Modi 3.0 - Bharat

[Cyrano]

What does a person need to show to prove he/she is a citizen of India for voting?

[VKumar]

Help from Gandhiji

[chetak]

^^But Chetakji
Haven't you noticed that the knives are out!!
Now the new Modus Operandi is the magical 75
The opposition are targeting Modiji and RSS chief given that both are going to 75 'Come September'( Sorry I just couldn't resist it given that we are talking about young and old )

SRajesh ji,

Aaaaand, they're off ....................... ...........

Congress’ one arrow, two targets’ jibe at PM Modi over Bhagwat 75 retiring age statement

In a post on X, Jairam Ramesh, who is Congress General Secretary and communications incharge said, “Poor award-winning Prime Minister! What a homecoming – reminded by the RSS chief upon return that he will turn 75 on September 17, 2025.”

“But the Prime Minister could also tell the RSS chief that – he too will turn 75 on September 11, 2025! One arrow, two targets,” he added.

[sanjayc]

This Jairam Ramesh dude is an American parrot who can't swing 10 votes in favor of Congress.

[SRajesh]

SRajesh ji,

.

Chetakji
At this rate you and I can definitely get a post of Strategist for the Gaaand old Party !!!
Don't you think.

[chetak]

SRajesh ji,

Chetakji
At this rate you and I can definitely get a post of Strategist for the Gaaand old Party !!!
Don't you think.

[Amber G.]

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of Indian Air Force reflects upon his two weeks on the International Space Station during the Axiom-4 Farewell Ceremony. “Saare Jahan Se Aacha

[Amber G.]

Wishing Indian team all the best as they head towards Dubai, UAE for the 57th International Chemistry Olympiad from July 5-14, 2025!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvEmMZRaAAc ... ame=medium
Picture credit: TIFR/HBCE

Big cheers for Team India at the 57th International Chemistry Olympiad 2025 held in Dubai, UAE from July 5–14. India bags 2 Golds and 2 Silvers, securing 6th place in the overall medals tally among 90 countries and 354 participants! Congratulations to the entire team.

[Cyrano]

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of Indian Air Force reflects upon his two weeks on the International Space Station during the Axiom-4 Farewell Ceremony. “Saare Jahan Se Aacha

Let's wish him a safe return to earth and Bharat!

[Sachin]

The Representation of People's Act derives it's authority from the Constitution

It can be interpreted in a different way. Art 326 of the Constitution of India, states that elections in India would be on the basis of adult suffrage. This article also allows the legislature to decide on the criteria of voting, and disqualification criteria. The article also states the high level conditions for disqualification i.e. not otherwise disqualified under this Constitution or any law made by the appropriate Legislature on the ground of non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt or illegal practice, shall be entitled to be registered as a voter at any such election. Non-residence is slightly different from not having citizenship.

Art 327 & 328 empowers the Parliament and State legislatures to make all provisions/laws regarding elections in India (and respective states). And off course, a law of the Parliament will supersede any state made laws. And actually Art 329 Constitution of India actually puts a bar to interference by courts in electoral matters. Which means that Election Commission is a Constitutional body with independence.

Using provisions of Art 326, 327 & 328 the Union Parliament enacted the Representation of The People Act, 1950. Sec 16 the Representation of The People Act, is pretty blunt when it lists the disqualifications for registration in an electoral roll. And the first item in the list is "is not a citizen of India".

Proof of citizenship is not attested by the holding of a 'Aadhaar' card, per se

Exactly. Aadhaar at the maximum is a Proof of Identity (POI). And that too if it is used properly. That is when a person's Aadhaar number is collected, and his fingerprints are also checked, and it should match. Best example; is when applying for passport. If Aadhaar is used as Identity proof an on the spot validation of biometrics is also done. For passport issue, Aadhaar is also accepted as a Proof of Address (PoA), only after successful validation with the Aadhaar database. And there is also a mandatory police verification done by visiting the person at the given address.

