-The Hindu Unnerved by the Indian stand, IT monopolies are propagating the myth that a multilateral governance structure will kill the decentralised, multi-stakeholder nature of the Internet and lead to ‘government control' Last year, in a statement to the U.N. General Assembly, India sought the creation of a U.N. Committee on Internet-Related Policies (CIRP) in order to democratise global Internet governance, which at present is either U.S.-controlled, or subject to the policies...

Empower school principals to truly deliver education to India The Right to Education (RTE) law, and the subsequent Supreme Court judgment, has focused attention on the future of school education in India. The judgment on the provision that requires private schools to offer 25 per cent of their seats to economically weaker sections opens new opportunities for the poor, and that is welcome. But in our fiercely hierarchical society, class-conscious...

Even as the government races against time to procure enough jute bags to store grains in the face of record procurement , gunnysack traders are saddled with massive unsold stocks. A look at the godowns of some traders in the national capital alone shows there is no shortage of jute bags in the country. While the central government has placed an order for four lakh jute bags to be imported from...

The Andhra Pradesh biodiversity board wants to claim royalty for the Brahma or Brahman bull, a species taken from Ongole and bred widely in Brazil, the United States and Australia for over 100 years. The bull, scientifically known as Bos indicus, is in great demand as it is known to be resistant to foot and mouth disease and for its flavourful meat. Biodiversity board chairman R. Hampaiah, back recently from a...

At last, the real anxieties lurking behind what has come to be called the “Ambedkar cartoon” controversy are out in the open. It is hideously clear by now that MPs “uniting across parties” are acting as one only to protect themselves from public scrutiny, debate and criticism. It turns out, as some of us suspected all along, that the “sentiments” that have been “hurt” this time are the easily bruised...