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In 33 years, MSP for Paddy increased from Rs 137 to Rs 1470 per quintal
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 7, 2017
The Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Paddy increased by over 10 times between 1984-85 and 2016-17. During the same period, the Government of India’s tax revenue increased by over 50 times.
Data from the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) recently released hand book of statistics on Indian Economy for 2016-17 indicates that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Paddy increased just over 10 times, from Rs 137 per quintal in 1984-85 to Rs 1470 per quintal in 2016-17. This is increase of 10.7 times to be precise. During the same period, the tax revenue of the Government of India increased by over 50 times.
MSP for Paddy & Wheat increased by similar levels
In the case of Paddy, the MSP increased by only about 4 times of the amount in 1984-85 till the year 2004-05. In 2004-05, the MSP for Paddy was Rs 560 per quintal. It increased by Rs 500 in the next 5 years and the MSP reached Rs 1050 per quintal in 2009-10. This pattern was observed in both Wheat & Coarse Cereals as well. In the case of Wheat, the MSP was Rs 157 per quintal in 1984-85, Rs 640 per quintal in 2004-05 & Rs 1625 per quintal in 2016-17. In the case of Coarse Cereals, the MSP was Rs 130 per quintal in 1984-85, Rs 515 per quintal in 2004-05 & Rs 1365 per quintal in 2016-17.
In the case of Urad, Tur & Moong, MSP increased by over 20 times
In the case of legumes or pulses, the MSP trajectory followed more or less a similar path, but increased over 20 times in 33 years. The MSP per quintal in the case of Urad, Tur & Moong was Rs 275  each in 1984-85. In 2004-05, the MSP for Tur was Rs 1390 per quintal and Rs 1410 per quintal in the case of the other two. Even in 2009-10, the MSP for Tur was Rs 2300 per quintal. The greatest increase was seen after 2009-10. By 2017-18, the MSP for Tur reached Rs 5450 per quintal, Rs 5575 per quintal for Moong and Rs 5400 per quintal for Urad.
Even in the case of Non-Food grains, the MSP increased by just over 10 times
In the case of a cash crop like Cotton, the MSP per quintal was Rs 535 in 1984-85 and was Rs 1960 per quintal in 2004-05. Between 2004-05 and 2016-17, the MSP increased from Rs 1960 per quintal to Rs 4160 per quintal. In the case of Groundnut (in shell), the MSP increased from Rs 340 per quintal in 1984-85 to Rs 4220 per quintal in 2016-17, an increase of over 12 times. In the case of Jute, the MSP increased from Rs 195 per quintal in 1984-85 to Rs 3200 per quintal in 2016-17, an increase of over 16 times. In the case of Mustard, the MSP increased from Rs 385 per quintal in 1984-85 to Rs 3700 per quintal in 2016-17, an increase of close to 10 times. In the case of Sunflower seeds, Soyabean etc., a similar pattern was observed.
Featured Image: By CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, via Wikimedia Commons

created: October 7, 2017


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35 % of Faculty vacancies in Indian Higher Educational Institutions
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 26, 2015
Ask any who’s who of the country about their educational background. A majority of them would mention one of these names; IIT, IIM, IISC, NIT etc. The prestigious institutes of higher education in the country are facing a severe crunch of Faculty. The institutes of higher learning under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) face a faculty shortage to an extent of 35% according to the latest data available with the government.
(Data as available with Ministry of HRD as on 25th November, 2014. Data includes Visiting, Adjunct & Contract Faculty also)
Bleak Scenario
IITs top the list with 39% vacancies and Central Universities follow with 38% vacancies. One would assume that a large number of new institutions were setup in the last few years and that their faculty numbers might be contributing to this overall number. But this assumption is not supported by numbers. The new IITs face only a 22% shortage while the old IITs face a much greater 41% faculty crunch. Some of the oldest institutions like IIT Roorke, IIT BHU have more than half their faculty positions vacant. IIT Bhubaneshwar has a shortage of only 4%.
Out of IIMs, IIM Indore is facing a 52% shortage while IIM Ranchi is facing a 48% shortage. IIM Udaipur & IIM Raipur are the only two IIMs with no shortage of faculty. The older IIMs at Ahmedabad, Calcutta & Bangalore are also facing a severe shortage of faculty. IIM Ahmedabad is the worst hit with a 29% shortage.
Out of the NITs, 5 of them are facing a shortage of over 40%. NIT Delhi tops the list with 50% shortage of faculty. The NITs in Raipur, Uttarakhand & Meghalaya are each facing only an 8% shortage of faculty. In terms of the overall numbers, NITs seem to be better placed than the IITs with only a 29% shortage of faculty.
Out of all the institutes, the School of Planning & Architecture (SPAs) seem to be better placed in terms of faculty. They only have a shortage of 8%.
Even in the Central Universities, it is the old universities that are worst hit. Delhi University has a shortage of more than 50% closely followed by University of Allahabad.
Student/Faculty Ratio
In terms of Student/Faculty ratio, it is the IIMs that are doing best with one faculty for every 6 students. In the case of IITs, it is one faculty for every 16 students. IIITs have the worst ratio with one faculty for every 29 students. In NITs, there is one faculty for every 17 students.
Unless the government does something on a war footing, the situation is unlikely to change. It should incentivize bright minds to come back to education. It is a welcome sign that people like Manjul Bhargava are being involved in getting more scholars to teach in India.
Data Sources:

source: news-factly

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

author: Sai Krishna Muthyanolla


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These are the 36 sites from India in the World Heritage List
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 11, 2017
With ‘Historic City of Ahmadabad’ getting into the list of World Heritage sites, the number of such sites in India has reached 36. Here is a look at the 36 sites.
During the 41st session of the ‘World Heritage Committee’, one of India’s two nominations, ‘Historic City of Ahmadabad’ has been added to the World Heritage List.  This is one of the 3 sites added during the 41st session. With this addition, the number of sites from India in the World Heritage List has gone up to 36. India is 06th on the list of countries with the most number of sites in the list. Italy leads with 53 sites followed by China with 52 sites. Here is the list of the 36 sites from India.
By Acred99[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Kunal Dalui[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Pratheepps[CC BY-SA 2.5]
By Yanni[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Nireekshit[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By D.N.A.Shine[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Bikash Sharma [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Nikhilchandra81 [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Sougata Sinha Roy [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Kaustav.piku[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Apadegal [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Sfu[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Chinmaya Panda [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Aravindreddy.d [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Manjunath nikt[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Dibyendu Ash[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Kushaalh[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Nikhil99h[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada (India-0140 Uploaded by Ekabhishek) [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada (India-0140 Uploaded by Ekabhishek) [CC BY-SA 3.0]
No author provided [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Bpilgrim[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Bernard Gagnon[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Tanumoy Kumar Ghosh[CC BY-SA 4.0]
By Tewaryan [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Gughanbose[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Saranya Ghosh[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Shankara narayanan [CC BY-SA 4.0]
By Ajay Shankar [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Parth Joshi[CC BY-SA 2.0]
By Bernard Gagnon[CC BY-SA 3.0]
No Name[CC BY-SA 2.5]
By Gupuinsas1993 [CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Sanyambahga[CC BY-SA 3.0]
By Aviral Mediratta[CC BY-SA 3.0]
Featured Image: Indian sites in World Heritage List


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₹ 3622 Crores is the amount of Electoral Bonds purchased in March & April 2019
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 17, 2019
In just March & April 2019, electoral bonds worth ₹3622 crores were purchased, which is almost equal to the combined 3-year income of the 7 National Parties. This amount is also more or less equal to the expenditure incurred in conducting the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The Supreme Court (SC) had recentlypassed interim directions on the issue of ‘Electoral Bonds’that mandates political parties to disclose in a sealed cover to the ElectionCommission of India (ECI), the names of donors of these bonds by 30 May, 2018. Data from March & April 2019 cycles indicates that a total of  ₹3622 crores worth electoral bonds werepurchased in just these 2 months.
This amount is almost equal to the combined 3-year income of National parties
This amount of ₹ 3622 croresalmost equal to the combined 3-year income of the 7 national parties from2015-16 to 2017-18. The 7 national parties reported a combined income of ₹ 3990 crores in the 3-year period between 2015-16 and2017-18. On the other hand, this amount is also more or less equal to the expenditure incurred (₹ 3870 crores) on conducting the 16 Lok Sabha general elections in 2014.As noted before in one of our stories, such largeamounts of anonymous donations to political parties severely vitiates the free& fair election process.
What are Electoral Bonds?
Electoral Bonds are bearer bankinginstruments that can be used to donate to political parties. One can read this Factly article to understand in detail about the electoral bondsystem. The biggest issue with electoral bonds is the anonymity. Except thebanking system (SBI), hence the government, the donor & the politicalparty, nobody else would know the identity of the donor.
Bonds purchased in March & April
2019 are 2.5 times the amount purchased in earlier phases
Electoral Bonds have been on salefor 9 phases since their introduction. A total of ₹ 1407 crores worth electoral bonds were purchasedduring the first 7 phases. In contrast, a total of ₹ 3622 crores worthbonds were purchased in just March & April 2019 as per the data shared bySBI in response to an application under RTI. In other words, bonds purchased inMarch & April 2019 are 2.5 times the amount of bonds purchased in the firstseven phases.
Four branches account for more than
80% of the bonds purchased in March & April 2019
Of the electoral bonds purchased inMarch & April 2019 across various branches of SBI, the four branches ofDelhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Hyderabad accounted for 81.28% or ₹ 2944 crores worthbonds. The remaining 12 branches (where bonds were purchased) accounted for18.72% or ₹ 678 crores worth bonds.
99.7% of the bonds purchased in the denomination of ₹ 10 lakh & ₹ 1 Crore
Together in all the 9 cycles till April 2019, bonds worth a total of ₹  5029 crores were purchased.  Out of these, bonds in the denomination of ₹ 1 crore accounted for 91.07% or ₹ 4580 crores. Further, bonds in the denomination of ₹ 10 lakh accounted for 8.63% or ₹ 434.2 crores Together, bonds in the denomination of ₹ 10 lakh & ₹ 1 crore accounted for 99.7% of all the bonds purchased so far, reinforcing the belief that only corporates are purchasing the bonds.


