Thursday, July 23, 2009

Sach Ka Saamna

The game show is barely two weeks old and has already rocked the Parliament!Our so very alert,soaked in "Indian culture" MP's cannot find a better topic to discuss in these difficult times.The country is staring at a drought-like situation,farmers are already crying,drinking water woes plague the nation,industry which was barely recovering from the effects of recession again looks set to be down in the dumps, lakhs are still out of jobs and yet...all of these petty,run-of-the-mill issues can wait while these virtuous, holier-than-cow sages of the modern age go about the onerous task of saving the "Indian culture".Wonder if this phrase ever crosses their minds when they bed prostitutes in their protected,out-of-the-public glare enclaves...

Just for the record,the issue was raked up by a Samajwadi Party MP in the Rajya Sabha. What else can one expect from a party which openly declares English as anathema and is paranoid of computers and all the technology that makes farm-work easier?Of course with the caveat that it doesn't have a problem if the party chief's son gets trained as an Environmental Engineer from a college in Sydney...one's gotta make exceptions once in a while,eh?

Politics apart, the show has definitely been an instant hit with the Indian audience right from the very first episode.I watch it everyday.For those who still don't know,it's the Indianised version of the American show "The Moment of Truth". Participants are asked more than 50 questions in the polygraph test before the actual shooting of the episode and 21 out of those are asked here.So one always knows what to expect in the hot seat.If despite that contestants choose to go ahead I don't think it should be anybody else's problem. Even in the course of the game contestants are repeatedly reminded about their prerogative to call it quits at any point.How much more fairness can you ask for?I'm sure that before signing up, contestants realise the full import of what they're getting into.If despite that they choose to,I think it's the courage of conviction that brings them here.It takes enormous guts to accept your mistakes,secrets,beliefs and convictions in front of the whole world and more than that,in front of your near and dear ones.In a country that believes in keeping its deepest,darkest secrets in the bottom-most drawer of the closet,what is it that's making it flock to the show in drones?Why is it that there hasn't been a dissenting voice from the public over this washing of dirty linen?(I'm not talking of politicians,they don't classify as public except during elections)Is it not because whether we accept it or not,we're all voyeurs at some level?Isn't the itsiest, bitsiest hint of a scandal involving a public figure enough to make us glued to the TV or the net?Forget a public figure,if it's someone you know and you know that your friends know,(confusing,eh? :P)ask yourselves whether or not you go running to tell others about it.Girls are more gossipy but boys aren't all that innocent either.We all want our own houses to be kept sacrosanct but couldn't care less about violating the sanctity of other's.

Whatever the reason for soaring TRP's, I believe every person on the show must've had a reason to be there.The lure of money may've played its part but it's got to be more than just that.It could be a desire to come clean for once and for all to rid self of guilty conscience or a desire to prove to the world one's honesty and integrity.I won't comment upon the accuracy of the polygraph machine whose results are still not admissible as evidence in court but would still implore you to look beyond just that. A criticism being levelled is about the show's potential to break relationships and homes.In response,I'll quote Rajeev Khandelwal,the host,from his blog:

"Also i spoke to Smita Matai a few days back. It was one of the happiest moments of my life when she told me that everyone who walks up to her feels proud to have met her. People on the roads and in multiplexes where she has visited off late do not just recognize her but also acknowledge her courage and confidence. And more then that she and Tony(her husband) have come even more close since the episode was air. Isn't it a reflection of a growing, mature and positive India."


In all fairness to the critics though,the American version of the show has had a mixed impact.Some relationships broke,some got back on track and some got firmly cemented than ever.To know more search on Wiki for "list of the moment of truth episodes".My argument is this: These people chose to be open about their lives and relationships,they wanted their relationships to be built on truth,not deceit.It's a choice they made about the way they wish to lead their lives.And if they were going to go the whole hog,how did it matter if the whole world knew about it in exchange for some moolah?The ones to whom it would really matter would still be their near and dear ones.For the rest,it's just instant gratifiaction of voyeuristic desires.

