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Showing posts from March, 2017

US scholar's book argues Aurangzeb wasn't a Hindu-despising Islamic fanatic, gets hatemails "almost hourly"

 A  new book  by senior American scholar Audrey Truschke, “Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth”, has stirred a major controversy, as it seeks to contest the strongly-held view across India that last of the six great kings of the powerful Mughal dynasty was a Hindu-despising Islamist fanatic.

Three years on, Gujarat govt "fails" to implement Supreme Court order to compensate 146 manhole deaths

In what is being interpreted as a clear violation of the Supreme Court order, the Gujarat government has not begun implementation of the three-year-old apex court order, dated March 27, 2014, requiring payment of Rs 10 lakh compensation to each of the manual scavengers who died cleaning up gutters across the state since 1993.

Finance Bill enables Indian political parties to receive "unlimited, anonymous funding"

Fali Nariman Several India’s well-known citizens led by top jurist Fali Nariman have strongly protested against the classification of the Finance Bill, 2017, as a Money Bill, calling it “illegitimate”, asking Rajya Sabha chairman, vice-president Hamid Ansari in a letter to allow “extensive and uninterrupted discussions into every aspect of the Bill”.

Madhya Pradesh sexual assault, rape: No effort to book culprits two months after incident, says fact-finding team

Hut-roof "broken" by cops A Madhya Pradesh Mahila Morcha fact-finding team, which visited Holibayda and Bhutiya villages of Dhar district in February third week following complaints of sexual violence against nine tribal women, including two minors, has regretted that even two months after the incident there has not been any arrest.

Why is there no action in Gujarat against industrial discharge of untreated effluents? Ask environmentalists

Senior environmentalists of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS), Vadodara, have asked the secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change(MoEFCC), Government of India, to provide information as to under which environment law the effluent treatment plants at Gujarat’s different industrial hugs – Vapi, Ankleshwar, Vadodara, and Ahmedabad – are “allowed” to discharge their allegedly polluted waters.

India's food security law is against WTO norms, distributes highly subsidized food to 67% population: UNDP

In what may sound music to the ears of the Narendra Modi government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has warned India that the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, promulgated by the previous UPA government, has put India at loggerheads with the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Housing for all? Maharashtra govt spends 9% of funds in 2016-17; budgeted amount slashed by 14% in 2017-18

  Amidst the Narendra Modi government's Housing for All (HFA) call, Maharashtra government’s budget for housing for the fiscal 2017-18 has been slashed by 14%. A budget analysis by Ghar Bachao Bhar Banao Andolan (GBGBA), a civil society organization working among Mumbai slums, has said that just about 9% of the funds allocated for housing in the outgoing financial year, 2016-17, have been utilized.

Govt of India deactivated 86 lakh aadhaar cards "without human intervention": Majority of them are children

  Amidst Government of India seeking to make aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns, Right to Information (RTI) queries have revealed that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) has deactivated a whopping 85,67,177 aadhaar cards for “biometric update”, and yet another 408 for “demographic update” between September 2010 and August 2016.

Saffron-supported "BBC" site terms Rahul India's most corrupt politician, praises Modi for "approving" hydrogen bomb

  After creating a flutter by calling Congress as one of the 10 most corrupt political parties in the world, a little known-site with a sensational name, BBC News Point ( bbcnewspoint.com ), which ironically has nothing to do with the prestigious British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), has called Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the No 1 corrupt politician of India.

MNC Etex responsible for asbestos pollution in Madhya Pradesh town: Belgian report

  A  comprehensive Belgian report  has held MNC  Etex , in construction business and one of the richest, responsible for asbestos pollution in Kymore, an industrial town in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh. The report provides evidence from the ground on how Kymore’s dust even today is “annoying… it creeps into your clothes, you have to cough it”, saying “It can be deadly.”

As 40% of India's deaths occur at home, there's no mechanism to track morbidity, cause-specific death rate: Report

A research paper on India’s “readiness” to track down how well it is doing to meet international health and nutrition targets has said that the country’s ability to collect data on both morbidity and death is extremely poor, with “no published report giving cause-specific death rates in India.”

Modi's office rejected whopping 2,227 RTI applications using the mysterious "Others" category: Senior activist

 Data released by the Central Information Commission (CIC), which is the Right to Information (RTI) watchdog of the Government of India, has revealed that during 2015-16 Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office rejected 20.10% of the RTI pleas it received, the rejection rate was particularly high in mysterious “Others” category.

JNU Dalit student's suicide acquires political overtone as ABVP calls for protest, BAPSA terms it "manipulative"

 The  recent suicide  of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Muthukrishnan Jeevanantham, better known as Rajini Krish, is all set to turn into a major political controversy, with the BJP's students wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) distributing a pamphlet calling for a protest at the Centre where he was studying, while an upcoming Dalit students organizations terming the move “politically manipulative”.

Trump's clean chit to Modi on human rights? Govt "generally respected" free speech, expression: US state dept report

Clean chit to Modi? In a virtual clean chit and a reversal of the past US state department's viewpoint, the Donald Trump government’s first report on human rights situation in India has said that the Narendra Modi government in 2016 “generally respected” freedom of speech and expression, even though the Constitution “does not explicitly mention freedom of the press.”

India's healthcare spending lower than Sudan, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi: Report

A research paper published in a top San Francisco-based multidisciplinary open access journal by a non-profit,  PLOS , has said that the public health spending in India (4% of GDP) is among the lowest, not only  vis-a-vis larger economies of the world, but also compared to poorer countries such as Malawi (8.3%), Namibia (7.7%), Tanzania (7.3%) and Sudan (6.5%).

BJP "success": Upper castes 44% of UP assembly strength, but represent 19% of total voters

% voters in UP A political data analysis centre has contested the claim that the BJP won the election in Uttar Pradesh (UP) on the platform of inclusive growth, pointing out that the BJP’s return to power “signifies a resurgence of representation of the upper castes, who make up 44% the new Assembly." Upper castes make up of 19% of voter share in UP.

Gujarat model? Allocation for Dalits 2.67% in 2017-18 against 7% population, lurking gap: Rs 7,001 crore

  A budget analysis by the Gujarat-based Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan has alleged that the Gujarat government has made the lowest percentage of allocation for the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) in the state budget for 2017-18, presented in the state assembly last month, ever since 2010-11.

Now Mumbai terror accused, declared "innocent", publishes book detailing police atrocities, fabricated evidences

  Following the footsteps of Gujarat's Mufti Abdul Qayyum Ahmed Husain Mansuri, another person being acquitted of terror charges, Abdul Wahid Shaikh of Mumbai, has published a book in Urdu, “Begunah Quaidi”, detailing his days in jail, pointing to how he would be subjected to verbal and physical abuse, threats and stripping of clothes during interrogation, though he was innocent.

UP BJP win: Congress site praises Amit Shah's killer instinct, Modi's larger than life image, BJP's hunger for victory

  The Congress-owned National Herald in a post-poll analysis has admitted that the BJP's huge victory in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has been made possible "above all" because the saffron party “displayed a hunger for victory that others didn’t”, which was also “helped immensely by its foot soldiers and ‘Parcha Pramukhs’, each of whom was made responsible for mobilising 10 voters.”

India's organized sector job creation plummets post-2010, leaving people under-employed, poorly paid: OECD report

  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the inter-governmental body of rich western countries, has regretted that India has been creating “too few quality jobs to meet the aspiration of its growing workforce, leaving many people under-employed, poorly paid or outside the labour force.”

India's business houses increasingly rely on NGOs for spending CSR funds: Crisil

  India’s top consultants, Crisil, in its latest “CSR Yearbook”, have said that Indian companies’ attitude towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) “seems to be changing ever so slowly” even though they are “realising that businesses can sustain and thrive only if the communities they serve also endure and flourish.”

Thousands gather in Nagpur for feminist meet, oppose RSS "headquarter of patriarchy"

  Thousands of women gathered in Nagpur at Indora Chowk Maidan following a rally in a feminist show of strength on the 120th remembrance day of Savitri Bai Phule, one of the first women’s rights activists of India, who fought against patriarchy.

Gujarat NGO provides wifi, tablets to poor saltpan workers' children of Kutch, official terms it "temporary solution"

  Even before the Gujarat government initiates its well-publicized decision to  provide  tablets costing Rs 1,000 to four lakh youths, an Ahmedabad-based NGO has begun a major experiment to train poor primary school children of the saltpan workers in the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) to use tablets as a learning tool with the use of wifi through mobile van.

Modi govt allocates 1% of UPA budget to "rehabilitate" manual scavengers in 2017-18: Govt of India official

BE: Budget Estimates; RE: Revised Estimates In a shocking revelation, PS Krishnan, IAS (Retd), who is member of the National Monitoring Committee for Education of SCs, STs and Persons with Disabilities, has said that as against the UPA budget of 2013-14, when Rs 557 crore for provided for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers, the Government of India budget provides “less than 1% of it.”

Gujarat govt's 23 of 28 depts "fail to utilize" budgeted funds; spending on development shrinks

  While the Gujarat government has  claimed  that the 2016-18 budget seeks to “optimize inclusive development of human resources”, a state-based non-profit budget analysis centre has revealed that, in the outgoing financial year, 2016-17, out of 28 departments, just about five – education, finance, water resources (including Narmada), panchayat and rural housing, and revenue – would spend (or overspend) the funds allocated to them.

Gujarat's Dalit stir neglected oppression of women, alleges feminist activist

In an usual move, tens of senior women’s rights activists have got together to hold a feminist rally in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on March 10 to “oppose” Manuvad, the ancient theory which supported oppression of the so-called untouchables, and the "advent" of Hindutva and fascism, which they believe are seeking sharply undermine gender equality.

Ahmedabad workshop: 10% of India's schools implement Right to Education; result: 8 crore out of school children

  An Ahmedabad declaration on Right to Education (RTE) has claimed that less than 10 per cent of the schools in India are actually implementing the RTE Act in its letter and spirit despite the fact that the Act came into force more than six years ago.

Women's group refused permission for public meeting on Intrn'l Women's Day: 'Modi in Gujarat on March 8'

In a bizarre development, a Gujarat women's rights group working with backward sections, Shabri Sangathan, has been denied permission to hold a public meeting on the International Women's Day, March 8, to raise issues related with the failure of the state government to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.

Real GDP growth 5%; Modi govt "doctored" data to arrive 7% rate, revising base figure, ignoring demonetization

  Prof Prabhat Patnaik, one of the topmost Indian economists, has  revealed  that the Government of India’s Central Statistical Organization (CSO), while announcing 7% gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the third quarter of 2016-17 (October-December 2016), did this by “revising downwards the base upon which this growth-rate is calculated”.

Gujarat move to replicate Amma canteen for construction workers opposed: 'Utilize funds for welfare'

  Closely following the Amma canteens of Tamil Nadu and Annapurna Rasoi of Rajasthan, the Gujarat government’s populist decision to provide meal at a highly subsidized rate of Rs 10 to an estimated 50,000 construction workers across the state appears have few takers among social organizations working among them.

UN report: Modi's "affordable" housing scheme financially inaccessible for informal settlements of urban India

A United Nations report has taken strong exception to lack of a “national legislation” which recognizes housing as a human right in India, adding, in India there exist “sizeable gaps in infrastructure and essential services required for the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing”, with state-run housing schemes lacking perspective.

Silicosis deaths: Plea against Gujarat govt rejecting paltry Rs 1 lakh compensation to "late applicants"

  In what is being interpreted as a clear case of insensitivity, the Gujarat government has refused to entertain application of five widows of the deadly silicosis disease because they failed to apply for Rs 1 lakh compensation within three months' time they are said to have been offered to produce necessary documents as proof.