Mahindra Reva’s e2o is a new-generation electric car that has had a long gestation period. It started life as the NXR concept designed by Dilip Chhabria (DC), benefited hugely by the experience of Mahindra when the Indian UV maker bought into the company and is today built in a futuristic, all-new state-of-the-art plant in Bangalore. Electric cars haven’t managed to penetrate into the mainstream and the company’s earlier car, the Reva i was pretty far off from being either practical or useable. The new e2o, however, promises to deliver more of both.
It achieves this partially. It is a two-door car, so access to the rear seats is poor, luggage space is limited, and then there’s the fact that you can’t roll the rear windows down. Generic electric car limitations reduce practicality as well. A full charge takes five hours and the car has a real-world range of 80-90 kilometres (Reva claims a range of 100km). Still, if these don’t bother you too much or if you can get around the said issues, Reva’s new electric car is a huge step forward.
Mahindra has done a decent job of translating DC’s NXR concept into the production e2o, but as often happens; a considerable amount has been lost in translation. Fit and finish of the multi-layer high-impact plastic body is improved, but some large gaps, like the one for the door, remain.
The big surprise, however, is that once you are sat in the back, the rear seat is actually quite roomy, comfortable and useable. The front seats are even more comfortable with plenty of thigh support from the wide seats. Even things like the roof lining and dashboard fit and finish don’t disappoint. A large touchscreen interface has been well integrated and the monochrome digital speedo-slash-information pod looks sufficiently high tech. There are still a few tacky bits like the gear selector and the power window switches, but overall, the insides really do work.
First impressions from the behind the wheel are pretty good too. The pedals are massively off-set and take getting used to, and the gearlever also is a bit fiddly. Squeeze the accelerator, however, and the e2o takes off from rest smoothly and in a jerk-free manner and it is quite easy to keep pace with traffic.
But ask for more power or a sudden burst of acceleration and the e2o disappoints. For improved performance you need to select ‘B’ or ‘boost’ via the gear selector. Once you do this, throttle reposes are slightly sharper and there’s a bit more tug in the mid-range. Acceleration till around 40kph is quite strong, but after that the power delivery soon tails off even in boost mode. And the e2o tops off around 80kph.
Mechanical refinement has also been improved vastly over the earlier car. The electric motor only whines at high speed and the suspension works in a near-silent manner. The e2o’s ride also comes as a pleasant surprise. It is silent and comfortable even over big bumps, which is great. The soft suspension means that there is a bit of body roll when you steer into corners and handling isn’t sharp. The non-powered steering also could get heavy at parking speeds with a full load.
The e2o’s mechanical layout is similar to earlier Revas. Its uses a tubular and box section chassis, the body is made of high-strength plastic and the electric motor sits behind the rear wheels. The all-important lithium-ion batteries are placed below the front seats. The new car has been crash-tested in Spain, it uses 10 on-board computers and Reva has come up with a number of innovative solutions for which it has filed 30-odd patents. You can plan your trip with the help of Google Maps, the software telling you how far you can go before having to turn back.
You get an additional 10km of ‘limp home’ range before your battery completely dies and Reva can even ‘revive’ your dead battery and give you a further 10km still, all via a remote link to your car. A 15-minute quick charge can get you 25 additional kilometres, you are connected to the car via a phone app that can start your air-con for you, lock and unlock the Reva, and the company even sells a solar charger for the car for approximately Rs. 1.5 lakh (The Sun2Car program can get you a free 50-60 percent charge every day, sunlight willing).
The e2o is not as practical as an everyday hatch. The two-door configuration means access to the rear is poor, the batteries have a limited range and build and construction aren’t really up there with most hatches from Hyundai or Maruti. Accept its limitations, however, and the e2o is a surprisingly usable city car. It is a bit underpowered, but it is smooth, silent, easy to drive, surprisingly high on tech, and at the end of the day, has what it takes to get the job done. Mahindra will launch the car in six cities in the first phase. Prices in Delhi start at Rs. 5.96 lakh (on-road) after a subsidy from the government in Delhi, but even at this price this is one car you’ll have to buy with your heart rather than your head.
INN analyses the state of legal education in India and the road ahead to bring law schools in line with changing needs.
