This is quite common in India, but the twist being they are not hired by those in relationship but their parents! Usually due to caste differences.
Here is an interview of one such agency by Niel Patel in his Indian startup show, where she(founder) proudly claims to end relationships on behalf of clients(parents). If you thought that was awful, wait till she tells at the end 'There are no regulations for Private Investigative Agencies in India' ! (Neil just laughs it off).
When someone reads the above comment and thinks 'Oh well, it is a risk the user is willing to take by using these apps in an Authoritarian regime' should think again.
Targeting users who rely upon secure apps is becoming common in flawed democracies as well and more countries are eager to join that list. Several people, including minors were arrested in Kashmir when police found VPN app on their mobile during routine checks[0]. Government's logic being 'Why use VPN, if you are not a terrorist?'
At the same time journalists, activists are heavily dependent upon secure apps like this to make their voice heard outside, all the more reason for all of us who are lucky to not have gestapo knocking our doors because we used a VPN to watch PornHub to make usage of such secure apps (messaging, email, VPN etc.) very common.
I am glad that Brazil's court still remains independent.
Looks like Bolsonaro, should borrow couple of tips from his friend Narendra Modi. Modi, dismantled the institutions in India systematically to guarantee his long lasting power.
e.g.
The only official from the election commission who didn't give a clean-chit to Modi for his election campaign violations during last election was greeted with Income Tax raids on his family members after the election, now he has been transferred to Asian Bank(He was next in line to become Chief Election Commissioner).
Look at the current Chief Justice of India, posing with limited edition Harley Davidson[0], which apparently was brought to him 'just for a demo by a local dealer and definitely does not belong to the son of a ruling party member'!
Former Chief Justice of India, has been given membership in parliament!
If that sounded like red flag, Indian Government had given a specific date - August 15(this year) for the launch of their vaccine from a private company, by which the labs conducting trials for their vaccine should finish all three phases of vaccine trials and give approval[0]. When did the enrollment of participants for the trial start? July 7th(this year).
Why August 15? It is independence day and PM would like to make an announcement that India created the worlds first vaccine.
It is indeed extraordinarily sad that we have accustomed to have 'A mass murder accused' as prime minister and it is not even part of discussions against the party which hosts him.
I have spoken with several top BSNL authorities. Systematic hurdles are being thrown at them from performing even routine tasks necessary to maintain telecom infrastructure.
e.g. Roads cannot be dug up by BSNL for repairing their telephone lines, where as Reliance can. If they indeed proceed to dig up the road, they are threatened with a police case. In several cities, only Reliance have permission to dig the roads for new telephone/broadband lines.
In HAL, future Aircraft/Helicopter productions were halted after the Rafael deal was signed up with Jr. Ambani's Reliance. But when the whistleblower letter from PMO hit the roof, supreme court was involved, some HAL old projects were given permission to continue to not raise suspicion. But still, many in HAL beleive it's done for and only companies in nexus with BJP with no prior experience will manufacture military Aircraft in the future(This was before the China fiasco).
>but it's hard to argue that influence is greater than other Indian oligarchs (Mittals, Tatas, Birlas etc.)
That's naive at best.
It's no secret that Billionaires have their way anywhere in the world, especially in India where inequality is enforced, armored with the caste system. So, an Entrepreneur belonging to high caste, heading a company (Infosys, TCS etc.) has far less hurdles than a lower caste individual whose even the right to education via the reservation system would be questioned at every step of their life.
That said, Reliance - BJP nexus is nothing like India has seen before, so the political favors received by the Mittals, Tatas, Birlas pale in comparison. Details in other comment replies.
>The investments gave a much needed sigh of relief for the Reliance group of companies and their bondholders.
It was not like Jio was struggling for survival, which loads of other companies and millions of Indians do at this pandemic. Govt.'s answer to them? Get a loan from the Bank(Which none of the Banks are willing to give, even farmer gold loans have been halted in several states).
Where else have we seen global competitors who are fighting neck and neck in different markets invest in a single company which hasn't proven anything else other than undercutting competitors with inferior technology? Only thing which makes Reliance-Jio different from any other companies in India are its political influence and that is why these global players are rushing to invest. That and the wretched data.
>People assign too much competence of current BJP government.
That is mistaking its competence to get votes, retain power to competence in governance, the latter should have been very clear when it demonetized the currency plunging millions into poverty and economic turmoil from which the India has never recovered from.
We are telling BJP is criminal, racist, and fascist political party(Its parent RSS directly borrowed its ideology from Nazi) which will go to any length to get votes and be in power.
>So whose in power won't make much of a difference.
It does, depending upon whether a party has a moral ceiling. Whether there's something which they wouldn't do. Unfortunately, there is no such limit for a party which does not believe in democracy.
Why has India dropped in democracy ratings drastically?[0]
What's worrying is, now that BJP has taught other parties how India's democracy can be broken, even if by some miracle some other party comes to power, it will do the same. So, I will agree with you then.
But, that's not going to happen as BJP has ensured that no elections in future would be fair[1].
