Editorials - 02-06-2022

The recent global recognition for India’s ASHAs should be used as a chance to iron out the challenges in the programme

India’s one million Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) volunteers have received arguably the biggest international recognition in form of the World Health Organization’s Global Health Leaders Awards 2022. The ASHAs were among the six awardees announced at the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva. This World Health Organization (WHO) award is in recognition of the work done by ASHA volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as for serving as a link between communities and health systems.

It is important to note that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, ASHAs have made extraordinary contributions towards enabling increased access to primary health-care services; i.e. maternal and child health including immunisation and treatment for hypertension, diabetes and tuberculosis, etc., for both rural and urban populations, with special focus on difficult-to-reach habitations. Over the years, ASHAs have played an outstanding role in making India polio free, increasing routine immunisation coverage; reducing maternal mortality; improving new-born survival and in greater access to treatment for common illnesses.

Genesis of the programme

India launched the ASHA programme in 2005-06 as part of the National Rural Health Mission. Initially rolled out in rural areas, with the launch of the National Urban Health Mission in 2013, it was extended to urban settings as well. Each of these women-only volunteers work with a population of nearly 1,000 people in rural and 2,000 people in urban areas, with flexibility for local adjustments. The core of the ASHA programme has been an intention to build the capacity of community members in taking care of their own health and being partners in health services.

The ASHA programme was inspired from the learnings from two past initiatives: one from the late 1970s and the other of the early 2000s. In 1975, a WHO monograph titled ‘Health by the people’ and then in 1978, an international conference on primary health care in Alma Ata (in the then USSR and now in Kazakhstan), gave emphasis for countries recruiting community health workers to strengthen primary health-care services that were participatory and people centric. Soon after, many countries launched community health worker programmes under different names. In India, they were called community health volunteers. However, within a few years of implementation, the community health volunteer scheme met many hurdles and evaluations which followed, indicating that a key reason for sub-optimal success was a failure of community health volunteers to make a community connect (in fact, people did not perceive them to be any different from existing government staff). The lack of political will was another factor behind scaling down, before the community health volunteer programme was forgotten.

The biggest inspiration for designing the ASHA programme came from the Mitanin (meaning ‘a female friend’ in Chhattisgarhi) initiative of Chhattisgarh, which had started in May 2002. The Mitanin were/are all-female volunteers available for every 50 households and 250 people. Public health experts and civil society organisations who had first-hand experience in developing and designing the Mitanin programme were also involved in developing the ASHA programme.

The ASHA programme was well thought through and deliberated with public health specialists and community-based organisations from the beginning. One, the ASHA selection involved key village stakeholders to ensure community ownership for the initiatives and forge a partnership. Two, ASHAs coming from the same village where they worked had an aim to ensure familiarity, better community connect and acceptance. Three, the idea of having activists in their name was to reflect that they were/are the community’s representative in the health system, and not the lowest-rung government functionary in the community (as was the perception with the erstwhile community health volunteer, a few decades ago). Four, calling them volunteers was partly to avoid a painfully slow process for government recruitment and to allow an opportunity to implement performance-based incentives in the hope that this approach would bring about some accountability. A practical aspect was that performance-based incentives were being rolled out for the first time in the health services on such a scale. The thinking was that it would be easier to implement performance-based incentives under a new programme and a new workforce rather than for the existing government staff.

Since the launch of ASHA initiatives, many reviews and field assessments have documented successes and learnings. Public health experts have unusual consensus that ASHAs have become pivotal to nearly every health initiative at the community level and are integral to demand side interventions for health services in India.

A partnership, hurdles

However, the programme has had its own set of challenges, which have been tackled proactively and in a timely manner, through sustained political will and by creating institutional mechanisms, i.e. community actions for health and ASHA mentoring groups. For example, when newly-appointed ASHAs struggled to find their way and coordinate things within villages and with the health system, their linkage with two existing health and nutrition system functionaries — Anganwadi workers (AWW) and Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) as well as with panchayat representatives and influential community members at the village level — was facilitated. This resulted in an all-women partnership, or A-A-A: ASHA, AWW and ANM, of three frontline functionaries at the village level, that worked together to facilitate health and nutrition service delivery to the community. Platforms such as village health, sanitation and nutrition committees were created, for coordination and service delivery. In the process, the trio became a well-recognised and respected face of primary health-care services to the community; their working together ensured greater internal accountability. In 2022, it is difficult to imagine how India would have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic had the ASHAs, AWWs and ANMs not toiled.

Yet, there are ongoing challenges that need urgent resolution. Among the A-A-A, ASHAs are the only ones who do not have a fixed salary; they do not have opportunity for career progression. Though performance-based incentives are supplemented by a fixed amount in a few Indian States, the total payment continues to remain low and often delayed. These issues have resulted in dissatisfaction, regular agitations and protests by ASHAs in many States of India.

The global recognition for ASHAs should be used as an opportunity to review the programme afresh, from a solution perspective. First, Indian States need to develop mechanisms for higher remuneration for ASHAs. The performance-based incentives should not be interpreted that ASHAs — no matter how much and how hard they work — need to be paid the lowest of all health functionaries. If they work more, the system should allow them to be paid more than even regular government staff.

Second, it is time that in-built institutional mechanisms are created for capacity-building and avenues for career progression for ASHAs to move to other cadres such as ANM, public health nurse and community health officers are opened. A few Indian States have started such initiatives but these are smaller in scale and at nascent stages.

External review needed

Third, extending the benefits of social sector services including health insurance (for ASHAs and their families) should be considered. The possibility of ASHAs automatically being entitled and having access to a broad range of social welfare schemes needs to be institutionalised.

Fourth, while the ASHA programme has benefitted from many internal and regular reviews by the Government, an independent and external review of the programme needs to be given urgent and priority consideration.

Fifth, there are arguments for the regularisation of many temporary posts in the National Health Mission and making ASHAs permanent government employees. Considering the extensive shortage of staff in the workforce at all levels, and more so in the primary health-care system in India, and an ongoing need for functions being undertaken by ASHAs, it is a policy option that is worth serious consideration. Alongside, there is a need to acknowledge that the specific functions at the village level, which ASHAs play, may not be ideally suited for a permanent position. However, finding a middle path would not be very difficult either.

The WHO award for ASHA volunteers is a proud moment and also a recognition of every health functionary working for the poor and the underserved in India. It is an acknowledgement of the role and the relevance of people-centric primary health-care services. It is a reminder and an opportunity to further strengthen the ASHA programme for a stronger and community-oriented primary health-care system, which will prepare India for future epidemics and pandemics as well.

Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya is a primary-care physician and public health specialist. He has been involved in the implementation of the National (Rural) Health Mission in India since inception



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Lower courts must comply with the Supreme Court’s decision in ‘Manoj’ enabling an informed sentencing inquiry

There has been an intense and persistent crisis in the fairness of administering the death penalty in India for many decades now that has been acknowledged in judgments of the Supreme Court of India, by former judges, lawyers, researchers, etc. At the heart of that crisis has been the concern that there is a pervasive arbitrariness in sentencing procedures that impose the death penalty, and a significant concern has been that barely any relevant information about the accused enters the courtroom during the sentencing phase. The Court’s recent judgment inManoj and Ors. vs State of MP seeks to address this long ignored yet critical aspect of death penalty sentencing. This specific attempt inManoj must be seen with the Court’s apparent discomfort over the last year with procedural unfairness in sentencing being carried out by the lower courts.

Individualised sentencing

The constitutionality of the death penalty was upheld in 1980 inBachan Singh vs State of Punjab , which greatly emphasised ‘individualised sentencing’ and called upon courts to consider the ‘crime’ and the circumstances of the accused. However, sinceBachan Singh there have been disagreements on which cases warrant the imposition of the death penalty and the nature of information about the accused relevant for sentencing. With a vast majority of prisoners being poor, quality legal representation has always been a concern. As a result, very little attempt is made to collect sentencing information, and very little is known about the accused while sentencing.

Since September 2021, during Justice N.V. Ramana’s tenure as the Chief Justice of India, three Benches of the Supreme Court heard arguments in 13 death penalty appeals and delivered judgments in 10 of these cases, resulting in three acquittals in one case and commutations in the rest. A common thread running across these decisions is a deep and acute concern surrounding the procedural fairness on the imposition of the death penalty and the lack of adequate information about the accused.

The Bench headed by Justice U.U. Lalit (and also comprising Justices Ravindra Bhat, Bela Trivedi and P.S. Narasimha) has been particularly concerned over the lack of information about the accused. Recognising the centrality of such information for a fair sentencing process, the Bench passed an order inManoj in September 2021 calling for reports of the probation officers, prison officers and mental health professionals. In the final judgment delivered recently, the Supreme Court took important steps towards realising an ‘individualised sentencing enquiry’ as envisaged by the court inBachan Singh 42 years ago.

Scope of mitigation

Sentencing happens after an accused has been found guilty of the crime. Here, the circumstances of the accused are considered. This requires a broad-based inquiry as scientific theories no longer see the accused as individuals who, out of their free-will, make “bad choices” unhindered by their past or present circumstances. Contemporary understanding of criminogenic factors among scholars and researchers focuses on analysing past social histories, behaviours and life circumstances of the accused as human behaviour is a product of a complex interplay of personal and environmental factors.

There have been important efforts by courts to bring forth such information. However, the judgment of the Supreme Court inManoj is significant for two reasons: first, it indicates a shift towards an evidence-based inquiry to sentencing that invites expert opinions and reports from a wide range of disciplines. Second, it expands the scope of mitigating factors by calling for reports that bring forth pre-offence details such as socio-economic status, education, family background and also post-offence details such as the conduct of the prisoner in prison. Mitigating factors pertain to life circumstances of an individual that can help determine punishment. Crucial to understanding the relevance of mitigating factors is connecting it to a framework that allows for contextualising it to the individual’s life choices and moral culpability, which is the essence of a just sentence.

Life-history approach

The life-history approach provides one such framework that enables a view of life circumstances of an individual as interconnected to each other. Socio-economic circumstances, for instance, have been recognised as a mitigating factor by courts in various death penalty cases. What makes it compelling is when it is seen as interconnected to other factors, i.e. to see how poverty impacts a particular individual’s access to housing, education and health care, which subsequently impacts and shapes their life choices.

It is a first for the Supreme Court to have laid down that information such as early family background that brings out any history of violence or neglect (also known as remote factors or experiences) is a relevant mitigating factor. Such negative experiences usually accumulate over time and therefore, the life-history approach is uniquely suited to such an inquiry. It provides insights into how early life circumstances shape an individual’s character and affect their actions as adults.

While one hopes that the procedure adopted by the Supreme Court in nuancing sentencing in death penalty cases would be followed by lower courts, the real challenge would emerge with equipping courts to understand such rich information. The traditional checklist-based approach of presenting mitigation severely deviates from the requirements of individualised sentencing which is the most fundamental principle of the criminal justice system. Further, keeping in mind the introduction of non-legal expertise into courtrooms, courts will need to equip themselves to appreciate the evidence so presented. Questions on conflicting findings in reports and opinions presented to the court during sentencing would also need to be addressed keeping in mind existing evidentiary standards and judicial dicta, which suggests courts must not be constrained by confines of the evidence act in capital sentencing.

The decision inManoj is indeed a positive step towards a more meaningful and informed sentencing inquiry. However, further inquiry into the complex questions around sentencing will be inevitable to ensure procedural fairness for those under the sentence of death.

C.P. Shruthi and Shivani Misra are with Project 39A, National Law University Delhi. As part of providing pro-bono legal aid, Project 39A represented the appellants in ‘Manoj vs State of MP’. The views expressed are personal



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Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat had the highest number of excess deaths due to COVID-19

Affecting around 52 crore people, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit every nook and corner of the world, contributing to 1.5 crore excess deaths from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 as per the latest World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

The pandemic has also left India heavily affected, with times when the per day cases rose to more than 90,000 during the first wave period starting from March 2020. Efforts are carried out throughout the world to mathematically model and fit the available datasets to estimate the excess mortality attributable to COVID-19 owing to the fundamentality of mortality estimates for public health decision making.

The estimate byThe Lancet places India at first having the highest number of cumulative excess deaths due to COVID-19 at the level of 41 lakh based on vital registration system data from 12 States.

The estimates by WHO also comes around 47 lakh for the period between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

Objecting mathematical models

The Indian government, however, has objected to the use of mathematical models in the estimation of excess mortality by the WHO, when authentic data is available in the country. The criticism is based on placing of India among the tier II countries for which mathematical modelling is carried out and the use of unsound statistical methodology.

Though India has argued against WHO by citing the availability of comprehensive civil registration system (CRS) data, sources from within the country are questioning the shortcomings of vital registration and classification of COVID-19.

The advisory nature of the guidelines on classification of COVID deaths by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has created confusion among States on what counts as a COVID-19 death and what does not.

In this backdrop, we have tried to provide empirical estimate of the excess mortality attributed to COVID-19 during the period between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 by using information from multiple official data sources.

We have used number of registered deaths in the year 2019 and 2020 from CRS, population projections for the years 2016 and 2021 by the Registrar General of India (RGI), crude death rate (CDR) estimates for 2019 from Sample Registration System (SRS).

