The world's worst plastic. https://actions.sumofus.org/a/coal-to-plastic  From the world's worst coal. the era of coal-fired power is over. But coal barons are planning to turn their unburnable coal into the dirtiest plastic on earth... Adani Enterprises has submitted plans to build a $4bn plant to convert coal dug from its bitterly opposed mine in Australia and turn it into toxic PVC plastic in India.

The world already has a plastics problem. And a climate crisis. Adani’s idea combines the two -- coal based plastics create triple the greenhouse emissions of conventional plastic.. One oil executive described coal-to-plastics plants as “massive CO₂ machines that make chemicals as a sidestream.”

Adani blasted over ‘toxic’ $4bn plan to use Australian coal to make plastic in India https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/17/adani-blasted-over-toxic-4bn-plan-to-use-australian-coal-to-make-plastic-in-india  The company is seeking environmental clearances to build the massive “coal-to-PVC” plant that will take up almost 3 sq km in Mundra, Gujarat..Adani enterprises said the coal will go through several stages of processing, creating calcium carbide and then acetylene, which is further processed to eventually produce PVC.
Environmental campaign group SumOfUs has launched a petition to pressure Adani’s financial backers to withdraw from the group over the coal-to-plastics project.
The group claimed the coal-to-plastics process was emissions intensive, and described the plans as toxic.

Egocracy, Digital Freedom & Data Privacy Parakala Prabhakar​ Jun 15, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-vFCdXwpNs Parakala deals with
1.Indian Government's attempts to throttle our freedom of expression on the digital platforms; (2020 saw 150 internet shutdowns 109 in India https://www.accessnow.org/issue/internet-shutdowns/)
2. the tech companies unbridled collection of our personal data without our consent, ( after rule 21- govt will be prosecutor and judge, will define "public order, security of the State, )
3. the safety of our data in the hands of both government and tech companies.( BN Srikirshna report of july https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/bills_parliament/Committee%20Report%20on%20Draft%20Personal%20Data%20Protection%20Bill,%202018.pdf 
Bill not in line with BNK report.. In fact SNk has said that the draft, as it is, is "dangerous" still brought in . Sec25 is a problem..

Meanwhile on the Internaltional front--
India signs statement against ‘politically motivated internet shutdowns’ https://scroll.in/latest/997458/india-signs-statement-against-politically-motivated-internet-shutdowns
India signs statement against ‘politically motivated internet shutdowns’
India on Sunday signed a joint statement by G7 countries on “open societies”, which upholds “human rights for all, both online and offline” and the freedom of expression. The statement referred to “politically motivated internet shutdowns” as one of the threats to freedom and democracy.

However, India is a leading offender in this category. It recorded the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2020, according to a report by digital rights and privacy organisation Access Now on March 3. Of the total 155 internet shutdowns globally, India alone accounted for 109, according to the report. The next highest was Yemen, with six shutdowns, and Ethiopia with four.

India a natural ally of G7 nations, says Modi, calls for ‘democratic values’ in cyberspace  https://scroll.in/latest/997441/india-a-natural-ally-of-g7-nations-says-modi-calls-for-democratic-values-in-cyberspace   Invited as a lead speaker to the session on open societies and economies, Modi stressed on the need to ensure that cyberspace remains an avenue for advancing democratic values and not for subverting it, the prime minister’s office said.

The prime minister called upon technology companies and social media platforms to ensure a safe cyber environment for the users, Additional Secretary (economic relations) of the Foreign Ministry, P Harish, said in a press briefing on the G7 summit. The comments assume significance on the domestic front also, as the Centre and social media companies tussle over the implementation of new information technology rules.

For other articles in this blog: http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/digital-democracy

Even though the officially stated  policy is to trust the tax payer, the app has so many cross checks which signify that they dont trust us.  

Most of the errors are because the portal tries to trip you up at every entry. Do you really need to check if a person is "minor" online?  Why cant you just give a message rather than block that entry.  These things can be cleaned up by BOTS/ AI  Algorithms  later... 

I don't understand this obsession in having an completely online system. For example the income tax portal could be de-centralised, where income tax consultants and CAs can have independent hosts based on a platform created by Infosys where every transaction is block chained.. and there is a daily batch processing update of the main portal.  

Plus only minimum verifications/checks need to be piped through the decentralised system.

After that BOT an be made to scrutinise each app, and raise red flags. Customer must be assured that they will get a notification that each red flag will be communicated to them and they given an opportunity to correct their entries, again through the block chained off line systems.

