Ajay Bhat

Adding to the noise.

[Apar Gupta @apar1984]

At this point a concert or a headlining sporting ticket is less about the music or even fandom and more about signalling economic and social status. To some extent this always existed but it was never so public and so ugly.

[Ketaki Lovekar @KetakiLovekar]

Worst credit card banking experience is undoubtedly @AxisBank . @Citi did us a huge disservice by selling its India business to the horribly incompetent @AxisBank @AmitabhChaudhry

[Ajay Bhat @ajayvb]

Bangalore FTW

[Ketaki Lovekar @KetakiLovekar]

@Ektashah27 Nothing. Was very smooth

[Arnav Gupta @championswimmer]

All the Mac people sad that they are not getting a BSOD holiday today.

[nandiniv @nandiniv]

As a Bangalorean, I disagree. This is a city that is built by everyone who moved here to build their lives and careers. This move by the govt isn't right and these issues aren't binary.

[Ritesh Banglani @banglani]

Uber has no cars
Airbnb has no homes
Bangalore has no water

[Citizen Kau @citizen_kau]

This is Manipur. And those are coffins.

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

interesting how this is trending on conservative twitter but every photo shows dense urban planning, high walkability, and a low number of cars. basically a 15 min city

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

This is what happened at the Nakba in 1948. Its exactly the same playbook. First the Israelis drove out the Palestinians with atrocities & mass murder. Then they demolished the villages & built settlements over the ruins. Then they denied the Palestinians had ever been there or that they ever existed.

[Ajay Bhat @ajayvb]

“Tubthumping” in a tree

[Ajay Bhat @ajayvb]

+1

[Abhishek Baxi @baxiabhishek]

Tired of Dhoni fanboys getting high on Dhoni's carefully crafted, yet appearing unassuming, posturing.

[Ajay Bhat @ajayvb]

I learnt so much about Orry against my will, but came away amazed. Great piece!

[Devina Sengupta @DevinaSengupta]

⚠️Ignore Orry. What do you know of Orhan Awatramani, the businessman?

I met him, in his home.

Behind the obtuse comments , an astute mind knows his profits. He questions relatability on socials that all stars are hankering for.

Orhan & I do his SWOT for @livemint

#orry

[Ajay Bhat @ajayvb]

🧵 High potential for abuse and misuse. Maximum government, minimum due process😓

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

🚨🚨
The Telecom Bill 2023, has been passed in Lok Sabha, despite suspension of approx 100 opposition MPs in the LS. 👇

A repackaged version of the colonial past, the Bill tends to retain draconian surveillance & internet suspension powers. 1/n 👇👇

https://t.co/t29G1IAhDz

[Penguin India @PenguinIndia]

For self-proclaimed bookworms, we sure do spend a lot of time scrolling through Twitter instead

[bvhk @bvhk]

The WFI fiasco is an appropriate representation of us today - everyone knows what and who’s wrong, brazen display of impunity, people will take refuge behind ‘elections were held’. India May even win medals again. But what’s wrong remains wrong. Who has the courage to call it?

[Bhooshan Shukla @docbhooshan]

All bestseller books are non fiction !

Sad picture of a success and performance obsessed society.

[Sushant Singh @SushantSin]

"More than 40 percent of the dead in Gaza are children. No one is singing a dirge for them or holding charity concerts. This, then, is the banality of evil."

[Ajay Bhat @ajayvb]

Absolutely

[Geechi @ThatDakari]

The Bear - “Forks”

[Karthik 🇮🇳 @beastoftraal]

Hahaha 😂

[Apar Gupta @apar1984]

The Telecommunications Bill, 2023 which is listed for introduction and passage today in the Lok Sabha is another action to cement authoritarian control over the rights of ordinary citizens. Its impact will be felt directly in four clear ways.

First, there is a clear power for the Union Government to regulate and license OTT services such as Whatsapp, Signal, Gmail etc.. Here, the unfounded hope and the underserved servility in statements that OTT regulation is excluded from the ambit of regulation of the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 is not borne from its text. The Union Government may prescribe license conditions that may vary as per “telecommunication service” [Section 3(1)(a) and Section 3(1)(b)] and require prior registration that may be used for the government to weaken privacy and increase snooping in future. While the phrase, “OTT”, or “Messaging Services” or even, “Email” are not expressly mentioned in the Telecommunications Bill as in the draft version they at the same time have not been expressly excluded from the definition of, “telecommunication service” which means, “any service for telecommunication” [Section 2(t)]. Further, the phrase, “telecommunication” is defined to include, “transmission… or reception of any messages….”. Hence, internet based messaging and email services are *included*.

