83 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
83 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
|
||
title: Datengarten 45
|
||
subtitle: "Aaadhaar: What kind of 'database state' is the Indian government creating?"
|
||
date: 2018-05-20T12:27:22+02:00
|
||
draft: true
|
||
---
|
||
|
||
(Vortrag in englischer Sprache)
|
||
|
||
A discussion of the Aadhaar project as a digital identity platform for
|
||
governance
|
||
|
||
Zeit und Ort
|
||
------------
|
||
|
||
8\. Juli 2014, 20 Uhr im CCCB, Marienstr. 11, 10117 Berlin
|
||
|
||
Abstract
|
||
--------
|
||
|
||
As part of my larger academic interest in the history of electronic
|
||
governance and computing by the Government of India since 1960s, I have
|
||
been studying the making and activities of the Unique Identification
|
||
Authority of India (UIDAI). UIDAI was instituted in 2009 to assign
|
||
unique biometrics- linked identification numbers, branded as Aadhaar
|
||
numbers, to all the residents of India. The growing literature about
|
||
this Aadhaar project focus on various topics such as implications for
|
||
citizenship, for efficiency of governmental services, for formalisation
|
||
and unification of unorganised banking and welfare-accessing practices.
|
||
As opposed to socio-legal critiques offered by most researchers and
|
||
activists in India, I discuss the technological imagination and the
|
||
materiality of the database system being designed and deployed as part
|
||
of the Aadhaar project. I argue that it is crucial to develop a close
|
||
understanding of the specific form of data collection, management,
|
||
archiving, sharing by the Aadhaar project and the software
|
||
infrastructure it is building to enable various government and
|
||
commercial agencies to implement a single identity platform for tracking
|
||
their interactions with citizens/consumers.
|
||
|
||
Like all 'new' technologies, the Aadhaar project involves a continued
|
||
engagement and negotiations with older technological infrastructures and
|
||
socio-technical practices. I will argue here that this newness is to be
|
||
found in the idea of the digital ‘identity platform,' as opposed to the
|
||
demographic and biometric data it gathers. In my exploration, I closely
|
||
study the official reports and technical documents published by UIDAI to
|
||
understand its techno-infrastructural proposals and their potential
|
||
consequences in the context of the recent history of electronic
|
||
governance and national identity card policy in India. My research is
|
||
also guided by the project's self-description as an 'identity platform,'
|
||
which needs to be understood within the specific technological paradigm
|
||
of information production and circulation as captured by the notion of
|
||
the 'platform' as a site for capturing and monetising user behaviour
|
||
data. In conclusion, I reflect on the potential nature of the database
|
||
state being conceptualised and realised through the Aadhaar project.
|
||
|
||
Referent
|
||
--------
|
||
|
||
Sumandro Chattapadhyay\
|
||
|
||
Biographic Note
|
||
---------------
|
||
|
||
I am a researcher interested in the history and politics of informatics
|
||
in India, media and technology studies, and political economy. I am a
|
||
Research Associate at The Sarai Programme in the Centre for the Study of
|
||
Developing Societies, Delhi, India, and contribute to the ongoing
|
||
research project on 'media and information infrastructures.' I also
|
||
periodically work with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore,
|
||
on topics of open data policy, open access and Internet governance.
|
||
Previously, I have worked with MOD Institute on issues of affordable
|
||
housing, urban security and ICTs and urban governance; and have led a
|
||
data analysis and visualisation team at the Azim Premji University,
|
||
Bangalore, India. I studied economics in Visva-Bharati, Shantiniketan,
|
||
and in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
|
||
|
||
Links
|
||
-----
|
||
|
||
- Personal Website: [ajantriks.net](http://ajantriks.net)
|
||
- The Sarai Programme: [sarai.net](http://sarai.net)
|
||
- Centre for the Study of Developing Societies: [csds.in](http://csds.in)
|