Over 13,000 specially-abled people or ‘Divyangs’ have been given jobs in various central government departments, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said. Efforts are on to fill all the 15,694 vacant in the central government, he said. “About 83.5 per cent (13,401) of 15,694 vacant posts meant for Divyangs have been filled,” the Minister told reporters here. He said that Ministry of Railways has filled all of the about 3,615 such posts and Finance Ministry has also filled 4,699 vacancies.

“These vacancies have been there for long as they were not given due importance. But this government has put on priority the task of filling up such vacancies. Efforts are on to fill all the posts meant for the specially-abled people,” said the Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office. He, however, said the process to fill up all the posts is taking time as many a times eligible candidates are not found.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in 2015 suggested use of word Divyang for the people with disabilities.

A US federal appeals court has unanimously declined to reinstate Donald Trump’s controversial executive order to temporarily ban refugees and people from seven majority-Muslim nations, prompting the President to call the judgement as a “political decision”.

The judgement by a three-judge bench is seen as a major setback for the Trump Administration which argued that executive order was a major step to prevent entry of radical Islamic terrorists from entering the country.

Trump soon reacted to the court order in his tweet.

“SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!” Trump wrote indicating that he is deeply disappointed by the decision of the San Francisco-based Ninth Court of Appeal.

The Trump Administration has reached out to the court asking it to lift the halt on the implementation of its executive order that was ordered by a federal court in Seattle after an appeal filed by the Washington State.

The San Francisco Court had held an oral hearing on the case early this week. The bench included Judges William C Canby Jr, Richard R Clifton, and Michelle T Friedland.

“We hold that the government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury, and we therefore deny its emergency motion for a stay,” the judges said in an unanimous order.

“Rather than present evidence to explain the need for the Executive Order, the government has taken the position that we must not review its decision at all. We disagree,” they wrote.

“In short, although courts owe considerable deference to the President’s policy determinations with respect to immigration and national security, it is beyond question that the federal judiciary retains the authority to adjudicate constitutional challenges to executive action,” the judges said.

In a brief interaction with reporters after the judgement, Trump described this as a political decision.

“It’s a political decision, and we’re going to see them in court. This is just a decision that came down, but we’re going to win the case,” Trump said according to NBC news.

However, his political opponents and rights activists celebrated the court verdict.

“The Constitution wins,” said Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who was one of the leading Democratic lawmakers against Trump’s executive order.

“This is an enormous victory for democracy and for families in our country and around the world. The justices unanimously rejected the idea that they should narrow the temporary restraining order based on geography or scope. They signalled that this executive order will likely be overturned in higher court,” Jayapal said.

New Delhi : The Supreme Court today cleared the decks for monetary compensation for the oustees of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on river Narmada in Madhya Pradesh by ordering Rs 60 lakh for each of the families which are likely to be displaced.

The apex court, which passed a slew of directions to address the grievances of 681 such families, also withdrew its proposal to set up a three-member committee of former apex court judges to look into the compensation and rehabilitation issue for the oustees of the project.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar ordered compensation of Rs 60 lakh per family for two hectares of land with an undertaking to be taken from them that they would vacate land within one month failing which the authorities would have the right to forcibly evict them.

The bench, also comprising justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud, observed that the monetary compensation was considered as proposed land compensation was not feasible due to non-availability of land bank.

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which is leading the campaign for the oustees, was of the view that there was no good land that could have be given as compensation.

The bench observed that around 1,300 families, who have taken the money but have some dispute, can raise the demand of Rs 15 lakh which would be given after deducting money already paid to them.

The apex court also asked Gujarat government to give money to Madhya Pradesh for further distribution through grievance redressal authority headed by a retired High Court judge.

The order was confined to Madhya Pradesh as the maximum oustees were from the state.

As far as Maharashtra and Gujarat were concerned, the apex court said relief and rehabilitation work has to be completed within three months.

Advocate Sanjay Parikh advanced the arguments on behalf of NBA while Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and Additional Solicitor General P S Patwalia along with advocate C D Singh made submissions on behalf of Narmada Control Authority and Madhya Pradesh respectively.

Earlier in the day, before disposing of the application, the bench which has proposed a committee of retired Supreme Court judges V S Sirpurkar, K S Radhakrishnan and C Nagappan as its members to look into the compensation aspect, pulled up Medha Patkar-led NBA for trying to “stall” the project saying they wanted to take the government and court for “ransom”.

Mumbai, Feb 8 : RBI today left interest rates unchanged for second time in a row awaiting more clarity on inflation trend and impact of demonetisation on growth even as it hinted at no interest-rate cut in immediate future by shunning its long-held “accommodative” monetary policy stance.

It lowered economic growth forecast to 6.9 per cent for the current fiscal from 7.1 per cent estimated earlier, but said the economy will bounce back to 7.4 per cent next fiscal.

The broad-based Monetary Policy Committee “decided to change the stance from ‘accommodative’ to ‘neutral’ while keeping the policy rate on hold to assess how the transitory effects of demonetisation on inflation and the output gap play out,” Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel said.

The six-member panel voted 6-0 to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent, marking its third straight unanimous decision since September when it was formed. It had cut interest rate by 0.25 per cent in its maiden meeting but held on to the rates in December and again today despite fervent calls for a reduction in rates to boost lending.

At 6.25 per cent, the repo rate is already at a six-year low.

Prior to that, RBI had cut interest rates by 150 basis point or 1.5 percentage points since January 2015.

RBI projected retail inflation in the range of 4 to 4.5 per cent in the first half of 2017-18 fiscal and between 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent in the second half.

The Central Bank said it is “committed to bringing headline inflation closer to 4.0 per cent on a durable basis and in a calibrated manner” and this requires further “significant decline in inflation expectations, especially since the services component of inflation that is sensitive to wage movements has been sticky.

Patel said non-food part of the consumer price index (CPI) has been sticky at 4.8 to 4.9 per cent and had it not been for a destruction of vegetables and other perishables due to junking of old 500 and 1000 rupee notes, retail inflation would have been 140 basis points higher than the 3.4 per cent seen in December.

RBI also decided to form a separate enforcement department for stricter enforcement of its regulatory and supervisory actions. .

Jakarta (Indonesia) : From bags washing up on Bali’s beaches to food packaging scattered across roads and clogging waterways in cities, Indonesia is facing a plastic waste crisis driven by years of rapid economic growth.

Now an entrepreneur from Bali, disgusted at the rubbish littering the famous holiday island, is trying to tackle the problem with alternatives to conventional plastic.

His company, Avani Eco, produces goods including cassava carrier bags, takeaway food containers made from sugar cane and straws fashioned from corn starch, which founder Kevin Kumala says biodegrade relatively quickly and don’t leave any toxic residue.

“I’m an avid diver and surfer, and I’m out there seeing this plastic pollution in front of my very eyes,” says Kumala, explaining why he decided to get into the business of biodegradable plastics, known as “bioplastics”.

After witnessing the pollution around Bali, he insists tackling the problem is “something that needs to be done”.

His project comes at a critical time for action on the issue. A 2016 report by the Ellen MacArthur foundation warned that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean, measuring by weight.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos this January, 40 of the world’s biggest companies agreed to come up with cleaner ways to make and use the material.

In Indonesia, the waves of plastic flooding into rivers and oceans has been causing problems for years — waterways in cities become clogged, increasing the risk of floods, as well death and injury to marine animals who become tramped or ingest plastic packaging.

The archipelago of over 17,000 islands is one of the worst offenders when it comes to marine littering, with US charity Oceans Conservancy estimating the country dumps the second-highest amount of plastic into the sea, behind only China.

– ‘Hope for sea animals’ –

Kumala set up Avani Eco several years ago with its headquarters on Bali and a main factory on Java island, and the biodegradable goods went on sale in 2015.

The most popular product is the bags made from cassava — an edible tropical root that is cheap and abundant in Indonesia — with the words “I AM NOT PLASTIC” emblazoned on them.

The entrepreneur, who is a biology graduate, is happy to demonstrate the bags are not harmful — he put some material from a cassava bag into a glass of hot water, watched it quickly dissolve, and then gulped down the resulting concoction.

“It gives hope to sea animals, they are no longer choking or ingesting something that could be hazardous,” he said.

About three tonnes of the bags are produced a day at the Java factory and sold to businesses including shops and hotel groups, mostly in Bali and across Indonesia, but also to a growing number of companies abroad.

Being environmentally friendly does cost however, with a cassava bag typically about three US cents more expensive than a plastic bag.

The material for the other products Avani Eco sells are sourced in Indonesia, but some items are currently made in China as it is more cost effective to do so — though this does add to their carbon footprint.

Kumala says the final products can biodegrade in just a matter of months — and the bags disappear almost instantly in hot water — unlike the years required for conventional plastic to break down.

However other bioplastics have long been on the market, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has expressed scepticism about the industry. The UN body concluded in a 2015 report that they tended to be more expensive and were unlikely to play a major role in reducing marine litter.

Bioplastics are defined as plastics made from materials such as corn starch and vegetable fats and oil, while common plastics are made from natural gas or petroleum.

UNEP senior official Habib El-Habr, who works on protecting the marine environment, said bioplastics were “innovative solutions” that could be part of a long-term solution, but added: “We don’t know enough about this technology.”

He said the UN body favoured the management of plastic through such strategies as working with big companies.

– ‘Drowning in plastic’ –

Still Indonesia needs all the help it can get to deal with its waste. Current rubbish collection and disposal systems are inadequate to deal with rising plastic use.

Tuti Hendrawati Mintarsih, a senior official from Indonesia’s environment ministry who deals with waste, conceded there was currently no government funding specifically aimed at reducing plastic waste.

However she said authorities were planning to implement a nationwide scheme compelling shops to charge for plastic bags this year, a scheme that has been trialled in other cities and has successfully reduced usage.

Despite the challenges, Kumala is upbeat that Indonesia’s plastic scourge can be tackled and has plans to expand to other countries in the region.

He explained: “The whole of Asia is really drowning in an ocean of plastic pollution.”

Washington : US President Donald Trump has described the nuclear deal with Iran as “the worst” agreement ever negotiated, calling the Islamic Republic the number one terrorist state in the world.

“They (Iranians) are the number one terrorist state.

They’re sending money all over the place — and weapons.

And can’t do that,” Trump told Fox News in an interview telecast during the Super Bowl tournament.

Trump said the nuclear agreement with Iran was the “worst deal” that he has ever seen negotiated.

“I think it was a deal that should of never been negotiated,” he said.

Last week, Trump administration imposed additional sanctions against Iran for its alleged destabilising behaviour in the region and ballistic missile test in alleged violation of the UN Security Council resolution.

The Trump administration has also issued tough warning against Iran.

“The deal that was made by the Obama administration. I think it’s a shame that we’ve had a deal like that and that we had to sign a deal like that. And there was no reason to do it. And, if you’re going to do it, have a good deal,” he said.

“We gave them USD 1.7 billion in cash, which is unheard of. We put the money up and we have really nothing to show for it,” he rued.

Trump did not gave a clear answer if it is possible that he would tear up the Iranian nuclear deal.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said.

“I can say this, they have total disregard for our country,” he added.

The US is currently moving an aircraft career in the region.

The Income Tax department has claimed to have found that the audit reports prepared by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for donations amounting to about Rs 27 crore have discrepancies and are incorrect.

In a report submitted to the Election Commission, the department, which has been investigating the donations list of the party for the last over an year, has said that the records of donations made to the AAP during 2013-14 and 2014-15 had “factual discrepancies” and did not match with the actual funds received by it from various donors.

Parties prepare audit reports, in consultation with their charted accountants, and submit a copy to the I-T department as per law.

Officials said the alleged discrepancies in the donation records of party are of about Rs 27 crore and has added that the Treasurer of the party has acknowledged “certain errors” in these records in their communication with the taxman.

The I-T report, they said, has suggested that the violations are in contravention of tax laws that govern political donations as stipulated under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

They said this could form the basis for the cancellation of the tax exemptions given under the I-T Act to AAP and could also follow a stringent action of de-registration of the party, but all such decisions are the domain of the Election Commission exclusively.

 

If robots and machine intelligence threaten to render many white-collar jobs obsolete, then what will people do for money?

Enter the concept of a “universal basic income”, a flat sum paid to all regardless of your existing wealth or ability to work. It is one of the rare ideas that has support from both the libertarian right—which favours tearing up the welfare state—and the left wing.

In France, Benoit Hamon has emerged as the surprise Socialist candidate for April’s presidential election first round, on a radical programme that includes such an income—to be funded in part by a new tax on industrial robots.

National or local governments in other countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating how such a revenue might work in practice.

Finland is furthest down the road. On January 1 it started a two-year trial to give 2,000 unemployed Finns a monthly unconditional payment of 560 euros ($590).

At the least, advocates argue, a basic income could replace the thicket of unemployment benefits currently on offer in many advanced economies. Those can, perversely, discourage people from retraining in new fields or taking on lower paid work that society needs, such as care for the elderly.

Less is More

At its most ambitious, the proponents say, it would give everyone a safety net and encourage new modes of thinking: work might no longer define our lives and instead we might find productive existences in volunteering for the greater good, or in the creative arts.

“There’s a whole new suite of technologies coming on stream and people will need to adapt somehow,” said Anthony Painter, director of the Action and Research Centre at the Royal Society of Arts in London, which in December released a research paper after a year-long study into the idea.

“The basic income just gives them a fighting chance,” he told AFP, stressing the more immediate benefits that would come from redrawing the existing tangle of support for the jobless.

If mass unemployment and fears of technology are modern trends, the concept of a universal income goes back centuries.

In his 1516 book “Utopia”, English philosopher and statesman Thomas More imagined an ideal republic where private property is abolished and all receive a basic stipend.

It is a pre-industrial society, of course, where agriculture is the foundation of the economy and people’s needs are basic.

Things are more complicated today.

Who pays?

A December study by OFCE, an economics think tank linked to the Sciences Po university in Paris, said that to ensure nobody loses out from the elimination of existing benefits, a universal income for French adults would need to start at 785 euros per month.

That is a little over what Hamon is proposing—although pollsters give him little chance in the election given the dismal standing of the Socialist party under the departing president, Francois Hollande.

OFCE found that that level would translate into supplemental spending of 480 billion euros, or an extra 22 percentage points of French GDP—”which is unrealistic in practice”.

There are also philosophical objections. In June, Swiss voters rejected a proposed universal income in a referendum after critics slammed the idea as rewarding the lazy and the feckless.

“If a large number of people choose not to work, or to work less, where will the money come from to finance their income?” commented Charles Wyplosz, economics professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

But evangelists argue there will be plenty of scope to innovate tax-gathering in the new economy, and say our current regimes for welfare are ridden with inefficiencies that could, with a radical overhaul, free up money for the proposed stipend.

“As new technologies replace work, the question for the future is how best to provide economic security for all,” economist and former US labor secretary Robert Reich wrote in a blog post.

“A universal basic income will almost certainly be part of the answer.”

 

 

Mumbai : In a departure from its earlier stand, the Urjit Patel-led Reserve Bank today appeared to be receptive of the ‘bad bank’ concept floated by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian in the Economic Survey.

“We have to remain open to all solutions at this point because I think the problem is quite large,” newly-inducted Deputy Governor Viral Acharya told reporters at the customary post-policy meet with media persons.

Acharya, who has been supportive of such an idea since his previous avatar as an academic, added, “We think it is something, if designed properly, could help.”

He said the big problem is to ensure that banks sell the stressed assets to either asset reconstruction companies or private investors at the right price.

Acharya said designing the bank in such a way that all the issues are taken care of is essential.

Another Deputy Governor, N Vishwanathan, said, “All options are open” and the RBI does not have a “dogmatic” view either ways on the subject.

It can be noted that Patel’s predecessor Raghuram Rajan was not convinced about such an institution and had gone public with his concerns multiple times.

After initially raising question marks if a quasi- public entity will be able to solve the problems, Rajan had said, “In our view, majority ownership by banks is probably not wise or warranted. Perhaps, some form of minority ownership with a number of other players coming in, in addition to the government, to provide capacity, especially in management of stressed assets would be appropriate.”

The bad bank concept received a shot in the arm with the Economic Survey suggesting creation of the ‘Public Asset Rehabilitation Agency’ (PARA) to help tide over the enormous problem of stressed assets, which have touched double digit.

New Delhi :  Amid reports that V K Sasikala will be sworn in as next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram  said she would be “unacceptable to most people” of the state.

“I think AIADMK should behave… as a responsible political party and follow process which is democratic and acceptable to people of Tamil Nadu. What they have done, what report I get, is unacceptable to most people of Tamil Nadu,” Chidambaram said in an interview to India Today news channel.

Sasikala is expected to be sworn in as Chief Minister of the state on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking to restrain the swearing-in of Sasikala on Tuesday.

“Well, I am very saddened. It is right of AIADMK MLAs to choose their leader. But it is right of citizens of Tamil Nadu to question whether the leader chosen by AIADMK deserves to be the chief minister. This is post occupied by Rajaji, Kamaraj, Anna.

“And I cannot imagine, how a party wedded to social justice, wedded to social reform can elect a leader whom they have elected and present leader as a harbinger of change,” the former Union finance minister, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said.

He further said there is “complete disconnect” between AIADMK party MLAs and people of Tamil Nadu and the “disconnect” will become more visible as days go by.

“There is deep resentment about the process adopted and about the choice of person. Only a month (ago), they had unanimously reposed confidence in O Panneerselvam. What has he done to lose that confidence? Did he violate the Constitution? Did he do something illegal? So, what is this process they are adopting? This is not like changing your shirt every day. You are making and unmaking chief minister,” he said.

On whether it would be correct on part of the governor to swear in Sasikala as Chief Minister when cases are pending against her, Chidambaram said the governor has a discretion.

“If he does not decline, then it won’t be unconstitutional, but it would be poor exercise of the governor’s discretion. That’s my view… I think the governor has a discretion to tell her that under the present circumstances, it would be difficult for me to swear you in,” he added.

On Sunday, Sasikala was elected AIADMK Legislature Party Leader by its MLAs, paving the way for her elevation to the top post.

Late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s doctor Richard Beale who was flown in from the UK to treat her when she was in the ICU at Apollo Hospital, on Monday said that she succumbed to serious infection which led to organ failure.

Addressing the media, Dr. Richard Beale said, “I want to dispel rumors about Jayalalithaa’s death.”

“Jayalalithaa was suffering from septicemia, suffering from uncontrolled sugar, blood pressure, dehydration. There was infection in her blood. We detected sepsis bacteria in her blood,” he said.

Doctors also said that when she came to the hospital, she was conscious and responding to treatment. “When she came to, us she was drowsy. But when she woke up, she was speaking to us,” said Apollo doctor.

Further stating that she was on and off ventilator, he added, “At the beginning, when she was unwell, she wasn’t able to interact. Later, situation improved and she was aware and able to interact more.”

Beale was flanked by P Balaji of Madras Medical College and K Babu of Apollo Hospitals, who had signed in election forms on which her thumb impression was taken. This was for nominating AIADMK candidates for elections to two seats and bypoll to one segment last year.

When asked why no photograph of her was released, Dr Beale said, “It is not normal practice to take photos and publish private details. It is an intrusion into her privacy.”

Jayalalithaa passed away on the night of December 5th, a day after suffering cardiac arrest.