Sony TV’s new show “Zindagi Ke Crossroads’’ has come under fire from women’s groups for its first episode on abortion.

A statement by Advocating Reproductive Choices (ARC) Coalition on the advertorial published by a media house to promote their launch episode said it was disheartening to note that a popular Indian media house is using irresponsible provocative content to promote their reality show.

The first episode of ‘Zindagi Ke Crossroads’ was aired yesterday on Sony Entertainment Television which revolved around the plight of life of the parents with special children. However, the advertorial which was released to endorse the first episode as well as the programme was insensitive, misleading and misconstrued. In a country like India which has put women at the topmost priority introducing policies and laws to safeguard their rights and respect, it is defamatory to feature a woman who has decided to take medical assistance to terminate her pregnancy as ‘She would be playing God’. The teaser goes on to reveal that the mother took this decision since she wanted to save her future child from sorrows and sufferings which s/he might face as a ‘special child’ if she continues with the pregnancy.

Advocating Reproductive Choices (ARC) is a coalition of approximately 170 civil society organisations and individuals that are committed to advocating for greater attention and focus on sexual and reproductive health issues and family planning services in India.

While watching the advert and the first show which was telecasted last night, we observed a couple of inappropriate languages used in the context of abortion, which we as a coalition would like to flag our concerns, the statement said.

While abortion legally accepted under a board range of circumstances since 1971 in India, using such sentences like ‘Mother asked to kill her own child’ or ‘She would be playing God……’ is completely unacceptable as it gives a negative connotation and demeans an extremely important issue. In fact, these words unnecessarily create a sensation to the incident adding misery to the life of the expecting woman who might have already taken a hard decision to abort the foetus post medical advice.

Further, many Indian women carry on with their unexpected pregnancies failing to take a timely call due to the social stigma around it. Therefore, terming a foetus as a “child” and hammering on the word “mother” in the advertorial as well as during the show tends to hype unnecessary expectations and also instigates the society to become judgemental about a person or a situation which do not necessarily fall under the social determinants.

The statement pointed out that abortion is a legal process and should be dealt between the decision maker and medical facilities. Brining such issues into public forum, efforts in generating discussion around those with limited cross sectoral representation from medical fraternity and advocates, rather than just lay audience, who may not be aware of the issues has actually compromised the content of the episode. We are concerned that such an episode might have a long term impact on the decision making process of women.

Expressing similar concerns, Pratigya—Campaign for  Gender Equality and Safe Abortion– has asked Sony TV has quoted the recent Supreme Court judgement on privacy which said that decisions relating to reproductive autonomy including the decision to seek Medical termination of Pregnancy/ abortion and said it was a violation of this ruling. It has said it should be made clear that abortion is legal in India for a range of reasons including fetal abnormalities.  

“I understand that the purpose of this program on Sony TV is to put forth the challenges people face in life. However, a personal choice on whether to have or not have an abortion is not a subject of public debate. We all need to remember that abortion is a woman’s personal decision and the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 also recognizes this. Therefore public value based debates on a personal and contextual decision like abortion threatens the very essence of women’s rights and contravenes the right to privacy. Media needs to be sensitive to issues of women’s health and rights and not stigmatize abortion but reinforce that having an abortion is a personal choice of the woman,”  said Vinoj Manning, Executive Director, Ipas Development Foundation.

Qingdao: Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to India next year for an informal summit, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale announced here on Saturday.

Briefing journalists after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in this Chinese city, Mr. Gokhale said that one of the important outcomes of the meeting was that the Chinese side conveyed that they have accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation to President Xi Jinping to have a similar informal summit in India in 2019.

The two leaders had an informal summit in Wuhan in the last week of April when Mr. Modi travelled to China.

The Foreign Secretary said Saturday’s meeting between the two leaders was “a substantive meeting”. He said that President Xi Jinping began by making positive assessment of Wuhan summit. The Chinese leader described it as ‘a new starting point’ in  bilateral relations between the two countries. Mr. Modi described it as ‘milestone in our relations’, Foreign Secretary said about the bilateral meeting.  

“Met this year’s SCO host, President Xi Jinping this evening,” PM Modi tweeted. “We had detailed discussions on bilateral and global issues. Our 

talks will add further vigor to the India-China friendship,’’ he said.