Govt. can encourage young B Coms to set up kiosks, or portable guides, thus creating WFH opportunities

40 issues with the IT portal: https://taxguru.in/income-tax/issues-income-tax-portal-www-incometax-gov-in.html 

Even after a snub from finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the technical issues of this new portal remain unresolved. So much so the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) department had to allow filing form 15CA/15CB (required for foreign remittances) in manual format instead of filing it on the new portal.

Almost every user has been complaining of technical issues from the very first day and even after a week the glitches continue. Taxpayers are unable to view past e-filed returns and many features continue to be displayed as ''coming soon''.https://www.moneylife.in/article/income-tax-new-portal-continues-to-frustrate-users-with-technical-issues/64228.html 

https://worldlocalizationday.org/ Localization is a new human story founded on the principles of connection and diversity.

A thought for the Localisation day workshop.. As a layman, more ideologically incline, I believe that the way Big tech is planning roll out of 5G seems to do overcome the main issues of High band, High Spped, High density local transmission into one that is connected so as to "centralise" ( ie applications across vertical markets such as manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation, where 5G will play a major role in everything from advanced manufacturing automation to fully autonomous vehicles. https://www.digi.com/blog/post/5g-network-architecture )

As a persons who believes in subsidiarity, I feel that the more of our techies should work on developing local servers, connected to devices on rooftops, or pillons which are in turn connected by LAN or wire to homes/offices or even street devices like webcams , . This I suppose will greatly reduce the radiation inside homes and offices and at the street level.

5 G can also be used to create local consumer and producer groups, as well as cultural organisations, if local servers provide applications for e tailing, home services, local transport. The local servers can in turn process on batch processing basis services and good from or to a larger area.
The same logic will work for social media.. where perhaps the density and intensity of message is more local, and the wider global can be reached through piping and interfaceable applications rather than the large unipolar apps like whats app.

I have not been able to convince young techies to work on this approach, even though it provides better and more distributed employment opportunities, because they feel they cannot fight the system, or the efficiency of the centralised system. Can we work towards enabling inspiring our youngsters, many of whom have dropped out of IT companies, and are now doing farming.. Perhaps they can use their knowledge to further a more human scale IT arhitecture..

Parakala Prabhakar​ https://youtu.be/PiiK4S47tM4?t=86 The ruling dispensation seems to be mired in a shamanic view of COVID. Also the planning for the post covid economy seems to be limited  to talk about e mobility, next gen batteries, artificial intelligence, and 5G technologies.   No bread and butter issues, that afflict the marginal and vulnerable today or in the next few years.. 

There is very little post pandemic scenario planning, and the parliamentary committee on Finance reportedly expressed dissatisfaction the Niti Aayog presentation, while it spoke of two extreme possibilities, did not outline anything about what India could need to do.. Public Universities are also not working on post pandemic scenarios..

Obscurantist narratives prevail in the current dispensation which has lead to underestimation of the challenge and overestimation of our exceptionalism.. preceding an assault on scientific temper.

Ref: Preparing for a post Pandemic Economy: from Sunset to Sunrise areas of growth.. amitabh kant 4th March 2021 http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/covid/813-preparing-for-a-post-pandemic-economy-from-sunset-to-sunrise-areas-of-growth

 Ref: Indian economy to bounce back soon from effects of COVID-19: NITI Aayog Vice Chairman https://dst.gov.in/indian-economy-bounce-back-soon-effects-covid-19-niti-aayog-vice-chairman 

For other posts on COVID see: http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/covid

On Economy & Equity see http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/economy-equity

In spite of Public Sector Banks doing a yeomen services, disbursing direct benefit transfers, Insurance schemes, all Govt schemes and lost more than 1300 employees, NITI AAYOG is still talking of Privatisation which is going to lead to disaster. In the last 7 years of NDA, the NPA has gone up to Rs.1143354 Cr out of which major component is large loans.

What is needed now?

Ask Banks to increase branches and staff and lend more to poor and lower middle class at concessional rate of Interest. Loans below Rs.5 lakh will make a lot of difference.
Bear the Interest portion through interest subvention and reintroduce Interest subvention for Gold Loans.
Allow restructuring of existing Loans where it is needed. Except large loans above Rs.100 crores, all loans to be restructured case by case.
Launch special long term loans for Health infrastructure, Housing, MSMEs, Youth, Women and Farmers.
Announce that No Privatisation of Banks in near future and 5-day week for Bankers which will enthuse and energize them.
Introduce Super Rich Tax.
Reduce prices on Petrol, diesel & Gas helping people to spend on other things.
Provide Rs.7500 to those who are not taxpayers per month for 6 months.
Recruit more people in Govt, Public Sector undertakings and Banks.
Above all, accept mistakes and dismantle Aniti Ayog and introduce a Development Council with well-meaning people as done in Tamilnadu by the new Chief Minister.

