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After three cheetahs died in just over a month last year in Madhya Pradesh's <keyword id="19948081" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kuno-National-Park" source="keywords">Kuno National Park</keyword>, the <keyword id="19973832" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Tiger-Conservation-Authority" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="National Tiger Conservation Authority" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="National Tiger Conservation Authority">National Tiger Conservation Authority</keyword> in May 2023 called in experts from <keyword id="23075708" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliances-wildlife-facility" source="keywords">Reliance's wildlife facility</keyword> in Gujarat to review health monitoring protocols, official records show. The National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) Assistant Inspector General of Forests Abhishek Kumar wrote to the CEO of <keyword id="19896380" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Industries" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Reliance Industries" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Reliance Industries">Reliance Industries</keyword>' Jamnagar-based Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (<keyword id="23075709" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="GZRRC" source="keywords">GZRRC</keyword>) on May 11, 2023, requesting that a team of experts be sent to <keyword id="19949149" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kuno" source="keywords">Kuno</keyword> to "review health monitoring protocols" and provide advice to "ensure the welfare of the cheetahs" following the deaths of three cheetahs between March 27 and May 9. Kumar's letter said <keyword id="20053655" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Project-Cheetah" source="keywords">Project Cheetah</keyword> was the first intercontinental reintroduction of a wild, large carnivore species with "no comparable historical precedent" and it was not surprising that a project of such a "magnitude and complexity would face many challenges". "Due to careful planning and execution, all 20 cheetahs survived the initial capture, quarantine and lengthy transport to the purpose-built quarantine and larger acclimatisation enclosure in Kuno. We are given to understand that Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre has expert veterinarians who are handling a substantial number of cheetahs in captivity," read the letter, seen by PTI. GZRRC director Brij Kishor Gupta wrote back on May 24, 2023, saying a four-member team would visit Kuno on May 25-26. The team included "senior veterinary officers" Jorge Francisco Soares and Nitin Yashwant Tambe, lab in-charge Mandeep and Gupta himself. In response to PTI's question via email, Gupta said, "The National Tiger Conservation Authority requested GZRRC last year to assess the healthcare protocols of cheetahs being followed at Kuno, we sent our team of experts veterinarians and (the) director and found that they are following the right protocol for health care management of cheetahs." GZRRC experts visited Kuno only once, Gupta said but gave no clear answer on whether they were providing any guidance or support to the project at present. Gupta added that all forms of interaction, engagement and knowledge exchange conducted by the GZRRC with government and non-government entities in the fields of animal welfare, research and conservation were carried out "strictly on a non-commercial basis". As part of the first ever intercontinental translocation of big cats, a total of 20 cheetahs — eight from Namibia in September 2022 and 12 from South Africa in February 2023 — were brought to Kuno. Since their arrival, eight adult cheetahs — three female and five male — have died. Seventeen cubs have been born in India, with 12 surviving. This brings the total number of cheetahs, including cubs, in Kuno to 24, all of which are currently in enclosures. Three cheetahs — one male and two female — died between March 27 and May 9, 2023. According to Project Cheetah's annual report for 2023-24, Namibian female cheetah Sasha died due to "chronic renal insufficiency" on March 27, 2023, becoming the first mortality in the project. "Sasha developed kidney problems after her arrival and received continuous care for two months but, unfortunately, she did not respond positively to the treatment and passed away," the annual report says. South African male cheetah Uday "suddenly died" on April 23, 2023, within the larger acclimatisation enclosure "without displaying any prior symptoms". South African female cheetah Daksha died on May 9, 2023, due to injuries from a violent encounter with a male coalition during a mating attempt, according to the report. The GZRRC experts' visit was immediately preceded by the death of three cubs born to Namibian cheetah Jwala between May 23 and May 25 due to extreme heat. Bhopal-based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey questioned the need to involve GZRRC in the project when "top <keyword id="20396265" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="wildlife-experts" source="keywords">wildlife experts</keyword> from the NTCA, Wildlife Institute of India, South Africa, and Namibia are already part of it". "The government even sent staff from the Madhya Pradesh wildlife department for training in cheetah management in South Africa and Namibia. What did they learn?" he asked. "And even if you have approached GZRRC, why keep it a secret? There is no mention of the support sought from Reliance Industries' wildlife facility in the annual report of Project Cheetah," he added. The minutes of the Cheetah Project Monitoring Committee meetings, obtained by PTI through an RTI application, also do not mention this involvement. Besides wildlife experts from NTCA, the Wildlife Institute of India and other government facilities, Kuno currently has a dedicated team of four veterinarians for Project Cheetah. It has also received veterinary support and guidance from wildlife veterinarians in South Africa and Namibia, including Adrian Tordiffe, hospital director at Onderstepoort Veterinary College, South Africa; Mike Toft from Kifaru Wildlife Veterinary Services, South Africa; Andy Fraser from Rooiberg Veterinary Services, South Africa; and Ana Basto from the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Namibia. GZRRC director Gupta told PTI that they had more than 40 cheetahs rescued from different captive facilities. All the cheetahs are captive born in the country of origin of the captive facility. There have been "no mortalities of cheetahs at GZRRC till date" and all the animals are all "faring very well", he said. Gupta said they had "some of the best veterinarians in wildlife health management". He said the cheetah project had been "doing very well". "It has been noted that birth of several cubs has taken place on Indian soil and the survival rate is good in comparison to similar projects in other parts of the world." When asked about the challenges of cheetah management based on their experience, Gupta said, "GZRRC specialises in the study, management, care and research of cheetahs within captive environments. The primary focus areas for cheetahs in captivity include veterinary care, nutrition, housing, exercise and enrichment. GZRRC has successfully established optimal standards across all these domains." He emphasised that "the operation and management of a captive programme differ significantly from those of a re-wilding programme". The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) granted approval for the setting up of GZRRC on February 14, 2019, and accorded it recognition on August 17, 2020. According to its 2023-24 annual report submitted to the CZA, new facilities such as Rescue Centre for Herbivores, Asiatic Lion Care, Medical Research and Hospital, Cheetah Conservation and Research Centre, Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre and multi-specialty hospital were added to GZRRC in 2023-24.

