-The Hindu Google India was on Thursday dropped from the array of defendants in the civil suit filed against social networking websites for allegedly hosting objectionable content. Administrative civil judge Parveen Singh said here that no case was made out against Google India, which stated that it did not operate any social networking website and that it was merely a software development firm functioning as a subsidiary of Google Inc. The court also...

-The Times of India   As consumers open up to digital products, their personal data is being valued more and more as an asset. Facebook's looming $100 billion valuation is based on a presumption of having personal information on millions of users, which can be used to target advertising and content towards them. And Google is moving to collect similar information. Globally, the power of data aggregators is raising serious concerns around...

-The Economic Times The Delhi High Court on Friday quashed criminal proceedings against Microsoft India, a fortnight after the company was exempted by a trial court in a similar case for hosting objectionable content online.  Microsoft India is the only company, out of the 21 websites, against whom both criminal and civil proceedings pending in the capital's High Court and trial court now stand quashed.  Justice Suresh Kait set aside the trial court's...

-PTI A Delhi court on Monday dismissed a case against Internet giant Yahoo for allegedly hosting objectionable content on its site and penalised the petitioner for dragging it in the litigation along with other social networking sites. Administrative civil judge Praveen Singh imposed a cost of Rs 5000 on plaintiff Mufti Aijas Arshad Quasmi for impleading the company as a party without disclosing any cause of action against it. The court had on...

-AP The microfinance industry pursued a path of rapid business growth in recent years; two investigations now link it to debtor suicides   First they were stripped of their utensils, furniture, mobile phones, television sets, ration cards and heirloom gold jewellery. Then, some of them drank pesticide. One woman threw herself into a pond. Another jumped into a well with her children. Sometimes, the debt collectors watched nearby. More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of...