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August 02, 2018 The Indian Express By Rahul Bajaj The issue of citizenship has been dominating the public discourse since Monday, when Assam released the draft of an updated  National Register of Citizens  ( NRC ) leaving out 40 lakh of 3.29 crore applicants for inclusion. What determines who is or is not a citizen of India? And what are the special circumstances in Assam, the only state with an NRC? How is citizenship determined in India? Indian citizenship can be acquired by birth, descent, registration and naturalisation. A person domiciled in India as on November 26, 1949 — the date when the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution — automatically became a citizen if he or either of his parents was born in India, or if he had been in India for at least five years until that date. For those born in India after the Constitution came into effect, the Citizenship Act, 1955, grants citizenship by birth based on birth dates. Anyone born between January 26,...

August 01, 2018 Rediff. com Twelve religious parties, including Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-backed Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek, which contested the general elections in Pakistan saw a decline in their vote share when compared with the 2013 polls, securing just over 9 per cent of the total votes polled across the country. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the highest number of votes for religious parties was cast in Punjab (2,704,856 votes) but that contributed to only 7.98 per cent of the province's overall vote bank -- the lowest among all other provinces in Pakistan, the  Dawn  reported. The far-right groups managed to secure only 5,203,285 (9.58 per cent) of the total 54,319,922 votes polled across the country as most of them saw a decline in their vote bank when compared to the 2013 general election, the preliminary results showed. As compared with Punjab, their performance was better in Sindh where the religious parties received 1,116,644 vo...

August 01, 2018 The Wire By T R Bhat Financial inclusion is a major thrust area of the banking sector today.   Although it started during the earlier UPA regime, it received a serious push at different levels under the NDA government from 2014 onwards. About the outcomes of these measures, mixed reports have been appearing. But how did the concept emerge? What role did the governors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) play in influencing the changes?   Will the changes in the policies and the institutional framework intended to accelerate financial inclusion meet the goals? A new  book ,  Talking Financial Inclusion in Liberalised India: Conversations with Governors   of Reserve Bank of India, e dited by IIM Bangalore Prof M.S. Sriram, tries to find answers. In his lengthy introduction to the book, Prof Sriram, an expert in the field of micro finance, dwells upon two arguments that dictated the reforms in the financial sector: one political and the...

August 01, 2018 Dawn A home-made bomb set off the armed struggle against Indian rule in held Kashmir 30 years ago, but “new age” fighters using social media assaults alongside guns are taking the battle to new heights of bitterness. The explosion at the Srinagar telegraph office doorway on July 31, 1988, caused no casualties but lit the fuse on a conflict that rights groups say has since left more than 70,000 dead. Public support for the act surprised the attackers as well as the Indian government. But while Kashmir remains one of the world’s most heavily militarized zones, the 500,000-plus Indian troops are now also fighting a social media war. Hundreds of young men post images of themselves with AK-47 guns on Facebook and other social media sites after joining underground groups, seeking to build large, sympathetic following and attract new recruits. When the Indian army surrounds militant hideouts, they are often impeded by crowds of civilians rallying to the Kashm...

August 01, 2018 The Express Tribune By Zamir Akram At the time of writing, three days after the elections, it is clear that with the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, the PTI is likely to form the government at the Centre as well as in K-P and perhaps the Punjab province. In his first nationwide address, PTI leader Imran Khan has already spelt out his foreign policy priorities, seeking to improve relations with all the neighbouring countries as well as the US. But, despite his good intentions, the success or failure of his foreign policy will also depend on the policies of his interlocutors. There are both challenges and opportunities for the new government. First, the challenges. At the global level, a multi-polar world is emerging, characterised by increasing confrontation between the US, and China as well as Russia. Determined to retain global supremacy, and unwilling to accept China and Russia as equal partners in a new world order, the US has been enha...

August 02, 2018 Hindustan Times  By Yashwant Raj In a relief for India, the US senate on Wednesday passed a defence spending bill that also seeks to amend another law that threatens secondary sanctions against countries such as India which conduct “significant” business with Russia if New Delhi went ahead with plans to buy Russian air defence systems. The bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2019, had already been passed in the House of Representatives and is now headed for President Donald Trump for his signature. He is not expected to withhold approval given the support the White House has already extended to the bill. “I am grateful for the strong commitment of members on both sides of the aisle to pass this year’s NDAA in record time. Together, they have demonstrated the deep and abiding bipartisan support our military enjoys,” Defense Secretary James N Mattis said in a statement. “It is now our duty to implement these policies responsibly and ...

August 01, 2018 The Hindu By George Thomas The recent controversy about transparency in the working of the cadaver transplant programme in Tamil Nadu has provided an opportunity to revisit the vexed question of medical rationing in India. It is a hard reality that not all medical interventions are available to every citizen who may need it. The gap between what is technologically possible and what government hospitals generally provide widened appreciably after the technological leaps in medical care began, starting in the 1980s. Covert medical rationing The NITI Aayog’s document, ‘Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20’, has a section on health care. One of the recommendations is for the government to prioritise preventive care rather than provide curative care. The document also advises the government to pay attention to stewardship of the health sector in its entirety rather than focussing on provision of health care. Therefore, the system of private health car...

August 01, 2018 Hindustan Times Facebook Inc has identified a new coordinated political influence campaign to mislead users and organise rallies ahead of November’s US congressional elections, taking down dozens of fake accounts on its site, the company said on Tuesday. A Russian propaganda arm tried to tamper in the 2016 US election by posting and buying ads on Facebook, according to the company and US intelligence agencies. Moscow has denied involvement. Facebook on Tuesday said it had removed 32 pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram, part of an effort to combat foreign meddling in US elections, attempts that lawmakers have called dangerous for democracy. The company said it was still in the early stages of its investigation and did not yet know who may be behind the influence campaign for 2018 elections that will determine whether or not the Republican Party keeps control of Congress. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said on a call with report...