📰 Preventing trafficking
A proposed law addresses an invisible crime
•The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill of 2018 addresses one of the most pervasive yet invisible crimes affecting the most vulnerable persons, especially women and children. There has been no specific law to deal with human trafficking, which is considered the third largest organised crime violating basic human rights.
•The Bill addresses, among other things, aggravated trafficking for forced labour, begging, trafficking by administering chemical substances or hormones to a person for the purpose of early sexual maturity, trafficking of a woman or child for the purpose of marriage or under the pretext of marriage or after marriage. The proposed law also punishes promotion or facilitation of human trafficking by, for instance, manufacturing fake certificates.
•The Bill ensures confidentiality of victims and witnesses, a time-bound trial, and repatriation of victims. It also provides for simultaneous measures to be taken for the rehabilitation of victims along with the trial. The victims are entitled to interim relief immediately within 30 days to address their physical and mental trauma, and further appropriate relief within 60 days from the date of filing of the charge sheet.
•The Bill provides for the creation of a rehabilitation fund to be used for the physical, psychological and social well-being of the victim, including education, skill development, health care and psychological support, legal aid, and safe accommodation. The law demands that special courts be set up to ensure speedy trial.
•The Bill creates dedicated institutional mechanisms at the district, State and Central levels. These will be responsible for prevention, protection, investigation and rehabilitation work related to trafficking. The National Investigation Agency will perform the tasks of the Anti-Trafficking Bureau at the national level under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
•Punishment under the proposed law ranges from a rigorous minimum of 10 years to life and a fine not less than Rs. 1 lakh. The Bill also provides for the attachment and forfeiture of property and proceeds for crime. In transnational crimes, the national anti-trafficking bureau would coordinate with authorities in foreign countries and international organisations to facilitate investigation and trial proceedings. This includes coordinating with authorities in other countries.
📰 Curbing misuse
Protecting innocent persons is fine, as long as the SC/ST Act is not de-fanged
•Will laying down procedural safeguards to curb false accusations work against the interest of protecting the oppressed from discrimination and caste-based atrocities? This is the salient question that arises from the Supreme Court verdict that has taken note of the perception that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, is being rampantly misused to settle personal scores and harass adversaries. On the face of it, it is difficult to fault the court’s approach. It is settled law that the mere scope for misuse of an Act is not a ground to invalidate it. Constitution courts seek to preserve the spirit of such legislation on the one hand and to evolve guidelines to prevent its misuse on the other. This is precisely what the two-judge bench has aimed to do. It has ruled that Section 18, which bars grant of anticipatory bail to anyone accused of violating its provisions, is not an absolute bar on giving advance bail to those against whom, prima facie , there is no case. In addition, the Bench has prohibited the arrest of anyone merely because of a complaint that they had committed an atrocity against a Dalit or a tribal person. In respect of public servants, no arrest should be made without the written permission of the official’s appointing authority; and for private citizens, the Senior Superintendent of Police in the district should approve the arrest.
•In doing this, the Supreme Court has sought to strike a balance between protecting individual liberty and preserving the spirit of a law in favour of oppressed sections. Without any doubt, atrocities against Dalits are a grim social reality, necessitating a stringent law to combat it. The Act was amended in 2015 to cover newer forms of discrimination and crimes against Dalits and tribals to add teeth to it. It is true that conviction rates under the Act remain low. The lackadaisical approach of investigators and prosecutors to bring home charges against perpetrators of such crimes among the dominant castes is reflected in statistics. Even if courts are right in taking note of the tendency to misuse this law, society and lawmakers must be justifiably worried about the sort of messaging contained in their rulings and observations. In an ideal system, as long as every charge is judicially scrutinised and every investigation or prosecution is fair and honest, one need not worry about misuse and its adverse effects. However, social realities are far from being ideal. It ought to concern us all, including the courts, that some laws designed to protect the weakest and most disempowered people do not lose their teeth. Words of caution and rules against misuse may be needed to grant relief to the innocent. But nothing should be done to de-fang the law itself.
📰 Terms of separation
The move to recognise Lingayats as a separate religion must be seen in a political and historical context
•“Don’t say, ‘Who is he? Who is he?’ Say, ‘He is one of us. He is one of us.’” This excerpt from a popularvachana(a saying in verse form) of Basava, which views the Lingayat community as a boundless entity where there is no outsider, offers a glimpse of the radical theology of Lingayat dharma, which he founded in the 12th century. In anothervachanaof his, shedding “disgust” towards “others” is held out as a moral imperative alongside other foundational ones that forbid theft, murder, lies and slander for attaining inner and outer purity(shuddhi).
•The Lingayats evolved elaborate rituals to mark the distinctiveness of their dharma from the Brahminical, Jaina and folk faiths existing at that time. Composed by men and women from all “castes” (or occupational backgrounds), the extensive body ofvachanasare in Kannada, not Sanskrit. They elevate labour to a spiritual ideal and emphasise the equal worth of different kinds of work. They reject temple worship and forbid animal sacrifice. The Lingayats are strict vegetarians. They have their own priests to officiate over ceremonies, their own cooks. They don’t cremate the dead, but bury them. These are but a few ways in which they have fashioned their distinct theology and ritual life.
