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Apr 23, 2018, 04.35 PM IS  Washington/New Delhi: India retained the top position as recipient of remittances with its diaspora sending about USD 69 billion back home last year, the World Bank said today. Remittances to India picked up sharply by 9.9 per cent, reversing the previous year's dip, but were still short of USD 70.4 billion received in 2014. In its latest Migration and Development Brief, the World Bank estimated that officially recorded remittances to low-and middle income countries reached USD 466 billion in 2017. This was an increase of 8.5 per cent over USD 429 billion in 2016. Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, grew 7 per cent to USD 613 billion last year, from USD 573 billion in 2016, the bank said. The stronger than expected recovery in remittances is driven by growth in Europe, Russia and the US. The rebound in remittances, when valued in US dollars, was helped by higher oil prices and a strengthening of euro and rubl...

Business Standard April 24, 2018 When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the southern city of Chennai recently, he must’ve been startled by the welcome he received. Half the city, it seemed, had turned out to wave black flags at his motorcade, as well as banners that read “Go Back, Modi.” When the prime minister hopped into a helicopter, the crowds cleverly sent up black balloons in its wake. The vitriol wasn’t entirely personal. Protesters in Chennai — the capital of the prosperous state of Tamil Nadu — had singled out Modi as the most high-profile representative of a New Delhi establishment that many Tamils have begun to see as biased against them. Marchers were angry about a very local issue -- the federal government’s reluctance to implement a recent Supreme Court order dealing with water-sharing between Tamil Nadu and the neighbouring state of Karnataka. But disenchantment in India’s south isn’t limited to a single is...

The Indian Express April 24, 2018 As India gives shape to its new forest policy, the votaries of forest conservation and tribal rights have come out strongly against commercial extraction of forests that undermines both local communities and ecology. It is a timely show of strength since the draft policy seeks to measure the productivity of our forests by the quantity of timber harvested instead of the quality of biodiversity and eco-system services they host and provide. Historically, though, the two groups continually undercut each other even as India’s appetite for growth devoured both forests and tribal land. Beneath the current truce, simmers the banal debate of rights versus conservation, fueled most recently by the historic march of the farmer and the forest-dweller from Nashik to Mumbai. Before the two resume sparring, examine this incongruity. Why did forest-dwellers join a farmers’ rally? Are farming solutions to be found inside forests? Isn’t a forest-dwelling farm...

The Indian Express April 24, 2018 The unprecedented rejection of the motion for impeachment has raised multiple questions, but the wider context of the unfolding spectacle includes a range of related matters. Some key questions answered. Is there a provision in the Constitution that deals with the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India (CJI)? Not the CJI specifically. As the CJI is only the first among equals, he too, like other judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, can be impeached “on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity” under Article 124(4). The Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, contains details of the process. The motion is to be signed by 50 members of Rajya Sabha or 100 members of Lok Sabha and, if it is admitted, an inquiry committee consisting of a Supreme Court judge, a High Court Chief Justice, and a distinguished jurist is to probe the charges. If the charges stand proven, the motion is to be presented to each House of Parliament and passed by a m...

The Hindu April 24, 2018 The government should impose a moratorium on fracking as the negative consequences outweigh the benefits.  Many scholars believe that fossil fuel energy will decline markedly by 2050. Such conclusions have been challenged by others who say that the earth has enough resources to quench humankind’s thirst for development for many centuries to come. Among other energy supplies, shale gas and oil are likely to be abundant and available. Shale gas and oil are unconventional natural resources found at 2,500-5,000 m below the earth’s surface, as compared to conventional crude oil found at 1,500 m. The process of extracting shale oil and gas requires deep vertical drilling followed by horizontal drilling. The most common way to extract shale gas is ‘hydraulic fracturing’ (fracking), where high volumes of water mixed with certain chemicals are pushed down to break the rocks and release the trapped energy minerals. Because of its benefits, shale g...

The Hindu April 24, 2018 Calls for penal action against members of appraisal committee Poovulagin Nanbargal, an environmental group, has moved the National Green Tribunal’s principal bench in New Delhi, challenging the environmental clearance granted to the neutrino observatory project in Theni district. The appeal also sought direct penal action against members of the Expert Appraisal Committee (Infra-2) for acting beyond their jurisdiction and recommending the project for grant of EC in violation of the EIA notification, 2006. Besides, it sought a departmental inquiry against officers of the Environment Ministry for giving illegal directions to the EAC. G. Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal, who filed the appeal, sought a detailed and comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment to be conducted by an accredited agency, with “expertise in this specific field looking at the entire project in totality, given that it is the first of its kind in the entire country”. ...

News 18 April 23, 2018 NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Monday said that the states in India's southern and western region were growing rapidly, but those like Bihar, UP and Chattisgarh were keeping the country backward. Speaking at the first Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Memorial Lecture at Jamia Millia Islamia University, Kant said, "Eastern part of India particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is keeping India backward especially on social indicators. While we have have improved on ease of doing business, we have remained backward on human development index. We are still 131 out of 188 countries in HDI." Talking on 'Challenges of Transforming India,' Kant said the southern and western parts of India were doing reasonably well and growing rapidly. "And when the country's HDI has to improve and we have to focus on these social indicators. We are working on these things through Aspirational D...

The Wire  April 14, 2018 It’s been a while since I first donned the white coat of a doctor in 1983. In the medical world, the white coat makes doctors easily identifiable to patients and also conveys the importance of hygiene. When I stepped into politics in 2008 as a Praja Rajyam Party member, the love affair with white continued, albeit in a different sense. The white  khadi kurta,  which is synonymous with Indian politics, has had its fair share of jokes. Indian voters believe, and often rightly so, that a  khadi kurta  is a pass for ‘ saath khoon maaf ’. And politicians have only themselves to blame.  A childhood memory that lingers is one where I’m sitting in my father’s office chair. Behind the chair hung a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. A wall lizard, which had taken up residence there, would periodically stray outside its domain to grab an insect. Having gulped its snack, the lizard would scurry back behind the great man’s frame. Th...

Counterview April 23, 2018 Even as critical of India's human rights record, including police and security force "abuses" like "extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, rape, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and lengthy pretrial detention", unlike previously, in its new report the US Department of State is quite soft Government of India. The US 2017 Human Rights Report for India  notes , most domestic and international human rights groups in the country "generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases", and only in some circumstances "groups faced restrictions".  The report continues, "Government officials were generally responsive to NGO requests. There were more than three million NGOs in the country advocating for social justice, sustainable development, and human rights. The government generally met wi...