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The website io9 has collected a bunch of the most amazing science images of 2014. According to them:
What you’ll find here are photos that engaged our minds, and videos that set our pulses racing – a carefully curated collection of the weird, the wonderful, and the truly awesome. Here you’ll find imagery that moved us, inspired us, and shook us to our core, and a few that made us laugh in sheer amazement.
Nabeel Rajab speaks to the crowd in Bahrain regarding the deliberations at Geneva. Photo: Ahmed Al-Fardan
by Al-Akhbar
Prominent Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab accused Bahrain’s ruling family of seeking to change Bahrain’s demography by adopting a strategy similar to that used by the UK in the creation of Israel.
Talking to Iranian news channel Press TV, Rajab said the systematic naturalization of foreigners and the deportation of locals after revoking their citizenships are proof that al-Khalifa family is implementing the same strategy that Britain implemented in Palestine.
Dozens of Bahrainis have had their citizenship revoked and several have also been deported since Bahrain adopted the Bahraini Citizenship Law last year stipulating that suspects convicted of “terrorist” acts could be stripped of their nationality.
“The Bahraini authorities are running out of arguments to justify repression. They are now resorting to extreme measures such as jail sentences and revoking nationality to quell dissent in the country, rather than allowing people to peacefully express their views,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director.
“Arbitrarily depriving these Bahrainis of their nationality and forcing them out of Bahrain renders them ‘stateless’ and goes contrary to Bahrain’s international obligations,” said Sahraoui.
Moreover, the Bahraini ruling family have been naturalizing foreigners since 2012 in an attempt to change the demographics of the country.
According to information Al-Akhbar received earlier this year, the Bahraini authorities have granted tens of thousands of people, with certain characteristics and from designated countries, Bahraini citizenship, in an attempt to create a new sectarian majority, which would deny the Shia their rightful representation in the state’s institutions.
These tactics are similar to those used by the West to alter the demography of Palestine.
Khalil al-Tafakji, a settlement and map expert in East Jerusalem, asserted to Al-Akhbar that Israel has been systematically working since 1967 to turn Jerusalem into a city with Jewish features. “In 1967, 70,000 Palestinians and not a single Israeli lived in [East] Jerusalem, whereas today 320,000 Palestinians and at least 200,000 Israelis are residing in the city.”
Tafakji then said that “125,000 Palestinians have been forced by the Israeli occupation forces to live behind the [apartheid] wall, which means only 195,000 Palestinians are currently living in East Jerusalem, making Zionist settlers the city’s majority.”
The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-infamous Balfour Declaration, called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.
Crackdown
Moreover, Rajab, director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) and co-founder of Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), said that Britain has been supporting the Bahraini authorities, as well as other Gulf states, in their crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Foreign military presence and military cooperation with Western countries are common in Gulf countries.
Britain said on December 5 it had sealed a deal to open a new military base in Bahrain, its first permanent base in the Middle East since it formally withdrew from the Gulf in 1971, drawing concern from Bahraini opposition groups.
Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa considered the agreement to be a step that bolstered “growing” cooperation between his country and the UK.
Washington is also a long-standing ally of the ruling al-Khalifa dynasty and Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
During the Gulf War in 1991, the US military presence became firmly-established with permanent bases and a comprehensive support structure after signing “protective” agreements with all the countries on the Western bank of the Gulf.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf neighbors sent troops into Bahrain in March 2011 and reinforced a crackdown that led to accusations of serious human rights violations.
With Saudi Arabia’s help, Bahrain crushed peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations that began on February 14, 2011.
The small nation has yet to resolve the conflict between the monarchy and the opposition, which argues that the country’s Shia majority population is discriminated against.
A private jet is covertly flying between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi, which are said to be engaging in high-level trade in the security sector
The aircraft flying between Israel and the UAE lands in Tel Aviv on 18 December (MEE/Oren Ziv)
by Rori Donaghy, Middle East Eye
A private jet is flying between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi up to twice per week, an analysis of publicly available data has revealed.
Analysts said the news lends weight to the “open secret” that the UAE is “actively collaborating” with Israel due to shared concerns about their future in a region racked by conflict.
