The Canadian Parvasi - issue 47

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EDIT The International News Weekly May 25, 2018 | Toronto 06 The w w w . canadianparv asi. c o m Publisher & CEO Associate Editor Editor (India) Online Graphic Designer Official Photographer Contact Editorial Sales Rajinder Saini Meenakshi Saini Gursheesh Kshitiz Dalal Naveen Bashir Nasir editor@canadianparvasi.com sales@canadianparvasi.com Tuticorin Tragedy Deaths are an indictment of state government’s handling of a festering issue Ten people were killed on Tuesday in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, on account of police firing after protests against a local copper smelter turned violent. The tragic loss of lives could have been avoided if the state government had been prepared. There was no shortage of warnings that Tuesday’s protest march, which marked the 100th day of the agitation, would very likely turn violent. The judicial inquiry ordered by the AIADMK government may unearth relevant facts. But the inescapable conclusion is that along with intelligence agencies it was caught napping. The protests and violence highlight critical issues India has to contend with. An industrial policy involves creating a credible mechanism to deal with negative externalities. The environmental impact of industrialisation has to be at the heart of it. In Tuticorin Sterlite Copper, which operates a copper smelter and makes sulfuric and phosphoric acid, had an uneasy relationship with large sections of the local community over allegations of violating environmental laws. In 2013, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board shut down the plant following reports of a gas leak. More recently, the plant has been closed for a while as the board did not renew its consent to operate. Despite this, state regulatory authorities clearly fail to inspire confidence. The current round of protests began in early February. They gained momentum over time with groups from other areas joining in. This also appears to have contributed to the violence. Last week, the Madras high court observed that not all protesters have peaceful intentions. Despite clear warnings, how did things come to such a pass? It is not just the state government which has a credibility issue. It doesn’t reflect well on Sterlite that more than two decades after it began operations, it is unable to convince many locals that it follows laws. The Tamil Nadu government needs to put its house in order. Its handling of this issue has been abysmal. It is not just the administration that is to blame. The political class could not mediate effectively and prevent anger from boiling over. At the national level, the Tuticorin tragedy reinforces the need to establish a credible regulatory mechanism to deal with fallouts of economic development. Protests are partly a symptom of regulatory failure. Unless this issue is addressed, India will also pay an economic cost in terms of lost opportunities. Times news Network Digital India Comes Of Age Under the Modi government it is giving rise to employment, entrepreneurship and empowerment Ravi Shankar Prasad After coming to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the vision of Digital India as an important programme to transform India through the power of technology and bridge the digital divide. Other programmes like Start-up India, Stand-up India and Skill India were designed to become an important adjunct to this larger narrative. Four years down the line, empirical evidence suggests that Digital India is not only creating empowerment but also generating employment opportunities and promoting entrepreneurship. Laying down of 2,74,246 km of optic fibre connecting 1.15 lakh gram panchayats under BharatNet, in comparison to a mere 358 km under the previous government, speaks volumes about the speed with which we have created digital infrastructure. Aadhaar, now backed by a robust law unlike in the UPA proposal, is playing a significant role in linking the physical with the digital to facilitate seamless delivery of services in a transparent manner. The JAM trinity (31crore Jandhan bank accounts, 120 crore Aadhaar and 121 crore mobile phones) and the delivery of welfare measures and benefits directly to the bank accounts of the poor under DBT has led to a saving of Rs 90,000 crore, because digital identity removes middlemen and fictitious claimants. The unique platform of Common Services Centres (CSCs) – which were just 83,000 when the present government was formed – now numbering 2.91 lakh with presence in 1.83 lakh gram panchayats has become a robust movement for digital delivery of services ranging from banking to insurance to pension to land records to Bharat bill payments and a host of others. Many of these are moving into new areas like skilling, LED bulb manufacturing, spreading digital literacy and even establishing low-cost sanitary napkin outfits for improving menstrual health in rural areas. In FY 2017-18, the CSCs carried out transactions worth Rs 19,925 crore against merely Rs 182 crore in 2013-14. Home grown, low cost technology based initiatives like e-Hospital, e-Scholarship, soil health cards, Jeevan Pramaan for pensioners, e- NAM linking agricultural mandis to farmers and a host of other digital products are ensuring flawless delivery of services and creating entrepreneurship. Other digital products like the cloud based digi-locker and extraordinary rise in digital payments including phenomenal success of the home grown Bhim app (whose monthly transaction value increased from Rs 5,325 crore in October 2017 to Rs 24,172 crore in March 