📰 Class 12 marks: SC approves CBSE's 30:30:40 formula
Students unsatisfied with the evaluation formula can take up Class 12 exam to be held when situation is conducive.
•The Supreme Court on Thursday gave in-principle clearance to the schemes placed on record by the CBSE and ICSE to assess the final marks of Class 12 students whose Board exams were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
•The CBSE has divided the marks’ assessment process into two components — theory and practical.
•The theory component would be assessed by first giving 30% weightage to average scores obtained by students in Class 10 in their three best performing subjects out of a total five. Secondly, another 30% weightage would be given to marks based on the theory component of the final exam taken in Class 11. Finally, 40% weightage would be given for marks obtained in one or more unit tests, mid-term exams and pre-board exams in Class 12.
•So, if the total marks for theory is 80, the 30% weightage of Classes 10 and 11 would come to 24 marks each. The 40% weightage derived from performance in various tests conducted in Class 12 year would translate to 32 marks.
•On the practical component side, calculation would be on the “actual basis” of the marks uploaded by schools on the CBSE portal. According to the scheme, the total marks awarded should be in consonance with the past performance of the school in Class 12 Board examinations.
Result committee
•A result committee under the principal would be formed in each school comprising two seniormost postgraduate teachers from the same school and two postgraduate teachers from neighbouring schools. The committee has been given the liberty to prepare the result by following the policy. The CBSE would aid them by establishing a help desk and also by providing software support, etc, to prepare the result. The CBSE said it would declare the results by July 31, 2021.
•In case any candidate is not satisfied with the assessment done, based on the policy, he or she would be given an opportunity to take the examinations to be conducted by the Board when the situation is more “conducive”.
•“Most of the candidates will be happy with this scheme… When there is a manageable number you can consider holding a physical exam later,” a Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari addressed Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Union of India, which is CBSE’s controlling authority.
CISCE formula
•The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) assessment formula would include taking into consideration the students’ Class 10 ICSE Board exams, project and practical work in subjects, best marks obtained in school exams in Classes 11 and 12 and the best performance of the school itself in the past six years.
•“The situation which CBSE and ICSE faced was unprecedented. It has never before happened in the history of this country. We had to innovate. A committee of 13 experts went through numerous alternatives to finally decide on this policy,” Mr. Venugopal submitted.
•Mr. Venugopal said the committee led by Vipin Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education, held a meeting with the principals of CBSE-affiliated schools. The feedback was obtained from 229 Sahodaya School Complexes, comprising 7,734 schools, regarding the policy which would determine the future of about 14.5 lakh Class 12 students this year.
Two suggestions
•On its part, the court asked Mr. Venugopal to “incorporate” two suggestions in the final schemes.
•“First, you have to provide an in-built dispute resolution mechanism in the policy for students unhappy with their assessment. Secondly, specify the timeline for the declaration of results and the date by which the optional (physical) exams would be conducted in the policy itself,” Justice Khanwilkar addressed Mr. Venugopal.
•The court declined a primary plea made by some interveners, represented by senior advocate Vikas Singh, to revisit its earlier order recording the government’s decision to cancel the Class 12 Board exams.
•“This plea cannot be taken forward. We had already accepted the decision in principle. An opportunity is given in the policy for students who want to appear in the physical exams… No prejudice is thus caused to any student,” the court said.
•However, the court, while asking the CBSE and the ICSE to go ahead and notify their respective schemes, scheduled the case again on June 20 to give some of the interveners, including Mr. Singh, to study the schemes and come up with any further suggestions.
•“You (CBSE/ICSE) go ahead and notify the schemes. If there any further suggestions to be incorporated, we can direct you to do so by way of a corrigendum,” the court told Mr. Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the CBSE.
Bench had refused to give encroachers any quarter on June 7 while ordering demolition
•The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to halt the demolition of about 10,000 unauthorised residential constructions encroaching into the ecologically fragile Aravali forest land near Lakarpur Khori village in Haryana.
