The draft Bill is the bedrock of the revolution which will help India supply clean and affordable electricity
During this Budget Session, the Parliament is expected to consider the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, that has proposed far-reaching changes, including measures for further “de-licencing” the power distribution business. Under this provision, a consumer can change his/her choice of supplier and purchase electricity based on preference, tariff, clean energy the supplier is using or simply buy it from neighbours. This would be just like any mobile phone user switching or selecting the operator. The only difference is that the consumer will be using the same electricity wire, poles and transformer. This move is expected to improve efficiency and foster competition in the power sector. But more significantly, it will allow localised energy trading and hasten the adoption of renewable energy. Till now, India’s green energy sector was riding on large solar installations, but it will soon reach a saturation point due to land scarcity and grid adaptability constraints. The report of the Expert Group on Energy pegged renewable capacity of 175 gigawatt (GW) by 2022, with a break-up of 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind and 15 GW from other sources. Out of the 100 GW of solar power, 40 GW is to be generated from rooftop panels, which at present seems unrealistic but should have been the core of the renewable development plan.
The Standing Committee on Energy (2019-20), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, pointed out that there should have been an installed rooftop solar capacity of 16,000 MW by 2018-19, but as of October 15, 2019, the installed capacity was only 1,826 MW. This means that only 11.50 per cent of the target has been achieved so far. As of September 2020, the cumulative installation for large solar panels stands at 32 GW or 50 per cent of the target. Whereas rooftop solar panels only achieved eight per cent of the set target. Rooftop solar installation does not require dedicated land and can be installed in built-up areas, whereas, traditional solar plans require dedicated land. India has around 187 million residential units that have the potential to ramp up the installed capacity up to 90 GW. Adding commercial and other structure can even double the capacity.
While India is lagging, Australia is leading in solar rooftop installation where residential photovoltaic (PV) accounts for 61 per cent of installed PV capacity. There are over two million small-scale installations around the country with a capacity of eight GW. According to the University of New South Wales and APVI (Australian PV Institute), 21.6 per cent of all houses (excluding apartments) in Australia now have a PV system installed. Allowing peer-to-peer trading of electricity can open up infinite revenue models for a solar PV (with or without storage) investment. This has potential to improve income for peri-urban prosumers (consumer plus producer) who can now sell their electricity at a much higher price. Today, India is at the forefront of power sector reforms and is bringing changes through domestic and international initiatives. The ‘Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY)’ had helped in reducing the collective loss of utilities from about 24 per cent to 18 per cent of revenue. Setting up the International Solar Alliance (ISA) has brought countries together for reducing their carbon footprint by enhancing solar power production. To secure such transactions, the block-chain method should be experimented with extensively. This process will not only encourage faster rooftop adoption but will also create an opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs to capture the global market. In short, the proposed Bill is the bedrock of the green electricity revolution which will help India fulfil its objective of supplying clean and affordable electricity to all.
(The writer is Fellow, India Development Foundation. The views expressed are personal.)
Privacy and free speech as a right have to be persevered for. We cannot leave it for the State and the platform to serve it to us
The internet, which touches almost all aspects of our lives, is the enabler of not just entertainment, education and business but also of our fundamental right to free speech and right to life. The US Supreme Court described social media as the “modern public square” owing to its importance for exercising the right to freedom of speech and expression. Every technology, be it a phone or a car, has the potential of being misused and the internet is no exception. It is ripe with challenges around online radicalisation, proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), drug trade on the dark web, cyber attacks, digital frauds, online harassment, trolling, gaslighting, doxing and do on. We have the law in place, the challenge here is its uniform application.
The law that stood the test of time: The internet, as we know it, is considered to be a creation of Section 230 of the American Communications Decency Act which envisages the concept of a “safe harbour.” The principle of safe harbour entails that a platform, say Flipkart or Twitter, is not liable for the content posted by a third party, unless they have actual knowledge of the illegality of the post.
The Indian Supreme Court in the case of Shreya Singhal vs Union of India case (2014) reaffirmed this approach to ensure that the platforms do not censor the voice of the people. The apex court ruled that the platforms are only liable if they have “actual knowledge” of the illegality and they can only receive this through legal warrants from the State (the judicial or executive wing). This way, the platform would not censor speech of the people for fear of legal sanction.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea: As society realised the network effect of social media platforms, its use for building “social capital” and earning “political mileage” became the next big thing. Along with exchanging greetings, soon it became a platform for sharing news and even fake news, disinformation and hate speeches. The State, which has a legitimate interest in ensuring a safe online space, asked the platform to censor such speech. The regime in America has attempted to turn tables and asked the platforms to “earn” safe harbour immunity by curtailing CSAM. Similarly in India, the Draft Information Technology Guidelines, 2018 (not yet enforced, still in draft stage), went ahead and asked the platforms to proactively monitor and censor illegal speech if they wish to continue enjoying the safe harbour. This goes against the very idea of “actual knowledge” where platforms were mandated to act on receiving “actual knowledge.” If proactive monitoring is permitted, the platforms will basically be interpreting if a particular speech falls under the restrictions envisaged in Article 19(2) of the Indian Constitution, rendering the platforms the “arbiter of truth and justice.” This is exactly what the apex court in the Shreya Singhal case attempted to obviate, because reasonably restricting free speech is the sole domain of the State and not private players.
