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New Indian Express
a day ago
- Health
- New Indian Express
Rising COVID-19 cases in India trigger spike in spam messages from hospitals; survey flags misuse of personal data
NEW DELHI: Are you receiving messages or calls from hospitals or labs to get yourself tested if you are unwell, as COVID-19 cases are increasing in the country? If yes, you are among the hundreds of people in the country who are inundated with unsolicited spam messages. A latest nationwide survey has said that ever since COVID-19 cases have been increasing in India, nearly one in five people are receiving promotional communication from hospitals and labs where they took the COVID-19 vaccines or tests during the earlier surges. In fact, under the recently released Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, even if a customer has shared their contact details, the retailer, the diagnostic clinic or any other entity must keep them secure. They cannot use it for making spam calls or sending promotion messages unless explicit permission has been granted. However, the LocalCircles survey found that in many cases, a person who once used the services of a diagnostic clinic or hospital is inundated with spam messages and calls. The survey, conducted among 18,000 people in 301 districts, found that 18% of people claimed that they are receiving promotional communication from third parties/labs/hospitals where they got COVID-19 tests done during the earlier COVID-19 surges in the country. Also, as many as 17% indicated that they are receiving promotional communication from the hospitals and labs where they received the COVID-19 vaccine and from third parties. According to Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles, they conducted the survey after receiving hundreds of messages from people complaining that they were getting unsolicited calls and messages from labs and hospitals they had visited earlier. So they asked the surveyors whether they had observed that data shared by them with private entities for getting a COVID test done between 2021 and 2023 is now being used to sell other health-related products and services to them. As many as 18% accepted that they get such pesky calls and messages.
Time of India
7 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
‘We're not ATMs': Why parents are fed up of arbitrary school fee hikes
Pulled out of class by bouncers, left out of sports trials, kept out of class WhatsApp groups, taunted by teachers, and then expelled… Delhi parent Divya Mattey says his 16-year-old had to experience all this and more last month. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now All because Mattey and some other parents have teamed up against a fee hike by DPS Dwarka which, they claim, did not have the approval of the directorate of education. 'Why is the school picking on children? They should fight us in court,' says Mattey, whose son is among the 32 students struck off the rolls earlier this month. The school contends that the hike is justified in view of expenses incurred, and the names had been struck off on account of non-payment of dues. This week, the took a stern view, demanding to know from the Delhi government and private school managements how tuition fee could be hiked if the schools were running on subsidised land given by the government. This standoff might have happened in the Capital but the issue will resonate with parents across the country. Come April, fees go up by an estimated 10-40% every year. A recent survey of 31,000 parents by LocalCircles across 300 districts found that 44% reported a 50-80% rise in school fees over the past three years. About 8% reported hikes exceeding 80%, and an overwhelming 93% blamed these arbitrary actions on government inaction. #dps Dwarka Denies Entry To 32 Students | School Puts Bouncers At Gate, Sends Students Back Mridul Saxena, whose children study in a prominent school in Lucknow's Gomtinagar, says salaried folk like him struggle to keep up. 'I work as a consultant in a private company where the maximum salary hike is 6-8% every year. But the fee is being hiked by 10-15% every year. I pay a quarterly fee of around Rs 39,000 for my son who is in Class 4 and around Rs 42,000 for my daughter in Class 8,' he told TOI. Even for a four-year-old, fees can run into lakhs. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A Hyderabad parent pointed out that fees at a prominent Bachupally school had surged by 65% from Rs 2.3 lakh in 2023 to Rs 3.7 lakh in 2024 when his four-year-old went from nursery to lower kindergarten. D for dilemma Power tilts unmistakably toward institutions, while parents are left clutching invoices they don't understand and demands they cannot question. 'Your child is already enrolled. You can't just walk away. And if you speak up, you worry they'll be targeted,' says Anubha Sahai, president of the India-Wide Parents' Association. Those who protest have to face reprisal. Bengaluru-based Sijo Sebastian, whose child's fees increased from Rs 55,000 in 2013 to Rs 1.62 lakh in 2022, alleges that his son was expelled because he protested. 