Contents

GIST OF THE HINDU .......................................................................................... 3

A GLACIAL FIGHT ........................................................ 3
THE STRANGE CASE OF KULBHUSHAN JADHAV .................................. 3
LEGALLY ENABLING ...................................................... 5
A LINGERING THREAT ..................................................... 5
REDEFINING CITIZENSHIP .................................................. 6
THE GREAT CLIMATE CHURN ................................................ 7
EQUITY IN DEBT ......................................................... 8
LONELY AND DISINTERESTED ............................................... 9
SPARK OR AN EMBER? ..................................................... 11
THE CASE FOR MEDIATED SETTLEMENTS ....................................... 12
RED, BLUE, ORDINARY .................................................... 13
TRADING AWAY OUR DIGITAL RIGHTS ......................................... 13
SHOULD WE PRIVATISE WATER? .............................................. 15
WAITING FOR THE LOKPAL ................................................. 15
TOWARDS COMPLETE JUSTICE AT LAST ........................................ 17
THE CLIMATE FIGHT IS GLOBAL .............................................. 18
THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE OF IP ............................................ 19
A CALL FOR REFORM ...................................................... 20
A STRETCHED MARKET .................................................... 21
A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM ........................................ 22
THE WORLD IS STILL FLAT ................................................. 23
A NEW CHAPTER FOR THE DISABLED ......................................... 24
LEARNING TO RUN TWICE AS FAST ........................................... 25
FACING UP TO IT ......................................................... 27
GENERIC MEDICINES IN A DIGITAL AGE ........................................ 28
INDIA'S CHOICES AS AMERICA 'ASKS' ......................................... 29
REINING IN THE SHARKS ................................................... 30
SUKMA IS A WAKE-UP CALL ................................................. 32
EQUITY IN TAXES ........................................................ 33
BEING PRAGMATIC WITH PYONGYANG ........................................ 34
POWERING UP FOOD ...................................................... 35
TARGETED TREATMENT ................................................... 36
SHORT-SIGHTED PLOY ..................................................... 36
GUARDING THE GATEKEEPERS ............................................... 37
THE SCALE OF PROGRESS, SO FAR ............................................ 38
THE LONG ARC TO ANKARA ................................................ 39
THIS TIME WITH FEELING .................................................. 40
GOVT. CORPORATION TO TAKE OVER SICK TEXTILE MILLS .......................... 41
TOWARDS A UNIQUE DIGITAL SOUTH ASIAN IDENTITY ............................ 41
PACIFISM AND REALPOLITIK ................................................ 42
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CHASING PEACE ......................................................... 43
TRIPLE TALAQ AND THE CONSTITUTION ....................................... 44
TB TIMELINES ........................................................... 46
SHOULD WE DO AWAY WITH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT? .............................. 47
SAVING JADHAV ......................................................... 47
GIST OF THE YOJANA ...................................................................................... 4 9
THE STORY OF A NEW IDNIA ................................................ 49
FIRST LARGEST PRIVATE INVESTMENT INITIATIVE IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING ........... 51
REGISTERING A ROBUST GROWTH ............................................ 51
FOWARDS CLEANER COOKING FUEL ........................................... 53
ESAMPARK ............................................................. 54
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA ................................................................................ 5 6
PM ON DOUBLING FARMERS' INCOME ......................................... 56
RURAL TRANSFORMATION: SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENT .......................... 56
TRANSFORMING THE VILLAGE: NEW RURBAN STRATEGY BASED ON GANDHIAN APPROACH 58
ADARSH GRAM, SWASTH GRAM HEALTH IN RURAL INDIA .......................... 60
GIST OF THE PIB ................................................................................................ 6 3
GENDER PARITY INDEX .................................................... 63
BUSINESS REFORM ACTION PLAN 2017 ........................................ 64
CABINET APPROVES PROCUREMENT OF VOTER VERIFIABLE PAPER AUDIT TRAIL UNITS .... 66
RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD CALLS FOR EXPEDITING JUDICIAL REFORMS .................. 67
PRO BONO LEGAL SERVICES ................................................. 68
TELE LAW: MAINSTREAMING LEGAL AID THROUGH COMMON SERVICE CENTRE .......... 68
DISTRICT FACILITATION CENTRE TO REDUCE PENDENCY: ENGAGEMENT OF NYAYA MITRA .. 68
MAKE IN INDIA GETS VARIOUS BOOSTS ....................................... 69
DRAFT THREE YEAR ACTION AGENDA ......................................... 70
SIGNING OF TRIPARTITE MOU FOR BROADBAND SERVICES TO POST OFFICES ............ 74
SHARADA PRASAD COMMITTEE SUBMITTED REPORT ON SKILL SECTOR ................ 74
GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER ................................................................... 7 7
SMART PHONE APPS IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION ............................... 77
INDIA’S SPACE PROGRAMME ................................................ 78
NAVIGATING & POSTIONING ................................................ 78
CITIZEN SCIENCE IN ASTRONOMY ............................................ 79
NEW BIODEGRADABLE FOOD PACKAGES ....................................... 80
NEW TECHNIQUE TURNS OBJECTS INTO FM .................................... 80

COURTESY:
 The indu
 The Yojana
 Kurukshetra
 Press Information Bureau
 Science Reporter

