India will play Adelaide day-night Test with Kookaburra
This isn’t India’s first dance with a day-night Test but the first such match in strange away conditions. India has a lot of selection dilemmas ahead of the first Test in Australia that is being played at the Adelaide Oval. Ordinarily, this would have been written about in passing, just another Test series between India and Australia, the two pre-eminent cricket powers in the world, no matter what the English think. Yet, as we all know, this has been no ordinary year and the very fact that India is ending 2020 playing a Test match might have seemed improbable back in July or August. But the Indian Premier League and the first half of the Indian tour of Australia have passed without much of a Coronavirus scare and India surprised punters by even being competitive in the white-ball matches. But the Test in Adelaide is a first for India as it is our first away day-night match and even though India played a day-night match against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens, this one is being played with the strange (to Indian players) Kookaburra pink ball and will be an unique test of skill.
It could also be a preview of future India-Australia series, with the day-night fixtures being far more attractive to Indian television audiences who will be spared a five o’clock alarm, given that the first session starts at a surprisingly attractive 2.30 PM India time. The fact is that more day-night Tests in Australia will allow for more viewers in India, thanks to the vagaries of time zones and ergo, more television (and online) advertising revenue for the rights holders. This could work well with day-night Tests in India with England as well. Few other global sports have innovated as much as cricket with three recognised and popular formats, and even changes to those formats. Purists might argue that the constant tinkering devalues the sport, but it also brings in a whole new fan base not just in established markets but across the world. The Financial Times recently reported that a new IPL-style franchise cricket league is being created in the United States and, with the significant diaspora population in the US, not just Indians but also those from the Caribbean and England, cricket is possibly the most innovative of all major global sports. If this day-night Test fixture between the top two cricketing nations works, the sky might be the limit.
As the farmers mount pressure and remain intransigent, the Govt seeks more discussion. Will price guarantee work for it?
This is unlike any other civil protest in recent times and has outlasted them in terms of commitment to a cause, unity despite provocation or temptation and a determination to be heard. The farmers’ intransigence would seem egoistic in the face of liberalisation of the agricultural sector and reforms which are intended to set up an enabling architecture for increasing its GDP percentage. But the farmers fear that the gains of the new farm laws would not percolate down to them and have rightly expressed fears of their negotiating power losing out to the largescale corporatisation it involves. And the Government, by pushing the laws in haste, has lost out on the virtues of consensus that could have ensured acceptance of its policies and addressed the angst of farmers. And though it is considering a clause-by-clause discussion on the Acts now, the fact is the farmers’ protests have now escalated across the country: From demonstrations, sit-ins and road blockades to hunger strikes now. For its part, the Government is no longer relying only on Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar but, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah stepping in, even high-profile Ministers with heartland appeal like Rajnath Singh are playing the negotiator. Singh said the recent reforms had been undertaken with the best interests of “farmer brothers” in mind and that agriculture was one sector that had managed to avoid the lows of a pandemic-hit economy and had ensured the nation’s food security. But the reconciliatory moves so far have not yielded any results, with the farmers still firm on the repeal of the farm laws. They simply want a level playing field. Experts may argue that the protest is largely being spearheaded by agitationists from Punjab and Haryana, who have benefitted since the Green Revolution because of the Government’s guaranteed pickup of volumes and fixed rates, namely the Minimum Support Price (MSP), and are stuck on cash-rich prospects of wheat and rice. Of course, this assurance has meant an over-dependence on water-intensive crops like paddy and wheat, which is depleting aquifers and crop diversity. However, farmers argue that they would be incentivised to grow other crops provided the MSP was guaranteed for all and not selectively and new laws alone would not even out the imbalance. In the end, the Government has to give a price guarantee of sorts as the Minimum Support Price (MSP) has itself become unremunerative given rising input costs. Farmers are naturally wary of competitive prices in the open market that would lower their earnings. In such a scenario, the Government has to probably do some direct cash transfers to them, grading their capacities, as a transitional measure to a new system. The reason why farmers are not buying into its claim that MSP and Government mandis will co-exist is because price equalisation in an open market would mean that the parallel market would be weakened over time.
