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Re:India Orders 32 Websites Blocked, Including GitHub, Archi... by pkhagah on Wednesday December 31, 2014 @03:56PM (#8821043)
Actually that tweet was not from government official. It was from ruling political party IT cell here. Government officials from DOT and IT ministry are still silent on this issue.
Re:India Orders 32 Websites Blocked, Including GitHub, Archi... by walshemj on Wednesday December 31, 2014 @04:56PM (#8821293)
what is a "political party IT cell" is this some committee of MP's? or some Indian political slang?
Re:India Orders 32 Websites Blocked, Including GitHub, Archi... by viksit on Wednesday December 31, 2014 @09:12PM (#8821910)
The terms are a bit messed up, but the closest thing these are to a US organization is a presidential campaign policy working group. [1] These are the guys who basically act as advisors to the government's top politicians on issues that relate to technology.

Edit: They don't only manage the online presence of the political party. They are more detailed, coming up with policies and papers (presumably - none of these ever show up in public, oddly) [2]

[1] As an example, here's Obama's - http://change.gov/learn/policy_working_groups

[2] The head of the IT cell's LI profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/argupta26

Re:India Orders 32 Websites Blocked, Including GitHub, Archi... by walshemj on Thursday January 01, 2015 @07:16AM (#8822738)
Ah like SPAD's (Special Advisors) are they considered temporary civil servants it seems odd that an unelected "advisor" is making policy and being quoted in the media though.
Re:India Orders 32 Websites Blocked, Including GitHub, Archi... by confusedIndian on Wednesday December 31, 2014 @09:10PM (#8821907)
The ruling party, BJP, has a group of IT professionals managing their online presence. This, they call their "IT cell".
Re:India Orders 32 Websites Blocked, Including GitHub, Archi... by munkay on Thursday January 01, 2015 @08:56PM (#8825173)
cell == division