Contested terrain
•The scholar M.M. Kalburgi, who was assassinated in 2015, took great pains to establish the separateness of Lingayat dharma from Hinduism. Denying such a separation, other scholars like Chidananda Murthy have argued how the concept ofshoonya(nothingness) and the idea of the body in Lingayat theology derive, respectively, from the Upanishads and from older discussions of yoga. But using the latter as evidence for viewing Lingayat dharma as a sub-component of Hinduism would be anachronistic as those texts came to be viewed as “Hindu” texts many centuries later. Further, the creative transformation of borrowed notions needs independent attention.
•Since its founding in the 12th century, Lingayat dharma spread across Karnataka and parts of Maharashtra and Telangana. Unfortunately, historical research on the efforts of the dozens ofmathasin acquiring new converts to the Lingayat faith and, more generally, functioning as moral authorities in their regions has been scanty. The conversion (linga deekshe) of individuals into the Lingayat faith continues to happen inmathas, albeit with reduced frequency.
•The Lingayats were recorded as a caste within the Hindu religion for the first time in the 1881 census done in Mysore state. Their request to be classified as a separate religion instead was turned down at the time the Indian Constitution was being finalised. The rationale: How can Shaivites not be Hindu? Still, the idea that Lingayat dharma was a distinct religion stayed alive in scholarly and public discussions.
•In 2013, the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, the umbrella caste association founded in the early 20th century, had taken the old request to the Manmohan Singh government. The Ministry of Home Affairs turned it down noting that Lingayats were indeed Hindu. It is comical that the Ministry had based its decision on the views of 19th century British officials like C.P. Brown and Edgar Thurston!
•At a large Lingayat rally in Bidar last July, when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was asked to help recognise the Lingayat dharma as a separate religion, he offered to consider the request. Half a dozen massive rallies followed up on that demand in different parts of North Karnataka. Heads of several Lingayatmathasand a few prominent Lingayat politicians from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) took the lead in mobilising the grassroots support.
•Reflecting the changed nature of Lingayat mobilisation, the six-member Nagamohan Das committee, which was constituted three months ago, views Lingayats and those who believe in Basava’s philosophy as belonging to a separate religion. The latter criterion is an opening offered to Veerashaivas who are clubbed with Lingayats in official documents despite their theological differences with the latter. The Siddaramaiah government has now asked the Centre to endorse the committee’s view that Lingayats form a separate religion.
Lingayats versus Veerashaivas
•The five Veerashaivamathas, which predate Basava, revere Renukacharya more than Basava, and cherish scriptural texts which, unlike the Lingayat texts, are said to be accommodative of Vedic rituals. The Veerashaivas, who form a tenth of the total Lingayat population, are also known to discriminate against the Lingayats in marriage relations and other civil matters. Indeed, a few Lingayat swamis accuse the Veerashaivamathasof bringing in caste and gender inequalities, temple worship and other practices inside a dharma that explicitly rejected them.
•The Veerashaiva responses to the recent events have varied from a disavowal of the need to become a separate religion to the religion being termed “Veerashaiva-Lingayat.”
Political considerations
•Termed “a dominant caste” in social science scholarship, the Lingayats are about 13% of the State’s population of nearly 6.5 crore. At present, 47 of the 224 MLAs are Lingayats. Electorally significant in about a hundred Assembly constituencies, the Lingayat community matters in elections.
•In 2011, the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka declared Basava Jayanthi as a State holiday. And, last year, the Congress government mandated that a portrait of Basava adorn the walls of all government offices.
•After being solidly behind the Congress until the mid-1970s, the Lingayats moved towards the Janata Party when Chief Minister Devaraj Urs began to sideline the dominant castes within the party. After the JD(S) became the more successful inheritor of the Janata Party under the leadership of H.D. Deve Gowda, a Vokkaliga, they gravitated, in the late-1990s, towards the BJP under B.S. Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat.
•During Mr. Yeddyurappa’s two years away from the BJP, after he formed a separate party, the Karnataka Janata Paksha, in 2012, the loss of Lingayat support badly hurt the BJP’s performance in several constituencies in the 2013 State Assembly elections.
•Since the Lingayat support is decisive for the BJP’s electoral fortunes in Karnataka, the party’s alarm about the Lingayats pulling away from Hinduism is real. But thwarting their wish to be a separate religion is not an easy option for the BJP. While the party’s spin doctors work overtime to blame the Congress for “dividing Hindus”, Mr. Yeddyurappa, the BJP’s projected chief ministerial candidate, has offered to go along with whatever the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha decides vis-à-vis the separate religion status for Lingayats. Indeed, he was among the signatories to the 2013 petition that the Centre had turned down.
A cultural episode too
•With the recent consolidation of the Lingayat vote behind the BJP, the Congress as well as the JD(S) are keen to re-establish a support base among them. While the Siddaramaiah government’s support for recognising Lingayats as a separate religious group cannot be seen outside of that strategy, it cannot have come in the absence of an already existing wish for it among them. The Lingayat swamis, in fact, were quick to express gratitude to Mr. Siddaramaiah for honouring their request.
•A minority religion status does mean financial gain for the Lingayatmathaswhich run dozens of higher education institutions. But this factor cannot fully explain their struggle. The speeches, articles and interviews of Lingayat swamis bespeak a genuine concern about not letting the distinctive Basava philosophy be subsumed under “a sanatana Hindu dharma.” Concerns about how contemporary Lingayat culture has made space for casteism and other practices abhorrent to its founding philosophy are also seen. The present controversy asks the Lingayats to re-examine their relationship with their rich moral tradition. Media discussions have served us poorly by keeping the focus on political motives and electoral gain. The episode in question offers a precious moment for self-introspection too: what makes my community different? What lies behind the rituals at home? Why were my grandparents named that way?