Thomas Franco is former General Secretary of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation.

The WhatsApp move to sue the Indian government is a red herring https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/the-whatsapp-move-to-sue-the-indian-government-is-a-red-herring-6948131.html MONIKA KRISHAN MAY 27, 2021  While user actions are constantly being tracked, recorded , quantified and analysed, AI companies (eg: Amazon Web Services) remain notoriously secretive about the processes.. States push for rapid AI development across multiple domains of civilian and defense applications,  the prospect of an AI-dominated world looms large. An AI-dominated world would essentially be an AI-Corporation-dominated world ..The use of cloud systems to store vast quantities of both civilian and defense data would make states even more vulnerable to corporate nudging...

If democratic states and indeed democracy is to survive it would do well for nations to: a) resist the temptation to place all their intellectual and economic eggs in the AI basket, b) renew their vows to uphold the principles of democracy so as to build deeper ties with their citizens based on mutual trust, and c) work together to encourage tech companies to adopt a more inclusive and evolved standard of engagement with customers

Comment: political institutions must address the threat that state power itself poses to the liberty and security of individuals..

To meet this threat constitutional government is the principal institutional instrument. Constitutional government is to be limited through a combination of public rules delineating the boundaries of legitimate state authority (rule of law), devices for fracturing state power to keep it from transgressing those boundaries (federalism, separation of powers), and arrangements for monitoring government conduct for possible transgressions (judicial review, legislative supremacy).(https://www.humansfuture.org/politics_power_abuse.htm )

Since Artificial Intelligence and Data Sovereignity is also power, there is need to seperation of powers between Corporates, Government and other democratic systems; due process and procedures. Most important the user or the citizen should be the primary focus of decision making. So while it is fair that the Platforms take a decision about content in their own platform, but when the platforms reach of position of power by becoming the vehicle of free speech,  it should follow the basic principle that :justice must not only be done it should be seen to be done.  Unfortunately, both State and Corporate prefer back-room dealings, so that each can serve their own power:  the former - political and the latter commercial.  Thus the third sector.. namely the "people sector" or civil society must have a bigger role in the new dispensation ( fact checking sites, algorithyms  for example have become an important vehicle of civil power ) . Unfortunately here also we have seen, corporates, the media, as well as government conspiring to limit this empowerment.  For example the recent closure of the Amnesty International in India has not shaken the democractic consciense of the judiciary as well. 

The middle class and the media has cried hoarse about the "law of the land" forgetting the dictum the father of the nation gave us.. https://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/gandhi-and-civil-disobedience When the Boer legislature passed a law requiring that all Indians register with the police and be fingerprinted, Gandhi, along with many other Indians, refused to obey the law. He was arrested and put in jail, the first of many times he would be imprisoned for disobeying what he believed to be unjust laws.

While in jail, Gandhi read the essay “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, a 19th-century American writer. Gandhi adopted the term “civil disobedience” to describe his strategy of non-violently refusing to cooperate with injustice, but he preferred the Sanskrit word satyagraha (devotion to truth).

 three-part series on the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution', the World Economic Forum's 'Great Reset' plan (being pushed aggressively under cover of the Covid crisis) and their influence on Indian policy.

When the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ Comes Knocking
Why is the Indian government promoting job-destroying ‘smart’ automation when the country is reeling from the worst unemployment crisis in recent history?

https://www.newsclick.in/when-fourth-industrial-revolution-comes-knocking

The Great Reset: Davos Playbook for Post-COVID World
For decades, the World Economic Forum has been trying to influence global policy in favour of the world’s financial super-elite. Thanks to the global crisis unleashed by the pandemic and lockdowns, it may finally have found a way to do it.

https://www.newsclick.in/the-great-reset-davos-playbook-post-COVID-world

Farm Laws, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and the ‘Great India Reset’
The Modi government and India’s business elite are keen to embrace the World Economic Forum’s ambitious plans to shape the post-COVID world. However, the farmers’ protests may enforce a pause.

https://www.newsclick.in/farm-laws-atmanirbhar-bharat-great-indian-reset