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What are Panama papers ?

Mossack Fonseca is not a household name, but the Panamanian law firm has long been well-known to the global financial and political elite, and thanks to a massive 2.6-terabyte leak of its confidential papers to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists it's about to become much better known. A huge team of hundreds of journalists is poring over the documents they are calling the Panama Papers.

The firm's operations are diverse and international in scope, but they originate in a single specialty — helping foreigners set up Panamanian shell companies to hold financial assets while obscuring the identities of their real owners. Since its founding in 1977, it's expanded its interests outside of Panama to include more than 40 offices worldwide, helping a global client base work with shell companies not just in Panama but also the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, and other notorious tax havens around the world.

The documents provide details on some shocking acts of corruption in Russia, hint at scandalous goings-on in a range of developing nations, and may prompt a political crisis in Iceland.

But they also offer the most granular look ever at a banal reality that's long been hiding in plain sight. Even as the world's wealthiest and most powerful nations have engaged in increasingly complex and intensive efforts at international cooperation to smooth the wheels of global commerce, they have willfully chosen to allow the wealthiest members of Western society to shield their financial assets from taxation (and in many cases divorce or bankruptcy settlement) by taking advantage of shell companies and tax havens.

If Panama or the Cayman Islands were acting to undermine the integrity of the global pharmaceutical patent system, the United States would stop them. But the political elite of powerful Western nations have not acted to stop relatively puny Caribbean nations from undermining the integrity of the global tax system — largely because Western economic elites don't want them to.

What do the Panama Papers show?

As you would imagine, there is quite a lot in the 2.6 terabytes. Here are a few of the highlights the team found, with links to the full stories where you can read the details:

• Vladimir Putin's inner circle appears to control about $2 billion worth of offshore assets.
• The prime minister of Iceland secretly owned the debt of failed Icelandic bankswhile he was involved in political negotiations over their fate.
• The family of Pakistan's prime minister owns millions of dollars' worth of real estate via offshore accounts.
• Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pledged to sell his Ukrainian business interests during his campaign, but appears instead to have transferred them to an offshore company he controls.

What's a shell company? Why would someone want one?

Sometimes a person or a well-known company or institution wants to buy things or own assets in a way that obscures who the real buyer is.

The typical reason for this is a kind of routine corporate secrecy. Apple, for example, appears to have created a shell company called Sixty Eight Research that journalists believe to be a front for its interest in building a car. Since Apple happens to be the most covered company on the planet, this hasn't been incredible effective — and when  Sixty Eight Research staff showed up at an auto industry conference, everybody noticed.

But in general, companies don't like to tip their hand to what they are doing, and the use of shell companies to undertake not-ready-for-public-announcement projects can be a useful tool.

Shell companies are often used for simple privacy reasons. Real estate transactions, for example, are generally a matter of public record. So an athlete, actor, or other celebrity who wants to buy a house without his name and address ending up in the papers might want to pay a lawyer to set up a shell company to do the purchasing.

Okay, but how about the shady stuff?

As is generally the case in life, secrecy can have illegitimate purposes as well. This is particularly true for shell companies set up in international centers of banking secrecy that offer a level of anonymity and obscurity that goes beyond simply making it hard to look up the real owner's name online.

Your soon-to-be-ex-wife cannot seize half of the money in an account that she and her lawyers don't know exists and can't prove that you own, for example. Nor can your creditors seize such an account in a bankruptcy proceeding. Nor can the government levy estate taxes on it when you die and pass it on to your kids. In all those circumstances, a Panamanian company that you secretly control and that holds stocks, bonds, and other financial assets on your behalf could be the ideal vehicle.

By the same token, if you have made a bunch of money illegally (taking bribes, trafficking drugs, etc.) you need to do something with the money that won't attract the attention of the authorities or the media. A secret offshore shell company is perfect. Not only does it help you avoid scrutiny in real time, but if you are found out its assets can't be taken from you if you have to flee the jurisdiction or even serve jail time.

