-The Hindu Imperative to collect and analyse data in such cases India calls them its future. But as lakhs of children are kidnapped across the country each year, pushed into sex or organ trade or bonded labour, precious little is being done to find and restore them to their parents. For these children, it is living through the worst nightmare. Getting lost in markets and seeing strange faces all around may put a...

Contrary to the claims of the UIDAI, fingerprints are a highly inappropriate tool to uniquely identify individuals. Case 1: “There are nine checks on visa nationals arriving into the U.K. [United Kingdom]. The fingerprint matching check is the most recent. It is the least reliable. It is the least effective in terms of delivering against our requirements….” So stated Brodie Clark, the former head of the United Kingdom Border Force, to a...

In a controversial move that threatens to increase the intrusion by the state into the lives of ordinary citizens, the UPA government is set to introduce a DNA Profiling Bill in the winter session of Parliament. Once it becomes a law, the bill will grant the authority to collect vast amount of sensitive DNA data of citizens even if they are "suspects" in a criminal case. The data will be...

A World Health Organisation agency evaluates electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones for carcinogenicity. THERE has been a dramatic increase in the use of the mobile phone worldwide since its introduction in the mid-1980s. According to the estimate of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), currently there are about five billion mobile phone subscribers globally. In the past decade or so, there has been growing concern about the possibility of adverse health effects,...

-DNA   West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee today expressed dismay at the piled up files and papers strewn in the Food department headquarters and asked officials to prepare a computer database of all papers, documents and files. During her sudden visit to the 'Khadya Bhavan' (food department headquarters) on Mirza Ghalib street, the chief minister met officers and employees and sought to know the system by which the applications for ration cards...