-The Deccan Herald   Under flak for the new Internet rules which are being interpreted as an attack on privacy of a user, the government while clarifying the rules questioned the why critics were silent when the draft rules were opened for public opinion. R Chandrashekhar, Secretary in the Department of Information Technology, in an interaction with PTI said views from all stakeholders were taken and the best practices prevalent globally were incorporated...

To increase transparency, India’s patent regulator will soon make public details about patented drugs which include whether domestic demand for these medicines is met at a reasonable price. Patent holders in the country are required to submit once every year the so-called working details which include the quantity and value of a product that is sold, manufacturing base, quantity of production or imports, and a statement on whether public requirement has...

The Centre for Internet & Societies (CIS), a Bangalore-based NGO, recently filed an RTI query with the Department of Information Technology (DIT), asking for a list of websites blocked by the Indian government under the IT Act. The department handed them a list of 11 websites. It was just one department’s list, but this was the first time such a list was being made public. “The information given was not...

Washington-based Freedom Institute has expressed concern over the decreasing freedom of expression on the Internet in India. The Institute, which put India in the company of states like China, Egypt and Iran which saw a deterioration of freedom of expression on the Internet since the 2009 report, highlighted the tightening of surveillance and prosecution of online posts. India’s freedom index declined from 34 in 2009 to 36 in 2011, reflecting the...

-Headlines Today Bureau   Google Inc has reportedly told Indian regulators in a confidential memo that the country's proposed restrictions on Internet content could seriously hamper its international trade. Google has so far failed to convince the government on these web content restrictions. According to the Wall Street Journal, the new Indian rules ban websites from publishing certain types of content. Also, there are specifications for the removal of such content within 36...