<p>aa</p>.<p>Although, the authority has enrolled as many as eight lakh people across the nation, its chief Nandan Nilekani could not commit to a deadline for the implementation of the project in the City. Nilekani, a resident of Bangalore, has himself got only a trial identity number. “I have a trial number as the enrolment process has not begun in the City,” he said, without answering the query on when it will begin.<br /><br />Nilekani spoke extensively on the implications of the project and the benefits that the larger public, especially from the villages, could enjoy once the project is completely implemented.<br />However, a section of the audience at the National Institute of Advanced Sciences (NIAS) here, pushed Nilekani to answer a few uncomfortable questions like: “Is Aadhar the only solution?”, “Why can’t we use the Tamil Nadu model to successfully implement the public distribution system?” and “What about protecting the people from the State?” They also posed several questions on security, real impact of the project, its utilisation and the “real need”, most of which, he managed to evade.<br /><br />To one of the queries on how safe the data collected by the authority would be, keeping in mind the kind of misuse of information that was seen during the Gujarat riots in 2000, he said: “The data collected, unless in case of a threat to national security, will not be easily available to all authorities. We are in the process of creating a mechanism that will put in the right checks and balances before an authority avails information about a particular citizen. It should be alright.”<br /><br />He also pointed out that the Centre has proposed to introduce a ‘National Data Protection Law’, suggestions for which were already called for, further protecting the information collected by authorities in the country.<br /><br />While most of the representatives from the ‘opposition’ were deprived of a chance to speak or question due to the time “constraints”, they held out interesting placards which read: “Beware, ‘BIG BROTHER’ is watching you”, “Happy New FEAR”, “An Electronic solution to a Social problem?” et al.<br /><br />HC reserves verdict on UID<br /><br />The High Court on Friday reserved judgment on the Unique Identification card (UID) programme.<br /><br />Petitioner Sunil Sharma had alleged that the cards were of substandard quality and the data stored in the cards could be easily erased. Representatives of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), who have been entrusted with making the cards, staged a demonstration in the court hall defending the quality of the cards. <br /><br />They submitted the details on manufacturing the cards to the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar.</p>
<p>aa</p>.<p>Although, the authority has enrolled as many as eight lakh people across the nation, its chief Nandan Nilekani could not commit to a deadline for the implementation of the project in the City. Nilekani, a resident of Bangalore, has himself got only a trial identity number. “I have a trial number as the enrolment process has not begun in the City,” he said, without answering the query on when it will begin.<br /><br />Nilekani spoke extensively on the implications of the project and the benefits that the larger public, especially from the villages, could enjoy once the project is completely implemented.<br />However, a section of the audience at the National Institute of Advanced Sciences (NIAS) here, pushed Nilekani to answer a few uncomfortable questions like: “Is Aadhar the only solution?”, “Why can’t we use the Tamil Nadu model to successfully implement the public distribution system?” and “What about protecting the people from the State?” They also posed several questions on security, real impact of the project, its utilisation and the “real need”, most of which, he managed to evade.<br /><br />To one of the queries on how safe the data collected by the authority would be, keeping in mind the kind of misuse of information that was seen during the Gujarat riots in 2000, he said: “The data collected, unless in case of a threat to national security, will not be easily available to all authorities. We are in the process of creating a mechanism that will put in the right checks and balances before an authority avails information about a particular citizen. It should be alright.”<br /><br />He also pointed out that the Centre has proposed to introduce a ‘National Data Protection Law’, suggestions for which were already called for, further protecting the information collected by authorities in the country.<br /><br />While most of the representatives from the ‘opposition’ were deprived of a chance to speak or question due to the time “constraints”, they held out interesting placards which read: “Beware, ‘BIG BROTHER’ is watching you”, “Happy New FEAR”, “An Electronic solution to a Social problem?” et al.<br /><br />HC reserves verdict on UID<br /><br />The High Court on Friday reserved judgment on the Unique Identification card (UID) programme.<br /><br />Petitioner Sunil Sharma had alleged that the cards were of substandard quality and the data stored in the cards could be easily erased. Representatives of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), who have been entrusted with making the cards, staged a demonstration in the court hall defending the quality of the cards. <br /><br />They submitted the details on manufacturing the cards to the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar.</p>
