India losing the battle against TB?

Two people die every three minutes in a country that accounts for 26 percent of cases globally.

By Bijoyeta Das

Rafael Hasta, 58, has yet to benefit from the world's largest free TB care programme [Bijoyeta Das/Al Jazeera]

The days Rafael Hasta coughs up blood, his son Samuel gives him mashed papaya with boiled rice and red tea. Hasta refuses to eat anything else.

Diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) three years ago, Hasta - from Assam in India's northeast - has seen a doctor only four times. Samuel, 28, hired a wooden cart and took him to a public hospital in the town of Kokrajhar.
"I lose a day's work, wait for two hours, and the doctor meets the patient for only five minutes and never explains anything," he says. The doctor's visit was free, but X-ray and medicines cost $15 each time."

Rummaging under the bed, he pulls out four crumpled prescriptions and two fading X-rays reports. The $3 he earns as a day labourer feeds six people. Medicines for his father are "simply not possible."

Scared that the disease could spread, he built a shed with bamboo, tin and tarpaulin for his father. "I want to take care of him. I just don't know how," he says, pressing his father's scrawny hands. 

Many like Hasta are yet to benefit from the world's largest free healthcare programme for TB that India runs. India has the highest TB burden, accounting for 26 percent of cases globally.
It is the country's most fatal infectious disease and a rise in drug resistance has prompted many to ask if India is floundering to control TB.

India's TB burden
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2013 Global tuberculosis report, 8.6 million people developed TB and 1.3 million died from the disease in 2012. The rate of new cases has been declining at 2 percent per year for a decade.

Earning $3 per day, Samuel says its "simply impossible" to buy medicines for his father [Bijoyeta Das /Al Jazeera]

The scale of India's TB control measures is laudable but population, grinding poverty and a doddering healthcare system cause the problem to dwarf all efforts, according to experts. Prevalence has reduced from 465 to 230 per 100,000 population and mortality from 38 to 22.
Yet, the scale of the scourge remains scary. Every three minutes, two people die of TB in India, and one out of every four TB patients in the world is an Indian.
"You are running very fast but you seem to be standing in the same place because so many are getting infected," says Virendar Chauhan, director of International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
For two decades, Indian government has been providing the WHO-recommended DOTS: Directly Observed Treatment courses under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). It currently reaches 1.5 million cases in the public sector.
But about half of those affected go to the private sector, which is not involved in TB control. "Government and private sector efforts should integrate. There should be a push-and-pull mechanism," adds Chauhan.

It is a cruel irony that India is a pharmacy to the world. It produces many of the TB drugs that people in other countries depend upon ... The government has not been upfront in recognising the shortage and ensuring availability. - Mike Fricke, Activists of Treatment Action Group

Routine DOTS saves lives but is not very effective in curbing transmission, says Madhukar Pai, associate director at McGill International TB Centre. "By the time patients end up in the DOTS system, they have likely infected many others."
Poor living conditions, malnutrition, overcrowding, smoking, indoor air pollution, HIV infection, and diabetes increase the risk of TB in India.
Pai says India's scale-up of new technologies has been disappointing. Countries such as South Africa and Brazil are actively investing in new tests such as GeneXpert to improve case detection and multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB) diagnosis, but India is yet to "take such bold steps."
"Even easily available tools like mobile phones and ICT are yet to be harnessed for notification and treatment adherence monitoring," he says.
According to Soumya Swaminathan, director of National Institute for research in Tuberculosis, poor access and ignorance about the national programme, unfriendly health services, and the attitude towards the marginalised are roadblocks in extending universal healthcare.
"Our studies have shown that there is a huge out-of-pocket expenditure by the time patients get diagnosed and treated for TB, and that stigma compounds the problem," she says.
The WHO says there is a funding shortfall of $2 billion a year for a full response to the global TB epidemic. But Indian health officials say India's TB control is a success and there are no funding gaps.
"India's TB spending has not slowed down and India's budget on TB control has increased by 300 percent in 12th Five Year Plan as compared to the 11th," says Niraj Kulshrestha, a senior official of the Central TB division at the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. Spending on research increased by 80 percent since last year, he adds.
Fund shortage
International funds contribute 57 percent of India's total TB control budget. However, the RNTCP budget is only 2 percent of the total health sector budget. The ambitious National Strategic Plan that aims to treat 90 percent of TB cases by 2017 will cost $1.05 billion. But RNTCP has been allocated only $731 million.
Resistance to drugs is also compounding the problem. About half of the 450,000 MDR-TB patients are in India, China and Russia. Reports of recent drug stock-outs, particularly second-line MDR-TB, led activists of Treatment Action Group (TAG) to take over the stage with calls of "Shame India" and "the TB genocide must stop" at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris.

"It is a cruel irony that India is a pharmacy to the world. It produces many of the TB drugs that people in other countries depend upon," says Mike Fricke of TAG. "The government has not been upfront in recognising the shortage and ensuring availability."
Kulshrestha says there is no increase in MDR-TB and absolute numbers are high, proportionate to the population. "More cases are being reported because of diagnostic facilities made available by the government," he adds.
According to Leena Menghaney of Medicines Sans Frontiere,"Antibiotics are largely misused in the private sector, which is contributing to the rise of drug resistance in TB and needs to be regulated."
Often poverty makes people susceptible to TB, and TB worsens poverty, but it now affects all classes of people in India.
“If India and China are able to reduce the TB burden, it would mean progress for global TB control,” she adds.

TB-Infographic [Bijoyeta Das /Al Jazeera]

This story has been written under the aegis of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union)'s Media Fellowships for Reporting on TB.

Who will raise INS Sindhurakshak? Five firms are in the fray to salvage sunken submarine... and find the truth about how her crew died

By Gaurav C. Sawant

It is the Indian Navy's biggest peace time disaster till date, and one that is still shrouded in mystery.
What caused the catastrophe on board INS Sindhurakshak, a frontline Kilo class submarine which had just returned from Russia after a multi-million dollar refit, remains unknown.

The navy is desperate to salvage the sunken sub and find out the truth, not least because 18 precious lives were lost in the blast.

Last week, technical bids were opened to bring the sub to surface.

What's next? Salvage work on INS Sindhurakshak has so far drawn a blank

"All the five companies that participated in the bid met the technical requirements. Now the commercial bids are being processed to identify the lowest bidder," Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral D.K. Joshi, told Headlines Today.

In an unprecedented move to cut down months of 'negotiation time' and files moving up and down different departments, an empowered committee has been formed and stationed in Mumbai to identify the lowest bidder.

"The files move between several offices for requisite clearances. At times that takes months. We have sought and got government clearance to cut down that time and quickly settle for the lowest bidder with all parameters being met," Admiral Joshi added.

The empowered committee is headed by the navy and features officers of both the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and a competent financial authority to clear the paperwork for defence minister A.K. Antony's final nod.

