Facebook game calls attention to illegal dowry demands

Last week, a new game was launched on Facebook.  But unlike your usual games this was a game with a difference.  Angry Brides, based on Rovio's popular Angry Birds was launched by Indian matchmaking site Shaadi.com with the objective of calling attention to illegal dowry demands.

Illegal dowry demands have been a bane for the women in South Asian countries, and this game has been launched for making people aware of the tragedies that dowry can bring about.

Though the practice of giving dowry had been made illegal five decades ago, it is still being practiced in many South Asian countries like India, Pakistan et cetera.  According to the website, death linked to dowry demands occur in India every four hours.

Post launch the game has attained above 270,000 likes on Facebook and as per Shaadi.com Vice president Ram Bhamidi, both men and women seem to be playing it.

Bihar's trailblazer - Civil consequences of crime initiative

Bihar government's home department has become the initiator of a trailblazing move in the country - "Civil consequences of crime."   According to this initiative a person convicted of a crime in Bihar, whose appeal the Court has rejected will be ineligible for various amenities and his crime will shadow him for the rest of his life.  These persons will be ineligible for, among other facilities, contracts, government jobs, passport, holding offices in NGOS, licences for arms, and with respect to seeking loan, the related information has to be provided.

As per this initiative, details of person with abovementioned qualification such as name, address, crimes, conviction, and sentence will be displayed on Bihar's home department website launched on Sunday by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

According to DGP Abhayanand, usually convicted persons hide their conviction details while seeking licence or job or contract and avail of afore mentioned amenities, however after uploading of the person's details, the person cannot cover up such details anymore and private companies as well as government departments can check the website towards verifying the person's details.

The initiative has objective of furthering rule of law as well as checking crime.  And already records obtained from jails nearing 1,450 have been uploaded with more to follow.

Central Information Commission website displays pending cases list

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has for the first time, amidst rising complaints with respect to arbitrary hearing of cases, commenced display of list of cases pending before each commissioner online .

As per Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra, cases pending before the Chief Information Commissioner as well as the Information Commissioner have been uploaded and other commissioners probably will follow suit. However, he stated that a time frame has not been set for the same.

There are about 22,000 cases pending before the CIC and nearly 2,500 cases get added each month.

The move was in consequence of an RTI application seeking information pertaining to status of a case filed a year back.

According to Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi this move by the CIC of public listing of all the cases that are pending will act as a self-regulatory check as well as restoring the citizens' faith in these institutions.

Google, Facebook admonished by Delhi High Court

In a move that could potentially have far-reaching consequences on internet usage as one knows it, the Delhi High Court on Thursday refused the quashing of the criminal complaint filed against Facebook and Google with regard to images posted online depicting Gods and Goddesses in an objectionable manner.

The litigation assumes great significance because the previous year the government had failed in making U.S. websites check online content, as well as due to the fact that various U.S. based companies are looking at the Indian market; India being, after China and the U.S.A., the country with the third largest number of Internet users in the world.

The Judge told counsel representing Google India and Facebook India that for now it is the image of Gods and Goddesses but tomorrow it could spiral into one of someone from one's family, and that there needed some kind of control in this matter.  The Delhi High Court admonished the websites to comply and regulate the content that was objectionable.  The Court also declared that it had the authority to block all websites that were not in compliance.

The matter has been set for further hearing on Monday, January 16, 2012.