📰 Centre not for forming security force to protect judiciary, court complexes
SC had taken suo motu cognisance of attacks on judges along with petitions pending since 2019 seeking better protection for judiciary and in courts
•The Union government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it was “not advisable” to form a Central security force to protect the judiciary and court complexes. The government said security of courts was “better left to the States”.
•Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, said problems of security varied from State to State. The State police would be better equipped to gauge the deployment needs in local courts, take care of logistics of transporting criminals and protecting witnesses, among other crucial functions within court complexes. The Ministry of Home Affairs had issued extensive guidelines for the States to follow while protecting courts and the judiciary. Besides, Mr. Mehta said ‘police’ is a State subject under the Constitution.
•The court had taken suo motu cognisance of the attacks on judges along with petitions pending since 2019 seeking better protection for the judiciary and in courts. The turning point was the recent murder of a judge in Jharkhand, Uttam Anand, in broad daylight. The case is under investigation by the CBI.
•The court had asked the Centre’s opinion on forming a central security outfit in the manner of the Railway Protection Force to protect courts and judges.
•“It is not advisable to have a central security force like the CRPF... There should be a fuller implementation of the guidelines of the Home Ministry. It is advisable that security is taken care of at the State level because problems vary from State to State. For example, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have naxal problems… It has to be State-specific instead of country-specific,” Mr. Mehta submitted.
•But the court questioned the implementation of the guidelines and the poor security provided to courts.
•“Question is whether the guidelines are followed and to what extent these governments are providing security… CCTVs cannot prevent a criminal from attacking a judge. There should be something in place to prevent threats, attacks on judges,” Justice Surya Kant, on the Bench, asked the Solicitor General.
‘Affidavits not filed’
•Justice Kant said several States have not bothered to file affidavits detailing the security arrangements in place for courts. Others who had filed affidavits presented a “lazy picture” of the security arrangements. Their complaints ranged from lack of funds to even having no money for CCTV cameras.
•“Meanwhile, attacks are continuing… Now the Supreme Court has to bear the burden of implementing your guidelines,” Justice Kant said.
•The Bench allowed the States, including Kerala, to file their affidavits in 10 days subject to paying ₹1 lakh each as costs. The court warned that Chief Secretaries would be summoned in case of non-compliance.
•Mr. Mehta suggested a meeting between the Union Home Secretary and the Home Secretaries or the Director Generals of Police of the States.
The rebates range from 0.5% to 4.3% of the FOB value of outbound consignments
•The government on Tuesday notified the rates and norms for the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme, with Commerce Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam asserting it would put some ‘direct cash in the pockets of exporters’ soon.
•The RoDTEP scheme had kicked in from January 1, after the earlier Merchandise and Services Export Incentive Schemes (MEIS and SEIS) were scrapped as they were found to be impermissible under the World Trade Organisation norms.
•A budgetary allocation of ₹12,454 crore has been made for 2021-22 under the scheme which covers 8,555 tariff lines, accounting for roughly 75% of traded items 65% of India’s exports. To enable zero rating of exports by ensuring domestic taxes are not exported, all taxes, including those levied by States and even Gram Panchayats, will be refunded under the scheme.
•The rebates under the scheme which Director General of Foreign Trade Amit Yadav said is WTO-compliant as per legal advice, range from 0.5% to 4.3% of the Freight On Board value of outbound consignments. The lowest rate has been offered on items such as chocolates, toffees and sugar confectionary, while yarns and fibres have been granted the highest rate.
•“Steel, pharma and chemicals have not been included under the scheme because their exports have done well without incentives. There are a couple of more schemes in the pipeline to help exporters, but RoDTEP, which is valid till March 31, 2024, will be our flagship scheme,” said Mr. Subrahmanyam.
•The top trade official also assured of a resolution of the pending dues under the MEIS and SEIS by the first week of September, through a ‘staggered’ mechanism.
•The government is hopeful clarity on the export rebate rates and issuance of scrips for outbound trade since January 1 will free up working capital for exporters and help achieve the $400 billion target for the year. However, exporters’ bodies were cautious.
