By Our Representative The inter-state comparison of 16 selected states in the latest “Economic Survey 2015-16”, released by the Government of India last week, has demonstrated that Gujarat has behind most of the Indian states in enrolling children to its schools, despite its much-publicized annual campaign in which the entire bureaucracy participates under the leadership of the chief minister.

Melbourne event: Those attending included Consulate staff By Our Representative The Government of India’s apparent move to “shift” the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) celebration this year to NRIs living abroad, instead of making it a big annual event on January 9 in Delhi, as was the tradition, is failing to get necessary response, if what happened in Melbourne, Australia, is any indication.

By Our Representative In a development that is likely go a long to adversely affect Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image building exercise worldwide, eight senators and 26 members of the US House of Representatives have urged him to take urgent steps to “enforce” the rule of law and “protect communities” from what they called “religiously-motivated harassment and violence” in India.

By Our Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), the apex body of tens of mass organizations across the country, has sharply criticized the NDA for government for failing to follow the tradition of pre-budget consultations organized by the Union Finance Ministry during the UPA government, saying these were “a dialogue in democratic decency."

By Our Representative In its just-released annual report, Amnesty International has sharply criticized the Government of India for arbitrarily arresting and detaining “human rights defenders, journalists and protesters”, pointing out how authorities have been using the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) to restrict organizations from receiving foreign funding and harass NGOs and activists.

By Rajiv Shah Is Gujarat government not interested in non-resident Indian (NRI) supporters to officially know what’s happening in Gujarat, propagated as India’s model state? Facts have come light suggesting that the state’s information technology (IT) establishment has firewalled several Gujarat government websites’ access worldwide, except India, for security reasons.

BJP MP Udit Raj at 2013 JNU  Mahishasur martyrdom  function  By Our Representative Union human resources minister Smriti Irani may have triggered hornet’s nest by declaring in Parliament on February 24 that celebrating Mahishasura martyrdom day in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on October 4, 2014 was misuse of the “freedom of speech”. From early indications, reactions are likely to be sharp, especially among Dalits, Adivasis and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Sadanand Dhume By Our Representative America’s top business daily, “The Wall Street Journal” (WSJ), has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the Union budget that he should realize, “the famous Gujarat model is not working in Delhi”, adding, “A vast country cannot be run like a relatively homogenous state.”

By Our Representative A massive rally, organized under the banner of Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, has demanded that the NDA government should withdraw the “regressive” Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, and begin implementing the “progressive” Land Acquisition Act (LAA), 2013.

GSDP rate at constant prices By Our Representative A calculation based on the budget papers of the Gujarat government suggests that the Gross State Domestic Price (GSDP) at constant prices, calculating by deducting inflationary factors, would grow by 6.7 per cent in fiscal 2015-16, which is approximately one per cent less than the national average estimated by the Government of India – 7.6 per cent.

Soni Sori in Delhi for treatment after acid attack By Our Representative In an open letter to the Chief Justice of India for “immediate intervention” into the physical attacks and eviction drives against women activists by “police and vigilante groups” in Chhattisgarh, the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has said that the state machinery in Chhattisgarh “has failed the adivasis entirely.”

By RK Misra* Nothing grows under a banyan tree. Again, dazzling light, shattering sound and pummeling propaganda may induce, even overawe, but rarely inspires. Whether It is Indira Gandhi or Narendra Modi, two diverse ends of the Indian political spectrum, neither nurture leaders. They only have sub-ordinates and followers. The Congress is already facing the repercussions, the BJP will do so over time.

JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar arrested for sedition By Our Representative In an important statement, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) national president Prof Prabhakar Sinha has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching an attack and arresting Jawaharlal Nehru University students “on flimsy and ridiculous grounds” as part of his “fascist strategy.”

Modi with Rajnath Singh By Our Representative Influential US daily “The New York Times” (NYT) has blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and his governance for what it has called “lynch-mob mentality”, which erupted in Delhi following the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar on February 12 on charges of sedition.

Khalid Umar By Our Representative Civil society has sharply stepped up its campaign on the “constitutional right to dissent” amidst Umar Khalid, 28-year-old PhD student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) reappearing on the campus along with his colleagues Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash.

By Our Representative A commemorative event organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi, on the occasion of the 58th death anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (February 22), speakers made it an occasion to remind the Government of India the great patriot, who stood by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru during the freedom struggle, remains “neglected”.

By Our Representative Has a section of India’s right wing begun losing confidence in Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the events that followed the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union president Kanhiya Kumar on February 12? It would seem so, if one believes in what the top boss of a well-known right-wing e-magazine has to say.

By Our Representative Soni Sori, widely recognized as the face of tribal people’s struggle in Chhattisgarh, has been attacked by acid-like black chemical, thrown on her face by unidentified persons in the state’s Bastar region. She reported an intense burning sensation to her colleagues, and was taken to a hospital in Jagdalpur town.

By Our Representative Regretting “lack of clarity in public discourse”, a top Narendra Modi aide has declared that the Government of India (GoI) may not be able to pump in resources in its ambitious “Smart City initiative”. The aide, Bibek Debroy, has declared, even “interpreting smartness” is not a GoI concern.

