By Our Representative Even as pointing out that, after five years of decline, India has “jumped” 16 ranks to 55th place in global competitive index, the World Economic Forum in its new report has said the situation on the macroeconomic front “remains worrisome.” While pointing out that India is the third biggest market in the world, up for grabs for global investors, the report finds the situation particularly bad on the social front, especially health and education.

By Tathya Macwan*  In a world where humans have taken over the animal world, some places are setting a different example. Feral pigeons (Columba livia) are known worldwide for their notorious behaviour. They occupy buildings and houses and breed quite fast and make things dirty too. People set up nets and other protection to ward off these pests, but to no avail. They are found abundantly in almost every city. Many other birds are chased off by these feral pigeons and hence are not able to build their nest in their territory. In the Anandnagar area of Ahmedabad city, there is a different trend, however. Just opposite the shattered and unused Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) garden, sprawling with mosquitoes, is a reasonably large area where pigeons thrive. The credit goes to the residents living around this place. People throng to this place during mornings and evenings along with their little kids and family members; just to feed these winged wonders. A female vendor h...

By Rajiv Shah Even when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was meeting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as part of his effort to gather international support for his high-profile Digital India campaign, a new report, sponsored jointly by UNESCO and International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and released by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, has found that India has slipped in global ranking for the use of internet, both broadband and internet in general.

Ansari By Our Representative In a statement which is likely to turn controversial in India, one of the world’s top-most human rights organizations, Amnesty International, has pitched for ending the solitary confinement of Zabiuddin Ansari, suspected of planning and coordinating the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack. His health is said to be deteriorating after he decided to be on a wet hunger strike on August 5, which continues till date.

By Venkatesh Nayak* A recent major development at the international level received very little attention in the Indian media. While the Indian electronic media went gaga over the Prime Minister’s visit to the United States of America (just as the US media was going gaga over the visit of Pope Francis to that country), very little reporting is available locally about the recent adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations General Assembly. At the turn of the millennium the UN General Assembly adopted 8 Millennium Development Goals resolving to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; promote gender equality; reduce child mortality; achieve universal primary education; improve maternal health; ensure environmental sustainability; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and form a global partnership for development. That exercise ended up with a mixed bag of results with countries doing quite well on some goals and defaulting on others. Now the world leaders have...

Screenshot of controversial Facebook source By Our Representative Independent IT buffs have come down heavily on what they claim to be Facebook's effort to compromise net neutrality by asking its IIndian clients to change their FB picture to support the #DigitalIndia campaign following FB founder Mark Zuckerberg's decision to do it after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at FB headquarters in the US.

By Our Representative Facts trickling in from San Jose, California, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a massive 18,000-strong Indian community reception on September 27, suggest that local politicians avoided going to the high-profile event, though invited. Around 3,000 anti-Modi protesters gathered outside the SAP Center, where Modi addressed the Indian diaspora.

By Our Representative In a major victory for the country’s powerful anti-Narmada dam organization led by Medha Patkar, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), the Supreme Court has dismissed the application of the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government denying the right of land to thousands of adult sons of the dam’s oustees.

By Nachiketa Desai* A month ago, a tribal girl in Vyara, the district town of Tapi in South Gujarat, was molested by her employer, and a video of the act was circulated widely on social media. The person who captured the video was another tribal girl in the employ of the accused, who runs a non-government organization (NGO), which receives grants from the state government for running Mahila Sashaktikaran (women’s empowerment) programmes.

By Our Representative Just one day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second meeting with President Barack Obama in US, Mahatma Gandhi's secretary Mahadevbhai Desai's grandson has made a serious allegation against Modi – that the Bhagwad Gita's version Modi presented to Obama during his previous visit was actually authored by his grandfather. Yet, Modi not only changed the title, he even removed Mahadev Desai's name. Mahadev Desai's grandson Nachiketa Desai is one of the senior-most journalists of Gujarat who is currently working as consulting editor (political) with the United News of India, and has been associated with Swaraj Abhiyan, the breakaway group of Aam Aadmi Party.

By Our Representative The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday morning swooped on several activists, trade union and left leaders, including senior activist Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), after it refused permission to take out a farmers' protest rally off Allahabad in protest against the allged refusal of the UP government to provide a viable compensatory package to those being displaced because of the power plants being constructed to meet the state's power needs.

By Rajiv Shah A senior policy expert attached with US government has sharply criticized the Government of India for not doing enough in opening up its economy to the world. Pointing out that “India’s international competitiveness is lagging badly”, the expert says, “The shares of both manufactured and services exports in the economy have stagnated for over three years”, and “the responsiveness of Indian imports to global growth has declined sharply.”

