16 APRIL 2014

Ø  In a major diplomatic initiative, India is all set to challenge the U.S.’ hegemony of the World Wide Web at a global meet on Internet governance in Sao Paulo (Brazil) next week. India has decided to propose renaming of Internet as ‘Equinet’ so that all nations can have equal say in its operations, besides calling for “internationalisation” of core Internet resources. Starting April 23, the two-day, ‘Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Governance’, also referred to as ‘NETmundial’, will see representatives from nearly 180 nations debating the future of Internet governance and cyber security. India has decided to take this opportunity to highlight U.S. dominance of the Internet and press for equal rights and say for all nations on matters related to Internet governance and cyber security. India is likely to side with Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and Iran to make its point. In fact, it was Brazil which took the lead in organising this conference parallel to the U.S.-dominated Internet Governance Forum (IGF) following reports of U.S. agencies spying on top Brazil government officials, including President Dilma Rousseff’s office, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower.

Ø  Oxford archaeologists working at Pattanam, located 25 km north of Kochi, have confirmed that it was an Indian port frequented by Romans and have put to rest doubts about the antiquity of the site.

Ø  The Indian harvest festival was jointly celebrated by personnel of the Indian and Chinese armies at a ‘Border Personnel Meeting’ held at the Nathu La border post in east Sikkim.

Ø   The All-India Services (AIS) officers from the A.P. have represented to the Pratyush Sinha committee on allocation of AIS officers between the two successor States that they be given options to choose one of the States.

Ø  Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram has been designated as the new Finance Secretary.