The Brouhaha Over Devyani Khobragade

 What started out as a relatively easy-to-resolve dispute over wages and hours between the Indian diplomat Deputy Consul-General Devyani Khobragade and her maid Sangeetha Richard has exploded into a diplomatic spat between India and the US that rivals the time when the US applied sanctions in the aftermath of India's nuclear tests in 1998. Indians appear to be deeply divided on the merits of the issue, approving of the US action on the grounds of upholding American law and ethics, or disapproving of it on the grounds that India has been disrespected. Before I voice my two cents on the issue, let me take the time to relate the sequence of events, as I understand them from various sources.

 In October of 2012, Philip Richard, the husband of the maid, who worked as a driver at the Embassy of Mozambique, approaches Devyani Khobragade for a job for his wife. Possibly, he had heard through the grapevine that Ms. Khobragade was looking for a maid. In November 2012, after meeting Mrs. Sangeetha Richard, two agreements of employment are signed, differing essentially in the amount of salary agreed upon. One was for Rs. 30,000 a month to be deposited into an account in Delhi, the other, an affidavit to be filed with the visa application, agreed to pay an hourly wage of $9.75 for a 40 hour workweek. An application for an A-3 visa(personal employees, domestic workers and servants) is made, with which Ms. Khobragade assists and provides supporting documents and affidavits. The requirements for the visa, among other things, was that the wage offered be fair, sufficient for the applicant to support himself/herself, and be comparable to prevailing wages in the area. The visa is granted, and Mrs. Richard departs for New York.

 At first, everything appears to go quite well between employer and employee. The sister of Ms. Khobragade has published what purports to be a letter home from Mrs. Richard in December 2012, showing that she was happy and well treated. What causes matters to deteriorate is, admittedly, speculation at this point, but this is my surmise of what possibly happened. It is a fact that Mrs. Richard was being paid far less that what Ms. Khobragade, in a sworn affidavit, committed to paying as wages. That much, I think, everyone concedes. At some point, Mrs. Richard probably talks to someone about her wages, and becomes aware of the fact that, under US law and under the contract provided to US immigration authorities in New Delhi, she is entitled to a lot more money. She probably begins pressing her employer to stand by the contract and the law, and things may have gone downhill from there. The letter she purportedly wrote home in December 2012 may not have reflected her outlook in April of 2013, by which time, I'm sure, things were not as rosy. At some point, Mrs. Richard decides, and may have been assisted in this decision, to break out, so to speak. On June 23, 2013, she leaves the home allegedly to buy groceries, and does not return.

 Mrs. Richard does not approach Ms. Khobragade with an attorney until July 8, almost two weeks later. In the interim, she appears to have been given shelter by a non-profit called Safe Horizon, which works with victims of trafficking and violence. In the meanwhile, CGI-NY files a missing person report with NYPD, which declines to accept it on their determination, after interviewing Ms. Khobragade in front of the Indian mission, that Mrs. Richard has voluntarily left, and is therefore not missing. NYPD does not pursue immigration violators. Meanwhile, Philip Richard is questioned in New Delhi on the whereabouts of his wife. On July 8, Mrs. Richard's attorney contacts the Indian consulate and Ms. Khobragade, and arranges a meeting at the attorney's office. Ms. Khobragade attends with 3 or 4 consular officers. At the meeting, Mrs. Richard allegedly demands $10,000, a regular passport and conversion of her visa to a regular work visa(which would be in the H category). The other version is that she asks for back pay, better hours and more time off, according to her attorney. The consular officials attempt to persuade Mrs. Richard to continue negotiations at the Indian mission, but she refuses. In the meanwhile, Philip Richard and his son are taken into custody in New Delhi, although later released. The talks fail, and Mrs. Richard refuses to return to the consulate, citing her apprehension of what might happen to her.

 Upon leaving the attorney's office, the mission officials file a felony theft charge against Mrs. Richard, claiming she stole cash, a Blackberry, and sundry official items. They revoke her passport, and request the Office of Foreign Missions to cancel her personal identification card, rendering her presence in the US essentially illegal. In mid-July, Philip Richard files a petition in New Delhi, charging Ms. Khobragade with underpaying his wife and illegally compelling her to sign a second contract. He withdraws the complaint within days, for unknown reasons. (Note: A byline in the Economic Times of December 24 says that Mr. Richard's complaint was dismissed because the court observed that jurisdiction for the matter was not in India. Rather contradictory to the stand taken by the court in the complaint later filed by Ms. Khobragade.)

 All of August goes by, with no apparent activity. Mrs. Richard, according to her attorney, was living on the generosity of strangers, including getting meals at a Sikh gurudwara. But clearly, the US State Department was investigating during this time, and determines that there is enough prima facie evidence to warrant further action. On September 4, 2013, they send a letter to the Indian Ambassador, seeking a meeting and clarification. There is no response for almost a week, at which time India's Ministry of External Affairs(in charge of Indian diplomatic missions) protests against "the tone and content" of the letter. No meeting is forthcoming. On September 20, the Delhi High Court issues an injunction to Mrs. Richard, restraining her from instituting any action against Ms. Khobragade outside India. On September 21, the Indian Embassy responds to State's September 4 letter, claiming that there is no US jurisdiction in the matter.

 On November 19, the south district court in New Delhi issues a non-bailable arrest warrant against Mrs. Richard, on charges of extortion, cheating and conspiracy, In effect, she is boxed in, technically illegal in the US, and facing certain arrest in India if she returns. On December 10, Philip Richard and his children leave for the US on an Air India plane, two days before Ms. Khobragade's arrest in New York.

 On December 12, 2013, Ms. Khobragade is served with an arrest warrant and arrested after she dropped her children off at school. Indian media has portrayed Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for Manhattan, as directing the arrest procedure, which is entirely incorrect. The arrest was made by the US Marshals Office, and according to a statement issued by Mr. Bharara, was discreet and courteous. Ms. Khobragade, according to this statement, was not handcuffed, was allowed to remain at the scene of the arrest for two hours inside an official US Marshals Service car, using her phone to make numerous calls and arrangements, and was offered coffee and food while she did so. The controversial element appears to be the strip search, which Mr. Bharara says took place in a private setting with female marshals. He and the US Marshals Service categorically deny that there was any cavity search, as alleged by Ms. Khobragade in messages, and as carried by Indian media, or that she was handcuffed at the scene, which would make it difficult to make phone calls for two hours. She is placed in a general holding cell with female prisoners while her bail is arranged.