"The navy wants to know what caused the loss of lives of 18 service personnel. While they have been declared as 'battle casualties' since the submarine was about to leave for a patrolling mission, the families are keen to know what caused the incident.

"The navy has a fair idea but once the submarine is salvaged, an effort will be made to find out which ordnance blew up and which is intact," a source said.

Interest: Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D.K. Joshi has revealed five firms are vying to salvage the sub

"While within five minutes of the incident (on August 13) submarines in the adjoining berths had sailed out, we had a safety stand down immediately. We went through all our standard operating procedures and did a detailed internal audit," Admiral Joshi said.

But was it, as many in the navy describe it, 'a freak accident?'

"We should be able to know once she is salvaged," he added.

The navy is hopeful that by early next year the operation to salvage INS Sindhurakshak will commence.

The salvage firms include the one that was engaged in the operations to retrieve the ill-fated Russian Navy Oscar II class nuclear powered cruise missile submarine Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000, killing all 118 sailors on board.

I Ink, Therefore I Am

Tattoo studios and artists proliferate as an ancient art turns hip.

By Kaavya Chandrasekaran

 
Some artists from Delhi, the country's tattoo capital It prevented the soldiers from deserting the army in ancient Rome, and marked the identity of prisoners. Today, a tattoo is a badge of coolness. "It is seen as a fashion statement," says Mo Naga, owner of Headhunters' Ink Tattoo School. "It must be the fastest growing industry, but it is going unnoticed."

Naga's school, attached to a tattoo studio, in Guwahati, Assam,  opened last December, and charges about Rs 1.2 lakh for a 10-week course. Many studios offer training programmes, and typically accept no more than five students at a time. Basic knowledge of sketching and painting is generally a prerequisite. Some of the more accomplished artists even do portraits - and these aren't cheap. Lokesh Verma, owner of Devilz Tattooz in South Delhi, specialises in them, and a 4X5-inch portrait takes about four hours and can cost as much as Rs 20,000.

Naga says he wants to revive traditional tattoo art in the North-east. "We don't have to imitate western culture blindly," he says. He is rese-arching the art, and says that traditionally, it was used by Naga men and women as a mark of achie-vement. In the past, that achiev-ement was sometimes headhunting, or the practice of preserving someone's head after killing them for reasons including ritual and warfare. For women, tattoos marked stages of life, such as puberty and marriage. The Nagas are a number of tribal groups from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Myanmar and Nagaland.

In the late 1980s, says Naga, tattooing began to be influenced by Chinese and Burmese designs. "In 2007 and 2008, it became influenced by western culture all over India," he adds. He says TV shows had a huge impact, such as Miami Ink, a reality show about a tattoo parlour in the US state of Florida.

"It was a craze for DJs a year ago. It's a huge market now. Before that, only musicians and artists had tattoos." Delhi, he maintains, is India's tattoo capital today.

Men usually want tattoos on their biceps, shoulders and forearms, while women go for the bust, shoulder blades and ankles

Hardy Mitra, owner of Funky Monkey in Delhi, says it is the city's oldest tattoo studio. "The revolution was started by me 11 years ago, when I had parlours in Bangalore, Chandi-garh and Bombay," he says. He now has a studio in South Delhi and one in the neighbouring city of Gurgaon.

Funky Monkey's customers range from 18- to 63-year-olds. "The phobia has gone," says Mitra. "Tattoos are no longer associated with bikers and drug addicts. Now, even a mother of two gets tattooed. You see people at interviews with tattoos."

Tattoos may be popular, but they are not cheap. Studios typically charge Rs 1,500 for the first square inch, and Rs 500 for every additional square inch. Interestingly, growing demand does not seem to have affected prices. "It was Rs 1,500 ten years ago, and hasn't gone up since then," says Mitra.

Customers happily cough up the money to subject themselves to the pain. Men usually want tattoos on their biceps, shoulders and forearms, while women go for the bust, shoulder blades and ankles. Vaishali Nanda, a 26-year-old architect in Delhi, has five tattoos from different places in Delhi, Goa and Mumbai. She says: "The first time was really good, even though I was kind of nervous." She says all her experiences were smooth, except for one time when she blacked out. She was getting inked on her hip, a sensitive region. "I passed out for two seconds when it hit the pelvic bone area," she says.

It is difficult to estimate the size of the industry, given that it is not organised. Mitra says there are about 60 studios in Delhi.

Studios charge around Rs 1,500 for the first square inch and Rs 500 for every additional square inch

It is also difficult to trace the growth of tattoo studios in India. Sameer Patange of Kraayonz Tattoo Studio in Mumbai's Bandra suburb says he is among the earliest to start one. He learned the art from psychiatrist J.A. Kohiyar, who doubled as a tattoo artist in his clinic in South Mumbai and got up to three clients a week. Kohiyar is widely acknowledged as a pioneer in the industry. "When I joined him 15 years ago, he had been doing it for 25 years," says Patange. Back then, he adds, tattoos were much simpler and minimalistic in terms of lines, colour and shape.

"I became the youngest tattoo artist at 20, into my fourth year of tattooing," says Patange. He says he received extensive media coverage, after which other artists and studios came up. Now, his Mumbai studio averages two customers a day. His Bangalore and Pune studios get one or two customers daily. He says that although Goa is a seasonal market, business is good, with as many as six customers on a good day. "I get clients who know what they are getting into," he adds.

Kraayonz has follow-up sessions to ensure that the tattoo is healing well. "A tattoo is an open wound - different skin types may react differently," he says. Healing time is generally two weeks. During that time, the tattoo must be washed daily, and protected from direct sunlight.

A chunk of the business in some places is cover-ups of shabby tattoos or declarations of a love that did not last. Chennai's Irezumi studio gets 30 to 40 cover-up customers a month. Owner Naveen Nanda-kumar says Irezumi advises people against getting names tattooed. "They come here asking for their girlfriend's or boyfriend's names, but we tell them it's hard to remove. Very few listen." He adds that a few who have heeded the advice have later thanked Irezumi located in Nungambakkam. "Others return after three months with a sorry face," he says. Mitra of Funky Monkey backs this up. "Thirty per cent of our customers come in to cover up other tattoos," he says.

Cover-ups of shabby or regrettable tattoos account for a good chunk of business

Irezumi's story is indicative of how business is growing. The lavish studio began with an investment of Rs 20 lakh in 2006 (a simpler set-up would need an investment of Rs 5-6 lakh). Nandakumar recovered his investment in about two years. He also owns a studio in Ooty and two in Coimbatore. "What Chennai was seven years ago, Coimbatore was three years ago," he says. His clientele has grown 20 per cent year-on-year since 2006.

Not surprisingly, more and more people are becoming artists. The money is not bad: at Abhishaik Madhur's Indelible Tattooz studio in South Delhi, artists earn around Rs 40,000 a month.

Irezumi's Nandakumar says: "Real estate agents and blacksmiths are getting into it. They buy a basic kit from me and start tattooing." He distributes equipment from a US-based supplier called Tattoo Gizmo. He says there are about 150 artists in Chennai.