Relations between Israel and the Gulf states are sensitive due to the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories, popularly opposed by Gulf nationals, and none of the monarchies have official diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.
Israeli daily Haaretz first reported a plane flying between Israel and an unspecified Gulf state earlier in December. After initially not responding to requests for comment, the article’s author told MEE he “cannot go into why” the newspaper did not publish the UAE as being the destination.
The Tel Aviv-Abu Dhabi route
The flight between Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi International Airport is operated by the Geneva-based private airline PrivatAir, on an Airbus A319 registered with the tail-number D-APTA.
The plane leaves Tel Aviv on flight number PTG 315, with Jordan as the stated destination, although the Queen Alia Airport in Amman does not list its arrival. Jordan is one of the few Arab countries to have diplomatic ties with Israel.
While online flight radars have showed the flight departing Tel Aviv and stopping briefly at Amman, they then depart for Abu Dhabi.
The private jet leaves Amman under the callsign – a plane identification number – of PTG 126 but its arrival in the UAE is not listed on Abu Dhabi International Airport’s website.
A recent trip saw an outbound flight take place from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi on 16 December. The plane returned from Abu Dhabi on 18 December using the callsign PTG 124 until Amman but then arrived at Ben Gurion on flight number PTG 313.
The PrivatAir jet approaches Amman from Abu Dhabi on 18 December (Planefinder.net)
The PrivatAir jet approaches Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on 18 December (Planefinder.net)
Neither the departure from Abu Dhabi nor the arrival at Amman is listed on each respective airport’s website.
Only Ben Gurion acknowledges the plane’s arrival and departure – the next flight is due to depart Tel Aviv at 10pm local time (2000 GMT) on 27 December using flight number PTG 315.
PrivatAir registered the Airbus A319 under their ownership on 5 March 2014 and made the first trip from Tel Aviv two days later.
The plane can hold up to 56 passengers, according to PrivatAir’s website, and is kitted out with eight business class seats around two tables at the front.
When contacted by MEE PrivatAir said they could not divulge any information about the identity of their client.
“Unfortunately the information you have requested is confidential as it concerns a private client,” a spokesperson said. “We have to remain discreet and cannot provide you with any details regarding this operation.”
The private airline did not answer whether AGT International – a Geneva-headquartered company owned by Israeli businessman Mati Kochavi – was their client.
Israel-UAE relations
A 2012 report by the French Intelligence Online website said AGT International had signed a contract worth $800 mn to provide Abu Dhabi’s Critical National Infrastructure Authority with “surveillance cameras, electronic fences and sensors to monitor strategic infrastructure and oil fields.”
The corporate intelligence website described AGT’s owner Kochavi as “the Israeli businessman most active in Abu Dhabi.”
Among diverse services AGT International offers “critical asset management”, described on its website as:
“Innovative oil and gas solutions [that] deliver real-time situational awareness which ensures the safety and security of people, critical assets and operations, superior control of incidents, emergencies and crises, and business continuity.”
Israeli entrepreneur Kochavi first made his fortune in property before moving into the security field. He has reportedly employed “dozens” of former Israeli army and intelligence officers, according to Haaretz, and recently launched media outlet Vocativ.
When contacted by MEE, AGT International said they did not have a press office and would not comment on whether they were PrivatAir’s client on the Tel Aviv-Abu Dhabi flight.
Political approval
Trade between Israel and the UAE must be approved by the political leadership on both sides, according to political economy experts on the region.
“The relationship is high-level and the business has to be done with the blessing and participation of state actors but, of course, nobody admits this – the trade is conducted entirely through third-party channels,” said Yitzhak Gal, professor of political economy at Tel Aviv University.
“Nobody has any statistics because the trade is covert but I estimate there to be around $1bn per year, possibly more, with between a third and half of this business taking place in the security sector – it’s not a small amount but it’s only a fraction of the potential trade.”
While Israeli citizens are officially barred from entering the UAE, a leaked diplomatic cable by Wikileaks from 2009 revealed positive high-level ties between political leaders from both countries.
