Tag: Indian government

WhatsApp Versus Indian Government

The whole nation is in turmoil due to the provisions of the new Information Technology Rules, 2021. To understand the situation better, we will see what the rules are and why they are causing conflicts with the Government. 

New IT rules that undermine the power of social media

The proposed new rules will cover social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, and digital news publishers like The News Minute, Scroll, Quint, The Wire, Newslaundry, The Cue. 

Indian Government revealed the new social media rules on February 25, 2021. As per the new rules, social media intermediaries will now come under a three-tier regulatory regime. In this context, “social media intermediary” refers to an intermediary which primarily enables interaction between two or more users and allows them to create, upload, share, disseminate, modify or access information using its services. 

  • The First Tier

The first tier follows a self-regulating mechanism. The social media intermediary is required to appoint a resident Chief Compliant Officer, nodal contact person, and a resident Grievance Officer. The Chief Compliant Officer shall ensure compliance with the Act and the rules thereunder. The nodal officers shall coordinate with the law enforcement agencies to ensure compliance with their orders. The Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint of a user within 24 hours and dispose of such complaint within a period of fifteen days from the date of its receipt. 

  • The Second Tier

The second tier is self-regulated by a self-regulating body. This body consists of a retired judge or an eminent person from the department of media, entertainment, or any relevant field. It has the power to censure, modify or delete any content it deems a cognizable offense.

  • The Third Tier

The third tier follows an oversight mechanism. It establishes an Inter-Departmental Committee that mainly performs the functions of the self-regulatory bodies. 

Some of the chief issues that worry the social media companies

  • Privacy concerns

One of the provisions of the new rules requires that the social media intermediaries disclose the identity of the “first originator” of the information that threatens the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, or public order.

  • Usage of AI

The Indian Government also requires the social media intermediaries to deploy technology-based measures to identify information that depicts any act or simulation in any form depicting rape, child sexual abuse, or conduct, whether explicit or implicit. 

Reactions to the imposed IT rules:

Obtaining the identification of the first originator would break the end-to-end encryption. By breaking the encryption, users cannot safely exchange chats, photos, or information on social media platforms without them being open to access not just by bureaucrats and government bodies but also by hackers.

While it is necessary to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor objectionable content, there are certain limitations to implementing it. With the number of users increasing, it is laborious to moderate the amount of content generated every day. 

WhatsApp’s stand against the Government

While Facebook has complied with the new rules and Twitter has remained a silent bystander, WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in India which seeks to block the new digital ethics code from coming into force. For WhatsApp to identify the first originator of even one message, it has to restructure the entire platform. This feature compromises the privacy of billions of people who communicate digitally. The other concern is that freedom of speech and any form of expression of dissent would be hampered. 

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has stated, “It is WhatsApp’s responsibility to find a technical solution, whether through encryption or otherwise.” It will be interesting to witness how far India would go to press WhatsApp to comply with the new rule.

India signs a three-year work program for cooperation in Agriculture with Israel

On 24th May 2021, India signed a three-year work program agreement with a vision for the development of Agriculture cooperation with Israel. “INDO-ISRAEL Agricultural Project Centres of Excellence” and “INDO-ISRAEL Villages of Excellence” are also implemented by India and Israel.

The work program aims to improve existing Centres of Excellence, build new centres, increase CoE’s value chain, bring the Centres of Excellence into the self-sufficient mode, and encourage private sector companies and collaboration.

This programme will help boost the bilateral relationships among both governments. Cooperation between the two countries in the field of agriculture will benefit the farming community. India and Israel have had bilateral relations since 1993 in the agricultural sector. It is the 5th IIAP(Indo-Israel Agriculture Action Plan).

India has 29 operational Centres of Excellence (COEs) across India in 12 States. Centres of excellence implement Advanced-Intensive agriculture farms with Israeli Agro-Technology suitable to local conditions.

The Centres of Excellence helps to impart knowledge, demonstrate best practices and train farmers. Every year, these COEs produce more than 25 million quality vegetable seedlings, more than 387 thousand quality fruit plants and train more than 1.2 lakh farmers regarding the latest technology in horticulture.