There are various case laws in which High Courts and Supreme Court themselves have given the verdict that Aadhaar can never be a proof of citizenship.
Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) and Anr. v/s Union Of India, 2018. Supreme Court upheld the validity of Aadhaar, but also said "The Aadhaar number or the authentication thereof shall not, by itself, confer any right of, or be proof of, citizenship or domicile in respect of an Aadhaar number holder". This was a land-mark case, when Aadhaar was linked with privacy issues.
State of Maharashtra v/s Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Mumbai High Court gave a verdict that "Aadhaar is only a proof of identity and residence, not of citizenship or date of birth".

These two verdicts itself should be sufficient for EC to put its foot down and say Aadhaar cannot be taken as a proof of citizenship. And this is also what which gives me a feeling that Supreme Court has not compelled/forced EC to accept Aadhaar as proof of citizenship. It could only be a suggestion.

[VinodTK]

Cross Posting

Retail inflation eases to over 6-year low of 2.1% in June on subdued food prices

Retail inflation declined to over six-year low of 2.1 per cent in June, nearing the RBI's comfort zone, on account of subdued prices of food items, including vegetables, driven by widespread monsoon. WPI-based inflation was 0.39 per cent in May. It was 3.43 per cent in June last year.(Representational Photo/Reuters) WPI-based inflation was 0.39 per cent in May. It was 3.43 per cent in June last year.(Representational Photo/Reuters)

The Consumer Price Index-based inflation was 2.82 per cent in May and 5.08 per cent in June 2024. Inflation is on a decline since November 2024.

Year-on-year inflation rate based on CPI for the month of June 2025 over June 2024 is 2.1 per cent, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in a statement.

"There is a decline of 72 basis points in headline inflation of June 2025 in comparison to May 2025. It is the lowest year-on-year inflation after January 2019," it said.The previous low of 1.97 per cent was recorded in January 2019.

The NSO said the significant decline in headline inflation and food inflation in June 2025 is mainly attributed to favourable base effect and decline in inflation of vegetables, pulses and products, meat and fish, cereals and products, sugar and confectionery, milk and products and spices.

The Reserve Bank, which has been tasked to ensure inflation remains at 4 per cent (with a margin of 2 per cent on either side), has cumulatively reduced the key short-term lending rate by 100 basis points since February in the wake of slowing retail inflation.

Meanwhile, the wholesale price inflation (WPI) turned negative after a gap of 19 months, declining 0.13 per cent in June as deflation widened in food articles and fuel, along with softening in manufactured product costs.
WPI-based inflation was 0.39 per cent in May. It was 3.43 per cent in June last year.

"Negative rate of inflation in June, 2025 is primarily due to decrease in prices of food articles, mineral oils, manufacture of basic metals, crude petroleum & natural gas etc," the industry ministry said in a statement.

As per WPI data, food articles saw a deflation of 3.75 per cent in June, as against a deflation of 1.56 per cent in May, with vegetables seeing a sharp drop.
According to the NSO data on CPI, the annual inflation in the food basket during June 2025 over June 2024 was (-) 1.06 per cent.
A sharp decline of 205 basis points is observed in food inflation in June 2025 in comparison to May 2025. The food inflation in June was also the lowest after January 2019.
The inflation rural was lower than the national average at 1.72 per cent while it was higher in urban areas at 2.56 per cent.
The lowest inflation was in Telangana (-0.93 per cent) and the highest in Kerala (6.71 per cent).

On all India basis, the annual inflation was negative in vegetables (-19 per cent), 'meat and fish' (-1.62 per cent), 'pulses and products' (-11.76 per cent), and spices (-3.03 per cent).

Commenting on the CPI data, Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, ICRA, said the cooling was entirely led by the food and beverages (F&B) segment, which witnessed a deflation of 0.2 per cent after a gap of 75 months, after printing at 1.5 per cent in the previous month. "The CPI inflation eased for the eighth consecutive month to a softer-than-expected 2.1 per cent in June 2025 from 2.8 per cent in May 2025, touching the lowest level since January 2019. We are not ruling out the possibility of a final 25 bps rate cut in the August 2025 meeting, carrying forward the front-loading seen in June 2025," Nayar said.

