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The Wire December 22, 2018 By:Pushpa Sundar With a nudge and push from the party in power, money that might be better spent on literacy, health and technology is funding pet projects at pet locations. While the steady increase in companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) spends since 2014 under the Companies Act is to be welcomed, a disaggregated look at the spending leads to the disturbing conclusion that CSR funds are becoming subject to political pressures. In 2017-18, the mandatory CSR expenditure under Section 135 of the Companies Act was Rs 10,000 crore, according to the PRIME Database Group’s analysis of 1,627 NSE-listed companies. This shows a growth of 11% per annum over the previous year. In line with previous years, and as was to be expected, the maximum spending was on education (Rs 38.31 billion) followed by health care, poverty and hunger (Rs 24.85 billion) and environment sustainability (Rs 11.82 billion). But disaggregation of spending

The Wire December 23, 2018 By: Arjya Pragyan Mohanty After another season of less than normal rainfall during the monsoon, the Maharashtra government declared 32 districts as drought hit. A narrow road off the Ahmednagar-Kalyan highway in northern Maharashtra leads to the small village of Dhawalpuri. One can witness large tracts of barren landmass with scarce vegetation on either side of the pucca roads constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in and around the village. Amidst the bleak and deserted landscape, a few houses can be seen scattered. Salan Nana Pande (65) lives in one of the semi-pucca houses. Wrapped in a saree, she showed me the photos of her five daughters who are married and live in different parts of the state. She and her 70-year-old husband, now live alone. Their land is their only source of livelihood. The two grows onions instead of pulses which are more widely grown in Dhawalpuri. “With no rainfall this year, pulses were not an opti

The Wire Decembr 23, 2018 By:Sudarshan Varadhan In the case of the youngest to be killed, a bullet entered the back of 17-year-old J Snowlin's head and exited through her mouth. Twelve of the 13 protesters killed when police opened fire on a demonstration against Vedanta’s copper smelter in Tamil Nadu in May were hit by bullets in the head or chest, and half of those were shot from behind, autopsy reports show. Two others died after bullets pierced the sides of their heads, according to the reports produced by forensic medicine experts from several government hospitals and reviewed by Reuters. They have not been previously published. “The deceased would appear to have died of cardio-pulmonary arrest due to firearm bullet injury to the back of the neck,” forensic medicine experts who examined Snowlin’s body wrote. When Reuters visited her family, they said they had not collected the teenager’s autopsy report. “We are continuing to exist, that’s it,” said he

The Wire December 21, 2018 By:Anuj Srivas Different legal mechanisms allow the government to snoop on citizens and intercept targeted information. But some may well be unconstitutional. The Narendra Modi government’s quiet notification on Thursday night, authorising ten central agencies to snoop and decrypt “any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer”, has raised a storm over a debate that has never really taken place in India. A debate over the nature of targeted government surveillance. In India, major intelligence agencies like the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research Analysis Wing (RAW) operate without legislative or parliamentary oversight. The system as a whole churns out tens of thousands of tapping orders every month, and in states like Uttar Pradesh, local police resort to thumbing through thousands of call data records to track minor crimes. The lack of a data protection framework only worsens the delicate balance

The Wire December 22, 2018 By: Anand K. Sahay When channels of normal politics are clogged on account of New Delhi’s Kashmir policy to let only the gun do the talking, a messy result is perhaps inevitable. There is acute political awareness in Kashmir, and the nuances of the game are understood even among its younger residents. In that respect, the Valley may be thought of as being among the most politically alive regions of the country. There is no shortage of political parties on the ground. There is also the separatist combine – the Hurriyat Conference. In a freer atmosphere, Kashmir may have buzzed with political activity. Enough has happened in state in the past year to have ensured this – the toppling of the Mehbooba Mufti-led government, the imposition of Governor’s rule, the Valley-wide raising of temperatures on the ill-concealed effort of the BJP to do away with Article 35-A of the constitution through hostile judicial action as well as the virtually fraudu

Zee News 24 December 2018 Continuing with its ploy of targeting Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan plans to make use of GPS-guided mortar for precision attacks in the time to come. It has been learnt that Pakistan is in the weapons market to purchase the special and technologically advanced mortar which only a few countries currently have in their arsenal. Apart from some European countries, China also has these special mortars although Beijing has kept its features and abilities classified. Sources reveal that Pakistan is extremely interested in purchasing these and has instructed its embassies around the world to hunt for a viable deal. The GPS-enabled mortar with other countries - apart from China which has kept its special mortars secret - can target enemy establishments with extreme accuracy. According to an official in the Indian Defence Ministry, the directions and target of these mortars can be altered even after they are fired, making the

Dawn December 24, 2018 ISLAMABAD: The investigators probing last October’s online fraudulent transfer of money have claimed that the bank concerned was trying to hide the matter, which could further expose vulnerabilities in the banking sector. A senior official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told  Dawn that the hackers based in 44 countries had used the platform of ‘Visa’ money transfer service to siphon off the amount and an international forensic audit expert had been hired by the bank and the international money transfer company to probe the matter. “A report by the international expert was awaited as it would help the banking sector as well as the FIA strengthen their firewalls from any further attacks,” the official said, adding that the FIA had also initiated inquiry and sought details from the 44 countries where the hackers were based. ‘Report of international forensic expert to help strengthen firewalls against cyberattacks’ However, Pakistan does