2018), are all extraordinary signs of transformation leading to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. The stellar success of the recently launched Umang app that integrates central and state government services on one platform and has seen more than 50 lakh downloads since its November 2017 launch, is noteworthy. In making Digital India a mass movement our programme to open BPOs in small towns of India provides government support to bridge the viability gap. In just 3 years, 89 BPOs operate today in 27 states/ UTs. BPOs are now operational in Imphal, Guwahati, Siliguri, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Madurai, Puducherry and even in areas like Badgam, Sopore and Srinagar. Many girls and boys from rural areas work in them and some even service clients from abroad. This has created opportunities for thousands of jobs. This extraordinary development of a digital ecosystem is taking place in sync with the larger and conventional IT profile of India. According to Nasscom, the formal IT-BPM sector today stands at $167 billion with exports reaching $126 billion. It has added 6,00,000 jobs in the last 3 years, employing 3.97 million people directly and almost 12 million people indirectly. Even in face of global slowdown, the sector continued to expand in India and added almost 1 lakh jobs in FY 2017-18. As part of the larger Make in India vision, my ministry has actively promoted electronics manufacturing. Riding on government incentives such as MSIPS and others, electronics manufacturing has grown significantly in the last four years. Mobile phone manufacturing units in the country increasing from just 2 in 2014 to 120 in 2018. In the same period, annual production of mobile handsets increased from 6 crore units valued at Rs 18,900 crore to 22.5 crore units valued at Rs 1,32,000 crore. It has created 1 lakh direct and 3 lakh indirect jobs. Similarly, TV and LED products manufacturing have grown significantly, with more than 50 units set up in the last 4 years. Another area of strong growth is the e-commerce sector, mainly driven by growing rural aspirations. Apart from generating employment in direct activities related to e-commerce platforms, this growth has a positive impact on the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and has a favourable cascading effect on other industries, creating increased employment opportunities. The future is very promising because India’s digital economy, large size of our market, demographic dividend and passion for technology is creating enormous demand. Our digital economy also includes emerging areas like AI and IoT, the growing start-up movement and low cost, effective cyber security solutions. While we work out the details, no one doubts the potential to make India’s digital economy worth $1 trillion, employing 50-70 lakh people in the next 5-7 years. The Asia head of a large tech company recently told me that in IIT campus interviews, the better students earlier used to line up for employment but now toppers state they would like to venture out as a start-up, because they want to be job givers rather than job seekers. The moment of digital empowerment, entrepreneurship and employment has indeed arrived. times news network (The writer is Union Minister of Law & Justice, and Electronics & Information Technology) Source Credit: This article was first published in The Times of India. Parvasi weekly & people associated with it are not responsible for any claims made by the advertisement & do not endorse any product or service advertised in Canadian Parvasi. Please consult your lawyer before buying/hiring/contracting through the advertisement Publised in this newspaper. The Canadian Parvasi is in the business of selling space and the clains made by the advertisement are not tested/confirmed by an independent source.
The International News Weekly May 25, 2018 | Toronto 07 Changing Ontario: South Asian WomenStep Up to Empowerthe Community Joyeeta Dutta Ray Contributing Editor As Toronto evolves into the world’s most multicultural city, so does its colourful communities, rising as a collective force to overcome challenges.This time, it’s the women who are initiating change. Meet a few dynamic South Asian immigrantswho have stepped forward to pull up others in the community in various ways. SAWRO: If Women Move Forward, the Whole Community Moves Forward Shiuli Akhtar* (*name changed) is a matter of pride for Sultana Jahangir, Executive Director at South Asian Women’s Rights Org. (SAWRO). She defines what Toronto’s grassroots member-led non-profit organization stands for: helping South Asian women, Bangladeshis in her case,come into their own in Canada. Shiulimigrated to Toronto from Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2013, two small kids in tow. She had a degree in Chemistry but no work experience to talk of and little English skills. When she approached SAWRO for help, she was first enrolled in an English learning class, followed by a computer course.When her skills grew, so did her confidence. She got a break in a cosmetics firmin December 2014, only to be laid off 8 months later. Not one to leave anyone stranded in the middle of the road, SAWRO pulled her into- COSTI (employment services) to switch lanes as a medical lab technician. Shiuli rose to the challenge, volunteered in a clinic for 3 months before she was absorbed into a full-time role. 4 years later, she lives her dreams in the same clinic with pride. Sultana Jahangir, originally from Bangladesh, moved to Toronto from the USA in 2005, where she lived for about 7 years. Having faced injustices as a new immigrant under the Bush Administration, she understood the plight of her people in Canada. “(Low-Income) women in the Bangladeshi community are very isolated. They are not familiar with writing resumes or Ontario’s employment process. It is hard for them to sustain precarious jobs as they are not protected by working rights. We have policies from the 1930s which do not apply in today’s environment.” The work environment in Canada is going through drastic change. Full-timeemployment supported by good wages is giving way to temporarycontracts that pay pittance. Women at the lower end of the job spectrum are hit hardest with little benefits and lesser job security. SAWRO helps themby working with labour rights and employmentorganizationsfor “systematic change”. Once these women sustain themselves, there is a profound difference.