Paras Jasrai, Associate Director at India Ratings and Research, said that notwithstanding the deflationary turn of food items, core inflation increased to 4.4 per cent in June 2025, the highest since September 2023.
"A closer look indicates that it was largely on account of an uptick in inflation of jewellery items. Inflation of gold increased to a 58-month high of 36 per cent (as geopolitical tensions flared up in the Middle-East), the inflation of silver and other ornaments was also at elevated levels of 17.8 per cent and 21.5 per cent, respectively, in June 2025," Jasrai said.
Garima Kapoor, Economist and Executive Vice President, Elara Capital, said the CPI inflation for June cooled to a six-year low led by moderating food prices and aided by a high base.

"We expect full year CPI inflation to remain below RBI's full year estimate of 3.7% and hence do not rule out the possibility of another rate cut post-end of monsoon," Kapoor said.
The NSO collects the price data for CPI from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all States/UTs.

[Amber G.]

NATO Chief had threatened a 100% tariff on India for buying Russian oil....

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTRY :
"Our energy security is our top priority, guided by global realities. We strongly caution against double standards"

India rejects Western pressure & Tariff threat... No lectures.. No compromises

[uddu]

Hardeep Puri Speaks to Palki Sharma on Trump's Secondary Tariffs & Russian Oil Sanctions Threat

Situation Naarmal

While commenting on US President Donald Trump’s secondary tariff threat against countries buying Russian oil, including India, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that India has diversified its sources of buying oil. Puri, the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, was in conversation with Firstpost’s Managing Editor, Palki Sharma. Claiming that India was not facing any pressure over Trump's new threat, Puri said: "I am not worried at all. We will deal with it."
He added that his ministry is working on oil exploration in India, and that they're also supporting the private oil companies working on the same.
What else did the minister say about global oil supply challenges, the possibility of getting oil from Iran, and new oil exploration technology in the age of artificial intelligence? Tune in to the full conversation with Palki Sharma now.

[Prem Kumar]

NATO Chief had threatened a 100% tariff on India for buying Russian oil....

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTRY :
"Our energy security is our top priority, guided by global realities. We strongly caution against double standards"

India rejects Western pressure & Tariff threat... No lectures.. No compromises

NATO is acting like shits again, emboldened by Trump's volte-face on Ukraine. They are hiding behind the US and taking potshots at us. This "secondary sanctions" is darbari messaging to stroke Trump's ego

This "You are either with me or against me" crap is what led to 2 European Wars becoming World Wars. Next time they want to slaughter each other, we should just order some vada-pav & tea. Give broadcasting rights to Star Sports and catch 2 hours each evening

[chetak]

This is the first time vadra is named in a chargesheet in a criminal case

Gurugram land deal case: ED attaches 43 properties of Robert Vadra; files chargesheet against him, 10 others


July 17

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 43 immovable properties worth Rs 37.64 crore linked to Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and his entities, as well as filed a prosecution complaint or chargesheet against him and 10 others.

The properties belong to Vadra and his entities, including Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd, officials privy to the development said

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 700214.cms

[Amber G.]

xpost:
Very happy!
It is not officially posted or in the newspapers (yet):

India secured 3 Gold Medals, 2 Silver Medals and 1 Bronze Medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2025 held at Sunshine Coast, Australia. The team achieved the highest ever total score of 193 since India's first participation in IMO in 1989.
(IMO is one of the most prestigious contest in the world)

1. Adhitya Mangudy (GOLD)
2. Kanav Talwar (GOLD)
3. Aarav Gupta (GOLD)
4. Abel George Mathew (SILVER)
5. Aadish Jain (SILVER)
6. Archit Manas (BRONZE)

Congratulations!

