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Why in news?

• CMIE and labour Bureau data indicates that India continues to face the jobless growth problem

Jobs scenario in India

• Multiple data sources clearly show that job opportunities in India are, at present, limited, with the average annual addition to regular jobs during 2012-16 falling to 1.5 million from 2.5 million in 2004-12.
• Besides, job creation in India’s organized manufacturing sector experienced a sharp fall in 2012, later recovering only to a level considerably below any prior year during 2006-12.
• Furthermore, the share of regular workers with any form of social security has declined from 45% in 2011-12 to 38% in 2016.

Reasons for Jobless Growth in India

1. India’s focus on higher education:

• Indian Government since the second five-year plan focussed more on higher education rather than basic education (Unlike Southeast Asia). In order to create mass scale manufacturing jobs, the workforce should have some basic skills however in India because the focus was on higher education, we failed to create enough basic skilled workforce required for labour-intensive manufacturing.
• When India adopted economic reforms in 1991, We had a pool of highly educated workforce but we had a shortage of labour force with basic skills,
• This meant that India’s growth story of the last 2 decades was led by Few sectors in Service sector like IT, Banking, telecommunication etc because these sectors required highly educated workers which we had plenty.
• However, these sectors are not labour intensive.  While the share of Service sector increased significantly in India’s GDP, however the share of services in the employment structure remained more or less stagnant.

2. Import-oriented economy

• India did not move from the import-substituting phases of its economic development to an export-oriented development strategy and hence failed to witness a strong growth in the labour-intensive segment of the manufacturing sector.
• If India would have followed Labour intensive goods export-led model like Southeast Asian countries, it would have created many jobs in the MSME sector. Opening up of the economy lead to the availability of cheap capital goods from abroad.

3.Stagnation in manufacturing output and employment and contraction of the labour-intensive segment of the formal manufacturing sector: (Due to)

• Excess rigidity in the formal manufacturing labour market and rigid labour regulations has created disincentives for employers to create jobs
• Industrial Disputes Act has lowered employment in organized manufacturing by about 25% (World Bank Study)
• Stringent employment protection legislation has pushed employers towards more capital-intensive modes of production than warranted by existing costs of labour relative to capital
• Therefore, the nature of the trade regime in India is still biased towards capital-intensive manufacturing.

4. Slow Infrastructure Development

• Infrastructural bottlenecks (especially in access to electricity)
• Lack of backward and forward linkages between agriculture, industry and service sector has failed to create jobs.

5. Other impediments

• Impediments to entrepreneurial growth in small firms (such as high costs of formalisation) along with a long history of small-scale reservation policy which has prohibited the entry of large-scale units in labour-intensive industries.
• The tax incentives, subsidies, depreciation allowance all are solely linked to the amount invested and not to the number of jobs created.
• Sluggish process in education and skill levels of workers.
• Governance failure – no targeted interventions designed specifically for specific sectors and less focus on MSME.

How can we reverse the Jobless growth Phenomenon in India

1. Implement Niti Ayog action agenda

• The Action Agenda has provided several good ideas for job creation, including labour law reforms at the state level, recognizing the difficult national political landscape as well as the wide cross-state variation in the nature of political constraints.
• The AA has also identified labour-intensive sectors, such as apparel, electronics, food processing, gems and jewellery, financial services, and tourism, where employment needs to be encouraged.
• Furthermore, the report emphasizes the role of exports in job creation and recommends establishing coastal employment zones (CEZs), similar to China’s special economic zones (SEZs)

2. An industrial and trade policy is needed.

• The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is preparing an industrial policy. National Manufacturing Policy came in 2011, was not implemented fully.
• While the DIPP is preparing the industrial policy document, it is essential that trade policy is consistent with such an industrial policy. Otherwise, the two may work at cross purposes and undermine each other’s objectives.
• Excessive imports have been decimating Indian manufacturing.
• An inverted duty structure has the following features: higher duty on intermediate goods compared to final finished goods, with the latter often enjoying concessional customs duty.
• As a result, domestic manufacturers face high tariffs leading to higher raw material cost at home, emanating from the unfavourable inverted duty structure.
• This has prevented many manufacturing sectors from growing since economic reforms began. This must be corrected.
• The automobiles sector in India faced no inverted duty structure, and has thrived. India has become in the last decade one of the largest producers of vehicles of several kinds in the world now. Electronics faced an inverted duty structure, but due to changes made, electronics manufacturing has shown slow growth.

