Supreme Court ruled no automatic arrest of accused in dowry cases - Click to Download

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Supreme Court ruled no automatic arrest of accused in dowry cases

The Supreme Court on 2 July 2014 ruled that the police cannot automatically arrest the accused in dowry cases and police must give reasons for taking such steps, which will be judicially examined.

The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice C K Prasad directed

• All the State governments to instruct its police officers not to automatically arrest when a case under Section 498-A of the IPC (dowry harassment) is registered.
• The police should satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down flowing from Section 41 Criminal Procedure Code.
• The police officer shall furnish the reasons and materials which necessitated the arrest before the magistrate.
• A person accused of offence punishable with imprisonment for a term up to seven with or without fine, cannot be arrested by the police officer only on its satisfaction that such person had committed the offence.
• The attitude of police to arrest first and then proceed with the rest is despicable and it must be curbed.
• Any arrest or detention by a police official without recording reasons as aforesaid by the judicial magistrate concerned shall be liable for departmental action by the appropriate High Court and amount to contempt of court.

SC gave the judgement in the backdrop of misuse of the anti-dowry law by disgruntled wives against their husbands and in-laws (mother and sister).  It referred to the statistics that rate of charge-sheeting in these cases is as high as 93.6 percent, while the conviction rate is only 15 percent that means the remaining cases are pending at trial stage.

Corruption, Lokpal to be key poll issues: Google survey - Click to Download

Corruption, Lokpal to be key poll issues: Google survey

New Delhi, Corruption and Lokpal are likely to be the two decisive factors on which young people are going to vote in the Lok Sabha polls, search engine Google has said.

After a three-month survey, Google concluded that the Lok Sabha elections have evoked unprecedented interest among online users who want to know about the various issues influencing national politics.

“These elections are unique because for the first time, it’s a clash of personalities as much as it is about ideology and party affiliations. The battle lines are drawn primarily between Narendra Modi on the one hand and Rahul Gandhi on the other,” the survey said.

“These elections are also unique because of the unprecedented interest that’s been generated online, the war for votes is being fought online as much as it’s being fought on the streets and in mainstream media.”

The survey said the Adarsh Society scam followed by the coal scam and the 2G scam were among the highest number of online searches.

Other political developments driving search trend results include Rahul Gandhi’s recent TV interview, along with Aam Aadmi Party’s win in Delhi.

“Issues such as the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots are also matters that the people have taken interest to know,” the survey said.

Mukesh Ambani richest Indian as Bill Gates returns to top  - Click to Download

Mukesh Ambani richest Indian as Bill Gates returns to top

Washington, March 3 (IANS) Mukesh Ambani again emerged as the richest among ten Indians in the Forbes annual list of a record 1,645 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $6.41 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion last year.

Ambani, with a net worth of $18.6 billion was ranked 40th as Microsoft founder Bill Gates was back on top as the world’s richest person on Forbes’ 28th annual ranking of the world’s billionaires after a four-year hiatus. His younger brother Anil Ambani was valued with a net worth of $5 billion.

Gates has topped the list for 15 of the last 20 years. With a net worth of $76 billion, up from $67 billion in 2013, the technology guru moved up on the list by one slot this year.

The Reliance industries chairman was followed among the Indians by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal (No. 52) with $16.7 billion in the second place and Wipro’s Azim Premji (No. 61) with $15.3 billion in the third place.

Other Indians on the list were: Dilip Shanghvi (No.82) $12.8 billion, Shiv Nadar (102) $11.1 billion, Kumar Birla (191) $7 billion, Sunil Mittal & family (244), $5.7 billion, Anil Ambani $5 billion, Micky Jagtiani (281) $5 billion and Savitri Jindal & family (295) $4.9 billion.

Gates beat out telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu (2), who had maintained the number one spot for the past four consecutive years but lost $1 billion of his net worth, now valued at $72 billion, according to a Forbes media release.

Spanish clothing retailer Amancio Ortega (best known for the Zara fashion chain) maintained his number 3 spot from 2013, but increased his net worth $7 billion for a total of $64 billion, ahead of Warren Buffett (No. 4) with a net worth of $58.2 billion.

While Google co-founder Sergey Brin (19) made it into the top 20, the biggest net worth gainer was Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (21), who more than doubled his fortune from $13.3 billion in 2013 to $28.5 billion.

The company’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg (1,540), made the list for the first time.

Thanks to the tech boom and strong equity markets, the US led with the greatest number of billionaires, with 492, followed by China with 152 and Russia with 111, Forbes said.

Regionally, Europe boasted the most billionaires outside of the US, with 468 billionaires, followed by Asia-Pacific with 444.’

FICCI Study Report -  State of the economy  - Click to Download

Study Highlights  :

Recently released advance estimates for GDP put  growth figure for 2013-14 at 4.9%. This is the second consecutive year of sub 5.0% growth and clearly implies that we are still not firmly afoot on the recovery path. The agriculture sector perfor mance has been the saviour this fiscal year. However, the industrial sector growth remains sluggish and there has been no visible turn around in the capex cycle. This is having a consequent impact on the services sector as well.

