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Showing posts from May, 2014

Flutter in NGO circle... What's changing?

By Rajiv Shah There is a flutter among voluntary organisations in Gujarat, as elsewhere. With the change of guards at the Centre, there is a rising apprehension about what would be the government's new policy towards civil society, in Gujarat as well as in India. Would the NGOs’ space shrink? Would they have to make political compromises with the powers-that-be for the sake of survival? What kind of structural changes they might have to undergo in case they have to survive in the new atmosphere?

NDA govt must start by implementing whistleblowers protection law

By Rajiv Shah The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Delhi-based advocacy group, has insisted that one of the first steps that the new Government of India must take is to build confidence among the whistle blowers, a much-threatened community, by implementing the Whistle Blowers’ Protection (WBP) Act, 2011. The law provides for an institutionalised mechanism to protect, and thus encourage, those who disclose information on corrupt practices or abuse of power by government officials, using the right to information (RTI). The Act passed in Lok Sabha in 2011, and after a lapse of two years, it was passed in the Rajya Sabha in February 2014, ahead of announcement of the Lok Sabha polls. President Pranab Mukherjee gave assent to it on May 14. CHRI data, reported up to December 2013, show that Maharashtra and Gujarat have see maximum attacks on RTI activists. Maharashtra has seen 53 attacks on RTI activists, including nine cases of murder, over the last eight years, while Gujarat c

Making appointments to statutory bodies without LoP? Trashing 10% rule theory

By Venkatesh Nayak* A friend has raised a question about selection committees for the appointment of statutory authorities under various laws that require the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Lok Sabha to be a member. With the Indian National Congress’s (INC) abysmal performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections some sections of the media are floating the theory of “the 10% rule”, i.e., only such leader will be recognised as LOP if his/her party has at least 10% of seats in the Lok Sabha. This is a canard for reasons given at the bottom of this article. But first, the query raised by my friend. Given below is a situation analysis of some laws regarding the appointment of crucial statutory bodies: Central Information Commission: There will not be any problem in the appointment of the Information Commissioners because in the absence of an LOP in the Lok Sabha, the leader of the single largest party in the Opposition will take that place on the selection committee. So the

Gujarat slips in higher education ranking, gender parity index in 18-23 age group

By Rajiv Shah The All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), operating under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, in its recent report has suggested that Gujarat’s gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education, which was 21.3 per cent of the population in the age group 18-23 in 2010-11, went down to 17.6 per cent a year later – in 2011-12. Worse, Gujarat’s GER ranking fell from ninth among 20 major states in 2010-11 to 13th in 2011-12. The AISHE report also indicates that while Gujarat’s GER performance was above national average (19.4 per cent of the population in the 18-23 age group) in 2010-11, in 2011-12, the GER nationally improved to 20.4 per cent, which pushed Gujarat below the national average. In absolute terms, the AISHE data suggest, in Gujarat, in 2011-12, a total of 12,54,202 students in the age group 18-23 were enrolled in higher education, of which 7,31,241 were boys and 5,22,961 girls. Significantly, this was down from the enrollment in

Corruption: Implications of Supreme Court’s refusal to give immunity to babus

By Venkatesh Nayak* The media has reported the latest judgment of the Supreme Court (Constitution bench of five judges) striking down a provision of the law that governs the functioning of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s premier anti-corruption investigation agency, regarding the procedure for inquiring into allegations of corruption against civil servants of the rank of joint secretary and above. In an Article 32 petition filed by Dr Subramaniam Swamy and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) led by Prashant Bhushan ( photo ), the Supreme Court has struck down the requirement of taking the approval of the Central Vigilance Commission before initiating even an inquiry into complaints of corruption against senior level civil servants. The Issue Several decades ago the Government of India in its wisdom had made it mandatory for the CBI to take the prior approval of the government to conduct a preliminary inquiry into allegations of corruption against officer

Gujarat is one of the worst performers in secondary, higher secondary education

By Rajiv Shah  Fresh data released by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India, suggest that Gujarat is one of the poorest performers in ensuring the enrollment of children in secondary and higher secondary schools. Found reflected in the report, “Secondary Education in India, Thematic Maps: 2012-13”, published by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), which operates under the MHRD, the data suggest that out of 20 major states, as many as 13 of them enrolled a higher proportion of students than Gujarat at the higher secondary level. At the secondary level, things are not very different – here, too, as many as 13 major states enrolled higher proportion of students than Gujarat. At the higher secondary level, Gujarat could enroll just 38.04 per cent of children, the data show. This was better than only Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The best performer was Himachal Pradesh with a gross enro