Now on one hand, the platforms are being mandated to curtail illegal speech or else lose safe harbour protection and on the other hand, if the platform moderates the content, then this leads to another set of challenges like “viewpoint discrimination.” The situation is aggravated as due to the fear of losing protection, the platforms are likely to overcompensate and restrict any speech in the grey area to be on the safe side, which would have a “chilling effect” on the free speech of the users. So in such circumstances how should the platform react and how can users bring about a meaningful change in the status quo?
The way forward: Ensuring online safety is a constant negotiation between the platform, the State and the user. How this negotiation proceeds is dependent on the values and the belief systems of society, the negotiating power of the platform and the interest demonstrated by the users. For instance, the users along with the civil society flagged the challenges in WhatsApp’s latest Privacy Policy Update, forcing WhatsApp to delay its enforcement and come back after attaining the confidence of the users. But it is not always for the user to negotiate as a collective, it is crucial that the State represents those interests. For instance, a data regulator who could review the data collection policies of all apps functioning in India and ensure that user security and privacy is maintained at all times. The platform, too, needs to adopt international best practices to tackle modern challenges pertaining to online safety and ensure an inclusive internet ecosystem. It is the marginalised communities that face the brunt of content moderation or who face abuse in the digital space. Be it a poor Dalit woman, who carries the triple burden, being trolled or just a conscientious dissenter whose speech is curated as defamatory. These challenges are aggravated when there is not enough representation from marginalised communities in the content moderation teams of the platforms. What then is the solution?
Soft law on platform regulation: The platforms need to agree and adhere to higher norms of transparency, accountability and internationally recognised human rights to build user trust. The Manila Principles on Intermediary Liability envisage six broad principles which build upon the ideas of “safe harbour” and “due process”, “transparency” and “accountability” in the process of platform regulation. Similarly, the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation provide three broad guiding principles, i.e., “Number”, “Notice” and “Appeal.” This entails that the platform must declare the number of posts that it moderated, it must give notice to the users before flagging their content along with an opportunity to appeal against the decision of the platform.
The need of the hour is to operationalise and uniformly apply these principles, irrespective of the stature of the user. The rules for platform regulation should be equal for all. Moderators from different classes and communities should be hired to ensure an inclusive ecosystem. It is crucial that all platforms come up with detailed numbers or “transparency reports” which highlight the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the posts moderated. Such datasets would help researchers understand the possible biases that crept in and remove them. But the law can only do so much unless the users participate in this process.
Community participation: While joining any platform we enter into a contract with it, wherein we agree to adhere by the rules for using their service. A crucial limb of this contract are the community guidelines that we have to follow. It is imperative, now more than ever, that we as users engage with the platform. Privacy and free speech as a right have to be persevered for. We cannot leave it for the State and the platform to serve it to us. If we as users want those rights then we need to engage in the policy-making process. The community guidelines governing the content moderation policies of the platform must be drafted keeping in mind the peculiar sensitivities of the user base. It is equally important for the users to flag content which violates the community guidelines and also give consistent feedback to the platform if there are changes required in the norms. The space of technology is ever-evolving and new challenges will emerge every few years. There is no silver bullet which can resolve challenges. It is constant negotiation among the users, the platform and the State that will lead towards a more stable and progressive internet ecosystem.
Rizvi is founder and Tiwari is programme manager, The Dialogue. The views expressed are personal.
Some Englishmen say that the pitch for the second Test was spinner-friendly. This reeks of entitlement
What is a competitive cricket pitch? That might appear like a rhetorical question, but there is a simple answer. It is one which encourages either a result or an exciting draw, but the result should not be so lopsided that it comes within two-three days. So would the three-and-a-half days that the second Test match between India and England lasted at the Chepauk in Chennai be considered a competitive match? Yes, it should. Former English captain Michael Vaughan however did make his feelings about the pitch known on Twitter and he was rightly pilloried for it, even by some of his former teammates. As Ravichandran Ashwin displayed with his free-flowing skills with the willow, players could master the conditions even though England’s spinners Moeen Ali and Jack Leash were not half as effective as Ashwin and debutant Axar Patel in bowling at the Indian batsmen. Or, were they? Frankly, other than a fabulous display by Mumbai star Rohit Sharma in the first innings and Ashwin himself in the second, the match might have been much, much closer. Little wonder then that many of the replies to Vaughan were that the conditions were the same for both the sides.
