Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray took oath as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) on Monday afternoon. This is the first time a Sena chief has become a member of the state legislature and the second from the Thackeray clan after his son Aaditya Thackeray.
Thackeray was one among the nine candidates belonging to the ruling coalition of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an alliance comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party who were declared elected unopposed to the council last week.
The other eight new members of the council are Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe, NCP’s Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari, Congress’s Rajesh Rathod and BJP’s Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke and Ramesh Karad.
The CM was accompanied by his wife Rashmi and son Aaditya at the oath ceremony held in the Central Hall of the state legislature.
Thackeray’s election to the House was crucial for him to continue as the CM, as he had to fulfil the constitutional requirement of becoming a member of either of the Houses before May 27– six months from the day he took oath as the chief minister.
Shiv Sena MP and party secretary Vinayak Raut said, “All Shiv Sainiks are proud that their leader is taking oath as a legislator today. The state has got good leadership.”
Fourteen candidates were in the fray for the elections to the council, but subsequently four candidates — two each from the BJP and NCP — withdrew their nominations and an independent candidate’s nomination was rejected in scrutiny.
With the election on the nine seats of the upper house pushed back because of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), political uncertainty loomed over the state on how to get Thackeray elected to the council.
Uddhav Thackeray is judged very early and came under attack on several occasions since he has taken oath as Chief Minister of Maharashtra. When he was in alliance with BJP and when he broke alliance, both the times he actually gave sleepless nights to various leaders. As one leader, who might not have contested elections or held any portfolios as a political leader, but politics is what he lived ever since he was growing. His father Balasaheb Thackeray needs no introduction. Balasaheb and Uddhav Thackeray are very close to the people of Maharashtra, they are in tune with the citizens and know Maharashtra farmers and what the state needs. They are grass root level leaders who have been loved by most of the people of this soil. In spite all odds that has come his way after taking oath as Chief Minister, he is doing excellent work. Most of the people who are criticizing him are either non-Maharashtrian, sitting at home watching biased news channels, reading fake news on WhatsApp and commenting about his leadership on social media. Or they are those IT cell members who are only assigned to criticize him because he has crushed the ego of all those people who were claiming their return to power. People who live in Maharashtra know him very well and I am one of them. It’s not about only Marathi people but every Maharashtrian resident and others who lived here for long. As far as Maha Vikas Aghadi is concerned, it’s a lethal combination in the political plethora. Congress and NCP have ruled the state for longest time and both have experience in ruling Maharashtra as a state. Shiv Sena has manpower and dedicated workers, especially Uddhav has a very engrossed desire to make positive difference to the state and its people.
Look at his media briefings every alternate day, biggest city in India is completely under lockdown and he reaches people with so much affection and love. We the Mumbaikar feel like listening to him because his tone is always modest, the way he makes his point about the safety or other concerns it sounds like he is one of the family members who has immense concern for his people. If we compare COVID-19 cases in Mumbai with other cities around the world with same number of population then you will come to know that he is doing great work. For Example, let’s take New York City, population of New York City is half of that of Mumbai and cases in NYC are 200,000+. Now let’s talk about Mumbai Population, it’s around 2 Crore+ and the cases are 6000–7000 and doubling rate is increasing too. Mumbai is city which has highest population density, but still cases are under control. This problem is not state created, its global issue and my state government is doing its best address this pandemic. So, what is the point is criticizing Uddhav when he is doing his best in such a crisis. Trust me, CM Uddhav doesn’t lack leadership skills, he is protecting Maharashtra very well. Sometime do listen to his media briefings and you will understand. Uddhav Thackrey is doing a great job considering he has no past knowledge of administration work. Instead of blaming him for the greatest number of cases in Maharashtra, the decisions he has taken that have considerably helped the city and state to control the spread. It would really be premature to form opinion about Uddhav and declare him a failure as his tenure as Maharashtra CM has started just a few months back.
