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India’s total debt as a percentage of GDP is not in line with that of Sri Lanka - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 7, 2022
In light of the recent Sri Lankan economic crisis, a social media post comparing the annual debt to GDP ratio of India with that of Sri Lanka is being widely circulated. The post claims that India’s debt to GDP ratio figures is in line with that of Sri Lanka and that a similar economic crisis awaits India.  Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: India’s debt to GDP ratio figures is in line with that of Sri Lanka.
Fact: While it is true that Sri Lanka’s total debt as a percentage of GDP is high and even surpassed 100%, India’s total national debt as a percentage of GDP figures is not as high as claimed in the post. From 2016-17 to 2020-21 India’s overall national debt as a percentage of GDP is hovering around 50%. Although the debt position of the nation is much lower than the claim made in the post,  if we include the debt of all the states, the debt position is in line with the claim. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
Sri Lanka is facing its worst-ever economic crisis; experts opined that debt management of the country is also a reason for the dire state of the country’s economy. Reviewing Sri Lanka’s economy last month IMF said that ‘public debt had risen to “unsustainable levels” and foreign exchange reserves were insufficient for near-term debt payments.’
According to the data available on IMF, Sri Lanka’s gross debt as a percentage of GDP accounted for 79.02% in 2016 and this has risen to 111.42% in 2022.  This implies what the country owes is more than what it produces.
Another major issue with Sri Lanka is that the foreign debt (external debt) is almost the same as domestic debt (internal debt).
The information regarding Sri Lanka’s debt position as provided in the post is true. However, the actual figures for India’s debt as a percentage of GDP are significantly lower than the claim made in the viral post.
According to the information related to the debt position of India, available on the RBI website, from 2016-17 to 2020-21, the country’s overall national debt as a percentage of GDP is hovering around 50%. Total debt comprises both external as well as internal debts and also accounts for other liabilities.
Likewise, India’s total internal debt (debts raised through internal sources) as a percentage of GDP is less than 50%. From 46.89% in 2016-17, the total internal debt as a percentage of GDP saw a marginal increase to 48.24 in 2020-21.
Unlike in the case of Sri Lanka where half the debt is foreign (external), the total external liabilities (debt borrowed from external sources) as a percentage of GDP in the case of India is a little under 3%, significantly lower than for Sri Lanka.
What if the Debt of States is included?
When the outstanding debt of all the states is included, India’s total debt as a percentage of GDP (both centre and the states are combined), except for the year 2020-21, is in line with the figures claimed in the viral post. Most likely, the figures claimed in the post could be sourced from this statistic.
To sum it up, India’s total national debt as a percentage of GDP is not in line with that of Sri Lanka.
UPDATE (09 April 2022)
In the context of the Sri Lankan economic crisis, another post is going viral which claims that the Government of India took loans worth Rs. 55 lakh crores in the first 67 years after India’s independence while the Narendra Modi led BJP government took loans worth Rs. 73 lakh crores in just 8 years.
Claim: Government of India took loans worth Rs. 55 lakh crores in the first 67 years after India’s independence while the Narendra Modi led BJP government took loans worth Rs. 73 lakh crores in just 8 years.
Fact: It is true that the total outstanding liabilities of Government of India by 31 March 2014, were Rs. 55.87 lakh crores. However, this is not the total amount of loans availed in the 67 years but outstanding amount by that date. By 31 March 2022, the total outstanding liabilities of Government of India are estimated at Rs. 135.87 lakh crores. However, the ‘Debt to GDP Ratio’ of the Government of India was 52.16 by the end of 2013-14 which is expected to be in the same range even by the end of 2021-22. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
As per official budget documents, it is true that the total outstanding liabilities of the Government of India by 31 March 2014, were Rs. 55.87 lakh crores. However, this is not the total amount of loans availed in the 67 years but the outstanding amount by that date. The ‘Debt to GDP Ratio’ of the Government of India was 52.16 by the end of 2013-14 as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.
By 31 March 2022, the total outstanding liabilities of the Government of India are estimated at Rs. 135.87 lakh crores. However, the ‘Debt to GDP Ratio’ of the Government of India which was 52.16 by the end of 2013-14 is expected to be in the same range even by the end of 2021-22.
To sum it up, while the figures related to the total outstanding debt are true, the ‘Debt to GDP Ratio’ is not going to change significantly.


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Indira Gandhi wanted to share India’s nuclear test results with the entire scientific community, not just Pakistan - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 29, 2019
A post is being shared on Facebook with a claim that, in 1974 after the Pokhran nuclear tests, Indira Gandhi offered nuclear technology to Pakistan. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Indira Gandhi offered nuclear technology to Pakistan.
Fact: Indira Gandhi has not only offered to share nuclear technology with Pakistan but also with other countries in the world. She said in the Parliament that “India is willing to share her nuclear technology with Pakistan in the same way she is willing to share it with other countries, provided proper conditions for understanding and trust are created.” Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When searched on the WikiLeaks website with the keywords ‘Indira Pakistan Nuclear’, the letter written by Indira Gandhi to the Pakistan PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto can be found in the search results. Also, in the search results, Indira Gandhi’s statement in the Parliament on the nuclear explosion can be found. Talking about her letter to Pakistan PM, Indira Gandhi in her statement to the Parliament said, “I have explained in my letter to Prime Minister Bhutto the peaceful nature and the economic purposes of this experiment and have also stated that India is willing to share her nuclear technology with Pakistan in the same way she is willing to share it with other countries, provided proper conditions for understanding and trust are created.”
In her statement to the Parliament, she also said, “the Atomic Energy Commission is at present engaged in studying the results of the experiment. It is expected that this process will take about six months. In keeping with scientific tradition, the Atomic Energy Commission proposes to publish papers giving the results of the experiment for the benefit of the scientific world.”
Also, in an interview with Danish TV, Indira Gandhi said, “we are willing to share the results of our experiment with Pakistani scientists and other scientists of the world.”
To sum it up, Indira Gandhi wanted to share India’s nuclear test results with the entire scientific community and other countries and not specifically with Pakistan alone.
Did you watch our new Episode of the DECODE series?

source: news-factly

created: October 29, 2019

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Sai Krishna Muthyanolla


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Indonesia government did not issue any orders to shut down internet services before and after Azaan - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 30, 2022
A video is being shared on social media claiming that the Indonesian government had recently issued guidelines to shut down internet services before and after 30 minutes of Azaan across the nation. According to the post, the Indonesian government had done a survey and found that more than 40 per cent of people in the nation were not attending daily prayers in Mosques. This post claims that the Indonesian government had issued this guideline to bring back people to Mosques for prayers. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Indonesian government ordered a shutdown of internet services before and after 30 minutes of Azaan.
Fact: The Indonesian government did not issue any such guidelines ordering the shutdown of internet services before and after the 30 minutes of Azaan. Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs in February 2022, issued a circular regulating the use of loudspeakers in Mosques and other prayer halls. The Indonesian government shut down internet services multiple times in the past to curb misinformation during the protests in the country, but they did not issue any such orders of internet shutdown for Azaan. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether the Indonesian government had issued any such guidelines to curb internet services before and after 30 minutes of Azaan, we could not find any such announcement on the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs website. The Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs did not announce such guidelines on its official Twitter, Facebook and Instagram handles. If the World’s largest Muslim-populated country  Indonesia had issued such guidelines, it would have been widely reported. But we could not find a single news report about such guidelines.
Multiple times in the past, the Indonesian government had shut down internet services to prevent violence during protests. News reports related to the past internet shutdowns in Indonesia can be seen here and here.
In February 2022, Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs issued a circular regulating the use of loudspeakers in Mosques and prayer halls. The Minister for Religious Affairs said that the guidelines were issued to increase peace, order and harmony among citizens. Neither in these guidelines circular nor in any of the other circulars, the Indonesian government issued orders to curb internet services before Azaan.
To sum it up, the Indonesian government did not issue any orders to shut down internet services before and after Azaan.

created: November 30, 2022


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Video from Indonesia is falsely shared as ‘BJP worker kicking back the tear gas canister in West Bengal’. - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 9, 2020
On 8 October 2020, the BJP youth wing’s march to the State’s secretariat (‘Nabanna’) in West Bengal turned violent as clashes erupted between the BJP party workers and the West Bengal police. A video of a man kicking the tear gas canister back towards the police is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it shows a BJP worker kicking the smoke bomb in West Bengal. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a BJP worker kicking the tear gas canister back towards the police in West Bengal.
Fact: The video is neither related to West Bengal nor India. The video was taken in Indonesia. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the keyframes of the video were run through the Google Reverse Image Search, the same video was found to be uploaded by ‘redfish’ media page on Facebook. In the description, it was written that the video is from Indonesia. The same video was also found on their Twitter page with the same description.
Also, the police vehicle in the video resembles the police vehicles in Indonesia (Same colour scheme and ‘Polisi’ written on the vehicle). On 8 October 2020, there were protests and clashes in Indonesia over a new law, which people claimed will affect their jobs. While there are similar visuals of recent clashes in Indonesia, we could not confirm whether the posted video is related to the recent protests. But, it can be concluded that the video is from Indonesia.
To sum it up, a video from Indonesia is falsely shared as ‘BJP worker kicking back the tear gas canister in West Bengal’.