Of course, the small and marginal farmers, the lot of whom the Acts intend to improve, would still be dependent on some sort of mediatory intervention to deal with food majors. With most of them not literate enough about exercising their rights, dispute resolution could also end up being loaded against them. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, seeks to bring uniformity in contractual farming rules and State APMC Acts. So the farmer can now enter into a contract with a corporate entity at a mutually agreed price. The problem here is that the mechanism for price fixation is not codified and farmers fear that corporations could use their might to manipulate or browbeat them into accepting their terms. Finally, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, aims to remove cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes from a regulated list, which is being seen as a major threat to the food security of the poor. Besides, most farmers do not have or cannot afford the post-harvest warehousing and processing storage this involves. They would willy nilly have to depend on food corporations. A licence won’t be required to trade in farm produce and anyone with a PAN card can now buy directly from the farmers. Growers want they be registered too, considering they have a trusted bond with their existing commission agents, as their licence is proof enough of their credibility and delivery abilities. Governments like Punjab are obviously upset that access to another market would dry up their own revenue from their APMC mandis and are seeing this as an affront to federal controls. Farmers are not entirely without reason, battling as they are bad loans and non-payment of sugarcane dues in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. They do not want to be swamped. And while the Opposition is hoping to make good on a political capital that farmers are, the fact is they themselves are not throwing up any pragmatic alternatives. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had initially stayed away from the farmers’ stir, is now deciding to fast with them. Yet the Opposition disunity is the reason that it failed to block the Ordinance on farm reforms or muster enough numerical strength to outshout the ruling party in the Rajya Sabha, force a debate and discussion in the House or at least make sure that the legislation was scrutinised by parliamentary committees. Of course, farmers have not let parties take the upper hand and are in it for the long haul. For the Government, it’s impossible to go back unless it brings in another supportive law to convince farmers that they won’t be cheated in the end.
The Government’s Budget-making exercise in Covid times must handhold the domestic industry as well as look for resource mobilisation avenues
Closer to the Union Budget-making exercise, Finance Ministers are compelled to recall Kautilya’s “capacity to pay” principle from the Arthashastra that a tax collector should collect taxes “just as a bee collects honey from a flower, without disturbing its petals”. For fiscal 2021/22, this will be a daunting task as any FM would rather sting like the bee from any source that yielded supernatural gains while remaining benign towards the most afflicted sectors. The focus of this article is to put oneself into the Government’s shoes and suggest possible avenues for raising revenues while also offering relief, where necessary.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that for each month of containment, there is a need to factor in two per cent loss of annual GDP. The IMF advises that during periods of hardship, Governments must go slow in restoring public finances as raising taxes must be commensurate with resumption of economic activity.
As India entered the crisis with weak balance sheets in banks, shadow banks and corporates, their current state of recovery or indebtedness cannot be determined till the next fiscal year due to moratoriums and the ‘standstill clause’ in operation to avoid the NPA tag on Covid-hit companies that have gone in for restructuring loans. Should some sectors have gotten further singed in the last nine months, two risks get compounded: The systemic risks of increased NPAs; and the increased number of retail loans coming under pressure due to debt servicing limitations of borrowers whose income growth is uncertain.
Central avenues for taxation:
Ideally, how should countries tax after the pandemic?
As nations compete for investment and jobs, taxation is one of the competitive levers to attract FDI as well as to encourage domestic consumption and Capex expansion.
But most likely, new taxes on the “super profits” of digital internet companies will be the key avenue for raising revenue. We, therefore, must think of applying a higher corporate tax rate on large corporations in ‘oligopolised sectors’ with excess rates of return, just for a limited one-year period.
