MONEY LIFE DIGITAL TEAM
November 25, 2010 02:13 PM
Moneylife Digital Team
UID = more 'consumers', admits Nilekani
November 25, 2010 02:13 PM
Moneylife Digital Team
UID = more 'consumers', admits Nilekani
According to the UIDAI chief, the UID number will create a much more ‘open’ marketplace, where ‘hundreds of millions of people’ who were shut out of services will now be able to access them
The truth is finally out. In case you were wondering why the government and big corporates are lobbying hard for the unique identification (UID) programme, here is the answer.
Speaking at the Nielsen Company's 'Consumer 360' event in New Delhi, Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UID Authority of India (UIDAI), said that over a third of India's 1.1 billion 'consumers' had been largely overlooked in areas such as banking and social services.
"The (unique identification) number will create a much more open marketplace, where hundreds of millions of people who were shut out of services will now be able to access them," he told business leaders, adding that the poor find it difficult to reach the market. "Their anonymity limits agencies from providing them services that are remotely available, and that could be accessed through a mobile phone," he said.
Delivering his keynote address, Mr Nilekani focussed more on Indian consumers, especially the ones in remote places, rather than his pet project, the UID or Aadhaar. However, Piyush Mathur, president, Nielsen for India, was more forthcoming. He said, "The UID system will change the way we market to consumers. It will also change the way companies deliver goods and services. At a basic level, UID will enable businesses to improve their traditional supply chains in support of consumers across the country but the big win comes with being able to identify emerging demand."
As per our knowledge and understanding, the UID as a system is being pushed in order to provide identification to the 'poor' or the residents who keep migrating. Everyone, including Mr Nilekani and even the prime minister believed that the UID would help improve the public distribution system (PDS). With the UID, the poor would be able to receive food grains, which otherwise would have vanished in the transit between government's warehouse to the PDS shop. (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/78/8567.html).
Interestingly, the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and auto sectors, riding on the robust demand from rural markets, did not need UID for reaching their customers. When the rural market called, these companies responded with innovative products that were more suitable to consumers. It may be the use of sachets to sell shampoo, hair oil etc at affordable prices or more fuel-efficient and sturdy vehicles or variants at lower rates, those who have adapted to this strategy are enjoying the fruits.
Mr Mathur said, "Demand has driven new products like shampoo sachets and low-price vehicles but with more information around consumption habits, those types of products can be identified earlier and brought to market in lockstep with consumer needs. That means manufacturers and retailers will waste less money on unnecessary product development, hone their distribution capabilities and anticipate consumer needs."
According to the UIDAI chairman, four broad trends like a demographic disruption, mass migration to cities, availability of low-cost mobile phones and impatience with failing systems, are heralding the rise of a new kind of consumer in India. "This shift in attitudes is creating new urgencies for our services and infrastructure. And we are indeed seeing the emergence of solutions that respond to these forces," he said.
Using UID or Aadhaar or allowing its database to be used by companies for marketing would turn the UIDAI into a business against its mandate, feels some activists. According to an IT expert it appears that pressure on the corporates to show revenues is driving them to squeeze the last drop of blood from the most vulnerable sections of society, namely the poor.
"With foreign companies joining the fray using this as a means to show growth which is difficult to achieve now in the developed world, and the third world opening their door to them by using a fig leaf in the name of helping the poor, the UID is turning whole of India into a 'dukaan'," he said.
The Aadhaar project is funded by the Indian government, but if the corporates wants to use it for marketing and other purposes, then they should pay for it, some of the experts, activists feel. One other IT expert said, "Instead of addressing the maintenance of a higher economic level of demand-supply resolution, the proposition is being reduced to 'selling to the bottom of the pyramid'.
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Nov 16th 2010
Article No 840 in Aadhaar Related Blog
Spending very little or no money at all on independent research or developing biometric solutions, the UIDAI is partnering with companies which have proprietary technologies and upfront loyalties with foreign governments
While the atmosphere in the country is revolving around 'clean' images - which recently has uprooted three top politicians from their respective 'chairs' of power, some government undertakings, however, seem to be ignorant of the change in the winds.
Take for example, the tenders and contracts awarded by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) - the 'de facto' agency assigned to tag all residents - appears to be opaque in nature. Especially some of the companies and their top managements do have a tainted background and thus have been 'hammered' in the media across the globe.
The UIDAI had selected three consortia - Accenture, Mahindra Satyam-Morpho and L1 Identity Solutions - to implement the core biometric identification system for the Aadhaar programme. UIDAI has stated that the three agencies would design, supply, install, commission, maintain and support the multimodal automatic biometric identification subsystem. The three vendors would also be involved in development of a multimodal software development kit (SDK) for client enrolment stations, the verification server, manual adjudication and monitoring functions of the UID application.
L1 Identity Solutions in particular has names associated with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other American defence organisations in its top management or as directors. Although there is nothing wrong in having former top government officials as directors in a company, it is often looked upon as something not quite right. Post-retirement, many top government officials have joined hands with fat profit companies that deal in their areas of expertise. In fact, in many countries, it has now become a trend.
Thousands of other former intelligence officers who have left the CIA and other agencies have returned as contractors, often making two or three times more than what they were making in their former jobs. According to a report published in 2008, contractors were responsible for at least half of the estimated $48 billion a year the US government spends on intelligence. The real figures are kept hidden under the pretext of 'national security'.
L-1 Identity Solutions is one of the largest defence contractors in the US and specialises in selling face-recognition systems, electronic passports such as Fly Clear and other biometric technology to over 25 countries around the world. L-1 is also employed by the US State Department and the Department of Homeland Security for passports, visas, driving licenses and transportation worker ID cards. And the company is on the path to becoming a monopoly in the US, especially for providing Real ID and driver's licenses in that country.
In 2004, George Tenet, ex-director of CIA, joined L-1 Identity Solutions as director on the board. L-1's chief executive Bob LaPenta, in 2006, had said, "You know, we're interested in the CIA, and we have George Tenet."
According to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Tenet was provided with 80,000 shares of L-1 stock when the company acquired Viisage, where he was also a director. Currently Mr Tenet's name does not appear on the company site.
Mr Tenet is also accused of being one of those who deliberately furnished false evidence to US diplomats in order to garner support for the US 'intervention' in Iraq, post 2001.
However, there are other names like Admiral James M Loy, who is also on the board of Lockheed Martin. Admiral Loy is former Head Secretary of the US Department of Transportation and has also served as deputy undersecretary for Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
BG (Buddy) Beck, another director on L-1's board, was a member of the Army Technology Science Board, which advises and makes recommendations on scientific and technological matters to the US Army.
Milton E Cooper is former Chairperson for the Secretary of the Army's National Science Centre Advisory Board and was Chairman of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.
Robert S Gelbard, who served as President Clinton's Special Representative for the Balkans, Ambassador to Indonesia and Bolivia, was also Assistant Secretary of State during 1993-1997. He is one of the directors of L-1 Identity Solutions.
Over the years, particularly after taking some top-notch 'retired' intelligence and defence officials on board, L-1 Solutions has made rapid progress.
According to an IT expert, L-1 and NADRA, the Pakistan unique identity agency, appear to have been created on the same business model. "Staffed strongly by persons with intelligence (quasi-military) links, the major goals of both agencies are to do business with their respective governments, and they succeed to the extent that they have virtually no competition. And this is the company UIDAI has welcomed into India," said the expert.
However, there is some furore at present in the US following news that France-based aerospace and defence company Safran is going to buy L-1 Identity Solutions for about $1.1 billion.
According to an agreement, L-1 will put its government consulting services business up for sale for $295 million to a third party. One of the bloggers said: "Just think about how happy you can feel now knowing that your personal information including your social security number and biometric information (fingerprints, iris scans and digital facial images) may soon be available to a French company. The federal government must sign off on the deal before the deal can be sealed. All this brings us back to the topic of the revolving door that exists between government and corporations."
Even, Safran is not so clean when it comes to hiring retired government officials. Michael Chertoff, the former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is a strategic advisor to Safran.
As far as the issuing of IDs to residents or citizens of any country is concerned, here is what Mark Lerner, from the Constitutional Alliance and author of the book 'Your Body is Your ID', had said...
"Sarcasm alert - the final titbit of information comes from the International Biometrics Agency. For all of you that keep talking about a New World Order or a One World Government, please stop such ridiculous rumours. Julian Ashbourn speaking as the Chairman of the International Biometrics Agency set our minds to rest when he said the following: "What information do governments share? With whom is my data shared, and why? All of these questions need to be addressed by an agency with global powers.
An agency with global powers? Perhaps I am naive, but I always believed we live in a sovereign country. You may have heard of our country, The United States of China. No, that is not right, The United States of Britain. I will get it right; the United States of France. This country thing is really getting hard to remember. We have the surveillance cameras like Britain; we use facial recognition like China to identify dissidents and we sell L-1 to a French company. Thank goodness for my granddaughter, she just reminded me of what Congress and others have forgotten, this is the United States of America," Mr Lerner said. (Read original posting from Mr Lerner here: http://naturaltreasure.net/scameras/?p=1200).
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Nov 12th 2010
Moneylife Digital Team
Many large corporations are looking at Aadhaar as a pool of prospective customers and are joining hands with UIDAI. Visa is the latest entrant on board the UID bandwagon
The business of providing an identification number to around 60 crore is becoming lucrative day-by-day. Visa, an electronic payments technology company, has said it has developed a unique payment solution, using the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) platform.
The solution is designed to provide a payment infrastructure for unique identification (UID) or Aadhaar holders, especially the un-banked and under-banked.
In a release, Visa said it would provide its infrastructure to process payment transactions using biometric authentication from Aadhaar. As part of the proposed solution, once an individual enrols into Aadhaar, the partner bank can issue a Visa payment card, linked to his/her Aadhaar biometric authentication.
Visa is enhancing its systems to handle biometric data along with payment data and integrate with Aadhaar for authentication purposes. Visa is working with Total System Services Inc (TSYS), a leading global technology company, as the biometric authentication technology partner, for the UIDAI project, it added.
It's nothing illegal for an institution like Visa to join the UID bandwagon. However, the question is why a for-profit organisation would want to join the controversial project and spend its own money to establish this new infrastructure? There are three aspects.
One, UIDAI has a huge budget and the authority is likely to spend more than Rs45,000 crore over five years. For FY11, its budget allocation is Rs1,900 crore and a major part of this amount would be used for reimbursement of enrolment costs to the registrars as well as residents.
Second, UIDAI cannot handle a project to tag 60 crore residents on its own. And third, if anybody wants to carry out targeted marketing aimed at a population of 60 crore at one go, then UID certainly would prove to be a bonanza. (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/78/7819.html).
In the release, Visa said, "Keeping in mind the large un-banked and under-banked communities in many parts of the country, Visa along with its banking partners will soon launch a financial inclusion pilot, using the UIDAI platform, after identifying suitable locations."
Already, the UIDAI has opened a can of worms by agreeing to allow access to registrars, like state governments and banks, as well as insurers who will collect individual data for the authority through their know-your-customer (KYC) database. This means that any company may be able to access the huge database (of about 60 crore people expected by the end of 2015) simply by becoming a 'registrar' or 'partner' and using the data for their own marketing initiatives. (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/78/9594.html).
The UIDAI had selected three consortia - Accenture, Mahindra Satyam-Morpho and L1 Identity Solutions - to implement the core biometric identification system for the Aadhaar programme. UIDAI has stated that the three agencies would design, supply, install, commission, maintain and support the multimodal automatic biometric identification subsystem. The three vendors would also be involved in development of the multimodal software development kit (SDK) for client enrolment stations, the verification server, manual adjudication and monitoring functions of the UID application.
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November 04, 2010
Moneylife Digital Team
The UIDAI has rolled out its ambitious UID or Aadhaar project. However, there is no information or update about the progress of Aadhaar, except from Mr Nilekani who said the same would be made available in two weeks.
Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which started collecting data, including biometrics and issuing unique identification (UID) numbers to people does not have any update on the progress.
Moneylife sent a mail to Mr Nilekani asking about the progress of its ambitious UID project, Aadhaar. We asked him about the total number of people enrolled for Aadhaar, the number of de-duplications required for fingerprints, iris scan and face pictures (all forms part of biometrics) and the number of cases where de-duplication was not possible. (De-duplication means to eliminate duplicate or redundant information).
We asked the UIDAI chairman if its database is ready for authentication process and number of people who have successfully authenticated their UIDs at least once as well as percentage of false positives and negatives during the authentication. Moneylife also asked if the authority can share the statistics and update it on a regular basis.
We received just one line mail from Mr Nilekani, in which he says, "We will be shortly be having a Public Data Portal on our website www.uidai.gov.in within two weeks which will answer all the relevant questions in your email."
Separately, according to a report from the Hindu, the government of Kerala, the only State that mandates the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in governance recently found that the client enrolment software used is only compatible with Windows.
The UIDAI is using a software that is compatible only with Microsoft's Windows operating system (OS), for its ambitious UID or Aadhaar project. However, this has irked many activists as well as advocates of open source software since UIDAI itself has mandated that all the middleware used in Aadhaar must be vendor neutral. This means it should not be dependent on any particular software and must work across the OS or platforms.
In Kerala, which has embraced open platforms, this is a vexatious issue because virtual device managers, which provide an interface for applications to devices such as biometric devices - are not Linux-compatible, the newspaper report said.
Kerala has declared that it will provide the UID number to over 60 lakh schoolchildren in the state under the UIDAI initiative and has selected Akshaya, IT@School and Keltron as enrolment agencies for the work. However, in countries around the world where a national ID card system is being used, these IDs are given only to those above the age of 14 years and not to school-going children between five years and 14 years of age. (Read Is the UIDAI database vulnerable? http://www.moneylife.in/article/78/9594.html )
What is interesting in the case of Kerala is all three agencies appointed to do the enrolment of students use only Linux OS, which is completely different from Windows OS. Speaking with the Hindu, Ashok Dalwai, deputy director-general, UIDAI, said this is a "Kerala-specific issue." He confirmed that all enrolment software is 'purely for the Windows platform.' "For now, we have asked Kerala to go ahead with laptops with Windows. Our developers will work towards Linux compliance later," he told the newspaper.
This has left many activists and advocates of open source software furious as they feel depending on a particular vendor, especially Microsoft, which is known for its Windows and the unending security issues associated with the OS, to speed up the UID process.
Just last month, VK Saraswat, scientific advisor to the defence minister said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) would spearhead an effort to develop India's own futuristic computer OS to thwart cyber crimes like data theft.
Mr Saraswat, who is also director general of DRDO, said, "In today's world, where you have tremendous requirements of security on whatever you do... economy, banking and defence... it's essential that you need to have an operating system."
UIDAI has been facing criticism for rolling out UID numbers to 'residents' and not to 'citizens' of India in addition to privacy and security issues related with its database. Many activists and analysts are now questioning the motive behind the authority's approach to align with one particular vendor and diluting its vendor neutral mandate.
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Even Mahatma Gandhi was against ID cards - Money Life
Article 659 in Aadhaar Related Articles Blog
October 04, 2010 05:31 PM
Moneylife Digital Team
Article 659 in Aadhaar Related Articles Blog
October 04, 2010 05:31 PM
Moneylife Digital Team
About a century ago, Gandhiji started the world famous 'Satyagraha' in order to oppose the identification scheme of the government in South Africa. Hundred years later, India is repeating a similar programme under the pretext of unique ID numbers
As the old saying goes, 'Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it'. It seems that both the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and ultimately the Indian government have overlooked history and even the Mahatma's views while going ahead with the ambitious and expensive unique identification number (UIDN) programme.
Mahatma Gandhi or the erstwhile Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had started his historic 'Satyagraha' in South Africa by opposing the identification programme in that country.
On 22 August 1906, the South African government published a draft Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance. The Ordinance required all Indians in the Transvaal region of South Africa, eight years and above, to report to the Registrar of Asiatics and obtain, upon the submission of a complete set of fingerprints, a certificate which would then have to be produced upon demand.
The move proposed stiff penalties, including deportation, for Indians who failed to comply with the terms of the Ordinance.
Since the late nineteenth century, fingerprint identification methods have been used by police agencies around the world to identify suspected criminals as well as the victims of crime. Knowing the impact of the Ordinance and effective criminalisation of the entire community, Gandhi then decided to challenge it. Calling the Ordinance a 'Black Act' he mobilised around 3,000 Indians in Johannesburg who took an oath not to submit to a degrading and discriminatory piece of legislation. This was the first time the world witnessed 'Satyagraha' or a non-resistance movement that later become a phenomenon in India's freedom struggle.
(Watch the video on YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNmJqRV7LOA).
Cut to 2010, when the Indian government has launched an identification programme, without even passing a Bill for the same. Even the draft National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill approved by the Cabinet is not without some serious issues. Most notably the UIDN would not be issued only to Indian citizens; instead, it would be issued to all residents. In other words, the bill may aid illegal migrants from neighbouring countries to become citizens.
This will help legitimise illegal immigrants. Already corrupt 'babus' happily provide any document from a ration card (public distribution card) to electricity and telephone bills to these illegal immigrants.
Also registrars like insurance companies and banks, would feed their data into the UIDAI database and so on. There are even some media reports which say that online service provider eBay is interested in collaborating with the UIDAI. If these reports are true, then the day is not far off when ordinary citizens will be bombarded with targeted marketing campaigns. The bigger threat is caste- and religion-based profiling.
Some state governments have announced that they plan to add their own parameters to the UIDN. The Orissa government has decided to include at least a dozen-odd specifications to the UID number, like ration card number, BPL/APL number (below poverty line/above poverty line), NREGS data (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), driving license number, PAN number, photo I-card number, passport number, Kissan and credit card number, LPG consumer number, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana number (National Health Insurance Scheme), pension ID number and passbook number. This takes the UID dangerously beyond its stated scope.
This would leave the UIDAI database vulnerable to modification, alterations and so on. The huge cost of the UIDAI project, categorisation of people and particularly identity theft are some of the big issues. Even in the NREGA programme, the problem is not about issuing an identity for daily workers. It is the attendance at the end of the day marked by the supervisor that provides the workers their wages. Similarly, in PDS shops, it is not the problem of identification of the end-user. Most leakages in the PDS do not take place at the last mile as hypothesised by UIDAI; instead, it is the big corrupt babus and middlemen who are involved in siphoning grains before they reach the ration shop itself.
All the examples mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg - the non-sustainability of UIDN, but neither the Union government nor the highly qualified techies at UIDAI have time to take cognisance of these issues. Therefore, the old adage is correct in saying that if we forget history we are doomed to repeat it. Does this also mean that we need to go for another Satyagraha in order to save us, common citizens, from the identification ordeal?
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October 1, 2010
Money Life Digital
Is the UIDAI Database vulnerable?
Article No 649 in Aadhaar-UID Related Blog
UIDAI is trying to create a ‘unique’ database through its ambitious UID number project. But state governments planning to tag numerous details to the UID number and allowing other entities access to the system could leave the database vulnerable to misuse
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency assigned with the task of giving a unique identification (UID) to every resident in the country is faced with a situation. Already, some state governments are seeking to add multiple dimensions to the UID number, raising a question mark on the nature and security of the UIDAI database.
The Press Trust of India has reported that the Orissa government has decided to include at least a dozen-odd specifications to the UID number, like ration card number, BPL/APL number (below poverty line/above poverty line), NREGS data (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), driving license number, PAN number, photo i-card number, passport number, kissan and credit card number, LPG consumer number, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana number (national health insurance scheme), pension ID number and pass book number. How long will it be before other states, say Maharashtra provides a UID number without the biometrics inputs, or Uttar Pradesh adds sub-castes, gotra, or an individual's financial details to the UIDAI database?
Kerala has declared that it will provide the UID number to over 60 lakh schoolchildren in the state under the UIDAI initiative. The UID number, stored in a central database, will give access to a student's profile, complete with biometric data and demographics, including photograph, iris picture and fingerprints. Kerala has selected Akshaya, IT@School and Keltron as enrolment agencies for the work.
KK Anvar Sadath, executive director, IT@School, has been quoted as saying that "while 'Aadhaar' requires information on name, gender, date of birth and address (called KYR-know your residence-details), we will collect other details like class name and admission number from the students. From this database, the KYR fields will be filtered to separate software provided by the UIDAI."
In countries around the world where a national ID card system is being used, these IDs are given only to those above the age of 14 years and not to school-going children between five years and 14 years of age. According to a white paper published by UK-based Information Risk Management Plc (IRM), capturing biometrics of children, particularly those below the age of 16, is problematic. The size of biometric elements like fingerprints and faces change a lot through the adolescent years. Similarly, biometrics being taken of children may lack sufficient features to satisfy the initial enrolment process, giving rise to problems in the biometric system.
Now the UIDAI has opened a can of worms by agreeing to allow access to registrars, like state governments and banks, as well as insurers who will collect individual data for the authority through their know-your-customer (KYC) database. This means that any company may be able to access the huge database (of about 60 crore people expected by the end of 2015) simply by becoming a 'registrar' and using the data for their marketing initiatives. Also, the registrar, whether it is a bank or an insurer, could make it mandatory for customers to have a UID number if they want to continue to receive services.
An IT expert pointed out that such projects could not be run with just one person in control, for how will anybody know whether the system is not being misused? There is a need for implementable laws to check any misuse and this is a flaw with the UIDAI project.
Last heard, the UIDAI had selected three consortia-Accenture, Mahindra Satyam-Morpho and L1 Identity Solutions-to implement the core biometric identification system for the Aadhaar programme. UIDAI has stated that the three agencies would design, supply, install, commission, maintain and support the multi-modal automatic biometric identification subsystem. The three vendors would also be involved in development of multi-modal software development kit (SDK) for client enrolment stations, the verification server, manual adjudication and monitoring functions of the UID application.
Our emails to UIDAI chairperson Nandan Nilekani and managing director RS Sharma remained unanswered till writing the story.
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September 28, 2010 03:45 PM
The world is India’s oyster. And we are handing out cards to prove it
Article 606 in Aadhaar Related Blog
Devarajan Mahadevan
Today's news report (no kidding): If unique identity (UID) officers are to be believed then foreigners or illegal immigrants staying in India may also get the all-important ID to be issued by the Central government. "We have been asked to enrol everyone staying in the country," said a senior government official. He did not deny the possibility of foreigners or illegal immigrants getting the UID.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your non-identified, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. They don't have to worry no more.
Send these, the homeless to me; I'll gift them a card that will set them free."
(With due apologies to Emma Lazarus and her "The New Colossus.")