After sudden cheetah deaths in Kuno, Centre turned to Reliance's wildlife facility for help

The Delhi zoo has got a Royal Bengal tigress, the first in six years, from the Kanpur zoo for breeding proposes under an animal exchange programme, officials said on Thursday. The tigress, Barkha, is six years old. She will form a pair with Karan, who is also aged around 6. The Delhi zoo did not have a Royal Bengal tigress for six years despite it being a participating zoo for <keyword id="10296280" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-conservation-breeding-programme">the Conservation Breeding Programme</keyword> of <keyword id="3042" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengal-tiger">Bengal Tiger</keyword>, according to its Director Ramesh Pandey. According to <keyword id="9302246" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-central-zoo-authority">the Central Zoo Authority</keyword>, the Conservation Breeding Programme is a science of conserving a species by preventing imminent population collapse in the wild due to a large number of eliminative pressures such as habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, industrialisation, poaching, illegal trade and climate change, etc. The Delhi zoo had three Royal Bengal tigers till a year ago. One of the three tigers, eight-year-old Rama died at the zoo in September last year due to kidney failure. He was brought from the Mysore zoo in 2014. At present, the zoo has two male Royal Bengal tigers -- B2 or Bittu and Karan -- and seven white tigers -- three females and four males. Officials said 15-year-old Bittu was not in good health and reports suggest very high presence of creatinine that affects the functioning of kidneys. Recently, the Delhi zoo acquired five species -- <keyword id="692429" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="wild-boar">wild boar</keyword>, black and grey partridge, golden pheasant, Eurasian dove and jungle cat -- from Chandigarh's Chhatbir Zoo. A male rhino from Patna will be brought soon for breeding purposes. There are two female rhinos in the Delhi zoo at present, Pandey said. It is also likely to acquire chinkara and a pair of ostrich from Chandigarh and a pair of striped hyena from Jaipur. The last chinkara of the zoo had died in June last year. "There are around 88 species in the Delhi zoo at present. We hope to increase this number to 100 by the year end," Pandey said. SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/dow-tumbles-345-points-as-fresh-lockdown-measures-overshadow-vaccine-progress/articleshow/79292917.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink"> Dow tumbles 345 points as fresh lockdown measures overshadow vaccine progress</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/pfizers-new-covid-19-vaccine-is-95-effective-and-the-only-severe-side-effect-to-worry-about-is-fatigue-according-to-the-final-results/articleshow/79284286.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine is 95% effective and the only severe side-effect to worry about is fatigue, according to the final results</a>

Delhi zoo gets Royal Bengal tigress from Kanpur for conservation breeding

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/oqUzp8mGCDI">Unsplash/George Hiles</a>Kynance Cove Beach, Helston, England.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>A little over a year after David Attenborough warned in Blue Planet II that marine habitats are being destroyed, the UK government's "blue belt" initiative shows progress in protecting endangered waters.</li><li>The scale of the project is vast, aiming to protect over four million square kilometres of British waters from fishing and pollution by 2020.</li></ul>LONDON - A little over a year ago, the broadcaster David Attenborough issued a stark warning to humanity. Detailing how plastic pollution, overfishing and climate change are destroying ocean habitats, he said "We are at a unique stage in our history: Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet." He added: "The future of humanity and indeed all life on Earth, now depends on us."Awareness about how humans are destroying the oceans - primarily through overfishing, climate change, and plastic pollution - has been on the rise ever since, with the likes of actor Stephen Fry, model Cara Delevingne, and celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tweeting their support for ocean protection. However, a recent UK government initiative could be the key to saving the oceans.Launched in 2017, the so-called "blue belt" is a programme which aims to safeguard the coastline of the UK and its overseas territories. In Britain itself, that includes an area of coastline nearly eight times the size of greater London.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">UK Government</div></div></div>But the majority of the blue belt lies beyond British shores in the UK's 14 overseas areas, from huge penguin colonies in the South Atlantic and tropical rainforests in the Caribbean to tropical rainforests in the Caribbean.In those overseas territories, some 85% of the critically endangered species the UK is responsible for are found.The scale of the project is vast, aiming to protect over four million square kilometres of British waters by 2020.