3. Special packages are needed for labour-intensive industries to create jobs

• There are a number of labour-intensive manufacturing sectors in India such as food processing, leather and footwear, wood manufacturers and furniture, textiles and apparel and garments.
• The apparel and garments sector received a package from the Government of India roughly a year back. The other labour intensive sectors have been ignored.
• The nature of the package will need to be individually designed for each sector defined as quickly as possible.

4. Cluster development

• There should be cluster development to support job creation in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
• Most of the unorganised sector employment is in MSMEs, which tend to be concentrated in specific geographic locations.
• There are 1,350 modern industry clusters in India and an additional 4,000 traditional product manufacturing clusters, like handloom, handicraft and other traditional single product group clusters.
• There is a cluster development programme of the Ministry of MSMEs, which need to be funded adequately and better designed to create more opportunities.

5. Align urban development with manufacturing clusters to create jobs.

• The Ministry of Urban Development has a programme called AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) aimed at improving infrastructure for small towns. Infrastructure investment by the government creates many jobs.
• The same intervention should be made in towns which have clusters of unorganised sector economic activities.
• Hence an engagement between the Urban Development and MSME Ministries is necessary to attract more investment to industrial clusters and increase non-agricultural jobs.

6. More focus on women participation

• Girls are losing out in jobs, or those with increasing education can’t find them, despite having gotten higher levels of education.
• Secondary enrolment in the country rose from 58% to 85% in a matter of five years (2010-2015), with gender parity.
• Skilling close to clusters is likely to create more number of jobs.
• The problem with skilling programmes has been low placement after skilling is complete.
• The availability of jobs close to where the skilling is conducted will also enhance the demand for skilling.

7. Public investments in health, education, police and judiciary

• This can create many government jobs.
• Public investment in the health sector has remained even in the last three years at 1.15% of GDP, despite the creation of the national health policy at the beginning of 2017.
• The policy indicates that expenditure on health will rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2025.
• Given the state of health and nutrition of the population, it is critical that public expenditure on health is increased immediately.
• In the absence of greater public expenditure, the private sector in health keeps expanding, which raises the household costs on health without necessarily improving health outcomes, because the private sector does not spend on preventive and public health measures.
• Preventive and public health have been in all countries the responsibility of government. More government expenditure in health means more jobs in government hospitals and better health outcomes.
• Next important area should be Revitalising schools. Government schools should maintain education quality on par with private schools. Many new government jobs can be provided if more young people could be trained specially to become teachers for science and mathematics at the secondary and higher secondary levels in government schools.
• The same applies to the police and the judiciary. All the vacancies in Police and judiciary should be filled immediately. More police and a larger judiciary can both reduce crime as well as speed up the process of justice for the ordinary citizen

Conclusion

India needs a new strategy to counter the phenomena of jobless growth. This requires manufacturing sector to play a dominant role. “MAKE IN INDIA” initiative a great step forward which will boost the manufacturing. Complementary schemes like Skill India, Startup India etc can enhance the skillsets and employment generation

The focus of economic policy must be the creation of jobs and creating an enabling policy for youth to take up entrepreneurship and create more jobs in the market. India does not need five companies worth 5000 crores turnover but needs 5000 companies of 5 crore turnover.

What is Island Development Agency (IDA)?

1. The 1382 offshore-identified islands of India hold immense unexploited potential for fostering growth and achieving cohesive socio-economic development of the region in particular and also, the nation as a whole.
2. They can significantly contribute to the GDP by leveraging the gains from promoting infrastructure and tourism on a large scale.
3. Considering this IDA was set up in June 2017 following Prime Minister’s review meeting for the holistic development of islands.
4. The meetings of the agency are chaired by the Union Home Minister. Members of IDA include cabinet secretary, the home secretary, secretary (environment, forests and climate change), secretary (tourism) and secretary (tribal welfare).
5. NITI Aayog has highlighted the elements of holistic development, including key infrastructure projects, digital connectivity, green energy, desalination plants, waste management, promotion of fisheries, and tourism-based projects.
6. With better communication services, Information Technology based and other Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) would be promoted in the Islands.

