A parliamentary panel rejecting the Unique Identity (UID) Bill may have come as a big setback for the UPA government. But for the IT industry, the impact seems minimal, at least from a monetary point of view.UID is a NATO project already rejected by Nato partners. Indian parliament has already Rejected it. It is Unconstitutional and illegal as No Legislation validate it. It is a Corporate Project headed by an ERxtra constitutional India Incs representative Nanadan Nilekani which has summed up Rs SEVETEEN Thousand CRORE Mega SCAM to benefit Private Corporate Agencies. But the Media and CIVIL society so LOUD in anti Corruption Anna Brigade Campaign is hitherto SILENT.
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Illegally Salary and Bank Account of Employees BLOCKED demanding UID. But NO PIL, No Resistance! Why? what about NO UID People?
A parliamentary panel rejecting the Unique Identity (UID) Bill may have come as a big setback for the UPA government. But for the IT industry, the impact seems minimal, at least from a monetary point of view.UID is a NATO project already rejected by Nato partners. Indian parliament has already Rejected it. It is Unconstitutional and illegal as No Legislation validate it. It is a Corporate Project headed by an ERxtra constitutional India Incs representative Nanadan Nilekani which has summed up Rs SEVETEEN Thousand CRORE Mega SCAM to benefit Private Corporate Agencies. But the Media and CIVIL society so LOUD in anti Corruption Anna Brigade Campaign is hitherto SILENT.
In Maharashtra, specifically in Mumbai, workers and employees complained that their Salaries and Bank Accounts are FREEDGED and they have been notified to get UID to get the salary. All Trade Unions are led by the Marxists and NO Trade UNION or the Leaders Of Civil SOCIETY like JAP and NO UID Campaign has come forward to defend the suffering working class. As you know this is a CORPORATE Project violating Sovereignty of the CITIZEN. breaking into Prvacy and led by Extra Constitutional element , the South Indian Brahamin Nandan Nilekani! The Parliament has DISCAREDED the NATO Project already abondoned by Nato partners like England, Germany and France. Without any Legislation bypassing the Parliament, Nilekani and company has spent SEVENTEEN THOUSND CRORE! This is a greater Scam than TWO G Spectrum and the CULPRITS should be HANGED! But No protest, No Agitation and NO PIL. Anna Brigade does not bother about this SCAM! This is theBrahaminical system. Basv Anna and Harichand Thkur, namdev and Tukaram understod this phenomenon better than us and they simply Revolted against the Brahaminical religion to defend the Peasantry!
Sarkari Naukar will get salary from the 10th Month with UID Card meansAadhaar Card the Unique Identification Card the 12 Digit Number mandatory to get salary in the Sarkari Naukri. In a major setback to unique identification document (UID) project, the state government has decided that only government employees can verify the documents submitted by an applicant for a UID card.
New ways, it seems, are being thought up to waste the taxpayers' money. No one now appears to be sure whether the much talked about Unique Identification (UID) scheme will actually take off although nearly 1 crore people in Karnataka and 9 crore across India have enrolled in it. With the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance rejecting the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 in its present form, the government can either reconsider its legislation or roll back the scheme altogether. Whatever option it chooses, the question is, why was the scheme allowed to take off without the Parliament's approval and without resolving the issues raised 14 months after its launch. A large amount of money, effort and time of the UIDAI, the registrars, operators and ordinary people have gone into the scheme.
TV9 STING OPERATION - "UID / AADHAR CARD SCAM" - NANDAN ... | |
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ4qwyuLXSw3 Jan 2011 - 33 min - Uploaded by tv9kannadanews HOW TO GET AADHAAR CARD | UID Aadhaar | Benefits of Aadhar card | Aadhar card can be used as an ... | |
The concept of a Unique Identification scheme was first worked upon in 2006 when administrative approval was given for a Unique ID for BPL families by the ministry of communications and information technology. The project was later extended to cover the entire population and the UIDAI was constituted on January 28, 2009 under the chairmanship of Nandan M. Nilekani.
In perhaps its most serious setback so far, a Parliamentary Committee has rejected the Bill that governs the project to assign unique Ids to all Indians. Worse, this Standing Committee on Finance has advised the government to "reconsider and review the UID scheme" itself. Its report was placed in Parliamenton Tuesday. These, then, are its seven primary objections.Why was the UIDAI functioning even before the Bill was passed?
Even as it awaited Parliamentary approval, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was collecting information and issuing numbers. The Ministry of Planning, under which the UIDAI falls, told the Standing Committee that the UIDAI could function under the executive order issued by the government till the Bill was passed.
The committee has described this executive action as "unethical and violative of Parliament's prerogatives". It also says the "Committee is at a loss to understand as to how the UIDAI, without statutory power, could address key issues concerning its basic functioning and initiate proceedings against the defaulters and penalise them." It also says that two citizenship acts need to be amended before collection of biometric information and its linkage with personal information of individuals.
IT DID NOT WORK IN THE UK. SO, WHY HERE?
The UK abandoned its National ID card programme some years ago. A study by the London School of Economics on the UK project flagged high costs, complexity, untested unreliable technology, possibility of risk to safety and security of citizens, requirement of high standard security measures which might again escalate operational costs.
The Ministry of Planning told the panel that the two programmes were different. The UK approached the programme from a security perspective. The UID scheme is envisaged as a means to enhance the delivery of welfare benefits and services. The panel says: "As these (UK) findings are very much relevant and applicable to the UID scheme, they should have been seriously considered."
WILL IT ENSURE WELFARE PAYMENTS REACH THE TARGETED BENEFICIARIES?
According to the Ministry of Planning, UID will make it possible to link welfare entitlements to targeted beneficaries. But, the committee noted: "Even if the Aadhaar number links entitlements to targeted beneficiaries, it may not ensure that beneficiaries have been correctly identified. Thus, the present problem of proper identification would persist."
WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY?
The Ministry of Planning told the Committee that concerns over privacy violations - sharing of data, surveillance and profiling -- would be addressed in a larger data protection legislation currently being drafted by the Department of Personnel and Training.
The committee has said the enactment of this 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."
IS THE UID PROJECT FINANCIALLY FEASIBLE?
The Ministry of Planning says the financial implications of the scheme have not been studied. The Committee was critical of this exclusion, as well as of the fact that the cost of rolling out Aadhaar was not compared with the cost of providing existing forms of identity. The Committee also noted that Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the UID Scheme has been done much later in April, 2011. "The Committee thus strongly disapproves of the hasty manner in which the UID scheme has been approved."
IS THE UID PROJECT TECHNICALLY FEASIBLE?
The Committee refers to the report by the Biometrics Standards Committee set up by the UIDAI that says the uniqueness of fingerprints has been established for a set of 50 million, with 99% accuracy, using good-quality fingerprints. Adds the Biometrics Standards Committee "Retaining efficacy while scaling the database size from 50 million to a billion has not been adequately analyzed. Second, fingerprint quality, the most important variable for determining de-duplication accuracy, has not been studied in depth in the Indian context." Given this context, the Committee felt it is unlikely that the proposed objectives of the UID scheme could be achieved.
