Top 20 countries which will grow fastest till 2024 Basing on analysis of decade-long economic growth data and policies between 2004 and 2014 – which Manmohan Singh was India’s Prime Minister – the Centre for International Development (CID) at Harvard University has predicted that India has the “potential to be the fastest growing economy over the coming decade.”

Subarnarekha river, "affected" by uranium waste As India seeks to go nuclear signing one pact after another with other countries, a US-based non-profit organization, Centre for Public Integrity (CPI), has come down heavily on the state-owned Uranium Corporation of India Ltd’s (UCIL’s) operations in Jadugoda, Jharkhand, for failing to protect “nuclear workers, village residents, and children living near mines and factories” from “persistent exposure to unsafe radiation.”

Balwant Singh Gujarat’s chief information commissioner Balwant Singh, in a ruling, which is unlikely to be taken kindly by RTI activists, has said that senior IAS official Sanjay Prasad’s two-year-old report on the death of three Dalit youths in police firing of September 2012, may be public, as it relates to a “human rights violation”, but under certain condition.

Falciani Yet another instance has come to light suggesting the Government of India isn’t keen on sharing information on black money. The Ministry of Finance has lately refused to part with official information on action taken following former Geneva-based HSBC Bank employee and whistleblower Herve Falciani’s leaked information on account holders who had stashed away black money in the bank.

The wall around the "proposed" N-site A “secret” acquisition of of nearly 4,290 acres of land adjacent to Varavu Kaval and Khudapura villages in the district of Chitradurga, Karnataka, which place seven months after India’s Parliament ratified the US-Indian nuclear cooperation by Parliament May 2009, has gone internationally controversial six years after the process began.

Bhagwat Counterview Desk In a surprise move, a senior official of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has quoted RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to justify his arguments in working out a new education policy, for which Union human resources minister Smriti Irani had sought comments by December 15.

The Gujarat police is learnt to be asking strange questions to young pro-quota Patidar leader Hardik Patel, currently in Surat’s Lajpore jail of Gujarat on charges of sedition. Details of the questions asked during the police interrogation suggest, among the questions he was asked included whether he had a girl friend, and when would he get married.

 India’s civil society organizations have strongly objected to the new Foreign Contribution Regulation (FRC)  Rules  notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which require the NGOs to give an "affirmation" that they are not used the foreign contribution for activities that are likely to “prejudicially affect” the sovereignty and integrity of the country, the security, strategic, scientific and economic interests of the state and the public interest.

  A new survey released by well-known rating agency Standard & Poor (S&P) has found that just 24 per cent of the adult Indians are financially literate, which is worse than not just the “competing” BRICS economies but two of its important neighbours Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Pakistan’s 26 per cent and Sri Lanka’s 35 per cent adults are financially literate, it says. Bangladesh's financial literacy rate is 19 per cent.

  The latest Human Development Report 2015 suggests that though India’s Human Development Index (HDI) for 2014 is 0.609 on a scale of 1000, below the average of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development group,  above the average of 0.607 for countries in South Asia, its international ranking of 130th of 188 countries would have been much better if the country had fought socio-economic inequalities.

The Union ministry of external affairs (MEA) has rejected the release, under the right to information (RTI) Act, to records relating to the issue of the fake passport of top underworld don Chhota Rajan, whose capture in Indonesia last month was sought to be projected as a major breakthrough by the Government of India.

  Even as ranking India 80th in Global Hunger Index (GHI) among 104 developing countries, a new study, carried out by a group of research organizations led by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) says that the country’s has been able to successfully fight against child undernutrition in India after 2005.

Does the passport office in Gujarat, widely proclaimed as a “model” state, not know that orphan/abandoned children are exempted from the mandatory requirement of submission of a birth certificate along with passport application form? It would seem so if what happened on Friday is any indication.

  The Supreme Court judgment of December 10, which upholds amendment to Haryana's Panchayati Raj law seeking to disqualify those contesting panchayat polls for not possessing minimum educational qualifications, non-payment of electricity bills or dues to cooperative banks, and not having a toilet in their homes is being widely interpreted as anti-women, anti-Dalit, and against international laws, to which India is a signatory.

  An international advocacy group  report , prepared even as the Paris talks on climate change are on, has accused India that Government of India and India’s coal companies operating in the private sector of causing “major, countervailing detrimental effects on communities which had previously sustained themselves with farming, fishing, hunting and other activities.”

A recent World Bank  analysis , even while predicting that India’s growth rate would be around 7.5 per cent by the end of the present financial year ending March 2016, believes that it is largely “oil-fueled.” Carried out by  Frederico Gil Sander , senior economist, World Bank, it says, “The drastic decline in global crude oil prices since June 2014 clearly played an important role”.

Senior Congress leader from Gujarat Madhusudan Mistry, known for taking independent political stances which may not necessarily to be the liking of a section of the party leaders, has strongly insisted the onus is on the Congress leadership to “change” its present electoral/mobilisation strategy, especially in urban areas, if it wants to “win the assembly election due in 2017.”

