This is a common practice in this part of the world. A temporary blockage of social media for 1-2 days, usually restricted to just a district or a city is common in India.

It is employed when the law enforcing agencies are caught unaware about some sudden flashpoint that triggers street violence. This blockage stops spreading of violence to larger area and give time to enforcement agencies to mobilize their resources

It is not to be confused with censorship or blanket ban of internet / social media forever. Over all it has a positive impact in preventing larger scale destruction of life and properties for cost of inconvenience of few days.

I am from Mumbai, India. I have been on Slashdot since 1999, and never faced any blocking.

The internet censorship in India is more about porn than political views.

It is not contempt.

Basically Indians want to be left alone and focus on solving their own problems. This is their trait since pre-historic times. But the northwestern border of India does not have any natural boundaries to prevent invaders. Earlier it were Greeks, Mongol, Turks, Moghuls now they are Islamic terrorist from Pakistan and beyond.

If they stop bothering India, Indians would cease maintaining big military and focus more resources in poverty alleviation.

It is not contempt, but self-defence to maintain a particular way of life. We genuinely believe in live and let live.

Seems most probable cause.

I don't know the technical details of BART systems sitting in India. Is it supplied by 60 Hz AC and the rectifiers are installed on the cars that run on DC motors? Usually these power electronics devices build in 1980s are robust enough. We have gained experience now and toughened the circuit in modern drives, but I doubt it be the case in 80s. Any adverse interaction with filters or may be some kind of ferroresonance can cause high voltage and damage such equipment.

Throw some power quality analyzers on various sections of the track and watch the system's transient voltage response with power sources in various configurations.

This is the best way to investigate such problems. I am sure the real experts are doing already doing it. There is nothing mysterious or sensational like hacking going on here. Just plain overvoltage problem causing weak old power-electronics to fail.

My Indian friends tell me it's not the general population of India that is corrupt. It's their government.

It is government and few elite that are corrupt. But in India few means a lot, they control whole government machinery from top to bottom.

With UID, targeted subsidy will reach really needy people directly eliminating many source of leakages. Things could have continued as it is, but this is an instance of government acting under pressure and responding to public aspirations for better future for their lot. UID is causing resentment among few elites who see their easy money being stopped.

Where else can you find gang raping done by police departments?

Everywhere, where there is no accountability and no fear of punishment. But things are changing. Such people do get punished by the same government that you think is corrupt. India is after all a democracy, and government has to be responsive to public sentiments. So rapes by police never get unpunished.

What if they trace my IP, raid my home, arrest me and throw away the key?

What has this to do with UID?. This pure paranoia. If they really wanted to do it, they can do it without this database. You know, even if you are anonymous coward, your IP can still be traced.

It is not question of trust in government. It is voluntary, if you don't trust government, don't get your fingerprints scanned and don't get UID. No body is forcing you to get government subsidy.

Remaining blind to some technology is not going to solve poverty. Using it for betterment of poorest of poor, by eliminating leakages might.

It is not in interest of national security, rather in interest of preventing leakages in government subsidies. The program is voluntary, if you don't want subsidy don't enrol yourself, as simple as that.

Second part is that the program is running since 2009 without any legal backing or any government legislation. Present government is try to regulate the database and limit the usage of the collected data to just its intended purpose.

In spite of all safeguards, just like any other database this may also be breached but now there is a punishment in unlawful usage, which was missing till today even though data was already collected since 2009. And, really government cannot use this database for any of nefarious purpose as it just links names with fingerprints and Iris data, without any record of your caste, religion, mother tongue or even citizenship status.

I can't make out are being funny here

Are you serious! Do you even know what you are talking about?

Yes. It is celebrated by one sixth population of the world . It is based on Hindu calender. Look it up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_Calender. Very interesting way of tracking time.

Although the celebration is not very pronounced as the 1st January.

It is not like farmers predictions. The progress we have been making is quite impressive, as there are 800 know exoplanets by now, and more are getting discovered.

Scientific discoveries come in batches. There is nothing for a long time, then suddenly the lull ends and a breakthrough is achieved. Lot of similar discoveries occur simultaneously. This prediction is from people who know their stuff. Even though they may not come true this year it is still good prediction.

That would be equivalent to euthanasia for companies. But there are real reason why it is not universally accepted. For all companies that have died there are enough examples that have struggeld and come out stronger. Nokia and Apple comes to mind immediatly. They diversified and successed beyond immagination.

The message is: don't quit too easily.

Read everything written above and Just-eF'ing-Do-It.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsTY7WDW-X8/

Form here, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/exodus-of-north-easterners-from-bangalore-shows-signs-of-subsiding/989967//, so may be the ban has had some effect.

You already seem to have a grasp of the situation here in India.

People of northeast of India have a mongoloid features, which marks them as different from rest of Indians that have aryan features.

There is some ethenic violence going on in Assam, a state in notheast of India, between Bodo (ethenic Assames people with mongoloid features) and Muslims. So other Norhteastern people living in rest of India are therened by Muslims.

Most of these people are students and migran labours. Their parents got worried about their safety and called them back. Mass hysteria got generated when evey norhteastern person just started exodus from rest of India back to their hometown.

The ban on bulk SMS is for 15 days at the most. This is not censorship, but an effort to avoid mass hysteria.

Those of you who know India will understand what I mean. Even before the era of mobile phones it was somhow easy to spread roumours and generate hysteria in India. For example read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_milk_miracle/ for one hysteria of 1995 regarding idols that drink milk, or 2006 where sea water turned sweet.

These efforts are to help crub the new hysteria. But I am doubtful about its effectiveness.