India to become first country to have no duplicacy in voters' list: CEC

[Hindustani78]

India to become first country to have no duplicacy in voters' list: CEC | Zee News
Last Updated: Sunday, March 22, 2015 - 00:26

Kolkata: India is set to become the first country in the world to have biometric data and no duplicacy in the voters' list after linking of Aadhar card with voter identity card, Chief Election Commissioner HS Brahma said on Saturday.


"When we are able to seed the Aadhar figure (number) on EPIC card that will ensure that there is not a single duplicate number. We will do it definitely by 2015 and then India will be the only country in the world where there will be complete biometric of voters. There will be not a single fraud or duplicate voters," Brahma said at a conference on electoral reforms here.

Asked about Supreme Court's order which had said that Aadhar is not a prerequisite for availing public services, he said everyday lakhs of voters are seeding their names with Aadhar card on their own.

"Everyday our voters are themselves seeding (their names for Aadhar cards). More than lakhs daily. We do not want to make it compulsory but our voters themselves want it. It is a good gesture," the CEC said.

He appealed to all citizens of the country to avoid duplicate names in the voter list saying it is a crime punishable for upto one year.

Brahma said once the Aadhar number is mentioned in the electoral rolls then individual voters can also change their address online because Aadhar will be the basic identity.

It will remove all allegations of duplicacy in the voters list and harassment to voters in changing their address, he said adding that so far 85 crore Indians have got their Aadhar numbers.

"We are very hopeful that the remaining 25-30 crore people's Aadhar cards would be done by August this year," he said adding that in West Bengal the Aadhar figure is around 55 per cent so far.

On electoral reforms, he said political reforms should also be talked about in the same spirit.

He said if the government accepts the report of the Law Commission then 95 per cent of problems on issues of electoral reforms will be resolved.

Asked about expenditure ceiling for political party candidates, he said they need to be vigilant as money and muscle power doesn't lead to level playing field.

"Filing of nominations should also be online so that people can know the plus and minus of the candidates," Brahma added.

PTI

 

[Ind4Ever]

Very good ! And we need catch these Adarsh Liberals from Bangladesh who got Adarsh cards . Since new Govt made Adarsh card as must for Gas subsidiaries people are enrolling themself What an idea sir gi

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Electronics & IT
27-January, 2017 15:32 IST
UIDAI Achieves 111 Crore Mark on Aadhaar Generation Unique Identity Covers to Over 99 Percent Adult Residents of India



Following is the statement by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics & IT and Law & Justice: “With 68th Republic Day, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has achieved another landmark by generating 111 crore Aadhaar in a population of 125 crore plus.

The World’s largest and unique biometrics based identification programme with a real time online authentication infrastructure – the Aadhaar has been recognized in the recent UN Report on World Social Situation, 2016 as a developmental tool with “tremendous potential to foster inclusion by giving all people, including the poorest and most marginalized, an official identity” and a wonderful “critical step in enabling fairer access of the people to government benefits and services”, thereby enhancing social and economic distributive justice leaving no one behind.

“Aadhaar generation has crossed the 111+ crore mark. It’s a great achievement towards inclusion of everyone into national development fabric. It has come a long way in less than six and a half years of its journey from being a unique identification programme to transform itself into a critical development tool of public–centric good governance and targeted delivery of services/benefits/subsidies; Such a transformation became possible, because of the unique initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, to use Aadhaar, for the financial and social inclusion.

Aadhaar enrolment ecosystem with 135 registrars and 612 enrolment agencies working at 47,192 enrolment stations has been enrolling and updating7-8 lakhs requests per day. Aadhaar generation as on 31stMay 2014 was 63.22 crore with a per day enrolment/update trend of about 3-4 lakh which remained around 5-6 lakh per day till October 2016.However, since demonetization the Aadhaar enrolment and update requests are in the range of 7-8 lakhs per day. With over 47.8 crore Aadhaars generated since June 2014, Aadhaar now stands at 111+ crore. UIDAI has 28,332 Permanent Enrolment Centres where people may go for enrolment, updation and other Aadhaar related services. UIDAI has a capacity of generating and dispatching over 15 lakh Aadhaars every day.


“Aadhaar which began in its first phase as a unique identification programme with an authentication infrastructure grew into its second phase as the tool of public sector delivery reforms by becoming the permanent financial address of the Aadhaar holder;and as a tool for de-duplication, e-KYC anddirect benefit transfer in its third phase, it started contributing to the management of the fiscal budget by generating saving to the Government exchequer to the tune of 36,144 crore in a few welfare schemes only in just two years”. (Details in Annexure)

“Now in its fourth phase, with demonetisation and Digital India drive towards less-cash economy, Aadhaar is all set to be the game changer with Aadhaar Pay – a non-traditional digital payment system without a need of card, pin, password or mobile with the consumer”,

Aadhaar has empowered people by increasing convenience and making their life hassle-free towards a presenceless, paperless and cashless environment.

Dispelling apprehensions on privacy and data security, Prasad said, “The Government is vigilant towards privacy protection and database security which is our paramount concern. We have Aadhaar Act 2016 which has strict provisions for protection of data and privacy.”