As soon as Mumbai came across COVID-19 cases, all schools and colleges were shut down on 13th March. Mumbai local trains, which are considered as lifeline of Mumbai were shut down before 20th March. Before Maharashtra even crossed 50 COVID-19 cases, all offices were shut down and administration offices were working at 5% attendance. He increased the Shiv-Bhojan thali (lunch) from 20000 to 100000 in short time and that too at Rs 5 for poor people. Maharashtra state has done most number of testing in the country which counts approximately more than 20% of the total testing in India. He announced complete lockdown of state before Prime Minister of India did. He takes daily conferences to ensure people of government actions and requests the citizens to take care. He ensured migrant workers of daily food and free testing and pledged to take their care until the crises is resolved. He has excellent understanding and is in constant contact with the Prime Minister and home minister of the country. He has also played down the incidents which would have disturbed harmony by revealing the truth behind it and has warned that if someone tries to disturb harmony or cause religious tension then he would not spare them. Citizens harmonious existence in the state is one of his top priorities in battling this pandemic. The current pandemic requires collective responsibility, be it the respective state governments and the central government collectively or we as citizens at an individual level. So Uddhav may be new CM without any prior experience but you also have to keep in mind that his party, the Shiv Sena is in power for the last 27+ years in nations financial capital. And mind you Mumbai despite being a city has a budget higher than Goa and Sikkim. So, his party men who are in the cabinet and also in various posts at the different levels of the administration are well experienced. Though as I have earlier mentioned, that there have been shortcomings but today the time is not to complain but to collectively work to fight against this crisis. If Uddhav had not taken these decisions early there would have been more cases compared to the number of positive cases that are found in Gujarat and other states. I am pleasantly surprised at the way Uddhav Thackeray has managed the State so far. His past record as a Successful Organization Man with a decent Electoral performance record, but his Administrative Performance was not tested for let’s say lack of opportunity. But the way he has steered the State administrative machinery at the most difficult and challenging hour needs to be acknowledged and the positively spirited efforts are definitely worth applauding. His major asset has been his degree of humility as the Sena Supremo because he is instinctively compared to his late Illustrious and charismatic father and second with his hot-headed cousin Raj Thackeray. One hopes he rides this crisis through successfully and delivers on the crucial front of economic growth for the State.
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Amid lockdown, when wine shops were closed and liquor was unavailable, some vendors have turned it into an opportunity to supply quota to booze seekers on higher prices. An average beer was available for 500 rupees to 1000, but the addiction and craving, boost the back marketing.
Now, as government has allowed wine and beer shop owners to fine tune their arrangements to launch a mechanism for home delivering Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) amid the lockdown owing to the novel coronavirus. As far as home delivery is concerned, once the mechanism is approved by the excise wing, phone numbers will be displayed outside the shop, hopefully in 2 to 3 days. Moreover, payment-on-delivery options will be offered to negate any type of fraud. After a dry spell of nearly two months, an order was recently issued, allowing home delivery of IMFL spirits, beer and wines to permit holders in accordance with a series of guidelines and norms inked by the government authorities for specific zones tagged by the district administration in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three days after the state permitted home delivery of alcohol to avoid overcrowding outside liquor shops, 5,434 orders were placed in Maharashtra, the first day. Of this, 88 per cent of the orders were received from the districts of Nagpur and Latur.
State Excise Commissioner Kantilal Umap told AV, “There is huge demand still, out of all the orders in Maharashtra Nagpur alone accounted for 2,700 orders. Latur saw another 2,100 orders being placed.” Almost 95 per cent of the orders were for purchase of hard liquor, he added.
Deepa Wine shop owner in Kandivali stated that “We had enough stock and many has asked us for back door supply on higher prices, but we refrained doing so. In Mumbai, many shops did great business during lockdown, it was risky but one should know managing it all is not difficult”. Even authorities need their quota.
Prashant Satam, a BMC worker told AV, “See this ban and restrictions is just eye wash, Gujrat and Bihar like dry states have heavy sell of liquor, the supply reaches to desired persons. This is Mumbai, people know where to go and what to get, yes the prices are high but still craving is greater than all other equations.”