However, there is a level of entitlement that some foreign teams feel when they come to play in India, an entitlement that Indian teams are not allowed to have when they travel abroad and have to face green-top surfaces that help the home team’s pacers and negate India’s spinners. The blade should cut both ways; a home team should be allowed to take advantage of their local knowledge and conditions when preparing a pitch. However, the surface, as we have said above, must be competitive so that just in case someone from the visiting team plays a blinder, like several Indian players did in Australia, the results do not have to be fait accompli. There have been atrocious pitches prepared in the past, both in India and elsewhere, pitches that have done a disservice to the game of cricket by being so one-sided that one team had no chance but the Chennai pitch, despite the protestations of some Englishmen, was not one of them. India won the game fair and square, thanks to excellent play by some of their team members, setting up the next two games at the new Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad very well indeed.
Politicians want liquor and money donated to farmers, lowering the dignity of their cause
If the protracted farmers’ stir — in which scores have died while braving the bitter winter and lack of basic amenities at the protest sites — has made one thing clear, it is that our politicians do not care about anything beyond their own position and vote bank. What else can one construe from the two very shameful statements that have been made by the netas of two national parties in the span of a week? On February 14, Haryana Congress leader Vidya Devi kicked off a controversy when she told party workers to donate money and liquor to “rejuvenate the farmers’ protest”. Devi told a district executive committee meeting in Jind: “One should donate money, vegetables, ghee and liquor to further the farmers’ protests.” She went on to do further damage, both to the cause of the beleaguered farmers and to her party, by announcing a march in Jind in support of the growers, saying it would give the Congress a direction and new lease of life in the State. “We lost our existence after losing the elections. The andolan (protest) was revived as the farmers have a strong will. Now, we have to run it,” she said. Obviously, the farmers, who have given their all till now to the protest that entered the 83rd day and have wisely tried their best to keep all political parties at bay, are enraged and mortified at the leader’s statement, with Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait wondering, “What is the use of liquor here? I don’t know why she’s making such comments. Such people don’t have anything to do with our movement. They can distribute whatever they want, at their movement.”
While the red-faced Congress quickly distanced itself from Devi’s remarks, the BJP has been equally quick to condemn the party for trying to exploit the farmers’ protests for political gains. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted: “Is this what it has come down to? A damning video that exposes what the farmers’ protests actually mean for the Congress party. Utterly shameful.” But the BJP would be well advised to do a bit of introspection before it tries to take the moral high ground. After all, the party has done everything it could to discredit the movement. Right from saying that it was the handiwork of Khalistanis, Pakistanis, vested interests and other political parties out to get the ruling party, the BJP has done it all. It has also shown an absolutely callous attitude towards the deaths of farmers during the protest, with the Government admitting in Parliament that it has no data on these deaths with Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal adding insult to injury: “Wouldn’t they have died if they were at home? Out of one-two lakh people, don’t 200 people die in six months?” Such statements only expose the callousness of our political masters, and that they really don’t care about the woes of the common man. Thankfully, the annadata of the country is made of sterner stuff. One only wishes that, for once, the netas would stop thinking about their vested interests.
The lack of traction with farmers, unlike with traders, has been a bane for the BJP. It has thereby failed to build a counterweight to the agitation
The Twitter handle of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha is a good indicator of the saffron party’s clout among farmers, or the lack of it. This might explain why the world’s largest and India’s ruling party is unable to sink its teeth into the agrarian community to build a counter-narrative to the farmers’ agitation. Some other parties like the CPI enjoy better traction, though electorally insignificant, with farmers. Rajkumar Chahar, the head of the Kisan Morcha, is also a Lok Sabha MP from Fatehpur Sikri constituency. Thus he has to act like any other MP, prioritising his political career over organisational work among farmers. In an interview with a Hindi daily, he had said in November that the growers were unwilling to meet any political leader. But this hardly seems to be the case as several political leaders have reached out to the protesting farmers. The BJP itself alleges that the farmers’ agitation is highly “politicised”. None has, to be honest, prevented the ruling party from “politicalising” a support that can act as a counterweight to the agitation.