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IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
The Hindu
A GLACIAL FIGHT
It is 33 years since humanity established a
permanent presence on the snow-clad Siachen
glacier and converted the 'land of roses' into the
world's highest battlefield. On April 13 1984
India launched Operation Meghdoot to capture
the 76.4 km-long glacier on the Saltoro ridge
narrowly thwarting Pakistan's own attempts in
the process. A platoon of 4 Kumaon led by then
Captain Sanjay Kulkarni planted the Indian flag at
Bilafond La. The operation continues till date
making it the longest continuing one of its kind
in the world. But the guns on the glacier have
fallen silent following the 2003 ceasefire along
the Line of Control (LoC and the Actual round
Position Line (APL across the Siachen. The LoC
has flared up intermittently but ceasefire along
the APL has held since.
Siachen is a legacy of Partition. While the
LoC was delineated and accepted by India and
Pakistan up to point NJ9842 the glacier was left
unmarked. India claims the area based on the
Jammu and Kashmir Instrument of Accession
(1947 and the Karachi Agreement of 1949 which
define the ceasefire line beyond NJ9842 as
"running Northwards to the glaciers".
Siachen is often referred to as a low-
hanging fruit an issue to be sorted out by both
sides before addressing the Kashmir question.
owever it may not be that simple for historical
operational and practical reasons. Pakistan's calls
in the recent past for demilitarising Siachen stem
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from a position of desperation to save the lives of
its soldiers from the extreme conditions there
while at the same time continuing cross-border
terrorism along the LoC.
India has shown willingness for
demilitarisation conditional on first
authenticating the 110-km APL which is the
current position on the glacier. But Pakistan
refuses which means that once India vacates the
posts Pakistan may try to occupy them. India
currently has the advantage of height as it
commands higher ground and any
demilitarisation without proper delineation and
acceptance of the current positions would be
disastrous. Retaking once-occupied peaks is near
impossible. Pakistan made several unsuccessful
attempts at retaking the posts till 2003. In July
1998 the then Defence Minister eorge
Fernandes said "India needs to hold on to
Siachen both for strategic reasons and wider
security in the region."
The biggest enemy on the glacier has
always been the weather. The Indian Army which
holds the highest posts at heights of 21000 ft
has learnt to adapt and now has a well-oiled
system in place. owever the series of recent
untimely avalanches on the glacier and the
resultant spikes in casualties show that the
challenge of changing weather patterns is new.
As status quo continues amidst attempts at
demilitarisation the pressing concern is tackling
the changing weather patterns. Some studies
have been initiated to access the rate of glacier
melt and the Army is re-assessing the vulnerable
posts in an attempt to shift some of them. These
need to be accelerated and technology infused to
save the soldier.
THE STRANGE CASE OF
KULBHUSHAN JADHAV
The military trial and summary sentencing
to death of Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan with
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the Indian igh Commission denied consular
access to him has plunged India-Pakistan
relations into a crisis again. Mr. Jadhav is not the
first Indian to be caught and sentenced as a spy
by Pakistan but the first retired middle-level
naval officer. The context and background of this
need examination.
The current cycle of bilateral engagement
and acrimony runs from the dramatic visit by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lahore on
Christmas in 2015. The occasion was Pakistan
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's granddaughter's
wedding but really it was a diplomatic leap in the
dark. As in the past beginning with Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Lahore bus journey
theatrical moves rattle anti-India forces in the
Pakistani military and jihadi organisations who
then unleash retributive terrorist acts. Within a
week of Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif socialising the
Pathankot airbase was attacked. Tragically within
days of that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed the Chief
Minister of Jammu and Kashmir who headed the
Peoples Democratic Party's alliance with the
Bharatiya Janata Party died. The stage was set
for instability in the Kashmir Valley.
Kulbhushan Jadhav alias ussein Mubarak
Patel was arrested by Pakistan in March 2016
allegedly in Balochistan for espionage and
abetting terror. This was a windfall for Pakistan
as since the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the
confessions of Pakistan-born American operative
David eadley it had been seeking moral
equivalence by alleging complicity of India's
external intelligence agency the Research and
Analysis Wing (R&AW in almost every major
attack particularly by the renegade Tehreek-e-
Taliban Pakistan. In fact the joint statement of
Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousaf
Raza ilani at Sharm el-Sheikh in 2009 was widely
condemned in India for unnecessarily allowing
Pakistan to introduce Balochistan in the
statement to discuss an alleged Indian hand in
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the Baloch uprising.
There is the usual Indo-Pak disagreement
over facts. India claims Mr. Jadhav was
conducting business out of Chabahar Iran for
many years after retiring from the Navy and that
he has been abducted by Pakistani state or non-
state actors from within Iran. The fact that despite
specific provisions in the Vienna Convention on
Consular Relations India was denied access to
Mr. Jadhav only confirms that Pakistan does not
want the truth to be revealed about the place and
manner of arrest. India also argues that spies and
operatives are not sent carrying their own
passports. On the other hand it is unclear why
Mr. Jadhav was operating under a Muslim name
and if he did convert why the government keeps
referring to him by his earlier name. India has
not challenged the authenticity of his passport
implying that it was not obtained by fraud or
faked by Pakistan. With the debate in India now
enveloped in jingoism such lacunae in stories
paraded by both sides are beyond examination.
The Indian opposition has adopted a
jingoistic pitch to entrap a government mixing
politics religion and nationalism. If assurances
in Parliament are that the government will do "all"
in its power to rescue Mr. Jadhav either it is
confident of a Cold War-style exchange of spies
provided they have managed to secure the asset
that went missing from Nepal or it is upping the
ante hoping that Pakistan will not want to
escalate tensions further.
India misperceives Pakistan as the 19th
century French statesman Talleyrand said the
world did Russia as it is neither as strong as it
seems nor as weak as we think. For instance it is
not isolated as policymakers in South Block
assume. Pakistan would have seen rising Chinese
rhetoric over the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang. It
also would read U.S. President Donald Trump's
intervention in Syria and the dropping of the
'mother of all bombs' in Afghanistan as the U.S.
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
returning to business as usual and restoring the
primacy of its Sunni allies i.e. Turkey Saudi
Arabia plus the ulf Cooperation Council
Pakistan and Egypt. Pakistan is familiar with the
generals now ruling the roost after White ouse
chief strategist Stephen Bannon's fall.
A Sino-Pak alliance now fed by China's open
hostility and not countered by the U.S.'s words of
restraint may entrap India into a regional morass.
Many assumptions on which the Modi
government has functioned in diplomacy are
being rewritten. The challenge is to steer India
through this maze with more than jingoism
theatre and domestic electoral needs.
LEGALLY ENABLING
The IV and AIDS (Prevention and
Control Bill passed by Parliament does not
guarantee access to anti-retroviral drugs and
treatment for opportunistic infections but there
is no denying that it is a good base for an active
health rights movement to build upon.
Understandably IV-positive people in the
country estimated at over 21 lakh are
disappointed that the Centre's commitment to
take all measures necessary to prevent the spread
of IV or AIDS is not reflected in the Bill in the
form of the right to treatment. The law only
enjoins the States to provide access "as far as
possible". Beyond this f law though the
legislation empowers those who have contracted
the infection in a variety of ways: such as
protecting against discrimination in employment
education health-care services getting insurance
and renting property. It is now for the States to
show strong political commitment and appoint
one or more ombudsmen to go into complaints of
violations and submit reports as mandated by the
law. ere again State rules should prescribe a
reasonable time limit for inquiries into
complaints something highlighted by the
Standing Committee on ealth and Family
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5
Welfare that scrutinised the legislation.
Access to insurance for persons with IV
is an important part of the Bill and is best
handled by the government. The numbers are not
extraordinarily large and new cases are on the
decline according to the ealth Ministry. Data
for 2015 published by the Ministry show that
two-thirds of IV-positive cases are confined to
seven States while three others have more than
one lakh cases each. Viewed against the national
commitment to oal 3 of the UN Sustainable
Development oals - to "end the epidemic of
AIDS" (among others by 2030 - a rapid scaling up
of interventions to prevent new cases and to offer
free universal treatment is critical. Publicly funded
insurance can easily bring this subset of care-
seekers into the overall risk pool. Such a measure
is also necessary to make the forward-looking
provisions in the new law meaningful and to
provide opportunities for education skill-
building and employment. As a public health
concern IV/AIDS has a history of active
community involvement in policymaking and a
highly visible leadership in the West. It would be
appropriate for the Centre to initiate active public
consultations to draw up the many guidelines to
govern the operation of the law. Evidently the
requirement for the ombudsman to make public
the periodic reports on compliance will exert
pressure on States to meet their obligations. In an
encouraging sign the Supreme Court has ruled
against patent extensions on frivolous grounds
putting the generic drugs industry so crucial for
IV treatment on a firm footing. The IV and
AIDS Bill may not be the answer to every need but
it would be a folly not to see its potential to make
further gains.
A LINGERING THREAT
If confirmed by the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW the
April 4 chemical attack in Syria where more than
 6 VOL–53
80 people suffocated to death would mark a
tragic coincidence of the 20-year commemoration
of the ban on chemical arms. While the incident
is still under investigation by the OPCW the
bodies of victims are believed to bear signs of the
effects of exposure to sarin gas similar to the
2013 houta attack.
The horror in houta came to be described
as Syria's alabja a reference to the 1988
massacre of 5000 Kurds in the Iraqi town. The
global outrage against the 2013 incident forced
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to accede to the
1997 treaty.The removal of the final consignment
of chemicals in June 2014 to different
destruction destinations marked a milestone in
the OPCW's Syria operations. But questions have
remained over the stockpiles and production
facilities that Damascus has declared to
international monitors. Within a year of the
removal came the chlorine barrel bombing on
Sarmin in March 2015 killing six people. There
have been similar instances before the horror that
shook Khan Sheikhoun earlier this month.
But there is a dark chapter in an otherwise
promising history of disarmament of this class of
weapons one that dates back to Iraq's brutal war
with Iran in the 1980s. In 2014 appeared a
disturbing revelation of the Pentagon's denials
and delays in acknowledging the grievous
exposure of hundreds of U.S. soldiers to
weaponised chemicals in Iraq between 2004 and
2009. The OPCW confirmed that the thousands
of weapons and agents that the U.S. detonated
dangerously under open skies were all from the
earlier conflict. It is only after Baghdad's 2009
accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention
which obligated further demilitarisation under
the OPCW's watch that the full extent of these
activities came to light. But the earlier veil of U.S.
secrecy has still left lingering fears that whatever
remains of these deadly munitions found in the
now largely Islamic State-held region may
possibly have fallen into the hands of extremists.
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As of October 2016 90% of the world's
declared stockpile of chemical agents has been
verifiably destroyed or converted to peaceful
purposes according to the OPCW and around
98% of the world is free from exposure to
chemical arms. While the legal ban that has been
in place for two decades is a significant advance
it is hard to draw comfort from numbers
especially when the munitions are weapons of
mass destruction.
REDEFINING CITIZENSHIP
In March the Supreme Court requested the
government's views on a PIL seeking to impose a
lifetime ban on contesting elections for those
sentenced to imprisonment for more than two
years. Currently the ban extends to six years after
the completion of a sentence. The proposed
change which is supported by the Election
Commission would effectively end the electoral
career of many prominent political leaders.
This case could be the latest amongst a
series of Supreme Court decisions modifying the
electoral process in recent years: the court has
held that citizens are entitled to cast a 'none of
the above' vote that prisoners are disqualified
from standing for election during periods of
incarceration that the concealment of criminal
antecedents constitutes a corrupt practice under
the law and that electoral appeals to caste and
religion are impermissible.
More recently however the court has gone
further; it has attempted to gradually reshape the
ballot. At first glance these come across as
welcome developments - after all who could fault
the court for preventing prisoners or those with
criminal records from contesting elections? Yet
they raise fundamental questions about the nature
of our democracy and are deeply disquieting for a
number of reasons.
First the court has increasingly used the
regrettable caste-based taxonomy of 'purity' and
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
'pollution' in its decisions. For example in 2013
it endorsed the decision of the Patna igh Court
observing that candidates with criminal records
pollute the electoral process affect the sanctity of
elections and taint democracy. The court's
language is symptomatic of its conception of its
own role - as a sentinel of democracy seeking to
'disinfect' the electoral process. This is more than
a poor choice of words. The court has the power
to frame debate and influence the language of
argument in ways that perhaps no other
institution does.
Second the court's recent decisions have
meant that whether the right to vote is a
constitutional right or merely a statutory
privilege is still a matter of contestation. Article
326 of the Constitution provides for universal
adult suffrage but does not specifically mention
the right to vote. Rights that are not explicitly set
out in the Constitution such as the right to
privacy have routinely been impliedly read into
the text. But the court has refused to categorically
recognise the right to vote as an inalienable
constitutional right frequently holding that it is
a privilege that can be taken away as easily as it is
granted.
It is disconcerting that the court still does
not clearly acknowledge a constitutional right to
vote. Participation in the electoral process is
often seen as a gateway right or a 'right of rights'.
Our only response to citizens whose candidate of
choice has not been elected is to point towards
their right to exercise that choice in the first
place. The absence of a constitutional right to
vote has real consequences for it makes it easier
to impose wide restrictions on who can exercise
that right and the circumstances in which they
may do so.
It is one thing for the court to introduce
transparency-promoting measures with a view to
allowing change to take place organically but
quite another to change the rules of the game to
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7
match its conception of the ideal electoral
system. The right to vote and the right to contest
elections are fundamental markers of citizenship
in a constitutional democracy. Incrementally yet
decisively the court is changing what it means to
be a citizen of this country. It may soon take
another step in that perilous direction.
THE GREAT CLIMATE CHURN
In recent months unprecedented rates of
glacier melts have been reported both in the
Antarctic and the Arctic. "A massive crack in
Antarctica's fourth-biggest ice shelf has surged
forward by at least 10 kilometres since early
January" said Nature magazine in a recent article.
laciers cover the terrain in both these regions
which have the only permanent ice sheets that
still exist on earth today.
The earth has enjoyed a more or less stable
temperature for the last 10000 years. Prior to that
there were several ice ages and periods of warmer
temperature also known as inter-glacials. The ice
ages are believed to have been caused by small
shifts in the earth's orbit but all the reasons for
the temperature fluctuations observed are not yet
entirely understood. About 5.3 to 2.6 million years
ago during the Pliocene epoch global sea levels
were close to 30 metres higher than they are today
while average global temperatures were only
about three to four degrees Celsius warmer. What
could happen in the current century as a result of
anthropogenic climatic change remains a matter
of great interest within the scientific and
policymaking community.
The Antarctic ice sheet is 14 million sq km
in area and holds a large amount of frozen fresh
water. (In comparison the area of India's land
mass is about 1.3 million sq km. If all the ice over
the Antarctic were to melt sea levels would rise
by about 60 metres. Parts of the ice sheet also
flow into the ocean and do so through ice shelves
that protrude into the water. Several media
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8 VOL–53
reports over the last few months have covered
the expanding rift or crack along the Larsen C
shelf in the Antarctic, which is expected to break
off at any time. Larsen A and B collapsed in 1995
and 2002 respectively. Normally ice shelves lose
mass by the breaking off, or calving of some of
the portions and also by melting.
When such large chunks break away from
an ice shelf they speed up the collapse of the
entire shelf. Since this is attached to the rest of
the glacier these processes can increase the speed
at which the glacier flows into the ocean. Thus
even though the Larsen C collapse by itself, since
it is in the water will not raise sea levels it will
hasten the melting of the glacier it is connected
to.
In the Arctic, if all the ice in the reenland
ice sheet were to melt it would raise global sea
levels by about 7 metres (or 23 feet. For the last
several years glaciologists have noticed that ice
melt in the summer has increased and covers a
larger area than previous years. Scientists now
realise that a lot of the recent melt has been due
to increasing surface melt in addition to calving
or breaking off of chunks of ice.
Experts have known that there are
feedback mechanisms that speed up glacier melt;
exactly what these processes are and the rate by
which they accelerate the melting remains an area
of research. Soot and dust carried by air from
various places bacteria and algal pigments in the
meltwater any other pigments in the glacier can
all reduce the reflection of the sunlight thus
increasing the absorption of heat energy by the
ice. This consequently increases ice melt which
then absorbs more solar radiation thus
accelerating a feedback process. The meltwater
flows into deep shafts or moulins that then
speed up the flow of the glacier.
But there are also other phenomena that
seem to have an influence on glacier melt.
Temperatures in Northern reenland have been
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much warmer and in fact surface melt has
doubled reenland's contribution to sea level rise
over the period 1992-2011 to 0.74 mm per year.
Carbon dioxide concentrations have crossed 400
ppm in the atmosphere and are the highest they
have been in the past 400000 years.
The global community is well aware that
many large and densely populated cities are
located along the coast and in low-lying deltas.
Protecting the coast is an expensive undertaking
and even then dikes sea walls and similar
structures provide only partial protection based
on studies undertaken by the Dutch Delta
Committee and others. For India the east coast
especially certain low-lying districts are
extremely vulnerable to intensive storms which
then lead to flooding salt-water intrusion and
loss of land and livelihoods. On the west coast
while there are generally fewer storms the
concern is coastal erosion and flooding from sea
level rise. The discussion regarding sea level rise
and potential coastal impacts needs also to be
understood not just as a coastal phenomenon but
also as an issue that ripples through the entire
economy. Flooding in Chennai two years back did
not affect just the land but went through the
economy as a whole and Swiss Re the reinsurance
company has estimated losses to the economy
due to the floods to be $2.2 billion.
EQUITY IN DEBT
The advice of the expert committee to
review the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Management (FRBM Act of 2003 requires
attention given India's track record. This is all
the more so given the born-again political
conviction that promises of random largesse to
voters is just fine. Excessive and unsustainable
borrowing by the government is obviously
perverse as it entails a cost on future generations
while crowding out private investment. In the
past fiscal irresponsibility has cost jobs spiked
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
inflation put the currency in a tailspin and even
brought the country to the brink of a default. The
possibility of default may have resulted in the
liberalisation of the economy in 1991 but the key
trigger was irrational public spending on
borrowed money in the late-1980s. Less than a
decade later with fiscal discipline faltering and
the deficit shooting up to 10% of DP the FRBM
law was enacted to 'limit the government's
borrowing authority' under Article 268 of the
Constitution. But the target to limit the fiscal
deficit to 3% of DP (by 2009 was abandoned
after the 2008 global financial crisis as a liberal
stimulus reversed the gains in the fiscal space
creating fresh macro-level instability. The FRBM
Act's deficit target is now only likely to be met
next year.
Such damage transmissions from the
political economy to the real economy need to be
checked forthwith. The committee's proposal to
maintain the 3% target till 2019-20 before aiming
for further reduction is pragmatic as the
'extraordinary and unanticipated domestic
development' of demonetisation happened during
its tenure. Such an event the committee has said
could trigger an escape clause from fixed fiscal
targets in its proposed rule-based framework.
Instead of focussing purely on the fiscal and
revenue deficit numbers which should be brought
down to 2.5% and 0.8% of DP respectively by
2023 the panel has called for paring India's
cumulative public debt as a proportion to DP to
60% by 2023 - from around 68% at present. The
latter a simpler measure for solvency purposes
should inspire confidence among rating agencies.
Though this has put paid to the government's
hope that a fiscal deficit range could be targeted
instead of absolute numbers the Finance
Minister has committed to the 3% target for the
next two years from the 3.2% target for 2017-18.
A clear fiscal policy framework in tandem with
the monetary policy framework already adopted
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9
could act as a powerful signal of commitment to
macroeconomic stability. The Centre must swiftly
take a call on the panel's recommendations -
including for a new debt and fiscal responsibility
law and the creation of a Fiscal Council with
independent experts that could sit in judgment on
the need for deviations from targets. It is equally
critical that States are brought on board as the
60% debt target includes 20% on their account.
Their finances are worsening again even as the
clamour for Uttar Pradesh-style loan waivers
grows.
LONELY AND DISINTERESTED
China is steadily increasing its geostrategic
presence in South Central and West Asia; there is
a China-Russia-Pakistan axis on the rise in
Southern Asia; China and Russia are revelling in
a new-found rapprochement and aim to fill the
geopolitical vacuum bound to be created by the
U.S. withdrawal from the region; and a retired
Pakistan army chief is all set to take over as the
first Commander-in-Chief of the Saudi-backed
Islamic Military Alliance (IMA. Now ask
yourself: Which regional power has been missing
from these significant developments on the
regional geopolitical landscape?
New Delhi's foreign policy establishment
and its national security team are either clueless
about what is happening in its broader
neighbourhood or seem to lack the wherewithal
to anticipate engage and shape geostrategic
outcomes in the region and beyond. Or are they
simply disinterested? Either way New Delhi is
increasingly looking like a grumpy old man
constantly whining about age-old fears
stubbornly unwilling to explore new
opportunities and face new challenges. Alliances
are natural to international politics and friend-
enemy binaries and historical hesitations are
often cast aside when such alliances take shape.
While China and Pakistan have been allies since
 10 VOL–53
the 1960s China and the Soviet Union weren't
the best of friends during the Cold War nor did
they have a great relationship in the post-Soviet
days. Pakistan and the Soviet Union were Cold
War rivals and Russia did not until recently
share a close relationship with Pakistan. All that
is changing now with them ganging up to undo
American dominance in the region among other
things.
Clearly this new axis of a resurgent Russia
ambitious China and opportunistic Pakistan in
combination with other related developments
will not only diminish U.S. power in the region
but could also potentially constrain Indian
influence. Sino-Russian relations through joint
military exercises and the Russian sale of
advanced weaponry to China for instance could
hurt India's strategic options globally.
Both China and Russia have been active in
the West Asian theatre. aving vetoed U.S.-
sponsored sanctions against Syria they believe
that it is necessary to nudge the warring Syrian
factions to negotiate. Beijing has also been
reaching out to and balancing the various
adversaries in the region such as Israel Saudi
Arabia and even Iran and increasingly talking the
language of reconciliation. Also recall while New
Delhi buckled under pressure from Washington to
take sides on Iran Beijing refused to do so.
Compared to the thornier West Asia engaging
South Asia is easier for China given that the
smaller countries in the region see it as an
infrastructure provider with deep pockets and
without the usual moral science lessons.
Bangladesh one of India's close allies in the
region is likely to attend the OBOR summit in
May and may even sign up for it. Chinese interest
in Afghan reconciliation stems not only from a
security/terrorism angle but also more
significantly to ensure the sustainability of
OBOR given its importance in providing access to
Central Asia.
IST OF TE INDU
When Russia formally joins OBOR it will
have indirectly taken a position on Kashmir
which is not necessarily in keeping with the
Indian stand on the issue. If the Russian envoy's
remarks at the eart of Asia conference in
December are anything to go by Moscow is also
taking a pragmatic stand on terrorism in South
Asia.
The 'global outcast' Pakistan is today an
inevitable lynchpin of Southern Asian geopolitics.
In a world of realpolitik norm regress and
opportunistic bandwagoning Pakistan is the
new regional favourite. Whether we like it or not
now that Pakistan's generals have waited out the
Americans and NATO from Afghanistan the
outcomes of the Afghan conflict will largely be
determined by Rawalpindi. This fits well with the
Chinese and Russian regional grand strategies.
one are the days when Islamabad was currying
favour with Washington; today Moscow and
Beijing are actively courting it. Normative
considerations apart it is this sense of the big
picture that prevents Beijing from acting against
Pakistan-based terror groups; irritating India is a
side benefit.
For sure Pakistan has consistently used
terrorism as a tool of statecraft and yet there is
a recognition today that it is a pivotal state in
addressing terror. Moreover while the IMA is still
in its infancy we need to look closely at its
potential. Will it emerge even though it is at a
moment an overwhelmingly Sunni sectarian
force as a potent regional military alliance in the
years to come? What role would Pakistan play in
this 'Islamic NATO'? What implications would it
have for India?
Amidst such geopolitical reshaping of the
region New Delhi has done precious little to
counter them or to propose a collective regional
future. The South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC which should have been
the central plank of India's 'neighbourhood first'
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
policy is in doldrums today. aving jettisoned
SAARC and unwilling to promote other regional
initiatives institutional or issue-based India
continues to prefer unilateralism towards
neighbours. The shortcomings of bilateralism in
a world hungry for institutions and structures
should be evident to us.
While it is true that the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor will pass through Pakistan-
controlled territory that India has claimed we
should find a via media with China on the issue
rather than publicly dismiss the initiative. iven
that OBOR is a futuristic mega-project its
benefits as well as cross-national and inter-
continental linkages all of which would
eventually bypass India will only become clearer
in the years to come. To base our analysis on
current cost-benefit calculations in terms of
immediate returns and short-term sustainability
is missing the big picture. Moreover our ability to
create regional infrastructural arrangements
excluding China and Pakistan remains limited.
In short then a few decades down the line India
could end up far more isolated: the logical
conclusion of an inward-looking political class.
SPARK OR AN EMBER?
Earlier this year top administrators in
Indian science submitted a detailed project report
to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This paper has
reviewed portions of the 48-page report titled
Vigyan 2030: Science and Technology as the Pivot
for Jobs Opportunities and National
Transformation. And the report in its
assessment of the state of Indian science is
stingingly honest: "The stature of Indian science
is a shadow of what it used to be… because of
decades of misguided interventions. We have lost
self-confidence and ambition and the ability to
recognise excellence amongst our own. In a false
sense of egalitarianism we often chose the
mediocre at every level." One of its key
WWW.IASEXAMPORTAL.COM
11
recommendations is to have an independent
science and technology authority that will have
two parallel arms. One a 'discovery arm' that can
organise the expertise of various organisations
across states and regions to solve a basic research
problem. Two a 'delivery' arm that will closely
work with industry and evolve public private
partnerships. Such an authority the report
envisions will report directly to the Prime
Minister. SPARK (Sustainable Progress through
Application of Research and Knowledge as the
body is tentatively named will be overarching yet
have "light touch" governance.
The Principal Scientific Adviser to the
overnment of India is one such office. The NITI
Aayog now essentially a policy think tank and
tasked with coordinating States and research
agencies is another. Though they have no dearth
of eminent experienced scientists they haven't
substantially vaulted science and technology in
the country either. The Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research faces its own challenges of
effectively translating its know-how. Scientific
departments in India from the Department of
Atomic Energy to the Department of Science &
Technology have bureaucracies of their own.
They battle the dilemma of having to take bold
expensive risks - that science by its very nature
requires - and on the other hand be accountable
to the Finance Ministry. Not only does a new
overarching body run the risk of "stepping on
toes" but it will also be a challenge to exert
solemn authority without being a cantankerous
accountant. It must somehow marry commerce
and knowledge without being commercial and
ensure that good ideas - beyond the Indian
Institutes of Technology and Science - don't die
out for lack of funds or recommendations from
influential scientists. Any new idea to rejuvenate
the administration of science must also ensure
continuity. Very often bold experiments are
supported and incubated for a few years and by
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 12 VOL–53
the exertions of individually-motivated leaders. A
change of government and new leaders has
frequently meant 'new priorities' and the infant-
death syndrome for the bold experiment. Can
SPARK have a legal structure that can have
continuity and the purpose of its creation hard-
wired into it? These are difficult questions that
the council of science secretaries who authored
the report must address.
THE CASE FOR MEDIATED
SETTLEMENTS
The country's banking sector is severely
stressed with one-sixth of the gross advances of
public sector banks (around Rs. 7 lakh crore
being non-performing assets (NPAs. Existing
statutory remedies of insolvency restructuring of
companies securitisation of debts yield much
litigation but insufficient recoveries. The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI brought out a Corporate Debt
Restructuring scheme for resolution of dues from
the larger companies which account for 70% of
the debt portfolio; despite it being a well-
structured system it has failed to deliver
substantially. It however omitted from attention
the smaller borrower with loans less than Rs. 10
crore.
Two core aspects appear to be the major
roadblocks. The first is the limiting aspect of
direct negotiations between bank and debtor
which usually run on the lines of high demands
by banks and low offers by the debtor. The
smaller borrower especially is faced with an
imbalance in negotiating strength and is thus
denied feasible even if unattractive settlement
terms. Larger borrowers in acute distress may face
similar problems. Settlement terms can be
onerous which if breached have consequences of
closure of business and sale of property. A
mediation approach where an independent
neutral engages with both parties is more likely
practically and empirically to lead to faster and
IST OF TE INDU
better agreements. In joint and separate sittings
with the mediators this consensual non-coercive
and confidential process enables the parties to
discuss options such as debt concessions
repayment schedules interest reductions
perhaps even additional credit with safeguards.
Mediation is now well accepted in India
both legislatively and through extensive use by
the courts. Agreements reached through this
process are enforceable without difficulty. If the
RBI sets up mediation panels consisting of
bankers accountants and experienced mediators
that will provide the required institutional
framework and enhance trust and credibility in
the process and personnel.
The other major block which paralyses
decision-making in government and public
sectors in India is the fear of post-decisional
retributive action by way of investigation and
prosecution by multiple agencies such as the
police the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI
the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC the
Lokpal etc. Once initiated the spectre of lengthy
criminal trials looms accompanied by fear of
arrest denial of bail and public ignominy. Courts
respond inadequately - they do not speed up trials
or consider bail applications expeditiously or
penalise unnecessary prosecution. This inhibits
settlements which are in the best interests of the
bank but involve some concession or latitude
inevitable in reaching the best compromise.
Freedom to take sound commercial
decisions must be statutorily structured else all
our schemes will come to naught. One way is to
create a high-level body before which settlement
agreements can be placed for approval. This body
will examine the settlement to see if it is
commercially advantageous and is in the
interests of the public sector financial
institutions taking all prevailing circumstances
into account. Where it comes to an affirmative
conclusion that should provide complete
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
immunity - from the police the CBI the CVC the
Lokpal and the courts - for the officers of the
bank who have negotiated and recommended such
solution. This is a better step than oversight
committees which do not provide the backbone
to take the commercial decision of beneficial
compromise.
Such a body needs to be headed with high
authority drawn from the top echelons of the
judiciary the RBI and public sector banks serving
or retired. It should be a multi-tier body when the
number of cases increases which will happen
because once you offer mediated solutions with
protection for sound decision-taking then both
banks and borrowers will know that it makes
eminent sense to try this approach which
essentially means no risk in trying for a
settlement and no risk in agreeing to it.
RED, BLUE, ORDINARY
In a most welcome move the Union
Cabinet has decided to disallow the use of the red
beacon on vehicles on India's roads. Starting May
1 only vehicles on emergency services such as
ambulances fire trucks and police cars will be
permitted the use of a beacon - from now a blue-
coloured one. So-called dignitaries will no longer
have the privilege of announcing their exalted
status on the road by sporting beacons on their
passenger vehicles. For this the Central Motor
Vehicles Rules of 1989 are to be amended so that
the Central and State governments lose the
power to nominate categories of persons for the
red-beacon distinction. As a symbol of an assault
on India's over-reaching VIP culture this is a good
beginning. The flashing red beacon has become
so closely associated with unchecked official
power that in popular culture it is often all that is
depicted to establish a character's place in the
hierarchy. In fact it is seen to be such a symbol of
arrival in the country's power structure that at a
workshop for first-time MPs in 2009 one of the
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13
main demands made was that cars with red
beacons be allotted to them. Such demands have
also made its very denial a low-hanging fruit for
regimes seeking to establish their street cred as
men and women of the people. For instance over
the last three years governments in Delhi Uttar
Pradesh and Punjab each of a different political
hue have limited the use of the red beacon.
But to meaningfully begin to dismantle
India's VIP culture doing away with status
symbols such as red beacons is not enough. For
one this accessory is just one category among
privileges that maintain a colonial-era overhang
on the country's democracy by publicly enforcing
a subject-ruler separation. From pat-downs
avoided at the security gate at an airport to a freer
passage at the toll gate on a highway there are
numerous ways in which the culture of
entitlement is asserted. Such visible reminders of
a feudal separation apart the power of official
proximity is experienced by citizens most
intimately while accessing government services
- from getting a bed at a state hospital or a seat
for one's child in school to cutting the waiting
time for say a passport or an Aadhaar identity
proof. To be or to know 'somebody' is far too
often perceived as a requisite to getting one's
rightful due in a political economy of shortages
sloth and rent-seeking. To refresh Indian
democracy the state needs to stop protecting
MPs such as Ravindra aikwad who coast along
on "don't you know who I am" bullying. But yet
more importantly it must also reform procedures
and the work culture to provide a level playing
field to citizens to get what is theirs by right.
TRADING
AWAY OUR DIGITAL RIGHTS
lobal trade treaties are no longer just about
reducing tariff. They represent a whole new
global legal system supplanting national policy
space and sovereignty in the interest of global
 14 VOL–53
big business. With the digital phenomenon
restructuring most social sectors it is little
surprise that global trade negotiations are now
eyeing the digital area in an attempt to pre-
emptively colonise it.
Big data is the key resource in the digital
space. It is freely collected or mined from
developing countries and converted or
manufactured into digital intelligence in
developed countries mostly the U.S. This digital
intelligence forms a kind of "social brain" that
begins to control different sectors and extract
monopoly rents. To judge how the digital society
is shaping just extrapolate this situation to every
sector; not only the regular commercial ones but
also key social areas of education health
agriculture and indeed governance.
It is important to frame who owns data and
digital intelligence and how their value should be
socially distributed. Most key data required for
policymaking is increasingly with global data
companies. Would the society or government
then buy data and intelligence even for crucial
public purposes from these digital companies
when the data actually come from our various
social and personal interactions over digital
platforms? Does the ownership of the platform
give corporations economic ownership of all the
data so produced? Is ownership of data of
sensitive sectors to be treated differently? These
are key political economy questions that must be
sorted out first.
Fronting for the global big business
developed countries make three key demands at
digital trade talks. The first is a free and
unhindered access to the "network" running
throughout our society to mine social and
personal data from every nook and corner. This
includes full access to local networks right to set
up networks no custom duties on digital goods
no requirement of local presence no local
technology use or technology standards
IST OF TE INDU
commitments and no source code transparency
for digital applications that run through our
social and personal spaces. Basically India must
give up its right to regulate digital technologies
and networks within its territory.
Such regulation is required to ensure an
equal playing field open standards privacy and
security-related protections promoting local
technology content and other positive
discriminations like for open-source software
which is Indian policy for public sector use and
for economic and social protections. We are being
asked to give up our technology or digital
sovereignty even before we have been able to
identify and institute our digital rights policies
laws and regulation.
The second demand in trade discussions is
of ensuring completely free flow of data across
borders with no requirement of local storing
even for sensitive sectors like governance
banking health etc. Free global flow of data is a
significant expression of self-declared ownership
by global digital corporations over the social and
personal data that they collect from everywhere
including India. The third key demand is the
exclusion from future regulation of all services
other than those already committed to a negative
list which will of course include e-versions of
every sector.
India has been resisting global digital trade
negotiations. But attempts will be made to flatter
its self-image of an IT or digital superpower to
seek concessions. India's global IT business
relationships are largely B2B where the principal
party is abroad and owns the involved data. India
has much native technical and entrepreneurial
capabilities in the digital area and to match them
a huge domestic market. Conditions are extremely
good for developing strong domestic digital
industry. But for this India must stave off
pressure for entering into binding global
commitments that would forever kill any such
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