SHOULD CARDS BE GIVEN TO CITIZENS OR RESIDENTS?
UID gives cards to all residents in India, legal and illegal. The Committee has questioned this. The Committee says: "The Committee is unable to understand the rationale of expanding the scheme to persons who are not citizens, as this entails numerous benefits proposed by the Government. It also says that "the possibility of possession of aadhaar numbers by illegal residents through false affidavits/introducer system cannot be ruled out."
The report now leaves the Manmohan Singh government in a tough place. It has to decide whether to reject the Committee report or overhaul the UIDAI project given the committee's sweeping rejection. The report also makes it harder for the NPR to go on collecting biometric information without making the necessary changes to the Citizenship Act.
The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 was referred to the standing committee on December, 10 for examination, but it is only now that it has urged the government to "reconsider and review the UID scheme as also the proposals contained in the Bill in all its ramifications and bring forth a fresh legislation." It has also suggested that the data already collected by the UIDAI be transferred to the National Population Register. Its views have kicked up a storm with those in favour of the Bill lashing out at the government for making a mockery of the whole exercise.
While chairman of the committee Yashwant Sinha found "contradictions and ambiguities within the government on its implementation and implications," those like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD of Biocon, say it is critical the government does not backtrack on UID. "If it does it must be hauled up for having allowed it without considering these issues earlier," she says.
The rate of issuance of cards is already slow. This decision will further slow it down. The state took she decision following a directive from centre. The state has however, asked district administrations to rope in retired government staffers in case the existing staff is not able to meet the demand.
Looking at the bigger picture, the Bill if passed - and it's a big if — would mean Rs16,000 crore worth of projects for the industry as a whole. But for an individual vendor, the figure doesn't translate into much. The whole idea behind peddling that number was primarily to speed up the work.
Accenture, Wipro, MindTree, HP and TCS are among the IT players which have been awarded the contracts, which include design, development and maintenance of intranet and management portals, according to the official website of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The mandate for them was to build an ecosystem around various UID projects.
The first UID contract to become a consulting partner for UIDAI is of the size of Rs7.05 crore, which has gone to consultancy firm Ernst & Young. The contract size for Bangalore-based MindTree, which was among the first companies to strike such a deal, was Rs19 crore. Though no one from MindTree could be reached for an official confirmation, earlier reports suggest that it outbid Accenture.
16 Another IT major, Wipro, was awarded two deals this year — one in February and the other in May.
"The contracts awarded to IT companies were never big in size. Hence, I do not see any big impact on their balancesheet. Though they might have deployed a big human resource team, it can easily be shifted to some other project. Basically the assets can be easily mobilised," said Kishan Bhat, engagement manager, Zinnov, a leading management consulting company.
In the same vein, Bhat clarified that the short term is a different play altogether and so, it's difficult to gauge long-term ramifications.
If the Bill falls through, it will have a cascading effect on various other government initiatives as companies may try to steer clear of them. "E-governance is the way forward. The government should make all efforts to make it work even if it means to make little changes here and there," said an expert on condition of anonymity. He added that though IT companies have little to lose as they have other big projects in hand, it is the government which has a lot at stake.
Though some felt that a UIDAI freeze may lead to some increase in costs for companies, most others declined to validate the same. The parliamentary committee headed by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has pointed to several loopholes in the existing Bill and urged the government to "reconsider and review the UID scheme as also the proposals contained in the Bill". The committee raised concerns about privacy, identity theft, misuse, security of data during the implementation of the UID scheme.
A revenue official told TOI that before March 2011, verification work was done by government staff. However, as workload was too high government decided to empower private centre owners. "Government staff was required to remain present at these centres for verification work. This was hampering our regular work. Hence this decision was taken."
However, the central government observed that the centre owners and their staff were not closely scrutinizing the documents and were more interested in volumes to increase their business. As a result many persons, having submitted incorrect information, got UID cards. This led to the Centre cancelling the March decision.
All district collectors and municipal commissioners have been asked to draw up a list of employees, who can be deployed for the work. In case the officer feels that s/he cannot spare adequate staffers, then s/he should request retired government servants to do the work and pay them an honorarium.
The official said, the decision has brought things back to square one. "A large number of employees will be sent on election duty for municipal corporation and zilla parishad. We will not be able to spare staff for UID work and the issuance of cards will get stuck up. Even otherwise, the government is using our employees for some or other drive frequently."
UID cards need to have accurate information about the bearer as in coming years it will become the sole document for all government work. Citizens, will however, be required to furnish address proof in case they shift to other location.
Government Jobs in India requires UID Aadhaar Card, there are 18 States andMaharashtra is the State after Madhya Pradesh in which the UID CardMandatory Rule just applied only two-three days ago. Maharashtra Government Servants, Officers will get the Salary if they have the Aadhaar Card.
The Thane District of Maharashtra : UID Enrollment Centers are made for the Government Servants, maximum Sarkari Adhikaris completing their enrollmentprocess to get the UID Card and salary. Thane Sarkari Officers are making their UID because Maharashtra State UID Committee said that - "No UID - No Salary".
Government Employee Salary is drawn through Treasury and appropriate Government Authority Capable with drawing disbursing power. Implementation of UID Number in Employee Salary dissemination is certainly link all sorts ofGovernment Employees with a centralized database which likely to improve salary management.
A government resolution making Unique Identification (UID) card a must for all its employees before the end of the month has left the staff scrambling for forms to complete the enrollment. The Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have issued circulars to its employees stating their salaries would not be deposited unless they enrolled for the UID card.
Teachers from schools and colleges in Thane are a worried lot.
A Government Resolution (GR) dated April 18 states that all those teaching at government-aided schools and colleges need to get their Unique Identification (UID) card created before August 20, or they will not receive their salaries for the month.
The employees, however, complained that not only the forms, even the machines meant for biometric scanning of citizens were not to be had. They now fear that for no fault of their own, their salaries would be held back.Police Sub-Inspector N R lavande, who is in-charge of accomplishing the formalities for the GRP, said, "Since last Friday we are in constant touch with the Bank of Maharashtra's Chatuhshrungi Branch for the forms, but they have said the forms will only be available on Wednesday. If this is the case, then filling of forms will take days together, as our staff is located at various destinations, including Lonavala, Dehu Road, Pimpri, Chinchwad and Nira outpost."
An official on condition of anonymity said the distribution of forms is done in tandem with the availability of machines and the circulation is restricted when the machines are not available. "We have issued a circular to all our 18,500 employees that their salary for the month of June will not be deposited unless they get the UID card," said Deputy Municipal Commissioner Pravin Ashtikar, who is the nodal officer for the UID project in the city.
"Right now, we have 112 machines as against 381. We will get 45 to 50 additional machines by the end of the month. But I won't be able to say how many PMC employees have enrolled for the UID card." He said 1,80,000 residents from the city had enrolled for the UID card.The Pune district administration said 3,39,000 had enrolled so far for the UID card from the rural areas. Deputy Collector Apurva Wankhede, nodal officer for the UID project for Pune District, said the department was short of at least 100 machines.
