12 MEDIA WATCH
AsianVoiceNews
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27 July - 2 August 2019
SCRUTATOR’S India’s keenly awaited Moon mission, Chandrayaan 2, was launched successfully on Monday July 22 at 2.43 pm. The earlier scheduled flight of July 15 was aborted 56 minutes before liftoff, following a glitch in the launch vehicle GSLV MK-111. India’s most advanced mission has been designed to put a rover on the moon’s South Pole, where no country has explored before. If successful, the flight will place India in fourth place after the US, Russia and China in moon exploration. NIA bill passed Home Minister Amit Shah called for a vote on the amendments to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act. The amended bill strengthens and widens the scope of the agency’s powers. It was passed with a massive majority of 278-6, with the Trinamool Congress and BSP opposing it.
India to overtake Japan in 2025
India-built homes for Rohingyas
India is set to pass Britain as the world’s fifth-largest economy in the current financial year, and will be poised to overtake Japan as the world’s third-largest economy in 2025, according to IHS Markit report. Markit estimates that India will surpass the UK in 2019, and predicts that Indian GDP will reach 5.9 trillion dollars in 2025, making it the world’s third-largest economy. The consumer market will expand exponentially during the projected period (Statesman, July 14).
India has built 250 homes for Rohingyas in Myanmar. Recently, Indian Ambassador to Myanmar, Saurabh Kumar handed over 250 pre-fabricated homes to the
PM pulls up errant Ministers Prime Minister Narendra Modi reprimanded Ministers for truanting from roster duty in Parliament, taking cognisance of complaints by Opposition leaders. Addressing the weekly meeting of BJP Parliamentary caucus, Mr Modi said he has asked for names of errant ministers, and was taking the issue seriously (Hindu, July 17). Sheila Dixit dies Sheila Dixit, a former Chief Minister of Delhi and a long-time Congress Party stalwart died suddenly from a heart attack, aged 81. She was dynamic, visionary, indefatigable administrator,
While congratulating Prime Minister Modi for his grand economic vision, industrialist Adi Godrej warned against hate crimes
India builds 250 homes in Myanmar to assist Rohingya
Myanmar authorities, with more to come. This was part of the pact signed by the two countries in 2017. Thousands of Muslim Rohingyas fled Myanmar and have taken refuge in Bangladesh. They allege rape, torture and attack by the Myanmar army. Rohingya refugees willing to return to Myanmar will be assured of such clustered housing (Hindu, July 14). Novel desalination
Industrialist Adi Godrej
unfailingly courteous, an affable figure much loved and widely respected. The modern New Delhi we see today owed much to her three transformative periods in office. The glowing tribute paid to her on television by BJP spokesman Nalin Kohli transcended party politics, and hence especially commendable. President Kovind, Prime Mister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh paid their individual tributes to her life and work as a public servant. Her cremation was attended by top Congress and BJP leaders (Hindu, Times of India, July 21, 22). Airspace opened Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan gave orders to reopen his country’s airspace, lifting a sixmonth ban to Indian civilian aircraft. Their detour had put airlines under considerable financial strain, leading to a rise in passenger fares (Hindu, Times of India July 17). HDFC surge The Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), India’s largest private sector lending facility, has posted a profit of 42 per cent in the second fiscal quarter ending June 30. Revenue from operations was up 7 per cent while other incomes jumped 62 per cent (Business Line, July 17).
Sheila Dixit, former Chief Minister, Delhi
The Indian economy is the world’s fastest growing large economy with an annual growth of 7-7.2 per cent. It has overtaken that of France, and is poised pass the UK at the end of the current financial
Adi Godrej warning
Jihadis held in Tamil Nadu In a major crackdown, 14 members of a new radical Islamic Tamil Nadu-based group called ‘Ansarullah,’ were arrested by the NIA for planning terrorist attacks across India with the goal of establishing Islamic rule in the country (Times of India, July 16).