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39 Sahitya Akademi Awardees returned their Awards as per Government Records - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 1, 2015
Prominent Writers returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards protesting what they allege as rising intolerance in the country. According to records available with the Government, 39 writers returned their awards till date. 10 of the award returnees are Punjabi.
The ongoing debate on intolerance in the country was marked by the Award Wapsi campaign, where in writers & other noted personalities returned their awards. Prominent among them were the Sahitya Akademi Awardees. As per government records, a total of 39 people returned their Sahitya Akademi awards till date.
The Sahitya Akademi Awards
Sahitya Akademi, is the central institution for literary dialogue, publication and promotion in the country and the only institution that undertakes literary activities in 24 Indian languages, including English. The Akademi is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture. Every year, the Akademi gives 24 awards in the main category for contribution in the 22 recognized Indian languages and English & Rajasthani. An equal number of awards are also given for literary translations from and into languages of India.  The Akademi also gives special Bhasha Samman & Yuva Puraskar Awards.
The Languages Awardees come from
A total of 39 writers returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards till date. 10 of the Award returnees were Punjabi. Seven of them won the award in Hindi followed by English (4), Kannada (4), two each from Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Telugu and Urdu, one each from Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam & Marathi. About 10 languages did not see a single award being returned.
When did they win their Awards?
Two-thirds of those who returned their awards were awarded after the year 2000. Three of those who returned their awards won these awards in the seventies, an equal number in the eighties and seven of them in the nineties. 14 of those who returned the awards won them between the years 2000 and 2010 while 12 of them won the award after 2010.
Which party was in power when they were given these awards?
Out of the 39 awards returned, 10 of them won their awards when the NDA was in power, 5 of them when the third front parties (Janata Parivar, Janata Dal, United Front etc) were in power and the rest when the Congress or UPA was in power.
What has been the Government’s Response?
Sahitya Akademi had convened a special Executive Board meeting in which a Resolution was passed condemning the attack on and murder of any writer or artist and requesting the writers, who had returned the awards, to reconsider their decision.
The Complete list of Award Returnees

created: December 1, 2015


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3D Projection on Istanbul Galata Tower shared as light show on Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 5, 2021
A video is being shared on social media claiming that it shows the visuals of lighting illusion projected on the tower inside Umaid Bhavan palace in Jodhpur. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals showing the lighting illusion projected on the Umaid Bhavan palace in Jodhpur.
Fact: This video shows a 3D projection mapping experience on the Galatta tower in Istanbul. This 3D projection mapping experience was designed for the promotion of the Istanbul Youth Festival 2018. This video has nothing to do with the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, similar visuals were found in the video posted in ‘Behance’ social media service website. In the website, this video is described as the 3D projection mapping experience on the Galata Tower for the promotion of Istanbul Youth festival. Sharing similar visuals, ‘Live Design’ website published an article about this tower of illusion. It is reported as ‘IGF-Galata Tower Projection Mapping Experience’, designed by the Cream studio.
When we searched for more sources using these keywords, we found similar visuals in an article published in Cream Studio website. It is reported as the 3D projection mapping experience on one of the recognised landmarks and the oldest towers in Istanbul, Galata tower. This 3D projection mapping experience was designed for the promotion of the Istanbul Youth Festival 2018.
İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi (Istanbul Metro Politan Municipal Executive committee) published an article about Galata Tower video mapping experience on ‘26 April 2018’. IBB shared the visuals of this event on their official Twitter handle on ‘02 May 2018’.
İstanbul Gençlik Festivali’nin tanıtımı için Galata Kulesi, video mappingle renkleniyor. #ŞehrinFestivali https://t.co/zfvBYaUHDu
On searching for the images of Galata tower on Google maps, we found that it looks similar to the tower in the posted video. Also, no such tower was found inside Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
To sum it up, a 3D Projection Mapping experience on the Galata Tower in Istanbul is falsely shared the light show experience on Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur.

created: January 5, 2021


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4-year old video is falsely shared as Imran Khan’s first interview after the revocation of Article 370 - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 22, 2019
A video of Imran Khan losing his temper at a press conference is being shared on several social media platforms with the claim that it is Imran’s first interview after the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
Video of Imran Khan’s first interview after the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir.
Fact: The video is a 4-year old one showing Imran Khan losing his temper at a press conference. It has nothing to do with the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir on 5th August this year. So, the claim made in the post stands FALSE.
When the video in the post is run through the ‘InVid’ plugin, several keyframes were obtained. On subjecting these keyframes to reverse image search technique, a certain keyframe lead to the same video on YouTube. Based on the timestamp of the video, it was found to be uploaded December 19, 2015.
When searched with keywords on YouTube, the same video was found with the title “Imran Khan gets angry during press conference In Islamabad 8th June 2015 On Geo News”. In the video, Imran Khan can be heard speaking something about ‘Punjab Police’, when searched further, a newspaper article of “Samaa Tv” published on June 8, 2015, that reported about Imran Khan blaming Punjab Police for murders that took place at Rawalpindi was found and it can be read here.
‘Factly’ couldn’t confirm if the video posted and the above newspaper article are linked to the same incident. But it could be concluded that the video is an old video and it has no relation with the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir on August 5, 2019.
To summarize, a 4-year old video of Imran Khan losing his temper is falsely shared as Imran Khan’s first interview after the revocation of Article 370.
Did you watch our new Episode of the DECODE series on Parliament?


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Maharashtra accounts for 40% of the suicides because of Drug abuse - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 18, 2017
The data from the NCRB reports indicates that close to 23000 people have committed suicide because of drug abuse/addiction between 2010 and 2015. Close to 40% of these suicides were committed in Maharashtra.
The National Crime Records Bureau has been publishing an annual report on the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) in India since 1967. All these reports can be accessed online. As the title suggests, this report covers various causes for accidental deaths as well as suicides, and categorizes these instances by cause, profession, educational background, and caste et al.  In the six year period between 2010 and 2015, a total of 22917 people committed suicide because of drug abuse/addiction. In this article, We look at the state-wise break up of suicide motivated by Drug Abuse/Addiction for the past 6 years. We also analyse trends that seem to be emerging in the reports, in terms of states with highest cases of suicide.
Most suicides in Maharashtra
The number of suicides because of drug abuse/addiction has been more than 3000 in each of the 6 years from 2010 to 2015. Close to 40% of these suicides in these five years were committed in Maharashtra.
Within the states, it is observed that
However, it is important to keep in mind that these numbers do not consider the massive disparity that exists between states in terms of population size. Thus to understand this information better, we have scaled the number of deaths per 1 million people in each state for 2015.
When scaled to number of deaths per 1 million people, the top 5 States out of the states with at least 20 such suicides ,remain the same, with their order changed. Kerala for instance with 12.5 such deaths per million population 2015 tops the list followed by Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh in that order. Since the tables on the ADSI simply show the number of cases, they can be misleading and shadow states that seem to have a problem of high suicide rates for drug addiction/abuse.
About 20% of all the suicides in the 53 mega cities
The ADSI report mentions the city-wise distribution of these cases and mentions the 53 mega cities (cities with more than a million population as per 2011 census). The numbers makes it quite clear that the number of cases outside these 53 mega cities is between 4 to 5 times the number of cases in the 53 mega cities. However, the divide seems to be decreasing and the percentage of cases in the 53 cities has gone up by 9 percentage points in the last 6 years. This also debunks the theory that drug abuse is largely an urban problem.
Suicide cases decreased by 20% in 2014
The 2014 ADSI shows a decrease of over 20% from 2013 in terms of total cases reported.  The number for 2015 is more or less the same as 2014. This is a positive sign though there are multiple steps that need to be undertaken towards preventing people from committing suicide over drug abuse/addiction. These steps include setting up rehabilitation and counselling centres in all states to help people who suffer from addiction. Drug addiction and abuse are problems that have devastating effects in people and their families, granular information from the ADSI report ( up to the level of district) should be utilized for better planning in curbing this problem.


