📰 Cabinet approves education reforms
Focus on backward districts, disabled students & women
•Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Thursday announced that the Cabinet has approved a slew of reforms for school education in the country, in what could be considered as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan-2 project.
•The SSA, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and teacher training would be integrated into a single scheme from Classes 1 to 12. The integrated scheme will be in place from April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2020, with an estimated allocation of Rs. 75,000 crore over the period, a 20% increase over the current allocation.
•It aims to support the States in universalising access to school education from pre-nursery to Class 12 across the country. Mr. Javadekar said the government would focus on educationally backward districts, disabled students and women.
•There would be a shift to digital blackboards from Class 9 to college education in the next five years. The government will provide a 20% incentive to the States for a learning-outcome based education.
•Mr. Javadekar said that skill courses — which are now functional from Class 9 to Class 12 — would begin from Class 6 in future. This was aimed at enhancing the employability of students.
•The Centre has also approved an increase in the outlay for making educational loans interest-free for students with modest financial means for studying in universities and colleges charging high fees. The interest subsidy will last till one year of their passing out of college.
•Mr. Javadekar said that while this was a 2009 scheme, the allocation of Rs. 6, 600-crore over the next three years marked nearly a three-fold jump over the allocations made from 2009 to 2014.
📰 Should gambling be legalised?
Legalising it would help curtail an important source of black money and bring in revenue
•Gambling is ubiquitous in Indian society: people bet on animal fights on streets, they make bets while playing cards and before cricket matches. As the Irish philosopher Edmund Burke correctly said, “Gambling is a principle inherent in human nature.” While societal attitudes towards gambling have changed in the last century, with gambling now seen as a legitimate form of recreation, Indian laws have not kept pace with the times.
•Although gambling and betting is a State subject, the primary law on which States have framed their gambling legislation is an archaic, British-era law called the Public Gambling Act, 1867. Ironically, while India follows a British-era prohibitionist statute, the U.K. legalised and regulated various forms of gambling and betting many decades ago. The Law Commission of India’s endeavour to study the issue of whether or not gambling and betting should be legalised in the country is therefore a timely initiative to start the process of a much-needed reform.
Why legalise gambling?
•The reasons to look at legalising and regulating gambling are manifold. First, gambling is already happening in a massive way. Law enforcement authorities are not able to stop it. Gambling and betting is mostly done surreptitiously, and is said to be controlled by underworld syndicates who use the unaccounted money earned from gambling activities for nefarious activities like terror financing. Legalising the activity will not only help curtail an important source of black money that is used by criminal syndicates, but also bring massive revenue to the state exchequer, which can be used for various constructive social schemes.
•Estimates about the size of the gambling market in India vary, with a 2010 KPMG report suggesting that it could be $60 billion, while other, more recent, studies peg the value at a higher number. Even a conservative estimate suggests that the government could earn tens of thousands of crores as tax revenue by legalising sports betting. Additionally, if online gambling and casinos are also permitted, the estimated tax revenue would be much higher.
•In addition to revenue generation, a legal and regulated gambling sector will also help in creating large-scale employment opportunities. Globally, wherever gambling is regulated, it has created a massive avenue for employment generation. For instance, the regulated gambling industry in the U.S. employs over 2.5 lakh people, while over 1 lakh individuals are employed in this sector in the U.K.
Unfounded concerns
•Naysayers say that gambling is not morally correct in the Indian context. They further suggest that it is responsible for addiction, loss of livelihoods and bankruptcy. These concerns are unfounded. Gambling has been prevalent in society since ancient times and has been accepted as a form of recreation on various social occasions. As regards the concerns about gambling and betting leading to addiction and bankruptcy, it must be noted that even though gambling is largely illegal, it is still rampant and unchecked. There are numerous instances of people losing their livelihoods and committing suicide due to unchecked gambling even today, with authorities turning a blind eye to the problem.
•A robust regulatory framework governing the gaming sector will ensure that people do not fall prey to the excesses of gambling. Awareness campaigns should educate people about the perils of excessive gambling; minors, habitual gamblers and vulnerable sections should be excluded from having access to gaming facilities; and limits must be imposed on the amounts that can be wagered, based on a person’s financial capabilities.
