After the outbreak of COVID-19 in China during early January this year and its dissemination globally within a few days, health experts have suggested ways to check its spread exponentially among the rest of the population. In the age of internet connectivity, work-from-home and self-isolation have been advised as solutions to ensure social distancing and avoid large-scale social gatherings. Experts have asked governments and private enterprises to keep people at...

  A recent report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) brings forth the dichotomy between digital divide and India’s transition towards a cashless economy. The rural-urban divide in access to computer and internet is quite stark, according to the report entitled 'Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India, July 2017 to June 2018'.   The 75th round National Sample Survey (NSS) report on education finds that...

-Newslaundry.com But it also wants to abolish Registrar of Newspapers of India. Confused? Read on. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has put out a notice inviting public comments for a shiny new Bill they are planning to introduce real soon. It’s called the “Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, 2019” and it is going to bring about some major changes for the news industry. This new law will essentially replace the archaic  Press...

-Newsclick.in NSSO, Livestock Census, NCRB, even Census data, are slowly getting strangled by delays but more so by wilful omissions of parts. In the past five and a half years, several key data releases have been excised, mangled, delayed or even suppressed. Since these are all generated, collated and processed by dedicated departments of the central government, it is not a leap of imagination that there is some deliberate intent behind this. Stray...

-TheWire.in A new study from LSE, funded by a grant from WhatsApp, shines a spotlight on Hindu males and disinformation against minority groups. New Delhi: New research suggests that the spread of fake news in India that sparks mob lynchings is largely done out of “reasons of prejudice and ideology”, rather than “ignorance or digital literacy”. “It can be seen…that assuming most misinformation spreads through rural and/or illiterate users and targeting functional digital...