While the debate doesn't look like it's going to end soon,what with the I&B Ministry serving a show-cause notice to Star Plus,I believe it's a question of choice.Nobody's forcing anyone to go speak the truth.The show is aired at 10:30pm which is a decent enough time to prevent kids from watching the mature content.And oh!I wonder why the Shiv Sena hasn't uttered a word so far...I rather expected them to be ransacking the studio by now.. :P

Friday, July 17, 2009

UID Project:Vision for a new India - II

Continuing from where I left in the last post,let me list out some of the potential stumbling blocks as well as inherent dangers of not taking care of privacy issues.

There are thousands,may be lakhs of villages in India where they still don't have electricity.Even if there is,it's not available most of the time.How then would the card(which I understand,would need a card reader) and its supporting infrastructure i.e computers etc. work in such places?This clearly demonstrates the need for development of power infrastructure in tandem with the UID project.But is this actually possible?Let's see why I personally think it isn't.

In each of its five year plans,the Indian government sets itself a target for power generation capacity addition over the course of the plan period.There hasn't been a single plan period thus far when the added capacity has ever exceeded 50% of the target.In the ongoing plan period,the target has been fixed at 77,000MW but going by the pace of capacity addition,it can be safely assumed that this time's gonna be no better.In contrast,China is adding 1 lakh MW capacity every year in order to meet its burgeoning requirements with a coal fired power plant commencing operations at an average of 1 per week!!But that's a story for another time...What I wish to merely point out is the fact that India isn't becoming energy sufficient for many more years,maybe decades to come.How then would the benefits of the card reach those for whom it has the potential of being nothing short of a life-changer?Aren't these the very people who have been accorded the highest priority in the project?So much so that the pilot project is going to issue cards to those registered under the NREGA and then to everyone else.

There are a number of privacy issues which need to be sorted out.An elaborate policy framework needs to be outlined which would unambiguously specify who exactly is authorised to access the data of citizens.Failure to protect privacy could result in not only some pesky but innocuous calls from telemarketers,it could actually endanger your life.Imagine this data getting into the hands of crime syndicates and the underworld.A rich businessman could end up receiving threatening extortion calls based on the data of his income tax returns.In case of riots,the data could help rioters identify localities and houses of people belonging to a particular community.If that sounds far fetched,consider this.In the Gujarat riots in 2002,Hindu rioters used data obtained from voter lists to identify shops and houses of Muslims and specifically targetted these installations,leaving those belonging to Hindus untouched.This gross misuse of voter lists would've never come to light but
for the fact that the speed and efficiency with which frenzied mobs targetted Muslims,leaving all Hindu properties unscathed made investigators smell a rat.And this isn't an isolated case.Kashmiri pundits,who have been driven out of the valley in lakhs by Islamic fanatics and are now living as refugees in their own country,were a victim of the same plot.In fact,the former are supposed to have derived inspiration from the latter in use of voter lists.These two instances are enough to show what catastrophic and horrifying consequences unprotected data in the public domain could entail.Certainly this is an aspect that cannot be overlooked.

In an article in the TOI,Mr.Swaminathan Ankleswar Aiyar pointed out that Indian bureaucrats have always sought to scuttle any initiative to give power in the hands of the people.They always manage to find loopholes in anything that seeks to bring about transparency and accountability in the system.I'll concede that RTI Act is a glowing exception but then again,bureaucrats continue to make attempts at diluting the law by pressing for exemption of file notings from the purview of the Act.With this mentality,can one trust these babus not to notch up innovative schemes to beat the system and thereby retain their stranglehold on funds and assets?

The most challenging aspect of the project however,in my opinion,is the source for the data Nilekani is going to use to prepare the database.Multiple sources are being tapped-LPG gas connection holders' list(11 crore connections in all,which assuming an average family size of 5 covers 55 crore people-nearly half the population), voter lists,ration card lists,PANs etc.Of these,ration card lists and voter lists have a large number of phantoms and there are a large number of people holding multiple PANs.How does Nilekani propose to weed out those who are either dead or non-existent from these lists?My hunch is that the compulsion for biometric data would eventually weed out these people but nevertheless large amounts would have been wasted by the time absence of biometric data confirms non-existence(every card is expected to cost Rs.30 at the most conservative estimate.)

