📰 Air quality nosedives in spite of a quieter Deepavali
Smog and pollution touch toxic highs as weather system prevents dispersal of particulate matter in several cities
•This year’s Deepavali was the quietest in recent history, but the low-key celebrations across the country didn’t stop pollution levels from spiking sharply.
•In Chennai, which celebrated the festival on Wednesday, pollution levels the following evening inched up to that of Delhi, a city where where smog and pollution touch toxic highs during this season.
•Other cities in the south, such as Bengaluru and Hyderabad, also witnessed a sharp rise in air pollution.
•The Air Quality Index (AQI), a six-rung classification scale that rates air quality from ‘good’ to ‘severe’, downgraded air quality in Chennai from ‘satisfactory’ on October 16 to ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ in the days leading up to Deepavali. As of 4 p.m. on Thursday, the AQI for Chennai was 302, just shy of Delhi’s 319.
•The primary pollutant in both cities was PM 2.5, or particles that are smaller than 2.5 microns and linked to respiratory illnesses.
•Experts suggest that the weather conditions, which slowed the speed of winds in the Bay of Bengal, resulted in the high levels of pollutants enveloping Chennai.
•K. Karthikeyan, former Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, said, “This year, the particulate matter was much higher on Deepavali day than it was last year. It is the duty of the State Pollution Control Board to restrict the emissions in the spread area of Chennai by limiting crackers to maintain the desired air quality.”
•In Bengaluru, PM 2.5 was recorded at 13.46 microgrammes per cubic metre on the outskirts to as high as 71.12 in Peenya Industrial estate. The city saw an uptick in cracker smoke on Thursday.
Downward trend
•“There will be a rise due to bursting of crackers, but we have noticed a downward trend over the past few years. There is a tendency to celebrate a greener Deepavali,” said B. Nagappa, scientific officer, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.
•While last year’s Deepavali saw heavy rain, the chill and morning mist had set in. Mr. Nagappa expects particulate matter to hover over the city due to lack of dispersal.
•Hazy weather is expected in Hyderabad over the next few days, meaning pollution from firecrackers could remain suspended in the air due to temperature inversion, weathermen say.
📰 New species of large gecko discovered
8-inch lizard found in Eastern Ghats
•Geckos or house lizards usually evoke in us varying degrees of disdain. But a team of scientists’ fascination for these reptiles led them to discover a new species from the Eastern Ghats. The Kanger valley rock geckoHemidactylus kangerensisis the newest addition to India’s lizard species.
•According to a paper published in the taxonomic journal Comptes Rendus Biologies on Wednesday, researchers, led by Zeeshan Mirza of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, discovered the gecko from Chhattisgarh’s Kanger Ghati National Park. Though named after this park, the species is also found in Jagdalpur and Sukma in Chhattisgarh and in Khamman in the adjoining State of Telangana, which are part of the Eastern Ghats.
•Growing to over eight inches long, the adult Kanger valley rock gecko is fairly large. The researchers found them in abandoned houses in the national park and juveniles on termite mounds and tree trunks. Though several researchers and reptile buffs had spotted the species before, they had mistaken it for the commonly-found rock gecko which it resembles.
•The distinct black-bordered beige bands that the new species sports right from its neck to its tail tip and specific scales on its thighs (which are visible only on closer inspection) set the Kanger valley rock gecko apart from the commonly-found rock gecko.
•According to the researchers, the discovery highlights the need for dedicated surveys across the Eastern Ghats, where biodiversity has not been quantified too well. Most areas here also need protection from various anthropogenic pressures, they add.
📰 ‘India, Pakistan are both important to U.S. policy’
Tillerson says both are part of its approach on South Asia
•India and the U.S. are “two bookends of stability — on either side of the globe” and the “emerging Delhi-Washington strategic partnership” has the potential to anchor the rules-based world order for the next hundred years, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.
•Mr. Tillerson, who will be travelling to India and Pakistan next week, said both countries are “important elements” in the U.S. policy for stabilising South Asia and characterised China a destabilising force. “China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms that the United States and India both stand for,” he said, speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on ‘U.S.-India Partnership of the next 100 years.’
•Mr. Tillerson said the new “regional approach” on Afghanistan also involved seeking a resolution to tensions between India and Pakistan. “We intent to work closely with India and Pakistan and we hope to ease tensions along their borders as well... Pakistan has two very troubled borders. We would like to help take the tensions down on both of those,” he said.