📰 Global lawmakers’ meet on Tibet called off
Decision comes as India seeks to reset ties with China, prepares for high profile visits.
•After the cancellation of events involving the Dalai Lama in Delhi, a global conference on Tibet, scheduled for next month, has also been put off, officials in Delhi and Dharamshala confirmed to The Hindu. The decision reflects “sensitivities” over upcoming high profile meetings between the Indian and Chinese leadership, they said.
•The cancellation of the 7th World Parliamentarian’s Convention on Tibet, which had been planned for April 26-28 in Delhi is significant as the high profile event was going to be held in India 24 years after it was first held.
•The last such convention, held in Canada in 2012, had attracted more than 50 parliamentarians from 30 countries.
Preparations underway
•Preparations for the event this year were in full swing, and parliamentarians from the self-styled “Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE)” of the Central Tibetan Authority in India had met with several MPs in Delhi in December 2017 to extend invitations.
•“The World Parliamentarians conference on Tibet has been postponed,” confirmed former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP MP Shanta Kumar, who was the co-convenor of the conference.
•The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) did not give any reasons for the postponement, only saying that it had been done due to “unforeseen circumstances”. Mr. Kumar, who also heads the Indo-Tibet Parliamentarians forum, did not indicate any alternative date when the conference would be held.
•Tibetan community leaders also announced the “postponement” of the WPCT in the ongoing session of the ‘TPiE’ in Dharamshala this week.
‘Sensitive time’
•The Ministry of External Affairs and the MHA, which handles affairs of the Tibetan community in India, declined to formally comment on the development. But a senior official aware of the preparations for the conference, which lawmakers from more than 20 countries were expected to attend, admitted that the cancellation came for the same reasons an inter-faith religious ceremony at Rajghat on March 31 was cancelled and a public rally at Delhi’s Thyagaraja stadium on April 1 was moved to Dharamshala. The Dalai Lama was to attend both events.
•A spokesperson for the Dalai Lama’s Bureau had said while the government had not directly called for the cancellation of the events, its “concerns had been conveyed” to the Tibetan leadership, after reports that the Cabinet Secretary had put out a memo telling officials not to attend the events as it was a “sensitive time” for India-China relations, with several high profile meetings planned.
•Several senior Chinese party leaders, including Commerce Minister Zhong ,Shan are expected to visit Delhi in the next few weeks, while both Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will visit Beijing in April.
•Meanwhile a diplomatic source said an “informal summit” between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping even before they meet in Qingdao in June for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is being “worked on”.
Worrying u-turn
•A Member of Parliament, who asked not to be named, said the government’s ‘U-turn’ on the Tibetan issue had set off alarm bells in the Tibetan refugee community in India. “Leaders of the Tibetan ‘parliament in exile’ (TPiE) are worried and called to discuss whether this was a phase in Sino-Indian ties, or a more permanent situation,” said the MP, who was also involved in the planning of the WPCT.
•The moves are seen as an attempt to reset ties between New Delhi and Beijing, which have steadily deteriorated for the past few years. But in the last few weeks, a visit by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale to Beijing, and China’s decision not to oppose a move against Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris have indicated that the narrative is turning.
•The government’s alleged memo to officials, a decision to cancel an Asian security conference organised by the Ministry of Defence think-tank — the Institute of Defence and Strategic Analysis (IDSA) — in early March at the last minute, as well as the Dalai Lama’s decision to skip a visit to Manipur for the Indian Science Congress, were seen as attempts to avoid any controversy with Beijing during the reset.
📰 Cauvery row: Karnataka not to file review plea
•An all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Thursday unanimously decided against filing a review petition challenging the final Cauvery verdict. It was decided to impress upon the Centre to set up a dispute-resolution forum.
•Union Minister Ananth Kumar said the Centre would establish the forum after consultations with the all riparian States. Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil said the legal team suggested against filing a review petition in the Supreme Court.
📰 UIDAI chief defends safety of Aadhaar data before SC
Hackers will need “more time than the age of the universe” to crack encryption
•“It would take more than the age of the universe for the fastest computer on earth, or any super-computer, to break one key” of Aadhaar encryption, CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Ajay Bhushan Pandey assured the Supreme Court on Thursday.
•Mr. Pandey, who steered the Aadhaar from its beginnings in 2010, was given the unique opportunity to conduct a PowerPoint presentation in a courtroom of the five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
‘Data forever’
•In an hour-long presentation, which will continue on March 27, Mr. Pandey said Aadhaar data were protected by a 2048-bit encryption and “once biometrics comes to us, it will never go away.”
•Recounting his own life experiences as a small-town person who did not have a photo identity till he joined the Indian Administrative Services in the late 1980s, Mr. Pandey said Aadhaar offers the answer to the ancient question, often asked by sages: “Who am I?”
•He said, for the first time, Aadhaar offered the billion-plus population of India a “robust, lifetime, nationally online, verifiable identity.” He said that through a massive exercise which benefits mankind, India had “leap-frogged” to Aadhaar identity from proxy and local identification like ration card. He termed Aadhaar a “portable entitlement” against poverty.
