Editorials - 01-09-2022

Among the problems highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic was that of excessively demanding workplaces and burnout.

In one of the more popular fairy tale tropes, the bad witch offers the naive young heroine untold wealth and life in a castle with Prince Charming in return for something fantastically unreasonable, like giving up her first-born child or her tongue. Bombay Shaving Company’s CEO Shantanu Deshpande didn’t go quite so far. In a recent post on LinkedIn, Deshpande told young workers that they can build enough “flex” in the first five years of their career to carry them through the rest, if only they put in “18 hours a day” and exhorted them not to do “random rona-dhona” (whining) about things like work-life balance and spending time with family. Thousands of people online have correctly interpreted this CEO-speak as an unconscionable demand for blood, sweat and tears, and accused Deshpande of promoting a “toxic” work culture.

Among the problems highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic was that of excessively demanding workplaces and burnout. As the global economy picks itself up again, the urge to get back to “business as usual” is being met with subtle resistance — like the Great Resignation in which many voluntarily left their existing jobs to pursue something more fulfilling or the Quiet Quitting movement where workers do only as much as is expected of their jobs and nothing more.

At such a time, when more voices are speaking up for shortening work days — even proposing such shifts as a four- or three-day work week — batting for 18-hour work days seems ill-fitting and out of step. After generating massive outrage online, Deshpande clarified that he doesn’t “literally” mean that young people should work 18 hours a day and that anyone is welcome to speak to his employees about the work culture in his company. Yet, in its tone-deafness, his original post shows that the battle for a workplace that doesn’t eat into workers’ personal lives and well-being is going to be a long one.



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Karnataka is the only southern state where the BJP has the organisational spread and depth to win elections on its own. But evidently, the party, beset by corruption scandals and infighting, seems unsure of its governance record.

Two courts delivered separate orders on Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Karnataka on Tuesday: The Supreme Court said no to holding the puja at the Bengaluru Idgah ground whereas the Dharwad-bench of Karnataka High Court allowed it at the Hubbali maidan. The HC accepted the claim that the Hubbali-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, though it had leased out the Hubbali Idgah ground to Anjuman-i-Islam for 999 years, has rights over the land and could allow puja there. In the Bengaluru case, the SC ruled in favour of status quo — only Muslims have held religious functions at the Idgah in the past 200 years — and asked the Wakf Board and the state government to settle the title dispute in the HC. What is common to both the disputes, however, is the disturbing role of the state government in seeking to facilitate Hindu religious functions in the face of Muslim claims over the properties. This Idgah politics follows a disquieting pattern wherein the government and the ruling party, the BJP, are seen to be stoking old disputes, whose only outcome can be greater communal polarisation.

Karnataka is the only southern state where the BJP has the organisational spread and depth to win elections on its own. But evidently, the party, beset by corruption scandals and infighting, seems unsure of its governance record. With assembly elections due in 2023, it has chosen to project itself as a custodian of Hindu interests. Under B S Yediyurappa, the BJP’s most prominent face in the state, the party had mostly pursued a communitarian politics by patronising religious sects and mutts. That, however, did not help the party to win the 2018 assembly elections — it cobbled a majority in 2019 by winning over legislators from the Congress and JD(S). With Basavaraj Bommai as chief minister, however, the party has actively campaigned on issues such as a ban on hijab in educational institutions and pursued a contentious anti-conversion law. A section of the BJP itself, including Yediyurappa, had to call for an end to “divisive politics” after attacks on Muslim traders. The constant chatter that Bommai, originally from the Janata parivar, could be replaced appears to have made the CM promise a “Yogi style of administration” to win over the Hindutva hardliners.

Such polarising politics has a price that the state will pay. Bengaluru’s evolution as the symbol of India’s tech prowess has much to do with successive state governments nurturing a liberal, cosmopolitan milieu. This imagination is now actively challenged by sectarian groups, which are patronised, unfortunately, by the ruling party.



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Three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of Mikhail Gorbachev’s presumed triumphs have turned out to be ephemeral.

Widely seen in Russia as the man responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev is hailed in the West as the leader who helped end the Cold War in Europe and nudged Russia towards political liberalisation. Many on the left in the “global South” blame him for facilitating US triumph in the Cold War and creating a global imbalance in favour of the West. Gorbachev’s record is a lot more complicated than the extreme perceptions of his brief tenure as the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1985-91. Whichever way one assesses the leader, who died Tuesday at 91, there is no denying his role as a world historical figure who altered post-War international politics.

To be sure, Gorbachev did not set out to dismantle the Soviet Union. That was an unintended consequence of his effort to reform the struggling Russian economy (perestroika), inject a measure of openness to its closed society (glasnost), end the arms race with the US, build cooperative relations with Europe, and pull back from military adventurism in Afghanistan and the developing world. As a young member of the CPSU Politburo taking charge of a society mired in multiple crises, Gorbachev believed that rejuvenating the Soviet Union was his patriotic task. But he could not control the forces he unleashed. This, in turn, led to the collapse of the communist system that was founded by the 1917 Russian Revolution. During the seven decades that it lasted, the Soviet Union had a powerful impact on world affairs — playing a critical role in defeating fascism in Europe, constructing the post-War order in Europe, and inspiring communist movements around the world. Gorbachev, who was a bright child of the CPSU, saw from within how rotten the system had become by the early 1980s. If Gorbachev was right in seeing the imperative of all-round change in the Soviet Union, he also ended up as a tragic figure who presided over its rapid dissolution.

Meanwhile, three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of Gorbachev’s presumed triumphs have turned out to be ephemeral. After a brief flowering of liberalism, hopes for democracy in Russia have withered away. The peace that Gorbachev constructed in Europe has gone up in flames as Russia invaded Ukraine in February. If Gorbachev hoped for constructive relations with the West, President Vladimir Putin is now locked in a serious confrontation with Europe and the US. In India, both the communists and Delhi’s foreign policy establishment deeply mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of a familiar political, economic, and ideological world. In retrospect, though, the collapse of the Soviet Union compelled India to reform its own economy, reorient its foreign policy and elevate its global standing. Although the Russian romance endures in the Indian strategic community, Moscow’s strategic salience for Delhi has been in continuous decline since 1991. Russia’s new geopolitics of aligning with China and confronting the West is only likely to accelerate that decline.



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Aakash Joshi writes: By allowing people – even encouraging them -- to rethink what they say, Twitter might help undo some of the damage it has caused. But if this self-interest, and social value, isn't enough for Twitter to provide the service for free, there is another solution.

“The mission we serve as Twitter, Inc.”, according to the FAQs section on the social media company’s website for investors, “is to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers”. Barriers though aren’t always a terrible thing. And sometimes, sharing information and opinions “instantly” comes at a cost. The ability to edit tweets, then, is welcome and long overdue. As the company has stated, it has been the most requested feature from users.

But like the car manufacturers profiteering from safety features such as airbags, Twitter’s decision to make its “edit button” a paid feature seeks to maximise profits in the wrong area.

Many a celebrity and public figure has regretted an inebriated tweet, and likely wished for a breathalyser-based lockout system that saves them from having to justify an awkward post. TV comedian Kapil Sharma faced some serious flak for a 2017 tweet directed at the prime minister and government of India, for example, and former American senator Anthony Weiner accidentally tweeted intimate images, which eventually made him the poster boy for sexual misconduct in US politics.

But even those of us who aren’t in the public eye could benefit from the ability to make small corrections. There are the careless typos, the hurried bit of trolling and even the hastily-expressed political opinion that can paint a target on your back – an edit button could be a godsend. Yet, as much as users could do with the service, it is Twitter’s interest to provide it as well.

Long before Elon Musk began tarnishing its reputation, Twitter was notorious for vitiating the political conversation and encouraging some of the worst tendencies among us. Would the troll who threatens rape when he disagrees with the political opinions of an actress be as vile if he sat face-to-face, across her? Will the person who asks people to “go to Pakistan” at the drop of a hat, like a crazed bigot in a mob, do so alone over dinner? By allowing people – even encouraging them — to rethink what they say, Twitter might help undo some of the damage it has caused. But if this self-interest, and social value, isn’t enough for Twitter to provide the service for free, there is another solution.

What the micro-blogging platform really needs to introduce is a “pause” button. An edit takes place after the fact, by which time some enterprising person has often already taken a screenshot. What every user should be asked is: “Are you sure you want to say this?”. If they tag people, followed by abusing them, even a short wait time might help. And most importantly, this service should be universally-available.

The most pressing problem of the internet and social media emanates from the fact that it is so easy to forget that the person at the other end has genuine human feelings, and the capacity to be hurt. And while many companies and their promoters have become grossly rich through enhancing (though certainly not deliberately) this lack of empathy, it is already becoming a game of diminishing returns.

Now, as they try to address those issues, it might be a good idea to do so for free.

aakash.joshi@expressindia.com



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Janaki Nair writes: If we accept that the hero of the Hindu Right riding the bulbul is a misunderstood metaphor, is the rest of the piece, which dwells at length on the miseries and torture that Savarkar experienced, also mere exaggeration?

For some time now, in keeping with the preferred choices of their national political masters, ruling party politicians and supporters have been outdoing each other in undermining and extinguishing the place of imagination, metaphoric speech, and puns, in favour of extreme hyperbole and alliteration. Was it not Chief Minister Bommai himself, twitching with ambition since July 28, 2021, and revealing the eagerness of a new convert for his new religion, who settled queries from the media about the controversy surrounding where the legendary Hanuman was actually born? He “categorically” stated that “Lord Anjaneya was born in Anjaneya Betta (in Koppal district)”. To ensure that there is no further dispute, he added that there cannot be more important “evidence” than that of Kishkinda (mentioned in the Ramayana epic) being Anjaneya Betta. Perhaps some scriptural evidence of the specific kinds of fauna and flora at Koppal will be brought in to buttress the chief minister’s “fact”. He has also committed Rs 100 crore to the “development” of that pilgrim site. And once he had made up his mind, he “ordered” the State Archaeological Department to “study the documents” (sic) and put all controversy to rest. No mosque, fortunately, stands in his way, but neither Anjaneri in Maharashtra, nor Anjanadri in the Tirupati Tirumala hill chain can lay claim to the birthplace of the simian lord any longer.

