Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for News & Politics

Cyber crimes in India may double in 2015, says Assocham-Mahindra SSG study

by

email-threat

New Delhi: The number of cyber crimes in the country may touch 300,000 in 2015, almost double the level of last year, causing havoc in the financial space, security establishment and social fabric, a study said.

“What is causing even more concern is that the origin of these crimes is widely based abroad in countries including China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria among others,” DS Rawat, secretary general, Assocham said while releasing the joint Assocham-Mahindra SSG study “Cyber and Network Security Framework”.

At present, the number of cyber crimes in the country is nearly around 149,254 and is likely to cross the 300,000 by 2015 growing at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 107 percent. According to the study, every month sees 12,456 cases registered in India.

During 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, the total number of cyber crimes registered were 13,301, 22,060, 71,780 and 62,189 (till May) respectively, it said.

Phishing attacks of online banking accounts or cloning of ATM/debit cards are common occurrences. The increasing use of mobile/smartphones/tablets for online banking/financial transactions has also increased the vulnerabilities to a great extent. The maximum offenders came from the 18-30 age group, the report added.

These attacks have been observed to be originating from the cyber space of a number of countries including the US, of Europe, Brazil, Turkey, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria and the UAE, highlighted the study.

“Growing internet penetration and rising popularity of online banking have made the nation a favourite among the cybercriminals, who target online financial transactions using malware and India ranks third after Japan and US in the tally of countries most affected by online banking malware during the year of 2014,” it said.

As per the study, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have occupied the top three positions when it comes to cyber crimes registered under the new IT Act in India.

Interestingly, these three states together contribute more than 70 percent to India’s revenue from IT and IT related industries, it added.

(IANS)

Karnataka: Never misguided the House, clarifies U T Khader

by

u-t-khader

Mangaluru: Clarifying on Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa’s complaint to the chief minister that he had misguided the House with false information, Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader said that he had not furbished false information regarding the submission of proposal on increasing the salary of doctors working on contract.

Responding to the queries of media persons here on Sunday, Mr Khader said that the health department had not furbished false information in the Assembly regarding the proposal. “I have personally written to the Assembly Speaker explaining that the information provided by me during the assembly had not been false as alleged by a member of the House, and have provided him all necessary documents related to the proposal,” he said.

In a letter to Speaker Thimmappa dated January 3, 2015, the minister is believed to have provided the details of the proposal on increasing the salaries of doctors working on contract in the state, while also explaining that the information provided by the health department was not false.

Discrimination against Dalits in giving Bharat Ratna: Mayawati

by

"Kanshi Ram should have been honoured keeping in mind his sacrifices and contribution. Similarly, Jyotiba Phule, who belonged to a backward caste," Mayawati said.

“Kanshi Ram should have been honoured keeping in mind his sacrifices and contribution. Similarly, Jyotiba Phule, who belonged to a backward caste,” Mayawati said.

Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati today charged the NDA government with discriminating against Dalit icons like Kanshi Ram while awarding Bharat Ratna to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malviya.

She also attacked the Narendra Modi government for adopting the “ordinance route” on key issues.

“Just like the previous Congress-led UPA government, the NDA government is adopting the same discriminatory attitude while honouring two persons of the same caste – Vajpayee and Malviya – with the Bharat Ratna recently,” she told a press conference here.

“Kanshi Ram should have been honoured keeping in mind his sacrifices and contribution. Similarly, Jyotiba Phule, who belonged to a backward caste, should have been given the award for his work in the field of education and efforts to establish equality in society,” she said.

“Many other deserving persons have been ignored,” she rued.

Taking exception to the Modi government adopting the ordinance route, Mayawati said this was not in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution.

Her remarks came against the backdrop of ordinance amending the Land Acquisition Act envisaging procuring land for industrial corridors, rural infrastructure, defence and housing, and insurance ordinance raising foreign investment limit in the sector to 49 per cent from 26 per cent, besides an ordinance to push coal auction.

On the land acquisition ordinance, she said it was against the interest of farmers. “I do not find it right…the amendments could have been brought in the next session of Parliament.”

(PTI)

Pakistan rejects Indian report on explosives boat

by

Pak_boat

Islamabad: Pakistan has rejected India’s claim that the crew of a Pakistani fishing boat blew up and sank their vessel in an attempt to evade capture at the hands of the Indian Navy in a high-speed chase at sea, Geo News reported.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam denied that any boat from Keti Bunder port of the country’s Sindh Province had sailed off.

Sources in the Foreign Office termed the Indian claim as mere propaganda to tarnish the image of Pakistan, the report added.

The Coast Guard on December 31 night intercepted a Pakistani fishing boat with explosives near the maritime boundary off the Porbandar coast in the Arabian Sea.

Based on the intelligence inputs, a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft undertook a sea-air coordinated search and located the suspect fishing boat 10-15 km inside Indian waters. Thereafter, a Coast Guard ship on patrol was diverted and it intercepted the unlit boat around midnight, 365 km west-southwest of Porbandar.

