Chowmein, people in Kolkata will tell you, is a not just noodles, but a badge people in the city wear with great honour. Just like the potato in the biryani. No matter how much it has deviated from the original cuisine, it is the version with the most soul, they'd argue.

A typical Kolkata chowmein is served on a steel plate with the noodles drenched in a very orange tomato sauce and heaped with generous portions of raw onions and cucumber. A Durga Puja memory most people hold close to their hearts is wolfing down spoonfuls of oily chowmein, unfazed by the people pushing and shoving past them on a crowded sidewalk.

Chowmein, also ranks fairly high in the hierarchy of Kolkata street food, possibly right after egg roll and puchka, exactly in that order.

People who have left the city and often can't visit during the Pujas, can be often found moping about the fabulous street food on their social media timelines.

But there's hope for them.

Right in time for the Pujas, YouTube creators Bong Eats has come up with just the perfect guide to make the city's famous street-style noodles at home. And it involves adding garam masala to noodles. The video breaks down the process in a way that even the most inexperienced cook would be able to rustle it up, with little effort.

You can watch the video here:

The channel started by Insiya Poonawala and Saptarshi Chakraborty has over 2,50,000 subscribers. Based in the United States at the moment, Poonawala and Chakraborty hail from Kolkata. Their channel offers elaborate and comprehensive recipes of food from Kolkata.

If cooking is not something of a viewer's interest, just watching the recipes make for quite a nostalgia trip.

Besides chowmein, there's also recipes for puchka, egg roll and and momos on the channel. Time to hit the kitchen?

SHILLONG — In early November, the NH7 Weekender lineup and accompanying hordes of revellers will descend on the hills of Meghalaya, bringing Shillong back into the musical spotlight. If clichés came alive, the town, long represented in popular culture through a lens of gentle nostalgia, would be a skyscraper-sized kaiju rampaging through the countryside to the lilt of a playlist from the '80s.

But in reality, Shillong is home to multiple musical expressions whose influences range wide and far. There is now a boom in the production of original music and local musicians are challenging norms and asking questions through their lyrics. If you're a music lover searching for your next favourite(s), Shillong may have some surprises for you.

Funk, jazz, R&B and soul are the genres that inspire 4th Element, one of Shillong's most well-travelled musical groups. The band recently played shows in Belize and Mexico, apart from appearing in various festivals across Asia. Founding member Ribor Mb remembers the struggles of introducing new sounds to the fans.

"When we started off in 2008, it was initially difficult to get the audience for our music but within a year, we started getting more gigs. A decade later now, I think we have created an impact and we are also influencing other musicians."

Along the way, the town's musical tastes have also become more diverse. "Early on, Shillong was dominated by rock but in the past decade, musicians of other genres have come into the scene."

Blue Temptation is often hailed as a worthy successor to Soulmate, one of India's best blues bands. The band's guitarist and singer, Gregory Ford Nongrum, thinks this is a good time to be a musician in Shillong, pointing out the availability of more recording facilities, along with an integrated network of artists to work with.

Nongrum is also generous in praising his peers as he describes how exciting the musical scene in Shillong currently is. "We (Blue Temptation) are trying to be on the forefront of the blues for this generation and Dewdrops are trying to do the same with reggae. Skylevel plays instrumental math rock and when you look at the metal scene, you have heavyweights like Plague Throat."

Nongrum also contributes as a guitarist in Summersalt. The decade-old band, whose music was been used in the Bollywood movie Rock On 2, incorporates indigenous instruments into their genre-blending set-up. "The music, especially the folk fusion bit of it, the social nitty-gritty and the traditional culture of the Khasi Hills converge into what we have now," explains vocalist and guitarist Kit Shangpliang.

Tipriti Kharbangar, who has enthralled audiences all over the world as the vocalist of Soulmate, says there was a time when women would prefer to stick to music in churches and choirs instead of playing in a band along with men. "But nowadays, more women are inclined towards music. People understand that it is actually a viable career opportunity," adds Kharbangar, who is known for her powerful voice and spirited stage presence.

Tipriti Kharbangar and the Clansmen will be performing at the NH7 Festival this year. The singer acknowledges technology as a much-needed fuel for musical careers in Meghalaya.

"Availability of music software like FL Studio and Ableton is helping shape the music scene here," she said.

Influenced By Life

Shillong's musicians are experimenting with more than just skill and technicalities. Many are trying to incorporate their lived realities into their music and aiming to be an outlet for people to express their disenchantment with society and politics.

Known for its interactive shows, Tarik is a band with a punk-inspired sound and lyrics on subjects such as moral policing, corruption and the passiveness of middle-class society. When asked about the inspirations and irritations that drive the band's lyrics, frontman Wanphrang Diengdoh, who is also a filmmaker, points to the overwhelming angst in the town, across generations.

"Unfulfilled promises of bygone eras and rising aspirations of the young find a common playing ground and that is their angst. And all you need is a motive," he said.

Tarik's latest music appears in Diengdoh's new feature film Lorni the Flaneur.

Sarahlee Nicholas, 4th Element's former vocalist, jokes about dropping out of school twice and hating studies as she pursued her one true passion. "Music has been a roller-coaster ride and once I realised that it can give me an income, there was no turning back."

Nicholas has seen many women torn between their music and other responsibilities.

"It all depends on the individual. It is all about you and how you connect with the people that you work with. I took it very seriously when I started off and it is paying off now, but there were times when I thought I was done. It does not matter if you are male or female; if you are good at it, there will be people to promote you."

The 27-year-old is now pursuing a solo singer/songwriter avatar and wants to take her time as she works on new material. Nicholas lists Meba Ofilia and Andrea Tariang as her contemporaries to look out for. "They are fighters, they write music like crazy and they know good music. Young people here are open to every genre under the sun, and from there, many get inspiration and create music. And all that can be experienced live."

In Shillong, hip-hop is a party staple that is often blaring out of car stereo systems and influencing the town's street fashion. There is an active underground scene in the city that draws on the best tropes of the sub-culture while adding a local twist.

