Rajya Sabha passes Women’s Reservation Bill  given women 1/3^rd seats in parliament and State Legislatures. The bill is passed by 186 votes in support and only one vote against the bill. This is the first step towards law. The bill has to be passed by Loksabha by 2/3^rd majority. It should also be passed by atleast 14 State Assemblies.

Women engaged in private sector firms like BPO may be getting fat salaries but their job satisfaction level compared with females employed in public sector undertakings are low, a survey said.

“While working women in India find highest levels of job satisfaction in public sector undertakings measured at scale is seven, females engaged in BPO/KPO sector are least satisfied from their current jobs that averaged to 4 on scale of ten,” industry body Assocham said.

The Union Cabinet has approved the much- delayed Women’s Reservation Bill providing 33 per cent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. The Bill is being introduced in the Parliament. The controversial Bill has been delayed for past 12 years as some of the opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United) had been demanding a sub-quota for OBC women.

The government is speedily implementing the policies of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation. It is not setting up any new undertakings in the public sector; in stead the existing ones are being rapidly dismantled. Permanent and regular jobs have drastically come down and work is being done by contract workers. Today, in almost all the industries, the number of contract workers has reached almost double that of the regular workers. Many young women and men who have studied up to tenth class, plus two, ITI, diploma courses and graduation etc and had to spend lot of money for their education, are working as contract workers as they could not get better jobs.

In the context of the Nation’s food security, the declining response of agricultural productivity to increased fertilizer usage in the country and to ensure the balanced application of fertilizers, the Government has introduced Nutrient Based Subsidy Policy (NBS) for decontrolled P&K fertilizers, w.e.f. 1.4.2010.

NREGA has been launched in rural areas of the country in a phased manner. In its first phase, the Act was implemented in 200 identified districts with effect from 2.2.2006. Out of the 200 districts selected for the first phase, 150 districts were those districts where National Food  For Work Programme was in operation and these districts had a higher SC/ST population. The Act was subsequently launched in 130 districts during 2007-08 and has been extended to all the remaining rural areas in the country from 1.4.2008.  Participation of beneficiaries under NREGA belonging to SC and ST category is  as under:

The total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during 1st April 2009 – 28th February 2010 were Rs. 77890.29 crore compared to Rs. 71821.97 crore during the same period last year, registering an increase of 8.45 per cent.

The Government has approved the National E-Governance Plan in May 2006 under which e-Infrastructure of State Wide Area Network (SWAN), State Data Centre (SDC), Common Service Centre (CSC), State Portal and 27 Mission Mode Projects are being implemented.  During the last 2 years Department of Information Technology has supported e-infrastructure Projects, however Mission Mode Projects are implemented by concerned Ministries/Departments and provisioning of funds is also made by them for the same.

BSNL is maintaining its financial accounts in two segments viz. “Cellular” and “Other than Cellular”. The “Other than Cellular” segment includes mainly Fixed-line and Broadband.

The detail of Profit (Loss) for “Other than Cellular” segment in the financial Year 2008-09 is as follows:

Despite the tall promises made by political parties, the presence of women in the Lok Sabha has remained a dismal 3.5 per cent to 9.02 per cent of its total strength since it came into being. The number of women in the Lok Sabha has remained between 19 and 49 ever since the first general elections (1952), with the sixth Lok Sabha having the lowest number of 19 women and the 13th Lower House having the highest at 49 members. However, as is evident from the result of the 15th Lok Sabha elections, there are 13 more women MPs than the last House and 10 more than the previous best of 49 in the 13th Lok Sabha. This is a small step forward towards increasing representation of women members in Parliament. For the first time in Indian history the representation of women members has crossed the 10% mark.

The pollution load on rivers has increased over the years due to rapid urbanisation and industrialization. Water quality monitoring carried out by reputed institutions such as, IIT, Kanpur, BHEL, Patna University, etc. indicates that, water quality of the river Ganga conforms to the prescribed standards in terms of key indicators, namely, Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) at most of the locations, except in the stretch between Kannauj and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. However, the levels of fecal coliforms are reported to be exceeding the maximum permissible limit at a number of monitoring stations along the river Ganga.

Continue Reading

Factsheet

• Marine turtles are characterised by large, streamlined shell and non-retractile head and limbs.

• The leatherback turtle is the largest sea turtle species; the Kemp’s Ridley is one of the smallest.

As per an independent study commissioned by the Government of India the number of out of school children has decreased form 1.35 crore in 2005 to 81 lakh in 2009. The improvement in gender parity index at elementary level from 0.80 in 2000-01 to 0.93 in 2006-07, indicates the improvement in participation of girls at elementary level.

The Saakshar Bharat scheme also focuses on women’s literacy, especially in rural areas. 80 per cent overall literacy is targeted by the end of the 11th Plan period. The States/UT Governments have been informed that under Saskshar Bharat 70 million non-literates are to be made literate, of which 60 million will be women.

Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Shri V. Narayanasamy has said that Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is working to strengthen the archaeological excavation work in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

India has done extremely well in terms of rates of economic growth. But for growth to be meaningful, it must benefit all sections of society, particularly those who are marginalized. This is the reason why our emphasis has been so much on inclusive, social and economic growth. And women have been, as they must be, a special focus of our efforts at inclusiveness.

Continue Reading

When social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become an essential part of everyday life of many, can the Bollywood industry be far behind in using them to reach out to people?

The social networks has become a promotional tool for films, are the most happening places these days and the stars in the Hindi film industry have started using them.

India is lagging far behind in environmental performance as indicated in 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI). In spite of taking all out efforts, India is ranking at 123rd position.

The report on 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) has been produced by a team of experts from Yale University and Columbia University and was released on 28.1.2010. A total of 163 countries have been ranked as per EPI and India figures at 123rd position.

Noise pollution levels in most cities is beyond the permissible levels Sporadic noise monitoring in urban areas, mainly during festivals such as Deepawali by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs)/ Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) reveals this fact. A few SPCBs and PCCs have initiated regular noise monitoring since 2008-09. As per available data, the laid down noise norms for respective zones (Industrial, Commercial, Residential or Silence) are exceeded at many locations. However, a definite trend can not be ascertained since data is available only for a limited period.

It speaks volumes for the nature of capitalism that a slim little book first written more than half a century ago can still seem so fresh and relevant. John Kenneth Galbraith’s wise and delightfully written tract ”A Short History of Financial Euphoria” has just been reissued by Penguin Books, but one variant of it has been almost continuously in print since it was first published to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Great Depression.

Statistics of the UN and other agencies show that 70% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty the world over, are female. According to the UN, women do more than 67% of the hours of work done in the world, earn only 10% of the world’s income and own only 1% of the world’s property. The value of unremunerated work was estimated at about $16 billion, from which $11 billion represents the invisible contribution of women. Women are paid 30-40% less than men for comparable work, on an average.