The critics of the farmers’ protest have “securitised” the counter-narrative on social media. They perceive the cultivators’ movement solely through the prism of national security. The farmers’ movement is generally projected as a Khalistani campaign. Interestingly, Julio Reberio, IPS (Retd), the former DG of Punjab Police who adopted a bullet-for-bullet policy against Khalistani terrorists in 1980s and survived two assassination attempts, scoffs at such a suggestion. Anyone who recalls the dark days of Khalistani terrorism in the 1980s knows that it was aimed at severing Punjab from India. It manifested by the turn of 1980s as sanguineous attacks on Hindus to scare them away from the State. The Khalistanis were prepared for a similar reprisal against Sikhs across the rest of India. This way they would have achieved a forcible exchange of population, leading to the creation of a monolith Sikh state. By creating a sovereign Khalistan, they would have achieved a solitary prison for the Sikhs measuring 50,362 sq km and located between India and Pakistan. With no riverheads, no access to the sea and poorly developed industry, it would have been dependent on grain trade with India and Pakistan. India had the territorial depth to step up her food grain production gradually. An independent Punjab, however, would have been buried under mounds of grains had it lost a ready procurer in the form of New Delhi.
Genuine Khalistanis would have deployed their manpower to wrest Punjab through insurgency rather than sending unarmed men, women and children to sit on dharna on Delhi’s border. They would rather depend upon the support of 62 per cent population of Punjab who are Sikhs than appealing to the Union Government to repeal the three farm laws. How does the existence or repeal of farm laws help in achieving Khalistan? However, Khalistanis exist. They would be out of business if they don’t support the farmers’ agitation, which has become a mass movement in Punjab.
The merits (or demerits) of the farm laws apart, there is something mysterious about their origin. When exactly did the Government discover this golden route to farmers’ prosperity? Nothing remotely similar was promised in the BJP’s election manifestoes of 2014 and 2019. In 2019, one whole page was devoted to ‘Doubling Farmers’ Income’ (P13), out of which the Government has already fulfilled several promises. However, one would look in vain, hoping to find anything resembling the farm laws even in cryptic language there. The officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare did not seem to have any clue about these laws in February 2020 when they appeared before the Standing Committee on Agriculture in connection with the demand for grants (2020-21). They gave a different road map for doubling farmers’ income while being quizzed by the Standing Committee. Yet, by June 5, 2020, the farm laws had been promulgated through the ordinance route.
While the Government is referring to the recommendations of the Shankarlal Guru Committee (2000) and the MS Swaminathan Committee (2004-06) constituted by the previous Governments, it is mysteriously silent on the 14-volume report of the Committee for Doubling Farmers’ Income (2017-2018) chaired by Ashok Dalwai which this very Government had constituted. There was no such proposal in the DFI Committee recommendations to base the farm laws upon.
The rot in agriculture, despite the growth in production, goes deep. What was expected of the Government was a new agricultural policy, brought in after consultations with all stakeholders. This could have linked certain sustainable development goals in agriculture with the market. Demonising the APMC-run markets and the middlemen on the one hand, and on the other registering the same entities on the e-NAM (National Agricultural Market) portal and app in record numbers is paradoxical.
The ruling party should have invested efforts to build up a counterweight to the agitation. This could have been done by mobilising the silent majority of farmers peacefully outside the agitation belt. The party, however, seems to lack genuine base among farmers in sharp contrast with traders. For it, winning elections in five States is a priority.
(The writer is an author and independent researcher based in New Delhi. The views expressed are personal.)
New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANSlife) Manasa Varanasi, a 23-year old Computer Science Engineer who has been crowned Miss India World 2020, says she was never really interested in modeling. Hyderabad-based Manasa was working as a Financial Information Exchange (FIX) analyst with a financial software firm; she says modeling was a pastime for her.
In a candid conversation with IANSlife, Manasa shares details of her journey, how she prepared for the contest, her future plans, besides revealing her beauty and fitness regime.
Excerpts:
Q: How did you get into modeling?
A: I was a pretty studious girl, and never really interested in modelling, but I won a contest for Freshers in my college and that ignited a spark. Everything built slowly from there, with a lot of encouragement from friends. The reality is that modelling has been a pastime for me, as I was working full time as a software engineer, but it was a creative outlet and was born of a will to expand my horizons.
Q: Did you have to convince your family to get into this field?
A: My family is very academically oriented and traditional so they really did not feel this was a path to aspire to. However, because I held a full time job, their deepest concerns were allayed and today, they are very proud of what I have achieved.
Q: How has your journey being till you won the title?
A: More than anything, it has been one of growth. I've learned to look at my weaknesses, learn skills -- from walking in heels to styling myself, made friends from all over the country. Most of all, I've learned to trust the energy of the moment, accept change and embrace what I am.
Q: How does it feel to be titled as Miss India World?
A: I feel elated, but it is based on a sense of achievement that comes from having worked very hard and having had the courage to fail. And today, I am filled with a sense of hope and a determination to use this opportunity wisely.
Q: How did you prepare for the contest?
