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Fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) can be exercised even against other instrumentalities other than the state, the court said
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New Delhi: In a historic development from a global economic perspective, India – a South Asian nuclear nation with a 1.39 billion population overtook the United Kingdom (UK) to become the world’s 5th largest economy in 2022.
According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) report quoted by visualcapitalist.com, with a total $ 25 trillion Gross Domestic Production (GDP) share, the United States is leading the world net $101.6 trillion dollar economy, followed by its rival yet fast-emerging Peoples Republic of China with $18.3 trillion GDP size.
Japan ranked 3rd with $ 4.3 trillion GDP, Germany $4.0 trillion, and India with $ 3.5 trillion gross domestic production replaced the UK to become the 5th largest economy in the world, and the first south Asian nation to cross $3 trillion economy during the period under review.
The majority of global economic activity comes from just a handful of countries with the US, China, Japan, Germany, and India making up the top 5, which together account for more than half of global GDP.
Just five countries make up more than half of the world’s entire GDP in 2022: the U.S., China, Japan, India, and Germany. Interestingly, These top five economies which together account for more than half of global GDP reported by visualcapitalist.com.
Adding on another five countries (the top 10) makes up 66% of the global economy, and the top 25 countries comprise 84% of global $101.6 trillion GDP.
The rest of the world — the remaining 167 nations — make up 16% of global GDP. Many of the smallest economies are islands located in Oceania.
The Economics Times report says the Indian economy recovered from the COVID-induced downturn during 2022 and is poised for further improvement in the coming quarters though downside risks emanating from geopolitical tensions, strengthening dollar and elevated inflation will continue.
The positive trajectory in the growth trend and improved fundamentals will help the nation in neutralizing the impact of global headwinds which are expected to have a bearing on the country’s exports in the months to come.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a broad indicator of the economic activity within a country. It measures the total value of economic output—goods and services—produced within a given time frame by both the private and public sectors.
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In a fair world, Aruna Rodrigues would be heralded as an incredible individual for her ongoing struggle to protect the socio-economic and environmental integrity of India. So says respected environmentalist, author and campaigner Leo Saldanha.
He adds:
Since 2005, she has tirelessly pursued a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court of India, in which she has made a case why India should not yield to pressures from mega agri-transnational corporations and certain sections of the Indian agricultural sector who are keen on promoting genetically modified organisms in farming.
India’s apex regulatory body, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, recently sanctioned genetically modified (GM) mustard for cultivation. This would be India’s first GM food crop, despite a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court to prevent cultivation as well as the widespread rejection of GM mustard by farmers’ organisations.
Aruna Rodrigues, the lead petitioner of the PIL, has exposed in her various submissions to court that claims about yield increases through GM mustard to be completely baseless. She indicates how data has been rigged and manipulated and protocols have been severely compromised, and that the government and its regulators are parroting the false claims of the crop developers.
Thanks to the PIL, the Supreme Court put a stay on the commercial release of GM Mustard on 3 November 2022.
Independent experts who have looked at the biosafety data submitted by the crop developer at Delhi University have clearly pointed out that GM mustard has not been tested rigorously and adequately.
India is a centre for diversity for mustard and several high-level official committees have recommended against transgenic technologies in crops for which the country is the centre of origin or centre of diversity.
Various high-level reports have also advised against introducing GM food crops to India per se. These reports conclude that GM crops are unsuitable for India and that biosafety and regulatory procedures are wholly inadequate.
Rodrigues also played a leading role in preventing commercial cultivation of GM brinjal more than a decade ago. Her tireless efforts have been a thorn in the side of global agritech corporations and seriously compromised regulatory officials who have for the best part of two decades been trying to get GM food crops cultivated in India.
There is much at stake.
India has a lot to lose, not least its food and seed sovereignty and contamination of its crops as well as the risks genetically modified organisms (GMOs) pose to human health.
The industry has much to gain.
Global biotech corporations like Bayer and Corteva are seeking to increase their control over the future of food and farming by extensively patenting plants and developing a new generation of GMOs.
