Drug smugglers and third-world dictators laundering ill-gotten wealth through secretive banking systems in tax havens is an anachronistic image from crime novels. Leveraging US' remarkable success in compelling tax havens to block terrorist financing, the G20/OECD have successfully persuaded tax havens to improve tax transparency and participate in an international regime of information exchange.  All tax havens have committed to OECD standards for tax transparency and are executing Tax Information Exchange...

-PTI Government came under attack in the Lok Sabha today on the issue of price rise with the Left parties demanding that an all-party meeting as also a conference of Chief Ministers be convened soon to take concrete steps to check the price line.  Raising the issue during Zero Hour, CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia accused the government of "total failure" in reining prices despite several assurances from the Prime Minister and the...

BANGALORE: Protests against government's alleged attempt to govern the internet is gathering steam, with a public interest litigation in Kerala, a signature campaign and mass protests in Karnataka besides the political left throwing its weight behinds demand to withdraw the recently amended laws. The new rules, adopted last year, regulates reader's comments on online articles, user-posted videos, blogs, photos and posts on online social networks such as Facebook or Orkut. Opponents...

-Kafila.org When the Parliament’s budget session re-opens on April 24, the Rajya Sabha will vote on an annulment motion against the IT Rules promulgated in April 2011 that provide for “intermediaries” to remove the online content they are asked to by anyone. The motion has been moved by P Rajeeve, Rajya Sabha member from the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Speaking on the phone from Thrissur, Rajeeve said, “The IT Rules go against...

-The Hindu Expressing concern over the reported comments of the Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia that Right to Information queries were impeding the working of Judges, the Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi had written to the CJI to lend his powerful voice to increasing the effectiveness and reach of RTI and not support those who seek to curb it. In a recent letter addressed to Mr. Justice Kapadia, the CIC drew...