-The Hindu Local firms will be at a disadvantage if big tech companies are given plum roles Since early last year, WhatsApp has busily piloted its payment system in India. WhatsApp Pay relies on the Indian government’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system to facilitate inter-bank transactions. Regulatory approval that would allow its nation-wide introduction is stuck on one point: the Indian government has asked WhatsApp to localise all data processing related to...

-Scroll.in/ The Third Pole Flash-flood warnings routed through NGOs are giving border villages precious lead-time to escape the wrath of suddenly rising rivers. In the last few weeks of June, a series of WhatsApp messages were sent from Bhutan to India to warn cross-border friends downstream of the Aai, Saralbhanga and Manas rivers about cloud-bursts, swollen rivers and possible flash floods affecting people in the Indian state of Assam. Although originating from officials,...

-The Telegraph The time for informality is over — the Election Commission’s stature requires legal heft When Winston Churchill stood for re-election as prime minister in 1945 after leading Britain to victory in the Second World War, few could have predicted his resounding defeat at the hustings. Churchill was the same fiery, belligerent and all-powerful leader inspiring awe amongst his countrymen. Yet the country had slowly but surely changed when nobody was...

-Hindustan Times According to locals, around 100 cases of dengue were reported from the village last year. However, in the absence of any government hospital and medical dispensary, the residents struggled. In 2017, Kadipur in north Delhi, adopted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from North-East Delhi Manoj Tiwari, had hit the headlines after it became the first village in the capital to get “free wi-fi”. However, it is still struggling to...

-IANS New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) should treat social media like any other media and all rules that apply to the media during the model code of conduct should also apply to social media, former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said on Friday. Quraishi was speaking at an event where a group of former bureaucrats and organisations, like Common Cause, Free Internet Foundation, Association for Democratic Reforms and Free Software Movement...