Press Coverage

OCTOBER 2025

Keir Starmer said he may consider Aadhaar as model for ID for UK, but Indian lawyers, activists warn of #Aadhaar 's ‘digital coercion’, data breaches "Your basis to live is checked at each and every step", warn civil liberty activists.

Previously, The Guardian has reported how a glitch in Aadhaar system led to starvation when linked to essential food security. And, the personal data of a billion Indians were sold online for £6

Indians activists reiterated that there is no way to know if there has been a reported data breach and no oversight into how Aadhaar data may be bundled with other databases. Ultimately, it’s a system that undermines access to essential social security and welfare, they said.

Aadhaar: Costs of Digital Red Tape’

A recent study by Reetika Khera and Amod Moharil based on a survey of nearly 300 people interviewed at centers trying to correct and update Aadhaar in centers in the national capital Delhi found excessive bureaucracy, dysfunctional or closed centers, residents having to make multiple trips with no accountability

“India’s biometrics-based digital ID called Aadhaar is celebrated by the official machinery and many in the international digital ID community as a pioneering experiment in digital IDs. Earlier work demonstrated that making Aadhaar mandatory for welfare benefits and even for some private services has led to exclusion and denials. Some exclusion results from errors in the Aadhaar database, which aims to serve as the single source of truth. This article focuses on people’s experience in dealing with demographic and biometric errors and updations at “Aadhaar Correction Centres.””

Customer ID verification framework USING AADHAAR makes life difficult for the poor

Poor people find themselves locked out of their own bank accounts over minor Aadhaar and data mismatches with not even a prior notice; the stress and the hurdles of correcting it even proved fatal such for this elderly man Ramman in Uttar Pradesh

ON PROBLEMS OF ‘LOST AADHAAR’

Without Aadhaar, without identity’

Vyom Anil, Jean Dreze write in The Indian Express: People who lose their Aadhaar number may not be able to retrieve it, and risk losing all social benefits. They point out the problem that the only record many people have of their Aadhaar number is their Aadhaar card. If they misplace it, such as in the case of Reena Devi, such individuals are rejected when they try to re-enroll and resolving this is not easy, takes months; and they get cut off from all essential services in the interim. Read this article without paywall here

AUGUST 2025

Aadhaar continues to be arbitrarily inaccessible and unworkable: 

Digitisation fails to serve the people’s interests, but continues to expand:

Aadhaar, data, and surveillance: 

JULY 2025

Getting, keeping, and “verifying” Aadhaar becomes more difficult: 

Digitisation drawbacks: The push for UPI adoption is leading to GST notices for small vendors in Karnataka, with plans to expand nationally.

Criminal justice and surveillance: A special two-part investigation into the use of facial recognition technology by the Delhi Police exposes how marginalised communities suffer the consequences of FRT’s failures, and how the Delhi Police ignored bias, abuse, data leaks, and human rights violations in sourcing this tech. 

Tech and state power: 

  • How technology companies are furthering colonial oppression through “colonial algorithms”, with AI-targeting software, surveillance mechanisms, and censorship tools to enable violence against Palestinians, and maintain repressive power structures. 

  • An exploration of how the Indian state is expanding its powers and undermining democracy as the relationship between the governed and the governors is increasingly controlled through digital technologies. 

From around the world: the Aadhaar experience serves as a cautionary tale for the Sri Lankan digitisation project

JUNE 2025

In spite of all the reports of hardship and exclusion as well as continuing fraud from the use of Aadhaar, the government keeps expanding its scope and making it mandatory for legal entitlements as well. We are sharing a round-up of recent developments. We urge you to share these updates with your networks as well.

Exclusions continue

Difficulties faced by victims of acid attacks in enrolling for Aadhaar – they had to go to Court to find a way, by John Simte | A video story on this from Scroll.in

Here’s another by him on the same issue, in The India Forum

Problems – and queues – to keep Aadhaar up to date and usable, by Aparna Kalra.

On Aadhaar and adivasis, by Chakradhar Buddha and BDS Kishore

…Its usefulness continues to be questioned:

Andy Mukherjee (Bloomberg columnist): https://x.com/andymukherjee70/status/1934939679125917703

…Fraud continues in spite of Aadhaar or even because of Aadhaar

Mastermind who cheated 26 crores, only 'alive' on Aadhar card, Dainik Bhaskar 

Using Aadhaar to defraud people of their PDS rations in UP, Daily Pioneer

Its role in helping candidates cheat in MP constable exam, Indian Express

Yet, the use of Aadhaar keeps expanding

Mandatory for tatkal bookings: https://x.com/AshwiniVaishnaw/status/1930292913579147360

“Facial recognition” mandatory for ‘take-home rations’ given to pregnant women at anganwadis.

Many reacted angrily (as they should): see Sucheta DalalRathin RoyMartin HausNeel Kolhe.  

In Jan 2024, Anganwadi workers in Andhra Pradesh were already raising issues related to over-use of apps. 

Book on facial recognition by Amber Sinha and old article on this by Gautam Bhatia

Related news, wider reading and from around the world

Biometrics of arrestees being collected in Rajasthan and Delhi, Vijaita Singh

https://www.medianama.com/2025/06/223-uidai-anonymised-aadhaar-data-risks/

Two perspectives on doorstep delivery of PDS grain –– a rollback in AP and one that never took off (perhaps just as well that it didn’t) in Delhi (from 2021)

Three stories on the growing worries about Palantir: The Daily ShowRob Reich’s subtack, in The New York Times

JULY 2019

Jaipur teens tampering with Aadhar details to watch ‘Kabir Singh’

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/teens-tampering-with-aadhar-details-to-watch-kabir-singh/article28271056.ece

Pay Interest For Delaying Salary Of Employee Who Did Not Link Aadhaar: Bombay HC To Port Trust

https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/pay-interest-for-delaying-salary-of-mbt-employee-who-did-not-link-aadhar-145922

The Aadhaar Amendments Bill has reinstated many of the provisions of Section 57 of the original Aadhaar Act which was struck down by the Supreme Court in September 2018 as unconstitutional.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aadhaar-amendment-bill-new-rules-uidai-5829226/

#MyBodyMyRights: Will Aadhar prevent you from getting an abortion?

http://www.hidden-pockets.com/mybodymyrights-will-aadhar-prevent-you-from-getting-an-abortion/

The imposition of Aadhaar to avail benefits and subsidies “is nothing but the state’s arrogance towards the poor”, says INC MP from Koraput, Saptagiri Ulaka

https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/congresss-lone-mp-from-odisha-on-food-security-aadhaar-and-the-condition-of-his-party

Aadhaar Card Not A Valid Document For Travel To Nepal: NCDRC

https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/aadhar-card-not-a-valid-document-for-travel-to-nepal-ncdrc-read-order-146469

Aadhaar verification no more in use for driving license

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/aadhaar-verification-no-more-in-use-for-driving-license-1563251433918.html

Economic Survey has based Aadhaar impact on MGNREGS on false assumptions, say researchers

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/economic-survey-has-based-aadhaar-impact-on-mgnregs-on-false-assumptions-say-researchers/article28313214.ece

Madras HC seeks EPFO response on plea against mandatory Aadhaar-UAN linking

https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/plea-in-hc-against-linking-aadhaar-to-uan-to-avail-pf-pension-119070900224_1.html

TISS study: Aadhaar fraud rampant in Kalyana Lakshmi

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/tiss-study-aadhaar-fraud-rampant-in-kalyana-lakshmi/articleshow/70135322.cms

For whom is the Aadhaar Amendments Bill: only to please Telecom companies

https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/governance/for-whom-is-the-aadhaar-amendments-bill-reliance-jio-airtelvodafone-and-tata

November 2018

An imaginary friend (The Indian Express, Sakina Dhorajiwala and Rajendran Narayanan, November 1, 2018)