[chetak]

महात्मा गांधी राष्ट्रपिता नहीं है, RTI में सरकार का खुलासा..

Mahatma Gandhi is not the Father of the Nation, government reveals in RTI...

WATCH VIDEO

[chetak]

NCERT Text books being rewritten because of the crap that was being propagated by the greedy commies and their BIF masters

[A_Gupta]

महात्मा गांधी राष्ट्रपिता नहीं है, RTI में सरकार का खुलासा..

Mahatma Gandhi is not the Father of the Nation, government reveals in RTI...

WATCH VIDEO

This is from 2012.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/10-year ... dhi-474827
10-year-old's RTI on 'Father of the Nation' title for Gandhi

And

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/c ... 2012-10-24
Mahatma Gandhi cannot be accorded the 'Father of the Nation' title by government as the Constitution does not permit any titles except educational and military ones, the Home Ministry has said.

In an RTI response to Lucknow-based student Aishwarya Parashar, the Home Ministry has told her that no action was taken on her plea to the President to declare Mahatma Gandhi as 'Father of the Nation' because Article 18 (1) of the Constitution does not permit any titles except education and military ones.

Aishwarya had filed number of RTI petitions seeking details about Gandhi and the reasons of referring him as Father of the Nation. In response, she was told that no such title has been accorded to Gandhi.

Driven by a patriot zeal, Class VI student Aishwarya wrote to the then President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to issue a notification declaring Mahatma Gandhi as 'Father of the Nation'.

Aishwarya had filed an RTI petition seeking to know the action taken on her plea by the President and the Prime Minister.

The application was transferred to the Home Ministry with instructions to explain the action taken on her plea. In its response, the Home Ministry told Aishwarya the above mentioned reason why the title of 'Father of the Nation' cannot be accorded to Gandhi.

[sanjayc]

10 year old filing RTI? It is her parents behind this drama, wanting their kid to become famous.

[chetak]

10 year old filing RTI? It is her parents behind this drama, wanting their kid to become famous.

sanjayc ji,

How does it matter.

Even if my German Shepherd or my Doberman had filed this RTI, the answer from the GoI would not change

And clement attlee's opinion (and he should know as the britshit who was PM when India gained dominion status on August 15, 1947. This meant India became a self-governing dominion within the britshit commonwealth, with the britshit monarch remaining as head of state. This was a significant step towards independence, but it wasn't full sovereignty) on this man is already well known, as was churchill's

The Indian Independence Act 1947 was the legislation passed by the britshit parliament that legally set up the two independent dominions of India and pakistan. ghundhy opposed partition tooth and nail, he even proclaimed that partition will happen only over his dead body, so what did he actually do to prevent it........

There was only one really dangerous freedom fighter who demanded poorna swaraj and ghundhy was seriously opposed both to him and his ideology, as were the wary britshits

we already have the woke, BIF, and commie created very controversial akbar the "great", so why do we need another descriptor showcasing verbal artistry, or even phrasal alchemy to describe another controversial person who is increasingly seen now as a divisive figurehead who was not supportive of his own kind, and did not contribute anything significant to India's independence

[Amber G.]

The Prime Minister Professorship Program under ANRFIndia opens 22 July!!

Inviting superannuated scientists & Indian-origin experts across globe to strengthen R&D ecosystem in less endowed universities.

[Amber G.]

xpost:
Very happy!
It is not officially posted or in the newspapers (yet):

India secured 3 Gold Medals, 2 Silver Medals and 1 Bronze Medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2025 held at Sunshine Coast, Australia. The team achieved the highest ever total score of 193 since India's first participation in IMO in 1989.
(IMO is one of the most prestigious contest in the world)

1. Adhitya Mangudy (GOLD)
2. Kanav Talwar (GOLD)
3. Aarav Gupta (GOLD)
4. Abel George Mathew (SILVER)
5. Aadish Jain (SILVER)
6. Archit Manas (BRONZE)

Congratulations!

