The pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir  will resume today. The yatra was under suspension for nearly five months in view of the coronavirus pandemic since March 18.

Chief Executive Officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Ramesh Kumar said during the first week, there will be a cap of 2,000 pilgrims each day of which 1,900 will be from Jammu and Kashmir and the remaining 100 from outside.

Mr Kumar said that people will be allowed to undertake the pilgrimage after registration only through online in order to avoid any assembly at the yatra registration counter. The pilgrims will be required to install the Aarogya Setu App on their mobile phones. Wearing face masks and face cover is mandatory and they will have to undergo thermal scanning at yatra entry points.

Children below 10 years, pregnant women, persons with co-morbidities and those above 60 years have been advised to avoid the pilgrimage.

COVID negative reports of the pilgrims from outside Jammu and Kashmir and also from the red zone districts of the Union Territory will be checked and only those with negative reports will be allowed to move towards Bhawan. Ponies, pithus and palkis will not be allowed to ply on the tracks initially.

The CEO informed that booking and sitting of pilgrims in Atka Aarti area and Shradha Suman Vishesh Pooja will not be allowed till further orders. 

The Manipur government has extended the complete lockdown till August 31 to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the state. With 192 more people tested positive yesterday, the tally rose to 4,390. New cases of COVID-19 continue to be detected amongst people who have no travel history outside the state.

A total of 78 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery rate in the state to 55.53 per cent. Manipur now has 1,939 active cases. There have been 13 COVID-19 deaths in the state so far.

The Prime Minister announced that the Centre will soon launch Project Lion and Project Dolphin for the biodiversity conservation of these species to replicate the successes of Project Tiger. In his independence day speech, Mr Modi we have successfully carried forward Project Tiger and Project Elephant. The Tiger population has increased in India. In the coming days, we are starting Project Lion for the Asiatic lions. Mr Modi said Project Dolphin will focus on both river and sea dolphins. He said, this will also give a boost to biodiversity and also create employment opportunities.

The Prime Minister also announced that India will soon have a new cyber security policy. He said his government is aware of the threats arising from cyberspace and their potential impact to India’s society, economy and development. Mr Modi said, changing nature of cyber threats and warfare has prompted India to build a roadmap to overhaul its existing cyber security policy with an eye on challenges like social media, securing critical data and the need for new laws.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). Every Indian will have an Aadhar like ID card containing all relevant information about his/her medical conditions and treatments and tests. Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day, Mr Modi said that the initiative which is completely technology based will revolutionise the health sector in India.

The vision of National Digital Health Mission is to create a national digital health ecosystem which provides timely and efficient access to inclusive, affordable, and safe healthcare to all citizens. 

When we talk of the red-light area of any city, the image of women being clad in heavy make-up, adorned in shiny and bling clothes, standing on doors or windows, trying to attract customers by using different techniques comes into our minds instantly. Their livelihood depends on the arrival of customers, the more they arrive, the more these women will be benefited.

But what had happened to them during and after lock-down? How did they survive? Has the pandemic affected their business or has it shaken its roots? While reading an article I read that though their life was going on but the business has slowed down to the unimaginable level. They have opened the gates for their customers for the first week of August but only one or two customers are coming to visit.

They are following every protocol, the new customers are not invited and discouraged to come, those who come are made to wash their body in sanitizers, covered in mask and gloves and the whole place is sanitized like beds, door knobs etc to practice hygiene at the place. Because of lock-down many of the women had gone back to their native places and when the men who show up if they see less women, they don’t return back as they know there are less options.

Their essential needs and daily food needs are fulfilled by the local government, they go to government schools to collect essential items and non-essential needs are fulfilled by those clients who have been attached to the concerned brothels.

It looks from their faces that though business is going through dark phases but soon it will catch up and they will be able to live in bling again.

Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has declared about ‘One Nation One Health Card’ scheme on the event of 74^th Independence Day in his ceremonial speech. This was on cards since long and is going to be implemented in order to transform the health care system of our country. A person’s medical history records including all the treatments, tests etc which the person has undertaken will all be stored at a digital database. The data can be accessed from anywhere by authorised personnel only in the country and now s/he doesn’t have to carry all his/her report files.  

It is not mandatory for now as those who don’t want can opt out from the service, same goes with the hospital as well. Those who want to have an experience of the service will be issued a Unique ID to log in into the portal. This scheme will run in different phases. For starters, Rs 500 crore budget has been allocated for the first phase.

The major issue which people are worried about is the possibility of data breach as the topic of data safety is selling like a hot cake nowadays. But officials are saying that strict privacy features are going to be incorporated to save people’s private data. They clarified more by saying that without permission of willing citizens none of the doctors or hospitals can access the data of health cards.

Indian packaging industry accounts for 4% of the global packaging industry, making it the sixth largest
in the world. The increasing demand for packaged food products, coupled with the convenience
offered by plastic packaging material have helped in the growth of plastic packaging as well as flexible
packaging solutions.
According to Packaging Industry Association of India (PIAI), the flexible packaging industry in India is
growing by a CAGR of nearly 25%, Food & beverage industry is the largest consumer of flexible
packaging products, accounting for nearly 70% of the total consumption.
The demand from pharmaceutical industry for flexible packaging products has been growing by a
strong rate and is expected to continue in the coming years.
Bottle grade PET chips are used in manufacturing PET bottle, which finds application in food &
beverage industry for packaging purposes. The demand for pet bottles has experienced remarkable
growth as their consumption and application have dramatically gone up in various consumer goods
segment for food and non-food application.

Competitive Scenario in Indian flexible packaging industry is fragmented with large number of small and medium sized players and few large players. These large players are characterized by conversion capacities above 5000 tons
per annum, equipped with modern facilities, as well as offer printing solutions to films ranging from
co-extruded to sophisticated multi-layer laminates. India PET chip manufacturing industry comprise of few large players like Reliance Industries, Filatex India Limited, JBF Industries, and Dhunseri Petroleum. These large players account for a significant majority of the total production in India, with Reliance Industries being the clear leader. The
dominance of Reliance Industries could be attributed to the ease of availability of raw materials (which
is produced internally, as Reliance Industries has strong backward integration capabilities).

Rapid growth in demand for packaged food products coupled with increasing shift to flexible packaging from other traditional packaging have helped in increasing the demand for flexible packaging products.Considering the growth potential inherent in Indian packaged food industry, the future demand for flexible packaging products from food & beverage sector looks strong.The demand from pharmaceutical industry for flexible packaging products has been growing by a strong rate and is expected to continue in the coming years.The demand for pet bottles has experienced remarkable growth as their consumption and application have dramatically gone up in various consumer goods segment for food and non-food application. This growth in PET bottle usage has directly resulted in higher demand for bottle grade PET chips manufactured in the country.

Commercial surrogacy was legalised in India in 2002. India has around 3,000 surrogacy clinics. This increased medical tourism to India. According to a 2012 report by Confederation of Indian Industries the income by surrogacy is $2 billion per year. But since there are no strict regulations regarding surrogacy in India which gave rise to a lot of problems. Some of them being exploitation of surrogate mothers, abandonment of surrogate child and Embryo rackets.

Thus, the Law Commission of India highlighted need for a law to regulate surrogacy and in its 208th report it proposed to stop commercial surrogacy completely. This is because due to lack of legal framework and interference of middlemen some of the surrogate mothers did not have any knowledge of the contract or agreement of surrogacy or were paid less than what was promised.

So after the recommendation of Law Commission of India notification was put out by the Government of India in 2015 where surrogacy was banned for foreigners. In 2016 the surrogacy regulation bill was passed in Lok Sabha. But the bill lapsed in 2019 when the parliament disolved. After this the Surrogacy Regulation Bill 2019 was brought by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This bill was brought in April 2019 in the Lok Sabha and was passed in August 2019. The bell is still pending in the Rajya Sabha because it was sent to a committee for further discussions.