<h2>So what is the blue belt?</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Getty / Mint Images / Art WolfeChinstrap penguins, Half Moon Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica</div></div></div>The blue belt is a series of marine conservation zones around the UK and UK territories' coastline. Any new activities which harm wildlife - such as dredging, or any significant building projects - will be banned in those areas.Commercial fishing is also being banned in large parts of the blue belt. As part of the blue belt initiative, the government announced that commercial fishing would be banned from one million square kilometres around British overseas territories. It also created marine protected areas around four islands in the Pacific and Atlantic, including an 840,000 square kilometre area around Pitcairn, and a 445,000 square kilometre area around St Helena, which is home to rare whale sharks and humpbacks. The UK government also plans to designate two further protection zones, one each around the south Atlantic islands of Ascension by 2019, and Tristan da Cunha by 2020.Fishing is banned in all of Pitcairn's zone - except for "sustainable" local fishing - and will be banned in half of the Ascension's 445,000 square kilometre areas. Fishing is allowed in the other areas, but activities such as oil drilling are prohibited.In overseas territories, it helps protect the vast amount of coastal wildlife: Breeding grounds for endangered turtles, one-third of the world's albatrosses, and one-quarter of the world's penguins are all located within British Overseas Territories, according to Defra.Along Britain's coastline, it is important for the purposes of protecting rare and endangered British species such as the short-snouted seahorse, the stalked jellyfish, and the peacock's tail seaweed.There are many other types of marine protected areas in the UK too, which are designed to protect rare or nationally important habitats, meaning a total of 209,000 square kilometres of British coastline are protected in total. That's two-fifths of Britain's entire coastline, according to Defra.<h2>Will the blue belt be enough?</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/searchphotos/photo.pl?mission=ISS040&amp;roll=E&amp;frame=12110">NASA</a>Earth's oceans sparkle in the sun in photos taken from space.</div></div></div>It's too early to tell in the UK's overseas territories, where the success of the project will not be known before it is fully rolled out in 2020.But it certainly appears to be helping in the UK.The Wildlife Trust announced in December that 2018 had been a good year for British wildlife thanks to the help of conservation action in Britain's coasts, with increasing sightings of marine wildlife. The organisation said seahorses, little terns and crawfish are among the creatures making a comeback in UK seas, with dozens more animals being spotted in greater numbers: nudibranches (sea slugs) and curled octopuses were all spotted in greater numbers too. Basking sharks were seen in Cardigan Bay, Wales, for the first time in three years.However, there is still a huge amount of work to do before our oceans are clean and our species are protected. Plastic - mostly from fishing rope - is now found in almost 100% of gannet nests, posing a big risk to the iconic birds and their chicks. On one estuary in Kent alone, nearly 3,000 kilograms of rubbish were collected in a clean-up drive, the Wildlife Trust said. Dr Lissa Batey, senior living seas officer at The Wildlife Trusts, said in a statement: "This review of sightings and action from across the UK has given a glimpse, a mere taster, of the wonders of our marine wildlife - delightful species that everyone has the opportunity to encounter and learn more about."But it has also shown us the problems that remain and the challenges that our sea life faces."It's not too late. We are already seeing recovery in some of our marine protected areas, but we don't yet have a fully functioning network of nature reserves at sea, where wildlife has the opportunity to thrive."Protecting our oceans in the long-term will require even greater public awareness, co-operation with key industries such manufacturing and fishing, and significant investment. But the recent recovery of dwindling species offers a glimpse of what marine conservation efforts can achieve.<section data-track-content="" data-post-type="post"><div><div data-piano-inline-content-wrapper="">This article is part of a collaboration with James Blunt and the marine conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation. The charity is dedicated to creating marine reserves and establishing sustainable models of fishing, with a mission to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030. To find out more visit <a href="http://www.bluemarinefoundation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.bluemarinefoundation.com</a></div></div></section> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/msnbc-host-chris-hayes-president-trump-china-trade-war-2018-12">MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy'</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