More discussion in Math dhaga
India ranks 7th at International Mathematical Olympiad 2025; wins 3 golds

[Vayutuvan]

The Prime Minister Professorship Program under ANRFIndia opens 22 July!!

Inviting superannuated scientists & Indian-origin experts across globe to strengthen R&D ecosystem in less endowed universities.

[img...]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwMrn_WWgAA ... ame=medium[/img]

Hear, hear. But why fellowship money is higher than research grant itself? How many grad students does that 25 lacs PA funding get? Professors/researchers who have crossed their 60 would have enough savings and would be willing to forego some money if accommodation is provided on campus - some kind of quarters. Those are available at all IITs, IISc, and NITs AFAIK.

[gakakkad]

The Prime Minister Professorship Program under ANRFIndia opens 22 July!!

Inviting superannuated scientists & Indian-origin experts across globe to strengthen R&D ecosystem in less endowed universities.

You , n^3 etc come to mind .

[A_Gupta]

Not to go off-topic, but I don't give two hoots for Clement Atlee. I have infinitely more respect for PM Modi, and for Sardar Patel, and I know extremely well what they think of Mahatma Gandhi. What Netaji thought of Bapuji I know less well, but AFAIK, there was great respect there too. If they were foolish or stupid to repect Bapuji, well, I am glad to be in their camp.

Clement Atlee is known as the prime minister who presided over the end of the British Empire and I have little doubt that bothered him to no end.

[chetak]

Not to go off-topic, but I don't give two hoots for Clement Atlee. I have infinitely more respect for PM Modi, and for Sardar Patel, and I know extremely well what they think of Mahatma Gandhi. What Netaji thought of Bapuji I know less well, but AFAIK, there was great respect there too. If they were foolish or stupid to repect Bapuji, well, I am glad to be in their camp.

Clement Atlee is known as the prime minister who presided over the end of the British Empire and I have little doubt that bothered him to no end.

A_Gupta ji,

of course one must have one's heroes, no matter how tarnished or dented and painted their naqli halos may have been

attlee was a dyed in the wool socialist who didn't give a rat's about what happened to the colonial empire, least of all India, but the britshits babooze did manage to keep India in the commonwealth by pressuring neverwho

Post WWII, the britshits were broke, beleaguered, and tired. They were shafted by the amrikis who wanted the britshit colonial empire gone, so that they could be the new and sole soooper power and by that time, the britshit colonial empire was anyway deader than a doornail, and besides, the britshits just didn't have the will (especially the royal navy to enforce such will) nor the money to manage their colonies because their gunboat diplomacy days and extractive colonial focussed foreign policy agendas were far behind them

But they didn't go quietly, they secretly bargained with the amrikis to get out of paying to India their war time debts, and they banned the convertibility of the pound sterling, forcing India to buy crap from the britshits at highly inflated prices. India was planning to use the money owed them by the britshits to buy modern equipment from the amrikis by converting the pound sterling to amriki dollars. The perfidious act of preventing convertibility of the pound sterling caused India immense financial distress, and that's how India’s dream of using her wartime loan to finance her development went up in smoke.

the amrikis even warned neverwho about this before it happened but neverwho was too dense to understand what had been said to him, and in any case he was never overly burdened with mundane traits like intellect or common sense. he was then, what pappu is today.

Ever since the uprising in 1857, the britshits had a very great fear of another Indian uprising, one that would not be able to control and that long feared moment was triggered by the Naval mutiny. The writing on the wall was there since 1857 and the britshits knew very well that they were sitting on a powder keg with a short fuse.

