Govt okays Bill proposing Rs 15-cr fine for data misuse, easy storage rules

The Cabinet’s approval paves the way for the Bill to be tabled in Parliament in the ongoing winter session

The government is learnt to have relaxed the mandatory storage and processing requirement for all kinds of personal data and made a case for the collection of anonymised data from companies for planning government schemes in its long-awaited draft data protection Bill, which was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

The Bill categorises data as sensitive personal data and critical personal data. Sensitive data includes passwords, financial data, health data, sexual orientation, biometric data, genetic data, transgender status, and caste. Critical data will be defined by the government from time to time.

All companies will have to store the critical data of people within the country, but they can transfer sensitive data overseas after explicit consent of the data owner to process it only for purposes permissible under law once the Bill is approved by Parliament, government sources said.

There is a relaxation on storing a copy of all personal data in India, or mirroring. “The government will have the right to direct a data fiduciary to share anonymised or non-personal data for better targeting of service, policy-making, relief work, etc,” said a source. All other aspects of non-personal data will be handled by a committee headed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan. The Cabinet’s approval paves the way for the Bill to be tabled in Parliament in the ongoing winter session….Read More

India’s banks wrote off Rs 2 trillion worth of bad loans in 2018-19

Even as banks have written off more loans than before, recovery of bad loans has also improved substantially in the past couple of years

India’s 42 scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) collectively wrote off Rs 2.12 trillion worth of loans in 2018-19, according to figures given by the finance ministry in Parliament. Not only was this 42 per cent higher than the Rs 1.5 trillion written off the previous year, but also about 20 per cent of all their non-performing assets (NPAs).

Banks generally take NPAs off their books to make their balance sheets look cleaner — with reduced liabilities and potential losses. According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, “non-performing loans, including, those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, are removed from the balance sheet of the bank concerned by way of write-off.” Since 2014-15, when the Narendra Modi-led government first came to power, Indian banks Loans have written off Rs 5.7 trillion worth.

So far as the country’s 21 public-sector banks (PSBs) are concerned, the amount of bad loans taken off their balance sheets has increased progressively over the years. In 2018-19, these banks wrote off Rs 1.9 trillion worth of bad loans — about 90 per cent of the total for all SCBs, and four times their own write-offs in 2014-15. Only a third of SCBs reported lower write-offs in 2018-19 than the previous year; and only three of those that did were PSBs, show government statistics…

WhatsApp spying row: We’ve sent notice to Israel’s Pegasus, says Prasad

Govt has asked for an audit of WhatsApp security and systems, according to IT minister

The government has issued notice to the Israeli firm accused of misusing WhatsApp for snooping on Indian citizens, Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of electronics and information technology, told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Also, the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) has asked for an audit of WhatsApp security and systems, Prasad said.

Responding to the Opposition’s questions on whether the government bought spying software called Pegasus from Israel-based NSO Group, which claims to sell only to governments, the minister did not give a straight answer and said “we have sent a notice to NSO also”.

He was replying to a special mention by Congress Member of Parliament Digvijaya Singh on the use of the spyware against some Indians. WhatsApp said on October 29 it was filing a federal complaint in the US against NSO Group for a cyberattack that exploited a vulnerability in the app’s video calling feature. That could compromise the target person’s device. Of the 1,400 people affected globally, 121 were Indians.

The CERT-In is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security cases as and when they occur, and is the one that has to be informed in the case of a cyber breach. CERT-In sought information, including a need to conduct an audit and inspection of the WhatsApp security system and processes, from the messaging app on November 9. WhatsApp responded on November 18, and additional details were sought on November 26, the minister added…

Only 51 days of work per household given under MNREGS in 2018-19

Govt said the total number of individuals who worked under the scheme in 2015-16 was 72.2 million

Only 51 days of work was provided per household across the country in 2018-19 as against 100 days mandated in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the Centre said on Tuesday. While the Centre said the number of beneficiaries and budgetary allocation towards the rural employment scheme have increased over the years, the rural development ministry is struggling to meet the targets of the prime minister’s housing for all scheme for rural areas.

According to Rural Development Minister Narendra Tomar’s reply in the Lok Sabha, under the PM Awaas Yojana (Grameen) — restructured from the erstwhile Indira Awaas Yojana from April 1, 2016 — as many as 198,608 houses have been constructed as on November 15 against the target of 527,552 houses.

The minister said total 1,98,136 houses have been completed in Phase I (2016-17 to 2018-19) against the target of 327,552 houses. In Phase II (2019-20 to 2021-22), a mere 472 houses have been completed against the target of 200,000 houses.

On the MNREGA, in a reply to a question by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Pritam Munde, the minister said the scheme is demand-driven. He said the Centre is engaged with state governments to set up systems to ensure the provision of work according to demand, transparency and accountability, and also take steps to create awareness about the scheme. According to the data, Mizoram topped the list providing 92 workdays, followed by West Bengal (77 workdays) and Kerala (66 workdays)…

Criminalisation of ‘nothing’: India cannot afford more criminal provisions

Being tough on crime requires making intelligent distinctions between conduct that truly threatens the public and conduct that is better handled by fines or civil law

Jerry Seinfeld famously described the show created by him (and named after him), as a show about ‘nothing’. In the final episode, the principal characters – having gloried in selfishness for many years – watch an unfortunate man being mugged. They make light of it and do nothing to help. A police officer present on the spot does nothing to stop the incident either. Instead, he arrests the four friends under the ‘Good Samaritan Law’. The law makes it a criminal offence to not help those in need. Jerry and his friends are ultimately sentenced to a year in prison.