Tattoo equipment has evolved rapidly. "In the old days, we had machines that made noise," says Mitra of Funky Monkey. He adds that newer machines are quieter, and cost 300-400 euros (Rs 25,200 to Rs 33,600).

Although there is hardly any regulation of the business, studio owners emphasise hygiene. This means using disposable equipment parts, protective plastic covers, and lots of disinfectant.

Given the absence of legal regulation, pretty much anyone can open a studio. "There are more than 375 artists on the loose and the competition is growing," says Naga. He adds that some artists offer "unbelievable discounts", and says vendors on the street can spread disease. A studio, he says, should be maintained like a clinic.

The art is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Madhur shares the story of a client who survived a horrible car accident unscathed. He wanted a tattoo to mark his life-changing experience. After four days of mulling over ideas, Madhur's studio came up with an image of light streaming in through an open door, signifying new life. The client has this tattoo on his forearm. 

Mary Kom Urges Women To Learn Art Of Protecting Themselves To Combat Attackers

2012 Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom kisses her son in Mumbai on Monday.

In view of the increase in number of rapes being reported in the country, Mary Kom urged women to learn some sort of self-defence to combat attackers.

In the city on Monday to receive an award, the boxer said, “Rapes can be minimised if women learn a thing or two about selfdefence.”

She recalled an incident from her younger days when she fought a rickshaw driver who was passing lewd comments at her.

“I will never forget the incident which happened when I was just learning my trade. I was going alone for mass in a rickshaw, clad in traditional Manipuri attire. On the way, when we reached a relatively lonely road, I realised that the driver was giving me dirty looks and was passing lewd comments. I got down from the rickshaw and punched him in the face, hitting him so badly that he couldn’t even get up.

“Had I not learnt a little bit of boxing then, there might not have been any Mary Kom representing India in the Olympics. God only knows what would’ve happened to me,” she added.

Recovering from a gall bladder operation, Mary, who idolises boxing legend Mohammed Ali for his will power, said she has begun light training for next year’s Commonwealth games in Glasgow.

“My utmost priority now is to qualify for the Commonwealth games, although a medal at Rio is very tempting,” she said.

The five-time world champion is currently dedicating her time to a boxing academy she has opened in Manipur in 2007.

“I started the academy because people came up to me and asked me to teach them the sport, and I couldn’t say no, because I want better boxers to emerge and make this country proud,” she said.

Though the state government has given her land, she is still looking for funds to have a state-of-the-art training facility.

“I want people to support my academy, but I’m not going to go and ask for funds. That should come spontaneously from people,” she added.

Speaking of popularising the sport, Mary Kom says she is excited about a movie being made on her life, starring Bollywood starlet Priyanka Chopra.

“Just like Chak De! India inspired people to take up hockey, I hope people will be inspired to take up boxing by watching the struggles I had to face. Though the movie is bound to have a little masala, like the after-parties, most of it is genuine and the producers are taking a lot of trouble to get everything perfect. Priyanka even came to my small house in Manipur to learn what it’s like to grow up there,” she said.

Asked if it makes sense to have a Punjabi girl playing the role of a boxer from Manipur, Mary Kom said Priyanka was the indeed the right person for the role.

“A superstar is playing my role, it couldn’t get bigger for me.

What more can I ask for? I’m sure she will fit the skin of my character and be able to inspire people,” she added.

That's The Spirit: Why Indians Prefer Strong Beer, Liquor

Credit Danish Siddiqui / Reuters /Landov

A bartender pours Haywards 5000 strong beer into a glass at a restaurant in Mumbai. Strong beer, with alcohol content of 5 to 8 percent, accounted for 83 percent of all beer sold in India last year, according to research firm Mintel.

Sometimes we at Parallels see a story that's so compelling, we make an extra effort to chase down the facts. So it's in that spirit, this story from Reuters caught our attention:

"Strong beer, with alcohol content of 5-8 percent, accounted for 83 percent of all beer sold in India last year, according to research firm Mintel, a figure industry players say is the biggest strong beer share of any major market. Brewers expect that to grow to 90 percent over the next three to five years."

Alcohol consumption isn't high in India, mainly for religious and cultural reasons. Only a third of the country's 1.1 billion people drink regularly. And when people do drink, Samar Singh Shekhawat, senior vice president of marketing at United Breweries, told Reuters, it's to get buzzed.

That explains why strong beer outsells its low-alcohol counterpart; it also helps explain why spirits — like whiskey — are still the drink of choice in India, as this chart shows.

Of course, India isn't the only country where the consumption of spirits outpaces that of beer.
Russian vodka, French wine and rum in Caribbean nations outstrip the consumption of beer in those places.

Alcohol consumption in India remains low — but it's growing fast. That makes it an attractive destination for Western brewers and distillers.

Diageo, which makes Johnnie Walker, has a $2 billion stake in United Breweries, the world's largest liquor company by volume. As The Wall Street Journal noted in November 2012:

"Sales of such local whiskeys — which are dominated by United Spirits — doubled India's whiskey consumption to 1.2 billion liters between 2005 and 2010, making India the world's largest whiskey market by volume. Meanwhile, the market for imported liquors such as Diageo's Johnnie Walker has remained tiny because of India's high alcohol import taxes."

India's locally made whiskies dominate global whiskey sales, though few people have heard of them outside the country. For example, United Spirits' McDowell's No. 1 lives up to its name; it's the world's top-selling whiskey.

But India isn't the only country where local drinks dominate the market — and the world.

As NPR's Tom Dreisbach reported on weekends on All Things Considered, the the best-selling spirit in the world is one you probably haven't heard of: It's South Korea's Jinro soju, a rice-based drink that's about 20 percent alcohol.

'Hang them'! Family of Delhi Gang Rape Victim Call For Death Penalty after 4 Men are Convicted of her Murder

• Victim, 23, died after being gang-raped by six men on bus in New Delhi

One will appeal verdict claiming he was only driving the bus at time of attack

Crime shook India and lead to widespread protests about sex attack laws

Comes after teen accomplice given maximum sentence possible in India

Defence claim all four innocent saying it was a show trial to 'appease public'

By Matt Blake

The family of a 23-year-old medical student who died after being brutally gang raped on a bus in New Delhi demanded that her attackers be hanged today as four men were convicted of her murder.
Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma were all found guilty of rape, murder, assault, kidnapping, robbery, and eight other charges at Saket Court, in South Delhi, India.
They were among six people accused of tricking the woman and her male companion into boarding an off-duty bus on December 16 after they had seen a matinee showing of 'Life of Pi' at a shopping mall.

They then raped her using a metal bar to inflict massive internal injuries before beating her friend. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside and the woman died from her injuries two weeks later.

Speaking outside court, the father of the victim, who cannot be identified under Indian law, said: 'Now the court has held them guilty, we want them hanged. We expect nothing else but the death sentence.'