created: October 9, 2020


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Indonesian currency note carrying the image of lord Ganesha was withdrawn in 2008 - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 28, 2022
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal requested PM Modi to print the images of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi along with image of Mahatma Gandhi on currency notes suggesting that it would help the country’s economy to be back on track. He also cited the example of Indonesia to say that even though it is a Muslim country with less than 2% Hindus and more than 85% Muslims, it had images of Lord Ganesh on its currency notes. In this context, several people shared the image of currency note with the image of Lord Ganesh with a claim that it is Indonesian Currency note of denomination 20,000 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR). Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Image of Indonesian currency note carrying the image of Hindu God Ganesha.
Fact: Indonesian currency note of value 20,000 Rupiah (IDR) which carries the image of Lord Ganesha was introduced in 1998 but was later withdrawn in 2008 as a part of regular upgrades in security features of the currency notes. The currency notes that are currently in circulation in Indonesia do not contain the image of Ganesha. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
First, we searched the details of this currency note on Numismatics website Numista. According to Numista, this Indonesian Currency note of value 20,000 Rupiah (IDR) contains the images of Indonesian Independence Activist and former Education Minister Ki Hadjar Dewantara and Lord Ganesha on one side and image of children in classroom on other side of the note.
According to a working paper by Bank Indonesia, these notes were issued in the year 1998 but were withdrawn in the 2008 along with three other bank notes as a part of regular upgrades in security features . A press release by Bank Indonesia regarding this issue can be seen here.
However, Government set a deadline of 10 years i.e., until 31 December 2018 to exchange these notes with new ones. Bank Indonesia, in a press release on 03 December 2018, reminded the people to exchange these withdrawn notes before 31 December 2018. The images of 20,000 Rupiah notes that are currently in circulation in Indonesia can be seen here, here and here. None of the currency notes that are in circulation in Indonesia currently do not contain the image of Ganesha.
To sum it up, Indonesia currency note carrying the image of Ganesha was withdrawn in 2008.

created: October 28, 2022


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Videos related to Airsoft game and foreign military training shared as the training visuals of the Indian army - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 2, 2022
Update (02 November 2022)
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it is the camouflage training video of the Indian army. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing the camouflage training provided for Indian army soldiers.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows the visuals from an airsoft game. A tiktok handle belonging to ‘Airsoft CamMan’ published this video. ‘Airsoft CaMman’ is a Britain-based airsoft content creator company. The video does not show the Indian army training visuals. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found published by a TikTok user named ‘zippkey1204’. This user published the video crediting to ‘Airsoft CamMan’. ‘Airsoft CamMan’ is a Britain-based Airsoft content creator company. Similar camouflage snipers videos were found published on this TikTok handle and on the official social media handles of ‘Airsoft CamMan’. They can be seen here, here and here.  Airsoft is a team game in which participants eliminate opposing players by tagging them out of play with spherical plastic projectiles shot with mock air weapons called Airsoft guns. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post shows visuals from an Airsoft game, not the training visuals of the Indian army.
Published (17 October 2022)
Video of a man wearing a combat uniform catching a snake while crawling in a jungle is being widely shared with an overlaid text of “Indian Army”. Let’s verify the claim made in the video.
Claim: Indian soldier catching a snake with his hand while crawling in jungle.
Fact: An extended version of the video was uploaded by an Indonesian YouTube channel “Calon Prajurit”. The video shows the training video of an Indonesian soldier belonging to Indonesian special armed forces. The channel also features several Indonesian military training visuals. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
We did a reverse image search and found that an extended version of the viral video was uploaded by a YouTube channel called “Calon Prajurit”, which means ‘soldier candidate’. The video was uploaded on 14 September 2021 with the title “TNI SI HANTU RIMBA” (TNI The Jungle Ghost). The description of the channel and video, written in Indonesian also indicates that the channel shares all things about the Indonesian National Army.
The channel also contains several training videos of Indonesian special armed forces. Some of them can be seen here, here and here. However, we couldn’t independently verify whether the snake was a real one or not.
According to Wikipedia, Kopassus also called as Hantu Rimba (Jungle Ghost) is an Indonesian Army special forces group that conducts special operation missions for Indonesian Government. More about it can be seen here.
To sum it up, visuals of training belonging to Indonesia military are shared as Indian soldier catching a snake with his hand.

created: November 2, 2022


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Indonesian Police Simulation Exercise Video Falsely Associated with Indian Farmers' Protest - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 15, 2024
A video (here, here and here) claiming to be a clash between protesting farmers (here and here) in India and the police over the minimum support price has gone viral on social media. The translated caption from Hindi reads, “There is a fight going on in the farmers’ movement; today’s true news is horrifying”. This article will fact-check the claim made in this video.
Claim: The video shows a clash between protesting Indian farmers and the police.
Fact: The video actually shows a simulation exercise for the Indonesian police conducted in the Sula Islands, Northern Maluku. Therefore, the claim made in the post is False.
To verify the viral claim about the video, a search for news reports on a clash between the police and protesting farmers was conducted. The search did not yield any recent news reports with visuals matching the alleged clash in the video.
Next, a reverse image search was executed on a few keyframes from the video, which led to several Indonesian articles (here, here and here) featuring visuals similar to those of the viral video. These articles referred to the video as a security preparation simulation exercise for the Indonesian police in Sula Islands, Northern Maluku, in anticipation of the 2024 elections.
The simulation exercise reportedly contained low to high-level escalation scenarios. The goal was to train the police officers in various security activities.
One of these articles included a clearly visible banner that exactly matches the one seen in the viral video.
Upon translating the Indonesian text on the banner, it read, ‘SISPAMKOTA SIMULATION, Dobra Rugba, SECURITY OF THE 2023 2024 ELECTIONS IN THE JURISDICTION OF THE SULA ISLANDS POLICE.’
A further internet search led to the discovery of Facebook and YouTube videos (here, here, here and here) of the same event that featured the same banner seen in the viral video.
To sum up, the viral video is not related to the Indian Farmers’ protest but is a police simulation exercise from Indonesia.


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Infiltration after the CAB’s introduction in the Parliament? No, it's an old video - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 12, 2019
A video is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it shows Bangladeshis entering into Assam after the introduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (CAB) in the Parliament. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Video of Bangladeshis entering into Assam after the introduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Parliament.
Fact: The posted video is an old one. Amit Shah has introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha on 09 December 2019. But the posted video can be found in circulation from January 2019. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When the screenshots of the video were run through the Yandex Reverse Image Search, a video of ‘News Nation’ with the same visuals was found in the search results. The ‘News Nation’ video has the following description: ‘Exclusive: Bangladeshi immigrants infiltration video from Silchar border’ and was uploaded on 22 January 2019. But, Amit Shah has introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha on 09 December 2019. So, an old video is being shared again to mislead the people.
To sum it up, the video was not taken after the CAB’s introduction in the Parliament.
Did you watch our new Episode of the DECODE series?

created: December 12, 2019


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[Infographic] The Story of Electoral Bonds
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 29, 2019
Electoral Bonds were sold in 10 phases till date, starting from March 2018. Here is a snapshot of what happened so far.


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[Infographic] Who benefitted from Electoral Bonds in 2018-19?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 10, 2020
Access here Comprehensive Data on Electoral Bonds (as of February 2024)
Who benefitted from Electoral Bonds in 2018-19?   Out of a total of Rs.2551 crore worth electoral bonds sold in 2018-19, BJP received Rs. 1451 crore (57%), Congress Rs. 383 crore (15%).

created: January 10, 2020


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Information Crusaders: Empowerment through RTI - Success story - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 8, 2015
“What is the tiger population in our state?” asked 10-year old Mamata to her teacher at the government school in Nizamabad district of Telangana. The chapter on Tigers had filled her mind with a lot of questions that the lesson plan did not have any answers to. So her teacher told her that she could get the answers using the RTI (Right to Information) Act.
She jumped at the opportunity and submitted an application to the Department of Forests asking the population of tigers in her state, a district wise break up and also what steps the government was currently taking to protect the endangered species. 25 days later, she had her answers delivered to her home in a registered post. Mamata was thrilled at the details and information she was able to obtain from the government.
Guiding young minds like Mamata on how to use instruments like the RTI to know about their country, government and environment will help strengthen the social and civic fabric in India. Informed citizens with the armor of rights will be a step in the right direction.
(Please read a similar RTI success story on Manoj here)

created: January 8, 2015


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Instagram has not granted the government access to all group chats - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 21, 2023
A post is being widely shared across social media platforms, claiming that Instagram has granted the government access to all group chats, allowing them to see users’ messages. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Instagram has granted the government access to all group chats, allowing them to see users’ messages.
Fact: According to the existing Instagram privacy policy, there are no clauses pertaining to granting the government, access to all group chats. However, the policy states that Meta (Instagram’s parent company) shares users’ data with the government in response to legal requests or court orders in accordance with applicable law. Meta also mentioned that users can even enable end to end encryption for individual and group chats. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
There are no reports regarding Instagram granting the government, access to all group chats or messages of users. According to the existing Instagram privacy policy, there are no clauses about providing the government with access to group chats. The privacy policy also states that Instagram will inform users before it makes changes to its privacy policy.
However, the policy states that Meta (Instagram’s parent company) shares user’s data with the government in response to legal requests or court orders in accordance with applicable law. Meta also mentions that it scrutinises every government request and produces only the information that is narrowly tailored to respond to each request. Depending on the request, it gives basic subscriber information: Such as name, length of service, payment information, email addresses, and recent login/logout IP addresses, records pertaining to account activity: Such as message headers and IP addresses, stored contents of an account: Such as messages, photos, videos, timeline posts, and location information.
The privacy policy also states that each and every request Meta received is carefully reviewed for legal sufficiency and Meta may reject or require greater specificity on requests that appear overly broad or vague. Details about the government requests for data can be seen here.
Additionally, Instagram allows users to enable end-to-end encryption for individual and group chats. End-to-end encryption adds extra security and protection to sender messages and calls in a chat so that only the sender and the receiver can see, hear, or read them. Nobody including Meta, can see or listen to what’s sent or said.. More information regarding Meta’s privacy policy can be read here, here, and here.
To sum it up, Instagram did not grant the government access to all group chats.

