Civil servant wages

The Uttarakhand government on Friday announced an expert committee to examine ways for the implementation of a uniform civil code, including a review of laws governing marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption and other personal laws. Retired judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, who is also the current head of the delimitation commission, will head the committee. It comprises retired judge Justice Pramod Kohli, social worker Manu Gaur (heading Taxpayers Association of Bharat), retired IAS officer Shatrughan Singh and Vice Chancellor of Doon University Surekha Dangwal. According to the notification issued by the government, the committee would examine all laws and matters related to personal law across communities, and draft a uniform civil code. The term of the committee has not been mentioned in the notification. Dhami’s promise The move comes after Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had, two days before polling in the State in February, declared that if … [Read more...] about Uttarakhand sets up expert panel for uniform civil code implementation

Former President Donald Trump must answer questions under oath in New York State’s civil investigation into his business practices, a State appeals court ruled Thursday. A four-judge panel in the appellate division of the state’s trial court upheld Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s February 17 ruling enforcing subpoenas for Mr. Trump and his two eldest children to give deposition testimony in Attorney General Letitia James' probe. Mr. Trump had appealed, seeking to overturn the ruling. His lawyers argued that ordering the Trumps to testify violated their constitutional rights because their answers could be used in a parallel criminal investigation. “The existence of a criminal investigation does not preclude civil discovery of related facts, at which a party may exercise the privilege against self-incrimination,” the four-judge panel wrote, citing the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Message seeking comment were left with lawyers for the Trumps and with Ms. … [Read more...] about Donald Trump loses appeal, must testify in New York civil probe into his business practices

Ever wondered where World War III might break out? A clear and troubling consensus has emerged in the American national security community that the Taiwan Strait is the most likely place for a major war to erupt between the United States and China; that it might start soon, and that such a conflict might quickly escalate into a nuclear confrontation. In March, the leading foreign policy organization in the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, issued a report concluding that Taiwan has become “the most dangerous flashpoint in the world.” There, a unique and troubling set of geopolitical developments have conspired to make a shooting war between the People’s Republic of China and the United States more likely than ever before. Recently the newly appointed commander of U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific Region, Admiral John Aquilino, remarked that a possible invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “is much closer than we think.” Ever since … [Read more...] about Wonder Where World War III Might Break Out? Try Taiwan

P hoolwati breaks down when she speaks of her husband Dhansha Invati, who was killed by a mob earlier this month. “I kept pleading with them to at least tell me where they were taking him. And to show me the cow meat that he had been accused of possessing. But what I received instead were blows and abuses,” she says. On the night of May 2-3, Phoolwati and Dhansha had been fast asleep outside their kaccha house in Simariya village in the Kurai block of Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh. It was when she heard thudding sounds that Phoolwati woke up to see a group of men assaulting her husband. Their elder son Jai Prakash, who lives next door, also rushed out on hearing the commotion. He pleaded with the mob to let Dhansha go, but the men paid no heed. Threats from the mob forced Phoolwati and Jai Prakash to retreat to their homes. The men took Dhansha away. Phoolwati and her son are unsure of how old he was; they reckon he was “upwards of 50”. Also Read Anti mob-lynching … [Read more...] about In Seoni, the blood trail of a lynching

I find myself more shaken and stricken after this week's latest mass shooting, the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, that saw 19 children and two teachers slain in cold blood, than I did after other mass shootings in recent years. Part of that is biographical: As an ex-Texan, the son of an elementary school teacher and the owner of a rifle made by the same manufacturer as was the apparent murder weapon, this just hit home a little closer. And part of that, of course, is the sheer nature of the evil incarnate the likes of which decides to go shoot up a schoolhouse. The palpable nature of that profound evil in our midst is yet the latest reminder of the truism, contrary to modern convention though that truism may be, that man is by his nature inclined toward iniquity. As God Himself says in Genesis 8:21 , "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Naturally inclined toward tradition, conservatives—if perhaps no one else—intuit this. As the great conservative … [Read more...] about The difficult search for answers after Uvalde | Opinion

