📰 Women’s health crucial to combat stunting: study
Research across 640 districts links better healthcare, education to reduced stunting.
•A first of-its-kind study across all 640 districts of the country, highlights the impact of women’s health on stunting of children.
•According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) study, analysing data from the National Family Health Survey (NHFS)- IV, parameters related to women, including education and age at marriage, account for 50% of the difference between districts with high and low levels of stunting among children below the age of five.
•Across the country, in 239 districts more than 40% of the children are stunted, while 202 districts record between 30% and 40 % of stunting. Only 29 districts have levels between 10% and 20%, most of them in south India, the study reports.
South does better
•India accounts for approximately a third of the world’s stunted children at 63 million.
•While levels have improved in the country from 48% in 2006 to 38.4% in 2016, there are wide variations among different districts ranging between 12.4% and 65.1%.
•The populous northern States account for more than 80% of stunted children at 52.6 million. In comparison, all of the southern States together have 8.1 million stunted children and the north-eastern and island States account for nearly 2.4 million. Within the States, however, the levels vary with regions in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka recording high prevalence.
•The research highlights the need for targeted policy intervention to combat stunting, with a focus on addressing critical determinants in individual districts.
•“Women related parameters are great drivers and these have to be focussed upon. This will involve interventions through the course of a girl’s life such as her education, nutrition, marriage as well as when she is a mother,” says Purnima Menon, senior research fellow at IFPRI.
Four parameters
•The four crucial parameters in women that together contribute to a 44% reduction in stunting among children are levels of body mass index accounting for 19% of the difference between districts; education accounting for 12% of the difference; age at marriage contributing a 7% reduction and ante-natal care adding 6%.
•Among other important factors highlighted by the study, authored by Purnima Menon, Rashmi Avula, Derek Headey, Phuong Ngyuen, are adequate diet for children (9%), household assets (7%) and open defecation (7%).
📰 Wife has the right to know husband’s salary details, rules Madhya Pradesh High Court
Relief for woman seeking maintenance from estranged husband.
•A woman has the right to know the remuneration of her husband, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has observed.
•A High Court Bench of Justices S.K. Seth and Nandita Dubey made the observation while hearing the petition of Sunita Jain who had sought a higher maintenance amount from her estranged husband, claiming that he was a senior officer with the State-run BSNL.
•Petitioner’s counsel K.C. Ghildiyal said Ms. Jain had pleaded that her estranged husband Pawan Kumar Jain was drawing a high salary while she was being given a monthly maintenance of just ₹7,000.
•After a trial court rejected Ms. Jain’s plea that her husband produce his pay slip, she had filed a Right to Information application to get his salary details.
•The issue reached the Central Information Commission, which, in an order dated July 27, 2007, asked the BSNL Central Public Information Officer to furnish the required details, Mr. Ghildiyal said.
•Mr. Jain, however, challenged the CIC order before a Single Bench of the M.P. High Court which set aside the CIC order in March 2015.
•Mr. Ghildiyal said Ms. Jain then moved the Double Bench of the High Court which observed that a wife was entitled to know the remuneration of her husband.
•The HC Bench stated that the wife couldn’t be denied this information by considering her a third party. While setting aside the Single Bench order, the Double Bench, in an order on May 15, allowed the writ appeal and upheld the CIC order.
📰 Braille-enabled signboards to be used during Maheshtala bypoll
It will be used for the first time in West Bengal; by-election today
•For the first time in West Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) will use Braille-enabled signboards carrying instructions for visually challenged voters. It will be introduced at all the polling stations in the Maheshtala Assembly by-election on Monday.
•“The decision to use Braille-enabled signboards is a State-specific measure and will be used for the first time in West Bengal to ensure hassle-free polling experience for visually impaired voters,” a senior EC official told The Hindu. He also said that the initiative was part of the drive to make elections more accessible to persons with disabilities (PWD).
•The Braille-enabled signboards will be put up at the entrance of all the 283 polling stations in the Maheshtala Assembly constituency in South 24 Paraganas district. Apart from the conventionally displayed instructions for voters on how to use the electronic voting machine and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, the signboards will also display such instructions in Braille.
•The official also said that the EC held consultations with officials of the State government departments such as Women, Child and Social Welfare, Youth Services and Sports to frame strategies on how to involve physically challenged voters in the polling process.
•Nearly 2.48 lakh voters will cast their votes in the Maheshtala Assembly by-election at 283 polling stations in 111 locations in the constituency. Several companies of Central forces have been deployed for the bypoll.
Three-way contest
•The bypoll will witness a three-way contest between the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress has not fielded any candidate due to an informal understanding with the Left Front. The result will be declared on May 31.
📰 Ireland's vote for choice
Ireland votes in numbers to rid itself of inhumane restrictions on abortions
•Ireland has firmly pulled itself into the 21st century by voting overwhelmingly (66.4% vs 33.6%) to repeal the constitutional block on abortions. In a referendum, the Irish voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment that practically prohibits abortions. The amendment, introduced in 1983 to strengthen an older law outlawing abortions, grants an unborn child and the woman carrying it an equal right to life. Consequently, abortions in Ireland have been only permitted when the life of the woman is at risk, including from suicide. This exception too was introduced as late as 2013, after 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar, a dentist from Karnataka, died of sepsis in a hospital after being denied an abortion while miscarrying at 17 weeks. The couple made multiple requests for a termination but were told it was not possible because Ireland was a Catholic country, her husband said during the inquest that followed. The inquest ruled that Halappanavar had died as a result of a medical misadventure and her case helped galvanise the pro-repeal movement. Images of Halappanavar with a beaming smile could be seen on walls and placards in the run-up to Friday’s vote. Those luckier than her are able to travel abroad for abortions; amendments to the law permit travel for such purposes as well as information on abortion processes available overseas. Alarmingly, there were still no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or when the foetus had a fatal abnormality. In 2016 the United Nations asked Ireland to relax its laws around abortion after a woman’s highly publicised experience of trauma travelling to England to terminate her pregnancy because of fatal foetal abnormalities.
•The Irish government has indicated that it will now pass laws giving women the right to terminate pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Abortions will be permitted between 12 and 24 weeks when there are fatal foetal abnormalities or risk to the life of the mother or serious harm to her. Beyond 24 weeks, abortions would be permitted when there are fatal abnormalities. Ireland has been fiercely divided over abortion despite making progress to separate Church and State and adopting more open social attitudes. It legalised same-sex marriage in 2015 and elected the first openly gay Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, last year. Mr. Varadkar has been in favour of the repeal, describing it as a ‘quiet revolution’. The timing of the decision is especially significant given that the democratic world has made a noticeable shift to the right, exemplified by Brexit, the rise of Donald Trump in the U.S., and right-wing populism in continental Europe. Religion is a powerful force in people’s lives but antediluvian ideas have no place in modern-day governance. The referendum is a giant step in the right direction.
📰 Political parties under RTI: Election Commission contradicts CIC directive
The BJP, the Congress, the BSP, the NCP, the CPI and the CPI(M) were brought under the RTI Act by a Central Information Commission ruling on June 3, 2013.
•Political parties are out of the purview of the RTI Act, the Election Commission has said in an order which is contrary to the Central Information Commission’s directive bringing six national parties under the transparency law.
•The poll panel statement, which may prove to be controversial, came while deciding the appeal of an RTI applicant seeking to know donations collected by six national parties who were brought under the ambit of the transparency law by the CIC in June 2013.
