Lok Sabha Question No. 2310 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-30
Subject: Cloned Sim Cards
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: P. C. MOHAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2310

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 30.11.2016

## CLONED SIM CARDS

## 2310.                  SHRI P.C.MOHAN:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

- (a) whether some Chinese mobile chip manufacturing companies are cloning the mobile sim cards and are thereby stealing the information and mobile data of users;
- (b) if so,  the details thereof;
- (c) whether such a practice has been causing serious security threats of leaking sensitive information of the country and the data of individuals;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the preventive action taken by the Government to curb the menace and ban the use of Chinese SIM cards?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY   (SHRI P.P.CHAUDHARY)

(a), (b), (c), and (d): As  per the information provided by DoT,  Ministry of Communications, No such case of Cloning of SIM card has come to the notice.

(e):   As per the License conditions, the Telecom Service Providers are free to procure telecom equipment from any country based on techno-commercial considerations.  As per Foreign Trade Policy, SIM cards can be imported freely into the country. There are security  features  implemented  on  both,  the  SIM  itself    and    in  Telecom  Service Provider's  (TSP)    network    which  do  not  allow  the  cloning,  though  there  are  some applications which claim to copy  the contents of the SIM  in case of physical access to the  SIM  card.  However  this  copying  of  contents  of  a  SIM  card    does  not  result  in cloning of SIM as following technical measures for identification and authentication of the SIM have been implemented in telecom networks to protect SIM card.

- i.   Implementation  of  authentication  Key  (Ki)  and  ciphering  Key  (Kc)  in  a  secure memory area of SIM.
- ii. Implementation of crypto-algorithms on SIM  with a self destruct feature in case of brute  force  method  being  attempted,  exceeding  a  set  value,    for  detection  of Authentication Key, Generation Key and Encryption Key.
- iii. Implementation of a Personal Identification Number  (PIN), which is user configurable and PIN Unblocking Key (PUK),  which is provided by the Telecom Service Provider only. Wrong PIN attempts beyond a set value (three) leads to SIM block,  which  can  be  unblocked  only  by  entering  PUK.  A  wrong  attempt  of  PUK beyond a set value (ten) makes the SIM card permanently disabled.
- i. Provision for only one SIM of a mobile number to be active in the network at any given time

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## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2483

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 30.11.2016

## ISSUANCE OF AADHAAR CARDS

## 2483. SHRI RAJU SHETTY:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY  be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the generation/issuance of Aadhaar Cards including its legal validity has been questioned;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (c) whether the Supreme Court has issued any direction to the Government that Aadhaar cards may not be made mandatory for getting benefits under various social welfare schemes and if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (d) the details of the number of Aadhaar Cards generated and delivered in the country and the funds incurred thereon, State/UT-wise; and
- (e)  whether  non-delivery/late  delivery/  postal  loss  of  Aadhaar  Cards  has  come  to  the  notice  of  the Government and if so, the action taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P.P. CHAUDHARY)

- (a): Yes, Sir.

(b): A Writ Petition No. 494 of 2012 titled Justice (Retd.)  K.S. Puttaswamy & Anr Vs Union of India & Ors was filed in the Hon'ble Supreme Court, challenging the legal validity of the Aadhaar Scheme. Thereafter, a batch of other writ petitions (W.P No. 829 of 2013 filed by S.G Vombatkere, W.P No. 833 of 2013 filed by Smt Aruna Roy, W.P No. 932 of 2013 filed by Nagrik Chetna Manch, W.P No. 37 of 2015 filed by Sh Mathew Thomas, W.P No. 220 of 2014 and W.P No. 797 of 2016 filed by Sh S.G Vombatkere etc) were filed before the Hon'ble Supreme Court which were tagged together with W.P No. 494 of 2012 and stands transferred, to be heard before a Constitutional Bench.  Additionally, a Writ Petition No. 231 of 2016 was also filed by Sh Jairam Ramesh, challenging the Aadhaar Bill (now an Act).

The  Government  had  introduced  the  Aadhaar  (Targeted  Delivery  of  Financial  and  Other  Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, in the Parliament on 03-03-2016, and was passed by the Parliament on 16-03-2016.  The Bill received the assent of the President on 25-03-2016 and has been published in the Official Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 1 dated 26-03-2016, as Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (Act No. 18 of 2016).

- (c): The  Hon'ble  Supreme  Court,  vide  its  Interim  Order  dated  11-08-2015,  had  directed  that  the production of Aadhaar Card will not be a condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen and had directed that Aadhaar card will not be used for any purpose other than PDS scheme, Kerosene and  LPG,  which  was  later  extended  to  include  schemes  of  MGNREGS,  NSAP  Pensions  (Old  Age Pensions, Widow Pensions, Disability Pensions), PMJDY and EPFO, vide its interim order dated 1510-2015.  Further, the  Hon'ble Supreme Court  vide the order dated  15-10-2015  had  also directed the Union of India to strictly follow all the earlier orders passed commencing from 23-09-2013 and had also directed  that  the  Aadhaar  card  scheme  is  purely  voluntary  and  it  cannot  be  made  mandatory  till  the matter is finally decided by the Court, one way or the other.