•A Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari had refused to give the encroachers any quarter on June 7 while ordering the demolition. The court had categorically said that “land-grabbers cannot take the refuge of the rule of law” and demand fairness.
•However, fresh petitions were filed, urging the court to revisit its order and provide for rehabilitation of the residents, including children. The petitioners, mostly residents, whose properties face the axe, said they were not given time to submit documents to the local authorities to prove their claim.
•But the court refused to budge on Thursday. It said the residents had enough time to prove their claims in accordance with a notification issued by Haryana in 2020. The onus was on the State to rehabilitate the residents in compliance with a 2003 scheme. The demolition would continue.
•“Petitioners were obligated to provide documents to come under the rehabilitation scheme, which they have failed to do. We have recorded the submission that clearance of unlawful encroachment on forest land will be carried out as per due process of law,” it stated.
Pelted with stones
•The government said officials and personnel were pelted with stones at the site of demolition. However, the court declined to pass any orders while merely telling the authorities “you know what to do then”.
•In its June 7 order, the court directed the Faridabad Municipal Corporation to “take all essential measures to remove encroachments on the subject forest land without any exception, not later than six weeks from today and submit a compliance report in that behalf, under the signature of the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation”.
•Similarly, the Secretary of the Forest Department of Haryana was also ordered to verify the factual situation regarding the encroachments on the forest land and submit an independent compliance report under his signature.
•The court had made it clear that the encroachers should be evicted by the land even by force. “The State in general and the local police in particular, shall give necessary and adequate logistical support to enable the Corporation to implement the directions given by us to evict the occupants/encroachers including by forcible eviction from the forest land and to clear all the encroachments,” it had directed.
•The court had even made the Faridabad Superintendent of Police personally responsible for ensuring adequate logistical support and protection to the officials of the Corporation.
📰 Birth, death registrations up in 2019
14 States/Union Territories achieved 100% level of birth registrations: report
•The level of registration of births and deaths in the country improved in 2019, according to the “Vital Statistics of India Based on The Civil Registration System” report.
•Some States and Union Territories were, however, lagging behind.
•The report states that the level of birth registration increased from 87.8% in 2018 to 92.7% in 2019; and death registrations went up from 84.6% to 92% during the period.
•While 14 States/Union Territories achieved 100% level of birth registrations, 19 States/Union Territories achieved the same level in cases of death.
Sex ratio at birth
•Based on the information received from 32 States/Union Territories, the share of institutional births in the total registered births was 81.2%. The number of registered births increased to 2.48 crore in 2019 from 2.33 crore in 2018. The share of male and female was 52.1% and 47.9%.
•In the case of registration of births within the prescribed period of 21 days, 15 States/Union Territories achieved more than 90% registration.
•The highest sex ratio at birth (SRB) based on registered events was reported by Arunachal Pradesh (1,024), followed by Nagaland (1,001) Mizoram (975) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (965). The lowest SRB was reported by Gujarat (901), Assam (903) and Madhya Pradesh (905), followed by Jammu & Kashmir (909).
•The number of registered deaths increased from 69.5 lakh in 2018 to 76.4 lakh in 2019. The share of male and female was 59.6% and 40.4%.
•Based on the information received from 31 States/Union Territories, the share of institutional deaths in total registered deaths was 32.1%.
Infant deaths
•Eleven States/Union Territories achieved more than 90% registration of deaths within the prescribed period of 21 days.
•In the case of registration of infant deaths, the share of urban area was 75.5% compared to 24.5% in rural areas.
•In the north-east, Arunachal Pradesh reported 100% registration of births, but only 38.6% of deaths. Nagaland also registered 100% births, but just 30% deaths, while Manipur recorded 67.7% births and only 21.4% deaths. In Sikkim, there was 100% registration of deaths, but 61.2% registration of births.
