Telangana BC delegation to submit representation to PM Modi soon
A delegation from the Backward Classes (BC) will soon meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and submit a representation to him, outlining the steps to be taken to conduct the caste census during the next census.
A roundtable conference chaired by former BC Commission Chairperson Vakulabharanam Krishnamohan Rao was held here on Wednesday to deliberate upon on the Centre's decision to conduct caste enumeration as part of the next census.
Addressing the conference, Rajya Sabha member and President of the National BC Welfare Association, R. Krishnaiah termed the Central government's decision as 'historic'. He underscored the importance of a caste census in determining reservation percentages scientifically and providing evidence to justify reservations in courts. He called for voluntary cooperation from people and awareness programmes to ensure the successful completion of the caste census.
The meeting proposed several key recommendations, including amending the Census Act-1948 to provide a legal basis for the caste census, establishing a BC Ministry at the Centre to monitor the caste census, conducting a comprehensive study of Supreme Court judgments and preparing an advance plan, implementing 42% reservation for BCs in local body elections, education, and employment sectors, and making public the details of the caste census conducted by the State government. The speakers emphasised the need to avoid the gaps found in the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census.
The meeting also decided to hold a national-level caste census conference in New Delhi in the second week of May. Representatives of 96 BC caste associations, BC intellectuals and social activists discussed key recommendations for the caste census.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
24 minutes ago
- India Today
'Make in India' gave us breakthrough in defence, says Bharat Forge's Baba Kalyani
After years of indifference from policymakers and the military establishment, Bharat Forge is now among the companies that are at the forefront of India's defence manufacturing push, thanks to a crisis-driven pivot and a policy overhaul led by the Narendra Modi-led government. In 2012, at a defence exhibition in Delhi, a few paused to look at the artillery gun on display by Bharat lot of army guys walked by, some laughed at it,' Chairman Baba Kalyani said during an episode of the New India Junction podcast 'Not a single guy stopped to even see what the hell it was.'The lack of interest wasn't about the product. It was about disbelief, according to Kalyani, but that an Indian private company, not a foreign giant or public sector unit, could build something as complex as an artillery gun. The military brass was still sold on imports. 'Everybody believed in global suppliers,' said Joint MD Amit Kalyani. Today, over a decade later, the same homegrown gun is a symbol of India's Make in India ambitions. But Bharat Forge's entry into defence manufacturing wasn't born out of strategy alone, it was shaped by frustration, missed opportunities, and a global financial crisis that forced a seeds were sown in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. 'This idea of defence came into my mind somewhere around 2011,' said on his military school background and deep friendships within the armed forces, he realised that artillery guns were essentially complex forging systems, something Bharat Forge already excelled at.'Look at artillery, it's full of forging. It's metallurgy. So I thought, why don't we use our metallurgical and forging knowledge to make guns?'But back then, defence production was a state monopoly. Kalyani recalled how in the 1980s, India imported 400 artillery guns from Swedish firm Bofors, along with a full technology transfer package. 'Sweden literally gave the total artillery technology package on a platter,' he said. 'But the private sector was locked out.'In 2011, Kalyani took his pitch to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He was directed to Defence Minister AK Antony. 'He listened to me for 15–20 minutes and said thank you very much. I walked out. I got no response,' Kalyani Kalyani shared how his father had carried a file dating back to 1976—documenting Bharat Forge's early efforts to enter the sector. Four decades later, the same equipment was still being 2012 gun display only reinforced how deep the skepticism ran. 'We showcased this gun in 2012, and I can tell you, the kind of skepticism that came out, it was as if we didn't exist,' said Kalyani. 'We were offering guns at half the price of imports. Price was not the problem.'It wasn't until the Modi government's Make in India campaign began in December 2014 that the tide turned. Kalyani participated in a defence conclave at Vigyan Bhavan that year, helping draft policy inputs alongside senior officials. 'That's where the real revolution started,' he breakthrough came under Manohar Parrikar, who as Defence Minister rewrote the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP 2016). 'He understood both the policy and implementation challenges. He formed committees to fix the entire system,' Kalyani said. 'If Parrikar were alive today, he would have taken India's defence industry even further.'Kalyani believes India's reluctance to involve private players is the key reason countries like China and South Korea pulled ahead in the 1990s. 'We focused everything in the public sector. The private sector wasn't allowed into defence till 2014,' he he argued, was throttled by red tape. 'In the public sector, you spend Rs 100 and someone from finance asks why. You spend more time justifying paperwork than doing creative work.'advertisementFor Bharat Forge, defence manufacturing is no longer a speculative foray, it's a key vertical. And the economics make sense. 'We make guns at half the price of imports,' Kalyani point is not just about cost, but capability. The company's artillery guns aren't just cheaper, they're made in India, with Indian materials and Indian expertise. The once-dismissed prototype has become a poster child for strategic while policy finally caught up, it was private conviction that laid the groundwork. 'I used to keep wondering what is wrong with us,' Kalyani said. 'We had the tech, we had the price advantage—but no one believed.' Now they Watch
