Aadhaar will soon enter private sector too
The Supreme Court of India has given some outstanding judgments in the recent times with regard to Sabarimala and sexuality minority issues. But then the same court has left a lot of gaps in its judgment on Aadhaar petition. As soon as the Supreme Court says Aadhaar is not needed in some cases, people cannot assume they can do without Aadhaar forever. Those who wish to live without, must be prepared to face a fair amount of challenges in this country. Though SC has disallowed private companies from using Aadhar information or card, it is anybody's guess as to how successful this ruling would be. Will the private sector even be able to face the challenges in this context?
Niti Aayog faces a tricky time ahead because of this ruling. The committee was all set to create an action plan to use the Aadhaar and seeded data as basis to access private information. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has indicated that a bill would be tabled in the parliament, to allow use of Aadhaar in private sector. Payments Council of India is said to be against this and has even been insisting on this with finance and law ministers.
Court has said Aadhaar can be used for other purposes as a collateral document to get Passport, pan card, driver's license and other important documents. In cases of people submitting Aadhaar by choice as proof of address of id, the court has said it would have no issues. But the same court would not allow Aadhaar to be certified by non-governmental organisations. With the judgment, Air India, and other organisations such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and LIC can accept Aadhaar. But their opponents such as Vistara, Reliance Jio or Kotak Life Insurance etc cannot use the same document as address proof. This helps the public sector organisations and would increase the financial and operational burden on private companies. Who'd bear the cost? obviously, the common person.
This increased burden, especially after the SC verdict, has become a cause of concern and private companies are already considering what they'd need to do in the future course to manage their costs and the market share along with keeping customers happy. For instance, Reliance Jio obtained the details of customers from their Aadhaar and wrote the best success story in telecom history of India. Costs have come down considerably for all private digital payment companies who obtaining required info from Aadhaar data.
This is the reason behind the pressure created by private sector to pass a bill to use Aadhaar for private use. Efforts are on to create conducive reasons to allow its use. Arun Jaitley has been on this job, anticipating the opposition parties would raise a lot of dust on this. Justice A K Sikri had said parts of sec 57 are unconstitutional since they empower private parties to ascertain the identity of persons. This is against the fundamental rights of a person. If a bill is passed as is, opposition party would be able to leverage this step as BJP's hobnobbing with the corporate sector, leading to confusion among poeple.Hence, the government is planning to have the corporate sector answer all the critics and then a bill would be passed to aid the use of data among private parties. So when one vests the power of using or submitting Aadhaar to individuals, and allow private companies to seek submission of this through their means, the government is escaping from its responsibilities and taking the backdoor entry into outing poeple's information on private sector. All the preparations are on. The final Aadhaar show for private sector will be done in a very consistent manner.
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Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar, four others killed in plane crash
Baramati (PTI): Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four other persons on board an aircraft were killed after it crashed near the Baramati airport in Maharashtra’s Pune district on Wednesday.
The 66-year-old leader’s death has not only left a vacuum in the BJP-led state coalition government, but also cast a shadow on the future of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he headed.
His uncle and NCP founder Sharad Pawar said the plane crash was an accident which shouldn't be politicised.
The "black box" (comprising the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder) from the aircraft, will be analysed after recovery to determine the cause of the accident, an official said.
Ajit Pawar had taken off from Mumbai in the morning to address four rallies in the day in Pune district for the February 5 zilla parishad elections.
The others killed in the tragedy were Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flying experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Capt. Shambhavi Pathak with 1,500 hours of flying, Personal Security Officer (PSO) Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
The government released a statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the crash and Pawar's death.
The aircraft, a Learjet, was cleared for landing in Baramati on Wednesday morning after a go-around due to poor visibility, but having finally received a clearance it did not give any read-back' to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames on the edge of the runway.
In aviation parlance, a go-around is a standard procedure where a pilot discontinues a landing attempt and initiates a climb to fly another approach. It is used when a landing cannot be completed safely due to factors like poor weather, an unstable approach, or traffic on the runway. It is a proactive safety measure rather than an emergency.