SEPTEMBER 2018

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/least-56-died-due-hunger-2015-693791.html

https://thewire.in/rights/of-42-hunger-related-deaths-since-2017-25-linked-to-aadhaar-issues

JULY 2017

Forthcoming Supreme Court decision on right to privacy one of the most important legal decisions in the world this year (Times of India, Elen Maglen and Mishi Chaudhary, July 25 2017)

Aadhaar rebels find ways to avoid PAN linkage (Times of India, Namita Devidayal and Lubna Kalby, July 23, 2017)

Govt has been speaking in two tongues on right to privacy: Reetika Khera (Business Standard, Ranjita Ganesan, July 22, 2017)

Parliamentary committee questions MHA officials on security, Aadhar (Money Control, July 21, 2017)

UIDAI says it won’t act on alleged Jio data leaks till police complete investigation (The Wire, Mayank Jain, July 21, 2017)

Errors and Exclusion Mark Jharkhand’s Aadhaar-MGNREGA Link (The Wire, Jahnavi Sen, July 20, 2017)  

Fake caller held for threatening to kill activist Shabnam Hashmi (Hindustan Times, July 19, 2017)

The Different Ways in Which Aadhaar Infringes on Privacy (The Wire, Reetika Khera, July 19, 2017)

Nine months of no ration: Villagers pleas fall on deaf ears (Times of India, July 17,2017)

In One Police Officer’s Threat, a Glimpse of How  Aadhaar Drive Could Be Misused (The Wire, Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, July 16, 2017)

Aadhaar Card will now be mandatory for students of State Government-run schools to get mid-day meals (India Live Today, Avinash Nandakumar, July 14, 2017)

The Aadhaar scramble in Uttar Pradesh schools might keep some children out of the classroom (Scroll, Shreya Roy Choudhary, July 12 2017)

Corruption in Aadhaar enrolment raises fears of compromising biometric details (Hindustan Times, Saubhadra Chatterji, July 12, 2017)

Aadhaar jolt for PF pensioners in Karnataka (The Hindu, Sharath S. Srivatsa, July 11, 2017)

June 2017

No Aadhaar, no banking and threat to privacy: Do you have a choice? (India Today, Prabash K Dutta, June 17, 2017)

The Supreme Court’s Refusal To Stay The Requirement Of Aadhaar For Income-Tax Returns Raises Several Troubling Questions (The Caravan, Anupam Kumar, June 12, 2017)

Four pressing questions that emerge from the Supreme Court’s judgment on PAN-Aadhaar linking (Scroll, Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, June 12, 2017)

Banks say no to customers sans Aadhaar (The Hindu Businessline, Priyanka Pani, June 12, 2017)

Aadhaar Must For Filing Tax Returns, New PAN From July 1: Government (NDTV, PTI, June 11, 2017)

Government needs to look at security issues of Aadhar: Congress (Business Standard, IANS, June 9, 2017)

Unique ID proposed to be made mandatory for flight booking (Business Standard, IANS, June 8, 2017)

Government’s claims of Aadhaar savings for the LPG scheme are overstated (Mediumnama, Anand Venkatanarayanan, June 8, 2017)

Criminals will be able to crack UID system easily: Jacob Appelbaum (Business Standard, Indulekha Aravind, June 1, 2013)

Aadhaar: It’s Not Black &White (Outline Survey)

Aadhaar, aid decisions: TISS students protest, seek rollback (Indian Express, Priyanka Sahoo, June 6, 2017)

300TISS students refuse to pay fees, demand withdrwal of #Aadhaar circular (Kractivist, Mitaksh Jain, June 6, 2017)

In case of mixed-up identities, 2 men end up with same Aadhaar number (The Times of India, Prachi Raturi Misra, June 5, 2017)

Excluded by Aadhaar (Indian Express, Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey, June 5, 2017)

Aadhaar mandatory for kerosene subsidy, Atal Pension Yojana (Money Control, PTI, June 2, 2017)