It's official now. India is about to embark on its most prestigious project yet. No, this is not about our quest to find water on the moon because our cities don't have any of the stuff to drink. We are about to issue 'unique' ID cards to anybody who lives on this planet. Since 'Aadhaar' might not roll out easily from the tongue of say, a native Basque speaker, the project will now be rechristened 'Numbers sans Frontiers'.
Since our latest census (after the forms are suitably modified to include caste, blood groups, name of closest watering hole and details of domesticated animals) is bound to prove that two out of every five people alive on Earth are Indian, what harm if we issue ID cards to the rest?
Finally, our problems with Pakistan will be sorted out. There will be no more illegal infiltration of militants anymore as anybody with the NSF (Numbers sans Frontiers) card can pick up an AK-47, get into a Toyota pick-up and drive through Wagah.
Illegal migration from Bangladesh will also be a thing of the past. That's simply because the migrants will not be illegal any more. They'll have the NSF card to prove it.
Since the NSF card will have details in all the official languages of India with a thousand dialects thrown in (the all-knowing, omnipotent IT czar with a bad moustache who is behind the project will work out the details) along with a moving screen with bad Indian soap operas, this card will be identifiable at each and every corner of the world.
The only danger to this ambitious project, of course, will hinge on how Steve Jobs will react. Will he come out with an iNSF (with Flash, to boot)? That's when Indian ingenuity will save the day. Our home-grown NSF cards will be packed with features which will not function. That's how we will separate the wheat from the chaff.
Talking about wheat, the person holding the NSF card will be able to buy virtual grain from our Public Distribution System. "If they don't have bread, let them bake," as one of our senior ministers put it, not too long ago.
Dear reader, if you have not got your NSF card yet, don't fret. When reports last came in, it was confirmed that these cards will be issued only after every other form of Indian identity (PAN cards, driving licenses, passports and school-leaving certificates) will be destroyed in a Nazi-like orgy of serial bonfires. It is also rumoured that this bonfire will be used to light up the torch of every Commonwealth Games to come, if there are any left. Isn't it time that the Queen passed the baton and picked up her very own NSF card?
Don't watch this space for more. I'm off to get my NSF card.
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September 24, 2010 06:03 PM
Article No 566 in Aadhaar Related Blog
Moneylife Digital Team
A proposal approved by the cabinet will constitute a statutory authority to be called the National Identification Authority of India. It’s the new name for UIDAI.
The Union Cabinet on Friday approved a proposal to introduce the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill 2010 in Parliament.
The bill proposes to constitute a statutory authority to be called the National Identification Authority of India and lay down the powers and functions of the Authority, the framework for issuing unique identification (UID) numbers (Aadhaar numbers), major penalties and other related matters through an Act of Parliament. The proposal by the government is not new, apart from a new name for the controversial Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
"After the bill is passed in Parliament, the name UIDAI would be changed to NIAI. The rest of the functioning and job of the authority would remain the same," said Awadhesh Kumar Pandey, assistant director general for media, UIDAI.
According to a statement released by the government, the setting up will involve an expenditure of Rs3023.01 crore, which includes project components for issue of UID numbers (called Aadhaar numbers) by March 2011, and recurring establishment costs for the entire project phase, over five years ending March 2014.
The statement tries to provide more information about Aadhaar, but creates more confusion. It says, "The UID project is primarily aimed at ensuing inclusive growth, by providing a form of identity to those who do not have any identity." Does this mean that those who have an identity will not get the Aadhaar numbers? In addition, what about the inclusive growth of other people who already have some kind of identification? There are hardly any answers to these questions.
The statement also talks about strengthening of equity among marginalised sections of society. It is not clear how the Aadhaar numbers would be able to do this. The government claims that apart from providing an identity, the Aadhaar numbers would enable better delivery of services and effective governance. Would this imply that someone from Tembhali village in north Maharashtra's Nandurbar district will automatically receive food under the public distribution system (PDS), when the middlemen have looted the food before it can even reach the shop?
What's more serious is that the government does not say anywhere that the Aadhaar numbers will be issued to the citizens of India. Instead, it mentions that the Aadhaar numbers will be issued to "individuals residing in India and to certain other classes of individuals". This means that immigrants from neighbouring countries, residing illegally in India, would be able to procure such numbers too, akin to the ration card (PDS Card), and become citizens of the country.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the ambitious UID project at Tembhali village in north Maharashtra's Nandurbar district this month-end. According to a report from the Press Trust of India, the 12-digit Aadhaar number will be mandatory for all government schemes and will serve as a unique identification number for citizens.
To get the number, citizens are required to produce any of 29 listed documents as proof of domicile. If no document is produced, the district collector in rural areas and municipal commissioners in the urban areas will be authorised to issue an identity certificate to the individual.
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26th August 2010
The government is set to issue the first set of unique identities (UID) to about 100 million people in the current fiscal year as part of its ambitious project to give every Indian citizen access to good governance and provide basic services to the poor. Already, however, some chinks in the armour have begun to appear in this landmark initiative, which was the subject of hot debate at a recent public meeting organised yesterday at the Constitution Club in New Delhi by a coalition of civil society groups under the banner of 'Campaign for No UID'.
The technological, economic, social and political aspects of the National Identification Authority Bill currently before Parliament came under heavy scrutiny at the meeting, which saw participation from groups from Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. Speakers at the meeting asserted that the government's claims are grossly exaggerated, false and unjustified. One of the claims made by the government is that the project will put a stop to leakages in the public distribution system (PDS). However, it was pointed out that issues such as corruption and non-inclusion of families under BPL (Below the Poverty Line) ensure that PDS does not meet its stated objectives. The issuance of a 12-digit number to the poor will therefore hardly result in them accessing cheap food.
Another doubtful claim by the government is that UID will lead to financial inclusion for beneficiaries of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). But again, this does not make sense because 83% already have bank accounts and systemic thefts remain a deeper concern, which will not be addressed by UID.
