📰 Stop this jobs charade
India must debate solutions to the employment problem, as a true democracy should and would
•In January this year, the Prime Minister made this statement: “7 million new jobs created in 2017.”. The statement draws on false conclusions of a study by two economists.
•Here is another: “10-12 million young people join the workforce every year and 7 million new and formal jobs were created in 2017,” said the Minister of State of Civil Aviation, in April. The Minister not only parrots the Prime Minister but also expounds how 10 to 12 million youth enter the labour market every year looking for a job and that the government has created 7 million new formal jobs for them — implying that almost everyone who is looking for a job found one, formal and informal jobs combined.
•And another: “6.22 million new jobs created in 2017-18,” said the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, in April. He goes a step above by giving us a seemingly precise estimate of 6.22 million new jobs being created by the government and resorts to Greek mythology (Cassandra) to berate those who claim that a lack of jobs is a big issue in the nation.
•One more statement: “15 million new jobs created in 2017,” said a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, in April.
•The icing and cherry on the “jobs cake” is then placed by a member of this Council who claims that even the Prime Minister was wrong and that India did not create just seven million but 15 million new jobs.
•And finally we have this: “Only 7.5 million enter the labour market every year looking for a job,” said the former Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, in May.
•The former vice chair, contradicting the junior Civil Aviation Minister, also plunged right into the debate by claiming that even though there are 15 million Indian youth of working age every year, only half of them even want a job.
•So, according to the former NITI Aayog Vice Chair, 7.5 million Indians are looking for a job. According to the member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, the government has created 15 million new jobs. And according to the current NITI Aayog Vice Chair, precisely 6.22 million jobs have been created.
•Hence, summarising all these pundits, every Indian who was looking for a job was besieged with multiple job offers. Perhaps the only thing the government needs to do now is to set up youth counselling centres across the country to help India’s youth decide which of their many job offers they should choose, and match their career aspirations.
•This comical sequence sums up the sordid saga of India’s jobs problem and the laughable response it has evoked thus far by the Narendra Modi government. Every single ‘Mood of the Nation’ survey (such as Lokniti CSDS, India Today, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) shows that unemployment and jobs for youth are the biggest concerns of Indians. Yet, the Prime Minister and his team are squabbling over whether every Indian who is looking for a job got one formal job offer or two.
•The debate over jobs has now descended to the point of embarrassment for the nation. This is not how a proud democracy of 1.2 billion people and an estimated $2.5 trillion economy should debate serious policy issues and challenges confronting the nation.
Data sources
•The fountainhead of all these questionable claims over the number of jobs created in the economy is the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data and other datasets, released recently to the public, and earlier, to two select individuals. Ironically, NITI Aayog’s own report in 2017, of the employment taskforce, says: “Additions to EPFO dataset need not represent new jobs. It can only be used to measure the extent of formalisation in the workforce. But even this requires adopting a new definition of formal workers.” Put simply, the government’s own NITI Aayog taskforce discourages making inane and meaningless claims about new jobs being created, using the EPFO and other such administrative datasets.
•One single data point from the government’s 2018 Economic Survey is proof of how grave India’s jobs problem is. The survey observed that 90% of all employees in the formal sector earn less than Rs. 15,000 a month. That is, most of those who are privileged to have a formal job in the country (including experienced seniors) earn less than Rs. 15,000 a month. One can then impute that new formal sector jobs for first-timers will pay perhaps half — Rs. 7,500 a month. To put this in context, if a person in India can find no job whatsoever and is forced to enrol himself in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act programme, he is guaranteed to earn at least Rs. 6,000 a month, which is the equivalent of India’s unemployment insurance. If, as our pundits claim, India’s economy is spewing jobs all over and there is so much demand for youth in formal sector jobs, surely it should reflect in higher salaries than just Rs. 7,500 a month?
Serious topic
•It is time to stop this charade of India being one of the largest job creators in the world (which it will be as in the data of government spokespersons) and get real. India has a big jobs problem, which is evident through various surveys. That is the uncomfortable truth. Let us not couch it in some poetry of jobs versus wages, formal versus informal jobs, on-hand salary versus paper salary, and so on.