What does it include?

Key Infrastructure projects such as:

• creation of jetties/berthing facilities,
• Roll-on/Roll-off ships;
• Bridges on Andaman Trunk Road;
• Upgradation of Diglipur Airport;
• Construction of Minicoy Airport;
• Modernization of existing Jetty at Kavaratti;
• Augmentation of Satellite Bandwidth from 1.118 Gbps to 2.118 Gbps in Andaman & Nicobar;
• augmentation of helicopter services for Islanders and tourists etc.

Development of IDA

First Meeting

• In the first meeting, directions were given to identify and execute infrastructure and connectivity projects together with provisioning of water and electricity.
• 10 islands namely Smith, Ross, Aves, Long and Little Andaman in Andaman & Nicobar and Minicoy, Bangaram, Suheli, Cherium and Tinnakara in Lakshadweep have been identified for holistic development in the first phase.

Second Meeting

• It reviewed concept development plans and detailed master plans for holistic development of 9 islands.
• These 9 islands include four in Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Smith, Ross, Long, Avis) and five in Lakshadweep (Minicoy, Bangaram, Thinnakara, Cheriyam, Suheli).

Third Meeting

• It reviewed the progress made towards the preparation of Development Plans for identified Islands (four in A&N Islands i.e. Smith, Ross, Long, Avis and five in Lakshadweep i.e. Minicoy, Bangaram, Thinnakara, Cheriyam, Suheli).
• For these Islands, Final Site Suitability Reports have been prepared, Carrying Capacity determined and Environmental zoning carried out to ensure sustainable development.

What makes IDA important?

Maritime Strategic Importance

1. Given the strategic location of Andaman & Nicobar (A&N Islands) and the Lakshadweep Islands and China’s assertive expansionist policy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) there is a need to develop critical infrastructure and upgrade the military base in these regions.
2. India’s only tri-service command is established at the A&N Islands at the entrance of the Malacca Strait, the 2.8 km long -world’s most congested choke point, and the primary route for Chinese oil supply.
3. Illicit activities such as Pirates and territorial violations can be curbed if the Islands such as Lakshadweep are strategically developed.
4. Andaman & Nicobar Islands is centre-point for the development of Quad Group’s maritime agenda in the Indo-Pacific Region.

Energy Potential

1. The Islands host an unexplored Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with clearly demarcated boundaries that can be capitalized on in numerous ways.
2. The varied ecosystem can be exploited for its medicinal plants and exotic plant species, sustainable agriculture and horticulture practices conducive to the agro-climatic conditions of the regions can be propagated.
3. The IOR is home to large-scale hydrocarbon which can be explored. Recently India’s exclusive rights to explore polymetallic nodules from seabed in Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) have been extended by five years.
4. This can boost India’s hunt for alternate renewable energy resources so as to meet the energy needs of the nation.

Economic Importance

1. Fisheries, the main occupation of the larger population of these regions, can be given a thrust so as to develop modernized and sustainable inland fisheries and aquaculture ecosystem integrated with the ‘Blue Economy’ vision. Ex. Fishing of Lakshadweep Tuna.
2. Most importantly, the Islands can be developed as prime Tourist Hotspots for not just the country, but also internationally.
3. The pristine beaches, coupled with rich tropical vegetation, can be turned into a more economical and attractive alternative to conventional destinations such as Bali and Maldives.
4. This help in creating many forward and backward linkages and boost the economy of the regions to a large extent.

Trade and Regional Connectivity

1. Indian Ocean Region handles most of the sea trade in the world.
2. The shallow coastline of mainland India has severe impact on trade capacity.
3. Deep water ports can be developed on these Islands thereby paving way for creation of additional service and refuelling stations.
4. Greater connectivity of these islands with South East Asia can be harnessed for India’s Act East Policy.

