Hallmarking of Gold

The Indian government wants all gold jewelry sold in India to have a unique code of nine alpha-numerics. The jewelers are opposing this move.
The official reason given by the government for this code is to prevent fraud. Jewelry can be tracked, i.e., Who owns it? Who sold it? What is the purity&weight of that jewelry? etc.

The real reason for this code is

1. Reduce gold imports
2. Stop investment in gold

India imported $35 billion of gold in the financial year 2020-21. Gold imports are rising at 23% per year. Indians save in gold because the returns are much higher than bank interest rates. The transaction is usually in cash, so no tax is paid on profit. It offers protection against rupee devaluation.
A reduction in the gold investment implies a lower trade deficit for India. For lowering the trade deficit, the Indian government should reduce taxes, improve the business climate, etc. But, the corrupt Indian government doesn't want to make these changes. So it wants to reduce gold imports.
Gold acts as a leash on governments that want to go wild printing currency. No corrupt government likes a leash. So they try every crooked method to break this leash.

Indians should continue to invest in gold. They should oppose any law that makes it difficult to buy/sell gold.

Cure for Covid-19 vaccine

Hopefully, you didn't take the Covid experimental vaccine. But, if you have made that mistake, at least don't take any more Covid experimental vaccines/boosters. You can mitigate the health issues caused by experimenatal vaccine.

How do Governments spy on people?

We can create a reasonably good profile of a person based upon his / her browsing history, social media interactions, searches made, etc. Companies like Google, Facebook, etc., have this profile for every user. This profile can create customized ads for the user, e.g., If a woman searches for pregnancy-related information, she starts to see ads of baby products. Till now, the whole busniess plan seems OK.

The problem is that Governemnt can arm-twist big social media companies, thus violating the privacy of individuals, e.g.,

• Let say the Government wants to know who are the anti-vaxxers. Now a company like Google can create three lists: C - People who are Pro-Vaccine or neutral, A - People writing/creating information about harm caused by vaccines, B - People circulating the information created by A category. The government doesn't have the resources to pursue every one but typically more than 80% of people are category C and less than 1% of people are category A. Now, the government can go after people in category A.
• Let say the Indian government wants a list of people who are anti-Modi. Now a company like Facebook can create three lists: C - People who are neutral/pro-Modi, B - People who circulate Anti-Modi information, A - People who write/create original articles/videos that are anti-Modi. Most Indians are in category C. Less than 1% of people are in category A. So now the government can after category A people. Once they are suppressed, most of the anti-Modi information stops circulating.

How to protect privacy in this environment?
Use two identities: one for normal work and one for politically sensitive work. We can use our normal browser for usual office work. For sensitive work, use VPN, a separate browser, and a separate email. E.g, I have two emails.

1. One email is for the office work that I get paid for. I don't use any VPN for this work. I use Google to search for any information. I do all my work-related social media interactions here. This is my open identity.
2. For my private work, I use Brave browser, ProtonVPN, and separate email. I use the DuckDuckGo search engine. I do all my social media interactions in this Brave browser. This is my secret identity.

My two identities are separate and can't be linked easily. In my open identity, I am a politically neutral or politically uninterested. In my secret identity, I am an anarchist and a nightmare for any government.

E-RUPI - a step towards cashless society

E-RUPI is a cashless rupee with the following salient features:

• E-RUPI is created by GOI (Government of India) and given to poor people.
• The receiver will have to have a mobile phone. The mobile phone may be a smartphone or a feature phone.
• E-RUPI on the mobile phone will be a QR or SMS code.
• The receiver doesn't need to have any bank account or Paytm-like account.
• E-RUPI will have an expiry date. After the expiry date, it is useless.
• E-RUPI can only be spent on necessities, i.e., buying food, medicines, and other items marked as essential by GOI.
• The person/organization accepting E-RUPI for essential goods/services will get equivalent currency credited in their bank account.
• Large organizations, who currently issue Sodexo coupons to their employees, will at some point of time transition to E-RUPI.

E-RUPI can easily be misused, e.g., A poor person, after receiving E-RUPI of ₹500, can purchase alcohol of ₹400 with it. The shopkeeper can now buy ₹500 essential goods/services with ₹500 E-RUPI.

Many rich people in India use digital currency, e.g., credit/debit cards, UPI, Paytm, etc. The poor in India almost always use cash. The GOI is hoping that the poor will start using E-RUPI. GOI wants a cashless society.
The goal of E-RUPI is not to prevent fraud; the goal is a cashless society.

Who needs eRUPI?
In the USA, the poor get food coupons. In India, there are multiple subsidies for the poor, e.g., PDS, Kerosene, MGNREGS, etc. The long-term plan is to replace all the subsidies with an eRUPI handout and thus reduce fraud are overheads.