By Our Representative In a sharp critique of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2016, passed in the Gujarat state assembly on Thursday, Jameen Adhikar Aandolan Gujarat (JAAG), a land rights network of civil society organisations, has taken strong exception to "dropping" the consent clause and social impact assessment (SIA) provisions of the Central Land Acquisition Act (LAA), 2013.

Modi reaches Washington for Nuclear Safety Summit on March 31 By Our Representative The US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has raised the alarm that with the type of technology to be used for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’s (NPCIL’s) 6,000 MW N-power plant project in Gujarat’s Mithi Virdi region, its actual cost is likely to reach a whopping Rs 6.3 lakh crore to Rs 11.3 lakh crore, as against the official estimate of Rs 60,000 crore.

By Our Representative A controversial legislation, introduced in the American House of Representatives, US-India Defense Technology and Partnership Act, claiming to underline "fundamental changes between today’s political environment", wants Indian soldiers to fight with other foreign soldiers "alongside US forces, thereby reducing the risk to American men and women."

By Our Representative Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a letter to the European Union (EU), written amidst EU-India summit on March 30, has said that even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks "greater foreign investment in the private sector for initiatives such as Make in India, showcasing Indian democracy and diversity abroad, it uses laws such as the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to restrict foreign funding for civil society groups."

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers may remember the recommendations of the P J Nayak Committee constituted to examine the governance of boards of commercial banks a couple of years ago. This Committee gave its report in May 2014 . One of its findings was that coverage of the public sector banks (PS Banks) under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) was hampering their ability to compete with their rivals in the private sector. No data was produced in support of this finding. Ever since, we at CHRI have examined this claim year after year in the light of the Annual Reports released by the Central Information Commission which contain RTI application statistics submitted by these PS Banks under Section 25 of the RTI Act. The Annual Report of the CIC for the year 2014-15 is out. As we wait for the uploading of the e-version of this report on its website, our findings based on a rapid analysis of the RTI statistics of 24 PS Banks is given below. Two years ago we started examining the data f...

By Our Representative Is Britain's Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron following US Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump in allegedly whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment? It would seem so, if a recent report the British newspaper “The Guardian” is any indication.

By Rajiv Shah A recent study , sponsored by the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangaluru, has said that Ahmedabad's tree cover fell from 46% to 24% over the last 20 years, while the city's built-up area up increased by 132%. It predicts, by 2030, the vegetation cover will go down to 3% of Ahmedabad's area.

By Our Representative The Government of India has rejected a right to information (RTI) plea seeking information about “laws, rules and regulations” that explain the nature and the extent of legal protection provided to officers and employees of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), who are engaged in overseas intelligence operations.

By Our Representative A fresh fear has engulfed thousands of residents of Ahmedabad: The high-profile metro rail project, which was taken up a decade after it was supposed to have been launched, will not only displace them. They may not get compensation under the Land Acquisition Act (LAA), 2013, as "promised" by the Gujarat government's special purpose vehicle (SPV) to implement the project.

Rohith Vemula By Our Representative Over 300 academicians, activists, artists and writers, including well known linguist Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have condemned what they have called "state violence and unlawful detention of faculty and student protesters of the University of Hyderabad".

By Rajiv Shah A new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study, which seeks to give policy directions to India on how to reduce child marriage, has said that in Gujarat's rural areas, the despicable practice is “strongly associated with caste membership”, and underlines, “Child marriage rates are highest among richer, high caste girls.” 

Screenshot on which Sinha commented By Our Representative Gujarat's young human rights activist and social media campaigner Pratik Sinha has said that Facebook has "banned" him again, this time for three days. Reason, according to him, is a comment on the screentshot of a tweet by well-known Narendra Modi-supporter and commentator Minhas Merchant.

By Neeraj Nanda* India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is visiting Australia on a four-day official when he lands in Sydney on March 29. The visit also takes him to Canberra and Melbourne. He will meet the Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, among others during his visit.

By Our Representative The Influential New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, has “immediately release” of Prabhat Singh, a reporter for the Hindi daily Patrika, who was arrested in the south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on Monday.

Mayawati By Rajiv Shah A recent interaction by Counterview with around 50 Dalit youths off Ahmedabad suggested that Dalits from Uttar Pradesh feel relatively more empowered to fight against untouchability and caste discrimination compared to other states. In fact, the interaction showed that blatant discrimination against the Dalits may have become a thing of the past in that state.

By Rajiv Shah  Discrimination is writ large on their face, whether it was distribution of water, entry into the temple, getting haircut from the local barber, or constructing toilets. Around 50 of them had come all the way from different parts of India to be “empowered” at the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a unique institute about 20 kilometres south of Ahmedabad, set up by Dalit rights activist Martin Macwan more than a decade ago. A few of them, like Babloo from a small village in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand, has faced attacks from dominant castes when they tried entering into the local temple. “We tried doing it by forming a group of 150. We were attacked. Police refused to take complaint. Even today, they threaten me”, he says. Yet another youth hailing from a nearby village in the same district, Dinesh Jonsara, said, entry into the temple, situated in Lakshiyar town, is banned for Dalits even those who helped construct it. “My father was a mason. I helped him build the templ...

