183 - How Aadhar Project Of India Is Violating Civil Liberties Of Indians- MY News.India

by Ram K Kaushik     Posted On : 11-May-2010

The Aadhar Project of India has once again tested the lack of data protection and privacy rights in India. Data protection and privacy laws must be enacted by India as soon as possible. India does not have any specific and dedicated data protection and privacy laws in India. On the contrary India is strongly committed to e-surveillance and other forms of privacy violation activities.

Human rights have to be actively protected in Indian cyberspace. Presently India is not paying any attention towards protecting civil liberties of Indians in cyberspace.

For instance, take the example of national intelligence grid (NATGRID) that was literally imposed upon Indian citizens. Thanks to the stiff resistance by experts, it has been temporarily stalled.
                                                                                                                
Similarly, the government of India is also imposing the aadhar project of India upon Indian citizens without any legislative backing and civil liberty safeguards. If aadhar project or UID project is allowed without civil liberty protection, it would be a civil liberty nightmare for Indians. The UIDAI must not proceed further and utilise hard earned public money till a statutory framework is in place.

The ultimate call is for the Parliament of India to take that is shying away from its responsibilities. On the contrary, it is making laws like information technology amendment act 2008 (sole cyber law of India) that empowers the Indian government to snoop and violate privacy of Indians without proper safeguards.

Aadhar is violating the civil liberties of Indians. For detail kindly see:

(a) Aadhar Watch Initiative Of India

(b) Aadhar Project is Unconstitutional

(c) Hit and trial projects in India

(d) UID Watch Initiative of India

(e) Strange things happen in India

(f) Human Rights Protection In India

(g) Natgrid And Privacy Violations

(h) Individuals Who Saved Aadhar Project Of India , etc.

These articles carry all the information that proves that aadhar project is violating the civil liberties of Indians.

182 - Factors That Made E-Governance A Big Failure In India by Ram K .Kaushik - My News,India

by Ram K Kaushik     Posted On : 22-Jul-2010

E-governance in India has become a source of corruption rather than removing corruption and bringing transparency.

E-governance in India has by and large a flop show. There are many factors that led to the poor performance of the e-governance in India. The major among them are lack of planning, omnipresent corruption in governmental offices, lack of accountability, misleading policies, etc. Further, e-governance in India has never been considered a part of good governance.

E-governance is beyond the scope of e-government. While e-government is defined as a mere delivery of government services and information to the public using electronic means, e-governance allows direct participation of constituents in government activities. E-governance is not just about government web site and e-mail. It is not just about service delivery over the Internet. It is not just about digital access to government information or electronic payments. It will change how citizens relate to governments as much as it changes how citizens relate to each other. It will bring forth new concepts of citizenship, both in terms of needs and responsibilities. E-governance will allow citizens to communicate with government, participate in the governments' policy-making and citizens to communicate each other. The e-governance will truly allow citizens to participate in the government decision-making process, reflect their true needs and welfare by utilizing e-government as a tool.

However, e-governance in India has been a complete failure. There is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computerisation of traditional governmental and public functions are not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of information and communication technology (ICT).

ICT has become an indispensable part of our daily life. It has the potential to streamline procedures, inculcate discipline among workforce, and bring transparency and accountability and reduction of costs. The benefits are tremendous provided we have the will, insight and knowledge to use it.

E-governance in India is in its infancy stage. The National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) is the umbrella under which all e-governance initiatives are taking place. However, there are very few successful and completed e-governance initiatives like MCA21 in India. Whether it is e-courts, e-readiness, legal enablement of ICT systems, e-gazette, e-commerce etc none are even close to success. So where lies the problem?

Firstly, there seems to be lack of insight among the policy-makers. The ICT polices and strategies of India are not covering the e-governance aspects at the national level. No political party ever considers e-governance as an important part of their political agenda before elections. Even commodities like onion and potatoes find place in national debates but not e-governance.

Secondly, there is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computerization of traditional governmental and public functions is not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of ICT. We have to make the governmental services user-friendly as well as productive and easy.

