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LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED ASIAN AGE\ BUSINESS STANDARD DECCAN HERALD ECONOMIC TIMES HINDU HINDUSTAN TIMES PIONEER STATESMAN TELEGRAPH TIMES OF INDIA TRIBUNE 1

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LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

ASIAN AGE\

BUSINESS STANDARD

DECCAN HERALD

ECONOMIC TIMES

HINDU

HINDUSTAN TIMES

PIONEER

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

TIMES OF INDIA

TRIBUNE

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CONTENTS

AGRICULTURE 3-5

CIVIL SERVICE 6-11

CONSUMERS 12-13

DEFENCE 14-16

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENN 17-18

EDUCATION 19-26

ELECTIONS 27

EMPLOYMENT 28-29

IDENTITY 30-31

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 32-34

JUDICIARY 35-37

LABOUR 38-40

LAW 41-44

LIBRARIES 45-50

MASS MEDIA 51

PARLIAMENT 52

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM 53

RAILWAYS 54-57

TAXATION 58

WASTE TREATMENT 59-60

WOMEN 61-62

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AGRICULTURE

BUSINESS STANDARD, OCT 20, 2016Centre to set-up Krishi Vigyan Kendra in all districts100 of them will have special facilities for skill developmentSanjeeb Mukherjee 

Cabinet approves Rs 12,000 crore for skill development Govt launches new initiative to skill workforce for jobs abroad Letters:   Tackle challenges first First Indian channel on skill development launched in Pune

The central government will establish at least one Krishi Vigyan Kendra   (KVK, agriculture

science centre) in each of the 646 districts in country. Of this, 100 will have special facilities for

skill development, while an equal number will be converted into pulses and oilseeds hubs,

agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh   said on Wednesday.

Addressing agriculture scientists, farmers, and technicians from KVKs in 12 states through

video-conferencing, Singh said the Centre would also set up special centres for development of

honeybee farming in 10 states in the next few years.

India has around 640 KVKs currently, with many districts having more than one centre.

During his interaction, Singh also highlighted the various pro-poor and pro-agriculture measures that the Narendra Modi-led government has taken in the past two years.

In the next round, officials said KVK representatives from Uttar Pradesh, and eastern and southern parts of India will join the video conference with the Union agriculture minister.

During his address, the agriculture minister called upon the scientists and farmers to make farming modern and scientific.

He directed them to adopt pisciculture (fish farming) in a big way and also use modern technologies such as drones and satellite imagery in agriculture. The farmers who participated in the discussion also highlighted their problems and challenges faced in farming.

ECONOMIC TIMES, OCT 20, 2016Niti aayog drawing up blueprint for reforms in the farming sectorBy Yogima Sharma The key proposals of Aayog under the agriculture marketing reforms include liberalising contract farming.

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NEW DELHI: India is readying a raft of far-reaching reforms in the neglected agriculture sector,

often seen as a politically sensitive subject, by trying to pitch the Niti Aayog’s blueprint directly

with the states. 

Liberal contract farming, direct purchase from farmers by private players, direct sale by farmers

to consumers, single trader licence, single point levy of taxes and taking fruits and vegetables out

of the mandi laws are among anumber of measures being considered by the government to

unshackle agriculture. 

The reforms are part of a blueprint drawn up by Niti Aayog to double rural income in five years

as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Niti Aayog has proposed a three-pronged strategy to usher in reforms in agriculture in the short

run. The big-ticket changes mooted and driven by the government’s think tank include state-level

agriculture marketing, land leasing and forestry reforms, which the Aayog feels would push the

sector onto a higher growth trajectory. 

Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand has made a comprehensive presentation to the PMO on the

immediate changes that if made by states, since agriculture is a state subject, can result in big

gains for farmers. 

"We have proposed changes needed in the agriculture sector to double farm income, which in

turn will lift farmers out of poverty. We are pursuing with states for reforms which can happen

immediately so that there are evident changes on the ground over the next one year," Chand told

ET. 

The Aayog is pushing states to change their land lease law in line with the central legislation to

suit their needs besides liberalising norms governing forestry on private land and at least 10

changes under the Agriculture Produce Marketing Act to make it more farmer friendly, Chand

said. 

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The key proposals of Aayog under the agriculture marketing reforms include liberalising contract

farming, allowing direct purchase from farmers by private players, allowing direct sale from

farmers to consumers, providing for single trader licence to operate in APMC market, single

point levy of taxes, taking fruits and vegetables out of the APMC Act, rationalsation of taxes on

agriculture commodities, implementation of e-NAM, and lastly, to de-link the provision of

compulsory requirement of shops in the APMC market for registration as traders. 

Having got a go ahead from the PMO, Niti Aayog will meet principal secretaries of all states on

Friday to apprise them of Centre’s vision for the agriculture sector. Following this, the Aayog

would meet the agriculture ministers of states to push for reforms and if needed, the Aayog will

seek intervention from the prime minister to route the proposed changes through the chief

ministers of states, reflecting government’s urgency to reform the sector.

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CIVIL SERVICE

TRIBUNE, OCT 22, 2016DA hike for Punjab staff, pensioners

Chandigarh: Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa on Friday approved  the release of 6% dearness allowance (DA) with November salary or pension for the government employees and pensioners. With the release of this DA instalment, the state would touch 125% from present 119% of the basic pay/pension, Dhindsa said. In a relief to foreign-settled retired employees, he said DA would continue with their pensions. TNS

PIONEER, OCT 21, 2016HARYANA GOVT ORDERS ACTION AGAINST 9 OFFICIALS FOR DERELICTION OF DUTY

Taking disciplinary action against nine officials for dereliction of duty in redressing the complaints received at CM window, Haryana Government on Thursday dismissed two doctors, suspended two officers and also ordered that show cause notices be served to five others.

The orders were issued by Rakesh Gupta, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Bhupeshwar Dayal, OSD to Chief Minister during a meeting with nodal officers to review the progress of complaints received on CM window here.

During the review meeting, the officials expressed displeasure over the performance of Regional Officer, Hisar and Bahadurgarh of Haryana State Pollution Control Board Dr PKMK Das while dealing complaints on CM window and ordered his suspension.

Besides, they also ordered to suspend Block Elementary Education Officer, Panipat, Satbir Saroha for not investigating properly the complaint against a private school.

Apart from this, orders have also been issued to terminate the services of Dr Dara Singh and Dr RP Sharma.  Show cause notices were issued to District Food and Supplies Officer Seema Sharma of Mewat, Assistance Excise and Taxation Officer Vijay Kumar, Police Inspector Gharaunda Rajbir Singh, Station House Officer Taoru and Nodal Officer of Mines and Geology Department for delay in redressal of grievances received on CM Window.

Bhupeshwar Dayal has also directed the nodal officers to redress the grievances received on CM Window on priority basis and said that laxity in this regard would not be tolerated as per the orders of the Chief Minister.

If there is any complaint against officer or official, the responsibility to investigate such case should be entrusted to senior officer other than the equivalent, said he.

Dayal said that if any complainant withdraws his complaint without its redressal, then the nature of complaint would also be considered to find out any possibility of nexus between alleged accused and complainant.

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In the meeting, the officials also expressed displeasure over the performance of nodal officers of Urban Local Bodies and Archeology and Museums Departments.

 

HINDU, OCT 21, 2016Panel on 7th Pay Commission submits report

A Committee constituted by the Haryana government to examine the recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission and decisions of the central government submitted its report to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here on Thursday.

The Committee, comprising Chief Secretary D. S. Dhesi as Chairman and Additional Chief Secretaries Rajan Gupta and P Raghavendra Rao, Principal Secretary Anurag Rastogi and Special Secretary Ashima Brar as members, was constituted vide notifications dated August 8 and October 10, 2016.

Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu and Chief Secretary Dhesi presented the report of the Committee to the Chief Minister here, an official spokesman said. 

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 21, 2016After decades of glory, the ‘IAS factory’ of Allahabad grinds to a haltK Sandeep Kumar

 |  Till as recent as 2010, University of Allahabad (AU) figured among the country’s educational institutions that had its students clearing civil services examination in a big way. So much so, the varsity was touted as a “factory producing IAS officers”.In fact, AU — as it is called informally after Allahabad University — routinely had two dozen of its students annually getting into the corridors of Indian bureaucracy for decades till the early 1990s. Even in 2008, the varsity registered 26 selections to secure the 4th rank nationwide among 152 institutions. A year later, 25 of its students made the final cut, with AU securing the fifth rank among 170 institutions. In 2010, the varsity stood on eighth position among 171 institutions with 21 selections.

The situation deteriorated in 2011 when AU could manage only seven selections (37th rank) followed by six in 2012 (41st rank). In 2013, it witnessed a washout.

So, how did the decline to single digits happen from 2011 for AU, which is a central university for the past 11 years? And that, with a 13 decade history lit up with a long line-up of renowned IAS officers who entered the coveted profession in the second half of last century?

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Observers attribute multiple reasons that have led to the slide for 1887-established AU, once called the ‘Oxford of the East’. One has been the dissociation of a prestigious institute from the varsity; the other has been a recent alteration in the IAS examination pattern. More crucially— experts say — the trouble has come from a 2011 introduction of an aptitude test that made English an important component of the examination, given that AU had alienated that language from its campus.

LOSING A LEGACY?

There were decades not long ago when students used to flock to AU to study political science, economics, history, and other subjects. Those days, the university consistently produced bureaucrats who went on to rise up the ranks. Such as AN Haksar (principal secretary to PM Indira Gandhi), Nripendra Misra (principal secretary to PM Narendra Modi), NC Saxena (former Planning Commission member) and Vikas Swarup (external affairs ministry spokesperson).

In fact, till 2010, AU maintained a dominant position in the field.

Eight years before that, the varsity saw Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) dissociating from it — and becoming independent. The 1961-founded institute had been contributing to AU’s civil-services credit in a big way, and managed to keep its position intact among top 50 academic institutions producing IAS officers.

The latest annual report of UPSC on various aspects of civil services examination till 2014-15 shows a total of 16 MNNIT students having qualified for the interview round of civil services examination in 2013, while 10 managed to make the final cut. As a result, the institute stood 31st in the list of 57 higher-education institutions whose students cleared the civil services.

In 2012, as many as 19 MNNIT students made it to the interview round and 10 of them cleared. A whopping 76 MNNIT students faced the interview board in 2011, when 11 emerged successful.

MNNIT secured the 23rd rank among the country’s top 50 higher educational institutions in 2012, while in 2011 it climbed up to 16th rank.

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According to UPSC report, technical institutes in Allahabad are not only making their place in top 50 institutions, but are also continuously beating AU.

In 2013, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, saw five out of nine students tasting success.

The civil services examination-2013 had students of 210 higher education institutions making it to the interview round and those of 57 making the final cut.

ENGLISH TO BLAME?

AU lost its edge in 2011 with the introduction of civil services aptitude test (CSAT). Experts and aspirants blame CSAT for the slide, as English became an important component of the examination. That made the task difficult for AU students.Former civil servants say sidelining English fuelled the slide.

Ex-bureaucrat Badal Chatterjee winds back to note that English was, till 1968, a compulsory subject in BA, and all AU students had to clear the paper to get a degree. “In 1966, a violent anti-English movement began on the campus. Students set fire to a petrol tanker and a power sub-station on November 5 that year,” he says.

“In 1968, varsity authorities removed English from the list of compulsory papers. With their focus away from English, AU students started stumbling in civil services examination,” says Chatterjee, a 1980-batch PCS officer who retired as an IAS officer in February 2015. He completed MA (1975) and LLB (1999) from AU.

Prof Yogeshwar Tiwari of AU says the students failed to adapt to the changed pattern of civil services examination. In civil services (preliminary) examination of 2010, UPSC changed the nature of questions from fact-based to analytical.

“Even the question papers of humanities were made analytical,” points out Tiwari, who teaches medieval and modern history. “This led to a drop in the number of students taking the examination in Hindi medium from 42.2% to 35.4%.”