The episode was keenly dissected by fans. It also initiated a debate in legal circles. Can you be charged criminally for ‘doing nothing’? If recent legislative activity is anything to go by, it seems you can.

Criminal law and the harm principle

The traditional starting point of criminalisation is the “harm principle”. John Stuart Mill stated “the only purpose for which power can be rightly exercised over the member of a civilised community against his will is to prevent harm to others”. This was approved by the Supreme Court in its ‘adultery judgment’, in September, 2018.

Mill’s argument seems to have collapsed in Parliament. Our ideas about “harm” have become sufficiently capacious to take in almost anything legislators might wish to criminalise. It is impossible to arrive at a conclusive number of the laws that provide for criminal sanction. But they are certainly more than what we require.

IIT-Delhi gets 50 proposals for research on cow milk, urine, dung and ghee

The proposals from different academic and research institutions were made under the Scientific Validation and Research on Panchgavya

The Indian Insititute of Technology, Delhi, has received about 50 proposals for research on benefits of cow milk and urine, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday.

The government, however, said that it had not set up any panel to carry out research on cow derivatives. (economy news)

The proposals from different academic and research institutions were made under the Scientific Validation and Research on Panchgavya (SVAROP).

Minister of State for Science and Technology Y.S. Chowdhary said a national brainstorming-cum-consultative workshop on SVAROP was organised by IIT-Delhi, in which scientists and researchers from academic/reserach institutions and government agencies, including IITs, Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Science and Technology, and others participated.

"The Department of Science and Technology has constituted a National Steering Committee to initiate a national programme on SVAROP," Chowdhary said.

GST to bring economic freedom, imagination to India: Anil Ambani

Stage is set for another 'historic tryst with destiny', said the industrialist in the Parliament

 

Industrialist Anil Ambani on Thursday termed the Goods and Services Tax (GST), being rolled out from July 1, as India's "economic freedom" and said it would make the country the biggest free and democratic market in the history of humankind.

Speaking here at a mutual fund industry event, the Reliance Group chairman said there are many ways of counting the benefits of GST and as many of counting its costs.

"But there is just one way of describing its true promise. GST is not just another piece of reform or transform, however significant. GST is the liberation of our economic imagination. It is our economic freedom," he said.

Ambani said there are moments in the life of a nation when history is made not in small steps of incremental gain but in giant leaps of ambition.| economy news

"We, the people of India, are privileged to bear witness to one such moment in time," he said, referring to the proposed rollout of GST on midnight of June 30.

"Seventy years ago, at the stroke of the midnight hour, our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, spoke movingly in the Central Hall of Parliament about India's tryst with destiny.

"At the same mid-night hour tomorrow, as our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi rises to address a waiting nation from the same august Central Hall, India will be set on course for another historic tryst with destiny," he said.

Ambani said the free market is perhaps the greatest force for economic good in the human history of all earthly inventions.|economy policy

He said the free market is a force for generating wealth and transforming lives and the real promise of GST is the promise of economic liberation.

With the promise of 'One Nation, One Tax, One Market', it would create a borderless world of 1.3 billion people -- producers and consumers engaged in a seamless exchange of goods and services, skill sets and capital, labour and ideas.

Ambani said the world has seen nothing like this before and in less than 48 hours, India will emerge as the biggest free and democratic market in the history of humankind.

"In tandem with its policy precursor -- demonetisation -- GST will forever change the ground rules of doing any kind of trade, commerce or business in India.

"The leadership advantage is backed by strong macro- economic stability," he said while adding that the economy has moved from low inflation to high growth, from fiscal rectitude to prudential current account management, and fom one of the highest savings rates in the world to one of the fastest rates of economic growth.

He said that from insolvency code to NPA resolution, the present government has undertaken a fundamental overhaul of India's financial infrastructure while consolidating and strengthening the banking sector.

"But the greatest achievement of the government lies in the area of financial inclusion, thus setting in motion a growth dynamic for financial intermediaries which is unprecedented in its scope and size," he added.

Veteran Bollywood star Vinod Khanna dies at 70

He worked in more than 100 films

#LATEST| Vinod Khanna, the yesteryears Bollywood superstar, died at the age of 70 on Thursday. He was battling cancer. 

He worked in more than 100 films. 

He was an active politician, and a sitting Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur, Punjab. Vinod Khanna was born on 6 October, 1946.

He is survived by his wife Kavita Khanna, sons Rahul, Akshaye and Sakshi, and daughter Shraddha Khanna. Before marrying Kavita, Vinod Khanna was married to Getanjali but they later got divorced.

His polupar movies include Mere Apne, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Gaddaar (1973 film), Jail Yatra, Imitihaan, Inkaar, Kuchhe Dhaage, Amar Akbar Anthony, Rajput, Qurbani, Kudrat, Dayavan, Kaarnama,Suryaa: An Awakening and Jurm.

Vinod Khanna received the Filmfare award in the best supporting actor category for Haath Ki Safaai, and in 1999 he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, and again in 2007 he won a lifetime achievement award at the Zee Cine Awards.

In late 2016 and early 2017, news about his detoriating health started coming in, this kept him away from a public eye. In his last days he was surrounded by all his children and wife Kavita.| read more.