•The issue of jobs is a global issue that is confronting all major economies today, including the developed ones. We are yet to bear the true impact of automation and other technological disruptions on job creation. It is not about the National Democratic Alliance versus the United Progressive Alliance. It is not about the left wing versus the right wing. As a nation, we have to deal with this very serious issue in a mature manner. Let us begin by accepting a few truths, however harsh they may be. Let us then debate and discuss ideas to find solutions, as a true democracy should and would.
📰 The problems with a DNA registry
Building such a database is not easy, does not always offer justice, and is an ethical landmine
•Despite the spate of violent attacks against women, including rapes, in India, very few of the men implicated have been convicted. While identifying the rapist is the first step to serving justice, his identity does not guarantee due punishment or a stiff sentence for the crime. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, only about a quarter of rape cases ended in conviction in 2016. These rates are low in other countries too. The outrage over these attacks has reinforced the belief that India needs a sex offenders’ database or a DNA database of those accused and charged with rape. India has developed a draft Bill for such a DNA database and the Andhra Pradesh government even announced that it has signed up with a private agency for collecting DNA from all its citizens.
Concerns
•Based on experience in other countries, building such a database is not easy, does not always offer justice, and is an ethical landmine of sorts, say many experts who have been studying the use of DNA databases for forensics. A few people may roll their eyes at these concerns, since rape is such a serious offence. But even those who routinely use DNA databases express serious concerns about DNA databases and profiling. For instance, Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project, which uses DNA to exonerate people on death row, has said that we need to make “forensic science more about science and less about law enforcement so it becomes an impartial assessor of evidence rather than a branch of law enforcement.”
•DNA identification technologies have advanced so much that even minor genetic differences, such as those among family members, may be used to distinguish individuals and identify a person from his or her unique DNA. Still, planting of DNA in a crime scene, misinterpretation of tests, and errors in analyses have all taken place in cases where DNA has been used to implicate a suspect, resulting in the miscarriage of justice. Besides, everybody leaves traces of DNA in numerous places, as cells are shed, leading to ridiculous mistakes such as the Phantom of Heilbronn (when the German police admitted that a woman they were searching for more than 15 years based on DNA traces at crime scenes never in fact existed). Protecting innocent people’s privacy and their civil liberties and rights are the main concerns.
Targeting particular groups
•In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, people will have a better appreciation of how their DNA information could be misused just as their personal information and profiles are being misused by many data mining companies.
•When DNA tests were initially used, they were meant to supplement other evidence. For instance, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Combined DNA Index System was first developed, it was limited to those who had been convicted of serious crimes. But the law was changed and now DNA is collected from suspects who may be arrested (not convicted) or charged with minor offences. The expansion of this technology to include potentially innocent people squashes their constitutional rights with the assumption of guilt.
•The police sometimes use DNA dragnets whereby all the people in a community are persuaded to give their saliva or blood in order to identify a possible suspect amongst them. These methods are simply an expansion of the ‘stop and search’ approach to target particular groups of people on the basis of race, ethnicity or class, even though most of their members would be innocent. Such samples later get included in forensic DNA databanks, thus violating people’s civil liberties. In a number of cases, the police may follow persons they suspect and then gather their DNA surreptitiously (for example, by taking a bottle or cup they were drinking from) and without warrants. Collecting this so-called “abandoned DNA” has been challenged as being clearly unethical and unlawful.
•In the recent capture of an elusive serial killer in California, DNA at a crime scene was matched from a company that gathers DNA for genealogy. A related family member, a great-great-grandparent, according to the Los Angeles Times , was matched and using the family tree, possible relatives who could be the suspect were then identified. Later the police followed the suspect and obtained his DNA surreptitiously. The use of the genealogy database, a source not used in the past, was seen as a novel technique, a breakthrough by law enforcement agencies that had been stymied for a long time. Still, a number of people would fall under suspicion simply because they are related to a suspect. As with Facebook, where a person’s personal details also end up breaching the privacy of their friends, there is lot to be concerned about.
•Law enforcement is responsible for gathering DNA for forensics, and police bias towards minorities leads to the latter’s over-representation. It was reported that in 2007, close to three-quarters of the young black male population in the U.K. were on the DNA database. Scholars have discussed this civil rights matter extensively in the media. If such a system were set up in India, one would expect minorities to make up the bulk of the DNA, not implying that they are the criminals, just that they are the ones the police would most suspect and therefore gather DNA from.