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Since the proportion of candidates passing the preliminary examination for different subjects was by and large maintained, it did not become a bone of contention, he adds.“In 2011, the number of candidates writing the examination in Hindi medium dropped drastically,” points out Tiwari. “Since 2011, CSAT has also been evolving in the form of changing ratios of questions from different test areas. AU students have failed to grasp this. They are concentrating on traditional subjects like general studies in which they are scoring well, but are losing out in CSAT.”

TRIBUNE, OCT 20, 201612 J&K government employees sacked for anti-national activitiesThere has been unrest in the Valley for the past over 100 days. Tribune file

Amid the ongoing unrest in the Kashmir Valley, the Jammu and Kashmir government has terminated services of 12 employees for allegedly indulging in anti-national activities after dossiers were prepared against them.

The employees, who were dismissed from government service, belonged to various departments, including Revenue, Public Health Engineering, Rural Development and Education Department, a senior government official said.

The state government invoked Article 126 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution for dismissing these employees, the official said.

He said some of these employees had been arrested and booked under the Public Safety Act while others were either out on bail or evading arrest.

The intelligence wing of the state police last month had prepared a dossier against 36 employees for fomenting trouble in Kashmir and inciting youth to violence.

The dossier was sent to the Chief Secretary’s office for further action.

State government employees have been allegedly found involved in anti-national activities in the past as well and some of them were dismissed from service.

Education Minister Naeem Akhtar was among five government employees dismissed from service by the state government in 1990 for his alleged involvement in anti-national activities.

Their services were later restored after employees went on a mass strike for nearly three months.

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Kashmir Valley has been witnessing unrest for the past over 100 days. The violence was triggered by the killing of Hizbul militant Burhan Wani. PTI

HINDU, OCT 17, 2016Centre rethinks 40% annuity order under NPSCentre rethinks 40% annuity under NPS

To make the National Pension System (NPS) more attractive, the Centre could do away with a norm mandating retiring employees to buy an annuity with 40 per cent of accumulated corpus.

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CONSUMERS

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 20, 2016New consumer rights bill to make justice easier, quicker for buyersZia Haq

 |  Buyers suing firms for faulty products or approaching consumer courts to settle disputes won’t need to hire lawyers. Also, all such cases have to be decided within 90 days.These consumer-friendly moves are part of a new consumer rights bill that is likely to be tabled in Parliament next month.

The last issue that remains to be fixed is the exact provisions on celebrity endorsements. The government is not in favour of harsh jail terms for celebrities appearing in deceptive advertisements, but they may face heavy fines and bans if products they endorse are found dangerous, substandard and misleading.

A parliamentary panel had recommended up to five years of jail for celebrities endorsing untruthful products.

The bill will make provisions to set up a consumer protection authority, empowered to initiate complaints and investigation on its own. Buyers won’t need to hire lawyers to sue firms for faulty products or bad service. The consumer affairs ministry’s previous stand was that lawyers must represent cases involving more than `2 lakh worth of goods and services.

The bill seeks to replace an outdated law governing legal rights of consumers and expand their rights in a changed economy marked by e-commerce and digital transactions.Consumers will be able to sue manufacturers even before they actually buy their products if they feel a product or its sample is prima facie faulty or too good to be true.

For instance, products that promise crash cures to chronic diseases. Firms selling these miraculous cures can be sued by a prospective consumer even if no transaction has taken place.

The revamped legislation focuses on dismantling hurdles built into the country’s consumer-court system.

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If Parliament passes the bill, appeals decided in states can’t be re-appealed at the national-level consumer court to ensure time-bound settlement. District courts will be empowered to admit cases on goods and services worth up to Rs 1 crore, up from Rs 20 lakh. This will increase access to consumer courts for high-value products even at the local level.

The ministry had moved the Consumer Protection Bill 2015 last August in the Lok Sabha, aiming to replace the consumer protection act of 1986. The bill was referred to a parliamentary standing committee and is likely to be tabled when Parliament sits from November 16.

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DEFENCE

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 17, 2016General Raheel Sharif to be elevated as Field Marshal?

A proposal to elevate Pakistan's Army chief General Raheel Sharif to the rank of Field Marshal has reached the Islamabad High Court, weeks ahead of his retirement from the powerful post.

A lawyer has sought the high court's help to elevate Gen Raheel, 60, to the rank of Field Marshal in the greater national interest by taking into consideration his "exemplary services and sacrifices rendered for the nation," The Express Tribune reported today.

In the appeal submitted yesterday, Sardar Adnan Saleem, through his counsel, said that such an elevation is an emergent need in the present circumstances.

Saleem has made the federation through the cabinet division secretary, the prime minister through the secretary of the PM Secretariat and defence ministry secretary respondents in the petition, the report said.

The counsel said that the army chief should be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal for rendering services to protect national security and safeguarding the frontiers of Pakistan in accordance with the National Action Plan (NAP) and for successful completion of the anti-terror campaign 'Zarb-e- Azab' in an effective and efficient manner.

Gen Sharif had earlier promised to bow out at the end of his term in November this year.

Sharif, currently serving as the 15th Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army, was appointed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on November 29, 2013 for a three-year term.

"I don't believe in extension and will retire on the due date," Sharif had said in January this year amidst growing speculation about an extension in his tenure.

If Sharif hangs up his boots on November 30, he would be the first army chief to retire on time in two decades. His predecessors Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Gen Pervez Musharraf got extensions, while Gen Jehangir Karamat was sent home prematurely.

While calling him a "trailblazer", the petitioner's lawyers said that Gen Raheel provided visionary leadership to the people as well as the security forces.

"The exemplary, outstanding and professional performance during peace and war time with total dedication and devotion by attaining the highest standards and mastery in battlefield," he said

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adding that the COAS needs national appreciation, award and recognition.

The petition said that the COAS should be elevated to the highest level of military hierarchy for rendering his services for the nation and humanity at a larger scale in an extraordinary, exemplary and selfless manner.

The petition has urged the court to direct the respondents to elevate Gen Raheel to the rank of field marshal for leading from the front on different fronts.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 18, 2016Retiring military officers abuse disability benefits for higher pensionRahul Singh

 |  Top military officers nearing retirement are abusing disability benefits to extract higher and tax-free pension, HT has learnt. The revelations come at a time when the government is under fire over “sharp cuts” in benefits for disabled soldiers.

The military’s medical services wing warned the government two years ago about an “alarming trend” of absolutely fit generals, admirals and air marshals exploiting the welfare measure by getting themselves placed in the lower medical category.

A medical downgrade entitles a soldier to better retirement benefits.

“I would like to apprise you of an alarming trend evolving in the services, with regards to claims for disability pension being preferred by senior officers of the rank of lieutenant general and major general and their equivalent,” Lt Gen BK Chopra said in a letter to the defence secretary. He was then heading the armed forces medical services.

“These senior officers, who have stayed in Shape-1 medical category throughout their career, suddenly present (themselves) with diseases… at the fag end of their service,” said the communication dated December 16, 2014. HT has a copy of the letter.The ministry was aware of the problem and attempts were being made to make the system more rigorous, a defence ministry official said on Monday.

Chopra’s letter reveals how military doctors are under pressure from top officers to write their medical reports. “Specialists and medical officers working in hospitals under their command find themselves constrained to oblige these officers,” the letter said.

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Sources said the claims for disability pensions have shot up significantly during the last 10 years following the implementation of the sixth pay commission report in 2006 that enhanced benefits.

Chopra, who retired in June 2016, told HT that he pursued the matter for one and half years after writing the letter and the details that emerged were shocking.“A detailed scrutiny of records showed that before 2006 hardly any top officers claimed disability pension. But by 2015, about 21% of them were claiming benefits. If someone has disability, they should declare it earlier in service and not a few months before retirement,” Chopra said.

Last week, defence minister Manohar Parrikar referred the issue of calculating disability pension for soldiers to the anomalies committee of the seventh pay commission, amid a controversy over defence personnel drawing lower benefits compared to their civilian counterparts.

Chopra’s letter said, “I would like to reiterate that disability pensions have become an easy & attractive source of tax-free supplementary income rather than the lifeline to wounded veterans.”

It said the officers were eyeing lower medical category mostly with diseases such as osteoarthritis, spondylosis, diabetes and hypertension.

Apart from disability pension, senior officers also seem to be milking another medical provision, the letter pointed out. It said top officers who retired in Shape-1 were submitting “post discharge claims” for disabilities “they claim to have contracted while in service”.

The provision was being misused by few veteran officers who claimed disability benefits for diseases such as corns in their feet, eczema, a skin disorder, and hearing loss, the letter said.

In the past, officers took pride in leaving service in top shape but the trend was on the decline, an army officer said.

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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

ASIAN AGE, OCT 17, 2016India one of the most open economies today: Modi at BRICS

Benaulim: Asserting that results ofthe reforms undertaken by his government were visible, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the country has transformed into "one of the most open economies" in the world with a strong growth rate.

"We have undertaken substantial reforms in the past two years to streamline and simplify governance, especially in doing business. The results are clearly visible," Modi told the Brics Business Council as part of the eighth summit of the five-nation grouping here."We have moved up in almost all global indices that measure such performances. We have transformed India into one of the most open economies in the world today. Growth is strong and we are taking steps to keep the momentum going," the Prime Minister said.

The Modi government has undertaken a slew of reforms like passing the indirect taxation legislation on goods and services tax which seeks to make the country a single market, passing the Bankruptcy Code which will help troubled/failed companies find an exit, and through flagship programmes on the administrative front like the 'Make in India' and the 'Digital India' initiatives.

All this has had India's ranking in ease of doing business go up by multiple notches in a year to 39 as per the latest ranking by the World Bank. The government has also been consistently raising caps on foreign holding in domestic companies in a slew of sensitive sectors like defence insurance and defence.

According to Finance Ministry, as many as 90 per cent of the key economic sectors where FDI is allowed are on the automatic route, which help foreign companies save lots of time to start their operations.Even though the June quarter growth slowed to 7.1 per cent from 7.6 per cent in the previous quarter, Asia's third largest economy continues to be the fastest growing one in the world and policymakers are expecting the GDP expansion for the current fiscal year to come in at 7.6 per cent and accelerate further in coming years to 8 per cent going forward.

Modi said there were a slew of "matching priorities" between the business council and that of his administration, including dismantling trade barriers, promoting skills development, establishing manufacturing supply chains and infrastructure development.

Infrastructure has been a key focus of the government and investment of an estimated USD 1 trillion has been made to build roads/highways, airports and seaports over the next decade.

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Modi also acknowledged the progress achieved by the Brics Business Council over the last three years, since the idea was first mooted at the Durban summit. He said the Council represents the economic strength and the diversity of the five-nation grouping of the world's fastest emerging economies.

Modi also underlined the need for promoting economic and commercial ties and described this as a "foundational impulse" of the idea of Brics, and added that partnerships create wealth and value in societies.

The Prime Minister also applauded the work done by New Development Bank over the last year and asked the lender to work closely with the Brics Business Council for identifying and implementing large infra projects which can help transform the economies and the lives of the poor.

The Shanghai-headquartered NDB has a book of USD 911 million and plans to close 2016 with a book of USD 1 billion, which will be raised up to USD 2.5 billion by end of 2017.

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EDUCATION

TRIBUNE, OCT 21, 2016Orient research towards local issues: Governor

Governor NN Vohra has emphasised the importance of launching innovative projects and promoting the application of newer approaches and technologies for the resolution of problems faced in the day-to-day lives of the people of the state.

The Governor, who is also the Chancellor of the University of Jammu, was chairing the 81st meeting of the University Council of the University of Jammu here today. He advised the Vice Chancellor to avail maximum possible benefit from the Rural Technology Action Group, which is guided and advised by the collegium of all IITs and the Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Minister for Education Naeem Akhter participated in the discussions.

While reviewing the ongoing research projects in the university, the Governor stressed the need for quality research in groundwater analysis and solid waste management to keep a check on the rapidly advancing pollution of the environment.

Reviewing the short-term vocational courses offered by the university, the Chancellor suggested follow-up of the pass outs to assess the number who had been gainfully employed.

The Governor also stressed strengthening the research activities and urged that the maximum number of PhD scholars should be involved with the ongoing research projects.

He suggested time-bound construction of additional residential facilities for the students, especially girls, on the campus.