>The auction irregularity conducted by the alleged Shell company which was bought by JIO and highlighted by CAG was done in 2010
CAG highlighted irregularity with so many other things with the auction and top ruling party-alliance members were booked for scam, why didn't BJP take further action on this report then?
Meanwhile, Airtel/Vodafone (Competitors to Jio) have been asked to pay $ 12.3 Billion AGR dues after supreme court order. This wouldn't have happened if the ruling BJP Govt. had respected the order of TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) which stayed the payments in 2015 in favor of said telecom companies.
This kind of blatant favoritism for Reliance, Adani etc. leading to total destruct ion of competitive business environment in India did not happen before.
Yes, but the systematic dismantling of the independent agencies did not happen during congress period even though there were always bootlickers around in every govt.
Remember Auditor General of India, CBI(FBI equivalent) discovered and booked Congress-alliance party members for scam while they were ruling? Now, CBI has become a laughing stock is being used as lap dogs for ruling party to get parties into alliance with them.
I think the lack of geographical proximity to Jio, didn't give Mr. Ben the complete picture of the forces at play.
The story of Jio (Reliance) cannot be told without the political-corruption-nexus in India, by investing in Jio - Facebook, Google, Qualcomm etc. not only acquire stake in 'The Enterprise' of India but also guaranteed of political favors apart from access to data from millions of Indians through a single unregulated channel.
Let me give you an example of the political reach companies like Adani, Reliance etc. which are in nexus with current ruling party - BJP have in India. I have personally heard from Ex. High Court judges that when they were presiding over cases involving Adani, Reliance they were approached by officials from those companies and were asked "Would you like to be a Governor after your retirement?".
As there is practically no real opposition party left in India, BJP will rule India for for decades to come as it slips into total authoritarianism(like CCP).
So being on good terms with Jio/Reliance aka BJP, guarantee these companies unfettered access to Indians and especially their data. I'm sure BJP already has the necessary infrastructure in place for analyzing data from Jio customers, now with Facebook, WhatsApp, Google you can see where this is going.
As any non-alignment with Jio/Reliance/BJP means 'the end' as we are seeing with even Govt. institutions like BSNL(Telecom), HAL (Aircraft Manufacturer) etc. Any business in India or from abroad now should appease Jio if they have to survive.
Unfortunately its those people who think criticising government policies are antinational are being convinced by government by banning of Chinese apps, meanwhile Chinese troops have captured Indian territory, written China in mandarin all over for satellites to see and butchered Indian soldiers.
This was coming, very same people voted this party to power for supposedly bombing Balakot and killing terrorists when satellite pictures showed clearly that IAF missed the targets because PM asked them to bomb during cloudy weather. At least then this government only made IAF a laughing stock, but now its started belittling soldier deaths on Chinese hands.
How many Brahmins or upper caste people were killed by a dalit family for marrying their loved one? Can you say for sure that no dalit or someone from other oppressed community was killed 'today' for the same reason?
I'm not surprisd that you mock BLM, what caste racists think of the 'Black lives matter' is quite evident from the social media posts of casteists in India and abroad. India has consecutively been rated the most racist country in the world for a reason.
>reservation
Sins.
Let's remove caste system, make castes illegal, burn your caste certificate, give time period for removing reservation; what would be the appropriate time line for remedy thousand years of injustice?
Would you even vote for someone who says the above?
Even if caste system is made illegal today, the vast & powerful brahminical network advantage would benefit upper caste people for several generations. Where as lower caste people would suffer for next 100 years if reservation is removed.
Good question, this needs dwelling deep into the ideology of caste system.
1. Like many other religion, basis of caste system in Hinduism is that lower caste people came from supposedly less important organ & upper caste people came from more important organs.
2. People from upper caste perform cushy jobs, have access to education and all amenities. People from lower caste literally have to carry shit of upper caste people on their head. Obviously caste is hereditory!
Now any tell that to anyone who says 'Hinduism is not a religion', they would say 'Caste system was not hereditory, but way of job management'; but they will have no answer or tell a lame excuse when you ask them "Why caste attrocity exists till date, would you help uprooting caste system and make it illegal? or better will you let your son/daughter marry a lower caste person?"
And there are people who staunchly believe in the caste system as the core of their belief system, so much so that honor killings happen even in western countries by people of Indian/Subcontinent origin; Yes honor killings happen in India almost every other day.
So yeah, casteism cannot be taken apart from religion/ideology.
The fact that we have to create throwaway accounts to acknowledge the injustice continuing for hundreds of years tells a lot about it.
Unfortunately, its no use stating it here, the post have already been moved from first page. Many westerners think British civilized India, they don't known how the British exploited the caste system to their advantage to grab India in collusin with those who are at the top of the caste system.
Here is an interview of one such agency by Niel Patel in his Indian startup show, where she(founder) proudly claims to end relationships on behalf of clients(parents). If you thought that was awful, wait till she tells at the end 'There are no regulations for Private Investigative Agencies in India' ! (Neil just laughs it off).
[0]https://www.indianstartupshow.com/episodes/akriti