In no particular order, here are MediaNama’s top 10 stories of the week ended 9th December 2018
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UIDAI’s circular asks banks to continue AEPS transactions
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has issued a circular (see bottom of the post) asking banks to not discontinue Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS). In a letter dated 30 November, the UIDAI issued a clarification after the State Bank of India (SBI) informed the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) about its intention to discontinue AEPS, in light of Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgement. Read it here
Is Aadhaar the only reason for the cancellation of eSign Mandates?
The Supreme Court ruling scrapping Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act has had downstream impacts on Aadhaar-based technology solutions. Recently, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in a circular to its National Automated Clearing House (NACH) member banks announced discontinuation of Aadhaar eSign-based Mandates, citing the Supreme Court judgement. Read it here
UIDAI wants to use offline QR codes instead of biometrics for bank e-KYCs
The Central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are in talks to allow the use of Aadhaar QR codes, instead of biometric eKYC for opening bank accounts, operating payment wallets and purchasing insurance covers reports The Economic Times. Read it here
Aadhaar enrolment & authentication numbers fall after the SC judgement
Two months after a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court restricted the use Aadhaar, the monthly generation and authentication of Aadhaar nose-dove to its lowest. According to the dashboard on UIDAI’s website, the UIDAI generated around 7.37 million Aadhaar cards in January, but only around 0.8 million in November this year. Read it here
Cleartrip lets go of around 100 employees: report
Cleartrip has let go of 100 employees across Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore, reports the Economic Times. ET cites sources as saying that this was because of ‘declining hotel and flight bookings in India’, a ‘lukewarm response to “Experiences” globally’ and Cleartrip will now focus on being in West Asia. Read it here
Fabrento’s FabEvents to provide furniture rental for events
Fabrento, the online furniture rental start-up, has rolled out a new service called FabEvents where users can lease furniture for events payable per day, across the country. The company rents out furniture like sofas, chairs and decors, and this service comes with delivery and set up, relocation, cleaning and maintenance and swaps, free of cost. Read it here
MasterCard and Microsoft to launch a decentralised, universal digital ID
MasterCard and Microsoft have collaborated to make a globally inter-operable digital identity service. However, their press statement does not specify the nature of the digital identity – whether it would be biometric, numerical, QR Code or another kind. Read it here
BookMyShow launches planned events vertical ‘Activities’
BookMyShow has now added an ‘Activities’ tab, offering ticket booking for movies, events and plays. Activities will offer options around food & drinks, nightlife, amusement parks, adventure, gaming and tours, the company said in a statement. Read it here
#NAMApolicy: Personalisation, security, data breaches of IoT and more
At NAMApolicy on the Security and Privacy of IoT at Delhi, Internet Society’s Rajnesh Singh started with a parable: Singh’s family works in the agricultural sector and operates farms in Australia. Singh’s family uses John Deere (which manufactures agricultural equipment) machines on their farms in Australia. Read it here
#NAMApolicy: Challenges with IoT biometrics, consent, regulation, data sharing and more
At NAMApolicy on the Security and Privacy of IoT at Delhi, multiple stakeholders discussed what IoT devices’ policies revolve around, why we need to define sensitive data and how to keep it safe. On consent, Beni Chugh from the IFMR Trust said, “Even if I’m following all OECD processes or the seven pillars of data protection, there can be discrimination, bias, price discrimination, tracking, racial profiling… Who’s regulating this flow of data, and do we a) can we technologically do that? And b) where do we draw the policy lines?” Read it here