created: December 21, 2023


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Domestic Violence increases in wake of Lockdowns across the World
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 18, 2020
As more & more countries announce lockdowns to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic violence against women & children have seen an increase globally.
As COVID-19 grips nations, Governments across the globe are imposing nation-wide lockdowns to combat the pandemic. Lockdowns confine people to their houses and restrict movement outside houses except for essential items. As more & more people are confined to their homes, there has been an upsurge in the number of cases of violence against women and children globally including India. The executive director of UN Women, in a press statement, referred to the violence against women and girls a ‘shadow pandemic’. UN chief António Guterres also called for measures to address the ‘horrifying global surge in domestic violence directed towards women and girls’ as a result of lockdowns imposed by various nations.
Lockdown due to COVID-19 likely to result in increased
domestic violence
According to UN Women, globally in the last 12 months, about 243 million women and girls in the age group of 15 to 49 years have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence committed by an intimate partner. This amounts to 18% of the women and girls in the age group of 15 to 49 years. The organization has predicted that the scenario of domestic violence is likely to worsen amidst the COVID-19 lockdown due to restricted movement and confinement.
Many countries have reported an increase in the number
of cases of domestic violence
France, which has the fourth-highest number of confirmed cases and deaths due to COVID-19,  announced a lockdown on 17 March 2020, and since then, there has been a 30% increase in the domestic violence cases according to UN Women. Cyprus, which is an island country in the Mediterranean area, witnessed an increase in calls to helplines by 30%. Similarly, Singapore also recorded a surge in the calls on helplines by 33%. Argentina also reported a 25% increase in the number of emergency calls related to domestic violence. In Lebanon and Malaysia, the calls received on helpline numbers had doubled whereas, in China, the number had tripled as compared to the same month in the previous year since the pandemic broke out.
Even in the developed nations– USA, Germany, Spain, UK, and Canada, similarincreasing trends have been highlighted by government authorities, civilsociety groups, and women’s rights activists. In Australia, according to aWomen’s Safety New South Wales survey, 40% of frontline workers had reportedincreased help requests by survivors. 70% of them had also reported that thecases they received since the outbreak revealed greater complexity.
NCW reports increased cases of domestic violence
The chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), Rekha Sharma stated on twitter that the number of cases of domestic violence reported to NCW in a week since lockdown  went up to 69 in addition to those received personally by members of NCW. In an interview, she also stated that the number had more than doubled since lockdown. She further added that more cases were reported in North India as compared to the South. However, it has to be noted that these numbers only pertain to the cases reported to NCW.
Childline India (1098) is a service under the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD). The ‘1098’ is an emergency helpline for children, to which cases of child labour, abuse, violence, missing, sexual assault, trafficking and other cases related to children are reported. According to their latest Childline Newsletter, released on 06 April 2020, ChildLine witnessed an increase in calls by 50% amidst the lockdown. From the time lockdown was announced on 25 March 2020, within a week, the helpline received more than 3 Lakh calls. However, the majority of them were seeking information on COVID-19.
UN urges countries to take adequate measures to ensure
Women’s safety
The UN has asked all countries to prioritize and incorporate preventionand redressal of violence against women in their national response plans forCOVID-19. Shelters and helplines for women are to be made an essential servicein all countries, and awareness must also be increased. UN also urged allcountries to boost psycho-social support and online counselling with the helpof helplines, SMS, online tools and networks, to help women with technology-basedsolutions. Even NGOs, civil society, and other entities have been urged to takeresponsibility and support the governments in order to ensure women safety.
New helpline number launched by NCW
To deal with the increasing number of cases, the NCW has launched a new exclusive number to send alerts on domestic violence on women through WhatsApp, during the COVID -19 lockdown period. Further, the WCD Ministry held video conferences  with the ‘One Stop Centres’ and they have been asked to ensure the provision of legal and psychosocial aid to the survivors. Both the WCD ministry & NCW have also adopted other means such as videos and infographics to increase awareness and have urged women to come forward and report domestic violence. Measures to ensure mental well-being for children have also been issued by the ministry.
Only one in four countries have laws that specifically
protect women from domestic violence
According to UN Women, only 25% of countries have laws that specifically protect women from domestic violence. In India, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 extends protection to women from domestic violence. The civil law includes physical violence, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and economic abuse under domestic violence. Section 498 A of the Indian Penal Code makes domestic violence and harassment of women by her husband or his family, for dowry and related matters a criminal offence.
Domestic violence is widely under-reported in India, as well as globally
Domestic violence knows no boundaries. It affects women and girls irrespective of socio-economic conditions, or education background. It is largely under-reported and according to the UN, only less than 40% of women who experience violence seek help. Only less than 10% of the women that seek help go to the police.
There are various reasons for under-reporting. The perpetrator is usually an intimate partner, a family member or someone they know. Fear of revenge on reporting the issues to police can be another reason. Impact on children and family, and social implications are some other factors.
Services supporting women and survivors are also
impacted due to lockdown
As a result of the lockdown, women are unable to even temporarily escapefrom their abusive partners. In the current scenario, women and children mayalso have difficulties in accessing phones or contacting helpline numbers.Public services are also disrupted- including police, healthcare, justice andother social services since more manpower and resources have to be diverted tocontain the pandemic. This disruption in service is at the cost of care andsupport that needs to be extended to survivors. Clinical management of rape,mental health and psycho-social support are some of the services that survivorsneed to be provided with.
Global cost of gender-based violence is almost 2% of
GDP
It is evident from the statistics that severe measures need to be takenfor curbing domestic violence against women and children since the impact ofviolence is severe. As an individual, a woman’s mental health and physicalhealth will get adversely affected. The global cost of gender-based violenceagainst women and girls has been estimated at almost 2% of the Global GrossDomestic Product (GDP) amounting to USD 1.5 Trillion or Rs. 11.47 lakh crores. Consideringthat an economic crisis is imminent due to this pandemic, the possible increasein gender-based violence will only add to the crisis. Experiences from the Ebolaand Zika outbreak also showed that the most vulnerable groups of women wereplaced at a higher risk of violence.
Violence against female medical staff and patients is another important issue that needs to be considered by the governments. Women and girls will have to bear the brunt of the pandemic if no timely action is taken to address their concerns.
Featured Image: By Biswarup Ganguly[Creative Commons 3.0]