While retail liquor shops are now running in 26 of the 36 districts in the state, home delivery orders in other areas were few and far between on the first day. “It is still early days. There were some teething issues. In some mofussil areas, wine and beer shops had difficulty in locating a doctor who can issue fitness certificates to the delivery boys. In some other cases, shop owners said they have found it difficult to recruit additional staff,” said Umap, adding the activity is being monitored at the district level.
A senior state official said the first day’s trend was on expected lines. “We expect home deliveries to be a more popular option in the cities. In semi urban and rural belts, where there is not much crowding, we feel people will prefer going to shops,” the official said.
The excise department is hoping that stores in Mumbai are allowed to resume liquor sales soon. “Home deliveries should pick up a lot of more once Mumbai and other municipal corporations in Mumbai Metropolitan Region allow the same,” said a senior official.
Parbhani, another district that is yet to allow liquor shops to open, has decided to only permit home deliveries from May 18. The local administration has made prior registrations mandatory for all those who want to place orders. Till Friday evening, records show that 4,935 liquor vends – 530 wine shops, 2,129 beer shops and 1,938 country liquor shops – were operational in the state.
During lockdown when liquor and cigarette shops were closed, the business of the same went up. Many bar owners and shopkeepers delivered liquor on high demand with high prices. Imagine, if dry cities like Gujarat and Bihar can have flow of alcohol in the states, how can city like Mumbai even imagine that people will not have access to the same. Mumbai, a Covid-19 hotspot, with booze loving people ridiculed all the norms. Somehow the delivery was done to the cravers. Remember, alcohol is one thing which one can buy or bribe even authorities. The nationwide lockdown has also forced tipplers in the city to shell out a lot of money to buy liquor in the black market. Liquor shops had downed their shutters since the nationwide lockdown started on March 25 but their back doors were operational. For instance, a regular whiskey bottle usually available for say Rs 1,000 is sold in the black market for Rs 2,500. A can of beer of a renowned brand which is sold for Rs 100, is now getting sold for Rs 500-600 for a can. A many of my friends told me that they approached their regular vendor for alcohol over the phone, initially they refused but then quoted a higher price of Rs 7,000 for the same alcohol bottle which they used to buy for Rs 3,500 before the lockdown. In spite 50 percent salary, pending car and house loans and many other challenges people purchased liquor because that is the only way out to their stress or is a lifestyle necessity. Finally, one fine morning Government opened the shops to public but due to blatant flouting of social distancing rules, the government was prompted to shut the shops once again. Police baton charged unruly buyers. When cities eased the relentless lockdown last week to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, longest of queues were seen outside liquor shops across the country.
The manic rush was not surprising as the harsh lockdown meant there was a pent-up demand for booze. Rather there have been reports of a spike in alcohol sales around the world: in the UK sales were up by 22% in March and in the US, they have risen 55% compared to the same period last year. Selling alcohol has never been easy in India. E-commerce and home deliveries are not allowed. Many state governments have turned against booze because prohibition is a potential vote winner. Each of the 29 states has its own policies to control the production, price, sale and taxes on booze. By volume, India is the world’s second-largest consumer of alcohol after China, according IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, a London-based research firm. India consumes more than 663 million liters of alcohol, and numbers spiked up by 11% from 2017. The per-capita consumption is rising as India consumes more whiskey than any other country in the world – about three times more than the US, which is the next biggest consumer. Nearly one in every two bottles of whiskey brought around the world is now sold in India. When worldwide booze consumption dipped in 2018, India actually partly drove a 7% uptick in the global whiskey market.
Five southern states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala account for more than 45% of all liquor sold in India. Not surprisingly, more than 10% of their revenues come from taxes on liquor sales, according to the research wing of CRISIL, a ratings and analytics firm. Moreover, given the higher number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, the industry body said that if the government is unable to open liquor shops, it should at least allow online delivery of alcohol. West Bengal and Meghalaya have already started the online delivery of alcohol. However, wine shop owners have a different say on the online delivery. Online delivery in Maharashtra is not possible, it will create nuisance for the citizens since liquors will be easily available at the door step 24*7 and will be available without official drinking permits where youths would be easily carried away if alcohol deliveries will reach easily at their doorstep.
