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Information Technology

::The Non Politics of Outrage::

We need a white paper on the extensive data markets that currently exist in India We are witnessing mass outrage over certain actions or non-actions of Facebook (FB) and a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica (CA), regarding the use of personal data for political messaging during the U.S. presidential elections. But digging into the issue, it is difficult to see what is really novel in the current disclosures that was previously not known. It is also unclear why the facts that these disclosures centre on are more important than many other well-known facts about the underlying issue of data, digital controls and exploitation. It is not evident what the real concerns underlying the outrage are. And lastly, there is the important question of what it really means for countries such as India.

CA’s role in the U.S. elections has been known for quite some time. So now after a whistle-blower’s account and an undercover investigation, if those responsible for data and digital policies behave as if any of this is news to them, it is either disingenuous or unacceptably naive and incompetent.

As FB has clarified, the only illegal element here is that a research company transferred data to CA against FB policies. But both the company concerned and FB itself could have legitimately used the same user data for the same purpose of psychometrics-based micro-targeted political messaging for any of their paying clients. What exactly do we then have a problem with? Just with violation of FB’s policies, or with psychometrics-based political messaging and the collective national damage that it causes? Is it, for instance, alright if FB itself did similar things for its paying clients, which it has provisions for?

Digital controls

Meddling in elections is a most serious issue, but there are other equally important data-centric threats — from complete data-based control over all activities and actors in a sector by platform companies (think Uber, but the process will soon reach as afar as agriculture and manufacturing) to that of actual informational warfare, by name, which can wreck countries. Interestingly, CA’s parent company also offers data-intelligence services to militaries, and indeed countries such as the U.S. have extensive informational warfare projects based on social media and other micro-informational sources for various countries. Global digital companies such as Microsoft and Google are known to cooperate closely with the American establishment, and, when insisted upon, prioritise the latter’s interests even over their own economic ones.

Developing countries like India must realise that they do not have the kind of leverage that the U.S. or even the European Union (EU) have over global data giants, and will never have it, whatever be their boasts. A specific privacy shield arrangement with the U.S., for instance, ensures special protection just to EU data in the U.S. All data collected in India and transported abroad (data laws being nearly non-existent), on the other hand, remain largely out of our control or influence.

As this data gets converted into digitally-intelligent services in all sectors — from transport, commerce and tourism, to education and health, to agriculture and manufacturing, we are getting structurally sucked into foreign-controlled digital value chains from which any attempts to escape may soon become too difficult and costly. At that stage, whether they influence and control our elections, or economics, or culture, or internal and external security, manoeuvring space for resistance will be limited. All these data-based controls need to be seen as of one kind, and common strategies urgently devised for India to remain free — free not just in the much-vaunted “consumer choice” sense, which is mostly the Trojan Horse, but also free collectively, as a nation and a community.

It may sound rhetorical but such is the vastness and depth of new global digital controls that digital freedom from them is becoming close to being as important as freedom from physical and legal controls was in the middle of the 20th century.

Political response needed

First of all, we need to recognise the ignored collective aspects of data, and the potential of collective damage or gains from it, which the CA issue most clearly demonstrates — and focus on the related concepts of collective (not just personal) data protection and collective data rights and ownership. The current exercise by the Srikrishna Committee on data protection seems centred entirely on personal data rights, which is insufficient.

Considering it of strategic value, India is currently devising regulation for digital geospatial data, putting many public interest checks on its various uses, including it being taken abroad. The problem is, even from a security point of view, geodata is perhaps no longer the most strategic. Social data of various kinds and sectors may be of greater strategic value. Advanced militaries like in the U.S., Russia and China know this and are investing in large-scale informational warfare and insurgency projects. Evidently, all or much of Indian social data, in various sectors, including even granular data of consumer behaviour (which provides much detailed psychometric information with cross-sectoral application) need some protections, although of varying kinds taking into account legitimate economic and global integration issues.

As with geospatial information, all critical data and digital intelligence about various sectors must be designated as collective national assets, and the collective rights to them instituted. This does not mean that all such data will necessarily be prevented from being taken abroad, or being used by foreign companies. It basically means an enabling cover of jurisprudence and political economy being thrown over such data, which ensures assertion of collective rights to it, and, where needed, the corresponding laws and regulation.

