Nearly 50k displaced by floods in Assam

The situation in Assam continued to remain grim on Wednesday with more than 660,000 people in 27 districts affected by floods, according to a government bulletin. As per a bulletin released by Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), one more person drowned in the state due to floods, taking the total number of deaths to nine since Friday. It added that 48,304 persons displaced due to floods are taking shelter in 135 relief camps. Efforts are underway to restore connectivity and ensure supply of food and other essentials, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday, urging people not to panic. The worst affected district was Dima Hasao, with the stranded residents being rescued by NDRF, SDRF and Indian Army personnel, the CM said.

Virtual private network (VPN) service providers that are not ready to comply with the new guidelines have to exit from India, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday. “There is no opportunity for somebody to say we will not follow the rules and laws of India. If you don’t have the logs, start maintaining the logs. If you are a VPN that wants to hide and be anonymous about those who use its VPN and you don’t want to go by these rules, if you want to pull out, then frankly you have no other opportunity but to pull out,” he said. The ministry of electronics and IT has mandated cloud service providers, VPN firms, data centre companies and virtual private server providers to store users’ data for at least five years. Some of the VPN companies have claimed that the new rule may lead to cyber security loopholes in the system, which was rejected by the minister.