Protections
•What, then, are the implications of living in a society where DNA can be readily gathered, analysed, profiled, and then the data stored permanently in a number of databanks? An increasing number of sites for genealogy, genetic testing, medical information and criminal justice are now gathering and maintaining such information. How can it be used in a way that respects the rights of people and their privacy?
•In 2010, the National DNA Database of the U.K. contained DNA profiles and samples from about six million individuals. Later, based on the requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act of 2012, the U.K. government said that it deleted the profiles of close to 1.8 million innocent adults and children.
•Some people have said that having everyone’s DNA in the database would be a good thing, since anyone can be apprehended if matched to a crime scene. But experience with the U.K. and U.S. databanks has shown that having more innocent people’s DNA stored increases the chances of a false positive and has not increased the chances of finding a guilty match.
•Regarding a DNA database for India, at the very least, the following should be ensured. One, it is absolutely essential that the people from whom DNA is taken give their informed consent; taking DNA surreptitiously should be prohibited. Two, a court order should be required for obtaining DNA without informed consent and the DNA should only be compared with the crime scene DNA for the suspect. Three, those who are cleared for a crime should not have their DNA information stored, and DNA gathered from offenders should be destroyed after identification so that such information is not used for profiling in future. Four, a court order should be necessary to access medical records for genetic data.
📰 ‘NAM needs new cause’
Serbian Deputy PM says it also needs big leaders as in past
•The U.S. law that aims to sanction countries that conduct energy and defence trade with Russia, is “hypocritical”, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign MinisterIvica Dacic says, while urging that India and Serbia should revive ties from the non-alignment era .
India and Serbia are celebrating their 70th year of cooperation. While ties are old, they are not very deep at present. What do you expect from ties this year?
•We are very proud of our long-standing mutual relations, but they are not as well developed as in the past. My mission is to reconnect our two countries, to have political consultations at the highest level and support each other at the international level and also to seek other areas of cooperation like in the areas of economy, education, medicine, film industry, and in the field of defence. Serbia by size is not a large country; by population it is smaller than New Delhi! But we are great friends. In Belgrade, Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, and Indira Gandhi are remembered well, and have streets named after them. Tito and Nehru were the founding members of the Non Aligned Movement that was launched in Belgrade. I am the leader of the party President Tito once led and his grandson is a member of Parliament from my party. So I have a personal stake in developing this relation as a part of this legacy.
Hasn’t the Non Aligned movement also lost its relevance today?
•Following Tito’s death came the break-up of Yugoslavia, as he had been integral to its unity. Today Serbia is the successor to Yugoslavia, but we have lost a lot of time, the deaths of so many people since then. Some, primarily Western countries, weren’t satisfied even then, and pushed for the declaration of Kosovo, a province of Serbia as an independent country. As a result, Serbia has been compelled to focus on its domestic problems, not its foreign policy. As for NAM, its membership still forms a big bloc in the United Nations, but because of the fall of the Soviet bloc and the rise of a unipolar world, it too has lost its way. Today, NAM needs a new cause, and big leaders like we had in the past of Nehru, Nasser and Tito to revive it.
The image of Serbia in India is still a problem, as most remember the war and war crimes, mass graves in the former Yugoslavia. How would you recast this image for Indians so as to encourage investment and tourism?
•First of all, Serbia has abolished visa requirements for Indians, unilaterally (along with visas for China, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia and other countries we have historical ties with). Serbia is a welcoming country, politically stable and we don’t have any conflict any more. India-Serbia trade is very low at about $160 million and we must find ways to increase this. Serbia is a bridge between the east and the west, is on the road to joining the European Union and we already have free trade agreements with many European countries. Goods manufactured in Serbia can be sent without customs duties to many countries and so we encourage Indian companies to take advantage of this.
📰 ‘Coordinated patrol can prevent another Doklam’
India, China can avoid standoffs in grey areas: scholar
•Indian and Chinese troops may coordinate their patrolling in 16 “grey areas” along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to prevent Doklam-type standoffs along the borders, a leading Chinese scholar has said.
