The Centre for Internet and Society
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India blocks access to 857 porn sites
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bbc-news-august-3-2015-india-blocks-access-to-857-porn-sites
<b>India has blocked free access to 857 porn sites in what it says is a move to prevent children from accessing them. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The story was published by BBC on August 3, 2015. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Adults will still be able to access the sites using virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxy servers. In July, the Supreme Court expressed its unhappiness over the government's inability to block sites, especially those featuring child pornography.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Telecom companies have said they will not be able to enforce the "ban" immediately.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"We have to block each site one by one and it will take a few days for all service providers to block all the sites," an unnamed telecom company executive told The Times of India newspaper.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A senior official, who preferred to remained unnamed, told the BBC Hindi that India's department of telecommunications had "advised" telecom operators and Internet service providers to "control free and open access" to <a class="story-body__link-external">857 porn sites</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"There is no total ban. This was done in the backdrop of Supreme Court's observation on children having free access to porn sites. The idea is also to protect India's cultural fabric. This will not prevent adults from visiting porn sites," the official said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In July, the top court had observed that it was not for the court to order a ban on porn sites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"It is an issue for the government to deal with. Can we pass an interim order directing blocking of all adult websites? And let us keep in mind the possible contention of a person who could ask what crime have I committed by browsing adult websites in private within the four walls of my house. Could he not argue about his right to freedom to do something within the four walls of his house without violating any law?," the court said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">According to <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.pornhub.com/insights/2014-year-in-review">statistics released</a> by adult site Pornhub, India was its fourth largest source of traffic in 2014, behind the US, UK and Canada. Pranesh Prakash of the Bangalore based Centre for Internet and Society said the directive to block the 857 sites was "the largest single order of its kind" in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"The government's reasoning that it is not a ban because adults can still access the porn sites is ridiculous," he told the BBC. The move has caused a great deal of comment on Indian social media networks, with many prominent personalities coming forward to condemn it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Popular author Chetan Bhagat, writer and commentator Nilanjana Roy, politician Milind Deora and director Ram Gopal Varma have all added their voices to the debate.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bbc-news-august-3-2015-india-blocks-access-to-857-porn-sites'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bbc-news-august-3-2015-india-blocks-access-to-857-porn-sites</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshCensorshipFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet GovernanceDigital MediaChilling Effect2015-08-05T01:31:32ZNews Item'Originality,' 'Authenticity,' and 'Experimentation': Understanding Tagore’s Music on YouTube
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/blog_understanding-tagores-music-on-youtube
<b>This post by Ipsita Sengupta is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. In this essay, she explores the responses to various renditions of songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore available on YouTube and the questions they raise regarding online listening cultures and ideas of authorship of music. </b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>On typing “Rabindra Sangeet” on YouTube, one finds videos of the concerned Bengali songs in diverse visual and aural compositions. Just like for every other type of video that is put up on the site, as interesting as the videos may be, is the feedback they receive.</p>
<p>At the centre of this essay are such videos found on the social media platform YouTube, ones that play Rabindra Sangeet. Literally, “Songs of Rabindra(nath)”, this is a term used to identify poetic and musical pieces penned and composed in the late 19th- early 20th centuries by the Bengali writer and artist Rabindranath Tagore. The body of work has today become a genre among Indian music.</p>
<p>User-generated expression of YouTube makes it a medium with simultaneous individual and group dynamics. Apart from feedback as quantitative data through “Views”, “Likes” and “Dislikes”, the opinions of many users can be found in the “Comments” section.</p>
<p>Visuals of YouTube song videos of Rabindra Sangeet are diverse. So are renditions, with solitary or duet or band performances, and with varying rhythm and instrumental accompaniment. The set of comments below each video sometimes take the form of a conversation. Between applause and criticism, the latter is of special interest here.</p>
<p>Content of specific kinds seem to face disapproval: visual montages and stills from contemporary cinema, like images of urban youth, romance, longing. Some have shots of band performers and some, album cover images. Some of these renditions can be categorized as remixes because of their fast pace, bouncy vocals and electronic melody. The comments in question reflect and reveal hurt sentiments of people trying to preserve some kind of sanctity and authenticity of Rabindra Sangeet.</p>
<p>They state in different ways that the ethics of presenting the genre have been violated, via their notation and design; either by either makers of the film in the song’s incorporation, or by the way young pop stars have been placed in particular montages.</p>
<p>Here are some comments below to illustrate what audiences find wrong. The video is embedded below, followed by the comments posted on the video page.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/cjRLkITYhqk?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>What a rubbish song! Just remember please that Rabindra sangeet is not for Band musicians ! Please do not distort Rabindra sangeet. Only idiots will try to do so. Shame on you lot !