Andrew Lyndem, who goes by the stage name Prophet Of Esoterical Metaphors (POEM) and Ratul Hajong (Grey Jaw Ripper) are part of the Cryptographik Street Poets, whose album will release early next year.

"The streets of Shillong are an inspiration. We are also heavily influenced by politics and social issues, comic books, post-apocalyptic cyberpunk content and horrorcore," says Lyndem. The soft-spoken 26-year-old believes Shillong's music promotion still has some way to go. "Right now it is still about the popular music, the club music and the cafe music."

Lyndem thinks technology is great, but can also leave out some good musicians. "With the internet as a platform, you can reach many people but at the same time, you need to understand market aspects. You have to be an expert on so many things, it's not just about the music."

Shillong-based rap group Khasi Bloodz, which combines English and Khasi rhymes, has performed in festivals across the country. They were seen with Cryptographik Street Poets and other regional musicians in a 2016 music video—Anthem for the North East—which has been viewed more than a million times so far on YouTube.

Imti Kharkongor, who manages Khasi Bloodz, has high hopes for the genre. "People have been working hard behind closed doors to create this scene, doing it for a long time. With the kind of quality content local artists are coming up with, Shillong's hip-hop can only get better."

Places To Play

Despite being known as a musically inclined town, Shillong did not have a sustained live music culture for a long time, apart from occasional DJ nights and shows dispersed across the year. Things have changed over the last couple of years. Now visitors who flock to Khyndailad, in the centre of town, get to choose between multiple gigs every weekend.

Jason Manners, 30, is the founder of Rockski, an events firm that started organising weekly gigs at the Cloud 9 club in 2015.

"We believe that an artist should be able to pull in crowds and if you are good, you earn more. It gives musicians a chance to also understand the business side."

Manners is glad to be a part of the larger story but as a musician himself, thinks branding should be balanced with good songwriting. "Everyone is talking about the bands, the festivals, but no one is talking about the songs. Festivals and brands should not become bigger than the actual music."

Valte Chongtu is a musical freelancer who has played guitar with more than ten bands over 18 years while juggling a day job. He remembers the insurgency-wrecked days of the late nineties when live gigs were rare. Even after normalcy resumed, it took some time for local bands to find a stage.

"For many years, besides concerts with bands from outside, there were barely any gigs," he recalls. Valte has more hope for the next crop of talent. "Upcoming musicians are starting to think long term. It used to depend on which promoter you know but these new guys have gone DIY and there is no dearth of talent here."

The town's cafes are also helping musicians find an audience.

The pop art-inspired decor and bohemian setting of Mellow Mood Cafe has provided a stage for many musicians. 30-year-old Zachariah Nongkynrih co-manages the establishment, located in the vibrant Laitumkhrah neighbourhood. He describes the potential he sees from his own interactions.

"There are new genres coming up in the town, from jazz hop to other experimental music. We keep seeing new faces, an indicator that the scene has grown."

Nongkynrih tries to organise at least one gig a week and entry fees can be as low as Rs 50—making it more accessible to teenagers and college students.

Filling Big Shoes

Shillong's established names continue to entertain audiences around the country while reminding younger musicians of the town's legacy. The flamboyant Lou Majaw remains a poster child of Indian rock'n'roll, popping up at venues across town, while Rudy Wallang (Mojo, Soulmate) is one of the country's premier guitarists.

A former member of the band Mojo, Keith Wallang heads one of the North-East's most prominent talent management firms. He believes that Meghalaya has a lot more to offer if the right environment is created. "We need music and arts in school curriculums and also a standard continuous support for artists that are already out there doing their thing."

Summersalt's Shangpliang believes that music can be a culturally uniting force. "Mainstreaming of artists from the Northeastern regions will facilitate cultural exchange. This artistic musical integration promotes a sense of ownership and pride—because India belongs to everyone in this country, whether you are in Delhi or Bombay, or Shillong."

Last year, Heidi Lamar was chatting with a male colleague at a party organised by Google, her employer when she realised that the company had been quietly paying several women less money than men. Lamar, who was a teacher at Google's Children Center, learnt during the conversation that while she was being paid $18.51 per hour, the man was being paid $21.00/hour for exactly the same kind and quantity of work as hers. Additionally, Lamar had a masters' degree in teaching, which the male colleague, who was hired in a higher pay band than her, didn't have.

The party, ironically, was to celebrate International Women's Day.

Lamar took up the issue with Google the same month. Google "lied to her and did not correct the problem", her lawyer, James Finberg told HuffPost India.

Months later, in September, Lamar was one of the four women who sued the company for discriminating against its female employees over pay. The other women—engineering and sales professionals—also went through identical cycles of discovering that Google was unreasonably paying them less and then encountering dismissive responses when they complained. In December, in a temporary victory for Google, the women's lawsuit was dismissed. In January, three of them—Kelly Ellis, Holly Pease and Kelli Wisuri—revised the lawsuit, which Lamar also joined in. Then, in March this year, Google spent a whopping $270,000 to pay off 228 employees across US, UK and India to close the gender and race pay gap that existed.

ALSO READ:Experts Tell You What To Do If Your Parents Are Hell-Bent On Separating You And Your Lover

The four plaintiffs, their lawyer James Finberg told HuffPost India, quit the company eventually. Shortly after resigning in July, Lamar wrote in a Facebook post: "Man. Leaving a school and coworkers and families I love is terrible. This commute is also terrible. I'm in my final few weeks at Google and am having all the feelings."

Earlier this year, a jobs site surveyed 5,500 men and women across India. The results suggested that women earn around 20% less than men. While conversations around the gender pay gap regularly surface on social media, and women belonging to industries ranging from entertainment to journalism speak about wage discrepancy, chasing equal pay at the workplace can be both daunting and complicated.

MYTHS AND TRUTHS

Many factors contribute to the gender pay gap numbers in India. HuffPost India spoke to several women corporate leaders, some of whom said that the wage gap can't be seen in isolation and hence can't be addressed simply by 'fixing' the corporate culture.

Debolina Dutta, the human resources head at Schneider Electric for south-east Asia, said women in India leave the workforce at an age when most men their age don't feel compelled to. "If you look at, say, college placements, companies hire almost the same number of men and women at the same pay band," she said. She recollected an instance where an IT giant she was employed with had 54% women at the entry level, which dropped drastically a few years later and was significantly less for older age groups.

"Because there are very few women in the higher salary bands, the average pay of women is lower than that of men. Fewer women rise in ranks compared to men, therefore crowding the lower pay bands."

"At a certain age, several women leave work to pursue motherhood or marriage, because in India we are socialised to believe that women should be taking care of children and household. There's a sharp drop in the number of women in the mid- and higher levels as a result," said Dutta, suggesting that society as a whole should change to make sure women are treated equally at work.

The Monster.com salary index also found that the wage gap was the highest in India—to the tune of 25%—at an experience level of above 11 years.

Ester Martinez, the editor-in-chief of People Matters and former global human resources head for Tata, echoed Dutta's sentiments. "Because there are very few women in the higher salary bands, the average pay of women is lower than that of men. Fewer women rise in ranks compared to men, therefore crowding the lower pay bands. This results in the wage gap that we see in several surveys," Martinez said.

Martinez added that companies should make sure their overall policies have "gender hygiene" so that employees are empowered equally and feel comfortable about pursuing their ambitions.

HOW TO DETERMINE IF A COMPANY IS PAYING EQUALLY

Like in the Google case, it's difficult to find out if companies are insidiously practicing wage discrimination. Lamar and Ellis both came to know from their male colleagues after years of working at Google that they were being paid less. Harlina Sodhi, who has been an HR professional for 22 years, as well as a diversity leader and TedX speaker, said women need to keep their ears to the ground while considering an offer. She suggested closely looking at Glassdoor reviews and salary data.

Sodhi also suggested that women could call recruitment firms and headhunters to get a sense of the average salary of the profile offered to her and also ask them what kind of salaries companies are willing to pay for a similar job.

"Look at the compensation data that firms put together, talk to your network and look at filings that the company does where they have to publish salary of certain levels of leaders," Sodhi said.

She suggested that while joining a new company, a woman could ask questions about the "culture of the company".

"She can ask the HR or the person she will be reporting to questions about the stand it has with respect to gender equality and diversity, egos and cases of how other women have fared there. It's more about getting her role's worth relative to a man doing the same job than generic comparisons. There are several variables such as experience, context, proven expertise, longevity," Sodhi said.

"Your last salary shouldn't be a judge of your calibre.You should demand what you think you deserve."

DON'T GET STUCK AT YOUR LAST PAY

Most companies, said Martinez, try to compute a new hire's salary based on how much she used to get paid. In the case of Google as well, the company had hired the plaintiffs based on their last salary and hired them at a lower pay level, even though their experience should have placed them at a higher pay band in the company. Finberg told HuffPost India, "Google told Heidi that the male pre-school teacher brought in at a higher salary had (1) more experience; and (2) higher interview scores. Neither statement was true. Google refused to pay her the back-pay differential. Kelly Ellis was told by a manager that she had been inappropriately put in level 3 instead of level 4, but when she asked to be moved up, she was told she had not been at Google long enough."

Martinez said, "Your last salary shouldn't be a judge of your calibre.You should demand what you think you deserve."

NEGOTIATE HARD

A lot of people, said Martinez, especially women, don't negotiate hard or skillfully enough for better pay. While it is ideal that companies be fair and transparent in their payment structures, in this dog-eat-dog world, negotiating for salaries is a skill one should acquire.

At the entry level, Martinez suggests that it helps to talk passionately about your development plans for and in the company with your reporting manager and HR. "It is important to also ask yourself a few questions—am I being seen as an ambitious person? A lot of women work very hard, but are unable to articulate their ambitions unabashed," said Martinez.

Martinez has witnessed during her career that when women are unhappy with their salary or think they are being discriminated against, they just leave. Instead, she says, they should persist and aggressively pursue seniors for better projects and more challenging opportunities.

Both Dutta and Martinez pointed out that it is important to network—something women, burdened with home and family responsibilities—find difficult to do. "It is important to have a network, keep in touch with them about opportunities and salaries and generally be seen," Dutta said. Martinez added that having a network also helps in determining if a woman is indeed being shortchanged by her employer.

WHAT IF YOU MANAGE TO FIND OUT THERE IS INDEED A PAY GAP?

It's never an easy way from there. When Ellis and Lamar found out, they took it up with their managers, only for their concerns to be dismissed. At least, when they filed the lawsuit later, apart from their own personal conversations, they had as evidence a survey done by the labour department of the US government which found widespread discrepancies in Google's pay structure. Finberg told HuffPost India that there is little transparency in the United States about salary structures but as Google is a government contractor, the labour department regularly reviews its policies.

Sodhi said instead of being anxious, women could seek out other women in senior positions in the industry for their advice, thereby also informing them about the pay discrepancy they are facing. A comparison with another colleague, Sodhi suggested, is never a good idea and also cannot be held as concrete evidence without endangering the colleague's prospects. "Best to do a job evaluation, map it with industry salary median, fully be cognizant of your performance and potential and have an objective discussion with manager and HR," Sodhi said.

"You can always ask that to the HR or your boss. Say for example, for one pay band, salaries could range from Rs 60 to Rs 100, it's perfectly professional to ask where you figure in that range and why,"

Martinez added that it is important not to jump the gun, especially if one doesn't have valid data—always a problem in India. She suggests that, during the course of being employed in a company, a woman could actively discuss and seek advice on what projects she should be handling, what responsibilities she sees herself taking in the future and what development needs her superior has in mind for her. Alongside that, Martinez said, she should add facts about wanting to make personal investments like buying property etc, thereby indicating that though she is raring to take on challenges, she should be paid likewise as well.

One way to open such a conversation, according to Martinez, is by asking where she figures in a company's pay band. "You can always ask that to the HR or your boss. Say for example, for one pay band, salaries could range from Rs 60 to Rs 100, it's perfectly professional to ask where you figure in that range and why," she added. That conversation can then expand to how you can develop and consequently earn more.

Sodhi, however, suggests that if a woman wants to be direct about an existent pay gap, she could do "a rigorous self evaluation, run it past an trusted advisor and ask for a conversation".

Sodhi thinks it is important for women to have a coach or a sponsor whom she can honestly talk to within her industry—reiterating the point about networking made by Dutta and Martinez.

"I would back that up by a documented email saying 'thank you' or 'next steps as agreed' and periodically review those," she said.

THE LAWS

The Equal Remuneration Act And Rules, 1976 says that companies cannot discriminate against anyone based on sex. However, service lawyer Umesh Kumar said that it is very difficult to sue a company in India over this since there is no approved review procedure in place. "No company will admit to discriminating based on gender. They will obviously find some issue like performance etc. However, one can challenge a company if she thinks that she has been unfairly denied a promotion or a raise when everyone received it."

RESOURCES

Sodhi suggests women can find a sponsor to discuss professional hurdles in most industries. Following are the ways she suggests:

— Approach her diversity and Inclusion head to request for one. Sodhi suggests one can also check with her manager if he/she can recommend anyone

— Can join relevant social media group or LinkedIn community. Slowly, over a period of time find a sponsor

— Join programs offered to many bodies such as SHRM and Believe In Yourself (Sodhi is a co-founder).

4.Become a member of 'Lean In' or similar organizations.

(This list will be updated as and when we get inputs about mentoring.)

HOW IS WAGE GAP CALCULATED

The gender pay gap is usually determined by adding the salaries of all the women holding full-time jobs all year and then finding the median salary. For the uninitiated, a median salary is one that falls exactly in the centre when all the salaries of the people being surveyed are listed in ascending order. At times, like in Great Britain, the mean—or average salary of a man or a woman—is also taken into consideration for calculating the pay gap.

While considering annual salaries is a popular way to calculate the wage gap, this article points out that the pay gap can also be calculated on the basis of people's weekly earnings, leading to very different results. The survey conducted by Monster.com for India took into consideration the median hourly salaries of men and women in India and found that the former earned Rs 241 per hour of work compared with the latter, who earned Rs 184.4 each hour.

MUMBAI -- Critically acclaimed filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi, who was suffering from kidney ailment, passed away early Sunday morning at a hospital here. She was 64.

Lajmi was the daughter of painter Lalita Lajmi and niece of legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt.

Her brother, Dev Lajmi confirmed the news of her death.

"She passed away at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital at 4.30 am. She was suffering from chronic kidney disease and liver failure. She was on dialysis. She has been in and out of the hospital for three years," Dev told PTI.

He said the last rites of the director will be possibly conducted today.

Lajmi debuted as an assistant director under renowned film director Shyam Benegal, who was also her uncle. She went on to work as an assistant costume designer in Benegal's Bhumika: The Role (1977), starring Smita Patil, Amol Palekar and Naseeruddin Shah, among others.

"She was a niece of mine. She was a very fine filmmaker. She went through a long period of illness, it is tragic. She was much young to go," Benegal told PTI.

Lajmi made her directorial debut with the documentary, "D.G. Movie Pioneer" in 1978.

Known for making fiery films with women at the core of her stories, her filmography boasts of movies like Ek Pal, Rudaali, Daman, Darmiyaan and Chingaari (2006), her last directorial.

Rudaali (1993) featuring Dimple Kapadia in the lead was India's official entry for Best Foreign Language film at the 66th Academy Awards. It also went on to win three National Film Awards, including Best Actress for Kapadia, Best Art Direction for Samir Chanda and Best Costume Design for Simple Kapadia.

Soni Razdan, a close friend of the director, said it is a heartbreaking news.

"She has been suffering for a long time. But she fought very hard. Unfortunately her body couldn't handle it. I did speak to her last Sunday and we were supposed to meet on Wednesday, but she was readmitted to the ICU," Razdan told PTI.

Earlier today, the actor tweeted, "Our dear beloved friend Kalpana Lajmi has gone to a better place. RIP my darling Kalpan. I shall miss you so terribly."

The director, who was going through a financial crisis, was supported by several celebrities from the film industry in her final days, including Razdan, Alia Bhatt, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Karan Johar and Neena Gupta.

Razdan said the director-writer had penned a book, "Bhupen Hazarika - As I Knew Him" on the veteran singer and her long-time companion, which she was planning to adapt on big screen.

Chingaari, starring Sushimita Sen, was also based on Hazarika's novel The Prostitute and the Postman.

RANCHI -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana-Ayushman Bharat from Jharkhand on Sunday.

The ambitious scheme, renaming the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan (PMJAY), aims to provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually, benefiting more than 10.74 crore poor families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of health care providers.

"The prime minister will launch the scheme on 23 September, but it will become operational from September 25 on the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay," Niti Aayog member V K Paul, the chief architect of the scheme, had said.

Billed as the world's largest government healthcare programme, it will be funded with 60% contribution from the Centre and remaining from the states.

The scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers' families, 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.

It will cover around 50 crore people and there is no cap on family size and age in the scheme ensuring that nobody is left out.

Over 8,735 hospitals, both public and private, have been empanelled for the scheme, and as many as 31 states and union territories have signed MoUs with the Centre and will implement the programme.

Telangana, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala and Punjab are not among the states which have opted for the scheme.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda, who recently visited the Jharkhand capital, had said that money would not go to any person. It would go from institution to institution with the Centres contribution being 60 per cent and the states 40 per cent.

The prime minister will also lay foundation stones for medical colleges in Chaibasa and Koderma.

"It looks more than a bit crooked and rickety, but then again, a lot of Indian infrastructure is created and deployed with those characteristics," wrote American science fiction author, Bruce Sterling, on India's Aadhaar. "They could have chosen a more democratic process to deploy Aadhaar, but Indian democracy deploys a heap of stuff, and it's hard to claim that any of it is much better-made than Aadhaar is."

This proposition will be put to the test as the Indian Supreme Court prepares to deliver its a verdict on the validity of the Aadhaar, the largest biometric ID system in the world. Critics describe Aadhaar as a gateway to building a police state, but supporters insist that project reduces corruption, brings about savings, and greater efficiency in governance.

Now, as a five bench court of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices DY Chandrachud, AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, and Ashok Bhushan prepares to deliver its verdict, here's what you need to know.

What Is Aadhaar?

Under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Aadhaar project has been running for nine years now, in order to build the world's largest biometric identification database. The idea behind the Aadhaar is to make it simpler to identify people and better target the delivery of government services, while also opening up the setup through APIs for private use, to make it easier for companies to do business, and to encourage new startups to take advantage of the platform.

To do this, the UIDAI has gathered up the fingerprints, iris scans, and photographs of around 1.3 billion people.

Over time, Aadhaar moved from being an ID that was only required to access government subsidy programs, and has become utterly ubiquitous. It's used for everything from getting a passport to getting a bank account to a cellphone connection.

It is also the underlying basis for a system called India Stack, which is a set of APIs to allow the government and businesses to build an active ecosystem on top of the Aadhaar and other digital infrastrucutre using APIs such as eKYC to authenticate people, and UPI to carry out financial transactions, for example.

Why Is Aadhaar Controversial?

Most of us know Aadhaar as an annoyance — having to link it to our income tax payments, requiring it for death certificates or maybe being asked to produce it to get deliveries from Amazon.

But for many Indians, Aadhaar has been much more dangerous. For instance, there is the story of an 11 year old girl in Jharkhand, Santoshi Kumari, who starved to death. She was denied government subsidized food, because her family did not have an Aadhaar card linked to their ration card. Apart from her, there have been at least 14 more starvation-deaths linked to Aadhaar.

There's the war-widow in Haryana, Shakuntala Devi, who died in a hospital because she didn't have an Aadhaar card. She was brought to the hospital in a critical condition owing to a heart problem, and her son was able to produce his own Aadhaar number, but not his mother's.

There are many stories of manual laborers being denied Aadhaar benefits, since their work leads to damage to fingerprints, so the biometric checks don't clear. This is also a problem for the elderly, and for an 81-year old former ISRO scientist, Aadhaar has become a huge problem, as he can't carry out biometric authentication at his bank.

At the same time, the exponential growth of the project has sparked concerns among security researchers and academics that India is the first step toward setting up a surveillance society to rival China.

In the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, there's a war room next to the state chief minister's office, where a wall of screens shows details from databases that collect information from every department. All of this is gathered together into dashboards that can be accessed by the officials over the Internet—and anyone else as well, as many departments set up no access controls.

Is Aadhaar Secure?

Aadhaar's ubiquity means that almost every government department, and other public institution you interact with, uses the number. And many of these bodies have not taken steps to secure the data they collect. Government websites leak the Aadhaar numbers of students, while the Department of Posts asked people to paste copies of their Aadhaar cards on top of parcels. Another leak put the bank account and Aadhaar number of people just one Google search away.

"They can't protect it until they encrypt it and stop sharing data," said Srinivas Kodali, an independent security researcher.

To make things worse, the Aadhaar software itself has been built up over the years as the result of a series of pragmatic choices, which today compromise its security as well.

HuffPost India found evidence that the enrolment software used to add people to the Aadhaar database was compromised, and versions of this software are being sold over WhatsApp.

Gustaf Björksten, Chief Technologist at Access Now, a global technology policy and advocacy group, is one of the experts who analysed the software at HuffPost India's request. "To have any hope of securing Aadhaar, the system design would have to be radically changed," Björksten said.

To enable a fast rollout of the Aadhaar, even in villages where electricity and Internet access are a problem, the designers chose to build a system where the operator's laptop carries all the relevant software, and can collect people's information even offline. This decision to install the software on each enrolment computer, said Björksten, "puts the running of critical components of Aadhaar in the hands of the enemies of the system".

What Is The Supreme Court Deciding On TKTKDAY?

The court will review all 27 petitions now, and the decision it makes will have a long lasting impact. It needs to decide whether, for instance, requiring Aadhaar for government subsidies is legal, because the state is constitutionally required to deliver them, and requiring the Aadhaar can lead to exclusion.

It also needs to decide if the method by which the Aadhaar Act became a law was constitutional, since it was passed as a money bill. There's also the question of whether it violates the Fundamental Right to Privacy, which was declared by the Supreme Court in a separate judgement a year ago, based on one of these 27 petitions, brought by the 92-year-old retired Justice Puttuswamy.

Petitioners also argue that using Aadhaar to track and profile people is unconstitutional, and builds a surveillance state. This is already happening in some parts of India and combines databases of information about citizens, with those that include cameras, data from IoT devices, and social media feeds from across the state.

The court is going to rule on all these issues, and it will decide the fate of the Aadhaar Act of 2016, and also of the use of the Aadhaar as well. However, even if the court rules against the Aadhaar, there is a lot of room for nuance, so regardless of the ruling, expect the Aadhaar issues to carry on for some time still.

NEW DELHI -- BJP chief Amit Shah Sunday said his party will seek to identify illegal immigrants living in the country if it comes to power after the Lok Sabha polls and alleged Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal care for them for vote bank politics.

He said at a rally in New Delhi that illegal infiltrators are also causing trouble in the national capital, and likened them to termites, action against whom should not worry any patriot.

"After forming government in 2019, the BJP will undertake a nationwide identification of illegal infiltrators living in the country," he said.

Shah said Gandhi and Kejriwal complain when action is taken against them and asserted the Bharatiya Janata Party will repeat its 2014 feat and win all seven Lok Sabha seats in the city.

Following the ongoing National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam, there has been increasing demand from many BJP leaders that an exercise should be undertaken in the rest of the country to identify illegal immigrants.

"The illegal infiltrators are acting like termites in this country. They are also causing problems in Delhi. Action against them should not worry any patriot.

"But, whenever we take action Rahul Baba and Kejriwal start complaining. They care for illegal infiltrators because of vote bank politics," Shah said at Purvanchal Mahakumbh organised by Delhi unit of the party at Ramleela Ground here.

The BJP chief asked Gandhi and Kejriwal to clear the stand of their respective parties on the issue of illegal immigrants living in the country.

Sharpening his attack on Kejriwal, Shah charged the AAP leader with "preventing" the development of Delhi in his three and a half years of rule.

"Kejriwal's only mantra is to tell lies, and talk forcefully and repeatedly," Shah alleged.

He said the Centre had given Rs 50,000 crore to the Delhi government in past four and a half years years and alleged there was "anger" among people against AAP dispensation in the city.

Attacking efforts of opposition parties to forge a Mahagathbandhan against ruling National Democratic Alliance(NDA) led by the BJP, Shah said his party was ready to take the challenge.

"This Mahagathbandhan has no policy or leader. Rahul wants to lead the bandwagon but leaders like Sharad Pawar, Mamta Banerjee, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav are against it," he claimed.

Lauding Purvanchali people for their contribution in the development of the country under the Modi government, the BJP chief said his party will not take rest till the eastern part of the country is as developed as the western part of it.

Accusing the Congress of doing "injustice" to the eastern region, including parts of UP, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand, Shah said the Modi government had released 13.80 lakh crore and ensured development through expressways, hospitals and industries in the area.

"I have come here to give you account of the work done by Modi government for Purvanchal. Development of the region is our priority," he said.

Purvanchal Mahagathbandhan is first in the series of four mega rallies planned by Delhi BJP in Delhi in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, said Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.

In his address, Tiwari also raised the issue of "illegal" Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in the national capital and charged Kejriwal government with "settling" them in the city for votes.

Several senior leaders, including Union minister Harsh Vardhan, BJP general secretary(organisation) Ram Lal, Shahnawaz Hussain, party MPs Meenakshi Lekhi, Udit Raj, Parvesh Verma, among others attended the rally.

Eleven sewer workers died in a span of seven days in Delhi last month, despite a ban on manual scavenging by the Delhi government. The Safai Karmachari Andolan is holding a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Tuesday over the deaths.

Last year, 39 people died across 100 days in India, prompting the Safai Karmachari Andolan to launch an awareness campaign demanding safety and protection for sewer workers and manual scavengers.

HuffPost India had visited the homes and workplaces of various sewer workers and their families in 2017 to find the dire conditions they live in and the horrific circumstances of their deaths. Here are some of their stories:

THE MAN WHO WANTED TO SAVE HIS SON

Atar Singh had just sat down with his lunch under a tree by the sidewalk when a group of neighbourhood boys ran up to to tell him his son had fallen in a 30-feet deep sewage treatment plant in Santoshpur village, Faridabad.

Rahul, a sewer worker like his father, had just been hired as a cleaner at the plant. He was cleaning a blockage, clinging to the metal scaffolding inside the cavity of the plant, when he slipped. Singh rushed to the site, where a small crowd had gathered, and saw his 25-year-old son's head bobbing in the dark pit of sewage.

Singh's wife Savita said he had been a sewer worker all his life and he must have known it was impossible to rescue Rahul easily. But Singh didn't wait for help.

He jumped in and tried to rescue his son. But the sewer's toxic gases began choking him as well.

Santosh, Singh's nephew, watched in shock as his uncle and cousin fought for their lives. He had never been a cleaner and had never entered a sewer. But as Singh kept waving from the pit, Santosh asked the gathered crowd to get help and jumped in as well.

"I saw my worst nightmare before my eyes. My son and my husband's heads were sinking in the sewage." Savita said. "I started screaming for help and my youngest son, only 12 years old, tried to jump in as well. Some people held him back."

One by one, the three men sank.

First, Rahul lost consciousness and slipped off Singh's weakening grip. Then Singh ran out of breath, and finally Santosh disappeared in the swirling dark sewage.

"I still see the scene when I close my eyes and wake up screaming," Savita, recounting the deaths that occurred in March 2017.

"They had to be fished out with cranes," Savita said.

Sitting in a small one-story brick house in a slum right opposite the plant where she lost three members of her family, Savita's biggest concern was getting a job. Barely educated, Savita has never done much except cleaning and cooking jobs. She received Rs 10 lakh from the government which she was sure would run out bringing up three children, because she did not have a job. Rahul's 20-year-old wife Tina, mother to a toddler and a baby, told HuffPost India that she had studied till the ninth standard and had never held a job.

What will she do for a livelihood? "I don't know. What work can I do?" she asked.

Santosh's family never received compensation because he wasn't a contracted sewage worker. He helped his family of 6 by doing odd jobs and his death left them devastated.

'I HAD MY FIRST DRINK AT 14, SO THAT I COULD ENTER A SEWER'

When Deepak first entered a sewer, he was 14.

"My father was a sewer worker. And my mother worked as a sweeper in government hospitals. Nobody gave us any other jobs," Deepak, a Dalit, told HuffPost India.

The stench was overpowering and the open manhole, gurgling excreta and swarming with flies, scared Deepak.

"I was frightened. That was my first response," he said. Seeing the boy hesitate, an older man handed him a half-full bottle of country liquor.

"They said, that was the only way anyone can do this work. I drank up the entire bottle at one go. My ears were hot and my head was buzzing but it took my mind off the smell," he said. Minutes later, his father tied a rope around his waist and lowered the boy into the sewage pit.

Two years later, when Deepak was 16, his friend grabbed a bottle of country liquor and entered a sewer to fix a blockage.

"When he didn't come out for 15 minutes, I crawled in to find him sitting crouched, dead." Deepak said. "The gases had killed him."

At 43, Deepak has been risking his life to clean drains and sewers for nearly three decades. Little has changed as governments offices and civic bodies continue to contract cleaning jobs to individuals who then hire sewer workers for little money and make them work under dangerous conditions with no protective gear.

"Usually, in cases of accidents and deaths governments wash their hands off and claim it was the contractor's' responsibility to have ensured their safety," said Bezwada Wilson of the Safai Karamchari Andolan. "Why have they, then, allowed contractors to have people work like that? Have they given budgets and issued instructions that they should ensure the safety of workers?"

'MY BROTHER COULDN'T WATCH HIS CO-WORKER DIE'

In 2016, Joginder was hired by a private contractor to clean a network of Delhi Jal Board sewers in Lajpat Nagar.

The 32-year-old knew the drill—his co-worker dabbed oil on his body, covered his nose with a handkerchief, and climbed down the manhole as Joginder held on to a rope tied around his college's waist.

Five minutes later, Joginder called out to the man down the 10-feet sewer to check if he was fine.

"That's the usual practice," Joginder's brother, Parveen, also a sewer worker told HuffPost India.

There was a muffled response.

A few minutes later, Joginder shouted again and pulled at the rope tied around his colleague who had gone down. There was no response.

"It is our worst fear. Someone falling unconscious inside from the gases," his brother said.

Joginder raised an alarm, asking for immediate help, but neither his contractor nor Jal Board employees came to their aid, Parveen said.

Joginder handed the rope to a third man and went down to himself. Within minutes, there was no sign or response from Joginder either. The third man also went down, telling the fourth colleague to not enter come what may. He didn't make it out either.

By then, the contractor and the Jal board employees had fled.

The three bodies were fished out hours later.

"They had to sink hooks into their bodies to pull them up. When I saw my brother's body, clumps of flesh had been scooped out from several parts of his body where they tried to sink the hook," Parveen said.

"My brother couldn't watch another man die. We are the only ones we got," Parveen said. "So whatever our fate, we try to save one another."

A former basketball coach at a local private school who was paid per student that enrolled into his classes, Parveen took to manual scavenging when the kids stopped coming to him.

"The parents came to know of my caste and my family profession and told the school they didn't want me to teach their children," he said.

"I want the government to give us proper gear, medical facilities, make rule for contractors to give us protective equipment while making us work," he said.

Dilawar Singh, who has been a sewer worker for over 30 years, laughed when asked if he had protective gear.

"Some houses don't even want to pay Rs 50 to get the manholes cleaned. We clean three-four manholes in a lane and they haggle over Rs 500. Governments have stopped hiring us directly. And private contractors too want to pay measly amounts," he said.

When you want to construct the toilet, it's a central affair. When people die cleaning them, it's a state affair. How will this solve the problem?

"The Prime Minister has to take note of what is happening. You cannot wash your hands off, relinquish responsibilities by saying they are contract labourers. If the country's governments had proper drainage systems that need not be needed to be cleaned by humans, then there wouldn't be so many people who lost their lives," Wilson said. "The PM can't also say 'it is a state affair'. How is Swachh Bharat a central affair then? When you want to construct the toilet, it's a central affair. When people die cleaning them, it's a state affair. How will this solve the problem?" he asked.

THE WOMEN LEFT BEHIND

HuffPost India visited the homes of at least eight sewer workers who lost their lives on their jobs. All of them have left behind wives, mothers and children with no means to fend for themselves.

Crippled by caste and gender discrimination and poverty, almost all the women begged for government jobs. In most cases, they were not eligible for them since their deceased family members weren't contracted by governments directly.

Some of the women, especially the younger ones, were not even aware of how dangerous the job of their husbands were.

Preeti, a resident of Khichdipur, was one of them. Her ghunghat drawn to her knees, Preeti recounted how her 22-year old husband Sumit did not want to talk about his work ever. "He wanted to forget about it and said, it was miserable. So I never realised how horrible it was. He only wanted to come back home and play with the children," 20-year-old Preeti told HuffPost India.

She has studied till sixth standard and has two small children. "Do you think anyone can find me a job?" she asked hopefully. A representative from Safai Karmachari Andolan said that it's always difficult to find the young widows jobs.

"People don't want to hire them as helps as they have babies. And they have no education or skills to do any other job. It's very difficult for them," he said.

Mithilesh Behnwal had to leave Delhi after her husband died cleaning a sewer near Pragati Maidan in Delhi. "We couldn't afford rent and I moved back to my mother's home in Meerut," she said. Her twelve-year-old son had stopped going to school for a few weeks when HuffPost India met them last year.

She said, "The soles of his shoes have completely worn out. He had been sticking them with glue for the past 5 months and now they won't stick."

RAIGANJ, WEST BENGAL -- Police on Sunday arrested BJP North Dinajpur district president Shankar Chakraborty from Domohana area in West Bengal for making provocative comments against security forces.

Chakraborty was held while he was on his way to Raiganj from Islampur, DM Arvind Kumar Meena said.

The BJP leader, while addressing villagers earlier in the day, asked them to take action against security forces in North Dinajpur, where two students died in a clash with police over teachers' recruitment in a high school.

He also suggested putting up barricades to prevent entry of police personnel in the area.

"If there is any police action, retaliate. No compromise with them. Do not cooperate with them. If the situation demands, tie the police personnel to trees and beat them up.

"Don't give water to police. Better give water to a dog. If children or family members of policemen are found injured on the road, don't take them to hospital," he said at a public rally here.

Police swung into action after ADG (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma took strong exception to Chakraborty's comments and said nobody has the right to take the law in his hand.

"To incite people against the law enforcing agencies is a criminal activity. It's an attempt to foment trouble in the area. We will not allow any clashes or untoward incident to take place. Strong police action to be initiated," Sharma said.

In his speech, Chakraborty also threatened to pitch for the transfer of Superintendent of Police Sumit Kumar from the district, if he "remained inactive" and failed to take action against the culprits of the incident, which took place on Thursday.

Locals have alleged that the two, who were former students of the school, were killed in police firing but Kumar had said the police did not open fire.

The SP had, however, admitted that the students had received bullet injuries and said the police were investigating who had opened fire.

The parents of the two students have said their cremation would be done only after a CBI probe is ordered into the incident.

The BJP has called a 12-hour shutdown in West Bengal on September 26 to protest the death of the students.

COLOMBO -- Opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the Maldives' presidential election, results showed Monday, a surprise defeat for President Abdulla Yameen, following a campaign observers said was rigged in the strongman's favour.

Results released by the Elections Commission early Monday morning showed Solih had secured 58.3% of the popular vote.

Celebrations broke out across the tropical archipelago with opposition supporters carrying yellow flags of Solih's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and dancing on the streets. There was no response from Yameen after the results were announced.

Solih had the backing of a united opposition trying to oust Yameen but struggled for visibility with the electorate, with the local media fearful of falling afoul of heavy-handed decrees and reporting restrictions.

There were also no other candidates at Sunday's election held with all key dissidents either in jail or exile.

Earlier in the night, Solih had called on Yameen to concede defeat once the tally showed he had an unassailable lead.

"I call on Yameen to respect the will of the people and bring about a peaceful, smooth transfer of power," he said on television.

He also urged the incumbent to immediately release scores of political prisoners.

Yameen, who was widely tipped to retain power, had jailed or forced into exile almost all of his main rivals.

Before the polls opened, police raided the campaign headquarters of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and searched the building for several hours in a bid to stop what they called "illegal activities". There were no arrests.

Mohamed Nasheed, the head of the MDP, said the vote would "bring the country back to the democratic path".

Yameen would have no option but to concede defeat, said Nasheed, who was elected president of a newly-democratic Maldives in 2008 but currently lives in exile.

"He will not have people around him who will support him to fight on and stay," he told AFP.

The polls were closely watched by regional rivals India and China, who are jostling to influence Indian Ocean nations. The European Union and United States, meanwhile, have threatened sanctions if the vote is not free and fair.

Many voters across the Indian Ocean archipelago said they stood in line for over five hours to cast their ballots, while expatriate Maldivians voted in neighbouring Sri Lanka and India.

The Elections Commission said balloting was extended by three hours until 7:00 pm (1400 GMT) because of technical glitches suffered by tablet computers containing electoral rolls, with officials using manual systems to verify voters' identities.

An election official said the deadline was also extended due to a heavy voter turnout, which was later declared at 88 per cent.

Yameen voted minutes after the polling booths opened in the capital Male, where opposition campaign efforts had been frustrated by a media crackdown and police harassment.

Some 2,62,000 people in the archipelago -- famed for its white beaches and blue lagoons -- were eligible to vote in an election from which independent international monitors have been barred.

Only a handful of foreign media were allowed in to cover the poll.

The Asian Network for Free Elections, a foreign monitoring group that was denied access to the Maldives, said the campaign had been heavily tilted in favour of 59-year-old Yameen.

The government has used "vaguely worded laws to silence dissent and to intimidate and imprison critics", some of whom have been assaulted and even murdered, according to Human Rights Watch.

Before the election, there were warnings that Yameen could try to hold on to power at all costs.

In February he declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and ordered troops to storm the Supreme Court and arrest the judges and other rivals to stave off impeachment.

Yameen told supporters on the eve of the election that he had overcome "huge obstacles" since controversially winning power in a contested run-off in 2013, but had handled the challenges "with resilience".

The crackdown attracted international censure and fears the Maldives was slipping back into one-man rule just a decade after transitioning to democracy.

India, long influential in Maldives' affairs -- it sent troops and warships in 1988 to stop a coup attempt -- expressed hopes the election would represent a return to democratic norms.

While speaking at a public event in Goa, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajya Sabha lawmaker Subramanian Swamy said that Ravan, a principal character in Ramayana, was born in modern day Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

In his lecture titled, Indian Cultural Heritage and Its Importance, delivered at Margao on Sunday, Swamy was making the case that the notion of a "divide" between Aryan dominated northern India and Dravidian dominated South India was planted by British colonists, IANS reported.

Swamy said that M Karunanidhi, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, who died in August, believed that Ravan was Dravidian, but this was not the case. The Rajya Sabha lawmaker claimed that Ravan was not born in Lanka, modern-day Sri Lanka, but in a village called Bisrakh, close to Delhi, in Noida.

"And Rama was a hate figure for these people because he was from the north and he killed Ravan who was from Lanka and therefore Dravidian. Well, Ravan was not from Lanka. He was born in a village near Delhi, it is called Bisrakh. You can still go and see it. There are big billboards. The area is called Noida," he said.

ALSO READ: Subramanian Swamy Interview: If You Peel Off Modi's Exterior, It Is All Hindutva

Swamy, according to the newswire, said that after Shiva blessed him, Ravan went to Lanka and defeated his cousin Kuber and became 'Lanka Naresh'. "Therefore, I say to you that first of all, recognize that we all are one people. We did not come from some faraway place, as the British wrote in their history books," he said.

At the same event, Swamy claimed that the value of the rupee was falling because black money was "leaving" India.

WhatsApp now has a grievance officer for India, its biggest market. Komal Lahiri, who is also senior director, global customer operations and localisation, at WhatsApp, will work out of the company's Menlo Park, California, office.

Last month, India's Supreme Court had asked WhatsApp to explain why it did not have a grievance officer, along with some other queries. This was in response to a plea filed by NGO Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change, which had noted that although WhatsApp was ubiquitous in India, there was no way that users could contact the company about any issues.

Fake news and rumours being spread over WhatsApp is now a real concern in India—these messages, mainly about kidnapping of children, have been linked to lynchings in Maharashtra, Tripura, Gujarat and other places.

In response, WhatsApp launched a research grant to study how to prevent the spread of misinformation, and carried out public safety ad campaigns in India to address these issues, but the government has not been satisfied, and has been asking the Facebook-owned company to build in traceability of messages.

WhatsApp has so far refused, saying this would compromise the end-to-end encryption of messages that it offers. On its help pages also, the company notes that end-to-end encryption ensures that messages can not be read by either WhatsApp or third parties, and that messages are deleted as soon as they are delivered. Although WhatsApp has said that tracing messages will not be possible, the government has only reiterated its stand, and said that it expects the company to address the issue through innovation.

The third requirement that the government had from WhatsApp was to set up a local corporate entity, but there's no word on this yet. At the time of writing, HuffPost India has written to WhatsApp, and will update this story if there is any additional information.

To contact the WhatsApp grievance officer, you can send an email to grievance_officer_wa@support.whatsapp.com, or a letter to:

Komal Lahiri
WhatsApp Inc.
Attention: Grievance Officer
1601 Willow Road
Menlo Park, California 94025
United States of America