TOPIC: Aadhaar: Enhancing governance, while safeguarding citizens’ privacy.
DATE: 17th January, 2017
TIME: 4:30-6:30pm
VENUE:  Auditorium, Civil Services Officers’ Institute, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

Aadhaar has been driving a huge digital transformation in the country’s governance ever since its first enumeration in September, 2010. The impact of this mammoth initiative on policing and police service delivery is yet to be assessed or understood. And it has been rarely talked about.
The country has been witnessing tectonic policy and cultural shifts like the relatively quick transition to hitherto unimaginable scales of digital financial transactions. Aadhaar enabled banking transactions through micro-ATMs is another new development. It is a matter of pride that large sections of our population are getting technology-enabled and empowered, supported by the unprecedented scales of the internet and mobile phone penetration in the country. The collateral consequence of these have been the sudden spurt in digital frauds and other online crime, which in the years to come, are likely to increase exponentially and impact policing in a big way.
The Aadhaar Act of 2016 describes itself as an Act to provide for, as a good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of benefits and services. While good governance is the fundamental and the biggest objective, a number of privacy-related concerns have been raised from time to time. Although the Act places stringent restrictions on the sharing of data and prohibits the sharing of biometric data, there are apprehensions that these provisions may be open to interpretation and misuse.
According to Shri Nandan Nilekani, digital governance - transforming governance through technology, is no longer a matter of choice; and that this cannot be achieved without using technology in a very big way. India’s police has a lesson here and needs to gear itself for dealing with the new digital reality. Not talking about Aadhaar, is no longer an option.
This calls for a nationwide debate within the police community, involving experts and stakeholders, to identify the opportunities, threats and challenges emerging from the new world of policing in the digital, Aadhaar era. The police needs to understand and evolve the tools, the methodologies, the countermeasures as well have been the sudden spurt in digital frauds and other online crime, which in the years to come, are likely to increase exponentially and impact policing in a big way.
The Aadhaar Act of 2016 describes itself as an Act to provide for, as a good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of benefits and services. While good governance is the fundamental and the biggest objective, a number of privacy-related concerns have been raised from time to time. Although the Act places stringent restrictions on the sharing of data and prohibits the sharing of biometric data, there are apprehensions that these provisions may be open to interpretation and misuse.
According to Shri Nandan Nilekani, digital governance - transforming governance through technology, is no longer a matter of choice; and that this cannot be achieved without using technology in a very big way. India’s police has a lesson here and needs to gear itself for dealing with the new digital reality. Not talking about Aadhaar, is no longer an option.
This calls for a nationwide debate within the police community, involving experts and stakeholders, to identify the opportunities, threats and challenges emerging from the new world of policing in the digital, Aadhaar era. The police needs to understand and evolve the tools, the methodologies, the countermeasures as well as the competencies and capacities required and the legal, policy, knowledge-management and related courses of action to be adopted.
The topic for the January session of the Forum of the Indian Police Foundation has been chosen around the theme of policing in the era of Aadhaar.
Shri Ram Sewak Sharma IAS, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and former Director General of the UIDAI, whose contributions towards this enormous and transformational exercise are well known, will deliver a lecture and interact with the audience on the subject on the 17th January, 2017, at the auditorium of the Civil Services Officers’ Institute (CSOI), Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. The topic of the lecture will be: Aadhaar: Enhancing governance, while safeguarding citizens’ privacy.