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40,000 US soldiers did not resign after they fought in Iraq and Afghanistan - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 14, 2021
A video accompanied by a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that 40,000 US soldiers resigned and threw away their medals after they fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video that shows 40,000 US soldiers resigning and throwing away their medals after they fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Fact: The visuals are from an anti-NATO rally in 2012 in Chicago where nearly 50 US veterans threw away their medals. The veterans were protesting the US’ war in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are no recent news reports of such huge number of soldiers (40,000) resigning after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a YouTube video with similar visuals was found. The YouTube video was published on 21 May 2012 by ‘Democracy Now’ with the title, “’No NATO, No War”: US Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan return war medals at NATO summit.” According to this video news report, nearly 50 veterans threw their war medals in the direction of the NATO summit, which was being held in Chicago then.
An anti-NATO rally was held in May 2012 in Chicago, where nearly 50 US military veterans threw their medals symbolising their rejection of US’ war in Iraq and Afghanistan. US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have come to an end recently. This war on terror, which was fought for 20 years had left a huge toll on the US soldiers who returned where every soldier had a different story. However, there are no recent news reports of such a huge number of soldiers (40,000) resigning after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To sum it up, 40,000 US soldiers did not resign and threw away their medals after they fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

created: October 14, 2021


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430 cases involving life sentence are pending against sitting & former MLAs/MPs
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 5, 2018
Noting that there are over 4000 pending cases against sitting & former MLAs/MPs, the Supreme Court has now directed the State High Courts to assign & allocate these pending cases to as many lower courts to expedite their disposal.
Noting that there are over 4000 pending cases against sitting & former MLAs/MPs, the Supreme Court has now directed the State High Courts to assign & allocate these pending cases to as many lower courts to expedite their disposal. The amicus curiae appointed by the court submitted the state wise data related to these 4122 cases. Among these are 430 cases against sitting & former MLAs/MPs that involve life imprisonment.
Fast tracking cases against sitting MPs/MLAs – History
The issue of fast tracking pending criminal cases against sitting MPs/MLAs has been a longstanding demand of the civil society. The Supreme Court while hearing a case in (Writ Petition (Civil) 536/2011) had in March 2014 directed that the trial in pending cases against MPs/MLAs, where charges have been framed for offences specified in Sections 8(1), 8(2) and 8(3) of the Representation of People Act, be concluded within an year from the date of framing the charges.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had also sent an advisory to all the states in June 2014 reiterating the court’s comments and directing them to take certain steps like identifying all such cases, appointment of special prosecutors, review of cases at regular intervals, constitution of a district level co-ordination committee among other things.
This case ended with the Supreme Court refusing to bar those with pending criminal charges from contesting elections. At the same time, the court issued a slew of directions about disclosure of pending charges by those contesting elections. Candidates contesting elections who have pending charges against them, have to now disclose the same in newspapers and TV Channels at least thrice before the election.
Fresh Directions of the Supreme Court in December 2017
In another case (Writ Petition (Civil) 699/2016), the Supreme Court passed an order on 14 December 2017, directing that state governments setup special courts to fast track all pending cases against sitting MPs/MLAs by 01 March 2018.The High Courts of respective states were directed to trace out the case records of all such pending cases and transfer the same to the special courts that are being setup. It also has to be noted that there was no comprehensive information on the number of pending cases against sitting & former MLAs/MPs across states. Since the progress was slow and there were large number of cases pending across states, the SC has now modified its earlier orders.
4122 cases pending against sitting/former MLAs & MPs – 1/4th of them in UP
As per the latest submissions of Amicus Curiae to the court, there are a total of 4122 cases pending against sitting & former MPs/MLAs across all the states & UTs. Almost one-fourth or 992 of these cases are pending in Uttar Pradesh followed by 331 in Odisha. More than 300 cases are pending in each of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar and Maharashtra. Sikkim is the only state where not a single case is pending against sitting or former MLAs/MPs.
Out of these cases, 1991 cases are pending charge (where a charge-sheet has not been filed and charges are not framed) and 2007 cases are pending for trial in courts. There are also 264 such cases where stay has been granted.
Allocate the cases to as many courts as possible – SC to the High Courts
The Supreme Court in its latest order to the High Courts has directed them to  assign/allocate criminal cases involving former and sitting legislators to as many Sessions Courts and Magisterial Courts as the each High Court may consider proper, fit and expedient. The SC also said that these directions will be applicable to Bihar and Kerala to start with and will then be reviewed accordingly.
The court also directed that offences should be taken in the following sequential order with no distinction between cases involving sitting legislators and former legislators.
It remains to be seen if these directions can help reduce the large number of pending cases against sitting & former legislators.

created: December 5, 2018


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Close to half the NHRC Compensation Orders are not complied with
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 21, 2017
As per the data shared by the government, 44% of all the cases registered with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are from Uttar Pradesh. 46% of the cases where the NHRC recommended compensation are still pending.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently found 16 women as victims of rape, sexual and physical assault by police personnel in Chhattisgarh and asked the State Government why it should not recommend interim relief of Rs. 37 lakh to the victims. While this a welcome step, 46% of the cases recommended by NHRC for monetary relief are still pending since 2013-14 as per the information shared recently by the government in the Lok Sabha.  The pendency of such large number of orders only highlights the scant regard of the governments for institutions like the NHRC.
What is NHRC?
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was established to look into cases of Human Rights violation across the country. Primarily, the NHRC enquires into allegations of human rights violations as per provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. While registering cases, the Commission classifies complaints of human rights violation under various heads including police excesses, encounter deaths and complaints about alleged death in fake encounters.
In cases, where the allegations are substantiated, and the concerned authorities have not taken appropriate action in the matter, the Commission makes recommendations that broadly include appropriate action to protect human rights, grant of monetary relief to the victims or the next of the kin of the deceased victim, and/or departmental/disciplinary action or prosecution against the guilty public servant.
44% of the cases from Uttar Pradesh alone
The number of cases of human rights violations registered with NHRC is on the rise. From 97911 cases in 2013-14, the number of registered cases has gone up to 117428 in 2015-16. The pendency in the NHRC has also increased from 5463 in 2013-14 to 11066 in 2015-16.
Of all the cases registered with the NHRC, 44% of the cases were from Uttar Pradesh alone between 2013-14 and 2015-16. Second in the list was Haryana with less than 25% of the cases compared to Uttar Pradesh. Five states accounted for more than 10000 cases each out of the cases registered during this period. Only 48 cases were registered from Sikkim during this period, the lowest for any state. Of the bigger states, less than 1000 cases were registered from Jammu & Kashmir, less than 3000 cases from Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Assam and Kerala.
46% of the cases recommended for compensation by NHRC are still pending
The NHRC has recommended monetary relief (compensation) in a total of 1292 cases from 2013-14 to 2016-17 (up to 30 June). The total monetary relief granted was Rs 33.59 crore. The number of cases recommended by NHRC for compensation and the total amount has come down continuously.
Out of the 1292 cases recommended by NHRC for compensation, 699 are disposed and 593 are still pending. More than 100 such cases from 2013-14 are still pending. As with the number of registered cases, close to 1/3 of the cases recommended for compensation were from Uttar Pradesh alone. More than 50% of such cases are pending in nine states. All such cases are pending in Arunachal Pradesh while 2/3 are pending in Mizoram. 61% of such cases are pending in Maharashtra. Of the bigger states, only 22% such cases are pending in Chhattisgarh.
Close to half the cases recommended for disciplinary action are from Uttar Pradesh
Between 2013 and 2016, disciplinary action was recommended in 107 cases out of which 49 are from Uttar Pradesh alone. Madhya Pradesh was second in the list with 7 such cases. Disciplinary action was recommended in only one case from eight different states. The sole case where prosecution was recommended was also from Uttar Pradesh.
The government has on multiple occasions reiterated its commitment for protection & promotion of human rights. But it means nothing unless the state governments concerned implement the recommendations of the NHRC.