As on date, Aadhaar’s total saturation percentage is 91.7% (as per Census 2011) while over 99% adult population above the age of 18 have been assigned Aadhaar numbers. Twenty two States/UTs have more than 90% saturation.

Aadhaar has become an extraordinary institution to connect the ordinary people of India into the banking system in a flawless manner.

Firstly, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System ( AEPS ) on which 119 banks are live. This helps the Banking Correspondents to go to the doorsteps in rural villages, facilitating banking transactions, with the help of Micro-ATMs, linked with Aadhaar. More than 33.87 crore transactions have taken place through AEPS, which was only 46 lakhs in May 2014. While only 7,406 AEPS points were available in May 2014, we now have over 1,65,000 agents available in the villages.

Secondly, the opening of bank accounts with Aadhaar eKYC, in which 97 banks are live and 4.47 crore bank accounts have been opened till now, which was only 1 lakh in May 2014.

Thirdly, Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB), a seamless payment facility, which enables disbursal of benefits /other payments directly to the beneficiary’s account, popularly known as Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), has shown considerable growth in the past two years. Total number of transactions on the APB were logged at 167.36 crore worth Rs.44,967 crore which has risen by ten folds in value since 31st May 2014 ( 7 crore transactions, worth 4000 crores ).

Fourthly, with the Aadhaar Pay, soon to be launched, any person with his Aadhaar number linked to Bank account, can make and / or receive payment, with his thumb impression alone. There is absolutely no need for him to have any phone, debit card etc.. This will be available to all the persons having Aadhaar linked bank accounts, whose number stands at 39 crores now, which was only 6.7 crores in May 2014. About 2 crore Aadhaar numbers are linked to Bank accounts every month.”

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Home Affairs
04-August, 2017 15:39 IST
Requirement of Aadhaar number for Registration of Death of an Individual.

The Aadhaar number will be required for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased for the purpose of Death registration w.e.f 1st October, 2017. In a notification issued today the Registrar General India (RGI), Ministry of Home Affairs has said the use of Aadhaar for the applicants of Death Certificate will result in ensuring accuracy of the details provided by the relatives/ dependents / acquaintances of the deceased. It will provide an effective method to prevent identity fraud. It will also help in recording the identity of the deceased person. Further, it will obviate the need for producing multiple documents to prove the identity of the deceased person.

The RGI has further directed concerned Department in the respective State/UT responsible for registration of birth and death to ensure compliance by concerned registration authorities and a confirmation to this effect by on or before 1st September 2017.

The above provisions shall come into effect immediately for residents of all States except J&K, Assam & Meghalaya for which a date will be notified separately.

The RGI, in exercise of powers conferred under Section 3(3) of the Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969, directed that the Aadhaar number will be required for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased for the purpose of Death registration in the following manner:

An Applicant applying for death certificate is required to provide Aadhaar number or Enrolment ID Number (EID) of the deceased and other details as sought in the application for death certificate for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased.

An Applicant who is not aware of the Aadhaar number or Enrolment ID Number (EID) of the deceased will be required to provide a certificate that the deceased person does not possess Aadhaar number to the best of his/her knowledge and it should be duly informed and also prescribed that any false declaration given by the applicant in this regard will be treated as an offence as per the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and also Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969. Applicant’s Aadhaar number shall also be collected along with the Aadhaar number of the spouse or parents.

The RGI notification follows provisions of the Aadhaar Act and Regulations framed there under that have come into effect from 14th September 2016 and notifications to this effect have been published in the Official Gazette. Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act 2016 permits the use of Aadhaar number for establishing the identity of an individual for any purpose pursuant to any law or any contract to this effect.

The registration of births and deaths are being done under the provisions of Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969 and the corresponding Rules made thereunder by the State Governments. The office of the RGI is the central authority to coordinate and unify the activities of Chief Registrar of birth and deaths of States/UT’s in respect of registration of births and deaths. The extract/certificate of birth and death are issued by the registering authority notified by the State/UT Governments under section 12 and 17 of the RBD Act, 1969. These are issued on the basis of entries collected through birth and death reporting forms prescribed by the State Government.

****

 

[kmc_chacko]

Good steps but, they should also take care to keep data secure.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/business/co...ntelligence/article19561597.ece?homepage=true

New Delhi, August 25, 2017 18:15 IST
Updated: August 25, 2017 18:17 IST

The Commerce and Industry Ministry has constituted an 18-member task force to explore possibilities to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for economic transformation.

In a statement, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that with the rapid development in the fields of information technology and hardware, the world is about to witness a fourth industrial revolution.

“Driven bypower of big data, high computing capacity, artificial intelligence and analytics, Industry 4.0 aims to digitise the manufacturing sector,” she added.

The panel comprises of experts, academics, researchers and industry leaders. They will explore possibilities to leverage AI for development across various fields.

The task force will submit its recommendations to the government, industry and research institutions.

V Kamakoti from IIT Madras will be the chairperson of the task force. Members include Anuj Kapuria from High Tech RoboticSystemz Ltd, Anurag Agarwal from CSIR, G H Rao from HCL Technology and Aloke Mukherjee from DRDO

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Ec...uidai-chief/article19559580.ece?homepage=true

Deadline for Aadhaar-PAN linkage to stay, says Ajay Bhushan Pandey
Tax payers will have to link their PAN with Aadhaar by the stipulated deadline, which is this month-end, as the Supreme Court verdict on privacy has no bearing on the requirement, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said today.

