📰 The long march: on migrants march to USA
#CaravanaMigrante puts issues in the U.S. mid-term elections in sharp relief
•The winding caravan of more than 7,000 migrants from Central America through Mexico has become such a political hot potato that it is likely to thrust the immigration issue to the forefront of the U.S. mid-term elections, barely two weeks away. Already, President Donald Trump, who has not been shy about translating his conservative views on immigration into harsh policy measures, has fuelled fears that the caravan may harbour terrorists from West Asia; he has also attacked Mexico for not stopping the “onslaught”. This, besides the usual sloganeering around “illegal immigration” that will purportedly steal American jobs and threaten the security of an otherwise peaceful American society. In truth, most members of this caravan, not by any means the first of its kind but certainly one of the largest in recent history, are either economic migrants seeking escape from grinding poverty in places like Honduras or fleeing persecution, trafficking or gang violence in the region. Unlike previous such caravans, whose members numbered in the hundreds and which dissipated along the way or upon reaching the border, this one has gathered momentum from sheer media attention and support from advocacy groups. It is not going away any time soon. This puts candidates from both the major parties in the U.S. in a tricky position. Democrats are wary of committing too much political currency to the caravan or undocumented migration as a phenomenon, given the prevailing mood in the country. And the Republican mainstream harbours concerns about the strident anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan, and what it stands for, emboldening far-right groups associated with racism and Islamophobia.
•At the heart of the shrill debate on immigration is the weight of history. Americans can never get away from the fact that they are and will probably always be a nation of immigrants. As President, Barack Obama took a hard line on undocumented worker deportations, whose number soared through his two terms in office. But he sought to toe a moderate line when it came to delaying the deportation of childhood arrivals, and policed borders with a relatively light touch. Mr. Trump, contrarily, has made every effort to deliver on his radical campaign promise to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., although he faced numerous legal setbacks in that mission, and then made even immigration hawks squirm over his decision to separate undocumented child migrants from their families. Ultimately #CaravanaMigrante will seek to cross that line in the sand which Mr. Trump and his supporters hope will one day become a high wall. Liberal-progressive Americans who hope that these asylum-seekers will not be rudely rebuffed at that point will have to regroup and focus their energies on the November campaign and use any newfound power they win in Congress to chip away at the immigration agenda of the Trump machine.
📰 An ‘anti-national’ regulation
Silencing of academics from criticising the government denies us a vital safeguard against despotism
•The university in India is morphing under external pressure. How it will end up should be a matter of concern for all Indians and not just its denizens. This is so as universities are a source of new ideas for human advancement, hold a mirror to society, and act as a bulwark against authoritarianism. At least that is the idea behind setting them up at public expense.
•For almost a decade now they have been subject to unaccountable governance by India’s higher education regulator, the University Grants Commission. However used they may have become to the meddling, nothing could have prepared them for the most recent diktat. This one requires employees of publicly-funded universities to be subjected to the Central Civil Service (conduct) rules governing Central government employees. Now, Central government employees are prohibited from writing critically about the government and making joint representations. So the latest regulatory measure would be a blow to India’s national prestige today and its health in the future. The silencing of academics is taken to be both a sign of backwardness and incompatible with democracy. But it is more than just how the world sees it, for stifling freedom reinforces the backwardness of a society.
The West and history
•The argument that universities need adhere to a code of conduct is incontestable. All associations need codes of conduct to prevent chaos. Further, taking democracy seriously would make it incumbent upon them to adopt codes in keeping with its norms. Thus universities need to follow codes maintaining respect for the autonomy of its members, ensuring fairness in the evaluation of performance of students and teachers, efficiency in the conduct of everyday business, and accountability in the wielding of power by the administrative authority.
•However, there is no place in the university for a code that bars criticism of the government. When interpreted broadly in its application, such a regulation will prevent the achievement of the very goals imagined for the university. The idea that teachers exceed their brief when exercising their freedom of expression is dictatorial in its essence. Hitler and Stalin epitomised this mindset. Some German professors valorised Hitler’s racial ‘theories’. It led to the departure to the U.S. of some of Europe’s best minds, including Albert Einstein. Stalin’s politically-motivated views on genetics were championed by his ‘scientist’ Trofim Lysenko, setting Soviet science back. Russia’s dissidents did not have the luxury of leaving for America, having to head eastward to Siberia, involuntarily of course. Germany has recovered from the efforts of Hitler while the territories of the former Soviet Union have been less fortunate, showing us some of the dangers from muzzling universities.
