If you were a tad worried about the government`s intentions to censor free speech by controlling the internet and monitoring your access to the Web through a vague and draconian legal framework - `IT Rules, 2011`, followed by an attempt to pre-screen content on Google and Facebook - you haven`t seen anything yet. In mid-2011, the success of the internet and social media in bringing down dictatorships in Egypt and Libya...

Why is the world's biggest democracy cracking down on Facebook and Google? "65 years since your independence," a new battle for freedom is under way in India -- according to a YouTube video uploaded by an Indian member of Anonymous, the global "hacktivist" movement. With popular websites like Vimeo.com blocked across India by court order, the video calls for action: "Fight for your rights. Fight for India." Over the past several...

The ASCI report says there is ample evidence of “market dominance” in specific media markets, but the government has ignored the report for three years. A ministry official tells PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA that it is unlikely to be implemented. A report prepared by an independent institution recommending imposition of cross-media ownership restrictions recently entered the public domain nearly three years after it was submitted,  following a rebuke to the government by...

-The Hindu The 65th World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva has identified universal health coverage as a key imperative for all countries, if their goal is to consolidate the public health advances achieved so far. Several countries have been working to reform their health system over the past two or three decades. The Assembly, which is the decision making body of the World Health Organization, adopted the concept of Universal Health...

-The Indian Express Multiple stakeholders in internet governance may be a good idea. But who’s India to talk? Who should run the internet? States and corporations have long struggled over the question. Last October, India proposed a new model of internet governance — a UN Committee for Internet-Related Policies, which shifts control to elected governments, advised by experts, international organisations and civil society, under the UN umbrella. This would invert the current...