-Greenpeace Genetically engineered (GE) food is a hot button topic in India. What happens here often sends ripples throughout the GE debate worldwide, but what happened last week is surely a major milestone. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, made up of members of parliament (MPs) from across party lines, tabled its latest report (http://164.100.47.134/lsscommittee/Agriculture/GM_Report.pdf) on GE food and GE crops following intense consultation with farmers, environmental groups, scientists and consumer groups. The...

-The Hindustan Times Under the cover of endorsing a proposal for the National Food Security Bill framed by an independent group of development economists, the government is all set to empty the Bill of any substance. Provisions relating to the Public Distribution System (PDS) will be reduced to a pointless reshuffling of existing foodgrain allocations to state governments, that too in favour of the richer states. And other entitlements, relating for...

-The Hindu Talking tough to non-cooperating social networking websites, the Centre on Wednesday said it had given an ultimatum to micro-blogging site Twitter to remove around 30 web pages still carrying inflammatory content such as morphed pictures and fake videos or face penal action. Minister for Communications and IT Kapil Sibal will be meeting National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Intelligence Bureau Director Nehchal Sandhu and Electronics and IT Secretary J. Satyanarayana on...

-The Times of India The CEO of Natgrid, the government's ambitious project to make a single hub for all data gathered by more than a dozen security agencies, draws a salary of Rs 10 lakh per month -- more than any bureaucrat in the country. And this is besides the other entitlements that he gets at par with top officers in the government. Minister of state for home Jitendra Singh informed the...

-Live Mint India’s biggest crackdown on websites and blogs hosting hate messages was hobbled by the absence of a policy on cyber security, escalating panic and resulting in an exodus of people belonging to north-eastern states from several cities. The government initially identified 245 such websites, but could block only 207 of them, saying it couldn’t shut out the other 38 because of technical difficulties. It has identified and is in the...