Clearly, the likes of CM Bommai will be uneasy about acknowledging the lyrical beauty of an essay by one of Karnataka’s truly illustrious sons, AK Ramanujam. His ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation’, as we well know, was rudely evicted from the Delhi University syllabus some years ago by those clamouring for a “single” story. But one wishes that a bit of regional chauvinism had been exercised to allow Ramanujam entry into Karnataka’s classrooms, so that fertile imaginations, rather than fervid opinions, could luxuriate in the hills, caves, ponds, rivers, forests where the many Ramayanas took root and still flourish.

Instead, we now have a new tempest in a teapot. The newly, and controversially revised, Class VIII Kannada textbook, has a travelogue by a renowned writer, K T Gatti, entitled Kaalavannu Geddavaru [those who won over time] in which he describes the daily flight to the “motherland” by the now increasingly celebrated hero of Indian independence, V D Savarkar, on the wings of an enterprising bulbul that squeezed its way into his airless, dark room in the cellular jail at the Andamans. This flight of fancy, a bit of miraculous, if not magical, realism by the travel writer, has been joyously flourished as further evidence of the designs of the Hindu Right on the minds of the young.

Vainly, does Rohith Chakrathirtha, the former head of the textbook revision committee before he was hastily dismissed after sustained protests, himself protest that the sudden discovery of this rendering of Savarkar’s jail environment reveals the poor intellection of those who do not understand the place of metaphors as figures of speech. There is a rich irony to Chakratirtha’s whine about the (secular, to be sure) lack of training in literary devices. He assiduously replaced the true breadth of Kannada writing in the old textbook with some dubiously translated, but decidedly pious, thoughts of the likes of K B Hedgewar. He should know that it is people like himself who propelled the headlong tumble towards defiantly dull piety and worship, in history books as much in literary texts. But if we accept that this is misunderstood metaphor, what is the status of the rest of the piece which dwells at length on the miseries and torture that Savarkar experienced? Also mere exaggeration? Or is it a case of a misplaced metaphor?

Chakratirtha’s hatchet job on the textbooks has been matched at many (and multiplying) levels by the faithful in several other settings. Such as by the four or five “faithful” men who stopped a play at Sorab, Shimoga, which featured a good Muslim family. They got clean away with their argument that Jayanth Kaikini’s play, (Jotegiravannu Chandira, loosely based on Fiddler on the Roof) could not possibly foreground the sensitivity and empathy of an amiable Muslim patriarch. Not even in imaginative representations can Muslims be portrayed as anything other than the underside of humanity. Now Baraguru Ramachandrappa, the celebrated writer (and former Chair of the textbook committee) is facing the wrath of the “faithful” for his 1980s satirical comment on Congress corruption (Bharat Nagari), which used the national anthem.

The suffocating sacralisation of our everyday lives, our imaginations, our histories — we are witnessing the tortured death of the Indian imagination. Salman Rushdie cited Carlos Fuentes in his reflections on living in hiding following the publication of Satanic Verses — “impose a unitary language: you kill the novel, you also kill the society”. We now live in an absurd country where policemen feel empowered to arrest artists who might hang a plastic cow as a powerful symbolic reminder of what the unsuspecting bovines are compelled to graze on in our squalid cities. We send to jail a comic who merely cites an older film riff. Tall tales of scientific achievement are built on the heads of our splendidly “fact”-defying gods, and our goddesses are being saved from their own previous avatars. All this is bad news for figures of speech: If the vigilant protectors of the mature female Genus Bos have their way, will an “oxymoron” only translate into a “beefy dolt”?

The writer taught history at JNU



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You are not speaking to Gen X or older millennials who are willing to give up their best years to climb up the corporate ladder. This is the era of later millennials and Gen Z

While Instagram has been busy with influencers and their reels, LinkedIn, the social media platform for job-seekers and job-givers has, for quite a while now, been filled with CEO-types doling out sermons on why “hustling” is the way to go. There were also voices that criticise this as a promotion of exploitation and the killing of work-life balance, although they haven’t stopped people from lapping up the “gyaan”. However, things came to a head last week when one CEO advised newcomers to stop the “rona dhona” and put in 18 hours of work; work that they were also supposed to “worship”, by the way. Criticism flew thick and fast and no damage control from the CEO worked as internet users vented against the unrealistic expectations of top management, basically saying “enough”.

To be fair, Shantanu Deshpande, founder-CEO of Bombay Shaving Company, was sharing the same advice that has been passed down the generations and, in any other time, would have drawn gratitude and appreciation from those at the receiving end of the “wisdom”. Except, this is not just “any other time” and the intended beneficiaries of said wisdom are not just any other generation. Welcome to the era of Quiet Quitting and anti-hustling and meet their founders: The later millennials and Gen Z.

When I, a mid-millennial, started my career 12 years ago, India was limping its way out of a recession. There were a lot of skilled job-seekers and few jobs. Almost all my classmates would do anything to get a job in a mainstream media house — content writing was for “underperformers” — and would not even care to ask about the salary if the dream offer came through. I was over the moon when a top English newspaper offered me a job at one of its regional offices. The salary on offer, Rs 12,500, felt like a princely sum and getting my name associated with a newspaper that everyone knew of meant everything. At work, I found many like me – fresh graduates from top journalism schools who were more than grateful to find “respectable employment”. I decided that I would “give my all” to my job and give no one a reason to complain about me. I rarely took a long leave, sometimes even offering to come to work on my days off. I was grateful for work that paid my bills, gave me a sense of identity, and rescued me from the depths of despair more than once and there was no way I was going to stay away from that. What if I forget all that I have learnt during a 15-day vacation?

What finally changed my attitude was the pandemic. I saw people who were much more accomplished than me losing their jobs. I asked myself: “If I lose my job tomorrow, I would still live, right?” And then began prioritising work-life balance. I took my first long leave (18 days) only a few months ago, and far from forgetting my skills on vacation, I came back refreshed and renewed. My only regret: Why hadn’t I done this sooner? Why did I let almost all of my rightfully earned leave lapse? But I am a product of my time and only did what workers of my generation do.

The generation after me though, I am pleased to report, is not like this. Recently, I asked a 25-year-old to apply for an opening at a top English daily. “No way, they only give one weekly off. I need two!” she exclaimed. At her age, I would have given anything for a job there. Another younger friend has quit her high-profile job at a successful digital media house in favour of, wait for it, a content-writing job. It is a relatively stress-free role, allows her a 60-day paid leave, and, most importantly, the option of working from wherever she wants. She has a whole itinerary ready: Two months in Goa, followed by a month in Shimla, and then her hometown, and then maybe, Delhi. She doesn’t care that she is not a journalist anymore. She has a work-life balance, with good money on the side, and that is all that matters.

Know your audience, Mr Deshpande. You are not speaking to Gen X or older millennials who are willing to give up their best years to climb up the corporate ladder. This is the era of later millennials and Gen Z. They want to work, but only so that it can fund their life outside the office. You may argue that this attitude might prove detrimental in the long run but who has seen the long run? The pandemic has given us enough examples of people mercilessly thrown out of their jobs, jobs that they had given decades to, within a matter of seconds. So, this long-term future planning advice won’t cut any ice with the youngsters.

But not all is lost. First, create a good work environment, a place that young workers would like to come to. Instead of threatening them with the pink slip, ask them what they are struggling with and help them. Identify their strengths and find roles where you can use them best. Instead of doling out gyaan, ask them for advice for a change — fresh perspectives could only help your company grow. And then, allow them a work-life balance. Allow them to work from home once in a while without demanding a reason. Any reason is valid as long as they are getting the work done. And encourage them to use all their leaves and come back to work, renewed and refreshed with fresh ideas. This is the new generation, Mr Deshpande, and they are going to save their future. And yours too, but only if you calm down a little.

deepika.singh@expressindia.com



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Fahad Zuberi writes: Urban plans can be made implementable only when they are flexible enough to let a city grow around emerging markets. The solution is not more government control, but less

According to a report in January, 1.65 lakh flats worth a total of Rs 1.18 lakh crore are currently delayed in Noida-Greater Noida. Around 70 projects under the UP-Rera have gone to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCT) for insolvency and completion of projects by developers like Amrapali and Unitech is being overseen by the Supreme Court. How did we get here?

Let us look at the history of Noida. An acronym for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, Noida was envisaged in the early 1970s when, in 1972, the Uttar Pradesh government marked the rural area comprising of 50 villages (then under the district of Bulandshahr) as “Yamuna-Hindon-Delhi Border Regulated Area”. The objective was to regulate land dealings in the area close to the national capital. In April 1976, 36 out of these 50 villages were notified as Noida.

The main objective of Noida, included in its name, was to attract and relocate industries from Delhi. The idea of the satellite town was to decentralise economic activity from Delhi to Noida and reduce migration in the megacity. The second (and by no means secondary) objective was to provide affordable suburban housing for the people of Delhi. It was imagined that the population engaged in the service sector in Delhi will live in Noida and work in the capital. Within the NCR Plan, Noida’s population was projected to be 5,50,000 by 2001 and 1.1 million by 2011. The population that the town achieved, however, was only 3,05,058 in 2001 and 6,42,381 in 2011 — around half of the projected figure. This is where the Noida Problem begins.

Scholars like Bimal Patel have argued that planners in India have worked on the strong assumption that growth of cities can be perfectly predicted based on population projections. This follows the confidence that cities can be planned to the last detail of how a particular plot of land will be used. Hence, we plan cities as multi-coloured land-use drawings that are legally binding on the people.

In a podcast conversation with BR Balachandran published by the CEPT Research and Development Foundation titled “Planning the City for an Unpredictable Future”, Patel explained that Indian planners seem to want to “design” cities with the same deterministic approach as someone would design a bridge, but growth is not so deterministic.

Another scholar and urban planner, Alain Bertaud, in an interview with the American Enterprise Institute, explained that planners don’t (and cannot) know enough to decide a geographical distribution of densities or economic classes of people in a city. He says, “… in their ambition to design the city, they create a straitjacket the city cannot grow into”. We see this phenomenon play out most explicitly in Noida-Greater Noida.

Planners imagined in the 1970s that Noida would attract industries and people from Delhi and instead of giving Delhi more floor space (FSI) and better infrastructure to provide additional housing and support the existing market respectively, they decided to expand horizontally and “design” Noida — the satellite town. Large parts of Noida were marked as housing lands with high FSI. But Noida lacked the infrastructure that could have supported commercial activities and authoritarian land-use plans prevented the organic development of any new nodes of market.

