Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi today asked the civil society to take collective responsibility towards eradicating child labour, a day after he dedicated the honour to the nation by presenting his medal to President Pranab Mukherjee.

“It is not an honour for me alone, but for the children in the world and an honour to the nation. But when the credit is yours, so is the responsibility,” the Nobel Peace prize winner said at a lecture organised by the Ministry of Defence here.

“I urge the civil society, leaders to do their bit, speak out on violence against children and eradicate child labour,” he said.

Satyarthi also said he has not accepted the prize money given by the Nobel committee for the Peace Prize, which was jointly awarded to him and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai on December 10, for their pioneering work on promoting child rights.

“I told the committee that neither I, nor my organisation will accept the prize money. This money will be spent on children,” he said.

Underlining that intolerance among children and youth was on a rise which was leading to violence, he called for concerted efforts to root out the looming moral crisis in the world.

“Every country is bothered about economic growth but what about moral crisis? We live in a world where children are sold like cattle. We cannot even give them a vision to become global citizens.

“There is growing intolerance. In the name of ethics and religion, people are being killed,” he said.

Highlighting that education was the key to development, Satyarthi called for democratisation of knowledge, the benefits of which should reach out to the maximum number of people.

Raising concerns over women’s safety in the country, the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan said violence was not only physical, sexual abuse but the environment of fear created for women in itself was equivalent to violence.

Jakarta/Singapore: The tail section of the AirAsia flight that went down more than a week ago was found on Wednesday in the Java Sea, raising hopes that the plane’s black boxes might soon be recovered to determine the cause of the mysterious crash.

“We have found the tail that has been our main target today,” Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue told reporters in Jakarta as the search operation entered its 11th day. The tail is the section where the black boxes are located.

The black boxes are often considered the key piece of evidence when it comes to investigating a commercial plane disaster. They provide valuable information, from a plane’s air speed to the position of the landing gear, to pilot communications. Soelistyo said divers were preparing to go back underwater in the same area, which is in one of the priority zones where search efforts have been focused.

Searchers have been scouring the choppy waters of the Java Sea for remains from the commercial jet since it lost contact on December 28 with 162 people on board. AirAsia group chief executive Tony Fernandes confirmed the announcement in a post on his Twitter account.

“I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there,” he tweeted. “We need to find all parts soon so we can find all [our] guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority.”

Flight QZ8501 plunged into the water off Borneo island about 40 minutes into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya en route to Singapore. No survivors have been found.

Forty bodies have been recovered so far but authorities believe most of the passengers could still be inside the main body of the plan. The search area was widened on Wednesday with the establishment of two new sectors, said Chief of the Malaysian Navy Abdul Aziz Jaafar.

Underwater current was still strong of around 4-5 knots and the visibility was still limited for the sea divers on Tuesday to identify more findings from the seabed where the plane crashed.

At the weekend search officials said sonar had detected what they thought were five large parts of the plane, but strong currents and rough seas would not allow divers to confirm they were from the AirAsia flight. The cause of the crash is not know, but the plane was flying through stormy weather at the time and had requested permission to change course.

Indonesian aviation officials have said that AirAsia did not have permission to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on the day of the crash.

Maharashtra government increases 2015 ‘ready reckoner’ rates

UAE-based non-resident Indians (NRIs), who plan to buy a property in Mumbai, will now have to shell out more money in taxes this year because the Maharashtra government has increased 2015 ‘ready reckoner’ rates.

The hike, effective January 1, 2015, ranges between 15 and 40 per cent and makes buying property far more costly for the common man.

Ready reckoner rates, which are mandatory for the state government to be released at the beginning of the year, are used to calculate the market value of properties for paying stamp duty, registration charges, value added tax, sales tax. These rates are different from market rates.

Upscale residential localities such as Worli and Bandra-Kurla Complex are among places where rates have been increased by 30 to 40 per cent, The Times of India reported.

Rates in suburbs such as Goregaon, Borivali, Malad, Chembur, Ghatkopar and Vikhroli have also increased.

While the average hike across the city is between 15 per cent and 20 per cent for 2015, the highest increase is about 40 per cent. On an average, the hike in the past two years has been 13 per cent only, the newspaper said.

A survey carried out by Sumansa Exhibitions, the organizers of the Indian Property Show, in December 2014 found majority of NRIs favouring Mumbai as the most popular property investment destination.

“Its sad to know that the ready rates have gone up. I am going to pay more for my property purchase this year… well for us (NRIs) the rupee weakening is already a bonus and so it will offset some of the cost. The rate increase isn’t likely to change my decision,” Sai Pandare, an account with a Dubai-based firm, told Emirates 24|7.

S Maheshwari, who already owns a one-bed house in Borivali, says: “The rates have shot up and I believe that they will be revised soon. The government cannot tax people to fill their coffers. I will wait and see for some months and then take a decision on whether to buy in Mumbai or some other Indian city.”

A weakening rupee helps NRIs to buy a property in India at approximately 10 to 20 per cent (depending on the currency rate) cheaper. On Sunday, one dirham was fetching Rs17.22.