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Feb 2, 2015
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[PIB] Index of Eight Core Industries (Base: 2004-05=100), December, 2014
The Eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38 % of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stands at 172.7 in December, 2014, which was 2.4 % higher compared to the index of December, 2013. Its cumulative growth during April to December, 2014-15 was 4.4 %.
Coal
Coal production increased by 7.5 % in December,
[PIB] Indian Space scientists working on new breakthroughs: Dr. Jitendra Singh
The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has stated that the Indian Space Scientists are working on exciting new breakthroughs and
[PIB] Centre closely monitoring situation on H1N1, all assistance extended to states: Sh J P Nadda
The Health Ministry is closely monitoring the situation arising in some states due to the surge of H1N1 influenza. Shri J P Nadda, Minister for Health & Family Welfare stated this, here today. Reiterating that the present spurt is seasonal, he assured that all necessary assistance and support is being provided to the states to manage the situation. He informed that he has been in constant touch with Chief Ministers and Health Ministers of the affected states on the issue.
The Health Minister informed that the Ministry has deputed senior level public health teams to Telangana and Rajasthan to assess the situation and assist the states in managing the current spurt in cases. The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi through Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and the state units have enhanced the surveillance for influenza like illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI). They are also providing laboratory support in terms of testing, quality assurance, guidance, providing viral transport mediums and diagnostic reagents.
A 24*7 Outbreak Monitoring Cell of NCDC is attending to public queries on H1N1 to keep them informed and to dispel fears and apprehensions, if any.
While the affected states have adequate stock of the drug Oseltamivir, the Health Ministry also has sufficient stock of the medicine and Personal Protective Equipments. The Ministry has provided the requisitioned quantity to the affected states.
The Central Government has been advising the states, from time to time, to build capacity to manage the seasonal influenza. The states have been given guidance on risk categorization of patients and clinical case management. The Health Ministry and the states have also initiated awareness campaigns through print and visual media to educate and inform the public.
[Ed] Putting monetary policy in context
Fiscal and monetary challenges
The commitment to rein in the fiscal deficit at within 4.1 per cent of the GDP by March this year will be scrutinised from all sides — not just the achievement of the admittedly challenging target, but the ways in which it has been achieved. For the monetary policy itself fiscal consolidation has been a highly desirable, even a necessary goal. In the battle against inflation, the government has an equally important role to play as the RBI. In the broadest sense, it is neither the inflation numbers nor the deficits — important as they are — but the growth expectations from the economy that matter the most. The monetary review and the Budget and related documents will have their say on India’s GDP growth rates. Right now, both the RBI and the government estimate the current year’s (2014-15) rate of growth to be around 5.5 per cent, below what most international institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank, estimate it to be.
Turning to RBI policy review, there is another reason why the customary feverish speculation on whether there will be a rate cut or not is singularly absent this time. The RBI has initiated an easing monetary policy by reducing the repo rate from 8 to 7.75 per cent on January 15. , a little over two weeks before the scheduled review (on February 3).
A rate action before the scheduled policy review was not unanticipated. This was consistent with the forward guidance given by the central bank in the December policy statement.
The reasons for the monetary softening have been well documented. They include softer-than-expected consumer inflation (retail inflation as measured by the CPI index); and broad-based disinflationary tendencies, particularly in core and even food inflation.
Retail inflation at 5 per cent in December was well below the RBI’s January target of 8 per cent. There has been a 50 per cent slide in crude prices since June. Household expectation of inflation is significantly down. All these appear to have convinced RBI that the momentum of inflation is finally waning. In fact, even the January 2016 inflation target of 6 per cent looks eminently achievable. However, even as the RBI shifts emphasis to supporting growth, its focus on inflation can never waver. Further, rate cuts during the year might depend upon how well the government progresses on the fiscal front and the support it gives to reviving industrial activity. Falling inflation has given room for further easing but the central bank is likely to be cautious going forward.