They seek to claim all plants with those genetic traits as their ‘invention’. Such patents on plants would restrict farmers’ access to seeds and impede breeders from developing new plants as both would have to ask for consent and pay fees to the biotech companies.
According to an October 2022 report, the global GM crop and seed market is projected to reach $46 billion by 2027. That is up from an estimated US$30.6 billion in 2020. The US market is estimated at $8.4 billion, while China is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$10 billion by the year 2027.
Key global players include AgReliant Genetics LLC, BASF SE, Bayer Crop Science, Canterra Seeds Holdings, DLF Seeds & Science and Corteva (Dow/DuPont).
If India succumbs to pressure, that figure of $46 billion by 2027 could be much larger. With 1.4 billion people, India represents a massive financially lucrative cash cow.
For instance, Goldstein Research pushes pro-GM industry talking points and laments about resistance to GM food seeds as it is hindering the growth of India’s GM seed market. Even so, it forecasts that the Indian GM seed market is set to reach US$13.1 billion by 2025 (cotton is the only legally sanctioned GM crop in India at this time).
GM mustard is regarded as a pioneering food crop in India – it would open the floodgates for many other GM food crops that are in the pipeline under a veil of secrecy, including wheat, rice, brinjal and chickpea.But – it seems – genuine science stands in the way. GM mustard is unwanted, unneeded and fails to stand up to scientific rigour.
Maybe that is why, in December 2020, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) prevented serving and former public officials from expressing any opinion or writing any article on the approval to release GM mustard. This is a ‘gag order’ and an attempt to close down debate on the matter and to keep the public in the dark on the issue.
Trade and agriculture policy specialist Devinder Sharma says that silencing scientific voices indicates there is more to hide than reveal. He says that every claim that the ICAR makes about GM mustard can be challenged. And it has been – in court. Sharma adds that the US is placing tremendous pressure on India to embrace GM crops.
In finishing, let us turn to where this article began – with Aruna Rodrigues.
Leo Saldanha, who is mentioned at the start of this article, is forthright on the Change.org website in condemning a recent attack on Rodrigues.
Due to Rodrigues, Saldanha says the Supreme Court has time and again questioned the enthusiasm with which the Indian government and several public institutions have collaborated, questionably and controversially, in promoting GM foods and crops.
Just before Christmas, however, Aruna Rodrigues was unexpectedly forcibly evicted from her ancestral home by the Indian army. The Defence Estate Office is the custodian of all military properties of India and is required to secure such properties by following the due process of law.
Saldanha notes that Rodrigues’ home has been with her family from 1892 – legally secured via proper sale deeds. But about 27 years ago, the Defence Estate Office made a claim on the house. This claim was challenged, and the matter has been in court since then. Consequently, any action against the occupant should be only through due process of law.
On 20 December 2022, a court ruled that Aruna Rodrigues has occupation rights to the house. Yet the Defence Estate Officer moved into the house with army personnel – without any court directive – and physically removed her and threw the contents of the house onto the street. Within hours, a court ruled in Rodrigues favour. By then, however, the damage had been done.
As Saldanha says, we can only wonder whether any of this is connected to Rodrigues’ case before the Supreme Court. Given the billions of dollars at stake for the global agritech companies, it would indeed be wise to wonder.
The post India’s GM Mustard: An Increasingly Bitter Taste first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
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Observing that there was no independent application of mind by the RBI, Justice said the entire exercise was carried out in 24 hours
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On Sunday evening, suspected terrorists opened fire on three houses in the area in Rajouri district killing four civilians and injuring six
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A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer pronounced its verdict on the matter
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A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer, who will retire on January 4, is likely to pronounce its verdict on the matter
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The two nuclear-armed neighbours exchange the list of nuclear installations every year on January 1
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With murders, contract killings, ambushes, war zone deaths and fatal injuries, a staggering total of 1668 journalists have been killed worldwide in connection with their work in the last two decades (2003-2022), according to the tallies by the Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) based on its annual round-ups.
This gives an average of more than 80 journalists killed every year. The total killed since 2000 is 1787.
RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said:
“Behind the figures, there are the faces, personalities, talent and commitment of those who have paid with their lives for their information gathering, their search for the truth and their passion for journalism.
