Information Society Watch

February 14, 2008, Preeti Parashar, The Financial Express

This news report hopes that India's e-Governance programme might get a budget allocation of 1,500 crore rupees in 2008, an increase in comparison with a figure of 1,300 crore rupees in 2007. Quoting the minister for communication and information technology, the report adds that under the National e-Governance Plan, one lakh common service centres will be set up in six lakh villages across India, bringing services to the doorsteps of its ordinary citizens. Many of the states are in the process of launching state wide area networks, with Haryana having implemented it already.

February 5, 2008,Deccan Herald

This news story observes that Bangalore has become an important link in the cyber crime chain. It quotes experts as saying that cyber criminals use sophisticated, professionally developed tool-kits sold in the underground economy to carry out attacks.

December 29, 2007, Hindustan Times

The Goa government has unveiled a broadband initiative which aims to create an environment where information technology can be an enabler towards efficiency and accountability. Christened 'Goa Broadband Network', the project seeks to provide citizens services in the domains of health, education, agriculture and welfare services. The government is hoping that by also offering business services, the initiative can become commercially viable and will encourage public private partnerships towards this end.

January 4, 2008, Indiatimes Infotech

Internet telephony is recording significant growth in India. The official statistics show a growth of 15% which is impressive considering the fact that there is a grey market for the service whose usage goes unreported.

October 17, 2007, Manoj Mitta, The Times of India

The parliamentary standing committee in India is trying to increase liability of Internet service providers (ISPs) responsible for third party content, a move that would effectively 'kill' the Internet, since 85% of the Internet deals with third party content, including search engines, email, blogs, and community sites. The article claims that such legislation, in contrast to Internet laws of advanced countries, is the result of committee's failure to understand the Internet.

September 7, 2007, Indian Express

Steep and unsustainable high wages have been often criticised as the bane of the Indian IT industry. These wages are attributed to the high costs of living in those cities whose economies run exclusively on IT, thereby making it almost impossible for people in non-IT sectors to afford a decent standard of living.

September 21, 2007, The Hindu

The state government of Karnataka has launched an e-governance initiative called E-Halli, for disseminating important information in rural areas. The E-Halli centres will be located in the village Panchayat premises and around 5628 centres in all will be established.

September 19, 2007, The Economic Times

The Indian government has proposed to do away with the ban on reporting of news stories by commercial radio stations. This move is a welcome one, and comes at a time when the government is moving towards freeing the airwaves (e.g. allowing setting up of community radio stations).

2 September 2007, Nishant Shah, The Hindu

Social networking websites, which are the new (virtual) communities of today have become extremely popular recently, especially among the younger generation. However, the tragic deaths of two young people have thrown up larger issues with such relationships forged in cyber worlds and have even led to demands for regulation or censorship of such sites.

August 24, 2007, The Economic Times

In a major setback for Microsoft, the Indian government has decided to vote against Microsoft's OOXML standard at the International Standards Organisation (ISO) in Geneva on September 2. This decision of the Indian government came after a high level committee meeting decided that the standard did not make the grade.