  In a fresh evidence, Gujarat’s public healthcare has taken a beating over the last10 years, with rural areas witnessing one of the sharpest 7.9 per cent fall in the provision of government health services in India, Only two states witnessed a higher fall than Gujarat in rural public healthcare services -- Karnataka (13.2 per cent) and Maharashtra (9.5).

  At a time when the Government of India is keen to promote startup enterprises, a spot survey in a Niti Aayog report has found that just about 17 per cent of the urban youth, belonging to the lower strata, are interested self-employment or entrepreneurship, and majority would prefer, instead, permanent, preferably government job.

Kumari Selja "praising" Dwarka arrangement In what may be interpreted by a section of Dalit activists as a controversial statement, Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani (independent), who happens to be vice-chairman of the Dwarkadheesh temple trust in Dwarka, has said that there is “nothing humiliating” if a teerth panda (senior priest) asks for the caste of “a devotee to find out his/her gotra (family root).”

  A recent report, prepared by top international consultants, KPMG, has said that an alarming 72 per cent of company leaders in India, up from 49 per cent a year ago, have said that they have faced “some sort of a cyber attack over the past year, indicating an increase in the volume of attacks.”

  A top economist close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bibek Debroy, believes that, whenever the Government of India refers issues needing analysis of the Planning Commission successor Niti Ayog, they would not be made public. One of the three members so far appointed, Debroy said the think-tank has already begun to get such “issues”, which are referred to it by the government.

  Ranking No 131 of 167 countries in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development Index or IDI, India has slipped by seven points from No 125 in 2010, says a just-released  report , “Measuring the Information Society Report 2015”, prepared by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), part of the United Nations system, headquartered in Geneva.

  Ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s India visit in December second week, 13 villages in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, have declared their opposition to the proposed nuclear project by passing a unanimous resolution. While the plant is to be built by the French company Areva, the Japanese Mitsubishi is likely to supply crucial components for the nuclear reactor of the plant.

  A top international survey, which is likely to create ripples in India’s corridors of power as well as the corporate world, has said that incidence of corporate fraud in India has taken a massive leap of 11 per cent, from 69 per cent in 2013-14 to 80 per cent in 2015-26, which is essentially the period when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in power.

  A new research work, which would which is likely to sound music to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chosen economic advisors, especially Niti Ayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, says that the former UPA government’s flagship programme National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), has had a negative impact on school going children, especially in the age-group 13-17.

  Was there an attempt to rig elections to the six municipal corporations held in Gujarat on November 22? If available information with Counterview on Ahmedabad is any indication, it would seem so. In fact, indications have emerged that there was a meticulous planning to ensure that, at several places, voters are unable to cast their votes, and among the “victims” of this planning were not just ordinary voters but even persons like octogenarian ex-BJP chief minister Keshubhai Patel.

  Well-known US-based think-tank, Pew Research Centre, in a new study has found that India ranks No 24 of 38 democratic countries it has surveyed for coming up with Free Expression Index (FEI). The United States ranks No 1 with an FEI of 5.73, followed by Poland (5.66), Spain (5.62), Mexico (5.4), Venezuela (5.17), and Canada (5.18).

  By Our Representative  RB Sreekumar, former director general of police (DGP), Gujarat, has asked chief minister Anandiben Patel to make public the Enquity Commission Report on 2002 Gujarat riots, prepared by Justices GT Nanavati and Akshay H Mehta, regretting, it is “painful” that no MLA of Gujarat has moved, at appropriate level, “for ensuring the release of the report by the state government.”

  Even as the Government of India is all set to stick to its target of reducing emission levels by 35 per cent at Paris, where 190 countries meet later this month for a two-week climate change conference, a recent paper by a top international consultant suggests that Indian policy makers haven’t yet properly understand the implications of the possibility of solar power prices drastically coming down.

Anti-Narmada dam agitation in Madhya Pradesh The final report of the Independent People’s Tribunal on Sardar Sarovar, “Claims and Realities of Development and Rehabilitation”, released in Delhi, says that “thousands of families, especially the tribals, fisher folk and landless poor” have not being given “any alternative place to live”, though the Gujarat government is going ahead with raising the height of the Narmada dam from 121.92 metres to 138.68 metres.

In an important exposure, Gujarat, touted till recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “model” state for others to follow, has been ranked No 15 among 20 major Indian states in child development index (CDI). The ranking has been  calculated  for 2013-14 by two top economists Reetika Khera and Jean Dreze on the basis of the Government of India’s recently released summary findings of the Rapid Survey On Children 2013-14 (RSOC).

  A Bangalore-based startup, which helps citizens file queries under the Right-to-Information (RTI) Act,  OnlineRTI.com , has revealed in the year since Narendra Modi’s government took charge, there has been a whopping 90 per cent increase in bank frauds, as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data obtained through RTI.

  Making a scathing critique of the prevailing social bias in collection of data on health in India, a recent  study  published in the well-known global health journal “Lancet” has said that “about 80% of patients visit a private practitioner, which they do at their own expense”, yet most “health-related data are obtained from public hospitals and public health-care service units.”