Second, though wealth tax was abolished in 2015-16, the scope for raising just one-time revenues through this avenue cannot be underestimated in the post-Covid times. However, this does not call for reverting permanently to the days of wealth tax and estate duty as that would amount to unfair and double taxation.
Indians who have made it to the world’s richest lists must be taxed progressively higher than a normal HNI. Super-HNIs, according to the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2019, have an average net worth of Rs 5,000 crore among the 953 richest Indians. Their combined net worth is a quarter of India’s GDP. Levying even a one-time, say a four per cent, WT on them can yield much-needed additional resources. Such provisions should be one-off in nature, applicable for just one fiscal year.
Other prospective avenues for raising revenue are:
Introduce Leave Travel & Stay Allowance (LTSA):
While high-frequency data points to a firm recovery in consumption, manufacturing, retail, housing and consumer durables, the losses in the contact-intensive services sectors of aviation, tourism and hospitality have suffered irrecoverable losses.
Every rupee spent on tourism has a threefold impact on the economy. Tourism creates maximum employment across the economic classes of labour. One way to boost tourism is to announce a relief package directly impacting the expenditure budget of the Government. The other is to announce benefits to the masses. The existing Leave Travel Allowance scheme is riddled with several strictures.
The Government may introduce LTSA as deductible income for FY22 and FY23 provided it is spent only in India, allow hotel and stay expenses and multiple vacations be allowed. The Government may recover the tax foregone through increased spending and GST recovery.
Education Fee Deduction:
The education fee deduction was set up many decades ago at Rs 200 per child. Today it will not cover the cost of even a textbook. This needs reinstatement to realistic levels. A deduction of Rs 25,000 for formal education from pre-primary to graduation level or its equivalent and Rs 50,000 for Post-Graduation/professional courses per child annually for a maximum of two children should be allowed. This will help achieve Sustainable Development Goals as set by the UN and adopted by India.
Special WFH Allowance:
People have had to redesign their homes for creating work space and have incurred expenses to that effect. A special allowance of Rs 1,00,000 must be allowed for FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22. The actual expense incurred to redesign, repair, purchase PCs, laptops, internet devices and so on should be allowed.
Special levy on fliers:
The Government may impose a special Covid levy of Rs 500 on the economy class and Rs 1,000 on business class on international travel. A special levy of Rs 100 may be imposed on domestic air travellers. By imposing a small amount, the travel is not rendered uneconomical. The Government may make a revenue of Rs 3,500 crore from seven crore international travellers and Rs 3,000 crore from 30 crore domestic travellers.
Creation of strategic holding companies for banks, PSUs and infrastructure:
The Government should transfer its holdings in all banks, PSUs and special institutions such as NABARD, NHAI, PFC and REC to a sector-specific holdco. This holdco should receive funding from the Government which can be leveraged and then given to operating companies as debt or equity. This will ease the Government’s burden of supporting companies through fiscal allocation.
The Government may contribute Viability Gap Funding (VGF) as equity in holdcos which, in turn, invests the same as equity in infrastructure projects. The repayment of debt of holdcos could be from dividend income and/or sale of investment. Holdco structure would allow timing of disinvestment instead of fire-sale. Besides, consolidation of land holdings of subsidiaries could help achieve affordable housing targets as well.
Also, nations will be in a wait-and-watch mode before recalibrating their domestic policies depending on whether the Joe Biden administration retains status quo on Donald Trump era’s taxation which lowered corporate rates to 25 per cent.