Both Chancellor and the minister felt the need for critically reviewing the current relevance of the ongoing programmes vis-à-vis the demands of the emerging job markets. The Chancellor urged RD Sharma, Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu, and Khurshid Andrabi, Vice Chancellor of the University of Kashmir, to make it a continuous phenomenon so that the courses which were not relevant were dropped or suitably modified and new courses introduced to meet the arising market requirements. They asked the universities to undertake internal reviews, involving external experts, to identify the required modifications in the existing departments.

The Governor advised the VC to ensure round-the-year maintenance and hygiene within the university and continuously carry out awareness activities among the staff and students.

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The council discussed the functioning of the offsite campuses and urged the VC to critically review their academic functioning.

The Education Minister suggested engaging experienced and qualified faculty to raise the standards of teaching and research in all campuses.

TRIBUNE, OCT 21, 2016Crude jingoism: UGC prescribes students a pledge of nationalism

The question mark on citizens’ nationalist credentials, hitherto limited to minority communities, is being made to expand its scope. In a first, the UGC has sent a note to the affiliated universities and colleges asking students to take a security pledge on October 31, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. On that day, declared as the National Unity Day since 2014, 30 million students have been asked to read the pledge, “I dedicate myself to preserve the unity, integrity and security of the nation and also strive hard to spread this message…in the spirit of unification of my country…” The note also asks the universities and colleges to invite freedom fighters to their campuses to talk about nationalism. 

While the pledge is not mandatory, the UGC has asked the universities to keep the Human Resource Development Ministry posted on their events and programmes. Already incidents of virulent jingoism are becoming a challenge to maintaining one’s sanity in these days when patriotic hysteria is sweeping the land. The latest one is from Goa. Salil Chaturvedi, a celebrated poet, author and disability activist, was assaulted by a couple seated behind him at a cinema hall for not standing up when the national anthem was played. He could not stand because of his disability caused by a spine injury. Son of an Air Force veteran, Salil Chaturvedi represented the nation in wheelchair tennis at Australian Open. 

The mistrust of people’s natural love for their country is allowed to spread without check, to breed dubious patriots, who are tearing into the country’s democratic traditions and healthy societal values. Chaturvedi need not trumpet his patriotism, nor do the college and university students. Demanding proof of nationalism is taking jingoism to an absurd new level. The force-feeding of nationalism can have the opposite effect. The well-meaning UGC pledge must remain optional. Elements with patriotic pretensions must be taught a lesson if they try to take away liberties guaranteed under the Constitution of India. 

TIMES OF INDIA, OCT 18, 2016Govt teachers to get tabs for non-academic workManish Sisodia

New Delhi: All Delhi government school teachers will be given tablets by the end of the year for

non-academic work like attendance and tabulation of marks.

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The cabinet will also be meeting later this week to deliberate on a proposal to increase the pay of

guest teachers by almost 100%.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday asked the education department to submit a

proposal to the IT department for procuring over 50,000 tablets. Atishi Marlena, advisor,

education department said, "School teachers have had a long standing demand for technological

intervention to reduce their clerical burden. Other than teaching, they are often saddled with a lot

of non-academic work. We have, therefore, decided to give tablets to all teachers, including

about 15,000 guest teachers and an additional 1,000-odd principals and about 100 officials from

the education department.

To start with, teachers will be able to take attendance on the tablet and if a child is absent, a

message will automatically be sent to the parent. Subsequently, we will add more apps in it," she

said.

The department is hoping that by March, when the next exam is held, teachers will also be able

to start tabulating marks on the tabs and generate report cards. "At present, multiple records

needs to be drawn up manually. Under the new system, a teacher will be able to enter marks in

the tab which will be collated and report cards will be computer generated. Such a system is

already prevalent in several private schools. Eventually, we also want to provide training

material for teachers on the tabs. However, we will roll this out gradually. The government will

be giving a data package as well, depending on how much data we think will be required for

official work," said Marlena.

An initial estimate of Rs 50 crore has been drawn up and the IT department has been asked to

draw a proper plan for it.

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 17, 2016Pak school chain bans Punjabi language; terms it 'foul'

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A group of private schools in Pakistan owned by former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri has banned Punjabi within and outside the campus after terming it a "foul language", drawing flak from millions of people.

The Beaconhouse School System (BSS) has recently issued a notification to parents, declaring Punjabi a 'foul language' for the children as well as parents.

"Foul language is not allowed within and outside the school premises, in the morning, during the school hours, and after home time," the fifth point of the notification reads.

The notice explains the definition of 'foul language' as, "Foul language includes taunts, abuses, Punjabi and the hate speech".

A number of parents, prominent Punjabi language activists and literary organisations have demanded the school administration to immediately withdraw  the notification and tender apology to those having Punjabi their mother language.

Punjabi scholar and columnist Mushtaq Soofi said he had seen the notification on social media and found it "disgracing to millions of Punjabis who are living in Pakistan and Indian Punjab and also the Punjabi diaspora living across the globe".

Professor Dr Saeed Bhutta of the Punjab University's Oriental College said, "The Punjabi language has an age-old history starting off from Baba Farid to Khwaja Farid. The school administration's step is a disgrace and ignorance of a certain class towards Punjabi heritage".

"Speaking the mother language is a guaranteed constitutional right. The 1973 Constitution allows the federating units to impart formal primary learning in mother tongue," Bhutta said.

Some parents said the government should take notice of 'demeaning a language which has been used by the saints over the last many centuries'.

"This means that our children should not speak to their grandparents only because their language is Punjabi," says Haleema whose daughter is studying in Grade-II in Beacon House School in Lahore.

Owned by Kasuri, BSS is a group of private academic institutions located in 30 cities in Pakistan.

ECONOMIC TIMES, OCT 21, 2016Class 10 board exams likely to return from 2018

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NEW DELHI: The government is set to announce the reintroduction of the Class 10 board exam

for students affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), India's largest

national school testconducting body. The announcement is likely to be made by HRD minister

Prakash Javadekar on October 25 and will be his first major decision after taking over as HRD

minister in early July. The Class X boards are likely to be back from 2018. Javadekar will also

announce a new 'nodetention' policy wherein students will be automatically promoted till Class

V. States will then devise their options till Class VIII but will need to provide an opportunity for

a "retest" for students who fail. The CBSE Class 10 board examination was scrapped in 2010 and

replaced with the current continuous and comprehensive evaluation that provides for tests and

grading through the year as a means to reduce pressure on students. Reasons for reintroduction of

the Class X Board examinations include feedback from states and representative organisations of

parents and teachers that doing away with the exam along with the nodetention policy was

affecting academic standards, even though studies indicated that the number of dropouts has

reduced. The board exam was seen — by those arguing for its retention — as a means of

preparing students for the more important schoolleaving Class XII tests. The nodetention policy

was felt to be reducing the authority of teachers and prompting schools to merely shuffle an

underperforming student from one class to the next. There were large number of government

school students failing in class XI as evaluations became more demanding at the senior school

level. These factors seem to have prompted the government to consider amending the decisions.

Touted as a Diwali gift in the HRD ministry, the decision will be made public after the meeting

of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). State education ministers who are to attend

the CABE meeting have been intimated about restoration of Class 10 board examination. Several

of them have been saying that scrapping of class X board has not delivered the anticipated

benefits. As the formula for "nodetention" seems complex, "it is for states to decide if they want

to detain a child in class 5, 6 or 7 or in all of these classes," a source said. But a re test will be

made mandatory for students who fail from class VI to VIII. A CABE committee headed by

Rajasthan education minister Vasudev Devnani has also ruled in favour of removing the

provision of "nodetention" and recommended retests. However, NCERT is opposed to removal

of the "nodetention" policy. While restoration of the class 10 board examination does not need a

legislative intervention, a change in the nodetention policy does require an amendment in section

16 of the Right to Education Act. The issue of "nodetention" was also considered by the

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Supreme Court, which had ruled in its favour. In the Society for Unaided Private Schools of

Rajasthan vs Union of India case, the SC had said holding back in a class or expulsion may lead

to large number of dropouts, defeating the purpose of the act, which was to "strengthen the social

fabric of democracy and to create a just and humane society". The decisions were taken in a

meeting on Wednesday.

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 19, 2016Centre to collect details of all school studentsPrakash Kumar

The Centre will collect individual details about each of the school students like their bank accounts, caste and religion from the next round of nationwide exercise carried out to prepare school report cards every year.

A decision has been taken by the annual survey unit of the National University of Education Planning and Administration (Nuepa) to ensure that schools do not submit false data with regard to the number of enrolled students.

The Department of Educational Management Information System (Demie) of the Nuepa conducts the massive exercise of collecting data from  schools under various heads like number of students enrolled, student-teacher ratio and others. It is in the process of giving final shape to this year’s annual report.

“We depended on schools for all the data and information so far. From now on, we have decided to collect individual data of students to ensure accuracy. The data so collected will be verifiable as schools will have to supply details about the students like their bank accounts, Aadhaar, caste, religion,” an official of the department told DH.

The individual details of the students would also include if they belong to under privileged and weaker sections of the society and are single-parent children.

“It will be an extensive individual student data which may help policy-makers while formulating strategies, plans and schemes for the betterment of the students and their schools, the official added. 

The Demie has been collecting students data since 1995 when a pilot project for revitalisation of educational statistics in India was initiated with financial assistance from the Unicef. The annual school education survey department of the Nuepa currently has its units operational in 581 districts in 29 states and UTs of the country.

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“Our database and reports are providing vital information for policy formulation and preparation of district elementary education plans,” the Demie official said.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 22, 2016Soon, children can join govt schools from nursery levelNeelam Pandey

 |  Soon, children may get the opportunity to join government schools from the nursery level – and not from Class 1.

A committee on bringing pre-schooling and secondary education under the Right to Education (RTE) Act is in the process of finalising its report. There are indications that it might recommend starting government schools to form nursery classes rather than Class 1, sources said.

Currently, RTE is applicable from Class 1 and 8, under which students are provided free education in government schools and midday meal.

The government is also learnt to be in favour of this. If a decision is taken to start education form nursery and kindergarten in government schools, it might also have a bearing on private schools that currently reserve 25% for students from the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category as RTE is applicable from class 1.

The issue will be taken up in the meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which is the highest advisory body for the Centre and state governments on education.

“I have taken a few meetings and we have discussed the pros and cons of extending RTE to pre-school and secondary education. There are a number of implications and the issue will be taken up in the CABE meeting,” said Mahendra Nath Pandey, MoS, HRD (higher education).A committee of CABE on Extension of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 to Pre-School Education and Secondary Education has held a meeting recently and is likely to submit a report in the coming days.

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 17, 2016Upcoming varsities to be free from govt monitoring in 15 yrsPrakash Kumar

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The upcoming 20 world class universities will completely become free from any government monitoring and review. 

According to the draft regulations formulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for setting up of the proposed higher educational institutions, once these universities get into the list of top hundred institutions in international ranking of repute for two consecutive years or complete fifteen years from their establishment, whichever is earlier, they would then be liable for making self-disclosures about their functioning, fee structures and other policies, based on their internal policy.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed the establishment of 10 world class universities/institutions each in public and private sector under a distinct category of the deemed-to-be university.

“The monitoring and review shall continue till the World Class Institution Deemed to be University gets into top one hundred in a world ranking of repute for two consecutive years or till fifteen years, whichever is earlier,” the draft UGC regulations stipulate.

While 10 of these varsities will be established by giving world class deemed-to-be university/institution tag to the best of the higher educational institutions run by the government, private sector players will get an opportunity to apply for setting up the remaining 10 universities as not-for profit institutions, subject to other conditions.

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ELECTIONS

PIONEER, OCT 18, 2016EC ANNOUNCES DATES FOR UPCOMING BYPOLLS

The Election commission on Monday announced bypolls to four Lok Sabha and eight Assembly seats to be held on November 19. The counting of votes will be on November 22.

The commission issued a Press release stating that bypolls to Parliamentary constituencies of Lakhimpur (Assam), Shahdol (Madhya Pradesh) and Cooch Behar and Tamluk (West Bengal) will be held along with bypolls to eight Assembly seats in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Puducherry.

The Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after Sarbananda Sonowal resigned in May and took over as Chief Minister of the State. Bypoll to Shahdol constituency was on account of demise of BJP MP Dalpat Singh Paraste.

The Cooch Behar constituency fell vacant after Renuka Sinha, a Member of Parliament from Trinamool Congress since 2014 died recently.

The bypoll to Tamluk Lok Sabha seat was necessitated after TMC MP Suvendu Adhikari won the West Bengal Assembly election from Nandigram seat and quit his MP post to join as a Minister in the State.

On the other hand, by-election to the Baithalangso Assembly constituency in Assam became necessary after Mansing Rongpi, who had won from the constituency as a Congress candidate in the last elections, resigned from his seat in July and joined BJP.

EC has also announced elections to two Tamil Nadu Assembly constituencies -- Aravakurichi and Thanjavur -- cancelled by it in May following evidence of money being used to influence voters. These elections will also be held on November 19.

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EMPLOYMENT

TRIBUNE, OCT 19, 2016Cabinet hikes unemployment allowance

Beneficiaries to get same allowance irrespective of gender | Postgraduates to get up to 100 hrs of assignment

The Haryana Government today decided to implement its pre-poll promise of giving unemployment allowance and honorarium under the “Educated Youth Allowance and Honorarium Scheme, 2016” from November 1, the 51st Haryana Day.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet that met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here. The existing unemployment allowance scheme will be discontinued from this month.

The new scheme will have two components — unemployment allowance and honorarium. To maintain gender equality, all beneficiaries will be disbursed unemployment allowance at the same rate on the basis of their educational qualification.

The amended rate of monthly allowance for Class XII passouts or equivalent will be Rs900; for graduates or equivalent, Rs1,500; and for postgraduates or equivalent, Rs3,000.

From November 1, the honorarium will be given only to postgraduate applicants. Subsequently, it will be given to other categories of applicants availing the allowance.

The existing conditions of annual family income of an applicant up to Rs50,000, residential or commercial property worth less than Rs10 lakh and agriculture land up to 2 hectares has been replaced with only one condition — the annual family income of applicant shall not exceed Rs3 lakh from all sources.

As part of honorarium component, the eligible postgraduate unemployed youth will be paid an additional amount as honorarium up to Rs6,000 a month for up to 100 hours of honorary assignment in a month in several departments, boards, corporations, registered societies under the government.

Also, there will be a provision for assignments in private companies as per their requirement with the assistance of the Department of Industries and Commerce.

Applicants, for whom the honorary assignments are yet to be arranged, will be provided skill training.

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The government decided to recruit 955 retired persons of paramilitary forces and ex-constables of disbanded Haryana State Industrial Security Forces (HSISF) to fill seats. They will be recruited in the Auxiliary Force, mainly consisting of ex-servicemen, as Special Police Officers (SPOs) in the Haryana Police.

It was also decided in-principle that Class IV employees would also be absorbed on such posts. The retired personnel of paramilitary and ex-constables of HSISF would be appointed as SPO subject to the condition ex-employees of paramilitary forces are to be preferred over the HSISF’s.

A draft of the Haryana Law Officers (Engagement) Rules, 2016, was approved.

ASIAN AGE, OCT 17, 2016Seven million jobs to be lost: Study

The jobs of small people like farmers, petty retail vendors, contract labourers and construction workers have been disappearing at the rate of 550 jobs a day in the last four years and if this trend continues, employment would shrink by 7 million by 2050 in the country, said Delhi-based civil society group Prahar.The World Bank has also said “India needs to go back to the basics and protect sectors like farming, unorganised retail, micro and small enterprises which contribute to 99 per cent of current livelihoods in the country.”

Pointing out that the labour intensity of SMEs is four times higher than that of large firms it further observed that the multinationals are particularly capitalistic and their investment commitments for the next five years of $225 million would translate into creation of only 6 million jobs, it said. It suggested that these sectors need support from the government not regulation, adding “India needs smart villages and not smart cities in the 21st century.”Quoting data released by the Labour Bureau, the Prahar study said India created only 1.35 lakh jobs in 2015.

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IDENTITY

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 17, 2016Govt to keep Aadhaar records for 7 yrs, prompts fears of surveillanceAloke Tikku

 |  The government will keep a record of all the services and benefits availed using the Aadhaar number for seven years, say new rules, prompting fears that the database could be used for surveillance.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues the 12-digit biometric identity to all Indian residents, will be required to preserve its record of verification of an Aadhaar number for the duration.

“This is an unprecedented centralised data retention provision,” said Sunil Abraham, director of the Bengaluru-based think tank, Centre for Internet and Society.

UIDAI chief executive officer ABP Pandey said the concerns were exaggerated. The agency was keeping records in case a dispute arose over a transaction.

The information will be retained online for two years and another five years in the offline archives, say the rules notified in September.

Users will be able to check the records but only for two years.

This restriction won’t apply to security agencies. Pandey, however, said the records would not be available to them without a district judge’s permission.

But, Hindustan Times found that the rules allow designated joint secretary-level officers at the Centre to order access to information on the grounds of national security.“Once Aadhaar becomes mandatory for all services, it can be used by benign and malignant actors to conduct a 360-degree surveillance on any individual,” Abraham said.

This is how the system, which will need millions of fingerprint-reading machines, works.

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Every time a person fingerprints and quotes the Aadhaar number, the agency concerned sends the data to UIDAI to crosscheck the particulars.

The UIDAI authenticates about five million Aadhaar numbers, which are quoted to avail LPG subsidy, cheap ration and even passport, a day against a capacity to verify 100 million requests daily.

“You can think of it as Natgrid Plus,” Abraham said, a reference to the National Intelligence Grid being built by the government.

A one-stop database for counter-terrorism agencies, Natgrid will collate information real time from databases of various agencies such as bank, rail and airline networks.

“…we do not record the purpose for which an authentication request was received but only the details of the agency that sent it,” UIDAI’s Pandey said.

But seven years is a long time. Only a select category of government files are kept for longer than five years.

Asked about two-year deadline for users, Pandey said it would have been a logistic nightmare to let people access the records once the information was offline.

The Supreme Court has a ruled that Aadhaar is not a must for availing welfare schemes and is to decide if collecting biometric data for the 12-digit number infringed an individual’s privacy.

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

TELEGRAPH, OCT 19, 2016Then and now- How India-China relations changed between 1994 and 2016

DiplomacyK.P. Nayar

"It does not have to be that way." Those eight words of a chorus line made memorable by John Edwards, the vice presidential running mate during John Kerry's unsuccessful American presidential bid in 2004, are applicable to the just concluded Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa summit in Goa.

It was not that way, as Edwards would convincingly put it in a very different setting, that New Delhi conducted its neighbourhood diplomacy or, for that matter, dealt with Moscow 20 or 25 years ago when the diplomatic challenges that this country faced were no different from what Narendra Modi faces today. India was a far less confident country then, in the early to mid-1990s, than it is today. To the eternal shame of most Indians who lived through that period and would like to forget those tough years, the country's gold reserves had been pawned, not just on paper, but the gold was physically transported to Switzerland, ordered by none other than then finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, who has now turned into a holier-than-thou critic of the current prime minister.

The United States of America was piling pressure on India on every front. Human rights abuses were alleged in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast; child labour fuelled considerable Indian exports especially items like carpets and handicrafts; there were trade reprisals against New Delhi under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 initiated by the much-reviled Carla Hills, the then American trade representative; there was India's nuclear ambiguity and its unwillingness to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty... the list was long and overwhelming.

At last, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington had found a chance to punish New Delhi. In Washington's view, New Delhi had betrayed the global community of democracies or the so-called free world with its friendship with the "evil" Soviet empire. That friendship was seen in the West - in spite of India's non-alignment - as an alliance. In any case, the Americans had described non-alignment as "immoral".

Successive prime ministers had stood up to indignantly righteous Americans from John Foster Dulles to Richard Nixon the way few third-world leaders had done. The turning point came when the US formally questioned the validity of the instrument of accession by Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union signed by Maharaja Hari Singh on October 26, 1947. I recall with unease the shock with which the rejection of the instrument of accession by the first US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Robin Raphel, was received in New Delhi at every level. "We view Kashmir as a disputed territory. We do not recognize that instrument of accession as meaning that Kashmir is forevermore an integral part of India. And there are many issues at play in that time frame, as we all here know," were the exact words that Raphel used in

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a conversation with the Indian press corps in Washington on October 29, 1993.

It is not unreasonable to conclude that if an American official were to say something similar today, at least some Indian television channels will not report such a US statement because it would be deemed anti-national. Blessed is the cat that drinks milk with its eyes closed in the belief that no one can then see what the animal is up to on the sly. In the days that followed, the then Chinese ambassador in New Delhi sought a meeting with a senior official in the ministry of external affairs dealing with China. When the appointment was granted, the ambassador had an incredible message to convey from Beijing. China, he told the Indian official, was a party to the Kashmir dispute.

Legally, such a position was inadmissible. But in Realpolitik it was a statement of fact because China was in de facto possession of territory of pre-Partition Kashmir, which Pakistan had gifted to Beijing under a bilateral agreement in 1963. The ambassador then told the Indian official that Beijing realized that Washington was conspiring to prise Kashmir out of India. To the best of my recollection, he said that it was with the aim of creating an independent Kashmir. The envoy did not say it in so many words but the unstated message was that an independent Kashmir would have been for Washington what it would now like Ukraine to be vis-à-vis Russia.

An independent Kashmir is geographically an invaluable listening post into China and strategically a launching pad for missiles and even nuclear warheads that can be aimed at the heart of the People's Republic. No one will say it publicly any more in these days when Modi is on back-slapping terms with "Barack". But within India's intelligence community and among the country's cerebral diplomats, there is still deep suspicion that one of the options in the Central Intelligence Agency files in the spy outfit's Langley headquarters is strategic use of Kashmir in the event of its independence from India and Pakistan. After all, that is how all super-powers retain and expand their hold over the world.

The ambassador made it plain, and without the slightest shadow of doubt, that China stood shoulder to shoulder with India against American pressures at a time when this country was weak and vulnerable. Although China's claim that it was a party to the Kashmir dispute was legally inadmissible from an Indian point of view, I recall the immense relief among those in the government - their number was, of course, very few - who were briefed about this episode at that time. How differently things were done in those days! As John Edwards would say, "it does not have to be" the way things are done nowadays. As a nation, Indians must reflect why and how things have changed, and certainly not for the better in the way New Delhi and Beijing engage each other. Nearly a year passed after the Chinese envoy's call on South Block and another shock occurrence made those at the top of the Indian government sit up. India, which had midwifed Nepal's transition from the panchayat era to constitutional monarchy, understandably got the jitters when, belying expectations of a continued and cosy relationship with the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) came to power in Kathmandu.

On November 30, 1994, Man Mohan Adhikari was sworn in as prime minister of a CPN(UML) government. India worried that Adhikari would take Nepal out of India's sphere of influence

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and make the world's only Hindu kingdom a partner of China. Of particular worry among India's intelligence agencies was Adhikari's record during the 1971 war for the liberation of Bangladesh. Adhikari, according to their accounts had described the war as an act of aggression by India against Pakistan.

P.V. Narasimha Rao, who was prime minister both during the episode involving Robin Raphel and at the time when Adhikari was elected to head Nepal's government, had no hesitation in calling Harkishan Singh Surjeet to his 7 Race Course Road residence for top-secret talks on Nepal. Rao shared his worst fears about Nepal with Surjeet, who, in turn, readily sent an emissary from his Communist Party of India (Marxist) to meet Adhikari in Kathmandu. When the emissary returned from Kathmandu, Surjeet went back to Rao along with the emissary and conveyed Adhikari's assurance that nothing would change between Nepal and India as long as he was in charge. Indeed, very little changed during almost one year that the CPN(UML) remained in power.

Meanwhile, China got wind of the CPI(M) mission to Adhikari. Beijing's ambassador went to South Block and assured the ministry of external affairs point person dealing with the subject, an outstanding Sinologist trusted by all for his expertise, that China had no intention of rocking India's Nepal agenda. China did not, of course, do it out of altruism. Stability in Tibet is very much linked to ensuring that the Indian applecart in Nepal is not wilfully upset from the outside. But 2016 is not 1994, and India's long-standing Tibet policy is undergoing a rethink within the ruling party, if not in the government.

It does not have to be that way, said John Edwards, and he was lamenting the state of affairs in his country. It is tempting to speculate what would have happened if Modi had called Sitaram Yechury to his residence and taken the CPI(M) leader into confidence about his concerns on China well before the BRICS summit - in fact, well before this government's relations with China slipped into an uncertain phase.

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JUDICIARY

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 17, 2016For quality judiciaryR D Sharma

The recruitment of judges right from the entry level will be handled by an impartial agency, thereby ensuring fair selection.

It is indeed good that the Narendra Modi government is contemplating to revive the proposal of constituting an All-India Judicial Service (AIJS) for the recruitment of district and subordinate judges in lower judiciary. In fact, the setting up of such a service on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) has been hanging fire for a long time. 

While most of the government departments have all-India service recruits selected after they have passed the all-India competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) every year, the judiciary is the only set-up that does not have a national level selection process of its own to attract the best possible talent.

The idea of having an AIJS is not new. The chief justices’ conference in 1961, 1963 and 1965 had favoured its creation. The Law Commission, too, has thrice – in its 1st, 8th and 116th reports – called for such a body. 

The Supreme Court, first time in its 1991 judgment and second in the all-India judges case (1992), had endorsed the proposal. In its 15th report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice recommended for its establishment as well and directed the Union Law Ministry to take immediate steps in this direction. The first National Judicial Pay Commission and the National Advisory Council to the Centre have also supported the idea. 

Over and above, Article 312 of the Constitution explicitly provides for the creation of a national level judicial service.  But despite all this, mere opposition by some state governments and high courts to the reform gave a lame excuse to successive governments at the Centre to sleep over the matter. In the absence of such a mechanism, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the required judge strength at all levels of courts. For example, against the overall sanctioned strength of 21,612 judges in the country’s courts, only 16,698 are working. There are about 4,432 vacancies in subordinate courts, though the sanctioned strength has gone up to 20,502. It is needless to say that the country’s 24 high courts with a sanctioned strength of 1,079 judges are simply managing with 601, and thus account for 478 vacant positions. 

Similarly, the Supreme Court has only 27 judges instead of 31 including the chief justice, following the retirement of four judges. And whether resultant vacancies in the higher/subordinate judiciary will be filled soon to maintain the full strength is anybody’s guess.

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Consequently, the overburdened available judges are unable to clear the huge backlog of cases, leave alone handle new ones.

If established without delay, the scheme will have its own distinct merits. Primarily, the recruitment of judges right from the entry level will be handled by an independent and impartial agency like the UPSC through an open competition, thereby ensuring fair selection of incumbents. It would naturally help attract bright and capable young law graduates to the judiciary, who otherwise after law graduation prefer immediate remunerative employment in the government or the private sector. 

For the subordinate judicial officers, it would ensure equitable service conditions besides providing them a wider field to probe their mettle. As of now, the subordinate judges are recruited from a pool of lawyers who, despite being not so competent, eventually become judges in higher courts, as established lawyers are rarely willing to give up their lucrative practice to join the bench.

In this scheme, the measure of uniformity in standards for selection will improve the quality of personnel in different high courts, as about one-third of judges come there on promotion from subordinate courts. Similarly, judges of the Supreme Court are drawn from the respective high courts. 

In this process, only persons of proven competence will preside over the benches of superior courts, thereby minimising the scope of partiality, arbitrariness and aberrations in judicial selection. Simultaneously, the quality of dispensation of justice will also improve right from the top to the bottom, as it essentially depends upon the quality of judges appointed to man the law courts.

Low-cost propositionApart from serving the noble cause of national integration in a limited sense, the reform should help considerably in toning up the judicial administration by throwing open the appointments to talented persons from across the country. 

In addition, the objective of introducing an outside element in high court ben-ches can be achieved better and more smoothly because a member of an all-India judicial service will have no mental block about interstate transfers. It will enrich their experience and make them better judges. At present, judges of subordinate judiciary remain only in one state where they are appointed to work.

The creation of an AIJS is a low-cost proposition and should not pose any financial problem to the government in introducing this long overdue laudable reform. The amount collected as court fees, at least, ought to be spent for this purpose instead of being utilised as a source of general revenue for the states.  

According to an agency report, figures from the Ministry of Law and Justice show that the income generated from court fees is more than the expenditure incurred on the administration of justice by the government.  

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The AIJS is expected to bring in much-needed uniformity in the selection and service conditions of judges who have been getting the raw deal in subordinate judiciary which, though an important wing of our judicial system, is undeniably in an alarmingly bad state. 

Whether it is a question of establishing more courts, filling of vacancies or providing basic amenities to judges, the track record of most state governments has been far from satisfactory. Considering all this, the long-felt need for such a service has increased several fold and its formation should not brook any further delay.

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LABOURTELEGRAPG, OCT 20, 2016Workers united- The growing resistance against globalization

Prabhat Patnaik

All across the world, from the United States of America to Britain to Europe to China, a huge resistance is building up against globalization. True, this resistance is not self-consciously aimed against globalization per se; in different countries it focuses on different issues. But since each of these issues arises as a fallout of globalization, not to see the interconnectedness of this resistance, as one that essentially and implicitly targets globalization, is to miss the wood for the trees.

What is also remarkable is that this resistance, contrary to what one might expect from the fact that its source lies everywhere in the sense of deprivation experienced by the working people, is nowhere being led by the Left. Not that the Left did not get a chance to lead this resistance in some countries, but where it did, it forfeited that chance. In Greece, for example, where the people had elected a Left-wing Syriza government to fight the harsh "austerity" measures imposed by the country's creditors, that government ultimately caved in to the creditors' demands and accepted austerity. Likewise, in the US, the self-styled "socialist" Bernie Sanders, who had drawn wide support during his campaign for presidential candidacy for taking a bold stand against Wall Street, ultimately withdrew from the contest. No doubt there were weighty reasons in each case for why the Left caved in. But the fact remains that it did cave in, and in the process belied the hopes of large numbers of people.

Indeed, the only place today where the resistance to policies associated with the era of globalization is being led by the Left is China. A strong neo-Maoist movement has emerged there. It is opposing the economic policies of the ruling Communist Party that have bred large income inequalities in that society. So strong is the current nostalgia among the Chinese people for the Maoist era, notwithstanding the extraordinarily high rates of GDP growth that China is supposed to have had since then, that the neo-Maoists have a good chance, according to a report in The Financial Times (October 2), of beating the ruling Communist Party at the polls if fair elections were to be held today. Whatever be the truth in this claim, there is no gainsaying that the neo-Maoists are a far stronger opposition to the ruling dispensation in today's China than the "pro-democracy movement", which has traditionally played this role.

The reason for the Left's absence from this resistance over much of the globe lies in the somewhat ambivalent attitude it has towards globalization. In Europe this ambivalence springs from the fact that after two devastating World Wars fought in that continent in the name of "nationalism", this term itself has become a dirty word for the Left. Large segments of it, therefore, remain avid supporters of the European Union project even though the EU is dominated by German finance capital and the workers in the region have suffered not just relative impoverishment, but, in some cases, even absolute impoverishment because of this domination.

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True, the workers there have attributed their impoverishment to the EU policy of free migration rather than to anything else, so that their resistance has often got tinged with an element of racism. But they have, it must be said, hardly been provided with any alternative ideas or agenda by the Left. Not surprisingly, they have got influenced by the ideas fed to them by the Right, which has attached itself to the resistance against globalization. It is the Left's implicit, if not explicit, commitment to globalization, of which the EU project is an integral part, and its hostility to any delinking from this project, which has allowed the Right to cash in on the situation. Such a delinking is a necessary condition for activating the State to intervene in the interest of the workers; but the Left's fear has been that any such delinking would revive nationalism.

If the workers were simply being racist or anti-immigrant per se, then the Left's hostility to their resistance could be understandable. But since their anti-immigrant stance springs from a refracted perception of the cause of their impoverishment, an impoverishment which itself, however, is a very genuine phenomenon, the Left's refusal to join their resistance becomes difficult to defend. It amounts to privileging sheer moral purity over meaningful political praxis. In fact, the Left's moral compunctions about joining the resistance of the working people becomes a self-justifying move. It pushes the working people closer to the ideology of the Right and hence retrospectively justifies the distance kept by the Left from their resistance on moral grounds.

In third-world countries, on the other hand, the Left's ambivalence towards globalization springs not so much from any hostility towards nationalism as from two other factors: one is a certain interpretation of Marxism that identifies it with "productionism", a view holding that the development of productive forces must always be supported and which criticizes capitalism mainly on the ground that it ceases to develop the productive forces at a certain stage of its development. Globalization, in this view, since it boosts the development of the productive forces (of which the rapid GDP growth observed in many countries is taken to be a symptom), constitutes a progressive phenomenon that should not be opposed.

The second factor behind the Left's ambivalence towards globalization is the weight of the middle class in many of these third-world countries. This middle class, which has done well from globalization, is a strong votary of it, and the Left is keen to win its support. The economist, Branko Milanovic, has just published a book giving the results of his research on changes in income distribution in the world economy over the period, 1988-2008. He shows that, apart from the top 1 per cent of the world's population, the other main beneficiaries of globalization have been the middle classes in countries like India and China. On the other side, the working classes in the advanced countries have been the worst hit among all the segments of the world's population during these years, while the working people within the third world have seen rather modest gains.

While Milanovic's conclusion that there has even been a modest increase in the incomes of third-world working masses is questionable (among other things, it must also be remembered that percentage increases get magnified when one starts from a low base), what he says about the economic gains of the middle classes in several third-world countries is significant. The middle classes making these gains not only form large constituencies in their respective

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countries, but they also have a disproportionately large influence on public opinion because of their strong presence in the media. They typically use that influence to push for an agenda of what they call "development", which is a euphemism for the promotion of globalization and its associated neo-liberal policies. And the Left is not immune to this ideology of development, which benefits the middle classes, even though its flip side is the displacement of peasants and petty producers, a swelling of what Marx had called the reserve army of labour, and a general impoverishment of the working people. The fact that in spite of years of such development India still ranks 22nd from the bottom in the World Hunger Index for 2014 should clearly indicate the vacuity of the concept of development that is being promoted this way.

There is, however, one important difference between the advanced countries and countries like India. Unlike in the advanced countries, where the Right has got itself involved in the resistance of the working people against globalization (putting in the process a right-wing imprint on that resistance), the Right in countries like India enthusiastically promotes globalization and unabashedly lays claim to being the force closest to the corporate-financial magnates. The Narendra Modi government in India, for instance, prides itself upon being closer to the corporate bigwigs than any previous government. It proclaims this as part of its "Make in India" campaign. The prospect of the Right hijacking people's anger against globalization simply does not exist in India, the way it does in the advanced countries. This, therefore, allows time to the Left to overcome its ambivalence towards globalization and take its place in the resistance movement. But, for that it has to prevent itself from being steamrolled by middle-class opinion.

Of course, with the world capitalist crisis now spreading to countries like India and China, even the middle classes in these countries, which had hitherto been beneficiaries of globalization may start feeling the pinch and stop being its votaries. But no matter whether that happens or not, the tide is beginning to turn against globalization through the growing resistance of the working people everywhere.

The author is Professor Emeritus, Centre for Economic Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

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LAW

HINDU, OCT 19, 2016Personal laws and the Constitution

The Centre’s categorical stand that personal laws should be in conformity with the Constitution will be of immense assistance to the Supreme Court in determining the validity of practices such as triple talaq and polygamy. By arguing that such practices impact adversely on the right of women to a life of dignity, the Centre has raised the question whether constitutional protection given to religious practices should extend even to those that are not in compliance with fundamental rights. The distinction between practices essential or integral to a particular religion, which are protected under Article 25, a provision that seeks to preserve the freedom to practise and propagate any religion, and those that go against the concepts of equality and dignity, which are fundamental rights, is something that the court will have to carefully evaluate while adjudicating the validity of the Muslim practices under challenge. From the point of view of the fundamental rights of those affected, mostly women, there is a strong case for these practices to be invalidated. The idea that personal laws of religions should be beyond the scope of judicial review, and that they are not subject to the Constitution, is inherently abhorrent. The affidavit in which the All India Muslim Personal Law Board sought to defend triple talaq and polygamy is but an execrable summary of the patriarchal notions entrenched in conservative sections of society.

This is not the first time that aspects of Muslim personal law have come up for judicial adjudication. On triple talaq, courts have adopted the view that Islam does not sanction divorce without reason or any attempt at reconciliation, and that talaq would not be valid unless some conditions are fulfilled. There are judgments that say the presence of witnesses during the pronouncement of talaq, sound reasons for the husband to seek a divorce and some proof that an attempt was made for conciliation are conditions precedent for upholding a divorce. The present petition before the Supreme Court seeks a categorical ruling that talaq-e-bidat — an irrevocable form of triple talaq that is permitted but considered undesirable in Islam — is unconstitutional. There are many who contend that instant divorce is not allowed, and that the triple talaq has to be spread over a specified time period, during which there are two opportunities to revoke it. Only the articulation of the third makes it irrevocable. It should be possible for the court to test these practices for compliance with the Constitution.

STATESMAN, OCT 18, 2016Triple talaq

Govind Bhattacharjee

'Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power'. - John SteinbeckThat the fear of loss of power may not only corrupt one’s morality and judgement, but also blur the distinction between sanity and insanity in the minds of otherwise normal and distinguished individuals was in ample evidence in the way the All India Muslim Personal Law Board

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(AIMPLB) had defended the practice of triple talaq in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court last month, by stating that women were lesser mortals than men. In response to a petition challenging polygamy and triple talaq by a Muslim woman named Shayara Bano and by some Muslim women’s organisations urging the apex court to declare triple talaq and polygamy unconstitutional, they came up with this gem, “Shariah grants right to divorce to husbands because men have greater power of decision making. They are more likely to control emotions and not take hasty decisions.”

If it were not for the seriousness of the matter, one would dismiss this as a joke, albeit one in extremely poor taste. But the complete abandonment of reason by these powerful men who constitute the AIMPLB and supported by the mullahs, the gatekeepers to Allah’s kingdom, rule the Muslim society and its womenfolk, did not cease here. While asserting that the practice of triple talaq as part of Islam was protected by the fundamental right to religion that was beyond the adjudication of the Supreme Court, the AIMPLB also vigorously defended polygamy, which allows a Muslim man to have four wives, as being necessary to ‘curb illicit sex’ and to ‘protect women’. “Concern for women lies at the core of the provision for polygamy”, they declared in their compassion for women. In saying “polygamy meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, it redefined morality. In avowing that “an unlawful mistress is more harmful for the social fabric than a lawful second wife”, it appropriated unto itself the wisdom and ultimate authority to decide what is good and bad for the Muslim society.

These learned gentlemen, who reek of a misogynist medieval mindset that is completely out of sync with the values and beliefs of a modern society, need to be shown their place in secular and democratic India ruled not by Shariah but by the Constitution. I am not sure if in echoing these sentiments they are truthfully reflecting the position of their scripture either. As Karen Armstrong says in his authoritative Islam - A Short History, “The Quran gave women rights of inheritance and divorce centuries before western women were accorded this status. There is nothing in the Quran that requires the veiling of all women... These customs were adopted some three or four generations after the Prophet’s death. The Quran makes men and women partners before God, with identical duties and responsibilities.”

The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, allows Indian Muslims to be governed by the Shariat. The absence of codification has legally allowed community leaders to hold the practices as sacrosanct, thereby subjecting Muslim women in India to arbitrary triple talaqs by weird methods - through postcards, telegrams, emails or SMS - which were always upheld by the mullahs. Similarly the argument of AIMPLB that the purpose of polygamy is to

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prevent women from leading a spinster’s life is bizarre, given the sex ratio of 951 females per 1,000 males among Indian Muslims.Personal laws of Muslims, like the Hindus, flowed from patriarchy, misogyny and subordination of the marginalised sections of society. These were put in place to protect entrenched interests when religion lost its vitality and intellectual appeal and gave way to meaningless rituals. These laws have to be reformed to meet the changing dynamics of an evolving and vibrant society. Hindu society has done so to empower their women, though much more remains to be done, and so has many Muslim societies. Triple talaq has been banned in more than 20 Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Iran. Polygamy is similarly prohibited in many Muslim countries like Turkey, Azerbaijan or Tunisia. The ethos of a democratic society is clearly against theocratic practices the AIMPLB would like to enforce for the Indian Muslims.

Unfortunately not many prominent Muslim voices have been heard against these abhorrent practices in India, the reasons for which can only be the fear of retaliation - which does not exclude physical violence - by violent orthodox elements within the community that blindly follow the dictates of its powerful clergy. That clergy, lacking in modern liberal education, derives their power from the poverty, ignorance, and the economic and educational backwardness of large sections of the community. Governments in the past had always shied away from taking on this clergy, for fear of losing Muslim votes and left the hapless Muslim women to the whims of their mullahs. The fact that some Muslim women have now approached the judiciary proves a weakening of their overwhelming hold, which is why they are reacting so loudly... and so miserably.

In the Shah Bano case (1985), when the Supreme Court had ruled that a divorced Muslim woman was entitled to fair maintenance far above what was granted under the Muslim Personal Law, the same AIMPLB and the mullahs had threatened that the judgment was tantamount to interference in their religion and blackmailed the Rajiv Gandhi government into capitulation. They forced it to enact the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, that annulled the judgment. An opportunity that could have been a milestone in the Muslim women’s search for justice was thus surrendered for petty vote-bank considerations. India did not have a dearth of liberal Muslim intellectuals even then, but not many voices of protest were heard against the injustice perpetrated to Muslim women. The Government meekly withdrew and abdicated its responsibility to uphold the Constitutional right to equality.

This time, however, the Government has put up a spirited defence, and dissociated the issue from that of the Uniform Civil Code. In its response to the affidavit, it clearly stated its position that “gender equality and the dignity of women are not negotiable”. If Islamic states could reform Muslim personal laws, these certainly could not be considered an integral part of the practice of

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Islam. Arguing that “No undesirable practice can be elevated to the status of an essential religious practice,” it said, “any practice that leaves women socially, financially or emotionally vulnerable or subject to the whims and caprice of menfolk is incompatible with the letter and spirit of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution”. Further, Muslim women, merely by virtue of their religion, cannot be relegated to a status more vulnerable than women belonging to other religious faiths.

But the fundamental question is whether in a secular democracy, religion alone can be a reason to deny the equal status and dignity available to women under the Constitution. Article 25 guarantees all citizens the right to practice and profess a religion of their choice. But liberties guaranteed in the Constitution are not absolute, and the right to freedom of religion does not supersede other fundamental rights. Like all fundamental rights in our Constitution, religious freedom too is subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by the State. A secular nation is under no obligation to respect the norms or commandments of any religion, just as it does not have the liberty to violate such norms without reason. Further, Article 13 stipulates that any law that impinges upon fundamental rights shall be void, and the practices of triple talaq and polygamy should therefore be declared illegal, since they violate the fundamental right to equality.

Expectedly, the AIMPLB and the mullahs from Darul Uloom Deoband, Barelvi and and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind are up in arms against the Centre’s position which will render them virtually powerless. In the coming days, they can be expected to work out a religious hysteria to retain their coercive power and vice-like grip over the community. India has one billion Hindus and 180 million Muslims who, save a few hard-core Hindutvawallas, the mullahs and of course the AIMPLB members, believe in the idea of a secular, liberal and progressive India in which religion plays no role except for matters of personal faith and worship. Hopefully, they will together counter any move to convert this country into a theocracy. Hopefully they will redeem themselves by not letting the mistake of 1986 to be repeated. Mullahs may hear this message loud and clear.

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LIBRARIESTRIBUNE, OCT 22, 2016Books are not for banning or burningKarthik Venkatesh

Burning a library down is the the ultimate act of banning, as history proves. In the last two decades, the scene has shifted from banning books to organisations, political parties and business houses literally terrorising publishers, libraries and universities into ensuring that certain books became unavailable or were not published.

Books on (F)ire: Gurcharan Singh Babbar, who had a written book on 1984 riots which was banned in 1998, burns copies of the book along with his supporters during a demonstration at Jantar Mantar. He was protesting against delayed justice due to pending cases of 1984 anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui.

In 1981, the Jaffna library, a historic location that contained close to a 100,000 books and many rare Tamil manuscripts was burned down. It became one of the more unfortunate victims of the Sinhala-Tamil conflict that tore Sri Lanka apart over the next three decades. 

Burning a library down is perhaps the ultimate act of banning. Why ban when you can burn and destroy an entire array of cultural knowledge? In history, the only comparable such action was the burning of the Alexandria library, probably by Julius Caesar, perhaps inadvertently, in 48 BC. But through the centuries, monarchs, governments and religious powers have preferred banning to burning.  

Among the more versatile "banners" has been the Catholic Church. What the Vatican essentially does is that it forbids Catholics from reading or owning certain books, threatening excommunication. The Vatican issued a list of banned books called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum as early as 1559. Among the books it banned in that first list were works by the Protestant reformers, Martin Luther and John Calvin. It also forbade the Bible in languages other than Latin and turned its ire on the Quran and the Talmud as well. 

As time passed, it was Catholic in its zest for banning books and banned a whole lot of other books too. It banned books by philosophers like Rene Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill. Among the novelists it shut its doors on were Honore de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Alberto Moravia, Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. It

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was none too happy with Casanova's memoirs either and chose to blacklist him too. Even Uncle Tom's Cabin wasn't spared. 

But when one comes to know that it didn't ban either Karl Marx or Charles Darwin, both of whose works didn't exactly help the Catholic faith, one wonders what the guys who did the banning were actually thinking. And surprise, surprise, they didn't ban Mein Kampf either. The Vatican abandoned the practice of listing prohibited books in 1966. In an unrelated matter, the number of church-goers has been dropping steadily ever since. But, it appears facile to suggest that these two events are even remotely related. 

While totalitarian regimes like Hitler's Germany, the former USSR, China and others have banned books in large numbers, the real surprise is that even supposedly democratic regimes haven't been too far behind in this respect either.  

The first book to be banned in the USA was Thomas Morton's New English Canaan, published in 1637. The book's crime: it portrayed the Native Americans in more than sympathetic terms and satirised the Puritans, who had begun to flock to the East Coast of the USA in large numbers since the Mayflower had brought the first batch of them from England in 1620. Among the other books that Americans have banned at various times are: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Voltaire's Candide, Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and in the land of Playboy and Penthouse, D H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and Women in Love.  In the last 50 years, J D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has got many-a-conservative god-fearing American's goat and has been ostracised by various school and public libraries. 

The UK government too has quite enjoyed itself when it came to clamping down on the printed word. Its banning of Lady Chatterley's Lover, of course, resulted in a landmark court case in 1960, a full 32 years after the book had first been banned in 1928. The case was a clash between the old world and the new, between the working class and the upper class, which clung to notions of Victorian morality even as the world was changing irrevocably. Lady Chatterley was "acquitted" and 3.3 million copies of the book were sold in the period that followed the lifting of the ban.

 Among the other books that the UK has banned at one time or the other were James Joyce's Ulysses and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. MI5spymaster Peter Wright's memoirs Spycatcher was banned by the Thatcher government in the late 1980s for ostensibly comprising covert operations. 

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The most famous case of a book being banned in India was The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie in 1988. India was the first country to ban the book and soon, Rushdie was the target of a witch-hunt with a fatwa being issued against him by none other than Ayatollah Khomeini. Independent India has banned many other books too. The Ramayana by Aubrey Menen, the Irish-Indian writer was banned in 1956 because of its deviation from the original text. The clout of the Ambanis ensured that The Polyester Prince by Hamish McDonald which was an unofficial biography of Dhirubhai Ambani was banned in 1988. It still remains unavailable in India.

