The percentage share of female workers participating in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) convergence projects has been found to be much higher in the hills than the plains of Uttarakhand.

On an average, it was found that the percentage share of female workers participating in the MGNREGA convergence projects is much higher in the hills (70% in Pauri and 81% in Champawat) districts than the plain districts (22% in Udham Singh Nagar and 0% percent in Haridwar). 

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR), Hyderabad, have jointly studied the convergence activities under MGNREGA in Uttarakhand. They include days of employment provided, wages earned, asset creation, the participation of various social and occupational groups, its impact on socio-economic issues including social empowerment, migration and agricultural productivity.

Titled Â‘Assessment of Convergence Activities under MGNREGA in Uttarakhand,’ the study investigated into the extent to which convergence activities under the scheme have been implemented in the State.

Speaking about the importance of this study, Jyothis Sathyapalan, Professor at the Centre for Wage Employment at NIRDPR said that the findings are really encouraging implementers since women’s participation is high in convergence works related to land development, water conservation and draught proofing, which not only enhance women’s livelihoods in hilly rural areas but also helps to restore the mountain ecosystem services.

The study found that in terms of the overall employment generation per household, the performance seemed better in the hill districts, with higher market wage rates in the hills (Rs.306 in Pauri and Rs.310 in Champawat) than the plain districts (Rs.291 in Haridwar and Rs.283 in Udham Singh Nagar).

A majority of households working in the convergence activities were found to be below the poverty line. The percentage of such households was observed highest in Champawat (99 percent), followed by Pauri (86 percent), US Nagar (80 percent) and Haridwar (63 percent).

One of the key recommendations is digitalization of socio-economic data and GIS-based resource mapping and planning in each GP should be given top priority by the State government. This will help identify relevant projects for convergence to achieve more inclusive and sustainable rural development—ecologically, economically and socially.

Highlighting the salient features of this study, Prof S.P. Singh, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee, said, Â“Convergence of MGNREGS with other rural development schemes intends not only to optimize the use of scarce financial, physical and human resources but also to improve the delivery mechanism, and ensure creation of durable and quality assets with their effective utilization. However, MGNREGA convergence in the state was found limited to only a few activities with quite moderate impact due to a number of reasons. These included lack of institution-building at all levels, repugnance of the line departments and gram panchayats towards the convergence activities, lack of motivated and trained manpower and shouldering the programme responsibility on the temporary staff like DPOs, and lack of coordination between panchayat and rural development officials. Nevertheless, there is immense potential of improvement in the rural livelihood of the hill regions through better conceptualization and planning of convergence activities, especially replicating the convergence model of Tea Board in other activities such as horticulture and agro-forestry”.

A review of the convergence projects revealed that in all the sample districts, rural connectivity was the main activity under the convergence initiative. It was also observed that not enough importance was given to the conceptualization and execution of convergence projects related to activities such as water conservation, water harvesting, micro-irrigation and renovation of water bodies. This was alluded to the possible non-involvement of concerned line departments in the MGNREGA-convergence initiatives. An analysis of the awareness level of the workers showed that they had very limited knowledge about the key provisions of MGNREGA convergence. Even elected members of Gram Panchayats (GP) were found to be unaware of the convergence modalities. Most respondents said that relevant information was not displayed in the GP. The percentage of respondents stating that the information was not displayed in the Gram Panchayat was highest in Champawat (100%) followed by US Nagar (99%), Pauri (92%) and Haridwar (79%).

Further, findings suggested that there was no institutional set-up for MGNREGA convergence. There was a capacity deficit at all levels, with a lack of training, awareness and capacity-building. There was also a lack of coordination observed between the departments of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. There was negligible or no involvement of line departments in the convergence projects; as the strong accountability, transparency mechanisms and non-negotiable parameters of MGNREGA seemed to deter the line departments from converging their activities with the former. NGOs also seemed to be missing from the capacity-building and awareness creation programmes.

The study was carried out with multifold objectives to review the planning, execution, and monitoring and evaluation of the MGNREGA convergence process, to evaluate the outcomes of the convergence projects in terms of quality, durability and utility of created assets, and their impact on the livelihood of marginalized groups, and to assess the extent of convergence of MGNREGA with the untied funds of Gram Panchayats.