Future avenues for
State taxation:
The ratio of States’ debt to GDP is poised to rise to a decadal high of 36 per cent this fiscal, according to a CRISIL report. Given the massive tax shortfall due to higher spending on health and relief measures, States must look to enhance their own tax base through the avenues still within their purview, like agriculture and land by:
Affluent farmers’ net income above Rs 1 crore must come under the tax net by taking a three-year average of earnings (permitting them this benefit due to climate variations). In 1969, the KN Raj Committee had first initiated the suggestion to tax farm income. But it has never been acted upon as political considerations have outweighed economic considerations. There is no economic rationale for excluding such large earners out of the tax base. Since this will require a constitutional amendment with the support of States, let the entire proceeds of such collections devolve upon States as quid pro quo. This will also reduce the devolution commitment of the Union. The sense of inequitable treatment will be addressed that emanates from this sector getting the largesse of farm loan incentives without tax obligations. Taxing income of arhatiyas needs to be introduced given high income levels. As per the Panjabi University, Patiala, report of 2016, in Punjab alone around Rs 1,400 crore was outstanding as loan from arhatiyas at 12 per cent to 18 per cent interest.
Lowering of stamp duty, as Maharashtra and Gujarat have done, will increase construction activity and bring in more revenue through economic activity. Lowering stamp duty in conjunction with low interest rates is a big incentive for home buyers. The case for lowering stamp duty varies between 2 per cent to 7 per cent. This reduction will boost real estate transactions, encourage price transparency and encourage fuller declaration of capital gains.
Lastly, it is time to dispense with an aggressive, adversarial and target-oriented tax department for encouraging compliance and reducing litigation. The taxpayer must be treated as partner in nation building. For building a stronger India, it is imperative for the policy-makers to balance welfare with growth; laying out a red carpet that facilitates FDI but also handholds all sections of the domestic industry.
(Dalmia is a columnist and Chairperson NCFIL at Niti Aayog and Joshi is Founder & CEO Oyster Capital and ex-MD&CEO India Ratings)
A safe and smart savings account can transform the lives of people. Accumulation of money also serves as a form of self-insurance and enhances the sense of well-being
There’s an old saying about poverty: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. However, in today’s context, one of the most effective tools to fight poverty is not a fishing rod, but a savings account. Over four decades ago the most popular retail banking product was the Pigmy Deposit or the Daily Deposit Scheme. Housewives would scrape together a few rupees daily to give to a savings collector who would visit their homes. The money was deposited in a bank account that paid interest and was insulated from the daily demands of life. The depositors squirrelled away a decent sum by the end of a year. Most of the time it was enough to buy a much-desired home appliance. The simple message was, saving money, even if it was only a few rupees at a time, was a sure way to build wealth.
Later, a very innovative idea — microcredit — was born out of a radical concept: Poor people, when lent small amounts of cash, pay it back in a timely manner. In the meantime, that money could be put to use in ways that would help boost income and ostensibly, raise a family’s standard of living. The world soon witnessed a great global rush, with banks pouring billions into microcredit to help the poor. It was a powerful revolution, but it bypassed the centuries-old idea of wealth creation: Savings, the most trusted and the oldest building block of financial management for all societies. As impoverished borrowers defaulted on debts at alarming rates and often with fatal consequences, many organisations questioned the power of credit. This led to soul-searching by the industry and the rediscovery of a new radical idea, specifically the realisation that what the people really need — more urgently than business loans —was a safe place to save their money. This is what development expert, Robert Vogel, once famously called the “forgotten half of rural finance.” It is now universally acknowledged that the most fundamental instrument of personal finance is the piggy bank.
The tide is now turning, sparked in part by microcredit’s discredit. We all now know that there may be families who have the intelligence to benefit from loans, but there may be many who can be ruined. When they miss loan payments because a lingering illness keeps them away from their business, they get into a regular default cycle.This soon leads to acute indebtedness and makes life stressful for the entire family.
On the contrary, every family in the world can benefit from the habit of stashing small amounts of cash away. Given the variability of their income, the poor are vulnerable to sickness, death and natural calamities, which can be a drain on finances and may even prevent families from hanging on to accumulated assets, including productive ones.