Not in the know
MiD DAY contacted Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anant Shinde, who also holds the charge of ACP (Admin), to know whether a similar circular was issued to the city police. "I have to check with my officers about GR," he said.
A notice has been pasted at the Thane Zilla Parishad Pay Unit and schools and college authorities have already informed their staff about it. "We have already informed our teachers to get their cards done as soon as possible. We haven't received any circular from the zilla parishad, but the notice has been put up at the bill submission centre and we are only following orders," said Harshida Someshwar, principal (junior college) of NKT College in Thane.
"The circular has been sent out to all schools and colleges in Thane. The GR clearly states that teachers need to get the UID cards by August 20 and only exceptional cases will be granted a deadline till September 30. Almost 30% schools have replied saying that their staff has applied for the cards and should receive it soon," said Ashok Misal, education officer (secondary), Thane Zilla Parishad.
Though not happy about the directive, teachers have been scrambling to get their UID cards. "There are very few UID card centres in Thane district and we have had no time to visit the few centres here. It is unfair to stop our salaries for this card," said a junior college teacher on condition of anonymity. Mumbai division, however, has not introduced any such circular for teachers. "We understand the problems of teachers and they should know that nobody will lose their salaries. The GR has been announced to ensure that people get working on the UID cards at the earliest," said an education official from Mantralaya.
Mumbai: A Government Resolution (GR) has put teachers from schools and colleges in trouble. The GR dated April 18 says all those teaching at government aided schools and colleges need to get their Unique Identification (UID) card, also known as Aadhar Card, done before August 20, or they will not receive their salaries for the month.
A notice has been pasted at the Thane Zilla Parishad Pay Unit and school and college authorities have already informed their staff about it. "We have already informed our teachers to get their cards done as soon as possible. We haven't received any circular from the Zilla Parishad but this notice has been pasted at the bill submission centre and we are only following orders," said Harshida Someshwar, principal (junior college) of NKT College in Thane. Many schools and colleges are yet to receive this circular.
"The circular has been sent out to all schools and colleges in Thane. The GR clearly states that teachers need to get the UID cards by August 20 and only exceptional cases will be granted a deadline till September 30. Almost 30% schools have already replied saying that their staff has already applied for the cards and should receive it soon," said Ashok Misal, education officer (secondary), Thane Zilla Parishad.
Teachers, even though not happy about this circular, are busy getting their UID cards done. "There are very few UID card centres in Thane district and we have had no time to visit the few centres here. It is unfair to stop our salaries for this card as there is still a lot of time left," said a junior college teacher, on condition of anonymity.
Mumbai division, however, has introduced no such circular for school and college teachers. "We understand the problems of teachers and they should know that nobody will lose their salaries. The GR has been announced to ensure that people get working on the UID cards at the earliest," said an education official from Mantralaya.
Pune : Only UID Holder Get Salary - Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation
The PCMC only pays the salary in Maharashtra who has UID Aadhaar Card, means the PCMC Employee with UID Aadhaar Card can get their monthly salary.Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Commissioner stated that the PCMC Employee has must to be an UID Aadhaar Card because without UID Card the PCMC Employees will not get the Salaries.
And also started many enrollment centers for the PCMC Employees and also stated that they are targeting 3000 Peoples for Enrollment Process in a week.
I also trying to make my UID Aadhaar Card and completed the UID AadhaarEnrollment Process in UID Enrollment Center,an employee said.
Nandan Nilekani On Corporates Aid The UID Project
Posted on December 30, 2010 by KishoreNadan Nilekani, the chairman of the UID Project speaks on corporates aiding the Unique Identification Project or the Aadhaar.
UID Project – Aadhaar to be in full swing soon - Unique Identification Project or the UID Project (Unique Identification Card For Every Indian – UID project - By the year 2011, every Indian will be having anRatan Tata is set to join Air India's new advisory board - Air India is in big crisis and who else other thaSatyam Scam – The biggest setback for Indian Corporates - The disclosure of the Satyam issue by its chairmaTATA Nano project in Singur may move -TATA project at Singur may be moved to a new pla
http://kish.in/nandan-nilekani-on-corporates-aid-the-uid-project/
UID: I give up
Shakti Salgaokar | Thursday, January 5, 2012After much procrastination, we as a family decided to go and get ourselves the Aadhaar UID card. We got hold of the forms, filled them out and armed with the necessary documents, made way to the UID registration centre in the Hindu Colony Municipal School. Upon reaching the centre, we were told that their schedule was choc-a-bloc and they would only be able to accommodate us after 25th December. So we went back on the 26th, we were told that the Post Office forms that we managed to fill up were invalid and they needed us to fill out the form meant for their centre. We managed to get an appointment for 10am on the 29th, which we could not make. We were told to come on 30th.
On the 30th we arrived at 10.10am and were faced with a reluctant Mr Gorakhnath R, an employee of Tera Software Ltd, a Sewree based firm. Busy playing a game on his phone, he asked us to wait. The line didn't budge an inch for almost 45 minutes. During these 45 minutes, I met a disgruntled gentleman who had already invested four days in fruitlessly chasing his UID, "How many times do I bunk work for this?" he found himself asking just as a couple of college students were denied an Aadhaar form without a valid reason. When the line did not move after almost an hour, we expressed surprise. A seasoned UID chaser told us that the person who handles the equipment, disappears for hours on end each day, halting the entire process.
We were left with no choice but to confront Mr Goraknath about the wait. We told him that it was unfair to give out appointments if they don't have the equipment to accommodate more than one person at a time and that we would take up his reluctance with the authorities. Even so, he continued to play his mobile phone game and said, "Go to any authority you want. You have to wait."
This leaves me with a few questions. Firstly, why is the form for enrolment different for different centres? Secondly, what measures are in place to identify the inefficient vendors on contract to process UID applications? Who do the citizens go to if they know that the staff at their centre is slacking off, being rude or uncooperative?
Getting anything done through a government channel in this country is a struggle marred with unnecessary red-tapeism, confusion, ambiguity and hence, corruption. Try getting a Driver's license without an agent at an RTO. Or for that matter, try registering for a Voter id card (it took nine visits for me to get that sorted a few years ago and it still bears a wrong birth-date and a wrong address). The individuals in charge at government undertakings make you run from pillar to post, without adequate information, until you're so frustrated, you don't care for your right to vote or your privilege to drive.
And for a system put in place to empower the people of this country, to leave them feeling helpless and frustrated during the registration is the biggest failure of Aadhaar.
PS: The people we encountered at the centre did not want to be named for the fear of being identified by the personnel.
http://www.dnaindia.com/blogs/post_uid-i-give-up_1633822
J&K: Wipro backtracks on UID deal after state govt 'flip-flops'
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Srinagar: The Unique Identification (UID) project in Jammu and Kashmir has entered a limbo after one of the vendors, Wipro, refused to carry out the project. CM Omar Abdullah meanwhile has pleaded ignorance of the issue.Wipro Technologies, apparently in a letter to the Omar Abdullah government, said that it had had enough of its flip flops. It clearly stated in the letter that it would not be able to execute the UID project in the state.
