नई दिल्ली। उत्तरप्रदेश में रहने वाले एक परिवार ने प्रधानमंत्री और राष्ट्रपति से अपने बेटे के लिए इच्छा मृत्यु की मांग की है। आपको बता दें कि यूपी के आगरा में रहने वाले विपिन नाम के एक लड़के को अनीमिया नाम की बीमारी है। कहने को तो यह बीमारी लाइलाज नहीं है लेकिन उसके पिता पर इलाज का खर्च उठाने के लिए पैसे नहीं हैं।
जिसको देखते हुए विपिन के पिता ने राष्ट्रपति प्रणब मुखर्जी, प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी, यूपी के मुख्यमंत्री अखिलेश यादव को इच्छा मृत्यु को लेकर पत्र भी लिखा है। न्यूज एजेंसी ANI से बातचीत करते हुए विपिन के पिता ने कहा, ‘कृपया मेरे बेटे का इलाज करवा दीजिए या फिर अगर इलाज संभव नहीं है तो उसे इच्छा मृत्यु की इजाजत दे दी जाए। हम लोग अब इलाज का खर्च नहीं उठा सकते।’
आपको बता दें कि सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने 2011 में निष्क्रिय इच्छामृत्यु को वैध करने का फैसला सुनाया था। इसमें कहा गया था कि जो शख्स काफी वक्त से बीमार हालत में स्थिर है उसे इच्छामृत्यु की इजाजत है।
हालांकि, यह कानून उन लोगों के विषय में संशय पैदा करता है जिनका फिलहाल इलाज हो सकता है। भारत सरकार पिछले महीने इससे जुड़ा एक ड्राफ्ट बिल भी लेकर आई थी। उसमें लोगों को मुद्दे पर राय देने के लिए कहा गया था।
The Marxist philosopher, art critic and novelist, who passed away on January 2, popularised complex ideas and helped bring art into the mainstream.
Berger considered how through history and visual representation the male gaze has constrained women. John Berger's Ways of Seeing
The opening to John Berger’s most famous written work, the 1972 book Ways of Seeing, offered not just an idea but also an invitation to see and know the world differently: “The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled,” he wrote.
Berger, who died on January 2 at the age of 90, has had a profound influence on the popular understanding of art and the visual image. He was also a vibrant example of the public intellectual, using his position to speak out against social injustices and to lend his support to artists and activists across the world.
Berger’s approach to art came most directly into the public eye in four-part BBC TV series, Ways of Seeing in 1972, produced by Mike Dibb and which preceded the book. Yet his style of blending Marxist sensibility and art theory with attention to small gestures, scenes and personal stories developed much earlier, in essays for the independent, weekly magazine New Society (between 1951 and 1961) and also in his first novel A Painter of Our Time, published in 1958.
The BBC programmes brought to life and democratised scholarly ideas and texts through dramatic, often witty, visual techniques that raised searching questions about how images – from European oil painting to photography and modern advertising – inform and seep into everyday life and help constitute its inequities. What do we see? How are we seen? Might we see differently?
“Berger’s theoretical legacy”, the Indian academic Rashmi Doraiswamy wrote recently, “is in situating the look in the context of political otherness”. Berger’s idea that looking is a political act, perhaps even a historically constructed process – such that where and when we see something will affect what we see – comes across most powerfully in the second episode of Ways of Seeing – which focused on the male gaze.
Here Berger showed the continuities between post-Renaissance European paintings of women and imagery from latter-day posters and girly magazines, by juxtaposing the different images – showing how they similarly rendered women as objects. Berger argued that this continuity constrained how certain forms of femininity are understood, and therefore the terms on which women are able to live their lives. He identified a splitting of the European woman’s consciousness, in which she:
has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life.
How we see
Historical context, scale, and how we see were recurring themes in Berger’s writing, films, performance and in his collaborative photographic essays with Jean Mohr, Anne Michaels, Tereza Stehliková and others.
Images need narratives to make sense. Verso books
Berger’s essays and books on the photograph worry at the political ambiguity of meaning in an image. He taught us that photographs always need language, and require a narrative of some sort, to make sense.
