Showing posts sorted by relevance for query special report. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query special report. Sort by date Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Irregularities Unearthed At Annamalai University

Government alleges abuse of power conferred on the varsity’s 
founder as reason for serious malpractices. 

A special audit ordered by the State government following the recent staff unrest and financial crisis in Annamalai University has unearthed large scale irregularities, malpractices and mismanagement in the university’s affairs.

Holding the alleged abuse of powers conferred on the university’s founder responsible for the serious malpractices, the government has warned that necessary changes were required to regulate the exercise of powers and privileges by the founder “to ensure that the university is administered in fulfilment of the purposes for which it was established”.

The audit findings led to the government demanding accountability from the University’s Senate and Syndicate. On Wednesday, a special meeting of the Senate was convened, at which several members demanded that the university be brought under government control.

One shocking revelation found in the audit report is that contributions to provident fund and pension funds amounting to Rs. 178 crore had not been remitted into the respective accounts. Further, the university authorities have diverted Rs. 268 crore from the General Fund, Examination Fund and Distance Education fund to run self-financing courses, which are supposed to be self-sufficient.

Armed with a detailed Inspection Report, the State Higher Education Secretary has shot off a letter to the Annamalai University vice-chancellor and demanded that the audit report be placed before special meetings of the Syndicate and Senate and their opinion and action sought. The State government has given the University’s Syndicate seven days to send a report to the government on the action it has taken or plans to take on the Inspection Report, along with the Senate’s opinion.

“The government is of the view that in spite of receiving grant to the tune of Rs. 42,798.24 lakh [Rs. 427.98 crore] during the period from 1998-99 to 2012-13, the university has landed in serious financial crisis. The serious malpractices have occurred due to gross abuse of powers and privileges conferred on the founder,” said the letter to the Annamalai University Registrar and Vice-Chancellor on March 7.

The government had ordered the special audit under provisions of the Annamalai University Act, following a series of events since November 2012, when the campus near Chidambaram was gripped by an agitation marked by protest meetings and fasts by the Joint Action Council of the Annamalai University Teachers and Staff Associations. A Special Local Fund Audit Team was constituted by a December 14 order.

Other key audit findings were: the University has not adhered to UGC or government norms or statutory provisions regarding appointment, promotion and fixation of pay, often fixing far higher scales of paythan permissible. The recurring financial burden as a result for 2009-10 and 2010-11 alone were Rs. 22 crore. It incurred excess expenditure amounting to Rs. 109.98 crore in 2010-11 alone by way of extra posts under Regular Education, Distance Education and Self-Financing courses, and a cumulative superfluous spending of Rs. 576.35 crore.

Violations of the Tender Transparency Act, which is applicable to the University, were noticed, as between 2008 and 2012, construction work was mostly awarded to Chettinad Builders at rates much above the estimates. The lack of an internal mechanism to oversee financial transactions has led to an overall deficit of Rs. 272 crore in the last 15 years and liabilities amounting to Rs. 238 crore.

When contacted from here, a spokesman for the Annamalai University, declining to be quoted, confirmed receiving the audit report from the government. “We received the audit report very recently and we will go by proper procedures,” he said. He added that members of the Syndicate and Senate would pass on their suggestions to the government, and only thereafter would the institution be able to comment on the issue.

At a special meeting of the University’s Senate on Wednesday, members of the Joint Action Council and several others, including vice-chancellors of other universities and governmentofficials recommended that the University be brought under the government’s control completely.

Members of the Joint Action Council of the University said they had protested many times against the illegal appointments that were being made, but were silenced by the management. “In 2010, some protesters were arrested, after which the teachers were reluctant to protest. In November last year, however, we were told the staff strength will be reduced massively and the salaries cut to meet financial problems,” said C. Subramanian, president of the Annamalai University Teachers' Progressive Association and member of the JAC. “The irregularities and malpractices started way back in the 1990s. Most government policies regarding admissions, reservation and appointments have been overlooked,” said Mr. Subramanian.

The University has 12,500 staff, of which 8,900 are non-teaching staff.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Paying The Price For Bad Management?

