How our dismal education scene is linked to our intolerance What’s common to the Salman Rushdie episode, India’s dismal educational scenario—as underlined by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Pratham’s 7th Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER)—and its appalling ranking on the Global Hunger Index (GHI)? It’s clear even on the surface: a deep disconnect between India’s claims on democratic superpower status and its grim reality. If you probe...

What was our immediate response to further decline in the child sex ratio in India? Within days of the provisional 2011 Census results (March-April 2011), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reconstituted the Central Supervisory Board for the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act 1994 , which had not met for 3 years, and on November 30, 2011 the Ministry of Women and Child Development...

-The Business Standard   The same week that Wikipedia and several other highly trafficked websites went dark to protest legislation in the United States that would severely curtail their operations, the Delhi High Court was hearing an attempt by the Indian government to take on 21 social networking sites (owned by 10 overseas companies) for “promoting enmity between classes, causing prejudice to national integration and insulting religion or religious belief of any...

Facing trial over “objectionable content”, social networking websites Google India and Facebook India today sought to invoke their right to freedom of speech and expression before the Delhi High Court and contended that a “casual” approach by a magisterial court had unjustifiably put them in the dock. Responding to the judge’s remark at the last date of hearing that the court would have to block websites like in China if “such...

-IANS The Indian government's decision to prosecute social networking sites like Google and Facebook has triggered public anger, with netizens saying the move is tantamount to clamping down on constitutional rights of free speech and individual liberty. "This censorship is totally useless, the government is trying to curb freedom of speech and expression, which is everyone's right," Kartik Dayanand, a social media consultant and blogger, told IANS. The government Friday gave the green...