The requirement for Aadhaar being quoted for availing government subsidies, welfare schemes and other benefits will also continue unhindered for now, he said.

The government had mandated linking of PAN with Aadhaar by the extended deadline of August 31.

Asked about the implication of the Supreme Court ruling (privacy being a fundamental right) on linking of Aadhaar and PAN, Mr. Pandey said: “There also, linking of PAN to Aadhaar is mandated by an amendment in income tax act...the linking will continue under that act and law. There is no change“.

Mr. Pandey said various deadlines that have been prescribed, be it under provision of Aadhaar Act, Income Tax Act or money laundering rules will “have to be adhered to” as “those laws are valid”.

He exuded confidence that Aadhaar Act, with its data protection safeguards, will pass the test of privacy being a fundamental right.

The biometric identifier is currently required for services ranging from getting subsidised cooking gas to opening bank account and obtaining a new phone number.

The Supreme Court “judgement has not said anything about the Aadhaar Act so the Aadhaar Act is a valid Act passed by the Parliament (and) is the law of the land”, Mr. Pandey said.

Section 7 of the act “prescribes that for getting certain subsidy or benefit the government can insist on an Aadhaar number. That position holds today,” he added.

Mr. Pandey’s clarification assumes significance in the light of a landmark verdict by the Supreme Court on Thursday that privacy is a fundamental right and an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty.

Several experts have said that the judgement will have a bearing on data collection and storage guidelines followed by various agencies, including in large projects like Aadhaar.

Asked if anyone can refuse to give their details in the backdrop of SC order, Pandey said: “As of today, no. Because Aadhaar Act is a valid Act and this judgement has not commented anything on Aadhaar Act.”

Mr. Pandey said Aadhaar enrolment will continue unhindered.

The UIDAI CEO added that Aadhaar Act protects privacy of people as a fundamental right and its provisions provide for safeguarding of personal data and how such data can be used.

“The data will not be shared without the consent of the person. So there are number of privacy protection provisions inbuilt into the Aadhaar Act itself,” he said.

He noted that core biometric can never be shared with anyone for any reason whatsoever, except in circumstances such as national security, and such cases too have to be cleared by a committee headed by cabinet secretary.

“There is a use limitation, sharing limitation, purpose limitation...all these limitations and restrictions are inbuilt into the Aadhaar Act itself,” he added.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...tion-regime/article19555907.ece?homepage=true

Capacity of non-state actors to invade the home and privacy has also been enhanced, says nine-judge Bench
The Supreme Court on Thursday urged the government to put in place a robust mechanism for data protection.

Noting that “informational privacy is a facet of the right to privacy”, a nine-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, said dangers to personal data originate not only from the government but also from private players.

“The dangers to privacy in an age of information can originate not only from the state but from non-state actors as well. We commend to the Union Government the need to examine and put into place a robust regime for data protection,” Justice D.Y. Chandrachud wrote.

Legitimate aims of state
The court observed that the creation of a regime requires careful and sensitive balance between individual interest and legitimate concerns of the state. “The legitimate aims of the state would include for instance protecting national security, preventing and investigating crime, encouraging innovation and the spread of knowledge and preventing the dissipation of social welfare benefits,” the apex court observed.

The court said the introduction of a “carefully structured” data protection regime and its contours were matters policy matters to be considered by the Centre.

The court also took note of the Centre's move to constitute a committee of experts led by former Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, on July 31, 2017 to identify “key data protection issues” and suggest a draft Data Protection Bill.

The Office Memorandum of the Justice Srikrishna Committee notes that the “government is cognisant of the growing importance of data protection in India. The need to ensure growth of the digital economy while keeping personal data of citizens secure and protected is of utmost importance”.

Panel report
The Centre has undertaken in the court that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology would work with the panel and hand over all necessary information to it within the next eight weeks, after which the latter will start its deliberations. The Committee is expected to submit its report expeditiously.

The government has already indicated in the court that the committee would be framing a data protection Bill similar to the “technology-neutral” draft Privacy Bill submitted by an earlier expert committee led by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah to the Planning Commission of India in 2012. No steps were taken on the recommendations of the Justice Shah Committee.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...ard-network/article19660140.ece?homepage=true

LUCKNOW, September 11, 2017 15:19 IST
Updated: September 11, 2017 18:26 IST

According to police, hackers have devised ways to not only bypass the biometric procedure of fingerprinting but also to scan the retina.
Could the Aadhaar card you possess be fake? You might just want to check.

According to Uttar Pradesh police, hackers have devised ways to bypass not just the Aadhaar biometric procedure of fingerprinting but also retina-scanning to come out with fake Aadhaar cards.

A Special Task Force (STF) of the police busted a State-wide network of hackers who allegedly bypassed the set standards of the biometric system of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and created fake Aadhaar cards through cloning of fingerprints.

The STF, which carried out the operation in Kanpur, arrested 10 persons on the charge of forgery and impersonation.

