A backward tag for the prosperous
News : Supreme Court stepped in this week to scrutinise the United Progressive Alliance government’s decision to include the Jat community in the central list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) for the purpose of reservation in jobs and educational institutions.
The bulk of the Jat community is itself unconvinced about the “wretched condition of poor rural Jats” and the usefulness of the ‘backward’ tag it now has.
National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) - rejected the case of Jats as deserving of reservation and maintained that “they are not socially and educationally backward communities.” The Commission also said: “Ethnically they are at a higher level; they are of Indo-Aryan descent; their education level is high and so is their social status ... Even in the absence of reservation in the central services, Jats are adequately represented in the armed forces, government services and educational institutions.”
Three-judge Supreme Court Bench headed by the Chief Justice, P. Sathasivam, had issued directions to the state, the railways, and several organisations to implement the provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
The author has pointed out towards a clause in the act which he is highly critical of.
After ruling that “entering sewer lines without safety gears should be made a crime even in emergency situations,” the Bench added a caveat: “For each such death, compensation of Rs. 10 lakhs should be given to the family of the deceased.”
This, in effect, is like saying these deaths — rather murders — will continue to happen.
U.S. secretly built ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest
The U.S. government masterminded the creation of a “Cuban Twitter” — a communications network designed to undermine the communist government in Cuba, built with secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks, The Associated Press has learned.
First, the network would build a Cuban audience, mostly young people; then, the plan was to push them toward dissent.
At minimum, details uncovered by the AP appear to muddy the USAID’s longstanding claims that it does not conduct covert actions, and could undermine the agency’s mission to deliver aid to the world’s poor and vulnerable an effort that requires the trust and cooperation of foreign governments.
The project, dubbed “ZunZuneo,” slang for a Cuban hummingbird’s tweet, was publicly launched shortly after the 2009 arrest in Cuba of American contractor Alan Gross. He was imprisoned after travelling repeatedly to the country on a separate, clandestine USAID mission to expand Internet access using sensitive technology that only governments use.
Gay activists and the Naz Foundation on Thursday moved the Supreme Court with a curative petition, seeking to correct its judgment which upheld the validity of Section 377 of the IPC (criminalising homosexual relations).
The Delhi High Court had held that Section 377 of the IPC violated Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution but the apex court on December 11, 2013 set aside this ruling and upheld the validity of this Section. On January 28 this year, it dismissed a batch of review petitions.
The new banking licences issued to IDFC and Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited and the Reserve Bank’s intention to consider the application of Department of Posts separately in consultation with the Central Government are likely to widen the scope for financial inclusion.
The current guidelines require new banks to set up 25 per cent branches in un-banked rural locations with population up to 9,999.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Wednesday, decided to keep in abeyance its decision to grant banking licence to the Department of Posts (DoP) for setting up the Post Bank of India (PBI), thanks to sheer indecisiveness on the part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government that has been sitting on the issue for the past three months.
“The PBI would use over 1.3-lakh post offices as business correspondent for the last mile reach in rural areas. These post offices will foster government’s financial inclusion agenda by providing simple yet the complete suite of financial products, including deposits, loans, insurance, remittances, pension products and government subsidies,” a senior official said.
Interestingly, the PBI will run on a unique model where just 150 branches would be opened over the next five years and manned by 3,000 employees, and these would be linked to 800 head post offices across India, which will further be connected to 25,000 sub-post offices and these to 1.3-lakh branch post-offices in remote and rural areas, including places such as North-East and Naxal-hit areas.
ISRO gears up to launch second navigation satellite
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is looking forward to the liftoff of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C24 from Sriharikota at 5.14 p.m. today.
This launch vehicle is the PSLV’s XL version, armed with more powerful strap-on booster motors than in the standard PSLV, which will put the 1,432-kg IRNSS-1B into its orbit.
The IRNSS-1B is India’s second dedicated navigation satellite. The first, IRNSS-1A, was put into orbit on July 1 last year. All the seven satellites, which form the IRNSS, will be in orbit by 2016.
Meat exports growing in Modi’s Gujarat too, says Congress
The Saranda forest area, which holds a quarter of India’s iron ore and is home to Ho and Birhor Adivasis, became the Eastern Regional Bureau headquarters of the CPI (Maoist). The rebels established several training camps in the dense sal forest, bordering Odisha.
In 2011, the paramilitary forces launched a massive operation called ‘Operation Anaconda’ to flush out Maoists.
Soon after, the Ministry of Rural Development launched a Rs. 250-crore Saranda Development Plan to bring in development and to consolidate the government’s hold on the area. The Maoists retreated but, according to government officials, they continued to collect levy. They are around, looking for an opportunity to reclaim their erstwhile bastion.
No comments:
Post a Comment