Parlous economy
that could derail economic growth (Statesman, July 14). More technology for India Texas-based Dell Technologies CEO, Dell Digital, Jennifer Felch told reporters in Bangaluru, that, ‘We invested $12.8 billion in Research and Development in the past three years. We have transformed virtually every corner of IT function this year by staying focused, executing and delivering business value and quality at a higher velocity.’ This had made Dell a key enabler of transformative IT trends including multi-cloud management, edge computing, Internet of Things, digitisation and Artificial Intelligence. ‘Today, we are number one in everything, all in one place, be it servers, storage, PC or infrastructure, software.’ said CEO Felch. India outlook On prospects for the Indian market, she said the country would witness significant amounts of investment in the areas of cybersecurity, Internet of Things, multi-cloud environment and Artificial Intelligence in the next 1 to 3 years. As per the Dell Digital Transformation Index, India was the most digitally aware country in the world, she said. Some 91 per cent of India business leaders believe digitisation should be more widespread , compared with the world average of 78 per cent, was her concluding observation (Hindu, July 16).
Scientists at the famed Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, have desalinated seawater to drinking water by a novel method. Unlike the conventional reverse osmosis that is energy intensive, they have used gold nano-particles that absorb sunlight over the entire substance including the telling near infrared light. Using 2.5 milligrams gold nano-particles, the team led by Vivek Polshettiwar from TIFR’s Department of Chemical Sciences, succeeded in using sunlight to heat the seawater to 85 Centigrade and generate steam, and hence produce drinking water in about 30 minutes. This is a preliminary study. The next step will entail replacing the gold with a less expensive substitute to make the process sustainable (Hindu, July 14). Trashing India Christophe Jaffrelot, a Director of the CERI Po/CN RS, Paris, published a vitriolic attack on the Modi government in the July issue of Le Monde diplomatique. He took issue with its exorbitant election expenses, while presiding over a stagnant, crisis-ridden economy; of oppressing India’s minority Muslim and Christian communities. Most candidates in US Congressional and Presidential elections require funding from huge business corporations – many in arms manufacturing or from the all powerful gun lobby. No problem there. Double standards require that the lesser breeds without the law abide by the economic standards to which they have been long accustomed. Meanwhile the homicidal, impoverished French dependencies in West and Central Africa continue regardless, scare evidence of Gallic enlightenment, without stirring Monsieur Jaffrolet conscience, assuming he has one.
year, as the world’s fifth largest economy. Oppressed minorities Bracketing Indian Christians with India’s Muslims, all supposedly oppressed by the state, is clearly an echo of a recent US State Department report designed to pressure India to conform to Washington’s global requirements and prescriptions. Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern on India’s alleged discriminatory treatment of its Muslim minority. Monsieur Jaffrolet’s critique is also directed at gullible western audiences unfamiliar with Indian reality. India’s Christians include a sizeable middle class – among the largest in the country per head that straddles a wide range of occupations, from education, healthcare, professions and the officer corps of armed forces. Christian-run education institutions are among the best in India, with staff and students overwhelmingly Hindu. The most enthusiastic Christmas celebrations in Kolkata take place at the Ramkrishna Mission. The BJP Governor of West Bengal lauded Kolkata’s St Xavier’s College (now University) as a model for India. Muslims belong to a different category. Their difficulties and grievances are not without cause or justice. But jihadi terrorism is also a fact of life in India, as it is in Europe and the United States. The massive bombings of Mumbai in 1993 and 2008 killed hundreds of innocent citizens. Indians were appalled by the jihadi assault on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris and the shooting dead of its entire editorial staff. The 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, no less than jihadi outrages in London and Manchester have horrified the Indian people. If India were the hell-hole for Muslims, Monsieur Jaffrelot appears to suggest, why are there no Muslim queues seeking to emigrate to an Islamic haven of their choice? Because they prefer life in India, warts and all, and use Indian space in defence of their rights and liberties under the rule of law which is as it should be.