Prevention of Corruption Act : Amended

Economic Times ( 25 July ) carries following news :

LS Passes Bill to Protect Babus Post-retirement 

Extract :

*   The contentious Section 19 of the old Act now stands amended saying criminal misconduct means “intentional illicit enrichment” and possession of “disproportionate assets” —essentially makes 'mens rea' ( presence of intention and enrichment ) an essential prerequisite to prove corruption.

 

*  A new Section 17A has been added which says no inquiry will done without “previous approval” of government if the serving or retired official took a decision or made a recommendation in discharge of his official duties or duties. “  PC Act amendment is a landmark decision. 

*  A public servant can now take bona fide decision without any fear.

Earlier, even if no pecuniary benefit is received by a public servant, he / she could still be penalised. This is a game changer as only malafide decisions would now be punished. 

Shri Amitabh Kant [  CEO , NITI Aayog  ] says in a tweet :

Gr8 step forward to enable public servants to act boldly, take risks in national interest & drive development in a bona fide manner.

This was long overdue. Greatly appreciate Government ‘s initiative to provide protection to honest officers.

The abuse of PC Act Section 13( 1) (d) ( iii ) had hurt many well intentioned public servants whose decisions granting relief to any private person were questioned even if there was no pecuniary advantage. Insertion of new Section17A brings in a much needed layer of due diligence

This is indeed a very good step , which begs the question :

“How will bureaucrats prove that their decisions were “bona fide“ and  not “mala fide“ ?

There is only one way

By implementing what I suggested in my following email ( dated 20 June 2014 ) sent to the Cabinet Ministers  :

To err is human

To forgive is divine ( provided it was a honest error )

All of us keep making errors , all the time

But rarely same " mistake " twice

Often , decisions taken at a point of time , turn out to be " poor " , with passage of time

Reasons are simple :

*  We never have all the information - relevant to the problem we are trying to solve –

    available with us , at the time of taking a decision

*  Even when most of such relevant info is available , we may not have the capacity /

   competence to " process " such info

*  As humans , we have our biases / prejudices , based on our previous experiences ,

   which influence our decisions

*  Quite often , and often against our own better evaluation / judgement of a given

    situation , we are wrongly influenced by our peers / bosses / subordinates or even

    voters - all of whom have different expectations / vested interests !

*  Additional - and more relevant - information surfaces , AFTER we have taken a

    decision ( happens all the time  !  )

To encourage Babus and Ministers to take FAST decisions , Shri Narendra Modi must insist that they carefully " Record " on the files :

*   What info / data he wished was available for a better decision

*   What different " views / opinions " were presented to him for consideration

*   What " Data / Views " he would have obtained if he had more time

*   Who all , the decision might offend

*   What is the likely " Cost " of postponing that decision

And finally a declaration :

*   THIS DECISION IS NOT LIKELY TO BENEFIT ANY OF MY NEAR RELATIVES / FRIENDS

    , DIRECTLY OR  IMMEDIATELY

 

    

After all of this, if the decision appears to be " wrong " in hindsight , it must be " forgiven " and treated as an honest error

To err is human  !

======================================================

As far as the mechanism is concerned , I suggest the following :

·         Law Ministry to launch a web site which is only accessible to specified government officers

·         This web site will carry a “ DECISION ANALYSIS  cum  DECLARATION “ form

·         The form need not wait entry only when a decision is taken . It can be filled up progressively , over a period of time , leading up to the point of decision

·         Officers taking decisions will fill up this form online as suggested above

·         As time passes , concerned officer can ADD further data / comments to the form but cannot EDIT what he has already entered

·         Form can be “ accessed “ at any time by his superiors

·         Upon a formal request by any investigating agency , concerned Minister may grant “ Access “ to the form to that agency

=======================================================

13  Aug  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Close Your Eyes ?

Today’s technology is telling us :

“  If you want to hide your identity , keep your eyes closed. The moment you open it, world will know everything about you  “

Now , who but the very dead , can keep their eyes closed for ever ?

What am I driving at ?

For many years now , door access was possible by simply peering into a tiny screen , which compared your IRIS image with the images stored in its memory , identified you and let you in

Of late , a few smart phones have built-in IRIS biometric identification features . Soon , all will have , once every smart phone owner installs a payment app which works on IRIS identification

And if they have not already appeared by now , all tablets and desk tops too will ask for IRIS identification in place of a password

TVs and Smart Watches will not be far behind

As if this was not enough , AXIS bank has come out with an IRIS based  micro ATM tablets

Axis Bank introduces Iris Authentication over micro ATMs for Aadhaar-based transactions

A matter of months before all other banks follows

Remember Ted Levitt ?  “ If you don’t make yourself obsolete , someone else will “

If you are an extrovert and relish sharing your “ personality “ with the World , here is good news

“ Artificial Intelligence can predict your personality………..simply by tracking your eyes “

AI Can Watch Your Eye Movements to Read Your Personality

If that does not scare you enough , here is what Peter Diamandis writes on his page

-----------------------------------

[  http://www.diamandis.com/blog/abundance-of-knowledge  ]

Augmented Reality Headsets

While the world now has more mobile phones than humans, and the number of smartphones will reach 3.5 billion by 2021, we will soon see the emergence of Augmented Reality Headsets.

Such AR glasses will feature a multitude of forward-looking cameras that image everything at sub-millimeter resolution as you walk about your day.

By the end of 2020, our smartphones, AR glasses, watches, medical wearables and smart dust are expected to constitute 50 billion connected devices, hosting a total of 1 trillion sensors.

And just as the number of connected devices is increasing exponentially, the number of sensors per connected device is also increasing exponentially.