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Interesting Questions from the Current Parliament Session - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 8, 2016
Questions by Members of Parliament and the response by the Government is an important part of any Parliament Session. Out of the hundreds of questions asked during the current Budget session, here are some interesting ones. From details of farmers who applied for Suicide Clearance to the number of death penalties in the last 10 years, here is a compilation.
Among the hundreds of questions raised by the members and answered by the government during the current budget session of Parliament, here are some of the interesting and important questions.
109 Farmers from Wardha District applied for ‘Suicide Clearance’
In an answer given in the Rajya Sabha, the government reported that in Wardha District of Maharashtra, 102 farmers of Waghoda, 6 farmers of Wadad and 1 farmer of Antora had applied for permission to obtain suicide clearance. The state government of Maharashtra reported that these applications are due to low yield of Kharif crops.
The state government also reported that these farmers are demanding debt relief and assistance as the crops have failed. The government also reported that the Tehsildar with his team visited this village and counselled them. The government has so far given an assistance of Rs. 28350/- to these farmers. The Health Department of Wardha district is also implementing Prerna Project to identify psychologically depressed farmers and counsel them.
Army faces a shortage of over 9000 Officers
The government informed the Rajya Sabha that as on July 1st 2015, the Army has 40525 officers against the authorized strength of 49631 officers, with a shortage of 9106. Army has undertaken image projection campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career in the army. Awareness campaigns, participation in career fairs and exhibitions, advertisements in print and electronic media, motivational lectures in schools, colleges are some of the measures taken to encourage youth to join the Army.
The governemtn says that these measures have helped reduce the shortage of officers from around 26% in 2010 to approximately 18% in 2015.
There is no laid down regulation on the reporting time for air travelers
In an answer given in the Rajya Sabha, the Civil Aviation Minister said that there is no laid down regulation on the reporting time for air travelers at airports. The reporting time is decided by the airlines as per their operational requirement so that passengers can complete all procedural formalities including security checks before they board the aircraft.
Wrongly wearing or selling a Soldier’s Uniform is an offence under Section 140 of IPC
In an answer given in the Lok Sabha, the government said that wrongly wearing and sale of uniform of soldier, sailor or airman is punishable under section 140 of the IPC. The police authorities are supposed to take appropriate action against non-entitled persons wearing such outfits.
Section 140 of the IPC reads
‘Wearing garb or carrying token used by soldier, sailor or airman.—Whoever, not being a soldier, [sailor or airman], in the Military, [Naval or Air] service of the [Government of India], wears any garb or carries any token resembling any garb or token used by such a soldier, [sailor or airman]with the intention that it may be believed that he is such a soldier, [sailor or airman], shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with both’
1398 Death Sentences awarded between 2004-2014 and only three executed
In an answer given in the Lok Sabha, the government said that 1398 persons were awarded capital punishment in the country between 2004 and 2014. Only 03 persons were executed during the same period.
The government also said that the Law Commission of India in its 262 report has recommended that the death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism related offences and waging war. The report has since been circulated to all the State Governments for their comments.
2849 Private Chartered Flights from abroad landed in India between April 2015 & February 2016
According to the data maintained by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 2849 permissions were given by DGCA for landing of private foreign registered aircrafts. The government also informed that a prior notice of 3 days is required for such flights from all the countries except for flights originating from Pakistan, China, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria and North Korea. For flights originating from these countries, a notice period of 7 working days is required.
515 NSG Personnel are deployed in the security of 16 VIPs
The Government informed the Lok Sabha that though National Security Guard (NSG) is primarily a Counter Terrorism Force, it has also been tasked with providing security cover to 16 protectees. 515 NSG  personnel are deployed on VIP security as on 01st February 2016.
The expenditure incurred on providing NSG security cover is borne by State Government/Union Territory Administration concerned, which provides vehicles, fuel, accommodation and other logistics support to NSG.
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Interesting Statistics from the 7th Pay Commission Report – Part 1
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 24, 2015
The Seventh Central Pay Commission submitted its report recently, recommending a slew of measures including fixing the minimum pay of a central government employee at Rs 18000. In a two part series, we look at some of the interesting statistics from this report.
The Seventh Central Pay Commission(CPC) submitted its report recently. Among other things, it fixed the minimum pay in the central government at Rs 18,000/- and the maximum pay at Rs 2,25,000 at the apex level and Rs 2,50,000 for the Cabinet Secretary, Defence Chiefs etc. Here is a look at some of the interesting statistics from this report.
18% Vacancies in the Central Government
As per the CPC report, the sanctioned strength of all the departments of Government of India (including Railways) is 40.48 lakh as of 1 January 2014. Out of the sanctioned strength, only 33.01 lakh are in position, while the rest of the  7.47 lakh are lying vacant. In other words, there is are 18% vacancies in the government of India.
The Ministry of Science & Technology has 47% vacancies followed by Ministry of Finance at 46%. The other ministries that have more than 40% vacancies include Power, Civil Aviation, AYUSH, Minority Affairs & Corporate Affairs. The Election Commission also has 43% vacancies.
Railways has the largest number of employees with over 13 lakh people
Of all the ministries, the Railways has the largest number of employees with over 13 lakh followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs with over 9 lakh employees, with bulk of them from the Central Reserve forces. The Ministry of Defence has close to 4 lakh employees (excluding the military personnel). The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology has close to 2 lakh employees with bulk of them from the Department of Posts. The Ministry of Finance has close to a lakh employees with bulk of them from the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Excise & Customs. The Delhi Police has more than 70000 employees.
The Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation has the least number of employees with just 78 followed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj with 82 employees. This is because both the ministries are not directly implementing any scheme, but are only funding the states.
89% of all the employees are from Group C
All Central Government civil posts are categorised under the Central Civil Services Rules, 1965 into three categories- Group `A’ (including the All India Service Officers), Group `B’ and Group `C’. This classification broadly corresponds to the rank, status and the degree of the level of responsibility attached to the posts. Group `A’ posts carry higher administrative and executive responsibilities and include senior management positions in the ministries/departments and field organisations. The middle and junior levels of Group `A’ along with Group `B’ constitute middle management. Group `C’ posts perform supervisory as well as operative tasks and render clerical assistances in ministries and field organisations. As per the CPC report, close to 88% of all the employees is Group C while only 3% is Group A and 9% from Group B.
The ministry of Railways has the highest number of Group C employees (close to 99%). Only 1% of the railway employees are from Group A & B. The Ministry of Home Affairs has 92% from Group C.
There are some Ministries/Departments that defy this trend and have a large number of employees in Group A. Department of Space has 57% Group A employees and same is the case with Department of Electronics & IT.

created: November 24, 2015


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Interesting Statistics from the 7th Pay Commission Report – Part 2 - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 25, 2015
According to the 7th Central Pay Commission Report, close to 29% of the employees are in the age group of 50 to 60 years. More than 44% of the employees are in the age group of 20 to 40 years. The average per capita expenditure on pay & allowances of a central government employee is 3.92 lakh rupees for the financial year 2012-13.
The Part 1 of this series looked at the number of vacancies, number of employees in various ministries/departments and number of employees by different categories in Government of India. Below are a few more interesting statistics from the CPC report.
Employee Age Profile
There is more or less an even spread of employees in different age groups. 22% of the employees are between 20 and 30 years while an equal percentage are between 30 and 40 years. 26% of the employees are between 40 and 50 years while the remaining 29% are between 50 and 60 years.
There are stark differences within ministries in the age profile of employees. The Ministry of Home Affairs has the highest percentage of employees in the 20 to 30 years bracket at 40%. This could be due to the fact that most of them come from the central armed forces. The Ministry of Petroleum & Ministry of Textiles, both have just 2% employees each in this age group.
In the 30 to 40 years age group, Ministry of Youth Affairs has the highest percentage at 29% and Ministry of Coal has the least at 7%. In the 40 to 50 years age group, Ministry of Tourism has the highest percentage with a whopping 65% while the Ministry of Textiles has the least percentage at 15%.
In the 50 to 60 years age group, Ministry of Textiles has the highest at 75%. Coupled with the other figures, 90% of the employees in the Ministry of Textiles are above 40 years. The Ministry of Home Affairs has only 7% employees in this age group.
Expenditure on Pay & Allowances
The Government of India extends various types of allowances to the employees apart from their regular pay. The government expenditure on pay & allowances has been steadily growing. From 51664 crore rupees in 2007-08, the expenditure went up to 129599 crore rupees in 2012-13, an increase of more than 150%. The growth has been steady except in 2010-11 where it increased only marginally.
Of the total expenditure, the highest expenditure is on the Ministry of Railways, followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This is only natural because they employ the maximum number of people.
Per Capita Expenditure on Pay & Allowances
The per capita expenditure on pay & allowances indicates that the government has spent Rs 3.92 lakh per employee during the financial year 2012-13 towards pay and allowances.
The highest per capita expenditure on pay & allowances is for the employees of the Ministry of External Affairs at Rs 34.95 lakh per annum. This is an aberration since it also includes pay & allowances paid abroad. Second in the list is Ministry of Renewable Energy with 10.65 lakh rupees followed by Ministry of Food Processing at 8.29 lakh rupees. Department of Electronics & IT and Ministry of Power make up the top five. The per capita expenditure for these departments & ministries is substantially higher than the average.
While the Ministry of Railways & Home Affairs have seen the highest expenditure for pay & allowances, their per capita expenditure compared to the average is not the highest. The average pay & allowances was least for the Ministry of Railways at Rs 2.97 lakh while it was Rs 4.18 lakh for Ministry of Home Affairs.

created: November 25, 2015


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Compliance of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Codes) Rules, 2021 - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 24, 2024


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IOCL did not issue any warning to avoid filling fuel in vehicles to the maximum limit - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 11, 2022
A post is being shared on social media claiming that the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has recently issued a warning to people not to fill petrol or diesel in vehicles to the maximum limit. This post claims that IOCL has warned people that due to the continuous rise in atmospheric temperatures, there is a risk of explosions due to overfilling of fuel in their vehicles. According to the post, IOCL has suggested people refill petrol up to the half tank and to keep room for air. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: IOCL warning informing people not to fill petrol or diesel in vehicles to the maximum limit.
Fact: IOCL did not issue any such warning message mentioning the risk of explosion due to the overfilling of petrol or diesel in vehicles. Denying these rumours spreading on social media, IOCL recently clarified that it is perfectly safe to fill fuel up to the maximum limit as specified by the manufacturer irrespective of winter or summer. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) had issued any such warning message, it is found out that IOCL through a Facebook post on ‘09 April 2022’ issued a clarification regarding this warning message circulating on social media. IOCL confirmed the message to be fake and clarified that it is perfectly safe to fill fuel up to the maximum limit as specified by the manufacturer irrespective of winter or summer.
When the same news went viral on social media in 2018 and 2019, IOCL issued a statement confirming even then clarifying they did not issue any such warning message. IOCL in the statement said, “Automobile manufacturers design their vehicles considering all aspects of performance requirements, claims and ambient conditions with built-in safety factors. The maximum volume specified in the fuel tank for petrol/diesel vehicles is no exception. It is, therefore perfectly safe to fill the fuel in vehicles up to the full limit (max.) as specified by the manufacturer irrespective of winter or summer”.
Important announcement from #IndianOil. @PetroleumMin @dpradhanbjp @ChairmanIOCL @AshutoshJindalS @RK_Mohapatra pic.twitter.com/v2ZSgruJm2
Recently, similar posts are being widely shared on social media in the wake of some recent articles (here and here) about the explosion of a bike’s petrol tank in Andhra Pradesh. But there is no evidence to suggest that such an explosion had occurred because of the overfilling of petrol in the vehicle tank.
To sum it up, IOCL did not issue any warning to avoid filling petrol or diesel in vehicles to the maximum limit.


