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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News Network
June 23,2020

Bengaluru, June 23: A frustrated chartered accountant has committed suicide after killing his wife and mother-in-law in two different cities of India.

The murder-murder-suicide came amid acrimonious divorce proceedings that might have also involved a property dispute, police said.

Amit flew to Bengaluru last weekend to kill his estranged wife at her Whitefield residence before returning to Kolkata, where he shot dead his mother-in-law and then killed himself at an upscale residential complex in North Kolkata on Monday evening.

Amit and his wife Shilpi Agarwal, who is also a CA, had been living separately since last the two years after their marriage turned sour.

Amit took his 10-year-old son from Bengaluru with him on Monday and dropped him at his uncle’s house before heading to his in-laws’ place Phoolbagan, police said.

Neighbours told cops they heard arguments “appeared to be” over some property documents that Amit wanted his in-laws — 70-year-old Subhas and 62-year-old Lalita Dhandhania — to sign.

The first gunshot was heard a little before 6.30pm, following which Subhas ran out of his flat, bolted the door from outside and took refuge inside his next-door neighbour’s apartment. Police arrived a few minutes later to find Amit and his mother-in-law dead. Police found a suicide note from the flat.

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News Network
June 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 19: Congress leaders BK Hariprasad and Naseer Ahmed filed their nominations as party candidates for Legislative Council elections in Bengaluru and KPCC chief DK Shivakumar said that the two leaders have been given ticket to strengthen the party with their guidance.

"The Legislative Council means the Upper House and the Elders House. We have unanimously agreed to select and send these two senior leaders to discuss the party organization and various issues of the state in Legislative Council. There were plenty of aspirants to enter the Upper House. But it is decided to elect these two leaders and they will contest the election," Shivakumar said.

"We need seniority to guide us... That's the reason we are selecting these leaders... The high command has given these senior leaders the opportunity to discuss with all our leaders about strengthening the party," he added.

The elections are scheduled to be held on June 29.

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News Network
June 4,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 4: Karnataka opposition leader Siddaramaiah created a flutter on Wednesday saying many disgruntled BJP leaders had met him.

"Many disgruntled BJP lawmakers have met me and, of course, expressed their displeasure," tweeted Siddaramaiah.

Congress leader Siddaramaiah''s statements assume significance as recently several reports emerged highlighting some north Karnataka legislators meeting over dinner to put pressure on Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to expand the cabinet and offer them ministerial roles.

North Karnataka leaders such as Umesh V. Katti, Chitradurga MLA G. H. Thippareddy and Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal and others met over dinner.

However, the Chief Minister said he was too busy to even look at the dissidence because he is occupied with development work of the state and fighting Covid.

Siddaramaiah, the former chief minister, alleged that Yediyurappa''s son Vijayendra is functioning as a non-constitutional chief minister.

"This is true in the BJP. That dissent will continue. We are not responsible if the government collapses," he pointed out.

The Congress leader said Karnataka has stooped to the level of not being in a position to even pay salaries to its employees.

"The state was the first in economic discipline during our government. Now the government has no money to pay salaries to government employees. Not only the state but the entire country is financially bankrupt," he said.

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