In the last two decades, the scene has shifted from banning books to organisations, political parties and business houses literally terrorising publishers, libraries and universities into ensuring that certain books became unavailable or were not published. A K Ramanujam's essay Three Hundred Ramayanas and Wendy Doniger's The Hindus are the most famous recent victims. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry was removed from the syllabus of the Bombay University because of objections from the Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena for some time did not allow the sale of Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh because a character in it resembled Bal Thackeray. Javier Moro's The Red Sari published in Spanish in 2008 remained unavailable in India till 2015, because its subject was Sonia Gandhi. Tamal Bandyopadyay's Sahara: The Untold Story was the target of a defamation suit till an out-of-court settlement was reached in April 2014. 

While bans are usually on grounds of obscenity, defamation or other equally "weighty" reasons, the stated reasons for banning some books is cause for amusement. Black Beauty was banned in apartheid South Africa because the authorities thought "black" and "beauty" did not go together. George Orwell's Animal Farm was banned in the UAE in 2002 because it's depiction of talking pigs was deemed offensive. Alice in Wonderland was banned in 1931 in China because the governor of Hunan province thought animals should never use the human language and animals and humans should not be put on the same level. 

The Jaffna story has something of a happy ending though. It has been re-established and has close to 30,000 books in its collection now. A far cry from what it lost in 1981, but still a source of some solace. 

When it comes to banning and burning, the German writer Heinrich Heine's words ring true: Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people. 

The writer, an educationist, is a Chennai-based Consulting Editor with Westland Books.TELEGRAPH, OCT 18, 2016LIBRARY WITH OCEAN OF OPPORTUNITY

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Samhita chakraborty

In a village two hours out of Calcutta stands a three-storey white mansion built in the British colonial style. Inside, five-year-old Moumita Sikari is learning 'C' for 'CAT', which meansberal. Homemaker Kakoli Halder is reading up on children's tales because her daughter demands a story for every meal. "A mother is always in need of new stories," she laughs.

BCA student Biplab Halder is learning MS Word in Bengali, BEd student Labani Kayal is looking for a reference book and 19-year-old Sudeshna Haldar is taking her first tailoring exam.

This is Oceanic Library, a community library in Ullon village in South 24-Parganas, which has transformed the lives of over 15 villages in its vicinity. Named after the nearby Sunderbans delta, Oceanic Library is partnered by Vivekananda Sevakendra-O-Sishu Uddyan (VSSU), an organisation founded by micro-credit maverick Kapilananda Mondal, and supported by Read India.

Recognising Mondal's vision, in 2011 VSSU was awarded special consultative status by ECOSOC of the United Nations for community development, micro finance and education.

"I wanted that this area should have a place where students could come and read to supplement their formal education. I also wanted people to have a place where they can develop skills to improve their employability," Mondal told Metro while sharing his vision for Oceanic Library.

Started in 2008, this unique library was the first project of Read India, which is a part of Read Global. Read India builds community libraries across the country and helps local residents run them for a few years. The community has to become self-sufficient within a short time, managing the library and raising its own funds. So, while one library might rent out a part of its premises to a bank, another might start a fish farm or a buffalo dairy.

He had a business plan!

Learning about Read Global's partnership criteria, Mondal had a business plan ready when the Read Global team came visiting, which is what floored former American senator Omer L. Rains.

"I go all over the world, I've been to some 150 countries... I was the international chair of Read Global. And the reason I selected this place for the first Read India project was because of Mr Mondal's leadership qualities and his vision for the community. And he had a business plan! Usually we have to first explain what a business plan is and then help the communities develop one but when I came here, for the first time ever, I saw a business plan," recalled Rains.

"It was evident that they had been doing wonderful things for the community long before I came. They presented me with a model of a library building inspired by British colonial architecture. They didn't have an architect or a contractor but they said they would build this library if they had the funds. And I said, I believe you," said Rains, who was visiting the library

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with his family to celebrate his 75th birthday with Mondal and his team a few days before Durga Puja.

The Oceanic Library has rented out one of its floors to a BEd college, which makes it a perfect place for students like Labani.

"While I was doing my master's, the books and reference material I got from this library was very helpful. Now I am training to become a teacher in the BEd college so that I can find a job and fund my dream of doing a PhD in history," said the soft-spoken girl who walks for 30 minutes every day to reach the library.

Library is a safe place

For Sarmistha Halder, who is doing a computer training course here, the library is a "safe place". "Parents are always worried about the safety of girls, they don't want us to go out by ourselves. But they know this is a safe place, so they allow us to come here," said the resident of Daulatpur, which is about an hour by bus and auto from the library.

According to Kalpana Dasgupta, former librarian of the National Library and a founder-member of the Read India advisory board, creating a "safe space" for the women of the community is very important. "The library has to be a place where they feel safe, a place where they want to come, a place where families are comfortable sending their daughters and daughters-in-law. Apart from access to books and journals, they can enrol themselves in vocational courses like tailoring or handicrafts-making or computer training."

The library also runs a children's skill development centre, where they are taught with visual aids and have access to a selection of toys and games that help in cognitive development. There are also children's books.

Dasgupta said the children's collection needs to be updated. "Children do not take to old books. One has to provide them with new material on a regular basis," she told librarian Krishna Mondal.

Oceanic Library currently had 730 members. When Metro had last visited in 2009, a year after the library started, there were 35 members.

Schools had no books

Rains, who has served in the California Senate, said that when he first came here, he realised that people had no access to any books.

"The schools had no books apart from textbooks. Zero. I went to a school, built by the Brits in the 1830s. It was full of beautiful little girls. But no books. There were some dusty cabinets with a few magazines inside, locked up. I asked the teacher, 'Why are they locked?' And the

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answer was, 'Because the children might steal them.' I said we'd rather have a child so desperate to have something to read that she thinks of stealing it than have children who don't want books!"

Rains the Democrat tries to come to the library almost annually. "It makes me so happy to see that we are touching the lives of people, giving them a chance. I hope we are inspiring the children to remain here and develop the surrounding community, to prevent the migration to the big cities, which leads to overcrowding."

He credits Mondal with the success of the library. "This community is so lucky to have him. He is a true visionary. Mr Mondal truly walks in the shoes of Gandhi. He has lectured at many American universities - Harvard, Yale, MIT, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Purdue, to name just a few... and also at the UN," said Rains.

Geeta Malhotra, the director of Read India, cites Oceanic Library as a "success story". "We had provided funds to build the ground floor of the library, with just four rooms. Kapilananda Mondal and the people of the community raised enough funds through micro-credit to erect a three-storey building. And we have seen how the community has grown around the library. The local partners were able to carry forward the vision," said Malhotra.

But for Oceanic Library to continue its success journey, it needs continuous inputs. There is need for more computers because it's the most popular course. "Everyone wants to learn computers because it increases employability. We have 35 students at the moment, who come in batches. If we have more computers, many more students will be benefited," said librarian Krishna.

Oceanic Library is a role model because.... Tell [email protected]

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MASS MEDIA

ECONOMIC TIMES, OCT 20, 2016Pakistan to enforce complete ban on Indian TV content from Friday

ISLAMABAD: Amid IndoPak tension, Pakistan's media regulatory authority today decided to enforce a complete ban on Indian TV and radio contents from Friday and warned that the licences of those found guilty of violating the ban will be suspended. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) decided to ban airing of Indian content from October 21 at the request of the federal government, it said. "The ban will come into effect at 3 PM on October 21, and radio and television stations which violate the ban will have their licences suspended without a prior show cause notice," PEMRA said in a statement. The ban extends to all Indian content on cable and radio being aired in Pakistan. The authority also decided to cancel onesided rights given to Indian media by the government of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf in 2006. PEMRA has already decided to get tough with Indian contents after complaints that most of the local channels were using more than five per cent foreign contents as allowed by it. The regulator on August 31 said that strict action would be taken against the channels airing foreign content more than the prescribed limit and traders selling illegal DTH sets. The decision was implemented from October 16 as PEMRA launched crackdown on those channels using foreign contents illegally. Earlier in October, PEMRA granted its chairman Absar Alam final authority to revoke or suspend licences of companies illegally using Indian content. Tensions have ran high between India and Pakistan since the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri on September 18. Later, India said it carried out "surgical strikes" across LoC and destroyed terrorist launchpads on September 28. Pakistan has denied any surgical strikes took place, but said two of their soldiers were killed in crossborder firing by Indian Army.

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PARLIAMENTASIAN AGE, OCT 21, 2016PM Modi bans mobiles at Cabinet meetingsNitin Mahajan And Animesh Singh | 

In a move to prevent leakage of sensitive information on important policy matters and decisions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued a directive to his ministers not to carry smartphones and other mobile phones to Cabinet meetings. The government also fears the possibility of the devices being hacked.

It may be noted that mobile phones are already banned at Cabinet meetings in Britain.

This is the first time the Indian government has decided to take such a step. The government recently issued a circular (that is in this newspaper’s possession) stating: “It has been decided that smart-phones/mobile phones henceforth will not be permitted inside meeting venues of Cabinet/Cabinet committees.”

The Cabinet Secretariat issued the circular to the private secretaries of all ministers, directing them to brief their ministers “appropriately” that smartphones and mobile phones will not be permitted at meetings. The directive comes at a time when there are heightened threats of data theft in the aftermath of the surgical strikes by the Army across the LoC on terror launchpads located there.

Highly-placed sources said the decision by the Prime Minister’s Office appears to have been driven by recent security inputs indicating smartphones could be used for recording, and prone to hacking by external agencies. The intelligence and security agencies also warned that Pakistani or Chinese hackers could target top government ministers and officials.

A senior government official told this newspaper that in the recent past there were reported attempts by Pakistani and Chinese hackers to invade sensitive government networks. There is already a system in place under which officials (specially those posted in sensitive departments) aren’t allowed to connect their phones to official computer systems even for charging. Several sensitive offices like South Block, that houses the PMO and the external affairs and defence ministries, are no-mobile phone zones. A recent report in London’s Daily Telegraph said that “politicians in the UK have been banned from wearing the Apple Watch to Cabinet meetings over fears that the device could be hacked... The UK government was worried the Apple Watch microphone could be used to listen in on high-level policy discussions, specially by Russian spies”.

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At a time when hacking has become a major instrument for snooping by adversaries, government officials felt it was “necessary to have important conversations (to) decide the national agenda without any electronic devices in the room”.

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

ECONOMIC TIMES, OCT 22, 2016All ration shops to turn into business correspondents

NEW DELHI:The government is looking to turn all six lakh ration shops into business

correspondents or bank mitras. The move is part of the second phase of its financial inclusion

programme, where in the government wants to promote more transactions in the recently opened

accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. “Already around four lakh fair price shops

have enrolled as business correspondents. Owning to their strategic location and high footfall, we

are hopeful that they can emerge as focal points for all banking transactions, including

remittances,” said a government official, requesting anonymity. The government is also looking

to push interbank transactions and Aadhaarseeded accounts to further streamline the system.

“Unless interbank transactions increase, these fair price shops will not be able to serve their

purpose. The idea is that the cardholder of any bank can walk into a ration shop and deposit or

withdraw money,” said another official, aware of the deliberations. Atask force on the promotion

of payments through cards and digital, set up under Department of Investment & Public Asset

Management (DIPAM) secretary Neeraj Gupta, is also looking into the issue, the official quoted

above added.

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RAILWAYSHINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 22, 2016New rail app will let you order cab, hotel, movies and food on trainSrinand Jha

Haggling with porters and taxi drivers at railway stations will be passé from next April. As will the boring task of standing in long queues for platform or train tickets.

The solution will be on your smart phone, in which an integrated railway app has to be downloaded. It will allow passengers to hire an Uber or Ola cab from your home to station and at the destination point; order your favourite dish from a list of restaurants and get it delivered to your seat; and book a hotel room as well.

The app will feature a host of services such as pre-booked coolies, tour packages and car rentals to make your train journey a delightful experience. The railway ministry is preparing to launch its “integrated mobile app ecosystem” on March 31 next year.