The Omar Abdullah government had unilaterally scrapped a deal it had entered into with Wipro and another local vendor, Compech Technologies.
Abdullah has, however, pleaded ignorance on the status of the project.
He said, "I will have to check this."
The two companies had won the bid to carry out enrollment of 27 lakh and 45 lakh people respectively. The Jammu and Kashmir Bank - a registrar for the UID project - later invited fresh tenders twice but failed to get the drive started.
The high-profile project will continue to remain in limbo for some more time as another techno group called Eco Bay has now moved the Jammu and Kashmir High Court seeking more transparency in the tendering processes.
The HC has stepped in and asked the bank to explain its position.
The idea behind the entire project was to prepare over 1.1 crore UID cards with biometric details of every person in the state above the age of five in three years.
CM Abdullah was the first to give his fingerprints for the project in August, but the project is yet to take off.
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#Jammu and Kashmir #UID #Unique Identification #Omar Abdullah #Wipro Technologies
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/wipro-backtracks-on-jk-uid-deal/216907-3.html
UID-linked pay for NREGA begins in Hazaribag
Jaideep Deogharia, TNN Dec 29, 2011, 07.09AM ISTRANCHI: It could be a mere coincidence or strategy of senior officials of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that the trial run for retail payment, including payment of wages for MGNREGA, old age pension and scholarships, has been started in Hazaribag district, the home constituency of chairman of the parliamentary standing committee of finance Yashwant Sinha.
A committee has opined against the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 and has urged the Centre to review the UID scheme and bring forth a fresh legislation before Parliament. The UIDAI started functioning by an executive order of the planning department which empowered it to work as an attach office of the Planning Commission. However the Centre decided to legislate to make it a statutory body and brought forward the NIAI bill 2010. The bill was referred to the 21-member standing committee of finance headed by Sinha who expressed apprehensions about the bill particularly with respect to security of data and misuse of the Aadhaar number by residents in India who are not citizens.
Despite the recommendations of the standing committee and notes of dissent by three members Congress national spokesperson Raashid Alvi, Sikkim MP Prem Das Rai and Tamil Nadu MP Manicka Tagore the authority is going ahead with its project in the same speed so as to demonstrate the objectives practically instead of countering the apprehensions in theory.
A high-level team of the UIDAI under the leadership of assistant director general P K Upadhyay is camping in Hazaribag to oversee the process of the trial. Under the trial, MGNREGA workers enrolled with the UID scheme and who have already been issued Aadhaar numbers have been assisted in opening bank account whereas those having bank accounts have been simply linked with their Aadhar numbers. "Now the beneficiary can access his or her account directly by simply giving his Aadhar number," said a senior official of UID who was on a field trial in Hazaribag on Wednesday.
The online verification began in Jharkhand earlier this month at Ratu block of Ranchi district and is currently being carried out in Katkumsandi and Sadar block of Hazaribag districts to be followed by Chandil block in Saraikela district, the home constituency of chief minister Arjun Munda.
Asked about the efficacy of project being implemented without Parliament giving its nod to the NIAI Bill 2010, a senior official of UIDAI said the authority continued to function under the executive order of the department of planning and the bill only aims at giving more teeth and ease of work to the authority.
Independent MP from Jharkhand Inder Singh Namdhari admitted that as the issues raised the standing committee, the Centre must be cautious about bringing a strong legislation so that the immigrants from neighbouring countries don't start misusing the Aadhar number for their benefits. He, however, ruled out the idea of scrapping or rejecting the UID project. "We are waiting for the government to come up with an improved and revised bill considering the recommendations of the standing committee as well as the notes of dissent," he said.
Congress MP Shakil Ahmed said the concept was praised by people across political affiliations and the recommendations of the standing committee was little surprising for them. "We want a general consensus and if the UIDAI is trying to prove its point by practical demonstration of its efficacy, everyone would be relieved of the apprehensions," he said.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-29/ranchi/30568461_1_aadhaar-aadhar-number-uid-project
'UID', Losing Its Own Identity
By SiliconIndia, Monday, 12 December 2011, 16:30 IST| * |
Bangalore: Aadhaar, meant to be the single source of identification for Indians, is facing a lot of criticisms and risks, because of which the project is fearing its end at present. The news of present crisis and its doubtful completion came as a real shocker as many of lakhs of Indian citizens have already received their cards and the UID appointment cards are about to go online to ensure faster and seamless distribution.
'AADHAAR' is an initiative of UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), which provides UID or Unique Identification Number to each Indian national. It is a 12-digit unique number said to be stored in centralized database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information such as photographs, fingerprints and iris identification.
This UID or Aadhaar works as a proof of identification as well as of address. In the words of the Chairman of UIDAI, Nandan Nilekani, "UID is the number of life" for those millions of Indians who at present do not have access to public schemes. Till date, more than one 5.75 million, UID cards are issued.
Technically, as Aadhaar is entirely dependent on biometrics, there have been concerns expressed by some experts that the biometrics data is not reliable as it has shown 0.01 percent of error in fingerprints and iris alone; this low rate combined with the photograph match can achieve the massive level of uncertainty, to which the experts says this test 'actually tells nothing' and also that Aadhaar may achieve the power for civil autonomy and also can capture one's solitary desecration while indulging their UID registering in non-government agencies.
In the political perception, the former CM of Kerala, V. S. Achuthanandan, including many others, claimed that this program was being launched without "proper debate".
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Aadhaar: time to disown the idea
R. RAMAKUMARSHARE · COMMENT (127) · PRINT · T+
The HinduIn this file photo, a man records his identity with an iris scanner for obtaining the Aadhar card, at the Head Post Office in Madurai. Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance has raised serious questions about the idea of Aadhaar.
The government should pay heed to the parliamentary standing committee's views and suspend the Aadhaar project. It would be a travesty to push the project in through the backdoor.
"…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.
Technically speaking, the SCoF report asked the government to bring forth fresh legislation before Parliament. However, a careful examination of the report shows that it does not just reject the Bill, it also raises serious questions about the idea of Aadhaar itself. In fact, the report so comprehensively questions the idea that any effort to introduce fresh legislation would require, as a prerequisite, a re-look at the foundational principles on which the project was conceived.
There are broadly five important arguments in the SCoF report.
First, it contains scathing criticism of the government for beginning Aadhaar enrolment without Parliament's approval for the Bill. Currently, UIDAI enjoys only executive authority, and no statutory authority. The justification that the government presented before the SCoF was as follows: the powers of the executive are co-extensive with the legislative powers of the government, and this allows the government to exercise executive powers in spheres not regulated by legislation.
The government also cited the Attorney-General's advice, which noted that "executive power operates independently" of Parliament and that "there is nothing in law that prevents the [UIDAI] from functioning under the Executive Authorisation."