prospects apart from disabling Indian
policymakers from appropriately regulating the
digitisation of various sectors.
The WTO ministerial in Argentina in
December 2017 will be a key battleground for
whether WTO should start negotiating digital
trade issues. These issues also figure in the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
talks among ASEAN-plus countries (including
India. India must resist any digital trade
negotiations at this time. It has little to gain
from them and much to lose. It must first build
its digital sovereignty - and digital rights - before
it can begin negotiating a part of it in global trade
talks.
SHOULD WE PRIVATISE WATER?
Privatisation of water is unwarranted
unjustified and unnecessary. In pushing for it we
are not really addressing the key issue plaguing
the water sector which is a need for better
governance. We need a democratic transparent
accountable and participatory governance in a
bottom-up approach on each aspect of the urban
water sector where water privatisation is
advocated.
There are lacunae in the urban water sector
which are being used as a justification for
pushing water privatisation. Lacunae include
losses inefficiency unreliability corruption
issues of quality and mismanagement. All of these
are symptoms; the root cause is lack of democratic
governance. Water is not merely a commodity and
the urban water sector is not just about supplying
fresh potable water to people in urban dwellings.
The urban water sector also involves multiple
layers including sourcing of water deciding
which is the best among available options
getting potable water through purification plants
for equitable distribution through huge
infrastructure and managing the sewage
generated through another set of huge
WWW.IASEXAMPORTAL.COM
15
infrastructure.
In many places where most of the water
sector remains in the public domain even where
some piecemeal water privatisation has been
implemented re-municipalisation is the trend.
The private sector works on one bottom line:
profit maximisation. But the management of
water supply is an issue of rights and a basic need
as acknowledged by the judiciary. Moreover water
is embedded in the ecosystem. Any attempt to see
water only as a commodity is bound to have
multiple disruptive consequences.
When privatisation is mooted as a solution
it comes with a promise that it will create
competition and that the consumer will benefit.
A look at the power sector shows that this
promise has not been delivered. The power sector
is not only a monopoly but refuses to submit itself
to public audit. This is not to suggest that people
should not pay for the water they consume. Those
who can must be made to pay. The current
government in Delhi has not only provided free
water to the lowest consumers but has also
managed to expand the distribution network and
bring down losses. It is possible and necessary to
improve public water governance and the only
way forward.
WAITING FOR THE LOKPAL
In a hearing recently regarding non-
operationalisation of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas
Act more than three years after the law was
enacted Attorney eneral Mukul Rohatgi
reportedly argued in the Supreme Court that the
court has no powers to direct the government on
when and how the law should be enforced. Failure
to implement the Lokpal law by the Bharatiya
Janata Party government is an indication of how
the party is reneging with impunity on its poll
promise of a corruption-free India. A lack of will
on the part of the government to implement the
anti-corruption law can be inferred from its
 16 VOL–53
various actions and inactions in the last three
years.
With the government's refusal to recognise
anyone as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP
after the general election in 2014 the
appointment of the Lokpal became an immediate
casualty as the selection committee of the Lokpal
includes the recognised LoP. In order to
operationalise the law the government had its
task cut out - introduce a Lokpal amendment Bill
in Parliament substituting the recognised LoP in
the selection committee with the leader of the
single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha.
In fact a similar amendment was required in the
Delhi Special Police Establishment Act for the
appointment of the CBI Director; it was
introduced by the government and passed
expeditiously. owever for the Lokpal law
instead of bringing in a single amendment to alter
the composition of the selection committee the
government introduced a 10-page Bill which
proposed to fundamentally dilute the original law.
iven the controversial nature of amendments it
was referred to a parliamentary standing
committee. The Bill continues to languish in
Parliament.
The Lokpal Act stipulated that by July 31
2016 Section 44 related to disclosure of assets of
public servants was to be operationalised
irrespective of appointment of the Lokpal. To
prevent the asset disclosure provision from
taking effect the government introduced another
amendment Bill. This Bill which completely
whittled down the asset disclosure requirement
was resolutely pushed through by the
government in Parliament and passed within 48
hours of its introduction. MPs from various
political parties who expressed concern that the
amendments would dilute the original law were
assured by the Minister that once the Bill was
passed it would be referred to a parliamentary
standing committee for deliberation. It is
IST OF TE INDU
significant that the Bill pushed through in
unprecedented haste did not modify the
composition of the selection committee which
was needed to appoint the Lokpal.
The law was thus diluted even before it
could be operationalised. The Lokpal Amendment
Act 2016 did away with the statutory requirement
of public servants to disclose the assets of their
spouses and dependent children provided for
under the original law. It also dispensed with the
need for public disclosure of these statements and
empowered the Central government to prescribe
the form and manner of asset disclosure. This
was a critical blow as the Lokpal was established
to act on complaints under the Prevention of
Corruption Act (PCA; one of the grounds of
criminal misconduct under the PCA relates to a
public servant or any person on his/her behalf
being in possession of pecuniary resources or
property disproportionate to known sources of
income. Since illegally amassed assets are often
handed over to family members public declaration
of assets of the spouse and dependent children of
the public servants was necessary to enable
people to make informed complaints to the
Lokpal.
The government's intention to subvert the
Lokpal law was further confirmed when through
proposed amendments to the PCA it sought to
usurp critical powers of the Lokpal. Experience in
India has shown that the requirement for seeking
prior sanction from the government for
prosecuting government officials is a critical
bottleneck and results not only in huge delays but
also and often in the accused never being
prosecuted. To address this problem the Lokpal
Act vests the power of granting sanction for
prosecution in the independent institution of the
Lokpal. Instead of reinforcing this provision
which insulates the prosecution process from
government influence the PCA amendments
strengthen the requirement to seek the
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
government's permission before prosecuting a
public servant by increasing cover to even retired
public officials. By requiring the Lokpal to seek
permission from the government before it can
prosecute officials in cases of corruption the
proposed PCA amendments make a mockery of
the independent institution and render the entire
exercise of demanding an empowered Lokpal
futile.
TOWARDS COMPLETE JUSTICE AT
LAST
By any standards 25 years should be a long
enough period to find closure for crimes which
affect the social and political life of a country. But
it has taken this length of time for the real
beginning: the trial of political leaders for
conspiracy to commit what is conveniently
described as "political crimes". If ever there was a
case where the invocation of the powers of the
Supreme Court to do "complete justice" under
Article 142 of the Constitution existed it was the
Babri Masjid demolition case. As Justice R.F.
Nariman recognises in his judgment the
underlying basis of the Article is the Latin maxim
fiat justitia ruat caelum (let justice be done though
the heavens fall. The court's unhesitating resort
to Article 142 mitigates to some extent the
consequences of the failures of the Uttar Pradesh
government and the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI and the judiciary's own tardy
processes. Each of these deserves some attention.
On June 16 2001 the CBI requested the
State government to cure the defect. The request
remained pending with the State government for
a year-and-a-quarter and was rejected on
September 28 2002. This period spanned the
chief ministership of Rajnath Singh a short spell
of President's rule under the National Democratic
Alliance (NDA government and finally the chief
ministership of Ms. Mayawati whose Bahujan
Samaj Party government depended on the outside
WWW.IASEXAMPORTAL.COM
17
support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP. This
rejection was not challenged by the CBI during
the tenure of the NDA government at the Centre
till May 2004 or even subsequently.
The route by which the present case
reached the Supreme Court needs to be
mentioned. Skipping the unnecessary details the
special court at Lucknow by an order dated May 4
2001 dropped proceedings against 21 persons
including the Advani batch of eight taking the
view that there were two sets of accused namely
the innumerable kar sevaks who actually
demolished the masjid and the limited number of
others who were the instigators. The special court
chose to drop the proceedings against these 21
persons so that the case against the kar sevaks
could go on. The revision filed by the CBI against
this order of the special court remained pending
before the Allahabad igh Court for a good nine
years before it was dismissed by a judgment on
May 22 2010. It is this judgment which was
challenged by the CBI in the Supreme Court after
a long delay. Considerable time of the Supreme
Court was spent on examining the question of
delay.
It is also worth looking at the varying
judicial reactions in the Supreme Court in the
same case over a span of four years. Last week's
judgment had no hesitation in recording that the
case with which it was concerned pertained to
crimes affecting the secular fabric of the
Constitution. But in 2013 the reaction of a bench
headed by Justice .L. Dattu later Chief Justice
of India and now Chairperson of the National
uman Rights Commission was different. At that
time the much respected senior counsel P.P. Rao
was appearing for the CBI. e is not known for
courtroom dramatics or the use of hyperbole. In
support of his plea for early hearing he referred to
the incident as a crime and described it as a
matter of national importance. e had not
described any individual as a criminal. According
 18 VOL–53
to newspaper reports he was sharply pulled up.
While reminding the CBI of its own delays in the
matter the bench reportedly said "Do not say it
is a national crime or matter of national
importance. We are yet to decide it. Unless we or
the trial court decide this way or that way you
cannot make such a statement."
THE CLIMATE FIGHT IS GLOBAL
Several recent extreme events such as
wildfires droughts severe heatwaves and
cyclones in other places have a clear signature of
a changing climate but in many cases these are
exacerbated by other institutional failures. None
of this has however persuaded the present U.S.
government that anthropogenic greenhouse
gases (s are responsible for climate change.
The U.S. is still the world's second largest annual
emitter of s and has generated more than a
quarter of the total anthropogenic s in the
atmosphere since 1850.
Even though the U.S. has not technically
withdrawn from the Paris Agreement from last
December when countries came together and set
climate-related targets for themselves President
Donald Trump's recent decisions are a sweeping
repudiation of former U.S. President Barack
Obama's policies to reduce and limit pollution
and s. The curbs on power plant emissions
by the Obama administration - the Clean Power
Plan (CPP - were aimed at reducing the power
sector's carbon dioxide emissions by about a third
below the 2005 levels by 2030. The regulations
would require states and electric utilities to
reduce emissions either by deploying renewables
reducing demand or increasing power plant
efficiencies.
In any case the Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA CPP has been in the courts for
more than a year due to a legal challenge mounted
by over half the U.S. states and a number of
companies that opposed the rule. Nevertheless
IST OF TE INDU
even if Mr. Trump's order to eliminate the CPP
were to go into effect his administration is
required by a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling to
regulate carbon dioxide. Moreover the EPA's
rules are themselves not easy to reverse by a
stroke of the presidential pen especially given
another 2009 EPA finding that s "threaten
the public health and welfare of current and
future generations".
Still the recent moves by its President are
a clear signal that the U.S. is no longer interested
in curbing s to stabilise the climate and
neither is it keen to meet its Paris commitments.
Mr. Trump's actions also demonstrate that
allowing countries to write their own Nationally
Determined Contributions seen as an
improvement to a global top-down approach still
has to confront the same political problem -
continued implementation of the agreement by
successive governments within each country.
That a major emitter is retreating from its former
commitments is of course a danger to the world's
climate but this may not be a big step back if
other countries persist with their efforts and if
renewables continue to get more affordable as
they have recently. This move also provides elbow
room for renewable energy businesses elsewhere
to pick up the slack in interest within the U.S.
Nonetheless it does make one wonder how
the U.S. or Europe would have responded if
another country say India had undertaken
similar actions. There may have been little time
lost before name-calling and shaming began
following which global trade sanctions would
likely have been imposed or perhaps other kinds
of bans or penalties. The chance that any of this
will happen now towards the U.S. still a
superpower appears to be slim.
Nation states are the proper agencies
responsible for curbing emissions to the shared
global commons. Nevertheless Mr. Trump's
recalcitrance shows that a change in political
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IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
leadership could lead to the backing out of an
international treaty by any signatory. lobal
agreements are often tenuous and need support
and pressure from other actors within and across
countries who function at many levels: states
territories or provinces within a country cities
policy think tanks scientists philanthropists
local communities civil society organisations
investors transnational groups and multinational
industries.
THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE OF IP
April 26 is World Intellectual Property (IP
day. Over the years global IP standards have
steadily expanded beyond World Trade
Organisation (WTO requirements thanks to free
trade agreements such as the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP
which India is currently negotiating with its
trading partners. But there is new cause for worry.
Apart from increasing the scope of existing IP
rights there is a move to create new IP-like
rights. A case in point is data exclusivity
exclusivity over clinical trial data submitted by
drug companies to the regulatory authorities for
market approval the grant of which could
severely undermine access to medicines.
The propensity to expand the universe of IP
is not new: businesses have demanded patent
protection for the way they do business;
motorcycle manufacturers have got into dispute
over the trademark on the exhaust sound of
motorcycles; and animal activists have fought for
copyright in a selfie taken by a monkey. IP in the
modern world defies definition transcends
boundaries and has become synonymous with
ascribing value to things that we don't fully
understand. The issue of whether India should
offer data exclusivity - one of the key issues
discussed in the RCEP - is tied to our
understanding of what amounts to IP and
whether we are obliged to protect it.
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Data exclusivity prevents drug regulators
from referring to or relying on data submitted by
an originator company relating to a drug's safety
and efficacy while approving bioequivalent
versions of the same drug i.e. therapeutically
equivalent generics and biosimilars for a fixed
period of time. A drug that comes to the market
for the first time undergoes extensive preclinical
and clinical trials on animals initially and human
beings later before it is introduced for public use
- a time-consuming and expensive process.
Developed countries on behalf of their
pharmaceutical lobbies seek data exclusivity in
developing countries arguing that this is
necessary to recognise and incentivise the efforts
put in to bring a new drug to the market along
with recovering the research and development
costs incurred - arguments similar to those used
to justify the grant of patents.
Pharmaceutical companies have been
pushing for data exclusivity to prolong already
existing monopoly and delay competition from
generics even after the expiry of the 20-year
patent term or to gain exclusivity on non-patented
drugs. In India such a system may negate the
impact of Section 3(d of the Patents Act which
disallows evergreening patents. With data
exclusivity a company could nevertheless gain
exclusive rights over such drugs even though
they are not patented. This is because during the
period of exclusivity regulators are barred from
using the originators' data to grant marketing
approval to generics; generic companies would
then be required to repeat the entire cycle of
clinical trials already conducted instead of merely
establishing bioequivalence to prove efficacy. As
seen in countries where data exclusivity is
granted generic companies do not undertake
such clinical trials and their versions of the drug
accordingly stay off the market as long as the
period of data exclusivity lasts. With restricted
market entry of generics artificially high drug
 20 VOL–53
prices remain which puts medicines beyond
public reach. Apart from the financial costs
repeated clinical trials on human subjects raise
ethical and moral concerns.
The argument that clinical trial data needs
exclusivity in the light of the money expended is
an untenable one. Automotive companies spend
millions of dollars on data generated in car crash
tests to ensure passenger and pedestrian safety.
Automotive companies have not made any
proprietary claim on the data generated yet.
Unlike automotive companies which use crash
test dummies pharmaceutical companies that
test their drugs on human subjects have a greater
obligation to make the data public and IP-free.
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS does not
mandate data exclusivity. Providing data
exclusivity is a TRIPS-plus measure. According
IP-like protection to data exclusivity is not
advisable for three reasons.
First it is an absolute protection granted
without any institutional check such as
opposition and revocation as available in other
forms of IP and ends up as an irrevocable
exclusivity to the originator. Second the U.S.
Supreme Court in Mayo v. Prometheus 132 S. Ct.
1289 (2012 has excluded patent protection to
biological correlations terming it as an extension
of natural laws. Extending IP-like protection to
clinical observations - the primary objective of
data exclusivity - will open a window to claim
exclusivity in a subject matter traditionally
excluded under patent law. Third offering IP-like
exclusivity solely on the basis of money spent in
regulatory testing will set a bad precedent for
other industries that may now claim an IP when
there is none.
A CALL FOR REFORM
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has
demanded reforms to the International Monetary
Fund's controversial quota system shedding
IST OF TE INDU
light on the problems facing the Bretton Woods
institution in today's global economy. Quotas
determine the size of contingency funds at the
disposal of the IMF to lend to countries in need
of help as well as the power of individual
countries to influence lending decisions and tap
into the funds themselves. Though developing
countries hold less than half the overall quota at
the moment with their rapidly increasing
economic heft they have demanded a greater
share - with limited success. In this context
speaking at the spring meetings of the IMF Mr.
Jaitley reiterated the need to reform the quota
system further. Else he warned the legitimacy
and credibility of the IMF could be eroded. The
15th eneral Review of Quotas (RQ the most
recent attempt to revise the size and composition
of the system was to be completed by October
2017 but the deadline has now been extended to
2019. The delay was not unexpected given the
poor precedent set by the long delay in adoption
in 2016 of the previous RQ (originally approved
in 2010. That had doubled the overall size of the
quotas to $659 billion (from $329 billion while
allotting an additional 6% of quotas to the
developing world. But with the rise of competing
global institutions ready to meet the capital needs
of the developing world the patience of countries
such as India may be tested more easily.
Also at stake is the potency of the IMF in
keeping up with the changed fundamental needs
of developing economies. The developing world is
looking beyond the short-term crisis
management tools that the IMF as the sole
international lender of last resort has
traditionally offered them for decades now - albeit
in an unsatisfactory and politically biased way.
China for instance with its steadily rising
influence on the global economy has grown to
be the focal point for economies seeking
alternative sources of capital to fund their long-
term growth needs. This month Mr. Jaitley
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
announced that India is seeking $2 billion from
the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS
countries in 2015 with a more equitable power
structure to fund infrastructure projects. The
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank launched
in 2014 could be an even bigger threat to the
IMF's influence given its larger membership
lending capacity and international reach. In this
environment of competition the IMF will have to
do more than just superficially tinker with its
asymmetric power structure and outdated quota
system. Else it could be slowly but steadily
pushed into irrelevance. Meanwhile it remains to
be seen whether India will continue to push for
reforms at the IMF even as it simultaneously
seeks to diversify its funding base or whether it
will assume a bolder stance in openly favouring
one over the other.
A STRETCHED MARKET
The major Indian stock indices have rallied
strongly despite lingering concerns over their
historically rich valuations. Both the BSE Sensex
and NSE Nifty reached all-time highs on
Wednesday up about 13% and 14%, respectively
since the beginning of 2017 and well above the
performance of developed markets. The Sensex
surpassed its previous high of 30024 set in early
2015 to end the day at 30133 while the Nifty
settled on a record closing high of 9351.
Investors have attributed the rally to the better-
than-expected earnings results of blue-chip
companies (like Reliance Industries Limited that
posted record earnings this week strong fund
inflows from foreign institutional investors
(FIIs and the strengthening of the rupee. Waning
concerns over the election results in France U.S.
President Donald Trump's anticipated tax
reforms and the allaying of concerns about the
long-term impact of demonetisation may have
also helped fuel the rally. FIIs have been at the
centre of action over the past few months
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21
turning into bullish buyers after the temporary
slump in their investments after the
demonetisation exercise. In the first three
months of 2017 FIIs have poured $6.75 billion
into equities up from inflows of just $3.19 billion
and $3.18 billion in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Adding strength to the rally domestic investors
have been net buyers of equities investing
almost Rs. 16000 crore since the beginning of
2017.
oing forward despite the willingness of
foreign buyers to pay higher multiples there
remains the substantial risk of a downside
attached to this rally. The market capitalisation
of Indian stocks according to a report by Motilal
Oswal Securities published in March before the
rally rose 40% over the last year compared to a
21% increase in the overall world market cap.
This increased India's share of world market cap
to 2.5%, marginally above the historical average
of 2.4%. Yet corporate earnings which determine
equity returns in the long run have been
lacklustre despite showing early signs of recovery
from the demonetisation shock. While the
current earnings season has been modestly
positive overall reasons to justify the high
multiples remain elusive. The implementation of
the oods and Services Tax is expected to
dampen earnings in the near term and the
absence of recovery in capital expenditure by India
Inc. offers little hope to expect an earnings boost.
The impact of the strengthening rupee on
corporate earnings is another concern. Investors
especially foreigners who benefit from an
appreciating rupee have taken the strong rupee as
a vote of confidence in the economy. But its likely
impact on the earnings remains ignored.
According to UBS a 1% appreciation in the rupee
could reduce the Nifty's earnings by some 0.6%.
All that said the bears in the Indian markets have
been proven wrong for long. It would not be
surprising if investors stretch themselves further
to support the rally.
 22 VOL–53
A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A
PROBLEM
Lok Sabha passed the 123rd amendment to
the Constitution which will when it becomes
law bring into being a 'constitutional' National
Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC. The
current NCBC was created under an Act of
Parliament in 1993. The new insertion into the
Constitution (Article 338B is identical to the
Articles 338 and 338A that respectively created
the national commission for SCs and another for
STs. (The amendment also brings about changes
to Articles 342 and 366.
What the 123rd amendment amounts to is
that the Union government has in one stroke
brought BCs in league with the SC/STs as victims
of discrimination exclusion and violence. It not
only is illogical and lacks historical justification
but is fraught with several challenges to the way
India runs its welfare system. The move turns
social justice on its head. Interestingly the
government pushed this amendment on a war
footing. All that it took was five days - from
introduction to passage - which included the
weekend. On a Wednesday the Bill was
introduced in the Lok Sabha which passed it the
following Monday! If the government had had a
reason to push the Bill so hard and fast it's not
obvious to common folk. An opportunity has been
wasted to reimagine the whole social justice
architecture that is appropriate for 21st century
India.
It may be recalled that TTK was speaking
during the discussion on Article 340 which deals
with the need to inter alia identify those "socially
and educationally backward classes" understand
the conditions of their backwardness and make
recommendations to remove the difficulties they
face. The article stipulates the appointment of a
commission to give effect to its provisions. This
was the context for the appointment of two
commissions (one headed by Kaka Kalelkar in the
IST OF TE INDU
1950s and the other by B.P. Mandal in the 1970s.
Even the 1993 NCBC Act was based on this
article.
The 123rd amendment delinks the whole
folio of backward classes from Article 340 and
brings it closer to provisions related to SC/STs.
The main shortcoming of the current NCBC
according to the Union government is that it has
no power "to hear the grievances" of the BCs.
Curiously the SC commission has become the
gold standard for those demanding the new
NCBC. If the new body is as incompetent as its
role model the nation will be spared of a lot of
avoidable problems.
The government initially proposed to set up
the "National Commission for Socially and
Educationally Backward Classes" which is - in
nomenclature at least - closer to Article 340. By
retaining the old generic name of NCBC and
delinking the body from its soul (Article 340 the
government set the stage for the whole scheme of
special protections under the Constitution to
crumble. Once the 123rd amendment becomes
law, Article 340 will be dead without being
accorded the dignity of a repeal. It will be a pity.
The article reflects the Constituent Assembly's
understanding on the matter which is relevant
even today: there are classes not castes which
suffer from social and educational backwardness
and the state has the burden of allocating
adequate funds to ameliorate their conditions. It
stretches one's credulity to accept that the article
stipulates quotas and representation be extended
to BCs.
Though Article 338B keeps the socially and
educationally backward classes as its subject
matter in practice the proposed system will treat
the developmental issues related to BCs on a par
with caste discrimination and untouchability
suffered by SCs and even by STs. The new NCBC
will hear grievances inquire into complaints
summon officials given its powers as a civil court
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 IST OF TE INDU
issue directions and have the right to be
consulted by both Union and the States on policy
matters related to BCs.
One is right to assume that BCs do face
discrimination and exclusion and they deserve
state support. Is there any justification to
suppose however that their conditions are as bad
as those faced by the SC/STs? The whole business
of inquiries into complaints safeguards
recording evidence etc will result in the need to
enact laws similar to the ones in existence for the
protection of SC/STs. ave there been instances
of BCs (Shudras suffering violence/intimidation
due to their caste? Are such instances if they
were taking place widespread enough warranting
special legislation and watchdog bodies?
A generation ago social justice was
mistaken to be a new dawn for 'weaker' sections
such as SC/STs BCs and minorities to be united
as one group of Indians with common interests
and destiny. That project was dead on arrival as
its votaries lacked both intellectual honesty and
policy imagination. Its new and more sinister
variant seeks to smuggle BCs into the tent meant
for SCs. An ill-defined need begets a monster
which is sure to do more mischief than good.
THE WORLD IS STILL FLAT
The IMF sees world economic growth
accelerating from 3.1% in 2016 to 3.5% in 2017
and 3.6% in 2018. Both advanced and emerging
economies are poised to do better. rowth in
advanced economies is projected to rise from 1.7%
in 2016 to 2% in 2017 and 2018. Emerging
markets will grow at 4.5% in 2017 and 4.8% in
2018 compared with growth of 4.1% in 2016.
China will see growth decelerating from 6.7% in
2016 to 6.6% and 6.2% in 2017 and 2018
respectively. India's growth in contrast will
accelerate from 6.8% in 2016 to 7.2% and 7.7%
over the next two years.
These are modest rates of growth compared
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VOL–53 23
to the record before the financial crisis of 2007.
In 1999-2008 the world economy grew at 4.2%,
with emerging markets firing away at 6.2%. But
the IMF's projections do hold out the hope that
the world economy may emerge from the
prolonged slump it has seen consequent to the
financial crisis of 2007. This is a bit of a surprise
considering that until very recently many
economists had come to believe that the world
economy was in the grip of 'secular stagnation'
an expression coined by the economist Alvin
ansen in the 1930s. ansen argued that where
savings substantially exceed investment the real
interest rate tends to drop to a very low level.
Conventional monetary policy operates by
reducing nominal interest rates in order to
stimulate growth. Where the nominal interest
rate is already close to zero there isn't much scope
for cutting interest rates. In conditions of 'secular
stagnation' conventional monetary policy is
doomed to be ineffective. The burden of reviving
growth in such a situation falls on fiscal policy.
This means running up large government deficits
and increasing public debt. But markets will
finance government borrowings only up to a
point and there is also resistance among
policymakers to increased government spending.
But the situation has changed quite a bit in
recent months. Inflation is trending upwards.
The IMF expects the inflation rate in the U.S. to
rise from 1.3% in 2016 to 2.7% in 2017. In the
Euro area it sees inflation rising from 0.2% to
1.7%. The spectre of a deflationary spiral has thus
been dispelled. Does the incipient revival of the
world economy disprove the 'secular stagnation'
hypothesis? It's too early to tell. We have not
seen big increases in private or public investment
in the advanced economies. Instead the stock
markets have soared consequent to the election of
Donald Trump as U.S. President and household
debt is once again rising in the advanced world.
Much of the boost to market sentiment has
 24 VOL–53
to do with expectations that the U.S. will see a
strong fiscal stimulus through the combination
of tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending
that Mr. Trump promised during his election
campaign. is flip-flops on foreign policy in the
first 100 days however raise doubts over his
ability to follow through on his campaign pledges.
The IMF suggests that the U.S. policy agenda
could unfold in ways that could derail its
forecasts. It factors in a widening of the fiscal
deficit by 2 percentage points by 2019. This could
have either of two outcomes. It could cause output
to rise while leading to a moderate rise in interest
rates. Or it could cause a sharp rise in interest
rates without any significant increase in output.
The world economy would benefit in the first
scenario but not in the second.
The IMF warns that emerging markets
including India will find the external conditions
for growth less supportive than in the post-2000
period thus far. Slower growth in the developed
world means lesser demand for emerging market
goods and services. Tightening monetary
conditions in the advanced world spell lower
capital flows (although foreign investors will
still be attracted to emerging markets with sound
fundamentals. Subdued commodity prices mean
that terms of trade improvements will be limited.
Emerging markets accounted for 70% of
global growth in purchasing power parity terms
in 2000-08 nearly double their contribution in the
1980s. Following the global economic crisis as
growth in advanced economies dipped sharply
the contribution of emerging markets rose even
further to 80% in 2010-15. With external
conditions now turning adverse the IMF sees the
contribution of emerging markets and developing
economies (EMDEs to global growth in 2016-21
falling. The fall is quite small but it may mark the
reversal of a benign trend.
The threat of protectionism and anti-
globalisation sentiments in the U.S. and Europe
IST OF TE INDU
pose bigger risks than many of the factors
mentioned above although it is not yet clear how
these risks will play out. It is significant that at
the IMF meeting this month finance ministers
and central bankers refrained from commitments
to resist protectionism out of deference to
America's preferences. They pledged instead to
promote "a level playing field in international
trade" a term that is open to multiple
interpretations.
Finally there are rising geopolitical
tensions. U.S.-Russia relations have touched a
new low. There is a real prospect of confrontation
between the U.S. and Russia over the conflict in
Syria. Tensions over North Korea have reached a
flashpoint. The U.S. and China are at loggerheads
over maritime rights in the South China Sea.
A NEW CHAPTER FOR THE
DISABLED
The Supreme Court observed that
"employment is a key factor in the empowerment
and inclusion of people with disabilities" in its
judgment in the Union of India v. National
Federation of the Blind case (2013. The verdict
registered the "alarming reality" of disabled
persons out of jobs not because of their
disabilities but due to social and physical barriers
that prevent them from joining the workforce.
This is despite India ratifying the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities in 2007 and passing the Persons with
Disabilities (Equal Opportunities Protection of
Rights and Full Participation Act 1995. Repeated
orders of the court to give disabled persons their
due have been breached continuously.
Parliament repealed the 1995 Act and
brought in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Act 2016 the Preamble of which marks respect
for inherent dignity individual autonomy
including the freedom to make one's own
choices and independence of disabled persons
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
among other goals. The 2016 Act is expected to
give full effect to the United Nations Convention.
When the government brought the new Act to the
notice of a three-judge Supreme Court Bench led
by Justice Dipak Misra the court responded with
a 32-page judgment on April 25 highlighting that
"immediacy of action is the warrant". The court
gave State governments and Union Territories a
12-week deadline to comply with the provisions
of the new law and file compliance reports in the
court.
In its judgment the court noted that the
2016 Act provides "more rights to disabled
persons". This includes access to justice free
education role of local authorities as providers of
employment and opportunity and National and
State funds. Notably the Act emphasises the
creation of special courts and speedy trials and
special public prosecutors for offences committed
against disabled persons under the Act. The law
also makes private companies equally liable for
violating the Act.
"The 2016 Act is noticeably a sea change in
perception and marches ahead with regard to
(rights of persons with disabilities and the role
of the States local authorities educational
institutions and companies. The statute operates
in a broad spectrum and the stress is laid to
protect the rights and provide punishment for its
violation" Justice Misra wrote.
LEARNING TO RUN TWICE AS FAST
It is no mean achievement that the
daunting fiscal deficit target of 3.5% of DP for
the past year was met. Beyond the 3.2% fiscal
deficit target for the current year the government
has accepted a 3% target thereafter. Continuing
this trend in the future will enable the realisation
of the preferred 60% debt-DP ratio by 2023. The
Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management
(FRBM Review Committee report now in the
public domain has preferred a debt to DP ratio
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25
of 60% for the general government by 2023
comprising 40% for the Central government and
20% for the State governments. iven the recent
track record there is a reasonable probability of
the Central government achieving the 40% debt
to DP ratio. The focus now is on the States. Can
they in partnership with the Central government
enable the near optimum of 60% to be achieved by
the terminal date? For international investors
and rating agencies what matters is the fiscal
position of the country as a whole. The challenge
of States achieving a debt ceiling of 20% by 2023
is undoubtedly erculean for more reasons than
one.
First the best of times so to say on fiscal
issues may be somewhat behind us. As a 2013
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development paper by David Turner and
Francesca Spinelli points out "A key issue in
assessing long-run fiscal sustainability is the
future trend of the differential between the
interest paid to service government debt (r and
the growth rate of the economy (g. For highly
indebted countries an increase in this differential
of a couple of percentage points if sustained
could lead to a change from a declining to an
explosive path for the debt-to-DP ratio." A
negative interest rate-growth differential (i.e. r-g
growth rate greater than the interest rate causes
debt to DP to decline over time. owever the
advantages on account of a favourable r-g depend
primarily on the level of debt stock. In this
context the Union government which has larger
domestic liabilities of 49.23% of DP as
compared to that of the States (21% of DP
benefits more due to a negative interest rate-
growth differential. The combined debt dynamics
necessitate States to run successively lower
primary and fiscal deficits just to maintain their
combined debt to DP ratio at the current level.
This is a classic case of the Red Queen in Lewis
Carroll's Through the Looking-lass saying "If
 26 VOL–53
you want to get somewhere else you must run at
least twice as fast as that!"
Second the role of exogenous factors in
fiscal corrections of the States. Till FY13 fiscal
conduct of the States was exemplary strictly
adhering to and even outperforming the targets
of the Fiscal Responsibility Legislations (FRLs.
No doubt positive externalities facilitated this
outcome. Consolidation of Central loans and debt
waiver to States based on their fiscal performance
effectively reduced their interest payments to
about 0.9% of ross State Domestic Product
(SDP. iven the debt-restructuring scheme of
the Twelfth Finance Commission (FC Central
relief packages and positive economic scenario it
is difficult to differentiate the fiscal correction
due to improved management and fiscal
discipline.
Third the recent marked deterioration in
fiscal health of the States. The Fourteenth FC
enhanced the borrowing limits up to 0.5% of
SDP for the States. This was conditional on debt
to SDP ratio being less than or equal to 25%
and/or interest payments being less than or equal
to 10% of the revenue receipts in the preceding
year. The fact that only six States in FY17 were
eligible for enhanced borrowing is indicative of
States' decaying fiscal prudence. The recent spate
of farm loan waivers is episodic and symptomatic
of deteriorating State finances.
iven these complexities what is the way
forward? What are the instrumentalities available
with the Central government to ensure greater
convergence? The most obvious one is the
prudent use of powers defined in the
Constitution of India under Clause (3 of Article
293. This makes it mandatory for a State to take
the Central government's consent for raising any
loan if the former owes any outstanding liabilities
to the latter. One or two States may indeed reach
that position endangering this constitutional
instrumentality of the Central government. It
IST OF TE INDU
would be interesting to see what happens when
States cease to have any outstanding liabilities to
the Central government. Recently the Union
Cabinet has permitted State government entities
to directly borrow from bilateral partners for vital
infrastructure projects. Incentivising prudent
fiscal management is a welcome initiative.
Looking beyond there must be symmetry
between the cost of borrowing and the quality of
financial governance. Combined market
borrowings have been rising consistently from
18% in FY11 to 28% in FY16. The gross market
borrowing of States through State Development
Loans (SDLs increased by a sharp 27% in FY17
from Rs. 2.9 trillion in FY16. Markets expect this
to rise even further by 22% in FY18 consequent
upon pay revisions implementation of Ujwal
DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY and exclusion
of State governments from the National Small
Savings Fund (NSSF. Risk variations across
States are not reflected adequately in the cost of
borrowings. This is a major concern. Fiscally
healthy States should be enabled to attract higher
investments at lower costs.
Two ushering in transparent accounting
practices. It is being increasingly acknowledged
that the current stock of State debt at 21% of
DP could be underestimated owing to fallacious
budgetary practices and operational intricacies.
Off-budget expenditures through State Public
Sector Undertakings' (PSUs borrowings and
explicit guarantees offered by the States do not
form a part of State government liabilities. Private
researchers and public auditors alike have been
pointing out the growing trend of off-budget
public spending and mis-categorisation of budget
data. The Comptroller and Auditor eneral of
India (CA while appraising States' finances
has repeatedly censured such practices. The
Fourteenth Finance Commission's (FFC
recommendation of adopting "a template for
collating analysing and annually reporting the
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 IST OF TE INDU