By KHALIDA YOUSUF | INNLIVE

A survey by leading UK-based consultancy Auditel has found that 70 per cent of organisations do not have a cost management strategy in place.

The consultancy surveyed 120 business leaders worldwide and less than two per cent of them claim to track costs, or have an on-going programme to do that.
“Most organisations do not have the sophisticated analytical tools to benchmark costs accurately and monitor them after implementing cost savings,” says Chris Allison, Auditel’s managing director.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Autistic Attitude: 'The Boy Who Doesn’t Talk In Class'

By Prashant Munde / INN Bureau

Dear Principal: do you have a problem with an autistic child in your school? On a rainy June morning, a mother in her late thirties sat on a chair in a school corridor trying to convince her five-year-old son to enter a classroom. It was the boy’s first day in school. Aiding the mother was her elder son, a boy of less than 10, who had excused himself from class in the same school. Half an hour passed, but the younger one would not budge. Eventually, a peon had to forcibly carry him in.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Adolescent Girls Count

A global investment and action agenda seeks to put adolescent girls at the centre of development initiatives in developing countries. These girls, say the authors of a new report, form a special category, deserving exclusive attention of the state, donors and NGOs. 

Adolescent girls have so far occupied a marginal position in the discourse on development, which either directs the gender lens on the girl child or on adult women. The awkwardness of adolescent girls' position between childhood and adulthood render them a 'controversy-generating' category which governments and donors have so far been uncomfortable dealing with. Dealing with these girls requires dealing with the fraught areas of gender roles, sexuality and parental domination and control, and many of these define the core of a society's ethos. 

Now, a global investment and action agenda seeks to correct this imbalance and put adolescent girls at the centre of the development agenda in developing countries. The agenda has been put out in a report titled Girls Count, as a combined effort of the Centre for Global Development, Population Council and International Centre for Research on Women. 

At one-eighth of the world's population, young people between 10 and 19 years of age are the fastest growing segment of the world population. Moreover, the poorer a country, the larger is its share of young people. This age group is also the period in which there is a marker divergence in roles of boys and girls and the cultural and social disadvantages of being a girl start becoming obvious. As a girl moves from childhood to puberty and beyond, her roles as a wife, mother, worker and citizen begin to take shape with consequences that have lifelong implications. 

The opportunities, choice and freedom available to boys usually expand while those available to girls undergo many curtailments. As compared to boys, fewer girls go to school, do more domestic work, can go out of home less often, have fewer friends and mentors and have fewer public spaces and leisure activities available to them. Often lacking the right to vote, own property and shun unwanted sexual advances, girls in this age group are a very vulnerable section of the population. In these respects, as on indicators of health, education and labour force participation, girls are considerably behind their male peers. Marriage practices including child marriage and the rule of residence with the husband's family after marriage, etc., increase girls' vulnerability and also do not allow their natal families to appreciate their full potential. 

The report suggests that economic opportunities for women in the future will be substantially greater. In particular, with the reduction of the burden of unpaid domestic work due to improved technological devices, the authors believe young women's labour would increasingly be available to the non-domestic economy. But are large segments of the adolescent and young female population getting exempted from the burden of household work due to availability of household gadgets? This is not clear from the report; in any event, it is hard to imagine which gadgets have made any real difference to the condition of rural women who neither have running water nor electricity to put such appliances to use. 

The broad agenda set out by Girls Count is that development data should be disaggregated by sex and age to make girls clearly visible to policymakers. It recommends strategic and significant investments in programs focused on girls, and demands that rights and benefits be distributed equitably once this segment of the population is clearly identified. 

The report suggests increased government activity in the domain of ensuring legal rights to girls, delivering social services and employment guarantees. Curbing child marriage and ensuring equitable inheritance laws should be major focus in the legal domain. Significantly, the report also recommends compulsory registration of births, and even issuance of an identity card to all children above 12 years. Further, it recommends that education and health services should be proactively delivered to reach the most vulnerable girls. Apart from training young girls for participation in emerging economic opportunities, governments should also address their specific needs for employment keeping in view their more constrained spatial mobility. 

