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Data leakage possibilities with Aadhaar based e-KYC systems

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A recent incident in July 2017  that involved alleged data theft through a KYC app has added to the confusion and concerns in the minds of users about security and confidentiality of their biometrics and other PII data that are maintained by UIDAI . I am a bit skeptical about how PII is handled by various agencies who collect and transact with such data in our country. The concern about having my biometrics and other data lifted was at back of my mind when I was giving my fingerprint at a mobile phone shop for taking a new data connection last week. It was not until a friend asked me for some clarifications about internals of biometrics based authentication systems that I paid close attention to various possible leakage points in Aadhaar based eKYC/authentication  applications.  The overall architecture and process steps involved when using Aadhaar APIs for performing, say, authentication of an Aadhaar card holder are explained in its API documentation . For the sake of und

University infrastructure building | Some experiences part 2

In one of my earlier posts I jotted down few of my thoughts based on personal experience regarding planning activities related to a university infrastructure creation project. Here I'm jotting down some of the low-level points which, though may seem quite "common-sense", often get ignored during the detailed design and planning. Utilisation of facilities : When identifying the requirements for various facilities (e.g. lecture/seminar/meeting rooms, certain type of labs and offices etc.) you should base the numbers on expected utilisation of these facilities. For instance, if your are creating a lecture hall complex building then you should consider the timetable and past course enrolment data (and future projection of it) that reflects your university's academic programs. Chances of creating a good academic infrastructure significantly improve if you decide the number and sizes of various lecture halls etc. based on such information. Similarly, the number of

Common agency for creating infrastructure of new IITs

In this post I'm putting forth a case for setting up a common agency for the sole purpose of setting up the infrastructure of new IITs (or similar institutions). Let me start by noting some key observations about the overall scenario that exists across the younger IITs: Considering the "core business" -- which is teaching and research -- of these institutes, all of them need more or less the same type of facilities. More than 80% (at least by built-up area) of the infrastructure comprises of: teaching labs, lecture halls, students' accommodation, teaching and non-teaching staff's accommodation, offices of teaching and non-teaching staff, recreational facilities. The only area where the infrastructure of any two IIT's may differ is: certain type of research facilities. This means that from functionality perspective the infrastructure requirements of all IITs is largely the same. Each one of IITs that were setup in 2008-2009 embarked on their individual i