How a 'blue belt' could save 4 million square kilometres of the world's oceans

<ul><li><keyword id="277759" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gowri-Shankar">Gowri Shankar</keyword> and his wife Sharmila have set up and run two organisations - Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE) and a non-profit organisation called <keyword id="2010968" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kalinga-Foundation">Kalinga Foundation</keyword> in <keyword id="839580" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Agumbe">Agumbe</keyword>, <keyword id="6354780" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Karnataka">Karnataka</keyword>.</li><li>Shankar has rescued close to 400 king cobras and trained around 800 civilians across the country on how to ethically rescue snakes under his brainchild STORM programme.</li><li>While tracking a female cobra, Shankar inadvertently ended up tracking the male who ate the female that had the transmitter in her stomach.</li></ul> The idea of coming face-to-face with a tiny garden snake is enough to make most tremble, but for Gowri Shankar, a wildlife biologist with a passionate love for the <keyword id="396734" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="King-Cobra">king cobra</keyword>, it was an incentive to quit his job at IFB, a washing machine company and make a beeline for the rainforests of Agumbe in Karnataka. Shankar’s career trajectory is quite remarkable, mainly because, at that time, very little was known about wildlife conservation 20-25 years back. He quit his cushy job and joined Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), now called Karuna, as an animal inspector to rescue snakes. He moved on to Madras Crocodile Bank as an education officer under the mentorship of the famous Indian herpetologist and wildlife conservationist <keyword id="350280" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Romulus-Whitaker">Romulus Whitaker</keyword>. The calling from Agumbe came when Whitaker wanted to set up a field station there and needed Shankar to help him set up the field station and work with wild king cobras. He is now pursuing a PhD on king cobras from North Orissa University. Gowri Shankar and his wife Sharmila have now set up and run two organisations - Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE) and a non-profit organisation called Kalinga Foundation. Anyone from a software engineer to a photographer or even an organic farmer can join the workshops held at KCRE and learn about and get up close and personal with the wildlife marvels of the rainforest. And the Kalinga Foundation has been set up as a research station primarily for science students where they can learn on-field techniques to make them better scientists. <div type="image" title="A STORM Chennai workshop" msid="81480037" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A STORM Chennai workshop&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Edited excerpts of Business Insider’s conversation with Shankar follow: What is it that fascinates you about the king cobra? When I was young, I used to drop my sister at her college and go straight to <keyword id="130929" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bannerghatta-Biological-Park">Bannerghatta Biological Park</keyword>, Bengaluru, just to see the snakes. And that’s where I saw the king cobra for the first time in the enclosure. I think they’re beautiful, really massive snakes. I was so surprised to see such an enormous snake because earlier, I had caught cobras, rat snakes, and checkered keelback, and they all looked so tiny in front of a king cobra. I just fell in love with the animal. Tell us about your first experience with rescuing cobras and your interaction with the villagers in Agumbe? When we started working in Agumbe, the villagers were understandably surprised to see a stranger from the city with a ponytail riding a Royal Enfield Bullet in the village. But I started interacting with them. I asked them to let me know when they spotted a king cobra around and to call me if they needed any help. That’s how it started, and to date, I have rescued close to 400 king cobras. Villagers, particularly in and around Agumbe, are very, very patient towards king cobras. King cobras and common cobras, in general, are considered a god and are worshipped. They’ll never kill or try to disturb the snake. That is the most significant advantage we had. What have you learned from the villagers about snakes? People in the Malenadu region of Karnataka, where Agumbe is situated, have a lot of knowledge, particularly on king cobras. So, when I started working there and started interacting with the people, they told me many interesting facts like king cobras feed on other snakes and are even cannibalistic and feed on other king cobras, which was quite surprising. We already knew that this happened in captivity, but it was the villagers who gave us first-hand information that cannibalism exists among king cobras in the wild too. Also, the king cobra is the only species that builds a nest out of over 3000 species of snakes across the world. The villagers told us how they build the nest. In 2005 or so, it was thanks to a villager that we spotted our first king cobra nest. <div type="Youtube" id="WbfLC0C23gM" title="STORM (Scientific Training on Reptile Management) Chennai Edition" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WbfLC0C23gM/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Why don’t you tell us a little more about STORM? In the past decade or so, people have been following snake rescuers on television or YouTube. And without any training or practice, they started attempting to capture snakes, inevitably getting bitten and sometimes also dying. So that’s when I conceived Scientific Training on Reptile Management (STORM) - a comprehensive training program to teach people the right way to capture and rescue snakes. Now close to 800 people across the country are trained under STORM, apart from the Forest Department, Coast Guard, Fire Department, and Police Department. How many times has a snake bitten you? I've been bitten by numerous non-venomous snakes that don’t count; otherwise, I've been bitten by three venomous snakes - a pit viper, a cobra, but my worst bite was from a king cobra. I’m one of the few guys in the world who has been bitten by a king cobra and survived. Did you have the anti-venom? No, that’s the thing. We don’t have anti-venom for the king cobra, so the chances of dying from a bite are relatively high. But I think I survived because king cobras are one of the best snakes, and they don’t intend to bite you. They give you enough warnings. They tell you, ‘look, I don’t want to bite you. I can kill you in 20 minutes, but that’s not my plan’, but they don’t know what I’m doing, right? I’m trying to rescue it, but it doesn’t understand that. So this was an accident. Luckily I didn’t give him a chance to inject or pump enough venom into my hand, and I reacted fast. There was swelling in 20 minutes. I was hospitalised for three days. I almost died, but luckily I survived thanks to that king cobra who didn’t mean to bite me and didn’t inject its entire venom — that’s like 5ml or 6ml of venom — into me. He was kind enough just to give me a little dose. <div type="image" title="Rescue operation underway" msid="81480056" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rescue operation underway&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Tell us a little bit about this radio telemetry study that you have conducted on king cobras. Radio telemetry was initiated in 2008 by Mr.Whitaker and the team. This was the first time ever radio telemetry (a tool to track the movement and behaviour of animals) was done on a king cobra right here in the Western Ghats in Karnataka. So we were all very excited, but we didn’t know what to expect. Unfortunately, within 30 days, our female king cobra was eaten by a male king cobra, which is quite rare, and the locals helped me gather that information — we knew king cobras fed on other snakes, but this was a male feeding on the female after mating with her. Fascinatingly enough, though we were tracking the female, we ended up tracking the male instead, who had the female in his stomach because the transmitter was in her stomach. Another interesting thing about this male king cobra was that it was a translocated one that had moved 15 or 20 kilometres to see what happens if they are moved from their home. So this guy wanted to go back to his home. He travelled a lot, and we think we figured out for the first time that a king cobra can travel up to eight kilometres in one day. Are they territorial? We are yet to figure that out, but we think they’re not territorial unless it’s a breeding season. If there’s a female, the male will guard her because he wants to mate with her. When you were facing off with the king cobra, have you quietly wished you were sitting safely in that washing machine company? Not for a single second. You won’t believe it, I was in the hospital for three days after having survived that bite, and my hand was still swollen, and I said I want to go home. And while I was heading back to my field station, I received a rescue call. With my swollen hand, I went straight to rescue king cobra before. Till today, I will sit in front of a king cobra the whole day without getting bored. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/tata-tryst-with-e-grocery-starts-with-a-billion-dollar-acquisition-of-bigbasket-heres-why-it-could-be-a-sweet-deal-for-both/articleshow/81478849.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Tata’s tryst with e-grocery starts with a billion dollar acquisition of BigBasket – here’s why it could be a sweet deal for both</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/kalyan-jewellers-will-be-going-up-against-titan-but-remains-sceptical-jewellery-business-can-ever-fully-go-online/articleshow/81478749.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Kalyan Jewellers will be going up against Titan but remains sceptical jewellery business can ever fully go online</a>

