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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Maharashtra first state to award Jews ‘minority’ status

One of India’s smallest religious communities, the Jews, has now got an official identity in Maharashtra. Ending their decades old struggle, the Jews were finally conferred with the ‘minority’ status by the state cabinet on Tuesday.
Maharashtra is the first state to categorise Jews as a minority group. Of the estimated 5,000 Jews in India, around 4,300 live in the state, concentrated largely in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad district.
The government’s move means the community is now eligible for state schemes for religious minority groups, including scholarships for students and grants to educational institutes run by community members, among others.
However, more than the government schemes, the community is excited about other factors. Documents registering births, deaths and marriages of Jews did not carry their religion, instead categorising them as ‘others’, which will now change.
“Even the census didn’t count us as ‘Jews’, as a result of which, there are no official figures for our community. Our internal estimates show we are only 5,000 members, which makes us a miniscule, microscopic minority,” said Ezra Moses, the secretary of the Indian Jewish Federation.
The other benefit, Moses said, will be the community will get full subsidy from the government to visit Jerusalem, the Israeli capital, for pilgrimages.
With their major demand accepted, the community hopes the government will pay heed to another request they had made. “The holiest day for the community, Yom Kippur, is generally when our kids have examinations. Families can’t celebrate this day because of that. With this official tag for us, I hope the government considers making the day an optional holiday,” he said.
Another community member, David Talegaonkar, who is on the trust which runs one of the three community-run educational institutes, the Sir Elly Kardoorie High School, welcomed the decision. “We receive a lot of applications from Jewish students who don’t have the means to support their education. This tag means they can have access to government scholarships.”
The Maharashtra government had, in 2006, recognised six minority groups – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains.
Source: Hindustan Times, 22-06-2016
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JNU library named after Ambedkar
New Delhi:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Jawaharlal Nehru University's executive council has approved the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's demand to rename its central library as BR Ambedkar Library on Tuesday .The ABVP , in April, also demanded that Dr Ambedkar's statue be installed there.JNU's library committee approved the proposal, which was then placed before the executive council on Tuesday .
“The proposal to rename the central library as BR Ambedkar Library was approved unanimously ,“ said a council member.
The ABVP earlier wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee and HRD ministry demanding the renaming of the library after Dr Ambedkar, the convention centre after Dr Kalam and stadium ground after Birsa Munda.
Saurabh Sharma, joint secretary of JNUSU and ABVP member said, “The council not only accepted our demand for naming of the central library in the name of Dr Ambedkar but a statue will also be set up there. However we will continue our struggle to name the stadium ground after Birsa Munda and the convention centre in memory of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.“

Source: Times of India, 22-06-2016
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Monday, June 20, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents


Vol. 51, Issue No. 25, 18 Jun, 2016

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Aurobindo's Integral Yoga
PULKIT SHARMA


The purpose of human life is not to succumb to passivity and hopelessness but to experience heavenly life on earth, said Aurobindo. Our final goal is to realise that heaven and earth are one. Adverse forces confronting us are not ultimate reality; they are like a shadow waiting to be overpowered by light. Light does not depend on shadow for its existence; shadow needs light to be defined.The existence of such negativity in our lives is a sign that there is hope, for immense positivity. Stop looking at the shadow and find the light. This shadow will disappear and get replaced by goodness, perfection and cognisance when the Divine light manifests completely .
In the epic poem Savitri, Sri Aurobindo explains that the occurrence of evil and suffering is not a random happening but a part of Divine plan. God uses pain and suffering as a tool to help man connect with divine consciousness -just as the naïve prince Siddhartha needed to experience suffering so that he could blossom into the enlightened Buddha.
Contrary to our belief, the shadow, therefore, is an affirmation of divine love. We should conceptualise all negativity , adversities and challenges as opportunities in disguise. So, overcoming the shadow may seem impossible but Aurobindo assures us that when the Divine gives us a task, we are also blessed with all that is needed to execute it to perfection.The change we need to bring within us is to completely surrender to the Divine and then `the crown of conscious immortality' will be on our head.
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Inspired by Stephen Hawking, Bihar boy makes voice-controlled wheelchair