The Aadhaar Holdouts: Living Life Without UID (The Wire, Priscila Jebaraj, June 2, 2017)

The real beneficiary (Indian Express, Reetika Khera, June 2, 2017)

No midday meal without Aadhaar in UP schools (The Hindu, Mohammad Ali, June 1, 2017)

Aadhaar:Ushering in a Commercialized Era of Surveillance in India (Electronic Frontier

Foundation, Jyoti Panday, June 1, 2017)

Privacy is culture specific, MNCs hit by Aadhaar, says TRAI chief (Indian Express, Pranav Mukul, June 1, 2017)

MAY 2017

Online Trolls Attack Critics of India's Aadhaar State ID System (Global Voices, Rohith Jyotish, May 31, 2017)

UIDAI is not India’s data watchman (LiveMint, Arghya Sengupta, May 31, 2017)

Virtual safe spurs rush for Aadhaar- Centre's DigiLocker facility extended to ICSE and ISC candidates (The Telegraph, Bureaue, May 28, 2017)

TISS makes Aadhaar card must for students (Indian Express, Priyanka Sahoo, May 27, 2017)

In Gujarat, Cows Get Digital Ear Implant As 'Aadhaar' IDs For Cattle Begins(NDTV, Rohit Bhan, May 26, 2017)

TISS Stops Financial Aid to SC, ST and OBC Students (The Quint, Meghnad Bose and Manvi, May 26, 2017)

Aadhaar must to buy fertilizers from June 1 (Times of India, TNN, May 25, 2017)

Lawyer Zoheb Hossain to assist Delhi HC on issues of ration benefits under Aadhaar (Livemint, Priyanka Mittal, May 25, 2017)

Visit ration shops to ascertain Aadhaar troubles, Delhi HC tells UIDAI lawyer (The Times of India, TNN, May 25, 2017)

Co-founder of UIDAI-associated outfit admits to anonymously trolling Aadhaar critics on Twitter (Scoll, Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, May 23, 2017)

Will Aadhaar leaks be used as an excuse to shut out scrutiny of welfare schemes? (Scroll, Anumeha Yadav, May 20, 2017)

Man claiming to be BBMP official seeks Aadhaar numbers (Economic Times Bureau, May 18, 2017)

Inside the mind of India’s chief tech stack evangelist (Medium, Kiran Jonnalagadda, May 17, 2017)

Hospital faces the heat for demanding Aadhaar (The Hindi, Aloysius Xavier Lopez, May 16, 2017)

In these Rajasthan villages, all born on Jan 1, as per Aadhaar records (Times of India, Vimal Bhati, May 15, 2017)

Long queues, snags as government offices and hospitals in Mumbai link attendance, salary to Aadhaar (Scroll, May 14, 2017)

Aadhaar: My body, My rights ((Mitali Saran, May 11, 2017))

आधार से नागरिकों की जान माल को भारी खतरा। तेरह करोड़ नागरिकों की जानकारी लीक (Hastakshep.com, Palash Vishwas, May 9, 2017)

Journey from Civilian Application to Defence Application (The Live Law, Gopal Krishna, May 9, 2017)

Can Aadhaar be used to snoop on you? Experts say it very well can be (Business Standard, Rohith Jyotish, May 8, 2017)

Dissent and Aadhaar- We have been numbered by a series of lies, myths and fictions about the project (The Indian Express, Jean Dreze, May 8, 2017)

Supreme Test- Aadhaar Related Cases can tell us whether our jurisprudence is fit for an age of technology. (Indian Express, By Pratap Bhanu Mehta, May 6, 2017)

Surveillance and data collection are putting the journalists and the sources at risk (The Wire, Julie Posetti, May 6, 2017)

Aadhaar v. Security:Is the biometric system a tool for surveillance?” (Business Standard, By Rohith Jyotish, May 6. 2017)

Aadhaar Database is leaky by design by keeps on growing (Business Standard, Rohith Jyotish, May 5, 2017)

Aadhaar Case: Mukul Rohatgi is wrong. Bodily Integrity is Sacrosanct. (Hindustan Times, May 5, 2017)