Thirdly, there is lack of transparency in governmental dealing and in the absence of the same e-governance is just paperwork. In India, we have the Right to Information Act, 2005 but the same has been a failure in India. The public information officers keep on denying the relevant information on flimsy grounds. In exceptional cases, citizens may get some information but by and large very few people get the information.

Fourthly, accountability among governmental officers is missing. There is no mechanism through which we can punish a wrong doer for his violations and negligence. This results in a casual attitude towards public good and e-governance. If we fix accountability and time-bound progress requirements then a lot of problems can be solved.

Fifthly, public participation in both policy making and governmental decisions is missing. If we get the opinion of those who are somehow surviving at the grassroots level we can solve the majority of our problems. However, the fact is that grassroots level problems are never solved.

E-governance will be successful only if we start to undertake due efforts to implement it in all blocks and districts and spread it to the grass root level. Being the largest democratic country, India must show an example to other in this context. But in last many years we have not seen the efficiency of public servants, who are supposed to be the some of the best brain of India. For attaining developed status our public service system must work in a better way. Citizen must participate in various activities, if we really want to see India as a developed nation. Public service must be strengthened in India in true spirit, if we want to become to become a developed nation in near future.

125 - Why Indians Are Tolerating Illegal and Unconstitutional Projects? by Ram K. Kaushik

Why Indians Are Tolerating Illegal and Unconstitutional Projects?
THU, JUL 8, 2010 10:06 EDT

Time Has Come To Scrap Aadhar Project And UIDAI.
Posted by Ram.K.Kaushik

In an astonishing manner, the Indian government is wasting crores of hard earned public money upon projects that have no legal sanction.

88 - Bureaucratisation Of Aadhar Project Of India By Ram K. Kaushik

Thursday, June 17, 2010
216 - Bureaucratisation Of Aadhar Project Of India By Ram K. Kaushik
CLICK ON TITLE TO SEE ORIGINAL ARTICLE - Posted by Ram Krishna Swamy
Bureaucratisation Of Aadhar Project Of India
By Ram K. Kaushik




It has been more than a month since Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of UIDAI, declared that Aadhar project of India would be regulated by a law to safeguard privacy violations.
While none can doubt that the UID project has serious civil liberty violation potentials yet neither the Parliament of India nor the UIDAI deemed it fit to enact a suitable law in this regard.

It seems there has been a “bureaucratisation” of Aadhar project of India where the UIDAI is making lots of noises but effectively doing nothing to incorporate procedural safeguards.

The fact is that the model of red tappism that plagues Indian bureaucratic lobbies has been adopted by UIDAI for not making good and effective privacy and data protection law in India.

Now it is safe to presume that there would be no law to provide safeguards from potential misuses of UID project, we have to see what next possible options Indians have to safeguard their civil liberties.

59 - Aadhar Watch Initiative Of India by Ram K Kaushik

Aadhar Watch Initiative Of India
THU, APR 29, 2010 13:47 EDT

Aadhar project of India is suffering from severe irregularities that may jeopardise its benign purpose, warns Praveen Dalal.

The UID project of India was started by the government of India with great disregard to the parliamentary democracy and constitution of India. Objecting to the same Praveen Dalal launched the Aadhar watch initiative of India that has been analysing the grey areas of aadhar project of India.

Although others have also joined in this fight of illegal functioning of aadhar project of India yet the aadhar watch initiative is different from those protests.

Firstly, it is not against the very concept of aadhar project of India. All it is doing is analysing the lacunas from which the aadhar project is suffering and is expecting that the government of India in general and UIDAI in particular would rectify the irregularities of the aadhar project before proceeding further.

Secondly, it is also the exclusive initiative of India that is analysing both micro and macro aspect of aadhar project in the most holistic manner. Surprisingly, Mr. Nandan Nilekani has still not though it fit to consider the serious ramifications mentioned at this initiative. He has not yet understood that the objections mentioned at the platform would arise in any case and may stall the aadhar project just like the Natgrid project.

It would be a good idea to consider the suggestions of Praveen Dalal for various techno-legal aspects of aadhar project. After all if the very foundation of aadhar project is based upon irregularities, it is bound to face difficulties in future. The starting point should be to remove various deficiencies and than proceed further, suggests Praveen Dalal.