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January 9, 2018 in News

Indian Railways to equip all 8,500 stations with Wi-Fi facilities at Rs 700 crore as part of Digital India initiative

New Delhi: All railway stations ” nearly 8,500 across the country, including those in rural and remote areas ” will be equipped with Wi-Fi facilities at an estimated cost of Rs 700 crore ($110 million).

As part of the government’s ambitious Digital India initiative, the national transporter has currently commissioned Wi-Fi services at 216 major stations enabling about seven million rail passengers to log on to the free Internet facility.

“Internet access has now become an important requirement in day-to-day working and we shall be providing this facility at all railway stations in the country,” a senior railway ministry official said.

As per the plan finalised at a recent meeting, while 1,200 stations have been identified for this facility to primarily cater to rail passengers, about 7,300 stations have been earmarked to not only serve passengers but also local people in rural and remote areas.

The Wi-FI facility at these stations in rural and remote areas will be offered to the local population as part of the digital makeover of rural India to promote e-governance.

Railway stations in rural areas will have kiosks with Wi-FI that will become digital hot spots offering services like digital banking, Aadhaar generation, issuing government certificates, including birth and death certificates, and filing taxes and paying bills, among others.

The kiosks will also enable the local populace to order and receive goods from e-commerce portals.

“These kiosks will be operated at stations with private participation for the local population,” said the official, adding, “The modalities of setting up such digital hot spots are being worked out with the telecom ministry.”

As per the timeline, while 600 stations are targeted to be provided with the Wi-FI facility by March 2018, the Railways aim to cover all 8,500 stations by March 2019.

Our aim is to ensure that more and more people get connected to the rail Wi-FI system as the Wi-Fi broadband access to these rail users will aid in implementing the government’s Digital India initiative, he said.

January 8, 2018 in News

WhatsApp and the middle finger: Will India’s obscenity laws compel messaging giant to drop emoji?

Recently, an Indian lawyer, Gurmeet Singh, sent a legal notice to WhatsApp asking the popular mobile app to remove the middle finger emoji on the grounds that the gesture is obscene and illegal in India. While WhatsApp has refused to comply with the notice and it remains to be seen how the matter will finally be settled, this is not the first time that someone in India has used the law against the middle finger gesture.

>Finger-flipping in India and Indian law on obscenity

As recently as November 2017, a 21-year-old man was arrested in Delhi for showing his middle finger to a woman while driving on the road; one of the sections under which he was booked was section 509 of the IPC (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), the same section which formed the basis for Singh’s complaint against WhatsApp.

Section 509 of the IPC punishes any individual who utters any words/sound or makes any gesture or exhibits any object so that such word/sound/gesture/object should be heard/seen by a woman with the intention to “insult the modesty” of the woman. The middle finger traditionally represented a phallus (a penis, especially when it is erect) which is why it was considered disrespectful to flash one’s middle finger at a woman. The noteworthy feature of section 509 is that it is gender-specific therefore, if an individual flashes their middle finger at a man, this would not be covered by section 509.

Singh also alleges that section 354 of the IPC applies in this case. Section 354 of the IPC is again, gender-specific and punishes an individual who assaults or uses criminal force against a woman with the intention or knowledge that he will outrage her modesty. It is difficult to apply this provision to WhatsApp’s middle finger emoji because the element of assault or criminal force is not present in this case.

Interestingly, section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2008 which criminalised sending of offensive messages through communication services was struck down by the Supreme Court of India in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India in 2015 on grounds that section 66A violated the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. Therefore, at present there is no provision in the IT Act which covers transmission of ‘offensive’ messages such as emojis.

>Laws against finger-flipping around the world

In the UAE, judicial precedent has established that the act of flashing the middle finger is considered a crime breaching a “victim’s pride, honour and modesty” under the UAE Penal Code and judges have the power to pass deportation orders against convicted offenders. In 2010, a British expatriate was arrested in Dubai for allegedly flipping his finger during an argument. In June 2017, a woman was arrested in Dubai for flashing her middle finger in a road rage incident.

In November 2017, a US company fired a woman for flipping her finger at Donald Trump’s motorcade rally, on the grounds that she had violated the social media policy of the company covering ‘obscene’ content on social media (the woman had posted her finger-flipping picture on her social media account). There are also instances when individuals have been prosecuted under state and federal laws in the US for flashing their middle finger at fellow civilians.

