📰 Home Ministry flags illegal migration
Govt. says there are reports of some Rohingya indulging in unlawful activities
•There are reports of some Rohingya migrants indulging in illegal activities, according to a written reply from the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
•The response came on the queries of members Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt and Sanjay Ramchandra Patil about the current situation of Rohingya living illegally in various parts of the country.
•The Ministry said the Centre had issued instructions to the State governments and Union Territory administrations, advising them to sensitise the law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take appropriate steps for prompt identification of illegal migrants.
Close tracking
•They needed to be restricted to specified locations as per law, their biographic and biometric particulars captured and any fake Indian documents issued to them cancelled, the Ministry said.
•Legal proceedings, including initiation of deportation process, should be launched. “Consolidated instructions to tackle the issue of overstay and illegal migration of foreign nationals have also been issued on March 30, 2021,” said the written reply.
•“India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereon. All foreign nationals (including refuge seekers) are governed by the provisions contained in the Foreigners Act, 1946; the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939; the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Citizenship Act, 1955, and rules and orders made thereunder,” it said.
•The foreign nationals who enter the country without valid travel documents are treated as illegal migrants.
•“Since illegal migrants enter into the country without valid travel documents in clandestine and surreptitious manner, accurate data regarding number of such migrants living in the country is not Centrally available,” said the Ministry.
Lawmakers across parties call for removal of 50% cap on reservations
•The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Constitution 127th Amendment Bill, 2021 with unanimous support from the House and not a single vote against, with Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr. Virendra Kumar stating that there was a need for a careful examination of the demand made by several Lok Sabha MPs to remove the 50% cap on reservations currently in place.
•Replying to the debate on the Bill, the first such debate in an orderly manner in a session marked by three weeks of disruptions and adjournments, Dr. Kumar said the issue required a careful going over of legal and constitutional issues.
•“In the Indra Sawhney case the court has observed that the limit can be increased beyond the 50% but only in certain special circumstances. The government is aware of the wishes of the members,” he said.
671 beneficiaries
•The Minister said the current Constitutional Amendment Bill was a historic legislation as 671 castes in the country would benefit from it and restore the States’ rights to make their own list of OBCs and should be considered as the 105th Constitution Amendment Bill after being renumbered.
•The Constitution 127th Amendment Bill, 2021 seeks to restore the power of State governments to identify Other Backward Classes that are socially and economically backward after a Supreme Court order in May 2021 , which had empowered only the Central government for such identification. The amendment was thought necessary because the SC in its order on Maratha reservations upheld the 102ndConstitutional Amendment Act that inserted Articles 338B and 342 A (with two clauses) after Article 342 which said that the President of India, in consultation with governors would specify socially and economically backward classes, taking away the powers of state governments to do so.
•Lead speaker for the Opposition, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary said the Bill was necessitated by the fact that the Narendra Modi government had turned a deaf ear to the suggestions of the Opposition during the debate on the 102nd Constitutional Amendment. Supporting the Bill, Mr. Chowdhary said, “You (BJP) tweaked the Constitution by bringing the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2018, which gave people the opportunity to go the courts and finally the Supreme Court removed the States’ power.”
•“We support the Bill but our demand is to remove 50% ceiling in reservation. You should listen to the States, make it legal for States to cross the 50% ceiling,” he said. He received support on this from DMK’s T.R. Baalu and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav who also demanded the lifting of a 50% ceiling.
•Intervening in the debate, Minister for Labour Bhupendra Yadav said the Congress had buried old reports including the Kaka Kallelkar and Mandal Commission report on backward classes.
•He responded to Mr Chowdhary’s charge of the government having created the need for this bill through its own actions. “When the 102nd Amendment was brought in 2018, the government’s intent was that both at the Central and the State level, OBC lists will be maintained. The same arguments were made in the Supreme Court, and its judgement on taking the States’ power away was not by consensus,” he said. He quoted the observations of two of the judges to bolster his argument. “It is our job to develop the legislative process,” Mr Yadav said, and asserted the Centre’s commitment to social justice.
•Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule, whose party, a constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra is pushing for Maratha reservation in connection with which the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on the Centre being the only enumerator of OBCs, necessitating this bill, said the credit should be given to the Maharashtra government which requested the Centre to move the Bill to address the issue. She too put her heft behind the removal of the 50% cap on reservations.
•Many parties, including Samajwadi Party (SP), the Telugu Desam Party and NDA allies Apna Dal and Janata Dal (U) also asked for caste-based census to get a real idea of the number of OBCs in the country.
📰 HC nod must to close cases against lawmakers
Virtual court facilities to be improved
•Questioning the Centre’s commitment towards the speedy trial and prosecution of criminal politicians, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that a criminal case against an MP or MLA can be withdrawn only after getting the consent of the State High Court concerned.
•“We deem it appropriate to direct that no prosecution against a sitting or former MP/MLA shall be withdrawn without the leave of the High Court… Various State governments have resorted to withdrawal of numerous criminal cases pending against MP/MLA by utilising the power vested under Section 321 CrPC. The power under Section 321 CrPC is a responsibility which is to be utilised in public interest, and cannot be used for extraneous and political considerations. This power is required to be utilised with utmost good faith to serve the larger public interest,” a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana directed.
•The court mulled the formation of a Special Bench to monitor the progress of investigation and trial of criminal cases involving politicians.
•The court agreed to several suggestions given by amicus curiae Vijay Hansaria and advocate Sneha Kalita in a report, including a freeze on the transfer of judicial officers trying criminal cases involving lawmakers.
•“To ensure expeditious disposal of pending cases, it is necessary for this court to direct the officers presiding over Special Courts or CBI Courts involving prosecution of MPs or MLAs to continue in their present posts until further orders. This direction, barring transfer of Judicial Officers, will be subject to their superannuation or death,” the court directed.
•The court accepted Mr. Hansaria and Ms. Kalita’s recommendation to adopt video conferencing facilities to examine witnesses and for the release of funds to establish and improve virtual court facilities.
•It voiced doubts about the government’s resolve to bring criminal politicians to justice. The Bench pointed to how central government agencies like the Enforcement Directorate have filed a sketchy affidavits about their cases against sitting and former MPs and MLAs.
Status report
•“You delay even in filing status reports… This report filed by the ED just mentions some random names and random cases… There are no details about the States or which is the oldest case...” Chief Justice Ramana addressed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government.
•“We are committed. There is no reluctance on our part, maybe just a lack of coordination… The government is committed to ensure speedy investigation and prosecution of elected representatives involved in criminal cases,” Mr. Mehta assured the court.
•The Bench gave the Centre a last opportunity to submit detailed reports on the cases registered by CBI, ED and other central agencies against MPs and MLAs. These cases range from corruption to money laundering.
•The court listed the case for arguments on August 25.
📰 Modi launches phase-II of Ujjwala gas connection scheme for the poor
Modi launches phase-II of Ujjwala gas connection scheme for the poor.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched the second phase of the Ujjwala gas connection scheme for the poor and said it would provide the biggest relief to lakhs of migrant worker families in the country.
•Under Ujjwala 2.0 (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana), migrant workers would no longer have to struggle to get address proof documents to get the gas connections, Mr. Modi said.
•Now migrant workers would only be required to submit a self-declaration of their residential address to get the gas connection, he added.
•“The government has full faith in your honesty,” Mr. Modi said, speaking virtually at the launch of the scheme under which LPG connections were handed over to beneficiaries in Mahoba in Bundelkhand. Mr. Modi had launched the first phase of the scheme in 2016 from Ballia, also in Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the last Assembly elections. Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to go to the polls early 2022.
Long wait
•Mr. Modi lamented that the country had to wait several decades to provide certain basic facilities to its citizens and that the brunt of this was faced by women, especially from poor families. Only when women come out of homes and kitchens, could they contribute to nation building, he stated.
•“When a society keeps struggling for basic facilities, then how can it fulfil its bigger dreams,” the Prime Minister asked.
•Under his government, 11,000 new LPG distribution centres had come up in the country, Mr. Modi said, adding that the figure had doubled in Uttar Pradesh from less than 2,000 to 4,000.
Interacts with beneficiaries
•Mr. Modi interacted with women beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme from Uttarakhand, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Uttar Pradesh.
•While Bundi Devi of Dehradun told him that the gas connection had allowed her to take care of her aged father as she no longer needed to go to the forest to fetch wood, Kiran Devi of Gorakhpur said now she saved time and her life was made easier.
📰 ‘29% of students exposed to second-hand smoke’
Survey analyses tobacco use
•More than 29% of students in India were exposed to second-hand smoke, said the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-4), India, 2019, which was released by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday.
•The National Fact Sheet said there has been a 42% decline in tobacco use among 13-15-year-old schoolchildren in the past decade. It added that use of any form of tobacco was higher among boys and tobacco use among schoolchildren was highest in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram and lowest in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.
•The report also found that 38% of cigarettes, 47% of bidi smokers and 52% of smokeless tobacco users initiated the use before their 10th birthday. The median age of initiation to cigarette and bidi-smoking, and smokeless tobacco use was 11.5 years, 10.5 years and 9.9 years, respectively.
Role of teachers
•Releasing the report, the Health Minister emphasised the role of teachers as most crucial in creating awareness among children and their parents of the harm due to tobacco use and for shaping the attitude of children in this regard.
•He said, “The more and the sooner, we create awareness among children about harms due to tobacco use, the better will be the outcomes in terms of reduction in prevalence of tobacco use among children and consequently among adults.”
•Harmful effects of tobacco use should be incorporated in school curricula at various levels starting right from the primary school level, he added.
•The fourth round of Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-4) was conducted in 2019 by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
•The survey was designed to produce national estimates of tobacco use among school going children aged 13-15 years at the State level and Union Territory (UT) by sex, location of school (rural-urban), and management of school (public-private). The first three rounds of GYTS were conducted in 2003, 2006 and 2009.
•A total of 97,302 students from 987 schools (public-544; private-443) participated in the survey. Of which, 80,772 students aged 13-15 years were considered for reporting.
📰 Expand food basket under PDS, says WHO scientist
Millets, pulses, fruits, vegetables, animal proteins should be part of it, says expert
•To ensure that sufficient nutrition is available to people in lower socio-economic groups, it is necessary to expand the food basket under public distribution system, said Sowmya Swaminathan, chief scientist of the World Health Organisation.
•At a session on Tuesday on ‘Needed policy change for India and South Asia to improve nutritional status of children and women’ chaired by her, participants from India and Bangladesh, besides officials from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, shared their experiences.
•The seminar was held on the final day of the three-day international consultation titled, “Ensuring food and nutrition security in the context of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic,” organised by M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation.
•The participants included Gagandeep Kang, microbiology professor of Christian Medical College, Vellore; Renu Swarup, Secretary, Biotechnology Department; Vinod Paul, member of NITI Aayog; Kaosar Afsana, professor, BRAC University, Bangladesh; Zitouni Ould-Dada, deputy director, Food and Agriculture Organization, and Arjan De Wagt, chief of nutrition, Unicef.
•Dr. Swarup explained the work done by the DBT and gave a comprehensive overview of the Poshan Abhiyan. Science-driven approach is important to improve maternal health to prevent low weight births, she said, emphasising the maternal education related to child health and new approaches to feeding.
•Dr. Kang recalled her research work to urge scientific approach to feeding.
Optimum nutrition
•Dr. Paul, a paediatrician by training, called for intensive breastfeeding, kangaroo mother care and guidance to change behaviours of families towards providing optimum nutrition to children.
•“We are still behind in providing diverse nutritious complementary food to babies. We need to improve quantity and quality of food to babies and the timing of providing these foods through a behavioural change campaign,” he also said.
•The experts emphasised the need for communication tools to bring behavioural change among families and individuals and communities.
•Dr. Sowmya proposed an expansion of the food basket of the public distribution system for those belonging to socio-economically weaker sections.
•“The current basket is taking care of food insecurity by providing only cereals. Nutritional security has a big gap in the current system. We need to fill it with millets, pulses, fruits, vegetables and animal proteins. We have to think about policy intervention, which can make these food baskets affordable to people. They can access which is currently sub-optimal,” she said.