Blacklisted operators
•But Justice A.K. Sikri questioned Mr. Pandey’s narrative about the infallibility of Aadhaar, asking why the UIDAI had blacklisted 49,000 registered operators. The CEO replied that these operators were de-registered for corruption, carelessness and harassment of the public. “Some of them used to take money from the public, others would not enter the details properly. We have a zero-tolerance policy,” Mr. Pandey said.
•“It sounds somehow strange that you blacklisted 49,000 of your operators for harassing people,” Justice Sikri persisted. “Initially, we trusted these operators, but they ended up registering trees... Jamun trees,” Mr. Pandey said.
•Mr. Pandey later explained that biometric changes could be updated through a process called ‘Aadhaar update.’ “Aadhaar update can be done if a person knows there is such an option. You have covered a wide area of the country and brought tribal people and those living on the fringes under the Aadhaar regime. They are poor and illiterate. How will they know what to do?” asked Justice Sikri.
•Justice Chandrachud added that eventually the onus was on the individual to get an Aadhaar update if she wanted to continue receiving entitlements. The judge then asked if the UIDAI had any statistics on the number of Aadhaar authentication failures so far. To this, Mr. Pandey referred to provisions in the Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations, 2016, to point out that there were alternatives to biometric authentication like demographics and electronic One Time Pin (OTP).
📰 Is the economy back on track?
Disturbances on account of demonetisation and GST were purely short term
•Looking at various indicators such as an increasing trend in the Index of Industrial Production and GDP growth rates, there is a clear signal that the economy is back on track. Disturbances on account of demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST) were purely short term, and short-term disturbances were only to be expected. Employment-generating sectors like construction, the worst hit by demonetisation, have already started reviving — demand is picking up because of falling prices and this is obviously due to minimum exposure to black money. There are indications that the government is realising the need to move towards the ideal GST by addressing the glitches experienced at present. Moreover, with the revival of India’s major markets such as the U.S., Eurozone and Japan since September 2017, exports have started picking up, accounting for about 15% of the GDP.
Fixing the rural economy
•However, a major challenge is the worsening rural crisis. It is worth recalling that India was insulated from the sub-prime crisis in 2008-09 mainly because of the rural economy. The rural economy’s contribution to GDP may not be significant. But in terms of aggregate demand, the rural population impacts more than 50% of the market base. What I mean is, when you talk about markets, you talk about population. And in terms of purchasing power, half the population of the country is still in the villages and is very crucial for the growth we are looking for.
•On the agricultural front, while the increasing input costs have to be borne by the farmers, when it comes to reaping the benefits of market prices for agricultural produce or rise in minimum support prices (MSP), they are deprived as they do not have direct access to the market. Unless these fundamental problems are addressed and corrective steps initiated, there is no point in simply raising the MSP which in reality benefits middlemen.
•Similarly, farmers should be enabled to play their role as an effective supply force in the market and be in a position to sell their produce at a competitive price. That is possible only when adequate infrastructure support is built for them. Unfortunately, the wisdom of both the government and the opposition does not extend beyond traditional approaches like MSP or farm loan waivers.
Three major challenges
•On the external front, the government faces three major challenges: the Federal Reserve’s approach, rising crude oil prices, and the move towards protectionism by India’s major export market, the U.S.
•It is reported that the Federal Reserve is in for three hikes in the next one year. This may upset not only the stock market but also rates of exchange. Withdrawal by foreign institutional investors in response to federal hikes may weaken the Indian currency and end up in a higher import bill, especially on the crude oil front, if exports do not pick up. The government has to bring about strong reform measures. However, it may not take the risk during an election year. Against this background, policymakers should not venture into countering FII’s withdrawal by forcing domestic institutional investors such as LIC, UTI, or public sector banks to enter the market as it may lead to the creation of a bubble economy.
•Rising crude prices is another challenge the government has to deal with, especially in terms of imported inflation. Another negative signal is the U.S.’s initiatives in terms of protectionism.
📰 ‘10 missions on anvil to boost exports’
Cabinet nod expected soon for the new market development programmes, says Commerce Minister
•The Union Cabinet is likely to approve 10 new market development missions to aid exports, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday.
•“Very soon the cabinet should approve at least 10 new missions, first time in India’s history, for growing exports. We are creating Market Development Mission of Indian products globally. We will identify the market, our people will be there so that they can work with marketing agencies all over to boost exports,” Mr. Prabhu said while speaking at the CAP India 2018 Chemicals and Plastics exhibition in Mumbai.
•“The Indian government is fully committed to promote exports in a big way. We are doing this through a multi-pronged strategy. I am in the process of preparing a strategy where by over a period of time at least a trillion dollars of exports from India will be possible. That includes not just merchandise but also services exports which will rise even much faster,” the minister said.
•He said the government was working on a strategy for market penetration, market research, new products and new markets to boost exports. Trade events are being organised in African, Central and Latin American countries to find new markets and to introduce new products.
•Answering a question on government’s exports target the Minister said, “In the last few months we have seen exports are continuously registering growth.”
Imports outpacing
•Commenting on India’s export performance D.K. Joshi, chief economist CRISIL, said, “Exports are growing this year because the base has been low for the past three to four years. Exports from labour intensive sectors are under pressure. So though exports are growing, still it is underperformance considering that the world economy is growing. Our imports are growing more than the exports and this is a matter of concern.”