The app is among measures the government has taken to revamp the world’s fourth-largest rail network that has 12,000 passenger trains and 7,000-odd stations, and carries 23 million passengers each day – equivalent of Australia’s population. The ministry has held three rounds of discussions with taxi aggregator Uber, which is said to be giving a “sweet deal” to the railways, but Ola and other service providers are likely to give tough competition at the time of bidding.

Given that 95% of the tickets are unreserved, the ministry is preparing to make bookings hassle-free. Negotiations with the Paytm, a mobile e-commerce company, are at an advances stage, ministry officials said.

If a deal is struck, the company will help set up of counters outside stations for issuing online registration of unreserved or platform tickets. Passengers will get QR codes, which will be pasted at railway stations, ending those long queues.

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“The station area will get decongested and the railways can cut stationary expenses,” an official said.Consultant firm Ernest and Young have been engaged for the project that holds opportunities for the railways to ramp up revenues, providing a generational shift in train travel in India at the same time.

These are part of railway minister Suresh Prabhu’s transformative plan to perk up the decrepit, loss-making public transporter that has suffered years of underinvestment. The average speed of the country’s best trains is a sluggish 55km an hour, accidents are common and coaches, platforms and toilets are often filthy.

Failure to provide better passenger services has resulted in a loss of Rs 7 lakh an hour, consultants Ernest and Young say. But the transporter is expected to gain Rs 498 crore a year, sharing the profit with the taxi aggregators, hotels, restaurants and other services that it will be facilitating through the app.

Here is how the app is expected to change a commuter’s experience: Get an app-based cab at home and at the point of destination; book a porter before reaching the station; watch the location and movement of the train on screens while waiting at the station.

Use WiFi to watch entertainment and news programmes on smart phones during the journey; get food delivered to the seat from a list of restaurants from any city that the train passes by; and book a hotel, guesthouse or Oyo room before reaching the destination.

PIONEER, OCT 17, 2016FLEXI FARE FAILS TO TURN RLYS AROUND

Deepak Kumar Jha

In what could ring an alarm bell for Indian Railways, despite several steps for augmentation of revenue through fare restructuring, its total earnings from passengers and goods have declined by over 11 per cent in September 2016 in comparison to the figures in  the same period last year.

The Railways recently introduced several innovative fare structures, including flexi fare, and also brought in higher tariffs in newly-introduced train. But passenger bookings dipped to 683.17 million in September as against the target of 686.61 million.

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The Railways also rationalised freight rates to attract more loadings, but the income from freight reported a sharp decline by 9.7 per cent. In the revenue parameters, this is a massive loss to the ailing health of national transporter.

Official sources said that similar kind of shortfall was recorded in the month ending July in comparison to the corresponding period in 2015. The biggest cause of concern and fear in the Railway administration is that the shortfall in earnings could cause problems in bringing up the new projects announced and undertaken by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

According to the latest figures, in passenger segment the earnings are way behind the target as Railways earned Rs3,815.43 crore as against the target of Rs4,253.71 crore, a decrease of 10.30 per cent. The total earnings from goods in September were Rs7,719.52 crore as against the target of Rs8,564.27 crore, a decline of 9.86 per cent. A senior railway official said that Railways could only earn Rs12,413.96 crore this September as against the target of Rs13,961.91 crore for the month, which is a decrease of 11.09 per cent.

Railways had introduced flexi-fare system in premier services, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains, to increase revenue from passengers. The exercise initially showed a good response but then the bookings dipped causing serious concerns to the architects of the rail flexi-fare.

In order to increase revenue model in passenger segment, the national transporter has also done away with providing concessions to children with some riders and also curtailed concessions to NRI senior citizens. The twin measures have failed to bring in any major increase in revenue.

A senior Railway official attributed the losses due to the ongoing price war triggered by airline operators who are offering cheaper air tickets than Railways on several routes. “Air tickets for a family of four sometimes are cheaper than in some of our premium and Suvidha trains.

A primary study also reveals that with good roads and affordable luxury public transport, people are opting road travel to cover shorter distance of up to 500 km like Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur or Mumbai-Ahemdabad and Chennai-Bangalore. The transportation dynamics involves several things and thus impact is on railways since it support the large number of volume of passengers,” said the official.

Admitting the decline in revenue collection, another senior Railway Ministry official said there is a general decline in demand and since a great cause of concern but the Ministry has been taking steps to ensure good health of railways’ revenue. The Railways has also announced many ambitious projects, including massive expansion and modernisation of rail networks like Bullet trains, semi and high speed trains and new variety of trains like Humsafar, Tejas, Gatiman, Deendayalu with higher tariffs.

PIONEER, OCT 20, 2016RAILWAY STATIONS TO BE REDEVELOPED UNDER SMART CITY PLANS

IN A MAJOR INITIATIVE, THE INDIAN RAILWAYS ON WEDNESDAY SIGNED AN MOU WITH UNION URBAN DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY TO REDEVELOP RAILWAY STATIONS AND ADJOINING AREAS ON THE LINES OF SMART CITY.

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To enhance passenger amenities, easy access to stations and enabling optimal utilisation of land at railway stations, the MoU for 10 cities was signed in the presence of Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

These stations are: Sarai Rohilla (Delhi), Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Varnasi, Jaipur, Kota, Thane, Margao (Goa), Tirupati and Puducherry.

Both the ministers lauded the joint initiative as a historic landmark that brings synergy in development of smart cities since there cannot be a Smart City without a smart railway station. 

"This convergence based city development will result in qualitative improvement in city life," Naidu said on the occasion.

He suggested that to begin with 10 cities could be taken up for the proposed redevelopment with the involvement of National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) which has successfully executed redevelopment projects on self-financing basis.

"Railway stations have been the core of city development and have become congested over time and their redevelopment offers immense opportunities for changing city landscape," Prabhu said.

He said that several countries like Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and Belgium have showed interest in redevelopment and a Round Table of domestic and overseas bankers will be organised next week to discuss financing of these redevelopment projects.

To be implemented first in the 100 cities included in the Smart City Mission, redevelopment of railway stations will be undertaken in AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and HRIDAY (Heritage Infrastructure Development and Augmentation Yojana) cities extending the scope of the MoU to over 500 cities.

Railway station and the adjoining area in each of these cities will be redeveloped on the lines of Area Based Development provided in the Smart City Mission Guidelines.

"The joint initiative of the Ministries of Urban Development and Railways widens the Smart City development to one more area in each of the mission cities with each city required to select one area under respective Smart City Plans in the first phase," an official statement said.

While the Ministry of Railways takes the responsibility of forming Joint Ventures, the Ministry of Urban Development will work with the states and urban local bodies for integrating railway station redevelopment as part of smart city development plans.

The MoU states that both railway station redevelopment and Smart City concepts are part of holistic development of respective city. Redevelopment of railway station and its area as part of Smart City Plans leads to an integrated public transport hub around railway station and encourage Transit Oriented Development. 

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TAXATIONDECCAN HERALD, OCT 20, 2016GST Council puts off rate decision to November 4Cess proposed to be imposed on luxury and sin goods

 The Goods and Services Council on Wednesday failed to arrive at a consensus at the GST rate structure with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying that the compensation mechanism to states which is yet to be decided is linked to finalisation of rates.

 A final decision on rate structure is now expected in the next meeting of the council on November 4 and 5.

 Jaitley said it is yet to be decided whether the compensation should come from higher taxes or a cess on luxury goods or through any other route.

 Cess is proposed to be imposed on goods such as luxury cars, tobacco, cigarettes and alcohol that are to be taxed at the highest rate of 26%.

 While industry rejected the idea of cess in toto, most of the states converged on the cess route for compensation to states that may incur losses after the new indirect tax regime comes into force from April 2017.

 Industry also had reservations about the multiple rate structure under the new GST regime saying it will affect compliance and perhaps even bring scope for litigation under the GST regime.

 But, Jaitley said that the tax slabs are meant to provide comfort to the tax payers as well as bring more revenues to the states.

 The rate structure proposed by the GST Council has four slabs. The lowest is 6% and the highest is 26%. In between, there are two standard rates of 12% and 18%. “There are chances of similar goods falling under different slabs giving rise to the scope of litigation,” said Sachin Menon, Partner, Indirect Taxes KPMG. He said lesser slabs and no cess could have been the best bet under GST. State finance ministers like Thomas Issac, his counterpart in Jammu and Kashmir Hasseb Drabu and in Tamil Nadu, K Pandiarajan said that there was almost a consensus on cess being one of

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the routes to fund compensation to states though it may not be the only choice. Industry also believed that cess was against the basic premise of original GST idea and that by throwing such surprises the Centre was undermining people’s trust on GST.

 According to Nihal Kothari, Executive Director of Khaitan and Co, multiplicity of rates should be avoided as far as possible.

WASTE TREATMENT

TIMES OF INDIA, OCT 17, 2016Submit list of hospitals and waste generated:NGT to Delhi govt

NEW DELHI: Asking medical bodies to ensure proper collection, segregation and disposal of

bio-medical waste in the national capital, the National Green Tribunal has directed the Delhi

government to submit the quantum of waste generated by city hospitals, nursing homes and labs.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Delhi Pollution

Control Committee (DPCC) to file a detailed affidavit on the issue and asked it to point out

whether any hospital, nursing home and laboratory has its own facility to deal with the bio-

medical waste.

"The counsel appearing for DPCC is directed to file a comprehensive affidavit only by the

Member Secretary giving total number of hospital, nursing homes, laboratories and other allied

medical facilities in NCT, Delhi.

"Out of these, what is the extent of generation of bio-medical waste per category. Further, the

quantum of generated bio-medical waste facilities that reach to them... The NCT, Delhi

(government) is directed to furnish complete details to the DPCC and file a copy," the bench

said.

It also issued notice to all these medical "facilities" in the city and asked them to be present

before it on October 19, the next date of hearing.

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The tribunal had in July directed hospitals in Uttarakhand to properly manage bio-medical and

solid waste in the state and said any violation would lead to imposition of environmental

compensation of Rs 50,000 on them.

The NGT had earlier said that there should be no throwing of any medical, bio medical or any

other waste into Ganga and if any hospital was found doing so anywhere, the authorities would

recover Rs 20,000 per violation from them.

It had directed Uttarakhand government to construct at least two more bio-medical waste and

hazardous waste plants to meet the requirement of hospitals in the state.

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WOMEN

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 17, 2016A balanced Act on domestic violence

The Supreme Court has done well to expand the scope of the Protection of Women from

Domestic Violence Act by ordering deletion of the words “adult male” from it, thus opening the

way for prosecution of women or even non-adult women for subjecting a woman relative to

violence and harassment. When the law was proposed and passed in 2005, the main concern was

violence inflicted by men on women within the household, mainly by husbands on wives. It was

considered a tool for empowerment of women, and was meant to act as a deterrent against

domestic violence and to provide punishment to offenders. Violence against women is common

and normal, and has even been considered the right of men in the patriarchal family environment

that exists in most parts of the country. It needed some effort to view it as an offence punishable

under the law. 

Domestic violence is not simple and it has many forms and dimensions. Women become victims

in various ways depending on their age, physical condition, economic status and other factors.

Women themselves have been found to be tormentors and so, the widening of the definition of

the offence will address another kind of suppression and abuse of women. It will give protection

to senior citizens who are sometimes ill-treated and subjected to violence by their daughters-in-

law or grandchildren. A daughter-in-law can also seek relief under the law against harassment by

a mother-in-law. It has taken some time after the passing of the law to realise the need to give

protection to women from oppression emanating from all sources. The judgment came on an

appeal against a Bombay High Court ruling which had discharged three women in a domestic

violence case on the ground that they were not “adult male.” The spirit of the law demanded a

liberal interpretation and that is what the Supreme Court has done.  

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The law has now been made gender neutral, as the court found that the words “adult male”

violated the right to equality. There is better balance in the law now with the recognition that

women can also be perpetrators of violence within families. The change should help many

women who are victims of violence. The existing law has also been misused by men who have

exploited its limiting provision by using women to harass other women. But implementation of

laws within the domestic realm has always been difficult because of the existence of traditional

notions and values and factors like social and personal realities. Therefore, it is important to

create better awareness among women about their rights under the law.

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