This is scary. The DNAIndia article projects as though Bitcoin is a foreign currency and also says it is illegal.
I think we need a website like CoinDesk but specifically for India with various domain experts (including Bitcoiners) writing articles on Bitcoin vis-a-vis Indian law (lawyers can be of help here), technology behind Bitcoins (crypto/software experts), advantages of adopting Bitcoins (economists) etc.
We need articles from early Indian adopters too. Their experiences, stuff that they want improved, life-changing apps they are working on or even using bitcoins to enable job creation etc. Let the media/government know that the people who use and deal with bitcoins in India is the smart and honest common man and not goons from the underworld (Silk Road pretty much dominated the Bitcoin press the whole of 2013 and we need to change that at least for 2014). The government needs to also be cautioned about attempting to ban Bitcoins as it will only push the technology towards criminals and out of the hands of honest people who want to do good with this currency... in other words the lesser the number of good people in control of bitcoin the more dangerous bitcoin is for the society.
The Indian media seems to be least interested in doing some proper research before publishing articles (esp the one from DNA). But for them to do that we need a site that incorporates a basic "for dummies" like approach to explain all the concepts surrounding Bitcoins (creation of coins, decentralization, pseudonymity, miners and fee collection, blockchain analysis) and dispel all the FUD that seems to have engulfed the Indian media/government.
Its not that any of the stuff I have written above aren't available in any other foreign media site(s)/blogs. Looking at how lazy our media/government is when it comes to doing research a site which collates all information into one place (and properly categorizes them into beginner/moderate/advanced) is the need of the hour.
I'm wanting to start a site along these lines... to raise awareness and use it as a tool to dispel FUD.
Anyone up for this? Ideas welcome! If you guys want to brainstorm we can catch up on email/skype (ping me to get in touch).
Reach out to Benson, we already have one which he is working on.
A few new writers for the paper would be really helpful.