Second, the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 extends the colonial powers of interception of your communications without any safegaurds. This is first done through powers of to notify standards and conformity assessment that will include encryption [Section 19(f)]. This may even be under grounds of national security [Section 21]. Encryption is a technology that is used in internet based messaging to ensure only the sender and receiver read the message in plain text. Any person snooping in on the message during the course of transmission cannot read it. However, standard setting powers may be used to create backdoors, introduce message traceability [identifying the author of a message], or to create block lists of words [as done in China on WeChat]. This becomes clearer when you look at the powers of interception that require intercepted messages to be disclosed in an “intelligible format” [Section 20(2)]. There are no procedures and safeguards in the text of the law and the existing procedure under Rule 419-A of the Telegraph Act that has been abused will continue [Section 61]. For instance the Government of India now even refuses to provide an aggregate date on the number of interception orders that it issues. It is a completely unaccountable and secretive system of surveillance without any oversight by courts or parliament that is being made more severe without any reform.

For those stating that the present Telecommunications Bill, 2023 contains exemptions for, “press messages”, I encourage you to read more carefully. While it does create a sub-classification for, “correspondents accredited with the Central or State Government”, it does not offer any heightened protection (such as an additional procedural safeguard or reason) for the same conditions [Section 20(3)]. There is also no no-obstante clause, hence this does not override any other provision under any other law. Hence, it is merely clever drafting for it reverts to the same process for interception as it applies to any other person [Section 20(2)(a)].

Third, India suffers from the highest number of Internet Shutdowns in the world. These injuries have been felt acutely across our country by people resident in Manipur, Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir etc. Here, the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 restates the power to impose internet blackouts without any statutory safeguards despite court cases and recommendations by the Standing Committee for IT [Section 20(2)(b)]. These could have been in the form of mere transparency, such as the duty of the State Governments to send copies of orders to the Department of Telecommunications and then for the DOT to maintain a central directory of orders however is not part of the legislative text. This will also not be done under the rules, as the previous Telecom Suspension Rules will continue [Section 61].

Fourth, the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 continues the, “kartavaya kaal” style of imposing penalties on ordinary Indians as has also found expression under the Data Protection Act, 2023. It prohibits, “false particulars, suppress any material information… while establishing their identity for availing telecommunications services”. This means KYC may be required even for OTT applications like Whatsapp. In addition to this there is a vague penalty when people, “fail to share information as required under this act” [Section 29]. The fine for this is Rs. 25,000 after which a daily fine of Rs. 50,000 till you are compliant. Further, there is a marked preference for biometric identification [Sec. 3(7)]. This may mean another attempt by the Government to force people to use Aadhaar as the single point of sign-up (mandatory) despite the Supreme Court in K.S. Puttaswamy clearly stated this was impermissible.

Finally, it merits use to examine the larger environment in which this Telecommunications Bill, 2023 is being passed. First, democracy is today suspended in India with a large number of opposition MPs suspended in parliament. Meanwhile other laws that increase state power, decrease accountability and transparency and threaten ordinary citizens are being passed. The fist of the state is becoming tighter on our digital lives with the Broadcasting Services Bill, 2023; Data Protection Act, 2023; the Post Offices Bill, 2023; Criminal Procedure Identification Act, 2022; IT Rules, 2021.

In all of these proposals and laws, the same model of vague drafting, centralisation of power through delegated rulemaking is proposed. Second, the Government is failing to answer the clear challenges of rising inequality that manifest in digital India. For instance, it has failed to address or even acknowledge the sluggish pace of growth in the number of new mobile and data users in India. From double-digit growth rates through 2016 to 2020, it slumped to about 4 per cent in 2021 and 2022, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data. In the first quarter of 2023 it grew just 1.7 per cent over the last quarter of 2022. Have we heard a word from the ministry of telecom on what is proposed to overcome this? There won't be a word on it for there is nobody left or permitted in Parliament to raise these questions as the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 is passed through a voice vote.

Shame, shame, shame.