This king cobra researcher is happy to endure a lethal bite or two for the sake of his passion

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Koji Sasahara/APA woman walks past an electronic stock indicator in Tokyo. </div></div></div>Karen Kawabata represents the best of Japan's intellectual capital. She has just graduated from the University of Tokyo, the most prestigious in the country. 
Wry and poised, with an American mother and Japanese father, she has the languages and cosmopolitan attitude that Japanese companies particularly value nowadays. 
In April she will join McKinsey, a consultancy that should give her immediate membership of a globe-trotting elite.
Yet Ms Kawabata sees obstacles in her path. She is acutely aware of the difficulties she would face at traditional Japanese companies, should she find herself joining one. Ferociously long working hours, often stretching past midnight, are followed by sessions of "nominication", a play on the Japanese word for drinking, nomu, and the English word "communication"; these are where young hopefuls forge connections and build reputations. Nowadays women trying to impress the boss are allowed to drink plum wine mixed with plenty of soda instead of beer, says Ms Kawabata.
But that is hardly a great improvement.
Above all, she worries that having a family will be nigh on impossible to combine with a demanding career. When she met her boyfriend's father for the first time this year, she reassured him about her intentions at McKinsey. "I told him that I would rethink my career in a few years' time," she says.
That one of the brightest of Japan's graduates needs to say such things should worry Shinzo Abe, the prime minister. Japan educates its women to a higher level than nearly anywhere else in the world: its girls come near the top in education league-tables compiled by the OECD. But when they leave university their potential is often squandered, as far as the economy is concerned.
Female participation in the labour force is 63%, far lower than in other rich countries. When women have their first child, 70% of them stop working for a decade or more, compared with just 30% in America. Quite a lot of those 70% are gone for good.
<h2>Beyond the Festival of the Dolls</h2>
Mr Abe says he wants to change that. In April 2013 he announced that allowing women to "shine" in the economy was the most important part of his "Abenomics" growth strategy. Raising female labour participation to the level of men's could add 8m people to Japan's shrinking workforce, potentially increasing GDP by as much as 15%, according to Goldman Sachs, an investment bank.
More women working for more pay would also increase demand. Hence speeches from Mr Abe attaching new-found importance to matters such as the opening hours of kindergartens and the challenges of breast-feeding outside the home.
For the prime minister, who belongs to the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), this is quite a turnaround. In 2005, when a previous government was taking steps towards greater equality, Mr Abe and his fellow conservatives warned of the damage to family values and to Japanese culture that could result if men and women were treated equally.
They worried that rituals such as the hina matsuri, or Festival of Dolls, an annual celebration of young girls and the state of matrimony, could be endangered. Their concern was not just based on tradition; keeping women out of the workforce, conservatives thought, made economic sense too. If the country's "baby-making machines", as a former LDP health minister put it, stayed at home then they would produce more babies, and thus more workers.
This insight proved to be flawed. As the LDP encouraged women to stay at home, the fertility rate, already low, plunged further, bottoming out at 1.26 children per woman in 2005 before edging up to 1.41 in 2012. The consequent dearth of young people means that Japan's working-age population is expected to fall by 40% by 2050, exerting a powerful drag on the economy.
As a solution to this, the direct measure of getting more women out into the workforce would have great advantages over the indirect tactic of encouraging them to stay at home in the unfounded hope that they will breed instead.
Indeed, it may even turn out that working and having children go hand in hand. In other rich countries, higher birth rates nearly always accompany higher female employment, and in Japan itself the birth rate is higher in the countryside, where more women work, than in the big cities, where fewer do. The changes that might encourage more urban women into work--such as better child-care provision, and a less demanding corporate culture, which would mean shorter working hours for men and women alike--might encourage them and their husbands to have more children, too.
<h2>The missing salarywoman</h2>
Mr Abe's interest in all this is new; the problem is not. Yoko Kamikawa, an LDP politician, recently served on the party's new committee seeking to improve the lot of women. In the 2000s, during Mr Abe's first term as prime minister, she was his minister of gender equality. She is startled, she says, by the lack of progress since then.
In most countries women's participation in the labour force dips around the years when they marry and bear children; after that it recovers. But this M-shaped curve is much more pronounced in Japan than in most other rich countries (see chart 1). Japan's curve has levelled out somewhat in recent years: in 2004 the rate of full- and part-time employment for 30- to 34-year-old women was 61%, a figure which by 2012 had risen to 69%.
Yet young, married mothers are still largely absent from the workforce, and many women returning to work go into part-time or temporary jobs with low pay and little security.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image">The Economist</div></div>Those who stay in work often do so in jobs that waste their abilities. Few women hold professional, technical or managerial roles. In 2012 they made up 77% of Japan's part-time and temporary workforce.
Many of these workers are well-off married women seeking a little extra income. But others are poor and marginalised.
The precarious existence of such workers was described in "Out", a bestselling 1997 crime novel by Natsuo Kirino which had a resonance, and earned acclaim, beyond the borders of the genre.
The heroine, who spends her nights toiling in a soulless packed-lunch factory, helps conceal the murder of a colleague's no-good husband. Ms Kirino's subsequent bestsellers have also focused on the division of gender roles, describing men slaving away in the corporate world, disconnected from women in the home.
At the very top of corporate Japan, the "bamboo ceiling"--so-called by women for being thick, hard and not even transparent--is starting to let in some chinks of light, but they are few and far between. In 2011, 4.5% of company division heads were female, up from 1.2% in 1989. But relative to other countries the numbers are still dismal. Of the most senior, executive-committee-level managers in Japan, 1% were women in 2011, according to a regional study by McKinsey. The equivalent figure for China was 9%, for Singapore 15%.
Corporate culture is by far the biggest obstacle for Japanese women. The practice of hiring graduates fresh out of university and employing them for their entire working lives makes it difficult for employees to take career breaks and seek new positions elsewhere afterwards.
Promotion tends to be based on tenure and overtime, rather than on productivity and performance. And straightforward discrimination remains rampant. In a study that compared the reasons why Japanese and American college graduates leave their jobs, American women cited child care and looking after elderly relations as the main factors. Japanese women blamed dissatisfaction with their jobs and a feeling of being put into "dead-end" roles.
The fact that their husbands, who spend more time at work than their counterparts in other developed countries, spend less time on child care or household chores, adds to the perceived need to stay at home (see chart 2).
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image">The Economist</div></div>When Japanese firms take their pick of university graduates they choose men and women, but they still prefer men for management, sticking most of the women on the "clerical" track.
Foreign companies have been able to take advantage of this prejudice by hiring and promoting able female graduates, says Georges Desvaux, the head of McKinsey's Tokyo office, who also leads the firm's global research on the role of women in companies.
Overseas executives inside large Japanese companies tell tales of über-secretaries with the talent to run the whole business.
Keidanren, Japan's most powerful business lobby, has been markedly uninterested in doing much about this.
Though government pressure recently got the lobby to start internal discussions on promoting women, corporate leaders regard Mr Abe's new enthusiasm for improving the lot of women in the same way as they look on reforms to corporate governance: as costly distractions from the task of lifting Japan Inc's profits.
