Innholdsfortegnelse for August 15, 2016 i India Today

The quality of a leader is revealed not only by what he has done during his tenure but also by what happens when he moves on. The question is, is good performance dependent on the individual or have practices been institutionalised so that the good work continues? In the corporate world, one of the key responsibilities of a boss is succession planning. In politics, it seems to be a rare talent, largely because leaders are insecure about being toppled and, of course, because some believe in their immortality. Power is a potent aphrodisiac. The rise and fall of Anandiben Patel as the CM of Gujarat has a lesson for her predecessor and anointer Narendra Modi. Along with that, her departure has political implications that go far beyond the state. Over…

NOT PC ENOUGH Former FM P. Chidambaram turned emotional at a dinner Maharashtra Cong ress president Ashok Chavan recently hosted for him at Taj Mahal Hotel. Announcing that he’ll spend MP funds in the state, Chidambaram, the newly elected RS member from Maha, urged state leaders not to think of him as an outsi der. What they want is for him to challenge Sharad Pawar. RIGHT TURN He might have differe nces with the BJP, but Kerala Chief Min ister Pinarayi Vijayan has a great equation with the PM. Modi has apparently told him that his door’s always open to him. On his second visit to Delhi after becoming CM, Pinarayi got further assurance from him for development projects in Kerala. He has now directed his secreta ries to line…

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ... BUT WERE TOO FOXED TO ASK After a decade of negotiations, hectic parleys, many climbdowns and heartburn, India is ready to bring in what has been touted as Independent India’s most celebrated tax reform, the Goods and Services Tax. Where does the taxpayer stand in this debate? ANSHUMAN TIWARI & SHWETA PUNJ decode GST 1 Indirect taxes today CENTRAL Central excise duty [including additional excise duties] Service tax Additional customs duty (CVD) Special additional duty of customs (SAD) Central sales tax (levied by the Centre and collected by the states) Central surcharges and cesses (relating to supply of goods and services) Rs 7,79,670 CRORE EXPECTED COLLECTION AS INDIRECT TAXES BY THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IN 2016-17 AS PER BUDGET ESTIMATES STATE Value-added tax Octroi and…

The purpose of the study is to determine a districtwise ranking of performance. The evaluation has been done under two broad segments—best performing at a particular point of time and most improved over a period of time. As uniform and continuous data was not available for recent years for all the districts, 2011 was taken as the base year to rank performance for a particular point of time. To rank improvement, the period between 1999 and 2011 was considered. The evaluation was done under four categories— prosperity (income), education, health and law and order. For each category, two rankings were instituted—best performing and most improved, as explained above. The parameters of selection for each category have been mentioned with the lists of ranks. Only those parameters were selected for which…

Parameters for selection 1) PER CAPITA GDP 2) PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION 3) AVERAGE WAGES 4) AVERAGE LEVEL OF ABSOLUTE POVERTY The central portion of the North Chhotanagpur Division of Jharkhand. Hazaribagh takes its name from the forest surrounding it. Konar, a tributary of the river Damodar, flows past the town. Located on NH-33, it is about 95 km from capital Ranchi and represented in the Lok Sabha by Jayant Sinha. The district is bounded by Gaya and Koderma districts in the north, Giridih and Bokaro in the east, Ramgarh in the south and Palamu and Chatra in the west. Hazaribagh also has a rich history of participation in the freedom struggle, be it the revolt of the Ramgarh battalion in 1857, the Non-Cooperation Movement, the Civil Disobedience Movement and the…

Created in May 1983 during the undivided Bihar days, Godda is located at the Northeastern tip of Jharkhand. It is surrounded by districts of Bhagalpur (Bihar) in north, Dumka (Jharkhand) in south, Pakaur (Jharkhand) and Sahibganj in east and Dumka (Jharkhand) and Bhagalpur (Bihar) in west. Godda is largely known for its Rajmahal coalfield located in the Lalmatia area. The open cast mining project being run by ECL is one of the largest operational coal mines in India. With respect to population and area, the district ranks 12th and 18th respectively. Godda is also the sixth densely populated district in the state with 580 persons per sq km as against the state’s 414. Parameters for selection Decrease in number of 1) MURDERS 2) ATTEMPT TO MURDER 3) KIDNAPS AND RAPE…

