-The United Nations While technological progress and innovative business models have expanded opportunities for freedom expression, they have also allowed for new threats to emerge in the form of Internet censorship, filtering, blocking, and surveillance, warns the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Freedom of expression is essential to dignity, dialogue, democracy and sustainable development," said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, appealing for renewed commitment to support press freedom at the...

-The Hindu In formulating the most effective and inclusive procedures for pre-legislative consultation, the Central government should study and draw inspiration from Kerala's example We should all celebrate the recent decision taken by a Cabinet Secretary-led committee which seeks to institutionalise public participation in the law-making process. The decision requires every Central government department to publicise the details of a proposed legislation on the Internet and other media before being introduced in...

-Live Mint Even as India struggles in efforts to usher in transparency, some panchayats are offering a refreshing contrast Chandana/Jind: Sometime last year, Surendra Singh got a call from a military outpost in Srinagar. The soldier had an urgent inquiry for the 31-year-old sarpanch of Chandana, a village in Haryana's Kaithal district. The man, who hailed from the village, had lost his voter ID card and needed a letter from the...

-The Hindu Despite advances, India is 119th in connectivity The digital divide between the most and least developed countries — measured in terms of costs, quality and connectivity — continues to grow, according to data released by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Global broadband prices have dropped nearly 75 per cent between 2008 and 2011, yet the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, continue to have the highest connectivity costs in the world. “Today the...

-The Hindu While the Internet growth story in India seems promising, individual users are yet to play their rightful role. Individual consumption is placed at 29 per cent — much lower than the international figure of 45 per cent, which means the Internet economy in India continues to be driven by large companies. By 2015, the Internet sector is projected to become bigger than the education sector, and equal to the...