Keidanren refuses to ask its members even to state the number of women on their boards, in fear of being asked to increase it, or having quotas imposed. Bureaucrats seeking to find the number scan documents for the suffix "ko", usually found on female names.
Male dominance extends beyond the corporate world: in politics, too, women are grossly under-represented. In the lower house of the Diet, women hold only 8% of seats, with 19% in the upper house. In a global survey of women in parliaments, Japan ranked 123rd out of 189 countries. The older generation of men is particularly traditionalist, and still wields the most clout.
<h2>Pampered wife, wise choice</h2>
Yet women are not simply being held back by the patriarchy. When the choice is between leisurely dependency in the home--known as sanshoku hirune tsuki ("three meals and a nap")--and the sorry life of a salaryman there is something to be said for putting your feet up. In wealthy places like Tokyo many women simply do not wish to work, says Takeshi Niinami, chief executive of Lawson, a chain of convenience stores.
Mariko Bando, author of "The Dignity of a Woman", a bestselling guide for women on how to succeed in the workplace, points out that many Japanese women do not feel they need a high-status job to enjoy high status. A well-educated woman working part-time in a supermarket will not see that job as defining her identity if she is the wife of, say, a high-ranking Mitsubishi Corporation executive.
Remarkably, women seem to have become more conservative about work in the past few years. In 1979, 70% of women agreed with the statement that "The husband should be the breadwinner and the wife should take care of the home". By 2004 that had fallen to 41%. But in 2012, perhaps because of the recession in 2007-09, just over half said they preferred to stay at home. A survey last year showed that a third of very young women want to become full-time housewives. Potential husbands, meanwhile, were less traditionalist: only one in five young men said he wanted his future wife to stay in the home.
Feminism has remained a timid force in Japan. The long economic boom that began in the 1950s was a national priority which left little room for questioning traditional roles in the home or workplace, says Chizuko Ueno, Japan's best-known feminist. And women are not without power behind the scenes. Housewives control the family finances, and in the workplace so-called "office ladies" wield a lot of influence over the lives of salarymen, quietly hindering the careers of those they dislike.
There are, however, some indications that the role of women could change. For one thing, the boom that overrode all other interests is long gone. Stagnating wages mean the three-meals-and-a-nap way of life is less widely available, with households increasingly in need of two incomes. And the divorce rate is rising. More Japanese women are opting out of marriages to overworked and largely absent salarymen, and so thus increasingly need to fend for themselves. Although a portion of young women want old-fashioned gender roles, the rest, including the "parasite singles" who prefer living with their parents to marriage, want change.
<h2>Herbivore men, carnivore women</h2>
Some of the most motivated graduates nowadays are female, and a growing number of companies are waking up to the possibility of putting them to better use than in the past. According to Sakie Fukushima, a director of another business lobby, Keizai Doyukai, human-resources executives say in private that they would hire young women ahead of men most of the time. Yet they are afraid that they will lose them when they have children. Japan's female 20-somethings now tend to be far more internationally minded than their male equivalents, says Lawson's Mr Niinami. They outperform soshoku danshi, or "herbivore" men, so-called for taking low-responsibility jobs and preferring shopping to sex. These same young men have little desire to follow the breadwinner/housewife model adopted by their parents. Indeed, Japanese media have recently, with some surprise, begun to note a trend towards young fathers taking on more child care.
In some corners of corporate Japan, firms are changing the old working practices. At DeNA, an internet-services company, employees have noticed that their colleagues in California never stay late at the office, instead continuing their work at home. They are now starting to follow the American example, says the company's founder, Tomoko Namba. A few firms are trying to increase productivity while shortening hours. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, a leading blue-chip, is discouraging workers from staying in the office after seven o'clock.
By 2020 Mr Abe wants women to occupy 30% of all "leadership" positions--which would include members of parliament, heads of local government and corporate executives. His most practical step has been to try to shorten waiting lists for child care by allowing more private companies into a previously state-dominated sector. Here he has seized upon the work of Fumiko Hayashi, the mayor of Yokohama, who after being elected in 2009 managed to reduce the city's child-care waiting list, then the longest in the country, to zero in just over three years. A former senior saleswoman at Honda, BMW and Nissan, she brought private firms into the sector. Mr Abe wants to expand her "Yokohama method" across the country.
Yet many Japanese women, who are particularly protective of their children, distrust day care (one reason women in the countryside have more children is that they are more likely to have parents nearby to lend a hand). What is required, more people now argue, is an army of foreign nannies. In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Abe suggested Japan's immigration rules could be eased so that foreign workers could help care for children and elderly relatives, another duty that falls most heavily on women. There have been unconfirmed media reports that the government is considering allowing in as many as 200,000 foreigners a year to work in areas such as construction, child care and nursing.
As with much of the country's ambitious programme of structural reform, however, such a loosening will face high political hurdles. Immigration is unpopular with the Japanese public; insiders note that Mr Abe may say such things in Switzerland, but has not given public voice to them in Japan.
Until overseas talk is followed by domestic action, many will think Mr Abe lacks the will to push for changes that would greatly improve the life of working women. His actions so far have not impressed. A request that firms allow mothers to take three years of maternity leave--compared with the 18 months they can take now--met with derision from all sides. Companies said it would cripple them; feminist critics said that it was part of the old agenda to keep women in the home. The target of 30% women in leadership roles by 2020 was first proposed in 2003 by then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. "The target is an old one, and it was not implemented," says Yuriko Koike, head of public relations for the LDP and a former defence minister. The deadline arrives in only six years; there is little chance it will be met. The idea of reducing waiting lists for child care, too, dates back to Mr Koizumi's time in office.
Some of Mr Abe's allies frequently remind voters of the prime minister's former traditional views on the family. In January Michiko Hasegawa, whom Mr Abe had approved as a board member at NHK, Japan's national broadcaster, published a column saying that women's most important task was to bring up their children, and that this should take priority over working outside the home. "The message on women is somewhat mixed," concludes Ms Koike.
If the government really wants to increase female employment, argues Kathy Matsui of Goldman Sachs, it could do so by axing tax rules that keep women's earnings low. The "head of household", normally a man, is allowed to claim a tax deduction of ¥380,000 ($3,700) as long as his spouse's income does not exceed ¥1.03m. The pension system, too, encourages limited earnings. As long as a wife's annual wages remain under ¥1.3m she can claim the national pension without paying any premiums. Tackling such privileges, however, could cost the LDP the votes of millions of housewives and their husbands.
At a private dinner in Davos Mr Abe listened to a small group of senior women, including a former head of state, discuss what Japan should do differently. An awkward moment came when one of the guests, Miki Tsusaka, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group, told him she had dreaded returning to Japan after a successful career spent mostly in New York. Yet increasingly, behind their soft tones and feminine demeanour, many Japanese women are getting ready to break out of their dolls' house. If the country's policymakers can find the right ways to help them, those women could boost the economy and reform corporate culture. Both they and their sararimen stand greatly to benefit.
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Japanese Women And Work: Holding Back Half The Nation