•In an interview with The Hindu , Hu Shisheng, senior researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a premier think-tank, said both countries were aware of the each other’s deployments along the LAC. But in recent years, they have not been coordinating their patrols, especially in 16 “grey areas” where rival border claims sharply collide.
•“The deployment does not matter. Both sides know each other’s deployment. The problem is the patrolling route. Real time coordination on patrolling routes is one of the effective ways of avoiding standoffs,” Mr. Hu observed. He added: “Because in the past, the standoffs occured in those grey areas, coordinated patrolling now could be one of the ways of preventing standoffs.”
•Mr. Hu said the idea of synchronising patrolling is not novel. But after last month’s Wuhan informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, coordinated patrolling could be more strongly “institutionalised”.
•“In the past there had been some understanding on patrolling from either side. When Chinese soldiers came in, Indians kept away from them. When they left, Indian troops would return.” But the practice was shelved since the beginning of this century, when frequent patrols were mounted in the “grey areas” to reinforce the urgency of clarifying the LAC, and marking claims. “In the future, it is very likely that standoffs incidents may not occur.”
•Referring to the maritime dimension of the China-India ties, the researcher signaled that Beijing and New Delhi could become joint stakeholders in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean. He proposed that a comprehensive bilateral maritime dialogue at a ministerial level should be established first, which “ not only included diplomats but also high ranking representatives of military and other field related to traditional and non- traditional security”.
•Such a mechanism “can show to other side that Indian presence in Western pacific, and China’s presence in the Indian Ocean is quite normal — it is a natural development, as an expression of the rise of the two countries.” He pointed out that Beijing and New Delhi were jointly committed to their unimpeded movement in their maritime region. “We found that China and India want this entire region to be inclusive, open and free for both of us.”
📰 Protest over citizenship for Hindu migrants
During a JPC hearing, parties and organisations say it’s a move to legitimise post-1971 settlers
•The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 began a hearing in Assam on Monday amid protests across the Brahmaputra Valley against the Union government’s alleged move to make the State a “legitimise Hindus who have migrated from Bangladesh after 1971”.
•Though the Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslims who had fled persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, indigenous groups in Assam view it as a move to legitimise post-1971 Hindu migrants.
•They see it as a violation of the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985 — it ended a six-year anti-foreigners’ agitation — that prescribes deportation for everyone who entered the State illegally after the midnight of March 24, 1971.
Long list
•Representatives of 159 organisations and political parties, including the BJP’s regional ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), met the 16-member JPC team headed by Rajendra Agarwala. Almost everyone opposed the move and demanded withdrawal of the “anti-Assam” Bill.
•The committee has four MPs from Assam — Bhubaneswar Kalita and Sushmita Dev of the Congress, and Ramen Deka and Kamakhya Prasad Tassa of the BJP.
•“The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is against the interest of Assam, and threatens the cultural and linguistic identity of the indigenous peoples of the State. We have argued against it,” former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said.
•Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said no step would be taken without accommodating the views of all stakeholders. “The JPC will take a decision only after weighing divergent views,” he said.
📰 No religion breeds hatred: SC
‘Duty to preserve historical monuments’
•There is a constitutional obligation to preserve the religious practices of all religions and culture, the Supreme Court said on Monday.
•A Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U.U. Lalit said there is a duty to do everything required to preserve historical monuments/deities.
•The judgment was pronounced on the basis of a petition highlighting the “erosion” of the Mahakaleshwar Linga. The petition said the “idol of Lord Shiva in the form of Lingam is in danger and it has deteriorated as such notice was issued to ensure its preservation”. The SC judgment said that the “Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlingam has so much importance for spiritual and other gains.”
Constitutional duty
•The court said there is “a constitutional duty to protect it” and “a fundamental duty under Article 51A to preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture”.
•The court said the State is duty bound to spend the amount so that not only the archaeological, historical and ancient monuments are preserved but sanctum sanctorum, as well as the deity, otherwise no useful purpose would be served by spending so much amount on Simhastha/ Kumbh Melas...”
•The Supreme Court observed that there was “a pious purpose of all the religious activities, no religion breeds hatred”.
📰 Where the law needs to change track
The recent deaths of schoolchildren at an unmanned rail crossing highlight why the Railways Act must be amended
•In late April, a bus with schoolchildren collided with a train at an unmanned railway level crossing, near Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. Thirteen of them died. This is not the first time that an incident of this nature has occurred, so some questions need to be asked. Is there any mandate for manning all level crossings? In an incident such as this, where the bus driver was reportedly negligent, is the railway administration liable even if the train engine driver cannot be faulted?
Legal issues
•We can look for some answers in a 1997 Supreme Court judgment ( Union of India v. United India Insurance ). In May 1979, at Akaparampa in Kerala, 40 passengers and the driver of a passenger bus that had been hired were killed when the vehicle was hit by a train at an unmanned level crossing. Cases were filed before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Ernakulam, claiming compensation against the owner and insurance company of the bus as well as the Indian Railways. The Tribunal awarded compensation against the owner. The liability of the insurance company was restricted to a measly Rs. 500 per victim on the basis of restriction of liability contained in the terms of the policy. In appeals taken to the High Court, the Railways too was made liable for negligence in not making provisions for a gate and personnel to mind the gate. Aggrieved, the Railways went to the Supreme Court. The legal issues addressed by the Supreme Court are instructive for what the Railways was required to do.
•A claim for damages for negligence of the defendant falls in the arena of a civil wrong called a tort action. In relation to claims for railway accidents, the Railways Act provides for fixed compensation on predetermined scales. It also provides a forum for passengers to make claims in the form of Railway Claims Tribunals situated in different parts of India. But there is a limitation. Only a passenger on a train can make a claim before the Tribunal. Passengers of a bus or motor vehicle who may have been harmed after a collision with a train can only approach the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal. However, this tribunal can entertain the claim against the Railways also as a joint tortfeasor if the negligence of the Railways is established.
•In the course of the judgment, the Supreme Court borrowed the neighbourhood principle articulated in Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932). It said that the duty of care for the Railways extends not only to those who use the Railways’ services but also to people who are “neighbours” — namely, users of vehicles on roads that intersect with tracks. Consequently, there is a common law liability for the railway administration for an accident at an unmanned crossing, even in the absence of specific provisions in the Railways Act, where the Central government can direct the administration to lay manned crossings. An action at common law can be filed for nonfeasance because the Railways was involved in what are recognised as dangerous operations and hence is bound to take care of road users.
•It took up the issue of whether there could be any breach or a common law duty on the part of the Railways if it does not take notice of the increase in the volume of rail and motor traffic at the unmanned crossing, and if it does not take adequate steps such as putting up gates with a watchman to prevent accidents at such a point. It said that there existed a precedent from England that was examined by the House of Lords — that the Railways should take all precautions that will reduce danger to the minimum. It approved the estimate made in Lloyds Bank Ltd. v. Railway Executive (1952) that if 75 to 100 vehicles crossed the level crossing per day, the Railways owed a duty of care at common law to provide for a gate with a watchman. If such a duty can be seen from factual circumstance, the corollary shall be that non-exercise of the power of the government to direct the Railways to lay gates shall be construed as irrational. Alternatively, if the plaintiff had no idea of particularly relying upon the exercise of power by the authority in his favour but is a matter of general reliance, society could by previous experience expect the exercise of such a power and if such an expectation stood belied, then too a conclusion could be drawn that the non-exercise of power by the authority was irrational. The running of trains by the Railways, as pointed out in Commissioner for Railways v. Mc Dermott (1966), has been recognised as inherently perilous and creates a general expectation that safety measures have been taken by the railway administration.
Need for continuous audit
•The decision by the Railways to equip all level crossings in India with gates by 2020 does not mean that unmanned gates will be relegated to history. After all, these gates have not come about because the Railways laid tracks across roads and kept these places unguarded. On the other hand, because of the operations of the Railways, where tracks are laid across large tracts of land, there is greater human movement in these areas; in turn, roads are laid across tracks on both sides. The railway administration should have continuous audit of tracks; when new roads come on either side, traffic must be calibrated, adequate infrastructure built, and safety measures put in place. The Railways Act 1989 (through Section 124) provides compensation on strict liability basis. This means that “when an accident occurs in the course of working a railway” (a collision between trains, or when one is a train carrying passengers, or derailment, or any other accident with a train or any part of a train carrying passengers), then whether or not there has been any wrongful act, neglect or default on the part of the railway administration, an injured passenger or one who has suffered a loss can lawfully maintain an action and recover damages.
Have an amended law
•On instructions from the principal Bench in Delhi, in every one of the major accidents in India between 2016 and 2017, the families of victims were contacted by the Tribunals where the families resided, and applications for compensation filed. There was quick adjudication for payments. In the incident of a stampede on a foot overbridge at Elphinstone Road station, in Mumbai in 2017, the Bombay Bench of the Railway Claims Tribunal awarded compensation amounts without any contest from the Railways. Hitherto, responses to claims for compensation arising out of accidents have been on an ad hoc basis but it is time the government amends the Railways Act to provide for compensation on a proactive basis without driving victims or their families to file applications in Tribunals. The ex gratia payments will then be substituted by rights-based compensation regimes that will sensitise the Railways to administer their operations with greater focus on public safety. It is also essential to include within Section 124 of the Railways Act a provision for a claim from a “neighbour to a passenger” in the manner that the Supreme Court recognises, namely, a road user of a motor vehicle.
📰 Rupee hits 15-month low; crosses 67/$
Oil prices hit $75 a barrel while Indian indices rise with support from bank, metal and media stocks
•The rupee breached the psychological barrier of Rs. 67 against the dollar amid strong demand for the U.S. currency from importers, as crude oil rose to $75 a barrel.
•The rupee depreciated 26 paise on Monday to close the day at 67.13 to a dollar as compared with 66.87 in the previous session. This is the lowest level for the rupee since February 8, 2017 when it had ended at 67.19 against the dollar.
Rs. the worst performer
•The rupee has been the worst Asian currency performer this year so far against the dollar, losing 5.1% since January.
•Oil jumped to its highest levels since late-2014 on Monday to cross the significant $75 a barrel tag, boosted by Venezuela’s deepening economic crisis and a looming decision on whether the United States would reimpose sanctions on Iran.
•Brent crude, an international benchmark, was trading at $75.57 per barrel in early Asian trade.
•Currency dealers said there was ‘huge’ dollar demand from oil importing firms which weighed on the domestic currency. India is a large importer of crude oil; so, if oil prices go further up, it could worsen the fiscal deficit. Foreign institutional investors sold Rs. 630 crore in equity on Monday.
•The yield on the 10-year benchmark government bond eased almost 11 basis points to close at 7.62%, after the Reserve Bank of India announced open market operations for next week.
•The equity markets, however, climbed, led by gains in select stocks from the banking and metal sector; the benchmark Sensex gained 292.76 points or 0.84% on Monday to close at 35,208.14. The 30-share pack saw 23 stocks gaining ground as against seven declines.
•Stocks such as Axis Bank, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries and ONGC were among the top gainers in the Sensex. The overall market breadth was also slightly positive with more than 1,400 stocks gaining ground as against 1,272 declines.
•The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange settled the day at 10,715.50, rising 97.25 points or 0.92%.
•The surge in the morning session was triggered by the ‘surprise’ announcement regarding open market operations by the Reserve Bank and later on, the rally was led by public sector banks, metals and media sectors with six sectors gaining more than 1% each, said V.K. Sharma, head (private client group & capital market strategy), HDFC Securities.
📰 India gets $200 million loan for nutrition mission
To improve nutritional status of 10 cr persons across 315 districts
•India on Monday signed an agreement with the World Bank for a $200 million loan for implementing the National Nutrition Mission across 315 districts of the country.
•Approved by the Union Cabinet last year, the mission aims at reaching 10 crore beneficiaries, mainly children upto the age of six years, pregnant women and lactating mothers and adolescent girls. The programme will be implemented in three phases between 2017 and 2020 across all districts of the country.
Targeted reductions
•The mission targets a 2% reduction in both under-nutrition and low birth weight per annum. It also aims to bring down anaemia among young children, women and adolescent girls by 3% per year until 2020.