•“Requisite information is not available in the Commission. This is related to political parties and they are out of purview of the RTI. They may submit information of donation/amount collected through by electoral bonds in their contribution report for the financial year 2017-18 in the ECI for which the due date is September 30, 2018,” the appeal order citing comment of the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) has said. Pune-based Vihar Dhurve had sought to know through RTI the details of donations collected by six national parties — the BJP, the Congress, the BSP, the NCP, the CPI and the CPI(M) — and the Samajwadi Party through the newly-introduced electoral bonds.
•The First Appellate Authority in the Election Commission K.F. Wilfred, the Senior Principal Secretary in the poll panel, wrote in the order that he agrees with the view taken by the CPIO.
•Six national parties — the BJP, the Congress, the BSP, the NCP, the CPI and the CPI(M) — for which information was sought by the applicant were brought under the ambit of the RTI Act by a full bench of the commission on June 3, 2013. (The Trinamool Congress was recognised as the seventh national party in September 2016).
•The order has not been challenged in the higher courts but the political parties have refused to entertain the RTI applications directed at them. Several activists have approached the Supreme Court on the grounds of non-compliance of the CIC order and the matter is pending.
•When it comes to the RTI Act, the Central Information Commission is the only appellate authority which may declare a body as public authority if it is convinced that the organisation fits into the criteria for being under the Right to Information Act.
•“When the Central Information Commission has declared six national political parties as public authority, the Election Commission cannot take a position contrary to that unless the order of the CIC has been overturned by the Supreme Court or High Courts. The order of EC has no merit,” former Chief Information Commissioner A.N. Tiwari told PTI.
•Venkatesh Nayak, a noted RTI activist, said the public information officer of the Election Commission has exceeded his limits in giving this order. “The June 2013 order of the CIC bringing six national political parties under the RTI Act remains in force even if the political parties do not obey it. It has not been stayed or set aside by any court. Therefore, as far as national political parties are concerned they are squarely covered under the RTI Act,” Mr. Nayak said.
•He added that all the information about State and national parties, which is held by the Election Commission of India fall under the RTI Act and the CPIO is bound to make disclosure about them rather than taking position that these political parties are out of the purview of the RTI Act.
•When contacted over phone about the controversial statement in the order, Mr. Wilfred said he meant that not all political parties are covered under the RTI Act. But when asked that the RTI appeal pertained to the six political parties which are under the RTI Act, as per the CIC order, he did not give any explanation except to say that the DoPT has issued an order that when an RTI plea pertains to multiple public authorities, it is not compulsory to transfer the question to them.
•However, the order signed by him does not mention this. He had, however, transferred a question related to meeting held with political parties on the issue of electoral bonds to the Finance Ministry.
📰 U.S.-North Korea: a deal that can be done
The Korean imbroglio reflects America’s fear of any meaningful adjustment to the global balance of power
•The whirlwind U.S.-North Korean bromance hit a temporary roadblock last week. If American President Donald Trump’s decision to open direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a few months ago came as a surprise, last Thursday’s dramatic somersault to pull the plug on a summit that could have ushered in a transformed Northeast Asia will not leave too many scratching their heads. After all, Mr. Trump’s foreign policy since the outset of his administration has swayed erratically between his own pragmatism and the hawkish elements in the larger security establishment. At almost every stage, we have seen Mr. Trump succumb to the default worldview inside his administration and across the broader political spectrum.
•If we accept the proposition that Mr. Trump remains stifled in a national security system still largely dominated by the traditionalists, the question then turns to what the calculus is of the policymakers really playing the strings. The traditionalists, in essence, fear change. Having been accustomed to a unipolar moment — fleeting as it was — when the U.S. held sway over all geopolitical and geoeconomic matters, the changes in the past decade have come as a psychological shock to this self-belief in global preponderance. Mounting evidence of an emerging multipolar world and waning of American relative strength should have prompted a strategic reassessment of the U.S.’s role in the world. Instead, the establishment, despite a popular domestic revolt in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that catapulted Mr. Trump to office, has scoffed at any meaningful adjustment to the global balance of power.
A viable deal
•North Korea’s search for state security and regime survival is well known. Nuclear weapons, as in most other cases, were deemed the only reliable card to security. Since 2006, when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea’s official name) conducted its first nuclear test, the process of nuclearisation saw sustained progress over a decade along with ballistic missile testing to demonstrate a path towards a credible deterrence capacity. But it was not until the July 2017 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test that Washington awoke to the reality of its own homeland being part of a deterrence equation with Pyongyang. The North Koreans shrewdly realised that only the possibility of a direct threat would stir the U.S. into serious talks. And it seemed to work. For after the usual “fire and fury” charade, Washington responded positively to the prospect of a nuclear deal.
•The DPRK, for its part, was actively encouraged by its great power benefactors to pursue such an opening. As direct neighbours of the DPRK, both Russia and China have a self-interest in stabilising the Korean peninsula and closing an unfinished chapter of the Cold War. South Korean domestic politics too was geared to tap this moment. In short, the regional context was conducive at all levels for a détente and bargaining process to ensue.
What a deal could look like
•The contours of a deal remain viable. Pyongyang would cease its quest for intercontinental nuclear weapons capability in lieu of a gradual normalisation of ties with the U.S. along with a lifting of multilateral economic sanctions. As a result, the DPRK would gain regime and national legitimacy, assurance of survival and an opportunity to economically transform itself. The U.S. could also claim success on several fronts. A deal would confine the DPRK to a regional nuclear power, which also enables Pyongyang to preserve a degree of autonomy from Beijing; it would stabilise the broader Northeast Asian setting and thereby increase the security of its two key allies, South Korea and Japan; and finally, it would eliminate a major potential flashpoint in China-U.S. relations. Such outcomes hardly seem adverse for the US.
•Much attention has also been drawn to the mutually incompatible bargaining postures: the U.S.’s maximalist position of complete de-nuclearisation versus the DPRK’s bottom line, which probably reserves the right to retain an undefined level of nuclear weapon capability as an insurance measure of last resort. The issue, however, runs much deeper. The traditionalists in the U.S. establishment fear a shifting status quo that might produce new regional re-alignments or interdependent equations that gradually diminish the cohesiveness of U.S. military alliances in East Asia. For example, it is likely that China and Russia would actively leverage peace on the peninsula to pursue their ambitious geoeconomic plans for the region. Koreans on both sides of the Demilitarised Zone would be spoilt for choice after living under the shadow of prolonged tension and conflict. Put plainly, in the image of an American hawk, successful U.S.-DPRK talks translate to the U.S. no longer being the top dog in Northeast Asia and being
compelled to share power and influence with others. But this is precisely what a multipolar world will look like in the foreseeable future.
An open window
•The rhetoric from both sides suggests that the window for talks remains wide open. Even as he called off the summit on May 24, Mr. Trump maintained a high measure of respect for Mr. Kim and spoke about how a “wonderful dialogue was building up” between the two leaders and that he “very much” looked forward to meeting Mr. Kim in the future. In his oral remarks, Mr. Trump closed by intriguingly hinting that the “existing summit could take place or at a future date”. The DPRK’s response the following day was equally effusive in portraying Mr. Trump as a rousing advocate for change. Pyongyang has drawn a sharp distinction between a “bold” Mr. Trump who dared to tread in a new direction and his hardline advisers. Not mincing its words, the DPRK had previously expressed a “feeling of repugnance” towards National Security Adviser John Bolton and described Vice President Mike Pence as a “political dummy”. Echoing Mr. Trump, Pyongyang concluded its May 25 statement by expressing “an intent to sit with the U.S.” in any format “at any time”, prompting Mr. Trump to welcome the “warm and productive statement” that could “lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace.”
