Digital Delivery of Services - The Indian Landscape

8/13/2019 Digital Delivery of Services - The Indian Landscape

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In the Wake of Aadhaar xlvi

Interestingly, Openness does not always include open source: whileOpen Data, it is recommended, should use open source operating systemswherever possible, there was need to recognise that the NIU would have tohave intellectual property over its source codes and that it may be counter-productive to the business planning and protability of the NIU to release allsource code as open source.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Targeting in Theory, Business Standard , December 08, 2005, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/targeting-in-theory/231031/.

Baxi, Upendra, Caste Census and Constitutional Justice, Economic & Political Weekly ,vol. xlv no. 37, September 11, 2010, pp. 25-28.

Bhalla, A.S., Can High Technology Help Third World Take-Off?, Economic and PoliticalWeekly , Vol. 22, No. 27 (Jul. 4, 1987), pp. 1082-1086.

Desai, Nitin, Put the Last Mile First, Business Standard Oct 21, 2004.

Desai, Sonalde, Caste and Census: A Forward Looking Strategy, Economic & PoliticalWeekly , vol. xlv no. 29, July 17, 2010, pp. 10-13.

Deshpande, Satish and Mary E. John, The Politics of Not Counting Caste, Economic &Political Weekly , June 19, 2010 vol. xlv no. 25, pp 39-42.

Dreze, Jean, Unique Facility, Or Recipe For Trouble?, The Hindu , November 25, 2010(http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article911055.ece).

Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011 (draft), http://deity.gov.in/content/draft-electronic-delivery-services-bill-2011.

Ghosh, Atig, (ed) Branding the Migrant: Arguments of Rights, Welfare and Security ,Kolkata: Frontpage, 2013.

Himanshu and Abhijit Sen, Who not a Universal Food Security Legislation?,Economic &

Political Weekly , vol. 46 No. 12, March 19 - March 25, 2011, pp. 38-47.

Kapur, Devesh, Partha Mukhopadhyay, and Arvind Subramanian, More for the Poorand Less for and by the State: The Case for Direct Cash Transfers. Economicand Political Weekly, April 12, 2008 http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/subramanian0408b.pdf.

Matthan, Rahul Matthan, Privacy Bill a must to strengthen Aadhaar , Livemint November24, 2010. http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/24223047/Privacy-Bill-a-must-to-strengt.html.

Matthan, Rahul, http://www.rahulmatthan.com/category/information-technology/ accessedJan 1, 2011.

INTRODUCTION

AADHAR_The digital Ecosystem Final.indd 46 6/18/13 4:53 PM


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Mehta, Pratap Bhanu, My Caste and I, Indian Express , May 12, 2010 http://antireservation2007.sulekha.com/blog/post/2010/05/my-caste-and-i-pratap-bhanu-mehta.htm.

National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, A cost-benet analysis of Aadhaar ,November 2012. http://macronance.nipfp.org.in/FILES/uid_cba_paper.pdf.

Natraj, V.K., Why the Census Should Not Count Caste, Economic & Political Weekly , vol.xlv no. 31, July 31, 2010, pp. 79-80.

Nilekani, Nandan, Imagining India: Ideas for a New Century , New Delhi: Penguin, 2008.

Pandey, Brijesh, Natgrid will kick in from May 2011. Is the big brother threat for real?,Tehelka Magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 45, Dated November 13, 2010.

Ramanathan, Usha, A State Of Surveillance, International Environmental Law ResearchCentre, 2010. (http://www.ielrc.org/content/w1002.pdf).

Ramanathan, Usha, Implications of registering, tracking, proling, The Hindu, April 5, 2010(http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/05/stories/2010040554240800.htm).

Ramanthan, Usha, A Unique Identity Bill, Economic & Political Weekly , vol. xlv no. 30July 24, 2010.

Sanjay, B.P., The Role of Institutional Relationships in Communication Technology Transfer: A Case Study of the Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) , Ph.D. Dissertation,Simon Fraser University, 1989.

Sen, Amartya, The Political Economy of Targeting, http://adatbank.transindex.ro/html/cim_pdf384.pdf.

UIDAI, Creating a Unique Identity Number for Every Resident in India, 2009, http://www.comp.polyu.edu.hk/conference/iceb/content/doc/UIDAI.pdf.

NOTES

1 Ghosh (ed.) 2013.

2 UIDAI, 2009, hereafter UID Working Paper http://www.comp.polyu.edu.hk/conference/iceb/content/doc/UIDAI.pdf.

3 See Sanjay, 1989.4 Bhalla, 1987, pp. 1082-1086.

5 Nilekani, 2008.

6 Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011, http://deity.gov.in/content/draft-electronic-delivery-services-bill-2011.

