The Outsider With Tim Sebastian on Bloomberg TV India [Archive]

abhisays

25-11-2012, 09:17 AM

Tim Sebastian

He is best known as the Chairman of The Doha Debates and for his seven year run as the host of the BBC's flagship international interview programme, Hardtalk.

Tim Sebastian is the founder and chairman of two debating programmes based in the Middle East that have global television audiences.

In 2004, he founded The Doha Debates to promote free speech in the region. Based in Qatar, the programme explores the vital issues affecting the Arab and Islamic worlds and is the recipient of an Association for International Broadcasting award for best specialist genre.

In 2011, he founded and launched the New Arab Debates based in Cairo and Tunis with the aim of bringing debating and free speech to people in two of the countries at the centre of the Arab Spring.

He was twice named Interviewer of the Year by the Royal Television Society for his role as the first host of the BBC's Hardtalk programme. He has also won the Society's Television Journalist of the Year award as well as a British Academy award for contributions to factual television.

Before hosting Hardtalk, Tim Sebastian was a BBC foreign correspondent based in Warsaw, Moscow and Washington. He worked for the BBC for more than 30 years.

abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:32 AM

Politics Should No Longer Be A Family Business

BACKGROUND :

Indian politics is dominated by families, but is dynastic politics good or bad for the country? Has politics become a family business rife with nepotism and favourism and is it damaging democracy - or not?
The number of hereditary politicians in India
Writer Patrick French studied the number of hereditary politicians in India for his book, India: A Portrait. His key findings are:

100 percent of Indian Members of Parliament (MPs) under the age of 30 are hereditary
Two-thirds of Indian MPs under the age of 40 are from political families
Less than 10 percent of MPs over the age of 70 are hereditary
Three out of ten MPs (28.6%) entered politics through family connections.
69.5 percent of women MPs came into politics through family connections.
46.8 percent of the MPs have no significant family political background
Source: an article written by: KANCHAN CHANDRA- Associate Professor, Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University, and Wamiq Umaira, Research Associate, BRAC Development Institute, Dhaka

Dynasties are drawn from an extremely broad social base. They come from across regions and social categories.
Similarly, all social categories are associated with significant proportions of such parliamentarians, some to a greater degree than others:

66% of Muslim parliamentarians
25% of parliamentarians from Scheduled Caste (SC) seats
28% of parliamentarians from Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats
34% of the rest have family ties
Hereditary politicians by party
Source: TheIndiaSite.com which compiles figures on hereditary politicians

Congress leads the way in dynastic politics
All 11 Congress Members of Parliament under 35 years are hereditary
The proportion of hereditary MPs in Congress (37.5%) is approximately equal to the proportion of Congress MPs who do not have any significant family background (40.4%)
Regional parties have a higher incidence of hereditary MPs, in comparison to the national parties.

All 5 MPs belonging to Rashtriya Lok Dal have entered politics through family connections
7 out of 10 MPs belonging to the National Congress Party are hereditary
2 out of 3 Jammu and Kashmir National Conference’s MPs are hereditary
2 out of 4 MPs belonging to Shiromani Akali Dal are hereditary
6 out of 14 MPs belonging to Biju Janata Dal are hereditary
Why is politics a family business?
Pradeep Chhibber, a political science professor at Berkeley, wrote a paper that claims the absence of a party organization, independent civil society associations that mobilize support for the party, and centralized financing of elections has led to the emergence and sustenance of dynastic parties in India. The paper assesses the impact of dynastic parties and shows that not only are party systems more volatile when parties are dynastic but more important, dynastic parties serve to make the political system less representative.
He pinpoints three conditions that promote dynasticism:

A party whose leadership is self-perpetuating and oligarchic, rather than independent and democratically accountable
The absence of large-scale voter mobilisation through independent civil society bodies
Campaign funding is collected and dispersed by central party officials and not devolved to the local level
Hereditary politicians - world trends
Source: The Economist. July 2011
India is not the only country with dynastic politics. It is a trend that is common in Asia and across the world.

There are now more than 20 female relatives of former leaders active in national politics around the world. They include three presidents or prime ministers and at least half a dozen leaders of the opposition or presidential candidates.
Some of these women have made it on their own. Others are at last getting a fairer share of the dynastic privileges that used to accrue to men.
Family name confers brand recognition, useful contacts and financial contributions—all of which are vital in democracies, and become more so as retail politics become more important.
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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:34 AM

India is no place for women!

BACKGROUND :

India has been ranked one of the world’s worst countries for women. Is it a true reflection of the current situation or is the status of women improving?

Article 14 in the Constitution of India (1949) states equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.

The 2011 poll by TrustLaw, a Thomas Reuters Foundation service, ranks India as the fourth most dangerous place for women after Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan.

POPULATION :

The Census Report 2011 says there are 940 women to 1,000 men. According to United Nations figures, the normal sex ratio at birth worldwide ranges from 102 to 106 males per 100 females.

The Indian government has said that there were 7 million girls missing in the last decade alone.

In April 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described female foeticide and infanticide as a “national shame” and called for a “crusade” to save the girl child.

CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN:

National Crimes Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, data found:

according to 2010 figures: crimes against women are increasing year on year.
in 2010 there were 2,13,585 crimes against women - up 4.8 percent from 2009.
8,391 brides - one every hour - were murdered over dowry-related issues in 2010.
Bride burning is on the increase from 6,995 deaths in 2000 to over 10,000 in 2011.

According to 2010 data, the number of cases convicted:

73 foeticide cases were registered and only 16 convicted.
146 cases for infanticide were registered and only 25 convicted.
305 cases for child trafficking were registered and only 21 convicted.
EFFORTS TO COMBAT CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN:

The 1994 Pre-conception and Pre-natal diagnostic techniques (prohibition of sex selection) act regulates sex selection, before or after conception. The law provides for imprisonment, which may extend to 3 years and fine up to Rs. 10,000 for the first conviction.
A National Plan of Action exclusively for the girl child was formulated in 1992 for the survival, protection and development of the girl child.
The government has prohibited dowry through legislation in 1961.
The 1961 Dowry Prohibition Act. This was amended in 1983 to include 498A to provide for adequate punishment for any cruelty inflicted on a married woman by the husband and relatives including dowry.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act was passed this year, but no cases have been reported.
WOMEN IN THE WORK FORCE:

According to the 2009 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report:

India ranks 114th out of 134, and holds lasts place among the BRIC countries on the index, behind Russia (51), China (60) and Brazil (82).
Only 7 percent of women sit on the corporate boards in India.
There are no reservation for women in the Indian Civil Service. Even so, only over 10 percent of India’s over 4,000 civil bureaucrats are women.
The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is a center for national excellence with over 30,000 scientific and technical personnel, of which about 14 percent are women.
WOMEN IN POLITICS:

According to Inter-Parliamentary Union figures released in March 2012:

11 percent of lower house politicians in India are women.
World average is 19.6 percent (both houses combined).
The amendments to the Constitution allow for political empowerment of women through 33 percent reservation of women in rural and urban local bodies.

Today there are more that one million elected women representatives in the Panchayats – local assemblies in rural India.

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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:36 AM

No Honest Business In India

Background:

India has been hit by a string of huge corruption scandals including a multi-billion dollar telecom licenses scam in 2008, alleged financial malpractices associated with the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and an illegal mining scandal in Karnataka state during 2006-2010.
India ranked 87th place out of 178 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 2010, down from 84th place in 2009. The index refers to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts. With this ranking, corruption in India is seen to be worse than in China and Brazil, but still less severe than in Russia and Indonesia.
The World Bank has identified corruption as among the greatest obstacles to economic and social development.

A KPMG bribery and corruption survey in 2011 found:

68 percent of respondents believe that in many cases corruption is induced by the private sector. A large number of respondents (31 percent) to the KPMG India Fraud Survey 2010 stated that organisations pay bribes to win and retain business.

It was not long ago that the Indian market was saddled with excessive regulations and protectionist government policies that significantly limited foreign investment and stifled competition. The business culture in this environment was one in which corruption was prevalent and in many cases, it became a normal pricing mechanism in the economy. From what started as petty payments demanded by ‘babus’ during the license raj days, corruption has taken a much larger form and scale today.

Despite the importance that infrastructure development has in a nation’s progress, the level of bribery and corruption in the sector is relatively high. The main reasons that could be attributed to providing bribes would include obtaining routine administrative approvals, obtaining and retaining business and covering up inconsistencies in quality of work and documentation.
A 2010 report by Global Financial Integrity: - The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008
From 1948-2010, India has lost a total of $462 billion in illicit financial flows or illegal capital flight. This illicit flow was the result of corruption, bribery and kickbacks, criminal activities and efforts to shelter wealth from a country’s tax authorities.

EFFORTS TO COMBAT CORRUPTION

The Right to Information Act 2005, has emerged as one of the most effective initiatives in fighting corruption. It follows the adoption of the Bill on Public Interest Disclosures and Protection of Informer (Whistle blower resolution) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Many of the large scams in recent years have been unearthed as a result of these Bills.

A Gallop Poll released on 8 May 2012 found that Indians are starting to see less corruption in government and business.
The key findings of the poll are:

Majorities of Indians continue to see corruption as widespread in their country's government and business

73% in early 2012 saying it is pervasive in their government and 67% saying it is widespread in business

However, Indians are less likely to feel this way this year than they have been in several years, which may reflect rising optimism about the government and citizen efforts to fight the country's corruption problems

Perceptions of widespread corruption within the business community are particularly high among current business owners (72%) and those who plan to start a business within the next 12 months (80%). This likely puts a serious roadblock in the path of investment and business development

The beginning of 2012 shows signs of what could be the start of a positive turnaround in Indians' perceptions of corruption. If the trend continues, it may signal a more favorable business climate for investment and economic growth.
Among other serious allegations of corruption in early 2011, India's telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja was arrested for selling publicly owned mobile phone frequency licenses to entrepreneurs at cut-rate prices. And Indians rallied last year around Anna Hazare, a social activist who went on a hunger strike to call attention to India's endemic corruption problems and pressure the government to enact anti-corruption legislation. On Feb. 2 this year, before Gallup started conducting interviews, India's Supreme Court revoked the illegally awarded telecom licenses -- possibly giving hope to millions of Indians that their government may be prepared to rein in corruption.