<keyword id="71" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Prime-Minister">Prime Minister</keyword> <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>, in an interview to ANI, said the opposition alleging that his government is a 'suit-boot ki sarkaar' is definitely better and more acceptable than being labelled a 'suitcase' (ki sarkaar), and satirically added, that after ruling for sixty years, the <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword> has suddenly remembered the poor. 

	Excerpts:
 

	1. In a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your government?
 

	It is for the people of this country to grade and evaluate us. How can I take away their right? I have presented my report card to the country. Recently, media has published the findings of some surveys. You would already have seen them. I can only say that we have laid a solid foundation on which the people can rate us.
 

	2. You came in with the promise of 'Acche Din.' Have you been able to meet the goals that you set for yourself in the first year of the government?
 

	Yes. I am fully satisfied with the work that we have done. The most satisfying part of this year is that we have lived up to the promise that our intentions will be pure and our actions will be driven by long-term national interest. Recall the situation one year ago. Massive corruption at various levels of Government gave rise to scams on a regular basis. Our precious natural resources were going into the hands of a chosen few. In contrast, there are neither any charges of corruption against my Government nor any scandals. Corruption was seen as the biggest problem. We have given a clean, transparent and efficient Government. Burey Dino Ki Vidayee Hui hai. (Bad days are over). Is this not Acche Din for the country?
 

	3. What has been the single big success in the past year? 
 

	The achievements and successes of my government are numerous. However, I know that the success of a government's journey lies in reaching the last man. Therefore, our efforts were directed towards the poor and marginalized. We have also paid special attention to remote corners of the country. Our objective is to transform quality of life, infrastructure and services. We have worked simultaneously on all fronts which bring a smile on the face of the common man. I can give you some examples. From controlling food prices to enhancing farm productivity; improving Railways to strengthening Roads; generating electricity to its 24x7 availability; building school toilets to setting up IITs, IIMs and AIIMS; building houses for the homeless to upgrading our heritage cities; cleaning surroundings to bridging the digital divide; making world class products to skilling and employment generation; strengthening the banking system to funding the unfunded; ensuring labour welfare to providing social security to common man; rejuvenating rivers to irrigating fields; from enhancing co-operation with States to deepening foreign relations; we have worked at an energetic pace and with innovative spirit. 
 Bringing back black money was a major electoral promise, but then your party president, <keyword id="6355521" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amit-Shah">Amit Shah</keyword> gave the word 'jumla' to it and Arun Shourie criticized the procedures adopted by the finance ministry. How committed is your government in bringing back black money to India? 

	My Government is fully committed on the issue of Black Money. We want to crack down severely on tax evasion and black money. I had taken up this issue with world leaders during the G-20 summit. In our very first cabinet meeting, we formed an SIT. Then, we presented a new legislation in Parliament which is very stringent. We want to make it more difficult to evade taxes and siphon money abroad. We are also aggressively pursuing cases against those who have stashed funds illegally in foreign banks. Recently the names of some such persons have been revealed. We are also trying to move towards cashless transactions. We want to make maximum use of ICT in our tax administration.
 

	At the same time, we want to remove the discretion which causes corruption and generation of Black Money. Hence, we promulgated ordinances in sectors like coal and mines. It has proved to be a good step. We have generated Rs. 3.30 lakh crore for the country so far through transparent auction of some coal mines. Similar is the case with auction of spectrum. I can say that if your intentions are noble, you are sure to get success and required support.
 

	5. Key bills like the Land Acquisition Bill has got stiff opposition from the opposition. They have been able to create doubts about the government's intention. What do you have to say? 
 

	Opposition to our Land Bill is totally unjustified and unfortunate. We have not made any changes for private industry. Moreover, if you have money, you don't need a Land Acquisition Act to accumulate land. Some individuals have done so in Rajasthan, Haryana, Shimla, Delhi etc. Land acquisition becomes necessary for government-driven strategic and development activities, especially in undeveloped areas. 
 

	This too is done mostly by State Governments. We have made changes only in response to demands of the States. The benefits of these changes will also accrue to the rural poor in terms of irrigation, housing, electrification, as well as better physical and social infrastructure.
 
 

	In this country, the Land Acquisition Act was almost 120 years old. The Congress-led Governments used the same Act after independence. Suddenly, before the last Parliamentary elections, the Congress went to another extreme by legislating an Act which is neither in the interest of farmers nor in the interest of the country's development. 
 

	Now, they are not even ready to sit and discuss. We believe in dialogue with all political parties. I have personally appealed in Parliament that we are ready to open a dialogue with political parties and consider their suggestions. I hope that the parties will cooperate on issues of larger national importance without getting into political calculations. 
 

	6. How are you going to convince the farmers of this country that you mean well?
 

	The proposed Land Acquisition Bill focuses on benefitting the farmer and balancing the long-term interests of the nation. The world is changing fast. Even farmers need canals to irrigate, roads to transfer products from farms to markets. They need hospitals, schools and houses. Farmers want modern amenities in their vicinity and jobs in formal sectors for their sons and daughters. I have always believed that if we want inclusive development, we need amenities. We need to match the development of such amenities with agricultural growth. This is what the Bill strives to do while safeguarding the interests of farmers. Our amendments only aim to do away with the bureaucratic bottlenecks in the 2013 Act. I am sure the farmers of this country will understand where their real welfare lies.
 

	7. Agriculture is in distress in the country. To a large extent the problem is endemic and decades of mismanagement have resulted in the present situation but how does your government plan to stem the tide of farmer suicides and farming stress?
 
 The root causes of the problem find mention in your question itself. This is a very important issue and the Government is concerned about it. We have responded to the recent agrarian crisis with alacrity. We have undertaken several reforms. The <keyword id="6362177" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="union-government">Union Government</keyword> has enhanced the relief norms for compensation against crop loss by 50%. 

	The limit of minimum crop damage, for grant of compensation, has been reduced from 50% to 33%. Norms have been relaxed to allow procurement of damaged food grains at MSP rates. The target of agricultural credit has been enhanced in our two consecutive budgets. 
 

	But as you said, the problem in agriculture is endemic. Nothing much was done for six long decades. But we have started long-term steps for the farm sector. To address the issue of access to irrigation for every farm, and efficient utilization of water, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) has been started. Blue Revolution which aims to improve production and productivity in the fisheries sector is also an action point. We have launched the soil health card scheme. The price stabilization fund with a corpus of Rs. 500 crores has also been set up for perishable commodities. Rashtriya Gokul Mission has been commenced with the objective of conserving and developing indigenous cattle breeds. We have made honest and sincere efforts for rural development. I have recently launched the Kisan Channel for giving timely information to farmers on inputs and markets. In the coming days, I would like to see more focused action on increasing Farm Productivity; Rural Industrialization; Skill Development in rural areas and rural trades, and faster Investments in Rural Infrastructure including cold chain.
 

