He says his characters sometimes surprise him, exert influence, like the created binding the creator. Unassuming and gentle Amitav Ghosh on Thursday spoke about how history fascinated him, how relating everything to Vedas could distort their original spirit and how the state was incapable of ensuring freedom of expression. The prolific author was in the…
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns “FOLLOW-UP OF RECOMMENDATIONS: INDIA” The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN (CSCHR) presents a summary of the salient features of the follow-up report of the Special Rapporteur (SR) on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, which…
YouTube announced plans on Thursday for a “newswire” of eyewitness videos and a separate project on videos related to social justice and human rights. In partnership with the social news group Storyful, the YouTube Newswire will be “a curated feed of the most newsworthy eyewitness videos of the day, which have been verified by Storyful’s…
In Plato’s Republic, the Greek philosopher writes of the Ring of Gyges, a magical ring that renders the wearer invisible and thus allows him to perform any action without being discovered. In such a situation, asks Plato, why would the wearer still act morally? Conclusion: morality is only a social construct that evaporates once there…
D’Ocracy D.E.M., beloved husband of T.Ruth, loving father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope, Justice, expired on June 26”, read an obituary in The Times of India’s Bombay edition. It was late (very late) June, 1975. A few nights before, late on 25 June, a few minutes before midnight, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed imposed a…
Union Minister for Information and Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday said rural post offices across the country will also function as common service centres (CSCs) providing e-services. He said this while asserting that the postal department had a crucial role to play in bringing in digital revolution in the country. “Our vision…
There are presently 12 eHealth pilot projects running in Sri Lanka, according to Prof. Vajira Dissanayake, President of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (read his column on one such programme, the eIMMR initiative, adjoining this article). Following these successful pilot programmes, many of these eHealth initiatives could go on to change the face…
Following the ugly incidences whereby ex-partners vengefully post porn videos or other sexually explicit images of their partners online, Google is rising up to the occasion by considering blocking such content from appearing in search results. Google will not only prevent such images and videos from showing up on search results, but victims of revenge…
Thank you very much Mr. President, Excellencies, ladies and gentleman. Thank you for this first opportunity to address the Human Rights Council. Last summer, during your 26th session, the Council entrusted me with the mandate to promote and protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression, for which I’d like to express my gratitude…
The social web has been abuzz with indignant people responding to two sexist statements made by people in power, against the perceived role of women in our societies. Tim Hunt, the celebrated Nobel prize winner, in a speech he gave in Seoul, suggested that female scientists in the lab are a distraction because they either…