'Hang them': As the four men listened to their verdicts inside the courtroom, chants of 'hang them' could be heard outside as demonstrators called for the death penalty and staged mock hangings

Guilty! Indian policemen look out from a van carrying the four convicted men

Appeal: W.P. Singh (left, centre), defence lawyer for one of the four men, said he planned to launch an appeal on behalf of his client as protesters called for his hanging yards away (right)

As the men were told the verdicts in the courtroom, chants of 'hang them' could be heard echoing outside.
The men, convicted on all the counts against them, including rape and murder, now face the possibility of hanging. They are expected to be sentenced tomorrow.

One of the four, however, is to launch an appeal over his conviction claiming he was simply driving the bus when the attack took place and was unaware of what was happening inside.
The crime, which left the victim with such extensive internal injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked widespread protests across the country and led to reforms of India's antiquated sexual violence laws.

Guilty: A van carries the four men to court in New Delhi. They all now face the death penalty following today's guilty verdicts

A mother's tears: The mother of one of the four convicted men cries upon seeing the news on a court verdict on a TV inside her house at a slum in New Delhi

Their conviction comes a week after their teenage accomplice was jailed for three years for his part in the atrocity.
The sixth accused was found dead in his jail cell in March.
Reading out today's verdict, Judge Yogesh Khanna said the men had committed 'murder of a helpless person.'
The parents of the rape victim, who cannot be identified under Indian law, had tears in their eyes as the verdicts were read. They sat just a few feet from the convicted men in a tiny courtroom jammed with lawyers, police and reporters.

 

Convicted: It comes after a teenager was convicted in August following a separate trial

Punishment: The juvenile faces a maximum sentence of three years under Indian law

AP Singh, a lawyer for the men, said all were innocent.
'These accused have been framed simply to please the public,' he told reporters. 'This is not a fair trial.
Outside the courthouse, where dozens of protesters had gathered, a chant began quickly after the verdict: 'Hang Them! Hang Them! Hang Them!'
Protesters called the case a wake-up call for India.
'Every girl at any age experiences this - harassment or rape. We don't feel safe,' said law school graduate Rapia Pathania. 'That's why we're here. We want this case to be an example for every other case that has been filed and will be filed.'
The teenager, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was given the maximum sentence possible under Indian law.
But despite having since turned 18, the attacker will not be publicly named.
The victim's family called for the teenager to be tried as an adult, accusing him of being the most violent of the attackers.

'He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should be punished for what he did to my daughter,' said the mother of the victim, said soon after the verdict was announced.

Anger: Indian women participate in a silent procession to mourn the death of the gang rape victim

Fury: Protesters demanded swift justice in the case and wide-ranging reforms to sex crime laws

Horrific: The girl was savagely attacked when she boarded a bus with a male friend after a trip to the cinema in December

Anger: The savage assault caused outrage throughout India. Protestors are pictured trying to break through a police cordon during a demonstration in New Delh

A dream destroyed: A man bows his head at a candlelit vigil for the 23-year-old student who died after being gang-raped on a moving bus in New Delhi

'You may as well set the juvenile free, if the sentence is only three years for heinous offences like rape and murder,' she added tearfully.
The mother also said she would appeal against the verdict in a higher court.
'I am not happy with this judgment. At least in this case, the juvenile should have been sentenced to life,' the victim's brother told Reuters news agency.
The government, facing immense public pressure, had promised swift justice in the case.
The convicted defendant was tried as a minor on charges including murder and rape. The time he spent in a juvenile home since he was arrested in December will count as part of his three-year sentence.

Terror: The 23-year-old woman died after being gang raped by six men who also used a metal bar to cause massive internal injuries

The sentence is likely to cause further anger in a country attempting to turn a rising tide of violence against women and which has passed a new law toughening sentences for adults convicted of sex crimes

The attack set off furious protests across India about the treatment of women in the country where police say a rape is reported every 20 minutes.
A government panel set to suggest reforms to sexual assault laws rejected calls to lower the age at which people can be tried as adults from 18 to 16.
On July 17, India's top court also refused to reduce the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 years. However, it later agreed to hear a new petition seeking to take the 'mental and intellectual maturity' of the defendant into account and not just age.
Four of the teenager's co-accused are still on trial and face the death penalty if convicted. Closing arguments began on August 22 and verdicts are expected within the next fortnight. A fifth accused, the alleged ring-leader, killed himself in his jail cell in March.

'IT SENDS A BAD SIGNAL': CAMPAIGNERS CALL FOR CHANGE IN LAW AFTER TEENAGER WAS TRIED AS A JUVENILE

The defendant could only receive a maximum sentence of three years because he was 17 at the time of the attack

The teenager, who may not be named, was tried as a juvenile because he was 17 at the time of the

attack.
The maximum penalty that could be imposed by India's Juvenile Justice Board was three years.

In January, authorities ruled he was 17, citing school records, which shocked the victim's family and others clamouring for him to face the death penalty.

In response to the public outcry after the rape, the government fast-tracked tougher laws against sex crimes, but it resisted calls to change the juvenile law and return the adult age to 16 from 18.

India's Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition filed by Subramanian Swamy, an opposition politician and lawyer, that calls for the law to be reinterpreted rather than changed.

Swamy wants the 'emotional, intellectual and mental maturity' of juvenile offenders to be assessed when deciding whether to try them as a juvenile, rather than basing the decision on age alone.

'I felt that, with the kind of rape that took place, if (the juvenile suspect) got off lightly it would send a bad signal to society,' Swamy said.
He plans to launch an appeal against the verdict reached today if the Supreme Court rules in favour of his petition later this year.

The teenager pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges including rape, murder and robbery. His trial was held behind closed doors to protect his identity and media were barred from reporting on any details of the proceedings.

During his trial, he has been held at a juvenile detention facility for violent young offenders in Delhi and kept away from other inmates for his safety.

The youth left home when he was 11 and got work in a roadside eatery, his mother said in January.
In recent years he lived as a semi-vagrant, washing buses and collecting fares, according to a police report.

After leaving home, he never returned and his mother said she thought he was dead until police arrested him in connection with the gang-rape.

Some 33,000 crimes were committed by juveniles in India last year, the highest number in a decade, but there has not been a large spike, according to Home Ministry figures. Juveniles commit a tiny proportion of total crimes in India and far less than other nations such as the United States.

Groupon India Starts Onion Sell Off

By Leo Mirani

All good ideas begin with a bulb.

Groupon’s India business, which had some lousy PR a few months ago after it accidentally published 300,000 passwords, is somewhat redeeming itself in the eyes of Indians right now with a special deal: 1 kg (2.2 lb) of onions for Rs 9 (14 US cents). That is a fraction of the market rate, which is hovering between Rs 60 and Rs 70 a kilo. More than 5,000 people signed up for the first day’s deal—which comes with free delivery across 78 cities—before it expired.