📰 Time to reach out across the border
India and Pakistan must seize the resolution of the diplomatic spat to normalise bilateral ties
•Islamabad’s decision to send High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood back to India just in time to host the Pakistan National Day reception in New Delhi, and New Delhi’s decision to send the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, to attend the reception indicate that good sense may have prevailed on both sides. More pertinently, since the 19th of this month, India and Pakistan have not fired at each other across the border in Jammu and Kashmir barring one exception, a welcome calm after several weeks of incessant ceasefire violations.
•And yet, unless the two governments are willing to discuss and resolve the triggers that may have led to a series of incidents of harassment of diplomatic personnel, we may see a repeat of such incidents. Harassment of High Commission personnel requires critical attention because maintenance of diplomatic courtesies is not just a matter of instrumentality and convenience, but also represents the civility of the host state and its people. Put differently, how we, and Pakistan, treat the representatives of each other reflects what we essentially are as nations. Waylaying a diplomat’s vehicle carrying young children is disgraceful.
Disruption of utilities
•Reports indicate that there were two proximate causes behind the recent diplomatic stand off. The first one appears to be the disruption of utilities to the under-construction residential complex of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, a property adjacent to the present High Commission building. Pakistani authorities also raided the complex and expelled Pakistani service providers. India termed this unjustifiable given that the complex, duly authorised by the Pakistani authorities, was being constructed to house its diplomatic personnel. Pakistan responded that while the Indian housing complex in Islamabad is at an advanced stage of construction, a request by Pakistan to allow construction of a housing complex within its High Commission premises in New Delhi has not yet been approved by the authorities, despite reminders.
Club membership
•The second issue was of club memberships for diplomats. Pakistan has refused to admit Indian diplomats to the Islamabad Club in retaliation for corresponding Indian clubs charging what it considers exorbitant amounts for membership. India points out that the government cannot interfere with how private clubs manage their membership procedures. Pakistan, however, argues that there should be a Memorandum of Understanding for reciprocal club memberships for each other’s diplomats. While letting the other side carry out construction of their respective residential complexes can be worked out at the government-to-government level, the membership of private clubs is a more complicated issue.
•Disagreements and spats stemming from these issues, in the generally tense atmosphere of ceasefire violations and the resultant political rhetoric, have led to highly undesirable acts of harassing diplomatic personnel who are protected under the 1961 Vienna Convention. It is also of concern that the two establishments allowed routine disagreements to become a major diplomatic stand off at a time when relations are so tense.
•Aggressive surveillance of each other’s diplomatic personnel is nothing new in the India-Pakistan context. Back in 1990, during the initial years of the insurgency in Kashmir and the heightened fears of an India-Pakistan military escalation, it had become particularly difficult for diplomats to work in each other’s countries. The situation was far worse than it is today, and yet the two Foreign Secretaries were able to reach an agreement on the treatment of diplomatic personnel. They agreed to a code of conduct in November that year “to protect diplomatic personnel, guaranteeing them freedom from harassment”.
•Over and above the political sanction given to such harassment of diplomatic personnel, there was also a feeling at the time that much of the harassment happened because the local authorities were not properly informed about how to deal with the High Commission staff of the ‘enemy’ country. Hence the two sides further decided to translate the code of conduct into Hindi and Urdu and make it available to local police stations and lower-ranking officials. However, such thoughtful measures never stopped the habitual mistreatment of the ‘rival’ state’s diplomats.
•This brings us to an indirectly related topic — of dealing with each other’s spies. How should India treat Pakistani spies caught in India and vice versa? For the record, both countries have claimed that they do not carry out espionage in each other’s countries. When their operatives get caught, they routinely feign ignorance even though when released from the captor’s custody, the former spies cross over to their own country to claim that they were indeed engaged in espionage on the other side. What is worse is that undercover operatives are often subjected to the most inhumane forms of torture by the captors if they happen to get caught.
Dealing with spies
•Moving forward, we must admit and acknowledge that first, our countries spy. Second, that espionage is very much part of statecraft that all modern states engage in, as do India and Pakistan. To claim otherwise would be no less than laughable hypocrisy masquerading as pious platitudes. Third, that those engaged in espionage should be expelled rather than tortured or killed. As a matter of fact, the Cold War was replete with instances of spy exchanges with or without the general public knowing about it. As recently as in 2010, Russia and the U.S. exchanged spies in the city of Vienna.
•India and Pakistan should also, therefore, look at the issue of espionage as part of essential statecraft and deal with spies in a professional and humane manner. Hypernationalism and grandstanding can make professional handling of these issues difficult.