Full registration
•However, Mizoram and Tripura reported 100% registration of both births and deaths. Meghalaya had 100% registration of births and 97.6% registration of deaths, while Assam reported 100% registration of births and 74% registration of deaths.
•In Bihar and Jharkhand, the levels of registration of births were 89.3% and 84.3% and the levels of registration of deaths were 51.6% and 58.8%. In Daman & Diu, the figures were 50.7% and 61%.
•Listing the limitations, the report said the level of registration of States/Union Territories and India level presented in the report was arrived at using the mid-year projected population of the respective States/Union Territories of 2011-2019 based on 2011 census (Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections, July 2020, National Commission on Population, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) and, therefore, was not comparable with rates presented in previous reports.
Incomplete data
•The level of registration was arrived at using Sample Registration System Rates for 2018 as the survey for 2019, which was scheduled for 2020, could not be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, some States/Union Territories submitted incomplete or partial data, which was not included.
📰 Rules regulating Cable TV network amended
Complainant may prefer an appeal to the Central govt. for review under the oversight mechanism.
•The Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Thursday amended the rules regulating Cable TV networks, providing for a “statutory” mechanism for complaints raised by citizens regarding any content broadcast.
•At present, there are over 900 TV channels that are required to comply with the Programme and Advertising Code laid down by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under the Cable Television Network Rules.
•The Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2021 provides for a three-level grievance redressal mechanism — self-regulation by broadcasters, self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the broadcasters, and oversight by an Inter-Departmental Committee at the level of the Union government.
•A viewer can file a complaint directly to the broadcaster, who will have to respond within 15 days. If the complainant is not satisfied with the response, the complaint can be escalated to the self-regulating bodies set up by TV channels, which should deal with the case in 60 days.
•“If the complainant is not satisfied with the decision of the self-regulating body, he may, within 15 days of such decision, prefer an appeal to the Central Government for its consideration under the Oversight Mechanism,” the amendment said.
•Such appeals will be dealt with by the Inter-Departmental Committee set up under the Oversight Mechanism. The committee will be headed by the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and have members from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Defence, and representatives of other Ministries and organisations, including experts, as the Centre may decide.
•This third tier is not only kept aside to hear the appeals, it can take up complaints that come directly to the Centre.
•At present, there is an institutional mechanism by way of an Inter-Ministerial Committee to address the grievances of citizens relating to the violation of the Programme/Advertising Codes under the Rules, but it does not have statutory backing.
•After examining the complaints, the Inter-Departmental Committee can recommend the Centre to advise, issue a warning, censure, admonish or reprimand a broadcaster, or seek an apology. It can also ask the broadcaster to include a warning card or a disclaimer, or to delete or modify content, or take the channel or a programme off-air for a specified time period, where it is satisfied that such action is warranted.
📰 A judicial pushback to a draconian legal regime
The Delhi court ruling is a way forward in finding a balance between civil rights and the imperatives of anti-terror laws
•The judgment of the Delhi High Court granting bail to activists Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, and Asif Iqbal Tanha — they have been in jail for over a year (without trial) for their alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots — is significant for many reasons. Most importantly, it brings to a close many months of jail time for three people who are yet to be proven guilty of any crime, something that should be anathema to any civilised justice system. What is also significant, however, is that the judgment represents an important judicial pushback to the authoritarian legal regime under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The root of the issue
•Ostensibly designed to check and address terrorism, the UAPA is perhaps one of the most abused laws in India today. The root of the problem lies in Section 43(D)(5) of this Act, which prevents the release of any accused person on bail if, on a perusal of the case diary, or the report made under Section 173 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure, the court is of the opinion that “there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such person is prima facie true”.
•It is important to break this down. Broadly speaking, India follows the adversarial system of criminal justice, where two sides to a dispute attempt to persuade the court that their version of events is true. At the heart of the adversarial system of justice is the testing of evidence through cross-examination. Each side is afforded the opportunity to scrutinise, challenge, and question the evidence produced by its opponent; and the best way for a judge to unearth the truth — or the closest approximation of it — is to consider which side’s evidence is left standing, and appears more persuasive, after the rigours of cross-examination.