A readback is a crucial safety procedure where a pilot repeats back the essential parts of a message or instruction received from Air Traffic Control (ATC). It acts as a "closed-loop" communication system, ensuring that the controller's instructions were heard and understood correctly by the flight crew.
The 16-year-old chartered aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd, crashed while attempting a second landing approach at Baramati airport which is an uncontrolled airfield where traffic information is typically provided by instructors and pilots from local flying training organisations.
V K Singh, owner of VSR Ventures, said the pilot apparently could not see the runway and carried out a "missed approach", a standardised procedure in such cases.
Terrifying eyewitness accounts have emerged from the site of the aircraft crash as residents near the Baramati airport described a scene of chaos as the plane appeared to lose control before erupting into a series of big explosions.
An eyewitness described watching the aircraft circle the airport, noting it appeared 'a bit unstable' before its final approach. According to her, the plane 'hit the ground hard and exploded' upon impact, with the blast being heard in homes throughout the area.
Later, the Civil Aviation Ministry, quoting the person manning the Air Traffic Control at Baramati, issued a statement about the sequence of events indicating that the flight encountered visibility issues during its landing attempt despite reports of calm weather.
The statement said that at 8.18 am, the aircraft first established contact with Baramati air traffic control after being released by the Pune approach at 30 nautical miles (around 55 km) inbound to Baramati.
The crew was advised to descend at their discretion under Visual Meteorological conditions and were also informed that winds were calm and visibility was approximately 3,000 metres.
Upon reaching the final approach for the runway, the crew reported that the runway was not in sight and initiated a go-around to reposition for a second attempt on the runway.
After initially stating the runway was still not visible, the crew reported "runway in sight" just seconds later and the ATC cleared the aircraft to land at 8.43 am.
However, the crew did not provide the mandatory readback of this final clearance and at 8.44 am, exactly one minute after the last communication, ATC personnel observed flames erupting near the threshold of the runway.
Emergency services reached the scene immediately following the explosion and the wreckage was located on the left side of the runway.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is currently analysing why the crew struggled to maintain visual contact with the runway despite the reported 3,000-metre visibility.
According to eyewitnesses, the force of the explosion was so great that parts of the aircraft were hurled through the air, landing near residential structures. "The plane tilted before coming down. We saw the explosion and it was frightening," an eyewitness said.
Another eyewitness reported that the aircraft appeared to be losing control from an altitude of approximately 100 feet above the runway.
"The way the plane was coming down, we felt it was going to crash... As we rushed towards it, we saw flames, followed by four to five consecutive blasts, which prevented us from going anywhere near the aircraft".
Pramod Madurikar, a witness at the scene, said the victims were identified shortly after the crash and were shifted to ambulances. Fire brigade personnel reached the spot shortly.
The aircraft was trying to land amid poor visibility, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu told reporters in Pune.
VSR Ventures’ fleet includes seven Learjet 45 aircraft (including the one involved in the crash), five Embraer 135BJ aircraft, four King Air B200 aircraft and one Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, the statement said.
Superintendent of Police, Sandip Singh Gill, said that after the crash, there was a fire. "People onboard were immediately taken to the hospital," he said.
Ajit Pawar is survived by wife Sunetra, a member of the Rajya Sabha and two sons, Parth and Jay.
His Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had contested the recent municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad in alliance with his uncle Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP).
President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other leaders expressed grief over Pawar's demise.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who reached Baramati and met Ajit Pawar’s family members, described the NCP leader’s tragic death as unbelievable, and said he had lost a good friend.
Maharashtra government declared a three-day state mourning till January 30, during which the national flag will be flown at half-mast on all buildings.
Ajit Pawar’s last rites will be held with full state honours on Thursday in Baramati.
Modi and Shah are expected to attend the funeral, which will be held at Vidya Pratishthan ground at 11 am, the Nationalist Congress Party said.
