Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time: Nine Hundred
Palash Biswas
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Bury GAAR operation succeded with surgical precision.Pranab is rested in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.Rural markest expanded.India has, for example, been raising limits on foreign investment in bonds, attracting much-needed inflows.FDI policy liberalised and disinvestment pushed ahead.But ndia incs seem to be restless.While P. Chidambaram's return as finance minister in late July was applauded by investors fed up with his predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, he is still politically hamstrung from pushing through reforms such as allowing foreign direct investment in supermarkets and aviation, or cutting subsidies.Corporate Icon Nandan Nilekani heads the UID project to decide biometric citizenship.What next?Money control reports,India's economic growth may have slowed to a near-decade low, but you wouldn't know it from the pace at which Britain's Costa Coffee and many other consumer-focused companies are expanding.Net foreign institutional investment in Indian stocks and bonds has quadrupled this year to USD 16.7 billion, including nearly USD 4 billion since the start of July, with shares in consumer goods makers such as Hindustan Unilever and Godrej Consumer Products recently hitting records.The Sensex is up 14% this year, making India the second best-performing major stock market in Asia.With sluggish growth in the United States, and Europe fighting to stave off financial meltdown, many companies still covet India for the qualities that once made it one of the world's hottest investment destinations -- namely its 1.2 billion people and a swelling middle class.Our government is engaged to oblige these slow down victims!From Ikea and Coca-Cola to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc and local motorcycle maker Hero MotoCorp , many companies are stepping up investment in India even as overall capital investment is down due to delays in big projects, high interest rates and global belt-tightening.
Contrary to the fiscal obligation to tame deficit, the government of India is planning to boost govt expenditure in public sector to expand the rural consumer market enhancing cash flow.Now it is said that against the backdrop of drought in various parts of the country, a proposal to raise the number of assured employment days under MNREGA from 100 to 150 will be considered by an empowered group of ministers next week with an aim of benefitting the farm labour.Moreover,In what may give a new lease of life to around 9,000 mw of power projects worth Rs. 40,000 crore, hit by lack of fuel, the government is planning changes in the accounting standards for power companies to prevent them from defaulting on loans so that their stranded assets don't turn into non-performing assets (NPAs).As India's policy makers struggle for options to halt the slowdown in the Indian economy, a parliamentary panel on Thursday asked the government to review the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to attract overseas capital.
Harking back to the spirit of that hoary accomplishment, a handful of eminent Indians have come together to build an institution dedicated to pedagogy and practice which could help transform and renew the country's cities and towns. Brick by brick, the intellectual and financial foundations of the Indian Institute of Human Settlements are being laid by some of India's most prominent and generous business leaders, academicians and technocrats.Economic times reports that following a donation of Rs 50 crore by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini, the institute has been bestowed with gifts of money from investment banker Hemendra Kothari and Uday Kotak, the vice-chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Same Nandan Nilekani,UIDAI chairman claims that the authority had taken steps to address the shortcomings like duplication and fake enrolments identified during the first phase and efforts were underway to develop Resident Database in all States.The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is hopeful of covering another 40 crore population under the Aadhar cards in the coming two years. A mammoth project that would lead to millions flowing out of the exchequer definitely needs to be debated at the national level.The government has shown sheer urgency in going for the UID project. If the project fails to confront the various questions and doubts being raised, it would hurt democracy. This is a dark joke making its rounds in the political corridors with the idea of investing an identity in every citizen.Many developed countries have retraced their path on the project owing to the issues of citizen privacy. The U.K had to repeal an Act of national identity register following large-scale protests from the citizens. Hungary and Germany look upon the project as a violation of privacy. Political pundits in these countries have termed it the "national e-surveillance act."
Academia.edu | Papers in critique of UID
www.academia.edu/Papers/in/critique_of_UID"At various points in its career the Indian state has deployed technologies to govern the country. In its latest move, the state has undertaken a number of large ...
UID: we do have doubts, concerns and confusion - The Hindu
www.hindu.com/op/2011/06/26/stories/2011062652861200.htm26 Jun 2011 – So far in India about 15 different types of ID work, but the UID is projected to ... The UID promises to give the poor their identity, it is a tool for ..
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Why Indians should fear the UID - Rediff.com India News
- news.rediff.com › News
- 12 Oct 2010 – The Aadhaar or UID project has grave implications for every Indian. ... and Analysis Wing, CBI, Central Boards of Excise and Direct Taxes, etc).
UID - An Apolitical Enabler or a Political Tool? at Sanhati
- sanhati.com/excerpted/3237/
- 12 Feb 2011 – Even on a purely technological level UID has faced strong criticism (e.g. a set of articles on Center for Internet and Society web site [2]).
UID: Facility or Calamity? - South Asia Citizens Web
- www.sacw.net/article1705.html
- 25 Nov 2010 – Within hours of an enlightening critique of UID (written by Dr. Reetika Khera) appearing in a leading national daily, on 30 August 2010, Nilekani ...
Aadhar, A Few Basic Issues | Arindam Mukherjee
- www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?279077
- 5 Dec 2011 – The much-feted UID project acquires a few enemies who take to ..... and allow independent observers and groups to assess and critique them.
eIndia2007: A Campaign for No UID-Till Complete Transparency ...
- eindia2007.blogspot.com/.../campaign-for-no-uid-till-complete.html
- 6 Oct 2010 – The law on privacy be urgently worked on (this will affect matters way beyond the UID project); e. A cost-benefit analysis be done; and, f.
"Aadhar being the unique identity will provide comprehensive and integrated data about who is eligible for entitlement of benefits," he said. Asked whether the Home Ministry's proposal to introduce Resident Identity Cards (RIC) would not contradict the work of the authority, he said the UIDAI's work was complimentary to the National Population Register and the RIC. "Aadhar card is a resident number, not a citizenship number," he said.
