Data protection: Can India overcome the spy-security state and big tech to enact a strong law?: The government has set up a committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna, a former judge of the Supreme Court, to “identify key data protection issues” and “recommend methods of addressing them”. This is not the Indian state’s first foray into the…
Internet access, sustainability, and citizen participation: electricity as a prerequisite for democracy?: At its core, sustainability simply refers to the ability to live harmoniously within an environment over time. When applied to modern society, humanity’s long-term survival rests not only on environmental and ecological harmonization, but also on our social and cultural harmonization – the…
Amnesty criticises book ban in Jharkhand: The Jharkhand governments decision to ban a collection of short stories by an Adivasi writer and suspend him from his government job for allegedly hurting peoples sentiments is an attack on freedom of expression, Amnesty International India said on Monday. Read More
India ahead of other democracies in terms of freedom of expression: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said India remains ahead of other democratic countries in terms of freedom of expression and safety and security of minorities. He also said some hostile forces were trying to create an atmosphere of insecurity in the…
Fatwa issued on Facebook against Tripura CM Manik Sarkar: The Tripura police on Friday launched a probe over a fatwa issued against Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Facebook, the authorities said. “After noticing the fatwa post on Thursday, an inquiry has been initiated following the registering of a criminal case at the West Agartala police station,”…
Evolving Internet in India: Most digital natives, or those born with the word cyberspace hardcoded in their brains and lives, would perhaps not realise that compared to India’s 70 years of Independence, the Internet in the country is relatively young at 31. It even celebrates its public birthday on 15 August. Read More
Internet Of Things (IoT) and cyber risks: IoT is the inter-networking of physical objects which enable them to interact with each other through the internet. It describes a world where just about anything can be connected to communicate with each other. According to industry analysts, it is estimated that around 40-50 billion devices will be…
Censoring Tripura CM’s Independence Day speech is a travesty of freedom: As the country marked its 71st Independence Day in the usual pomp that accompanies everything in the Narendra Modi-ruled BJP government, as paeans to freedom and liberty and achievements were sung, bearing little or no resemblance to the sorry ground reality of the country, we…
The problem with the right to privacy: The recently concluded Supreme Court hearings on Aadhaar and privacy pitted a quintessentially American idea of the “right to be left alone” against the long-standing demand of India’s poor for the “right to be acknowledged” by the state—which was the genesis of Aadhaar in the first place. Clearly,…
Privacy a Fundamental Right, But it Cannot be Absolute: BJD MP Jay Panda: BJD MP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, who had introduced a Bill on data privacy and protection in the Parliament, has said that privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution, but it would be impractical to make it absolute and we must…