📰 PM unveils project for affordable housing
About 1,000 houses at each location are to be constructed in a year
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation of six Light House Projects, as part of the Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) initiative, in Indore, Rajkot, Chennai, Ranchi, Agartala and Lucknow via videoconference.
•About 1,000 houses at each location are to be constructed in a year, using six distinct technologies from a basket of 54 such technologies shortlisted under the GHTC-India, 2019.
•Addressing the respective Chief Ministers, Governors and other officials, the Prime Minister said the country was getting new technologies for providing resilient, affordable and comfortable houses to the poor and the middle class. The cooperation extended by the States in the projects was in a way strengthening cooperative federalism, he noted.
Call to planners, students
•The GHTC provided the scope of incubating new technologies for construction and innovating, he pointed out and called upon planners, architects and students from various universities and institutions to visit sites, learn from the technologies and mould them for use in accordance with local requirements.
•In Indore, prefabricated sandwich panel system technology would be used, while in Rajkot, through tunnelling, monolithic concrete construction system from France was being employed. Precast concrete technology from the U.S. and Finland would be used for the construction of affordable houses in Chennai, and in Ranchi, the project would be implemented through the 3-D technology from Germany, he said.
•In Agartala, the steel-frame technology would be used for constructing earthquake resistant houses and pre-constructed wall technology from Canada would be used in Lucknow. Other governments schemes would also be linked to these projects to provide facilities such as water supply, electricity and LPG connection to the beneficiaries.
Benefit for middle class
•Mr. Modi said the middle class was today getting benefited by the relaxed home loan interest rates. The new Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) had provided protection to them. About 60,000 projects were registered and a large number of grievances had been addressed under the law.
•A series of measures were also taken to promote the real estate sector, which had now been given the “infrastructure” status for easy availability of credit facilities. Taxes on affordable and regular houses had been reduced significantly to encourage buyers.
•During the COVID-19 outbreak last year, another major initiative -- the Central rental housing complex project -- was conceived, with the objective of addressing the issues faced by migrant labourers. The project was being implemented in coordination with industrialists and other investors.
Excellence awards
•The Prime Minister gave away annual awards for excellence in six categories for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-Urban). A total of 88 beneficiaries from across the country were felicitated. A compendium of 54 innovative housing construction technologies identified through GHTC-India was also released.
•Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that under the PMAY-Urban scheme, 1.09 crore houses had been sanctioned against the demand of 1.12 crore houses, 40 lakh houses handed over to beneficiaries, and 70 lakh more houses were under construction.
•Five incubation centres, set up under the Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators-India initiative, were launched during the event for identifying innovative materials, processes and technology for resource efficient, disaster resilient and sustainable construction. A certificate course named “Navaritih” on innovative construction technologies was also introduced.
There are only three other occasions when the Upper House sittings were below 50 days in a year
•With the government refusing to call the winter session of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha sat for just 33 days in 2020, its lowest-ever tally of sittings in a year. There are only three other occasions when the Upper House sittings were below 50 days in a year.
•Both sessions of Parliament — Budget session and the monsoon session — had to be cut short due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Budget session which was scheduled to have 31 sittings was brought to a close after 23. Similarly, the monsoon session which was to have 18 sittings, amidst strict restrictions, could manage to have only 10 as the number of COVID-19 positive cases among the Parliamentarians and the supporting staff started spiralling.
•There are only three other occasions when Rajya Sabha met for less than 50 sittings in a year — 48 in 1999 and 46 each in 2004 and 2008.
•The BJP, which is the single largest party in the Upper House, now has 93 members. The Rajya Sabha is no longer the stumbling block that it was during the first term of the Narendra Modi government.
•The last time the winter session was cancelled was 36 years back in 1984. In overall Parliamentary history, there have been only two other instances in 1979 and 1975 when the winter session was cancelled.
•As per an analysis by the Rajya Sabha secretariat, the limited number of sittings did not hurt the productivity. “During the year 2020, the annual productivity of Rajya Sabha has been 82.7%, the highest annual productivity during the last 11 years,” a senior Rajya Sabha official said.
•A total of 39 Bills have been passed by the Rajya Sabha during 2020, including 12 during the Budget session and 27 during the monsoon session. The list of legislations include the controversial three farm laws, which the Opposition parties claimed were bulldozed through without any credible discussion. The year 2020 also saw unprecedented suspension of eight Opposition MPs and the Opposition moving a notice for the removal of Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh.
📰 COVID-19 vaccine Covishield gets approval from DCGI’s expert panel
DCGI's Subject Expert Committee has asked Bharat Biotech to furnish more data on its vaccine candidate Covaxin.