India has the largest legal profession in the world (1.3 million attorneys). The corporate legal market in India is worth a billion dollars, half of which is shared by foreign law firms. The top 100 Indian companies spent approximately 600 million dollars last year as legal fees. Our legal market is growing very fast and we urgently need competent law graduates. The establishment of national law universities in India has changed the face of legal education in the country.
These universities attract the best brains of the country. We have few islands of excellence. The students of these law schools have done exceedingly well in the international moot court competitions which shows legal education in India is reaching a golden age. Law has again become the most sought after course.
What should one really expect from a legal professional in today's globalized world? It is generally said that today’s law student should have at least the following skills: ability of intensive research; analytical ability; ability of client counselling; advocacy skill; documentation and conveyancing skill; negotiation skill; court craftsmanship, and procedural skill and a skill for human relations.
We need to integrate these skills into our legal education. Our students must possess wide range of "competencies" beyond a simple mastery of law and legal doctrines. Are our Law Schools, particularly the Law Departments of traditional universities and the 950 law colleges of the country, successful in imparting these desired skills in their students is the greatest challenge? Few so-called national law schools or islands of excellence cannot bring about a radical change and therefore we need to improve our law colleges.
Our teaching methods have to change to adjust to the new and fast-changing world, otherwise our students will never acquire muchneeded skills. Many a time, learning is a very boring experience at law schools. We must incorporate humor to make the learning exercise more fun and thereby trick the students into learning more. Use of software applications, late evening classes, innovative credit system, offering of courses in music, painting, biotechnology, foreign languages, sports etc. will not only lead to true integration of knowledge but also help in retaining interest of highly talented students.
Just as businesses and law firms can no longer take a strictly local or even regional perspective in terms of competition, neither can law schools. The legal education of today requires emphasis on trans-national fields, such as public international law, regional law, international trade and finance, environmental and climate change law, new transnational fields such as Internet law, procurement, and transitional justice, international criminal law and law and development are to be included.
We also need to create a proper and authentic rating system for law schools and bring in accreditation standards comparable to United States, bring changes in financing of legal education as the cost of legal education in the elite national law schools is very high, take immediate measures to attract and retain talented faculty and offer them salary and perks at par with IITs, invest in curriculum development to make it comparable with the leading law schools of the West, bring changes in the examination system to test knowledge rather than memory, and we must take steps to enhance research at law schools as most of the law schools continue to be UG centric.
Finally, legal education should now become "justice education" and while to meet the challenges of market and new world order, the focus today is more to the corporate sector, our law schools should not be completely hijacked by the corporates. We have a duty to produce good and competent trial lawyers, social litigation advocates and properly trained judges.
The creation of new breed of lawyer depends itself on the creation of a new teacher. All curricular revision ought to be guided by one basic criterion viz. whether current doctrine and practice in particular areas of law serve to promote basic democratic values and
needs of time.
An additional focus of our strategy should be to make our programs more attractive to foreign students to meet and increase the demand for a globalized Law education. We must start general nine-months specialized LL.M. programs. To meet the market demand and to differentiate our offerings from those of other top law schools, we should also develop an Executive LL.M. Program for students who wish to seek an Anglo-American training in law and business while continuing their work commitments as seniors or executives in their firms and companies.
YSRC acting chief Sharmila’s ‘Maro Prajaprasthanam’ padayatra completed 100 days. Amid fanfare and euphoria from the activists and supporters of YSR Congress, who congregated in thousands of numbers to make a mammoth gathering, YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s daughter truly campaigned for her brother, YS Jaganmohan Reddy, disappointing the media houses which have been relentlessly trying to pit her against her own brother.
She said Jagan enjoyed support in “people’s court” amid lusty cheers from the crowd. The day of Jagan’s release from the jail and the day of Jagan establishing ‘Rajanna Rajyam’ are the real festivals “for us,” said Sharmila who covered 43 Assembly constituencies and 1,400 km of distance so far.
She lambasted the CBI for its announcement that the investigation was still on and the final chargesheet against Jagan would be filed in the court only after the completion of the investigation. She sought to know if the CBI was grazing donkeys (meaning an idiomatic sarcastic expression in Telugu that whether the agency was whiling away its time all these days.)
The 17 MLAs of the YSR Congress and the 15 MLAs, who joined it recently, went to Mangalagiri to participate in t he padayatra and extend support to her.