We estimated the proportion deaths registered in the year 2019 using CRS 2019 and SRS 2019 death data and mid-year population of the year 2019.

Further, we applied the same figures for proportion death registered assuming that it has not changed significantly in the year 2020. The total deaths for the year 2020 are computed for India and larger States using the number of registered CRS 2020 deaths and percentage deaths registered during 2019.

The projected mid-year population for 2020 and the total estimated deaths for the same year are utilised to estimate the CDR for 2020, whereas the CDR of 2019 is taken from SRS 2019. The difference between the CDRs of 2020 and 2019 refers to the rise in the mortality directly or indirectly attributed to the pandemic. Excess death is termed as the difference in estimated number of deaths in 2020 and expected deaths (applying 2019 CDR to the 2020 population) for the same year.

Effects of first COVID wave

As per our estimate, India has witnessed an excess mortality of 0.5 death per thousand population during the first wave of the pandemic (CDR of 6.0 in 2019 to 6.5 in 2020). The highest difference is found in the State of Delhi, where the period saw an excess mortality of 3.8 deaths per thousand population, followed by Tamil Nadu (2.9), Andhra Pradesh (2.3), Karnataka (2.1), and Gujarat (2.0).

The lowest difference in CDR between 2019 and 2020 is found in the States of Telangana (-0.5 i.e. negative change), Uttar Pradesh (0.05 less deaths per 1000 population), followed by Uttarakhand (0.02). Negative change in CDR across these States can be due to the under reporting of deaths as compared to the previous year. Kerala did not report any change in CDR indicating no significant change in mortality as compared to the year 2019.

The States’ tally

Our computations estimate the excess deaths in India during 2020 with respect to 2019 as 7 lakh, with Tamil Nadu (2.2 lakh), Bihar (1.5 lakh), Maharashtra (1.4 lakh), Karnataka (1.4 lakh), Gujarat (1.3 lakh) and Andhra Pradesh (1.2 lakh) having the highest number of excess deaths.

During the same year, India’s official tally of COVID-19 deaths was 1.5 lakh, almost 4.7 times less than our estimate of excess mortality.

The estimated excessive deaths in the period can be attributed to multiple reasons directly or indirectly linked to the pandemic. COVID-19, of course, is the major killer, but not the sole one.

Delayed treatment of serious morbidity conditions has had its share in the excess mortality throughout the world.

Emergency services hit

Studies have shown that the services for tuberculosis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc. have been disrupted and the mortality associated with it has increased unusually.

According to the Global Tuberculosis Report (WHO, 2021), the largest decrease in the diagnosing and reporting of tuberculosis is observed in the Asian countries, with India in the lead. Additionally, the pandemic has also indirectly affected the maternal and child healthcare by delaying the access to emergency services.

Apart from these, other reasons including long-distance migration, massive poverty, hunger etc., could have also contributed to the excess deaths.

Once the CRS 2021 report is released, we will be in a better situation to provide robust and precise estimates of the excess deaths which occurred during the second wave and to conclude to what extent the WHO estimates are correct.

Nandlal Mishra is a PhD scholar at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. Devikrishna NB is a post-graduate student at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai



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The NCB must review its procedures soon

The Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) decision to leave out Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, from the chargesheet last week in the so-called drugs-on-cruise ship case in Maharashtra has raised eyebrows in many circles. It is unfortunate that a fabled and civilised city like Mumbai has been the subject of contentious discussion so frequently in the past few years for the crimes reported from there and the inept handling by enforcement agencies. The war between the Centre and the Maharashtra government has only added fuel to fire, each trying to outwit the other through vicious propaganda.

There are again scores of controversies surrounding top appointments in the Maharashtra Police, an index of the malaise that afflicts the police force in the State, which, decades ago, was known for its clean administration. A former Commissioner of Police was recently on the run for several weeks to evade arrest on charges of extortion. The investigation is still going on against him and a former Home Minister of the State. Can anything be more shameful and demoralising to the entire bureaucracy, and not merely the Police?

The controversial arrest

In the Aryan Khan case that erupted in October last year, he was arrested by the NCB along with 19 others following a raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. This received huge publicity because a celebrity’s son was being held on drug charges. Many speculations started doing the rounds, including one which said that Aryan was being framed. The media was also charged with encashing the controversy. All speculations about inadequacies in the investigation, initially disbelieved, have now been proved right with the Director General of NCB, Satya Narayan Pradhan, admitting that the investigation against Aryan Khan was motivated. This was an unusual action but one that has to be welcomed because no investigating agency ever admits its mistakes. One early report had said that Aryan had consumed drugs, and according to another, some prohibited substance was found in his possession. The latest NCB report to the court that the evidence against Aryan Khan was not sufficient to prosecute him is therefore bound to generate controversy.

The NCB head in Mumbai, Samir Wankhade, has been transferred and an inquiry has been ordered against him. This bizarre episode should raise several issues, chief of which is the integrity of investigating agencies in the country. The NCB may have to set its house in order by undertaking a clinical review of its procedures and personnel policies. The quantum of discretion of officers in the middle and lower levels may have to be reduced substantially.

Political interventions

The flip flop in the Aryan case is in tune with the manner in which investigations in many other cases involving well-known public figures charged with crime are conducted all over the country, both by the State police and other agencies.. No State government is a saint in the matter. Total emasculation of the police is a tragedy that will continue to characterise the force indefinitely. Excessive media attention and the tendency of the lower political spectrum belonging to the establishment to intrude into what should be the sole preserve of government agencies are facts which are undeniable in every State. The unfortunate victims of this unwholesome exchange of fire are the accused, who are indicted even before the arrival of a judicial decision.

Another arrest by the NCB that hit the headlines in 2020 was that of Rhea Chakraborty who was in a relationship with actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The latter was found dead under mysterious circumstances. While the case was initially investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and later by the CBI on the Supreme Court’s direction, the NCB subsequently stepped in to investigate the rumour that Rhea and her brother were instrumental in supplying marijuana to Sushant. This led to Rhea’s arrest in September 2020 and she was released a month later. Nothing further has been heard in this case.

The message that emanates from the two cases is that drug law enforcement agencies are often caught in a serious dilemma. If they do not detain the suspects involved at the earliest stage of an investigation, they can be accused of going slow just to favour the accused. If the detainees are subsequently let off for want of evidence, agency officials are accused of either human rights violations or dishonesty. It will not be incorrect to say that many enforcement decisions are a knee-jerk response induced mainly by the fear of loss of reputation and vilification by the media, which is fond of sensationalism. Ultimately, honesty in controversial investigations rests on an officer’s own reputation and his ability to withstand pressure from various quarters including the ruling political party.

R.K. Raghavan is a former CBI Director and currently teaches criminal justice and policing at the Jindal Global University, Sonepat



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With his hate speech, P.C. George is in the limelight for all the wrong reasons

After a humiliating defeat last May in his home turf, the Poonjar Assembly segment, from where he had won seven times before, Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) leader P.C. George had been out of political action for some time. Now he is back in the political limelight, but for all the wrong reasons.

Last week, he was remanded to judicial custody after a first-class magistrate’s court in Thiruvananthapuram cancelled his bail in a case related to a communally charged hate speech he delivered at the Hindu Maha Sammelan on April 30 this year. Previously, the court had granted him bail on the same day he was arrested from his residence at Erattupetta on May 1. Bail was granted on the condition that he would not make such communally-loaded comments in public. But 10 days after he was out on bail, Mr. George repeated the unsavoury remarks he had made against the Muslim community, particularly on “love jihad” and “population excess”, at a temple function at Vennala in Kochi.

Nonetheless, after spending a day at the Central Prison in Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. George was granted bail by the Kerala High Court considering his health condition and status as a former MLA. While the CPI (M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF condemned the statements of Mr. George, the Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has backed him to the hilt. It was significant that the outburst by Mr. George happened when the electioneering for the Thrikkakara Assembly bypoll was nearing its peak.

Significantly, the powerful Syro-Malabar Church was silent on his statements. Given the shadow of distrust that is sought to be sowed between the Christian and Muslim communities in Kerala by some outfits, this was widely interpreted as the Church’s subtle support for Mr. George.

However, the Metropolitan of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Yuhanon Mar Meletius of the Thrissur Diocese, lashed out at Mr. George saying that none had appointed him to represent the Christian community and that he was toeing the BJP line because he had no option as both the Congress and CPI(M) had rejected him. But the Orthodox Syrian Church later distanced itself from the Metropolitan’s statement stating that it was his personal view.

As of now, Mr. George’s party is keen to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. But he is known for his unpredictability; swapping political parties and coalitions at will during his long innings. On several occasions, he had backed the Social Democratic Party of India, the political avatar of the Popular Front of India (PFI), an outfit known for its fundamentalism, and had, in turn, received its support when he contested as an independent candidate during the 2016 assembly polls.

Now it remains to be seen how an ideologically malleable Mr. George works in tandem with an ideologically rigid but faction-riven BJP which is struggling to get a foothold in Kerala’s polity. The BJP’s link with Mr. George has to be read with the party’s long-standing efforts to tap into the Christian community in the State.

The statements of the BJP leaders indicate that the party may use Mr. George for temporary political gains as they know he has only minimal influence among the Christain community. For the time being, it has secured a Christian leader to drive a wedge between the minority communities in a State.

If the party is encouraging Mr. George to say what its leaders could not say, or would not dare to say, just so that they can use his hate speeches to create religious polarisation for political gain, ultimately, Mr. George risks becoming a liability for the BJP.

biju.govind@thehindu.co.in



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The economy’s post-COVID recovery is far from complete; spurring consumption is key

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is reckoned to have grown 8.7% while the Gross Value Added (GVA) rose 8.1% in 2021-22, as per national income estimates released on Tuesday. Coming on the back of the sharp decline in economic activity due to the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020-21, when GDP crashed 6.6% and GVA by 4.8%, the latest numbers show India is emerging out of the tunnel of pandemic-induced woes. The overall GDP and GVA have indeed recovered from pre-pandemic levels, but only just, by 1.5% and 2.9%, respectively. Remember that growth had already been on a steady decline through 2019-20 even before the lockdowns of 2020 — with GDP growing just 3.7%. The Government’s assertion that the data establish a ‘full economic recovery’ is not entirely true. For one, it is not a V-shaped recovery, with GVA from job-creating sectors (trade and hotels) still 11.3% below 2019-20’s low levels. This has kept the services sector, as a whole, in line with pre-COVID levels, not above. While GVA from industry is up 6.7% over 2019-20, another job creating sector, construction, is up only 3.4%, while mining has grown a meagre 1.9% over the two-year period. Manufacturing lifted the industry GVA, growing 9.3% from 2019-20 levels, but there are cracks on that front — the January to March 2022 quarter (Q4 of 2021-22) recorded a 0.2% contraction, year-on-year. Overall GDP growth slipped to a four-quarter low of 4.1% in Q4, down from 5.4% in Q3, evoking flashbacks of the 2019-20 slowdown and raising concerns about the trajectory going forward.

With reluctant demand, supply-chain and input cost woes hurting manufacturing, agriculture (that grew at a five-quarter high of 4.1%) and public administration services (whose growth dipped to 7.7% from 16.7% in Q3) lifted the Q4 numbers amid slower growth in Services and Mining over Q3, and a mild 2% uptick in Construction. A recovery in investment demand, helped by the Government’s capital spending, is a silver lining, but the lingering concern is that consumption remains troubled, and unless it recovers, private investments will remain aloof as will sustainable high growth. Private final consumption expenditure grew 7.9% in 2021-22, but it was just Rs. 1.2 lakh crore or 1.4% over 2019-20. Worse, as inflation flared up, households’ consumption growth has steadily dropped through 2021-22, growing a mere 1.8% in Q4. Price rise, combined with higher interest rates, could squeeze middle class disposable incomes and dampen consumption further. Yes, India is the fastest growing major economy and likely to remain so in 2022-23. But the rising tide in the past year has not been enough to lift all boats stranded in the detritus of the pandemic and the slowdown that preceded it. The waters are choppy with war and recession worries in the developed world.



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Nepal should not sacrifice aviation safetyfor the sake of commercial tourism

The grim images of the wreckage of a Tara Air de Havilland DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft in Nepal have once again highlighted the complexities of ensuring aviation safety in one of the most challenging environments in the world, and in regulating the mountain nation’s Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) flights that are a tourist draw. The plane with 22 passengers, including an Indian family, was on an ‘air trek’ along the scenic yet aerially treacherous Pokhara to Jomsom route on Sunday when it lost radar contact at around 13,000 feet. STOL operations call for well-honed piloting skills, and as 3-D terrain maps of the flight path show, danger lurks in every corner in the form of jagged peaks, narrow passes and fickle weather. The small unpressurised craft used in this sector operate at a ceiling of 13,000 feet and are airborne for a short duration — oxygen supplies are needed for all passengers if flights exceed over 30 minutes above 13,000 ft. Flights are characterised by manoeuvres of 90 degree turns in valleys that have at times just wing length clearance. And as in any competitive tourism market crowded with various STOL operators, there are many pressures that can tell on the crew: commercial stress points such as not having wasted fuel moments and ensuring passenger contentment by pushing the envelope of crucial visual flight rules (VFR). Not following VFR is cited as the main cause of accidents in Nepal’s STOL operations.

