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Researchers have identified a new organ inside human bodies, something that has been hiding in the digestive system so far. It has been called mesentery. The evidence of the organ has been published in latest edition of The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Although the structure of this new organ is know, its function is still not understood, and studying it could be the key to better understanding and treatment of abdominal and digestive disease. 

The new organ is found in the digestive systems, and was thought to be made up of fragmented, separate structures. But the latest research has shown that it is one, continuous organ.

“”In the paper, which has been peer reviewed and assessed, we are now saying we have an organ in the body which hasn’t been acknowledged as such to date,”” said J.Calvin Coffey a researcher from the University Hospital Limerick in Ireland, who first discovered that the mesentery was an organ. “”The anatomic description that had been laid down over 100 years of anatomy was incorrect. This organ is far from fragmented and complex. It is simply one continuous structure.””

With the new classification of mesentery, medical students started being taught that the mesentery is a distinct organ, according to a report published in Science Alert. Mesentery is a double fold of peritoneum – the lining of the abdominal cavity – that attaches intestine to the wall of our abdomen, and keeps everything locked in place. 

One of the earliest descriptions of the mesentery is said to have been made was by Leonardo da Vinci, and for centuries it was generally ignored as a type of insignificant attachment. Over the past century, doctors who studied the mesentery assumed it was a fragmented structure made of separate sections, which made it pretty unimportant, the Science Alert report said.

But in 2012, Coffey and his colleagues showed through detailed microscopic examinations that the mesentery is actually a continuous structure. Over the past four years, they’ve gathered further evidence that the mesentery should actually be classified as its own distinct organ, and the latest paper makes it official, it said.

And while that doesn’t change the structure that’s been inside our bodies all along, with the reclassification comes a whole new field of medical science that could improve our health outcomes, the magazine said.”

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A month and a half after the Delhi High Court Bar Association elections concluded, the Supreme Court has dismissed a batch of petitions filed against the order of the Delhi High Court in connection with the one-bar-one-vote rule.

A Bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohinton Nariman heard the parties at length on Friday before putting an end to the hotly debated issue. Last year, the Delhi High Courts’ Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Siddharth Mridul had ruled on the implementation of the one-bar-one-vote principle in bar association elections. In addition, any advocate who has a chamber in any of the court complexes in Delhi would not be allowed to claim allotment of another chamber. In October, the same bench had also made some modifications as to how this rule was to be implemented. The verdict did not sit well with various Bar Associations, who then moved the Supreme Court via a barrage of Special Leave Petitions.

Senior counsel Dushyant Dave and Dinesh Dwivedi appeared for the Bar Council of Delhi and the Bar Associations respectively. Dave only submitted that since the elections had already been completed, the matter could be laid to rest. 

Dwivedi was not as succinct.His primary contention stemmed from the fact that the judgment was a restriction on a bar association’s power to frame its own rules. He went on to lambast the Delhi High Court for what he called a blatant transgression of their powers and added that since the High Court does not have powers under Article 142, the judgment was illegal.

The Bench disagreed, and proceeded to dismiss the petition.”

“The demonetization of high-powered currency notes has led to India’s Buying Propensity Index (BPI) in December 2016 fall to 0.26, (measured on a scale between +1 to -1), down 0.42 BPI points from November (0.68). Ã¢Â€ÂœThe country’s buying sentiment was consistently recovering since July 2016, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise demonetization announcement was the biggest factor causing unnatural fluctuations in the buying sentiment of the country as reflected by the Index. The November 2016 BPI had shown a rise of 19% stemming from the initial euphoria of long term positive connotations of the announcement,” said N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research, elaborating on the BPI said.

Mr. Chandramouli further said the December fall was when the pain of demonetization began to be felt more severely after the first salary cycle post-demonetization announcement in December, and the impact of the enduring business and personal hardships was felt by citizens. The buying sentiment in December seems to have fallen precipitously to the lowest in 9 months. The Buying Propensity Index is a result of a primary research across 3,000 consumer-influencers across the 8 Tier–I cities in India conducted every quarter.Considering the eight cities studies for the BPI, Delhi was most severely impacted with a month-on-month fall of 122% in citizens’ keenness-to-buy, registering a negative sentiment in December at -0.14. This was followed by Kolkata with a BPI fall of 90%. The three cities which showed a medium fall in BPI were Mumbai (-58%), Pune (-46%) and Chennai (-35%). The cities which had a lower negative impact of demonetization on BPI were Bangalore (-16%) and Hyderabad (-15%). Ahmedabad was totally contrary to the BPI of the other cities, falling from a high 0.63 in October to 0.46 in November. (The writer is a Delhi-based freelance journalist)”

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The signal from the Supreme Court in sacking Anurag Thakur, President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, as well as its secretary Ajay Shirke is a huge wake up call for those who treat sports bodies as their personal fiefdom. The unprecedented intervention by the Apex court is an unambiguous signal to all sports organisations and those administering it to get their house in order. 

Any misdeamenour in deliberately side stepping or ignoring the court’s order can earn its wrath. This is evident by the summary sacking of the two BCCI office bearers of one of the richest sports organisations in the world. Thakur, a BJP MP, now faces legal action for contempt of court as well as prosecution for perjury. 

BCCI would not have faced this humiliation had it recognised that the Supreme Court was only seeking to reform the manner in which cricket is administered in this country. The Apex court desired reforming the administration of the BCCI in keeping with the recommendations of the three-member Justice R M Lodha panel. 

The order of July 18 last year found most BCCI office bearers ineligible to carry on as the Lodha panel had asked the court to remove them. The latest order of the Supreme Court comes in the wake of the Lodha Committee’s third status report submitted on November 14asking for the disqualification of the office bearers of the BCCI and the state associations. 

The Supreme Court is now set to replace the sacked top brass of the BCCI with a panel of administrators. Over the years politicians of all hues and shades eyed the plum post of President of the BCCI. It did not end there. Some of them even tried to amend the rules in a manner so that it purportedly steered them clear of any clash of interest. 

The Supreme Court had given BCCI up to six months to reform itself. However, BCCI refused to implement the key reforms on age and tenure restrictions of its officials, who adopted a hostile and adversarial approach towards the highest court in the country. 

Despite murmurs of judicial overreach, the BCCI must hold itself entirely responsible for inviting trouble.  Corruption in the BCCI has been endemic. Under the guidance of the Supreme Court, BCCI might finally evolve and set parameters as well as standards for sports governance which India’s other federations and associations might be compelled to adopt. 

The defiant attitude of the office bearers has brought the BCCI to this pass. In the aftermath of the Indian Premier League betting and spot-fixing scandal in 2013, the Supreme Court observed that the BCCI was discharging a public function and even though it wasn’t dependent on government grants, it was accountable to the public and the country’s law. 

The removal of former BCCI president N Srinivasan was the first step in reforming the cricket organisation with unbridled power being in the hands of a few. Problems got compounded for Srinivasan as his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, a Chennai Super Kings team official, was indulging in betting. 

The Justice Lodha panel was an extension of the Mukul Mudgal committee that probed the IPL scandal. The BCCI not only refused to accept the age and tenure caps as well as the one state, one vote policy. Maharashtra and Gujarat have multiple votes.In all this, one thing is certain that cricket will not stop and fans will continue paying to watch their idols score centuries. The Supreme Court’s efforts to streamline matters and bring order in the BCCI must be seen as a victory for cricket.”

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Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) which ruled Pakistan for several years was in disarray after the daylight murder of Benazir Bhutto. PPP survived the hanging of its founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as his daughter Benazir was a charismatic leader but after her assassination the party disparaged very rapidly. Her husband Asif Ali Zardari and her son Chairman of the party Bilwal Bhutto Zaradari lacked the magnetism of Zulfiqar or Benazir.

Nonetheless PPP got the breather when the names of three children namely Maryam, Hasan and Hussain of Nawaz Sharif appeared in Panama papers leak. The leaked papers claimed that all three children owned offshore companies and in this way amassed wealth outside Pakistan. Nawaz claimed that his children are business persons and did nothing illegal. Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) Imran Khan was already opposing Nawaz government now PPP has also started opposing the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) with the objective of 2018 general elections in mind. Bilawal started organizing the party and the PPP elected new office bearers in all the states. He also sent messages to diverse PPP offices in the country mentioning that 2017 would be a year of change.

PPP is holding rallies to earn support in the masses. On October 16, PPP organised a big rally in Karachi to memorialize 2007 Karsaz tragedy. Bilawal and several other PPP leaders including Chief Minister of Sindh also paid homage at the grave yards of unknown victims of Karsaz tragedy. The rally was also addressed by Asif Ali Zardari  CO-Chairman of PPP who recently returned from 18 month self imposed exile with the intention of strengthening the party.

Asif Zardari also made it clear that both of them would soon contest elections for the parliament. The strategists mention that this time PPP would concentrate more on Punjab as the party which wins Punjab would rule the nation. Pakistan Muslim League (N) has a stronghold in Punjab province hence it rules whole of Pakistan. PML (N) through tangible efforts diminished the image of Asif Zardari and PPP that it reduced to third place.

PPP leadership is worried that not only in Punjab but the influence of the party is considerably dwindled in urban Sindh especially Karachi, Sukkur, Hyderabad where Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is more powerful than PPP which was evident in the Municipal Corporation elections. Besides MQM, PTI and few other smaller parties are also damaging the vote bank of PPP.

The analysts claim that now the clout of PPP is restricted only in rural Sindh and the party needs to improve its image drastically, which is badly tarnished because of corruption and party’s drift from its ideology.

Secondly, PML (N) has strengthened its base in Punjab and Pakhtoon Khawa because of its successful propaganda about its economic policies. The analysts also claim that PPP which had socialist credentials was fighting for poor and younger generation but now because of rampant corruption and its feudalistic approach the poor and youths have deserted the party.

However, the biggest problem of the party is that it lacks a charismatic leader although Bilawal has Bhutto surname and in this part of the region surname is important but only surname is not enough and at present PPP does not have a leader with mass support in Punjab, Pakhtoon Khawa or Balochistan. Hence its performance would be dismal. PPP should try to attract mass provincial leaders of other political parties especially in Punjab, Pakhtoon Khawa and Balochistan so that the following of party goes up.  

The younger generation is not much concerned about the sacrifices of Zulfiqar and Benazir Bhutto. They are more concerned about the past performance of the party and economic progress of the country which was miserable. The amendment in the Minorities Act may please Islam Pasand Parties but it may not convert in votes as the voters may not be fully satisfied.

The four points agenda announced by Bilawal Bhutto against Nawaz government or his rhetoric about Kashmir or criticism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are not attracting the masses especially outside Sindh.  Recently a survey conducted by Gilani Research Foundation revealed that 68 percent Pakistanis are in favour of talks with India. Hence much anti-India rhetoric of Bilawal would also not increase the popularity of the party.

The party leaders and workers are hopeful that PPP would perform well in 2018 elections as the party high command has chalked out a methodical plan to enhance its popularity. The party would improve its performance in Sindh and the infrastructural projects would be completed soon.

PPP would also hold rallies at diverse places to increase its influence in the country. The analysts feel that as PTI and PML (N) are fighting bitterly it may benefit PPP and it would snatch seats from PTI and PML (N). PPP should also make alliances with other political parties as it lost its mass base and will have to work hard to regain the same as it will not be easy to destabilise PML (N) which has a strong hold in Punjab.  

(Jai Kumar Verma is a Delhi-based security analyst. He has served in the government in different capacities and has been posted in Indian missions abroad in Washington, Islamabad and Dubai.)”

“

51zmP-rqZtL._SX324_BO1204203200_”” alt=””51zmP-rqZtL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_”” />The book — WHAT CAN I GIVE? Life Lessons from My Teacher, A P J ABDUL KALAM — is a tribute by his student Srijan Pal Singh who worked closely with the “”missile man of India”” till the last day of his life. Recollecting his mentor’s values, oaths and messages to the youth, the author shares what Dr Kalam taught beyond the classroom. 

The book endeavours to help readers get up close and personal with the greatest Indian of contemporary times. This is the story of one exemplary teacher who changed Srijan’s life for ever. He believed Kalam was not only a great guru but could polish ordinary pebbles into pearls of wisdom and share them with the world. 

Kalam was a scientist, a saint, a writer, a teacher, a poet and a philosopher — all rolled into a single entity of compassion and wisdom. He was an eternal believer in the ignited minds of the new generation which he considered the most powerful gift on earth. 

Srijan came in contact with Kalam in his second year at the prestigious IIM-A, came to know him closely and started working with him in 2008. The bond Kalam shared with his students was sacred to him, completely uncoloured by heirarchies. 

Srijan was the first ever intern to work with Kalam. “”My life had changed. From a classroom teacher Kalam had become my personal mentor,”” emphasised the author. He graduated from an intern to becoming an officer on Special Duty and advisor to the former President of India. 