total extended public debt in their respective
budgets as a supplement to the budget document"
must be implemented.
Three emphasising quality of expenditure.
A recent SBC report notes that "quality of state
spending (proxied by the ratio of capital to current
spending has been gradually worsening over the
past few years". The share of States' revenue
expenditure in total expenditure has remained
around 80% and States' non-developmental
expenditure has risen by over 50% from FY2013
to FY2016. The RBI's latest assessment of State
Budgets with the theme 'Quality of Sub-national
Public Expenditure' raises the concerns about
dominance of revenue expenditure in the States.
While the quantum of "untied funds" from the
Centre to the States has increased owing to the
recommendations of the FFC expenditure on
physical and social infrastructure by the States
has remained stagnant. These very concerns were
expressed a few days ago at the NITI Aayog
meeting of Chief Ministers. While according
permission to States to undertake fresh
borrowings their expenditure quality should be a
prime condition.
Four encapsulating 'Fiscal Discipline' in
determining inter se tax shares of different States.
Fiscal discipline as a criterion for tax devolution
was used by Eleventh Twelfth and Thirteenth
Finance Commissions for incentivising the
States in prudent management of its finances.
owever the FFC dropped this indicator and
accommodated 'Population (2011' and 'Forest
Cover' in its devolution formula. iven the
deteriorating condition of State finances the
Fifteenth Finance Commission could consider
restoring fiscal discipline as a determinant for
horizontal devolution of funds.
FACING UP TO IT
A globalising world enabled the spectacular
rise of India's information technology industry
over the last couple of decades. The IT sector not
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VOL–53 27
only pulled up the DP but also came to
symbolise young India's aspirations. With the
world now bending towards protectionism it
faces a challenge to its talent-centric software
export model. In recent weeks a slew of
countries which are estimated to account for
three-fourths of the industry's revenues have
placed stricter rules on their companies getting
talent from overseas. Whether the challenge of
protectionism fades out or deepens over a longer
time horizon will depend on the global economic
outlook. The visa rule changes for Indian tech
personnel weren't wholly unexpected especially
after Brexit and Donald Trump's victory in the
U.S. on the back of, among other things promises
to put the brakes on outsourcing. Only now
governments are acting upon such rhetoric in
some countries including the U.S. the U.K.
Singapore and Australia. President Trump signed
the 'Buy American ire American' executive
order last week seeking to raise the bar for the
award of -1B visas an important route for
Indian companies so that they are given to the
"most-skilled or highest-paid" beneficiaries.
Earlier this month the U.K. scrapped a category
of short-term visas that have been used
extensively by Indian companies to get their IT
professionals on-site. The Australian equivalent
of this is the recent junking of what are called the
'457 visa' rules. Singapore has reportedly kept
approvals for work permits on hold for a while
now.
It is still too early to gauge the exact impact
on IT companies in part because much depends
on their ability to rework their operational models
to do less on-site. As it is it is a challenging time
for the industry - with slowing business growth
a strengthening rupee not to speak of the
difficult transition from a traditional model that
was based on making money by building custom
solutions and undertaking maintenance to one
that is cloud-based. Industry lobby Nasscom
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28 VOL–53
which in February quite unprecedentedly put off
its annual revenue forecast by a quarter amid
uncertainties on the policy front in the U.S. has
in recent days sought to counter the impression
that it is Indian IT companies that are getting the
lion's share of -1B visas for Indian nationals.
Those who believe the challenge will blow over
take heart from the fact that there is no
legislation hurting outsourcing on the immediate
horizon and the belief that the developed world
cannot really do without India's IT skills. The
government which has reportedly sought a World
Trade Organisation-backed framework to
facilitate trade in services in the light of rule-
tightening by the developed countries is naturally
concerned. The industry which employs over 3.5
million people and earns over $100 billion in
export revenues is now navigating a world with
walls.
GENERIC MEDICINES IN A DIGITAL
AGE
The Prime Minister's recent announcement
on making it mandatory for doctors to prescribe
only the generic name and not brand name of a
drug has led to a flutter. If enacted the move will
make it illegal for Indian doctors to write out a
prescription for the trademark of the drug
forcing them to mention the chemical name
instead. If implemented properly the hope is that
pharmacists will fill the prescription with the
cheapest generic drug in the market rather than
being forced to dispense a more expensive brand
as prescribed. Whether pharmacists will play by
the book is anybody's guess.
A more pressing question at this stage is
whether all generic medicines in India are of
equal quality. The U.S. and the European Union
have ensured that generic drugs are
therapeutically equal to the innovator drug by
making bioequivalence (BE testing compulsory.
This means that generic formulations are tested
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IST OF TE INDU
on healthy volunteers to ensure that they have
the same physiological characteristics as their
innovator counterparts. These BE studies are
much cheaper and carry little risk when compared
to clinical trials conducted by the company that
gets approval for the innovator product. Once
bioequivalence is established a generic drug is
legally certified to be of the same quality to
replace the innovator product and can therefore
be interchanged for the innovator product. Even
the World ealth Organisation (WO and
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF purchase only
bioequivalent drugs for their programmes. Until
earlier this month India mandated BE studies for
only those formulations seeking approval within
four years of the innovator product getting
approval. As a result most generic drug
manufacturers sought marketing approval from
the fifth year onwards effectively evading the
requirement of conducting BE studies. On April 3
the Ministry of ealth finally amended the Drugs
& Cosmetics Rules to make BE testing of all
highly soluble drugs compulsory. It is a much
welcome move.
At the very least the government should
require companies to self-certify their drugs to
indicate whether they are in fact bioequivalent. A
simple logo on the drug's packaging to indicate
whether a drug has been tested for proof of
bioequivalence along with the trial ID number
listed on the Clinical Trials Registry India should
be made mandatory. Even presuming successful
BE studies a drug can fail for a variety of reasons.
It may lack stability and break down due to heat
or humidity. These substandard drugs are a
dangerous problem especially in government-run
hospitals.
According to the government's most recent
survey of the quality of drugs in India 10% of all
drugs from 'government sources' tested NSQ or
not of standard quality. A NSQ drug will
compromise patient health. These numbers are
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
shocking. An earlier report of the Comptroller and
Auditor eneral had revealed that the Armed
Forces Medical Stores Depot which serves armed
forces personnel had reported the percentage of
locally procured drugs that were substandard at as
high as 32% in one year!
The challenge for the government is to
balance its policy objectives of taking the power
of the doctor away to prescribe brand name drugs
with the reality that generic drugs in India are of
questionable quality. The solution does not lie in
more laws but in providing more information to
the consumer. Drug regulators in India have a
vast trove of information on substandard drugs
which they need to release into a searchable
database. This is easier said than done because
India has 36 drug regulators - one for each State/
Union Territory and the Central regulator. Each of
them conducts periodic testing of samples drawn
from pharmacies. This testing generates three
data sets which need to be publicly available. The
first is the laboratory test report the second is
the investigation report by drug inspectors of
drugs which have failed testing and the third is
the criminal complaint filed in court against the
manufacturer along with the final judgment of
the court. If this information is made available
over the Internet the government will truly
empower hospital procurement officers
pharmacists and patients with information
required to avoid products of manufacturers with
a poor quality record.
The government must seriously consider
using IT tools to network all 36 drug regulators
into one integrated national database. This can
then be accessed by every citizen over a
smartphone. The essence of the 'Digital India'
initiative is to empower the citizen. What better
way to do this than to provide them with
information that will protect them from
substandard drugs?
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29
INDIA'S CHOICES AS AMERICA
'ASKS'
During his inaugural address in January
1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy famously
asked his fellow Americans: "Ask not what your
country can do for you; ask what you can do for
your country." In 2017 it is a question that U.S.
President Donald Trump is posing to the world
as he begins to set his imprint on American
foreign policy. In the past few weeks the one
campaign promise Mr. Trump's actions have held
fast to is "America First" and to make every other
country "pay its dues". As a result he has backed
away from his earlier tough position on declaring
China a "currency manipulator" after his meeting
with President Xi Jinping but the quid pro quo is
clear: China must rein in North Korea particularly
its plans for a nuclear test.
Mr. Trump's decision to dispatch Vice
President Mike Pence Defence Secretary James
Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to
meet allies in Europe and Asia was received with
a sense of relief after worries that he would
retrench America's presence globally. But the
message of reassurance came with a rider as Mr.
Trump met NATO Secretary-eneral Jens
Stoltenberg this month and then with Italian
Prime Minister Paolo entiloni and stressed the
need for NATO allies to "pay what they owe" 2%
of their DP for security. Similar messages were
pressed home to Japan South Korea and
Australia.
Despite bombing a Syrian airbase as reprisal
for what it said was a chemical attack by Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad America's engagement
in the region hasn't increased either. Mr. Trump's
meetings with Egyptian Jordanian and Turkish
leaders all contained a common demand: that
each of their countries step up its fight to counter
the Islamic State (IS in the region. Security
Council representatives visiting the White ouse
 30 VOL–53
this week were reminded that the U.S. pays for
22% of the UN's budget and almost 30% for UN
peacekeeping. Mr. Trump termed this "unfair".
To begin with the timing of the visit
seemed linked to the bombing of what the U.S.
Army claimed were hideouts of IS-Khorasan (IS-
K terrorists in Afghanistan's Nangarhar
province using what they crudely referred to as
the "mother of all bombs" (MOAB the BU-43/
B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb. Those
hoping the bombing meant the U.S. was now
showing an interest in its commitment to
security in Afghanistan hoped too early as the
bombing has not been followed by any
clarification of U.S. strategy. Instead once the
dust settles in Nangarhar and the U.S. reverts
control of the areas pounded by the largest non-
nuclear weapon in the American arsenal a closer
analysis of what was achieved will be necessary.
If anything bombing IS-K targets at that time
took the focus away from the Taliban which then
carried out their single most deadly attack on the
Afghan Army in the past decade and a half at the
Mazar-e-Sharif military base.
Even in his apparently rough dealings with
the Pakistani generals en. McMaster pushed for
action against groups operating in Afghanistan
avoiding the language of the Obama
administration that included the Lashkar-e-Taiba
and the Jaish-e-Mohammad in their public
comments on Pakistan. It would be safe to assume
that given the pattern of the past few weeks the
question "ask not…" will also be put in far clearer
terms by Mr. Trump to Prime Minister Narendra
Modi when he visits the White ouse as he is
expected to later this summer. For India then the
challenge is twofold: to decide not just what if
anything it is prepared to do to help the U.S. in
security and peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan
but also what it would like to see in clear terms in
return. The former has been debated in hushed
tones since September 2015 when Mr. Obama is
IST OF TE INDU
understood to have asked India for a commitment
on defence participation in Afghanistan.
From the American perspective given the
growing attrition of Afghan Army forces and
uptick in violence in 2016 the need for more
assistance from India is clear. As a western
diplomat said recently "Mr. Modi must know that
his meeting with Mr. Trump is a 'Yes or No'
moment. If it is Yes he will have to deliver
quickly. If it is No that too will have deep
consequences." edging in the manner Delhi was
earlier able to do over joint patrols in the Indo-
Pacific may no longer be an option.
Apart from Afghanistan it is also clear that
defence ties will drive the India-U.S. relationship
for the foreseeable future. The U.S. wants India to
move quickly on the other 'foundational
agreements' the Communications
Interoperability and Security Memorandum of
Agreement and Basic Exchange and Cooperation
Agreement for eo-spatial Cooperation as India
completes formalities for the Logistics Exchange
Memorandum of Agreement this week.
In the face of this altered pattern of
engagement that India must navigate with the
new America then Mr. Modi has limited options
ahead of his meeting with Mr. Trump: to coast
along and ride out the impending storm of
demands or to reject the transactionalism
inherent in these "asks from America" and steer
his own course. In Afghanistan in particular
India must bolster its bilateral delivery on defence
assistance rather than be co-opted in the U.S.'s
plans which frequently change according to its
own cost-benefit analysis. In so doing India may
also recover some of the equilibrium in its ties
with other world powers that have seemed more
distant in recent years.
REINING IN THE SHARKS
The much awaited Real Estate (Regulation
& Development Act is now in effect. The
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
Ministry of ousing and Urban Poverty
Alleviation recently notified 69 out of the 92
sections in total which set the ball rolling for
States to formulate within six months rules and
regulations as statutorily mandated. Since land is
a State subject under the Constitution even after
the Centre enacts the legislation State
governments will have to ratify them. States will
have to set up the Real Estate Regulatory
Authority's (RERA and the Real Estate Appellate
Tribunals and have only a maximum of a year
from the coming into effect of the Act to do so.
The Act's preamble details the legislative
intention which is to primarily protect the
interests of consumers and bring in efficiency
and transparency in the sale/purchase of real
estate. The Act also attempts to establish an
adjudicatory mechanism for the speedy redress of
disputes. RERA and the Appellate Tribunal are
expected to decide on complaints within an
ambitious period of 60 days. But no legislation
can protect the interest of only one class. As one
of the largest job creators the real estate sector
contributes almost 6% towards the DP. Mindful
of this the Act seeks to assist developers by
giving the regulator powers to make
recommendations to State governments to create
a single window clearance for approvals in a time-
bound manner.
Key provisions of the Act include a
requirement for developers to now register
projects with RERA prior to any advertisement
and sale. Developers are also expected to have all
sanction plans approved and regulatory
clearances in place prior to commencement of
sale. Subsequent changes have to be approved by
a majority of buyers and the regulator. The Act
again ambitiously stipulates an electronic system
maintained on the website of RERA where
developers are expected to update on a quarterly
basis the status of their projects and submit
regular audits and architectural reports. Notably
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31
non-registration of projects is a serious matter. If
there is non-compliance RERA has the power to
order up to three years imprisonment of the
promoters of a project.
While consumer interests have been
protected developers find provisions of the Act to
be exceptionally burdensome on a sector already
ailing from a paucity of funds and multiple
regulatory challenges. The builder lobby has been
demanding "industry" status for the real estate
sector as it would help in the availability of bank
loans. Real estate companies say that most delays
are because of the failure of authorities to grant
approvals/sanctions on time. While the Act
addresses some of this it does not deal with the
concerns of developers regarding force majeure
(acts of god outside their control which result in
a shortage of labour or issues on account of there
not being a central repository of land titles/deeds.
Some of these concerns are legitimate but
the real estate sector has become a sort of
untamed horse galloping in all directions. The
cracks emerging in their books are largely of their
own making. Once 100% foreign direct
investment was permitted in real estate
international money f looded the market.
Builders/developers overstretched themselves
and diverted funds while some began to cross-
invest in non-core activities. In the race to
announce the next "mega project" one came
across in many instances real estate companies
embarking on projects without even
consolidating land.
Eventually the benefit of any statute is
contingent on its effective implementation.
Despite a model set of rules only a few States
have notified their rules. The onus is now on
States to formulate rules and establish the
regulatory authorities on time. There shouldn't be
just paper compliance by designating an existing
authority to take additional charge as the real
estate regulator as that would affect the
timeliness prescribed under the Act.
 32 VOL–53
Finally the new legislation is a welcome
enactment. It will go a long way in assisting
upstanding developers. More importantly it will
ease the burden on innocent home buyers who
put their life's savings into a real estate
investment in the hope of having a roof over their
head but often find their dreams come tumbling
down.
SUKMA IS A WAKE-UP CALL
The Maoist attack on the 99-member
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF party in
Sukma Chhattisgarh in which at least 25 jawans
lost their lives has once again brought the focus
on not just the threat represented by left-wing
extremism (LWE but also questions of
preparation equipping training and strategy of
the CRPF that is bearing the brunt of the burden
in this fight.
The fight against Maoists has been
characterised by high casualty count of our
security forces. The Sukma attack of April 24 was
reminiscent of the ambush in Dantewada in April
2010 when Maoists killed 76 CRPF personnel and
decamped with their weapons and explosives.
Predictably there is anger and there will be heavy
payback for the Maoists. But it is indeed
inexplicable that despite the five-decade-long
insurgent movement and a large number of
paramilitary personnel along with State police
being deployed in Maoism-affected areas there
seems to be no clear strategic approach to the
problem and the forces do not have an upper
hand in the areas.
The problem is compounded by the fact that
the LWE/Maoists corridor spreads across several
States and the perceived lack of a common plan
has left each State government combating the
Naxals as per their own strategy. This is costing
lives of scores of our CRPF and police personnel
and the patience of people to tolerate these
slaughters is wearing thin. While there has been
IST OF TE INDU
a significant drop in Maoist violence in
Chhattisgarh in the past year when 36 security
personnel were killed as compared to 182 in 2007
between 2005 and 2017 as many as 1910 security
personnel were killed in LWE/Maoist attacks in
India out of which 954 casualties were in
Chhattisgarh alone including the latest incident.
For several decades combating LWEs/
Maoists has been characterised by recruiting
CRPF soldiers putting them through inadequate
training giving them a uniform and asking them
to make do. There are also shortages of Mine
Protected Vehicles (MPV. Successive ambushes
and attacks have shown the vulnerability of the
CRPF and police parties in the Naxal areas. The
damage and loss of life from attacks with grenade
launchers and improvised explosive devices (IED)
can be lessened with movement in armoured
vehicles. In 2010 the Centre had sanctioned
acquisition of 350 MPVs for the CRPF but in
March 2017 there were only 122 MPVs with the
CRPF. Out of these 122 MPVs about a dozen have
been shifted to Jammu and Kashmir.
Inadequate combat capability of police
forces in Maoism-affected States remains the
prime factor for failing security response as also
dependency of State police forces on the Central
government for anti-Maoist operations. Lack of
institutionalised intelligence-sharing between
States and regions and regional coordination is
being clearly utilised by the LWEs/Maoists. The
reyhounds special force of undivided Andhra
Pradesh has by far been the most effective force
to have succeeded in reversing the trend of
Maoist violence. Since 2005 429 LWEs/Maoists
have been killed in Andhra Pradesh and 36
security personnel have lost their lives; in
Telangana formed in 2014 four LWEs/Maoists
have been killed with no casualties on the
security forces' side. In 2012 the ome Ministry
had proposed to replicate reyhounds in five
Maoism-hit States. Clearly the proposal has not
seen the light of day especially in Chhattisgarh.
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Apart from the obvious gaps in intelligence-
gathering there is clear evidence that the CRPF
lags on strategy and tactics. The use of
technology (including drones to increase
surveillance around patrols to prevent ambushes
is inadequate. Losing a quarter of the patrol force
in an ambush like this must get the CRPF
leadership to re-evaluate tactics training and
equipment. The time has come for a fundamental
transformation of the ome Ministry - by moving
internal security functions of the government to
a new focussed and accountable Internal Security
Ministry.
The service and sacrifice of our CRPF
martyrs must not be in vain and it must be a
wake-up call for the government and in
particular the ome Ministry. It is a 26/11
moment in our fight against LWEs/Maoists. The
battle with them must be accompanied by not
just the perseverance and devotion of our men in
uniform but also better tactics equipment
training and a determined strategy to prevail and
win that combines the resources and leadership
of all States involved and the Central government.
EQUITY IN TAXES
A controversial proposal by Bibek Debroy a
member of the government think tank NITI
Aayog to tax agricultural income above a
particular threshold has led to a public exchange
of views. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley quickly
dismissed any plans to tax farm income but more
policymakers have begun to voice their opinion
the latest being Chief Economic Adviser Arvind
Subramanian who made it clear that taxing farm
income is a State subject. The public image of
farming being a poor man's venture and the
sizeable vote share that farmers enjoy have made
the idea of farm taxes a political taboo. The
frequent distress faced by poor or marginal
farmers which could be attributed to structural
issues other than taxation hasn't helped matters
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33
either. But India has a presence of rich farmers as
well and there exists as a strong justification for
taxing them in order to widen the country's
embarrassingly narrow tax base. Mr. Debroy
suggested that an appropriate tax policy should
draw a distinction between rich and poor farmers
thereby addressing the widespread political
apprehension of bringing agriculture under the
tax net. It is no secret that India's tax base
standing at a minuscule 5.9% of the working
population is already among the lowest in the
world. This unnecessarily burdens the more
formal sectors of the economy that are already
overtaxed; at the same time it handicaps
government spending on the social sector.
The case for treating agriculture on a par
with other sectors is thus clear. But policymakers
must also show equal care and urgency in
addressing the structural issues facing the sector.
This includes among many reforms to the broken
agricultural supply chain that still leaves farmers
at the mercy of middlemen cartels. Such reforms
are crucial if farming is to become a sustainable
enterprise in the long run. Else a tax on high-
income farmers will result only in driving
resources away from agriculture into other
sectors. It would make no difference to poorer
farmers stuck in agriculture merely because of
the lack of opportunities. In this context the
historical transition of labour and other resources
from agriculture into other sectors is particularly
useful to keep in mind. The said transition has
been very slow in India; in fact according to
Census figures the size of the farm workforce
increased by 28.9 million between 2001 and 2011.
This is due to a combination of factors but one in
particular is worth noting: the difficulty
agricultural workers face in finding jobs in other
more advanced sectors. A tax on lucrative high
value farm ventures which affects their ability to
absorb labourers from low-value farming could
make life more difficult for farmers unable to
 34 VOL–53
make the cut in industry or services. iven this
policymakers ought to tread carefully as they
move forward on a long overdue fiscal reform.
BEING PRAGMATIC WITH
PYONGYANG
Rhetoric and political signalling is an
accepted element of crisis management provided
the messages are clearly understood by those for
whom these are intended. If not it becomes a
source of misunderstanding and a recipe for
unintended miscalculation and potential disaster.
Nowhere is this more evident than in recent
exchanges between the U.S. and the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK where events
threaten to spin out of control.
In turn the DPRK threatened a "super
mighty pre-emptive strike". After undertaking a
live firing exercise off its east coast it followed
up with another test-firing of a ballistic missile
on April 29 which fizzled causing loss of face.
During the campaign Mr. Trump had said that he
would be willing to talk to North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un making it clear that Barack
Obama's policy focussing on tighter sanctions
was a failure. After assuming office he adopted a
harder line declaring that he would do "whatever
is necessary" to prevent North Korea from
developing a nuclear-capable missile that can
reach the U.S.
Regime acceptance and regime survival have
been key priorities for Pyongyang since the
collapse of the Soviet Union. A positive move in
1992 was the withdrawal of tactical nuclear
weapons from the Korean peninsula and a
suspension of Team Spirit the joint U.S.-South
Korean military exercises leading to the Basic
Agreement on Reconciliation Non-Aggression
and Exchanges and Cooperation. When joint
exercises were resumed in 1993 North Korea
announced its decision to withdraw from the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT. The
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ensuing crisis led to talks and a year later an
Agreed Framework was concluded under which
North Korea suspended its decision to withdraw
from the NPT agreed to freeze its nuclear
activities and in return the U.S. pledged to build
two light water nuclear power reactors. Food aid
and humanitarian assistance provided by the
Clinton administration from 1995 till 2000 was
close to $750 million.
The Bush administration declared North
Korea part of the 'axis of evil' in 2002 cancelled
direct talks and annulled the 1994 agreement.
North Korea responded by throwing out
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors
and formally quit the NPT thereby provoking a
fresh crisis. China and Russia initiated Six Party
Talks in 2004 which led to the 2005 joint
statement which expanded the scope to more
than the nuclear issue. owever the talks
collapsed when the U.S. imposed sanctions a few
months later; North Korea responded with its
first nuclear test in 2006.
Since then North Korea has made steady
progress in its nuclear and missile programmes.
An underground nuclear facility has been built at
Mt. Musan. Nuclear tests were conducted in 2013
and twice last year and it is estimated that North
Korea has enough fissile material for 10 to 15
nuclear devices. By 2019 North Korea will be able
to develop long-range missiles that can reach the
U.S. mainland. iven Mr. Trump's redline Mr.
Jong-un is convinced that nuclear capability is the
ultimate security guarantee to protect his regime
against U.S. intervention.
U.S. policy has oscillated between sanctions
in response to nuclear and missile tests dilution
of sanctions by China talks about closer defence
ties with Japan and South Korea citing of
additional threats by North Korea and more
testing thus repeating the cycle. U.S.
expectations that sanctions would lead to regime
collapse were misplaced because given China's
stakes this will not happen.
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
Recently China has registered a policy shift
ref lecting unhappiness about Mr. Jong-un's
behaviour particularly the high-profile
executions of those considered to be close to
China. The most recent was the assassination of
Kim Jong-nam Mr. Jong-un's half brother in
February which prompted China to halting coal
briquette imports from North Korea. Air China
stopped direct flights to Pyongyang last month
but these are now being reinstated. North Korea
has accused China of "dancing to the tune of the
U.S.". owever China can neither permit a regime
collapse which would create instability nor allow
its communist ally to be subsumed into a unified
Korea.
Mr. Xi's objective is to persuade Mr. Trump
that neither more sanctions nor military strikes
are viable options; the only option is 'dialogue'.
Second while denuclearisation of the Korean
peninsula can be a long-term objective for the
foreseeable future Mr. Jong-un is not going to
give up North Korea's nuclear and missile
capabilities. At most he can agree to a freeze on
its programmes - no further tests no exports or
transfers and no threats. In return the U.S. will
need to provide assurances relating to regime
acceptance and a gradual normalisation of
relations. A moderate leader in Seoul will help the
process of a sustained dialogue which also needs
coordination with Japan.
POWERING UP FOOD
Since a diversified diet that meets all
nutritional requirements is difficult to provide
fortification of food is relied upon by many
countries to prevent malnutrition. The World
ealth Organisation estimates that deficiency of
key micronutrients such as iron vitamin A and
iodine together affects a third of the world's
population; in general insufficient consumption
of vitamins and minerals remains problematic.
Viewed against the nutrition challenge India
faces processed foods with standards-based
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35
fortification can help advance overall health
goals starting with maternal health. It is
imperative for a start to make iron-fortified food
widely available since iron deficiency contributes
to 20% of maternal deaths and is associated with
nearly half of all maternal deaths. The shadow of
malnutrition extends to the children that women
with anaemia give birth to. They often have low
birth weight are pre-term and suffer from poor
development and lower cognitive abilities. Low
intake of vitamins zinc and folate also causes a
variety of health issues particularly when
growing children are deprived. Fortification is a
low-cost solution. The benefit is maximised when
there is a focus also on adequate intake of oils and
fats which are necessary for the absorption of
micronutrients and something poorer households
often miss in their diet.
The efficacy of the fortification standards
introduced by the Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India (FSSAI will depend on
enforcement. It is important to ensure that all
sections of producers meet the norms since the
FSSAI plans to get local f lour mills to add
premixed nutrients. Making affordable good
quality fortified foods widely available is the key.
Only such standardised processes can provide
micronutrients to women and in turn to
breastfed children in the first six months after
birth. A well-functioning public distribution
system is the best channel to reach precisely
those sections that need fortified food the most.
In the case of children recent studies show that
adding zinc to food during the six months to 12
years growth period reduced the risk of death
from infectious diseases and all causes put
together. Fortified food therefore provides near
to medium-term gains and addresses
micronutrient malnutrition concerns at the
population level. Yet as the WO points out in
the long term public health goals on prevention
and elimination of nutritional deficiencies should
 36 VOL–53
aim at encouraging people to adopt a diversified
and wholesome diet. Children including those in
school should get a wholesome cooked meal that
is naturally rich and augmented with vegetables
fruits dairy and other foods of choice. Fortified
foods can help fill the gaps particularly in areas
that are in need of speedy remedial nutrition. It is
also vital that food regulation views the issue of
affordability as a central concern because
unaffordable fortified food would defeat the very
purpose of fortification.
TARGETED TREATMENT
Two years after the World ealth
Organisation (WO recommended that
antiretroviral therapy (ART be initiated in people
living with IV irrespective of the CD4 (a type of
white-blood cell counts India has aligned its
policy with the guideline. In a major shift Union
ealth Minister J.P. Nadda had recently said that
any person who tests positive for IV will be
provided ART "as soon as possible and irrespective
of the CD count or clinical stage". Nearly 4.5 lakh
deaths can be averted through this move.
It was in 2002 that the WO first issued its
ART guidelines. In the absence of AIDS-defining
illnesses the WO set CD4 count less than 200
cells per cubic millimetre as the threshold to
begin ART treatment. Over time it changed its
guidelines and in 2013increased the threshold to
CD4 count less than 500 cells per cu. mm.
The recommendation was based on the
evidence that an earlier initiation of ART will help
people with IV live longer remain healthier and
"substantially reduce" the risk of them
transmitting the virus to others. The availability
of safer affordable and easy-to-manage medicines
that could help to lower the amount of virus in the
blood played a key role in the WO's decision.
Earlier initiation could avert an "additional three
million deaths and prevent 3.5 million more new
IV infections between 2013 and 2025" noted
IST OF TE INDU
the WO in 2013. In 2015 the WO once again
changed its guidelines. Based on evidence from
clinical trials and observational studies since
2013 it became clear that an earlier use of ART
irrespective of the CD4 count results in better
clinical outcomes. Accordingly it recommended
that ART be initiated in IV-positive people at any
CD4 cell count.
As per 2015 estimates India has 2.1 million
IV-positive people of which only 1.6 million
have been diagnosed and about a million are on
treatment. But over half a million people are not
even aware of their IV status. With the
government changing its treatment guidelines
the 0.6 million who have been diagnosed but not
been on treatment are now eligible for treatment.
Of the 0.6 million about 0.25 million have been
enrolled for pre-ART care and can be started on
treatment almost immediately. But the biggest
challenge will be to identify the 0.35 million who
have been diagnosed but not on treatment and
the 0.5 million who have been infected but have
not been diagnosed. Also nearly 80000 people get
infected each year.
Even as efforts are on to expand the 1600
treatment delivery sites that are currently
operational there should be greater focus now on
identifying people with IV. The government has
plans to start community-based testing to bring
it closer to those in need and target special
groups that are more vulnerable to infection such
as partners of people who are IV-positive.
SHORT-SIGHTED PLOY
By launching impeachment proceedings in
Parliament against Supreme Court Chief Justice
Sushila Karki the ruling coalition government in
Nepal has ignited yet another crisis at an already
fraught political moment - before the scheduled
local polls later this month. The proximate
reasons for the motion of impeachment relate to
the Chief Justice's decision to set aside the
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
appointment of a police chief by the government
over the issue of seniority and to recommend the
elevation of another claimant. The two biggest
parties in the coalition the Communist Party of
Nepal (Maoist-Centre led by Prime Minister
Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the Nepali Congress of
Sher Bahadur Deuba have accused her of
interfering with executive powers. owever the
timing of the motion and its implications with
the judge due to retire in a month's time suggest
a narrow-minded political strategy. Since the
motion was signed by more than one-fourth of the
members of the legislature Justice Karki was
suspended immediately under a constitutional
provision that has been misused by the CPN(M-
C and the Nepali Congress. She is seen by Nepal's
civil society as being fairly independent-minded
in a judiciary that is politicised. The Maoists were
upset by a recent court decision to reject clemency
for a Maoist leader convicted for a murder
committed during the civil war. Mr. Deuba
reportedly feared being hauled up on contempt
charges which could have made his elevation to
the post of Prime Minister difficult. The
government's initiation of impeachment
proceedings over a debatable issue of judicial
overreach and for such expedient reasons
threatens the separation of powers in the
fledgling republic.
The impeachment proceedings have
political consequences as well. One of the alliance
partners the Rastriya Prajatantra Party has
decided to withdraw support to the coalition
making the ruling arrangement more fragile.
Deputy Prime Minister and ome Minister
Bimalendra Nidhi also of the Nepali Congress
has resigned in protest against the motion. With
the government unable to rope in the opposition
led by the CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist to
agree to amendments in the Constitution that
will address the concerns of Madhesi parties over
a federal redrawing of boundaries the prospects
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37
of smooth conduct of local body elections were
already dim. The tussle with the judiciary and the
frivolous use of impeachment makes any
understanding with the opposition prior to the
elections even more unlikely. If local elections are
not held in May as scheduled it will also make it
difficult for sets of constitutionally mandated
parliamentary elections to be held by the January
2018 deadline. All said the action of impeachment
of a serving Chief Justice is yet another
indictment of the Nepali political class which
needs to rise above petty and narrow interests
after its momentous achievement of overturning
the monarchy a decade ago.
GUARDING THE GATEKEEPERS
These are challenging times for journalism.
Two things have disrupted the way in which
people access information and therefore the
practice of journalism itself: social media and the
mobile phone. These two in combination have
disrupted the way in which legacy newsrooms
operate forcing them to adapt to fast-changing
technology.
The Digital News Report 2016 by the
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
found that 51% of their sample use social media
as a source of news. According to the lobal Web
Index's first-quarter report for 2017 94% of
digital consumers aged 16-64 say they have an
account on at least one social media platform and
98% have visited/used one within the last
month; one in every three minutes spent online
is devoted to social networking and messaging
with digital consumers engaging for a daily
average of over two hours. At least 78% of the
Internet population aged 16-64 is now networking
via a mobile. For democracy to be practised at its
best there should be plurality of thought and a
public sphere that is vibrant with a multitude of
views.
Cut to the 1990s when the media ecology
 38 VOL–53
changed drastically with the advent of the World
Wide Web. The generation and distribution of
news and opinion was no longer a linear process
but networked. This was a medium that was
democratic accessible to all (at least in theory
and a place where multiple conversations could
take place. It was felt that the rise of the Internet
had given way to the decline of the newspaper
but that theory was soon debunked and between
2000 and 2009 newspapers began setting up the
online versions of their printed publications; this
became a time of consolidation for the news
media online as people would visit the websites of
trusted publications for news.
Twenty years on the media landscape is
very different. Large players like oogle and
Facebook have actually shrunk the space for
public discourse and the very nature of news
publishing has changed as a result. Big data
personalisation and distributed content are the
watchwords today and news organisations are all
jumping on the bandwagon. Increasingly search
engines such as oogle and social media
platforms such as Facebook deliver personalised
content to users. Algorithms are now replacing
news editors and opinion makers and they are
getting more and more refined in learning from
user behaviour. And as content has multiplied
Facebook and oogle are privileging content
based on engagement rather than its quality.
The mainstay of journalism holding power
to account is increasingly giving way online to
publishing trivial content in the hope of
attracting more users. In a bid to increase
revenue publishers are aiming for the largest
number of page views and dumbing down
content and engaging in clickbait to reach more
eyeballs. In such an environment it is only a
matter of time before readers will seek out
trusted journalists and publishers who they can
depend on to provide the news and information
that is unbiased and accurate and opinion that
IST OF TE INDU
reflects multiple viewpoints and world views.
This is a unique moment for journalism to fulfil
its watchdog and gatekeeping roles and be
publicly accountable for its content. owever to
do this journalists and their publishers also need
to adapt to the new reading habits of their
audiences and adapt to storytelling in different
formats - not just text but more interactive
visual formats.
It is also an opportune moment for
journalists to take full advantage of the social
media tools that are available to them like
Snapchat Facebook Live and Twitter's Periscope
to connect with their readers without losing the
core values of journalism so that they can
continue to tell stories that resonate with the
reader.
THE SCALE OF PROGRESS, SO FAR
Agenda 2030 a comprehensive
development agenda was adopted in the United
Nations eneral Assembly by member states on
September 25 2015. It is ambitious enough to
address several socioeconomic concerns and
make the development process inclusive.
owever since it's not binding on member
nations there is apprehension that it may end up
becoming another of the Millennium
Development oals which were only partially
achieved. The igh-level Political Forum
comprising the political representatives (heads of
states or ministers of the members meets every
July at the UN in New York to review progress on
Agenda 2030. The Voluntary National Reviews
(VNR - voluntary and country driven - form the
basis of this review.
The UN website says: "The voluntary
national reviews aim to facilitate the sharing of
experiences including successes challenges and
lessons learned with a view to accelerating the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda." In 2016 22
presented their performance review on
sustainable development goals (SDGs. This year
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IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
44 nations including India have volunteered. The
themes of review this year are oals 1 2 3 5 9
14 and 17 of Agenda 2030 respectively.
In India the process is led by NITI Aayog
Research and Information System for Developing
Countries a think tank attached to Ministry of
External Affairs and the Ministry of Statistics
and Programme Implementation. Civil society is
anxious as it wonders whether it will have a say
in the official VNR report. Consultations on the
larger agenda of SDGs and on particular themes
such as gender are being held by inviting civil
society private groups and other stakeholders at
the national and State levels. The outcome will be
fed to the process of making the VNR. It is
understood that the government will highlight
its key achievements such as Swachh Bharat
financial inclusion etc. The government has
already identified existing programmes and
policies which are linked to different goals under
SDs. Sources suggest that the government has
also sought inputs from civil society especially to
the VNR process. It's not clear whether the
inputs of civil society organisations (CSO will be
part of the government report or will form an
annexure. owever Indian civil society led by
Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA - an umbrella
CSOs' platform - has geared up for a shadow
report on SDGs.
Is the VNR process an effective mechanism
to review SDs? Ingo Ritz director of CAP a
global campaign on poverty and inequality says:
"In the LPF 2016 the governments tried to
show that they already do very well. There was no
reflection about problems challenges or what
policies should be changed to achieve the SDGs."
A closer look at last year's VNR by nations gives
a clear impression that they presented only a rosy
picture of their performance.
THE LONG ARC TO ANKARA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an
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39
was in India and tried to give a boost to sagging
ties between Delhi and Ankara. is visit came
against the backdrop of his narrow win in a
referendum on April 16 which gave him sweeping
executive powers as President giving rise to fears
about a lack of adequate safeguards for democratic
rights in Turkey. iven his growing regional and
global isolation as he seems intent on
dismantling the secular traditions of Turkey Mr.
Erdo?an has been trying use Islamism to shore
up his credibility.
e said India and Pakistan are both friends
of Turkey and that he wanted to help strengthen
the dialogue process. But if Mr. Erdo?an's intent
was to improve Indo-Turkish ties then this was
clearly a non-judicious start given that India has
consistently ruled out third party mediation on
Kashmir. New Delhi was categorical in asserting
that "the issue of Kashmir is essentially an issue
of terrorism" and that its disputes with Pakistan
must be settled bilaterally.
Not that this was a surprise as Mr. Erdo?an
has been a vocal supporter of the Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation's position on Kashmir.
During his visit too the only India-related
terrorism he referred to was the threat from
Naxalism. Though he suggested that India and
Turkey needed to "work as one to disrupt the
terrorist networks and their financing and put a
stop to cross-border movement of terrorists" he
remained unwilling to acknowledge the cross-
border nature of the terror threat that India faces.
On India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers
roup the Turkish stance has been to push for
Pakistan's case along with India's.
Mr. Erdo?an has recognised that India-
Turkey relations are "significantly behind" their
potential and that the two nations need to work
together for a fair world. Towards that end he was
willing to support India's bid for a permanent seat
in the United Nations Security Council even as he
called for major institutional reforms. But even
 40 VOL–53
here the story is complicated as Turkey is a
member of the group called Uniting for
Consensus which opposes expansion of
permanent membership in the Security Council.
And this group includes Pakistan.
Mr. Erdo?an clearly wanted to keep the
focus on economic and trade ties as he was
accompanied by a large business delegation. At a
time when Europe is not so welcoming to Turkey
new markets in Asia are needed. India and Turkey
have decided to increase their bilateral trade from
$6.4 billion to $10 billion by 2020. The two
nations are also exploring cooperation in areas
such as construction infrastructure development
renewable energy and tourism.
As a major regional power in West Asia
Turkey cannot be ignored by India. But New Delhi
is no longer content to allow Ankara to define
the contours of this relationship. It is signalling
that if Turkey wants to reach out to India then
Indian sensitivities on core issues have to be
respected. Otherwise India too is not short of
options.
THIS TIME WITH FEELING
The Centre has empowered the Reserve
Bank of India to get banks to take tougher steps
including insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings
against defaulters to address the growing volume
of bad loans on their books. An ordinance to
amend the Banking Regulation Act of 1949 has
been issued to quell doubts whether the existing
provisions allowed the RBI to direct banks to deal
with specific stressed assets. The RBI has also
been vested with the power to form oversight
committees wherever it deems fit. Currently such
committees exist only for loans brought into a
scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed
assets also known as S4A. Now the RBI can bring
in such panels to monitor the alphabet soup of
other mechanisms for tackling non-performing
assets (NPAs such as SDR (strategic debt
IST OF TE INDU
restructuring through the JLFs or joint lenders'
forums. The hope is that this will let bankers take
decisive calls on loan accounts that have turned
bad as an independent oversight committee's
approval could keep investigative agencies off
their backs. Bankers may not always have the
sectoral expertise to monetise or leverage assets
underlying bad loans in the best possible way. Yet
their paralysis on the NPA front with its
collateral impact being the worst bank credit
growth recorded in decades is driven by the fear
that they could get themselves implicated for poor
lending and monitoring decisions. The success of
this latest salvo against bad loans will depend on
the fine print on how the ultimate decision -
whether to take a haircut on a loan and restructure
it or invoke bankruptcy clauses - is arrived at.
Perhaps of equal significance is the
reshuffle of certain public sector bank officials
announced on Friday. This is a clear signal that
the NDA government is losing its patience with
bankers persisting with a status quoist approach.
The ordinance is the latest attempt to resolve the
twin balance sheet problem (of indebted
borrowers and NPA-burdened lenders plaguing
India's domestic investment cycle. In 2015 the
Prime Minister launched a yan Sangam conclave
with bankers and an Indradhanush road map to
revitalise public sector banks. Last year a Banks
Board Bureau was set up to recommend the
appointment of top bosses at banks and help
them develop strategies and plan raising of
capital. If the government wants to see a spurt in
investment and job-creation it needs to do more
than just pin its hopes on new oversight
committees. It must amend the anti-corruption
law as has been promised for a while now and
accept the need to fix the policy-level stress
affecting sectors such as telecom power and
highways. Above all the government cannot in
the same breath argue that the political cost of
reforms is dissipating but that the 're-
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
privatisation' of banks as mooted by the RBI
recently is still a holy cow for the Indian polity.
GOVT. CORPORATION TO TAKE OVER
SICK TEXTILE MILLS
Commerce Minister Dinesh Singh told the
Industrial Committee on Cotton Textiles to-day
that the overnment had decided to set up a
textile corporation to manage 'sick' and weak
textile mills. A Bill would be introduced in the
next session of Parliament to facilitate the take-
over of these uneconomic units he added. Mr.
Singh's announcement of the decision received
general support from the representatives of
employers and employees. The committee also
decided that the overnment should set up
investigation committees under the Industries
(Development and Regulation Act to investigate
the affairs of units already facing closure. Another
recommendation to the overnment was to set
up a tripartite committee at the centre to keep a
watch on the situation and detect cases of
deteriorating management in time.
TOWARDS A UNIQUE DIGITAL
SOUTH ASIAN IDENTITY
The enthusiasm with which government
agencies and businesses have embraced Aadhaar
should prompt India's foreign policy planners to
deploy it abroad. Executed properly Aadhaar could
become a central pillar of India's "neighbourhood
first" policy culminating in the creation of a
unique digital South Asian identity. A single
region-wide platform to authenticate residents of
South Asia could integrate its markets bring
communities closer and allow governments to
offer a wider range of governance services. None
of this is to ignore the steps that India's Unique
Identification Authority must take to secure its
own Aadhaar ecosystem. But the demand for
identity-driven governance in South Asia is
indisputable and Aadhaar could be Indian foreign
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41
policy's biggest asset to promote economic and
political convergence in the region.
Already South Asian economies are in
varying stages of conceiving or implementing
their own "national identity" schemes. Pakistan
has the National Database and Registration
Authority (NADRA that for two decades has
collected biometric information. NADRA
however has seen limited success: at last count
it had issued only 3.8 lakh ID cards to Pakistanis
in comparison to Aadhaar's one billion-plus
enrolments. In 2013 NADRA even won an
international contract to create Sri Lanka's digital
national identity scheme but that project appears
to have stalled. Nepal meanwhile intends to roll
out biometrics-driven "national ID cards" to its
citizens soon. The Election Commission in
Bangladesh began issuing such cards last year.
South Asian governments long content to
gather data through traditional means such as
censuses are struggling to capture dynamic
trends in their population. Current databases
shine no light on urban mobility data
consumption patterns or quality of life because
these are metrics that need integrated data sets
and powerful analytical tools. To capture "multi-
dimensional" data India's neighbours have moved
towards digital identity schemes. The need for
unique IDs is also acute because post-conflict
societies in South Asia have not fully
rehabilitated excluded minorities or former
combatants. In comparison to politically fraught
changes - for instance the 13th Amendment to
the Sri Lankan Constitution for the devolution of
powers or federalist reforms in Nepal - digital
identity schemes are easier to implement can
strengthen local governments and support the
financial inclusion of marginalised sections.
Beyond collecting biometric data however
South Asian governments have not been able to
create digital ID-enabled applications. This is
what Aadhaar has mastered making it a very
 42 VOL–53
valuable foreign policy export. Its open
application programming interface (API layers -
known as "India Stack" - set Aadhaar apart from
other biometric ID programmes. India Stack APIs
which include the Unified Payment Interface
(UPI and Aadhaar e-KYC allow applications to be
built atop them (for example the Bharat Interface
for Money or BIM app and enable identity-
driven transactions. Such platforms will be
invaluable to an economy working to integrate its
communities. Take the return of military-occupied
land in Sri Lanka's Northern Province to the
Tamils an exercise that has become a political and
logistical nightmare for Colombo. A digital
identity-based scheme will not only authenticate
the legitimate recipients of land but also simplify
future transactions for sale leasing or
commercial use. In Bangladesh digital IDs could
track loans made by multiple microfinance
institutions to the same borrower and help check
rural debt.
India too stands to benefit by exporting the
Aadhaar architecture. The digital networks for
much of South Asia are likely to be supplied by
Chinese companies over the next decade. Telecom
pipes and towers built by China will carry the
Internet to the user but innovation in Asia's
digital economies will happen at the top - the "app
layer". Aadhaar-like platforms catalyse innovation
by tailoring Big Data for governments and
businesses alike. The political and economic
leverage India will accrue as a result of enabling
such entrepreneurship will surpass fixed
investments by China. There is another strategic
reason for India to export the Aadhaar platform.
Once a critical mass of Aadhaar-enabled
applications has been created interoperability
standards for the digital ecosystem will be
determined by the Unique ID programme. App
developers handheld manufacturers and even
Internet Service Providers will have to work
around Aadhaar's encryption standards and data
IST OF TE INDU
protection guidelines. Such a scenario will be
India's best response to concerns that China will
pump its infrastructure and - in the words of
Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar - "hard wire" the
norms of governance in the region.
The same concerns of surveillance and
privacy that animate the Aadhaar debate in India
would no doubt be reflected in South Asian
societies. Perhaps more sharply given the
propensity of some governments in the
neighbourhood to target minority communities.
They can learn from India's mistakes. South Asian
countries that have not digitised their public
databases fully can create secure ones to link to
unique ID programmes. A national ID programme
would also be a trigger for them to enact strong
data protection laws. Aadhaar is a constitutional
technology that can build whole new information
and communication technology ecosystems. New
Delhi should appreciate its foreign policy value
and integrate the project into its neighbourhood
agenda.
PACIFISM AND REALPOLITIK
The present geopolitical situation in East
Asia may have looked conducive even compelling
for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to set a
2020 target to rewrite the country's controversial
post-war pacifist Constitution. Nevertheless the
move to accord legal recognition to the country's
military which has already grown to assume
international commitments must clear many
legislative hurdles. The country's 1947
Constitution has been at the centre of competing
narratives in much the same way as the
contentious historical accounts on Japan's pre-
eminent part in the Second World War.
The document drafted by the Supreme
Command of the Allied Powers (SCAP divided
the Japanese Diet between the conservatives and
nationalists on the one hand and the social
democrats on the other. Whereas the former view
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53 43
the Constitution as an imposition on Tokyo the CHASING PEACE
latter see the text as a canon of progressive and
The so-called de-escalation agreement
forward-looking principles. At the heart of these
reached among Russia Turkey and Iran last week
divisions lies Article 9 through which Japan
in Astana is the latest in a series of attempts to
renounced the use of force in the resolution of
bring the six-year-old Syrian civil war to an end.
international disputes and proclaimed never to
Previous ceasefire plans have either failed to take
maintain land sea and air forces. The charter
off or collapsed soon after given the continued
merely made provision for the country's own
hostility between the regime of Bashar al-Assad
defence which resulted in the establishment of
and rebels. Still the latest agreement is
the Self-Defence Forces (SDF.
significant for a number of reasons. First of all
owever the beginnings of a gradual shift
any attempt to cease violence is welcome given
away from a strict commitment to pacifism were
the destruction the war has wreaked in Syria.
soon to become evident. The 1954 Mutual
More than two million people are estimated to be
Defence Assistance Agreement between Tokyo
living in rebel-held territories (barring areas
and Washington assured Japan external
controlled by the Islamic State in terrible
protection in exchange for the installation of
humanitarian conditions and under constant fear
permanent U.S. military bases in the country. The
of aerial bombing. For them an end to the
quid pro quo could hardly have been an antidote
Russian-Assad regime strikes is a great relief.
against an assertive nationalism following
Second the agreement involves the three main
Japan's economic and industrial triumph through
external players in the civil war. Russia and Iran
the decades. If anything an accent on national
are the key backers of the regime while Turkey
sovereignty underscored the need for a more
supports some rebel groups. Under the agreement
pragmatic interpretation of the essence of
Syria and Russia will stop bombing rebel-held
pacifism in relation to the growing military
areas divided into four zones in Idlib oms
might of neighbouring China.
Damascus suburbs and southern Deraa and
The execution in January 2015 of two
Quneitra towns to de-escalate tensions. The
Japanese hostages by the Islamic State (IS may
regime will also allow "unhindered" humanitarian
have strengthened the voices that have been
supplies to rebel-held areas and provide public
eager to see the end of the 'no war clause'. The
services. In return the rebels should stop
2015 law on collective self-defence nearly ensured
fighting government forces. Third this appears
that. The measure authorises Japanese forces to
to be a more focussed phased attempt to end
join a battle to defend the nation's allies even
violence. The agreement was reached barely
where its territory is not at threat.
weeks before a two-track political process was to
Mr. Abe would hope that the proposed
begin. In June the government and rebel
amendment would combine the piecemeal
representatives will meet for negotiations in
measures of the past and reorient the
eneva while the Russia-led talks of external
Constitution to the current geopolitical realities.
actors will continue in Kazakhstan in July. If the
But it will require a two-thirds backing in both
de-escalation plan holds it will be a big boost for
ouses of Parliament and also a simple majority
the political process.
in a popular referendum. To jettison the
But implementing the agreement itself will
foundational tenets of peace in any Constitution
be a major challenge given the complex nature of
seems a morally regressive act.
the civil war. For the deal to hold Russia and Iran
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 44 VOL–53
will first have to rein in the Assad regime. In the
past it has shown little interest in a political
solution. Foreign Minister Walid Muallem's
comment that the regime would not allow UN
monitoring of the implementation of de-
escalation is not in the spirit of the agreement. A
bigger challenge for all actors involved is how to
tackle the threats from al-Qaeda-linked groups.
The Astana agreement is clear on that - Russia
and Syria will continue to attack them. In Idlib
the Qaeda-linked Tahrir al-Sham is the main anti-
regime militia. In oms and the Damascus
suburbs they have joined hands with other
groups. So if the government continues to attack
them it could drag more rebel groups into the
fight risking an end to the ceasefire. Ideally the
regime should exercise restraint and the non-
jihadist rebels distance themselves from Qaeda-
linked organisations while allowing Russia
Turkey and Iran to play the role of facilitators. To
take the political process forward everyone has to
act more responsibly keeping in mind the
humanitarian situation.
TRIPLE TALAQ AND THE
CONSTITUTION
The Supreme Court will begin hearing
arguments in Shayara Bano v. Union of India
which has popularly come to be known as the
"triple talaq case". This case in which the
constitutional validity of certain practices of
Muslim personal law such as triple talaq
polygamy and nikah halala has been challenged
has created political controversy across the
spectrum. The All India Muslim Personal Law
Board (AIMPLB has warned secular authorities
against interfering with religious law. On the
other hand Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
lent his support to the Muslim women fighting
against the practice of triple talaq.
One would expect the judges of the
Supreme Court to adjudicate the constitutional
IST OF TE INDU
validity of triple talaq (and if they choose of the
other practices under question as well detached
from the political debate and strictly in
accordance with law. A closer look reveals
however that the court cannot decide this case
without engaging in a series of complex and
difficult choices. In particular the court will have
to decide first whether to adjudicate the case in a
narrow manner which stops at assessing the
relationship between triple talaq and Muslim
personal law of whether to undertake a broader
approach and ask whether personal law can be
subject to the Constitution at all.
Proponents of the first view - which include
some of the interveners before the court - invite
the judges to hold that triple talaq is invalid
because it has no sanction in Muslim personal
law. In response to the AIMPLB's claim that the
state has no right to interfere in the personal
religious domain they respond that the religious
domain properly understood does not and has
never allowed for triple talaq. They draw a
distinction between instantaneous talaq, or talaq-
i-bidat (where divorce is complete when "talaq" is
uttered three times in succession with talaq
ahasan which requires a 90-day period of
abstinence after the pronouncement and talaq
hasan which requires a one-month-long
abstinence gap between utterances. The latter two
are part of Islamic personal law but the first one
is not.
Relying upon the Supreme Court's own
judgments they point out that only those features
of a religion are constitutionally protected which
are "integral" or "essential" parts of it. There is no
evidence to show that talaq-i-bidat constitutes an
integral part of the Islamic faith and
consequently it does not deserve constitutional
protection. On this view the Supreme Court need
not go into tangled and messy questions
involving personal law and the Constitution; it
can decide the question on its own terms.
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
Although this would involve secular judges laying
down the law on what Islam does or does not
consider an essential religious practice the
Supreme Court has been engaging in such
religious inquiry at least since 1966 and it is too
late in the day to now say that it cannot or should
not. In fact the Supreme Court itself, in a number
of cases has either doubted the validity of
instantaneous triple talaq, or gone so far as to say
that it is not a part of Muslim personal law.
Such an outcome would be an easy one for
the court to achieve and of a piece with decades
of consistent jurisprudence. istorically the
Supreme Court has often "interpreted" or
"modified" elements of religion to conform to a
modernist progressive world view while holding
that such its interpretation is the true
understanding of what the religion actually
commands. Such judicial intervention has
primarily - but by no means exclusively - been in
the domain of indu law. In the words of one
scholar instead of subjecting religion to external
norms (such as those prescribed by the
Constitution the court has attempted to reform
religion from within. Of course there is a very
basic question here about the court's competence
and legitimacy to undertake such a task. owever
while the narrow view would be the easy and
natural path for the court to take it would also
entail missing a significant opportunity.
There is a broader almost radical path that
the court might chart. It might hold that
controversies such as whether triple talaq is
sanctioned by the Islamic faith raise questions
that a court cannot or should not attempt to
address. Far from entering the thicket of personal
laws the court should simply ask whether a
challenged practice of personal law violates
anyone's fundamental rights.
This approach however runs into one
significant problem. In order to subject triple
talaq - as a claimed aspect of Muslim personal law
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45
- to constitutional norms the court must first
overrule a 1951 judgment of the Bombay igh
Court (subsequently affirmed by the Supreme
Court in another case called State of Bombay v.
Narasu Appa Mali . In that case Justices Chagla
and ajendragadkar held that uncodified personal
laws may not be scrutinised for fundamental
rights violations. They did so on the technical
reasoning that Article 13 of the Constitution
subjected only "laws" and "laws in force" to the
scrutiny of fundamental rights and that
"personal laws" are neither "laws" for this
purpose nor "laws in force". Beneath this
technical reasoning however was a deeper
assumption: a distinction between law as created
by the state or its agencies through acts of
legislation on the one hand and "personal law"
which had its source in the scriptures and in
non-state bodies for interpretation and
enforcement on the other.
This view, however suffers from being
historically inaccurate. There does not exist - and
there probably never existed - a "pure" domain of
personal law which has its source in scriptures
(the Koran for Muslims or the shastras for
indus independent and untouched by state
influence. The colonial courts of the British
empire in fact played an active role in both
constructing and shaping what came to be
defined as personal law. They did this through
selection of "authentic sources" (to refer to and
cite in their judgments through creating a
hotchpotch amalgamation of common law
principles and what they perceived to be ancient
indu (or Muslim personal law and by imposing
binary categories upon f luid and changing
identities. In many cases this led to a
rigidification and ossification of the dynamic
aspects of religion. It is now well-known for
instance that in the famous Aga Khan case in
1866 the Bombay igh Court treated the Khoja
community as Muslim despite their own
 46 VOL–53
protestations that they identified neither with
Muslims nor with indus. It was perhaps for this
reason that the British administrator
Elphinstone famously observed that "we ought
not to be guided by indu law which is a new
introduction of our own."
Ultimately the choice between the court is
a stark one. Ever since the Narasu Appa Mali case
there has been a domain of law - i.e. uncodified
personal law - that has simply been deemed to be
beyond the realm of the Constitution and beyond
the scrutiny of constitutional norms such as
equality freedom of conscience and the right to
personal liberty. Not only has this created a
paradoxical situation where as long as personal
laws are uncodified they escape constitutional
scrutiny but the moment they are legislated by
the state (as large parts of indu laws were in the
1950s they become subject to the Constitution;
but it also seems to be entirely at odds with the
basic principles of a republican democracy
governed by a secular Constitution.
There is no doubt that triple talaq violates
women's rights to equality and freedom including
freedom within the marriage and should be
invalidated by the Supreme Court. The larger
question however is whether the court will stick
to its old narrow colonial-influenced
jurisprudence and strike down triple talaq while
nonetheless upholding a body of law that
answers not the Constitution but to dominant
and powerful voices within separate
communities; or will it in 2017 change course
and hold that no body of law (or rather no body
of prescriptions that carries all the badges and
incidents of law can claim a higher source of
authority than the Constitution of India?
TB TIMELINES
Nearly two months after the ealth
Ministry set the ambitious target of working
towards elimination of tuberculosis by 2025 a
IST OF TE INDU
study published in The Lancet indicates that
India's TB crisis is set to snowball by 2040 when
one in 10 cases could be drug-resistant - both
multidrug-resistant TB (or MDR-TB resistant to
more than one of the first-line drugs and
extensively drug-resistant TB (or XDR-TB also
resistant to fluoroquinolones and at least one of
the second-line injectable drugs. What is even
more alarming is the projection that the increased
number of drug-resistant cases will come from
direct transmission from infected people to
others rather than by strains acquiring resistance
to TB drugs during treatment due to inadequate
treatment or discontinuation of treatment
midway. The study found that "most incident"
MDR cases are "not caused" by acquired drug
resistance which will become a "decreasing
cause" of drug-resistant TB. The increased
availability of drugs to fight drug-sensitive TB has
led to the emergence of MDR-TB strains. With an
increasing number of MDR-TB cases there has
been a shift in the way people get infected with
drug-resistant TB - from strains acquiring drug
resistance during treatment to direct transmission
of MDR-TB strains from an infected person. The
same trend is seen in the case of XDR-TB too. As
a result in high MDR-TB burden countries such
as India improved treatment outcomes in people
might only reduce and not eliminate drug-
resistant TB. Till 2015 only about 93000 people
with MDR-TB had been diagnosed and put on
treatment.
The study based on a mathematical model
to forecast how TB is likely to progress in the
four most-affected countries (Russia the
Philippines South Africa India suggests that
new MDR-TB cases a year in India will touch
12.4% by 2040 up from 7.9% in 2000. With
respect to XDR-TB the incident cases will rise to
8.9% from 0.9% in 2000. In 2015 the four
countries accounted for about 40% (more than
230000 of all drug-resistant TB cases in the
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 IST OF TE INDU VOL–53
world. Besides targeting early diagnosis and
treatment of those with the disease India's TB
control programme has identified enhanced
interventions to break the transmission cycle of
the bacteria in the community. Contact screening
of family members and preventive treatment of
all children below the age of five who have not
developed the disease are already a part of the
Revised National Tuberculosis Control
Programme but rarely done. Another important
strategy that has to be adopted is making drug-
susceptibility testing universal and mandatory.
Developing more accurate cheaper and effective
diagnostic tests and improved treatment
regimens that are less expensive and of shorter
duration will also go a long way in winning the
war against the disease.
SHOULD WE DO AWAY WITH
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?
It is impossible to view crime as something
that only "inherently bad" people do and the view
that the task of criminal law is to take away
"inherently bad" people from our midst is
untenable. The cliché that we are all products of
our circumstances has much to offer here. This is
not to suggest the absolute lack of individual
agency in the things we do but rather to argue
that the reasons why we do the things we do is
influenced by a lot more than just individual will.
In that context a four-year-old being raped and
murdered or raping and mercilessly killing
members of a caste or religious group because of
visceral hatred are all events that challenge our
humanity.
The point is that there is a process of
socialisation that contributes to an individual's
thinking that he can rape a woman insert a rod
into her and leave her on the street to die or that
he can have such intense hatred for people of
other communities that they should be stripped
paraded raped and murdered.
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47
This is certainly not to argue that all persons
with similar socialisation processes will do the
same thing. That is precisely the reason for not
deciding questions of sentencing only on the
basis of crime categories. The burden of the death
penalty has a disparate impact on the most
marginalised and poorest sections of society. Our
criminal justice system is in severe crisis given
the rampant use of torture in investigations a
broken legal aid system and alienating trial
processes. It is incapable of administering the
death penalty in a fair manner and that is
evidenced by the fact that over 30% of death
sentences handed out by trial courts result in
acquittals (not commutations in the appellate
process.
The state cannot seek to take life because it
has an equal commitment to everyone within its
fold. When a crime is committed the perpetrator
is not the only one breaking the social contract.
Obviously the state has failed to protect the
victim and society but at the same time it has also
failed the perpetrator in equal measure albeit in a
different way. At the risk of repetition it is not to
suggest that the perpetrator has no individual
responsibility but that we must also recognise
the failure of society and state.
As a society we find ourselves in a strange
bind - on the one hand seeking more violent and
harsher punishments for certain crimes and at
the same time struggling with rampant impunity
for certain others. Justice is not served in either
situation. To tweak Martin Luther King's words
the arc of the moral universe must bend towards
a more empathetic version of justice rather than
a retributive one.
SAVING JADHAV
India's decision to approach the
International Court of Justice (ICJ to stall the
possible execution of Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav
in Pakistan is an unusual move impelled by the
 48 VOL–53
peculiar circumstances of the former naval
officer's case. Sentenced to death by a military
court after what was a summary and arguably
bogus trial he is in imminent danger of execution.
is case now hinges on an appeal against his
conviction on charges of espionage and on
petitions for mercy before Pakistan's Chief of
Army Staff and President. India's main contention
is that Pakistan had committed "egregious
violations" of the Vienna Convention on
Consular Relations by repeatedly denying
consular access to Jadhav for over a year. is
family members have not been issued visas to
travel to Pakistan and help him pursue appellate
remedies. Pakistan had also linked the consular
access issue to India's "assistance" in its
investigation into Jadhav's alleged activities.
With India instituting the case the ICJ President
has written to Pakistan to act in such a way that
any order passed by the court would have its
appropriate effect. While this virtually operates as
a stay on Jadhav's execution a substantive
interim order is expected only when the court
hears India's application for "provisional
measures" at its hearing on May 15 pending
adjudication of its plea for declaring Pakistan's
actions as violative of international law. New
Delhi's position is that Jadhav is innocent and
that he was "kidnapped" by Pakistani agents from
Iran.
IST OF TE INDU
On the face of it India's decision to move
the ICJ may appear somewhat incongruous in the
light of its position against internationalising its
disputes with Pakistan. owever this is not the
first time that it has approached the world court
against Pakistan. In 1971 it wanted the ICJ to
decide the limited question whether the Council
of the International Civil Aviation Organisation
had the jurisdiction to question India's
suspension of overflight rights to Pakistani
aircraft. India has every claim to approach the ICJ
to protect the life and rights of its nationals. One
round of focussed legal proceedings does not
amount to giving up its stated position on
resolving other issues on a bilateral basis.
owever it is likely to face a stiff challenge from
Pakistan both on merits and by way of
preliminary objections. Pakistan is likely to argue
that consular access to Indian prisoners on its
territory is governed by a bilateral agreement
signed in May 2008. It is likely to quote a clause
on reciprocal consular facilities that says "in case
of arrest detention or sentence made on political
or security grounds each side may examine the
case on its merit". While Pakistan is free to cite
legal and technical points in its favour it hardly
requires iteration that it should avoid any
precipitate move that would frustrate the
ongoing proceedings before the ICJ. Pakistan's
adherence to international law will be under test.
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Online Coures for UPSC IAS Exams
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ist of
IST OF TE YOJANA VOL–53
The Yojana
THE STORY OF A NEW IDNIA
India is rewarding its growth story in the
global geopolitical economic landscape charting
new courses in its governance paradigm and
striving to demolish the old images and
impressions as viewed through coloured lenses in
the comity of nations to evolve into a 'New India'.
Let us start with the most recent
announcement of demonetisation of RS.500 and
Rs.1000 notes one of the most impactful steps
taken to curb the three pronged menace of black
money counterfeit currency and corruption. It
provided a logical climax to the series of
initiatives taken towards this of the government
which include closely collaboration with the
Swiss bank officials setting up of an SIT to deal
with investigations on individual cases of tax
evasion and Income Declaration Scheme which
mobilised tax revenue of nearly Rs. 65000 cr. A
move to purge the economy of the toxic black cash
not only induces more efficiency and reduces
corruption but also gives room for the
government and the central bank to cut tax rates
and interest rates respectively spurring up
investments while being on track to attain the
fiscal deficit and growth targets. This is the story
of a Resurgent India.
India's digital leadership was clearly visible
post demonetisation when the effort to boost the
Digital Payments ecosystem received a much
needed fillip. The aim was to inculcate a
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49
behaviour change in promoting cashless
transactions and converting India into a less-
cash society thereby seeking to increase
transparency and accountability. It is heartening
to note that about 1.5 crore people have adopted
the BIM app so far in just over 2 months time
of its launch. To facilitate digital transactions
over 30 crore Rupay debit cards had been issued by
the government including those issued to Jan
Dhan account holders. Around 12.51akh people
have won under the Lucky rahak Yojana and
70000 traders bagged prizes under the Digidhan
Vyapar Yojana. Pradhan Mantri arib Kalyan
Yojana provided the last chance to tax evaders to
declare their income the funds of which would be
channelized for the benefit of the poor.
Demonetization gives us a unique opportunity to
harness this digital revolution to deal a mortal
blow to corruption and black money. Payment
through online channels significantly reduces
the need for cash and brings about transparency
in financial dealings. It is the responsibility of
those who are well-versed in the use of digital
channels for payments etc to teach those who are
new to it The fight to improve people's living
standards and weed out corruption and black
money has to be a collective societal effort. This
is the story of a Digital India.
Demonetisation and other decisions taken
in the economic sphere have gone hand in hand
with the aggressive drive towards achieving
universal financial inclusion and bringing every
citizen into the formal banking net Nearly 28.13
cr accounts have been' opened so far under the
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY
which gives a much needed fillip to move towards
a cashless economy and realise the dream of
'financial untouchability'. The scheme has
managed to open more bank accounts in the last
two years than in the all the years since India's
independence to August 2014 combined. This is
the story of an Inclusive India.
50 VOL–53
The 'Make in India' Campaign is one of the
flagship schemes of the government that aims at
making India a global manufacturing hub and
reaping the economic spin offs thereon in terms
of better infrastructure" better employment
opportunities and leveraging on India's massive
demographic dividend. The net foreign direct
investment (FDI inflows have hit an all-time
high in early 2017 of the order of $3.35 bn and
have more than financed the current account
deficit. Foreign investment has increased by
nearly 46 per cent since the launch of Make In
India. This is the story of a Investor-friendly
India.
The passage of the historic ST legislation
is set to simplify the tax regime create a nation
wide market for goods and services and broaden
the tax base giving a fillip to economic growth.
overnment revenues are set to rise Logistics
Inventory costs tax evasion will fall and
manufactured goods would be cheaper. The dream
of One nation One tax is now a reality. This
proves beyond doubt the decisiveness of the
government. Manufacturing will get more
competitive as ST addresses "cascading of tax
inter-state tax high logistics costs and
fragmented market. There will be increased
protection from imports as ST provides for
appropriate counter veiling duty. This is the story
of a Transformational India.
On the skill development front Pradhan
Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY is the
flagship scheme of the government launched
with the objective of enabling a large number of
Indian youth to take up industry- relevant skill
training that will help them in securing a better
livelihood. With the slogan of "Kaushal Bharat
Kushal Bharat" a total of 19.85 lakh youth have
been trained and 2.49 lakh placed in FY 16 while
8479 training centers have been opened in 596
districts. This is the story of a Skill India.
The schemes in the agriculture sector such
IST OF TE YOJANA
as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana Pradhan
Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojaiia Soil ealth Card
scheme Neem coated urea augmenting the
minimum support prices among other initiatives
have served the 'Kisans' of our nation in good
stead even in the face of vagaries of the monsoon.
Nearly 15.86 lakh hectares brought under micro
irrigation from 2014-17 under 'Per Drop More
Crop' for micro irrigation while 6.20 crore soil
health cards have been distributed so far. On the
insurance coverage front 23 States during Kharif
2016; 390 lakh farmers covered and 386.75 lakh
hectares have been insured to the tune
ofRs.141883.30 crores. During Rabi 2016-17 as
of now 167 lakh farmers have been covered and
about 193.35 lakh hectares insured over the sum
insured of Rs. 71728.59 crores. These numbers
speak volumes about the government's
commitment towards the welfare of the
'Annadaatas' of the nation.
On; the infrastructure front initiatives
such as the Smart Cities project AMRUT Mission
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Credit Linked
Subsidy Scheme Pradhan Mantri Sansad Adarsh
ram Yojana Pradhan Mantri ram Sadak Yojana
passage of RERA among others have enhanced
the performance of the sector.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Atal Pension
Yojana Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY
Krishi Sinchai Yojana MUDRA Bank Yojana
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana Nayi Manzil Yojana
among others try to ensure a well balanced
development of all sections of the society be it
the girl child senior citizens farmers minorities
urban house dwellers or rural villagers. The
schemes of the government have touched all
sections of the society and have simplified their
lives. This is the story of the arib Kisan and
Mahila who are reaping the benefits of a
Transforming India.
India's stance has changed from that of
strategic restraint to greater assertion in
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IST OF TE YOJANA VOL–53
response to terrorism from Pakistan. It has been
made amply clear that India wants pure
bilateralism and will not accept Islamabad's talks
with separatists as demonstrated by calling off
foreign secretary level talks and walking out of
regional summits (SAARC summit in Pakistan.
The attack on the Indian army retaliated through
surgical strikes further reinforced this position.
Also by boycotting the SAARC summit India
sent out a stem message to the extent of major
world powers considering motions to declare
Pakistan as terror state.
51
In her multilateral engagements India's bid
to become a permanent member of the United
Nations Security Council found many backers and
significant progress has also been made for entry
into the Nuclear Suppliers roup. India's
engagement in regional groupings such as BRICS
SAARC BIMSTEC has been fruitful. India has
also been able to lead the cause of the developing
nations in multilateral negotiations on climate
change (in Paris Summit and trade negotiations
in WTO.

