📰 Centre, State can fix sugarcane price, says SC
State can set advised price: Bench
•A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that both the Central and State governments have the power to fix the price of sugarcane under the Concurrent List of the Constitution.
•However, the five-judge Bench, led by Justice Arun Mishra, said that even though a State cannot fix a “minimum price” if the Centre has already fixed it, the State is always welcome to fix the “advised price”.
•The advised or remunerative price shall be higher than the minimum price in accordance with the provisions of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966, issued under Section 16 of the Uttar Pradesh Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act, 1953. The case revolved around a petition by the Western Uttar Pradesh Sugar Mills Association questioning if the State had the power to fix a minimum price when a similar price had already been set by a Central legislation.
Bench says it is an ‘obnoxious idea’
•A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held it unconstitutional to provide 100% reservation for tribal teachers in schools located in Scheduled Areas across the country.
•A 152-page judgment by a Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra said it was an “obnoxious idea” to have only tribals teach tribals.
•“It is an obnoxious idea that tribals only should teach the tribals. When there are other local residents, why they cannot teach is not understandable. The action defies logic and is arbitrary. Merit cannot be denied in toto by providing reservation,” Justice Mishra, who wrote the verdict for the Constitution Bench, observed. The five-judge Bench was answering a reference made to it in 2016 on whether 100% reservation is permissible under the Constitution.
Sawhney judgment
•The court held that 100% reservation is discriminatory and impermissible. The opportunity of public employment is not the prerogative of few. A 100% reservation to the Scheduled Tribes has deprived Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes also of their due representation. The court referred to the Indira Sawhney judgment, which caps reservation at 50%.
•“Citizens have equal rights, and the total exclusion of others by creating an opportunity for one class is not contemplated by the founding fathers of the Constitution of India,” Justice Mishra wrote.
•The case stemmed from a legal challenge to January 10, 2000 order issued by the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh Bench providing 100% reservation to the Scheduled Tribe candidates, out of whom 33.1/3% shall be women, for the post of teachers in schools located in the Scheduled Areas of the State. The court said the 2000 notification was “unreasonable and arbitrary”.
📰 Cabinet approves Rs. 15,000-cr. package
Three-phase plan to limit virus spread
•The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs. 15,000-crore investment package for the COVID-19 emergency response and health system preparedness, the government said in a statement.
•Post facto approval was given to the package at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar at a press conference.
•The funds will be used in three phases, with Rs. 7,774 crore for immediate use and the rest for medium-term support, that is one to four years, the statement said. “The key objectives of the package include mounting emergency response to slow and limit COVID-19.”
•The plan includes developing diagnostics and COVID-19-dedicated treatment facilities, centralising the procurement of essential medical equipment and drugs, strengthening the healthcare systems nationally and in States, bio-security preparedness and pandemic research.
•Phase one of the plan has already been rolled out by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with Rs. 3,000 crore in additional funds being released to the States and the UTs for strengthening facilities, it said. The network of diagnostic laboratories had been expanded and orders for 13 lakh diagnostic kits had been placed.
•Health workers, including ASHA workers, have been given insurance cover under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. “Personal protection equipment, N95 masks and ventilators, testing kits and drugs are being procured centrally,” the statement said.
📰 Global remittances will see a sharp fall: WB
In India, remittances for 2020 are likely to fall by 23% to $64 billion, it says
•Global remittances are projected to experience their sharpest decline in recent times — 20% — owing to migrants losing jobs and wages because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank Group said in a report released on Wednesday.
•The pandemic and declining oil prices are likely to reduce remittances from the U.S., the U.K., and EU countries to South Asia, resulting in a projected fall of 22% in remittances to $109 billion. This is in stark contrast to 2019 when they grew by 6.1%.
At risk
•In India, remittances for 2020 are projected to fall by 23% to $64 billion. They grew 5.5% in the previous year to $83 billion, the report, “COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens”, said.
•Remittances are crucial in low and middle income countries, financing household and family expenses — such as on higher education. As studies have shown that higher remittances improve nutritional outcomes by increasing investments in higher education, a fall in these remittances puts these outcomes at risk, warned the Bank.
•This is especially true at a time when households were tackling food shortages and financing livelihood needs. “Remittances are a vital source of income for developing countries. The ongoing economic recession caused by COVID-19 is taking a severe toll on the ability to send money home and makes it all the more vital that we shorten the time to recovery for advanced economies,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said in a statement.
•The sharpest decline was for Europe and Central Asia — where Russia is a strong source of income and the ruble had weakened against the U.S. dollar. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia were next in terms of projected declines.
