While a final word is still not out on the usefulness of Aadhaar card, various government agencies have taken steps to link it for speedy verification process and the latest to join is the passport
Union minister of communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that his ministry has approved open source software policy. The minister said that from now use of open source s
One of the justifications for Aadhaar, the unique identity project, was to provide an authorised identification to people who did not have any. In India, a vast number of people, it is believed, do
What can we do if we link money, digital identity and a mobile phone? A lot, if one were to put it simply. The idea is brilliant and practical at the same time, which is a rarity. It’s an ide
Following announcements by writer Nayantara Sehgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi to return their Sahitya Akademi awards, the literary body`s president said authors should "adopt a different way to pr
The usage of Aadhaar by government and private agencies will come to a standstill and many projects will be affected by the refusal of the supreme court on Wednesday to modify its August 11 order.
Aadhaar is mandatory. That’s what the Aadhaar (targeted delivery of financial and other subsidies, benefits and services) Bill, 2016, tabled in the parliament on Thursday, says. The bill main
Aadhaar is finally getting legal backing – after years of going on without it. The government has chosen to classify it as a money bill. So, it needs to be cleared only by the Lok Sabha, and
The government of India has tabled the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha. The proposed legislation seeks to give a lega
The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Aadhaar Bill amid opposition pro
Aadhaar-based disbursal of subsidised ration is opening new avenues for corruption in Rajasthan, said Nikhil Dey of People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG). Dey was speaking to journa
The Rajya Sabha witnessed the kind of debate it has not seen at least in recent decades as it took up for consideration the Aadhaar bill on Wednesday. Essentially, the opposition in the upper
Right to privacy is one of the hotly debated issues when the matter of Aadhaar comes up. On Wednesday, initiating a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the Aadhaar bill, finance minister Arun Jaitley
Jairam Ramesh of the Congress led the opposition attack on the government during the discussion on the Aadhaar bill in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, putting finance minister Arun Jaitley in an emba
After snubbing the finance minister in Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh of
Jean Dreze is equally concerned with theory of development economics as with its practice. A visiting professor at the department of economics in Ranchi University, he has extensively worked on
I assume that you already have an Aadhaar number. After all, 98 crore Indians have it. Why won’t you? And if you haven’t, it is time. The Aadhaar bill cleared by parliament on March 16
The Indian railway budget for 2016 clearly indicates that the government’s investment plans are high for the next five years. This means that many people will be hired by the recruitment boar
It was no less than a roller-coaster ride for Aadhaar, a programme formulated by the UPA government to assign a 12-digit unique number to every Indian resident. From the time it came into being in
The government has tabled the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, in the Lok Sabha. It seeks to give a legal basis for issuing Aadhaar, t
Even as the country lacks a legal framework to safeguard individual privacy and data security, the government is planning to integrate Aadhaar database, updated national population register (NPR) a
Eighty-year-old Shakunthala is hardly able to stand steady on her feet. With slumped shoulders and hunched back she came to the Puducherry civil supplies and consumer affairs office to complain tha
Two years ago 58-year-old Kuldeep Kumar Goyal received enough ration from the local fair price shop to feed his family of four. Goyal, a daily wage earner, lives with his wife Rajrani and two sons
Can you explain the cash transfer system under NFSA, 2013? The law categorises beneficiaries as priority households and antyodaya anna yojana (AAY) families. The AAY famili
Technology and e-governance have a transformational potential of making public services accessible and efficient, and helps in making governments responsive and accountable. As part of Digital Indi
Should the state give food grains and other ration items to the needy people or should the state give them just enough cash to buy these items themselves? That was the ‘cash-vs-PDS’ deb
Aadhaar has faced a volley of criticism for limiting a citizen’s right to privacy. But Aadhaar is not alone in intruding into your life. You can stake a claim to genuine privacy and escape st
Pained by the government`s apathy towards revising decades old monthly pension of Rs 200, 125 elderly citizens associated with Pension Parishad will be sending a day`s pension, Rs 7, to prime minis
Before taking over the reins of DeitY in February, Aruna Sharma was heading the department of panchayat and rural development in Madhya Pradesh. As secretary of DeitY, she is steering UIDAI and
Over 30 crore people were benefitted through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in 2015-16 as
Imagine a scenario where a doctor knows all about the patient’s health even before being bombarded with a litany of health woes. In the not too distant future, this is going to happen in Indi
Five years after the government approved a single, unified project to modernise public health system, the project still remains on paper. Under the national e-governance plan (NeGP), the ministry o
Vijay Aggarwal, a 32-year-old businessman from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh city, last year received a call from an unknown person who introduced himself as an agent from Birla Sun Life Insurance.