 Okay, so that was the general sequence of events, as I have gleaned them, to the point of arrest. Indian media has gone into a frenzy on several points of misinformation, centering around the manner in which she was arrested("like a common criminal", "in front of her children" "handcuffed in public"), the strip search and the alleged cavity search, and "placed in a cell with drug dealers and prostitutes". They also focus on the alleged $4500 a month payment, which is the result of an inaccuracy in the complaint by Mark Smith, a Special Agent with the Department of State. On further reading of the complaint, it is clear that the agreed wage was $9.75 an hour, which would be an astounding 460 hour work month if one accepted the $4500 figure. However, the Indian media has still not cottoned on to that, and continue their ignorant outrage that such a "demand" could be made for a "mere maid's services". I watched a program on TV hosted by Arnab Goswami, which is supposedly one of the top "news" shows, and he too kept harping on the fictitious $4500 salary. According to Goswami, he has documentation that shows that the US embassy in New Delhi pays some of their Indian employees as little as a dollar a day. I would suggest that he make the documentation available for general public scrutiny, and disclose the source. I have searched, and been unable to find a reliable source, although as a general observation, westerners in India pay and treat their servants far better than Indians, and I myself pay $1 an hour for part-time help, so frankly I think Goswami is full of hot air(which probably accounts for his incessant and annoying shouting). Both the media as well as comments from the public and politicians have proposed retaliatory measures such as arresting gay American diplomats, boycotting American products and, bizarrely, arresting American female diplomats and having them raped by the police because "In India, when a woman is arrested, she is raped by the police", apparently a counter to the US Marshals' position that a strip search is routine procedure in a felony arrest. If that last is indeed the case, I would strongly urge people like Arnab Goswami to focus their pious outrage on that.

 Now, here's my take on the entire sorry episode. In the previous couple of years, two Indian diplomats at the New York consulate, Neena Malhotra and Prabhu Dayal, faced similar charges. Neena Malhotra had left the country before the charges were brought, and a $1.5 million judgement is in place against her. Prabhu Dayal settled out of court. With this as the background, one would assume that the Ministry of External Affairs would have cautioned all its diplomatic staff to rigorously abide by the laws and statutes of the US governing their personal staff on A-3 visas. Ms. Khobragade, as a senior officer, was no doubt aware of this issue even if MEA did not issue a circular. It made news in the major NY papers and the Indian-American media, and would no doubt have been part of the conversation on the IFS circuit. Despite this, she chose to repeat the same violations in employing her maid. The fact of the second "contract" speaks for itself, that she intended to circumvent the US visa requirements. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, I believe she is guilty of cheating, fraud and conspiracy to defraud. The Indian government's case against Mrs. Richard, alleging "illegal immigration", and "extortion, cheating and conspiracy" are a blatant example of elitist high-handedness which run counter to the facts, and misuse of government authority. This, and the earlier treatment of her husband and son, is what led the Department of State to facilitate the departure of Philip Richard and his children from India, and give them "safe harbor" prior to arresting Ms. Khobragade, because there was, let's be honest, a very real danger that the full force of the Indian government would have been brought to bear on them.

 As to the sequence of events, there were numerous opportunities for India to have defused the situation, to have mitigated the arrest risk for Ms. Khobragade and rectified what was from the start a sordid affair of exploitation. Prior to Mrs. Richard's departure from the Khobragade home, when tensions were obviously building, Mrs. Richard's employment could have been terminated and she could have been sent home, even if it meant giving her the legal backpay and flying her back. After June 23, when CGI-NY filed a missing person report, there was no need to harass her husband in India. At the meeting on July 8, knowing the tenuous legal position, a compromise agreement should have been reached to pay Mrs. Richard her backpay and a measure of compensation, on condition that she returned to India with a guarantee that there would be no retaliation. Failure to do that was grossly compounded by the fact of the detention on the very same day of her husband and son(I strongly suspect that was used as leverage) and the revocation of her passport, rendering her technically illegal. Through the month of August, as State was preparing its investigation and course of action, India failed to move Ms. Khobragade out of the reach of US law, whether by enhancing her immunity or reassigning her to another country. In September, when State officially communicated its interest in the matter, it was clear that this was not a laughing matter, and yet it took a whole week for MEA to merely protest "the tone and content" of the letter and a further ten days for the Indian Embassy to claim that there was no US jurisdiction in the matter, let alone do anything concrete about it. Over the next two months, cases were filed in India against Mrs. Richard, on behalf of Ms. Khobragade, resulting in an unconstitutional injunction to Mrs. Richard to refrain from legal action overseas, and a non-bailable arrest warrant on her. Furthermore, in an act of unbelievable arrogance, knowing that State was interested in prosecuting a case against Ms. Khobragade, MEA initiated an extradition request against the maid(who was the victim under US law, and prime witness in State's case) to face charges in India. Lastly, given the intent to intimidate the family of Mrs. Richard, the fact that Philip Richard and his son both applied for renewal of their passports in September did not cross MEA 's radar nor did their flight out of India, on an Air India flight, no less. If it did, and nothing was done to prevent it, then we must consider the possibility of a deeper, more complex game that MEA is playing.

 In conclusion, Ms. Khobragade is, in my opinion, guilty of deliberately flouting the US visa and employment rules, filing a false affidavit and subsequently misusing government machinery to intimidate Mrs. Richard and her family. In addition, the sense of invulnerability combined with sheer arrogance and incompetence on the part of Ms. Khobragade, the Indian consular officials, the MEA and other Indian authorities resulted in an utter failure to defuse and resolve an embarrassment to the image of India. An image which, admittedly, is more hype than reality, but an image nevertheless of a country trying to progress and uplift its poor, and remedy a long historical record of inequity and injustice. In truth, little, it seems, has changed.

Abracadabra! You're safe!

 Indians are nowadays totally accustomed in their daily lives to being wanded, their belongings put through a baggage scanner and their vehicle trunks("dickeys") being searched, apparently in the pursuit of "security". These intrusions on personal space occur at shopping malls, hotels, grocery stores and transportation terminals. The people accept it at face value because, they say, it "keeps us safe". But does it? Without the shadow of a doubt, it does not.

