Under the Representation of the People Act, political parties are required to report all contributions received in excess of Rs 20,000. (Illustration by Manali Ghosh) Under the Representation of the People Act, political parties are required to report all contributions received in excess of Rs 20,000. (Illustration by Manali Ghosh)

Donations to the Shiv Sena dropped 70% in one year while those to the Aam Aadmi Party rose four times, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) that looked at donations declared by the regional parties. Under the Representation of the People Act, political parties are required to report all contributions received in excess of Rs 20,000. The Shiv Sena remains on top of the list with Rs 25.65 crore received in 2016-17, down from Rs 86.84 crore in 2015-16. Next is AAP, whose receipts have risen from Rs 6.61 crore to Rs 24.73 crore, narrowing the gap with the Shiv Sena. AAP is followed by the Shiromani Akali Dal, which has received Rs 15.45 crore in 2016-17, up 59 times from the previous year’s Rs 26 lakh. In terms of spike in donations, SAD is second only to the Asom Gana Parsihad (AGP), donations to which have increased more than 70 times to reach over Rs 43 lakh in 2016-17. Taken together, the Shiv Sena, AAP and SAD have received 72% (Rs 65.83 crore) of all declared donations by regional parties (Rs 91.37 crore).

Among the sources of these donations, 75% (Rs 68.17 crore) came from within India while a little below 10% (Rs 8.82 cr) from abroad. The rest came from undeclared addresses, ADR said in a release. The state from where the highest amount of donations came was Delhi (Rs 20.86 crore), followed by Maharashtra (Rs 19.70 crore) and Punjab (Rs 9.42 crore).

Out of the Rs 91.37 crore donations to all parties, just over 3% (Rs 2.82 crore) was received in cash. The highest donations in cash were declared by AINRC (Rs 65 lakh), followed by AGP (Rs 41.2 lakh) and NPF (Rs 41 lakh). Among the states, donors from Assam accounted for the highest contributions in cash (Rs 72.70 lakh) followed by donors from Puducherry (Rs 65.30 lakh).

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Tip for Reading List: What 0.5°C means to global warming

Just half a degree Celsius could make a major difference when it comes to global warming, according to a new paper by China-based researchers, published in the journal Nature Communications. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have agreed to work to stop global warming from increasing more than 2°C, and make efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. The new research shows the significance of the last half-degree, suggesting that it could be the barrier preventing extreme precipitation events. “Limiting global warming to 1.5°C, compared to 2°C, would reduce areal and population exposures to once-in-10-year or once-in-20-year extreme precipitation events by approximately 20 to 40%,” corresponding author Tianjun Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been quoted as saying. Zhou and his team combined CMIP5, an archive of climate models, with socio-economic projections to investigate future climate changes and impacts. Specifically, they examined extreme precipitation events in the global monsoon region. The researchers will continue to study the physical processes of how 0.5°C less warming affects dangerous precipitation extremes. The research paper, which is open access, can be read at nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05633-3. — Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences, via Eurekalert

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This Word Means: Age dependency ratio

Measure of non-working population, in focus in China

China’s apparent efforts to soften its population control policy (The Indian Express, August 8) have been driven in part to the fact that its population has been ageing, with its “old dependency ratio” — elderly population per 100 working persons — having increased over the years. “Old dependency ratio” is an offshoot of “age dependency ratio”, which measures the ratio of dependents (not only people older than 64 but also those younger than 15) to the working-age population (ages 15-64), as defined on the World Bank website. The ratio is expressed in terms of dependents per 100 working population. Worldwide, the ratio has risen from 8.59 in 1960 to 13.30 in 2017. In China, the age dependency ratio has gone up from 8 in 1960 to 15 in 2017. India’s dependent population represents a relatively smaller proportion, with an age dependency ratio of 9 in 2017, up from 5 in 1960. Countries with higher ratios include France (32) and Germany (33) while on the lower side are countries such as Afghanistan (5) and Oman (3).

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