India is today the world's largest importer of arms. These include fighter jet planes, missiles and radar systems for strategic partnerships and geo-political power. India is also investing in security and surveillance to combat foreign threats and resistance from its own people in places like the Kashmir valley, and the North East and tribal regions of Central India. This provides tremendous opportunity for multi-national corporations to sell and invest in...
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New cyber regulations smell of Big Brother by N Madhavan
India's Internet community is upset over a recent set of rules under the country's Information Technology Act of 2008 that aims to regulate content on the Web. Used as to much freedom as they are, cyber activists – who include bloggers, tweeters and free-thinking Net freaks – are understandably upset. The rules say that anything libelous, grossly harmful, hateful, racist or ethnically objectionable or disparaging will be covered by the rules....
More »Policing The Ratio by Amba Batra Bakshi
Correcting The Skew... Among suggestions made for checking prenatal sex determination are: * Police presence outside suspect ultrasound clinics and hospitals * An online complaint forum to allow people to inform on erring clinics * Mapping of districts, identification of problem regions and analysis of data to determine causative factors * Tracking sex ratio through data collection at birth, so that real-time data is available for corrective measures *** The news of the...
More »Why I didn't go to Jantar Mantar by Harsh Mander
As young middle-class Indians gathered to express their anger at corrupt governance, it was a significant moment for Indian democracy. The country has witnessed many protests for wages and land, self-determination and human rights. But this campaign was different. It's decades since educated and privileged young people felt stirred enough to take to the streets, seeking hope of a better India. But this is not a one-time eruption and the...
More »Blind Men Of Hindostan by Sheela Reddy
Do we, the Indian middle class, see the corruption within us? I was too busy being corrupt to join Anna Hazare’s camp last week. For four days, I heard nothing but stories of our Tahrir Square-like revolution against the corrupt unfurling right under our noses in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. But it was school admission time and I had some serious palm-greasing, document-fudging, string-pulling, weight-throwing and tout-chasing to do. I had...
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