A: I focused equally on the physical aspects of the contest -- rampwalk, fitness, styling and the mental aspects -- being self aware and socially informed. But it is just as important to be emotionally prepared -- a contest like Miss India is not for the faint of heart!
Q: How are you preparing yourself for Miss World pageant?
A: A big focus will be my 'Beauty with a Puropse' project, which is at the heart of Miss World. I will have to balance that with continued work on my ramp walk, talent and interview. And of course, lots of time will undoubtedly be spent on getting the right wardrobe and styling in place.
Q: How confident were you winning the title?
A: In a way, I both expected to win and lose the Miss India title. I was hopeful and confident in my abilities and preparation, but winning is out of one's hands -- destiny, luck, the competition -- they all have a say. The difficult thing about a contest such as this is that everything can change in an instant -- and it only takes one bad answer or one judge to change the outcome. So, while I am very proud of my achievement today, I am also humbled and grateful that the stars aligned for me.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: What matters to me at the end of everything is that I live a life with integrity and without regret. My inspirations are people who continue to reinvent and redefine themselves and I hope I will continue to grow as a person my whole life. Who knows what the future can bring? I came to Miss India to create a new world of opportunity for myself and I am excited to see where it can take me.
Q: Please share your beauty regime.
A: I'm definitely a bit of a minimalist when it comes to makeup, but the competition has taught me to be more experimental, and to focus on creating harmony between my makeup, hair, clothes and most of all, carrying it all off with confidence.
Q: What is your beauty secret?
A: Nutritious food, natural products, and a balanced mind.
Q: What fitness regime?
A: I swear by yoga, it helps my mind as much as it helps my body.
As art is a medium that relies on communication to deliver a message, indulging in it can facilitate collaboration to solve challenges in the workplace
Albert Einstein famously said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” This holds true even today, given the highly dynamic business environment. As markets, competition and technology have evolved, there has been a heightened need for a transition from the traditional managerial mode of running a business to a leadership-driven role. Leaders are seen as trendsetters and influencers with their bold moves, inspired visions, enthusiasm, imagination and creativity. These traits to a large extent can be credited to art where, like an artist, business leaders leverage their unique personalities, abilities and skills to devise creative solutions to problems.
As one of the finest ways of experiencing, decoding and characterising life’s experiences, art and leadership have for long intermingled for persistence and growth. Since time immemorial, art has powered human thinking by providing inventive and stimulating ideas in the business world. Across industries, the finest business leaders are known to be practical dreamers with a persuasive point of view and clearly defined ideas and purposes. These qualities can also be attributed to successful artists. The other common threads that bind art and leadership are those of intricacy, diversity and abstractness, which can be used as examples, motivation and inspiration to drive solutions within the business realm.
Art, business and creativity: Within the corporate world it is no secret that businesses have typically been dominated by the analytical, logical, and organised left side of the brain. Up until now, many leaders haven’t fully explored their free-spirited right side of the brain that focuses on intuition, imagination and creativity. Through art, which uses both sides of the brain, leaders are now able to think in an abstract manner and come up with creative solutions.
Indulging in art as a means of self-expression can go a long way in sparking creative energies, providing inspiration and developing a leader’s personality to drive business results. While logical planning and its application will only be able to drive business to a certain point, keeping pace with an evolving business requires imagination and creativity which are the strengths of a good artist and leader.
Benefits of art for business leaders: Artists are known to be pioneers of invention and experimental by nature, making them innate leaders. Innovation in particular is based on thought and imagination, which when fused together have the potential to produce remarkable results and concepts. That said, innovation is not usually an easily exposed concept, rather, it is one which comes to the limelight in tandem with creativity. Art has the ability to refresh these aesthetic concepts in a person’s mind and push a leader to innovate and drive new ideas and possibilities as solutions to business challenges. Through their works, artists earn and enjoy a reputation for being risk-takers, known for using unorthodox techniques and styles. They are also known for being open to different perspectives in their works, making them natural leaders. These qualities, when incorporated in the corporate world will allow leaders to embrace new ideas and take risks. Across organisations, it is common for them to tend to adopt a conservative approach as they grow. Art has the power to help leaders eliminate the fear of failure or being judged and encourages them to take creative risks and rise with the scale of a business.
Artists are natural observers and pay close attention to detail. They have a knack for understanding concepts beyond a superficial level and making connections that others don’t. Business leaders who include art in their lives, can incorporate the same attributes in their professional dealings as well. Such traits will go a long way in enabling them to observe even the minutest of details and read between the lines, to deliver optimum results within their areas of operations.
Being able to relay a new narrative through their work is a skill that artists have mastered over time and is a vital quality among leaders. Artists know that branding is how you are perceived and every leader should work to develop this tool. No matter how good a product or service might be, it is the experience that counts. Leaders have the power to shape this experience by pushing a strong narrative and building a story around the product. Just as artists are able to tell compelling stories through their works, similarly, a good leader is able to develop the art of storytelling to entice audiences and ultimately grow the business.
One of the biggest challenges any business leader faces is that of infusing passion, congregating energies and stimulating change among his teams to work towards achieving their common goals. The role of art here is to bond and engage with them and assist them to connect with their passions.
As art is a medium that relies on communication to deliver a message, indulging in it can be a great form of expression and it can facilitate collaboration to solve challenges in the workplace.
As Pablo Picasso once said, “Inspiration exists, it has to find you working.” These words, when engraved in the mind and heart of a leader, can go a long way in creating a corporate culture driven by passion and the desire to do better at all times.
The writer is an artist, educator, art critic and co-founder of You Lead India Foundation. The views expressed are personal.
Hopefully with fresh availability of funds and easing off of the contagion, projects will be completed soon
The Union Budget seems to have opened the floodgates of funds for the Railways which will enable it to complete 57 pending projects. Towards this end, the highest-ever capital expenditure plan of Rs 2,15,058 crore, comprising of Rs 1,07,100 crore as budgetary support and the remaining from internal and extra budgetary resources, was announced by the Finance Ministry. Out of this, Rs 40,932 crore has been allocated for new lines, a jump of over 56 per cent over last year; Rs 5,263 crore is for traffic facilities, which is a 156 per cent jump over last year; Rs 26,116 crore is for doubling and Rs 7,122 crore is earmarked for new Road Over Bridge and Road Under Bridges (ROBs/RUBs). ROBs/RUBs will see many level crossings, that are a source of avoidable accidents, being eliminated. Not only will this improve the Railways’ safety record, they are vital for the convenience of the public and necessary in cities and other built-up areas where railway lines run through.
This Budget will also ensure that the infrastructure of the Railways is “future ready” i.e fully geared up to accept and efficiently run private sector trains — if and when they become a reality — in addition to its own network of over 22,000 passenger and freight trains. All these 57 projects, at various stages of execution, are expected to be commissioned over the next 26 months, starting with the new, 32-km-long Hansdiha-Godda line, the 29-km-long Omalur-Mettur Dam patch doubling and the two-km-long Netravati-Mangalore section, all of which are to be commissioned this month.
Among the major gauge conversion projects is the 170-km-long Ahmedabad-Botad one, which will be converted from narrow gauge to broad. Initially estimated to cost Rs 567 crore, it has been in the pipeline for a long time and is expected to be completed in March this year. Similarly, the 104-km-long Dhasa-Jetalsar gauge conversion is expected to be completed by May. The much-delayed 169-km-long Mansi-Saharsa gauge conversion, completed by March next year will bring these neglected areas finally into the mainstream by connecting them to the vast all-India broad gauge system.
While 306 km of the New Rewari-New Madar section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor was inaugurated by the Prime Minister last month, the 127-km-long New Rewari-Dadri and 308- km-long Palanpur-Makarpura sections are proposed to be commissioned by March next year, bringing export-import cargo between the northern hinterland and the ports on the west coast, that much closer.
Electrification of the rail network has been Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s main directive to the top brass and towards that avowed objective another significant step will be taken through completion of the Ayodhya-Varanasi, Palanpur-Kandla Port-Mundra Port-Bhuj and Hospet-Hubli-Vasco electrification projects. All will be commissioned by March next year.
As usual, land acquisition has been one of the main causes for delay in projects, added to which there has been the general slowdown in all construction and field work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully with fresh availability of funds and a easing off of the contagion, stalled projects will be completed as scheduled, making Indian Railways “future ready” to run the additional private trains safely and punctually.
(The writer is former member, Railway Board. The views expressed are personal.)
When bare necessities are difficult to afford for many, buying insurance can’t be expected to be part of the people’s expense planning. The Govt must pay the bulk of the premium
The three announcements regarding insurance in the Union Budget have majorly contributed to the post-Budget share market rally. First is the Government’s plan to allow up to 74 per cent foreign equity in insurance companies against the existing 49 per cent. Second is privatisation of one public sector general insurance company and the third pertains to the planned Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Insurance is risk management involving a group of individuals who give away a part of their earnings against a guaranteed return of a lump sum financial support in case of any personal crisis. The success of such a scheme depends on how many in the group are at high risk of actually facing the crisis. The bigger the group is, the more dispersed the risk is and more successful the scheme.
During 2018-19, the Indian insurance industry covered 120.75 crore lives under personal accident insurance. Of it, 94.71 crore were covered under Government-sponsored schemes like the ‘Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’, ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana’ and the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC’s) travel insurance plan. In addition, 2.07 crore health insurance policies were issued covering 47.20 crore individuals with 75 per cent of them covered under Government-sponsored schemes. In 2017, a whopping 32.8 crore life insurance policies were in force so almost 75 per cent of the Indian population has life insurance cover.