'There are different ways in which schools exploit parents. Some schools print and publish their own textbooks, which is just copy-pasting content with no authors' name, and charge double,' says Sebastian, who is secretary of the advocacy group Voice of Parent. I n Lucknow, parents say they are compelled to pay additional money for coffee table books, merchandise, coding classes and National Education Policy short-term courses, renovation of school buildings, bus/van charges, and mandatory preparation for common university entrance tests. Plus, parents are told to purchase books and uniforms from specific vendors designated by the institutions, who charge more. Mahesh Mishra, national general secretary of non-profit Rashtriya Yuva Chetna Manch, says, 'We are told that if you cannot pay the fees, take admission elsewhere. How can you guarantee that the other school will not do the same thing?' He says fee hikes should be done uniformly across the state. Sahai points out that though some states have fee regulatory committees (FRCs), these are toothless tigers that rarely convene, let alone intervene. What makes it worse, she adds, is the absence of financial transparency. 'Schools don't audit their accounts or share expenditure details. So, when they raise fees, it's arbitrary.' Aparajita Gautam, Delhi Parents' Association president, says of the 1,677 Delhi schools that have 18 lakh students enrolled, 335 have received subsidised land from DDA and should be audited. 'But the audits are never done in a transparent manner. Whatever the political dispensation, there is no change in Delhi schools.' Sample this: a TOI report found that two-thirds of Madhya Pradesh schools have failed to provide information about their fee structures or hikes to the govt for this academic year. Only 10,181 of the total 34,714 schools have disclosed this information despite complaints from parents about unjustified hikes. P for private equity A new model is emerging as private equity (PE) firms make deeper inroads into education. 'What we're witnessing is the slow erosion of a stable schooling experience,' says Avnita Bir, director-principal of RN Podar School, Mumbai. 'When a single owner shepherds a school through a child's academic life, it brings consistency. But when one PE firm sells to another and then to a third — each focused on valuations rather than values — where is the child in that equation?' E for EMI The Consumer Price Index shows that tuition fee in schools/colleges increased by 75% between April 2014-April 2025, while prices for books and journals went up by 58%. Charges for coaching centres and private tutors also went up by 61%. The result is what was once considered a proud investment in a child's future has, for many, begun to feel like an unrelenting debt cycle. Parents sit with calculators and loan applications not to plan vacations or car EMIs, but to chart out school fee payments. With schools nudging parents toward lump-sum, biennial or triennial advances, often padded with rising late fees, a new kind of fix has emerged: finance firms offering EMIs for schooling. Most schools have a formal partnership with a financing firm. One ICSE school in Khar, Mumbai, for example, now offers three EMI options via a fintech tie-up — ranging from zero-interest seven-month plans to twelve-month loans with rates nudging 2.95%. A payment platform company says schools across the city are increasingly onboarding such services. 'Both my daughters went to an international school,' shares one father. 'But after I left my CEO job to launch my own venture, when the hike came, I just couldn't keep up. I had to take out a loan to pay their fees.' A survey by PNB MetLife and Nielsen IQ revealed that parents are spending up to Rs 5.3 lakh a year on their children's education and extracurricular activities and are even willing to make lifestyle adjustments. The research, titled 'Financial Planning in the Era of Rising Education Cost', was conducted in April 2023. 'More than one in three parents misjudge the expense they would incur and end up overshooting their budget by 27%,' says Sameer Bansal, chief distribution officer of the insurance firm. I for inflation About 10-15% annual hike is inevitable due to various cost factors involved, say schools. 'There are 49 items that a school needs to pay for, and all of it under the commercial slab. This includes water, power, property tax services, insurances, taxes on school buses etc. We do not get GST refunds,' points out D Shashi Kumar, secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools of Karnataka. 'Additionally, infrastructure investments are also huge. Starting a skill lab will cost as much as Rs 30-40 lakh. There are fire safety, building safety, and land conversion expenses. Starting a new section costs Rs 75,000 in a CBSE school. While we condemn any hike above 15% by any school, we believe annual hikes are unavoidable,' he says. G for Gujarat Model Some states like Gujarat have instituted effective fee regulatory committees that take quick cognizance of parents' complaints. In the last two years, six private schools in Gujarat have been slapped with fines ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh for charging fees higher than what was fixed by the FRC. In Delhi, the BJP government has announced that it will issue an ordinance on fee regulation that entails establishing of regulatory committees and heavy penalties for non-compliance. West Bengal is planning to introduce one as well. But parents don't think much will change. With additional reporting from Sruthy Ullhas and Mohita Tewari