Apart from supporting the above thrust areas, the report further recommends that donor agencies and UN bodies should specifically focus upon prevention of HIV/AIDS, and on promoting post-primary education which is crucial for realizing the full economic potential of young women. The transition from primary to secondary education requires specific attention as adolescent girls are most likely to drop out due to societal pressures during this stage. This issue requires specific attention by way of creation of a gender sensitive learning environment for girls who are either approaching or past puberty. 

Significantly, the report suggests that multinational companies have a vanguard role to play in every country, and urges them to invest in schools for girls. Private employers are urged not to discriminate on grounds of gender, marital status, or pregnancy. In addition to facilitating access to micro-credit, private employers are also urged to facilitate onsite-banking facilities for young women, which allow them to have savings independent of their families. Private companies must also push the state to invest in infrastructure like water and transport, say the authors. This would indirectly help young women by easing their domestic burdens. 

The report envisages a vast role for civil society organisations to further the agenda it lays out. Apart from being pro-active in seeking appropriate policy changes, CSOs are urged to reshape family and community expectations through community sensitisation and social marketing programs. Creating safe spaces for adolescent girls to congregate, share information and ideas and seek support is another task such organisations could fulfill. This would be a crucial step towards enhancing the social and cultural capital available to girls. 

The report has done a good job of highlighting how adolescent girls form a special category, deserving exclusive attention of developmental agencies, whether it is the state, the donors or the NGOs. But it is not clear whether the situation of these girls can change drastically as long as large segments of the population remain economically marginal. 

If the report falls short, it is in not recognising the enormity of some of its recommendations. The authors admit that formal employment opportunities are minimal in most developing countries, but do not dwell upon the immense significance of this for the economic opportunities and conditions of employment for both young men and women. The report also urges civil society groups to organise workers in the informal sector, but the gulf between those employed in the formal and the informal sectors is too vast and significant to be dealt with in this cursory manner. Moreover, while gauging the economic and social opportunities of the marginal sections of the population, it can hardly be ignored that sweeping current trends in globalisation and liberalisation are implicated in widening this gulf.

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

What Is The Truth Behind Sonia Gandhi’s Trips To The US?

By Rahul Seth | INNLIVE

SPECIAL REPORT Last year in September, a US court had reportedly served a summons to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in a human rights violation case related to the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The summons were served after a group called SFJ (Sikhs for Justice) filed a civil suit in a Brooklyn Federal Court alleging that Mrs Gandhi was guilty of shielding some Congress members who had played an active role in the 1984 riots.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Special Report: This Little-Known 'Hyderabadi Studio' Made The 'Baahubali' A Visual Mega Spectacle

India’s most expensive motion picture, Baahubali, owes its world-class special effects to a very young company.

Makuta, established just five years ago, was the principal studio for S S Rajamouli’s blockbuster film, which consists of 90% computer-generated imagery (CGI) and graphics, with some 4,500-5,000 visual effects (VFX) shots.

Everything about the period drama set in medieval India appears larger than life—including the kingdom of Mahishmati, with its gigantic temples and courtyards, the landscapes comprising mystical waterfalls and mountains, and the epic battles.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Zakir Naik Speeches Pro-Terror, IRF Paid Money To Lure Youth For Conversion: Mumbai Police

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

No member of the IRF or any other NGO run by Naik was questioned.

In a 71-page report on controversial televangelist Dr Zakir Naik, the Mumbai Police have said his Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) paid anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000 to lure a youth to convert to Islam.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Telangana IPS officer in trouble? News report alleges serious abuse of power

Tension is brewing between a newspaper and an IPS officer from Telangana. This after the newspaper  claimed to have accessed a report that makes serious allegations against the police officer.

In a piece for The New Indian Express on Thursday, Vikram Sharma reported that an enquiry by the Telangana State Intelligence Department had made several charges against IPS officer Tejdeep Kaur Menon, Director General, Special Protection Force.

Quoting the intelligence report, TNIE claims that Tejdeep was involved in misappropriation of funds meant for the Swachh Hyderabad programme and also harassed hundreds of Telangana SPF employees, including 32 posted at her house.

