Contrary to the claims of the UIDAI, fingerprints are a highly inappropriate tool to uniquely identify individuals. Case 1: “There are nine checks on visa nationals arriving into the U.K. [United Kingdom]. The fingerprint matching check is the most recent. It is the least reliable. It is the least effective in terms of delivering against our requirements….” So stated Brodie Clark, the former head of the United Kingdom Border Force, to a...
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Why has RTE hit a roadblock in Andhra Pradesh?
-The Times of India Hyderabad: Nithin Gollamudi, a city student dreams to be a doctor and secretly wants to be the state topper in medical entrance examination. Belonging to an economically and socially backward family, the 12-year-old who was helping his father in a masonry shop in Chotuppal till two years ago even while going to a nearby government school says that it would have been impossible for him to dream...
More »Govt rejects CPM land act tweak plan
-The Telegraph Industries minister Partha Chatterjee today turned down a suggestion by CPM leader Surjya Kanta Mishra to follow the Tamil Nadu model by amending the central land acquisition act to fulfil its objective of returning land to Singur’s farmers instead of battling it out in court. The leader of the Opposition also assured Chatterjee that the Left Front would support the state government in the Assembly if it agreed to introduce...
More »UID: Are your biometric I-cards stacked against you?-M Rajshekhar
-The Economic Times Imagine a rural family of five. Mom. Dad. Two kids. And Grandma. Assume too that they are below the poverty line. The day is coming when this family will have to give its biometrics out to myriad agencies. You know that Nandan Nilekani's Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or the Registrar General's National Population Register (NPR) has been collecting biometrics for a while now. But a set of other...
More »RTI has primacy over privacy: CIC-Ashish Tripathi
-The Deccan Herald The Central Information Commission (CIC) has stated that a citizen’s right to information would get primacy over an individual’s right to privacy, adding weight to the principle of transparency. In an important decision, the transparency panel said though the state had no right to invade the privacy of an individual but in extraordinary circumstances, where the government sought information from citizens, details could be given out under the Right...
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