After the region failed to attract the service sector, the opening of Delhi Noida Direct (DND) Flyway in 2001, the construction of Yamuna Expressway in 2012 and the constant eastward development of the metro line sustained the promise of Noida as a suburban housing town. This created a mirage of a rising real-estate demand in the region.

Builders invested in more and more housing units. Projects got delayed as funds that were collected as advance payments on flats were siphoned off to build more projects. But there were simply not enough buyers. With the actual population of Noida reaching only half of what was predicted by planners, a large section of these housing towers went uninhabited while developers continued building more housing units.

In built projects, rents crashed and existing facilities and shared spaces rapidly deteriorated. For under-construction projects, this meant endless delays and legal disputes. The planners of Noida essentially created a legally binding document that was too arrogant to let the city emerge around its own market. This only resulted in one thing — further choking of an already stressed judicial system.

With the actual population of Noida reaching only half of what was predicted by planners, a large section of these housing towers went uninhabited while developers continued building more housing units

Today, most sectors of Noida are just walled housing societies. The region lacks essential elements of urbanity like trade and commerce, institutions, and a meaningful public realm. Rows of dilapidated unoccupied housing towers and hoardings announcing desperate messages like “Mission Completion” on construction sites dot the landscape and the number of legal battles continue to rise.

In the children’s book “The Little Prince”, there is a humbling lesson to learn for Indian urban planners. On the first planet that he visits, the prince meets a king who teaches him that authority has value only if it is based in reason. If the command of the king is impossible to obey, it is not the subject who is at fault, it is the king’s fault that he gave an unreasonable command.

Given the unpredictable nature of urban development, plans can be made implementable only when they are flexible enough to let a city grow around emerging markets. The solution to the Noida Problem is not more government control, but less.

The writer is an independent scholar and researcher of Architecture and City Studies



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Somit Dasgupta writes: Concerns of states on some provisions of the new Electricity Bill are justified. But the legislation proposes welcome correctives to longstanding problems of the power sector.

Some of the fears of the states are misplaced. The proposal doesn’t tantamount to encroaching into the their domain because it pertains to policy matters. The Centre is well within its rights to suggest additional licences because power is a Concurrent subject. The feasibility of multiple licences is, however, another issue. The fact is that till we do away with commercial losses, remove cross-subsidies and have complete metering right from the periphery of a discom to the consumer, we really cannot have multiple licences.

That said, some provisions in the Bill do give an impression that the Centre is attempting to undermine the states. Amongst them is the clause pertaining to applicants seeking a distribution licence in more than one state. It states that the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and not the SERC, will grant the licence. This is problematic because a SERC is likely to be more aware of the field-level conditions in a state than its central counterpart. Even if an applicant applies for licences in several states, they should be processed by the SERCs concerned — wherever necessary, these agencies should consult each other. Moreover, the agency that grants the licence should also administer it.

Second, the Bill has a provision empowering the Centre to give directions directly to the SERCs. Till now, the CERC received instructions from the Centre and the SERCs were under the state. The new Bill enables the Centre to bypass state governments. It’s not surprising that this is a matter of concern for the states.

Third, the Bill has made a small change in the composition of the committee for selection of Chairman/members of the SERCs (amendment of section 85). Instead of having Chairman CEA/Chairman CERC as the third member, it will now be a nominee of the central government at the level of additional secretary.

Actually, the fears of encroachment did not begin with the Bill. Concerns were raised when earlier versions of the Bill were introduced. The enactment of the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 aggravated the fears. These rules spoke of matters solely related to distribution which, no doubt, is a state subject.

However, not everything is regressive about the Bill. The first relates to states reneging on power purchase agreements (PPAs), especially those with renewable power producers. Renegotiation of such PPAs has become a fraught issue. The Bill states that if PPAs are renegotiated, the affected party has to be compensated within 90 days from the date of submission of the petition.

Second, new tariffs have to be made applicable from the beginning of the financial year. New tariffs often come into force in the middle of the financial year (due to delays in the issuing of orders by SERCs). This means that discoms do not earn their full revenues leading to cash flow problems.

Third, the Bill has proposed a reduction in the time for processing tariff petitions from 120 days to 90 days. This is a welcome step. Fourth, regulatory commissions have been given suo motu jurisdiction if tariff petitions are not filed within 30 days of the stipulated time. This too is a step in the right direction. Fifth, the Bill talks about ensuring a payment security mechanism before dispatch. This will ensure that dues to generators do not swell up to unmanageable levels. Sixth, the Bill proposes to give more teeth to the national load dispatcher. We need to strengthen the load dispatcher for the smooth functioning of the grid, especially with a huge renewable capacity — where intermittency of generation is a major issue — in the offing.

There is, however, a major omission in the Bill. The government had declared the Railways to be a deemed distribution licensee in 2014 under the third proviso of Section 14 of the Electricity Act 2003. In layman’s terms, this proviso states that a government department transmitting, distributing or trading in electricity will be deemed as a licencee under the Act. Since the railways was never transmitting, distributing or trading in electricity but was a bulk consumer, it should not have qualified to be a deemed distribution licensee. The railways does not perform several other tasks expected of a distribution licencee. The submission of a tariff petition for instance. The exception made for the railways had led to demands for a similar licence from entities such as the metro rail and ports. This was the time to take corrective measures. We seem to have missed the bus.

(The writer is senior visiting fellow, ICRIER and former member (Economic & Commercial), CEA. Views are personal)



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Nayanjot Lahiri writes: Despite all the public talk of the importance of conserving our national heritage, the budget of the ASI, the primary institutional guardian of monuments, in 2021-22 has been reduced by more than Rs 200 cr.

The news from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) about Anang Tal in Mehrauli did not make big headlines. It was simply reported that on August 22, the Centre issued a notification to take steps to protect this site, after which Anang Tal would be declared a monument of national importance.

In response to this, a former Chairman of the National Monuments Authority (NMA) compared “the national monument stature for Anang Tal” with the “re-coronation of Anang Pal Singh Tomar in Delhi”. If he had used this occasion to indulge in some sober reflection, the NMA chairman would have noted that the reservoir has been reduced to a pitiable state. The CAG’s performance audit on Preservation and Conservation of Monuments and Antiquities that was tabled in Parliament a few weeks before the above-mentioned notification singled out Anang Tal as being “in the last stage of disappearance”. Apart from recording its decrepit state with the aid of photographs, the auditing team’s visit revealed that sewage from nearby areas “was being discharged into the reservoir”.

The CAG reports on the state of India’s heritage — ranging from those relating to museums in 2011 to its findings on the ASI in 2013 — are the most comprehensive public documents on the institutional malaise that dogs the conservation of our monuments and antiquities. Such documents are essential because after 2007, there has been no internal audit of the ASI conducted by the ministry. These excellent reports and those of Parliamentary Committees are what we have for understanding the state of Indian archaeology, monuments and museums. For this reason, some of the key observations of the 2022 report are worth highlighting.

The CAG report categorically notes that there is no national policy on archaeological exploration and excavation. The same is possibly true for antiquities. The ASI has estimated some 58 lakh plus antiquities all over India, but there is no database or inventory in its possession. The ASI budget for exploration and excavations is less than 1 per cent even though it informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of its intention to raise the allocation to 5 per cent of the total budget. The failure to do so could well be because of the reduction in the ASI budget. Despite all the public talk of the importance of conserving our national heritage, the budget of the ASI, the primary institutional guardian of monuments, in 2021-2022 has been reduced by more than Rs 200 crore. For an organisation whose total budget is Rs 1,246.75 crore, this is a major reduction.

There is no synergy between the different agencies involved in heritage conservation. The National Culture Fund, established in November 1996, to rope in individuals and corporate groups to fund conservation, has utilised only 14 per cent of its funds because of the lack of coordination with the ASI. The National Monuments Authority, a statutory body for implementing heritage by-laws and site plans for each monument, has only finalised and notified 31 monuments, while those relating to the 210 more are in different stages of finalisation. This is a fraction of the 3,693 monuments on the list of Centrally Protected Monuments. One wonders if this snail’s pace is a consequence of a sense that the Centre is proactively seeking to amend the act — drastically reducing the prohibited and regulatory area around monuments. By minimising the security net around monuments — a move that would endanger them — the government could make the exercise of creating heritage by-laws in their present form redundant.

The report reveals that the ASI, in many cases, has been working in violation of the provisions of the Monuments (AMASR) Act. At Humayun’s tomb, a CAG inspection revealed commercial construction being undertaken in the prohibited area by an “agency other than the ASI”. The NMA specifically communicated to the auditors that they had not received any application for the development of a museum and shopping complex within the prohibited area of the Humayun’s Tomb complex.

Finally, the poor state of conservation at ASI-protected sites and the lack of follow-up are worth pointing out. The Buddhist stupa site of Kanaganahalli in Karnataka highlights this. In its 2013 audit, the CAG talked of glaring shortcomings in conservation and protection. The joint inspection carried out during the present audit also revealed that precious carved panels were still lying scattered in the open. The cement beds created at the open shed for placing artefacts had cracked. The site itself, spread over some 23 acres, was covered with thick vegetation and grass — it is a fire hazard when dry. The CCTV camera installed at the site was not functioning while the lighting was inadequate.

Reading the report’s observations on this sad saga of monument conservation, I was left with the ironic thought that the modern keepers of ancient material can be as culpable for making Indian history bite the dust as the Muslim invaders whom the ruling establishment and its fellow travellers more routinely blame.

(Lahiri is Professor of History, Ashoka University and author of Monuments Matter — India’s Archaeological Heritage Since Independence)



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Shivani Naik writes: Commonwealth Games successes are merely halfway markers to the big event, the Olympic Games

One of India’s top Commonwealth Games weightlifters won a gold in Birmingham, but finished a whole 29 kg behind what would have earned him a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The snatch and clean and jerk total for gold at Tokyo was a staggering 50 kg away from his reach. When a fast food chain offered to indulge the lifter’s post-Games craving for deep-fried chicken wings — to honour his gold with a well-deserved cheat day treat — one wondered if it was two years too early to, well, count the chickens.