International Cooperation

1. The 2016 Indo-Japan Joint Statement on Bilateral Cooperation envisioned to develop “Smart Islands” on the line of the ‘Smart Cities’ project.
2. Japanese capital and expertise can be both pioneering as well as beneficial to this endeavor.
3. The development of the Reunion Islands by France can be a guiding example and also opens up the opportunity for prospective collaboration with Paris in implementation of such projects.
4. The positive response by OECD countries in taking on ‘Smart Cities’ projects further demands similar international cooperation.

What hinders the development of Island?

Climate Change

1. Parali Island of the Lakshadweep got completely submerged due to rising sea levels,
2. The vulnerabilities of these Island groups to Tsunamis is a grave matter of concern.
3. Rise in sea temperature and oceanic acidification further intensify coral bleaching.

Restricted Area Permit

1. Recently govt has decided stop the requirement of Restricted Area Permit for foreigners visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to boost tourism.
2. This can pose a threat to the PVTGs such as Jarawas, Ongis and Sentinelese.

Chinese Assertiveness

1. China’s bid of encircling India in the Indian ocean region by various initiatives are greatest threat to India.
2. Chinese development such as Naval base in Djibouti and Hambantota, Sri Lanka pose a greater threat.

Other issues

1. These include delay in the project implementation due to lack of funds.
2. Infrastructural development in on the islands are restricted due to logistical limitations such as lack of developed ports, airports etc. Seamless supply of electricity and potable water is still not achieved in these region.
3. The remoteness of these hinterland currently fails to attract private players due to such problems.

Indian initiatives so far

1. Ship Building and Ship Repairing have been the high priority areas for infrastructure initiatives in the islands.
2. The government has announced laying of Rs, 1,102 Crore worth of submarine optical fiber cable between Chennai and A&N Islands so as to increase telephone and internet connectivity in the region by December 2018.
3. Tri-services military command has also been established in the Eastern Naval Commands at A&N islands . This will help curbing piracy, smuggling and terror activity.
4. Various exercises such as CORPAT, SIMBEX are held to bolster maritime security.

Way Forward: Private Sector Participation

1. The road to development sails through the islands.
2. The high financial costs in such investments create a need for private sector involvement, where their operational and managerial expertise is required to optimally deliver on these projects.
3. Similarly, International best practices can be modified suitably and replicated so as to maximize returns further.
4. Although, the need for civil infrastructure development in Island regions is unquestionable, in the wake of existing geo-strategic position, upgradation of defense facilities is equally important.
5. This will constructively channelize the positive externalities of such assets to enhance the living conditions of entire populace.
6. Due attention needs to be paid so as to not disturb the ecological balance, disrupt local livelihood-activities, and engage all stakeholders in the decision making process while ensuring that sufficient institutions and mechanisms exist for grievance redressal, compensation and rehabilitation.

Context

The Supreme Court upheld the validity of India’s ambitious biometric identity project, ‘Aadhaar’, saying it benefited the marginalized and poor, but sharply reined in a government push to make it mandatory for various services.

What is Aadhaar?

Aadhaar is a 12 digit unique-identity number issued to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data. The data is collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statutory authority established by the Government of India, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, under the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016.

What are the benefits of Aadhar?

1. JAM trinity –  Jan DhanYojana, Aadhaar and Mobile numbers – This will make the government support to poor more targeted and less distortive.
2. Identification of the beneficiaries of the government’s welfare schemes – Aadhar will help to remove fake and duplicates identities. It can be used to filter the list of beneficiaries and stop the leakage of public money.
3. To tackle the black money issue – Use of Aadhar in financial transactions can reduce the menace of black money in the country.
4. In Income tax return – Use of Aadhar in income tax filing will reduce the number of documents needed. It can make the process more efficient and cost-effective way.
5. In Opening a bank account – There is no need to collect multiple identity proofs or run around for documentation. Your humble Aadhaar Card is ample proof of your identity and address.
6. In getting subsidies directly to the bank account – By linking Aadhar with bank accounts, subsidies like LPG will get credited to bank account directly.
7. To get pension money on time – By just registering with the Aadhaar number, pension-related documentation process will be eased and a timely payout of pension money can be ensured.
8. The issue of digital Life certificate – Aadhar number can be used to get a digital life certificate. It will help pensioners without the hassle of physically going to the bank and submitting the life certificate.
9. Easy Provident Fund disbursement – The Aadhaar will ensure that the Provident Fund money is not diverted and is disbursed directly to the pensioner’s account.
10. Accepted as a proof of address by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for investing in stock market.
11. Mapping development parameters – In critical sectors of the country like healthcare and education, Aadhar can be used to map the development process.
12. It can help to map skilled manpower, based on the vocational training acquired by the individual, to suitable job vacancies/ skill requirements of the State.