For India at Rio 2016, it’s not about who but how many “Your showcase of our elite sports squad’s hard work was awe-inspiring. As our contestants prep for glory and set their hearts and minds on gold, India’s prospects look better this time around.” HARSH DUBEY, via e-mail A Coup That Wasn’t Turkey’s failed coup attempt contains a lesson for all countries—that the power of the ballot trumps the barrel of a gun (Lessons from a Failed Coup). In a brave and foolhardy move, thousands of Turkish people came out on the streets to defy the curfew and face the might of the military. It is futile to even attempt to control the dissemi nation of information in the age of social media. Today’s citizen is aware and has the…

The new bill endorses children working in 'family-based enterprises'. This is exactly the kind of legal loophole that has led to the continuation of child labour till now Those of us who have been part of the discussions of the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation legislation in 1986 and in 2016 feel a tremendous sense of loss and defeat at the unanimous passage of the latest amendment bill. The fact that the government chose to re-examine the 1986 law is very welcome. That it chose to bring it in compliance with the Right to Education Act, prohibited employment of children below 14, making it a cognisable offence are indeed steps forward. But that is where it ends—a stated good intent with huge gaps. Let’s examine them one by one. The…

Hived off from Sahibganj district, Pakaur was created on January 28, 1994, in the still undivided Bihar. Located in northeast Jharkhand, it has Birbhum in West Bengal to its east, Sahibganj in the north, Dumka in the south, and Godda in the west. Famous for its black stone chips, considered excellent for construction purposes, Pakaur exports them to South Asian countries. The district has some 500 stone mines and 800 crushers, providing employment to over one lakh semi-skilled and unskilled workers. The stone industry pays Rs 8-9 crore per year in royalty to government. Since the last decade, Pakaur has also seen massive coal excavation after a rather delayed discovery of reserves. The coal block has been allotted to the Punjab state government for its captive thermal power plants. PANAM,…

S.D. MUNI Professor Emeritus, JNU; Distinguished Fellow, IDSA; and former Special Envoy and Indian ambassador The change of regime in Nepal opens up an opportunity for New Delhi and Kathmandu to revive the warmth and understanding in their bilateral relations. Both are in a chastened mood, after the shocks and anxieties experienced during the nine-month saga of K.P. Sharma Oli’s prime ministership in Nepal. India began applying a course correction in its Nepal policy some five months earlier, even during Oli’s regime. There was a realisation in New Delhi that the long-term costs of its ad hoc and coercive diplomacy in terms of alienating ordinary Nepali people was unaffordable. The designated Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, has disapproved of Oli’s India policy, though his group was part…

TIGER: THE LIFE OF TIPU SULTAN By Kate Brittlebank Juggernaut Price Rs 399 Pages 188 If you live outside southern India, it’s likely that Tipu Sultan was a single chapter in your history book where he appeared as a regional satrap with ideas well beyond his station, a man who indulged in rose gardens and silk worms and whose betrayal by the Maratha Confederacy was a mere footnote in the early battles against the British, as they went from being a trading company to an occupying force. You may be forgiven for thinking that Tipu was just that fellow with a magnificent moustache whose favourite toy was a mechanical tiger tearing out the throat of a British soldier. And, yes, recently someone brought his sword back from England. But in…

Come September and Toronto will get a first look at Konkana Sensharma the director. Set in the 1970s, her ensemble drama, Death in the Gunj, has the best of indie talent in the cast. There is Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, Gulshan Devaiah, Jim Sarbh, Tilottama Shome and Vikrant Massey who, going by the trailer, has a breakthrough role. Filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane is only one film old but when the said film is as acclaimed as Court, then honours will only follow. The Venice Film Festival welcomes Tamhane again, this time as a member of the jury. Ashutosh Gowariker is not the only representative from India at the Locarno Film Festival. Kartikeya Singh, producer of Chauthi Koot, has been invited to mentor independent producers and directors from South Asia as part…

There’s one Narendra Modi, whom secularists and human rights activists love to hate. But there is another Modi, the tough, efficient administrator who is clearly making headway in his crusade to turn the state into a symbol of Gujarati pride. A recent survey, conducted by two leading Indian economists who have excellent reputations as academics, Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari, for a German foundation, has ranked Gujarat as India’s No. 1 state on its economic freedom index based on a series of parameters. The report is the best possible news for Modi, weighed down as he is by party rebels. The parameters on which the study ranked Gujarat are difficult to contest, even though Modi has also inherited much of what’s right with the state from earlier regimes. He can,…