In another year Kalam and Srijan published their first book titled “”Target three Billion””. This association held strong “”till my teacher’s last breath.””  Interestingly Kalam had never incurred the debt of criticism in his life. Kalam always ended his speeches to youngsters with one question. “”What would you like to be remembered for?”” 

It was a powerful way of imbuing young students with energy and dreams. It inspired them to aspire, think and act. Srijan had conjured up several things that Kalam might like to be remembered but all of that proved to be wrong. In an excited tone, he disclosed “”I want to be remembered as a teacher. That is my goal.”” 

Soon Srijan got a big notebook where he noted Kalam’s ideas and observations and aptly named it the “”Kalam Diary.”” A new entry made in it that “”critical stakes ignite the mind and awaken hidden potential. Difficulty cannot be handled by being scared of how high the peak is. It can be tackled by drawing a path to the peak, and when you toil in the process of scaling that height, you learn and grow.”” 

Kalam emphasised “”science and faith must coexist for the human good. Science provides focus — focus helps us solve questions, discover the truth and conceive inventions. Faith provides perspective — perspective helps us see how our creations and discoveries go on to impact humanity and civilisation. 

Focus and perspective make a combination vital for the success of societies. Science accelerates progress and faith curbs it within reasonable limitations. If the two function true to their roles, they will together work for the betterment of humanity.’ 

The ability to find a simple answer to a complex problem was the hallmark of Dr Kalam. “”When you trust your abilities you should not fear in taking risks”” was the missile man’s moto. This is connected with the test launch of the country’s first 100 per cent indigenous ballistic missile — a world class weapon which could match the ones being used by developed countries. 

Only the final test on the missile stood between India and its place in the prestigious list of nations fielding ballistic missiles. As the designated date for testing fixed for 22 May 1989 drew closer there was nervous excitement at the Chandipur based Integrated Test Range in Odisha. 

Pressure was mounting from the US and NATO to delay the testing. The then cabinet secretary T N Seshan gave the green signal saying “”okay, go ahead.”” That was all Kalam needed as the Director of the DRDO and his wish was fulfilled. 

After completing his term as President Kalam moved to 10 Rajaji Marg. Anyone who visited him there he would invariably ask them a question “”Have you met my friend Arjuna? Let me introduce you to him. He is a wonderful fellow.”” He would then escort the guest to the front garden where Arjuna stood — tall and majestic like the warrior he had been named after., the long years proudly etched on his body. 

Dr Kalam would then say this fellow is very old. Hundred and ten years old. He must have seen so much, imagine — Gandhi, Nehru, the freedom wars and India’s rising story.  He holds an entire section of his history in his heart. He is my best friend.”” 

Kalam breathed his last at IIT Shillong where he had been invited to give a lecture. He completed his speech saying “”I believe that when the youth all over the world come together for creating a better society and a better earth, then all the conflicts between nations will cease.””

There was a long pause. It was 6.40 PM on a chilly Shillong evening and the chirps of the last birds returning home were heard in silence. Just as Srijan looked at him, his knees buckled and with a loud thud, he fell on the stage. 

The author says “”I will never forget the look in his half closed eyes when I placed my hand on his head. I was desperately massaging his hands which were turning cold. His fingers curled tightly around my fingers. His face had become still. His wide eyes were still radiating wisdom as they gradually become motionless. He did not show any pain — there was only peace on his face,”” the author recalls. 

In a few minutes the missile man had taken the eternal flight into the unknown. The doctors tried to make some miracle happen, but fate had passed its verdict….The author maintains the Kalam story is far from over. It is living a life like Kalam. It is in being a Kalam and “”always asking ourselves what can I give…..?”” 

Kalam had told Srijan that “”someday you will have to write a book on me….””It had startled the author at that time. Less than half a decade later the book has been written embodying the simplicity of Kalam immersing himself in finding solutions to problems affecting humankind.

TR

(T R Ramachandran is a senior journalist and commentator.)
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The Congress has strongly condemned the BJP Government’s politics of ‘false promises’ and appropriation of credit for previous Government’s work. The Prime Minister’s announcement on Dec 31, 2016 to provide universal maternity entitlement of Rs 6,000 to every pregnant and lactating woman is one more such instance, a statement issued by K. Raju, Chairperson of the party’s SC Department said.

Universal maternity entitlements were mandated as per the National Food Security Act 2013 passed by the outgoing UPA Government. However, the incoming NDA Government neither framed any new scheme to operationalise maternity entitlements nor did it expand the existing Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana running as a pilot in 53 districts. Consequently, millions of women in the unorganised sector were being denied their legal right to maternity benefits under the NDA Government, the statement said.

“”The PM’s announcement, thus, was not the introduction of a new welfare program but the belated acknowledgement of an existing entitlement,”” Mr Raju added.

It is, thus, all the more unfortunate that even now the NDA Government has provided a mere Rs 4,000 crore annually for this scheme as against the required Rs 14,000 crore annually. With India’s birth rate at 20 per 1,000, the expected number of births per year is around 26 million (population: 130 crore). Even with 10% of births covered by the formal sector, universal maternity entitlements of Rs 6,000 per birth will cost Rs 14,000 crore per year.  

However, as per the press release of the Women and Child Development Ministry, the central government’s contribution for the next three financial years is only Rs 7,348 crore, or Rs 2,449 crore per year. With a 60:40 ratio for centre/state contributions, this means a total of barely Rs 14,000 crore annually. This is a fraction of what is actually required, even assuming that only the first two births are covered by maternity entitlements, the statement said while “”strongly condemning”” the NDA Government’s dishonesty to the millions of poor women across the country and urging it to immediately allocate adequate budgetary support to ensure implementation of universal maternity entitlements.”

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JK BovaGenix, an initiative of JK Trust, one of the largest NGOs working towards “Cattle and Buffalo Breed Improvement” in India, has announced the birth of India’s first IVF calf. The male calf named Krishna was born on 8th Jan 2017, along with female and male calves with the frozen IVF embryos of Tharparkar breed of Rajasthan. The donor cow of Tharparkar breed and three of her IVF calves produced through frozen IVF embryos using crossbred cows as recipients (foster mothers) are in good health, a statement issued by JK BovaGenix said.

Two IVF calves, (one male and one female) from fresh IVF embryos were born on 23rd and 24th last year respectively. These calves were born at Dr Vijaypat Singhania Centre of Excellence for Assisted Reproductive in technologies in Livestock located at Gopalnagar in Chhattisgarh.

This latest development can be termed as a turning point in India’s growth story that would bring in a revolution in producing genetically superior Indigenous breeds and can lead to a multifold increase in milk output, the statement added.

In line with the Government of India’s Rashtriya Gokul Mission, this initiative assumes strategic significance given the pressing need for enhancing milk productivity of the various indigenous breeds. JK BovaGenix aims to establish 10,000 IVF pregnancies by the year 2020.

Speaking on this occasion, Dr Vijaypat Singhania, chairperson, JK Trust said; “JK BovaGenix is committed to bring in a revolution in producing genetically superior cattle breeds at a rapid pace, thereby enhancing the milk yield in a short period of time. This is the second initiative undertaken by JK Trust. The first initiative – “Cattle and Buffalo Breed Improvement Programme” has been undertaken in more than 40000 villages across 10 states that has delivered phenomenal outcomes. Both these projects while supplementing each other will provide sufficient milk to the villagers, not only for sale but also for household consumption.”

Further elaborating on this scientific breakthrough, dr shyam Zawar, chief Scientist, JK BovaGenix and CEO of JK Trust said: “The success of our clinical trials marks a milestone that signifies the beginning of the transformation of cattle scenario in India. Taking forward the government’s initiative of Rashtriya Gokul Mission talks are in progress with various state governments to implement a similar programme that can conserve the depleting indigenous breeds.’’

 Incepted in 2016, JK BovaGenix has set up 2 state of the art ET-IVF labs under the name `Dr Vijapat Singhania Centre of Excellence for Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Livestock’ located at Gopalnagar in Chhattisgarh and Vadgaon-Rasai in Maharashtra. JK Trust has commenced IVF (In-Vitro Fertilization) work in Cattle at its state of the art laboratory ted at Gopalnagar near Bilaspur, in Chhattisgarh. While the Gopalnagar Lab focuses on indigenous breeds like Gir, Sahiwal, Tharparkar and Ongole, the Pune Lab focuses on breeds like Red Sindhi and Rathi in addition to the breeds maintained at Gopalnagar Lab. Till date, the JK BovaGenix has successfully established 45 IVF pregnancies, out of which 28 pregnancies are from fresh IVF embryos and 17 from frozen IVF embryos.”

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The year 2017 marks the tenth anniversary of the now famous Jaipur Literature Festival which begins on January 19.  From a small idea, it has come to be known as the world’s largest free literary festival having hosted more than 1300 speakers over these years.

