KISAN RALLY-Kisan Kranti Yatra Delhi

A Brief Introduction to the KISAN RALLY Delhi

Agriculture is one of the most important sector to contributing in Indian economy. India's agriculture sector accounts for 18 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and providing employment to 55% workforce of the country. India holding second position in farm output. So there is no doubt by saying that agriculture is backbone of Indian economy. 

Why farmers are Protesting ??

Thousands of farmers began 10 days protest on Friday demanding farm loan waiver, Subsidised electricity & Fuel, Pension for farmers above 60 and Implementation of recommendations of Swaminatahn Commission. 

Farmers from places as far as Gonda, Basti and Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Sugarcane belt of eastern UP joined the agitation.The yatra began from tickait ghat in Haridwar on September 23.Protest is Led by Mr. Naresh Tikait (President-Bhartiya Kisan Unian).

But, they were stopped at Heavily Barricaded Delhi-UP border. Farmers tried to break the barriers and forcing the police use Tear Gas Shells, Batons and Water Cannons to disperse them, Several Protesters and cops were injured in the process.  

Farmers were promised that their demand will consider and acted upon but the farmers are not satisfied with the centre's  response and said their protest will continue.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers welfare, told news agency ANI that farmer leaders who met Home Minister Rajnath Singh Today and discussed their demand have reached an agreement on a mejority of the issues.

But the members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), which organised the farmer's march, say that they haven't reached an agreement on the full implementation of the Swaminathan report regarding the minimum selling price (MSP) and their demand of one time complete loan waiver.

Meanwhile thousands of Delhi police and UP police personnel, besides paramilitary forces, including the rapid action force (RAF), are stationed at the border.

The opposition parties i,e.UPA,SP,BSP,AAP have attack the centre over police actions and what they call as unfulfilled promises  and increasing farmer distress.

"The brutality of the police and Modi government on unarmed framers are unacceptable. We walked peacefully for 250km and they could not even tolerate us here for the rest of our journey. We don't have money to send our kids to school. We don't even had enough to feed them"Mr.Khan Said (source NDTV).

In a similar protest in march this year, about 35,000 farmers walked for about 180 km in the blazing sun from Maharashtra's Nashik to Mumbai to press their demands. They were send back after an assurance from the state government, but the promise are yet to fulfilled, they say.

and, Farmers are the living god on this planet who feed us by sweating day & night, who make this possible and last, we get food in our plate due to farmers Only, So thank them whenever you were on dining table , because we get anything easily done through internet but we can't download food....

The Rohingya Crisis- Facts You Need To Know

Who are the Rohingya ?

The Rohingya are Muslim Minority in Myanmar's Rakhine State previously known as Arakan with population of 1 million people. The Religion of this ethnic group is transformation of Sunni religion and Myanmar does not recognize them as citizen and have been rejected citizenship since 1982 that leave them stateless. Myanmar respect them illegal immigrants & they have been restricted any movement without government permission.

They have their own language and culture and say they have descendants of Arab traders.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist Country denies the Rohingya citizenship & exclude them from 2104 Census, even refuse to recognize them as a people of Republic of Myanmar.


And, now they are denied land & property rights, and the land on which they live can be taken by the government at any time and the law impute instructions on Marriage, Education, Employment and religious choice to this population.

Why are they Fleeing ? and, Where they Fleeing ?

Exodus began on August 2017 after Rohingya ARSA militants launched deadly attacks on lots of police posts.
ARSA is an abbreviation of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and their Vision is to Defend and Protect the Rohingya.

They were arriving in an area called Cox's Bazaar (Bangladesh) and Say they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, responded by burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians.

According to MSF (Medecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors without Borders), at least 6,700 Rohingya, including atleast 730 children under age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out.
Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls.

According to analysis of Satellite Imagery by Human Rights Watch- At least 288 villages were partially destroyed by fire in Northern Rakhine State after August 2017

Human Rights Watch say most Damage occurred in Maungdaw Township between August and September 2017- with many villages destroyed after 5 September, when Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said security force operations had ended.

Height of the crisis

The UN says Rohingya's situation is the "Worlds fastest growing refugee crisis"

Before august, they were already around 307,500 Rohingya refugees living in camps, makeshifts settlements and with hosts communities according to the UNHCR. A further 6,87000 are estimated to have arrived since August 2017.

Mostly , Rohingy's were moving in neighbouring country i.e, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and South Asian Countries.

What is Being Done by the other Countries ?

