praveen kumar

professional procrastinator

[Nirupama Menon Rao 🇮🇳 @NMenonRao]

The discussion sparked by a recent statement on Passport Seva Divas has generated more heat than light.

The Ministry of External Affairs stated that a passport is a travel document, not a document of citizenship. Legally, that is correct. A passport is issued under the Passports Act, while citizenship is governed by the Citizenship Act, 1955. One law regulates the document; the other regulates the legal status.

But law and public understanding are not always the same.

For most Indians, the passport is the most authoritative document the Republic issues. It bears the name of the Republic of India, carries the holder’s identity, and is accepted around the world because foreign governments trust that India has verified the bearer’s nationality before issuing it. It is therefore entirely understandable that many people asked: if a passport is not proof of citizenship, then what is?

The answer requires some nuance.

A passport does not create citizenship. Nor is it the legal instrument that finally determines citizenship if that status is challenged before a court. Like many democracies, India distinguishes between citizenship law and passport law. In rare cases involving fraud, disputed parentage or illegal acquisition, citizenship may have to be established through the provisions of the Citizenship Act and supporting evidence. That is why a passport is not regarded in law as conclusive proof in every conceivable circumstance.

But that should not be confused with its practical significance.

A passport is issued only after the Government has satisfied itself that the applicant is entitled to one. In everyday life, and in international travel, it is the strongest evidence of Indian nationality that most citizens will ever possess. Nothing said by the MEA changes that. No immigration officer abroad will suddenly regard an Indian passport with suspicion because of a legal clarification made in New Delhi.

The episode does, however, remind us of a larger challenge.

India’s systems of civil registration developed unevenly over many decades. Millions of older Indians were born when birth registration was incomplete. Names were recorded differently across school certificates, land records and electoral rolls. The painful experience of the Assam NRC showed how documentary inconsistencies can create profound hardship when citizenship itself becomes the subject of legal scrutiny.

The lesson, therefore, is not that passports have somehow lost their value. It is that India needs stronger and more comprehensive civil registration, universal birth registration and reliable archival records so that citizenship can never become hostage to missing or inconsistent paperwork.

Sometimes a legally precise statement can create unnecessary public anxiety if it is not accompanied by explanation. A better way of putting it might have been this:

A passport is issued only after the Government has verified that the applicant is an Indian citizen. While citizenship itself is governed by the Citizenship Act, the passport remains the Republic’s most trusted document for international travel and, in ordinary life, the clearest evidence of Indian nationality.

That is both legally accurate and reassuring. The law need not be diluted, but neither should public confidence in one of the Republic’s most important documents.

To distil the argument:

A passport is issued because the Government has satisfied itself that you are an Indian citizen. It is therefore powerful evidence of citizenship in ordinary life and in international travel. But in a legal dispute over citizenship itself, the governing law remains the Citizenship Act, and a passport is not conclusive proof that overrides all other evidence

[Australian Java User Group (APJUG) @AustralianJava]

Hi everyone, this year we decided to organize ChurConf for the first time in Sydney along with the Apache Community Over Code conference. Call for speakers is now opened: https://t.co/fygIbt7rh5.
Ticketing for the event will also open soon.

[Anthropic @AnthropicAI]

The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees.

The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance.

Access to all other Claude models is not affected.

We apologize for this disruption to our customers. We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible.

Read our full statement: https://t.co/bwn0sximKZ

[Roshan Rai @RoshanKrRaii]

This 17 year old from Jharkhand did more journalism sitting at his home than the entire Indian Media combined did in 12+ years.

This is inspiring stuff, Sarthak may have fixed CBSE forever.

Legendary stuff, Must Watch 👏

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

SpaceX is actively hiring world-class engineers/physicists for SpaceXAI, even if you have zero prior experience in AI. Smart humans figure it out fast.

Please send an email with ~3 bullet points demonstrating evidence of exceptional ability to [email protected].

[Ramesh Srivats @rameshsrivats]

When I think of Lok Sabha strength being increased from 543 to 850, my first thought is not smaller constituencies, more responsive representatives, and all that.
It is - 307 more VIPs. That many more entitled rulers, free tickets, perks, security, expense, sigh.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Everyone’s missing the real story here.

Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses need human data annotators to train the AI. When you say “Hey Meta” and ask the glasses to analyze something, that video gets sent to Meta’s servers, then routed to Sama, a subcontractor in Nairobi, Kenya. Workers there manually label objects in your footage. They see everything you recorded, intentionally or not.

7 million pairs sold in 2025 alone. Every single pair generates training data that flows through human eyes in Kenya. Workers told Swedish journalists they see people undressing, using bathrooms, having sex, and accidentally filming bank card details. One worker said “we see everything, from living rooms to naked bodies.”

Meta’s automatic face anonymization is supposed to protect people in the footage. Workers say it fails in certain lighting. Faces that should be blurred are sometimes fully visible. The person you recorded without knowing? A stranger in Nairobi can identify them.

Buried in Meta’s terms of service is one sentence doing enormous legal work: the company reserves the right to conduct “manual (human) review” of your AI interactions. That’s the legal cover for routing intimate footage from Western homes to a $2/hour labor force operating under NDAs, office surveillance cameras, and a strict no-questions policy. Workers say if you raise concerns about what you’re seeing, you’re fired.

This is the same company, Sama, that TIME exposed in 2023 for paying Kenyan workers $2/hour to label graphic content for OpenAI while being billed at $12.50/hour per worker. Workers described the experience as torture. Sama ended that contract, then pivoted to labeling Meta’s glasses footage. Same workforce. Same rates.

