The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its recent report on Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE), has qualified public sector undertakings’ (PSUs') funding the 182-metre world’s highest Sardar Statue, currently being constructed in the Narmada river downstream of the Sardar Sarovar dam as an “ineligible” corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity.

  In what might sound as music to India's corporate honchos and their political supporters, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has calculated that the trade union (TU) density in India among wage workers, both casual and regular/salaried, has fallen since 1993–94, by 3 percentage points to 13.4 per cent. Worse, the top Union Nations (UN) body, headquartered in Geneva, has further notes, the “density among regular/salaried workers has fallen precipitously since 1993–94, by 17.7 percentage points to 28.8 per cent.”

VD Savarkar What Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the BJP's Hindutva icon, said about religious books should completely shake those who think that scriptures are a gospel truth and shouldn't be criticized, and there is nothing beyond them. Quoted by Narendra Dabholkar, a Pune-based rationalist who was  shot dead  allegedly by a Hindu fanatic on August 20, 2013, Savarkar had said, “The Vedas, the Avesta, the Bible and the Koran are but man-made tomes and should be studied accordingly...”

A recently-released Report of the Committee on Real Sector Statistics, published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government busted the myth that the rate of economic growth under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been higher than the earlier two terms of the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh. The report has made available Gross Value Product (GDP) data 1993-94 onwards, calculated on the basis of the new series, implemented in January 2015, which show, according to expert calculations, that India's GDP annually grew on an average at 8.34% and 7.67% under Singh's two terms as Prime Minister, in 2004-05 to 2008-09 and 2009-10 to 2013-14, respectively. The calculations further show that under the two phases when the BJP-led governments -- under AB Vajpayee and Modi -- the average growth rate was 5.73% per annum (1998-99 to 2003-04) and 7.34% (2014-15 to 2017-18). Average annual growth rate The new series calculated GDP at 2011-12 prices, and till th...

  A new study carried out by the Bandhkam Mazdoor Sangathan (BMS), Gujarat’s biggest non-government organization (NGO) working for the welfare of construction workers in the state, has found that none of the workers working for the high profile Ahmedabad  metro project , currently being implemented across the city, has been registered with the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers’ Board.

Expressing serious concern over the proposed Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Project (VRDP) in Vadodara, Gujarat’s cultural capital, on lines of the Sabarmati riverfront project in Ahmedabad, showcased as urban model for other states to follow, prominent citizens of the city have come together to demand “a thorough and immediate re-look” into it and “reconceptualize” it. “A major problem with the proposed plans and designs is that they fail to recognize that Vishwamitri river is not like the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, or Tapi in Surat”, they say.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), the top Indian subsidiary of the Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services, believes if the declining trend of household saving continues, it may pose a "serious challenge to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth and macroeconomic stability."

US-Mexico border An explosive report by the US newspaper “Los Angles Times” (LAT) has revealed, quoting Federal Bureau of Prisons figures, that of the 680 migrants detained in early August at the federal prison in Victorville, California, a state in south-western US, a whopping 380 were Indian nationals. LAT adds, about 40% of the detainees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Imperial Valley facility, also in California, are Indians, and nearly 20% of detainees at ICE Adelanto processing centre, again in California, too, are Indians.

  Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to "barter" the Tibetan cause in exchange of China giving up some of its territorial claims? It would seem so, if a top report published in one of Japan's most powerful media outfits, Nikkei, is any indication.

Oil spill at Nagrol beach, Gujarat How very roughshod could Gujarat government be in offering consultation with stakeholders for preparing the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) for the state could be seen from what has been called “CZMP predraft maps” for eight coastal districts – Bhavnagar, Probandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Junagadh, Ahmedabad and Anand – for comments and suggestions before finalizing them.

Close on the heels of BJP president Amit Shah  saying  that those whose names are not in Assam’s draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) – most of them Muslims – are "intruders", as they have failed to prove their Indian citizenship, a nervous Congress appears all set to adopt what many critics qualify a soft Hindutva approach.

Even as stating that Gandhi’s association with industrialists can’t be compared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s because “Gandhi was not in the government”, well-known activist-researcher  Nandini Oza  has, in a controversial article, taking issue with Modi critics,  said  that the Mahatma’s relations with India’s tycoons wasn’t just limited to accepting donations.