According to the report, these officers were allegedly used as "drivers, carpenters, cooks, attenders, gardeners and others."

The report also alleges that she showed favouritism to Andhra personnel, while also "deliberately delaying the process of distribution of SPF personnel between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by refusing to relieve AP-native personnel." 

Lastly, TNIE also reported that "a water tanker from the SPF academy, Ameenpur, makes 150 trips to Tejdeep’s residence every month and she was faking all bills."

Tejdeep was promoted to her present post in May last year. Before that, she had served as Additional Director General, (Sports), for the combined Andhra Pradesh Government.

She is known locally, for attempting to make the Ameenpur Panchayat, garbage-free, while also taking steps to clean the Ameenpur lake.

In a rejoinder to the TNIE report, Tejdeep issued the following statement: 

"The allegations about internal organizational and resource matters of what is a security organization coupled with imputed motives of working against the interests of the Telangana state are tenuous and baseless...It is apparent that the report was written and published only to tarnish my name and reputation. The reports are highly slanderous and intended to malign the work that the TSSPF and I are involved in...The report is per se defamatory as it is a deliberate attempt to needlessly, or at the behest of some, to project me in the darkest light possible and to scandalize me in public and tar my reputation."

The INNLive reached out and spoke to both, the TNIE reporter and the IPS officer in question. Both of them assured that they would revert shortly, but did not.

The copy will be updated if and when they respond. 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The Unholy 'Nexus' Between India Inc ‘Electoral Trusts’

By Debayan Das | Kolkata

SPECIAL REPORT Money can't really decide elections. But why does India's poll finance remain so murky? An intriguing paradox of contemporary Indian politics has been insufficiently noted: corporate India finances India's elections, substantially if not wholly, but it is unable to determine election outcomes. Money matters, but it is not always electorally decisive.

By now, it has become a well known fact that Electoral Trusts play a very significant role in the funding of both national and regional political parties that make use of these funds. And now, as the general election of 2014 is knocking on the door, the number of electoral trusts, set up by the top corporate houses, is also getting bigger.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Why PMO Is Protecting The Uusecured 'Defaulters'?

By Rajinder Puri / New Delhi

Recall the Oil for Food scam probed by the UN appointed Volcker Committee which submitted its report seven years ago.  Natwar Singh was sacked from the cabinet for alleged involvement in that deal after the Justice Pathak Commission probing the deal submitted its report. One would like to refresh the reader’s memory by what appeared in the article "Can Corrupt Politicians Preserve Freedom?" on August 15, 2006.

One wrote: “The Pathak Report most conveniently dovetailed with the political objectives of the Congress.  Natwar Singh "misused" his position but took no money. Therefore he deserved cabinet expulsion but no legal conviction.

Friday, January 09, 2015

How Pakistan's Dealers Drugged Punjab: Smugglers In Border Paid To 'Conceal & Clear' Heroin Consignments?

It is not just terror that is being exported from across the border. The scourge of drug trafficking in Punjab has been growing due to the easy availability of drug couriers, digging of tunnels, insertion of pipes through border fencing, and well-knit syndicates including transnational criminals running the racket from jails. 

The Border Security Force (BSF), in a detailed report to the Union Home Ministry on drug trafficking in Punjab from beyond the borders, has explained the functioning of well-organised drug cartels. 

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Malfunctioning: The Aarushi Murder Case Investigations

By Kajol Singh & Avinash Sinha

An explosive and detailed analysis of the country’s most famous murder trial. At this moment, in a CBI court in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, events are unfolding that might eventually go down as one of the most shameful scandals in India’s legal history. This is a story that should frighten everybody. It’s a story of colossal incompetence and prejudice; a story about a wilful miscarriage of justice. It’s a story that could happen to anyone in the country.

Friday, April 19, 2013

SPECIAL REPORT: RED TAPE STRANGLES 'BLACK CATS' OF INDIA

By Rahul Khanna / Delhi

India's famed Black Cats seem to have lost their bite in the four- and- a- half years since the Mumbai terror attacks. The National Security Guard ( NSG), the nation’s much vaunted counter- terror arm that so heroically brought the curtain down on the 26/ 11 outrage, stands compromised in the critical areas of manpower and training, INN investigation has found out.