In fact, it is very likely that many poor people will actually be excluded from accessing services because of technical problems with the use of biometrics. JT D'Souza, an expert on biometrics, asserted that using biometrics as a core authenticator is deeply flawed as it has never been tested on such a large scale (850 million people) and is easily susceptible to forgery. Research by experts shows that with the technology available today a $10 investment can spoof finger-print and iris scanners with fake fingers and patterned contact lenses.
The meeting also noted that the functioning of the UID has been non-transparent and undemocratic. It was pointed out that despite setting up the UID Authority of India (UIDAI) in June 2009, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is yet to issue a white paper on the scheme and how it is going to go about delivering basic social services to the poor.
Senior Member of Parliament from the Revolutionary Socialist Party of India (RSP) Abani Roy called for the launching of a massive campaign to resist this expensive and dangerous project through which several companies will gain massive contracts from the public exchequer. The budget estimates vary from Rs45,000 crore to Rs1.5 lakh crore. He also noted that the UID is yet to be comprehensively discussed or debated in Parliament.
It is now increasingly apparent that the UID project is a half-baked idea that will drain the coffers of the exchequer without showing much for it. The project aims to cover only 600 million people over the next five years, at an estimated cost of Rs45,000 crore. However, nobody seems to be factoring the likelihood of a further escalation in costs for the project due to inflation and other reasons. This will be a huge burden on the nation - money which should be directed towards more pressing needs like infrastructure development, education etc., will find its way to the pockets of a few companies under contract from the government.
There is also the issue of duplication of identities. If the government's aim is to provide an ID to those who are at the sidelines of society, then it is overlooking the fact that people who already have PAN cards and passports will be issued another ID, making for a large chunk of the target group. As such, this exercise will barely benefit half the target number, as they have alternative IDs.
Most unfortunately, the real objective behind this project is being drowned out in the frenetic attempt to bring out the UIDs. Sadly even the revered technocrat Nandan Nilekani, who has been assigned the project responsibility, seems to be directing his attention more towards putting the mechanism in place for the project and authenticating the technical aspects. In his zealous drive to get the job done, he has perhaps lost touch of whether the project will ultimately create meaningful value for the nation.
The question that begs to be answered is: Is this project genuinely in the national interest or does it serve some underhand purpose of the government?
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29th August 2010
Are Unique Identities good for us?
Aadhaar Article No 480
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August 20, 2010 04:35 PM
Moneylife Digital Team
SDC12761
Mumbai, 17th August 2010: "Aadhaar will not be able to effectively address the structural issues that lead to chronic poverty," explained Vickram Crishna, an IITian and Senior Fellow, Privacy International, elaborating on the government's contentious claim that its ambitious unique identification (UID) project will solve the problems of the poor and marginalised sections of the society. Mr Crishna was speaking on the occasion of a workshop conducted by Moneylife Foundation to explore issues revolving around the UID project or 'Aadhaar'.
Some of the key issues debated in the workshop were whether Aadhaar will be effective in stopping leakages in the public distribution system (PDS) as is being touted by the government, whether it will be able to put a stop to illegal immigration and whether the government would be able to ensure protection of the database and prevent it from being misused.
In his presentation, Vickram Crishna said, "India's privacy laws are draconian. There is a potential of misuse of the system. Whether the government can maintain an inviolable and secure database is a key issue. Have any safeguards been put in place to ensure that the processes are secure and transparent?"
However, the central point of debate was whether UID is restricting itself merely to issuing a unique number, not knowing what ultimate use to put it to. "End-user application is the issue here; not merely issuing a unique number," said Mr Crishna. The knowledgeable audience also debated on the efficacy of spending Rs42,000 crore over five years for issuing just a unique identification number (UIN) to half the population of the country. Some people were of the opinion that instead of spending such a huge amount on issuing an ID number, we should check the status of voter cards in the country and that the government should do a cost analysis for the UID project.
Another major claim by the authorities is that the UID project will give a significant boost to the economy through creation of multiple jobs and revenue streams. However Mr Crishna, a graduate of IIT (Delhi) and IIM (Calcutta), highlighted that the system would mostly use existing proprietary technology and will not be able to address systematic issues.
The implementation of technology for the project also emerged as a key cause of disagreement among the participants. Many people felt that it would be difficult to have devices across the country that would identify data based on biometrics, which are supposed to be used for the UIN. While some participants wanted to have an additional ID number, stressing that poor people's existence is basically linked to having some sort of identification; others felt there is no need to go for one more ID, especially if it is going to remain just a number and not a card.
Dr Prakash G Hebalkar, who was instrumental in forming and building up the joint venture of Tata and Unisys as a software and consultancy services activity, said that instead of going for the UID project in one go, we should start it with foreign visitors. After testing the UID with foreigners for about 10 years or so, if the results are encouraging then we should go in for issuing such a number to Indians, he said.
Pictures of the event
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9th August 2010
Is the financial inclusion story still a distant dream ?
by Money life Digital Team
Article 415 in Aadhaar Related Blog
Prepaid cards and mobile-money solutions are being enlisted in the drive towards financial inclusion; consumer adoption, business viability and regulatory issues remain hurdles in this effort
The efforts towards bringing the unbanked and marginalised section of the society into the mainstream economy by enabling access to basic financial services is high on the agenda of the government. Projects like 'Aadhaar' - the unique ID solution for the masses - and enlisting the services of business correspondents (BCs) to open 'no-frills' accounts for rural folk have already been set in motion. But where do we stand in terms of adoption and feasibility of these services?
Various experts in the banking, electronic payments and telecom industries are of the opinion that there is much more to the idea of financial inclusion and that various challenges still exist in this effort. On the occasion of the 3rd Financial Inclusion & Digital Payments Conference organised by the IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India), industry experts spoke about the hurdles in the process of financial inclusion and whether solutions like prepaid cards and mobile money can be effectively harnessed to aid in the efforts.
