India blocks access to blogs

Reportedly, the Indian government has blocked access to many blog sites, including Google's popular BlogSpot service, as reported by News.com. Understandably, many Indians and non-Indians alike are terribly upset and even enraged by this move, coming from a democratic country like India which takes pride in a free press and freedom of speech. What's more, the country is also a leading technology & software services supplier to the world; IT and IT-enabled services being one of the major business sectors in the country.

I am not sure if Exchangepedia blog is being blocked from India - the chances of that happening are quite miniscule because this blog is hosted on my server and I only use Google's Blogsport/Blogger interface as a content-management mechanism.

I hope the rational minds within the powers that be in Indian government - and there are quite a few in the current administration including Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, a Cambridge and Oxford-educated and respected economist, and the President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, an accomplished scientist - realize the gravity of this decision and lift the ban soon.

Many sources have already published information on how to get around the ban and the resulting filters put in place by some - but not all - Indian ISPs.