•Production of evidence, and cross-examination, involves witnesses, recoveries of incriminating objects, tests of handwriting or voice samples, and many other elements. It constitutes the bulk of a criminal trial. In India, with our overburdened courts and creaking justice system, criminal trials take years. In high-profile cases such as the Delhi riots case, where the record is bulky, and the witnesses number in their hundreds, trials can take many years — even a decade or more.
Importance of bail
•For this reason, bail becomes of utmost importance. If an individual is not able to secure bail from the courts, they will languish as under-trials in prison, for the duration of the case, no matter how many years it takes (in recent memory, there are cases of people being found innocent in terrorism cases after 14 and even 23 years in prison). Bail, thus, becomes the only safeguard and guarantee of the constitutional right to liberty.
•In ordinary circumstances, when considering the question of bail, a court is meant to take into account a range of factors. These include whether the accused is a flight risk, whether he or she might tamper with the evidence or attempt to influence witnesses, and the gravity of the offence. But it is here that Section 43(D)(5) of the UAPA plays such a damaging role. As we have just seen, under the classical vision of criminal justice, truth — about innocence or guilt — can only be determined after the evidence of both the prosecution and the defence has been subjected to the rigours of cross-examination. However, as lawyers and scholars such as Abhinav Sekhri and Anjana Prakash have also pointed out, Section 43(D)(5) short-circuits that core assumption. For the grant of bail, it only looks at the plausibility of one side’s evidence — that is, the Prosecution’s. It binds the court to look at only the case diary or the police report, which has not been challenged by cross-examination, and requires that bail be denied as long as the unchallenged prosecution case appears to be prima facie true.
One-sided
•The perversity of Section 43(D)(5), thus, is that it forces the court to make an effective determination of guilt or innocence based on one side’s unchallenged story, and on that basis to deprive individuals of their freedom for years on end. In a democratic polity, which is committed to the rule of law, this is a deeply troubling state of affairs.
•The effect of Section 43(D)(5), as one can see, is that once the police elect to charge sheet an individual under the UAPA, it becomes extremely difficult for bail to be granted. Even outlandish or trumped-up cases can sound convincing until people have a chance to interrogate and challenge them. In short, unless the police prepare an extremely shoddy case — that is riddled with internal contradictions, for example — a case diary or a report will invariably make out a “prima facie” case against an individual.
Finer points of the judgment
•It is here that the Delhi High Court’s judgment becomes important. The Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambani correctly note that even though Section 43(D)(5) departs from many basic principles of criminal justice, there are other fundamental principles that remain of cardinal significance. These include, for example, that the initial burden of demonstrating guilt must always lie upon the prosecution; and also, that criminal offences must be specific in their terms, and read narrowly, to avoid bringing the innocent within their net. On this basis, the court’s judgment notes that as the UAPA is meant to deal with terrorist offences, its application must be limited to acts that can reasonably fall within a plausible understanding of “terrorism”. “Terrorism” is a term of art, and not a word that can be thrown around loosely. Thus, to attract the provisions of the UAPA — the judgment holds — the charge sheet must reveal factual, individualised, and particular allegations linking the accused to a terrorist act.
•The judgment then finds that even if the police’s claims are taken to be true, no such allegations exist. At the highest, the accusations against the activists involve calls for protests and chakka jams (road blockages). There is no act, overt or covert, attributed to the activists that could constitute a terrorist offence. And, importantly, inferences or hypotheticals drawn by the police do not count at the stage of granting bail. Coupled with the significance of the right to protest and to dissent under our constitutional scheme, the judgment therefore holds that even prima facie, a case under the UAPA has not been made out, and therefore, there is no question of the application of Section 43(D)(5).