The Foreign Secretary said that new people to people mechanism will be set up. On Indian side, it will be headed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and on the Chinese side, it’ll be headed by state council and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The first meeting of this mechanism will be held this year: Mr. Gokhale said,

On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit here, India and China signed two crucial Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) including sharing of hydrological information of Brahmaputra river. The MoUs were signed after a delegation level meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi. 

In a tweet Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “Following PM @narendramodi meeting with Chinese President Xi, two MoUs were signed – Sharing hydrological information of Brahmaputra river by China to India& amendment of Protocol on phytosanitary requirements for exporting rice from India to China to include non-Basmati rice.”

Both the leaders agreed on to deepen the bilateral ties in scores of field. 

“Further strengthening the positive momentum in the bilateral relationship generated at the #Wuhan Informal Summit, PM @narendramodi had a warm and forward looking meeting with Chinese President #XiJinping on the sidelines of the SCO Summit,” Mr Kumar said in another tweet.

India is attending for the first time the SCO summit after formally becoming its full time member last year. Pakistan also became the full time member in 2017.

During his visit, Mr. Modi also held meetings with heads of several participating member nations.

“Becoming part of the SCO family! PM @narendramodi interacting with leaders of other #SCO member countries in the Leaders’ Lounge at the banquet hosted by Chinese President #XiJinping in Qingdao,” Mr Kumar added. Mr. Modi held a meeting with Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Apart from India,China and Russia, other SCO member nations include Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST), a revolutionary tax reform rolled out in July 2017, has effectively replaced the previous Gordian Knot of multiple taxes like VAT, central excise duty, commercial tax, service tax, octroi, etc. It has made India a ‘tax-neutral’ nation – and while it evoked a response best described as ‘mixed’ from real estate buyers, most of them are in favour of it.

This is natural, as the unitary tax compliance system has simplified the home buying process – and with the passage of Input Tax Credit (ITC), there may not be a significant additional burden to buying a home. Homebuyers in the affordable housing segment – specifically homes of up to 60 sq.m carpet area in size – have benefited significantly from the reduction of GST by 4% (from 12% to 8%). 

However, even almost a year after GST implementation, the only real clarity that exists for property buyers is on the prevailing GST rate of 12% on under-construction projects. There is still confusion about the amount of rebate that a prospective homebuyer is entitled to on the back of the pass-over of ITC. The confusion is not only about the percentage of ITC but also on the mode and tranche of the rebate.

On their part, developers are stating that they have to do multiple calculations to arrive at ITC and will pass it on only during the final tranches only. With this lack of transparency on ITC, homebuyers are understandably upset because as of now, their overall payment has increased.

The Ready-to-move Vs Under-construction Debacle

On the one hand, ready-to-move (RTM) properties which have been issued completion certificates are out of the GST ambit and attract no tax from homebuyers. On the other hand, under-construction (UC) properties attract 12% GST with full input tax credit (ITC). This is causing homebuyers to abstain from the UC option, which was earlier the more attractive one due to the cost arbitrage developers offered on them.

The added benefits to ready-to-move-in property buyers are immediate possession – read instant gratification – and freedom from stress with regards to completion risk and the uncertainty of construction-linked home loan EMIs.

Ongoing Challenges

Real estate stakeholders still face considerable challenges in the metamorphosis period from the pre-GST regime to the post-GST era. These include:

• Complex tax slabs
• Hiccups in the deployment of supporting IT infrastructure
• Confusion about the integration of Input Tax Credit (ITC), and
• Various blurred components of GST such as abatement for land values and anti-profiteering provisions

The lack of clarity on the rules and regulations under the anti-profiteering clause which was incorporated to pass on the benefits of ITC to end-users is a particularly prominent pain-point with GST as of now.

GST’s Impact on Pricing & Transparency

Although it was anticipated that GST will reduce property prices pan-India, we have in fact not seen such a significant impact on the ground. If the stamp duty and registration fees would be subsumed under the GST regime, we would definitely see the overall cost of property purchase come down.

GST definitely is reducing developers’ construction costs by negating the morass of double or triple taxation to a more moderate level through input tax credit. While there are no significant variations in the overall taxes, GST has certainly eliminated the tax-on-tax system. Also, shady transactions are being minimised considerably, bringing in transparency and accountability into the sector.