He also took care to differentiate how our reaction to photographs of loved ones depends on our relationship to the person portrayed. In A Seventh Man, a collaborative book with Jean Mohr on Turkish migrant workers to Germany in the 1970s, he put it simply:
A photograph of a boy in the rain, a boy unknown to you or me. Seen in the darkroom when making the print or seen in this book when reading it, the image conjures up the vivid presence of the unknown boy. To his father it would define the boy’s absence.
Under the skin
Because he had been a painter, Berger was always a visual thinker and writer. In conversation with the novelist Michael Ondaatje he remarked that the capabilities of cinematographic editing had influenced his writing. He identified cinema’s ability to move from expansive vistas to close-up shots as that to which he most related and aspired.
Click here to view video. Credit: The Conversation
Certainly Berger’s work is infused with a sensitivity to how long views – the narratives of history – come alive only with the addition of “close-up” stories of human relationships, that retell the narrative but from a different angle. For instance, writing about Frida Kahlo’s compulsion to paint on smooth skin-like surfaces, Berger suggested that it was Kahlo’s pain and disability (she had spina bifida and had gone through treatments following a bad road accident) that “made her aware of the skin of everything alive —- trees, fruit, water, birds, and naturally, other women and men”.
The character in Ondaatje’s novel, In the Skin of a Lion, to whom he gave the name Caravaggio, was partly inspired by Berger’s essay on the painter. In that essay, Berger wrote of a feeling of “complicity” with the Renaissance Italian artist Caravaggio, the “painter of life” who does not “depict the world for others: his vision is one that he shares with it”.
Berger’s writerly inclinations and sensitivities seem to echo something of the “overall intensity, the lack of proper distance” for which Caravaggio was so criticised – and which Berger so admired. This intensity was not a simple theatricality, nor a search for something truer to life, but a philosophical stance springing from his pursuit of equality. He gave us permission to dwell on those aspects of our research or our lives that capture us intensely, and to trust that sensitivity. His was an affirmative politics in this sense. It started with a trust in one’s intuitions, along with the imperative to open these up to explore ourselves as situated within wider social and historical processes.
Reflecting on his written work, Berger wrote in the recent Penguin collection Confabulations:
What has prompted me to write over the years is the hunch that something needs to be told and that, if I don’t try to tell it, it risks not being told.
He knew very well that writing has its limitations. By itself, writing cannot rebalance the inequities of the present or establish new ways of seeing. Yet he wrote with hope. He showed us in his work and – by example – other possibilities for living a life that was committed to criticising inequality, while celebrating the beauty in the world, giving attention to its colour, rhythm and joyous surprises. We remain endowed and indebted to him.
(Yasmin Gunaratnam is Reader in Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London).
Was it really about "Number 2 ka dhan"? Photo credit: Business Standard
When demonetisation was announced on 8 November, 2016, our research team at Equitymaster thought it was a bold reform…a potential game-changer for the Indian economy.
But we don't simply form an opinion and go on vacation. We continue to monitor the facts, the numbers, and the reality on the ground. And if the truth demands it, we change our position.
As the influential 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes put it:
When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?
This way of thinking and processing information stems from our more than two decades of experience tracking, analysing, and evaluating stocks.
As the demonetisation saga unfolded, we saw the flaws…the big loopholes…the poor planning and execution. And we warned readers that demonetisation might not be the magic wand Mr Modi said it would be.
And now, a not-so-shocking Bloomberg report confirms our suspicion.
On 8 November, the demonetisation drive rendered high-denomination notes worth Rs 15.4 trillion worthless. PM Modi expected about Rs 5 trillion of that amount to remain undeclared as it may have escaped the tax net illegally.
But as per Bloomberg, 'people with knowledge of the matter' have disclosed that banks have received Rs 14.97 trillion as of 30 December 2016, the deadline to exchange the old bank notes.
That means 97% of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation until 8 November have returned to the banks.
Commentators say that's a big blow to Mr Modi's fight against black money.
But we have a question: Was this really a fight against black money?
Ask any random, illiterate stranger on the street who they think controls the largest chunk of black money in the system.
Without a single doubt, they will point to politicians and political parties.
It is strange how street wisdom could escape the mind of the country's prime minister.
