Latest news with #RohitKumar
Bloomberg
22-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
SCOTUS Backs Trump's Ouster of Fed Agency Leaders
"Balance of Power: Late Edition" focuses on the intersection of politics and global business. On the show today PWC Washington National Tax Office Principal and Co-Leader Rohit Kumar, New Jewish Narrative President and CEO Hadar Susskind, Former US Senator and member of Coinbase Global Advisory Council Pat Toomey, Hoover Institution American Public Policy Studies, Fellow Lanhee Chen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Former Senior Advisor Caitlin Legacki. (Source: Bloomberg)
Bloomberg
22-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Senate Looks To Make Mark on Tax Bill
Following the House passes a tax bill, PWC Washington National Tax Office Principal and Co-Leader Rohit Kumar gives is take on what the Senate may want to change on the bill. He speaks with Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz on 'Balance of Power.' (Source: Bloomberg)
Indian Express
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Disinformation in the digital age cannot be fought by taking down content
Written by Rohit Kumar and Paavi Kulshreshth India's military strength was on display in the recent conflict with Pakistan, where the Air Force responded with precision and resolve. But even as our forces have returned to base, a parallel battle has continued to rage online: One of narratives, falsehoods, and influence. This front — digital and unrelenting — requires not just speed, but also strategy since conventional tools of control offer little defence against the evolving nature of information warfare. Amid the conflict, reports flagged a surge in disinformation from pro-Pakistan social media handles, including absurd claims such as India attacking its own city of Amritsar. This pointed to a deliberate, coordinated effort to weaponise disinformation on digital platforms. In response, India was quick to hold press conferences, present visual evidence, and have the PIB fact-checking unit debunk false claims, while also issuing an unprecedented number of account blocking orders. All of this put together, however, was not enough to prevent falsehoods from gaining traction. Disinformation is not a new phenomenon. It has long been used as a tool in warfare and diplomacy. What's changed is the scale, speed, and precision with which it now spreads through digital platforms, transforming old tactics into persistent and formidable threats. Around the world, policymakers have struggled to keep pace. In India, one of the recurring proposals has been to weaken safe harbour protections for online platforms. But this is a misdiagnosis of the problem, and a potentially counterproductive one. Today's disinformation is not just about individual false posts. It is about coordinated influence operations that use platform features to shape public perception at scale. Blocking a few posts or suspending some accounts is unlikely to stop narratives from being replicated and recirculated across the digital ecosystem. Nor does it disrupt the underlying dynamics — like trending algorithms or recommendation engines — that give such content disproportionate visibility. In this context, calls to dilute safe harbour reflect a fundamental misunderstanding. Safe harbour, as it currently operates, holds platforms liable only if they have actual knowledge of illegal material and choose to keep it up. This framework exists because requiring platforms to pre-screen every post is not just technically infeasible given the sheer volume, but would also lead to over-censorship and weakening of the digital public sphere. Crucially, much of the disinformation we see during geopolitical conflicts is not technically illegal. For instance, when a Chinese daily reportedly shared false information on X amid the India-Pak conflict, X's legal obligation wasn't clear, as the content wasn't technically illegal. This would remain unchanged even if safe harbour is weakened. Blunt instruments like safe harbour dilution are therefore unlikely to be effective against systemic challenges such as disinformation. To effectively counter disinformation, we must shift from reactive content moderation to a systems-level approach rooted in platform accountability and design resilience. This means recognising that disinformation thrives not only because of bad actors, but because of how platforms are built. Regulatory and platform responses must therefore focus on preventing exploitation of platform features, rather than merely responding to viral falsehoods. A key step toward prevention is mandating periodic risk assessments for platforms that host user-generated content and interactions. These assessments should identify which design features, such as algorithmic amplification or low-friction, high-reach sharing, contribute to the spread of disinformation. Platforms should then be required to arrive at solutions and strengthen internal systems to slow the speed and breadth of the spread of disinformation. This approach matters because platform architecture directly influences how disinformation spreads. Bad actors exploit different services in different ways: Gaming open feed algorithms to promote manipulative content on one platform, while leveraging mass forwards and group messaging on another. Risk assessments must capture these distinctions to inform tailored, service-specific mitigation strategies. On public platforms, safety-by-design measures can include fact-checking nudges, community notes, and content labelling (especially for AI-generated content). In encrypted messaging environments, where direct moderation is not possible, design interventions such as limiting group sizes, restricting one-click forwards, or introducing forwarding delays can reduce virality without compromising user privacy. Equally important is the ability to detect and attribute coordinated disinformation activity, like campaigns orchestrated by networks of actors often disguised as ordinary users. Addressing this requires both platforms and regulators to invest in tools and intelligence capabilities that go beyond flagging individual posts. Network analysis and behaviour-based detection systems can help identify the source and structure of such campaigns, rather than focusing only on visible front actors. When platforms fail to act despite foreseeable risks, remedies should target specific penalties, calibrated to the severity and impact of the violation. This approach targets platform responsibility for system design and risk management, not for individual pieces of user content, and thus remains separate from content-level liability under safe harbour. While disinformation is especially dangerous during sensitive geopolitical moments, it festers even in peacetime, distorting everything from health to gender politics. The rapid evolution of technology, especially the rise of AI-generated content, is further blurring the line between fact and fiction. Regulation must start with a clear-eyed understanding of these dynamics. If we misdiagnose the problem, we'll keep fighting the wrong battle. Kumar is the founding partner, and Kulshresth a senior analyst at the public policy firm The Quantum Hub (TQH)
Boston Globe
05-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
These 6 Republican ‘red lines' could complicate Trump's policy plans
Advertisement 'Some of these are clearly in conflict,' said Rohit Kumar, the coleader of PricewaterhouseCoopers' national tax office and a former aide to Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Avoiding Medicaid cuts, for instance, would make it almost impossible to slash spending enough to return to 2019 levels, he said: 'It's hard to imagine how those happen in the same bill.' Other Republicans are more sanguine. 'It's called legislating - or sausage-making,' said Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and senior member of the Finance Committee, which is playing a central role in drafting the bill. 'It's hard. I'm not surprised it's hard because there's so many competing demands.' Medicaid House Republicans have asked the Energy and Commerce Committee to find at least $880 billion in cuts as part of the bill, which the Congressional Budget Office said will be impossible without cutting Medicaid, Medicare, or the Children's Health Insurance Program. Trump and Johnson have pledged not to end benefits. Advertisement Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, voted against a budget framework last month because of concerns that it would clear the way for Medicaid cuts. Senators Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, and Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, have said they are open to adding work requirements to Medicaid but will not vote to cut Medicaid benefits. A dozen House Republicans warned Johnson in a letter last month that they 'cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.' 'There's about 25 people that have real concerns, but I know there's eight to 10 that are serious as a heart attack about this,' said Representative Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, who signed the letter. Van Drew warned Thursday that cutting Medicaid could lead Republicans to lose the House. 'If we're not careful, we're going to ensure we lose the midterms,' he told reporters. The state and local tax deduction cap To help pay for their 2017 tax bill, Republicans limited how much Americans could deduct in state and local taxes on their federal returns. Now five House Republicans who represent suburban districts in high-tax states - Representatives Nick LaLota, Andrew R. Garbarino f, Michael Lawler, Young Kim, and Tom Kean Jr. - say they will not vote for legislation to extend the 2017 tax cuts unless the $10,000 cap is lifted. 'The levels for each of the five of us are a little bit different on what solves the day for as many middle-class families as possible, but we're going to stick together to get as much progress as possible,' LaLota told reporters. Advertisement But members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus do not want to raise the cap unless the 'math adds up,' Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican,said. Taxes and fees The House Transportation Committee has proposed a new $250 electric vehicle registration fee and a $100 registration fee for hybrid vehicles to help pay for the bill. That's a dealbreaker for Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, who said he won't vote for legislation that includes any fee increases. 'I'm not voting for tax increases,' Scott told reporters, 'I'm not voting for fee increases. Period.' A return to 2019 spending levels Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said last week he would not vote for the bill unless it reduces spending to 2019 levels - which he acknowledged was unlikely to happen. 'There's a growing group of us that are insisting on returning to a prepandemic level of spending, which is much lower than what anybody is working on in either the House or the Senate,' Johnson said. Republicans just aren't considering deep enough spending cuts right now, he said: 'As a result, I'm not going to vote for it.' The debt limit Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, voted against the framework underlying the bill because he objected to Republicans' plan to use the bill to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion. Asked last week whether including such an increase in the bill would lead him to oppose it, Paul said, 'I'm not for raising the debt ceiling $5 trillion, so I'm not for it.' Advertisement The deficit Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, who also voted against the budget framework last month, said he has a different red line: He can't vote for a bill that increases the deficit. In theory, the Republican bill could meet Massie's test if he accepted the argument - which Senate Republicans have embraced - that it costs nothing to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. But Massie appears to be taking the view that making the cuts permanent isn't free. 'I'm looking at what is the debt 10 years from now compared to what is it now,' Massie said. The Center for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated that making the cuts permanent will add more than $4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years, including interest. 'There's actually almost no chance in hell I'm going to vote for this, because there's no chance in hell they're going to be fiscally responsible,' Massie said. Representative Jason T. Smith, a Missouri Republican, who's deeply involved in writing the bill as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged Sunday that House Republicans were still struggling to reach agreement on the details of the legislation. 'Will it be bumpy, Shannon?' Smith told Fox News's Shannon Bream. 'It absolutely is. This is the House of Representatives. But will we get the job done? We absolutely will.'
Hindustan Times
04-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Ludhiana: Police launch crackdown, three held after drug test
In a bold move to tighten the noose around drug abuse, Khanna police have launched an aggressive crackdown on addicts, as part of the state-wide campaign 'Yudh Nashian Virudh' (war against drugs). Armed with community support and sharp local intelligence, officers are now tracking down suspected addicts, conducting dope tests, and registering cases when results turn positive. On Saturday alone, three FIRs were filed against people who tested positive for drugs. Police said they are getting a lot of help from the public, especially through the Safe Punjab Helpline, which makes it easier to find and catch addicts. In one case, Rohit Kumar, a resident of Peerkhana Road in Khanna, was taken by City-2 Police station for a dope test at Khanna civil hospital. The test showed he had taken morphine and benzodiazepine, and he was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. In two other cases, Doraha police arrested three men, including Yugraj Singh of Sundar Nagar, and Rajinder Singh alias Vicky, along with Sukhjinder Singh of Begowal. Local people saw Vicky and Sukhjinder acting suspiciously and possibly under the influence of drugs near a grocery shop. They called the Safe Punjab Helpline, and police quickly reached the spot, took the men for tests, and arrested them after they tested positive. Inspector Akash Dutt, station house officer (SHO) of Doraha police station, said local support has been very helpful. 'People are alert and sharing information with us quickly,' he said. SP Investigation Pawanjit said, 'This is part of a larger campaign to fight drugs in Punjab. We're using all our resources and getting great help from citizens. Addicts who want help are being sent to de-addiction centres, while others are sent to jail after court orders.' This drive follows a similar campaign already happening in Ludhiana, where police are also arresting addicts found taking drugs in public places.