 That's a pretty bold statement to make, you say? Well, look at the facts. Unlike airport security(which is itself quite the farce), these "security measures" do not actually prevent the entry of sharp objects, liquid or solid explosives or even mildly re-engineered handguns. Supposedly, the impetus for these measures is terrorism. But let's be honest: in India, terrorism = ISI(Pakistan's "security intelligence" apparatus) plots, in the larger part of the country not suffering from Maoist insurgencies. And do we realistically believe that the ISI has only the capability of some third-rate criminal outfit? That our security measures are so good that the best the terrorists can do is plant crude little bombs in gutters timed to go off when nobody is awake? No, they have been trained by an agency(the ISI) which is itself the beneficiary of training by some of the best in the business, aka CIA operatives. They have the resources of government, of military and of the industrial complex in Pakistan which is only too willing to co-operate if and when it comes to raining terror on their arch-enemy.

 I have been stopped at the entrance to Bangalore's Metro on MG Road for carrying a bottle of chili oil and a bottle of wine, while walking in sneakers stuffed with Dr. Scholl's gel inserts which could very well have had something other than harmless gel in them. Another time, I was carrying a tiny little pair of scissors, the kind one uses in sewing. They let me keep it, but I had to put my name and mobile phone number in a register, and list what I was carrying. "Just in case of problem, sir!". But what if I wrote down a fake name and fake number? Who, then, would they go after if there was a "problem"? On New Year's Eve, at 6:55 PM, I was stopped for carrying two boxes of pastries because "Today no pastries after 7 PM"! I wasn't about to dump $25 worth of pastries because some "security expert" determined that pastries after 7 PM on New Year's Eve was a security threat on the 5-minute Metro ride. I have been asked to empty out my pockets at malls, when the metal detector beeps because of the coins in my pocket which I keep to hand out to old and handicapped beggars. Ditto at an upscale hotel, while I held in my hand a rather large camera which could have easily concealed a disassembled semi-auto pistol. I've been to Big Bazaars, shopping malls and hotels where they check the trunk for God knows what, when whatever they may be looking for in the trunk could(and would) be under or inside the seats. They look at the underside of vehicles with a mirror, as if somebody is going play Wile E. Coyote and place there a duct-taped bundle of dynamite from the Acme Dynamite Company with an alarm clock and a tell-tale flashing red light, rather than pack remote-detonation explosives into a simulated exhaust system or fuel tank, or stuff the entire rear seat with an armory of assault weapons. I have repeatedly been told to put away my camera(which I was merely carrying, and not using) in the Bangalore Metro system because "photography is prohibited", while people merrily taking pictures and videos with their cellphones had no problems. The fact that my camera was obviously a dedicated device seemed to trigger the "security" people, who seemed blissfully unaware that, in the 21st century, cameras are built into all sorts of devices. But really, what exactly is top-secret about the Metro anyhow?

The promoters of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation appear to not understand that, in order to successfully transition citizens to mass transportation, they will need to be able to use the Metro for the same purposes: going to work, to the airport or railroad station, shopping, entertainment and, yes, carrying groceries back. Which means they will be carrying a variety of creams, liquids, gels, oils, powders, lipsticks, eyeglass cases, sharp objects like scissors, tweezers, screwdrivers and even kitchen knives, pastries and other "suspicious" articles, many of them packaged in plastic and glass, or packed into travel bags. They will be carrying lunches and snacks, often with copious amounts of liquids of various hues. They will be carrying "dangerous" gardening implements they purchased at The Home Store or similar, or attars they bought in the bylanes around Avenue Road or Commercial Street, or cans of paint to brighten up the kids room or old furniture. They cannot be expected to write lists of their purchases/possessions into registers before being allowed into the Metro stations. The BMRC seems to have anticipated the inconvenience to airport travellers, and plans on airline bag drops at the stations, Apart from the natural concerns one would have about the bags reaching the airport on time and unmolested, what about those who take buses and trains for their long-distance travel? What about people changing hotels, or students going from railroad station to their college hostels? What about salespeople who need to carry bulky samples? And as and when other stretches of the Metro become operational, the numbers of people using even the existing stations will rise exponentially to the point where these alleged "security measures" will cause inordinate delays and frustration, especially during peak hours. As it is, I see that peak hours find the Metro cars packed, even with only 6 Km of line operational. Keep up this senseless "security" obstruction, and people will continue to use personal or other commercial road transportation, and the Metro will continue to be a white elephant.

 What it seems to be about- and what Indians seem to want- is the appearance of security, regardless of its effectiveness. In that, it is in direct contrast with the rest of the world, which wants effective security with as little intrusion and obviousness as possible. Granted, that is not the case in most airports right now, but I have not had to put up with this nonsense at grocery stores, malls and railroad stations in other countries. In New York's subway system, for a while(under a "credible information" alert), they were checking all packages, but now it is randomized. In India, on the other hand, not only is there no "credible information", but the security measures fail miserably at their proclaimed task. And as they fail miserably, they inconvenience tens of millions of people who put up with the inconveniences every day in the wholly mistaken assumption that these intrusions keep them safe. I remember on a trip within India in the 90s, I was asked to remove the batteries from my film camera and place them in my checked baggage, as "batteries are prohibited" in carry-on luggage, because they allegedly could be used in triggering devices. These days, people freely take on board laptop batteries hundreds of times more powerful than the AAs I had in my camera, and smart phones have apps which can remotely control a host of devices. While this "security" industry employs hundreds of thousands of village rubes, mostly from the north of the country for some reason, I am perfectly willing to demonstrate their ineffectiveness to any organization that uses a "security agency" for this entirely false projection of security. I can breach their "security" all day long, with any of a variety of lethal objects. It's time they stopped waving their magic metal-detector wands and saying, "Abracadabra! You're safe!".

Internet scams, cyber security and Paypal

 I think just about everyone with an e-mail account has, probably on a weekly basis if not daily, seen one of those scam e-mails from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, etc. telling them there is a huge sum of money waiting for them, either from an inheritance or a settlement or simply from someone needing help to secretly move cash or to engage in philanthropy. Usually, on followup, it ends up with a demand to send money via Western Union or Moneygram. Another type of internet scam is an email purporting to be from a bank or some other institution where you may have an account, telling you there is a problem with your account and asking you to log in to correct the problem. The email then directs you via a hyperlink which actually takes you to a spoof website(one that is made to look like the original) where you are asked to enter your login ID and password, and sometimes other details such as your mailing address, your account number, your secret answers, and so on. These are referred to as phishing scams, as in "phishing" for information.

