PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS - 20% of Indian migrants reside in UAE: Report 

 

Indians World's Largest Diaspora

The migration of Indians from the country to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formed the second largest corridor in terms of number of migrants in 2015, according to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The flow of migrants from India to the UAE between 1995 and 2015 stood at 28 lakh, making UAE the top destination country for Indian migrants (It ranked fourth place in 1995).
The corridor between Mexico and the United States remains the largest in terms of the volume of migrants. In 2015, the flow from Mexico to US stood at nearly 55 lakh. Migration flow between 1995 and 2015 has been computed by OECD by taking the difference between the number of migrants in each of these two years.
In 2015, Indians accounted for the largest diaspora in the world with 156 lakh migrants, according to OECD's report -`Perspectives on global development, 2017: International migration in a shifting world.' The report points out that 24.3 crore people were living outside their country of birth in 2015, accounting for 3.3% of the world's population. This was a significant increase over the past twenty years -in 1995 only 2.7% of the world's pop ulation comprised of diaspo ra. The move of migrants has increasingly been towards high income countries.
The number of migrants from India living in the UAE grew by 126% between 2005 and 2010, accounting for nearly 20% of the global Indian mi grant stock in 2015 (In 1995, this constituted just 9% of India's diaspora). Immigrants now account for almost 70% of the total population in Kuwait and more than 80% in Qatar and the UAE. Indians are the sec ond largest immigrant group in the US, after Mexicans ac counting for 4.7% of the 413 lakh foreign born population.
A significant portion of Indi an immigrants in the US AS are recent arrivals: 51% of the total Indian born population arrived during or after 2000, compared to 36% of the foreign born population as a whole.
As regards the future, OECD's report said increasing protectionist measures were being adopted by high income countries, which should see a shift in the migration trends.
`Convert PIO cards into OCI cards by June 30'
PM Modi urged people of Indian origin (PIOs) to convert their cards into Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards, reiterating the government's decision to extend the deadline for these card conversions from December 31last year to June 30, without any penalty. “From January 1this year, beginning with Delhi and Bengaluru, we have set up special counters at immigration points for OCI cardholders. We want it to become a symbol of global migration, achievements and aspirations of the diaspora,“ he said. PTI

Source: Times of India, 9-01-2017

Nobel Prize Series 2017 to be launched in India

“Nobel Prize Series is one of the pillars of our global outreach and aims at raising engagement in science, literature and peace in line with Alfred Nobel’s vision,” said Mattias Fyrenius, CEO Nobel Media.
“We engage millions of people around the world, combining these meeting, events and a daily contact through the digital channels of the Nobel Prize.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the exhibition ‘The Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World’ which will held at the Science City, Ahmedabad for a month.
At the exhibition, visitors will be guided through the story of the Nobel Prize, its founder, Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Laureates. Other than this, the focus will be on how Nobel Prize awarded efforts have shaped and continued to change our world.
With a special focus on innovation and education, part of Nobel Prize Series will take place in connection with the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2017. The laureates will participate in a moderated dialogue held at Mahatma Mandir on various topics.
It may be noted that Nobel Prize Series aims to stimulate innovation and creative thinking, bringing together Nobel Laureates, other experts and lifelong learners. This unique programme combines conference, lectures, round tables, an exhibition and other meeting spaces.
By sharing achievements and stories of Nobel Laureates with a global audience, this official Nobel programme inspires engagement in science, literature and peace in line with Alfred Nobel’s vision.

Source: Digital Learning, 5-01-2017

Laugh and Lighten Up

CHAITANYA KEERTI





Gautama Buddha made a profound statement, “Be a light unto yourself.“ To this, Osho adds another, “Be a joke unto yourself.“ Osho would say , “I have to tell jokes because you are all religious people, you tend to be serious. I have to tickle you sometimes so that you forget your religiousness, your philosophies, theories, systems, and you fall down to earth.“ Because, in spontaneous laughter, the noise of the mind stops for a few precious moments, allowing us to experience mindlessness or meditation, however fleetingly . The seriousness of `religious' people, however, is heavy on the heart. It creates guilt in people: when you laugh, you feel you are doing something wrong.Laughter, according to Osho, is multidimensional. When you laugh, your body , mind and your being laugh in unison. Distinctions, divisions and the schizophrenic personality disappears.Seriousness is of the ego whereas laughter is egolessness.
Religion cannot be anything other than a celebration of life.The serious person is handicapped: he creates barriers. He cannot dance, sing or celebrate. He becomes desert-like. And if you are a desert, you can keep thinking and pretending that you're religious but you're not.
A man burdened by theories becomes serious. An unburdened man starts laughing. The play of existence is so beautiful that laughter can be the only response to it. Only laughter can be the real prayer of gratitude. Osho warned that taking man's laughter away from him is taking his very life away; it is a form of spiritual castration.

