Thread by @roadscholarz

*Aadhaar Propaganda Lives OK: CGD’s fishy blog*

The most recent CGD (@CGDev) blogpost on Aadhaar has prompted a few questions.

Thread (1/17) #AadhaarFail

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2/17: What credibility does lead author @AlanHGelb, who was party to fabrication of the oft-cited $11 billion Aadhaar savings figure for the World Development Report 2016, have on this issue?

The bogus figure originated in the spotlight co-authored by Gelb. See images.

3/17: To understand just how and why the $11billion savings figure was cooked up, and how audacious post-hoc calculations were fabricated to justify the number, please read this post by Drèze & Khera.

In short, it was all just made up. Entirely.

blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/…

4/17: The recent blog is based on findings from the @StateofAadhaar Report. The 87% approval for Aadhaar is to a question that is shaky on various grounds.

Ask a meaningless question, get a meaningless answer - Prime example of drowning people clutching at straws.

See image.

5/17: The question is prone to framing effects, biases, and provides incomplete information to respondents.

Had the question been phrased as “Do you approve or disapprove of people without Aadhaar being denied welfare benefits?”, the responses might have been very different.

6/17: Further, had respondents been informed that very little evidence supports the argument that Aadhaar has reduced corruption, would they still have approved of all the hardships it is causing?

7/17: This is important because peoples "perceptions" that Aadhaar has helped curb corruption is being taken as "evidence" for the same, without accounting for the fact that these "perceptions" are a result of the relentless propaganda peddled by the Govt. of India & @UIDAI.

8/17: Now, who is @AlanHGelb? An ex-World Bank employee, he is currently a Senior Fellow at Washington-based Centre for Global Development (@CGDev), focussing on biometrics and digital identity. As per some sources, a close aide of Nandan Nilekani, chief promoter of Aadhaar.

9/17: Question for @AlanHGelb: Ever had your salary credited into an A/C you didn't know exists, run pillar to post to figure out WTH is going on? That's the impact of Aadhaar in NREGA- here's the fragility of the technological wonder on display.

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10/17: Now to the "independent, nonpartisan" organisation that Gelb is associated with - The Center for Global Development (@CGDev).

They receive huge funding from @BMGF and @OmdiyarNetwork as publicly reported here: cgdev.org/section/funding

cc: @pierre @martintisne

11/17: In fact, @OmidyarNetwork's digital identity initiative is funding CGD.

Besides, ON have been funding so-called “independent” research including @StateofAadhaar, @cariboudigital, etc.

See: omidyar.com/our-work/digit…

cc: @pierre @martintisne

12/17:But @BMGF & @OmidyarNetwork have clear interests in “fintech” for the poor. With the amt of data flows that it generates/enables, it's no one's guess why Aadhaar is a dream for these technocrats.

Ever heard of revolving door? Conflict of interest?

forbes.com/sites/vladisla…

13/17: In the name of “inclusion”, “fin access”, “user experience”, these “philanthropies” have been supporting the coercive implementation of Aadhaar. They have been side-lining critical evidence & doing all they can to ensure the rose-tinted image of Aadhaar remains in-tact.

14/17: No surprises that the much-hyped Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative by the World Bank Multi-Donor Fund was established with catalytic contributions from @BMGF & @OmidyarNetwork.

See: pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/32545152708… (pg. 3, para 1).

15/17: And guess who sits on the “ID4D High-Level Advisory Council”?

None other than the Chief Promoter of Aadhaar, Mr. Nandan Nilekani (@NandanNilekani).

See: id4d.worldbank.org/who-is-involve…

16/17: This is just one example of the propagandist framework in which Aadhaar has operated all along. Cooked-up claims, soaked in conflicts of interest, pass for “evidence” even as more serious research from Aadhaar critics is dismissed as “activism”.

17/17: Far from “giving a voice” to the people concerned, as the blog claims, sponsored research suppresses it. #AadhaarFail

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