-The Indian Express The Authority termed allegations of “surveillance and violation of privacy rights” as “totally misplaced”. Trying to allay fears about its plans to hire a social media agency to gauge public sentiments on Aadhaar in the social media, the Unique Identification Authority of India (uidAI) has told the Supreme Court that the proposed agency will only look at publicly available information on Aadhaar, and will have no access to private...

-The Hindu Business Line The Department of Telecommunications on Friday directed telecom service providers to stop using Aadhaar authentication to verify the KYC of existing mobile customers and to issue new connections. It asked the operators to abide by the order by November 5. The use of “Aadhaar authentication is not permissible for eKYC for verification of telecom subscribers, nor for issuing new mobile connections”, said the DoT in a statement issued...

-PTI Government says there is no threat of discontinuation of mobile numbers issued using Aadhaar. New Delhi: Mobile service customers who want to get their Aadhaar details removed from the records of telecom operators would need to provide alternative verification documents, industry body COAI said on October 18. The Cellular Operators Association of India, as also directed by the Department of Telecom, said that the services will not be disconnected during the change...

-PTI Aims to cover 53 cities across India at an estimated cost of Rs 300-400 crore New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (uidAI) plans to set up ‘Aadhaar Seva Kendras’, similar to the concept of Passport Seva Kendras, covering 53 cities across India at an estimated project cost of Rs 300-400 crore, official sources said. These proposed Aadhaar centres, meant to facilitate enrolment, updation and other activities, will be uidAI’s own...

-The Hindu The benefits being projected in Aadhaar’s name are not backed by the data The first death anniversary of Santoshi Kumar, a Dalit girl from Simdega, Jharkhand, was this week. She died of hunger, at the age of 11, a few weeks after her family’s ration card was cancelled by the State government because they failed to link it to Aadhaar. The Aadhaar judgment of September 26 provided an opportunity for the...