Sorry state of contact
•The state of communication between India and Pakistan is at its lowest ebb in more than a decade: the Directors-General of Military Operations (DGMOs) have not considered it appropriate to meet despite constant firing across the J&K border; contacts between the respective High Commissions and the host governments have been reduced to ‘demarches’, ‘summons’, ‘notes verbale’ and stern warnings; and high-level political contacts, such as the visit of Pakistan's Commerce Minister Pervaiz Malik to India, have been called off. While the discreet meetings of the National Security Advisors are welcome, they have hardly achieved anything. Given that the year ahead is critical for India and Pakistan and the bilateral relationship, the focus should be on enhancing and improving communication.
•On the positive side, however, there has been some subtle messaging from the Pakistani side about its desire to normalise ties with India. In a rare interaction with a group of Pakistani journalists, Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Bajwa, laid out his view of the country’s future course. A close reading of his recent and earlier statements suggests that there is a desire on the part of the Pakistan army to normalise relations with India, something decision-makers in New Delhi should capitalise on. Clearly, for this to happen, Pakistan should also initiate tough action against anti-India terrorist groups based in Pakistan. The fact that the Indian High Commissioner and the defence attaché were in attendance at the military parade to mark Pakistan Day in Islamabad indicates that the channels of communication have begun to open up. The two sides must build on it.
📰 India and Japan commit to Indo-Pacific strategy
Countries exchange loan agreements worth $1.4 billion
•India is Japan’s “most important” partner in its “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy,” said Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, as both countries agreed to step up cooperation in their “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” during annual consultations and exchanged yen loan agreements for $1.4 billion.
•“Our Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy and India’s Act East Policy should be further merged,” said Mr. Kono, in remarks that appeared to target China’s actions in the South China Sea.
•“Our growing convergence on economic and strategic issues is important for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region,” said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
•Ms. Swaraj and Mr. Kono discussed a wide range of bilateral issues during the 9th India-Japan Strategic dialogue in Tokyo, while setting the agenda for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan for the annual summit with PM Shinzo Abe.
•They also witnessed the exchange of documents for loans from Japan to India for projects including the Mumbai metro line from Cuffe Parade, a sea water desalinisation plant and a intelligent transport system to reduce traffic congestion in Chennai, tree-planting schemes in Himachal Pradesh as well as loans for the North East connectivity project.
📰 Seychelles says no to India’s proposal for naval base
Opposition leader said he would not back deal
•India’s plans to get a foothold in the Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles received a setback after its President Danny Faure told Parliament earlier this week that he will not take up the Assomption island project deal with India for ratification.
•This announcement came after Wavell John Charles Ramkalawan, the leader of the Opposition of Seychelles, said that he would oppose the deal.
•Significantly, the leader of the Opposition was hosted here in January as India tried to get him on board for the key project, which was rejected by the Indian Ocean country earlier this week.
Outreach failed
•The outreach evidently did not succeed as Mr. Ramkalawan remained a staunch opponent of the maritime project of India in the Assomption island, which oversees the main energy route between the major Asian economies and the Gulf region.
•Mr. Ramkalawan declared on Tuesday that the Assomption island project, which was expected to host a naval facility, would not take off.
•Addressing the media in the capital of Seychelles, he said, “I hope I have made it clear that this is the end of the Assomption agreement and that I don’t expect to see it on any agenda between President Faure and the Opposition.”
•Mr. Ramkalawan visited India in the second week of January and participated in the PIO Parliamentary Conference which was addressed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The aim of the conference was to firm up ties with individuals of Indian origin who are spread across the world and are playing important role in their host societies.
•He also met President Ram Nath Kovind on January 9, when Mr. Kovind said that his visit would help strengthen India-Seychelles ties. Mr. Ramkalawan, who is an ethnic Indian, was earlier in the race to occupy the post of the President of the country.
•Mr. Ramkalawan’s statement came a week after the Minister of State for External Affairs General (Retd.) V.K. Singh informed Parliament that the project in the Assomption island was coming up as a “joint” project.
•“The agreement covers within its purview our shared efforts in anti-piracy operations, and enhanced EEZ surveillance to prevent intrusions by potential economic offenders including those indulging in illegal fishing, poaching, drug and human trafficking,” Mr. Singh had told Lok Sabha on March 21.
📰 ‘Cannot reveal Rafale details due to new pact’
Govt. cites secrecy deal with France
•The Union government cannot disclose details of the Rafale deal as India and France had recently signed an agreement to protect classified information exchanged between the two sides, according to officials.