Sharmila’s potshots at the CBI continued when she referred to exempting Rajiv Gandhi’s name from Bofors probe as he died and why YSR’s name still figured in the CBI probe. She derided the despicable attitude of the CBI for not coming forth to take up investigation into the charges against N Chandrababu Naidu.
Sharmila’s public meeting at Mangalagiri evoked such a thunderous response that the milling crowds indeed should worry the rival political parties.
Earlier in the day, all legislators went in a bus from YSR Congress party’s office in Jubilee Hills. before embarking on the journey, party MLA Shobha Nagi Reddy strongly criticised the TDP and the Congress for targeting the YSR family.
The Prime Minister has publicly claimed that he and his senior cabinet colleagues were unaware of the CBI raid against DMK leader MK Stalin. The CBI has stated: “The operation was strictly in accordance with procedure.” The CBI functions under the Prime Minister. It is directly overlooked by Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) V Narayanasamy.
According to set procedure before the CBI can launch investigation, order prosecution or conduct a raid against a public official it must obtain sanction from the cabinet.
In other words if the CBI is not lying it must have informed at least Mr. Narayanasamy about the decision to raid Stalin. The importance of the individual raided would make it imperative that clearance for sanction should have been granted after due consideration at the highest level.
However the PM and FM have both professed ignorance about the decision to conduct the raid. The CBI has stated that due procedure was observed. According to media reports Narayanasamy sought facts of the case from CBI Director Ranjit Sinha and conveyed these to the DMK leaders.
Does that imply that before seeking information from Sinha about the case Narayanasamy was unaware of details pertaining to a raid against such an important leader? Does it mean that Sinha did not seek his sanction before conducting the raid?
If the CBI has lied about observing due procedures Ranjit Sinha must be dismissed.
If CBI spoke the truth Narayanasamy must inform the public why he did not inform the cabinet about the decision to conduct a raid against an important leader. Did he take a singular decision or was he directed by any extra-constitutional authority? If he granted sanction for the raid without informing the cabinet he must be dismissed. If he informed the cabinet the PM as well as Chidambaram was privy to the decision on the raid and their disclaimer about knowledge of the raid is a lie.
The public has the right to know who is speaking the truth and who is lying. The public has the right to know who is accountable and deserves dismissal.
Ranjit Sinha, Narayanasamy or the Prime Minister must resign.
Governance based on such brazen contradictions raises fundamental questions about the future of this nation.
It raises questions about who in truth is charting this nation’s future.
This is the story of a “terrorist” called Maqbool Shah.
In May 1996, two dozen sleuths of Delhi police Special Cell picked Maqbool, then 17-years-old, from a flat in central Delhi’s Bhogal area. For the next 25 days, he was shuttled between police stations in Jangpura, Nizamuddin and Lodi Road (headquarter of Special Cell).
On 17 June, he was produced before the additional metropolitan magistrate at Patiala House court, as one of the “JKIF terrorists” involved in the Lajpat Nagar blast on 26 May 1996, which killed 13 people. After spending 14 years in jail, the Patiala House court acquitted him for lack of evidence in 2010.
The prosecution’s claim was that documents and clothes of Farooq Ahmed, one of the main accused in the blast, as well as a stepney tyre of the Maruti car used in the blast, had been found at Maqbool’s residence.
But the Court declared these were not sufficient to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Recalling the circumstances of his arrest, Maqbool says he was a class 11 student in 1996, and had come to Delhi to spend a few weeks with his older brother, Dilawar Shah, who was a handicraft merchant. “Dilawar went to Srinagar for some urgent assignment leaving me at the Bhogal flat. That was when they (Special Cell) got hold of me”, he said.
Maqbool says that every time he asked the police why he was at the station, he got one standard reply: “We are carrying out an investigation.”
Shah is just one of the 16 cases that were included in a Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association’s study of ‘terrorists’ arrested by the Special Cell and were lated acquitted by court.
In the last five years,lower courts in Delhi have acquitted more than ten men who were arrested by the Special Cell for their alleged involvement in various terror cases including the 1996 Lajpat Nagar blast and the plan to bomb the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. When caught, these men were paraded before the media as dreaded terrorists linked to LeT, Huji and Al Badr. Yet court records reveal that they were languishing in jails for crimes they never committed.
