-The Hindu   Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, has set off a firestorm of protest by demanding that ‘internet intermediaries' — specifically in this round, four social networking giants, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Microsoft, which enable hundreds of millions of individual users to publish and share on the worldwide web — remove inflammatory content as well as other text and images that might “offend Indian sensibilities.” As in...

A child is God's gift and none must try to know its sex in advance, said the Bombay high court on Thursday while upholding a civic circular which disallows portable ultrasonography machines to be taken to patients homes. The court's observation assumes significance in the light of recent media reports on female foeticide. A division bench of Justices PB Majmudar and Mridula Bhatkar were hearing a petition filed by the Radiology...

-The Hindu   Signalling an end to the practice in rural Maharashtra of naming a girl child Nakusha (unwanted), especially if the family was expecting the birth of a boy, the authorities will “rename” 266 such girls as Aishwarya (wealth) on Saturday. “The Government has identified 266 girls named Nakusha in Satara district and organised a renaming ceremony tomorrow [On Saturday],” Satara District Collector N. Ramaswami told PTI over telephone. The function has been...

AIDWA wants Planning Commission proposal immediately withdrawn The Planning Commission's proposal for relaxing the ban on Sex Determination tests has evoked sharp reactions, both for and against. The proposal envisages relaxing the rules for Sex Determination in foetus but giving incentives to stakeholders and mothers, if it is a girl child, to ensure safe delivery. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Shantha Sinha says the government should ensure the...

As sex ratio worsens, Plan panel makes taboo proposal As the first line of defence against female foeticide, Sex Determination tests on pregnant women have been illegal in India for years. But in what could end up as a major policy shift, the Planning Commission is proposing relaxing the ban for rural areas as part of a programme of “adopting” female foetuses and generously incentivising families and health workers to ensure the...