View source for Aadhaar Cards Face Biometric Data Challenge

<p>The UID (Unique Identification) authority's claim that biometric data collected by it for issuing 'Aadhar' cards was only for civilian purposes is set to be tested on the touchstone of our criminal justice system. In a bid to salvage the project, the authority has maintained that biometric data was being collected on a voluntary basis only for civilian purposes of disbursing government benefits. To claim that public interest would be better served by not sharing the biometric database even for dealing with crime is beyond comprehension. Though the government now proposes to introduce a redrafted Bill, the submissions by the authority during the present controversy show that the technology/software used by it would not help the government deal with national security issues on an emergency basis.</p><br /><br /><p>The authority had also approached the high court after a Vasco Da Gama trial court, on an application by the CBI, directed the sharing of biometric data of all the residents of Goa. It decided to move the Supreme Court after the high court on February 26 had directed a study to explore if UID biometric database could help in identifying criminals. In what reflects on the restricted scope and limitations of the ambitious project, the authority admitted that sharing of their data based on technology and program that was for civilian application would probably lead to false match. There is hardly any doubt that the scheme faces a serious challenge on account of alleged violation of privacy but there is no reason to bypass statutory provisions governing the criminal justice system once the hurdle is crossed.</p><br /><br /><p>The government, no doubt, should defend its scheme but should ensure that it does not end up defending criminals is the process. In a landmark decision, consumer forums now will be able to decide the fees of those representing the litigant customer. A notification to this effect last month paved the way for nonadvocates, including representatives of consumer rights bodies, to take up cases after obtaining accreditation. The notification ushered in a changed regime where fees charged by such agents would be regulated by the forum. So far, a litigant not appearing in person had no option but to hire a lawyer. Lawyers, however, will continue to appear but the forum had no role in settling the fee. The notification states that an agent would have to file a written request before the forum if he wished to receive a fee from the litigant consumer.</p><br /><br /><p>Among other things, the paying capacity of the consumer would be taken into account while fixing the fee. In a case where a consumer seeks monetary damages, the fee would not be more than 20 per cent of the damages awarded. The government was made to take action following a contempt petition for not implementing the decision. A Supreme Court bench put judicial activism on the backburner as it refused to exercise its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to frame guidelines to deal with the rise in incidents of hate speech. In fact, the judgment by the bench presided over by justice B S Chauhan itself indicated that if courts were shunning activism it was for civil society to take up the cudgels. The court stressed the NHRC could also initiate action against people making hate speeches. Though the court saw some problems and felt that the executive, civil society and NHRC needed to play an active role, it still decided not to intervene. It quoted with approval an earlier judgment stating that judicial review was subject to the principles of judicial restraint. Though the court did not specifically state why it had decided to keep away when it felt that various other bodies needed to play a proactive role, the judgment spoke for itself.</p><br /><br /><p>CHENNAI, India, Nov 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When celebrated Indian fashion designer Wendell Rodricks sat down to write his third book, haute couture was not on his mind. Rodricks' new novel - Poskem: Goans In The Shadows - is a fictional tale of four people caught up in a Goan tradition that finally appears to be dying out in the 21st century. Rodricks writes of an unspoken world of the last generation of people who fell victim to the poskem tradition, preserving their story for posterity, the publisher's note states. The author, a Goan himself, describes it as &quot;the sunshine state's dark secret&quot;. Rodricks told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p><br /><br /><p>While her six &quot;siblings&quot; went to school, she did household chores, and while they ate from porcelain plates, she ate in the kitchen with the servants. Rodricks said at the book's launch in India's southern city of Chennai. India's 2011 census recorded more than 4 million labourers aged from five to 14 years old. In Goa, one of India's top tourist destinations, poskem were normally from poor families or illegitimate children, Rodricks said. Rodricks said his mother's family had a poskem, but he did not know the meaning of the word when he was young. He first understood what it meant in his twenties and later got to know more when he settled down in Goa and Rosa was his neighbour. Reporting by Anuradha Nagaraj, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking and climate change.