Not all 5,000 will get the deal. Groupon has promised to put onions up for sale at Rs 9/kg every day for seven days, but with a daily limit of  3,000 kg. If it’s buying them at a market rate of Rs 65, that works out to a loss of Rs 1.18 million or a little under $18,000 not including shipping costs. Even at average wholesale rates of Rs 30, that’s still a $6,700 outlay. But that is a small price to pay for what will certainly give thousands of Indian families a reason to keep returning to Groupon.

The onion is perhaps the most telling indicator of economic problems in India. A staple that forms the basis of most Indian food, it makes headlines every time prices shoot up, which they have done throughout August (see chart below). The price of a kilo of onions in India’s cities has more than doubled since the beginning of August, from less than Rs 30 (45 cents), adding to Indians’ woes about the crashing rupee and rising inflation.

One Woman Killed Every Hour Over Dowry in India

Women’s rights activists said Tuesday that one woman dies every hour in India because of dowry–related crimes, demonstrating that the country’s economic growth has made expectations of dowries even more prevalent.

The National Crime Records Bureau says that 8,233 women were killed in India last year because of disputes over dowries.

One woman dies every hour in India because of dowry-related crimes, indicating that the country's economic boom has made demands for dowries even more persistent, women's rights activists said Tuesday.

The National Crime Records Bureau says 8,233 women were killed across India last year because of disputes over dowry payments given by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.

The conviction rate in dowry-related crimes remained a low 32 percent, according to statistics the bureau published last week. Indian law prohibits the giving or receiving of a dowry, but the centuries-old social custom persists.

Dowry demands often continue for years after the wedding. Each year, thousands of young Indian women are doused with gasoline and burned to death because the groom or his family felt the dowry was inadequate.

Women's rights activists and police said that loopholes in dowry prevention laws, delays in prosecution and low conviction rates have led to a steady rise in dowry-related crimes.

Dowry demands have become even more insistent and expensive following India's economic boom, said Ranjana Kumari, a women's rights activist.

She blamed a growing culture of greed as India opens its economy to foreign goods that the younger generation cannot afford but badly want. "Marriages have become commercialized.

It's like a business proposition where the groom and his family make exorbitant demands. And the wealthier the family, the more outrageous the demands," Kumari said.

Suman Nalwa, a senior New Delhi police officer dealing with crimes against women, said dowry practices extended to all classes in society. "Even highly educated people don't say no to dowry," she said.

Stop Debating Mumbai’s Reputation and Get To The Real Issue: Cities Don’t Rape Women, Men Do

By Smriti Lamech

Is any woman in India safe? Reuters/Amit Dave

 

“Is Mumbai going the Delhi way?” a poll by a newspaper asks. Insensitive? Flippant? Divisive? All that and more—with absolutely no thought to nuance, opening no new discourse, asking the wrong questions, and trivializing the issue.

The posturing, the silly games of one-upmanship played across cities—mine is safer, mine is better—lull us into a false sense of security. Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez would not have been stabbed to death two years ago for standing up to hooligans who were harassing the young women they were out with, if Mumbai was particularly safe. Cities don’t rape, men do. Bombay might seem safer by default because it is so crowded that you rarely find a secluded corner to conduct a rape. In the case making headlines now, the suspects in the gang rape of a photojournalist found an empty mill and they used it. Violence comes in many forms and to the most unexpected places; last year Mumbai had the case of a Spanish tourist raped in her own bed by a thief who shimmied up through the window. And being a stranger in any part of the world, not knowing how to play by their rules, leaves you most vulnerable. That partly explains why a recent CNN report went viral as Michaela Cross, a US student at the University of Chicago, who spoke out about her sexual harassment in India.

We all have stories: I was new to Bombay and waiting to board a local train. I didn’t know where the ladies coach stopped and happened to be near the door of the general compartment when the train pulled in. The crowd pushed me in with one mind and then molested me for what felt like a lifetime. I fell out a few stations later, in tears, my clothes in tatters. A few days later, my cab was followed home from Churchgate station by another cab with a man reaching in to grab me—I made the cabbie drive straight to the police station. Some weeks later on an early morning, a pujari, mind you, a man of God, followed and propositioned me on a relatively empty stretch of road.

It wasn’t the city I was in, it wasn’t my clothes (I was in an office uniform), it wasn’t the color of my skin. It was opportunity. Given the right time and place, no woman in India is safe. 

Smriti Lamech is a writer in Gurgaon, India.

A Summer of Troubles Saps India’s Sense of Confidence

Farooq Khan/European Pressphoto Agency

A strike call by Kashmiri separatists left businesses closed and streets deserted in Srinagar on Saturday.

By GARDINER HARRIS and BETTINA WASSENER

NEW DELHI — For the last 10 years, India seemed poised to take its place alongside China as one of the dominant economic and strategic powerhouses of Asia. Its economy was surging, its military was strengthening, and its leaders were striding across the world stage.

But a summer of difficulties has dented India’s confidence, and a growing chorus of critics is starting to ask whether India’s rise may take years, and perhaps decades, longer than many had hoped.

“There is a growing sense of desperation out there, particularly among the young,” said Ramachandra Guha, one of India’s leading historians.

Three events last week crystallized those new worries. On Wednesday, one of India’s most advanced submarines, the Sindhurakshak, exploded and sank at its berth in Mumbai, almost certainly killing 18 of the 21 sailors on its night watch.

On Friday, a top Indian general announced that India had killed 28 people in recent weeks in and around the Line of Control in Kashmir as part of the worst fighting between India and Pakistan since a 2003 cease-fire.

Also Friday, the Sensex, the Indian stock index, plunged nearly 4 percent, while the value of the rupee continued to fall, reaching just under 62 rupees per dollar, a record low. The rupee and stocks fell again on Monday.

Each event was unrelated to the others, but together they paint a picture of a country that is rapidly losing its swagger. India’s growing economic worries are perhaps its most challenging.

“India is now the sick man of Asia,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at the financial information provider IHS Global Insight. “They are in a crisis.”

In part, the problems are age-old: stifling red tape, creaky infrastructure and a seeming inability to push through much-needed changes and investment decisions. For years, investors largely overlooked those problems because of the promise of a market of 1.2 billion people. Money poured into India, allowing it to paper over a chronic deficit in its current account, a measure of foreign trade and investment.

But after more than a decade of largely futile efforts not only to tap into India’s domestic market but also to use the country’s vast employee base to manufacture exports for the rest of Asia, many major foreign companies are beginning to lose patience. And just as they are starting to lose heart, a reviving American economy has led investors to shift funds from emerging-market economies back to the United States.

The Indian government recently loosened restrictions on direct foreign investment, expecting a number of major retailers like Walmart and other companies to come rushing in. The companies have instead stayed away, worried not only by the government’s constant policy changes but also by the widespread and endemic corruption in Indian society.

The government has followed with a series of increasingly desperate policy announcements in recent weeks in hopes of turning things around, including an increase in import duties on gold and silver and attempts to defend the currency without raising interest rates too high.

Then Wednesday night, the government announced measures to restrict the amounts that individuals and local companies could invest overseas without seeking approval. It was an astonishing move in a country where a growing number of companies have global operations and ambitions.