•Engineering Exports Promotion Council chairman Mahesh Desai said the RoDTEP rates had not taken into account taxes embedded in their raw materials like steel and thus, only partially compensated for the unrebated taxes while a huge portion of the taxes on the raw-material stage would be exported abroad.
•“The reimbursement of embedded duty in export items was much needed as it will help the exporters to secure more orders from overseas,” he said, calling for greater policy support to achieve the sector’s target of $107 billion for this year.
•“We hope that in future these rates will be revised to reflect the actual duty and taxes suffered by the industry and more sectors would be covered along with exports made under Duty Exemption Schemes, EOUs, SEZs and bonded warehouses, who all suffer the hidden and unutilised duties,” said PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Sanjay Aggarwal.
📰 Scrappage norms will boost new vehicle demand by up to 30%: Gadkari
•The recently unveiled automobile scrappage policy will help boost new vehicle demand in the country by about 25-30%, leading to additional GST revenues of about ₹40,000 crore the Centre and a similar amount for the State governments put together, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday.
•Stressing that the policy was a ‘win-win’ for all stakeholders, including customers, industry and the government, the Minister added that the policy would help India become the top-most auto manufacturing hub in the next five years.
•“There are about 1 crore end-of-life vehicles in the country… and this data is three years old…People will not buy new vehicle if they don't scrap the older vehicles,” the Minister said.
•He also clarified that reduction of road tax by up to 25% by States is not just an advisory. “We are authorised under the concurrent list to decide the principle of taxation...Scrappage policy will lead to an increase in revenue for State governments as there will be a 25-30% increase in auto sales and they will get GST…Centre and State governments will get ₹40,000 crore each... Employment will go up, pollution will decrease,” he explained.
•Mr. Gadkari said the department has also requested the auto sector that they should give discounts of 5% on new models as incentive for consumers to scrap vehicles.
•Amit Varadan, joint secretary, added that the Ministry had estimated savings of about ₹1.15 lakh in five years on new vehicle purchase following scrapping of the old vehicle. For trucks, this could go up to ₹8.32 lakhs in five years.
•Mr. Gadkari pointed out that India imports about ₹3 lakh crore worth of metals, which can be reduced or even eliminated with the scrappage policy.
•On scrapping centres, the Minister said the government had envisioned that there should be a scrapping and a fitness centre in every district.
📰 Between word and intent: On CJI remarks on legislative debates
Chief Justice’s remarks on legislative debates flag need for clarity in law-making
•The disquiet over the absence of adequate debate or discussion in Parliament is quite widespread. Concerned citizens and sections of the Opposition bemoan the evident haste with which laws are pushed through; presiding officers fret over the low productivity due to time lost amidst unruly protests; and even government representatives may worry that their legislative agenda is not being carried out in time. The Chief Justice of India, Justice N.V. Ramana, has added a new dimension to this sense of discontent by pointing out the absence of any help from parliamentary debates when the courts are faced with ambiguities or lacunae in laws. His description, of a “sorry state of affairs”, would resonate as crucial pieces of legislation are indeed passed without sufficient debate, and often with nothing more than a Minister’s brief reply or a mere assurance in response to any concern raised by some members. The CJI’s concern was possibly occasioned by some specific law such as the Tribunals Reforms Bill, recently passed with a few clauses struck down by the Supreme Court. However, the import of his observation, at a celebration to mark the 75th Independence Day, was that when the courts were unable to fathom the intent behind some laws, the parliamentary record could throw some light if the debates were sufficiently enlightening. He referred to the illuminating debate on the Industrial Disputes Act as an example.
