Per a story in the Global Times — a Chinese government rag, in response to the killing of two Indian jawans and a Lieutenant Colonel, five PLA troopers were terminated and 11 more injured.

The IPS officers are not only unfamiliar with the Central Armed forces, the transient nature of their lien with the CAPFs precludes them in applying themselves. And so they find themselves out of depth in managing these specialised forces. They have been found wanting even in managing the affairs of state police forces, as was apparent from their total acquiescence to the political masters during the recent riots and other violent situations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Their conduct in ignoring their constitutional obligations in such times doesn’t portend well for our democratic society.

“I thought we’d play some chess,” he joked.

The Intercept talked to both of them as well, and Reade’s brother Collin Moulton said: “Woefully, I did not encourage her to follow up… I wasn’t one of her better advocates. I said let it go, move on, guys are idiots.”

I posted that anecdote when we introduced Highly, a few years back, and since then, I think we’ve made Grandma proud.

And while it's certainly true that there's currently a global pandemic unfolding, that isn't a good excuse to avoid discussing Reade. In fact, there's some reason to proceed quickly: The Democratic Party will soon nominate Joe Biden to be its presidential candidate, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) is technically still in the race, and he is still making the case that he should be the one to face President Donald Trump in November. Whether or not Biden is credibly accused of sexual assault is extremely relevant to this rapidly approaching decision point. This seems only slightly less urgent than covering Kavanaugh's alleged misbehavior during the period immediately before his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

The New York Times:Christine Blasey Ford: 90+Tara Reade: 0

Update: This story has been updated to include a statement from the Biden campaign received after publication time.

While talking about Gandhi, it is worth remembering how even Tagore and Premchand took him literally and criticised his statement after the earthquake in 1934 – that it was God’s punishment for the sin of the practice of untouchability.  

non-presidential-year voting

For instance, in the well-known race in New York’s 14th congressional district, where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated incumbent Joe Crowley, only 29,778 voters, or 13.9 percent of the 214,570 active registered Democrats who were eligible to turn out did so. Though these numbers are quite low, they are also familiar to students of congressional primaries.

About 40 per cent voters in Delhi are upper-caste Hindus. Only 14 per cent are Muslims. This makes Delhi a fertile ground for the BJP to play its Hindutva card.

That was Tom Steyer, billionaire environmentalist and philanthropist and Democratic presidential candidate, making the case for aggressively prioritizing and tackling the fight against runaway climate change. I think he’s right that the Green New Deal will struggle to get through Congress and the next Democratic president will have to take much stronger, much more outside the box executive action to tackle it.

The lesson is unmistakable: there are angry and obnoxious supporters of all candidates. Isolating Sanders supporters and implying they are a misogynistic monolith is profoundly unfair. Why are other candidates’ backers allowed to fight hard without being reduced to a regressive moniker? While sexism and harassment are unacceptable in any forum, the hyper-focus on a small minority of aggressive online trolls purposely tarnishes an entire movement through guilt by association.

Unfortunately, the key question of "when" is not one we have an answer to; thousands of other stars in the Milky Way may go supernova before Betelgeuse does.

Supernovae have occurred in our Milky Way in the past: in 1604, 1572, 1054 and 1006, among others, with a number of them being so bright that they were visible during the day. But none of them were as close at Betelgeuse

It will conceivably be the brightest object in the night sky for more than a year until it finally fades away to a dimmer state

Not content with stripping their citizenship, successive governments tried to remove the estate Tamils from the country entirely. In 1964, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike signed an agreement with Indian Prime Minister L.B. Shastri. A second agreement was signed three years later with Indira Gandhi. These provided that 600,000 of the estate Tamils would be expelled and sent to India over a 15-year period, and 375,000 would be restored their Sri Lankan citizenship. Not all of the former group actually returned to India, and remained in Sri Lanka without the ability to vote, travel abroad, or participate fully in Sri Lankan life. It was not until 2003 that full citizenship rights were restored to the remaining Tamils in the hill country

When this Act was passed, the Tamil Congress was strongly criticized by the opposition Marxist groups and the newly formed Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist Federal Party (FP). S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the leader of this new party, contested the citizenship act before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, and then in the Privy council in England, on grounds of discrimination towards minorities, but he did not prevail in overturning

This Government pass the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, which denied citizenship to Sri Lankans of Indian origin and resulted in Sri Lanka becoming a majoritanian state.

There is a sizable population of Tamils in the Central Province, plantation laborers brought down from India by the British colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries. These Indian Tamils (or Estate Tamils), as they are called, still work mainly in Sri Lanka’s tea plantations. They have been locked in poverty for generations and continue to experience poor living conditions.[16] Although they speak dialects of the same language, they are usually considered a separate community from the Sri Lankan Tamils of the North and East. The government of D.S. Senanayake passed legislation stripping the estate Tamils of their citizenship in 1949, leaving them stateless. The effect was to tilt the island's political balance away from the Tamils. In 1948, at independence, the Tamils had 33% of the voting power in Parliament.[citation needed]. Upon the disenfranchisement of the estate Tamils, however, this proportion dropped to 20%. The Sinhalese could and did obtain more than a 2/3 majority in Parliament, making it impossible for Tamils to exercise an effective opposition to Sinhalese policies affecting them.

For the duration of the process, a large part of government functioning in India would be diverted to this, making the already understaffed government system essentially non-functional in other forms of service provision.

The sentiment is surprisingly widespread, and many stalwarts of Assam have in the past been open advocates of ethnic cleansing, of which the Northeast has seen numerous, albeit forgotten, instances in the past.

The one thing that both groups appear to have in common, which is of relevance and concern to Bharat’s national security and territorial integrity, is their inability to peacefully co-exist with Indic communities.

Whether there is a causality or not, there appears to be a correlation between the presence of such illegal Bangladeshis and the rise in law and order issues in areas, where they exist in significant numbers

Under India’s current laws, illegal migrants cannot apply for Indian citizenship.

In truth, millions of India’s Muslims are the descendants of people who converted to Islam to escape Hinduism’s cruel practice of caste.

the finance ministry has now admitted that no donor ever told the government to create an opaque system of funding political parties.

The Modi government claimed repeatedly that donors asked for electoral bonds due to fear of political retribution if they used transparent methods of funding. An RTI reply shows this was a lie.

We must have a sense of the past and a sense of the future, and know that what is happening right now is just a chapter. No doubt a pretty horrible one, but still-just a chapter.

The finance ministry tried to put the onus for this illegal extension on the SBI. In an emailed reply to SBI on the same day, the Finance Ministry claimed the 35-day special window, instead of the 30-day period that the rules permitted, was done on the “SBI’s recommendation”.SBI refused to take the onus for this illegality. 

It is such a paradox as Bhopal was identified across the world because of the gas disaster. Anywhere you go, the moment you mention that you are from Bhopal, people immediately empathise and ask questions about the gas tragedy. But the city itself has not been concerned about its own people.Bhopal has no implicit or explicit sense of having a concerned citizenry. The gravity of the situation can be judged from just one point. Bhopal, even after 35 years, has no record of those who were killed or disabled. Successive governments never kept any records.  If you pass through the lanes of Bhopal, you will never realise that this city has suffered almost a holocaust so recently.

The plight of Bhopal gas survivors figure in election manifesto of neither the Congress nor the BJP.

One can more easily than one realises be lulled into thinking that one is sufficiently free.”

If you don’t like the direction an Instance is taking, you can pack your virtual bags and go. Mastodon even has an import/export tool that allows you to migrate the people you follow from one account/instance to another.

i will also study(try to) the topics see them as you

370. Temporary provisions with respect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

The scientists reported that drinking a lot of bottled water drastically increased the particles consumed.

It stated that according to the former DMRC chief, the Delhi government should transfer the subsidy amount directly into accounts of travellers. “This is not a practical solution. There is no way to determine precisely how many women will use public transport, for what distance, for how many days, therefore making it impossible to calculate the direct subsidy transfer needed to reimburse travel for women,” Bharadwaj said.

2017 Champions Trophy, of the 15 games, five were curtailed due to rain. Australia couldn’t complete two of its three

Then how did it come to be that the government is finding that this talent after a few years in service no longer suits its needs? This indicates, perhaps, that the talent management practices within government need to change in tune with the times.