The naval mutiny spread like wild fire engulfing the army and air force, where Indian troops refused to obey their gora officers and that broke forever the spine of the britshit empire. No one spoke of ahimsa then. the britshits knew in their hears that their that long feared moment had finally arrived, making their departure imminent and final

Thus snubbed, vilified, and pressurized by the amrikis, the economically beaten britshits had no option but to cut and run from India

There was also the small matter of over a million britshit trained, and battle hardened Indian soldiers who had been repatriated back to India because the britshits couldn't afford to pay or feed them after WWII. This was also a factor that made their stay in India untenable

ahimsa and it's devious proponents had jack to do with India's freedom

That is why useful idiots like ghundhy and neverwho were watered, catered, nurtured, pampered, manured with the fertilizer of orchestrated public adulation and ego massaged so that they could be used as a front to further the britshit agenda in India

which country in the world do you know that was freed from the yoke of the alien ruler by the use of ahimsa. even ashoka killed tens of lakhs in the kalinga war, years after he converted to buddhism, much after attaining "wisdom" in bodh gaya, even though concocted history says otherwise

attlee was also the one who sold the britshit made rolls royce nene jet engines to russia. The russkis reverse engineered them and used them in their very successful early MiG series of jet fighters. He didn't give a rat's for amriki sentiments either, because the britshits were that far gone with no hope of recovery in sight

attlee's decision to sell rolls royce jet engines to stalin caused serious outrage in washington, and newly released documents expose labour PM's controversial decision to supply cutting-edge technology to soviet union during early cold war.

ever wonder why neither ghundhy nor neverwho didn't ever get the nobel. it would have exposed their devious long term britshit links

the mount batten papers are now privately owned and not accessible to the public. the neverwho papers have been taken away by the mafia queen and the family is not willing to return them, even though all these papers had been donated by IG to the neverwho memorial library and after such donation the said papers legally belong to the GoI.

why the need for such elaborate secrecy, unless the dirty work at the cross roads needs to be covered up

If it has been that drunk, racist, jihadi loving, white supremacist, and steadfast colonialist churchill, both mount the batten and ahimsawadi would have got their just deserts.

It was lucky for both of them that attlee was the PM

[ricky_v]

https://swarajyamag.com/business/ondc-w ... taking-off

some interesting data points littered throughout the article, article in itself informative

Led by the government, backed by various trusted public and private partners, and tried out by many who gravitated to its promise, the idea is seen as a potential successor in terms of impact to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India’s digital infrastructure-building journey.

What UPI did for finance, this new thing would do for commerce.

But about three years into its journey, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is stuttering along. It got off to a slow start, then gained momentum, and is now experiencing a decline, specifically in retail, which threatens a crash-landing of the venture that aims to capitalise on a great Indian opportunity.

This opportunity can be appreciated with just a few figures: a nearly 150-crore population with over 90 crore internet users, roughly 40 crore of them in rural areas, and rising, with close to two-thirds of new online shoppers emerging from Tier-3 and smaller cities, all of them shopping for a wide variety of wants and needs.

The e-commerce giants in India are said to extract high commissions from participating retailers. Estimates vary from 15 to 30 per cent. Some of this high charge is passed on to the consumer, leaving the rest to be absorbed by sellers

The idea goes something like this: have a network where commissions are nil to minimal. Perhaps 5 to 10 per cent. So that deep pockets are not a point of distinction between success and failure, where every single player stands independently and confidently as an equal on their own two feet, and where the buyer decides on their own accord what to buy and from whom to buy it, uninfluenced by algorithms serving particular interests and driving (or inducing? forcing?) purchase decisions.

Notably, ONDC’s mandate is not limited to the buying and selling of biscuits, jackets, smartphones, and food alone.

The idea is to have the entire gamut of products and services online, financial services like loans and mutual funds for anyone, from a single individual all the way up to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and big businesses; access to mobility services across the entire spectrum: autorickshaws, cabs, buses, trains, and flights; work opportunities for job seekers; logistics solutions for businesses; a space to grow for farmer producer organisations, self-help groups, and social enterprises; and so on.

Impressive, is it not?

The allure of such an open network is visible, once again, in the numbers. More than 1.65 lakh retail sellers have jumped on this wagon since launch, and buyers from more than 850 districts of India have placed over 20 crore orders between January 2023 and June 2025. While the network took about 20 months from January 2023 to August 2024 to clock its first 10 crore transactions, the next 10 crore came in just six months, in March 2025.

