-The Hindu In an unprecedented move, the government, through the Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, has agreed to initiate dialogue on Internet censorship with mega Internet companies, social media giants such as Google and Facebook, members of civil society, technical community, media, ISPs and legal experts. The triggers for the discussion, which will be held on Wednesday, are the riots in Assam, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh,...

-The Hindu   It may lead to illegal grabbing of government land: communiqué    Governor H.R. Bhardwaj has returned the Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2012 to the State government on the grounds that the “policy of regularisation of encroachment of government land directly encouraged illegal occupation of government land.” According to a communiqué from the Raj Bhavan, the amendment to the Bill sought to substitute the existing section 94C of the Karnataka Land...

-The Times of India Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has overruled objections from her officials to break the forest bureaucracy's monopoly over the annual Rs 10,000 crore bamboo trade and declared it a 'minor forest produce' instead of a 'tree' under forest laws. This will allow tribals, instead of forest departments, to harvest and auction bamboo, which is one of the major raw materials for the paper, pulp and board industry, from their...

-The Times of India Non-government wildlife experts on board the PM-chaired National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) are planning to write a joint letter to PM Manmohan Singh complaining of alleged illegalities and malpractices of the environment ministry. In a move that could further embarrass the government, they are also considering using the letter to the PM later in the Supreme Court to oppose some green clearances given by the ministry and some...

-The Hindustan Times The coal-block allocation scandal is increasingly looking like a sequel to the 2G spectrum scam as far as the behaviour of the companies involved is concerned. As was with the telecom scam, many of the “coalgate” companies that cornered the government-allocated resource — like the spectrum — have used it to raise money from the market at hefty valuations. Promoters of more than 10 companies are believed to have...