Latest news with #Aadhaar
The Hindu
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
‘Nanna Guruthu' campaign in Mandya for rescued bonded labour
With the intention of ensuring all government facilities and benefits reach individuals rescued from bonded labour, a special campaign titled 'Nanna Guruthu' (My Identity) will be launched for the first time in Mandya district to provide 13 essential government documents. Presiding over a meeting on Friday, K.R. Nandini, Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchayat, directed officials to collect data of those who were rescued from bonded labour and submit a report within one month. She said that the date for the campaign would be finalised during a follow-up meeting scheduled for July. Ms. Nandini instructed officials to conduct a survey in every taluk, prepare a list of the landless and homeless, and create awareness among the community about the special campaign. She stressed the need to facilitate local level rehabilitation and provide an e-property account in addition to the 13 documents, which include Aadhaar card, birth certificate, caste and income certificate, e-Shram Card, ration card, voter ID, bank account, social security pension, PMJJBY (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana), PMSBY (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana), UDID Card (for persons with disabilities), MGNREGA Job Card and ABHA Card (Ayushman Bharat Health Account). District Planning Officer Dhanush, Zilla Panchayat deputy secretary Lakshmi, and officials from various departments were present at the meeting.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
AI needs to be open and inclusive like India Stack
Back in October 2024, I wrote on these pages of a group of 12-year-olds who had figured out an ingenious shortcut to finish their homework. Use 40% ChatGPT, 40% Google, and 20% of their own words. At first, it looked like cheating. But with the perspective of distance, I think it was something else entirely. Regulators in Europe are telling Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) not to use user data to train AI unless people clearly agree to it. (Shutterstock/ Representative photo) These children had understood a basic truth: in today's world, what matters most is the result. Not the process. Not the effort. Ask the right question and let the machine find the answer. Don't worry too much about what happens in between. This way of thinking isn't limited to schoolwork anymore, it's showing up in the way digital systems are being built world over—India included. Over the last few years, India has quietly built one of the most impressive pieces of technology. Between Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, CoWIN, Bhashini, and ONDC– collectively called IndiaStack– it is now used by millions of people. It helps people prove their identity, send money, download documents, get vaccinated, translate languages, and access other public services. But here's what makes India's system different from those in most other countries: it doesn't keep your data. In countries like the United States or across Europe, tech companies track what people do online. Every search, every click, every purchase is saved and studied. That information is then used to target ads, recommend content, and even train artificial intelligence systems. That is why The New York Times is now suing OpenAI (the builders of ChatGPT) — because its news articles were used to train a system without permission. This is why regulators in Europe are telling Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) not to use user data to train AI unless people clearly agree to it. In India, the rules—and the values—are different. The digital systems here were built with public money and designed to serve everyone. But they were not designed to spy on people. They were created to work quickly, fairly, and without remembering too much. Take Aadhaar. All it is built to do is prove a person is who the person claims to be. It cannot track where you go. Or DigiLocker. It doesn't keep copies of your CBSE marksheets, PAN cards, or insurance papers. It simply fetches these documents from the source when you ask. That's all. It's a messenger, not a filing cabinet. UPI moves money between people. But it doesn't remember what you spent it on. Long story short, these systems were built to function like light switches. They work when needed, and switch off when the job is done. The builders insisted it doesn't hold on to your personal information for longer than necessary. That's why India's digital model is being noticed around the world. It's open, fair, and inclusive. But now, with the rise of artificial intelligence, a new kind of problem is emerging. AI tools need a lot of data to learn how to speak, listen, write, or make decisions. In India, companies are beginning to train AI using public systems. Language tools learn from Bhashini. Health startups are using patterns from CoWIN to build diagnostic tools. Fintech firms are using transaction frameworks to refine how they give loans. This isn't illegal. It was even expected. These public systems were built to encourage innovation. But here's the problem: the public helped create these systems, and now private companies are using them to build powerful new tools—and may be making money from them. Yet the public might not see any of that value coming back. This is where the story of the 12-year-olds we started with, becomes relevant again. Just like those students who used machines to do most of the work, there's now a larger system that is also skipping the middle part. People provide the inputs—documents, payments, identities. The machines learn from them. And then private players build services or products that benefit from all that learning. The people who made it possible? They are left out of the conversation. In other countries, the debate is about privacy. In India, the debate must now shift to fairness. It's not about stopping AI. It's not about banning companies from using public tools. It's about asking for transparency and accountability. If a company is using data or tools from public systems to train its AI, it should say so clearly. If it benefits from public data, it should give something back—like sharing improved datasets, or allowing its models to be audited. If it's building a commercial product on public infrastructure, it should explain how it used that infrastructure in the first place. This is not regulation for the sake of it. It's basic respect for the public that made the system possible in the first place. India's digital platforms were built to serve everyone. They were not designed to store people's information, and that's what makes them special. But that openness can be misused if those who build on top of it forget where their foundations came from. It's easy to be dazzled by AI. But intelligence—human or machine—shouldn't come without responsibility. So here's the question worth asking: If the public built the digital tools, used them, trusted them, and helped them grow—why aren't they part of the rewards that artificial intelligence is now creating?