So far, sensors on phones have doubled every four years. This means we can expect 160 sensors per mobile device by 2027, and a world jam-packed with near 100 trillion sensors.

Sensors that can be accessed and interrogated by your AI to answer almost any question.

I can envision waking up in the morning, putting on my augmented reality contact lenses, and forgetting about them for the rest of the day.

While in my eyes, they record every conversation, every person crossing the street, and everything I look at.

Drawing from this constant stream of observational data, I’ll be able to train my social graph and preferences into my AI using the collected data sets.

Dear Shri @RaviShankarPrasadji / Shri @BNShrikrishnaji :

How will proposed  DATA  PROTECTION  LAW  protect the privacy of Indian citizens from every other citizen wearing those augmented reality contact lenses  ?

Even if they decide to keep their eyes closed , while moving around  !

12  Aug  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Personal Health History : NHS

बहुजन हिताय , बहुजन सुखाय 

“ Personal Health History “ is an “ Organ “ that everyone should donate

Business line ( 10 Aug ) carries following news :

Draftpaper on the NHS stirs up a privacy debate

Extract :

Digitising the health data of a billion people sure has its benefits, but government think-tank NITI Aayog has also ruffled some feathers by floating a consultation paper on the ‘National Health Stack’ (NHS).

The draft, which suggests that health data would be used for marketing, may not go down well with the masses.

It defines the NHS as a national electronic registry usable by both the Centre and the States across public and private sectors.

One of the components of the proposed project is to store every Indian’s Personal Health Records (PHRs).

This will involve :

·         medical history,

·         medication and allergies,

·         immunization status,

·         laboratory test results,

·         radiology images,

·         vital signs,

·         personal stats such as age and weight,

·         demographics, and

·         billing information, and

·         use of multiple health applications.

Various layers of the National Health Stack will seamlessly link to support ,

·         national health electronic registries,

·         coverage and claims platform,

·         a federated personal health records framework,

·         a national health analytics platform,

·         as well as other horizontal components.

The stack will embrace health management systems of public health programmes and socio-demographic data systems,” the draft says.

But some critics of the NHS say :

“ This is invasion of privacy of the citizens. Why should citizen’s Medical History get recorded in a Central Computer ?  “

Misplaced or otherwise , it is a concern which NITI Aayog needs to dispel through massive publicity

Those critics should be told :

“ Look , we all share our most private medical data with our family doctor . In many cases, he keeps this record in a file ( hard copy or a computer ) , and refers to it before prescribing further medication

Unknown to us – and subconsciously even to himself – that doctor mentally compares your symptoms with hundreds of similar cases he may have attended earlier for his other patients , what medicines he had prescribed for them and which / how many patients responded to which medicines and how well

At the end of a few seconds , he reaches a conclusion as to which medicine will work best for you in the present instance and prescribes it

But even the most popular / successful doctor , has no more than a few hundred patient-histories to “ recall “ mentally ( - how many can he remember over 30 years of practice ? )

NHS will change this dramatically !

It will compile “ cradle – to – grave “ medical histories of a billion Indian citizens and subject this massive data to some BIG DATA ( AI ) algorithm , which will process it in a matter of seconds and guide your family doctor to prescribe the best-suited medicine for each patient

In many cases , AI software may even be able to recommend some “ preventive “ medicines before a disease manifests itself !

And , in any case , no doctor / health centre / hospital etc will be able to access your ( individual ) personal data , without your express permission

All that they can access will be your “ anonymized / aggregated “ data

Congratulations , Shri @AmitabhKant  :

I am glad that some of my following suggestions have found their way into the draft :

Source :

Modicare: A Game Changer  [  01  Feb  2018  ]

 

 

 

Highlights :

     Each eligible family member to be issued a “ Ayushman Card “ ( linked to Aadhar ID )

Ayushman card will have inbuilt memory capacity to store that person’s health data from “ Cradle to Grave “ ( Privacy advocate need not worry ! )

All the Health Data of all 50 crore beneficiaries to be stored on a Central Server for BIG DATA analysis , in order to “ Predict “ WHO might become susceptible to WHICH ailment and WHEN

As an alternative , a GPS enabled / NFC capable Smart Phone pre-loaded with AYUSHMAN MOBILE APP , could be considered to replace the card

 Ayushman  Eco System shall consist of :

#    50   crore poor beneficiaries

#    All Medical Practitioners of India  ( Allopathic - Ayurvedic – Homeopathic )

#     All Medical Shops of India  ( including  E – Pharmacies  )

#     All  Nursing Homes / Hospitals / Diagnostic Centres / Health Centres etc

#     All Pharma Companies

#      Health Ministry

#       All India Medical Association

#       All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists ( AIOCD ) 

#       Drug Controller General of India

#       All  Medical  Colleges /  Medical Research Centres

#       Any other entity which I might have missed out

     The Ayushman Eco System shall be built around the BLOCK-CHAIN  technology , which will be the main operating system for implementation of the AYUSHMAN PROCESSES , described in my following earlier blogs ( sent as emails to Cabinet Ministers / Niti Aayog )

     SUGGESTIONS  E MAILED  EARLIER :

The  Bounty of Big Data  ………………..[ 30  April  2016  ]

3 D - Digital Delivery of Drugs? …… [  11  Oct  2015  ]

Online Sale of Medicines ?  …………….[  24  Dec  2016  ]

Health Care through Mobile ?  ………..[  24  Nov  2016  ]

A Mobile App named " BANMALI "….  [  16  Sept  2016  ]

BANMALI is the TOTAL SOLUTION  ….[  14  Nov  2016  ]

Saving 1.2 million Kids  ……………………[   29  June  2016  ]

Can Akshay Patra Banish Malnutrition ? ……… [  05 June  2017  ]

12  Aug  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs