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Showing posts from September, 2015

Despite 16 point "jump" in India's competitiveness, it is very difficult to start business in India: WEF

 Even as pointing out that, after five years of decline, India has “jumped” 16 ranks to 55th place in global competitive index, the World Economic Forum in its new report has said the situation on the macroeconomic front “remains worrisome.” While pointing out that India is the third biggest market in the world, up for grabs for global investors, the report finds the situation particularly bad on the social front, especially health and education.

India slips in internet ranking, is worst performer among competing BRICS nations: UNESCO broadband report

Even when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was meeting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as part of his effort to gather international support for his high-profile Digital India campaign, a new report, sponsored jointly by UNESCO and International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and released by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, has found that India has slipped in global ranking for the use of internet, both broadband and internet in general. The report, “State of Broadband 2015: Broadband as Foundation of Sustainable Development”, dated September 2015, ranks India 131st in the fixed broadband subscription category and 155th in the mobile broadband subscription category among 189 nations of the world. The report says that India has 1.2 per 100 capita fixed and 5.5 mobile per 100 capita broadband penetration. A comparison with BRICS nations suggests as India ranks worst both in fixed and mobile broadband. In fixed broadband, Russia ranks 56th with 17.5 per 100 capita, China 67th with 14.4 per ...

FB's #DigitalIndia "compromised" net neutrality; "predetermined" questions posed to Modi at FB HQ

Screenshot of controversial Facebook source Independent IT buffs have come down heavily on what they claim to be Facebook's effort to compromise net neutrality by asking its Indian clients to change their FB picture to support the #DigitalIndia campaign following FB founder Mark Zuckerberg's decision to do it after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at FB headquarters in the US.

Amnesty pleads for ending solitary confinement of Mumbai terror suspect, govt says "no"

Ansari In a statement which is likely to turn controversial in India, one of the world’s top-most human rights organizations, Amnesty International, has pitched for ending the solitary confinement of Zabiuddin Ansari, suspected of planning and coordinating the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack. His health is said to be deteriorating after he decided to be on a wet hunger strike on August 5, which continues till date.

Modi "removed" name of author Mahadev Desai, "changed" title of Bhagwad Gita presented to Obama

 Just one day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second meeting with President Barack Obama in US, Mahatma Gandhi's secretary Mahadevbhai Desai's grandson has made a serious allegation against Modi – that the Bhagwad Gita's version Modi presented to Obama during his previous visit was actually authored by his grandfather. Yet, Modi not only changed the title, he even removed Mahadev Desai's name. Mahadev Desai's grandson Nachiketa Desai is one of the senior-most journalists of Gujarat who is currently working as consulting editor (political) with the United News of India, and has been associated with Swaraj Abhiyan, the breakaway group of Aam Aadmi Party.

India's annual export losses may reach $50 bln if economy not opened up to world trade: US govt policy adviser

  A senior policy expert attached with US government has sharply criticized the Government of India for not doing enough in opening up its economy to the world. Pointing out that “India’s international competitiveness is lagging badly”, the expert says, “The shares of both manufactured and services exports in the economy have stagnated for over three years”, and “the responsiveness of Indian imports to global growth has declined sharply.”

India slips in economic freedom index to 114th position, below China and Nepal

  The latest Economic Freedom Index report, prepared by three of the west's well-known neo-liberal institute, has ranked India at 114th position in the world, below China, which has been ranked No 111th. Titled “Economic Freedom of the World: 2015 Annual Report”, the top report, ironically, has found that India ranked pretty high in economic freedom before liberalization was introduced in 1991, but following some improvement, it again began slipping.

Wakeup call for Congress: Despite rising worries, Modi popularity invades party base, says US thinktank

In what could be a wakeup call for the Congress, a survey by an American thinktank, Pew International, which created a flutter in 2013 by declaring huge support for Narendra Modi, declared Prime Ministerial candidate for the BJP, has in fact found support for Modi going up, despite “rising worries” among Indians about crime, jobs, prices and corruption. Titled “The Modi Bounce”, even Modi critics cannot take the Pew survey lightly, despite its small sample size – 2,452 respondents. The survey was conducted from April 6 to May 19, 2015. The earlier survey, conducted in 2014, (click  HERE ) ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, had said that two-thirds of Indians supported Modi-led BJP.

India slips in Global Innovation Index to 81st position from 76th in a year, worst among BRICS nations

A new  report , prepared by the Cornell University, US, has rated India at 81st position in Global Innovation Index (GII) 2015, suggesting, despite a regime change in the country, things have failed to improve. The report says, “Over the last four years India has witnessed a reduction in its overall GII ranking, which dropped from 62nd place in 2011 to 76th in 2014.”

Gujarat No 1?: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu question World Bank ranking, say report is based on old data

Maharashtra CM Fadnavis A recent World Bank-prepared Government of India-sponsored report placing Gujarat as No 1 state in ease of doing business, ahead of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, has turned controversial. Reacting sharply, while the Maharashtra government has said it would ask the Centre to recommend to World Bank to "reassess" the ranking (No 8), the Tamil Nadu government has said the report's analysis ranking the state No 12 is "purely a perception-based" and not on "factuals and efficiencies".