Although I wanted to elucidate the technological aspects of the smart card as well in this post,I guess it would make it very long.So if you're more of a tech-oriented person,watch out for the next and final part of this series.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

UID Project :Vision for a new India - I

One of the most ambitious projects announced by the newly elected UPA government is its intention to issue a unique identification number to each citizen of India.Each person is to be issued a smart card carrying basic information such as name,date of birth etc. as well as biometric data such as fingerprints.For the purpose the government has set up a body called the Unique Identification Authority of India and roped in Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to head the body.To enable him to pursue his task in a hassle-free manner,he has been given the rank of a Cabinet Minister and given full freedom to choose his own team members-whether from the private or the public sector.It is estimated that the project is going to cost the exchequer 1.5 lakh crores.The first phase is expected to be rolled out in 18 months and 10,000 crores have been earmarked for the same.This phase would cover the beneficiaries of various social sector programmes being run by the government such as the NREGA.

The purposes behind this massive exercise are multiple:

1.)It is expected that the biometric system will help identify and target in a better manner the intended beneficiaries of various government schemes and subsidy programmes such as the NREGA,Public Distribution System and the myriad BPL schemes.At the moment,we have a comic(and outrageous!) situation where the total number of ration cards and BPL cards far exceed the number of people entitled to them.According to Mr.Swaminathan Ankleswar Aiyar,a TOI columnist,we have 223 million ration cards issued against a entitled population of 180 million and 80 million BPL cards issued against an entitled population of 65 million.(Data for the no. of eligible beneficiaries comes from government's own surveys.)In the state of Karnataka alone,the number of BPL card beneficiaries far exceeds the state's entire population,let alone the number of BPL families!!What this basically implies is the existence of 'phantoms' as Mr.Nilekani puts it in his book 'Imagining India'.These are people who exist only on paper i.e either they never were or are long dead.Also taking advantage are people who don't qualify for these benefits. These phantoms are often a creation of the authorities and shopkeepers who use them as a tool to siphon off the subsidised rice,wheat,kerosene and sugar from the allotted quota and sell them in the open market at market rates.As a result PDS is now a totally rotten system with leakages exceeding 50%.Its a double whammy for the state- subsidised goods don't reach the intended beneficiaries and oil marketing companies end up making massive losses on kerosene which is heavily used for transport in place of diesel since subsidised kerosene is much cheaper than diesel. More on the PDS in a later post.The smart card along with a simultaneous drive to increase penetration of banking services in rural India would allow the government to transfer subsidies in cash form to the entitled by depositing them in their accounts,thus eliminating all levels of interaction in between and by implication pilferages.The smart card reader at the outlet providing the subsidised service or good to the consumer would deduct the amount from his account thus ensuring that the cash is not spent on anything it's not intended for.

2.)It is the intention of the government to ensure that the relationship between the state and citizens be made as little traumatizing as possible for the latter by making the process transparent.As of now,the implementation of any scheme and flow of funds is completely at the mercy of corrupt and immoral bureaucrats.The authority levels are too many which ensures that of every rupee spent on the poor,only 5 paise reach them.A smart card linking each citizen to a national database will ensure that they are getting their due since each transaction will be recorded using the card. Bureaucrats won't be able to sit pretty by distributing funds merely on paper.

3.)It will force the government to acknowledge the plight of the poor and helpless by forcing it to acknowledge their 'existence'.The government would no longer be able to draw a veil over large-scale poverty and destitution by simply ignoring the as of now nameless poor.This in turn would force it to ensure that they are provided for.

4.)It will help to check large-scale illegal immigration in India from countries such as Bangladesh.According to estimates there are more than 2 crore Bangladeshis illegally residing in the country.These immigrants not only place a strain on the nation's resources,a large number of them are a serious security threat as well.Ditto for Pakistani intelligence agents,terrorists and other illegal citizens known in diplomatic parlance as 'aliens'.

5.)Citizens will be saved the hassle of carrying on their person a number of different documents such as passport,ration card,PAN card,voter ID card,birth certificate,caste certificate,driving license etc. for different purposes.