If his fight was seriously against black money and corruption, he should have targeted the very root – electoral corruption.
A piece in Business Today nails the problem:
The decisive role money plays in polls creates a vicious cycle of corruption. A candidate who spends crores on his election goes on a recovery spree to make his investment pay back by all means, howsoever dubious. It does not take long for the politician-bureaucrat nexus to develop for making money. This unholy alliance between the two most powerful instruments of governance makes corruption unstoppable.
But instead of uprooting black money from the political parties, Modi has done just the opposite. In the so-called fight against black money, a key beneficiary of black money has been conveniently overlooked – the 1,866 political parties in India.
A draconian law is allowing political parties to get away with hundreds of crores in anonymous donations. Much of it is in cash, which the parties can deposit in a bank account without scrutiny.
Meanwhile, you and I must give detailed explanations for every deposit we make. Either now, or when the Income Tax officials come calling.
Something is not right. In fact, it's disgusting, this state of affairs.
Vivek Kaul, our big-picture expert, has been unravelling the truth behind the demonetisation drive ever since Modi announced it on 8 November, 2016.
Now he is on a mission to bring back equality between the people and the political parties.
But his success depends on you. Vivek asks you to sign a petition that he promises to send to the president of India requesting that Section 13A of the Income Tax Act be repealed.
Your signature will help him get closer to his goal of 25,000 signatures by 6 January 2017 (as I write he has already crossed 21,486 signatures).
If you go by what Section 13A of the Income Tax Act 1961 says, then you know political parties in India are special…They get privileges that ordinary mortals like you and I can't ever expect.
Like for instance, during the notebandi drive, political parties were free to deposit Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in their bank accounts…no questions asked! (As long as the amount per donor was less than Rs 20,000).
But you and I had to furnish an identity proof while depositing our hard earned demonetised money.
Well, there is no denying that we are losing the fight for equality…But all is not lost yet.
Join over 21,000+citizens who have signed a petition to set this right…
Shirish Kunder, hubby of Farah Khan’s fitting response to obtrusive questioning on the faith of their offspring
It began, as it almost always does with a photograph of this foursome at the Grand Canyon celebrating the onset of the New Year far away from home. Uploaded on twitter. No sooner had the photo been uploaded then the intrusive and offensive questioning began.
Are your children Hindu or Muslim, one ‘Fatima Arya’ began… Shireesh who has been known to say that he only takes to twitter when angry flashed back a response that has gone viral.
“Depends on which festival awaits us the next month. Last month they were Christians!”
The increasingly offensive and obtrusive nature of the social media has, under the new India been vocally inquisitive of the religion of the offspring of celebrities.
Recently Tina Dhabi and Mohammad Shammi were both trolled. Tina for tying the knot with her Muslim fellow IAS topper and Shammi for sharing his wife’s photograph that was too revealing for the Muslim hawks.
When CBI was faced with incriminating documents of bribery and corruption in high places, it simply passed the dirty job to the IT department and looked the other way. In sharp contrast is how the agency deals with ordinary citizens and human rights defenders
This morning, on January 5, newspapers reported how in a surprise and hastily passed order by the IT Settlement Commission (ITSC) the Sahara group got sudden immunity when the tax panel, the ITSC that had earlier rejected the application of the company suddenly on September 5, 2016 re-admitted it and accepted the companies claim that the seized papers are not real evidence!
The ITSC order and other incriminating documents are part of the ongoing legal effort in the Supreme Court. The evidence so easily dismissed by the ITSC (that it discusses at length in the order) includes the loose sheets and computer print-outs which form the ‘Sahara diaries’ that have alleged payoffs to over 100 politicians from more than 14 parties. This had created a political storm in mid-November when the allegations became public though much of the electronic media chose to ignore them.
A petition pressing for a Supreme Court monitored investigation on the Sahara diaries was filed by Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court on November 15, 2016 and the next hearing is now scheduled for January 11, 2016. There were entries suggesting payments to several influential politicians.
What is most suspicious is that the ITSC order has concurred with Sahara’s claim that the “evidentiary value” of the “loose sheets” recovered during the raids “could not be proved” by the Income Tax Department.
The real question today however is whether the ITSC has completely ignored the “Appraisal report of the Income Tax Department itself that had held to the contrary and the incriminating supporting documents. This report is dated February 27, 2014.
