India

2023 - 3 - 15

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Foreign Office asks for India torture claim to be heard in secret court (The Guardian)

British citizen Jagtar Singh Johal was detained and says he was tortured after alleged tipoff by UK intelligence.

The defence claim also casts doubt on Johal’s torture allegations, a stance that is at odds with previous Foreign Office assurances and correspondence with his brother Gurpreet. The British national then told consular officials he had been tortured, and the detention was raised by the UK prime minister. I am also disheartened to see the government casting doubt on Jagtar’s very credible claims of torture and mistreatment, when the [Foreign Office] has raised these so many times with the Indian authorities.” Reports in the Indian press based on Indian police briefings suggested information on Johal had come from UK sources. Johal’s lawyers from Leigh Day and Reprieve are seeking a court apology from the government over its handling of his case. However, more recently a Foreign Office minister formally withdrew his statement in the Commons that Johal had been tortured.

Australian Government warns travellers heading to India amid ... (Travel Weekly)

“We now advise reconsider your need to travel to the Atari-Wagah border crossing, the north-eastern states of Assam (except Guwahati), Nagaland and Manipur; and ...

While the Aussie Government has told travellers to exercise a high degree of caution in certain areas, it warned travellers not to travel to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (but not to the Union Territory of Ladakh) and the India-Pakistan border (except the Atari-Wagah border crossing) amid violent clashes. The government’s advisory told travellers to, “Exercise a high degree of caution in India overall due to the high threat of terrorist activity, civil unrest and crime.” “We now advise reconsider your need to travel to the Atari-Wagah border crossing, the north-eastern states of Assam (except Guwahati), Nagaland and Manipur; and Chhattisgarh, and the border areas of neighbouring states due to the high risk of violence,” the government states in its advisory issued on Tuesday.

KPMG partner Tim Thomas named CEO of Australia-India Centre (Consultancy.com.au)

The Australian government has tapped KPMG partner Tim Thomas to be CEO of the newly-established Centre for Australia-India Relations, which aims to foster ...

Tim has more than two decades of business experience across the Indo-Pacific working to support trade and investment in India and in Australia. Thomas is also the founder of Her Village, a not-for-profit working to help settle young female refugees in Australia through initiatives such as last year’s Thomas has been with KPMG for the past five and half years and heads up the firm’s Australian Insurance & Wealth Strategy practice, supporting clients in navigating widespread industry disruption.

The government has changed its travel advice for parts of India ... (SBS)

The Australian government advises travellers to "exercise a high degree of caution overall". A man walking past a window at an airport. There are planes parked ...

A DFAT spokesperson said: "The overall level of advice for India did not change. Travellers to anywhere in India need to “exercise a high degree of caution overall… Your travel insurance policy may be void.”

Skift India Daily: India's Push on 'Greenfield' Airports (Skift)

The greenfield airports would not just connect smaller cities to the rest of the country, but would also help popularize tourism to off-beat destinations.

While the government plans to make air transport affordable and increase air capacity, there is no commensurate expansion of the capacity to bring in aircraft. “The hotel will complement our existing portfolio and reinforce the strong demand for key locations thus allowing us to solidify our presence in the country. The leopard safari aims to unite the leopards moving in the entire leopard belt while reducing incidents of man-animal conflict at the same time. This creates a lack of airline tickets considering the high demand and leads to increase in the prices, as per the report. This will include actions relating to promotion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization tourism brand, promotion of cultural heritage of member states in tourism, exchange of information and digital technology in tourism and promoting mutual cooperation in medical and health tourism. The north Indian state of Punjab has allocated a budget provision of $34 million for tourism and cultural affairs for 2023-24, which is 8 percent more than the previous year. The government of India has formulated the greenfield policy for construction of greenfield airport, for which the state government or airport operator has to identify the site and get the feasibility study conducted for construction of airport. [carbon neutrality and net zero](https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1906529), India’s ministry of civil aviation has advised all operational brownfield airports and upcoming greenfield airports to include use of 100 percent green energy. The number of platforms at the station will also be increased. The responsibility of implementation of airport projects including funding of the projects rests with the concerned airport developer including the respective state government in case it is the project proponent. “Domestic passenger traffic for February 2023 is estimated at 119 lakh, 54 percent higher than the domestic passenger traffic of 77 lakh in February 2022 and lower by only 4 percent, compared to pre-Covid levels,” said Suprio Banerjee, vice president and sector head of corporate ratings at ICRA. [India’s domestic passenger traffic in February 2023 has reported a year-on-year growth of 54 percent](https://www.icraresearch.in/research/ViewResearchReport/4919), which is only 4 percent lower than pre-Covid levels, according to credit rating agency ICRA.

Leveraging digital platforms for public good: Stories of positive ... (The Conversation CA)

To focus on sustainable development goals, platforms need to change from being exclusively focused on profits and value appropriation to perceiving ...

[India Stack](https://indiastack.org/). [estimated $60 trillion by 2025](https://www.insighteurs.com/platform-economy-digital-business-models/#how-much-of-the-economy-is-a-platform). [creating value by bringing buyers, sellers and consumers together](https://hbr.org/2019/01/why-some-platforms-thrive-and-others-dont), their benefits often don’t transcend to their ecosystem. Local and state governments that use Commons.farm receive guaranteed impact outcomes from the money they spend on the platform, which is a fraction of the overall subsidy bill they would otherwise incur. The idea was the same as I Got Garbage, except for the revenue model — empowering farmers by connecting them with each other to form co-operatives, resolving agriculture supply chain issues, enabling communication among farmers, governments and markets, and improving social and environmental impact. Scientists run workshops during the challenges that offer method training. However, concerns remain about how these platforms may [exploit gig workers](https://www.immpressmagazine.com/the-gig-economy-exploitation-of-innovation/) and customers if driven purely by profit. I Got Garbage made a significant impact as it reduced landfill waste by 40 per cent and processed more than 10,000 tons of recycling materials daily in one city. Its aim is to develop affordable innovations that address real-world challenges. It also signed households up for its services via Facebook and SMS/WhatsApp campaigns. I Got Garbage turned the informal waste collection process into a formal process. Yet, they own less than five acres of land and usually grow only two crops a year.