-Outlook The government got Rs 65 crore by selling data of approximately 25 crore vehicle registrations and 15 crore driving licences. However, is selling this data legal? Is the data actually ‘public’? Isn't it intrusion on privacy? On July 8, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari responded to an unstarred question by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Husain Dalwai on details of data sold by the government “by providing access...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has initiated the process of installing an automated facial recognition system (AFRS) that will help identify persons by matching digital images, photos and video feeds with an existing Database, in a move that raises concerns over privacy. According to the request for proposal (RFP) document seeking open bids for an AFRS solution, the benefits include a robust system for identifying...

-The Hindu Business Line There has been a spike in income inequality in the post reforms period with wealth concentrated at the top deciles India has somehow nurtured a widely shared impression that it has a well established statistical system with reliable Databases compiled through effective methods of data collection through its network of central agencies and periodic nation-wide surveys. However, India is one of the very few countries which does not...

-TheWire.in Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan aims to implement the plan across the country in a year. New Delhi: The Centre has announced plans to roll out a ‘one nation, one ration card’ system which will aim to make sure that a beneficiary is able to avail herself of the Public Distribution System (PDS) – no matter which part of the country she may be in. The measure, intended primarily to benefit migrant...

-The Hindu The new GDP series has some methodological and sampling problems Former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian recently claimed in a paper that India’s GDP growth from 2011-12 to 2016-17 was likely to have been overestimated. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council has rejected this claim, stating that his paper would “not stand the scrutiny of academic or policy research standards”. In a conversation moderated by T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan, Pronab Sen...