India has been warned

[Mancunium]

Wikipedia is not a reliable source
Ground Report, 17 July 2013 link

According to experts, internet is a great source but informations are often erroneous. Take the case of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is already well known as the free online encyclopedia but it is not yet reliable enough to use as a source by the newsrooms across the globe. According to Wikipedia homepage, Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning that anyone can edit any unprotected page and improve articles immediately for all readers. You do not need to register to do this. Anyone who has edited is known as a “Wikipedian”. It means that anyone can edit and add in-formations which may be incorrect and not up to the mark. Wikipedia contributors are amateur and not experts in their respective fields.

...

Indeed, the primary knock against Wikipedia is that its authors and editors are also its users — an unpaid, partially anonymous army, some of whom insert jokes, exaggeration and even outright lies in their material. About one-fifth of the editing is done by anonymous users, but a tight-knit community of 600 to 1,000 volunteers does the bulk of the work, according to Wikipedia co founder Jimmy Wales. Members of this group can delete material or, in extreme cases, even lock particularly outrageous entries while they are massaged.

...

Some of its commentary is remarkable but some contributors are comically dense, like the person who demanded proof that 18th-century satirist Jonathan Swift wasn’t serious when he wrote that landlords should eat the children of their impoverished Irish tenants.

In India, newsrooms should adopt clear policies to use Wikipedia as a primary source. They should follow the journalism mantra that if your mother says she loves you, check it out.

[EricBarbour]

Wikipedia is already well known as the free online encyclopedia but it is not yet reliable enough to use as a source by the newsrooms across the globe.

Unfortunately, they are.

For example.

You could also ask the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Or Messr. Houellebecq.

Or Chris Anderson.

Or Matt Thompson. Or Joe Grimm.

And that's just a sample of more blatant ones.

[Mancunium]

Aircel subscribers to get free Wikipedia access
The Times of India, 25 July 2013 link

BANGALORE: Telecom operator Aircel today announced its partnership with Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile Wikipedia access to its customers.

The alliance is aimed at making knowledge available on Wikipedia accessible to all Aircel customers in both rural and urban areas for free, the telco said in a release.

This initiative is part of the foundation's Wikipedia Zero programme to reach mobile internet users around the world. The partnership will help provide Wikipedia to 60 million new users in the region, it added.

"Through our alliance with the Wikimedia Foundation, Aircel is not only making internet services reach a wider audience, but also help encourage and enrich the lives of our customers by offering access to knowledge and information free of cost," Aircel chief marketing officer Anupam Vasudev said.

Aircel customers will be able to access versions of Wikipedia in English, Hindi, Tamil, and 17 other Indic languages.

"With the partnership, we extend our programme to India where we potentially reach millions of people for the first time." Wikimedia Foundation head of mobile Kul Takanao Wadhwa said.

Indian mobile phone users celebrate:

[Mancunium]

Access Wikipedia for free on your mobiles, but only if you're an Aircel customer
tech2, 26 July 2013 link

Wikipedia Zero, the online encyclopedia’s attempt to offer free mobile access to Wikipedia in developing countries has made its official entry into India. The arrival of the programme is in partnership with Aircel across the country.

“It is our mission to provide free access to knowledge for everyone in the world. It’s only fitting then that today we announced our first Wikipedia Zero partnership launch in India, the world’s second most populous country with over 1.2 billion people,” wrote Amit Kapoor, Senior Manager, Mobile Partnerships, Wikimedia Foundation in a blog post.

Kapoor wrote that Wikimedia’s partnership with Aircel will give 60 million mobile subscribers the ability to access Wikipedia at no data cost in the country, pushing the global partnership footprint of Wikipedia Zero up to 470 million subscribers.

What must be noted here is that the programme works with the mobile web version of Wikipedia and not the applications. If you’re an Aircel customer, you can head on to m.wikipedia.org, or zero.wikipedia.org (make sure you're accessing the latter site through your phone) to be able to access the online encyclopedia for no charge at all.

Wikimedia has made another Wikipedia-related announcement too – you will now be able to edit the encyclopedia and sister projects on-the-go from your phones. The foundation had been experimenting with letting users edit entries using their mobile phones, and the feature is now finally out of the beta stage.

“Wikipedia’s quality content is built by ordinary people all over the world watching and editing articles every day. Anyone with a computer can edit, but with over 15 percent of our users accessing Wikipedia on mobile devices and growing, the Wikimedia Foundation had to do more to let anyone with Internet access contribute to the sum of all human knowledge,” wrote Juliusz Gonera, Software engineer, mobile web at Wikimedia in a blog post.

Aircel Cellular:

[Mancunium]

Despite all the headlines about how the Wikipedia-Aircel partnership will bring free information to India link, Aircel is one of the smaller mobile service providers, with a market share of less than 7% of Indian mobile phone users. link

Aircel is owned by Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan (TAK), an obscenely rich Malaysian businessman with a net worth, according to Forbes, of $11.7 billion.

He doesn't give interviews, so The Financial Times of India could only say this about him: link

Joe Studwell pointed out in his Asian Godfathers, "the two richest Malaysians, Robert Kuok and Ananda Krishnan, are masters of being all things to all politicians." Kuok is the richest Malaysian. But it is about TAK that there's so much interest in India.

Not just because he has business interests here but, of late, some of his business deals have come under the scanner of investigating agencies. For instance, the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing whether his businesses invested in the direct-to-home business of the Maran brothers as a quid pro quo for bagging the telecom company Aircel, which itself is under cloud.

His close aide and Astro's top official Ralph Marshall, who is said to have roots in Sri Lanka as well, couldn't be reached. Calls to Sandip Das, CEO of Maxis, Aircel's parent, went unanswered. Ditto with calls to Maxis' official spokesperson.

Sun TV officials couldn't be reached. However, this is what a senior Maxis employee in Malaysia had to say: "TAK does not like to blow his own trumpet. He does not like people interviewing him and shoving him in limelight. That is one reason not many know about him."
...

However much TAK has wanted to shun publicity, he hasn't been able to ward off controversy. The Indian investigations are just the latest in the long line of unfavourable news. Even when he took companies private, he was criticised for undervaluing them. Studwell in his book has also said, "He meticulously used his connections to make millions."

Also, "He not only got close to his powerful clients, but also became a recipient of their largesse, call it government concessions, be it for horse-race and numbers betting, mobile telephony, broadcasting and satellites." His gambling fortunes saved him through the Asian financial crisis.

[Mancunium]

The Wikimedia Foundation's partnership with Aircel, a mobile service provider with a market share of less than 7% of India's mobile phone market, is very odd. The company, and its owner Ananda Krishnan, have been the subjects of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe since October 2011.

2G Case: Trouble for Dayanidhi Maran and Maxis owner Ananda Krishnan, CBI completes probe
Telecom Tiger, 11 July 2013 link

CBI on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it has completed investigations in the 2G scam case involving Dayanidhi Maran and Ananda Krishnan.

Next week, it will seek the government’s sanction for prosecution of the accused. It means that the CBI will file chargesheet against Ananda Krishnan and Maran.

Though CBI maintained that Malaysian authority is not cooperating with it in the Aircel-Maxis deal, it said that it would continue further probe on the basis of the material and Aircel-Maxis deal.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan said that this matter must be brought to an end to a logical conclusion, exhorting the CBI that more than a year has already passed after registering the case. The bench has posted the case for hearing on August 1.

It may be recalled that in November 2012 in its stinging remark, the Supreme Court had said that the CBI investigation into Aircel-Maxis deal suggested that a certain nexus is responsible for delay in the probe. The alleged deal involves former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and a Malaysian business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan.

Maran has been accused of "forcing" Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell the stake in Aircel to Malaysian firm Maxis Group, owned by Kuala Lumpur-based T Ananda Krishnan, in 2006.

Earlier in December 2011, the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) had moved the apex taking swipe at the CBI for slowing down the probe on the alleged "corruption and misuse of official position" by former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran in the case.