•The minister said the government was ensuring that not only exports of traditional products but new products were added to the basket. “We are also focusing on services,” Mr. Prabhu said.
•The Centre has identified 12 services as ‘champion services’ and the Cabinet has approved Rs. 5,000 crore for promoting them. Action plan for each of these sectors has been prepared which will promote the services domestically and globally. These include medical tourism and aviation.
•Work is also on to identify clusters which are traditionally known for exports of certain products. The new industrial policy will have exports as a thrust area for manufacturing, the minister said. “We are thinking of developing clusters around coastal areas so that exports can happen faster. We are also identifying agricultural exports as a major thrust area. We are planning to create air hubs to evacuate agri products faster. We are taking to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who are keen to import such products,” he said.
📰 FB apologises for breach of trust
Zuckerberg vows steps ahead of polls
•Four days after details emerged of massive breach of privacy involving data of millions of Facebook users, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday apologised for a “major breach of trust” with its users. He vowed to take steps to protect user data as the social media giant faced regulatory questions on the massive scandal over data siphoned by a data mining firm Cambridge Analytica with ties to the 2016 Donald Trump campaign.
•Seeking to quell the global uproar over harvesting of data of 50 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, Mr. Zuckerberg admitted to making “mistakes.”
‘I’m responsible’
•“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day, I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community,” he said in his first public comments since the scandal broke. “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t, we don’t deserve to serve you,” he said in a Facebook post. Mr Zuckerberg promised to make it far harder for apps to “harvest” user information.
•Later, he told CNN in an interview that he was “really sorry” that this happened.
•“This was a major breach of trust and I’m really sorry that this happened,” he said, adding the company’s responsibility now is to make sure this does not happen again. Cambridge Analytica’s chief executive Alexander Nix, who was suspended on Tuesday, was secretly recorded in a Channel 4 investigation saying the London-based company ran Mr. Trump’s digital campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
Apps review likely
•Mr. Zuckerberg said Facebook would be reviewing thousands of apps in an “intensive process.”
•The scandal erupted after a whistle-blower revealed that Cambridge Analytica accessed personal data from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, and might have kept that data even after Facebook told the company to delete it. Cambridge Analytica had created psychological profiles on 50 million Facebook users through a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.
•Mr. Zuckerberg acknowledged there was more the company should do. He said Facebook planned to alert everyone whose data was accessed by Cambridge Analytica. He said he wished they had not waited so long to tell the people what happened. “That’s definitely something that, looking back on this, I regret that we didn’t do at the time,” he said. “I think we got that wrong.”
📰 ‘Face ID’ from July 1 for Aadhaar authentication
UIDAI tells Supreme Court that it would benefit people with poor biometrics
•The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that it will introduce ‘Face ID’ on July 1 to enable Aadhaar holders to authenticate their identity to access services, benefits and subsidies.
•The Face ID would help people without biometrics or those with poor biometrics to avoid authentication failures and financial exclusion.
•The court has repeatedly been referring to how biometric authentication failures had deprived citizens of their rightful entitlements like pension and provident fund. It has highlighted that people with physical disabilities and the mentally challenged may face the danger of financial exclusion.
Accessing benefits
•In a powerpoint presentation to the Supreme Court, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey showed photographs of persons with leprosy, senior citizens with poor biometrics and those with physical disabilities accessing benefits through Aadhaar.
•He said a complete exemption from biometric authentication was provided to persons with leprosy and those whose biometrics were non-existent due to disability or other reasons.
Authentication modes
•Mr. Pandey drew the court’s attention to Regulation 4 of the Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations of 2016 which detailed the various modes of authentication. One was verifying demographic details of the Aadhaar-holder, like name, gender and date of birth. The Aadhaar number and demographic information of the Aadhaar number holder was matched with the demographic data in the CIDR.
•Secondly, there was the One Time Pin (OTP) based authentication with limited time validity. The PIN was sent to the registered mobile number and/or e-mail address of the Aadhaar number-holder.
•Then there was the multi-factor authentication, which was a combination of two or more of the modes — biometric or OTP or demographic — for authentication.
•The Regulation allows individuals the right to choose a suitable mode(s) of authentication for a particular service or business function to enhance security. However, for the avoidance of doubt, e-KYC authentication should only be carried out using OTP and/or biometric authentication.
📰 Protecting our data
Laws to do this are non-existent in India
•After the Cambridge Analytica crisis exploded, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warned Facebook against the misuse of Indians’ data and any attempt to influence the electoral processes of this country. Unsurprisingly, the issue subsequently took on a partisan hue after the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress started trading accusations about hiring the services of Cambridge Analytica. Regardless, the fact remains that a clear mention was made by representatives of that company, which stands accused of misusing the data of 50 million users stored on Facebook and rigging multiple elections worldwide, of political involvement in India.
•In a sense the data of Indians has been ripe for the plucking for some time now. Statista, an online data portal, estimates that India had 281.81 million mobile phone Internet users in 2016 and would have an estimated 492.68 million mobile phone Internet users by 2022. In 2019, there would be around 258.27 million social network users in India, up from 168.1 million in 2016. Facebook is projected to reach close to 319 million users in India by 2021. This proliferation of digital networking has provided an incredible platform for people to communicate, but its flip side is that individual users are increasingly viewed as legitimate targets for mining personal and metadata. As elsewhere, data mined from Indian users of social media may prima facie be used for relatively innocuous purposes such as targeted cross-platform advertising, but analysed in bulk, such data can provide an intimate psychological profile including ideological preferences that together help campaign managers target communications and forecast voter behaviour.
