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Noteban: Harvard, Goldman Sachs scholars bemoan lack of "authentic" growth data

In a sharp observation, scholars of a recent high-profile study, "Cash and the Economy: Evidence from India's Demonetization", whose results have been widely reported , have bemoaned: That there is lack of authentic official data on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the Government of India, forcing them to use “nightlights data”, a methodology usually adopted by top international scholars to assess socio-economic growth in highly underdeveloped countries of East Africa and parts of Asia, where no authentic ground level surveys are available to assess development.

Fading Hindutva? Changing times "impact" vulnerable participants in Gujarat riots

Has unease finally begun creeping into the majoritarian psyche, which got swayed under the powerful Hindutva wave that followed the 2002 Gujarat riots? It would seem so, if journalist and film-maker Revati Laul’s just released book, “The Anatomy of Hate”, is any indication. The book does not say so in so many words, yet suggests that disconcerting traits for the Sangh Parivar have even sneaked into those who directly or indirectly participated in the violence which engulfed the state 16 years ago.

Modi's PRO, who served previous Congress, BJP CMs in Gujarat with "equal" competence

Jagdish Thakkar in PM office. Left: Kishore Anjaria, a previous colleague A public relations officer (PRO), even as maintaining anonymity, is supposed to “manage” reputation of his or her client, reflecting the client’s views in order to influence opinion and behaviour. A PRO is also known to use, the world over, media and communication to build, maintain, manage and plan publicity strategies and campaigns, even as dealing with enquiries from the public, particularly media, organising promotional events such as press conferences, open days, exhibitions, tours and visits. A PRO is also supposed to final touches to press statements for his or client.

India's CO2 emissions projected to grow 6.3% in 2018, highest in the world: Study

An international interdisciplinary journal, “Earth System Science Data (ESSD)”, has raised the alarm that global fossil CO2 emissions in India grew at a rate of +5.2% per year on an average during the last one decade (2008-17), and are expected to grow even higher in 2018. Suggesting that this growth is higher than China’s CO2 emissions, an increase of +3.0%, an article in the journal says, while the global average for the decade was 1.5 % per year, the emissions decreased in the European Union (EU) countries by −1.8%.

India's lag in doubling farm income vis-a-vis China, South-East Asia? Go authoritarian!

This should sound some music to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his supporters: More than four years after he took over reins of power, the view appeared to have strong at an international scholars’ conference, held in Anand, Gujarat, that Modi should set aside democratic ways to achieve his declared intention to double farmers’ incomes, and instead adopt the type of means adopted by China to attain higher earnings.

Forced child labour rampant in Uttar Pradesh sugarcane fields: Oxfam study

  A 14-year-old boy and his older brother were hired by an agent from Bihar under the pretext of getting them a job in a shoe factory in Uttar Pradesh. The agent brought with him a dozen-odd to Uttar Pradesh under the pretext of offering work to them in a factory. Only upon arrival in Muzaffarnagar, the boys were told that they would be working in a sugarcane field.

80% school children are beaten up, 91% parents "approve" of it: Report

  A recent report, prepared by researchers with the civil rights group, Agrasar, has revealed that of the 521 children from marginalized groups surveyed in Gurugram, Haryana, 80% said they are punished at school. Based on data collected from semi-urban communities in Gurugram, the report’s conclusions also take into account survey 100 parents, personal interviews with 26 children, three focus group discussions and one seasonal calendar exercise with 29 parents.

Preventing childhood deaths: India performs worse than Bangladesh, "equals" Pakistan

  A just-released study, “The Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report 2018”, prepared by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has identified India among 15 other countries which are still far off the mark in achieving the targets of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD).

At 33%, India's gender gap in mobile phone usage is fourth highest in world

A just-released Harvard Kennedy School study has estimated that, today in India, 71% of men use mobile phones, as against 38% of women, pointing out that India, along with Pakistan and Bangladesh, are “clear outliers among countries of similar levels of development”, exhibiting “some of the world’s highest gender gaps in access to technology.”

