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.”

Nayantara Sahgal In a fresh sign of resentment, as many as 350 artists have come together and signed a statement declaring their "firm solidarity" with the actions of top writers, "who have relinquished awards and positions, and spoken up in protest against the alarming rise of intolerance in the country." As many as 33 writers, following Jawaharlal Nehru's celebrated niece Nayantara Sahgal, have so far returned India's best known Sahitya Akademi award. 

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.”

Pradyumnasinh Chudasma Is Gujarat's controversial Gujarat Agricultural Lands Ceiling (Amendment) Bill, 2015 all set to be “applied” on Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) – proposed as a Greenfield smart city about 90 kilometres south of Ahmedabad along the Gulf of Khambhat – even before it gets a final nod of President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, with whom it is currently pending?

  One of the world’s top consultants, Ernst and Young (EY), known for catering to the “requirements” of its clients who include both government and global business players, has rated India as the best investment destination in the world. In a survey carried out among 505 business executives form 28 countries, E&Y has said “A leading 32 per cent of the investors ranked India as the most attractive market this year.”

  A long-time Gujarat government client propagating Gujarat as India’s best business destination around the world, Ernst & Young (EY), one of the best known international consultants, has said that Ahmedabad tops the list of “second tier cities for investment”. The data published by it show that 26 per cent of the around 505 business executives  it has inteviewed identified as India’s best investment destination among all "emerging business destinations."

The Majur Adhikar Manch (MAM), an organization catering to the informal sector workers' rights in Ahmedabad, has taken strong exception to the Gujarat government “evicting” 56 tribal families – most of them construction workers – as part of its preparations of the high-profile metro rail project.

Replica of Dholera smart city Gujarat government is learnt to have imposed prohibitory orders across the entire Ahmedabad district, except for Ahmedabad city. The decision to impose Section 144 in the district’s rural areas comes close on the heels of the “permission” sought by an upcoming farmers’ organization, Khedut Samaj – Gujarat (KSG), to hold padyatra against the proposed Smart City in Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), 90 km south of Ahmedabad, along the Gulf of Khambhat.

Gujarat's two senior human rights activists have said that the Gujarat Control of Terror and Organised Crime (GUJTOC) Bill, 2015, currently awaiting the President’s assent, on paper seeks to curb organised crime and terrorism, but, in practice, will prove to be a “no-holds-barred attack on free speech.” In fact, they believe, thanks to its vague language, it will be a “codified a means for police intimidation” to quash any opposition to governmental decisions, terming them “terrorist.”

  By Our Representative Coming down heavily on Government of India initiative, Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojana (JSSY), meant to ensure “free” and “cashless” services to pregnant women for deliveries in public health facilities, antenatal care, and to infants up to a year, a top advocacy group has found that, in Gujarat, “more than half the women (51.4%) incurred out-of-pocket expenditure for antenatal care, and 48% for deliveries.”

 The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in a surprise move, has "distanced" itself from its own mouthpieces -- "Panchajanya" in Hindi, and "Organiser" in English. It has fielded RSS'all-India propaganda chief (prachar pramukh) Dr Manmohan Vaidya to tweet through RSS (@RSSorg) that they "are not mouthpiece of RSS", adding, "An official office bearer only speaks on behalf of RSS".

  A new report, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has made a startling revelation: During the first half of this decade, India’s undernourished population, in absolute terms, increased from 189.9 million in 2010-12 to 194.6 in 2014-16. Released to mark the World Food Day, which fell on October 16, the report is titled “The State of Food Insecurity in the World”.

 Nobel Prize winner in economics Angus Deaton has suggested that the Government of India’s cash transfer policy, which would require transfer of money to individual bank account holders receiving government subsidy, hasn’t been properly thought out,  terming  it as an “experiment on the poor”.

The "proposed" GIFT smart city A fresh document, obtained by a Gujarat-based right to information (RTI) activist, Roshan Shah on October 8, has revealed how very slow is the progress in implementing the pet "smart city" project floated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s when he was Gujarat chief minister – Gujarat International Finance Tec-city (GIFT). Envisaged in 2007, there are just two towers in the GIFT premises, one of which has partially started functioning.

  Fresh facts have come to light suggesting that, in Gujarat, there has been extremely tardy progress in the allocation of surplus land to the landless, acquired from big landlords under the Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling Act, 1960. Based on right to information (RTI) pleas, the district registrar of land records, Junagadh, has admitted that out of 11 of 16 villages for which information was sought, "no land survey of surplus has taken place" for the last 24 years, hence there was no allocation.

  A new report, “2015 Global Hunger Index” has ranked India No 80th of 117 countries selected for calculating global hunger index (GHI). While this is better than Pakistan (No 93), this is no consolation, as it India’s ranking has been found to be lower than the other important neighbouring countries – China (No 21), Nepal (No 58), Sril Lanka (No 69), and Bangladesh (No 73).

  A top business rating company has said that India's business confidence, for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2015 has continued to fall, with “optimism value for net profits” declining by 8.3% and “new orders” by 7.2% on “year to year” basis. It added, the composite business optimism index, at 122.0 during Q4 2015, decreased of 4.1% as compared to Q3 2015.

