<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/aadhaar-not-compulsory-with-bank-accounts-mobiles-cabinet-approves-amendments-184906">Aadhaar</a>, India's extraordinary attempt to give every citizen a biometric identity, is set for a massive revamp with new offline verification tools and non-intrusive ways for people seeking to voluntarily use the 12-digit unique number for new bank accounts and mobile connections.

After twists and turns in 2018, led by the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the constitutional validity of <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/ravi-shankar-prasad-to-cscs-will-find-way-out-on-aadhaar-work-issue-179801">Aadhaar</a>, the UIDAI's efforts around offline modes like eAadhaar and QR code that can leverage the unique ID without any access to biometrics or even revealing the 12-digit number would gather pace in 2019.

From school admissions to getting marriage certificates and from paying taxes to taking new mobile connections, Aadhaar touched multiple facets of people's lives as it became the default identifier. This was true for around 1.22 billion Aadhaar holders till doubts emerged that collection of biometric details, even for general service, could infringe on a citizen's privacy rights.

Then, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the world's largest biometric identification database but spelt out its new limitations.

After last year's assertion that Indians have a right to privacy, the apex court in September 2018 redefined the boundaries of the biometric authentication — Aadhaar can be used for payment of government benefits and taxation records but private companies were barred from accessing it.

In a 4-1 judgement delivered by the Constitution Bench, the Supreme Court held that Aadhaar would remain compulsory for the filing of Income Tax (IT) returns and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN)

However, Section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 that permitted private entities like telecom companies or other corporates to use the biometric data was struck down, dealing a body blow to the government's ambitions to make the world's largest biometric project mandatory for a slew of services.

The landmark ruling sent banks, telecom operators and fintech companies — who relied heavily on Aadhaar eKYC — scrambling in search of other viable means of customer verification.

As the verdict meant that fulfilling regulatory Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements would have again involved a lot of paperwork for verification purposes, Aadhaar-issuing authority, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), quickly came up with alternate modes like QR (Quick Response) codes, e-Aadhaar and offline methods.

Just as 2018 started to wind down, came another twist in the plot. Earlier this month, the government decided to propose changes to existing laws - Telegraph Act and PMLA - in order to allow the use of Aadhaar as an ID verification tool for opening bank accounts and obtaining mobile connections, albeit on a voluntary basis. Additionally, fresh penal provisions have been proposed - through an amendment in Aadhaar Act - to deter companies from insisting on Aadhaar or misusing the biometric data.

The proposed amendments, which will be placed before the Parliament during the ongoing Winter session, propose to arm UIDAI with regulator-like powers to take enforcement actions on the misuse of the national biometric ID and impose stiff penalties on violations.

The compelling reason behind this seems to be the government's belief in the transformative potential of Aadhaar — the system is so cheap and efficient that it is estimated to have accounted for over 90 per cent of new subscriptions in the telecom sector, according to experts.

More stringent deterrents are likely to be put in place in the coming months. These might include a penalty for failure to obtain consent for authentication or offline verification — up to three-year imprisonment or fine of up to Rs 10,000 — a penalty for unauthorised use of core biometric information. The latter could attract imprisonment between 3-10 years and a fine of up to Rs 10,000.

Even as it dons regulatory role, the UIDAI would continue to accelerate efforts to transform and scale up Aadhaar enrolment and update services, currently available through 30,000 centres operating in designated bank branches, post offices and government premises across the country. 
'Aadhaar Seva Kendras', similar to the concept of Passport Seva Kendras, will come up in 53 cities across India at an estimated project cost of Rs 300-400 crore. These swanky new centres will be operational by August next year, dishing out appointment-based enrolment, update and other miscellaneous services around Aadhaar, under the watchful eyes of authority's own employees.

Earlier this year, former UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey, recalling his early years as a small-town boy who didn't hold a photo identity for a long time, had reportedly said that Aadhaar offered an answer to an ancient question that was asked by sages — who am I?

The year that was, ensured that the answer continues to be the 12-digit identifier, at least for those who choose to use it.&nbsp;

Aadhaar, India's extraordinary attempt to give every citizen a biometric identity, is set for a massive revamp with new offline verification tools and non-intrusive ways for people seeking to voluntarily use the 12-digit unique number for new bank accounts and mobile connections.

Aadhaar, India's extraordinary attempt to give every citizen a biometric identity, is set for a massive revamp with new offline verification tools and non-intrusive ways for people seeking to voluntarily use the 12-digit unique number for new bank accounts and mobile connections. After twists and turns in 2018, led by the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, the UIDAI's efforts around offline modes like eAadhaar and QR code that can leverage the unique ID without any access to biometrics or even revealing the 12-digit number would gather pace in 2019. From school admissions to getting marriage certificates and from paying taxes to taking new mobile connections, Aadhaar touched multiple facets of people's lives as it became the default identifier. This was true for around 1.22 billion Aadhaar holders till doubts emerged that collection of biometric details, even for general service, could infringe on a citizen's privacy rights. Then, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the world's largest biometric identification database but spelt out its new limitations. After last year's assertion that Indians have a right to privacy, the apex court in September 2018 redefined the boundaries of the biometric authentication — Aadhaar can be used for payment of government benefits and taxation records but private companies were barred from accessing it. In a 4-1 judgement delivered by the Constitution Bench, the Supreme Court held that Aadhaar would remain compulsory for the filing of Income Tax (IT) returns and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN) However, Section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 that permitted private entities like telecom companies or other corporates to use the biometric data was struck down, dealing a body blow to the government's ambitions to make the world's largest biometric project mandatory for a slew of services. The landmark ruling sent banks, telecom operators and fintech companies — who relied heavily on Aadhaar eKYC — scrambling in search of other viable means of customer verification. As the verdict meant that fulfilling regulatory Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements would have again involved a lot of paperwork for verification purposes, Aadhaar-issuing authority, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), quickly came up with alternate modes like QR (Quick Response) codes, e-Aadhaar and offline methods. Just as 2018 started to wind down, came another twist in the plot. Earlier this month, the government decided to propose changes to existing laws - Telegraph Act and PMLA - in order to allow the use of Aadhaar as an ID verification tool for opening bank accounts and obtaining mobile connections, albeit on a voluntary basis. Additionally, fresh penal provisions have been proposed - through an amendment in Aadhaar Act - to deter companies from insisting on Aadhaar or misusing the biometric data. The proposed amendments, which will be placed before the Parliament during the ongoing Winter session, propose to arm UIDAI with regulator-like powers to take enforcement actions on the misuse of the national biometric ID and impose stiff penalties on violations. The compelling reason behind this seems to be the government's belief in the transformative potential of Aadhaar — the system is so cheap and efficient that it is estimated to have accounted for over 90 per cent of new subscriptions in the telecom sector, according to experts. More stringent deterrents are likely to be put in place in the coming months. These might include a penalty for failure to obtain consent for authentication or offline verification — up to three-year imprisonment or fine of up to Rs 10,000 — a penalty for unauthorised use of core biometric information. The latter could attract imprisonment between 3-10 years and a fine of up to Rs 10,000. Even as it dons regulatory role, the UIDAI would continue to accelerate efforts to transform and scale up Aadhaar enrolment and update services, currently available through 30,000 centres operating in designated bank branches, post offices and government premises across the country. 'Aadhaar Seva Kendras', similar to the concept of Passport Seva Kendras, will come up in 53 cities across India at an estimated project cost of Rs 300-400 crore. These swanky new centres will be operational by August next year, dishing out appointment-based enrolment, update and other miscellaneous services around Aadhaar, under the watchful eyes of authority's own employees. Earlier this year, former UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey, recalling his early years as a small-town boy who didn't hold a photo identity for a long time, had reportedly said that Aadhaar offered an answer to an ancient question that was asked by sages — who am I? The year that was, ensured that the answer continues to be the 12-digit identifier, at least for those who choose to use it.

Aadhaar: Twists and turns in the biometric tale

Last week, the honourable Supreme Court of India delivered the verdict on Aadhaar. As a sequel to this, all political parties are claiming victory.&nbsp;

Indeed, the two parties which have been at the helm of power in the Centre have been associated with the introduction of this.

Position under UPA - MNIC and Aadhaar

The UPA government had introduced Aadhaar and they gave it teeth through a non-statutory executive order. In the beginning, it was placed under the Planning Commission. Concurrently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under P Chidambaram had introduced a Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project. This was being implemented by the office of Registrar General of India, an attached office under the MHA mandated with the decadal census of the country.