•It is quite true that a fuller debate in the legislature would provide greater insight into the intent behind laws, but a situation that requires a scrutiny of such intent ought not to arise in normal circumstances. Legislation should be drafted clearly and the letter of the law should not stray much beyond its purpose and scope. A purposive interpretation of statute is normally required only when the wording of the law is unclear. Otherwise, reliance on House committee reports or parliamentary debates is only an extrinsic aid, and not fully determinative of a law’s meaning. In a recent example, the Supreme Court ruled that the 102nd Amendment to the Constitution ousted the power of State governments to identify backward classes, even though it was vehemently argued by the Government that it was not Parliament’s intention. It highlights the need to have the wording of the law fully reflect the legislative intent. More than the quality of debate, it is the scope for detailed discussion that imparts clarity and a much-needed proximity to the original intent and purpose to any statute. For this, it is vital that important pieces of legislation are scrutinised by standing committees, which will have the advantage not only of eliciting replies from the executive but also inputs from the wider civil society, before the statute is framed.
📰 Doctor at the door: On doorstep health-care delivery
Doorstep health-care delivery can mitigate the effects of disruption caused by pandemics
•Long before the pandemic struck, health experts had warned of a health epidemic — one that involved non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The last two years, however, managed to expose the frailties of even robust health systems in the country that saw not one, but two debilitating waves of COVID-19. It also exposed the chinks in what was traditionally believed to be the armour of health care — institution-based treatment. When access to these institutions was severed all of a sudden, States had to introspect about how they could bolster their health-care set-up in ways that would protect it from such disruptions. For Tamil Nadu, this introspection resulted in its ‘Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam’ scheme, a community-based intervention to tackle and treat NCDs and to address the crucial issues of prevention and early detection. Inaugurated by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin earlier this month, it involves a tentative budget in excess of ₹250 crore. It includes population-based screening for the 18-plus population for 10 common conditions — hypertension, diabetes, oral, cervical and breast cancers, TB, leprosy, chronic kidney disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, mental health — and the delivery of hypertension/diabetes drugs to patients aged 45-plus besides to those with restricted or poor mobility. The State, which has a high burden of NCDs, also acted on data that indicated very low community control rates for hypertension (7.3%) and diabetes (10.8%) among patients.
•Once the tenacious link between NCDs such as uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension, and COVID-19 outcomes was apparent, it became clear that control of these health parameters was paramount and would necessitate uninterrupted access to health-care services. According to the India: Health of the Nation’s States report, in 2016, 55% of the total disease burden in India was caused by NCDs, with the burden of NCDs increasing across all States from 1990 to 2016. The disruption of access to health care during the pandemic did affect compliance to drug regimens, and led to uncontrolled disease, with implications for quality of life too. It is ideal that nations prepare themselves to face further epidemics that might occur and cause similar disruptions in society by arming themselves to overcome such drawbacks. The Tamil Nadu initiative is a well-meaning notch in trying to address this; the efficacy of its chosen method of door delivery of drugs has been proven earlier with the supervised drug regimen, or DOTS therapy used in tuberculosis control. Ultimately, the success of a well-conceived programme rests in the proper implementation of each of its components. If Tamil Nadu is able to demonstrate, with this scheme, that it is possible to maintain the continuum of care even in the most trying of circumstances, then, here is a model that could inspire other States to follow suit.
📰 Remembering the horrors of Partition
The journey of remembrance must be one of seeking forgiveness and not of keeping the past on the boil as the new Remembrance Day is likely to do
•Remembrances of mass killings and collective violence can play an important part in societies seeking forgiveness for the crimes they committed against humanity and resolving that they will never let those terrible events happen again.
•Israel remembers the Holocaust for more reasons than one. For different reasons, Germany too remembers the Holocaust through discussions in schoolbooks, public events and more. Japan, by actively remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has not allowed the world to forget the destruction caused by the nuclear bombs dropped on the two cities. Not all nations, though, are committed to national remembrance. The United States, for instance, has not cared to publicly remember the genocide of the Native Americans during the 18th and 19th centuries.