The Indian stock markets were closed Thursday because of the nation’s Independence Day, but shares swooned at Friday’s opening. Stocks lost another 1.5 percent Monday, and many analysts predicted that the markets will continue to decline.

“I think things will get much worse before they get better,” said Sonal Varma, an India economist at Nomura Securities in Mumbai. “The government is between a rock and a hard place.”

The problem for India, analysts say, is that the country has small and poorly performing manufacturing and mining sectors, which would normally benefit from a weakening currency.

Meanwhile, India must buy its oil, much of its coal and other crucial goods like computers in largely dollar-denominated trades that have become nearly 40 percent more expensive over the past two years.

That is helping feed inflation, which jumped in July to an annual rate of 5.79 percent from 4.86 percent in June, far above what analysts had expected.

The Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, has recently responded to the rupee’s weakness by raising interest rates, but those moves have already begun to hurt a huge swath of India’s corporate sector. Growth rates had already slowed to 5 percent in the most recent quarter, and India now has a far harder time meeting its current-account deficit.

Analysts fear that higher inflation, softening growth, a falling currency and waning investor confidence could spin into a vicious cycle that will be difficult to contain.

“There’s a risk of a spiral downward,” said Mr. Biswas, the IHS Global economist. “It will be very hard to break.”

The submarine explosion revealed once again the vast strategic challenges that the Indian military faces and how far behind China it has fallen. India still relies on Russia for more than 60 percent of its defense equipment needs, and its army, air force and navy have vital Russian equipment that is often decades old and of increasingly poor quality.

The Sindhurakshak is one of 10 Russian-made Kilo-class submarines that India has as part of its front-line maritime defenses, but only six of India’s submarines are operational at any given time — far fewer than are needed to protect the nation’s vast coastline.

Indeed, India has fewer than 100 ships, compared with China’s 260. India is the world’s largest weapons importer, but with its economy under stress and foreign currency reserves increasingly precious, that level of purchases will be increasingly hard to sustain.

The country’s efforts to build its own weapons have largely been disastrous, and a growing number of corruption scandals have tainted its foreign purchases, including a recent deal to buy helicopters from Italy.

Unable to build or buy, India is becoming dangerously short of vital defense equipment, analysts say.

Meanwhile, the country’s bitter rivalry with Pakistan continues. Many analysts say that India is unlikely to achieve prominence on the world stage until it reaches some sort of resolution with Pakistan of disputes that have lasted for decades over Kashmir and other issues.

Gardiner Harris reported from New Delhi, and Bettina Wassener from Hong Kong.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 19, 2013, on page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Summer of Troubles Saps India’s Sense of Confidence.

Rupee at 64: 5 Lessons from a man-made disaster

By Arjun Parthasarathy

The Indian rupee (INR) is trading at levels that can only be described as disastrous. Levels of Rs 63-64 to the US dollar mean all-time lows for the currency that has depreciated by a whopping Rs 20 – or 45 percent – over the last couple of years.

What has made the INR tank against the USD and join the ranks of countries such as Argentina and Iceland that have seen their currencies lose most of their value over the last decade? The Brazilian real is the only other currency that has depreciated more than the INR, falling by over 53 percent in the last two years.

Brazil’s problems largely stem from its sharp fall in GDP growth from levels of 7.5 percent seen in 2010 to below 1 percent seen in 2012. Weak commodity prices, with the Reuters CRB commodity index down by over 30 percent since the financial crisis erupted in 2007-08, bureaucracy, corruption and weak infrastructure are to be blamed for Brazil’s GDP growth fall.

Overconfidence was the undoing of the rupee: AFP

India’s problems stem from overconfidence on growth, economic mismanagement, bureaucracy, corruption and weak infrastructure. The INR fall is completely man-made and policymakers blaming the forthcoming withdrawal of the stimulus by the US Fed is pure nonsense.

India offers a great learning tool for policymakers across the world on how not to manufacture currency disasters. India’s fall from strength in the mid 2000’s to a position of weakness post 2010 is well documented. High fiscal and current account deficits, rising inflation, falling economic growth and weak capital markets are the cause of the INR fall. What did the policymakers do to take the INR down to record lows and, more importantly, push India out of any kind of reckoning in the world economic order?

The following five man-made factors are the cause of the INR fall.

1. The government, public and private sector were living in a fool’s paradise believing that economic growth will never slow down. The government allowed subsidies to burgeon, as rising oil prices were not passed on to consumers while public sector banks lent heavily to infrastructure projects of the private sector where revenues were more mythical. The private sector floated projects based on valuations of licences and commodities rather than on future cash flows. The end result was a huge subsidy bill taking up the fiscal deficit by 300 bps (100 basis points make 1 percent), rising non performing assets of banks, that have gone up multi-fold, and a fall in valuations of over 80 percent of many companies in the private sector.  Government finances, banking sector balance sheets and health of corporates weakened considerably, leading to fall in valuations of the whole country that is reflected in the rupee fall.
2. The illusion of high foreign exchange reserves made policymakers ignore a potential spike in Current Account Deficit (CAD). India’s foreign exchange reserves touched record highs of around  $320 billion in February 2011 (around 11 months of import cover) but have plummeted by 12.5  percent since then to levels of  $280 billion (around seven months of imports). CAD has risen from levels of below 3 percent of GDP to 5 percent over the last few years. CAD was financed by capital flows that led policymakers to believe that a high CAD would not impact the INR. Structural issues of oil and gold imports, rising inflation and high fiscal deficit was ignored until too late.

3. Growth was given priority over inflation. The focus on growth by all stakeholders concerned pushed inflation to the back seat. The RBI was castigated in public by both the government and the corporates for taking any action on inflation as it was felt that growth would suffer. The numbers are stark. In the period 2008-12, wholesale price inflation came down to below zero to over 10 percent levels and then went back to over 10 percent levels. The RBI, in the meanwhile, raised the benchmark repo rate by 100bps and then cut the rate by 425 bps and then raised the rate by 375 bps. The seesawing of policy rates along with seesawing of inflation indicates that the central bank was being reactive rather than being proactive. The economy has suffered due to the wide fluctuations in inflation and policy rates, leading to the INR being dumped later on.

4. A falling INR hurt the pride of the government. The government felt that India was too much of a growth story for the INR to fall. The noises made by the government when the INR touched Rs 57 in June 2012 suggested that the INR was being pulled down due to reasons other than macroeconomic factors. The RBI forced speculators to reduce long USD/INR positions while the government made noises on reforms and growth. The government and the RBI did not show urgency in tackling the INR fall last year and that has hurt them heavily this year.

5. The INR fall to levels of below Rs 60 has awakened the ‘animal spirits’ of the government and the RBI. The FM has been touring the world to bring in foreign investments while the RBI has strangled liquidity and reintroduced capital controls. The end result is a fall to record low levels of Rs 64. These hasty “animal spirit” decisions have caused panic in the markets as any hope of economic growth pulling the INR up has been laid low. Policymakers are not focusing on growth at the right time and markets know that policy actions cannot stem the fall in the INR. Wrong policies at the wrong time.