The SCoF rejects this position, and states that the government's legal justification "does not satisfy the Committee." The legal position upheld by the SCoF is that co-extensiveness of powers does not permit the executive to do what it pleases; when constitutional rights and protections are potentially violated, the powers of the executive remain circumscribed by those of the legislature.
Secondly, the SCoF raises serious questions about the enrolment process followed for Aadhaar numbers. The issue of Aadhaar numbers "is riddled with serious lacunae," and this problem can be traced to conceptualisation "with no clarity of purpose" and implementation in "a directionless way with a lot of confusion." For instance, the Ministry of Finance felt that there was "lack of coordination" across the six agencies collecting personal information, leading to "duplication of efforts and expenditure." The Ministry of Home raised "serious security concerns" over the introducer model used to enrol persons without any proof of residence.
The report concludes that the enrolment process "compromises the security and confidentiality of information of Aadhaar number holders," and has "far reaching consequences for national security." The reason: "the possibility of possession of Aadhaar numbers by illegal residents through false affidavits/introducer system."
Thirdly, the SCoF comes down heavily on the government for proceeding with the project without "enactment of a national data protection law," which is a "pre-requisite for any law that deals with large-scale collection of information from individuals and its linkages across separate databases."
In its submission to the SCoF, the government had taken a dismissive view of the right to privacy of individuals. It noted that "collection of information without a privacy law in place does not violate the right to privacy of the individual." The SCoF rejects this view, and notes that in the absence of legislation for data protection, "it would be difficult to deal with the issues like access and misuse of personal information, surveillance, profiling, linking and matching of databases and securing confidentiality of information."
Fourthly, the report strongly disapproves of "the hasty manner" in which the project was cleared. It concludes that a "comprehensive feasibility study…ought to have been done before approving such an expensive scheme." This conclusion follows the government's admission to the SCoF that "no committee has been constituted to study the financial implications of the UID scheme," and that "comparative costs of the Aadhaar number and various existing ID documents are also not available."
The total cost of the Aadhaar project would run into multiples of ten thousand crore of rupees. For just Phase 1 and 2, where 10 crore residents were to be enrolled, the allocation was Rs. 3,170 crore. For Phase 3, where another 10 crore residents are to be enrolled, the allocation is Rs. 8,861 crore. In a rough extrapolation, for 120 crore residents the total cost would then be over Rs. 72,000 crore. Is the Comptroller and Auditor General listening?
Fifthly, the report tears apart the faith placed on biometrics to prove the unique identity of individuals. It notes that "the scheme is full of uncertainty in technology" and is built upon "untested, unreliable technology." It criticises the UIDAI for disregarding (a) the warnings of its Biometrics Standards Committee about high error rates in fingerprint collection; (b) the inability of Proof of Concept studies to promise low error rates when 1.2 billion persons are enrolled; and (c) the reservations within the government on "the necessity of collection of IRIS image." The report concludes that, given the limitations of biometrics, "it is unlikely that the proposed objectives of the UID scheme could be achieved."
The SCoF report cites the experience from the United Kingdom, where a similar ID scheme was shelved. It dismisses the government's contention that "comparison between developed countries…versus India…is not a reasonable one." It states that "there are lessons from the global experience to be learnt," which the government has "ignored completely." It cites issues of cost overruns, fallacies of technology and risks to the safety of citizens, and notes: "as these findings are very much relevant and applicable to the UID scheme, they should have been seriously considered."
The SCoF report has invited sharp reactions from the business press and pro-business lobbies. One report argued that, after the Foreign Direct Investment-in-retail fiasco, it is "another Indian reform massacre;" for another, it is a "setback to the government's attempts to revive faltering economic reforms;" and for yet another, the title was "UPA reforms agenda hit again."
These predictable reactions only reaffirm the widely held belief that Aadhaar is an integral component of the neo-liberal reform programme of UPA-2. In fact, the SCoF deserves praise for standing up to pressure from powerful quarters, and not allowing the moment to be hijacked by vested interests. Ironically, till last week, the same SCoF had come in for profuse praise from none other than Nandan Nilekani himself. He had said in August 2011: "I have had the occasion to…make a presentation on more than one occasion to the Standing Committee…let me tell you they do an extraordinarily thorough job. I am very, very impressed with the quality of questions, the homework, the due diligence, the seriousness that they view these things with. And it is very bipartisan, you can't make out who is from which party because they all ask on the issue. So when you have such an excellent system of law-making...Let us respect that, let us give them the opportunity to call all the experts for and against and let them come out with something. They are the appropriate people, they are our representatives."
The "representatives" have now spoken. For the government, the most dignified way ahead is to pay heed to the SCoF's views and suspend the Aadhaar project immediately. Each conclusion in the report should be discussed threadbare in the public domain. Biometrics should be withdrawn from government projects as a proof of identity. Alternative, and cheaper, measures to provide people with valid identity proofs should be explored. However, it would be a travesty of democratic principles if the government disregards the SCoF report and pushes the project in through the backdoor.
(R. Ramakumar is Associate Professor with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai)
Keywords: National Identification Authority of India Bill, UIDAI, Aadhaar scheme, Standing Committee on Finance stand
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2717949.ece?homepage=true
Blow to Aadhaar project as Bill is rejected
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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has rejected the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill, which was meant to give a legal backing to the Aadhaar project and its aim of using biometrics to create a unique identity for every resident of India.
Sources in the Committee say the Bill has been rejected in its current form on the grounds of the project's high cost, as well as concerns regarding national security, privacy and duplication of the National Population Register's (NPR) activities. One major sticking point was reportedly the Aadhaar project's ambition to enrol every "resident" of the country, rather than every "citizen."
The Committee, headed by Yashwant Sinha (BJP), is likely to table its report in Parliament next week.
Congress MP Rashid Alvi submitted a dissent note at the Committee meeting on Thursday, suggesting that while recommendations could be sent to the government, the Bill should not be rejected outright.
However, the sources indicated that Mr. Alvi himself agreed with most of the Committee's problems with the Bill and that there were serious differences with the government itself regarding the Aadhaar project.
The Home Ministry has raised concerns that Aadhaar's biometric data collection and verification does not meet security criteria. There has also been a turf clash with the Home Ministry's National Population Register which is also documenting photographs, fingerprints and iris scans of all residents.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra Singh said the NPR database would be sent to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for de-duplication. The UIDAI was only generating unique identity numbers and communicating it in a letter, but it was the NPR that intends to issue Resident Identity Cards, he emphasised.
So far, the UIDAI, headed by the former Infosys chief, Nandan Nilekani, has issued about 6 crore Aadhaar numbers, and over 10 crore people have been enrolled into the system. The project's budget is Rs. 1,660 crore, of which over a third has already been spent.
However, there is still no legal parliamentary backing for the project, a glitch that was sought to be retrospectively corrected by the NIAI Bill.
