Jul 28 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

One rape every 30 minutes in India

Himanshi.Dhawan

New Delhi:





2.7 Lakh Cases Reported In 13 Yrs, Delhi Sees Highest Rise At 329%: Study

Even as an increasing number of violent crimes against women, especially rape, continue to be reported across the country , a 13-year analysis of crime data reveals that a little more than 57 rapes were reported every day . This averages at over two rapes every hour, every day during the last 13 years. A total of 2,72,844 cases were reported across 28 states and seven UTs in this period.A Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) analysis of reported rape cases between 2001 and 2013 shows that 2,64,130 rapes were reported in 28 states during the 13-year period -an average of almost 56 rapes per day. In the seven UTs, the average is almost two rapes per day . However, Delhi alone accounted for 8,060 reported incidents during this period.
While 16,075 cases of rape were reported in 2001 across all states and UTs, in 2013, the figure stood at 33,707 -indicating an increase of 52.30%. The expansion of the list of offences that constitute rape following amendments to the Criminal Amendment Act, 2013 has resulted in an increase in reported cases. The highest rise among the 28 states and UTs was in Delhi (329%) compared to the figure reported in 2001 when the UT reported 381 cases.
The number of cases reported in Maharashtra went up by 135%, rising from 1,302 in 2001 to 3,063 in 2013. In Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh, the number of cases reported was more than double the figure reported in 2001. Another reason for the increase in number of cases reported in 2013 would be the fear of punishment in the minds of police officers to whom rape cases reported.
Bengal is the only state where fewer cases of rape were reported after the 2013 amendments were enforced, falling from 2,046 in 2012 to 1,685 in 2013. The report's author Venkatesh Nayak, who analyzed NCRB data, said it would have to be examined why the state had bucked the trend and to see if police was suppressing complaints.
During the 13-year period, Madhya Pradesh reported the most number of rapes at 40,422.
The average figure for MP is more than eight rapes per day during the 13-year period. This is 44% higher than that of Bengal, which stood second with 22,472 cases, which averages at almost five incidents of rape per day across the state. It is followed by UP with 22,108 rapes, averaging 4.65 incidents a day .
The report also noted that while 3,563 persons were convicted for rape in 2012, 5,101 culprits were convicted in 2013, increasing by over 30%.
For the full report, log on to http://www.timesofindia.com

Jul 28 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

One in every 3 Apple engineers is Indian

Shilpa Phadnis & Sujit John

TNN





India has become a major ingredient in Apple's secret sauce, and the scale may surprise many . It is estimated that a third of the $171-billion company's engineering staff is Indian, and that a large and increasing proportion of its enterprise software, service and support work is done by Indian IT vendors.Apple filed 1,750 H-1B applications between 2001 and 2010, but the number rose sharply to 2,800 in 2011-13. USbased HfS Research, which compiled the data, says the majority of the H-1Bs would be Indians, indicating that the iPhone and iPad maker's dependence on Indian engineers has risen significantly in recent years.
“About one-third of Apple's engineering headcount consists of Indians who are either on H-1B visas or on green cards,“ said Pareekh Jain, principal analyst at HfS Research.
HfS arrives at that conclusion by looking at figures Apple disclosed in 2012, when it said it had 47,000 people working directly for it in the US, of which 7,700 were customer support operators and 27,350 worked retail in Apple Stores.
That left about 12,000 as engineers, designers, marketers and other white-collar tech product workers.
HfS Research also finds that Apple works with at least five India-based IT vendors -including four large firms and the scope of the work they do has been rising.
“Apple's outsourcing strategy can be described in three words as `outsourcing for growth'. The scope of out sourcing work has been enlarged in the last two or three years. From 2013, Apple has dedicated IT outsourcing vendor managers based out of Bangalore who are acting as the bridge between Apple's IT managers and India-based IT vendors,“ said Jain.
HfS Research declined to name the IT vendors. TCS, Infosys and Wipro are known to do work for Apple. Apple is seen to be among Infosys's top 10 clients. Two years ago, Infosys rented a 1.4-lakh sqft office space near its headquarters in Bangalore to house employees working exclusively for Apple. The building had a capacity to initially house 1,400 people.
Apple engages with Indian IT players for application development & maintenance, business intelligence & datawarehousing, data analytics applications, enterprise application integration and ERP implementation. Indian vendors also provide software support for development and maintenance of Apple retail stores, specific work for iTunes, iCloud, internal applications of release management, job search portals, and porting of web applications to iOS mobile.
“The other aspect of Apple's outsourcing strategy is multi-sourcing, with each IT vendor having some strong focus in areas like channels, CRM, supply chain, marketing and finance, and some overlap,“ Jain said.
Apple did not respond to a mail TOI sent on Friday seeking confirmation of the data. That was perhaps to be expected from a company regarded as among the most secretive in the world.
In 2006, Apple had leased space in Bangalore to establish a technical support centre with 3,000 people. But within months the company abandoned the plan following an outcry from customers casting doubts on India's ability to service and support Apple's high-quality products.
But in the following years, Apple was clearly convinced it could not do without India and found other ways to use the country's talent.
Incremental work coming from Apple has increased substantially as the volumes and complexity of Apple's supply chain has increased.
Apple, whose market valuation is at $585 billion, sold 35.2 million iPhones in the June quarter, a growth of 12.7% compared to the same period last year. Apple said demand from BRIC economies -Bra zil, Russia, India and China -spurred iPhone sales.
“Its data warehousing applications have petabytes of data. Its product lines, volumes and need for analytics have increased. Also, Apple has acquired more than 30 firms in the last three years whose systems and applications need migration and integration to Apple's applications. All this is translating into additional work for IT vendors,“ Jain said.