Meta markets these glasses as “designed with your privacy in mind.” The privacy design is a tiny LED light on the frame that most people don’t notice. The data pipeline behind it routes your bedroom footage to a contractor with a documented history of worker exploitation, failed anonymization, and union-busting lawsuits.

And the next generation of these glasses? Meta is planning to add facial recognition. The same system that can’t reliably blur faces in training data wants to start identifying them on purpose.

The LED light on the frame is doing about as much for your privacy as the terms of service nobody reads.

[Citrini @citrini]

JUNE 2028.

The S&P is down 38% from its highs. Unemployment just printed 10.2%. Private credit is unraveling. Prime mortgages are cracking. AI didn’t disappoint. It exceeded every expectation.

What happened?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

https://t.co/JzzwCrbJgS

[Claude @claudeai]

Claude Code on desktop can now preview your running apps, review your code, and handle CI failures and PRs in the background.

Here’s what's new:

[Delhi Police @DelhiPolice]

After following a few leads, we discovered that the hype around the surge in missing girls in Delhi is being pushed through paid promotion. Creating panic for monetary gains won't be tolerated, and we'll take strict action against such individuals.

[praveen kumar @prvnforhell]

@ScottAdamsSays @teedubya What a legend!Rest in peace!

[Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays]

A Final Message From Scott Adams

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

The barbaric lynching by Jihadis of a Hindu for merely stating that all Gods are equal, is an ominous warning - no Hindu is safe in Bangladesh. Not one.

Dear @narendramodi, future generations will never forgive us if we don't open our gates and save the Hindus of Bangladesh.

[Geert Wilders @geertwilderspvv]

The brutal murder of a Hindu man called Dipu Chandra Das in Bangladesh by a Muslim crowd - for so called blasphemy allegations - proves the unacceptable grave danger of Hindus in Bangladesh (and Pakistan), and the barbarity of Islam.

#DipuChandraDas #Bangladesh #StopIslam

[Shashi Tharoor @ShashiTharoor]

An unbearably tragic incident amid the mob rule that is raging across Bangladesh. While mourning the loss of this poor Hindu man at the hands of unspeakable criminals, I appreciate the condemnation issued by the Government of Bangladesh, but must ask them what they are doing to punish the murderers, and what steps they are taking to ensure that such incidents do not recur?

[NSW Police Force @nswpolice]

If you're struggling after today’s events, know that help is available 24/7.

NSW Mental Health Line: Call 1800 011 511
@LifelineAust: Call 13 11 14, text 0477 13 11 14 or chat online.
@KidsHelplineAU: Call 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
@beyondblue: Call 1300 22 4636 or chat online.
@1800RESPECT: Call 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or chat online.
13 Yarn: Call 13 92 76.
@MensLine_Aus: Call 1300 78 99 78.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000).

[NSW Police Force @nswpolice]

***IMPORTANT INFORMATION***

The Register, Find, Reunite website – https://t.co/yhb0JCJGRQ –is a National system managed and operated by Australian Red Cross.

It is a service which registers, finds and reunites family, friends and loved ones after an emergency. It allows people to,

Register to let people know they are safe,
Find people who may be affected by an emergency and know they are safe, and
Reunite through a matching process which enables police – with consent – to share details of family and friends with each other.

[NSW Police Force @nswpolice]

Attention media - please share our message for members of the public to avoid Bondi Beach area as the police operation continues.

We are still asking people in the area to take shelter until we can determine what is happening.

We have media officer en route to scene, more information when confirmed.

[Sminu Jindal @SminuJindal]

I was returning from Goa on 10th Oct 2025 after celebrating the @purplefestgoa — a festival that honours the freedom, independence & dignity of persons with disabilities.

On my @IndiGo6E flight 6E 6264 (Goa–Delhi), my custom wheelchair — built specifically for my spinal cord injury — was returned to me completely bent & unusable.

This is not an isolated case. It’s a
repeated trauma that thousands of persons with disabilities face when they fly. A wheelchair is not just equipment — it is our mobility, our independence, our dignity. Once its frame is bent, it can never be repaired.

If wheelchairs must go into the aircraft belly, airlines must create a dedicated protected section & ensure staff are properly trained and sensitized.

I strongly urge Hon’ble Civil Aviation Minister Shri @RamMNK Ji & @MoCA_GoI to intervene, and call upon @IndiGo6E to take urgent corrective action. This issue has been pending for far too long.

Safety of assistive devices is mandatory. Somebody’s life & life’s earnings depend on it.

@DGCAIndia @Office_of_CCPD @socialpwds

#Accessibility #Inclusion #DignityInTravel #CivilAviation #PurpleFestGoa

[Anand Sankar @saybwala]

IMPORTANT: If you know next of kin of those killed or injured in the Air India AI171 crash in the aircraft or on the ground in Ahmedabad, please share this with them.

I decided to share this important information as my father was in the insurance industry and I am aware how air accident compensation claims work.

1. HIRE a lawyer who knows aviation or insurance law.

2. DO NOT sign anything the airline or anyone asks you to sign without vetting by your lawyer.

3. Passengers on the flight are covered under the Montreal Convention 1999. Your lawyer should have good knowledge of compensation under this convention.

4. People & property on the ground are covered by the airline's third party insurance policy.

Don't go by any PR announcements of compensation being made in media.

Air Accident Compensation is a brutal lawyer-led industry. There is no sympathy in their conversations. The insurance lawyers will try to save as much compensation money as possible. See past history of disputes after crashes for reference, search on Google.

If there are lawyers who can help victims, tag them in the replies so that next of kin can know.