The Lokpal Bill

The Lokpal Bill sets up an independent ombudsman with the power to prosecute politicians and civil servants. The bill was tabled in parliament in August 2011, but was sent to a panel of MPs after protests from anti-corruption activists who said it was too weak. It is still to be passed into legislation.

Anti-corruption movement

Anti-corruption campaigners, including social activist "Anna" Hazare, have gathered support in their efforts to force the government to deal with corruption. The anti-corruption fight has gone online and there have been dramatic street protests.

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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:38 AM

India Is Ripe For Revolution

With a bulging youth population, high unemployment and poverty levels, rampant corruption and insurgencies, this debate will discuss whether conditions in India make it ripe for revolution.

INSURGENCIES

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, there are more than 175 insurgency and terrorist groups in India. The highest number of groups can be found in the states of Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Tripura.

In its 2011 India Assessment, the Portal said the reality of India’s multiple terrorist and insurgent movements is that most of them are weakening. For the ninth year in a row, total fatalities due to terrorist and insurgent conflicts in the country continued their decline, registering a total of 1,902 deaths in 2010, as against 2,232 in 2009, and a peak of 5,839 in 2001 (all data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal database).

Recent unrest:

Violence in the state of Assam has claimed more than 40 lives. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes following clashes between Bodo tribes and Muslims. A curfew has been imposed in troubled areas and soldiers have been deployed to secure the railway tracks linking the state with the rest of the country.

There was also recent unrest at the Murati Suzuki plant in Manesar in July when clashes broke out following months of difficult labour relations, leaving a senior manager dead and dozens of workers injured. The Times of India reported Wipro chairman Azim Premji as saying the violence is representative of the social unrest building up in the country.

UNEMPLOYMENT

According to official government statistics, quoted in numerous press articles following an announcement by the Labour Minister, unemployment figures are:
2009 - 2010 - 6.6 percent
2004 - 2005 - 8.3 percent
An Employment & Unemployment Survey (2009-10) by the Ministry of Labour & Employment Labour Bureau found:
- 9.4 percent of the labour force is unemployed at the overall level
- In the rural sector, the unemployment rate is estimated at 10.1 percent
- In the urban areas, the unemployment rate is 7.3 percent

POVERTY

According to the World Bank’s India Poverty Report 2011: 28 percent of people in rural areas and 26 percent of people in urban areas live below the poverty line, down from 47 percent and 42 percent, respectively, in 1983.
According to World Bank data:

The poverty headcount radio at $1.25 per day PPP (purchasing power parity) (as a percent of population)
2010 32.7 percent
2005 41.6 percent

The poverty headcount radio at $2 per day PPP (purchasing power parity) (as a percent of population)
2010 68.7 percent
2005 75.5 percent

Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty line (% of population)

2010 29.8 percent
2005 37.2 percent
** the poverty line was reduced from 32 rupees per day (urban) and 26 rupees per day (rural) to 28.7 rupees per day (urban) and 22.4 (rural)

The Planning Commission’s ‘Press Note on Poverty Estimates 2009-10' found that:

rural poverty was very high at 33.8 percent and urban poverty at 20.9 percent
poverty has increased in geopolitically and socio-economically unstable areas such as the North East
marginalised social and religious groups show the highest levels of poverty
Efforts to reduce poverty are not meeting expectations. A World Bank report on poverty reduction efforts in India (2011) found that despite recent progress, India is not getting the “bang for the rupee” that its significant expenditure would seem to warrant, and the needs of important population groups remain only very partially addressed. It said the Public Distribution System consumes large resources with huge inefficiencies and leakage and the needs of the urban poor remain inadequately addressed.
Hunger remains a problem, although there have been some signs of improvement. The Global Hunger Index 2011 found:

India has a GHI (Global Hunger Index) of 23.7 percent and is ranked 67 (below Sudan, Rwanda and North Korea, amongst others)
India's GHI score fits into the "alarming" category - there are 5 categories, of which "alarming" is the second worst
But India's position has improved - it has moved from extremely alarming to alarming (one of 10 countries to do so)
WEALTH GAP

The gap between the wealthy and poor is growing. According to the OECD (Regions at a Glance 2011):

The top 10 percent of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10 percent (compared to 6 times 20 years ago)
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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:39 AM

India is Mean

Do India’s rich really care about the poor? What is the state of philanthropy in the country and what is being done to help the disadvantaged in society?

India’s rich

According to the Forbes report - The World’s Billionaires (March 2012) - 48 of the world’s billionaires are Indian. They have a combined net worth of 194.6 billion US dollars.

According to a report by Bain and Company, nearly 40 percent of the nation’s wealth is controlled by the top 5 percent of India’s households. Breaking that down even more, the wealthiest 1 percent controls about 16 percent of the national wealth.

India’s poor

Estimates of the number of people living below the poverty line range from 30 to 53 percent of the population. The numbers vary according to the way in which poverty is calculated.

According to official statistics, poverty has been on the decline. According to official government of India estimates, poverty declined from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 29.8 percent in 2009-10.

