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Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

nytimes.com

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Re: Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

#21

Post by deepGem »

rrrazdan wrote: post #9

The point is that its not any official but a Chief Minister( akin to Governor in the US) that is doing this. The message that he is putting across to all other Government officials is much more important than us being able to see if he is slacking off or not.

Especially taking the office after overthrowing the freaking communists.

Re: Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

#22

Post by ruchi »

luigi wrote: post #20

Posting an official record of visitor logs, like what the White House currently does (though imperfectly), would probably be more useful than a webcam. http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-...

It may not be since it leaves interpretation of intention of the visit up to you. With the webcam, although the feed may be muted, you could still find out more.

Re: Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

#24

Post by bdhe »

rrrazdan wrote: post #9

The point is that its not any official but a Chief Minister( akin to Governor in the US) that is doing this. The message that he is putting across to all other Government officials is much more important than us being able to see if he is slacking off or not.

I think this is to score political brownie points, but it still an interesting idea. It comes in the wake of what has been a very eventful year in India against corruption[1] which included fasts by a prominent social activist to pass India's first ombudsman bill[2].

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Indian_anti-corruption_mov...

[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill

Re: Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

#26

Post by swombat »

known wrote: post #25

Black/corrupt/illegal money in foreign banks is coming back to India via Hawala/FDI/FII/NRI/PIO investments. This money is used to create jobs in the economy. Your anti-corrupt agitation will not create new jobs in India.

Are you seriously attempting to suggest that the Indian government should embrace corruption as a natural state of things?

Are you seriously using the possible threat of lost jobs as a foundation for this argument?

Re: Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

#27

Post by badclient »

Reminds me of when my friend got flagged by a cop and him being in a rush, just slowed down enough to pass a cash bill to the cop. The cop refused and asked my bud to pull over. When my friend asked what the problem was, cop goes "you wanna show this(bribing) to entire Mumbai? crazy guy." He proceeded to give my buddy a handshake through which money was passed.

Re: Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

#28

Post by jk-in »

bdhe wrote: post #24
rrrazdan wrote: post #9

The point is that its not any official but a Chief Minister( akin to Governor in the US) that is doing this. The message that he is putting across to all other Government officials is much more important than us being able to see if he is slacking off or not.

I think this is to score political brownie points, but it still an interesting idea. It comes in the wake of what has been a very eventful year in India against corruption[1] which included fasts by a prominent social activist to pass India's first ombudsman bill[2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Indian_anti-corruption_mov... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill

This is no political gimmick. I am from Kerala, where Oommen Chandy is CM, and can quite understand what he is trying to achieve. Mr. Chandy is a straight forward and no non-sense person who speaks his mind. And he has created enough enemies in doing so. Now there are quite a lot of people who blame him for corruption for no reason. This is his way to put an end to such blame game; way easier than denying all allegations against him.

Re: Indian Official Puts Public Webcam in Government office

#30

Post by digamber_kamat »

ramchip wrote: post #18
paraschopra wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, we would also require some kind of automated technology to scan through these public data (reports, documents, videos, etc.) and detect anomalies. Without such automated detection, at the rate any govt. produces data, manual detection would be very slow and it would be improbable to catch corrupt deals.

I'm not sure I understand how a program could be made that scans through reports and videos and reports possible instances of corruption, at least without a few huge steps forwards in AI and image processing.

The problem is a challenge but worth solving.
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