Governmental neglect and apathy have so hobbled this sword arm of the security apparatus that the top hierarchy of the NSG has been moved to say as much to the Ministry of Home Affairs ( MHA), its controller and administrator. The NSG wants officers, and it wants helicopters to train its men. Both are in short supply.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Access To Health: Nowhere Near To Being A Healthy Nation

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SPECIAL REPORT
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The out-of-pocket health expenditure by the poor is spiraling and the government spending on public health care is reducing. The existing public health programes and insurance schemes are failing; private health care sector is not properly regulated; INNLIVE finds the health of our nation worrisome.

Despite our efforts and best wishes, our modus vivendi, work atmosphere and environment often lead to situations where we have to consult medics and get treatment. The Country Cooperation Strategy brief of the World Health Organization (WHO) informs that India accounts for 21 percent of the world’s global burden of disease.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Sardar Sarovar Project: NaMo Narmada, Who Gains, What?

By Himanshu Upadhyaya (Guest Writer)

As elections draw closer, state rhetoric over the Sardar Sarovar dam heightening project is slowly reaching a crescendo as evident from various media reports, but who will finally benefit from the moves on the ground?

Even as The Indian Express reports on the steadily rising water storage in the Sardar Sarovar Dam over the river near Kevadiya in Gujarat, farmers who have been waiting for the last three decades for Narmada waters to irrigate their farms intensify the stir.

Friday, May 31, 2013

WILL 'MARUTI' BECOME 'TATA MOTORS' IN GUJARAT?

By Poonam Mondal / Ahmedabad

Narendra Modi’s political strategy may be working wonders for him, but definitely not his business strategy.

According to a report, discontent is brewing in 44 villages covering 126,000 acres of land in the Mandal Becharaji belt, which has been notified as special investment region (SIR).

SIRs are similar to special economic zones, but units established here are not just export-oriented. Apart from commercial and industrial units, such regions can also house residential areas and offer logistic connectivity.

Monday, March 09, 2015

Special Report: Why Blame Mufti On 'Masarat Alam', When BJP Wooed 'Separatists'?

The saffron party allegedly reached out to NDFB insurgents in Assam during the Lok Sabha elections.

It is very easy to adopt a hardline national interest view and hurl fire and brimstone at Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for ordering the release of Masarat Alam, supposedly the architect of the 2010 protests.

The BJP, being part of the ruling coalition in Jammu and Kashmir, is party to the government's decision to release Alam.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Special Report: Cows Are Dying Mysteriously In India And A New Vaccine Might Be To Blame

The Ministry of Agriculture has ordered an investigation into the three companies manufacturing foot and mouth disease vaccine.

The major outbreak of foot and mouth disease last year, that killed thousands of cattle in India’s five southern states, may have been caused by the use of substandard vaccines, says a new report.

A team of scientists from the Chaudhary Charan Singh National Institute of Animal Health in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, tested samples from 52 batches of vaccine provided to the Foot and Mouth Disease Control Programme by three companies.

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Special Report: Who Among India’s Young Are Likely To Become Modern Slaves?

India has the largest youth population as well as the highest number of people trapped in forced labour and trafficking.

Last month, the United Nations Population Fund released its State of the World’s population report. At the same time, an international activist group, the Walk Free Foundation, released its Global Slavery Index 2014, which estimates the global extent of forced labour, human trafficking and other forms of slavery. In both reports, India gets the highest rankings.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Special Report: The Lavish Big, Fat, Grand Indian Wedding

By Niloufer Khan / INN Live

There's a saying that there is no limit to spending on a wedding, especially if it's an Indian one. While marriages in India are becoming bigger and grander affairs by the day, there is a personal touch that would-be bride and grooms are giving to the most special day of their lives. INN Live finds that when it comes to creating special wedding memories, there is no dearth of ideas and no limit to the expenditure either.

When Mumbai-based Meera and Alex, a Russian based in America (names changed), decided to tie the knot, they wanted their wedding photography to reflect how they fell in love.