-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 The Delhi Government has saved nearly Rs.30,000 crore due to power privatisation and this money has been invested in improving the infrastructure. This has resulted in meeting the peak power demand of up to 6,250 MW and minimal power cuts despite the average annual per capita power consumption in the Capital being 1,450 units, almost twice the national average, Delhi Power Minister Haroon Yusuf said while replying to a...

-The Hindu To address the rights issue and the skewed sex ratio, girl child-friendly policies get an extra thrust in the 12 Plan document, to be approved formally by this month-end The 12 Plan document of the Planning Commission, to be formally approved this month-end, has recommended setting up of a high level inter-ministerial committee on ‘Care and Protection of the Girl Child’ which will constitute the institutional mechanism for mobilising and...

-PTI Calling the prevalence of paid news as "shocking and very disturbing", PCI chairperson Justice Markandey Katju said the information provided by the panel, appointed by him, only shows that self regulation by media was proving to be ineffective. There has been large-scale practice of ‘paid news’ in the Gujarat elections, a fact-finding team of the Press Council of India has claimed. Calling the prevalence of paid news as “shocking and very disturbing”,...

—AP Envoys from nearly 90 nations signed on Friday the first new U.N. telecommunications treaty since the Internet age, but the U.S. and other Western nations refused to join after claiming it endorses greater government control over cyberspace. The head of the U.N. telecoms group pushed back against U.S. assertions, defending the accord as necessary to help expand online services to poorer nations and add more voices to shape the direction of...