“In these cases, the courts have indicted the Special Cell for setting up innocents; reprimanded it for violating due process and concocting evidence, ordered a CBI probe against the Special Cell, and directed the filing of FIR and initiation of departmental enquiries,” notes the study.
And each of these cases follow a common pattern: secret information, which can never be verified, leads to the identification arrest of the ‘accused’. The public and independent witnesses rarely join the operations which means there is none in court to verify the police claims. And the accused are picked up much before than the time of arrest shown on police record.
Alhough fabricated in what the courts have agreed is a false case, Maqbool says he was never tortured by the police. “You know how they treat a goat before qurbaani (slaughter)”, he says wryly.
In the fourteen years that he was in Tihar jail, Shah’s case came up before 26 judges. And before all of them, he pleaded innocence. “None but Allah heard me”, he said. But then on 8 April, 2010, additional sessions judge S.P. Garg acquitted him.
“In the present case, the circumstances relied upon by the prosecution against A8 [Maqbool Shah] do not lead to any inference beyond reasonable doubt of his involvement in the conspiracy. The circumstances do not even remotely, far less definitely and unerringly, point towards guilt of A8,” he said in his ruling.
He added, “Nothing incriminating was recovered at his residence showing his connection with JKIF and there was nothing on record to show that the accused had any link with or had attended any of JKIF’s meetings with any other members of the said organisation or else had ever remained in constant touch with them.”
The judge also noted that Maqbool Shah did not abscond from his place of residence even after the arrest of the key accused, namely Farooq Ahmed and Farida Dar.
The prosecution could not produce a single public witness who could testify to Shah purchasing any article required for manufacturing/assembling a bomb. Shah, now 34 years old, runs a grocery shop outside his home at Srinagar’s Laal Bazaar. Over the 14 years, he’s lost not just time but also relatives, including his father and sister.
“I was informed about my father’s death 13 months later. I used to cry before the magistrate saying, do not even open my handcuffs, but let me go home once on custody payroll. But for them, more than somebody’s son, I was a Kashmiri terrorist, you know!”
It didn’t need the drama over the arrest of Liaqat Shah, who is caught in a tug-of-war between the Delhi Police and the Jammu and Kashmir government authorities over whether he was returning from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to plot terror or start his life anew, to remind us of a problem in our security agencies’ response to terror attacks and conspiracies.
The problem is this: anecdotal evidence of innocent people being framed or falsely implicated in terror cases is abnormally high. In Liaqat Shah’s case, even if one acknowledges that the truth of his circumstances is yet to be established, the two versions that have been trotted out are so widely contradictory that it is evident that one of them is a pack of lies.
The Delhi Police stands by its claim that Liaqat Shah was returning from PoK via Nepal to India in order to unleash urban jihad in Delhi on the lines of the November 2008 attack on Mumbai. But as INN has noted, the Delhi Police narrative is so full of holes that it is hard to take it seriously. Yet, their officials continue to trot out “incriminating evidence” that makes a mockery of their claim: the latest they have is that Liaqat Shah had known Hizh-ul-Mujahideen militants on speed dial on his mobile phone.
Jammu and Kashmir authorities on the other hand insist that Liaqat Shah was returning with his family under a ‘rehabilitation’ scheme for reformed ‘militants’. If that version bears out as true – and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has promised an investigation by the National Intelligence Agency to establish that – it’s fair to say Liaqat Shah is being framed under false pretences.
This is symptomatic of a larger problem of security agencies influencing investigations into terror cases with their own agenda – or, at any rate, of being less than professional. Far too often, the kneejerk response of police and investigating agencies is to round up the “usual suspects”. As INN has noted, this has led, in many cases, to innocent Muslims being falsely implicated on terror charges. As happened in the Mecca Masjid blast case of 2007, the entire evidence against those who were arrested and had served jail term was a house of cards that collapsed in court. And yet, right after the blasts in Hyderabad in February this year, investigators were looking to round up the “usual suspects” again.
The Union Home Ministry’s decision to set up special courts to conduct speedy trials in cases where innocent people are falsely implicated in terror cases is, therefore, not without intrinsic merit. Even given the challenges that security agencies face in investigating terror cases, falsely implicating innocent people in terror cases is a perversion of the law. Even if, in the end, the courts acquit them and establish their innocence, nothing can take away from the injustice of being incarcerted in jail for years – and the taint of being branded for years as a suspected terrorist.