“[UAE ] Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah [bin Zayed al-Nahyan] has developed good personal relations with [then Israeli] Foreign Minister [Tzipi] Livni, but the Emiratis are ‘not ready to do publicly what they say in private’,” read a briefing by Marc Sievers, then political advisor to the US embassy in Tel Aviv.
The cable also detailed relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as describing how covert Israeli ties with Qatar had soured due to the latter’s support for the Palestinian movement Hamas.
“Gulf Arabs believe in Israel’s role because of their perception of Israel’s close relationship with the US but also due to their sense that they can count on Israel against Iran,” the cable read.
“They believe Israel can work magic.”
Secretive Israeli-Emirati ties – including the sale of security equipment to Abu Dhabi – may have been aided by the presence of exiled Palestinian strongman Mohammed Dahlan in the UAE.
Dahlan lived in the UAE since being chased out of the West Bank in 2011, accused by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of financial embezzlement and acting as an Israeli agent involved in assassination attempts on the late Yasser Arafat.
Dahlan is said to have helped foster valuable relations between the UAE and Serbia and was allegedly involved in shipping Israeli-made arms to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
After initially agreeing to be interviewed by MEE, Dahlan declined to comment on UAE-Israel relations.
The secret is out
The flight between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi has not been specifically reported on until now but airline industry experts said there can be no doubt other Gulf states will have been aware of it taking place.
The journey involves the private jet flying through Saudi, Qatari, and Bahraini airspace after departing from its brief stop in Amman.
“They [Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain] definitely would know where the plane has come from,” a private jet pilot, who asked to remain anonymous, told MEE.
The pilot told MEE it was “very common” for private airlines to operate covert flights between countries who publicly deny having relations, explaining that “aircraft operators can get special dispensation depending on which kind of person is flying – perhaps a politician or influential businessman.”
“We sign so many confidentiality agreements – you’re dealing with extremely powerful people. Phones get tapped and all sorts of things go on when you’re flying these people. Operators have to be very careful.”
Israel has previously had trade missions in Gulf states, including in both Qatar and Oman during the 1990s, however both were closed down due to bloody Israeli army offensives in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Earlier this year, in the absence of official diplomatic relations, Israel opened a Twitter account to engage with Gulf citizens. @IsraelintheGCC has been used to open “dialogue with people” from the Gulf monarchies, a spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry told the Financial Times.
Analysts responded to news of a regular flight between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi by suggesting it provided further evidence of a good relationship borne out of shared interests.
“It seems to lend more weight to the now open secret that a number of Gulf states, most notably the UAE, are actively collaborating with Israel, especially in the field of high-tech security,” said Christopher Davidson, reader in Middle East Politics at the UK’s Durham University.
“As unpalatable as this may be to many pious and well-meaning Gulf citizens in the wake of this summer’s Gaza massacres, this is doubtless a symptom of declining trust in the UAE and Israel’s mutual US security guarantor.”
Davidson added that Israel, the UAE, and other Gulf states see a need to “band together as they face an increasingly turbulent future.”
The US has long been a vital ally for both Israel and the Gulf states. For the Gulf monarchies, with their resource-driven wealth, they have invested heavily in the American arms industry in a quid pro quo deal for diplomatic and security protection.
Both Israel and Gulf monarchies have expressed concern over the recent US détente with Iran and are said to be worried about being left exposed to security threats in a distinct period of tumult in the Middle East and North Africa.
by Liam Tung, CSO Online
The Tor Project said on Friday that the online anonymity network may go dark in coming days due to an attempt to incapacitate it.
The project’s leader Roger Dingledine aka “arma” drew attention to the possible outage on the project’s blog, flagging a tip-off that its directory authority servers — a handful of servers that form a consensus on which relays that Tor clients should use — may be the target of an upcoming “seizure”.
“The Tor Project has learned that there may be an attempt to incapacitate our network in the next few days through the seizure of specialized servers in the network called directory authorities,” Dingledine warned.