AADHAAR & NPR " RELATED ARTICLES
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics.The very premise of Aadhar is flawed.
Its a certification that those who claim to think on behalf of India or its underprivileged understand it so differently from the beneficiaries they think of.
In a nutshell, Aadhar will not bring about any of the benefits that are intended for its intended beneficiaries. Because that will be solving a problem of governance by adding another layer that is imaginary and unnecessary.
To call it "technological leadership" is as removed from reality as calling a reader a writer of the book. At best it will mean that we can take a technology and ram it down the throat of the poor while other nations with stronger democratic roots and respect for citizens have not been able to do so for reasons of building consensus.
"Aadhar" is like dropping a car by helicopter in a village where there is no road and hope every villager can reach wherever they may want to go.
For anyone willing to think, Aadhar is a reflection of the huge disconnect that India has from both the world of the under privileged and the rest of the world.
Please think through before supporting UID/ Aadhaar, so you do not regret your decision.
http://aadhararticles.blogspot.in/
Moving ahead with its proposal to attract investors by setting up an Exchange Traded Fund for central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), the Disinvestment Department has called the meeting of an inter-ministerial panel tomorrow to firm up the structure of the scheme.
"An IMG will meet on September 3, for guiding the process for creation of a CPSEs' ETF," an official told reporters.
The Department of Disinvestment (DoD) has already constituted an IMG headed by its Secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan for setting up the fund, the official privy to the information said.
The ETF, which is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges much like stocks, would have an underlying benchmark that could be an index on the stock exchange.
The seven-member IMG has drawn members from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, besides Departments of Legal Affairs and Economic Affairs among others.
"The group would appoint an advisor to assist and advise the government in the process. Besides, it would appoint an Asset Management Company to act as the ETF provider for the proposed fund," the official said.
As an instrument for trading in stock market, the fund was introduced in India in 2001. Presently, there are 33 ETFs having a total asset under management (AUM) of Rs 10,850 crore, which is held by over 4 lakh investors.
The official said the usual mode of taking a partial disinvestment offering of a CPSE to the market include initial/further public offering, through stock exchange and institutional placement programme.
"The proposed ETF for CPSEs will serve as an additional mechanism for the government to monetise its shareholding in those companies that will eventually form part of the ETF basket," he added.
The ETF was introduced in India on the lines of similar instruments in the US, Europe and Latin America.
A high-profile panel set up by the Centre to finalise the proposed tax avoidance rules (GAAR) has effectively sounded the death knell for the controversial regime, and gave a huge bonanza to investors and markets suggesting that transfer of shares in listed companies be exempt from tax.Economic Times reports.
The Parthasarathi Shome-chaired committee has in its report to the finance ministry suggested that the implementation of the GAAR be deferred by three years to give more time for its effective implementation.
"The implementation of GAAR may be deferred by three years on administrative grounds," the committee has said in its report calling for intensive training of officials responsible for its implementation from assessment year 2017-18.
Industry cheered the report and said it will go a long way in lifting the mood. "Welcome Shome panel recommendations... Investment climate needs such an impetus," Deepak Parekh, chairman HDFC told ET Now, ET's sister news channel, which was the first to break the story on Saturday.
Rahul Garg, Leader Direct Tax, PwC India, said the report addresses the concern of corporates reasonably and certain features such as recommendation to abolish capital gain on listed securities are very well thought off.
The finance ministry said it will wait for the final recommendations. "This is the first draft which has been put up for public comments. We will take a call after the final report is submitted," revenue secretary Sumit Bose said on Saturday.
"The proposal to increase work days under Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) scheme, will come up for discussion in the meeting of the empowered group of ministers (EG0M) on drought scheduled next week," a source privy to the development said.
"Treating this year as a special case in view of drought declared in the four states, the inter-ministerial group would consider this proposal to provide relief to the rural population especially the farm workers," he added.
MNREGA assures 100 days of work every year to each household in rural areas. Generally, people avail of the benefit under the scheme during the off-season of agriculture.
The government has provided Rs. 33,000 crore to implement the scheme this fiscal, as against Rs. 31,000 crore in 2011-12.
"Since inflow of additional resources in the form of FDI is crucial in financing India's huge investment requirements, the investment climate of our country has to be improved considerably to attract FDI in areas like infrastructure, high technology and export oriented sectors," the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance headed by former finance minister and BJP-leader Yashwant Sinha said in a report titled Current Economic Situation And Policy Options. And it is amusing that BJP is spearheading to stall parliamentary system at its best.
A majority of CEOs are pessimistic about the Indian economy and feel that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth would fall below six% in the current fiscal and will be in the range of 6 to 6.5% in 2013-14. According to a snap poll conducted by the Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) among the members of its National Council shows that a majority of chief executive officers (CEOs) remain pessimistic about the outlook for the economy in the current year and expect only a moderate recovery in the forthcoming year. Mind you,unhappy with 5.5. per cent GDP growth in April-June quarter, industry chambers said opportunities for revival of the economy would soon "peter out" if the government does not take immediate policy action. Expressing serious concern over the continuous slowdown in the GDP, which was the slowest pace of Q1 growth in a decade, industry body CII said the numbers leave no doubt about the "criticality" of the situation.India's economy grew 5.5% in the April to June quarter, confirming fears of a widespread slowdown caused by a demand and investment sque-eze from a host of factors that include local policy logjam, high interest rates and sluggish exports amid a euro zone crisis
The poll results indicate that GDP growth during 2012-13 is expected to remain below six% by as many as 44% of the respondents while no one expects it to cross seven%.
