India Switched On Its Spy Software for Indians
☕ India’s Morning Briefing: Sat, December 27
Hello, and welcome to the brief.
Good morning.
Welcome to OneRead.News. Yesterday was a day of sharp elbows and sharper words. New Delhi finally stopped whispering and started shouting at Dhaka and Donald Trump decided Christmas was the perfect time for Tomahawk missiles.
Welcome to the 193rd edition of The India Brief
Deep Dive: The Panopticon and the Peep-Hole
Two stories from yesterday seem unrelated but actually tell us everything about the future of the Indian state: the linking of NATGRID with the NPR, and the Army allowing soldiers back on Instagram. One is about total vision, the other is about controlled sight.
Part 1: The All-Seeing Eye (NATGRID + NPR) Yesterday, the government linked the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) with the National Population Register (NPR).
What it means: NATGRID is the master database born from the ashes of 26/11. It was designed to stop “intelligence silos”—situations where tax officials knew a terrorist was moving money, but the police didn’t know he was buying bomb parts. By linking it to the NPR (which holds family-wise details of 119 crore people), the state can now map relationships instantly.
The “God Mode”: Using tools like ‘Gandiva’ (a scary-smart facial recognition and entity resolution system), agencies can now theoretically track a suspect’s money, travel, and family tree in real-time. It works. In trial runs, it has helped solve complex burglaries and terror financing trails by correlating disparate data points that humans would miss.
The Fear: This is the definition of a Panopticon. Critics argue that without a robust Data Protection Law, this 360-degree profiling creates a “surveillance state” where every citizen is a potential suspect. The safeguards are internal (audits), not judicial. If the system decides you are a threat, it knows everything about you before a cop even knocks on your door.
Part 2: The Blindfold Removed (Army Social Media) Contrast this with the Indian Army. In 2020, they banned 89 apps (including Facebook, Tinder, and Instagram) because soldiers were getting “honey-trapped” by Pakistani intelligence posing as pretty women. The punishment was severe—court martials and career-ending reprimands.
The Pivot: Yesterday, they shifted to “Passive Participation.” Soldiers can now viewInstagram, X, and YouTube, but cannot post.
Why Now? General Upendra Dwivedi’s philosophy is “Respond, Don’t React”. The Army realized you can’t fight a hybrid war in 2025 with soldiers living in a digital cave. Young recruits are digital natives; cutting them off entirely kills morale. The new policy is “Digital Hygiene”—teaching them to watch without engaging, effectively turning the internet into a one-way mirror for them.
The Synthesis: India is building a security architecture of Glass Walls. For the citizen (NATGRID), the walls are transparent from the outside—the state can see in. For the soldier, the walls are transparent from the inside—they can see out, but can’t touch. We are trading privacy for security on one hand, and trading isolation for morale on the other.
🇮🇳 The India Brief
Category: Politics & Security
The Bangladesh Dossier: Gloves Off
🔥 Statement: MEA slams “unremitting hostility” against minorities.
📊 Data: 2,900+ incidents of violence documented.
🇧🇩 Rebuttal: India rejects Dhaka’s “media exaggeration” defence.
The Wit: South Block finally decided that diplomatic ambiguity is overrated. Calling it “unremitting hostility” is the diplomatic equivalent of flipping the table during tea.
The Signal: New Delhi is drawing a hard line. By putting the 2,900 figure on record, India is internationalising the issue and signalling that the interim government’s grace period is officially over.
The Constitutional Clash: Pandora’s Box
⚖️ Warning: Centre warns court against breaching “Basic Structure”.
🏛️ Context: Debate Delhi HC’s intervention on air purifiers GST cut plea.
📦 Metaphor: Executive claims directions open a “Pandora’s box”.
The Wit: The Government citing the “Basic Structure” doctrine to curb the Judiciary is like a teenager quoting the rulebook to ground their parents. Irony just died a thousand deaths.
The Chessboard: This is a sophisticated pushback. The Executive is using the Judiciary’s own shield (Basic Structure) as a sword to protect its policy-making turf, signalling a heated winter for institutional relations.
The Shimla Standoff: Doctors on Strike
🏥 Crisis: IGMC Shimla services hit by mass casual leave.
👊 Trigger:Termination of senior resident after patient scuffle.
🛑 Impact: OPDs shut; emergency services strained.
The Wit: A viral video gets a doctor fired, and now the whole state calls in sick. It’s “Viral Video Governance” meeting “Trade Union Retribution” in a cage match.
The Bottom Line: Governance by social media outrage is backfiring. The swift termination without a perceived fair process has united the medical fraternity, paralysing healthcare in a hill state that can ill afford it.
The Panopticon Expands: NATGRID Meets NPR
👁️ Link: NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) now linked to National Population Register.
📂 Scale:Real-time access to details of 119 crore residents.
🕵️♂️ Goal: Seamless tracking for counter-terrorism.
The Wit: Privacy advocates are screaming into the void while the government builds a database that knows what you ate for breakfast in 2019. Big Brother isn’t watching; he’s data-mining.
The Signal: The security architecture is becoming absolute. Linking NPR to NATGRID closes the loop between civilian demographics and intelligence tracking, making the state’s gaze comprehensive and inescapable.
Army’s Digital Thaw: Social Media Returns
📱 Shift: Army allows “passive participation” on social media.
🚫 History:Strict ban enforced for years over espionage fears.
👀 Rules: Consumption okay; posting likely still restricted.
The Wit: The Army realised that banning soldiers from Instagram is like banning breathing. Now they can doom-scroll like the rest of us, just without the selfies.
The Deeper Take: A pragmatic concession to reality. Complete digital isolation lowers morale among digital-native recruits. The challenge now shifts from “prohibition” to “digital hygiene” and counter-intelligence training.
Unnao Case: Justice vs. Bail
⚖️ Protest: Demonstration outside Delhi HC.
🔓 Trigger: Suspension of Kuldeep Sengar’s jail term.
😡 Mood: Victim’s family and activists outraged.
The Wit: The legal system moves in mysterious ways, mostly mysteriously letting powerful people out on technicalities while victims watch in horror.
The Signal: The suspension of the sentence for a high-profile convict reignites the debate on the differential application of justice. It’s a PR disaster for the judicial process and a trigger for civil society mobilisation.
Category: Economy & Business
Zepto’s War Chest: The IPO Run-Up
🦄 Fundraise: Board approves ₹11,000 Cr raise.
📉 Financials: Loss widened to ₹3,367 Cr in FY25.
🚀 Goal: Pre-IPO scaling and dark store expansion.
The Wit: Zepto is burning cash like it’s trying to keep warm in a nuclear winter. But who cares about profit when you can deliver groceries in 10 minutes?
The Bottom Line: It’s a classic “blitzscaling” play. They are raising a massive war chest to kill competition and capture market share before hitting the public markets. The bet is on habit formation over unit economics.
Titan’s New Shine: Lab-Grown Diamonds
💎 Brand: Titan launches ‘beYon’ for LGDs.
🧪 Shift: Entering the lab-grown diamond market.
🌱 Angle: Sustainability and ethical luxury.
The Wit: Even Titan admits that digging rocks out of the ground is so last century. Now your engagement ring comes from a science experiment, and it’s cheaper too.
The Deeper Take: A major validation for the LGD sector. When the market leader steps in, it legitimises the category. Titan is future-proofing itself against changing consumer values and the high cost of natural diamonds.
🌍 World Watch
Nigeria: Trump’s Christmas Crusade
💣 Action: US strikes ISIS targets in NW Nigeria.
🗣️ Rhetoric: Trump vows “hell to pay” for killing Christians.
🇳🇬 Partner: Nigerian govt confirms cooperation.
The Wit: Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a Tomahawk missile strike. Trump is back to conducting foreign policy via Truth Social and high explosives.
The Signal: A major doctrinal shift. The US is explicitly framing counter-terror as religious protectionism. It forces African nations to pick sides in a polarised narrative but offers them firepower they desperately need. Not sure if Nigera agreeing for cooperation is out of will or pressure.
Ukraine: The Minerals Deal
🤝 Meeting: Trump-Zelenskyy set for Dec 28 at Mar-a-Lago.
⛏️ Agenda:“Minerals for Security” framework.
🕊️ Shift: Kyiv open to “demilitarised zones”.
The Wit: The road to peace is paved with lithium. Zelenskyy is realising that the only way to Trump’s heart is through a good business deal.
The Bottom Line: Transactional diplomacy at its peak. Ukraine might be trading its future economic assets (critical minerals) for present-day survival. It’s a desperate gamble to keep US support alive under a Trump presidency.
Paris: Terror on the Metro
🔪 Attack: Stabbing spree on Metro Line 3.
🤕 Victims: Three women wounded; suspect arrested.
🧠 Motive: Police suspect psychiatric issues, not terror.
The Wit: Another day, another knife in a European capital. Whether it’s “terror” or “madness”, it matters little to the commuters bleeding on the platform.
The Signal: The security situation in Europe remains fragile. While organised terror is down, the frequency of “lone wolf” or mentally unstable attackers using low-tech weapons creates a pervasive atmosphere of fear.
📝 Sign-Off
Question of the Day: If you had to pick between a 10-minute newspaper reading slot or a 10-minute “no phone” slot in your day, which one would cause you more withdrawal symptoms?
Aditya S., signing off.