The above orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court are being strictly adhered to.  Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act provide that if an Aadhaar number is not assigned to an individual, the individual shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of the subsidy, benefit or service.

- (d). As on 15th November, 2016, 107.83 crore Aadhaars Numbers have been generated in the country. Further, since inception and until 23-11-2016, a total of 106.34 crore Aadhaar letters have been printed and dispatched to the residents through Department of Posts (DoP).  An expenditure of nearly ` 1052 crore has been incurred on account of printing and delivery of the Aadhaar letters.  The State / UT wise details  with  regard to  generation and delivery details of Aadhaar, vis-a-vis the population, as per the 2011 census is given in the Annexure.
- (e). UIDAI communicates the Aadhaar Numbers (UID) to residents in physical and electronic forms. The  mode  of  delivery  of  the  physical  Aadhaar  letter  is  through  First  Class  digitally  Franked  Mail Service for which the Department of Posts do not provide any dispatch number or tracking facility.

UIDAI receives grievances related to non-receipt of Aadhaar letters in Aadhaar Contact Centre/Grievance  Portal/e-mails  and  UIDAI  has  set  up  an  internal  mechanism  to  resolve  resident grievances on non-receipt of Aadhaar letters, by way of reprinting and resending these letters.  Further, the electronic form of the Aadhaar letter, commonly called as the e-aadhaar, is a PDF document, and is digitally  signed  by  UIDAI.    The  e-aadhaar  can  be  downloaded  by  the  resident  from  the  website  of UIDAI, as soon as the Aadhaar number is successfully generated.  This service was launched by UIDAI in 2012 with the objective to fill the gap between the rate of Aadhaar enrolments and distribution of printed Aadhaar letters to the resident by post.  This facility has been very well received by residents over time and has facilitated UIDAI with fast and quick communication of Aadhaar Numbers.

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## ANNEXURE

| State / UT          |   Total Population as per 2011 census |   Aadhaar generated as on 15th Nov 2016 | Aadhaar Letters dispatched as on 23-11-2016   |
|---------------------|---------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
| A &NIslands         |                                379944 |                                  385849 | 387456                                        |
| Andhra Pradesh      |                              49378776 |                                50432763 |                                               |
| Telangana           |                              35220187 |                                37791654 | 87704986                                      |
| Arunachal Pradesh   |                               1382611 |                                  911904 | 901166                                        |
| Assam               |                              31169272 |                                 1816459 | 1636589                                       |
| Bihar               |                             103804637 |                                79470580 | 77467744                                      |
| Chandigarh          |                               1054686 |                                 1098281 | 1122832                                       |
| Chhattisgarh        |                              25540196 |                                26071178 | 25858854                                      |
| Dadra &Nagar Haveli |                                342853 |                                  341573 | 342834                                        |
| Daman &Diu          |                                242911 |                                  209673 | 211159                                        |
| Delhi               |                              16753235 |                                20202682 | 20301930                                      |
| Goa                 |                               1457723 |                                 1475193 | 1469445                                       |
| Gujarat             |                              60383628 |                                54759599 | 54468102                                      |
| Haryana             |                              25353081 |                                27010039 | 26990978                                      |
| Himachal Pradesh    |                               6856509 |                                 7211996 | 7221680                                       |
| Jammu and Kashmir   |                              12548926 |                                 8716280 | 7738436                                       |
| Jharkhand           |                              32966238 |                                33217756 | 33096485                                      |
| Karnataka           |                              61130704 |                                58373198 | 57987442                                      |
| Kerala              |                              33387677 |                                34508738 | 34260644                                      |
| Lakshadweep         |                                 64429 |                                   66590 | 63425                                         |
| Madhya Pradesh      |                              72597565 |                                68928024 | 68666332                                      |
| Maharashtra         |                             112372972 |                               109388576 | 104223087                                     |
| Manipur             |                               2721756 |                                 1889539 | 1761431                                       |
| Meghalaya           |                               2964007 |                                  239314 | 194229                                        |
| Mizoram             |                               1091014 |                                  547435 | 476774                                        |
| Nagaland            |                               1980602 |                                 1114545 | 1071056                                       |
| Odisha              |                              41947358 |                                36087515 | 35145440                                      |
| Puducherry          |                               1244464 |                                 1272790 | 1268476                                       |
| Punjab              |                              27704236 |                                29332331 | 29409898                                      |
| Rajasthan           |                              68621012 |                                61266437 | 61188685                                      |
| Sikkim              |                                607688 |                                  587655 | 588600                                        |
| Tamil Nadu          |                              72138958 |                                66029212 | 65540028                                      |
| Tripura             |                               3671032 |                                 3615936 | 3636708                                       |
| Uttar Pradesh       |                             199581477 |                               166234447 | 165055241                                     |
| Uttarakhand         |                              10116752 |                                 9567272 | 9484086                                       |
| West Bengal         |                              91347736 |                                78217070 | 76512933                                      |
| Grand Total         |                            1210126852 |                              1078390083 | 1063455190                                    |