created: January 21, 2017


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46% of the Suicides in 2016 were due to Family Problems & Illness
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 16, 2019
A total of 1.31 lakh suicides were recorded in India in the year 2016. More than 29% of these suicides were attributed to family problems and a further 17% were attributed to illness. Thenumber of suicides due to poverty has decreased while those due to property disputes has increased in the last 10 years.
There are various factors which influence a person to commit suicide. In a few cases, the reason for committing in suicide is explicitly known, while in others, finding the exact reason for the suicide may be a challenge.
The Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) report-2016, published by NCRB provides information of the suicides in India during 2016. Among the varied data available in this report, one set of data is about the cause of the suicides committed. The information in the report is a compilation of the information received from States/UTs and the causes enlisted in this report are based on the FIR registered by the police.
Family problems are the cause of the highest number of suicides followed by Illness.
Outof the 1.31 lakh suicides recorded in 2016, ‘Family Problems’ is listed as thecause for 38,627 suicides i.e. 29.2% of the total. 22,411 suicides are reportedas caused due to illness, which is 17.1% of the total suicides in 2016.
Marriage related issues have resulted in 5.3% of the total suicides with 6,880 incidents. Drug abuse/Alcohol addiction have resulted in 5,199 suicides in 2016.
Causeswhich are related to financial matters also account for a major share in thenumber of suicides. Of these, 3,709 suicides are due to bankruptcy/indebtednessand a further 2,590  are due to Propertydisputes. 2,298 suicides cite unemployment as a cause while 1,172 cases ofsuicides are caused due to poverty.
ADSIreport categorizes 16.2% of the suicides in 2016, under the head ‘other causes’for which the cause is none of the18 specified categories. Meanwhile, the causeof suicide for a significant portion i.e. 11.5% is not known.
Increase
in the number of suicides committed due to Family problems
FamilyProblems and Illness, which are the two top-most reasons for suicides in Indiahave varied trends over the past 10 years.
In 2007, the number of suicides due to family problems was 29,238 and has continuously increased over the next few years. The year 2012, witnessed the first drop in the number of suicides due to Family problems with 30,792 suicides, 2117 less than the previous year. There was a major drop in 2014 when suicides due to family problems reduced by 3,723 compared to the previous year. However, the next year i.e. 2015 witnessed the steepest increase in the number of suicides due to family problems with 8,326 suicides i.e. a total of 36,928 suicides caused due to family problems. In 2016, this number has increased further.
Meanwhile, the suicides due to illness witnessed a decreasing trend in recent years, even though the number has increased in 2016. The year 2010, witnessed the highest number of suicides due to illness in the 10-year period (2007-2016) with 28,464 cases, followed by a decrease in the following two years. The year 2015 recorded the least number of suicides due to illness with 21,178. The number of suicides due to illness has again increased in 2016.
In2007, 23.8% of the suicides were due to family problems with a gradual increaseover the years and peaking in 2012 with 25.6% of the total suicides. After afall in the share over the next two years, the share increased by 5.9% in theyear 2015. It further increased and in 2016 when 29.2% of the total suicides weredue to family problems. This is the highest ever share of suicides due tofamily problems during the 10-year period.
Theshare of suicides due to illness in 2016 is 17.1% which is an increase over theprevious year share of 15.8%. However, this is less than the share 10 years agoi.e. in 2007 when it was 22.3%. Family Problems & Illness have followeddifferent trajectories both in terms of number of suicides and share in thetotal suicides.
The
share of suicides due to Drug Abuse/Alcohol addiction nearly doubled since 2009
Since 2009, the ADSI report has included the category ‘Drug abuse/addiction’ under the cause for suicides. In that year, the total suicides attributed to this cause was 2,942 i.e. 2.3% of the total suicides. Over the years, the number has gradually increased until 2013, when 4,591 suicides were caused due to Drug Abuse/Addiction.
In both 2014 & 2015, the numbers along with its share in the overall suicides have fallen. However, in the year 2016,  5,199 suicides with a share of  4% were due to this cause. It needs to be noted that in 2016, the term for the category was changed to ‘Drug Abuse/Alcohol addiction’.
Suicides
due to Property disputes have increased while those due to poverty has
decreased
In2007, the number of suicides due to poverty was 2,809. After reaching a high of3,047 suicides in 2010, the number of suicides with poverty as the cause hascome down substantially in the following years and in 2016 the number reducedto 1,172 i.e. is less than half of the number 10 years ago. Meanwhile, duringthe same time period, the share of suicides due to poverty has come down from2.3% in 2007 to 0.9% in 2016.
However, it may be noted that 19.2% of the individuals who committed suicide in 2016, were daily wage labourers. A major portion of these suicides could have been reported as due to illness or family problems  (the top two causes of suicides) instead of poverty as a cause. Factly did a story earlier on the professions of those committing suicides.
The number of suicides recorded due to Property disputes was 1,411 in 2007, which increased to 2,472 in 2009. After that, the number of suicides under this category has gradually reduced to 1,067 in 2014. During 2014, the share of suicides due to property disputes out of the total was just 0.8%. However, in the next year i.e. 2015, there was a jump with the share more than doubling to 1.9%. The number increased 2,491 in 2015 and 2,590 in 2016. The share also increased to 2% in 2016.
Thetrends for unemployment and bankruptcy have been inconsistent over the past 10years.
A total of 3,312 i.e. 2.7% of the suicides in 2016 were attributed to bankruptcy/indebtedness. The lowest number due to this cause was in 2014 when 2,308 deaths i.e. 1.8% of the total suicides were attributed to this cause. In the year 2015, the number of such suicides increased to 4,357 with a share of 3.3%. The situation improved in 2016 when  (still the second-highest in 10 years)  3,709 suicides i.e. 2.8% were reported under this head.
Numberof suicides due to unemployment accounted for 2% of the total with 2,394 casesin 2007. The lowest number of suicides due to unemployment in the last tenyears was in 2009 with 1,283 suicides i.e. 1 % of the total. After a gradualincrease starting 2012, the suicides due to unemployment were the highest in2015 with 2,723 cases, making up 2% of the total. In 2016, 2,298 suicides wererecorded as due to unemployment with a share of 1.8%.
The Ambiguity in the causes of suicides needs to be resolved
In an earlier story on Factly, related to professions of those committing suicides, concern over a major share being enlisted as ‘others’ was highlighted. A similar issue exists even in the case of ‘causes’ for committing suicide. As highlighted earlier in the story, 16.2% of the suicides are enlisted due to ‘Other causes’. There is no improvement compared to 2007 when it was 14.4% of the total. In terms of numbers, in 2007, a total of 17,653 cases were reported as due to ‘other causes’, while it increased to 21,208 in 2016.
A matter of greater concern is that the cause for 11.5% of the suicides is not known in 2016, i.e. 15,037 cases. However, this is an improvement from 2007, where-in the cause for 16.6% i.e. 20,409 suicides were not known.
Further categorization of ‘Other Suicides’ in the ADSI report and effortstowards reducing the suicides under the ‘cause not known’ category will go along way in better understanding of the causes and to ascertain any trends.
Featured Image: Suicides in India

created: December 16, 2019


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When 480 candidates contested from Nalgonda in 1996
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 29, 2019
Imagine going through a booklet of about 50 pages inside the polling booth to exercise your right to vote. Scary, Isn’t it? That is exactly what happened in 1996 when 480 candidates contested from Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh (Now Telangana).
The Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana is all set to get into the record books with more than 180 people in the fray for the 2019 Lok Sabha general elections. This is the 3rd highest number of candidates contesting the Lok Sabha election from a single constituency. The record for the most number of candidates is also held by Nalgonda in Telangana.
Imagine going through a booklet of about 50 pages inside the polling booth to exercise your right to vote. Scary, Isn’t it? That is exactly what happened in 1996 when 480 candidates contested from Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh (Now Telangana). This is the highest number of candidates that ever contested a Lok Sabha election from a single constituency. The Lok Sabha elections of 1996 earned the dubious distinction for shattering of all kinds of records on this front. A close second in the same election was Belgaum in Karnataka where 456 candidates contested.
The honours for the top five are shared by
*A Candidate forfeits his deposit when he fails to get more than 1/6th of total valid votes polled in his favour.
As you can see, most of them were non-serious candidates who forfeited their deposits. In fact, most of them were debarred from contesting subsequent elections because they failed to submit their election expenditure. There are a couple of reasons for such large number of candidates. A nominal security deposit made it easier.
Lower Security Deposit
As per Section 34 (1) (a) of Representation of People Act, 1951 (R.P. Act), every candidate is required to make a security deposit of a certain specified amount to contest a Lok Sabha or an Assembly Election. This amount was substantially increased after the 1996 experience.
Drawing Attention to issues
Another reason for such a large number of candidates contesting the 1996 election from Nalgonda & Belgaum was that they wanted to draw everybody’s attention to their issues. While people in Nalgonda were facing an acute drinking water problem (excessive fluoride in drinking water), Marathi speaking people of Belgaum were demanding that Belgaum be merged into Maharashtra. Unfortunately, both those issues are still unresolved even after 19 years.
What about Assembly elections?
The top honour in an Assembly election goes to Modakurichi in Tamilnadu. This also happened in the 1996 elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly. A whopping 1033 candidates contested from Modakurichi. The election to this constituency had to be postponed by a month since the ballot papers (rather ballot books) were not ready in time. The polling time also had to be increased by two hours. Except three (3), rest of 1030 candidates forfeited their deposit. Not just that,
Source: Election Commission of India Website


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5 things you need to know about the Presidential Election
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 13, 2017
The Presidential election is different from the elections to the Parliament or a State Assembly. Here is a compilation of 5 things you need to know about the Presidential election.
Like Factly reported earlier, the election to the President of India is a complex process. Besides it being a complex process, there are other things that are unique to the Presidential election. Here is a compilation.
Validity of Vote
Since most of the other elections in the country are conducted through the EVM, the concept of invalid vote does not arise in such elections. But the election to the President of India is conducted through ballot paper, a green one for MPs and a pink one for MLAs. The ballot paper is printed in Hindi & English for MPs, and in English & the local official language for the MLAs. For any ballot to be valid, marking the first preference is mandatory while marking other preferences is optional. A ballot can be treated as invalid in the following cases.
Rejection of Nomination
The eligibility conditions for contesting the Presidential election were dealt in our previous story. While any citizen can file a nomination paper, the nomination can be rejected in the following cases.
In the 7th Presidential election in 1977, nomination papers of 36 out of 37 candidates were rejected.  Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy was unanimously elected as the President.
Choice of Polling Booth for the Voters (MPs & MLAs)
In any other election, citizens cannot choose the polling booth to vote. They have to mandatorily vote in the booth in which they are registered as a voter. But in the Presidential election, voters (MPs & MLAs) can choose their polling booth.
Normally, the MPs vote in New Delhi and MLAs in a place fixed in each State/UT capital. The ECI notifies the place of polling in New Delhi as well as State/UT capitals. But facilities are provided by the ECI for any MP to vote in the capital of a State and similarly an MLA to vote at the polling booth set up in the Parliament House, if he is in Delhi on the date of poll. The MP or MLA who opts to vote in a place other than the place designated for him to vote is required to intimate the ECI 10 days in advance. In exceptional circumstances, MPs and MLAs may also be permitted by the ECI to vote at other State Capitals.
Forfeiture of Deposit Amount
Every contesting candidate has to deposit Rs 15,000 as security deposit. The security deposit was increased to Rs 2,500 before the 6th Presidential election in 1974 and further increased to Rs 15,000 in 1997.  The security deposit will be forfeited if the candidate is not elected and the number of valid votes polled by him does not exceed 1/6th of the number of votes necessary for a candidate to be elected. In the parliament & assembly elections, candidate’s security deposit is forfeited if he does not secure 1/6th of valid votes polled.
Counting to take place only in Parliament House
The counting of votes in the presidential election takes place only in the Parliament house in New Delhi. The votes polled in other places are transferred to Delhi in separate sealed covers. The presiding officers in various states transfer the ballot papers from the ballot box to separate covers without counting or opening them. This is done in the presence of authorized representatives of the candidates.


