-The Hindu The World Conference on International Telecommunication showed that countries are not yet ready to arrive at a consensus on regulation and control of the Internet The World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) that concluded on December 14 saw much heated debate. Some countries wanted to use the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to gain intergovernmental control of the World Wide Web. Some saw it as an opportunity to democratise the Internet,...

-The Hindu TV commercial on GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine against Rota virus makes unsubstantiated claims, says ASCI At a time when the commercial interests of major private hospitals or pharma giants often take precedence over the health concerns of the common man, a New Delhi doctor has managed to get the Advertising Standards Council of India to stall a television commercial, aired by GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, hailing the benefits of its vaccine against Rota virus. The...

-The Indian Express The Union Cabinet has reversed its July 2006 decision to limit the disclosure of file notings to certain issues and to exclude certain departments under the RTI Act. While the Cabinet decision is welcome, a major hurdle in the path of transparency in governance is yet to be addressed as file notings of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), which clears appointments to more than 2,500 key posts...

-The Business Standard A consortium of some farmers organisation from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have urged the government to remove all hindrances in the path of technological advancement of Indian farming and let the farmers make their own choice of choosing high-yielding seeds like genetically modified (GM) ones. The farmers leaders who have been camping in Delhi for the last few days met Parliamentarians and government officials to...

-The Hindu The technical glitches that plague cash transfers in Jharkhand may not have arisen with a simpler system that does not need Internet connectivity Pilot cash transfer projects taken up in Jharkhand for MGNREGA wages have achieved little success due to a variety of logistical, human and technological problems. A year after the launch of these projects, the problems remain unsolved. In Ramgarh district, a majority of the beneficiaries are in Dohakatu...