-The Indian Express Multiple stakeholders in internet governance may be a good idea. But who’s India to talk? Who should run the internet? States and corporations have long struggled over the question. Last October, India proposed a new model of internet governance — a UN Committee for Internet-Related Policies, which shifts control to elected governments, advised by experts, international organisations and civil society, under the UN umbrella. This would invert the current...

-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...

A key finding in the report was that several multinational firms had launched drugs without conducting mandatory clinical trials or seeking expert medical opinion The health ministry has denied the presence of any systemic rot in the drug approval process and pharmaceutical firms have refuted charges of collusion after a report by a parliamentary panel pointed to regulatory lapses in clinical trials. The panel, which looked into the functioning of Central Drugs...

The recent brouhaha following the release of the poverty headcount ratio has triggered heated discussions with regard to their reliability. While it is very clear that the completeness and the consistency of the statistics are not in question, what is being questioned is the possible fudging of the data to reduce the poverty line. The data has not been fudged, as has been brought out very clearly by many authors....

-Down to Earth Biometric-based unique identity or Aadhaar is leading to huge problems for people working for the rural employment guarantee scheme and for others receiving welfare benefits. Not only have enrolments been done shoddily but the experience of the pilot projects shows that it is almost impossible to authenticate the work-hardened fingerprints of the poor, find Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood. Besides, there is the overwhelming issue of deficient online...