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5-year-old video shared as Paresh Rawal's apology for his recent comments on Bengalis - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 6, 2022
In the context of BJP politician Paresh Rawal’s remarks on Bengalis at Gujarat election campaign recently, a video of Paresh Rawal apologising for his comments after getting surrounded by angry mob is being shared on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Paresh Rawal apologising over his comments on Bengalis.
Fact: A full version of the viral video is uploaded on YouTube on 30 November 2017. In the video, Paresh Rawal can be seen apologising for his comments on Rajputs back in November 2017. But his remarks on Bengalis were made on 29 November 2022 and he later tweeted an apology on 02 December 2022. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
We ran a reverse image search using the keyframes extracted from the viral video and found that the full version of the same video has already been uploaded on YouTube on 30 November 2017.
In the full video he can be seen saying ‘apologising unconditionally’ for his comments on Rajputs in November 2017. However, after facing backlash for his recent remarks on Bengalis on 29 November 2022, Paresh Rawal tweeted an apology on 02 December 2022.
of course the fish is not the issue AS GUJARATIS DO COOK AND EAT FISH . BUT LET ME CLARIFY BY BENGALI I MEANT  ILLEGAL BANGLA DESHI N ROHINGYA. BUT STILL IF I HAVE HURT YOUR FEELINGS AND SENTIMENTS I DO APOLOGISE. 🙏 https://t.co/MQZ674wTzq
To sum it up, though Paresh Rawal apologised for his remarks on Bengalis, this video is not related to those comments and is five years old.

created: December 6, 2022


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civil services exam
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 25, 2016
Data of the civil services exam from 2009 to 2013 reveals that more than 50% of the successful candidates are either engineers or doctors. Most of the successful candidates come from the IITs while less than 3% of the successful candidates come from an Agricultural University.
The Civil Services Exam (CSE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is arguably the most competitive and coveted exam in the country. Each year, about 1000 posts are filled based on the results of CSE. These posts include the IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS and other Central Service posts. Data from 2009 to 2013 indicates that more than 50% of the selected candidates on average are either Engineers or Doctors.
More than 60% of the successful candidates in 2013 were either Engineers or Doctors
In 2009, the proportion of successful candidates with an engineering or medical degree was 43%. In 2010, this proportion went up to 51% with engineers alone accounting for more than 40%. The proportion of engineers and doctors crossed the 60% mark for the first time in 2011, to go down to about 51% in 2012. However, the highest ever proportion of engineers and doctors (64.6%) was in 2013. In 2013, the proportion of engineers alone was more than 50%, where as in the early 2000s, the proportion of engineers and doctors was only around 30-35%. The increase in the proportion of engineers and doctors was accompanied by the decrease in those with a degree in humanities. From 44% in 2009, the proportion of the successful candidates with a humanities degree went down to 27.6% in 2013. Proportion of successful candidates with a sciences degree is on a continuous decline. From about 13% in 2009, it is down to around 7.5% in 2013.
Hardly 3% of the selected candidates come from Agricultural Universities
Amongst various universities (regular & deemed), greatest number of successful candidates belong to either University of Delhi or the IITs in each of the five years from 2009 to 2013. While the highest number of successful candidates came from University of Delhi in 2009 and 2010, IITs have topped the list since 2011. In 2011, close to 190 of the selected candidates were from the IITs. The number of successful candidates with a degree from NITs and IIMs is also on the rise. From less than 10 successful candidates in 2009, the number of successful candidates from IIMs has gone up to around 50 in 2013. Substantial numbers of successful candidates also come from NITs, Anna University and JNU in Delhi. In each of the five years from 2009 to 2013, hardly 3% of the successful candidates had a degree from an Agricultural university.
Those who opted for Sociology had the highest Success Rate
Of all the optional subjects, candidates who opted for sociology had the highest success rate in 3 of the 5 years. In 2009, candidates who opted for Public Administration had the highest success rate while in 2011, it was candidates who opted for Psychology. The success rate of candidates choosing Public Administration and Geography is on the decline while the success rate of those who choose History & Philosophy is on the rise. Success rate is defined as the percentage of candidates finally selected out of those who chose that specific subject in CSE Mains. Only those subjects that had more than 30 successful candidates were taken into consideration for this analysis.
Number of Candidates opting for a language literature is coming down
The Civil Services (Mains) examination underwent a major change in 2013 when the number of optional subjects to be chosen by the candidates was brought down from two to one. This coincided with a significant drop in the number of candidates opting for any Indian language literature as the optional subject. The number of different languages on offer had also come down from 31 in 2012 to 23 in 2013. Pali Literature, which had been a favourite amongst candidates, with more than 300 candidates taking it every year till 2012 was dropped from the list in 2013. The number of candidates opting for literature in Kannada and Maithili is on the rise while it is on the decline for other languages like Tamil, Marathi etc.
Featured Image: Civil Services


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More than 50% of the LPG Connections issued under PMUY are from Uttar Pradesh - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 15, 2016
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched to provide LPG connection to 5 crore women belonging to BPL in the next 3 years. As per the latest data, more than 50% of the new LPG connections issued under this scheme are from Uttar Pradesh.
The Government launched ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ (PMUY) for providing LPG connections to 5 crore women belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families with a support of Rs 1600 per connection. The Government plans to achieve the target of 5 crore over a period of 3 years starting from 2016-17. As per the latest data available with the government, more than 50% of the 17.66 lakh LPG connections approved under the PMUY scheme are from Uttar Pradesh.
The PMUY Scheme
As Factly reported earlier, an estimated 5 lakh deaths in India are caused by unclean cooking fuels. The PMUY was launched to tackle this issue. It is also expected that an LPG connection will reduce the time rural women spend on foraging wood, dung and other cooking fuel.
Eligible families are identified through the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data. Households having one of the Deprivations in the SECC survey would be the target beneficiaries. The LPG Field officials match the application against SECC 2011 database to ascertain their BPL status.
A woman of a BPL household, who does not have LPG connection in her household, may apply for new LPG connections under PMUY. The prescribed KYC application has to be filled and submitted to the nearest LPG distributor. While submitting the application form, the woman will have to submit Proof of Address, Aadhaar number and Jandhan /Bank Account. The LPG field official/Distributor will match the application against SECC-2011 database and after ascertain their BPL status. Then a physical verification is done to check if a LPG connection is already there. Distributors will enter the details (Name, Address, Aadhaar, Bank account details and Aadhaar Numbers of Adult members of family etc.) into a dedicated Web portal and a de-duplication exercise is done electronically to detect any multiple connections in the house hold or an existing connection with the adult member of household. If no multiple connection is detected, the new LPG connection will be released under the scheme to the beneficiary.
The Entire cost of new connection, including Security deposit (cylinder and Pressure Regulator), the cost of Suraksha Hose pipe, DGCC book, installation and administrative charges on one-time basis, will be borne by the Government. The total cost of new connection borne by the Government is Rs 1600. The customer will have to pay towards purchase of LPG stove and first refill charges at the time of release of new LPG connection under the scheme. Beneficiary will have the option to make an upfront payment for the same or will be provided with option to avail EMI to pay the cost of LPG stove
As of July 2016, a total of 49.32 lakh KYC applications were filled under PMUY in 21 different states. Uttar Pradesh & Rajasthan together accounted for more than half of all the KYC applications filled under PMUY. Out of these applications, 35.54 lakh applications were cleared and 17.66 lakh new LPG connections are issued under PMUY. More than 50% of the issued connections or 9.42 lakh are from Uttar Pradesh followed by 3.99 lakh in Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan together account for more than 75% of the new LPG connections issued. More than lakh new LPG connections each were issued only in two other states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha also figure in the list of States where less than 30% of the households use LPG for cooking as per the SRS Baseline Survey of 2014.
As per information shared by the government in the Lok Sabha, some instances of the beneficiaries’ details not matching with the SECC data have been noticed in various states. There are also instances of households not covered under SECC data. These issues are being taken up with Ministry of Rural Development. Households can also file an objection about the SECC data. A toll free Helpline 18002666696 for answering all queries relating to PMUY has also been launched in June 2016.

created: September 15, 2016


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More than 50% of the A-rated films in 2015-16 were from Hindi & Telugu alone
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 12, 2017
More than 1900 Indian feature films (digital) were certified by the Censor Board in 2015-16 with 20% of them with A-certificate. Hindi & Telugu films accounted for more than 50% of all the A-certified films. More than 40% of the Hindi films were given A-certificate, the highest for any language.
Indian Film Industry is the largest, making over 2000 feature films every year and a much larger number of short films every year. Film certification has always been a contentious issue with the seemingly arbitrary attitude of the CBFC, especially under its former Chairperson.  Data from the CBFC indicates that more than 2000 featured films were certified in 2015-16. More than 50% of the A-rated films in the digital category are from Hindi & Telugu.
Why is Film Certification Necessary?
The Supreme Court in a judgment in 1989 said, ‘Film censorship becomes necessary because a film motivates thought and action and assures a high degree of attention and retention as compared to the printed word. The combination of act and speech, sight and sound in semi darkness of the theatre with elimination of all distracting ideas will have a strong impact on the minds of the viewers and can affect emotions. Therefore, it has as much potential for evil as it has for good and has an equal potential to instill or cultivate violent or good behaviour. It cannot be equated with other modes of communication. Censorship by prior restraint is, therefore, not only desirable but also necessary.’
What is CBFC’s job?
Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) or more commonly known as the Censor Board is a statutory body under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, regulating the public exhibition of films. The board, set up under the Cinematograph Act, 1952 functions with its headquarters at Mumbai. The CBFC has nine regional offices, one each at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Cuttack & Guwahati.
At present, films are certified under 4 categories: U, UA, A& S.
Rule 41 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 1983 sets down the maximum time limit for each step in the certification process as given below.
More than 1900 digital films certified in 2015-16
A total of 1902 digital feature films made in India across various languages were certified by the CBFC in 2015-16. In addition, a total of 433 video feature films from India were also certified in 2015-16. At least one film was certified in 37 different languages. More than 100 films were certified in each of the seven (7) languages of Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam & Bengali. These seven (7) languages put together account for more than 90% of all the Indian digital feature films certified in 2015-16. Hindi leads with 340 films followed by Tamil & Telugu. Even in video feature films from India, Hindi leads with 120 followed by Telugu & Tamil in that order.
20% of all the Digital Indian Feature Films were given A-Certificate
Out of the 1902 digital Indian feature films certified in 2015-16, 42% (792) were certified as U, 38% (729) were certified as UA and the remaining 20% (381) as A. Among Hindi feature films, nearly 40% were certified as A, the highest for any language followed by 25% in Telugu. In fact, Hindi & Telugu feature films together account for 202 or 53% of the all A-certified films in the country. Three-fourths (3/4th) of the Malayalam films were U-certified, the highest for any language, followed by Tamil feature films with 58% getting a U-certificate. Among the major languages in which films are made, Hindi had the lowest percentage of U-certified films (19%).
Among the 1902 digital Indian feature films certified in 2015-16, 881 were cleared without any cuts while the rest were cleared with cuts. More than 65% of the Tamil films were cleared after cuts while 50% of the Hindi films were cleared after cuts.
Less than 0.5% of the Digital Feature Films were Children’s Films
Out of the 1902 Indian digital feature films certified in 2015-16, only 8 were children’s films. In addition to the Indian feature films, a total of 803 foreign feature films were also certified in 2015-16, 340 of them in digital and the remaining in video. Close to 80% (670) of the certified foreign films are from the USA followed by 38 from Japan and 31 from UK. Films from 20 different countries were certified in 2015-16. Foreign feature films in the digital category had more children’s films (15 in number)  than in the Indian feature films.
Featured Image: A-rated films in India

created: October 12, 2017


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57% of the Districts in India are without a Medical College
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 21, 2018
57% of the districts in India are without a Medical College

created: February 21, 2018


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57% of the Districts in India are without a Medical College
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 21, 2018