Taxes from alcohol sales roughly form a quarter of state revenues and is a strong contributor to the economical flow. If this stream suddenly stops, states have to compulsorily cut some important spending. Investors shy away and so do tourists. Eventually, states give up and liquor flows freely again. On 12 April, a video of a young man distributing free whisky to daily-wage workers in Hyderabad went viral on social media. The man, identified simply as Kumar, later told a news agency that he wanted to help out people suffering from alcohol withdrawal symptoms. On 14 April, WHO’s regional office for Europe called for restrictions on alcohol access during the lockdown. “At times of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol consumption can exacerbate health vulnerability, risk-taking behaviors, mental health issues and violence,” it said in a press note. But those who are addicted to the lifestyle of having liquor actually suffered more due to non-availability of the same.
In India, alcoholic beverages are classified as “food” under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The lockdown however, has seen liquor vends closed, with the “wine-cellars” in grocery stores stocking alcohol also is off limits. As the country completes what is possibly its first dry month, the unavailability of liquor has had two major repercussions: on health and government revenue. First- the condition of addicts. Nearly 57 million Indians are addicted to alcohol, according to a 2019 study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Acute withdrawal symptoms can manifest as seizures, delirium, aggressive behavior and can even be fatal. In the first week of the lockdown, nine people in Kerala who were reportedly addicted to liquor committed suicide. By the second week, six in Tamil Nadu had died after trying to substitute alcohol with after-shaves and varnish. Media reports suggest production of home-made liquor like rice beer or toddy has increased in rural areas while a grey market for bottled liquor has mushroomed in urban areas. Some of them add that bottled alcohol is being sold at twice its rate in parts of Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
Second- The states have lost a large chunk of revenue. The alcoholic beverage industry accounts for 15-30% of liquor-selling state’s earnings, according to the International Spirits & Wine Association of India (ISWAI), which represents some of the country’s largest liquor manufacturers. In 2019-20 ISWAI claims, the states earned ₹2.5 trillion in taxes from alcohol sales. In their efforts to get the states to ease restrictions, industry stakeholders argue that liquor tax money can be used to fight the pandemic. But fact is that doing away with alcohol altogether would prove too costly for the economy. With zero turnover, the industry stares at a loss of ₹30,000-40,000 crore, not to discount loss of jobs in manufacturing units, transportation, distribution and retail. While exact employment figures are not available, some states have started feeling the pinch. By the third week of April, West Bengal, Karnataka and Delhi were reportedly considering “partial loosening” of alcohol curbs for immediate revenue generation, some by allowing home delivery. Before any government announces a ban like this, they must inform people in advance. More importantly, enough services should be made available to give the (addicts) treatment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown with sudden 4-hour notice which took millions of citizens by surprise. And now this unplanned lockdown has left a huge trail of damage on all fronts and irreparable human losses by all means.
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Know what all happened in 36 days of Maharashtra politics, why Devendra Fadnavis had to give up and how Uddhav Thackeray became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
A political thriller and interesting saga penned-down by author and journalist Mr Kamlesh Sutar, titled as ’36 Days: A Political Chronicle of Ambition, Deception, Trust and Betrayal’ published by Rupa Publications.
A Political thriller about the most dramatic 36 Days of Maharashtra Politics.
This is fourth time that the Maharashtra government has taken decision to extend lockdown by another 15 days. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Balasaheb Thorat, Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai and Ashok Chavan collectively took the decision at a meeting. The official notification regarding the extension of lockdown in Maharashtra is likely to come on Friday.
The nationwide shutdown was first enforced from March 25 to April 21 and has been extended twice. The third phase of the lockdown will end on May 17 but Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated on Tuesday that it will continue with guidelines even beyond the given date. He said the fourth phase of the lockdown will be very different from the earlier three phases. Maharashtra is the worst-hit state in the country with 27,524 COVID-19 cases and 1,019 deaths. Mumbai alone accounts for 16,579 cases and 621 deaths. With Mumbai and Pune being two of the most affected regions in the country, now the state government is thinking about the extension. Both the regions form the backbone of the state’s economy as well as play a key role in Indian economic activity as well. In case the lockdown is extended till June, it is to be seen how Maharashtra government devices a revival plan for the economic activity there.
