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.

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Agencies
February 13,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 13: UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid quit the Boris Johnson government as part of a cabinet reshuffle unfolding on Thursday and has been replaced by Rishi Sunak, reports said.

Indian-descent Sunak, 39, who is married to Akshata, the daughter of Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, was Chief Secretary to the Treasury since July 2019.

An analyst with Goldman Sachs before joining politics in 2014, Sunak, whose grandparents were from Punjab and emigrated to the UK from east Africa, is MP from Richmond (Yorkshire). He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government in the Theresa May government.

Pakistani-descent Javid, who became the first Asian to become a Cabinet Minister when he was made Secretary of State of culture, Media and Sports in the David Cameron government in 2014 after stints as Economic Secretary to the Treasury (2012-13) and Financial Secretary (2013-14), was earlier the Home Secretary in the the Theresa May government.

He had then cleared absconding businessman Vijay Mallya's extradition to India in February last year following the decision by the Westminister Magistrates Court in December 2018.

Javid, who ran for Conservative Party leadership after May quit but lost to Boris Johnson, was made Chancellor by the later. In the reshuffle on Thursday, he was offered to retain his post if he fired all his advisors but declined and quit, the BBC reported.

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News Network
June 16,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 16: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya and Cafe Coffe Day founder late VG Siddhartha's son, Amarthya Hegde got engaged at SM Krishna Residence, Sadashivanagar in Bengaluru on Monday.
Only family members were present in the event. Amarthya Hegde is also the grandson of former Union Minister SM Krishna.
Last year in July, the body of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder Siddhartha was unearthed on the banks of Netravati river.

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News Network
July 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 19: Senior JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday advised the Karnataka government to utilise the services of private medical colleges in treating Covid-19 patients, by taking them into confidence, instead of threatening them with license cancellation for not complying with directives.

He also said a concentrated effort should be taken in the fight against coronavirus. "It was wrong for any hospital to deny treatment. It is also not correct on part of the government to threaten the private medical colleges with cancellation of their licence for that reason. It won't be of any help at this time of medical emergency.

Remember that MCI has the authority to cancel licenses, not government," Kumaraswamy tweeted. "Instead of showing fury on private medical colleges at such a time, concentrate on taking their service by taking them into confidence. Look into their needs. I urge for a concentrated fight against coronavirus," he added.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had on Saturday convened a meeting with Private Medical College Hospitals regarding Covid management and directed them to provide 50 per cent of the beds as promised.

In another tweet, Kumaraswamy said the notice being put out by local administrations in front of coronavirus patient's house is leading to new age social discrimination and untouchability.

To ensure that infected patients and his family leads a respectable life, such a practice has to be dropped immediately. "..... instead health workers should be sent to their houses to educate and instill confidence in them," the former CM added.

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