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Business Standard
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
42% WhatsApp users got job scam messages asking for payment, finds survey
A LocalCircles survey reveals 42% of WhatsApp users in India received fake job offers demanding payment. The report highlights rising impersonation and fraud cases across the messaging platform New Delhi At least 42 per cent of WhatsApp users in India have received fraudulent job offers claiming to provide work-from-home or part-time opportunities, often requiring them to pay an upfront amount, according to a recent survey conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles. The findings highlight the growing menace of WhatsApp-based cyber scams, which are evolving in both scale and sophistication. Among the 22,000 respondents surveyed across 312 districts, nearly half reported exposure to scam messages on WhatsApp. Job scams, where fraudsters lure victims with lucrative employment offers but demand money under various pretexts, were one of the most common tactics. 45 per cent said they received messages claiming they had won a lottery or access to a celebrity show, which required payment of a refundable processing fee. 42 per cent had been sent job offers, often involving fake companies or part-time work, which required them to pay an initial amount. 42 per cent received threatening messages warning of imminent disconnection of services such as electricity or gas unless a bill was paid. 21 per cent reported receiving QR codes or suspicious links claiming to offer monetary rewards or gifts. 12 per cent said they were victims of impersonation, where a fraudster used their image and name to send deceptive messages to their contacts. 12 per cent received WhatsApp OTP scams, where fraudsters tried to gain access to their accounts. 9 per cent were targeted via video calls that were later used for extortion. 6 per cent were sent messages threatening legal action, coercing them to transfer money. 24 per cent reported encountering other types of scams not specifically listed in the survey. Impersonation: A growing threat The survey found that 12 per cent of citizens had personally experienced WhatsApp impersonation, where scammers pretended to be them and messaged their contacts. More alarmingly, 35 per cent of WhatsApp users said that one or more of their contacts had been impersonated for the purpose of extracting money or favours. This trend has serious implications. In many instances, fraudsters download a person's profile photo and name from publicly available WhatsApp accounts and then reach out to people in the victim's contact list with requests for urgent financial help, gift cards, or mobile recharges. Real-world cases illustrate the impact The gravity of the issue is reflected in recent high-profile frauds: A 63-year-old man in Mumbai was defrauded of ₹7.31 crore by cyber criminals posing as stock market experts via WhatsApp, luring him with promises of high returns. In another case, a Kolkata-based dentist was tricked by a scammer impersonating an army officer, who asked for treatment for his father. Instead of making a payment, a malicious link debited the doctor's bank account. Even prominent figures have not been spared. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma recently posted on social media platform X about an attempt to impersonate him via WhatsApp. Cross-border syndicates and evolving tactics The Union Home Ministry has repeatedly warned about the growing threat of organised online economic crimes managed by cross-border syndicates. These include not only impersonation and extortion but also 'digital arrests'—fraudsters posing as police or government authorities who intimidate victims into transferring money. Scammers are increasingly using international WhatsApp numbers to bypass local scrutiny. Many have shifted tactics from email and SMS to WhatsApp, which is now viewed as more personal and trustworthy by users. Calls for systemic action LocalCircles has urged the government and regulatory bodies to take decisive steps to curb this rising wave of cybercrime. Suggested measures include: Tighter SIM verification processes before issuing mobile numbers. Enabling users to flag fraudulent numbers with a single click. Establishing systems for data-sharing among telecom operators. Implementing AI-driven content filtering by WhatsApp to detect and block scam messages. The survey results will be shared with stakeholders including the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY), and the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA). Survey methodology and demographics The survey was conducted via the LocalCircles platform and received over 22,000 validated responses from citizens across 312 districts in India. Of those surveyed:
Hindustan Times
16-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Anupam Mittal books Srinagar flight amid mass cancellations after Pahalgam attack: ‘If we travel...'
