Better late than never: the government of India has finally set up Parliamentary Standing Committees, with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor heading the committee on Information Technology. In the last term of Parliament, the committee had been chaired by Anuragh Thakur, who is currently the Minister of State for Finance. The last committee looked into issues including Net Neutrality* and started discussions on Privacy, but reports on neither subject were submitted or published. Parliamentary Standing Committees are bipartisan committees, with representatives from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. IT Minister RS Prasad has said that the Personal Data Protection Bill may be sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT, or to a "select committee". Tharoor is a great choice: Tharoor is a great pick for heading this committee, given that he has often raised technology policy issues in…
