Samarth Bansal

Fighting fake news: Decoding ‘fact-free’ world of WhatsApp

Misinformation Ecosystem: From outright falsehoods and misleading data to bigotry and hate, everything is circulated in the closed encrypted world of WhatsApp.

For this first-time voter, there is no other place like India

First-time voter Ayush Anand Malik doesn’t support caste-based reservation, and believes all religions are equal.

India’s invitation to Huawei for 5G trials sparks concerns: Insufficient security safeguards plague telecom sector

If a firm inserts backdoor into hardware—which is the concern being flagged over invitation to Huawei to take part in 5G trials—it is difficult to protect telecom security, say experts.

‘China model of censorship’: Proposal to trace online content sparks concern

Only a few weeks ago the Australian govt had passed a similar law that forces tech companies to hand over encrypted messages

Govt already had power to intercept, monitor, say officials

The outrage over authorising 10 agencies to lawfully “intercept, monitor and decrypt” information through a “computer resource” seems misplaced because these agencies already had this power under the IT Act, according to current and former government officials.

Rajasthan an exception, Facebook popularity doesn’t ensure win

A Hindustan Times analysis of Facebook data shows that Rajasthan was the only state where the leaders of the party that won also captured the most engagement on the social media platform.

Whom can political parties reach on Facebook and why it matters

Indian Facebook users are skewed towards specific demographics. A Hindustan Times analysis of anonymous and aggregated data from Facebook’s advertising portal shows that the bulk of the platform’s Indian users are men, under the age of 30 and live in urban clusters. National averages further hide the massive state-wide differences.

Using US polls insights to prepare for India elections, says Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said they are mainly learning from what happened in the 2016 US elections, the Mexico elections and the 2018 midterm elections. They have also built models to identify where people are trying to game the system.

Fake news and hate speech thrive on regional language social media

From lies to hate speech, platforms like Sharechat and Helo face the same issues for which WhatsApp, Twitter are facing scrutiny.

Gender gap in Indian formal sector worse than global average, LinkedIn data shows

Every industry sector in India employs more men than women. Moreover, the gender gap among Indian professionals is worse than the global average in every sector.

Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar leads to confusion in private sector

Some argue it is now impossible for private companies to use Aadhaar data at all; others say Aadhaar can be used as long alternatives are made available to customers.

Data is secure, some information not private: Supreme Court

The court expressed trust in UIDAI’s systems and said that the Central Identities Data Repository — the central database where biometric and demographic data are stored — is secure.

From data security to use of biometrics: Here’s everything you need to know about the Aadhaar case

UIDAI says database is fully secure while experts argue this is a very limited view of data security.

Number of BJP MLAs in the northeast have increased 15 times in last five years

Between 2013 and 2018, the number of BJP legislators in the eight states of the region increased fifteenfold — from nine in 2013 to 140 in 2018, an analysis of election data by the Hindustan Times shows.

How we get high: These 9 charts reveal smoking and drinking habits of Indians

National Family and Health Survey data reveals how frequently Indians drink, what alcohol they prefer and more.

From meat and fish to vegetables: These 9 charts show how India eats

NFHS-4 report shows that daily food consumption has not changed much over last decade, but there has been a decrease in daily consumption of vegetables

What we know and what we do not know about pollution in India

PM stays on the move: Three charts that show how Modi travelled in 2017

Official data on PM Modi’s visits from the PMO website shows that the number of days Modi spent abroad has decreased over the years.

Gujarat election results: Rural-urban divide behind BJP’s big Saurashtra setback

Gujarat election results show the Congress outdid the BJP in the 2017 assembly polls in the Saurashtra region, where nearly 75% seats fall in the rural belt.

Gujarat election results: Had PM Modi not led BJP’s campaign, its hopes would have taken a hit

From reacting to Mani Shankar Aiyar’s ‘neech’ remark to his shrill rhetoric about Pakistan’s interference in the Gujarat elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s polemics put the Congress on the defensive.

Gujarat election results: Make no mistake, the contest in Modi’s home state was really close

The Gujarat election results show ‘none of the above (NOTA)’ has polled more votes than the victory margin in 30 assembly constituencies.

How India spends on health

Getting Rs 1 crore-plus paycheck is a distant dream for most IIT grads

Salaries vary significantly with departments. The crore-plus salaries were bagged only by students of computer science and engineering.

From daily tirade to radio silence, how Kejriwal stopped Modi-bashing on Twitter

Since April this year, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s tweets have not mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name at all.

How Rahul Gandhi is challenging Narendra Modi on Twitter, winning eyeballs

People retweeted Rahul Gandhi more than PM Narendra Modi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Twitter.

India has data, but who is going to figure it out

The government portal launched in 2012 has failed to hit the bullseye as the data is either outdated or the officials don’t update the information on time.

From missing data to unreliable numbers, India’s statistical ecosystem needs an overhaul

The data that does exist is sometimes unreliable but is used anyway because there is no alternative. Several important data sets are released with a huge time lag. Others are missing granular district-level estimates

In IIT-Kanpur, students are upset over security ‘overstepping’ limit, allege harassment

Students at IIT-Kanpur allege their freedom of movement is restrained as guards arbitrarily pick on them and threaten them with punitive action.

Privacy upheld as fundamental right: What term means for you, what’s govt view

What is individual privacy? How does the government view it? Is it only for elites?

BTech and bust: Why Indians rush to be engineers when there are no jobs

Engineering students are seeing the degree as a path towards a government job as they regard it better in terms of security, starting pay and perks.