CBI seeks financial sanction to hire private consultants in Aircel-Maxis probe
The Times of India, 16 July 2013 link

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has approached the government seeking "financial sanction" in the Aircel-Maxis deal probe for hiring private financial consultants. The agency officials say that even though investigations are almost finished in the case and they are set to file a chargesheet against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and others, they need some consultation for which department of personnel and training (DoPT) has been approached for its nod.
...

So far, agency sources say, they have found out during their investigations that Maxis had excess investments in India in the telecom sector, which breached the foreign direct investment cap and also Maran, indeed, had received kickbacks.

In October 2011, CBI had registered a case against Maran, his brother and Sun group promoter Kalanithi Maran along with Malaysian business tycoon and Maxis owner, T Ananda Krishnan, and Maxis director Ralph Marshall. CBI had also named Sun Direct, Astro All Asia Networks, UK, and Maxis along with some unknown officials as co-accused.

CBI had alleged in its FIR that Maran was involved in "abetting the acceptance of illegal gratification" — estimated to be Rs 547 crore — from the Malaysian firm. The FIR also accused Maran of criminal misconduct during his stint in the telecom ministry between 2004 and 2007.

It was alleged by former Aircel chief C Sivasankaran that Maran as the then telecom minister favoured the Maxis group in the takeover of his company and in return investments were made by the firm through Astro Network in Sun TV owned by the Marans.

[Mancunium]

2G spectrum scam link

The 2G spectrum scam involved politicians and government officials in India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would then use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. The shortfall between the money collected and the money that the law mandated to be collected is estimated to be INR1,766.45 billion (US$30 billion), as valued by the Controller and Auditor General of India based on 3G and BWA spectrum auction prices in 2010.[1] However, the exact loss is disputed. In a chargesheet filed on 2 April 2011 by the investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the loss was pegged at INR309,845.5 million (US$5.2 billion)[2] whereas on 19 August 2011 in a reply to CBI, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that the government gained over INR30 billion (US$510 million) by giving 2G spectrum.[2] Similarly Kapil Sibal, the Minister of Communications & IT, claimed in 2011, during a press conference, that "zero loss" was caused by distributing 2G licenses on first-come-first-served basis.[3] It has to be pointed out, however, that "zero loss" can simply mean that frequencies were not sold for less than cost. The phrase indicates nothing about whether the sale was a scam.

All the speculations of profit, loss and no-loss were put to rest on 2 February 2012 when the Supreme Court of India delivered judgement on a public interest litigation (PIL) which was directly related to the 2G spectrum scam. The Supreme Court declared allotment of spectrum as "unconstitutional and arbitrary" and quashed all the 122 licenses issued in 2008 during tenure of A. Raja (then minister for communications & IT) the main official accused in the 2G scam case.[4] The court further said that A. Raja "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and "virtually gifted away important national asset."[5] The "zero loss theory" was further demolished[6] on 3 August 2012 when as per the directions of the Supreme Court, Govt of India revised the base price for 5 MHz 2G spectrum auction to INR140 billion (US$2.4 billion), which roughly gives the value of spectrum to be around INR28 billion (US$470 million) per MHz that is close to the CAG's estimate of INR33.5 billion (US$570 million) per MHz.[7][8]

The Aircel-Maxis deal controversy link

On 6 June 2011, former Aircel Chief C Sivasankaran complained to the CBI that he was not given telecom licence and Dayanidhi Maran (the then telecom minister) forced him to sell his company Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis Communications group owned by T Ananda Krishnan. The licences were allegedly issued only after the deal was struck. Sivasankaran also alleged that Maran brothers Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi got kickbacks in the form of investments made by the Maxis group through Astro network in Sun TV Network (owned by Maran family).[150][151][152] Dayanidhi Maran was forced to resign due to these allegations on 7 July 2011.[227]

Subsequently on 10 Oct 2011, the CBI registered a case and raided various properties owned by Marans. CBI sources said they could not find any evidence of coercion in the sale of Aircel, but they did find substantial evidence that Maran had favoured the takeover of the company by Maxis and deliberately delayed Sivasankar’s files.[150][151][152] On 8 February 2012, ED registered money laundering case against Dayanidhi Maran[187] and his brother Kalanithi Maran for allegedly receiving illegal gratification of about INR 5.5 billion in the Aircel-Maxis deal.[188]

During the CBI probe, Sivasankaran told that the Maran brothers had allegedly issued life threats forcing him to sell his 74% stake in Aircel to Maxis. He provided the CBI a list of over 10 witnesses, to prove his allegations. In September 2012, CBI said that it has finished the investigations within India and is waiting for response of a Letters Rogatory sent to Malaysia and a questionnaire sent to T Ananda Krishnan, after which it will file a chargesheet.[228]

Dr Subramanian Swamy alleged that in 2006, a company controlled by then Minister of Finance P Chidambaram’s son Karti got five per cent stake in Sivasankaran’s Aircel to get part of Rs 40 billion that the Maxis Communications paid for 74 per cent stake in Aircel. He alleged that Mr Chidambaram withheld the FIPB clearance to the deal till his son got the five per cent shares in Siva’s company.[229] Subsequently the issue was raised on multiple times in Parliament of India by the opposition which demanded resignation of Mr P Chidambaram.[230] He and the government denied all the allegations.[231] However, according to The Pioneer and India Today reports, documents show that approval to the FDI proposal was indeed delayed about 7 months by P Chidambaram.[229][232][233]

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to address the World Capital Markets Symposium 2010
Securities Commission Malaysia link

As a keynote speaker at the WCMS, Wales will share his vision, perspectives and insights by drawing from lessons of Wikipedia and on the democratization of information and knowledge and how to use or impart them responsibly especially in the fast-evolving financial and capital markets.

Malaysia, which is moving towards an innovation-led and knowledge-based economy, will be aggressively promoting the expansion of Broadband infrastructure as the most critical facilitator to connect large corporations and medium and small enterprises to the World Wide Web, which is expected to be the main medium for greater access to domestic, regional and global markets. In this connection, the experiences from Wikipedia will provide lessons for enterprises as they redefine their strategies and business models to become part of the global supply chain.

Wales' many honours in recent years include being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2006, and receiving The Economist's Business Process Award. The World Economic Forum recognized Wales as one of the "Young Global Leaders" of 2007, a prestigious award that acknowledges the top 250 young leaders across the world.

Wales will join other renowned thought leaders at the WCMS, including Dr Nouriel Roubini who forecasted the US recession more than a year before it began; Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the architect of India's reform programme and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India; and Timothy C Draper, the Founder and a Managing Director of leading global venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson whose previous successes include Skype, Baidu and Hotmail among others. The Prime Minister of Malaysia YAB Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak will officiate the Symposium and deliver the Keynote Address.

WCMS 2010 builds on last year's highly successful event which attracted more than 500 delegates from 30 countries and provided a platform for world experts in economics, finance and capital markets, alongside government and corporate leaders, policy makers and practitioners to exchange views, share insights and discuss the challenges, opportunities and possible solutions relating to global economic and financial issues.

Participation in the WCMS 2010 is by invitation only.

[thekohser]

So, I'm getting a bit blurry-eyed from the walls of text. Could someone just let me know... with this Aircel deal, do we or do we not have a situation similar to where Jimbo and the WMF got in bed with the Kazakh government without realizing (or caring) how corrupt it was?

[Mancunium]

So, I'm getting a bit blurry-eyed from the walls of text. Could someone just let me know... with this Aircel deal, do we or do we not have a situation similar to where Jimbo and the WMF got in bed with the Kazakh government without realizing (or caring) how corrupt it was?

Yes, we have a situation similar to where Jimbo and the WMF got in bed with the Kazakh government without realizing (or caring) how corrupt it was.

On 25 July 2013 the Wikimedia Foundation signed a three-year exclusive contract with Aircel, a minor Indian mobile phone service provider. The free Wikipedia service will only be available to Aircel customers.

Aircel has only 6.93% of the Indian mobile phone market, and is the only mobile service provider owned by a foreigner. The Indian telecom sector has a foreign direct investment cap, and India's federal anti-corruption police force, the CBI, are prepared to charge India's former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran with accepting US$82 million for forcing an Indian businessman to sell Aircel to its current owner, and with accepting over US$100 million in payment from Aircel in exchange for granting it a foreign-ownership exemption. Maran will also be charged with money-laundering.

