-TheWire.in The T.K. Viswanathan committee’s recommendations could prove to be dangerous for free speech if acted upon without resolving its flaws. It was reported last week that an expert committee headed by T.K. Viswanathan, former secretary general of Lok Sabha, recommended that the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Information Technology Act be amended to include stringent penal provisions regarding online hate speech. While this report has...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Demonetisation and the subsequent push for digitisation has escalated risks relating to Cyber Crime and India needs to urgently upgrade its defences by setting up a cyber security commission on the lines of the Atomic Energy and Space Commissions, according to an IIT Kanpur study shared with Parliament's committee on finance. Noting that the government has initiated a number of programmes to enhance the participation of...

-Hindustan Times The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) conceded on Friday that its crime statistics for 2014 and 2015 had misreported cases registered under Section 66A, a cyber law under the Information Technology Act that was scrapped by the Supreme Court last year. The NCRB’s ‘Crime in India’ report released last month had put the number of people arrested under Section 66A at 3,137 in 2015 and 2423 in 2014. This implied...

-DNA The draft National Policy on Women is a progressive document advocating legislative changes and gendered approaches. But will other ministries comply? The draft National Policy on Women, released by ministry of women and child development (WCD), is a progressive document in tune with the times but the challenge will be to bridge the gap between policy and implementation. There is considerable emphasis on the conditions of single women, migrants and the...

-The Hindu IPR Policy will promote indigenous knowledge on water conservation steps. The National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy will send a clear message to Washington that India’s IPR regime is not regressive, Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The comments come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.S. next month when the issue of greater protection and enforcement of IPR may come up for discussions. Sitharaman, however, said India...