Tag: Population

Political visibility of Indian-Americans far bigger than 1% population share

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New Delhi: With a likely Joe Biden vs Donald Trump redux in the impending 2024 US presidential elections, the Indian-Americans — comprising slightly more than 1 per cent of the total US population and less than a per cent of all registered voters — will be in the spotlight once again, courtesy their growing political, social and economic clout.
While they are concentrated in states like New York, New Jersey, California and Texas, Indian-Americans have begun to matter more in the closely-contested states, and their votes might turn out to be decisive in case of swing states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
In general, Indian-Americans have largely sided with the Democrats, but like in the last elections, both Democrats and Republicans will leave no stone unturned to attract a community that can play a pivotal role — from campaigning to endorsing candidates to fundraising for the elections.

According to media reports, for his 2024 campaign, Biden is bringing together a newer generation of diverse leadership along with experienced advisors who helped him win the White House in 2020.
The South Asians for America (SAFA), a grassroots organisation dedicated to education, advocacy, and mobilisation of the South Asian community, recently announced that they will endorse both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 run.
“By re-electing President Biden and Vice President Harris, we hope to continue to strengthen our democracy at home, advance our democratic values, and continue to strengthen our global alliances in an ever-changing global landscape,” said Neha Dewan, National Director of SAFA.
Biden’s major fundraisers, which include Indian-Americans, had helped raise at least $100,000 for his 2020 campaign.
To name a few, a likely list includes prominent Indian-American community organisations and leaders like Ajay Bhutoria, Frank Islam, Raj Shah, Ramesh Kapoor, Indian-American Impact, Indiaspora and AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) Victory Fund.

Trump, meanwhile, had won over Indian supporters with events like ‘Howdy Modi’ and for his open support and friendship for India in the past.
During his re-election campaign in 2020, he had launched four new coalitions — ‘Indian Voices for Trump’, ‘Hindu Voices for Trump’, ‘Sikhs for Trump’ and ‘Muslim Voices for Trump’ — to amass support from these communities.
This year, Shalabh ‘Shalli’ Kumar, a fierce Trump supporter, has been appointed the national chairman of a new Republican Hindu and Indian American coalition, according to a Republican National Committee announcement.
The two coalitions, apart from building and mobilising Hindu and Indian American communities across the US, will assist the indicted leader in his 2024 campaign. An official word is awaited, though.
Apart from Chicago-based industrialist Kumar, who was also the financial backer and chair of the 2016 Indian Americans for Trump Campaign, loyalist Kash Patel, who joined the Trump administration in 2019, continues to serve as a key political advisor to Trump.
Patel’s staunch loyalty towards Trump scored brownie points from former advisor Roger Stone who remarked that the former president named his dog “Kash” as an “homage” to Patel.
Since Trump formally announced his re-election bid in November, Patel has been reportedly mentioned on right-wing media as a potential contender for attorney general or CIA director, according to ABC News.
“If Trump’s back in, I’m back in,” Patel, a former federal prosecutor and senior intelligence official, had said in a December interview.
Other top Trump supporters include, Danny Gaekwad, who has raised funds for all Republican presidential candidates since George W Bush, Sridhar Chityala, who is on the advisory board of Indian voice for Trump Coalition, Rick Desai, Dr Sampat Shivangi, Shridhar Chityala, and Prem Parameswaran to name a few.
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#Political #visibility #IndianAmericans #bigger #population #share
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 29, 2023
Big changes needed to power sharing in Northern Ireland, says 70% of population

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More than two-thirds of people in Northern Ireland believe big changes are required to the power-sharing institutions created by the Good Friday agreement, research commissioned by a parliamentary committee has found.
The same proportion of the population, 70%, think the peace accord of 1998 has failed to deliver stable governance with the Stormont assembly not sitting for nine of the 25 years that have elapsed since the Belfast agreement was struck.
The research was conducted by YouGov and Ohio State University for the House of Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee.
That level of scepticism about the deal’s success in delivering stability remained consistent across age, religion and political affiliation.
The committee chair, Simon Hoare, said the poll provided an “important snapshot” of current thinking in the region.
The devolved government sitting in Stormont was created under strand one of the Belfast Good Friday agreement, which was considered an ingenious way of getting previously warring sides, republicans and loyalists to run the country together.
Under the power-sharing system, elected politicians are required to self-designate as unionists, nationals or “other” to ensure laws could only be passed that worked for all communities.
A quarter of a century on, and three-quarters of the respondents in the survey consider the requirement that key decisions have to have support from both nationalist and unionist sides gives the DUP and Sinn Féin an effective veto, with growing parties such as Alliance locked out.