Modi with Merkel at Hanover in Germany: April 2015 A senior expert, working with the powerful Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)-run think-tank has said that the top Germans businessmen who had accompanied German Chancellor Angela Merkel to India early this month have outspokenly declared that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done little to “ease” business environment in India.

  The Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling (Amendment) Bill, 2015,  unanimously passed  in the two-day monsoon session of the Gujarat state assembly – after Congress MLAs were suspended for creating a “ruckus” – is finally beginning to get national attention. The Bill is lying with President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, awaiting his final nod after the Gujarat governor, O.P. Kohli, sent it to Delhi for approval. According to sources, the risk-averse Kohli felt that its provisions needed “Central scrutiny”.

  A World Bank policy paper, approved by its chief economist Kaushik Basu, has said that India has been over-estimating its poverty levels by adopting an old methodology. The paper says that a major reason why India miscalculated is because it did not include long-term nonfood consumption items in consumer expenditure in its calculation methodology.

Laws applied in Gujarat for "illegal" detention World’s powerful human rights organization Amnesty International has alleged that there is a “continuing use of administrative detention laws in India to lock up persons without charge or trial”, violating “the rights of both suspects and victims of human rights abuses.”

Gujarat state assembly Contradicting the  claims  of Gujarat-based activists and the Opposition Congress, a senior Gujarat government bureaucrat has told Counterview that main purpose of controversial the Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling (Amendment) Bill, 2015 “is to transfer surplus land, lying idle, within municipal corporation and municipality bodies, for public purpose”, and “not to take away land meant for Dalits, tribals and other marginalized groups, as is being made out.”

Persis Ginwalla Two senior Gujarat-based activists, one of them a development professional, have alleged that the Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling (Amendment) Bill, 2015 is a state government effort to “undermine” the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR), 2013, whose amendments were dropped by the Centre after their “anti-farmer” character was exposed through “nation-wide agitations”.

A new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), United Kingdom, has ranked India on 67th position in the Quality of Death Index (QDI) of 80 countries it has selected. The index is meant to measure how well do governments across the world work to improve life for their citizens so that they “die well”, insisting, economic growth alone cannot improve health facilities for the aged.

A typical BRTS station While a recent World Bank report (click  HERE ) is all praise for the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) of Ahmedabad, begun in 2007, for its ability to “shift” nearly 22 per cent of the motorbike users to the transport facility in Gujarat’s business capital, a spot study – carried out on the basis of primary survey – has said it has failed to give a helping hand to the poor.

 It is now official. In what may be interpreted as yet another attack on the free functioning of non-government organizations (NGOs) in India, the Government of India has expressed the view, in black and white, that the trustees of society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and receiving foreign contribution under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), cannot be allowed to work as independent mediapersons. This has come to light in one of the several objections raised by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India, regarding reasons given to prominent human rights activist Teesta Setalvad on why MHA has decided to suspend FCRA license of Sabrang Trust, which she heads along with her husband, Javed Anand.

Open area, where once mangroves stood Facts have come to light pointing towards how the Maharashtra Forest Department has moved quickly to "implement" a High Court order, removing slum "encroachments" off Mumbai coast on forest land, while summarily ignoring several other big buildings adjacent to the mangroves that existed in the same area, built after October 6, 2005.

  Criticizing the Uttar Pradesh government for not doing enough to "tackle religious intolerance and violence", even as asking it to "go beyond arrests", Amnesty International India, commenting on the gruesome massacre of Mohd Akhlaq on suspicion of stocking and eating beef, has refused to name any saffron outfit for whipping up tension around the incident.

Taking an infrastructure-centric view of things, a new World Bank  report  has praised Ahmedabad for its “transformative initiatives” in managing issues of “motorization” and “urbanization” as a top priority. Saying that while most South Asian cities are “poorly planned and managed”, the report singles out Ahmedabad’s Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) for having “emerged as an example” of how a planned commuting system can help “reduce emissions and improve air quality”, with a “positive impact on urban development.”

By Our Representative A six-person fact-finding team, consisting of six senior activists and writers, has said in a report that most people they talked in Bisara village of Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh showed “no visible sense of remorse” over the lynching of Akhlaq Mohammad on the night to September 28. The team members visited and surveyed the village on October 3.

Govardhanram Tripathi India's pioneering literary classic in Gujarati, “Saraswatichandra”, is finally  available  in English. Translated by well-known Gandhi expert Tridip Suhrud, who has been instrumental in implementing one of the most ambitious projects of  digitizing  the entire Gandhi heritage, Suhrud terms the late 19th century novel by Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi as ranking among the “most accomplished literary works” of India.

Gandhi with Madan Mohan Malaviya At a time when lynching of Mohamad Ashfaq on the “suspicion” of keeping beef in his refrigerator is sought to be justified by powerful politicians of the country, facts have come to light suggesting that two of the most important pillars of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi and Baba Ambedkar, opposed ban on cow slaughter tooth and nail.

  Greenpeace India, facing Government of India (GoI) wrath over its environment-related campaigns, especially in the country’s coal belt, has issued a statement declaring its support to GoI’s latest climate targets of achieving 40 per cent electricity from non-fossil fuel sources, and 33-35 per cent emissions intensity reduction, by 2030.