New Delhi – It is still hazy to see the desperation of the union government to imposing the Aadhaar Card mandatory when matters related to Aadhaar Card are already sub judice. The constitutionality of Aadhaar is yet to be decided by the Supreme Court, however, the enrolment of Aadhaar has reached the mark of more than one billion. Recently, the government declared Aadhaar mandatory to file Income Tax Return (ITR) while the Supreme Court is opined not to treat Aadhaar mandatory, but voluntarily. Now it is imperative of the government to confide the citizens that the Aadhaar information- demography and biometrics-are in safe hands, a debate which has been heating up, and the contempt of the court’s decision by the government is for greater good. But the uproar against the speculation of identity revelation threat and possible misuse of Aadhaar details by the government-corporate nexus, plausible reasons to doubt the security of privacy, which is a fundamental right of Indian citizen. Ironically, after the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defended the ‘Aadhaar Money Bill controversy’ filed by former congress MP Jairam Ramesh in the court, the Supreme Court is in dilemma and yet to decide whether ‘Right to Privacy’ is a fundamental right or not.Why Aadhaar Card Mandatory?Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys and the ideologue of Aadhaar, said that Aadhaar will change the PDS system in India since it ensures no ghost or fake beneficiaries to avail unentitled benefits of the various welfare schemes and subsidies. Nilekani also says that there might be margin of error up to 5 per cent in distributing the subsidies or benefits of various welfare schemes to the masses. The top-honcho technocrat has also defended Aadhaar that any breach of privacy of citizens is not possible as the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is efficient to secure the public data under CIDR. The government claims that the corruption-mounted Public Distribution System (PDS) in India is reformed due to the introduction of the 12 digit unique identification number. More than 40000 crore have been saved in the form of exchequer due to curb of fake and ghost beneficiaries in the PDS system. Now if we believe Nilekani claim of 5% error, then more than 5 crore beneficiaries would be losing their benefits due the error in the biometric identification. The Infosys co-founder later said that if there is a margin of error then ‘One Time Password’ (OTP) comes in. However, he didn’t define what if there is a congestion of network in the remotest Indian villages where phone signals are rare? Standing on the PDS shop waiting for food grains and network, is certainly not an ideal way to avail the benefits of the government welfare schemes. In 2011, activist and writer Ruchika Gupta said in an interview to Tahalka, “The UID cannot address the bulk of delivery problems in the two of the biggest social sectors programmes like MGNREGA and PDS. Linking UID with social sector legislation is completely baseless.”

PAN Card Linked with Aadhaar Card?The government has directed the Reserve Bank of India to make Aadhaar mandatory for Income Tax Return filing. Currently, there are approximately 24.37 crores PAN holders in India, however 3.8 crore people file income tax return every year. There have been cases of people owned not more than one but 100 PAN Cards with them. PAN cards in India are mostly used by the citizens as a proof of identity. The government believes that PAN card linking with Aadhaar will curb the tax evasion. 

How Safe Is Your Data In This Panopticon Model Of Mass Surveillance?

In the late 18^th century, the well-known English social reformer and jurist Jeremy Bentham wanted to build a ‘panoptican’ for a mass surveillance of the prisoners in England. He advocated designing an institutional building be used to keep an eye on all the jail inmates by a single watchman. Very similarly, India is witnessing the biggest surveillance program ever under the name of single identity and availing benefits of governments’ schemes. Another logic behind enrolment of Aadhaar is the ‘national security’. National security? How can any government ensure national security backing Aadhaar, when international companies have been hired in consortium to collect residents’ biometric and demography details? In 2010, Accenture, Mahindra-Satyam Morpho and L1 identity solutions were pooled in by UIDAI for leveraging de-duplication exercise of Aadhaar and data collection.  L1 Identity Solutions’ top brasses are the former Director CIA George Tenet and former Homeland Security deputy secretary Adm James. With its headquarters in Connecticut, this company is one of the biggest defence contractors specialised in facial recognition and biometrics. L1 Identity Solutions and Accenture work in a close affinity to US intelligence agencies. This is an age of information. Corporate houses and big telecom players are dying to get details of consumers. Obvious are the concerns about the safety and security of the people’s data. It is feared that the database can be used for various marketing and business purposes.

