Indian Economics Thread II

[luminary]

“Sikkim Urja Limited's 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric project Teesta-III at the Chungthang dam on river Teesta gave way on October 4, killing at least 94 people in the downstream areas of Sikkim and West Bengal. The devastation has reignited wide worries surrounding two of three India-built mega hydropower projects under construction in Bhutan, local newspaper The Hindu reported on October 15…

“A series of infrastructure accidents in the India-China border area in recent years have exposed India's seeming inability to carry out infrastructure construction under the complex geological conditions in the Himalayas. However, in recent years, India has been attempting to ‘monopolize’ infrastructure projects in some South Asian countries, which also shows India's attempt to counter China in the region.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1722087206054146311

 

[luminary]

The scale of this breach is mind boggling.

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In one fell swoop, roughly 10% of the global population appears to have had some of their most valuable personal identifiable information (PII) compromised. Yet Aadhaar continues to receive plaudits from Silicon Valley.

An anonymous hacker claims to have breached the digital ID numbers, as well as other sensitive personal data, of around 815 million Indian citizens. To put that number in perspective, it is more than 60% of the 1.3 billion Indian people enrolled in the government’s Aadhaar biometric digital identity program, and roughly 10% of the entire global population. Thanks to the breach — the largest single one in the country’s history,

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the Hindustan Times — the personal data of hundreds of millions of Indians are now up for grabs on the dark web, for as little as $80,000.

To register for an Aadhaar card, Indian residents have to provide basic demographic information, including name, date of birth, age, address and gender, as well as biometric information, including ten fingerprints, two eyeball scans and a facial photograph. Much of that data has apparently been compromised.

Media reports suggest that the source of the leak was the Covid-19 test data of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which is linked to each individual’s Aadhaar number. The alarm was first raised by Resecurity, a Los Angeles-based cyber security company, which on Oct 15 included the following in a

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on its corporate website:

On October 9th, a threat actor going by the alias ‘pwn0001’ posted a thread on Breach Forums brokering access to 815 million “Indian Citizen Aadhaar & Passport” records. To put this victim group in perspective, India’s entire population is just over 1.486 billion people.
HUNTER investigators established contact with the threat actor and learned they were willing to sell the entire Aadhaar and Indian passport dataset for $80,000.
The data set offered by pwn0001 contains multiple fields related to the PII of Indian citizens, including but not limited to:
– name
– father’s Name
– phone Number
– other Number
– passport Number
– aadhar Number
– age
– gender
– address
– district
– pincode
– state…
One of the leaked samples contains 100,000 records of personal identifiable information (PII) related to Indian residents. In this sample leak, HUNTER analysts identified valid Aadhaar Card IDs, which were corroborated via a government portal that provides a “Verify Aadhaar” feature. This feature allows people to validate the authenticity of Aadhaar credentials,” Resecurity said…
Resecurity acquired… 400,000 records and contacted multiple victims to validate the information, as well as used the “Verify Aadhaar” feature available via official government WEB-resource in India.
The contacted victims from the acquired data set confirmed the validity of their data, and stated they have never been notified about [the breach] before.

Losing control of biometric data is not like losing a pin number or password. A pin number or password can be replaced and the damage is generally limited to a particular account. Biometric data like voice, fingerprints, retinal scans, etc. on the other hand is forever and cannot be changed. This is really frightening.

This is a place with a long history of breaches:

After more than 12 years since it was launched,

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. Year after year, criminal gangs get their hands on biometric data and use them to defraud the State or pilfer unsuspecting victims:

2017:

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2017:

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2018:

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2018:

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2022:

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2022:

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[coolgod]

The scale of this breach is mind boggling.

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In one fell swoop, roughly 10% of the global population appears to have had some of their most valuable personal identifiable information (PII) compromised. Yet Aadhaar continues to receive plaudits from Silicon Valley.




Losing control of biometric data is not like losing a pin number or password. A pin number or password can be replaced and the damage is generally limited to a particular account. Biometric data like voice, fingerprints, retinal scans, etc. on the other hand is forever and cannot be changed. This is really frightening.

This is a place with a long history of breaches:

I thought breached forum was shut down after the previous admin was arrested, guess it came back up. I don't think the hacked data contained biometric id, but still very bad regardless. To be fair to India, it seem like breached forum last year also offered the hacked ID info of possibly every Chinese resident.

 

[Michael90]

Personal Commentary: This issue is not strictly limited to India-Bharat but also with China, as we have seen an increased influx of Chinese migrants entering into the U.S. via the southern border. There's a smuggling issue that pretty much takes advantage of people's economic aspirations, desperations and everything in between that there would be enough fools and dreamers to take a perilous journey to America

It's normal for people from developing countries to emigrate or seek better opportunities in developed countries. Moreover judging by the large population of India and China, this makes it even more so.

 

[luminary]

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Crimes against blue-collar platform workers

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. Platform workers are a rising segment of India’s working population, using platforms like Uber, Upwork or Swiggy to deliver goods and services. In January 2023, Uber driver Priyanka Devi was

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who stole her belongings, slashed her neck and left her bleeding. A week later, a Swiggy delivery agent was

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and passed away after jumping from the third floor to save himself. In February 2023, a customer

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to secure an iPhone.

These events are a manifestation of ‘

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’ — a situation where a platform company harnesses human

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. Necrocapitalism is an extension of

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, using an employee’s time, body and life to maximise organisational profits. This devalues labour, making individuals expendable. It generates a ‘

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’ — a term originally associated with militaries due to their proximity to mortality. But work-related death is honoured in the military, while platform workers are often ignored by their organisations.

 

[mossen]

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This is natural, because China is moving away from low-end products and is now competing directly with top-end Western firms in an increasing array of industrial goods.

 

[gelgoog]

If China wanted they could just let the value of the Yuan drop so that Chinese salaries would be more competitive again.

 

[Michael90]

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I think its common for every developing country who is in the process of industrialisation or trying to. Abuses are bound to happen. Taiwanese companies operating abroad seem to be notorious in this as well. Just look at Foxconn maltreatment of her Chinese employees this past 2 decades with many who ised to commit suicide or jump to their deaths from buildings. These companies are only there to maximise profits and make use of developing countries need for investment and employment to exploit and squeeze as much from her workers as possible. The life of these workers is the last thing in their mind.. lol

 

[luminary]

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BBC

Vanraj is among thousands of schoolchildren in Delhi whose schedules have abruptly changed due to air pollution rising to alarming levels. Over the past few days, Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) - which measures the level of PM 2.5 or fine particulate matter in the air - has consistently crossed the 450 mark, nearly 10 times the acceptable limit. Breathing this toxic air is akin to smoking 25-30 cigarettes a day, according to lung specialists.

Things are so bad that Delhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai has asked all schools to remain shut until Friday, with offline classes only for high schoolers.

 

[siegecrossbow]

LMFAO!!!

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