•Covishield, the vaccine candidate from Pune-based Serum Institute of India, was approved by a Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) late on Friday. Bharat Biotech has been asked to furnish more data demonstrating the efficacy of its candidate, Covaxin, an informed source confirmed to The Hindu.
•The nod for Covishield came at the end of a marathon meeting of the SEC which began in the morning and went on till late in the evening. The SEC gives its recommendation to the DCGI which is the approving authority for drugs and vaccines.
•“Covishield is likely to be practically available for use within the next week,” the source said. “Similar to that in the United Kingdom, we've approved the vaccine to be given in two doses 4-12 weeks apart.”
•Covishield, which is similar to the ‘Oxford vaccine’ developed by the Oxford University vaccine group and marketed by AstraZeneca, was approved by the health regulator in the UK under emergency use conditions on Thursday. Under this the company is allowed to deploy its vaccines to priority groups and then the larger public, even though a full safety assessment hasn’t been completed.
•For Covishield’s appraisal, the source said, the nod by the UK regulator and data from a phase 2 trial on 100 volunteers in India, antibody levels generated in the volunteers in response to the vaccine, and safety data from phase-1 studies were relied onto accord emergency use approval.
•In the UK, the vaccine has been recommended to be given in two doses 4-12 weeks apart. This, even though the vaccine’s performance was evaluated in volunteers who were given doses four weeks apart and there’s still no clarity on how long the protective effect of a single first dose lasts. The UK regulator allowed this after a spike in cases in recent weeks and decided to ensure that maximum people get at least one dose of a vaccine.
•SII officials have said India will have a stockpile of 100 million doses as of the first week of January but there is no clarity on how many of these will be available for Indians. A longer dosage interval means that potentially more Indians could get at least a single jab of the vaccine.
•Covishield is currently being tested in 1,600 volunteers as part of its phase 2/3 trial. However the results from these trials haven't been published or publicised in scientific journals.
•“The phase 3 trial is ongoing and we will continuously keep reviewing the data,” the person added. “Other than the case from Chennai of a reported severe adverse event from the vaccine, no other safety events have been reported. We’ve also conclusively ruled out that the said reaction was directly linked to the vaccine."
•The preliminary efficacy data from India seemed to suggest that it was “similar to” what was seen in the UK and Brazil which formed the bulk of the data set that the UK relied onto accord approval.
•The Health Ministry was yet to comment on the approval accorded but a set of conditions under which the approval was accorded is likely to be spelt out on Saturday.
•This is the second time in three days that the committee has met to review applications for emergency use approval by SII, BB and Pfizer India. The latter has reportedly sought more time, but the company’s m-RNA vaccine has already been approved, under emergency use conditions, in the United States, United Kingdom and pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation.
📰 Health Ministry plans communication strategy
Aim to counter vaccine hesitancy
•As further steps are being cleared for the release of a COVID-19 vaccine in India, the Union Ministry of Health has come up with an elaborate communication strategy to counter issues arising out of vaccine hesitancy, and ‘eagerness’ among the people.
•Seeking to “disseminate timely, accurate and transparent information about the vaccine(s) to alleviate apprehensions, ensure its acceptance and encourage uptake,” the strategy is structured to guide national, State and district level communication channels. The idea is to make sure that the “information on the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination process reaches all people, across all States in the country. The strategy also seeks to build trust and enable greater confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine amongst all people by employing transparency in communication, while also managing any mis/disinformation and rumours around it.”
•Further, it hopes to take on the “challenging task of managing and mitigating any potential disappointment expressed by unmet demand for the vaccine or ‘eagerness’ amongst people.” Communication will also include information on potential risks — adverse effects following immunisation and delay in vaccine roll out for certain population categories, during the introduction and roll out.
•The entire strategy will be implemented across three main platforms — influencers/celebrities, through community groups, and all forms of media from social media to hoardings and wall posters. A national media rapid response cell at the Ministry will be tasked with media monitoring and social listening and responding real time.
•“The communication strategy is absolutely necessary at this point to inform people about the details. There is still a lot of vaccine hesitancy. In a survey we did recently among health care professionals, only 45% said they would take it as soon as it was made available,” said Abdul Ghafur, consultant, infectious diseases, Apollo Hospitals.
•“It is great that the Health Ministry takes proper measures based on realistic data on the ground. This is the way forward,” he added. Other health professional working in COVID-19 care have urged the government to present scientific facts, including evidence of clinical trials, safety and efficacy, in a manner that the public at large will be able to comprehend easily.
📰 Clear connection: On service quality of telcos
Having got the interconnection charges out of the way, telcos should focus on service quality
•The end of the Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) regime on January 1, under which one telecom operator paid a charge to another on whose network a subscriber’s voice call was completed, creates a new era in which these companies can focus on upgrading their networks and service. The measure was delayed by a year by regulator TRAI due to concerns that not all operators were ready, and the shift to more efficient 4G networks and compatible subscriber handsets was slower than anticipated. Now that the need to monitor call termination data and make IUC payments no longer exists, and a spectrum auction is also scheduled this year, the focus should shift to giving the users a better deal — as reliable call quality and competitive tariffs. For the subscriber, other than those who had to pay higher access tariffs on one wireless network due to the IUC system, the latest measure may not carry a significant impact, since providers sold unlimited call packs even earlier. One operator, Jio, had a higher proportion of outgoing calls to other wireless operators since its launch a few years ago, thus having to pay significant net interconnection charges, which was six paise per minute since 2017. That imbalance has reduced, and TRAI has now introduced an arrangement called bill and keep, which does away with the IUC.
•India’s high density telecom market is poised for further growth as it awaits expansion through 5G and Internet-connected devices. Yet, as the Economic Survey of 2019-20 pointed out, intense competition has reduced the number of private players. Public sector operators BSNL and MTNL still face a challenge and their future must be clarified early, with efforts to improve their technological capabilities and service levels. A parallel trend has been the rise in 4G subscribers from 196.9 million in September 2017 to 517.5 million out of a total wireless subscriber base of 1,165.46 million in June 2019. The end of the IUC should spur an expansion of high-capacity networks, going beyond 2G and 3G that some telcos continue to use. The removal of interconnection charges was opposed by them just a year ago. For TRAI, which has stressed the importance of consumer welfare through adequate choice, affordable tariff and quality service, it is important to tread cautiously on claims made on behalf of the sector, that higher tariffs alone can ensure the health of telecoms. India is a mass market for voice and data services that fuel the digital economy. Badly priced spectrum could lead to auction failures and lack of genuine competition is bound to hamper the growth of the next big wave of telecoms, of which the 5G piece is critical for new services. On the consumer side, helping more people migrate to 4G services quickly through affordable handsets will help telcos put their infrastructure to better use.
📰 Taking note of farmer welfare, the Kerala way
The political allegations levelled against the State in the context of the farmers’ protest are far removed from the facts
•For more than a month now, farmers are writing a new history, camping at the borders of Delhi. The concrete barricades, thorny iron fences and powerful water cannons have not been able to prevent their tractor trollies from reaching the vicinity of the national capital. They have been so determined and prepared that the Delhi winter has failed before them. Assembled in their thousands, they have established a new way of life at Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur, Noida and Shahjahanpur. In some manner, the upsurge by these farmers resembles the ‘Occupy Wallstreet Movement’ in the United States, in 2011, whose slogan reverberates even today across the world: “We are the 99 percent”.
Unflinching willpower
•The government might have thought that the farmers would retreat to their villages after a couple of days or a week at the most, but this is not the mood at all among the farmers. As a frequent visitor to one or the other centres of struggle, this writer would definitely say that this farmers’ struggle is unique in the history of free India. A self-contained lifestyle with all necessary arrangements for food, shelter, clothing, and sanitation are in place. Scores of them, young and old, with whom this writer could interact with, represent the unflinching will of a people who consider agriculture as their culture. Their utmost proximity to soil and nature has tempered them as steel, while helping them remain calm and cool at the same time.
•The firefighters in the government who talk in different terms (may be purposefully), might have prepared their own strategy to face this struggle of the annadatas. Some of them say that the doors of dialogue are always kept open. There are certain others who are stubborn in saying that there can be no compromise on the implementation of the three Farm Bills. There are also those who still promise to take a relook if necessary, but only after two years. There is no need to ponder on this as most of these officials have been trained in a certain ideological school. As part of their campaign of malignment, the propaganda managers have labelled the farmers ‘Khalistanis’ and ‘urban naxalites’.
•But these sons and daughters of the soil, who sow the seeds of hope to feed their fellow beings, have maintained inimitable self-restraint. Their struggle, their unity, their patience, and the massive nature of their battle are having an impact on the cohesive nature of the ruling alliance, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Following in the footsteps of NDA ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal that walked out of the NDA in support of the farmers, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party has also snapped its ties with the alliance. Another important party that shares power with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana continues to remain unhappy with the central government’s approach to the farmers’ issues.
•The Narendra Modi government expected the farmers to tire out and slowly retreat from the battlefront. But it is mistaken. The determination by the farmers to go on with the struggle is only strengthening by the day. The Prime Minister himself has come forward to lead a frontal attack on the annadatas. Recently, he minced no words in expressing his disappointment while accusing the struggle of being a politically motivated one. The thrust of his attack was evident when he criticised the Opposition as misleading the farmers and shooting from their shoulders to target the government. In this tirade, the Prime Minister pointed a finger against the Left-led government in Kerala.
The situation in Kerala
•All the allegations that he has levelled against the Kerala government are unfounded, and far from truth. In his exhortation that there are no Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and mandis in Kerala, he presumed that the concept of the Minimum Support Price is not prevalent in the State. He has shut his eyes to the basic truth about the agricultural scenario in Kerala.
•It is true that mandis regulated by an APMC are not in existence in Kerala. But it does not mean that the interests of farmers are not taken care of in the State. In fact, Kerala is the State where farmers’ rights are being protected by the government itself, and much more effectively than any other Indian State.
•While the government of India has fixed the procurement rate for rice at ₹18 a kg, the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala is procuring rice from cultivators at ₹27.48 a kg. In the same manner copra (dried coconut) is also procured at a much higher rate in Kerala than the price announced by the central government. Kerala is the State where increased basic price is ensured not only for paddy but also vegetables and fruits. Sixteen such items are enlisted by the government where the basic prices (per kg) are guaranteed. To cite some of them, tapioca (₹12), banana (₹30), garlic (₹139), pineapple (₹15), tomato (₹8), string beans (₹34), ladies’ fingers (₹20), cabbage (₹11) and potato (₹20).
•Apart from crop insurance, paddy cultivators will get the royalty in Kerala at the rate of ₹2,000 per hectare. They have a pension too, which is something unique in India. In 2006, when farmers’ suicides became the order of the day across the country, the Left Front government introduced a debt relief commission that extended a helping hand to the farmers, thereby saving them.
There is basis for a counter
•No BJP-led government in the country can even imagine the measures that the Left government in Kerala has initiated for the welfare of farmers. Instead of understanding those measures, the Prime Minister has chosen to train his political guns on the Kerala government and the farmers. The influence of corporates on his allegations is clear. The Left has the moral and political authority to engage in any polemics with the BJP-led central government in this regard.
•It is intriguing why the Prime Minister has never said a word about the experience of Bihar where mandis were abolished in 2006 and the plight of farmers that only worsened after this measure was initiated. After the three farm ordinances of June 2020, 40% of mandis in Madhya Pradesh have registered only zero transactions.
The corporate stamp
•This is the reality of the farm Bills. Though they claim ‘to enable’ the protection and the empowerment of farmers, the truth is just the opposite. The purpose of these laws is the enabling of the corporatisation of Indian agriculture and the introduction of contract farming. When Ministers continue to assure the continuance of mandis they are practically pushed out of the scene, as it happened in Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere. The annadatas have been able to foresee the evil in the three farm laws that would eventually find them at the mercy of corporate profit mongers. They know that these laws would ruin the backbone of the agricultural economy and badly affect the food security of India.
•The farmers are in the struggle in order to prevent such a calamity from happening. It is high time that the Prime Minister and his government understand the patriotic and selfless role being played by the food providers of the country and the genuine nature and cause of their struggle.
📰 An ill-conceived, overbroad and vague ordinance
The U.P. religious conversion ordinance is unconstitutional, vilifies inter-faith marriages and violates key rights
•Article 213 (1) of the Constitution of India provides: “If at any time, except when the Legislative Assembly of a State is in session, or where there is a Legislative Council in a State, except when both Houses of the Legislature are in session, the Governor is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action, he may promulgate such Ordinances as the circumstances appear to him to require: …” There are, therefore, three pre-conditions to be satisfied before the Governor promulgates an ordinance: first, the State Legislature should not be in session; circumstances should exist for promulgating an ordinance and importantly, those circumstances must warrant immediate action.
Circumstances, urgency
•There is no established practice requiring the Governor (or the President under Article 123 of the Constitution) to state the circumstances for immediate action. Therefore, while the recent Commission for Air Quality Management Ordinance gave a four page justification for immediate action, the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce Ordinance merely stated in the preamble what the ordinance provides for, but did not disclose the circumstances and urgency for immediate action. I believe a healthy convention should develop and the preamble to any ordinance should state the immediacy for promulgating it when the Legislature is not in session. This would greatly enhance transparency in legislation, but, more importantly, enable legislators to understand why they are, in a sense, by-passed and why a debate and discussion in the Legislature could not be awaited.
•The reason for immediate action is, as yet, not justiciable and it is unlikely that any court will delve into this arena. But the Supreme Court of India has held that the existence of circumstances leading to the satisfaction of the Governor can be inquired into. In other words, the court can inquire whether circumstances existed that enabled the Governor to be satisfied of the necessity of promulgating an ordinance. However, the court will not delve into the sufficiency of circumstances. Therefore, why not disclose the circumstances and reason for immediate action in the first instance rather than require people to go to court to find out? In the normal course, these are unlikely to be a state secret.
The U.P. ordinance
•The preamble to the The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, commonly called the anti-love jihad ordinance, merely indicates what it provides for, namely, unlawful conversion from one religion to another by coercion, misrepresentation and so on “or by marriage”. It then proceeds to record the satisfaction of the Governor of the existence of circumstances and the necessity for “him/her to take immediate action”.
•Let us try and imagine the circumstances requiring promulgation of the ordinance as far as marriage is concerned. If one fraudulent or coercive inter-faith marriage is taking place, the police can certainly prevent it, as they supposedly do in child marriages. An ordinance is not required for it. However, if more than one such fraudulent or coercive inter-faith marriage is expected to take place, the State government would have information of mass conversions for the purpose of marriage.
•In the normal course, it is unlikely that these mass conversions would be in secret and almost simultaneous. A more realistic expectation would be specific information of some or many unwilling religious conversions likely to take place. Surely, these can also be prevented by an alert police force by invoking existing legal provisions. Assuming a somewhat unbelievable scenario does exist, how does one justify immediate action for promulgating an ordinance? It is not as if dozens or hundreds of inter-faith marriages were expected virtually overnight. However hard one might think about it, the need for immediate action is very difficult to understand.
Provisions and impact
•Consider the consequences of some provisions of the ordinance, and we are actually witness to them. Section 3 prohibits conversion or attempt to convert any person from one religion to another by coercion or fraud etc. or by marriage. To the extent of conversion by coercion or fraud, etc. there is no problem and nobody supports it. What is conversion by marriage? Nobody gets converted by marriage. If a Hindu marries a Christian, who gets converted — the husband or wife or both or neither? One can understand conversion for marriage, but if an adult person desires to get converted to the religion of the other before marriage, what objection can anybody have?
Rights issues
•The offence of attempting to convert poses a bigger rights issue. Section 7 provides that upon receiving information (it may be fake news) that a religious conversion is designed to take place, a police officer is authorised under the Criminal Procedure Code without orders from a Magistrate and without a warrant, to arrest the person so designing, if it appears that the commission of the offence cannot be otherwise prevented. The nature of information includes an allegation of allurement which includes an offer of any temptation in the form of a gift or gratification. So, if a boy and girl of different religions are seen talking together or eating out, it is easy for a so-called aggrieved person (who could be any stranger) to complain to the police that he overheard a conversation in which a temptation was offered to the girl, including a pizza, as has been recently reported. This could trigger the arrest of the boy offering the allurement, his friends and family (as conspirators) with no questions asked. Shotgun weddings were always an offence, but now even pizza-induced weddings are an offence.
•Should someone genuinely desire to convert but not get married, that person would have to inform the District Magistrate (DM) two months in advance of the plan through a declaration, under Section 8. The DM requires the police to inquire the real purpose of conversion and file a report (in a sealed cover?) with the DM. What is the true purpose of the police inquiry? If the report concludes that the desire to convert is not for a good enough reason, can the DM refuse permission to convert? Is a pre-crime scenario contemplated?
•Assuming conversion is not objected to, even thereafter the DM must be informed by the converted through a declaration under Section 9. Interestingly, the DM is expected to exhibit the declaration on the notice board of the office till the contents of the declaration are confirmed. Meanwhile, the ubiquitous aggrieved person has an opportunity to object to the conversion. What next — does the DM ‘cancel’ the bona fide conversion and have the converted arrested?
•Finally, the burden of proof — Section 12 provides that the burden to prove the conversion was not on account of coercion, fraud, etc. or by marriage will be on the person who has caused the conversion. How is that person expected to know the mind of the converted? It is only the person converted who can answer that question and nobody else, as in Hadiya’s case.
A danger
•The ordinance is prone to abuse and we have seen its consequences — of intimidation, bullying, arbitrary arrests and the loss of a foetus. It is ill-conceived, overbroad and vague in many respects. It vilifies all inter-faith marriages and places unreasonable obstacles on consenting adults in exercising their personal choice of a partner, mocks the right to privacy and violates the right to life, liberty and dignity. In short, it is unconstitutional.