📰 Choppy waters: On global maritime security
India must push for ratification of UNCLOS by all major maritime powers, including the U.S.
•When Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the stage to address the UNSC on a debate on maritime security — the first Indian premier to do so — he might have hoped to keep the focus of the discussion on building maritime ties and developing maritime infrastructure through regional cooperation initiatives. Yet, once more the discussion veered toward major nations trading barbs on continuing strategic dissonance in this sphere. At the heart of the strident claims and counterclaims regarding allegations of abuse of maritime resources and disrespect of territorial sovereignty rights of nations were the U.S., on the one hand, and China and Russia on the other. Mr. Modi deserves credit for bringing to the table a five-prong plan to enhance maritime security worldwide through cooperation, including removing barriers to legitimate maritime trade, settling maritime disputes peacefully and based on international law, jointly facing natural disasters and maritime threats created by non-state actors, preserving maritime environment and resources, and encouraging responsible maritime connectivity. Indeed, the acceptance at the UNSC of the legislative framework for UNCLOS, the “legal framework applicable to activities in the oceans, including countering illicit activities at sea”, is seen as an important achievement during India’s month at the helm of the Council. The sustained interest of India in promoting maritime security also draws from Mr. Modi’s SAGAR vision plan aimed at strengthening economic and security connections with regional maritime nations.
•If there are strategic barriers to creating momentum in achieving these goals, they are associated with specific regions of maritime tension including the South China Sea and the Black Sea. Regarding the former, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken decried the “dangerous encounters between vessels at sea and provocative actions to advance unlawful maritime claims”, rejecting “actions that intimidate and bully other states from lawfully accessing their maritime resources”. Similarly, regarding the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov, Mr. Blinken at the UNSC debate hit out at what Washington considered “continued aggressive actions against Ukraine... which are disrupting commerce and energy access”. Although India’s presidency of the Council is brief, its sustained commitment to promoting maritime security and boosting trade through sea routes will require it to be adroit in negotiating with these squabbling powers and creative in seeking resolution of the very real conflicts at the heart of their disputes. While some may deride UNCLOS as lacking teeth for enforcement, ultimately it is the only comprehensive framework of laws available to maritime powers to assert their rights consistent with the rules-based international order. Through its UNSC presidency and beyond, New Delhi must faithfully advocate for ratification of UNCLOS by all major maritime powers, including the U.S.
📰 Undermining justice: On vacancies in courts, tribunals
The Government must explain the unusual delay in filling up vacancies in courts, tribunals
•It was only a matter of time before the controversy over the Union government delaying judicial appointments hit the headlines again. In recent days, the Supreme Court has voiced concern over the Government’s lackadaisical attitude towards the large number of vacancies in High Courts and tribunals. Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana confronted the Government with a list of 240 vacancies in various tribunals. He asked rather bluntly whether there was a plan to close down some tribunals. Many tribunals lack presiding officers, and recommendations made by selection committees have not been acted upon. The vacancies in High Courts are at a staggering 455, as on August 1. It appears that exhortations from the courts, and even a judicial order from the top court in April — fixing time-frames for the Intelligence Bureau and the Government to process names forwarded by the Collegium for making appointments to the High Courts or returning files and for accepting names reiterated by the judges’ body — has not imparted a sense of urgency. A two-judge Bench has noted that the Centre’s delay in making appointments to the High Courts is adversely affecting the adjudication of commercial disputes.
•The judiciary’s concern over the vacancies in the tribunals is quite justified, as the jurisdiction previously exercised by High Courts is now being exercised by the tribunals, and the failure to adjudicate or dispose of disputes in these fields would amount to denial of justice to the parties. The present regime’s eagerness to undermine the independent functioning of tribunals is quite apparent. It has been repeatedly framing rules that seek to provide for greater executive control over the tenure, emoluments and conditions of service of those manning the tribunals. If specialisation, domain expertise and relatively quicker adjudication are the reasons for which certain kinds of disputes are being resolved through tribunals, these purposes are lost if these bodies are rendered nearly dysfunctional through a large number of vacancies. To compound the problem, the Union government has been inexplicably reluctant to create a national body for overseeing the work related to the appointment of members on tribunals as well as the appraisal of their functioning. As far as higher judiciary appointments are concerned, there is little to enlighten the public on what is causing the delay. Whether it is a dispute over the undoubtedly problematic memorandum of procedure, or the desire of the executive to subject the Collegium recommendations to its own political scrutiny is not clear. In any case, the delay is causing great harm to India’s justice delivery system.
📰 A call for improving civil registration systems
India needs to swiftly assign resources and give high priority to improving data on births and deaths
•A working paper for the Center for Global Development, co-authored by former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, concludes that excess deaths during the pandemic period could be as high as 49 lakh in India as against the 4.14 lakh reported in government data. The Hindu has come out with estimates of excess deaths based on Civil Registration System (CRS) data for many States which showed that the death toll was several times higher than the official death toll due to COVID-19. Such discrepancies have been reported from other countries including the U.S. and Europe though they may not have been of such magnitude.
Capturing excess mortality
•‘Excess deaths’ are defined as the difference between the observed number of deaths in specific time periods and the expected number of deaths in the same time periods. At the time of a pandemic, when the normal system is disrupted, it is not likely that every person who dies could have been tested for COVID-19 or the death could have been mistakenly assigned to some other cause.
•Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization, has tweeted in this connection: “For every country, it’s important to capture excess mortality – only way to prepare the health system for future shocks & to prevent further deaths. It’s also why we need to invest in strong civil registration and vital statistics, so policies can be adjusted based on real data”.
•Section 19 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, stipulates that the State governments have to “publish for the information of the public a statistical report on the registered births and deaths during the year at such intervals and such form as may be prescribed”. The Act also stipulates that the deaths be registered at the place of occurrence.
•In India, the annual report for 2019 that is based on the data provided by the Chief Registrars has been released though the States themselves have not published the data. According to the Rules, these were to be submitted by the Chief Registrars to the State governments by July 31, 2020 and published within five months thereafter. Considering that technology enables the States to release data on the number of deaths registered on a monthly, weekly or daily basis, it is shameful that in some States researchers had to use the Right to Information law to obtain data on the number of deaths registered. What stands in the way of our ability to record deaths and bring out reports that are of critical importance today?
Complicating factors
•Let us look at the organisational structure of the administrative machinery that is responsible for this task. While the Registrar General, India, is the head of the national organisation tasked with the registration of births and deaths, the actual work is carried out by the State and Union Territory (UT) administrations. The heads of the State organisations are called Chief Registrars. These officers come from the Health Department in 21 States/UTs and the Department of Planning, Economics and Statistics in 13 States/UTs. In two States/ UTs, they are from the Panchayat/Local Administration Departments. We also have Secretaries to the State government functioning as Chief Registrars in a few States. The multiplicity of agencies responsible for the registration of births and deaths is replicated at the district and lower levels with municipalities and panchayats playing a major role in registration. This impedes effective oversight. Also, the traditional bureaucratic practice is to function within departmental silos.
•Another complicating factor is that civil registration involves good coordination between different actors. The responsibility to report births and deaths to the Registrar rests with the hospital where the event occurred or with the head of the household if it occurred at home. The Registrar then provides them with a legal document (the birth or death certificate) that is the evidence for registration. The Registrar could be a full-time government employee, or a medical officer in a hospital or a health centre, or the secretary of a local panchayat or municipality as appointed by the State government. In case of deaths occurring in public places, other agencies like the police or the local government would need to be involved. The State governments have not given adequate attention to the CRS. This has resulted in an inadequate budget for carrying out its regular activities including processing of the data.
•The data needed to establish ‘excess deaths’ originates from the processes described briefly above. The information on deaths registered are compiled at regular intervals by the Chief Registrar. Dissemination of this data is neglected to such an extent that the Health Departments, including the States where they are in charge of the system, are generally not aware of this data.
•All the agencies involved in the processes of civil registration will need to coordinate their activities seamlessly to ensure that the civil registration work is carried out efficiently. Committees established at the State, district and local government levels to ensure coordination meet rarely and the challenges of coordination continue to be a major issue in most parts of the country.
Strengthening the system
•The first step that needs to be taken to address this is to accord high priority to strengthening civil registration and generation of vital statistics. The top level of the leadership at the Central and State governments must announce a time-bound commitment to achieve 100% registration of deaths in the country.
•While eleven States register more than 90% of deaths, they do not include several of the larger States including Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Uttar Pradesh registered 63% of the deaths and Bihar registered only 51.6%, according to the 2019 report of the Registrar General, India.
•Vital Statistics Reports that the government is required to publish are expected to meet a standard that is set by the UN Statistics Division, which seeks to ensure that all national reports are produced in a way that they can be internationally comparable. Apart from the problem that our reports are overdue, they do not contain all the tables that are prescribed even under our own Rules. Data include deaths that took place in previous years but are registered in the years that the report is published. This distorts the accuracy of the report. Some reports do not cover some major areas in the country. For instance, the Kerala report does not include data for Kochi Corporation.
•We need data that fully meets quality standards. This is what the pandemic has called on us to do. We need to use this as an opportunity to mend matters in this critical area of public concern and swiftly assign resources and give high priority to make the changes that are badly overdue in all States and UTs.
📰 It’s the ecosystem, stupid!
A message from Japan tells us why India is no longer a flourishing arena of economic activity
•The news from Tokyo has warmed the hearts of Indians. It is not as if we have not had success at the Olympics in the past. For about half a century our hockey players excelled on the global stage through a display of skill and wile. Their dominance declined with the change in the surface on which the game is played. When astroturf replaced dirt the attributes for success altered; skill and nimbleness were replaced by speed and strength. But Indian hockey is bouncing back, with a medal for the men’s team and a commendable performance by our young women. In fact, it may be on the ascendant. Actually, this could be said for all of India’s future sporting endeavours, with Neeraj Chopra’s sterling performance opening up vistas in the track and field space.
Road to success
•The rising level of India’s performance in sport has been evident for a while now, arguably starting with victory in World Cup Cricket in 1983. But something has changed of late. While half a century ago some of our stars were aristocrats, many of today’s sportspersons come from far less privileged backgrounds. Unlike the former, they were not trained on the storied playing fields of England but come from Tier-3 towns and even villages, rising through their own determination and self-belief. However, admirable as their individual efforts may be, this could not have by itself got them where they are today. Their naturally endowed capability has been nurtured by an external agency. Though what is apparent to us are the sports bodies that are their chaperones, their rise has received financial support from the Indian state. There has been a substantial step up in this too, which has made a great difference. The training facilities at the nationally dispersed camps of the Sports Authority of India are close to being world class and the sportspersons get their healthy diet there. Funds have added a dimension unimaginable in the past. The best Indian sportspersons are now able to compete in global championships and have international coaches. In his interviews, Neeraj Chopra has spoken of the former driving him to produce superior results as he is pitted against the world’s best. Foreign coaches, trainers and physiotherapists are almost commonplace now. It is not their foreignness that has mattered but that they bring along the highest class of expertise available. It may be seen in the winning outcome from badminton to hockey. Something more than money would have been necessary to bring these wonderful gurus to our shores. This was the Indian government’s willingness to finally recognise what is takes to succeed globally.
An enabling ecosystem needed
•Staring at the harvest of medals for India’s sportspersons the economist is left wondering how some of this can be replicated in our struggling economy. Surely it is a wonder that a land that once exported goods to West Asia and ideas to China, then the richest and most evolved civilisations, is now one of the poorest in the world. Why is India no longer a flourishing arena of economic activity?
•A message has now reached us. It may be from faraway Japan but has emanated from the performance of our youthful compatriots in Japan. One may as well paraphrase it as ‘It’s the ecosystem, stupid!’ Economic activity in India needs an enabling ecosystem, and everything from the availability of infrastructure to regulation of economic activity must be re-oriented towards creating it.
•Compared to the attitude of our sportspersons, who went out fearlessly to meet their opponents on the world stage, the leadership’s last-minute withdrawal from the prolonged negotiations on accession to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership appears as a skittish volte face. India’s producers, irrespective of their size, cannot expect permanent protection. At the same time, they would be within their rights to expect global standards in the bureaucracy they face and the infrastructure the state provides.