State health Minister Rajesh Tope told Afternoon Voice, “To bring stability and control the situation amid growing number of COVID19 cases, the extension in lockdown was need of hour. We would be mainly focusing on red zone and containment areas while some relaxations would be granted in orange and green zones in the state. Our prime objective is to get the economy progressing.”
While areas outside red zones may get substantial relaxations, hotspot areas are unlikely to get any relief. Strict lockdown will continue in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad and Malegaon, which have reported the greatest number of cases in the state. However, areas outside hotspots may resume industrial operations and other economic activities so that the impact of the lockdown on state’s economy is minimized.
As a population of 1.3 billion stays indoors to fight the COVID-19 virus, India is finding it difficult to get a move on and questions are being asked about what the one month long lockdown can do to the crucial logistics sector of the country. The time period may have been necessary to control the spread of coronavirus but the unplanned manner in which the Centre implemented it has led to chaos and pain among migrant workers and normal public. COVID-19 pandemic has already caused untold suffering across the world, but it has also indorsed the bonds of society that unite humanity. In our country, those who are most vulnerable to the consequences of this pandemic are the poor and underprivileged. A significant economic fallout of the COVID-19 is the resulting inadequacies across the country’s already overburdened logistics landscape, which, according to India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) employs more than 40 million people and contributes $200 billion plus to the economy. The vast segment, considered to be the lifeline of the country, holds critical importance as it connects various markets, suppliers and customers dotted across the country. In the stir of the growing crisis, it was decided that this critical sector should be allowed to function, especially when carrying essential commodities. However, after weeks of lockdown, the wheels are still at halt.
Citing operational constraints, country’s largest ecommerce marketplaces Flipkart and Amazon have suspended their logistics services for sellers on its platform. Also, according to the Retailers Association of India (RAI), the supply chain of about 25,000-30,000 supermarkets have so far been impacted due to the lockdown announced. The outbreak and the subsequent lockdown across states resulted in stuck shipments increasing by 9%, order delays were up by 21%, and delivery percentage has seen a clear decline of 9%. What is interesting is that this data pertains to the period before the nationwide lockdown started on March 25, which means these numbers would be way worse. According to the representative of the logistics platform, in Pune, there are 31 pin codes that have been blocked by most of the logistics companies. Some logistics firm found there was a surge in business during the initial days of the coronavirus outbreak but it changed once the national lockdown was announced. However, business had come to a standstill post-lockdown for almost a week before the online firm was able to start deliveries of essential goods. The supply chains of sellers are impacted as many of their shipments are stuck in China or at ports, thereby impacting their ability to function. However, currently deliveries of non-essential goods in India is banned thus mitigating the impact, but there will be a huge backlog to overcome once the lockdown lifts.
The delivery boy, the truck driver, the pick-up guys—the vital link in the chain of transportation of goods, work on daily wages or work with significantly smaller organizations that employs less than 10 people. They are thus not even registered for facilities like Provident Fund (PF) or insurance like the Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), etc.
The workers are solely dependent on government support to sail through the 21-days of lockdown. In the mass migration we saw from Delhi and Mumbai, lot of them were truckers, loaders, cleaners, carpenters, mesons among others, who are involved at the last mile delivery or pick-ups. Ever since the lockdown was announced on 24 March, transportation of goods severely hampered, perhaps this is the reason the essential commodities have gone out of stock or their prices are gone up. The super markets are out of stock, street side vendors gone missing, small grocery shops charging huge due to uncertain situations. There is long queue in front of grocery shops and that is never ending saga. Everyday people are standing for hours to meet their daily needs. Due to the shortage of trucks, transportation the essential goods have been affected during the lockdown which has been imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic. Now since government gave permission to open essential goods outlets, we find no drivers to drive the trucks or carry commodities one place to another, this is why the supply is inadequate. Things have not changed at the ground level as many drivers have either abandoned the trucks and have left for their villages and home towns, or have moved to stay put at places where basic amenities like food and shelter are available. The major grouse against the authorities is the lack of clarity on notices. What is requires is a good coordination and clear transmission of information. There is not much clarity as of now about is allowed and not allowed. The non-essential goods are stuck in the supply chain and have to be cleared to unclog hubs and warehouses. Despite essential goods being allowed, many sellers of these goods are not being allowed to open their warehouses by the State authorities, thus rendering this permission useless. A few vendors received harsh treatment from on-the-ground authorities when trying to deliver goods. This problem is now being overcome as on- the-ground authorities have more information and curfew passes are being given to executives for delivery of essential goods.
