The government on Tuesday gave in-principle approval for adoption of standardised approach for collection of demographic and biometric attributes, including iris scan, of residents by various bodies for the UID project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for focus on 'repair and prepare' as the nation emerges out of a devastating pandemic. "Over the past year, we have witnessed a lot of disruption in different sectors. Much of it is still there. Yet, disruption does not have to mean despair," he said at VivaTech Summit. "Instead, we must keep the focus on the twin foundations of repair and prepare," he said referring to the need to augment healthcare infrastructure in the country as well as prop up the economy.
The central government on Friday stopped the doorstep delivery of ration scheme MMGGRY (Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana) of the Delhi government, scheduled to be launched on March 25.
An all-out war had erupted on Twitter on Saturday after TRAI chief gave out his Aadhaar number, challenging anyone to show how mere knowledge of the number can be misused to harm him, triggering a deluge of tweets that claimed to disclose his personal details -- from PAN to mobile number.
Aadhaar is a creation of the previous Congress-led government.
Though, a counter terrorism white paper released by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today did not name the countries, which will be covered by the new rules, security experts have been quoted by The Herald Sun as saying that Pakistan is "high on the list".
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah has requested the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to include the state for the pilot project 'Aadhar' as it was ready with the resident data.
The new system will allow all government employees to mark their attendance from any central government department, by entering a six-digit unique number, besides finger prints or iris scan.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) set up recently by the government, will establish an online data base with identity and biometric details of Indian residence and provide enrolment and verification services across the country.
Discussions are going on at the highest level of the government and in all probability, the NPR and house listing phase of the Census work will be deferred till the threat of the Coronavirus is over, a home ministry official said.
The plan of UID/Aadhaar-based surveillance does not end with the collection of fingerprints and iris scan, it goes quite beyond it and poses a lethal threat to the idea of India, says Gopal Krishna.
As India gets ready to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his group is working with authorities to provide technology tools and backbone for mass inoculation against COVID-19. Ambani's telecom venture Jio was rolled out four years back, offering free voice calling and dirt-cheap data. Today, Jio is India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million users, each connected to the internet. At a Facebook event, Ambani said the government's digital push kept the country running even during the pandemic and is now helping in the rollout of one of the largest vaccination programmes.
'The COVID-19 threat is still looming large. The census and NPR are not in the priority list of the government as of now'
The Centre on Tuesday said it was discussing with state governments the preparations for updating the National Population Register from April 1 to September 30. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in the Lok Sabha that no document will be collected during the exercise, which will be carried out along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021.
Now, 83 per cent males and 77 per cent females have formal bank accounts but they are hardly using them
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.
Observing that good governance was being recognised as an important goal by many countries, the President said the Internet revolution has proved to be a powerful tool for good governance initiatives.
IBM India has launched its first ThinkPad with an integrated fingerprint reader at prices beginning from Rs 95,000.
Congress engaging in a 'false show of jubilation', said Amit Shah.
MGNREGA scheme: A significant Rs 17,370.58 crore has been carried forward over to the next financial year as unpaid dues as demand for work continued unabated for the scheme in rural areas.
A bench of justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said, "At this stage we do not know whether we could decide this issue or the high court will decide."
Rival political parties crossed swords even as the BJP sought to delink the updation of the NPR and the proposed NRC and no end in sight for the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The growing use of mobile phones for storing personal data has become a security concern, says Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com.
IIIT-D team builds algorithm that will help identify synthetic images.
'Please don't forget there's still one final piece to fall in place, which is the Supreme Court judgment. Once that happens, it will be ready for being passed.'
GPS devices will enable real-time money transactions
There were concerns that simply opening a bank account wouldn't constitute meaningful financial inclusion, as the poor would rarely use these accounts. However, recent data submitted to Parliament attests to increased account usage, says Ishan Bakshi.
Expressing serious concern over some social media platforms not being able to trace the originator of a message or an online content, a bench of justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said the government must step in now.
Asked if the mainstream politician would be released any time soon, the BJP leader said some leaders have been released.
'First sold to us as a voluntary scheme for government subsidies, Aadhaar has since sprouted multiple heads and tails, horns, fangs, warts, and a nasty case of halitosis.' 'It is unacceptably intrusive, our data is hilariously unsafe, and fraud, corruption, and criminality is rampant,' says Mitali Saran.
'If you are opposed to the nationwide NRC, you should oppose the NPR.'
Handle cards like you would handle cash.
Rajasthan Chief Secretary D B Gupta said he and the representatives of a few other states raised objections to a few questions to be asked by enumerators during the NPR exercise. He said the central government officials told them that answers to all such questions are not mandatory.
'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.'
Here is all you need to know about the National Population Register and worries over its links with NRC.
The government has initiated a series of measures, including allowing re-verification at subscribers' doorstep and One Time Password (OTP) based authentication of existing users, to make the entire exercise easier for telecom subscribers.
There are four simple ways to link PAN to Aadhaar; make the most of the deadline to avoid hassles later, explains Bindisha Sarang.
The protection of individual security and privacy is critical to building safe online systems, say Mitchell Baker and Ankit Gadgil.
'There must be thousands if not lakhs of people the government is illegally spying on.' 'Why should we enable this criminal activity by volunteering our details?'
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