Amendment is aimed at ‘intermediaries,' but it will end up targeting bloggers The draft proposal to amend the Indian IT Act so as to impose restrictions on intermediaries has provoked a huge outcry in the country, especially among its vocal bloggers. While the proposed rules seek to control the ‘intermediaries' such as telecom networks, web-hosting sites and Internet service providers, search engines, online payment, cyber cafes and auction sites, it is the...
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Antibiotic challenges, dilemmas, policies by KS Jacob
India faces the challenge of inappropriate use of antibiotics while Bharat copes with poor access to treatment, resulting in a policy conundrum and inaction. India was recently in the news for the wrong reasons. The serious threat posed by the newly discovered microbe, NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo--lactamase-1), resistant to many antibiotics, triggered alarm and panic. Predictions that the country will not meet the millennium development goal for child mortality caused dismay....
More »The UID Project and Welfare Schemes by Reetika Khera
This article documents and then examines the various benefits that, it is claimed, will flow from linking the Unique Identity number with the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It filters the unfounded claims, which arise from a poor understanding of how the PDS and NREGS function, from the genuine ones. On the latter, there are several demanding conditions that need to be met in order...
More »Bird flu strikes Agartala duck farm by Gargi Parsai
Bird flu has struck the country again. This time in the State Duck Breeding Farm in Agartala that has been ordered to cull all poultry within a radius of 3 km of the farm. The State will also impose a ban on movement of poultry and its products and order closure of all poultry egg market and outlets within a radius of 10 km. With this incidence, India has lost the...
More »Activists, researchers doubts security of UID data
Activists and researchers today raised doubts over security of data being collected for the Unique Identification (UID)project and its public utility. "The personal information being collected for the UID would be stored in a central database system without assuring protection against data theft. There could be a possibility of profiling, tracking and surveillance with the help of the information," Usha Ramanathan, an independent law researcher said today at a press conference. There...
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