The India Resource Centre (IRC), which claims to have run a running campaign against the Coca Cola’s expansion plans for its bottling plant in Mehdigunj, Varanasi, for seeking to use groundwater in an area which was declared overexploited believes that the Government of India’s new guidelines for industrial use of groundwater in water stressed does have any “measuring and monitoring mechanisms for groundwater recharge, and the guidelines are open to abuse by industries.”

The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), India’s powerful organization of top corporate giants, has declared that the “corporate results at the end of first quarter of current fiscal (2015-16) painted a rather gloomy picture, as the financial performance of Indian companies, especially manufacturing sector firms, deteriorated.”

  Counterview Desk A new study, published in well-known international health journal, “Lancet” (December 2015), has found that, in Gujarat, the mortality rate for men in the age-group 15-69 is 8.8 per 1000, which is higher than the national average (8.1), and for women it is 5.2 per 1000, lower than the national average (5.6).

A fresh international alert has come at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins his first UK visit: A  study  carried out by three top scholars for the London School of Economics (LSE) has said that at 8.6 per cent rate of growth officially projected by the Government of india, the country is all set to emit 9,285 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum by 2030, next only to that of China.

  A new  report  by the World Bank, “Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion Around the World”, has said that the Government of India’s high-profile Jan Dhan scheme, launched for bank transfer subsidies to the poorer sections of India’s population, has been lacking any “explicit purpose”, one reason why around 43 per cent of the country’s accounts are "dormant."

A recent estimate by the mines, minerals & People (mm&P), a national alliance of mining affected communities, has said that every year around 80,000-90,000 cases of illegal mining are reported by governments across India. While the MB Shah commission, which investigated into their operations, assessed that they cost a whopping Rs 60,000 crore to state coffers, the fine realized from them per year is just a pittance, about Rs 11 crore.

Well-known psephologist Yogendra Yadav believes that a major reason why the TV channels have failed to properly predict what would happen in the Bihar elections was a “sampling bias built in the methodology of the exit polls” which failed take into account upper caste bias.

The Coalition for Genetically Modified (GM) Free India, the apex body of tens of organizations fighting for promoting organic food, suspects that the recent application made for the approval for commercialization of GM mustard, moved with the apex regulatory body Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), which is under the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, may be accepted.

The World Bank’s latest  report , “India Development Update”, has said that India may have taken advantage of the “sharp decline in global oil and commodity prices to eliminate petrol and diesel subsidies and increase excise taxes”, hence the country’s economic growth will “very likely remain above 7 percent in the next fiscal year”. However, it warns that “uncertainty about its momentum is high and downside risks ample.”

  A new  report , “Global Wealth Databook 2015” by top a global financial services firm based in Zurich, Credit Suisse, has found the existence of huge wealth differences in India. The report says that 755,563,000, or 95.4 per cent of adults in India, own wealth less than $10,000, while a minuscule 185,000, or 0.023 per cent of Indian adults, own more than $1 million.

Even as ranking India 130th in the ease of doing business among 189 countries, up from 134th a year ago, the latest World Bank report, “Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency” has quietly suggested that all’s not well on the social front in India. It has pointed towards “unreliable electricity supply”, which has adverse “consequences for a society’s well-being and living conditions.”

In what may prove to be a fuel for the Sangh Parivar outfits seeking complete ban on beef, well-known environmentalist Sunita Narain has tweeted (@sunitanar): "Why we should listen to #WHO on processed #meat", asking readers to visit the http://www.downtoearth.org.in/, which she edits, in order to read the  article  which approvingly quotes a World Health Organization (WHO) study that "processed meat" may be "carcinogenic to humans."

  Senior gender expert, Prof Pam Rajput, who chaired the High Level Committee (HLC) on the Status of Women, formed by the Government of India (GoI), has heavily come down on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial statement three years ago, where he  attributed  malnutrition in Gujarat to 'beauty conscious' young girls.

An internal Gujarat government note, prepared by the state revenue department and in possession of Counterview, has admitted that the recent amendments to the state’s land various ceiling Acts are meant to “enable the industrialist to speedily establish industry”, in such a way that the industrialist could “purchase” the land for industrial purpose “without prior permission of the district collector.”

  The Working Group for Women and Land Ownership (WGWLO), a network of 37 NGOs and community based organizations in Gujarat, has regretted that, despite tall talks of women’s rights, it found in a study that 23.2% daughters and 17.1% widows gave away their “title deeds” on property when they were alive, and 20% daughters’ names do not figure in the land records.

A top protege of Prime Minister Narendra Modi living in the US, Rajiv Malhotra, who is widely regarded as one of the foremost theorists of Hindutva, is out to create yet another flutter, this time insisting that there is a need to “understand Manusmriti as per Hindu interpretation”, and for this one should “ read Agniveer ”. The article Malhotra wants people to read is titled “Manusmiti and Shudras”, posted on the website  http://agniveer.com/ , and authored by Sanjeev Newar, who says that “Manu Smriti hails from an era when even the concept of birth-based caste system did not exist”, adding, the treatise “nowhere supports a social system based on birth.”