Aadhaar is an electronic leash on citizens (Hindustan Times, Editorial, May 5, 2017)

Govt wants digital India, but what about digital security? (The business insider, May 4, 2017)

Aadhaar Security: Why government needs to develop a framework for analysing privacy issues (Financial Express, By T.K. Srikanth & V.k. Sridhar, May 4, 2017)

Aadhar data leak: It's shocking state of governance, says Congress (Business Standard, IANS, May 4, 2017)

Aadhaar data leaked, but not from UIDAI, Centre informs SC (Deccan Herald, Ashish Tripathi, May 4, 2017)

Karnataka’s no Aadhaar, no fodder rule is inhuman and illegal (Hindustan Times, Editorial, May 2, 2017)

130 Million Aadhaar numbers were made public, says new report (The Wire, May 1, 2017)

Haryana is making babies enroll in aadhaar before it issues the, birth certificate (The Scroll, by Menaka Rao, May 1, 2017)

April 2017

Aadhaar concerns and same consolation (The HIndu, Anil Manchanda, April 30, 2017)

Why not have aadhaar ear tags for humans also? (The Hindu, G. Sampath, April 29, 2017)

The man in charge of aadhaar vouches for its safety, but there's no stopping the leaks. (The Scroll, by Devjyot Ghoshal, April 27, 2017)

Aadhaar Case: An imagined appeal before the Supreme Court as it decides, how we live laugh and die (The Scroll, by Aspi Mistry, April 27, 2017)

Government Websites are lekaing aadhaar details- who will take action against? (Business Standard, By Anumeha Yadav, April 26, 2017)

Aadhaar Privacy Concerns: See what Facebook, election commission Knows (Financial Express, April 25, 2017)

Aadhaar And The Supreme Court’s Sense Of Urgency (Livelaw, by Gopalkrishna, April 25, 2017)

The function creep that is Aadhaar (The Wire, by Usha Ramanathan, April 25, 2017)

Not just a privacy issue, Aadhaar will hurt Poor (Business Standard, Derek O’Brien, April 15, 2017)

Destroy the Aadhaar or reform the aadhaar (The Wire, by Sushil Kambampati, April 7, 2017)

March 2017

A shaky Aadhaar (Usha Ramanathan, March 30, 2017)

UIDAI received 1390 complaints against enrolment agents, but took no legal action (Anumeha Yadav, March 30, 2017)

After Aadhaar "sting", UIDAI files FIR against journalist (March 29, 2017)

How people are caught in the middle of unique number web (Sarika Malhotra, March 28, 2017)

Are Ghosts really getting mid-day meals? (Jean Dreze, March 28, 2017)

Hello Aadhaar, Goodbye Privacy (Jean Dreze, March 24, 2017)

Privacy, security and legality are not the only serious problems with Aadhaar. Here are four more (Scroll, March 23, 2017)

Central Government, State government departments publicly expose personal data of lakhs of Indians (Wire Staff, March 23, 2017)

Aadhaar is a legal right, but the Government can suspend a citizen's number without prior notice (Anumeha Yadav, March 23, 2017)

Privacy, Security, Legality are not the only problems with Aadhaar. Here are four more (Senthil, March 22, 2017)

No ID, no benefits: thousands could lose lifeline under India’s biometric scheme (Vidhi Doshi, March 2017)

Aadhaar linked to mid-day meals: Why put the burden on children (Kiran Bhatty, Dipa Sinha, March 2017)

Four videos that show why Rajasthan needs to fix its public distribution system (Reetika Khera, March 2017)

Need internet to buy PDS rations? Go climb a tree (Geetha Sunil Pillai, TOI, March 2017)

Aadhaar number: Udaipur BTech student gets Aadhaar jitters (Rosamma Thomas, March 2017)

Article says Aadhaar can be hacked, FIR against writer (Abhishek Angad, March 2017)

Force Feeding Aadhaar (Economic and Political Weekly, editorial, March 2017)