So, is Nepal pushing the boundaries in air safety? Data put out by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal show domestic air travel having risen by 15.45% in 2018, though registering a dip in 2019-20 largely on account of travel restrictions following the global COVID-19 pandemic. But, interestingly, country data over the past 10 years have shown a sharp drop in the accident rate in general, the only blip being a rise in helicopter incidents with growing copter operations in logistics, relief and rescue, and tourism. In the same timeframe, the STOL sector has seen a higher rate of accidents than trunk route air operations; of the 19 accidents, 16 were STOL aircraft. Accident analysis has shown Controlled Flight into Terrain, Runway excursions and Loss of Control In-flight as the leading causes. A more realistic check lies in the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme of the International Civil Aviation Organization monitoring safety oversight obligations by all 193 member-states (as of June 2020), in which Nepal’s scores — it last participated in the programme in 2017 — dropped in ‘Organization’ and ‘Accident Investigation’. In an era of improving global air safety, Nepal needs to scale a crucial summit by working on pending legislation that unbundles its civil aviation body into a regulator and service provider, paving the way for a full-fledged safety system, and in turn enabling safer STOL operations.



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London, May 31: Mr. Churchill replying to Sir Charles Yale said that negotiations with King Faisal were still proceeding and he referred not to make statement at pre-meet regarding the possibility of the evacuation of Iraq or matters connected therewith. Doctor Wigram describing his work among Assyrian Christians in Mesopotamia at the annual meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge urged that the boundary of Iraq should be so drawn that Kurds would not be bunded over to the vengeance of Turks. We could not in decency and honour abandon those who fought for us. The Bishop of Mauritius appealed for greater understanding of the problem of the islands in the Southern Indian Ocean.



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Intervening in the deliberations of the AICC opening session here to-day, the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi said she did not approve of the tendency of some to decry others because they did not share their interpretation of socialism. The Prime Minister reaffirmed the party’s commitment to introduce rural and urban ceilings. She said urban ceiling was also necessary to remove disparities, but it was wrong to argue that both these should necessarily be done simultaneously. Such questions should be viewed on their intrinsic merits and not in a spirit of unhealthy competition. Mrs. Gandhi admitted delay on the part of the Government in enforcing these decisions. This was because of the need to avoid any loopholes in the legislation which might be taken advantage of by the interests concerned. Sometimes the clever escaped the clutches of the law, she said. Referring to some problems connected with ceilings, Mrs. Gandhi said the immediate benefits of these measures should also be carefully assessed. Mrs. Gandhi said it was not desirable to aim at a uniform ceiling throughout the country as conditions varied from place to place. There was no question of delaying measures such as ceilings. She reminded partymen that the Congress had promised land to the tiller before Independence, though the exact ceiling was never quantified. It was too late in the day for some people to raise their eyebrows or to create doubts when concrete steps were being taken to implement this time-old promise.



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As a performer, KK transformed his early disdain for “boundaries” into the chameleon-like ability to assume different personas and tap into the emotional core of any song.

In an interview, well after he had made a name in playback singing, KK would recall being sent to music classes as a child and hating them. It seemed to him that, with their emphasis on the dos and don’ts, they imposed “boundaries” on music. The singer, who died at 53 after a concert in Kolkata on Tuesday, had grown up with music of all kinds playing in his home in Delhi. He had developed an ear and, after his decision to forgo formal training, it was that nurtured ability, as well as his innate talent, that helped him gain a foothold in the recording studios of multiple film industries.

KK, born Krishnakumar Kunnath, came to prominence at a time when the Indipop wave which, in the ’90s, had changed how music was made and performed in India, had begun to recede. Two tracks from his 1999 debut album, “Yaaron” and “Pal”, became hits, in large part because they articulated a sense of loss and longing that had instant resonance with a generation of listeners on the threshold of adulthood. His big Bollywood breakthrough, the song “Tadap Tadap” from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, had a similar effect, becoming part of the soundtrack of many a real-life story of unrequited love and heartbreak. That these songs risked becoming cliches is, in fact, a testament to their appeal.

As a performer, KK transformed his early disdain for “boundaries” into the chameleon-like ability to assume different personas and tap into the emotional core of any song. In doing so, he helped a society, arguably lacking in articulateness in matters of the heart, find words and melodies with which to do so. His songs became an important part of the emotional trajectory of a generation of music lovers who, he once admitted, did not always recognise him when he performed in concerts. But they always, without missing a beat, sang along to his song.



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Every act of violence, each civilian death is more evidence that the police's claim of having brought normalcy in Kashmir is not close to the reality.

Yet another targeted killing in Kashmir, this time a woman teacher in a Kulgam school, is a grim reminder of the security challenge in the Valley. From her hometown Samba in Jammu, Rajni Bala and her husband, who is also a teacher, had been posted to different schools in Kulgam some years ago through a government employment scheme. She is the third teacher and the third woman to be killed in this manner since last October 2021. In May alone, the lives of five people were snuffed out, including a Kashmiri Muslim woman who was a local TV artiste. While Kashmiri Muslim civilians have always been a target, in recent months, there has been a clear attempt to terrorise Kashmiri Pandits and the wider Hindu and Sikh communities in J&K, as well as migrant workers. The apparent objective is to send a message to these minorities in the erstwhile state that they are not welcome in the Valley. A parallel and deeply disturbing plan also seems to be at work, one that plays into the sharpening communal faultlines in other parts of the country, and aims to reinforce them, as former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has pointed out in the aftermath of Rajni Bala’s killing.

Every act of violence, each civilian death is more evidence that the police’s claim of having brought normalcy in Kashmir is not close to the reality. Adding to the concern is the increase in the number of “foreign”or Pakistani terrorists in the Valley. Last month, a senior Army officer sought to frame this as a marker of the trend of decreasing recruitment of locals into militancy. But the Army, which has the primary responsibility to prevent infiltration, may want to look at a more sobering picture, especially as the infiltration has taken place during a carefully maintained ceasefire with Pakistan on the Line of Control. By now it should be clear that tourist inflows into the Valley are no indication of its security situation, nor a complete or credible measure of the popular alienation on the ground.

By all accounts, the J&K administration has not been able to provide reassurance to the families of the victims or a sense of security to those who fear they may be targeted next. It is time the Centre recognises that this task must involve Kashmir’s mainstream political leadership — mainly, the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party. They have a role to play in the political outreach to both the majority and minority communities in the Valley. They must take the initiative and the government must make room for them in a project of political communication to the people that is much-needed at this time.



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At the aggregate level, the Centre’s gross tax collections stood at Rs 27.08 lakh crore in 2021-22, almost Rs 2 lakh crore higher than the revised estimates, which were themselves higher than the earlier budget estimates.

Data released by the Controller General of Accounts on Tuesday indicated that government finances fared better than expected in the just ended financial year (2021-22). Sharp increases were observed in both tax as well as non-tax revenues as compared to the revised budget estimates presented a few months ago. Further, with total government spending last year being only marginally higher than what was pegged in the revised estimates, the fiscal deficit for 2021-22 has moderated further, coming in at 6.7 per cent of the GDP, lower than the 6.9 per cent projected in the revised estimates.

At the aggregate level, the Centre’s gross tax collections stood at Rs 27.08 lakh crore in 2021-22, almost Rs 2 lakh crore higher than the revised estimates, which were themselves higher than the earlier budget estimates. The healthier than expected tax revenue was driven by robust direct and indirect tax collections. Direct tax collections stood at Rs 13.85 lakh crore, around Rs 1.35 lakh crore higher than the revised estimates (with both corporate and income tax collections growing at a heartening pace), while indirect tax collections were higher by around Rs 57,000 crore. A similar increase was also observed in non-tax revenues driven, in part, by higher dividends from PSUs. The latest data also indicates that the central government has considerable fiscal headroom in the coming financial year. The Union budget for 2022-23 had pegged the Centre’s gross tax revenues at Rs 27.57 lakh crore — this is now only 1.8 per cent higher than its gross tax revenues in 2021-22. Considering that the recent Economic Survey had pegged the economy to grow at 8-8.5 per cent in 2022-23 — even though this forecast was made before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and growth is now expected to be lower — as nominal growth is likely to remain high, actual tax collections may well come in significantly higher than budgeted targets.

At the same time, there are several headwinds. On the revenue side, the recent cuts in excise duties, and the lower than expected transfer from the central bank are likely to act as a drag on receipts. On the expenditure side, spending on food, fertiliser and LPG subsidies will weigh heavily on the exchequer. And though the higher than expected revenues, aided by higher than previously anticipated nominal GDP growth, will help offset some of this, the pressure on the fisc is likely to remain.



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Yashovardhan Azad writes: The SC panel's censure in Hyderabad encounter case is a wake-up call. Police should accept that their job is to bring the accused to justice not to dispense it.

The British colonisers were known to impart instant justice to leaders of various uprisings against their oppression. The capture and killing of Alluri Seetarama Raju, the hero of the Rampa Rebellion, in 1924 was one such instance. British forces arrested Raju, who had organised the tribals of the Eastern Ghats against the Madras Forest Act 1882, and shot him.

Police encounters did not stop after independence. Charges of fake encounters have coloured police action against dacoits in the 1950s, the battles against terrorism in Punjab, insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, and Maoism. Some days ago, a Supreme Court-appointed committee recommended the prosecution of 10 police officers under IPC 302 for staging a false encounter near Hyderabad on December 6, 2019.

According to the Union Ministry of Home, there have been 655 instances of police encounter deaths between January 1, 2017, and January 31, 2022. Chhattisgarh reported 191 incidents, the highest in the country, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 117. Thirteen other states reported encounter killings suggesting that the malady is prevalent across the country.

In the Hyderabad incident, Disha was gang-raped and brutally murdered by four persons on November 27, 2019. There was widespread media coverage of the incident and public outrage, which spurred the police to act fast. They announced the arrest of the four accused a day later and on December 6 morning, an alleged encounter took place in which all four accused were killed. The city responded positively to the incident and the policemen were felicitated. Political parties also praised the rendering of “swift justice”. Some feeble voices of dissent were drowned in the revelry.

Incidents of instant justice represent the dark underbelly of our criminal justice system. They should jolt the conscience of our judges, lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats and policemen. For years, mafia overlords used to escape the clutches of law and, when apprehended, slip past the justice system with no one willing to depose against them. Some even became legislators and used their vaunted status to ringfence against prosecution. Political parties patronised them. They, in turn, delivered instant justice on their turf. When public anger rose or state institutions were hurt, encounters followed. Vikas Dubey, a gangster from UP, ran his fief in contempt of law but the moment he attacked the police his end came.

Can staged encounters be justified in any circumstances? No. Then what explains such acts? After every sensational crime, the media blitz and public anger against the system put inordinate pressure on the police. Shrill calls for speedy arrest lead to hasty and often reckless responses. Only patient and cool-headed officers can maintain their composure in the face of a sustained campaign against police inaction. If the arrest is delayed for genuine reasons, say for collecting evidence, it may even lead to a serious law and order situation. In such situations, the macho, tough types, known as the encounter specialists or the “big guns”, step in. The public loves them, politicians patronise them, and criminals are petrified of them. Their ride in the hierarchy is smooth, having gained proximity to the powers that be.

Is the public inured to hard justice? Yes. Because justice delayed is justice denied. People’s faith in the judicial system is broken. The common perception is that the courts never seem to decide. A report by the Public Health Foundation of India states that between 2001 and 2018, rape-related crimes rose by 70 per cent. But only 10 per cent of the cases completed trial by 2018, with acquittals in 73 per cent of such cases.

Despite the speedy arrest and a special court in the December 16, 2012 gang rape and murder case, it took six years for a judgment to be delivered. Forty-six million cases clog our courts; 30 million are criminal cases in the district courts alone. According to Justice (retired) Madan Lokur, the situation is hopeless and beyond repair. How many times have plea bargaining or the Probation of Offenders Act been used to reduce pendency? The SC committee in the Disha case has hauled up the executive and judicial magistrates too for attending to their tasks in a perfunctory manner. Undertrials rot in jails when a majority of them can easily be out on bail having already served half the sentence for their crimes, without being convicted. If this does not dehumanise society, what does?

Several useful recommendations have been made by the SC committee in the Disha case. These include, inter alia, video recording of all investigative processes, use of body-worn cameras and dash cameras, mandatory collection of CCTV footage during investigations, and audio-video recording of statements of witnesses. Implementing these in all cases may not be practical as it would entail huge costs and man-hours. Even CCTV cameras have not been installed in all police stations. But certainly, a start can be made with heinous cases. Perhaps, the most critical need for every police station is access to a forensics team to take charge of the crime scene and collect foreign evidence scientifically. Digital evidence leaves a firm imprint and solid evidence.

The Disha case is another wake-up call. Instant justice and public acclaim give a temporary high but scar the image of the police and the State. As a critical pillar of the criminal justice system with the widest public interface, it is incumbent upon the police chiefs to stay on course. They should firmly caution their men that their job is to bring the accused to justice not to dispense justice.

The writer served as Special Director, Intelligence Bureau, Secretary Security, Government of India, and Central Information Commissioner. He is presently Chairman, Deepstrat, a New Delhi-based Think Tank and Strategic Consultancy.



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Ravi Shankar Prasad writes: From ensuring delivery of government schemes to beneficiaries to developing a fintech ecosystem, the nation is on the right track for development.

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a telling observation about his idea of India: “… every Indian must have a smartphone in his hand and every field must be covered by a drone”. This was a reaffirmation of his commitment that ordinary Indians must be empowered with technology. Digital India is a transformative programme to deliver that objective. He was equally clear that digital technology must be low-cost, developmental, inclusive, and substantially home-grown and it should bridge the digital divide and usher in digital inclusion.

After eight years of digital governance, there is concrete evidence to showcase this digital transformation. India today is home to more than 75 crore smartphones, 133 crore Aadhaar cards, more than 80 crore internet users, has 4G and is now accelerating towards 5G. Above all, it has among the lowest data tariffs in the world. India’s march is the result of PM Modi’s vision, which he shared at the launch of Digital India on July 1, 2015. He had said: “In this digital age, we have an opportunity to transform the lives of people in ways that were hard to imagine just a couple of decades ago. I see technology as a means to empowerment and as a tool that bridges the distance between hope and opportunity.”

Digital India solved some of the most difficult problems the country had been facing for decades. Ensuring delivery of government schemes to its beneficiaries without leakage or misuse remained a herculean task. The Jan-Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity has ensured that the poorest receive every penny of their entitled benefits. Financial benefits worth nearly Rs 23 lakh crore have been transferred using DBT technology in the last eight years. This has led to savings of Rs 2.22 lakh crore of public money.

The digital ecosystem was also useful in tackling the challenge of the pandemic. From bulk messages to people in quarantine areas giving useful information and using digital technology for vaccination to digital education for students when schools were closed, there have been shining examples of empowerment, inclusion and opportunity.

Leveraging the power of drones and GIS technologies, SVAMITVA Yojana is providing digital land records to the rightful owners. This will not only reduce disputes but also facilitate monetisation of land for availing bank loans and enable scientific village level planning. Nearly 2.14 crore land parcels have been digitised so far.

The inclusive character of Digital India not only makes it a unique initiative but also reflects our core philosophy of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas”. Providing access to high-speed internet to the farthest hamlet, ensuring access to assisted digital services for those who cannot use digital technologies and providing digital literacy have been key to making digital growth inclusive. To provide high-speed broadband to all the villages, optical fibre has been laid in 1.83 lakh gram panchayats under Bharat Net. There were only 80,000 Common Service Centers (CSCs) in 2014, which is an entity under the Ministry of Electronics and IT headed by Secretary IT, for providing assisted delivery of digital services to common citizens offering only a few services. Today, there are nearly four lakh CSCs. These CSCs are offering banking, insurance, state and central government services, passport and PAN card services, digital literacy, rural eCommerce services and pre-litigation advice etc.

India has emerged as the fastest-growing ecosystem for fintech innovations. India’s digital payments revolution is being appreciated globally. This was made possible due to innovative digital payment products like UPI and Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Systems (AEPS). When banks and ATMs were shut during Covid-19, AEPS-based micro-ATM at CSCs and post offices provided doorstep delivery of cash.

India has more than 61,400 startups as of March 2022, making it the third-largest startup ecosystem after the US and China. With nearly 14,000 startups getting recognized during 2021-22, 555 districts of India had at least one new startup as per the Economic Survey 2022. It is very refreshing to note that many of these startups are coming from mofussil towns or rural areas. Nearly 44 startups achieved unicorn status in 2021 and in the first four months of 2022, 14 startups have become unicorns.

India is rapidly becoming atmanirbhar in electronics manufacturing. The value of electronics manufacturing in India has touched $75 billion in 2020-21 from $29 billion in 2014. There were only two mobile phone manufacturing units in 2014. With initiatives like Modified Special Incentive Scheme (MSIPS), Electronics Manufacturing Cluster, National Policy on Electronics 2019, Electronics Development Fund, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) and Scheme for Promotion of Electronics Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), India is moving towards self-reliance in the field of electronics manufacturing. Today, there are more than 250 mobile phones, components and accessories manufacturing units. Indian companies have developed their own 4G and 5G technologies. The Modi government’s commitment to making India self-reliant in semiconductor chip manufacturing has also attracted many big investors.

The story of India’s digital transformation is a story of the visionary leadership of PM Modi and his commitment to bringing about inclusive growth and transformation using technology. Digital India’s motto – “Power to Empower” — is truly living up to its goals and expectations. In the last eight years, the success of Digital India only confirms that it has a robust future in India’s development.

The writer is an MP and former Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Communications, Law and Justice



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R G Chandramogan writes: India needs to have a strategy of self-reliance in basic foods, including edible oils.

Consider these two extremes. Sri Lanka, a country with 21.5 million population (less than Tamil Nadu’s 80 million and Kerala’s 34 million), imported dairy products valued at $333.8 million in 2020 and $317.7 million in 2021. The island nation’s imports of whole milk powder (WMP) alone were 89,000 tonnes and 72,000 tonnes in these two years.

One kg of WMP, when reconstituted by adding water, can make nearly 8.5 litres of toned milk with 3 per cent fat and 8.5 per cent solids-not-fat content. The 89,000 tonnes of powder imported in 2020 would have, thus, “produced” almost 2.1 million litres per day (MLPD) equivalent of milk. This is as against the 1.3 MLPD that Sri Lanka produces from its own cows and buffaloes. It translates into an import dependence of over 60 per cent — for a country having very little foreign exchange today to import anything, leave alone milk powder.

At the other end, we have Saudi Arabia, home to over 35 million inhabitants (including immigrants) and also the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy company. Almarai Company has six dairy farms in the desert kingdom that together house some 107,000 Holstein Friesian cows producing more than 3.5 MLPD of milk. The animals are sourced from the US and Europe. The entire feed (about 1.5 million tonnes per year of corn, soyabean meal, cottonseed oilcake and other ingredients) and also forage given to them are procured from abroad. The company has even purchased thousands of acres of land in California, Argentina and Romania to grow alfalfa hay, which is then shipped back for feeding the cattle.

Look at the contrast between the two models: One country importing WMP and adding water. The other producing all its milk domestically, although the animals, feed, fodder and even the technicians manning the dairy farms are wholly imported.

Why is Saudi Arabia taking such pains to produce its own milk from cows, kept in sheds with overhead misters for spraying water droplets and fans to protect them from 50 degrees Celsius desert temperatures?

The answer is food security. The Saudis — other Persian Gulf countries have also copied the Almarai model — are prepared to pay any price when it comes to ensuring availability of a basic food like milk. This, despite not having the land, water or climate required for green fodder cultivation — unlike Sri Lanka that has all the natural resources to become a dairy superpower instead of a super importer. There is a Tamil saying: “Kaile vennai, anaal neyyukku alayaran (the person with butter in his hand is searching for ghee)”. Sri Lanka allowed the butter it had to slip through its fingers.

There are lessons here for India, which is hugely import-dependent in edible oils, just as Sri Lanka has been in dairy. India annually imports 13.5-14.5 million tonnes of vegetable oils, again roughly 60 per cent of its total consumption. Till recently, this didn’t seem to matter. Low international prices meant that the import bill, though high, fell from $9.85 billion in 2012-13 to $9.67 billion in 2019-20. Indian consumers paid more or less the same for imported palm, soyabean and sunflower oil in 2019 that they did in 2012.

But the story has changed in the last couple of years, with retail prices of most oils doubling or more. The value of India’s vegetable oil imports surged to a record $19 billion in 2021-22. It has brought to light the perils of over-dependence on imports of essential food commodities. India may not be facing a forex crisis like Sri Lanka, preventing it from importing even at high global prices. But that isn’t a consolation to Indian consumers having to buy at these prices. They had taken low edible oil prices for granted — just as the Sri Lankans had for milk “produced” from imported powder.

As a country with a population many times that of Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia, India needs to have a strategy of self-reliance in basic foods. Only two years ago, India was under pressure to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement (FTA) and open up its dairy products market to unfettered imports. There was a lot of enthusiasm among user industries, which believed the RCEP would give them access to cheap imported ingredients.

In November 2020, when the deal was signed, international skim milk powder and anhydrous butter fat prices were at $2,700-2,800 and $4,000-4,200 per tonne, respectively. But the government decided to opt out of the agreement, perhaps realising the damage that a previous FTA with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had done to India’s edible oil sector.

Today, when powder and fat prices are at over $4,100 and $6,000 per tonne — they had even crossed $4,600-7,100 levels — the wisdom of that decision has been borne out. Even as the era of cheap cooking oil is over, Indian consumers haven’t experienced much inflation in milk products. If India had become a dairy products importer, like in edible oils, the prices wouldn’t have stopped at $10,000 per tonne. The entire global dairy trade is less than a quarter of India’s annual milk production. The world cannot supply us even if it wants to.

In milk, and in most foods, only we can feed ourselves.

The writer is chairman of the Chennai-based Hatsun Agro Product Ltd



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Saugata Bhattacharya writes: A coordinated policy response – fiscal, monetary, trade, industry – will be required for balancing the multiple macroeconomic policy objectives.

At 8.7 per cent, the National Statistical Office’s latest estimate for GDP growth in 2021-22, while marginally lower than the 8.95 per cent projected in late February, is quite good given the headwinds the economy faced. The slower growth in 2021-22 was due to a downward revision of the estimates in the first two quarters of the year. However, these numbers need to be interpreted carefully, given the base effects of a 6.6 per cent contraction in 2020-21. The quarterly growth numbers in the first three quarters of 2021-22 are a mirror image of the contraction in the first two quarters of 2020-21, followed by a recovery in the third and fourth quarters. Inflation-adjusted GDP in absolute terms in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 was 107 per cent of the pre-pandemic level (2019-20) and 91 per cent in the first quarter.

At a broad sectoral level, agriculture grew at 3 per cent in 2021-22, industry at 9.8 per cent, and services at 8.8 per cent. The two sectors that contributed noticeably towards the fourth-quarter growth moderation were manufacturing (which contracted by 0.2 per cent) and construction (which grew at 2 per cent). Even factoring in the base effects of high growth rates in the corresponding quarter of 2020-21, the weakness is visible. The almost flat manufacturing growth is a bit puzzling, given the 22 per cent growth of merchandise exports in the quarter, and perhaps points to weakness in domestic demand.

A likely explanation is the weakness in informal sector output, which is proxied by the index of industrial production, which grew by 1.2 per cent in the quarter. Equally concerning is the weakness in the construction segment, particularly real estate, where many projects have reportedly been delayed due to rising input costs.

On the other hand, some of the services segments showed relatively strong growth. The most striking is public administration and other services — this segment grew almost 8 per cent and contributed around a fourth of the aggregate 4.1 per cent growth in the value-added. This includes the universe of micro and small local services in education, health, recreation, etc, suggesting a strong recovery in contact services post the opening up of economic activity.

The demand side of GDP, however, indicates some inconsistencies. Government consumption expenditure grew by 4.8 per cent and matches the public administration segment. Private consumption, however, decelerated, with the fourth quarter growth dropping sharply to 1.8 per cent from 7 per cent in the third quarter — this is at odds with the MSME recovery. Fixed capital investment, on the other hand, remained stable, if not robust, growing at 5 per cent, up from 2 per cent in the previous quarter. This was probably dominated by a massive 76 per cent rise in the Centre’s capital expenditure (and to a smaller extent by states’ capex spending). This is puzzling given the weakness in the construction sector. One possible explanation is that perhaps private sector capex had moderated sharply.

So why has the growth narrative become so important now? In the aftermath of an economic shock as large as the pandemic, quarter-on-quarter GDP estimates are important indicators of the momentum of economic activity and will be critical inputs for policymakers. But the growth path for 2022-23 has become muddied by a host of economic, commercial, financial and now geo-economic events, which are likely to persist.

In the near term, leading indicators of economic activity suggest that momentum in April and May, although having moderated compared to March, has remained surprisingly strong, even in the aftermath of the economic shocks emanating from the Ukraine crisis.

Our forecast for GDP growth is 7.1 per cent (very similar to the RBI’s earlier forecast of 7.2 per cent). But the risks are now clearly tilted towards slower growth. First, input costs for manufacturers remain very high, and have not been fully passed on to the end consumers. Diminishing commercial viability has forced many companies to scale down, or even shut, operations — the MSME segment has reportedly been the most affected.

Second, these supply shocks, accelerating with the onset of Covid and then sharply aggravated by the energy and commodity disruptions from Ukraine and the economic sanctions imposed on Russia, have fed into prices across the world. Inflation in most of the developed countries is at multi-decade highs (aided by large fiscal stimulus packages in some countries). Most of the large global central banks have already started aggressively tightening monetary policy. These actions have increased financial market volatility, which has had spillover effects on emerging economies, including India. Consequently, India’s external environment is likely to be less benign than before.

Even before this tightening, global growth and trade had already been forecasted to start slowing in 2022. Merchandise exports from India has been one of the main engines of growth through late 2020-21 and in 2021-22, and this is likely to moderate. In addition, RBI has shifted its priority from promoting durable and sustained growth to taming inflation, by hiking the policy repo rate and starting to drain the surplus funds injected during the pandemic. Lending rates have already increased for many borrowers, particularly MSMEs and home loans, and steep increases in borrowing costs might exert some stress on the repayment ability of weaker borrowers.

In nominal terms, GDP growth in 2021-22 was almost 20 per cent (versus 8.7 per cent real growth), driven by high WPI and CPI inflation. This large divergence might further widen the gap in the distribution of discretionary incomes and consumption among household income classes. While this will moderate over the next couple of years with inflation cooling, this has implications for the redistributive actions of economic, particularly fiscal, policy.

To conclude, while economic activity is recovering at a modest pace, many sectors and segments still seem to be constrained by a weakness in demand and will require continued policy support. A coordinated policy response — fiscal, monetary, trade, industry — will be required for balancing the multiple macroeconomic policy objectives.

The writer is executive vice-president and chief economist, Axis Bank. Views are personal



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Ameeta Mulla Wattal writes: A tribute to Rajni Bala, who taught at Government High School, Gopalpora, in J&K's Kulgam district, and was killed by suspected militants on Tuesday

Because I had a teacher I loved to learn,

I discovered I could do much more than I thought I could.

I realised it was alright when some things were harder than others.

Because I had a teacher, I found that challenges could be fun.

I realised that some of the hardest things I did made me feel the proudest.

Because I had a teacher, I knew how good it felt when someone was happy to see me.

I knew I could always ask for help.

Because I had a teacher, I felt I had a friend on my side.

I saw that some of the most important things were said without words.

Because I had a teacher, I had whole new worlds to explore.

I discovered that what I imagined, could become real.

I felt I could do anything.

Because I had a teacher, I learnt to believe in me’.

(Kobi Yamada, ‘Because I had a teacher’)

Why did you shoot my teacher?

My teacher taught me that we depend on each other for survival. She said that every person is meant to live both for and thanks to others. Her words refracted like light through a prism, revealing all the different ways in which we found ourselves in relationship with the world.

Has the time come for me to rethink what we mean when we say we belong to a particular religion or state? I thought peace and ethics meant appreciation of beauty, striving for truth, pursuit of justice and recognising that some things are good and some are bad, because I had a teacher.

I think they shot me because I was a teacher. My road was not a path, not even a village cart road, my road was the razor’s edge. I evaluated objectively but related to each one of you with my heart. I encouraged but did not favour. I supported but did not create dependency.

I quietened your rages, dried your tears, lifted your fallen spirits, assuaged hurt egos, encouraged bravery. I tried to be human but I was expected to be more than human, because I was a teacher.

I also had an aged parent, a daughter of intellectual promise and cultural sensitivity to be educated. I tried not to look helpless, forlorn, vulnerable and precarious for you all looked up to me, because sometimes you felt the same way. It was not easy for me for I was human too, was I not?

I had dependences to support, illness, anxieties, despair, grief, likes, dislikes, prejudices, for I was human. I felt hunger, thirst, pain, and rapture like any other living being in creation.

“Society, traditions, customs expected me to check but not to dominate, to influence but not indoctrinate, shape but not stultify.

I was never in a position of power but always in a position of deep responsibility. I had views but I was never opinionated. I had affinities but was never partisan” (Gopal Gandhi).

Did you ever think that I did not always need to give but that sometimes I needed to receive?

I was expected to adhere to my ideals but no one saw my reality. I tried to attempt what was difficult, reach a sense of articulateness. Teach a love of language but not become insular. I meant to inculcate a love of community, a love of region but not become parochial, a love of country but not become jingoistic. I tried to teach patriotism which did not end up hating neighbours, instill a pride in swadeshi but not allow it to degenerate into cultural ghettoism.

My life was not easy because I was a teacher.

The killings in Kashmir have drawn in homes, schools and communities, which have become a melting pot of emotions, desires, attitudes, religious intolerance, caste and community feelings, creating an atmosphere of discord. A child’s mind is a garden that contains seeds of understanding, forgiveness and love along with seeds of ignorance, fear and hatred that will make him violent or peaceful, understanding or intolerant, depending upon which seeds are watered.

A thinking school can create a learning environment filled with compassion and communication. If teachers in schools are threatened, how will children learn to cope with anxiety, aggression, fear, express tenderness, trust and love.

In order to build a world where children are empowered, it is important to create a close and supportive relationship between the community and school. We can only give our children who we are and what we possess.

When will society come together to ensure that peace is not a set of dogmas that have to be taught? It is an entire approach to life, nature and oneself. Demonising the other on issues of identity, religion, class, caste will never help in inculcating in children a sense of sensitivity, social justice and peaceful linkages with the other.

I am not with you today, but always remember that education is about living life as a human being, about relations and relationships, about living together in a common understanding.

You need to imagine yourselves as broadcasters, tall beacons of ideas, pulsing out messages everywhere. All of you, stating, clarifying, discussing, debating, collaborating, filling space with thoughts that you care about.

If you do that, new fields will develop and with them, their wondrous capacities to bring energy, light and understanding into form. If you create a field of vision which is not coherent and sincere, you will encounter other fields of intolerance, hatred and dissonance.

It is important to remember that space is never empty. If you don’t fill it with harmony, joy, and caring, say one thing but do another, you will create discord in the very space in which you belong.

Remember these words “because I was your teacher”.

The writer is Chairperson and Executive Director, Education, Innovations and Training, DLF Foundation Schools and Scholarship Programmes



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Another piece has fallen into place for BJP’s grand strategy on 2022 Gujarat assembly elections – Hardik Patel is set to cross over from Congress. From regular sojourns by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to scheduling Gujarat visits by foreign notables like Boris Johnson and Tedros Ghebreyesus, to back-pedalling on unpopular administrative decisions like the Par-Tapi-Narmada interlinking – BJP has been on the ball. Not to mention its smooth realpolitik of engineering defections. Partly this is how today’s BJP is and partly BJP remembers how close it came to getting knocked out in the PM’s home state in 2017 polls.

Patidar unrest was one of the reasons for the near-upset in 2017. Though Bhupendrabhai Patel was appointed CM last year with an all-new cabinet, BJP’s Patidar outreach isn’t stopping with that. A potential worry is the political ambitions of Naresh Patel, an influential Leuva Patidar and who’s in talks with Congress. But Congress is missing its 2017 mojo. The death of Ahmed Patel and defections of other leaders – OBC face Alpesh Thakor, resourceful Indranil Rajguru, and Ashwin Kotwal, a three-term MLA from the tribal belt – are hurting. Winning may be the only antidote against Congress desertions. The party has been out of office in Gujarat since 1995. From 77 MLAs in 2017, Congress’s legislative contingent has dropped to 63. Moreover, traction for issues that propelled it in 2017 – job quotas, GST and low cotton prices – has receded.

In fact, higher cotton and groundnut prices this year should make Gujarat’s 53 lakh farmers and 25 lakh agricultural labourers happier. But Gujarat’s strong industrial base means farmers aren’t the only swing vote. The state has an equally big share of MSME and factory workers for whom inflation has worrying portends – 19 lakh workers are engaged in factories while MSMEs employ 61 lakh people (one caveat: these include many migrant workers). Rising input costs that make industries struggle and in second-round effects hit household consumption, in fact, pinch everyone. This is where Gujarat’s low state taxes on fuel may benefit BJP.

Until some months ago, Congress was prepared to make Covid handling a primary election issue. But this year’s five-state elections signal that moment may have passed. The ruthless sacking of the Vijay Rupani government may have also mitigated Covid-related anti-incumbency. Further, the Patel government accepted compensation claims for over 80,000 Covid deaths by February, despite just over 10,000 official deaths. And while AAP is still the new kid, it may end up stealing some Congress votes, giving BJP one more reason to smile.



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India’s aviation industry has had it tough since the outbreak of Covid. Operations were suspended for a couple of months in 2020 and resumption came with conditions attached. Given the nature of the health emergency, there were limits imposed on the number of seats that could be occupied in an aircraft. Simultaneously, GoI also extended assistance in the form of a price band for air tickets that initially provided a floor price when operating conditions were tilted against airlines. Even GST on domestic maintenance and repair was lowered from 18% to 5%.

But now, normalcy is back in domestic aviation. Restrictions on seating have been removed. The passenger load factor, therefore, has increased. On May 31, it ranged between 77% and 87% for the six large domestic airlines. Given the overall improvement, the lingering anomaly in the domestic aviation policy is the price band on air tickets that is applicable on a rolling basis for 15-day cycles. It is at odds with the March 1994 decision to deregulate tariff fixation in the aviation industry, a milestone in the liberalisation of the sector. There’s no case for regulating tariffs any longer and it should be freed.

An argument made by GoI in favour of tariff regulation is that it helps both airlines and flyers. Experience across multiple industries, aviation included, has shown that it actually ends up creating distortions which lead to rent-seeking behaviour. If input costs, particularly aviation turbine fuel that normally represents about 40% of operating costs, are increasing, airlines should be free to price tickets to reflect it. With the imminent increase in competition in domestic aviation, some firms may want to use pricing as a tool to attract traffic. A regulatory floor price should not prevent it. Save for ensuring safety standards are met, there’s no case for micromanagement in aviation.



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GoI is pushing ahead with the sale of its residual stake in Hindustan Zinc, which could make a sizeable contribution to this year's disinvestment target after the lower-than-expected proceeds from the LIC listing.

GoI is facing a rough patch in reducing its role in business. Private investors are lukewarm to its disinvestment plans and some of the interest being shown is of suspect provenance. Since the beginning of this year, the government has sold Air India to the Tatas after writing off most of the airline's accumulated debt and losses. It had to reduce the size of Life Insurance Corporation's (LIC) initial public offering (IPO) as portfolio investors became skittish in a volatile financial market. It has called off the sale of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) after failing to find a strategic investor. It is reviving sales of Central Electronics Ltd and Pawan Hans Ltd with new rules in place seeking bona fides after questions arose over the financial probity of bidders.

GoI is pushing ahead with the sale of its residual stake in Hindustan Zinc, which could make a sizeable contribution to this year's disinvestment target after the lower-than-expected proceeds from the LIC listing. It also intends to put Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) on the block despite delays over hiving off its non-core assets. The LIC IPO, originally scheduled for 2021-22, set back the divestment proceeds for the year. This led to the government missing even its revised disinvestment target of ₹78,000 crore, a pale shadow of the original ambition of raising ₹1.75 lakh crore. Disinvestment receipts have missed reduced revised estimates in two of the four preceding years, and this year's budget estimate is a more prudent ₹65,000 crore.

The difficulties in accomplishing strategic sales is a matter of concern. This route should ideally be more acceptable to buyers who might be wary of boarding state-run enterprises as minority shareholders. LIC's stock price has been trending down since listing in an indication of the market's perception of government influence in managerial decision-making. It is vital that the privatisation pipeline finds viable takers. Lowering disinvestment ambitions not only affects government finances but it also blunts competition in the economy.

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A more balanced committee of creditors that includes operational creditors, giving voting rights in proportion to their due amounts, is needed.

There is a need to strengthen the insolvency resolution process. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) must swiftly finalise the code of conduct for the committee of creditors (CoC), mainly in banks. The code is meant to provide clarity on the scope of the responsibilities of the CoC. It adds another layer of oversight, given that banks are already regulated by the RBI and public sector bankers are also under the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The draft norms that cover disclosure of any conflict of interest, not acquiring any assets of the corporate debtor and adhering to bankruptcy code timelines are fine. Robust enforcement must go hand in hand.

A more balanced CoC that includes operational creditors, giving voting rights in proportion to their due amounts, is needed. Today, banks represented on the CoC are in the driver's seat with the power to decide whether to keep the distressed company as a 'going concern' or to liquidate it. The only exception is the housing sector. The priority of payments in a resolution plan that entails sale of the company as a 'going concern' is decided by the CoC. And the proceeds from liquidation of the company are to be distributed first to secured lenders and to pay off workmen's dues before payments are made to unsecured and operational creditors. This has been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court.

Operational creditors include MSMEs and small entities. So, concerns that payments made to operational creditors are almost negligible under the resolution plan are not misplaced. But any change in the composition of the CoC and the legislative scheme towards the payment to the operational creditors to arrive at a fair and equitable distribution must be well-thought-through.

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Two years after the Covid-19 outbreak, which reminded the world about the deep linkages between the environment and human health, senior government representatives, including 10 Heads of State and members of civil society, are meeting in Sweden this week for the Stockholm+50 conference. The meeting (June 2-3) commemorates 50 years of the 1972 United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment, which made the environment a pressing global issue for the first time, established the United Nations Environment Programme, and began an essential dialogue between industrialised and developing countries on the links between the environment, economic growth, and human wellbeing. The discussions of the 1972 meeting, attended by 113 countries, also provided a template for every major climate- and environment-related international treaties, from the Rio Earth Summit to Kyoto to the Paris climate meets, and global programmes since then.

The Stockholm+50 is being held at a time when the climate crisis, the fallout of mindless development and resource extraction, is ravaging the world, and impoverishing people. It is causing more frequent extreme weather events, leading to severe rainfall and droughts. These, in turn, have massive collateral impacts: Worsening food and water scarcity, political instability and distress migration. The Stockholm+50 will, hopefully, also accelerate another crucial (but slow-moving) plan: The implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, an action plan to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy prosperity.