Jul 26 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

poke me - Not Death Before Life

Harmala Gupta





Euthanasia is premature when most people have no access to end-of-life care

It surprises those of us who look after people with life-limiting conditions that we are not asked more often to end lives.We do, occasionally , receive requests but have found that they quickly dissipate once the precipitating crisis is dealt with: unaddressed physical pain, a feeling of guilt or loss of meaning. Why is this so?
By and large in India, it is families and not individuals who take decisions about their lives, including medical ones. Nowhere is this more evident than when the diagnosis is a lifelimiting one like cancer. The patient's diagnosis and prognosis, the details of the treatment to be followed, etc, are generally kept away from the patient and discussed by doctors with those who are perceived as the main decision-makers in the family .
Patients, too, seem to be happy to play along as not only do they believe that the family and the doctor will do what is in their best interest, but also because they feel that since the brunt of expenses and the burden of care will have to be borne by the family , it would be churlish for them to insist on their individual right to know.
In these circumstances, where the individual affected is not the decision-maker and is not in full control of information regarding his or her illness, legalising euthanasia is out of the question. It cannot be a decision taken by someone else on your behalf when you are up and able. Not all families are happy families and not all doctors are wedded to the Hippocratic oath.
The second reason why our patients, who are often at the end-of-life and of their tether, do not ask for euthanasia is because our teams of doctors, nurses and counsellors are skilled professionals who have the medicines and competence to bring immediate relief and alleviate unnecessary suffering. They are trained in a sub-speciality known as palliative care that is not confined to symptom control alone but includes hands-on nursing and training of caregivers in simple nursing tasks.
When Care is Aspirational
The counsellor on the team seeks to prioritise the most pressing psychosocial and economic concerns to help patients and their families feel less helpless and regain a sense of control over their lives. This care and support continues till the end-of-life for the patient and post-bereavement for the family . Unfortunately , however, our patients are the lucky few, for the vast majority , palliative care is a bridge too far.
Once again, the call for euthanasia is premature in a country where people with chronic, debilitating and life-limiting illnesses have no access to end-of-life care that is appropriate, affordable and can be delivered at their place of choice, usually the home. Instead, the reality is that if they live in a city , they are likely to be shunted into a critical care unit and at some stage, put on life support, which further compounds their misery as well as that of their families. For those who cannot afford such care, it is back to the village to die without any kind of supportive care to ease their pain and suffering.
Surely , the answer lies in increasing access to palliative care by train ing more personnel and providing them with the necessary wherewith al and backup? This is not expensive care as it does not require prolonged hospitalisation or sophisticated int erventions. All it needs is good symp tom-control and compassionate care that respects the dying process and the right of the patient to continue to live with dignity .
Life Cycle
For this to happen, society , including doctors, medical bodies and lawmak ers, must first accept that death is na tural and that there is something cal led the dying process. Efforts should focus on facilitating it in a manner that does not make it grotesque, dis tasteful and something to be feared.
Doctors must have the latitude to take decisions, such as removing life support, or refusing to initiate intru sive measures that they consider fu tile without fear of legal censure.
This is not physician-assisted eu thanasia as the intention is not to kill the patient but to do what doctors are sworn to do: to cause the least harm and do what will benefit the patient the most under the circumstances.
Missing Critical Care For this to happen seamlessly , a palliative care team trained in end-of-life care needs to be at hand to support the treating team and to counsel and prepare families. The Indian Critical Care Society and the Indian Association of Palliative Care have already jointly initiated this process and it is to be hoped that their recommendations will be considered seriously by the government.
The euthanasia debate is both premature and inappropriate for India.
A vast majority of our population does not, at present, has access to humane end-of-life care. Moreover, as long as families and doctors follow a “do-not-tell-the-patient“ policy , offering euthanasia as an option is simply a non-starter.
The writer is founder-president, CanSupport