Moved by his octogenarian grandfather’s insistence on wanting to maintain his independence in the twilight years of his life, a young man from Bihar has created a voice-controlled, battery-operated wheelchair.
“My grandfather hates it when somebody tries to help him with his daily chores or holds his hand to help him walk. I am sure there are many more like him. I wanted to do something for them,” said Ashutosh Prakash, a final semester student at the Birla Institute of Technology, Patna, about the source of his inspiration.
Prakash came up with the idea during his internship at the Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, three years ago. “My internship guide, Dr Atul Thakur, helped me realise the idea,” he said.
The wheelchair, which is being compared with the one used by acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking, is a traditional wheelchair that responds to voice command for four basic movements — left, right, forward and reverse; it even stops when it encounters an obstacle or approaches a staircase. “It senses unevenness on the floor, near a staircase and stops, ensuring the safety of the person using it,” he said.
The wheelchair has been fitted with a voice-processor, microcontrollers to amplify control signals, motor and battery, besides microchips. The existing wheelchair is fit for a person weighing up to 80 kgs and costs just `20,000. “Depending on the weight of the person using it, the wheelchair may need stronger battery and motor, adding to its cost,” Prakash said.
Born to teacher Pramod Kumar Mishra and homemaker Renu Mishra, the Darbhanga boy has kept the design open-ended and wants other people to improve on it. He explained his objective is to not make profit, but to help people like his grandfather.
This is not the first time Prakash has used technology to improve lives of those in need. Earlier, he had designed an inexpensive prosthetic limb that would respond to brain signals.
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Govt plans to unleash `Blue Revolution'
Vishwa Mohan
New Delhi:


Move Aimed At Trebling Export Of Fish & Fish Products In Next Five Years
Laying roads for `Blue Revolution' through an ambitious target, the Centre has decided to work for increasing the country's export earnings from fish and fish products from Rs 33,441 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,00,000 crore in the next five years.The agriculture ministry will next month come out with a new national policy on fisheries, paving the way to achieve this target through implementation of an umbrella scheme for integrated development and management of fisheries. The private sector will also be involved to achieve the objective.
The new policy will cover development and management of inland fisheries, aquaculture, marine fisheries including deep sea fishing and all activities undertaken by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) towards realising a `Blue Revolution' in the country.
“The new policy on fisheries is ready for release early next month. The ministry will on that occasion specify how it would go for nearly three-fold increase in the country's export earnings from fish and fish products in next five years through various policy intervention with an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore for a period of five years,“ said an official.
He said, “Focus on fisheries, particularly the inland ones, will also help in realising the goal of doubling the income of farmers in next five-six year through involving them in allied activities by tapping various water bodies including newly dug up ponds across the country .“
India's fish production has increased from 7.5 lakh tonnes in 1950-51 to 100.70 lakh tonnes during 2014-15, while the export earnings touched Rs 33,441crore. It accounts for around 18% of export earnings from the agricultural sector.
India is at present the second largest producer of fish in the world after China. More than 50 different types of fish and shellfish products are exported to 75 countries.
Currently , the USA is the largest market for Indian seafood products with a share of 26.46% in terms of India's export of marine products followed by South East Asian countries (25.71%) and European Union nations (20.08%).
Asked how the country would achieve the ambitious target of three-fold increase in export earnings in the next five years, the official said the ministry had already proposed to merge all existing schemes in the fisheries sector that would mainly focus on increasing production and productivity from aquaculture and fisheries resources -both inland and marine.
Besides the increase in fish production, the integrated scheme would stimulate growth of the subsidiary and allied industries and growth of other related economic activities, especially in the coastal regions, leading to many direct and indirect benefits to the entire fisheries sector.

Source: Times of India, 20-06-2016
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Judges' vacancies not sole reason for pending cases
Pradeep Thakur


Shortage of judges may not be the predominant factor behind the large pendency of cases in courts across the country as much as their efficiency, says a study commissioned by the law ministry after the Chief Justice of India recently attributed over three crore pending cases to a huge gap in the judge-population ratio. The CJI had sought 70,000 more judges to clear the backlog.The study , which compiled data between 2005 and 2015, lists several states with higher judge-population ratio -such as Delhi (47 judges per million population) and Gujarat (32 judges) -which are still struggling to dispose of cases.
Conversely , states such as Tamil Nadu (14 judges per million population) and Punjab (24 judges) have among the lowest pendency rates, according to the study. The findings also show a huge variation in the av erage number of cases disposed by a judge in a year in different states. In Kerala and Tripura, for instance, the rate of disposal per judge is as high as over 3,000 and 2,800 cases respectively per year while in states such as Jharkhand and Bihar, it is merely 255 and 274 cases respectively as per the working strength. India has an average 17 judges per million population on the current sanctioned strength, though there are over 44% vacancies in 24 high courts and 23% in subordinate judiciary . The current sanctioned strength of the subordinate judiciary is 20,214 judges while that of the 24 high courts is 1,056. The pendency of cases has remained abnormally high at 3.10 crore, as per the last estimates.
“There is no direct relation between judge-popula tion ratio and the pending cases,“ said the study , pointing out how states such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab which ranked lower in terms of judge-population ratio also ranked lower in terms of the number of pending cases.
The highest pendency of cases per million population are in the states of Delhi, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Tripura, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Bihar--all having judge-population ratio above the national average of 17. The top five states have a judge-population ratio in the range of 20 to 47 judges per million population, but still have one of the highest pendency of cases per million population.
Quoting from a previous Law Commission report, the law ministry study said the judge-population ratio was a poor substitute for sound scientific analysis to arrive at the real reasons behind huge pendency.

Source: Times of India, 20-06-2016
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