 
CIDR, A Single Database Of People’s DataCentral Identities Data Repository (CIDR) is a data management and storing agency in India which is initiated for the Aadhaar project. It is regulated by the statutory body of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). This centralised database is probably one of the biggest repositories on this planet.In 2010, experts had claimed that more than a thousand government sites and portals were attacked more than 4000 times by China alone in one year. In April 2011, 77 million Sony Playstations and digital media delivery service Qriocity were hacked which resulted into a shutdown of the network for a week. The London School of Economics also reported that a central database of vulnerable to hacking and other terrorist and cyber crime activities. Recently Wannacry Ransomware virus hits the globe. More than 99 countries were affected. Building one single repository for billions of Aadhaar Card data seems to be a big risk in the most vulnerable country where dat breach is at most. 
Data Leak CrisisUIDAI has so far spent approximately 5982.62 crores for more than a billion enrolments of Aadhaar Cards. 1615.34 crores have been spent between the financial year 2015-2016. Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru-based organization (CIS) has learned that data of more than 130 million Aadhaar card holders has been leaked from four government websites. They are National Social Assistance Programme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Chandranna Bima Scheme and Daily Online Payments Reports of NREGA. It also includes Bank details and other confidential details of millions of residents.
What is Next?The Lok Sabha has passed the Aadhaar Bill as Money Bill. Mukul Rohatgi said in the Supreme Court that according to Article 110 of the constitution, there is use of consolidated funds of India so the bill is a Money bill. Chief Justice Khehar said, “Your object might be good but whether it is a ‘Money Bill’ or not is the question.” Justice Ramana referred to a 2014 judgment passed by the Apex court that courts had no jurisdiction over procedurals matters of legislative.” In response P. Chidambram, the counsel for Jairam Ramesh said, “This petition is not about a procedural matter. There has been substantive infraction.”

An Indian woman who alleged she was forced and duped into marrying a Pakistani man was repatriated to her country through the Wagah border on Thursday, a day after the Islamabad High Court permitted her to travel home.
 Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj welcomed Uzma Ahmed to India, minutes after she crossed into India from the Wagah border in Amritsar.   “Uzma – Welcome home India’s daughter. I am sorry for all that you have gone through,” Sushma Swaraj tweeted.  Uzma travelled to Lahore from Islamabad and was accompanied by Indian Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh, who bid her farewell at the border. She had stayed in Pakistan for 25 days.  Uzma, who was escorted by Pakistani security personnel till the Wagah border crossing, was debriefed by Indian officials for a while.  The woman claimed she was forced to marry Buner resident Tahir Ali at gunpoint. During the court hearing, Pakistani judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani asked Uzma if she wanted to meet her husband in the chamber but she refused the offer, saying she did not want to talk to him.  The High Court ordered that Uzma can go back to her country and the case will be processed in her absence.  Uzma had taken refuge at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad because she felt threatened, and wanted to return to her country of birth.  Ali had filed a petition claiming that she was being forcibly kept at the Indian High Commission and that the marriage was not under coercion.  Uzma, who belongs to New Delhi, and Ali “fell in love” in Malaysia, after which she travelled to Pakistan on May 1, via the Wagah border.

Lucknow – A special CBI court in Lucknow, which is conducting daily hearing of the 1992 Babri demolition case, on Thursday directed BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi to appear personally before it on May 30.
  The BJP leaders had moved court seeking exemption from personally appearing in the court for the hearing of their role in the conspiracy to raze the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

NEW DELHI: Being a unique nation with a huge population to feed, India cannot emulate the model of other countries in managing its water resources and dealing with environmental issues, a top Government official said here on Wednesday. 

“India cannot look at the model of countries as it is a unique country with a huge population to feed. The country is looking at what can be the best method in environment and water management,” Amita Prasad, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment said. 

Speaking at a symposium “Too much or Not enough, Managing Water in a Changing Climate” organised jointly by the Canadian High Commission and the Press Club of India.  She said that there were several environmental issues  and wetland was one of them.The government was carrying out real time monitoring and maintaining data of wetland sources whether it were tanks, reservoirs or canals, Ms Prasad said.    

She said that conserving water does not need big technologies and small technologies need to be given priority. Citing example of sugarcane crop which needs lots of water, she said that several sugarcane growing areas have switched to drip irrigation, adding that such type of irrigation needs to be adopted on a large scale. 

Replying to question on adopting traditional methods of water conservation, Ms Prasad felt that traditional knowledge was being ignored. It was time that such storehouse of knowledge was protected and put to use.

Earlier, Dr Mark Johnson, an Ecohydrologist from Canada made a detailed presentation on managing water in the scenario of changing climate.

Speaking about the depletion of ground water in several parts of India, Dr Johnson said that Northern India was showing depletion in ground water.

He also cited the World Health Organisation report which stated that two billion people were drinking contaminated water. He said that food production was having the largest human impact on environment and agriculture was the biggest water user. 