Facts for Prelims:

Relevant articles from PIB:

Relevant articles from various news sources:

Clean drinking water to all by 2024

World Day against Child Labour 2019:

‘Paddy Frog’:

Kailash Manasarovar Yatra:

Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures

RBI Panel on Economic Capital Framework  

Proliferation of kelps in the Arctic

New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2019

J&K President’s rule

Leader of Rajya Sabha

Four, the delay is not at the behest of the Govt but because of the Apex Court asking the Govt to serve the notices to remaining petitioners so that they can also be heard.

But the armed forces are yet to get the benefit. This resulted in a situation in which civil officers junior to armed forces officers get higher pay grades. The Seventh Pay Commission had urged the government to either do away with it or extend it to the armed forces. This created an anomalous situation in as much as defence officers on deputation to the ministry got less than their civilian counterparts. The situation was worse in insurgency-affected areas where CAPF forces, functioning operationally under command of the armed forces, have higher pay grades.

Do the Vishaka guidelines apply to the whole of Supreme Court? Vishaka brought about a monumental change in India, and was a turning point in our country’s history. Vishaka cannot be brushed aside. It is the basis of the POSH law of 2015. At the time of the Vishaka judgment, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) had been signed but not as yet been implemented in India. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court held that the principles of CEDAW must apply in India. Hence, the Vishaka came about. It is one of the most respected judgments in the global judicial community. It sets down a process and guidelines for dealing with instances of sexual harassment at workplaces. If you see all the judgments that followed, much jurisprudence has developed on the subject. Vishaka fundamentally demands a fair and just inquiry into the allegations. That is the least that the Supreme Court and the judiciary should have assured the public here too. More Explained Explained: Where are driverless cars going? The current situation and the reaction of the judges was a complete denial of the Vishaka judgment, and made the sanctimonious presumption that women have the propensity to lie.

Every imaginable aspect of rule of law and natural justice was violated. I believe this was an extremely low point in the history of the Indian judiciary.

I have read the 29-page affidavit completely, on the sexual harassment and victimization of the former employee of the Supreme Court. As a judge, I don’t accept anything on face value. But I thought the affidavit was quite detailed, and perhaps needs to be probed. I was particularly struck by the fact of her dismissal after the alleged event, which appeared to be on flimsy grounds – i.e., leave of absence for half-a-day, and making a fuss about the change in her seating position, etc.

. I believe, like ADM Jabalpur, this episode is going to haunt the Supreme Court in the years to come.

There is also a disturbing report in a leading newspaper that some male judges have decided not to allow female employees to work at their residence at all. This follows from the presumption that women always lie. If this is a genuine reaction of judges, then I am actually appalled. Such cases are actually a test for the institution — how do you deal with such situations? The world over, allegations have been made over high-ranking authorities. It is not the first time that an institution has faced a challenge like this.

If the full court ratified the panel of enquiry, the report too must go to the full court. The full court must give it a close look , in the absence of the CJI. If this too is avoided it would be a mockery of justice . There cannot be Independence from the full court. Full Court is higher than all individual judges. Please do not shirk collective responsibility. Judicial power vests there.

Compare this with the open enquiry against Judge Kavanaugh before Senate in USA. Scrutiny by people is the hall mark of Justice. True Judge Kavanaugh was examined in the process of appointment. He was cleared too. But the process instilled confidence in the Judicial System. Institutional Integrity and credibility was preserved. Contrarily, panel enquiry and suppression of report from US THE PEOPLE has dented the prestige , credibility and integrity of the Judicial system. Justice has become cloistered , emasculated and we have been blindfolded. Monarchical Justice this is.

The ENA management pointed out recently that the diversity of social classes represented by the school's students is more diverse than is being suggested.   "In the current class, 26 percent of students are on scholarships, 14 percent are the grandchildren of blue collar workers, 9 percent are the grandchildren of farmers, 12 percent of artisan's or shopkeeper's grandchildren and 12 percent of are grandchildren of ordinary office workers".   This, they argue, means that meany students have grandparents from disadvantaged social classes.   However the school refused to give the figures of the number of pupils whose parents are workers or farmers.

