-First Post Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his address to the Annual Convention of Information Commissioners, in early October had  warned against the use of the Right to Information Act — one of the most popular people-oriented steps that the UPA has taken so far — to ridicule public officials and infringe on people’s Privacy. The PM’s statement which expressed concern over frivolous and vexatious RTI applications, infringement of personal Privacy and...

-The Indian Express Financial justification for Aadhaar doesn’t require it to cover entire population or have multiple uses Some people think of Aadhaar as a magic bullet for India. Others oppose it for Privacy concerns. The government has showcased Aadhaar as a tool for targeted subsidy payments. As with all government programmes, the public should be sceptical, and the government must demonstrate through a cost-benefit analysis that the expenditure of public money...

-Outlook Its ploy of Aadhar-hinged cash transfer may have won the Congress political points, but will it really be a game-changer?   State-Wise     40% of the 22 crore Aadhar numbers are in Andhra Pradesh (4.7 crore) and Maharashtra (4 crore)     20% is what the two politically sensitive, Congress-ruled states account for of the 51 districts where DCT will be rolled out     55 lakh Aadhar numbers in TMC-run West Bengal. BJP-ruled Gujarat (57...

-The Times of India Your favourite restaurant may soon get legal protection for its centuries old recipe with the government starting discussion on possible norms for trade secrets. The latest intellectual property right (IPR), which draws upon an established practice in several countries, may actually cover everything from manufacturing processes to sales and distribution methods, ad strategies and client and vendor lists — a move that could provide comfort to companies...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: India ranks second globally in accessing private details of its citizens, next only to the US, if the latest data from Google is to be believed. The transparency report by the internet search giant lists out requests it received from governments across the world to access information on the users of its various services. In the first six months of 2012, India made 2,319 requests involving 3,467...