Hence, there was a duplication of efforts. Chidambaram had introduced this project as one of the counter-measures in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Hence, capturing the data on citizens was one of the salient concerns of the government. Hence, why were two initiatives which could have been synergised and saved a lot of money to the Exchequer were being introduced and implemented like parallel lines are not known. The government of the day does need to answer this.&nbsp;

Overzealousness in implementing Aadhaar

As a member of the Internal Security team, I had attended a meeting in the Ministry of Information Technology in December 2009. It was a large group from various ministries and regulatory bodies. Basically, the discussion was on the mapping the citizen's identity to trace banking transactions, including money laundering and terror funding which was our mandate.

I had expressed the position on the efficacy of regulation of Western Union, through which money for terror funding was being remitted to their Indian foot soldiers. I, therefore, emphasised on enabling the data-sharing of Aadhaar with the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) for intelligence gathering on terrorism, which was established with hype by P Chidambaram immediately upon taking over as Home Minister. Although my observations were taken on record as per the minutes of the meeting, little effect was given to these observations. Mr RS Sharma, who was pioneering Aadhaar, appeared too excited with setting up a framework and using it with populist schemes like MNREGA, etc. Lateral spinoffs for securing the nation were last on their minds.

NDA and Aadhaar - Legal teeth

After the swearing in of the new regime in 2014, the government gave Aadhaar legal teeth by reinforcing through legislation. The government's emphasis on government-to-citizen transfer of its citizen intended benefits to close the hitherto pitfalls of syphoning of funds was the overriding priority. These are well captured in the bill. Since this was sought to be an instrument for the transfer of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India, it came under the purview of Money Bill as defined in the Article 110 of the Indian Constitution. Hence, they brought the bill as a money bill, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court of India.

Enabling interagency sharing of data with safeguards 
 
But the issue of sharing of this for intelligence gathering and internal security purposes were sidelined. Although enabling provisions which were incorporated in the Act have been set aside, the government did not make it fail safe itself to sustain the judicial scrutiny. A more comprehensive provision of Sector 57 with adequate safeguards against misuse for purposes other than security or state agenda should have been there. Maybe that would have saved this section in a judicial scrutiny.

Money bill upheld

But what is more salient is the content of the petition itself. In the averments of the petitioner challenged the introduction of the bill as a money bill, then their agitating on the issue of privacy was not sustainable. The government in power does have the mandate and power to bring in instrumentalities to implement its citizen-centric schemes and collect data relating the beneficiary for this purpose and cross-sharing of such data with different agencies of the state. There was no issue of privacy involved in this. 
 
Hence their agitating the issue of privacy again, I believe, was unfounded. Hence the money bill character of Aadhaar was sure to be upheld because by virtue of its objects -&nbsp;it was to establish an instrument of beneficent delivery by the state.

Securing the nation sidestepped

Having said that notwithstanding this, the latent impact of this is that now there will be restrictions of cross-sharing of data even among different state agencies suo moto and covertly. This gets hit. Now attendant rules will be framed to enable a prior permission from the Aadhaar holder, akin to the RTI Act. Let us appreciate that this may adversely affect any initiative regarding suspicious transactions, laundering of money, holding proceeds of crime and terror and terror funding. 
 
The agencies may be constrained. Or such information, even if shared, cannot be arraigned as evidence in criminal prosecutions, unless a prior permission provision is brought out in the rules and the accused citizen accords permission. There also, this permission, if enabled by the government, will again be under scrutiny under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in case it is used in a trial.&nbsp;

This impairing of a criminal investigation, I am sure, was not the agenda hidden under the privacy argument. The petitioner will have to answer this.

(This article was originally published on Zee News. Read the <a href="http://zeenews.india.com/blogs/overzealous-aadhaar-implementation-a-lost-national-security-opportunity-2144895.html">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

&nbsp;

Last week, the honourable Supreme Court of India delivered the verdict on Aadhaar. As a sequel to this, all political parties are claiming victory. Indeed, the two parties which have been at the helm of power in the Centre have been associated with the introduction of this.

