Mass Surveillance: Indian Railways Use Facial Recognition Tech And AI  https://www.boomlive.in/explainers/mass-surveillance-indian-railways-use-facial-recognition-tech-and-ai-26094    Herta Security is supplying its advanced facial recognition technology for the Indian railways project. Its systems can detect emotions, micro-expressions, and even gaze directions.  

There are concerns that increased surveillance could deter public protests and other forms of democratic participation, as seen in previous instances of using surveillance for policing protests.  The project adds to the growing list of government undertaking relying on citizens' sensitive personal data, implemented while India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act remains in limbo.

Headquartered in Barcelona with offices in Madrid, London, and Los Angeles, Herta provides video surveillance, access control, and marketing solutions. Currently, it services are being used for surveillance in various international projects, including safe cities, airports, train and metro stations, prisons, banks, casinos, sports stadiums, shopping malls, military, police, and forensic applications.

This tracker  has recorded 204 incidents between June 2024 and 18 Aug 2025 https://www.thequint.com/quintlab/uncovering-hate-crime-tracker-communal-violence-india/

QuintLad: Compilation by Aliza Noor,  Syed Faheem Ahmed., Ashutosh Singh

A Class 10 girl said that she was first requested to take off her burqa in order to be permitted to take an exam.Later, she was permitted to wear a face cover for the SSC exam when the police intervened. 

 Postcolonial theory has a Hindutva problem  https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/modern-science-hindutva-postcolonial-theory-meera-nanda/article69795241.ece
Ideas meant to challenge colonial power are now being used to justify myth and religion in India, with real costs to science and secularism.

 Seeing all endeavours based on empiricism as “Western” and hence colonial neglects significant movements within our own country that have sought to loosen the hold of superstitions and irrational beliefs, however sporadic these efforts may have been.

In her book  Postcolonial Theory and the Making of Hindu Nationalism: The Wages of Unreason  Meera fleshes out the synergies between the Hindu Right and the postcolonial Left. .. how the two ideologies that arose from opposing sides of the political spectrum have merged with disastrous implications for India. Both sides would like to see a revival of indigenous cultural norms, and “both seek to decolonise and indigenize science and social theory”.

the problem lies in the overreach of postcolonial theory that suggests that true decoloniality can come only when all the tools deployed during colonisation are rejected and indigenous ways of knowing are excavated.

Nanda warns that while these excavations are negotiated, the Hindu Right is filling them with whatever it sees fit to claim supremacy.

The Left's Accidental Gift to Hindu Nationalism? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANRZTh1eDTI 

How the academic critique of "mental slavery" was weaponized to label any opposition as anti-national.

How relativizing truth created a vacuum for state-backed superstition and pseudo-science to thrive.

How the argument that secularism is alien to India gave birth to the political jibe of "pseudo-secularism."

How idealizing "authentic faith" created an argument where the feelings of the majority can crush the rule of law.

Published : Jul 21, 2025

'detention' of Bengali-speaking migrant workers: SC seeks replies of Centre, states https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pil-on-detention-of-bengali-speaking-migrant-workers-sc-seeks-replies-of-centre-states-101755184929411.html  any order will have consequences especially with respect to people, who genuinely came from across the borders.  

Bhushan alleged harassment of people by the states only because they were Bengali speaking and possessed documents in the language on the basis of a circular issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs .

"They are being detained while an inquiry is being held about their bonafide and in some cases, they are even tortured. Kindly pass some interim order that no detention will be held. I have no problem with enquiries but there should not be any detention," Bhushan submitted.

ustice Kant suggested the presence of a nodal agency to coordinate between home and work states and help in establishing the bonafide of the migrant workers.

Justice Bagchi said the scale of migration from eastern states to the northern and southern states was "too much" and a nodal agency could help in managing the verification process.

SC directs ECI to publish list of deleted voters and reason for deletion https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/bihar-voter-list-row-supreme-court-hearing-special-intensive-revision-bihar-polls-live-updates-august-14-2025/article69931451.ece  August 14, 2025 The Supreme Court, in its interim order directed th e Election Commission of India to make public a searchable list of 65 lakh voter names deleted from the draft electoral roll, after the Special Intensive Revision Exercise, and give the reason for deletion.  In the previous hearing, Justice Joymalya Bagchi summarised the petitioners’ argument that it was a battle between Constitutional entitlement and Constitutional right. The petitioners argued that the Election Commission did not have the right to decide on citizenship, nor de facto remove an elector for the list. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDO0HIaKD4o 

Independence Day 2025: Resolution
We, citizens or relatives of India, swear by the Constitution that we will not discriminate against any human being in this country or in the world on the basis of caste, religion, class, gender, language, region or the like. Let us maintain unity among all, together with all our brothers and sisters. 

Proposed by National Coordination of People's Movements Sadbhava Forum's appeal for Independence Day

In some places of Maharashtra, especially in rural areas, highly condemnable incidents of exclusion of specific communities through Gram Panchayat/Village Sabha decisions are taking place. Of course, Yamage is the hand of people with distorted mentality who reject the Constitution, do not believe in the values of equality, secularism and believe that the country has specific religions. Their bullying continues in local politics. Such a resolution is sought only because of the lack of power to get it after being attacked, and the cost of taking it is an extraordinary experience.

Or in the background or in the Gram Sabha of 15th August, the Gram Sabha, other local self-government institutions and even schools, colleges, housing societies, institutions, at the Ward Sabha level - even at the individual level - should take the following resolution, in this behalf, there should be a discussion on the subject and there should be a proclamation of the values in the Constitution, there is such a call.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thivya-rakini-0998aa292_the-last-few-weeks-have-been-terribly-difficult-activity-7361388613894369280-i_K9   factories producing mainly for the US market were plunged into uncertainty, shipments were stuck, and layoffs soon followed...

Suppliers are hurting too, especially those heavily tied to US orders. Several told us brands are pushing the full tariff burden onto them. Some can’t even ship goods already made because they’re being asked to absorb costs they simply can’t carry.

Some suppliers shared what they were told on  calls: “If you agree to take on the additional costs now, we’ll keep the orders; otherwise, we’ll move production to Bangladesh.” 

https://in.linkedin.com/in/thivya-rakini-0998aa292    I am Thivya, State President of the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union . TTCU, representing more than 12,000 women workers across Tamil Nadu. Our union is built by and for women who understand what it means to be a low-wage worker facing both gender and caste discrimination.

At TTCU, we work directly with factories and international brands to show that businesses can thrive while treating women workers with dignity. Recently, we achieved a major victory by signing the Dindigul Agreement – the first enforceable brand agreement in Asia's textile industry that specifically tackles gender-based violence and harassment.

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) member Sudama Prasad had, in the Lok Sabha, asked for the “details of categories of valid documents that are required for people to prove citizenship in India”.

https://thewire.in/government/lok-sabha-parliament-nityanand-rai-categories-of-valid-documents-citizenship 

 The Union home ministry, in an answer to a Lok Sabha question, did not specify the “categories of valid documents” that someone would need to  prove citizenship in India. It said that citizenship is governed by the Citizenship Act, 1955 and its rules, the Ministry said.

14/08/2025