 One way I deal with the Nigerian-type scams, also known as 419 scams for the Nigerian penal code law which deals with cheating, if I don't delete them right away, is to sometimes play along up to a point, getting them to reveal information about themselves or elements of their operation. In the past couple of weeks, I have had three websites shut down along with numerous e-mail accounts, after gathering enough information to present to web registrars and e-mail providers. With phishing scams, I trace their links, gather registration information, and then notify the appropriate entities. I do this for free, when I'm bored or just irritated at the number of these e-mails I receive. But what prompted me to blog about this is the response I received from Paypal, when I notified them of a spoof website which was gathering login IDs and passwords of their customers.  I reproduce below the last e-mail I sent to Paypal's "cybersecurity team":
 
   *******************************************************************

Begin

On ......................... spoof@paypal.com wrote:

Dear xxxxxxx,
  Thanks for taking an active role by reporting suspicious-looking emails.
Although we've determined that the email you forwarded to us is not a
phishing attempt, our security team is grateful for your concern.

You're kidding, right? The e-mail comes from Brazil, the header says "YOUR MARCH ACCOUNT STATEMENT FROM PayPal IS READY TO VIEW" and the body says "YOUR FEBRUARY ACCOUNT STATEMENT FROM PayPal IS READY TO VIEW"(indicating that this has been going around for at least a month), the login link points to http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/ and you still think this is not a phishing attempt?
Seriously, I have to question your competence when it comes to security.


The other links in the message(in source mode) I sent to you:

Review your February PayPal Account Statement today.

PayPal      view online http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/


*Log in to view now* http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/

   CONFIRM YOUR MOBILE NUMBER http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/

    
 Accept Payments http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/        
Purchase Protection http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/ 
 PayPal App http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/        
Fees http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/        
Help http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/        
PayPal Shopping http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/

Moreover when visiting the website http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/, you should have clearly seen that the Paypal website had been spoofed.  Now, unless the Paypal homepage has been moved to http://www.jarlsalomonsen.no/ez/home/ , this was without question a phishing attempt. I see that Microsoft has blocked the site in IE as a phishing threat, which means at least they are more competent than your people. You should have moved to shut down this site immediately after I reported it on your website more than a week ago, which means more of your customers' information may have been compromised due to the delay. I entered fictitious information in all the requested fields which was accepted, and then I was redirected to the actual Paypal homepage, which means information must certainly have been collected from some of your customers unaware that this was a phishing attempt. Please, don't try to tell me again that "we've determined that the email you forwarded to us is not a phishing attempt"! If your "security team" cannot differentiate between a phishing e-mail and a genuine communication from Paypal, just how secure is your system? 

End 

***************************************************************

 Now, I know Paypal is owned by eBay, and is now a major payment processor for a substantial amount of e-commerce, particularly between individuals and small businesses. It's even being used to collect unemployment benefits and pensions. So security is a big deal. How Paypal's "security team" could not perceive what clearly is a phishing scam is beyond me. I was utterly livid when I got their response that "we've determined that the email you forwarded to us is not a phishing attempt". Cyber security is not to be taken lightly, especially when you own responsibility for financial transactions, and my first inclination was to let Paypal handle the process of shutting down the domain. As it turned out, I had to do it myself because the idiots who comprise Paypal's "security team" could not differentiate between a clear phishing attempt and a legitimate e-mail from Paypal. Furthermore, they didn't have the elementary competence to investigate the links contained within the e-mail. Now, if I were a Paypal customer, given this experience I would be very hesitant to open an account with them, or indeed to keep an account open. Remember that Paypal is linked to your bank account or credit card, and money can literally instantly be siphoned out of them if somebody manages to steal your login ID and password. And sometimes, with a little help from the sloth and incompetence of Paypal's "security team", they can keep doing that for an extended period of time.

_______________________________________________________

A footnote: I find that many companies, including banks, as well as other organizations such as school districts and manufacturers, make it difficult to report abuse of their systems. Indian banks are among the worst at this. Often, I have to really dig through their sitemap, or get the relevant contacts from whois queries. I think these "people", aka corporations/businesses, have an obligation to protect their customer/employee information. In order to do that, they need to make it easy to report violations/intrusions/abuse, and have a competent security team to look into them and take action. I see the current state of online financial security as similar to the credit card business: at first they got you to sign up by claiming that they took the utmost care to protect your information, then they began selling that information without your consent, and finally they became so lax in keeping your information secure (going after customers to pay fraudulent charges, for example, which was their fault through inadequate security measures) that people began to buy expensive subscriptions to "identity theft" programs which essentially monitored your credit information, a job incumbent on the very people who took that information from you as a business need: the banks and the Big 3 credit bureaus.

I remember, back in the 80s, that the system was so lax that, as a customer of TRW(now TransUnion), I had the access to basically create identities with fake social security numbers and add in just about any type of credit information I might want to put in. If you entered "John Q Public" and a made-up SS number, their system would create that identity, which you could then enhance through various inputs, including addresses, fictitious employers and credit line information. I didn't actually do it, of course, but I found out that it was possible when my potential customers gave me false information(yes, it happens more often than you would believe!). I can't imagine how long it took them to fix that, and of course TRW didn't say a word in public.

And when was the last time you used a charge card, and the clerk checked your photo ID? The electronic "signature pad" is so useless- deliberately so, since I can't think of any reason why it should be- that even a straight line is accepted as your signature. Try it. So now, not only do they profit from your custom and from reselling your data to the highest bidder, but they have palmed off the security aspect to you and make additional profits "protecting" and/or "monitoring" your data, which is their obligation to begin with. It's like putting your money in the bank, and the manager telling you that if your money is stolen, it's not their responsibility, and that you need to stand guard or hire someone to do it for you. Good grief! It's time these folks were held 100% accountable for breaches in the security of your data and accounts. Only when it hits them where it hurts will they up their game and make the necessary changes.

There's gotta be a better way!