Low cost
•While remittance costs for some channels in South Asia are below 3% — the SDG (Sustainable Development Goal ) target and South Asia has the lowest remittance costs of any region — in some corridors in South Asia, they were above 10% due to a lack of competition, regulatory concerns and low volumes.
•“Quick actions that make it easier to send and receive remittances can provide much-needed support to the lives of migrants and their families. These include treating remittance services as essential and making them more accessible to migrants,” the brief’s lead author, Dilip Ratha, said.
📰 Pre-retirement judgments and post-retirement jobs
Enacting a law barring appointments of retired judgesby the government will restore confidence in the judiciary
•The Constitution has been conceived to provide a pride of place to the judiciary. Constitutional appointees to the Supreme Court have been guaranteed several rights in order to secure their independence. Chapter 4 of Part V of the Constitution deals with the Supreme Court, and Chapter 5 of Part VI deals with the High Courts. The salaries of judges and their age of retirement are all guaranteed in order to secure their independence. They cannot be easily removed except by way of impeachment under Articles 124(4) and 217(1)(b). They have the power to review legislation and strike it down. They can also question the acts of the executive. All this makes it clear that the framers of the Constitution envisaged an unambitious judiciary for which the only guiding values were the provisions of the Constitution.
The Gogoi example
•It was thought that on retirement from high constitutional office, judges would lead a retired life. Nobody ever expected them to accept plum posts. But the clear demarcation between the judiciary and executive got blurred as many judges over the years began to accept posts offered by the government. A few years ago, a former Chief Justice of India (CJI) was made a Governor by the ruling BJP government. Now, we have the case of a former CJI, Ranjan Gogoi, being nominated by the President to the Rajya Sabha and taking oath as Member of Parliament. During his tenure as CJI, Justice Gogoi presided over important cases such as Ayodhya and Rafale where all the decisions went in favour of the government. This gave rise to the impression that his nomination was a reward for these ‘favours’. Thus his appointment — and that too within a few months of his retirement — not only raised eyebrows but drew severe condemnation from varied quarters.
•People are fast losing confidence in the so-called independent judiciary. In 2013, former Union Minister Arun Jaitley, who was also a senior Advocate, ironically said on the floor of Rajya Sabha: “I think, we are going a bit too far now, in every legislation, in creating post-retirement avenues for Judges. Almost everyone, barring a few notable, honourable men, who are an exception, wants a job after retirement. If we (Parliament) don’t create it, they themselves create it. The desire of a post-retirement job influences pre-retirement judgments. It is a threat to the independence of the Judiciary and once it influences pre-retirement judgments, it adversely impacts on the functioning of our Judiciary.” It is in this context that the appointment of Mr. Gogoi has to be perceived.
•An interview that Justice Gogoi gave after assuming office as member of the Rajya Sabha made the situation worse. When asked whether his nomination was a quid-pro-quo for his having delivered judgments in favour of the Central government, his answer, that he was not the only judge but there were other judges too, was damaging. His view that membership of the Rajya Sabha was not a job but a service, and that once the President nominated him the call of duty required him to accept it, only created the impression that the judiciary is pliant. A bare reading of Article 80(3) of the Constitution only envisages the President to nominate “persons having special knowledge… in literature, science, art and social service” as members to the Rajya Sabha. It is difficult to imagine that the Constitution-makers had in mind a retired CJI while framing this provision.
Undoing the damage
•Therefore, appointments of persons who have held constitutional office will undermine the very constitutional values of impartiality in the dispensation of justice. It will also go against the clear demarcation of separation of powers. It is true that there are no rules which stood in Justice Gogoi’s way of being appointed to the Rajya Sabha. But such matters cannot be left to the individual vagaries of judges. If post-retirement appointments are going to undermine confidence in the judiciary and in constitutional democracy, it is time to have a law in place either by way of a constitutional amendment or a parliamentary enactment barring such appointments. This is the only way to secure the confidence of the people and prevent post-retirement appointments. Judges can be compensated by being given their last drawn salary as pension. Also, the age of retirement for judges can be increased by a year or two. This will undo the damage caused by post-retirement jobs. It is important to remember that judges are constitutional servants, not government servants.
📰 A time for planetary solidarity
Rather than fortress worlds, nations need to focus on building shared programmes of knowledge and collective welfare
•Self-help gurus say it takes 21 days to develop a new habit. However, in a crisis, we may learn quite a few overnight. The microscopic SARS-CoV-2, by causing a global pandemic, has forced much of humanity to cease everyday practices and jump-start new ones. It has also reminded us of certain tenets that we have always known. For instance, it is possible for individuals, communities, and nations to respond to a planetary crisis within days. The nature of the response in different settings, however, depends on leadership, the quality and strength of local institutions, resources deployed and the ability to deliver straightforward and meaningful messages regarding behavioural change.
•More reassuringly, empathy for fellow travellers around the world turns out to be at least as widespread as avarice and insularity. Compassion and structured forms of support by different kinds of non-state actors have been amply demonstrated across the world, with people enduring personal threats to life to assist the most vulnerable.
•As in any crisis, the poorest — daily-wage workers, the homeless, migrants and operators of micro-enterprises — are the worst affected. Even so, in the present instance, their fate is especially dire. Any person whose livelihood is directly connected with their physical labour has been left with zero options unless they are somehow connected with health care, food or sanitation. It is the old privileging of mental over manual labour, but the inequities and disparities are starker now in and in more brutal circumstances than ever before.
Learning lessons
•For knowledge workers, one of the new social norms being created is extensive Internet use for learning and work. While some of this was happening earlier, the scale of international video meetings and virtual classes taking place now is unprecedented. In certain sectors such as accounting, desk-based research and software development, working remotely turns out to be profitable to companies.
•There are some guidelines to infer from this. The drastic reduction in flights, for instance, has affected the airline industry adversely but also highlighted the fact that many flight trips during ‘normal’ times are in fact unnecessary. Before the pandemic, business meetings, including international conferences and climate change meetings, were responsible for a bulk of flight travel. For example, a return flight, economy class, from Delhi to New York releases about 0.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide (it is twice as much in premium economy). This is half of India’s per capita annual emissions.
•The same can be said of many vehicle trips. The lockdown has shown that up to half of these trips are dispensable, especially if commuting and education trips can be cut down severely.
•For a sizeable fraction of the workforce, conducting tasks from home ought to be encouraged, better organised and provide more freedom for people, not less. It should be the norm in many sectors and people could work from home at least half the time, thus reducing travel needs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and simplifying child care and other domestic services.
•An even more revolutionary approach to education and learning is conceivable. Online schooling and college education without paywalls is already available, but if it were expanded to develop open access schools and universities, the scam of high admissions fees can be altogether eliminated.
•Industrial production and electricity generation also do not have to go back to pre-COVID-19 levels. Life under lockdown has already demonstrated that there are essentials, superfluous items and luxuries. Responsible consumer action and new social norms to limit the last two can make a dent on greenhouse gas emissions while promoting simpler and potentially happier ways of life.
Fundamental change
•There are many encouraging signs of truly ‘green’ alternatives to the current economic system and the beliefs that govern it. Becoming sustainable is vital for ensuring that the worst effects of climate change — another planetary crisis lurking just over the horizon of the present one — also do not fall on the already underprivileged.
•Unfortunately, the popular version of ‘green growth’ is flawed because it assumes that normal business activity can be made more sustainable merely by adding renewable technology and trees to it, for instance. But such spiritless measures often harm economic or social welfare even if they improve environmental outcomes. Sustainability will need not just decoupling economic growth from pollution but ultimately decoupling planetary welfare from economic growth while fostering social progress.
•U.S. President Donald Trump’s $2-trillion stimulus plan turns out to be mostly another corporate bailout. India cannot afford to do the same. The true losers are low wage and daily wage earners, who need assistance along with the farming community. Vehicle manufacturers, fossil-fuel companies, airlines and large businesses and even banks should not even be on the bailout queue.
•For the vast majority of the working class, the provision of universal basic income would be the first step towards reducing their precarity. Such change requires bold measures to reduce financial speculation and the hoarding of wealth by the rentier class by reintroducing the estate tax and putting brakes on high-speed trading, for instance.
•A transformation of work is also needed for the entrepreneurial class, where greater flexibility, coordination and access to markets are made easier. In addition, social measures must be strengthened to protect the health and safety of the poorest. \Public hospitals need to be improved and have the capacity to respond to pandemics and related crises. Access to care in the emergency and beyond should be equally available to all. By focussing on the delivery of basic services, we will discover new opportunities for equitable action.
•What is also quite clear, and shared with the climate change crisis, is that if you ignore science, it will come back to bite you. Mixed and confusing messages from the government add fuel to a flaming pandemic. Ignoring or denying the science of climate change does the same. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said: “This is, above all, a crisis that calls for solidarity.” That implies building shared programmes of knowledge and action for collective welfare, not fortress worlds.