These shocks can quickly sink families into a financial mire. As a result, the poor lead precarious, anxiety-ridden lives with the risks looming much larger than opportunities. The benefits of microcredit are often extolled, but debt remains debt; it always increases the risk and borrowers are sometimes overstretched. Savings can help people manage such risks conveniently, with a smaller monetary burden. And savings do matter, especially to women.
Credit can be both, an opportunity and a risk for low-income families. Though it is necessary to open the doors of self-reliance, but this can also be a barrier. You can dig yourself into a fair amount of debt, and that prevents you from moving up financially. It may become a deepening hole. Loans can be malignant. Some people just cannot handle debts. Certain business enterprises are too risky. And there is always the temptation to take these costly loans and scrimp on the necessities of life. However, in contrast, savings are a vital way for the poor to weather financial shocks and capture income-generating opportunities. Nest eggs increase the capability of the poor to manage cash flow, address the problems of uneven income, reduce the impact of the lean season, become more resilient in the face of shocks, build assets or invest in a family business and, most importantly, become empowered to improve one’s status within the households and communities.
Savings involve little risks and not much expertise in financial management. Even in traditional societies, no matter how oppressed women are or the level of their literacy, they are often stewards of the family’s savings. Sadly, most people do not put aside enough money. That is because humans suffer from economic myopia: The failure to give adequate weight to future benefits over immediate pleasures.
This is because, the self-discipline required to save is greater and the consequences of failure are worse. The instinct for gratification of immediate pleasures overrides the urge to put money away in a savings account for a rainy day. This is particularly true of men. The key to effective financial inclusion is a safe and confidential savings account for every woman. The older ones always advise the younger women to keep a store of value that other family members do not know about. When there is an emergency, they will understand your wisdom and appreciate you. The poor require little compulsion to save. They simply want a reasonable mechanism to do so and the assurance that they will be able to access the nest egg as per their needs. Households normally put away money in order to have an insurance against emergencies, for religious and social obligations, for investment, for the higher education of their children and for future consumption. Savings have been the mainstay of the impoverished across the country. In particular villagers, who cope with a veritably Biblical range of hazards. Nature delivers snakes, scorpions, malaria, dengue, drought, floods, hurricanes, tuberculosis and pests that ravage crops and animals. Then there are the environmental and vocational risks arising out of changes in market climates. Families are normally financially prepared for education and marriages, but health emergencies are usually a nasty surprise.
A safe and smart savings account can transform the lives of people. Accumulation of money also serves as a form of self-insurance and enhances the sense of well-being. They are a gateway to self-employment and job creation. Lower-income families can convert savings into home purchases, education and microenterprise. Despite conventional wisdom, the underprivileged actually do save, even if it is just a few rupees each day.
The importance of savings for the poor is also demonstrated by the many ingenious (but often costly) ways they find to put money aside. They use a variety of informal mechanisms like hiding cash at home, loaning funds to relatives, participating in rotating savings groups with their neighbours, engaging deposit collectors and so on. However, for a variety of reasons, most such mechanisms fail to meet the needs of the poor in a convenient, cost-effective and secure manner.
As a consequence, when poor households are provided a safe, easily accessible opportunity to save, their commitment to saving, and the amounts they manage to put aside, are remarkable. In fact, Indian households contribute to about 60 per cent of the country’s savings. However, like everything this year, the Coronavirus pandemic that crippled the economy took a toll on much-needed savings, too. The country’s savings rate touching a 15-year low, with household savings also falling. However, once the economy starts booming again, the rate of savings is expected to go up.
The fact remains that institutions that promote credit, to the exclusion of savings, place poor clients in bondage. To finance a child’s primary school education, clients must take on debt because they are not in a position to save. To deal with a health emergency or family food shortage, to finance weddings, funerals or social ceremonies, they must keep borrowing, again and again. To acquire essential gadgets, they will need to borrow at prohibitive rates of interest that keep them on the debt treadmill since there is no other option. Financial institutions ought to realise that they owe poor people a safe, flexible entity to save. With credit alone, they cannot free them from the tangled web of poverty. Putting money away is a vital prerequisite for the emancipation from poverty. We must think beyond the standard microcredit model.
One of the lessons imbibed during the current pandemic is that there is no substitute for savings, given the fact that most of the people, in rural and urban India, too are surviving on savings during this crisis. Thankfully, this wisdom is now particularly influencing young people. Earlier the usual refrain was “young people don’t save enough.” It represented the conventional wisdom about our millennials. This is now changing. This cohort of young people is putting away more funds, though for short-term goals. Millennials now have a savings discipline that the preceding generations lacked. It is heartening to see people realising the wisdom of putting some cash aside. Stuart Rutherford put it pithily long ago: “The choice to save rather than to consume is the foundation of money management.”
(The writer is a well-known development professional)
This project spells disaster for the environment and indigenous bird and plant species that stand to be dislocated and destroyed
The Supreme Court recently rebuked the Centre over its “aggressive actions” regarding the Central Vista Redevelopment Project. It ordered the Government to halt all construction activities until it decides on a bunch of petitions challenging the mega redevelopment plan. The project which envisions a new 64,500 metre Parliament building that will be able to house 1,244 MPs, also includes a secretariat and a totally revamped three km-stretch of Rajpath, among other things. It is expected to be ready by 2022 to coincide with the 75th year of India’s Independence. However, the project that is being pursued in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is stirring environmental concerns and eyebrows are also being raised on the massive budget allocated to it at a time when the economy is in shambles and there are other pressing areas in need of funds.
The sharp rebuke earned by the Central Government was on account of the hasty removal of structures and uprooting and translocation of old trees, despite the court having reserved its order on the matter on November 5. There are major concerns being raised as to how the decades-old trees will fare once they are translocated. This is because soil quality and the groundwater table are not the same in every place. Apart from the obvious environmental impact their removal will have on the area and given the fact that the trees have historically been an integral part of Central Delhi, people and environmentalists alike are wondering who will shoulder the responsibility if majority of these trees die after being moved?
Plus Delhi is already turning into a concrete jungle and given the fact that it is one of the most polluted capital cities of the world, there is a dire need to preserve the green cover. With the national Capital already reeling under the effects of air pollution and facing endless traffic congestions on a daily basis, the focus should be on decongesting the city and adding to the green cover, not diminishing it further. Environmental activists are worried about the fact that the construction work would create huge amounts of demolition waste and transporting this waste and construction material for the new structures would require thousands of trucks to pass through Delhi, adding to the pollution woes of the city.
Also, Delhi is a water-stressed city. According to a survey conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Delhi is among the 30 cities in India susceptible to acute water risks. The ecology of the area is such that there is a watershed from the Ridge to the Yamuna and water flows, both overground and underground. The Central Vista Redevelopment Project will create a barrier at both levels because it will be fully concretised. The green area that currently absorbs rainwater and recharges the water table in the area will be gone, too.
The haste to implement the project is baffling Delhiites considering the fact that the Central Vista is a heritage precinct as per the 1962 Master Plan of the city and therefore, an important site whose alteration would need multidisciplinary studies including a full Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA). But surprisingly, the Environment Ministry was one of the first to give a clean chit to the project by granting the “green clearance” as early as May. Some environmental experts are terming these clearances as “greenwashing” wherein approvals are hastily provided to facilitate the rapid execution of a project.
Such major projects elsewhere in the world are done in a democratic manner with due importance give to established procedures. The UK’s Parliament expansion work took 10 years, as all proper studies that assured the viability and impact of the project were completed and meticulously presented to the public before starting construction. This project spells disaster for the native environment and indigenous bird and plant species that stand to be dislocated and destroyed thanks to the mega construction activity. At the end of the day, urban and environmental planning should go hand in hand and not one at the cost of other.
