Centre Revokes UGC Order to Make Public Ph.D. Scholars’ Aadhaar Numbers
- The Centre has asked the universities not to make public the unique identification numbers of the Aadhaar of Ph.D. scholars.
- It is been prohibited by the Centre since the data could be misused and "economic profiling" of Ph.D. scholars would become very easy.
- Earlier, the details in the proforma included the Ph.D. registration number, topic of research, funding agency (if any), details of supervisor and Aadhaar number.
The Centre has asked the universities not to make public the unique identification numbers of the Aadhaar of Ph.D. scholars. It has further ordered the revoking the University Grants Commission's (UGC) instruction according to which all the institutes are required to upload information about their students along with their Aadhaar card details on their websites since last year. It is been prohibited by the centre since the data could be misused and "economic profiling" of Ph.D. scholars would become very easy.
UGC Secretary JS Sandhu in the recent directive to the universities ordered to follow the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 and thus not to display or publish the Aadhaar details of the scholars publicly.
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The UGC on 10 March 2017 had asked all varsities to upload the details of Ph.D. scholars in a proforma prescribed on their websites. The details in the proforma included the Ph.D. registration number, topic of research, funding agency (if any), details of supervisor and Aadhaar number.
Last year in June, the submission of Aadhaar numbers were deemed mandatory by the Centre for anyone seeking scholarships, including fellowships for higher education. Following this instruction that was given by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, the UGC directed the vice chancellors of all varsities to collect and send to them the Aadhaar card number of the scholarship/fellowship availing students under various schemes and to upload this information on their respective official websites.
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Later in the same year in September, the UGC asked all the institutes to maintain the list of all the Ph.D. and M.Phil students with their details including name, date of enrolment, the topic of research, the name of supervisor and co-supervisor, among others.