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Goa came out as the state where women and girls were the least vulnerable, followed by Kerala, according to the index Delhi came in just two positions shy of being the worst state when it comes to safety of girls and women, faring better only than Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, while Goa topped the list, shows a newly-formed Gender Vulnerability Index by NGO Plan India. ( Here is the link to the full report ) The GVI attempts to "generate a normative consensus" on status of girls and women in India and takes into account four core dimensions: Education, health and survival, poverty, protection. Also Read :  Six arrested for alleged rape of Delhi woman For each dimension and GVI, state-wise ranking has been provided, with Goa coming in at rank one, followed by Kerala at rank two, Mizoram in the third position, Sikkim at fourth, and Manipur at rank five. At rank 28, Delhi fares among the bottom five, with Bihar faring the worst at rank 30, followed by Uttar ...

Are you planning to buy gold this Dhanteras? It is that time of the year when people flock to buy gold It is that time of the year when people flock to buy gold. Dhanteras, an amalgamation of Sanskrit words dhan, that stands for wealth, and teras that refers to the 13th day of the Hindu calendar, is marked by praying to goddess Lakshmi and the purchase of gold objects. To cater to the ritual of shopping on  Dhanteras  , various online websites have come up with attractive offers on gold, silver and other metals for the Diwali Sale season. From the option of buying gold for Re 1 to getting massive discounts on branded jewellery, the online shopping world is full of best deals for Dhanteras celebrations. This year’s Dhanteras comes after the government changed a key rule governing gold buying. As part of the push to revive consumer sentiment in the economy, the government recently allowed people to buy Rs 2 lakh worth of gold without quoting the permanent accou...

EPFO has an ambitious plan to settle the claims within few hours after filing of application Retirement fund body EPFO is expected to launch online facility for settlement of claims, including   EPF withdrawal   and pension fixation, by May this year to put an end to tedious paper work by its members. At present, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) receive close to 1 crore applications manually for settlement of EPF withdrawal claim, pension fixation or getting group insurance benefit by deceased persons. "The process of connecting all field offices with a central server is going on. We may introduce the facility for online submission of all types of applications and claims like EPF withdrawal and pension settlement by May this year," EPFO's Central Provident Fund Commissioner V P Joy told PTI. Joy said that all EPFO offices would be connected to central server in couple of months following which the facility of online submission of all sort ...

Leaders of the five economies agree to work on credit rating agency, trade in local currency and cooperation on tax evasion While a key agreement on setting up a   BRICS   credit rating agency eluded them, leaders of the five emerging large economies ended their eighth summit with a commitment to strive for greater synergy and higher economic growth. With Indian and Chinese exports to the West shrinking, Prime Minister   Narendra Modi called for doubling of intra-BRICS trade to $500 billion by 2020. This was seen as a key to spur growth in BRICS economies, two of which have recorded negative growth. Chinese President Xi Jinping drew attention to “some countries getting more inward looking in their policies… Protectionism is rising and the forces against globalisation are an emerging risk,” he said. The ‘Goa Declaration’, issued at the end of the summit, welcomed “experts exploring the possibility of setting up an independent BRICS Rating Agency based on market...

Waterways is game changer, mass rapid transport on electric to be India's future The Centre has accorded top priority to cost-effective, pollution free and import substitute transport. Besides, integrated transportation to reduce logistic cost and increased road safety. Union Minister of Roads, Highways, Ports and Shipping   Nitin Gadkari   explains the government’s strategy In an interview with   Sanjay Jog . Q: What will be the government's approach for integrated transport since transportation is a major part of industry cost? A:   Our effort is for cost effective, pollution free and import substitute transport. This means implementation of roads, highways, railways, ports, waterways, shipping, and airports in a time bound manner. The plan to connect them, integrate them. Shipping industry will be made LNG-based which is pollution-free and cost effective. The ministry will encourage operations of sea planes, catamarans, hover crafts and cruise ships. A...

7th Pay Commission: Cabinet approves big pay hike for government employees The union cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, a move which will boost consumption by putting extra disposable income in the hands of the central government’s 4.7 million employees. The   Seventh Pay Commission   (7th CPC) had recommended a 23.5 per cent increase in pay, pension and allowances under a ‘business as usual’ scenario. It had envisaged an increase in pay of Rs 39,100 crore, increase in allowances of Rs 29,300 crore and increase in pension of Rs 33,700 crore, taking the total financial impact for 2016-17 to Rs 1.02 lakh crore. The   pay panel   revisions are in force retrospectively from January 1, 2016. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said before the budget that he would provide Rs 1.1 lakh crore and the budget documents showed that Rs 1.06 lakh crore has been provided for. The centre ...

  Make in India, PM likely to tell Apple's Tim Cook Manufacturing in India is going to be the top talking point when Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO)   Tim Cook   meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, it is learnt. There may not be any announcement just yet, but a source in the government confirmed that the PM is likely to tell Cook that India would want Apple to manufacture in India. The discussion between the two may also revolve around the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's stand that Apple cannot just import and sell refurbished iPhones in India without setting up a manufacturing facility in the country. The government is also expected to convey to Cook a decision that it has taken on waiving the local sourcing conditions for Apple so that it can open its fully-owned branded retail stores in the country. Make in India has been a signature campaign of the NDA government and getting an assurance from Cook on manufacturing in India wil...

Why PM Modi should ignore Subramanian Swamy's letter to sack Raghuram Rajan Subramanian Swamy, BJP’s newly nominated member to the Rajya Sabha, recently said that Reserve Bank of India governor   Raghuram Rajan   should be removed from his post. In a fresh salvo at Rajan, Swamy has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate sacking of the former IMF Chief Economist while alleging he was "mentally not fully Indian" and has "willfully" wrecked the economy. Following up his barb against Rajan at the end of Parliament session last week, Swamy yesterday wrote to Prime Minister seeking termination of Rajan's services with immediate effect. According to Swamy, Rajan has hiked interest rates "in the garb of controlling interest inflation", which has "damaged the country", and that he was responsible for “unemployment and collapse of industrial activity". Read more.

The India Meteorological Department predicts the country's   monsoon   rainfall will be 106% of long period average this year.The error margin is plus or minus 5%. This should ease fears over farm and economic growth after two straight droughts hit rural incomes and agricultural output. There is 94% chance of the rains to be normal or excess this year and just 6% chance of them being poor. LPA is the average rainfall received by the country in the last 50 yrs starting from 1951 and is eastimated at 89 cms. The forecast is very much in consensus with what Skymet said yesterday. IMD says monsoon will be more than normal in all the four months of June to Sept, but pace will pick up after the first half.   IMD   DG L S Rathore said that the monsoon this year will be fairly well distributed except northeast India and parts of Tamil Nadu and Rayalaseema. IMD said that it will update its monsoon forecast in June. The monsoon rains could be above average, as ...

Only 16 of 29 states and seven union territories had digitised the leaky ration-card system of the world’s largest programme to distribute subsidised food, the targeted public distribution system (TDPS), by the end of April 2015, according to the latest-available government data. Nearly half of 55.45 million metric tonne foodgrain despatched for sale to more than 99 million families never reaches them, according to this 2015 paper (using 2011 data) by Ashok Gulati and Shweta Saini of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.  Read Articles

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to leave its key interest rate steady at 6.75% next week and only make one cut this year as rising inflation ties its hands, according to a Reuters poll. That marks a turn from rapidly cooling domestic consumer price inflation, which allowed the RBI to lower the repo rate four times in 2015. Its last 50-basis-point cut in September took markets by surprise, but the RBI isn’t likely to act as aggressively in 2016, as a renewed uptick in food-costs driven inflation puts the central bank’s medium-term price target at risk. This week’s poll of nearly 40 economists showed only one 25 basis-point rate cut this calendar year, between April and June, unchanged from earlier expectations.  Read Articles  

In the bidding for solar projects totalling 420 MW in Rajasthan under the National Solar Mission, the winning bid touched a new low of Rs 4.34 per unit, entered by Finnish solar power company Fortum Energy for a 70 Mw project. However, lowering of benchmark tariff by the central government did not go too well in Maharashtra which saw subdued interest from the companies participating in bidding for 500 MW in the state Rajasthan saw a spurt of foreign companies lining up for solar projects. American company Rising Sun Energy quoted Rs 4.35 per unit for two projects with total capacity of 140 MW. African major SolaireDirect has quoted same tariff for same capacity projects. Among the domestic ones, India Bulls through its subsidiary Yarrow Infra won 70 MW by quoting Rs 4.36 per unit.  Read Articles

The recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (7th CPC)   would reduce, rather than increase, the “take home” salary of 90 per cent of the Indian Railways’ workforce, the largest railway trade union has alleged. The recommendations are effective from the current month and would lead to a total annual wage burden of Rs 28,000 crore, the government estimates. The National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), that represents more than 90 per cent of the railways’ workforce, has said 1.3 million railway employees are “seriously disturbed” over what they call retrograde recommendations of the panel with regard to their pay structure as their take-home salary would be less than what they currently receive, particularly employees living in government accomodation. “Those being covered against pay levels 1 to 12 of the seventh CPC Pay Matrix are approximately 90 per cent of the workforce in the Indian Railways and these employees are seriously disappointed as their ‘tak...

India’s merchandise exports fell for the 13th consecutive month in December. During the 2008-09 global financial meltdown, the decline was for nine months in a row. Exports fell to $22.29 billion against $26.15 billion a year ago in December 2014, according to data released by the commerce ministry today. The last recorded growth in exports was over a year ago, when it rose 7.3% year-on-year.  Read Articles  

Use of Aadhaar cards and seeding of bank accounts with those numbers are purely voluntary and not mandatory,RBI said in a clarification on the Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) Scheme. “… In view of the Supreme Court’s interim orders dated August 11, 2015 and October 15, 2015… On usage of Aadhaar, it is hereby clarified that use of Aadhaar card and seeding of bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers is purely voluntary and it is not mandatory,” RBI said in a communication to banks. Read Articles