6.)It will help in making financial transactions much more transparent,eliminate instances of holding bank accounts using multiple PANs,expose fake voters and fake government employees.Surprised by that last bit,eh?Be prepared to receive the shock of your life by the next few lines.Recently in Delhi,where I've been staying for the last couple of months,a shocking scandal came to light.It has been discovered that 45,000 employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi(MCD)are non-existent(are either dead,fictitious or drawing salaries as government employees without working apart from pursuing regular professions).For the past 20 years,salaries and perks were being regularly drawn against their names.These employees were mostly appointed to lower level posts such as sweepers, gardeners etc.Despite repeated complaints by citizens of absence of these workers from their jobs,little or no action was taken by higher authorities.Not surprising considering that these officers were receiving a cut from those salaries to keep their mouth shut!What finally let the cat out of the bag was the municipal commissioner's decision to issue biometric identity cards to employees for attendance purposes.The cards were supposed to be issued when the employees came to give their attendance.Since the phantom employees' attendance used to be marked by the attendance officer himself, the fraud wasn't exposed for a lot of years.When these fictional employees didn't collect their cards,the matter came out into the public domain.There was an immediate uproar and some of the employees reported to work.People in some localities got the shock of their lives when they saw their washerman,gardener or local printer of many years sweeping streets early in the morning!!This shows the power of technology in improving civic facilities and making the government and its employees accountable to the people and gives a peek into what the future might hold for us if the unique ID card project becomes a success.

7.)Transparency in financial transactions i.e. being able to put a name to each transaction taking place will help in detection of financial activities of terrorist and militant organizations,atleast those which are taking place through legal channels.A year back or so,National Security Advisor M.K.Narayan had admitted that terrorist organizations had been active in the stock market.Not only that,a number of sympathisers of these organizations regularly send money through legal banking channels apart from the more popular and illegal hawala route.Being able to track these payments would help in choking supply of funds to these unscrupulous elements.

Howsoever well meaning the intentions of the project may be,the challenge of implementing it on the ground is enormous.By Nilekani's own admission,he expects it to be a challenge greater than he's ever faced when he says,"I'm supposed to work with 600 different departments of the government,no two of which ever work together."
There are a number of factors,circumstances and forces which will test Nilekani's resilience,perseverance and determination as he goes about his task.In the next post I intend to discuss some of the potential bottlenecks,possible misuses of the card as well as provide a detailed description of the technological aspects of the smart card and its supporting infrastructure.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Are EVM's really tamper-proof ?

The recently concluded general elections in India threw up some really astonishing results.Defying all exit polls, pre-election surveys and expert opinions, the Congress-led UPA roared back to power in style with Congress crossing the 200-seat mark for the first time since the Rajiv-era.The same experts who were made to eat crow over the unprecedented results now attributed them to Congress pioneered initiatives such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA), the multi-thousand crore farm-loan waiver, National Rural Health Mission(NRHM) and last but not the least to the so-called charisma of Rahul Gandhi (sic!) and his youth brigade. Until recently,
nobody thought of questioning the EVMs.Quite surprising for a country where political parties are forever ready to go for each other's jugular over every petty issue!

The reservations expressed by opposition parties may actually not be a case of sour grapes after all.The fears have a very rational basis for a number of reasons.

In an article in "The Hindu" dated 17 June 2009, former Union Law Minister Subramanyam Swamy reveals that there have been a number of instances in European countries where EVMs have been shown to be vulnerable and prone to tampering- to the extent that a number of these countries have abolished the e-voting system and have returned to the old-fashioned paper ballot one.He quotes the examples of Germany, Ireland,Netherlands and even the Californian state of USA where these machines have either been banned or put on hold pending a full investigation.The Dutch Nedap machines used in Netherlands and Germany were hacked live on national television by experts following which they were banned.That reminds me of the US presidential elections where George Bush Junior beat Al-Gore to come to power after a sensational drama where after declaring Al-Gore as winner,authorities retracted their statement and after a recount in Ohio if my memory serves me right, Bush was declared winner.It was alleged at that time that the machines had been tampered with to overturn the verdict.There was even a documentary titled "Hacking Democracy" made over the issue.(Available on DC in case a Bitsian is reading this post)