India's changed poverty estimates "temper confidence", would reclassify 50 million from poor to not poor

India's poverty estimates using separate methods While the Indian authorities are basking in happiness over the World Bank, in a recent report, showing that India has jumped 23 places to the 77th position in ‘ease of doing business’, another Bank  report , “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle”, released last month, has found “important measurement issues” that “temper confidence” in India’s poverty estimates.

An elite Kutir set up by Modi far from the "madding" crowd: This Gandhi museum is formal, unapproachable

The Kutir: A cottage? Have you ever heard of a Gandhi museum, sough to be projected as the “largest” on the Mahatma, yet totally inaccessible, in sharp contrast to Ahmedabad’s humble, approachable and unassuming Gandhi Ashram on the banks of Sabarmati, set up by the Mahatma during the heydays of the freedom movement? It exists about 30 kilometres away, its idea was conceived by none other than a person who has today become even more inaccessible than he ever was: Narendra Modi, India's Prime Minister.
  In an important revelation, a recent study in one of the world’s most renowned health research journals, “Lancet”, has found that “model” Gujarat is one of the three states where the Suicide Death Rate (SDR) among women has gone up. The other two major states, whose women’s SDR has shown an upward trend during the 26-years study – 1990 to 2016 – period are Bihar and Rajasthan.

Just 12% Gujarat households say Modi govt "committed" to fighting corruption, national average 31%: Survey

  A 13-state survey carried out a Delhi-based non-profit organization, CMS India, has found that in “model” Gujarat’s just about 12% households households feel that the Narendra Modi government is “committed” towards reducing corruption, which is the lowest of all states, with the sole exception of Andhra Pradesh, where just about 2% of feel that way.

India's Human Development Index loss due to inequality higher than most South Asian, BRICS countries

  Fresh data released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), released this month, show that while India ranks 130 out of 189 countries in human development index (HDI), with HDI value of 0.640 on a scale of 1, this is “below the average of 0.645 for countries in the medium human development group”, even though it is “above the average of 0.638 for countries in South Asia.”

India's top human rights defenders are facing reprisal for cooperating with United Nations: UN annual report

By Rajiv Shah The United Nations (UN) secretary-general’s  annual report  to the ongoing 39th session of the Human Rights Council has taken strong exception to the manner the Government of India has been using “reprisals” against the human rights defenders who have been “cooperating” with the United Nations’ (UN’s) different panels.

India playing "wily games", it is seeking to overtake China with US help, says Chinese Communist Party daily

  The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's powerful English language daily "Global Times" has taken strong exception to what it has called "twice-postponed two plus two ministerial dialogue between the US and India", which took place on September 6 in New Delhi, saying the meetings suggest "India views China as the main threat to its rise."

Pellet guns have pushed hundreds of Kashmiris into darkness forever: Testimonies in "Time" report

Danish Rajab Jhat By Rajiv Shah The well-known American journal "Time", in a report exclusively focussed on the controversial use of the pallet guns to quell disturbances in the Kashmir Valley in 2016, taking the testimony of nine victims, has said that all of their scars, caused by what are called "non-lethal" weapons, have pushed them, as also hundreds others, fully or partially into "darkness."

India third highest in gun-related deaths, firearm mortality rate "beats" China, Pakistan, Bangladesh: US study

  A just released study has found that India has the distinction of having the third highest number of gun-related deaths out of 195 countries surveyed. Published by the American Medical Association, the study, released on August 28, shows that a total of 26,500 firearm-related deaths took place in India in 2016. Brazil tops the list with 43,200 deaths, followed by United States 37,200.

India's "missing" women: 52% women live with less than US$3.10/day, but it's 1 man out of 3, says US research

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in early 1990s, referring to fact that there are far more men than women in India, relative to developed countries, dubbed this as "the missing women phenomenon". The reasons he cited included sex-selective abortion and excess female mortality at early ages due to parental preferences for sons.

India's trade union density lower than Brazil, South Africa; there is tendency to victimize unionized workers: ILO

  In what might sound as music to India's corporate honchos and their political supporters, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has calculated that the trade union (TU) density in India among wage workers, both casual and regular/salaried, has fallen since 1993–94, by 3 percentage points to 13.4 per cent. Worse, the top Union Nations (UN) body, headquartered in Geneva, has further notes, the “density among regular/salaried workers has fallen precipitously since 1993–94, by 17.7 percentage points to 28.8 per cent.”

Indian nation should forget supremacy of Vedas, Puranas: Savarkar quoted by Dabholkar, victim of "Hindu terror"

VD Savarkar By Rajiv Shah What Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the BJP's Hindutva icon, said about religious books should completely shake those who think that scriptures are a gospel truth and shouldn't be criticized, and there is nothing beyond them. Quoted by Narendra Dabholkar, a Pune-based rationalist who was  shot dead  allegedly by a Hindu fanatic on August 20, 2013, Savarkar had said, “The Vedas, the Avesta, the Bible and the Koran are but man-made tomes and should be studied accordingly...”

Ahmedabad metro: No salary slip to 82% workers, 65% paid less than Rs 350 a day, no social security to 98%

  A new study carried out by the Bandhkam Mazdoor Sangathan (BMS), Gujarat’s biggest non-government organization (NGO) working for the welfare of construction workers in the state, has found that none of the workers working for the high profile Ahmedabad  metro project , currently being implemented across the city, has been registered with the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers’ Board.

Rise in US border arrests of Indians: Detainees seeking asylum "cite" politico-religious persecution in India

US-Mexico border An explosive report by the US newspaper “Los Angles Times” (LAT) has revealed, quoting Federal Bureau of Prisons figures, that of the 680 migrants detained in early August at the federal prison in Victorville, California, a state in south-western US, a whopping 380 were Indian nationals. LAT adds, about 40% of the detainees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Imperial Valley facility, also in California, are Indians, and nearly 20% of detainees at ICE Adelanto processing centre, again in California, too, are Indians.

Modi may "barter away" Tibetan cause in exchange of China giving up some of its territorial claims: Report

  Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to "barter" the Tibetan cause in exchange of China giving up some of its territorial claims? It would seem so, if a top report published in one of Japan's most powerful media outfits, Nikkei, is any indication.

Gujarat "replaces" Karnataka on India's map in Gujarat govt-controlled site seeking reactions for CZMP

Oil spill at Nagrol beach, Gujarat How very roughshod could Gujarat government be in offering consultation with stakeholders for preparing the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) for the state could be seen from what has been called “CZMP predraft maps” for eight coastal districts – Bhavnagar, Probandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Junagadh, Ahmedabad and Anand – for comments and suggestions before finalizing them.

Draft NRC: Nervous Congress may adopt soft Hindutva after Amit Shah terms "illegal" immigrants as intruders

Close on the heels of BJP president Amit Shah  saying  that those whose names are not in Assam’s draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) – most of them Muslims – are "intruders", as they have failed to prove their Indian citizenship, a nervous Congress appears all set to adopt what many critics qualify a soft Hindutva approach.

Gandhi too was close to tycoons whose practices were under question: Activist-researcher to Modi critics

Even as stating that Gandhi’s association with industrialists can’t be compared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s because “Gandhi was not in the government”, well-known activist-researcher  Nandini Oza  has, in a controversial article, taking issue with Modi critics,  said  that the Mahatma’s relations with India’s tycoons wasn’t just limited to accepting donations.