7 Nitin Desai, former advisor to the Finance Ministry, alerts us to some of the problems we couldface:

Much of public discussion is on the perceived difference between India and other developingcountries, particularly in Asia. The cry is for what is described as world-class infrastructurethat can support the rapidly growing aspirations of the urban middle class with their cars,refrigerators, airconditioners, shopping malls and air travel. More broadly the focus is onmega projects for urban transportation, highways, skyscrapers, large ports, and powerprojects. For example, in a recent online article, an adviser to FICCI expresses his anguish at



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the absence in India of anything comparable to the spectacular bits of infrastructure he sawin East and South-East Asia. He then asks for 50 major expressways, 100 key bridges,a dozen airports, ve key ports and logistic hubs, ten world-class cities with services thatcompare with the best in the world, 100 new townships, 20 convention centers, 30 megapower projects etc. Is he aware of the fact that the exorbitant cost and poor economicsof these showpiece investments were some of the factors behind the 1997 nancialcrisis? India Inc. needs better infrastructure for energy, supply chain management, andcommunications. This requires investment in power, roads, and ICT for productive purposes.But industry itself must understand that their future depends also on the last mile andthat a substantial improvement there will open huge new opportunities for them. In someareas like telecom, where new technologies have opened up new options, this is working.In others we are still to see results. Private investment is not the magic wand that will spirit

away the demons of inefciency and lack of access. It will go to prosperous areas andlucrative applications where capacity utilisation and chargeable tariffs can lead to highreturns. But the poorer areas will need to be served and even with service obligations inprivate licenses, much of the burden falls on the public sector. The untidy cohabitation ofthe public and the private does not really solve the problem of the last mile (Desai, Put theLast Mile First, 2004).

8 Dreze writes:

That the UID is, in effect, going to be compulsory is clear from many other documents. Forinstance, the Planning Commission's proposal for the National Food Security Act argues formandatory use of UID numbers which are expected to become operational by the end of2010 (note the optimistic time-frame). No UID, no food. Similarly, UIDAI's concept note on

the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) assumes that each citizen needs toprovide his UID before claiming employment. Thus, Aadhaar will also be a condition for theright to workso much for its voluntary nature (Dreze 2010: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article911055.ece).

9 The plan, according to newspaper reports, is that from May 2011, the National Intelligence Grid(NATGRID) will integrate 21 existing databases with Central and state government agencies andother organisations in the public and private sector such as banks, insurance companies, stockexchanges, airlines, railways, telecom service providers, chemical vendors, etc. Eleven governmentagencies (including RAW, Intelligence Bureau, Revenue Intelligence, Income Tax, etc.) will be able toaccess sensitive personal information of any individualsuch as bank accounts, insurance policies,property owned or rented, travel, income tax returns, driving records, automobiles owned or leased,credit card transactions, stock market trades, phone calls, emails and SMSes, websites visited, etc. A

National Population Registry will be established by the 2011 Census, during which ngerprints andiris scans would be taken along with GPS records of each household. According to the home ministry,the Central intelligence agencies and state police have plenty of information that is not shared orbecause there is no umbrella organisation to collate all the information, which any or all the agenciescan share to generate real-time intelligence. The Natgrid enables quick extraction of information, datamining, pattern recognition and agging tripwires of suspicious or unusual activities (Pandey, 2010).Also see Ramanathan, 2010.

10 Arguing for the CCTNS, Chidambaram is quoted as saying that the police stations in the country are,today, virtually unconnected islands. Thanks to telephones and wireless, and especially thanks tomobile telephones, there is voice connectivity between the police station and senior police ofcers,but that is about all. There is no system of data storage, data sharing and accessing data. There is

no system under which one police station can talk to another directly. There is no record of crimesor criminals that can be accessed by a Station House Ofcer, except the manual records relating tothat police station. The goals of the proposed CCTNS are to facilitate collection, storage, retrieval,

INTRODUCTION



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analysis, transfer and sharing of data and information at the police station and between the policestation and the State Headquarters and the Central Police Organisations (http://ncrb.nic.in/cctns.htm).

11 Chidambaram is quoted as saying, at the 22 nd Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment lecture inDecember 2009 that such a Centre would be started by end-2010, that 247 police control roomswould be set up in all districts. The NCTC was effectively conceived after the 2008 Mumbai terroristarrack (26/11), but has found widespread opposition from State governments, who have arguedthat the kinds of sweeping powers that a Central agency is meant to have violates the autonomy ofstate governments, given that law and order is a state subject according to the Constitution. The initialopposition to the NCTC has also focused on how the agency had been empowered to search andarrest people without keeping the state government, police or anti-terror squad in the loop.