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be the next Director-General of the World Health organization. He was nominated by the Government of Ethiopia, and will begin his five-year term on 1 July 2017.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will succeed Dr Margaret Chan, who has been WHO’s Director-General since 1 January 2007. The announcement was made at the ongoing World Health Assembly at Geneva.

Prior to his election as WHO’s next Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia from 2012-2016 and as Minister of Health, Ethiopia from 2005-2012. He has also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board, and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, a WHO statement said. 

As Minister of Health, Ethiopia, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus led a comprehensive reform effort of the country’s health system, including the expansion of the country’s health infrastructure, creating 3,500 health centres and 16,000 health posts; expanded the health workforce by 38,000 health extension workers; and initiated financing mechanisms to expand health insurance coverage. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he led the effort to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

As Chair of the Global Fund and of RBM, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus secured record funding for the two organizations and created the Global Malaria Action Plan, which expanded RBM’s reach beyond Africa to Asia and Latin America.

Welcoming the choice, Women Deliver has said his appointment comes at a time when the world needs a fierce and proactive advocate for gender equality and the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women more than ever.

“Dr Tedro’s track record of strengthening health systems and training community-based female health workers to expand reproductive and maternal health in Ethiopia, including family planning services, gives us hope that he will be the unwavering champion for girls and women the global development community wants and needs, Throughout his campaign, he pledged to make the health of women, children, and adolescents a focus of his tenure.

“The world’s most powerful health agency needs a leader who advocates for gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights as a net positive for all. He must consistently prioitise girls and women as powerful agents of change and drivers of development. Equally important, he must strengthen the WHO’s gender balance and engagement with young people and civil society not just because of it is the right thing to do, but the sound thing to do,’’ said Katja Iversen, president/CEO of Women Deliver.

NEW DELHI: Giving a thrust to its ambitious flagship programme of “Make in India”, the Modi government will encourage private sector participation to ensure indigenous production of fighter aircraft, helicopters, submarines, armoured fighting vehicles and main battle tanks, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said here. 

In his media briefing after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, Mr. Jaitley said the Cabinet was informed of the proposal of the Defence ministry for going ahead with such a move.

Under the “Strategic Partnership” model, the government will shortlist and then pick Indian companies to collaborate with foreign firms to supply fighter jets, helicopters, and such high-tech equipment, Mr Jaitley said. “For each platform, one private sector strategic partner will be chosen”. 

Mr. Jaitley said the Cabinet took  “full report” about strategic partnership model from the Defence Ministry. A special committee had made some recommendations regarding some sub sectors — helicopters, armoured vehicles, submarines, fighter aircraft, and tanks. These platforms will be manufactured under the government’s flagship “Make in India” programme and one private sector strategic partner for each of these sector will be chosen. 

“We will start building up capacities of private sector companies in defence manufacturing, Private and foreign companies will co-exist with defence PSUSs,” Mr. Jaitley said. He said the strategic partnership process would begin as soon as possible adding that the government funding in defence sector was going to increase substantially. 

The new long-awaited policy, which was developed through extensive stakeholder consultations with Indian industry, envisages the establishment of long-term strategic partnerships with qualified Indian industry majors through a transparent and competitive process wherein the Indian industry partners would tie up with global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to seek technology transfers and manufacturing know-how to set up domestic manufacturing infrastructure and supply chains.  

The policy will give a boost to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet ‘Make in India’ programme in the Defence sector and set Indian industry on the path to acquiring cutting-edge capabilities which will contribute to the building of self-reliance in the vital sector of national security requirements.

In future, additional segments may be added. Appropriate institutional mechanisms will be set in place to implement the policy. Mr. Jaitley said the policy aimed at encouraging manufacturing as the selected companies would be assured of future orders. Several foreign manufacturing giants like Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Saab have indicated their willingness to explore the possibility of setting up manufacturing bases in India. 

NEW DELHI: The Government is working towards progressively reducing dependency on foreign manufacturers and developing the defence capabilities indigenously, Minister of State for Defence Dr Subhash Bhamre has said. 

He was addressing a seminar, jointly organised by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here on Tuesday. . 

“We have included a new procurement category called the Buy Indian – IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category in the DPP [Defence Procurement Procedure]. This would be the most preferred category for procurement and it is expected to promote indigenously designed products and bring significant investment in defence R&D,” the Minister said. 

Speaking of partnership with defence industry, Dr Bhamre said the Government has been working on formulating a ‘Strategic Partnership’ model for creating capacity in the private industry on a long term basis.