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IOCL has clarified that “there is no expiry date for LPG cylinders, only test due date” - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 4, 2019
A post is being widely shared on social media with a claim that expired LPG cylinders are not safe for use and may cause accidents. The post also claims that the alpha-numeric code on one of the vertical stays of the cylinder is the expiry date. Let’s try to analyze the claims made in the post.
LPG cylinder’s expiry date can be seen as an alpha-numeric code on the cylinder.
Fact: IOCL has issued a clarification that ‘there is no expiry date for LPG cylinders’. The alpha-numeric code on the cylinder is the test due date. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When searched on Google with the keywords ‘LPG Cylinder Expiry Date’, it was found that IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.) has already issued a clarification regarding this issue. In a statement, IOCL has clarified that ‘there is no expiry date for LPG cylinders, only test due date’.
While explaining the alpha-numeric code on the cylinder, IOCL has said that “the markings indicate the next due date of testing. E.g. cylinders marked A 2017 means that they are due for testing in the first quarter (between January and March) of the year 2017. Similarly, B 2017 indicates cylinders that are due for testing in the second quarter (between April and June) of the year 2017 and so on. Similarly, C (between July and September) is for the third quarter and D (between October and December) for the fourth quarter.”
In the same statement from IOCL, it can be seen that “cylinders due for statutory testing do not go to the market. Moreover, all LPG distributors are under instructions to check the same before delivering cylinders to the customers.” Talking to ‘The Hindu’, an oil industry person has said that ‘if a consumer receives a cylinder which is due for the test, then the consumer can ask the delivery boy to take it back and give another since it means that the mandatory test has not been conducted. But this is a rarity.’ Also, “no LPG accidents are ever reported due to expiry of test date or cylinders due for statutory testing”, said IOCL in the statement.
To sum it up, IOCL has clarified that “there is no expiry date for LPG cylinders, only test due date”.
Did you watch our new Episode of the DECODE series?

created: October 4, 2019


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IPAC survey report showing Mamata Banerjee losing in Nandigram is Fake - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 1, 2021
A post accompanying a purported image of IPAC (a poll strategy group which is working with TMC for the ongoing assembly general elections in West Bengal) survey report which shows Mamata Banerjee losing in Nandigram is being circulated across social media platforms. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Image of IPAC survey showing Mamata Banerjee losing in Nandigram.
Fact: This image doesn’t show a survey report by IPAC. IPAC through a tweet has categorically rated the survey as fake. The official twitter handle of TMC has also rated another purported survey by IPAC as fake. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Google search with relevant keywords led us to a tweet by IPAC dated 31 March 2021which rated the survey as fake. Further, the tweet reads ‘Facing imminent defeat, @BJP4Bengal has now gone down to the level of using FAKE surveys in the name of I-PAC to keep the morale of their workers up!!’.
Facing imminent defeat, @BJP4Bengal has now gone down to the level of using FAKE surveys in the name of I-PAC to keep the morale of their workers up!!
P.S: In I-PAC, no one uses desktops so at-least be smart in your effort to create fake survey / reports! 😉🤣 pic.twitter.com/lFaOo0DshU
Pratik Jain, Co-founder & Director of IPAC quote tweeted the same IPAC tweet stating that his name is spelled wrongly in the purported survey. Further, TMC’s official Twitter handle also rated another purported survey by IPAC predicting Mamata’s defeat in Nandigram as fake.
BJP IS LOSING BIG IN NANDIGRAM!
Anticipating a huge loss, @BJP4Bengal has resorted to doing what it does best- SPREAD FAKE NEWS!
This document is fake & has ZERO credibility, just like BJP’s leaders & promises!
Circulating such fake reports won’t work!#BohiragotoChaiNa pic.twitter.com/YK1ThHYdk2
In view of ongoing West Bengal assembly general elections, posts like this are being shared with misleading claims.
To sum it up, fake IPAC survey report is being shared as Mamata Banerjee losing the 2021 election in Nandigram.


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Iranian girl Anahita Hashemzadeh hasn’t contracted Coronavirus - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 27, 2020
News that Iranian girl Anahita Hashemzadeh has contracted Coronavirus is making rounds on social media. Let’s check the authenticity of it.
Iranian girl Anahita Hashemzadeh has contracted Coronavirus.
Fact: Anahita Hashemzadeh hasn’t contracted Coronavirus. In the comments section of her Instagram videos, her mother has clarified multiple times that she is ‘safe and healthy’ and the news regarding Anahita getting infected with Coronavirus is ‘fake’. So, the claim is FALSE.
When the images in the post are subjected to the reverse image search technique, the baby in them was found to be Anahita Hashemzadeh. She is from Iran and has an Instagram Account with 752k followers. The account is managed by her mom. In the comments section of an Instagram video, when several users inquired about the news of Anahita contracting  Coronavirus, her mother clarified multiple times that she is ‘safe and healthy’ and the news regarding Anahita getting infected with Coronavirus is ‘fake’.
No credible information about the video in the Facebook post was found.
To summarize, Iranian girl Anahita Hashemzadeh hasn’t contracted Coronavirus.
Did you watch our new video?


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IRCTC Business Model - Major Revenue Sources Infographic - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 17, 2014
First in the series of Infographics done on IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation). IRCTC is not just the largest and fastest growing e-commerce website in India, but in the entire Asia-Pacific region. The infographic takes a quick look at the IRCTC business model and its major revenue sources. It is interesting to note that IRCTC earns revenue by air ticketing as well.

created: December 17, 2014


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From 29 tickets booked in a day to 13 lakh tickets a day, IRCTC has come a long way - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 20, 2016
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation or IRCTC has come a long way since its inception in 2002. From 29 tickets booked in a day to 13 lakh tickets a day, IRCTC has come a long way. Currently IRCTC system is capable of booking 15000 tickets a minute and can handle 3 lakh concurrent users.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation or more famously known as IRCTC has always been in the news for wrong reasons. But from 29 tickets booked on the first day in 2002 to more than 13 lakh tickets booked on a single day on 1 April 2015, IRCTC has indeed come a long way. The Ministry of Railways has released the latest data related to ticket booking in the last five years.
Number of tickets booked grows by 90% in 5 years
From 9.7 crore tickets in 2010-11, the number of tickets booked on IRCTC has grown to 18.3 crore in 2014-15, an increase of close to 90%. The number of tickets booked has grown consistently over the last 5 years. This number was 11.6 crore in 2011-12, 14.1 crore in 2012-13 and 15.8 crore in 2013-14. The average number of tickets booked per day went up from 2.66 lakh in 2010-11 to 5.01 lakh in 2014-15.
Ticket Fare revenue grows by over 150%
While number of tickets booked on IRCTC grew by 90% in 5 years, the ticket fare revenue grew by over 150% in these 5 years. From 8000 odd crores in 2010-11, the ticket fare revenue went up to 20514 crore in 2014-15. The consistent rise in the ticket fare revenue was on account of multiple fare hikes and increasing number of upper class bookings.
Internet booking overtakes Traditional Counter booking
The increased use of internet by people across the country is evident from the fact that the percentage of internet ticketing passengers overtook the percentage of counter ticketing passengers for the first time in 2014-15. From 38.54% share in total passengers in 2011-12, the internet ticketing passengers went up to 54.52% in 2014-15.  During the same period, the share of counter ticketing (PRS) passengers went down from 61.46% in 2011-12 to 45.48% in 2014-15.
NGeT – 15000 tickets per minute & 3 lakh concurrent users
The Ministry also released details of the Next Generation e-Ticketing System (NGeT). This was first launched in April 2014 to handle increased ticket booking. The capacity was increased from 2000 tickets per minute to 7200 tickets per minute. The capacity was further augmented to 15000 tickets per minute in 2015. The number of concurrent user connections was increased from 40,000 to 1,20,000, which was further increased to 3,00,000 in 2015.  The number of enquiries on the new system has also increased from 1000 per second to 3000 per second.
Multiple checks implemented to stop misuse by use of automated software
The Ministry said that they have introduced multiple checks on IRCTC website to stop misuse of Internet Ticket booking facility by the use of automated software. The checks have been introduced both at the time of registration as well as booking.
Checks introduced at Registration
Checks introduced at the time of Booking
It takes a minimum of 35 seconds to book a ticket on IRCTC
The Ministry also refuted claims that entire taktal tickets are being booked in the first 30 seconds. The NGeT can handle a load of 15000 tickets in a minute, which is 250 tickets a second. According to the ministry, the minimum time required to book a ticket via IRCTC is 35 seconds.  Ticket can be booked in less than 35 seconds only at reservation counters. To prove the point, the railways put out 15 day data on the number of tickets booked through the counters and via internet between 10:00:00 to 10:00:35 and 10:00:36 to 10:01:00. From the data provided by the ministry, it is clear that not a single ticket was booked via internet in the first 35 seconds. The tickets booked in the first 35 seconds were only from the reservation counters. The data was provided both for Non-AC and AC tatkal booking.
The Ministry also said (with the help of data) that only 5 to 6 thousand tickets are booked on average in the first minute after tatkal is opened, both at counters & IRCTC put together. The Ministry claims that this is a mere 4% of over 1.5 tatkal tickets available each day.