All good. Except that underneath this aggregated data lie trends that belie a troubling story.

Powered by financial incentives for participants, which were then passed on to consumers, who in turn paid less for products and services, ONDC was finding ever-wider acceptance. But towards the end of last year, with subsidies reportedly reducing from up to Rs 3 crore monthly to Rs 30 lakh for each network partner, retail transactions started to contract, while mobility started to take the wheel..

The hypothesis that quick commerce ate ONDC’s lunch is well accepted. “Initially e-commerce was driven by players like Amazon and Flipkart. But then quick commerce came into the picture, and that’s where I saw ONDC losing momentum, especially on delivery times,” says Jignesh Joshi, chairman and managing director of 99 Partners Digicom, which provides services to small retail players who want to go online and build their e-commerce business. On ONDC, his company is enrolled as a technical partner.

Joshi also pointed out cash on delivery as a major bottleneck on the network. “Suppose you've ordered one item on cash on delivery and the product is not delivered, the vendor suffers, and the customer also suffers,” he says, adding that responses are authentic but not prompt on ONDC. In the absence of proper systems, vendors themselves are left frustrated by the back-and-forth over order fulfilment issues.

How ONDC operates, however, is different. Since there’s room for everyone on the network, from a well-equipped powerhouse retailer down to a tiny store lacking resources and digital skills, the buyer in need of store assistance could be interacting with anyone or anything from an advanced chatbot to the humble store owner trying to juggle their store operations with a tiny (or no) staff and their mobile phone, trying to respond to buyers’ multiple queries on WhatsApp at a busy hour, with little leeway to hand out refunds or replacements. Even the tiniest margins matter to the small e-tailer.

What about Namma Yatri then, ONDC’s biggest success? It has close to 11 crore completed trips to its credit, with more than a crore registered users and over 6 lakh autorickshaw drivers who have made earnings of close to Rs 1,790 crore.

“The Namma Yatri app has been developed as a solution to the problem faced by the people, not in competition with Ola or Uber. Because the local guys were facing problems where Ola and Uber were coming and driving things,” he says, drawing a contrast between Namma Yatri’s and ONDC’s raison d'etre. “No one came out on the street asking the government to shut down Amazon or Flipkart,” he notes.


Just as the traditional seller will be cautious, so will the government, and for good reason. “Making consumers grow orders on the platform is the easier job in India. We are prompted through discounts. That’s very clear. With categories like FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), you have to be cautious because you’re dealing with around over 14 lakh kirana stores. If you want to employ deep discounts and price products less than them, you’re destabilising the whole brick-and-mortar space. You are then trying to create a different kind of a conflict in the channel. So the government is conscious and cautious. There are implications which they know and I as a consumer strategist know,” he says.

Regarding the fall in the retail figures, Trisal makes the point that “at least those numbers happened.” He makes the point that sellers who never even had any online presence in the first place are now online, with the entire country as a market for their products, and they are starting to sell.

“There are some sellers who are doing 20 orders a day. But at least they are doing 20 orders a day! For them, 20 orders a day is like bhagwan (god). They could not even sell 20 orders earlier,” he explains. “We have to be patient,” he reiterates, expressing “100 per cent” confidence that things will improve on ONDC, even if gradually.

Even McKinsey and Company believes things are going to get bigger and better with ONDC. According to their estimate, the value of digital commerce through ONDC could rise fivefold from between $60 billion and $70 billion in 2022 to between $320 billion and $340 billion by 2030.

Awasthi, however, doesn’t see ONDC turning a corner, not with its existing commission model and the severely limited extent of cash burn possible from the government’s side — it’s public money after all — to grow ONDC into some kind of a raging success. It could work, he adds, if it became a fair game for everyone, Swiggy, Zomato, Amazon, and Flipkart included.