As fear grips Kashmir's tourism sector following the deadly April 22 terror attack, Anupam Mittal, founder of has taken a stand. In a symbolic gesture, he posted a photo of his flight tickets to Kashmir with a powerful message. Also read: 800 Gujaratis cancel Turkey trip over Pakistan support: 'We can do this much for our country' 'What Kashmir really needs is tourists to come back so I booked my ticket! If we vanish, they win. If we travel, Kashmir & India win.' His post comes at a time when Kashmir's tourism is reeling under the impact of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed at least 26 lives. The attack, linked to The Resistance Front (TRF), has sparked fear among travellers and triggered a wave of cancellations. A new survey conducted by LocalCircles reveals the extent of this fallout. The findings, based on over 21,000 verified responses from across 361 districts, show that 62% of families who had booked travel or pilgrimages to Kashmir between May and December 2025 have now decided to cancel, reported Mint. Airlines too are seeing the impact. Over 15,000 flight bookings to Srinagar have either been cancelled or rescheduled, according to industry insiders. The drop in confidence is particularly concerning given that Kashmir had recorded over 2.3 crore visitors in 2025, marking a record tourist footfall. Also read: 3.3 lakh Indians visited Turkey in 2024 but now they are turning to Greece, Kazakhstan, Georgia amid boycott calls The LocalCircles survey included responses from both men (63%) and women (37%) across all tiers, from metropolitan cities to rural areas. It also found that only 29% of people still plan to visit Kashmir within the next three years, while 33% said their decision would depend on the government's handling of the security situation. Also read: Internet takes sides as EaseMyTrip founder shreds MakeMyTrip's response to his allegations
News18
02-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
81% Parents With Kids In Private Schools Report Fee Hike Of More Than 10%, Says Survey
Last Updated: In the national capital, hundreds of parents have been staging protests over the last month on the issue The start of the new academic session has brought bad news for thousands of parents in many cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, as many schools have revised their fee structures, resulting in an annual hike of anywhere between 10% and 50%. In the national capital, hundreds of parents have been staging protests over the last month. So far, even intervention by the Directorate of Education (DoE) has not proved a deterrent for many schools, many of which tend to increase the fees under various heads. Last year in April, the Delhi High Court in an interim order allowed schools to hike fees after submitting only a fee statement under Section 17(3) of the Delhi School Education Act and Rules (DSEAR), 1973, thereby limiting the DoE's role in checking for profiteering or capitation fees. A repeat scenario can be seen in many other major cities where the much-in-demand private school education is getting out of reach for many parents, leading to some having to take loans to cope with the additional expenses. Responding to the citizens' demands, the Department of School Education in Karnataka has issued a circular mandating that all schools must issue clear admission notifications displaying details of the reservation policies and fee structures. The schools have been asked to put in place a complaint redressal system, while field education officers have been asked to provide prompt review and resolution of complaints. A recent nationwide study by community social media platform LocalCircles revealed that 44% of parents surveyed say schools have increased fees by 50-80% or more over the last 3 years. For parents of children in high school who feel the need for private tuition in preparation for competitive exams, the combined fees are a backbreaker. In a follow-up survey, LocalCircles strived to find out how much the increase in fees by private schools has been for the current academic year 2025-26. The survey received over 18,000 responses from parents of school-going children located in 301 districts of India. 61% of respondents were men, while 39% were women. 45% of respondents were from tier 1, 28% from tier 2, and 27% of respondents were from tier 3 and 4 districts. The increase in fees varies from school to school and depends also on the class and curriculum (CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE, IB, etc.) the student is studying. The survey asked parents of school-going children, 'How much has the school your children/grandchildren go to increase the total fee in percentage terms for FY 2025-26 as compared to 2024-25?" Out of 18,902 respondents to the question, 22% stated the hike is 'over 30%", 28% stated the hike is '20-30%", 31% indicated the hike is '10-20%", 3% indicated" 5-10%", 3% indicated the 'fee increase has not been announced yet", 5% stated that there has been 'no change in fee during this period", and 8% of respondents did not give a clear answer. To sum up, 81% of parents surveyed who have children going to private schools report increased fees by over 10%. The data shows that in 50% of parents' cases, the jump in school fees has been over 20%. For parents already grappling with a multitude of pressures on their income besides the school and after-school education of their children, the situation is bound to be worrisome. Stay updated with the latest education! Get real-time updates on board exam results 2025, entrance exams such as JEE Mains, Advanced, NEET, and more. Find out top schools, colleges, courses and more. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published: May 02, 2025, 22:16 IST