ON A MONDAY AFTERNOON on May 16 this year, as the mercury touched 44 degrees in New Delhi, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel called on Prime Minister Naren dra Modi. The venue was the PM’s official 7, Race Course Road residence. Anandiben Patel, 74, had fought a battle for survival ever since the violent Patel agitation for reservation rocked Gujarat last July. The clamour for her exit mounted within the party after her mishandling of the situation. BJP president Amit Shah, one of her most bitter critics within the party, stepped up demands for her replacement. His concerns had risen after a fact-finding mission to the state in April had found the party’s electoral support base diminishing rapidly. The study also put a question mark on the CM’s leadership. It…

Majestic hills, wild waterfalls, verdant valleys, steeped in rich history and a rich, diverse tribal culture, the eastern state of Jharkhand is a paradox. It’s rich in natural resources, including forests, minerals, rivers, with abundant rainfall and fertile soil, yet the majority of its people live in abject poverty. Jharkhand has 40 per cent of India’s total mineral reserves but accounts for only 10 per cent of the country’s total mineral production in terms of value. A second paradox is that the state (then part of Bihar) started industrialising and urbanising as early as 1907 when the Tatas set up a steel plant in Jamshedpur, and Dhanbad developed as the country’s coal capital (over a century ago). Yet, 110 years later, Jharkhand has one of the largest rural populations in…

Parameters for selection Number of 1) MURDERS 2) ATTEMPT TO MURDER 3) KIDNAPS AND RAPE Carved out of Hazaribagh in 1972, Giridih is the administrative HQ and principal town of the district. It shares borders with two Bihar districts, Nawada in the north and Jamui in the east. Besides, Deoghar, Dumka, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribagh and Koderma surround it in an arc. Giridih is home to the Parasnath Jain Temple, which has a shrine dedicated to each of the 23 of the 24Tirthankaras who attained moksha on the Parasnath hills. It also has the 25-feet-high Usri Falls, location for shoots of many a Hindi and Bhojpuri film. Giridih is third by population (2,445,474) and fourth by area (4,962 sq km). It is the state’s 10th densely populated district with 493 persons…

Early in the morning, at around 7 am, Irom Sharmila, a sprightly 44, all things considered, can be found walking outside a pale blue building in Imphal’s Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) hospital. She has been held here for most of the past 16 years, a thin nasal-gastric tube famously fastened to her nose so that she can receive the nutrients necessary to keep her alive. On this August morning, though, the clouds hanging low over the humpbacked hills in the distance, she is accompanied on her stroll by armed guards. It is out of the ordinary, local journalists and activists insist. Sharmila’s morning walk is the time to sneak in a few informal words, inquire after her health, offer support, and news. The authorities have clamped down,…

All India Council of Tech nical Education (AICTE) chairman Anil D. Sahas rabudhe is ringing a warning bell for the country’s engineering colleges well ahead of the start of academic year 201617. “At least 100,000 seats of the close to 1.7 million seats for engineering will cease to exist. Over 100 colleges across the country will shut down even as 200 new colleges opened in 201516,” he cautions. The ‘dropout rate’ is likely to climb as more colleges opt for progressive closure—stopping admissions while marking time for existing batches in different years of the fouryear course to pass out of their portals. Early trends also indicate a perceptible fall in demand for engineering education in 201617. There are fewer takers for seats, particularly in states where colleges have mushroomed in…

Jihadi Jane by Tabish Khair Penguin India Price Rs 299 Pages 216 Tabish Khair, in Jihadi Jane, a novel plucked from the headlines, attempts to show how two ordinary Muslim girls from Yorkshire might find themselves in Syria betrothed to holy warriors, deeply committed to the cause of Daesh. Writing in his blog, Amitav Ghosh noted that “[r]arely has a novel seemed so timely”. The likes of John Updike and Martin Amis, with embarrassing results, have tried to channel terrorists, to ventriloquise, to imagine their motivations and thought processes. Khair tries something even more complicated—to write in the voice of a girl, barely out of school, from a working class, conservative Muslim family. Jamilla is serious, solemn, aware of her beauty but determined to overcome it, to not let it…