The Government had constituted a task force with experts from various fields to recommend criteria and prescribe methodology for selection of Strategic Partners. The report submitted by the task force has been examined at length and Government shall be issuing the policy for selection of strategic partners shortly, he said. 

Alleviating concerns of the industry, the Minister said, the exchange rate variation protection has been made applicable for the Indian private sector at par with public sector undertakings for all categories of capital acquisitions. The preferential treatment given to DPSUs in excise duty/custom duty has been discontinued, as per the revised policy; all Indian industries (public and private) are subject to the same kind of exercise and custom duty levies. “This would ensure a level playing field between the private and public sector. Another step that the Government has taken is to remove the custom duty exemption on import of defence equipment to encourage ‘Make in India’, he said. 

Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, while giving keynote address, said, “the modernisation plan of the IAF is being pursued with an aim to give impetus to ‘Make in India’ and to beef up the defence manufacturing base. We in IAF are keen to see that ‘Make in India’ initiative gets converted to a reality.” 

Speaking about self-reliance the Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said, a high degree of indigenisation has been achieved in the field of radars and all the radars planned for induction in future are from Indian firms. The IAF is completely self-reliant in the field of software applications and a number of projects are functioning successfully on software developed by Indian firms. 

The CII National Defence Committee member Pratyush Kumar also addressed the gathering.

After 22 years, former Rashtriya Janta Dal Member of Parliament Prabhunath Singh has been convicted in the murder case of former Janta Dal United (JDU) MLA Ashok Singh, on Tuesday. 
Ashok Singh was killed in the broad daylight in Patna at his residence. He was elected from Mashrak Assembly (Saaran) defeating Prabhunath Singh in 1995. The case was transferred by the Apex Court from Patna to Hazaribagh Court, accepting a plea by the assassinated relatives, as they feared the case proceedings might be influenced by Prabhunath Singh and his henchmen.
Prabhunath Singh was the prime accused in the 1995 murder case. Hazaribagh Additional District Judge Surendra Sharma pronounced his life imprisonment. Prabhunath Singh’s brothers, Dinanath Singh and Ritesh Singh are also convicted by the court. 
“Prabhunath had openly said that my brother will be killed within 90 days of becoming legislator and was killed on the 90th day,” Tarkeshwar Singh, Ashok Singh’s brother, told a news channel. Prabhunath Singh is believed to be a close aide to Fodder Scam convict and RJD Supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that Africa was a top priority for his government’s foreign and economic policy and India will always stand shoulder to shoulder with countries of the continent in the long and difficult race for a better future.
Inaugurating the 52nd Annual Meetings of the African Development bank (AfDB) at Mahatma Mandir here, Modi said India’s partnership with African countries was free of any conditions and will remain demand-driven.
Modi said India and Africa face similar development challenges and the mutual ties had become stronger over the decades. 
“After assuming office in 2014, I have made Africa a top priority for India’s foreign and economic policy,” he said.
The Prime Minister referred to his government’s efforts to meet India’s development challenges since assuming office in 2014 and said no village in the country will be without electricity by next year. 
Modi said India has improved on all macro-economic indicators in the last three years with fiscal deficit, balance of payments deficit, and inflation being down and an increase in GDP growth rate, foreign exchange reserves and public capital investment. 
The five-day annual meeting of AfDB, being held in India for the first time, is being attended by 54 African regional members and 27 non-regional member countries of the organisation.
Around 3,000 delegates are taking part in the event with the theme ‘Transforming Agriculture for wealth creation in Africa’.
Modi said he was proud that all countries in Africa had been visited by an Indian Minister in the last three years.
“India’s partnership with Africa is based on a model of cooperation which is responsive to the needs of African countries. It is demand-driven and free of conditions,” he said. 
Modi also referred to prowess of African countries in long distance running and linked it to the race for development.
“In the sports arena, India cannot compete with Africa in long distance running. But I can assure you that India will always stand with you, shoulder to shoulder, supporting you in the long and difficult race for a better future,” he said.
Modi said India offered $10 billion for development projects over the next five years during the India-Africa Summit held in 2015 in New Delhi which was attended by all 54 African countries.
Terming 2015 as a “watershed”, he said India had also offered grant assistance of $600 million to the African countries.
He said India has extended 152 lines of credit to 44 countries of nearly $8 billion.
Trade between Africa and India has doubled in the last five years to reach nearly $72 billion in 2014-15. India’s commodity trade with Africa in 2015-16 was higher than its commodity trade with the United States of America.
India is the fifth largest country investing in the continent, with investments over the past 20 years amounting to $54 billion. Africa accounted for nearly one-fifth of Indian overseas direct investments from 1996 to 2016. 
India joined the African Development Fund in 1982 and the African Development Bank in 1983. 
Modi said India’s private sector was also driving partnership with Africa.
He referred to “solar mamas”, under which training is imparted to African women to work on solar panels and circuits.
“It is one of our best partnerships in the area of skills.”
Sharing India’s experiences in meeting common challenges such as uplifting farmers and the poor, financial access and building infrastructure, Modi said paying subsidies directly had helped his government save over $4 billion dollars in cooking gas.
He also referred to “universal banking” achieved in the last three years as also universal biometric identification system Aadhaar being used to prevent leakage of benefits.
Modi said his government has made unprecedented increases in the last three years in investment in railways, highways, power, and gas pipelines. 
He said the government’s initiatives such as Smart Cities, Housing for All and Skill India were preparing for a modern new India.
“Our aim is that India must be an engine of growth as well as an example in climate friendly development in the years to come.”
Earlier in his speech, Modi referred to common bonds between Gujarat and Africa. 
“As an Indian and a Gujarati, I am very happy that this meeting is being held in India and that too in Gujarat,” Modi said. 
He said Mahatma Gandhi, another Gujarati, perfected his tools of non-violent struggle in South Africa.