According to the STF, the accused would bypass the biometric norms of the UIDAI with fingerprint copies and tamper with the source code of the UIDAI application client (software used by Aadhaar enrolment agencies) to create a fake application client. They would then bypass the operator authentication process to create fake Aadhaar cards. The hackers would send the client application to unauthorised operators for a sum of ₹5, 000 each, police said.

A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime police station, Lucknow, under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 474 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 66 and 66C of the Information Technology Act and Section 7/34 of the Aadhaar Act.

After questioning the accused and through investigation, police explained the elaborate method of impersonation and fraud. The police operation followed the recent recovery of fake Aadhaar cards in Deoria, Kushinagar and Lucknow.

As per the STF, the accused accessed the fingerprint impressions of authorised Aadhaar enrolment operators on the UIDAI system. They would then print out the fingerprints on butter paper. After this, the accused would create artificial fingerprints using polymer resin. They would log on to the Aadhaar website using the artificial fingerprints created by them.

The artificial fingerprint of the operator would then be used by multiple members of the gang to complete the process the Aadhaar card enrolment.

The police have recovered the devices and equipment used for impersonation, including 38 fingerprints on paper, 46 fingerprints manufactured by chemicals, two Aadhaar finger-scanners, two finger-scanning devices, two iris retina scanners, eight rubber stamps, 18 Aadhaar cards, a webcam, GPS equipment and a Polymer Curing Instrument.

Eleven laptops and 12 mobile phones were also seized.

Police say that previously Aadhaar operators would get access to the UIDAI client application through their fingerprints. However, when hackers started cloning finger prints, the UIDAI introduced retina scanning or IRIS as part of the authentication process, after which impersonation was brought under check. However, investigators are worried that hackers have created new client applications to hack and bypass the biometrics.

Police have decided to conduct a “security audit” of the entire Aadhaar enrolment process after it discovered that the norms of the Information Security Policy of Aadhaar were not followed by registrars, enrolment agencies, supervisors, verifiers and operators.

The STF arrested Saurabh Singh, alleged kingpin of the gang, from Kanpur on September 9. The other nine have been identified as Shubham Singh, Shobhit Sachan, Manoj Kumar, Tulsiram, Shivam Kumar, Kuldip Singh, Chaman Gupta, Guddu Gond and Satyendra Kumar. They belong to various parts of the State.


************
seems something like this are the equipment. Made in which country ?

GPS

Polymers

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...-by-up-gang/story-pGni4aYMyngfHj8kuRuNJL.html

UIDAI said the attempt to generate fake Aadhaar card was foiled by the robust UIDAI system and the arrested gang could not succeed in its “nefarious and illegal designs”.
india Updated: Sep 12, 2017 20:43 IST
Press Trust of India, New Delhi

A man looks on as another puts his hand on a 'Slap Pad' for recording of fingerprints during the data collecting process for a pilot project of Unique Identification Authority of .(AFP File Photo)

The UIDAI on Tuesday said it’s technical system that detected some abnormal activities and foiled bid to generate fake Aadhaar card by a gang arrested by Uttar Pradesh police.

The UP Special Task Force arrested 10 people on Saturday from Kanpur on the charge of counterfeiting Aadhaar.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said that it had filed a complaint on August 16 before the UP STF and asked to investigate the case regarding some “rogue and unscrupulous elements” trying to misuse operators’ mandatory authentication login for enrolment process.

“UIDAI’s technological system and architecture is so robust and resilient that it detected some anomalies and abnormal activities in the enrolment process. UIDAI took cognisance of it and filed a complaint with UP STF along with the details of such operators and enrolment agencies for further investigation and necessary action under law,” UIDAI said.

In a statement, UP STF has said that culprits were able to clone fingerprints and later developed application to bypass iris scan as well. The team, led by inspector general Amitabh Yash and DIG Manoj Tiwari, said that the gang was successful in making Aadhaar card and entire Aadhaar enrolment process will be audited.

However, UIDAI said the attempt to generate fake Aadhaar card was foiled by the robust UIDAI system and the arrested gang could not succeed in its “nefarious and illegal designs”.

UIDAI said its system accepts only devices certified by government’s certification arm STQC for the enrolment or authentication purposes and its system rejects interaction of an unauthorised device if the device is not as per the protocol of the UIDAI standard processes.

“Therefore, it does not affect to UIDAI’s data and processing system as from where and who is trying to play with. But, UIDAI takes up strict legal and other necessary action required in such cases. UIDAI has filed 8 FIRs this year itself against such unscrupulous elements,” the authority said.

UIDAI said that if operators or supervisors are found involved in corrupt practices, they are blacklisted from the system for 5 years.

Additionally the concerned enrolment agency is also penalised with Rs 50,000 penalty along with other legal action.

The authority said that since December 2016 over 6,100 overcharging incidents have been penalised for Rs 10,000 for each of the incident and from July 2017, 466 such incidents have been penalised Rs 50,000 for each incident.

