Monthly Archives: July 2019

Floods displace over four lakh in Assam

More than 4.23 lakh people have been displaced by floods that affected 17 of Assam’s 33 districts. Torrential rain wreaked misery elsewhere in the northeast, claiming two lives in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang after a wall collapsed on their hostel. Officials said the rising waters of river Brahmaputra and at least …

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Maratha quota: SC to hear plea today

The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a group of social workers, academics and representatives of the Muslim community who have appealed against a Bombay High Court decision upholding a “one-person or one-community” Maharashtra legislation providing reservation to the Maratha community in education and public employment. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/maratha-quota-sc-to-hear-plea-today/article28394930.ece

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Congress petitions Speaker on disqualification

Congress petitioned Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar seeking disqualification of eight rebel Congress MLAs for defection on Thursday. Three days ago, the Congress had revived an old petition to disqualify two MLAs — Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumthalli. However, the party is yet to seek disqualification of three other rebel …

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‘Political crises will hit economy’

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said on Thursday that the crises in Karnataka and Goa might appear to be “political upmanship”, but it had a “damaging impact on the economy”. Foreign investors, rating agencies and international organisations did not read Indian newspapers and did not watch the tamed Indian television …

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Inter-State River Water Hub in Kerala

The Kerala government has decided to establish a permanent hub in Palakkad for handling inter-State river water disputes. The Inter-State River Water Hub will become a reality in three months. The decision was taken at the tri-monthly review meeting of the Irrigation Department convened by Water Resources Minister K. Krishnankutty …

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Can’t be pushed into a decision: Speaker

Ramesh Kumar meets 10 Karnataka rebel MLAs following the Supreme Court’s direction Hours after the Supreme Court on Thursday asked Karnataka Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar to meet 10 rebel legislators from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) and take a decision on their resignations, he held a meeting with …

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Immigrants to Malaysia

Malaysia to-day [July 10] tightened its immigration regulations and called on all non-citizens above 12 years of age to call at the Immigration Office before September 15 to furnish fresh particulars about themselves. There are an estimated 700,000 non-citizens among Malaysia’s 10 million population, nearly a quarter million of them …

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Grecian churn

Greece under Mr. Mitsotakis is set fora period of stability and continuity The verdict in Sunday’s Greek elections affords a rare comfort for Europe’s centrists, who, arguably with the exception of Spain in April, have of late ceded ground to populist forces. The conservative centre-right New Democracy party of Prime …

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Caution needed

Supreme Court decision on the Rohingya’s status must protect those fleeing persecution The Supreme Court’s decision to examine the question whether illegal immigrants are entitled to refugee status needs to be welcomed, but with caution. It is debatable whether the Centre is right in claiming that this has emerged as …

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A case for nutrition counselling

It is a low-cost measure that offers lifelong benefits The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is one of the world’s largest programmes for early childhood care and development. Now, a new study suggests that nutrition and health counselling delivered under the programme’s auspices is one of the best possible …

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Deepening #MeToo

A year after an actor inspired women to speak up against harassment, it’s critical to assess the gains and challenges In the mid and late-1800s, social movements in Europe for equal rights for women threw up the word ‘feminism’, which traces its origins to French. The suffrage movement in Britain …

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Turning down the heat

There is enormous potential in mitigating climate change through forest restoration During the run-up to the Paris climate change meeting in 2015 (COP-21) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, each country decided the level and kind of effort it would undertake to solve the global problem of …

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Nehru and the Kashmir quandary

The former PM erred in having too much confidence in the sense of justice of his successors Union Home Minister Amit Shah earlier this month held India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, responsible for the country being deprived of one-third of Kashmir. Except for those who deify Nehru, most others …

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A demographic window of opportunity

In India, investing in the laggard States will ensure their role as being the greatest contributors of the future Last month, the United Nations released the 26th revision of World Population Prospects and forecast that India will overtake China as the most populous country by 2027. The only surprise associated …

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Outward FDI drops to $820 million

India Inc.’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in June fell by over two times from a year ago to $820.36 million, data from the Reserve Bank of India showed Wednesday. The outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by the Indian firms stood at $2.29 billion in the same month the previous year, …

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‘CSO must rethink informal sector estimates’

Current method no longer accurate due to greater automation: Pronab Sen The Central Statistics Office (CSO) needs to rethink how it estimates the growth of the informal sector as the current method is no longer accurate, former Chief Statistician of India Pronab Sen said on Wednesday. “Using the corporate sector …

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