From my very first days in the US many, many monsoons ago, I began hearing a uniquely- in my experience- American phrase: "There's gotta be a better way!". In many ways, it epitomizes the spirit of American inventiveness and problem-solving. When Americans find something cumbersome, or dissatisfying in result or output, it's an automatic thought. I was reminded about this today, when I opened my windows to take advantage of a brief cooling in the aftermath of a thunderstorm. I unlocked and pushed out the windows, and then had to wiggle my rather large hands through the metal grille to latch the window open. Later, when the humidity level proved too oppressive, I decided to close the windows and run the air-conditioning for a while. Hand through the grille again to unlatch the window, and then I had a really difficult time closing the window because it required that I push my hand way out to grab the frame of the window and swing it back in again. Looking at the welts on my hand and wrist, I said to myself, "There's got to be a better way!".

 And that got me thinking both about the problem and about how ordinary day-to-day problems and hassles simply don't impinge on the Indian mindset. We just go on, putting in the extra effort, tolerating the unnecessary inconveniences, and barely even notice them, simply dismissing them as facts of life. It's little wonder, then, that we don't have a track record of inventiveness. Philosophy, yes, we're up there with anything anyone else has. But philosophy is not a sport, it doesn't require movement, it doesn't even matter if you don't have a formal education. Look at the records which Indians hold in the Guinness Book of World Records: they are mostly for lack of grooming, lack of activity and, if I may say so, for sheer laziness! The longest hair, the longest fingernails, the longest toenails, the longest time spent sitting/standing in one place, the longest time spent standing on one foot on a rock in the middle of a river pointing at the sun, the most people gathered in one place sitting in the lotus pose or something, and so on. Lately there have been some efforts at creating records involving slightly more activity: most people simultaneously playing a musical instrument, or most people simultaneously chanting shlokas or something similar. You don't see Indians in the GBWR for running the fastest mile, or building the longest suspension bridge or anything that might require strenuous activity. It's not that we aren't- with a little prodding and some proper nutrition- capable of at least attempting some real records. What holds us back is a cultural stew of negativity, of saying "It's good enough" when it's not, or "That's coolie work" to deprecate working with your hands, or simply "What for?", expressed in that ubiquitous Hindi phrase "Chalta hai!", or the Kannada "Yaako, sumne bidi!"(What for, just leave it alone!).

 And so we use the inventiveness of other peoples, and claim them as our own because, hey, "We gave the concept of Zero to the world", or "We were living in sophisticated cities when the white man was swinging on trees in Europe" , or "We invented algebra and trigonometry and astronomy and plastic surgery and....". But heaven forbid you say anything to the effect of what matters is where we are at now, and that it's not where we should be. The response to that, predictably, is "We were looted for the last 1000 years by the Arabs and the Europeans!". Well, that's just victimhood. Plenty of people have been looted. The Europeans used to loot each other, and were looted by peoples from across the Urals. And they weren't living on trees when cities were being built in India, they were building their own cities and ships and foundries and canals and castles and irrigation systems. It's a typically defensive Indian reaction to place all our woes on someone else's head. I was looking today at some pictures of the city of Cotonou in Benin(yes, that city infamous for its internet scammers). Benin is a poor country, with a per capita income lower than India. It used to be the "Slave Coast" of Africa, and was for almost two decades until 1990 a Marxist country. Yet, for all that, the city of Cotonou, the most populous in Benin, is remarkably clean when compared to any Indian city. And I mean any Indian city. It's downtown area has clean, well-laid sidewalks and kerbs, and well-maintained buildings. Why is that? It's not that they have more money, or more resources. Compare it to Bangalore's "upscale" downtown of the Commercial Street-Trinity Circle-Richmond Circle triangle, which is a stinking, decrepit, pot-holed eyesore, despite the new steel-and-glass buildings, despite the fact that businesses throughout the entire area make fortunes. There's no excuse for that, save the pervasive apathy of the Indian mindset.

 During my childhood in India, it was common to have two varieties of the same product: the regular one and the "export quality". By definition, "export quality" was destined for markets which had an inexplicably higher standard than Indians, who- one presumes - could, should and would be happy with anything which doesn't fall apart or stop working in under a week. I dealt with this mindset in another post. When I was in my teens, I saw that there was a problem with shampoos and hair oils in glass bottles, which had a tendency to slip and shatter on the floor, often causing injury. Even vitamins came in glass bottles. I attempted to have major manufacturers replace their glass bottles with the by-then ubiquitous(in other countries) food-grade plastics, but ultimately failed because they would lose their coveted ISI stamp(remember that? I think I only see it on helmets now) if they used non-ISI-approved packaging. I visited a major plastics manufacturer who claimed to be making food grade plastics. They told me they had previously applied for ISI-certification, but had not been able to get it. I visited ISI, and they told me that while the plastic might very well meet their own published standard for food-grade plastic(simply a metric copy of US standards), they were unwilling to certify in case some problem arose in the future as a result. More than likely, they had the standard on the books, but no means of certifying compliance to it. After running around for months, I finally gave up on it. Now, of course, the MNCs operating in India have made food-grade plastic the de facto standard of food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical packaging. But did it have to take foreigners to come and do it for us? Was it that Indians were so apathetic to each other that they would live with the potential for injury without demurring? That we place more value on views and opinions which come from a westerner rather than an Indian? Could our own manufacturers not see that glass breakage was a serious hazard and that "there's gotta be a better way"?

Not a day goes by without my encountering some new instance of inconvenience, poor design, procedural inefficiency, or other irritant which could not be either eliminated or substantially abated with just a modicum of commonsense application. Whether it is the commonsense that is lacking, or the will to apply commonsense, I am still at a loss to discern. As an Indian myself, I hope the problem is the latter, but am not convinced that it couldn't be the former. Seriously, if Indians don't incorporate problem-solving into their everyday thinking and embrace it as a good thing, it's not going to be a better tomorrow, at least for those of us unfortunate enough to live outside of the western-inspired insular communities popping up all over suburbia.

Bangalore: Hot and sweaty in the dark

 Successive governments have pledged to turn Bangalore into a "world-class city", but either they have no clue what that means, or they just mouth acceptable platitudes while attending to the more urgent business of graft opportunities. In the meanwhile, the citizens of Bangalore(or at least the vast majority who live outside of certain privileged blocks which are guaranteed uninterrupted power and water from the utilities) continue to suffer through incessant water shortages, random and frequent power outages of uncertain duration, and the general filth and squalor which permeates this supposed "garden city".

 The city's electric utility, BESCOM(Bangalore Electric Supply Company), recently claimed that there would be no load-shedding in Bangalore. "Load-shedding", while a legitimate term for controlling peak consumption, is used in India to cover incompetence and grift in the utility. In Bangalore, there are sometimes announcements in the media stating start and end times for load-shedding. While this gives citizens a heads-up for those hours, the more normal experience is that the power goes off at random times, for indeterminate periods of upto several hours. As I type this, the power has gone off three times in the last hour, for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. It was off for at least an hour this morning prior to 6 AM. It will without doubt go off several times again later today. What triggers these shutoffs is anyone's guess, but BESCOM says that it is not load-shedding. Sadly, this is nothing new, and has been part of the Indian experience since before I was born, and will doubtless continue to be so after I am gone, given the planning and implementation currently going on.

 The water utility, in the meanwhile, announced with much fanfare recently the commissioning of an additional 500 million liters per day(MLD) to the city's water supply. I thought this would certainly close the gap between supply and demand, but that has not proven to be the case. The utility, BWSSB, recently provided various excuses for why there continues to be a shortage, despite saying they are drawing only 225 MLD from the additional supply due to insufficient demand in new areas. That should make 275 MLD available to address shortages in other areas, but apparently this has not occurred to the mandarins running the BWSSB. One must bear in mind that this is water supply, not drinking water, for which one must further treat the water, as I do, or resort to bottled water.

 The upshot of this unending bumbling incompetence and apathy by the utilities is that the average citizen of Bangalore can never be quite certain of being able to take a warm shower in the morning, or to sleep the hot nights away(Bangalore's reputation of being an "air-conditioned city" is now irrevocably past history) under a whirring ceiling fan or- for the wealthier- in an air-conditioned room. It's amusing to observe in the evenings the clatter and whine of appliances simultaneously being put to use as early as possible to guard against the strong possibility that there may not be power at supper time. While most middle-class homes now have battery power back-ups, these only last a couple of hours, and will not power appliances, refrigerators or air-conditioners, and sometimes will trip on a single additional fan being turned on.

 A couple of days ago, we were driving around the Ulsoor Lake area, and someone pointed out a rather nice open-air rooftop restaurant. The temptation to stop in lasted but a moment, as the stench from an open sewer channel blasted us in the face. It would be quite difficult, I think, to keep your open-air lunch down while assimilating the lovely aroma of Bangalore's organic liquid waste. I doubt I'll see that restaurant open still in a year's time. In the meanwhile, I'm looking hard for signs of the promised "world-class city", as I sit on my rooftop, hot and sweaty in the dark.

Narendra Modi and the Ivies

 No, that's not the latest pop act from Gujarat. It's the mercurial Gujarat CM, and the ongoing saga of trying to get blue-blooded American approval of him. Lately, there's been a lot of buzz about overtures to the Gujarat Chief Minister by the UK, talk of the US also sending out tentative feelers, and most recently, the ruckus over the cancellation of a Skype address by the Modimeister to the Wharton Indian Economic Forum. This last, of course, follows the action taken by Harvard against Subramanian Swamy, broadly for the same reason, which is their strong- one might even say virulent- anti-Muslim positions.

 Reactions, predictably, have been strong on both sides, with liberals praising the Wharton administration, and the "Hindu nationalist" supporters equally vocal for their champion. Normally, I would tend to stay out of such controversies, but I have been increasingly irked by the tendency of some Indian-Americans in academia(no doubt working in concert with their political friends) to attempt to put the Ivy stamp of approval on their favorite Indian politicians, thus damaging and cheapening the image of both the schools as well as the broader Indian-American community. I perceive the Modi saga as a back-door attempt to regroup after the US refusal to issue a visa to the Gujarati CM.

 I have lived most of my life in the US, from a time when the number of Indians in the US was still firmly in the mid-6 figure range. I have watched as Indians on F, J and H visas swarmed in by the hundreds of thousands, and suddenly it was no longer unusual to see an Indian at a K-Mart or at a rest stop on the interstate. Indian restaurants sprang up everywhere, the "Potel"(Patel-Motel) phenomenon took off, Indian ownership of convenience stores was caricatured by "Appu" in The Simpsons, and "Little Indias" sprang up everywhere from New Jersey to Illinois to California to Maryland. This first generation surge came to study and to work on temporary projects, and stayed to get permanent residency and then citizenship, buy homes, get married and raise families. Over the past two decades, their second-generation children have acquired a reputation for academic excellence(though not- surprise!- for athletic prowess) and have moved into prominent positions in finance, academia, medicine, law and even politics. But concurrently, I saw a disconcerting campaign by the group of allegedly "Hindu nationalist" organizations collectively referred to as "the sangh parivar" to recruit both new immigrants as well as the second generation- frequently on university campuses- and indoctrinate them with a strain of their worldview possibly even more virulent than the home-grown variety.

 This expanded American arm of the parivar now appears to be seeking to put a patina of American approval on the BJP, and to indirectly validate what I consider to be socially regressive doctrines by organizing quasi-academic seminars at major American universities, especially the Ivies. The major problem I see with this is that it dilutes and dishonors the hard-won reputation of Indian academics in the US, by using the prestige of these universities to political dirty ends. It sullies both the Indian community as well as the host universities. It is perfectly feasible- and indeed desirable- to have vigorous political debate in a campus setting. But insisting on inviting polarizing and dubious politicians- in an atmosphere of highly-charged opposing Indian student groups- in the guise of them allegedly being economic wizards bodes ill for the intellectual esteem in which the Indian-American community is held. This is washing our dirty linen in the neighbor's living room.

 And that brings me to my final observation. I have followed Modi's performance for years, and I have not been able to find substantial support for the general perception that he has led Gujarat to unparalleled(among Indian peers) performance. Decadal results show that while Gujarat has indeed been among the best performers, it has been outperformed by states which do not receive the media accolades which Modi's Gujarat consistently receives. States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and even Bihar. The only explanation I can find for this anomaly is that Gujarat is far more media-savvy than the others. And, on the other hand, I find that the other BJP-ruled states are underperforming, and rapidly developing a reputation for corruption every bit as bad as those in Congress-ruled states.

 Without wanting to end on a depressing note, but having no choice, I see India's politics and seething undercurrents of social tensions(carefully tended by the politicians to whom this is as mothers' milk) as a major ball-and-chain for India's progress. What do you think?

Keynes versus Friedman: three-card monte?