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
ASHA worker duped in ₹4 lakh scam, still believes fraudsters were ‘good people'
An ASHA worker from Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur fell prey to an elaborate lottery scam that left her not only financially devastated but also psychologically scarred. Pushpalata Jharia, 36, from the Bargi police station area, was lured by the promise of diamonds, gold, and a ₹ 10 lakh cash prize – a lie that spiralled into months of emotional manipulation, financial ruin, and a staged kidnapping. Pushpalata, who balances her role as a health worker with raising two children and supporting a husband doing odd jobs, had only ever believed that rewards came from hard work. But a single phone call in March changed the course of her life. The call came from a foreign number via a VPN line. The caller claimed Pushpalata had won a mega lottery but needed to pay a small processing fee to claim it. What began as a minor payment soon escalated into a string of transfers. The fraudsters kept her on the hook with repeated calls, threats, and false assurances. At one point, she was told her Aadhaar card had been discovered with a courier carrying her 'lottery prize' who had been arrested. Unless she paid more, they warned, she too could be in trouble. Trapped between fear and desperation, Pushpalata sent ₹ 4 lakh over a span of one and a half months. The money was sourced through loans from relatives and desperate pleas for help. 'She kept asking villagers and relatives for money. When we asked why, she said she was helping a relative,' her sister-in-law Asha Jharia told NDTV. 'Once, she even sent money using my daughter's phone. We begged her to stop — we barely had enough for ourselves.' On April 23, Pushpalata visited her maternal home. Three days later, she vanished, telling her family she was headed to Bargi but never returned. A missing person's report was filed on May 4. In reality, she had begun a lonely journey across several cities — Jabalpur, Mumbai, Surat, and Delhi — surviving on free meals, sleeping at stations, and taking up odd jobs. She would use borrowed phones to occasionally contact her family, all while continuing to send money to her unseen handlers. The fraudsters later forced her to record a distressing video. In it, Pushpalata is seen crying and pleading for help. The video was sent to her husband, along with a demand for ₹ 2 lakh. The threats were severe: if the money wasn't paid, her body would be 'chopped into pieces and thrown into the forest.' 'She got a call in March about some prize. Slowly she started sending money. Then one day, we got a video where she was crying, and it said she'd been kidnapped. We were terrified,' her daughter Poonam said. The incident left the family shaken. Pushpalata's mother approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court and filed a habeas corpus plea. On the court's orders, four police teams were assigned to trace her. The breakthrough came when Pushpalata made a call from a stolen phone in Greater Noida. Authorities traced the number and found her on a quiet Monday afternoon. 'She was physically weak and mentally disoriented,' CSP Anjul Mishra of Bargi was quoted by NDTV. 'She's still under the illusion that this was all part of a bigger plan and she will be rewarded in the end.' Even after her rescue, Pushpalata believes the fraudsters are 'good people' and that her prize is still real. Police officials have begun counselling her to help break the psychological hold of the scam. Investigators are now working to trace the digital footprint of the scam, which appears to originate from foreign servers. 'We received multiple audio messages with horrific abuse,' said Mishra. 'The kidnapping video came from a foreign source. The country hosting the IP is not cooperating, making it harder to trace the fraudsters.'