But even though various criminal money-laundering schemes are the sexiest possible use of shell companies, the day-to-day tax dodging is what really pays the bills. As a manager of offshore bank accounts told me years ago, "People think of banking secrecy as all about terrorists and drug smugglers, but the truth is there are a lot of rich people who don't want to pay taxes." And the system persists because there are a lot of politicians in the West who don't particularly want to make them.

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About The ICIJ

The international consortium of investigative journalists is a global network of more than 190 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories.

Founded in 1997 by the respected american journalist Chuck Lewis, ICIJ was launched as a project of the center for public integrity to extend the center’s style of watchdog journalism, focusing on issues that do not stop at national frontiers: cross-border crime, corruption, and the accountability of power. Backed by the center and its computer-assisted reporting specialists, public records experts, fact-checkers and lawyers, icij reporters and editors provide real-time resources and state-of-the-art tools and techniques to journalists around the world.

Our advisory committee consists of some of the biggest names in investigative journalism worldwide: Bill Kovach, Chuck Lewis, Rosental Calmon Alves, Phillip Knightley, Gwen Lister, Goenawan Mohamad, Reginald Chua And Brant Houston.

Why we exist

The need for such an organization has never been greater. Globalization and development have placed extraordinary pressures on human societies, posing unprecedented threats from polluting industries, transnational crime networks, rogue states, and the actions of powerful figures in business and government.

The news media, hobbled by short attention spans and lack of resources, are even less of a match for those who would harm the public interest. Broadcast networks and major newspapers have closed foreign bureaus, cut travel budgets, and disbanded investigative teams. We are losing our eyes and ears around the world precisely when we need them most.

Our aim is to bring journalists from different countries together in teams - eliminating rivalry and promoting collaboration. Together, we aim to be the world’s best cross-border investigative team.

What we do

ICIJ projects are typically staffed by teams ranging from as few as three to as many as 100-plus reporters spread around the world. These journalists work with counterparts in other countries and with our Washington, D.C., staff to report, edit, and produce groundbreaking multimedia reports that adhere to the highest standards of fairness and accuracy.

Over the years, our teams have exposed smuggling by multinational tobacco companies and by organized crime syndicates; investigated private military cartels, asbestos companies, and climate change lobbyists; and broke new ground by publicizing details of Iraq and Afghanistan war contracts.

Who we work with

To release its findings, ICIJ works with leading news organizations worldwide.  We are always open to new collaborations. Our stories have appeared in more than a dozen languages and with such partners as the bbc, including flagship program PANORAMA, LE MONDE (FRANCE), EL MUNDO (SPAIN), EL PAIS (SPAIN), FOLHA DE SAO PAULO (BRAZIL), LE SOIR (BELGIUM),  THE SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (HONG KONG), STERN (GERMANY), THE GUARDIAN (UK), THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK), PROCESO (MEXICO), THE HUFFINGTON POST (USA), THE AGE (AUSTRALIA),24CHASA (BULGARIA), ABC COLOR DIGITAL (PARAGUAY),ARMANDO.INFO/IPYS (VENEZUELA), THE ASAHI SHIMBUN (JAPAN), CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION (CBC) (CANADA), CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING - INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM CENTER (CIN -IJC) (CROATIA), CIPER (CHILE), COMMONWEALTH MAGAZINE (HONG KONG), EL COMERCIO (ECUADOR), EL CONFIDENCIAL (SPAIN), FINNISH BROADCASTING COMPANY YLE (FINLAND), FOKUS (SWEDEN), HETQ - ASSOCIATION OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS (ARMENIA), THE INDIAN EXPRESS (INDIA), ISRA NEWS AGENCY (THAILAND), THE IRISH TIMES (IRELAND), KOREA CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM - NEWSTAPA (SOUTH KOREA), KYIV POST (UKRAINE), LA NACIÓN (ARGENTINA), LA NACIÓN (COSTA RICA), LE MATIN DIMANCHE AND SONNTAGSZEITUNG (SWITZERLAND), L'ESPRESSO (ITALY), M&G CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM (AMABHUNGANE) (SOUTH AFRICA), MALAYSIA KINI (MALAYSIA), MING PAO (HONG KONG), NDR (GERMANY), NEW AGE (BANGLADESH), NEWS (AUSTRIA), NORWEGIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION NRK (NORWAY), NOVAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA), NOVI MAGAZIN (SERBIA), ORIGO (HUNGARY), PAK TRIBUNE - PAKISTAN NEWS SERVICE (PAKISTAN), PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM (PHILIPPINES), PREMIUM TIMES (NIGERIA),RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY (AZERBAIJAN), ROMANIAN CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM (ROMANIA), RUSTAVI TV (GEORGIA), SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (GERMANY), THE NEW YORK TIMES,THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (AUSTRALIA), THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK), TA NEA (GREECE),TROUW (NETHERLANDS), THE WASHINGTON POST (USA)

These unique collaborations have been honored repeatedly. Among icij’s awards: george polk award, overseas press club award, john oakes award, editor and publisher award, society of professional journalists, kc kulish award and the investigative reporters and editors award.

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Literacy and Education

Literacy level and educational attainment are vital developmental indicators in a developing nation like India as they are key variable of measure of development as they indicate quality of life, awareness level and also level of skill of people in the society. Better literacy and educational level definitely have a positive impact on the health parameters. Education parameters have an equal weight-age in the Human Development Index as well. Condering the importance of education, India has enacted Right to Education to ensure free and compulsory Education for children in the age group 6- 14 years.

Following tables have been framed to analyse gender disaggregated data on literacy and education:-

Literacy Rate:-

 As per 2011 census, literacy rate in India has been reported as 74.04% with a 14% increase to that in 2001, whereas the hike is maximum for rural women at 26% in the last decade, which may be attributed to literacy mission of Government of India. Overall female literacy rate in India much lower than that of male literacy rate.

The female literacy levels according to the Literacy Rate 2011 census are 65.46% whereas the male literacy rate is over 80%.

Kerala is the state with highest literacy rate at 94% and Bihar with the lowest literacy rate at just 63.82. Being a very vast country with second largest population, India has limited resources to make aware its below poverty line population about the Government interventions and the law providing them the Right to Education.

The highest male literacy rate is also observed in Kerala at 96.1% followed by Lakshadweep at 95.6% and minimum for Bihar & Arunachal Pradesh. Female literacy is maximum for Kerala, followed by Lakshadweep and lowest for Bihar & followed by Rajasthan. A little more than half of the females are literate in these States

( Details may be seen in Tables  3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 )

Adult Literacy Rate:-

The adult literacy rate (15+) for male has increased from 73.4 to 78.8 whereas increase in adult literacy is more in case of females from 47.8 to 59.3 from 2001 to 2011. In 2011, just half of the rural adult females are literate against 76.9% urban females. 88.3% Urban adult males are literate against 74.1 rural adult males. Overall adult literacy is increasing over decades (details in Tables 3.5 and 3.6).

Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER):-
The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for females at the primary level stood at 102.65 compared with 100.20 for males in 2013-14. At the middle class level, the GER for females has been reported as 92.75 against 86.31 for males and at the higher secondary level, 51.58 and 52.77 is the Gross enrollment ratio for females and males during 2013-14. There were 93 girls per 100 boys in primary classes, 95 in middles classes and 90 in secondary classes during 2013- 14 against lesser ratios in the earlier decade (Details in Table 3.7).

Drop-out Rates:-
The Drop-out Rates were observed to be 4.66 and 4.68 in the classes I-V, 4.01 and 2.3 in classes I-VIII for females and males respectively indicating that the drop out at primary level is at par for both the genders but the gap increases in higher classes (Details may be seen in Table 3.9).


Number of Girls per 100 Boys Enrolled in Schools:- Table 3.8
Number of Female Teachers per 100 Male Teachers at Different Levels of Education:- Table 3.10
Number of Females per 100 Males in University Education in Major Disciplines:- Table 3.11

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