Former Army prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Thursday said he believes Donald Trump "committed the crime of treason" if a report is true that he said former Vice President Mike Pence should be hanged. Kirschner made the comments on his YouTube show, Justice Matters . In the video, he discussed a recently released account provided to the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. According to The New York Times ' reporting of the account, Mark Meadows , then the White House chief of staff, told colleagues on January 6 that Trump said "something to the effect of: M aybe Mr. Pence should be hanged." "The evidence is mounting that Donald Trump didn't just incite the insurrection. He committed the crime of treason," Kirschner said. Kirschner, who is also an NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst, noted that the Times wrote it wasn't clear what tone Trump used with his reported comments. "What tone the president of the United States used when … [Read more...] about Trump “committed treason” with Pence remark: Ex-prosecutor Glenn Kirschner

After nine years in the opposition, the Australian Labor Party , under the leadership of Anthony Albanese , is back in power. When 74.6% votes were counted, it won 75 seats in the 151-member House of Representatives; the conservative Liberal National Coalition secured 57 seats. More than a victory for Labor, which is still one seat short of absolute majority, this election will be remembered for the rout of the conservatives, who had 77 seats in the outgoing Assembly. The polls also saw a sizeable section of the Australian electorate voting for the Greens and independents, who campaigned on the planks of better environmental standards and anti-corruption policies. In an election where inflation and climate policy dominated the agenda, Scott Morrison, the conservative leader, failed to understand the public pulse. Even when the annual inflation number hit 5.1%, a 20-year high, the Morrison government took comfort in the argument that the unemployment rate was low. Mr. Morrison was … [Read more...] about Reimagining Australia: On Anthony Albanese’s Labor government

The story so far: The President of the United States Joe Biden made a controversial statement on May 23, during a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida a day before the start of the Quad summit in Japan. He gave an affirmative reply to a question on whether the U.S. will come to the aid of Taiwan militarily in case of an invasion by China . This is the third time that he has made such a statement, raising questions about whether the U.S. is shifting from its long-standing policy of strategic ambiguity over Taiwan to that of strategic clarity. What is the Taiwan issue? Taiwan is an island territory located off the coast of mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait. After their defeat to the communist forces in the Chinese civil war (1945-1949), the ruling Kuomintang (Nationalist) government of China fled to Taiwan. They transplanted the Republic of China (ROC) government in Taiwan, while the Communist Party of China (CPC) established the People’s … [Read more...] about Understanding the nature of U.S.-Taiwan relations

The first year of COVID-19 lockdown saw the highest incidences of persons dying of respiratory illnesses in a decade, the 2020 report on medical certification of cause of death (MCCD) compiled by the Registrar General of India (RGI) says. In 2020, as many as 1,81,160 deaths occurred due to respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, asthma and bronchitis, higher than 1,52,311 such deaths reported in 2019. The certified deaths are other than those caused by COVID-19 virus, also a respiratory disease that has been separately recorded in the report as “Deaths reported under Codes for Special Purposes (Covid 19 Deaths).” At 1,60,618 deaths, the report said that this newly introduced major group is the third leading cause group recording 8.9 % of the totalmedically certified deaths at national level. The Union Health Ministry, however reported 1.49 lakh COVID-19 deaths in 2020. The total number of deaths, from all causes, in 2020 was 81.2 lakh. The recent World Health Organisation’s … [Read more...] about In first year of lockdown, more died of other respiratory diseases than COVID-19

The Union government has made capturing of attendance through its app , National Mobile Monitoring System, compulsory at worksites where 20 or more workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are employed. This move comes despite many problems, including patchy Internet connectivity in rural areas and little or no technical support. The Ministry of Rural Development had started the exercise on a pilot basis on May 21 last year. Initially, the utilisation of application was to be voluntary but from May 16 this year, it has been made mandatory. The Ministry’s directive claims that the app, which requires two time-stamped and geotagged photographs of the workers in a day, encourages transparency and increases citizen oversight. The biggest setback after the move has been for women employees, especially the supervisors or “work mates”. In a majority of cases, the employees’ families are averse to giving phones to women, especially … [Read more...] about App-based attendance hits rural jobs scheme workers