Editorials - 09-08-2022

It can be the path to a peaceful health revolution for the 11 crore tribal people in India

For the first time since independence, a tribal President has become a reality in India. This is a very positive signal given to the tribal people by the Narendra Modi government. On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, let us explore how this symbolic gesture can be turned into a health revolution for the tribal people of India.

Few people are aware that nearly 11 crore tribal people (enumerated as Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Census of India (2011) live in India. They constitute 8.6% of India’s population, the second largest number of tribal people in any country in the world. The Prime Minister and the national leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party are aware of this fact, which is one of the reasons why they have chosen a tribal woman for the highest position in the country.

A study published inThe Lancet , titled ‘Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ Health’ (2016), found that India held the inglorious distinction of having the second highest infant mortality rate for the tribal people, next only to Pakistan. This is not an honourable position.

Findings

On this day, in 2018, the first national report on the state of India’s tribal people’s health was submitted to the Government of India by the Expert Committee on Tribal Health. The 13-member committee was jointly appointed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. I was the Chairman of this committee, with the Additional Secretary and Mission Director of the National Health Mission as the Member Secretary. It took five years of enormous work for the committee to dig out evidence and construct a national picture. The picture was both pathetic and promising. These were some of the few major findings.

Firstly, tribal people are concentrated in 809 blocks in India. Such areas are designated as the Scheduled Areas. However, the more unexpected finding was that half of India’s tribal population, nearly five and a half crore, live outside the Scheduled Areas, as a scattered and marginalised minority. They are the most powerless.

Second, the health status of tribal people has certainly improved during the last 25 years as seen in the decline in the under-five child mortality rate from 135 in 1988 in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-1 to 57 in 2014 (NFHS-4). However, the percentage of excess of under-five morality among STs compared to others has widened.

Third, child malnutrition is 50% higher in tribal children: 42% compared to 28% in others.

Fourth, malaria and tuberculosis are three to 11 times more common among the tribal people. Though the tribal people constitute only 8.6% of the national population, half of the total malaria deaths in India occur among them.

Fifth, while malnutrition, malaria and mortality continue to plague tribal people, gradually, the more difficult to treat non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and worse, mental health problems such as depression and addiction leading to cancer and suicide, are increasing. These threaten the health and survival of tribal adults.

Sixth, tribal people heavily depend on government-run public health care institutions, such as primary health centres and hospitals, but there is a 27% to 40% deficit in the number of such facilities, and 33% to 84% deficit in medical doctors in tribal areas. Government health care for the tribal people is starved of funds as well as of human resource. We found them demoralised and inefficient.

Seventh, there is hardly any participation of the tribal people – locally or at the State or national level – in designing, planning or delivering health care to them.

The official policy of allocating and spending an additional financial outlay, called Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), equal to the percentage of the ST population in the State, has been completely flouted by all States. As estimated for 2015-16, annually Rs. 15,000 crore should be additionally spent on tribal health. No accounts or accountability exist on this. No one knows how much was spent or not spent.

These issues have persisted as there is no separate data on tribal people’s health, or healthcare or on the money spent.

A road map

The committee was also asked by the Government of India to prepare a road map for the future, which it did. This road map includes a large number of recommendations, but the three most important broad recommendations are the following. Firstly, launch a National Tribal Health Action Plan with a goal to bring the status of health and healthcare at par with the respective State averages in the next 10 years. Second, the committee suggested nearly 80 measures to address the 10 priority health problems, the health care gap, the human resource gap and the governance problems. Third, the committee suggested allocation of additional money so that the per capita government health expenditure on tribal people becomes equal to the stated goal of the National Health Policy (2017), i.e. 2.5% of the per capita GDP.

Four years have already passed. The committee presented its report on August 8, 2018, to J.P. Nadda (who was the Health Minister at that time), the Minister of Tribal Affairs, the Secretaries of the two ministries and the Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research. Mr. Nadda promised that “this historic report will not lie on the shelf. This government will certainly implement it”. The tribal people of India are waiting.

The Health Minister and the 10 States with a sizable tribal population should take the initiative. The Prime Minister has already signalled his intention by electing a tribal President of India. Let this massive need and the historic opportunity receive an appropriate response. A proposal currently being discussed involves addressing only one disease, the Sickle Cell Disease. Though needed, it will substantially help, at best, five lakh to 10 lakh sickle cell disease patients – merely about 0.5% of the tribal people. The tribal healthcare system is sick, and tribal people need more substantive solutions. We need to move from symbolic gestures to substantive promises, from promises to a comprehensive action plan, and from an action plan to realising the goal of a healthy tribal people.

If actualised, the Tribal Health Mission can be the path to a peaceful health revolution for the 11 crore tribal people. India needs to demonstrate to them that democracy offers a caring solution to their wounds.

Abhay Bang is Director, SEARCH, Gadchiroli



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International factors and faulty data will impact India’s projections of GDP, inflation and balance of payments

The Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate again by a whopping 0.75%. The Reserve Bank of India has also been forced to raise interest rates further but also take other steps. These decisions in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting are based on what the members of the MPC see as the likely course of the economy in the months ahead. But, the trajectory of the world economy, and its likely impact on the Indian economy, is imponderable. So, Indian policymakers would face two crucial problems.

First, the main uncertainty is due to Russia’s war on Ukraine and the resultant economic sanctions on Russia, as well as the zero-COVID-19 policy in China that repeatedly implements lockdowns leading to global supply bottlenecks. Second, policy has to base itself on data. If it is deficient, it introduces additional uncertainty, making projections for the future difficult and causing policies to fail. This will compound the problem that results from the global uncertainty.

Stagflation and disease

Since early 2020, the SARS-COV-2 virus has caused global uncertainty. Waves of COVID-19 have curtailed human activity with a consequent loss of production. Different countries have implemented lockdowns of varying severity leading to supply bottlenecks. In a globalised interdependent world, production was hit resulting in price rise (inflation) and loss of real incomes. This has resulted in decline in demand and, in a vicious cycle, a further slowing down of the economy. Predicting these declines has been difficult because forecasting when another wave would strike and how much disruption would occur has been difficult. As prices have risen globally and economies slowed down, many countries have faced stagflation.

The uncertainty due to the novel coronavirus has declined in spite of waves of attack persisting because the impact of new virus mutants of the virus is milder and there is also immunity due to vaccination. Countries are not implementing lockdowns so vigorously now, in turn reducing adverse economic impact.

However, China is an exception with its zero-COVID policy. It has been implementing strict lockdowns in the last six months, even when only a few cases of the disease have been detected. Since China is now the manufacturing hub of the world, any disruption impacts supplies globally and causes bottlenecks to persist.

There is another issue now. Monkeypox virus has suddenly emerged and spread rapidly in the last few months to more than 80 countries where it is not endemic. The World Health Organization seems to be confident that this threat can be dealt with more easily than COVID-19. Yet, there is heightened concern and uncertainty.

The Ukraine conflict

The war in Ukraine and western sanctions on Russia have caused huge uncertainty since February 2022 (when Russia invaded Ukraine) and displaced the disease-related uncertainty, i.e., COVID-19. The reason is that the war is a proxy war between two powerful capitalist blocs. Both are militarily and economically strong. While Russia has attacked Ukraine, the western powers are supplying arms to prolong the war and weaken Russia. Also, sanctions against Russia are being used to weaken it economically.

Neither side can afford to be seen to be losing. Thus, the conventional war may change to a different and more intense one. Thus, unless a solution is found soon, uncertainty will remain huge and possibly increase. There is needless continuing suffering of the people of Ukraine, with a bombardment of cities, and this could escalate.

The war and the sanctions have already affected the world economy and the Europeans in particular. The U.S. economy has entered technical recession with two quarters of GDP decline. Sri Lanka has been devastated and many other developing economies such as Pakistan and Nepal are in trouble. As supplies of critical items supplied by Russia and Ukraine have been hit, prices have soared. Europe, the United States and India have experienced or are experiencing high inflation.

The biggest disruption is in energy supplies from Russia, impacting production. The availability of food, fertilizers, metals, etc., have been hit as Ukraine and Russia are important sources. Thus, already prevalent high inflation due to the pandemic has been aggravated by the war and sanctions. Since the end of the war and sanctions are uncertain, these problems are likely to persist.

A new Cold war

Even if the war ends, a new Cold War between two big blocs has started, i.e., Russia and China on the one hand and the rich nations on the other. To weaken Russia, sanctions may be imposed on countries that carry out trade with it. Many Indian entities may face the heat since India has increased its imports from Russia, which undermines sanctions. China may also face sanctions since it has increased trade with Russia and is backing it. China has little option but to go with Russia since the western powers have been trying to isolate it, fearing its global rise.

In brief, the global economy would continue to be hit in the foreseeable future due to the war, sanctions and the new Cold war between two big economic blocs.

Data-related worries

As if the uncertainty from global factors was not bad enough, Indian policymakers also face data-related issues. It is not only available with a big lag on most macroeconomic variables but for many variables, data are either not available or has huge errors.

Policymakers rely on high frequency data to proxy for actual data. For example, very little data are available for quarterly GDP data which is used to calculate the growth rate of the economy. First, except for agriculture, unorganised sector data is not available. Second, for the organised sector, very limited data are available. Third, projections from the previous year or proxies are used — both these introduce errors when there are repeated shocks to the economy, such as the pandemic and now the war.

Price data too are problematic. The services sector is under-represented. Prices of many services have risen and expenditures on them have increased dramatically, thus changing their weight in the consumption basket. For instance, health and education expenditures went up during the pandemic. Also, the impact of the black economy has not been factored in.

Further, the consumer price index is common for the upper classes and the poor. The former consume a small proportion of their income, so they hardly feel the pinch of inflation. The poor consume almost their entire income and have no cushion to increase expenditures commensurate with price rise. Thus, they have to reduce their consumption. Earlier, there was a different index for various categories of people, which reflected the differential impact of inflation on people. This gave a truer picture of the economy and peoples’ distress.

The unorganised sector, which employs 94% of the workforce, has been hit hard by a decline in incomes and a rise in prices in the last few years. It does not have the bargaining power to get its wages increased as prices rise and, therefore, loses purchasing power. The data does not reflect this and the unorganised sector becomes ‘invisibilised’.

Policymakers using such faulty data invisibilise them. If the economy is growing at 7.5% and inflation is under the Reserve Bank of India’s tolerance level of 6%, then policymakers assume all is well. Nothing specific needs to be done for the unorganised sector. But projections go wrong (as has happened in recent times) when policymakers have predicted an economic turnaround and lower inflation. Even faulty official data does not bear this out.

Indian policymakers face the unenviable task of predicting the course of the economy for the next few months and even the year (or years) ahead because of the shocks and faulty and inadequate data. The problem is compounded by international factors. Will the war on Ukraine end soon? And if not, will it intensify? Will sanctions be withdrawn? How intense will the new Cold War be? All this makes projections of macrovariables — GDP, inflation, balance of payments, etc. — well nigh impossible and makes policymakers akin to a pilot navigating in dense fog with faulty equipment.

Arun Kumar was Professor of Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University,

New Delhi



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The problem of the process being the punishment, which is present in the criminal justice system, can be aggravated

Outcomes in matters of constitutional law disputes depend on the values that the constitutional court choose to emphasise over those it chooses to discount. The recent decision of the Supreme Court of India inVijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union Of India , where it found all the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 as amended from time to time (“PMLA”) as constitutional, is a case where the Supreme Court repeatedly relies on the legislative intent behind the PMLA to fight the menace of money laundering to trump all other considerations — in particular due process.

A necessary precondition

The PMLA is an Act that is meant to deal with prosecution and punishment for the offence of “money laundering”, which an accused commits when he has relation with any process or activity with the “proceeds of crime” and has projected or claimed such proceeds as untainted property. Thus, for the PMLA to come into action, there must have been another crime — independent of the PMLA — from which monies were derived. This other crime, which is a necessary precondition for an offence under the PMLA is described as the predicate offence.

Affecting fair legal process

The substratum of the challenge before the Court was that when the predicate offences (these can be various offences under regular penal law such as the Indian Penal Code 1860, the Prevention of Corruption Act, etc.) are governed by the regular criminal process, the major deviations from this procedure in the PMLA, which is only a consequential act, are manifestly arbitrary and in any event violative of various fundamental rights,inter alia Articles 14, 20 and 21.

The major deviations in the PMLA scheme, all of which operate to the detriment of the accused that were challenged were: non-supply of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) to the accused/arrested person; power to make any person (including existing or future accused) state the truth on oath even though it may amount to self-incrimination (Section 50); if the Public Prosecutor opposes bail, then the court can grant anticipatory/regular bail, only if the court has reason to believe that the accused is not guilty (Section 45); once a person is accused of committing the offence of money laundering, the burden of proving that proceeds of the crime are untainted property shall be on the accused (Section 24); blanket common and non-graded punishment for anyone associated with money laundering (Section 4).

It is not too difficult to imagine that these deviations from regular criminal law are capable of great mischief, and strike at the very core of what the Constitution envisages: a fair legal process to determine the criminal culpability of a person. A person under arrest, without knowing what is the primary case against him, being made to give self-incriminating statements under oath and then required to prove his own innocence at trial is hardly a criminal procedure that appears either just or fair. All this, when the Act which brings taint to the money, i.e. the original crime, continues to be governed by regular criminal law, where none of these draconian provisions applies.

And yet, the Supreme Court in finding these provisions as constitutional has repeatedly relied upon the legislative intent of the PMLA, which it describes as “a special mechanism to deal with the scourge of money laundering recognised the world over and with the need to deal with it sternly.” The Court even compared the intensity of money laundering with terrorism, while disagreeing with its earlier judgment, where the Court had made a distinction between the two.

The errors

This is a fundamental error for multiple reasons. One, legislative intent can be a beginning point of a constitutional analysis, i.e., whether the state has legitimate purpose in making a law. However, faced with a specific fundamental rights challenge to specific provisions of such a law, the use of legislative intent to sanctify the provisions as constitutional means that the Court has also treated legislative intent as the end point of its analysis.

Second, the overemphasis on the seriousness of money laundering is not borne out by the PMLA itself. The maximum punishment under the PMLA is 10 years imprisonment (Section 4). There are so many offences under regular penal law that are punishable with life imprisonment or even death, where none of these draconian provisions applies. Clearly, if in the eyes of the legislature, money laundering was as serious as these offences, the punishment prescribed would have been as severe. The incongruous situation is that a person who is accused of murdering for money, will have his murder trial (where he is punishable with death) with all the constitutional protections available, while in his trial for the money proceeds from the murder (where he can be imprisoned for maximum 10 years), he will be stripped of these constitutional protections.

Third, legislative intent is reflected by Parliament as part of its normal law-making power, whereas constitutional due process is incorporated in the Constitution itself and is meant to define the limits of parliamentary law, irrespective of its intent. The net effect of elevating legislative intent to such a high pedestal that it can bulldoze any constitutional argument/reasoning is that due process has been completely compromised in PMLA cases. The problem of the process being the punishment, which is anyway omnipresent in our criminal justice system, is likely to be aggravated in PMLA cases. The likelihood that many would face long incarceration as PMLA accused, even though eventually found innocent has just increased manifold. One can only hope that sometime in the not distant future the Court corrects the error.

Shadan Farasat is an advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India. The views expressed are personal



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The erosion of fiscal autonomy does not bode well for our federal structure and will thwart the growth of developed States

In a recent debate between Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Opposition MPs on price rise, Ms. Sitharaman said the States should do more, ignoring the fact that the reduced fiscal autonomy of the States gives them little leeway to do much. Similarly, the increasing reliance of the Union government on indirect taxes such as the GST has directly contributed to price rise and inequality. But despite reduced fiscal autonomy, States such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala have contained price rise and inflation through targeted interventions.

Growing inequality

Adam Smith had argued that taxation per se is not bad, but should follow the principles of fairness. Fairness, in taxation, should be compatible with taxpayers’ conditions, including their ability to pay in line with their personal and family needs. However, the Union government’s increasing dependence on indirect taxes has removed any ‘fairness’ in taxation. The share of indirect taxes of the gross tax revenue in FY2019 increased by up to 50% compared to 43% in FY2011. Compare this with the OECD countries, where indirect taxes on average do not contribute to more than 33% of their tax revenue. Indirect taxes are regressive because they tax both the rich and the poor equally.

The poor get taxed a higher proportion of their income compared to the rich. For example, Indians on average spend 22% of their income on fuel, the highest in the world. Also, Union tax on diesel has increased by 800% since 2014, which, after recent reductions, stands at 300%. While indirect taxes have increased, direct taxes such as corporate tax have been reduced from 35% to 22%, leading to a loss of about Rs. 2 lakh crore to the exchequer. This over-reliance on indirect taxes not only hinders growth by thwarting demand, but can also lead to high inflation and high inequality, which again inhibit growth.

The reason for high inflation in India lies in the extremely high CPI index for food (over 15% in the recent past). Instead of making efforts to lower food prices, the Union government, via GST, increased taxation on basic food items such as rice and milk.

It is not a mere coincidence that India’s increasing reliance on indirect taxes has coincided with rising inequality and lower growth. Over recent years, wealth has remained concentrated in the top echelons of society. According to the World Inequality Report 2022 report, the top 1% of India’s richest held 22% of the total national income as of 2021 and the top 10% owned 57% of the income. The report also showed that India is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Furthermore, the World Poverty Clock identifies India as home to the second highest number of extremely poor people.

Tamil Nadu’s performance

Inflation, and predominantly rural inflation, has touched double digits in some States. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been able to buck the trend of high inequality and inflation. To understand the low inflation rates in Tamil Nadu, one has to look at how inflation is calculated. Inflation is based on weighted average of components such as transport and food, which are given a weightage ranging from 6% to 10% basis points. Due to Tamil Nadu’s efficient Public Distribution System and welfare schemes such as free bus travel for women, inflation or price rise has been negated to a greater extent. Apart from low inflation, Tamil Nadu and Kerala also occupy a leading position on several socio-economic indicators such as graduate enrolment ratio and female participation in the labour force. This was possible because these States had a head start in launching socio-economic programmes. It is the state that mostly implements schemes and provides basic necessities to the citizens. It is therefore the state which can improve the lives of citizens.

But States require fiscal autonomy to implement these programmes. There has been a substantial erosion in Tamil Nadu’s fiscal autonomy in the last few years. While a developed State such as Tamil Nadu gets only 30 paisa in return for every rupee it contributes to the Union, States such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar get Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 for every rupee contributed. Arbitrary increases on cess and surcharge, which are non-divisible with States, have further reduced the individual States’ fiscal resources. The share of cesses and surcharges in the gross tax revenue of the Union government has nearly doubled between 2011-12 and 2020-21. Such continuous erosion of fiscal autonomy does not bode well for India’s federal structure and will only thwart the growth of developed States. The Union government should urgently initiate a course correction on its taxation policy and fiscal autonomy.

Salem Dharanidharan is the spokesperson of the DMK and executive coordinator of the Dravidian Professional Forum



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The Vice-President should forge better ties between the Opposition and the executive

Jagdeep Dhankhar will take oath as the 14th Vice-President of the country on Thursday, a day after the term of the incumbent Vice-President, M. Venkaiah Naidu, ends. As the candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he secured 528 votes of the 710 valid votes in the election held on Saturday. The Opposition candidate and Congress leader, Margaret Alva, got 182 votes, with the Trinamool Congress abstaining. Mr. Dhankhar’s election was a foregone conclusion, as the NDA had a clear majority in the electoral college, which was further reinforced by the support of the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). Mr. Dhankhar, a Jat leader from Rajasthan, has had stints in Delhi and the State, in the Janata Dal and the Congress, before he shifted to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2003. His appointment as the Governor of West Bengal catapulted him into the national limelight even as the BJP fought a pitched battle against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to take over the reins of the State. A lawyer by training, he never pulled his punches, and combined political rhetoric and legal reasoning in frequent run-ins with the West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC. He faced charges of partisanship, but it all ended with the TMC mending fences with him ahead of his election as Vice-President; it obliquely supported him by abstaining from the polls. The TMC accused the Congress of not consulting it on Ms. Alva’s nomination but that claim is unconvincing, and the entire episode has exposed the chinks in the Opposition armour. The help that he got from the TMC added a slice of intrigue to what was otherwise a predictable victory.

The Vice-President is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, a critical role anytime, and more so in the present situation of extreme hostility between the Government and the Opposition. Parliamentary proceedings have been continuously stalled, Members of Parliament have been suspended and there has been a complete breakdown of communication between the ruling BJP and the Opposition parties. The Government has repeatedly bypassed the Rajya Sabha in the making of critical laws by arbitrarily classifying pieces of legislation as money Bills. The question is now before the Supreme Court. As Vice-President, Mr. Dhankhar will be expected to facilitate better relations between the ruling party and the Opposition parties and uphold the majesty and the constitutional role of the House. It is not an easy task in the current scenario, but his initial moves will be eagerly awaited by everyone invested in parliamentary democracy. Mr. Dhankhar’s elevation as Vice-President will certainly help the BJP politically. His role as Chairman should be more to protect the Opposition’s space, debates and ensure accountability of the executive. The inauguration of the new Vice-President should renew hopes for parliamentary democracy.



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The SC has put unmarried women on an equal footing in availing abortion services

The most celebrated kind of court judgments are those that eliminate inherent bias vested in a law or rules framed by the government. The Supreme Court’s move last week to set right a rule that was ‘manifestly arbitrary and violative of women’s right to bodily dignity’ fits right into the concept of justice that is free, and without prejudice or favour to any person or group of people. Earlier, the apex court in its wisdom, facilitated the abortion (beyond 20 weeks) of a young unmarried woman whose partner parted ways after realising she was pregnant. Had the Court rested then, it might have meant relief for one woman who had to go all the way to the top court of the land in order to access what seven other categories of women would have been able to do without legal hassles. While the judgment could have been cited in support of other women in a similar situation, the law retained its flaw, and others would still have had to take the long legal route, and wait upon the discretion of individual judges. Utilising the full, expansive reach of its powers, the Supreme Court has decided to correct the anomaly. A Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and J.B. Pardiwala are considering pronouncing a judgment which would make access to medical abortion a level-playing field. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 and its Rules, 2003, prohibit unmarried women who are between 20 weeks and 24 weeks pregnant to terminate the pregnancy. The Court’s argument pierced at the heart of the iniquity in the law: if a married woman had access to abortion facilities during the same period, then why should an unmarried woman be prevented from using these services? Exhorting the Government to have a ‘forward-looking interpretation of the law’, the Bench pointed out that the rules mentioned ‘partner’ and not husband.

If the Supreme Court was feted for taking a liberal view of the law, its act of pushing the envelope further to set right existing anomalies in law is to be celebrated in full measure. At a time when the United States’ Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturningRoe vs Wade has drawn that nation back several decades on the abortion question, India’s apex court’s move stands out in sharp contrast. It is the surest example of the Court’s willingness to be modern and progressive, in order to remove antediluvian inconsistencies in existing laws. It is also in the full spirit of Article 14 of the Constitution that guarantees to all persons equality before the law and equal protection of laws. The law cannot cherry-pick beneficiaries, and if there is to be any justice at all, the antiquated principles on which old Acts were built, cannot continue to frustrate young women who claim autonomy of their own body.



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The party is aggressively projecting itself as a bankable alternative through a twin strategy

Keen on altering Tamil Nadu’s bipolar political landscape, which is dominated by the DMK and the AIADMK, the BJP is aggressively projecting itself as a bankable alternative through a twin strategy. Firstly, party State president K. Annamalai is laboriously trying to showcase the BJP as the main opposition party by frequently taking on the ruling DMK. Second, post its national executive meeting in Hyderabad last month, as part of ‘Mission South’, the BJP has begun groundwork to highlight Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “benevolence” towards Tamil Nadu.

After tasting marginal but noticeable success on the BJP’s own strength in February’s urban civic elections, Mr. Annamalai is leaving no stone unturned to expand the party’s base. He tours districts on most days, holds meetings with functionaries of the party’s numerous wings, and makes random stopovers to mingle with people of different sections. He also does not lose an opportunity to put the DMK on the defensive by levelling charges of irregularities in one department or the other. Irrespective of whether the charges have a substantial basis, State ministers have been forced to respond to them, keeping the subjects alive in the minds of the people. He is aided by an ecosystem that ensures that Tamil Nadu-level issues are escalated to a debating point on English television channels and reach intended Tamil households through social media.

The party has also put the State government on the back foot on certain issues by staging agitations. Three months ago, for instance, the government restrained local bodies from passing resolutions to rename streets/buildings. This was after the BJP protested against a proposal to rename a temple car street in Tiruvarur in memory of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who represented the Assembly constituency in his last two terms. The BJP has even sought to build a counter-narrative on the rising cost of fuel and domestic LPG cylinders by asking why the DMK government failed to cushion this price rise by fulfilling its electoral promises. The DMK in its manifesto had said it would reduce the price of petrol by Rs. 5 (the government reduced it by Rs. 3/litre last year), diesel by Rs. 4 and offer a subsidy of Rs. 100 per LPG cylinder.

Alongside this, Mr. Annamalai is carefully making himself central to the party’s growth. He is cultivating an image of an emerging youth political icon, with videos shared by the party showing him being mobbed by youngsters posing for selfies. He is also planning a year-long padayatra in 2023, to galvanise support.

Simultaneously, as part of the larger organisational plan, the party has assigned one Union Minister for every four Lok Sabha constituencies in preparation for the 2024 parliamentary elections. Union Minister of State V.K. Singh has made two trips to the constituencies allotted to him. Such trips by Central ministers will become frequent soon. The idea is to enlighten the BJP’s block and union-level functionaries about how the Modi government’s schemes have “benefited” the State. These functionaries will in turn take this to the people to counter the campaign of the DMK and its allies that the Union government is “anti-Tamil Nadu”. Whether or not such an outreach translates into votes in the long run, the party wants to have an image of not being antagonistic towards the State.

If the BJP is able to manoeuvre for an alternative space, it is partially thanks to the AIADMK’s inadequate vigour to retrieve lost ground and the absence of credible and serious third players. It is early to predict if the BJP would gamble heading an alternative front or go it alone in the 2024 polls. However, should it align with the AIADMK, its groundwork is certain to give it a greater leverage in seat sharing negotiations than in 2019.

sureshkumar.d@thehindu.co.in



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New Delhi, Aug. 5: The honour of a Minister was partly vindicated, the right of press correspondents to make fair interpretation of proceedings was upheld and members’ sense of good humour ultimately prevailed in the Lok Sabha to-day with the tactful handling by the Speaker of a Congress member who was upset over Friday’s proceedings and the newspaper reports of it the next day. The Congress member, Mr. N.K.P. Salve, wanted to know whether the Speaker had really rebuked the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Raj Bahadur, as made out by a certain newspaper report. He also wanted Mr. Hiren Mukherjee (CPI) to explain what he meant by calling Mr. Raj Bahadur “a cipher”. The Speaker, Mr. Dhillon, said that he had only stated that he wished the Minister had defended him while he was under attack on an earlier day instead of expressing sympathy the day after. He had not rebuked Mr. Raj Bahadur. He would not however be too concerned about what the newspaper account said. Mr. Mukherjee was less obliging. While he was prepared to give “a good chit” to the Minister by saying that he knew him for 29 years to be a pleasant and competent person, he stood by the record of what he had said on Friday.Some members objected to the demand that Mr. Mukherjee should explain the words he had used and Mr. Piloo Mody (Swat.) said the Minister was “not just a cipher but a double cipher”.



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PM Modi, who was speaking at Niti Aayog's governing council meeting, acknowledged the “crucial role” played by the states in the country's fight against the pandemic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment on Sunday that the country’s federal structure, shaped by the principle of cooperative federalism, had emerged as a “model for the world” came amid the opening up of new areas of contestation between the Centre and states. PM Modi, who was speaking at Niti Aayog’s governing council meeting, also acknowledged the “crucial role” played by the states in the country’s fight against the pandemic, giving credit to state governments for the grass roots delivery of public services. While the ruling dispensation repeatedly declares its commitment to cooperative federalism, it is hard to dispute the notion that increasing political centralisation over the years has widened and deepened the faultlines in Centre-state relations. The manner in which the PM’s recent comments over subsidies framed the debate — juxtaposing the Centre’s model of “new welfarism” against “freebies” given by states — illustrates the deepening of fissures.

There is an element of half-truth in the government’s assertions. Take, for instance, the Covid vaccination programme. During the early days of the second wave of the pandemic, the Centre shifted the onus of procurement and distribution of vaccines onto the states. It was only after much criticism, and a nudge from the Supreme Court, that the central government reversed its earlier decision. Similarly, during the early days of the pandemic, there was considerable disagreement between the Centre and the states on GST compensation — the issue remains a sore point between the two. It was only after considerable pushback from the states that the Centre relented, borrowing to ensure that the promise made to states to protect their revenues was kept.

At the same time, it is also true that on several, critical economic policy issues, despite much prodding by the Centre, states have stuck to status quoist positions. For instance, over the years, the Centre has not only helped ease the financial stress on state-owned power distribution companies, but has also repeatedly incentivised states to fix the mess in the distribution segment, to turn around the financial and operational position of discoms. However, across states, not much headway has been made. Similarly, on various other critical reform areas which lie in the domain of the states, labour reforms for instance, progress has been glacial. And on GST, notwithstanding public posturing for political gains, all decisions are taken by the Council where states can openly voice their concerns, and put forth their demands. States, when making other demands on the Centre, such as a legal guarantee for minimum support prices, must also realise their fiscal implications and consequences for the larger economy. Be that as it may, at this critical juncture in Centre-state relations, it is incumbent upon both to widen spaces for dialogue and negotiation.



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According to research published in the BMJ, about 5 per cent of adults infected by the Coronavirus could develop long-term changes to not just their sense of smell, but also taste, as the two are linked.

A world without smells — the delicious as well as the not-so-pleasant — would be a poorer world. Just ask one of the millions who have developed anosmia (loss of smell) after being infected by Covid-19. According to research published in the BMJ last month, about 5 per cent of adults infected by the Coronavirus could develop long-term changes to not just their sense of smell, but also taste, as the two are linked. This means that about 15 million people around the world could have an impaired sense of smell and about 12 million a diminished sense of taste for at least six months after infection.

How drastically different would one’s experience of the world be if one couldn’t, for example, smell hot-off-the-griddle rotis or freshly-brewed coffee or a perfectly ripe mango? There are, of course, the obvious dangers of not being able to smell something like a gas leak or taste food that is rotting. But anosmia and ageusia (inability to taste) can also be mentally devastating because these senses are wired to the brain’s ability to form and retain memories — best captured in Marcel Proust’s famous depiction of a lifetime of recollections being triggered by the taste of a madeleine.

On the face of it, the inability to smell or taste wouldn’t seem as big a deal as, say, the loss of hearing or sight or the absence of a limb. These are losses that are “invisible” until one is afflicted by them, which is why they have always been poorly understood. However, during the last two years, with anosmia and ageusia being important symptoms of Covid-19, the lacuna in medical knowledge is being addressed, with welcome calls for health professionals to pay attention to their psychological devastation.



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The SSLV-DI was touted as a competition to small satellite launchers developed by US-based private companies such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab.

At about 9 am on Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, SSLV-DI, had taken off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. However, after doing everything right on its maiden flight, the launcher faltered at the last step by placing the satellites it was carrying in the wrong orbit. The snag is a setback to ISRO’s attempt to showcase its capacity in a field of research that’s rapidly changing the face of space technology — the miniaturisation of satellites has enabled the entry of small players in an industry once dominated by large enterprises and state agencies like NASA. The SSLV-DI was touted as a competition to small satellite launchers developed by US-based private companies such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab.

Small satellites — weighing between 5 and 1,000 kg — can be assembled at a fraction of the cost of regular satellites. They can be put together as swiftly as 72 hours by substantially smaller teams. The global small sat market is expected to grow four times, to $13 billion, by 2030 with small businesses, government agencies, universities, even individual laboratories, entering the fray — in fact, SSLV-DI was carrying an 8-kg satellite made by 750 school girls to celebrate 75 years of the country’s independence. These satellites have utilities in fields as diverse as earth sciences, surveillance, telephony, healthcare, energy and smart power grids. But in most parts of the world, these satellites have to rely on rockets designed for bigger satellites. The constraints of such piggyback rides are beginning to show. In a good year, ISRO launches about five or six satellites. Compare that to the 143 small sats launched by a SpaceX rocket last year. The SSLV programme is expected to drastically increase ISRO’s launch rate. It’s also a lucrative business opportunity for the space research organisation.

Rocket launches have not always been smooth sailing for ISRO. The agency took seven years to perfect the ASLV (augmented satellite launch vehicle). Its third generation PSLV (polar satellite launch vehicle) had a difficult debut in 1993, but the snag was resolved in less than a year. The PSLV suffered another partial failure in 1995, which too was swiftly addressed. This ability to correct mistakes offers hope after Sunday’s disappointment. But given the competition from commercial players and the dynamic nature of the market, research on SSLVs will have to be conducted on far shorter timelines compared to ISRO’s earlier endeavours. The space agency’s work will be keenly watched.



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Vinay Sahasrabuddhe writes: When it comes to bills, on several occasions, Opposition members argue vehemently that for better scrutiny the bill is sent to the relevant standing committee.

Towards the end of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, it was heartening to see deliberations in both Houses on important issues as well as key bills. However, it wouldn’t be wrong to question the “disrupt-and-devour-attention” drama during much of the session. The inability of Parliament to transact any business and the lack of serious deliberation must be a matter of grave concern for all. In a deliberative democracy, Parliament works as a special purpose vehicle for the legislative scrutiny of bills, grievance redressal and debate on policies and related governance issues. Its failure to transact business is a sad commentary on three aspects — Members of Parliament, the presiding officers as well as the rules and regulations that define the functioning of both Houses.

Let’s start with the first. For any parliamentarian, it is extremely disappointing to be unable to speak in the House for which he or she has — in most cases —given notice and come prepared. And when this happens too often, their enthusiasm evaporates. This reflects in the quality of interventions as a majority of them, as observed often, bring precious little to the table. In such a situation, members are often tempted to make a popular intervention than a substantive one. Such interventions often appear as formulaic speeches heard in university-level elocution competitions. An adequate amount of fire, a bit of humour, some poetry, some emotional appeal and one or two philosophical quotations – it’s all mostly ornamental. This certainly impacts the quality of debates negatively.

When it comes to bills, on several occasions, Opposition members argue vehemently that for better scrutiny the bill is sent to the relevant standing committee. However, a close look at the percentage of members attending the meetings of these committees —their duration, quality of deliberations and also the outcomes — makes one doubt the sincerity behind their demands. Sadly, all this amounts to noise creation rather than any sincere desire to scrutinise the bills.

For the presiding officers too, preventing disruptions is a serious challenge. One way of dealing with the issue is to reform and strengthen the system in such a way that the designs of those who are out to disrupt fail. Perhaps presiding officers can emulate the courts of law. Like in courts, can’t the presiding officers conduct what is called in-camera proceedings in their chambers to insulate at least the Zero Hour and Question Hour from getting washed out? This may help save at least these two most precious instruments. While the House remains force-adjourned, presiding officers can order in-camera hearing of questions of MPs and replies of ministers. Zero Hour submissions could also be dealt with similarly. Some tweaking of existing rules and regulations may facilitate this. The current practice of sacrificing Zero Hour and Question Hour at the altar of rule breakers smacks of perversion of the worst kind. In-camera conduct of Zero and Question Hours will be a smart way to prevent punishing those who observe discipline.

In any polity, systems work effectively when wrongdoers are punished and rule-abiding people are rewarded. What happens currently is exactly the opposite, especially in the context of coverage of parliamentary proceedings in mainstream media. Firstly—perhaps as a consequence of the depleting interest of readers— the space allocated for parliamentary proceedings in both, print and electronic media is shrinking fast. Rarely does one finds adequate coverage of Question Hour or Zero Hour compared to the past. Debates on bills are also subject to brief and sketchy reporting. What grabs headlines is the politics of pandemonium. Although disruptions have become common, they continue to get reported without fail and disruptors often bask in the media limelight. As against this, those who make a reasonably good speech — well argued and supported by statistics, examples or case studies — rarely get adequate attention. This too hampers the interest of parliamentarians.

Last but not least, any discussion on the politics of pandemonium often ends up in whataboutery. However, it is high time we rise above the temptations of this tendency and think seriously about systemic reforms. As the Parliament of independent India enters the eighth decade of its history and prepares to enter a new, more well-equipped and modern Parliament House, it is the right time to think about how we can add value to our deliberative democracy.

The writer is MP, Rajya Sabha and former national vice-president of the BJP



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Dinesh Thakur, Prashant Reddy T write: It serves the interests of the pharma industry, not public health

Last month, the Union Ministry for Health & Family Welfare published a new Bill to replace the colonial-era Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940. This proposed Bill was written by a drafting committee of eight bureaucrats headed by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and included a senior bureaucrat who has since been arrested on suspicion of corruption.

While most of the new Bill is a copy of the old legislation, some of the proposed revisions treat drug quality as a divisible concept, wherein it is presumed that a drug will work even if it fails on certain quality parameters. Either a drug passes all quality standards laid down by a government body called the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), which publishes the standards in a publication called the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP), or else the drug fails in treating patients.

Historically, since 1940, drugs failing quality testing in accordance with standards published in the IP have been declared Not of Standard Quality (NSQ), making the manufacturer liable for minimum imprisonment of one year and maximum imprisonment of two years and a fine of Rs 20,000 with special exceptions. The rationale for criminal punishment in cases of drug quality is simple: Unlike other products, quality issues in the manufacture of drugs have direct implications on the health of citizens.

The new approach proposed by the government can be described as a chalta hai approach to regulation, aimed at accommodating the pharmaceutical industry’s demand to “decriminalise” some of the offences under the existing law. Section 56(e) of the new Bill proposes lowering punishments for drugs that have been declared NSQ due to any of the 43 defects listed in the fourth schedule of the Bill. For such defects, manufacturers are liable for lower imprisonment of one year and a fine of Rs two lakh, while for defects that do not fall within the fourth schedule, the manufacturer is liable for a higher punishment of up to two years imprisonment and a fine of Rs five lakh.

The lower punishments for fourth schedule defects, however, hide the true intent of the law, which can be found in section 71. This provision, which is basically the icing on the cake for the pharmaceutical industry, allows for the compounding of a class of offences including those defects in the fourth schedule. “Compounding” means the prosecuting drug controller has the discretion to waive a trial and prison time as long as the accused pharmaceutical company agrees to pay the fine. In effect, the industry has achieved its goal of “decriminalisation”. The cherry on top of the icing is section 58 of the Bill, which gives the government the power to expand the list of exceptions in the fourth schedule. Given the political might of the pharmaceutical industry, it will most definitely succeed in forcing the government to expand beyond the current 43 exceptions. The pharma industry’s best lobbyist could not have done better than the drafting committee in delivering to the industry its dream law.

In our opinion, there is no valid science guiding the inclusion of 43 defects in the fourth schedule. Take for example the amount of active ingredient in a drug. The IP allows a drug to be declared of standard quality as long as the amount of active ingredient is between 90 per cent to 110 per cent of that advertised on the label. However, entry 4 of the fourth schedule now states that as long as the drug contains at least 70 per cent of the advertised amount, the manufacturer will be subject to lower punishments. This makes no sense because any drug that has only 70 per cent of the active ingredient can result in adverse treatment outcomes. For example, if in a strip of 10 antibiotic tablets each tablet has only 70 mg of active ingredient instead of the 100 mg of active ingredient as listed on the label, at the end of a 10-day course of treatment, the patient would have received only 700 mg of the antibiotic instead of the 1,000 mg that the doctor prescribed. Not only would the patient not recover completely from the infection, but chances are she is now a carrier of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The treatment outcomes will be several times worse in the case of drugs like Levothyroxine or Budeprion, which have “narrow therapeutic index” (NTI), where even minor changes in the dosage can lead to a significant difference in treatment outcomes.

Other defects included in the fourth schedule are the presence of “particulate contamination/foreign matter” and “heavy metals”. Thus, even if a drug is found to be contaminated with glass particles, fungus or heavy metals, the manufacturer will get reduced or no prison time.

In our opinion, there is no moral or scientific case to justify treating some manufacturing defects more seriously than others when the standard setting body — the IPC — is very clear on the scientific requirements for a drug to be declared of standard quality.

The larger takeaway from this episode is that much of India’s drug regulatory apparatus continues to serve the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and not public health. In 2012, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health had levelled this same charge against the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, which is headed by the DCGI. That this romance between the regulator and the industry has crept into the law-making process is cause to junk this version of a Bill.

Thakur was the whistleblower in the Ranbaxy case and Reddy is a lawyer who specialises in drug regulation



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M Venkaiah Naidu writes: It is our moral responsibility to collectively put our shoulders to the wheel and devote ourselves to the overarching ideal of building the vibrant, prosperous and egalitarian India of our freedom fighters’ dreams

On August 8, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi launched the historic Quit India movement. Gandhiji’s clarion call of “Do or Die” in his celebrated Quit India speech at the Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay, lent a sense of urgency to the growing upsurge against British rule, with the entire nation standing as one. The collective will of the Indian people, driven by a zeal to govern themselves and shape their future, found expression in the momentous events that followed, leading inevitably to the freedom of the country on August 15, 1947. Eighty years after Gandhiji’s call of Quit India, as India celebrates 75 years of Independence under the defining rubric of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, let us pause to reflect on our accomplishments, take pride in the milestones we have achieved and ponder on ways to tackle squarely the many challenges that we still need to overcome.

It is pertinent to recall that in weaponising ahimsa or non-violence to resist the colonial tyranny of the British, and making it one of the cornerstones of the freedom struggle along with civil disobedience, Gandhiji gave a moral philosophy to the masses and galvanised them. The significance of the mantra of ahimsa lies in the fact that it is rooted in the cultural and civilisational ethos of our great nation. Importantly, during our freedom movement, slogans like “Vande Mataram”, “Jai Hind”, “Inquilab Zindabad” or powerful symbols like charkha, rakhi, salt or khadi acted as a binding force for the masses. The Father of the Nation was ably supported by a galaxy of eminent leaders and thousands of less-known freedom fighters, who valiantly fought for India’s Independence, including many who selflessly sacrificed their lives for the larger cause, bound by the principle of non-violence. It was indeed an unparalleled phenomenon in the annals of human history.

India’s brush with invaders who looted, plundered, pillaged and left a trail of destruction across the country and scheming colonisers, who enslaved it using the philosophy of divide and rule, is a saga of disunity and passive resistance. Of course, there were glowing exceptions such as Prithviraj Chauhan, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Alluri Seetarama Raju, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Lachit Borphukan and Rani Abbakka, among others. However, as history tells us, these tales of courage, grit and patriotic zeal, were localised and few and far between. Nevertheless, neither the invaders nor the subsequent colonisers, both of whom tried to strike at the roots of India’s ancient culture by employing diverse means, could sever the thread of cultural and civilisational continuity that binds our great nation.

In the 75 years of its journey as a free nation, India has notched up a vast array of impressive achievements. We need to draw inspiration from our long-drawn freedom struggle, which was a journey of resilience and hope. It is a journey that continues to motivate us to keep setting higher benchmarks in all spheres of human endeavour and stay focused in times of adversity. We have a large pool of human resources, among the most talented in the world. Therefore, India needs to leverage its demographic dividend in order to realise its full potential in terms of economic, scientific, technological and human resource development.

On this historic occasion, let us take a moment to look at the challenges we are beset with and need to overcome. Our hard-earned Swaraj must translate into Suraj at the grass roots and the maladies of poverty, illiteracy, gender discrimination, corruption and inequalities of all hues must be stamped out. Good and fair governance holds the key to development if we are to build a truly egalitarian society rid of all inequities.

Ancient Indian civilisation was one whose cultural ethos was permeated with the idea of equality, unity and inclusivity. Guided by a spirit of nationalism, we simply have to turn to our ancestors to build a strong, vibrant nation.

Universal and affordable access to quality education and healthcare must be the focus of our attention. Rural India cannot be left behind in this mission. Improving rural infrastructure across the country must be fast-tracked and integrated into the larger development narrative. Promotion of the mother tongue will revolutionise the educational landscape by making it more inclusive and equitable. With his unbounded greed, man has caused irreversible damage to the environment. Today, climate change is a global phenomenon. Conservation is our only hope for the survival of the planet and we must direct our collective energies toward this end with missionary zeal. Our scriptures mirror the cosmic vision of our ancient culture. They are replete with examples of the worship of the divine in the elements — rivers, mountains, holy plants and trees. We only have to go back to our moorings to draw inspiration and strive to secure the future of succeeding generations. In other words, we need to preserve nature and protect our culture for a bright future.

An overpowering, transcendent emotion of love for Bharat Mata binds us all when we recount the glorious phases of our freedom movement. Duty impels us to revisit our rich past by informing ourselves of the contribution made by our great freedom fighters to liberate the country from oppressive and exploitative colonial rule. This is an occasion for us to recall the sacrifices made by many of our iconic as well as less-known freedom fighters to realise their common dream of a free India. It is our moral responsibility to collectively put our shoulders to the wheel and devote ourselves to the overarching ideal of building a vibrant, prosperous and egalitarian India of their dreams.

The writer is Vice-President of India



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Nihal Koshie writes: India's performance in the “mother of all sports” is cause for celebration. But sports administration needs to listen to athletes, double down to build on their performances.

Eight medals in track and field — the highest tally at a Commonwealth Games held outside the country — have left fans and sports administrators dizzy with glee. Busy keypads have launched a social media blitz on the medal rush. The number of medals in Birmingham does tell a story.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi yielded 12 medals but a doping scandal less than a year later involving the high-profile women’s 4x400m relay team took away the sheen. In the next two editions of the CWG, the medal tally was a combined six.

In Gold Coast four years ago, India won just three medals — javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s gold, and a silver and bronze from discus throwers Seema Antil and Navjeet Dhillon. At the Asian Games in the same year, athletes returned with 20 medals. Medals in athletics, known as the mother of all sports, are harder to win at the CWG. The top five nations on the track and field medal tally in Birmingham — Jamaica, Australia, England, Nigeria, Kenya — are not at the Asian Games. So, celebrations are in order.

The spread of medals in Birmingham is historic. Avinash Sable’s silver in the 3,000-metre steeplechase was the first-ever by an Indian and so was Tejaswin Shankar’s bronze in the high jump. Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker’s 1-2 in the men’s triple jump is unprecedented. To find a medal winner in the men’s long jump before Murali Sreeshankar’s silver, one has to go back to 1978, the year Suresh Babu won a bronze in Edmonton. By finishing third, Annu Rani became the first Indian woman to win a medal in the javelin throw at the CWG. Though the medals of Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar in the 10,000-metre race walk were in a non-Olympic category, they can use them as a stepping stone.

What also stood out in the headline-grabbing medal wins was the fighting spirit. Athletes from India are known to develop frayed nerves at big events save for a few like Chopra.

Sable proved that Indian athletes are no longer pushovers in the heat of battle when he took on a famed trio of Kenyans, left two of them in his wake and pushed a former junior African great to the limit on the home stretch to narrowly miss out on a gold. Amazingly, he is the first non-Kenyan to win a medal in the 3,000m steeplechase at the CWG in over two decades.

High jumper Shankar should have been given a medal for just turning up at the Games. He had to approach a court in Delhi to get the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to push for his inclusion with the organisers. The AFI had not selected Shankar despite him meeting qualification standards in the well-established National Collegiate Athletic Association. Shankar shut out the noise to finish on the podium. He is just 23 and his lack of rancour at the officials who made his life hell before the Games says the mature head on his shoulders can deal with adversity.

Triple jumper Paul’s journey to the top of the podium has been paved with hurdles. He wasn’t the best triple jumper in his college and missed out on a sports scholarship. He is short for a triple jumper but makes up for it with explosive power, speed, and a big heart, which was on display the other day.

Well outside the medal bracket after the first two rounds, Paul broke the 17-metre barrier for the first time in his third jump to clinch the gold and edge out Aboobacker, who was equally impressive, by just a centimetre.

In the days to come, the achievements of these athletes will be celebrated, prize money cheques will be handed out and they will appear in selfies clicked by ministers and celebrities. Deservedly so. But the decision-makers also need to continue to listen carefully to athletes’ feedback.

Sable and Paul have both spoken about the need to train abroad regularly and more opportunities to compete against the best in the world. While running in a Diamond League race recently Sable, who is head and shoulders above the rest in India, closely observed how top athletes pace a race and learnt how not to get boxed-in on the track. Paul picked up nuances from the warm-up routines of medal winners at the last month’s World Championships. Support in terms of funds, equipment, sports medicine, foreign coaches, and overseas training has improved and there is less red-tapism, but this is a good time for the Sports Authority of India, sports ministry and athletics federation to double down. The doping menace in the country needs a strong action plan, which can’t be just on paper.

Also athletes, officials, ministers and fans should not get carried away post-CWG. Medals at what used to be called the Empires Games are not a yardstick to predict the number of podium finishers at the World Championships next year or the Paris Olympics in 2024.

There is a reason why Neeraj Chopra is India’s only track and field medalist at the Olympics. Chopra is an inspiration for CWG medal winners, now they need to emulate him.

(The author can be reached at nihal.koshie@expressindia.com)



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Yamini Aiyar writes: This discussion hesitates to seriously engage with politics. And that is the problem.

In recent weeks, several arms of our polity have expressed concern over the culture of “freebies” in electoral politics. The prime minister, in a thinly disguised attempt to delegitimise welfare announcements by political opponents, has called for an end to the “revdi” culture. The Reserve Bank of India, in a report published in June, linked the precarious state of state finances to “freebies”, particularly power subsidies, and last week, the Supreme Court, waded into the debate, recommending the creation of an expert body to examine the matter.

In response, an important, although not new, debate has unfolded, including in these pages, on what constitutes good and bad freebies, their economic rationale and fiscal consequences. But this discussion hesitates to seriously engage with politics. Ultimately, the determination of what is a good or bad freebie is and always will be a political choice. A constructive debate must necessarily locate itself in the underlying political, economic and institutional context in which these so-called freebies are a feature of our electoral politics.

This is important because the terms of the current debate, as framed by the highest offices of this country, effectively delegitimise a democratically forged political bargain. The prime minister invoked the “revdi culture” to alert young voters of a “dangerous” political development that is trying to “buy the people by distributing freebies to them”. In the Public Interest Litigation filed in the Supreme Court, the petitioner has argued that “irrational freebies… is analogous to bribery”. This view was echoed by the Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, in his submission to the Supreme Court, who argued that “populist freebies distort the informed decision-making of the voter”. The problem with this framing is that it commodifies the electoral process and strips voters of their agency. Voters, in this framing, are passive, unsophisticated actors who can be bought and therefore there is a need to be vigilant.

The honourable court had gone a step further, arguing for an expert, independent body, rather than Parliament, to tackle the issue. This is judicial overreach of the worst kind. It privileges “experts” over legitimate democratic negotiation and strikes at the core of the political bargain. Is it really for the judiciary or even an expert body to intervene in choices made between voters and their elected representatives? In fact, experts, who are essentially urban elites, have long been sceptical of all kinds of welfare and redistribution. For decades, seminar rooms and elite power corridors have derided critical welfare investments like the PDS and MGNREGA, arguing that these are freebies that encourage corruption. It is the power of politics that preserved these schemes, which saved this country in the peak of the pandemic. Politics is central to welfare, not experts.

That said, in a democracy, political choices can and must be questioned. In that spirit, a debate on the merits and demerits of freebies is important but this debate cannot be divorced from the economic context. The truth is that the prevalence of “freebie politics” is really an indictment of our economic policy and the abject failure to build a welfare state that invests in human capital.

India’s structural transformation, particularly since 1991, has been slow and unique. Despite abundant low-skilled labour, our growth trajectory has mostly skipped manufacturing, growing instead on the back of a far smaller, high-skilled services sector. Consequently, as economist Amit Basole has shown in an important new paper, the bulk of jobs our economy generated even in its peak growth years were in the largely informal, low value add construction sector.

The distributional consequences of this have been significant. Under-employment and low inter-generational mobility have been persistent features of the Indian economy resulting in deep inequalities. Most of India continues to live in extremely precarious economic conditions with limited opportunity. Growth lifted a large population out of poverty. However, as the World Bank data show, most of those (40 per cent of the population) who escaped poverty between 2005-2012 moved into what they call the vulnerable group — one income shock away from falling below the poverty line.

Somewhat reassuringly, democracy created pressure on our politics to respond to these economic failures. It is in this context that the demand for so-called freebies has found legitimate place in our democracy. This is not about voters being “bought out” but voters placing democratic pressure on politics to respond to their needs.

The challenge lies in the nature of response. It has been neither robust nor enough and, in its current form, is unlikely to create genuine economic opportunity. While democratic pressures led to the halting creation of limited social protection in the form of PDS and MGNREGA, they did not translate into investments in core public and merit goods — health and education being the most critical — which have remained in stasis as has our weak state capacity to deliver growth to the poor.

It is these accumulated failures that have created the new political logic that we confront today. A logic where welfare freebies are being offered to compensate citizens for what economic growth has failed to do. The welfare state today has transitioned into what economist Rathin Roy has evocatively called a “compensatory state”. It is this compensatory logic that is driving the tantalising range of political announcements from free power, myriad cash transfers and indeed the new welfarism of the Modi government — the public provision of private goods like housing, sanitation and gas cylinders. But these announcements are not embedded in a complementary economic framework for broad-based economic participation of all. The collective silence of all governments on the scarcity of jobs is an important illustration of this compensatory state.

None of this is to say that the fiscal realities that are worrying the Reserve Bank of India should be ignored. However, the answer does not lie in rapping state governments on the knuckles for being profligate. It lies in building a renewed democratic consensus on our economic and institutional growth path. Above all, it requires recognising that the freebies concerning our polity today are not a symptom of failed politics and vulnerable voters. They are about a limited economic imagination and vulnerable livelihoods.



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Neetika Vishwanath writes: Political discourse on complex issue of sexual violence against women and children is unnuanced, prioritises rhetoric over evidence-based engagement.

At a press conference last week in Delhi, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot criticised the legislative expansion of the death penalty for sexual offences, holding the Centre responsible for encouraging sexual offenders to kill the victims after raping them in an attempt to destroy evidence and avoid prosecution. Gehlot made an overarching claim about this “dangerous” trend playing out nationally. Empirical evidence, however, doesn’t support his contention. Inevitably, he has invited sharp criticism from political opponents, many of whom have called out the Rajasthan CM for his failure to address sexual violence in the state. The chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Swati Maliwal, has strongly reiterated her support for the death penalty for rape. Unfortunately, both Gehlot’s comment and the backlash to it expose the dodgy state of political discourse on sexual violence against women and children.

The gang rape and murder on December 16, 2012 led to a public clamour for imposing the death penalty on rapists. In response, the government constituted a three-member committee headed by Justice J S Verma. The Committee invited suggestions from women’s groups across the country on various issues relating to sexual violence against women, including the question of punishment. Women’s groups overwhelmingly opposed the death penalty for rape. In fact, many of them shared the concern that introducing the death penalty for rape may lead perpetrators to kill their victims in an attempt to destroy evidence. Consequently, the Verma Committee did not recommend legislating the death penalty for sexual offences. Despite the Committee’s clear position against the death penalty, based on well-founded arguments, it was first introduced for non-homicidal sexual offences (repeat sexual offending and rape leading to permanent vegetative state) through the Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLA) 2013. Ever since, India has seen a consistent legislative expansion of harsher sentences for sexual violence, including the introduction of the death penalty as a possible punishment for non-homicidal child rape. Contrary to the feminist analyses which see sexual violence as an outcome of deep-rooted structural inequalities, the punitive legislative approach locates such violence in an ahistorical framework. Curbing something as pervasive as sexual violence goes well beyond the realm of criminal law. It is, therefore, not surprising that many recommendations of the J S Verma Committee on preventing sexual violence had little do with legal changes.

Gehlot’s is not a stray comment. A lot of the political conversation and law-making on sexual violence is rooted in speculative and fallacious beliefs. A recent example is the introduction of the death penalty for child rapists despite the overwhelming evidence from CCL-NLSIU studies that it will deter children and their families from reporting sexual abuse by family members and relatives. The parliamentary discussions in the lead-up to the amendment also reveal the complete lack of understanding that nearly 95 per cent of the perpetrators are persons well known to the victims. Notably, a study of rape trials adjudicated before and after the legislation of CLA 2013 in Delhi revealed that the introduction of harsher sentences through CLA 2013 had led to a reduced rate of conviction in rape cases.

Therefore, Gehlot’s comments do not reflect a deep understanding of the issue. There are many empirically tenable pro-victim arguments against harsher sentences, particularly the death penalty for sexual violence. Besides, the legislative expansion of harsher sentences including the death penalty for non-homicidal sexual offences is not something unique to the present government. As previously stated, it began with CLA 2013.

The criticism of Gehlot’s comments from his political opponents, however, is equally devoid of substance. The Rajasthan CM has been criticised for his inability to curb increasing instances of sexual violence in the state. Rajasthan has been described as the “centre of atrocities against young girls.” This allegation is not backed by evidence. Crime statistics compiled by the National Crimes Records Bureau, the only official data released by the Indian state, were last published for the year 2020. Besides, the NCRB only collects data through police complaints without any inquiry into the nature of cases. Given the immense empirical evidence demonstrating the criminalisation of adolescent sexuality by registering elopement cases as abduction and rape complaints, statistics on sexual violence need a deeper look. My own ethnographic study of rape trials in 2015 in Lucknow, published in the Indian Journal of Gender Studies, revealed that over 50 per cent of the trials were elopement cases where the women’s parents used the rape law to restrict their sexual autonomy and prosecute their partners. Research in other parts of the country has yielded similar findings. Despite the repeated calls from women and child rights activists to focus on governance reforms, the Centre has opted for punitive measures. Research documenting the experience of rape victims demonstrates that the gaps in the criminal legal system need to be fixed at the stages of reporting, investigation and forensic examination. Moreover, victim support mechanisms are, by and large, absent. Calling out Gehlot for his government’s failure in preventing sexual violence in Rajasthan will serve no purpose.

That the death penalty for non-homicidal rape may push perpetrators to kill their victims has been a longstanding concern of women’s groups in India. Construing all opposition to the death penalty for rapists as an anti-victim stance dismisses the rigorous research and groundwork of various child and women’s rights activists and prioritises vengeance as the only legitimate response to rape. This may not always coincide with a victim’s idea of justice.

It is difficult to be not reactive to what comes across as a disingenuous comment from Gehlot. We may even feel the urge to take sides. But doing this will only take one away from the nuance that is necessary for any conversation on an issue as pervasive and complex as sexual violence.

(The writer is with Project 39A at National Law University, Delhi)



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The 40 days that it took for chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to deliver cabinet expansion to Maharashtra suggest how thorny their balancing act has been. That the 18 ministers sworn in today include nine each from the two camps, despite the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena only having 50 members as compared to BJP’s 106, counts for a win for him.

Many were surprised when he was named chief minister in the first place, instead of Fadnavis. And now this is another show of strength. It is true that he has a harder task keeping his flock in line compared to BJP, where party discipline prevails. Almost all the 50 legislators from his camp have reportedly jostled for induction into the cabinet.

Still as far as the contest with Uddhav Thackeray over the Shiv Sena rank and file and shakhas is concerned, Shinde now has additional muscle. It remains to be seen whether his camp has won some of the weightier portfolios as well. From the point of view of Maharashtrian aam admi and aurat the more important thing is whether the two camps are able to run the government in tandem – or go the way of Bihar where BJP and JD(U) leaderships seemed to spend more time undercutting each other than the opposition.



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Most Indians had never heard of lawn bowls, India certainly had never won in it. Now, our women’s team has delivered a gold and the men’s team a silver, and this is just one of the many welcome firsts for the country at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Our athletes have medalled in a striking diversity of events. How does the performance compare to the 2010 Games, which we hosted and where our athletes really took a big leap forward? An apples-to-apples analysis by this newspaper, which filters out events knocked out since 2010 plus those that didn’t exist then, shows that this has actually been India’s best ever CWG showing.

But coming up next year are the Asian Games, which China will be hosting for the third time, and Indians will find the competition much tougher there, especially in our big medal-delivering disciplines like wrestling, boxing and badminton. So, it is very important to analyse what has worked at CWG, do more of the same, as well to address the letdowns. On the first front, the investment in foreign exposure trips has definitely proved its weight in medals. In a telling example, Avinash Sable, whose CWG silver made him the first non-Kenyan to medal in steeplechase since 1994, credits his training in the US with an enormous impact on his development and confidence.

A crisis of confidence seems to have sapped our women’s cricket team as well as men’s hockey team, in the finals against Australia. Jangled nerves taking a toll at climactic moments is a weakness demanding specialised attention. A larger malaise is also suggested by how India’s first ever medal winner in the men’s high jump could only get to the competition by going to court. This Tejaswin Shankar saga calls for refining the selection process.

Just as last year’s Olympics made Indians interested in javelin, the CWG successes will inspire fresh interest in track events among young people. But how many parents see sports as a viable career option even now? Relative to the size of our population and economy, Indian sport still underperforms and underpays. While there is no gainsaying the green shoots today, it will take a lot more money, professional management and livelihood opportunities to achieve wider participation and a satisfactory global standing.



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The seventh governing council meeting of Niti Aayog was held on Sunday. It was the first in-person meeting since the pandemic’s outbreak and was attended by 23 chief ministers. PM Modi led the GoI contingent. A summit of the PM and CMs is welcome. It provides the heads of the political executive a chance to iron out wrinkles in the federal architecture. GST, the most consequential recent collective effort, was a focal point of discussion. Modi said that increasing GST collections requires collective action.

Improving GST’s architecture is the most effective way of not just boosting the economy but also lessening friction between GoI and states. Two overarching trends in GST, brought out in a paper by NIPFP, outline the challenges. First, the unsettled state of GST hindered its revenue performance in relation to the GDP trajectory. GST’s buoyancy, measured on a quarterly basis, peaked in January-March 2019 at about 3. Even in 2021-22, the buoyancy declined every successive quarter and was around 1 in January-March 2022. Second, GoI during this period cut into the states’ share of the divisible pool of taxes by increasing the share of cess. It increased from 10.4% of taxes in 2011-12 to 15.3% in 2018-19.

Not all states did badly. Measured by a state’s dependence on GST compensation, Telangana, Andhra, UP and West Bengal were the best performers between 2018 and 2021 with the least need for support. Their efforts, however, were partially undermined by the trend in cess and an economic shock. A way forward is for all CMs to attend these meetings. Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao’s dismissive attitude to them will only strain the federal architecture. GoI, on its part, needs to pare its recourse to cess. Weak state finances will harm India’s growth prospects.



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​​To the wide-eyed spectator, Kumar's political fluidity is spectacularly cynical, with the JD(U) only as a casino chip to ensure he stays on as chief minister. To the more hard-nosed observer, however, Kumar is playing from a handbook going under the title, 'Whatever it takes'. In the latest case of the JD(U) decoupling with the BJP, its latest ally in government, to join hands with the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD yet again to stay in power, it did not even take stowing away MLAs in distant resorts.

By now, Bihar's voter knows that voting for Nitish Kumar will mean never knowing which party she will be voting against. Kumar's Janata Dal (United) was on the winning side in the 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 assembly elections, never winning single-handedly but combining forces with the BJP, the BJP again, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left parties, and the BJP, respectively.

To the wide-eyed spectator, Kumar's political fluidity is spectacularly cynical, with the JD(U) only as a casino chip to ensure he stays on as chief minister. To the more hard-nosed observer, however, Kumar is playing from a handbook going under the title, 'Whatever it takes'. In the latest case of the JD(U) decoupling with the BJP, its latest ally in government, to join hands with the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD yet again to stay in power, it did not even take stowing away MLAs in distant resorts.

Kumar's purported reason for breaking the ruling alliance with the BJP was threat perception. Regardless of whether he has used former Union minister RCP Singh's resignation last week from the JD(U) - and 'suspected plans' to break the party Maharashtra Shiv Sena-style - as a reason to go through the revolving door again, the 2020 assembly poll mandate has been made defunct.

But what does this mean for Kumar's future allies? His value as a 'universal solvent' may have the JD(U) punch above its weight - it managed a paltry 43 seats against the BJP's 77 and RJD's 79 in the last legislature. But in a political landscape that is increasingly finding it 'not abnormal' to find state government formation determined by how legislators 'get along' with their fellow colleagues - not just within alliances.

But even within the parties themselves - and not by the choice voters make, Kumar's extreme malleability can fuel exactly what he wishes to hold out against: redundancy. With both ex and latest partners having significantly more numerical presence in Patna's Vidhan Sabha than the JD(U), the returns could be diminishing for Kumar - at the expense of both RJD and BJP.
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​​Sebi, which wants to bring the entire market under the T+1 settlement system, can leverage the efficiency in the payments system built by RBI and make near-real-time settlements at least in retail trades. Around 250 million UPI users can be targeted to widen retail participation in secondary market trades.

Sebi's reported plan to alter the payment mechanism in stock market trades to check any possible misuse of investor money makes eminent sense. The plan entails extending the 'fund blocking' mechanism - where funds from an investor's bank account directly flow to settle the trade bypassing the broker - to the secondary market trade.

The Application Supported by Blocked Amount (Asba) method has worked well for initial public offerings (IPOs). Rightly, the extension will enable the investor to be in control of her funds, eliminate the brokers' handling of client money and quicken the trade settlement process.

Sebi, which wants to bring the entire market under the T+1 settlement system, can leverage the efficiency in the payments system built by RBI and make near-real-time settlements at least in retail trades. Around 250 million UPI users can be targeted to widen retail participation in secondary market trades.

Resistance from brokers cannot be ruled out, underscoring Sebi's ability to rally the change. A change in the architecture is warranted as multiple debits are involved in these trades. Giving investors the choice on whether they want to block amounts for secondary trades is a good idea.

Sebi tightened rules after instances of brokers allegedly siphoning off money and securities of clients surfaced. Brokers are barred now from using the cash of one client for another's upfront margin requirement, and from pooling client money before the funds are channelled to the fund house.

But Sebi must ensure that extending Asba does not cause disruption in the market. The T+1 settlement system, for example, poses operational challenges for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in different time zones. The regulator must understand such concerns.
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It is a reflection of the hegemonic status of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Indian politics that opposition parties keep score not on the basis of their wins, but the former’s losses. And so, the fact that the party is no longer a part of the ruling alliance in Bihar, the state that sends the fourth highest number of representatives to the Lok Sabha, soon after it became part of the ruling coalition by displacing an Opposition alliance in Maharashtra, the state that sends the second highest, will be seen as some sort of equalisation. There are three aspects of the change in Bihar – a Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Congress alliance will likely take over – that merit mention.

One, the BJP’s hegemonic status (built on the foundation of the nationwide popularity of Narendra Modi) makes it a poor partner. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing given the fault lines of coalition politics, but it is clear that the party’s allies are increasingly beginning to question their future in partnership with a force that is always growing. The JD(U) can now be added to a list of examples that already includes the Shiv Sena and the AIADMK. Two, while JD(U) chief, and chief minister Nitish Kumar was the architect of the break-up – he believes the BJP was working against him and his party – the RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav has emerged as a force to reckon with. The RJD is the larger partner in the coalition. Three, the JD(U)’s re-entry into the Opposition space, and Nitish Kumar’s stature as well as connections across parties, at once both simplifies and complicates the leadership question for 2024.

The Gujarat elections later this year were expected to kickstart an election season that would last up to the parliamentary polls in 2024, but given recent events in Maharashtra and now Bihar, it is clear that the season is already upon us. The game is afoot.



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On August 8, the government announced a premature adjournment of the monsoon session of Parliament. In the limited time in which Parliament functioned, it was mired in protests and adjournments, which is perhaps why the government adjourned the House early. To be sure, this isn’t the first time Parliament’s functioning has suffered because of lack of coordination between the Treasury and Opposition benches. Beyond the usual trading of charges between the government and the Opposition, this is a disturbing development.

In its true spirit, India’s constitutional scheme of separation of powers envisages the legislature as the arm which would demand accountability from the executive between two elections. For this to happen, Parliament should have a detailed debate on the laws which are brought forward by the executive and also discuss other issues of public interest. This cherished objective has seen a dilution for many decades now. A long-term data analysis of parliamentary performance published in HT shows that there has been a secular decline in the number of days Parliament sits in a year. It needs to be underlined that the deterioration in parliamentary functioning also has a qualitative aspect in terms of bills being passed without debate. To be sure, the government’s decision to withdraw the data protection bill to introduce a new bill after incorporating the suggestions of the standing committee marks a welcome change. In the past, many pieces of legislation were passed without even sending them to the standing committee despite repeated demands by the Opposition.

While the government needs to do all it can to bridge the trust deficit with the Opposition to improve Parliament’s functioning, the Opposition also needs to realise that it must not think of disrupting Parliament as an end in itself. At a time when the political discourse outside Parliament is becoming increasingly polarised and, perhaps, shallower, the quality of legislative debates should be seen as the last tool to arrest the deterioration in larger political discourse. The government has claimed that the new Parliament building will be ready in time for the winter session. One can only hope that when Parliament meets in the new building, it will make a new beginning to live up to its constitutional responsibilities.



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India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) face challenges on multiple fronts. Funds for working capital requirements remain a concern for these enterprises as they operate with limited financial reserves and often face delayed payments and slow contract approvals. The central government recently released a draft MSME Policy and introduced multiple platforms to ease the woes of MSMEs. The government must move swiftly to focus on its implementation.

Access to finance is a challenge for MSMEs in India, with Covid-19 further aggravating the situation. Many MSMEs, which act as suppliers to larger firms, public sector enterprises, and the government, face delays in payments. A recent report puts the figure at a staggering 3.3 trillion, leading to a cash crunch for MSMEs despite the provision of services and supply of materials by these smaller enterprises.

The central government has, however, shown awareness of such concerns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched several initiatives like the World Bank-backed “Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance” (RAMP) scheme, which will focus on strengthening the financing market for MSMEs, enhancing the effectiveness of the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises, and reducing the incidence of delayed payments. These steps complement existing schemes such as the MUDRA Yojana, the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, and the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries, among others. Similarly, many states have come up with policies focusing on major products from the region with interventions designed to help MSMEs.

These interventions have achieved some success, with more than 9.4 million MSMEs and over 190 public sector enterprises (PSEs) being onboarded on the government platforms of UDYAM and TReDS respectively. The challenges of smaller enterprises, however, reflect bottlenecks in the implementation of well-intentioned interventions.

The formalisation of MSMEs is a critical step for them to access financing channels. Easing UDYAM registration could be the first step to encourage formalisation. Simplified registration forms will enable entrepreneurs, even those with limited education and in remote areas, to register. Dedicated call centres in vernacular languages and resources at district industries centres (DICs) can help with capacity-building as a next step. A third structural intervention could be increasing the number of central and state PSEs along with their different units on the TReDS platform by lowering the turnover criteria from 500 crore to 100 crore. This would enable more MSMEs to liquidate their invoices and meet short-term capital requirements.

Several MSMEs in the manufacturing sector operate at different nodes of the value chain and function as a supplier to PSEs and larger companies. More than 200,000 MSMEs benefited from procurement by central PSEs alone in 2021-22. This is likely to increase, necessitating the need to streamline implementating the procurement process.

The government has reduced the performance security to 3% from the existing 10% following the Covid-19 pandemic. While some of the large central PSEs may comply with the notification, many MSMEs are still asked to furnish a 10% bank guarantee as performance security. Similarly, while the government amended the General Financial Rules (GFR) 2017, to include insurance surety bonds, wider implementation is still pending, and there is little awareness about it. The government should ensure that these changes are being implemented by monitoring and seeking feedback on these reforms from PSEs.

Further, the government’s TReDS platform is facing some teething issues. MSMEs have to wait for a Goods Received Note (GRN) to raise an invoice, which can then be liquidated on TReDS. This requires more time as the goods have to reach the procurer, further extending payment cycles. Moreover, the procurement process is skewed in favour of PSEs as they have the benefit of claiming liquidated damages in case of a delay in delivery by smaller suppliers. No such avenue is available in case of delay in payments by PSEs. The tender documents should provide a level-playing field by including measures to protect the interests of MSMEs in case of payment delays.

While there is no magic wand to eliminate these challenges, increased formalisation will improve transparency. An awareness drive in the value chain will help revitalise the sector and realising the benefits of multiple interventions made by the government.

Mayank K Jha is a senior consultant for policy at the Wadhwani Foundation in India

The views expressed are personal



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September 11, 2001, was a defining moment in the battle against terrorism. Before 9/11, the world was divided into “your terrorist” and “my terrorist”, which were meant to view terror and terrorism as domestic issues, not global concerns. But 9/11 proved that terrorism in one part of the world could devastate the centre of Manhattan, New York. Suddenly, they became “our” terrorists. The war against terror became a collective fight at the global level. The United Nations (UN) Security Council passed a binding resolution on September 28, 2001, and also established the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, whose chair for 2022 is India.

But 20-plus years after 9/11, all is not well. We are drifting back to the era of ”your terrorist” and ”my terrorist”. To begin with, there is a move to categorise terrorism based on the motivations behind such acts. The current preoccupation of Europe (apart from Ukraine) is the rise of their Right-wing. European countries have identified violent Right-wing attacks as their main terrorist threat. These are being called Right-wing violent extremism, violent nationalism, far-Right terrorism, or more simply Right-wing terrorism. This has made Europe defensive while accosting other forms of terrorism, especially the radical Islamist terrorist upsurge in their own countries, and unable to support counterterrorism efforts elsewhere in Asia or Africa.

For the United States (US), the domestic priority now is what it calls racially/ethnically-motivated violent extremism (REMVE). This brand of “extremist terror” has distracted the US from terrorism in other parts of the world. The US attack on select high-value terror targets and also the close cooperation between India and the US in the UN are exceptions. REMVE threats are, at best, limited to certain national or regional contexts, and are certainly not global. Though important in their domestic context, this narrow focus has diluted the country’s larger focus. We are now slipping back to the “my terrorist-your terrorist” era.

Another danger in these labels is that they completely ignore that, in democracies, the Right-wing is part of the polity because it comes to power through the ballot. To demonise these ideologies, using arbitrary labels may work against democracy itself.

This comes even as some fundamental assumptions on which counterterrorism measures rest are being questioned. It is well known that the UN global counterterrorism strategy (GCTS) categorically states that “any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed”. In effect, it says that there cannot be any justification for terror. But when three terrorist attacks took place in France in 2020, the spokesperson of the high representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) said on October 28, 2020, that “the inflammatory caricatures have also provoked acts of violence against innocent civilians…”

In one swift sentence, this UN body provided these attacks with a justification (of Islamaphobia no less). It is not a secret that UNAOC depends on funding from Islamic countries for its survival. India held its ground in the latest GCTS report of June 2021 against attempts by countries to provide a justification for terror and dilute the fight against terrorism. There is no good terror or bad terror.

The other worrying attempt is to politicise the phobias against Abrahamic religions, and justify terror. This has serious implications for multicultural, pluralistic, and democratic countries such as ours. Declaring March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia through a resolution tabled by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and co-sponsored inter alia by China and Russia, in effect, singled out one religion above the rest and tacitly divided the UN into religious camps. Only India and France made a so-called Explanation of Vote (EOV).

In its EOV, India condemned all acts motivated by anti-Semitism, Christianophobia or Islamophobia and stated: “…such phobias are not restricted to Abrahamic religions only. In fact, there is clear evidence that over decades such ‘religiophobias’ have affected the followers of non-Abrahamic religions as well. This has contributed to the emergence of contemporary forms of religiophobia, especially anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias.”

India provided examples in the destruction of Bamiyan Buddha, the massacre of Sikh pilgrims in gurudwaras, the attacks on temples, the glorification of breaking of idols in temples, and other such, against non-Abrahamic religions. “Celebration of a religion is one thing, but to commemorate the combatting of hatred against one religion is quite another,” said India and hoped that the resolution would not divide the UN into religious camps. The OIC sponsors (whom India recently accused of bigotry) rejected India’s attempts to include the word “pluralism” in the text, revealing their bias. Is it again a coincidence that Islamic countries are the biggest voluntary donors to the UN for counterterrorism activities?

To top it all, Pakistan continues cross-border terrorism against India and shelters many UN-proscribed terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Taliban’s capture of Afghanistan, and its continuing strong links with al-Qaeda, have given a fillip to all radical Islamist groups elsewhere, including in Africa and West Asia. The existing structures in Africa are ill-prepared to counter these terrorist groups, particularly in the Sahel, Somalia, or even further down south. We ignore this at our own peril.

Now, some countries seem to have reservations about using the term “zero tolerance” to terrorism. Then have we now come to a stage where we can tolerate a “bit of terror”?

If that is so, how little?

TS Tirumurti is former Permanent Representative/ Ambassador of India to the United Nations in New York and former chair of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee

The views expressed are personal



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Today there is a major aspirational class in India that wants to invest for growth… According to the Association of Mutual Funds, the assets under management of the mutual fund industry in India in 2014 were around 10 lakh crore. In these eight years, by June 2022, it has increased by 250% to 35 lakh crore. That is, people want to invest. They are ready for it”. This was Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at the inauguration of the International Bullion Exchange in GIFT City, Gandhinagar on July 29.

These are not words that India has ever heard from the political leadership. On the contrary, there has been a deep-seated suspicion of markets in general, and stock markets in particular. This discomfort with markets has led to decades of suboptimal investment options for Indians wanting to keep savings ahead of inflation. With this one statement, PM Modi has taken another decisive step forward — and also away from the cynical socialist-posturing by politicians. And that is excellent news for the markets, retail investors, and the growth of the economy.

A virtuous cycle of growth needs political will (the conviction that growth is good and the enabling ecosystem is in place), institutions (banks, regulators, exchanges, courts), and entrepreneurs to build businesses that are funded largely by domestic savings. Savings convert to investment through three routes: Debt, equity, and real assets. Debt includes all fixed-return instruments such as fixed deposits, bonds, and extensions such as debt funds. Equity can be direct stocks or equity mutual funds. Real assets such as real estate and gold are largely bought directly, though their financialisation has begun.

Due to political and policy choices made post-Independence, India has used the debt and real assets route to convert savings into investments rather than equity. Fixed-return instruments (FDs, for example) find it difficult to yield a return that is ahead of inflation after tax. Real assets such as gold have little productive use and are locked up in vaults. Real estate is an illiquid clunky asset with very high costs of entry and exit, apart from still needing non-tax paid money to power transactions. The equity route has been kept away from investment options in government schemes in post-independent India, from Jawaharlal Nehru’s “profit is a dirty word” statement on free enterprise to hard-coding by Indira Gandhi when she implanted the word “socialist” in India’s preamble during the Emergency years.

This political ideology was so deep-rooted that even after the 1991 economic liberalisation, strange decisions were taken to keep the “markets are bad” public posturing. The monopoly of Unit Trust of India, for example, was broken in 1987, but only public sector firms were allowed. It took until 1993 to open the door to private participation. The National Pension System (NPS) has a similar history — of attempting to keep the private sector and the equity route to long-term wealth creation out.

When in 2004, central government employees were moved from a defined benefit (based on a formula — not market-linked) to the market-linked NPS, the choice was restricted to three PSU fund managers and only a government bond option. It took till May 2019 to allow government employees the choice of private fund managers and equity. Why does this matter? The average 10-year return on NPS government bond funds is 8.6% and that for equity is 12.5%. A four-percentage point difference in returns over a 30-year period translates into a corpus that is three times larger.

The remnants of this ideology are entrenched in areas that are low on the metrics of transparency and have large opaque pools of money that are not marked-to-market such as the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the insurance sectors. EPFO, for instance, on the same day as Modi’s Gift City speech, voted against increasing the equity allocation to the Indian organised sector workers’ retirement corpus from an incremental 15% to 20%. The average board-market 10-year return on equity is 13.61% and the same for a gilt fund is 7.73%. Life insurance, similarly, continues to be over-invested in government bonds rather than equity with over 85% of the 44.79 trillion assets under management invested in government securities (both Centre and state).

Equities in general, and mutual funds, in particular, have been at the receiving end of political posturing over the years as both politicians and bureaucrats did not understand them. I cannot help but recall a joint secretary in the ministry of finance some years ago bemoaning the underperformance of his debt fund. The fact that he bought a long-duration debt fund and was looking at short-term performance escaped his defined-benefit retirement assured mind.

An equity culture that is deep and wide is important for both the long-term fund availability for enterprise and for investors to keep their savings return ahead of tax and inflation; 1 lakh invested and reinvested in FDs and the same amount invested in Sensex 40 years ago would have resulted in a corpus of 34 lakh and 3.3 crore respectively. The Indian stock market has emerged as a state-of-the-art institution with excellent checks and balances. No market is perfect and occasional loopholes will be found, but each instance leads to better regulatory action and architecture.

The words of the PM point to two areas of action in the days ahead. One, expect hard reform in the parts of the market that have resisted change from the 1970s style of functioning. Two, expect a greater push on financial education and literacy efforts so that as regulated products reach beyond the big cities, the investor knows what basic questions to ask and buy suitable products.

To those who find themselves uncomfortable with this turn in the political discourse, I can only nudge you to consider investing via a Systematic Investment Plan or SIP (investors are pouring over 12,000 crore a month into Indian equity through this route) on a broad market index fund on the Nifty 50 and the Sensex. And then just hold on to them for 10 years. Why let your cynicism cost you wealth creation?

Monika Halan is adjunct professor, NISM, and author of the best-selling book, Let’s Talk Money

The views expressed are personal



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Last week, the Union Cabinet approved India’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) which has possibly already been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and will be uploaded by the UNFCCC on their website this week.

The submission of the NDC symbolises India’s commitment to act against the climate crisis and charting a path of growth that will be environmentally sustainable. India is among the most vulnerable to the climate crisis. Every monsoon, large parts of the country take a body blow to their economy, infrastructure, and people’s lives due to uneven distribution and extreme rainfall.

HT reported on Sunday that east and Northeast India recorded the lowest rain for July and also experienced its warmest July in 122 years, according to a monthly climate report by India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday. In June, two Northeastern states, Assam and Meghalaya recorded the highest June rainfall in 122 years.

In July, the paddy belt of east and northeast India suffered a prolonged dry period which led to delayed and even no sowing in many parts. This month again, IMD has warned of flooding rain over central India and parts of the west coast during the next three to four days due to the development of a low-pressure area over northwest Bengal, off the Odisha, West Bengal coasts. Once again, crop loss is expected over central India given the floods. While very low or no rain is likely over, rain deficient states in the Indo-Gangetic Plains during this week will further affect paddy yields. Being highly dependent on agriculture, the country's rural population is at high risk from the vagaries of monsoon.

It is significant that India has recognised the urgency of the climate crisis and has been putting the voice of the Global South forward in the UN climate negotiations. The Union environment ministry said in a statement last Wednesday that India’s updated NDC has two broad quantitative goals — to reduce the emissions intensity of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) y 45% by 2030 from the 2005 level, and achieve about 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. The third new goal included in the NDC is to put forward and propagate a healthy and sustainable way of living based on the traditions and values of conservation and moderation through a mass movement for ‘LIFE– Lifestyle for Environment’ as a key to combating the climate crisis.

The ministry, in FAQs on the updated NDC, stated that the target of achieving 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources will be taken up with the help of the transfer of technology and low-cost international finance, including from the Green Climate Fund. And while there was no mention of the previously articulated net-zero by 2070 deadline, an official at the environment ministry said that the two quantitative commitments are in sync with achieving that.

Officials in the ministry have clarified that the quantitative goal of achieving 50% installed capacity of power from non-fossil fuel sources is “conditional.” This means that India’s delivery of the goal will be dependent on the flow of climate finance from developed countries and access to new technologies for renewable energy. India has repeatedly articulated the need for climate finance to support the energy transition in developing countries.

Speaking at the Glasgow climate summit on November 1, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India’s non-fossil energy capacity will reach 500 GW by 2030, meeting 50% of the country’s energy requirements by then. He said that India will reduce its total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45% by 2030 over 2005 levels, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.

In Glasgow, Modi also added that such ambitious action will be impossible without adequate climate finance from developed nations, calling on rich countries to make $1 trillion available as climate finance “as soon as possible.”

The hypocrisy of developed countries on the delivery of climate finance is clear as day. In 2009, at the Conference of the Parties (COP) 15 in Copenhagen, developed countries committed to a goal of mobilising jointly $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries. They specified that the finance would come from a wide range of sources — public and private, bilateral, and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance.

But a climate finance delivery plan — co-led by the minister of environment and climate change, Canada, Jonathan Wilkinson and state secretary, federal ministry for the environment, Germany, Jochen Flasbarth released days ahead of COP26 last year — said developed countries will likely be able to mobilise $100 billion only in 2023, with a delay of three years compared to what was promised.

The UNFCCC’s standing committee on finance has estimated that developing countries need almost $6 trillion up to 2030 to implement their NDCs under the Paris Agreement. So, developed countries may announce net-zero goals for mid-century, but such announcements are meaningless unless they are backed by plans of mobilising climate finance and short-term goals. At COP 27, in Sharm El Sheikh, India will have to be a stronger voice on climate justice and the developed countries’ obligation to deliver finance based on their historical contribution to the crisis. With the submission of an updated NDC, India will also have a moral high ground to strengthen its voice.

At home, however, India perhaps is expected to do much more. Critical in this endeavour is creating a strong adaptation strategy to protect India’s vulnerable populations and animals from climate extremes. India can also achieve much more than what it has announced on the renewable energy front.

India last submitted its NDC to UNFCCC in 2015. That commitment comprised eight targets for 2021-2030, including reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33- 35% by 2030 from the 2005 level; achieving about 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 with the help of the transfer of technology and low-cost international finance; and creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5- 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

Of these, India achieved an emission intensity reduction of 24% in 2016. The next update on emissions intensity is expected early in 2023, when the next Biennial Update Report will be submitted to UNFCCC. India’s non-fossil installed capacity is already 41%. With a well-planned domestic strategy, India can go further than the goal of 50% in installed capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. The Central Electricity Authority has projected that just solar and wind could amount to 50% of installed capacity by 2030.

Navroz Dubash, professor, the Centre for Policy Research, has pointed this out in his response to India’s NDC. “India already has a domestic target of 450GW renewable energy capacity, but nothing analogous now remains in the international sphere. The new electricity pledge has the benefit of simplicity and clarity, but is not the benchmark for tracking Indian progress – the domestic pledge is,” he said.

The NDC announcement, coming days ahead of India’s 75th Independence Day, reflects the importance of the issue for the government. India will have to continue to provide solutions and push for climate justice globally while achieving far more than what’s committed, through ambitious and fair domestic policies.

From the climate crisis to air pollution, from questions of the development-environment tradeoffs to India’s voice in international negotiations on the environment, HT’s Jayashree Nandi brings her deep domain knowledge in a weekly column

The views expressed are personal



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Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, at the inauguration of Bundelkhand Expressway in Uttar Pradesh, urged voters to reject attempts of political parties to lure voters through cash doles, which he termed as “revdi culture”, before elections, saying it could drain the economy.

His comments evoked strong reactions from political parties, especially the Aam Aadmi Party, whose convener and Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said giving quality service to people was not “revdi culture” and giving “benefits to a few corporates” was an example of this culture. Revdi means giving electoral freebies.

The PM’s comments on July 16 came a few weeks before the Supreme Court (SC) was expected to take up a Public Interest Litigation filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member, Ashwini Upadhayay, seeking a ban on freebies. On August 4, Chief Justice NV Ramana, who headed the three-member bench, expressed “Constitution limitation” in regulating freebies and wondered whether Parliament will bring a law to regulate freebies, on the suggestion of lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP, Kapil Sibal.

“Do you really think Parliament will regulate freebies? Which political party will debate this issue?,” Justice Ramana asked and then added that each political party wants freebies.

In the order, the SC decided to appoint an expert panel having members from the Finance Commission, Niti Aayog and Election Commission to suggest a formulation to regulate freebies. The court wondered if the Finance Commission can come out with guidelines for regulating or restricting freebies

Defining a “freebie”

There are different definitions of freebies, which covers a wide range of subsidies the government gives to people.

Most economists don’t consider subsidies given to people that deal with inherent societal inequality such as food and education as freebies, while doles such as giving washing machines, laptops to children, cheaper electricity and free water supply are considered freebies. There is no clear definition of what amounts to a freebie.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its recent economic risk analysis paper, dealt with the issue of freebies. “While there is no precise definition of freebies, it is necessary to distinguish them from public/merit goods, expenditure on which brings economic benefits, such as the public distribution system, employment guarantee schemes, states’ support for education and health,” the paper said.

The paper spelt out free electricity, free water, free public transportation, waiver of pending utility bills and farm loan waivers as freebies. The paper said these freebies potentially undermine credit culture, distort prices through cross-subsidisation eroding incentives for private investment, and disincentivise work at the current wage rate leading to a drop in labour force participation.

In the self-balancing act, the paper said some freebies may benefit the poor if properly targeted with minimal leakages. However, it was quick to add that the advantages must be evaluated against the large fiscal costs and inefficiencies they cause by distorting prices and misallocating resources, questioning the rationale continuation of several welfare schemes, which may fall under RBI’s freebie definition.

Fiscal argument

The RBI, on basis of the latest state budget figures, documents the expenditure on freebies range from 0.1% to 2.7% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which is still less than the tax incentives provided to corporates through budgetary provisions.

The freebies exceeded 2% of the GSDP of Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, the two most financially vulnerable states, as per RBI estimates. Punjab for instance, spent 45.7% of its own tax revenue through subsidies and Andhra 30.3%. One should take into account that the state’s tax revenues, except excise, are not rising to keep pace with the rising expenditure, with the Centre also shrinking its share of funding to states through centrally Sponsored Schemes.

The RBI has also argued that because of freebies, the state’s debt to GSDP ratio was rising again, mostly on account of the power distribution debt burden, because of power subsidies to farmers to retail consumers. The states have been giving power subsidy to suppress the electricity prices in a bid to provide relief to the middle and poorer classes. Though in most states, the power subsidy is based on electricity consumed and not a blanket subsidy, as the paper seems to suggest.

The RBI said that states’ non-budget obligations have been rising in recent years and were around 4.5% of GDP in 2022. While the power sector accounts for almost 40% of these guarantees, other beneficiaries include sectors such as irrigation, infrastructure development, and food and water supply. The government had argued that power distribution subsidies were preventing the private sector from investing in these sectors to improve efficiency.

However, pro-subsidy economists argue that high electricity costs push people to spend less on food and look for non-environment friendly alternates such as biomass burning and therefore, targeted subsidy in the power sector is not bad.

Giving a reason to check rising freebies, the RBI said the Centre’s GST compensation payout has come to an end in June 2022, which will further reduce headroom available for social sector expenditure. And, in such a scenario, a multitude of social welfare schemes in the form of freebies will put a heavy burden on the exchequer and will also exert upward pressures on yields if they are financed through market borrowing.

“It will be important, therefore, for the state governments to reprioritise their expenditure to achieve optimum long-term welfare advantages by ensuring that the beneficiaries get empowered permanently and forego such benefits,” the paper argued. The RBI reiterated what different finance commissions have said earlier a sunset clause for each social sector scheme.

The economic good

What the RBI said in its paper may look economically prudent, but ending “freebies” may cause socio-economic disaster.

For instance, consider the farm sector. Cheaper electricity helps keep down the input cost for staple agriculture commodities rice and wheat, lessening inflation impact on them, when prices of all other inputs — fertilizer, pesticides and labour – have almost doubled in the past five years. As the government has reduced subsidies on fertilizers and pesticides, the farm sector is facing high input cost stress, leading to several state governments such as Telangana, Jharkhand and Odisha declaring crop sowing subvention schemes.

The argument that freebies can lead to Sri Lanka like the economic situation is not well-founded. Government budget data shows that the subsidy burden as the ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen from 2.35% to 1.57% between 2017 and 2022 even though the country’s expenditure on providing subsidised rations to around 800 million people under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) during Covid has increased. However, off-budget borrowing by states has increased.

Numerous studies have been done on the benefits of nutrition because of food delivery through NFSA, mid-day meal scheme for schools and other nutrition-oriented subsidies. It is well-known that India fed its population during Covid inducted lockdown through Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) when millions lost their work. As an aside, the ruling BJP termed the scheme as its achievement, even though it was introduced at the fag end of United Progressive Alliance government rule in 2013-14. PMGAY ensured that no one slept without food during Covid days and there have been demands of including non-ration card holders under the PMGKAY scheme to ensure every poor person gets its benefit.

It is also a well-acknowledged fact that the Public Distribution System (PDS) through which food is supplied under NFSA has brought down nutritional poverty levels across India. PDS allowed cheaper food available for the poor only because the government is able to produce food grains through the Minimum Support Price regime, which many consider a freebie to farmers.

Another social measure, Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has repeatedly come under the scrutiny of economists saying that high expenditure was not resulting in any economic good. However, studies have shown that MGNREGS with PDS has helped the poor and marginalised sustain themselves during worst times including Covid and has provided an income cushion during natural calamities such as drought and floods. MGNREGS, through its watershed management programme, has helped in improving groundwater levels in several states. With the intervention of direct wage transfer to the bank or post office account of the beneficiary, the government has been able to plug leakages to a large extent.

The mid-day meals have ensured higher retention, especially of the girl child, in schools and have improved the classroom performance of students, even though learning levels in classrooms remain a concern. That is more because of the hiring of sub-standard teachers. The health cards and the free medical facility has improved health care indicators for the country.

So, in a way, the so-called freebies have enabled the poor access to basic entitlements of life guaranteed in the Constitution. Putting almost all public welfare measures under the freebie basket and scrapping it would increase the expenditure burden on the middle-class and the poor, who are already facing the burden of high inflation.

However, states should desist from distributing freebies that lead to no societal good such as money to all women as promised in Punjab, gold chains or promising modular kitchens as done during the last assembly elections in Kerala.

The debate

The Election Commission conveyed to the SC in April 2022 its inability to regulate freebies unless there is a specific law for it. It also pointed out that manifesto promises are already part of section VIII of the model code which seeks political parties to provide for the fiscal cost of the promise being made before the elections. The section was included in the MCC after consultation with political parties about a decade ago on the SC’s prodding.

Parties had resisted the EC’s move to regulate freebies in poll promises saying that it was outside the powers of the commission granted under Article 324 of the Constitution. Since manifestos became part of MCC, parties started coming out with vision documents and guarantees, instead of manifestos to escape EC scrutiny. As a result, the EC expressed its inability to regulate freebies after which the SC set up the panel.

The freebie debate is more about “elitism” in the society that believes that welfare measures for the poor are charity and have made the poor non-productive. An example of this is the RBI risk analysis paper quoted above seeking a sunset clause for all welfare schemes. Schemes have been modified in India as per the need of the hour and have been delivered on social security parameters. One should not forget the Constitution framers ensured that the deprived have first access to government resources and reservation was a step in this direction.

Political parties since Independence have offered welfare measures for the deprived. The SC, in 2016, said that it could not be termed a “bribe to voters”. The government gives tax rebates to corporates, which is considered an economic incentive and not a freebie. Similarly, measures that help the under-privileged come up the societal and economic ladder cannot be termed as a freebie, unless the inequality gap is fully bridged. Freebies that lead to societal upliftment should be considered as our way of undoing the historical injustice to marginalised through a deep-embedded caste and patriarchal mindset.

The views expressed are personal



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Raising doubts and levelling allegations against LG’s decisions has been a norm, ever since AAP has formed the government in Delhi. The allegations now made by Shri Manish Sisodia are baseless and are motivated against me. They are nothing but blatant lies and falsehoods being perpetrated by a desperate man to save his own skin. Mr. Sisodia is trying to find some alibi for his, and his colleagues' acts of commission and omissions.

During the implementation of the new Delhi Excise Policy, on several occasions, I had flagged the unlawful decisions taken by the AAP Government of Delhi which had to be amended on files. These facts are now in the public domain.

In the matter of not allowing liquor vends in non-conforming areas, I discharged my constitutional responsibility of upholding the laws of the land. No law in Delhi, even today, allows for the opening of Liquor Vends in non-conforming areas.

In view of the multiple cases which came to be filed during that period and their pendency in courts and further in view of various observations made therein, I had decided to set up a Committee under the Chairmanship of VC-DDA with Divisional Commissioner, Excise Commissioner, Commissioner’s of DMC’s, Secretary (IT) and Representative of National Institute of Urban Affairs, MoHUA as its members to examine the setting up of Liquor vends in Non- Conforming Areas.

Vide its report dated 10th December 2021, the Committee was of the view that as regards 67 non-conforming wards, the Excise Department can consider allowing the Licensee of such wards to open additional vends in the conforming areas of such adjoining wards where conforming areas exist or any other ward allotted to the Licensee. Accordingly, no permission was granted for opening liquor vends in non-conforming areas.

It appears that the AAP Government of Delhi and its Excise Minister initially claimed record revenue through excise by manipulating figures; but when that got utterly exposed, they are now playing this deplorable game of blaming me, by distorting facts and painting a false narrative.

During my entire tenure as the LG, I upheld the constitutional values and laws of the land, in letter and spirit, which has always been an issue with the AAP Government of Delhi. The record will speak for itself and I dismiss the claims made by the AAP Government and its Excise Minister in toto. The time and investigations will reveal the truth.

As a public functionary, I have always worked with the highest degree of moral values and ethics.

(Anil Baijal is a former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi).



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“Sport is just the beginning” was the motto the host city Birmingham chose for the Commonwealth Games. For Indian sportspersons, who enjoyed their best-ever CWG, the Games may have been a starting point for greater achievements on the global stage. The winning of eight medals in track and field among 61 medals illustrates the point best about Birmingham representing a seminal moment for Indians in sport.

Well-established strengths in disciplines like wrestling, weightlifting, boxing and badminton may have added heft to the medals tally. Indians excelled beyond those arenas, including surprising medals in the team lawn bowls in which the women struck gold and the men silver and in the 3,000m steeplechase in which Avinash Sable became the first non-Kenyan to win a medal (silver) in about three decades.

Indian sport may have left behind for good the days of yore when the clock and the measuring tape would be occasionally fixed for an athlete to make the grade just to compete in global events while also opening up a passage to jamborees for officials and coaches. Today’s Indian athlete is more of an evolved professional who gets systemic support in training and major financial incentives for winning medals.

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It may be an aberration that one of the athletes who won a medal had to go to court to establish his right to represent India in Birmingham. The Indian contingent delivered a clutch of medals commensurate with its size, some won sensationally and others coming on expected lines, like from a reputed performer like shuttler P.V. Sindhu and the young and dashing talent in Lakshya Sen who won a major title with such ease as to promise many more.

A remarkable one-two for India in the triple jump through Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker provided a fascinating moment that opens up possibilities for Indian athletes at main stadiums hosting track and field. Of course, the competition at the CWG is not of the same qualitative standards as it can be in the Asian Games of 2023 in which the Chinese powerhouse will be featured and at the Olympics in Paris in 2024 when the best in the world will be competing.

The women’s cricket team may have fluffed its lines when it seemed capable of chasing the target in the final set by the best performing team of the era in the Australians. The men’s hockey team may have run out of steam against the gold and green colours from Down Under. But the feature of Indians at the CWG was the effort that all the athletes put in, many of them recording their personal bests even if they were out of the medal hunt.

It used to be said of Indian sportspersons that they lacked the will to win, commonly referred to in sporting parlance as “killer instinct”. That is not true anymore as many athletes are displaying the tenacity they may have developed in having come through from tough backgrounds in life and going on to do well in arenas far beyond the cricket grounds.

The 61 medal winners may have their own stories of sacrifice and triumph to tell. None more so than the paddler Sharath Kamal who defied age to win an astonishing string of gold medals numbering more than what the teams of many of the 72 competing nations won. Collectively, this was a great effort that confirms Indian athletes are no longer just also-rans.



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After running a government with a two-member Cabinet for 40 days, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde has finally inducted 18 more members in his council of ministers. As per the Article 164(1A) of the Constitution, members in a state’s council of ministers shall not exceed 15 per cent of the total number of members of the legislative Assembly. In Maharashtra’s case, the maximum number of ministers can be 43 including the chief minister. However, Mr Shinde has chosen to have a mini-Cabinet cobbled up to cover the bare minimum requirements and face the upcoming monsoon session of the state Assembly. The expansion was still riddled with controversies from the start.

There is not even symbolic representation of women in the Shinde Cabinet. Abdul Sattar, a strongman from Aurangabad, has been made minister despite the suspicion raised against him recently in connection with the alleged teacher eligibility test (TET) scam. The names of his two daughters have appeared in the list of candidates debarred by the Maharashtra State Council of Exams for their alleged involvement in the scam. Another minister, Sanjay Rathod, had to resign from the Uddhav Thackeray cabinet in February 2021 because of the BJP’s pressure after his name got embroiled in the TikTok star Pooja Chavan’s suicide case. Embarrassed by Rathod’s inclusion in the state Cabinet, BJP leader Chitra Wagh has said her fight against him will continue.

So why did Mr Shinde not appoint a full-fledged council of ministers and avoid keeping controversial figures out? The only plausible explanation is that the chief minister himself is not sure about his government’s legal, constitutional validity and its stability. The issue of whether Mr Shinde’s revolt against his party president Uddhav Thackeray should be treated as a defection or dissent is pending before the Supreme Court. It appears the Maharashtra chief minister and his new political gurus from the BJP are being overcautious because an unfavourable order by the SC will put them in an embarrassing situation. Therefore, it comes across as the temporary council of ministers of the tentative chief minister.



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The first posting of an All-India Service officer, often in a predominantly rural setting, has been likened to one’s first love. It remains firmly etched in memory. Therefore, visiting that place after a few decades would naturally evoke a lot of mixed emotions.

I still remember the day in Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration when I was informed about the allotment of Andhra Pradesh as my cadre state, and later, of Srikakulam as the district of my training in 1976. My first reaction was not euphoric. As one born and raised in Calcutta, my idea about Andhra Pradesh and Srikakulam was fairly rudimentary, the latter having been known for Naxalite activities. On completion of my probation in the IAS, I was posted as the officer in charge of Tekkali sub-division during 1977-79. Since understanding breeds love, my three-year stint in this district, remotest from the state capital of Hyderabad and nearest from Calcutta, made an impression that remains indelible.

Recently, accompanied with my daughter, I visited Vizag, Araku, Srikakulam and Tekkali, in coastal Andhra. Evidently, positive changes were noticed everywhere. The national highway from Visakhapatnam is of world standard, small towns and villages appear more prosperous, men and women look healthier and better dressed, government offices are no longer as shabby as before. The Araku valley is now a tourist's delight and its coffee widely admired.

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The ubiquitous jeeps and Ambassador cars for officials have now been replaced by air-conditioned SUVs. ATMs are scattered everywhere. These changes could be anticipated, given India’s steady growth over the past decades and the state’s uninterrupted rise in most fields.

The Indian elephant moves slowly but surefootedly. Thus, spectacular changes observed in cities like Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam cannot be discerned in small mofussil towns and villages. But quiet, fundamental changes can be noticed as shaping life everywhere.

After reaching Tekkali, I was enquiring about the personal staff who had cared for me those days — the jeep driver Veerabhadra Rao, the daffedar Damodar Patnaik, Tirupati Rao, Raja Rao and others. The local gentry that befriended me included the noted scholar in English literature, Ronanki Appalaswami, who used to explain the nuances of T.S. Eliot’s poetry and showed me the facsimile of Eliot’s manuscript of The Waste Land with extensive suggestions by Ezra Pound, Dr Rama Rao, who wrote a long essay on Tagore, and my neighbour, Dr Joga Rao. I also forged a life-long friendship with Dr Y.V. Krishna Rao, the government physician at nearby Palasa. Sadly, they have all passed away. But what gladdened my heart is that the son of Raja Rao, who delighted us with preparations like caramel custard and prawn curry, is currently the tehsildar there.

Has the quality of administration or delivery of public services changed for the better? Without falling into the trap of senior citizens who find it difficult to appreciate the new tidings and feel that things are steadily going downhill, one observes that the administrative processes have been simplified, public grievances are better responded to, and affirmative actions by the state have been yielding good dividends. Discussions with the district collector and functionaries of the revenue and forest departments seemed to confirm my impressions.

Take the disposal of land acquisition cases, for example, that revenue officials used to spend considerable time on. Once an award was finalised, started the long legal process for the aggrieved landholders demanding enhanced compensation. This process has been shortened and streamlined under the new law, benefiting the affected individuals considerably. Besides, responding to enquiries under the Right to Information Act, constant updating and digitisation of land records, initiating environment impact assessment and protection measures (for mining and irrigation projects, for instance), etc, engage the attention of officials much more than before. Providing rice at `1 per kg through the public distribution system has been standardised. All these have been possible on account of extensive use of computer and appropriate technologies. Video-conferencing has become the new normal.

State governments are generally chief minister-centric. Andhra Pradesh is no exception.

Posters and framed photographs of the chief minister are visible all over. Of the people we spoke to, many appeared critical of the “freebie” culture and lack of industrialisation, among other things, but such criticism has not so far turned into anger.

While the facade of the sub-collector’s office remains the same, giving a sense of continuity, the interiors look spic and span. The adjoining residential quarter is a much more modern structure now, the old one having been demolished. It suddenly crossed my mind that the government during my time was addressed for sanctioning a compound wall for the modest, single-storey residence, after wild bears had been noticed to be loitering around at night!

Immediately after my marriage, I recollect the long jeep drive with my wife from Palasa station on the Howrah-Madras line to Tekkali. After a busy day, when the night descended, we used to spend some quiet time together in our little abode, undisturbed by the hustle bustle of city life that we were used to. Gradually, the joy of discovering the place and its people started permeating our whole existence.

Travelling back in time, I derived some satisfaction from the visible development all around, tinged with some sadness for the days gone by.



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It has finally happened. It is perhaps a record of sorts in Independent India. The Cabinet expansion in Maharashtra, which has taken place on Tuesday, August 9, 40 days after the installation of the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government, is a reminder that the BJP and the splinter group of the Shiv Sena are virtually walking in a minefield.

With the inclusion of nine members each from the BJP and the Shinde faction, the Cabinet now has a strength of 20, including the CM. The Opposition was quick to point out the failure to include even a single woman in the expansion when Maharashtra is known to be a progressive state.

The expansion took place at a time when the coalition faced a moment like “aage bhi jaane na tu, piche bhi jaane na tu”. This is because the BJP as well as the Shinde Sena faction had become the butt of ridicule for carrying on the business of government with just two members — the chief minister and his deputy.

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“Dear IKEA, Maharashtra needs a Cabinet”, a concerned citizen wrote on Twitter last week, to sarcastically highlight the sorry (as well as comic) state of affairs in the state after the political roller-coaster seen a month back. The anguish was over the fact that there appeared nothing to be happening fit and proper in the premier state where the problems of the ordinary citizen were mounting by the day.

The Opposition parties too had exploited the situation to the hilt to target the BJP and the Eknath Shinde faction where it hurt the most. More powers given to the departmental secretaries pending the reshuffle had also sent out a wrong signal.

The expansion shows that despite Mr Shinde being the CM, the government will be dominated by the BJP, which has not only got the numbers on its side but also experienced leaders from diverse regions and backgrounds.

Girish Mahajan, who is known to be close to Mr Fadnavis, was a certainty, as well as state BJP president Chandrakant Patil, who is known to have a close rapport with Union home minister Amit Shah.

Sudhir Mungantiwar is a senior state leader and former finance minister hailing from the Vidarbha region. Atul Save, whose father was a former Shiv Sena MP, is among the prominent faces from Marathwada region accommodated by the BJP. This region is a Shiv Sena stronghold where the BJP is seeking to make inroads. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil is a veteran of sorts — hailing from the family in Ahmednagar district which started the first sugar cooperative in Asia some 75 years back. Mangal Prabhat Lodha is a prominent developer in the country.

The exclusion of Ashish Shelar indicates he may be tipped to be the next state BJP chief, succeeding Mr Patil. It suits the BJP fine as Mr Shelar hails from Mumbai where the party has to take on the Shiv Sena head on in the civic polls which are due soon. He is also one of the prominent Maratha faces of the BJP.

As compared to the BJP, the Shinde faction lacks depth in its ministerial order. But the chief minister has sought to make the best use of the talent available to him. Ministerships for Abdul Sattar and Sanjay Rathod could, however, cause some controversy. Only last year, BJP had secured success in its demand for the resignation of Mr Rathod as forest minister in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government after the death by suicide by a young woman in Pune.

It needs to be understood that the group of 40-odd MLAs led by Mr Shinde that parted ways with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena is a motley crowd that has come together only for the sake of power.

The carrot of further expansion of the ministry has been kept dangling and is expected to make matters cool at least for the next few months.

Extreme caution is the key as the government faces a tricky situation not only as regards the courts but also in regard to the cohesion between the coalition partners and also within them; and a step here or a step there could lead to trouble.

But the biggest concern is that the Supreme Court is yet to decide on a clutch of petitions filed by the Shiv Sena and the Shinde faction on various issues leading to the formation of the government. If the Shiv Sena’s pleas are accepted, the breakaway MLAs could also face disqualification. The issue of which is the “real” Shiv Sena is also pending before the Election Commission, which has been asked by the court against taking any action till it decides the case. Since there are several ticklish issues involved, it is unclear when the court will pronounce its verdict. A section of legal experts feel that the government is walking on thin ice.

The beleaguered Shiv Sena and Mr Thackeray are fighting with their backs to the wall to damage the splinter group as well as the BJP, but it will be a Herculean task. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah are past masters in the political game.

Whatever might be the claims and counter-claims of either side, the developments and signals over the past month show that the BJP is playing big brother and Devendra Fadnavis is the main power center, despite him being deputy CM. The remote control lies with Delhi, which is determined to finish the Shiv Sena politically.

Having succeeded in overthrowing the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the BJP is trying methodically to grow its footprint, and the Cabinet expansion is proof of that.

The BJP’s plans could become clearer once the portfolio allocation is complete, but it is expected it will keep all the heavyweight ministries, including home, finance, urban development, to itself, and the Shinde faction will have to be content with the “passenger” ministries.

As the BJP sets its house in order in Maharashtra, it must be a bitter-sweet feeling. As it stabilises matters in Maharashtra by the expansion of the two-member Cabinet, things are falling apart in faraway Bihar.

In Patna, JD(U) leader and chief minister Nitish Kumar has dumped the BJP which he suspected was trying to promote a “Shinde” in the form of former Union minister R.C.P. Singh, a friend-turned-foe of Nitish. In an irony of sorts for the BJP, Bihar might see a Maha Vikas Aghadi-type experiment, with Nitish Kumar trying to cobble together an alliance with the RJD, Congress and other like-minded parties.



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