Last week, the honourable Supreme Court of India delivered the verdict on Aadhaar. As a sequel to this, all political parties are claiming victory. Indeed, the two parties which have been at the helm of power in the Centre have been associated with the introduction of this. Position under UPA - MNIC and Aadhaar The UPA government had introduced Aadhaar and they gave it teeth through a non-statutory executive order. In the beginning, it was placed under the Planning Commission. Concurrently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under P Chidambaram had introduced a Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project. This was being implemented by the office of Registrar General of India, an attached office under the MHA mandated with the decadal census of the country. Hence, there was a duplication of efforts. Chidambaram had introduced this project as one of the counter-measures in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Hence, capturing the data on citizens was one of the salient concerns of the government. Hence, why were two initiatives which could have been synergised and saved a lot of money to the Exchequer were being introduced and implemented like parallel lines are not known. The government of the day does need to answer this. Overzealousness in implementing Aadhaar As a member of the Internal Security team, I had attended a meeting in the Ministry of Information Technology in December 2009. It was a large group from various ministries and regulatory bodies. Basically, the discussion was on the mapping the citizen's identity to trace banking transactions, including money laundering and terror funding which was our mandate. I had expressed the position on the efficacy of regulation of Western Union, through which money for terror funding was being remitted to their Indian foot soldiers. I, therefore, emphasised on enabling the data-sharing of Aadhaar with the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) for intelligence gathering on terrorism, which was established with hype by P Chidambaram immediately upon taking over as Home Minister. Although my observations were taken on record as per the minutes of the meeting, little effect was given to these observations. Mr RS Sharma, who was pioneering Aadhaar, appeared too excited with setting up a framework and using it with populist schemes like MNREGA, etc. Lateral spinoffs for securing the nation were last on their minds. NDA and Aadhaar - Legal teeth After the swearing in of the new regime in 2014, the government gave Aadhaar legal teeth by reinforcing through legislation. The government's emphasis on government-to-citizen transfer of its citizen intended benefits to close the hitherto pitfalls of syphoning of funds was the overriding priority. These are well captured in the bill. Since this was sought to be an instrument for the transfer of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India, it came under the purview of Money Bill as defined in the Article 110 of the Indian Constitution. Hence, they brought the bill as a money bill, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court of India. Enabling interagency sharing of data with safeguards But the issue of sharing of this for intelligence gathering and internal security purposes were sidelined. Although enabling provisions which were incorporated in the Act have been set aside, the government did not make it fail safe itself to sustain the judicial scrutiny. A more comprehensive provision of Sector 57 with adequate safeguards against misuse for purposes other than security or state agenda should have been there. Maybe that would have saved this section in a judicial scrutiny. Money bill upheld But what is more salient is the content of the petition itself. In the averments of the petitioner challenged the introduction of the bill as a money bill, then their agitating on the issue of privacy was not sustainable. The government in power does have the mandate and power to bring in instrumentalities to implement its citizen-centric schemes and collect data relating the beneficiary for this purpose and cross-sharing of such data with different agencies of the state. There was no issue of privacy involved in this. Hence their agitating the issue of privacy again, I believe, was unfounded. Hence the money bill character of Aadhaar was sure to be upheld because by virtue of its objects - it was to establish an instrument of beneficent delivery by the state. Securing the nation sidestepped Having said that notwithstanding this, the latent impact of this is that now there will be restrictions of cross-sharing of data even among different state agencies suo moto and covertly. This gets hit. Now attendant rules will be framed to enable a prior permission from the Aadhaar holder, akin to the RTI Act. Let us appreciate that this may adversely affect any initiative regarding suspicious transactions, laundering of money, holding proceeds of crime and terror and terror funding. The agencies may be constrained. Or such information, even if shared, cannot be arraigned as evidence in criminal prosecutions, unless a prior permission provision is brought out in the rules and the accused citizen accords permission. There also, this permission, if enabled by the government, will again be under scrutiny under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in case it is used in a trial. This impairing of a criminal investigation, I am sure, was not the agenda hidden under the privacy argument. The petitioner will have to answer this. (This article was originally published on Zee News. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Overzealous Aadhaar implementation a lost national security opportunity

aadhaar-biometric

Aadhaar Biometric, News on Aadhaar Biometric, stories on Aadhaar Biometric, articles on Aadhaar Biometric, Aadhaar Biometric stories at Wion, Aadhaar Biometric news, Aadhaar Biometric latest news

aadhaar biometric

Aadhaar: Twists and turns in the biometric tale

Overzealous Aadhaar implementation a lost national security opportunity