At the 1972 summit, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said, “There is no alternative to a cooperative approach on a global scale to the entire spectrum of our problems.” On Tuesday, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, who is attending the current summit, reiterated that thought when he reminded the world that it “stands at an inflection point” and that “urgent, collective global action with the spirit of equity is required more than ever before.” Stockholm+50 is an opportunity for nations to steer humanity back on the path to a healthy planet. Whether nations can rise to the challenge remains to be seen.



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One of the earliest, and most polarising, demands of the Mandal movement that upended politics in the Hindi heartland was that of a caste census. The potential of caste conflict, political churn and possible unrest kept governments away from this controversial project — with the exception of the United Progressive Alliance 2 government, but the data of the socio-economic and caste census ordered in 2011 were never revealed over alleged data and methodological infirmities — but this week, Bihar appeared to finally bite the bullet with the announcement of a caste survey.

If implemented — and it’s not clear yet if this will be a full physical headcount — this will be the first time in independent India that any government has estimated the relative strength of any caste group. It will set a precedent for other governments to bypass rules that say census can only be conducted by the Centre and create pressure on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to decide its stance on this issue. Nevertheless, the decision is important for three reasons. One, it has the potential to realign politics in Bihar. Nitish Kumar’s announcement came after weeks of political churn with the Rashtriya Janata Dal pushing for what it sees as a chance to create a new constituency of supporters beyond Yadavs and Muslims. Of course, Mr Kumar is a veteran of this game, having sculpted a base of smaller backward castes and creating a new Extremely Backward Class group, and any confrontation will pit him against his old foe, Lalu Prasad, in possibly their last political face-off. Two, it represents the first serious challenge to the BJP’s caste-based outreach model — the rain-bow Hindu coalition of upper caste, backwards and Dalits — which has yielded the party rich electoral dividends. The party backed the exercise in Bihar, but can it afford to alienate upper castes, who are unlikely to back such a move, nationally? The party will have to make renewed efforts to ensure that friction between Other Backward Classes and upper castes, its twin core, is sufficiently managed.

Three, any form of concrete numbers is bound to have an impact on social relations beyond Bihar. It has the potential to create a new moment of caste churn, one that India hasn’t witnessed in decades. Apart from the exercise itself likely opening a Pandora’s Box, organising a caste count is tough. There are perils arising from enumerators with preconceived notions about caste, there is the challenge of ensuring diversity of officials, and there is the danger of the exercise itself cementing identities. The Bihar government and all political parties will have to deliberate carefully on every step from this point on.



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In 2014, Narendra Modi became only the second Indian Prime Minister (PM) to ascend to the top post while being a sitting chief minister (HD Deve Gowda was the first). This is why when PM Modi spoke passionately of cooperative federalism, there was a sense that he genuinely wanted to reimagine the skewed balance of power between the Centre and state governments. Eight years later, that promise of a federal compact is falling apart, trapped in vindictive politics, mutual recrimination and the hubris of near-absolute power.

Last week, the PM was in Tamil Nadu, one of the few states in the country to have resisted the Modi juggernaut. Which is why it wasn’t surprising that in the presence of the PM, chief minister (CM) MK Stalin warned the central government to not impose Hindi on the state. The Tamil language is central to the Dravidian identity and by asserting its importance, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader was only drawing a lakshman rekha (inviolable line) in a long-running feud between Delhi and Chennai.

It’s not just the familiar North- South linguistic “wars”. South of the Vindhyas, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under PM Modi is perceived as a majority party of the Hindi heartland, wielding disproportionate power over decision-making. The BJP may have attempted to shake off its “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan” narrative, but the reality is that its primary affiliation is tied to a typical north Indian political and cultural ethos. Moreover, the emergence of southern states such as Tamil Nadu as economic powerhouses has ignited a renewed self-confidence in distinctive regional identities, which can’t be subsumed under an overarching, homogenising Hindu Rashtra (nation) ideology.

A broader, more ominous Centre versus states conflict is raging on a range of issues, from revenue-sharing formulas and administrative controls to the implementation of the all-India National Eligibility cum Entrance Test medical exam. When finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced tax cuts on fuel and exhorted states to also reduce their taxes, several states refused to bite the bullet. The idea of the Centre “dictating” tax structures” appears increasingly unpalatable to states miffed by the Goods and Services Tax reducing their financial autonomy.

There is yet another sharpening cleavage: BJP versus non-BJP-ruled states. When, for example, the PM appeals to voters to support “double engine” governments, he effectively creates a stark hierarchy between the BJP and Opposition-ruled states. Election rhetoric can be discounted, but when at an official prime ministerial meeting with CMs on Covid-19 control in April, Opposition-ruled states are singled out for failing to bring down fuel taxes, the “us” versus “them” feeling gets heightened. Last year, Opposition states were blamed for the initial vaccination distribution mess. A clash of egos lies at the heart of this blame game: When vaccine certificates carry the PM’s face and every government scheme is identified with the persona of the PM, powerful CMs are bound to be put off. The growing friction is best exemplified in Bengal, where a brazenly partisan governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, is in the midst of an almost daily tug of war with a combative CM Mamata Banerjee, to the point where the constitutional separation of powers is being systematically undermined.

The trust deficit is also widening because central enforcement agencies are hyperactive in Opposition-ruled states. Almost every Opposition CM and their aides are under the Enforcement Directorate’s watch. Is it the case that only Opposition leaders are crooked and the ruling BJP governments are populated with saints? Rather than provide any reassurance, the Centre has been dismissive of the Opposition’s charge of misuse of these agencies.

While an imperious Centre helmed by a Supreme Leader cult may feel emboldened to call the shots, thanks to a string of election victories, the institutional damage an asymmetry of power between the Centre and states could do is enormous. A robust multi-party democracy such as India cannot be diminished to a single party, a single leader elected autocracy, where crucial decision-making is devoid of consultative processes.

Ironically, one of the reasons PM Modi shut down the Planning Commission was that, as Gujarat CM, he didn’t want Delhi-based “non-elected” bureaucrats to dictate terms to “elected” leaders. Today, the Modi governance model encourages the same centralising tendencies that he once railed against as CM. The wheel is coming full circle.

Post-script: Taking a cue perhaps from the defiant Banerjee, Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao avoided meeting the PM in Hyderabad last week by flying out to Bengaluru just ahead of the visit, where PM Modi accused the Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief of promoting “family raj”. In April, when the PM was conferred the first Lata Mangeshkar award in Mumbai, one-time ally, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, stayed away. This rupture in relations is worrying: Cooperative federalism is now tangled in viciously competitive and self-destructive politics.

Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author

The views expressed are personal



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It seems like another world now when I look back upon that period in 1997: Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West had come out with an anthology of 50 years of Indian writing and declared that the best writing happened only in English. Heated responses followed, understandably. Starting from Rushdie’s anglicisation and, therefore, his ignorance of what is produced in Indian languages to the absence of good English translations — many writers and scholars weighed in ferociously.

And yet, it feels like a mild response today, considering how offensive Rushdie was. Comparisons between writing in English and writing in “regional” languages were often made and a lamentable lack of good translations held responsible for allowing disproportionate importance to writing in English. Such binaries have ceased to matter, and the tide turned towards writing in Indian languages over the years. Almost 20 years after the event I recounted, a moment of triumph appeared last week when Hindi novel Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand) won the International Booker Prize.

Ret Samadhi is written by a woman and translated from Hindi to English by a woman. This is striking because the history of translation, especially in English, was dominated by men from the 19th to the mid-20th century. These were white men to start with, and later Indians who needed to put their history in order. William Jones’ translations of the Manusrmiti and Abhignanshakuntalam come to mind. So do Charles Wilkins and Nathaniel Halhed. Legal and spiritual texts, and almost entirely Sanskrit works, interested early translators.

The roots of English translation lay in wanting to know and conquer through the rules of the conquered. Occasionally, as was the case with Shakuntala, the endeavour created the beginning of what came to be constructed as “Indian” literature. Jones’ translation of Abhignanshakuntalam called Sakontala or The Fatal Ring in English became popular and authoritative. It appeared in 1789 and a startled Europe opened its eyes to the East and set in motion a circulation of idyllic and pastoral images, severed from their social context. Between Jones and Rushdie’s dismissal in the 1990s lies an uneven history of English translations carried out by Indians and occasionally by non-Indians. And then, there was the translation of Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore himself — an important milestone, even if its making and consequences left many dissatisfied, including Tagore.

After 1947, the ambiguous and controversial position of English did not provide an atmosphere conducive for “original” and translated works in English. The independent State conveyed its first gesture of patronage towards creative writing in English by conferring the Sahitya Akademi award on RK Narayan (1965).

The ground began to shift visibly after the 1990s and a steady rise in the production, reception and circulation of translation has continued since then. We have seen remarkable richness in this archive with writings from Dalit and other marginal groups making interventions in the syllabi and our understanding of the literary and political landscape in India. The demography of what might be seen as “source” material has shifted remarkably and we might be seeing translation as a site of democratic aspirations.

I must return to the occasion that inspired this reflection. Both Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell are known to those interested in Hindi literature and translation. Shree’s former works Mai and Khali Jagah have also been translated by reputed academics such as Nita Kumar and Nivedita Menon, respectively. The delicacy of her style, the thickness of time, the attention to spaces, and especially to the unspoken mark Shree out as a unique writer. So, an English translation of Shree’s work is not by itself a new phenomenon. It’s a different matter that Ret Samadhi has epic dimensions that perhaps the earlier novels did not.

Rockwell is known to us from her translations of Upendranath Ashk’s fiction. A highly respected and sensitive translator, Rockwell says in her introduction to Ashk’s book, “Perhaps a translator should hope that her readers will develop a taste for the author in English so that she can bring out more of the author’s works in translation in the future. My hope, however, is the opposite: That some of these stories will indue a few readers — even just one or two will do — to turn their feet towards a Hindi bookshop one day.” Rockwell’s inwardness with Shree’s prose is a remarkable achievement of Tomb of Sand. As such, women tell stories, and stories are feminine in ways that are difficult to illustrate. Women also translate the stories of other women, and there is a long tradition in the world of women translating women, incidentally a project undertaken at the Ashoka Centre for Translation.

The recognition conferred upon Tomb of Sand is significant in consolidating this phenomenon even further. The women have narrated it, they are the subject of the narration, and they are the translators of the tale. They touch the border every now and then — borders of nations, of language, of experience. The opening lines of both the Hindi original and the English translation of Shree’s novel capture the promise of a saga about a woman.

Ek kahani apne aap ko kahegi, mukammal kahani hogi aur adhoori bhi, jaisa kahanio ka chalan hai. Dilchasp kahani hai, usme sarhad hai aur auratein, jo aati hai, jaati hai, aarampar. Aurat aur sarhad ka sath ho toh khudbakhud kahani ban jati hai. Balki aurat bhar bhi kahani hai. Sugbugi se bhari, phir jo hawa chalti hai usme kahani udti hai.

A tale tells itself. It can be complete, but also incomplete, the way all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you’ve got women and a border, a story can write itself. Even women on their own are enough.Women are stories in themselves, full of stirrings and whisperings that float on the wind, that bend with each blade of grass.

Rita Kothari is professor, (English), Ashoka University

The views expressed are personal



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Diljit Dosanjh walks into a bar, fresh from a break-up. He asks the concierge broken-heartedly the estimated value of the establishment’s inventory, pays it off in hard cash with an almost matching tip, and then issues a warning: to keep shut about what is to follow. He takes large swigs to make short work of a bottle of whisky and goes on to vandalise the place. The drinking and the mindless violence change the mood and he leaves the place dancing. No lives lost, no living beings harmed. The sequence is from Dosanjh’s hit Panj Tara (five star).

Thankfully, the lowest depths his rage plumbs is the trashing of a cocktail mountain creatively set up by an industrious bartender. Because, don’t we all know, worse could have happened. A Punjabi pop star of today’s is supposed to be a high-T, man’s man who doesn’t take bad news well. Breaking glasses at a watering hole is relatively low-T. T, to those not in on the rap scene, is short for testosterone, ostensibly a driver of heteronormative stardom.

Literature and art from the region with a blood-soaked history have always been characterised by a fair share of veer ras (valour) and hasya ras (humour) but, over the past few years, the musical sensibility has taken an obsessive turn towards gang culture. This may come as a surprise to the uninitiated but it’s common in Punjabi music to use the sound of real gunfire as a percussion instrument.

Sidhu Moosewala was not the first young superstar showing off a morbid fascination with firearms and will, unfortunately, not be the last, though his cultural imprint as a desi gangsta rap icon is unlikely to be equalled. In a perverse way, his murder by pumping 24 bullets into him — he fired two shots in self-defence, according to Gurvinder Singh, a friend riding with him — will cement his legacy.

As stars national and international — from Anil Kapoor to Drake — mourn the loss, the question on unfamiliar observers’ lips is what made Moosewala great? For one, his songs had heavy punching power, rousing lyrics delivered in a roaring voice. In a landscape infested with uncompromising masculinity, Moosewala was the alpha male. Fans saw in him a no-bullshit idol who was authentic — honest, stubborn, unsophisticated, representing old-school retrosexual values.