The Home Minister has noted that arresting innocent people and keeping them in custody – knowing that they were innocent – is a serious a crime. He has also promised strong action against officers responsible for such false cases. So far so good.
But where the Union Home Ministry, or the Minority Affairs Ministry (which proposed the establishment of special courts), err is in limiting these proposed special courts to take on only the cases of innocent Muslims. Even if one acknowledges that the preponderance of such cases relate to innocent Muslims – and investigative reports in the media have established that beyond doubt – a proposal to establish special courts for Muslims alone certainly tests the limits of constitutional propriety and makes for bad political optics.
As this editorial points out, the intended special courts and the mechanisms that sustain them ought to be carefully thought through so that nothing transpires to boomerang on the good intent that underlies it. These courts “should be aimed primarily at clearing a backlog, not serve as a long-term prophylactic against future mis-steps by the law enforcement and investigating agencies.” And the intent of framing such a measure must be to catalyse administrative and police reform by ridding the system of social prejudice, and upgrading investigative procedures.
Far too often, political considerations have led parties to embrace potentially unconstitutional positions as a quick-fix to address what are genuine problems in society. That way only lies ruin, and the possibility that a flawed approach can undermine the larger objective.
Constitutional propriety demands that special courts that take up the cases of innocent people arrested on false charges in terror cases should be blind to the religious background of the falsely accused. By narrowing the focus in the way it proposes to, the government is guilty of the same social prejudic that investigators and law-enforcement agencies stand accused of.
In the first week of January, J.M. Gugnani, a 66-year-old independent consultant, got a series of messages on his phone, informing him that transactions were taking place on his credit card in Islamabad. When he added up the many small transactions that were swiped, Gugnani was stunned to discover that he had “spent” 2.5 lakh in Pakistani rupees (about Rs 1.36 lakh). There were two problems, though: the credit card was firmly tucked in his wallet; and Gugnani had never ever been to Pakistan. He’s based in Gurgaon, near Delhi. “Initially, I didn’t realise it was Pakistani rupees. I was shocked more because it was not an online transaction; a card had been physically swiped there,” he says. After a few rounds of investigations and verification of his passport, his bank—ICICI Bank—blocked the card. Last week, Gugnani received a formal communication from the bank saying that the “dispute” had been resolved in his favour.
Not everyone is as lucky. It doesn’t always end well. Since January 2013, Mumbai resident Shailesh Ghai has been running from pillar to post trying to reverse three online fund transfers that took place on his bank account without his knowledge. His account, now Rs 15,000 short, was hacked and the funds transferred to another account in three separate transactions over a week. His big mistake: responding to an e-mail that tricked Ghai into revealing his password (something called phishing). Although Ghai was quick to inform the bank, he’s yet to receive a reply on the status of his funds. Ghai hasn’t had much luck with the cyber crime cell either although a formal complaint has been filed with them. And he’s still deciding whether he should knock on the doors of the consumer courts or write off the whole experience. Simply put, Ghai is no longer sure he’s comfortable using internet banking anymore.
These are not isolated cases; they mark a growing epidemic of e-fraud in the country. Increasingly, banks are being bombarded with complaints regarding fraudulent internet banking transactions, ATM cards being misused, and debit and credit card data being hacked or swiped for domestic and international transactions. As more and more Indians try to muddle their way through the maze of cyber and electronic banking transactions, e-thieves are always one step ahead of them. According to national cyber crime estimates, credit card frauds, phishing, hacking into accounts and so on are on the rise and increasing at an alarming rate of 30 per cent in India.
“In the past seven to eight months, we are noticing a rise in phishing complaints in net banking or e-commerce in India. Another common complaint is identity theft, done by copying the data from the card’s magnetic strip, usually at shopping outlets,” says Uttam Nayak, group country manager, South Asia, Visa. Last year, the two largest payment processing firms—Visa and Mastercard—suffered a massive online data breach of 1.5 million card details in North America. “Although frauds in India are on the rise, it is still one of the lowest impacted countries globally because of stringent Reserve Bank of India guidelines,” adds Nayak.