Several key recommendations came out of the study. First, there is a need for the State government to prepare detailed operational guidelines on MGNREGA convergence and disseminate them among the concerned officials and elected functionaries. A District Convergence Coordination Committee should be constituted, and the Draft District Plan should reflect the convergence activities.

A need for a survey to assess the requirements of the State for different kinds of rural development and NRM projects under MGNREGA convergence was also identified. There was also a felt need for there to be a functional merger of the departments of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj as having to deal with both in parallel seemed challenging for the rural people.

Further, MGNREGA convergence is only limited to a few activities, with limited impact on the overall rural livelihood and natural resource development, calling for an urgent need for the convergence of line departments dealing in the areas of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, fishery, livestock, water and sanitation, NRLM, Green Indian Mission, tourism, literacy and health etc.

Government of India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed a $110 million loan to finance the upgrade of 2,800 kilometers all-weather rural roads in the State of Madhya Pradesh under the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Program (PMGSY).

Tranche 2 loan is part of the $500 million-Second Rural Connectivity investment Program for India approved by the ADB Board in December 2017. The overall program is aimed at improving rural connectivity, facilitating safer and more efficient access to livelihood and socio-economic opportunities for rural communities through improvements to about 12,000 kilometers rural roads across the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal. Tranche 1 loan of $250 million is currently under implementation in the 5 project states, upgrading over 6,000 km of rural roads.

The signatories to the Second Rural Connectivity investment Programme were Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, who signed on behalf of the Government of India; and Mr. Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, who signed for ADB.

“The tranche 2 of the project will provide continued assistance to the PMGSY by upgrading rural roads in Madhya Pradesh that will support the Government’s long term goal to achieve inclusive economic growth in rural India. lt will give a big boost to the country’s rural connectivity initiative,” said Mr. Khare after signing the loan agreement.

“The loan will improve mobility for self-employment and livelihood opportunities in rural areas by improving access to district centers,” said Mr. Yokoyama. “The project will continue to support the Government’s drive for innovative approaches to reduce costs, conserve non-renewable natural resources, and promote the use of waste materials in rural road construction.”

In view of increased rainfall and storm surges in Madhya Pradesh, the road designs take into account these climate risks with measures such as greater elevation of road embankments and slope protection. Women were extensively consulted during the project design and will gain some key benefits, including improved access to healthcare, livelihoods and schooling.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. in 2017, ADB operations totalled $32.2 billion’ including $11.9 billion in co-financing.

UN Photo/Cia Pak – Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj of India addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.

NEW YORK, Sept. 29 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday launched a blistering attack on Pakistan, accusing it of glorifying terrorists, glorifying them and turning a blind eye to the innocent victims of terrorism. 

Addressing the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly here, she described terrorism as the second existential threat to humanity. She cautioned that the demon of terrorism was stalking the world at a faster pace somewhere and a slower pace somewhere else but was threatening life everywhere. 

Pointing to the collusion of Pakistan in abetting and encouraging terrorism, she said that both the masterminds behind 9/11 attack in New York and 26/11 in Mumbai were from Pakistan from where the world’s most wanted terrorist and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was hunted down by the American intelligence and security agencies. 

“In our case, terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border to the west. Our neighbour’s expertise is not restricted to spawning grounds for terrorism; it is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity,” she told the UNGA.

In her 40-minute address delivered in Hindi, she accused Pakistan of duplicity despite the most startling evidence of Osama bin Laden, the architect of W9/11, having given safe haven in that country. 

But Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened, she said adding that  Pakistan’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit. Neither has its belief in hypocrisy. The killers of 9/11 met their fate; but the mastermind of 26/11 Hafiz Saeed still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity, the External Affairs Minister said. 

“What is heartening is that the world is no longer ready to believe Islamabad. FATF, for instance, has put Pakistan on notice over terror funding,” she told the UN General Assembly. 

Asserting that it was India which believed that talks are the only rational means to resolve the most complex issues, she said that India is being accused of sabotaging the process of talks with Pakistan. 

“This is a complete lie. We believe that talks are the only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes. Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of Pakistan’s behavior. There have been many governments in India, by many different parties. Each government has tried the peace option,” she said. 

Ms. Swaraj said that Prime Minister Modi, by inviting the Heads of the SAARC nations, to his swearing in ceremony, began his attempt for dialogue on his very first day in office.

“On 9th December 2016, I personally went to Islamabad and offered a comprehensive bilateral dialogue. But soon after, Pak sponsored terrorists attacked our air force base in Pathankot on 2nd January. Please explain to me how we could pursue talks in the midst of terrorist bloodshed? Even now, after the new government came to power, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan wrote to Prime Minister Modi suggesting a meeting between Foreign Ministers in New York. We accepted the proposal. But, within hours of our acceptance, news came that terrorists had killed three of our jawans. Does this indicate a desire for dialogue?” she said. 

Accusing Pakistan of glorifying killers and terrorists, she said it refuses to see the blood of innocents and it has become a habit with Pakistan to throw the dust of deceit and deception against India to  in order to provide some thin cover for its own guilt. 

Last year, Pakistan’s representative, using her right to reply, displayed some photographs as “proof” of “human rights violations” by India. The photographs turned out to be from another country. Similar false accusations have become a part of its standard rhetoric, she said. 

She said that India has been arguing from this podium that lists are not enough to check terrorists and their protectors. “We need to bring them to accountability through international law,” she said. 

Ms. Swaraj appealed to all national to arrive at a consensus on a common definition of terrorism. “On the one hand, we want to fight terrorism; on the other, we cannot define it. This is why terrorists with a price on their head are celebrated , finances and armed as liberation heroes by a country that remains a member of the United Nations. Cruelty and barbarism are advertised as heroism. The country prints postage stamps glorifying terrorists. If we do not act now, we will have to deal with conflagration later,” she said. 

Dwelling upon urgently needed UN reforms, she said that slowly the importance, influence, respect and value of this institution is beginning to ebb.“It is time to wonder if we are wandering towards the fate of the League of Nations,” she cautioned. 

“The United Nations must accept that it needs fundamental reform. Reform cannot be cosmetic. We need change the institution’s head and heart to make both compatible to contemporary reality.  Reform must begin today; tomorrow could be too late. If the UN is ineffective, the whole concept of multilateralism will collapse,” she said. 

Ms. Swaraj said India will never weaken the multilateral mechanism. “India believes that the world is a family, and the best means of resolution is shared discourse. A family is shaped by love and is not transactional; a family is nurtured by consideration not greed; a family believes in harmony not jealousy. Greed breeds conflict; consideration leads to resolution. That is why the United Nations must be based on the principles of the family. The UN cannot be run by the ‘I’, it only works by the ‘We’,” she said in her appeal. 

“Arrogance has no place in our scheme of things; arrogance is counter-productive and self-defeating. Let us work for the benefit of the less fortunate. Let us work for a world where there is peace, serenity and shared prosperity; a world that is free from terrorism, tension and violence,” she said in her forceful plea. 

Earlier, in her address the External Affairs Minister also dwelt upon a number of social welfare schemes launched under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and recounted the success of government programmes like financial inclusion through Jan Dhan yojana, universal health insurance scheme, housing for all, skill development and the mission to make India clean, secure and developed by 2022. 

New Delhi : Public Outreach and Education Committee (POEC) of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI), and the AstroSat Training and Outreach Team is all set to add a new feature to its one year old campaign to bring ISRO’s Astrosat space observatory closer to the general public. 

The two organisations have now decided to come out with layman friendly reports every month on research papers published by scientists on their work using instruments on-board the observatory.  This will be in addition to monthly release of Astrosat images under the `AstroSat Picture of the Month (APOM)’  programme which started a year ago. 

Speaking to India Science Wire, Dr. Niruj Mohan Ramanujam of ASI POEC, said students from across the country have been following the images with curiosity and interest. With the new feature to be introduced from next month, they would also get a closer view of the research work that are going on with the help of the satellite. 

AstroSat is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory launched by ISRO on 28 September 2015. It has five telescopes – four of which can look at the same part of sky simultaneously. These give it unique capability of observing in the ultraviolet, X-rays as well as gamma rays. 

Astronomers have been using the instruments to study diverse celestial phenomena in galaxies, exploding stars, neutron stars and black holes. These studies have enabled them to investigate the nature of matter at extremely high temperatures, under very high magnetic fields, and sometimes in very violent environments. 

Each APOM features a picture, accompanied by a short text explaining why the image is interesting. Readers are encouraged to go further and learn more about the concepts mentioned, through various web-links, which are provided. 

Over the past year, APOM has featured ultraviolet images of star clusters and remnants of supernova explosions in the Milky Way, as well as nearby galaxies. It has covered galaxies that are interacting with each other, including those that are merging together. It has brought out clusters of galaxies, including gas ripped away from galaxies falling into these gigantic clusters. All the images in APOM have been taken from research papers published in astronomy journals. The accompanying text is at a level aimed at school and college students. This month’s APOM features a photograph of the observatory itself, taken after its assembly to mark the third anniversary of AstroSat and its first anniversary.  (India Science Wire)

New Delhi : A new study has estimated the size of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile to be lower than present estimates, attributing it to shortage of uranium. 

The study estimates that Pakistan could at best have between 112 and 156 nuclear weapons. Of them, about 78 to 104 would be highly enriched uranium (HEU)-based weapons and 34 to 52 would be plutonium weapons. 

A 2016 study by American researchers had estimated the size of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile to be in the range of 204 to 306 in 2014. According to the International Panel for Fissile Materials (IPFM), Pakistan had 120 to 130 warheads made up of both types at the end 2010. 

“We believe that because of uranium shortages, Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has reached a plateau and can only grow very slowly. Any alternative explanation for an increased arsenal size should provide a satisfactory and consistent explanation for uranium sourcing by Pakistan,” the researchers have said in their study published in Current Science, flagship scientific journal of the Bangalore-based Indian Academy of Sciences. 

In the absence of any direct information about weapon production capacities of different countries, the amount of fissile material that a country possesses is used to determine the number of nuclear weapons it can make. The new study does the same, but researchers say they looked at the demand and supply situations in Pakistan in an integrated way. The estimate is based on publicly available information about nuclear facilities of Pakistan and on certain assumptions such quality of uranium ore and burn up of reactors. 

The analysis takes into account demand of domestically produced yellowcake or uranium concentrate in three major facilities – Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, Kahuta enrichment facility and plutonium production reactors at Khushab. 

If it is assumed that the Karachi plant operates for 150 days on an average and the capacity of Kahuta is taken as 11,000 SWU (Separative Work Unit) along with low burn-up of Khushab reactors, the total (cumulative) demand for yellowcake to feed all three facilities comes to 1884 tonnes. As against this, Pakistan would have produced 1584 tonnes of yellowcake cumulatively till 2014. The Karachi power reactors would have needed 805 tonnes of yellowcake for continuing operations till the end of 2014, leaving the rest for production of HEU and plutonium to be used in weapons programme, the study says.

Given the information about working of enrichment and plutonium production facilities till 2010, Pakistan would have accumulated 1482 kg of HEU and 154 kg of weapon grade plutonium. “The non-availability of yellowcake after 2010 makes it imperative that these estimates of nuclear weapons are valid as of 2014,” the paper says. For making one HEU weapon, the estimate used is 12 to 18 kg of HEU, while it is 4 to 6 kg of plutonium per weapon for the second type.

“Pakistan does not have high grade uranium ore in the country. It is well known that Pakistan is not a major uranium producing country. Its potential uranium reserves are also not very large, though many of the areas are still unexplored,” explained Lalitha Sundaresan of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, who has co-authored the paper with Kaveri Ashok of the Center for Science, Technology and Policy, Bengaluru. 

Security experts, however, remain skeptical of the new estimate. “I am not sure of the assessments since there are always so many assumptions made when calculating the fissile material available – the burn in power reactors, the quality of uranium ore and so on. All external estimates put Pakistan as having more nuclear weapons. The point is: does it matter? I would imagine (one just requires) 50 or even 10 weapons (for) deterring an adversary,” commented Dr Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. (India Science Wire)

Appreciating the Mental Health Act 2017 through which their have been moves to decriminalise suicide in India, a commentary published in the Lancet Public Health 2018 has said a pivotal next step will be to carry this momentum towards the development of a national suicide prevention plan.

The commentary “Suicide in India: a complex public health tragedy in need of a plan’’ by Gregory Armstrong and Lakshmi Vijayakumar, believes that such a national plan would indicate political commitment and give justified prominence to the issue of suicide prevention, attract resources, set strategic research and programme priorities, and provide guidance in mainstreaming suicide prevention across other health and social policies.

Quoting a paper by Rakhi Dandona and colleagues, reported in The Lancet Public Health, which uses data from the Global Burden of Disease study to provide much needed estimations of SDRs across India from 1990 to 2016, the commentary says that the suicide statistics published by the National Crime Records Bureau are based on police reports and under-reporting and misclassification of suicide deaths is common.

Dandona and colleagues estimated the national age-standardised SDR for 2016 to be 17·9 per 100000 population (14·7 per 100000 among women and 21·2 per 100000 among men), equating to an estimated 230000 suicide deaths annually (100000 more suicide deaths than recognised by the NCRB data).

In India, the official suicide rate for 2015 published by the NCRB of India was 10·6 per 100000 population, similar to the global average of 11·4 per 100000 population and equating to 133623 deaths registered as suicides.

Such sobering figures ought to be galvanising, yet coordination at the national level has been slow. Although there are substantially more suicide deaths in India each year than AIDS-related deaths (62000 in 2016) and maternal deaths (45000 in 2015) combined, suicide prevention has attracted considerably less public health attention. Nonetheless, a public health approach to suicide prevention is gaining momentum in India, the commentary says.

Suicide prevention planning should be grounded in a broader public health approach framed around multisectoral collaboration and equal acknowledgement of the socioeconomic and cultural determinants of suicide and suicide prevention in India. Population-level approaches such as responsible media reporting of suicides and the central storage or removal of highly hazardous pesticides from agricultural practices should also feature prominently, as should selective interventions targeting at-risk subpopulations. 

Evidence provided by Dandona and colleagues should prompt the development of national and state-level suicide prevention planning, galvanising political and community will to address this complex public health tragedy, the piece says while suggesting that there is clearly an imperative to obtain better suicide mortality and suicide attempt data.

Surveillance of suicide attempts and self-harm cases presenting to health facilities would be beneficial, as would the continuous improvement of suicide research, so that policy makers have a greater understanding of this complex issue and what works and what does not.

Secondly, suicide prevention planning should address the substantial regional and state-level variation in suicide rates. India has an enormous and diverse population, with several states home to populations large enough to make it on their own into the top 20 most populous countries in the world.

Thirdly, suicide prevention planning should give close consideration to trends by sex and age. Female suicide in India is exceptionally high by international standards and must be a core focus, and it is encouraging that female suicide rates have declined slightly since 1990.8 Nonetheless, the persistently high male suicide rates must also be addressed to have any hope of achieving the SDG target. To do so, there is a need for a broader perspective on male suicide that extends beyond the highly politicised issue of farmer suicide.

Finally, suicide prevention is not solely or even primarily the domain of mental health practitioner providing interventions for suicidal individuals. While not losing sight of the substantially heightened suicide risk for people with mental disorders, suicide is a complex and highly stigmatised issue in India, as it is elsewhere, the commentators suggest.

New Delhi:  Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday launched DigiVAARTA, a multi-channel citizen engagement programme that can run on both feature and smartphones. 

“DigiVAARTA is a welcome addition to the government’s drive to promote adoption and awareness on digital payments. It is an easy way to educate citizens on the use of digital tools for banking and payments,” said Mr Prasad at the inauguration of the NIC Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics in the Capital which also saw the launch of the initial phase of the DigiVAARTA programme and is focussed on increasing awareness on digital payments.

The technology underlying the multi-channel engagement programme is SAMWAD –  a platform for intuitive and interactive communication – supported by Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion (CDFI). 

Developed with an objective to increase awareness and familiarity of individuals on various financial products and services and to educate the unbanked and under-banked individuals, SAMWAD provides enabling engagement across multiple channels in the form of stories, images and videos in any chosen language. 

The learnings and insights from research studies commissioned by CDFI resulted in an idea of a larger engagement tool that could be used by the government to communicate with the citizens of the country. It is this that led to DigiVAARTA, which is customized and re-branded form of SAMWAD that is being deployed for MeiTY by CDFI.

The initial phase of DIGIVAARTA will help and promote learning in digital payments and empower users to draw content on topics as per their choice. DIGIVAARTA will initially be in Hindi and English languages and will engage with users through multiple channels – over Mobile App, SMS and OBD (Outbound Dialler).

To operationalise this programme, besides Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and CDFI, National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been a key stakeholder and has helped set-up, host and liaise with regulatory and telecom service providers. 

Speaking on the occasion, Krishnan Dharmarajan, Executive Director, CDFI said, “We learnt from a pilot in rural Karnataka, that while the poor were happy to engage on the platform, they were worried about the money that was getting deducted as sms charges. So MeitY decided that such exchanges be kept toll-free, so that people could engage, learn and get empowered at zero cost. “

“We needed a special number from which Govt could broadcast at scale and where citizens could also respond. DOT and TRAI quickly saw the power of the idea, and extended their wholehearted support by granting us 14444 for the purpose,” Mr. Dharmarajan said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the validity of the Aadhaar document but with modifications holding that the unique identity number will not be needed for opening bank accounts, admissions in schools or for getting mobile phone connections.

A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which allows private entities to demand Aadhaar to access their services.

The court also said that as of today “we do not find anything in Aadhaar Act which violates right to privacy of individual citizen”.

The judgement, read out by Justice A.K. Sikri on behalf of the bench, also struck down the provision in Aadhaar law allowing the sharing of Aadhaar data, citing grounds of national security.

The judges who gave majority ruling were A.M. Khanwilkar, Ashok Bhushan, Misra and Sikri who approved the provision of money bill.

“We are of the view that there are sufficient safeguard to protect data collected under Aadhaar scheme,” the judgement said. 

Linking of Aadhaar to issuing mobile phone connections and opening bank accounts was unconstitutional, the court held.

In a separate judgement, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the Aadhaar Act cannot be treated as money bill. Passing a legislation which was not money bill as money bill was a fraud on the Constitution.

He also observed there was a risk of surveillance of people on the basis of data collected under Aadhaar scheme and that the data could be misused. 

The majority of the bench held that Aadhaar was valid for linking with Income Tax returns. 

The verdict said that it was better to be unique than the best because being the “best makes you number one, but being unique makes you the only one.

“Uniqueness is the fundamental difference between Aadhaar and other identity proofs. There is a fundamental difference between Aadhaar and other identity proof as Aadhaar cannot be duplicated and it is a unique identification,” it said. 

The judgement said that UIDAI was established as a statutory body, providing for authentication and all residents were eligible to get Aadhaar which cannot be reassigned to anyone.

“Minimal demographic and biometric data of citizens are collected by UIDAI for Aadhaar enrolment. We are of the view that there are sufficient safeguard to protect data collected under Aadhaar scheme,” it said.

The court said that Aadhaar was meant to give dignity to marginalised sections. However, authentication of data through Aadhaar cannot be stored for more than six months.

It said Aadhaar was meant to help benefits reach marginalised sections and it took into account the dignity of people not only from the personal but also the community point of view.

“No person will be denied benefits under social welfare scheme because of failure of authentication through Aadhaar,” the court said. 

“We direct the government to ensure that illegal migrants are not issued Aadhaar to get benefits of social welfare schemes.” 

The court said that institutions like the CBSE and UGC cannot make Aadhaar mandatory. 

“Aadhaar for school education would not be necessary because it is neither welfare nor subsidy,” the court said, holding that Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan does not require Aadhaar.

India has marginally improved its rank to 158^thin the world for its investments in education and health care as measurements of its commitment to economic growth, according to a scientific study ranking countries for their levels of human capital.

The nation is placed just behind Sudan (ranked 157^th) and just ahead of Namibia (ranked 159^th). The United States ranked 27^th, while China placed 44^th and Pakistan 164^th.

“Our findings show the association between investments in education and health and improved human capital and GDP – which policymakers ignore at their own peril,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Â“As the world economy grows increasingly dependent on digital technology, from agriculture to manufacturing to the service industry, human capital grows increasingly important for stimulating local and national economies.”

India’s rankling of 158^thin 2016 represents an improvement from its 1990 ranking of 162^nd. It comes from having seven years of expected human capital, measured as the number of years a person can be expected to work in the years of peak productivity, taking into account life expectancy, functional health, years of schooling, and learning.

Overall, India’s residents had 39 out of a possible 45 years of life between the ages of 20 and 64; expected educational attainment of 10 years out of a possible of 18 years in school; and a learning score of 66and a functional health score of 43, both out of 100. Learning is based on average student scores on internationally comparable tests. Components measured in the functional health score include stunting, wasting, anemia, cognitive impairments, hearing and vision loss, and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

The study, “Measuring human capital: A systematic analysis of 195 countries and territories, 1990 to 2016,” was published in the international medical journalThe Lancet. It is based on a systematic analysis of an extensive array of data from numerous sources, including government agencies, schools, and health care systems.

The study places Finland at the top. Turkey showed the most dramatic increase in human capital between 1990 and 2016; Asian countries with notable improvement include China, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam. Within Latin America, Brazil stands out for improvement. All these countries have had faster economic growth over this period than peer countries with lower levels of human capital improvement.

In addition, the greatest increase among sub-Saharan African countries was in Equatorial Guinea. Some of the world’s most rapid improvements were in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Over the past quarter century, there has been limited progress in building human capital in selected countries that started at a high baseline. The US was ranked sixth in human capital in 1990 but dropped to 27^th in 2016 because of minimal progress, particularly in educational attainment, which declined from 13 years to 12.

Health and education advocates, economists, and others should use the findings as evidence to argue for greater attention to – and resources for – improving their nations’ human capital. 

“Under-investing in people may be driven by lack of policy attention to the levels of human capital,” Murray said. “No regular, comparable reporting across all countries on human capital currently exists. Such reporting over the next generation – as a way to measure investments in health and education – will enable leaders to be held accountable to their constituents.”

Researchers found that nations with greater improvements in human capital also tend to have faster growth in per capita GDP. Countries in the highest quartile of improvements in human capital between 1990 and 2016 had a 1.1% higher median yearly GDP growth rate than countries in the bottom quartile of human capital improvements. For example, between 2015 and 2016, a 1.1% increase in the GDP growth rate in China equated to an additional $163 per capita; in Turkey, $268 per capita; and in Brazil, $177 per capita.

The study focuses on the number of productive years an individual in each country can be expected to work between the ages of 20 to 64, taking into account years of schooling, learning in school, and functional health. The calculation is based on systematic analysis of 2,522 surveys and censuses providing data on years of schooling; testing scores on language, math, and science; and health levels related to economic productivity. .

Rankings for the 10 most populous countries in 2016, in addition to China, India, and the United States were Indonesia (131st), Brazil (71st), Pakistan (164th), Nigeria (171st), Bangladesh (161st), Russia (49th), and Mexico (104th).

There were notable differences in expected human capital by sex in 2016. Across the board, expected years lived between 20 and 64 years are greater in females than in males. In addition, health status tends to be higher among females than males, with the exception of high-income countries. In terms of the overall measure, for countries below 10 years of expected human capital, rates of human capital tend to be higher in males, while countries above 10 years tend to have higher expected human capital for females

 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said the BJP’s differences with Congress President Rahul Gandhi were “political and nor personal” in nature.

Speaking at an interactive event at a management institute in Lucknow, his Lok Sabha constituency, Singh said the Bharatiya Janata Party always believed in differing on political and ideological issues and never took things to personal level.

Asked by a student about Gandhi’s increasing number of visits to temples, the Minister said this was done keeping in mind the 2019 parliamentary polls.

When a student asked him on the growing perception that India was leaning towards the US, he said New Delhi’s foreign policy was guided by the traditional credo of “Na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair” (Friend of none and enemy of none). 

“We want good relationship with all countries,” he added.

Queried about the government’s stand on the contentious Section 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the Minister appeared to fumble for a while and then asked the student who had asked her to raise this question.

“If I utter a word on this, it will become international news… You should wait… Some decisions have to be taken with great seriousness and deliberations.”

Rajnath Singh quickly added that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and will always remain one. “Nobody can take away the state from us.”