CSO releases provisional estimates of national income for the financial year 2013-14

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, released the provisional estimates of national income for the financial year 2013-14 and the quarterly estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2013-14, both at constant (2004-05) and current prices.It also released corresponding annual and quarterly estimates of Expenditure components of the GDP in current and constant (2004-05) prices, namely the private final consumption expenditure, government final consumption expenditure, gross fixed capital formation, change in stocks, valuables, and net exports.
Estimates at current prices:

GDP at factor cost at current prices in the year 2013-14 is estimated at Rs 104.73 lakh crore, showing a growth rate of 11.5% over the First Revised Estimates of GDP for the year 2012-13 of Rs 93.89 lakh crore, released on January 31, 2014.
Gross National Income (GNI) at factor cost at current prices is now estimated at Rs 103.45 lakh crore during 2013-14, as compared to Rs 92.72 lakh crore during 2012-13, showing a rise of 11.6%.
Per capita income at current prices during 2013-14 is estimated to have attained a level of Rs 74,380 as compared to the First Revised Estimates for the year 2012-13 of Rs 67,839 showing a rise of 9.6%.

Telangana now officially 29th state of India

Telangana formally became the country’s 29th state of India and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) took oath as Telangana’s first Chief Minister. Telangana consists of the 10 north-western districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Backgrounder:

In the history of India, it happened for the first time that outside Hindi and Bengali speaking areas, 2 states speaking the same language have been created (Telangana and AP are both Telugu speaking states. In addition to more than one Hindi speaking state, there are two Bengali speaking states: West Bengal and Tripura.

This essentially challenges the roots (the linguistic basis of states in which language being believed as the measure for a similar culture) on which during the first decade after Independence, the internal map of the Indian Union was re-drawn. This essentially now leaves a space for an additional exercise to redraw the internal map of India.

Albeit there was a request for a combined Telugu state even previous to our Independence, the Nehru-led regime formed AP (Andhra Pradesh) owing to vested political interests of the Congress leaders. Now, History has completed a circle.

The Congress faced a hard electoral contest from the Communists in the Andhra state that was in 1953 sliced out of the Telugu speaking regions of then Madras state. Thus, it was settled to combine Andhra with the Telugu speaking parts of the territory of the ousted Nizam of Hyderabad, so as to form a bigger state where the communists could be whitewashed.

The next unspoken motive of the Nehru regime was that, after being humiliated by the experience of the integration of Kashmir it, didn’t desire to let away the regions of the Nizam as they were. Consequently, whilst the Telugu language parts went to Andhra Pradesh, the Marathi and Kannada language parts went to Bombay and Mysore provinces.

This workout proved good for the Congress as it shaped a monopoly for the Congress in the 1977 post-Emergency elections. Albeit at the national level the Congress was badly beaten yet it won 41 of the 42 seats in Andhra Pradesh. The subsequent year, Indira Gandhi sailed back to the Lok Sabha from Medak.

But the Congress CMs (Chief Ministers) did nothing to encourage rural empowerment. The only CM (Mr. Narasimha Rao) who tried something, confronted resistance from vested interests and was sacked. Thus, rising rural anger led to Maoism in these areas.

In 1983, the Congress was substituted by the NT Rama Rao’s TDP (Telugu Desam Party). The son-in-law of Rama Rao, Chandrababu Naidu, became the first CM all ever in India to hold on to economic developments. Chandrababu Naidu soon turned capital city Hyderabad into an IT hub. But the rural areas were ignored and suicide by farmers rose. Shortly an isolated drive started in the state with the people of Telangana supposing that they would be well off as an independent state. Thus in 2004, Chandrababu Naidu was substituted by Congressman Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Reddy began a rule of “free-ships” (viz. free electricity, fee refunds to students, free houses, free medical care et al). Albeit these efforts taxed the exchequer but transformed into significant electoral gains for the Congress, permitting it to make a government at the centre. Subsequent to the sudden death of YSR, the Congress went into a panic state. In 2014, in order to benefit on apparent political gain, Congress passed a bill to split the state. Unluckily for the Congress, the attempt proved futile to gain it political bonus and it was deeply rejected in both areas.

Anand Mahindra first Indian to be honoured with Harvard Medal

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand G Mahindra became the first Indian to be honoured with the prestigious Harvard Medal for his ‘dedication, generosity and service’ to the university. In 1977, Mahindra is an alumnus of the HarvardUniversity. He graduated with Honours (Magna Cum Laude) from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He completed his MBA from the Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts in 1981.

Mahindra is the Co-founder of the Harvard Business School (HBS) Association of India and he is also a instituting member of the university’s South Asia Institute (SAI), the HBS India Research Center, and the SAI field office in Mumbai, India. In 2010, Mahindra made a gift of $10 million to the Humanities Centre which was then renamed the Mahindra Humanities Center in honor of his mother, Indira Mahindra.

SBI’s Arundhati Bhattacharya amongst Forbes’ most powerful women

SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya is amongst the 5 Indian women who featured in this year’s Forbes’ 100 most powerful women in the world list. The list was topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Indian women in the list:-

Indra Nooyi (Pepsi Co – 13th) (Indian Born but US Citizen now)
Arundhati Bhattacharya (SBI – 36th)
Chanda Kocchar (ICICI Bank– 43rd)
Padamshree Warrior (Cisco – 71st)
Kiran Mazumdar (Biocon – 92nd) (Indian Born but US Citizen now)
Top 10 Most Powerful Women in the World:

Angela Merkel (Germany – Politics)
Janet Yellen (US – Finance)
Melinda Gates (US – Philanthropy/NGO)
Dilma Rousseff (Brazil – Politics)
Christine Lagarde (France – Philanthropy/NGO)
Hillary Clinton (US - Politics)
Mary Barra (US – Business)
Michelle Obama (US – Politics)
Sheryl Sandberg (US – Technology)
Virginia Rometty (US – Technology)

For quicker decision-making

By abolishing the system of having Empowered Groups of Ministers and Groups of Ministers — of which there were nine and 21 respectively that he inherited from the UPA government — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent out an unequivocal message: the new BJP-led NDA intends to end the “policy paralysis” that its predecessor was accused of, and achieve its goal of “minimum government, maximum governance.” A press note issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said this would empower the Ministries, expedite decision-making and usher in greater accountability. The mechanism of EGoMs and GoMs had been created by the first NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee to tackle complex policy issues and resolve the clash of interests that are inevitable in a democracy, more so in a coalition where inter-ministerial turf wars are harder to resolve. However, under the UPA it often became an instrument to delay decisions. At one stage in UPA-II, around 80 such groups were grappling with a vast array of issues ranging from contentious matters such as the creation of Telangana, to the hotly debated ones of food security and land acquisition, to routine subjects such as post-retirement medical schemes and the age of superannuation for public sector workers. In the process, the authority and supremacy of the PMO got eroded, with the last incumbent, Dr. Manmohan Singh, virtually handing over his powers to the Ministers who headed most of these groups — Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, P. Chidambaram and A.K. Antony, all men of differing styles and persuasion.

Mr. Modi has made it clear he will brook no delay in taking decisions, and that he will have the last word on policy-making. While this should restore coherence in the functioning of the government, especially as the BJP’s decisive electoral mandate will ensure it is not hampered by difficult coalition partners, Mr. Modi must guard against administration by fiat. The Congress, citing the PMO press release that has asked all Ministers who have difficulties in deciding issues relating to their own Ministry to refer them to the PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat for resolution, has cautioned that this should not lead to an unhealthy “centralisation of power” and an “autocratic regime in the future.” An omniscient super-PMO must not destroy the Cabinet system that envisages decisions through consensus. Rather, Mr. Modi should act as a facilitator, using persuasion and not diktat. He must rely on the collective wisdom of his Cabinet colleagues to create an effective — and harmonious — administration. In order to meet people’s expectations, Mr. Modi must not be tempted to become a single point of power, governing as he conducted his campaign, in a presidential manner, focussing all authority in the PMO. What worked in Gujarat may not succeed all across India.

One person dies on Indian roads every three minutes

One person dies on Indian roads every three minutes
Senior cabinet minister Gopinath Munde's death in a car crash in the capital Tuesday brought into sharp focus once again the alarming number of fatalities on Indian roads with little thought on safety.

To put this disquieting data in perspective, almost half the equivalent population of some countries like Iceland or the Maldives is wiped out on Indian roads every year.

As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, as many as many as 461 people died and 1,301 more were injured "every day" from traffic accidents in the country during 2012. (See Separate Box on Key Data)

This makes it 19 deaths every hour or more than one death every three minutes.

Kamajit Soi, an international expert on road safety and vice chair of Punjab Road Safety Council, has incidentally written a letter to union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, seeking immediate steps to end what he terms as "massacre" on Indian roads.

"Over 1.2 million innocent people died on the roads in the last 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The last government did nothing to save lives," Soi, an advisor on road safety to the Asian Development Bank, told IANS.

"We have been banging our head against the wall. No one is bothered. Hundreds of lives are lost every day. It is like jumbo jet crashing every day. I hope the Narendra Modi government takes steps to ensure Indian roads become safer. I've written to him too."

Munde is among the several known people, including political leaders, who have died on Indian roads.

The list includes former president Zail Singh, former central minister Rajesh Pilot, former Punjab finance minister Kanwaljit Singh, former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma and Telugu Desam Party leader Yerran Naidu.

Little wonder the World Health Organization (WHO) says India accounts for the highest number of deaths in road accidents. China with 97,551, the US with 41,292 and and Russia with 37,349 have much lower deaths on their roads but with much more cars.

"Worldwide, over 1.4 million lives are lost annually; India is contributing 11 percent (to it)," Soi said.
"The incidence of accidental deaths has shown an increasing trend during the period 2003-2012 with an increase of 51.8 percent in the year 2012 as compared to 2002," the bureau said in its report "Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India - 2012".

"The population growth during the period 2003 to 2012 was 13.6 percent whereas the increase in the rate of accidental deaths during the same period was 34.2 percent," the report added.

At the same time, the report said, road accidents in the country may have come down marginally by 0.02 percent during 2012 compared to 2011, but the casualties have increased by 1.6 percent.

Among the causes of accidental deaths in 2012, road accidents topped the list with 35.2 percent, while rail-road accounted for 7.4 percent of the deaths.

"A total of 473,416 traffic accidents cases were reported during 2012, comprising 440,042 road accident cases, 1,762 rail-road accidents cases and 31,612 other railway accidents cases," said the report.

In sheer numbers, as many as 168,301 people died in the country in 2012 from traffic accidents with road accidents accounting for 139,091 -- this is almost half the population of countries like Iceland and the Maldives.

"It's not the killer roads alone where road safety is compromised. Even auto-makers continue to sell vehicles that are hardly safe. India's most successful car Maruti-800 alone has accounted for over 700,000 deaths since it was launched in 1985," said Soi.

"Such cars have been nothing but moving coffins."