1- Almost 100,000 people have been treated for malnutrition.
2-Large scale Vaccination programmes have been launched to try to minimise the risk of Disease.
3-47,639 temporary emergency latrines have been built by Bangladesh military.
4-The UN Security Council appealed to Myanmar to stop the violence but sanctions have been imposed.
5-The UN's Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has said an act of genocide against Rohingy Muslims by State Forces in Myanmar can not be ruled out
6-China says the International Community "should support the efforts of Myanmar in safeguarding the stability of its national development.
7-Myanmar urged displaced people to find refuge in temporary camps setup in Rakhine State. In November Bangladesh sign a deal with Myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, but few details have been released.
8-The UK has pledged 59m in aid to support those fleeing to Bangladesh.
9- India refused to let them enter their country because it posed national security threats. However, it was found that over 40,000 Rohingya's immigrants have taken shelter in Assam, West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir.

Conclusion

SAARC Countries are affected by the Myanmar crisis and mostly Malaysia, Bangladesh & India. India and Bangladesh should come to the same platform to find the best solution of the crisis. International Community should also come forward to implement and execute the aid which they announce for stateless Rohingya. Without interference of International community it is not possible for the refugees to come back to their motherland Rakhine. So all eyes on International community, now only they will bring ray of new hope for Rohingya in Myanmar.

CHANGING SCENARIO OF THE INDIAN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

CONTOURS

Publishing industry in India is one of the dynamically growing industry. which is fulfilling and completing the needs of Universities, Institutions, Academician, Students & Individuals. The story and life journey of the book is long one (Physical books to E- Books).

India is the top most favorite destination by major publishers who want to invest in publishing industry with a population of over 1.32 Billion people and will become number one by 2030 after surpassing china. Literacy rate also has a significant improvement since government spending a lot in education. Huge numbers of Universities, Colleges also playing a vital role. These are the factors which influencing western publishers to invest in Indian market.

With all those competencies Indian publishing industry has more to offer to world than other countries  publishing industry. But when we have look another side of the coin we found that quality of Indian books degrading as well. What to say  about Indian Publishers even European Publishers who is having their footprint in India has more focus on quantity rather than quality books. In broadly, we can say now this industry is  running for money.

According to Federation of Indian Publishers that there are 20,000 Publishing house in India which is creating high impact upon industry.

CHALLENGES

In recent year most of the publishing company have seen overall decline in print books sales. The overall trend been changed now. Despite of steady growth it is going through many challenges.

Authors hopeful about that their book is going to be bestsellers, Publishers are looking for the more revenue.

Here are the some of the main challenging aspects of the publishers-:

Quality Content

Readers are growing rapidly on the internet & they look for quality content. A study shows 76% of those who click on bogus content leave the page they land on with 12 Seconds.

Instead on investing more on your website , invest in creating quality content so that readers quickly come land on your page and you will create prospects for your offering.

Digital Environment 

Although the market for e-books are small but it is growing at a great rate. A cause behind is that despite the large base of Internet users in India only 26 percent of the Indian population accessed the internet in 2015.The number of internet users in India is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018. (source- Internet & Mobile association of India). Also e-reading devices are very expensive for most of the users.

Also end users or Y-Generation are very comfortable with e-books and find it very easy to read,to download, compare to print books. Slowly growing Competition between e-commerce companies i.e, Flip kart, Amazon are playing key role towards growing demand of digital content. 

                                                                                                             (Print to Digital)

Facts and Figures

• According to report published by Global market research firm Nielsen, India's print book market- which grew at a rate of 20.4 %, compounded annually between 2012 and 2015-is estimated to be worth 26,060 Cr INR. Nielsen's survey among urban consumers found that they prefer to buy more educational books than trade books.

• In spite of that, report will help global players to analyze the Indian publishing market to invest and penetrate Indian market. 

• The International Standard Book Number is a 13 digit global standard number that encodes a country prefix and unique standard number for each & every titles published. This help to publishers to trace the life journey of particular title , from publisher's to its retail outlet. Raja Rammohan Roy National Agency for ISBN issued free of charge ISBNs in India, under aegis of ministry of human resources development.The ISBN system could have been a better source for keeping track of the total number of titles published in country and total number of publishers in country both in one hand. Though figure has not been updated since last couple of years and this give opportunity to publishers and open their hand to come with maximum number of titles.  Although ,ISBN system has not been fully adopted by publishers in India.

• India is the 6th largest book market in world and 2nd largest to publish books in English after USA.