Apart from the adverse impact on the flora and fauna, a project of this scale has a bearing on the infrastructure too, as it increases the requirement for power, water and stresses the waste and sewage disposal system. These aspects need careful assessment before embarking on the implementation of projects; otherwise we may end up with an ill-conceived development that proves costly for the exchequer, the people and the environment. The authorities must respect public opinion and as a first step, the Government must have inclusivity in its project planning and implementation. As a part of this, any meetings involving the project should have public representatives and respected environmental experts on board. The Central Vista project must earn the tag of being a “people’s project.” The citizens must have unrestricted access to various aspects of project design and implementation.
Better still, given these apocalyptic times, the Government will do well to practice austerity and put the astounding amount of Rs 20,000 crore to better use. It could be utilised for the rehabilitation of the COVID-hit population or infused into the ailing economy.
(The writer is an environmental journalist)
There should be a holistic approach in the mainstream media towards coverage which can contribute to ensuring the rights of the PwDs
The insensitivity of the people of the country towards the differently abled is nothing new. In 2014, Satendra Singh, a person with disabilities (PwD) faced humiliation at the Hyderabad Airport while undergoing a security check under the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) guidelines. The disability rights activist, who was on his way to speak at the International Conference on Evidence in Global Disability and Health, in Hyderabad was asked to remove the callipers he uses for walking, resulting in humiliation and harassment. This was in direct violation of his fundamental rights under Articles 15 and 21 of the Constitution. And this is not an isolated incident. Scores of PwDs face humiliation at the hands of their fellow citizens in the country on a daily basis. Hence, it is not surprising that the media, too, ignores the plight and daily struggles of divyangs in India. It was only because Satendra Singh was a high-profile person that his nightmarish experience was reported extensively across the country.
Even today, the situation has not changed much in India. While scores of differently abled people are struggling for survival during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the news media is chasing celebrities like Kangana Ranaut and her ongoing spats with actors and politicians of all hues.
Even though the PwDs were in penury, their tales of woe went unheard and unheeded. The addressable mechanism for the differently abled from governmental apparatus is potentially developing an urban-rural dichotomy. Diversity, equity and inclusion remain a distant dream for the PwDs who represent 2.21 per cent of India’s total population.
The media, being the fourth pillar of democracy, has the responsibility to highlight the issues that the marginalised sections of society, including the PwDs, face in the country. Particularly during such uncertain times that leave them more vulnerable than before.
However, the lack of objective reporting, a plethora of paid news, unethical engagement with the public and advertising agencies, high- decibel and manufactured television debates leave little space for genuine problems of the common man, leave alone the highly-marginalised PwDs. Instead, Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), Television Rating Points (TRPs) and pay-per-click (PPC) are the decisive factors, determining news value and coverage these days. Suffice to say, the ethical compass of the news media, especially that of television channels, has gone completely awry.
Despite the Accessible India Campaign, accessibility to public institutions remains well-nigh impossible. Several Government establishments are not PwD-friendly. Women with disabilities are doubly marginalised and the gender inequality dimensions have come to the fore like never before.
While the PwDs in urban areas have a voice at least, unfortunately, the differently abled residing in rural pockets are facing double discrimination. The inclusive approach to address their issues has been diluted. This has further posed a threat to achieve the United Nation’s sustainable development goals.
Suffice to say, the media’s job is to highlight the issues pertaining to the PwDs. However, disability rights are being violated time and again and the media remains a mute spectator. The media’s disconnect with disability throws up numerous questions.
It is only around December and January, when the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and the World Braille Day are observed on December 3 and January 4, respectively, that some token coverage is given to the woes of the differently abled. Despite the growing level of activism on rights of the PwDs, the coverage largely remains sporadic and the emphasis is on the rehabilitative model of disability.