By Our Representative Even one-and-a-half years after Government of India (GoI)-appointed high-level committee under Dr Shailesh Nayak, Director, Ministry of Earth Sciences, submitted its review the 2011 law on Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ), the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has refused to make its public, leading to policy confusion, alleges a top advocacy group.

By Our Representative Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement issued in New York, has demanded that the Indian authorities should stop charging “peaceful activists with sedition for alleged anti-national speech.” “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is promoting Indian democracy around the world as an attractive market, yet back home, his administration is cracking down on peaceful dissent,” it said.

Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group activists By Our Representative Two female human rights lawyers in Chhattisgarh belonging to the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group (JagLAG), who recently took up the cause of journalist Malini Subramaniam, a scroll.in contributor, are under threat, and are under pressure to leave their residence following "harassment and intimidation" by the police.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash sj* The cry for social justice has become today loud, clear and very shrill! It is a cry that no longer seems to be the prerogative of only the poor and the marginalized as several from across the social strata want their voices to be heard; these include students from prestigious universities in India and abroad, academia and intellectuals, litterateurs and poets, film-makers, playwrights and other celebrities – the list is endless. The cry, the refrain is the same everywhere, “We want Justice!”; one is reminded of the uprising of workers led by trade union leaders of yesteryears. This time however, whilst the script remains the same- the ‘dramatis personae’ has changed. Those who cry out are not just crying out for themselves – they are crying out for the rights of others, for the sanctity enshrined in the Constitution, for democracy, for the children of tomorrow! So February 20th 2016, the ‘World Day of Social Justice’, comes to all of us as a grim reminder tha

Counterview Desk A just-released World Bank study noted sharp “acceleration in the pace of the urbanization of poverty” in India, especially since 2000, saying, in the early 1950s, 14 per cent of the country’s poor lived in urban areas, but by 2012 this rose to 32 per cent.

By Our Representative Amnesty International has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on recent events in Delhi in the wake of arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, saying, “India’s Prime Minister has spoken repeatedly at home and abroad of his government’s commitment to the rule of law. Those promises are increasingly ringing hollow.”

By Our Representative Prominent advocacy group, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), has sought Supreme Court for “immediate” and “resolute” action against the Delhi Police for the recent assault on “students, teachers, mediapersons, opposition party workers, and eminent lawyers appointed by the Supreme Court to report on the situation in the Patiala House Court complex in Delhi.”

Chomsky, Pamuk By Our Representative International pressure against police action against Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) sharply shot, with top names including Noam Chomsky, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Laureate, Turkey, condemning "the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated".

By Our Representative In a move without any precedence, the Chhattisgarh government has cancelled the right of the tribals over land, formally given to them by the state authorities under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) after the gram sabha of the village, to which the land belonged, formally approved of it.

Kanhaiya Kumar By Our Representative The Fist Information Report (FIR) regarding the controversial arrest of Jawarhalal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar on February 10 on charges of sedition is still not been put in public domain by the Delhi Police, a senior human rights and Right to Information (RTI) activist, Venkatesh Nayak, has revealed.

By Venkatesh Nayak* Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where I spent a decade studying and researching history, is in the news all over again. I remember, in those days, a leading English language national daily would advertise itself as being an indispensable part of the breakfast served at JNU every morning. Today efforts are being made to tarnish the legacy and the image of this reputable university whose graduates are part of the rank and file of many a political party and also occupy the upper echelons of the public administration. While some have called for changing its name while others have called for its shut down. More specifically, a handful of students have been arrested by the Delhi Police on charges of ‘sedition’. The Police are reported to be conducting searches across the campus entering student’s hostels in what is primarily a residential University. The purpose of this email alert is not to conduct an investigation or a trial into the events that transpired on 09 Feb

Construction underway for the Art of Living event By Our Representative Top environmentalists, social activists and former bureaucrats have taken strong exception to “clearing, compacting, dumping of earth and construction underway over some 1,000 acres of active flood plain of river Yamuna in Delhi” for the 35th anniversary of the Art of Living Foundation in March 2016.

JNU assistant professor Dr Rohit addressing protesters By Our Representative In a strong defence of protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi against police action and arrest of JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges, top historian Romila Thapar has said she is “delighted by the reaction” on the campus, where students and teachers came together to “defend” not just those who were arrested and also the university.

By Our Representative A fresh round of farmers’ protests are in the offing in south of Ahmedabad. Angry with the “refusal” of the Gujarat government to withdraw its decision to de-command 28,203 hectare, the farmers 22 villages of Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) in Ahmedabad district have begun indefinite relay fast to provide them irrigation water from the Narmada canal.

By Our Representative Following the “exposure” by political activists that the BJP student-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) acted as agent provocateurs, shouting “Pakistan zindabad” slogans, India’s home minister Rajnath Singh is under cloud for using a fake Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed to showcase how the protesting Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students had “terrorist” support.