Volume 3 and 4 of this Appraisal report have been filed today in the Supreme Court by Common Cause. The report was prepared after detailed questioning of relevant individuals in the Birla group by the department. A quick perusal of parts of the report and the documents annexed to the report, allegedly shows offences of bribery, corruption and black money.
At page 16 of the Appraisal report, IT Department recorded the documents which were seized during the raid. Regarding Annexure A-1, IT Department has stated: “This is a handwritten notebook containing page 1-49. This contains record of certain transactions relating to receipt and payment of unaccounted cash amounts under various heads. This pertains to the period from July 2010 to March 2012. This is the most incriminating document seized during the raid.” Regarding Annexure A-2, the IT Department has stated: “This annexure is a bunch of loose papers containing pages 1 to 16. These papers contain record of several transactions which are apparently unaccounted. Page nos. 9 and 10 contain record of certain money transactions under account heads similar to account heads mentioned in Annexure A-1”.
[[Some of the sensational items recovered s during the raids were seized documents which contain a record of cash transactions from May 2013 to March 2014. The said pages were signed by the Income Tax Officer, one person from the Sahara group and two witnesses at the time of the seizure (dated November 22, 2014 along with signatures]]
Some of the relevant documents are the printouts of the three Excel sheets showing cash receipt of over Rs. 115 crore and cash outflow of over Rs. 113 crore during a short period of 10 months. While the first sheet goes up to March 4, .2014, the others relate to February 22, 2014 and even November 12, 2013, respectively. The entries in all the three sheets tally with each other. The logs suggest that cash was apparently transferred to several important public figures. The excel sheets show the date of payment, to whom money was paid, the amount paid, through whom it was paid and the place of payment. Therefore, it has been argued, that they contain enough information to initiate a thorough investigation.
Unlike the Jain Hawala case, when diaries with initials tallying with influential persons was seized, the case of Sahara stands on a much better legal footing because here there is a seizure of about Rs 137 crores in cash during the raid.
The excel sheet recovered from the computer of one Mr. Sachin Pawar of Sahara Group shows great amount of detail: date of payment, place of payment, person to whom cash is paid and the person who has delivered the case. It also shows corresponding cash received from different sources, primarily one M/s MARCOM. These could be easily further corroborated by checking for call records of the person who delivered the money and to whom it was delivered. Some noting of call records (payout sheet) made may be read here.
However, quite shockingly, the Income Tax Department under the Finance Ministry neither took any meaningful action nor forwarded the report to CBI or SIT on Black Money, as was required since incriminating documents showing corruption, bribery and black money had surfaced. It is this inaction that led petitioner Common Cause to move this Hon’ble Court in the coal scam case (WPC 463/2012) seeking a direction to CBI to investigate the documents. On October 12, 2015, the Supreme Court directed the CBI to take action in accordance with law if the documents surfaced in the raid on the Birla Group disclose offences, even though they might be unrelated to the coal block allocation cases.
Despite this order, the CBI did not investigate the matter nor register an FIR although many highly incriminating documents suggesting bribery of public servants were recovered and also analyzed by the IT dept. CBI merely transferred the whole investigation to the IT department.
After the Sahara Group approached the Settlement Commission to settle the matter, the IT Department strongly countered the company’s attempts to bury the investigation.
The IT Department had then stated:
“a) On the basis of these seized documents only the assesse firm has voluntarily surrendered income of Rs 1217 crores. b) When Sh. Sachin Pawar was examined in respect of entries recorded by him, certain contradictions were found in his version as discussed in detail in Rule-9 report. In one statement he states that the whole exercise was done to implicate Shri Dogra and get him punished from the Management. On the other hand in a later statement he says that he intended to pass on information to various Government agencies like IT, SIT etc. When this was pointed out in 245D(4) hearing it was stated by the AR that second statement was in continuation and in addition to first one. It is obvious to us that there is a direct contradiction here – if information was to be given to IT/SIT, it would not hurt Shri Dogra but the entire Management and the Group itself. Also it is correctly pointed out by PCIT that SIT did not even exist at that point of time.