In September 2017, English footballer Dele Alli faced the prospect of a ban from international football after he raised his middle finger during a match between England and Slovakia. Interestingly, in Britain, the ‘V’ shaped sign (which many of us identify as a victory sign) represents a “double phallus” and is considered offensive.

>Freedom of Speech and Meaning of Obscenity

In June 2015, a man was fined £523 in Dubai under the Cyber Crimes Law for swearing at his colleague over WhatsApp. According to Dubai-based criminal defence lawyer, Abdullah Yousef Al Nasir, sending a middle finger emoji on one’s phone could also potentially land a person into legal trouble in Dubai.

WhatsApp in its ‘Terms of Service’ states that submitting content (through status updates, profile pictures or messages) which is obscene, illegal and violative of its Terms of Service, for which Whatsapp can ban a user. However, it is hard to conceive of Whatsapp banning its users merely over using the middle finger emoji, especially since Whatsapp is facilitating the use of the emoji by providing such a feature in the first place.

Singh’s complaint against Whatsapp raises issues of freedom of speech. In cases where individuals have been prosecuted in the US for flashing their middle finger, higher courts are known to reverse the rulings on appeal as the middle finger gesture is treated as free speech under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

There are other problems which arise from classifying certain gestures as innately “obscene”” for instance, the classification can fail to take into account the cultural differences. For instance, the thumbs-up gesture (and not the middle finger emoji) is equivalent to showing someone the middle finger in Afghanistan, Greece, Iran and parts of Italy; does this mean that Whatsapp should remove the thumbs-up emoji (the use of which is quite common among WhatsApp users) from its array of emojis too? Whether or not something is considered obscene should therefore be determined according to the cultural context of a situation, instead of an absolute prohibition on the use of certain emojis or gestures.

In 2008, a US law professor, Ira Robbins, argued that laws on obscenity which punish use of the middle-finger gesture violate freedom of speech, fundamental principles of criminal justice, waste judicial resources and do not make sense in the present era when the gesture has become ubiquitous and is no longer obscene.

To determine whether WhatsApp should be obliged to remove the middle finger emoji, Indian courts will necessarily have to decide whether use of the gesture is still considered offensive in India. It might be hard to establish that the middle finger emoji is offensive in all situations, especially since words which were once considered offensive (such as ‘f**k’) have become part of everyday language ” therefore, if someone is stopped from using an equivalent emoji to represent those words, it could be a violation of the right to freedom of speech and expression of mobile users in India.

Devika Agarwal is an intellectual property rights lawyer

January 7, 2018 in News

SBI likely to lower minimum balance requirement to Rs 1000 in metros

SBI may change the requirement from monthly average balance to quarterly average balance besides slashing the minimum balance requirement to around Rs 1,000 in metros.

Days after reports emerged that country’s largest lender had collected Rs 1,771 crore in penalties by levying charges on non-maintenance of monthly minimum balance, the State Bank of India (SBI) is reportedly taking another look at its minimum balance requirement which currently stands at Rs 3,000 in urban areas.

According to a report in The Times of India, SBI is planning to change the requirement from monthly average balance to quarterly average balance besides slashing the minimum balance requirement to around Rs 1,000 in metros. The amount was collected during the April-November 2017 period.

The move comes close on the heels of a media report saying that public sector banks collected Rs 2320.96 crore in FY18 by imposing a penalty on customers for not maintaining minimum balance.

SBI was followed by Punjab National Bank which recorded the collection of Rs 97.34 crore during the April-November period. Central Bank of India collected Rs 68.67 crore, while Canara Bank recorded Rs 62.16 crore collection, the report said.

SBI had earlier revised the minimum account balance for its savings accounts, as well as the penalties for non-maintenance of minimum balance. The biggest lender had also revised the penalties that account holders are supposed to pay for failing to maintain the stipulated balance in their savings accounts. Customers will have to pay GST over and above the fine they have incurred. The new minimum balance rules became effective from October 1.

In April 2017, SBI increased its monthly average balance (MAB) requirement to Rs 5000 for branches in six metros. The bank had also raised the penalty to Rs 100 in metro cities. Till March 31 2017, the monthly average balance (MAB) for a savings bank account was Rs 500 without facility of cheque book and Rs 1,000 with cheque book across the country.