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58% of the Rural Households are Agricultural Households
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 21, 2015
This is part 1 of the series on the 70th round NSSO report on agricultural households. This article looks at the estimated number of agricultural households and their social groups including the size of the land holding. In Part 2, we look at the principle sources of income of the Agricultural households & the outstanding loans.
As the debate over the Land Acquisition Ordinance by the NDA government rages inside & outside the parliament, the statistics about agriculture & people dependent on it would help us understand the issue in greater detail. The 70 round of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report was released in December 2014 and this report spoke about the Key Indicators of Situation of Agricultural Households in India.
According to this survey, an agricultural household is one with at least one member self-employed in agriculture either in principal status or subsidiary status and having total value of produce during last 365 days more than Rs. 3000. The survey was conducted in a total of 4529 villages across the country in the year 2013. The survey results reveal some important details about the agricultural households in the country.
Estimated Number of Agricultural Households
An estimated 57.8% rural households are agricultural households in the country. In other words, more than 9 crore households are agricultural households in the country. Rajasthan tops the chart with 78.4% rural households dependent on agriculture while Uttar Pradesh comes second with 3/4 of the rural households dependent on agriculture. The top 10 states with the highest percentage of agricultural households are given in the chart below.
Agricultural Households by Social Group
About 45 percent out of the total agricultural households in the country belonged to Other Backward Classes (OBC). About 16 percent of agricultural households were from Scheduled Castes (SC) and 13 percent were from Scheduled Tribes (ST).
Land Holding of Agricultural Households
An estimated 35% of the agricultural households hold less than 1 acre of land and another 35% hold between 1 and 2.5 acres. 70% of the agricultural households in the country hold less than 2.5 acres. About 30% hold more than 2.5 acres of which about 4% hold more than 10 acres.
A deeper analysis reveals more trends. 45% of all ST agricultural households hold less than 2.5 acre land while this percentage goes up to 70% for SC agricultural households. 43% of the OBC agricultural households fall into this category.
71% of the other agricultural households hold more than 2.5 acres while this percentage is only 55 in ST, 29.5 in SC.
This is a 2 Part series. In Part 2, we look at the principle sources of income of the Agricultural households & the outstanding loans.
Source: Key Indicators of Situation of Agricultural Households in India, NSS 70 round.


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5G Testing is not the cause for the second wave of COVID-19 in India - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 10, 2021
While India continues to battle the second wave of the coronavirus, there are questions raised on the origin of the second wave of the virus. Case in point being, a newspaper clipping that is being widely shared on social media claiming that the testing of 5G towers has caused the second wave of COVID-19 in India. Let us verify the claims made in the post.
Claim 1: Testing of 5G towers has caused the second wave of the coronavirus in India.
Fact: There is no scientific evidence to prove any causation and correlation between testing of 5G towers and spread of COVID-19 in India.  Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The text in the above newspaper clipping claims that the real cause of the second wave in India is the testing of 5G. The claim further explains that the radiation caused by the 5G towers when in contact with air becomes poisonous and is, therefore, the reason for the breathing trouble in people and also proving to be fatal. Further, it is also claimed that the radiation is also the reason for increased thirst and the feeling of the presence of slight current in the air.
What are 5G Towers?
By definition, 5G is the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks. 5G cell towers are telecommunications sites that could boost wireless signals by ten times the current speed of 4G. 5G operates in a high-frequency band of the wireless spectrum. They are functionally different from 3G, 4G, LTE towers because the hardware emits higher frequency radio waves that are much shorter in length—they’re essentially harmless. 5G technology is in nascent stages and is yet to be launched in India at full potential. According to this Indian Express article, 5G essentially works in 3 bands- low band spectrum has shown great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange, the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps, mid-band spectrum, on the other hand, offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals and high-band spectrum offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
What are 5G trials/testing?
Three private players including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) have been imploring the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to lay out the clear pathway for 5G trials and it is only on 04 May 2021, that the DoT issued a press release granting permission to these telecom service providers to start 5G trials in different locations across the country including the rural, semi-urban and urban areas. According to the central government, the objectives of conducting 5G trials include: “Testing 5G spectrum propagation characteristics especially in the Indian context; model tuning and evaluation of chosen equipment and vendors; testing of indigenous technology; testing of applications (such as telemedicine, tele-education, augmented/ virtual reality, drone-based agricultural monitoring, etc.); and to test 5G phones and devices.”
Therefore, in the given context, it is obvious that there were no 5G trials happening in India during February, 2021 when India was at the beginning of the second wave of COVID-19. Also, there is no scientific evidence to prove that the radiation due to 5G technology can cause COVID-19 cases or deaths.
In fact, the WHO has also confirmed that ‘viruses cannot travel on radio waves/mobile networks. COVID-19 is spreading in many countries that do not have 5G mobile networks’. Therefore, it is definite that 5G technology or its radiation has not caused the second wave in India. Also, the claim is not specific to India but similar conspiracy theories regarding 5G technology were seen in Brussels, Australia, and Switzerland with real-time consequences. The same claim has been debunked multiple times and can be accessed here, here, here, and here.
Claim 2: Birds in India dying due to 4G technology radiation.
Fact: There is no scientific evidence to back that 4G technology led to the death of these birds in India. Therefore, the claim made in the post in FALSE.
In January 2021, Factly had published a fact-check on the claim that birds in India are dying due to 5G technology testing by Jio. In fact, the Press Information Bureau has reported about the outbreaks of Avian Influenza/Bird flu in migratory birds, wild and domestic crows, and poultry in certain States of the country. In the same press release, it can be read that the disease spreads mainly by migratory birds coming into India during the winter months i.e. from September – October to February – March. As mentioned above, the permission for 5G testing in India has only been approved on 04 May 2021. Therefore, it is clear from the fact-check that there is no scientific evidence or correlation between 4G/5G technology and the death of the birds. A similar claim has been debunked in the Netherlands which had falsely attributed the death of over 297 birds in 2018 to the testing of 5G masts. The same can be accessed here and here.
In summary, neither is the second wave of COVID-19 in India is due to the 5G tower testing (or its radiation) nor have the birds died due to 4G technology. Both the claims mentioned are false.