The ENA hoped to attract "more people from the provinces, fewer Parisians, fewer bourgeois - social democratisation", explained Prof Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans, a political scientist who has studied the ENA extensively and now works with it.

ad spend on these 11,000 ads was approximately Rs 7.7 crore, as per data available in the Facebook Ad Library.

did not contain a disclaimer on who paid for the ad, in line with its efforts to increase the transparency of political ad spend on its platform.

Helo is owned by ByteDance, the same company that owns the controversial video-sharing app TikTok.

But there might also be another reason high-income Americans don’t feel as rich as they are — in a country of rampant inequality, there’s always someone richer. A couple making $500,000 might rub elbows with other couples making $2 million. That couple will go to events and meet other couples making $20 million, and so on. At each level of affluence, many social climbers probably look at the people on the next rung higher and feel a burning need to keep pace.

Nevertheless, if the NYAY scheme has to become a reality, the money has to come from somewhere, and given that higher taxes in some form cannot really be ruled out.

The problem is this will involve doing away with many existing systems, and hence, is easier said than done. Given this, removing all subsidies will be difficult and hence, taxes are likely to go up. As far as increasing taxes are concerned, economists who have studied UBI in detail in the Indian context, have suggested the return of wealth tax, a tax on agricultural income and an estate tax to maintain intergenerational equity.

People who feel that individuals will opt out of the workforce because the unit members are earning ₹1,200 per month extra, have a very low opinion of the ambitions of Indians. Also, if they stop working, their situation may continue to be the same as it was earlier, and the entire benefit of the extra money will be nullified. This concern largely comes from the wrong belief of the rich and the middle class that the poor are poor because they are lazy.

UPDATED on 21st December 2016

Contributing Editor at BloombergQuint where he hosted a popular monthly column called "Noise To Signal"

“Clearly, some schemes are working well and some are not meeting the intended objectives. Hence, the need for rationalisation of expenditure rather than a carte blanche rule to do away with all welfare programmes.”

Congress leaders, privy to the details of the MIG promise, claimed that it’s not a hare-brained idea meant to lure the voters.

Congress sources said that the party reached out to Deaton and Piketty as Gandhi has studied their works. Piketty’s much-acclaimed book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, dealt with how inequality grew since the industrial revolution and wealth got concentrated in a few rich families — a favourite subject of the Congress president who has been attacking the Narendra Modi government for allegedly making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

As originally planned, the details were to be made public in the party manifesto, but the Congress president chose to declare the idea of MIG Monday to “pre-empt” the possible announcement by the Modi government of the much-speculated and anticipated universal basic income or a farm investment support scheme on the lines of Telangana’s Rythu Bandu or Odisha’s Kalia.

He was speaking at the launch of his book The Third Pillar in Mumbai.

on Wednesday confirmed that he had advised the Congress leadership on the minimum income guarantee scheme or NYAY scheme, PTI reported.

Agro/soil related

They talk with Winners Take All author Anand Giridharadas about why change is coming

Cobrapost has accused Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of sending this embezzled money worth thousands of crores to companies in Gujarat and Karnataka under the guise of schemes and programmes during state elections. However, these projects have either been suspended or are on hold from municipal corporations.

Harris writes that she has often faced questions about “how I, as a black woman, could countenance being part of ‘the machine’ putting more young men of color behind bars”.

They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before.

At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love.

She added that the mag “places women’s value primarily on their ability to sexually satisfy a man and therefore plays into the same culture where men view and treat women as inanimate sex objects.”

IRS(IT) has allowed me to re-ignite that passion for plays and fall in love all over again with my acting abilities.

The seesaw of work-life is perfectly balanced. You have the time and energy to spend with your loved ones. This was a major priority for me.

. Six books authored by Ministry of External Affairs official Dnyaneshwar Mulay were launched at the event. Mr. Mulay is currently secretary (consular, passport, visa and overseas Indian affairs) with the MEA.

to fill 217 posts of watchmen to be deployed at FCI depots and offices.

realisation that there are murderers, offenders living a great life and my selfless father died, a rather unattractive death because of cancer (Which, by the way, is a scam.)

जिला स्तर के माइन्स ऑफिसर और अनुमंडल स्तर के माइंस सुपरवाइजर (दोनों ही टाइप सी वर्ग के अधिकारी हैं) खूब घूस खाते हैं और यही लोग जिले में बहाल आईएएस अधिकारी को गुमराह करते हैं.