“Since inception UIDAI has blacklisted over 49,000 operators for violation of UIDAI processes, including corrupt practices,” the authority said. PTI PRS BAL

 

[Hindustani78]

New Delhi, September 13, 2017 17:02 IST
Updated: September 13, 2017 17:05 IST

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...run-jaitley/article19676684.ece?homepage=true

The Finance Minister said Aadhaar was an evolving idea under the previous UPA regime and it did not have legislative backing.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday exuded confidence that Aadhaar law will pass the test of constitutionality, saying the legislation has adequate safeguards for data protection.

Mr. Jaitley’s comments at a conclave on financial inclusion organised by United Nations in New Delhi come amid a legal challenge mounted in the Supreme Court against making the biometric identification number, Aadhaar, mandatory for government schemes, including its linking to income tax PAN. The next date of hearing is in November.

The Finance Minister said Aadhaar was an evolving idea under the previous UPA regime and it did not have legislative backing.

BJP-led NDA gave it a legislative cover with iron wall to ensure data protection and privacy, he said.

“... a legislation was necessary and because of evolving debate the confidentiality of the data and [the need] to build some iron wall around the data itself. The [Aadhaar] legislation has been passed and I am sure it will stand the test of constitutionality,” he said.

Earlier last month, a nine-judge Constitution Bench of the apex court had declared the Right to Privacy as a fundamental right saying it is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedom guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution.

Mr. Jaitley further said that the Supreme Court in its recent judgment has talked about reasonable restrictions while upholding the idea of privacy as an important constitutional guarantee under the Article 21 of the Constitution.

Citing some of the conditions on privacy, he said, “They have to be by the law, they have to obviously reasonable and some of illustrative restraints not exhaustive are in the larger interest of national security or for the purposes of detection of crime or for the purpose of dissemination of social benefits.

“I think the third criteria is very consciously inserted because that is the principle purpose for which this was intended to be used and that is where this interplay of over a billion Aadhaar number over a billion bank accounts and mobile phones itself has an important role,” he said.

Pointing out that untargeted subsidy result in wastage of resources, he said once you are able to create identity network then you make sure the social benefits must reach those segments of population for whom it is specifically targeted as resources of states are limited.

Speaking about financial inclusion, Mr. Jaitley said as many as 30 crore families have got bank accounts since the launch of India’s biggest ever bank account opening drive, Jan Dhan Yojana three years back.

About 42% of households were unbanked before the scheme was launched, which aims to give every household access to banking facilities by offering them zero-balance accounts across all commercial banks.

Over the period of three years, he said, the number of zero-balance accounts has reduced from 77% to 20% and even these would become operational once the direct benefit transfer is expanded.

In December 2014, four months after the scheme was launched, 76.81% accounts had zero balance.

99.99% of households now have at least one bank account, thanks to the Jan Dhan Yojana.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), launched on August 27, 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was aimed at providing financial services to the poor. These included opening bank accounts for the poor, giving them electronic means of payment (via RuPay cards), and placing them in a position to avail themselves of credit and insurance.

In addition to financial inclusion, he said, the government has taken steps to provide security to the poor via life insurance under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and accident insurance Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY).

Total enrolment was 3.6 crore under the PMJJBY and 10.96 crore under PMSBY with 40% of the policy holders being women in both the schemes.

On Mudra Yojana, he said, 8.77 crore people have been benefited and most of the beneficiaries are women.

 

[punit]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...-by-up-gang/story-pGni4aYMyngfHj8kuRuNJL.html

UIDAI said the attempt to generate fake Aadhaar card was foiled by the robust UIDAI system and the arrested gang could not succeed in its “nefarious and illegal designs”.
india Updated: Sep 12, 2017 20:43 IST
Press Trust of India, New Delhi

A man looks on as another puts his hand on a 'Slap Pad' for recording of fingerprints during the data collecting process for a pilot project of Unique Identification Authority of .(AFP File Photo)

The UIDAI on Tuesday said it’s technical system that detected some abnormal activities and foiled bid to generate fake Aadhaar card by a gang arrested by Uttar Pradesh police.

The UP Special Task Force arrested 10 people on Saturday from Kanpur on the charge of counterfeiting Aadhaar.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said that it had filed a complaint on August 16 before the UP STF and asked to investigate the case regarding some “rogue and unscrupulous elements” trying to misuse operators’ mandatory authentication login for enrolment process.

“UIDAI’s technological system and architecture is so robust and resilient that it detected some anomalies and abnormal activities in the enrolment process. UIDAI took cognisance of it and filed a complaint with UP STF along with the details of such operators and enrolment agencies for further investigation and necessary action under law,” UIDAI said.

In a statement, UP STF has said that culprits were able to clone fingerprints and later developed application to bypass iris scan as well. The team, led by inspector general Amitabh Yash and DIG Manoj Tiwari, said that the gang was successful in making Aadhaar card and entire Aadhaar enrolment process will be audited.

However, UIDAI said the attempt to generate fake Aadhaar card was foiled by the robust UIDAI system and the arrested gang could not succeed in its “nefarious and illegal designs”.

UIDAI said its system accepts only devices certified by government’s certification arm STQC for the enrolment or authentication purposes and its system rejects interaction of an unauthorised device if the device is not as per the protocol of the UIDAI standard processes.

“Therefore, it does not affect to UIDAI’s data and processing system as from where and who is trying to play with. But, UIDAI takes up strict legal and other necessary action required in such cases. UIDAI has filed 8 FIRs this year itself against such unscrupulous elements,” the authority said.