Stormont was collapsed for three years after a Sinn Féin walkout in 2017 and has been suspended for more than a year after the DUP pulled the plug in a protest over Brexit.
Support for reform is widespread but Bertie Ahern, one of the architects of the peace deal, has said it could only happen once the DUP was back in Stormont. The party, led by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, said it would not be “browbeaten” into a return and few are expecting it to resume power-sharing until September.
Donaldson faced a cacophony of calls to return to Stormont in Belfast last week with leading figures involved in the peace deal, including Bill Clinton, urging politicians to face down “ugly” moments and “get the show on the road”.
“I ask you not to be discouraged, this is human affairs, there are very few permanent victories or defeats in human affairs. All these old ugly problems are always rearing their heads. You just have to suck it up and beat it back and deal with it,” Clinton told a conference at Queen’s University.
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#Big #needed #power #sharing #Northern #Ireland #population
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 28, 2023
Indian ministers rebuke Der Spiegel for ‘racist’ cartoon mocking population size

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A cartoon in the German magazine Der Spiegel poking fun at India as it becomes more populous than China has been castigated as “racist” by Indian ministers.
The cartoon shows a rickety old Indian train packed with people and swarms of passengers atop it. On a parallel track, a sleek Chinese bullet train is seen with just two drivers, looking surprised at the sight of the Indian train.
According to United Nations projections published on Monday, India has a population of 1,425,775,850, surpassing China for the first time.
Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, tweeted: “Hi Germany, this is outrageously racist. Der Spiegel caricaturing India in this manner has no resemblance to reality. Purpose is to show India down and suck up to China.”
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister for electronics and information technology, also reacted angrily, tweeting: “Dear Cartoonist at @derspiegel… Notwithstanding your attempt at mocking India … it’s not smart to bet against India under PM @narendramodi ji…. In a few years India’s economy will be bigger than Germany’s.”
Some Indians pointed out that it was true that during busy festivals when millions of Indians rush to go home, some trains do look like the one in the cartoon.
Western criticism has always rankled Indian governments but under Narendra Modi, the resentment is much sharper.
Any negative coverage, such as the recent BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, which examined the prime minister’s role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots, is routinely dismissed as a malicious conspiracy to defame Modi and, by association, India.

In 2021, Modi himself made the same claim during an election rally in Assam, complaining that Indian tea and yoga were being maligned by foreigners.
“These days there are conspiracies against the nation. They are trying to malign the image of Indian tea worldwide. Some documents have revealed that such conspiracy is being hatched by forces sitting in a foreign land,” he said.
Last week, Baijayant Panda, an MP and spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata party, wrote a column in the Hindustan Times accusing the western media of outright prejudice against India.
Panda accused the media of ignoring India’s progress and, without naming it, singled out the New York Times for what he called its bias and routine India-bashing. He added: “What is peculiar is the abandonment of objectivity in the single-minded pursuit of a predetermined narrative.”
In 2014, the New York Times published a cartoon mocking India’s feat in putting a robotic probe into orbit around Mars. It showed an Indian farmer with a cow knocking at the door of a room marked Elite Space Club. After protests, the newspaper published an apology.

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#Indian #ministers #rebuke #Der #Spiegel #racist #cartoon #mocking #population #size
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
India’s need for water increasing with growing population: Shekhawat

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New Delhi: With India becoming the most populous country in the world, its need for water is increasing, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said here on Thursday.
The central government is working towards fulfiling the country’s water requirement, the Jal Shakti minister said at the 16th Civil Services Day.
According to United Nations estimates, India has become the most populous country in the world with 142.86 crore people.

“We have become the most populated country in the world though the official figures are yet to come out. We are also the fastest growing economy in the world and our need for water is also increasing,” he said.
Underlining that water-bearing capacity has to be increased, Shekhawat said while the country’s present requirement of water stands at 1,100 billion cubic metres, it is likely to exceed the 1,500 billion cubic metre-mark by 2050.
The minister highlighted that the BJP-led central government concentrated on the last mile saturation.
“But achieving last mile saturation needed a lot of work and bureaucrats played a very important role in fulfilling India’s target set under the Jal Jeevan mission,” he said, adding, “This government gave freedom to bureaucrats to work freely”.
Shekhawat added that development work done by India has inspired the whole world.