Well, in the last six months alone, there have been numerous instances of huge amounts being skimmed (where the magnetic strip of the card has been copied). Most recently, unauthorised transactions of an estimated Rs 30 crore have affected all the top card-issuing banks, including ICICI, HDFC, SBI, Citibank and Axis Bank. Senior banking sources told Outlook that it was suspected that many of these online international transactions might have taken place through cloning or skimming of data at key department stores and fast food joints.
Sure, India is still a nascent market as far as internet penetration goes—but the growth rates are astounding. Mobile banking, for instance, has grown by over 60 per cent in April-December 2012. Cash still dominates banking but the growth of electronic transactions is over 40 per cent. And yes, banking is not isolated to singular devices or technologies any longer. There is a greater push by bankers, regulators and even the government to move towards electronic payments. “It is alarming to see the number of cases that are coming to light and clearly a cause for concern. As the number of transactions increases, the sense of security in these transactions needs to go up rather than diminish,” concedes A.P. Hota, MD and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India.
If the numbers look small right now, that’s also partly because there’s massive under-reporting of cases. Apart from the monetary loss, victims often have to face a lot of harassment at the hands of the police—and more often than not from the bank’s dispute redressal cells—in the process of filing a complaint. Gugnani, for instance, had to go through several rounds of investigations and verifications—on phone as well as in person and examination of his passport and whether he had a Pakistan visa or not. Says Apar Gupta, cyber law expert, “In many cases, the cost of litigation is higher than the cost of the transaction. So it acts as a deterrent and many don’t go for litigation at all.”
Central government employee Sumedha Nagpure, 35, is one such harassed soul. For the last three years, she has been fighting a futile battle in trying to recover the Rs 69,000 in arrears she earned out of her Sixth Pay Commission in 2010. In February 2010, an SMS alert told her that the money had been withdrawn from her Bank of India account through an ATM and transferred to another account. Police complaints have been filed, the bank has come in but failed to investigate the issue and even her own lawyer has little hope of winning the battle in the consumer court. Three years later, the Rs 69,000 dent in her hard-earned savings still pinches.
All this growing consumer angst has forced the government to answer many questions in Parliament. Recently the banking regulator has introduced new guidelines to ensure that limits are set on domestic and international card spending (see graphic on the impact). “The regulator is wary and concerned, but honestly one needs to step back and examine whether greater systemic regulation is the solution here,” maintains a former senior RBI official. Most experts in the field, whether on the banking or investigation side, agree that this is one area of crime that will evolve at an extremely rapid rate.
“There is no call for physical presence while committing the crime. And that makes it the perfect low-risk, high-profit crime these days,” says Niket Kaushik, additional commissioner of police (crime), Mumbai. All over the country, cyber crime cells are cropping up and special training to officers in cyber forensics is being provided, he adds. It is a jurisdictional nightmare though. T. Krishna Prasad, additional DG, CID Cyber Crime, Hyderabad, says 40 investigating officers in Hyderabad are working in the cyber crime section. “But we are working on training officers in districts too and increasing the statewide strength to 200,” he adds. Calcutta too set up a cyber cell in 2011, yet has been grappling with an increasing number of cyber crimes.
“Most of the recent cases that have emerged involved international transactions emanating from countries like the US, UK, France. Once we track down the initial trails, we get stuck in following up the leads due to international laws and jurisdictions,” Kaushik adds. There has been a good success rate in apprehending culprits within domestic laws; but not so when there are cross-border transactions. Customers then have to depend on resolving the issue via the banks or consumer courts.
So who bears the brunt of the blame? The easy answer would be to assign equal blame to all the players—regulators for not implementing regulation; bankers for not having enough safeguards; consumers for not being responsible enough. Indeed, many banking and payment experts Outlook spoke to believe that the RBI guidelines are fair and stringent. Cyber law experts, on the other hand, say it’s not the law or regulation that is lacking—it is the implementation of the law that is the problem. The punishments and penalties involved need to be far more stringent in the case of errant banks who don’t adhere to norms as well as criminals who are apprehended by the law. “In a nascent market, you cannot afford to cut corners and put the burden on the consumer. Technology has to be accessible and convenient to the customer and it is up to the banks and regulator to ensure that happens,” says the former senior RBI official.
Of course, as with any case involving money, there is often another side. “It’s not fair to say that there is no redressal system in place. Many times consumers also misuse cards themselves and the system does have a mechanism to protect consumer interests,” says Bejon Misra, Consumer Voice. A key problem is that the customer is liable till the stage of reporting. Clearly, it’s no longer enough for customers to sit on the sidelines. Misra believes in increasing e-literacy. He feels there can be greater prevention if consumers get more proactive in understanding what is involved and how they can protect themselves. It makes sense for consumers to be scared—that’s the only way they will survive the onslaught from the e-thieves.
How You Can Get Conned
Phishing or Spoofing: You get e-mails that look similar to ones from banks, office, e-commerce websites or institutions you regularly interact with. Some ask for verification of credit card or bank account data, or a date of birth. You reply, thieves use the precious data.
Vishing & Smishing: Phishing via voice or SMS. You get a call from someone pretending to be your bank exec with an offer or for verification (usually DoB). The calls are designed exactly like a bank’s automated voice system.
Skimming: Obtaining a person’s card details by photocopying transaction receipts or swiping a card using a “card copier” that stores user data. Often this kind of theft works in collusion with people handling cash at shops, hotels and restaurants.
Carding: To check validity of a stolen card before it is blocked. Initially used by thieves for a small initial purchase; if that goes through, used for big amounts. A Delhi exec’s card was used to buy a Facebook app for $1 and later for goods worth $850 and $4000 in the UK.
Cloning: Creating duplicate cards by using easily available, inexpensive technology and machines. These cards are then used for transactions or online.
Application fraud: Opening bank accounts in someone else’s name by using either fake or stolen documents like utility bills
Account takeover: Taking over a person’s bank account by using fake or stolen documents and signatures and appearing as the account or card holder. Often these documents are also used to change addresses of a bank account and transfer funds. False reports of lost or stolen cards too are filed and requests made for replacement cards/passwords.
BIN attack: Thieves get one good, valid card, then generate card numbers by changing the last four numbers using generator software/machines. This is possible because credit cards are produced in Bank Identification Number (BIN) ranges. In most cases expiry dates of the cards are also in a series.
Mail redirect: Thieves intercept or hack into e-mails and redirect them to their own account. They then redirect password reset e-mails to their own accounts and break in to operate a person’s account.
Quantum breach: Normally users and banks set alerts for transactions over a set limit, mostly Rs 5,000. Thieves use bank account passwords or credit/debit cards for amounts below that and for several purchases so that detection is not immediate via alerts and seen only in monthly statements.
Remedies: What new RBI norms (valid from June 30, 2013) will do
Restrict card to domestic usage unless you have made specific arrangements
Impact May help curtail misuse of cards or information internationally; will be cumbersome for frequent fliers; banks unhappy about additional process
Conversion of existing cards to EMV chip cards for customers who have used their cards internationally
Impact Expected to provide greater security
Threshold limits for international usage based on risk profile and usage of customer. Common threshold limit for cards that have never been used internationally before
Impact The customer will have to be more proactive in determining limits and keeping track of them
Banks to ensure that terminals at merchants should be certified for PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standards) and PA-DSS (Payment Applications-Data Security Standards). Impact Another layer of security, will take time to roll out effectively
Bank should track transaction patterns of usage of cards with card payment network to clamp down on fraud. Impact More active notification of transactions; raise red flags when behaviour deviates from pattern
Banks should move towards real-time fraud monitoring system at the earliest. Impact Reduce the impact of fraud on the customer if fraudulent transaction pointed out immediately
Banks should provide easier methods (like SMS) for the customer to block his card. Impact Should reduce the burden on the consumer to block cards in cases of misuse.
Dos & Don’ts
- Select complex passwords that have nothing to do with your personal information; change them frequently; use different passwords for different accounts
- Do not write your passwords anywhere or share them with anyone; don’t save them on computers that many can access
- Never access your bank account on a device that is not personal; password-protect your devices
- Run regular virus/malware checks
- Do not respond to any e-mails/calls asking for any account or personal information, particularly ones seeking your data
- Immediately inform your bank if you notice a fraudulent transaction; block card at the earliest. Complain in writing, so that it can followed up legally.
- Ensure that websites asking for sensitive data online have SSL encryption in place (URL starts with https://); copy and paste the URL manually instead of clicking on a link in an email
- Don’t use auto fill forms; log out of every e-commerce site before closing the browser window.