Another 44% expect it to remain between 6 and 6.5%. The scenario is not likely to improve much in 2013-14 either as more than half of the respondents (52%) expect GDP growth to remain in the range of 6 to 6.5%, while only 36% expect it to lie between 6.5% and 7.5%.
"This reflects low confidence levels in industry. The first quarter GDP growth at 5.5% corroborates the fact that the slowdown is sustaining," Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII, said in the survey report.
According to data released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) on Friday the Indian economy grew at a sluggish 5.5% in April-June 2012 period as compared to 8% in the corresponding quarter of previous year.
"Our best hope would be that the economy is bottoming out. However, from the results of the snap poll or from government data, we do not have adequate indicators to substantiate this hypothesis," Banerjee said.
On inflation,56% CEOs expect the average rate of inflation in 2012-13 to be in the range of seven to eight%, while 32% of the respondents expect it to be between six to seven%.
Only 12% expect to higher between eight to nine%. These expectations are in line with the seven% inflation projected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Majority of the respondents (over 80%) expect both domestic and international investment either to increase or remain unchanged during 2012-13.
Almost half of the respondents expect domestic investment to pick up as compared to 43% in case of international investment. Additionally, 75% of the respondents believe capacity utilisation will either increase or remain unchanged in 2012-13.
Just read this report!
Stock markets are likely to react positively tomorrow as an expert committee on General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) has recommended postponement of the controversial tax provision by three years.
However, rest of the week could be volatile as global market reactions to US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's Jackson Hole speech is likely to keep traders busy along with a host of local cues, they added.
Bernanke in an August 31 speech to central bankers and economists at an annual forum in Jackson Hole focussed on economic challenges that the US faces while hinting the Fed will provide more policy stimulus, if needed, to aid recovery.
Back home, automobile and cement stocks will be focus this week as companies from these sectors declare monthly sales data for August.
"Stock market would react positively to the GAAR move in near term," CNI Research CMD Kishor Ostwal said.
As a step towards reassuring global investors, the GAAR committee in its draft report, also suggested that GAAR provisions should not be invoked to examine the genuineness of the residency of entities in Mauritius.
Analysts, however, said domestic investors may continue to be concerned over the logjam in Parliament, which raised the prospect of washout of the remaining part of Monsoon Session which ends on September 7, dashing hopes for much-awaited economic reforms.
"Parliament's Monsoon Session stayed immobilised due to objection and uproar from BJP over coal block allocations. This has once again raised doubts over the timely implementation of reforms," Rakesh Goyal, Vice-President, Bonanza Portfolio said.
The 5.5. per cent growth in GDP data for April-June quarter could imply weak hopes over an interest rate cut in near future and this may lead to further selling pressure in rate-sensitive sectors, he said.
Besides, rising crude oil price is not a good signal in an already slowing economy and would lead to rising costs, Goel added. Brent crude is trading over USD 100 a barrel.
According to Ostwal, "The next driver for the market is RBI policy on September 17."
On the global front, the ECB meet on September 6, remains an important event as it would give details on its plan to relaunch government bond-buying programme to help fight the region's economic crisis, an expert said.
Brokers said robust foreign fund inflows is a big positive for the equity market. In August, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of shares worth Rs. 48,136 crore, while they sold equities amounting to Rs. 37,332 crore, translating into a net inflow of Rs. 10,803 crore, according to a Sebi data.
http://profit.ndtv.com/news/market/article-markets-to-rejoice-panels-recommendation-to-defer-gaar-experts-310212
Overseas investors pumped in close to Rs. 11,000 crore in the Indian stock market in August - highest in six months - amid hopes of government initiatives on policy reforms and easing of monetary policy globally.
Thus, FII investment in the country's equity market has reached Rs. 63,070 crore so far this year, and Rs. 24,518 crore in the debt market during the same period.
In August, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of shares worth Rs. 48,136 crore, while they sold equities amounting to Rs. 37,332 crore -- net inflow of Rs. 10,803 crore (USD 1.94 billion), according to the data available with the market regulator Sebi.
This was the highest net investment by FIIs in stocks since February, when they had infused Rs. 25,212 crore. In July, they had pumped in Rs. 10,273 crore.
Market experts said that despite slowing economic growth and a high interest rate regime, foreign investors continued to prefer Indian equities on expectations that government would take fresh policy initiatives.
Besides, they said, investors were anticipating monetary policy easing by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank as global economy remains fragile.
Geojit BNP Paribas Research Head Alex Matthews said, "FII inflow continues, as hopes of policy reform announcements are still alive. But if there are no reform announcements, there might be slowdown in inflow or could be a pause as well."
However, the current political environment may dashed hopes as the monsoon session of Parliament has been stalled many times following the CAG's report on coal block sanctions.
"The huge FII inflows were driven on anticipation of monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank," Destimoney Securities MD and CEO Sudip Bandhopadhyay said.
Another market analyst Kishor Ostwal of CNI Research Head said, "FIIs have been infusing money into the defensive stocks such as pharma and FMCGs which have led the inflows."
Apart from equity, FIIs also invested Rs. 265 crore in the debt market last month.
Buoyed by strong inflows, the BSE 30-scrip index, Sensex, rose 194 points or 1 per cent last month to settle at 17,429.56 points on Friday.
As on August 31, the number of registered FIIs in the country stood at 1,754 and total number of sub-accounts were 6,333 during the same period.
The trouble with big brother's eye
The company that will provide biometric solutions for the UID project employs former US intelligence officials. What does this mean for our security, asks Baba Umar
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*LAST YEAR, Tembhali, a hamlet of around 1,500 villagers in Maharashtra's Nandurbar district, suddenly received a facelift — paved roads, painted walls and uninterrupted power supply. Not much was known about the village until 29 September when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi landed here to launch the world's largest unique identity programme.