•Further, certain risks to the very health of democracy stem from the dominance of social media platforms, which not only deliver personalised content to users, but in many cases privilege content based on engagement rather than quality. This limits users’ access to information, which in turn leads to political polarisation and the spread of fake news. And fake news, as we know, has had a considerable impact on electoral politics to the point where it is being investigated by authorities in the U.S.
•All of this raises a red flag on the question of data protection laws, which are virtually non-existent in India. It was only in 2017 that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released a White Paper by a committee of experts led by former Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, on a data protection framework for India. Until that consultative process agrees upon basic principles to guide data protection laws, India will continue to suffer the existing regulatory framework under the Information Technology Act, 2000, which only identifies six types of “sensitive personal data” and requires entities handling such data to have “reasonable security practices and procedures” in place before collecting the information. The fact that the contracting parties can agree on their own rules governing the use of such data, and what security standards or privacy policies are applied, tells us all we need to know about the strength of data protection in the country.
📰 CA, Facebook & you
The controversy is a wake-up call to press ahead with a robust data protection law
•The world has just learned how a data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested the data of 50 million Facebook users and used that information to feed strategies such as ‘behavioural microtargeting’ and ‘psychographic messaging’ for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the U.S. Chris Wylie, a former CA employee-turned-whistle-blower, set off a storm with revelations of how the company had deployed a ‘psychological warfare’ tool for alt-right media guru Steve Bannon to try to sway the election in Mr. Trump’s favour. CA chief executive Alexander Nix, who was suspended a few days ago following an undercover report by a British TV broadcaster, said the company has used other dubious methods in projects worldwide — including honeytraps to discredit clients’ opponents. The combination of using personal data without consent and tailoring slander campaigns, fake news and propaganda to discovered preferences of voters is a potent and corrosive cocktail. Facebook has said its policies in 2014, when a personality profiling app was run on its platform, permitted the developer to scrape data not only from those who downloaded the app but also from the profiles of their Facebook ‘friends’. Yet it did not make sure the data were destroyed by the app’s developer Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University academic, nor by CA itself when it came to light that Mr. Kogan had sold the data to CA, a third party. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has offered an apology and expressed willingness to cooperate with inquiries and potentially open up Facebook to regulation.
•This episode has brought to light several issues that need to be addressed. First, companies have been collecting data and tailoring marketing campaigns accordingly. The issue here is particularly prickly because politics and elections are involved. Second, regardless of whether what Facebook and CA did was legal or not, something is broken in a policy environment in which the data of millions are taken and used when only 270,000 people knowingly or unknowingly gave consent. Third, technology is evolving at a rapid pace, raising the question whether laws need to be reframed mandating an opt-out approach universally rather than an opt-in approach. Individuals often share their data without being aware of it or understanding the implications of privacy terms and conditions. Fourth, there must be clear laws on the ownership of data and what data need to be protected. Personal data cannot be the new oil. Individuals must own it, have a right to know what companies and governments know about them and, in most cases, that is, when there are no legitimate security or public interest reasons, have the right to have their data destroyed. The CA issue is a wake-up call for India; the government is still dragging its feet on framing a comprehensive and robust data protection law.
📰 EU leaders to push for privacy protection
Move comes amid the Facebook row
•European Union leaders will on Thursday press tech giants to protect personal data in the wake of the scandal over information harvested from Facebook, draft summit conclusions said.
•The Brussels summit is tackling the row over the misuse of Facebook data by British firm Cambridge Analytica, which played a role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign.
•“Social networks and digital platforms need to guarantee transparent practices and full protection of citizens’ privacy and personal data,” said the draft statement obtained by AFP.
•The leaders will further discuss the issue at a summit in the Bulgarian capital Sofia in May, it added.
•EU President Donald Tusk announced on Wednesday that it would be added to the summit agenda at the last minute. Mr. Tusk said leaders would tackle issues “undermining trust in our democracies through fake news or election meddling”. He said this was “particularly relevant in view of the recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica.”
📰 Not equipped to detect deep Maoist mines: Home Ministry
Technology inadequate to tackle such dangers, says Home Ministry
•The Home Ministry has told a parliamentary panel that forces were “unable to detect deep planted mines” with the technology presently available in the areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE).
•On March 13, nine CRPF jawans were killed in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma when a mine protected vehicle they were travelling in was blown up by triggering an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
Devices no use
•The IED was planted deep under the road and security forces could not detect the explosives with the search devices available with them.
•The Committee of Estimates headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi tabled the report, ‘Central armed police forces and internal security challenges - evaluation and response mechanism’, in Parliament on Monday.
Changing plans
•A representative of the Home Ministry, while presenting evidence before the Estimates Committee on violence in LWE-affected States, told the panel, “Presently, we are unable to detect deep planted mines through technology. They [extremists] also keep changing their modus operandi but despite that considerable recoveries are made with intelligence and technical help.”
•The representative added, “We had employed Army officers both for training as well as for operations. But the main point is that if we consider this month, only three blasts have taken place before detection. In two such cases, we were using sniffer dogs. Earlier the practice was that button was pressed to detonate. Thereafter, blast used to take place after personnel put their feet on the mine. Today, it is happening that while marching when our clothes are stuck in mines which activate it and the blasts take place. They keep changing their modus operandi very frequently and we are trying to be one step ahead of them,” the report said.