There are around 90 lakh commercial vehicles across the India but only around 5 percent of them are operating now. These are mainly LPG and other petroleum products carriers and short distance milk tankers. Moreover, people are safe in their homes while the drivers and labourers are exposed to risk of the virus on the roads and in the open. Everyone is in rush to be with family and in safe zone, only house is the place where all want to reach. workers have migrated to villages to be near loved ones, the difficulty of getting food as eateries are shut has added to their woes. Those who are still in the cities are unable to come to work due to regulation issues. Trucks are still to be found waiting on the roads or those that have been abandoned post-lockdown. Apart from drivers the availability of labour is also a big challenge that is hampering logistics operations in the country.
The government is finding it a challenge to grant permission for all vehicles to ply on the road. Police stations have to give curfew passes to trucks but there are more urgent issues to be taken care of like movement of essential goods. There is a long line at police stations for the permission papers and coupled with labour issues, clogged inventory, difficult intercity movement, it is a long and difficult haul for the logistics industry as of now. Police station lack staff, because maximum police personals are deployed at check points. Very minimum stall is arrayed at every chowki which is managing, curfew passes, permissions, domestic violence cases, social disharmony issues and above all their personal matters too. After all they too are human and they too have fear to their lives and concern for their families. In entire lock down process, government lacked planning in implementation.
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NCP chief Sharad Pawar has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking bail out for the sugar industry from the crisis “aggravated exponentially” by the unprecedented lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Pawar noted that Modi — even before the lockdown came into force in March-end — had taken some “important” policy initiatives like MSP, export of sugar, buffer stock and interest subvention on capex for ethanol production duly supported by financial measures, seeing the key industry was faced with a crisis.
In his letter, sent on Thursday, Pawar sought the prime minister’s “urgent intervention” to bail the industry out from the crisis now aggravated by the lockdown.
“Raised concerns through letter to Hon. @PMOIndia and requested his urgent intervention to bail out #sugar industry from crisis aggravated exponentially by unprecedented nationwide lockdown in the wake of pandemic #COVID?19,” Pawar tweeted.
He also shared a copy of the letter on the micro- blogging site.
The former Union agriculture minister also enclosed a letter from the chairman of Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd while raising the concerns related to the sector.
“As #COVID-19 crisis is worsening day by day, some immediate relief measures are suggested by the federation,” Pawar said.
The federation has suggested making provision of funds for clearing export incentives and buffer stock expenses pending since 2018-19 and 2019-20.
It has called for increasing the MSP of sugar ranging from Rs 3450 to Rs 3750 with grade wise increment. The federation has demanded making provision of one-time grant of Rs 650 per tonne on average cane crushed during the last two years.
It also insisted on converting outstanding working capital into short-term loan and rescheduling all term loans for 10 years with a moratorium of two years on the lines of the Mitra Committee recommendations.
The federation has pitched for treating sugar mills’ distilleries as strategic business units (SBUs).
On a standalone basis, banks should finance ethanol projects sanctioned under the interest subvention capex scheme announced by the Centre in 2018, it said.
“Hoping that the honourable @PMOIndia would look into the matter and initiate necessary relief measures to resolve the crisis worsened due to Pandemic #COVID?19,” Pawar said.