The idea was to create unique biometric identification cards for more than 1.2 billion Indians that will contain basic information such as name, a photograph, gender and date of birth plus a microchip to link the card to a biometric database that will have the cardholder's fingerprints, iris scan, digital face image and address.
The project, which has already cost around Rs 3,170 crore, is slated to help the poor get access to welfare schemes and rid the PDS of grain diversion and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of pilferage.
"The UID can be leveraged at various points in welfare schemes to improve the delivery systems by making them transparent and cost-effective," says Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Director-General Ram Sewak Sharma.
However, for those working on issues of food security, migration, MGNREGA, civil liberties and human rights, the UID is an invasion of privacy, through which personal information will be stored in a database that could be used for profiling, tracking and surveillance.
And the involvement of companies such as American defence contractor L-1 Identity Solutions — which has names associated with the CIA and other US defence organisations in its top management — together with US-based Ernst & Young and Accenture raises queries about how much access they will have over Indian data.
"Can the government or the UIDAI assure the people that their details will not be shared with business enterprises, companies and political outfits?" asks Gopal Krishna of the Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties. Krishna, who has been aggressively campaigning against the UID, says the Nazi Party had hired IBM to profile people "leading to the Holocaust". He says IBM was and remains in census business and is currently part of World Bank's e-Transform Initiative of the developing world of which the UID scheme is a component.
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The three foreign companies will be implementing biometric solutions for UIDAI that includes designing, supplying, installing, commissioning, maintaining and supporting the multi-modal automatic biometric identification subsystem.
AMONG THE names associated with L-1 Identity Solutions are former CIA director George Tenet and former Homeland Security deputy secretary Adm James Loy, also on the board of Lockheed Martin. The company's links with the US military establishment is underscored by the fact that its board of directors include former Army Technology Science Board member BG Beck, former chairperson for the Secretary of the Army's National Science Centre Advisory Board Milton Cooper.
It's feared that the database can be used as a bulwark against India because all USbased firms are subject to the Patriot Act that obligates American companies to share their data with Washington.
L-1 also mentions on its website its experience with Pakistan's unique identity agency NADRA (National Database & Registration Authority), which, Krishna says 'appears to be created on the same business model that is packed by people with intelligence and military links'.
"The UIDAI feared to have linked CIDR with the National Intelligence Grid — created to connect 21 existing databases with Central and state government agencies — and National Population Register and L-1 and Accenture who work in close affinity with US intelligence agencies," he adds.
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Defence experts opposed to the UID, claim that the PMO, defence sites, and more than a thousand government sites were attacked 4,000 times by China in 2010 alone "and things seem no different in this case".
"The UIDAI has been foolish in its approach towards setting up the UID database," says Mathew Thomas, former army officer and a vehement critic. "In this programme, fingerprint technology is provided by a US-based company whose directors are former CIA and FBI officers. The database is set up by Accenture. The database is to be linked to other databases like banks, phone companies, etc. Once a person hacks into the UID database, s/he can gain access to any other database. We are handing over data to anyone who would like to take it."
"Did you hear about the incident in which 77 million Sony Playstation accounts were hacked? That's why a London School of Economics report warned that such a central database would be a potential target for terrorists. If the purpose is to reduce corruption in welfare schemes, then why create a database of all people? This is where the government and the UIDAI are telling lies. It's because if they talk about the real purposes of the UID, people would start resisting. It is meant to track and target people," adds Thomas.
However, contrary to Thomas, others like Brig (retd) Rumel Dahiya of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis don't find anything wrong with the involvement of foreign firms. "I am not discounting that certain amount of pilferage will take place," he says. "However, the UIDAI has to make sure that the data being processed isn't linked to servers abroad and it remains within an Indian system. Information of sensitive nature is protected, vetting of all machines from microchips is done, and physical check is ensured when people are working on a database."
HOWEVER, UIDAI'S Sharma fends off all this criticism by saying that the "data collected for Aadhaar enrolment will be held by the UIDAI and will not be accessible by outside agencies. Any violation will invoke penalties and legal action. Profiling and tracking info and transaction data will not be collected. The UIDAI will not reveal personal information from the database."
One of the strongest resistances to the UID comes from legal experts who have been questioning UIDAI's constitutional validity. According to them, many issues including profiling, privacy safeguards, civil liberties protection, and e-surveillance have been totally neglected from the Bill.
"The UIDAI should have been preceded by a constitutionally-sound legal framework and parliamentary oversight. Both of these are missing, making it an unconstitutional project," says Supreme Court lawyer Praveen Dalal. "Constitutionally, preparation of a legislation/Bill is the duty of the Indian government and it must be passed by Parliament. But in this case, an authority like UIDAI is suggesting the Bill which is itself devoid of any constitutional validity," says Dalal, adding the enrolment procedures and the exercise of taking biometric details too is "unconstitutional".
Noted Supreme Court lawyer Rajeev Dhawan believes that internally displaced and refugees "are likely to be harassed". "If the UID carries with it any other info that is kept in the government databases, it would be an invitation to big brother governance," he explains. In an earlier interview to TEHELKA (Why Nandan Wants To Tag You 6 November 2010), UID Chairman Nandan Nilekani had himself argued that India needs a well-debated and pervasive privacy law, not restricted to UID.
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*Many critics argue that the UID is mainly a security project. And as far as socio-economic benefits of the UID are concerned, the UIDAI itself has stated that it is only in the identity business and the responsibility of tracking beneficiaries and the governance of service delivery will remain with the respective agencies.
