The government’s recent actions in notifying the Intermediary Guidelines for the internet with minimal public debate have resulted in the creation of a legal system that raises as many problems as it solves. The regulations as presently notified are arguably unconstitutional, arbitrary and vague and could pose a serious problem to the business of various intermediaries in the country (not to mention hampering internet penetration in the country) and also...

Government has decided to blacklist India's moon mission man Madhavan Nair and three other scientists after the former Isro head was held culpable for his role in spectrum worth Rs 15,000 crore being given for Rs 1,000 crore to private firm Devas. Two inquiries ordered by the government concluded that Nair had seriously erred in withholding details of the agreement between Isro's commercial arm Antrix and Devas for use of S-band...

The Prime Minister's Office has intervened in the simmering dispute between the home ministry and the Planning Commission over the capture of aadhaar biometrics by ensuring that the issue will be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on UID next week. According to a government source, principal secretary to the prime minister Pulok Chatterjee is learnt to have told officials handling the issue that UID, a major initiative of UPA,...

The lesson for India after Durban is that it needs to formulate an approach that combines attention to industrialised countries’ historical responsibility for the problem with an embrace of its own responsibility to explore low carbon development trajectories. This is both ethically defensible and strategically wise. Ironically, India’s own domestic national approach of actively exploring “co-benefits” – policies that promote development while also yielding climate gains – suggests that it...

A first-ever water pollution audit carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pegged Jharkhand at the bottom of the performance chart with most river conservation projects lying incomplete in the state. According to the report, Performance Audit of Water Pollution in India, the Ganga, Damodar and Subernarekha were selected for pollution abatement projects in Jharkhand under the National River Conservation Programme (NRCP), which was launched in 1995. As part...