Aadhaar, an ambitious initiative of the previous government, has been used to initiate mandatory attendance for government officials, prisoner identification and by linking it to passports, mobile SIM cards and provident fund accounts.
India does not have a stringent privacy or data protection Act.
Since Justice D Y Chandrachud is one of the youngest on the bench and is slated to become the Chief Justice of India on the seniority principle, his views have special significance for the future, says M J Antony.
The idea that every citizen in this country is to be numbered is the primary thing in the project.
Biometric authentication is based on the unscientific and questionable assumption that there are parts of human body that does not age, wither and decay with the passage of time.
Use a "virtual credit card" for every online transaction when you can't pay cash on delivery.
One of the many contrasts that Kumar versus Nilekani highlights is that of a traditional career politician as against a highly successful professional entering politics for the first time. Rupa Subramanya reports
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader also said that the troubles of the hapless workers grew manifold, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, as their employers did not implement the provisions of the existing Inter State Migrant Labour Act, 1979.
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.
The biometric entry will take place with the consent of the passenger and the present system of check-in will also co-exist.
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'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.
Suggesting the bill is in line with the apex court judgment, Prasad said people of India have accepted Aadhaar. The bill proposes to allow voluntary use of Aadhaar number for authentication and identity proof in opening of bank accounts and procuring of mobile phone connections. The Bill also seeks to give a child an option to exit from the biometric ID programme on attaining 18 years of age, while stipulating stiff penalties for violation of norms set for use of Aadhaar and violation of privacy.
Believe it or not, Prime minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet is unable to arrive at consensus on the exact identity of AADHAAR -- Unique Identification Number (UID).
Increased acceptance of Aadhaar as a proof to validate credentials has led to a higher number of downloads of the unique ID.
Earlier, the Home Ministry had raised concerns over the use of Aadhaar number as a single source of identity verification.
'Individual beneficiary desirous of availing the benefits under the scheme (PMUY) is hereby required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication,' said a gazette notification issued by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.
The amendment says that UIDAI can now give directions as it may consider necessary to any entity in the Aadhaar ecosystem
The apex court's five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said Aadhaar is meant to help benefits reach the marginalised sections of the society and takes into account the dignity of people not only from personal but also from community point of view.
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The implementation of the much-hyped Aadhaar Card scheme is in trouble following the Supreme Court's interim order on Monday, which observed that the card can be issued only to Indian nationals and the identification number cannot be made mandatory for availing of benefits of the government's subsidy schemes.
'The government that is talking all the time about national security and national interests should be concerned.' 'When national interests are jeopardised by their own project, they should pause and listen.' 'Whether it is the BJP or the Congress, they all want control over the people.' 'They don't give a damn if anything happens to the people of the country; they are only interested in what they can get out of the data.'
Silicon Valley-based billionaire and prominent venture capitalist Vinod Khosla on Friday condemned government's decision to ban internet-based taxi aggregator Uber following the alleged rape incident in Delhi recently.
The Aadhaar issuing authority, Unique Identification Authority Of India, has no data on those who have been denied benefits for want of the 12-digit biometric identification number, the Supreme Court was informed on Thursday.
The amended bill also provides for a stiff Rs 1 crore penalty and a jail term for private entities for storing Aadhaar data.
'Every Indian citizen is already exposed to massive digital surveillance and most are already vulnerable to data theft and cyber-impersonation as well,' points out Devangshu Datta.
It was supposed to be a panacea against corruption, leakage and a magic wand for financial inclusion. But everywhere you look are people who enrolled, only to fall through the cracks again.
By the time the security failure is discovered and fixed, the damage is already done. A CIO survey by Forcepoint and Frost & Sullivan found that 69 per cent of Indian organisations were at risk of data breach. Whenever there is data breach, there is a potential disaster waiting to happen.
'Completely disregarding ground reports of starvation deaths owing to Aadhaar and potentially disguising these deaths to look like accidents appears brutal,' says Rajendran Narayanan.
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Nilekani said that in India which has the total population of over one billion, only 50 million people had passports which was mere five per cent of total population, around 30 million people paid taxes and over 150 million people had driver licence.
The government must be the initial driver.
Private firms' offer to print Aadhaar details on plastic card a breach of law
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.
The information containing relevant client details and photograph made available from UIDAI as a result of e-KYC process shall be treated as sufficient proof of Identity and address of the client.
In emails to the UIDAI, they have also asked for details about the organisations with whom their Aadhaar numbers had been shared.
Under Aadhar, more than 1 billion people have their online identity.
Things are expected to change dramatically in a few years for urban consumers.
But will this dilute Bajaj's strong Indian identity that straddled the rural-urban markets and the Hindi-English divide quite easily?
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