Here’s a look at penalties that SBI currently levies for not maintaining monthly average balances depending on the region.

Metro

SBI customers in metro cities of India have to maintain at least a sum of Rs 3,000 as monthly average balance in their savings account. If MAB falls between Rs 2,999 and Rs 1,500, then the account holder has to pay Rs 30 as penalty. Whereas, if the average balance at the end of the month comes out to be anywhere from Rs 1,499 to Rs 750 then the penalty for non-maintenance of MAB is Rs 40, and Rs 50 if the MAB is below Rs 750. Earlier, the penalties for these three stages were Rs 50, Rs 75 and Rs 100 respectively.

Urban

SBI account holders in urban regions of the country will have to maintain Rs 3,000 as monthly average balance. The penalties and conditions for urban area customers are same as SBI clientele from metro cities.

Semi-urban

The MAB for semi-urban areas is Rs 2,000. People with savings accounts with SBI branches in semi-urban areas pay fines to the tune of Rs 20 if their MAB is between Rs 1,999 and Rs 1,000. The semi-urban SBI customer pay Rs 30 if their MAB rests between Rs 999 and Rs 500. For MAB less than Rs 500, SBI customers have to pay Rs 40.

Rural

The minimum balance for SBI clientele in rural areas is at Rs 1000. SBI has kept the penalties for rural customers similar to that of its semi-urban clients, at Rs 20 (for MAB between Rs 999 and Rs 500), Rs 30 (for MAB between Rs 499 and Rs 250), and Rs 40 (for MAB at Rs 249 or less).

Exempted from MAB restrictions

Meanwhile, the SBI has also kept certain groups exempted from the restrictions of maintaining a minimum balance at the end of the month, including financial inclusion accounts, basic savings bank deposit accounts, small Accounts, Phela Kadam and Pheli Udaan accounts, minors till the age of 18 years, and all pensioners including recipients of social welfare benefits.

January 7, 2018 in News

Bigg Boss 11: Priyank Sharma Defends Hina Khan’s Behaviour On The Show, Says She’s Too Straightforward

It’s really not that easy to stay inside the Bigg Boss house with no contact with the outside world.

After Arshi Khan’s shocking elimination on Bigg Boss 11, we were all taken by surprise when Priyank Sharma was evicted from Bigg Boss 11 in the weekend gone by. Sharma was one of the most loved contestants inside Bigg Boss 11 house; especially his female fans across the country were expecting him to take the trophy home. While we all anticipated that Priyank will at least stay until the finale, it was heartbreaking to see him get eliminated.

As we know, Bigg Boss has often taken a toll on relationships and friendships. A lot has taken place in the house, new friendships formed while old ties were broken and it’s not surprising at all. Well, we don’t blame them as it’s not easy to stay inside the Bigg Boss house, seeing the same set of people without getting more annoying with each passing day. After his eviction, Priyank opens up on his close friend Hina Khan. Priyank, in a statement to Bollywood Life, said, “Yeah, we will surely be friends. I am supporting Vikas and Hina. I feel fights should happen between close friends. Definitely, show ke bahar dosti continue karegi.”

Speaking about Hina Khan being trolled for her outbursts on the show by many celebrities from the TV industry on social media, Priyank said, “I think Hina is very straightforward. She is bahut zyada straightforward. She is one girl who owes up to her mistakes. Woh mujhe bahut pasand hai. There are very few people like Hina in this world. Now, people have different preferences about contestants’ behaviour. Everyone has made mistakes inside the house and improved as people. Guys, let us keep it positive. Trust me, staying inside the house is not easy. We lose control, fights happen.” Maybe it’s really not that easy to stay inside the Bigg Boss house with no contact with the outside world. ALSO READ: Bigg Boss 11: Vikas Gupta’s Brother Is Disappointed With Priyank Sharma, Find Out Why

Priyank, a few days before his eviction, was given an opportunity to meet his mother. It indeed was one of the most emotional reunions in the Bigg Boss 11 house. It was so cute to watch Priyank being apologetic for his wrong behaviour on the show. Speaking about the same, he told the entertainment portal, “Well, my mom is very quiet. However, I have been brought up with her values and felt the need to apologise for the instances where I went wrong. I admit that I lost my cool in the circumstances. A lot of people loved my mom inside the house. They found her damn cute. She is a very genuine person and all heart.” Watch this space for further updates.