This year the 5-day literary extravaganza expects participation of over 25 authors, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular cultural icons. With around 30 languages represented from India and across the world, the Festival will feature authors writing in Indian regional languages including the popular Volga in  Telugu, S.L. Bhyrappa and Vivek Shanbhag in Kannada, Kaajal Oza Vaidya in Gujarat, C.P. Deval and Hari Ram Meena in  Rajasthani, Kanak Dixit and Binod Chaudhary in Nepali, Dhrubajyoti Bora in Assamese, Gulzar and Javed Akhtar in Urdu, Jatindra K. Nayak in Oriya, Naseem Shafaie and Neerja Mattoo in Kashmiri, Arunava Sinha and Radha Chakravarty in Bengali, and Arshia Sattar, A.N.D. Haksar, and Roberto Calasso in Sanskrit. Writers in Hindi include Ajay Navaria, Anu Singh Choudhary, Manav Kaul, MrinalPande, Narendra Kohli and Yatindra Mishra.

Some more names of consequence include Sadhguru, Rishi Kapoor, Shashi Tharoor, Valmik Thapar, Amruta Patil and Nandana Sen.

In a first for the Festival, it is introducing a Vlogging Competition this year for those bitten by video bug. The Jaipur Literature Festival is looking for films of up to 1.5 minutes (90 minutes) on the themes of humour, breaking stereotypes or passion.

This year sees a host of Man Booker winners and nominees including the current and first and only American to have been awarded the prestigious prize, Paul Beatty. She was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2016 for his caustic satire on racial politics,  The Sellout, in which he ‘plunges into the heart of contemporary American society with savage wit’. The panel of judges compared the 54 year old Los Angeles born writer to Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift, with chair Amanda Foreman called it a “novel for our times”, particularly in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. In conversation with Meru Gokhale, Paul Beatty will be discussing comedy and controversy, racism and history, poetry and fiction.

The second Man Booker awardee Alan Hollinghurst, author of five novel, including The Swimming-Pool Library and The Line of Beauty, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2004 also joins the Festival. With a new novel due to be published in the summer of 2017, this bestselling English novelist, poet, short-story writer and translator will be talking about his life and work with Chandrahas Choudhury.

 Richard Flanagan is considered by many to be the finest Australian novelist of his generation. Each of his novels has attracted major praise and received numerous awards and honours. His six novels are published in 42 countries and he was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2014 for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He joins Manu Joseph to discuss his life and work as well as joining other writers in a panel which looks at whether printed fiction can compete with movies and television with David Hare, Alan Hollinghurst, Neil Jordan and Ritesh Batra.

Mei Fong is believed to be the first Malaysian to win a Pulitzer. Formerly a Wall Street Journal China correspondent, she is an award-winning writer whose commentaries on China are world leading. She makes her debut at ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival to discuss China in the 21st Century and whether through the scale of its growth it is an unstable entity waiting to explode or owner of this era globally. Fong’s book on China’s one-child policy debuted with ‘impeccable timing’ (Los Angeles Review of Books), exploring the unintended consequences of the policy through a narrative-rich story that is ‘evocatively rendered and peppered with quirky characters’ (Wall Street Journal). Fong will talk about the true cost of the controversial one-child policy drawing on eight years spent documenting its repercussions.

Naseem Shafaie was born and brought up in Kashmir and began writing Kashmiri poetry in 1988. She is the author of Open Window and Neither Shadow Nor Reflection, which won the Tagore Award for Excellence in Literature and the Sahita Akademi Award. She is the first Kashmiri female writer to receive both awards. At ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2017, she joins Dhrubajvoti Bora and Ornit Shani to discuss the voices of women in war zones around the world, and Neerja Mattoo and Neelesh Misra to read from their work and share their experiences of violence, strife and discord.

 Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and co-director of the Festival says “”As the festival approaches, we are delighted by the illustrious writers who will be joining us soon in Jaipur.

Sanjoy K. Roy, Director of Teamwork Arts, Producers of the ZEE Jaipur Literatire Festival says: It is a fantastic coup to have Paul Beatty from his fresh win of the Man Booker Prize. We are delighted he will join us along so many other winners and nominees of prestigious literary awards and look forward to the debate and discussion of their life and works.”

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The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to launch a campaign against the government’s decision of demonetization. All major Left parties have also extended their support for this campaign.