•The government told Parliament this week that the two sides signed the agreement when French President Emmanuel Macron visited India on March 10.
•“An agreement between India and France regarding the Exchange and Reciprocal Protection of Classified or Protected Information was signed on March 10, 2018 during the visit of President of France to India,” Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre told Lok Sabha.
•This new treaty would replace an agreement of 2008 and is the reason why the government would not disclose details of the deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighters from France, officials point out.
•Mr. Bhamre further said: “This agreement defines the common security regulations applicable to any exchange of classified and protected information between the two countries.” The Minister did not provide further specifics of the agreement.
•The new pact is significant in the wake of the Opposition, especially the Congress, alleging a financial scandal in the purchase of the 36 Rafale fighter jets through a government-to-government deal, instead of the 126 fighter aircraft deal through competitive tendering that was under way.
📰 Tamil Nadu to file contempt plea on Cauvery scheme
March 29 was SC’s deadline to Centre
•With the Central government not coming out with a scheme on the Cauvery issue within the six-week period stipulated by the Supreme Court — which ended on Thursday — the Tamil Nadu government has decided to approach the court with a contempt petition.
•This was decided at a meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami with senior Ministers and officials at the Secretariat on Thursday. Advocate General Vijay Narayan was also present at the meeting, which lasted 40 minutes.
•The petition is likely to be filed on Saturday, and Principal Secretary (Public Works) S.K. Prabakar will visit New Delhi, along with chairperson of the Cauvery Technical Cell R. Subramanian, according to a government source.
Time frame
•On February 16, delivering its judgment, the Supreme Court set a deadline of six weeks for the Centre to frame a scheme for the implementation of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) given in February 2007.
•The court, while dealing with appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the final award, had also stated that “no extension shall be granted for framing of the scheme on any ground.”
📰 Tackling prejudice
There is a long road ahead before transgender persons are acceptedinto the mainstream
•Nearly a month after Shanavi Ponnusamy, a transwoman from Tamil Nadu, wrote to the President alleging that Air India had denied her a cabin crew job despite her clearing the written exam, the Ministry of Social Justice sent a Bill on transgender rights to the Cabinet, with amendments as suggested by a Standing Committee. These include bringing public establishments under Chapter V of the Bill, which prohibits discrimination in “any matter relating to employment, including, but not limited to, recruitment, promotion and other related issues.”
•Ms. Ponnusamy’s is not an isolated case. For every headline celebrating a transgender person’s recruitment in a mainstream profession, there is a contentious history. Take the case of K. Prithika Yashini, the first transwoman Sub-Inspector of Police in India. It took an order from the Madras High Court for the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board to appoint her.
•The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, is a result of the 2014 Supreme Court judgment recognising transgenders as the third gender and safeguarding their rights under Article 21 of the Constitution. Apart from welfare schemes for the community, the Bill also lists obligations of establishments as well as recognisable offences against the community. Harassment of a transgender employee is an offence that carries with it a punishment of not less than six months imprisonment. This clause reminds us of the case of Manabi Bandopadhyay, a transgender who was appointed as India’s first college principal in 2015. However, she resigned from the post in 2016 citing “immense mental pressure” due to continued agitations against her by faculty and students. Nevertheless, her resignation wasn’t accepted and she remains the principal.
•There is a long road ahead before members of the transgender community are accepted into the mainstream. An enabling environment needs to be created, be it in education institutes or workplaces. This can only be achieved by sensitising the workforce in protecting the rights and dignity of the community. While laws to safeguard these rights are the first step, more important is to ensure their implementation. The Bill recommends the formation of a National Council for Transgender Persons that is tasked with monitoring and evaluating policies formulated for transgender persons. This may pave the way for fulfilling the community’s long-standing demand for representation in the Rajya Sabha.
•The integration of transgenders in the workforce is still a challenge. While they are recruited by State agencies, police departments, and home guards, many have dropped out, especially those undergoing gender transition. Eunuchs say they make more money through traditional practices like mangti , so why would they tie themselves down to a desk job? Leading voices from the community have called for vocational programmes in creative fields, a recommendation made by the Standing Committee too.
📰 Keeping contracts alive
A Bill to ensure completion of infrastructure projects
•The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill of 2017 is meant to ensure performance of a contract, be it building a road or a bridge. The Bill intends to wean the courts away from the usual practice of closing a case after a grant of monetary damages to the injured party to the contract. Instead, it pushes courts to direct parties to complete the promised project.
•The Bill is an improvement on the Specific Relief Act of 1963 under which payment of damages was the rule and specific performance of contracts an “exception”.
•The government said the time is ripe for amending the 1963 law as “the tremendous economic development since the enactment of the Act [has] brought in enormous commercial activities in India including foreign direct investments, public private partnerships, public utilities infrastructure developments, etc., which have prompted extensive reforms in the related laws to facilitate enforcement of contracts, settlement of disputes in speedy manner.”
•The statement of objects and reasons in the new Bill says that the 1963 Act is not in tune with the rapid economic growth of the country. So, the 2017 Bill does away “with the wider discretion of courts to grant specific performance and to make specific performance of contract a general rule than exception subject to certain limited grounds.”
•Further, it proposes for the substituted performance of contracts. That is, when a contract is broken, the party who suffers would be entitled to get the contract performed by a third party or by his own agency to recover expenses and costs, including compensation from the party who failed to perform his part of the contract. This would be an alternative remedy at the option of the party who suffers the broken contract. The Bill also proposes to enable courts to engage experts on specific issues and to secure their attendance.
•A new Section 20A is proposed for infrastructure project contracts. This provides that the court “shall not grant injunction in any suit, where it appears to it that granting injunction would cause hindrance or delay in the continuance or completion of the infrastructure project”.
•The Department of Economic Affairs is the nodal agency for specifying various categories of projects and infrastructure sub-sectors, which is provided as Schedule to the Bill. The Department may amend the Schedule relating to any such category or sub-sectors.
📰 Govt. to file review plea in SC against ruling on SC/ST Act
NDA delegation, led by Paswan, meets Prime Minister to discuss the issue
•Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said the government is “preparing” to file a review petition against the top court’s ruling on the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 that puts a stop to immediate arrests in complaints filed under its provisions.
•“I have already instructed my Ministry to consider the desirability of filing a review. Appropriate follow- up actions are being taken,” Mr. Prasad told reporters.
•Officials in the Law Ministry said the government will approach the Supreme Court as early as next week after preparing a “water tight case” in consultation with the Ministry of Social Justice, the nodal Ministry to enforce the Act.
•The government has been under pressure from the Opposition as well from its allies and Ministers from the Dalit community to seek a review or bring an amendment to undo the Supreme Court’s ruling.
•In a recent order, the Supreme Court had banned automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under the Act.
•The court had laid down stringent guidelines such as written permission from the appointing authority before a public servant could be arrested.
•Arguing that such a ruling made the law “ineffective”, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday led a delegation to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking “his immediate intervention.’’
‘Remedial measures’
•Worried about the fallout, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan led a delegation of NDA’s SC and ST MPs including Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
•The Prime Minister is understood to have assured the delegation that the government would initiate ‘remedial measures’ to ensure that the Act retains its effectiveness in ensuring justice to Dalits and tribal people.
•For the past one week, the Opposition parties have been alleging that the Central government didn’t argue the case well in the Supreme Court.
•“We requested the President to file a review petition in the Supreme Court as the case was not well argued earlier in the top court,” said senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Satish Misra.
📰 Stay on trial will be valid only for six months: SC
Extension only in exceptional cases, reasons should be given, says court
•An indefinite freeze on corruption and criminal trials granted by constitutional courts, especially High Courts in the cases of the rich and powerful, have often led to delay and denial of the fundamental right to speedy justice, the Supreme Court has observed.
•In a significant judgment shutting the doors on the practice of criminals getting unlimited stay orders from the higher courts in their ongoing trial for one reason or the other, the Supreme Court held that any stay of a criminal or corruption trial, or even a civil case, will be valid only for six months.
•Trials cannot be held up for indeterminate periods just because a High Court has granted stay.
‘Speaking order’
•“Proceedings are adjourned sine die on account of stay. Even after the stay is vacated, intimation is not received and proceedings are not taken up,” a Bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Rohinton F. Nariman observed.
•The order to stay trial will be extended after six months only in “exceptional cases” and that too in a judicial order which fully explains the reasons for the extension.
•“We consider it appropriate to direct that in all pending cases where stay against proceedings of a civil or criminal trial is operating, the same will come to an end on expiry of six months from today, unless in an exceptional case by a speaking order such stay is extended. Such extension is valid only for another six months.
•The “speaking order” extending the period of stay should explain why “the stay was more important than having the trial finalised.”
Next date
•Even if a stay is granted for six months, the trial court should react by fixing a date for the trial to commence immediately after the expiry of the stay. Trial proceedings will, by default, begin after the period of stay is over.
•“It is well accepted that delay in a criminal trial, particularly in the Prevention of Corruption Act cases, has a deleterious effect on the administration of justice, in which the society has a vital interest. Delay in trials affects the faith in Rule of Law and efficacy of the legal system. It affects social welfare and development...The power to grant stay is coupled with accountability,” Justice Goel wrote in the judgment.
📰 Telangana is revenue-deficit State: CAG
‘TS overstated its revenue surplus due to irregular accounting’
•The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said that Telangana State overstated its revenue surplus due to irregular accounting.
•The CAG Report on State Finances tabled for the year ended March 2017 said that the State registered revenue surplus of Rs. 1,386 crore. The revenue surplus was overstated by Rs. 6,778 crore due to irregular accounting while it had revenue deficit of Rs. 5,392 crore during 2016-17. The government later, in revised estimates for 2016-17, had indicated a revenue surplus of Rs. 199.4 crore but the CAG report now made it clear that the State was not revenue surplus at all.
•Picking holes in Telangana government’s claims based on audit of the Appropriation Accounts, it pointed out that the State also exceeded the ratio of fiscal deficit to GSDP ceiling of 3.5% under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. Even in the recent budget presented for 2018-19, the government repeatedly asserted that its fiscal deficit was well within the norms of FRBM Act every year so far. But the CAG report categorically disproved that claim.
•The ratio of fiscal deficit to GSDP excluding amount transferred under Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme (Rs. 7,500 crore) was 4.3%. The government, against Rs. 8,931 crore borrowed through UDAY bonds during the year, released an amount of Rs. 7,500 crore only to Discoms by end of the year.
•The report also said that the entire amount transferred to Discoms had been shown under capital expenditure as equity. About Rs. 3,750 crore, 50% of Rs. 7,500 crore released to Discoms was shown as equity instead of grant. This had resulted in overstatement of revenue surplus to that extent, it said.
•The capital expenditure showed at Rs. 33,371 crore for the year 2016-17 was more than the Budget Estimates of Rs. 29,313 crore and its ratio to total expenditure stood at 28.2% which was way higher than the average of general category States at 19.7%. The capital expenditure of the State was only Rs. 25,871 crore excluding the Rs. 7,500 crore transferred to Discoms under UDAY, it said.
•About 69% of revenue expenditure was on consumption and only 31% was for investment in infrastructure and asset creation. But the increase in return on investments was negligible at Rs. 1 crore, indicative of non-performing investments. The State has to repay 49% of debt amounting to Rs. 56,388 crore within the next seven years. The repayment of debt as percentage of tax revenue increased from 7.12 during 2015-16 to 32.16 during 2016-17.
📰 ‘Bharatmala to hit 25 toll projects’
•The 44 new economic corridors (EC) proposed to be built under the Bharatmala network, designed on the shortest possible route connecting the origin and destination, would impact the existing highway networks by directly competing with a few stretches, including some existing Build Own Transfer (BOT) (toll) road projects, ICRA said in a report.
•ICRA said the debt servicing ability of some of the BOT (toll) and OMT (own, maintain, transfer) projects would be impacted by proposed network. “An estimated 25 NH-toll projects involving Rs. 19,435 crore of debt would be at risk as a result of new economic corridors under Bharatmala Pariyojana,” the rating agency said in the report.
📰 Major initiative to control BP, diabetes
•The Health Department is launching a major initiative as part of a national programme for developing a registry for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with focus on protocol-based standardised management of diabetes and hypertension.
•According to the latest estimates, (as reported by the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies (AMCHSS), which studied a representative sample of 12,000 adults in Kerala) on an average, nearly one out of three persons above 18 years in Kerala has hypertension, while one out of five has diabetes, making the management of these two conditions a priority.
Quality standards
•The State government has now chosen to integrate this programme, announced by the Ministry of Health in 2017-18, with two other initiatives, one of which is the India Hypertension Management Initiative (IHMI), a national programme being implemented by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Vital Strategies. The other is developing Quality Standards for the implementation of Standard Treatment Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of primary hypertension in Kerala, for which the State is partnering with the Imperial College, London, and World Health Organisation (WHO).