</li><li>Unfortunately these band party can never be anything like that great man....hence they should stop making fun of his creation....</li>
<li>This song is from Shyama and I think that the innocent beauty of a young boy falling in love with a court dancer. The arrangement does not suit the lyrics.</li></ul>
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<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/lSgEsoGGZjQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="480"></iframe></p>
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<ul>
<li>Who has sung this? Started well, but after a while it changed the melody on its own. Only Bengalis are so indecent to change the work of the composer while performing. But otherwise, the voice is promising.</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oCmdFo3felo?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="480"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Robindra shongoter ijjot nosto kore dise... super dislike... (“They have destroyed the dignity of Rabindra Sangeet... super dislike...”)</li>
<li>Henshit! rock does not suit to melody and classics. Don't fusion "Sangeet"/ folk/patriotic songs.</li></ul>
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<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VGM-T5cME-4?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="480"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Rabindra sangeet is usually better off with minimum instrumental accompaniment. That is why the Kishore Kumar version is more appealing. And the maestro Hemanta Mukherji used only a harmonium and tabla for most of his superb renditions.</li>
<li>Simply bogus. In Bengali... Shreya r nyaka voice just intolerable (“Shreya's coquettish voice just intolerable”).</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/yer7wAJdHSA?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="480"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>some confused experiments with a song rendered by many exponents. This singer in his misguided modernism mostly misses the target.</li>
<li>bhalo lagche na shunte...Rabindra Nath er gaan er opor please bekar improvisation ta korben na...onar opor churi kachi ta nai ba chalalen... (“I am not enjoying listening to this... please do not do useless improvisations on Rabindranath's songs... do not use knives and scissors on him...)</li>
<li>… Tomra please originality maintain kore experiment koro … (...Could you please maintain originality while experimenting...)</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/WfHX5y-xI2w?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="480"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>...Go listen to the original tagore score and then come here with some innovative posts, k?</li>
<li>Absolutely bogus. Very badly sung. Who the hell is the singer? It has Jhankar beats too!!! Who the hell is the music director? Shame that people of such low taste and caliber are directing Bengali movies nowadays. Maobadi der diye petano uchit eder (“They should be beaten up by the Maoists)!!!!!</li></ul>
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<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-ywjZshLBrI?rel=0" frameborder="0" height="480" width="640"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>THere should be a self imposing limit of Screwing rabindra sangeet.</li>
<li>F...king Indian Hindi speaking bas....ds</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p>This is not to say that these voices reign supreme. The listeners who enjoy the works leave great appreciation and also debate with the naysayers. But here I am taking into account the criticism that the videos receive. They have turned out to be more descriptive than the appreciation, and because of this they open up a lot of questions. We observe them in the light of both the medium as well as some understanding of the artistic ideals Tagore aspired to in his lifetime. The complete list of URLs of videos with their comments is given in the bibliography.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>The Poetic/Musical Works of Tagore and Technologies of Access</h2>
<p>Tagore was born in 1858 in a wealthy landowning household in Bengal. In his growing up years, the household Jorasanko was a space where Western and Indian lifestyles and artistic developments coexisted. Besides his own training in musical performance, and education and cultural exposure abroad, he also grew up amidst the rich musical, literary and theatrical talent of his family members.</p>
<p>Tagore was impressed and inspired by all kinds of artists and musical styles, and traces of these are found in his compositions and lyrics- whether folk, the ritualistic <em>Kirtan</em>, the mystic <em>Bauls</em> of rural Bengal, or even songs native to the West. For example the Scottish song ‘Auld Lang Syne’ influenced ‘purano shei diner kotha’ and ‘Ye banks and braes’ inspired ‘phule phule dhole dhole’ (Som, 2009).</p>
<p>From a young age itself, the poet was uncomfortable with strict boundaries and rules, one of them being the tight-rope walk over <em>Raaga</em>-based notations and rhythm structures of Indian classical music. He did believe in the power of <em>Raagas</em> to evoke the emotion they were said to be designed for, and while placing his poetry in musical compositions, he based his tunes on <em>Raagas</em> depending on the mood of his verse. However, he would combine melodic characteristics of established <em>Raagas</em> very often- a common practice with artists resulting in “mishra”, or mixed <em>Raagas</em>. He even combined rhythms or <em>Taala</em>s, and designed new ones for his songs. He found the classical genre embellishments of <em>Taan</em> and <em>Aalaap</em> unnecessary and left them out. “He declared his songs to be his unabashed expression of modernity because in them he could escape adhering to any expected literary standard” (Som, 2009).</p>
<p>Tagore lived in an era when Indian classical music was being written down with notations which were intelligible to Western audiences. Though he put on paper notations for his own songs, it so happened sometimes that when he was asked to sing in a public gathering, he could not remember the exact composition he’d first created. He would improvise immediately and complete the performance successfully.