Philanthropy in India

According to a 2011 report on philanthropy in India compiled by Bain and Company:

There has been a significant rise in private donations to philanthropic causes - donations increased by 50 percent between 2006 and 2011.
One trend that stands out in their responses is the growing role of young people -donors under the age of 30 - in Indian philanthropy.
The average contribution was 3.1 percent of total income in 2011, up from 2.3 percent during the previous year.
More than 70 percent of donors were novices, with less than three years of philanthropic experience.
Too many individuals have been excluded from India’s economic boom over the past decade—the country is simultaneously home to one of the world’s fastest-growing “High Net Worth Individuals” (HNWI) populations and one in three of the world’s malnourished children.
Although giving is on the rise, there is significant room for improvement if India is benchmarked against the US, one of the world’s leaders in private giving, where HNWIs donate 9.1 percent of their income on average to charity.
Individual and corporate donations make up only 10 percent of charitable giving in India.
The balance of the philanthropy comes from foreign organizations and the government. In fact, nearly 65 percent is donated by India’s central and state governments with a focus on disaster relief.
Individual & corporate giving as a percentage of total contribution

USA 75 percent
UK 34 percent
India 10 percent
China 9 percent
Some of India’s richest men like Azim Premji, chairman of the technology company Wipro , have set up their own foundations. Mr. Premji recently gave his nonprofit organization shares in Wipro worth 2 billion dollars to start a university and to help government-run schools in rural towns and villages. Shiv Nadar, a founder of another company, HCL Technologies, has also started an education-focused foundation.
Trust in NGOs
The Reality of Aid Annual Report 2010 found:
(The Reality of Aid Network is a North/South international non-governmental initiative focusing exclusively on analysis and lobbying for poverty eradication policies and practices in the international aid regime)

There is a concentration of aid projects in relatively developed areas with donors increasingly directing aid to the few Indian states that they consider to be ‘reform-minded’.
The poorest states with weak economic management are neglected. The South Asian Network for Social and Agricultural Development comments that this “amounts to punishing the poor for the failures of their rulers”.
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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:40 AM

Education Is Sinking India

What role is education playing in the development and growth of the nation? Is the education system hindering growth or will help propel India to a brighter future?

Under the 2009 Right to Education Act, children (6-14 years old) are guaranteed the right to quality elementary education by the state with the help of families and communities.

The Act guarantees:

Any cost that prevents a child from accessing school will be borne by the State.
All private schools are required to enroll children from weaker sections and disadvantaged communities in their incoming class to the extent of 25 percent of their enrollment. No seats in this quota can be left vacant.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has been mandated to monitor the implementation of the RTE.

Key facts:

According to India’s ‘Education For All’ Mid-Decade Assessment:

In just five years between 2000 and 2005, India increased primary school enrolment overall by 13.7 percent and by 19.8 percent for girls, reaching close to universal enrolment in Grade 1.
One in four children left school before reaching Grade 5 and almost half before reaching Grade 8 in 2005. Learning assessments show the children who do remain in school are not learning the basics of literacy and numeracy or the additional skills necessary for their overall development.
The number of out-of-school children has declined from 25 million in 2003 to 8.1 million in mid–2009. The most significant improvements have been in Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Chhattisgarh.

According to the ‘India Human Development Report 2011' prepared by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research:

Literacy levels are at 74 percent.
India still has the largest number of illiterate people in the world.
The male-female literacy gap in rural India is 20 percent.

The ASER 2011 survey found:

Nationally, private school enrollment has risen year after year for the 6-14 age group, increasing from 18.7% in 2006 to 25.6% in 2011.

Higher education:

The number of Universities/University-level institutions has increased 18 times from 27 in 1950 to 504 in 2009.
The sector boasts of 42 Central universities, 243 State universities, 53 State Private universities, 130 Deemed universities, 33 Institutions of National Importance (established under Acts of Parliament) and five Institutions (established under various State legislations).
The number of colleges has also registered manifold increase with just 578 in 1950 growing to be more than 30,000 in 2011.

Employment and education:

According to Mercer Consulting, in 2008, only 25 percent of graduates in India were actually employable.
Dasra reports that over 90 percent of India’s labour force still works in the informal sector, at low levels of productivity due to inadequate skills.
Major hindrances to building skills include poverty, the poor quality of mainstream education, limited access to, and capacity of current TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training), a lack of focus on skills required in the current job market, and a poor enabling environment with deep systemic challenges.
Measures to enhance skills will raise productivity, which will in turn increase per capita income from $1,212 currently, to $4,100 by 2025.
Building a skilled workforce could add 2 percentage points annually to India’s per capita GDP over the next two decades.
Ageing populations in major economies across the world will create a shortage of skilled manpower of approximately 57 million by 2020 – by that time, India’s working-age population would have increased to about 47 million working people, making it a global hub for human resources.
At present, over 1 million young people a year build skills through the Central Governments ‘Directorate General of Employment and Training’ (DGET) initiatives.
Larsen & Toubro, Ambuja Cement Limited, Tata Motors, CII and FICCI play a key role in skills development.
Social businesses are currently a $1.5 billion opportunity projected to grow at 25 percent over the next 3 years, offering fee-based courses to young people across India.