Stock markets
There is one big area of concern to policy makers. Going by the phenomenal rise in the stock indices, Indian markets have never had it so good. As on last Tuesday (January 27), stock market indices set new records for five days in a row. By most yardsticks, Indian stocks are overvalued. Yet, foreign money has been pouring in — with FIIs, the largest of the institutional investors, investing some $1.5 billion in the previous eight sessions.
Amid such exuberance, a word or two of caution will not go down well. But this is the time most investors have to be especially wary of sales talk and newspaper headlines. Also, the reasons behind this hype need to scrutinise for what they are worth.
For instance, it would seem unpatriotic to pick holes in the apparently win-win situation following President Obama’s visit. Yet, at the time of writing this, nobody is clear on the liability aspects in the civilian nuclear agreement.
Take another example: the widely quoted observation of the IMF-World Bank that by 2016 India’s rate of growth will outpace that of China, making India the fastest growing major economy. Welcome as such a development would be, China is consciously winding down its growth process.
Moreover, China’s economy is several times bigger than India’s. That makes a comparison on the basis of percentage growth rates highly misleading. The short-point is that stock market investors need to be prepared for a soft-landing.
RBI’s credit policy review might be the right forum to begin that exercise. After all, the RBI has always been cautious — highlighting the risks to a higher growth as well as lower inflation. It is these areas that should command maximum attention in tomorrow’s policy statement.
[Ed] Sanitation in schools
The inequities in infrastructure could not be starker. While several schools continue to deny the most basic sanitation facilities for poorer children, a select band of them dangle air-conditioned classrooms and dormitories and other accessories before the more affluent ones. Repeated knuckle-rapping by the Supreme Court over the years has evidently had little effect on State administrations, as the case of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana illustrates. In October 2012, the Court had issued orders for the building of toilets in all schools within six months. That stricture was a sequel to a similar kind of intervention the year before. The Supreme Court had stepped in yet again last year, but to little avail. Matters have got no further in 2015. In this latest instance, a two-judge Bench has been constrained to spell out to the governments of the two neighbouring States as to what type of structures were acceptable as safe and clean toilets. That is proof enough that official specifications were violated both in letter and spirit. Such complacency on the part of the authorities would hopefully be history given the increase in funding for the purpose ever sincePrime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence day address.
Not unrelated to the situation in schools is the equally callous attitude of many States with respect to the enforcement of the ban on manual scavenging that was legislated over two decades ago. Underlying the indignity heaped on public sanitation workers, as well as the insanitary conditions in schools, is a mindset of complete denial; that, if anything, compounds the problem. The detrimental long-term effects, especially upon girls, of prolonged lack of access to toilets have been well-documented. Where facilities exist, they are effectively rendered dysfunctional because of the most unhygienic conditions in which they are invariably found. This aspect may be linked also to the ratio of toilet facility to user of 1:40 for girls and 1:80 for boys, as per norms laid down by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Conversely, the UNICEF standard provides one toilet for 25 girls and a toilet and urinal for 80 boys. The adoption of best practices in one area would critically influence behaviour with respect to other health and sanitation indicators. Schools thus play a pivotal role in inculcating clean and healthy habits among children, families and the wider community. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is a torch-bearer of the country’s information and technology revolution. His counterpart in Telangana, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, won statehood on a promise of development for the people. They have both committed themselves to realising Mr. Modi’s mission of Swachh Bharat. They have their task cut out. A toilet is not a luxury — not for human beings.
[Ed] A needless controversy
Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad calling for a national debate on whether the words “socialist” and “secular” should continue to be part of the Preamble to the Constitution in the wake of the controversy over the Central government using a “watermark of the original Preamble” in advertisements released in the print media on the occasion of Republic Day — which did not have those words — has set off a debate on a constitutional amendment made during the period of the Emergency. It followed the Shiv Sena’s demand that the two key words be dropped altogether from the amended Preamble. In conceptually adding the words to the Preamble by means of the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976, wherein the words “Sovereign Democratic Republic” were substituted with “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic”, the Statement of Objects and Reasons appended to that Bill said it was to “spell out expressly the high ideals of socialism, secularism and the integrity of the nation, to make the directive principles more comprehensive and give them precedence over those fundamental rights which have been allowed to be relied upon to frustrate socio-economic reforms for implementing the directive principles.” That the working of the Constitution shows shortcomings, that the insertion of these two words was done during the period of the Emergency under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and that the Indian ethos is ‘inherently secular’, making the inclusion redundant, are the main arguments put forward by the ruling dispensation now.
As many legal pundits have convincingly shown, the Preamble embodies the “basic philosophy and fundamental values on which the Constitution is based”. The inclusion of the words “socialist” and “secular” is best seen as an explication of the ideals modern India has drawn directly from the freedom struggle. Upendra Baxi, citing the great constitutional historian Granville Austin — despite his differences with him — recalls how the “roots of the directive principles” could be traced to the 1931 Karachi Congress resolution, and to the “two streams of socialist and nationalist sentiments in India that had been flowing ever faster since the late 1920s.” Even the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party government, in which the Jan Sangh was a constituent, did not think it necessary to delist these two words when they enacted the 44th Amendment to nullify the objectionable features introduced in the 42nd Amendment Act. Political scientists also emphasise that in the S.R. Bommai case, the Supreme Court held that “secularism is an integral part” of the Constitution’s basic structure. With or without the amended Preamble, the Indian Constitution will remain secular, but the signal the dropping of the words would send will be disconcerting to the minorities.
[Ed] Pakistan’s elusive quest for parity
Pakistan’s strong reaction to the Obama visit to India reflects its security establishment clinging to a flawed notion of parity with India, when for years it has ignored changes in the global environment and accepted the heavy price of internal weakness to project itself as India’s equal
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi carefully omitted mentioning Pakistan during the U.S. President’s recent visit to India. But that did not stop Pakistani politicians and media from “warning” America against trying to “establish India’s dominance” in South Asia. Amid talk of Pakistan expanding security ties with China and Russia, its Foreign Office issued an official statement complaining that an India-U.S. partnership would alter South Asia’s “balance of power” and create a “regional imbalance.”
In reality, the Pakistani reaction reflects the Pakistani security establishment clinging to the notion of parity with India. For years, Pakistan has ignored changes in the global environment and accepted the heavy price of internal weakness to project itself as India’s equal. Islamabad also insists on resolution of the Kashmir dispute as the essential prerequisite for normal ties with its much larger neighbour.
Equality and parity
The parity doctrine as well as the emphasis on Kashmir are rooted in ideology and the two-nation theory that was the basis of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan. For a country to base its foreign policy for over 60 years on the same assumptions is unusual. As the world around us changes, so must a nation’s foreign policy. But Pakistan has yet to embrace pragmatism as the basis of its foreign and national security policies.
“India is expanding by most measures of national power while Pakistan has been able to keep pace with it only in manufacturing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems”
Pakistanis such as me realise that seeking security in relation to a much larger neighbour is not the same thing as insisting on parity with it. All nations are equal in international law but sovereign equality is not synonymous with parity.
In any case, Pakistan is India’s rival in real terms only as much as Belgium could rival France or Germany and Vietnam could hope to be on a par with China. India’s population is six times larger than Pakistan’s while its economy is 10 times the size of the Pakistani economy. Notwithstanding internal problems, India’s $2 trillion economy has managed consistent growth whereas Pakistan’s $245 billion economy has grown sporadically and is undermined by jihadi terrorism and domestic political chaos.
Country comparisons
India is expanding by most measures of national power while Pakistan has been able to keep pace with it only in manufacturing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. Pakistanis are often not told of the widening gap between the two countries in most fields.
For example, 94 per cent of India’s children between five and 15 complete primary school compared with 54 per cent in Pakistan. Every year, 8,900 Indians get a PhD in the sciences compared with the 8,142 doctorates awarded by Pakistan’s universities since Independence. The total number of books published in any language on any subject in Pakistan in 2013, including religious titles and children’s books, stood at 2,581, against 90,000 in India.
The parity doctrine also requires Pakistanis to see India as an existential enemy. Textbooks still tell Pakistani children that Hindu India threatens Islamic Pakistan and seeks to terminate its existence. Hardly anyone outside of Pakistan believes that to be true.
Nuclear deterrence and mutually assured destruction usually freeze conflicts and pave the way for détente as they did between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. But little has changed in the Pakistani ideology after the induction of nuclear weapons on the subcontinent. There is little recognition that with nuclear weapons, Pakistan no longer has any reason to feel insecure about being overrun by a larger Indian conventional force.
Kashmir issue
The notion of an existential threat to Pakistan is now only psycho-political and ideological. Pakistan has already fought four wars with India and lost half its territory in the process — the erstwhile East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971.
As for Jammu and Kashmir, one need not deny Pakistan’s initial claims to recognise that it might not be an issue that can be resolved in the foreseeable future. Jihadi militancy, since 1989, has failed to wrest Kashmir for Pakistan from India as has war and military confrontation.
Islamabad should also evaluate realistically its hope of internationalising the Kashmir issue. The last effective UN resolution on Kashmir was passed by the Security Council in 1957, when the United Nations had 82 members. Last year, with 193 members, Pakistan’s Prime Minister was the only world leader who mentioned Jammu and Kashmir at the UN General Assembly.
In the U.S.’s calculations
U.S. economic and military aid ($40 billion to date since 1950) encouraged the perpetuation of Pakistan’s doctrine of parity with India. Pakistanis thought that with the support of external allies, Pakistan could compensate for its inherent disadvantage in size against India. But now Washington sees India as America’s longer-term ally and partner.
The size of India’s market and potential for greater trade, investment and defence sales are important elements in recent U.S. calculations. But even immediately after Independence, India and not Pakistan was deemed to be America’s natural ally. A 1949 Pentagon report described India as “the natural political and economic center of South Asia” and the country with which the U.S. had greater congruence of interests.
India’s decision to stay non-aligned in the stand-off between the West and the Soviet bloc, benefited Pakistan in its formative years. India argued that it needed to benefit from both sides in the Cold War. Pakistan, a new state unsure of its future and searching for aid to bolster its economy and security, stepped in to become a part of U.S.-led military alliances.
Pakistan’s old school diplomats, politicians and military thinkers are now upset that they cannot count on the U.S. as the equaliser in their quest for equivalence with India. China is already a close ally of Pakistan and cannot tip the balance in Pakistan’s favour on its own. In any case, it is unlikely that China, with its growing Uyghur problem, will remain unaffected by the global perception of Pakistan as an epicentre of Islamist terrorism.
Voicing frustration with the major powers over their redefinition of their national interest will not help Pakistan advance its national interests. Just as it has belatedly started acknowledging its terrorist problem, my country would benefit more by giving up the quest for parity with India. We should seek security and prosperity in the context of our size for a territorial state, rather than an ideological one. The process could begin with efforts to address Pakistan’s institutional weaknesses, eliminate terrorism, improve infrastructure and modernise its economy.
(Husain Haqqani, director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC, was Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States from 2008-11. His latest book is Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States and an Epic History of Misunderstanding.)
Law Commission moots special commercial courts
The Law Commission on Thursday recommended that the government to set up special commercial courts for the speedy disposal of “high value commercial suits” and suggested “substantial” changes in the Civil Procedure Code.
In its 253 Report, the Law Commission of India headed by chairperson Justice A.P. Shah, recommended to Union Law Minister V. Sadananda Gowda that separate commercial courts, and commercial divisions and appellate commercial divisions in High Courts would all ensure that cases are disposed of expeditiously, fairly and at reasonable cost to the litigant.
The Commission has also included a draft Bill, “the Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts and Commercial Courts Bill, 2015” and suggestions for substantive procedural changes in the form of amendments to the Civil Procedure Code, 1908.
“Not only does this benefit the litigant, other potential litigants [especially those engaged in trade and commerce] are also advantaged by the reduction in backlog caused by the quick resolution of commercial disputes. In turn, this will further economic growth and increase foreign investment,” it said.
In its 253 Report, the Law Commission of India headed by chairperson Justice A.P. Shah, recommended to Union Law Minister V. Sadananda Gowda that separate commercial courts, and commercial divisions and appellate commercial divisions in High Courts would all ensure that cases are disposed of expeditiously, fairly and at reasonable cost to the litigant.
The Commission has also included a draft Bill, “the Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts and Commercial Courts Bill, 2015” and suggestions for substantive procedural changes in the form of amendments to the Civil Procedure Code, 1908.
“Not only does this benefit the litigant, other potential litigants [especially those engaged in trade and commerce] are also advantaged by the reduction in backlog caused by the quick resolution of commercial disputes. In turn, this will further economic growth and increase foreign investment,” it said.
Not much has changed under Modi govt: industry survey
Seven months after the Narendra Modi-led government came to power, majority of business leaders have said not much has changed at the ground level, however many are still optimistic of things improving within the first half of 2015, according to a survey.
“Not much has changed on the ground at the industry level in the last six months, but the situation is going to improve within first half of 2015, as reflected in the optimism about sales volume and hiring of workforce by corporates,” Business Confidence Survey by industry body Assocham said.
As many as 54.2 per cent of the respondents in the confidence measuring survey said not much has really changed at the operating level in the last six months. On the other hand, the survey, which was conducted in December 2014, indicates that the general consensus (62.5 per cent) at the industry level seems to be that their performance in the coming six months would improve.
The survey also found that 45.8 per cent of business leaders believe that the January-March 2015 quarter won't see any change in their domestic investment plans. Industry believes that exports market will remain sluggish as majority of respondents see no change in the exports volume.
Meanwhile, 41.7 per cent expect job hiring prospects to improve in the next quarter and in subsequent months.
“Typically investment follows improvement in sales and profitability. Sales and profitability are falling in place and there would be a visible change in the next few months after which investment should follow since there is always a lag,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.
As many 58.3 per cent of the respondents expect their sales volume to increase during the ongoing quarter, and 45.8 per cent forecast similar outlook for profits.
Airfares may be slashed
Domestic airfares are likely to reduce by 5 to 10 per cent in the 30 days advance purchase segment as oil companies on Sunday cut Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) price by 11.3 per cent in line with the fall in international crude oil prices.
With this cut, the ATF price has been reduced to Rs. 46 a litre, making it even cheaper than diesel which costs between Rs. 51 and 56 per litre.
Airlines declined to commit themselves stating that airfares in India are not cost-related and the possible downward revision cannot be of the same proportion as the cut in ATF price.
There has been a cumulative 33 per cent reduction in ATF price since October and airlines are taking this opportunity to reduce their losses rather than passing on all the benefits to passengers.
However, those booking early can benefit by up to 10 per cent while those booking at the last moment will pay the market price depending upon the demand supply situation in that particular sector.
Airlines follow dynamic pricing in fares and charge through a non-transparent slabs system, so it is difficult to quantify the quantum of reduction for all segments of passengers.
“Fares are now 20 to 30 per cent cheaper as compared to November and December fares. This is lean season and in a competitive market, prices should come down. But don’t expect drastic reduction as airfares are not on cost-plus basis in India. This is an opportunity to recoup losses,” said a senior airline official.
However, travel industry experts said that the lower ATF price regime will prompt airlines to come out with aggressive promotional offers to lure passengers, like the 5 lakh seat flash sale by SpiceJet.
Analysts said now the floor is set for a price war among airlines through they would be careful to make some money in this quarter as such opportunity rarely comes.
One-rank one-pension scheme soon: Parrikar
Stating that Defence Ministry has fast-tracked work on ‘one-rank one-pension’ scheme, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday assured ex-servicemen of early implementation of the scheme.
Mr. Parrikar gave the assurance when a 27-member delegation of the ex-servicemen met him here. Assuring that he would do his work, Mr. Parrikar underlined that there were several interpretations and calculations and the Ministry was working on resolving them.
Ministry sources informed that Mr. Parrikar said that his Ministry would send its views to the Finance Ministry by February 17.
Describing the meeting as “positive,” Maj Gen Satbir Singh (retd), Chairman of Indian Ex-Service Movement said the delegation got assurances from the Minister on key issues pertaining to implementation of the scheme including “getting approval from the Finance Ministry before the Budget this month.” One war veteran with knowledge of the meeting said the delegation was assured of its implementation by March.
India, China can realise ‘Asian Century’: Sushma
"My government is committed to exploring an early settlement on the India-China border issue," said Sushma Swaraj
India has unveiled an ambitious agenda to elevate its ties with China, with External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj announcing a six-point proposal to jointly realise with Beijing, the dream of an “Asian Century”. In her first engagement of the morning in the Chinese capital, Ms. Swaraj said at the inaugural of the Second India-China Media Forum that a six-point template can enrich the civilizations of India and China in the modern era, resulting in the realisation of an “Asian Century”.
Listing out the proposals in alphabetical order A-F, Ms. Swaraj stressed that New Delhi-Beijing ties can reach the next level if both sides enforce an “action- oriented approach and a broad-based bilateral engagement”. She asserted that the two countries need to achieve “convergence on common regional and global interests” and “develop new areas of cooperation”. The two sides needed to “expand strategic communication” and “fulfil the common aspiration to usher and ‘Asian Century’,” Ms. Swaraj observed.
The visiting Minister announced that on the “boundary question” - an irritant in the relationship that triggered the 1962, Sino-Indian war - “my government is committed to exploring an early settlement”. Ms. Swaraj, who arrived in Beijing on Saturday night, after a stopover in Kunming, one of the starting points of the China’s Maritime Silk Road initiative and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor, also observed that the foundation had been laid to take the Sino-Indian “economic cooperation to a qualitatively new level”.
On its part, China acknowledged the Sino-Indian relations had entered a new period of “major-country relations,” a nuanced formulation reserved to describe Beijing’s ties with regional and global heavyweights, including the United States. Also speaking at the media-forum inaugural, China’s Jiang Jianguo, minister of state council information office quoted former leader Deng Xiaoping as saying that “only when China and India have developed will a real ‘century of Asia’ will emerge.” He substantiated Beijing’s aspirations by inviting India to participate in the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21 set century Maritime Silk Road—President Xi’s pet project to achieve Eurasian economic integration, based on a land and sea transportation network, complemented by a grid off energy pipelines, fiber-optic highways, industrial parks and smart cities. “With the ‘belt and road’ initiatives as wings, China wants to take off together with the countries involved,” said Mr. Jiang. India has so far backed the BCIM proposal that would connect Kolkata with Kunming-the capital of Yunnan province, which is the gateway to three ASEAN countries: Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. New Delhi also hosted a meeting of chief negotiators of the Asian Investment and Infrastructure Bank, signalling India’s full support to a China backed initiative that is likely to help support President Xi’s Silk Road projects.
Yet, China’s forays in the Indian Ocean, including Sri Lanka and Maldives, are impeding New Delhi full support for the MSR. “Our strategic dialogue with China has to broaden and deepen to address these concerns,” a diplomatic source told The Hindu. In her address Ms. Swaraj promised “to make it easier” for Chinese companies to do business in India, citing the establishment of two China-backed industrial parks in India, as an illustration of Bejing’s support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative to spur the manufacturing sector in India.
Labour Minister promises to rehabilitate children
Inter-State meeting to be convened to work out a time-bound plan to prevent child trafficking
The Union government has taken serious note of child trafficking after the Hyderabad police rescued nearly 400 children from the bangle-making industry in the city and plans to bring all State governments on a common platform to stop the menace.
The Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya, said he would soon convene an inter-State meeting to work out a time-bound plan to prevent child trafficking.
Mr. Dattatreya said the Ministry would also work in coordination with Bihar and Telangana to rehabilitate every child rescued by the Hyderabad police. He said it was unfortunate that the industry, famous for crafted bangles in the country and abroad, had employed children for the work. “This is totally unacceptable,” he said.
About 400 children, including 215 from Bihar, were rescued from bangle and footwear-making units in Old City by the police and Labour Department officials during the last one week. Most children are aged between four and twelve years and hail from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) V. Satyanarayana said the employers paid an advance between 10,000 to Rs. 20,000 to parents.
“A monthly sum of Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 3,000 is paid to the parents, depending upon the age and working ability of the child,” he told The Hindu .
The children, hailing from poor families, were denied proper food and accommodation and at times fell ill due to lack of hygiene. At Amannagar, Yaseen Pahelwan rented out his three-storied building to a bangle-making unit and about 150 children were staying on the premises. Closed circuit cameras were installed in the workshops to keep a watch on the children.
The rescued children were produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and later shifted to Don Bosco Rehabilitation Centre at Ramanthapur, Government Home for Boys at Saidabad and Government Home for Girls at Nimboliadda.
Meanwhile, the district administration prepared a profile of the children and sent it to Bihar after officials expressed their willingness to reunite them with their parents. “The children will leave for Bihar by a train, shortly accompanied by a team of officials,” District Child Protection Officer, Hyderabad, Mohd Imtiyaz Raheem said.
“We will file the charge sheet against the employers under labour law in the court and prosecute them,” Joint Commissioner of Labour, Hyderabad E. Gangadhar said. Achyutha Rao, member, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said the growth of child labour menace was now proportionate to the proliferation of bangle and other cottage industries in the city.
New education criteria leave panchayat posts vacant
The impact of the amended Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, to include minimum educational qualification as eligibility criteria for contesting the Panchayat elections, is now becoming visible with reports of posts going vacant pouring in from across the State.
Fake documents
Worse, the Sikar police have arrested a gang of people who have reportedly sold fake marks sheets and Transfer Certificates to those aspiring to contest. Investigations have revealed that contestants from Jalore, Barmer, Sikar and Jodhpur have purchased fake certificates from the gang, though the police suspect the number could go into thousands.
In the first two phases of polling, seven posts of sarpanchs are lying vacant and 170 were elected unopposed – a departure from the 2010 elections — purportedly there were no educationally qualified candidates to contest. For Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti’s 5 and 32 candidates respectively have been elected unopposed.
Dadiya Gram Panchayat in Ajmer and Majawada Gram Panchayat in Udaipur were unable to elect sarpanchs because there were no qualified candidates fulfilling the new educational eligibility criteria under the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Ordinance, 2014, promulgated just days before elections for the Panchayati Raj Institutions were announced.
In Bhadu village of Bhilwara, there were two students of Class VIII who were asked to contest but their nominations were rejected because they were below 18 years of age.
At many other places, candidates were elected unopposed because, social activists say, there were no qualified opponents which made the whole exercise of elections futile. Similar reports came in from Chittorgarh as well.
“It is not only the lack of contestants but also the lack of choices which is unhealthy. Not finding an opposition is terrible,” Nikhil Dey of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) that challenged the Ordinance in the court, told The Hindu.
The Ordinance, which is expected to be ratified in the coming Assembly session because the Bharatiya Janata Party has an absolute majority in the House, makes it mandatory that those contesting for the post of sarpanch should have passed Class VIII exam except in the tribal reserved areas where the qualification is Class V, and Class X for contesting Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti elections.
Though the State Election Commissioner Ram Lubhaya denied having received any such reports, cases of educated people with a non-political background being coerced into contesting are coming in from all districts, as is the number of those elected unopposed.
“The number of contestants as compared to the previous elections has certainly come down this time, and all such details will come out once a survey is done after the election is over. This is the only way to gauge the impact because not every wants to contest the elections in any case,” Mr Dey said.
Source - The Hindu
Where prosperity, poverty co-exist
The same district can have one of the country’s most developed sub-districts as well as one of the most backward, the first assessment of the level of development of India’s sub-districts has revealed.
Sanchita Bakshi, Young Professional with the former Planning Commission, Arunish Chawla, Joint Secretary (Expenditure) with the Ministry of Finance, and Mihir Shah Secretary, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, and a former member of the Planning Commission, analysed the levels of development of India’s 640 districts and 5955 sub-districts. To measure the extent of backwardness, they looked at five indicators – agricultural workers as a proportion of all workers, the female literacy rate, access to electricity, access to water and sanitation and access to banking. They published their findings in the first week of January in the Economic and Political Weekly.
Ms. Bakshi and her colleagues found that in 27 districts across the country, there were sub-districts that made it to both the top ten per cent of Indian sub-districts, as well as those that made it to the bottom ten per cent. Similarly, there were 92 districts that had sub-districts which made it to the top 20 per cent and bottom 20 per cent, and 166 which were in the top 30 per cent and bottom 30 per cent. They called these India’s “polarised districts”.
One factor systematically common to the least developed sub-districts across the country was the presence of Scheduled Tribes (STs). “As is well known, on all indicators of development it is the scheduled tribes who are the worst off. But when we look at where these STs live, we find that, outside the north-east, they tend to be concentrated in certain pockets of the country,” Ms. Bakshi explained. “If you look at the 100 most backward sub-districts of the country you find that almost three-quarters of the population in these areas is tribal..This trend of overwhelming tribal concentration in the most backward sub-districts of the country is very evident in our data set,” she explained.
The pockets of backwardness Ms. Bakshi and her colleagues found also suggest then that research and policy focussed on identifying backward districts may end up missing more than it finds. “We clearly need to go beyond districts if we want to capture backwardness in India,” Mr. Shah said. “The really interesting question on the development model is: is the very process of development in some areas creating these pockets of underdevelopment? Typically many of these tribal areas are mineral rich, with a lot of mining operations generating economic activity and development in a few pockets. Why then are the tribals living in these very districts so poor? Is this co-existence of development and backwardness, two sides of the same coin?” he asked.
Which are India’s most developed sub-districts? A combination of some of its smallest ones, where services can presumably be delivered more easily, those in Kerala, and those located in its biggest cities, the data shows.
Sanchita Bakshi, Young Professional with the former Planning Commission, Arunish Chawla, Joint Secretary (Expenditure) with the Ministry of Finance, and Mihir Shah Secretary, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, and a former member of the Planning Commission, analysed the levels of development of India’s 640 districts and 5955 sub-districts. To measure the extent of backwardness, they looked at five indicators – agricultural workers as a proportion of all workers, the female literacy rate, access to electricity, access to water and sanitation and access to banking. They published their findings in the first week of January in the Economic and Political Weekly.
Ms. Bakshi and her colleagues found that in 27 districts across the country, there were sub-districts that made it to both the top ten per cent of Indian sub-districts, as well as those that made it to the bottom ten per cent. Similarly, there were 92 districts that had sub-districts which made it to the top 20 per cent and bottom 20 per cent, and 166 which were in the top 30 per cent and bottom 30 per cent. They called these India’s “polarised districts”.
One factor systematically common to the least developed sub-districts across the country was the presence of Scheduled Tribes (STs). “As is well known, on all indicators of development it is the scheduled tribes who are the worst off. But when we look at where these STs live, we find that, outside the north-east, they tend to be concentrated in certain pockets of the country,” Ms. Bakshi explained. “If you look at the 100 most backward sub-districts of the country you find that almost three-quarters of the population in these areas is tribal..This trend of overwhelming tribal concentration in the most backward sub-districts of the country is very evident in our data set,” she explained.
The pockets of backwardness Ms. Bakshi and her colleagues found also suggest then that research and policy focussed on identifying backward districts may end up missing more than it finds. “We clearly need to go beyond districts if we want to capture backwardness in India,” Mr. Shah said. “The really interesting question on the development model is: is the very process of development in some areas creating these pockets of underdevelopment? Typically many of these tribal areas are mineral rich, with a lot of mining operations generating economic activity and development in a few pockets. Why then are the tribals living in these very districts so poor? Is this co-existence of development and backwardness, two sides of the same coin?” he asked.
Which are India’s most developed sub-districts? A combination of some of its smallest ones, where services can presumably be delivered more easily, those in Kerala, and those located in its biggest cities, the data shows.
Source - The Hindu
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