-Reuters India has launched a wide-ranging surveillance programme that will give its security agencies and even income tax officials the ability to tap directly into e-mails and phone calls without oversight by courts or parliament, several sources said. The expanded surveillance in the world's most populous democracy, which the government says will help safeguard national security, has alarmed privacy advocates at a time when allegations of massive US digital snooping beyond American...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Almost one-fifth of elders surveyed in Delhi have complained of abuse, says the latest data released by an NGO. The capital has the third highest rate of abuse after Hyderabad and Kolkata among five Tier-I cities that were surveyed. The HelpAge India report 'Elder Abuse in India 2013' that has covered 6,748 elders across 24 cities found another also found another unique trend in Delhi. While...

-The Hindu Attempt to question practices invites wrath of dominant caste Madurai: Multiple forms of discrimination exist in Vadugapatti village near Usilampatti, where a 12 year-old- Dalit boy was made to carry his footwear on his head recently. Dalits can neither walk on the streets of caste Hindus with their footwear on nor can they enter common pathways on bicycles. If they violated the rule they had to face the wrath of the...

-The Hindu     While the legitimacy of political parties depends on their acceptance of financial transparency under the RTI Act, their internal decision-making processes should be left alone The Central Information Commission (CIC) decision declaring political parties as public authorities under the Right to Information Act has again pit the political class against the people. Political parties have increasingly lost legitimacy due to opaque financing, cultivation of individuals with a criminal background, subversion of...

-The Business Standard But RTI is not the tool to impose transparency on parties There is no doubt that much is wrong with how elections in India are financed. In India, as in most democratic countries, the need for political funding is often what causes cronyism and outright corruption - in fact, more than one politician, cutting across party lines, is on record making this argument. It is necessary, certainly, to introduce...