Employment & Economy:

India’s economic growth has added over 7 million new jobs every year for almost a quarter of a century, according to the World Bank.
Workers have seen their wages – adjusted for prices – rise by nearly 3 percent a year.
Poverty rates among wage workers and the self-employed have fallen.
With swelling numbers of new entrants, and more women entering the job market, India will need to create up to 10 million new jobs each year for the next two decades.
Since the early 1980’s, there has been little upward mobility between the three broad employment types (self employed, casual labourers, and regular wage and salaried workers).
The crux of India’s employment challenge is that while it is easier to absorb new entrants into jobs of lower productivity, it will be more challenging, but more critical, for India’s future success to meet people’s rapidly-rising aspirations by creating jobs of higher quality.
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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:41 AM

India's Justice System Is Failing

With corruption seeping into the legal system and long delays for court cases, is India’s justice system serving the nation well?

COURT DELAYS AND THE NUMBER OF JUDGES

The Times of India reported in July 2012 that more than 35 million cases are pending in courts across the country with 56,000 lakh and 4.3 million cases pending in the Supreme Court and the high courts respectively.

Some of the reasons given for the backlog of cases are:

Insufficient infrastructure - a shortage of court buildings, support staff, libraries and technical equipment
Archaic laws (many dating back to British rule)
Inadequate number of judges

Source: Times of India

The ratio of judges to population in India is 10.5 per million. It compares to:

41.6 per million people in Australia
75.2 per million in Canada
50.9 per million people in the UK

A report on India by Freedom House in 2011 found that:

The system is severely backlogged and understaffed, with millions of civil and criminal cases pending. This leads to lengthy pre-trial detention for a large number of suspects, many of whom remain in jail beyond the duration of any sentence they might receive if convicted. To help address the problem, the government has proposed establishing thousands of village courts to hear cases in rural areas.
The judiciary is independent of the executive branch.
Judges have displayed considerable activism in response to public interest litigation on official corruption, environmental issues, and other matters.
In recent years judges have initiated several contempt-of-court cases against activists and journalists who expose judicial corruption or question verdicts. Contempt-of-court laws were reformed in 2006 to make truth a defense with respect to allegations against judges, provided the information is in the public and national interest.
In 2009, following a public debate over judicial accountability, India’s 29 Supreme Court justices announced that they would disclose their assets publicly on the court’s website.
Despite legal reforms in recent years, the criminal justice system still generally fails to provide equal protection to minorities, lower castes, and tribal members.

LAW REFORMS:

The government says it is committed to law reforms.

In March 2012, The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 was approved by the Union Cabinet. Under the new Bill, judges of the Supreme Court and high courts would be subject to the scrutiny of a high-level committee and those facing serious charges of misconduct may be asked to step down. The bill seeks to replace the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid said the bill aims at striking a balance between maximizing judicial independence and laying down accountability for members of the higher judiciary. "The passage of this bill shall be a major achievement in establishing systems and procedures which will be far superior and practicable to that provided for in the Judges Enquiry Act." - Source: The Times of India.

In August 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government was committed to implementing judicial reforms and help speed up disposal of cases in courts. “Our government stands committed to working with the judiciary to bring about improvements in the justice delivery system.” Source: Tribune India

To counter the backlog of cases, the government says it is working on a project to enable people to obtain certified copies of judgments online. The Times of India quoted a senior law ministry official saying the computerization of courtrooms is in progress and already more than 8,500 courts across the country have been networked and efforts are on to complete the process in the next few years.

JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

Judges have displayed considerable “activism” in response to public-interest litigation on official corruption, environmental issues, and other matters in recent years. In August 2012, the Supreme Court took away the constitutionally conferred power of the President of India to appoint judges after consultation with the Chief Justice, and appropriated this power in the Chief Justice of India and a collegium of four judges. Source: The Hindu

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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:42 AM

India Is More Unequal Than Ever

India’s Constitution guarantees equality, but in a country with a caste system and a fast growing wealth gap, what is the reality?

EQUAL RIGHTS AND THE LAW

The Indian Constitution guarantees equality. Article 14 guarantees equality before the law. Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and Article 16 provides equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. Article 17 abolishes or forbids the practice of "untouchability".

A number of laws are also in place to guarantee equality.

The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which was enacted in 1989, was aimed at preventing the commission of crimes and atrocities against members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, to provide for Special Courts for the trial of such offences and for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of such offences.

The Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955 was adopted to prescribe punishment for the practice of "Untouchability". The Act says no-one can be refused entry to public places of worship, shops, restaurants, hotels etc.. on the grounds of "Untouchability". It also is aimed at preventing other forms of discrimination on the grounds of "Untouchability".

CASTE

There is a policy of reservation (or quotas) for members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in education and the public service, including quotas for seats in parliament and local village administrations.

A team at the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada carried out a study of the workforce in India. They profiled board members of the top 1,000 Indian firms, both private and state-owned and found that 93 percent belonged to the forward castes. People from a collection of lower castes accounted for 3.8 percent of the directors. After six decades of affirmative action, Scheduled Castes and Tribes accounted for only 3.5 percent of the directors.