•“We see it as a regional issue. We solve Afghanistan by addressing the regional challenges. Pakistan is important element in that, India is important element in that,” he said.
•Mr. Tillerson’s explanation of the new South Asia policy calls into question the interpretation of it as an acceptance of the Indian line, and a rejection of Pakistan’s position. He was also categorical in his support for the Indian position on China and its aid and financing support for other countries in the region, terming it “predatory economics”.
•Repeatedly referring to India’s democratic politics, Mr. Tillerson also referred to India’s Muslim minorities. “India’s diverse population includes more than 170 million Muslims — the third-largest Muslim population in the world. Yet we do not encounter significant numbers of Indian Muslims among foreign fighters in the ranks of IS or other terror groups, which speaks to the strengths of Indian society,” he said.
📰 Back to the future
As the Prime Minister revives the Economic Advisory Council and other advisory structures, transparency is vital
•In his first week in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi abolished all groups of ministers (GoMs). Nearly 100 such groups had been set up by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) during its 10-year tenure as a preferred route for building consensus on a variety of thorny issues or dithering on those that were important but not urgent. While the groups did serve their purpose up to a point, they also became a potent symbol of the policy paralysis that gripped the UPA in its second innings. Scrapping about two dozen such groups on issues on which a final decision was still pending was seen to be a reflection of Mr. Modi’s commitment to the ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ promise.
Three years later
•Ministries were to process issues pending before such groups on their own, and if they faced difficulties, seek help from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Secretariat, thus expediting decision-making and ushering in ‘greater accountability in the system’. However, in recent months, be it the strategic sale of Air India or other public sector units, bank mergers or labour reforms, the Cabinet has preferred to create a ministerial group to sort out the nitty-gritty. The term ‘alternative mechanism’ has been deployed instead of GoM. The Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), for instance, may have a better ring to it, but clearly there has been a realisation in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government that such groups are effective for certain decisions. After all, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government also used such groups as well as the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment to push through some of its biggest decisions. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has also formed two GoMs and several committees of officials to resolve the hurdles that have come up so far in the new indirect tax system.
•Late September, Mr. Modi re-constituted the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister (EAC), another institution suspended since May 2014, amidst a growing debate on the government’s alleged mishandling of the economy. With a little over six full quarters to go before the Lok Sabha elections, the challenge for the Council is to bring something to the table that can possibly push a quick enough revival of the economy, and perhaps suggest a course correction for reforms such as the GST that seem to be inhibiting industrial activity. A lot will depend on what the Prime Minister turns to them for advice for and what he doesn’t. Would he, for instance, have consulted such a body about demonetisation’s pros and cons? As an independent body to counsel the government, and more specifically the Prime Minister, on economic and related issues, its formation is a major signal that the government is aware of the state of the economy and is willing to seek professional help. Mr. Modi said as much on October 4, when he urged the people to keep their chins up rather than be swayed by a single quarter growth blip, while promising that steps would be taken to address the woes of specific sectors like exporters and small enterprises.
•It is not clear why the government waited for more than three years to rejig the EAC, which was neither a body unique to the UPA (like the National Advisory Council led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi) nor a socialist era vestige (like the Planning Commission). While Manmohan Singh, as Prime Minister, did entrust the EAC with analysing critical policy dilemmas such as the food security legislation, sugar or petroleum pricing and even Jammu and Kashmir’s development, the EAC’s prominence was actually at its peak under the previous NDA government, with Mr. Vajpayee himself chairing it.
Echoes from the past
•Recently, over dinner and Powerpoint presentations, Mr. Modi met almost 400 young entrepreneurs and CEOs to brainstorm on a range of themes around challenges facing the country. This initiative, termed Champions of Change, would be institutionalised in the best possible way, Mr. Modi said. Few may have realised that such an ‘institutional’ mechanism for dialogue with industry also marks a resurrection of sorts of the erstwhile Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry. It used to be a forum for top corporate leaders to flag issues frankly with the top echelons of government. Towards the end of UPA’s second innings, its members were quite brusque in berating Dr. Singh and his government for the sputtering reform momentum and slowing growth, and their comments routinely hit the front pages of pink papers.
