more than one election ID has to surrender the other cards.
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.
The linking of biometric UID/Aadhaar number to all public services makes "We, the People of India" worse than slaves, says Gopal Krishna.
'The Bharat Ratna should have been given a long time ago. Not just to irk the Chinese, but to recognise His Holiness for what he is and how we have benefited immensely from his presence in India.' 'I don't think there's been a better ambassador for India's philosophical and cultural past than the Dalai Lama.'
Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the government of India.
The first set of unique identification numbers will be issued to the citizens within 12-18 months, high-profile IT expert Nandan Nilekani said soon after taking over as the head of the newly-created Unique Identification Database Authority of India (IDAI) on Thursday.
Nilekani has been maintaining silence on reports about his political plans, which has gained more currency after the KPCC reportedly shortlisted his name among the three probable candidates for Bangalore south recently.
However, ration card, driving licence, voter identity card, Kisan passbook with photo, job card issued under MGNREGS and a certificate issued by a gazetted officer or a tehsildar will be admissible as proof of identity for people to get the benefits under the scheme till the time they get Aadhaar.
In a nation divided by many things, the 12-digit unique identity number is holding lives to ransom.
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.
The ministry, under Ravi Shankar Prasad, will soon prepare a Cabinet note for bringing Aadhaar under its administrative jurisdiction.
The final NRC, unique to Assam, will be published on August 31.
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.
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He also made an appeal not to 'overblow' the issue of data breach.
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Aadhaar now has legal backing but it still faces challenges of privacy and data sharing
Surat resident Ashfaq Shaikh, a prime suspect, allegedly replaced his colleague Rohit Solanki's photo on the latter's Aadhaar card with his own. He also changed the birth date on the Aadhaar card.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
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