</p><br /><br /><p>A fraudster who raked in &pound;134,000 in benefits while enjoying tropical holidays and having plastic surgery has been jailed for 27 months. Karen Trant, 52, of Dartmouth, claimed she needed continual supervision and could not walk outdoors in new places but photographs showed her riding rearing horses. She claimed she was stressed by crowded places but Plymouth Crown Court heard she holidayed in Goa, India, socialising in crowds and spent her money on plastic surgery. Trant pleaded guilty to dishonestly claiming benefits over a 13-year period. After several holidays to Goa, Trant bought an apartment at the Highland Beach Resort in Candolim in 2004 which extended her stays by up to five months. The court heard that, in total, Trant falsely claimed &pound;32,315.94 in income support, &pound;8,134.15 in employment support allowance, &pound;29,807.40 in disability living allowance and &pound;64,478.51 in housing and council tax benefit. The Karen Trant seen confidently riding a horse in the photographs seems a world away from the highly dependent and anxiety-ridden individual she purported to be to justify her welfare benefits claims. The benefits system exists to support the most vulnerable in our society and Karen Trant had no entitlement to these benefits.</p><br /><br /><p>Portuguese isn't as popular as Chinese, English, or Spanish. These languages are the major languages spoken around the world today. However, there are still several good reasons to study this beautiful language. Worldwide, Portuguese is a fairly common language. In the southern hemisphere, it's widely spoken and is a large Western language. Not only is it spoken in Portugal, it's also spoken in countries such as Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Goa, Sao Tome, Mozambique, Macau, Principe, and Guinea-Bissau. Due to a deep history of Portuguese exploration, there are many other countries with communities of Portuguese speakers. There is insight into the history and culture of the Portuguese through the study of their language. Unlike some of the other more widely spoken languages, Portuguese is one of the easier languages in the world to learn.</p><br /><br /><p>English and French are littered with irregular verbs, making them extremely difficult to learn, especially for the non-native speakers. Not Portuguese. There are only 17 irregular verbs, which happen to be the most commonly used ones. The rest are regular. There are quite [https://www.goa.biz/ goa beaches] which may be confusing for some at first, but they're regular. They may involve some English grammar study for the average anglophone. Verb tenses aren't something that's used in the English language in the same way that it is in Portuguese. However, once the concepts are understood, their use is easy and straightforward. Due to their Latin base, Portuguese and English also share a large vocabulary. The best thing about Portuguese is that it's nearly all phonetic, so pronouncing words is just a matter of learning some reading laws.</p><br /><br /><p>Silent letters and weird sound clusters don't exist in Portuguese. Everything is pronounced how it looks, making reading and writing a cinch. Italian and Spanish are very similar to Portuguese. If they listen closely, speakers of all three can understand one another. Speakers of Portuguese tend to have an easier time understanding Italian and Spanish than do Italian and Spanish speakers. Learning Spanish and Italian is separate; however, knowledge of Portuguese will help with learning both. It can also assist with learning French. Finding online courses that teach European Portuguese is more difficult than finding those that teach Brazilian Portuguese. There are some differences in pronunciation and idioms, but communication between the two is easy enough. It's akin to American vs British English.</p><br /><br /><p>European Portuguese tends to be more nasal and spoken more quickly. Once Brazilian is mastered, it's simple to pick up the European dialect. Portuguese is generally not found in schools but there are plenty of online courses and books that can help you learn. In major cities you can probably find a native speaker to help you. If all else fails, you can always study Portuguese in Brazil. Immersing yourself in the culture and language is a good way to learn the language. That way, you're forced the learn it and learn it fast. Whatever way you decide to do it, learn Portuguese. It's a great language tool to have under your belt. Study Portuguese in Brazil. Study, have fun and discover Rio de Janeiro. Speak Portuguese 24/7. Free class material. Native Teachers. Free enrolment. Learn discovering Rio. Next to the Beach. Technology Classrooms. Learn while you have fun. Courses: Small Group, Private Classes.</p><br /><br /><p>US-based Playboy Club's plans to open the facility on a Goa beach have hit a hurdle with a legislator of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party threatening to go on a hunger strike terming the club &quot;vulgar&quot;. The Playboy franchisee, however, has submitted an affidavit with the state government asserting that there will be no vulgarity. BJP legislator Michael Lobo, in whose constituency the club is to be set up, has questioned his own government whether &quot;it endorses prostitution in Goa in the form of Playboy&quot;. The club is expected to take shape on a property owned by former Congress legislator Agnelo Fernandes on Candolim beach, 20 km away from here. Playboy's local franchisee, PB Lifestyle, has announced plans for over 100 outlets in India, starting with a beachside club in the holiday state, but their 'bunny' waitresses will sport a new look to suit conservative Indian values.