The ministry has taken a strong position on the matter, and made it clear that it is not just problematic but also "irresponsible" for the messaging platform to leverage its position to impose "unfair" terms and conditions on Indian users, when many depend on WhatsApp to communicate in everyday life, according to the sources.
Till now, only 33 per cent of such employees were asked to attend office due to the novel coronavirus-triggered lockdown. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said the move will help towards normal functioning of central government offices.
The spectator size too has been reduced to 25,000, officials said.
Besides the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian also issued notices to the News Broadcasters Association, the News Broadcasting Standards Authority of India and the Press Council of India on the PIL filed by Delhi-based lawyer Reepak Kansal.
The ban against the eight Chinese apps -- Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay, and WPS Office -- will come into effect in 45 days from Tuesday.
Given the security dilemma prevailing between India and China, India should curb the operation of Chinese telecom companies in India, asserts Dr Rup Narayan Das.
At a media briefing, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi asked Pakistan to focus on setting its own house in order in containing terror networks and said that the international community is well aware of that country's credentials when it comes to terrorism.
Besides representatives of Facebook, the committee has asked representatives of the ministry of electronics and information technology to remain present on September 2 to discuss on the subject of "safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space".
The political slugfest has been going on between the two, which started after Tharoor's announcement that the panel would like to hear from Facebook about the report published in Wall Street Journal claiming that the social media platform ignored applying its hate-speech rules to politicians of the ruling party in India.
Before the pandemic hit the world and led to shutdowns, the company had received nearly half a dozen offers. But bidders are now withdrawing. They want to reassess the situation. They want to conserve cash and avoid acquisition.
The government said that the unilateral changes are not fair and acceptable.
He said the force, which guards over 6,300 km of India's land border with Pakistan in the west and Bangladesh on the east, is faced by four main challenges on the security front.
Twitter has blocked several accounts and tweets after the government asked the microblogging platform to take action against 250 handles and posts for containing 'false and provocative content' related to the ongoing farmers' agitation, according to sources.
While Facebook said on Tuesday it will publish an interim report on July 2 as mandated by the IT rules, Google will publish its transparency report as required under the new IT Rules in India.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which seeks to regulate digital news media.
Facebook had collected certificates from both the firms in 2016-17 that data collected by them using "thisisyourdigitallife" was accounted for and destroyed.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the much-awaited 2022-23 Union Budget on February 1. While there has been strong recovery in some sectors, touch services like hospitality, tourism and leisure continue to suffer after two Covid-19 waves. Household savings have been hit due to increased spending on health care. Consumption has still not reached pre-pandemic levels.
Businesses with monthly turnover of over Rs 50 lakh will have to mandatorily pay at least 1 per cent of their GST liability in cash, the finance ministry said as it moved to curb evasion by fake invoicing. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has introduced Rule 86B in Goods and Services Tax (GST) rules which restricts use of input tax credit (ITC) for discharging GST liability to 99 per cent. "... The registered person shall not use the amount available in electronic credit ledger to discharge his liability towards output tax in excess of 99 per cent of tax liability, in cases where the value of taxable supply ... in a month exceeds Rs 50 lakh," the CBIC said.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday closed proceedings in a petition alleging non-compliance of new IT Rules by Twitter, saying that 'nothing remained' in view of the central government being satisfied with the micro-blogging platform appointing a chief compliance officer (CCO), resident grievance officer (RGO) and nodal contact person.
Private hospitals can charge up to Rs 250 per dose of COVID-19 vaccine, official sources said on Saturday as India prepares to vaccinate people aged above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities from March 1.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) also told Justice Navin Chawla that on October 9 it issued an advisory to all private satellite TV channels to adhere to the programme code provided under the Cable Television Networks Rules.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Thursday said if actors Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar do not take a stand on the issue of fuel price hike, then screening of their films and shootings would not be allowed in the state.
The apex court, which asked the Centre to consider creating a regulatory mechanism and apprise it, said the government should also inform as to what steps have been taken on the issue under the Cable Television Network Act (CTNA).
Junior minister for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar briefly lost the verified blue badge on his Twitter handle on Monday after he changed his username on the microblogging platform.
CAG recommended fixing a definite time frame for rolling out simplified GST return forms.
Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani on Friday India is well-placed on the government and businesses fronts to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in unique ways to solve challenges and tap into opportunities. Nilekani noted that over the last few years, the government has focussed on how to make transactions more efficient and effective, which has driven digitisation across the board. He added that as a byproduct of this, huge data now across systems has been generated and that the time is right to apply AI across the board to India's most challenging issues across areas like healthcare and education.
As part of the ritual, ''halwa'' is prepared in a big ''kadhai'' (large frying pot) and served to the entire staff involved in the Budget making exercise of the ministry. Halwa was served while maintaining COVID protocol with all present in mask and those distributing sweets were wearing gloves.
Koo, which works on similar lines as Twitter, was born with a focus on regional language, unlike Twitter and Facebook, which are very popular but primarily cater to an English-speaking audience, reports Neha Alawadhi.
The ministry of electronics and information technology has directed WhatsApp to withdraw its new privacy policy, according to sources. The IT ministry believes that the changes to WhatsApp privacy policy and the manner of introducing the said changes undermines the sacrosanct values of informational privacy, data security and user choice and harms the rights and interests of Indian citizens, government sources said. The government has given seven days to WhatsApp to respond to the notice and if no satisfactory response is received, necessary steps in consonance with law will be taken, sources informed. In a communication to WhatsApp on May 18, the ministry has once again told the messaging platform to withdraw its privacy policy 2021, they said.
In a communication to chief secretaries and director generals of police of all states, the ministry asked them to take action to allay apprehensions and maintain peace and tranquillity, and inform people about the availability of food, medicine and other essential commodities.
Representatives of Facebook India have been asked to appear on Friday before the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi, while Twitter officials are required to appear before the panel on October 28, as per the notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
"As many as 1.12 million expats corrected their professions until July 6. We have also issued and renewed more than 1.6 million work permits during the period," Abdullah Abuthnain, Deputy Minister for Inspections and Developing Work Atmosphere, was quoted by the local media as saying.
Importers will now have to provide sufficient proof to the domestic customs authorities that the goods being imported have a minimum 35 per cent value addition in the country from which it is being exported to India.
The Chinese sub-contractor had been removed following the directives of the ministry of power regarding vulnerabilities in the power supply system and network.
The government needs to make the right policies and further execute them properly if it wants to move towards this goal
'Pakistan was very mature in the way it dealt with the incident.' 'India too owned up to the accident.' 'The whole incident was resolved quite amicably.' 'Both countries should be proud of how they have handled this situation.'
Ahead of the Union Cabinet expansion on Wednesday, several Union Ministers, including Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar resigned from their posts.
According to the proposal, the MHA is working on a new 'model' where the burden of internal security duties, including conduct of elections, will be largely borne by the country's largest paramilitary force, the CRPF.
The plea was filed by advocate Chaitanya Rohilla who stated that WhatsApp changed its privacy policy in "most arbitrary manner" and had made it compulsory for its users to accept its terms and conditions, failing which the accounts and services would be terminated after February 8, 2021 for the respective user.
Fintech giant Paytm claimed it is selling more FASTags than all the banks put together on a daily basis.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances