1. Women Now Have More Say in Money Matters, 38% Own House or Land: Survey
India has witnessed an impressive jump in financial inclusion of women, with 53% of the female population now having bank accounts as compared to a mere 15% a decade ago, according to the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS).
The study made public on Tuesday reveals a heartening increase in the number of women operating their savings bank accounts, owning houses and participating in decision-making in households as well as opting for antenatal check ups and hygienic methods for protection during menstrual period.
The data also show that violence against married women has come down. The percentage of women facing marital violence has dropped from 37.2% to 28.8%. The survey also shows only 3.3% such women faced violence during pregnancy.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Jat Agitation to Enter Delhi, Rally Planned at Jantar Mantar
More than 10,000 members of the Jat community are likely to hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Thursday to press for their demand for reservation in jobs and educational institutions.
The proposed rally is viewed as part of the pro-reservation group’s strategy to exert pressure on the Centre.
Jats from Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh will stage a protest at Jantar Mantar in the national capital at 11am on Thursday.Yashpal Malik, President, All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS)
Besides a rally at Jantar Mantar, the Capital’s designated protest site, the group threatened that Jat farmers will stop the supply of milk to New Delhi. The Capital’s major milk vends source their product mostly from the neighbouring state.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Trump Denounces Kansas Shooting in Maiden Speech to Congress
President Donald Trump began his landmark first address to a joint session of US Congress on Tuesday by condemning unequivocally the killing of Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Kansas last week as well as all such hate-attacks recently.
Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centres and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms.
The White House had seemed slow to respond to the Kansas shooting at first, but came hard and strong at the issue in the last two days with a spokeswoman calling it a “racially motivated attack” earlier Tuesday.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. Harvard vs Hard Work: With GDP Data, PM Modi Snubs Note ban Critics
A day after the latest data revealed that the economy clocked a faster-than-expected growth of 7 percent despite demonetisation in the third quarter of the financial year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mocked economists and political rivals who had questioned the note ban, saying
“Harvard se jyada dum hota hai hard work mein (hard work is stronger than Harvard)”.
Making political hay of data released by the Central Statistics Office and taking a swipe at economists — some like Harvard professor and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen called demonetisation a “despotic action that has struck at the root of economy based on trust” while Manmohan Singh who went to Oxford described it as “organised loot and legalised plunder” — Modi told election rallies in Maharajganj and Deoria that “on the one hand, there are intellectuals who speak in the name of Harvard University, and on the other, a poor mother’s son is trying to change the economic policy of the country”.
(Source: Indian Express)
5. Three IITs Join Hands to Build Self-Driving Cars
Indian technologists do not appear slowcoaches behind Uber and Google in the global race to develop self-driving cars, with three top schools harnessing engineering talent to build solutions for the rugged and chaotic roads in the South Asian nation.
Teams at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur, Kanpur and Bombay — now household names in Silicon Valley companies — are working on ‘autonomous vehicle solutions’ or driverless solutions, a project evoking interest from Indian automotive companies.
"We are developing technology for driverless cars keeping the Indian market in mind, in contrast to the global tech majors who are building and testing technologies in the Western market," IIT Kharagpur's Debashish Chakravarty, head of the autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) project, told ET.
(Source: Economic Times)
5. Nationalism Debate: Rijiju Uses Serving Jawan's Video as Fresh Ammo
Refusing to back off in the political slugfest over "nationalism", junior home minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday tweeted a video of a serving Army jawan criticising those who allegedly batted for terrorists like Afzal Guru and Maoists while the armed forces put their lives on the line.
Rijiju hit out at BJP's opponents using the jawan's video in which he criticised ‘anti-India slogans’ at the protests.
The jawan, identified as Shriram Gorde of 9th battalion of Maratha Light Infantry, can be seen addressing a large crowd and describing people who “live in India but shout slogans of Bharat Murdabad” as a bigger threat than terrorists. He is posted in Jamnagar.
(Source: The Times of India)
6. HDFC, ICICI, Axis to Charge You at Least Rs 150 After Four Free Transactions a Month
India’s leading private banks said on Wednesday they will charge a minimum of Rs 150 for cash deposits and withdrawals after four free transactions in a month, reviving charges that were kept in abeyance briefly after the government scrapped high-value notes in November.
HDFC, ICICI and Axis banks will calculate the fee – aimed at reducing cash dealings – at the rate of Rs 5 for every Rs 1,000 transacted or Rs 150, whichever is lower.
HDFC and ICICI sources said the fees will be applicable to transactions outside of home branches. Both banks define home branch differently; HDFC defines it as the branch where an account was opened while ICICI defines it as any branch within the city of the account.
There was no clarity on whether the charges will be applicable to ATM withdrawals.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. River Ganga Unlikely to Be Cleaned up by 2018
The government is unlikely to be able to clean the Ganga by 2018, a target set by Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti.
Key reasons, according to sources in the Water Ministry, include “unreasonable” directions by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) questioning the operating capacity of sewage treatment plants in Uttar Pradesh and a delay in clearances by state governments to execute projects.
According to a senior official, work at developing the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Uttar Pradesh had stopped because different expert groups, tasked by the court to estimate the sewage in the drains, had conflicting figures.
STPs of certain sizes are commissioned based on studies of how sewage varies daily, existing oxygen levels and several other criteria. There’s a scientific process to it. But when this process is questioned and we are back to basics, it cannot function. The deadline [to clean Ganga by 2018] cannot be met in this way.Official
(Source: The Hindu)
8. Haryana Wants Indus Valley Renamed as Saraswati Civilisation
Seven months after water was released into a largely dry channel that was dug up to revive the “lost” Saraswati, the Haryana Sarasvati Heritage Development Board (HSHDB) has decided to rename the Indus Valley civilisation as the Saraswati river civilisation since the “river is no more a myth, its existence is a reality”.
This is one of several recommendations that the HSHDB will send to the government — the Board is chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar — following the successful conclusion of the Saraswati Mahotsav in January.
The Board, which spells Saraswati as Sarasvati, has drawn up this recommendation:
“Considering the state of knowledge regarding the Sarasvati river in presentations by international and national experts, it was felt by experts that the Sarasvati river is no more a myth, its existence is a reality. Further, the name of the Indus Valley civilisation in our country be rechristened as Sarasvati river civilisation.”
(Source: Indian Express)
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