Counterview

By  A  Representative Government of India may claim that the country’s gross national product (GDP) during 2015-16 grew by 7.56%, one of the highest in the world. However, Credit Suisse, a Switzerland-based multinational financial services group, has said that, in real terms, there was a decline of 0.8% in the country’s total wealth in 2015-16.

By  A  Representative No Indians would be allowed employment in the Adani Group’s controversial $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mining project in Queensland province. Melbourne-based South Asia Times (SAT) has quoted group chairman Gautam Adani as having assured the Australian authorities that he would not bring any foreign workers for his project.

By Ratan Vasave The adivasis from Gujarat, affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project, have been on relay fast since July 15, 2016. On November 4 late evening, they changed their venue site. It has been shifted to in front of the Rehabilitation Development Office, at Kevadia Colony, near the dam site, with a dead body kept nearby.

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers will remember my despatch from September this year , describing my efforts to find out details about the sale and the efficacy of anti-riot weapons- particularly pellet guns which have caused severe injuries to hundreds of youth in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir. I had sought information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) about the quantum and price of sale of pellet guns and cartridges as well reports of any studies conducted about the efficacy of such weapons and ammunition on human beings. The RTI application originally sent to the Ordnance Factory Board Kolkata (OFB), landed up with the Khadki Ordnance Factory (OFK). Rejecting the RTI application, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), OFK, had invoked the ground of “defence interest of the State” under Section 8(1)(a) and also claimed that the information was in the nature of commercial confidence, trade secret and/or intellectual property and disclosure would adversely affec...

Counterview Desk After declaring two months ago (click HERE ) that pellet guns’ sale and efficacy as anti-riots weapon cannot be disclosed in public interest, a top Government of India outfit has stated that it does not have “any studies regarding the efficacy of anti-riot weapons such as pellet guns.”

By A Representative Hundreds of people gathered in Melbourne, one of Australia's biggest cities, to protest against the Adani Group's plans to dig a massive coalmine in Queensland province's Galilee Basin, with an actor depicting the country's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull being controlled by “puppeteer” Gautam Adani, Adani Group chairman.

Jignesh Mevani at NAPM meet By  A  Representative The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), India's premier apex body of several mass organizations, has called for an urgent coordination between India's different people's movements and political parties in order to fight against what it called “increasing attacks on freedom of expression” by the Narendra Modi government.

By  A  Representative Top human rights activist, fighting the 2002 Gujarat riot victims' cases, Teesta Setavlad, has said the organizations she and her husband Javed Anand represent – Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) or Sabrang Trust – never applied or appealed for, or received grants or donations “intended for the financial assistance of any kind” for the welfare of the “victims-survivors of the 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat” between 2007 and 2014.

By Venkatesh Nayak* On 8th November, 2016, the Government of India announced its decision to pull high value currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denomination out of circulation, with immediate effect. A detailed procedure was notified in the Official Gazette explaining how people holding the demonetised currency notes may redeem the value of the demonetised notes. The Government also permitted people to exchange over the counter, the demonetised notes for the new series of Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 500 notes printed, but to a limited extent. Memories of a similar decision to demonetise high value currency notes taken by the Janata Government in 1978 are being revived by scholars and lawyers writing in the print and electronic media. Noted human rights lawyer and former Additional Solicitor General of India, Ms. Indira Jaisingh has recently commented on the legality of the manner in which the Government has gone about this demonetisation decision. A bunch of petitions have been filed acro...

Demonetization as seen by "The Economist"  By  A  Representative In a scathing critique of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization drive, top British weekly “The Economist”, in its print edition dated December 3, has controversially commented that that “withdrawing 86% by value of the cash in circulation in India was a bad idea”, and is being “badly executed.”