Can't collect separate data on attacks on human rights violations: Govt of India official

The director-general (DG) of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Government of India, has declared that the bureau cannot revise the new template for capturing the number of murders of right to information (RTI) users, social activists, whistleblowers and mediapersons separately, in addition to the instances of grievous hurts, separately, so that these could be counted as human rights violations.

Gujarat No 1 in ease of doing business. Really?

Gujarat is, again, No 1— assessed for “ease” of doing business. At least this is what a new report, titled “Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms”, is said to have made out by a World Bank report. The moment news broke out, I was amused, and decided to go to the source. I visited the World Bank site, and found a small summary, prompting one to visit the Government of India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Policy (DIPP) site to download it . Initial remarks on the World Bank site were revealing: “This report captures the findings of an assessment of reform implementation by states, led by the DIPP, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, with support of the World Bank Group and KPMG as the knowledge partner, and facilitated by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).” A clear effort of the government of India to “highlight” Gujarat model, this time with the help of an “auth...

Gujarat No 1 in ease of doing business? Thank environmental compliance: Centre-sponsored World Bank report

A Government of India report, supported by World Bank, consultants KPMG, and two top industry bodies, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), has placed Gujarat No 1 for “ease of doing business”, but point out, this has been possible because of cent per cent compliance to environmental laws, an area in which it is most suspected by environmentalists.

PM's 15 point programme: Gujarat govt refuses to implement minority schemes despite policy nod, funds

Latest information, gathered by Gujarat-based non-government organization (NGO) Janvikas, indicates that even a decade after the Gujarat government declared it favoured implementing the controversial 15 point programmes of the Prime Minister for “ameliorating” the plight of minorities, things remain struck where they were in 2006. Official sources say, the matter has been under “active consideration” ever since, and there is no indication when it will be implemented.

Quantitative data from hospitals on diseases to determine India's new pollution norms, not "eco-geological factors"

 In a major move to “undermine” Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI), which was calculated for determining whether a particular region complies with environmental norms or not, the Government of India is all set to drop what are called “eco-geological factors” to determine pollution norms.

Gujarat's online voting site is "not trustworthy", is "insecure", warn top web browsers Firefox, Chrome

Screenshot: Firefox, Sept 9 morning The Gujarat State Election Commission's (SEC's) “offer” a few days back to allow the voters to the state's municipal corporation elections, likely next month, that they could register on its website to avail of the “opportunity” offered by it for online voting, has failed security check on selected, more secure computer devices. As one visited  the website's link for registering on a laptop for online voting,  https://onlinevotinggujarat.gov.in/ , a security alert declared that the site is not safe.

Gujarat govt disaster management plan puts Narmada submergence levels 11 metres higher: Medha Patkar

In a fresh calculation, the backwater levels in some of the villages along Narmada during heavy floods in Madhya Pradesh would be around around 155 metres once the Narmada dam across Gujarat, currently under construction, reaches the full reservoir level (FRL) at 138.68 metres.

Climate change?: Coal India ranks No 1, Adani No 3 in carbon emission worldwide, says Fossil Fuel Indexes report

  In an astonishing revelation, several top Indian companies -- Government of India-owned Coal India, Gujarat's powerful Adani Group, Tata Steel, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Tata Power, and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) -- have found their way into top 100 CO2 emitting coal companies worldwide.

Why Gujarat imposed mobile internet curfew during the Patel agitation

It was Wednesday, October 31, 1984. After finalizing the semi-left Link newsweekly, for which I worked then, the office driver boldly drove the Ambassador late at night through Delhi streets, which were already in the grip of anti-Sikh riots, erupted following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. The driver squeezed his way through burning vehicles. At several places we could see houses in flames and heard painful, shrieking voices. It was a ghastly scenario, of the type I had never witnessed, or even imagined, before. I reached home, a middle class South Delhi locality; to my consolation all was quiet, though we had a Sikh neighbour. My lovely daughter on that fateful day was just 21 days old. After taking my dinner, it befell on me to look after her, as she would refuse to sleep. I was still awake, and at 2 am, I found somebody knocking on our door. “Shah saheb”, the person who knocked the door loudly said. I immediately recognized his voice: We used to call him a “chaddi dhari” – pe...

Converting Nehru Museum into Modi propaganda spot is "anachronistic, inappropriate, unjustified": Top scholars

Gopalkrishna Gandhi Well known public personalities and scholars Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Girish Karnad, Romila Thapar, and Ananya Vajpeyi have strongly protested against the plan to convert the prestigious Nehru Museum in Delhi into a “Museum of Governance”, and "to repurpose it to broadcast the activities of the current government".

Floods, human pandemic biggest risks to Ahmedabad, Surat: Lloyd's city risk study

A high-profile study by top international consultants, Lloyd’s, has found that Ahmedabad’s 11.82 per cent of the annual gross domestic product (GDP), or 14.01 billion dollars out of the city GDP of 118.50 billion dollars, would be at risk because of manmade or natural threats. The study, titled “Lloyd's City Risk Index 2015-2025: Analysing the economic exposure from 18 threats”, has been carried out on 301 top world cities.