FIRST LARGEST PRIVATE INVESTMENT

INITIATIVE IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Over 352 housing projects in 53 cities in 17 States across the country with an investment of over
Rs.38000 cr to build over two lakh houses were launched at and hinagar ujarat recently. These
housing projects to be taken up by the members of Confederation of Real Estate Developers'
Associations of India (CREDAI across the country is the first major private investments initiative
into affordable housing. The event was held in the backdrop of several initiatives by the
overnment of India to promote affordable housing for Economically Weaker Sections Low and
Middle Income roups including sanction of 'infrastructure status' for the housing sector.
Since the launch of PMAY (Urban in June 2015 the Ministry of ousing and Urban Development
has approved construction of 17.73 lakh affordable houses for urban poor with an investment of
Rs.95660 cr in 30 States and Union Territories. For building these houses central assistanc of Rs.
27879 cr has also been approved. PMAY (Urban was launched by the Prime Minister on June 25
2015.

REGISTERING A ROBUST GROWTH benefits. Predictions by expert agencies suggest

that India's growth rate is set to improve further
India is one of the bright spots among the
in 2017-18. In terms of the lobal
major countries in the subdued global economic
Competitiveness Index (CI prepared by World
context. India recorded a growth of 7.9 per cent
Economic Forum for 138 countries India ranked
in 2015-16 as compared to 7.2 per cent in 2014-
39 in 2016-17 as compared to India's rank in CI
15 and 6.5 per cent in 2013-14. The growth pick-
of 60 (among 148 countriesin 2013-14.
up in 2014-15 and 2015-16 was remarkable
The present overnment took charge in
despite below-normal monsoons. India is
May 2014 in the backdrop of persistently high
estimated to register a robust growth of 7.1
inflation particularly food inflation. Astute food
percent in 2016-17 despite the demonetisation of
management and price monitoring by the
high denomination currencies that aimed at
overnment in the last three years helped control
substantive medium to long-term economic

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52 VOL–53
the stubbornly persistent inflation. CPI inflation
remained under control for the third successive
financial year. The average CPI (combined
inflation declined from 9.5 per cent in 2013-14 to
5.9 per cent in 2014-15 and 4.9 per cent in 2015-
16. It declined further to 4.6 per cent in the
current financial year upto February 2017 and
stood at 3.7 per cent in February 2017 backed by
sharp fall in food inflation.
In line with subdued global growth an trade
India s exports declined by 1.3 per cent and 15.5
per cent in 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. The
trend of negative growth was reversed somewhat
during 2016-17 (April-February with exports
registering a growth of 2.5 per cent to US$ 245.4
billion from US$ 239.4 billion in 2015-16 (April-
February. Monthly export growth rates have
been in positive territory since September 2016.
During 2015-16 India's import declined by
15.0 per cent to US$ 381. 0 billion mainly due to
fall in international crude oil prices as compared
to US$ 448.0 billion in 2014-15. During 2016-17
(April-February imports declined by 3.7 per cent
to US$ 340.7 billion as compared to 353.7 billion
in the corresponding period of previous year.
In f low of foreign direct investment
increased from US$ 43.6 billion 2013-14 to US$
51.8 billion in 2014-15 and further to US$ 59.5
billion in 2015-16. During 2016-17 April-
December net FDI was US$ 31.2 billion as
compared to US$ 27.2 billion in 2015-16 (April-
December. Foreign portfolio investment (net
increased to US$ 8".2 - billion in the first half of
2016-17 from US$ (- 3.5 billion in the first half
of 2015-16. owever net foreign portfolio
outflow in the month of December 2016 and
January 2017 were at US$ 5.8 billion and US$ 0.5
billion respectively-largely as a result of the Fed
Policy with US Federal Reserve raising interest
rates. The FPI outflow was not a phenomenon
associated with Indian markets alone as FPIs
pulled out of most EMEs due to hi her returns in
IST OF TE YOJANA
advanced economies.
Foreign exchange reserves touched an all
time high level of US$ 371.9 billion in end-
September 2016. owever it declined to US$
361.1 billion at end-November 2016 due to
intervention by RBI in forex exchange market to
stabilize the rupee and partly because of
repayment of maturity amount of FCNR (B
deposits accrued between September-November
2013 during the special swap window opened for
NRIs. Foreign exchange reserves stood at US$
363.0 billion at end-January 2017 as against US$
358.9 billion at end-December 2016. The current
position is at a comfortable level to cushion the
exchange rate volatility from any international
macroeconomic uncertainty.
Exchange Rate of Rupee
The average monthly exchange rate of
rupee for 2016-17 (April- February was Rs.67.2
per US dollar indicating a depreciation of 2.8 per
cent over the corresponding period of the
previous year. This was mainly due to
strengthening of the US dollar globally following
the US presidential election results and
tightening of monetary policy by the Federal
Reserve. Nevertheless in 2016-17 so far the
rupee has performed better than most of other
EMES.
At end-September 2016 India's external
debt stock stood at US$ 484.3 billion recording a
decline of US$ 0.8 billion (0.2 per cent over the
level at end-March 2016.
Most of the key external debt indicators
show an improvement in September 2016. The
share of short-term debt in total external debt
decreased to 16.8 per cent at end-September 2016
from 17.2 per cent at end-March 2016. India's
foreign exchange reserves provided a cover of
76.8 per cent to the total external debt stock at
end-September 2016 vis-it-vis 74.3 per cent at
end-March 2016.
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IST OF TE YOJANA VOL–53
India continues to be among the less
vulnerable nations in terms of its key debt
indicators which compare well with other
indebted developing countries. According to the
World Bank's "International Debt Statistics 2017"
which gives external debt data of developing
countries for 2015 the ratio of India's external
debt stock to gross national income (NI at 23.4
per cent was the fifth lowest. In terms of the
cover provided by foreign exchange reserves to
external debt India's position was sixth highest
at 69.7 per cent.
Agriculture and Food Management
As per the Second Advance Estimates of
National Income released on 28th February 2017
the growth rates in ross Value Added (VA of
the agriculture and al1ied sectors were at 4.4 per
cent in 2016-170.8 per cent in 2015-16 (- 0.2 per
cent in 2014-15 .As per the second Advance
Estimates of production of foodgrains released by
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare on
15th February 2017 production of total
foodgrains during 2016-17 is estimated at 271.98
million tonnes compared to 251.57 million
tonnes in 2015-16 (Final and 252.02 million
tonnes in 2014-15.
As per the Second Advance Estimates of
53
National Income 2016-17 released by CSO on
28th February 2017 the growth rates in ross
Value Added (VA of the industrial sector were
5.8 per cent in 2016-17 8.2 per cent in 2015-16
and 6.9 per cent in 2014-15. The growth in the
VA from 'manufacturing' sector was 7.7 percent
in 2016-17 as compared to growth of 10.6 percent
in 2015-16 and 7.5 per cent in 2014-15.
The index for eight core industries
(comprising crude oil natural gas petroleum
refinery products coal electricity cement steel
and fertilizers registered 4.8 per cent growth in
2016-17 (April-January as compared to 3.4 per
cent in 2015-16 and 4.5 per cent in 2014-15.
With the introduction of UDAY scheme in
the power sector in 2015 most of the States have
made significant efforts to reduce AT &C losses.
The scheme has already addressed 62 per cent of
the DISCOMs' debt that existed at the end
of2014-15.
As per the Year End Review-2016 released by
the Ministry of Road Transport & ighways the
total length of highways awarded up to
November 2016 was 5688 Ian and total length of
highways constructed up to November 2016 was
4021 Ian as against 6029 km in 2015-16 and 4410
km in 2014-15.

FOWARDS CLEANER COOKING FUEL

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched by the Prime Minister on May 1st 2016 in Bal1ia
Uttar Pradesh to safeguard the health of women and children by providing them with a clean
cooking fuel - LP so that they do not have to compromise their health in smoky kitchens or
wander in unsafe areas col1ecting firewood. Under this scheme 5 Cr LP connections were to
be provided to BPL families with a support of Rs.1600 per connection within 3 years. Ensuring
women's empowerment especially in rural India the connections is issued in the name of
women of the households. Rs. 8000 Cr. was allocated towards the implementation of the scheme.
Identification of the BPL families is done through Socio Economic Caste Census Data. An adult
woman member of BPL family identified through Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC data is
given a deposit free LP connection with financial assistance of Rs. 16001- per connection by
overnment ofIndia.

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54 VOL–53 IST OF TE YOJANA
PMUY was expected to result in an additional employment of around 1 Lakh and provide business
opportunity of at least Rs. 10000 Cr. over the 3 Years of the programme to the Indian Industry.
Launch of this scheme will also provide a great boost to the 'Make in India' campaign as all the
manufacturers of cylinders gas stoves regulators and gas hose are domestic. 14 State s/U'Is
having LP coverage less than the national average hilly states of J&K Uttarakhand imachal
Pradesh and all North-East States were identified as priority states for implementing the
scheme.
The top five States with maximum connections are UP (46 lakh West Bengal (19 lakh Bihar
(19 lakh Madhya Pradesh (17 lakh and Rajasthan (14 lakh. These States constitutes nearly
75 per cent of the total connections released. The households belonging to SC/ST constitute
large chunk of beneficiaries with 35 per cent of the connections being released to them. India
is home to more than 24 Crore households out of which about 10 Crore households are stil1
deprived of LP as cooking fuel and have to rely on firewood coal dung - cakes etc. as primary
source of cooking.
ESAM PARK
e-Sampark is a mechanism to connect the government directly with citizens across India by
running mailer outbound dialing and SMS campaigns. e-Sampark portal was launched in May
2016 by overnment of India. It works as a platform to pass on messages to the people and also
receive messages from people. The Portal is aimed to improve government communications
with citizens. Till date 404 campaigns have already been conducted and more than 230 crore
emails have also been sent through e-Sampark.
The concept of e-Sampark has been introduced to establish proactive communication by
digitisation of campaigns. The multi- I faceted platform facilitates not only seamless
communication between the government and citizens but also maintains a database of contacts
of the nodal officers representatives and citizens. In addition users can also view the previous
campaigns conducted. e-Sampark signifies the essence of Digital India. It enables the
government to communicate with the citizens about several programmes and initiatives. Recent
campaigns include Transforming India through Risk Management and Encouraging citizens to
avoid petrol and diesel vehicles or a day in a week. It also provides the views of the Prime
Minister shared by him in the popular programme 'Man Ki Baat' on radio. The features of the
e-Sampark portal are as follows-
"Provision for sending informational and public service messages in the form of mailers SMSs
and outbound dialing to citizens elected representatives and government employees through
customised user lists.
"Similarly SMSs can also be sent to a customised user-base using the application
"Extensive database of elected representatives and government officials that is updated
periodically.. Provision for updating the database either individually or through bulk upload.
"Provision of a Dashboard showing nodal officers the campaign analytics i.e. number of mailers
and SMSes sent percentage read percentage of forwards URL clicks etc.

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IST OF TE YOJANA VOL–53 55

"Provision for individual users to subscribe to the "e-Sampark" database. By subscribing to a list
a user gives his/her consent to receive mailers and SMSes from the overnment. The user can
unsubscribe from the list at any time.
One can ensure following benefits -
"Extensive structured database of government officials (of both Central and State governments
for sending official information.
"Information alerts about the existent policies or proposed policies decision of the overnment
and new schemes to be launched can be shared with customised user base. This will improve
the efficiency of communication .o Increased awareness among the citizens by sharing urgent
alerts of national or public interest and government updates so he or she can take benefit of
schemes and programmes timely.

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ist of
56 VOL–53 IST OF KURUKSETRA
• Arrangements are being made to
provide farmers even better access to

Kurukshetra loans from cooperative banks and

PM ON DOUBLING
FARMERS' INCOME
• The reduction of input costs is
the first element towards raising farm
incomes. Soil ealth Card scheme and
the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana
are important steps towards reducing
input costs.
• e also called for raising farm
incomes through diversification in
farming activities. Along with crop
growing farmers could opt for timber
plantation along the edges of their fields
and also begin animal husbandry.
• The more the farmers are empowered
and financially enabled to stand on their
own feet the stronger the country will
become and the faster will be the
pace of development.
• Rabi sowing is up by 6 per cent compared
to last year. Fertilizer off take is up by 9
per cent. During this period the
'overnment has taken care to ensure that
farmers do not suffer for want of access to
seeds fertilisers and credit.
• Farmers who have taken loans for the
Rabi crop from District Cooperative Central
Banks and Primary Societies will not have
to pay interest on such loans for a period of
60 days. Farmers who have paid interest
during the last two months will receive
these amounts back directly into their
bank accounts.
societies. NABARD created a fund of
21000 crore rupees. overnment is
adding 20000 crore rupees more to it. The
loss that NABARD suffers by giving loans
to cooperative banks and societies at
low interest rates shall be borne by the
overnment of India.
• The overnment will be give 3 crore
farmers who have Kisan Credit Cards
RuPay debit cards within three months.
Kisan Credit Cards were launched in
1998 but so far it was essential to go to a
bank to use them. Now farmers will have
RuPay Debit Cards which they can use
anywhere.
• overnment will focus its attention
to proactively resolve the problems in rural
and remote areas in order to restore the
banking system to normalcy in 2017.
• BIM (Bharat Interface for Money
will connect the trading community and
farmers to connect with BIM as much as
possible.
• The focus of the Budget 2017-18 is also
on agriculture rural development
and infrastructure which is also a
reflection of the overnment's
commitment to raise investment and
create employment opportunities and
therefore the allocation for the schemes in
these categories has been hiked
substantially.
• The next revolution in Indian
agriculture has to be built on
technology and modernization and the
eastern part of India has maximum
potential to achieve it. The overnment is
working towards this goal.
RURAL TRANSFORMATION:
SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENT
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One Crore MGNREGA Assets Geotagged
Mahatma andhi NRES has reached a new
milestone by geotagging one Crore assets
and

