CAA-NPR-NRC: Law Weaponised Against Constitution; Indian Firms Need 30+ Years to Reach 30% Gender Diversity

Police make arrests for Bengaluru voter data theft, Hindu Mahasabha promises to make Meerut Nathuram Godse Nagar, Adani open offer for NDTV shares falls flat, Parvati Valley: India’s Bermuda Triangle

A newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas | Contributors: MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, Sushant Singh and Tanweer Alam | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

---

Snapshot of the day

November 23, 2022    

Pratik Kanjilal

Out of 56 companies shifting production out of China, only three relocated to India while 26 went to Vietnam, 11 to Taiwan, and eight to Thailand, says a Nomura report. So much for India benefitting from China plus one story!

The Centre is likely to discontinue the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) after December due to its fiscal constraints and low foodgrain stocks, reports Business Standard. Besides, no important state elections lie ahead. The last extension of the scheme was done with the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections in mind. 

Interesting arguments featured yesterday in Supreme Court hearings on preserving the independence of the Election Commission. The Bench observed that having the Chief Justice of India as part of a “neutral” appointing process may help make the institution more independent and less partisan. The independence of the Election Commission is mere “lip service” in the face of truncated tenures of the chief election commissioner, the Supreme Court observed.

Press Trust of India @PTI_News

SC asks Centre to produce file related to appointment of Election Commissioner Arun Goel, who was appointed on November 19

Meta is now India’s largest media company, according to Business Standard. Google has slipped to fourth place as new contender Sony-Zee reached number two position. And after a long time, there is a print publisher besides the Times Group in the top 10 ― DB Corp, which publishes Dainik Bhaskar and Divya Bhaskar, is ahead of Netflix by a narrow margin.

Russia has offered new technologies and solutions for the nuclear fuel cycle of India’s atomic power plants to enhance the efficiency of reactors at the Kudankulam power project in Tamil Nadu. Two Russian-designed VVER-1000 1,000-MW pressurised water reactors are currently operational at the Kudankulam power project and four more reactors are being built. Russia has continued supplying crucial components for the project despite uncertainties created by the conflict in Ukraine.

Fertiliser imports from Russia surged over eight times to $1.6 billion in the first half of this fiscal from $185 million a year ­ago. Imports in April-September 2022-23 were 2.15 million tonnes (mt), compared with 0.46 mt a year ago. The total import of fertilisers from all countries increased 11.6% to 8.73 mt from 7.82 mt.

The Modi government has made a mess of the Armed Forces Tribunal, with the Supreme Court stymying its attempts to handpick members. The notable issue is the change made effective by a Gazette Notification of June 1, 2017 ― the addition of eligibility criteria for administrative members, which were earlier restricted to military members. There hasn’t been a squeak from the vast brigade of military veterans on the frontlines of social media, defending the ideological frontiers of Hindutva.

Facing a sustained agitation in the Union Territory of Ladakh for safeguarding the rights of natives, the government is backtracking “towards the complete restoration of the pre-August 5, 2019 position on jobs for locals.”

Northern Command chief Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi says there are nearly 300 terrorists active in J&K. Of them, 82 are from Pakistan, 53 local residents and around 170 are unidentified. Besides, 160 terrorists are present at the launch-pads in Pakistan-occupied J&K along the LoC, waiting to infiltrate. “Of these 160 terrorists, 130 are at the launch pads located north of Pir Panjal while 30 are in the south of these mountain ranges,” he said. 

There were no takers for Adani’s open offer for additional shares in NDTV on day one, yesterday. NDTV’s share price was down for the third day in a row.

Contractors hired to renovate the Morbi bridge in Gujarat did not address major issues like rusty cables and loose bolts and only replaced the metal flooring, increasing the weight of the bridge, a preliminary probe by the Forensic Science Laboratory has found. The report was submitted to a local court in Morbi that is hearing the bail pleas of eight of the nine arrested for causing the death of 135 people.

In the case of alleged voter data theft in 25 Bengaluru constituencies, the police have arrested the director of the NGO Chilume and the civic authority has suspended three revenue officers who were masquerading as electoral officers. The BJP government is denying links to the crime, despite the evidence. 

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the cash for MLAs case has told the Telangana High Court that BJP General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh is not cooperating. They had served notice to Santhosh to appear before them on Monday, but he did not turn up. The hearing is to continue today.

The Congress party’s poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu had evaded the lens for nearly a decade, while working on the election management of parties including the BJP and the AIADMK. You wouldn’t have found his photos anywhere. But not anymore, thanks to the Karnataka Congress.

The Hindu Mahasabha has declared that it will rename Meerut as Nathuram Godse Nagar if elected to power in civic polls. Abhishek Agarwal, Hindu Mahasabha’s new chief of Meerut district for the urban body elections, said the organisation will contest in all the wards.

Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan “sold” a gold medal he received from India during his cricketing years, the country’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has claimed. Khan has been in the news for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as PM, at discounts from the state depository (Toshakhana) and selling them for profit. No other details of this gold medal are known yet.

The Supreme Court has launched the test version of its online RTI portal. It can be used by Indian citizens to file RTI applications, to appeal and to pay fees, copying charges, etc. under the RTI Act.

Indian firms will need more than three decades to reach 30% gender diversity at the current pace of change ― only 1% increase in the past three years. It will reach 30% only by 2058, according to a report by Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) with Netherlands-based APG Asset Management Asia.