• Market for School books in 2013-2014 was 18,600 Cr and 5,600 Cr for Higher Education as per the report of Nielsen research.
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                                                                                                                              (Digital Era)

Things to be done-: Here, Much Need to be done to improve the present status of the Indian Publishing industry, cutting edge technology and Digital era will drive the future for publishing industry. Indian publishing industry is going through many hurdles it requires well trained and updated workforce, Policymakers who can can decide the future of this industry and a visionary leader. A  comprehensive study to be done every year to analyze the current market scenario, So that the  titles which is published to cater the need of scholars , academics & student . If the things will change before change it can lead & Indian publishing industry has ample time to grow the future of publishing in India.

There is no end of Education, so it is the beginning of Publishing always.....

"NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN"

                                                                      A Brief Introduction to the Narmada Issue

The controversy over large dams on the River Narmada has come to symbolise the struggle for a just and equitable society in India. The story is long and complicated and will take a long time to tell. In brief, the Government's plan is to build 30 large, 135 medium and 3000 small dams to harness the waters of the Narmada and its tributaries. The proponents of the dam claim that this plan would provide large amounts of water and electricity which are desperately required for the purposes of development.

Opponents of the dam question the basic assumptions of the Narmada Valley Development Plan and believe that its planning is unjust and inequitous and the cost-benefit analysis is grossly inflated in favour of building the dams.

Large numbers of poor and underprivileged communities (mostly tribals and dalits) are being dispossessed of their livelihood and even their ways of living to make way for dams being built on the basis of incredibly dubious claims of common benefit and "national interest". No purported benefits can be used to justify the denial of the fundamental rights of individuals in a democratic society

At a more abstract level, the questions that arise in the Narmada Struggle challenge the dominant model of development (of which Sardar Sarovar dam is a prime example) that holds out the chimerical promise of material wealth through modernisation but perpetuates an inequitous distribution of resources and wreaks social and environmental havoc.

Sardar Sarovar takes up over 80% of Gujarat's irrigation budget but has only 1.6% of cultivable land in Kutch, 9% of cultivable land in Saurashtra and 20% cultivable land in North Gujarat in its command area.

In simple terms, the struggle over the river Narmada holds a mirror to our national face and challenges our commitment to professed ideals of justice, equality and democracy.

                                                                Map of proposed large dams on the Narmada

                                     Advantages

Considerable revenue for government

One could expect production of 1450 MW of electricity.

More pure water to meet the needs of about 40 million people or so from about 1000s of villages and towns.

Sardar Sarovar dam alone would irrigate almost 1.8 million hectares of land in Gujarat and an additional 73,000 hectares in the dry neighboring state of Rajasthan

Providing potable water to over 8,000 Gujarati villages and135 urban centers

                            

                                           Problems!

Displacement of 2,50,000 people

Rehabilitation and resettlement of people

Loss of agricultural land

Destruction of flora and fauna  

                                           Proponents

MedhaPatkar

Baba Amte

Dalits and Adivasi (indigenous people).

ArundhatiRoy

Contributions from art and film world ( tomention AamirKhan)

                                                                         Some of the strong proponents

                                                                  

                                                           MedhaPatkar

"If people like you who consume not more than 40 litres of water a day & don't get access to it, then the Government has no right to be in power".

Medha Patkar is one of India's most well-known environmental and human rights activists. As leader and co-founder of Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), she has been spearheading themovement against the building of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat, giving particular attention to the rehabilitation of the poor who are being displaced by the project.

                                                      How did they do it?

5,000 people marched on the Narmada Valley Development authority offices forcing them to close.
 March 1990-10,000 protesters blocked the highway from Bombay for two days .
May 1990- 2,000 people staged a sit-in outside the prime ministers house in Delhi.

Christmas Day 1990 March- 3,000 people walked, 100km, which took a week to the dam site, once they got there Medha Patkar and 6 others went on a hunger strike demanding the government suspend work on the dam and hold an independent review. It lasted 22 days until they broke fast this made Narmada an international issue.

Media campaigns

Garnering support of celebrities from the art and the film world and other such methods.

The leading activists of the movement Medha Patkar and Baba Amte, together received the Right to Livelihood Award in 1991 for their contribution to the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

                                                  Impacts

  Ø Environmental impacts

   Ø Social impacts

   Ø Health impacts

                                                                                What can really be done

·        Not only promise but also do provide shelter to those who had to be displaced

·        Rehabilitation of the poor

·        Give compensations if they have had any

·        Provide drinking water to those who cant avail of it

                                                                    Current status of the Dam:

·        The Sardar Sarovar dam height will be raised to 110m.

·        This will displace 12,000 families without any resettlement or displacement program.

·        Protests are occurrence regularly and they will continue to do so until the dam is stopped.

If water is so scarce, why is there a water park in Gujarat ,where people are dying of thirst ??