This bill states that Surrogacy Boards will be created in both Central and state levels. Commercial surrogacy is not allowed, it allows only ethical altruistic surrogacy. Only Indian couples with minimum 5 years of marriage are eligible to go for surrogacy. For this they need a certificate which will be a proof of them be medically infertile. They will also have to give undertaking in which they will have to state that they will not abandon the child out of surrogacy in any condition. Sec selection will be illegal. As for the surrogate mother she should be a close relative of the couple. She should be between the age of 25 to 35 having a child of a own and should also not have been a surrogate mother before. She will also get an insurance coverage which will be valid till some time after delivery. The Surrogacy clinics have to be compulsorily registered.

Happy Independence Day to all of us as today, it has been 74 years since we have achieved freedom. From then onwards we have come a long way. We were able to get this freedom as the fight was fought by male and female freedom fighters. They fought with our tormentors by fighting and bearing their responsibilities without even a furrow on their face. Today, women have gone a way ahead in society and achieved many impossible achievements. From being soldier to scientist, from being chef to aeronaut, from being teacher to politician, they are ruling and grabbing success in all the areas of this country and making the countrymen proud day by day with their hard work and achievements.

But still there are many facets of society where women are considered as the weakling, of inferior stature who don’t have the right to speak or achieve whatever they want. When we talk about giving more freedom to women or getting equal pay then some men will come out and say Why more freedom? They have been given reservations, maternity holidays and what not. So, why more freedom?

I would like to ask them a question: when you come from the office or workplace, you become so tired that you just want to relax but when your wife, mother or sister comes from the office, you want her to work in the kitchen. When you are just working in the office, she is managing the whole house, her office, her periods and if she is a mother then child as well. But you will say that it is just a meagre work which is of no value. But when she is unwell and you have to work then that work becomes a herculean task and you feel yourself as some superhuman who is managing all things alone and you will brag about it in front of everybody that how humanae you are that you share responsibilities with your other half.

It’s not that I am generalizing that all men are the same but, in my lifetime, I have seen only some men whom I can count on my fingertips who actually share responsibilities. This is just a glimpse in life of a woman from the working sector. Now I will talk about girls and women who are residing in villages. The story is entirely different there. The girl goes to school with lots of dreams but gets married as soon as she finishes school or she has just entered college. When that girl becomes a wife, she bears responsibility for the whole house along with its inhabitants. But at least there was a hope that they were able to go to school or college.

But the arrival of this pandemic COVID-19 and lockdown has made their situation become more pathetic. During the lockdown period, they were locked in the house with their tormentors and they abused women in whatever they wanted. There was an article in ‘The Hindu’ that ‘For the first time in 10 years, domestic violence complaint calls by women surged, such a pattern has not been for 10 years.’ The situation grew out of hand because when locked with their perpetrators they can’t go out and ask for help. So many of the women opted to still take a bold step by calling on helpline numbers, by hiding in their rooms, fearing that someone might hear them and they will become subject to abuse again.

Whereas women were seeing such worse conditions, the girls in several areas saw totally different and devastating situations. There are many areas in India where parents who are not much well off, to ease up their burden are marrying off small girls who have not even turned 18. Their parents either because they belong to a weak economic class, or as the administrative surveillance was not up to mark because of COVID-19, or as they would not have to shell a lot of money because of people’s limits, they opted for marrying their girl off who has not even crossed the tender age. One of the major roles which has played in early marriage of these girls is also that schools are closed because of lock down and schools used to play a huge role in the lives of these young girls. From sanitation to keeping check on their health, from keeping track of their studies to investigation of their absence, they kept all the data because of which parents also used to adhere to the fact that they can’t marry their daughter or son at an early age or they will become subject to punishment by law. Now as there is no such check they are doing according to their wish.

This is my innermost desire that a day should come when we are builders of this society; when we are not given a place, whereas we know it’s our place; when male members of family don’t help but share responsibility; when we are taken as a weakling but as the strongest creation of Nature, who we actually are.