(IANS)

102nd Indian Science Congress not a platform for pseudo-science talk: Dr. Ramprasad Gandhiraman

by

vedic myth

Mumbai: Dr. Ramprasad Gandhiraman, a scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research center and the Universities Space Research Association in California, has launched an online petition demanding that a talk ‘Ancient Indian Aviation Technology’ be scrapped from the 102nd Indian Science Congress.

India’s prestigious 102nd Indian Science Congress will be held in Mumbai from 3rd to 7th January and Mr. Bodas and Mr. Jadhav will be delivering a talk titled “Ancient Indian Aviation Technology”. The conference will have high profile scientist speakers from India and abroad including Nobel Laureates.

“Such kind of mythology-based talks do not in any way contribute to science…my biggest concern is these things will (eventually) become part of school curriculum (in India), and that is completely unacceptable,” told Dr. Gandhiraman to Rediff.com

“What impact it would have on Nobel laureates, who come and listen to such kind of talks that say ancient Indians had airplanes that could travel from planet to planet? You can’t imagine President Obama talking like this and the American scientific community keeping quiet.”

“I sense a new trend of parliamentarians openly eulogizing the past without any scientific basis,” he said.

Mumbai Mirror, which reported on the controversy, wrote, ‘how organisers of the 102nd Indian Science Congress… had slipped in Vedic mythology about aviation into the Science Congress’ schedule, which is otherwise packed with talks on ribosomes, resistance to antibiotics and the origin of life, and discourses on controlling the cell cycle, all delivered by some of the finest scientific minds, including six Nobel laureates.’

The newspaper reported that Captain Anand J Bodas, when questioned about his talk on ‘Ancient Indian Aviation Technology’, had said, ‘The Vedic or rather ancient Indian definition of an airplane was a vehicle which travels through the air from one country to another country, from one continent to another continent, from one planet to another planet. In those days, airplanes were huge in size, and could move left, right, as well as backwards, unlike modern planes which only fly forward.’

“Providing a scientific platform in a prestigious science conference for a pseudo-science talk is appalling. It questions the integrity of scientific process. It also appears that this is the first time such a session is held in Indian Science Congress. This talk is not an isolated incident to shrug off. A google search with key words “Indian Prime minister plastic surgery”, “Indian Home minister Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle”, “Indian Health minister sex education ban”, “Gujarat school books science myths” etc., will give plenty of alarming developments happened over the past 6 months. We as scientific community should be seriously concerned about the infiltration of pseudoscience in science curricula with backing of influential political parties. The accelerated pace with which it is being promoted will seriously undermine nation’s science and it will have a disastrous effect on the future generation scientists. Giving a scientific platform for a pseudo-science talk is worse than a systematic attack that has been carried out by politically powerful pseudo-science propagandists in the recent past.”

“Scientific temper and the accompanying curiosity to understand the universe had always existed throughout human history. Today, we live in an era which has seen amazing technological advancement. And we are able to understand our universe in a way that is far superior than our ancestors did at any point in human history. Pseudo-Science does a great disservice to science and it is the responsibility of the scientists to stand up and defend the science. If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science but also our children.”

Mehdi Masroor Biswas sent to judicial custody

by

Mehdi Masroor Biswas

Bengaluru: A special court Friday sent ISIS Twitter handler Mehdi Masroor Biswas to 14 day judicial custody after his 15-day police custody expired, a top police official said.

“Our probe team has collected sufficient evidence from him (Mehdi) on his pro-ISIS propaganda for the banned terrorist outfit (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) during his police custody over the last two weeks,” city Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi told reporters here.

The 24-year-old executive in a private firm was arrested Dec 14 and a case was registered against him under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act for waging war against a friendly country.

“With the help of social media experts, we have so far analysed about 12,000 messages Mehdi tweeted/posted on his Facebook account, in which he encouraged youth to join ISIS though it is difficult to establish if recruitment took place,” Reddi said.

British News Channel 4 Dec 11 unmasked Mehdi as a radical supporter of ISIS through social media and Twitter handler @ShamiWitness where he was regularly tweeting from here on the group’s unlawful activities in Iraq and Syria.

“Investigation so far has revealed that Mehdi is a propagandist of ISIS ideology and has been instrumental in influencing minds against our friendly countries and against whom the terror group is at war,” Reddi said.

Mehdi, who hails from Gopalpur town in West Bengal’s Nadia district, is employed in the foods division of the Kolkata-based ITC Ltd here.

“We know Mehdi was in touch with one combatant in Iraq and was of some help to him, informing him of movement of forces and availability of passages. He is a highly radicalised person and has deep knowledge of what he was doing,” Reddi said.

Mehdi confessed to the investigation team that he had been operating the Twitter account after he got interested in the developments of the Levantine region comprising Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza Strip, Egypt and Libya.

He has about 17,000 Twitter followers and used to aggressively tweet by collecting information and watching developments in the desert region.

Mehdi’s Twitter handler was shut Dec 12 after the news channel revealed his identity and reported about the terror activities he was carrying in the virtual world beyond office hours.

