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News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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Minorities, Hunar Haat And Atmanirbhar Bharat

By Tanmaya Das
First publised on 2021-01-22 09:37:10

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Tanmaya is a budding journalist

The 'Hunar Haat', a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, is being held at Lucknow from January 22 to February 4 this year. It aims to strengthen employment opportunities for artisans and craftsmen. The prime focus of the program is to go 'vocal for local'. PM Narendra Modi endorses local products and praises new talents. However, such initiatives and skill development programs have not had much impact on job creation and employment opportunities amongst minorities.

Several schemes empowering artisans and craftsmen are woefully inadequate to provide job opportunities to the minorities. Skill India aims to empower 300 million people by 2022, but those trained under PMKVY are still unemployed.  Unprecedented economic slowdown due to the pandemic has resulted in joblessness and the minorities are the worst sufferers.

Before the pandemic, around 1.6 million people benefitted from Skill India, but the employability rate also dropped from 50 per cent to 30 per cent. Such disastrous results are partly due to maladministration. The mismanagement in providing funds to minorities is a hindrance. Under PMKVY, the government claims that the trainees would gain proficiency to open their enterprises, but the lack of proper skills results in massive unemployment.

It must be noted that simply introducing skill development measures to achieve Aatma-nirbhar India will not help the minorities to grow independently.  Job creation, business, fund-flow and employability run in parallel. Additionally, limited access to credit due to NPA affects investment in job creation. The loss in business due to the pandemic has resulted in heavy debt in many cases.

The government has claimed that the NEP 2020 will undeniably generate a profound effect on the economy to fight unemployment. Nevertheless, the implementation measures are exaggerated and not achieving the desired results.

The upcoming Union Budget must combat unemployment with suitable measures. The government must find ways to allocate funds for minority development and disburse them to the beneficiaries without hindrances. Improvisation in the training programs is needed along with the strict monitoring of use of funds in skill development centres.