"The UID cannot address the bulk of the delivery problems in two of the biggest social sector programmes like MGNREGA and PDS," says writer and activist Ruchika Gupta. Coupled with technological challenges, the fact that only about half the villages in the country have the mobile connectivity required for UID to work, that biometric readers are error prone, susceptible to damage — linking UID with social sector legislation is completely baseless.
"Without assessing the relationship between an individual and the State, the programme was advertised with the name that corruption is the fundamental problem, but they are handing over all the details to those very people who we are accusing of corruption," says independent law researcher Usha Ramanathan.
Then there is a strong criticism of the credibility of the UIDAI's claims in the field of social policy too. "Scrutinising the UIDAI's documents reveals their poor understanding of how PDS and MGNREGA leakages occur and little evidence of creative thinking on plugging them," says Reetika Khera, a development economist and assistant professor at IIT, Delhi. She has been critical of the UIDAI's assertions that the scheme is voluntary. "The UIDAI is eager to enrol people. Till enrolment remains voluntary, people are likely to come in a trickle. To encourage them, government departments will make it a pre-requisite, by linking issue of new job cards to UID enrolment."
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Khera has a point. Because recently the district administrations in Mysore and Bengaluru initiated steps making UID numbers compulsory at various levels in state government offices. The move leaves no chance to stay away from the scheme.
Similarly, India's national payment gateway, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) aims to link Rupay, its soonto- be-launched domestic payment gateway on the pattern of Visa and MasterCard, with the UID programme. The move will allow customers to use their UID numbers as their banking passwords. All this makes UID a compulsory card that will link with it a person's other information too which is contrary to UIDAI's policy.
Even as Rajana Sonawane of Tembhali, the first Indian to receive the UID card wonders what benefits the card will offer him, the arguments continue elsewhere about the efficacy of this unique project.
Baba Umar is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
babaumar@tehelka.com
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne210511TROUBLE.asp
Nandan Nilekani
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 * | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2012) |
Nandan Manohar Nilekani | |
 *Nandan M Nilekani at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2007 | |
| Born | 2 June 1955 (age 57) Sirsi (Uttara Kannada District), Karnataka, India |
| Residence | Bangalore |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Indian Institute of Technology Bombay |
| Occupation | Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) |
| Net worth | $1.4 billion (2012)[1] |
| Signature |  * |
Nandan Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur. He currently serves as the Chairman of the new Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), after a successful career at Infosys Technologies Ltd. He is also now heading Government of India's technology committee, TAGUP.
Early life
Nandan Manohar Nilekani was born in Sirsi town in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, as the younger son of Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani.His father worked as a General Manager of Mysore and Minerva Mills. His father, who subscribed to Fabian Socialist ideals, had an influence on Nandan during his early years. He has an elder brother, Vijay, who works in the Nuclear Energy Institute.[2]He studied at St. Joseph's High School Dharwad,studied at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore and later in Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai where he graduated with a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering in 1978.[3] His early years were marked by his father's job transfers and re-locations. He spent the first twelve years at Bangalore, and then moved in with his uncle's family in Dharwad, after his father had been transferred.
Career
Nandan Nilekani, after graduating from IIT Bombay in 1978, joined Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems where he was interviewed by N.R. Narayana Murthy. Three years later, in 1981, Murthy walked out of Patni following a disagreement with one of the Patni brothers. His entire division walked out with him. The defectors decided to start their own company, Infosys. Nilekani became the Chief Executive Officer of Infosys in March 2002, taking over from Murthy. Nilekani served as CEO of the company from March 2002 to April 2007, when he relinquished his position to his colleague Kris Gopalakrishnan, becoming Co-Chairman. He left Infosys on 9 July 2009 to serve as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, in the rank of a cabinet minister under invitation from the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.He appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on March 18, 2009[4] to promote his book "Imagining India." He spoke, at a TED conference, about his ideas for India's future. He has an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.[1] In 2009, Time magazine placed Nilekani in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People' [5] Nilekani has been extensively quoted in Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat.[6] He is married to Rohini, whom he met at a quizzing event at IIT.[7] They have two children Nihar and Janhavi, both studying at Yale University.[8]
Honours and awards
 * | This biographical section needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2011) |
- Joseph Schumpeter Prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and politics - 2005.[9]
- Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors awarded by the Government of India - 2006.
- Was presented the 'Legend in Leadership Award' by the Yale University in November 2009. He is the first Indian to receive the top honour.
- Was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto on the 31st of May, 2011.
- NDTV Indian of the Year's Transformational Idea of the Year Award in 2011[10]
Bibliography
- Nandan Nilekani. Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation (March 19, 2009 ed.). Penguin Press HC. p. 528. ISBN 1-59420-204-4.
References
- ^ a b "#692 Nandan Nilekani - Forbes - March 2011". Forbes.
- ^ Imagining India » Childhood
- ^ Infosys Technologies Limited (2007-06-22). "About Infosys | Management Profiles | Nandan M. Nilekani". Infosys. Retrieved 2009-06-28.[dead link]
- ^ "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Official Website | Current Events & Pop Culture, Comedy & Fake News | Comedy Central". Thedailyshow.com. 2009-03-18. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
- ^ The 2009 TIME 100 - Nandan Nilekani TIME.
- ^ Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/friedman.html.
- ^ "School and IIT". Imagining India. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
- ^ The Hindu (Chennai, India). 2009-09-06. http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/06/01hdline.htm.
