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Home Gadgets India’s dubious record on internet shutdowns set to continue

India’s dubious record on internet shutdowns set to continue


This week the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) wrote to the central government, asking it to regulate web shutdowns within the nation and avert uncertainties that stem from state governments giving these orders.

The trade physique, whose members embrace Google, Twitter, Meta and Reliance, stated in a letter to the federal government that web shutdowns within the nation trigger “vital inconvenience to the native public at giant,” Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Based on the letter, obtained by Reuters, the central authorities needs to be the governing authority for web suspensions.

At the moment, web shutdowns are dealt with by the states, which shut down web providers for a wide range of causes, comparable to sustaining regulation and order and stopping college students from dishonest on exams.

The IAMAI urged the Centre to be the governing authority for web shutdowns, with states following the procedures it lays down.

SC discover to govt: Then on Friday, the Supreme Courtroom directed the IT ministry to answer a petition alleging indiscriminate shutdown of internet facilities to prevent cheating in exams.

The discover was in response to a petition filed by Software program Freedom Legislation Centre, which challenged arbitrary web shutdowns to stop dishonest throughout public examinations.

The petition stated the governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Rajasthan have been imposing web shutdowns primarily based on “imaginary, fanciful or fictitious regulation and order issues” arising from the exams. “Such administrative selections are manifestly arbitrary and wholly disproportionate response, and are impermissible beneath the Structure,” it said.

Scale of the issue: India imposed web shutdowns 106 instances in 2021 – greater than every other nation for the fourth consecutive yr – in keeping with a report from digital rights advocacy group Entry Now in April. Between 2012 and 2022, the nation has witnessed 683 web shutdowns – the best on this planet.

This doubtful file appears to be like set to proceed in 2022. India accounted for 85% of web shutdowns within the first six months of this yr out of the ten nations the place such disruptions and restrictions had been recorded, in keeping with a report by Surfshark and NetBlocks in August.

Written by Zaheer Service provider


Prime Tales By Our Reporters

Cautious traders stroll away from huge funding offers, citing tech turbulence

LATE-STAGE FUNDING

Late-stage funding offers, which usually are above $100 million, have been uncommon to come back by this yr. A few of these rounds have come near the end line however then investors have walked away amid the public market rout of tech shares and total financial uncertainty.


Tech Coverage Replace

RBI-1

Govt asks RBI to organize an inventory of permitted digital lending apps: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman has requested the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) to organize a “whitelist” of all legal loan apps. Sitharaman additionally requested the Ministry of Electronics and Data Know-how (MeitY) to make sure that solely these apps can be found on the Google Play Retailer and Apple App Retailer.

Govt finalises draft guidelines to counter faux opinions on ecommerce platforms: The federal government has finalised a draft framework of guidelines on the best way to counter faux opinions and unverified star scores on ecommerce web sites, and journey and lodge bookings platforms, Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, Division of Shopper Affairs, stated in an unique interview with ET’s podcast collection, The Morning Transient.

MeitY pulls down draft information anonymisation tips: The federal government has pulled down its draft guidelines on data anonymisation, the third occasion of a set of draft guidelines being eliminated this yr. The rules had been put up for suggestions by the Ministry of Electronics and Data Know-how (MeitY) on August 30. We reported on September 2 that MeitY had invited public comments on the draft guidelines.

Last IT Guidelines amendments to be rolled out quickly, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar: The federal government will come out with the final version of its proposed amendments to the Data Know-how Guidelines, 2021 within the subsequent few days, minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated on Wednesday.


Bengaluru Floods

Startup founders, VCs bemoan Bengaluru infrastructure

Bengaluru flood crisis

Flipkart, Myntra, PhonePe, Vedantu and a number of different Bengaluru-based startups had been hit by the rains and floods crippling India’s expertise capital and its enterprise neighborhood. Founders and CEOs took to microblogging web site Twitter as they chronicled their struggles to commute within the metropolis over the previous two days, whilst workers had been requested to work-from-home by most firms.

Tech corporations, Ok’taka govt agree to unravel flooding points by subsequent monsoon: The Karnataka authorities and IT firms on Wednesday decided to jointly find a permanent solution to the problem of waterlogging within the metropolis following incessant rainfall over the previous couple of days that affected residents and several other tech corporations in two key tech suburbs.


Ecommerce Nook

Etailers ask sellers to organize for Sept-end festive gross sales

Retail

Ecommerce corporations, together with Amazon India and Flipkart, have told their sellers to prepare for the upcoming festive season sales, that are prone to happen within the third week of September, sources informed us.

Ecommerce, logistics corporations scramble for staff to fulfill festive season demand: Logistics and ecommerce corporations are chasing supply chain, logistics and delivery workers in tier 2, 3 and 4 markets and past, on the again of upper demand for shopper services this festive season.

Tata Digital tweaking Neu after complaints of glitches: Tata Digital is making adjustments to super app Tata Neu after complaints about glitches, poor consumer expertise and cost points. The Neu Cross loyalty programme has been built-in straight with model funds in order that redemptions could be made at once, executives stated. Customers had stumbled over restrictions and glitches in redeeming factors. Tata Funds might be relaunched in October after guaranteeing there aren’t any technical glitches when it comes to shopper expertise, they stated.


Startup Funding

Shadowfax in talks to boost $100 million at $350-400 million valuation

startup_funding_THUMB IMAGE_ETTECH_11


Hyperlocal logistics startup Shadowfax is in talks to raise $75-$100 million in a mixture of major and secondary capital, a number of sources informed us. A91 Companions is in discussions to finance the first half, three individuals stated, including the deal is at present within the due diligence stage.

Prosus Ventures might put money into ex-Myntra CEO’s new trend startup: Prosus Ventures, the enterprise funding arm of Prosus (previously Naspers) is in advanced stages of talks to join the funding round of but to launch enterprise of former Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram, sources briefed on the matter informed us.


ETtech Accomplished Offers

Deals Digest_Graphic_5-9 september, 2022_ETTEC

■ On-line pharmacy 1mg has entered the unicorn club after an inside spherical of $41-million funding led by Tata Digital, sources near the event informed us. Following the fund infusion, 1mg has been valued at $1.25 billion. Tata Digital had acquired 1mg at a valuation of around $450 million in June final yr.

■ Edtech unicorn Unacademy has acquired Gate Academy, for an undisclosed quantity, in a bid to bolster its presence within the graduate aptitude take a look at in engineering (GATE) take a look at preparation phase. As part of the transaction, your complete workforce of Gate Academy will be part of the edtech agency.

■ Wow! Momo Meals has raised Rs 125 crore in funding from personal fairness fund Oaks Asset Administration at a valuation of Rs 2,125 crore. The funding is part of a two-tranche elevate, with the second being deliberate with one other fund the place Wow! Momo intends to boost Rs 100 crore.


ET Ecommerce Index

We’ve launched three indices – ET Ecommerce, ET Ecommerce Worthwhile, and ET Ecommerce Non-Worthwhile – to trace the efficiency of not too long ago listed tech corporations. Right here’s how they’ve fared up to now.

ET Ecommerce

In Different News

Google Play retailer reverses coverage on fantasy gaming, rummy apps in India

Google

Google stated on Thursday it’s conducting a pilot to allow the distribution of Indian-made daily fantasy sports (DFS) and rummy apps on the Play Retailer in India. At the moment, such apps – which embrace Dream11, Cell Premier League and lots of others – are usually not obtainable on the Play Retailer as a result of they fall inside the gambit of playing.

Younger, financially careworn and uninsured; the story of India’s gig staff: In a survey of over 4,000 gig workers from platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola, UrbanClap, and Amazon, it has been discovered that the employees in India are younger, financially careworn, and largely uninsured.

CCI clears PayU-BillDesk deal after a yr of announcement: The Competitors Fee of India (CCI) has cleared online payments major PayU’s $4.7 billion acquisition of payment gateway firm BillDesk, the antitrust regulator stated in a tweet on Monday night.

CCI eager to cross a verdict on Google probe quickly: India’s competitors watchdog is within the last phases its investigation into search giant Google’s Play Store policies, sources stated. In 2020, Google enforced a 30% fee for all Play Retailer transactions, which was closely criticised by stakeholders globally and in India, the place it was seen as monopolistic and anti-competitive.

Twitter is testing a ‘share to WhatsApp’ button in India: Twitter stated on Thursday it was replacing the share button for Android users with a WhatsApp share icon on an experimental foundation to allow them to share tweets simply on the instant-messaging platform. The service, which might be launched in India first, might be obtainable to Twitter customers on Android initially, after which be rolled out to different working methods and nations primarily based on the learnings from the experiment, the corporate stated.

Curated by Judy Franko in Bengaluru. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.

That’s all from us this week. Keep protected.

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