Keywords: Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, Aadhar project, National Identification Authority of India
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2698907.ece
Complaints of hardship for UID registration
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Applicants have to wait for a long time as there are not enough staff.
People who have turned up at the zonal office of the corporation at Vytilla for registration under the Aadhaar (Unique Identification) Project have complained of having to stand in queue for a long duration on account of the absence of enough officials to receive applications.
Standing in wait in a dusty room proved difficult, especially for the aged. They had no facilities to wait for their turn and the absence of drinking water facility or a fan made their situation worse on a hot and humid day. The only fan in the room didn't function.
People were required to fill the relevant application form before waiting in the queue to submit it to be issued with a token number. Based on this number they would be asked to appear for being photographed for the unique ID. Keltron is implementing the project in the corporation.
Under the UID project, each Indian citizen will be given a unique identification number that will, in due course, become the single-most important document for availing oneself of all services — both private and government.
Smitha Anil, a housewife who turned up for filing applications, lamented that the elderly were made to stand in queue for hours as there were no facility for them to sit and wait. "A person almost fell down after developing swelling in his leg. At least two persons should have been appointed for the process, which would have cut down the waiting period," she said.
Keltron officials were not available for comment.
Keywords: UID registration
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/article2500244.ece
NEWS » STATES » KERALA
KOCHI, September 5, 2011Aadhaar bound to fail: Aruna Roy
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The HinduAruna Roy says the UID card can be used as a tool for repression.
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Blow to Aadhaar project as Bill is rejectedTOPICS
IndiaKeralaAruna Roy, National Advisory Council member and social activist, has said that the Unique Identification (UID) Project, Aadhaar, which is being implemented in the State currently, can be used by a repressive government to target communities, groups or ideologies.
"The problems with the project are many. It began to be implemented even before the law was passed in Parliament. It collects all our data, including irrelevant data, and the storage, we are told, is done by a private agency. It can do anything it wants with it. It can even sell the data," she cautioned while interacting with journalists here on Sunday.
Ms. Roy, president of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), said since it involved commerce, the project was a fertile ground for tremendous corruption "to the scale of which even national security can be impinged." Further, States could take over the data and use it to target particular communities, ideologies, and gender-based groups. So, this kind of storage of data without transparency and accountability was dangerous.
"While the smokescreen [for implementing the project] is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the public distribution system, it is meant for the Natgrid (National Intelligence Gird). The project endangers citizens' entitlement to privacy and freedom. Besides, the technology used [for data collection] is defective. The project is, therefore, guaranteed to fail," she said. NFIW general secretary Annie Raja attended the meeting.
Keywords: National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Aadhaar card
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2426195.eceNEWS » STATES » TAMIL NADU
MADURAI, April 28, 2011UID project, last step in dismantling of welfare policies: expert
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The HinduUsha Ramanathan, independent law researcher, addressing a seminar in Madurai. Photo: S. James
The Unique Identification (UID) project is a classic example of outsourcing of government services to corporates as the project is governed and controlled by a few organisations. It could be the last step in the dismantling of welfare policies that started in 1991-New Economic Reforms, said Usha Ramanathan.
Addressing a seminar, 'Unique Identification-UID an Identity Crisis,' organised by People's Watch, a non-governmental organisation, here on Monday, Ms. Usha, an eminent independent law researcher and an expert in poverty and law, explained in detail the serious implications that the project could have on people.
She started the talk by explaining that the central proposal of the project rode on the initiative that there were many people in India, especially the poor, who had no identity and, therefore, were not known to the State. Once they could demonstrate that they existed, the UID would help them towards reaching services and entitlements which the State provided to its poor.
Enrolment process
All that was needed to do was enrol and to do that the people had to give simple and basic information to the enrolling agency which would be passed on to the UIDAI which would get it 'de-duplicated' ( to make sure that they have not been given a number already; the biometrics are to help achieve de-duplication through the use of fingerprints and iris metrics) and allot each individual a unique 12-digit number.
One of the major matters that the legal expert touched upon was the question of voluntariness as it was claimed that enrolment was voluntary. However, she maintained that the compulsion would not come from the UIDAI, but other agencies might demand that a person must have a UID number to be provided a service. Banks, for instance, might make UID a prerequisite to open or maintain accounts and a few banks had already earmarked space for UID numbers.
One of the much talked about claims was that UID would make the Public Distribution System (PDS) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) more efficient and plug leakages and pilferages.
It was this aspect of the UIDAI where the project piggybacked on the schemes and services of the government. However, after resistance from the MNREGA activists that the scheme in itself was fragile for the fragile people and you could not piggyback on them, they had turned to Financial Inclusion (FI).
Ms. Usha said that all that the UID could do to the maximum was possibly prevent leakages at the last delivery point where the ration shops provided goods to the public. She criticised that even the idea that the UID was a State project was a myth as the project had been without the authority of law since its inception. It continued to run without a feasibility report or budget.
Biometric identifiers
Explaining how the Western countries and Chinese had abandoned biometric identifiers, she said that China, which initially thought of having biometrics, later found that for such a hugely populated nation it was not only feasible but there were also serious implications if implemented.
Ms. Usha referred to how millions of toiling masses in agriculture, construction work and other manual labour had worn-out fingers due to a lifetime of hard labour and had what is known as 'low-quality' fingerprints. This was precisely the demographic that UID aimed to help — those who were outside government records and welfare schemes. This project, she said, did not allow the poor to self-identify themselves but was "de-citizening" them.
Keywords: Unique Identification, UID
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article1770519.ece
Excluded from UID project?
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Remember the people who would come home and sharpen your kitchen knife using a treadle wheel? Seen the tightrope walkers, the monkey-bearers, the bear-masters in roadside shows?
Entire communities in such dying professions were devastated as new laws failed to create alternative means of livelihood. Classified as Nomadic and Denotified tribes (NTs/DTs), these communities remain excluded from official lists and estimates, thus risking their exclusion from the unique identification (UID) project, Balkrishna Renke, ex-chairman, National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes, told journalists here on Thursday.
"They have no territorial rights. If you ask them to prove that they are Indians, they won't be able to. They have no ration cards, no BPL cards, and their names are not included in voting lists. Which is why they are likely to be excluded from UID as well," he said.
Mr. Renke demanded that the Union government make public the Renke Commission report on nomadic and denotified tribes, to initiate a public discourse.
He said he had submitted the report in July 2, 2008, to the Centre, which is guarded on making the contents of the report public. "Our basic demand is that let there be a full discussion," he said.
At a UN Round Table Conference, between September 22 and 28, the international body would discuss issues of "indigenous people," having recognised it as a separate category, he said.
He sought a survey to assess the backwardness of the communities. A particular community could be categorised as Denotified Tribe, Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Class depending on its geographical location. In M.P., such differences are seen from taluka to taluka, he said.