The decision was taken at the ongoing three day Central Committee meeting at Thiruvananthapuram where the party also demanded withdrawal of all restrictions on the withdrawal of money by people from their bank accounts. In a statement issued on the concluding day of the meeting, the CPI (M) also sought immediate debt waiver for farmers suffering due to disruption of normal agricultural activities due to shortage of money, doubling of allocation for MNREGA scheme and an immediate compensation to families of those who lost their lives standing in lines outside the banks and those who lost their jobs and livelihoods. The CPI (M) will conduct an independent campaign in the last fortnight of January exposing the real intention of the demonetization as a part of this BJP government’s commitment to neo-liberal economic reforms and on the above demands, the statement said.“The demonetization of the 1000 and 500 rupee notes announced by the Prime Minister on November 8 has caused immense loss to a large part of our economy plunging crore of people into agony and loss of livelihood. The Prime Minister’s appeal for a fifty day time frame after which he assured things will come back to normalcy is over and normalcy is far from being reached. On the contrary, the agonies of people continue to mount. The restrictions on cash withdrawals from the people’s own money deposited in banks continue,’’ the statement said.None of the four objectives – combatting black money; corruption; counterfeit currency and terrorist funding — that the Prime Minister listed as the reason for the demonetization are achievable through this move. More than 90 per cent of the black money, the Prime Minister himself publicly said is parked in tax havens abroad. Not a rupee of this has been touched nor is there any move to pursue the recovery of these monies. With almost all the demonetized currency now returning to the banking system it is clear that whatever black money was held in cash has now been converted into white money and lies deposited in the banks. Final figures for the deposits in the banks are yet to be made public. If it exceeds the value of recalled notes then it means that all the counterfeit currency in circulation has also been legitimised. The seizure of huge quantum of new notes is indicative of the fact that high level corruption exists. Far from eliminating corruption, this move has only created newer and higher forms of corruption, the CPI (M) said.
“As far as combating terrorist funding is concerned that this demonetization has not made any dent is obvious from the fact that since the September 30 Ã¢Â€Â˜surgical strikes’ happened, 33 security personnel have lost their lives due to terrorist attacks. The consequent death toll of security personnel in 2016 has been recorded as double the death toll in 2015. Lives of crores of Indians have been devastated by this demonetization. This is bound to impact upon the economic inequalities in the country. Already in the two years since this BJP government assumed office
inequality has sharply risen. In 2014, 1 per cent of India’s population, the ultra-rich held assets worth 49 per cent of our GDP. By 2016 as a result of PM Modi’s neo-liberal policies this figure went up to 58.4 per cent. With these effects of demonetization the enriching of the rich and the impoverishment of the poor is bound to intensify. With all the declared objectives not being met, the real objective of this demonetization became clear with the thrust for shifting from a cash economy into a digital economy, the statement said.
Describing as ridiculous, the talk of shifting to digital payments, the CPI (M) said in rural India only 13 per cent, 108 of the 834 million people have access to internet connections. Only 26 per cent of the people have access to smart phones. Given this predominant dependence on cash transactions, the devastation of many of the sectors has been enormous. Simultaneously, its thrust to move towards digital transactions is a bonanza for profit maximization to international finance capital and
corporates. Each digital transaction carries a transaction cost which is an additional burden on the consumer and the source of profit for the corporates. Clearly this demonetization exercise has been undertaken by this government as part of India’s subservience to it neo-liberalism, the party said.
On political corruption, the Central Committee said the Prime Minister Modi has asked all political parties to come clean on their funding and be transparent.  The Prime Minister must first answer how the BJP is funding his political rallies all across the country and public declare the expenditure on each.  Till date, the country does not know how much PM Modi spend on his 2014 election campaign.  Will the Prime Minister accept the CPI(M)’s suggestion to ban all corporate funding to political parties?  Will the Prime Minister accept that the expenditure of political parties incurred during elections will be included in the ceiling prescribed by the Election Commission on the candidates, it sought to know.
The CPI(M) considers as a completely anti-democratic suggestion to hold Assembly and General elections simultaneously. Independent India’s electoral history began with simultaneous elections in 1952.But this was disrupted by the ruling parties at the Centre indulging in gross misuse of Article 356 and dismissing democratically elected state governments.  Further, in a democracy, a coalition government can collapse making it inevitable to go back to the people.  Precluding this would mean
the denial of elementary democratic rights and gross violation of federal structure of our Constitution.”