'Enumerators tasked with carrying out surveys for various state and central agencies are facing a tough time dealing with Hyderabad residents in the wake of protests against the amended Citizenship Law and fears over the National Register of Citizens (NRC). On Wednesday afternoon, as seen in a video that has gone viral on social media, two women surveyors could be seen stopped and questioned by a resident in the Malakpet area. “Don’t you know what is the prevailing situation in the city? Protests are happening all across in connection with NPR, NRC, and CAA.
'More than a month after National Statistical Commission (NSC) chairman Bimal Kumar Roy said the official survey report showing a dip in consumer spending for the first time in over four decades would be made public, the autonomous data body decided against releasing the report. When asked why the NSC departed from its earlier view, Roy said: “I did try. I made a proposal (in an NSC meeting on January 15) to release the survey but I didn’t find support. I did put in the proposal as chairman but it didn’t get through.
'Assam’s Welfare of Minorities Minister Ranjit Dutta has confirmed the state’s plans to implement a census to identify Assam’s ‘khilonjiya’, or indigenous Muslim population, this year. On Tuesday, Dutta will meet with various representatives of the indigenous Assamese Muslim community to seek their “suggestions” in finalising the framework of the census... Rahman will be part of the meeting with the Welfare of Minorities & Development Department on Tuesday. He added that many indigenous Muslims have been wrongfully tagged D-voter or Doubtful-voter in Assam.
'Caught up in the maelstrom of divisive politics, India is silently but surely sliding into an environmental abyss under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watch. The latest EPI ( Environmental Performance Index) report released on the sidelines of the WEF conclave at Davos puts us at third from the bottom- at 177 out of 180 countries, a decline of 36 places since 2016 ( when we were at 141). We do even worse in the index of air quality, at 178 out of 180.
'...The bottom line is that despite all the smoke and mirrors and blatant attempts to fudge the data, it is clear that this budget will not provide the required fiscal stimulus to kick-start the economy. Maybe stock markets tanked because they realized this (although they have not otherwise been noted for much economic sense). The few benefits of this budget will go to a handful of crony capitalists and, possibly, some foreign portfolio investors who will face much reduced taxation.
'NCRB data show fake notes of Rs 2,000 entered the market days after PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation announcement. Today they are the biggest contributors to the value of seized counterfeit currency in India... While Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 banknotes were banned overnight, the government introduced new banknotes with denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500. It said these banknotes have additional security features which would make them difficult to be copied by counterfeiters, hence check the menace of fake currency...
'...The NPR, and the planned NRC it is linked to, are enormous data-gathering exercises, and will give the government access to personal information about everyone living in this country. This information can then potentially be used as the government (and therefor ruling party) pleases – whether to deny people citizenship, as many are afraid will happen, or to target voters in different areas based on demographic analysis. This, clearly, is the kind of data the Modi government likes. But there is plenty of data the ruling regime does not like.
'During the debate on the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, the BJP repeatedly claimed that population of religious minorities in Pakistan has declined from 23% in 1947 to 3.7% in 2011. Analysis of official data however shows this argument is faulty... IndiaToday.in's analysis of Pakistan's Census data shows that these claims are faulty... Pakistan got its identity as a separate nation on August 14, 1947. Back then, Pakistan also included present-day Bangladesh which was known as East Pakistan.
'A government committee set up in February examined computers and pen drives and interrogated officials in charge of printing documents in an effort to identify the source of a leaked report showing that unemployment figures had hit a four-decade high in the year after demonetisation. Details of the report were published in the Business Standard in January, after the government’s refusal to release the data prompted two senior officials of the National Statistical Commission to resign in protest the same month.
'Over 200 economists, academics and journalists on November 21 issued a statement demanding the release of NSSO consumption survey data. The government had on November 15 put the report on hold citing data quality issues, after a media report said consumer spending had slowed down for the first time in more than 40 years. Here is the full statement...'
