Stories about India from September, 2012
India: Build Your Own Map to Improve Your City
Transparent Chennai is a platform for citizen engagement to help the citizens of Chennai counter inaccurate or incomplete government data with crowdsourced maps, and make better claims on the government for their rights and entitlements.
India, Pakistan: Let People Meet
Visa restrictions prevent citizens of India and Pakistan from visiting families in the other country. There isn’t even a tourist visa protocol between these two biggest neighbours of South Asia. Journeys To Democracy promoted the Aman ki Asha Milne Do petition to change this.
India: Hurrah For Hornbills – Defence Project Stalled in Narcondam
A proposal from the Indian Coast Guards to install coastal surveillance equipments in the Narcondamm Island in the Andaman Sea, has been stalled by the Indian government. This news, coming after months of intensive campaigning against the proposal, has been welcomed by birders, ornithologists, ecologists, conservation activists and wildlife enthusiasts.
India: Husbands to Pay Wives for Doing Household Chores?
The Union Women and Child Development Ministry in India is considering a draft bill which, if passed by parliament, would make it legally compulsory for husbands to pay out a portion of their monthly income to their homemaker wives, for doing household chores.
India: Subscribe and Get a Harley-Davidson
It’s raining gifts in the Bengali newspaper wars. And gone is the age of fress flasks, timepieces and tee-shirts to woo subscribers. Sans Serif reports.
India: Koodankulam Nuclear Plant Starts Amidst Protests
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, India started operations recently despite protests to stall it. Police cracked down on some 8,000 people from nearby villages who assembled at the beach and stood in sea water to protest moves to load uranium fuel in one of the two reactors of the plant.
India: Arrest of Cartoonist on Sedition Charges Sparks Debate
On 8 September, award-winning political cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi was arrested in Mumbai, India, on charges of sedition and is now in judicial custody. Netizens expressed outrage over his arrest, a move they see as politically motivated and an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression.
India: Standing Neck Deep in Water to Protest
Fifty one residents of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have launched a ‘Jal Satyagraha' protest by standing neck deep inside the backwaters of Omkareshwar dam on Narmada river. The protest is against the government decision to raise the water level of the dam pending rehabilitation.
India: Is Online Censorship Always a Violation of Free Speech?
The Indian government's move to block bulk SMS, MMS, webpages and social media to contain rumors from spreading in the wake of ethnic clashes in Assam has set off a debate on the pros and cons of censorship in the Indian blogosphere.
India: Dalit Camera – Media for the Marginalised
Disillusioned by the mainstream media's lack of in-depth knowledge and coverage of India's marginalized communities or 'Dalits', members of the group are turning to citizen media to tell their stories. Dalit Camera aims to document and chronicle their lives, conditions and struggles.
India: 2012 Indian Bloggers’ Mindset Survey
Prasant Naidu provides insights from the 2012 Bloggers’ Mindset Survey conducted by 20:20 MSL and Blogathon India. The notable results include phenomena like “conversations have moved from blogs to Twitter” and “Facebook gets the maximum traffic for bloggers”.