There were also times when his students or family members would sing their own interpretation of his tunes. Though his contemplation on it was based on a personal judgment of how well they adapted what he'd taught and how talented they were, he realised that the other singer was “not a gramophone” and he’d have to “grant that artistic independence” (Som, 2009).</p>
<p>“The art with which he matched melody with each nuanced lyric or combined ragas and improvised novel musical expressions, made each song a gem to be discovered anew everytime it is sung” (ibid, 2009). We may admit this but through this thought we may also understand that every live vocal rendition is intangible, however much we stick to notations.</p>
<p>In the electronic age, however much we record a rendition on devices, it is stored as data taking up space. Data is a common form that text, visuals, and audio all take. Though some recordings of Tagore's voice can be found online, they are digital versions that have been converted from the analog. Besides the technical transition, today's listener is also accessing it through a device and not listening to him performing. Two dynamics could happen here: either his performances are immortalised by the technology which has collected the sound of his voice in the exact way he has performed them and audiences will form an idea of “authentic” or “original”. And the other is that the audience will understand that in his time, when his voice was recorded, effects like electronic disco beats had not been invented.</p>
<p>That way, the performances of Tagore's verses that we are witnessing on YouTube today are the tangible notations combining with fresh new thought processes and constantly changing music performance styles, and manifesting on a contemporary media space. It is beyond just a copy, as we will see later, and to put it in Tagore's own words, it is “not a gramophone”.</p>
<p>Perhaps the accompanying instruments that were recommended for the verses have been replaced in a particular video with other and/or newer sources of musical sound- like digital sound. And the visuals in the video were probably not what the author was familiar with in his lifetime- body language of human actors, their clothes, the cityscape, and the like. In the film clips and non-cinematic material of Rabindra Sangeet videos, contemporary visuals include digital copies of photographs of Tagore and his contemporaries that help us make sense of his era.</p>
<p>“Adapting Chion’s theorisation of Dolby sound, the aesthetics of the remix may be thought of not as a consequence of technical changes but rather as the way in which technology combines with different musics to create the remix” (Duggal, 2010). It's not that new technology like electronic beats happens to an old composition when time passes and corrupts it like fungus or dust, it is that one one applies new aesthetics to an older text to innovate.</p>
<p>Describing the prime place of music in the hierarchy of sound in the cultural history of the West, Kahn discussed the phobia of sound that was not “significant” (Kahn, 2003). For a long time, sounds that reproduced the world for us- such as ambient sounds or noise- and which came via machines instead of established musical instruments were not considered valid within music. His stand in this context was that “it would make more sense to experience artistic works in their own right, not how they might conform to gross categorical distinctions”.</p>
<p>Given the artistic spontaneity which Tagore believed in, and the changing technology, what do we mean when we say that Rabindra Sangeet is being “distorted”, or its dignity (“ijjot”) or “innocence” threatened? What is the misunderstood modern? What is this “original” missing from “experimentation”? Especially when the composer himself is not witness to the forms his songs are taking today, what is this imagination of the ideal performance that leads to the judgment that another type of performance is not acceptable?</p>
<p>Perhaps at this point we can also shine a tiny light on Tagore's beliefs in other spheres. “Nationalism” is a compilation of a series of lectures given around the world, which Tagore gave in the 1916-‘17. In the introduction to this compilation, Guha illustrates Tagore’s realisation that mindless boycotting of everything that the West introduced in India in the name of Swadeshi (which he used to support) was to throw out the baby with the bath water. Quoting a letter Tagore wrote to a friend in 1908, he writes, “ ‘I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live” ’ (Guha, 2009).</p>
<p>Soon after delivering these lectures in US and Japan, the Visva Bharati University was founded in December 1918. Tagore envisioned “a synthesis of the East and the West through a healthy intellectual and cultural interaction” (Som, 2009). Ironically, Visva Bharati, for over six decades after his death, held a copyright on Tagore’s work and assumed exclusive right of approval over song recordings of how notations were to be followed.</p>
<p>Surely it is not only due to a lack of understanding of Tagore's ideals that some renditions are marked as <em>wrong</em>? Many who don't appreciate the new versions may actually be well aware of his life story or beliefs. At various instances, the beats, the voice, the performers are targeted. Can we put a finger on the problem? Does it have something to do with the means of interaction of the medium? What is this search for the authentic or the correct? Is there a xenophobia of generational shifts in lifestyle - the opposition to a lifestyle because that is the “other” of a fantasy of tradition, it is not “high culture”? Because internet access transcends boundaries of class, education, and generation?</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Mechanical Reproduction and Digital Media</h2>
<p>In the early 20th century, when Tagore was writing his songs, in another part of the world political thinker Benjamin wrote in his timeless essay that when a work of art is mechanically reproduced, when there are only copies and the “original” in a particular place and space in history loses significance, its distribution boosts its “exhibition value” (Benjamin, 1936). “The work of art becomes a creation with entirely new functions, among which the one we are conscious of, the artistic function, later may be recognized as incidental.” The “social significance” (ibid.) of an art work increases with multiple reproductions of it reaching the masses because the ritual value of it goes down, and it becomes open to as much criticism as enjoyment or reverence.</p>
<p>On social media spaces this democracy is visible on the same page- such as the “Comments” discussion. The “aura” (ibid.) of the “original” Tagore cannot exist in the flux of digital reproductions and uploads of individual creations- how valid then is the fight over it? Or is it in fact a fear of losing in this flux a memory of something revered? Does that imagined revered have something to do with defining and maintaining a community identity in this passageway of a multitude of identities that is the internet?</p>