•The Delhi High Court’s judgment indicates a pathway forward in the quest for finding a balance between citizens’ civil rights and the imperatives of anti-terrorism legislation such as the UAPA. A position under which citizens can be jailed for years on end just on the basis of police reports and case diaries, with courts precluded from granting them bail, is completely inconsistent with democracy, and redolent of authoritarian or tyrannical states. However, the court’s analysis shows how even within — and consistent with — the terms of the UAPA, there is an important role for a conscientious judiciary to play. By scrutinising the police case on its own terms, and according a strict interpretation to draconian legislation such as the UAPA, courts can ensure that civil rights are not left entirely at the mercy of the state.
•At the time of writing, the High Court’s judgment has been appealed by the Delhi Police to the Supreme Court of India. It now remains to be seen whether the highest court will also endorse this crucial ruling, which restates the responsibility of an independent judiciary in checking executive impunity.
📰 Recovery takes more than reforms
In any serious attempt at economic recovery, the focus must be on food supply and not money supply
•The most recent growth estimates of the National Statistical Office show that after a steep contraction in the first quarter of last year, growth accelerated steadily afterwards. This would have assured a recovery had we not experienced the second wave of the pandemic that came with the current financial year. Overlapping State-level lockdowns that started in April have now lasted for almost as long the nationwide lockdown of 2020, and there is no gainsaying their impact on the economy. Output may well have contracted in the beginning of this year. So, though recovery will eventually come, it could be W-shaped rather than V-shaped.
Meaning of reforms
•When the issue of economic recovery was raised in public, a minister asserted that the economy will recover due to the reforms planned or already implemented by the government. We do not know what the government has in mind but we should be sceptical of the claim that reforms can make a difference at this stage. Since 1991, the term ‘reforms’ has been used to mean both policy changes that remove restrictions on private sector activity in certain areas and those that increase profits in existing lines of production. Recent examples of these are allowing greater private sector participation in defence as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan launched in 2020 and the significant lowering of corporate tax in 2019, respectively. However, more reforms may be ineffective in spurring recovery. Presently for the private sector, entry into a new area or undertaking investment in an existing activity may not appear profitable given their expectation of the state of the economy in the near future, upon which their revenue will depend.
•We may assume that the private sector is fully aware of the following history. In February, believing that the peak of the epidemic had been crossed, the government reverted to its principal macroeconomic pre-occupation, namely fiscal consolidation or the paring down of the fiscal deficit. Accordingly, it raised its budgeted expenditure by less than 1% in the last Budget. The onset of the second wave of COVID-19 in April has thrown the economic policy calculations of the government out of gear. Back in February it was already known that the economy had contracted in 2020-21. To keep public expenditure virtually unchanged under such circumstances had been heroic enough then, but now, with a possible further contraction of the economy, to continue with the frigid fiscal stance would be disastrous. Though we do not know how output has fared so far this financial year, data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy show that unemployment has risen in May, indicating slack demand for output. With this knowledge, the private sector is unlikely to respond with alacrity to liberalising reforms.
Public spending is the key
•Right now, raising public spending is the only game in town left to the policymaker serious about bringing on a recovery. If we are to have it, though, we should accept a higher than budgeted deficit. A debate involving economists and central bankers has been set off on whether the government should now ‘print money’. This is the wrong way to approach the problem. It puts the cart before the horse. It is also alarmist. The objective is to revive the economy, public spending is the instrument and the funding must be found. It need not involve money creation. India’s public debt is low by comparison with the OECD countries, and debt financing remains an option. Even if money financing is adopted, it need not cause accelerating inflation as some predict. Experience in India suggests otherwise. However, studies do show that any economic expansion would be inflationary if the production of food does not respond adequately. How the expansion is financed is less relevant for inflation at least in the near term. In any serious attempt at economic recovery, the focus must be on the food supply and not the money supply.
📰 A place for disruptive technology in India’s health sector
Artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and data analytics have a defining role to play in shaping the medical sector
•As frontline warriors fighting COVID-19, the medical community has been selfless, but also losing a number of staff in the process. Nurses and attendants, on full-time duty, donning mainly masks and gloves as the only protective gear have been exposed to great risk. It is in such a situation that the relevance of disruptive technology and its applications comes into focus, potentially helping to reduce the chances of hospital staff contracting the infection.
•There are reports in the global media of established innovative field hospitals using robots to care for COVID-19 affected patients. There are hospitals, in China, that use 5G-powered temperature measurement devices at the entrance to flag patients who have fever/fever-like symptoms. Other robots measure heart rates and blood oxygen levels through smart bracelets and rings that patients wear; they even sanitise wards. Last year, in India, the Sawai Man Singh government hospital in Jaipur held trials with a humanoid robot to deliver medicines and food to COVID-19 patients admitted there.
•The critical aspect is how new technologies can improve the welfare of societies and reduce the impact of communicable diseases, spotlighting the importance of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems, blockchain, cloud and quantum computing, data analytics, 5G. Blockchain technology can help in addressing the interoperability challenges that health information and technology systems face. The health blockchain would contain a complete indexed history of all medical data, including formal medical records and health data from mobile applications and wearable sensors. This can also be stored in a secure network and authenticated, besides helping in seamless medical attention.
•Big data analytics can help improve patient-based services tremendously such as early disease detection. Even hospital health-care facilities can be improved to a great extent. AI and the Internet of Medical Things, or IoMT (which is defined as a connected infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, and health systems and services) are shaping health-care applications.
•Medical autonomous systems can also improve health delivery to a great extent and their applications are focused on supporting medical care delivery in dispersed and complex environments with the help of futuristic technologies. This system may also include autonomous critical care system, autonomous intubation, autonomous cricothyrotomy and other autonomous interventional procedures. Cloud computing is another application facilitating collaboration and data exchanges between doctors, departments, and even institutions and medical providers to enable best treatment.
Furthering UHC
•According to the World Health Organization (https://bit.ly/3gtHBtT), “Universal health coverage (UHC) is the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer. It is a powerful social equalizer and the ultimate expression of fairness.” The question is about how UHC can be achieved through the application of digital technologies, led by a robust strategy integrating human, financial, organisational and technological resources. Studies by WHO show that weakly-coordinated steps may lead to stand-alone information and communication technology solutions, leading to a fragmentation of information and resulting in poor delivery of care. India needs to own its digital health strategy that works and leads towards universal health coverage and person-centred care. Such a strategy should emphasise the ethical appropriateness of digital technologies, cross the digital divide, and ensure inclusion across the economy. ‘Ayushman Bharat’ and tools such as Information and Communication Technology could be be fine-tuned with this strategy to promote ways to protect populations. Online consultation through video conferencing should be a key part of such a strategy, especially in times when there is transmission of communicable diseases.
Using local knowledge
•In addition to effective national policies and robust health systems, an effective national response must also draw upon local knowledge. Community nurses, doctors, and health workers in developing countries do act as frontline sentinels. An example is the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa, where communities proactively helped curtail the spread much before government health teams arrived. Another example is from Indonesia, where the experience of backyard poultry farmers was used to tackle bird flu. Primary health centres in India could examine local/traditional knowledge and experience and then use it along with modern technology.
Possible challenges
•In the developing world, and this includes India, initial efforts in this direction should involve synchronisation and integration, developing a template for sharing data, and reengineering many of the institutional and structural arrangements in the medical sector. Big data applications in the health sector should help hospitals provide the best facilities and at less cost, provide a level playing field for all sectors, and foster competition. The possible constraints in this effort are a standardisation of health data, organisational silos, data security and data privacy, and also high investments. However, there is no doubt that disruptive technology can play an important role in improving the health sector in general.
