-The United Nations   Television should be made more accessible to persons with disabilities, argues a new United Nations report released today, which identifies different accessibility options that would enable users to fully access audiovisual content. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, more than 1.4 billion households worldwide have a TV, representing 98 per cent of homes in developed countries and almost...

Harvard University has dumped former union minister and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy from its 2012 summer school faculty after protests from teachers and students over an allegedly anti-Muslim opinion article Swamy wrote for an Indian newspaper earlier this year.  "Harvard has established a principal that the person teaching there is accountable to whatever he writes elsewhere is a not good for them," Swamy said reacting to the university's action. Only dangerous...

-BBC   Inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the past two decades, a new report says, making it one of the worst performers among emerging economies. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says the top 10% of wage-earners make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, compared to six times 20 years ago. The OECD says India has the highest number of poor in the world. Some 42% of its 1.21...

Some time ago, newspapers in Britain carried full-page advertisements from the curiously named British Pig Association. This consortium of pig farmers was clamouring publicly that the supermarket chains were squeezing the farmers dry. Alongside them, Britain’s dairy farmers complained that a supermarket cartel was paring down their prices, while production costs went up and up. These farmers too have powerful lobbies; they are still in business. To this end, Britain, like...

-The Times of India   Some Union ministers have expressed concern that the Right to Information (RTI) Act is affecting government's functioning, according to the government.  Minister of personnel, public grievances and pensions V Narayanasamy replied in the affirmative on a query in the Rajya Sabha regarding concerns raised by ministers on theRTI Act affecting the government's functioning.  When asked about bureaucrats expressing apprehension about putting their views on controversial issues because of the...