📰 Economic push needed
India must help the development of Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern provinces
•The discourse on fundamental issues concerning Sri Lankan Tamils continues to revolve around political settlement, the two key components of which are greater devolution of powers to provinces and the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces. These two aspects featured in the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord and continue to resonate with Tamil leaders of different political hues. R. Sampanthan, Leader of Opposition and Tamil National Alliance chief, and Suresh Preamachandran, leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front, are emphatic that the 1987 Accord remains valid. In their view, India was duty-bound to ensure full and proper implementation of some provisions of the agreement, which had been incorporated into the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution. Their observations are pertinent given that Sri Lanka is contemplating drafting a new Constitution.
•Days after these two Tamil leaders spoke publicly on this matter, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s Annual Report for 2017 was released. As in previous years, this report emphasised the poor contribution of the civil-war-hit Northern and Eastern provinces to the GDP of the country (4.2% and 5.7%, respectively). Sections of the middle class in these regions feel that it is time for the political leadership to highlight the need for economic development of the region. “Only when we increase our share, the Sinhalese leadership would realise that we have the necessary capacity and competence to handle greater powers that could be devolved through any political settlement,” says V. Niranjan, coordinator of the Jaffna Managers’ Forum, a civil society organisation.
•Of late, New Delhi has not been stating its position publicly on the political settlement, except for calling for the strengthening of the 13th Amendment. However, it would be receptive to supporting plans for the region’s economic development.
•In the last five years, despite the Northern province having a Tamil, C.V. Wigneswaran, as Chief Minister, no big initiative has been undertaken for economic engagement with India. The Northern Railway reconstruction project, leading to the revival of train services between Talaimannar and Colombo, and the construction of 46,000 houses in the North and East were both initiated when Mahinda Rajapaksa was President and the North had no elected Chief Minister.
•Earlier this year, a bilateral pact was signed between India and Sri Lanka to rehabilitate the Kankesanthurai Harbour. The propose to modernise Palaly airport, near Jaffna, has not taken off as yet. By pitching for economic development of the North and the East through Indian involvement, the Tamil leadership may pave the way for realising Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s idea of an economic union between five southern States and Sri Lanka, which, if fructified, would have a combined GDP of over $500 billion.
📰 India protests Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan order
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi moves to integrate region into federal structure.
•India on Sunday summoned the Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner to protest Islamabad’s order to integrate the region of Gilgit-Baltistan into the federal structure of the country.
•An official press release from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the region belongs to India and that Pakistan’s action has no legal support.
•“It was clearly conveyed that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir which also includes the so-called ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ areas is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947. Any action to alter the status of any part of the territory under forcible and illegal occupation of Pakistan has no legal basis whatsoever, and is completely unacceptable,” the official press release said.
Executive order
•India’s response came in the backdrop of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s speech to the Joint Session of the Gilgit-Baltistan Council and Legislative Assembly on Sunday. The executive order from Prime Minister Abbasi intends to begin legislative, judicial and administrative measures to integrate Gilgit-Baltistan with the rest of the federal structure of Pakistan. Mr Abbasi’s announcement has sparked several protests in the region.
•As per the previous arrangement, Pakistan’s National Assembly received representation from five provinces — Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This excluded the Gilgit-Baltistan region which remained on the Pakistani side following the war of 1947 and was governed directly from Islamabad. Following the declaration by Mr. Abbasi, the status of Gilgit-Baltistan is expected to change.
•The idea of granting provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan gained momentum since work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through the region, demanded greater coordination between the local and central-level leaders.
•India, which opposes the CPEC for reasons related to sovereignty, on Sunday reiterated its territorial claims over Gilgit-Baltistan and said Mr. Abbasi’s executive order to alter the status of the region will be against the position of the Indian Parliament which in 1994 passed a resolution in support of India’s claims over the undivided Jammu and Kashmir.
•“It was further conveyed that such actions can neither hide the illegal occupation of part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan nor the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom to the people residing in Pakistan occupied territories for the past seven decades,” the statement from the MEA said, asking Pakistan to vacate the Gilgit-Baltistan region.
•India’s sharp response coincided with the Afghan government’s rejection of the Pakistan National Assembly’s merger of FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the weekend.
📰 Stress test: the need for water management reforms
Water management reforms are needed to avert public hardship and economic loss
•On the cusp of the southwest monsoon, several arid States are hoping to revive their rivers and reservoirs with bountiful rain. One of them is Gujarat, which is roiled by the long-tail effect of a deficit monsoon between August and November last year. The State government has embarked on a labour-intensive programme to desilt rivers and waterbodies ahead of the rains. Its predicament reflects the larger reality of drought in India, aggravated by heat waves and significant rain deficits in different regions. This year’s fall in reservoir storage levels to below-average levels has affected farmers who depend on the Sardar Sarovar dam, and 27 other reservoirs including those in Madhya Pradesh. A reinvigorated Congress in the opposition has turned the heat on the BJP government in Gujarat, which is hard put to defend itself against the charge that dam waters were depleted merely to fill the Sabarmati river for a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December, when he undertook a seaplane journey on the river. Its response has been to roll out a campaign to deepen waterbodies on the one hand, and arrange religious events to propitiate the gods on the other. But it has had to prioritise drinking water needs over farming, and suspend irrigation supply from the dam on March 15. This year, Delhi has been at loggerheads with Haryana over reduction of water released in the Yamuna, highlighting growing stresses over a vital resource. Urgent water management reforms must be undertaken to help citizens and avoid losses to the economy.
•In a normal year, the pre-monsoon phase from March 1 brings some respite and India gets about 130 mm of precipitation before the rainy season begins. This year began with a sharp 50% deficit, but touched near-normal levels, though not in the northwestern region. The monsoon itself is highly variable. This underscores the need for comprehensive reforms at the level of States, with the Centre helping to conserve hydrological resources. If Gujarat improves rural water storage structures and creates many small wetlands beyond the compulsions of politics, it can ensure long-term prosperity for thousands of villages in Saurashtra, Kutch and the northern region where pumps run dry with unfailing regularity. Farmers will get relief from the monsoon vagaries that affect the Narmada, whose waters are apportioned among four States. There is also the challenge of reducing demand for farming, given that the Mihir Shah Committee estimated public irrigation efficiency to be a low 35%. Farmers need to be helped with the latest technologies to cut water use. The State government is thinking of going in for desalination. Decentralised water storage too will help cities like Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara when water supply from large dams and other sources dwindles. If climate change is going to influence monsoon vigour and availability in coming years, the time to take action is now.
📰 Ayushman Bharat: a health scheme that should not fail
The implementation of Ayushman Bharat requires a strong reform agenda
•The launch of Ayushman Bharat, a national health protection scheme (NHPS), in the last stretch of this government’s tenure comes as no surprise. Social policies in the areas of education, health and the welfare of the disadvantaged or farmers almost always get announced before elections. No political party is an exception to this rule since such ‘feel good’ welfare policies are useful in conferring a sense of legitimacy and caring on the government seeking another term.
•Despite these political motivations, those working in these neglected sectors welcome such policy announcements as the crisis is acute in these sectors.
•Health policies have two objectives: to enhance the health of the population and reduce the financial risk for those accessing treatment. Success in the first is measured by a reduction in the disease burden and subsequent increase in people’s longevity. Reduced spending or getting impoverished when seeking health-care measures the second. Since the health scheme seeks to address both these critical health goals, it is an important step forward.
•The scheme has two components: upgrading the 150,000 sub-centres (for a 5,000 population level) into wellness clinics that provide 12 sets of services; and providing health security to 40% of India’s population requiring hospitalisation for up to a sum assured of ₹5 lakh per year per family. If implemented as integral components of a strategy to improve the abysmal status of India’s health-care system, these initiatives can help achieve the goals of equity, efficiency and quality.
Key issues
•An evidence-based strategy will need to address and resolve several key issues affecting the sector. The first is the massive shortages in the supply of services (human resources, hospitals and diagnostic centres in the private/public sector), made worse by grossly inequitable availability between and within States. For example, even a well-placed State such as Tamil Nadu has an over 30% shortage of medical and non-medical professionals in government facilities.
•A related question that arises is that while the NHPS will empower patients with a ₹5 lakh voucher, where do they encash this? The health budget has neither increased nor is there any policy to strengthen the public/private sector in deficit areas. While the NHPS provides portability, one must not forget that it will take time for hospitals to be established in deficit areas. This in turn could cause patients to gravitate toward the southern States that have a comparatively better health infrastructure than the rest of India.
•The issue is about the capacity of this infrastructure to take on the additional load of such insured patients from other States, growing medical tourism (foreign tourists/patients) as a policy being promoted by the government, and also domestic patients, both insured and uninsured. It is still unclear whether the implications of the national policy on the fragile health systems of States have been fully comprehended and how they propose to address them.
The price factor
•Second, the strategy for negotiating/containing prices being charged for services needs to be spelt out. An experience in Hyderabad is instructive. A three-day stay in a hospital for a respiratory problem cost me ₹1.8 lakh. In order to understand the extent of overbilling, I checked ‘Rajiv Aarogyasri’, the health insurance programme in Andhra Pradesh. The rates here were not only incomparable but also did not reflect market prices of common procedures or treatment protocols to be followed by hospitals. So a CT scan that costs ₹19,080 in the Hyderabad hospital (it is the same rate across the city) was only ₹500 in government hospitals in Tamil Nadu (₹7,000 in private hospitals in Tamil Nadu and Delhi).
•The Aarogyasri scheme has only package rates, a procedure that all States have since followed as a model. Package rates are not a substitute for arriving at actuarial rating. In the absence of market intelligence, arbitrary pricing and unethical methods cannot be ruled out.
•More importantly, there is no way the government or the payer has an idea of the shifts in the price of components within the package. This knowledge is essential to regulate/negotiate prices to contain costs. This also explains why there is no dent in the exorbitant health expenditures being faced in India despite government-sponsored schemes.
•Finally, the absence of primary care. The wellness clinic component is a step towards bridging that lacuna, but with no funding, the commitment is hollow.
•A pilot done in Tamil Nadu showed that within six months of upgrading primary health-care facilities (human resources, drugs and diagnostics), there was a rise in footfall, from 1% to 17%. At the same time, it requires a minimum outlay of ₹1,500-₹2,000 crore to bridge the deficiencies. In the northern States there are hardly any sub-centres and primary health centres are practically non-existent. It is estimated that ₹30,000 crore will have to be spent if this three-tier primary health-care system is to be brought to minimal health standards. The sum would rise further if there are to be mid-level providers (as in wellness clinics).
•In an environment of scarce resources, prioritisation of critical initiatives is vital to realising health goals. The implementation of Ayushman Bharat will have to be contextualised and synchronised with a reform agenda that must include improved governance and an enforcement of regulations.
📰 CAs excluded from fair valuation of start-ups
I-T notification leaves field clear for merchant bankers
•The Income Tax Department has excluded chartered accountants (CAs) from assessing the fair valuation of start-ups.
•The department’s notification on Friday to this effect leaves the task exclusively to merchant banks.
•Naveen Wadhwa, DGM, Taxmann.com, said the decision to exclude CAs from assessing the fair valuation brings it in line with another rule that allows only merchant bankers to calculate the value of unlisted shares issued to employees under the ESOP schemes. He said the decision was arbitrary and unfair not only to CAs but to companies too.
•In the notification, the department provided tax exemption for investments that small start-ups receive from angel investors above their fair valuation. The step comes as a relief to start-ups that have been complaining about tax on investments raised from angel investors. Some of them have received notices from the department.
•Start-ups approved by an inter-ministerial panel are exempted from tax levied on firms issuing shares to investors above their fair value, treating it as income from other sources. This exemption was earlier available to investments from registered venture capital funds and foreign investors.
₹10 crore limit
•As per the conditions, the exemption is meant for small start-ups whose paid-up capital and share premium do not exceed ₹10 crore after the share sale.
•The angel investor should have had ₹25 lakh average income in the preceding three years or ₹2 crore net worth at the end of the previous fiscal. Infosys co-founder and angel investor S. Gopalakrishnan welcomed the move in a tweet.
•According to DIPP, an entity shall cease to be a start-up on completion of seven years from the date of its incorporation/registration of if its turnover for any previous year exceeds ₹25 crore. In respect of start-ups in biotechnology sector, an entity shall cease to be a start-up on completion of ten years from the date of its incorporation/registration or if its turnover for any previous year exceeds ₹25 crore.
📰 Blockchain being used in banking, contracts
Technology allows all stages of transactions to be securely shared by members in a network
•A number of companies and banks are adopting blockchain technology to reduce documentation and increase operational efficience.
•“Traditionally, trade finance involves complex documentation processes, high transaction costs, high settlement times and low authenticity rates with physical documents,” Rajashekara V. Maiya, AVP, global head of products strategy, Infosys Finacle, said in an interview. “As a result, a bank’s customer is straddled with delays, high costs and risks.”
•“Blockchain technology allows all stages of transactions to be securely shared between network members, as opposed to each bank working independently, which is more expensive and increases the chance of error,” added Mr. Maiya.
•“Cost reduction, risk mitigation, speed, traceability and security are among the multiple benefits the participants are seeing from the pilot.”
•Infosys created India Trade Connect in partnership with Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank, South Indian Bank and Yes Bank, which is being used to run a pilot of a blockchain-based solution developed specifically to address the trade finance process requirements of banks.
•“Finacle Trade Connect (the blockchain-based solution) will enable increased automation and transparency, while helping efficiently manage risks in trade and supply chain financing operations,” said Mr. Maiya.
•Another area of business where the distributed ledger aspect of blockchain technology is appealing to Indian companies is in contracts.
•“Why it is required is to answer the question of how do you ensure that data does not get tampered,” said Kaushik Srinivasan, director, eMudhra, a company that offers blockchain-based smart contract solutions in India.
•“When you install a smart contract, it is present on every node of the blockchain,” said Mr. Srinivasan. “This is where the consensus policy comes, and how you define the consensus. So, if there are eight nodes on the blockchain, you can say that five of the eight nodes need to confirm a transaction before it is authorised. So, a change to the information can happen only when this happens.”
•These smart contracts can be used for information which forms the basis of KYC documentation, ensuring that details like name, address, and date-of-birth cannot be modified once they have been entered into the system.
Smaller countries
•International blockchain companies looking to enter the Indian market, such as Indonesia-based Pundi X, say that the Union government could learn more about how best to regulate cryptocurrencies and blockchain from smaller countries that have adopted the technology.
•“Blockchain is a very new technology and what one will see is that the use cases will principally come from smaller countries that are more receptive to adopting new technologies, such as Estonia, Lithuania, and Sweden,” said David Ben Kay, chief counsel at Pundi X. “The view taken by the Indian regulatory agencies will evolve as they have more interactions with those countries that are implementing blockchain.”
•One of the use cases of cryptocurrencies in India, Mr. Kay said, was in remittance payments where using cryptocurrencies can significantly reduce the cost and time taken for the entire process.
Land records
•Blockchain technology can be used to digitise and authenticate currently complex records like land holdings. “India, like many countries, has problems with land titles and ownership and this is where blockhain is developing,” Mr. Kay said.
•“The best use case is Sweden, which is putting all its land records on blockchain and it will quite quickly move towards doing land transfers and ownership verification using blockchain, which is a major issue in India currently.”
📰 A year on, UDAN is yet to soar
Only 15%, or 70, of the 453 routes in the regional air connectivity scheme are operational
•The promise of cheap flights between smaller cities still eludes many. A year since the Centre unveiled the regional air connectivity scheme (RCS) with the aim to connect tier-2 and tier-3 cities and make flying affordable for the masses, a mere 15% or 70 of the total 453 routes awarded to various airline and helicopter operators have taken off.
•None of the 75 helicopter routes connecting hilly terrain and islands have commenced yet. According to an official of Pawan Hans, the nodal body for overseeing helicopter operations under the RCS, it has identified close to 50 sites for helipads and development work may take 3-6 months to finish. These routes were awarded in January and there is a deadline of six months to start operations.
•According to official sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, of the 56 unserved airports that the government planned to add to the aviation map in a year, only 16 are ready, and 10 of the 25 under-served airports have been developed.
Two rounds over
•Two rounds of bidding have ended for routes under the scheme, also known as Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN), in the past year. Operators are offered a subsidy by the Centre and the State governments to keep airfares low.
•Airlines have to set aside half the total seats in an aircraft at a discounted rate of ₹2,500 each per hour of flight and helicopters need to offer a maximum of 13 seats for ₹2,500 each per 30 minutes of flight. Operators get exclusive rights to fly on a route for three years, to protect them from competition.
•In March last year, after the first round of bidding, five operators were awarded 128 routes, which had to be opened by September-end. A year later, less than half of these routes are operational.
•While established players such as Air India subsidiary Alliance Air, budget carrier SpiceJet and regional airline TruJet have been able to deliver on most or all the routes awarded to them, smaller players like Air Odisha and Air Deccan, which won 65% of the routes, have only been able to service less than 15% of the total routes awarded in round one. Air Odisha has commenced flights on eight of the 50 routes it was awarded and Air Deccan has started flying in 10 of 34 it won.
•While we are two months away from the deadline to start operations for routes awarded in the second round, three of 15 operators have commenced services on 10 routes of the total 325 routes awarded. Jet Airways and IndiGo have announced that they will be starting flights on some of the routes in June and July, respectively.
•In fact, smaller players like Air Odisha and Air Deccan have struggled to raise sufficient capital for their operations, hire trained manpower and lease planes, and have slowed down the implementation of the scheme. The two started their operations with a combined fleet of four 19-seater Beechcraft B-1900D aircraft.
•Sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation said their services had been irregular, often due to lack of trained pilots or when the few planes they have were grounded due to technical issues. The cancellation rates of flights for Air Odisha and Air Deccan have been as high has 80% for some of the months.
•“We had reviewed (the status of flights) at the level of the Secretary (Ministry of Civil Aviation) and both [the] players have given some timeline with supporting documents such as the status of leasing aircraft, which we are examining. They have given a programme for starting nine more routes and we are processing it,” said a senior official of the ministry.
•However, in the past, each time the two carriers were issued show cause notices, they had failed to honour the commitments made by them.
•While a senior ministry official said last year that they were mulling over penalising those operators who miss their deadlines, sources say such an action would be detrimental to the scheme and it may prove to be difficult to look for new players for a large chunk of routes that had been granted to Air Odisha and Air Deccan.
•Another senior ministry official said, “When we started the UDAN scheme, we kept entry barriers low to attract more players. But there is always a downside that they will take time to build efficient operations. We recognise them as weak players and handhold them with regulatory procedures.”
•So, the success of the scheme largely depends on interest from bigger players such as IndiGo, SpiceJet and Jet Airways. Significantly, SpiceJet and IndiGo have not sought any government subsidy for most of their routes.
•“With commitments by IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and Alliance, RCS is finally gaining traction,” according to aviation think tank CAPA in a report on its India outlook. “But there is little or no business case for small, independent operators without scale, operating older equipment on routes dispersed across multiple stations.”
•It remains to be seen whether little-known carriers allotted routes in the second round, such as Ghodavat, Pinnancle Air, Meh Air, Zoom Air, Turbo Aviation and AAA Aviation, will be able to deliver.
Infrastructure problems
•Infrastructure constraints, too, have checked the pace of implementation of the scheme. Forty unserved and 15 underserved airports are not ready yet for operations. Some airports owned by State governments and private players have been hesitant in participating as there is little for them to gain with RCS flights exempt from paying landing and parking charges and States required to provide land, security and fire services free of cost.
•“Many airports in round two are unserved [ie where no operations exist] and it is difficult to start flights there because virtually nothing exists there. For example, the airport at Darbhanga is operated by Indian Air Force, where the runway is capable of handling only IAF jets and not commercial aircraft like a Q400. To strengthen the runway, we need to lay concrete, which requires two watering seasons; it will take at least 18 months for it to be ready. There is a lot of capital also required for investment at these airports,” Chairman, Airports Authority of India, Guruprasad Mohapatra told The Hindu.
•On the other hand, bigger airports have struggled to allocate slots for RCS flights. In Phase I, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport could grant only half of the 20 slots sought from each of them by the Ministry. Airport officials say the smaller planes carrying 20-40 passengers take more time on the runway affecting the operational efficiency. Severe capacity limitations meant that in Phase II, no slots were granted for RCS operations by these two airports and airlines were told to use their existing slots at these cities.
Silver lining
•However, there may be a silver lining: many routes have seen a steady rise in the number of passengers, though there are still pockets such as those in the northeast which are yet to generate any interest in travellers.
•“The cumulative average of seat occupancy on our routes has increased from 55% to 70% in a year,” said Senthil Raja, head, commercial, TruJet. “The routes we are operating in didn’t have any flights earlier and we have seen demand picking up.” Alliance Air CEO C.S. Subbiah said, “The routes we started last year under UDAN-1 have begun to stabilise.” He, however, added yields or revenue per passenger per mile are still low as demand was cyclical and airlines were not able to increase fares for seats not covered by the scheme.
•Another airline executive said, on condition of anonymity, “Because of RCS you have no competition; you can work with a pricing model and develop a route. That is a great thing... you are protected from competitive pressures. [Demand] can be generated by developing capacities and stimulating the market [with] a good pricing strategy,” the official said.
