-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With the Congress and the BJP hammering away at each other in the ongoing assembly contests that will set the stage for national polls next year, the Election Commission of India wants to make sure that social media and online platforms run by Google, Facebook and Twitter won't be used to breach the code of conduct that governs candidates and political parties. The commission's key...
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Surveillance and its privacy pitfalls-Suhrith Parthasarathy
-The Hindu The Gujarat snooping incident should be used as an opportunity to ask how the government has assumed the power to order such invasive, unchecked surveillance. On November 15, a pair of investigative portals released a set of audio transcripts depicting an extraordinarily invasive and scrupulous surveillance of a young woman by the Gujarat Police. Its implications, limited as they may appear to those who consider privacy a besmirched value, in...
More »Beneficiaries selling Samajwadi Party laptops for Rs 4,000 -Shailvee Sharda
-The Times of India LUCKNOW: A number of 'Akhilesh Yadav Laptops' distributed free of cost to Intermediate-pass students by the Samajwadi Party government with much fanfare are up for grabs at throwaway price in open market and online. Several advertisements posted on the buy-and-sell websites are offering these laptops at a meagre Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000. The ads have been posted by some recipients in Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow and Varanasi and...
More »Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength
India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that...
More »EC lays down guidelines to regulate campaigning on social media -Bharti Jain
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Political parties and candidates will now have to account for every penny spent on the use of social media for their poll campaigns. The Election Commission on Friday issued detailed guidelines to regulate internet campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc, asking candidates to declare their social media accounts and all political parties to pre-certify advertisements before they are posted on social media websites. The instructions also require...
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