Paris 2024 will be upon India’s freshly minted medalists in no time — although it was champion lifter Mirabai Chanu, who tugged at the timeline, bringing it even closer and signalling that the Tashkent World Championships this December would be the quickest reality check for lifters who raked in medals at Birmingham.

As seen in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings — which drew on Birmingham’s landscape for inspiration — it’s one thing to bear the precious ring, and quite another to carry it on the arduous journey to its culmination. Ask any of India’s Olympic medal-winning incumbents and they’ll tell you that the CWG and Asiad are only pit stops to the biggest Games medal. The climb to the peak of Mount Doom, where Olympic medals are forged out of countless struggles, begins where the CWG celebratory parades end.

Indian sport can put the happy headlines into any meaningful perspective only by firmly stating that the CWG successes are merely halfway markers to Paris. A necessary reboot from quietened ambitions for the likes of pugilist Amit Panghal or wrestler Vinesh Phogat after their Tokyo disappointments, the CWG gold was second wind for someone like Sakshi Malik, who had battled debilitating self-doubt post her bronze medal in Rio six years ago. For India’s jumpers — gold-winning Eldhose Paul, silver medallists Abdulla Aboobacker and Murali Sreeshankar and bronze winner Tejaswin Shankar — Birmingham reignited the flaming hope for a medal 20 years after Anju Bobby George had lit one twilight evening in Athens.

His CWG success extends the surreal journey of paddler Sharath Kamal. The limits of longevity and peak performance will be tested by the TT legend who will be an eye-popping 42 should he qualify for Paris. Birmingham scripted the tale of the indefatigable legend, who you hope desperately will succeed in his unreal pursuit of an Olympic medal. The CWG dented the invincibility of Kenyan dominance in steeplechase, and Avinash Sable’s silver will give India the crazy-sounding hope of a Paris encore. The Kenyan running trio were properly spooked by the track-chomping Indian; now he’s tasted blood, he wants a bite of the gold in two years’ time.

Srihari Nataraj thrice raced the biggies of backstroke for the swimming finals in the outer, unfancied lanes of the Sandwell Aquatics centre. There was no medal to show, but India is finally taking the holy dip into the mother sport of aquatics, with a serious push expected in Paris, following the breakthroughs for gymnastics in Rio, and track and field in Tokyo. Olympics medals in swimming are not even vaguely visible on the horizon. But the realisation that the sport is a mine of medals and India ought to get a move on in it should suffice as Paris starts to creep up.

Nikhat Zareen’s gold was another reassuring medal, not for the quality of competition she came up against, but because it’s important for fighters like her to make good their pre-Games claims, to walk the talk, to add wattage to the World Championship halo. Nikhat counts as one of India’s earliest medal hopes for Paris, though she knows she has miles to go and many tricks to internalise, before nailing down the big one.

India’s women’s hockey team continue to save their best for the best, Australia, and the loss notwithstanding, the bronze medal makes them the most exciting bunch of athletes to follow into Paris. The 7-0 drubbing suffered by the men in the final best signifies the wicked, weltering wizardry of the CWG: With two years to go for Paris, it is a fine reality check for what lies ahead. The bronze from Tokyo is the precious ring that’ll feel burdensome with each step towards 2024. Birmingham was where the joyless wretch Gollum crept up to them and stole their Tokyo cheer. It is now two years to Paris.

shivani.naik@expressindia.com



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Since his exit from NDA and the start of another stint as Bihar chief minister in alliance with RJD, regional opposition leaders are warming up to Nitish Kumar. A fortnight ago, Akhilesh Yadav had said that Nitish’s shift was a positive sign for national politics. Now comes Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s Patna visit. However, KCR refused to endorse Nitish as a potential opposition PM candidate, preferring to kick the can down the road. More farcical, however, was KCR’s formulation of a BJP-mukt Bharat. A few days ago Mamata Banerjee had also stated that the 2024 contest against BJP would be her last fight.

However, these opposition leaders need to realise that anti-BJPism may work in state elections but not at the national level. At the national level, BJP is towering over the opposition with no viable alternative in sight. A shrinking Congress and shaky regional parties are unlikely to make a dent in BJP’s national edifice, which also gains immensely from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stature. Rather than a negative agenda, voters are bound to ask what is the opposition offering them in positive terms other than the sound and fury of anti-BJPism.

So the opposition parties may have to approach it differently by framing a common political and programmatic agenda. Otherwise, the shrill anti-BJP rhetoric is hardly convincing. Most of these parties have done business with BJP when they deemed it convenient. The fact that BJP doesn’t need alliances to form its governments has evidently turned them against it. Voters seem to intuitively recognise this when they prefer a single party government than a coalition pulling in different directions. Post-poll coalitions in the past worked out common minimum programmes. The big question is whether a pre-poll alliance of opposition parties can converge on a common political manifesto.



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India’s GDP for the April-June quarter grew 13.5% to Rs 36.85 lakh crore, 2.7 percentage points lower than what RBI had forecast. To an extent, the growth rate was influenced by an upward revision in the numbers of the corresponding period of the previous year. Despite the lower-than-expected growth rate, there were positive developments. GDP in the April-June quarter is above the corresponding pre-pandemic period, indicating the economy has recovered at an aggregate level from the Covid shock. Further indications of this come from the data that both private consumption and investment have surpassed their pre-pandemic levels.

In sectoral terms, the result is mixed. Contact-intensive sectors represented by trade, hotels and transport haven’t recovered fully, their output remains below the 2019 level. This segment slipped in its relative contribution to the economy’s gross value added – it’s 16% in the April-June quarter of 2022 as compared to 20% in the corresponding period of 2019. It’s a troubling feature of the recovery as contact-intensive sectors are an important source of employment among job seekers lacking in skills. The key question is whether the job situation is changing. GoI’s quarterly urban jobs data show that the urban unemployment rate for the April-June quarter was 7.6%. For sure, it’s high for an emerging economy but the rate has trended downwards over four successive quarters.

Good news in the first quarter won’t help with challenges going forward. The hardening of interest rates following RBI’s change in monetary policy stance will act as a drag on demand as about 40% of bank advances are linked to the central bank’s repo rate. In addition, crude oil prices have been rising over the last fortnight, which will push up input costs across the board. The price of the Indian crude basket has risen by about 10% over the last few days to $102/barrel. The damage to contact-intensive sectors and elevated crude prices suggest the recovery in demand is still fragile. This may be the context in which data on the rise in proportion of suicides by daily wagers needs to be located – it’s increased to 25.6% of the total in 2021 from 23.4% in 2019. GoI may need to tweak the fiscal expenditure pattern to provide support to some sectors as it now has the cushion provided by a 25% increase in gross tax revenue in the April-July period.



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UGC and the education ministry are reportedly finalising regulations for foreign universities’ India campuses. The plan is to offer “near full freedom” on determining academic course structure and curriculum, faculty hiring and salaries, and even fees. But why should Indian universities in India not enjoy these freedoms? It’s true foreign universities have been wary of over-regulation. However, Indian universities are far worse off – they have to actually function under the restrictive regime. If UGC wants to reform the system, it must apply the changes to all players – domestic and foreign. Otherwise, UGC will be effectively discriminating against domestic education providers. That would be as unfair as extraordinary. In most markets, complaints of discrimination are made by foreign players against domestic ones.

Indian universities, both public and private, have to negotiate their way through a thicket of rules and regulations, framed by UGC, AICTE, NMC, BCI, state governments. These rules apply for starting new courses, sanctioning student intake, and various academic and administrative operations. No Western country or even China makes its education institutions jump through so many hoops. And it’s not just independent experts who have raised questions but also Parliament members. The parliamentary standing committee on education has, on more than one occasion, found UGC and other regulators to be overbearing in their approach.

The higher education market in India is already big and will become huge, comparable to China’s, as aspirations grow on the back of a long period of reasonably good GDP growth. There’s a growing demand-supply gap in quality higher education. The better Indian universities can play a key role in bridging this gap, but not if they are burdened with regulations that don’t apply to their foreign counterparts.



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The more aggressive the effort, the bigger the gains - as are the investments required. Achieving net-zero by 2070 requires an investment of $10 trillion. This is projected to boost GDP by 4.3% in 2036. A 2050 target that boosts GDP by 7.3% by 2032 will require $13.5 trillion. The report reaffirms India's position of the criticality of international support for the transition.

A serious pursuit of a net-zero target has economic benefits for India. A report (bit.ly/3RIo6hd) by the Asia Society Policy Institute's high-level committee released last Monday reiterates this through economic modelling to develop different scenarios. The report provides useful options for the government to explore as the latter sets out its national vision and plan for the transition to a decarbonised economy.

The more aggressive the effort, the bigger the gains - as are the investments required. Achieving net-zero by 2070 requires an investment of $10 trillion. This is projected to boost GDP by 4.3% in 2036. A 2050 target that boosts GDP by 7.3% by 2032 will require $13.5 trillion. The report reaffirms India's position of the criticality of international support for the transition. With global investment funding the transition, the government could divert domestic resources to developmental activities, reskilling for the low-carbon economy and ensuring a just transition.

The report demonstrates the benefits of front-loading the transition rather than spreading it over half a century. The decisions and trade-offs are political. So, does India see the transition as an opportunity and tool to grow its economy to emerge as a major player in a decarbonising world? Or does it see decarbonisation as a project that comes second to growing the economy? Once that decision is taken, the rest is detail.

Regulatory interventions such as amendments to the Energy Conservation Act and the Electricity Act demonstrate serious intent. But refusal to engage in a coal phase-out sends out mixed signals. India needs a vision, plan and milestones across all of government-society-economy to leverage the transition for sustained and sustainable growth.

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​​​Creating two classes of institutions will not improve quality or access. The separate and unequal approach reportedly being proposed by GoI will only limit the growth and improvement potential of Indian institutions, which will continue to be the core of the country's higher education system.

Giving foreign universities a regulatory blank cheque while not according the same privilege to Indian institutions will have long-term adverse repercussions. India needs high-quality education, particularly faculty, innovative and cutting-edge curriculum, and research and development capacities.

Creating two classes of institutions will not improve quality or access. The separate and unequal approach reportedly being proposed by GoI will only limit the growth and improvement potential of Indian institutions, which will continue to be the core of the country's higher education system.