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
CM Siddaramaiah points to Congress high command, says re-enumerating caste population data not Karnataka govt's decision
A day after the Congress high command asked the Karnataka Government to re-enumerate the population figures of various communities in the state for its Socio-economic and Educational Survey, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the exercise was based on the directions issued by the party leadership and was not the decision of the state government. Responding to media queries at Gowribidanur in Chikkaballapur district, Siddaramaiah said, 'We will do whatever the high command says. It is not my decision. It is not the decision of the Cabinet. It is not the decision of our government. It is a decision of the high command. They have told us to go for re-enumeration,' he said. The directions from the high command had come ahead of a special Cabinet meeting convened by the Siddaramaiah administration Thursday, which was said to be keen on accepting the report. The decision was announced by Congress general secretary K C Venugopal after the high command held a meeting with Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar. The report had kept several communities on tenterhooks, especially the Lingayats and Vokkaligas who had publicly criticised it for being 'unscientific'. 'The high command has told us that they have received some complaints because the survey was done in 2015-16. Nine to 10 years have passed, and the data has become old,' Siddaramaiah said. The government will now conduct the survey 'in a short span of time', within 60-70 days, he added. This does not mean that the entire report will be rejected, the Congress leader stated, referring to the various recommendations made in it. 'Principally, the report is accepted, but enumeration will be done again,' he added. The survey was commissioned in 2015 during Siddaramaiah's first term as chief minister but was placed before the Cabinet only in April this year. Dominant communities have opposed the report as the survey found that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) formed 70 per cent of the state's population and dismissed assumptions about the size of the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities. OBC groups, however, have asked the government to accept the report.
India Gazette
an hour ago
- India Gazette
"Opposition has to play very constructive role": BJP MP Daggubati Purandeshwari
New Delhi [India], June 11 (ANI): BJP MP Daggubati Purandeshwari, who was part of an all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor on Wednesday, called on the opposition to play a 'very constructive role' and 'speak as countrymen', 'The Opposition has to play a very constructive role. Suppose there was anything that was a miss in this entire Operation Sindoor, it would have been nice if the opposition leaders had constructively brought it up and told the government that this is not enough; you probably could have done that. They may think that it is their duty to confront the government, but this Operation Sindoor was because 26 innocent civilians were killed. I think their opposition should understand this. They should rise above the party politics and speak as countrymen...' Purandeshwari told ANI. Her assertion came after Prime Minister Modi himself met with the members of the seven Parliamentary delegations that had been sent to multiple key partner countries. She further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen to know other countries' responses to India's stance on terrorism. On meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Purandeswari told ANI, 'We thank PM Narendra Modi because he has actually met all of us, soon after we came back from the diplomatic tour that we had undertaken... He met us in small groups, and he interacted with us. He was very keen to know what the reaction of the other countries was...' The BJP MP asserted that the all-party delegations represented people cutting across party lines and spoke as Indians. 'When we went on a diplomatic delegation, we did not go as individual parties. So there is no question of somebody being an opposition leader or anything of that sort. We all went as Indians. We all went to a place before the international community, the cause of India and how India was suffering from terrorism...' The delegations, consisting of MPs from across party lines, former MPs and distinguished diplomats, highlighted India's stand against terror and commitment to world peace during their visits to various nations. Seven groups of all party delegations, including Opposition MPs such as Supriya Sule of NCP-SCP, Shashi Tharoor of Congress party, AIMIM chief Asaddudin Owaisi, and former ambassadors, completed their diplomatic efforts to visit various world capitals and promoted India's policy of zero tolerance against terrorism. The delegation was launched post Operation Sindoor, India's response to the Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 tourists were killed. Over 50 people, including members of Parliament from multiple political parties, former ambassadors, and former government officials, visited over 30 countries as part of India's diplomatic outreach post Operation Sindoor. (ANI)
