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  A Union finance ministry reply to a right to information (RTI) plea has revealed that, as of February 2015, as many as  804 projects were stalled due to variety of reasons, but just about eight per cent of the projects (66) were stalled because of land acquisition problems. Based on the reply, Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative says, this suggests, "the argument that the slowdown in the economy is due to land acquisition projects is a myth."

  The new 2011 Census of India data on child marriage has opened yet another chapter about the failure of the Gujarat government’s save the girl child campaign during the chief ministership of Narendra Modi (2001-14). The data reveal that, compared to other states, Gujarat has one of the lowest percentage of women of all ages who may been forced to tie their nuptial knot before 8, yet, in 2011, at the time of Census data collection, it had one of the highest proportion of married females below 18.

Top Gujarat government ex-bureaucrat known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maheswar Sahu, wants the state officialdom to tighten the state’s noose over corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of industrial houses. In a recently released book, “Small but Meaningful: CSR in Practice”, Sahu, who retired as additional chief secretary, industries, in 2014, has said the state must introduce “economic disincentives for irresponsible corporate behaviour”, even as encouraging “socially responsible business practices.”

It is titled “Small but Meaningful”, and is subtitled “CSR in Practice”. Authored by Maheswar Sahu, an influential Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat who retired as state industries secretary in 2014, who claims to be “instrumental” in organizing Narendra Modi’s high profile Vibrant Gujarat business summits of 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2013, the book has Jeevan Prakash Mohanty, a researcher at the Energy and Resources Institute, as the second author. While poor production and print quality may seem jarring, making many to believe it is over-priced (Rs 1,100), a peep into the book would provide one with an insight into how independently and analytically some of our high-profile bureaucrats have been thinking. One of the claims of the book is, it offers “case studies” of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of 11 business houses in Gujarat. However, what strikes one most, as one glances through each of the case studies, is that Sahu and Mohanty accept whatever information is offered to ...

   Fresh data in the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) report, ‘Household Consumer Expenditure across Socio-Economic Groups,’ make an important revelation. Released in February 2015, the figures provided in the report suggest that the purchasing power of the three socially disadvantaged groups in Gujarat – scheduled tribes (STs), scheduled castes (SCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) – is considerably less than in most of the Indian states, especially in the rural areas. But this is not the case with the dominant sections in the rural areas, identified as ‘Others’. Calculated as monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE), the purchasing power figures are based on NSSO’s survey in 2011-12. The data speak for themselves, and need little comment. In Gujarat’s rural areas, the STs’ average MPCE is Rs 1,155, which is less than 12 out of 20 major Indian states (Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Tamil ...

  Fresh data released by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) in the report “Household Consumer Expenditure across Socio-Economic Groups” have suggested the purchasing power of the three socially disadvantaged groups – scheduled tribes (STs), scheduled castes (SCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) – in Gujarat is considerably less than what prevails in most of the Indian states, especially in the rural areas. Calculated as monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE), purchasing power figures are based on NSSO’s survey in 2011-12. The report was released in February 2015. In Gujarat’s rural areas, the STs’ average MPCE is Rs 1,155, which is less than 12 out of 20 major Indian states (Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra). The SCs’ average MPCE is Rs 1,374, which is less than 11 major states (Kerala, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Prades...

Navsarjan School A decade-long experiment, taking shape 100 kilometres from Ahmedabad, halfway to Rajkot, the business hub of Saurashtra region of Gujarat, appears have largely gone unnoticed. Just next to the National Highway 8A, not very far from the sleepy Katariya village, the premier Dalit rights NGO of Gujarat, Navsarjan Trust, is running a higher primary school, for classes 5 to 8, seeking to turn it into a “model” for other schools to follow. It is one of the three schools run by Navsarjan — the other two being near the Rayka village in Ahmedabad district and Sami village in Patan district. As we entered the campus the other day, nobody seemed to be around. An eerie quiet prevailed, as if. Suddenly, a child spotted us, and declared “Martinbhai!” And, all of a sudden, a horde of children began peeping through a window, and many of them came out, welcoming us, smiling, eager to shake hands with their Martinbhai — and me. What a striking contrast it was from other primary schools,...