Is there hope for the INR going forward? Yes, if the stakeholders learn from their earlier mistakes and take the right decisions.

The mistakes India has made on the INR will help other countries to tackle currency issues. 

Something good can after all come out of the INR fall. But it won’t help us right now.

Arjun Parthasarathy is the Editor of  www.investorsareidiots.com a web site for investors. 

Why India's Next State Is Not Likely To Be The Last

By Julie McCarthy

Visitors ride in a carriage at the entrance of the Jewel of the Nizams "Falaknuma Palace," the former residence of Nizam Mehaboob Ali Khan in the old city area of Hyderabad. The legacy of these Muslim rulers — and the disenfranchisement of the Hindu majority — contributed to the economic gap in Andhra Pradesh.

India's cartographers may soon be redrawing the country's map. If events go to plan, India will inaugurate Telangana, its 29th state, perhaps as early as next year — casting the spotlight anew on the challenges of governing a country as vast, and with a population as diverse, as India.

Telangana, on the arid Deccan plateau, is due to be carved out of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India's fifth most populous state, with a population of 85 million.

The demand for a separate state, endorsed by the central government last week, has simmered for half a century, rooted in history, religion and economics (see sidebar, left). Now, after 60 years of intermittent agitation, Telangana is closer than ever to winning autonomy.

Telangana would be the latest in a long list of states created since the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

The argument for going small is beguiling. Ostensibly, it produces a more nimble, responsive government. But that hasn't necessarily been the case.

Twelve years ago, for example, three megastates — Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — were split, and the small states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were created, respectively.

The Times of India reviewed the performance of India's most recent states, and the results were decidedly mixed. It found that infant mortality fell across the board. But smaller wasn't necessarily better when it came to economic output and eradicating illiteracy, for example.

With a population of 35 million, Telangana will be one more small Indian state, prone to drought and infiltration by India's Maoist militants known as Naxals, who could take the opportunity to stir up more trouble during a politically sensitive moment.

Many argue that the splitting of Andhra Pradesh into two states is being done for political — not altruistic or administrative — reasons.

Amid charges of political opportunism, the Congress Party of Sonia Gandhi says it has backed Telangana for over a decade. Others say it is a crafty move that allows the party to take credit for statehood and the chance to win all 17 parliamentary seats in the new state in next year's election.
Moreover, critics worry that the move has opened a Pandora's box by fanning the flames of other long-simmering separatist movements.

In recent days, separation fever has boiled over in the Darjeeling hills as the outcry sharpened for a new state of Gorkhaland to be carved out of West Bengal. Last week, an activist set himself on fire, while government employees began to flee after a series of arson attacks. Over the weekend, statehood advocates launched an indefinite strike to press their demand for statehood, which supporters claim is older than Telangana's.

Blaming the central government for the fresh agitation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared, "Darjeeling is part and parcel of West Bengal. We will stay united." She reportedly sought five companies from the Central Reserve Police Force to be deployed in Darjeeling in a bid to curb violence.

Statehood aspirations are also roiling in the far-flung northeast state of Assam, where ethnic groups such as the Bodo and Karbi are renewing protests — sometimes violent — for independent territories. The state has already gone under the knife before, in the 1980s, when the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram were carved out of Assam.

Meanwhile, the state of Maharashtra faces the possibility of mineral-rich Vidarbha breaking away. Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest state, faces calls to be split further. Also looming is the old specter of dividing up the conflict-ridden Jammu and Kashmir.

Would these new states make for a happier India? A stronger India? A more secure or less secure India?

India's own recent history has shown that breaking up is not only hard to do, it may not be the panacea those who promote it believe it to be.

Work On New India-Bangladesh Rail Line To Start This Year

Agartala, Jul 8 : Work on a new rail link between India and Bangladesh along Tripura, to ease surface transport in the mountainous northeastern states, would start this year, officials of the two countries said on Friday.

India will build a 15 km railway track linking Tripura capital Agartala with Bangladesh's southeastern city Akhaurah, which is also an important railway junction connected to Chittagong port, resource-rich Sylhet and Dhaka.

"Necessary survey and alignment of the railway tracks have been completed. Bangladesh's Planning Commission's approval is awaited. We expect the work for the vital railway line would start this year-end," Bangladesh's Brahmanbaria district's Deputy Commissioner Nur Mohammad Majumder told reporters.

After a two-day meeting with the Indian officials, Majumder said, "Land acquisition works are on and necessary tenders for the works would soon be floated."

West Tripura District Magistrate Kiran Gitte, who led the Indian side in the meeting, said that works, including survey and alignment of the railway line, have been completed.

An agreement for the new railway line was signed between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina during her visit to India in January 2010.

"Total cost of the proposed project is estimated at Rs 252 crore. The Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) would lay the new railway tracks on both sides of the border," an official of the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) told reporters.

In the last railway budget of the Indian government, the allocation of some funds was sanctioned for the 15 km railway project.

Work on India-B’desh rail line to start soon

Agartala: Work on a new rail link between India and Bangladesh along Tripura, to ease surface transport in the mountainous northeastern states, would start this year, officials of the two countries said on Friday.

India will build a 15 km railway track linking Tripura capital Agartala with Bangladesh's southeastern city Akhaurah, which is also an important railway junction connected to Chittagong port, resource-rich Sylhet and Dhaka.

"Necessary survey and alignment of the railway tracks have been completed. Bangladesh's Planning Commission's approval is awaited. We expect the work for the vital railway line would start this year-end," Bangladesh's Brahmanbaria district's Deputy Commissioner Nur Mohammad Majumder told reporters.

After a two-day meeting with the Indian officials, Majumder said, "Land acquisition works are on and necessary tenders for the works would soon be floated."

West Tripura District Magistrate Kiran Gitte, who led the Indian side in the meeting, said that works, including survey and alignment of the railway line, have been completed.

An agreement for the new railway line was signed between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina during her visit to India in January 2010.

"Total cost of the proposed project is estimated at Rs 252 crore. The Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) would lay the new railway tracks on both sides of the border," an official of the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) told reporters.

In the last railway budget of the Indian government, the allocation of some funds was sanctioned for the 15 km railway project.
- See more at: http://post.jagran.com/work-on-new-indiabangladesh-1373024914#sthash.pf4TsdEJ.dpuf

Work on new India-Bangladesh rail line to start this year - See more at: http://post.jagran.com/work-on-new-indiabangladesh-1373024914#sthash.EMpm1Nlj.dpuf

India’s Most Financially Inclusive States

Crisil has launched an index that measures financial inclusion in India, and some of the county’s most industrialized states don’t fare too well.

By Nupur Acharya

A man counted money in Mumbai, June 20.