<p>One of the integral features of a social media space is the option of “sharing” the content, i.e., individuals transmit it further to other users. While YouTube’s Likes and Comments give the content a boost and analytics from YouTube automatically circulate this more “popular” content, individual users have a major role in the circulation of online content.</p>
<p>Besides directly sharing, they can take either the audio or visual aspects of a video piece, restructure or redesign the piece, creating as a result an all new video and circulating that. Through “appropriation and reproduction”, “the web in general, and the web video in particular intensify the culture of the copy, for it provides its users free access to an immense database of ready-to-use information” (Vanderbeeken, 2011).</p>
<p>Someone may download from elsewhere an audio composition used earlier in a video of “concentration music”, attach it to different visuals, and upload it back on YouTube under “relaxation music”. After all, as studies have found, the response to one’s online content through mechanisms such as “likes” give the author a sense of gratification and encourages him/her to keep checking notifications every few minutes- on various social media platforms.</p>
<p>In such a situation, “the original creator suddenly occupies the position of yet another spectator. Within this process, the role of transmitters is so important that they assume a vague position of authority over the works” (Menotti, 2011). Through its one on one connection with the spectator, each individual video exists as an independent entity subject to active, on the spot feedback as well as manipulation by every individual who watches it. And of course, circulation is in the hands of each viewer resulting in content originating as altogether new information.</p>
<p>At this juncture I would like to make an intervention using a formulation by Frith, about the fluid, transitional nature of identity. “It is in deciding- playing and hearing what sounds right- that we both express ourselves, our own sense of rightness, and suborn ourselves, lose ourselves, in an act of participation” (Frith, 1996).</p>
<p>Let us take for example, another type of video found on YouTube. Instrumental pieces of music with descriptions such as “music for concentration”, “study music”, and even “brain music”. If we break down the description along these lines, we have firstly, tunes of any kind and varying pace on string and wind instruments. Then colourful visuals of mostly natural landscapes, the human body, or graphical representations of the “mind”. The written word accompanies the frame, and each aspect combines to add meaning to the other two.</p>
<p>Just because the label says that the music will enhance concentration, does it always have that effect? Our everyday experiences with the audio-visual would have surely shown us that the design of a composition- both musical and cinematic- does not necessarily make everyone feel the same way. Moreover, the credibility of video descriptions is always subject to doubt, as discussed above.</p>
<p>We see thus that in case of online media, it holds true all the more that one acquires or asserts an identity in playing/listening to a performance of some sort of music and adding opinions below, as much as the performance or presentation itself. We can actually trace this to a perspective that a remixed video is a form of feedback too- to an earlier understanding of Rabindra-Sangeet by the maker who thought that the genre could be expressed this way as well. “The intrinsic relationship of ‘original’ to ‘imitation’ is weakened” (Vanderbeeken, 2011), and this is where digital media picks up from where analog technology left off.</p>
<p>In such an interaction, between human beings exchanging data with equal authorship over it, could YouTube be playing a role in the “production of the rhetoric of the classical and canonical” (Duggal, 2010) around a historical figure from eastern India, where some audio-visual images are acceptable to his definition and others not?</p>
<p>An older and a newer understanding of the same cultural object co-exist on one space such as the standardised video frames of YouTube. Alongside Tagore's voice are those of Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Jayati Chakraborty, Shreya Ghoshal, and many others. A sense of the “original” exists beyond Tagore's voice because everybody has not sung it fast- if its rules were to go slow. And if somebody wants to give a tribute to Rabindra Sangeet by pepping it up, he/she obviously must not have meant to “ruin” it.</p>
<p>Is it the anonymity of the Comments space which makes the discussions the way they are? Because one cannot see the person who has uploaded it and is confident that what they were taught was the only truth- the uploader/ content creator probably comes across as an imposter.</p>
<p>But maybe this search for the “correct” rendition is a search for political correctness in a world densely connected through information technology, where one's identity through a databank of online searches does not belong just to oneself but to corporations and advertisers too. Could there also be people who believe that the very act of having Rabindra Sangeet online is a mismatch of the authentic Tagore experience- because the internet is not from his time or geographical location?</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>As described earlier, when Tagore composed his music largely based on the notational arrangements prescribed by <em>Raagas</em>, he removed what he determined were complications of the indigenous classical music system. What he retained were what he comprehended as the moods evoked by particular <em>Raagas</em>, and engineered several songs on selected rules of different <em>Raagas</em>. In the process, he created a genre which those who were not fortunate enough to get formal training in the classical grammar of music could sing and engage in.</p>
<p>From the point of view of pure classical renditions being “high art”, Rabindra Sangeet thus could not fit into that umbrella. But it was popular and regarded because it spoke to the people, as a result of which it is still given a special place in collective memory after 100 years. Thus we see that “in terms of aesthetic process there is no real difference between high and low music” (Frith, 1996).</p>
<p>Social media exposes today that musical spontaneity has constraints in the collective memory of forms. Proving at the same time that music truly cannot be contained- since it has such diverse imaginations of the “real” at a time when the author is not alive any more. Tagore was “comfortable in the knowledge that his songs were like wild flowers” (Som, 2009), drawing from natural landscapes and human emotions. Is YouTube telling us that in this century, some consumers of his music might be narrowing down definitions of “significant sound” to identity politics around a literary figure and his homeland? Or simply trying to hold on to something familiar in an ever changing zone, resisting- perhaps unconsciously- an attempt by others to reinterpret it through their reality or sense of beauty?</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
