The Gujarat state assembly may have  cleared  a law allowing an extremely harsh punishment entailing a maximum of life and a minimum of 10 years imprisonment for cow slaughter. However, in less than month after the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed in the absence of the Opposition Congress, with the visitors’ gallery packed with saffron-clad Hindu priests, Gujarat’s Dalit organizations wonder if the law would apply to those who force cows to consume plastics along with leftover food offered to them.

  India loses US dollars 41.17 billion dollars, or 2.34% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as a result of corporate tax avoidance. While in quantitative terms this loss is the fourth largest in the world, next to the United States (188.8 billion dollars), China (66.8 billion dollars) and Japan (46.8 billion dollars), the loss as percentage of GDP tells a totally different story.

  In its  new report , well-known US-based Pew Research Centre has said that “among the world’s 25 most populous countries, Russia, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Nigeria had the highest overall levels of government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion.”

  Contesting data on poor work rate participation (WRP) among women data, as calculated by the Government of India, well-known Gujarat-based economist Indira Hirway, has said that, if calculated on the basis of latest methodology, men spend 27 per cent, while women spend 38 per cent of their time on work.

  While Indian youth appear to be becoming outwardly modern in their appearance and consumption habits, their “thoughts and views reflect a troubling inclination towards intolerance and conservatism”, says a  new study , carried out jointly by Delhi-based Centre for the Study in Developing Societies (CSDS) and the German Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS).

BJP most preferred party with 20% support from youth Even as a  new study  has said that close to half (48%) the youths of India do not wish to identify themselves with any political party, what should be an eye-opener for the Congress is, while 20% of the Indian youths are “fond of the BJP”, exactly half, 10%, like the Congress.

  National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), the apex body of India’s Dalit rights organizations, has in a report submitted to the United Nations (UN) insisted that the country’s reservation measures “must be extended to Dalits of all faiths, especially to Dalit Christians and Muslims.”