Orchestrated campaign to malign Aadhaar: Nilekani

Agencies
January 11, 2018

Bengaluru, Jan 11: Former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani said there was an "orchestrated campaign" to malign Aadhaar.

He was reacting to the filing of an FIR on The Tribune newspaper report relating to an Aadhaar data breach.

"There is 100% an orchestrated campaign to see how Aadhaar gets maligned, yes absolutely," Nilekani told ET Now on the sidelines of the Infosys Science Foundation Awards here.

The Delhi Police had on Monday registered the FIR on a complaint by an UIDAI official following a newspaper report on the data breach of more than 1 billion Aadhaar cards, naming the journalist who wrote the story.

The official told the police that the correspondent, posing as a buyer, had purchased a service offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details of Aadhaar numbers.

Nilekani said the issue has been blown out of proportion as the Aadhaar system has far too many security layers and it is not possible to randomly penetrate it.

"If you are just taking a negative view (on Aadhaar) and not a constructive view, then you also have other (negative) reactions. I think everybody has to accept that Aadhaar is here to stay," he said.

The Aadhaar is here to stay because as many as 119 crore people have it, 550 million have linked the numbers to their bank accounts and Rs 95,000 crore has been transferred into Direct Benefit Transfer accounts, he said.

Nilekani said he was very confident of the Supreme Court upholding Aadhaar under the fundamental right of privacy because it meets the test of the law.

Replying to a query, he welcomed putting in place a two-layer security system to reinforce privacy protection for Aadhaar ID number holders by the UIDAI.

"I think this is a very significant announcement by the UIDAI and in some sense it really makes the case against it go away," he said.

The former UIDAI chief said it has introduced a virtual identification for ID holders so that the actual number need not be shared by people to authenticate their identity.

Simultaneously, it has further regulated the storage of the Aadhaar number within various databases, he said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 19,2020

Malappuram (Kerala), Feb 19:  children of a couple in a span of nine years has raised suspicion among police personnel here who have registered a case following a complaint after a three-month-old child of the family died on Tuesday and was buried.

Police exhumed the body, which was buried in the morning, and took it to the district hospital at Tirur for post-mortem.

The infant was the sixth child of the couple, police said.

"A case has been registered (for unnatural death) in the matter to verify the death beyond any suspicion raised by locals since five other children of the couple had died in the past nine years," a senior police official said.

The couple had three boys and three girls of which the third girl child lived till the age of four and the rest died before turning one.

"The post-mortem will take place today itself.We are collecting the medical records of the children who had passed away earlier.

We will identify the cause of death after analysing the records and discuss the matter with forensic doctors," Tirur Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) said.

However, relatives claimed that there was nothing suspicious in the death of the children and that doctors have said it was due to some genetic disease.

"The post-mortem of the third child was conducted and the doctors said the death was due to some genetic problems. They said they were helpless," a relative said, adding that the family was ready to face any probe.

According to the locals, the couple had claimed that the children have died due to epilepsy.

Sources said the baby was taken to a hospital but was dead prior to reaching the hospital early this morning.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 2,2020

Mangaluru, Jun 2: Karnataka-Kerala border at Talapady is yet to be opened for traffic despite lifting lockdown. Only those, who have registered on ‘Seva Sindhu’ portal, are given one-time permission to enter the district.

With the relaxation of the lock-down many, especially the labour class, were anticipating free movement. However, both the States have not allowed free movement of vehicles. Hundreds of people from bordering villages of Kerala arrive in Mangaluru for work and likewise many from bordering villages of Mangaluru too work in Kasargod district.

It has become a routine for the labourers of both the States living in border villages to daily assemble at the check post in the morning and return after the authorities refuse free movement.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 21,2020

Bengaluru, May 21: The prestigious Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) on Wednesday been postponed to November 19 to 21 2020 in view of the prevailing conditions.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister C S Ashwathnarayan, who is also the Minister for IT/BT, here.

Originally, the BTS was scheduled for September 21-23 this year. However, owing to anticipated inability of international delegates to attend the summit in view of Covid-19, BTS has been postponed, informed Dr Ashwathnarayan.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.