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6 years on, NOTA vote share declines. Reserved seats still poll a higher NOTA share
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 4, 2020
It’s been 6 years since the introduction of NOTA on the EVM. Data from 46 elections and thousands of constituencies indicates that NOTA is being preferred by a fewer percentage of voters than 6 years ago. Another trend worth noting is that NOTA vote share is higher in reserved constituencies than in General constituencies.
Oneof the common reasons cited by the electorate regarding not voting in anelection is that none of the candidates in the fray deserve to be theirrepresentative. With the introduction of NOTA  in 2013, an option was provided tothe electorate, who usually stay away from voting because of a lack of choice,to come forward and participate in the election process. Voting for NOTA isseen as an expression of dissent against parties and their choice ofcandidates.
Tobolster the choice of NOTA, a dedicated
symbol for NOTA was also introduced in 2015 to aid thevoters who intend to use NOTA option.  Asobserved in an earlier story on Factly, the share of votes for NOTA has been on
the decline since its inception. In an another story, it wasobserved that while there is a decline in NOTA vote share even in the reservedseats, the vote share of NOTA in reserved seats is still substantially
higher than the General category seats.
Inthis story, we look at the NOTA trends after the recently concluded electionsfor Jharkhand assembly in reserved & general constituencies. It has to benoted that only general election results are considered for this analysis.
Share
of NOTA votes higher among ST reserved seats in both Assembly and Lok Sabha
elections
Atotal of 46 elections were conducted since NOTA was introduced in 2013, ofwhich 44 elections were Assembly general elections and 2 were for the Lok Sabha( 2014 & 2019 ).
Ofthe 44 Assembly elections, the 13 states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Delhi,Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Telangana had two assembly general electionsduring this period (2013- 2019).
Electionswere conducted to 5671 assembly constituencies of which, 3980 seats wereGeneral category seats, 822 were SC Reserved seats and 869 were ST reservedseats.
Inthe two Lok Sabha general elections since 2013, 1086 constituencies went topolls of which 820 were General category seats, 168 were SC reserved and 98 STreserved seats.
Greatest
NOTA vote share in ST reserved seats
Amongthe elections held for various State assemblies, ST reserved seats have polledthe highest share of NOTA votes with 2.31%. Out of 8.49 crores votes polled inST reserved assembly constituencies between 2013-2019, around 19.65 lakh voteswere polled for NOTA.
Onthe other hand, SC reserved seats polled 17.49 lakh votes for NOTA whichaccounts to 1.31%  of 13.34 crore totalvotes. The least share of NOTA votes in assembly elections is among thenon-reserved General Seats with only 1.1% votes going for NOTA.
Similarly,even in  Lok Sabha elections, ST reservedseats have the highest share for NOTA with 1.9% of total votes polled. It isfollowed by SC reserved seats with 1.1% and General Seats with 0.9% for boththe Lok Sabha elections held during 2014 and 2019.
Meanwhile,NOTA has a higher share in Assembly elections compared to that of Lok Sabhaelections across all types of constituencies – General, SC & ST reserved.
Slight
fall in the percentage of NOTA in reserved seats for 2019
Postthe Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Factly highlighted the continued fall in the share of NOTA votes year on year, albeit the reservedconstituencies  reporting a higher share.
Post2019 Lok Sabha elections, there were assembly general elections in the statesof Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand.  Priorto the elections in these three states, the share of NOTA votes in the assemblyelections in 2019 (for the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim& Odisha) was 1.01%, 1.17% and 2.1% in General, SC and ST reserved constituenciesrespectively.
Postthe assembly elections for these three states, the NOTA vote share in SC and STseats in 2019 was down to 1.16% and 1.99% respectively. Meanwhile, there is aslight increase in the share of NOTA votes in General constituencies, i.e. 1.08%
Specificto these three states, the share of NOTA votes was 1.13%, 1.15% and 1.91% forGeneral, SC and ST reserved seats respectively.
Theoverall NOTA vote share in SC reserved seats in 2019 decreased despite a higherNOTA vote share in  Jharkhand’s SC reserved seats (2.04%). The higher share in Jharkhand was offset by only 0.47%NOTA votes in SC reserved seats of Haryana.
Meanwhile,the slight increase in the NOTA share within General seats can be attributed tothe 1.3% NOTA vote share in Maharashtra assembly elections. It may be notedthat Latur -Rural which is a General Seat, polled the highest
ever NOTA share of 13.78% in the 2019 Maharashtra Assemblyelections.
Asfor the Lok
Sabha elections, the reserved seats have a greater share of NOTA ,even though the numbers have fallen in 2019 Lok Sabha elections compared to2014.
‘NOTA
votes higher than victory margin’ happens more in  reserved seats
Forthe year 2019, in 38 Assembly constituencies and 27 Lok Sabha constituencies,the NOTA votes were higher than that of the margin of victory.
Inthe 2014 Lok Sabha elections, there were 23 such constituencies, with anincrease in SC & ST reserved seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
While,the number of assembly seats being contested every year varies depending on thesize of the states where assembly elections are being conducted, the share ofseats in which NOTA polled more than the victory margin has been on thedecline.
In2013, 9% of the total assembly seats contested had NOTA polling more thanvictory margin. The share of such seats in the subsequent years is 5.8%, 6.7% ,7.6%, 6.4%, 6.5% between 2014 -2018. This share is only 4.3% in 2019.
Amongthe various categories of seats, ST reserved seats have a higher share of seatswhere NOTA votes are more than the victory margin. In the case of Assembly elections,the trends have been inconsistent over the years.
In2013, 15.71%  of the ST reservedconstituencies had NOTA polling more than the victory margin while in 2019 itwas down to 10.91%.  Although during theinitial years, the share of these seats among SC reserved constituencies washigher than that of General seats, over the past few years, the numbers are beeninconsistent.
Inthe case of 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the share of theseconstituencies has gone up among the ST reserved seats from 10.2% to 14.29%.The share of such constituencies among SC reserved seats has gone up sincethere were four such SC reserved constituencies in 2019 compared to only one in2014.
Despite
the decline in NOTA as a choice, reserved seats still poll a higher NOTA share
Theone stand out trend of the last 6 years is that NOTA is being chosen by fewerpercentage of voters today compared to 2013. This is true both in the case ofassembly as well as lok sabha elections.
Evenamong the SC and ST reserved seats, the NOTA share has fallen. Despite thisfall, the NOTA vote share in reserved seats is substantially higher than in thegeneral seats.
Withthe exception of 2019 Lok Sabha  elections,  the proportion of seats where NOTA polled morethan the victory margin has also declined over the years. This is also atestament to fewer percentage of voters choosing NOTA.
Thereasons for a higher NOTA share in SC and ST constituencies are not clearlyknown but as observed in an earlier
story on Factly, based on various news reports , there areinstances where there have been open calls by caste based groups not to votefor the reserved candidates and in cases of ST reserved constituencies, non-tribalsnot preferring to vote for tribal candidates.

created: January 4, 2020


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Central Scheme for Interest Subsidy
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 31, 2016
In 2009, the Central Government launched a scheme to provide interest subsidy on educational loans taken by students from scheduled banks. Data of the last 6 years suggests that Tamil Nadu & Kerala alone account for more than 60% of the beneficiaries and close to 50% of the total amount claimed under this scheme.
The Central Government in the year 2009, launched a Scheme to provide Interest Subsidy on educational loans taken by students from economically weaker sections from scheduled banks under the Educational Loan Scheme of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), to pursue technical and professional education studies in India. The scheme would be applicable to students pursuing any of the approved courses of studies in technical and professional streams, from recognised institutions in the country.
How does the scheme work?
The central government would pay full interest subsidy during the moratorium period on educational loans for students belonging to economically weaker sections (with parental family income from all sources of less than 4.5 lakh annually). The interest subsidy under the Scheme shall be available to the eligible students only once either at the undergraduate or the post graduate level. The moratorium period as defined by the IBA is course Period plus one year or six months after getting job, whichever is earlier. Canara Bank has been designated as the nodal bank for this scheme.  Students interested in availing the benefit under this scheme have to approach their respective bank and make an application.
Similar Schemes of other departments
There are similar schemes from other departments aimed at specific beneficiaries. The National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC), The National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation  (NSKFDC), National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC), National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSCFDC), and the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) also provide educational loans to specific target beneficiaries. The interest subsidy is also applicable for these schemes. The interest subsidy is paid by the government to these corporations directly.
While beneficiaries increased, claim amount dropped in 2014-15
When the scheme was initially formulated, it was estimated that 2 lakh students will benefit each year through an average loan size of Rs.1.5 lakh per year. But the actual number of beneficiaries is five times the estimated number with more than 60 lakh students taking benefit of the scheme in the 6 year period from 2009-10 to 2014-15.  In the inaugural year of 2009-10, the number of beneficiaries was 6.44 lakh. This increased continuously till 2012-13 when it reached 10.78 lakh. The number of beneficiaries went down in 2013-14 to 9.47 lakh, but increased substantially by over 70% in 2014-15. The number of beneficiaries under this scheme was the highest in 2014-15 at 16.45 lakh.
Surprisingly, while the claim amount followed a similar pattern till 2013-14, it dropped substantially in 2014-15. The claim amount in 2009-10 was Rs 296.9 crore and increased to Rs 1681.9 crore in 2012-13. The claim amount in 2013-14 was Rs 1587.7 crore. The total claim amount decreased by 75% in 2014-15 to Rs 402.9 crore. This was accompanied by more than 70% increase in the number of beneficiaries. This anomaly resulted in the average subsidy per beneficiary being the lowest in 2014-15. The overall average subsidy amount per beneficiary was Rs 9529 for this 6 year period. This was just Rs 2449 in 2014-15.
More than 60% of the beneficiaries from just 2 states (Tamil Nadu & Kerala)
Strange as it may sound, more than 60% of the 62 lakh beneficiaries in these 6 years were from the two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Tamil Nadu accounted for 26.1 lakh beneficiaries (42%) while Kerala accounted for 11.5 lakh beneficiaries (19%). The other states in the top 10 include Karnataka (4.19 lakh), Maharashtra (2.88 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (2.76 lakh) etc.  The top 10 states account for more than 90% of all the beneficiaries. Only the top 10 states have more than lakh beneficiaries each.
Tamil Nadu & Kerala account for 50% of the total claim amount
Out of the Rs 59 billion in total claim amount in the 6 years, Tamil Nadu (16.74 billion) and Kerala (12.49 billion) accounted for close to 50% of the total claim amount. The top 10 states again accounted for close to 90% of the total claim amount.
What explains this anomaly?
Though Tamil Nadu & Kerala have a large number of institutions offering professional education, this kind of skewed ratio is rather strange. If presence of such institutions is the reason, then the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka should be on par with Tamil Nadu & Kerala in both the number of beneficiaries and claim amount.  Is this anomaly due to greater awareness among student population in those states Or Is there something more than that meets the eye?