India's goal to nearly double the higher education gross enrolment ratio (GER) - from 27% to 50% - by 2030 requires an exponential increase in institutions. Indian campuses of foreign universities are a least-cost option to increasing supply. However, past efforts, which included some regulatory leeway, did not yield results.

The current effort seeks to attract the world's top 500 institutions. However, well-established academically reputed foreign universities have preferred setting up graduate and research outposts as extensions of their own engagement with India. This is unlikely to lift GER. Nor does it address issues related to access. India's inadequate higher education infrastructure is marked with regional inequities and imbalance.

A third of colleges are concentrated in 6% of districts. If GoI's aim is to build robust, globally benchmarked higher education institutions, cutting-edge research and high level of research-to-application transition, then it must build that system. It must bring together all stakeholders under the same regulatory oversight to create, build and grow that ecosystem.

Indian higher education requires quantitative and qualitative upgrade. Building higher education institutions that attract the best minds, encourage innovative thinking and convert moonshots into reality must be the driving force of regulation. Ensuring a level playing field is critical for this endeavour. If you build it, they will come.

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In yet another assault on India’s already shrinking natural heritage, a part of the National Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary (NCWS), which spans Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), and Rajasthan, will be opened up for sand mining. According to a report in this paper, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has allowed sand mining on 207.05 hectares of the NCWS that fall in MP’s Morena district. While the area opened for sand mining is around half a per cent of NCWS’s total size, the decision could, environmentalists fear, effectively legalise illegal sand mining. In addition, various lobbies may use the NBWL order as a precedent to pressure central and state governments to open up other protected areas for extractive industries. The NBWL order also goes against the Gwalior bench of the MP high court ruling that banned sand mining in 2006 for safeguarding gharials, Indian skimmers, and other animal species that make the sanctuary their home.

While the MP government, which proposed the denotification of 292.39 hectares of NCWS in March, said that this step would help curb illegal sand mining and make sand available for people, the fact is that sand mining leads to river erosion, shrinking deltas, land-use changes, air pollution, salinisation of groundwater reserves, and threatens freshwater fisheries and biodiversity. Besides, the view that legal mining will stop illegal mining and that the state will manage to keep a hawk-eye on illicit mining doesn’t elicit much confidence. There are reports that unlawful sand mining is rampant in these areas, and the population of dolphins and gharials is plummeting. In the face of evidence that the state has fallen short in safeguarding protected areas, is there any sense in opening such regions for further exploitation?



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It has been eight days since a prominent seer from Karnataka was booked by the police for allegedly sexually exploiting two minor girls who were a part of the mutt that was headed by the man and lived in an adjoining hostel. The charges are serious. The two girls, aged 16 and 15, have told members of the state child welfare committee that they were sexually assaulted between January 1, 2019, and June 6, 2022, and have also detailed their ordeal in statements before a magistrate. Yet, legal proceedings have moved at a snail’s pace against Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, who has been neither officially questioned in the case nor arrested.

The seer heads the Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt in Chitradurga, one of the most powerful religious seats in the state. It is pertinent to note that he hails from the Lingayat community, the largest and most influential electoral group in the state, and is close to several leading politicians. The accused seer has received support from former chief minister BS Yediyurappa and a section of the state cabinet, including some ministers, who have suggested that the charges could be motivated and linked to a tussle for power in the religious institution. The Opposition, usually vociferous in its admonishment of the government, has also been subdued in its statements on the issue – no doubt aware of the political weight and influence of the mutt.

Political machinations aside, the charges levelled in the case merit a proper investigation. The seer has been booked under the 2012 Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act and Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the police to not drag their feet in probing the case. So far, they have not even conducted an interrogation of the accused despite the stringent provisions of POCSO Act. This attitude is now raising questions about political considerations influencing the probe – a narrative that is good neither for the health of a democracy nor the rule of law. The seer has defended himself, rejected the charges and moved the local court for anticipatory bail. That is his right. But it is also the duty of the police to follow the rule and process of the law. In this high-profile case, as with all others, adhering to standard investigation protocol without bias must be the priority so that faith in government institutions is not eroded.



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The commissioning of the first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier, Vikrant, on September 2 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kochi is a significant punctuation in India’s pursuit of self-reliance in the military domain. Within the spectrum of naval ships — the flattop, as the carrier is known — has a special salience, and hence a celebratory tenor to this ceremonial event is warranted.

All civilian and naval personnel who have worked in earnest since 2005 (when the steel was symbolically cut) to bring Vikrant to this moment — when the Tricolour and a new naval ensign will be hoisted and the ship formally inducted with the prefix INS (Indian Naval Ship) — must be commended for their perseverance. Seventeen years is a long gestation period for any platform, but more on that later. It merits mentioning that the final phase of Vikrant was completed under Covid-19’s shadow, but that it was not allowed to become a constraint is a special feather in the cap for the staff of the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), and its diligent leadership.

At 45,000 tonnes, Vikrant is the largest naval ship to be designed and built in India, and with this accomplishment, the country joins a select band of six nations that have demonstrated such capability: The United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), France, Russia, Italy, and China.

To the credit of the Indian Navy, the early leadership resolved that the “Cinderella” service would invest in naval ship design, and, accordingly, a dedicated cadre of naval architects was nurtured. Beginning with the Leander-class frigates of the early 1970s that were acquired from the UK and gradually transformed into an indigenous Godavari class, it has been a steady path of consolidation — from the commissioning of Nilgiri in 1972 to Vikrant in 2022.

Designing and building the first warship of any class is a complex learning curve, and in the case of Vikrant, the CSL was embarking on such a project for the first time. Built at a cost of almost 20,000 crore, the project began in May 2007, and the ship’s keel was laid in February 2009. Subsequently, the vessel was launched (into the water) in August 2013. Nine years later, the ship is ready to be commissioned as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) campaign. While the pursuit of indigenous capability is laudable, and Vikrant is indeed a success story — the progress needs to be contextualised objectively.

Any warship has three components, from design to final operational induction. The first is to create a hull that will float, and here the quantum of indigenisation apropos Vikrant is more than 80% — primarily due to the Indian steel that has gone into building the vessel. However, when it comes to the second component — making the ship move — the indigenous component is more modest, and only up to 50% of the propulsion, because the gas turbines and related machinery are imported. Finally, when it comes to the fighting component, including surveillance (radars and sonar), the imported component is almost 70%. These areas will need sustained attention in the years ahead when India decides on the next indigenous carrier.

After commissioning, Vikrant will begin the more critical task of embarking on board its fighter aircraft — in this case, the MiG-29K, which is already operating from the INS Vikramaditya (the former Russian vessel, the Gorshkov). The credibility of a carrier is determined by the quality and quantity of air power it can bring to bear in any given radius and hence the truism that sans its integral air capability, a carrier is a mere floating hull.

The integration of the MiG-29K on Vikrant will take at least six months, and some structural challenges will need to be surmounted. The Indian Navy acquired 45 MiG-29K fighters commencing 2009, and these were earmarked for INS Vikramaditya. However, despite the initial evaluation and the modifications to the MiG-29K (which was designed as a land-based fighter), the efficacy of MiG-29K as a carrier-borne fighter was deemed to be below par in terms of its operational profile. In a 2016 report, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) was scathing and described the acquisition of MiG-29K as being ‘“riddled with problems, discrepancies, and anomalies”.

India has evaluated other aircraft, such as the French Rafale and the US F-18. Still, given the long timelines for decision-making, it is unlikely that either of these platforms will be inducted soon. Thus, India will be in an anomalous situation: While the nation can take pride in having successfully designed and built its first aircraft carrier, attaining the desirable degree of combat worthiness of Vikrant will be a work in progress for a few years. If the CAG had arrived at a determination in 2016 that the MiG-29K was not a viable platform for carrier operations, why did the higher defence decision-making apparatus of the country allow the current exigency to occur? These policy inadequacies merit objective review so that the next Indian carrier — as and when approved – is not beset by the same delays and anomalies.

But for now, Vikrant must be heralded as a welcome addition to the Indian quiver.

Commodore (retired) C Uday Bhaskar is director, Society for Policy Studies The views expressed are personal



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India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 13.5% on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in the first quarter (Q1) of the fiscal year (FY) 2023, largely in line with our projections. The double-digit growth number was driven by a low base, owing to the Delta wave of Covid-19 in Q1 FY 2022. But the real GDP was a mild 3.8% higher than the pre-Covid-19 levels of Q1 FY 2020, implying an annualised growth rate of 1.3% over the past three years. Going ahead, growth rates will certainly moderate on a YoY basis as the base normalises. However, the performance relative to pre-Covid-19 levels is expected to improve.

GDP growth in the previous quarter was driven by a surge in consumption demand, with private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) surging by 25.9% YoY — this alone contributed as much as 14 percentage points to the headline GDP growth number of 13.5%, with higher net imports offsetting the contribution of all the other GDP components. PFCE exceeded pre-Covid-19 levels by a healthy 9.9% in Q1 FY2023, particularly driven by contact-intensive services that had to be avoided during the pandemic, such as travel, recreation and education. But on the other hand, high inflation constrained discretionary consumption of goods.

These trends were also reflected in the growth of the services sub-sectors on the production side. The trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting (THTCS), and public administration, defence and other services (PADOS) rose by a sharp 25.7% and 26.3%, respectively, on a YoY basis in Q1 FY2023. Nevertheless, recovery in THTCS, which was the worst-affected sector during the pandemic, remains incomplete, with this segment trailing pre-Covid-19 levels by a considerable 15.5% in the quarter.

Moreover, the Gross Value Added (GVA) growth in the industrial sub-sub sectors such as manufacturing and mining trailed their respective volume growth, as indicated by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data, reflecting the painful impact of elevated commodity prices on business margins in the quarter.

Looking ahead, the trickle of high-frequency data for July-August 2022 provides some glimpses into how Q2 FY2023 may pan out. While most indicators are displaying a slowing YoY growth, the pace of expansion remains highly uneven across sectors. Moreover, the moderation in commodity prices from their June 2022 peaks, offers a glimmer of hope on producers’ margins, which had come under a great deal of pressure in the previous quarter.

The ICRA Business Activity Monitor — an index of high frequency economic indicators — had fallen by 2.6% on a month-on-month (MoM) basis to a five-month low of 113.5 in July 2022, as excess rains impacted electricity generation, coal output (and thereby rail freight traffic) and diesel consumption. In addition, a normalising base had halved the YoY growth in the index to 11% in July 2022 from 22% in June 2022.