•The government will also strive to reduce the prevalence of stunting from the current level of 38.4% (as per the National Family Health Survey 4) to 25% by 2022.
•The National Nutrition Mission has an approved budget of Rs. 9,046.17 crore. The total contribution of the Centre will be Rs. 2,849.54 crore and nearly Rs. 1,700 crore will be contributed by the States. The remaining will be funded through the government’s tie-up with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank.
All-round upgradation
•At the current rates of exchange, the loan translates to Rs. 1,344.6 crore — 14% of the total budget approved by the government and 30% of the amount it plans to borrow.
•The project will include investments in improving the skills and capacities of ICDS staff and community workers.
📰 LSGIs may find the going tough
Spillover projects will have to be completed with 2018-19 budget allocationSpillover projects will have to completed with 2018-19 budget allocation
•Local self-government institutions (LSGIs) will find Plan implementation for 2018-19 a tough task under the new norms issued by the government on the allocation and utilisation of funds for spillover projects from 2017-18.
•Under the new norms, the local bodies will have to provide funds for the completion of spillover projects from the budget allocation for 2018-19. Additional funds will be available only after the allocation for 2018-19 is fully utilised.
•The spillover projects have been classified into two. The first category comprises new projects taken up in 2017-18 and were processed to the extent of signing agreements or where purchase orders were issued, and projects that were submitted to the treasury before March 31, 2018 and were queued for bill payment but payment was not released. All those which do not come under the above two types are in the second category.
Resource allocation
•The spillover projects will now be incorporated in the 2018-19 annual Plan, but the local bodies will have to locate resources from the current financial year’s allocation.
•The government has advised the local bodies to conduct an assessment of the spillover projects that could not be completed by March 31, 2018 and generate a list that should be submitted to the District Planning Committees, along with attestation of the secretary of the local bodies concerned.
•The local bodies are also required to weed out projects that were not processed for implementation in 2017-18 despite being included in the annual Pan.
Deadline
•They are expected to complete their preparations of the 2018-19 annual Plan by May 31.
•According to sources, the ongoing financial crunch could have prevented completion of projects.
•The exact extent of spillover projects will be known only after the local bodies complete their stock taking. Once the stock taking is over, it would be possible to gauge the actual physical achievements of the annual Plan for 2017-28.
📰 Separate NIA unit all set to probe funding pattern of Naxalites
‘Huge amounts paid to fund education of Maoist leaders’ kin’
•Following reports of Maoist leaders having amassed huge assets in property and cash, the Centre said a separate unit will be created in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for investigating “important” cases of Left Wing Extremism.
•A senior Home Ministry official said the government has also set up a multi-disciplinary group to initiate action to choke funding sources of Maoists and to seize assets of their leaders.
Multi-agency group
•The group comprises officers from various central agencies and the State police departments, the official said.
•It is headed by an additional secretary and has representatives from the Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, NIA and the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) and the CBI, as also State intelligence departments and CID, the official added.
•The move follows information about a large part of extortion money allegedly collected by Maoists getting diverted towards personal wealth of their leaders, the official said.
•“Maoists are forcing children to join their squads, but their double standards are exposed by the kind of education and other facilities they provide to their children and families,” the official said.
Tracking money
•According to the official, the LWE movement in the country is financed through a large network of dubious activities, which include illegal levy collected from private contractors including those involved in execution of government works and schemes, mining contractors, transporters and owners of small and medium industries.
•Similarly, funds are said to be garnered through collections from illegal stone crushing and distribution of Maoist ideology papers.
•Investigations have revealed that one Pradyuman Sharma, member of Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee of the CPI (ML) paid Rs. 22 lakh towards fees for admission of his niece in a private medical college last year.
•Another member of the CPI (Maoist), Sandeep Yadav, gave Rs. 15 lakh for exchange during the demonetisation, the official claimed.
•Mr. Yadav’s daughter had studied in a reputed private institute and his son is studying in a private engineering college, the official said. Another senior leader, Arvind Yadav, paid Rs. 12 lakh fee for his brother to study in an engineering college.
•The Enforcement Directorate has registered cases against these four under the Money Laundering Act, and attached properties worth Rs. 1.5 crore and seized Rs. 2.45 crore cash, the official said.
