The Big Story: Black out

A storyline that has become all too familiar this year is currently playing out in Manipur. Tensions over the killing of three police personnel led to a call for a bandh, which then caused even more unrest. This prompted the government to impose a curfew and also suspend mobile internet services to prevent the spread of rumours. Just as the rest of the country is adjusting with a government push to switch from cash to digital payments, people in Manipur have to contend with no mobile internet at all.

This is no isolated incident. The Centre for Communication Governance reported in October that 11 states had shut down the internet 37 times since 2015, with 22 of those cases coming in the first nine months of 2016 alone. The Brookings Institute, an American think tank, estimated that India had lost as much as $968 million as a result of 22 shutdowns between July 2015 and July 2016, only counting for disruption in economic activity – without covering lost taxes or the drop in investor and business confidence.

Those numbers are from before the Centre announced its big demonetisation push which, after beginning as a drive against black money, has pivoted into an effort to move India’s transactions online. Ever since the government decided that its currency exchange effort has been a digital push, it has championed mobile payment systems and gone so far as to demonise users of cash, almost suggesting that anyone using it must be up to no good.

What happens to those who have made the shift, and suddenly find themselves unable to transact because of an internet shutdown? The shutdowns are almost always decisions made by local authorities, but states and the Centre seem happy to go along since the prospect of a law and order situation going out of hand seems more ominous.

But in a digital India, an internet shutdown will amount to a serious attack on individual rights: Beyond free speech, a suspension of internet services would also make it impossible to transact – thereby arresting all economic activity. The potential fallout from this could mean many more millions lost every time a local authority decides to take the quick-fix route of the shutting off the internet.

The Centre and states need to work together and create a clear, transparent doctrine – that includes post-facto audits – governing the decision to shut down the internet, and also find ways to ensure economic activity can continue nevertheless. What use is digital India if the internet has been turned off?

The Big Scroll

  • India tops list of 19 countries worst hurt by internet shutdowns.
  • Going cashless after demonetisation? Compare eWallets and UPI apps for what suits you best.
  • Read all of Scroll’s demonetisation coverage here.

Subscribe to “The Daily Fix” by either downloading Scroll’s Android app or opting for it to be delivered to your mailbox. If you have thoughts or suggestions about the Fix, please email rohan@scroll.in.

Punditry

  1. Even a dysfunctional Parliament has not been enough to shake India’s faith in democracy, writes Neera Chandhoke in the  Hindu, but MPs need to realise that they must represent the opinions, interests and needs of the public. 
  2. P Vaidyanathan Iyer in the Indian Express says it is clear that the government did not think its demonetisation move through, ensuring that uncertainty has become the order of the day. 
  3. A leader in Mint reminds the government that, for all the talk of a cashless, digital economy, India will have to do much more to shore up cybersecurity if it wants to avoid digital disasters.
  4. A year into the investigation of the attack on Pathankot’s airbase and the National Investigation Agency still isn’t sure how many militants were actually there, writes Rajesh Ahuja in the Hindustan Times. 

Giggles

Don’t miss

Jash Sen gives us a guide to the Bengali detectives who made it to the screen, and the ones who need to.

“Winter is open season for detective movies in Kolkata. The mandatory Feluda or Byomkesh Christmas flick is now synonymous with a nip in the air, snaking queues outside Flury’s at breakfast and that inexplicable feeling of buoyancy that comes with the advent of Christmas. It is time to believe in fairy tales once again, or in their modern counterpart, the detective story – where we are assured that justice will prevail, if only on celluloid.

As the mercury dips, I spy an array of Bengali thrillers lined up for the holidays – Antarleen, a murder mystery set in Kasauli; Double Feluda by Sandip Ray, a twinning of Ray’s shorter Feluda mysteries Samaddarer Chaabi (The Key) and Golokdham Rahasya (The Mystery at Golokdham) and Arindam Sil’s Byomkesh Pawrbo, an adaptation of Amriter Mrityu (The Death of Amrito).”