In each of its annual round-ups, RSF has continued to document the unjustifiable violence that has specifically targeted media workers.
This year’s end is an appropriate time to pay tribute to them and to appeal for full respect for the safety of journalists wherever they work and bear witness to the world’s realities.
Darkest years
The annual death tolls peaked in 2012 and 2013 with 144 and 142 journalists killed, respectively. These peaks, due in large measure to the war in Syria, were followed by a gradual fall and then historically low figures from 2019 onwards.Sadly, the number of journalists killed in connection with their work in 2022 — 58 according to RSF’s Press Freedom Barometer on December 28 — was the highest in the past four years and was 13.7 percent higher than in 2021, when 51 journalists were killed.
15 most dangerous countries
During the past two decades, 80 percent of the media fatalities have occurred in 15 countries. The two countries with the highest death tolls are Iraq and Syria, with a combined total of 578 journalists killed in the past 20 years, or more than a third of the worldwide total.They are followed by Afghanistan, Yemen and Palestine. Africa has not been spared, with Somalia coming next.
With 47.4 percent of the journalists killed in 2022, America is nowadays clearly the world’s most dangerous continent for the media, which justifies the implementation of specific protection policies.
Four countries – Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Honduras – are among the world’s 15 most dangerous countries.
Asia also has many countries on this tragic list, including the Philippines, with more than 100 journalists killed since the start of 2003, Pakistan with 93, and India with 58.
Women journalists also victims
Finally, while many more male journalists (more than 95 percent) have been killed in war zones or in other circumstances than their female counterparts, the latter have not been spared.A total of 81 women journalists have been killed in the past 20 years — 4.86 percent of the total media fatalities.
Since 2012, 52 have been killed, in many cases after investigating women’s rights. Some years have seen spikes in the number of women journalists killed, and some of the spikes have been particularly alarming.
In 2017, ten women journalists were killed (as against 64 male journalists) — a record 13.5 percent of that year’s total media fatalities.
Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.
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The minister, however, has dismissed the charge as baseless and has called for an independent probe
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The Home Minister exuded confidence that ‘he is not worried about the India-China (border aggression) issue’
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Gandhi said the Bharat Jodo Yatra provided a framework to present a new way of working and thinking to the people
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the accident and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased
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Modi’s family requested people to continue with their scheduled work
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PM launched four railway projects for West Bengal and laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of the New Jalpaiguri railway station
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The Congress on Wednesday wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging security breaches during the Yatra
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The sources said 39 international passengers were found positive for Covid-19 out of the 6,000 tested on arrival during the last two days
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Submarine rescue vehicles (DSRVs) is the strongest, but not the least, capability on which JFD has built its reputation among naval and special forces. The underwater world is the Earth’s least explored geographical area, primarily because it is so difficult for people to operate under the waves with ease and for long periods. The majority […]
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Besides the L-Gs, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and senior officers from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the two UTs will also attend
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Our brothers have spent another Christmas unjustly detained overseas – abandoned by those who should protect them
In March, after six years in captivity in Iran, the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe flew home to be reunited with her family. The photographs of her hugging her husband, Richard, and their daughter, Gabriella, moved me to tears. I have long shared their anger at the UK government’s failure to protect its citizens imprisoned overseas. But, in that moment, I was able to share their joy, too.
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Additional Director General of Police, Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh said the encounter with the terrorists took place around 7.30 am
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Centre has asked states and union territories to conduct mock drills at all Covid hospitals as part of precautionary measures
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Karnataka makes face mask mandatory for New Year festivities
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The 63-year-old has been admitted in a private ward of the hospital
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Prime Minister recounts nation’s efforts to make rapid strides post pandemic
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The country achieved the unbelievable record of 220 crore vaccines and crossed the USD 400 billion mark in exports, Prime Minister said
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The official said the ‘Zero Covid Policy’ followed by China is one of the reasons for the outbreak of the infection in that country
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Modi said that the number of medical colleges in the country has increased by more than 65% since 2014 when the BJP came to power
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RT-PCR test would be made mandatory for international passengers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand
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This is the second time the former Congress president has joined the yatra that began in September last year from Kanyakumari