The wording of the alert suggests that the attacker is law enforcement rather than hackers. Should an attacker gain control of a majority of those servers, they would be able to vote in a fake Tor network.
As the project explains in its FAQ: “The directory authorities provide a signed list of all the known relays, and in that list are a set of certificates from each relay (self-signed by their identity key) specifying their keys, locations, exit policies, and so on. So unless the adversary can control a majority of the directory authorities (as of 2012 there are 8 directory authorities), he can’t trick the Tor client into using other Tor relays.”
A thread on Hacker News notes there are actually now nine directory authorities located across Europe and the US, so the attackers would need to gain control of five in order point Tor users to a phoney Tor network.
“We are taking steps now to ensure the safety of our users, and our system is already built to be redundant so that users maintain anonymity even if the network is attacked. Tor remains safe to use,” Dingledine noted.
It’s not clear what the motivation is for the possible seizure, nor which authority may be behind it. However, there is speculation it may be related to the Sony Pictures investigation due to the hackers having used Tor in the attack.
HP Security on Friday released a detailed analysis of the malware used in the Sony hack, assessing the FBI’s claim that North Korea was behind the breach.
“The attackers appear to have used TOR exit nodes and VPNs to help cover their tracks, which indicates some awareness of operational security (OPSEC),” HP noted.
But as Dingledine noted in further comments, if the FBI were to seize a majority of the nine directory authorities it would not help them identify what individual Tor users had done in the past or were doing presently.
“If they’re trying to hunt down particular Tor users, most possible attacks on directory authorities would be unproductive, since those relays don’t know anything about what particular Tor users are doing,” he noted.
Anne C. Richard (L), assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, and Nancy Lindborg (front, 2nd R), USAID assistant administrator for democracy, conflict, and humanitarian assistance, visit the Zaatari Syrian refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, Jan. 28, 2013. (Photo by REUTERS/Ali Jarekji)
by Barbara Slavin, Al-Monitor
US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard says the United States will dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees allowed to resettle permanently in the United States from about 350 this year to close to 10,000 annually as the crisis grinds on into its fifth year.
While the number is minuscule given a total Syrian refugee population of 3.3 million, it reflects US recognition that the civil war in Syria is not about to end anytime soon and that, even when it does, Syria will need years for reconstruction and reconciliation.
In an interview with Al-Monitor Dec. 22, Richard said, “People are surprised we haven’t taken more.” She said the initial low numbers reflect the reality that “resettling refugees is never the first thing you do when people are fleeing an emerging crisis” and that other countries — in particular Germany and Sweden — have “stepped forward and offered to take a lot” of Syrian refugees.
According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Germany has pledged to absorb 30,000 Syrians just since 2013 — nearly half of those processed for resettlement.
“We thought that was a great offer and unusually generous so we encouraged UNHCR to take advantage of that,” Richard said.
After initial vetting by UNHCR, Syrian refugees who want to resettle in the United States must be interviewed by officers of the Department of Homeland Security at US diplomatic facilities in Amman, Jordan or Istanbul, Turkey. That leaves out a million Syrians who have fled to Lebanon and large populations in Iraq and Egypt. Richard said lack of space and security concerns have kept the United States from interviewing Syrian refugees at the US Embassy in Beirut but that US officials are looking at the possibility of setting up a refugee vetting operation in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
UNHCR seeks to identify the most vulnerable candidates, Richard said. “By Dec. 15, we had 10,000 referrals from UNHCR and they are coming in at 1,000 to 1,500 a month.”
Asked how many of those referred would be accepted, Richard said, “I think most” because they are likely to meet the United State’s definition of a refugee as someone fleeing persecution or threats because of race, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs or membership to a particular social group.
Refugees must also pass medical and security checks. “The last part has been tricky in the past,” Richard said, but added that it is not likely to be a major problem with the Syrians referred by UNHCR. She said she expected them to comprise mostly widows with children, the elderly and people with medical conditions. “It will be fairly clear that they are not terrorists bent on harming Americans,” she said.
No preference is given to those with relatives already in the United States but if they do have family among the estimated half million Syrian Americans, “we try to reunite them because that can improve their chances of doing well in the US,” Richard said.
There are large populations of Arab Americans outside Detroit and in San Diego, but the Syrian refugees who have arrived in the United States recently have been settled all around the country.
According to the latest State Department statistics, 33 Syrian refugees were sent to North Carolina so far this year, 30 to Texas, 24 to both California and Illinois, and only five to Michigan.
Richard said her office works with nine networks in the United States, six of them faith-based, to identify communities willing to help refugees find new homes. “They sign up to take certain numbers based on what their organizations can handle,” she said.
This past year has been extremely challenging for her office, and not just because of Syria. The year started with humanitarian crises in two other countries — South Sudan and the Central African Republic — followed over the summer by Ukraine, a new Gaza war, a flood of unaccompanied children from Central America crossing the US border, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the sudden advance of the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.
“It’s been a tough year,” Richard, who is also a former executive with the International Rescue Committee, said with some understatement.
But on the positive side, she said, “We’ve kept millions and millions of people alive” who otherwise would have succumbed to hunger and disease.
While the United States remains the world’s leader in providing humanitarian relief — allocating about $6 billion for refugee assistance, disaster assistance and food aid in the past year and $3 billion for Syria since 2011 — other countries such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are beginning to make regular contributions to the UN agencies that provide most humanitarian aid.
Even Saudi Arabia, which has been reluctant to participate in such UN programs in the past, gave half a million dollars to help Iraqis cope with the crisis caused by IS this summer, Richard said.
“We would like to see more governments contributing and those new to doing so to do it routinely in a dependable way … so that organizations like UNHCR and the World Food Program can plan ahead,” she said.
The United States takes in about 70,000 refugees a year, of whom Iraqis accounted for the largest number in the last fiscal year — nearly 20,000. They were followed by more than 16,000 Burmese, more than 9,000 Bhutanese, more than 7,000 Somalis and more than 4,000 Cubans. The number of Bhutanese is dwindling, however, opening up room for more Syrians.
Richard said it was her impression that the number of Syrians fleeing their country has “leveled off a little bit” but that the problem of those internally displaced and in need of aid is more acute than ever.
“A lot of people are trying to stay and make it inside Syria,” she said, noting that the number of internally displaced had grown from 6 million six months ago to 7.6 million now, with more than 200,000 in areas that cannot be reached by outsiders because of the fighting. “It’s hard for me to understand how they are managing,” she said.
The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has floated a proposal to “freeze” the fighting, starting in Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, to ease the humanitarian crisis there.
However, Richard expressed skepticism about the plan.
“After Staffan de Mistura came through [Washington recently], everyone wanted to give it a chance but I don’t think we have much evidence of a change,” she said. “There has been modest cooperation from the Assad regime but the thinking is that they haven’t suddenly adopted a whole new pro-humanitarian approach. It’s more that they are trying to distinguish themselves from [IS],” she said..
Others who work on the Syria crisis also expressed pessimism about a near-term solution to the conflict.
“I can’t believe that I’m still doing this after almost four years,” Sasha Ghosh-Siminoff, president and co-founder of an aid group called People Demand Change, told Al-Monitor. “When I left Syria in 2011, we all thought the regime would decide to save itself and make reforms, crumble quickly or that the international community would step in. Unfortunately none of that has come to pass.”
File photo
Kottayam: Continuing with its ‘Ghar Wapsi’ programme, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Thursday reconverted about 17 Christians to Hinduism in Kottayam district.
There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that the Hindu outfit would stage mass conversion events at several places on Christmas day, mainly targeting Dalit Christians.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said there had been no forceful conversions in the state.
Kerala all these years has steered clear of any controversy when it came to forced religious conversion, Chandy said.
Chandy was responding to a question on the reported conversion of 35 people from Christianity to Hinduism in two Kerala districts last Sunday.
“We have always steered clear of any such happenings and there has been no forceful conversions in our state. If anyone decides to convert, it’s their decision. If there is a need for any government intervention, it would be done, but for that to happen, there has to be forceful conversion and it does not take place here,” he said.