<p>Benjamin, Walter. 1936. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Trans. Harry Zohn. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Schocken/Random House, 2005. <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm" target="_blank">https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm</a></p>
<p>Duggal, Vebhuti. The Hindi Film Song Remix: Memory, History, Affect. Diss. Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2010.</p>
<p>Frith, Simon. “Music and Identity”. Questions of Cultural Identity. Eds. Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay. Sage Publications, 1996.</p>
<p>Guha, Ramachandra. Introduction. Nationalism. Rabindranath Tagore. Penguin Books, 2009.</p>
<p>Kahn, Douglas. “The Sound of Music”. The Auditory Culture Reader. Eds. Michael Bull and Les Black. Berg Publishers, 2003.</p>
<p>Menotti, Gabriel. “Objets Propages: The Internet Video as an Audiovisual Format”. Video Vortex Reader II: Moving Images Beyond YouTube. Eds. Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles. INC Reader #6, 2011.</p>
<p>Som, Reba. Rabindranath Tagore: The Singer and his Song. Penguin Books India, 2009.</p>
<p>Tagore, Rabindranath. Nationalism. Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1918.</p>
<p>Vanderbeeken, Robrecht. “Web Video and the Screen as a Mediator and Generator of Reality”. Video Vortex Reader II: Moving Images Beyond YouTube. Eds. Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles. INC Reader #6, 2011.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>The post is published under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International</a> license, and copyright is retained by the author.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/blog_understanding-tagores-music-on-youtube'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/blog_understanding-tagores-music-on-youtube</a>
</p>
No publisherIpsita SenguptaDigital MediaResearchers at WorkRAW Blog2016-07-07T02:18:12ZBlog EntryCorporate push to Modi’s Rs.4.5-billion digital dream
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-statesman-rakesh-kumar-july-13-2015-corporate-push-modis-billion-digital-dream
<b>Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Rs. 4.5-billion digital dream seems to find favour with the corporate world, which calls it a “very progressive step” and “massive tech push”.
</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Rakesh Kumar was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thestatesman.com/news/business/corporate-push-to-modi-s-rs-4-5-billion-digital-dream/75451.html">published in the Statesman on July 13, 2015</a>. Sumandro Chattapadhyay was quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Modi shared his dreams at the recent Digital India Week in the capital and the event saw big names from the business world—Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Wipro Ltd chairman Azim Premji, among others—supporting the initiative.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Showing its faith in Modi’s dream, Reliance Industries is all set to invest over Rs.2.5 lakh crore in the initiative that would focus on cloud computing and mobile applications, empowering every citizen with access to digital services, knowledge and information. <br /><br />The initiative could boost the IT sector, which according to NASSCOM witnesses a robust growth in 2015, with the calculated revenue for FY 2015 at $147 billion, and a growth of 13 per cent from the corresponding period 2014.<br /><br />“From an IT perspective, this is a sincere approach to problem solving with growth, realism and long-term transformation at the core,” said Manish Sharma, president, Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) and managing director, Panasonic India, in an exclusive interview to thestatesman.com.<br /><br />“Empowering citizens with the use of IT, we believe Digital India is a massive tech push to provide electronic governance and universal phone connectivity across the country,” he added.<br /><br />CEAMA and Panasonic are willing to contribute to Digital India through technological expertise and commitment.<br /><br />The Indian information Technology (IT) industry is reportedly pegged at $118-billion and DS Rawat, secretary general, ASSOCHAM, feels the Digital India initiative could be a “game-changer”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Commenting on PM’s pledge to bring Internet connectivity to all Indians, Rawat told thestatesman.com: “The initiative is possible, provided the implementation of the schemes is done in a mission mode.”<br /><br />“The business and industry will be the major beneficiary in terms of quality of governance, which is possible through digital initiative. Besides, the industry itself has to prepare to deal with new emerging business models such as e-commerce,” he added.<br /><br />Modi, at the Digital India launch, said that “e-governance will be quickly changed into m-governance, and ‘M’ does not mean Modi governance, it means mobile governance.”<br /><br />Both, big corporate houses and small players hailed the PM’s remark. <br /><br />“It is good initiative for the railway sector in terms of passenger amenities, online procurement and technological up gradation,” said Amit Goel of Aggarwal Engineers in an interview to thestatesman.com.<br /><br />The company is active in the railway sector.<br /><br />When asked how Digital India initiative would help small companies, Goel said: “It will help us in many ways. By adopting e-governance, small companies can check and bid for the online procurement and will be able to interact with the concerned department through digital technology.”<br /><br />Anil Valluri of NetApp India said: “Digital India is one of the most significant transformations the country will witness by eventually connecting over a billion people of India, with technology as its focal point.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When it comes to IT transformation, cyber security emerges as a vital issue.</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), described the issue of digital security as the key to the “operationalisation and sustainability of the Digital India initiative”. “We expect the government not only to build administrative structures for ensuring cyber-security of the information systems, but also enable legal frameworks for protecting citizens from unlawful and unforeseen abuses of their digital identities as well as their digital assets.” Having said that, he praised the PM’s move, saying it will bring together various existing and new initiatives for building “network infrastructures for expanded public access, electronic governance systems for effective delivery of services, under the national policy umbrella of 'Digital India’”.</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Rajiv Kapur, managing director, Broadcom India, pointed out another benefit of the ubiquitous broadband sector, which according to a report, faces certain challenges such as low rural penetration, stagnant data usage over the years and limited broadband services.<br /><br />“It will help bring parity between the rural and urban India,” he said and added: “Today, we need solutions that allow the majority of rural Indian population to continue to stay at their homes, and not migrate to cities.”<br /><br />In a knowledge economy, the biggest difference that will make an impact is education.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Healthcare is another area where having connectivity can make big difference in quality of life," he said.<br /><br />“E-delivery of governance and services is important for the efficient use of government resources, and allows for collaborative, transparent and more efficient governance," the Broadcom managing director added.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-statesman-rakesh-kumar-july-13-2015-corporate-push-modis-billion-digital-dream'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-statesman-rakesh-kumar-july-13-2015-corporate-push-modis-billion-digital-dream</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaInternet Governance2015-07-16T02:26:24ZNews ItemOnly digital sex, please