INDO-ISRAEL Villages of Excellence(IIVOE) aims at creating a model ecosystem in agriculture across eight states, alongside 13 Centers of Excellence within 75 villages. It has the vision to incorporate a large-scale and complete value chain approach based on the principles of Israeli novel technologies and methodologies dissemination of the CoE’s, tailored to local conditions. IIVOE will focus on Modern Agriculture infrastructure, Capacity Building, Market linkage.

“So far, we have successfully completed 4 action plans. This new work programme will further strengthen the bilateral relations and mutual cooperation between the two countries in the field of agriculture for the benefit of the farming community. The COEs established under these Israeli-based action plans are playing an important role in doubling farmers’ income. The exchange of technology between India and Israel will greatly improve the productivity and quality of horticulture, thereby increasing the income of farmers” were the words of Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

Shri Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare said, “These Centers of Excellence established under Indo-Israel Agriculture Action Plan (IIAP) have become epicentres of transformation in the horticulture sector. Our focus during the new work programme will be to convert the villages surrounding these COEs into Villages of Excellence through massive outreach programmes”.

Ambassador Dr Ron Malka said, “The three-year work program (2021-2023) reflects the strength of our growing partnership and will benefit local farmers both through the Centers of Excellence and the Villages of Excellence”.

The work program signing ceremony was also attended by Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Parshottam Rupala and Shri Kailash Choudhary along with Senior officers of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Government of India.

Dreadful Climate Change Scenario of India

The first climate change assessment report of India

A research conducted by the Ministry of Earth Sciences a week ago concludes a very dreadful image of climate change and its effect on the nation in the coming decades. It is the first climate change evaluation report developed for India by specialists in the nation’s research institutions.

The research is led by the experts of climate at India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). Reports of the UN’s IPCC and different organizations have seen climate change in India as a major aspect of a worldwide phenomenon, and concentrated in some biologically significant areas like the Himalayas.

The report ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region’ investigates of all the climate change phenomena in the past few years and is exceptionally exhaustive. Its study and conclusions need an immediate thought and action process. It concludes:

  • The normal temperature in India, before this current century is over, will rise by approximately 4.4 degrees Celsius comparative with the 1976-2005 normal. The normal ascent during the 1901-2018 period was 0.7 degrees Celsius.
  • The ocean surface temperature in the Indian Ocean during the 1951-2015 period was one degree Celsius, which was more than the worldwide normal.
  • There will be an abatement in rainstorm precipitation and a rise in temperatures which will raise ocean levels and cause more serious dry spells and tornadoes.
  • The progressions will prompt a decrease in horticultural yield and freshwater assets and harm the infrastructure.

There are many other dangerous climate change effects which need a serious plan and action step taken by the government and the citizens together to fight the adversities to life and property.

India’s federal system of States and the Union.

India’s recent growth story is now much analyzed, and quite well understood. Despite some temporary controversy over the relative impacts of economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s – hesitant and piecemeal in the first of those decades, deeper and more systematic in the subsequent period – the new consensus is not very different from the old, namely, that an overall shift in economic policy toward greater reliance on the market for resource allocation, including greater openness to the global economy, has been an important factor in increasing India’s average growth rate from its previous low levels. This recognition of the role of market competition does not diminish the Indian government’s past importance in building physical infrastructure and human capital, and in providing stability and safety nets. Nevertheless, the reform of India’s governance is one of two major strands of current policy debates, the other being areas where further “liberalization” of the economy is needed (e.g., small scale industry reservations, privatization, and matters pertaining to openness to foreign capital). Debates about India’s governance include old concerns about corruption, affirmative action (e.g., the latest controversy over quotas in higher education) and social safety nets (e.g., the new Employment Guarantee Scheme), as well as newer worries about growing regional inequality. Managing the public finances appropriately has been an obvious part of the reform story, since fiscal deficits have been a continuing problem for well over a decade. Within the broader context of governance, issues of federalism and decentralization have been addressed in a somewhat piecemeal fashion. Thus, the need for fiscal consolidation has focused considerable attention on the states’ situations in this regard, and the central government, central bank, and central Finance Commission have all made efforts to ameliorate aspects of the states’ fiscal crisis. At the same time, the decentralization to local governments, put in motion by the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, has been proceeding unevenly, and with mixed success. States have made various kinds of efforts to attract investment, done various deals with multilateral agencies, and wrestled with potentially major tax reforms, all the while struggling with fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities to constituencies such as the rural poor.

Underlying all the developments in economic policymaking, and concerns about governance, therefore, is the working of India’s federal system. It is important to understand what this system is, what it does, and how it has been changing in response to the forces put in motion by India’s renewed struggle to fulfill its “tryst with destiny” by substantially improving the well-being of all its citizens in a tangible manner. In particular, many of India’s fiscal federal institutions evolved in the context of a planned economy, with the state playing a dominant role and that of the private sector and markets heavily circumscribed, and largely closed to the outside world. Economic liberalization with state control receding and markets coming into their own, and globalization together require a comprehensive reassessment of these institutions.

In today’s time we have seen multiple examples where this federal system of India had been challenged. We’ve seen example of west-bengal and telangana states of India who denied to no-permit entry of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), where CBI holds power of independent investigation from the Indian constitution and as per that CBI officials need not seek any kind of permit to enter into any of Indian states. CBI when required can be into any Indian state because it comes under its investigation needs. Another recent example is the on-going dispute between Maharashtra’s and Bihar’s police, where two different FIRs had been launched for the same case of Indian Bollywood actor Sushant singh’s death. Here, Mumbai police’s investigation has been repeatedly alleged to delay the investigation process. Things were stretched into far ends when Bihar police’s investigation team was forcibly taken off from their scheduled press meeting. Another example was set when Bihar police’s IPS officer who came Mumbai in regards to FIR filled in Patna was held and sent into 14 days quarantine. Now this is seen as a fight between two Indian state police and their prestige, such activities seriously damage India’s federal integrity of state and the union.

Internet Theft: Can the government be considered as a white collar criminal?

With the constant rise in digitalization, the computer stores information in binary data form and deeply on the data form which is a way that the device tracks a lot of information in an effective way. Subsequently, with the invention of personal computers and microprocessors the idea of using computers for exclusive use of an individual rose. The process was not only affordable but also made management and storage of information easier. But this evolution has also led to increased interactions and sharing of private data using computer, ultimately leading to illegal activities known as cybercrimes. Identity theft is one such crime. Identity theft refers to a crime when a person fraudulently obtains information of another person and later uses it for economic or personal gain.  The theft happens in a two-step process. Firstly, the personal information gets stolen. Later, the information gets used to impersonate the victim and commit the fraud.  Identity theft has already made its place among the fastest growing sector in not only the developed countries but also the developing countries. The primary reason for US being affected stands firm to the fact that all the personal information is linked to a single social security number. The number allows an individual to avail all government schemes and records related to the individual whose social security number it is. This allows very little safeguarding to the individuals whose number gets leaked. Landing on Indian records, there has been an 11% increase in identity theft and ransom ware, followed by phishing attacks increase to 9%.  India also been ranked amongst top 5 countries to be affected by cybercrimes in 2013.  Problematically, there is a very low conviction rate despite the high levels of cybercrime.

There are provisions in Indian Penal Code, 1860 which governed the crimes of forgery and fraud but it was later amended by the Information technology Act, 2008 as it also included the electronic record, ultimately widening the ambit of such computer data related crimes. Provisions such as section 464 criminalizing forgery, Section 465 criminalizing making of false documents, section 468 criminalizing forgery for purpose of cheating, Section 469 criminalizing forgery for purpose of harming reputation, Section 469 criminalizing the use of a genuine document as forged and section 474 of having possession of a document with intention of using the genuine document as forged were coupled with IT Act. Section 420 could be used in circumstances when the Act requires including unique identification information of any individual. 