The owner of Aircel, Ananda Krishnan, finances Malaysia's Barisan Nasional party, which has been in power since 1973. In return the Malaysian government has granted him concessions for horse-race and numbers betting, mobile telephony, broadcasting and satellites.

The Malaysian government has refused to cooperate in any way with the CBI investigation. Malaysia's Securities Commission, which reports to the country's Minister of Finance, held an invitation-only "World Capital Markets Symposium" on 27 and 28 September 2010, at which Jimmy Wales was keynote speaker (his speech was entitled "Transforming Capital Markets: Leadership, Change and Governance"). A week later Jimmy was awarded a "rare prize" of US$104,000 by Switzerland's Im Grueene Foundation.

In September 2012 Aircel received notice from India's Department of Telecommunications for not meeting radiation norms in their base tower stations. As a part of its cost-cutting practices, Aircel is scaling down services, and has shut down many of the areas it once serviced, leaving some customers without coverage they had already paid for, and forcing others to travel to areas covered by Aircel in order to obtain a porting code.

The Supreme Court of India has asked the CBI to present its evidence for Aircel's crimes on 1 August 2013.

[thekohser]

Sounds like someone in good standing on Wikipedia should go to JimboTalk and ask the great Founder why the Wikimedia Foundation chose Aircel over all of the other available Indian mobile carriers.

[Mancunium]

Sounds like someone in good standing on Wikipedia should go to JimboTalk and ask the great Founder why the Wikimedia Foundation chose Aircel over all of the other available Indian mobile carriers.

I would suggest waiting until August 1st, when the CBI is to present its charges against Aircel to India's Supreme Court.

[Mancunium]

Sounds like someone in good standing on Wikipedia should go to JimboTalk and ask the great Founder why the Wikimedia Foundation chose Aircel over all of the other available Indian mobile carriers.

I would suggest waiting until August 1st, when the CBI is to present its charges against Aircel to India's Supreme Court.

I should add that the CBI made its corruption charges public on 27 July 2012: link
and that Aircel has been stealing from its customers since 1 January of this year: link

The company's exclusive three-year deal with the WMF was announced on 25 July 2013, less than one week before India's Supreme Court is expected to hear the CBI's charges of corruption.

The Wikipedia deal gives Aircel a significant advantage in India's competitive mobile phone market, as described here: link

[Wer900]

Sounds like someone in good standing on Wikipedia should go to JimboTalk and ask the great Founder why the Wikimedia Foundation chose Aircel over all of the other available Indian mobile carriers.

I would suggest waiting until August 1st, when the CBI is to present its charges against Aircel to India's Supreme Court.

I should add that the CBI made its corruption charges public on 27 July 2012: link
and that Aircel has been stealing from its customers since 1 January of this year: link

The company's exclusive three-year deal with the WMF was announced on 25 July 2013, less than one week before India's Supreme Court is expected to hear the CBI's charges of corruption.

The Wikipedia deal gives Aircel a significant advantage in India's competitive mobile phone market, as described here: link

This absolutely needs a blog post. Of all the Indian carriers, why the criminally-charged Aircel? What is Jimbo's kickback?

[HRIP7]

Several of the people who spoke at this 2010 event also have links (like Jimmy Wales) to the World Economic Forum (T-H-L) (Davos summit).

See e.g. the WEF page of Azman Mokhtar. He is the Managing Director of Khazanah Nasional (T-H-L), the Malaysian government's sovereign wealth fund.

One of the Board Members of Khazanah Nasional, Raja Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Arshad bin Raja Tun Uda, is also the chairman of Ananda Krishnan's Maxis Communications (T-H-L), which holds a majority stake in Aircel (T-H-L).

[HRIP7]

Looks like the government probe is falling apart:

Economic Times, 31 July 2013: CBI may have to close Aircel-Maxis case due to lack of information

NEW DELHI: The CBI has got no useful information from Malaysia in the Aircel-Maxis case, with a senior CBI official telling ET on Tuesday that the agency in such a situation would find it difficult to file a chargesheet in the high-profile case involving former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

On July 11, the Supreme Court had asked the CBI to bring the case to a "logical conclusion" observing that the probe had been going on for over a year. "The reply that we have got from Malaysia last month regarding our Letters Rogatory (LR) is not useful ...in fact Malaysia has not replied to the most important queries we had raised in the LR. We have again written to Malaysia in this regard. In the present scenario, a chargesheet looks difficult in this case and we may have to close it. A final decision will come in around two months," a CBI official said. [...]

[Midsize Jake]

"The reply that we have got from Malaysia last month regarding our Letters Rogatory (LR) is not useful ...in fact Malaysia has not replied to the most important queries we had raised in the LR."

Sounds familiar. Clearly, Jimbo's "thought leadership" has indeed been highly influential within the Malaysian government.

[Mancunium]

Wikipedia boom in Marathi, Malayalam and other desi languages
The Times of India, 1 August 2013: link

MUMBAI: A vibrant vernacular Wikipedia seems to be taking root in India. In the last eight months, the number of Wikipedia entries has grown substantially in 20 Indian languages, says a study by the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS).

Wiki, the world's largest online encyclopaedia where anyone can write and edit articles, didn't have much content in vernacular till a few years ago. According to the study, Wikis in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi have added thousands of new articles on various subjects from September 2012 to April 2013. A few of these pages were viewed more during this period. Marathi, which had 30 lakh page views per month previously, had another 10 lakh visitors, while Bengali Wikipedia had 14 lakh

While Malayalam Wiki took the top position with an enviable team of 100 plus editors, the number Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit editors came down. "Marathi has 40,000 articles. But most editors in Mumbai prefer to work on English. Pune has more Marathi editors,' says T Vishnu Vardhan, programme director, Access to Knowledge project at CIS.

"In the last two years, the demand for knowledge in Indian languages has grown as we have moved to the motto of 'roti, kapda and internet'," says Vardhan.

One of the reasons for growth is that many browsers now support Indian language scripts. But this was not the case in early 2000. Though many wanted to read and type in their own language, there was no browser support, says Shiju Alex, blogger and Malayalam Wiki editor. Moreover, many didn't know how to type in their mother tongues.

But once Indian languages were encoded in Unicode, the fonts became accessible. "There was no need to write Malayalam in English and people started blogging in their mother tongues," says Alex. According to Vardhan, communities with better literacy rates seem to have taken the lead online.

"Telugu Wiki is stronger as internet penetration in Andhra Pradesh is higher than in places where Bhojpuri or Assamese is spoken."

As with most online language initiatives, the Wiki movement was also fuelled by the diaspora. Tinu Cherian Abraham, a former board member of the Wikimedia India chapter, talks about how an NRI's love for Malayalam kick-started the project.

But now there are many Wiki foot soldiers in India, including a blind editor of Hindi Wikipedia and an elderly contributor from Kerala whose passion for free knowledge has helped him forget his ailments.

The Centre for Internet and Society: link

[Mancunium]

SC fiat to CBI on Aircel-Maxis deal involving Maran:
Zeenews, 1 August 2013: link

New Delhi:The Supreme Court Thursday asked the CBI to go ahead with its probe in the Aircel-Maxis deal without waiting for necessary sanction against an official "holding high position" in connection with irregularities in the case arising out of 2G scam.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan expressed concern over "very tardy progress in the probe of the case" allegedly involving former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and granted two months to wrap up procedure for filing charge sheet.

It asked the CBI to file the chargesheet irrespective of whether Malaysian authorities provide details on the controversial deal or not.

"It is clarified that the final probe of the case should not be delayed on that account," the bench said while making it clear that "it is interested that the matter should reach the logical end".

"We are concerned that the chargesheet should be filed. Unfortunately for the last three years they have been investigating a particular side of the case which is not relevant. But we will not pass any order as it will derail the case. So whatever be the case it should reach a final conclusion," the bench said.

The apex court made the remarks after taking note of CBI's contention that the delay in completing the probe was due to non-cooperation from Malaysian authorities despite the issuance of letters of rogatory (LoR).

