In deciding to unleash the criminal defamation law on its critics, the Arvind Kejriwal government appears to have tripped on the law that permits criticism of public officials in good faith. In a controversial circular issued last week, the Delhi government gave officials a free hand to approach the home department for penal action against…
You don’t have to wait through long, daunting queues to pay power and phone bills thanks to govt’s e-governance initiatives. Nearly every service is a click away. But who monitors its usage and effectiveness? E-taal, an online forum, does that. ET culls out interesting figures from it to give you a snapshot of the service…
Electronic filing of tax returns has become compulsory for all corporate assessees and for all individual assessees earning more than Rs. 5 lakhs in a year. Today, a significant proportion of the tax assessees in India have come under the ambit of electronic filing of tax returns. Electronic filing is a win-win situation for tax…
PayPal blocked an account set up by Russian activists seeking to collect funds for the publication of a report on Russia’s involvement in eastern Ukraine. The US online payment company explained that it didn’t “provide the option of using its system to receive donations to political parties or causes in Russia”. It’s just the latest…
The Digital India plan is a flagship programme Narendra Modi unveiled to use technology to shore up governance, improve connectivity, education, health, delivery of public services and create jobs. The ambitious pro Another key component of the programme is the plan to reduce the import bill of electronic items, which is expected to surpass the…
There is a need to bridge the urban-rural digital divide and rich-poor digital divide to derive the real benefits of the advanced communication systems, Additional GM BSNL Telecom District G Adam has said. Speaking at the Institution of Engineers, Visakhapatnam Local Centre, on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day on Sunday, he…
The FCC on Friday denied a request from a group of U.S. cable companies and telecoms to delay implementation of parts of the agency’s new net neutrality rules. The organizations—which represent small and major telecom providers as well as wireless carriers—argued in a May 1 filing that they are not opposed to the basic tenets…
The US court of appeals has ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata is unlawful, in a landmark decision that clears the way for a full legal challenge against the National Security Agency. A panel of three federal judges for the second circuit overturned an earlier ruling that the controversial surveillance practice first revealed…
It is not like Nikhil Pahwa, 34, was born to fight for the principle of Net neutrality. A principle which in its simplest form suggests that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favouring or blocking websites. Pahwa was born to write about it. Read…
Proposals regarding Internet governance are bound to generate serious friction. The online world, after all, has provided enormous opportunities to billions of denizens, largely because it has never been governed. And yet, as the Internet grows in importance, so do the risks inherent in the lack of regulation. There is a growing danger that the…