ACCEPTING THE REALITY

An  Electronic  Amalgam  ?

In high-school , we learned that , certain ( not all ) , finely ground metal powders  :

·         When mixed and stirred , form a “ MIXTURE “ , which permits those metals to be “ separated “ by mechanical methods

·         Same powders when thoroughly mixed and heated beyond their melting temperatures , create an “ ALLOY “ , which cannot be separated mechanically

This observation is true of BITS of MATTER

Does it hold good for BYTES of DIGITAL DATA ?

To me , it seems so  !

I am tempted to call this phenomenon , ELECTRONIC  AMALGAM  !

Take the case of Aadhar , which is our BIO-METRIC DATA ( captured as BYTES )

Over the past 3 years ( - and especially after De-Monetization ) , Aadhar has been alloyed  inextricably with the following other BYTES of DIGITAL DATA , to form an ELECTRONIC AMALGAM  :

·         130 DBT Schemes

·         Bank Accounts

·         Mobile Wallets

·         Ration Cards

·         Credit-Debit Cards

·         PAN Cards

·         Driving Licenses

·         Income Tax Payments / GST Payments

·         E Commerce Apps

·         Voter ID Cards ( soon ? )

·         Online Purchase of Train ( - and other transport ) services

·         Registration on most web sites / all Messaging Apps / Social Media

·         Passport / Travel Documents

·         Appearing for Online Exams / Tests

·         Altogether firmly linked with ,

#     50 crore SIM cards

#     54 crore Bank Accounts seeded with Aadhar

#     118.64 crore Indians who used it for authentication nearly 1217 crore times

#     19 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts used Aadhar for identification

#     9.54 crore MGNREGA workers have used Aadhar to receive wages in accounts

#     1.48 crore pensioners have linked Aadhar to bank accounts

#     1.36 crore Indians got passport based on Aadhar

#     Due to Aadhar linkage, 11.35 lakh duplicate PAN got detected / deactivated

  

List keeps growing by the day !

Therefore , I am not surprised that 2 days back , Supreme Court refused to grant a stay to petitioners for Aadhar Act legitimacy and  linking with Bank Accounts / Mobile Nos

It referred the matter to the 5 Judge Constitutional Bench , formed for this purpose , which will decide by end November

I would be surprised if that Constitutional Bench were to decide :

·         Aadhar Act is “ Un-Constitutional “ and must be struck down

That would be like discovering some, hitherto unknown method of separation / dis-entanglement / dismembering  / destruction , of  an ELECTRONIC  AMALGAM ,

- a task of erasing trillions of petabytes of 0s and 1s , from millions of computers from all over the World – remotely and without the permissions of those Computer Owners !

The chaos that is bound to ensue, will make us forget the pains of DEMONETIZATION and GST , combined !

We have many examples of “ Un-implementable Laws “

Striking down Aadhar Act will be an example of “ Un-enforceable Judgement “ !

Such a “ discovery “ would merit a Nobel Prize ( - in “ Virtual Unreality “ category ? )

I have no doubt , the Hon Judges of the Supreme Court have heard about :

The Law of Un-intended Consequences

06  Nov  2017

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