📰 Employer free to reject over-qualified applicants: Supreme Court
Verdict overturned Odisha HC’s decision allowing a graduate to be appointed as a peon with the Punjab National Bank
•A prospective employer has discretion not to appoint a candidate who may have a “higher qualification”, but not the one prescribed for the job vacancy, the Supreme Court has held.
•A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan said courts have limited judicial review over such decisions by employers. Prescription of qualifications for a post is a matter of recruitment policy. Discretion lies with the employer.
•“It is for the employer to determine and decide the relevancy and suitability of the qualifications for any post, and it is not for the courts to consider and assess,” Justice M.R. Shah, who authored the verdict, pointed out.
•The apex court said courts allow a “greater latitude” for employers to prescribe the necessary qualification for a post.
•“There is a rationale behind it... Qualifications are prescribed keeping in view the need and interest of an institution or an industry or an establishment as the case may be. The Courts are not fit instruments to assess expediency or advisability or utility of such prescription of qualifications,” the apex court judgment explained.
•It, however, noted that an employer cannot act arbitrarily or fancifully in prescribing qualifications for posts.
•The judgment came on an appeal filed by the Punjab National Bank against an Orissa High Court decision allowing an over-qualified candidate to be appointed as a peon.
•The Supreme Court set aside the High Court decision of November 22, 2019 upholding an over-qualified candidate’s claim to a job as peon in the bank.
•It noted that this candidate had deliberately not disclosed the fact that he was a graduate. It was known only later.
•Besides, the prescribed qualification for the job was Class 12 pass. The Bank had a specific rule against appointing a graduate as peon.
•“In the present case, prescribing the eligibility criteria/educational qualification that a graduate candidate shall not be eligible and the candidate must have passed 12th standard is justified. It was a conscious decision taken by the Bank in force since 2008. Therefore, the High Court has clearly erred," the Supreme Court observed.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement in a video message at an event in which PM Modi inaugurated two future-ready Ayurveda institutions in Jaipur and Jamnagar
•The World Health Organisation announced on Friday that it will set up a Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing confidence that just like the country has emerged as the ‘pharmacy of the world’, the WHO institution will become the centre for global wellness.
•WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement in a video message at an event in which Prime Minister Modi dedicated two future-ready Ayurveda institutions in Jaipur and Jamnagar to the nation via video conferencing on the occasion of the 5th Ayurveda Day.
•The Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), Jamnagar (Gujarat) and the National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur (Rajasthan) are both premier institutions of Ayurveda in the country.
•The Jamnagar institute has been conferred the status of an Institution of National Importance (INI) by an act of Parliament and the one at Jaipur has been designated an Institution Deemed to be University (De novo Category) by the University Grants Commission (UGC), according to the AYUSH ministry.
•In his video message, Mr. Ghebreyesus said, “I am pleased to announce that we have agreed to open a WHO Global Centre of Traditional Medicine in India to strengthen the evidence, research, training and awareness of traditional and complementary medicine.”
•“This new centre will support WHO’s efforts to implement the WHO traditional medicine strategy 2014-2023 which aims to support countries in developing policies and action plans to strengthen the role of traditional medicine as part of their journey to universal health coverage and a healthier, fairer and safer world,” he said.
•Traditional systems of medicine such as Ayurveda can play an important role in integrated people-centric health services and healthcare, but they have not received enough attention, the WHO DG said.
•Mr. Ghebreyesus also lauded Prime Minister Modi for his commitment to the universal coverage under Ayushman Bharat and evidence-based promotion of traditional medicines to achieve health related objectives.
•Mr. Modi said Ayurveda is India’s heritage whose expansion entails the welfare of humanity and all Indians will be happy to see that the country’s traditional knowledge is enriching other countries.
•“It is a matter of pride for all Indians that the WHO has chosen India for establishing its Global Centre for Traditional Medicine. Now work will be done in this direction from India,” Mr. Modi said.
•“I would like to thank the WHO and particularly its Director General Tedros for giving this responsibility to India. I am confident that just like India has emerged as the pharmacy of the world, in the same manner this centre for traditional medicine will become the centre for global wellness,” he said.
•Stressing on bringing ayurveda knowledge out of books, scriptures and home remedies and developing this ancient knowledge as per modern needs, Mr. Modi said new research is being done in the country by combining information received from modern science of the 21st century with India’s ancient medical knowledge.
