📰 The cost of misrepresenting inflation
The inadequacy of monetary policy to address food-price-driven inflation has been recently flagged
•Globally, inflation is now the prime concern of governments, even as there is a speculation that a recession may not be far behind. In India, though, government agencies regularly announce that the country is growing at a much faster rate than most economies and presently assert that inflation is much lower. The growth performance is not so surprising given that among the larger economies of the world, India’s economy contracted the most in 2020-21. But despite the sharp recovery, real output in 2021-22 was barely higher than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20.
•On the claim that inflation in India is not so high in an international comparison, note that before the recently announced rise in the U.S. inflation rate for June, inflation here was close to what it was there. While the data on inflation in India is in the public domain, the public may be excused for not seeing that India’s economic agencies appear to have not fully understood what is driving it, for this requires some specialist knowledge. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been reported as saying that there was a “need to recognise global factors in inflation”.
•In our view, the diagnosis that the current inflation in India is, even largely, due to global factors is wrong, and harmful for reasons that we set out.
Factors driving inflation
•It is a common mistake to observe sharply rising prices of certain goods and conclude therefrom that it is this that is driving inflation. This conclusion can be way off the mark when the concerned goods account for only a small part of the consumption basket that the overall consumer price index is based on. Thus, while the price of edible oils and the world price of crude may have risen following the Ukraine war, the impact of this development on overall inflation in India, measured by the rise in the consumer price index, would depend upon their share in the consumption basket of households, which is relatively low.
•Our investigation of price trends among the major commodity groups threw up some findings crucial to understanding the current inflation in India.
•Contrary to the belief that the rise in inflation in India is due to higher international prices, we found that for the commodity groups ‘fuel and light’ and ‘fats and oils’, chosen as proxies for the price of imported fuel and edible oils, respectively, inflation has actually been lower in the first five months of 2022 than in the last five months of 2021. On the other hand, for the commodity group ‘food and beverages’, it was exactly the reverse, i.e., inflation has been much higher in the more recent period. Not surprisingly, the estimated direct contribution of this group to the current inflation dwarfs that of all other groups, establishing conclusively that the inflation is driven by domestic factors. This is also readily seen when we find inflation in India trending upwards from October 2021, that is, well before the war in Eastern Europe.
•While the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India may have flagged global factors in the current inflation, its monetary policy seems to be based on a somewhat different view. Starting in May, the repo rate has been raised. Raising the interest rate in an attempt to control inflation, implicitly assumes that it reflects economy-wide excess demand. Such a diagnosis of the current inflation is belied by the fact that the price of food is rising faster than that of other goods i.e., its relative price has risen. So, the excess demand is in the market for foodstuff, and it is this that needs to be eliminated. To persist with monetary policy to curb inflation under these circumstances is to miss the point that, being a macroeconomic instrument, it cannot affect any particular price.
‘Necessary food surplus’
•The inadequacy of monetary policy to address food-price-driven inflation has been flagged by economists internationally.
•Thus, at the World Economic Forum’s annual meet held at Davos, Switzerland in June, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz observed that “raising interest rates is not going to solve the problem of inflation. It is not going to create more food. What you do is that you have supply-side interventions. Killing the economy through raising interest rates is not going to solve the inflation in any time frame. We used to have surpluses in food in the United States — we can get those back. At least, trying to do everything we can globally to increase the supply is going to do more in dealing with the problem.” Another observation comes from the head of the U.S. central bank itself, the Federal Reserve Bank, made to the U.S. House of Representatives in June. Jerome Powell is reported stating that even though the Fed’s resolve to fight inflation is unconditional, “a big part of inflation won’t be affected by our tools”. This is an acknowledgement that there is only so much a central bank can do when battling inflation driven by the rise in energy and food prices. That an independent economist would suggest the impotence of monetary policy to control food inflation is not news, but when the head of a leading central bank does so, it should draw our attention. Interestingly, those responsible for inflation management in India continue to give the impression that the current inflation can be dealt with effectively by monetary policy.
