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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Educated Muslims being hounded: Owaisi

Mumbai: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has flayed what he termed as a ‘media trial’ in the alleged TCS Nashik conversion case and claimed that educated Muslims youth are being deliberately targeted as part of planned ‘hate campaign’, here on Saturday. Reiterating full faith in the judicial process, Owaisi said that justice cannot be handed out through media narratives or television debates and the law must be allowed to take its own course. “We are seeing a very dangerous trend… Now,...

Educated Muslims being hounded: Owaisi

Mumbai: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has flayed what he termed as a ‘media trial’ in the alleged TCS Nashik conversion case and claimed that educated Muslims youth are being deliberately targeted as part of planned ‘hate campaign’, here on Saturday. Reiterating full faith in the judicial process, Owaisi said that justice cannot be handed out through media narratives or television debates and the law must be allowed to take its own course. “We are seeing a very dangerous trend… Now, educated Muslims are being picked out for orchestrated allegations and media campaigns. This doesn’t augur well for society and justice itself with the media playing the role of the judge and jury,” said Owaisi sharply. Flanked by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen state President Imtiaz Jaleel, Owaisi also emphatically said that it was wrong to link his party with the TCS case prime accused Nida Khan, “who will be ultimately proven innocent in the courts”. He expressed concerns over the slur campaign driven by malice and political motives against his party as well as Nida Khan in some sections of the media even before the investigations were completed or a judicial scrutiny. “Merely because some allegations have been hurled at a young woman professional, attempts are being made to paint her ‘guilty’ through media trials, even before judicial scrutiny. But, we have complete faith in the judiciary and are confident that the court will eventually exonerate her,” asserted Owaisi. Public Discourse Raising questions on the probe and accompanying public discourse with stress on the alleged recovery of certain ‘evidence’ from Nida Khan’s home, he sharply questioned: “Since when have a burqa, a niqab or religious literature become objectionable… Is wearing a hijab now regarded as evidence of a crime?” He said that these details along with baseless allegations are sensationalism in the media to create further prejudice against the minority community and reflected a deep-rooted hostility aimed at harassing educated Muslim men and women. Owaisi pointed out that a complaint in the TCS Nashik case was filed by a leader linked with the ruling party, and as per the software giant’s statement, Nida Khan was not with its HR Department and transferred even before the controversy erupted, contradicting several media reports. Of the nine cases lodged in the matter till date, in one case, she was accused of hurting religious sentiments, but nobody can comment on it before the court pronounces its verdict, he pointed out. Court Fight Dismissing attempts to drag and link the AIMIM into the row, he referred to a party Municipal Corporator Matin Patel who was booked merely on the basis of certain allegations and vowed to contest the matter in the court. Here Owaisi cited multiple examples of educated Muslims being scrutinised – including in Delhi when some educated youths were arrested for possessing a book by the legendary Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib and they were later released. There was another one from Allahabad where some Muslim boys were targeted for writing an Urdu ‘sher’ (couplet) prompting judicial intervention, and predicted that even in the Nashik TCS case, the truth will ultimately prevail as no criminal charges against Nida Khan may stand. AIMIM to set up voter help-desks AIMIM President and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi said his party is developing a digital application containing electoral records of all 288 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra for 2002-2024, to help voters in the SIR process. For this, the AIMIM will set up help desk centers in its strongholds to facilitate the process and ensure proper utilisation of voter data. Alleging discrepancies in electoral records, he said such errors create huge problems for the voters, especially the poor or illiterates. Owaisi mentioned how of the nearly 27 lakh names placed in the adjudication list in West Bengal, “90 pc were poor Muslims.” These centers would be open for all Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Dalits, Adivasis and the general public needing assistance with the electoral records.

A Journey into Digital Compounding

Compounding is usually explained with money. Invest early, stay patient, and time does the rest. What is less discussed, but equally powerful, is how digital adoption compounds. Each new user, each new platform, each small behavioural shift quietly adds momentum. Over time, this momentum reshapes economies, lifestyles and investment landscapes. India today stands at the centre of this digital compounding story.  India today stands at the centre of this digital compounding story, fuelled by a massive base of over 900 million internet users.


At its simplest, digital compounding works like interest on interest. When a village gets internet access, it does not just connect one household. It creates demand for smartphones, digital payments, online education, telemedicine and logistics. Each layer feeds the next. What begins as connectivity slowly becomes productivity, and productivity turns into economic value. This is evident in the fact that India’s digital economy is growing more than twice the overall economy, promising to contribute 20pc of the GDP by 2026.


India’s digital journey offers a clear example. Two decades ago, the internet was largely urban, slow and expensive. Today, affordable smartphones and low-cost data have made India one of the world’s largest digital markets. The impact is visible in everyday life. A vegetable vendor accepting UPI payments, a farmer checking mandi prices on a phone, a retiree booking a train ticket without standing in line... These are small actions, but when repeated by hundreds of millions, they compound. As of July 2025, UPI processed over 19 billion transactions, a staggering leap from just a few million a few years ago.


The economic impact is significant. Digital platforms reduce friction. Payments that once took days now take seconds. Documentation that once needed physical presence is now digital via systems like DigiLocker, which hosts over 6 billion authentic documents. Businesses scale faster because customer acquisition costs fall and distribution becomes seamless. A small seller on an e-commerce platform can reach customers across states without opening a single shop. This efficiency raises productivity and expands the formal economy, bringing more transactions into measurable, taxable channels.


Compared with developed economies, India’s digital compounding has a different flavour. In the United States or Europe, digitalisation largely replaced existing systems. Credit cards replaced cash, online banking replaced branch visits. In India, digital tools often leapfrogged stages. Many first-time users moved directly from cash to UPI, from physical queues to apps. This hop accelerates compounding because adoption is faster and resistance is lower.  While it took decades for the US to reach high digital payment penetration, India achieved massive scale in less than seven years.


Generational contrasts make the story more vivid. Older generations remember life measured in files, forms and face-to-face visits. Trust was personal, time-consuming and local. For younger Indians, trust is increasingly digital. A QR code, an OTP, a rating, a verified profile.


For them, waiting feels inefficient, and digital convenience feels natural. Yet the transition is not a clash but a relay. Parents learn payments from children, while children inherit financial caution from parents.


Lifestyle changes mirror this shift. Entertainment moved from scheduled television to on-demand streaming, with India boasting over 600 million OTT users. Education moved from classrooms alone to blended learning. Healthcare moved from hospital-centric care to consultations over screens. These shifts save time, lower costs and expand access. The real compounding lies in how saved time gets reinvested. A commuter who saves an hour daily through digital services can use it to learn, earn or rest.


From an investment perspective, digital compounding deserves long-term attention. Digital businesses often show network effects. Costs grow slowly, while reach expands rapidly. This creates scalable models with durable advantages. In India, this spans fintech, digital infrastructure, e-commerce logistics, cloud services and data-driven platforms. Unlike traditional industries, growth here is not linear. It accelerates as adoption deepens.


Roads and railways compound economic activity by connecting people and markets. Digital infrastructure does the same, but faster and cheaper. Once built, it supports countless services without needing fresh physical expansion. This makes digital investments resemble planting an orchard rather than harvesting a single crop. Returns arrive over seasons, not overnight.


However, digital compounding is not without challenges. Cybersecurity risks, data privacy concerns, digital addiction and uneven access need constant attention. Developed economies face similar issues, but India’s scale magnifies both opportunity and risk. Regulation, digital literacy and ethical use will determine how healthy this compounding remains.


(The writer is a retired banker and author of ‘Money Does Matter.’)

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