UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 29th March 2025
APAAR ID – A Transformational Vision Facing Legal and Privacy Hurdles
Why in News?
The Government of India is actively rolling out the APAAR ID (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) under the ‘One Nation, One Student ID’ initiative in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. While the project promises a lifelong digital academic identity, serious concerns over data privacy, legality, and rollout practices have emerged, especially involving minors’ data and the use of Aadhaar.
What is APAAR ID?
- A unique 12-digit ID assigned to every student across India.
- Functions as a centralised academic account, tracking:
- Curricular scores and mark sheets
- Certificates (degrees, diplomas, trainings, etc.)
- Co-curricular and extracurricular achievements
- Credit transfers, internships, scholarships, job applications
How APAAR Works
- Combines DigiLocker + Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) + National Academic Depository (NAD):
- DigiLocker: Stores official documents.
- ABC Passbook: Shows a lifelong portfolio of a student’s learning history.
- NAD: The backend where all verified learning data from institutions is stored.
- APAAR Dashboard: Allows students to share certified records directly with future employers or education providers, replacing paper-based submissions.
Goals and Intended Benefits
- Create a single verified repository of each learner’s academic history.
- Make academic mobility and verification seamless, digital, and trustworthy.
- Enable the Ministry of Education to track national educational attainment trends in real time.
- Help reduce fraudulent certificates and administrative burdens.
- Support the NEP 2020 vision of holistic and lifelong learning.
Key Concerns and Criticisms
- Aadhaar Linkage: A Backdoor Mandate?
- Though the Supreme Court (Puttaswamy Judgment) declared Aadhaar optional for school enrolment, APAAR mandates Aadhaar linkage.
- Critics argue this is a proxy mandate, violating the spirit of constitutional safeguards.
- Forced Implementation?
- MoE and CBSE have urged “100% saturation” of APAAR IDs across schools.
- This has led to what is viewed as a de facto compulsory rollout, despite it being positioned as “voluntary”.
- Data Privacy and Consent Issues
- Consent from parents is mandatory but possibly weak or poorly verified.
- There is limited clarity on data withdrawal rights, especially after Aadhaar is seeded.
- Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, this may violate Section 9(1) relating to consent and processing of children’s data.
- Cybersecurity and Data Misuse Risks
- APAAR connects to multiple digital systems storing highly sensitive academic data.
- There’s minimal public clarity on:
- How student data is stored or protected
- Who can access it
- What third-party use is permitted
- ABC’s website suggests data may be used by ed-tech platforms, test prep firms, and upskilling programs, raising fears of commercial misuse.
- No Legal Framework Before Rollout
- Much like the early Aadhaar rollout, APAAR is being implemented without a dedicated legal architecture, which critics say bypasses legislative oversight.
- Activists and experts warn this is repeating past mistakes that led to Aadhaar-related legal disputes.
Institutional Context
- UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education) collects data on school infrastructure and enrolments but lacks individual academic achievement tracking.
- APAAR is intended to fill this gap, giving MoE a real-time educational dashboard.
- Unlike UDISE+, APAAR expands beyond schools into higher education and lifelong learning pathways.
Support for APAAR – But With Caveats
- Digital governance experts broadly support the vision of APAAR as an e-governance enabler.
- However, the manner of rollout, lack of legal clarity, and weak privacy protocols, especially for minors, need urgent attention.
- Digital rights groups (e.g., Internet Freedom Foundation, Software Freedom Law Center) have called for a pause and redesign of the project with stronger data safeguards.
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