Counterview

By Mitra Ranjan* The Right to Education (RTE) Forum has strongly condemned the passing of ‘The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 in Lok Sabha. It has scrapped the ‘no detention’ provision. Ambarish Rai, National Convener, RTE Forum, has said, "No detention withdrawn by the Government of India in parliament will punish millions of children despite systemic failures and non-implementation of RTE Act.”

By A Representative India’s top civil societies network campaigning for the rural jobs guarantee scheme has revealed that despite the Supreme Court dated May 18, order to “prepare an urgent time bound mandatory program to make the payment of wages and compensation” to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Government of India has refused to do it.

By  A  Representative A recent report  by a Swedish institute has identified India as one of the top countries where it has witnessed “disquieting trends” for the future of democracy. Other “key countries”, where a similar trend is visible are Brazil, India, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and the United States.

Protest in Jaipur against proposed amendments to the RTI Act By Anjali Bharadwaj, Nikhil Dey, Venkatesh Nayak* The text of the Right to Information (RTI) Amendment Bill is finally available, one day before Parliament’s monsoon session will commence. The secrecy around the amendments has prevented any meaningful debate or public engagement with the proposed changes. It is a matter of grave concern that the government does not value the opinion of millions of people and information seekers whose fundamental right to information will be impacted through this amendment.

SEWA-supported fish market cooperative By Rajiv Shah Nearly 13 years after the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat reportedly tried to pressure the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) for his political ends, India's premier organization, headquartered in Ahmedabad, and working with poor women in the informal sector, thinks that even today political-bureaucratic pressure remains high, mainly due to its wide support among women.

A Narmada dam oustee gets a damaged house. Photo source: NBA By  A  Representative Giving a call to activists across India to join its campaign to “save” Narmada river, starting at Badwani along the Narmada river on July 31 and ending on August 2 at Manibeli, the anti-dam Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has alleged that the campaign is in response to the February 8, 2017 Supreme Court judgment, which, over the last one year, has “created panic” and “outcry” across the valley. The Supreme Court judgment – even as ordering Rs 60 lakh and Rs 15 lakh compensation to two different categories of Narmada dam oustees of Madhya Pradesh (MP) – asked the state government to begin vacating all oustee families from the submergence area starting July 31, 2017.

Current costs per unit compare with this time last year: % responses By  A  Representative An Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) survey has found that nearly one-fourth of Indian manufacturing firms have reported “significant increase (by 6.1% to 10%) in costs”, while around three-fifth of firms reported that “increase in costs has been more than 3% during the last one year”.

Counterview Desk  In sharp defence of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Jharkhand, Dr Abraham Mathai, former vice chairman of the National Minorities Commission (NMC), has said that it is being "falsely accused of child trafficking", as alleged by the state police. Even as the Roman Catholic Church has come out in its support following the arrest of a nun and an employee, saying that nun is "innocent", and her confession was extracted under pressure, Dr Mathai insists that "no criminal intention is made out, hence the FIR appears motivated."

Jayant Sinha, Giriraj Singh By Adv Masood Peshimam* Felicitation or feting of mob-killing persons under one pretext or the other, or criminal participation of individuals in communal violence, is not acceptable. Cases of lynching as a result of fake news have recently grown dramatically, sharpening communal polarisation, especially after Narendra Modi came to power. The weak justice delivery system has further aggravated the situation. This is happening because of blatant misuse of power.

By Gautam Thaker* The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India's draft enactment for forming Higher Education Commission (HEC) by scrapping the University Grants Commission (UGC) is meant to concentrate on educational matters in the hands of MHRD by placing all financial matters under the direct control of the Ministry. This means that MHRD will decide whether or not to give grant, or how much grant to give to an institution. This will result in direct intervention by MHRC.