•This stance by the economic arm of the government of India, that inflation can be controlled by monetary policy, could have been ignored were it not potentially harmful. To hold on to the view that inflation in India is due to excess aggregate demand curable by raising interest rates ensures that attention is not paid to the necessary supply-side interventions. Note the call by American economists to bring back the food surpluses in the United States, even when their country has hardly ever experienced food shortages. By comparison, food in India has never been plentiful, reflected in the high share of the average household budget devoted to it. And, there is here an undercurrent of a food price inflation, which, by exacerbating poverty, stands in the way of a more rapid expansion of the economy.
•As the current inflation represents a domestic imbalance, it will not end with the crashing of food prices taking place on the global market right now.
•The failure to see inflation in India as the reflection of a structural feature of its economy ensures that there is very little chance that one of India’s urgent problems will be solved.
As schools reopen, there is a need and an opportunity for States to look at a comprehensive package of services
•Children across India are back to school for in-person classes after an unnecessarily prolonged and arguably unwarranted closure (especially for the last one year) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for concrete policy measures and actions that target schoolchildren. On the education front, while there has been some discourse on ‘learning recovery’, there is an urgent need to factor in the health needs of schoolchildren. One of the reasons school health services receive inadequate policy attention is because health-care needs are often equated with medical care needs. Though school age children have a relatively low sickness rate (and thus limited medical care needs), they do have a wide range and age-specific health needs that are linked to unhealthy dietary habits, irregular sleep, lack of physical activity, mental, dental and eye problems, sexual behaviour, and the use of tobacco and other substances, addiction, etc. Then, the health knowledge acquired, and lifestyle adopted in the school-going age are known to stay in adulthood and lay the foundations of healthy behaviour for the rest of their life. For example, scientific evidence shows that tobacco cessation efforts are far more successful if started in school.
The evolution
•The first documented record of school health services in India goes back to 1909 when the then presidency of Baroda began the medical examination of schoolchildren. Later, the Sir Joseph Bhore committee, in its 1946 report, observed that school health services in India were underdeveloped and practically non-existent. In 1953, the secondary education committee of the Government of India recommended comprehensive policy interventions dealing with school health and school feeding programmes. The result was programmatic interventions, led by a few selected States, that mostly focused on nutrition. However, school health has largely remained a token service.
•In two and half years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has barely been any serious initiative about school health. In the first week of March 2022, the government of Delhi began 20 school health clinics with the promise of more. Though small, this initiative has two messages. One, it recognises the importance of school health services in the post-pandemic period. Two, the importance of multi-stakeholder partnership for school health services as these are being set up through corporate social responsibility funding from a donor on the one hand and internal collaboration between health and education departments within government on the other. On a flip side, by the Delhi government’s own assertion, these clinics are curative focused services. They also highlight the main issue: what makes comprehensive school health services has still not been fully understood.
FRESH approach
•One of the reasons for wrongly designed, and often very rudimentary, school health services — not only in India but also in most low- and middle-income countries — is, arguably, limited understanding and clarity on what constitutes well-functioning and effective school health services. This situation co-exists in spite of much evidence guided by international literature. UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank have published an inter-agency framework called FRESH — an acronym for Focusing Resources on Effective School Health. The FRESH framework and tools propose four core areas and three supporting strategies. The core areas suggest that school health services need to focus on school health policies, i.e., water, sanitation and the environment; skills-based health education and school-based health and nutrition services. The supporting strategies include effective partnerships between the education and health sectors, community partnership and student participation.
•Additionally, guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, U.S. advise that school health services should focus on four main areas of acute and emergency care; family engagement; chronic disease management; and care coordination. According to WHO , school health services should be designed based on local need assessment; should have components of health promotion, health education, screening leading to care and/or referral and support as appropriate. The objective of school health services has to be the promotion of positive health, prevention of disease, early diagnosis, treatment and follow up, raising health consciousness in children and enabling the provision of a healthy school environment.
•In the last three decades, many countries ( especially in Europe), have successfully implemented these approaches as part of the health-promoting schools (HPS) initiative. Clearly, there is a lot to learn in terms of designing school health services.
Opportunity in reopening
•As schools reopen to full capacity, there is a need and an opportunity for a proactive approach for having expanded and strengthened school health services.
•First, every Indian State needs to review the status and then draw up a road map to revamp and strengthen school health services, along with a detailed timeline and dedicated budgetary allocation. The Fifteenth Finance Commission grant for the health sector should and could be leveraged.