His subjects weren’t unusual — just good-old guns, girls, gaddis (cars), apparently things of everyday concern to the stereotypical Jatt flogged endlessly by the music industry — but their treatment was. Moosewala’s iteration of the Jatt was not the more common happy-go-lucky, yaaran-da-yaar (friend of friends) agrarian villager, or the prosperous urban pendu (rustic) driving his mates around in a Bentley. It was more likely to be the over-age college senior interfering in student union polls, leading an entourage of G-Wagons, or simply a trigger-happy member of a gun club in downtown Toronto.

Punjab’s stars put themselves out there to be judged on their choice of cars and guns, and the fans love to oblige. The opening verses of a Dosanjh hit announce the narrator has a car with an eight-figure price tag while in a collaboration with rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh we were informed that the hunter friends, Dosanjh and Singh, have but one hobby — recreationally firing gunshots — that keeps them on the perpetual lookout for “new prey”.

While Dosanjh, the only Punjabi singer with a social media following larger than Moosewala’s at last count, went mainstream with acting gigs in Bollywood after playing the lead in regional blockbusters. His musical choices evolved too: to happier pop songs with a wider appeal. But, Moosewala, in his short career, remained true to his original genre: earthy ballads set to a rap beat and mouthed with a visceral impact, not letting the listener forget that this is a land historically watered by blood.

In a song, he serves a dire warning to rivals fancying themselves as songwriters by just copying his work: they’ll be torn apart and thrown away by Moosewala (the reference to oneself in the third person lends a sinister touch to the threat that sounds chillingly real). Even a problem as academic as plagiarism is sought to be addressed through violence.

Stage personas are rarely true though. Moosewala, the gangsta rap legend, was not a real gangster just as Moosewala, the assembly election candidate, was not a real politician. It was in his own world of music that he ruled. As he asserted in the super hit Dhakka (by force), no votes are cast in the jungle. An artist and his art are said to shape each other, and one is hauntingly left to ponder if the latest from Moosewala’s meagre but influential body of work — eerily titled The Last Ride — was a self-fulfilling lyrical prophecy.

The views expressed are personal



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Recently, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) housed within the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) issued guidelines for cybersecurity, under Section 70-B of the Information Technology (IT) Act. The stated goal is to “augment and strengthen the cybersecurity in the country” and “coordinate response activities as well as emergency measures with respect to cybersecurity incidents.”

The guidelines, among other things, have mandated all service providers, data centres, corporate bodies, and government organisations to report all cyber incidents within six hours. Cyber incidents include data leaks and breaches, attacks on mobile apps, unauthorised access to IT systems, identity thefts, and phishing attacks. They are also required to maintain logs of all their tech systems for a rolling period of 180 days within the Indian jurisdiction. In addition, virtual private network (VPN) service provider details, details of customers of data centres and virtual asset exchange providers (for example, crypto-exchanges), have also been covered under the directives.

Industry bodies from Europe and the United States (US) such as the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-India Business Council have argued that these directives may make it more difficult to do business in India. Others have argued that internationally recognised principles such as “storage limitation”, “purpose limitation”, and “data minimisation” have been ignored, and overly excessive requirements have been put in place. 

Data localisation requirements — implicit in the guidelines — have also been opposed by foreign big tech firms which are not in favour of data localisation. Critics have also argued that the end-users — those who have been victims of the cyber-attacks — have not been given any clarity or protection via these guidelines.

Ultimately, a balance will need to be found between the stated objectives of the government and the concerns raised by certain quarters. The cyber domain and the connected networks are built, owned, managed, controlled, and operated by a multitude of players. The security of cyberspace, therefore, cannot remain the domain, or even the responsibility, of just the government. This is unlike the physical domain, where law and order, defence, and national security are largely the responsibility of the government. The onus of securing the defence of privately-owned computer systems and connected industrial networks must lie on the private owners as well. The government’s role is to support private players with policy frameworks, law enforcement, information sharing, diplomacy, and, where needed and appropriate, military force.

Both sectors must realise that private-public cooperation will be essential if India, like other nations, is to achieve a greater level of cybersecurity. The capabilities to identify, detect, report, resist, and counter cyberattacks lie much more in the private sector today than in the public. The government recognises this, as is evident from the nature of the guidelines issued by CERT-In. The private sector also needs to recognise its role and responsibilities in this shared goal of a cyber-secure India.

A body comprising representatives of key tech players and service providers along with government cybersecurity officials and experts must be constituted that can improve the communication, information, and capabilities between the public and private sectors when it comes to successfully defending against cyberattacks. This body can also deliberate on how to put in place certain obligations and responsibilities on private sector firms, and what incentives, if any, must accompany such obligations.

Public-private sector cooperation will also be critical in building up resilience against such cyberattacks. The ability to get any products, services or infrastructure up and running again quickly post an attack is as important as being able to identify or prevent an attack in the first place. The capabilities to build such resilience will need to be pooled together as well.

Countries like the US have already recognised this. There, large tech firms, as well as cybersecurity firms, have become critical partners. For example, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), established in 2005 in the US, is a powerful but not widely known coalition of private companies working collaboratively with the US National Security Agency and the broader US security establishment. A brief survey of the INSA website shows that its list of corporate members includes IT services firms such as Booz Allen Hamilton and Accenture, and tech firms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Adobe, CISCO, Dell EMC, Intel, IBM, Oracle, Verizon, Cloudera and Salesforce.

The debate around the CERT-In guidelines also reflects the fact that India’s cybersecurity efforts and policies will go through multiple stages of iteration and evolution, as cyber warfare becomes more prevalent. As I have argued in my book, The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, India needs to evolve a comprehensive and well-thought-out cyber doctrine, that is, a clear set of guiding principles and objectives, matched by the requisite cyber-defence and cyber-offence capabilities. We must also be clear on the strategy, the partners, and the capabilities required to achieve those cyber-capabilities.

So, while the guidelines are a much-needed interim step to have the requisite information to identify and counter such attacks, the debate around the specific provisions must actually become part of a larger cyber-doctrine conversation in India. The conversation must be a two-way street between the government and private actors. But most importantly, the action plan must be a coordinated one as well.

Anirudh Suri is managing director, India Internet Fund and author of The Great Tech Game

The views expressed are personal



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Last week, a photo shared by ANI, a news agency, went viral. It showed plastic bottles, discarded plastic sheets, and other waste materials strewn across a camping area near the Kedarnath temple, Uttarakhand, with the pristine snow-covered Himalayan range in the background. As the photographs went viral, many citizens and environmentalists raised concerns about the long-term effects of such mindless actions on the ecologically sensitive area, prone to flash floods and landslides. On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also raised the issue and exhorted pilgrims not to litter the area and maintain the dignity of pilgrimage sites.

But what’s surprising about those photographs? Our hill towns, mountain slopes, and trek routers are littered with waste of all kinds. This is absolutely shameful. The new highway that is being built to connect the four pilgrim towns — Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri, and Gangotri — will only bring more such pilgrims/tourists who don’t understand the value of these ecologically important regions. So, brace for more waste and pollution. It’s a disaster in the making unless some drastic measures on waste management are taken.

The unique topography and climatic condition of the Himalayas — including British-era urban hill towns, protected areas, and high-altitude and remote villages that are part of trekking routes — requires a special approach toward solid waste management, says a World Bank report (India: Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Mountain Areas, 2021). Addressing these challenges, the report added, can unlock tremendous opportunities for local communities. Cleaner areas help provide a more attractive environment for tourism. Waste, if treated as a potential resource, can create jobs and new business opportunities for local entrepreneurs and be used as an energy source and fertiliser substitute.

Keeping the mountains pristine

This is exactly what Pradeep Sangwan, who runs the Healing Himalayas Foundation (HHF), has been saying for years and striving to implement on the ground.

Born and brought up in Haryana, Sangwan, an alumnus of Rashtriya Military School, Ajmer, became interested in the mountains and their ecology, and the local communities, during his college-going years when he would often trek to the Himalayas.

“With every passing year, I saw how irresponsible tourists and trekkers were destroying the beautiful areas. The locals were benefiting from tourism and were unaware of what this destruction could lead to,” he told me over a phone call from Kaza, Himachal Pradesh, on Tuesday.

In 2016, he started HHF to sensitise people on the protection of the Himalayas, promoting ethical travel and preserving the environment of the sacred region. The HHF team conducts 40-50 cleanup treks a year with volunteers. So far, HHF has helped collect more than 800,000 kgs of non-biodegradable waste from the foothills of the Himalayas. “It will take a lifetime to clean up the mess,” he says.

Drastic action

While doing these sorties, Sangwan realised that only clean-ups would not do; a long-term solution to the burgeoning problem is required. So now, along with clean-ups, Sangwan is spending time conceptualising and building material recovery facilities (MRFs). An MRF is a plant that separates and prepares single-stream recycling materials to be sold to end buyers.

To date, four MRFs are in various stages of development in Himachal Pradesh, where HHF primarily works: Rakcham (operational), Kinnaur; Narkanda (Shimla) and Pooh (Kinnaur, under construction, will be operational on June 5); Tabo (construction to start on June 15 and will be operational by August 1); Khoksar and Sissu (land allotment for MRFs under process).

At an MRF, multi-layered packaging is shredded and stored for road construction; PET bottles/containers and glass are sold for recycling; and sanitary waste is incinerated.

“Such a decentralised approach in the remote region is ideal because these areas lack source-segregation, waste aggregation and disposal of the waste. Since the amount of waste is not huge like in cities, recyclers don’t venture into these areas,” says Sangwan. Each of these MRFs will cater to the waste management needs of two or three villages.

However, the setting up of an MRF is not easy.

“We have to get the panchayat and local administration’s permission for land and other operational issues; and then get the local people on board to participate in this waste management and recovery programme,” said Sangwan. “A lot of time, energy and manpower are invested into community outreach activities, mainly focusing on the roles and responsibility of the villages, before we start the construction of an MRF.”

The model has to be self-sustainable, adds Sangwan: Commercial properties (bulk waste generators) must pay monthly to run daily operations. Panchayat must utilise funds from the Swachh Bharat Mission for the same, and the money accrued from selling the waste to recyclers must benefit a local community member managing an MRF.

While Sangwan is trying to fine-tune the ideal waste management solution for the mountains, he says it’s not the solution, instead, everyone’s focus should always be on reducing the use of non-biodegradable products in these areas and “mindful recreation and consumption”.

“I keep the environment in my mind while I travel… I keep my litter with me until I find a proper place to dispose of it and prefer to involve in the circular economy at the third pole of the world,” he added.

The views expressed are personal



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There is a thin line separating politically weakened law enforcement agencies allowing the powerful and mighty to get away with any crime from a probe against top leaders becoming politically vindictive. The Enforcement Directorate must muster all strength from within to remain professional and fair during the entire probe against the top leadership of the Congress party in the National Herald case.

The Enforcement Directorate summons to the Gandhis on June 8 did come as a surprise to most people, who must have presumed that case had lost its way. It was the way of doing things long ago, when political courtesy or an unspoken barter ensured no government probed the wrongdoings of its rival and ensured that such cases never reached a logical end.

 

But things have changed in India, with at least two former chief ministers, the once mighty J. Jayalalithaa and Lalu Prasad Yadav, being convicted; it was only a play of fate that ensured that just Lalu, and Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala, ended up serving severe imprisonment terms.  

The Congress, understandably, has called it a witch hunt, arguing a famous redux of the 2G scam defence, of zero or notional loss, saying the case was political, dubbing it “weird”, because there was no money transaction involved in the entire matter. The charges, as per the supporters of the Grand Old Party, were “more hollow” than a pack of cards. A strange phrase, that.

 

Senior lawyer and party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “We are not a bit scared, or overawed, or intimidated… by such cheap tactics.”

The BJP responded quickly, with its party president J. P. Nadda arguing that documents don’t lie and that guilty people never accept their crimes. However, the party knows that the case, especially with the supreme family being directly charged, is highly political, and its repercussions would be more political than legal.

In its worst moments, the Congress Party has been known to find political life and revival of electoral fortunes when public sympathy goes the Gandhi family way. The symbolism of Sonia Gandhi, now suffering from Covid, going to the Enforcement Directorate office to submit her response is not without its share of risk for the ruling side.

 

The other side of the political irony in the case is that BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who initiated the case with gusto nearly a decade ago, is now hardly keen to please the top brass of his own party. Mr Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis had indulged in “cheating” and “misappropriation of funds”, while acquiring the newspaper historically owned by the party.

While there cannot be any argument seeking special treatment for the Gandhis, or anyone, or any immunity from legal consequence of their actions, it cannot become a case of ED pursuing the matter to please their political masters, who then use the ED, or any other agency, to service their political ends.

 

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram tweeted, “Money laundering without money is like alleging purse snatching without a purse.”

The ED must prove itself clean in this crucial case. Justice must not only be done in the end, but the entire process must also be fair and above board.



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The circumstances of the untimely and tragic death of playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, popularly known as K.K., in Kolkata after a live event raise certain questions. That he had endeared himself to several generations of music aficionados was evident from the way people, including the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, as well as others lining up to bid him goodbye, remembered him.

The police have ruled out foul play in his death but reports suggest that he was made to conduct his performance under extremely insalubrious circumstances.

