A European Parliament resolution on India, which seeks to address the critical concerns surrounding human rights and religious freedom issues in India, has expressed concern over "violence, increasing nationalistic rhetoric, and divisive policies" and called upon Indian political leaders to refrain from making inflammatory statements, insisting on the importance of upholding "human rights and democratic values" in EU-India relations.

In yet another confirmation of how space for free expression is shrinking in Gujarat, a human rights conference, attended by some well-known names – Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, environmentalist Vandana Shiva, People’s Union for Civil Liberties leader Kavita Shrivastava, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar, among others – was held at a private terrace in Ahmedabad instead of a public space. The reason seemed simple, and several speakers (ironically, not the organisers) stated it openly: It’s quite some time that no one, not even private hall owners, not to talk of state-supported halls, are available for those seeking to express dissent. There was a time when the Mahatma Gandhi-founded Gujarat Vidyapeeth hall used to be available for such events, but following its “takeover” by the Gujarat governor in 2022-end, it is no longer available. Earlier, the Mehdi Nawaz Jung Hall in Ahmedabad was available – but since it is controlled by the Gujarat governor, it became a “no...

  In a submission to the I&B Ministry, the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) has raised concerns over the proposed Broadcasting Bill with its potential to control and overregulate broadcast and digital media. NWMI said, the Bill could drastically alter the media landscape in India and exhorted the government to refrain from going ahead with it without exhaustive consultations with all stake-holders.

  A  new report  released by a top Netherlands-based advocacy group,  BankTrack , has said that of the nine major Asian banks which “are open for business in coal, dirtiest of fossil fuel” three are from India: State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda. Other major Asian banks in the business of coal are Mizuho, SMBC and MUFG in Japan, and Bank Mandiri, Rakyat and Negara in Indonesia. Titled “Coal Havens: The policy loopholes keeping coal finance alive in Asia”, the report underlines, Asia today is the ‘ growth engine ’ of the global coal industry despite the world  agreeing  to transition away from fossil fuels at COP28 in December 2023. To prove its point, the report cites the International Energy Agency (IEA), which  say , global coal demand reached a record high in 2022 amidst the global energy crisis, rising by 4% year-on-year to 8.42 billion tonnes (Bt). According to IEA, “The growth engine for coal demand, which increased in both power a...

I visited the much publicised Atal Bridge, opened in the memory of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the first time. It connects two sides of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. You can cross it walking. I knew of the bridge, around it so much of hype was created. I always thought it wasn't worth visiting, especially considering the fact that there was a ticket to take a stroll. However, since I was accompanied by my NRI friends from New Jersey and they wanted to visit the flower show and thereafter the Atal Bridge, which is attached to it, I thought why not have first hand experience of the bridge, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 27, 2022. Walking up the bridge, this was the biggest surprise I encountered: the Atal Bridge has no photo of the man after whom it has been named! Instead, a life size photo cutout of our honourable Prime Minister is on display. In the background one sees some illustrations of what all authorities think is "m...

Well-known international consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in a survey of India’s top business executives of big firms has regretted that as many as 75% of the respondents said their company does not have “a publishable tax transparency report (TTR)”, indicating “a gap in tax transparency-related practices.” Further regretting that only 23% of companies use Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or other international standardised tax transparency related practices, the report, a copy of which has been forwarded to Counterview, thinks, “The survey shows there is room for improvement in tax transparency-related practices, as a significant number of companies are not utilising standardised frameworks for tax disclosure.” The  report , titled “Tax transparency in ESG: Insights into Indian businesses and their sustainable practices based on a PwC India survey”, says, “This finding highlights a lack of clear communication and transparency regarding tax practices, which can impa...

Even as the Gujarat government is all set to launch another edition of its high-profile Vibrant Gujarat world business meet (January 10-12), a top state document has gone out of the way to admit one of the severest issues which the state badly needs to urgently tackle: “pollution control, especially industrial and urban pollution”. In fact, it talks of “serious problems of fire, air pollution, odour nuisance, water pollution from leachate due to legacy waste dump sites in many places in the state.” The document, which has been released as part of the 112-page government resolution (GR), whose annexures say it all, is a guideline on what all the selected 20-odd young graduates with a mere 60% with a monthly stipend of Rs 1 lakh (which is more than the salary of state class one entry-level state official) – would need to do research on. It admits, “There is wide gap in the generation of the sewage and its scientific disposal”, underlining, “Lack of adequate system for sewage collection i...

In order to showcase how much innovative it can be ahead of the Vibrant Gujarat world business summit (January 10-12),  the Gujarat government has come up a new criterion to value human resource development: It has decided to offer the state’s mere graduates with 60% score a stipend of more than what the state’s newly recruited class one officers – who reach the top spot in the bureaucratic ladder through tough competitive examinations and several layers of promotion – receive as salary!  A recently-released  122 page government resolution  (GR), which includes annexures, and whose copy is with Counterview, states, the stipend would be given to selected candidates for the Chief Minister's fellowship programme, which would be identified as the Sardar Patel Good Governance CM Fellowship. The GR claims, “The aim and objective of this scheme is to channelise youth-energy (aged 35 or less) in holistic development of state and the nation”. The GR states, after “careful con...