-The Indian Express Earlier this month, the ministry of finance announced that over 50 million new bank accounts have been opened and 17 million debit cards issued since the launch of a bold new plan to grant financial access to the poor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this initiative, called the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), in a speech in August. Its ultimate goal is to reach 150 million unbanked...

-The United Nations States must be transparent about the nature of their electronic mass surveillance programmes, an independent United Nations counter-terrorism expert said today as he warned about the impact such measures might have on individuals' right to privacy. "States need to squarely confront the fact that mass surveillance programmes effectively do away with the right to online privacy altogether," Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights...

-Deccan Chronicle Raghu Kanchustambham graduated from IIT-Guwahati in 2000 with the intention of making the best use of his world-class education. Little did he know that a chance accident was going to point him in an opposite direction, one that was destined to bring this Hyderabadi worldwide acclaim. Currently, he is preparing to fly to Oslo, Norway, in October to participate in the two-day Digital Winners conference. Raghu will compete in ‘The...

-Deccan Chronicle Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh): Modern Telecom Technology has come to the rescue of fishermen in the Hudhud cyclone, as many lives as well as their fishing gears were saved. The government departments and private agencies alerted the fishermen about the threat posed by Hudhud. They were warned not to venture in to the sea right from October 7. MS Swaminathan Rese-arch Foundation (MSSRF) has been giving information and alerts of potential fish...

-The Hindu On most days, Central government staff work for eight hours The occasional surprise checks by Union Ministers to see if government employees are reporting to work on time may not have brought in 100 per cent compliance, but employees aren't as late to office as widely perceived. The Hindu got exclusive access to one week of Central government attendance data, thanks to the first publicly available database of employees, and found...