Daniel Altman By Our Representative In a clear effort to provide boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a top US journal has called India as the most important investment destination in the world. The latest rating provided by the high-profile Foreign Policy magazine, which is owned by the FP Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company, formerly the Washington Post Company, has “the big story in the Baseline Profitability Index (BPI) this year is India. coming out on top.”

By Our Representative Social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, is ripe with sharply-worded comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the allegation that he has “insulted” the national flag by signing on it. According to reports from New York, the signed flag was to be handed over by celebrity chef Vikas Khanna to President Barack Obama, whom plans to meet Modi after the latter’s visit to Silicon Valley. Khanna is said to be a four-time Michelin-starred chef. He reportedly cooked a feast on Thursday evening, which included sandalwood saffron sherbet, paneer ravioli, saffron sheermal and mango-ginger soup. Many of the dishes were from his coffee table book on festival cuisine in India, which, too, he was to present Obama.

By Our Representative The latest Economic Freedom Index report, prepared by three of the west's well-known neo-liberal institute, has ranked India at 114th position in the world, below China, which has been ranked No 111th. Titled “Economic Freedom of the World: 2015 Annual Report”, the top report, ironically, has found that India ranked pretty high in economic freedom before liberalization was introduced in 1991, but following some improvement, it again began slipping.

Bose with Japanese PM Hideki Tojo at Shonan, Japan, 1944 By Our Representative An online petition , floated by Mission Netaji, one of the most prolific organizations campaigning for declassifying secret documents related with Subhas Chandra Bose, even as criticizing the Government of India for being “most casual” in taking any steps towards releasing the files, has refused to touch the crucial issue: What are the foreign relations with other countries that would be harmed in case these are declassified.

By Our Representative Is the powerful Adani Group on way to finally get clearance from the Australian government for its controversial coal mining project? It would seem so, if sources in the top environmental watchdog are any indication. A Greenpeace spokesperson has been quoted as saying, “We are expecting the Federal Government to make an announcement next week or so regarding re-issuing approval for the mine.”

Ravi Shankar Prasad By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* The oft-quoted saying “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” has been attributed to several people across the ages; who used these words first is irrelevant. The truth of the matter is that in India, the world’s largest democracy, these immortal words not only carry great weight today but also hold a direction for all Indians.

Online campaign slogan By Our Representative The US-based Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) has begun an online campaign to gather support for its proposed protest in the "safe permitted free speech areas" next to the SAP Center in San Jose, California where the Indian community has planned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public reception on September 27.

Second South Gujarat rally against Central order "ignoring" tribals By Our Representative In a major development, the Government of India’s proposed notification, calling for declaring the seven kiloemtre area around South Gujarat’s one of the most well-preserved Shoolpaneshwar sanctuary as eco-sensitive has zone, has ignored participation of local tribal representatives in the proposed master plan to “develop” the region.

Condition of a government building in Amravan By Our Representative A small village of about 200 in Central India, a majority of whose residents is dependent on mining as the main source of livelihood, is all set to become a major focal point, nationally and internationally. Reason: Allegations of refusal of the Madhya Pradesh government to protect them from forcible eviction from their land.

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* It’s September 21 once again, a day which is observed the world over as the International Day of Peace. Since September 1982, on this day, the United Nations has been calling upon world leaders to remember that the UN as an organisation was created in 1945, with a primary aim: to end all wars and to ensure enduring peace. The day once again will be full of activities and programmes perhaps high profile commemorations. These activities are perhaps needed. We need, however, to go beyond tokenism and cosmeticization. The grim and painful reality however remains: several parts of the world are still caught up in war and hostilities; in hate and violence; in division and discrimination. Everything in fact, which is the antithesis of peace! So much so, the UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, in a message for the day, makes a passionate plea, “I call upon all warring parties to lay down their weapons and observe a global ceasefire. To them I say: Stop the killings and ...

By Ashok Shrimali* A fresh tribal rebellion is brewing in South Gujarat. As many as 6,000 adivasis of 121 villages in and around Soolpaneshwar wildlife sanctuary, situated just next to the controversial Narmada dam, have gone on warpath. They are protesting against the Government of India’s decision to declare the entire sanctuary and the area next to it – about seven kilometers radius surrounding it – as “eco-sensitive zone.”