- ^ "The story continues". Imagining India. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
- ^ "NDTV Indian of the Year 2011". ndtv.com. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
External links
Unique Identification Authority of India
 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (December 2011) |
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. (December 2011) |
| Unique Identification Authority of India(UID) | |
|---|---|
| भारतीय विशिष्ट पहचान प्राधिकरण | |
 | |
| UIDAI (Aadhaar UIDAI new logo) | |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | February 2009 |
| Jurisdiction | Government of India (Union Government) |
| Headquarters | New Delhi |
| Annual budget |  3,000 crore (US$543 million) (2010) |
| Agency executives | Nandan Nilekani, Chairman Ram Sewak Sharma, Director General and Mission Director |
| Website | |
| uidai.gov.in | |
| Republic of India |
|---|
 Part of the series Politics and Government of India |
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) (Hindi: भारतीय विशिष्ट पहचान प्राधिकरण), is an agency of the Government of India responsible for implementing the AADHAAR scheme, a unique identification project. It was established in February 2009, and will own and operate the Unique Identification Number database.[1] The authority aims to provide a unique id number to all Indians, but not smart cards.[2] The authority will maintain a database of residents containing biometric and other data.[3]
The agency is headed by a chairman, who holds a cabinet rank. The UIDAI is part of the Planning Commission of India.[1][4] Nandan Nilekani, former co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, was appointed as the first Chairman of the authority in June 2009.[5] Ram Sewak Sharma, an IAS Officer of Jharkhand Government is the Director General and Mission Director of the Authority.[6]
Salient features of AADHAAR
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number which the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will issue for all residents in India (on a voluntary basis). The number will be stored in a centralized database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information – photograph, ten fingerprints and iris – of each individual. It is easily verifiable in an online, cost-effective way. It is unique and robust enough to eliminate the large number of duplicate and fake identities in government and private databases. The random number generated will be devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion and geography.[7]
Pre Launch
Before being provided with a governmental infrastructure, a core development team was comprised largely of non-resident Indians returning to India solely for this project. The Wall Street Journal called this Nilekani's Dream Team.[8] The core team included Srikanth Nadhamuni, Pramod Varma, Wyly Wade, Salil Prabhakar, amongst many others. Most of the tech gurus that designed the unique ID system were of Indian-origin, and volunteered to help the effort without pay. This initial team provided, the alpha versions of the software, the strategy and ran the proof of concepts in the field.
Launch
UIDAI launched AADHAAR program in the tribal village, Tembhli, in Shahada,[9][10] Nandurbar, Maharashtra on 29 September 2010. The program was inaugurated by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh along with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.[11] The first resident to receive an AADHAAR was Rajana Sonawane of Tembhli village.[12]
Coverage, goals and logistics
It is believed that Unique National IDs will help address the rigged state elections and widespread embezzlement that affects subsidies and poverty alleviation programs such as NREGA.[13] Addressing illegal immigration into India and terrorist threats is another goal of the program.[14] In January 2012, the government of India reiterated the goal of the UID project, "... is primarily aimed at ensuring inclusive growth by providing a form of identity to those who do not have any identity. It seeks to provide UID numbers to the marginalized sections of society and thus would strengthen equity. Apart from providing identity, the UID will enable better delivery of services and effective governance."[15] National Population Registry (NPR) project, a distinctly separate initiative by the Home Ministry, is meant to issue national identity cards to enhance national security.[16]
Most reports suggest that the plan is for each Indian resident to have a unique identification number with associated identifying biometric data and photographs by 2011.[17] However, other reports claim that obtaining a unique number would be voluntary, but those that opt to stay out of the system "will find it very inconvenient: they will not have access to facilities that require you to cite your ID number."[2]
Government distributed benefits are fragmented by purpose and region in India, which results in widespread bribery, denial of public services and loss of income, especially afflicting poor citizens.[18] As the unique identity database comes into existence, the various identity databases (voter ID, passports, ration cards, licenses, fishing permits, border area id cards) that already exist in India are planned to be linked to it.[2] The Authority is liaising with various national, state and local government entities to begin this process. The Union Labor Ministry has offered its verified Employment Provident Fund (EPFO) database of 42 million citizens as the first database to be integrated into the unique ID system.[19] Contrary to various previous reports, UIDAI does not use any existing databases citing problems of fraud and duplicate/ghost beneficiaries in the existing databases. Instead, it will enroll the entire population using its multi-registrar enrollment model using verification processes prescribed by the UIDAI. This will ensure that the data collected is clean right from the beginning of the program. However, much of the poor and underserved population lack identity documents and the UID may be the first form of identification they will have access to. The Authority will ensure that the Know Your Resident (KYR) standards do not become a barrier for enrolling the poor and has devised suitable procedures to ensure their inclusion without compromising the integrity of the data. The NPR is an important partner registrar in the enrollment process.[20]
UIDAI has headquarters in Delhi and a technology centre in Bangalore. It also has 8 regional offices in Chandigarh, Delhi, Lucknow, Ranchi, Guwahati, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.[21]
Name and logo
UID project is known as AADHAAR' meaning 'support' or 'foundation', and its logo is a yellow sun with a fingerprint embedded in its centre. The logo was designed by Atul Sudhakar Rao Pande.[22]
Projected costs and business opportunities
The official estimates for the project is 18,000 crore (US$3.26 billion).[23] An independent analysis based on the actual and approved budget of UIDAI also puts the estimate at 18,000 crore (US$3.26 billion).[24] Older estimate provided by the critics of the project to completely roll-out National IDs to all Indian residents above the age of 18 has been placed at 150,000 crore (US$27.15 billion).[25] A different estimate puts it at US$ 6 billion.[26] A sum of 100 crore (US$18.1 million) was approved in the 2009-2010 union budget to fund the agency for its first year of existence.[1] UID has received a huge boost with Dr Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Finance, allocating 1,900 crore (US$343.9 million) to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for 2010-11. Pranab Mukherjee has allocated 1,758 crore (US$318.2 million) for budget year 2012-13.[27] Amount approved for Phase I, II and III is 8,962 crore (US$1.62 billion) for the period up to March, 2017.[28]
Initial estimates project that the initiative will create 100,000 new jobs in the country, and business opportunities worth 6,500 crore (US$1.18 billion) in the first phase[17] of implementation, over three years.