Jul 26 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

India Presses Food Security Button at WTO Meet

NEW DELHI OUR BUREAU





Won't back trade protocol unless concerns addressed

India stuck to its guns at the World Trade Organization in defiance of developed nations with a strongly worded statement at the general council meeting in Geneva on Friday that it will not agree to any accord on trade facilitation unless food security issue is also taken up, signalling its intent to take a hard stand on July 31, the deadline by which a decision has to be made.Instead, India has suggested a four-point action plan that seeks to deliver by December 31 a complete package on agreements reached at the Bali ministerial that includes trade facilitation, a package for least developed countries and public stocking for food security. The hardening of India's stand emerged after the new government took stock of the situation earlier this week.
Rattled rich countries have hit back at India, accusing it of going back on what was signed in December 2013 at Bali, a charge India has strongly countered.“The EU is not ready to renegotiate basic elements or timelines that were agreed as integral part of the Bali package,“ the European Union said, indicating a heightened risk of a stalemate or talks unravelling.
Another delay looms, an expert said.
“WTO goes by consensus and with India along with the other African, Latin American countries not agreeing to sign the trade facilitation protocol, it will have to get deferred,“ said Biswajit Dhar, professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
It is by no means clear what will happen next, said a person present at the general council meeting, adding that the atmosphere was very tense.
“It will be suicidal, absolutely.
And that's not a threat, that's just a statement of fact,“ one Western diplomat was cited as saying by Reuters. “They say we're going to get what we want or we'll blow everything else up, but if they do that they won't even get what they want.“India said the concerns of poorer nations needed to be addressed.
“To fully understand and address the concerns of members on the TF (Trade Facilitation) Agreement, my delegation is of the view that the adoption of the TF Protocol be postponed till a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security is found,“ India said at the general council meeting, adding that that it was disappointed by the lack of similar urgency shown on issues of importance to the developing countries.The trade facilitation agreement seeks to cut down red tape in global trade that some studies say could add $ 1 trillion to the global economy.At the Bali ministerial in December, WTO members had agreed to pursue trade facilitation, a solution to the issue of public stock holding for food security and a package for least development countries.
India's food security law, which is based on massive government procurement from farmers and distribution to poor at subsidised prices, runs the risk of violating WTO rules that prescribe a limit on farm subsidies at 10% of output.
The country has budgeted Rs 1.15 lakh crore for food subsidies in the current year.
“India is of the view that the Trade Facilitation Agreement must be implemented only as part of a single undertaking including the permanent solution on food security,“ New Delhi said in its submission, accusing the developed world of not having the “will to engage in areas of interest“.
The G-33 countries, a group of developing nations, want a complete exclusion of subsidies given on account of public stockholding programmes from the category of actionable subsidies at the WTO. This will require amendment to the WTO Agreement on Agriculture to allow countries to procure food grain from poor farmers at minimum support prices and sell to poor people at subsidised rates through public distribution systems.
India said timelines were important but there cannot be undue haste.“The Bali outcomes were negotiated as a package and must be concluded as such,“ it said. “This is important so that the millions of farmers and the poor families who depend on domestic food stocks do not have to live in constant fear. To jeopardise the food security of millions at the altar of a mere anomaly in the rules is unacceptable.“At the same time, India said it was fully committed to the decisions taken at Bali.
“Having signed on to the ministerial decisions in Bali, let there be no doubt about India's commitment to those decisions including the Trade Facilitation Agreement. All we are asking is that the public stockholding issue as well as other decisions of Bali be taken forward in the same time frame as trade facilitation,“ India said.
An Indian commerce department official justified India's stand saying that any accord should not ignore the interests of the poor.“We can defer the time. Timelines are important, but they are not sacrosanct at the cost of the interest of a large (amount of) humanity which lives below the poverty line. We are not saying that we want to postpone it to eternity, no, not at all,“ the person said.
India sought immediate establishment of an institutional mechanism such as a dedicated Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture to find a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security.