The Hindu
3 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Turmeric auction at Chithode regulated market to be held on Saturdays
The turmeric auction at the Chithode regulated market in Erode, which was previously held on Fridays, will now be conducted on Saturdays, starting June 20, 2025. Farmers across the district are encouraged to make use of this opportunity. A release from Erode District Collector Raja Gopal Sunkara stated that turmeric auctions are regularly conducted from Monday to Friday between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at four locations — the regulated markets in Perundurai and Erode, and the Agricultural Producers Cooperative Marketing Societies in Erode and Gobichettipalayam. Additionally, a dedicated regulated market facility with all necessary infrastructure has been established at Chithode exclusively for turmeric. Since April 14, 2025, auctions have been conducted there through the electronic National Agricultural Market platform. Based on requests from farmers, the auction that was previously held every Friday at Chithode will now be conducted every Saturday. Farmers are requested to sort their turmeric sacks by quality and variety, remove stones, soil, dust, and other impurities, and bring them to the market along with required documents such as a copy of their Aadhaar card and the front page of their bank passbook. Farmers in the district are encouraged to sell their turmeric at the Chithode regulated market, which operates from its own premises at Kannimarkadu in Nallagoundenpalayam, and get the benefits of this facility, the release added.
Mint
4 hours ago
- Mint
A phone call changed everything! Scamsters dupe ASHA worker of ₹4 lakh, she still believes they were ‘good people'
An ASHA worker from Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur fell prey to an elaborate lottery scam that left her not only financially devastated but also psychologically scarred. Pushpalata Jharia, 36, from the Bargi police station area, was lured by the promise of diamonds, gold, and a ₹ 10 lakh cash prize – a lie that spiralled into months of emotional manipulation, financial ruin, and a staged kidnapping. Pushpalata, who balances her role as a health worker with raising two children and supporting a husband doing odd jobs, had only ever believed that rewards came from hard work. But a single phone call in March changed the course of her life. The call came from a foreign number via a VPN line. The caller claimed Pushpalata had won a mega lottery but needed to pay a small processing fee to claim it. What began as a minor payment soon escalated into a string of transfers. The fraudsters kept her on the hook with repeated calls, threats, and false assurances. At one point, she was told her Aadhaar card had been discovered with a courier carrying her 'lottery prize' who had been arrested. Unless she paid more, they warned, she too could be in trouble. Trapped between fear and desperation, Pushpalata sent ₹ 4 lakh over a span of one and a half months. The money was sourced through loans from relatives and desperate pleas for help. 'She kept asking villagers and relatives for money. When we asked why, she said she was helping a relative,' her sister-in-law Asha Jharia told NDTV. 'Once, she even sent money using my daughter's phone. We begged her to stop — we barely had enough for ourselves.' On April 23, Pushpalata visited her maternal home. Three days later, she vanished, telling her family she was headed to Bargi but never returned. A missing person's report was filed on May 4. In reality, she had begun a lonely journey across several cities — Jabalpur, Mumbai, Surat, and Delhi — surviving on free meals, sleeping at stations, and taking up odd jobs. She would use borrowed phones to occasionally contact her family, all while continuing to send money to her unseen handlers. The fraudsters later forced her to record a distressing video. In it, Pushpalata is seen crying and pleading for help. The video was sent to her husband, along with a demand for ₹ 2 lakh. The threats were severe: if the money wasn't paid, her body would be 'chopped into pieces and thrown into the forest.' 'She got a call in March about some prize. Slowly she started sending money. Then one day, we got a video where she was crying, and it said she'd been kidnapped. We were terrified,' her daughter Poonam said. The incident left the family shaken. Pushpalata's mother approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court and filed a habeas corpus plea. On the court's orders, four police teams were assigned to trace her. The breakthrough came when Pushpalata made a call from a stolen phone in Greater Noida. Authorities traced the number and found her on a quiet Monday afternoon. 'She was physically weak and mentally disoriented,' CSP Anjul Mishra of Bargi was quoted by NDTV. 'She's still under the illusion that this was all part of a bigger plan and she will be rewarded in the end.' Even after her rescue, Pushpalata believes the fraudsters are 'good people' and that her prize is still real. Police officials have begun counselling her to help break the psychological hold of the scam. Investigators are now working to trace the digital footprint of the scam, which appears to originate from foreign servers. 'We received multiple audio messages with horrific abuse,' said Mishra. 'The kidnapping video came from a foreign source. The country hosting the IP is not cooperating, making it harder to trace the fraudsters.' Authorities continue their efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice while helping Pushpalata regain her footing after a harrowing ordeal that nearly cost her everything.