The apex court also directed the CBI to place before it the minutes of the March 7, 2006 meeting of the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) giving nod to the deal after Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy alleged that clearance granted to it was not on official records.

"CBI has got the minutes of March 7, 2006 meeting of FIPB. We would like to see the minutes next Wednesday," the bench said and asked the agency "not to be hesitant in investigating any person".

The bench made it clear that "there was no impediment for the CBI to investigate any person" and the agency "shall comprehensively investigate all issues".

"CBI, which is conducting investigation under the supervision of this court shall not be hesitant to interrogate any person which is clear from our first order of December 16, 2010. CBI shall comprehensively investigate all issues," the bench said while directing the CBI to fulfil within two months the procedural requirement for completing the probe before filing the charge sheet.

Maran has been accused of forcing Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell stakes in Aircel in 2006 to a Malaysian firm Maxis Group owned by Kuala Lumpur-based business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan.

Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, placed a fresh status report about its probe into the Aircel-Maxis deal and said the agency had made a request for grant of sanction under section 6A Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act to investigate "a gentleman holding a high position".

However, the bench made it clear that the agency can go ahead with its investigation relating to the person without the grant of sanction as the probe in the case was being monitored by the apex court.

"In the normal case of investigation by the CBI, the requirement of section 6A of the Act would be applied but we have made it clear in our order that since the probe in this case is being monitored by this court you are free to go ahead with investigation without section 6A sanction," the bench said.

While seeking two months time to wrap up the probe, Venugopal said three things relating to the Aircel-Maxis deal --valuation of shares, forensic accounting and sanction aspect--required to be completed.

However, the bench said for everything CBI should not come to the court as "there has been very tardy progress in the case" which has been under investigation for over two years.

CBI had started preliminary inquiry into the case on January 4, 2011 and nine months after on October 9 had registered the FIR.

Latest News on Aircel-Maxis
Zeenews: link

India's Supreme Court has given the Central Bureau of Investigation until October 3rd to finish their probe and file their final report on Aircel's corruption charges.

[Mancunium]

The Supreme Court of India chastised the country's Central Bureau of Investigation for its timidity in gathering evidence against Aircel, and gave the national anti-corruption police less than two months to bring the final report, and the criminal charges against Aircel, before them. The timidity is easily explained by the enormous amount of money involved, and the power of those accused.

Detailed information about the CBI's investigation is available to to anyone with access to a search engine; Wikipedia has comprehensive articles on the scandal, which include the evidence already made public by the CBI.

Why did Amit Kapoor, Wikimedia Foundation's Senior Manager of Mobile Partnerships, grant Aircel an exclusive three-year partnership-- a concession that gives an enormous economic advantage to India's most notoriously corrupt mobile phone service, and the one with the worst reputation?

Here is what Aircel promises its customers: and this it what it delivers:

[EricBarbour]

The Supreme Court of India chastised the country's Central Bureau of Investigation for its timidity in gathering evidence against Aircel, and gave the national anti-corruption police less than two months to bring the final report, and the criminal charges against Aircel, before them. The timidity is easily explained by the enormous amount of money involved, and the power of those accused.

Detailed information about the CBI's investigation is available to to anyone with access to a search engine; Wikipedia has comprehensive articles on the scandal, which include the evidence already made public by the CBI.

Judging only by what I've read and heard, this appears to be 100% typical of how the Indian government works--
or fails to work. 4000+ years of civilization, and apparently the result is a hopelessly corrupt and gridlocked bureaucracy.

(The Chinese government is supposed to be even worse, if it helps at all....)

[Vigilant]

The Supreme Court of India chastised the country's Central Bureau of Investigation for its timidity in gathering evidence against Aircel, and gave the national anti-corruption police less than two months to bring the final report, and the criminal charges against Aircel, before them. The timidity is easily explained by the enormous amount of money involved, and the power of those accused.

Detailed information about the CBI's investigation is available to to anyone with access to a search engine; Wikipedia has comprehensive articles on the scandal, which include the evidence already made public by the CBI.

Judging only by what I've read and heard, this appears to be 100% typical of how the Indian government works--
or fails to work. 4000+ years of civilization, and apparently the result is a hopelessly corrupt and gridlocked bureaucracy.

(The Chinese government is supposed to be even worse, if it helps at all....)

No, no, no.
Once greased properly. the Chinese government can move mountains.

[EricBarbour]

Judging only by what I've read and heard, this appears to be 100% typical of how the Indian government works--
or fails to work. 4000+ years of civilization, and apparently the result is a hopelessly corrupt and gridlocked bureaucracy.
(The Chinese government is supposed to be even worse, if it helps at all....)

No, no, no.
Once greased properly. the Chinese government can move mountains.

Perhaps I should add, "until someone waves money in their faces".

[Vigilant]

Judging only by what I've read and heard, this appears to be 100% typical of how the Indian government works--
or fails to work. 4000+ years of civilization, and apparently the result is a hopelessly corrupt and gridlocked bureaucracy.
(The Chinese government is supposed to be even worse, if it helps at all....)

No, no, no.
Once greased properly. the Chinese government can move mountains.

Perhaps I should add, "until someone waves money in their faces".

I prefer the Romanian government to the Chinese one.
Smaller denominations to fewer pockets.

[Poetlister]

I prefer the Romanian government to the Chinese one.
Smaller denominations to fewer pockets.

You get what you pay for. The Romanian government has a great deal less influence than the Chinese one. Even within the borders of Romania, it is far less powerful than the Chinese one within its borders.

[Vigilant]

I prefer the Romanian government to the Chinese one.
Smaller denominations to fewer pockets.

You get what you pay for. The Romanian government has a great deal less influence than the Chinese one. Even within the borders of Romania, it is far less powerful than the Chinese one within its borders.

Very true.
But often, what you're trying to get done requires them to simply get out of the way.

[Mancunium]

Today's news about the Wikimedia Foundation's exclusive business partner in India

Aircel-Maxis deal: CBI may probe Niira Radia tapes
CBI says can investigate only two of 16 instances of criminality related to the taped conversations
Business Standard, 11 August 2013 link

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) may look into the taped conversations of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, in connection with the spectrum allocated to Malaysian telecom company Maxis in a venture with Aircel, a matter being probed by the agency.

Of the 16 instances of criminality related to the taped conversations cited by the CBI before the Supreme Court, the agency said it could investigate only two.

Besides Radia’s conversation with a Department of Telecommunications official on spectrum allocation to Maxis, another taped call record regarding an oil and gas deal could also come under the scanner. To proceed with both, the agency is awaiting a Supreme Court directive. CBI had engaged an external auditor to study the valuation of the Aircel-Maxis deal, before it finalised its probe in the case, said a CBI official.

For the remaining 14 cases, the CBI has suggested the names of agencies in the Income Tax Department, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, etc.

A two-judge bench led by G S Sighvi had criticised the government for its reluctance to probe aspects other than the 2G spectrum case based on Radia’s conversations. “Virtually, in every government field, private persons, you call them liasoning officers or middlemen, are present in every nook and corner,” the bench had said. It added Radia’s conversations weren’t confined only to the telecom sector; these contained information about trans-border transactions, the acquisition of a company, and other vital issues.

The conversations were recorded as part of a surveillance of Radia’s phone. This followed a complaint to the finance minister on November 16, 2007, alleging in nine years, Radia had built a business empire of Rs 300 crore.]

The poor innocent people Aircel and Wikimedia are screwing over:

[Mancunium]

Wikipedia in Indian languages on mobile phones
SciDev.Net, 15 October 2013 link

[BANGALORE] Wikipedia in India's regional languages and accessible over mobile phones is revolutionising the way Internet content is used in this multi-lingual country, say information technology (IT) experts.

"Developing Wikipedia and other content in regional languages is a way forward to bridge the knowledge gap," says T. Vishnu Vardhan, programme director of the Access to Knowledge project at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore.

In September, CIS signed an agreement with Goa University to train students and foster collaborative content development with Wikipedia libraries and archives in view. A similar agreement was signed in August with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, while a third is due to be signed this month with Christ University, Bangalore.