UIDAI said that if operators or supervisors are found involved in corrupt practices, they are blacklisted from the system for 5 years.

Additionally the concerned enrolment agency is also penalised with Rs 50,000 penalty along with other legal action.

The authority said that since December 2016 over 6,100 overcharging incidents have been penalised for Rs 10,000 for each of the incident and from July 2017, 466 such incidents have been penalised Rs 50,000 for each incident.

“Since inception UIDAI has blacklisted over 49,000 operators for violation of UIDAI processes, including corrupt practices,” the authority said. PTI PRS BAL

50000 rs penalty !! Wtf. It should be minimum 5 crore.

 

[fallstuff]

India is not the first Nation with Biometric ID cards.

http://www.biometricupdate.com/201610/bangladesh-begins-issuing-biometric-national-id-cards


October 5, 2016 -

The Bangladesh government is issuing national ID cards with biometric details to citizens this week following the inauguration of the Election Commission (EC), according to a report by bdnews24.com.

President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were among the first to receive their new NID cards with biometric information, along with citizens at Dhaka’s Uttara and Ramna after enrolling their fingerprints and iris impressions at two camps.

Chief election commissioner Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmad has commenced the distribution at the former enclave of Dashiarchharha in northern district Kurhigram.

Voters at sector 1 and 2 of Uttara Model Town are receiving cards from the Uttara High School, as well as Ward 6 residents from Siddheswari Girls’ College, according to the Commission’s PR director, SM Asaduzzaman.

The EC’s NID wing has established a help desk to answer any questions about the NIDs — including distribution centres and schedules — and citizens are being asked to dial 105.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/mastermind-of-fake-aadhaar-card-racket-nabbed-4928501/
By: PTI | New Delhi | Updated: November 8, 2017 7:09 pm

The mastermind of a gang which made fake Aadhaar cards has been arrested by Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force here, officials said on Wednesday, reports PTI.

Durgesh Kumar Mishra, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, was arrested on Tuesday. He was the mastermind behind the gang involved in preparing Aadhaar cards by cloning finger prints to bypass Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) norms, a senior STF official said.

During interrogation, Mishra told the STF that he was an assistant manager in a private firm authorised by the UIDAI and provided the technique for preparing fake fingerprints and tampering client software to Saurabh Singh who was arrested earlier in Kanpur.

On September 10, the STF had busted the gang which used to make fake Aadhaar cards with the arrest of its 10 members.

“The gang used their own fingerprints and retina scans on the fake Aadhaar cards. They resorted to this method to complete the biometric parameters,” the official said.


During the raid in Kanpur, the STF had seized papers with fake fingerprints, and finger and retina scanners. The STF had swung into action after a senior UIDAI official lodged a police complaint in Lucknow, the STF official said.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/why-abba-must-go/article20353913.ece?homepage=true


Aadhaar-based Biometric Authentication (ABBA) does nothing in the battle against graft — there are better alternatives

In a sickening way, October 2017 was like October 2002.

Fifteen years ago, in Rajasthan’s Baran and Udaipur districts, there was a spate of starvation deaths. The government of the time made up fanciful stories to deny that the deaths had anything to do with hunger or government failure.

In October 2017, the death of an 11-year-old Dalit child, Santoshi Kumari, of Jharkhand, was widely reported. She had been pleading with her mother to give her rice as she slipped into unconsciousness and lost her life. The government insists that she had malaria but in video testimonies, her mother, Koyli Devi, says she had no fever. After Santoshi’s death, more hunger deaths have been reported, of which at least one, Ruplal Marandi, is related to the government’s Aadhaar experiment.

The starvation deaths in 2002 became the springboard for positive action on many fronts, which included the passing of judicial orders and even political action. Since then, there has been a perceptible improvement in programmes of social support including, but not limited to, the Public Distribution System (PDS). In Baran, it led to a recognition of the vulnerability of the Sahariyas — a tribal community in Baran — and a special PDS package consisting of free pulses and ghee being announced.

Similar action is required today. Instead, the government remains in denial. The Food Ministry in Delhi issued an order in late October that is silent on the crucial issue of reinstating wrongly cancelled ration cards and makes token concessions (with no guarantee of implementation).

Targets and the reality

For months, the Central government has been insisting on 100% Aadhaar “seeding” across schemes such as the PDS, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and pensions. Seeding refers to the practice of entering Aadhaar numbers for each household member on the ration card. It is a pre-requisite for the Aadhaar-based Biometric Authentication (ABBA) system, the practice of using an electronic point of sale (PoS) machine to authenticate each transaction. The government has made seeding and the ABBA mandatory in the PDS. As explained below, the distinction between seeding and the ABBA is important.

In their zeal to achieve 100% Aadhaar-seeding targets, some field functionaries just deleted the names of those who did not submit Aadhaar details. Others waited till the deadline and then struck off names. The government claims that all of these were “fake”, detected due to Aadhaar, thus saving crores of rupees. Santoshi’s family was one such example. According to the State Food Minister, their ration card was cancelled in July because they failed to seed it with Aadhaar.