•The committee said that it had been informed about the biggest challenge in LWE areas. “Besides, a lot of casualty of security forces in LWE affected areas are taking place due to non-availability of technology to detect the deeply planted mines. The committee desires to take up the matter with the research organisations concerned like DRDO to counter the threats posed by Maoists,” the committee said.
•The Home Ministry informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that it had sanctioned 157 MPVs for Central armed police forces (CAPF) to be procured from the Ordnance Factory Board in three years.
•“Out of the 157 sanctioned MPVs, 13 have been supplied by OFB to CAPFs so far. The Ministry of Home Affairs has requested the Defence Ministry and OFB to expedite the supply,” Minister of State Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
📰 Indigenous technology tested on BrahMos
‘Seeker’, a critical technology, used to come from Russia
•The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was on Thursday successfully test-fired with an indigenous seeker for the first time. So far the seeker, a critical technology in missiles, came from Russia.
•“BrahMos, the formidable supersonic cruise missile with indigenous seeker was successfully flight tested at 08:42 hrs on Thursday at the Pokhran test range in Rajasthan. The precision strike weapon with indigenous seeker flew in its designated trajectory and hit the pre-set target,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Expert tie-up
•The seeker was jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, and BrahMos Aerospace.
•Seeker technology, which determines the accuracy of a missile, is a closely guarded secret. Mastering it is a significant milestone in missile technology and would reduce import dependence.
•BrahMos is joint collaboration between India and Russia and is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets.
•The range of the supersonic missile was initially capped at 290 km as per the obligations of the Missile Technology Control Regime. Since India’s entry into the club, the range has been extended to 450 km and the plan is to hit 600km.
📰 Cockroach DNA reveals mighty little secrets
Genome sequencing may throw light on the insect’s ability to heal itself in the most harshest of environments
•The American cockroach is the largest common house cockroach, about the length of a AA battery. Also called the water bug, it can live for a week without its head. It eats just about anything, including faeces, the glue on book bindings, and other cockroaches, dead or alive.
•All these feats and more are encoded in the American cockroach’s genome. The complete set of genetic instructions was sequenced by Chinese scientists and published this week in Nature Communications .
•In China, the cockroach is often called “xiao qiang”, meaning “little mighty”, said Sheng Li, an entomology professor at South China Normal University in Guangzhou and lead author of the paper. “It’s a tiny pest, but has very strong vitality.”
•His team found that groups of genes associated with sensory perception, detoxification, the immune system, growth and reproduction were all enlarged in the American cockroach, likely underpinning its scrappiness and ability to adapt to human environments.
•Their study comes on the heels of the sequencing of the German cockroach genome, which was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution last month. While the German cockroach only inhabits human environments (particularly kitchens), the American cockroach flourishes in a wide range of habitats.
•That generalist lifestyle is reflected in the species’ genomes, both of which are massive, said Coby Schal, an entomology professor at North Carolina State University and an author of the German cockroach study.
•Consider, in comparison, more specialised insects like bedbugs or termites. Feasting exclusively on blood, bedbugs no longer need sugar receptors. Most termites, which live in the dark, are blind.
Repertoire of proteins
•Cockroaches, on the other hand, need eyes, sugar receptors, ways to survive nasty environments — you name it. As a result, “cockroaches have to have a very large repertoire of proteins, and therefore a lot of genes,” Mr. Schal said.
•In the American cockroach, Mr. Li and collaborators annotated thousands of genes, including more than 1,000 thought to help the insect detect chemical cues from the environment. Among these are more than 300 genes associated with perceiving bitter tastes, which could help them decide which foods are safe.
•The scientists also interfered with more than 20 genes thought to be related to immunity, reproduction and development, and found that doing so had damaging effects on the cockroaches.
•Genes such as these are promising targets for future pest control methods, said Xavier Bellés, a research professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona. Such methods are already being developed for agricultural pests.
•In terms of basic biology, comparing the genomes of primitive cockroaches and termites — which evolved from cockroaches — will allow scientists to learn more about eusociality, a rare phenomenon in which organisms cooperate through sophisticated division of labour, said Tanya Dapkey, an entomologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the new research.
•For now, Mr. Li will follow up on the American cockroach’s extraordinary healing capabilities: cut a leg off, and the insect will quickly regenerate it. His team is identifying the proteins and pathways involved in this process, with the hope that they can be harnessed for medical treatments. Cockroach extract has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine to speed healing on cuts and burns.
•“We’ve uncovered the secret of why people call it ‘xiao qiang’,” he said. “Now we want to know the secrets of Chinese medicine.”
📰 88% of journals in UGC's white list are predatory, finds study
A study of UGC’s white list finds 88% of 1,009 journals are predatory
•A systematic study of the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) approved list of journals has confirmed what scientists have long suspected. The white list contains a huge number of dubious or predatory journals which publish substandard papers for a small fee with very little peer-reviewing, if at all.
•A team led by Professor Bhushan Patwardhan from the Savitribai Phule Pune University found 88% of 1,009 journals recommended by universities and included in the white list are dubious journals. Only 112 journals met the criteria set by UGC to be included in the list. The results were published on Thursday in the journal Current Science.