The performance and potential of the insurance sector is assessed using twin indicators of ‘Insurance Penetration’ that is a percentage of the insurance premium to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and ‘Insurance Density’ that is defined as the ratio of insurance premium to population. In India, Insurance Penetration has steadily increased to 3.76 per cent in 2019 from 2.71 per cent in 2001. In contrast, Insurance Penetration in Malaysia, Thailand and China was 4.72, 4.99 and 4.30 per cent, respectively in 2019. As of 2019, life insurance penetration in India was 2.82 per cent, while non-life insurance penetration was only 0.94 per cent whereas globally insurance penetration was 3.35 per cent for life and 3.88 per cent for the non-life segment.
India is ranked 10th in life insurance and 15th in non-life insurance among the 88 countries for which data was compiled by Swiss Re. However, India’s share in the global insurance market was only 1.92 per cent during 2018. Global direct premiums surpassed the $5 trillion mark for the first time ever in 2018, reaching $5,193 billion (which is 6.1 per cent of the global GDP). Life insurance penetration in the country is 3.6 per cent of the GDP, way below the global average of 7.13 per cent and, in the case of general insurance, it is even worse at 0.94 per cent of the GDP, as against the world average of 2.88 per cent. This is not surprising because the average per capita income is low and as many as 82 crore people hold ration cards for getting subsidised food grain. Many more have been claimed to be added to this list. Obviously, when bare necessities are difficult to afford for a huge section of the population, buying insurance can’t be expected to be part of the people’s expense planning in India. Of course, if the Government pays bulk of the premium, this segment of the population can be covered. This is indeed being done through schemes like the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ and ‘Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana.’
At the end of March 2019, there were 70 insurance firms including 24 life insurers, 27 general insurers, seven standalone health insurers and 12 re-insurers including foreign reinsurers branches and Lloyds India, eight in public and 62 in private sector. Investments made by the insurance industry stood at Rs 38,47,474 crore of which the share of life insurers was 91.83 per cent and the share of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) was 76.40 per cent. As financial literacy spreads and digital technology reduces the on-boarding cost of new customers of insurance products, it should be possible to spread the insurance network far and wide. Despite the dominance of the public sector, insurance penetration is low and, therefore, there is a need to bring more competition, more efficiency and more technology.
Insurance is a capital-intensive business and requires long-term investment from promoters to ensure compliance with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s solvency requirements (a prescribed asset-liability test). Indian insurers need additional capital and technical know-how from foreign partners to scale up and offer more sophisticated and innovative products. That is the justification for allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian insurance companies. The FDI cap on insurance companies was raised from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in March 2016. In 2015, the Government permitted Indian insurance firms to have up to 49 per cent foreign investment provided they remained “Indian-owned and controlled” and even in the latest Budget proposal, foreign ownership and control of Indian insurers will be permitted with some safeguards. For instance, a majority of the Board of directors and key management persons of the insurance company must comprise of Indian residents and 50 per cent of the Board must comprise of independent directors. Further, to ensure that sufficient capital is retained in the books, foreign-owned insurers will be required to hold a specified percentage of the profits as “general reserves.”
As on March 31, 2019, the total FDI was Rs 13,810 crore, that was Rs 8,328 crore short of the permissible FDI limit. Private sector insurers who attracted this FDI have mobilised insurance savings and invested more than Rs 9 lakh crore with Central and State Governments and Indian companies. They have not been allowed to take this money out of India; a major concern the opponents of FDI in insurance have always had.
Several insurers have been restricted from expanding as the 49 per cent foreign investment cap prevented foreign shareholder from infusing capital due to the inability of cash-strapped Indian Joint Ventures (JV) partners to bring additional capital. The Reserve Bank of India is also seeking to cap banks’ investment in insurance companies to 30 per cent to isolate them from risks emanating from non-core businesses. That also restricts the availability of capital for insurance firms. As far as the IPO of LIC is concerned, it has little to do with insurance penetration and lack of capital among private insurers.
The LIC has an excellent record of service with claim its settlement ratio being 97.79 per cent. On an equity of Rs 100 crore, the LIC earned a profit of Rs 2688 crore and paid dividends of Rs 2661 crore in 2018-19. It had outstanding investments of Rs 27,60,658 crore against which of course are the liabilities to policyholders. So policyholders’ funds versus shareholders’ funds are intricately and uncertainly mixed up. It is a very precious company whose market value once listed can at present be only a matter of guesstimate. Some commentators have put the value in the range of over Rs 10 lakh crore. The Government has appointed actuarial firm Milliman Advisors for ascertaining the embedded value of the LIC. The Government’s shareholding is likely to go down from 100 per cent to 90 per cent and that can give about Rs 1,00,000 crore by a conservative estimate, a handsome premium, and also a chance to retail investors to participate in LIC’s growth story. It is a win-win for the Government and the capital market.