“They first get their voice and recognitionin their own families,” says Sultana. Today, after 5 years of service, SAWRO supports over 2000 Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Afghani and Indian women. About346 were assistedwith jobs. Plans are on to reach othermarginalized groupsnow. “Every ethnic group has their own characteristics,”Sultanasays. There is no one solution for all. Women That Give:Driving Change by Giving Back When Harpreet Sodhi migrated to Canada from India in 2001 to seek better opportunities for her family, little did she know that she would end up offeringgreater opportunities to others in the process. A computer teacher for seniors back in India, Harpreet was used to training the mentally and physically challenged. Since she was “lucky to be gainfully employed”, she set about helping others through “Women That Give” - a non-profit group foundedin 2016 byFawzia Khan jointly with like-minded South Asian volunteers. The mission was to offerweekly workshopsto helpfinancially distressed and mentally disturbed womenstand on their feet. One of their greatest victories was Carol Mckeon, amentally disabled woman under their care, who rose to take part in the 2017 International Paralympics Softball team, held in Toronto. “Social isolation is a big factor that leads the disabled, abandoned and physically abusedto depression and financial distress”, says Fawzia.“WTG uplifts these women bybuilding their capacity and helping with job placements.” “This land gave us the opportunity to grow so it’s important for us to give back,” says Harpreet.“We wanted to combine efforts to make a stronger impact as a unified force”, adds- Fawzia. WINGS: Helping Women Professionals Fly Higher For Bhuvneet Thakur, life changed with WINGS(Women’s Initiatives to Nurture, Grow and Support), a Mississauga-based non-profit organization. A student who arrived in 2016 to study at Humber College for a Business Accounting Diploma, Bhuvneet faced a roadblock once she finished her term. It was hard to find entry level jobs in her specialization. “I realized the importance ofconnecting withprofessionals and carryingcredible references,” she says. But for newcomers like her, networking is a challenge. “It’s hard to know who to talk with and how to start.” That is where WINGS steps in. Started by Sanjukta Das, a Humber College Business Placement Advisor and Social Activist, who came to Canada less than a decade back from India, WINGS took flightwith an enterprising board of women directorsin 2014, to provide networking opportunities to empower women. Bhuvneetsecured a co-op placement with WINGS, and connected with other professionals, “magnifying her self confidence.” Shortly after, shegot the much-needed break at Humber College itself.“I will continue volunteering at WINGS to help others reach their goals,” she states. WINGS heldits first Trade Expoon March 18th, 2018 as a tribute to International Women’s Day,bringing together the rising number of South Asian women entrepreneurs and professionals at the Grand Convention Centre,Brampton.Fundsfrom the proceeds went towards ahomeless youth shelter. “Volunteering gives the chance to not just change one’s own life but also someone else’s”, saysBhuvneet. Good to see the baton pass on to younger hands. Source Credit: This article was first published in The New Canadian Media. Canada's Trudeau calls for inquiry into Gaza deaths Ottawa : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday called for an "independent investigation" after the death of 60 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army during protests on Monday. "Reported use of excessive force and live ammunition is inexcusable," he said. "It is imperative we establish the facts of what is happening in Gaza." "Canada calls for an immediate independent investigation to thoroughly examine the facts on the ground -- including any incitement, violence, and the excessive use of force." Monday's violence coincided with the controversial inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem, which broke with decades of international tradition. Israel justified the use of force against Palestinian protesters by citing the need to defend its borders, which the demonstrators were trying to overwhelm. Tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered near the border while smaller numbers approached the fence and sought to break through. Trudeau offered Canadian assistance in the probe, while vowing to work with partners and multilateral institutions "to address this serious situation." The prime minister also said he is "appalled" that a Canadian doctor, Tarek Loubani, was among at least 2,400 unarmed protestors, media, first responders and children wounded. 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