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India's 78% firms think achieving net zero is cost to business, 52% say it's risky: Report

A leading global management consulting firm working with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500, as well as with government bodies and nonprofit organizations, has said that while vast majority of Indian businesses surveyed (91%) claim they have set targets to reach net zero, with 51% of them viewing these targets as “highly achievable”, ironically, most of them (78%) consider sustainability as a cost to business rather than opportunity.

'Wrong direction': Paris NGO regrets MNC ArcelorMittal still using coal-based steel

A new report by Paris-based non-governmental research and campaigning organization, Reclaim Finance, has blamed the MNC ArcelorMittal – formed in 2006 following the takeover and merger of the western European steel maker Arcelor (Spain, France, and Luxembourg) by Indian-owned Mittal Steel – for using use “climate destructive” metallurgical coal for its projects in India.

Counterview Desk In what could be a major shocker for India’s top policy makers, a United Nations sponsored new study on households’ preparedness to have toilets has found that households in Gujarat, a “model” state for others to follow, are more unlikely to have a preference for toilets than Bihar, Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Uttaranchal and majority of North-Eastern states. Carried out by the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), an open network of research and academic institutions and think-tanks in the Asia-Pacific region in Bangkok, in coordination with UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the study says that “households in the North-Eastern Indian States of Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya etc. and the southern state of Kerala using a toilet facility are much higher than a household in Delhi (the reference state).” “A household in Tripura is 761.5 times more likely to use a toilet than a household in Delhi”, the study says, adding, as for “Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu”, the probability of these states’ “households using a toilet in these states is lower than in Delhi.” “This result may be the consequence of some inherent state culture, such as the North-East Indian states and Kerala having higher literacy rates, and hence better awareness about hygiene, or due to state-level differentials in sanitation infrastructure, namely availability of water and closed drainage systems”, the study, “Demand for household sanitation: The case of India” by Anurag Banerjee, Nilanjan Banik, and Ashvika Dalmia, says. It adds, “In fact, in Kerala communities like the Nairs and Ezhavas, and in Meghalaya the Khasi, Jaintias, and the Garo tribes (comprising majority of the population) practice matriarchy, where women have power in activities relating to allocation, exchange, and production. This can also explain the prevalence of more toilet users in these states.” The study points out, “The results indicate, households are more likely to use toilets if the educational level among women member is high, they are wealthy in terms of access to banks and own hectares of agricultural land, have a high standard of living, and if the family lives in urban areas. Households are less likely to use toilets if the household head is Hindu, belongs to the SC, ST or OBC caste, and if they reside in certain states such as Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh.” Carried out to find out why people across India prefer – or do not prefer – toilets against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swacch Bharat campaign, begun in 2014, the uses demographic and health survey data to create a wealth index, and use it to rank household preference for toilets vis-à-vis 20 other different consumer durables – cot, watch, mattress, chair, bicycle, table, electric fan, television, pressure cooker, radio, motorcycle, water pump, mobile telephone, sewing machine, refrigerator, tractor, animal drawn cart, thresher, and computer. “Our results suggest, among lists of household items that any individual want to have, toilets get a lower preference – ranked 12, out of 21”, the study says, regretting, “Television and motorcycle both ranks higher than toilets. It means these two items will be adopted at a lower level of wealth before a toilet.” Coming to the religion variables, the study says, it demonstrates that “a Muslim household using a toilet is 5.4 times higher than a Hindu household”, and even "a Christian household is 1.3 times more likely to adopt toilet in comparison to their Hindu counterparts.” Suspecting that this could be due to caste system, the study says, under Hinduism “the customary circumvention of excreta is sustained by keeping defecation away from the house and entrusting the clean-up job to the so-called ‘untouchables’ or ‘lower’ castes.” --- Click HERE to download study

In what could be a major shocker for India’s top policy makers, a United Nations sponsored new study on households’ preparedness to have toilets has found that households in Gujarat, a “model” state for others to follow, are more unlikely to have a preference for toilets than Bihar, Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Uttaranchal and majority of North-Eastern states.

Holika dahan: Looking for caste interpretation amidst celebrating burning of the woman?

Today is Holi -- the day to "celebrate" the burning alive of a woman, Holika, who on being told by her brother Hiranyakashipu, an Asura king, to sit on pyre with his son Prahlad, a Lord Vishnu devotee. According to the legend, Hiranyakashipu plotted murder of his son Prahlad by asking his sister Holika, draped in fire-resistant boon, to sit in bonfire with nephew Prahlad in her lap. Hiranyakashipu did this to avenge his younger brother Hiranyaksha's death at the hands of the Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu. He didn't like Prahlad to be the devotee of Lord Vishnu, hence decided to kill the latter. However, Prahlad’s prayers to Lord Vishnu ensured that he was safe from the deadly flames, while Holika caught fire. Whatever the legend, the very idea of celebrating the burning of a woman appears despicable. While there have been several interpretations of the legend -- with some stating that being an Asura was equivalent to Dalit , while others claiming Holika was a Brahmi...

Why is Al Jazeera refusing to say who owns ORF, 'hired' for Govt of India's democracy ranking

I was a little amused on reading an Al Jazeera piece -- a scoop actually -- which says that ahead of elections the Modi government is all set to come up with its own democracy and freedom index vis-a-vis other countries. The story has been quotes by Hindustan Times, from where I first read about it. It is doing so after several international think tanks ranked India poorly -- a ranking which has been nose diving ever since Modi took over the reign in May 2014. The think tank "hired" is Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which, says the report, has worked closely with External Affairs Ministry and Niti Aayog, among others. While the Al Jazeera story made good reading, what it refuses to say is who owns ORF. I don't know why it omitted its name. I have known about ORF ever since RK Mishra, my former Patriot editor, who later became editor-in-chief of Business and Political Obsever (BPO), majorly owned by Reliance , was made ORF chairman after BPO collapsed. R...

Stop tax exemption status to US Hindu 'far-right hate group', demands diaspora coalition

A coalition of human rights organizations in the United States have filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as well as the attorney generals of Texas and Mississippi, calling for an investigation into the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF), a Texas-based Hindu far-right hate group. GHHF activities should be precluded “from receiving tax-exempt status” as its “hateful activities fall well outside the scope of those governing charitable or religious institutions”, said a media communique issued by the coalition.

Living standards in 'model' Gujarat worse than major states: Govt of India document

Amidst raging controversy over whether the latest Government of India’s “Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23 Fact Sheet: August 2022-July 2023” suggests that India’s poverty levels are actually down to 4.5 to 5% during the decade-long Narendra Modi rule, a state-wise breakup in the 27-page document shows that “model” Gujarat’s average consumption expenditure is far below most of the so-called developed states. Based on household consumer expenditure survey (HCES) in order to ascertain “living standards” across India, the state-wise estimation of average monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) suggests that Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra – including two major smaller states, Delhi and Goa and several Union territories – have higher MPCE in urban areas. Worse, while Gujarat’s urban MPCE – estimated at Rs 6,683 – is a little above the national average, Rs 6,521, ...