Platform companies such as FB, Amazon and Uber are key sites of data collection and expropriation, and its conversion into digital intelligence (to influence elections, or whatever else they wish to do). They form the intelligence infrastructures of the sectors concerned, acting like their “brains”. Such platform companies, when exceeding certain data sizes, need to be closely regulated like utility companies.

Within such a cross-cutting framework of data laws, regulation and policies, specific sectors need their own regulation. In the case of election manipulation, for instance, rather than just giving notice to CA to explain matters, it will be much more appropriate to route the current outrage to undertaking a thorough assessment of the role of digital data in elections over the last few years in India, and presenting it to the nation.

Forget CA and FB, an extensive data market with data brokers exists in India as everywhere else, and almost all important data of Indians can be bought in this market. Even in the case of CA and the U.S. elections, apparently only a seventh of the budget that CA spent on acquiring personal data was used for FB data that is currently under micro-examination. Where was the remaining 85% of the money spent? CA’s chief executive officer has claimed that it had “profiled the personality of every adult in the United States of America — 220 million people” which is considerably more that the 50 million profiles being reported as harvested from FB in the current controversy.

Compulsory reporting

Is the Indian government willing to come up with a white paper on such extensive data markets that also exist in India? The U.S. is considering legislation for compulsory reporting of all social media-related spendings by political agencies, which is also a good area for India to explore.

A data-based digital society and economy are a completely new reality. The question is, are we as a nation ready to develop the needed political response to it? The biggest roadblock in this necessary direction is the same upper middle-class that is currently outraged on the CA issue, but resists due regulation of the digital sector because it threatens its hyper consumptive culture and runs counter to its anti-political biases. It still wants to savour for some more time the utopian dream that the Internet finally delivers them of governments.

(Source- Written by Parminder Jeet Singh published in The Hindu)

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Sample Material of Current Public Administration Magazine

Law and Order Administration

::A Law without Parliament::

Euthanasia (the passive killing of a suffering person) is prohibited in the US, England and France. Bills which were introduced in their legislatures were defeated. In the US, courts upheld the ban on medical-aided killing. In 1972, a bill was introduced in Parliament to amend the Indian Penal Code by deleting Section 309 (attempt to suicide) but it lapsed and no one has dared since then to introduce another. Also, no one has contemplated to implement the 42nd Report of the Law Commission, which suggested that attempt to suicide not be treated as a crime under Section 309.

A five-member Constitution Bench in the Gian Kaur case (1996) held that the right to life did not include the right to die. Thus, it overruled the two-judge decision in the Ratinam case, that an attempt to suicide would be treated as a crime under the penal code. The judges presided over by Justice Verma, after perusing the UK’s Airedale case, had held that “the desirability of bringing about such a change was considered to be the function of the legislature by enacting a suitable law providing therein adequate safeguards to prevent any possible abuse”. The bench unanimously held that even physician-assisted suicide had no rational basis to claim exclusion from the fundamental principles of sanction of life. It quoted, with approval, the English courts’ rationale that euthanasia was not lawful under common law and Parliament was the supreme authority to deal with it.

However, earlier this month, another five-judge bench has ruled for passive killing in cases of terminally ill patients. Why should suffering be “carried forward” when there is no cure? A person should, in advance, make a testamentary declaration, which is to be endorsed by a judicial magistrate (who are otherwise heavily loaded in their judicial work), wherein the person will unambiguously state that in case she/he becomes incurably ill, she/he would not like to be in a “vegetative state” and should be allowed to die with dignity.
This five-judge bench followed the two-judge bench’s direction in Aruna Shanbaug case, delivered by Justice Markandey Katju, which promoted the concept of euthanasia by carving out a novel path for medically-aided killing. This was fervently opposed by the then Attorney General of India, who argued for the government that euthanasia had not been accepted by Indians.

The SC was bound to follow judicial precedent from the Gian Kaur case — delivered by Justice Verma for five judges —which categorically held that Article 21 does not include the right to die. Unnatural termination of life is incompatible and incongruous with the concept of right to life. Thus, Article 21 guarantees protection of life “which cannot be construed so as to read therein right to die”. The right to life under Article 21 has to be construed as life with human dignity. This aspect — what makes life dignified — has to be read into and explored, but not to the degree of including that which extinguishes life, effacing the right itself.

Interestingly, the smaller bench in the Shanbaug case, taking note of the low ethical standards, raw and widespread commercialisation and the rampant corruption in the country, said courts needed to be cautious while deciding such matters. The SC judges have expressed, many times, that they are not experts in various fields, including medicine and healthcare. The guidelines in the current verdict pertain to how doctors will be assessed. But there is no mechanism to certify the reputation of the doctor nor has Union health ministry made any regulations regarding such a practice.