Projected benefits
- Aadhaar will become the single source of identity verification. Residents would be spared the hassle of repeatedly providing supporting identity documents each time they wish to access services such as obtaining a bank account, passport, driving license and so on.
- By providing a clear proof of identity, Aadhaar will also facilitate entry for poor and underprivileged residents into the formal banking system and the opportunity to avail services provided by the government and the private sector.
- Giving migrants mobility of identity.
- Financial inclusion with deeper penetration of banks, insurance and easy distribution of benefits of government schemes.[29]
Enrollment
Aadhaar Enrollment began in September 2010. As of December 31, 2011, there were 36,000 active enrollment stations in thirty two states and union territories.[30] In February 2012, the enrollment reached originally approved target of 200 million. The enrollment will commence in middle of April 2012 for 400 million residents being enrolled through multi-registrar model. NPR continues to enroll in its assigned territory.[31]
The total number of AADHAARs issued as of 04-August-2012 is 18.8 crores (188 million).
This is over 15.5% of the total population of India.
Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh have crossed 1 crore mark in terms of numbers AADHAARs issued.
Further details are available at the UIDAI portal.[32]
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On 27 January 2012 The Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India related issues (CC-UIDA1) announced that the NPR and UIDAI enrolments should proceed simultaneously. UIDAI will be allowed to enroll additional 400 million residents beyond 200 million already approved. The remaining 600 million will be enrolled by NPR and Aadhaar number of these will be issued by UIDAI.[15] On 30 January 2012 CC-UIDAI approved budget of phase III of the scheme that covers the cost creation, storage and maintenance of data and services for harnessing the uses of Aadhaar for the entire estimated population till March 2017.[33]  Risks and criticism
Report of the Parliament's Standing Committee on FinanceIn December 2011, Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance headed by Yashwant Sinha while considering the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 (that was to give legal backing for the whole exercise), termed the project as directionless and conceptualised with no clarity of purpose.[34] The committee also expressed its reservations on the technology used for the project calling it "untested, unproven, unreliable and unsafe".[35] According to the standing committee report the scheme is riddled with serious lacunae and concerns. "The UID scheme has been conceptualized with no clarity of purpose and leaving many things to be sorted out during the course of its implementation; and is being implemented in a directionless way with a lot of confusion." The report continues "…The scheme which was initially meant for BPL families has been extended for all residents in India and to certain other persons. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), constituted for the purpose of collating the two schemes namely, the UID and National Population Register(NPR), and to look into the methodology and specifying target for effective completion of the UID scheme, failed to take concrete decision on important issues…" More importantly the committee has observed that the UID scheme lacks clarity on even the basic purpose of issuing "aadhaar" number. Financial ExclusionObservation 3(f) of the standing committee reads: "The full or near full coverage of marginalized sections for issuing aadhaar numbers could not be achieved mainly owing to two reasons viz. (i) the UIDAI doesn't have the statistical data relating to them; and (ii) estimated failure of biometrics is expected to be as high as 15% due to a large chunk of population being dependent on manual labour." Even the Ministry of Planning in their written reply to the standing committee stated that "failure to enroll is a reality". The introducer system wont be of much use. How many introducers or GOs would be there to introduce millions of slum dwellers, tribal population, or in rural India where they hardly have electricity or internet connectivity? (friendly government school teachers who rang your door bell a year ago may perhaps know some of them) If they can find some introducers, why can't some anti-social elements too can find out some others? The result would be disastrous for our national security for innumerable foreign national (including terrorists) would be enrolled in Aadhaar database with local addresses. Chances are that many more people in rural India where there is no electricity and internet connectivity will be excluded from social welfare schemes even if they acquire aadhaar number. The committee in observation 3(d) notes: "Continuance of various existing forms of identity and the requirement of furnishing „other documents‟ for proof of address, even after issue of aadhaar number, would render the claim made by the Ministry that aadhaar number is to be used as a general proof of identity and proof of address meaningless". UIDAI clearly says that UID is no substitutes for existing Ids and The Working Paper of the UIDAI which starts with a claim that UID will help the poor access various services ends with a caveat: "UID will only guarantee identity, not rights, benefits and entitlements"[35] Dependency on Private Players"The National Informatics Centre (NIC) have pointed out that the issues relating to privacy and security of UID data could be better handled by storing in a Government data centre;" . Even then the UID project is dependent on private players. The committee further notes: "9. The Committee are afraid that the scheme may end up being dependent on private agencies, despite contractual agreement made by the UIDAI with several private vendors. As a result, the beneficiaries may be forced to pay over and above the charges to be prescribed by the UIDAI for availing of benefits and services, which are now available free of cost " . UIADAI has entered into contracts with several government and non-government agencies for enrollment and data collection. The private companies include foreign companies like L1 Identity solutions (now MorphoTrust USA) and Accenture that have even ex-CIA officials on board and as staff. National SecurityThe committee has expressed concern over the implications of the Project Aadhaar on national security. The committee is "The Committee are unable to understand the rationale of expanding the scheme to persons who are not citizens, as this entails numerous benefits proposed by the Government" "This will, they apprehend, make even illegal immigrants entitled for an aadhaar number". The committee especially is concerned about the efficacy of introducer system on national security. As opined by many the introducer system could result in many anti-national and anti-social elements acquiring aadhaar numbers on false addresses. Relationship with National Population RegistryUIDAI is using data collected by the Census authorities to prepare the National Population Register(NPR) for creating the UIDs. The NPR is not an exclusive database of Indian Citizens. It contains data on all residents of the country including foreigners. Therefore, issuing UIDs based on the data in the NPR would help illegal migrants get these IDs and would allow them access the government services and programs. Nationality of the individual is one of the variables being recorded during the enumeration of NPR. But the instruction to the Census personnel says:"Nationality of each person has to be asked from the respondent and recorded as declared by him". The officials have been asked to advise people to give correct nationality and that he/she can be penalized for giving false information. Such advise may not work with illegal migrants. The responsibility of proving the identity still lies on the shoulders of residents and not on UIDAI.