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60 individuals extradited to India since 2002. Will Vijay Mallya join the list?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 13, 2016
As per data available with the government, 60 individuals were extradited to India since 2002. 17 of them were extradited from UAE followed by 11 from USA. 52 of the extradited were Indian nationals while most of them were extradited for offences like murder and terrorism related charges.
The Government of India (GoI) will reportedly seek extradition of Vijay Mallya after the United Kingdom (UK) rejected the deportation plea. But how easy is it? Though the numbers on the number of extradition/deportation requests made by GoI are not available, government data indicates that only 60 individuals have been deported/extradited to India since 2002.
India has Extradition Treaties with 42 countries
As on date, India has signed Extradition Treaties with the following 42 countries.
India also has Extradition Arrangements with 9 more countries namely Croatia, Fiji, Italy, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Sweden and Tanzania.
Government also maintains that it is in the process of negotiating extradition treaties with many other countries. India is also a party to various multilateral conventions such as United Nations Convention against Corruption, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, which can serve as a legal framework to bring back fugitive criminals from the countries who are also the parties to these conventions.
What is the process of Extradition?
A request for extradition can be initiated against a fugitive criminal who is formally accused of, charged with or convicted of an extradition offence. Such requests are handled with utmost care so as not to allow the fugitive an opportunity to take measures to avoid getting extradited. The Ministry of External Affairs takes up extradition requests with the concerned foreign countries when a request for extradition is received from the relevant law enforcement agencies in India.
All extradition requests should be supported by documents and information as prescribed by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) guidelines. It has to be noted that each extradition request is different and the request is dependent on the specific treaty/agreement signed with a country. The offence should also be defined in the list of the extradition offences.
What are the different offences defined in the extradition treaty with UK?
The extradition treaty with the UK was signed in the year 1993. This treaty defines the scope of the extradition offence as one which is punishable by law for a term of imprisonment of at least one year. This treaty does not classify political offences as extradition offences. But it provides an exhaustive list of offences that will not be treated as a political offence.
Most individuals extradited from UAE
A total of sixty (60) individuals have been extradited to India from a foreign country since 2002. 19 different countries have extradited people to India. The highest number of extraditions happened from UAE (17) followed by USA (11). Five (5) were extradited from Saudi Arabia while 4 each were extradited from Canada and Thailand. Only one individual Grant Duncan Alexander, a British citizen was extradited from Tanzania and Britain.
Out of the 60 extradited since 2002, 52 of them were Indian nationals, 3 of them were British and one was an American national.
Most individuals extradited in 2005 and 2015
Most people were extradited in both 2005 and 2015 when 8 people each were extradited. In both 2003 and 2004, 7 people were extradited. In 2006 and 2009, 5 people were extradited while in 2007 and 2008, 4 each were extradited.
Most people extradited for Murder & Terrorism related offences
Out of the 60 people extradited since 2002, 13 of them were extradited for murder related charges, 10 each for terrorism related and criminal conspiracy. Eight (8) of them were extradited for economic fraud, while 3 each were extradited for sexual abuse of children and waging war against India. The other offences include attempt to murder, cheating, forgery, drug offences and passport fraud etc.


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6000-year-old Shiva Linga was not discovered by archaeologists in the Sudwala Caves (South Africa) - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 24, 2021
A post is being shared on social media with a claim that the archaeologists have found a 6000-year-old Shiva Linga in a cave named Sudwara in South Africa. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Archaeologists have found a 6000-year-old Shiva Linga in Sudwara Cave (South Africa).
Fact: No such Shiva Linga was discovered by archaeologists in the Sudwala Caves located in South Africa. The Sudwala Caves officials have clarified to FACTLY there is no truth in the post. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for Sudwara cave on the internet, it was found that there are ‘Sudwala’ Caves, not ‘Sudwara’, in South Africa. Also, the left picture in the post is related to the Sudwala Caves. A similar image of the Sudwala Caves can be also found on the ‘Getty Images’ website.
There are no credible reports on the internet regarding the discovery of a 6000-year-old Shiva Linga by archaeologists in the Sudwala Caves. Also, the exact details of the statue in the posted photo were not found. So, when FACTLY has contacted the authorities of Sudwala caves, they have clarified that there has been no such discovery of the Shiva statue in the caves and the post is false.
A rock formation in the Nelspruit Nature Reserve (around 35-40 kms from the Sudwala Caves) is considered to be a Shiva Lingam which was believed to be worshipped by the Indian travellers who travelled to Africa around 1800 years ago.  More information regarding it can be found here. But it is not the 6000-year-old Shiva Linga mentioned in the post.
To sum it up, a 6000-year-old Shiva Linga was not discovered by archaeologists in the Sudwala Caves (South Africa).

created: February 24, 2021


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62 Fugitives extradited to India since 2002, another 110 yet to be extradited
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 20, 2017
As per data available with the government, 62 fugitives were extradited to India since 2002. Most of them were extradited from UAE followed by USA. 54 of the extradited fugitives are Indian nationals while most of them were extradited for offences like murder and terrorism related charges.
Vijay Mallya was reportedly arrested by the Scotland Yard on April 18th in connection with an extradition request filed by India.  India officially filed a request for extradition with the United Kingdom (UK) on 8th February 2017. The UK Government has sent the extradition request to the concerned court in UK.  The arrest marks the beginning of the long & arduous process of extradition. Government data indicates that only 62 fugitives were extradited to India since 2002 while 110 other fugitives are yet to be extradited though formal request has been made by India.
India has Extradition Treaties with 47 countries
As on date, India has signed Extradition Treaties with the following 47 countries.
India also has Extradition Arrangements with 9 more countries namely Croatia, Fiji, Italy, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Sweden and Tanzania.
What is the process of Extradition?
A request for extradition can be initiated against a fugitive criminal who is formally accused of, charged with or convicted of an extradition offence. According to the government, such requests are handled with utmost care so as not to allow the fugitive an opportunity to take measures to avoid getting extradited. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) takes up extradition requests with the concerned foreign countries when a request for extradition is received from the relevant law enforcement agencies in India.
All extradition requests should be supported by documents and information as prescribed by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) guidelines. It has to be noted that each extradition request is different and the request is dependent on the specific treaty/agreement signed with a country. The offence should also be defined in the list of the extradition offences.
What are the different offences defined in the extradition treaty with UK?
The extradition treaty with the UK was signed in the year 1993. This treaty defines the scope of the extradition offence as one which is punishable by law for a term of imprisonment of at least one year. This treaty does not classify political offences as extradition offences. But it provides an exhaustive list of offences that will not be treated as a political offence.
Most individuals extradited from UAE
A total of sixty two (62) fugitives have been extradited to India from a foreign country from 2002 till December 2016. Till date, 21 different countries have extradited people to India. The highest extraditions happened from UAE (18) followed by USA (9). Four (4) each were extradited from Canada and Thailand, three (3) each from Germany & South Africa. Only two fugitives were extradited till date from UK; Grant Duncan Alexander, a British citizen was extradited from Tanzania and UK for Child Sexual Abuse and Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, an Indian citizen for Murder.
Out of the 62 extradited since 2002, 54 of them are Indian nationals and 3 of them are British. There is one US citizen, one Australian, one Canadian, one Israeli and one Thai.
Most fugitives extradited in 2005
The most fugitives (8) were extradited in 2005 followed by seven each in 2003 and 2004. Six (6) fugitives were extradited in 2015 during the rule of the current government. In both 2006 and 2009, 5 fugitives each were extradited.
Most people extradited for Murder & Terrorism related offences
Out of the 62 fugitives extradited since 2002, 14 of them were extradited for murder related offences and 10 for offences related to criminal conspiracy. Nine (9) of them were extradited for terrorism related offences including three of them from the UAE regarding the Mumbai Bomb Blasts of the 90s.  Seven (7) of them were extradited for economic offences like financial fraud. Four of them were extradited for cheating while 3 each were extradited for sexual abuse of children and waging war against India. The other offences include attempt to murder, cheating, forgery, drug offences and passport fraud etc. During the same period, 45 fugitives were extradited to foreign countries from India.


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MNREGA wage payments delayed
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 5, 2016
As per government data, close to 66% of the all the wage payments made under the MNREGA were delayed in 2015-16. Close to 10% of the wage payments were delayed for more than 3 months and only 1.2% of the delay compensation is paid so far.
The annual performance report of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) for the year 2015-16 was released recently. As per data available with the government, Rs 35062.93 crore was the total wage payments for the year 2015-16. Out of this amount, payment of 65.6% or Rs 23017.6 crore was delayed beyond the stipulated 15 days.
More than 3/4th of the wage payments were delayed in 14 States/UTs
In a total of 14 States/UTs, more than 75% of the wage payments in 2015-16 were delayed beyond the stipulated 15 days.  Top of the charts is Meghalaya where 99.2% of all the wage payments in 2015-16 were delayed. 92% of the wage payments were delayed in Chattisgarh followed by 85.6% in Punjab. More than 80% of the wage payments were delayed in 10 different States/UTs. The percentage of wage payments delayed was more than the national average in 20 different States/UTs.  Manipur performed the best among states with only 16.9% wage payments delayed beyond the 15 day limit. Less than 50% of the wage payments were delayed in only seven States/UTs.
More than 24 Crore transactions received delayed payment in 2015-16
Out of the 38.6 crore wage payment transactions in 2015-16, 24.1 crore transactions were delayed beyond the stipulated 15 days (around 62%). More than 90% of the transactions were delayed in 3 States/UTs and more than 80% were delayed in 12 different States/UTs. More than 60% of the transactions were delayed in 23 different States/UTs. Less than 20% of the transactions were delayed in only Manipur and Andhra Pradesh.
Close to Rs 3400 Crore Wage Payments were delayed for more than 3 months
Out of the wage payments made in 2015-16, Rs 3397.8 crore were delayed for more than 3 months, which is 10% of all the wage payments made. The North Eastern states reported strange trends. More than 70% of the wage payments were delayed for more than 3 months in Arunachal Pradesh, the highest for any state. Next in the list were Meghalaya, Nagaland & Assam, all of them in the North East. At the same time, Manipur & Mizoram reported less than 1% of the wage payments delayed for more than 3 months. In terms of transactions, close to 2.9 crore transactions were delayed for more than 3 months.
Only 1.2% of the delay compensation is paid so far
As per the new guidelines, the MNREGA workers are entitled to receive delay compensation at the rate of 0.05% of the unpaid wages per day for the entire duration of delay beyond the 16 day. As per data available, a total of Rs 444.38 crore is the payable amount of compensation for a total of 821 crore delay days. Out of this amount, only Rs 9.6 Crore is approved (about 2.2%) and only Rs 5.1 crore (about 1.2%) is paid so far. Not a single rupee of delay compensation is approved in 19 States/UTs though Rs 127 crore of delay compensation is pending from those states.
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