Issues with Aadhar and Aadhar Act

1. Questionable Legal Backing: The current legal backing of Aadhar is via a money bill. The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016 came into force in 2016, but this is now challenged in Supreme Court.
2. Issues with sharing information collected under Aadhaar – The provisions in the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016 Act with regard to the protection of identity information and authentication records may be affected by recent verdict by Supreme Court that Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right.
3. Violation of rights – It was argued that the UIDAI might share the biometric information of people with other government agencies and thus would violate people’s right to privacy.
4. Has potential to profile individuals – The Act does not specifically prohibit law enforcement and intelligence agencies from using the Aadhaar number as a link (key) across various datasets (such as telephone records, air travel records, etc.) in order to recognise patterns of behaviour. Eg The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
5. Discretionary powers of UIDAI – The Act empowers the UID authority to specify demographic information that may be collected. The only restriction imposed on the authority is that it shall not record information pertaining to race, religion, caste, language, etc of the individual.
6. Furthermore, UID has exclusive power to make complaints and the courts cannot take cognizance of any offence punishable under the Aadhaar Act unless a complaint is made by the UID authority.
7. The time period for maintaining authentication records – The bill does not specify the maximum duration for which authentication records may be stored by the UID authority.
8. There are high possibilities of data theft, data leak or breach. Eg. Aadhaar numbers and bank details of over 134,000 beneficiaries on Andhra Pradesh Housing Corporation’s website have been leaked.

What of the Aadhaar Act has the court struck down?

• Section 33(1) which allows disclosure of information, including identity and authentication records, if ordered by a court not inferior to that of a District Judge. Individuals should be given the opportunity of a hearing.
• Section 33(2) which allowed identity and authentication data to be disclosed in the interest of national security on direction of an officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India. A Judicial Officer (preferably a sitting High Court Judge) should be associated with it and that the government should bring in legislation to this effect.
• Section 47 which referred to cognizance of offences. Under this Section, no individual was allowed to file a complaint if he/she felt their data was leaked or misused. The law only allowed the court to take cognizance of a complaint filed by UIDAI or anyone authorised by it. Any individual will now be allowed to file a complaint if he/she feels their data has been compromised.
• Section 57 refers to the use of Aadhaar data by any “body corporate or person” to establish the identity of an individual. Justice Sikri, in his judgment, found this section to be unconstitutional. It was under this provision that private companies like Paytm and Airtel Payments Bank sought Aadhaar details from customers.

The implications of the Aadhaar verdict:

1. Aadhaar is mandatory for filing of income tax returns (ITR) and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN).

2. Most commercial banks, payments bank and e-wallet companies like Paytm, they cannot seek Aadhaar data i.e. Aadhaar authentication for bank accounts is now a thing of the past.

3. Telecom service provider cannot seek Aadhaar details from you. Justice Chandrachud has favoured deletion of consumers’ Aadhaar data by mobile service providers.

4. Students of CBSE, NEET, UGC also do not require Aadhaar number to appear in exams. Even schools cannot seek Aadhaar card for admissions.

5. Aadhaar card is however must for availing facilities of welfare schemes and government subsidies as it empowers the poor and marginalised.

6. The Supreme Court has made exception for children saying that no child can be denied benefits of any scheme if he or she doesn’t have Aadhaar card.

7. The apex court has struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act as “unconstitutional”. This means that no company or private entity can seek Aadhaar identification from you.

8. The constitution bench has also struck down the national security exception under the Aadhaar Act. This will indirectly ensure greater privacy of individual’s Aadhaar data while restricting the government accessibility to it.

9. The Supreme Court judgement, said it would not lead to a surveillance state because the data was kept in silos. The program’s invasion of privacy was minimal and served a much larger public interest by providing identities to India’s poor and marginalized citizens.

