There are three things that happened to me over the last two weeks that are entirely responsible for this entry: ONE: I attended Quartz’s The Next Billion conference, an event about the one billion new internet users expected to come online by 2017. At the conference, Mark Surman, an Executive Director at Mozilla gave a…
Pramila lives in a slum in west Delhi. She built her house from the savings she made with a self-help group (SHG). But what else is known about Pramila and her family? Is there better sanitation at her home? Has the status of the girl child improved in her family? What are the illnesses she…
Fresh information from Facebook on its Net Neutrality violating platform Internet.org: the company says that it has 800,000 users in India, but only 20% of those are new Internet users. Facebook has a partnership with Reliance Communications, and the service, available in seven circles (Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and…
RailYatri.in has launched a new trip sharing feature on its app. The feature will allow train travellers to share their location live with friends, while on the train. Additionally, users can now access the progress of trains in real-time as well as use the app to find the train status. The app also calculates the…
Google has added traffic alerts feature to Google Maps. Following this update, users will be able to check the traffic status while searching for directions on particular routes and view in which routes traffic is busiest at any given time. They’ll also be informed about blockades or construction zones on the selected route. The traffic…
Imagine a national level cyber security cover for every computer and mobile phone used inside India by Indian citizens; a centralized hub which identifies cyber attacks and broadcast solutions to every citizen within seconds of its outbreak. No, this is not fiction anymore. Sensing the threats which cyber attacks and malicious malwares and viruses can…
There simply cannot be a better day to talk about freedom of speech than on the very day we set aside to honor those who gave their lives to protect our freedom. An alarmist is not someone you want writing a weekly column, but at some point, and perhaps sooner than later, and alarm does…
Today our freedom of speech seems virtually unrestricted: from online forums to raunchy TV comedy and burgeoning media investigations, the channels for free expression are greater than ever. But controversies over how far we can take this First Amendment right are alive and well. In our region, protests over a D.C.-based play have set off…
The recent killing of Bangladeshi blogger Ananta Bijoy Das on May 12 was not the first of its kind in Bangladesh. In fact, there have been at least seven assassination attempts on secularist bloggers and activists like Das since 2013. Three of these murders have been in the past four months and the death threats…
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” I am reminded about this timeless quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as hatred and violent attacks fill the airwaves. As an American and as an Ahmadi Muslim, I condemn the attack in Garland,…