A refusal to remember
•The biggest example of forgetfulness of a 20th century event is that by India. It has never cared to collectively remember the estimated two million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who died in targeted murders and the tens of millions who were displaced in British India during the months before Independence. India’s holocaust, which never has an ‘H’ to it, is for the most part something we remember as having happened because of British perfidy and Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s cunning ways. As a society we bear no responsibility, we believe. But it is only by constantly telling ourselves what happened that we can come to terms with the mass murders of the time. By not remembering the crimes perpetrated on each other, we do not reach closure, we only push them aside in our minds.
•There is no national memorial for the millions murdered, sexually violated, and displaced during Partition. School textbooks only note the killings; they do not remember them. There are no names, there are no faces, there are no voices of those millions. In a reflection of the national attitude, the arts too barely remember the slaughters. Saadat Hasan Manto’s stories, Bhisham Sahni’s novel Tamas (which was also turned into a film for TV), and the fictionalised presentations in the film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag are exceptions. The academic world has over the past quarter century sought to make amends with a wide body of work of Partition studies and the creation of Partition archives, but these have not permeated into wider society. (There is, though, a Partition Museum that has been established in Amritsar, not by a government but by a trust set up by a dedicated group of citizens.)
•The blame for this post-Independence refusal to remember and seek forgiveness must be laid squarely at the door of the governments since 1947. In their anxiety to deny the two-nation theory, the state of the new republic sought to gloss over the terrible killings of Partition. It did not forget the mass murders, but it did not seek to actively remember the horrors that had taken place only a few years earlier. Pakistan was no different in not remembering the violence that happened on its side of what became a new national border.
•Independent India’s call was ‘Let us get on with building a nation of communal harmony’. Yet it was the opposite that happened. In the absence of collective remembrance, people’s memories of the mass violence became easy fodder for the embers of communal hatred. Indeed, the refusal to openly acknowledge and atone for the Partition slaughter was an important cause of the communal violence that dotted the decades after 1947. A string of violent events took hundreds of lives each time, if not thousands, from Jabalpur (1961) to Ahmedabad (1969), Jamshedpur (1979), Moradabad (1980), Bhiwandi (1984), the Rath Yatra killings of 1989, Bhagalpur (1989), the Babri Masjid demolition violence of 1992-93, Bombay (1993); the list is endless extending to Gujarat (2002) and beyond. All these conflagrations are testimony to the outcome of the divisions built around Partition that have lingered ever since.
Reopening wounds
•It is never late to begin the process of remembrance and to come to terms with the past without erasing it. This remembrance must be of all the communities — Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs — in undivided India, on both sides of the present borders, in the west and the east, who saw unimaginable devastation. It must be a journey of remembrance that seeks forgiveness and makes us say ‘Never again’. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision (let us make no mistake: the decision has the Prime Minister’s imprint all over it) to institute August 14 every year as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ cannot be such a beginning. No communities are mentioned in the Prime Minister’s statement, but the choice of the date tells us what it is about. Up to two million people of all religions died, but it is on the day which marks Pakistan’s emergence as a nation that we will remember the brutalities of Partition.
•This kind of remembrance will reopen wounds and give a new edge to the divisions that led to the deaths during Partition. If the post-Independence error was to avoid talking about the mass killings, the new decision will keep the past on the boil. This is not remembrance; it encourages us to let the wounds fester. We are surprised with this decision, but we should not be. It is in keeping with the idea of India as a Hindu Rashtra. A part of the Rashtra was ‘lost’ to Pakistan on August 14, 1947, and we are now told that we must remember on that very day those who lost their lives during the events that ended with the break-up of the so-called Akhand Bharat.
•This is not a dog whistle ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections; it is something more dangerous. Seventy-five years after the birth of two countries, this decision by the Prime Minister of India seems to be aimed at recalling that the emergence in 1947 of two independent nations, rather than just one, was a mistake that we cannot be allowed to forget. The institution of ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ will then not help us remember and grieve in silence for the people who were killed. It will have the opposite effect — perhaps even intentionally — of retaining the anger over Partition. Such a decision could have dangerous consequences in the future.