Jul 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Autonomous NAAC to finally come out of UGC shadow

Hemali.Chhapia @timesgroup.com

Mumbai:





Outfit To Be Revamped, `Sanitized'

After dilly-dallying for six months, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has been pushed to start the process of autonomy .At NAAC's 66th executive council meeting, it was decided that the accreditation body for higher education institutions would snap ties with the University Grants Commission, thus ending UGC's two decade-long supremacy .
In the EC meeting that took place on Thursday , it was also decided that the HRD ministry will take NAAC under its wing. Currently , NAAC functions under UGC, but the ministry had, in a letter, bluntly asked the accreditation body and the regulator to keep each other at “an arm's length“. Despite that, there was enormous internal resistance from within NAAC.
The divorce will require NAAC to draw up new byelaws besides amending its memorandum of association. HRD ministry sources said that besides routine administrative changes, NAAC, whose inspections have been the subject of intense scrutiny and debate with allegations of favours taken and given, has to be revamped and “sanitized“. “After UGC made accred itation mandatory , the idea of making NAAC an independ ent body has been stressed up on in several meetings,“ an HRD ministry official said.
Across the world, such a sepa ration is the norm. “Yet, de spite several reminders, the ministry's suggestion was not being acted upon,“ he added.
Many in the HRD ministry blame UGC for NAAC's limited growth. Officials said the National Board of Accreditation, which grades technical courses, underwent a transformation “financially and functionally“ after it was sepa rated from the All India Coun cil for Technical Education.
For the full report, log on to http://www.timesofindia.com

Jul 25 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

In the name of God





Most of humanity thinks of God only when there is reason to fear the outcome of wrongdoing

We have witnessed a spate of swearingin ceremonies to constitutional offices in recent weeks – ranging from ministers to judges. Although the Indian Constitution has two options in the form of assuming office — “do swear in the name of God” and “solemnly affirm” — an overwhelming majority invoked God when entering office.In a society that does not set great store by affirmations in affidavits and is yet inextricably intertwined with religious practices, this is arguably a good trend. Yet, since most of humanity thinks of God only when there is reason to fear the outcome of wrongdoing, the trend in how public office is assumed, can be disheartening.
The Indian Constitution sets out the forms of the “oaths or affirmations” applicable to various situations. While an “oath” is a vow or promise, an “affirmation” is a positive declaration. The oath is a promise (a swearing in the name of God) to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution while the affirmation is a solemn declaration that person making it will indeed do so.
Does the form of promising or declaring one’s allegiance to the Indian Constitution at all matter? Or, can the manner of stating allegiance at all be treated as form rather than substance? The founding fathers of the Constitution discussed this at some length. A peek into their deliberations is interesting. Some of them had wanted the very Preamble to the Constitution to contain an invocation to God and lamented that God found place only in the oath of office. Others questioned with dripping sarcasm if the draftsmen of the oath had taken permission from God to be named in the Constitution since they seemed to claim to know God.
Providing the option came in as an intended solution for agnostics who do not believe in God.
Some members of the Constituent Assembly who were willing to accept provision of both options quibbled over whether the oath in the name of God should come first in sequence or if the solemn affirmation should — the phrase that
came first would be the first among equals in their view, indicating some form of superiority.An argument for removing the option of swearing in the name of God was that even providing for such a classification led to identification and indication of whether a person was a believer or an atheist, which would be contrary to the spirit of democracy. A member who firmly asserted his belief in the existence of God, quoted from the Irish Constitution to show that even in a Roman Catholic nation, the President takes an oath in the name of the people of his nation and submits to the severest punishment from the State for potentially breaking his oath, without invoking God.
It was only much later (in 1972) that Ireland would remove a reference to the primacy of the Roman Catholic faith from her Constitution, but the form of oath did not refer to God. The Constitution of the socially-diverse-but-politicallyChristian United States of America too does not have the invocation of God for the President’s oath. The words “So help me God” and the kissing of the Bible are customary practices that dif
ferent Presidents adopted on their own. Recently, Tulsi Goddard, a Hindu elected to the US Congress (incidentally, not of Indian origin) took her oath with her hand placed on the Bhagavad Gita.B R Ambedkar, who had introduced the reference to God into the oath of office with his drafting, has clearly been proven wrong today in one respect. He had argued: “It is only Christians, Anglo-Indians and Muslims who swear [in the name of God]. The Hindus do not like to utter the name of God.” He defended bringing God into the secular constitution to enable invocation of “the governing force of the Universe as well as individual lives” as a sanctioning force for adherence to constitutional provisions that did not entail specific punishments for violations.
There was one member who seems to have been prescient about how the Republic would turn out. Tajamul Husain found the oath quite unnecessary. His argument: “… 99 per cent of the witnesses who go into the witness box and take an oath or affirmation mentioning Almighty God, go to tell the untruth.”