RELIGION

In 2005, the government commissioned a report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in the country. The Sachar report found:

The literacy rate among Muslims in 2001 was 59.1%, below the national average (64.8%). Participation of Muslim salaried workers in both the public and private sectors is quite low. The overall participation of Muslims in Central Government departments and agencies is abysmally low at all levels. Employment of Muslims is also very low in the Universities, Banks, and central PSUs. Muslims face fairly high levels of poverty. Their conditions on the whole are only slightly better than those of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, though slightly worse in urban areas.

In 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said "We have not only drawn up schemes and plans based on Sachar recommendations, these initiatives have begun to impact the status of minorities."

He said:

The recruitment of minorities had increased in government jobs, security forces and the banking sector.
Priority sector lending for minorities had gone up form 9 to 15 percent.
Four million scholarships had been awarded to minority students, and minority-specific development programmes implemented in as many as 90 minority-concentration districts.

However, according to a Gallop poll in November 2011, one-third (32 percent) of the country's Muslims said they are suffering. Hindus (23 percent) and members of India's various other religious sects (15 percent) are less likely to be suffering. More than three in 10 Indians rated their lives poorly enough to be considered "suffering" in the first quarter of 2012, up from 24 percent in 2011.

WEALTH GAP

The gap between the wealthy and poor is growing. According to the OECD (Regions at a Glance 2011), the top 10 percent of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10 percent (compared to 6 times 20 years ago). According to the Forbes report - The World's Billionaires (March 2012) - 48 of the world's billionaires are Indian. They have a combined net worth of 194.6 billion US dollars.

According to a report by Bain and Company, nearly 40 percent of the nation's wealth is controlled by the top 5 percent of India's households. Breaking that down even more, the wealthiest 1 percent controls about 16 percent of the national wealth.

India's poor:

Estimates of the number of people living below the poverty line range from 30 to 53 percent of the population. The numbers vary according to the way in which poverty is calculated. According to official statistics, poverty has been on the decline. According to official government of India estimates, poverty declined from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 29.8 percent in 2009-10.

India's Planning Commission in 2012 said 29.8 percent of population live below the poverty line. Labourers (farm workers in villages, casual workers in cities), tribespeople, Dalits (formerly called low caste untouchables) and Muslims remain the poorest Indians. Almost 60% of the poor continue to reside in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Significantly, 85% of India's tribespeople and Dalits live in these states.

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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:43 AM

Free speech is under serious threat in India

International monitors have expressed concern that press freedom is weaker than it was and should be in the world’s largest democracy - is free speech under serious threat in India?

Constitution:

Under the Indian Constitution, citizens have the protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech:

(1) All citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression.

However, free speech should not affect the operation of any existing law or prevent the State from making any law in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

The Constitution justifies restrictions on freedom of speech in the interest of communal harmony and public order. A Supreme Court ruling in 2007 said that freedom of speech could not be used as an excuse to criticise other faiths.

World ranking:

India was ranked 122 on the Press Freedom Index 2010, below Qatar, Nepal, Indonesia, Tajikistan, Condo, Chat, Niger, Uganda, East Timor, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Angola, amongst others. It dropped to 131 on the Press Freedom Index 2011-2012.

India is one of the largest markets for newspapers in the world. The country has more than 70,000 newspapers and over 500 satellite channels in several languages. More than 100 million newspapers are sold each day.

Restrictions and violence:

In August 2012, a mass exodus of people from Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai which was caused by SMS messages warning people of retaliation for sectarian violence that began in Assam late in July.

The government banned SMS messages directed to more than five recipients. It also ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to block a number of websites held guilty of hosting inflammatory content on the events in Assam.

The New York Times reported that the government’s actions put it at odds with Internet companies. Officials in New Delhi, who have had disagreements with the companies over restrictions on free speech, say the sites are not responding quickly enough to their requests to delete and trace the origins of doctored photos and incendiary posts aimed at people from northeastern India. In late 2011, an Indian minister tried to get social media sites to prescreen content created by their users before it was posted. The companies refused and the attempt failed under withering public criticism.

While just 100 million of India’s 1.2 billion people use the Internet regularly, the numbers are growing fast among people younger than 25, who make up about half the country’s population. For instance, there were an estimated 46 million active Indian users on Facebook at the end of 2011, up 132 percent from a year earlier.

The Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore analyses the number of blocked sites. In a post on 22 August 2012, the Society posted an analysis on a leaked list of websites blocked from the 18th to 21st of August 2012. It said there were 309 specific items (those being URLs, Twitter accounts, img tags, blog posts, blogs, and a handful of websites) that had been blocked.

It said this number was meaningless at one level, given that it doesn't differentiate between the blocking of an entire website (with dozens or hundreds of web pages) from the blocking of a single webpage. However, given that very few websites have been blocked at the domain-level, that number was still reasonably useful. The information only relates to what telecom companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were asked to block till August 21, 2012. It does not include information on what individual web services have been asked to remove.

Sedition and other arrests

There has been heated debate about the use of the sedition law. Under Indian Penal Code Section 124 A, sedition is defined as, "Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine."

In the most recent case, cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested in September 2012 on sedition charges for cartoons which allegedly mocked India’s Constitution and national emblem. He was released from prison on bail. He has said his “battle against sedition and oppressive behaviour by the government will continue.”

In April 2011, in an interview with the BBC, human rights activist Binayak Sen accused the government of misusing the country's sedition laws "to silence voices of dissent". The interview followed his release from jail after being sentenced to life in prison for helping Maoist rebels.

Concerns have also been raised that the laws are being used to silence critics. In April, a professor in Calcutta was arrested for allegedly posting cartoons on the internet which ridiculed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The police said Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra was arrested for “spreading derogatory messages against respectable people”. His fellow professors and intellectuals condemned his arrest, calling it an attack on free speech.

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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:44 AM

India Has No Confidence In Its Leading Politicians

With concerns increasing over the economy and growth, widespread corruption, internal strife and terrorist threats how do Indians regard their leading politicians - with confidence or not?

In September 2012, the Indian government introduced economic reforms including the opening of the retail sector to global supermarket chains. The move cost it a key ally, the Trinamool Congress Party, which withdrew from the government in protest of the reforms. The Economist reported that the reforms were supposed to cheer investors in need of encouragement and tackle a dangerous budget deficit, which in 2012 will easily breach the official target of 5.1 percent of GDP.

In September 2012, the Economist was saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had rediscovered his vim. It wrote that ‘after years of drift and sleaze, the Congress-led government of Mr. Singh has found some pizzazz. The initiatives that the prime minister announced on September 13th and 14th are nothing compared with the "big bang" reforms of 1991 that set India growing and for which Mr. Singh, then finance minister, was chiefly responsible. They do not even match the incremental reforms of Mr. Singh’s first term as prime minister from 2004-09. Still, from an ageing man whose second-term performance has been feeble, they mark a welcome change. Businesspeople are suddenly less despondent.’

Just a few months earlier, in July, Time Magazine called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an "under achiever." The magazine article said that 'with the rupee hitting record lows, a yawning fiscal deficit and a lack of economic direction from the government's brass, investors at home and abroad are developing cold feet, as rising inflation and a litany of scandals chip away at the government's credibility'.

Chief Ministers:

The political map has changed in India in recent years with the Congress Party losing its dominance over the central government and over a majority of state governments.

Regionalist parties, groups and leaders have emerged, bringing with them their own areas of influence. Chief Ministers are more willing to confront the federal government to protect their states’ interests. Earlier in 2012, they rebelled against a federal government attempt to set up a new counter-terrorism centre.

Opinion polls:

In May 2012, a CNN-IBN opinion poll found that 66 percent of the country's urban population think Manmohan Singh-led UPA government has lost credibility to govern. 59 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the current government.

In August 2012, a Mood of the Nation opinion poll conducted by Nielsen for the weekly magazine India Today put the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, if Lok Sabha elections were held immediately. 54 percent of the respondents replied 'No' to the question: Has Manmohan Singh lived up to his expectations of 2009? 46 percent said the PM fared 'poorly' in controlling inflation.

On the question who will make the best Prime Minister for the country, as many as 21 percent opted for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, 17 percent still think Atal Bihar Vajpayee, who is away from public life for the past 8 years due to ill health, as the best candidate. Only 10 percent opted for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while six percent each opted for Dr. Singh and Sonia Gandhi. L.K. Advani garnered 8 percent support. Nitish Kumar could hardly gather 2 percent support.

The most talked about BJP leader in the country is Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, who is often tipped as a contender to the party leadership at the next election.

Corruption:

India has been hit by a string of huge corruption scandals in recent years. India ranked 95th place out of 182 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 2011, down from 87th place in 2010. The index refers to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts. The World Bank has identiï¬Âed corruption as among the greatest obstacles to economic and social development.

Economy:

Reuters reported on September 1 that India's economic growth languished near its slowest in three years in the quarter that ended in June but was slightly better than expected. Quarterly GDP grew 5.5 percent, driven by a rebound in construction and financial services, provisional government data showed, just above the 5.3 percent posted in the three months ended in March and slightly higher than economists had forecast in a Reuters poll.

Weak demand in the West has hit Indian exports, but the heaviest toll on the economy is from government overspending and a lack of reforms, a point made by both the central bank and ratings agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor's, who threatened to downgrade India's sovereign ratings to junk.

Wealth gap

The gap between the wealthy and poor is growing. According to the OECD (Regions at a Glance 2011), the top 10 percent of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10 percent (compared to 6 times 20 years ago). According to a report by Bain and Company, nearly 40 percent of the nation’s wealth is controlled by the top 5 percent of India’s households. Breaking that down even more, the wealthiest 1 percent controls about 16 percent of the national wealth.

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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:45 AM

India Should Be Ashamed Of Its Record In Kashmir

Kashmir remains one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. Conflict and instability in the state have left tens of thousands of people dead. But has India done enough to minimalise the casualties and address the concerns of the people?

Background:

Kashmir has one of the most deeply disputed borders in the world, with Indian and Pakistani troops posted at the Line of Control. The Line of Control (LoC) has been a flashpoint for the two nations since its foundation.