Exclusions are not savings

Some people blame the aggrieved for failing to seed Aadhaar. But many of them are unaware of the seeding requirement. When pensions in Jharkhand suddenly stopped for many pensioners, they had no idea why. No one had told them about Aadhaar. In some cases, the middlemen had seeded it wrongly. Others still had tried repeatedly and failed. Seeding is not as simple as it sounds.

Seeding is just one of the many barriers that the ABBA has created in the smooth functioning of the PDS. The ABBA requires that family members be enrolled for Aadhaar and correct seeding. At the time of purchase, the ABBA requires power supply, a functional PoS machine, mobile and Internet connectivity, State and Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) servers to be ‘up’, and for fingerprint authentication to be successful.

Ruplal Marandi’s family passed the first two hurdles, enrolment and seeding, but was tripped at the last stage by the ABBA. For no fault of his own, the Marandi family was excluded from the PDS. His daughter told journalists that he had died of hunger as the family could not collect rations because of a biometric mismatch at the PDS shop.

There is enough evidence to show that the ABBA does not work. The Finance Ministry’s latest Economic Survey, based on micro-studies, reports high biometric failure rates.

In Rajasthan, government data for the past year show that around 70% of cardholders are able to use the system successfully. The rest have either been tripped up by one of the ABBA hurdles or, less likely, they did not attempt to buy PDS grain. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the ABBA’s poster child States, it is used to disburse MGNREGA wages and pensions: biometric failure rates are between 8 and 14%. In some months, one in four pensioners returns empty-handed.

A case against ABBA

What most people don’t realise is that the ABBA has no role in reducing corruption. If the ABBA helps reduce corruption, it might be worth fixing these failures. Quantity fraud is the practice of cheating on quantities sold. Neither seeding nor the ABBA can stop quantity fraud. In a survey in Jharkhand, dealers continue to swindle people by cutting up to a kg of their grain entitlement despite successful ABBA authentication. Identity fraud, for example in the form of duplicate ration cards, only requires Aadhaar-seeding; the ABBA is unnecessary. Two caveats on seeding: it can be foolproof against identity fraud only in a universal system. More seriously, it raises privacy issues.

Further, in Aadhaar’s rulebook for example, an elderly person asking a neighbour to fetch their grain would count as identity fraud. In fact, it is flexibility that is lost when the ABBA is made mandatory.

Thus, each month, people are being forced to cross five meaningless hurdles in the form of electricity, functional PoS, connectivity, servers and fingerprint authentication in order to have access to their ration. Failing any one hurdle even once causes anxiety in subsequent months. Think of the ATM running out of cash, post-demonetisation, just when it was your turn. The resultant anxiety defeats the very purpose of such forms of social support. Failure in consecutive months leads to people giving up entirely. They stop trying. States such as Rajasthan were planning to treat such households as dead or non-existent.

The ABBA must be withdrawn immediately from the PDS and pensions in favour of alternative technologies such as smart cards. This will allow us to keep the baby (offline PoS machines with smart cards) and throw out the bathwater (Internet dependence and biometric authentication).

If the government continues to insist on the ABBA, there is only one conclusion that can be drawn. That it is actively trying to sabotage the PDS, which, quite literally, is a lifeline for the poor.

Reetika Khera is Associate Professor (Economics) at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Electronics & IT
06-February, 2018 13:12 IST

Plastic or PVC Aadhaar Smart Card is not usable: UIDAI

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said today in a statement that the Plastic or PVC Aadhaar smart cards are often not usable as the QR code commonly becomes dysfunctional during such unauthorised printing at some vendor/shop. Also, there could be a possibility of sharing Aadhaar details (personal sensitive demographic information) without informed consent with some devious elements.

UIDAI reiterated that Aadhaar letter or its cutaway portion or downloaded versions of Aadhaar on ordinary paper or mAadhaar are perfectly valid and people should not yearn for the so-called Aadhaar smart card as it may make them fall to the ploys of some unscrupulous elements who are printing Aadhaar on a plastic/PVC sheet and charging anywhere between Rs.50 to Rs.300 or more.

UIDAI has asked people to keep away from such elements/shops/vendors. Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO, UIDAI said, “So-called Aadhaar Smart card is totally unnecessary and a waste as during such printing its QR code often becomes dysfunctional. The Aadhaar card or the downloaded Aadhaar card printed on ordinary paper or mAadhaar is perfectly valid for all kind of uses.”

“If a person has a paper Aadhaar card, there is absolutely no need to get his/her Aadhaar card laminated or obtain a plastic Aadhaar card or so called smart Aadhaar card by paying money. There is no concept such as smart or plastic Aadhaar card”, added Dr. Pandey.

In case a person loses his Aadhaar card, he can download his Aadhaar card free of cost from https://eaadhaar.uidai.gov.in. The print out of the downloaded Aadhaar card, even in black and white form, is as valid as the original Aadhaar letter sent by UIDAI. There is absolutely no need to print it on plastic/PVC card or get it laminated.

CEO, UIDAI advised people to be watchful for the protection of their privacy and recommended not to share their Aadhaar number or personal details to unauthorized agencies for getting it laminated, or printed on plastic card.

UIDAI has cautioned unauthorized Agencies not to collect Aadhaar information from general public for printing of Aadhaar card as collecting such information or unauthorized printing of Aadhaar card or aiding such persons in any manner amounts to a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment under Indian Penal Code and Aadhaar Act, 2016.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...ard-network/article19660140.ece?homepage=true

LUCKNOW, September 11, 2017 15:19 IST
Updated: September 11, 2017 18:26 IST

According to police, hackers have devised ways to not only bypass the biometric procedure of fingerprinting but also to scan the retina.
Could the Aadhaar card you possess be fake? You might just want to check.

According to Uttar Pradesh police, hackers have devised ways to bypass not just the Aadhaar biometric procedure of fingerprinting but also retina-scanning to come out with fake Aadhaar cards.

A Special Task Force (STF) of the police busted a State-wide network of hackers who allegedly bypassed the set standards of the biometric system of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and created fake Aadhaar cards through cloning of fingerprints.

The STF, which carried out the operation in Kanpur, arrested 10 persons on the charge of forgery and impersonation.

According to the STF, the accused would bypass the biometric norms of the UIDAI with fingerprint copies and tamper with the source code of the UIDAI application client (software used by Aadhaar enrolment agencies) to create a fake application client. They would then bypass the operator authentication process to create fake Aadhaar cards. The hackers would send the client application to unauthorised operators for a sum of ₹5, 000 each, police said.

A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime police station, Lucknow, under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 474 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 66 and 66C of the Information Technology Act and Section 7/34 of the Aadhaar Act.

After questioning the accused and through investigation, police explained the elaborate method of impersonation and fraud. The police operation followed the recent recovery of fake Aadhaar cards in Deoria, Kushinagar and Lucknow.

As per the STF, the accused accessed the fingerprint impressions of authorised Aadhaar enrolment operators on the UIDAI system. They would then print out the fingerprints on butter paper. After this, the accused would create artificial fingerprints using polymer resin. They would log on to the Aadhaar website using the artificial fingerprints created by them.

The artificial fingerprint of the operator would then be used by multiple members of the gang to complete the process the Aadhaar card enrolment.

The police have recovered the devices and equipment used for impersonation, including 38 fingerprints on paper, 46 fingerprints manufactured by chemicals, two Aadhaar finger-scanners, two finger-scanning devices, two iris retina scanners, eight rubber stamps, 18 Aadhaar cards, a webcam, GPS equipment and a Polymer Curing Instrument.

Eleven laptops and 12 mobile phones were also seized.

Police say that previously Aadhaar operators would get access to the UIDAI client application through their fingerprints. However, when hackers started cloning finger prints, the UIDAI introduced retina scanning or IRIS as part of the authentication process, after which impersonation was brought under check. However, investigators are worried that hackers have created new client applications to hack and bypass the biometrics.

Police have decided to conduct a “security audit” of the entire Aadhaar enrolment process after it discovered that the norms of the Information Security Policy of Aadhaar were not followed by registrars, enrolment agencies, supervisors, verifiers and operators.

The STF arrested Saurabh Singh, alleged kingpin of the gang, from Kanpur on September 9. The other nine have been identified as Shubham Singh, Shobhit Sachan, Manoj Kumar, Tulsiram, Shivam Kumar, Kuldip Singh, Chaman Gupta, Guddu Gond and Satyendra Kumar. They belong to various parts of the State.


************
seems something like this are the equipment. Made in which country ?

GPS

Polymers

Myanmar nationals with fake Aadhaar cards held in Manipur
GUWAHATI, May 16, 2018 16:10 IST
Updated: May 16, 2018 16:10 IST

A Myanmar man enters Burma along with essential goods through the India-Myanmar friendship road in Moreh a border town in India’s Northeastern state of Manipur bordering Burma’s Tamu town. Picture is for representational purposes only. | Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar

The Manipur police have caught nine Myanmar nationals with fake Aadhaar and voter identity cards.

The arrest of the nine in Manipur’s border town Moreh on Sunday follows that of 24 in Tripura. The 24 were caught at Agartala railway station after getting off a train that arrived from New Delhi on May 10.

Police in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district said a resident was among 10 people caught travelling in two vans with forged documents.

“Inquiry revealed the woman is part of an international human trafficking network. All the nine Myanmarese with fake Aadhaar cards are from Yangon state in Myanmar, and two of them are into trafficking,” S. Ibomcha, Tengnoupal district’s superintendent of police, told reporters.

The police also tracked down two Moreh-based traders — one into software and the other into online ticketing — who had forged the nine Aadhaar cards between them.

The police raided the residence and shop of the duo and recovered several Aadhaar cards, biometric finger scan machine, laminating machine, laptops and printers besides other “incriminating documents”.

The online ticketing agent had procured train tickets for the 10 arrested people to Chennai from Dimapur in Nagaland.

Referring to the arrest of the nine Myanmar nationals, Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh on Tuesday evening said the possibility of foreigners moving around with fake Aadhaar was a serious issue.

“We perhaps need to verify all Aadhaar cards, as we have a small population and such illegal migration raises serious issues,” Mr. Singh said.

He mooted the idea of checking the credentials of passengers arriving at Imphal’s Tulihal Airport.