Mumbai is in its 53rd day of lockdown; the rate of COVID-19 infections just doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Every day, the chart shows the rise but no control so far. With a majority of the 1.3 billion people confined to their homes and under lockdown, things don’t look like they will change any time soon. Though the people have lost patience and started on foot towards their home walking for thousands of kilometers, slums are full of the public without any masks or sanitizers. The city is widely exposed to infections, doctors, cops, nurses, officials, and even security guards who are infected with COVID-19. Amid this stress,
Government has announced new measures from 3 May onwards regarding new changes in the recently defined red, orange, and green zones. Even as the govt pushes for aggressive adoption of its contact-tracing app, the government has the right to devise ways to control and manage such emergency situations the country is in. But nothing prevents it from making the below clearly to eliminate suspicion and lingering doubts. Aarogya Setu app has, privacy concerns, while also recommending confidentiality prescriptions for these technology-based interventions. The New Delhi-based IFF raised concerns about information collection, purpose limitation, data storage, institutional divergence, and transparency, and audibility. These concerns come amid affirmative claims by certain sections of the govt and technology volunteer groups that the app was designed with a “privacy-by-design” approach. For instance, the report observed that the app’s privacy policy “does not specify which departments or ministry or officials will be the ones accessing that data”, with “a lack of specificity adding to concerns of overreach”. In India’s case, the disclosed purpose for the app is vague enough for the government to repurpose it or expand its scope.
Currently, there is no legal framework that governs the Aarogya Setu app, beyond the privacy policy and the terms of use. The involvement of the health ministry is minimal or negligible, besides it being steered by other departments and institutions in the government. Even in the case of the Apple-Google announcement of its joint partnership, there is intent to work with public health authorities that are steering the effort. Therefore, it certainly seems like there is a degree of institutional divergence when compared with international examples.
However, government sources said that the medical and health-related aspects of the app are “strictly in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” while largely focuses on the data aspect as the nodal department.
Purpose limitation has become a key point of concern among civil society activists — that the app could be used beyond the purpose it was created for and evolves into a “permanent architecture” without clarity and limits. It becomes problematic when there is collating of data on the central server, and once that gets entangled with other databases. We don’t know how long this pandemic will last, but once Promote health. Aarogya Setu application (“the App”) for Android and iOS platforms aim at providing users information as to whether they are prone to a COVID-19 infection by analyzing their proximity to COVID-19 positive persons. The app requires the user to submit the user’s geodata. It also uses Bluetooth to connect to other registered users and from the network thus formed, analyze whether the user has come in contact with anyone who has been tested positive. The app, as per its terms of service is intended to “notify, trace, and suitably support” a registered user regarding COVID-19 infection. The application collects personal information some of which is sensitive personal data such as a person’s gender, and travel information. So, it was necessary to scrutinize the App in these testing times. And we do have some concerns with the App. Violation of the law laid down by the Supreme Court– It is important to note that the Aarogya Setu app has been launched in the time of an ongoing pandemic, when the Governments are trying to maximize data collection, often at the cost of privacy rights of citizens. India does not have a law dealing with personal data protection, which should be limiting data collection, and processing. Lawyers, social activists, entrepreneurs, and concerned citizens, had recently sent a joint letter to various ministries of the Central Government and also the heads of states and union territories expressing concerns over the unwarranted and excessive collection of personal data during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic urging the various governments to follow law enunciated in various Supreme Court judgments.
“Aarogya Setu” is not open source – Though the Central Government has a prevailing policy on adoption of open source software the Aarogya Setu app’s code has not been made open source. Making the source code available enhances transparency and this also improves security, as the code is open to community audit. The app primarily collects personal data from user cell phones and cell phones are an immense repository of personal data of users and sometimes, of a user’s contacts and acquaintances. In this scenario, keeping the source code of such an app proprietary is not advisable. The app, as per its privacy policy collects the following personal information during registration and stores it in the cloud: (i) name; (ii) phone number; (iii) age; (iv) sex; (v) profession; (vi) countries visited in the last 30 days; and (vii) whether or not you are a smoker and a person’s current medical condition collected through a series of questions when the app is run for the first time to assess the condition of the user. Moreover, the App continuously collects the location data of the registered user and maintains a record of the places where the user had come in contact with other registered users. The report also raised concerns about Aarogya Setu’s use of location data via GPS trails (in addition to Bluetooth), which it adds, deviates from “privacy-focused global standards”, which are restricted to Bluetooth-based technology, which can match devices by not revealing the exact location. GPS trails are not reliable in indoor settings — in mass-transit situations like the metro etc. Bluetooth is preferred from a privacy respecting perspective. Besides, there are also risks of misidentification (or a false-positive) if the device is switched or is shared between people.