created: January 20, 2016


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Maximum of 6 tickets only per user per month on IRCTC from February 15th
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 29, 2016
In the last few months, the government has revised various rules pertaining to the online railway ticket booking like availing Senior Citizen Quota, Child Fare etc. It has now brought down the maximum tickets a user can book on IRCTC from 10 a month to 6 a month. The government maintains that this change won’t affect genuine users.
After a slew of measures like revision of rules for availing Senior Citizen Quota and Child Fare, the Ministry of Railways has now come up with more restrictions on the usage of IRCTC, in a bid to curb misuse of the IRCTC platform by touts. In a latest move, the government has put a cap on the number of tickets an individual user can book per month. From the current maximum of 10 tickets per user per month, the government has reduced the maximum number to 6 tickets per user per month. This change will be effective from 15 February, 2016.
User Restrictions on IRCTC
Currently, the following restrictions are put in place to prevent misuse of IRCTC by touts and fake agents.
The new restriction of maximum 6 tickets per user per month will replace the existing provision of maximum 10 tickets per user per month. However, the existing condition of booking only 2 tickets between 8am and 10am for general bookings and only 2 tickets between 10am and 12pm for tatkal bookings will continue.
The Government is confident that this move won’t affect Genuine Users
As per the data available with the government, 90% of the users book only up to 6 tickets in a given month and only 10% book more than 6 tickets month. The government suspects that the 10% users might be touts or fake agents. The government believes that this move will deter touts and help genuine users. Only time will tell if this change will help.

created: January 29, 2016


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IRCTC Ticket Vending Service - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 10, 2015
While IRCTC gets a lot of brickbats and rightly so, let’s also look at the numbers behind. IRCTC is not just the largest and fastest growing e-commerce website in India, but in the entire Asia-Pacific region. The infographic takes a quick look at the IRCTC Website Statistics such as how many tickets are issued per day, server bandwidth, its capacity and more.

created: January 10, 2015


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Ireland Cricket Board did not make any offer to Sanju Samson to represent their cricket team - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 14, 2022
A post is being widely circulated on social media claiming that Indian Cricket player Sanju Samson is going to represent the Ireland cricket team. Amid allegations that the Indian Cricket Board is not providing enough opportunities for Sanju Samson to play for India at the international level, this post claims that Sanju Samson was offered to lead the Ireland Cricket team by the Ireland Cricket board. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Indian cricket player Sanju Samson is now going to lead the Ireland Cricket team.
Fact: Several sports and mainstream news websites recently published articles reporting that the Ireland Cricket team had made an offer to Sanju Samson to represent their cricket team. Further, these news reports informed that Sanju Samson had politely denied this offer saying that he wishes to represent India and could never imagine playing for another country at the international level. Responding to an e-mail request for clarification, the Ireland Cricket Board referred to these news reports as complete rubbish and denied making any such offer to Sanju Samson. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On searching for the details of the claims made in the post, we found that several sports and mainstream news websites have recently published articles reporting that the Ireland Cricket team has made an offer to Sanju Samson to represent their cricket team, promising that he would feature in all the matches. A few of those news reports can be seen here, here and here. Further, these news reports informed that Sanju Samson had denied this offer saying that he wishes to represent India and could never imagine playing for another country at the international level.
But, we could not find any such announcement either from the Ireland Cricket Board or from Sanju Samson. We could not find any such announcement on the official social media handles of Sanju Samson. Responding to Factly’s e-mail request for clarification regarding these news reports, the Ireland Cricket Board said, “Complete rubbish. We have no idea where it came from”. The Ireland Cricket Board denied making any such offer to Sanju Samson.
A few sports websites have also published tweets and articles clarifying that the Ireland Cricket Board had not made any such offer to Sanju Samson to lead their cricket team.
🚨CLARIFICATION🚨
The above-mentioned reports are false as cricket Ireland has denied any such offer being made to the Indian cricketer.
To sum it up, the Ireland Cricket Board did not make any offer to Sanju Samson to represent their cricket team.

created: December 14, 2022


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Is a greater proportion of those dropping out from IITs from the reserved category?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 7, 2019
The Government provided data on dropouts in IITs which led to multiple narratives being spread about the possible reasons for such dropouts. We analyse if the admission & dropout data from different IITs provides any additional insights.
IITs are the premier institutes for engineering in India, and many studentsacross India aspire to study there. IIT JEE – Advanced, the entranceexamination which determines the eligibility to join a IIT is considered to beone of the toughest in the world. Students across to country put in a lot ofeffort to do well in this exam and secure a seat in an IIT.
In view of the importance attached to securing a seat in the IITs, it does seem that students dropping out of IITs defies logic.  The Minister for Human Resource Department, on 25 July 2019, answering a question in Rajya Sabha stated that 2461 students dropped out of IITs in the last two years.
This was duly reported by the mainstream media and various reasons have been cited for the dropouts, especially highlighting the aspect of caste discrimination. In this context,  we analyse the numbers related to admissions and dropouts from various IITs to  see if they provide any additional insights.
Nearly 87,000 Students study in IITs across India
There are 23 IITs located in different parts of India with approximately 85,000 students pursuing Undergraduate, Post graduated and PhD course in different streams.
In line with India’s policy of affirmative action (reservation), all theIITs reserves seats for various backward sections of the society. Currently 15%,7.5% and 27% of the seats are reserved for SC, ST and OBC categoriesrespectively, with the rest of the seats falling under General category.
About the Data used in this story
Information regarding the number of students studying in IITs every year is available on Council of Indian Institute of Technology website. However, the details for IIT Bombay and few of the new IITs including – Tirupati, Palakkad, Bhilai, Goa, Jammu, Dharwad for 2017-18 and 2018-19 are not available. The dropouts data provided in the answer in Rajya Sabha were for these two years. Hence, we have relied on the archives of  JOSAA site (Joint Seat Allocation Authority), which provides the details of the seats allocated every year for each of the IITs. We took the cumulative totals of the various years of study to identify the number of students studying in 2017-18. We have also relied on Annual Reports of respective IITs which furnished the details.
Further, in order to avoid double counting of the students in 2017-18 and 2018-19, we took the average of the two years for the respective IITs. Hence the total numbers being presented are a near approximation of actual numbers.
Further, the number of students studying in IITs in this story refers to the total number of students in that IIT (including all years) and not just the number of students admitted in a specific year.
Dropouts constitute 2.9% of total student strength
Around 56% of the students studying in IITs across India fall under General Category. Students under OBC, SC & ST category constitute 25%, 13% and 6% respectively. Though the reservation for these categories is more than these numbers, all the seats in a specific category may not get filled up resulting in a lesser proportion of students from that category.  It is also possible that students from the OBC, SC & ST categories may get seats in the general category based on merit.
Off the total 2461 students who dropped out as per the data provided by the government – 1290 belong to General category, while the dropouts in OBC, SC & ST categories are 601, 371 and 199 respectively. The dropout number is around 2.9% of the total student strength.
Share of OBC, SC & ST dropouts marginally more than their share in
the number of students
Of all the dropouts in the last two years, 52% are from the GeneralCategory, while 24% belong to OBC, 15% to SC and 8% are ST category students.
The percentage of dropouts within the same category for General, OBC, SC& ST is – 2.68%, 2.74%, 3.3% and 4.20% respectively. In other words, 42 STstudents drop out of 1000 ST students in IITs, while that number is around 27 inthe general category. The percentage of dropouts is less than the nationalaverage in the General & OBC categories while it is more than the nationalaverage in the SC & ST categories.
Share of dropouts in the SC & ST categories higher among the IITs
established prior to 2002
There are five IITs established between 1951 to 1963, which are IITKharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi (in sequential order of theirestablishment). IIT Guwahati was established in the year 1994 followed by IITRoorkee in 2001.
Together these IITs account for 71% of total IIT student strength inIndia. Of the total 2461 dropouts, 2054 dropouts i.e. 83.5% of the dropouts arefrom these IITs, which is higher than their share of the total IIT students. Thepercentage of students who dropped out from these 7 IITs is around 3.4%compared to the national average of around 2.9%.
The share of dropouts of each category is – General (51.2%), OBC (24.7%),SC (15.3%) & ST (8.8%). The respective share in dropouts of SC & ST categorystudents is higher than their share in the total number of students in theseIITs.
IIT Delhi has the highest share among SC and ST dropouts. Nearly 1% of SCstudents and 20% of ST students enrolled in IIT Delhi are among the dropouts.IIT Kharagpur is next with 7% of SC and 9% of ST students dropping out. This ishigher than the average for the categories i.e. 4.04% (SC) and 5.55% (ST) dropoutswithin these categories for these 7 Older IITs.
It also needs to be noted that the dropout numbers for SC & ST category students in these IITs is higher than their respective numbers in all the IITs, which is 3.3% and 4.2% respectively.
Dropouts in IITs established between 2008-2012 were not only less but
also the share of dropouts within the categories is even.
There were 8 new IITs were established in the year 2008, which includesIITs in: Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Patna, Gandhinagar, Jodhpur, Ropar, Indoreand Mandi. Four years later Banaras Engineering College was converted into IIT(BHU) in 2012.
Together these 9 IITs account for 18.7% of the total IIT students. Thereare 366 dropouts in the last two years i.e. 14.9% of the total dropouts.
The total of percentage of students dropping out from these 8 IITs was2.3%, less than the national average of around 2.9%.  Of the various categories, 2.35% Generalcategory students, 1.69% OBC,  2.02% SC and2.13% ST category students dropped out as per government data.
IIT Ropar has a high share of ST and OBC dropouts with 13.56% and 14.81%of ST and OBC students dropping out. IIT Jodhpur has comparatively highernumber of dropouts within the various categories with 7.58%, 7.33% and 7.69% ofstudents from General, SC & ST categories respectively, dropping out.
Marginal number of dropouts in new IITs with IIT Tirupati having the
largest share
Between 2015 and 2016, 6 new IITs were started in Palakkad, Tirupati,Goa, Jammu, Bhilai and Dharwad. There are around 2000 students studying inthese IITs with 32 dropouts recorded in the last two years.
IIT Tirupati has 18 dropouts with 6 dropouts belonging to General and SCcategory each and 3 each for ST and OBC categories. Due to lack of data, thetotal number of students identified for these IITs were based on the basenumbers and other admission data that was available.
Further, in 2016, Indian School of Mines was converted into IIT Dhanbad.It has 7124 students with only 9 dropouts of which 6 belong to generalcategory.
Dropout percentage within SC and ST categories are higher in few IITs, but
the specific reasons are not identified.
IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Ropar do have a higher number ofdropouts among the OBC, SC and ST categories compared to the national average. TheseIITs have contributed to the overall higher percentage of dropouts within thesecategories. Apart from these, the percentage of dropouts within each of thesecategories is uniform across most of the other IITs.
In the answer provided in Rajya Sabha, the HRD Minister mentioned that most of dropouts are from PG and Ph.D programme. The main reasons attributed include – shifting to other institutions, personal and medical reasons, study abroad, placements etc.
The reasons cited in the answer for dropouts in UG include – wrong choiceof course, poor academic performance, personal and medical reasons etc. Theanswer further highlights the actions being initiated to address the academicsand provide assisted learning, counselling for students regarding personal andpsychological issues etc.
Although the numbers point to a marginally higher dropout among SC & ST students, these are specific to certain IITs as noted above. Further, there is no additional data to link of any of these cases to discrimination on the basis of caste, although such a reason cannot be ruled out. What is required at this stage is a comprehensive understanding of the reasons for dropouts, more specifically in the IITs noted above. Academic, sociological and financial issues could be few of the reasons affecting the students from marginalized communities, which can be resolved only when proper & relevant corrective measures are truly implemented.
Featured Image: Student dropouts in IITs