In India, EVMs are manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited(BEL) which claims on its website that its machines are entirely tamper-proof.It makes comparisons with Computerised voting systems to emphasise that its machines are a lot better.It claims that its use of customised and proprietary hardware and software scores over commercial,general purpose hardware and OS used by other systems. It also tom-toms the fact that its software is burnt into ICs and therefore cannot be accessed, retrieved or altered, while other systems have their software written in C or C++ which renders them open to manipulation.A forceful argument,I must say,but who said that it's not possible to make a particular lot differently to suit a specific purpose?Just modify the code before it's fused into ICs and bingo!its done.Since once burnt,the software cannot be retrieved,no need to fear being getting caught!For the record, BEL is a public sector company with the government holding nearly 75% of its equity.The possibilities are enormous particularly in light of the fact that Bizta,the company which made the EVMs used for Venezuelan general elections where Hugo Chavez roared back to power with a record majority,had the government holding a 28% stake in the company-something that came to light after the elections were over.
Moreover,these softwares reside in Flash memory and are hence changeable.Lastly it says that its voting data resides on EEPROMs which need no external back-up battery for retention as opposed to other systems where voting data resides in RAM with battery back-up on mother boards and are vulnerable to corruption if battery fails.However in a newspaper item that appeared in Times of India this Sunday,it was claimed that a 1965 batch IAS officer Omaish Saigal made a presentation before the top brass of the Election Commission in which he demonstrated how by entering a specific code the machine could be programmed such that every fifth vote would go to the candidate of a particular party.In a country where election results are drastically altered by a swing of a few percentage of votes(there was merely a 9% difference in the no. of votes polled by Congress and BJP in these elections),the implications are obvious.Although the story was promptly denied by EC functionaries the following day, the denial doesn't come as a surprise.Anything short of a categorical denial would have brought about a wave of litigations and sparked national outrage.This story coupled with the controversial appointment of Navin Chawla as Chief Election Commissioner before elections in face of strong opposition by other parties and a damning report by outgoing CEC Gopalswamy questioning the impartiality of Chawla, leads one to suspect that the smoke is not without fire.Though nothing may ever be proved or disproved in the end, the episode leaves some lingering questions.

How can we ensure free and fair elections in India in the true sense of the words? Is it advisable to return to the paper ballot system of yester years and thereby bring back the days of booth-capturing and mass bogus voting in favour of a particular party? If not, then how to go about it if even technology is helpless in face of those hell-bent on subverting democracy?

The problem lies not with technology but the way one implements it.The fact that the OS used in EVMs is proprietary in nature might leave them open to vulnerabilities others may be able to exploit without anyone else getting wise to it.The best approach would therefore be to leave the code and machine architecture open to public scrutiny.This would ensure that vulnerabilities are patched up and no scope is left for tampering.However since any such move is bound to be protested by companies which manufacture these machines over fears that it would erode their market competitiveness, as a compromise we can have a select group of experts look at the code and suggest modifications. There have also been suggestions that we could use two EVMs manufactured by different companies simultaneously to check foul play.While such a system reduces probability of tampering it doesn't eliminate it.

For those who would like to dismiss any suggestion of foul play in Indian elections as merely another conspiracy theory, let me quote from the article of Mr.Swamy:

"Why are the EVMs so vulnerable? Each step in the life cycle of a voting machine — from the time it is developed and installed to when the votes are recorded and the data transferred to a central repository for tallying — involves different people gaining access to the machines, often installing new software. It wouldn’t be hard for, say, an election official to paint a parallel programme under another password on one or many voting machines that would, before voters arrived at the poll stations, ensure a pre-determined outcome.

The Election Commission of India has known of these dangers since 2000. Dr M. S. Gill, the then CEC, had arranged at my initiative for Professor Sanjay Sarma, the father of RFID software fame at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and his wife Dr Gitanjali Swamy of Harvard, to demonstrate how unsafeguarded the chips in EVMs were. Some changes in procedure were made subsequently by the EC. But the fundamental flaws, which made them compliant to hacking, remained.
"

If steps are not taken soon,elections may very well lose credibility and faith in democracy lost.Nobody has the right to reduce the world's biggest democratic exercise to a farce.As it is,barring a few,politicians in India are hardly trusted by anyone.A charge of fraud involving EVMs,if ever proved,could very well be the final nail in the coffin- both for politicians as well as the whole democratic set-up.