One way that the government of India hopes to keep a track of the COVID-19 trends is via its Aarogya Setu app. Aarogya Setu app crossed 90 million downloads as of 4 May; Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself appealed to the citizens to download this app in his address to the nation but now it’s time to revive security concerns of people.
The Aarogya Setu app users have many suggestions for the developer and government, as this app not only looks incomplete but also stands vulnerable to hacking. Within 500-meter range if a person is identified as COVID-19 positive or died due to symptoms of for the same, there is no alert. Letting GPS & Bluetooth leads battery drainage and overheating the phone and thus most of the user’s not willing to keep Bluetooth at always on mode. People have been forced to link AADHAR with SIM, so may utilize technology to track & trace via cellular usage only. Or bring some better technology.
Meanwhile, The Arogya Setu, app has been hacked by a software engineer from Bangalore. An ethical hacker, who goes by the name Jay, said he was looking for ways to avoid putting the app on his phone. So, he decided to sit down and scratch it apart to prove how easy it is to fool it, he claimed that India’s contact tracing app is super easy to hack. The government, in response, said it’s impossible and the app can’t be hacked. Well, let’s just say that their claims didn’t really age well because the Aarogya Setu app stands hacked right now.
The hacker told one of the media houses that he didn’t like the fact that installing this app is slowly becoming mandatory in India. As he started working on the app at 9 AM, he first managed to bypass the code for registration, thereby eliminating the need to enter his phone number. He did some more lopping and managed to bypass the page that requested personal information like name, age, gender, travel history, and COVID-19 symptoms too. He even carved his way out of giving the app his permission to access things like GPS and Bluetooth, two things without which the app can’t do much. And just like that, he managed to install the app without giving away any of his details and he was marked “safe” even though he didn’t give any permission for it to run on his phone. By 1 PM, he was done with it. All this shows just how easy it is to hack your way around the app and effectively anybody with a little knowledge can do it. With such vulnerabilities, one can guess how easy it is to fake some one’s COIVD-19 status on the app. The apps reliability is questionable. Now its very easy to display fake COVID result, which completely breaks the purpose of having it on your phone.
Aarogya Setu is a mobile application developed by the Government of India to connect essential health services with the people of India in our combined fight against COVID-19. The App is aimed at augmenting the initiatives of the Government of India, particularly the Department of Health, in proactively reaching out to and informing the users of the app regarding risks, best practices and relevant advisories pertaining to the containment of COVID-19.
The idea of having this app is very good. But, a lot of work needs to be done with reference to being serve the purpose it envisages. A few points. 1. User must be able to assign/ pick his/ her GPS location. When on the movement, app should collect real time GPS tracking data by asking prior permission. Many users believe that the app works only up to 5 meters, not picking up the mobile No on the helpline. Apart from that, data has to be spent round the clock, so Jio has changed its plan from Rs 399 to Rs 550 / -. This app spies many video photos of PM. COVID-19 Collector Commissioner or any local MLA MP has not been given a number for help. No one seems to have received any help with its assistance. Fear remains because a person beyond few meters if suffering COVID-19, you won’t be knowing about it.
Many users believe that the app needs lot of improvement. It doesn’t buzz or notify when you are in contact with a COVID-19 positive person. Also, if the contact person is later on tested positive, the app should have feature to notify the extent of contact along with date and time and whether quarantine is needed. This will help the user take prompt action.
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The Aarogya Setu app users have many suggestions for the developer and government, as this app not only looks incomplete but also stands vulnerable to hacking. Within 500-meter range if a person is identified as COVID-19 positive or died due to symptoms of for the same, there is no alert. Letting GPS & Bluetooth leads battery drainage and overheating the phone and thus most of the user’s not willing to keep Bluetooth at always on mode. People have been forced to link AADHAR with SIM, so may utilize technology to track & trace via cellular usage only. Or bring some better technology.