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-may-31-2015-only-digital-sex-please
<b>Many Indian men are getting so dependent on digital sex and online pornography that they can’t handle real relationships. And a new book says this is happening the world over. Prasun Chandhuri and Avijit Chatterjee turn the spotlight on the trend</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150531/jsp/7days/story_23033.jsp">published in the Telegraph</a> on May 31. Rohini is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">P. Sharath doesn't know how to handle women. The 31-year-old software engineer, who works for a multinational company in Bangalore, thinks he doesn't need them either. The man who grew up in Hubli in Karnataka and now earns an eight-figure annual salary has his virtual world. That gives him his sexual satisfaction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Socially awkward, Sharath did try to date a woman, but the relationship broke within a few months because he found that she was getting to be "clingy" and "boring". An attempt by his family to fix a marriage with a woman failed when he groped her in a cinema hall. His online women, on the other hand, need no pampering, and do not complain.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sharath, however, is not happy. "He no longer gets any gratification from online sex and has been suffering from anxiety and depression," says Dr Ali Khwaja, a Bangalore-based psychologist and founder of the Banjara Academy, a counselling centre.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Increasingly, counsellors in urban India are coming across such cases of people who are so used to digital sex that they can't cope with real relationships any more. Khwaja refers to them as "hollow men" - people who go through despair after relations fail because of their dependence on digital pornography.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Almost every week I meet a young man addicted to porn," says Mumbai-based counsellor Shefali Batra, author of the recently published book <i>Teen Matters</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It's a pattern that many counsellors have noticed. As teenagers, young boys get hooked on to digital sex. "But it becomes a vicious addiction over time, playing havoc with their social and sexual development," Batra says. The women they meet do not match up to the large breasted and oversexed digital women - and the boys become men who cannot sustain marriages and relationships.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pornography has always existed, and some counsellors do not believe that it is always harmful. But the spread of the Internet, the easy availability of smartphones and the profusion of sophisticated sex games and other platforms have led to a situation where men merely log on for sexual satisfaction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet is bursting at the seams with sex sites. There are various types of sex games, including cartoon sex games, 3D sex games, virtual reality sex games and so on where the viewer can indulge in sex with three or four imaginary characters. Some online games offer virtual simulation sex. In a new genre of digital porn, users can enjoy 3D porn with a special virtual reality headset that allows them to step inside their favourite games and completely immerse themselves in a sexual fantasy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">And this is happening across the world. In a recently released book, <i>Men (Dis)Connected: How technology has sabotaged what it means to be male</i>, psychologist Philip Zimbardo holds that "masculinity" is being destroyed by online pornography and gaming technology.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"We have surveyed over 20,000 young people in many countries. Even though we don't have data on Indian men, we assume that the impact of freely available porn is creating a new breed of addicts in every country," he says in an email interview. "These men prefer to masturbate to visual images than have live sexual relations with real women."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nikita Coulombe, co-author of <i>Men (Dis)Connected</i>, adds that it is an "endless novelty" and a "virtual harem" for the men. "In 10 minutes you can see more 'mates' than your ancestors would have seen in their lifetime."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There was a time when people shrugged and said, it's just a phase. But Zimbardo believes that this addiction has gone beyond that and will have a "permanent negative impact" on young men everywhere because the porn industry is big business.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The professor emeritus at Stanford discovered this phenomenon when he found that many of his male students were shy and spent too much time poring over screens. Closer home, academic and writer Shiv Visvanathan had a similar experience while teaching at the O.P. Jindal University in Haryana.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Many of these guys do not know how to talk to a girl - they'd rather convey their feelings through text messages or through social networks or mobile phones. Sometimes you'll even see two people sitting close together but talking over the phone, just to avoid a face-to-face conversation," Visvanathan says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">What this means is that young men are not just wary of getting into relationships - they are not missing them either. "Porn gives them instant gratification which can be repeated, say, 200 times. Moreover, the virtual body seems more transformable than the actual body and it's fast," Visvanathan points out.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is an addiction that draws men more than women, primarily because the majority of Internet porn is male-centric and, more than teenage women, boys are addicted to computer games and associated thrills. "Research has affirmed that this is truer for the male brain in comparison to the female brain," explains Batra. "The male brain is more thrill and pleasure seeking and these exciting virtual realities provide an immense rush of pleasure in the brain."