Keywords: UID project
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article673103.ece
NEWS » NATIONAL
NEW DELHI, October 28, 2010UID numbers soon for schoolchildren
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NEW INITIATIVE: Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal (third from left) and Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan Nilekani (second from right) watch as Joint Secretary in the HRD Ministry Amit Khare (second from left) and UIDAI Deputy Director Anil Kachi (right) exchange documents in New Delhi on Tuesday. Minister of State D. Purandeswari is seen at left. Photo: V. Sudershan
All schoolchildren will soon have unique identification numbers (UID), which will help in tracking their movement in educational institutions and academic records.
This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) here on Wednesday.
The system will help in tracking students' mobility by creating an electronic registry, right from the primary level through secondary and higher education, as also between the institutions. Imprinting of the UID number on the performance records of students, including mark-sheets, merit certificates and migration certificates, will be helpful to prospective employers and educational institutions.
The UID number will also help in dealing with problems such as fake degrees. It could be utilised while dematting of academic certificates, as also education loans and scholarship schemes.
Iris scanning would be done for children aged between 5 and 15, while finger print marks would be added subsequently. Infants and children below the age of five will get the number, but their biometric identification will be done only after the age of five.
Speaking on the occasion, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said that with the new system, the delivery mechanism would be made more efficient.
Educational uses
The technology would be used for proper implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act and monitoring of the mid-day meal scheme and other school programmes.
The Ministry will cooperate and collaborate with the UIDAI in conducting proof of concept (PoC) studies, pilots to test the working of the technology, process of enrolment into the UID database and identify registrars for implementing the UID project (PoC and pilots).
The Ministry will help ensure that the registrars do all that is necessary to put in place an institutional mechanism to effectively oversee and monitor the implementation of the UID project. They will also provide logistic and liaison support to the staff and representatives of the UIDAI.
The MoU was signed by Amit Khare, Joint Secretary in the HRD Ministry, and Anil Kachi, Deputy Director of UIDAI, signed the MoU in the presence of Mr. Sibal and UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani.
School dropouts
Mr. Nilekani noted that the UID would be particularly helpful in tracking school dropouts and migrant students, thereby making access to education possible.
"We are already running a programme for enrolment of homeless people in Delhi that will automatically include children who are out of school," he said.
The government set up the UIDAI for issuing UID numbers to all residents of India, based on the demographic and biometric data of individuals.
The UIDAI will develop and prescribe standards for recording data fields, data verification and biometric fields, prescribe a process for enrolment of beneficiaries/students to authenticate the identity of a person with a UID number.
Keywords: unique identification numbers, educational institutions, Unique Identification Authority of India
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article853026.ece
| Arundhati Roy in an interview to the New Internationalist magazine:
Read the full interview at the New Internationalist
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Will Rahul Gandhi finally be in charge of his destiny in 2012? Well, Rahul Gandhi might certainly be in charge of his party, the INC, but whether he will be in charge of his destiny or not is too philosophical a point for me to ponder. Politics is not that profound. If Rahul Gandhi's past is any criterion, then his thoughts are a bit basic and he will need more than just that to galvanise the country. But at the same time, dynasty still has some appeal in this country and he will milk that. His approach to issues, frankly, is anodyne. I am not entirely convinced about his application. Rahul Gandhi still doesn't have any clue except the fact that he is the son of Rajiv Gandhi and that he wants more youth to join politics and more good people to join politics. We have to wait to find out more about him in 2012. We'll find out, if we are lucky.
Will the BJP choose Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate? It won't. This is because Modi will not offer himself as candidate in an election he has little control over. Unlike in Gujarat, he cannot influence the voters in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra (except for the megapolis of Mumbai) and Madhya Pradesh. These voters have no experience of his governance and are not polarised against Muslims as Gujaratis are. The national issues of the 2014 general election—corruption for the opposition parties, and its social legislation record for the Indian National Congress—are not those of his liking. Modi will only enter the election after the election. Should the BJP win 175 seats, he will lead India, brushing aside Advani and Sushma. The old men of the RSS distrust him because he does not submit to them but they fear his popularity with the middle class. They will not stand in his way. For now, Modi will work on winning the Gujarat assembly in 2012 to become the most successful chief minister since Jyoti Basu. After that, he will wait. Post the FDI in multi-retail fiasco, is it safe to say there'll be no big reforms? It doesn't look hopeful but it's too soon to say firmly that nothing can be done in 2012—things could change. This is a fluid coalition government that needs leadership. FDI in retail was worked out and timed very unwisely, and Anand Sharma and others overblew its economic importance. It is a long-term reform requiring massive investment and development, and there would be few immediate benefits. Let's see what happens once the UP elections are out of the way, especially now that Rahul Gandhi is arguing for it. Will the UPA's flagship Right to Food scheme take off? While it is an excellent policy goal to ensure that no one goes hungry, the manner in which the UPA government is going about it is dangerous; it will worsen corruption and is quite likely to be counterproductive. The price of overloading the bill of rights will be paid in terms of the state's inability to enforce any of them. The PDS is independent India's biggest and longest-running scam. If implemented, the FSB will worsen the widespread corruption that is involved in the government buying, storing, distributing and retailing foodgrains. The UPA government's ideological blinkers do not allow it to see that there are far simpler methods to ensure food security. Conditional cash transfers are a far more efficient and liberal way of addressing the challenge. Will justice be truly delivered in the 2G scam case? In the eyes of many, justice has already been delivered to an extent in the 2G scam case. The fact that A. Raja has been in jail since February 2, together with former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, is significant. K. Kanimozhi spent over six months behind bars, while the time spent in Tihar jail by various corporate honchos has varied between seven and 10 months. Yes, none of the accused has been formally found guilty by a court of law. Neither have tycoons like Anil Ambani and Ratan Tata or political leaders like Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram been implicated so far in the scam. Will Nandan Nilekani's troubled Aadhar project exist at all in 2012? The UID project, as Nandan Nilekani has himself frequently observed, was an experiment. The standing committee examined the project in detail over the past year and found it be deeply flawed in conception and execution. It has no clarity of purpose and is directionless. It ignores concerns about privacy, personal safety and national security. Ergo, the cabinet will have to send it back to the drawing board. There is also the matter of the demographic and biometric information that has been gathered so far. The UK experience shows that dismantling a structure wrongly set up is an important, even if difficult, process. Are we now going to need an agency to undertake this exercise?
Will the Koodankulam nuclear plant see the light of day? The central government is unlikely to walk away from the multi-billion dollar investment already in the nuclear plant. But much will depend on how its officials handle the situation in the villages and districts around Koodankulam. For a variety of reasons, the local residents have misgivings and these cannot be brushed aside as inauthentic or "foreign-inspired". There is a hard core of activists who have a theological position against nuclear power and who will perhaps never be convinced; but the rest will see the merit of a good argument provided the nuclear establishment argues its case well. What happens at Koodankulam is a test case for the rest of the country. Despite Lokpal, will Team Anna remain a thorn in the UPA's side? They will continue to be a thorn whether the Lokpal bill is passed or not. If passed, it is likely that it will not be to the complete satisfaction of Team Anna. In all likelihood, the demand for changes will increase—they are looking for a larger role in public space, and why not? In fact, it would not be wrong to start looking into the past to see whether the movement resembles 1973-74, whether it is the beginning of a larger anti-Congress conglomeration. What form this will take, we don't know. I don't see the tacit support for the movement dwindling. All I am concerned with right now is that the agitation could take a non-democratic turn. Can Congress's three allies (TMC, DMK, NCP) bring down the UPA? I doubt if either the DMK or the NCP will push their differences with the government to breaking point because both of them critically depend on the Congress to prop themselves up in their respective states and even at the Centre. Therefore, of the three, the party that could bring down the government can only be the Trinamool. It can survive the loss of Congress support in Bengal, has enough MPs in Delhi and enjoys the prospect of many more in 2014. It need not worry about the alliance with the Congress. However, this does not necessarily mean that the TMC will snap the relationship. Will Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari survive through 2012? Despite all his weaknesses, Zardari's enemies cannot remove him through any constitutional means. His party is standing behind him like a rock. Enemies want him to resign on medical grounds. He says that 'If I resign, democracy will go away forever. Yes, democracy is sick like me but this sick democracy will fight.' He is living in President House, Islamabad, with his two camels, eight cows, 20 goats and one cat. A few days back, I was astonished to see a lot of weapons in his bedroom. Despite it being a chilly evening in December, he showed me his shooting range. Zardari told me, "Escape is not an option, I will fight politically. If they attack me physically, I will fight with my weapons. I will go out from President House only in an ambulance." What else will Markandey Katju ask the media not to do? I think he is going to ask the media not to be too critical of his somewhat wayward ways which, he says, is his way of engaging various arms of the media in a lively discussion. Katju will ask the media not to take things to heart. He is a bit of a gadfly, brusque and exceeding his brief. I don't think it is proper for the chairman of the Press Council to say some of the things he said when he should ideally be trying to find ways of getting along with the press.
Will Sachin score his 100th 100 before Sehwag scores a triple hundred in ODIs? Conventional wisdom suggests Sachin will, but these are not conventional times. If Tendulkar was a real romantic, he'd keep the figure at 99 but, realistically speaking, here's what I think could happen before he gets to three figures again: Lalit Modi will return to the BCCI, which will discover its long-forgotten human face; Bangladesh will win a Test match (maybe on a tour of India); Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell will celebrate Christmas together; and M.S. Dhoni will actually say something when he answers a question (though that last one could be pushing it a bit). Of course, we all know what will happen: Tendulkar will stride out after tea on Boxing Day and, around three sessions later, he'd have reached the Promised Land. The wait will be over, the weight will be off. Will the rupee plunge to Rs 60/ dollar in the next 12 months? It depends on what the dollar does overseas. If the dollar strengthens dramatically (it is fairly strong now, as on December 15), it is a fairly certain possibility. But 2012 is 12 months long, during which time the whole world can go upside down. Right now the whole world is generally convinced that the sky is falling. Europe is going to hell. America can't get its act together. So everyone has pulled money out of any risky asset. But sometime over the next 12 months, the mood can suddenly change. When that will happen, who knows? But when it happens, you could see lot of money coming into the country…. Will (former) PR lady Niira Radia make a comeback? I think she will. And that's because nobody's taken her place yet. She'll come back with a bigger business, I suspect, or as a formal lobbyist again. She'll lay low and return when her reputation is ready to be salvaged. She has shown the moribund PR agency world what someone with drive can achieve, with a little vision. Somebody's got to do what she did, and I think it will be her again.
Would you like to feature in next year's Bigg Boss? If there is such an opportunity, I would like to participate. Though I was warned that the programme "would be as deadly as potassium cyanide", I got persuaded by the idea of being in a show which is watched by audiences of all ages, including schoolchildren. If the programme format is changed, I would not mind participating in the next season. Do you think India Inc will have cause to write more letters in 2012? I think it's all coming together. I don't want to pre-judge anything we'll do or not do in the coming year, and I also don't want to comment prematurely on what the government will do because the Parliament session is on. A lot has already happened which is cause enough (for us) to be happy—the Lokpal Bill is on the cards, the Food Bill has been on the agenda and it's all coming together. Just how are Indo-US relations, always watched with interest, poised today? Washington is preoccupied with its domestic travails and more urgent foreign demands (so is Delhi), but "ignoring" India it isn't. The recent US-India higher education summit is a case in point. So too are high-level visits, including in January by the co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, Mark Warner, and the likely next secretary of state (if President Obama wins a second term), John Kerry. On the other hand, on FDI in retail, the celebrations were premature, unfortunately. But arguments about protecting "mom and pop" stores from giants like Walmart have also been fought out in the US—and are being resolved. They will be in India too. The full story of the US-India relationship today is that it is not stalled. It is not adrift. It is moving forward, albeit slowly, but surely. And it could use an occasional lightning bolt from the leaders of both capitals to quicken the pace! What will the government do to control our lives online in 2012? I hope the government does nothing. My view is that as new mediums takes shape, especially in a society that is undergoing change, these type of issues will arise and there will be tensions on account of content and online activity. But this is not an abnormal tension. I saw a similar situation in the US 15 years ago when the internet was taking shape there. We are at that point now when all kinds of statements will be made, but in the end good sense will prevail. The Indian government will realise that the backlash will be huge. I am pretty clear that you cannot control the internet and the government will not do anything in this direction. The nation wants to know, who will Arnab Goswami declare war on next? Who will Arnab (or Ornab, as Vinod Mehta correctly pronounces it, lest he is asked direct questions for mispronouncing) declare a war on next year is akin to asking which political coalition Ajit Singh will join next or which bowler will get thrashed by Virender Sehwag next. I think the person under attack could be anyone, even God, I mean Sachin Tendulkar. So, he'd better make his 100th century pretty soon next year or his (prospective) Bharat Ratna could be taken away by Arnab. And for lesser mortals like politicians, there will be no respite even in 2012. Our leaders might be able to wish away Anna in 2012, but Arnab will always be there. FILED IN: AUTHORS: OUTLOOK PEOPLE: MANMOHAN SINGH | RAHUL GANDHI | NARENDRA MODI | NANDAN NILEKANI | ASIF ALI ZARDARI | ANNA HAZARE | MARKANDEY KATJU | SACHIN TENDULKAR | NIIRA RADIA | SWAMI AGNIVESH | ARNAB GOSWAMI TAGS: FDI AND MNCS IN RETAIL | REFORMS | UPA | FOOD: POLICY-PRICES-PDS-SECURITY ETC | UNIQUE IDENTITY CARD | SPECTRUM SALE AND SCAMS | CONGRESS | LOKAYUKTA & LOKPAL | NUCLEAR DEAL - POWER & OTHER ISSUES | DMK | TRINAMOOL CONGRESS | NCP | RUPEE | INDIA INC | FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET | INDO-US | FREE SPEECH | INTERNET | CENSORSHIP | 2012 SECTION: NATIONAL PLACES: TAMIL NADU | PAKISTAN TRANSLATE INTO: Translate DAILY MAIL
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