-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill has been passed with no public consultation about the Privacy safeguards necessary for such a database and no provision for public or independent oversight. The rights to liberty and freedom of expression cannot survive if the right to Privacy is compromised. The Central government has forced the Aadhaar Bill through Parliament in a week. Aadhaar has had an invasive and controversial presence well before the government’s attempt...

-The Hindu Anthropologists study how local populations network in different parts of the globe Love it, or hate it, it is rare that you will ignore social media. A few anthropologists from across the world took this seriously enough to conduct an eight-country in-depth analysis on how local populations behave and interact across social media and how these platforms are impacting the way we live life. “Why we Post” is the culmination of...

-Outlook The structural basis is being laid out for future authoritarianism at the behest of foreign biometric and surveillance technology What distinguishes Barack Obama and David Cameron from Narendra Modi? Obama and Cameron oppose biometric identification but Modi supports it. On 11 May 2005 in the US, the Real ID Act for a national ID was rushed through US Congress and the US Senate with utmost urgency, a legacy of George Bush...

-The Indian Express There is reason to wonder if this law is intended to be taken seriously, except in getting everyone on the data base, making it a scheme to number the population, and giving extraordinary powers to the UIDAI. The disrespect for the law has been an abiding aspect of the UID project, never mind the government (facts have mattered as little, but that is for another time). In the beginning...

-GovernanceNow.com   Jairam Ramesh questions Aadhaar’s role in plugging subsidy leakages    After snubbing the finance minister in Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh of Congress questioned the government’s claim of saving Rs 14,000 crore by integrating Aadhaar for the LPG subsidy. Citing a report by International Institute of Sustainable Development, a London-based think tank, which seriously doubts the claim of savings accrued by DBT-LPG, Ramesh asked about the study on the basis of which...