•According to an earlier study published in 2015 in the journal BMC Medicine, 27% of predatory journal publishers are based in India and about 35% of authors in such journals are from Indian institutions.
•The researchers had randomly selected 1,336 journals from 5,699 university-recommended journals that were included in the UGC list. The journals included were representative of science, arts and humanities, and social science. After excluding 327 journals that were indexed in Scopus/Web of Science, the researchers took up 1,009 journals for critical examination.
•For a journal to be included in the list, it should first meet the basic criterion of providing a verifiable postal address, and email addresses of the chief editor and editors, on their website. But 349 (34.5%) journals in the list either did not provide these details or the details provided were incorrect and therefore rejected. Of the remaining 660 journals, 528 were removed owing to false claims about their impact factor, being indexed in dubious indexing databases, incorrect ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) and poor credentials of editors.
•“Unfortunately, academic institutions which have recommended such journals have not really examined them with care. And the UGC committee appears to have taken the recommendation at face value,” says Professor Subhash C. Lakhotia from the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, one of the authors of the paper.
•Only 132 journals reached the secondary level of scrutiny for analysis. The secondary level of scrutiny looked for misleading journal names such as ‘international’ and ‘global’ in journal titles, editorial policies, and nature of charges levied on authors. Twenty journals were rejected at the secondary level and only 112 journals out of 1,009 were found to be genuine in all.
A scam in itself
•“The dubious or predatory journal publishing in India parallels the Nigerian lottery scam,” says Professor Patwardhan, who is the corresponding author of the Current Science paper. “It makes a mockery of scientific publishing and has tarnished the image of India.”
•“Honestly, I was not surprised by the huge number of journals turning out to be dubious. Researchers have been receiving mails from journal publishers inviting us on editorial boards and to contribute special articles. It’s a depressing scenario,” says Professor Lakhotia.
•“I think the UGC should not maintain the white list. It is simply not equipped to do it efficiently. It should instead issue advisories on the quality of research publications,” says Prof. Lakhotia.
📰 One app, 1,000 services: mKeralam
It is the one-stop shop for accessing all government services
•Kerala, which last year became the first State to declare Internet a basic human right, has notched up another first by launching mKeralam, an app that will serve as a single window for accessing thousands of government services.
•Developed by the Kerala State Information Technology Mission, the app will initially offer 100 citizen-oriented public services of 20 departments, before eventually expanding to 1,000 services from more than 80 departments.
•“The number of departments on board may exceed 100 if one takes into account directorates and commissionerates,” said Muraleedharan Manningal, Head of the State e-Governance Mission Team. The app was launched on Thursday by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at #Future, a global digital summit in Kochi.
•The services accessible via mKeralam are already available throughwww.kerala.gov.in. “But the idea is to offer simplified access to citizen services across multiple platforms, including website, mobile app, and Akshaya centres so that citizens can pick whichever mode is most convenient,” Mr. Manningal said.
•The government is fast-tracking the setting up of Statewide infrastructure to render all public services accessible on the mobile app. “Independent mobile application-based services by various departments will now be integrated and brought aboard mKeralam. The goal is to offer a one-stop shop for all public services, as it will not be convenient for citizens to depend on different apps for different services,” Mr. Manningal said.
•The digital summit also witnessed the launch of Kerala Wi-Fi (KFI), which will be accessible at 1,000 public spaces evenly distributed across the State. The Wi-Fi will be available at hospitals, bus stops, parks, libraries, government offices, and other such places where public services are accessed.
5,000 Wi-Fi spots
•“The objective is to have 5,000 Wi-Fi spots in five years by adding 1,000 spots each year. There would be unlimited access to government services, but we will have a cap on its use for other purposes, such as accessing social networking sites,” Mr. Manningal said. This differential provision of Wi-Fi, for government services versus other uses, has drawn some criticism on the grounds that it violates the principle of net neutrality.
•The rollout of KFI was marked by the government granting, for a period of one year, unlimited free access to the network to all who registered digitally for the #Future summit.
📰 Pacific garbage patch is far larger than feared: study
80,000 tonnes of trash float as a mass in the ocean
•The vast dump of plastic waste swirling in the Pacific ocean is now bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined — far larger than previously feared — and is growing rapidly, a study published on Thursday warned.
•Researchers based in the Netherlands used a fleet of boats and aircraft to scan the immense accumulation of bottles, containers, fishing nets and microparticles known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” (GPGP) and found an astonishing build-up of plastic waste. “We found about 80,000 tonnes of buoyant plastic currently in the GPGP,” said Laurent Lebreton, lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports .
•That’s around the weight of 500 jumbo jets, and up to sixteen times greater than the plastic mass uncovered there in previous studies.
•But what really shocked the team was the amount of plastic pieces that have built up on the marine gyre between Hawaii and California in recent years.
•They found that the dump now contains around 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, posing a dual threat to marine life. Microplastics, tiny fragments of plastic smaller than 50mm in size that make up the vast majority of items in the GPGP, can enter the food chain when swallowed by fish.
•The pollutants they contain become more concentrated as they work their way up through the food web.
•“The other environmental impact comes from the larger debris, especially the fishing nets,” said Mr. Lebreton.
•These net fragments kill marine life by trapping fish and animals such as turtles in a process known as ‘ghost fishing’. Global plastics production hit 322 million tonnes in 2015, according to the International Organization for Standardization.