Jul 25 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

POINTS TO PONDER - Let There Be Light

Bibek Debroy





Being lit-up may be the brightest index for measuring development

Unless your general know ledge is particularly good, you may not have heard of Gbadolite, as opposed to Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Gbadolite is the capital of the country's Nord-Ubangi district.More importantly , it was the ancestral home and residence of ex-President Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire (DRC's former name), between 1965 and 1997.
Mobutu wanted to change Gbadolite into a “Versailles“ in the jungle.
For years, economists have sought measures of economic development, per-capita GDP not being the only option. GDP is market value of goods and services produced in a year and per-capita GDP needn't be the same as per-capita income (income includes net factor payments). For instance, for Indian states too, if remittance income is significant, per-capita state gross domestic product (GSDP) can deviate significantly from a state's per-capita income.
`Gross' Domestic Product As a measure, GDP is often criticised. The thrust of that criticism is an inability to quantify variables that don't have markets andor prices.
None of that criticism is really new.
People who point to these warts often don't know that Simon Kuznets, father of national income measurement, wrote one of the best critiques of GDP in 1934. However, income is, at best, a means. It isn't an end. We must have some other measure of human development and deprivation.
Consequently , we went through stuff like quality-of-life indices and the most robust of measures now is UNDP's human development index (HDI, based on purchasing power parity , per-capita income, health and education). Every once in a while, someone comes up with a new measure, incorporating new ideas and variables. But in considering development or deprivation, several variables are correlated with several others.
The Cows Come Home Idon't see much point in adding to complexity . Taken a bit out of context, this is a bit like Occam's Razor: “Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate.“ Simplified and paraphrased: don't complicate without reason.
Down the years, Laveesh Bhandari and I have done some work on interstate comparisons.
Once fishing through livestock census data, we found some rather unexpected correlations. Whenever a state's agriculture did well, there seemed to be reverse gender preference. Usually , the ratio of cowsbulls was 50:50. However, whenever agriculture did well, the ratio became more like 70:30. Once you think about it, the finding makes sense.
Agriculture doing well means mechanisation (less bulls needed) or diversification into dairying (less bulls wanted). Ditto for dogs, where the state of data is much more unsatisfactory . Whenever a state does well, “pet“ dogs increase relative to “non-pets“, a phenomenon also linked to urbanisation. Had data permitted, one would probably have found a male dog preference, correlated with urbanisation. We could, thus, have developed cow and dog indices for development.
We didn't do that because we didn't want to become the butt of jokes.
But there is one other thing we fou nd. Through Nasa, we got hold of pic tures of India taken at night. There was a very visible correlation bet ween darkness and states known to be backward, and illumination and states known to be more advanced.
For instance, central and eastern In dia was shrouded in relative dark ness. You could see that pattern glob ally too, with highways lighting up parts of the US.
Enlightened Development Our exercise was largely fun. Now, there is a serious paper by Paul Ras chky (Monash University) and Ro land Hodler (University of St Gallen) published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, illuminating the dism al science. What's remarkable is the quality of satellite data they have col lected: 38,427 sub-national regions, between 1992 and 2009. Therefore, you not only have a light shot at one point in time, you also have a time se ries. One hypothesis is obvious, such as North Korea versus South Korea, or the Nile region in Egypt. Deve lopment means light, deprivation means darkness.
However, because of time series, the fascinating story lies elsewhere.
Which is where Gbadolite comes in.
When a political leader comes to power, his favoured geographical re gion lights up, such as Gbadolite un der Mobuto. To make the story plausible, after Mobuto's exile and death, Gbadolite faded again.
There is a similar story -without the fade-out bit -for Hambantota in Sri Lanka under President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Subject to quantification and estimation problems, here are some figures.
If literacy is high and democracy mature, light intensity doesn't alter with change in political leadership.
But if these indicators are “medium“, night-time light intensity in the leader's birthplace (or favoured region) increases by 4% and regional GDP by 1%. If these indicators are “poor“, those numbers change to a light intensity increase of 11% and regional GDP increase of 3%.
It isn't obvious from the paper whether these consequences follow from new resources or diversion of resources from other regions. Nevertheless, it is a novel study. Lenin had a definition of communism as Soviet power plus electrification. If one can ensure 24×7 electricity to all households -not just token connections at the village-level and villages that are off-grid -socioeconomic development becomes a given. Clearly, we picked up the wrong kind of “power“ from Lenin's definition.
The writer is consulting editor, ET
Night pictures taken by Nasa show a visible correlation between darkness and states known to be backward: central and eastern India was under relative darkness