Indranil Mukherjee/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Gujarat and Maharashtra are generally popular with industry thanks to their relative openness to investment. But in terms of financial inclusion, India’s top two industrialized states fall below the national average, a recent report showed.

When it comes to access to financial services for all sections of society, the top states are found in the south of India, according to Crisil Inclusix, an index that measures financial inclusion.

The index, launched last week by ratings firm Crisil, measures financial inclusion on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 signaling that an entire population has access to banking services. Gujarat has a rating of 38.6, just ahead of Maharashtra on 37.5. The national average is 40.1.

Six of the 10 most inclusive states are in the south. Puducherry is top with a score of 79.6. Chandigarh in the north and Goa in the west are also in the top 10. The bottom five are Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Nagaland, and Manipur, the lowest with a rating of 16.6. These five are all in east and northeast India.

India as a whole had a financial inclusion rating of 40.1 in 2011, the latest available reading, up from 37.6 in 2010. “It [India’s reading] is a reflection of under-penetration of formal banking facilities in most parts of the country. Just one in two Indians has a savings account, and only one in seven Indians have access to banking credit,” the report says.

The government and the Reserve Bank of India have both acknowledged that millions of people still need to be brought into the banking fold.

Real financial inclusion should ensure that a range of financial services are available to every individual. This includes a basic bank account, savings products suited to poor households, money transfer facilities, small loans, overdrafts, and insurance.

Crisil’s index uses three parameters: branch penetration, deposit penetration (the number of deposit accounts) and credit penetration (number of borrower accounts.)

“Lack of awareness, low incomes, poverty, and illiteracy are among factors that lead to low demand for financial services and, consequently, to exclusion,” the report said.

Often, people feel it is easier to borrow from informal credit sources instead of traveling long distances to banks, which may not have convenient opening times and can require reams of documentation. Informal money lenders typically charge high interest rates.

“Financial inclusion… is not just about opening of saving bank accounts; it includes creation of awareness about financial products, and offering of advice on money management and debt counseling,” the report added.

Delhi Transit Hub in Narcotics Corridor

By Dwaipayan Ghosh

New Delhi, Jun 27 : Data released by Narcotics Control Bureau on International Day Against Drug Abuse has once again shown how Delhi is rapidly emerging as a transit point of high-end drugs smuggled by international cartels.

While the capital lags behind other states in use of ganja and opium, it ranks high in consumption of party drugs such as ketamine and cocaine. Maharashtra is the top consumer of party drugs, according to this data. Between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, a total of 143.43kg ketamine has been seized in Delhi compared to Maharashtra (2,170kg) and Tamil Nadu (596kg). Ketamine is produced illegally in the latter states for supply to southeast Asian countries. The fact that Delhi ranks three on the list when it is not even a major producer indicates it is a transit point. Police said this is due to its unique location between producers Afghanistan and Commonwealth of Independent States nations and consumers in southeast Asia.

According to top officers in the narcotics wing and NCB officials, pseudoephedrine—used to make party drugs like 'Speed' and 'Ecstasy'—is a good example of a transit drug. The total seizure of pseudoephedrine in the past one year in north, east and northeast India have been more than 4,500kg.

The figures also include a cocaine haul of 5,429kg and 180kg heroin. The cocaine circuit is dominated by African cartels who also engage in heroin trade. But most of the heroin seized in the capital are of southwest Asian origin and enters India through Pakistan border, says an NCB study.

Security agencies have long believed that some of the money in this trade is actually a portion of narcoterrorism wherein profits from selling this drug is used to fund terror activities. A total of 612.08kg hashish, 955.58kg ganja and 233.42kg opium were also seized from the capital in this one year. A new item on the list is ATS (amphetamine-type stimulants). Over 6.5kg ATS was seized in the city vis-a-vis Maharashtra (40kg).

"It is believed that, due to establishment of special ATS labs, some foreign operatives are using the country's huge chemical base to source raw materials and produce such drugs. Drug hauls on Delhi-Manipur route show they are being trafficked to Myanmar," the NCB noted.

"Recent seizures of Kolkata-bound consignments in eastern and northern India indicate that the mafia is using West Bengal's ports to smuggle banned drugs to South America. A group of pharmaceutical companies are handing out stocks from Uttarakhand. This is then brought to Delhi en route to northeast, Myanmar and Thailand. The processing is completed in factories there before the drugs are pushed backed to India. While a portion returns to party circles in Delhi and Mumbai, the rest is shipped out to Colombia and Uruguay where these drugs are in high demand," said an NCB official.

NCB also asked agencies to crack down on abuse of prescription drugs with the smuggling of codeine-based Phensedyl increasing across borders.

Due to setting up of special ATS labs, foreign operatives are using the country's huge chemical base to produce such drugs, the NCB noted.

Why The Indian Rupee is On a Downward Spiral And Nobody Knows How To Stop it

By Nandagopal J. Nair

Evaporating before my very eyes. Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

 

The US Federal Reserve’s stimulus exit timeline shook the global economy. In India, the situation is particularly dire: its stock markets experienced the sharpest fall in almost two years, bond prices fell so much that trading had to be halted, and the value of the rupee fell to a record low. The rupee nearly reached the psychological barrier of 60 rupees to the dollar, a low point that many consider catastrophic for the Indian government.

Why? The chain of events goes like this. As the Fed’s quantitative easing program unwinds, the cost of US borrowing rises, causing massive outflows of foreign investment from India and less demand for rupees. The sharp decline of the rupee’s value comes at a time when India is struggling to tame high inflation, spur economic growth and reduce its unwieldy deficits. A weaker rupee raises the cost of imported fuel and exacerbates inflation, which gives the central bank less leeway to cut interest rates to revive growth. 

Even so, the Indian government has said it stands ready to take action and stop the bleeding. But in reality, there’s not much it can do. Here’s why:

India’s foreign exchange reserves stand at $290 billion, which is barely enough to cover the cost of its imports for seven months. Attempting to vacuum up excess liquidity at the national level could halt business activity in local markets and cause a spike in money market interest rates. Those rates have already been rising because of fleeing foreign investment. Also, using central bank reserves to defend the rupee could attract the attention of currency speculators who are eager to bet on the currency’s fall.

The government could limit the purchase of gold and crude oil, but that would be unpopular and economically painful. India’s chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan admitted that curbs and blanket bans would be “harmful.” He is advocating for broader reforms to liberalize and strengthen Indian capital markets, but those may be politically untenable.

In the meantime, companies and consumers will suffer. Corporations with large unhedged dollar holdings, such as telecom giants Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, will take on more debt in rupee terms. Firms with heavy raw material imports will face higher operating costs, according to Goldman Sachs. India’s largest automaker Maruti Suzuki is already considering sourcing more local products.

Some companies will foist rising costs on to customers. Computer makers like Dell and Lenovo and mobile phone manufacturers have already announced that prices will rise by around 10% in the coming days. The fall in the rupee has pushed up monthly household bills by 15-20% in the past month alone, according to a study by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. If consumers pull back on spending as a result, the economy will really be in bind.