Let’s not push for Aadhaar: How can a voluntary programme suddenly become mandatory? (Hindu Businessline editorial, March 2017)

Linking Aadhaar to mid day meals wrong (Deccan Herald editorial, March 2017)

Aadhaar may be getting too big for its own good (Mihir Sharma, March 2017)

Feb 2017

Misuse of Aadhaar data (Business Standard editorial, February 2017)

In Jharkhand, compulsory biometrics authentication for rations sends many away empty-handed (Jean Dreze, February 2017)

Big Brother is winning (Pratap Bhanu Mehta, February 2017)

As security violations erupt, operator of India's biometric database stand at troubling crossroad (Srinivas Kodali, February 2017)

What exactly is a money bill (Suhrith Parthasarthy, February 2017)

Privacy is a fundamental right (Chinmayi Arun, The Hindu)

Jan 2017

UID/Aadhaar Enabled Bio-Metric Attendance System (AEBAS) Violates Supreme Court’s Orders (Gopal Krishna, 10 January 2017)

Project of defiance (Apar Gupta, Prasanna S, January 13, 2017)

On the cards: From having too little identity we Indians now have too much of it (Jug Suraiya, 11 January 2017)

Aadhaar wont be accepted as age proof: Transport dept and banks (TOI, 12 January 2017)

Aadhaar in MNREGA likely to be hugely disruptive for workers (Inayat Sabhikhi, January 2017)

Watch: India's Ambitious UID programme often fails to deliver (Wall Street Journal, Jan 13, 2017) 

O Brave New World’: The Supreme Court’s Evolving Doctrine of Constitutional Evasion (Gautam Bhatia, Jan 6 2017)

Mission Cow ID: Govt spreads 1 lakh technicians across country to map cattle populations (Aman Sharma, ET, January 2017)

Aadhaar card data collection under cloud as Supreme Court red flags privacy concerns (Indu Bhan, 6 January 2017)

Aadhaar wont be accepted as age proof: Transport dept and banks (TOI, 12 January 2017)

A rant on Aadhaar (Kiran Jonnalagadda, January 2017)

2016

Despite the comparisons, India's Aadhaar Project is nothing like America's Social Security Number (Anumeha Yadav, December 2016)

Chhattisgarh's way of dealing with Aadhaar: When fingerprints fail, take photos (Anumeha Yadav, 21 December 2016)

What happens to privacy when companies have your Aadhaar number? (M Rajshekhar, 23 December 2016)

Why the Aadhaar regulations introduced in Parliament need more debate (Anumeha Yadav, 24 December 2016)

Cashless Economy - A Ploy to Profit the Private Players (Interview with Usha Ramanathan, 28 December 2016)

Opinion: Data is the new gold and Aadhaar is the tool to get it (Usha Ramanathan, 30 December 2016)

The mother of all disruptions (Jean Dreze, December 2016)

Resisting violations of the Supreme Court Orders on Aadhaar (Anupam Saraph, 12 December 2016)

Sharing Aadhaar data: HC notice to Centre, Reliance (Special Correspondent, The Hindu, 14 December 2016)

Can biometrics stop the theft of food rations? No, shows Gujarat (Anumeha Yadav, 17 December 2016)

Aadhaar Regulations grant UIDAI unchecked power, and offer little convenience to users (Prashant Reddy Thikkavarapu, November 2016)

India's Aadhaar project: An assault on welfare, privacy, and democracy (Reetika Khera, Praavita, Aashish Gupta, November 2016)

Dark clouds over the PDS (Jean Dreze, September 2016)

On Aadhaar Success, it's all hype, that includes the World Bank (Reetika Khera, September 2016)

India is enrolling infants and children in Aadhaar, but what about their consent? (Kritika Bhardwaj, September 2016)

Last chance for a welfare state does not rest in the Aadhaar system (Sumandro Chattapadhyay, 2016)

Aadhaar Act is not a Money Bill (Amber Sinha, 2016)