created: August 7, 2019


text:
Is ‘Hindi’ a National or an Official Language?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 5, 2019
The debate over the ‘three languages’ formula in schools and the alleged imposition of Hindi created a furore again, thanks to the draft National Education Policy.
The draft National
Education Policy (NEP) 2019 submitted by the Kasturirangan Committee, managed tocreate a furore especially with its recommendation to ‘continue three
language formula in schools’. This has re-kindled apprehensions of Hindibeing imposed in Non-Hindi speakingstates. The draft mentions that ‘the study of languages by students in
non-Hindi speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and
English’.
However, amidst the backlash, the government has released a revised draft, on June 3rd 2019, removing this clause and also clarified that the policy will be finalised only after consultations with state governments and all the relevant stakeholders.
But, what does the constitution say about the role andstatus of Hindi language. Contrary to the major misconception, Hindi is not“National” language of India but is an “Official” language. No language inIndia is conferred with the status of being a national language. Article 343, of theconstitution allows Hindi (written in Devanagari script) along with English tobe the official languages of the union i.e. Government of India.
It needs to be noted that the constitution
recognises 22 languages as scheduled languages in the eighthschedule. One or more of these languages are designated as official language byvarious state governments across India.
What is the
status of Hindi?
Hindi as an official language of the centralgovernment for communication and administrative purpose, along with English.
As per the constitution of India;
Is, Hindi the only way Central Government communicates
with others?
It is not true in all the cases.  The Official Languages Rules, 1976 lays down theprocess to be followed for central government to communicate with othergovernments or organizations.  In view ofthe diversity of languages in India, and the various official languages used bythe states, a need was identified to differentiate the nature of communication.Accordingly, all the states have been categorised into 3 different regions.
Few important guidelines for communication of central government with the states in these three regions is as follows.
With Region A: All theofficial communication between the Central departments and the Statedepartments of the respective states needs to be in Hindi. In case there is anyofficial communication made in English, it ought to be accompanied by atranslation in Hindi.
( Sample Communication betweenCentral Govt and State in Hindi ( U.P – Region A state ) )
With Region B: The communication between the Centre and any department of the state would be in Hindi. If there is any communication in English, a translation in Hindi needs to be accompanied. In case, the communication needs to be sent in a local language, there is also a provision to send a translation in that local language along with the communication in Hindi or English.  Any communication which is sent to a person can be in Hindi or English.
With Region C: All the communication which between the Centre and the state is carried out in English. Even communication with a person in this region will also be done in English.  Tamil Nadu, is unique case and does not fall under any of the three regions. All the communication with Tamil Nadu is carried only in English
The video of a Bengali passenger refusing to speak in Hindi with an immigration officer at an airport went viral on Facebook recently. In the video, the person can be heard speaking about the region C and the rules. He was referring to the rules mentioned above.
( Sample of communication of Centrewith Region C State (Andhra Pradesh) in English)
Below is the illustration of the language ofcommunication between various entities.
What about the communication between central government offices?
The Official Languages Rules 1976 does lay tothe guidelines for communication between the various offices of CentralGovernment.
Important aspect to be noted that the communicationwill happen between these offices in Hindi only if at least 80% of the staff inthat particular office have a working knowledge of Hindi. The central HomeMinistry takes up the responsibility of updating the information of suchoffices.  Furthermore, any communicationsent in Hindi to the central government, entails a response only in Hindi.
Hindi as the uniform official language – a debatable
topic
The initial provisions of the constitution specified Hindi along with English as the official languages of communication at centre for 15 years, with the scope of recommending to restrict English after that period. However , the Official Languages Act 1963, recommended to continue English along with Hindi as the official language. This was done due to the resistance by non-hindi speaking states.
The Three language formula, 1968 was aimed at addressing the diversity of languages in India with an eye on having Hindi as a third language option in Non-Hindi states, and any of the non-hindi languages in Hindi speaking states during the schooling. However, states like Tamil Nadu did not implement it. The official language act has also recommended a gradual promotion of Hindi, in a way which is more acceptable for non-hindi speakers.
Any efforts of successive governments to push Hindi have met with differentiating opinions from various sections. While the arguments are being made for the need of a single official language which would help smoother transactional process, examples of countries like Netherlands and Switzerland are cited which have multiple official languages and effective government mechanisms.


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Is Land Acquisition the prime reason for stalling of Projects? Data obtained using RTI says 'No'
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 1, 2015
According to the data provided by the Ministry of Finance in reply to an RTI application, only 8% of all the stalled projects are because of Land Acquisition reasons. The reasons for 1/3rd of the stalled projects is not known. And only 11 of the projects stalled because of Land Acquisition reasons involve projects for the poor and disadvantaged.
The amendments to the Land Acquisition act (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act) are being touted by many in the Government as a game changer in triggering growth. It is also being publicized that Land Acquisition has been stalling projects and hindering growth & investments. The Economic Survey 2014-15 also has a special chapter dedicated to stalled projects where it talks in detail about stalled projects. The details of such projects were not annexed to the report.
RTI activist Mr. Venkatesh Nayak filed an application under the RTI with the Ministry of Finance seeking details about these stalled projects like location, type of project, ownership (Public/Private), reasons for stalling of the project etc. The Ministry replied promptly with all the details about the 804 projects that are stalled as of February 2015.
Where are the projects stalled?
The 804 projects that are stalled are across 24 States and two UTs for variety of reasons. Maharashtra with 125 stalled projects topped the list followed by Gujarat (63 projects), West Bengal (55 projects), Karnataka (52 projects) and Telangana (52) making the rest of the top 5.
Type of Ownership
Out of the stalled projects, 78% are Private Sector projects while 22% are by the Public Sector (like Central/State governments, PSUs etc).
Is Land Acquisition the Prime Reason?
According to the data, only 8% or 66 of the 804 projects are stalled due to Land Acquisition related problems. In other words, not even one in ten projects is stalled because of problems related to Land Acquisition. The data is in complete contradiction with what the advocates of the Land Acquisition ordinance have been saying, that the land acquisition process is holding up a lot of projects and hindering growth/investments.
About 39% of the projects have stalled due to unfavorable market conditions or lack of funds or raw material or fuel supply problems. The list mentions the reason as ‘Others’ for 19% of the projects while no reason is available for 15% of the projects. In other words, we do not know the reason for 34% or 1/3 of the stalled projects. And yet, the government wants us to believe that Land Acquisition is the biggest issue.
Only 4.2% of the stalled projects were pending because of environmental clearances whereas lack of clearance from the State Governments amount to 11.8% of the total. In other words, only 16% of the projects are stalled because of regulatory clearances. Apart from these, there are other reasons like natural calamity etc for about the remaining 3% projects.
Type of Projects
It is also said that the amendments to the Land Acquisition are to promote development for the poorer sections like affordable housing, rural electrification etc and hence they are being exempted from consent & social impact assessment. But of the 66 projects stalled for land acquisition reasons, only 11 or 1.36% of all the projects directly relate to the well being of the poor & disadvantaged sections like Slum Rehabilitation, Budget Housing, Bus Stand etc. In other words, welfare of the poor looks like an alibi.
On the other hand, at least 145 of the stalled projects, about 18% are for the affluent and the rich class. These are projects involving construction of Shopping Malls, Elite Hotels, Resorts, Multiplexes, Elite residences/villas, Golf Courses, Racing Tracks etc.
Another 25 stalled projects are about setting up townships- nothing in the list provided by Ministry of Finance indicates which segment of society they are intended to benefit. However, it must also be said that the list of 804 projects also includes power generation, airport construction or expansion, road and railway expansion, pharmaceutical, textile, software and SEZ projects amongst others. Mining projects for coal and uranium amongst other metals are also part of the stalled projects list.
Missing Data
The data does not have information about how long these projects have been installed condition. It also does not say if these are the only projects that are stalled across the country. The data also does not mention the value/cost of all the projects stalled.
Interestingly, the data provided under the RTI act and also in the Economic Survey 2014-15 are based on inputs provided by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Ltd. (CMIE). CMIE is a private sector business information company. We do not even know if the government has done anything to cross check the veracity of this database.
Source:
Featured Image Source: Arabinda Mahapatra