The private final consumption expenditure is expected to grow by around 4.1% in 2013-14 which is the lowest in about 11 years. This indicates that weak demand persists to be a problem and the same has also been reflected in FICCI surveys. Even as the government continues to move ahead on the reform path, a cut in the key policy rates woul d definitely provide some immediate reprieve.

The Interim Budget tabled on February 17, 2014 went beyond the expectation with the announcement of excise duty cuts in certain focus sectors from the capital goods, automotive and consumer durables segment. This was indeed a welcome move; however the respite has been provided only for about three months which is too short a period to witness an improvement. Also, the government adhered to its deficit target with fiscal deficit to GDP ratio at 4.6% in the year 2013-14. This was actually lower than the estimate of 4.8% put out earlier. It is comforting to see the government sticking to the path of fiscal c onsolidation with the deficit target for FY15 at 4.1% and 3.0% by 2016-17. However, at the same time it will be important to assure that the productive expenses are not axed.

Besides, inflation has set on a downward trajectory and given the good sowing season for the rabi crop is expected to r emain range bound for some time.

Download the report to read more…

Current Account Deficit declined to 0.9 percent of GDP in Quarter 3 of 2013-14 - Click to Download

Current Account Deficit declined to 0.9 percent of GDP in Quarter 3 of 2013-14

Current Account Deficit (CAD) declined to 0.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Quarter 3 (October - December) of 2013-14.

This was revealed by the Report on Developments in India’s Balance of Payments released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 5 March 2014. Also, as per the report CAD reached to its lowest in the past eight years.

Other highlights of the Report

•    Rising exports and moderation in gold imports have pulled down India's current account deficit (CAD) sharply to 4.2 billion dollar in Quarter 3 of 2013-14.

•    The export was increased due to the significant growth especially in the exports of engineering goods, readymade garments, iron ore, marine products and chemicals.

•    On the other hand, merchandise imports recorded a decline of 14.8 per cent at 112.9 billion dollar in Q3 of 2013-14.

•    Decline in imports was primarily led by a steep decline in gold imports. This was amounted to 3.1 billion dollar as compared to 17.8 billion dollar in Q3 of 2012-13.

•    The declined in CAD was happened due to government imposed curbs on gold imports and the Reserve Bank of India's subsidy for Non-Resident Indian's US dollar deposits.

•    CAD narrowed to 31.1 billion dollar or 2.3 per cent of GDP in April-December 2013 from 69.8 billion dollar or 5.2 percent of GDP in April-December of 2012.

•    The CAD reflects the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign currency. It stood at 31.9 billion dollar or 6.5 per cent of GDP in October-December quarter of 2012-13.

•    On a Balance of Payment (BoP) basis, merchandise exports increased by 7.5 per cent at 79.8 billion dollar) in Q3 of 2013-14. The quantum of export was 3.9 per cent in Q3 of 2012-13.

Current Account Deficit (CAD)

A measurement of a country’s trade in which the value of goods and services it imports exceeds the value of goods and services it exports.

The current account also includes net income, such as interest and dividends, as well as transfers, such as foreign aid, though these components tend to make up a smaller percentage of the current account than exports and imports.

The current account is a calculation of a country’s foreign transactions, and along with the capital account is a component of a country’s balance of payment.

Indian acid attack victim, Laxmi won International Women of Courage Award - Click to Download

Indian acid attack victim, Laxmi won International Women of Courage Award

US honoured Laxmi, an acid attack victim with the prestigious International Women of Courage Award on 4 March 2014. She has been honoured for being a standard-bearer for the movement to end acid attacks in India.

She received the award at the State Department ceremony in Washington by Michelle Obama, first lady of US. The award was presented to Laxmi along with other awardees from different countries.

Other awardees are
• Nasrin Oryakhil (Afghanistan)
• Roshika Deo (Fiji)
• Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze (Georgia)
• Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar (Guatemala)
• Fatimata Toure (Mali)
• Maha Al Muneef (Saudi Arabia)
• Oinikhol Bobonazarova (Tajikistan)
• Ruslana Lyzhychko (Ukraine)
• Beatrice Mtetwa (Zimbabwe)

Michelle Obama, first lady of US praised all the 10 women around the world, who were chosen for the award by saying winners, should be an inspiration.

In 2013, US awarded Nirbhaya, the 23-year-old girl who faced brutal gang rape on a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012.

About Incident of Laxmi – an acquaintance threw acid on face of Laxmi in 2005, while she was waiting at a bus stop in New Delhi. The incident occurred when Laxmi was of 16-years-old and the incident has disfigured her permanently.

After the acid attack, Laxmi became the standard-bearer of India to end acid attacks and gathered 27000 signatures for a petition to curb acid sales and took her petition to the Supreme Court of India. Following the petition of Laxmi, Supreme Court ordered Indian Central and State Governments to regulate the sale of acid and the Parliament to make prosecutions of acid attacks easier to pursue. 

About International Women of Courage Award
International Women of Courage Award was established in 2007 and is an annual award that is given by Secretary of State to women around the globe who have exemplified exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for human rights, women’s equality and social progress. . This is the only Department of State award that pays tribute to emerging women leaders worldwide. Since the inception of the award in 2007, the Department of State has honored more than 70 women from 49 different countries.