Five long years and several revisions later, the right to privacy bill is now wedged tightly between the department of personnel and training (DoPT) and the department of electronics and informatio
A study by the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, a premier institute in dairy studies, has predicted a negative impact on milk production due to changing climatic conditions. The
For the past six months, the usual workflow in the gram panchayats of Fatehpur district, Uttar Pradesh, has been disrupted. After the December 2015 panchayat elections in Fatehpur, the gram p
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has strongly contested the government’s claim of having saved several thousands of crores through the direct benefit transfer for LPG (DBTL)
The supreme court (SC) has ruled that the national scholarship portal cannot mandate students to submit Aadhaar number for registration. It has reiterated its position, stating that the Aadhaar car
The government has proposed to provide a new unique identification number to eight crore BPL households, or approximately 40 crore people, for its new insurance scheme, National Health Protection S
We had two parallel exercises in the government for the last 30-40 years. Every time we had a discussion on economic policy or budget there always was discussion on rationalisation of subsidies. An
In order to quick access to information pertaining to Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched the revamped version of its toll-free helpline number 1947.
1.1 The Unique Identity Project of India, now called Aadhaar, was started in July 2009. The first Aadhaar number was issued on September 29, 2010. As on date, Unique Identification Authority of Ind
Railways reservation for senior citizens will be directly linked to Aadhaar or Unique Identification (UID) cards on a mandatory basis for both counter and e-tickets from April 1, 2017.
IDFC Bank has announced the nationwide launch of IDFC Aadhaar Pay, India’s first Aadhaar-linked cashless merchant solution that uses a retailers’ own android smartphone to enable
To promote and generate awareness for digital payments for citizens Maharashtra government organised Digi Dhan Mela in Mumbai on Tuesday. Headed by NITI Aayog and the department of e
A digital education and awareness programme was organised by Centre for the Study of Social Change (CSSC) under union ministry of social justice and empowerment. Principal Advisor,
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has ensured that 12 websites and 12 mobile applications available on the Google Playstore are shut down and has directed to close down 26 more suc
The direct benefits transfer (DBT) was supposed to be the original ‘game-changer’ – in the words of the then finance minister P Chidambaram when it was announced in late 2012. DBT
Ever since the unique identity number, or Aadhaar, was introduced in India, it has carefully avoided spelling out its status – whether it is mandatory or not. The official stance, even after
Tribals in the land of the legendary Birsa Munda in Jharkhand are fighting against the amendments of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNTA) and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act (SPTA).
2016 has been an engaging year for the telecom industry. How do you look at the industry’s growth in terms of policy reform? In the last one year, we have been focu
The HRD ministry has declared that children studying in government schools can receive mid day mea
On AadhaarPay Today more than 112 crore people have the Aadhaar card. Approximately 40 crore people have linked their Aadhaar numbers to their bank accounts. We a
Aadhaar has become the most trusted instrument for administering services and subsidies for the government. Stories about Aadhaar being made mandatory for services is a daily routine. This is when
Calling reports on cash transfer and Aadhar card requirements under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) factually incorrect, the ministry of women and child development has said that t
Food is ready to be served on a plastic sheet laid on the floor. Children and mothers (pregnant and lactating) eagerly wait to get something down in their bellies. But before that begins, anganwadi
Joseph A Cannataci is the UN’s first and current special rapporteur for the right to privacy appointed by the Human Rights Council (HRC) in July 2015. His appointment came with grow
Aadhaar is arguably one of the most convoluted public policy interventions in India’s history. It has been more than eight years, yet there is little clarity on the exact purpose of the
Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said that the interim orders of the supreme court on Aadhaar delivered in 2015 are meant for an "interim arrangement" and "it
Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that 113 crore people trust Aadhaar. “If I talk about the poor, 60 crore people are not complaining , they are happy. When their MN
A plan to home-deliver petroleum products may look like an out-of-the-box idea, but it is not exactly a new one. Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted: “Options being e
Privacy and data protection concerns have become serious in a digital world due to ease of search and aggregation, with or without Aadhaar. Type any name in Google and it will throw up thousands of
Aadhaar has been designed as a digital identity platform, which is inclusive, unique and authenticable to participate in any digital transaction. This has transformed service delivery in our countr
With the supreme court upholding the Aadhaar and PAN card linkage, it would be a good idea to have one unique number for both identity as well as for financial dealings. “Parliament
In April, the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai was making news. Its ranking in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2017 dropped from the second position to 25th. In th
About 15 lakh engineers pass out every year; but there are jobs only for about a third of them. Most passouts have degrees in information technology and electronics, because the IT sector was boomi
We started in July 2009 with two overarching contexts. The first context was identification. Many people did not have any identification document. Of course, there are many ID documents i
Union minister for electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad has fiercely defended Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) amid repeated occurrence of data breach and unauthorised discl
TRAI chief RS Sharma, who was the director general of UIDAI at its inception, sits down with Governance Now journalists to talk about how the ambitious project was conceived. He also dispels the mi
In April this year, activists dealing with food security wanted to know from people in Katar village in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district whether the information uploaded on a website where PDS h
Prime minister Narendra Modi said in parliament in February that the government has saved Rs 14,000 crore by eliminating 3.95 crore bogus ration cards using technology and Aadhaar in last two and h
A nine judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court has unanimously upheld that privacy is a fundamental right protected under the constitution. The judges have upheld that
The supreme court’s verdict upholding privacy as a fundamental right is likely to have an impact on at least three major cases – Aadhaar, online freedom of expression and homosexualit
Now onto Aadhaar modification, said BJP leader Subramanian Swamy after the supreme court unanimously declared that the right to privacy was a fundamental right under the Constitution.