76% of world's population 'overfat'

Melbourne PTI





About 5.5 billion people -up to 76% of the world's population -are `overfat', warn researchers. They said that the new pandemic had overtaken the planet and argued for a change in global health efforts against chronic and metabolic diseases. The researchers, including those from Auckland University of Technology , have put forth a specific notion of overfat, a condition of having sufficient excess body fat to impair health. They argued that how, in addition to those who were overweight and obese, others falling into the overfat category included normal weight people. “The overfat pandemic has not spared those who exercise or even compete in sports,“ said lead author of the study Phi lip Maffetone, CEO of MAFF Fitness Pty Ltd. “The overfat category includes normal weight people with increased risk factors for chronic disease, such as high abdominal fat, and those with characteristics of a condition called normal-weight metabolic obesity,“ said Maffetone.
“We want to bring awareness of the rise in these risk factors, where the terms `overfat' and `underfat' describe new body composition states,“ said Maffetone. The study in Frontiers in Public Health also found out that 9 to 10% of the population may be underfat. “While we think of the condition of underfat as being due to starvation, those numbers are dropping rapidly . However, an ageing population, an increase in chronic disease and a rising number of excessive exercisers or those with anorexia athletica are adding to the number of non-starving underfat individuals.“
This leaves as little as 14% of the world's population with normal body-fat percentage. While it is estimated that up to 49% of the world's population, or 3.5 billion people, are obese or overweight, the well-documented obesity epidemic may merely be the tip of the overfat iceberg.

Source: Times of India, 6-01-2017

Manipur Challenge





Centre must work harder to end the punishing economic blockade imposed by UNC

With the Election Commission announcing the dates for assembly elections in five states, the focus now shifts to the challenges of actually conducting the polls. And one poll-bound state that might prove tricky is Manipur. The latter has been experiencing a punishing economic blockade imposed by the United Naga Council (UNC) since the beginning of November. This in turn sparked off counter-blockades by Meitei groups. All of this has meant increasing hardship for the ordinary people as supply of essentials has been severely curtailed. Manipur has been experiencing periodic blockades and violence for the past two years now. It all started with an agitation for an Inner Line Permit (ILP) system for Manipur, to restrict entry of `outsiders' to the state. It was under pressure from valley-based organisations that the Manipur government passed three anti-migrant bills that encapsulated the ILP demand. However, these bills were viewed by Manipur's hill tribes like the Nagas as tools to marginalise them.
It was precisely to protest against these bills that the UNC had launched the latest economic blockade.
This intensified further when the Manipur government announced the creation of seven new districts by bifurcating existing ones ­ all hill districts were affected. Nagas believe the bifurcation is a clear ploy to divide them by appropriating Naga villages and merging them with non-Naga areas. They also accuse chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh of Congress of using such methods to win a fourth consecutive term. Singh's calculations are simple ­ if the Meiteis vote for him en masse and if he can win over some hill tribes like the Kukis as insurance, it will be a winning formula.
Correspondingly , the Nagas have increasingly come to be viewed as having the support of the BJP-led central government, something that was accentuated by the Centre's signing of a peace accord with the NSCN (I-M) Naga insurgent outfit in 2015. Add to this BJP's poaching of some big Manipur Congress leaders and there are indications that the party is trying to do an Assam or an Arunachal Pradesh on Manipur.But especially given the state's geographical position, the Centre has a special responsibility to ensure it isn't periodically cut off from the rest of the country . Elections of course will demand open and safe thoroughfares. Even otherwise, it's unacceptable that the people of Manipur are repeatedly held hostage to crushing blockade politics.