•It is heartening that the Prime Minister, well known for his hands-on management style from his days as Gujarat Chief Minister, has maintained an open mind in eventually embracing administrative mechanisms that he didn’t feel the need for at the beginning of his tenure. The effectiveness of these groups and councils will, of course, depend on how receptive the government is to their inputs and the systems that are put in place for their functioning — whether it be the periodicity of meetings or meaningfully navigating the noise of advice that might pour in from hundreds of CEOs, for instance.
•At its first meeting this month, the EAC agreed there is a slowdown underway, but didn’t reveal the reasons behind it nor gave a diagnosis of how deep-rooted the problem may be. These details, we were told, will only be shared with the Prime Minister. While this may seem like an attempt to dodge the obvious explanations offered by economists such as lingering effects of the note ban that would be embarrassing for the Centre, there is a more structural reason for the Council’s silence.
•While Mr. Modi has persisted with three of the four terms of reference that were assigned to the EAC by the UPA, he has dropped an important one: submitting periodic reports to the Prime Minister on macroeconomic developments and issues with implications for economic policy. So, unlike the previous EAC, there are unlikely to be any regular reports taking stock of the economy and its growth outlook, at least in the public domain. The last report from the Prime Minister’s EAC, published in September 2013, had revised its growth projections for 2013-14 downward from 6.4% to 5.3% — in light of a weak first quarter growth of just 4.4%. What would the new EAC say about growth prospects for this year after a tepid first quarter? If the EAC were to prescribe a quick fix for the economy, how quickly could the government implement it if only the PMO is privy to its ideas?
•According to Coal and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, one of the three governance mantras the Prime Minister gave him in May 2014 was to be as transparent as possible. With worries about the economy gathering pace, airing the EAC’s views formally over fixed intervals of time would help flag as well as allay emerging concerns and stir a healthy debate on policy options.
On the learning curve
•That the government is beginning to listen to advice that goes against policy choices it has defended spiritedly is evident from its recent decision to lower excise duties on petroleum products, albeit by a token Rs. 2 per litre. While Ministers had previously reacted sharply when questioned about their persistence with high petro taxes, in the end the government did blink just ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy review this month.
•That the government is willing to correct course after denying the existence of a problem or dabble with ideas it had dismissed without trying — as seen in the matters of GoMs, GST or petrol taxation — is a critical and under-recognised positive for the economy’s prospects. As for the EAC, which has decided to focus on ten priority areas (including economic governance structures) to accelerate growth and job creation over the next six months, its views are expected to help formulate the last full-year Budget for the NDA due in February. It would be instructive to know how the Council views the need for transparency and clear communication while governing the economy, as opposed to deploying hyperbole about being a has-been and will-be fastest growing economy every time an inconvenient number is thrown up. But perhaps, we will never find out.
📰 Do all women have a right to enter Sabarimala?
Prohibition of women’s entry to the shrine solelyon the basis of womanhood is derogatory
•The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly struck down discriminatory religious practices, the latest of which is the triple talaq (in Shayara Bano v. Union of India , 2017). Reference of the Sabarimala entry row to a five-member Constitution Bench is in itself a radical judicial move. Preventing women’s entry to the Sabarimala temple with an irrational and obsolete notion of “purity” clearly offends the equality clauses in the Constitution. It denotes a patriarchal and partisan approach. The entry prohibition takes away the woman’s right against discrimination guaranteed under Article 15(1) of the Constitution. It curtails her religious freedom assured by Article 25(1). Prohibition of women’s entry to the shrine solely on the basis of womanhood and the biological features associated with womanhood is derogatory to women, which Article 51A(e) aims to renounce. The classification based on age is, in essence, an act of discrimination based on sex.
A fragile judgment
•There is no unanimity on whether the Sabarimala temple bar is ‘age-old.’ The practice rests on a fragile rule and an equally fragile judgment of the Kerala High Court ( S. Mahendran v. The Secretary, Travancore Devaswom Board , 1991). The very purpose of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act, 1965 is to ensure entry of all Hindus to temples without being discriminatory. Rule 3(b), which instigates obstruction to women’s entry on the ground of menstruation, apparently runs counter to the very object of the parent enactment and is therefore untenable. The High Court, in its verdict, relied too much on the T antri’s (chief priest) opinion without a deeper analysis of the competing claims.
•B.R. Ambedkar famously said that public temples, like public roads and schools, are places meant for public access and so the question of entry is, essentially, a question of equality. The managerial rights of religious authorities under Article 26(b) of the Constitution cannot override the individual woman’s religious freedom guaranteed under Article 25(1). The former is intended to safeguard, not annihilate, the latter. Liberty is tested at the individual level, for individuals alone can constitute the public in a republic. The ethical autonomy of women and the intrinsic value of womanhood need to be asserted in the realm of spirituality. In S.R. Bommai (1994), the Supreme Court said that “secularism operates as a bridge” for the country to move on from “tradition to modernity.” As American jurist Ronald Dworkin opined, political morality is to be brought into the heart of constitutional law.
Individual liberty
•It is erroneous to conceive of the issue only as one involving a fissure between individual freedom and gender justice on the one hand and religious practice on the other. More importantly, it also reflects a conflict among believers themselves. Therefore, it is essential to prevent monopolisation of religious rights by a few under the guise of management of religious institutions. Those at the helm of affairs can only manage the institutions in a lawful and fair manner and they cannot be permitted to manage others’ freedom. Any other interpretation of Articles 25 and 26 would damage the very idea of individual liberty.
•Article 25(2)(b) enables the state “(to provide) for social welfare and reform or the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of the Hindus.” Viewed so, a legislation to put an end to the objectionable practice ought to have been attempted much earlier. However, as it has happened in independent India, religious reform has predominantly been a judicial task. There is reason for optimism for religious liberals aspiring for a fairer temple ambience.
📰 Not bounty but property
Updating the Payment of Gratuity Act
•“Gratuity is not paid to the employee gratuitously or merely as a matter of boon,” Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar of the Supreme Court once aptly described the obligation of the employer. Thus, the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 makes every establishment employing 10 or more persons liable to pay gratuity.
•In keeping with the spirit and intent of the Supreme Court’s judgments, the legislature has included an exhaustive, but by no means comprehensive, list of people who can benefit from the welfare legislation, which includes factory employees, workmen in mines, oilfields, plantations, ports, railway companies and shops. Given the ground it covers, the 1972 Act is viewed as an important social security legislation for the multitude of wage-earners in industries, factories and establishments.
•The gratuity law provides social security to workmen after retirement, no matter whether this retirement was a result of the rules of superannuation, or physical disablement, or impairment of a vital part of the body. “It is a sort of financial assistance to tide over post-retiral hardships and inconveniences,” the Supreme Court described.
•Payment of gratuity does not make the employee indebted to the employer. Instead, the court, speaking through Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, held that “gratuity for a worker is no longer a gift but a right”. Thus, pension and gratuity are not bounty but the “property” of workmen.
•Meanwhile, the government also recognises the need for periodic upgradation of this legislation considering factors like wage increase and inflation. The latest upgradation was in September when the Union Cabinet gave its approval for the introduction of the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill of 2017 in Parliament. The Bill doubles the ceiling of tax-free gratuity to Rs. 20 lakh.
•The 2017 amendment proposes to increase “the maximum limit of gratuity of employees, in the private sector and in public sector undertakings/autonomous organisations under government not covered under Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, at par with Central government employees.”
•The present upper ceiling of Rs. 10 lakh on the gratuity amount was introduced in a 2010 amendment. Before that, the maximum amount of gratuity was Rs. 3.5 lakh. Till recently, the ceiling had been Rs. 10 lakh even for Central government employees. But with implementation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission, the ceiling was doubled to Rs. 20 lakh with effect from January 1, 2016.
📰 AI divestment: unions aim at unified strategy
Efforts on to bring all groups together
•Air India unions are likely to meet next week in the national capital to discuss their strategy amid the government going ahead with the disinvestment process.
•Sources said efforts were on to bring all staff unions of Air India, including those of the pilots and engineers, on one platform and work out a strategy to deal with the situation arising out of the government’s decision to offload its stake in the flag carrier.
‘In one voice’
•“In the last few months, several Air India unions have held discussions at an individual level with the management on the issue of disinvestment. But now there is need for all unions to come together and talk to the government in one voice on airline’s privatisation,” said a leader of one of the largest unions at Air India.
•Air India, which has more than 20,000 employees on its rolls, has six recognised unions, representing ground and commercial staff, pilots, cabin crew and engineers, among others, besides unrecognised ones.