[36][37] Potential privacy and civil liberty issuesSome activists have expressed concerns[38] that Aadhaar has potentials for civil liberty and privacy violations,[39] especially when registrars include non-government agencies.[40] Many eminent personalities, including former Supreme Court Justice. V R Krishna Iyer, Historian Romila Thapar, Independent Law Researcher Dr. Usha Ramanathan, Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy, and Booker prize winner Arundhathi Roy have questioned the legal validity of the whole exercise. The standing committee on finance observes that: "The clearance of the Ministry of Law & Justice for issuing aadhaar numbers, pending passing the Bill by Parliament, on the ground that powers of the Executive are co-extensive with the legislative power of the Government and that the Government is not debarred from exercising its Executive power in the areas which are not regulated by the legislation does not satisfy the Committee. The Committee are constrained to point out that in the instant case, since the law making is underway with the bill being pending, any executive action is as unethical and violative of Parliament‟s prerogatives." The committee also observed that a National Data Protection Law is "a pre-requisite for any law that deals with large scale collection of information from individuals and its linkages across separate databases. Itwould be difficult to deal with the issues like access and misuse of personal information, surveillance, profiling, linking and matching of data bases and securing confidentiality of information etc." The UIDAI's claim that it has incorporated data protection principles within its policy and implementation framework does not satisfy the committee. In another observation that could raise many questions on the legalities of collections of biometrics even for NPR, the committee notes that "The collection of biometric information and its linkage with personal information of individuals without amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955 as well as the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, appears to be beyond the scope of subordinate legislation, which needs to be examined in detail by Parliament".[35] The committee deliberated at length on the civil liberty perspective of the project and considered opinions from eminent personalities in the field of law and civil rights. And speaking on the possibilities of data misuse, it notes that "The Committee are at a loss to understand as to how the UIDAI, without statutory power, could address key issues concerning their basic functioning and initiate proceedings against the defaulters and penalize them." The committee also notes that the scheme leads to ID fraud as prevalent in some countries.[35] Cabinet and Parliamentary approvalThe former chief minister of Kerala, V. S. Achuthanandan claimed in July 2011 that the program was being launched without "proper debate" in parliament.[41] Other activists have expressed similar concerns.[42] In a letter to the Prime Minister in November 2011, home minister P. Chidambaram has also expressed discomfort about the fact that the project has no cabinet clearance, and hence, may be questioned at a later date.[43] On 17 December 2011 parliamentary standing committee on finance chaired by Yashwant Sinha "…the Committee categorically convey their unacceptability of the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010…The Committee would, thus, urge the Government to reconsider and review the UID scheme.…" This was the conclusion of Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF), which examined the Bill to convert the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) into a statutory authority. With this categorical rebuff, the SCoF dealt a body blow to the Aadhaar project, which is being implemented from September 2010 without Parliament's approval.[44] Economic risksThe projected costs of the Aadhaar project have been quoted between US$6 billion and US$30.42 billion. These costs may not be covered by future revenue produced from the project, which is estimated at US$1.32 billion.[citation needed] Parliaments standing Committee on Finance committee discussed at length on the financial implications of the project as evident from page 23-25 of their report. Till date Rs.3170.32 crores have been allotted for the project. More fund clearance is on the anvil. Rs. 8861 crore has been approved for Phase III of the project. There are no clear figures available on the financial burden the project could incur while some independent estimates pegs the cost as high as Rs.1,50,000crores. As was the case with UK ID project, the cost will escalate for sure. Lets quote from the report of the standing committee on finance : "(a) no committee has been constituted to study the financial implications of the UID scheme; and (b) comparative costs of the aadhaar number and various existing ID documents are also not available. The Committee also note that Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the UID Scheme has been done much later in April, 2011. The Committee thus strongly disapprove of the hasty manner in which the UID scheme has been approved. Unlike many other schemes / projects, no comprehensive feasibility study, which ought to have been done before approving such an expensive scheme, has been done involving all aspects of the UID scheme including cost-benefit analysis, comparative costs of aadhaar number and various forms of existing identity, financial implications and prevention of identity theft, for example, using hologram enabled ration card to eliminate fake and duplicate beneficiaries." Reliability of biometric methods[45]According to the UIDAI Model, Aadhaar is dependent on biometrics being reliable enough to guarantee that there is a one-to-one correspondence between real people and electronic identities on the CIDR (central ID repository). In December 2010, UIDAI published the report on their proof of concept trial designed to test, among other things, whether biometrics are reliable enough to guarantee that every entry on the CIDR is unique. UIDAI's figures published show error rate at .01% using finger print and iris only, this low rate combined with photograph match can achieve the desired unique identification. In December 2011, UIDAI conducted a study [1] using the enrolment of 8.4 crore (84 million) residents and obtained statistical results to measure the efficacy of use of biometrics for de-duplication of Indian population. The test was conducted on a production scale (comprising biometric data of 84 million residents in 32 States and Union Territories). The earlier claims of critics (which were drawn from much smaller samples) were found to be several orders of magnitude different from the actual recorded biometrics of Indian population. The key results of the study are summarized below:
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