By Our Representative In a letter to Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel, a well-known Dalit rights NGO Navsarjan Trust’s activist, Prakashbhai Jayantibhai Parmar, has given the instance of two villages of Surendranagar district to point towards how, despite availability of Narmada waters, the Dalits are being deprived of drinking water.

By Amit Srivastava* In continued troubles for the Coca-Cola company in India, a press release issued March 17, 2016 indicated that the company has stopped production in another two bottling plants in India – in addition to the three bottling plants that were shut down earlier this year.The Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL), which runs 24 bottling plants in India according to its website, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta.

Meghnad Desai By Our Representative In a major U-turn, Meghnad Desai, emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, has taken strong exception to the idea of Hindu nationalism, as pursued by the BJP and the Narendra Modi government, saying, it sharply differs from what the freedom fighter the party reveres the most – Vinayak Damodar Savarkar -- thought.

By Our Representative Nearly 350 skilled workers of the Tata Nano factory, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought to Gujarat from West Bengal about eight years ago, were detained by the police at the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) Gate No 2 in Sanand, a new industrial hub 12 km from Ahmedabad.

By Our Representative In a development of major policy implication for India, United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, chose caste discrimination as the theme of her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council, which she presented at Geneva on March 15, 2016.

By Our Representative An analysis of the just-released Annual Report of the Central Information Commission (CIC), the Central right to information (RTI) watchdog, has revealed that the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessed a whopping 44% increase in the number of RTI applications received in 2014-15 (12,674) as compared to 2013-14 (7,077).

By Pankti Jog* On October 12, 2015, Harkhabhai Parmar, filed a right to information (RTI) application with the taluka development officer (TDO) of Sui Gam Taluka, Banakantha district, for seeking details of criteria for the selection of families for flood relief, handed over following one of the worst-ever floods that took place during monsoon that year.

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Annual Report of the Central Information Commission (CIC) for the year 2014-15 is out. While the soft copy is not yet uploaded on the CIC’s website, I obtained a hard copy from the office of the CIC on request. Our preliminary findings based on the latest Annual Report in comparison with similar reports of previous years are given below. Trends in RTI statistics reporting: Only 2,030 public authorities under the Government of India registered to submit their RTI returns under Section 25 of The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) in 2014-15. The most number of public authorities registered for any reporting year was in 2012-13 at 2,333. Of the 2,030 registered public authorities, 75.27% submitted their annual RTI returns to the CIC in 2014-15. The highest percentage of reporting – 89.23% was in the first three months of the implementation of the RTI Act in 2005. However only 938 public authorities had registered themselves with the CIC that year. 2012-13 saw...

The project site By Our Representative Top international environmental NGO Greenpeace has raised the alarm that if India's powerful Adani Group is allowed to go ahead with its Carmichael coal-mining project worth $21.7 billion in Australia, on full production, a whopping 121 million tonnes of greenhouse gas would be released into the atmosphere each year.

Kunvarji Bavalia By Our Representative In a development of far-reaching political significance, the powerful association representing the numerically strong Other Backward Class (OBC) community of Gujarat, Kolis, has announced its backing to the farmers' demand to scrap the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), situated in the south of Ahmedabad, along the Gulf of Khambhat.

By Our Representative Around 400 skilled workers of the prestigious Tata Nano industry, protesting for around three weeks for the formation of union and revocation of their 28 colleagues, were detained in Ahmedabad after they protested against the Gujarat government’s refusal to play the role of an impartial mediator. Along with them, around 12 union leaders were also detained. They were released later.

Sridhar Acharyulu By Our Representative In an important verdict, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that both Central and state ministers are a public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, pointing out, “It is pitiful that a citizen has to file a RTI request to know the timings and process of meeting their chosen minister, which should have been ordinarily provided on their own.”

By Our Representative Dr A Gopalakrishnan, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has accused Government of India's three arms handling nuclear energy – Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) , Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and AERB – of “total lack of transparency”, allowing experts to conjecture what might have happened at the Kakrapar nuclear power plant, which “leaked” on March 11.

By Our Representative Top all-India trade unions (TUs), including left-wing All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU), Congress' Indian National Trade Union Congress, socialist Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), and others, were joined by  civil rights organizations to sharply criticize the Gujarat government for going out of the way to support the Tata Nano management in the 20-day-old strike by about 450 skilled technical workers.

By Our Representative Facts of come to light suggesting that Facebook, world’s biggest social networking site, has sought block or filter posts critical of well-known preacher and Hindu religious guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, involved in a major environmental controversy for holding World Cultural Festival on the banks of Yamuna in Delhi.