Shivanand Jha By Our Representative In a second clampdown in less than a month’s time on the use of internet in Gujarat, the Gujarat government has banned the use of mobile internet and SMS services in Ahmedabad and Surat cities starting at 11.00 am. An order signed by Ahmedabad police commissioner Shivanand Jha said, the services will not be available till September 20 midnight. Landline broadband, however, has been allowed to function normally.

By Our Representative In a fresh development, a section of the Patidar community living in the USA has declared its “wholehearted welcome” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his upcoming visit to the USA. Suggesting that the community is now intensely divided, the development comes less than 48 hours after a top community leader, Alpesh Patel, sought police permission for a rally against Modi near UN headquarters on September 25.

By Our Representative Well-known farmers' leader Sagar Rabari of Jameen Adhikar Andolan has stepped up his campaign against the high profile special investment region (SIR) being planned for Dholera by acquiring 50 per cent land from the farmers of 22 villages.

By Our Representative A new report , prepared by the Cornell University, US, has rated India at 81st position in Global Innovation Index (GII) 2015, suggesting, despite a regime change in the country, things have failed to improve. The report says, “Over the last four years India has witnessed a reduction in its overall GII ranking, which dropped from 62nd place in 2011 to 76th in 2014.”

By Our Representative In what could be a wakeup call for the Congress, a survey by an American thinktank, Pew International, which created a flutter in 2013 by declaring huge support for Narendra Modi, declared Prime Ministerial candidate for the BJP, has in fact found support for Modi going up, despite “rising worries” among Indians about crime, jobs, prices and corruption. Titled “The Modi Bounce”, even Modi critics cannot take the Pew survey lightly, despite its small sample size – 2,452 respondents. The survey was conducted from April 6 to May 19, 2015. The earlier survey, conducted in 2014, (click HERE ) ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, had said that two-thirds of Indians supported Modi-led BJP.

By RK Misra* He that sleeps feels not the tooth-ache. An India in somnolent slumber after voting for development in 2014 may wake up to find itself saddled with an archaic agenda riding astride a society in strife. For starters, take meat. As if on cue, state after BJP-ruled state has suddenly woken up to the overarching religious need for keeping meat and fish shops as well as abattoirs closed on Hindu and Jain festival days.

By Venkatesh Nayak* Earlier, I had written (click HERE ) about a new template that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has developed for capturing data about instances of attacks on RTI users, social activists, whistleblowers and media persons. Thanks to a diligent colleague who drew my attention to the existence of this template, I was able to bring this new development to your attention. I had pointed out some lacunae in the template which if refined, could become a major tool for collecting authentic data from the police stations about attacks on such socially sensitive citizens as a first step to towards reducing their occurrence. Having read that details of the article, Baijayant (Jay) Panda, Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from the State of Odisha, took upon himself the task of writing to the NCRB with suggestion that the template be revised. Kudos to him for his sensitive approach to this burning topic. He wrote a letter to the Director General (DG), NCRB. Apart from...

By Our Representative Flutter in the Indian American community in the US around Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to the the US, especially Silicon Valley on September 27, 2015, has intensified, following the Alliance for Justice And Accountability (AJA) – a broad coalition of progressive organizations – declaring that it will hold a campaign to hold Modi “accountable” for past and present attacks on the freedoms and human rights of Indian communities.

By Our Representative The director-general (DG) of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Government of India, has declared that the bureau cannot revise the new template for capturing the number of murders of right to information (RTI) users, social activists, whistleblowers and mediapersons separately, in addition to the instances of grievous hurts, separately, so that these could be counted as human rights violations.

Maharashtra CM Fadnavis By Our Representative The recent World Bank-prepared Government of India-sponsored report placing Gujarat as No 1 state in ease of doing business has rankled several states, considered highly industrial, such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Reacting sharply, while the Maharashtra government has said it would ask the Centre to recommend to World Bank to "reassess" the ranking (No 8), the Tamil Nadu government has said the report's analysis ranking the state No 12 is "purely a perception-based" and not on "factuals and efficiencies".

World Bank-supported chart By Our Representative A Government of India report, supported by World Bank, consultants KPMG, and two top industry bodies, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), has placed Gujarat No 1 for “ease of doing business”, but point out, this has been possible because of cent per cent compliance to environmental laws, an area in which it is most suspected by environmentalists.

By Rajiv Shah Latest information, gathered by Gujarat-based non-government organization (NGO) Janvikas, indicates that even a decade after the Gujarat government declared it favoured implementing the controversial 15 point programmes of the Prime Minister for “ameliorating” the plight of minorities, things remain struck where they were in 2006. Official sources say, the matter has been under “active consideration” ever since, and there is no indication when it will be implemented.

By Our Representative In a major fillip to the Narmada Bachao Andolan's (NBA's) campaign against the Gujarat government going ahead with raising the height of the Narmada dam from 122 to 139 metres, a high-profile people's tribunal consisting of four retired justices of various high courts have called upon the Supreme Court and the Government of India to “urgently review” the status of displacement, submergence and rehabilitation of the Narmada dam oustees before allowing the dam construction to continue.

Rostrum of the RSS-sponsored meet By Nachiketa Desai* Journalists and press photographers from Ahmedabad were invited to attend the inaugural session of a two-day all-India workshop of the women volunteers and office-bearers of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at a Hindu temple-cum-educational institution complex at Pirana village, some 25 km away from the city.

Bharatsinh Solanki By Our Representative One day after Gujarat's upcoming farmers' organization, Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), accused the Congress of adopting a lackadaisical attitude towards new land laws being brought by the state BJP rulers for favouring industrialists, the state Congress leadership has asked the the Gujarat Governor not to sign the controversial Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling (Amendment) Bill, 2015, calling it anti-weaker sections.

Dholera region, a target of land acquisition in Gujarat By Our Representative In a surprise move, the powerful Gujarat farmers' body Jameen Adhikar Aandolan Gujarat (JAAG), has taken strong exception to the main opposition party in the state, Congress, for being completely “lackadaisical in discharging” its “constitutional duty” of standing farmers against the state government latest land acquisition moves.

Modi with RSS chief Bhagwat By RK Misra* Politicians and pundits enjoy floating pretentious bubbles when chasing power and pelf. Once in, the remaining time is spent either in denial, deceit or demagogy. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is no exception. A political pugilist akin to Mohammed Ali, Modi as chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 had also incorporated the one time World Champion’s classic slogan ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ into his style sheet.

By Our Representative In a move without precedence, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, has knocked at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) doors to inquire into “police atrocities” on the Patidar agitators following their powerful rally in Ahmedabad on August 25. The move is significant, as many Gujarat activists and human rights defenders alike had till now considered Patidars – or Patels – as a “wealthy” and "exploitative" caste.

By Our Representative A new United Nations (UN) report has suggested that India hasn’t yet achieved its millennium development goal (MDG) for 2015, of 42 under-five mortality (U5M) every 1,000 births. Stuck at 48 U5M down from 126 in 1990 and 91 in 2000, India is still a little away from the MDG by 6 points.

By Our Representative In a major move to “undermine” Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI), which was calculated for determining whether a particular region complies with environmental norms or not, the Government of India is all set to drop what are called “eco-geological factors” to determine pollution norms.

By Darshan Desai* These are no isolated cases in Gujarat… >Gordhan Chauhan, 52, received a phone call at his Ahmedabad home in the afternoon of February 25 that his youngest brother Soma had fallen on the road and died of severe head injuries in their native village Kharad in Ahmedabad district’s Dhandhuka taluka (tehsil). On reaching there, along with relatives, he was aghast to find that Soma, somewhere in his mid-twenties, was murdered by an upper caste man and his goons.

By Our Representative In a fresh calculation, the backwater levels in some of the villages along Narmada during heavy floods in Madhya Pradesh would be around around 155 metres once the Narmada dam across Gujarat, currently under construction, reaches the full reservoir level (FRL) at 138.68 metres.

By Our Representative In an important twist to South Gujarat police questioning well-known tribal farmers rights activist Romel Sutariya following his complaint to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) about police-politician-contractor nexus into “illegal” sand mining, a top advocacy group, Human Rights Defenders Alert (HRDA), India, has sought urgent NHRC intervention, asking it to carry out an “an independent investigation” into the “reprisal for approaching NHRC”.

Screenshot of Gujarat's online voting site through Firefox on Sept 9 morning By Our Representative The Gujarat State Election Commission's (SEC's) “offer” a few days back to allow the voters to the state's municipal corporation elections, likely next month, that they could register on its website to avail of the “opportunity” offered by it for online voting, has failed security check on selected, more secure computer devices. As one visited  the website's link for registering on a laptop for online voting, https://onlinevotinggujarat.gov.in/ , a security alert declared that the site is not safe.

A uranium mine in South Australia By Our Representative In a setback to India, a new report by the Australian Parliament’s treaties committee has said that there are “some significant risks” in selling uranium to India. India sealed an agreement for the supply of uranium for “peaceful uses of nuclear energy” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia in September 2014.