By Our Representative Is the Madhya Pradesh government jittery over the findings of the SS Jha Commission, looking into embezzlement of funds meant for the rehabilitation of the Narmada dam oustees? It would seem so, looking into the stance it took in the High Court on releasing the report.

Protest at JNU campus against the arrest By Our Representative Did students attached with the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) shout “Pakistan zindabad” slogans during a demonstration at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)? This is what well-known feminist and secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association Kavita Krishnan has sought to suggest , even as releasing a video through twitter allegedly showing their faces, asking people to circulate it "widely."

By Rajiv Shah Contrary to the notion spread by free market economists close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who believe huge state funds are being “wasted away” on social safety net programmes meant to benefit the poor, a World Bank report says, India spends just about 0.72 per cent of the Gross National Product (GDP) on them.

By Our Representative International pressure on the Narendra Modi government to urgently act for protecting the journalists, who are caught in the crossfire between the BJP government in Chhattisgarh and Naxalite insurgents, has sharply gone up, with at least four of the most well-known organizations taking strong exception to attack on scribes and human rights defenders in the state.

By Ashok Shrimali* Proposed opencast mining by the Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) around several of the villages that form Kenda gram panchayat – Kenda, South Kenda, Saldanga, Ban Dhowra, Jhanti Ban, Mandol Para, Majh Para, Konda Koli and Bauri Para – is threatening to evict around 2,035 families living in the Raniganj coalfield area of West Bengal.

Per person labour productivity in US$ (2014 prices) By Our Representative India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), an associate of the New York-based Fitch Group, has suggested that India’s Gross National Product (GDP) growth is unlikely to grow by 9%, as predicted by the Government of India, because labour productivity of late has been progressively going down, with no signs of improvement.

By Our Representative The controversial law Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, which came into force last month, may have paved the way for juveniles between 16 and 18 to be tried as adults for heinous crimes. But an expert data analysis of the Civil Registration System has revealed that just about 56.2 per cent of India’s births were registered in 2000.

By Venkatesh Nayak* On 08 January, 2016, the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) issued a Proclamation under Section 92(1) of the Constitution of J&K taking over the reins of the State administration. The passing away of the then Chief Minister Jenaab Mufti Mohammad Sayeed a day earlier and the inability to find a successor to take over, precipitated this situation. While the print and the electronic media reported on the developments extensively, hardly any official document has been placed in the public domain except the Proclamation itself. Under Section 92(1) of the J&K Constitution, the Governor J&K is required to seek the concurrence of the President of India for issuing such a Proclamation. None of this correspondence has been placed officially in the public domain till date. Although the Proclamation is published in the Official Gazette, it is not uploaded on the Raj Bhavan website. it is available only on the official website of the General Administration Depa

Dr Shaikh Ghulam Rasool By Our Representative The Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Raj Bhawan has set aside a right to information (RTI) application by Dr Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, chairperson, J&K RTI Movement, seeking copies of correspondence between the Governor and the President of India on the imposition of Governor's rule in J&K on January 8, saying, a case on placing Governors under RTI is pending Supreme Court.

A cartoon on AIIB appearing in "Business Monitor" in 2014 By Our Representative India’s top civil society organizations have taken strong exception to manner in which India’s membership to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multi-national Asian bank founded by the Government of China, was ratified on January 16 “without any public debate”.

Banaskantha floods, July 2015 By Pankti Jog* On one hand, the Gujarat government is selling big dreams of “digital India” through the Digital Saksharat Abhiyaan (DISHA), but, on the other, a Dalit RTI activist from Banaskatha district is waiting for information related to flood relief beneficiaries for the last four months, and is being pressured to withdraw his application by anti-social elements involved in corruption.

By Our Representative Coca-Cola, one of the world’s premier soft drinks corporations, has stopped production at its bottling plant in Kala Dera in Jaipur, Rajasthan, with no plans to resume operations. Quoting a document in Hindi, India Resource Centre (IRC), a Global Resistance project, which campaigned against the plant, says that the plant was “disputed” as it was "indiscriminately mining groundwater."

By Rajiv Shah India’s urban housing shortage, which was estimated to be 18.78 million units by 2012-end, is expected to grow by a “compound annual growth rate of 6.6 per cent over the next decade, the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) has said, adding, 95 per cent of this shortage is of the economically weaker sections (EWS) and lower income group (LIG).

By Our Representative An estimated 49,000 families, or over 234,000 people, in urban areas were evicted forcefully from their homes between 2010 and 2015, according to information collated by the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), which represents tens of people’s organizations fighting for housing rights across India.

Medha Parkar leading agitation in Narmada valley, Madhya Pradesh By Our Representative The Madhya Pradesh government has “accepted” the demand to hold public hearing on the rehabilitation of tens of villages of Dhar and Badwani districts in Narmada valley ahead of any displacement orders due to the Narmada dam, currently under construction up to the full reservoir level of 138.64 metres.

Female participation rate in India in MGNREGA By Our Representative Recently released data has suggested that, in 2014-15, the participation of Gujarat women in the Government of India’s premier rural guarantee scheme of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), at 43 per cent, is higher than just seven other major Indian states out of 21.