Aadhaar cards have facilitated payment of as much as Rs 83,184 crore to beneficiaries of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes, said a study. An ASSOCHAM–
A bench of the Delhi high court comprising chief justice Geeta Mittal and justice C Hari Shankar pulled up the Delhi government on its failure to frame rules under the National Food Security Act (N
Aadhaar was supposed to make life convenient. Its architects and backers, however, had some other plans. You just don’t have to enrol for it and use it as it suits. As asked in several govern
Aadhaar was supposed to make life convenient. Its architects and backers, however, had some other plans. You just don’t have to enrol for it and use it as it suits. As asked in several govern
The supreme court on Friday asked the banks and the telecom service providers (TSP) to specify a deadline in their messages for linking accounts with Aadhaar. The apex court c
A group of citizens including eminent jurists and civil activists have written to Justice BN Srikrishna, retired supreme court judge and chairperson, committee of experts on data protection f
We recently witnessed the shameful spectacle of a tribal girl’s death from starvation due to her inability to link her Aadhaar to her ration card. Once the media got hold of the story, all
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday said here that the Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure and there has been no data leak or breach. UIDAI said in a st
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday said here that the Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure and there has been no data leak or breach. UIDAI said in a st
The government’s plan to seed Aadhaar with properties will not only help in flushing out black money that is parked in real estate, but also bring down prices that have gone through the roof.
“As a democracy India upholds privacy governed by rule of law and constitution, but privacy can’t prohibit innovation, that’s what we feel,” said union minister for electron
"We in India, give primacy to the human face of technology, and are using it to improve what I call, `ease of living`," said prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. &ldq
Prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that he may have to pay a political price for the reforms that are aimed at ending corruption, but he was ready for it. Modi said that
The government has told the supreme court that it is extending the deadline for mandatory linking of the government services with Aadhaar till March 31, 2018. However, news agencies
A day before a Supreme Court bench takes up petitions opposing mandatory Aadhaar linkage with several government services, the government has
A five judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court in its interim ruling on Friday has fixed the deadline for linking Aadhaar with services including mobile numbers as March 31, 2018.
If you thought that by getting the coveted Aadhaar card number your job is done, then think again as the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) is the next big thing that is going to hap
Right to Food Campaign, Jharkhand, a civil society organisation, has claimed that Aadhaar disruption has caused another hunger death. Etwariya Devi, a 67-year-old widow, died
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has done it again. For the fourth time, the authority has filed a police complaint against individuals and agencies highlighting the vulnerabi
A 16 digit virtual ID (VID) is expected to give a fresh layer of security to Aadhaar. Here are the five key points of VID: User virtual ID or VID in
The UIDAI has introduced two measures to strengthen the security of Aadhaar: a 16-digit virtual ID (VID) in place of Aadhaar number for authentication, and a ‘limited KYC’ feature i
The government maintains that there has been no breach of Aadhaar data. “As on date, no incident of data breach has been reported from Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR)
If you are a Paytm or Mobikwik or a customer of any prepaid wallet, then you now have barely a day left to get your account linked to Aadhaar. With the Reserve Bank of India making i
The supreme court (SC) on Tuesday extended the deadline to link Aadhaar with
There has been no instance which has been reported where Aadhaar data has been misused by private companies, parliament was informed. It was found that approximately 210 websites of
Making a strong pitch before the five judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, UIDAI CEO AB Pandey said that online authentication such as Aadhaar is a safer and secure mode of aut
It took four years for Rahila Khan, a Muslim woman from Himachal Pradesh, to get a ration card after her husband passed away. She is a single woman who is entitled to the benefits of Antodoya Anna
The election commission of India (ECI) has been working on a series of electoral reforms, and the agenda includes linking Aadhaar with the electoral roll, considering paid news and false affidavit
Shivangi Narayan’s ‘Surveillance as Governance: Aadhaar, Big Data in Governance’ is a valuable addition to the literature on the new identification system that is changing the
In a step towards Telecom Reforms which aim to provide internet a
For many organizations, maintaining consumer trust is paramount. The more users trust an organization, the more that organization can grow its services and revenue. Should a data breach occur, that
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has put in place a resident-friendly facility to help them update address in Aadhaar online with the consent of the Head of Family (HoF).