10. The court said that under present Aadhaar scheme and structure, it is difficult to profile a person on the basis of minimal biometric information collected.

The dissent in the Court’s verdict

• In his dissent, Justice Chandrachud argued that the passage of the Aadhaar Act as a ‘money bill’, has superseded the Rajya Sabha’s authority and this “constitutes a fraud on the Constitution”. As a result of this “debasement of a democratic institution”, he held the Aadhaar Act unconstitutional.
• He also expressed his displeasure at the government passing a series of orders making Aadhaar compulsory for various reasons, in defiance of interim orders from the Supreme Court.
• He highlighted the biometric authentication failures that have led to denial of rights and legal entitlements. Further he ruled that denial of benefits arising out of any social security rights is “violative of human dignity and impermissible under our constitutional scheme”.

Aadhar Card and Right To Privacy – Can They Co-Exist?

Previous Supreme Court Rulings:

1. In Kharak Singh case (1962), a six-judge judgment — held that the Right to Privacy was not a fundamental right.
2. In Govind vs. State of Madhya Pradesh (1975), the Supreme Court held that “many of the fundamental rights of citizens can be described as contributing to the Right to Privacy”. After this, the approach to interpretation of fundamental rights had undergone a fundamental change. The scope of article 21 of Constitution was broadened through subsequent judgments.
3. In Maneka Gandhi (1978), the SC held that any law and procedure authorizing interference with personal liberty and Right of Privacy must also be right, just, and fair, and not arbitrary, fanciful, or oppressive.”
4. In R Rajagopal vs State of Tamil Nadu (1994), Supreme Court held that the Right to Privacy is implicit in the right to life and liberty guarantee by Article 21. A citizen has a right to safeguard the privacy of his own, his family, marriage, procreation, motherhood, child-bearing and education among other matters.

From these rulings, it can be inferred that though the Constitution does not specify ‘right to privacy’ as a fundamental right, but the subject has evolved considerably in India, and privacy is now seen as an ingredient of personal liberty.

The Need of hour to ensure Data Privacy:- Justice AP Shah Committee

• In its zeal to aggregate data in electronic form and target subsidies better, the government cannot ignore its responsibility to protect citizens from the perils of the cyber era.
• Legislation- it is imperative that the Union Government enact a privacy legislation that clearly defines the rights of citizens and it should be consistent with the provision of the Constitution.
• The government should factor in privacy risks and include procedures and systems to protect citizen information in any system of data collection.
• It should create an institutional mechanism such as the Privacy Commissioner to prevent unauthorised disclosure of or access to such data.
• Our national cyber cell should be made well capable of dealing with any cyber-attack in the shortest time.
• We need to educate people on the risks involved and highlight examples of ID thefts and fraud.
• The government should recognise all dimensions of the right to privacy and address concerns about data safety, protection from unauthorised interception, surveillance, use of personal identifiers and bodily privacy.
• We need to take a level-headed approach and ensure that ample safeguards are put in place for data protection and privacy.

The Way Ahead:

• The court also ruled that the authentication record should not be kept beyond the period of six months and the provision that allowed archive records for five years has been struck down.
• It has excluded storage of meta-data of transactions by individuals. This banning means UIDAI cannot collect data sets and mine it for more data or analysis. It has also struck down data sharing with corporates.
• The Supreme Court also called for Parliament to draft and pass a data protection law immediately. “We have also impressed upon the respondents to bring out a robust data protection regime in the form of an enactment on the basis of Justice BN Srikrishna (Retd.) Committee Report with necessary modifications thereto as may be deemed appropriate.”

Conclusion

• This judgment should reassure all citizens that Aadhaar has been put into place by this government to ensure that curse of corruption and leakages in use of public money is once in for all removed from our system.
• The main concerns of rights of citizens and correcting the imbalance in Aadhaar Act vis-a-vis UIDAI has been corrected by Supreme Court and UIDAI will now evolve into a transparent accountable institution.
• The ban on metadata storage, minimum data and only six months of data storage strengthen the citizens Right to Privacy.
• Along with Section 66 A, Privacy as Fundamental Right and this verdict on Aadhaar– these three cases mark the basic shaping of the future of a Digital India with solid clear legal rights for Indians.