Source: Times of India, 06-01-2017Ma

Farmer suicides up 42% between 2014 & 2015

Priyanka Kakodkar

Mumbai:





5,650 Cultivators Ended Their Lives In 2014; 8,007 In 2015. Maha In Top Spot With 3,030 Deaths

Farmer suicides in the country rose by 42% between 2014 and 2015, according to newly released data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). It recorded 5,650 suicides by farmers and cultivators in 2014. The figure rose to 8,007 in the latest data. Several states across the country battled severe drought in both 2014 and 2015. Some, including Maharashtra, experienced two successive years of drought.
With 3,030 cases, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of farmer suicides in the country (37.8%). Telangana was second, with 1,358 cases, and Karnataka third with 1,197. Six states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka accounted for 94.1% of total farmer suicides.
In fact, farmer suicides shot up even though as many as nine states and seven Union territories recorded no case at all in the NCRB figures. The states which reported nil farmer suicides in 2015 include Bihar, West Bengal, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand.
“Highly erratic and inadequate monsoon in the last two-three years has aggravated problems for persons engaged in the farming sector.Manifestations of these in extreme situations can be seen in the form of farmers' suicides,“ the report said.
While the data showed a sharp rise in suicides by farmers, it also recorded a steep 31.5% decline in suicides by agricultural labourers in the country during the same period. This category was introduced by the NCRB in 2014, a move which was criticised as an attempt to reduce the number recorded as “farmer sui cides“. The suicides by agricultural labourers declined from 6,710 cases in 2014 to 4,595 in 2015.
Maharashtra recorded the highest number of suicides in the category of agricultural labourers as well, accounting for 1,261 cases. Madhya Pradesh followed next with 709 suicides and then Tamil Nadu with 604 cases. The overall number of suicides in the farming sector in the country recorded a marginal 2% increase. The number of suicides by those in the farming sector rose from 12,360 in 2014 to 12,602 in 2015, accor ding to the data. The figures have risen only marginally, given the major decline recorded in the number of suicides of agricultural labourers.
“Bankruptcy and indebtedness“ emerged as the single largest underlying cause behind farmer suicides in 2015 with 38.7% of the 8,007 farmer suicides linked to these factors. Farming-related issues formed the second major cause, accounting for 19.5% of the cases. The data also showed that as many as 72.6% of the farmers who committed suicide in 2015 were small and marginal farmers who owned less than two hectares of land.
“Farmer suicides tend to be higher in states like Maharashtra which cultivate cash crops. These require high investments and are also high risk,“ said farm activist Vijay Jawandhia. States like Bihar where farmers migrate during the lean season are also better able to cope with farm distress, he said.

Source: Times of india, 06-01-2017

Status of tribal development remains poor: Ministry report

The tribal population In India lags behind other social groups on various social parameters, such as child mortality, infant mortality, number of anaemic women, says the latest annual report of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Tribal population, with a vast majority engaged in agricultural labour, has the largest number of anaemic women, the report states.

The community also registered the highest child mortality and infant mortality rates, when compared to other social groups, the data indicates.

While educational achievements on the whole has improved, statistics cited elsewhere in the Report shows that the gross enrolment ratio among tribal students in the primary school level has declined from 113.2 in 2013-14 to 109.4 in 2015-16. Besides, the dropout rate among tribal students has been at an alarming level.

Source: Ministry of Tribal Affair  

 

While the overall poverty rates among the tribal population have fallen compared to previous years, they remain relatively poorer when weighed against other social groups.

Health infrastructure has also been found wanting in tribal areas. At an all-India level, there is a shortfall of 6,796 Sub Centres, 1267 Primary Health Centres and 309 Community Health Centres in tribal areas as on March 31, 2015, the Report points out.

Gaps in rehabilitation

Further, it exposes the gap in rehabilitation of tribal community members displaced by various development projects. Out of an estimated 85 lakh persons displaced due to development projects and natural calamities, only 21 lakh were shown to have been rehabilitated so far, the Report states.

Responding to this figure, Sudhir Pattanaik, Odisha-based social activist and Editor Samadrusti told The Hindu that even the 21 lakh resettlement figure in the Report is questionable as there is no way to verify this data. Based on what he had witnessed in the case of displacement caused by mining plants and captive power projects set up in the past several years in Angul, Koraput, Raigadh and Kalahandi districts in the State, Mr. Pattanaik said that it was tribal land acquisition and not tribal development that was the focus of the government.

“Rehabilitation only happens on paper, and any compensation for displaced adivasi folks is siphoned off by others in their name,” he said.

In 2014, the Central government initiated the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana for the holistic development and welfare of tribal population on a pilot basis. However, the Annual Report points out that the token budgetary provisions being made under the scheme to the tune of Rs.100.00 crore and Rs.200.00 crore for 2014-15 and 2015-16, respectively, is minuscule and barely sufficient to meet the purpose of the Scheme given that it intends to cover 27 States across the country.

The Ministry has emphasised that more funds be provided for the Scheme from the year 2016-17 onwards.

Source: The Hindu, 28-12-2016