Kamaljit Rastogi, head products, FINO, a key service provider to the micro-banking industry said, "Opening a bank account itself is a huge challenge. It has taken us nearly four years to create some sizeable impact in this area. Once the bank account is opened, it has to be sustainable. How do we recover the costs? We need to offer multiple products like savings, remittances, insurance, loans etc over this channel to make sufficient money to make the whole network sustainable. If the customer is not making transactions, saving and withdrawing money or taking loans, then it is merely a dummy account."
Pointing out that nearly 70% of such bank accounts remain inoperative after opening, BR Bhat, general manager, Corporation Bank, said, "Merely opening no-frills accounts is not financial inclusion. Banks should not just stop at opening an account for the rural people. We need to understand their needs, create awareness among them and help in their economic upliftment."
Sudhakar Ramasubramanian, chief executive officer, Aditya Birla Finance, said, "Financial inclusion is not necessarily a rural subject. Around 50% of urban India is still excluded from the system. So the problem has to be discussed not only in terms of rural reach and distribution perspective, but also the urban dimension."
He pointed to the success of micro-finance institutions over the past few years, and how they have managed to cover close to 30 million people by not worrying about the costs. Shekhar Srivastava, head marketing, ItzCash Card said, "For moving the marginalised economy to the mainstream banked economy, we need to create a model that works cohesively between banks and non-banks; collaboration between various agencies is essential in this transition towards a cashless economy."
Naveen Surya, chairman, Digital Payment Committee, IAMAI, said, "There is a need for multiple business models besides the business correspondent /business financial (BC/BF) model towards financial inclusion. Globally, pre-paid cards and digital payments have helped move from cash to cashless society and we are confident that this can be successfully implemented in India with the right business models and regulatory approvals."
The issue of consumer adoption needs to be addressed before digital payments can really take off in this country. Pankaj Sethi, president, corporate strategy & services, Tata Teleservices said, "The customer is always in search of convenience when it come to making payments. Also, some value must be offered to the customer in the form of additional services surrounding payments. Otherwise, adoption will not come easily."
Probir Roy, co-founder, Paymate, agreed that there is a need to incentivise people to adopt such services by providing them additional benefits in terms of easy credit of NREGA payouts, ticket bookings, etc.
The efforts towards bringing the unbanked and marginalised section of the society into the mainstream economy by enabling access to basic financial services is high on the agenda of the government. Projects like 'Aadhaar' - the unique ID solution for the masses - and enlisting the services of business correspondents (BCs) to open 'no-frills' accounts for rural folk have already been set in motion. But where do we stand in terms of adoption and feasibility of these services?
Various experts in the banking, electronic payments and telecom industries are of the opinion that there is much more to the idea of financial inclusion and that various challenges still exist in this effort. On the occasion of the 3rd Financial Inclusion & Digital Payments Conference organised by the IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India), industry experts spoke about the hurdles in the process of financial inclusion and whether solutions like prepaid cards and mobile money can be effectively harnessed to aid in the efforts.
Kamaljit Rastogi, head products, FINO, a key service provider to the micro-banking industry said, "Opening a bank account itself is a huge challenge. It has taken us nearly four years to create some sizeable impact in this area. Once the bank account is opened, it has to be sustainable. How do we recover the costs? We need to offer multiple products like savings, remittances, insurance, loans etc over this channel to make sufficient money to make the whole network sustainable. If the customer is not making transactions, saving and withdrawing money or taking loans, then it is merely a dummy account."
Pointing out that nearly 70% of such bank accounts remain inoperative after opening, BR Bhat, general manager, Corporation Bank, said, "Merely opening no-frills accounts is not financial inclusion. Banks should not just stop at opening an account for the rural people. We need to understand their needs, create awareness among them and help in their economic upliftment."
Sudhakar Ramasubramanian, chief executive officer, Aditya Birla Finance, said, "Financial inclusion is not necessarily a rural subject. Around 50% of urban India is still excluded from the system. So the problem has to be discussed not only in terms of rural reach and distribution perspective, but also the urban dimension."
He pointed to the success of micro-finance institutions over the past few years, and how they have managed to cover close to 30 million people by not worrying about the costs. Shekhar Srivastava, head marketing, ItzCash Card said, "For moving the marginalised economy to the mainstream banked economy, we need to create a model that works cohesively between banks and non-banks; collaboration between various agencies is essential in this transition towards a cashless economy."
Naveen Surya, chairman, Digital Payment Committee, IAMAI, said, "There is a need for multiple business models besides the business correspondent /business financial (BC/BF) model towards financial inclusion. Globally, pre-paid cards and digital payments have helped move from cash to cashless society and we are confident that this can be successfully implemented in India with the right business models and regulatory approvals."
The issue of consumer adoption needs to be addressed before digital payments can really take off in this country. Pankaj Sethi, president, corporate strategy & services, Tata Teleservices said, "The customer is always in search of convenience when it come to making payments. Also, some value must be offered to the customer in the form of additional services surrounding payments. Otherwise, adoption will not come easily."
Probir Roy, co-founder, Paymate, agreed that there is a need to incentivise people to adopt such services by providing them additional benefits in terms of easy credit of NREGA payouts, ticket bookings, etc.
7th July 2010
No card, only a number despite Rs45,000 crore being spent on the UID project by Money Life Digital Team
The Aadhaar project of the UIDAI will just provide unique ID numbers and not unique ID cards as was widely thought
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is all set for a pilot rollout of its ambitious unique ID (UID) project Aadhaar, will be spending a whopping Rs45,000 crore on the project. But all this money will be spent only on creating a UID number and not a physical ID card-since there is no budget for issuing such cards.