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IST OF KURUKSETRA VOL–53
putting them in public domain. On an average
about 30 Lakh Assets are created annually which
includes a variety of work such as water
harvesting structures plantations rural
infrastructure flood control measures individual
assets for sustainable livelihood community
infrastructure and so on. eoMNREA is a
unique endeavor of the Ministry of Rural
Development in association with National
Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC ISRO and
National Informatics Centre. A Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU was signed by Ministry of
Rural Development with NRSC on 24th June 2016
for geo-tagging the assets created under
MNRES in each ram Panchayat. Training was
imparted to around 2.76 Lakh personnel across
the country with the help of National Institute of
Rural Development and Panchayati Raj
(NIRD&PR. The geotagging exercise started
from 1st September 2016. One Crore assets have
been geotagged and put in public domain in the
last seven months. It is expected that the exercise
will lead to greater transparency and ensure
accountability at field level. The process of
geotagging is going on and all assets under
MNRES will be geotagged. Special focus is
being given to geotag Natural Resource
Management works especially the water related
works.
47,350 km of PMGSV road constructed in
2016-17
A record 47350 km of Pradhan Mantri
ram Sadak yojana (PMSY road was constructed
during 2016-17 which is the highest
construction of PMSY roads in a single year in
the last 7 years. While 25316 km of PMSY roads
were constructed in 2013-14 road construction in
2014-15 was 36337 km and in 2015-16 it was
36449 km. During the period 2011-14 the average
rate of construction of PMSY roads was 73 km
per day which increased to 100 km per day during
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57
2014-15 and 2015-16. For the year 2016-17 a
record of 130 km per day has been achieved
which is the highest average annual construction
rate in the last 7 years. 11614 habitations were
provided connectivity by construction of 47350
km of PMSY roads during 2016-17 (an average
of 32 habitations being provided connectivity
every day. In terms of number of habitations
connected with PMSY roads 11606 is highest
ever number in the last 7 years.
With a view to reduce the "carbon footprint"
of rural roads reduce environmental pollution
increase the working season and bring cost
effectiveness PMSY is aggressively
encouraging use of "reen Technologies" and
non-conventional materials like waste plastic
cold mix geo-textiles fly-ash iron and copper
slag etc. in rural roads. 4113.13 km of PMSY
roads were constructed using "reen"
technologies in 2016-17.
Pradhan Mantri Awaas Vojana-Gramin -
From Houses to Homes
Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-ramin
(PMAY- in November 2016 the new Rural
ousing programme is designed to meet the
needs and aspirations of households. The
beneficiaries under PMAY- ramin have been
selected up to 2022 based on the prioritisation
and in a transparent manner. The three filters
have ensured that the genuinely poor homeless
and those living in dilapidated houses have been
selected. Large number of households from
vulnerable groups and large number of women
have been selected as beneficiaries. ouse design
typologies incorporating disaster resilient
features have been finalised and are being used by
the State overnments under the programme.
The workmanship and employability of trained
Rural Masons is being improved by ensuring their
assessment and certification as per the
Qualification Pack endorsed by the National Skill
58 VOL–53
Development Corporation (NSDC.A total of
441akh houses were approved for 2016-17 and
the Ministry of Rural Development is working
hard to complete all of them by December 2017.
A completion period of 6 to 12 months is being
followed in PMAY-.
States like Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan
Maharashtra Chhattisgarh Karnataka Assam
have taken the lead in the implementation of the
PMAY-. States like Bihar West Bengal Uttar
Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Assam Jharkhand
Rajasthan and Maharashtra have done well in
completing a very large number of incomplete
Indira Awaas Yojana houses.
The Department of Rural Development
plans to complete 51 lakh houses in 2017-18. An
additional 33 lakh houses will be sanctioned for
2017-18 shortly. A similar number is proposed to
be completed in 2018-19 making the completion
during 2016-19 period of 1.35 crore houses. This
will pave the way for ousing for All by 2022.
TRANSFORMING THE VILLAGE:
NEW RURBAN STRATEGY BASED ON
GANDHIAN APPROACH
The completion of three years in office by
the government signifies a marked change in
planning by allocation of more resources to
different projects and schemes aimed at
transforming the rural sector. While some of the
schemes are new some have been totally changed
to make these more focused to attend to social
infrastructure needs of the villages. The neglect
of the rural sector has been a big challenge before
the government and bringing about the desired
change would definitely be a monumental task in
the coming years.
The new Rurban approach obviously needs
reforms but it may be pointed out that in most
countries including India the opening of bank
accounts of the villagers has enabled to pass on
their benefits to their respective bank accounts.
IST OF KURUKSETRA
The responsibility of uplifting the conditions of
the rural mass cannot be ignored specially in a
country like India where over 60-65 per cent
population lives in rural areas - for whom such
welfare schemes are of paramount importance.
According to social scientists concerned
with Third World countries development is a
social process that leads to constructive and
critical consideration of the following:
(i the external and internal factors that affect
the economic evolution of a country;
(ii the distributive system of goods and
services; and
(iii the system of relationships among the
agents of economic life which incorporates
self-esteem sustenance freedom and well-
being.
Development in this respect necessarily
presupposes a concern for human life and value.
And this has been called 'Sustainable
Development' a strategy that is inclusive and
reaches the lowest segments of society and
"improve people's quality of life within the
carrying capacity of the Earth's life support
system". One may also mention here the
Copenhagen Declaration that urged governments
to accelerate the process of development through
allocation of increased resources and create "an
economic political social cultural and legal
environment that will enable people to achieve
social development".
owever in our country even now the
government has yet to involve the voluntary
organizations in a big way at the grass-root level
though the NOs and CBOs are cost effective and
have expertise due to their almost regular
interaction with the village folk.
Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana SAGY
Launched on the birth anniversary of Jay
Prakash Narayan is also a step in the same
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 IST OF KURUKSETRA VOL–53
direction aimed "at instilling certain values in the
village and its people such as fostering mutual
cooperation self help and self reliance enabling
the poorest and the person in the village to come
out of poverty and achieve well being preserving
and promoting local cultural heritage etc." The
Yojana is aimed at translating the vision of
Mahatma andhi into reality that is
transforming the rural sector keeping in view the
present lack of balanced development plaguing
the countryside.
According to the scheme every MP would
adopt a Village Panchayat to be developed
through government schemes and local initiative.
While Lok Sabha members can adopt a panchayat
within their constituency Rajya Sabha members
can adopt any within the state they represent.
There are 265000 ram Panchayats in the
country. Primarily the goal is to develop three
adarsh grams by March 2019 of which one would
be achieved by 2016. Thereafter five such grams
- one per year - would be selected developed by the
year 2024 as per an official not.
The scheme is being implemented through
a village development plan that would be prepared
for every identified gram panchayat with special
focus on enabling every poor household to come
out of poverty. Such an integrated plan was a long
felt need and would go a long way on making the
village self-reliant and self sufficient as
visualized by Mahatma andhi long back. There is
also a necessity of supply of renewable energy and
modernization and diversification of micro
cottage and village-based industries. This has
become imperative at this point of time for the
country to make rapid strides on the path of
social and economic development.
The enormity of the challenge cannot be
denied as around 50 per cent of the six lakh
villages have very poor social and physical
infrastructural facilities. The SAY has been the
right beginning and it remains to be seen how
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59
many villages could be adopted and whether there
is proper planning before the execution of the
schemes for integrated' development. One needs
to be optimistic as after a long time the
government has thought of an integrated plan of
village development.
In the realm of financial inclusion the
PMJDY has helped the poor and the
economically weaker sections from being
exploited by unscrupulous moneylenders. As is
widely regarded this Yojana lies at the core of the
development philosophy of 'Sab Ka 5ath 5ab Ka
Vikas' and is possibly the biggest Last but not the
least the decision ensures to construct 2.95 crore
houses in rural areas under its ambitious
'ousing for AII' by 2022 scheme. The
government is expected to spend nearly Rs 81975
crore over construction of the one crore houses in
the first three years of the Pradhan Mantri
Awcos Yojana-ramin under which it will provide
financial assistance of Rs 1.20 lakh to those
living in plain areas and Rs 1.30 lakh to those in
"hilly and difficult" areas. One may mention here
that the government had promised in its election
manifesto to provide a 'pucca' house for every
family bv the 75th anniversary of independence.
The urban bias in Indian planning has to be
reversed with focus being on the growth of rural
and semi-urban areas and strengthening the local
economy. But unfortunately the rural sector has
not got the necessary attention and rural
infrastructure in most cases is still quite poor.
Whether it is roads or power though some
achievements have been manifested in the last
decade a lot remains to be done.
There can be no denying that the
opportunity cost of the city dwellers is high
compared to the rather modest outlays required to
upgrade the standards of living of agricultural
labourers and create opportunities in agro-based
industry cottage industry and the like. There have
not been serious attempts at urbanizing the
60 VOL–53
countryside and what is still lacking in India -
and also other countries of South Asia - are
deficient and inadequate health and educational
facilities. Though in recent years the rural sector
has received the much needed attention and a fair
share of resources but the requirement of
physical and social infrastructural development
are much more.
The report of the independent
International Commission of Peace and Food
chaired by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan which argued
the goal of one billion jobs was achieveable in ten
years through a low-cost strategy of using
agriculture as an engine of growth. According to
the report about half of the jobs (45 million
would be generated on farms by: (i raising
productivity through imposed management of
micro-nutrients and water (ii expanding the
total irrigated area (iii emphasizing on more
labour- intensive commercial crops such as sugar
cotton fruits and vegetables sericulture and
aquaculture (iv reclamation of wasteland for
forestry and (v increasing subsidiary incomes
from animal husbandry and poultry. The
multiplier effect of increased rural incomes was
expected to create another 45 million rural and
urban jobs in industry and services.
A proper development strategy which does
not emulate the Western model where
population is much less and resources are
abundant - has already been in place and proper
achieving of targets through good and efficient
governance is now called for. The problems of the
aam janta living below the poverty line and those
struggling for an existence have to be given the
top most priority through rejuvenation of the
rural sector which may not necessarily help in
high DP growth but would have a grass root
effect in boosting up incomes of the
economically weaker sections and the poor.
There is very little point in just going for
high DP growth with heavy mechanization and
IST OF KURUKSETRA
industrialization without any direct effect on the
masses. Development has to be balanced in such
a way that both industrialization - specially labour
intensive small and micro industries - and
agriculture move side by side so that the total
effect is sustainable and beneficial for the
common people.
ADARSH GRAM, SWASTH GRAM
HEALTH IN RURAL INDIA
Optimum 'health' lays the ground work for
experiencing all the goodness this world has to
offer. For long health is often considered as the
absence of illness and hence a 'health system' is
quantified in terms of numbers of hospitals
doctors nurses and ambulances. In contrast
optimum health status is attained not by curing
illnesses but by adopting promotive and
preventive habits. Citizens can only adopt healthy
habits when they are aware' of such habits and
such an environment exists which encourages
the adoption of such habits which can be created
by the political leadership of any given country by
setting their priorities right and allocating
resources sensibly. Three years is a minuscule
time to perceive any noticeable impact on the
health status of the population yet three years
are long enough for any government to make
their intention clear lay down policy framework
and roll out desired programs.
Within a span of just three years present
government has formulated new ealth Policy
for India. A unique feature of National ealth
Policy-2017 is that it has balanced 'national
priorities related to health' and 'health-related
targets of Sustainable Development oals (SDG
in its objectives: But it remains to be seen that
how and in what time span the objectives
specified in National ealth Policy-2017 will be
achieved. This is because the earlier health policy-
2002 laid down many similar objective(s but
failed to achieve them in the designated time
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IST OF KURUKSETRA VOL–53
frame and therefore had to be included in the new
health policy. Similar to new health policy
previous health policy promised to increase the
government's spending on health to 2.5 per cent
of DP but failed to do so. In reality Indian
government's spending on health in the last one
and half decade has stuck to around 1.0 per cent
of DP. In the year 2011 the government's
spending on health as a proportion of total health
spending in India Thailand Sri Lanka China
Russia and Brazil was 30.5 per cent 77.7 per cent
42.1 per cent 55.9 per cent 59.8 per cent and 45.7
per cent respectively.
The government looks determined to
provide all types of healthcare to every citizen of
India. In this year's budget the Finance Minister
announced to transform every single of the
155069 existing health sub-centers into health
and wellness centers by strengthening promotive
and preventive services provided at these centers.
But given the dismal condition of most
community and primary health center of the
country it remains to be seen how the
government will implement this initiative. It
would have been more appropriate if the
government would have taken similar initiative
to strengthen primary health centers of the
country to provide services round the clock so
that patients would not have to travel to distant
facilities for availing the basic health care. To
increase the availability of specialised tertiary
level care to citizens the government has started
fulfilling its poll promise of establishing an
AIIMS like institute in all states of India.
The largest chunk of medical out of pocket
expenditure is made for buying medicines. To
reduce this the overnment of India had
launched 'Pradhan Montri Jon Aushodi Yojono'.
This scheme had two major objectives: (i to
ensure quality generic medicines are available to
patients (ii to reduce out of pocket medical
expenditure associated with buying medicines.
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61
This scheme intends to open dedicated outlets of
Jon Aushodhi Kendras (JAK where high-quality
generic medicines are sold at low prices.
Although launched nearly a decade ago in the
year 2008 this scheme was popularised by this
government as evidenced by rapid increase in the
number of JAKs outlets near community health
centers across rural India. To reduce the burden of
medical expenditure further the government has
capped the maximum price of coronary stents
used in cardiac aliments.
As per NFS-4only 44.8 per cent of women
from rural areas made the recommended four
antenatal care visits during pregnancy. The
situation becomes further dim by the fact that
only 16.7 per cent of women in rural areas
received 'full' antenatal care. Providing antenatal
care to the pregnant mother is crucial to reduce
both maternal
and infant mortality rates by detecting
high-risk cases at early stages of pregnancy.
Pradhan Montri Surakshit Matritvo Abhiyon
(PMSMA intends to mobilise community health
worker to ensure quality antenatal care is
provided to every pregnant woman. PMSMA is a
fixed day antenatal care service program
conducted on the 9thday of every month. This
scheme intends to cover over 3 crore pregnant
women in the country. To increase the coverage
doctors (gynecologist radiologist and other
physicians from the private sector have been
asked to volunteer on 9th of every month. Till
now, about 3335 physicians have agreed to
volunteer and 11189 centres are currently
providing quality antenatal care under this
Scheme.'
In India children are vaccinated against
seven vaccines preventable diseases under
Universal Immunization Program (UPI which
was launched in the year 1985. But as per NFS-
4 only 61.3 per cent of rural children aged 12-23
months in India were 'fully' immunised. To
62 VOL–53
increase the immunisation coverage the
government launched Mission lndradhanush'
The ultimate goal of Mission Indradhanush
(Mlis to ensure complete immunisation for
every child and pregnant women. MI intends to
achieve this by conducting special immunisation
sessions in the 201 high focus districts that have
the highest number of partially immunised and
unimmunized children. In the first phase of MI
more than 9 lakh sessions were held and more
than 20 lakh children were fully immunized. As
per NFS-4the prevalence of Diarrhoea among
children in rural area was about 9.6 per cent and
only half of the children with Diarrhoea had
received oral rehydration solution. MI also
contributed to this aspect of child care by
enhancing the distribution of ORS and zinc
tablets. In the first phase of MI about 17 lakhs
packets of ORS and about 57 lakh zinc tablets were
distributed to children with Diarrhoea. It is the
most common cause of death among children and
Rotavirus is the most common organism
responsible for Diarrhoea. To reduce the
incidence of RotaVirus caused Diarrhoea the
overnment of India has started the inclusion of
indigenously developed anti-rotavirus vaccine in
national immunisation schedule. The national
level implementation of this vaccine will help in
reducing the child mortality rate.
The maojor thing that hurts the India's
image as a true global superpower is the
unacceptable standard of hygiene and insanitary
IST OF KURUKSETRA
conditions under which many of its citizens are
forced to live. Many households which have
mobile phones electricity and cable TV do not
have toilets. These unsanitary living conditions
are source of numerous diseases many of which
are linked to malnutrition among children. To
improve this unacceptable situation our Prime
Minister launched Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM.
Since its inception about 186571 villages and
129 districts have become free from open
defecation. SBM intends to make whole India
open defecation free by the year 2019.
Complementing the SBM is the Kayakalp scheme.
For long government hospitals had the image of
being dirty and untidy. Kayakalp scheme intends
to change this perception by promoting
cleanliness hygiene and infection control
practices in public hospitals premises. This
scheme incentivizes recognizes and awards
those public hospitals which adhere to standard
protocols of cleanliness and infection control.
Ministry of ealth & Family Welfare and
Ministry of Drinking Water &Sanitation
launched a convergence program "Swachh
Swastno Sarvatra" to increase awareness about
cleanliness sanitation and hygiene among
population under the catchment area of the
health facility. Specifically it intends to increase
awareness about Water Sanitation and ygiene
(WAS practices which are linked to childhood
morbidity and malnutrition.
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Online Coures for UPSC IAS Exams
http://iasexamportal.com/courses
ist of
IST OF KURUKSETRA VOL–53
The PIB
GENDER PARITY INDEX
The Union Minister of Finance Defence
and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley will
release ender Parity Index specific to India in
the formal sector during the 33rd Annual Session
of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO.
The main aim of developing ender Parity
Index commissioned jointly by FLO and FICCI is
to evaluate gender diversity and empowerment of
women in the formal sector and the progress
made over the years. The Index will serve as
framework for measuring gender parity and
produce an overall score of an organisation and
reflect it on the index.
Boost to Digital Payments
BIM-Aadhaar the merchant interface of
the BIM App to be launched by the Prime
Minister will pave the way for making digital
payments by using the Aadhaar platform. This
will enable every Indian citizen to pay digitally
using their biometric data like their thumb
imprint on a merchants' biometric enabled device
which could be smartphone having a biometric
reader. Any citizen without access to
smartphones internet debit or credit cards will
be able to transact digitally through the BIM
Aadhaar platform thus realizing Dr. Ambedkar's
vision of social and financial empowerment for
all. Already 27 major banks are now on board with
3 lakh merchants so that they can start accepting
payments using BIM Aadhaar.
Further the Prime Minister will launch two
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63
new incentive schemes for the BIM - Cashback
and Referral bonus - with an outlay of Rs. 495
crore for a period of six months. This is to ensure
that the culture of digital payments permeates
down to the grassroots. Under the Referral bonus
scheme both the existing user who refers BIM
and the new user who adopts BIM would get a
cash bonus credited directly to their account.
Under the Cashback scheme the merchants will
get a cashback on every transaction using BIM.
Both schemes are to be administered by MEITY
and implemented by NPCI.
The initial two incentives schemes viz.
Lucky rahak Yojana and DigiDhan Vyapar
Yojana came to an end after a rigorous 100 day
information education and communication
campaign led by NITI Aayog to make digital
payments a mass movement in India. Under the
scheme Rs.258 crore of prize money was won by
16 lakh winners including customers and
merchants belonging to different corners of the
country and from varied walks of life.
The 100 days of DigiDhan Melas led by
NITI Aayog in 100 cities across India have had a
huge impact in enabling increased usage of digital
payment methods. At least 15000 institutions
have gone cashless across just these 100 rural and
urban cities across each one of the 27 states and
7 UTs. With a turnout of over 15 lakh from cities
small towns and villages the melas have enabled
lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create
new Aadhaar cards.
BIM App has already created a new world
record by registering 1.9 crore downloads in just
four months since its launch in December 2016.
More importantly India has also seen an
unprecedented increase in number of
transactions made using several user-friendly
digital payment methods. Until November 2016
the volume of all digital transactions was 280000
which amounted to Rs.101 crore in value terms. In
just four months by March this year volume of
64 VOL–53
payments using various digital payment modes
(namely UPI BIM and USSD) saw an increase
of about 23 times amounting to 6380000 digital
transactions with a value of Rs. 2425 crore.
Aadhaar Enabled Payments have increased from
2.5 crore in November 2016 to over 5 crore in
March 2017. Immediate Payment Service (IMPS
transactions have also increased from 3.6 crore to
6.7 crore during the same period.
With a view to achieving the target of 2500
crore digital transactions during the current
financial year the Prime Minister will also
announce about 75 townships spread all over
India as 'less-cash townships'. A less-cash
township is one where the deployment of
payment acceptance infrastructure is complete all
the families in the township are covered under
training programs. The townships selected for
the launch have been subjected to independent
third party assessment by Price Waterhouse
Coopers (PWC and only those townships which
have reported more than 80% of the total number
of transactions in the township being done
through digital modes of payments during the
review period are included in this list. These
townships are likely to generate over 1.5 lakh
digital transactions every day thereby leading to
about 5.5 crore digital transactions in a year.
BUSINESS REFORM
ACTION PLAN 2017
The Department of Industrial Policy and
Promotion (DIPP Ministry of Commerce and
Industry in partnership with the World Bank
roup released the Business Reform Action Plan
(BRAP 2017 for implementation by States/UTs
on 13.04.2017.
The BRAP includes 405 recommendations
for reforms on regulatory processes policies
practices and procedures spread across 12 reform
areas that is labour regulation enablers; contract
enforcement; registering property; inspection
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reform enablers; single window system; land
availability and allotment; construction permit
enablers; environmental registration enablers;
obtaining utility permits; paying taxes; access to
information and transparency enablers and sector
specific reforms spanning the lifecycle of a
typical business.
This year there are 103 new set of reforms
(out of 405 focusing on central inspection
system online land allotment system online
single window system for granting construction
permits registration under Inter State Migrant
Workmen (RE&CS Act 1979 approval for boiler
manufacturer and boiler erector etc. BRAP 2017
also includes two new sectors i.e. ealthcare and
ospitality. The last date to implement the
reform is 31.10.2017.
DIPP will carry out a comprehensive
business-to-government (B2 feedback exercise
this year whereby feedback will be taken from
businesses on the quality of implementation of
the reforms claimed by the States and UTs. For
each State/UT the scores will be aggregated over
all the surveys conducted to yield an overall score
for the State/UT.
The feedback scores will be used to generate
a ranking of States/UTs in terms of reform
implementation. Such a ranking will be different
from the last year's ranking which was a ranking
of de jure reforms (or reforms based on evidence
submitted by States.
The online portal shall soon be enabled to
allow States/UTs to upload the reforms
implemented along with the evidence.
NITI Aayog, identifies a set of 9 marketing
reforms to be made in APMC Acts
DAC&FW has in consultation with NITI
Aayog identified a set of 9 marketing reforms to
be made in Agriculture Produce Marketing
Committee (APMC Acts of the States/UTs. These
include 3 mandatory reforms enabling
integration to e-NAM viz provision for e-trading
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 IST OF TE PIB VOL–53
unified trading license and a single point levy of
market fee as well as setting up markets in the
private sector direct marketing etc all aimed at
reducing the intermediaries between producer and
buyer so as to ensure remunerative prices to the
farmer. The States were also advised to relax the
felling and transit rules for trees being grown by
farmers on their own lands so as to encourage
agroforestry which has a huge potential for
supplementing the income from agriculture.
The salient features of the new model
Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee
(APMC Act 2017 drafted by DAC&FW were also
discussed. This encompasses the reforms being
advocated for a transparent market enabling price
discovery and competition where farmers would
have multiple options to sell their produce
including the eNAM platform. This has been
developed after extensive consultations with
States/UTs Ministries and the public and is in the
final stages of approval. The Dept is also in the
process of drafting a model Contract Farming Act
and the States were requested to send their views
to enable drafting of a wholesome Act. E-NAM
which has barely completed a year of
implementation is already proving to be very
beneficial as evidenced by increasing number of
States coming on board traders and farmer's
registration and volume and value of trade being
done online. So far 417 markets from 13 States
have joined the online-portal which targets
integration of 585 markets by March 2018. So far
39.75 lakh farmers and 88474 traders have
registered and trade of Rs 15009 crores has taken
through the e-NAM portal.
Nation-wide training programme launched
for Elected Women representatives
EWRs of Panchayats
A comprehensive module for capacity
building of Elected Women Representatives
(EWRs of Panchayats and a training program for
Trainers of women panchayat leaders across the
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65
country was launched by the Ministry of Women
and Child Development in collaboration with the
Ministry of Panchayati Raj today. The training
program seeks to empower EWRs of panchayats
by enhancing their capacity capability and skill in
governance and administration of villages.
Inspite of 33% reservation for women in the
panchayat bodies the EWRs continue to remain
ineffective since they do not have appropriate
knowledge and skill to administer the village and
the show continues to be run by their husbands.
These women representatives will have to
be trained in order to ensure that they take up the
responsibility of all the tasks entrusted upon
them on being elected Smt Maneka andhi said.
The Minister explained that it is due to this
reason the WCD Ministry has initiated this
countrywide program of training the women
sarpanches and other women representatives at
the grassroots level in various areas like
engineering (building of roads drains latrines
etc. finance social development education
health and environment among others. Similarly
several new schemes have been launched by the
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi which bring
benefit to the common man especially those in
distress and the under privileged. The women
sarpanches can be helpful in taking these
schemes to the people at the grassroots level the
Minister said. These schemes include Fasal
Beema Yojana Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana
Suraksha Bima Yojana Sukanya Samridhi Yojana
maternity benefits schemes among others. Apart
from this the training programme will help to
raise these women to the next level of leadership
said Smt Maneka andhi.
The WCD Minister said that safety of
women education of the girl child health of
women creation of assets under MNREA
immunization and ensuring nutrition through
lakhs of Anganwadis of the country have become
important issues at the grassroots level in which
66 VOL–53
the women sarpanches can play a pivotal role in
effective delivery. The Minster suggested that the
women sarpanches should form a whatsapp
group and share their good practices as well as
assist one another in finding solutions to
common problems.
Starting with Jharkhand similar training
programs will be organised in different states
throughout the country with the help of National
Institute of Rural Development State Institutes
of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj
Departments of the States to train EWRs
throughout the county. There are currently around
13 lakhs EWRs in panchayats across the nation.
The module has been prepared by the
National Commission for Women of the WCD
Ministry in collaboration with TISS. The module
contains training guidelines timeline
implementation guidelines training schedules
and monitoring and evaluation. The training will
be participatory with group discussions
brainstorming lectures demonstrations field
visits case studies games exercise role play
small workshops and individual assignments.
The module discusses various topics like 'What is
an ideal Panchayat' composition of the ram
Panchayat development schemes and
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cost of Rs. 3173.47 crore (excluding taxes
and freight as applicable during the years
2017-18 and 2018-19 from M/s Bharat
Electronics Ltd. Bangalore and M/s
Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.
yderabad;
(b directing the Price Negotiation Committee
to negotiate with M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd
and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd
to rationalise the final unit price
expeditiously;
(c allocation of additional funds to the tune of
Rs. 1600 crore in the current financial year
in the supplementaries/Revised Estimates
for meeting the cash outgo envisaged for
purchase of EVMs (Control Units & Ballot
Units and VVPAT Units during the year
2017-18 payment of 40% of the said amount
as advance to the manufacturers and for
provision of balance amount as may be
required in the BE 2018-19; and
(d placement of Order by the Election
Commission to the two manufacturers
depending upon their production capacity
so that all the VVPAT Units can be procured
by September 2018.
T h e d e c i s i o n o f t h e G o v e r n m e n t w o u l d

programmes resources of panchayats and their e n a b l e t h e E l e c t i o n C o m m i s s i o n o f I n d i a t o

utilization laws for protection of the vulnerable d e p l o y V V P A T U n i t s i n a l l p o o l i n g b o o t h s i n t h e

sections among others. G e n e r a l E l e c t i o n s , 2 0 1 9 , w h i c h w i l l a c t a s a n

CABINET APPROVES PROCUREMENT a d d i t i o n a l l a y e r o f t r a n s p a r e n c y f o r t h e

s a t i s f a c t i o n o f v o t e r s , a l l a y i n g a n y a p p r e h e n s i o n

OF VOTER VERIFIABLE PAPER i n t h e m i n d s o f t h e v o t e r s a s t o t h e f i d e l i t y a n d

AUDIT TRAIL UNITS i n t e g r i t y o f t h e E V M s . T h i s w o u l d a l s o r e s u l t i n

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime c o m p l i a n c e o f t h e d i r e c t i o n s o f t h e H o n ' b l e

Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its S u p r e m e C o u r t v i d e i t s O r d e r d a t e d 8 t h O c t o b e r ,

approval for procurement of Voter Verifiable Paper 2 0 1 3 .

Audit Trail (VVPAT Units for use in the eneral T h e i d e a o f a n a d d i t i o n a l l a y e r o f

Elections 2019 for t r a n s p a r e n c y f o r t h e s a t i s f a c t i o n o f v o t e r s i n t h e

(a purchase of 1615000 Voter Verifiable Paper f o r m o f a ' v o t e r v e r i f i a b l e p a p e r t r a i l ' w a s

Audit Trail (VVPAT Units at a tentative unit s u g g e s t e d b y t h e p o l i t i c a l p a r t i e s i n a m e e t i n g

cost of Rs.19650 and at a total estimated t a k e n b y t h e E C I o n 4 t h O c t o b e r , 2 0 1 0 .

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 IST OF TE PIB VOL–53
Accordingly introduction of the VVPAT was
facilitated by amending the Conduct of Election
Rules 1961 vide Notification dated 14th August
2013. Thereafter 20300 VVPAT Units were
purchased by the ECI in 2013. Since then these
units are being deployed in elections in select
Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies.
Subsequently order for 67000 additional Units
was placed in 2015 out of which 33500 Units
have been supplied by the manufacturers.
Requisite funds for purchase of the aforesaid
number of VVPAT Units were provided by the
overnment as and when requested by the
Election Commission.
VVPAT device functions like a printer to be
attached to the ballot unit and kept inside the
voting compartment. When the voter presses the
button against the name of the candidate of his
choice on the Ballot Unit the VVPAT unit
generates a paper slip called Ballot Slip. This
paper slip contains the name serial number and
symbol of the chosen candidate. The voter can
see this slip through a screened window where it
stays for seven seconds and then it automatically
gets cut and falls down into a sealed drop box. In
this process the slip will not go into the hands
of the voter nor will others be able to see it.
Civil Appeal No.9093/2013 was filed by Dr.
Subramanian Swamy pleading for directions to the
Election Commission to use VVPAT Units in all
polling booths. It wasalleged in the said Petition
that the Electronic Voting Machines are not
reliable and that there should be some device by
which the voter should get a confirmation that
the vote cast by him has been recorded in favour
of the candidate of his choice. In deference to
the plea of the petitioner in the aforesaid CA the
Election Commission submitted that it has no
objection to the introduction of VVPAT Units for
conduct of free fair and transparent elections.
The Supreme Court in its Order dated 8th
October 2013 directed that for implementation
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67
of such a system of VVPAT in phased manner
overnment of India may provide required
financial assistance for procurement of requisite
number of VVPAT Units.
RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD CALLS
FOR EXPEDITING JUDICIAL
REFORMS
Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics
& IT Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad today appealed to
all those involved in the delivery of justice to join
hands in improving the system to ensure that
assistance is available to every citizen irrespective
of his socio-economic position. e said this after
the launch of three key legal aid and
empowerment initiatives of the Department of
Justice - including 'Pro bono legal services' 'Tele
law service' and 'Nyaya Mitra scheme'. The
Minister also mentioned that the country's legal
system would be digitally transformed as digital
inclusion holds the key to the country's march
towards Digital India.
The Minister emphasized the need for
increased opportunities of legal aid and
awareness for people especially the marginalised
sections of the society. e said that the three
initiatives launched today were aimed at fulfilling
the department's core mandate of enhancing
'access to justice' for the poor and vulnerable
communities including making accessible quality
and effective legal aid for them. e
acknowledged and appreciated the initiatives
undertaken over the last two decades to
safeguard and deliver this right to citizens first
by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA
and subsequently by the Department of Justice -
both of whom have the shared mandate of
delivering adequate and efficient legal aid to the
marginalised and vulnerable sections. The
Minister also underscored that the initiatives
launched by the department here are to
supplement the efforts of NALSA and not to
68 VOL–53
overlap the activities undertaken by the legal
services authorities.
PRO BONO LEGAL SERVICES
The 'Pro bono legal services' initiative is a
web based platform through which interested
lawyers can register themselves to volunteer pro
bono services for the underprivileged litigants
who are unable to afford it. The Department of
Justice has launched the online application for
this initiative on its website doj.gov.in. Through
this online portal litigants from marginalised
communities (including members of scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes women children
senior citizens persons with low income and
persons with disabilities can also apply for legal
aid and advice from the pro bono lawyers.
The Minister described this effort as an
'earnest step' towards fulfilling the mandate of
quality legal aid for all. e noted that many from
the legal fraternity were already volunteering
legal support for the underprivileged clients in an
individual capacity. owever he stressed that the
time has come to promote the concept of pro
bono legal aid in an institutionalized manner and
ensure that those who volunteer their valuable
time and service towards this public service are
duly recognized.
The Minister called upon all lawyers from
across the country to wholeheartedly support this
initiative and help in fulfilling the constitutional
mandate of legal aid for all.
TELE LAW: MAINSTREAMING LEGAL
AID THROUGH COMMON SERVICE
CENTRE
Through the second initiative launched by
the Minister the Department of Justice and
NALSA are partnering with CSC- E- overnance
Service Limited for mainstreaming legal aid to
the marginalized communities through the
Common Service Centers (CSCs. This initiative
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called 'Tele Law' is aimed at facilitating delivery
of legal advice through an expert panel of lawyers
- stationed at the State Legal Services Authorities
(SLSA. The project would connect lawyers with
clients through video conferencing facilities at
CSCs operated by para legal volunteers. For this
purpose this initiative would also play a pivotal
role in empowering 1000 women para legal
volunteers.
The project would be launched across 1800
panchayats in Uttar Pradesh Bihar North Eastern
States and Jammu & Kashmir.
DISTRICT FACILITATION CENTRE TO
REDUCE PENDENCY: ENGAGEMENT
OF NYAYA MITRA
The Minister also discussed the issue of
heavy pendency of cases in courts across the
country. e noted that at present more than 2.4
crore cases are pending in the district and lower
judiciary of which nearly 10% are more than 10
years old. e called for collective action and
efforts in remedying this situation. In this
context the Minister also inaugurated the Nyaya
Mitra scheme which is aimed at reducing
pendency of cases across selected districts with
special focus on those pending for more than 10
years.
Functionalized through a retired judicial or
executive officer (with legal experience
designated as the 'Nyaya Mitra' the project would
be operated out of District Facilitation Centres
housed in CSCs. Nyaya Mitra's responsibilities
would include among others assistance to
litigants who are suffering due to delay in
investigations or trial by actively identifying
such cases through the National Judicial Data
rid providing legal advice and connecting
litigants to DLSA CSC Tele Law, other
government agencies and civil society
organisations. e/she shall also refer the
marginalized applicants to Lok Adalats for dispute
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 IST OF TE PIB
resolution and render assistance towards prison
reforms within the district in coordination with
the district judiciary and other stakeholders.
This initiative would be launched in 227
districts including 27 districts from North East
and Jammu & Kashmir and 200 districts from
Uttar Pradesh Bihar Maharashtra Rajasthan
Odisha ujarat West Bengal etc. and would be
operated out of CSCs.
MAKE IN INDIA
GETS VARIOUS BOOSTS
With rapid expansion of metro rail projects
in the country Ministry of Urban Development
has taken several far reaching decisions to
promote Make in India campaign. These include
stipulating certain mandatory conditions to be
incorporated in Tender Documents of metro
companies for procurement of metro cars and
related critical equipment and sub-systems
procurement of only Made in India signaling
equipment besides standardizing technical
parameters for rolling stock (metro coaches and
signaling equipment.
The new mandatory Tender Conditions and
standardized norms for a wide range of
equipment approved by the Minister of Urban
Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu have been
circulated to all the metro companies on Friday
this week making them effective immediately.
These initiatives will incentivize setting up
manufacturing facilities in the country by
increasing the volumes of procurement of rolling
stock and all kinds of equipment by removing
variations in the present technical norms for
rolling stock and signaling equipment. This will
in turn result in reduction of cost through
economies of scale.
The Ministry has stipulated the following
mandatory conditions to be incorporated in
Tender Documents:
1. Minimum 75% of the tendered quantity of
metro cars shall be manufactured
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VOL–53 69
indigenously with progressive
indigenization of content for which the
contractor may either establish independent
manufacturing facility in India or partner
with Indian manufacturers if the
procurement is more than 100 cars;
2. To facilitate ease in maintenance through
easy availability of spares beyond the
warranty period an identified list of critical
equipment and sub-systems shall be
included in the Tender Document for
ensuring indigenous manufacturing of a
minimum of 25% of such equipment either
by Original Equipment Manufacturers
themselves by establishing a wholly owned
subsidiary in India or through Indian
manufacturers;
3. Requirement of metro cars at State level
shall be clubbed to enable applicability of
local procurement norms; and
4. To develop in-house expertise on long term
basis metro companies with large size fleet
to undertake in-house maintenance.
A total number of 1912 metro coaches are
currently operational in the country with another
1420 under procurement. Over the next three
years more than 1600 metro cars would be
required. Each metro coach is estimated to cost
about Rs.10 cr.
The Ministry has concluded the long
pending standaridisation of norms for rolling
stock and signaling equipment applicable to over
90% of the present imports. Further to promote
indigenous manufacturing the Ministry has
stipulated procurement of 9 types of signaling
equipment from within the country. Metro
companies have also been directed to develop
maximum possible local competence so that
knowhow and technical support is available
within the country. Indian companies have to be
associated with production of a wide range of
signaling and train control project equipment.
70 VOL–53
Indigenization of several metro functions
has also been prescribed. These relate to
communication systems managing operational
disturbances time table preparation fault
reporting control traction power maintenance
infrastructure supervision rolling stock
management etc.
The new standardized norms prescribe that
the rolling stock and related equipment and
systems shall enable Unattended Train
Operations Driverless Train Operations
Standard rail gauge of 1435 mm Metro cars with
body width of 2.90 meters for passenger capacity
of up to 45000 Peak our Peak Distance capacity
body width of 3.20 meters for capacity above
45000 PPD only 3 car 6 car or 9 car rail
combination operational speed of 80 kmph
minimum 67% motorization for all rolling stock
etc. Norms have also been prescribed for
Acceleration Rates Energy Consumption Noise
and Vibration levels Collision Standards etc.
Further to these initiatives Ministry of
Urban Development will soon evolve common
eligible criteria for suppliers of rolling stock and
other equipment doing away with the present
variations across different metro companies.
Shri Rajiv auba Secretary(UD) discussed
with Managing Directors of metro companies on
Friday the variations in the present eligibility
criteria. Noting that such variations adversely
impact competition he directed that a broadly
uniform criteria in respect of Net Worth
Financial and technical capacities and experience
of supply of rolling stock and other equipment etc
should be evolved in two weeks.
Presently metros are operating in 7 cities of
Delhi Kolkata Mumbai Jaipur urgaon
Bengaluru and Chennai with a total route length
of 326 kms. Metro projects with a total route
length of 546 kms are under construction in 11
cities and projects with a total route length of 903
kms in 13 cities are under consideration.
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DRAFT THREE YEAR ACTION
AGENDA
In May 2016 the Prime Minister's Office
advised the NITI Aayog its premier independent
think tank to prepare a Fifteen Year Vision Seven
Year Strategy and Three Year Action Agenda. The
Fifteen Year Vision and Seven Year Strategy
document spanning 2017-18 to 2031-32 is in
progress. The Action Agenda covers the period
from 2017-18 to 2019-20 the last years of the
Fourteenth Finance Commission.
ow does the Vision Strategy and
Action Agenda exercise differ from the Five
Year Plan process?
The 12th Five Year Plan was the last of the
Five Year Plans. With an increasingly open and
liberalized economy and given the new realities of
the global economy we needed to rethink the
tools and approaches to conceptualizing the
development process. The Vision Strategy and
Action Agenda framework will allow us to better
align the development strategy with the changed
reality of India.
An Overview of the Three Year Action
Agenda
In preparing the Agenda the NITI Aayog
sought and received inputs from State
overnments Union Territories and Ministries of
the Central overnment. Extensive
consultations were held with groups of
scientists economists journalists voluntary
organizations industry associations and experts
in education health culture transport and other
fields. Numerous experts and institutions
provided useful written inputs.
The Draft Agenda was circulated to NITI
Aayog's overning Council Members on April 23
2016. It contains ambitious yet achievable
proposals to achieve far-reaching changes in
India's economy. Where relevant we have
included possible actions by the states to
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 IST OF TE PIB VOL–53
complement the Centre's efforts. The document
has 7 parts with 24 chapters. The table of
contents is attached.
Selected Key Action Agenda Items
Three Year Revenue and Expenditure
Framework:
• A tentative medium-term expenditure
framework (MTEF for the Centre is
proposed. Based on forecasts of revenue it
proposes sector-wise expenditure allocation
for three years.
• Proposes reduction of the fiscal deficit to
3% of the DP by 2018-19 and the revenue
deficit to 0.9% of the DP by 2019-20.
• The roadmap consisting of shifting
additional revenues towards high priority
sectors: health education agriculture rural
development defence railways roads and
other categories of capital expenditure.
Agriculture: Doubling Farmers' Incomes
by 2022
• Reform the Agricultural Produce Marketing
to ensure that farmers receive remunerative
prices.
• Raise productivity through enhanced
irrigation faster seed replacement and
precision agriculture.
• Shift to high value commodities:
horticulture animal husbandry fisheries.
• A separate detailed roadmap issued by
Member Professor Ramesh Chand
Industry and Services: Job Creation
• Overarching Action Points
• Create Coastal Employment Zones to boost
exports and generate high-productivity jobs.
• Enhance labour-market flexibility through
reforming key laws
• Address the high and rising share of Non-
Performing Assets (NPAs in India's banks
through supporting the auction of larger
assets to private asset reconstruction
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71
companies (ARCs and strengthening the
State Bank of India-led ARC.
• Action points for specific sectors
• Apparel
• Leather and footwear
• Electronics
• Food processing
• ems and jewelry
• Tourism
• Finance
• Real estate.
Urban Development
• Need to bring down land prices to make
housing affordable through increased
supply of urban land
1. More flexible conversion rules from one use
to another
2. Release of land held by sick units
3. Release of other urban land potentially
available
4. More generous Floor Space Index.
• Reform the Rent Control Act along the lines
of Model Tenancy Act;
• Initiate titles of urban property
• Promote dormitory housing
• Address issues related to city transportation
infrastructure and waste management.
Regional strategies
• Actions targeted aimed at improving
development outcomes in the (i North
Eastern Region (ii Coastal Areas & Islands
(iii North imalayan states and (iv) Desert
and Drought prone states.
Transport and Digital Connectivity
• Strengthen infrastructure in roadways
railways shipping & ports inland waterways
and civil aviation.
• Ensure last-mile digital connectivity
particularly for e-governance and financial
inclusion through developing
infrastructure simplifying the payments
72 VOL–53
structure and improving literacy.
• Facilitate Public-Private Partnerships.by
reorienting the role of the India
Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd.
(IIFCL introducing low cost debt
instruments and operationalizing the
National Investment Infrastructure Fund
(NIIF.
Energy
• Adopt consumer friendly measures such as
provision of electricity to all households by
2022 LP connection to all BPL
households elimination of black carbon by
2022 and extension of the city gas
distribution programme to 100 smart cities.
• Reduce the cross-subsidy in the power sector
to ensure competitive supply of electricity
to industry.
• Reform the coal sector by setting up a
regulator encouraging commercial mining
and improving labour productivity.
Science & Technology
• Create comprehensive database of all
government schemes and evaluate them for
desirable changes
• Develop guidelines for PPPs in S&T to
improve education and industry-academia
linkages for demand-driven research
• Channel S&T to address development
challenges such as access to education
improving agricultural productivity and
wastewater management.
• Create a "National Science Technology &
Innovation Foundation" to identify and
deliberate national issues recommend
priority interventions in S&T and prepare
frameworks for their implementation
• Streamline the administration of the patent
regime
Governance
• Re-calibrate the role of the government by
IST OF TE PIB
shrinking its involvement in activities that
do not serve a public purpose and expanding
its role in areas that necessarily require
public provision
• Implement the roadmap on closing select
loss-making PSEs and strategic
disinvestment of 20 identified CPSEs.
• Expand the government's role in public
health and quality education.
• Strengthen the civil services through better
human resource management e-governance
addressing anomalies in tenures of
secretaries and increasing specialization and
lateral entry.
Taxation and Regulation
• Tackle tax evasion expand the tax base and
simplify the tax system through reforms. For
example consolidate existing custom duty
rates to a unified rate.
• Create an institutional mechanism for
promoting competition through
comprehensive review and reform of
government regulations across all sectors.
• Strengthen public procurement
The Rule of Law
• Undertake significant judicial system
reforms including increased ICT use
structured performance evaluation and
reduced judicial workload.
• Legislative administrative and operational
reforms of police are suggested to the states.
Education and Skill Development
• Shift the emphasis on the quality of school
education paying particular attention to
foundational learning
• Move away from input-based to outcome-
based assessments
• Rank outcomes across jurisdictions
• Use ICT judiciously to align teaching to the
student's level and pace
• Revisit the policy of automatic promotion
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 IST OF TE PIB
up to eighth grade
• Create a tiered regulation of universities and
college to provide greater autonomy to top
universities under the current system.
• Focus on creating and funding public
universities under the World Class
Universities program.
Health
• Focus on public health through significantly
increasing government expenditure on it
establishing a focal point and creating a
dedicated cadre.
• enerate and disseminate periodic district-
level data as per uniform protocols.
• Formulate a model policy on human
resources for health implement a bridge
course for nurses/AYUS practitioners in
primary care.
• Reform IMC Act and the acts governing
homeopathy and Indian systems of medicine
• Launch the National Nutrition Mission;
develop a comprehensive Nutrition
Information System.
Building an Inclusive Society
• Enhance the welfare of women children
youth minorities SC ST OBCs differently
abled persons and senior citizens.
• Develop a composite gender-based index to
reflect the status of women in the country.
• Introduce skill-based education and extra-
curricular activities as a mandatory part of
school curricula; design innovative
conditional cash transfer schemes to
encourage girls' education.
Environment and Water Resources
• Adopt sustainable practices and streamline
regulatory structures to support high
economic growth.
• Adopt measures to tackle city air pollution
• Revisit the policy towards felling of trees
on private land and transport of trees
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VOL–53 73
• Promote sustainable use of water resources
by improving groundwater management
adopting smart water meters for specific
industrial units and enhancing the
regulatory environment in the sector.
First UDAN Flight under RCS
The UDAN Scheme is a key component of
the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP which
was released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on
15th June 2016. The AAI followed a transparent
bidding process by inviting interested bidders and
airline operators to submit their Initial Proposals
under the provisions of Regional Connectivity
Scheme and subsequently inviting counter
proposals against such Initial Proposals. The
routes and networks are awarded to bidders who
submitted valid proposals and quoted the lowest
viability gap funding (VF from the government
for such routes and networks.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI the
implementing agency have issued Letter of
Awards for 27 proposals received under RCS-
UDAN. Key features of the proposals awarded by
AAI include:
• Airports to be connected: 27 currently served
airports 12 currently underserved airports
and 31 currently unserved airports (for a
total of 70 airports will be connected
through these 27 proposals.
• eographical spread: There is a good
geographical spread in the proposals: 24
airports in the western 17 in north 11 in
south 12 in east and 6 in north-eastern
regions are proposed to be connected. 22
states and 2 Union Territories will be
connected through these 27 proposals.
• Routes and network: 16 awarded proposals
are for single routes (connecting two cities
and 11 are for networks (connecting three
or more cities. Six proposals have been bid
with zero viability gap funding (VF
74 VOL–53
reflecting the fact that there is potential
latent demand.
• VF Outflow: 27 proposals will required a
VF of around Rs. 200 crores and will provide
around 6.5 lakh RCS seats.
The airfare for a one hour journey of appx.
500 km on a fixed wing aircraft or for a 30 minute
journey on a helicopter would be capped at Rs.
2500 with proportionate pricing for routes of
different stage lengths and flight duration. The
selected airline operator would have to provide
50% of the flight capacity (subject to a minimum
of 9 and a maximum of 40 as RCS Seats for
operationsthrough fixed wing aircraft and a
minimum of 5 and a maximum of 13 RCS Seats on
the RCS Flights for operations through
helicopters and would be given a three years
exclusivity of operations.To reduce the cost of
operations of airlines on flying such routes a
financial stimulus in the form of concessions
from Central and State government airport
operators and the Viability ap Funding to the
interested airlines would be provided to kick-off
operations from such airports so that the
passenger fares are kept affordable. State
overnment will provide a certain share of VF
(20% for States other than North-East States
where the ratio will be 10% of VF determined.
In this regard till now 19 States and 3 UTs have
signed MoU whereas 5 more States have given
consent to sign MoU.
SIGNING OF TRIPARTITE MOU FOR
BROADBAND SERVICES TO POST
OFFICES
A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding
has been signed today among BBNL Department
of Posts and BSNL for providing broadband
connectivity of BharatNet to Post Offices in rural
areas. The MoU signed under the chairmanship of
Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha is
the first tri-partite agreement to provide
IST OF TE PIB
broadband connectivity to about 1.3 lakh post
offices in rural areas and 25000 sub-post offices
for high speed internet connectivity to the rural
masses. Speaking on the occasion Shri Sinha said
that the first phase of connecting about one lakh
ram Panchayats is nearing its completion and in
the remaining one and a half lakh ram
Panchayats 100 mbps broadband connectivity
will be completed by December 2018. In reply to
a question the Minister said that BharatNet is
one of the 9 pillars of realising the Prime
Minister's vision of Digital India.
Shri Sinha said that provision of citizen
services is the focus of BharatNet and in the
agreement signed today BSNL is the service
provider that would provide broadband services
the cost of setting up of infrastructure and the
operational expenses would be paid by the
Department of Posts. Since the BharatNet is the
National Network BBNL would facilitate and
coordinate this entire operation. In future MoUs
with other overnment Departments are also
proposed to be signed.
SHARADA PRASAD COMMITTEE
SUBMITTED REPORT ON SKILL SECTOR
The Ministry of Skill Development has
invited comments/ suggestions of the public on
the Sharada Prasad Committee constituted to
Review, Rationalize and Optimize the
Functioning of Sector Skill Councils by 10th of
this month. The report has already been
submitted to the ministry recently. The same has
also been put up in public domain on 25th April
2017 for engaging the stake holders for
Rationalization & Optimization of the
Functioning of the Sector Skill Council. The
Report is available at http://msde.gov.in/report-
ssc.html.
The Ministry is now in the process of
examining the Report and the
recommendations made therein.
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 IST OF TE PIB VOL–53
Sector Skill Councils (SSCs are industry led
and industry governed bodies which have been
mandated to ensure that skill development
efforts being made by all the stake holders are in
accordance with the actual needs of the industry
and develop National Occupational Standards/
Competency Standards and Qualification Packs
(QPs. Presently the National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC has approved formation of
40 SSCs in different Sectors. In order to ensure
convergence and optimal functioning of SSCs as
per mandate given under the National Policy for
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 it
was decided to constitute a Committee to review
the functioning of the SSCs and provide a
roadmap for their harmonious growth so as to
ensure effective development of the skilling
ecosystem.
The committee was constituted by the
Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship on 18th May 2016 for
Rationalisation and Optimization of the
Functioning of the Sector Skill Councils under
the Chairmanship of Sh. Sharada Prasad Former
Director eneral Directorate eneral of
Employment & Training Ministry of Labour &
Employment overnment of India.
SCHEME FOR AGRO-MARINE
PROCESSING AND DEVELOPMENT
OF AGRO-PROCESSING CLUSTERS
The Cabinet Committee on Economic
Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri
Narendra Modi has given its approval for re-
structuring the schemes of the Ministry of Food
Processing Industries (MoFPI under new Central
Sector Scheme - SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-
Marine Processing and Development of Agro-
Processing Clusters for the period 2016-20
coterminous with the 14th Finance Commission
cycle.
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75
SAMPADA with an allocation of Rs. 6000
crore is expected to leverage investment of Rs.
31400 crore handling of 334 lakh MT agro-
produce valuing Rs. 104125 crore benefit 20
lakh farmers and generate 530500 direct/
indirect employment in the country by the year
2019-20.
The objective of SAMPADA is to
supplement agriculture modernize processing
and decrease agri-waste.
SAMPADA is an umbrella scheme
incorporating ongoing schemes of the Ministry
like Mega Food Parks Integrated Cold Chain and
Value Addition Infrastructure Food Safety and
Quality Assurance Infrastructure etc. and also
new schemes like Infrastructure for Agro-
processing Clusters Creation of Backward and
Forward Linkages Creation / Expansion of Food
Processing & Preservation Capacities.
The SAMPADA is a comprehensive package
to give a renewed thrust to the food processing
sector in the country. It includes new schemes of
Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters
Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages and
Creation / Expansion of Food Processing &
Preservation Capacities aim at development of
modern infrastructure to encourage entrepreneurs
to set up food processing units based on cluster
approach provide effective and seamless
backward and forward integration for processed
food industry by plugging gaps in supply chain
and creation of processing and preservation
capacities and modernization/ expansion of
existing food processing units.
The implementation of SAMPADA will
result in creation of modern infrastructure with
efficient supply chain management from farm
gate to retail outlet. It will not only provide a big
boost to the growth of food processing sector in
the country but also help in providing better
prices to farmers and is a big step towards
doubling of farmers' income. It will create huge
76 VOL–53 IST OF TE PIB
employment opportunities especially in the rural are targeted for operationalization in next three
areas. It will also help in reducing wastage of months. Similarly out of 236 Cold Chains 101
agricultural produce increasing the processing Cold Chains have been sanctioned recently in
level availability of safe and convenient March 2017. 100 Cold Chains have become
processed foods at affordable price to consumers operational. Of which 63 Cold Chains have been
and enhancing the export of the processed foods. made operational during last 3 years.
Background overnment has taken various other
measures to boost food processing sector as
Food Processing Sector has emerged as an
follows:
important segment of the Indian economy in
terms of its contribution to DPemployment and
a T o p r o v i d e i m p e t u s t o i n v e s t m e n t i n f o o d

investment. During 2015-16 the sector

p r o c e s s i n g a n d r e t a i l s e c t o r , g o v t . h a s

constituted as much as 9.1 and 8.6 per cent of

a l l o w e d 1 0 0 % F D I i n t r a d i n g i n c l u d i n g

VA in Manufacturing and Agriculture sector

t h r o u g h e - c o m m e r c e , i n r e s p e c t o f f o o d

respectively.
p r o d u c t s m a n u f a c t u r e d a n d / o r p r o d u c e d i n

The manifesto of NDA overnment

I n d i a . T h i s w i l l b e n e f i t f a r m e r s i m m e n s e l y

stresses upon incentivizing the setting up of food

a n d w i l l c r e a t e b a c k - e n d i n f r a s t r u c t u r e a n d

processing industry for providing better income

s i g n i f i c a n t e m p l o y m e n t o p p o r t u n i t i e s .

for the farmers and creating jobs.

b T h e g o v t . h a s a l s o s e t u p a S p e c i a l F u n d o f

Various measures have been taken by the

R s . 2 0 0 0 c r o r e i n N A B A R D t o m a k e a v a i l a b l e

government to give a boost to the food

a f f o r d a b l e c r e d i t a t c o n c e s s i o n a l r a t e o f

processing sector. With these measures food

i n t e r e s t t o d e s i g n a t e d f o o d p a r k s a n d a g r o

processing sector has grown at 7 per cent. In order

p r o c e s s i n g u n i t s i n t h e d e s i g n a t e d f o o d

to arrest post-harvest losses of horticulture &

p a r k s .

non-horticulture produce the Ministry has

c F o o d a n d a g r o - b a s e d p r o c e s s i n g u n i t s a n d

accorded approval to 42 Mega Food Parks and 236

c o l d c h a i n i n f r a s t r u c t u r e h a v e b e e n b r o u g h t

Integrated Cold Chains for creation of modern

u n d e r t h e a m b i t o f P r i o r i t y S e c t o r L e n d i n g

infrastructure for the food processing along the

P S L t o p r o v i d e a d d i t i o n a l c r e d i t f o r f o o d

value chain from the farm to the market. Out of

p r o c e s s i n g a c t i v i t i e s a n d i n f r a s t r u c t u r e

42 Mega Food Parks 8 are operational. Of this 6

t h e r e b y , b o o s t i n g f o o d p r o c e s s i n g , r e d u c i n g

Mega Food Parks have been made operational

w a s t a g e , c r e a t e e m p l o y m e n t a n d i n c r e a s i n g

during the last 3 years. Another 4 Mega Food Parks

f a r m e r s ' i n c o m e .

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ist of
IST OF SCIENCE REPORTER VOL–53 77

Science
Reporter

SMART PHONE APPS IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

Computers and mobile devices are also being used to support crime scene investigators
organisations and the common people to transfer crime related data. Software are being designed
so that the chain of custody of the evidence is maintained and sensitive digital data could be
utilised further in court room trials. Numerous investigators around the world are using android
applications to strengthen cyber security keep them updated with related cases new laws and
amendments through these mobile applications. A recent app Ballistic Energy Calc helps to
reconstruct crime scenes by determining ballistic energy of a fired bullet (projectile .
Cargo Decoder is designed to tell exactly what is inside every tanker truck encountered during
inspection. It provides information on toxic inhalation hazards protective distance information
and references material to provide safety guidelines to the officials.
Crime Scene Tracker app was developed to help law enforcement professionals create digital
recordings of hints reminders and pieces of evidence from crime scenes. Crime scene information
is superimposed on a oogle Map for pinpointing accuracy and can be emailed or printed to be
used by other officers.
Tatpar is an app functional in Uttar Pradesh. It provides instant police assistance in case of
emergency by simply pressing a button on the mobile phone. After initiation of the alert the
location of the user is sent to the emergency response control room which can be traced back
to apprehend the criminal.
Vahan Info includes vehicle details of 19 crore Indian vehicles registered till date. The vehicle
number can be fetched by using the vehicle details "VIN (Vehicle Identification Number or
registration number. It will be helpful in determining the address of suspects in hit-and-run
cases and other crimes. This application will prove useful to people who are buying second hand
cars also.
Setu is an Android app initiative by Surat police authorities. It provides people the power to lodge
complaints and share audio/visual data related to cognizable crimes.
ICE App of Mumbai Police creates public awareness about the preparations for the first response
in case of identified emergency situations. Similar to Setu and Tatpar users can send SOS distress
messages with just one touch. Another feature enables the user to find the nearest hospital based
on their PS locations. It also searches for hospitals across major cities in the country.

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78 VOL–53 IST OF SCIENCE REPORTER
INDIA’S SPACE PROGRAMME After the launch of INSAT satellites a
separate channel known as Technology
India entered into the field of space
Develop'lent Communication Channel (TDCC
research with the setting up of the Indian
'Was conceived for distant education'
National Committee for Space Research in 1962.
programmes. In the early 90s digital TV broadcast
Later this grew into the Indian Space Research
was not very popular. Analogue TV transmission
Organisation (ISRO. The objective was to
was used.
develop space technology for the welfare of the
A small studio was set up in a classroom
common man.
from where expert teachers gave lectures. This
The programmes were transmitted from
was transmitted to the satellite. In distant
Ahmedabad and Delhi using ATS-6 (Applications
classrooms approximately 4-metre-diameter
Technology Satellite-6 and were received in the
antennas were installed to watch the programme
villages using a 12 feet chicken mesh antenna
on the TV. There was an interactive session
mounted with front-end converter whose output
during which the students could ask questions
was given to a tail-end converter located in a
using a telephone line. The questions as well as
room. The entire setup was installed in the
the answers were fed into the TV audio so that
panchayat board office or in a community hall
students at all distant locations could listen to
from where local people could watch the
them. This was a one-way video and two-way
programme. The programmes were one-way and
audio interactive programme. It was also called
there was no interaction.
the talk-back experiment.

NAVIGATING & POSTIONING

PS Aided EO Augmented Navigation (AAN: Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS
implemented by ISRO jointly with the Airports Authority of India (AAI. AAN will provide
satellite-based navigation services with accuracy and integrity required for civil aviation
applications and to provide better Air Traffic Management over the Indian airspace. The system
will be interoperable with other international systems and provide seamless navigation across
regional boundaries. The AAN Signal-In-Space (SIS is available through SAT-8 and SAT-10.
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS: Also known as NavlC this is an independent
Indian satellite-based positioning system for critical national applications. The main objective is
to provide Reliable Position Navigation and Timing services over India and its neighbourhood
to provide fairly good accuracy to the user. The IRNSS will provide two types of services:
• Standard Positioning Service (SPS
• Restricted Service (RS
The space segment consists of seven satellites - three satellites in geostationary orbit and four
satellites in geosynchronous orbit. This constellation of seven satellites was named as "NavIC"
(Navigation Indian Constellation by the onourable Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi
and dedicated to the Nation on the occasion of successful launch of IRNSS-1 the seventh and
last satellite of NaviC.
All the seven satellites of NavlC namely IRNSS-1A 1 B 1 C 10 1 E 1 F and 1 have been
successfully launched and are functioning satisfactorily from their designated orbital positions.

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 IST OF SCIENCE REPORTER VOL–53
And now a NAVIC-based mobile application strives to ensure the safety of Indian fishermen and
prevent them from straying into international waters. The application to be developed in regional
languages would give information on international boundaries to prevent fishermen getting
caught for crossing international boundaries.
Relief and Rescue Systems
Relief and Rescue Systems Once a disaster
like a cyclone or earthquake or flood occurs the
communication link is affected and even mobile
towers are affected and hence no landline or
mobile network is available. The entire site
becomes cut off from the rest of the world. Even
for assessing the damage requirement of
necessary relief materials like food medicine etc.
communication link is required.
Satellite communication is the only
viability in such circumstances. Vehicle-mounted
terminals can be immediately sent to the affected
places by road or container-based terminals can be
airlifted. These terminals have 1.8 m diameter
antenna transmit and receive equipments and IP-
based modems. A petrol generator supplies the
necessary power.
Satellites can also save the lives of
fishermen. Distress alert terminals are used by
fishermen. In case of any emergency they can
press a button and a signal is transmitted to the
satellite along with the terminal's position. This
is received by the earth station and by knowing
the terminal number and the position coast
guards are alerted about the location of the trapped
fishermen. This unit is light weight and portable
and carried by the fishermen when they go out
into the deep sea.
Satellite technology is not a luxury for
India but is essential for human enefit and
empowerment.
CITIZEN SCIENCE IN ASTRONOMY
Astronomy the oldest of all natural
sciences covers a vast range of phenomena in
the huge expanse of the universe. It is different
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79
from any other physical science where controlled
experiments can be done. Modern astronomy
equipped with high resolution instruments
connected to gigantic telescopes has produced a
better and much larger picture of the universe
than contemplated by our ancestors.
Observation of celestial objects and
analysis of voluminous sets of data obtained from
the new generation of telescopes has led to
runaway progress in space technology material
science and computation. Accuracy of
astronomical observations has enabled us to test
sophisticated mathematical theories of the
universe. Both ground-based and space-based
telescopes have uncovered numerous exo-planets
revolving around Sun-like stars.
Emergence of Citizen Science
In recent years scientists have been
devising ways by which the public too can
contribute to science. The result is the origin of
'Citizen Science' schemes of some major
astronomy programmes of the world.
The aim of such Citizen Science schemes is
to provide platforms to people of any background
and from anywhere in the world to contribute
significantly to the understanding of the cosmic
phenomena. Advances in communication
technology and easy access to the Internet have
made such efforts possible. The International
Astronomical Union (IAU has been advocating
Citizen Science programmes in astronomy as part
of its strategic plans for development.
Why Citizen Science?
Discovery of exotic objects and phenomena
in the universe and realization of new and
unknown forms of matter and energy are the
80
major driving forces behind the inception of most
of the upcoming major astronomical facilities
that are under way.
These include construction of Extremely
Large Telescopes (ELTs that can peep into the
deepest and the remotest parts of space and time.
The idea is to observe the universe in previously
unexplored regimes so that we can test our
theories of the cosmos.
But as the amount of observational data
increases with increase in sensitivity of the
telescopes and instruments it becomes difficult
for a limited number of professionals to spend
unlimited time with a given set of data and with
a given instrument. It is beacause each
profesional astronomer is bound by his project
and philosophy that may not match with others.
alaxy Zoo is one of the Citizen Science
programmes of SDSS. This project aims at
classifying galaxies in the universe whose images
have been captured by the SDSS telescope. The
programme has become essential for the millions
of galaxies as opposed to a few tens of them as
seen by the most powerful telescopes during the
1920s. Anybody who is enthusiastic in astronomy
can visit the website www.sdss.org of the SDSS
to learn about its various missions.
Virtual Observatories (VO: VO is an
international effort designed to provide the
astronomical community with data access for
studying the digital images of the celestial objects.
Spanish Virtual Observatory (http://
svo.cab.inta-csic.es has designed a Citizen
Science project to identify Near Earth Objects
(NEO some of which may be potentially
hazardous asteroids. In the Data Release 8 of the
SDSS an individual user is asked to go through
visual inspections of a sequence of images and
VOL–53 IST OF SCIENCE REPORTER
measure the coordinates (latitudes and
longitudes in the sky of the NEOs. The
coordinates are the sent to the Minor Planet
Center (http://minorplanetcenter.net for
improving the knowledge of the orbits of the
NEOs. This tells whether the NEOs are in
collision course with the Earth.
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FOOD PACKAGES
A new food wrap material that's not only
biodegradable but will also keep food fresh for
longer. This new material is made mainly from
plant -derived cellulose composite and developed
by researchers at Kaunas University of
Technology (KUT. The packaging material
contains clove essential oil along with ionic silver
nanoparticles. The clove oil proves efficient in
anti-oxidising qualities and the ionic silver
particles add an anti-microbial effect to the
material. This novelty helps in reducing
packaging waste and lessens the number of food-
borne illnesses.
NEW TECHNIQUE
TURNS OBJECTS INTO FM
Everyday objects such as posters and t-
shirts can be turned into radio stations. The
objects can be embedded with transmitters that
piggyback ambient FM signals to send data to
nearby smartphones and radios. The technique
makes used of backscattering which is the
reflection of waves particles or signals back in
the direction they came from. It has an
amazingly low level of power consumption and
uses a low-power redactor to encode specific audio
or data.
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