Ethnocide in Caribbean island filmed following award winning docufilm on Jamaica's anti-colonial Indian roots

  International awards winner for Best Feature Documentary Linda Aïnouche for “Dreadlocks Story” (2014), which shows how Indians are entangled in the Jamaican society, and how Hinduism was a source of inspiration for the Rastafari movement, is all set to release her new documentary, “Marooned in the Caribbean”, which aims at documenting the awful desolating living conditions that Raizal people, the native inhabitants of San Andres Archipelago, endure. Sons of slaves, these islanders have fallen prey to what the Colombian government calls Colombianization. “It’s a process”, according to her, “which kills the Raizal culture; it’s the killing of the Raizal soul. Colombianization subjugates Afro-descendants of San Andres to an ethnocide.” Explorer, director and producer,  Linda Aïnouche  writes exclusively for Counterview: *** Linda Aïnouche Nobody escapes from blood and thunder in Colombia, and definitely not in the archipelago of San Andres, situated closer to Managua and Kingston than B

WHO: "Model" Gujarat's immunization coverage 73%, national average 79%; 17 of 21 major states perform better

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, Gujarat, which he propagated as the “model” for other states to follow, is facing a major challenge on the health front: If the World Health Organization (WHO) is to be believed, Gujarat’s immunization coverage of one-year olds is one of the worst among Indian states – 72.8% as against the national average of 78.8%.

High medical costs pushed 38 million Indians into poverty, led to financial catastrophe of 18% households

A recent paper, published in a top London-based research journal,  BMP Open , has said that the out of pocket (OOP) expenditure on healthcare in general and medicines in particular, over the last two decades, has gone up from 4.49% to 6.77% in India, leading to “financial catastrophe” of 18% of the country’s households.

13 yrs after Modi pressure, SEWA reiterates political, bureaucratic interference, refusal of space in New Economy

A SEWA-supported fish marketing cooperative By Rajiv Shah Nearly 13 years after the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat reportedly tried to pressure the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) for his political ends, India's premier organization, headquartered in Ahmedabad, and working with poor women in the informal sector, thinks that even today political-bureaucratic pressure remains high, mainly due to its wide support among women.

Unpaid domestic work: India "competes" with Pakistan in high gender gap. Reason: Poor public spending

Ten best and ten worst countries With 78.2% Indian females doing what is called “unpaid care work” -- as against just about 2.9%  males -- a new International Labour Organization (ILO) study has found that the country’s gender gap in taking care of their families is among the highest in the world.

India's "smart" city proposals consider migrant, unskilled population a security threat to urban citizens

A new  study  of by well-known Delhi-based civil rights body, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), has said that only 8% of India’s total population or 22 per cent of its urban population is likely to benefit from the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission (SMC) project, which has been initiated in 99 cities from whom proposals have been received.

Unresolved conflicts characterize environmental nod to 70 of 75 projects involving 7.28 lakh ha land: Study

Protest against the POSCO project in Jagatsinghpur, Odisha A recent research study has said that of the “75 cases of conflict over land use change” involving 7,28,673 hectares (ha) “officially transferred through environmental clearance process”, in as many of 70 conflicts have remained unresolved even today. The projects have been chosen out of a list of environmental clearances granted to 14,498 projects, uploaded on the Union environment ministry’s website as of October 2017.

Terror cases: Gujarat Muslims "more likely" to trust police than most other states, claims industry-supported study

Gujarat may have suffered one of the most heinous communal riots in 2002, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the helm of affairs in the state. However, if a new survey, sponsored, by two philanthropic organizations, Tata Trusts and Lal Family Foundation, is any guide, 16 years down the line, Muslims in Gujarat are likely to trust the police more than most other Indian states.

India's 82% of 1.05 million air pollution deaths per annum could be avoided with strict measures: US study

Thermal power plants A new American research has estimated that, out an estimated 1.04 million “premature mortality associated with PM2.5 exposure” per annum, 858,900 (82.5%) premature deaths could be avoided in case the Government of India and state governments implement a 13-point strategy, worked out based on what has been called Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. This would happen by a reducing PM2.5 pollution by 38.7%.

Eye on 2019 polls? Tycoon discusses with Modi, Amit Shah Asia's biggest Rann Sarovar sweet water lake in Gujarat

Little Rann of Kutch during monsoon If Kalpasar, a dream project of converting the Gulf of Khambhat into Asia’s biggest sweet water lake by constructing a dam connecting South Gujarat and Saurashtra coasts, does not seem feasible any more, why not toy with the idea of yet another having a still bigger sweet water lake – this time in the Little Rann of Kutch? Suspicion has gone strong: Ahead of the 2019 polls, the BJP is all set to make a 4,900 sq km Rann Sarovar an electoral plank.

