Parliament Today: 3.92 Lakh Indians Gave up Citizenship in Past 3 Years, Says Govt

New Delhi: Over 3.92 lakh Indians gave up their citizenship in the last three years and 1.70 lakh of them, the highest, took up American citizenship, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said that according to details provided by the Ministry of External Affairs, individuals renounced Indian citizenship for reasons personal to them and took citizenship in over 120 countries.

A total of 3,92,643 Indians gave up their citizenship in 2019, 2020 and 2021, he said in a written reply to a question.

Of these, 1,70,795 people took up American citizenship, 64,071 took up citizenship in Canada, 58,391 in Australia, 35,435 in the United Kingdom, 12,131 in Italy, 8,882 in New Zealand, 7,046 in Singapore, 6,690 in Germany, 3,754 in Sweden and 48 in Pakistan, among others.

Over 6,500 Teaching Posts Vacant in Central Varsities

Over 6,500 faculty positions are vacant in Central universities across the country with majority of them being in the Delhi University followed by Allahabad University, Banaras Hindu University and Aligarh Muslim University, according to Ministry of Education (MoE) statistics.

The data was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar, in response to a written question in Lok Sabha on Monday.

According to the MoE, a total of 6,549 faculty positions are vacant in central universities.

The Delhi University has the maximum vacancies at (900) followed by the University of Allahabad (622), Banaras Hindu University (532), Aligarh Muslim University (498) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (326).

"The institutions are adopting various measures to address faculty shortages in order to ensure that studies of students are not affected which inter-alia, includes engaging research scholars, contract, re-employed, adjunct and visiting faculty," Sarkar said.

No Move to Absorb Ad-Hoc Teachers as Permanent Faculty

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is not considering any proposal to absorb ad-hoc teachers as permanent faculty in central universities, according to Ministry of Education.

The information was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question in Lok Sabha on Monday.

"No proposal is under consideration in University Grants Commission (UGC) to absorb ad-hoc teachers as permanent teacher. However, Ministry of Education and UGC from time to time has requested all the Central Universities to fill up the posts on regular basis," he said.

According of data shared by Sarkar, as many as 3,904 teachers are employed in central universities in temporary posts – 122 on ad-hoc basis, 1,820 on contract basis while 1,931 are working as guest faculty.

Sarkar informed that only two universities – Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and University of Delhi (DU) have ad-hoc faculties.

The DU has the maximum guest teachers, – 248 guest faculties – followed by 150 in University of Allahabad and 129 in Manipur University, Imphal.

The DU also leads in universities with the maximum teachers appointed on contract-basis – 1,044, while the AMU is at a distant second with 159 and Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi, at third with 120, the minister said.

36.29 Lakh Cyber Security Incidents Since 2019

A whopping 36.29 lakh cyber security incidents were observed in the country since 2019 till last month and the government has taken a number of steps to check such designs, Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra said on Tuesday.

"As per information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total of 3,94,499, 11,58,208, 14,02,809 and 67,4021 cyber security incidents were observed during 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 (upto June), respectively," he said in Lok Sabha while replying to a written question.

All the government websites and applications are audited with respect to cyber security prior to their hosting, the auditing of the websites and the applications is conducted on a regular basis after hosting, he said.

The government has also empanelled 97 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices, he said.