•If we truly want to make a beginning at remembrance of the horrors of the time, we could start by establishing a national museum of Partition in the heart of New Delhi. Mahatma Gandhi had suggested after Independence that the Viceroy’s House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) should be turned into a hospital; the suggestion was not taken up. Perhaps, now we could turn the new residence of the Prime Minister, proposed as part of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, into a museum that remembers the millions of people of all communities who were killed or were forced to flee their homes 75 years ago.
•Such a national memorial in India could be a catalyst for Pakistan and Bangladesh to establish similar museums to honour the dead in those parts of British India. This may well mark a larger South Asian process of remembrance of everyone who died, whatever their religious denomination and wherever their location at the time of Partition. This would be a true collective atonement for those terrible events.
📰 The script of the new endgame in Afghanistan
This is a moment of tragedy for Asia as well, with the U.S. leaving the country in a worse situation than when it came in
•The rapidity with which Afghanistan has unravelled has shocked and surprised everyone. The fall of Kabul, and the ignominious end of any resistance to the Taliban within six weeks of the U.S. forces vacating the Bagram airbase (near Kabul) on July 2, reveals how brittle the vaunted Afghan Security Forces were. The departure of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and almost the entire top political leadership of Afghanistan to safer havens, removes the last vestige of hope that the Taliban can be checked. Like a ‘house of cards’, Afghanistan has fallen apart the moment foreign forces vacated the country.
Taliban’s duplicity
•The enormity of the current situation is only now beginning to be evident to much of the outside world. The Taliban’s duplicity in projecting, at one level the image of a mature group during the Doha talks while at another, perpetuating violence of the most ferocious kind, is clearly evident as events unfold. The worst is, perhaps, yet to come. Afghanistan today is in a condition that is far worse than what existed when the Russians withdrew in the 1990s.
•At that time, there was at least a titular leader around whom those opposed to the Taliban could hope to mobilise and put up a fight. Moreover, the ‘retreat’ of the United States from Afghanistan in 2021 is far more humbling than the Russian withdrawal in the 1990s, for the latter at least had to contend with the actions of a superpower, like the U.S. This time the Taliban having played fast and loose with the U.S. has left the ‘superpower’ with not even the fig leaf of a honourable withdrawal. U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to set a date for the withdrawal of the American forces, and treat this decision as one carved in stone irrespective of the situation within Afghanistan — without any consideration of the consequences — clearly enabled the Taliban to take over.
•After the Russian withdrawal in the 1990s, Afghanistan still had a future, for in the final years of the 20th century, the world was intent on making efforts to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a ‘black hole’ that would create mayhem across a vast region that bordered Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China. In the 1990s, moreover, the Taliban were a band of outlaws. Today, it is recognised — may be with different degrees of disdain — by powers such as the U.S., Russia and China, and is on the brink of gaining a country. For a regulated international order that most countries across the world seek, there could be no greater tragedy than the emergence of a ‘rogue’ state under the Taliban.
Paving the way for terror
•The Afghan Establishment seemed to give up the fight against the Taliban earlier on by ceding authority to private militias, former Afghan warlords and a rabble of disparate armed groups. To expect that this kind of armed rabble would resist the Taliban was clearly a mistake. As the Afghan state implodes, one should now expect a wider cleaving between Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Hazaras and the myriad other clans that populate Afghanistan. The virtual death of the Afghan nation, approximates as it were to the ‘end of history’.
•The collapse of organised resistance to the Taliban within Afghanistan, together with the group being courted by Russia, China and quite a few other nations, apart from Pakistan — not excluding the U.S. — marks the saddest day in the history of a proud nation. This is also a moment of tragedy for Asia as a whole. It virtually spells the death-knell of any possible Afghan renaissance in the near future. Instead, the situation is far more likely to encourage erstwhile terror groups, such as the one led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar — a one-time client of Pakistan and a traditional opponent of the Taliban — to return to their erstwhile hunting grounds.
Afghanistan versus Syria
•References to Afghanistan becoming another Syria are again misplaced. At the worst of times, Syria had a relatively strong President (Bashar al-Assad), while Afghan President Ghani can hardly be compared to him. The territory of Afghanistan is also very different from that of Syria. Afghanistan’s borders, with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, unlike that of Syria are extremely porous and almost impossible to guard or protect. More to the point, the end-game in Afghanistan has little in common with the power equations witnessed in Syria. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is intent on keeping absolute control and is counting on China, Russia, and Pakistan to do so. All of them are more intent on keeping out the U.S., and in effect India.
•Indulging in a blame game at this time may appear inappropriate. However, the U.S. cannot shrug off a major share of the responsibility for Afghanistan’s current plight. Apart from the decision of Mr. Biden not to alter the last date for the exit of U.S. troops in Afghanistan — which sent a clear signal to the Taliban of a collapse of U.S. resolve to safeguard the interests of Afghanistan — the stealthy exit of the U.S. from the Bagram airbase also left an indelible impression as far as the Taliban was concerned: that the U.S. had acknowledged the Taliban’s supremacy in return for the safe passage of their troops. All this has diminished the image of the U.S. in Asian eyes. In light of this, U.S. claims to ‘make America great again’ sound extremely hollow.
Old threats may resurface
•Some political commentators seem to believe that after the initial success of the Taliban and the collapse of the Afghan state, the natural political dynamics of the region would assert itself. This seems like a pious wish. After two decades of active involvement in the affairs of Afghanistan, and spending over a trillion dollars in the process to defeat terrorism and the al Qaeda, the U.S. has left Afghanistan in a worse situation than when it entered. It is not possible to discern any reduction in terrorism or the demise of any of the better known terror groups, such as the al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), or for that matter, of lesser known terror outfits. As a matter of fact, there has been a resurgence in al Qaeda activities recently. The IS, after some earlier setbacks, is again regrouping and currently poses a real threat to areas abutting, and including, Afghanistan. Radicalised Islamist terror and the forces of ‘doctrinaire theocracy’ have, if anything, thus become stronger. The collapse of the
Afghan state will ignite many old threats.
•Compared to the situation when the U.S. left Vietnam in 1975 — which was also seen by many as a kind of ‘retreat’— the Afghan ‘misadventure’ has been a disaster. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, Vietnam was able to emerge as a vibrant nation with a thriving economy. Under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan cannot hope for any such outcome. It would remain the ‘sick man of Asia’ for generations to come, a standing folly to perils of outside intervention in the affairs of another nation.
Stakes for India, Iran
•Among Afghanistan’s neighbours, India and Iran are two countries that would find accommodation with a Taliban-dominated Afghanistan very difficult. Pakistan may be an enigma of sorts, but the Taliban will need Pakistan at least in the short and medium term. Relations between Taliban Afghanistan and Uzbekistan and Tajikistan may not be easy, but will not lead to any major problems for now. India, even more than Shia-dominated Iran, may be the outlier among Afghanistan’s neighbours for a variety of reasons, including its warm relations with the Karzai and the Ghani regimes in the past two decades.
•If the 21st century was expected to become the century of progress, the situation in Afghanistan represents a severe setback to all such hopes and expectations. The aftershock of the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban can be expected to continue for long. For India, the virtual retreat of the U.S. from this part of Asia; the growing China-Russia-Pakistan nexus across the region; and an Iran under a hardliner like Ebrahim Raisi, all work to its disadvantage. A great deal of hard thinking is needed as to how to retrieve a situation that for the present seems heavily tilted against India.
📰 A report that is at odds with access to knowledge
There is a profound misunderstanding of the raison d’etre for granting copyright in educational content
•In 2002, in light of two progressive pronouncements by the Supreme Court of India (Miss Mohini Jain vs State of Karnataka and Ors. and State of Himachal Pradesh vs H.P. State Recognised and Aided Schools Managing Committees and Ors.), the right to education found a secure constitutional home in the fundamental rights chapter of the Indian Constitution. This fundamental right, set out in Article 21A, guarantees every child between the ages of 6 and 14 access to free and compulsory education. In a series of rulings (Anuradha Bhasin vs Union of India, and Avinash Mehrotra vs Union of India), the top court has interpreted the right in a broad and expansive way, holding that it imposes an affirmative obligation on the government and civil society to secure its enjoyment.
•Consistent with this spirit, the Court held in Farzana Batool vs Union of India that, while access to professional education is not a fundamental right, the state must take affirmative measures to secure the right to education at all levels.
State’s failure
•Against this backdrop, the cavalier dismissal of the right to education under the garb of “ensuring balance between copyright protection of the publishers and public access to affordable educational study material” by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce in a recent report (https://bit.ly/3maSZhq), is deeply worrying. The Committee suggests curtailing fair dealing provisions under Indian Copyright law — which enable access to the work without the copyright holder’s consent — since it was informed that the provisions pose “a detrimental impact on the publishing industry and authors who are mainly dependent on royalties”. To highlight this as a concern instead of the abject state failure to remedy impediments to accessing educational material, exacerbated by the novel coronavirus pandemic, betrays complete ignorance of the state’s obligation to secure the right to education.
The issue of ‘purpose’
•The Committee takes note of the Delhi High Court’s landmark judgment in the DU photocopy case. In that case (The Chancellor, Masters & Scholars of the University of Oxford & Ors vs Rameshwari Photocopy Services & Anr.), the court (both the Single Judge and the Division Bench) adopted a robust understanding of the educational exception enumerated in the list of fair dealing provisions in the Copyright Act. Section 52(1)(i) allows the reproduction of any work by a teacher or a pupil in the course of instruction. The court held that ‘course of instruction’ therein is not confined to the time and place of instruction, and would include anything that could be justified for the purpose of instruction. This includes steps commencing at a time prior to lecturing and continuing till after it. It also noted that apart from Section 52(1)(a), which provides for the right to a “fair dealing” of any copyrightable work, other rights/purposes enumerated under Section 52 would not have to meet the express requirement of fair dealing.
•Thus, Section 52(1)(i) was recognised as enumerating an affirmative purpose exempt from infringement. The fairness of use under these Sections can be deemed to be presumed by the legislature as long as it is justified by the purpose specified. Consistent with this, the court also noted that there are no quantitative restrictions on the extent of the reproduction permitted as long as it is justified by a specific purpose under Section 52.
•In its report, the Standing Committee notes that it is distressed that the conflict between educational institutions and copyright owners does not bode well for the “overall literary culture and image of the country”. In a bid to make the system fair and equitable, it calls on the government to amend Section 52 to allow for such copying only in government-owned institutions. It further states that there should be a quantitative limit on how much copying is permissible and regulation of the storage of copied works in digital formats.
A flawed view
•The Committee’s views are flawed for multiple reasons. First, they betray a profound misunderstanding of the raison d’etre for granting copyright in educational content. As the single judge eloquently noted in the DU photocopy case, the purpose of copyright is to increase the: “harvest of knowledge, motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the public”. Therefore, the rights of publishers are only a means to an end.
•Relatedly, the Committee misunderstands the role of fair dealing provisions within this framework. Fair dealing provisions are user rights which are no less important than the rights of publishers. Given the fundamental character of the right to education, the importance of these rights can be traced to the Constitution. Therefore, their interpretation should reflect their salutary nature.
•Second, the Committee errs in assuming that the rights of publishers were not duly accounted for in the DU photocopy judgments. Addressing arguments regarding any adverse impact of adopting a broad interpretation of the educational purpose exemption on the market of the concerned copyrighted works, the Division Bench noted with an example that access to copyrighted material for literacy and education does not curtail the market for these works. It held that students are anyway not potential customers of 30-40 reference books in the library, and that citizens with improved literacy, education and earning potential expand the market for copyrighted materials in the long run.
•Third, having quantitative restrictions on the extent of permissible copying would be inapposite, because any limit would be arbitrarily arrived at. Instead, what is needed is a test suited to Indian realities and its development needs of making access to education more equitable and fairer in a context of deepening socio-economic inequalities.
Looking backward
•The novel coronavirus pandemic has revealed the inadequacy of our fair dealing provisions to promote educational access. Specifically, these provisions were not designed to promote the free dissemination of educational content in digital form and to facilitate the sharing of resources required to effectively offer virtual education.
•The Committee should have focused on suggesting amendments to Section 52 that would have made our copyright law fit for today’s challenges. That it has decided to look backward instead of forward is deeply troubling. Given the Supreme Court’s richly articulated constitutional obligation of the state to secure access to education, copyright law should facilitate, as opposed to attenuating its enjoyment.
📰 More feed, better productivity
A Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed seeks to enhance livestock productivity and farmers’ income
•A major stumbling block faced by Indian farmers pertains to the lack of affordable good quality feed and fodder for livestock. A study by the Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute has observed that for every 100 kg of feed required, India is short of 23.4 kg of dry fodder, 11.24 kg of green fodder, and 28.9 kg of concentrate feed. This is one of the chief reasons why Indian livestock’s milk productivity is 20%-60% lower than the global average. If we break down the input costs, we find that feed constitutes 60%-70% of milk production costs. The significance of Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed recently announced by the Indian government is underscored by the fact that livestock is the major source of cash income for about 13 crore marginal farmers and is an insurance in the event of crop failure. The lack of good quality feed and fodder impacts the productivity levels of cattle. As about 200 million Indians are involved in dairy and livestock farming, the scheme is important from the perspective of poverty alleviation.
Revised scheme
•When the National Livestock Mission was launched in 2014, it focused on supporting farmers in producing fodder from non-forest wasteland/grassland, and cultivation of coarse grains. However, this model could not sustain fodder availability due to lack of backward and forward linkages in the value chain. Therefore, the Mission has been revised to make the programme focus primarily on assistance towards seed production and the development of feed and fodder entrepreneurs. It now provides for 50% direct capital subsidy to the beneficiaries under the feed and fodder entrepreneurship programme and 100% subsidy on fodder seed production to identified beneficiaries.
•The Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed intends to create a network of entrepreneurs who will make silage (the hub) and sell them directly to the farmers (the spoke). It is premised on the idea that the funding of the hub will lead to the development of the spoke. The large-scale production of silage will bring down the input cost for farmers since silage is much cheaper than concentrate feed. Studies have indicated that by growing fodder crops one can earn ₹1.60 by investing ₹1 as compared to ₹1.20 in the case of common cereals like wheat and rice. Private entrepreneurs, self-help groups, farmer producer organisations, dairy cooperative societies, and Section 8 companies (NGOs) can avail themselves of the benefits under this scheme. The scheme will provide 50% capital subsidy up to ₹50 lakh towards project cost to the beneficiary for infrastructure development and for procuring machinery for value addition in feed such as hay/silage/total mixed ration. The scheme can be used for covering the cost of infrastructure/machinery such as bailing units, harvester, chaff cutter, sheds, etc. The revised scheme has been designed with the objectives of increasing productivity, reducing input costs, and doing away with middlemen (who usually take a huge cut).
Availability of green fodder
•A major challenge in the feed sector emanates from the fact that good quality green fodder is only available for about three months during the year. So, the ideal solution would be to ferment green fodder and convert it into silage. Hence, under the fodder entrepreneurship programme, farmers will receive subsidies and incentives to create a consistent supply chain of feed throughout the year. The idea is that farmers should be able to grow the green fodder between two crop seasons and entrepreneurs can then convert it into silage and sell it at nearby markets at one-tenth of the price of concentrate/dry feed ensuring affordable quality fodder to dairy farmers.
•In this context, it is heartening to see successful models of silage entrepreneurship by several start-ups across the country. Since India has a livestock population of 535.78 million, an effective implementation of this scheme will play a major role in increasing the return on investment for our farmers.