📰 The ‘cloud’ is bringing about a digital change
•Most of us visualise a digitally transformed organisation as its front-end avatar, delivering great experiences on demand and fulfilling customers’ requests with zero delay. What we often fail to see is the digital core of the enterprise, behind the interface, that is geared to produce these delightful customer outcomes.
•But leaders driving digital transformation have always known otherwise. This was unambiguously established in a recent survey report we published, titled, ‘How Enterprises are Steering through Digital Disruption’ — where respondents attest to using digital technologies as commonly for IT management (79%) and business process management (60%) as for customer relationship management (62%).
•Today, an organisation working its way to a more digital future has to focus on transforming from its core, including its fundamental infrastructure, operational systems and the surrounding processes. This aids greater leverage and value from technology.
Surprise bottlenecks
•When the modern ERP system was born in the 1990s, it was almost single-handedly responsible for enabling enterprises to participate in the heady growth of those times. But the same system — centralised, monolithic and mostly deterministic — is coming up short against the demands of the digital age where providing engagement, innovation, and instant gratification is non-negotiable.
•Surrounded by inflexible processes and complex services, it also can’t as easily ‘talk’ to newer systems that leverage cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, big data, real time analytics, IOT and blockchain.
•This makes agile innovation at speed and scale a huge challenge. Since these legacy systems form the heart of the traditional enterprise, and represent investments running into millions, it is impossible for enterprises to jettison it all in favour of digital alternatives.
•The challenge is to modernise these systems and legacy processes so that they can support real-time, automated and efficient operations at the backend as well as personalised experiences at the front end.
•The ‘cloud’ has an enormous role to play in creating the digital enterprise. In fact, the enterprise cloud (with 60% respondent votes), features among the top three digital technologies, along with data analytics and cybersecurity, in our survey.
Changing with the cloud
•Here, we are not merely talking of lifting and shifting an ERP system, warts and all, to the cloud, but of transforming it from the inside to make it real time, digital-ready and cloud-capable while simplifying the processes around it.
•Also, opening up the now simplified core with API-microservices to create secure pathways for newer digital platforms to access these systems is a vital milestone on the path to digitisation; this means decoupling the evolution of frontends and backends allowing for a continuous renewal of the front, without disrupting the core.
•Enterprises must undertake this complex journey after deliberating: whether to go to the public or private cloud, which legacy assets to divest, how to modernise migrating assets, how to re-engineer process flows, and so on. It is always prudent to transport non-core parts of the legacy environment to the cloud before doing the same with critical elements.
Question of security
•Here, it is natural for organisations to ask how secure their systems will be on the cloud, given the survey report revealed that cybersecurity was a huge area of focus in every sector: cybersecurity was the most deployed technology in respondent firms (69%, ahead of even big data analytics).
•While the concern is justified, it is important not to confuse physical proximity with better security. Often, systems on the cloud are better protected than inside enterprise premises, purely because enterprises exercise greater care and governance over their cloud assets.
•So, where the system is located matters very little; it is things such as means of access, procedural rigour and quality of governance that count.
•As for the journey to digitisation leading with the cloud, the opportunity of our times is to transform ‘with cloud’ and not merely move ‘to cloud’. To take an enterprise-centric approach to bringing transformation across applications, data and infrastructure. To transform IT into a highly responsive and efficient landscape by simply codifying its complexity with software and process engineering. To ensure assets (on premise or on cloud) are secured by software, process and controls, before leveraging an expert mix of on-premise infrastructure, public, private and hybrid clouds. That, then, is the promise the Cloud holds for the digitally-aspiring enterprise.
📰 Decoding Europe’s new data protection law
‘Many firms in India are still not ready for compliance with the law, which covers all entities doing business in the EU’
•The recent flurry of ‘we have updated our privacy policy’ e-mails in your inbox is the result of European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation coming into force. These stringent regulations that aim to protect all EU citizens from data breaches, provide for hefty penalties of up to €20 million or 4% of a company’s global revenue for non-compliance. Analysts expect this regulation to have a ripple effect on how consumers’ data is treated across the world.
•The regulation, which was approved by the EU Parliament in April 2016 after about four years of preparation and debate, came into effect on May 25, 2018.
•However, many firms in India are still not ready for compliance with the new law which will cover all entities doing business in the EU.
GDPR journey
•“A lot of organisations, especially in the EU region, started their GDPR compliance journey more than a year ago,” said Jaspreet Singh, partner-Cybersecurity, EY. “It is only in India that awareness is very low and organisations are still grappling with how to get compliant with GDPR. Compliance is not easy… It is not a one-time job… it impacts not only technology but all aspects of organisation per se.”
•He pointed out that only 30-35% of all IT/ITES firms had started work towards being GDPR-compliant. “It is a mix of many issues… a lot of organisations still don’t understand how this is applicable to them. For some, it’s a typical mentality that ‘I will not get fined or we will see what happens,” Mr. Singh said. But it is not just IT and ITES companies. Firms across sectors and industries need to be GDPR-compliant.
•“Any organisation providing goods and services in the EU, be it a BFSI unit, a manufacturer, a pharma company..., comes under GDPR,” said Prashant Gupta, partner, Grant Thornton India LLP. “This regulation will radically transform the privacy landscape for organisations of all sizes and sectors that process personal data.
•GDPR not only impacts Indian organisations, but also global firms who are handling or managing PII data for EU employees, vendors, businesses,” said Mr. Gupta.
•Mr. Singh of EY said a lot of focus is on the IT/ITes firms as they contribute about 7% to India’s GDP. “If you look at the revenues, it is a heavy contributor. That is why everyone talking about the sector being the most impacted. Otherwise, cost of doing business will be there across sectors.
•“There are areas where GDPR provides relief and consistency, however, it also comes with very stringent penalties on non-compliance,” said IT/ITes industry body Nasscom.
•“Most large companies are very well prepared due to economies of scale, however, the impact on SMEs and start-ups are a cause for concern they may struggle with several areas that render it costly for processors,” it said. These include appointing a data protection officer in organisations, the concept of privacy by design (encryption) and by default (processing the minimum amount of data), new privacy rights for individuals like the Right to Erasure and Right to Data Portability, and new consent rules which require consent for different activities from different stakeholders, including employees and customers. “Once this learning curve is scaled, we do see an opportunity to offer services for GDPR compliance and complaint process capabilities,” Nasscom added.
•Mr. Gupta added that companies have to need to build robust processes and assign responsibilities and accountabilities to address data protection and privacy-related issues. and queries ensure the GDPR requirements. Data protection in some form was always there, especially in the U.S. and EU. However, GDPR is a more stringent form of earlier regulations. “So, companies have been following certain processes already, they now need to take it to the next level. The real impact of this on business will become clear only one or two quarters down the line and will depend mainly on issues of non-compliances and supervisory authority’s consideration,” said Mr. Gupta.
•He added that the cost and time of implementation for required policy and processes implementation will depend on various factors such as maturity level of organisation and size of the data handling., global presence, customer, employee and vendor base in EU and business model. While implementation can take anywhere from six months to a year or more, the cost can vary between a vast range from organisation to organisation.
‘Positive impact’
•“This [GDPR] will have a positive impact on the way data is treated globally by the companies. It is difficult for global companies to segregate data and systems in an integrated world.
•“GDPR will provide a benchmark of how data protection may be treated. GDPR also gives a sense of comfort to the data subjects and enforces clear purpose, transparency of data when any data controller or processor collects, processes, stores, disposes and archives their personal data,” he added.