(IANS)

Racial slurs against Northeast people will be a criminal offence

by

North East Racism

New Delhi: Racial slurs against the people of India’s northeast will soon be a criminal offence as the central government plans to insert new sections in the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Announcing that the government has accepted the recommendations of the Bezbaruah Committee, union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in the capital that new sections, 153C and 509A, will be added to the IPC.

“The Indian Penal Code will be amended for insertion of new sections of 153C and 509A as recommended by the committee,” the home minister said Friday, adding that the law ministry has agreed to it.

“The government is committed (to the) safety and security of the people from the northeast region living in Delhi and other metropolitan cities,” he said.

The committee headed by M.P. Bezbaruah, a member of the North Eastern Council, was set up in February 2014 after 19-year-old Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, died here after he was thrashed by local shopkeepers.

The panel was formed to look into the concerns of the people of the northeast living in other parts of the country and suggest suitable remedial measures.

“As part of legal assistance, a panel of seven lawyers, including five women lawyers, has been constituted by the Delhi State Legal Service Authority for providing legal assistance to the needy people from the northeast,” he said.

Rajnath Singh said the Delhi government would also provide monetary assistance to the victims of any violence in the city.

“The Delhi government will also be providing compensation and monetary assistance to the northeast people under Delhi Victim Compensation Scheme 2011.”

“Recommendations made by the committee regarding special police initiatives and additional steps to be taken by various state police forces and Delhi Police have been accepted for immediate implementation,” the minister said.

Over two lakh people of eight northeastern states are living in Delhi.

A development of northeastern region ministry official said 86 percent of the people from northeast living in Delhi have faced some sort of racial discrimination.

According to reports, many citizens from the northeast have complained that they have been stereotyped by such characterisations as ‘Chinky’, ‘Hakka’, ‘Nepali’, ‘Chinese’ and ‘Chow Mein’ by the people in metro cities with reference to their facial features.

In 2007, the North East Support Centre and Helpline was started with the determined object of increasing awareness of prejudices and attacks against people from the northeast.

(IANS)

Bengaluru: 3 children injured in gelatin stick blast in Sai Baba School

by

Representational image. Photo: AP/File

Representational image. Photo: AP/File

Bengaluru: In a freak incident, three students of a private school suffered ‘minor’ injuries today when gelatin sticks they took from a waste dump exploded in their classroom, police said.

The children studying in the Sai Baba School at Madiwala had found the gelatin sticks lying in a waste dump while they were playing and carried them to their classroom, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Alok Kumar said.

The explosion occurred as soon as they switched on the electric panel into which they had stuffed the gelatin sticks, he said.

The injured children have been admitted to ESI Hospital and are undergoing treatment for minor injuries, he said.

(PTI)

'PK' becomes Bollywood's highest grossing film

by

pk

Mumbai: As protests against the film continued, the producers of Aamir Khan-starrer ‘PK’ today said the film has broken ‘Dhoom 3’ record to become the biggest earner in Bollywood by collecting Rs 278.52 crores since its release on December 19.

The film has faced criticism by right-wing organisations who said the Rajkumar Hirani-directed film disrespects Hindu religion, an allegation rejected by its makers.

Hirani, 52, said the film’s word-of-mouth performance has been overwhelming.

“I had never in my wildest dreams thought this film will cross these numbers. It reinforces faith that content is king. We can continue making films we believe in. The messages I get are overwhelming. People are watching the film over and over again. It’s humbling,” the director said in a statement.

‘PK’ with its Rs 278.52 crores at the box office is the second film by both Aamir and Hirani after ‘3 Idiots’ (Rs 202 crores) to be a part of the highest earning films’ club.

Aamir-starrer ‘Dhoom 3’ is second biggest earner with Rs 271.82 crores followed by Salman Khan starrer ‘Kick’ (Rs 244 crores) and Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Chennai Express’ (Rs 228 crores).

The film has done well in overseas markets as well by contributing Rs 124 crores at the box office.

(IANS)

Boat, allegedly from Pakistan, intercepted, explodes, sinks

by

coastguard

New Delhi: A suspicious Pakistani fishing boat intercepted by the Coast Guard and navy in the Arabian sea exploded and sank after its crew set fire to it, the Indian government said Friday.

The boat had set off from Keti Bunder near Karachi and was planning ‘some illicit transaction’ in the Arabian Sea, a defence ministry statement said.

Indian Coast Guard ships and navy aircraft tried to intercept the boat near the India-Pakistan maritime boundary, about 365 km from Porbander in Gujarat, on the night of Dec 31-Jan 1.

A Coast Guard ship warned the boat to stop for investigation of the crew and cargo. But the vessel increased speed and tried to get away.

‘(A) hot pursuit continued for nearly one hour, and the Coast Guard ship managed to stop the fishing boat after firing warning shots,’ the statement said.

‘Four persons were seen on the boat who disregarded all warnings by the Coast Guard ship to stop and cooperate with investigation.’

The suspicious crew then hid themselves below the deck and set the vessel on fire, resulting in an explosion and a major fire.

‘Due to darkness, bad weather and strong winds, the boat and persons on board could not be saved or recovered. The boat burnt and sank in the same position in early hours of Jan 1,’ the statement said.

(IANS)

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives