NEW DELHI: The polling, if necessary, will be held on July 17 to elect the next President of India. The term of President Pranab Mukherjee, who is 13th in line, comes to an end on July 24. 
Announcing the poll schedule for the Presidential elections, the Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that votes will be counted on July 20. The poll process will begin from June 14 with the issue of the notification for the Presidential polls, he said at a press conference which was also attended by Election Commissioners O P S Rawat and A K Jyoti. The last date for the filing of nominations will be June 28 and the scrutiny will be taken up the next day. 
Dr Zaidi said that Lok Sabha Secretary General has been appointed as the returning officer for the election to the country’s top post. ”The Election Commission, in consultation with the Central government, appoints the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, by rotation, as the returning officer. Accordingly, the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha will be appointed the returning officer of the present election,” the CEC  said.
Dr. Zaidi said that political parties cannot issue whip to their member to vote a particular person in the Presidential election.”It is clarified that political parties cannot issue whip in the matter of the Presidential elections,” he said.
Opposition parties, led by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, have been making efforts to put up a joint candidate. The BJP has kept its cards close to its chest so far with the party chief Amit Shah giving an indication that the ruling party will be holding consultations to elect the next President. After its landslide win in U.P. assembly elections, the BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are comfortably placed to get its nominee elected as the new President who would occupy the Rashtrapati Bhawan for the next five years. Negotiations of the BJP with regional parties have also been going on to enlist their support. 
The President is chosen through an Electoral College that includes national and state lawmakers.

NEW DELHI: Set up after the Modi government took office in May 2014, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) began carefully by taking baby steps like finding office space, arranging for logistics and infrastructure to make the newest kid on the block click. 
After two-and-a-half years of becoming operational, the Minister of State Rajiv Pratap Rudy who has independent charge of the MSDE can boast of taking big strides in setting up skill training centres across the country, turning around Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and making youth employable in a number of sectors. The MSDE has trained more than 1.17 crore aspirants in various skills since the inception of Skill India. This is apart from the numbers contributed through skill development schemes and initiatives under other Central Ministries.
Keenly aware of the cut-throat competition among job seekers, Mr. Rudy’s ministry is setting out new standards to vastly improve the quality of  new standards that would go a long way in revamping and toning up the quality of training being given in ITIs. 
“In July we are notifying new norms regarding building, equipment, training which all ITIs will have to confirm to,’’ Mr Rudy said here on Tuesday while addressing a press conference to mark the completion of the Modi Government’s three years in office.There are nearly 13,000 ITIs and the government wants them to do self-grading on at least 48 parameters. 
Mr Rudy said the policy makers had, over the years, done injustice to the ITIs, leading to deterioration in their quality, but his ministry was determined to see that the students passing out of ITIs come out well equipped both academically and technically.
Mr Rudy described his Ministry as  ”really a start up venture as it came into existence only two-and-half-years ago, but it had during this short period put up skill development infrastructure across the country.” The Minister said that industry linkage to skill development was the biggest challenge.
He said the Government had committed Rs 26000-crore for the Ministry.He said that his biggest partnership was with the Indian Army, which was the third largest in the world and whose 55000 personnel retire every year. The Ministry had trained 26000 retired Army personnel so far in various skills. 
Speaking about the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme as  being crucial for creation for a skilled workforce, he said the number of apprentices in India was very low as compared to other countries like Germany and Japan but the Government was now taking effective steps to see that companies took in more apprentices.
He said that India has partnered with 11 countries, including Germany, France , UK, Australia and China, in the skills agenda for training its workforce.These skilling will be in 86 trades at par with the transnational standards. 
Mr. Rudy said that Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), launched on July 15, 2015, alone has witnessed more than 26.5 lakh people getting trained in skills of their choice till date, of which 50 per cent are women candidates.
“The industry and private sector will only partner when they see quality workforce coming out from Skill India. We are seeing that transition happen gradually. More and more corporate are partnering with us on different levels whether is it on engaging with apprentices, extending infrastructure support, contribution through CSR funds and hiring of resources.”  
On keeping a check on fraudulent practices, Mr. Rudy said that a handful of organizations claiming to be PMKVY agencies promising jobs to unemployed youth were taking money and duping the youth in the name of MSDE. “Such advertisements were found more in vernacular dailies. We condemn such practices and have filed FIRs against them,” he said while cautioning the public at large to be vary of such frauds and join the right affiliated centres. 
The ministry officials stated that the effort was to move away from the supply driven skill development scenario to demand driven one.  More than 480 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras have been announced which would be model centres for skilling and would be in each district of the country and 162 are already been established. The officials said that more than 1381 new ITIs have been opened with nearly half a million seats. 
To cater to the increasing demand for drivers, MSDE also launched Driver Training institutes across India with the target to open 50 of them by this year-end. 

NEW DELHI: Two days after the Election Commission of India (ECI) held its open challenge to prove that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can be tampered with, the CPI(M) which had showed up at the event termed the exercise “too restrictive.” 
“If the exercise conducted by the EC was for the purpose of increasing the confidence of the political parties, this exercise was too restrictive,” the CPI(M) said in a statement here on Monday.
As many as 13 political parties had questioned the reliability of the EVMs, but only two parties showed up and later opted out of the June 3 open challenge.  
Later, in a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi maintained that the EVMs used by the EC are “non-tamperable” and with 100 per cent use of paper trail machines in all future elections the issue of tamperability of the machines “stands closed”.
The CEC’s remarks cleared the air with the assertion that there would be no such challenge to the reliability of the EVMs used in the elections. He said though the NCP and the CPI(M) had reported at the challenge venue they had backed out of the taking up the challenge.
On the other hand, CPI(M) said that a technical team comprising hardware, embedded systems and security experts had visited the ECI offices on June 3 for participating in the EVM testing exercise. 
“The team wanted to check not only the EVM’s but how the EVMs can be used with a set of safeguards, including Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT). The issue is not whether EVMs are hackable, the issue is the need to examine the system in its entirety, including the EVMs, the physical and human checks. This is why the CPI(M) team was participating in this exercise,” the party said in a statement.
“In order to make a deeper analysis of the EVM’s, the team wanted to attach hardware probes to the EVM motherboard to develop a better understanding and the potential for hacking of the EVM’s. In any case, no EVM can be hacked without analysing the EVM, and simply pressing buttons; or using external wireless devices.The EC denied this request, saying that it was not included in this Phase. Under such restrictive conditions, the team was unable to make an independent assessment of the EVMs, and hence suggest technical improvements or other safeguards,” the party said.
“While we can accept that the EC’s contention that the hardware of the EVM should not be changed, as this would make it a different machine, we are unable to appreciate why a physical examination of the EVM as outlined in EC’s Challenge II should not have included attaching instruments and generating a better understanding of the EVM and its communication within its various sub units,” it said.
The CPI(M) admitted that prima facie there are robust precautions, but without a detailed technical examination as asked for by the CPI(M)’s technical team, this remains to be independently verified.
The CPI(M) has maintained that VVPAT EVM should be used in all elections as per the Supreme Court mandate in 2013. It expressed disappointment over the fact that the government took this long to release funds for the procuring the VVPAT EVMs.
The CPI(M) believes that technical discussions between the EC, political parties and other stakeholders regarding current and future EVM design choices should be held on a regular basis. 
The Challenge, Counter Challenge and Hackathons as it is being done by certain parties and the EC, builds an adversarial atmosphere which is not conducive to building confidence in the electoral process, it said.   

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday ruled out any possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit this month in Astana, Kazakhstan.  
“There is no proposal for such a meeting. Neither they (Pakistan) nor we have proposed a meeting at Astana,” she said while replying to a question at her annual press conference to mark the completion of three years of the NDA government in office. The Minister’s stand makes it clear that there would not be any chance for either a hand shake or a pull aside between Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif at Astana. 
Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to attend the SCO summit at Astana beginning June 8 which will also be attended by Mr. Sharif. The two premiers had met briefly at SCO summit in Ufa, Russia in 2015. Besides Russia, China and Central Asian nations, SCO summit at Astana will formally admit India and Pakistan in the organisation. 
Tensions between India and Pakistan have been growing over the past couple of years, particularly after the Pathankot Air Force base terror attack and death sentence handed down to Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer who was reportedly picked up from Iran and taken to Pakistan. India had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, alleging violation of Vienna Convention as Islamabad had repeatedly denied consular access to Jadhav. The ICJ had stayed the implementation of the death sentence to Jadhav till the world court delivers its final verdict. 
Maintaining that there was no flip-flop in India-Pakistan bilateral ties, the External Affairs Minister reiterated three principles on which relations with Pakistan could be judged. Both India and Pakistan will solve all issues through talks, the bilateral dialogue will not need any mediation or interference by a third party and terror and talks do not go together. She said the NDA government always applied these three principles while assessing India’s ties with Pakistan. 
She clarified that Prime Minister Modi had decided for a stop-over at Lahore in December 2015 in response to an invitation by Mr. Nawaz Sharif. It was an out-of-the-box goodwill gesture by Prime Minister Modi who was returning home after a visit to Afghanistan, she said. “But we got Pathankot terror attack in the new year,” she said. 

NEW DELHI: India on Monday slammed US President Donald Trump for his view that it was getting benefits worth billions of rupees in the name of fighting climate change and reiterated its firm commitment to the Paris Climate Deal.
“India signed the Paris Accord not under any pressure or out of any consideration of monetary gains,’’ External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said here while replying to a question at her annual press conference. 
In India’s first direct response to President Trump’s announcement of withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and his remarks against India on climate financing, Ms Swaraj said India’s commitment to the Paris Deal was unchanged irrespective of the US withdrawal from the Agreement.
The External Affairs Minister pointed out that protection of nature and environment was in the very ethos and ancient culture of India, and as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this ethos dates back to 5000 years. 
“So if someone says that India signed the deal under pressure or for money, it was not true. And so whether the US remains in the Deal or not, India will continue to fulfill its commitment under the Paris Agreement,’’ she said.
Mr Trump, announcing the US withdrawal from the Paris Deal last week, had said that the deal was tilted against the US while countries like India would receive billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid,while at the same time it would be allowed to double its coal production.

The book — Sayyid Ahmad Barailvi : His Movement and the Legacy from the Pakhtun Perspective — seeks to unravel the interpretations of Jihad that has changed over the years. Its author Altaf Qadir has dealt with Sayyid Ahmad (1786-1831) who first propagated and led jihad during the 19th century in the then North West Frontier. 
It was initially led as a purely reformist movement in Northern India. Reform and jihad was intended to purify and protect Indian Muslims from the innovations and atrocities of the British and Sikhs respectively. The book draws perspectives from the immediate localities of the Pakhtun region and reasons the failure of the movement. It assesses the social, political, religious and economic impact of jihad on the Pakhtun region and whether Barailvi’s movement is solely responsible for the present day jihadi mindset. It uses historical information, narratives and perspectives from original texts written in regional languages and Pakhtu. 
Qadir, who is Assistant Professor in the History department at the University of Peshawar, believes during the long Muslim rule in northern India, the religious class was highly respected and appointed to high posts on the basis of their academic qualifications. 
The weakening of central Muslim authority in Northern India and Bengal alarmed both the Muslim elite and general public. Besides local forces of disruption, western colonisers were the major threat as they had developed economies along with being well equipped and highly skilled in diplomacy. 
The Marathas posed the most dangerous internal threat. They engaged Aurangzeb for years until his death in 1707. He did not succeed in destroying them. This accelerated the process of decline of the Mughal authority. Several of the Muslim aristocracy along with Shah Waliullah, a Muslim scholar of the 18th century asked Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan ruler to intervene and save Muslims in India from complete devastation. 
The defeat of the Marathas at the battle of Panipat in 1761 did not stop the Moghul political decline. The rise of the Sikhs in the Punjab and the English in the south and east of India were not checked as the Muslim political elites were unable to respond adequately. 
The turn of the 19th century further alarmed the Muslims when the forces of the East India Company entered Delhi in 1803 and Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor, became a prisoner. The status of India was discussed by the ulema but no practical steps were taken. 
Belonging to a middle class family, Sayyid Ahmad emerged on the horizon in the second decade of the 19th century. He was widely travelled and knew the grievances of the Indian masses and the nobility alike. He stepped forward and organised the jihad movement on religious grounds. His initial activities to preach characterised the innovative nature of his movement. He never forgot the goal of spiritual attainment. 
After some initial success he diverted his attention to organising armed struggle against the infidels. His performance of Haj with several hundred followers was itself a new experience. It also implanted a seed of Jihad in Bengal which provided recruits to the Mujahidin for the North-West Frontier region. 
Sayyid Ahmad proved different from the contemporary Muslim religious elite as none of them declared jihad against the infidels. All of them including Shah Waliullah looked to the Muslim nobility and sought assistance from outsiders to stop the political decline of the Muslim establishment. He initiated mass mobilisation not only to reform society but also to pursue armed struggle against the Sikhs and the English. The most authentic sources regarding the objectives of his struggle are his own letters written to different people before and after his migration to the North West Frontier. 
The Sikhs of Punjab had compelled the Barakzai sardars of Peshawar to pay homage and tribute to Lahore but the majority of the people in the countryside were not subjugated. Sayyid Ahmad sent letters to the rulers of principalities around the North West Frontier. His sending envoys seeking their assistance against the ‘infidels’ are a testament to his wider perspective. His declaration of imarat was a turning point for the jihad movement. The ‘reformer’ who claimed to be the saviour of the Muslims of the area assumed political authority. 
The initial tribal enthusiasm on his arrival was taken for granted as indicative of their willingness to accept his authority. However, the declaration of imarat created two major problems: some of the tribal chiefs viewed it as an attempt to subordinate them while some of the ulemas found it illegal according to the sharia. 
One can easily see the legacies of Sayyid Ahmad’s imarat especially among the Deoband school of thought and the Ahl-e-Hadith. Masud Azhar (b. 1968) of Bahawalpur and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed (b. 1950 at Sargodha) are two examples. 
At different stages of the Jihad movement Sayyid Ahmad was indecisive on occasions. One is he never had a centre for jihadi activities. In several instances he acted in haste. He declared jihad on the Sikhs without proper tactical or strategic homework and faced severe defeat in his first encounter in the open field. 
This alienated local chiefs who viewed him as a competitor akin to previous invaders. His flight for personal safety in the face of defeat added to feelings of alienation from the Mujahidin. 
Wahid-ud-Din Khan of Delhi believed that Sayyid Ahmad’s movement was not legitimate jihad because his imarat was self proclaimed and opposed by many. Therefore, it is believed he restricted himself from reforming Muslim society and Islam. This school believed that Muslims were wasting their energy in useless struggles and hatred against western powers for the last two hundred and fifty years instead of mending the ways of fellow Muslims and preaching to the colonisers. 
The jihad movement by Sayyid Ahmad or later by others took a sectarian colour as their endeavours were diverted to declaring opponents ‘heretics’ and ‘infidels’. The major target of all such groups has usually been the Shia community. 
The jihad movement left both positive and negative cultural and religious impact. On the positive side was the initiation of the teaching of the Quran and ahadith in the North West Frontier.  
The most evident example of teaching Quran came from Mohammad Tahir (1913-87) in the current districts of Swabi and Mardan. He was known as the founder of Jama’at ak-Isha’at Tawheed wa Sunnah locally known as Panjpiri school of thought. They claimed to be the real followers of the Deoband school of thought. On the negative impact the most important is the polarisation of religious ideologues. 
The recent wave of militancy may not be directly attributed to Sayyid Ahmad and his Jihad movement. Many factors have combined to include state and non-state actors. His jihad movement was a new experience in the history of the subcontinent. It might have brought positive changes in the Muslims in South Asian Society if he had limited his efforts to reformation of society. 
The Jihad movement and its offspring have had a limited vision in action and strategy. There are differences between Sayyid Ahmad’s Jihad movement and present day militant organisations. They need to think their strategy in working for the upliftment of Muslims.  

Serious trouble might be brewing for the BJP with Dalit anger building against them. It is because of Upper caste high-handedness in a village near Saharanpur last month, described as the communal lab of the country. 

This has the portends of uniting the 21 per cent Dalits in the country in the wake of any fresh eruption of Dalit-Rajput clashes. Experts say Dalit youth are angry and if the excesses against them is not stopped, the chances of civil disturbances cannot be ruled out. 

The prospects of western UP becoming the nerve centre of Dalit politics is a possibility. Simultaneously, Dalit youth across the state have come together to challenge the attack on their community. They have also begun using the social media, taking strong exception to the increasing abuses against their icons, including B R Ambedkar and Mayawati. 

Activists of the Hindutva lobby always had two enemies — Muslims and Dalits. The minority community has been fearful of the BJP regime which is now ruling both at the centre as well in the crucial and most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. 

Dalits have become easy target. The Rajputs appear to have been emboldened with Yogi Adityanath becoming the chief minister who is himself a Rajput. Considering the castes complexities in UP, it is widely apprehended that caste tormentors are back along with untouchability. Experts believe UP could well become the nerve-centre of the country’s Dalit politics in the coming days. 

After the election results became known these experts apprehended trouble by Hindutva activists. Any such disturbance was attributed to the upper castes which could not tolerate political empowerment of Dalits. 

They are now taking revenge, committing attrocities. The upper castes also resent the Jai Bheem slogan which is a symbol of the empowerment of Dalits. For a while in the wake of disunity among its ranks, the Dalit movement had weakened. With the community votes divided in different parties they are now realising their political blunder. 

Dalit aggression can provoke Muslims to retaliate. All this is bound to adversely affect BSP supremo Mayawati who as the flag bearer of the Dalits was defeated lock, stock and barrel in both the general elections in 2014 and in the recent assembly elections. Her stock has hit an all time low. 

The BJP won a stunning victory after a gap of 17 years in UP. The SP as the other regtional heavyweight also came a cropper having been in power on its own for five years from 2012. 

The BJP’s strategy of wooing the OBCs among the Muslims as well as the Dalits paid rich dividends. However, Saharanpur is again in the eye of a storm for all the wrong reasons. 

The clashes after Yogi Adityanath was installed as the chief minister, has compelled the BJP brass to caution the chief minister impressing upon him to ensure that Thakur-Dalit clashes did not spread to other districts in the state. He has been asked to ensure he ensures even handedness in administering the state. 

The Dalits have alleged collusion between Yogi Adityanath and his caste breathern. There is fear among the Dalits that the dominant Thakur community will continue to harass them and is trying to force them to leave the village. Open threats were being issued and their women allegedly eve teased in the open. 

The DM and the SSP assured them that police had been deployed in the village and nobody would harm them. In the clashes two people died and 40 people seriously injured along with nearly 60 houses being burnt down. This happened on May fifth when the Thakurs took out a Maharana Memorial procession. 

With the BJP indulging in majoritarian politics and continuing attacks on Muslims by the self styled gau rakshaks in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana ruled by it. 

This has created fear and discrimination against Muslims. Dalits are reaching out to Muslims for mutual support and solidarity. The Bhim Army, spearheaded by a young lawyer, Chandrashekhar, seen as a replacement for Mayawati, is seeking cooperation from the Yadavs, Valmikis and other OBCs. With deprivation and discrimination binding them, they see a common adversary in the upper caste led Lotus party. 

MUMBAI: The world became a more peaceful place in 2017,according to figures released in the annual Global Peace Index (GPI). Since last year 93 countries recorded higher levels of peace while 68 deteriorated, resulting in an improvement in world peace. The improvement was mainly driven by lower levels of state-sponsored terror – extra-judicial killings and torture – and the prior withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan. The 11th edition of the index, published by international think-tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), captures the impact of political polarisation in the US stemming from the divisive 2016 Presidential Elections. Despite improvements in Canada, the growing intensity of internal conflict and declining level of trust in government saw the US fall 11 places to 114th, resulting in North America recording the largest drop of any region. Steve Killelea, Founder and Executive Chairman of the IEP commented: “While the true extent of such significant political polarity in the US will take years to be fully realised, its disruptive influence is already evident. Increasing inequality, rising perceptions of corruption, and falling press freedoms have all contributed to this substantial deterioration in the US and an overall decline in peace in the North America region.”   The report also analyses the rise of populism through the lens of Positive Peace – a measure of the attitudes, structures and institutions that sustain peace. The sharp increase in support for populist parties in the past decade closely corresponds with deteriorations in Positive Peace, with some of the largest falls recorded in Italy, France and Spain. Steve Killelea continued: “The increasing role of populist parties in mainstream European politics is reflected against a backdrop of deteriorating Positive Peace, specifically in terms of persistent challenges to the free flow of information, levels of corruption and acceptance of the rights of others. Without addressing these underlying drivers of peace it will not be possible to build more peaceful societies.” Despite the global number of deaths from terrorism decreasing by 10% between 2014 and 2015, the number of countries witnessing historically high levels of terrorism hit an all-time high in this year’s report at 23, including Denmark, Sweden, France, and Turkey. Europe was significantly impacted, with major attacks in Nice seeing France fall five places in the overall ranking to 51st. The impact of other attacks such as in Brussels and London were also evident, although the more recent attack in Manchester has yet to be reflected in the figures. Overall, the most significant increases in deaths from terrorism were in OECD countries, which have collectively experienced a 900% increase between 2007 and 2016. The IEP estimates the global impact of violence to have been 12.6% of world GDP in 2016 or $14.3 trillion. While still staggeringly high at $1,953 for every person in the world, this represents a slight (3%) decrease from 2015 and the first reduction since 2011 – the year that corresponds with the start of the Syrian war and ISIL’s territorial gains in Iraq. On average, violent conflict accounts for 37% of GDP in the ten least peaceful countries, compared to only 3% for the ten most peaceful. Syria remains the least peaceful country for the fifth year running, having fallen 64 places since the index began – the largest decline of the past decade. Iceland maintained its position as the world’s most peaceful country, a title it has held onto since 2008, while New Zealand and Portugal replace Denmark and Austria in second and third position. Portugal’s notable climb to third in the overall rankings was driven by a steady recovery from its fiscal crisis, resulting in overall greater internal stability for the country that was ranked 16th less than five years ago. Steve Killelea concluded “Although this year’s uptick is reassuring, the world is still mired with conflict in the Middle East, political turmoil in the US, refugee flows and terrorism in Europe. When combined with the increasing level of peace inequality, whereby the least peaceful countries are moving further apart from the most peaceful, the resulting scenario is one in which further improvements in peace are not guaranteed.” REGIONAL RANKING
Six of the nine regions became more peaceful with the greatest improvements recorded in South America. Europe held onto its position as the most peaceful region, while the MENA region remains the most violent. Countries in Europe make up eight out of the top ten ranks, making it the world’s most peaceful region, despite record levels of terrorism in a number of countries. Progress has been driven in part by a steady economic recovery which has bolstered scores for indicators such as likelihood of violent demonstrations. Poland witnessed the greatest deterioration as public protests resulting from political tensions escalated. More broadly, southeast Europe experienced widespread decline as an increasingly prominent nationalist rhetoric led to a deterioration in relations with neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. In the UK, the political uncertainty generated by the Brexit vote had little impact following the appointment of the new prime minister, which acted as a stabilising counterbalance.     The overall GPI score for North America fell in 2016 but its place as the second most peaceful region remained. The US experienced a significant decline, which contrasts with Canada’s improvement bringing it to 8th position in the GPI. The level of external conflict and weapons export indicators played a significant part in Canada’s improvement, despite rises in incarceration rates and terrorism impact. Most countries in the Asia-Pacific region experienced improvements in their overall scores, with New Zealand, Japan and Australia amongst the most peaceful globally and the Philippines and North Korea remaining among the least peaceful. The subsidence of political volatility in Cambodia last year meant it made more progress than any other country in the region. South America had the largest regional improvement in this year’s index, surpassing Central America and the Caribbean as the fourth most peaceful region, spearheaded by progress in Guyana and Argentina. Chile, ranked 24th in the Index is the region’s most peaceful country, while Colombia, despite the ratification of the peace accord between the government and the FARC, remains the region’s least peaceful country. Central America and the Caribbean fell one place since last year, with five of the 12 countries in the region experiencing deteriorations in peace. The region’s most turbulent country, Mexico, saw the most substantial decline as a consequence of deteriorating relations with the US, while Costa Rica, 34 in the overall GPI, was the region’s top performer, despite a slight deterioration. Sub-Saharan Africa’s average score fell this year with the most notable deterioration in Ethiopia. The government-imposed six-month state of emergency was reflected in indicators of domestic conflict, resulting from rising ethnic tensions and widespread violence stemming from public protest. The Central African Republic recorded the biggest improvement in the region and globally, as the country continues to emerge from a wave of inter-communal violence. Meanwhile Sierra Leone and Guinea, which have recovered from the 2014 Ebola outbreak, also registered improvements in their overall level of peace. Most countries in Russia and Eurasia recorded improvements in the 2017 GPI, but the region retains the third-worst regional score. Moldova, Kazakhstan and Georgia are the most peaceful countries in the region, and despite slight improvements in overall peacefulness, Azerbaijan, Russia and Ukraine are the three least peaceful. South Asia hosts some countries as peaceful as Bhutan (ranked 13th overall), yet also some of the least peaceful countries in the world such as Pakistan (152nd) and Afghanistan (162nd). The scores for Sri Lanka and Pakistan improved this year, while the only deteriorations (although moderate) were registered in Nepal and Afghanistan. In Nepal, a high level of political instability is partly to blame for the slow progress in rebuilding efforts after the devastating earthquake of 2015, while Afghanistan’s overall score deteriorated for the sixth successive year as overall hostility continued to increase.  MENA witnessed a further deterioration in its overall score in 2017, with regional instability exacerbated by the intense rivalry between Shia Iran and the Sunni Arab Gulf monarchies, with Saudi Arabia at the forefront. That said, almost half the countries have bucked the overall negative trend in the region by achieving an improvement in their overall score. Morocco continues to benefit from a broader degree of political and social stability, while tensions between Qatar and some fellow Gulf Arab states have eased.  

Unhappy over the Assam government’s proposed two-child norm, the Population Foundation of India (PFI) has written to Himanta Biswas Sarma, the State Health and Family Welfare recommending against the draft policy.

In a letter to Mr Sarma, the PFI Executive Director Poonam Muttreja has said “As a champion of a rights-based approach to family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights, I request you to not rely on the two-child norm or any other coercive policy. Instead, may I invite you to work with us to work on changing social norms, ensuring universal access to family planning, ensure social and economic development policies are gender inclusive, and address and change behaviour patterns for population stabilisation in Assam.’’

The draft Population Policy of Assam is a document that evokes a deep awareness and understanding of the economic and social concerns of the state, a sense of determination to mend the gaps in the system, and a beacon of hope in its conviction. “For this, I must congratulate you and your cabinet. However, it is also one that fractures the single most fundamental mandate of family planning – it suggests that numbers matter more than people do,’’ the letter said.

Reminding Mr Sarma that India was the first developing nation with the foresight to formulate a National Family Welfare Programme in 1952, which was derailed by the forced sterilisations of 1975, Ms Muttreja said since then, especially, post the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairoin 1994, India changed the discourse from population “control” to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

“Following this paradigm shift in the discourse we have eliminated factors like coercion, disincentives, or a target-based approach to family planning as reflected in the National Population Policy, 2000.Not only does it compromise our commitment to a rights-based approach to family planning, it is also undemocratic and discriminatory,’’ she said. In the past, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh brought in the two-child norm to tackle high Total Fertility Rate. The policy did not bring down the high fertility in these states instead there was an increase in sex-selective abortions, incidents of women being deserted, and women giving their children up for adoption.

While Assam’s maternal mortality, infant mortality, and under-5 mortality is a cause for concern, the draft policy has made solid recommendations that will address this. The move to empower women and girls by making education free right up to university level, to lower the drop-out rates for girls, and measures that combine the roles of childbearing and participation in the workforce are crucial in achieving Assam’s population goals, Ms Muttreja has said in her letter.

Formulating appropriate family planning information and communication, improving primary care facilities, and focusing on pockets of unmet need for contraceptives will have the desired impact on strengthening women’s health and ensuring healthy children; lowering maternal, infant and child mortality. In Bangladesh, data has shown that if no child had died in a family the Total Fertility Rate was 2.6 children; when 1 child died the number was 4.7 children; 2 child deaths meant 6.2 children; and more than 3 child deaths boosted TFR to 8.3, the letter said.

“ I would like to take the liberty of presenting to you evidence from the case of China where a one-child policy was state law for 35 years till the country was forced to lift it in 2015. The country now finds itself in the midst of a population crisis. In fact, it was observed that ‘China’s dramatic post-1978 economic boom and the profound social changes unleashed by rising incomes and levels of education and rapid urbanisation would have driven down birth rates even in the absence of state birth planning campaigns.’

I would also like to juxtapose this with an example from the southern state of Kerala where the TFR reduced in all communities and across economic and social groups from 3.0 in 1979 to 1.8 in 1991. This was achieved not by coercion but by improving education, women and child welfare, and development. In neighbouring Sri Lanka, fertility rates were stabilised by simply increasing the age at marriage, a move that was made more effective by ensuring girls were educated,’’ she said in the letter.

NEW DELHI: India and Russia have signed Saint Petersburg Declaration as a roadmap to enhance cooperation after 18th annual bilateral summit. Both countries also released their vision for bilateral partnership in the 21st century on Thursday.  
According to a joint statement, issued during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia, both the countries will cooperate in all possible areas, including defence, counter-terror, intelligence sharing, connectivity initiatives trade and nuclear energy. 
It said that the leaders of both countries, in the year that marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations note that the Indian-Russian special is a unique relationship of mutual trust between two great powers. They called for early conclusion of negotiations on comprehensive convention on international terrorism.
New Delhi and Moscow also condemned terrorism in all forms. Both countries agreed for setting up of two units of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in third stage. Both nations have also agreed to co-operate on free Trade Area negotiations with Eurasian Economic Union.
Mr. Modi’s visit also marked signing of 12 agreements including the Saint Petersburg Declaration. Talking to CEO’s, Mr Modi invited Russian Business leaders to invest in india.
Prime Minister Modi has expressed happiness on the signing of St. Petersburg declaration. In a press meet at the Consantine Palace after meeting the CEOs, both the leaders had agreed to interact closely on various fields including economy, manufacturing, energy to name a few. Mr Modi said that India’s relations with Russia are special and proven to be as strong as ever standing shoulder to shoulder on issues whether it was terrorism or co-strategic interest. 
Expressing happiness at the Indo-Russian summit, Mr.Modi told that the relationship has grown extensively. He said that energy cooperation is a major area of the ties including cooperation in renewable energy and nuclear power. 
Prime Minister told that the units of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant 5 and 6 which was signed will improve the power situation in the country.Russian President Vladimir Putin told that India and Russia are ideal partners providing support to each other in strategic as well as economic and social matters. He said that 19 projects on pharmaceuticals, aircraft, car manufacturing, gems and diamonds and agriculture were on the pipeline.
Today, the Prime Minister looked forward to be a guest of honour for the first time in St Petersburg International Economic Forum.