•The integrated programme will be implemented in six districts in the State — Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kannur, Wayanad, Ernakulam and Alappuzha. Protocol-based diabetes management too has been added as an additional component as 20% of the State’s population suffer from diabetes.
•“The study reported that the treatment and control of hypertension and diabetes are alarmingly low even among the educated, with only 13% of those diagnosed with hypertension and 16% of those with diabetes achieving adequate BP and blood sugar controls. Our aim is to increase this control rate to at least 50%,” a senior health official told The Hindu.
•Everyone over 30 years in the designated area will be screened under each ASHA for diabetes and hypertension at primary health centres (PHC) through outreach camps and household surveys.
•The screening at the Primary Health Centre level has already been initiated while field-level screening will be taken up soon.
Patient-friendly
•Under the IHMI initiative, an expert committee has developed and revised hypertension and diabetes management protocols in such a way that henceforth the specified drugs in the protocol alone will be purchased and distributed by the State to PHCs. The aim is to make the treatment schedule more patient-friendly and to improve adherence.
•“Blood pressure and blood sugar levels will be routinely checked for anyone above 18 years coming to the sub-centres or clinics and protocol-based management will be initiated for those with diabetes or hypertension.
•The target Blood Pressure is below 140/90 mmHg for those below 80 years and below 150/90 mmHg for those above 80 years.
•The target routine blood sugar (RBS) should be less than 140 mg/dl.
•These patients will be followed-up for one year to ensure treatment adherence. Vital Strategies is offering technical assistance and training for personnel.
•They have also appointed cardiovascular health officers and treatment supervisors in four districts to follow up on the patients, sources said.
•‘‘The patients will be evaluated every quarter. The training of medical officers and health staff has been completed and protocols have been disseminated,” he said.
•The separate module for the programme has been integrated into the e-health platform so that details of every patient is recorded, analysed and systematically followed up for an entire year to measure the impact of the protocol-based management of diabetes and hypertension.
📰 GSAT-6A gives India bigger eye in the sky
ISRO launches communication satellite from Sriharikota
•The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully placed a communication satellite GSAT-6A in a geosynchronous transfer orbit. It was carried on board the GSLV F-08 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on Thursday.
•The GSAT-6A is a communication satellite that incorporates the high-thrust Vikas engine. It will complement the GSAT-6, which is already in orbit. The GSAT-6A’s antenna has a diameter of six metres — it can be unfurled and opened like an umbrella once it reaches its prescribed orbit.
•The ISRO team at Mission Control appeared pensive waiting for the indigenous cryogenic upper stage to fire and take the satellite into its initial orbit. Former Chairmen of ISRO, K. Radhakrishnan and A.S. Kiran Kumar, too, watched the proceedings from Mission Control.
•“These two satellites combined will provide platforms for development of advanced technologies such as the unfurlable antenna, hand-held devices, and ground networks,” K. Sivan, Chairman, ISRO, said after the satellite was placed in an initial orbit of a perigee of 170 km and apogee of 35,975 km, 18 minutes after the rocket blasted off at 4.56 p.m.
•The satellite will be placed at a height of 36,000 km in a geostationary orbit, and the antenna will be unfurled in the coming days.
📰 Himalayas warmest on record: researchers
‘Global warming impacting glaciers’
•Recent decades have been the wettest and warmest on record in the Himalayas, say researchers who are alarmed that a “warming signature” has led to an overall rise in mercury levels and the retreat of glaciers.
•They warn that the impact of global warming is clearly evident over the northwestern Himalayas in the form of rising temperatures in the last 25 years.
•“An overall warming signature was observed with the maximum, minimum and mean temperatures rising,” say the climate researchers with the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory based in Chandigarh.
•The maximum, minimum and mean temperatures in the Himalayas saw a total increase of 0.9 degree, 0.19 degree and 0.65 degree, respectively, over a quarter of a century.
Not uniform
•However, the warming was not consistent across the Himalayas. The highest rise in mean temperature was seen in the Greater Himalayas at 0.87 degree Celsius (1991-2015), followed by the Karakoram Himalayas.
•The rise in mercury is in agreement with the comparatively higher rate of glacier retreat in the Greater Himalayas than in the Karakoram Himalayas, as studies show, says the SASE study titled ‘Recent Wintertime Climatic Variability Over the North West Himalayan Cryosphere’, published in journal Current Science .