•Second, build upon the existing school health infrastructure; the renewed focus has to have comprehensive, preventive, promotive and curative services with a functioning referral linkage. Health talks and lifestyle sessions ( by schoolteachers and invited medical and health experts) should be a part of teaching just as physical activity sessions are. Some of the teaching must look at adolescent sexual health; also, subjects such as menstrual hygiene, etc. should be integrated into regular classroom teaching.
•Third, school health clinics should be supplemented with online consultation for physical and mental health needs. This could be an important starting point to destigmatise mental health services.
•Fourth, the role and the participation of parents, especially through parent-teacher meetings should be increased. Parents need to be sensitised about how school health services are delivered in other countries; this may work as an important accountability mechanism to strengthen school health. Innovative approaches that offer limited health services to parents, families and even schoolteachers could increase use, acceptance and demand.
•Fifth, the Government’s school health services initiatives do not include private schools most of the time. Private schools do have some health services, which are nearly always restricted to curative care and taking care of emergencies. Clearly, school health services should be designed to take care of schoolchildren be they in private or government-run schools.
•Sixth, under the Ayushman Bharat programme, a school health initiative was launched in early 2020, but its implementation is sub-optimal. There is a need to review this initiative, increase dedicated financial allocation to bring sufficient human resources and monitor performance based on concrete outcome indicators. Otherwise, it will end up being a ‘missed opportunity’.
•Seventh, children are the future of society, but only if they are healthy and educated. Therefore, elected representatives, professional associations of public health and paediatricians shoulder the responsibility — every citizen should raise the issue and work towards improved school health services being present in every State of India.
•A few weeks ago, following a review of the implementation of the National Education Policy, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is said to have advised regular health check-ups and screening schoolchildren. Some letters were said to have been sent to the Health Department and requests made to depute medical interns and students in post-graduate courses to conduct a health check-up in schools. Such an approach on an issue that needs a thorough approach is akin to ‘tokenism’. India’s children need better handling than this.
For a platform
•Every challenge has a silver lining The onus is on health policy makers and programme managers in every Indian State to do everything in the best interests of children. The Departments of Education and Health in every Indian State must work together to strengthen school health services. It is an opportunity to bring children, parents, teachers, health and education sector specialists and the Departments of Health and Education on a common platform to ensure better health and quality education for every child in India. A convergence of the National Health Policy, 2017 and National Education Policy, 2020 should result in the provision of comprehensive school health services in every Indian State.
📰 India-Vietnam ties, from strong to stronger
As New Delhi pursues its ‘Act East Policy’, Hanoi has become a valuable partner in the Indo-Pacific region
•India and Vietnam are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. Bolstering friendship between the two countries is a natural outcome of a growing convergence of their strategic and economic interests, and also their common vision for peace, prosperity and their people. A strong commitment of political leadership along with the necessary institutional frameworks and cooperation between the two countries is likely to be more robust in the future. More importantly, embedding a flexible framework of engagement can contribute positively to regional stability and prosperity.
Shared concerns
•India is essentially a maritime nation and the oceans hold the key to India’s future. India’s external trade (over 90% by volume and 70% by value) is by sea. Very dependent on the seas for its trade and commerce, India has intensified its efforts to engage with maritime neighbours, including Vietnam.
•India’s relations with Vietnam — some of which is based on a set of historical commonalities — predate any conflict between India and China as well as that between China and Vietnam. The strategic dimensions of Indo-Vietnamese relations, initiated during the 1980s, began unfolding in the form of structured and institutional arrangements during the 1990s. As India pursues its ‘Act East Policy’, Vietnam has become a valuable partner in India’s political and security engagements in the Indo-Pacific region. The two countries are working to address shared strategic concerns (such as energy security and open and secure sea lines of communication), and make policy choices without undue external interference. Given India’s broadening economic and strategic interests in the region and Vietnam’s desire for strategic autonomy, both countries will benefit from a stronger bilateral relationship. India and Vietnam face territorial disputes with and shared apprehensions about their common neighbour, China. Vietnam is of great strategic importance because its position enables it to control ‘the South China Sea — a true Mediterranean of the Pacific’. The maritime domain, therefore, has become an essential element of India and Vietnam cooperation.
