Good news about digital inclusion often leaves little room for reporting on bad experiences, which netizens encounter in the digital world. A recent report by LIRNEAsia – an ICT [information and communication technology] policy and regulation think tank working in the Asia-Pacific – says that almost one among five Indian netizens in the age-group 15-65 years had faced online harassment in 2017. In contrast, roughly twelve out of hundred internet...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Police have arrested five activists, including an editor, a professor and a lawyer, on the suspicion of being Maoists, more than six months after an attack by alleged Hindutva groups on Ambedkarities visiting a war memorial near Pune. Those arrested have been booked under several charges, including the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Pune police on Wednesday arrested Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) spokesperson Rona Wilson from...

-The Indian Express India’s disability movement will not be the same again. I wonder if 50 years down the line, India’s disability movement’s timeline will be viewed as before and after Javed Abidi. The unexpected passing away of this colossus a few days back has shaken all — from activists who were his contemporaries to reporters wondering aloud on Twitter about whom to ask for quotes in future coverage of disability. So where...

-Scroll.in Both want states to take their advice in restructuring their primary schools. Government think-tank Niti Aayog’s collaboration with three state education departments appears to have set off friction with the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. An official of the Niti Aayog, who did not want to be identified, said the ministry has objected to the think-tank’s programme called Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital, or SATH. Under the programme,...

-TheWire.in The government’s premier policy-formulating agency recently recommended measures to deregulate the pharmaceutical sector and make essential medicines more expensive. New Delhi: Even as the prime minister repeatedly expresses his commitment to providing affordable medicines in the country, it appears that the NITI Aayog and the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) may be working in an opposing direction. Documents between October 2016 and April 2017 show the intention of various government arms to...