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#Indias #water #increasing #growing #population #Shekhawat
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
‘Big news’ is India’s population growth is below replacement level: UN expert

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United Nations: While India’s population at 1.4 billion has surpassed that of China’s, the “latest big news” is that the population growth is below the replacement fertility rate in India and it has a “window of opportunity”, according to Rachel Snow, the lead demographer of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
The continued trajectory for India is that while the young population entering the reproductive phase will boost overall fertility, “given the fertility pattern already evident, we can start to anticipate the decline, the plateauing and decline”, she said on Wednesday.
The replacement fertility rate is the average number of children a woman must have to keep the population steady and it is considered to be 2.1 children per woman.

The replacement fertility rate for India is 2, with wide variations within the country — between 1.6 for Punjab and West Bengal, and 3 for Bihar among the large states, according to Indian government data.
“You’ve got this big bulge of young people entering both reproductive years which means fertility will keep growing, but (also) entering the age of life for working,” she said, giving India a “window of opportunity”.
The question for India is that with this “window of opportunity”, will it be “able to mobilise the necessary investments in education and job creation, in gender equality, so that there will be an opportunity for that large population to indeed yield a dividend for the economy”, she said.
Snow gave the example of the Asian Tigers — mainly Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore — that had a tremendous spurt in economic growth, which also led to better living standards.
“In the 70s and 80s, the Asian Tigers had an extraordinary economic growth because there was major investment in the health, education, the well being of that cohort of young people who then were able to boost the economy.”

The challenges for India, she said, are “there’s so many people that are in the informal labour market. Again, educational standards are highly uneven — if you go north to south, south to north in India, we see tremendous diversity within such a large country”.
Snow was briefing reporters about the UNFPA’s annual report, which is titled, “8 Billion Lives, Infinite Possibilities: The Case for Rights and Choices”.
She said that the population issue should not be seen solely in terms of numbers and goals, but the as to how women are able to freely make their own reproductive choices.
She said that 44 per cent of partnered women and girls do not have the right to make decisions on having children or not.
About 257 million women do not have access to safe, reliable contraception, she added.
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#Big #news #Indias #population #growth #replacement #level #expert
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
India beats China in population; Hyderabad among 10 populous cities in the country

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Hyderabad: India has surpassed China to become the most populous country in the world. As per the latest United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, with a population of 1,428.6 million, India has overtaken China by a difference of 2.9 million.
The report states that 25 percent of India’s population is comprised of children aged 0-14, with 18 percent in the 10-19 age group, and 26 percent belonging to the 10-24 age group. Meanwhile, 68 percent are in the 15-64 age category and only 7 percent are above 65 years.
In contrast, China has 17 percent of the population under 14 years of age, with 12 percent in the 10-19 age group and 18 percent in the 10-24 age group.

Hyderabad among top 10 most populous cities in India
According to the latest Indian census, Mumbai is the most populous city in the country, followed by Delhi. Hyderabad is among the top 10 most populous cities in India.
Hyderabad has a population of 68 lakhs and it covers an area of 650 sq. km on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River. The city was established in 1591 by the Qutb Shahi dynasty’s Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah and served as the capital of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh from 1956 to 2014. Since 2014, Hyderabad has been the capital of Telangana state.
As per census data, 64.93 percent of Hyderabad’s population is Hindu, 30.13 percent are Muslim, 2.75 percent are Christian, and 2.19 percent belong to other religions.
China’s population decreased for the first time since 1960
For the first time, India has topped the UN’s list since it began collecting population data in 1950. The report also notes that China’s population decreased for the first time since 1960.
China had imposed a strict “one-child policy” in the 1980s to combat overpopulation fears, but lifted the policy in 2016. It began letting couples have three children in 2021 as the country’s workforce ages and fertility rates decline.

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#India #beats #China #population #Hyderabad #among #populous #cities #country
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
U.N.: India’s population will be world’s largest by mid-year

