In my blog dated April 28, 2018, I had pointed out that the government was planning to introduce a chip in TV setup boxes to ostensibly monitor viewer preferences while watching TV programs. I had pointed out that this could also be a sinister design to invade the privacy of our homes and collect information about us without our knowledge or consent. Despite a lapse of time, no explanation has been forthcoming from the government.
In the last few days, the government has announced two more pernicious steps, the first on dealing with social media and fake news, and the second about allotment of services and cadres to newly-recruited civil servants. Let us look at both in some detail.
The new monitoring mechanism will be able to read, contextualize and respond to content in most Indian and foreign languages and will get a 360-degree view of customers by integrating customer relationship management data with social profiles. It will personalize responses on the basis of customers' loyalty and past behaviour and also help the ministry to identify 'influencers' with basic attributes like how many followers they have.
A social media analytical tool will be devised to collect digital media chatter from all core social media platforms as well as digital platforms like blogs and forums along with proprietary mobile insights platforms which will enable real-time insights and other valuable data through a single system. The ministry expects to improve the perception of India in the world through this mechanism and give a positive slant to social media and Internet news.
The other equally pernicious proposal which has been circulated to the ministries of the government of India by the Prime Minister's Office deals with the allotment of services to candidates who have successfully competed in the UPSC examination for the IAS and other services. The suggestion here is that the allotment of services to the candidates should be done not on the basis of their performance in the UPSC examination but their performance in the foundation course. It has been a time-honoured practice from the beginning of Independence when competitive examinations began for recruitment to the various services under the government of India, including the all-India services like the IAS and IPS, that the allotment of services is done on the basis of merit as discovered through the competitive examinations. The higher- placed candidate would qualify for the more preferred service. The performance of the candidate was of course also taken into account. Thus, when I was taking the examination in 1959, at the rather young age of 21, I had to make my preference known between the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Foreign Service. I also had to make my preference known for the Indian Police Service viz-a-viz the other central services. A candidate appearing for the IAS and IPS examinations was also required to state his preference for the cadre, amongst the many state cadres available, including the home state cadre. So everything used to become crystal clear the moment the result come out and a candidate's rank in the list of successful candidates was known. The area of discretion was thus extremely limited.
The people of this country do not trust the Modi government in many matters now. These two moves of the government that I have mentioned above further strengthen those doubts. I shall strongly plead that the people nip both these proposals in the bud at the earliest.
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