In the present scenario, the IT Act, 2000 is the main legislation governing cybercrimes in India. The objective of the Act, however, was to mainly recognize e-commerce and that’s why it did not define cybercrime. Before the 2008 amendment, the Act could impose civil liability for unauthorized access to computer or network which would have facilitated an illegal act under section 43 by way of compensation under the pecuniary limit of one crore. Also, Section 66 criminalized hacking which would result to destruction, deletion or alteration of any resource in the computer. 

The Amendment of 2008 introduced the term ‘Identity Theft’.  Section 66C of the Act governs the crime and provides punishment for the same.

The ‘sensitive personal data’ however required stronger laws to be formulated which could ensure the protection of private data. The ambit of the term has been defined by IT rules, 2011. It involves the data related to one’s password, financial information, sexual orientation, biometric information, medical records. Such a clause would be exceptional to the State or central government for monitoring, surveillance or interception. The same was provided under Section 69 of the Act. 

Data Protection Bill 2019 and Cyber-Crime are often used together these days. Not scholarly but indeed since the bill does come with serious implications for all technological and digital service provider companies and has already generated controversies. Despite India’s attempts to create a complex legal framework with the objective of protecting data but it comes with shortcomings which are inevitable. On a bare reading, there are three serious flaws with the current draft.

Firstly, the section of data localization requires data fiduciaries to store atleast one copy of personal data on a data centre or server which is located in India. However, the centre holds the upper hand to exempt categories falling under the personal data. Also the centre can declare certain datas as critical and require them to be stored in India. In the present, this would allow all the social sites also known as foreign internet services to physically able a user data in the country. This would allow law enforcement easy access to this data, which brings to the second issue.

The law enforcement access to data section would allow processing of data considered personal by an individual in the hands of centre and in the interest of security and public welfare, the state can utilize the information which would not be illegal as it would be according to procedure established by law. Now, this access stands as a threat to the right to privacy that exists in India. If combined with the section of data localization, the government shall have access to information about users in social media.

However, this legal framework for surveillance by the government is governed by the judgment in PUCL v Union of India in which the Apex Court stated rules to concentrate the power to order and review surveillance in the executive body which doesnot require court orders or supposedly, any third party review. The measure intended to act as a stopgap measure by the SC and if any subject falls short of international human rights then there will be very little to safeguard the citizens.

The last section is about the regulatory structure created. The Centre has control significantly over the controls. The bill further gives powers to data protection authority to appoint its members by merely the recommendation of an outside committee. For a person to be an effective regulator of an institution, one must have sufficient time to learn and the bill providing only five years of term seems ineffective.

The term white collar crime has grown to define the fraudulent crimes of business and government professionals over time. The characterization of such a crime is violation of trust, concealment of information, deceit through information and categorically not dependent on any kind of force or violence imposed. White collar crimes end up having huge impacts on the society. There have been various scams in the country like the Havala scam, 2g scam, fodder scam, banking scam and many more. This does not necessarily indicate towards the entire involvement to be criminal but it merely requires one financial fraud in greed of money or power to commit such an act. Cybercrime stands as one of the biggest causes to these types of crime in the country. It is the information that single handedly threatens a person’s security and financial status.

Since the actions of Government have direct impact on the society, it is easily identifiable that when a white-collar group is discussed, the Government is a part of it.

Now, bringing the recent proposed bill and the white-collar crime concept together, the question stands whether the bill in the name of data protection is actually for protection or is merely a tool of mass surveillance by the Government.

The SC in its judgment of right to privacy in K.S Puttuswamy case declared the right as a part of Article 21 guaranteed under the Constitution. The judgment clearly stated that the right is a natural right and is a measure to protect an individual from the scrutiny of the State. Thus, any action by the State would undoubtedly result in violation of such a right and would be subject to judicial review. But the right clarified to have reasonable restrictions which empower the State to impose restrictions in accordance with a law in the interest of State’s need and also the means should be in proportion to the objectives of law.

Even if not called the worst but if the bill is passed, it would bring in major implications especially in areas of national security, foreign investment as well as international trade.

MINISO: The Japanese Lifestyle Brand That’s Taking Over India’s Retail Scene

Miniso is a Chinese retailer and designer brand specializes in house goods and cosmetics founded in 2011 by a young Chinese entrepreneur Ye Guofu and co-founded by Japanese Designer Mr. Miyake Junya. It holds a wide range of product categories including cosmetics, home goods, digital accessories, stationery kitchenware and much more under a single hood and it follows the philosophy of “simplicity, nature and good quality”. 

WHY IS MINISO ( A 100% CHINESE COMPANY ) PRETENDING AS JAPANESE COMPANY ?

Initially claiming to be a famous Japanese brand, despite operating in Mainland China have no outlets in Japan. Yes this company is pretending. It does not exists in Japan & Korea but openly advertise their flag stores in Japan. There’s another one called Mumuso which I believed it’s same kind of Dollar store claiming to be Korean origin, but not single business address was found from Korea, and you know the irony is Miniso stores plays Japanese pop music.

Miniso has since expanded outside of China and opened over a thousand stores worldwide.

OPERATION IN INDIA

Since throwing its doors open for business with the launch of its very first store in China back in 2013, Miniso may have subtly wriggled its way into the sub-conscious of the average lifestyle shopper in various world countries as the go-to store for all things chic and cheap.

The Indian economy was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Many American and European brands have dominated the lifestyle industry here and have thrived. Noticing the opportunity and gauging a huge growth potential that the market had to offer Miniso started its operations in India in August 2017, with a total of 26 stores, out of which 21 in Delhi region and 3 in Mumbai, 2 in Lucknow and 1 in Bangalore. The company plans to expand business in India by increasing its footprint across the country. The company aims to open 800 stores by the end of the year.

In two years since its launch in India, Japanese value retailer Miniso has opened 110 stores across 41 cities.The company achieved its annual target of ₹ 700 crore revenue for 2017-18 in India with an average ticket size, which is 1.5 times higher than its other global markets.The company considers India as among the top 5 contributors to its global revenue. Miniso will expand its presence in India through both company-owned model and franchise partners.

INDIAN CUSTOMERS

The Indian consumers are very confident and the good thing is that the customer is very aware and its easy to get feedback.

It is a brand which resonates with simplicity, nature, good quality and affordable prices—products are priced between R75 and R1500, making the brand accessible to everyone. Miniso’s pricing strategy was built keeping in mind the middle and the upper middle class, the youth and Generation Z, with enormous attention being paid to design which is its USP. The products offered by the company cater to various audiences across income groups and interests.

Indians love the most include lifestyle, fashion accessories and health & beauty products as they are the best-sellers, contributing to 65% of Miniso’s total annual sales.

MINISO is a brick-and-mortar-only business model built around the reality of a world with e-commerce and the brand follows a unique aesthetic and takes care of its customers’ needs, managing to do what most online stores cannot: provide a great shopping experience to all its customers.

INDIA IN MINISO’S GLOBAL SCHEME OF THINGS IN FUTURE ?

Miniso considers ‘India is the future’. This future is not just about selling products. One side is of  purchasing products and doing the business from here. Also  India has an advantage because young people here can speak English well which can help them hire more people from India and send them to different countries, different branches. This can be benifitial in terms of employment growth in India

The Indian market has a vast potential for brand expansion and Miniso intends to follow through on the opportunity—keeping the Indian taste and preferences in mind. The increasing consumer base and rising demand for the brand has allowed Miniso to penetrate the tier II and tier III cities as well, that too in such a short span of time. MINISO’s core consumers are those between the ages of 18 and 35 in urban areas. With smaller budgets, but good taste, these consumers have flocked to MINISO around the world for its low prices and sensible design for lifestyle products in beauty, fashion and consumer electronics.

Explained: How will the ban of TikTok and other Chinese apps be enforced; what will be the impact?