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Zimbardo's survey underlines this. It found that three out of five men expressed a "lack of interest in pursuing and maintaining a romantic relationship" while three out of four women between the ages of 18 and 30 said they were concerned about the "emotional immaturity or the unavailability" of men.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the celebrated psychologist plans to conduct a similar survey in India, concerns are already rising because the lack of sex education in schools and colleges - coupled with repressed backgrounds and exaggerated pornographic images - gives the young a warped idea of sex and relationships.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"In a society where talking about sex is taboo, their only avenue to satisfy sexual curiosities becomes porn," says Rohini Lakshane, researcher, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is why sexologist Prakash Kothari often encounters young men who yearn for a "14-inch organ" and suffer from performance anxiety and depression. "Proper sex education can teach them just two inches and oodles of erotic love are enough to satisfy your female partner," says Kothari.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The experts stress that they are not against pornography. "One should not shoot the messenger," contends Audrey D'Mello, programme director, Majlis, a legal counselling centre in Mumbai. "If used properly it can be an aphrodisiac," Kothari adds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But many of the images that the young today see are violent and bestial. "These twisted forms of sex are being consumed by young men and boys through smartphones across the country," laments Ira Trivedi, author of <i>India in Love</i>. Lakshane believes that easy access to violent pornography "degrades and objectifies women", giving men and boys a "skewed view of sex and intimacy".</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Calcutta-based Subhrangshu Aditya counselled a woman who wanted a divorce because her husband forced her to replicate all that he watched on porn. "It was torture for her, devoid of romantic love or eroticism," Aditya says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Indeed, the effect on men has an impact on women as well. Trivedi points out that as men devote themselves to porn, women go for measures such as vaginal beautification to attract men.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Or women go off sex altogether.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"These women have an extreme phobia about sex," says Aindri Sanyal, an infertility specialist at a Calcutta-based fertility centre. "Some haven't even got their marriage consummated. So they want to conceive through artificial insemination."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Is there a way out? Experts such as Khwaja are doing what they can. "I am trying to help Sharath socialise in mixed groups, then spend a few minutes at a time doing a favour for a woman, or showing a gesture. I want him to focus on understanding the emotions that girls go through and eventually make him understand how to interact with another flesh-and-blood person who has her own romantic and sexual needs," he says. "The process will take quite a long time."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Zimbardo, 82, wants the "socially crippled generation" to hit the Escape button on their digital devices. He wants to remind them that real sex involves communicating with a real person, feeling their pain, earning their trust and making a real connection to their heart. Like people did, once upon a time.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">If it’s May, it’s got to be India</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Some porn stats</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>In 2014, India ranked among the highest consumers of pornographic content in the world, according to Pornhub, an online video hub</li>
<li>Around 25 per cent of Indian visitors on Pornhub.com were women, 2 per cent higher than the worldwide average of 23 per cent</li>
<li>Indians seek out pornography most in May and least in October</li>
<li>More Indians surf porn on their smartphones than on desktops</li>
<li>On an average, Indians spend 8 minutes and 22 seconds per visit to Pornhub, 30 seconds less than the rest of the world</li>
<li>Of all states, people from Andhra Pradesh spend the least time on Pornhub — 6 min and 40 sec; people from West Bengal spend 9 min and 5 sec; people from Assam spend 9 min and 55 sec</li>
<li>Sunny Leone is India’s favourite porn star</li>
<li>In most places in the world, porn is viewed most on Monday, but in India, it’s on Saturday</li>
<li>Porn viewing in India dips by over 25 per cent on Diwali, Dussehra, New Year’s Eve and Gandhi Jayanti.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-may-31-2015-only-digital-sex-please'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-may-31-2015-only-digital-sex-please</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaInternet Governance2015-06-15T01:38:12ZNews ItemMinds that (should) matter
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/forbes-india-january-2-2015-raju-narisetti-
<b>Thinkers who best explain a rapidly-changing India to the world (and the world to India).</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Raju Narisetti was <a class="external-link" href="http://forbesindia.com/article/special/minds-that-%28should%29-matter/39289/2">published in Forbes India magazine</a> on January 2, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Sunil Abraham</b> <br />Executive director of The Centre for Internet and Society. Has deep insights into India’s rapidly growing digital culture as well as the threats to it from misguided government regulation.<br /><br /><b>Shuddhabrata Sengupta</b><br />Runs Raqs Media Collective and is a founder of the Sarai Collective which does the rare examination of the interplay of urban India/technology/culture.<br /><br /><b>Anusha Rizvi</b> <br />The former journalist who directed Peepli Live is now a filmmaker. Peepli was the first ever Indian film to be screened at Sundance. Her response to broadcast media and society issues always make you think.<br /><br /><b>Mohandas Pai</b><br /> Ex-Infosys and now with the Manipal Group, he is active in public policy and corporate governance issues, and is not afraid to speak his mind. He was behind the Bangalore Political Action Committee—first-of-its-kind in India—and is also an activist shareholder who has minority shareholders’ interests in mind. <br /><b><br />Ramesh Ramanathan</b> <br />Ex-Citibanker, who heads Janalakshmi, a micro/alternative finance organisation, that has attracted Wall Street money. Offers honest and workable solutions through Janagraha, a hybrid public-private partnership initiative.<br /> <br /><b>Satish Acharya</b> <br />A brilliant cartoonist from Mangalore. A small-town guy whose views on Indian politics and Indian sport are spot on as he traverses the fine line of cartoons in India: Not too cerebral, but never clichéd and banal either.