NEW DELHI: Painting a positive, growth-oriented scenario for the IT sector in near future, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday denied reports of large scale layoffs in the sector. He asserted that the Indian IT and related sector employment prospects were robust and positive.  
Describing such reports as “highly exaggerated and unfounded”, the Minister said that Indian IT companies currently serve two-thirds of the fortune 500 companies and have created 40 lakh direct jobs and 1.3 crore indirect jobs in India. Indian IT companies are present in 200 cities of 80 countries.  
He said that India’s digital economy was growing at a rapid pace and was likely to touch the One Trillion Dollar (Rs. 600 lakh crore) mark in next five to seven years.  
Addressing a presser to highlight the achievements of his ministry in the past three years, Mr. Prasad said the projections by the industry body NASSCOM and other reputed independent organisations predicted that in 2017 itself IT sector would be adding 1.70 lakh new jobs. He said that NASSCOM has already publicly contradicted reports of large scale layoff. IT industry has added six lakh jobs in the last three years and boasts of a total employee based of 3.9 million. 
Mr. Prasad said that the Indian technology startup sector would offer growing employment prospects to Indian IT professionals. According to NASSCOM, last year Indian technology startups employed about one lakh IT professionals across more than 4,750 starups. 
The Minister said that Common Service Centres (CSC) have generated 10 lakh local level jobs by way of village level entrepreneurs. CSCs have employed nearly 34,000 women and the growth of CSC showed that their numbers have gone up from 83,000 in 2014 to 2.5 lakh upto March this year. 
To further promote the job creation, the IT and Electronics Ministry has come up with India BPO scheme with an aim to provide jobs to 1.45 lakh persons in small towns. He announced that the tendering process has been finalised and BPOs would soon be set up in towns like Imphal, Guwahati, Siliguri, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Ghazipur, Unnao and Amravati. 
The Minister said that 72 new mobile manufacturing units have been started in the last 30 months, creating one lakh direct and three lakh indirect jobs in the country. He said that all major brands, including Apple and Samsung, were manufacturing in India. 
Underlining three main achievements of Digital India, Mr. Prasad said that it has been transformational, created empowerment and established a new paradigm of development. “This flagship programme of the Modi government is delivering affordable technology and creating inclusive India,” he said. 
As the world’s largest biometric based based digital identity, Aadhar coverage has gone up to 114 crore upto 2016-2017. The Minister said that Rs. 1.9 lakh crore has been transferred to beneficiaries till this month using Aadhar which has resulted in a total saving of Rs. 50,000 crore by removing fictitious beneficiaries. He assured that Aadhar data was totally safe and secure and protected a person’s privacy.
On connecting village panchayats by optical fibre network, he said that 90,000 panchayats had been connected so far and the aim was to connect all 2.5 lakh panchayats. 
On concerns over cyber security and attacks like the recent “ransomware”, Mr. Prasad said that a Cyber Security Coordination Centre would start functioning from this June and assured that constant upgrade of cyber security systems was being undertaken to protect the country’s data and e-commerce at all levels. 
The Minister also announced setting up of Digital India Corporation (DIC) which would lead in realizing the vision, objects and goals of Digital India programme by devising strategies and monitoring implementation.