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Leslie C. Gates  FEBRUARY 23, 2019 00:02 IST It allows him to present himself as the last bulwark against a return to American corporate domination On February 18, U.S. President Donald Trump amped up yet again the pressure on Venezuela’s recalcitrant military. If they do not defect to Juan Guaidó, Venezuela’s head of the national legislature who proclaimed himself the constitutional president in late January, Mr. Trump declares they will not benefit from amnesty. It is widely believed that many in the military fear sanctions for corruption, illicit narcotics trafficking and human rights abuses. Thus far, though, the U.S. has failed to recruit their Venezuelan equivalent of Chile’s Pinochet, the leader of the 1973 coup against the elected socialist, Salvador Allende. Nor has Mr. Guaidó succeeded as Nicaragua’s Violeta Chamorro did in 1990, to leverage devastating economic sanctions to win over large swaths of the population once sympathetic to Nicaragua’s Sandinista-led revo...

Kalpana Kannabiran : FEBRUARY 23, 2019 00:02 IST The Supreme Court order on the eviction of forest dwellers raises very disturbing questions The  order of the Supreme Court issued on February 13 with respect to the claims of forest-dwelling peoples  in India — the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers — is a case of the Supreme Court speaking against itself. In effect, the court has ordered the eviction of lakhs of people whose claims as forest dwellers have been rejected under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, or FRA. That this order negates the claims of citizens under special protection of the Constitution, viz. the Scheduled Tribes and other vulnerable communities already pushed by gross governmental neglect precariously to the edge, is another matter altogether. The question before us today centres on the responsibility of the Supreme Court in upholding constitutional claims and e...

FEBRUARY 22, 2019 21:27 IST  Priscilla Jebaraj The  Labour  Bureau has completed its survey on employment generated by the MUDRA loan scheme, giving the Centre a potential data tool to combat other reports showing a dismal scenario on jobs. “We have completed the survey and submitted the report to the Labour Ministry,” said a senior Labour Bureau official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is awaiting the Minister’s approval now… it is likely to be released in the first week of March,” the official said, declining to comment on the survey’s findings. The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana was introduced in April 2015 as an effort to extend affordable credit to micro and small enterprises.  Loans  up to ₹10 lakh are extended to these non-corporate, non-farm enterprises by the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) through last-mile financial institutions. So far, 15.56 crore loans worth a total of ₹7.23 lakh crore have been disbursed. ...

BEIJING,   FEBRUARY 22, 2019 22:15 IST Barred from travel, senior-level jobs Forgot to pay a fine in China? Then forget about buying an airline ticket. Would-be air travellers were blocked from buying tickets 17.5 million times last year under a controversial ‘social credit’ system the ruling Communist Party says will improve public behaviour. Some 5.5 million people were barred from buying train tickets, according to the National Public Credit Information Center. In an annual report, it said 128 people were blocked from leaving China because they were behind on their taxes. Carrot and stick policy The ruling party says penalties and rewards under ‘social credit’ will improve order in a fast-changing society. Three decades of economic reform have shaken up social structures. Markets are rife with counterfeit goods and fraud. The system is part of efforts by President Xi Jinping’s government to use technology from data processing to genetic sequencing and facial ...

Devjyot Ghoshal NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated sharply after a suicide bombing in the disputed region of Kashmir killed 40 Indian paramilitary police, an attack claimed by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed a strong response to the attack and said he had given the military a free hand. Pakistan would retaliate if attacked, his counterpart, Imran Khan, has warned. The neighbours have twice gone to war over Kashmir since independence in 1947. Here is how their militaries stack up. MILITARY BUDGET In 2018, India allocated four trillion rupees ($58 billion), or 2.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), to support its 1.4 million active troops, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Last year, Pakistan spent 1.26 trillion Pakistani rupees ($11 billion), about 3.6 percent of its GDP, on its 653,800 troops. It also received $100 millio...

Monday, February 25, 2019 The JeM operates at two levels: one is by infiltrating terrorists into Indian territory and attacking specific targets. Examples are Pathankot, Uri and Nagrota. The other is by recruiting local youth and using them as suicide bombers. The aftershocks of the release of Masood Azhar in January 2000 are felt regularly. Every aftershock should remind the people of India of the rude shock that the country felt when the  BJP -led NDA government decided to release Masood Azhar in exchange for the passengers and crew of Flight IC 184 who had been taken hostage. The picture of the external affairs minister,  Jaswant Singh , escorting Masood Azhar and two others to Kabul and releasing them to their fellow-terrorists is a painful memory. Advertising Soon after, Masood Azhar founded the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). The JeM mounted its first attack, using a suicide bomber, on April 19, 2000, on the Army’s 15 Corps in Srinagar. Since then, at ...