A truce in 2003 led to peace talks and improved ties. Since the truce, Pakistan has taken steps to wind down the Kashmir insurgency. The BBC reported that in 2006 Pakistan stopped all funding for militant operations in Indian-administered Kashmir and in 2012 it cut by half the administrative funds it issues to insurgent groups that maintain offices in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and offered a cash rehabilitation package to former fighters to get married and set up businesses.

India has fenced the entire LoC, which has reduced infiltration by militants. Since 2000, the number of armed militants has steadily decreased in Kashmir.

In recent years, tourists have started returning to the Kashmir valley in larger numbers. In 2011, the government approved a 220 million dollar employment plan for Jammu and Kashmir, which at the time had half a million unemployed.

Human rights

In 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government was committed to 'zero tolerance' against rights violations and effective action would be taken in such cases.

In August 2011, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reiterated his resolve of zero tolerance to human rights violations and said those involved in such practices would be punished.

A police investigation in 2011 by the J&K State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) found more than 2,000 bodies dumped into unmarked graves at 38 sites in north Kashmir. More than 500 were identified as the bodies of local Kashmiris.

A report by the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN published in December 2011 found that in Kashmir, justice evades well-known cases of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearance.

Amnesty International has accused security forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir of exploiting a law - the Public Safety Act - that enables them to hold tens of thousands of prisoners without trial. Amnesty reported that hundreds of new prisoners are being arrested and detained each year under the law.

The United Nations has asked India to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, saying it had no role to play in a democracy. The Act empowers the governor or the Central government to declare any part of the state as a 'disturbed area' if in its opinion special powers are required to prevent

(a) terrorist acts aimed at overthrowing the government, striking terror in the people, or affecting the harmony of different sections of the people, or

(b) activities which disrupt the sovereignty of India, or cause insult to the national flag, anthem or India's Constitution.

According to the BBC, the authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have launched more than 400 cases of alleged human rights abuses against security forces personnel in the past three years. Nearly 300 cases have been seen in local courts, according to the government.

Interlocutors:

A group of three “interlocutors” was appointed in the fall of 2010 by the Indian central government after an outbreak of violence that left more than 100 people dead in J&K. They produced a 176 page report after speaking to more than 700 delegations throughout J&K. They found that more than two decades of conflict have left a large number of gross human rights violations by a variety of groups, including murder, torture and missing persons.

Some of the recommendations made by the group include:

Ensure speedy punishment of those accused of human rights violations.
Security forces must be given special training to respect the dignity of citizens.
Peaceful protests must be allowed.
To end the intimidation and harassment of citizens by the police, the para-military and the army.
To release the stone-pelters and political detainees not charged with serious offences.
To speed up the trial of militants languishing in jail for many years by setting up fast-track courts.
To curb the indiscriminate use of the PSA.
To bring to book those responsible for human rights violations;
To re-deploy the army to the borders and place severe limits on the use of special powers vested in them.
To stop the discrimination of family members who happen to be related to militants.
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abhisays

25-11-2012, 10:46 AM

India - Pakistan Relations

CURRENT RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN

An International Crisis Group report in May 2012 summarised current relations as:

In March 2011, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government resumed the composite dialogue with India, with the rapid pace of its economic liberalisation program demonstrating political will to normalise bilateral relations.
Departing from Pakistan’s traditional position, the democratic government no longer insists on linking normalisation of relations with resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
India no longer insists on making such normalisation conditional on demonstrable Pakistani efforts to rein in India-oriented jihadi groups, particularly the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and hence suspension of the composite dialogue.

KASHMIR

In October 2012, Pakistan and India engaged in a verbal duel over Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly.

Pakistani President Zardari told the UN that his country would continue to support the right of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to peacefully choose their destiny in accordance with the UN Security Council's resolutions on the matter. India’s Foreign Minister responded by saying: ”We wish to make it abundantly clear that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.”

Kashmir has been a flashpoint between the two countries for more than 60 years and has sparked two wars between the neighbouring countries. India and Pakistan fought in 1947-48 and in 1965.

In 1999 they also fought after Pakistani-backed forces infiltrated Kargil - an Indian-controlled area. In the fighting which lasted two months, more than 1,000 people were killed. General Musharraf was the head of the Pakistan army at the time.

A truce in 2003 led to peace talks and improved ties. Since the truce, Pakistan has taken steps to wind down the Kashmir insurgency. India has fenced the entire Line of Control, which has reduced infiltration by militants. Since 2000, the number of armed militants has steadily decreased in Kashmir.

In recent years, violence has decreased and tourists have started returning to the Kashmir valley in larger numbers.

Since 2010, India and Pakistan have established a series of confidence building measures and held regular peace talks.

KANDAHAR

In December 1999, an Indian Airlines jet was hijacked en route to Delhi from Kathmandu. It was flown to Kandahar in Afghanistan where the hijackers demanded the Indian government release militant fighters in Kashmir.

One hostage was killed during the early stages of the hijack and 27 others, mainly women and children, were released during a stopover.

The government released three jailed Kashmiri militants in exchange for the remaining 160 passengers who had been held hostage for a week.

NUCLEAR

Both India and Pakistan declared themselves nuclear powers with a number of tests in 1998.

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