	8. The opposition has termed your government as suit boot ki sarkar. What is your take on this allegation? 
 

	Suit-boot is definitely more acceptable than suitcase. After ruling for sixty years, the Congress has suddenly remembered the poor. People of this country have suffered and remained poor due to shortsighted policies of the Congress. Many countries of the world have surpassed us on all accounts including poverty removal. Congress did incremental work so as to keep the issue relevant for next election. Did the coal and spectrum scandals or the CWG fiasco benefit the poor? Everyone knows who were their beneficiaries - some chosen industrialists and contractors. The result of Congress's politics and governance of sixty years is that poverty is still our biggest challenge. One-fourth of the families are without shelter. Health, education, water, electricity and roads are even bigger unrealised dreams for a large number of citizens of this country. You should ask them- If you were pro-poor, why does poverty still exist in India?"
 

	9. Opposition says that your government is pro-industrialists.
 

	Those who gave away precious natural resources like coal and spectrum to their favourite industrialists have no right to say this. We are working for the common man of the country. 
 
 
 
 

	We implemented the Jan Dhan scheme and opened more than 14 crore bank accounts for financial inclusion. Earlier also, there were banks, as well as people without bank accounts. What did they do all these years?
 

	The so called pro-poor have been just repeating that there is leakage in subsidy. We used technology to ensure that LPG subsidy reaches the targeted person directly; We have launched MUDRA Bank for financing 6 crore small vendors and businesses 61% of whom are SCs, STs, OBCs and Minorities; We have launched the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana which the Congress did not think of in sixty years; We have planned to see that by 2022, no family remains without a roof over its head; The Soil Health Card scheme has been launched to enhance farm productivity and reduce expenses, thereby enhancing the farmer's income. 
 

	We have come out with a comprehensive social security scheme for the poor and marginalised, old and those with low income levels; Swachh Bharat Mission has been started to see that health and hygiene issues of the poor do not affect the working capacity and output of the poor and labourers; Railways, on which the common man travels, is being changed for the better.
 

	We have set up the Skill Development Ministry to enhance employability of the youth to whom we are committed to provide jobs through initiatives like 'Make in India'. In the past, the country had been led into an economy of jobless growth.
 

	We provided for reservation of women in the police forces of Union Territories. This was done even when there were no elections around the corner. 
 

	Through the regime of coal auction that we have put in place, more than Rs. three lakh crore have already been generated for the less-developed states of India. This money will be used for the poor of those states.
 
 These are just a few examples. Why were these things not done in the past sixty years. Who prevented them? Their worry is not that we are not pro-poor. Their worry is that they are being exposed as not being pro-poor. People are asking them: "If <keyword id="6360789" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi-Government">Modi Government</keyword> can think and do this in six to nine months, why could you not think and do it in sixty years." 

	10. You have travelled to 17 countries in 12 months...something that nobody expected you to do as you were seen as a novice on foreign policy matters. But you seem to enjoy running the country's foreign policy. Any comments? 
 

	Foreign engagements are international obligations on the part of the Prime Minister. All Prime Ministers have to do this. Moreover, this is an integrated world. We have to attend international, multilateral and bilateral summits, and build ties with our neighbours and other nations. Our foreign policy is mature and there is a full-fledged mechanism to pursue it. I have only added an element of dynamism to it. We have strived to strongly further our economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region. We have endeavoured to nurture new economic partnerships and tap reserves of energy, minerals, technology and finance from major economies.
 
 11. In real terms, do you see that the Chinese will actually deliver on the financial pledge they have done, that the US will open up its markets for India, that Pakistan will give up its anti-India agenda? That our smaller neighbours will stop seeing us as a bully? Yes, I am sure that the commitments and agreements will be implemented. We have received a commitment from the Government of <keyword id="6355311" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Japan">Japan</keyword> for facilitating public and private funding of 3.5 trillion Yen - or approximately $35 billion dollars - over the next five years; there are agreements with China on two industrial parks and intended investments of 20 billion US dollars; there are investment plans of about 42 billion U.S. dollars from U.S. companies over the next five years. <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> has proposed to manufacture helicopters in India. With Australia and Canada, we have signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements, and other agreements to strengthen our energy security. With the United States, we have moved forward in implementation of the civil nuclear agreement and signed a significant partnership agreement to use renewable energy for rapidly expanding rural access to energy. There has been good response from financial institutions, including pension funds from Korea, Canada, Australia and the US. There is a strong support in all major economies for our "Make in India" programme. 

	In the neighbourhood, there has been forward movement on the 5600 MW Pancheshwar project in Nepal, that was stuck for the last 25 years. Similarly, with Bangladesh we have settled the land boundary issue. We are working with a spirit of mutual benefit. There is no question of bullying anyone. Our recent help to Nepal during the natural calamity shows that our approach is brotherly. With Pakistan too, we will pursue our long-standing approach. We will continue our efforts to advance cooperation and connectivity, without compromising our national security. 
 

	12. If we were to return to domestic issues, you have come for criticism from many for not being able to reign in vitriolic elements in your party who have made disparaging remarks against minorities. What do you say? 
 

	Our Constitution guarantees religious freedom to every citizen and that is not negotiable. The tradition of welcoming, respecting and honouring all faiths is as old as India itself. As Swami Vivekananda said: We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. This principle of equal respect and treatment for all faiths has been a part of India's ethos for thousands of years. And that is how it became integral to the Constitution of India. Our Constitution did not evolve in a vacuum. It has roots in the ancient cultural traditions of India. I expect that everyone will understand and respect this.
 

	13. Why do some elements in your party feel emboldened to say awful things even though they ought to know that a Prime Minister of India cannot really support bigots in his cabinet? 
 

	I have said this before and I say it again: any discrimination or violence against any community will not be tolerated. My position on this is very clear: Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas. We stand for each of the 1.25 billion Indians regardless of caste or creed and we will work for the progress of each of them. Every faith in our country has equal rights; it is equal not only before the law but also before society. 

	 
	As published in ET.

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