India, undoubtedly is a land of cultures, diversity and uniqueness. As Swami Vivekananda stated, “It teaches not only tolerance, but also acceptance. Various languages, cultures, practices have flourished throughout the nation with all their multiplicity. It has therefore retained it’s originality, in spite of the advent of modernity. In other words, some of these arts have become successful in coping with the dynsmism of the society by undergoing some changes in it along with retaining it’s original essence. Every such community inherits it’s own way of life and culture. However, all such diversities are blended together by epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Puranic stories. It has become the common hold which brings all the diversities yo lead a harmonious life.

We can take a example of South Canara. It is not an exception to this. Yakshagana, Harikatha, Bhutakola, Kambala and so on represent the uniqueness of our culture. While Kambala and Bhutakola glorify our local ethnicity, Yakshagana and Harikatha through the recitation of mythological stories uphold common life and simultaneously educate the younger generation to lead a humble and meaningful life.

Value education is must to the younger generation, both for peaceful existence and national progress. Hence it would be a good idea to educate them in this direction by exposing them to such arts which not only provide entertainment but also develop a deeper insight and introspection, distinction between good and evil, along with the imparting human values among them. This in turn, reduces cruelty, inefficiency, increases love for truth, justice and universal welfare.

I have seen number of Yakshagana episodes in my childhood. I have always associated myself with the divine and just personalities, both in their joys and sorrows acknowingly. I have shed tears for their downfall and pains and have also rejoiced in their joys and victories. Therefore, we have been brought up in such a way that we are not only cleansed to injustice but also made to respond to another’s agony.

In this way, people through their involvement with these kinds of regional arts, get cleansed from all evils and have been imparted virtues without bothering much about the trivialities of life. While an innocent mind is fascinated by its miraculous nature, the matured mind is fashioned by its historicity. However, as they delve into it more and more, they discover something which makes the world more tangible and intangible. By and large, there is necessary for the exposure of children to the regional arts which not only cultivates passion for literature, but also open their thoughts to the harsh realities of life and show the path towards solving problems.

Mudras are the gestures or poses performed since early times. It helps to stimulate different parts of the body involved with breathing and to affect the flow of prana bindu, boddhicitta, amrita or consciousness in the body.

1. Dharmachakra mudra: Dharmachakra in Sanskrit means the ‘Wheel of Dharma’. This mudra symbolizes one of the most important moments in the life of Buddha, the occasion when he preached to his companions the first sermon after his Enlightenment in the Deer Park at Sarnath. It thus denotes the setting into motion of the Wheel of the teaching of the Dharma. In this mudra the thumb and index finger of both hands touch at their tips to form a circle. This circle represents the Wheel of Dharma. The three remaining fingers of the two hands remain extended symbolizing the middle finger represents the ‘hearers’ of the teachings, the ring finger represents the ‘solitary realizers’, the Little finger represents the Mahayana or ‘Great Vehicle’.

2. Varada mudra: This mudra symbolizes charity, compassion and boon-granting. It is the mudra of the accomplishment of the wish to devote oneself to human salvation. It is nearly always made with the left hand, and can be made
with the arm hanging naturally at the side of the body, the palm of the open hand facing forward, and the fingers extended. The five extended fingers in this mudra symbolize the following five perfections: Generosity, Morality, Patience, Effort,and Meditative concentration.

3. Dhyan Mudra: It is also known as Samadhi or Yoga Mudra. It is performed with the help of two hands, which are placed on the lap and place the right hand on the left hand with stretched fingers (thumbs facing upwards and other fingers of both the hand resting on each other.)

4. Abhaya Mudra: It is a gesture of fearlessness or blessing that represents the protection, peace, benevolence, and dispelling of fear. It is performed with the help of right hand by raising to shoulder height with bent arm, and the face of palm will be facing outward with fingers upright whereas the left hand hanging down while standing. This gesture is characteristic of Buddha Shakyamuni and Dhyani Buddha Amoghasiddhi.

5. Bhumisparasa: Earth Touching Mudra,is the most famous mudra. In this mudra the right hand is poised with the fingertips downward and “touching the earth”, with the palm facing inward. The left hand is in the meditation (dhyana) mudra. When the Buddha became enlightened, he touched the earth with this mudra during his meditation. The earth was touched and witnessed the awakening.

Behind the United States India is the second largest populated with English as its primary language and it has one of the fastest growing demographics of personal computer and Internet usage.Data is basically an information that is presented in raw and inorganised pieces which is stored by a computer in the form of text documents, files, software programs, etc.This information is collected for its analysis or reference. With social, economic, legal, corporate and governmental activities the flow of data is expanding in great speed.India is experiencing a major paradigm shift to using a multitude of technologies due to tremendous technological growth  And therefore in today’s economy, need for protection of such online data is of paramount importance which must be protected.Data protection is a process of protecting and safeguarding such vital information from either misappropriation, misuse, corruption or loss or from unauthorized access which can be concerned with an individual, enterprise or even a government.Along with such fields mentioned above protection of data must also be applied to personal data.Personal data generally refers to the information or data which relate to a person who can be identified from that information or data whether it is collected by any Government or any private organization or an agency.Such privacy laws, policies and procedures aim to minimise intrusion into one’s privacy caused by the collection, storage and dissemination of personal data. The significance of data protection is increasing with the amount of data created and processed.The general population is still primarily unaware of consequences related to identification theft.Subsequently, Data Protection Strategies are also assuring and ensuring us that the lost data can be recovered and restored, if any misfortune or misappropriation happens with the impugned data.

NEED FOR DATA PROTECTION LAW IN INDIA:

1.As we all know that right to privacy is now our fundamental right so for our protection we should have data protection law.

2.By bringing these laws we all will be aware  and can check on all unauthorised leaks, hacking, cyber crimes, and frauds. 

A very good example is case of Aadhar card leaks by Gujarat based websites who were found disclosing their adhere numbers as well as in Jharkhand where 1.6 million people’s aadhar card details were leaked.

3.It will help us in our growth and improvement of business process and will secure our digital payments.

4.It will also help us to restrict use of data by data colonising companies such as Facebook, Whatsapp 

Example: In case of Cambridge Analytical Scandal ,they allegedly involved collection of personally identifiable information of up to 87 million Facebook users attempt to influence voter opinion.

STEPS TO PROTECT DATA:

Data Collection:

The first step for data protection is to start with data collection itself.There must be strict data collection policy by the top authority.Data should be collected by the agencies authorised by the government.All the information collected should be of lawful purpose only.

Data Security and Storage:

All data captured should be kept upto date and accurate.It should applied appropriate technical and organizational measures.

Data Process:

Processing of data must be fair and lawful.Data shall be processed only when the consent of user is involved or if user or any one of its party is in contract.Data should be processed only for given purposes like if its for judicial proceedings, legitimate use for national interest or vital interest of subject.

Data Access:

The data access must follow NEED TO KNOW basis.There must be proper control that information should not go beyond the Indian territory.If it does then proper measures should be taken to ensure that information is protected outside India.

Indian Laws For Data protection:

In our constitution we does not patently have a law for data protection. However courts have implied this data protection law into existing fundamental rights that is under article 21 however its interpretation was fond insufficient to provide adequate protection for our data.

In the year 2000, our legislatures made efforts to embrace privacy issues relating to computer system under Information Technology Act(IT), 2000 which deals with the issues relating to payment of compensation (Civil) and punishment (Criminal) in case of wrongful disclosure and misuse of personal data and violation of contractual terms in respect of personal data.

UNDER IT ACT 2000 

SECTION 43:

This section provides protection against unsanctioned access of the computer  system and unsanctioned downloading, extraction and copying of data by imposing heavy penalty upto 1 crore.In which clause “c” imposes penalty unsanctioned  usage of computer viruses and clause “g” imposes penalty for for assisting these unsanctioned access.