By Our Representative The Union health and family welfare ministry's AYUSH department, whose job is to promote alternative medicines (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy), appears to believe that as a matter of “policy” it should not recruit Muslims as Yoga teachers or trainers.

By Pankti Jog* Over 6,000 people gathered from 33 districts of Rajasthan on the culmination of 100 days’ Accountability Yatra, which began on December 1, 2015 at Ajmer. The yatra, led by Magsasay Award winning Right to Information (RTI) pioneer Aruna Roy, attracted national attention in January following a gruesome incident in which a mob led by a BJP MLA attacked activists, injuring several of them.

By Rajiv Shah A report by a top Delhi-based think tank, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), prepared under the direct leadership of Amitabh Kant, ex-secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India, has claims that Gujarat ranks No 1 in the NCAER State Investment Potential Index (N-SIPI), though there is a dig. N-SIPI has been divided into two separate indices. The first one includes five “pillars” based on which the index has been arrived it. These pillars are: labour, infrastructure, economic conditions, political stability and governance, and perceptions of a good business climate. It is called N-SIPI 21, as it includes a survey of 21 states out of 29.

Atanu Chakraborty, IAS By Our Representative Senior babus in the nerve centre of Gujarat’s powerdom, Gandhinagar, are animatedly discussing a pitched battle being fought between a  rugged ex-non-IAS official of the state government, who had been close to a top Modi aide currently in the chief minister’s office (CMO), and one of the most sophisticated Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrats, heading a well-known bluechip state public sector undertaking (PSU).

Suresh Mehta By Our Representative Amidst fresh charges of misappropriation flying high against Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel over giving away land off Gir lions sanctuary in Junagarh at throw away price to partners of her daughter, Gujarat's civil society groups have put up a strong demand to make public findings of the MB Shah Commission, set up in 2011 to investigate into allegations of 14 corruption cases involving state government officials and ministers.

Workers' solidarity protest on February 19 By Our Representative The Rajasthan-Haryana border region of the high-profile Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is burning with industrial unrest. Following the unprecedented unrest by Maruti-Suzuki workers at the Manesar plant, workers at the Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd (HMSI) in Tapukara are up in arms against the alleged resistance from the management to allow a recognized union.

By Our Representative Four retired bureaucrats of the Gujarat government – Haribhai Patel, HK Dash, Rajesh Kishore and SK Nanda – are said to have made the beeline to head a state organization which is long considered toothless, Gujarat Vigilance Commission (GVC). Patel retired from the IAS in 2014, Dash and Kishore in 2015, and Nanda more recently, in February 2016.

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Government of India has tabled the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha. The proposed legislation seeks to give a legal basis for issuing Aadhaar = Unique Identity Number for every person residing in India for at least half the number of days of a 12 month period immediately preceding the date on which he/she seeks enrollment under Aadhaar. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be the key institution responsible for implementing this law across the country (except in J&K). Demographic data such as name, date of birth, address and other details along with biometric information such as photo, fingerprints and iris scan will be collected, databased and preserved by the UIDAI for authentication purposes in future. This exercise begun under an executive resolution of the Central Government has databased more than 900 million people already. Interestingly, Clause 9 of t...

Rampir Tekra near Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad By Our Representative Much to the chagrin of smart city enthusiasts in the Gujarat government, the Government of India has officially admitted, with specific reference to Ahmedabad, that it does not have any fixed definition of smart cities, which it wants to set up at 100 different urban locations across India.

By Our Representative Matu Jansangthan, a people’s organization in Uttarkakhand, has taken strong exception to World Bank clearing Vishnugaad-Peepalkoti hydroelectric project on Alaknanda Ganga river, saying, the Bank’s officials are providing “misleading explanation” that the project-affected people’s problems have been resolved and the project could continue without any hurdle.

Katheriya By Our Representative Former judges, IPS officers, jurists, scientists and businessmen – a list that includes Justice PB Sawant and Julio Ribeiro -- has appealed to the Chief Justice and other Judges of the Supreme Court of India that they take suo motu cognizance on the issue of “alarming and threatening statements” allegedly by those in powerful constitutional positions within the Union government or associated with it.

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

By Our Representative In a sharp critique of the claim that Narendra Modi government's 2016-17 budget is “pro-farmer”, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has allocated less than 3.5% to agriculture, when 55% of India’s population depends on agriculture, which is grossly insufficient particularly when farmers are facing drought.

By Our Representative The recently released Government of India’s (GoI’s) “Economic Survey 2015-16” has come up with a major revelation: That Gujarat, which claims itself to be the financial capital of the country, has, ironically, one of the poorest saving bank penetration in the country, adversely affecting the GoI’s direct bank transfer (DBT) thrust.

Sheldon Pollock (right) with Rohan Murty  By Our Representative A group of right-wing intellectual-supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are on a unique mission: They want to “protect” Indian culture from western “takeover” through a petition. And, how they want to go about doing it? By seeking the ouster top Sanskritist Sheldon Pollock as chief editor of the Murty Classical Library of India.