India's 28 states and seven union territories are organised on a linguistic basis and three of its vernaculars — Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi — rate among the world's ten most widely spoken languages, each with its own script.

With 70 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people and the market flooded with affordable feature phones, the majority of India's 1.2 billion people potentially have access to IT. Current usage, however, is limited to downloading entertainment content and to such applications as mobile banking.

Vardhan tells SciDev.Net that attention is now being paid to developing knowledge repositories in India's regional languages.

M. Sampath Kumar, who heads the Telugu department at the University of Madras in Chennai, says the Telugu Wikipedia is regularly used by students and researchers and is a resource for speakers of the language living abroad but eager to maintain community links.

Kumar tells SciDev.Net that literary content is popular and that there is a future for regional Wikipedia in educating the younger generation and serving as a free repository for traditional knowledge in the vernacular.

Subbiah Arunachalam, a Chennai-based IT consultant, says the effort will benefit non-English speaking rural youth at school and college levels and help bring them on par with their urban counterparts in terms of knowledge.

A programme funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and due to end in June 2014 covers the Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Bengali and Konkani languages. A Hindi version already has 100,000 articles and recorded eight million views.

'Lilavati's Daughters', a book on Indian women scientists published by the Bangalore-based Indian Academy of Sciences, is currently being translated into the regional languages with a view to engaging women content developers and editors.

[Mancunium]

Konkani Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia) relaunched with a free license, may boost Konkani Wikipedia
Daily News and Analysis, 13 October 2013 link

The Konkani Vishwakosh was re-released under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license last month at an event held at Goa University, Taleigao. The digital version of the Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia) will be available in a few months. Under the license, the Vishwakosh could serve as a source of reliable references for the Konkani langauge Wikipedia, which is currently under incubation.

Last month, Goa University re-released a four-volume encyclopaedia, Konkani Vishwakosh under a free license. The encyclopaedia presents information about the world with an emphasis on the Konkani language, Goan culture, the folklore, history, and geography of Goa, etc.

What does the open license mean?

The Konkani Vishwakosh was relaunched under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 (Creative Commons-Attribution-Share Alike 3.0) license. The Creative Commons licenses are a legal tool for copyright owners to manage rights and permissions for their works. Under the CC-BY-SA 3.0, users are free to reuse, modify, build upon, and redistribute content from the Konkani Vishwakosh, as long as they attribute it. The same license also applies to any work created by using content from the Konkani Vishwakosh. Licensing the sources of knowledge is a way of enabling access to knowledge, especially for those who may have little or no access to it.

Relevance to Wikipedia

One of the cornerstones of Wikipedia is the use of citations. All writing on Wikipedia must be supported by reliable and independent references. Any editor may challenge and removed unsubstantiated content on Wikipedia. The Konkani Vishwakosh could serve as a vast and versatile source of references for articles in the Konkani language Wikipedia, which is currently under incubation. Content from the Vishwakosh could go into the building of the Konkani Wikipedia as the text on Wikipedia too is available under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.

Digitisation of Konkani Vishwakosh

The Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team and Goa University together have undertaken a project to digitise the Vishwakosh over a period of two months (October and November 2013). They have made a call for volunteers to type out pages from the encyclopaedia in the Devanagri script. More about the project here.

Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project
The Centre for Internet and Society link

[Mancunium]

Political campaigning on social media? Election commission is watching you!
Hindustan Times, 25 October 2013 link

Political parties and candidates who thought they could get away with ‘no holds barred’ campaigning on social media websites, think again.

The election commission (EC) on Friday issued guidelines to monitor political campaigning on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia ahead of upcoming assembly elections in five states.

The candidates will have to declare their social media accounts when they file nominations for the elections, according to a document release by the EC. All political parties will also be required to get their social media advertisements pre-certified by the panel before posting them online.

The panel directed the parties to account for payments made to social media websites for carrying advertisements,

expenditure on development of content, and spends on salaries for staff hired to maintain social media accounts of parties and candidates. The model code of conduct would apply to content being posted on the internet, the panel said.

“The commission’s attention was drawn to use of social media for election campaigning and also certain violations of the electoral law in the social media, which need to be regulated in the interest of transparency and level playing field in the elections,” a the document read.

While stating that social media websites were ‘electronic media’ by definition, the EC classified the web portals into five categories: collaborative projects (eg, Wikipedia); blogs and micro blogs (eg, Twitter); content communities (eg, YouTube); social networking sites (eg, Facebook); virtual game-worlds (eg, apps).

The guidelines also made a mention of netizens who were not associated with any political outfit.

“As far as the content posted by persons other than candidates and political parties is concerned, the commission is considering the matter in consultation with the ministry of communication and information technology on practical ways to deal with the issue, in so far as they relate to, or can be reasonably connected with, the election campaigning of political parties and candidates,” the EC directed.

Election Instructions of the Commission with respect to use of Social Media in Election Campaigning [PDF]: link

Information to be given by candidates about their social media accounts. Candidates are required to file affidavits in Form-26 at the time of filing of nominations. Detailed instructions and the format in which the affidavits be filled were issued vide the Commission’s letter No. 3/4/2012/SDR dated 24, August, 2012. Para 3 of this Form requires that email ID of the candidate, if any, should be communicated to the Commission in this Form. The Commission finds it necessary that authentic social media accounts of candidates should also be informed to the Commission. This information should be furnished in the said Para 3 as follows:
-
“My contact telephone no.(s) is/are......................,
my email ID (if any) is ..................., and
my social media accounts (if any) are..............................."

[Ca$hBag]

This is paradoxical considering wikipedia was infested with many Indian editors who support the Hindutva ideology. Many of these have taken up positions as admins and arbitrators. They just use their status to push the Hindutva pov and ban anyone who resists.

[greyed.out.fields]

This is paradoxical considering wikipedia was infested with many Indian editors who support the Hindutva ideology. Many of these have taken up positions as admins and arbitrators. They just use their status to push the Hindutva pov and ban anyone who resists.

{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

Name one pro-Hindutva admin or long-term user.

[Mancunium]

This is paradoxical considering wikipedia was infested with many Indian editors who support the Hindutva ideology. Many of these have taken up positions as admins and arbitrators. They just use their status to push the Hindutva pov and ban anyone who resists.

{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

Name one pro-Hindutva admin or long-term user.

I doubt you'll get an answer to that question.

Also off-topic, if I may:

Daily dose of delusion
The Hindu, 2 November 2013 link

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or a prison guard. According to Wikipedia, the controversial study demonstrated the impressionability and obedience of people when provided with a legitimising ideology and social and institutional support. The experiment has also been used to illustrate the cognitive dissonance theory and the power of authority. On a similar note, the Bigg Boss House experiment is the study of the psychological effects of becoming a fake prisoner or an unwitting watcher of pseudo-reality television. The controversy-seeking show demonstrates the impressionability and obedience of the TV audience when provided with a legitimising celebrity status and the institutional support of TV channels with no imagination. This show also illustrates the cognitive bankruptcy theory and the power of the idiot box.

[...]

Here is a classic bait that I call “The Genghis Trap” that you can use with your friends to make them feel foolish. It is guaranteed to give you your daily dose of the relative superiority illusion. Bring up the subject of the Mongols in casual conversation and regale them with the story of Hulagu Khan’s infamous siege of Baghdad. Focus on the unimaginable brutality that the Mongols ultimately unleashed once the city fell. For instance, the caliph was rolled up in a rug and the Mongols rode their horses over him and the entire city was depopulated by the traditional Mongol technique of killing quotas, where each soldier was required to meet a beheading target every day so that they could minimise the time between one conquest and another.

At this point, someone in your friend group is likely to bring up the “Oh the inherent brutality of some religions (Islam, wink wink)” observation at which point you go “Aha” and inform everyone that Hulagu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, was Buddhist. Genghis Khan himself was Shamanist and didn’t really care about religion. The word “Khan” meant king well before the arrival of the religion with which it is now associated. The Mongols didn’t embrace Islam till one of Genghis’ great-grandsons made it the state religion, by which point the bulk of the genocide of large swathes of Central Asia was already done and dusted.

[...]

Wikipedia is the closest thing to a Total Knowledge Vortex we have. All I have to do is spend a few minutes everyday not just to learn something new but constantly refresh the affirmation that there is just so much I probably don’t know, and that should hopefully convince me to spend less time feeling good about not liking Bigg Boss.

[Ca$hBag]

{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

Name one pro-Hindutva admin or long-term user.

This is a joke right? How about Yellow Monkey to start with. He was mentioned by some people on wikipedia review.

[EricBarbour]

This is a joke right? How about Yellow Monkey to start with. He was mentioned by some people on wikipedia review.

Ah, yes, that's a nasty item. I wrote a wiki article about him, and he does seem to love Hinduism, despite being Vietnamese.

[Mancunium]

This is a joke right? How about Yellow Monkey to start with. He was mentioned by some people on wikipedia review.

Ah, yes, that's a nasty item. I wrote a wiki article about him, and he does seem to love Hinduism, despite being Vietnamese.

At least a billion people love Hinduism.

Further to the business adventures of the Wikimedia Foundation's partner in India, Aircel, there is so much money and political power at stake that the case continues to drag on. The Supreme Court of India is now seized of the Central Bureau of Investigation's criminal complaints, but may reach the same conclusions as the parliamentary inquiry.

Why were PM, Finance Minister absolved of charges, asks Opposition
The Hindu, 30 October 2013 link

Many members of the 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), representing Opposition parties, have questioned why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram were let off the hook for the alleged irregularity in the allocation of 2G spectrum licences, whereas the then Communications Minister A. Raja, was made responsible for the whole affair.

The members of the BJP, the CPI, the CPI (M), the DMK, the AIADMK, the BJD and the Trinamool Congress, gave their dissent notes, which were appended to the main report of the JPC when it was presented to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Tuesday. The six-member BJP in the JPC has given a single joint dissent note.

The BJP members — Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Gopinath Munde, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harin Pathak and Dharmendra Pradhan — in their note said: “It is regretted that in spite of voluminous evidence on record before the Committee, the final report chose not to fix responsibility of the PM, the PMO, the Finance Minister (P. Chidambaram) and many others. Our note of dissent is designed to ensure that the political accountability of this massive scam is clearly determined and fixed against all the guilty so that it serves as a lesson for the future.”

T.R. Baalu (DMK), in his note, said the JPC had not proceeded in the manner it was required and expected to. “It is noteworthy that despite the erroneous manner in which the JPC proceeded ..at least it has been able to draw a correct conclusion on the issue.”

M. Thambidurai (AIADMK), who rejected the JPC’s final report, said “this kind of ..functioning to collapse the JPC to cover-up the crimes would be ultimately questioned by the people..such truth cannot be suppressed for a long time.”

“The JPC’s ..action has forced the people to lose their faith in the probes by a parliamentary system, where things were ultimately decided on political lines,” he alleged.

PM did nothing to prevent loot, says AIADMK
The Hindu, 1 November 2013 link

The AIADMK has hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his alleged role in the allocation of 2G spectrum during the UPA-I rule.

The party’s lone representative in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on allocation and pricing of telecom licences and 2G spectrum during 1998-2009, M. Thambidurai, said in his dissent note that was appended to the main report of the committee that the “…Prime Minister committed an unpardonable crime by becoming a mute spectator to this grand loot of the nation.”

“[The] JPC, which was formed to bring out the entire truth, became a tool to cover up the truth to save the perpetrators of the 2G scam,” he said.

The CAG’s finding that there was a huge loss, of the order of Rs.1.76 lakh crores, to the public exchequer was very accurate. In its bid to cover up the truth, the JPC did not give an opportunity to several witnesses who might have spilled the beans about the role of high-profile persons in the government like the Prime Minister and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Mr. Thambidurai alleged that the “stamp of the Finance Minister is evident” in the Aircel-Maxis deal, the dubious dual policy and allocation of 122 telecom licences in collusion with the then Telecom Ministers Dayanidhi Maran and A. Raja.

[greyed.out.fields]

...
Name one pro-Hindutva admin or long-term user.

This is a joke right? How about Yellow Monkey to start with. He was mentioned by some people on wikipedia review.

YellowMonkey (T-C-L) hasn't made a Wikipedia edit in almost three years.

By "Hindutva", I mean its ugly political resurgence starting in the late 1980s (which sets religion against religion, and as a corollary caste against caste, language against language, just as the British used religion, caste and language to divide and rule the subcontinent), a disgusting perversion of its original emancipatory message.

I say again:
Name one pro-Hindutva admin or long-term user.

[Hersch]

Judging only by what I've read and heard, this appears to be 100% typical of how the Indian government works--
or fails to work. 4000+ years of civilization, and apparently the result is a hopelessly corrupt and gridlocked bureaucracy.
(The Chinese government is supposed to be even worse, if it helps at all....)

No, no, no.
Once greased properly. the Chinese government can move mountains.

Perhaps I should add, "until someone waves money in their faces".

[Mancunium]

New admin takes charge of Wikipedia Bangla
The Daily Star, 4 November 2013 link

Wikipedia (bn.wikipedia.org), the most popular online encyclopedia in Bengali, is getting a new admin. Last Monday the formal announcement came declaring Mr. Nurunnabi Chowdhury Hasib as its 13th admin. Mr. Nurunnabi has been actively involved with Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Foundation since 2008. Besides adding, editing & enriching more than eight thousands contents of Bangla Wikipedia, he also arranged workshops and seminars educating the Wikipedia Cause to the common mass. Recently he was also assigned as the Bangladesh Ambassador to UK based nonprofit entity ‘International Open Knowledge Foundation Network’.

Who declared Mr Hasib to be The 13th Admin? The common mass, perhaps?

Nurunnabi Chowdhury Hasib Interview on Banglavision
29 October 2013: link

Banglalink offers free Wikipedia browsing
The service was introduced on Friday to any of their subscriber free of cost
Dakha Tribune, 28 October 2013 link

Mobile phone operator Banglalink has launched Wikipedia Zero in Bangladesh, an initiative of the Wikimedia Foundation to enable mobile access, free of data charges, to Wikipedia in developing countries like Bangladesh.

The service was introduced on Friday to any of their subscriber free of cost, says a press release on Sunday.

The service aims at reducing barriers to accessing free knowledge one of the main barriers to this is the cost of data usage in developing countries.

Despite a huge growth in mobile internet penetration in the country, this is the first time a mobile operator is offering free mobile data access to Wikipedia in Bangladesh.

Any Banglalink subscriber will be able to browse Wikipedia, upload multimedia contents, connect to global community site for the Wikimedia projects, and donate photos for Wikipedia projects and a lot more by using Wikipedia domains & applications.

Banglalink adverts:

Remittance Fisherman Banglalink fined Tk 125cr for illegal VoIP business
The Daily Star, 12 October 2007 link

The country's telecom watchdog has fined Banglalink Tk125 crore for its involvement in illegal VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or call termination business.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Major General (retd) Manzurul Alam yesterday confirmed Banglalink's involvement in the illegal trade.

Talking to The Daily Star, he said, "Banglalink has already paid Tk 62.50 crore to the national exchequer. Rest of the money will be paid within a short time."

Banglalink, however, in a statement said the company has agreed to make a one time fixed payment of Tk125crore to the government as compensation for its loss in revenues.

"Law enforcement agencies and BTRC started joint crackdown operations on illegal VoIP operators after the new interim government took office in January 2007. During raids and investigations against illegal call termination businesses, Banglalink's involvement was ascertained," the BTRC press statement said.

A team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) earlier met with Banglalink authorities and informed them of the evidence it had gathered linking the company with illegal VoIP operation. The Banglalink authorities admitted that illegal VoIP operators used their equipment for such operation in the past, BTRC sources said.

[Ca$hBag]

I say again:
Name one pro-Hindutva admin or long-term user.

It seems nobody besides you finds it hard to believe given Jimbos business partners in the Brahmin community. If Yellow Monkey, Bakasuprman, Hkelkar, freedom skies, Muwaffaq, Rama's Arrow, Viscious81 are not "long-term" users, very few wikipedians are anymore in case you haven't noticed.

[Ca$hBag]

Ah, yes, that's a nasty item. I wrote a wiki article about him, and he does seem to love Hinduism, despite being Vietnamese.

His behavior makes it questionable weather he really is Vietnamese or just claiming to be one. Which Vietnamese bothers to learn Hindi, obsess over cricket and pro-Hindutva? Not your typical Vietnamese assuming he is one.

[EricBarbour]

His behavior makes it questionable weather he really is Vietnamese or just claiming to be one. Which Vietnamese bothers to learn Hindi, obsess over cricket and pro-Hindutva? Not your typical Vietnamese assuming he is one.

I'm not going to share my considerable research with you, until you explain why I should care.

[Mancunium]

Ah, yes, that's a nasty item. I wrote a wiki article about him, and he does seem to love Hinduism, despite being Vietnamese.

His behavior makes it questionable weather he really is Vietnamese or just claiming to be one. Which Vietnamese bothers to learn Hindi, obsess over cricket and pro-Hindutva? Not your typical Vietnamese assuming he is one.

Now there are "typical Vietnamese"? There are 91 million Vietnamese-speakers in Vietnam, and more than 3 million elsewhere.

Approximately the same number of people speak the wonderful Tamil_language (T-H-L).

Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world.[19][20] It has been described as "the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past."[21] and having "one of the richest literatures in the world".[22] Tamil literature has existed for over 2000 years.[23] ... The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to its being described as "one of the great classical traditions and literatures of the world".[33]

A push for Tamil resources online
Tamil Wikipedia volunteers offer to help State’s top universities digitise scholarly works
The Hindu, 4 November 2013 link

A group of volunteers who contribute regularly to the free online Tamil Wikipedia are lobbying with the State’s top universities to digitise volumes of Tamil encyclopaedia to make accessible valuable content under open knowledge networks.

“There are various Tamil development agencies and universities that get funded to produce scholarly works in encyclopaedias,” says A. Ravishankar, an active volunteer of Chennai’s network of contributors to Tamil Wikipedia.

“These were initiatives started in the 1960s. So mostly they don’t have digital versions and are not accessible unless you buy the book. There are also many works that are out of print. We are looking to digitise these under open knowledge networks,” he says.

Unlike in Western languages, there are few free online resources for users in Tamil. The biggest free resource is the online encyclopaedia Tamil Wikipedia that recently celebrated its 10 anniversary in the city. It has over 55,000 articles written and edited by over 900 contributors, in an age group ranging from 11 to 77 years.

The transferring of such scholarly works online, under licences such as ‘creative commons’ or other ‘copyleft’ (opposite of copyright) agreements have already started around the world and in India. Recently, the University of Goa released its encyclopaedia in Konkani under the creative commons licence that allows for everyone to share information with proper crediting.

In 2008, Malayalam encyclopaedia ‘Sarvavijnjakosam’ was released under GFDL (GNU Free Documentation Licence) on the website mal.sarva.gov.in.

The task of digitising Tamil encyclopaedias would be labour-intensive even more than cost-intensive, and is an area where the Tamil Wikipedia network can pitch in, volunteers say. “There are no good OCR (optical character readers) for Tamil. So the work will have to be manual, and each of the articles will have to be physically typed. If we take up the work, we can save the universities a lot of money and also open up vast reams of knowledge for the common good,” Ravishankar adds.

The Tamil Wikipedia network has asked its volunteers to spread the message at all possible venues to free up knowledge. “You cannot lock up knowledge in books any more,” Ravishankar says. “It is time to free it for the world to read.”

There are few free online resources for users in Tamil.
The biggest is Tamil Wikipedia, and its volunteers want to make more knowledge free and accessible to all.

[Ca$hBag]

OK so you're implying that lots of Vietnamese have an interest that stuff and Blguyan is just one of them? OK point taken.

[greyed.out.fields]

I say again:
Name one pro-Hindutva admin or long-term user.

It seems nobody besides you finds it hard to believe given Jimbos business partners in the Brahmin community. If Yellow Monkey, Bakasuprman, Hkelkar, freedom skies, Muwaffaq, Rama's Arrow, Viscious81 are not "long-term" users, very few wikipedians are anymore in case you haven't noticed.

• Bakasuprman (T-C-L): account for all practical purposes dormant since June 2008, no activity since August 2010
• Hkelkar (T-C-L): banninated in 2007
• Freedom skies (T-C-L): disappeared in July 2007
• Muwaffaq (T-C-L): nothing since October 2005
• Rama's Arrow (T-C-L): gone since mid 2007
• Viscious81 (T-C-L): pretty much stopped editing December 2007

Simply being a Hindu or from India doesn't make a person an apologist for the worst excesses of the BJP or Shiv Sena any more that being a Christian or from the USA makes a person an apologist for the Westboro Baptist Church.

[Mancunium]

10th anniversary of Kannada wikipedia
The Times of India, 15 November 2013 link

Kannada wikipedia is celebrating its 10th anniversary on November 17. Kannada wikipedia has 15,369 articles (as of September 2013) and attracts 14 lakh visitors a month. It undergoes 2,000 edits a month.

The wikipedia boom among the Indian languages started in 2003. Initially, the growth was very slow and it reached 1,000 articles only by 2006. Even today, the situation isn't great. Among the Indian languages, Hindi tops the list with one lakh articles, Tamil has 56,000, Telugu 53,000 and Marathi 40,000. Kannada is ahead of only Oriya and Punjabi.
Kannada has a total of 400 editors, of which 41 are active and 7 very active. The two highest contributors are non-techies and they are around 80 years - H R Lakshmivenkatesh from Mumbai and B S Chandrashekar from Sagar. [...]

Lakh = 100,000

[Ca$hBag]

• Bakasuprman (T-C-L): account for all practical purposes dormant since June 2008, no activity since August 2010
• Hkelkar (T-C-L): banninated in 2007
• Freedom skies (T-C-L): disappeared in July 2007
• Muwaffaq (T-C-L): nothing since October 2005
• Rama's Arrow (T-C-L): gone since mid 2007
• Viscious81 (T-C-L): pretty much stopped editing December 2007

As i wrote, just about everyone is less active for the past six years, Indian or not.

Besides hkelkar keeps returning despite being banned (which by the way was in 2006 December, not 2007.) . He has to be wikipedia's most famous sockpuppeteer. Freedom skies, muwaffaq, bakasuprman have been caught sockpuppeteering before, why am I obliged to believe they are incapable of doing it again? They could all be there with brand new, block-log free accounts for all anyone knows. From the history of freedom skies userpage: User began sockpuppeteering 2 weeks after his "retirement"

Also another banned user I had a private exchange with told me he noticed their absense but claimed that a bunch of other Indian editors have replaced them. The mentioned users were only some of the ones i remember and most active back then. No one can be required to remember ever trolls username on wikipedia, especially given the long time lapse of being gone.

Simply being a Hindu or from India doesn't make a person an apologist for the worst excesses of the BJP or Shiv Sena any more that being a Christian or from the USA makes a person an apologist for the Westboro Baptist Church.

Don't remember claiming anything even the closest to such

Hindutvas do have a stronghold on wikipedia, but like everyone else they have joined the drainage tide of retired members, save for the sockpuppeteers. The fact that you even acknowledged the existence of these users is enough for me.

[Mancunium]

10 years of Kannada Wikipedia: Many more miles to go!
Kannada Wikipedia community had a celebration that was introspective as well. Plans were chalked out on adding more content.
Citizen Matters, 18 November 2013 link

Just two months away to welcome a New Year, Kannada Wikipedians celebrated the completion of 10 years of journey towards building a free encyclopedia for Kannada. Wikipedians from different part of the state gathered today at H Narasimhaiah Hall, National College, Basavanagudi to witness the event. The stage was adorned by the father of the modern Kannada dictionary, Nadoja Prof G Venkatasubbaiah, the chief guest, along with T R Anantharamu, Senior Scientist (retd), Geological Survey of India, Abhaya Simha, National Award fame Cinema Director and U B Pavanaja from A2K (Access To Knowledge.)

Wikipedia has been the key source of knowledge for a kid to complete its assignments to a research activity for a scientist. It has been one of world’s 5th topmost accessed website. Various languages across the world made a way to emerge language-specific Wikipedias and Kannada has been one of them. [...] Nadoja Prof G Venkatasubbaiah addressed the audience wishing Wikipedians and insisting youth to participate more with Kannada Wikipedia. He felt that completing 10 years isn’t sufficient but the growth should continue by participating more. [...]

The celebration continued with demonstration on editing Wikipedia by Omshivapraksh followed by a session on Creative Commons licenses by Kiran Ravi Kumar, who is an engineering student from Mysore. The event was ended by an Edit-o-thon for the Wikipedians to add new articles. On marking the 10th year completion, the active users of Kannada Wikipedia who have been editing and adding articles from years were given mementos as appreciation to acknowledge their contribution. Harish M G, Tejas Jain, Pramod R and a few of them recieved the token of appreciation during the event. A few of the Wikipedians shared their experience briefing difficulties that a user faces at the beginning and how to overcome all the barriers to involve in editing Wikipedia.

It was a fruitful event that made the participants understand and realise the need for exponential growth of Kannada Wikipedia and moving forward to make a rich and free Encyclopedia for the Kannada community.

Prof Venkatasubbaiah handing out mementos to Wikipedia editors
during the 10th anniversary celebrations of Kannada Wikipedia.

[Mancunium]

10 years of Kannada Wikipedia: Many more miles to go!
Kannada Wikipedia community had a celebration that was introspective as well. Plans were chalked out on adding more content.
Citizen Matters, 18 November 2013 link

Just two months away to welcome a New Year, Kannada Wikipedians celebrated the completion of 10 years of journey towards building a free encyclopedia for Kannada. Wikipedians from different part of the state gathered today at H Narasimhaiah Hall, National College, Basavanagudi to witness the event. The stage was adorned by the father of the modern Kannada dictionary, Nadoja Prof G Venkatasubbaiah, the chief guest, along with T R Anantharamu, Senior Scientist (retd), Geological Survey of India, Abhaya Simha, National Award fame Cinema Director and U B Pavanaja from A2K (Access To Knowledge.)

Wikipedia has been the key source of knowledge for a kid to complete its assignments to a research activity for a scientist. It has been one of world’s 5th topmost accessed website. Various languages across the world made a way to emerge language-specific Wikipedias and Kannada has been one of them. [...] Nadoja Prof G Venkatasubbaiah addressed the audience wishing Wikipedians and insisting youth to participate more with Kannada Wikipedia. He felt that completing 10 years isn’t sufficient but the growth should continue by participating more. [...]

The celebration continued with demonstration on editing Wikipedia by Omshivapraksh followed by a session on Creative Commons licenses by Kiran Ravi Kumar, who is an engineering student from Mysore. The event was ended by an Edit-o-thon for the Wikipedians to add new articles. On marking the 10th year completion, the active users of Kannada Wikipedia who have been editing and adding articles from years were given mementos as appreciation to acknowledge their contribution. Harish M G, Tejas Jain, Pramod R and a few of them recieved the token of appreciation during the event. A few of the Wikipedians shared their experience briefing difficulties that a user faces at the beginning and how to overcome all the barriers to involve in editing Wikipedia.

It was a fruitful event that made the participants understand and realise the need for exponential growth of Kannada Wikipedia and moving forward to make a rich and free Encyclopedia for the Kannada community.

I posted this on 18 November. Our friend Rohini Lakshane -- who has rightfully complained that I didn't give her proper attribution for a mention of one of her blog posts -- has published it today:

Kannada Wikipedia completes 10 years
Daily News & Analysis, 30 November 2013 link

[Mancunium]

10 years of Kannada Wikipedia: Many more miles to go!
Kannada Wikipedia community had a celebration that was introspective as well. Plans were chalked out on adding more content.
Citizen Matters, 18 November 2013 link

Now, this is interesting (to me):

Soups and climate science figure in 12th Century encyclopaedia in Sanskrit
The Hindu, 1 December 2013 link

For those who keep off from Wikipedia or still cherish the prized Britannicas in their bookshelves, there may be an amazing, little-known truth waiting to be unveiled: ancient India too had such compilations of knowledge nuggets.

Two encyclopaedias in Sanskrit, both written by kings who lived about 500 years apart in today’s Karnataka, will soon be available in Kannada, Mallepuram G. Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor, Karnataka Samskrit University, who has edited the books, said. One of them, Manasollasa, is arguably the oldest Indian encyclopaedia and dates back to the 12th Century. Also called Abhilasitartha-chintamani (the wish-fulfilling magic stone), it is said to reflect extraordinary insights into the world around the author nearly 900 years ago.

The compendium talks about soopashastra (making of vegetable soups and other cuisines); climate science (vayushastra), costumes and cosmetics, medicine, ecology, carpentry, healing of trees (vrukshaayurveda), metallurgy and even politics and law. It also deals with over a hundred interesting themes that could be still relevant, he said. The five-volume Manasollasa was authored by Chalukya king Bhulokamalla Someshwara III, who ruled over today’s Karnataka-Andhra regions between 1126 and 1138.

About 8,000 slokas have been translated with notes, foot notes and the original text. The university expects to complete the translation of the first volume soon and publish it in February or March 2014. Each volume runs into 500 pages, Dr. Venkatesh told The Hindu. The university is also working on Sri Shivatatva Ratnakara, a 17th Century work of Basavaraja of Keladi in modern Shimoga. It would be its first print edition in India. [...] The forthcoming books would help spread the fact that Kannadigas were at the forefront of compiling some of the early encyclopaedias with rich details of the world around those authors. [...]

Sanskrit Wikipedia (संस्कृतविकिपीडिया) only has about 5000 articles.

मुख्यपृष्ठम् - Wikipedia: link

[Mancunium]

I include Bangladesh in the thread because, in addition to the 150 million Bengali-speakers in that country, there are another 95 million Bengali-speakers in the Indian state of West Bengal; it is one of the world's most widely spoken languages. So who better than Carolynne Schloeder to explain why control of the Bangla Wikipedia has been turned over to a Bangladeshi in the same week that the Wikimedia Foundation signed a partnership deal with Bangladeshi telecom Banglalink?

Wikipedia Zero
A righteous initiative for accessing free knowledge
Daily Star, 2 December 2013 link

Carolynne Schloeder, Director of Mobile Programs at Wikimedia Foundation, carve up the benefits, goals and expectations of this initiative with Shahriar Rahman from ‘Bytes’ on the eve of launching Wikipedia Zero in Bangladesh.

SH: What’s the long term plan regarding this particular program?

CS: We would like to reach 1.5 billion people through our partnerships. And then our secondary plan is to make sure then people use Wikipedia. Wikipedia Zero is a mean to an ends; the end is the impact the way that knowledge can support education and help people improve their lives. So ultimately what we are looking at is IMPACT. And when I talk about access to knowledge, it’s not just people reading Wikipedia. Rather knowledge must be multi-directional.

SH: Many researchers have shown that disproportional amount of contents are entered in Wikipedia from developing countries compared to the rest of the world. For example: There are nearly more than double articles in Antarctica than the entire African continent. Do you think this initiative is going to help enrich the contents in Wikipedia from developing countries?

CS: We are hoping as people use Wikipedia more and there is such a bigger audience people will be inspired to join the movement and actually contribute articles. So this is part of the overall initiative to raise awareness and bring Wikipedia to people through which very naturally people will follow and join the local chapters in the movement.

SH: Do you think being free is going to enrich Wikipedia’s content in the long run since all the editors and contributors are unpaid?

CS: Wikipedia worldwide exists on volunteer labor and it’s AMAZING. It’s a miracle actually since people wants to donate their time to spread knowledge. And it’s beautiful. So, yes! We don’t pay people to do it (chuckled).But it’s because we trust in the human nature of helping others.

SH: Have you ever been to Bangladesh before?

No, this is my first time in Bangladesh.