SECTION 65:

This section is for someone who intentionally destroys or causes another to do as such shall also be charged with a penalty of imprisonment or fine up to 2 lakh rupees.

SECTION 66:

This section is for protection against hacking person hacking our data or giving us knowledge about our data to be hacked in future by giving information residing in a computer resource shall be penalised by imprisonment of three years or fine up to two lakh rupees or both on the hacker.

SECTION 70:

This section  provides protection against our protected system like computer system or network however in breach of this section will be liable for punishment of imprisonment which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.

SECTION 72:

This section provides protection against contravention of confidentiality and privacy of the data which means if any person tries to disclose any facts or proofs which are kept secured shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or both.

In the year 2006, the Rajya Sabha our legislature has also introduced a bill known as ‘The Personal Data Protection Bill’ on December 8th 2006 so as to provide protection to the personal information of the person which didn’t showed any further respond.

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL (PDPB) ,2019:

After so many data protection bills this new bill came up with great dim of light.This bill was introduced by the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, on December 11, 2019.This bill was most importantly made for the protection of personal data of individuals and side by side establishment of a Data Protection authority for the same.Before coming upto this bill in July  2017 the Government of India formed a committee of experts to study the issues related to data protection in the country.All the experts worked on this issue almost for a year and found that most of the population in our country gives personal details to these service providers which give them their free services and these details are usually stored on servers outside India’s boundaries, which worried the Government of India and in July 2018 they submitted a draft of this bill and requested feedback from the public, Ministers, stakeholders, and other industry experts.However on December 11,2019 they submitted a revised draft of the bill in the lower house of the parliament that is in Lok Sabha and also has been sent to joint parliamentary committee (JPC) for further thinking before taken up for passing.

There was widespread hope of passing this bill by 2019 which has now been postponed to become a law or act in 2020.

About the bill:

This bill was the first attempt to domestically govern mechanisms for personal data protection and also to set up Data Protection Authority in our country.

This bill also permits personal data processing without the consent like government providing benefits to the individual, for legal proceedings, and in medical emergencies.

This bill regulates three kinds of data :

1. Personal data (personal details like name, number, etc)
2. Sensitive Personal data (healthcare details shared with doctors,banking details)
3. Critical Personal data (not yet defined)

The most important advantage of this bill is that personal information can’t be collected, processed, and shared without their consent and only necessary data can be collected and used.The Bill also permits customers to move their data from one provider to another and allows users to know the number of companies with whom the data is shared.

Private organisations are also forced to limit their customers details.

According to this bill a very serious and tough penalties will be imposed on any organization sharing customers’ data without their consent will entail a fine of INR 15 crores or 4 percent of its global turnover.Similarly data breach or delays will lead to a fine of INR 5 crores or 2 percent of global turnover.

 Personal Data Protection Bill, gave rise after European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which aims at protection of an individual’s personal data globally and preventing it from misuse and misappropriation.

Example :Recently, Microsoft India launched free online courses to allow the relevant section of public who are concerned with such issues to understand the data compliance and other best practices concerning their privacy and security which help safeguard customer data.

NASSCOM along with Data Security Council of India (DSCI) has been advocating in India.

Conclusion:

Indian legal system still have to provide a proper data security and privacy protection laws to safeguard people in our country as well as to attract international clients. Data security is not only a legal requirement but a factor to compete globally.For our country’s future growth a secured information technology and other strong data protection laws are must.Our country must be aware that not only processed information regarding legal system but also sensitive information of individuals need to be protected.Failure to recognize these issues can negatively impact our country’s reputation.In addition like all other countries such as United States and United Kingdom laws, Canada, Japan, and the European Union are increasingly becoming stricter on data privacy and protection and defining what measurements must be taken to protect data.So to attract International countries aw well we all too should look upon these matters effectively by appointing privacy commissioner, establishing self regulating organisation etc.