Parliament to organise 2-day awareness session for MPs on internet security

On account of concerns of breach of privacy and snooping, Parliament will organise a two-day awareness session for Members of Parliament next week. The session will increase awareness on “internet and mobile safety and security”. It will cover the “e-mail policy of the government”, “mobile and desktop security”, “privacy and security concerns while using various apps”, and “privacy and security concerns while using social media”. MPs will be briefed on Monday and Tuesday by officers of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and CERT-in (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team). The government has until now stonewalled queries from MPs on the alleged snooping incident on Whatsapp, but has been forced to conduct such sessions after red flags were raised not just by opposition MPs but also by some from the ruling party.

Facelift for UP Cong media wing

Ever since Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took on the arduous task of re-energising her party’s comatose Uttar Pradesh unit last year, the party has been in experiment mode. From rejigging the organisational structure, inducting new members, and expelling rebels, the grand old party has tried everything in the book to put together a winning team before the UP elections two years later. In the final leg, the party has reorganised its media panel and inducted members who had been “benched” under the new scheme of things. The media wing comprises veterans whose experience and goodwill among media houses will likely come in handy in fashioning the election strategy.

Netflix vs Delhi

Around 14.7 million people in Delhi voted on Saturday in an election bitterly fought between Arvind Kejriwal's ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. But streaming service Netflix had a different idea. In a tweet it said: “It’s Saturday which means *naps while my favourite show plays in the background*”. That drew a sharp response from AAP: “No!!! First go out and VOTE!” the party posted on its official Twitter handle. Despite being urged by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kejriwal, the voter turnout for the Delhi polls remained low through the day, though it picked up somewhat towards the afternoon, touching about 63 per cent by 5 pm, but still short of the figure logged during the 2015 Assembly elections.