c) Perusal of transactions recorded in the seized documents shows that they have been recorded in a detailed manner with specific amounts and names of persons/premises – something that appears to be true. Also, it is observed that so-called ‘meaningless’ transactions have been recorded on a regular basis over a period of 4-5 years – contention that it is only for the sake of implicating Shri V S Dogra – seems to be unbelievable. Further, on comparison of the entries of cash receipts as recorded in the seized documents with the entries in the ledger account of cash imprest given to Shri Sachin Pawar from MARCOM, it is observed that all the entries of cash imprest above Rs. 1 crore appearing in the books of Sahara India (MARCOM) in the ledger account of
Shri Sachin Pawar have been recorded by Shri Sachin Pawar in the seized documents on the same dates- strongly suggesting thereby that entries made were not fictitious and cannot be called meaningless.”
Despite these strong contentions, the Settlement Commission, settled the case on November 11, 2016 and absolved Sahara of all criminal and civil liability on specious grounds.
Prashant Bhushan for Common Cause had sent them a letter on November 8, 2016 requesting them not to allow any settlement in the matter.
Settlement Commission Order may be read here
It is not only the Enforcement Directorate (ED) but the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Ministry of Finance that had found large number of suspicious cash transactions on a very large number of accounts linked with the Sahara Group. A list of as many as 4574 bank accounts was prepared showing such transactions.
Issues of transparency and accountability have also been raised by the disclosure of the fact that the GOI under Narendra Modi, on November 14, 2014 appointed by formal order K.V. Chowdury to the position Advisor to the SIT on Black Money, after demitting office as Chairperson, CBDT. Chowdury was given the supervisory charge on the subjects being handled by Member (Investigation), CBDT including investigations and subsequent actions. This is the relevant period when the raid on Sahara Group took place and the subsequent investigation was conducted by the IT Department. The office order appointing Chowdury may be read here.
Occupying this critical post as advisor to the SIT on black money, it was the duty of Chowdury to ensure that a credible criminal investigation was initiated by the relevant agency when incriminating documents of the Sahara Group surfaced showing offences of bribery and corruption being committed after the raid on November 22, 2014, especially since it is clear that the above documents disclosed the bribing of several influential persons by the Sahara Group.
All the information ought to have been shared by the IT Department with the CBI & the SIT on Black Money, since the matter under the SIT’s jurisdiction was not limited to Income Tax violations, but included bribery, corruption and possession of black money. The persons named in the diary ought to have been investigated, but it was not done.
Background It was during the investigations with relation to coal block allocations to Hindalco Industries, an Aditya Birla group company, that the CBI conducted simultaneous search operations in four cities – New Delhi, Mumbai, Secunderabad and Bhubaneshwar on 15.10.2013. The documents seized by the CBI in its search operation reportedly revealed massive bribery of politicians and officials of various ministries by the Aditya Birla group over several years. The simultaneous search operation conducted on October 15, 2013 by the CBI at the Aditya Birla group’s office at Parliament Street, New Delhi, reportedly led to the recovery of incriminating documents and a huge stash of unaccounted cash amounting to Rs. 25 crore. Although the documents seized indicated the commission of offences of corruption, bribery, possession of black money, and also of income tax violations, the CBI, instead of conducting a thorough scrutiny of their contents, simply transferred the highly incriminating documents to the Income Tax Department.
It is clear that ordinary citizens, human rights activists remain at the aim of fire of the CBI and India’s agencies while powerful men and women in power and corporations simply get away.
बॉलीवुड निर्माता-निर्देशक और फराह खान के पति शिरीष कुंदर से एक ट्विटर यूर्जर ने उनके बच्चों के धर्म पर सवाल पूछा तो शिरीष ने ऐसा जवाब दिया कि सबकी बोलती बंद हो गई और सोशल मीडिया पर हुई खूब वाहवाही।
दरअसल, शिरीष नेफराह खान के साथ बच्चो का फोटो ट्विटर पर अपलोड किया और केप्शन में शीरीष ने लिखा “ग्रैंड कैन्यन पर फख्र से पोज़ करता हुआ मेरा परिवार, मुझे वक्त का कोई अंदाज़ा नहीं है। पता नहीं, 2017 शुरू हुआ या नहीं”
इस फोटो के पोस्ट होते ही एक फातिमा आर्या ट्विटर यूजर ने शीरीष से सवाल कर डाला आपके बच्चे हिन्दू हैं या मुसलमान? इस बात पर एकदम मुहतोंड जवाब देते हुए शीरीष ने ट्वीट किया “ये इस बात पर निर्भर करता है कि कौन सा त्योहार आने वाला है। पिछले महीने वो ईसाई थे।”
शीरीष ट्विटर पर अपनी बेबाक राय रखने के लिए जाने जाते है और कई बार कंट्रोवर्सी में भी रहें हैं।
एक इंटरव्यू में शीरीष ने बताया था कि कैसे निर्भया गैंगरेप के बाद उन्होंने ट्वीट करना शुरु किया था फिर धीरे-धीरे ये उनकी आदत में शुमार हो गया था।
उन्होने कहा था, ” मैं तभी ट्वीट करता हूं, जब मुझे गुस्सा आता है। मैं ह्यूमर के जरिए भड़ास निकालता हूं। मैं उसी मंशा के साथ ट्वीट करता हूं, जिसके साथ आरके लक्ष्मण कार्टून बनाया करते । मैं उनसे बेहद प्रभावित हूं।”
दो साल पहले टुर्की के समुंद्र तट पर औंधे मुंह पड़े मासूम अयलान कुर्दी की लाश ने पूरी दुनिया को झकझोर कर रख दिया था। डेढ़ साल के मासूम कुर्दी की मासूम से तस्वीर ने पूरी दुनिया का ध्यान तो अपनी ओर खींचा ही था दशकों से गृह युद्ध में फंसे देशों पर भी सवाल खड़ा कर दिया था।
अयलान कुर्दी जैसी दिलों को झकझोरती एक और तस्वीर दुनिया के सामने आई है। यह तस्वीर बानगी है गृह युद्ध जैसे हालातों से जूझ रहे म्यामांर में रोहिंग्या मुसलमानों पर हो रहे जुल्म और ज्यादती की।
सीएनएन की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार 16 साल के इस मासूम का नाम मोहम्मद शोहयत है। खबर के अनुसार उसका परिवार म्यामांर में हिंसा से बचने के लिए उसका परिवार भागकर बांग्लादेश के लिए निकला था। इसी बीच मासूम की मौत हो गई और उसकी लाश तैर कर बांग्लादेश म्यामांर सीमा पर स्थित नफ नदी के तट पर पहुंच गई।
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to expedite the hearing of Aadhaar cases challenging the constitutional validity of the scheme but observed that data collection by private agencies is not a good idea.
A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar made the remarks after senior advocate Shyam Divan sought urgent hearing of the plea citing privacy concern.
“We are not inclined to give immediate hearing as there are limited resources but biometric data collection by private agencies is not a great idea,” the bench also comprising Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud said.
Divan, who represented one of the petitioners, said that these matters needs urgent hearing as there is individual’s privacy concern as biometric datas are being collected by private agencies.
The apex court had on 15 October, 2015 lifted its earlier restrictions and permitted voluntary use of Aadhaar cards in welfare schemes that also included MGNREGA, all pension schemes and provident fund, besides ambitious flagship programmes like ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna’ of the NDA government.
The social welfare schemes, aimed at reaching the door steps of the “poorest of the poor”, were in addition to LPG and PDS schemes in which the apex court had allowed the voluntary use of Aadhaar cards.
A five-judge constitution bench had put a caveat in its interim order for the Centre and said that Aadhaar card scheme is purely voluntary and not mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this court, this way or the other way.
It had said that that a larger bench was required to be set up for final disposal of the petitions that also include the question as to whether the right to privacy is fundamental right.
A three-judge bench had on 11 August, 2015 referred a batch of petitions, challenging the Aadhaar card scheme, to a larger bench for an authoritative view on the question as to whether the right to privacy is fundamental right or not and had also restricted the use of Aadhaar to PDS and LPG scheme only.
UIDAI, established by UPA-2 in 2009, issues Aadhaar cards to the citizens.
Under the programme, every citizen is to be provided a 12-digit unique identification number for which biometric information is collected.
