'The Narendra Modi government is in the final stages of creating an all-encompassing, auto-updating, searchable database to track every aspect of the lives of each of India’s over 1.2 billion residents, previously undisclosed government documents reviewed by HuffPost India establish. If the plans of Modi’s bureaucrats and advisors are realised, this system will automatically track when a citizen moves between cities, changes jobs, buys new property, when a member of a family is born, dies or gets married and moves to their spouse’s home.
'While most of China’s neighbours have been able to contain the spread of COVID-19, countries far from it are seeing an exponential surge in cases. Early testing and wider coverage distinguish such Asian countries from Western countries. However, India is dangerously placed as it has among the lowest testing rates...'
'Log in to Google Play store and key in ‘vehicle info’, and at least 200 mobile apps – both free and paid – will show up in the search results. A single click and a wait of 10 seconds is all it takes to find the name of vehicle owners by entering any vehicle registration number. Type in other combinations of words such as RTO info, vehicle details and so on, and hundreds of apps are listed – and each day, the number keeps increasing. Some of these apps have been downloaded a million times — each.
'Enumerators tasked with carrying out surveys for various state and central agencies are facing a tough time dealing with Hyderabad residents in the wake of protests against the amended Citizenship Law and fears over the National Register of Citizens (NRC). On Wednesday afternoon, as seen in a video that has gone viral on social media, two women surveyors could be seen stopped and questioned by a resident in the Malakpet area. “Don’t you know what is the prevailing situation in the city? Protests are happening all across in connection with NPR, NRC, and CAA.
'More than a 100 people in a Hyderabad neighbourhood have been asked by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to verify their Aadhaar enrolment documents in person or face a suspension or cancellation of their 12-digit identity number that underpins access to government subsidies. The matter first came to light when a letter sent to 40-year-old autorickshaw driver Mohd Sattar Khan was widely shared on social media websites.
'Over 120 people in Hyderabad have received notices from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), asking them to prove that they are not illegal immigrants and have obtained their Aadhaar numbers through legitimate documents. Although the UIDAI has insisted in a separate statement that notices “have nothing to do with citizenship”, two examples that have entered the public domain appear to ask the person in question to “prove all your claims of citizenship”.
'The UIDAI on February 3 sent a letter to Sattar Khan, a resident of Hyderabad raising questions on whether he was an Indian citizen. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that oversees the functioning of Aadhaar in the country in a letter to Sattar claimed to have had received a complaint/allegation that he was not an Indian National, the letter did not specify who made the complaint. UIDAI alleged that according to the complaint Sattar had obtained the Aadhaar card through false pretences, making false claims and submitting false documents...
'More than a month after National Statistical Commission (NSC) chairman Bimal Kumar Roy said the official survey report showing a dip in consumer spending for the first time in over four decades would be made public, the autonomous data body decided against releasing the report. When asked why the NSC departed from its earlier view, Roy said: “I did try. I made a proposal (in an NSC meeting on January 15) to release the survey but I didn’t find support. I did put in the proposal as chairman but it didn’t get through.
'...Yet there is no denying that election results often challenge the exactitude of electronic recording of votes and their computation. In Delhi's 16 constituencies the tally of votes counted was higher than the number of people who had voted. In another 22 constituencies, the votes counted were lower than the turnout figure in each. Delhi's Karol Bagh had an excess of 1,155 votes; Sangam Vihar a shortfall of 864 votes.
'More than 17 crore PAN cards will become inoperative if not linked with the Aadhaar by end of March. In a move with large scale disruption potential, the Income Tax Department has said that Permanent Account Number (PAN) will become inoperative if not linked with Aadhaar by March 31, 2020. It may be recalled that the deadline for linking of PAN and Aadhaar has been extended several times and the latest deadline ends on 31 March, 2020...'
