How enabling is ICT?
In February, 100-odd people got together at the quaint little town of Baramati. All had a common goal: to exchange ideas on the use of …
Most disease maps unreliable
Disease maps help capture distribution of pathogens and their transmission intensity. An international team of researchers has reviewed 355 of …
"We need to think about all of us as being citizens of the same world"
Joseph E Stiglitz helped create a new branch of economics - the Economics of Information. This earned him the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001. …
Software freedom
On Richard Stallman's personal homepage it says, "America means civil liberties. Patriotism is protecting them." Words that sum up the …
Battle for the Internet
As the Internet becomes the public square and the marketplace of our world, it is increasingly becoming a contested terrain. Its potential for …
Organic goes online
India’s organic food exports have found a new strength—online traceability. Web-based TraceNet can trace an organic product right …
‘Government of MP has always tried to fudge data’
The Supreme Court, on May 3, asked the Bhopal Municipal Corporation to start supplying clean drinking water to those localities in the city that …
A watershed plan
Recurrent droughts and floods coupled with mass poverty, chronic unemployment and pervasive malnutrition are the major challenges before India. …
Treasure in troubled land
International aid has supported the economy of Afghanistan for 12 years. With aid flow gradually declining, the war-torn country will now have to …
Clash of the cyberworlds
In an increasingly digital world, the issue of Internet freedom and governance has become hugely contested. Censorship and denial of access occur …
Soon, an early warning system for cyclones and floods
Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) for Africa and Asia was put in place soon after the 2004 tsunami hit the Indian …
How to contain Himalayan tsunamis
The Himalaya has one of the most fragile topographies among mountain ranges of the world on account of being the youngest. Even though its phase …
The hunt for benefits
India is hailed as a pioneer in implementing the third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity—fair and equitable sharing of …
Secretive tribunals, hidden damages
Canadian academic Gus Van Harten is well known for his efforts to reform the global investment treaty regime through his research papers, …
India’s many investment treaties make it vulnerable
Senior international lawyer Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, who heads the investment programme of the International Institute on Sustainable …
RTI amendment: Usurping powers from Legislature and States
The National Democratic Alliance government's move is an assault on the independence of information commissioners, writes former …
RTI amendment: Centre has no authority to make law on states
The amendment to the RTI Act does not deserve the assent of the President, writes former Central Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu in …
Karnataka forest department has filed just 130 chargesheets on forest encroachment since 1980: RTI
The RTI inquiry reveals that 204,229 acres were lost to encroachment while another 104,065 acres of land were illegally granted by the state …
How IT, communication can boost sustainable farming in India
Use of messaging services, web-based applications, capacity building and encouragement of public-private partnership can enable farmers to get …
State information commissions inactive during COVID-19: Survey
A telephone survey, conducted by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, found that this was in contrast to the Central Information Commission
Radio comes of age
Digital audio technology will enable listeners to make their own compact disc-like recordings.
Super storage
A new technology is set to boost the storage capacity of CD s by 1,000 times
In broad daylight
Now conferencing can be a lot brighter and lighter with the help of a new device that does away with dark rooms and bulks of paper
Top-of-the-desk stuff
Good news awaits the desk top publishing industry with the development of the FT-S700 image input system. Equipped with a high precision charge-…
Paging or projecting
A new version of the pager is being developed so that the tiny device can now produce images several times its size