The Supreme Court took over the functions of Parliament and has made this a judicial legislation, which will prevail till Parliament legislates. Laws have to be made by Parliament and the courts strictly have to interpret the law, and not legislate. Should the apex court have sailed into uncharted waters and ruled where there is no Parliament-made legislation?

(Source- Written by D N Goburdhun published in The Indian Express)

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(Sample Article) 63. A Safe City Approach to Urban Sustainability: Developing a Framework for Community Resilience

CHANDRANI BANDYOPADHYAY AND P. J. PHILIP

INTRODUCTION

THE HISTORY of mankind traces the intrinsic relationship of human endurance and natural phenomenon. Favourable natural conditions facilitated growth of great civilisations while extreme natural events or disasters often resulted in their destruction. The fall of Indus Valley and Minoan civilisations are attributed to natural disasters. Even today, disasters cause extensive devastation all over the world, causing death, injuries, destruction of assets and devastation of economies and livelihoods. Even today, disasters cause huge devastation; on an average the global cost of disasters exceeded about US$ 100 million per year over the last decade (United Nations System Task Team, 2012). The Nepal Earthquake of 25 April 2015 which killed an estimated 8000 people has caused losses that .will take decades for the nation to recover from Just as disasters form an intrinsic part of human society, urbanisation has been its hallmark over the ages. Urban settlements evolved out of people’s needs for protection and security; or as centres of trade, storage of surplus produce, defence, religion or entertainment on the basis of a diversified economic base. The term “city” therefore implies a “concentration of people in a given geographic area who support themselves on a fairly permanent basis from the economic activities of the area” (Gallion & Eisner, 1986). Through history, cities of the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Aegean and mainland Greece emerged as centres of power, culture, aesthetics, trade, communication, and learning. Rapid urbanisation has been the hallmark of demographic growth in the 20 Century. The world urban population has increased rapidly from 228 million to 2.8 billion during the 20 th Century and is expected to go up to five billion by 2030 (United Nations Population Fund, 2007). In 2008, the urban population equaled the rural and is expected to grow rapidly in future, led primarily by Africa and Asia.

Urbanisation and Urban Risks are Inexorably Linked

• The inevitable trend of urbanisation has both positive and negative connotations. As centres of economic activities, governance and trade, cities push economic growth of the region. Along with the development, cities also concentrate on issues of poverty, inequality, environmental damage and social disruption. However, the solutions to these issues also emerge from cities themselves, the advantages thus utweighing the disadvantages (United Nations Population Fund, 2007). The effort should be aimed towards promoting urban sustainability from its very outset. The urban landscape is highly vulnerable to disasters of various nature and intensities. Cities located in hazard-prone areas become more vulnerable due to overlapping of physical and socio-economic factors like unsafe housing, uncontrolled use of land, high population densities, lack of access of resources and unsafe livelihoods. Most major cities of the world are located in coastal regions or near river deltas, thus increasing their risk of hydro-meteorological disasters. Rapidly expanding cities are continuously creating new risks and challenges for disaster risk reduction. Increasing urbanisation, especially in Asia and Africa translate into habitation in unsafe areas like river flood plains, unstable slopes and coastlines, thus ensuring greater exposure to hazards. Most often, it is the poor and first-generation migrants who reside in these unstable sites, their risk compounded by their poverty, informal livelihoods, lack of access to services and financial backup.
• The vulnerability of urban settlements arises from their inherent complexities and variations in built-form, socio-economic conditions and empowerment of citizens. About one billion people live in poor quality housing and slums in urban areas across the world, which is expected to grow to 1.4 billion by 2020 if stringent measures are not taken to reverse the trend (IFRC, 2010). A huge segment of urban dwellers remains vulnerable to risks. In addition to housing, massive deficits in provision of water and sanitation facilities are characteristics of many urban areas in middle and low income nations. Populations already exposed to these risks and recurrent small-level hazards like drainage congestion and waterlogging, pest infestation andvector-borne diseases become more vulnerable to catastrophic events and may lose the capacity to recover for decades (Dickson et al, 2012). Eight out of the 10 most populous cities in the world are exposed to seismic risks and most of the 30 Asian mega-cities are coastal, vulnerable to floods, cyclones, tsunamis. The concentration of population, housing, infrastructure, economic and socio-cultural activities, trade, commerce and governance in cities aggravate disaster risks so that even a moderate hazard event can cause a huge impact that can have global implications. The Tohuku Earthquake of 2011, with an estimated loss of 210-300 billion USD was the “costliest catastrophe ever” (Sundermann et al., Swiss Re 2013).

