Reportage on a planet without equitable or sustainable development.
The Parliamentarians put their hand up
In perhaps its most serious setback so far, a Parliamentary Committee has rejected the Bill that governs the project to assign unique IDs to all Indians. Worse, the Standing Committee on Finance has advised the government to “reconsider and review the UID scheme” itself. Its report was placed in Parliament on Tuesday.
The questions that the Standing Committee has raised are significant and wide-ranging. They span technical and financial feasibility, echo worries about privacy and flag procedural anomalies like creating the UIDAI even before the bill had been passed, and more.
At this time, I am surprised that this report, easily the largest challenge to the UIDAI till date, has received such little attention in the media. Strange. Anyway, here is a small snapshot of the report that I filed. Do take a look.
I am now wondering how things will pan out from here onwards. As that grotesque old journalistic cliche goes, wait and watch.
I am an Indian journalist with interests in energy, environment, climate and India’s ongoing slide into right-wing authoritarianism. My book, Despite the State, an examination of pervasive state failure and democratic decay in India, was published by Westland Publications, India, in January 2021. My work has won the Bala Kailasam Memorial Award; the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award; and five Shriram Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism. Write to me at despitethestate@protonmail.com.
“Westland closure: Titles that are selling fast and a few personal recommendations,” by Chetana Divya Vasudev, Moneycontrol. (Because this happened too. In February, a year after DtS was released, Amazon decided to shutter Westland, which published the book. The announcement saw folks rushing to buy copies of Westland books before stocks run out.)
Fractured/Earth 
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