The driving forces
•There are four key motivations behind India’s growing maritime engagement with Vietnam. First, India’s aspiration to counter an assertive China by strengthening Vietnam’s military power. Second, with India’s increasing trade with East and Southeast Asia, India has begun to recognise the importance of its sea lines of communication beyond its geographical proximity; the South China Sea occupies a significant geostrategic and geo-economic position, resulting in India’s renewed interests in the South China Sea. Third, India desires to intensify its presence to track potential developments in the maritime domain that could affect its national interests. And fourth, the Indian Navy underlines the importance of a forward maritime presence and naval partnership that would be critical to deter potential adversaries. India’s maritime strategic interests in the region are well established, including the fact that almost 55% of India’s trade with the Indo-Pacific region passes through the South China Sea.
•More importantly, India sees an open and stable maritime commons being essential to international trade and prosperity; therefore, it has an interest in protecting the sea lanes. With this renewed interest in the maritime domain, freedom of navigation, a peaceful resolution of disputes and a respect for international laws have become salient features of the Indian approach. India is willing to take a principled stand on territorial disputes in the hope that it contributes to the stabilisation of the Indo-Pacific. Such positions align closely with Vietnam’s stance on the management of the South China Sea disputes.
•Ever since the formal declaration of a strategic partnership in 2007 and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016, the scope and scale of the India-Vietnam strategic and defence cooperation, particularly in the maritime domain, is deepening with a clear vision, institutional mechanisms and the necessary political support from both governments. The signing of ‘Joint Vision for Defence Cooperation’ and a memorandum of understanding on mutual logistics support in June 2022 has further strengthened mutual defence cooperation. While a U.S.$100 million Defence Line of Credit has been implemented, India has also announced early finalisation of another U.S.$500 million Defence Line of Credit to enhance Vietnam’s defence capability. New Delhi has also agreed to expand military training and assist the Vietnam Navy’s strike capabilities. For example, it is providing ‘comprehensive underwater combat operation’ training to Vietnamese sailors at INS Satavahana in Visakhapatnam. India’s Defence Minister handed over 12 high-speed boats to Vietnam recently’ a Khukri-class corvette is also expected to be gifted soon. Vietnam is also ‘exploring the possibility of acquiring Indian-manufactured surveillance equipment such as unmanned aerial vehicles’.
Using frameworks
•The two countries are also engaging in wide-ranging practical cooperation in the maritime domain through a maritime security dialogue, naval exercises, ship visits, Coast Guard cooperation, and training and capacity building. They have found mutual convergences on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and are synergising their efforts to work in bilateral as well as other sub-regional and multilateral frameworks, such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, ADMM-Plus or the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus. The Special Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in June 2022 has proposed an ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise and informal meeting between India and ASEAN Defence Ministers in November 2022. Both countries are also looking at collaboration around the seven pillars of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI).
•There are some other potential areas for New Delhi and Hanoi to further deepen collaboration, such as meaningful academic and cultural collaborations, shipbuilding, maritime connectivity, maritime education and research, coastal engineering, the blue economy, marine habitat conservation, and advance collaboration between maritime security agencies. The IPOI framework presents immense opportunities for India-Vietnam relations to aid regional progress and peace. The road map agreed upon by the leaders will be helpful in addressing common challenges and decisively navigating towards making an India-Vietnam partnership that helps in stability in the Indo-Pacific.
📰 A hint of stability
With a new government in Sri Lanka, India must review its options in extending help
•As a leader who was the lone member of his party in Parliament, Ranil Wickremesinghe can only see his victory in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections on Wednesday as a political windfall. However, the position comes with a crown of thorns. His first challenge will be to reach out to the people, including the protesters in Colombo demanding his resignation, which is something politicians usually do before they win an election, not after. Building credibility with them will require distancing himself from the very faction of the ruling SLPP backed by Mahinda Rajapaksa that won him the elections. If he fails to satisfy the “street”, then general elections, which Sri Lanka can barely afford at this point, will be the only remaining course. Elections would only further delay the task of economic rebuilding, particularly the much-needed negotiations with the IMF for a bailout. In normal course, the six-time Prime Minister will be equal to the challenge. However, his performance over the past few months as PM has not seen him emerge with any big ideas to control the crisis. A combination of the fall in domestic production, tax revenues, remittances, and currency reserves signals that the road out of this economic trough will be arduous. In addition, President Wickremesinghe, and whoever fills his position as Prime Minister, will have to make many more unpopular decisions once the IMF negotiations are concluded, and the bailout stipulations and conditions spelt out.