TikTok, other Chinese apps banned in India: The notification is expected to be followed by instructions to Internet service providers to block these apps.

Some of the banned Chinese apps are very popular among Indian users, especially TikTok which has over 100 millions active users in the country, especially in heartland India.

India on Monday banned 59 apps originating from China, including very popular ones like the short video platform TikTok, UC Browser, file sharing app ShareIt, and CamScanner, which allows iOS and Android devices to be used as image and document scanners.

What is the legal basis for India’s action?

The ban has been enforced under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“Power to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource”): “Where the Central Government or any of its officers specially authorised by it… is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above, it may… by order, direct any agency of the Government or intermediary to block for access by the public or cause to be blocked for access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource.

The Ministry of Information and Technology has said that it “has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps… for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India”. Since this “ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures”, it has said.

How will the ban be enforced?

The notification is expected to be followed by instructions to Internet service providers to block these apps. Users are likely to soon see a message saying access to the apps has been restricted on the request of the government.

However, while this will impact apps like TikTok and UC News that need a live feed to serve any purpose, users might still be able to continue using apps that don’t need an active Internet connection to be used. But further downloads of these apps, like CamScanner, are likely to be blocked on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

India bans Chinese bans, Chinese apps banned, Chinese apps banned full list, TikTok banned, UC Browser banned, ShareIt banned, Indian ExpressqThe full list of 59 Chinese apps banned by the government.

What will be the impact of the ban?

Some apps on the banned list are very popular in India, especially TikTok, which has over 100 million active users in the country, mainly in the heartland. New social media platforms like Helo and Likee, as well as video chat app Bigo Live are immensely popular among Indians who are not comfortable in English. These users will have to look for substitutes.

Also, most of these platforms have Indian creators, for many of whom this is the only source of income. Many of these apps have offices and employees in India, and a few thousand jobs could be at stake.

Decoding LAC Conflict

How will the ban of TikTok and other Chinese apps be enforced; what will be the impact?

With stand-off at friction points continuing, expect a longer battle of nerves on Ladakh LAC

Talks will continue but military pushback also on Delhi’s table

Will the ban be permanent?

TikTok was banned in India on the order of the Madras High Court for a few days last year, but it came back soon after the court vacated the ban. This action, however, is more sweeping, impacts more apps, and has been taken in a specific strategic and national security context. It could be a warning to bigger Chinese businesses in India, and to China itself.

China releases 10 Indian soldiers after intense negotiations

The release of the 10 soldiers figured in three rounds of talks between Indian and Chinese delegations, led by major generals, near Patrol Point 14 in Galway Valley between Tuesday and Thursday. Maj Gen Abhijit Bapat, commander of Karu-based headquarters 3 Infantry Division, and his Chinese counterpart, met for the third time on Thursday.Intense negotiations through diplomatic and military channels, including three rounds of talks between senior military officers, led to the release of 10 Indian soldiers detained by the Chinese side during the violent brawl of June 15 in Galwan Valley, people familiar with developments said.The people, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 10 soldiers, including at least two officers, were returned to the Indian side on Thursday evening, three days after the violent face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that left 20 soldiers, including a colonel, dead.

These negotiations were kept tightly under wraps due to concerns for the safety of the soldiers amid the heightened tensions between the two sides, the people said.

Indian govt to ease corona virus-linked global travel restrictions

The Indian-Americans have welcomed the decision of the Indian government to ease the corona virus-linked global travel restrictions imposed on those having Overseas Citizens of India- OCI cards, describing it as a big relief for them.
 
OCI card is issued to people of Indian origin globally which gives them almost all the privileges of an Indian national except for the right to vote, government service and buying agricultural land. The OCI card gives them a visa free travel to India. Yesterday, the central government allowed certain categories of OCI card holders, who are stranded abroad, to come to the country.
 
Earlier, according to the regulations issued by the Indian government in April, visas of foreign nationals and OCI cards were suspended as part of the new international travel restrictions following the COVID-19 pandemic.