Intellectual life abroad
•As India is a democracy, it would be of interest to see how the leading universities in other democracies regulate the intellectual life of their faculty — that is, if they do so at all. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is ranked first in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking of the world’s universities for 2019. The term ‘public intellectual’ may have been coined to describe its former professor Noam Chomsky. A world authority in the field of linguistics, Prof. Chomsky has been a trenchant critic of the U.S. establishment for over 50 years. His early work in this genre was At War with Asia, which attacked American intervention in Southeast Asia at a time when the Vietnam war was raging and not yet widely unpopular. In a less provocative way, the Harvard economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, had incisively pointed out how the core of the American economy was constituted by ‘the military-industrial complex’ uncovering also its political power. Galbraith had gone on to have a happy career.
•The university ranked first in the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking of universities in 2018 is Oxford. The very reference to it as the ‘home of lost causes’ reflects its character as a bastion of free thinking. An instance of it that would be of some interest to us in India is that when Gandhi was in England for the Round Table Conferences held during 1930-32 he was, on more than one occasion, the house guest of Alexander Lindsay, Master of Balliol College. At the time Gandhi was virtually at war with the British Empire, having been tried for sedition. A quarter of a century later, at the height of the infamous Cold War, the same college elected as its head a historian who was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (it seems not even the communists can forego grand titles).
•But perhaps Oxford’s most defiant moment was to come, when its members, by a popular vote, turned down the recommendation of an honorary doctorate for Margaret Thatcher, while she was yet Prime Minister, on grounds of her hostility to higher education. This honour had till then been conferred on every Oxford-educated Prime Minister of Britain since the degree had come into being at the University. As a sign of its having acted on principle and not on pique, it may be noted that the only other instance of a similar recommendation being turned down was the one of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was denied the honour for his role in the massacre that accompanied the formation of Bangladesh. It may be too much to expect India’s university teachers to display a similar confidence but these examples remind us of the meaning of a university. We invest in universities hoping that they would speak truth to power. If we take this freedom away by invoking irrelevant conduct rules, we deny ourselves a vital safeguard against despotism.
An insightful discourse
•Lest we lapse into the defeatist telling that our own universities have always failed us, we may want to reflect on the discourse on India’s economic policy some 50 years ago. Then, as Indira Gandhi lurched leftward, and much of the economics profession had not protested much, two economists at Delhi University had chosen to go against the grain. Jagdish N. Bhagwati and Padma Desai wrote a stinging critique of planning in India. It is not as if their peers supported them strongly in their effort but it is unlikely that they had faced much hostility either, leave alone a menacing government. It was a time of intense debate about economic policy in India and these relatively young economists were able to express an anti-establishment view. It took two decades for it to find a place in India’s economic policy. The launching of the economic reforms of 1991 was a ‘Bhagwati-Desai moment’ in that their central prescription, liberalisation, was adopted.
•I find the authors’ approach to the economy incomplete, and have argued in a national conference at the Central Sikkim University earlier this month that the subsequent quarter century in India does not validate their thesis, despite its salience in certain spaces. But the point is not whether the freedom these two young Indian economists had in the 1960s has yielded commensurate fruit. The point is that they had had the freedom to challenge the then dominant position on Indian economic policy, and that this did have an impact.
•No government at the Centre since 1991 has questioned the rationale of the reforms advocated by them. And, incidentally, Jagdish Bhagwati is now an enthusiast of the economic policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi! Only time will tell us of the effect on the production of knowledge of the new conduct rules being contemplated for our public universities, but surely they are not in the national interest.
📰 IAI, BEL sign $777 mn deal on missiles
•Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has signed a $777 mn deal with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to supply additional Barak-8 Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) systems for seven warships of the Indian Navy.
•“IAI’s partnership with India dates many years back and has culminated in joint system development and production,” IAI Chief Executive Officer Nimrod Sheffer said in Israel on Wednesday.
•The total orders for LRSAM systems have crossed over $6 billion, he added.
•The LRSAM can intercept aerial targets up to a range of 80 km. It is being co-developed by the DRDO in India and IAI, and will be manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited.
•The missile was successfully test fired for the first time against a flying target from an Israeli warship in November 2014. However, the project was delayed due to technical difficulties.
•The Navy had earlier placed a $630 million order to equip Barak 8 systems on four major warships and intends to have it as the standard fitment on all its future warships and also retrofit existing frontline ships in due course.
•The Army and Air Force also inducting the land based variant of the LRSAM called the MRSAM (medium range SAM).
📰 Government gives land to set up skill development centres
•Union Labour and Employment Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said the State Government has agreed to give land to set up Skill Development Centres (SDCs) in Bangalore and Gulbarga.
•Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Kharge said Chief Secretary S.V. Ranganath had met senior officials from the Union Labour Ministry a few days ago to convey this decision.
•“The Union Labour Ministry had sought 20 acres in Gulbarga and 10 acres in Bangalore keeping in view future requirements. However, the Government said it would give 10 acres in Gulbarga and five acres in Bangalore and we will accept the proposal.”
Panel set up
•Mr. Kharge said the SDCs would be set up jointly by the Union and State Governments. The Union Government has constituted a high-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary with five members each from the Union and State Government in this regard.
•To another question, Mr. Kharge said the Centre had sought the Stage Government's permission to use beds at the Government General Hospital in Gulbarga to start a medical college run by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) there. “Once the Government gives its permission, we will apply to the Medical Council of India for permission.”
•Mr. Kharge said the ESIC was spending Rs. 9,000 crore for the construction of new ESIC hospitals and renovation of existing hospitals throughout the country.
📰 Liquidity squeeze hurts NBFCs
What’s up with NBFCs?
•Shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) have witnessed a steep fall in recent weeks after concerns over whether they can successfully meet their short-term dues. Housing finance companies (HFCs) in particular have seen their shares punished severely over fears of a severe liquidity crisis. Dewan Housing Finance has been the worst hit among HFCs. The current crisis began with the default of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services on several of its dues last month. The Union government subsequently decided to step in and assure lenders to the company that their money would be paid back safely without any default.
How did they get into trouble?
•Many NBFCs use short-term loans borrowed from the money market to extend long-term loans to their customers. This leads to a mismatch in the duration of their assets and liabilities and exposes NBFCs to the substantial risk of being unable to pay back their lenders on time. NBFCs usually resort to rolling over, or refinancing, their old short-term debt with new short-term debt to compensate for the mismatch in duration. But even though NBFCs usually manage to roll over their short-term debt smoothly, there are times when they may fail to do so. Such risk is high particularly during times of crisis when lenders are affected by fear. In such cases, they may have to resort to sale of their assets at distress prices to meet their dues. This can turn a liquidity crisis into a more serious solvency crisis, wherein the total value of the assets of a company falls below the value of its total liabilities. Further, NBFCs also face the risk of having to pay higher interest rates each time they refinance their short-term debt. As interest rates rise across the globe, equity investors believe that the cost of borrowing of NBFCs will rise and affect their profit margins. This is seen as the primary reason behind the fall in the shares of many NBFCs. Investors may be pricing in the prospect of falling profits for NBFCs in the coming quarters.
What lies ahead?
•It is estimated that NBFCs need to repay about Rs. 1.2 trillion of short-term debt in the current quarter. How they manage to meet these dues remains to be seen. It is hoped that banks will offer a helping hand to NBFCs to meet their short-term dues to lenders like mutual funds. Many further believe that a widespread financial panic may not be on the cards as the government will act as a lender of last resort. Such bailouts, however, create the risk of moral hazard in the wider financial system. NBFCs, for instance, may continue to borrow short-term to extend long-term loans to their customers because they expect the government to bail them out if they get into trouble. In fact, some believe that financial institutions in general have traditionally resorted to borrowing short-term to finance long-term loans simply because there is an implicit guarantee extended by the government. As the cost of borrowing funds rises, NBFCs may have to settle for lower profits unless they find a way to pass the burden of higher rates on to borrowers.
📰 SC bans sale of BS-IV vehicles from 2020
‘No compromise on public health’
•The Supreme Court on Wednesday banned the sale and registration of motor vehicles conforming to the emission standard Bharat Stage-IV in the entire country from April 1, 2020.
•It said pollution hasreached an “alarming and critical” level all over India. “It brooks no delay,” a three-judge Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta observed in a 20-page judgment.
•The country will have to shift to the cleaner Bharat- VI fuel from April 1, 2020. Bharat Stage (BS) emission norms are standards instituted by the government to regulate output of air pollutants from motor vehicles. The BS-IV norms have been enforced across the country since April 2017. In 2016, the Centre had announced the country would skip the BS-V norms altogether and adopt BS-VI norms by 2020.
•“BSVI compliant vehicles are going to be more expensive than BSIV compliant vehicles. People have a tendency to buy cheaper vehicle(s) even from a neighbouring city. We also strongly feel that the problem of pollution is not limited to the NCR of Delhi but it is a problem which has engulfed the entire country especially the major cities. India has the dubious distinction of having 15 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world,” Justice Gupta wrote in the judgment for the Bench.