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The U.N. said in a report that India will have about 2.9 million people more than China sometime in the middle of this year. India will have an estimated 1.4286 billion people against mainland China’s 1.4257 billion at that time, according to U.N. projections. Demographers say the limits of population data make it impossible to calculate an exact date.
China has had the world’s largest population since at least 1950, the year the United Nations began issuing population data. Both China and India have more than 1.4 billion people, and combined they make up more than a third of the world’s 8 billion people.
Not long ago, India wasn’t expected to become the most populous until later this decade. But the timing has been sped up by a drop in China’s fertility rate, with families having fewer children.
Today, China has an aging population with stagnant growth despite the government retreating from its one-child policy seven years ago.
In contrast, India has a much younger population, a higher fertility rate, and has seen a decrease in infant mortality over the last three decades. Still, the country’s fertility rate has been steadily falling, from over five births per woman in 1960 to just over two in 2020, according to World Bank data.
Experts say India’s growth could see an expanding labor force that can fuel growth in the country for decades to come. But they warn it could just as swiftly become a demographic liability if the growing number of young people in India are not adequately employed.
The report surveyed 1,007 Indians, 63% of whom said economic issues were their top concern when thinking about population change, followed by worries about the environment, health and human rights.
“The Indian survey findings suggest that population anxieties have seeped into large portions of the general public. Yet, population numbers should not trigger anxiety or create alarm,” Andrea Wojnar, the United Nations Population Fund’s representative for India, said in a statement. She added that they should be seen as a symbol of progress and development “if individual rights and choices are being upheld.”

The hope is that India’s soaring number of working age people will give it a “demographic dividend,” or the potential for economic growth when a country’s young, working age population is larger than its share of older people who are beyond their working years. That is what helped China become an economic and global heavyweight, even as its number of working age adults is now falling.
On Wednesday, China responded to news of the U.N. report, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin saying “a country’s demographic dividend depends not only on quantity but also on quality.”
“The population is important, so is talent. … China’s demographic dividend has not disappeared, the talent dividend is taking place and development momentum remains strong,” Wang said at a briefing.
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#U.N #Indias #population #worlds #largest #midyear
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 19, 2023
Japan’s population drops below 125 mn, down for 12th year

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Tokyo: The population of Japan dropped to 124.95 million in 2022, marking the 12th consecutive year of decline, latest government data revealed on Wednesday.
As of October 1 last year, the total population including foreigners saw a decrease of 556,000, or 0.44 per cent from the previous year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The number of Japanese nationals, which came in at 12.2 million, plunged by 750,000, the decline of which has been expanding since 2011, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Ministry as saying.

The figure represented the largest comparable decline since data became available in 1950.
In the latest count, the number of people under the age of 15 came to 14.5 million, making up for the lowest-ever 11.6 per cent of the population, while those aged 65 or over totaled about 36.23 million, slightly up from a year earlier to account for 29 per cent of the total.
Of the total population, males accounted for 48.6 per cent with a fall for the 15th consecutive year, while the female population saw the 12th consecutive year of decline to account for 51.4 per cent.
The population sex ratio, or the ratio of males to females in a population, was 94.7, with females outnumbering males by 3,431,000, the data showed.
Japan’s total population fell below the previous year’s level for the first time in 2005, then peaked in 2008, and has declined for 12 consecutive years since 2011, the Ministry’s report said.

With a declining birthrate and an aging population, a shrinking workforce and a greater financial burden on the medical and social security systems are posing challenges to the country.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has on multiple occasions promised to focus on policies related to children this year, vowing to tackle the low birthrate through “unprecedented” steps.
In the latest move to tackle the falling birthrate, the government put into operation a new administrative body Children and Families Agency to better serve the country’s child-related policies.
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#Japans #population #drops #12th #year
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 12, 2023
‘2nd largest Muslim population..’: Sitharaman denies violence against minorities

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday slammed the reports appearing in Western media about violence against minorities in India, especially Muslims, saying that those commenting on such issues should come and see the reality on the ground as India has the second largest Muslim population in the world and the minorities are not only growing exponentially, they have been incentivised and doing their business in the country.
In an interaction with Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington DC, during her ongoing tour of the US, the finance minister gave Pakistan’s example, saying that it was created as an Islamic country which had promised to treat minorities equally, however there the minorities and even several Muslim sects, which don’t agree with the majority community, have been “decimated and diminished in numbers”.
“In sharp contrast, minorities in India have only grown in numbers since 1947 and have been doing their businesses comfortably…They have been getting scholarships. India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. The answer also lies in the fact that investors have been coming to India. I will say that please come and see for yourself the reality, rather than listening to those who haven’t even seen what is happening on the ground,” she said during the interaction, which focussed on “resilience of the Indian economy amid tightening of Indian conditions”.

