-The Hindu Long list of agents against free expression Censorship across the country is on the rise with as many as 52 instances being recorded in the first quarter of 2014. Releasing data on censorship for the first three months of this year, media watch group, The Hoot, said this averaged a little less than one a day. The agents against free expression were not just the state or fringe groups. The...
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Opinion divided on banning poll surveys-Sahil Makkar & Somesh Jha
-The Business Standard A sting, Operation Prime Minister, by a TV news channel had said opinion polls could be manipulated by research agencies The Election Commission (EC) of India cannot ban opinion polls ahead of elections; all it can do is remind the Union government about its long-pending request. And, this is what India's highest poll-conducting body is planning to do, following a TV news channel's sting operation code-named ‘Operation Prime Minister', which...
More »Regulating genetic modification-MS Swaminathan
-The Hindu In the case of technologies with benefits and risks, it is important to have regulatory mechanisms which can help analyse them in an impartial manner It is 61 years since the beginning of new genetics based on the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. It is also 31 years since the production of transgenic plants. The first patent for a living organism went to Dr. Anand...
More »Whose loo? Why 600 million Indians still defecate in the open-Ierene Francis
-TheAlternative.in Over 600 million Indians have no access to toilets - if you line up the countries where open defecation is practised, India leads and also has more than twice the number as the next 18 countries with no access to toilets. The proportion is worse in rural India - where 68% of rural households don't have their own toilets (Source:NSSO, WHO). Why is open defecation an issue? Open defecation has been linked...
More »India 4th most dangerous country for journalists in 2013
-Reuters One hundred and thirty-four journalists and media support staff were killed while on reporting assignments last year, with India fourth on the list of countries with the most number of deaths, the London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said on Tuesday. Most of those killed were targeted deliberately. Of these, 65 died covering armed conflicts - primarily in Syria, where 20 were killed, and Iraq, where the death total was 16 -...
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