: The book extensively navigates the complex realm of Aadhaar, India's biometric identification system, tracing its evolution from inception to the contemporary landscape. It underscores the government's initiatives to streamline services and combat fraud, particularly through Aadhaar's transformative impact on subsidy disbursement, exemplified by Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and the PAHAL scheme. Despite showcasing Aadhaar's benefits, the narrative critically scrutinizes its drawbacks and challenges. Concerns ranging from fraud and data leaks to the potential vulnerability of centralized biometric data prompt crucial reflections on the system's security. The book provocatively addresses privacy concerns, particularly as Aadhaar details become linked with diverse services, revealing instances of unauthorized access and data misuse. The author illuminates the landscape of online threats and scams associated with Aadhaar, exposing the sale of data on websites and unauthorized access to personal information. Cases of unmatched biometrics and the exploitation potential within job-seeking platforms highlight the necessity for enhanced vigilance and stringent security protocols. The book offers an exhaustive exploration of Aadhaar's profound influence on India's identity domain. Balancing the acknowledgment of its merits with a candid exposure of pitfalls, the book presents a nuanced perspective on the complexities of Aadhaar. Real-life examples and critical analyses contribute to a comprehensive understanding, prompting essential questions about privacy, security, and the evolving dynamics of biometric identification in the digital era.

The best country-by-country assessment of human rights. The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.

This book discusses ideas for stakeholders to develop strategies to access and use financial products and services such as deposits, loans, and fund transfer mechanism, insurance, payment services, and intermediaries, distribution channels at economical prices in order to cater to the needs of the poor and underprivileged people. Financial inclusion ensures ease of access, availability, and usage of the financial products and services to all the sections of the society. The book will help in recognizing the role of financial inclusion as one of the main drivers in reducing income inequality and thus supporting sustainable economic growth of the countries, especially of an emerging economy. The book provides conceptual and practical ideas from the practitioners, best practices from the experts, and empirical views from the researchers on the best practices and how to mitigate the challenges and issues plaguing the development of the financial inclusion.

When The Accidental Prime Minister was published in 2014, it created a storm and became the publishing sensation of the year. The Prime Minister’s Office called the book a work of ‘fiction’, the press hailed it as a revelatory account of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first term in UPA. Written by Singh’s media adviser and trusted aide, the book describes Singh’s often troubled relations with his ministers, his cautious equation with Sonia Gandhi and how he handled the big crises from managing the Left to pushing through the nuclear deal. Insightful, acute and packed with political anecdotes, The Accidental Prime Minister is one of the great insider accounts of Indian political life.

Identification vs profiling; state welfare vs state surveillance; privacy vs transparency—Aadhaar has bitterly polarized India since its launch in 2010. No other project has captured the imagination of the people—or inspired such awe and anxiety—in recent memory. Aadhaar began life with a singular mandate: offer an identity to those Indian residents who didn’t have any. Along the way, it evolved into the welfare state’s flagship technology and altered forever how government, business, and society interact. The Aadhaar Effect is the story of the visionaries—bureaucrats, technologists, activists—who created or challenged India’s biggest juggernaut. It is equally the story of humans conflicted about complex choices that may make the world a better place. Polestar award winners N.S. Ramnath and Charles Assisi dive deep into the 12-digit number that has touched 1.2 billion lives and counting—and in the bargain, made the world sit up and take note of India’s ambition.

This book sheds new light on Indian communication cultures and the critical philosophical trajectories of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. It explores issues such as contemporary communication cultures in India, nationalism, subjectivities, negotiating and protesting bodies, music on social media, children on reality television, and the materialities of Indian films. The book provides a balance between issues of communication from a philosophical perspective and issues of philosophy from a communication perspective in the Indian context. This engaging examination of two modes of thought is an important resource for anyone interested in communication studies, modern philosophy, cultural and media studies.