She was responding to a question by Posen on violence against Muslims in India as reported by Western media and also opposition MPs losing their status (referring to Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament).
Meanwhile on the Indian economy’s resilience, the finance minister said that “it is due to the enterprising nature of Indians. Despite suffering and loss of lives, we took up Covid-19 as a challenge and helped each other. The government extended support to people through targeted approach and undertook humanitarian steps.”
Speaking on supply chain disruptions, the finance minister said, “Given the shocks witnessed due to supply chain disruptions, MNCs have become prudent and are diversifying. India is poised for a more important role in the global value chains. India is attractive because of its skilled youth and large domestic market.”
Highlighting India’s future goals, Sitharaman said, “Today, we are reaching saturation in providing basic facilities to citizens such as houses, electricity, transport, etc., and are empowering them. Emphasis is there on financial inclusion so that all have bank accounts and benefits reach them directly. Going forward, we are focusing on skilling and digitisation so that there’s greater ease of living, transparency and formalisation of the economy.”
On emerging markets and G20, she noted that India is carrying forward agendas of earlier G20 Presidencies, bringing issues on table that India considers important and also making way for the future G20 Presidencies to build upon the legacy of India’s G20 Presidency.

“Emerging Markets have G20 Presidencies for three consecutive terms from Indonesia in 2022, India in 2023 and Brazil next year. This will bring views of the Emerging Markets to the front and also the voice of the Global South on to the G20 table,” Sitharaman added.AA
She further said that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are also holding a roundtable on Global Sovereign Debt.
“Initial discussions happened at the first G20 FMCBG in Bengaluru. India’s G20 presidency will create discussion and sharing of information on this issue and it will be taken forward positively,” the finance minister added.
On the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Sitharaman added that it should be more open about issues.
“WTO has to be progressive and fair to all members. It has to give voice to all and not just hear but also heed. There’s a continuation of a moratorium since 1998 on electronic transmissions despite evolution to the digital age. Shouldn’t there be a change in WTO policy in terms of a moratorium? We don’t have to reverse the benefits of globalisation but make it more transparent,” she emphasised.
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#2nd #largest #Muslim #population. #Sitharaman #denies #violence #minorities
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 11, 2023
OBCs form 37-41% of urban population in UP: Govt report

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Lucknow: The report submitted by the UP State Local Bodies Dedicated Backward Classes Commission for providing OBC quota for upcoming local body elections, shows that OBCs in the urban parts of the state comprise between 37 per cent and 41 per cent.
The urban population of Uttar Pradesh is estimated to be 4.78 crore.
The 505-page report says that there are 1.76 crore OBCs (overall 37 per cent), 2.4 crore members of general category, including Muslims (49 per cent), 65 lakh SCs (14 per cent) and 1.03 lakh STs.

The commission stated that the economic condition of the OBCs is not good and the community continues to face both social and educational barriers, and has recommended 27 per cent reservation.
According to the report, the population of OBCs is on the lower side in bigger cities but higher in smaller towns.
In 17 Nagar nigams, OBCs account for 25.58 per cent, while in 200 Nagar palikas (municipal councils) and 545 Nagar panchayats (town councils), their ratio is on the higher side as the community members constituted 42.29 per cent and 49.55 per cent, respectively.
Out of the seven political parties invited to give their suggestions, the commission got responses from the BJP, the SP and the RLD.
Other parties, including BSP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Communist Party of India did not participate in the survey.

Interestingly, the three political parties were on the same page when it came to offering reservations to the OBCs. They were unanimous in demanding 27 per cent reservation for the community, as was the case in previous elections.
The commission pointed out in its report that nobody was present at the Congress party office to receive the invitation.
The commission said that the triple test surveys conducted by the urban development department in 2017 and 2022 were satisfactory.
However, the five members of the commission were concerned about the procedure that the department had followed during the rotation process while reserving seats for the posts of mayors and chairpersons.
Citing the example of Maharajganj, the commission said that the seat for nagar palika chairperson was continuously reserved for SC candidates through OBC constitutes 51 per cent of the population.
Similar aberrations were noticed in the rotation process for the chairperson post in nagar palikas in Hardoi and Bijnor.
The commission noted that the primary grievance of the public was with the way rotation of the seats was being done and suggested that a wider population base should be taken into consideration in the forthcoming elections, a change which the state government has already notified.
The commission headed by Ram Autar Singh, retired judge of Allahabad High Court, included four members — Chob Singh Verma, Brijesh Kumar, Mahendra Kumar and Santosh Kumar Vishwakarma — who compiled the report within three months.
The ULB elections will take place on May 4 and May 11.
The commission was formed on the direction of Supreme Court.
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#OBCs #form #urban #population #Govt #report
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 11, 2023