There were nearly seven lakh job vacancies in different governmental departments as on March 2018. The Union Ministry of Personnel revealed this information before the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The biggest Central government employer Indian Railways had 2,59,369 job vacancies, Defence had 1,87,054 vacancies and Home Affairs had 72,365 vacancies, according to the data.

"Recruitment against vacant posts is a continuous process. By the time vacancies are reported by a department get filled up, some new vacancies arise," Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said. He also mentioned a role is 'deemed abolished' if the position remains vacant for more than two or three years. "Such posts are revived based on the functional justification," he added.

Furthermore, total number of employees on payroll saw a decline since 2014 though the number of sanctioned posts increased by 1.57 lakh (appprox).

Out of the sanctioned strength of 38.02 lakh posts, only 31.18 lakh were filled. According to the data, the sanctioned posts on March 2014 were 36.45 lakh, which means an increase of 1.57 lakh jobs in last five years.

The govt added it has incurred Rs 1.90 lakh crore in 2017-18 on pay and allowances of the employees which was Rs 1.36 lakh crore in 2014-15.

Based on the vacancies reported by the user departments, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has started recruitment process to fill up 1,05,338 posts during the year 2019-20, Singh said. During 2017-18, centralised employment notifications (CENs) for 1,27,573 combined vacancies of various group 'C' and Level-1 posts were notified by the Ministry of Railways - for new and future vacancies to arise in two years time, he said.

Another five CENs covering 1,56,138 vacancies of various Group 'C' and Level-1 posts were issued in 2018-19, the minister said. The Department of Posts have also conducted examination/notified to fill up 19,522 vacancies, other than those to be filled up through SSC, in various grades, he said, adding that "recruitment process to fill up 4,08,591 vacancies by the SSC is in progress".

The population of Indians living in US increased by near 9 lakh in last 8 years. According to newly released data from the Census Bureau's 2018 American Community Survey (ACS), the number of Indians in US were 17.8 lakh in 2010 which by 2018 had gone up to 26.5 lakh -- 49 per cent increase. Newly arrived immigrants from India in 2017 were 1.6 lakh which in 2018 declined to 88,000.

On the other hand, the Chinese population in US increased from 21.6 lakh to 28.4 lakh between 2010 and 2018 - signifying 32 percent rise, according to the data.

The ACS data further mentioned, out of the total US population of 327 million, 44.7 million people were foreign-born population.  Further, as of July 1, 2018, Indians constituted 5.9 per cent of the total foreign-born population in the US but comprised less than 1 per cent of the total US population.

ACS has measured US population up till July 1, 2018. The CIS in its research paper also mentioned that 14.5 lakh new legal and illegal immigrants settled in the United States in 2017, fewer than the 17.5 lakh million in 2016.

"The falloff in arrivals in 2017 may be due to increased enforcement efforts, lower refugee admissions, and more robust vetting of applicants undertaken by the Trump administration."

The Modi-government Wednesday hiked the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on Rabi crops from 50% to 109% for marketing season 2020-21. This is being seen as a big pro-farmer move by the government in its bid to increase farmers' income.

The MSP for wheat is raised by Rs 85 to Rs 1,925 a quintal and for pulses by up to Rs 325 per quintal to Rs 4,800.

This decision was taken at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The CCEA has approved MSPs of all rabi (winter-sown) crops for the 2019-20 crop year (July-June) as recommended by the government's farm price advisory body CACP, the sources added.

MSP is the rate at which the government buys grains from farmers. According to sources, the CCEA has approved Rs 85 per quintal hike in wheat MSP to Rs 1,925 per quintal for the 2019-20 rabi crop, up from Rs 1,840 per quintal last year.

Barley MSP has also been increased by Rs 85 to Rs 1,525 per quintal for the current year from Rs 1,440 per quintal last year.

To encourage cultivation of pulses, the support price of masoor has been increased by Rs 325 to Rs 4,800 per quintal for this year from Rs 4,475 per quintal last year.

Similarly, the MSP of gram has been hiked by Rs 255 to Rs 4,875 per quintal for this year from Rs 4,620 per quintal last year.

Among oilseeds, rapeseed/mustard MSP has been increased by Rs 225 to Rs 4,425 per quintal for 2019-20 rabi crop from Rs 4,200 per quintal during 2018-19.

The minimum support price of safflower has been hiked by Rs 270 to Rs 5,215 per quintal for the current year from Rs 4,945 per quintal last year.

Wheat is the main rabi crop, sowing of which will begin next month. The crop will be marketed from next April onwards.

Indian-origin economist Abhijit Banerjee has been awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to alleviate global poverty. He has received the award along with economists Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.

"The 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty," tweeted the official handle of the Nobel Prize.

The organisation stated, "The research conducted by the 2019 Economic Sciences Laureates has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty. In just two decades, their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics, which is now a flourishing field of research." "2019 Economic Sciences Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, often with Michael Kremer, soon performed similar studies of other issues and in other countries, including India. Their experimental research methods now entirely dominate development economics," it stated.

Born in 1961 in Kolkata to Nirmala Banerjee and Dipak Banerjee, Abhijit Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. He is the co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, a research affiliate of Innovations for Poverty Action, and a member of the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty. The lab was founded along with economists Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan.

Banerjee was a student of South Point School in Kolkata. He was an Economics graduate from Presidency College, Kolkata. He pursued his MA degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University and his PhD from Harvard in 1983 and 1988 respectively.

The Supreme Court on Monday restrained authorities from cutting anymore trees in Mumbai's Aarey to set up a Metro car shed.

A special bench comprising justices Arun Mishra and Ashok Bhushan said it will have to examine the entire thing and posted the matter for hearing on October 21 before its forest bench.

"Don't cut anything now," the bench said.

The felling of trees is being opposed by green activists and local residents.

The apex court directed that if anybody is still under arrest for protesting the cutting of trees, they should be released forthwith on furnishing of personal bonds.

During the hearing the Maharashtra Government told the bench that all those arrested for protesting against cutting of trees in Aarey have been released.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Maharashtra Government, submitted that he was not aware of all records and assured the bench that nothing will be cut in Aarey till the case is decided.

The PIL petitioners told the bench that Aarey forest was deemed as an "unclassified forest" by the state government and felling of of trees was illegal.

However, after perusing the notification issued by the Maharashtra government, the bench said, Aarey area is a no development zone and not a eco-sensitive zone as claimed by the petitioner.

The apex court decided on Sunday to register as PIL a letter addressed to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by law student Rishav Ranjan seeking a stay on cutting of trees.

A notice was posted on the Supreme Court website about holding the urgent hearing by constituting a special bench.

The Bombay High Court had on October 4 refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declined to quash the Mumbai municipal corporation's decision to allow felling of over 2,600 trees in the green zone to set up a metro car shed.

The letter states,"As we write this letter to you Mumbai authorities continue to kill the lungs of Mumbai i.e Aarey forest by clearing of trees near Mithi river bank and according to news reports 1,500 trees have already been cleared by authorities.

"Not only this but our friends are put in jail who were peacefully organising a vigil against acts of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) with Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) at the site."

The student requested the Supreme Court "to exercise its epistolary jurisdiction to protect Aarey without getting into technicalities as there was no time for preparation of a proper appeal petition and cover the scars of these young activists who are responsible citizens standing for serious environmental concerns".

It also said that students have moved the apex court as the Bombay High Court rejected the bail plea of 29 activists who had participated in the "peaceful vigil" against the tree-felling and have been detained by Mumbai Police.

The letter has alleged that the student-activists were abused and manhandled by the Mumbai Police which has booked them for offences of 'assault on a public servant to deter him from discharging his duty' and 'unlawful assembly' under the IPC.

According to the letter, Aarey forest is located adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and has five lakh trees.

The trees were proposed to be cut for Mumbai metro-3 project and specifically for construction of a car shed, it said and added the high court refused to recognise Aarey as a forest or declare it as an ecological sensitive issue because of jurisdictional limits.

The police on Saturday imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Aarey, restricting movement and gathering of groups, and cordoned off the area.