Three things are important to note.

One, that the Government of India’s total expenditure contracted by 2% in the month of July 2022, with a YoY doubling of capital spending being counteracted by a 12% fall in revenue expenditure.

Two, that recently released data for the core sector output reveals a slide in the pace of expansion to 4.5% in July 2022 from an average of 16.2% in May-June 2022, with all the constituent sub-sectors, except steel, witnessing a deceleration. Thereafter, the growth in electricity consumption sunk to a marginal 0.5% in August 2022 from 2.3% in July 2022, although this follows from the heavy rainfall in the just concluded month vis-à-vis August 2021. Further, Coal India’s output shows a moderation in expansion in August 2022 compared to the levels seen in July 2022, while remaining robust at well above 20%, in spite of the above-normal rainfall.

And three, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) projected rainfall above 109% of the long-period average (LPA) in September 2022 after a 7% surplus during June-August 2022. This belies its earlier expectation of an early withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from some parts of the country during the first week of the month. Rainfall that is too high may damage the standing crop, thereby squeezing yields, delaying the harvest and posing downside risks to the kharif harvest.

On balance, we expect a statistical moderation in the YoY GDP growth to 6.5-7.0% in the second quarter and further to 5.0-5.5% in the second half of the fiscal year, on account of a normalising base. Nevertheless, the extent of the expansion — relative to the corresponding pre-Covid-19 quarters of FY2020 is expected to widen sequentially — to low double-digits in the third and fourth quarters, aided by the contact-intensive segments. This, we believe, is a better barometer of the extent of economic recovery, rather than the YoY prints, which are distorted on account of the timing of the Covid-19 waves that the country witnessed over the last two years.

Finally, with the Q1 numbers in line with our forecast, we are maintaining our full year FY2023 growth projection at 7.2%.

Aditi Nayar is chief economist, ICRA The views expressed are personal



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Last week, Union home minister (HM) Amit Shah said that the Centre wanted to make the use of forensic science mandatory during the investigation of criminal offences that attract more than six years imprisonment. He added that the necessary amendments in laws will be made to make such use legal and compulsory. Days later, Delhi Police followed up with a standing order, making it mandatory for investigating officials to use forensic technology while probing heinous crimes.

While the rationale of linking forensic examination only with offences punishable with more than six years is not clear, the idea has its advantages and disadvantages. It is undeniable that forensic evidence remains unaffected when compared to oral testimonies of witnesses, who often turn hostile. It is also a fact that the use of forensic science in criminal investigations in India is far less compared to developed countries. Several police reform commissions have also recommended increasing the use of forensic science, and avoiding short-cut and third-degree methods of interrogation.

However, the importance of forensic science must not be tied only with cases attracting a certain quantum of punishment. For example: While fatal accidents, stalking a woman electronically, and the bulk of cybercrimes (under the Information Technology Act) are punishable only with imprisonment up to three years, the forensic examination of vehicles involved in a collision and cyber forensics of suspect computer systems is valuable in nabbing the culprits. So, if a forensic examination is made compulsory for heinous offences, other offences (with lesser punishment) may suffer because of the limited forensic resources in states.

Further, despite taking precautions, traces or samples collected from a crime scene may get spoilt or be insufficient in quantity for examination. In sexual assault cases, the medical examination of a victim is useful only when conducted within three to four days. The mandatory provision, therefore, may not always be beneficial. The use of certain techniques (without consent) such as a narco-test, lie-detection test and brain-mapping has been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Any new scientific test, therefore, will have to stand the scrutiny of the constitutional courts as well.

It is also essential to evaluate the historical development of FSLs in states. The FSLs of new states are still ill-equipped and under-staffed. District mobile FSLs are either non-existent or lack requisite resources. The corpus of the police modernisation fund scheme, under which the state FSLs get most of their funds, has dropped from about 1,560 crore in 2013-14 to about 460 crore in 2022-23. Even if the Centre is ready to provide financial assistance to states, state governments will have to sanction and induct staff to run the labs. As crime control is the primary responsibility of the states, it is necessary that state governments are also brought on the same page to allocate necessary funds.

Currently, electronic records are admissible as a document in a court of law but the value of expert opinion (of a forensic expert) is only corroborative in nature. Therefore, to increase the credibility of forensic examination, the evidence act may be amended to make the result of certain techniques such as DNA examination and fingerprint identification or comparison — whose jurisprudence has sufficiently developed — admissible in the court with enhanced value.

Forensic science is a powerful tool, one is used at both the investigative stage and the prosecution stage of a criminal case. But its use must be carefully monitored, and girded with judicial oversight and robust safeguards. The arrest of the notorious American serial killer Dennis Rader — infamously known as the BTK killer — in 2005 after 31 years and 10 murders was only made possible by the forensic examination of the metadata of a floppy disk.

On the other side of the spectrum stands the 2015 admission by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that its hair sample analysis over two decades overstated forensic matches to help the prosecution (this included 32 defendants who were eventually sentenced to death). Encouraging the use of forensic techniques in criminal investigations is logical, but the aim should be to strengthen the forensic infrastructure and dig out the truth, not link it with the quantum of punishment and conviction rate.

RK Vij is former special director-general of policeThe views expressed are personal



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Calling for deep sector reform and a systemic overhaul, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emerged as a landmark moment for the Indian education sector. Informed by the view that education must go beyond academic outcomes to focus on the holistic development of our future generations, the policy recommended incorporating life skills as part of the curriculum. Coincidentally, this came at a time when the world was in the grips of Covid-19 — a period marked by health crises upending and exacerbating learning loss across the board.

The closure of all schools and educational institutions during the pandemic affected 275 million girls and boys aged between 3 and 18 years and worsened their access to education. The pandemic also led to an increase in India’s youth unemployment rate, making their already insecure position in the job market even more precarious. These factors have necessitated focused attention on building social, emotional and employability skills that can empower a generation to take on the challenges and opportunities of the dynamic 21st century.

It is a well-known fact that India’s problem is one of unemployability and not unemployment. There are 650 million Indians under the age of 25, the largest youth population in the world, which presents us with a unique situation: Almost 22% of the incremental global workforce over the next three decades will come from India. With the right interventions, this demographic dividend can easily be converted into a sustainable opportunity.

Life skills

Life skills, which add capabilities to aid young people in transitioning to an evolving world of work, have only recently been identified as important for the holistic development of young students. The findings of a 2019 UNICEF Report, which states that more than half the youth of South Asia will have neither the education nor the skills needed to be employable in 2030, highlight the dire reality of our future.

The clarion call issued by NEP 2020 ignited several debates, interventions, and innovations on the ground, such as the Young Warrior NXT Project. Through this project, YuWaah UNICEF, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Udhyam Learning Foundation came together to initiate 15 pilot programmes that could equip five lakh adolescents with the relevant skills to make them future-ready.

Take the case of Komal Singh, a girl from Uttar Pradesh who was seeking professional opportunity. Amid financial uncertainty and the stressors of the pandemic, she experienced a major dip in her confidence over time. In situations like these, young individuals like Komal lose a sense of hope and resilience, which in turn, affects their ability to take on challenges. Through life skills training as part of the Young Warrior NXT Project, she was able to regain confidence, improve her communication skills, and find new ways to solve problems with the help of her family and peers. In Komal’s words, she was always in conflict with her friends and at home with her father, but because of her ability to practice listening skills, and clear communication her relationship with her father has improved. Komal has also been able to assist her friends in practising life skills on a day-to-day basis.

Effectively scaling up the delivery of such innovative programmes, to empower our youth to thrive and equip them with the right skill sets, is the next logical step. Central to this is a systematic approach that can ultimately help integrate life skills training with the mainstream education curriculum and improve the preparedness of the next generation.

Way forward

Our data-backed projects under Young Warrior NXT have shown that scaling life skills for mainstream implementation requires a four-pronged approach.

One, creating a common vocabulary. Without an agreed-upon vocabulary and assessment framework, it is not possible to effectively scale up life skills delivery in India. The most meaningful way to enable this is to create a common vocabulary at the national level. If the 2005 National Curriculum Framework (NCF) helped create a baseline for academic competencies, the new frameworks envisioned by NEP 2020 are expected to do the same for life skills education. The groundwork for this has already begun. The Life Skills Collaborative, a consortium of over 30 organisations with multi-sector expertise, working in tandem with state governments and educational institutions, has spent the last 18 months coming up with a glossary of key life skills terms and a framework for life skills training.

Two, creating assessment tools. Along with a common vocabulary to help streamline life skills training, scaling up demands assessment tools that can ensure measurable outcomes. A robust assessment tool would enable us to assess the impact of each framework of life skills training and organise our efforts toward implementing the most effective framework. For instance, the “Future Readiness” assessment tool deployed across the 15 different pilots under Young Warrior NXT was designed to provide comparable evaluations and learning across three key metrics – enrolment, engagement and learner feedback – that would inform sustainability and future scalability. This becomes particularly important when dealing with large systemic shifts in education departments that span millions of students.

Three, curating content on life skills. Making age-appropriate, relevant and contextual learning content available to all is the cornerstone to building life skills for the 21st century. Multiple e-learning solutions that aggregate high-quality learning content on the most basic of academic subjects have indeed revolutionised education. A similar solution to curate content on life skills could greatly benefit stakeholders invested in transacting life skills at scale. This would not only enable young people to take charge of their own learning, but also offer opportunities for collaboration with learning experts in the space and building on existing efforts in the ecosystem.

Four, using our existing systems. Finally, if we have to deliver life skills at scale, we must leverage our existing school systems and vocational training infrastructure. There are over 10 million teachers and over 1.5 million schools in India – a significant asset base and delivery channel that can be tapped into. However, it is important to note that our teachers are already overburdened and the pressure of post-Covid catch-up is putting more stress on the system. Hence, it is essential that we adequately aid, support and guide the teachers with pedagogical frameworks, lesson plans and assessment tools to enable the delivery of life skills training within the mainstream curriculum.

The life skills pilots undertaken by Young Warrior NXT have been a vital starting point. However, to reap measurable impact and deliver at scale, we need to continue testing innovative models and investing in local and state-level capacity-building. Life skills must be recognised as an integral part of realising the full potential of India’s youth, and it is our responsibility to empower them with the most comprehensive toolkits to fulfil their aspirations and inspire future generations.