[sanjayc]

Not to go off-topic, but I don't give two hoots for Clement Atlee. I have infinitely more respect for PM Modi, and for Sardar Patel, and I know extremely well what they think of Mahatma Gandhi. What Netaji thought of Bapuji I know less well, but AFAIK, there was great respect there too. If they were foolish or stupid to repect Bapuji, well, I am glad to be in their camp.

Clement Atlee is known as the prime minister who presided over the end of the British Empire and I have little doubt that bothered him to no end.

Pls read Gandhi's so-called philosophy first-hand before you make an opinion. "Gandhi: A Sublime Failure" by S. S. Gill is a good read.

"If Gandhi was good for Nehru, Patel, etc., he is good for me." This is not an argument. These people were a product of their times.

Gandhi had serious psychological issues. Aurobindo called him "a little crack." Ambedkar had very poor opinion of him, and considered him vindictive and venomous. Savarkar thought poorly of him too. Master Tara Singh was so enraged when he saw the fate of Sikh villagers in Punjab who had thrown their weapons in the village well on advice of Gandhi, and Muslims surrounded them in the night, he confronted Gandhi in Delhi and asked him to flee to Himalayas and not remain in Indian society.

Only illiterate peasants with "uncultivated minds" followed him blindly, because Gandhi wore the trappings of a saint. In Indian tradition, saints are not questioned but revered. Personally, I think of Gandhi as Arvind Kejriwal of Pre-Independence India. Some of his ideas were plain stupid. Once asked that, in view of non-violence, how a women who is about to be raped is to defend herself. Gandhi mumbled something to the effect that she should bite her tongue and make funny faces at the rapist in the hope that she will be spared. The man was an idiot.

[ricky_v]

re: the above discussion, imo, the wider public is not ready to have a mature discourse on it, the guy is on our notes, in every govt institution, in many foreign countries mostly near our embassy, a road on his name is in most every city; foreign dignitaries are made to go to his samadhi for ceremony, a lot of our protest sites in different cities are named after him, and so on

if there are two words to succinctly describe the indian voter, it is: vehemently emotional, both words are necessary for this description, one alone is incomplete, you could see it during the protests against the sterlite copper plant in TN, people from the area, workers who earned their livelihoods from the plant actively campaigned to have the plant shut down, effectively dooming themselves, their futures, and their children's futures only the strength of the rhetorics tugging their emotions, of course they have since campaigned to start the plant again protesting that the shutdown has led to poverty and immigration from the area

that should have been the beacon light for anyone remotely interested in indian politics to understand the voterbase, the public can and will vote against their commercial and economic interests provided a strong emotional messaging; the point being, the cause of the independence movement is the biggest schism that our internal retards and external enemies can use to question the identity of india in the first place, and that issue will be extremely emotional, already you have the line of reasoning: india did not exist before the british, they were separate princely states, there was no idea of a nation, even the youth leader has ideas on the same lines, throw in subnationalism engagement by the powers that be, ingrown regional chauvinism and you have all the makings of an impressive molotov

i believe the makers of the constitution identified this issue while framing, a divide between the foreign educated and the leaders of the soil, so they sought to bind the identity with the first phrase: "India that is Bharat", but unravelling the threads that depict the tapestry of our independence movement will be educational but destructive to the wider unity at this stage

better to coopt the icons: mk, the constitution otherwise you can be sure that this ideological divide will be the cause of the biggest fission in our society that no whatsapp forwards can hope to staunch

[SRajesh]

All men convicted previously in the Mumbai Train blasts including those on the death row now acquitted.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 806160.cms
180 people lost their lives and after all these years their near and dear ones are still left with no answers
And nobody is held reponsible
These type of shoddy investigations that dont stick is what will embolden the Jihadis.
And they will claim we told you so this is all RAAAA ki Saazish!!
And DJT to take more pot shots at us!!

[chetak]

[chetak]

An amazing information about the technology used by Cholas called "Investment casting!"

This is an exhibit in Govt Museum, Chennai

Read it and feel proud of our ancestors!