DD Kosambi A top US-based Hindutva scholar, representing a prominent pro-Narendra Modi thinktank, has regretted that right-wing historians in India have failed to develop what he calls "alternate history or even a robust theology in academia, either within India or the West." In a well-researched  article  titled "Saving History from Historians", Murali Balaji says, there is in fact, a "general lack of interest by most Indian academics to pursue a robust Hindu theological scholarly agenda."

Top international consultants AT Kearney have noted that, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India drive, India has dropped from the top 10 positions in foreign direct investment (FDI) confidence index for the first time since 2002. In a just-released report, “Connected Risks: Investing in a Divergent World”, the consultants’ rankings show that India in 2015 ranks No 11th, down from the seventh position in 2014.

  While the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), the ambitious state-driven “smart” city project envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about seven eight ago, has refused a right to information (RTI) applicant, Roshan Shah, any details regarding details of the progress made in the project, an influential international business daily has created flutter by  revealing  facts on slow progress in the ‘smart’ city project.

The Narendra Modi government -- which allowed a more stringent Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Ordinance, promulgated by the previous UPA government in March 2014, to lapse after it came to power -- wants to "secure" Dalit votes for the forthcoming Bihar assembly polls. According to sources, it has "decided" to introduce the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill this monsoon session of Parliament.

  A well-researched Dutch report, which has sharply criticized Gujarat and Rajasthan governments for failing to take any steps against child labour in Bt cotton farms, has surprisingly praised multinational corporations (MNCs), including the controversial Monsanto, for taking “exemplary” initiatives in fighting the evil. It has said, efforts by “Bayer, Monsanto, Du Pont and few local companies have had some positive impact in reducing the number of working children.”

  Top international consultants, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and multinational NGO Save the Children have said that Government of India's (GoI's) ambitious smart city project has ignored "child-friendly” and “inclusive” approach. Their just-released new report, “Forgotten voices: The world of urban children in India”, says that while “defining” the smart cities scheme, the GoI failed to go “beyond accommodating the aspirations of the new middle class comprising of professionals and investors”.

  An inter-state comparison of 21 major states of the highest level of education attained by India’s rural populace, as reflected in the recently-released Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), reveals an interesting picture.  The data suggest that Gujarat, touted as the “model state” for education, may have the sixth lowest per cent of illiterates in the country (31.01 per cent) – following Kerala (11.38 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (22.05 per cent), Uttaranchal (25.41 per cent), Tamil Nadu (26.38 per cent) and Maharashtra (26.96 per cent). At the same time, Gujarat has 13 per cent of rural people who are literates but have not completed primary education, as they may have dropped-out. This is higher than as many as 10 other states with a lower proportion of such literates in this category. The data, which further provide the highest education level completed at primary, middle, secondary, higher secondary and graduate and above levels, suggest that rural Gujarat’s performanc...

  One of the major “policy thrusts” adopted by the Government of India is known to be to follow a still unexplained “Gujarat model of education” for the country as a whole. Not only very little official information is available on what this “model” is and how top policy makers wish to pursue it, latest data of the Socio Economic and Caste Survey (SECC), released by the Centre suggest that Gujarat one of the worst performers at higher levels of learning.

  The latest Socio Economic and Caste Survey (SECC) 2011, released recently by Government of India, has revealed that, despite claims of Gujarat "model" to remove poverty, things are not so rosy as it may seem for the vulnerable sections of rural population. Not only do a much higher proportion of families in Gujarat live in kuccha houses, more Dalit households are dependent on manual casual labour than most of the 21 major states.

  A just-released report, “State of Information Commissions and the Use of RTI Laws in India: Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions”, prepared by a team of researchers headed by Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has said that Gujarat has one of the highest proportion of rejection of right to information (RTI) applications, close to a fifth (19.5 per cent), for reasons not pertaining to the RTI Act.

In a “revelation” which is likely to lead to adverse reaction from among Dalit activists, the new Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, the results of which were announced by the Government of India on Friday, there are just about 56 manual scavengers in rural Gujarat (click  HERE ). This is in sharp contrast to the 2011 Census figures, which found there are 1,408 rural households where nighsoil is “manually received from latrines”.

  In a major indictment of India’s effort to achieve total sanitation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have said in a report that in a report that the country has failed to fight open defecation among its poorest sections of people (click  HERE  for chart). Pointing out that the “progress among the poorest has been slower” in the entire southern Asian region, the report underlines, “In India there has been very little change over the last 20 years.”