•Mr. Singh agrees. “Mauritius, for example, last week passed a very stringent law similar to GDPR. India is already working on data protection law — some of the attributes that the draft policy talks about are similar to what is there in the GDPR. Today, globally, organisations will have to up their ante on privacy-related engagements and issues. So that end customer data is not impacted.”
•On the financial impact on businesses, Mr. Singh said, “I can’t put a number on it… a lot of clients that we work with have already started getting queries around please demonstrate your GDPR compliance, privacy policy, consent notices etc. across sectors.”
‘Tectonic shift’
•Terming the new law as “a tectonic shift in the global privacy paradigm,” Anant Maheshwari, president, Microsoft India said it would herald a new era in consumer trust. “We began work on GDPR as soon as it was adopted by the European Union. We have over 300 full-time engineers focused on GDPR compliance and have adopted over 30 controls based on GDPR.
•“Our preparations for GDPR touch every part of our company — from our senior leadership who drive our commitment all the way to individual engineers on our product teams who write code,” he added in a blog.
•Maninder Singh, corporate vice president and head, cybersecurity and GRC business, HCL Technologies explained: “The regulations means that the business process should be run in a manner so that privately identifiable information or personal information is protected and should not be disclosed to any person who is not supposed to know.” Hence, your business logic must contain that control, hence your app should be written in that manner and any connected IT systems that hold that personal information must secure it in a particular manner.”
•“I think most of the businesses must have done assessments and would have in their business systems try to build logic to get ready for it [GDPR]. I can tell you for HCL. We have worked very closely with the regulators in Europe for the EU GDPR law. HCL has done necessary things for its part of operations in Europe to comply to the GDPR regulation,” said Maninder Singh, corporate vice president and head, cybersecurity and GRC business, HCL Technologies. Mr. Singh added that in any regulations a lot of things are evolving, so the real implication of the law will become clear only once it starts operation for a while.
Data protection jobs
•According to data from job portal Indeed, between January 2017 and March 2018, there had also been a spike in the number of job postings for data protection roles, which had seen an increase of 143% while the number of job searches for the same had risen by 188% as Indian companies looked to fortify their databases.
•“Globally, the increasing number of cybercrimes had made it imperative for companies to keep pace in hiring the right talent to combat them. Therefore, companies across the world are gearing up to ensure compliance to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy requirements. While the larger technology giants are more or less equipped to comply, it is the mid-size and smaller firms that are seeking professionals to help them cope with the requirements the new laws entail” said Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India.
•Additionally, according to the platform, there had been an upsurge in job postings for cybersecurity roles by 150% between January 2017 and March 2018 along with a corresponding increase of 129% in job searches for the same in the same period.
•Mr. Maheshwari of Microsoft said, “To me, this is a golden opportunity for India to drive thought leadership in the global market. We can build expertise and capabilities, create new lines of advisory and consulting businesses, develop a market differentiator and be a source of competitiveness.”
📰 SEBI MF order spurs changes to schemes
•Mutual fund houses have been making changes to their schemes following a directive from regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last year. Here is what you need to know:
What is the SEBI directive all about?
•Last year, SEBI had issued a directive regarding categorisation and rationalisation of mutual fund schemes. It defined five categories in which all schemes can be classified: equity schemes, debt schemes, hybrid schemes (which invest in a mix of equity and debt), solution-oriented schemes (such as for retirement) and other schemes (such as index funds and exchange-traded funds). Further, it defined sub-categories like large caps, large and mid caps and small caps.
•It also defined the individual characteristics of each of the scheme types and what the portfolio allocation should be. For instance, a large cap fund should invest at least 80% in large cap shares and a mid-cap fund should invest at least 65% in mid cap shares.
Why did SEBI issue the directive now?
•The number of mutual fund schemes on offer has become large and some of the offerings have been similar without any differentiation, often creating confusion in the minds of investors. The directive is aimed at bringing uniformity to the schemes and enabling accurate comparisons.
What are fund houses doing now?
•Mutual fund companies have been making changes to their schemes to comply with the directive. Across the industry, firms are either renaming their schemes, changing their categories or merging the schemes with other similar schemes.
What must an investor do?
•Since the changes range from a simple name change to a significant shift in category, investors should take note of the changes.
•The changes are disclosed in the respective companies’ websites. Srikanth Meenakshi, founder of mutual fund platform FundsIndia.com, said the impact on the investor could vary depending on the schemes invested in. In some cases, there is just a name change.
•In other cases, there has been a change in the fundamental attributes of the schemes, he pointed out. For example, a diversified fund would become a large cap fund. He said the return on a diversified fund is higher than from a large cap fund. To that extent, the change would be significant.
•About 30% of schemes in the industry have seen significant changes, he said. An investor should analyse the changes on a case-by-case basis ensure that the asset allocation and category allocation of their portfolio remains intact, post the changes, he added.
📰 Farmers urged to go for barter system during bandh
Use produce for own use, do not waste it: farmers’ organisations
•Farmers’ organisations across the country that have called a 10-day ‘gaon bandh’ (village shutdown) from June 1 have urged farmers to adopt the barter system again.
•“During last year’s agitation, angry farmers had emptied milk tankers and thrown vegetables on the roads. This time, leaders of the Kisan Ekta Manch and the Kisan Maha Sangh, an umbrella body of 172 farmers’ bodies, are urging them to barter their produce,” Aam Kisan Union chief Kedar Sirohi said.
•Farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab and Chhattisgarh have been told to use the produce for their own use during the agitation and identify nearby villages where they can directly exchange perishable agricultural products for other goods or services.
•The farmers’ bodies are also using social media to spread the messages to nearly 10 lakh farmers.
•Taking lessons from last year, the M.P. government has gone on high alert. The State government has cancelled the leave of police personnel from May 25 to June 10. On Friday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan chaired a meeting attended by the Police Commissioners and IGs of 10 divisions. He reportedly told the police personnel to remain calm and ensure that law and order was not disturbed during the agitation.
•Congress president Rahul Gandhi is planning to address a rally in Mandsaur on June 6, the first anniversary of the police firing incident in which five farmers were killed.
📰 A blow to civil service ideals
The government’s proposal for the allocation of services and cadres is legally and administratively unsound
•India’s Civil Services Examination (CSE) is said to be one of the toughest of its kind in the world, so much so that Professor Lant Pritchett, from Harvard University, said in 2010: “The Indian Administrative Service is full of officers who have passed an entrance examination and selection process that makes getting into Harvard look like a walk in the park.”
•The CSE for recruitments to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and about 20 other services of the government is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). It is conducted every year in two stages: a preliminary examination and then the main examination. The UPSC has been doing a commendable job by insulating recruitments from political patronage and selecting the best candidates through transparent procedures.
•At present, successful candidates are allocated services based on their ranks in the CSE and their preferences. Candidates qualifying for the IAS and IPS are allocated cadres (States) based on their examination ranks and preferences. The successful candidates of the IAS, IFS, IPS and Central Services Group A undergo a 15-week foundation course in the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (training academy) in Mussoorie. The course focusses on promoting interservice camaraderie, cooperation, and capacity building of the officer-trainees.
A radical proposal
•The government has recently mooted a radical proposal for allocating services and cadres based on the combined marks obtained in the CSE and the foundation course. In other words, candidates who have cleared the CSE will have to wait till the foundation course is over to know which service and cadre they are likely to get. The government has said that this is a suggestion under consideration and that no final decision has been taken yet. There are good reasons to believe that the new proposal is legally unsound, administratively unfeasible and has not been thought through properly.