•Noting that three years ago, the All India Ayurvedic Institute was established here, he said Ayurveda is not just an alternative today but one of the key basis of the country’s health policy.
•Mr. Modi informed that work is on to develop the National Sowa-Rigpa Institute for research and other studies related to Sowa-Rigpa in Leh. The two institutions in Gujarat and Rajasthan which have been upgraded are also an extension of this development, he added.
•Congratulating the two institutes for their upgradation, the prime minister pointed out that they have more responsibility now and hoped that they will prepare syllabus for Ayurveda which meets international standards.
•He also called upon the Education Ministry and UGC to find new avenues in disciplines like Ayurveda Physics and Ayurveda Chemistry.
•Mr. Modi also urged startups and the private sector to study global trends and demands and ensure their participation in the sector.
•Pointing out that during the coronavirus period the demand for Ayurvedic products increased rapidly all over the world, he said exports of Ayurvedic products increased by about 45 per cent in September this year compared to the previous year.
•He said the significant increase in export of spices like turmeric, ginger, considered as immunity boosters, shows the sudden boost in confidence in Ayurvedic solutions and Indian spices in the world.
•In many countries, drinks related to turmeric are also increasing and the world’s prestigious medical journals are also seeing new hope in Ayurveda, he noted.
•Mr. Modi said that during the coronavirus period, the focus was not only limited to the use of Ayurveda alone but also on research related to AYUSH in the country and the world.
•“On one hand, India is testing vaccines, on the other, it is also increasing international cooperation on Ayurvedic research to fight COVID,” he said.
•Mr. Modi pointed out that research is going on in more than a hundred places including at the All India Institute of Ayurveda in Delhi which has conducted research related to immunity on 80,000 Delhi Police personnel.
•"It may be the world’s largest group study and there are encouraging results," he said.
•"A few more international trials are to be started," he added.
•He also highlighted that prices of Ayurvedic herbs like Ashwagandha, Giloy, Tulsi have increased amid the pandemic.
•The price of Ashwagandha has more than doubled compared to last year and its direct benefit is reaching farmers, he said
📰 New species of vine snakes discovered
They are among the most common snakes in peninsular India, found even in peri-urban areas.
•A team of researchers from the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), after extensive sampling across peninsular India, have discovered new species of vine snakes in the region.
•Led by former IISc student Ashok Mallik, working as part of his doctoral research, the team carried out field visits across India to collect morphological data, tissue samples and specimens to understand the patterns of distribution and diversification of vine snakes. The study, published in the journal Zootaxa, was carried out in collaboration with researchers S.R. Ganesh from the Chennai Snake Park, Saunak Pal from the Bombay Natural History Society, and Princia D’souza from IISc.
•Vine snakes are known to be among the most common snakes in peninsular India, found even in many peri-urban areas wherever there is some greenery, and in the Western Ghats.
•According to an IISc release, Asian vine snakes, distributed throughout the continent, belong to the genus Ahaetulla and the recently described Proahaetulla. “Once the team started its research, they were surprised to discover that the common green vine snake (Ahaetulla nasuta) in India was a complex of several species. They found four distinct small-bodied and short-nosed species: the Northern Western Ghats vine snake (Ahaetulla borealis), Farnsworth’s vine snake (Ahaetulla farnsworthi), Malabar vine snake (Ahaetulla malabarica) and Wall’s vine snake (Ahaetulla isabellina) in the Western Ghats rainforests alone,” said the release.
•These species were superficially similar in their morphology, but separated by geographic or ecological barriers.
•The team also delineated the Travancore vine snake (Ahaetulla travancorica), separated by morphology and a geographic barrier from the Gunther’s vine snake (Ahaetulla dispar).
•“All the vine snakes were assigned names related to the locality or based on a morphological character, but we named the species Ahaetulla farnsworthi after my favourite mad scientist, Dr. Hubert Farnsworth from the cartoon Futurama,” Achyuthan Srikanthan, a researcher at CES who was part of the team, said.
•Finally, they recognised morphological distinctions between the brown vine snake in the Western Ghats and the one found in Sri Lanka, and gave the Western Ghats form a new name (Ahaetulla sahyadrensis). There are now six species of vine snakes endemic to the Western Ghats.
📰 Content tracking: On government regulation of online news, OTT services
Self-regulation by news media is necessary, but censorship by government is uncalled-for
•The recent decision of the government to bring video streaming services and online news under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was much anticipated, though with some trepidation. This government has, from time to time, made it clear that it is in favour of bringing these digital services under some sort of regulatory framework. Recently, when the Supreme Court asked for its suggestions toward improving the existing self-regulatory mechanism for television media, in a case involving Sudarshan News, the government stated that regulating the digital media was more pressing. More regulation is usually a problematic idea, bringing with it the real risk of censorship. But on one count at least this decision may have some merit, and that is if this is targeted at levelling the playing field by bringing new digital players within the purview of a regulation that non-digital players have been subject to all these years. New movies, before theatrical release, have to get through the certification process of the Central Board of Film Certification. In contrast, video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, which have become key distributors for new movies and entertainment content and have gathered millions of subscribers in India in recent years, have not had to follow any such requirement. It cannot be denied that regulation, of the light-touch kind, which serves as an advisory for the content being presented to the viewers, plays a useful role.
•But is the intent here to create a level playing field, and nothing more? And how will the regulatory mechanisms function? These will be the key questions. The fear is that this will just end up facilitating more governmental interference and censorship, especially problematic when it comes to regulating digital news. There is little to be said about the average politician’s appetite for independent journalism and political satire. In a democracy, whose progress is dependent on free speech, it is important then that regulation is not an excuse to stifle voices, especially those not palatable to the ruling class. There is little doubt that digital media have grown to be influential even if some sections have struggled to make money. The government recognises this, and just a few months ago, introduced new investment rules for digital news media, where a number of legitimate initiatives have now taken shape. It is also important that the government recognises that there is really no reason to have a different regulatory mechanism for digital news. For decades now, the print media and television media have managed themselves in self-regulation frameworks where one of their main goals has been to maintain their independence. Self-regulation is a must, and censorship a definite no-no.
📰 Purveyor of promise: On Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 3.0
The latest stimulus package takes into account the jobs crisis in both urban and rural India
•The most heartening aspect of the Centre’s latest announcement to spur the economy, a package worth over ₹2.65-lakh crore, is the implied realisation that the economy is not yet out of the woods. Over the past month, with several high frequency indicators registering an uptick, the Finance Ministry has often asserted that a sustainable recovery is under way, hitting out at analysts who hinted that the spike reflected pent-up demand and could be transient. From that standpoint, the fresh stimulus, exactly a month after the LTC cash voucher scheme to revive spending, suggests the government has not taken its eye off the ball while purveying hope and promise. That the package takes cognisance of India’s jobs crisis and seeks to resuscitate the construction sector — the largest job creator — bodes well. One, it acknowledges the spate of job losses in the formal sector, and rural distress, as the pandemic and lockdowns hit home. Second, by pushing urban housing projects, introducing tax sops to help primary sales of unsold units worth upto ₹2 crore, and freeing up capital requirements to bid for public contracts, there is demonstration of a commitment to get the maximum bang for each precious fiscal rupee by focusing on a sector with multiplier effects. Apart from creating formal and informal jobs, this would drive up demand for steel, cement and other materials.
•While some sectors have been lifted with the rising tide of demand (pent-up or otherwise) following the unlocking in September and October, employment-intensive retail, hospitality and tourism remain battered. Therefore, it is encouraging that medium-sized firms in 26 such stressed sectors as well as health care have been brought under an emergency credit scheme originally restricted to MSMEs. But ₹2.05-lakh crore of the ₹3-lakh crore scheme outlay has already been sanctioned, so additional allocations may be needed for new beneficiaries. Stimuli such as ₹1.46-lakh crore as incentives for domestic manufacturing investments in 10 sectors will take years to play out. Terming a ₹900 crore outlay for COVID-19 vaccine research a ‘stimulus’ is somewhat disingenuous, as it should have been made in any case. Outcomes in terms of new jobs (or maintaining jobs in stressed sectors) will rely on creating demand for which there is little direct push. It is generous of the government to foot PF contributions worth 24% of salary for two years for people getting jobs between October and June, but it is not enough to nudge firms into hiring just because they get an employee at about 3/4th of salary costs — unless there is a foreseeable demand pick-up. Future measures should be simpler, with a template for economic activities to scale up or down depending on the infection trend. This would help firms plan operations without worrying about the next official diktat under the Disaster Management Act.
📰 Countdown to greater India-Canada convergence
The third edition of the Track 1.5 Dialogue is an opportunity to begin progress in new areas of interest
•On November 17, the third round of India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue, comprising senior diplomats, officials and independent experts, will be addressed by Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne and India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on a virtual platform.
•The Ministers will deliberate on and define the role of India and Canada in the post-COVID-19 world. This will be followed by a round table of scholars and experts who will go into various facets of the strategic partnership linking the two countries, the new geo-economics of the Indo-Pacific and digital cooperation, particularly in the areas of fintech and artificial intelligence.
•This promising interaction represents a major, deliberate endeavour to boost the bilateral relationship, helping it to cope with challenges of the third decade of the 21st century. It demonstrates how far the two governments have progressed in just two years, following the setback caused by the differences over the Khalistan issue that surfaced both before and during Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s week-long visit to India in February 2018. And this dialogue creates a template for a judicious merger of government to government (G2G) diplomacy with public diplomacy, and the maturing role of think tanks in the conduct of foreign policy today.
Think tanks as the pivot
•The 1.5 Track Dialogue has been piloted since February 2018 by two think tanks — Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations and Canada’s Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Their deep three-year-long collaboration (https://bit.ly/3ppCMEn and https://bit.ly/35o3TI2) has encouraged the governments to focus on the immediate opportunities available in investment, technology and geopolitical rearrangements.
•The real turning point came at the dialogue’s second round, held in Mumbai in November 2019, a month after the parliamentary elections in Canada resulted in Mr. Trudeau’s return to power, albeit with a reduced number of Members of Parliament for his party. The new government in Ottawa preferred to be more cautious on sensitive bilateral issues, and more receptive to New Delhi’s view that the larger geopolitical shifts justified a closer convergence of national perspectives. Mr. Jaishankar’s visit to Canada in December 2019 initiated a new phase, consolidating mutual understanding. It laid the ground for more frequent interactions this year, including two virtual meetings between the Prime Ministers and four meetings between the trade ministers conducted digitally.
Tensions in China-Canada ties
•Common challenges of the COVID-19 era accelerated the momentum. Canada’s travails with China, starting with the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer in Canada in December 2018 and the ‘hostage diplomacy’ practised by Beijing which arrested two Canadian nationals, has caused huge stress in Canada-China relations, turning Canadian public opinion against China. This opened the door to a closer relationship with India, with Canadian sympathy for India’s summer of troubles with China’s aggressive intrusions across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since April 2020.
•In this backdrop, developments concerning the Indo-Pacific — escalating discontent against Beijing’s aggressive behaviour, strengthening of the Quad and the growing interest of France, Netherlands and Germany to be active players in the region — are of immense relevance to Ottawa. The forthcoming dialogue can deepen the India-Canada convergence on this issue.
Many strong points
•The other major focal point will be the economic and technological cooperation between the two countries. Foreign policy observers highlight the importance of recent positive trends, as below: Canada-India merchandise trade exceeded C$10 billion in 2019; Canada’s cumulative investment, including foreign direct investment and by Canadian pension funds, is a substantive C$55 billion, according to diplomatic sources. Addressing virtually the ‘Invest India’ conference in Canada on October 8 (https://bit.ly/3lG7cjH), Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out that mature Canadian investors have been present in India for many years and assured them that no barriers would come in their way. Indian students are increasingly being educated in Canada, and a quarter million of them spent an estimated $5 billion in tuition fees and other expenses last year, a solid contribution to the Canadian economy. Of 330,000 new immigrants accepted by Canada last year, 85,000 i.e. nearly 25%, were from India. The Indian diaspora in Canada is now 1.6 million-strong, representing over 4% of the country’s total population. Like their brethren to the south, they are increasingly mainstreamed in Canadian politics.
•The principal areas of bilateral cooperation are best defined by five Es: Economy, Energy, Education, Entertainment and Empowerment of women. In particular, the digital domain holds immense potential, given Canada’s proven assets in technology — especially its large investment in Artificial Intelligence, innovation and capital resources, and India’s IT achievements, expanding digital payment architecture and policy modernisation.
•Divided by geographical distance but united through clear common interests and shared values, India and Canada will begin their steady journey of progress, this time with a laser-like focus on common goals as well.