However, end-users have not received a consummate benefit because of the inherent ineffectiveness of the anti-profiteering provisions. They will only benefit if the base property prices are reduced and the developers pass on the tax credits to their customers.

While the tax-on-tax has been eliminated with the advent of GST, the overall outgo from homebuyers’ pockets seems to have increased, considering that even after passing on of ITC, they may have to pay 3-4% more than in the earlier service tax + VAT regime. However, shady transactions are definitely reducing to a considerable extent and the cause of bringing more transparency and accountability into the sector is served. Additionally, the input tax credit is a boon to developers as it aids in bringing down the construction cost.

The Road Ahead

In line with its ‘One Nation, One Market, One Tax’ philosophy, the GST reform will in all probability benefit the Indian economy in the long run. As the realty sector becomes more streamlined on the back of GST and other landmark reforms such as RERA, investor and consumer sentiments will become more positive and further strengthen the entire system in the future.

(Views expressed are personal.)

“Either by talking or writing or whatever way possible, I just want to awake the sleeping souls of people,” said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Kailash Satyarthi, who recently launched his book named ‘Every Child Matters’.

The book is a culmination of Kailash Satyarthi’s writings and interviews, which makes the reader connect to the need to create safe environment for our children. He stated that his writing is a reflection of hope telling children that they can do it. In the book, he has also pointed out the materialistic nature of ‘development’ where the countries measure their growth through the GDP, side lining the education and health factors.

Starting his journey fighting for children rights in 1980s, Kailash Satyarthi is known to have liberated more than 80,000 children from forced labour and human trafficking. He believes that there is no greater violence than denying children to dream. When a child victim doesn’t get the ‘so called justice’ on time, it adds up one more layer of injustice done to him/her. The criminal might get punished but it would still not be just as the childhood that was snatched from the child cannot be given back. Talking of the value of freedom, he said, “If anyone takes away our freedom, it is against our dignity. To be able to write, talk, move forward in life and to live our childhood is what freedom truly means but some children are deprived of this right.” He spread the message by saying that ‘Since we are born free, we have to live free!’

Also talking about freedom was the Supreme Court judge, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who was present at the launch. He remarked, “The idea of freedom for one generation will always be incomplete if it cannot perpetuate to the next generations.” He also highlighted how due to the socio-economic conditions prevailing in the country where the children help in their family enterprise, the Amendment Bill 2016 provides that children can help their families after school hours or during vacations only in non-hazardous occupations. This clearly ensures children’s schooling as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009.

Thanking the Indian Judiciary for support, Kailash Satyarthi said that change is possible when social effort and Judiciary work together.

NEW DELHI:  Two departments of Defence ministry appeared to be at cross purposes in ensuring implementation of the Military Service Pay (MSP).

A procedural wrangle between the Defence ministry and the Finance ministry is keeping at bay the implementation of leave encashment. 

Pune-based Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers) (PCDA) has not included MSP as part of pay for calculation of leave encashment for 300 days and 10 days leave encashment allowed each year. 

The move would lead to a monetary loss of around 1.40 lakh defence personnel, sources in the Defence ministry told UNI.

In the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC), the MSP was granted to Defence personnel in place of Rank, Pay and Compensation for edge in pay. It was treated as pay for all purpose, except for calculation of annual increment.         

While in 7th CPC, the MSP was to be counted as pay for purpose of computation of dearness allowances and pension.

The Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) has included MSP as part of its reckonable emoluments in the pension order. For the same case, the PCDA has sought clarification from the Department of Defence (DoD).

The DESW and DoD come under the purview of the Defence ministry.

For more clarity, the DoD has requested the Finance ministry for assistance. The guidelines are still awaited.

As per the sources, a large number of pay and allowances are still pending with the DoD, impacting over 13.5 lakh personnel. 

It would accrue a loss of Rs 1.55 lakh to each military officer and Rs 60,000 to each Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and Other Ranks (OR).

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has improved its position by 50 places in the QS World University Rankings 2019 published yesterday. The Overall Rank of IIT Roorkee is 381 in this edition of the QS World University Rankings, which is its highest ranking so far.

The institute is placed at the 36^th Rank in the world in Citations per Faculty, which is the strongest indicator for the Institute. It has achieved the distinction of being ranked as the best among all IITs in the ‘Citations per Faculty’ and ‘International Students’ Parameters.

This year, IIT Roorkee has improved its performances significantly in almost all the parameters of QS Rankings, such as Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, International Students and Citations per Faculty.

The ‘Citations per Faculty’ for IIT Roorkee is 121.8, which is way above the Global Median of 34.1. This lead to the Citations per Faculty score of 89.5 out of a maximum of score of 100.

The QS Rankings classified IIT Roorkee as a ‘Historic’ Public Institution with ‘Very High’ focus in ‘Research Intensity.’

Speaking about the performance of the Institute in QS World University Rankings 2019, Prof. Ajit Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “This impressive improvement in the QS World University Rankings 2019 is undoubtedly an outcome of the sustained hard work put in by my faculty colleagues and students towards pursuing quality research. Every member of the community, including the non-teaching staff, takes great pride in our legacy and our responsibility towards the institute. We will strive for further improvements in the future.”

The QS World University Rankings has an intricate system of evaluating universities. It has six criteria with different weights that are summed up to get the results. The QS World University Rankings are based on parameters like Academic and Employer Reputations, Faculty Student ratio, citations per Faculty, International Faculty and International Students.

QS World University Rankings has been recognized as one of the most influential rankings of the top universities around the world.

In the past few years, IIT Roorkee has taken several initiatives to attract bright research scholars and promising young professors from around the world by introducing various schemes to facilitate and recognize outstanding research.

India registered a significant decline in Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) since 2013. While the overall decline has been 22%, Uttar Pradesh has shown an impressive decline of 30% — highest among the States.

According to the just released SRS bulletin (2016), India has shown impressive gains in reduction of maternal mortality with 22% reduction in since 2013.

Nearly one thousand fewer women now die of pregnancy related complications each month in India. Maternal Mortality Ratio of India has declined from 167 in 2011-2013 to 130 in 2014-2016. The decline has been most significant in EAG States and Assam from 246 to 188. Among the Southern States, the decline has been from 93 to 77 and in the Other States from 115 to 93.

Maternal mortality or number of women dying during childbirth is a crucial development indicator. As per WHO, maternal death refers to the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy.

Measured in terms of number of women dying during child birth per one lakh live births, MMR reflects on any country’s human development index.

The drop in points was highest for Uttar Pradesh and Assam with 91 points respectively when compared to 2010-12 data. The two States have also contributed immensely in bringing down the overall national figure. The MMR of UP in 2011-13 was 292 to 201 in 2014-16 and of Assam it was 328 in 2011-13 that has now come down to 237.

J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare said the latest SRS figures reveal that India had gone beyond the MDG target of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 139 by 2015.

According to the SRS Bulletin, there were nearly 12,000 fewer maternal deaths in 2016 as compared to 2013, with total number of maternal deaths for the first time reducing to 32,000. This means that every day 30 more pregnant women are now being saved in India as compared to 2013.

Amongst the States, Uttar Pradesh with 30% decline has topped the chart in the reduction of Maternal Deaths. Three States have already met the SDG target for MMR of 70 per 100,000. These are Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, while Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are within striking distance.

The results signify that the strategic approach of the Ministry has started yielding dividends and the efforts of focusing on low performing States is paying off, especially initiatives like Mission Indradhanush and Intensified Mission Indradhanush with their focused approach are significantly turning the tide in favour of India. Other major initiatives under the umbrella of National Health Mission like augmentation of infrastructure and human resource, capacity building, and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram which provides for free transport and care for pregnant women have also contributed to the success.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on Thursday interacted with the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna and other Central Government health care schemes from across the country, through video bridge. .

Explaining the importance of healthcare and wellness, Prime Minister said that health is the basis for all success and prosperity. He added that that India would become great and healthy only when its 125 crore citizens are healthy.

Mr Modi said that illness not only creates a huge financial burden on families, especially poor and middle class, but also affects our socio economic sectors.  Hence, it is the endeavour of the government to ensure affordable healthcare to every citizen. Prime Minister added that Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna was launched with this intention so that poor, lower middle class and middle class get access to affordable medicines and their financial burden is reduced.

Government has opened more than 3600 Jan Aushadhi Kendras all over the country, where more than 700 generic medicines are available at affordable price. The cost of medicines at Jan Aushadhi Kendras are 50-90% less than the market price, Prime Minister said and added that the number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras will reach over 5000 in the near future.

Talking about health stents, Prime Minister Modi said that earlier citizens had to sell or mortgage property to purchase stents. He added that, the government has reduced the prices of stents substantially to help poor and middle class. The cost of heart stents have reduced from around Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 29000.

During the interaction, Mr Modi said that the Government has reduced knee transplant prices by 60 – 70%, thereby bringing down the cost from Rs. 2.5 lakh to around Rs.70, 000 – 80,000. It is estimated that around 1 to 1.5 lakh knee operations happen in India every year. On that account, the reduction in knee transplant prices has saved close to Rs.1500 crore for public.

Through Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Dialysis Program, Government has performed more than 22 lakh dialysis sessions for 2.25 lakh patients in more than 500 districts. More than 3.15crore children and 80 lakh pregnant women have been vaccinated in 528 districts through Mission Indradhanush. In order to ensure more beds, more hospitals and more doctors, Government has opened 92 medical colleges and increased MBBS seats by 15000.

Prime Minister said that to make healthcare affordable and accessible, Government launched the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Under Ayushman Bharat, 10 crore families will be covered with health insurance of Rs. 5 lakh. Talking about ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, Prime Minister said that the scheme is playing a central role in creating a healthy India. Due to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, there are now 3.5 lakh open defecation free villages in India and the sanitation coverage has increased by 38%.

Interacting with the Prime Minister, beneficiaries explained how Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna brought down the cost of the medicines and made it affordable. Beneficiaries also talked about how reduced prices of heart stent and knee transplants have changed their life.

Despite ample food supplies, persistent conflicts and adverse climate shocks are taking a toll on global food security, according to a new report launched on Thursday by the United Nation’s agriculture agency.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) new Crop Prospects and Food Situation reveals that since its last report in March, the number of countries requiring external food assistance has jumped by two, namely Cabo Verde and Senegal, to 39.

According to the report, civil war and insecurity in Africa and the Middle East have displaced millions – resulting in high hunger rates.

“Poor rains have hit cereal production prospects in South America and Southern Africa,” FAO explained. “Unfavourable weather conditions are also placing a heavy burden on pastoralists in West Africa.”

The food insecure countries on FAO’s list are: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Conflict and erratic rainfall

Turning to cereal production, FAO foresees a 1.5 per cent annual drop from last year’s record high, with a larger decline in some areas, such as South and North America and Southern Africa.

“Conflicts have choked agricultural activity in swathes of Central Africa, notably in the Central African Republic and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where access to food is further hindered by surging inflation,” FAO elaborated.

On a brighter note, after consecutive seasons of drought-reduced harvests, fresh rains point to cereal production gains in East Africa.

Meanwhile, abundant rains recently triggered flooding in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, displacing some 800,000 people. In contrast to the trend in the subregion, high staple food prices are rising in Sudan and South Sudan, intensifying food insecurity risks.

In the absence of humanitarian assistance, the number of severely food insecure people in South Sudan is expected to rise to 7.1 million people during the June-July lean season.

Turning to Asia, the cereal harvest is projected to remain similar to last year’s, with recoveries in countries affected by unfavourable weather conditions, including Bangladesh, Viet Nam, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and, to a lesser extent, Sri Lanka. 

While favourable crop conditions in India and Pakistan mean wheat outputs are expected to rise further, fair weather will not be enough to boost crop production in war-afflicted areas, as chronic conflicts impedes access to fields such as in Iraq and Syria, where this year’s harvests are expected to decline further.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will  participate in the 18th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in China on June 9.

Prime Minister Modi will also hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 9, the first day of the summit: External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told journalists here on Thursday.

On the sideline of the SCO summit, Mr. Modi will also have other engagements with leaders of Central Asian countries.

The SCO, largely dominated by China and having Central Asian nations as its members, is holding its apex meeting in the Chinese city of Qingdao from June 9-10.

In the preparation for the SCO summit, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had recently visited China to participate in the ministerial meetings.

An inter-governmental organization, the SCO was founded in 2001. Among its members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China. India and Pakistan were admitted as full members of the organisation in June 2017 during its Astana summit.