12 As listed in the Census of India website FAQs, the NPR will work like this: it will gather details suchas Name, Date of Birth, Sex, Present Address, Permanent Address, Names of Father, Mother andSpouse etc by visiting each and every household. All usual residents (phrase in original) will beeligible to be included irrespective of their Nationality. Each and every household will be given anAcknowledgement Slip at the time of enumeration. The data will then be entered into computers inthe local language of the State as well as in English. Once this database has been created, biometricssuch as photograph, 10 ngerprints and probably Iris information will be added for all persons aged15 years and above. This will be done by arranging camps at every village and at the ward level inevery town. Each household will be required to bring the Acknowledgement Slip to such camps.

Those who miss these camps will be given the opportunity to present themselves at permanentNPR Centres to be set up at the Tehsil/Town level. In the next step, data will be printed out anddisplayed at prominent places within the village and ward for the public to see. Objections will be

sought and registered at this stage. Each of these objections will then be enquired into by the localRevenue Department Ofcer and a proper disposal given in writing. Persons aggrieved by such orderhave a right of appeal to the Tehsildar and then to the District Collector. Once this process is over,the lists will be placed in the Gram Sabha in villages and the Ward Committee in towns. Claims andObjections will be received at this stage also and dealt with in the same manner described above.

The Gram Sabha/Ward Committee has to give its clearance or objection within a xed period of timeafter which it will be deemed that the lists have been cleared. The lists thus authenticated will thenbe sent to the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) for de-duplication and issue of UID Numbers.All duplicates will be eliminated at this stage based on comparison of biometrics. Unique ID numberswill also be generated for every person. The cleaned database along with the UID Numberwill then be sent back to the Ofce of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner,India (ORG&CCI) and would form the National Population Register. As the UID system

works on the basis of biometric de-duplication, in the case of persons of age 15 years and above(for whom biometrics is available), the UID Number will be available for each individual. For thosebelow the age of 15 years (for whom biometrics is not available), the UID Number will be linked tothe parent or guardian. (http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-FAQ/FAQ-Public.html#B).

13 http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-Documents/citizenship_rules2003.pdf.

14 Ramanthan, A Unique Identity Bill, 2010, pp. 12.

15 Sen, The Political Economy of Targeting, http://adatbank.transindex.ro/html/cim_pdf384.pdf.

16 Himanshu and Abhijit Sen, 2011, pp. 38-47.

17 Brief history of issues by Himanshyu and Sen: The PDS was universal in 1993-94 but targeted in2004-05, and NSS data for these years show what happened to leakages. In 1993-94, leakagein rice was 19% which increased to 40% in 2004-05; in wheat, it went up from 41% to 73% andfor rice and wheat together, it increased from 28% in 1993-94 to 54% in 2004-05. Per capita permonth consumption of PDS rice and wheat remained unchanged (0.99 kg in 1993-94 and 1.01 kg



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in 2004-05) although PDS offtake doubled and subsidy increased even more. If feasibility is judgedon the ability to stabilise food prices and in terms of physical and nancial leakage, as the RC does,the targeted PDS scores very poorly against the universal PDS by past ofcial assessments.

18 Despite criticisms such as these which have been voiced since the early 2000s, the Governmenthas sought to expand targeting to include, in 2005, dual pricing schemes for kerosene, power andeven for petrol, with Indian Oil Corporation proposing cheaper petrol and dedicated pumps for two-wheelers. Targeting in Theory, Business Standard , December 08, 2005, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/targeting-in-theory/231031/

19 Kapur, Mukhopadhyay, and Subramanian, http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/subramanian0408b.pdf.

20 National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, 2012. http://macronance.nipfp.org.in/FILES/uid_

cba_paper.pdf.21 Mehta, 2010, http://antireservation2007.sulekha.com/blog/post/2010/05/my-caste-and-i-

pratap-bhanu-mehta.htm.

22 Baxi, 2010, pp. 25-28.

23 Natraj, 2010, pp. 79-80.

24 Letter published in The Hindu on August 13, 2010, by Dr. M. Vijayanunni, Former Registrar Generaland Census Commissioner of India, Justice M.N. Rao, Chairperson, National Commission for theBackward Classes, Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairperson, University Grants Commission, Prof. SatishDeshpande, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Prof. Yogendra Yadav, PoliticalScientist, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Prof. S. Japhet, Director, Centre for the Study ofSocial Exclusion, National Law School of India, Bengaluru, Dr. Chandan Gowda, Associate Professor,

Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion, National Law School of India, Bengaluru, Prof. ValerianRodrigues, Political Scientist, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof. Ravi Varma Kumar, Senior Advocateand former Chairperson, Karnataka Backward Classes Commission. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article568602.ece.

25 Deshpande and John, 2010, pp. 39-42.

26 Desai, 2010, pp. 10-13.

27 http://www.rahulmatthan.com/category/information-technology/ accessed Jan 1, 2011.

28 Matthan, 2010. http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/24223047/Privacy-Bill-a-must-to-strengt.html

INTRODUCTION