Dimensions of Urban Risk in India

• The Indian urban scenario is characterised by high growth rate and primacy of cities. India’s urban population has increased from 25.85 million in 1901 to 377.2 million in 2011, an increase in share from 10.84 per cent to 31.2 per cent during the same period. This exponential urban growth has been marked by huge concentration of population in metropolitancentres leading to a top-heavy urbanisation process. Out of a total of 7935 urban centres, 468 Class I cities (each with a population exceeding 100,000) accommodates 70.24 per cent of urban population, leaving only 29.76 per cent spread over 7467 smaller towns. 42.62 per cent of urban dwellers reside in 53 million plus cities that occupy 0.2 per cent of the land area (IIHS, 2011). Rapidly increasing urban population and top-heavy urban morphology have led to a complex system of risks and vulnerability. Concentration of population, assets and economic activities characterise large Indian cities, making them the densest and vulnerable cities of the world. The implication of this growth manifests in sub-urbanisation, unplanned development, inadequate urban infrastructure and services. Unsafe buildings and locations, informal livelihoods and environmental deterioration further exacerbate urban risks and vulnerability.
• Physical, social, economic and environmental dimensions combine to form complex risk scenarios in cities. The physical dimension of urban risks relate to the vulnerability of built form. About 39.9 per cent of total census houses in India have mud, stone or unburnt brick walls, which are vulnerable to very high damage from earthquakes, high winds and cyclones and floods. Burnt brick walls constitute 44.9 per cent of all houses, with high to medium vulnerability to disasters. Relatively stronger concrete and wood walls make up only 3.9 per cent of all houses thereby pointing to the severe vulnerability of built structures. In terms of roofs, light weight sloping roofs (34.8%) are less vulnerable than heavy weight sloping roofs (31.4%). In predominantly urban Delhi, 4.3 per cent houses with weak walls of unburnt brick, mud or stone show high vulnerability to earthquakes, strong wind of velocity 47m/s and floods. 91.7 per cent of houses have moderately vulnerable burnt brick walls, with medium vulnerability while only two percent have concrete or wood walls and another 1.9 per cent has walls of other materials, both showing medium to low vulnerability (Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council, 2006).
• Socio-economic implications of risk are complex factors of migration, unsafe livelihoods, poverty, lack of access to public amenities and services. In addition to housing, massive deficits in provision of water and sanitation facilities are characteristics of many urban areas in middle and low income nations. 23.5 per cent of urban population lives in slums, revealing not only critical “shelter poverty” but also lack of basic urban services like water, sanitation and solid waste management. It is estimated that 23 million children under 14 years across Indian cities and towns are at risk from poor sanitation and eight million are at risk from poor water supply (High Powered Expert Committee, 2011).
• Urban environmental risks arise from the complex interactions between the physical and social systems over space. Most major cities of the worldare located in coastal regions or near river deltas, thus increasing their risk of hydro-meteorological disasters. Rapid urbanisation has exposed more people to natural hazards by way of habitation on river flood plains, unstable slopes and coastlines. Urban form influences the urban ecosystem in terms of heat island effect, emission patterns and energy demand. Rapid urban transformation of the world combined with a changing climate is fast changing the risk profile of cities. Though long-term changes in trends of losses from disasters are not directly attributed to natural and anthropogenic climate change, it nevertheless adds additional dimensions of risk in an already complex urban system (Jha et al, 2013). Climate change implications of temperature and precipitation increase, sea level rise, intense cyclones have serious bearing on the risk of cities (Dodman, 2009,Dickson et al, 2012). While sea level rise and storm surges threaten coastal habitats and infrastructure, excess and intense precipitation causes higher frequency of flooding, urban landslides, road sinking, vector-borne diseases and epidemics, extreme heat and cold wave leads to higher morbidity and mortality, heat island effect, increased energy demand, water and air pollution, thereby adding to the complexity of risk scenario. The low and middle income nations are estimated to be most affected by climate change impacts (IFRC, 2010). An adaptive, inclusive, responsive and redundant approach to build urban resilience is imperative for risk-sensitive urban development (Jha et al 2013).

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