 I'm seeing the online debate heat up as the US economy stubbornly refuses to get revving. Most Americans are divided on their support of Keynes or Friedman(and Hayek) broadly on party lines. Republicans and Libertarians favor Friedman, and Democrats and left-wingers favor Keynes. I think that something which most people arguing this point don't get is the fact that we do not have a solid period of time when either of the economists' theories were actually put to the test sufficiently that relatively absolute conclusions could be extracted. Instead, it seems that elements of both theories were implemented based on the need to accelerate or decelerate the macro economy, or repair damage or provide room for expansion, lately not just of the US but of the global economy.

 This is obviously my own thinking, obviously, but I feel that my opinion cannot be any worse than most of the dogmatic gibberish I find out there! So here's my opinion, and then I'll expand on that a bit: the US monetary policy is determined regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats control the Treasury or the Federal Reserve, while ordinary Americans are misled into this diversionary argument and made to believe that settling the Milton v Friedman debate is at the core of what is good for America. It is integral to the two-party system which divides Americans into easily-controlled "left" and "right" while still serving the purpose of necessary diversion. Economic policies are handled by a network of hoary and influential institutions whose members form "advisory groups" to each administration, but implement policy that is independent of governments and even countries. Increasingly, they are becoming advisers to "developing" countries as well, shaping their monetary policies too in what is rapidly becoming an integrated global financial system.

 When you look at the various economic cycles, you find that the US prospered under both Democratic and Republican presidents, under policies of more government and less government, with high taxes and low taxes, with higher interest rates and lower interest rates, and it likewise suffered too. There were billionaires when the top nominal federal income tax rates were over 70%, and without the massive financial investment "instruments" of today. During the 1950s, with rates between 20%(for the lowest taxable bracket) and 91%(for the highest), the nation witnessed a historic economic expansion. The "job creators" weren't stuffing money in the mattress. As an interesting contrast, when the rates were very significantly reduced in 1925, it was followed by the greatest global economic depression we have witnessed. Cause and effect? I don't think so. You see, the wealthy(and not necessarily only those at the very top, but those who have substantially more income than their expenses or lifestyles demand) have avenues to protect their income from taxes, which is why the income tax rates are called "nominal", unlike other taxes such as sales tax. That is why you find the anomaly, despite the progressive tax rates, of wealthy people often paying at a lower rate than middle-class people, and occasionally less than poor people. I believe the Great Depression was foreseen a long way off, and even anticipated at the time the income taxes were lowered. Game theory, I strongly believe, existed and was used much prior to John von Neumann formalizing it.

 So if nominal tax rates don't necessarily affect economic growth and expansion, why is there such heated debate on tax policy, especially on the very wealthy(like the top 1% who have unadjusted income averaging $2 million)? I believe it is a policy of diverting peoples' attention from what is actually taking place, like a very sophisticated game of three-card monte. While the plebeians are led to argue among themselves on what is a "fair" tax on the rich, the rich themselves are huddling with their accountants, lobbyists, investment advisers and government policy wonks to figure out the best way of not only sheltering their income, but how to make even more. I have nothing against people making money, even undreamed of riches, but they do need- and this is again my personal opinion- to have a social conscience, and not pursue riches regardless of the cost to ordinary people. In this context, I am reminded of how Walmart, for example, tried to prevent workers in Bangladesh from receiving a few more pennies an hour, literally. There are millionaire shipbreakers in western India who discard their dead and dying workers, instead of providing them with the proper work tools and medical care in the first place. Freemarket capitalism at its finest? You betcha, as Sarah Palin would say!

 And what exactly am I going on about? In a nutshell, we the people are furiously arguing the pros and cons of the macro effect on the economy of top marginal tax rates, and about "job creators", while after every boom and bust cycle, you will find that the gulf between rich(the real rich, mind you, not those making mere 6-figure incomes) and the poor is ever widening. The top tax rates simply don't matter, you could put it at 100%, and the wealthy would privately just shrug even as they urge the plebes to argue even more furiously. If you really want to do something to stimulate the economy and create American jobs, stop sending your discretionary money to Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and China. Start buying American, even if it costs a bit more or you have to buy less. Talk to your Senators and Congressmen about removing the unfair trade advantages that America's major trading partners have, which effectively block American exports(or put them at substantial disadvantage) while permitting unfettered access to the American consumer. In short, be proactive. Arguing about Friedman and Keynes, and left and right, isn't going to do diddly squat.

Age and sex employment discrimination in India

 As usual, I scan the papers every day from front to back, and I read the classifieds as well. One aspect of the employment ads which strikes me is the rampant ageism and sexism of employers. What is illegal in western countries is apparently not only legal in India, but also does not raise an eyebrow.

 A typical ad would run like this:
"Engineer needed for electric mfg co. BE/ME, must have 5 years of experience. Age under 35."

I look at something like this and wonder how exactly hiring a 40-year-old engineer would hamper this company. Generally, an older person would have more experience, is likely to be more stable job-wise and is likely to be more compliant than a younger, rolling-stone hiree.

Then you'd find an ad like this:
"Wanted junior sales manager for plastics company. Degree must, experience not necessary, preferably females under 30."

What??? Look at the job, it's selling plastics or plastic components or machinery. What difference does it make, really, if the applicant is male or female, or over 30 for that matter? What really bothers me is that these ads are seen day in and day out, and nobody appears to actually comprehend that this is discrimination. I don't know what the law is with regard to hiring people, but nonetheless this should be a cause for concern especially as more women enter the white-collar work-force, and as people relocate for one reason or another, incidentally aging along the way.

Here's an actual current ad that a private company is running:

 Facility Executive (Facility Management):
Qualification: i) Graduation (Full-Time Course Only): 60 % of marks ii) PG Degree (Hotel Management) (Full-Time Course Only): 60 % of marks iii) PG Diploma (Hotel Management) (Full-Time Course Only): 60 % of marks
Maximum Age: 30 Years as on 01/Oct/2012

Really?? A birth-date cutoff for a private sector job? If the applicant turned 31 on September 30, 2012, would it affect his/her job performance? Is there any guarantee that the 30-year-old will stay with the company for 10 years, or even 1 year? Would employment terminate on the employee reaching his/her 31st birthday? Such limitations not only make no sense, they are gross violations of the right to employment, inasmuch as age(and gender where relevant) has little bearing on the job's requirements and will have little impact, if any, on job performance. The only factor other than the obvious age/gender discrimination that I can think of which might be behind such requirements is that lower pay might be a factor. Well, in that case, put your offer on the table, and you might be pleasantly surprised to find an applicant more qualified than you had hoped for, regardless of age or sex. What do you have to lose?