The very first paragraph on UIDAI's website clearly says that its job is to issue unique identity numbers and not physical ID cards. Here is what the site says:"UIDAI has been created as an attached office under the Planning Commission. Its role is to develop and implement the necessary institutional, technical and legal infrastructure to issue unique identity numbers to Indian residents."
This also means Aadhaar is not an ID card but just a unique number. Much more work needs to be done before it can become a smart card for proper identification. So who will issue the ID cards? Most probably, the responsibility will rest with entities which issue ration cards and voter ID cards.
"Nandan (Nilekani, the chairman of UIDAI) wants to keep his hands and conscience clean by just taking on the responsibility of issuing unique numbers to people. He will leave the issue of smart cards to the other corrupt bureaucracies that are responsible for issuing ration cards and voter (ID) cards," said an IT expert, preferring anonymity.
The UIDAI will collect face details, fingerprints from all ten fingers and iris attributes of all residents for ensuring uniqueness of the identities. For collecting data, UIDAI will use various State and Union government agencies-called 'registrars'-like the departments of rural development, public distribution and consumer affairs along with employees of banks, State-run insurance agencies and oil-marketing companies.
The first set of UID numbers will be issued between August 2010 and February 2011.
Thereafter, 600 million UID numbers will be issued in the next five years. The numbers will be issued through various registrar agencies across the country, says the UIDAI website.
Earlier in April, the Income-Tax Department's proposal to issue biometric PAN cards had been put on hold to avoid duplication with the UID numbers to be issued by the UIDAI. A senior finance ministry official had said, "The biometric PAN card project of the department has been kept in abeyance till the UID is rolled out. In the meantime, the suspension will allow the I-T Department to understand and analyse whether after (the issue of) a biometric UID, a PAN with similar features would be necessary or not." (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/4580.html).
After spending about £250 million over eight years on developing the national ID (NID) programme, the UK government abolished it earlier this year. This scrapping of the project means that Britain will avoid spending another £800 million over a decade. The NID was launched in July 2002-and as of February 2010, its total costs rose to an estimated £4.5 billion. The UK government has cited higher costs, impracticality and ungovernable breaches of privacy as reasons for cancellation of the NID project. These concerns may impact India as well. (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/5684.html).
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had sanctioned Rs1,900 crore for the UIDAI in his Budget for FY11. According to estimates, the total cost of the UID project will be over Rs45,000 crore.
UIDAI itself had admitted that the cost of running such a huge database over years will cost a lot. According to a document on UID numbering available on UIDAI's site, systems that are to be as widely used and for multiple different applications such as the UID will have to be in active use for a very long period.
"Once a billion plus people have been assigned a UID, and applications using the UID to conduct their transactions are evolved, anything that requires modifications to existing software applications and databases will cost a lot," the document said.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is all set for a pilot rollout of its ambitious unique ID (UID) project Aadhaar, will be spending a whopping Rs45,000 crore on the project. But all this money will be spent only on creating a UID number and not a physical ID card-since there is no budget for issuing such cards.
The very first paragraph on UIDAI's website clearly says that its job is to issue unique identity numbers and not physical ID cards. Here is what the site says:"UIDAI has been created as an attached office under the Planning Commission. Its role is to develop and implement the necessary institutional, technical and legal infrastructure to issue unique identity numbers to Indian residents."
This also means Aadhaar is not an ID card but just a unique number. Much more work needs to be done before it can become a smart card for proper identification. So who will issue the ID cards? Most probably, the responsibility will rest with entities which issue ration cards and voter ID cards.
"Nandan (Nilekani, the chairman of UIDAI) wants to keep his hands and conscience clean by just taking on the responsibility of issuing unique numbers to people. He will leave the issue of smart cards to the other corrupt bureaucracies that are responsible for issuing ration cards and voter (ID) cards," said an IT expert, preferring anonymity.
The UIDAI will collect face details, fingerprints from all ten fingers and iris attributes of all residents for ensuring uniqueness of the identities. For collecting data, UIDAI will use various State and Union government agencies-called 'registrars'-like the departments of rural development, public distribution and consumer affairs along with employees of banks, State-run insurance agencies and oil-marketing companies.
The first set of UID numbers will be issued between August 2010 and February 2011.
Thereafter, 600 million UID numbers will be issued in the next five years. The numbers will be issued through various registrar agencies across the country, says the UIDAI website.
Earlier in April, the Income-Tax Department's proposal to issue biometric PAN cards had been put on hold to avoid duplication with the UID numbers to be issued by the UIDAI. A senior finance ministry official had said, "The biometric PAN card project of the department has been kept in abeyance till the UID is rolled out. In the meantime, the suspension will allow the I-T Department to understand and analyse whether after (the issue of) a biometric UID, a PAN with similar features would be necessary or not." (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/4580.html).
After spending about £250 million over eight years on developing the national ID (NID) programme, the UK government abolished it earlier this year. This scrapping of the project means that Britain will avoid spending another £800 million over a decade. The NID was launched in July 2002-and as of February 2010, its total costs rose to an estimated £4.5 billion. The UK government has cited higher costs, impracticality and ungovernable breaches of privacy as reasons for cancellation of the NID project. These concerns may impact India as well. (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/5684.html).
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had sanctioned Rs1,900 crore for the UIDAI in his Budget for FY11. According to estimates, the total cost of the UID project will be over Rs45,000 crore.
UIDAI itself had admitted that the cost of running such a huge database over years will cost a lot. According to a document on UID numbering available on UIDAI's site, systems that are to be as widely used and for multiple different applications such as the UID will have to be in active use for a very long period.
"Once a billion plus people have been assigned a UID, and applications using the UID to conduct their transactions are evolved, anything that requires modifications to existing software applications and databases will cost a lot," the document said.