Geeta Goel is managing director, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, India. Dhuwarakha Sriram is chief of Gen U India, YuWaah, Youth Development and Partnerships at UNICEF

The views expressed are personal



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Each day brings new episodes of rampant ecological destruction across India.

On Thursday, Hindustan Times reported that the National Board for Wildlife, the apex body in India for all wildlife-related matters, has allowed sand mining in a portion of the National Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary (NCWS) in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district. While the quantum of the area being notified is around 0.5% of the total size of NCWS, environmentalists say that the decision will regularise illegal sand mining within the sanctuary and provide an incentive for more illegal mining elsewhere.

Illegal sand mining is common across India. In addition to the loss of this precious, non-renewable natural resource, it is also responsible for the killing of people who oppose or expose such episodes. The South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), a non-profit organisation, studied English newspaper reports on accident cases and violence due to sand mining between December 2020 to March 2022. SANDRP found at least 418 people have lost their lives and 438 injured due to sand mining-related reasons during this period.

Sand is a precious resource

Unfortunately, most people don't accord importance to sand and mining of the resource. This is understandable because sand is "cheap" and "abundant".

There is also a lack of information on the kind of crucial ecosystem services sand provides. Even though this is the largest mining industry in the world, it remains largely unregulated and unknown.

I was also unaware of the importance of sand in our lives till I read Kiran Pereira's Sand Stories, and started taking notice of the sand mining-related incidents.

Pereira has a Master's degree in Geography (Environment & Development) from King's College, London, and has done her PhD in sand mining. Today, she is the founder and chief storyteller at SandStories.org.

Her gripping book turns the story of sand into an exciting subject.

In her first chapter, Pereira talks about the diverse uses of sand (from pyramids to the glass shield on your phone) and how all sand is not equal. For example, sand crafted by water is much more in demand than sand crafted by wind (deserts).

"As our hunger for sand increases, we are developing extreme ways to get to it; while the climate crisis is exposing newer deposits of sand as glaciers melt. But fundamentally, we are focussed on a linear model of taking, making, and disposing," writes Pereira in the introductory chapter.

Pereira says that humans have perfected the art of finding new applications for sand. From glass to urban infrastructure, from silicon chips to food and pharmaceutical products, and has been used in mind-numbing volumes.

In summary, sand has become a victim of its versatility.

The UNEP report

If Pereira's book is a narrative on sand, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s 2022 report must be read for the data it provides and the recommendations on tackling the overuse of sand.

This report begins with one such number: 50 billion tonnes: Enough to build a wall 27 metres wide and 27 metres high around planet Earth. This is the volume of sand and gravel used each year, making it the second most used resource worldwide after water.

Extracting sand, the report says, where it plays an active role, such as rivers, and coastal or marine ecosystems, can lead to erosion, salination of aquifers, loss of protection against storm surges and impacts on biodiversity, which pose a threat to livelihoods through, among other things, water supply, food production, fisheries, or to the tourism industry.

The resource, the report says, will be crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and tackling the triple planetary crisis of climate, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

However, it is being used faster than it can be naturally replenished, so its responsible management is crucial.

"To achieve sustainable development, we need to drastically change the way we produce, build and consume products, infrastructures and services. Our sand resources are not infinite, and we need to use them wisely. If we can get a grip on how to manage the most extracted solid material in the world, we can avert a crisis and move toward a circular economy," said Pascal Peduzzi, director of GRID-Geneva at UNEP and programme coordinator for this report.

A strategic resource

According to the report's authors, sand must be recognised as a strategic resource, not only as a material for construction but also for its multiple roles in the environment. They stress that governments, industries, and consumers should price sand in a way that recognises its true social and environmental value. For example, keeping sand on coasts may be the most cost-effective strategy for adapting to the climate crisis because it protects against storm surges and impacts from sea level rise — such services should be factored into its value.

Sand Stories and the UNEP report have been eye-openers for me. They explain why illegal sand mining, rampant across India and the world, continues unabated and why we should be worried about its unsustainable use.

The views expressed are personal



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Why is it that the Indian State can vaccinate 90% of Indians against Covid-19, outperforming Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, in the middle of a global pandemic, but it still has one of the higher maternal mortality rates in the world?

The Indian State appears to perform better on macroeconomic, episodic outcomes than everyday governance (Devesh Kapur, 2020). While the State can scale and deliver on some margins, like immunisation programmes, it fails on others, especially matters concerning women. Ranked 135 out of 146 countries in the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index, this number testifies to critical gaps in the lived experiences of women in India.

Every five years, the State conducts the world’s largest elections, with four times the electorate of the United States (US). The results are faster, more reliable, and rarely questioned. Though more women voted in the 2019 election than men, women constitute less than 15% of the Lok Sabha.

Indian roads have increased 15-fold since 1950 (Economic Surveys). That made it easier for the average rural Indian woman to walk her yearly quota of 14,000 km to fetch water — a gendered burden. She has no option but to tread these very roads, for as recently as 2019, 4 of 5 women did not have access to the indoor tap water supply. Now, half the country’s women have piped water (Jal Jeevan Mission or JJM), but supply is sporadic. They still spend 1-5 hours each day, sometimes, even more, just to provide water for their families.

In 2013, India even sent satellites to Mars, under the stewardship of a team largely comprising female scientists. But the country’s female labour force participation has declined from 35% in the mid-2000s to 17% today, which is less than half the world average, and lower than Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The expanding police reforms to bring on more personnel and equipment have not translated into better law and order or dented the increasing rates of crimes against women (according to the National Commission for Women).

Similarly, the State has moved quickly on projects such as Aadhaar cards and implementing a nationwide GST, through hundreds of notifications. Such alacrity, however, has rarely been there for improving human development indicators, especially female-centric ones. For instance, 70% of India cannot afford a healthy diet and such food insecurity disproportionately affects women, as they still eat last and the least (United Nations, 2021). More Indian women, almost 57%, are anaemic now. Matters get worse as every 3 out of 5 women face problems in accessing healthcare (National Family Health Survey-5).

On all these margins, women from vulnerable religious and caste groups have it much worse. While they are usually at the receiving end of negligence and ill-treatment from the state and society, they are also at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their equation with women of relative privilege.

This is not to say the Indian State has failed women entirely. Despite bureaucratic overload, poor devolution of fiscal and non-fiscal powers, and erstwhile colonial structures, over the last 75 years, the State has put clean fuel in 85% of households, electrified nearly all homes, given out nearly 70% of disbursed microloans to women, and delivered other quasi-public goods/services. Propelled by economic growth since the 1990s, the State has financed nearly 600 schemes/initiatives at central/state levels that directly and indirectly aimed at improving the condition of women.

But more schemes do not necessarily translate into meaningful impact. For instance, providing water and fuel need not always mean that quality or supply is guaranteed. Similarly, while the Indian State has made a commendable push for girls’ education, studies have shown that even when women are better educated, there is no notable increase in paid employment. Instead, their role inside the household is reaffirmed.

Therefore, the State’s efforts need to be more oriented toward transformational change. First, where possible, policies must include and account for women. For instance, the JJM, while targeting an increase in indoor taps, specifically highlights the need to reduce female drudgery in collecting water.

Second, robust data must supplement such policies. For example, the State should develop a consistent methodology to measure the extent of drudgery that women face in addition to fetching water, implement and evaluate mechanisms to reduce this drudgery, assess outcomes, and scale successful interventions.

Third, the need for more women at decision-making tables cannot be stressed enough. They are better suited to identify the problems that women face on the ground, especially in the context of social cleavages. Research shows that when women are assigned political posts, female-centric issues get better addressed, and the policy process is less blinkered.

While private and community efforts play a critical role in improving socio-economic parameters concerning women, they are usually localised. The State has the resources and power to scale the provision of public goods. Our simple but firm message is: It needs to turn its face and cater to women.

Kadambari Shah and Shreyas Narla are policy researchers

The views expressed are personal



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What is to be made of a man who changed the world — hero or villain? Sinner or saint? Visionary or romanticist? The jury is probably evenly split on the leader who dismantled the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War to change the world. Such ambivalence means the last President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, will not even get a State funeral in his homeland Russia — the press secretary said the funeral will have “elements” of a State funeral, such as honorary guards, etc., but would not elaborate on how the ceremony will differ from a full-fledged State funeral. Gorbachev was lionised abroad but vilified at home but, when history judges him, it cannot ignore the enormous contribution he made in creating the greatest opportunity ever for world peace.

The general peace that reigned in the decade after the Iron Curtain came down was, however, unlikely to last forever. But, as Cold War II seems ready to erupt, if it has not done so already after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Gorbachev is not the man to blame. And yet Putin uses the dismantling of the mighty Soviet Union during Gorbachev’s reign — on the premise that its rigid dictatorship had to make way for social democracy for the sake of humankind — to justify his efforts to undo the changes that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had brought about in the demolition of the once mighty empire over 30 years ago.

As the thinking of Karl Marx gave way to that of Mahatma Gandhi in Gorbachev, a bipolar world, on the brink of nuclear war, made way for a unipolar world to be dominated by the US. The global policeman and keeper of the peace of the free world, may have shown the tendency to go to war against any nation favouring Russia and even followed the Soviets into Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 terror attack. But the Russians were left fuming over the economic miracle promised by their leader that never came.

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As the political architecture of Eastern Europe changed drastically with the fall of Communist regimes, the year 1989 came to be equated in historical terms with 1789 and the beginning of the French Revolution and Gorbachev was hailed as the man who not only saw “tomorrow” but also made it possible. However, in Russia, the supermarket shelves, filled with vodka besides the basics, didn’t have much more than American cola and pizza to offer.

His successor Boris Yeltsin may have hit the nail on the head when he said that Gorbachev had tried to unite the impossible — Communism with the free market and political pluralism with the Communist Party. Nation after nation may have drifted away to freedom but the Russians alone seemed not to know what to do with their newfound privileges. The fear of the State may not be a desirable aspect of life, but the people seemed to reconcile with that in yearning for the protection of the great State that would provide everything for them.

