Free speech advocates and Internet users are protesting new Indian regulations restricting Web content that, among other things, can be considered "disparaging," "harassing," "blasphemous" or "hateful." The new rules, quietly issued by the country's Department of Information Technology earlier this month and only now attracting attention, allow officials and private citizens to demand that Internet sites and service providers remove content they consider objectionable on the basis of a long list...

It was indeed an unusual ''social movement''. A group of ''activists'' who had banded together to draft one version of a bill that would establish a statutory institution to investigate corruption in the political establishment sits in protest demanding the acceptance and passage of its version of the bill. The protest has elements of a social drama inasmuch as it fronts an elderly leader, Anna Hazare, with Gandhian credentials, a...

The Arjun Munda government’s headlong drive to distribute new ration cards among 50 lakh families across the state is turning out to be an organised chaos, with acute crunch of application forms and clueless public representatives fielded for the job. While a three-day, statewide camp kicked off today to arm every family in rural and urban pockets with ration cards that entitle them to subsidised foodgrain, kerosene, et al, inadequate number...

India is seeking a postponement of the decision on a global ban on Endosulfan to the next meeting of the conference of parties to the Stockholm Convention in 2013, according to observers. C. Jayakumar and Dr. Mohammed Asheel, observers from Kerala to the ongoing conference of parties to the Convention in Geneva, said in an email message that India had distributed a draft of its proposal among the Asia Pacific group...

With manufacturing sector growth in the Eleventh Plan period estimated at 8 per cent against 11-12 per cent required to create about 2 million additional jobs in the country, the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development (NCSD) is considering recommending to the Rural Development Ministry that the UPA’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS) be widened to include providing “skill development” to unskilled wage seekers. The issue is likely to...