<br /><br /><b>Chhavi Rajawat <br /></b>A young MBA who chose to go back to her ancestral village, Soda in Rajasthan, to help bring management skills to grassroots governance. Won elections to be its sarpanch. A high-profile doer, she will be worth listening to about hands-on governance.<br /><br /><b>Payal Chawla </b><br />While her past claim to fame is taking on Coca-Cola over workplace harassment, as a lawyer and founder of her own law firm, Juscontractus, this University of Chicago alumni would be a good way to track India’s troubled legal system.<br /> <br /><b>Pushkar</b> <br />A professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at BITS Pilani’s Goa Campus, he is particularly good on a major challenge for India: Reforming its education system. <br /><br /><b>Karuna Nundy</b> <br />A Supreme Court lawyer involved in major commercial and human rights litigation and legal policy, she has contributed in a major way on gender justice in India, recently helping with the new anti-rape laws. <br /><br /><b>Binalakshmi Nepram</b><br /> She fights racism against people from the North East and says it like it needs to be said in a country with deep geographical and regional prejudices. <br /><br /><b>Ireena Vittal</b> <br />This former McKinsey consultant has a lot of good things to say about smart cities.<br /><b><br />Economic and Political Weekly</b><br /> Ignore its left-leaning interpretations and conclusions. Focus on its outstanding data.<br /><br /><b>GVL Narasimha Rao</b> <br />GVL knows his psephology like few others do. His current turn as a spokesman for the BJP yields unrelenting evidence that is often hard to refute. And he takes sides when taking sides can be personally risky.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/forbes-india-january-2-2015-raju-narisetti-'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/forbes-india-january-2-2015-raju-narisetti-</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaInternet GovernanceSocial Media2015-02-26T16:34:25ZNews ItemMapping Digital Media: Broadcasting, Journalism and Activism in India — A Public Consultation
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/mapping-digital-media-public-consultation-october-27-bangalore
<b>Alternative Law Forum, Maraa and the Centre for Internet and Society invite you to a public consultation on Mapping Digital Media in India, on October 27, 2013 at the Bangalore International Centre from 10 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to download the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mapping-digital-media.pdf" class="internal-link">background note</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mdm-press-invite.pdf" class="internal-link">press invite</a> and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mdm-press-release.pdf" class="internal-link">press release</a> and the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/mdm-invite-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">poster</a> of the event.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Here, reputed media lawyers, researchers, journalists, activists and other media professionals will be responding to a recent report that examines the progress of digitisation in India and its impact on media freedom and citizen’s access to quality news and information—the fundamental principles underpinning the Open Society Foundations’ work on media and communications.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, India decided to make digitalise distribution of television signals across India in a phased manner, further contributing to the phenomenon of global digitisation, as citizens enter the fully digital broadcast world. While there may be perceived benefits of the ‘digital switchover’ in terms of freeing up spectrum, increase in quality of signals and so on, the full impact of digitalisation on plurality, diversity, ownership of media and content is yet to be comprehended fully.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Through this public consultation, hosts, <i>Maraa, the Alternative Law Forum</i> (ALF) <i>and the Centre for Internet and Society</i> (CIS), hope to shed light on key challenges confronting our emergent digital landscape while incorporating the input of those directly affected by this digitisation, India’s digital consumers, in a widened discussion on the matter. Speakers will directly respond to three sections of the country report – <b>Regulation, Digital Activism</b> and <b>Journalism</b>, and discussions to focus on trends in broadcasting (radio and television), cable operations and newspapers (print & online) as each of these sectors undergo digitalisation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We would appreciate your participation at this public consultation so that we each may become better informed with regards to India’s digital media landscape and contribute to discussion as we strive to better comprehend the multifaceted picture that is emerging as this media digitisation takes place and look forward to hearing your input.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The India report is available for free download at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media-india">http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media-india</a></p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Agenda</h2>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="2"><b>Policies, Laws and Regulators</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10.00 a.m. - 10.30 a.m.</td>
<td>Lawrence Liang</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10.30 a.m. - 11.00 a.m.</td>
<td>Mathew John</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.00 a.m. - 11.30 a.m.</td>
<td>Q & A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.30 a.m. - 11.45 a.m.</td>
<td>Tea Break</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="2"><b>Impact of Digital Media on Activism</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11.45 a.m. - 12.15 p.m.</td>
<td>Arjun Venkatraman</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12.15 p.m. - 12.45 p.m.</td>
<td>Meera K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12.45 p.m. - 1.15 p.m.</td>
<td>Q & A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1.15 p.m. - 2.00 p.m.</td>
<td>Lunch Break</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="2"><b>Impact of Digital Media on Journalism</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2.00 p.m. - 2.30 p.m.</td>
<td>Geeta Seshu</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2.30 p.m. - 3.00 p.m.</td>
<td>Subhash Rai</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3.00 p.m. - 3.30 p.m.</td>
<td>Q & A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Closing Remarks</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/mapping-digital-media-public-consultation-october-27-bangalore'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/mapping-digital-media-public-consultation-october-27-bangalore</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MediaEventInternet Governance2013-10-25T10:46:24ZEvent