Tag: accountability

  • India Ahead Dialogues to set accountability for Chennai floods

    India Ahead Dialogues to set accountability for Chennai floods

    Mumbai: In its continuing focus on the southern states, India Ahead will carry Live, a two-hour interaction between citizens of Chennai and the top bureaucracy of the state to find solutions to the annual problem facing the city – flooding.

    The show will broadcast Live at 3 p.m on 23 December on India Ahead’s TV and digital platforms, therefore, giving citizens a chance to directly ask questions from the bureaucrats who formulate policies and carry out disaster management activities.

    The event will host two additional chief secretaries who have extensive hands-on experience in handling floods and the aftermath namely Atulya Misra IAS, and Vikram Kapur IAS, representing the government of Tamil Nadu.

    Joining them will be NK Sudheendra of the City of 100 Tanks project, eminent environmental scientist Dr Jayshree Vencatesan and Vanessa Peter, who works with coastal communities, among other prominent guests.

    “This is an endeavour of our rapidly growing Tamil digital platform, which aims to be the non-partisan voice in a cluttered and polarised Tamil media environment,” India Ahead editor-in-chief Bhupendra Chaubey said. “India Ahead is the voice of the states, especially those of the south of the country, to bring back sanity and real news back in the media.”

    India Ahead is a national news channel with a country-wide footprint in both broadcast and digital media, is the preferred choice for discerning viewers. India Ahead has been envisioned as a news platform with a focus on ground reports and perspectives while staying away from theatrics and punditry. The channel is available on both TV (English news) and digital (English, Hindi, and Tamil news).

  • Cyber Security violations should be dealt with: Sibal

    Cyber Security violations should be dealt with: Sibal

     NEW DELHI: Even as National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon feels that the issue needs to be settled in international law, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said Indian authorities should have the jurisdiction to deal with cyber attacks against the country irrespective of their source.

    Sibal said that there should be “accountability and responsibility” in the cyber space. “If there is a cyber space violation and the subject matter is India because it impacts India, then India should have jurisdiction. For example, if I have an embassy in New York, then anything that happens in that embassy is Indian territory and there applies Indian Law.

    “If the impact of such a violation is on India, then Indian courts must have the jurisdiction. That should apply across the world,” he said.

    When it was pointed out at an Observer Research Foundation seminar on cyber security that the American National Security Agency was accused of spying on Indian and other missions there, Sibal said, “Do not trivialise the issue.”

    Menon said, “It is not a settled issue in international laws. That is why you need an agreement and consensus on it.”

    Sibal said: “The issue of identity in cyber space is of enormous importance. There must be accountability and responsibility in the cyber space.”

    He said the government believed in complete freedom of cyber space. “Freedom of expression is central to our ideological stand on cyber space but at the same time, there should be a de facto recognition of threats that are there in cyber space.”

    “We need to deal with those threats locally and globally. We need a consensus on those. What we don’t need is a governed space. I think governance in cyber space is oxymoron,” he said.