A fresh report jointly prepared by two of the world’s best known institutes, the Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security (Washington), and the Peace Research Institute (Oslo), has ranked India a poor 131st in its Women Peace and Security (WPS) Index among 153 countries for 2017-18, worse than other competing BRICS (short form for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, on one hand, and all of India’s neighbours, except Pakistan, on the other.

  Even as Gujarat goes to polls, a high-profile NGO Plan India’s new Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI) has found that the model state is behind 11 out of 21 major Indian states. On a scale of 1, Gujarat GVI is 0.543. The best GVI is that of Kerala (0.634), and worst that of Bihar (0.41).

Poll spending in 2012, as provided by MLAs The Election Commission (EC) of India and the Narendra Modi government may be under scanner (click  HERE ) for "undermining" transparency by refusing to part with any information on the controversial Electoral Bonds scheme, allowing political parties fund their activities secretly.

  Open Doors USA, an American non-profit organization, has triggered Hornet's nest by ranking India 15th, next to Saudi Arabia (14th), among 50 top countries where Christians allegedly face "most severe persecution for their faith". Blaming the "persecution" on BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it says, "As a result, radical Hinduism, which was already present under the previous government, has increased steadily."

While top bureaucrats in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) may have worked overtime to "lobby" and "manage" certain well-known international institutes (click  HERE ) in order to show how Modi's popularity is on the rise and the economy under him is looking up, it appears, they have been less successful with certain institutes. One of them seems to be is the World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Zurich,  known  for "uniting" world political, business  and academic leaders for economic development.

Giving a scary picture of inequalities in India, the recently-released “Global Wealth Report 2017”, published by Credit-Suisse, a Swiss multinational financial services holding company, headquartered in Zurich, has  said  that India’s 92% of adults “have net worth less than USD 10,000”, while “a small fraction of the population (just 0.5% of adults) has a net worth over USD 100,000.”

  Did Narendra Modi's top bureaucrats from the Gujarat cadre, currently in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), work out a well-planned strategy to lobby with three top international institutes, all headquartered in Washington, World Bank, Moody's and Pew, for ensuring a sharp image make over of Modi ahead of the Gujarat elections, after all three last year seemed least cared to show India under Modi in good light?

  A new study, published in one of the world’s most prestigious online health journals, “Lancet”, has revealed that, among major Indian states, “model” Gujarat’s mortality and morbidity risk factor as a result of child and maternal malnutrition is higher than as many as 13 of the 21 major Indian states.

  United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Leo Heller has expressed the apprehension that, despite a 2013 law prohibiting manual scavenging, the “generations-old practice of imposing sanitary tasks onto the lower castes” (Valmikis) would continue because of “the growth in number of toilets.”

  The prestigious "Harvard Business Review" (HBR), in a strongly worded commentary to mark one year of noteban, has said that demonetization in a "complex economy" should been preceded by "a sound theory; a rationale for why the underlying assumptions are valid, and the evidence for those assumptions; and cost-benefit analyses, including accounting for the systemic effects, unintended consequences, and learnings from similar actions elsewhere."

  A recent study, sponsored by MasterCard, one of the top American multinational financial services corporations, has said that, despite the “self-inflicting shock … by demonetizing its currency” a year ago, India beats just one country, the neighbouring Pakistan, in what it calls digital experience – a term used for identifying adoption for online transactions.

  In a major setback at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking to make a big political capital out of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report showing India "jump" its global ranking by 30 points, a new report by the high-profile World Economic Forum (WEF) has said that there there is little improvement in India's Global Gender Index ranking, especially in fields of economic participation and health.

  In what should prove to be a warning bell for Gandhians of all hues, a dangerous trend appears to be taking shape, accelerated amidst a sharp upswing of information explosion, especially through the social media. A senior Dalit rights activist, who has been actively involved in organizing the Valmiki community in Gujarat, put out a Facebook post justifying Nathuram Godse murdering Mahatma Gandhi on October 3, next day of Gandhi Jayanti.

Ease of doing business ranking: Blue 2018, Red 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have tried to  extract  political capital out of the 30 point jump noted in the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business  report , calling the 100th ranking among 190 countries “historic”, a result of what he called “all-round and multi-sectoral reform push of Team India”, but a comparison with the last year’s  report  suggests there is little cheer about it.