Rural wage growth down from 8.4% under UPA to 0.2% under NDA, farmers not getting support price: Crisil

Even as  regretting  that investment in India is failing to pick up, in its latest report on four years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, Crisil, India's leading rating agency, has lamented that things have been worse for the country's rural sector, which, it has said, "has been riddled with challenges including slower agricultural growth, poor farm price realisation, slowdown in construction activity, and sluggish rural wage growth."

World Bank: India's 48% bank accounts inactive, thanks to Modi's Jan Dhan, twice that of developing countries

India may have sharply increased the number of bank accounts following Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming to power. However, regrettably, India has the largest share of inactive accounts, too. A just-released World Bank survey, which provides this crucial detail alongside several others, says, "Account owners with an inactive account varies across economies, but it is especially high In India."

Gujarat govt's electoral contribution to BJP by cheque in 2009-10? No state dept knows who made the payment

Modi, Suresh Mehta While it is well known that top business houses of Gujarat have liberally contributed to the BJP to meet its electoral expenses, putting Congress in an unenviable position, surprisingly, in 2009-10, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled the state, his government, too, made a contribution, albeit small, to the saffron party!

Gujarat's sexually-abused children will have to wait for 55-200 years for getting justice, more than any Indian state

Base year: 2016. Screenshot from the report In a revelation that should shake up India’s powers-that-be, “model” Gujarat, home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is the slowest among Indian states in completing trial of pending cases of child sexual abuse. The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, founded by India’s 2014 Nobel prize recipient, Kailash Satyarthi, has in a new report said, Gujarat would take anywhere between 55 and 200 plus years to complete child sex abuse trials.

Ample evidence of child labour in South Gujarat's cash rich sugarcane belt, 24% "not enrolled" in school: Study

A recent German government-funded study , undertaken jointly by the NGO Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, which mainly deals examines the working conditions of migrant workers in the cash-rich sugarcane zone of South Gujarat, has gone a long way to suggest large scale prevalence of child labour during the harvesting season.

"Bonded situation" among Gujarat's 50.4% of migrants in sugarcane fields; they're permanently in debt: Report

A German government-funded report has said that more than 50.4% of an approximate 1.25 lakh migrant labourers working in Gujarat’s prosperous sugarcane block of Bardoli, most of them tribals from Dhule and Nadurbar districts of Maharashtra and Dangs and Tapi districts of Gujarat, remain in a permanent state of debt, with their incomes going into “negative” as the harvesting season draws to a close.

Top Dalit rights leaders' call to go beyond Ambedkar, who "overestimated" urban middle classes' ability to deliver

Anand Tentumbde There appears to be a steady recognition among well-known Dalit rights leaders that the community, which continues to suffer from centuries-old oppression, needs to come out of the huge euphoria around considering India's topmost Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar as some sort of a demi-god. At least two of them -- Anand Teltumbde and Jignesh Mevani -- have openly declared that there is a need to look beyond Ambedkar.

Spike in illegal mining: "Model" Gujarat competes with Left-ruled Kerala, sees 28% rise in 2017, 107% since 2010

Latest official figures suggest that “model” Gujarat appears to be competing with Left-ruled Kerala in the spike in illegal mining cases. One of the top four Indian states which have witnessed a spike in illegal mining cases in 2017, Gujarat saw a 28.1% rise in illegal cases in a year, from 6,499 to 8,325, as against Kerala’s saw of a 31.34% rise from from 3,701 to 4,861.

Gujarat's 8% females employable; it's 31% in Rajasthan, 17% in West Bengal, 15% in UP: GoI-supported, CII-backed report

A new Government of India (GoI)-supported report , prepared by Wheebox, an online talent assessment company, in alliance with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has found that just about 8% of Gujarat’s female workforce is employable in as against 31% in Rajasthan, 23% in Andhra Pradesh, 21% in Karnataka and 20% in Telangana.