The Government is likely to reserve 10 per cent shares in the IPO for LIC policyholders. It would be desirable to reserve a large quota for policyholders, retail investors and individual taxpayers. It will also boost LIC’s business and valuation as more policies are bought to qualify for IPO participation.
The writer is former Special Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The views expressed are personal.
Biden talks tough to Myanmar’s military regime and China, hinting the US is firmly back in the saddle
Within a few days of taking office, US President Joe Biden is trying to set things right with the world, if any of his actions in the last few days is anything to go by. Biden has issued an executive order targeting Myanmar’s military regime with sanctions following a coup that ousted the democratically-elected Government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. “I again call on the Burmese military to immediately release democratic political leaders and activists including Aung San Suu Kyi and also Win Myint, the President,” Biden said. His order will keep the Generals from accessing $1 billion in assets held in the US and specific targets of the sanctions will be identified later this week. Biden made it clear that the sanctions are aimed at military leaders who directed the coup, their business interests as well as close family members and that the US would impose additional measures along with its global allies if it came to that. Thankfully, the sanctions for now will not affect the aid for healthcare programmes and civil society groups, which will spare increased hardship to the beleaguered citizens.
Similarly, Biden made it clear to China and the world that the US was firmly back in the seat as the global leader, a position that it had by and large relinquished during the Donald Trump regime which, in turn, had Beijing aspiring for the slot. Biden made it clear to President Xi Jinping that Big Brother would henceforth take a tough line on human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, coercion of Taiwan and assertive actions in the region. Though Xi put up resistance by telling Biden that China’s policies were related to its sovereignty and that confrontation between the two powers would be “a disaster”, he did call for the two sides to re-establish the mechanism to avoid misjudgments. This was a sane line for Beijing to take because the world, which is reeling under the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, can hardly afford disruption of peace at a time when all nations need to be working together for the good of humankind. Plus, with neighbouring India taking on the mantle of the facilitator of global good in the midst of the contagion, China, which has been blamed for unleashing the virus upon the world, can hardly be seen as being disruptionist. However, the fact remains that the US will always put its own interests first, and no one should ever forget that.
In the ongoing spat between Twitter and the Indian Government, can an alternative emerge?
As Twitter and its management, both global and local, confront the Indian Government, the American social network has taken a bizarre stand. It refuses to comply with the order in toto, arguing that it is against the law of the land, though it partially acceded to it. Twitter, in a blog post, said it has not blocked accounts consisting of “news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians” as doing so “would violate their fundamental right to free expression”. However, it reportedly blocked Rajya Sabha MP and Samajwadi Party leader Chaudhary Sukhram Singh Yadav’s account, in what is among the most high-profile blockings by the platform in the country so far. The microblogging site earlier partially complied with the Government’s order to curb the spread of alleged misinformation and inflammatory content around the farmers’ protest. The orders could well be illegal, but that is for the courts rather than the Twitter management to decide. Standing up to the Government in a country that is vital for your success is something that should be done with extreme trepidation, but Twitter executives apparently believe that they are fighting the good fight. It is just that they could and should have done it the proper way by moving the court but, well, lawyers are a lot more expensive than blog posts. Even Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that global social media platforms, including Twitter, were “welcome to work, earn money in India but they should follow the law and the Constitution”.
And this set off a strange phenomenon, with several Ministries and Government-linked personalities migrating to ‘Koo’, a new platform, as talk, ironically on Twitter itself, of a potential ban or some penal action against its management does the rounds. The world is full of technology companies that tried to replicate the success of another; after all, copycat innovation is usually a surefire bet. Well, at least it used to be. Nowadays, a phenomenon known as the “network effect” kicks in, that is a large number of users on a platform attracts even more users. For example, even after the recent privacy brouhaha surrounding WhatsApp, which made several people install messaging apps Signal and Telegram, WhatsApp’s usage did not really take a hit. Convincing an entire user base to shift bag and baggage onto another platform is nigh impossible. Even after the ban on TikTok, no single app has yet been able to replace it. And there is the example of Mastodon, another platform that experienced a popularity surge as Facebook and Twitter got occupied by Trump-supporting QAnon conspiracy theorists. Those of a particular political bent in India celebrated it and a newspaper magazine even put it on its cover. Today, Mastodon is just another attempt at an alternative. This is not to put Koo down, one indeed wishes it success. But even prominent users of the platform have been complaining of its back-end technology. Now, what happens to Twitter in India is a completely different story.
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