•New Delhi will also have to review its options, given the proximity, and as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told an all-party meeting on Tuesday, the Government will naturally worry about the “spill over” from the Sri Lankan situation. The Modi government has adopted a three-pronged strategy — expressing sympathy with the people of Sri Lanka and their “quest for stability and economic recovery through democratic means”; extending “unprecedented” financial assistance, credit lines and essential food, fuel and medicines worth U.S.$3.8 billion since January 2022; and distancing itself from the Rajapaksas. The policy has reaped dividends in public goodwill in Sri Lanka for India, particularly in comparison to other partners such as China that have only provided humanitarian aid worth approximately $74 million, and not much else by way of credit lines and debt restructuring and deferrals of repayment this year. It is significant that India’s first reaction to Mr. Wickremesinghe’s election was understated, given the uncertainties still surrounding the government. However, if the new government is to have a chance at overcoming the odds, New Delhi’s support, bilaterally and internationally, will be essential, and the Modi government must decide if continuing its policy of distance from the leadership will achieve its objectives with its close neighbour in the months ahead.
📰 Saving mothers
Data on MMR should lead to restructuring health-care systems for women
•Few things in science or social science are as incontestable as the importance of maternal health to human development. Maternal mortality indicates a woman’s ability to access health care, contraceptive devices, nutrition, and, in a sense, is a mark of the efficiency of a health-care system in responding to demands made of it. A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal, PLOS Global Public Health, casts a shadow over the progress of health care targeting women in the country, but also, questions the reliability of the country’s own periodic estimates of maternal mortality ratio, or MMR (number of mothers who die from complications in pregnancy for every one lakh live births.) Researchers from the International Institute for Population Sciences triangulated data from routine records of maternal deaths under the Health Management Information System, with Census data and the Sample Registration System (SRS) to provide the MMR for all States and districts of India. The analysis suggests that 70% of districts (448 out of 640 districts) in India have reported MMR above 70 deaths — a target under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Many of the districts in southern India and Maharashtra have an MMR of less than 70. At the same time, the north-eastern and central regions have the least number of districts (12 and six districts, respectively) with an MMR less than 70. Significantly, it also demonstrates the presence of huge within-State inequalities, even among the better performers — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Similar heterogeneity was observed in other States as well. According to the SRS (2016-18), only Assam (215) has an MMR of more than 200, while in this district-level assessment, the indications are that about 130 districts have reported above 200 MMR.
•It is ironic that as the nation plans to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Independence grandly, so many districts still show a very high MMR, clearly indicative of the inadequacy of responsiveness of health systems. But that is not the only reason. There is adequate proof that improvements in access to contraceptives, antenatal care, post-delivery health care, body mass index, and the economic status, besides a concerted reduction of higher-order births, births in higher ages, will help reduce MMR. The message during this milestone anniversary year is two pronged: improve overall care for women, and keep real time track of such crucial health data. Immediate action is required to meet the SDG goal regarding MMR. Ultimately, it is more than about just the numbers. There are people — mothers and infants, entire families — behind these numbers who will benefit from such an urgent and intense action on reducing eminently preventable deaths.
📰 The NEET conundrum and Tamil Nadu’s steadfast opposition
Why is Tamil Nadu looking for exemption from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test? What is the AK Rajan committee?
•The Tamil Nadu government has vociferously opposed NEET-based admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses.
•NEET not only threatens state autonomy with respect to the Centre conducting admissions to state run institutions, it also overshadows students’ efforts in their higher secondary education and has known to spawn multi-billion dollar coaching centres.
•In 2021, a fresh Bill to admit students for MBBS/BDS courses only on the basis of their class XII board examination scores, was adopted by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. In February this year, after the Bill was returned by the Governor, it was readopted by the House and sent back to the Governor.
•The story so far: The mandatory National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical degree courses was introduced across the country based on a Supreme Court ruling in 2016. The Tamil Nadu government vociferously opposed the entrance test from the beginning and initially got exemption from NEET-based admissions. However, in August 2017, the Supreme Court refused to grant further exemption to the State. The legal fight against NEET continues to this day.
Why and how was NEET introduced?
•The Medical Council of India (MCI) (since replaced by the National Medical Commission) had mooted the NEET in 2009 with a stated objective of ensuring inter-se merit in medical admissions and to avoid multiple entrance tests conducted by different agencies, governments and deemed universities. The following year the MCI had issued a notification to regulate MBBS and BDS admissions in the country through a common entrance test. However, in 2013, by the majority of a 2:1 verdict the Supreme Court had struck down the NEET as unconstitutional and ruled that the MCI had no powers to issue notifications to regulate admissions in medical/dental colleges.
•Three years later in April 2016, a five judge bench headed by Justice Anil. R. Dave (who delivered the dissenting verdict in 2013), in a rare order recalled its 2013 judgment and eventually mandated the conduct of NEET. Following requests from certain stakeholders, the Union Government promulgated an ordinance in May 2016 exempting State-run medical colleges from the ambit of the Supreme Court mandate for a year. After which in 2017, the Supreme Court refused to grant exemption from NEET to Tamil Nadu.
Was Tamil Nadu the only State to oppose NEET?
•No. Other states including Gujarat had also opposed the NEET in the initial years for varying reasons. As reported in The Hindu on May 4, 2016, the Gujarat government had submitted in the Supreme Court that it was “torture” to impose NEET on students who had already mentally prepared for the State entrance exams. Tamil Nadu reiterated its argument that the State does not have a legacy of entrance exams since 2007. States like Jammu and Kashmir [now Union Territory of J&K and Ladakh], Andhra Pradesh and Telangana invoked special provisions in the Constitution to contend that only the State and not the Centre had the legislative competence to conduct examinations for MBBS and BDS courses.
Is the opposition to NEET merely political?
•Beyond issues such as the NEET threatening state autonomy, questions have been raised on the pragmatism of the common entrance test score being the sole determinant of merit from Kashmir to Kanniyakumari. The NEET overshadows students’ efforts in their higher secondary education and has known to spawn multi-billion dollar coaching centres. As a result, the focus is more on cracking the ‘be-all-end-all’ examination instead of mastering the subjects at the higher secondary level. It also compromises the learning of non-core subjects. Besides, there have been discrepancies in the conduct of NEET with cases of impersonation being reported. Even in the NEET examination conducted last Sunday, the CBI unearthed an impersonation racket and arrested eight persons. Such racketeering challenges the very concept of merit. Also, while it has ensured merit-based admissions in state-run institutions where the fees is affordable; in deemed universities and private colleges even now students with poor NEET scores, who have the wherewithal to pay hefty sums as fees, continue to edge out meritorious aspirants belonging to poor, lower and middle class families.
What were the AK Rajan committee findings?
•After coming to power last year, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, constituted a committee headed by retired High Court judge Justice A. K. Rajan to study the effects of the NEET-based admission process. The committee was asked to find whether the entrance test had adversely affected students from the rural and urban poor, those who studied in government schools, those who studied in Tamil medium or any other section of students from Tamil Nadu. If so, the panel was mandated, to suggest the steps to be taken to remove the impediments and to protect the rights of the State, for advancing the principles of social justice and also to fulfil the mandate of the Constitution to provide equal and equitable “access to health” to all sections of the people of Tamil Nadu. Justice Rajan in his report recommended: “The State Government may undertake immediate steps to eliminate NEET from being used in admission to medical programmes at all levels by following the required legal and/or legislative procedures.” He told The Hindu that data showed that 99% of students, who got admitted in medical colleges post-NEET, had gone for coaching. “Coaching focuses only on preparing students to answer questions asked in the particular exam as opposed to learning a subject,” he said.
What is the current status?
•While most States have adopted NEET, the Tamil Nadu government remains opposed to it with the backing of all major political parties, with the exception of the BJP and one or two fringe outfits. The President refused assent to two Bills adopted by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously in 2017 seeking exemption from NEET-based admissions for undergraduate and posgraduate degree medical courses.
•In 2021, a fresh Bill to admit students for MBBS/BDS courses only on the basis of their class XII board examination scores was adopted by the Legislative Assembly. In February this year, after the Bill was returned by the Governor, for the first time in the history of the state Legislative Assembly, the Bill was readopted by the House and sent back to the Governor. The Raj Bhavan has since forwarded the Bill to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for Presidential assent. On Tuesday, the Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra informed the Lok Sabha that clarification has been sought from the Tamil Nadu Government on the Bill seeking to dispense with the NEET. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of AYUSH had furnished comments on the Bill which have been shared with the state government of Tamil Nadu for their comments and clarifications.