India has set itself on the path to a capitalist society. However, there needs to be a social compact in conjunction with this transition, which provides sensible protections to the people. As current employment laws in India appear to stand, there is little protection for anybody outside of union jobs, when it comes to arbitrary employment practices. In any event, I should hope that people, and public interest groups, will push their political representatives to create legislation that outlaws such discrimination because, one way or the other, if not today then another day down the road, this affects everybody.

The cracked Aadhaar

 My neighbors are in a tizzy, with rumors swirling about that their gas connections are imminently threatened by their lack of an "Aadhaar" card. The Aadhaar card is India's first serious attempt at a universal identity card and, as is almost always the case in India, suffers from a host of avoidable flaws despite being spearheaded by the former head of India's IT giant Infosys, Nandan Nilekani.

 Granted, any serious thought I have given this issue is only a few days old, but that has been sufficient to revive in me the same frustrations as when I try to wade through any documentation process in Inda. "Aadhaar" is a Hindi/Sanskrit work which means foundation or basis, and is symbolic enough as a name in symbol-conscious India. I understand the thinking behind this, which potentially could eliminate the repetitive process of proving identity in order to obtain a host of services and/or documents from various public and private agencies, from your driver's license to an internet connection to, yes, your gas service.

 Here's my "first information report", as gleaned from my neighbors: You need this Aadhaar card, and that right speedily, because your gas connection will be at risk in three months(and cooking gas in India is as precious a commodity as salt in the Sahara). In order to get this card, you have to get an application form and a "token" from a "camp" that is set up for a few days in various parts of the city/state. So people line up for hours from the early morning to get this form and "token". I'm not sure what the "token" is for, since at that point no information will have been noted down. Once you get the form and token, you fill out the form and, along with supporting documentation, file it at the next "camp", at which you will be photographed, fingerprinted and iris-scanned. Then, after 20-30 days(according to the Government of Karnataka) or 30-90 days(according to the official UID Authority) or 1-2 years(according to frustrated applicants), you should receive your empowering UID card.

 Not ever having been fond of standing in line for anything after my teen experience of huddling on a Madras sidewalk overnight in the fond hope of scoring a ticket to Jodie Foster's "Taxi Driver" at the Madras Film Festival, I decided to try doing it online. Which should not be a bad idea, since the whole thing is not only data-driven, but headed by an IT whiz, and it should be a "whizbang" experience. The first thing I discovered was that the forms were anything but standard. The forms being handed out at the "camps" are different from the forms the Central government is making available, and those are different from the State government's, and the state's is different from those available at various websites claiming to be informative about the whole process.

 Multiple issues confound this process. First, there is the discrepancy in forms. Forms should be in one language only, the language preferred by the applicant. They should be standardized with relation to their content and fields. They should also be issued only by designated government offices or available from designated official websites, not from a multiplicity of private websites using the issue to drive traffic to their advertisers. One would think that Nandan Nilekani, the man in charge of the effort, would make uniformity his number one priority. Secondly, there is the issue of supporting documentation. Acronyms are used in the instructions with little explanation:EID, PoI. PoA, PoR. The acceptable documentation for Proof of Identity contains little, if anything, that a migrant cook from Bihar, for example, can provide in Bangalore. This scheme is supposed to benefit ordinary(poor) people more than the affluent who usually have sufficient documentation, and the means to obtain it if they don't. Furthermore, the instructions fail to match the form. For example, the instruction for Field 4 is for the address, whereas on the form, the address is Field 6. Such laxity seems to be symptomatic of the entire process.

 Here's how I think the process should have been simplified and streamlined.
Firstly, the central government should have implemented a mandatory process of recording births, marriages and deaths, for the tens of millions born, marrying and dying each year, to provide a reliable, secure database at least for the future.
Secondly, all forms and procedures for the UID scheme should have been standardized, only varying in langauge, and eliminating any bilingual forms. People should be able to pick up or download the forms in their language of choice.
Third, permanent field offices should have been set up(doing away with these ridiculous "camps") which alone would have the authority to accept and process applications. It doesn't make sense if any public or private entity should make it mandatory in order to obtain their goods or services- and obtaining it is supposedly "voluntary"- but you have to run around in circles and wait for "camps" to dispense your paperwork and process your application.
Fourth, passport holders(who have already been subjected to the same verification procedures) should be fast-tracked for the UID card, possibly even with same-day service. I'm sure most of them wouldn't even object to a modest fee for the speed and ease of service.
Fifth- and this assumes that Mr. Nilekani has made the most of his IT background- use existing fingerprint and iris-scan databases to weed out duplicate/fraudulent applications, and make those a criminal offense. That would also have the effect of discouraging attempts at fraudulent duplication or identity theft, if it can be detected and stopped at the biometrics phase.
Sixth, eliminate all documentation requirements which would facilitate bribing a gazetted officer or any other official to provide a "certificate" not backed by any other documentation. They are not in a better position to determine what your name is, when you were born or whether you are lying. Furthermore, they don't particularly have a reputation for honesty, and they already have plenty of avenues to make that illegal buck on the side.
Finally, place ALL relevant information, links and forms on one single website, and eliminate the confusion and the diffusion from the profusion of official and pseudo websites. Now you'd be ready to provide quick, efficient service and be a credit to the nation.

 For now, though, the aadhaar(foundation) seems to be cracked.

Update: while the Supreme Court and the Government of India have both stated that the Aadhaar card will not be mandatory, the GoI has, through its monopoly of gas services, mandated the use of the Aadhaar card to get the same subsidy on household cooking gas that consumers were previously getting. If you don't have one, you will have to pay "full price", which was recently and conveniently raised by 50% just ahead of this mandate. Full price is almost three times, the subsidized price, as opposed to twice the price just six months ago. This is a typical example of Indian bureaucracy, speaking out of both sides of its incompetent mouth: claiming that the Aadhaar card is not mandatory, and then making it mandatory to obtain services and subsidies.

Update 2: My housekeeper went recently to "seed" her bank account with her gas account, and presented her Aadhaar card as proof of identity. She was told to return with an additional proof of identity document. Wtf?