text:
Is NOTA losing sheen? Data says 'Yes'
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 9, 2019
Since the introduction of NOTA in 2013, it has become a ritual of sorts to understand its impact after every election. Data from the last 5 years suggests that voters aren’t actually preferring NOTA. NOTA did not poll more than 2% of the total vote share in any election held after 2015.
As noted in an earlier story by Factly, the vote share for NOTA is going down continuously since its introduction in 2013. Even the introduction of the dedicated NOTA symbol in 2015 hasn’t made much difference if one goes by the data. In a total of 38 elections (37 Assembly & one Lok Sabha) held since the introduction of NOTA on the EVM, the vote-share of NOTA crossed 2% only twice.
For this analysis, we have considered data from all the 38 elections (37 Assembly & one Lok Sabha) held since the introduction of NOTA in 2013.
Preference for NOTA is not uniform across India
The preference for NOTA hasn’t been uniform across the country. NOTA vote share crossed the 2% mark only in the states of Chhattisgarh & Bihar and in the Union Territory of Puducherry. The vote share for NOTA was between 1.5% and 2% in six (6) other States/UTs, between 1% and 1.5% in ten (10) States/UTs. In the remaining seventeen (17) States/UTs, the NOTA vote share did not cross 1%. Among the states, Haryana recorded the lowest NOTA percentage of 0.37% overall.
NOTA vote share crossed 3% only in ONE election
NOTA option was on the EVM for every State Assembly at least once and the Lok Sabha election in 2014. In these 38 elections, the vote-share of NOTA did not cross 1% in 16 of the elections and was between 1% and 2% in 20 elections. In other words, the vote share was less than 2% in 95% of these elections. It was more than 3% in only one election, that is Chhattisgarh (2013) and was between 2% & 3% only once in Bihar (2015). In states where NOTA option was on the EVM in two different assembly elections (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Mizoram & Delhi), the NOTA vote share decreased in the 2nd election everywhere except in the case of Telangana. In Telangana, the NOTA vote share increased from 0.78% in 2014 to 1.09% in 2018.
Proportion of Constituencies with more than 5000 votes for NOTA going down
The number of constituencies where NOTA polled more than 5000 votes has consistently come down in states where the elections were held again. While the number of eligible voters and polling percentage has an impact on this number, the size of the electorate per constituency in about 20 states is more or less similar. In both Bihar (2015) & Chhattisgarh (2013), NOTA polled more than 5000 votes in close to 1/3rd of the constituencies. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, NOTA polled more than 20000 votes in 54 constituencies (about 10%).
In the elections held in 2015, NOTA polled more than 5000 votes in 23% of the constituencies, the highest for any year. This number went down to less than 2% in both 2016 & 2017. It increased to 4.2% in 2018, but this much less than the 11.8% when the same set of states went to polls in 2013. In the case of Chhattisgarh, this number is down from 31 constituencies in 2013 to 16 in 2018. In Rajasthan, this is down from 25 in 2013 to 9 in 2018. However, in Madhya Pradesh, NOTA polled more than 5000 votes in 18 constituencies both in 2013 & 2018. In the case of Telangana, there was not a single constituency where NOTA polled more than 5000 votes in 2014. In 2018 however, NOTA polled more than 5000 votes in one constituency.
NOTA rarely polled more than 5% of the vote in a Constituency
Even if one were to look at the percentage of votes polled for NOTA, data suggests that preference for NOTA is going down. Only in Bihar (2015) & Chhattisgarh (2013), votes polled for NOTA crossed 5% of the total polled vote in more than five (5) constituencies. In all the other elections, the number of such constituencies was less than five. In fact, in 29 of the 38 elections held so far, NOTA did not poll more than 5% of the vote in any of the constituencies. Further, in the elections held in 2016 and 2017, there was not a single constituency where NOTA polled more than 5% of the total polled vote. In 2018 however, NOTA secured more than 5% of the polled vote in four (4) constituencies of Chhattisgarh and in only one (1) constituency of Rajasthan. These numbers are less than the numbers for these states in 2013.
NOTA Vs Margin of Victory
Since the introduction of NOTA, one measure that is used to measure its supposed impact is to count the number of constituencies where NOTA vote exceeded the margin of victory or in other words, counting those constituencies where NOTA vote could have changed the outcome if NOTA vote was secured by the candidate in the 2nd position. Even on this measure, the percentage of such constituencies has come down in 2017 & 2018 compared to 2016. There were 57 such constituencies (9%) in 2013 when NOTA was first introduced. In 2017, this happened in only 6.38% of the constituencies. In the nine assembly elections held in 2018, this happened in 6.56% of the constituencies.
Why are voters losing interest in NOTA?
The State Election Commission of Maharashtra (SECM) has deliberated extensively on this issue to conclude that none of the objectives of the Supreme Court’s 2013 judgment, where it directed Election Commission to include NOTA option on the EVM are being met. The SECM has concluded that NOTA has failed to increase voter participation and has also not compelled political parties to field good candidates. This is because, as it stands today, the NOTA vote does not have any impact on the outcome of the election.
As can be seen from the data, though there was some interest in the initial years (2013 & 2014), the lack of its impact on the outcome of the election seems to have discouraged voters from opting for NOTA in the following years.
What is the way forward?
The only way forward is to amend the laws in such a way that NOTA vote has an impact on the outcome of the election. The State Election Commission of Maharashtra (SECM)’s recent order in this regard could be a model. The SECM has amended the relevant rules which will be applicable for all local body elections in Maharashtra (like zilla parishads, municipalities, corporations). As per the amended rules, NOTA will now be treated as a ‘Fictional Electoral Candidate’ and if NOTA receives the maximum number of votes in any election, a fresh election will be held. The State Election Commission of Haryana also followed suit and issued a similar order recently for the local body elections. It went one step ahead to debar all those candidates who secured less than NOTA the first time around, from contesting the re-election.


text:
Some NCRB reports of 2016 yet to be released
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 12, 2018
The NCRB releases multiple reports annually that provide crime & accident related statistics. Out of the 3 reports published by NCRB annually, two reports for the year 2016 have not been released yet. The delay in the publication of these reports defeat the very purpose of compiling them.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is an organization under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It releases data based annual reports on varied subjects related to crime, accidents, prisons etc. Few reports for the year 2016 have not been released yet. Historical  data on the month of release  of these reports indicates that it is the first time since 2010 where the delay in the release of few reports has crossed 16 months.
The NCRB Reports
The NCRB releases three reports every year and the Central Finger Print Bureau releases the annual finger print in India report.
Release of the CII Report – Improvement since 2004
The data for the annual  Crime in India (CII) report  is provided by the States/UTs in a  prescribed proforma . This data is compiled by the NCRB in the form of CII, which gives complete data on incidence of crime, disposal of cases by police & courts, crimes against women, children etc.On average, the CII report has been  released by the NCRB  with a delay of about 23 months since the year 1953. But the average delay since the year 2000 has gone down to 11 months. The greatest delay was in the release of the 1984 report, the year which the Anti-Sikh riots took place. The 1984 report was released in the year 1992, after a delay of 86 months.The 1985 report was also delayed by more than 6 years while the 1983 report was delayed by 5 years. These were the only 3 occasions when the report was released after a delay of 5 years. Since 2004, the CII report has been released every year within 12 months. Between 2010 and 2015, this time lag was less than 10 months where as the 2016 report was released in November 2017, i.e., within 11 months. For the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, the report was released within 6 months.
Release of the ADSI Report – The 2016 report is yet to be released
The  Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) report  provides data on various accidental deaths & suicides in India. Though the report is being published since 1967, the month of release of this report is  only available  from the year 1976.
The delay in the release of the ADSI report has been decreasing over the years. On average, the report has been released within 21 months since 1976. Since the year 2005, the report has been released within 9 months on average. Both the 1979 and 1985 reports were released after a gap of 40 months, the highest for any year. Since 2010, the report has been released within 9 months. For the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, the report was released within 6 months while for the years 2014 & 2015, the report was released within 7 months. Curiously, the 2016 report is yet to be released even after 16 months.
Prison Statistics India report – Improvement in the last 6 years
The  Prison Statistics India report  provides data on all prisons in India, their occupancy, details of the prisoners etc.  This report is being published by the NCRB since 1995. Till the year 2004, this report was released within 24 months on average while the average delay went down to 14 months since 2005. In fact, the average gap has reduced to less than 10 months since 2011. The 2016 report is yet to be released.
These reports provide an opportunity to governments & other stake holders to review crime and other related  statistics. The reports also provide trends, that could be used by the civil society to force governments for relevant corrective action. For instance, the reported number of rape cases  increased by over 30%  in the year 2013, the year after the Nirbhaya incident in Delhi, possibly because of greater awareness and amendments made to the Criminal Law. Even the statistics related to farmer suicides from the ADSI report are widely used to understand the farm related distress across the country.
The undue delay in the release of these reports defeats the very purpose of compiling them. One had hoped that the NCRB will release these reports within 6 months with the introduction of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS). But strangely, both the ADSI and the Prison Statistics report for 2016 are not yet released.