📰 CAPFs: children of a lesser God
The sacrifices made by CAPF personnel should not be ignored. They deserve better
•Way back in 1975, when I was awarded the President’s Police and Fire Service Medal for Gallantry for my derring-do in an encounter with Naga insurgents in Tamenglong district of Manipur, I sent a copy of the Government’s Gazette Notification to the Tamil Nadu Government as I hail from that State. While I expected to be given a piece of land in my native district of Tiruchirappalli, all that I got by way of a reply was the Government of India notification laying down the rules governing the award of the said medal which I already had. In course of time, I realised that my State chooses to ignore its policemen for their gallant action. Thankfully, during the last few years, the State has been paying a solatium of ₹1 crore for those who lay down their lives in the course of their duties. While the policemen are given a step-motherly treatment, personnel from the defence services are treated with some modicum of respect, not just in Tamil Nadu but in several other States too.
Better monetary grants
•While defence personnel are paid handsome monetary grants by certain States, several others turn parsimonious. While the Telangana Government’s grant is ₹2.25 crore for winners of Param Vir Chakra (PVC) (the highest war time gallantry award) and the Ashoka Chakra (highest peace time gallantry award), and ₹1.25 crore for Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) (second highest war time gallantry award) and the Kirti Chakra (second highest peace time gallantry award), the Tamil Nadu Government’s monetary grants are ₹25 lakh, ₹20 lakh, ₹15 lakh and ₹10 lakh for the PVC, the Ashoka Chakra, the MVC and the Kirti Chakra, respectively.
•The police medals for gallantry and services are never in the reckoning for any monetary benefits by the States, except the Rajasthan Government which pays a paltry sum to the awardees. While an Ashoka Chakra awardee gets paid ₹2 lakh and 25 bighas of land or ₹2 lakh in lieu of land, an awardee of the President’s Police and Fire Service Medal for Gallantry (PPFSMG) gets ₹75,000 and 25 bighas of land, while the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG), which is lower in the order of seniority vis-à-vis the PPFSMG, gets a higher sum of ₹1 lakh along with 25 bighas of land. For the Police Medal for gallantry, the amount paid is just ₹50,000 and 25 bighas of land.
•CAPFs comprise the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the Assam Rifles. They were, however, eligible for Chakra series of medals if the battalions were placed under the operational control of the Army.
•Assistant Commandant of the BSF — Ram Krishna Wadhwa — was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously for his gallant action in the Indo-Pak war of 1971 at Mamdot on the western borders, as the battalion was under the Army control operationally. Bimla Devi, a constable of CRPF, was awarded the Sena Medal for her alertness that led to recovery of 770 detonators from a woman who was working as a courier for militants in Jaffna in August 1988.
•The President’s notification of January 4, 1952 had debarred personnel of the police forces and the fire services from being conferred with chakra series of medals, though civilians were eligible. A notification of June 24, 1999 amended the order to include “citizens of either sex in all walks of life and members of police forces including Central Para Military Forces and the Railway Protection Force”, which rendered them eligible for the Chakra series of medals. As a result, several policemen and personnel of the CAPFs have been awarded Chakra series of medals since then.
Three classes of gallantry medals
•For want of clear-cut guidelines about the award of chakra series of medals and the police gallantry awards, the Government could consider setting up a high powered committee to go into the nitty-gritty of instituting three classes of gallantry medals exclusively for the police forces on the lines of the Ashoka Chakra, the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra, which could be named Sarvottam Police Chakra (SPC), Uttam Police Chakra (UPC) and Police Chakra (PC). Those who have been awarded the PPFSMG and the PPMG could be placed at par with the Kirti Chakra and awardees of the PMG could be placed at par with the Shaurya Chakra.
•Minister of State, Nityanand Rai, had stated in the Rajya Sabha in March 2022 that over 2,000 personnel, including 47 Gazetted Officers of the CAPF lost their lives on operational duties during the last three years. The sacrifices made by the police and the CAPF personnel in the service of the nation cannot just be ignored. They deserve a much better and honourable deal.
