-The Hindu MSSRF launches second phase of ‘Knowledge Connectivity Programme,' FM station Chennai: The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has launched the second phase of its successful IT-driven rural empowerment initiative to help more farmers and fishermen in Nagapattinam and Karaikal districts. Ever since it was rolled out in 2011-12, the ‘Knowledge Connectivity Programme' supported by MARG Karaikal Port has benefited about 20,000 farmers, fishermen and women entrepreneurs of self-help groups in 34...

-The Business Standard Bihar's model of health care through Mobile Phones is finding many takers Many things may be going wrong in India, but the one thing that has gone right is the reach of the Mobile Phone. It has bridged the divide between the rural and the urban areas, the rich and the poor. Governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and phone companies are realising the potential of the Mobile Phone as a tool...

-The Hindu There has been no public debate on the level of watch citizens can be put through, and on what the red lines should be while using intrusive mechanisms The tussle between government agencies' need for a better, faster and real-time interception, surveillance and monitoring mechanism through the Central Monitoring System (CMS), on the one hand, and demands by privacy, civil rights and free speech activists, for ensuring higher privacy for...

-The New Indian Express   There are no easy solutions to some of India's chronic problems, which need to be tackled in a holistic, multi-dimensional manner. However, the United Progressive Alliance government does not think so. It has hit upon the idea of enacting a food security law in the mistaken belief that it will address the problems of poverty and hunger. An article in the pre-eminent medical journal, The Lancet, should...

-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...