•First, Articles 315 to 323 of the Constitution deal with Public Service Commissions of the Union and the States. Article 320(1) says: “It shall be the duty of the Union and the State Public Service Commission to conduct examinations for appointments to the services of the Union and the services of the State respectively.” Thus, the duty of conducting the CSE is vested only in the UPSC. If the marks secured in the foundation course in the training academy are included for allocation for services, it would make the training academy an extended wing of the UPSC, which it is not. Therefore the new proposal violates Article 320(1).
•Second, the Chairperson and members of the UPSC are constitutional functionaries. Article 316 provides for security of their tenure and unchangeable conditions of service and Article 319 bars them from holding further office on ceasing to be members. These constitutional safeguards enable them to function independently without fear or favour. On the other hand, the Director of the training academy that conducts the foundation course is a career civil servant on deputation, and she can be summarily transferred. The faculty members of the training academy are either career civil servants on deputation or academicians. Neither do they enjoy the constitutional protection that the UPSC members enjoy nor is there any bar on their holding further posts. This means that the Director and faculty members will not be able to withstand pressure from politicians, senior bureaucrats and others to give more marks to favoured candidates. They will actively try to please the powers-that-be in order to advance their own career prospects. There is also the grave risk of corruption in the form of ‘marks for money’ in the training academy. Politicisation and communalisation of the services are likely to take place from the beginning.
•Third, the training academy has facilities to handle not more than 400 candidates for the foundation course. If this limit is exceeded, the foundation course will have to be conducted in other training academies situated in other cities. With only about 12 faculty members in the training academy in Mussoorie, the trainer-trainee ratio for the foundation course is very high, and it will be impossible to do the kind of rigorous and objective evaluation that is required under the government’s new proposal. Needless to say, the evaluation of the trainees will be even less rigorous and objective when the foundation course is conducted in training academies situated elsewhere. It is well known that competition in the CSE is very intense. The difference of a few marks can decide whether a candidate will get the IAS or, say, the Indian Ordnance Factories Service. Therefore, the inclusion of the highly subjective foundation course marks can play havoc with the final rankings and with the allocation of services and cadres, and ruin countless careers.
•Fourth, while about 600-1,000 candidates are selected every year for all the services put together, nearly 60-70% of the candidates qualifying for the IPS and Central Services Group A do not join the foundation course in Mussoorie as they prepare for the civil services (main) examination again to improve their prospects. Clearly, it is not possible to evaluate such candidates in the foundation course as contemplated in the new proposal. They cannot be compelled to attend the foundation course because that would amount to depriving them of their chance of taking the examination again. So, the new proposal is administratively unworkable.
Ignoring the real problems
•Nobody denies that the steel frame of the Indian civil services has turned somewhat rusty and needs reform. But what is odd about the new proposal is that it seeks to tinker with precisely that aspect of the civil services — recruitment — that is least in need of reform. The real problems of the civil services are not with recruitment; they are with what happens after an officer joins the system. Even the best and the brightest can lose their bearings in a system that places a premium on loyalty, political connections and community/caste clout rather than on merit; in which indecision and inaction are seldom punished, while performers stand a greater chance of getting into trouble as they take more decisions; which pays lip service to honesty but is thoroughly rotten inside and expects officers to either shape up or ship out; in which performance appraisal is based more on the personal likes and dislikes of one’s superiors than on actual work done; in which, as Sardar Patel said, “exercising the independence to speak out one’s mind” means to ask for trouble; and in which frequent, arbitrary and punitive transfers have become the order of the day. The Government of India would do well to fix these systemic shortcomings rather than unsettle the settled method of recruitment.
📰 Lying to get the truth
Is it tenable to wage a battle for ethical journalism by deploying unethical means?
•The American Journalism Review first used this headline in 2007 when it dealt with the ethics of undercover journalism. The ethics of sting journalism has been written about at length in this space. “The dilemmas of sting journalism” (December 16, 2013), “Means and ends matter” (September 22, 2014) and “Sting journalism is not investigative journalism” (June 19, 2017) were unambiguous articulations about this devious method to secure information. It seems as though this newspaper is ploughing a lonely furrow in this regard.
Reporting a sting operation
•A Delhi-based reader of The Hindu, K. Balakrishnan, asked: “Why has The Hinduchosen not to even report the sting operation conducted by Cobrapost? Is it not news that is relevant in these times? I can understand that you cannot verify the authenticity of it, but that applies to reports of hate speeches during elections too.”
•Neither his question nor the decision of this newspaper to refrain from publishing the findings of the website, Cobrapost, was surprising. The question flows from the natural curiosity of a reader who gets news from more than one platform. The paper’s decision is based on its core editorial values, cherished and nurtured for over a century. The Hindu expects accountability from every institution of this country. It does not shy away from reporting ethical deficits in the media. It has reported in detail on paid news using time-tested journalistic tools such as extensive research and rigorous verification and without the deception of undercover reporting. It had never refrained from naming people and publications too. However, it is wary of investigative journalism that does not respect the norms of journalism.
•For instance, P. Sainath’s report, “Reaping gold through cotton, and newsprint” (May 10, 2012), documented how The Times of India (TOI), in a span of three years, carried a full-page plug for Bt cotton twice, the first time as news and the second time as an advertisement. The report titled “Not a single person from the two villages has committed suicide” was published in TOI on October 31, 2008. The same story was run again in the same newspaper, word for word, on August 28, 2011, as a marketing feature during the Parliament session in which the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill was to be debated. The disclosure at the end of Mr. Sainath’s article read: “The Hindu and The Times of India are competitors in several regions of India.” Another report that tried to map the boundary between legitimate news-gathering and lobbying and influence peddling in the light of the Niira Radia tapes was “The spotlight is on the media now” (November 24, 2010).
•Ken Auletta did not conceal his identity when he spoke to the top management of TOI to do his rather devastating piece, “Citizens Jain: Why India’s newspaper industry is thriving”, for The New Yorker in 2012.
The question of ethics
•Journalism schools have been grappling with the ethical questions posed by sting journalism for nearly two decades. These are not academic questions but are central to retaining trust in the media to deliver credible information. In the present polarised environment, some may use political ideologies to either endorse or repudiate the reliance on sting operations and subterfuge. It is myopic and suicidal to bring in ideology to define journalistic norms and best practices. It is worth remembering Greg Marx’s caution in the Columbia Journalism Review: “If the reporter has forfeited the high ground of transparency and honesty, how can his conclusions be trusted by the public? The fallout may not be limited to the case at hand.”
•I asked the Editor, Mukund Padmanabhan, to explain the reason for not carrying the sting exposé. He said: “The Hindu has not been named in the Cobrapost exposé. As a newspaper, we have a clear editorial policy against paid news. We also refrain from conducting sting operations and, as a general rule, expect our journalists to declare their identities when pursuing a story. We believe that it is difficult to independently verify and authenticate the material that sting operations throw up. As a result, we have been traditionally cautious about publishing the findings of sting operations as conclusive proof of wrongdoing. Even in the odd case where we have published a small report, we have been wary of naming those who were stung. However, we have reported and commented when the issues raised by sting operations become part of a larger public debate.”
•This steadfast position to adhere to core journalistic values is the only way to retain trust in these trying times.