In the meantime, banks are looking at meeting the new norms, propagating safety, updating merchant terminals, alerting against phishing and so on. “There is no other way to say it but precautions are better preventives,” points out Kaushik. It’s not a comforting thought. Not knowing whether your data on the internet, credit, ATM, debit card is safe is a question you want a definite answer to. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.
In other markets, like the UK and US, there is far more awareness and action as far as cyber crimes and these kinds of frauds are concerned. All the parties involved—legal, banking, governmental or regulatory agencies—take a far more active role in solving these crimes. That needs to start happening here as well. As long as the base is small, processes can be built in to ensure a higher degree of safety and security. Without this, the idea of anytime, anywhere banking—as well as the direct cash transfer project—will remain an elusive dream.
New Study Says Bypass Surgery Is Better Than Angioplasty For Heart Patients With Diabetes. Surgery or stent? Bucking the popular trend, a comprehensive study shows surgery is better, particularly for diabetics suffering from advanced coronary heart disease (CHD). Such patients are more likely to live longer, healthier lives after a heart bypass than after an angioplasty. The finding is particularly significant for India, the diabetes capital of the world, where one-third of all heart patients are diabetic.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) following a trial funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health in the US. The trial, one of the largest till now on the subject, involved 1900 patients with diabetes, all in their early sixties. While half of them had bypass surgery — medically known as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) — the rest underwent multivessel angioplasty with drugeluting stents (also known as percutaneous coronary intervention or PCI). These patients were followed up for five years.
The study concluded that for diabetic patients with advanced (predominantly three-vessel) CHD, bypass surgery was superior as it significantly reduced rates of death (10.9% vs 16.9%) and heart attack (6% vs 13.9%). However, of those undergoing a bypass, 5.2% suffered a stroke compared to 2.4% of those who underwent an angioplasty.
“These results are consistent with the findings of multiple previous trials comparing CABG and PCI in
patients with diabetes,” stated an NEJM editorial on the subject. Prof Balram Bhargava of the cardiology department at AIIMS was one of the authors of the study. He says the trial, involving such a large number of patients and such a long follow-up, finally lays the debate — open heart versus stenting — to rest, at least for diabetic patients with advanced CHD. “Open-heart surgery is not as daunting an option as it used to be and has evolved greatly over the years. In AIIMS, we have 11 operation theatres where we do three open hearts per theatre or 33 surgeries every day. It is a robust alternative,” he says.
An angioplasty specialist himself, Dr Bhargava points out that the study shows the importance of “team approach” in diagnosing and treating coronary disease rather than just the cardiologist deciding which patient he would send for surgery and which one he would do stenting on. It has to be a combined decision of the cardiologist and the cardiac surgeon, particularly in the case of diabetics, he adds.
There have been major advances in stenting procedures. Yet, studies have consistently shown a trend towards more frequent “major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events” in diabetics who underwent stenting. In spite of this, the procedure is becoming increasingly the more preferred option, observed the editorial.
Why is this so? “Many PCIs today are ad hoc procedures, performed at the time of diagnostic coronary angiography, with the same physician making the diagnosis, recommending the treatment and performing the procedure. There is little time for informed discussion about alternative treatment options, either medical therapy on the one hand or CABG on the other,” stated the editorial, adding that diabetic patients ought to be informed about the potential survival benefits of open-heart surgery for treatment of severe heart disease.
Ideally, the discussion ought to start before the angiography so the patient has time to digest the information, discuss with family members and also with a multidisciplinary heart team before making an informed decision, advised the NEJM editorial.
“The patient should not be taken in for an ad hoc angioplasty. At the time, he/she is under too much pressure to make an informed decision. It has to be a more elective procedure,” explains Dr Bhargava.
But for now, most patients are harried and hurried by their doctors into getting one or more stents soon after an angiography. The profit margins may leave little scope for discussion.
MATTERS OF HEART
- LETHAL MIX - 61.3 million people over 20 are diabetic in India More than one-third of India’s heart patients are diabetic
- TAKING THE BYPASS - First performed in India in 1975 In mid-1990s, 10,000 surgeries annually; now 1 lakh per year
- BALLOONING OPTION - In 2011, 1.2 lakh angioplasties performed; 2 lakh stents placed Stent market growing at 22-25% per year in India Docs say chances of blockage recurrence higher in angioplasty than after bypass. In diabetics, chances 3 times higher Surgery considered better in cases where all three major arteries are involved
