-The Economic Times There is no need to get scared about losing internet freedom, at least till January 2015. That's the view of top telecom policy watchers, who closely monitored the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that ended in uncertainty earlier this month in Dubai. Policy experts say the changes affecting internet users in India, if any, would be slow and minor with little or...

-The United Nations The credibility of the Internet depends on how much civil society – the broad label given to worldwide activism outside government – is able to take part in its evolution, a United Nations independent expert said today. “Civil society participation is essential to ensure legitimacy of global discussions on the future of (the) Internet,” the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue,...

-The Hindu Unperturbed by protests against its proposed nuclear power plant in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, the French civil nuclear energy major Areva is now in the closing stages of striking an “early works agreement” with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. This agreement, which is actually a series of studies to ensure that the reactor is in conformity with local conditions, is likely to take nine months. “Areva’s discussions with NPCIL are on....

-The Hindu The credibility that Narendra Modi has acquired among many Hindu voters over the years is for what his government oversaw in 2002; not for engineering a spectacular model of economic development There is little doubt that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be back in power in Gujarat in the next fortnight. A vote in favour of the Congress, the only longstanding rival to the BJP in the State, would...

-PTI Criticising the land acquisition bill cleared by the Cabinet, social activist Medha Patkar today said it has left many basic issues of conflict over forcible land acquisition unresolved. "It is also against the Parliamentary democracy that a unanimous report of the Standing Committee is not given due importance before finalising the draft and approving by the cabinet," she said in a release. "We would also like to point out that whole process...