</p><br /><br /><p>The first people to set foot on the island of Mauritius were Arab sailors and merchants. Arabs merchant ships have been sailing the Indian Ocean for centuries. Important trading routes linked the east coast of Africa and Madagascar with the Arabian Peninsula, India and Indonesia. The Mascarenes Islands were a long way off the usual trading routes of Arab or Indian sailors. Perhaps the islands were discovered when a cyclone caught an Arab dhow unaware and pushed it towards Mauritius. Evidence that points to the discovery of the Mascarenes Archipelago by Arab seamen comes from copies of Portuguese maps of the early 16th century that depict a group of three small islands south east of Madagascar that bear Arabic names.</p><br /><br /><p>In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama succeeded in rounding the Cape of Good Hope and called at various Arab-Swahili cities along the East African coast on his way northwards. It was at one of those city ports that an Arab or Indian pilot showed him the way to Goa, India. Within the next ten years, numerous Portuguese expeditions explored the Indian Ocean, visiting Madagascar, the Seychelles and the Comoros Islands. Around 1507, the Portuguese seaman Fernandez Pereira sighted Mauritius and named it Cerne. The group of islands consisting of Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues were given the names of Mascarenes after the Portuguese captain, Pero Mascarenhas. The Portuguese never attempted to settle on any of the Mascarene Islands. They were more interested in protecting their trade routes with India and therefore established settlements along the coast of Mozambique instead.</p><br /><br /><p>During French colonial rule, from 1767 to 1810, the capital and main port, Port Louis, became an important centre for trade, privateering, and naval operations against the British. In addition, French planters established sugarcane estates and built up their fortunes at the expense of the labour of slaves brought from Africa. The French patois, or colloquial language, which evolved among these slaves and their freed descendants, referred to as Creole, has become the everyday language shared by most of the island's inhabitants. French is used in the media and literature, and the Franco-Mauritian descendants of the French settlers continue to dominate the sugar industry and economic life of modern Mauritius. The British captured the island in 1810 and gave up sovereignty when Mauritius became independent in 1968. During this period, the French plantation aristocracy maintained its economic, and, to a certain degree, its political prominence.</p><br /><br /><p>The British abolished slavery but provided for cheap labour on the sugar estates by bringing nearly 500,000 indentured workers from the Indian subcontinent. The political history of Mauritius in the twentieth century revolves around the gradual economic and political empowerment of the island's Indian majority. Our long-term relationship with the airlines and hotel partners guarantees that we will be able to provide you with the best offers and added value for your dream holiday. For your Car rental mauritius, rentalcarmauritiu is present at Plaisance airport, in the newly renovated airport building. Our staff is welcoming you. Our drive offers a high quality chauffeuring service when you rent a car. The service is provided with a range of high quality, luxury cars that are driven by friendly, fully qualified chauffeurs.</p><br /><br /><p>After being accused of cheating to the tune of Rs 1.87 crore, entrepreneur and designer Sussanne Khan, the ex-wife of actor Hrithik Roshan, has finally broken her silence. An FIR was registered by Panaji Police in Goa on Saturday, on the basis of a complaint filed by Mudhit Gupta, the Managing partner of Emgee Properties. Gupta claims that Khan misrepresented herself as an architect in order to secure a deal with the real estate company. It is claimed that Khan failed to deliver the project at the company’s latest venture, Naira Complex, which is being built at Siridao in Tiswadi, North Goa. The issue came to light after her work was found to be unprofessional by an architect’s standards, and on further inspection, she was found not to be an architect at all. The case was registered by police sub-inspector Rashmi Bhaidkar under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.</p><br /><br /><p>India's tourism industry is booming with new opportunities due to government support. Every year millions of national and international travelers tour India to see its culture heritage, natural beauty and wildlife reserve. However, since India is a very vast country, planning what to see on a tour to India can be a really daunting task especially if you have to choose destinations between the South, North, East or West of India. Whether on a spiritual quest, a cultural visit or a relaxing holiday, it is advisable that you plan your India tour in such a way that you are easily able to cover a few important destinations of a particular region. India can be divided into four regions i.e. North, South, East and West and each one of these four regions nurture cultures that are unique only to them.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><p>Moreover, these regions are also different from each other with respect to people, architecture, food, and languages spoken. Though, it will not be impossible for you to cover popular tourist destinations like Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa and the Golden Triangle in a single trip, try to avoid it as it may lead to exhaustion. Select a single region and travel across it. Ask your tour organizer to pack in as many top destinations as possible across a particular region in your India tour package. Here are some of the best places to visit in India according to the four regions of the country.</p><br />