“It will never be possible to turn society back,” Gorbachev, who became an itinerant statesman after defeat in a presidential poll, admitted in later life. The biggest question swirling now, decades after “Perestroika” and “glasnost” joined the lexicon, is whether Gorbachev wished to demolish the Soviet system altogether or merely wanted to reform it and route it towards an enlightened path of social democracy and personal freedoms. At the end of this remarkable man’s life, the free world will always see the best side of Gorbachev while the Russians will only see the other villainous side.



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You cannot keep flogging a dead horse, the Supreme Court told the counsel for the petitioner while winding up a contempt case against former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh and BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Uma Bharti et al. for violating the status quo order the apex court had issued with respect to the Babri Masjid in 1992. 

The court referred to two facts while deciding to close the proceedings in the case — one, a larger bench of the court considered and decided in 2019 the main issue and permitted the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site, and two, the petitioner Mohammed Aslam is no more.

Nothing survives in the matter now, the court reminded the counsel. And the court is right. The petition was filed in 1992, and was listed on two occasions — November 29, 2001, and April 23, 2010, and disposed of in 2022. Thirty years and several applications for listing of the matter later, nothing survives, not even the petitioner! The court also rejected the counsel’s plea to substitute the petitioner with an amicus curiae.

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The court can discover facts that buttress its arguments; but whether they can help meet the ends of justice is the issue. It’s true the larger bench decided the issue but it had also clearly stated that “the destruction of the mosque took place in breach of the order of status quo and an assurance given to this court. The destruction of the mosque and the obliteration of the Islamic structure was an egregious violation of the rule of law”. One fails to understand the logic of the court in choosing to ignore that part of the verdict which is directly linked to the case before it and instead highlight the decision on a larger issue.

The court’s reasoning would vie with that of the person who sought clemency for being an orphan after being convicted for murdering both his parents.



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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has frequently been quoted as saying that the breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the twentieth century. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the USSR, who passed away in Moscow on Tuesday, at the age of 91, was often reviled in Russia as the principal architect of that “geopolitical disaster”. But he was also admired by many elsewhere, particularly in the former Soviet republics that gained independence, and in the countries that could break free from the claustrophobic embrace of the Warsaw Pact. For these contributions, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Gorbachev’s was an unlikely story of a peasant boy from rural Russia, somehow finding his way into an elite Moscow university and then climbing up the greasy pole of Soviet politics, from the district to the national level. If he harboured the liberal convictions that he later professed, he hid them well.

Instead, he was sensitive to the prevailing ideological winds -- moving seamlessly from praising Stalin’s policies to criticising them in the Nikita Khrushchev era, before again adjusting to the post-Khrushchev situation. His energy and erudition powered him up the Soviet leadership ladder, at a time when its aging and ailing leaders were overwhelmed by the mounting challenges of national economic decline, exacerbated by the arms race and the military misadventure in Afghanistan. Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, at the relatively young age of 54.

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Gorbachev’s ambitious agenda was to democratise the country, open up its economy and promote security through disarmament. The shock treatment that he sought to administer was a combination of political transparency (glasnost) and economic restructuring (perestroika).

He came up against multiple challenges to repairing the decaying economic and social fabric of the country. Entrenched cadres with stubborn mindsets proved difficult to dislodge. His personal traits did not help him to assemble and retain loyal aides to push his agenda. Personality clashes and policy differences frequently retarded progress. The collapse of global oil prices and his ill-timed anti-alcohol campaign severely dented the national budget. The American biographer William Taubman highlights a deeper malaise: Gorbachev’s grand, transformational ideas were not matched by the ability to formulate detailed plans for their execution. Like so many visionaries in history, he lacked the practical and political skills to transform vision into reality.

Like most leaders facing difficulties at home, Gorbachev found solace in the glamour of foreign visits. His message of economic reform and nuclear disarmament was received rapturously by his hosts, particularly in Europe, which was at the cutting edge of the Cold War confrontation. This included the people in Communist Eastern Europe, who hoped that the winds from the promised “Soviet spring” would also cleanse their political systems. But he got little response to his argument that it was in the Western interest to contribute generously to rescue the Soviet economy.

Gorbachev offered ever more concessions to enhance goodwill: unilateral troop reductions, releasing Warsaw Pact countries from the Soviet fold, accepting German re-unification and even its membership of Nato. His interlocutors pocketed his concessions, but continued to give little in return.

It is strange that a leader with the political skills to reach the top of the opaque Soviet system did not have the astuteness to recognise that adulation does not transform to desirable outcomes. Unilateral concession is not an effective gambit for successful diplomacy.

Gorbachev may also have erred in assuming that the West was invested in his political and economic success. Taubman reveals a confidential note from then deputy CIA director Robert Gates to President George H.W. Bush warning that Gorbachev’s reforms could make the Soviet Union an even more formidable adversary. The break-up of the Soviet Union was obviously a better outcome. This may explain why the United States did not really question the constitutional propriety of Boris Yeltsin unseating Gorbachev. The West extended unstinting support to Yeltsin as President of Russia, including for his re-election in 1996, helping him to overcome poor popularity ratings and to ride out allegations of election irregularities. They ignored the erstwhile darling of the West, Nobel laureate Mikhail Gorbachev, who also stood for election and eventually got 0.5 per cent of the vote.

Gorbachev oversaw the beginning of a Sino-Soviet thaw that developed into the Russia-China strategic partnership of today. He visited Beijing during the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989 -- the first Soviet leader to visit China since 1959. He had to be smuggled into the summit venue by the rear entrance, but (as Vijay Gokhale says in his fascinating book on the uprising) Deng Xiaoping would not be deflected from his determination to use Sino-Soviet relations to create more space for China with the US -- much as he had done with US-China relations vis-à-vis the USSR about two decades earlier.

Gorbachev’s takeaway from the visit (quoted by Taubman) was that he was wise in his strategy of welcoming East European revolutions. The Chinese drew quite the opposite lessons from Gorbachev’s actions. Deng’s son told an American journalist his father thought Gorbachev was an “idiot”: he jeopardised Soviet Communism by putting the cart of political transformation before the horse of economic reform. Gokhale says the Soviet experience has reinforced the conviction of the Chinese Communist Party that it has to maintain its iron grip on the Chinese political system.

Gorbachev had a good connect with India’s then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Gorbachev’s interpreter has described it as a “total rapport”. This is borne out by some of their conversations on China. Ambassador Ronen Sen has written of a personal letter in which Rajiv Gandhi warned Gorbachev of the centrifugal consequences of glasnost and perestroika. Rajiv Gandhi was in touch with both Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan, helping their dialogue on strategic arms control and Afghanistan.

From India’s perspective, the collapse of the Soviet Union was not an unmitigated disaster. It jolted India’s political and economic calculus in the immediate term, but over the long term, the country shook off Cold War shibboleths, widened its network of international relationships, benefited from globalisation and technology revolutions, and developed a robust security paradigm.

Gorbachev’s personal foibles and political naiveté should not obscure his legacy of a peaceful end to the Cold War -- given the military arsenals of the two blocs, it could have been bloodier -- creating opportunities for a harmonious post-Cold War order. The ongoing war in Ukraine and Chinese sabre-rattling around Taiwan are reminders that the world has not grasped these opportunities; the blame for this cannot be laid entirely at Gorbachev’s door.



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Is the hallowed “turf” of the IAS shrinking? Evidently, yes. In the years since the Modi Sarkar came to power, the IAS cadre at the joint secretary and additional secretary levels has noticeably shrunk. From 249 IAS officers in 2015 (from a total of 391 joint secretaries) to 2017, the number was down to a mere 77 in January this year. Similarly, the number of additional secretaries has reduced from 98 in 2015 to 76 this year.

The trend is ongoing. Just recently the government promoted 31 officers to additional and joint secretary ranks across ministries, but only 12 are IAS officers. The rest are from other services. This might give the impression that the Modi Sarkar is attempting to break the dominance of the IAS, but there is another pressing reason. It also wants to address the crunch of IAS officers available for Central deputation (covered by DKB in a previous column). Faced with this acute shortage the government may simply be making optimum use of officers from other cadres to fill the gap until the imbalance is corrected, most likely over the next couple of years. This “short-term” diversity may even be a good thing for now!

Babus lose another job

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For the second time, the prestigious post of chief economic adviser has gone to a non-babu. Former chief economic adviser K.V. Subramanian is the new executive director for India at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) replacing Surjit Bhalla. According to the official order, Mr Subramanian’s appointment, which is for the full term of three years, has been done “by curtailing the tenure of Dr Surjit S Bhalla…”

The language of the order is what set tongues wagging. The wording suggested that Mr Bhalla was turfed out to make way for Mr Subramanian. Mr Bhalla was in Delhi and must have heard about his successor only when he landed in Washington, DC. Some of those who know about such matters however urge not to read too much in Mr Bhalla’s exit. Apparently, executive directors are elected by the IMF board and Mr Bhalla had served out his three-year term, as many others before him. Blame poor drafting by someone for the needless controversy!

Meanwhile, Mr Bhalla’s successor has an unenviable record. Not much was known about him before he was named chief economic adviser. Babus in Delhi are wondering whether his patrons who got him the job in the finance ministry continue to wield the considerable influence he used to, or if there is an acute shortage of those who can parrot the finance ministry’s views.

And, of course, this is another plum post that now seems to be out of bounds for turf-hugging babus.

Wait for a full-time ONGC chief gets a bit longer

The search and selection committee to appoint the new head for the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) recently called nine candidates for an interview but only six turned up. ONGC’s outgoing chief Alka Mittal, who has been holding the post as an additional charge, chose not to appear before the panel. The committee will take another two or three months to complete the process. 

Until then, most babu observers say, the state-owned ONGC will have to make do with a third interim chairperson, surely a record. The government has been unable to find a full-time chief of the country’s most profitable company in the 17 months since the post fell vacant when Shashi Shanker superannuated in March last year. Since then, the company has been steered by Subhash Kumar and then Ms Mittal, both from ONGC management. The most likely interim head seems to be R.K. Srivastava, director (exploration) since he is the senior-most director.

Curiously, the selection committee headed by PESB chief Mallika Srinivasan includes petroleum secretary Pankaj Jain and former Indian Oil chairman B. Ashok. It was set up in February but started work only this month! Among those who appeared for the interview were BPCL chairman A.K. Singh and Engineers India Ltd head Vartika Shukla.

Meanwhile, it may also be useful to remember that besides ONGC, at least 20 PSEs are currently without full-time heads.



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