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Showing posts from November, 2015

Just 1% meritorious,1% needy to gain from India's new education policy: Dr Sadgopal

  The new education policy (NEP), to be  unleashed  by the Government of India next year, is likely to provide free education only for one per cent of the so-called meritorious and one per cent of the needy, one of the most well-known educationists, Dr Anil Sadgopal, has alleged at a lecture he delivered at the Indian Institute of Management-Madras (IIT-M).

Ahead of Japanese PM's visit, 13 Jaitapur villages declare opposition to nuclear power plant in Maharashtra

  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.

"Worrying" signs: Private sector capex plans decline 11%, corporate profits down 0.05%

Painting a gloomy picture of the Indian economy, a Reliance Industries think-tank analysis has said that, despite the Make in India campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, statistics about domestic investment and capital formation are “not encouraging” and show a “decline in the second quarter of 2015”, with “India's saving rate down from a peak rate of 38 percent to 31 percent.”

India has one of the largest fraud problems with 80% prevalence rate, says New York-based firm Kroll

  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.

Study blames NREGA for 2.4% rise in India's school dropout of adolescents, with girls pushed to domestic work

  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.

Gujarat whistleblower's murder: State govt "created circumstances" for gruesome act

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), India’s premier human rights organization, has alleged the Gujarat government not only failed to protect the Banaskantha district’s right to information (RTI) activist and whistleblower Ratansinh Chaudhary last month, but actually “created circumstances” that led to his murder.

Gujarat metropolitan polls rigged? 1.03 lakh voters in Ahmedabad "deleted" in two days, mischief suspected

  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.

India ranks No 24 in Free Expression Index among 38 countries: American think-tank Pew International survey

  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).

Gujarat government is "intransigent" in non-publication of 2002 riots commission report: Ex-DGP Sreekumar

  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.”

India's solar prices may fall 10% lower than coal by 2020, yet capital costs for solar plants will remain high: KMPG

  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.

Approach Supreme Court to "review" its June 2014 order on Narmada oustees, advises Independent Tribunal

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.

Gujarat slips to 15th rank among 20 states in child development index; Chhattisgarh, Assam, Odisha "perform" better

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).

India's bank frauds under Modi rose by 90%; in Gujarat 177%; in Tamil Nadu 229%, in West Bengal 667%: RBI

  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.

Women, old "neglected" by Indian healthcare system, which fails to take into account "societal needs": Lancet study

  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.”

Farmers' activists "attacked" for protesting against MP power plant: Land acquisition

  Five farmers’ activists, including secretary of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (KSS), Sajje Chandravanshi, were reportedly “brutally attacked” in village Chaunsara of district Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. The incident, said National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), the apex body of tens of mass organizations across India, took place November 14, 2015 when the villagers of the area were protesting against the construction of Adani – Pench Power Project.

New groundwater guidelines "lack" measuring and monitoring mechanism, are "open to abuse" by Indian industry

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.”

CII: Growth in sales down from 8.8% to 2.8% in a year, corporate profits go into negative, wither Make in India?

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.”

Gujarat has higher-than-average mortality rate of men in 15-69 age group, reveals "Lancet" study

  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).

UK report warns: India likely to turn into world's No 2 carbon dioxide emitter by 2030

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.

Modi's Jan Dhan scheme "lacks" any explicit purpose; India's accounts penetration worst among BRICS nations: World Bank

  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."

Indian authorities "allow" illegal mining on payment of a pittance fine, refuse protection to affected communities

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.

Upper caste bias in methodology behind wrong Bihar exit poll results on TV: Psephologist Yogendra Yadav

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.

Why didn't Sikh leaders condemn murder of "great martyr" Indira Gandhi?: RSS ideologue

In a controversial article which is likely to raise many an eyebrow, brought to light by well-known rebel topcop Sanjiv Bhatt on his Facebook  page  to mark the ghastly murder of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 and the subsequent mayhem of anti-Sikh massacre, top RSS ideologue late Nanaji Deshmukh said that Indira Gandhi had secured “a permanent place at the doorstep of history as a great martyr.”

"Secretive" regulator may not act against plea to commercialize GM mustard, "jeoparize" environment

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.