The peculiar situation in Kerala is that Hindu SC/ST people enjoy government reservations which are not open to Christian SC/ST people.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government is setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop infrastructure at tourist destinations across the state under the public-private partnership (PPP), a senior official said Wednesday.
“The state cabinet Tuesday approved the proposal of the tourism department to set up the SPV for tourism infrastructure development at an estimated cost of Rs.14,737 crore. We have identified 1,468 acres of land at tourist spots across the state for the projects under PPP,” the official told IANS here.
Under the SPV, private firms selected through a bidding process will be given specified acres of land on lease to develop the infrastructure facilities and operate them around the tourist spots for attracting more tourists.
“As we want to make Karnataka a preferred destination in the country for domestic and overseas tourists, we have identified 325 tourist spots across the state for developing the infrastructure through the PPP mode,” the official said.
According to a report prepared by the tourist department, the state has potential to attract a whopping Rs.73,000 crore worth investments in tourist infrastructure development over the next 10 years, generating an additional revenue of Rs.83,000 crore and employment to 43 lakh people by 2024.
“Besides developing infrastructure and connectivity, we need to build human capital with skilled manpower for catering to the growing number of tourists to the state from across the country and abroad,” the official pointed out.
The Karnataka tourism vision group, under the chairmanship of former Infosys board member and Manipal Global Education chairman T.V. Mohandas Pai, has recommended a holistic approach in promoting the rich and diverse tourist spots in the state spawning heritage sites, monuments, ancient and modern temples, pilgrim towns, wildlife sanctuaries, hill stations, beaches and historic cities like Mysuru and Hampi.
(IANS)
Photo: PTI
Good Governance is the key to a nation’s progress. Our government is committed to providing a transparent and accountable administration which works for the betterment and welfare of the common citizen.
“Citizen-First” is our mantra, our motto and our guiding principle. It has been my dream to bring government closer to our citizens, so that they become active participants in the governance process. During the last seven months, our government has been consistently working towards this goal. mygov.in and interact with PM seek to make this engagement meaningful. The unprecedented response which these initiatives have evoked, places a large responsibility upon us, and I assure you, my countrymen that we will not let you down.
An important step for Good Governance is simplification of procedures and processes in the Government so as to make the entire system transparent and faster. The push towards self certification in place of affidavits and attestations is another indicator of the relationship of trust between the citizens and the Government. Doing away with cumbersome and out-dated legislations which no longer have relevance is another focus area. Already Appropriation Acts have been identified for repeal and more Acts are being reviewed.
Our government considers redress of public grievances as a very important component of a responsive administration. I have instructed all the Ministries to ensure that redress of public grievances receives the highest priority.
Government process re-engineering is yet another measure that we are pushing for. Ministries and Departments of the Government of India have been instructed to look into their work spheres, their internal processes and work on what and how to simplify and rationalise them. We are also working on a simpler internal work process manual, which would be delivered through an e-learning module.
I strongly believe that technology can and must bridge the divide between the government and the citizens. Technology is an empowering tool for the citizen and an accountability medium for the government. My government fully recognises the huge potential of this tool –Digital India aims to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Proposed to be implemented in phases, Digital India is transformational in nature and would ensure that Government services are available to citizens electronically. It would also bring in greater accountability through mandated delivery of government’s services electronically.
The effort to usher in an era of सुशासन has just begun, and begun on a very promising note. An open and accountable administration is what we had promised to deliver and we will do so.
Today is the birthday of our beloved leader, our former PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. On this occasion, we reiterate our commitment towards providing transparent, effective and accountable governance to the people of this country. Let us embark on this mission for good governance together.
Cautious over the bill raising controversies, CM Siddaramaiah told reporters “Now we are planning not to pursue with bill. We will take it back..” Photo: The New Indian Express
Koppal: Facing resistance from Hindu seers and reservations within cabinet, Congress government in Karnataka Wednesday said it would withdraw a bill which religious mutts fear is an attempt to take over their institutions.
Developing cold feet as the bill raised a storm of controversy, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters here “Now we are planning not to pursue with bill. We will take it back.”
The Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Amendment) Bill of 2014 was introduced in the Assembly during the session at Belagavi last week, amid stiff opposition from BJP which termed it as an attempt to interfere in the affairs of Hindu religious institutions.
The bill has raised the hackles of seers across the state who say it is needless interference and question why only Hindu religious institutions are being “targetted”.
Siddaramaiah said the JDS-BJP coalition government in 2007 had given an undertaking to Supreme Court stating they would bring an amendment to the law, following which the bill was introduced. The bill was also recommended by a high powered committee headed by Rama Jois, a former Supreme Court judge who was also a BJP Rajya Sabha member.
“BJP is playing politics on this issue now, while they are the ones who had given such undertaking,” he said.
“Now we are planning not to pursue with the bill….We will take it (bill) back; ….We will inform the court about it, the undertaking was given by the previous government….”
At the cabinet meeting yesterday, several ministers as also the Chief Minister himself, had reportedly expressed reservations about the bill.
(PTI)
A paramedic distributes free medicine provided by the government to patients inside a ward at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai July 12, 2012. CREDIT: REUTERS/BABU/FILES
by Reuters
The government has ordered a cut of nearly 20 percent in its 2014/15 healthcare budget due to fiscal strains, putting at risk key disease control initiatives in a country whose public spending on health is already among the lowest in the world.
Two health ministry officials told Reuters on Tuesday that more than 60 billion rupees, or $948 million, has been slashed from their budget allocation of around $5 billion for the financial year ending on March 31.
Despite rapid economic growth over the past two decades, successive governments have kept a tight rein on healthcare expenditure. India spends about 1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public health, compared to 3 percent in China and 8.3 percent in the United States.
But hopes were high that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was elected in May, would upgrade basic health infrastructure and make medical services more affordable for the poor.
The United Nations estimates about one third of the world’s 1.2 billion poorest people live in India.
“We were not expecting (budget cuts) this time because of the commitments they made in the manifesto,” one of the health ministry officials said, referring to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “No reason was given … but there is shortage of funds. It is not rocket science.”
The officials requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The finance ministry, which ordered the spending reduction and overruled objections from the health ministry at a recent meeting, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The move reflects the government’s struggle to achieve its 2014/15 fiscal deficit target of 4.1 percent of GDP.
Dominated by private players, India’s healthcare industry is growing at an annual clip of around 15 percent, but public spending has remained low and resulted in a dilapidated network of government hospitals and clinics, especially in rural areas.
One of the health ministry officials said the cut could crimp efforts to control the spread of diseases. More newborns die in India than in poorer neighbours such as Bangladesh, and preventable illnesses such as diarrhoea kill more than a million children every year.
The retrenchment could also derail an ambitious universal healthcare programme that Modi wants to launch in April. The plan aims to provide all citizens with free drugs and diagnostic treatments, as well as insurance benefits.
The cost of that programme over the next four years had been estimated at 1.6 trillion rupees ($25 billion). The health ministry officials had been expecting a jump in their budget for the coming year, in part to pay for this extra cost.
“Even next year we don’t think we’ll get a huge amount of money,” said one official, adding that it was now unclear how the new programme would be funded.
HIV/AIDS FUNDS SLASHED
In addition to the healthcare budget, the finance ministry has also ordered a spending cut for India’s HIV/AIDS programme by about 30 percent to 13 billion rupees ($205.4 million).
India had the third-largest number of people living with HIV in the world at the end of 2013, according to the U.N. AIDS programme, and it accounts for more than half of all AIDS-related deaths in the Asia-Pacific.
In October, India was on the brink of running out of a critical medicine in its free HIV/AIDS drugs programme due to bureaucratic delays. A crisis was averted with the assistance of pharmaceutical companies and global health organisations.
Still, health activists complain about dire shortages of several HIV/AIDS diagnostic kits.
“We are all in shock. That shows the kind of importance the government attaches to public health,” said Leena Menghaney, a New Delhi-based public health activist. “This will undermine the HIV programme in the long run.”
(Additional reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by John Chalmers and Jeremy Laurence)