 

The auditorium has a seating capacity of less than 3,000 people but more than double that number of people was present. The air-conditioner was dysfunctional and the venue had hardly any ventilation. The series of spotlights that emit a considerable amount of heat along with illumination added to the singer’s discomfiture. One simply fails to understand how the organisers can get everything wrong and the authorities merrily allow the concert to happen. How can an artiste perform in such a situation and the audience enjoy the performance? A series of factors could have caused the unfortunate death other than the singer’s health but the organisers and the civic authorities must be made to answer why they allowed the show to go on.

 

India is slowly returning to normal life after a couple of years of shutdown. There was very little public activity in the preceding years owing to the pandemic Covid-19. Artistes were confined to their homes and music lovers had little options. Huge crowds may converge at the first opportunity on such events but the municipal authorities in every town and every city must wake up to the fact that there will be greedy people out to cash in on the rush and it could result in avoidable tragedies.



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The confusing communications from the Union government on Aadhaar or the unique identification number, and the angst and disquiet these caused to the people, are the result of the ad hoc approach it has taken to the implementation of the whole project since its very inception.

Recently, it withdrew a notification asking Aadhaar card holders not to share the number in full while still insisting on the exercise of “normal prudence”, but not before crores have been plunged into anxiety about the possible misuse of the data that they have already shared.

 

The notification makes it plain that the government has been aware of the chinks in the data protection mechanism of Aadhaar and of the dangers involved. Yet it has chosen not to share its fears with the public.

Worse, in all these years, the government has encouraged the use of Aadhaar with as many agencies as possible — be they telecom companies or banking institutions — even hotels were insisting on the production of Aadhaar in some parts of India. Those who opted for vaccination in private hospitals were also made to share their Aadhaar data.

 

The bottomline is — the government which used every trick in the book to make people subscribe to the number has failed them miserably when it came to data protection.

Neither the United Progressive Alliance which started working on the idea of a unique number nor the National Democratic Alliance government which followed up on the project has ever bothered to take a comprehensive approach to such an important issue. The UPA government whose baby it is did not even bother to make it a legitimate child by seeking the authorisation of Parliament. The BJP, which did give it some legitimacy, also took the short cut — it got it passed as a money bill.

 

Whenever a citizen goes to court questioning the right of the government to ask them to link Aadhaar to one document or the other, the government goes on the back foot. Today, a government agency can ask for the production of the Aadhaar card only if the citizen receives some form of financial assistance from the government. In essence, the UID has ceased to be a mandatory identification document which it was once touted to be.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often talked about the role data will play in the new economy but the government he heads appears to have little clue about the need to protect citizen’s data. Laughably, the attorney-general of India has told the Supreme Court that the data is safe inside the centre which has a 13-foot high and five-foot thick wall.

 

Since the issue is related to the protection of the personal data of citizens, the government must make a clean breast of the whole project, its shortcomings and its plans. It must also go back to Parliament with a piece of legislation that lists the uses of the data, authorises the agencies that can access it, ensures data privacy, fixes responsibility in case of breach and forms a body which an aggrieved citizen can go to if that occurs. Aadhaar is too important a topic to be addressed with quick fixes.



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In spite of local lockdowns and the impact of Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus, the Indian economy has managed to grow by 8.7 per cent in the financial year 2021-22. The growth metric, though muted when one sees it in the background of the lower base in the financial year 2020-2021, is quite impressive when viewed from the perspective of prevailing circumstances in the last year.

Investment has been the main driver of India's GDP growth during the last financial year. In contrast, consumption — both private and government — trailed investment as the government’s focus has been on creating future assets while boosting economic growth. Manufacturing, which was severely disrupted in fiscal 2020-21, too, had grown faster than services companies because of the lower base. While most manufacturing companies were shut down during the initial months of the Covid-19 pandemic in fiscal 2020-21, the service companies functioned seamlessly because of the work-from-home model. The speedier recovery of industrial activities and demand coupled in fiscal 2021-22 leading to faster growth in industrial activity.

 

Exports, however, have been a drag on the economy. Faster growth in imports compared to exports trimmed India’s GDP growth by an additional two per cent. A slowdown in government consumption to boost capital expenditure also depressed growth.

Given the improved pandemic situation, India is likely to maintain more or less the same growth trajectory. However, inflation, monetary tightening, fiscal prudence, higher interest rates and the global economic situation could impact the growth numbers marginally. Even so, India would continue to remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world as its only rival among the major economies — China — recovers from self-inflicted economic pain.

 



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Looking at the future, the Modi Sarkar wants to show that it is capable of fresh thinking. The finance ministry has reportedly formed an internal working group under the department of expenditure secretary T.V. Somanathan to work on improving the decades-old role of financial advisers in ministries and departments.

Financial advisers are a crucial interface between ministries and the expenditure department, and the proposed revamp aims to quicken decision-making while keeping a prudent watch on the purse strings. It may well lead to financial advisers having a larger say in the expenditure roadmap of ministries with possibly more authority to enable better internal governance. Also, since the performance of individual ministers is often evaluated on the outcome of schemes, the financial outlay and the role of financial advisers are sensitive and crucial.

 

Sources have informed DKB that the revamp is part of the government’s Vision 2047, which aims to make India one of the world’s top three economies. There’s no hint yet on when the working group will present its suggestions, but it is unlikely to have been given a long deadline. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is reportedly keen on seeing some progress as quickly as possible.

End of the road for babu-turned neta?

There are plenty of babus who have switched to politics and have enjoyed a good run. But not all babus who had a meteoric rise to political stardom can maintain that streak. The case of Janata Dal (United)’s R.C.P. Singh seems to be headed that way. Mr Singh, who is a member of the Union Cabinet, has not been nominated for the Rajya Sabha by party supremo and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, as was widely expected. This puts Mr Singh’s future as a minister in doubt.

 

By the book, a minister has to be either a member of Parliament or become a member of either House within six months of taking the oath. Failure to do so, as in Mr Singh’s case, would mean he will have to resign from the Cabinet.

But not so long ago, Mr Singh was widely known for his close ties with Nitish Kumar. Although belonging to the UP cadre, he became the private secretary to Mr Kumar who was then Union railway minister. This proximity led to him being appointed as principal secretary to the Bihar chief minister. Mr Singh made a swift and seamless transition from babudom to politics and rose to become JD(U) president, and was widely considered by babus and party leaders as Nitish’s right-hand man. During this time, he became a two-time Rajya Sabha member.

 

Mr Singh’s current fall from grace, sources say, can be traced to the Assembly elections of 2020, where the JD(U) got fewer seats than the BJP, its alliance partner. The denial of nomination to the Rajya Sabha seems to suggest that Mr Singh’s run of good fortune may be over. But in politics, nothing is certain, and there may still be a surprise for us all.

Gujarat cracks down on corruption

The BJP has been first off the mark in the run-up to the Gujarat Assembly elections coming up at the end of the year. The extension of the tenures of chief secretary Pankaj Kumar, and director general of police Ashish Bhatia, who were to retire last month, is being seen in this context. The state government clearly doesn’t want to rock the boat until the conclusion of the polls.

 

Besides, there is a concerted anti-corruption drive to home a stern message to civil servants and present a clean image of the administration to the public. And the message is being driven by the Narendra Modi-led high command in Delhi, no less.

That, babu watchers say, may have led to the CBI raiding 2011-batch IAS officer K. Rajesh in connection with alleged financial irregularities related to land scams and arms licences. There’s more. In April, a retired IAS officer S.K. Langa was booked for allegedly framing incorrect land records when he was posted as collector in Panchmahal-Godhra in 2017. A month earlier, one 1992-batch IFoS officer of the Gujarat cadre was suspended on charges of irregularities which cost the exchequer hundreds of crores.

 

These developments are a clear and strong warning to IAS, IPS and other officers on what could happen if they stray off the straight and narrow, especially in an election year.



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Prime Minister Narendra Modi concurrently engages with multiple narratives. He does the same while marking anniversaries too. The celebrations for watershed observances often last for over a year, like the 75th anniversary of India’s independence (it began on March 12, 2021 to kickstart a 75-week countdown till August 15, 2022), or the birth centenary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (Jana Sangh ideologue) that was observed at a cost of Rs 100 crores, which was announced by Mr Modi at an election rally in 2014 and celebrations were held as a prelude to the actual event in September 2017. These events give an opportunity to broadcast political messages. If last week it was an occasion to mark eight years since he first became PM, this week the same anniversary was celebrated again to mark three years after his 2019 re-election. Whatever be one’s political perspective, the last eight years have indisputably seen the making of a “new” India, although newness is not necessarily “good” for all. In this period, India has unquestionably made steady progress towards a more bitter and hostile polity.

The government never missed an opportunity in the past eight years to emphasise how its digital initiatives have eased the burden of citizens on basics like receiving benefits or subsidies to avail key services provided by the government. But it also enabled the emergence of a mammoth surveillance system that can be turned at will against the people.

 

The observance of three years since the BJP’s triumphant re-election in 2019 unavoidably leads one to search for parallels with the summer of 2017. Back then, the BJP stumped observers by winning Uttar Pradesh (and some other states) in spectacular fashion. These victories came soon after people weathered an irremediable cataclysm in their lives by the negative impact of the ill-executed demonetisation. This year too, the electoral victories in March followed the abominable management of the Covid-19 second wave. These polls were also held amid rising inflation and the disruption in people’s lives due to lockdowns and joblessness.

 

Despite the endorsement of Mr Modi’s political narrative in the face of economic hardships in 2017, the BJP failed to reach the three-figure mark in Gujarat as harsh economic realities caught up with it. Its electoral woes continued through 2018 and the BJP had all but lost its political edge till Pulwama happened, and the rest is history. Economic uncertainty and the fragility of people’s existence is similar now. But the BJP has the advantage of people’s support for its political agenda, which was still evolving in 2018. As the recent Assembly polls indicated, the politics of free ration distribution has greatly neutralised the hardships. The two factors are emblematic of Mr Modi’s governance. The first: Hindutva is spoken beneath the breath by the leadership but in high decibels by supporters.

 

The second “proves” that Mr Modi practises “non-discriminatory” welfarism. Undoubtedly, the biggest reason for sustaining it is to ensure his political dominance: Mr Modi’s success in securing unparalleled support for the Hindutva project. Party leaders have begun campaigning in Gujarat to ensure this year’s polls don’t get as tight as in 2017. The state is referred to as the “Hindutva laboratory”. Consequently, recent developments in Varanasi, besides the gathering clouds over other mosques claimed by diverse Hindu bodies, will help the BJP in Gujarat (and Himachal Pradesh too).

 

One of the biggest reasons behind the BJP’s success, which also drastically altered India’s social equations, is the party’s ability to be inclusive about the Hindu community as a whole, while being exclusivist as far as religious minorities are concerned. The BJP has moved from being entirely upper caste in orientation, and while social engineering efforts were underway since early 1990s, the decisive push happened under Mr Modi’s stewardship. Much remains to be done to ensure that the BJP mirrors Hindu society, but the huge publicity machinery paints a different picture and creates an image different from reality.

 

Incontestably, the India of 2022 is far more alarming for the religious minorities, especially Muslims. In this situation, a large section of the majority community is of the view that pillorying -- and even converting some of this scorn into physical action -- Muslims is their birthright. There is greater agreement with the “us” and “them” formulation and in the belief of this nation being “our” and not “theirs” -- that “they” had an “opportunity to go away”, but those that “stayed back” must now live on “our terms”. Such thinking violates the fundamentals of the Constitution. But, beyond mouthing platitudes, the political leadership has done little in the past eight years to ensure that these principles aren’t trampled on in everyday life.

 

Mr Modi came to power on the promise of being a “decisive” leader. It was evident during the 1975-77 Emergency that a small section of society was open to the idea of an authoritarian leader and saw democracy as an impediment to growth. But Indira Gandhi wasn’t backed by an ideology that pits one section of society against another. Since 2014, the pretence of being socially inclusive has been abandoned. The middle classes have steadily burgeoned in post-liberalisation India and this section backed Mr Modi’s centralised system of governance with power consolidated in the hands of few. For a large section of people, authoritarianism is seen as a synonym of efficiency. Alongside came the hyper-nationalistic call for citizens to first fulfil their basic duties (for the nation) before lining up to demand their rights.

 

As far as governance is concerned, Mr Modi’s success with a strong and powerful headline and a succinct “intro paragraph” ensured that few looked into either the fine print, or assessed the schemes well past the launch date. As a result, the government’s post-Covid announcements haven’t faced adequate scrutiny, with free rations showcased as the panacea for all needs. Whataboutery became the standard practice on every disconcerting issue -- from wheat to LPG cylinder prices. Facts and questions were seen as the tool of “anti-nationals” despite evidence of huge disparities in society and riches landing in the hands of a few.

 

The smokescreen has emerged as the government’s favourite tool and the only arena where Mr Modi hasn’t hidden intent and actual delivery are the political -- particularly after 2019. While a succession of laws passed in 2019 are highlighted, conspicuous silence prevails over why engagement with and encouragement to state and local governments is so abysmal. The greatest “success” has been in conveying to the people that this is when the power equation has been altered, and the majority need not any longer live under the “pressure” of the minority.



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