•The apex court said there cannot be any compromise on the health of citizens and this has to take precedence over the “greed” of a few automobile manufacturers who want to stretch the timeline.
•“Therefore, if there is a conflict between health and wealth, obviously, health will have to be given precedence,” Justice Gupta wrote.
•“We are dealing here with a situation where children and unborn children suffer from pollution and issues of inter-generational equity are involved,” the judgment observed.
•It said there was sufficient time for manufacturers to make BS-VI compliant vehicles.
•“It is not as if on 01.04.2020 just by waving a magic wand the entire country will change to BSVI compliant norms. If all the refineries and manufacturers by taking note of the requirement to bring in BS VI fuel, have introduced such fuel from 2018 and are introducing it in a phased manner in the entire country by 31.03.2020, we see no reason why manufacturers of automobiles, two wheelers, three wheelers, etc, cannot also do so,” the Supreme Court observed.
📰 Centre nod for ₹7,522 cr. fisheries fund
•The Centre has set up a ₹7,522-crore fund to create infrastructure facilities for the fisheries sector and help boost annual fish production to 20 million tonnes by 2022-23 from the current production of 11.4 million tonnes.
•The establishment of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday, said an official statement. Loan lending will be over a period of five years till 2022-23 and maximum repayment will be over a period of 12 years, inclusive of a moratorium of two years on repayment of principal.
📰 RBI may make some changes in PCA norms
PSBs wanted relaxation of guidelines
•The Reserve Bank may make some changes in the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework that put restrictions on financially weak banks, sources said.
•The changes could be made in the next few weeks after taking into account various aspects and in the larger interest of the banking system, sources said, adding that the recent RBI board meeting had a discussion on the issue.
11 on watchlist
•As many as 11 out of 21 banks are under the RBI’s watchlist. Of these, Dena Bank and Allahabad Bank are facing restrictions on expansion of business.
•Last month, State-run banks had requested the government for relaxation in PCA guidelines as these were indirectly impacting their lending ability.
•However, RBI Deputy Governor Viral V. Acharya said earlier this month that imposition of the PCA was essential for the revival of financially weak banks and deepening reforms in the banking space.
•With the resolution of large NPA cases getting closure to conclusion, the Finance Ministry expects that realisation from the proceeds may help some of the banks to come out of Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework this fiscal.
📰 Downside of medical crowdfunding
Study covered clinics in 8 countries, including India, that offer various ‘dangerous treatments’
•Online appeals to help sick people by raising money for unfounded and sometimes dangerous treatments and purported cures bring in millions of dollars each year, researchers have warned.
•The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at crowdfunding activity from 2015 to 2017 and “identified more than 1,000 campaigns that raised nearly $6.8 million.”
•“This money is wasted at best and harmful at worst,” researchers wrote on the site healthaffairs.org.
•Four crowdfunding sites, including the most well-known, GoFundMe, collected the money.
•Researchers focused on homeopathic or naturopathic cancer treatments, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for brain injury, stem cell therapies for brain and spinal cord injury and long-term antibiotic therapy for chronic Lyme Disease.
•The study was limited in scope by focusing only on these five treatments and four crowdfunding platforms. But the dangers posed by such approaches are real, according to co-author Ford Vox, a doctor at the Brain Injury Program of the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
•Patients who pursue naturopathic or homeopathic treatments for cancer are five times more likely to die than those who get chemotherapy and other standard treatments, according to a 2017 study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
•Stem cell injections for brain and spinal cord injury are being studied, but such clinical trials are free-of-charge to the patients and constrained by strict laws.
•“It’s definitely a big red flag when people say that they’re raising money to go get some experimental stem cell treatment,” Mr. Vox said.
•“They are really playing with fire,” he said of clinics that offer such experimental stem cell injections. Key risks include stroke, tumours, infections, meningitis and other painful conditions.
•And for those who pursue naturopathy or homeopathy for cancer, he added: “You may well die.”
•Researchers found nine practitioner in eight countries where people intended to visit. They included “clinics in Germany and Mexico for homeopathic or naturopathic cancer treatments, a New Orleans clinic offering HBOT for brain injury, and clinics in the United States, Panama, Thailand, India, China, and Mexico for stem cell therapies.”
•He said the problem starts when people “read something online and get really energized about that, outside of the counsel of their physician.”