Newsrooms and reporters pan-India are facing flak for their mannerism and lack of sensitivity and awareness on disability issues. The language used is yet to be socially and politically inclusive. The narrative on the gender and rural-urban dichotomy is missing which has invited discontent among the rights activists. Moreover, even though India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the Indian media does not heed the guidelines on reporting on disability that have been brought out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
News value and media ethics should not be swayed by ABC, TRP and PPC, which are market driven. There should be a holistic approach in the mainstream media towards coverage which can contribute to ensuring the rights of the PwDs in one of the largest democratic countries of the world. Media literacy is the pressing need of the hour and we cannot ignore it for too long.
(Biswal and Chakraborty are Assistant Professors at SIMC and SIBM respectively and are working at Symbiosis International, Pune)
The Health Ministry plans only 100 shots at each session
There's no doubt that the administration of the Coronavirus vaccine, which is expected to roll out early next year, will require a general election-like preparedness, booth management and cataloguing, considering that we haven't had any template of a mass immunisation drive. And considering India's population density, any margin of error would translate into a health hazard. So the regulators are rightly being doubly cautious. With the Health Ministry planning to vaccinate 20-30 per cent of India's population to reach a critical mass for herd immunity, and the Serum Insititute CEO Adar Poonawalla claiming that there would be enough vaccines by September-October next year, everybody is getting drill ready. The latest is that each site will administer 100 shots a session, taking precautionary and hygiene measures as well as following COVID-appropriate behaviour. Now with the early rounds of shots in the UK triggering allergic reactions among recipients, the Government is factoring in recovery booths where they will be watched for half an hour and rushed to facilities should anyone fall sick. Poonawalla said the company is preparing to manufacture enough vaccines for the Government and private markets but the challenges are many.
The toughest would be the logistics of the supply chain, the safety of the vials and ensuring enough trained workers to administer and monitor its effects. But we have to reckon with some cold facts. Currently, our immunisation shield means that around 390 million doses of vaccines are administered every year. Assuming we can tap into this network immediately, we will still need to supplement its strength to administer 400-500 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by the first two quarters of 2021. Also, a two-shot vaccination drive would mean double the effort. Much has already been said about the challenges of a contiguous cold chain infrastructure. The first vaccines announced by Pfizer and Moderna require sub-zero conditions; they must be thawed from -700C and injected within five days. Else, the whole consignment could go bad. We would have to rely on a vaccine that can be stored and transported in liquid form (anything between 20C and 80C) instead of the frozen kind.
The late Pranab Mukherjee’s book, saying the leadership lost ‘political focus’ in 2014, exposes a gestational freeze in the party
In his lifetime, Pranab Mukherjee was a measured man, always walking the middle ground, rarely vocalising his innermost thoughts and particularly careful about representing the party he lived and rose by — the Congress. He may have had a complicated relationship with the party leadership but always had workarounds to get things going and never made it public. If Ahmed Patel virtually ran the party, Pranab babu ran the Government and both built their relevance and indispensability across three generations of the Gandhis. There was one key difference though; Patel was never keen on the limelight but Mukherjee harboured prime ministerial ambitions. And though everybody knew about it, the latter never articulated that wish and even in his memoirs, he skirted such controversial issues that would have made for best-selling fodder. But looks like he had dropped guard in the last of the series of his autobiography, The Presidential Years, and did some plainspeak and revealed some home truths. This is the most overt of Mukherjee’s analysis of the drift in the Congress, ironically coming at a time when party veterans are increasingly clamouring for inner-party democracy and an elected rather than an entitled leadership. For Mukherjee’s account seems to only confirm that the party’s top leadership had not been addressing the stasis in the party since 2014. The late President seems to have attributed the Congress’ defeat in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 to the lack of connect party chief Sonia Gandhi had with cadres and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s absence from the House and little to no interaction with MPs. And giving credence to the dissenting “letter writers” of today, he has said that “some members of the Congress” believed that had he been Prime Minister, the party would not have lost power. And in possibly his strongest words yet establishing his weightage as a stabiliser, he says the Congress leadership “lost political focus” after his elevation as President. And that this cost governance that Narendra Modi took advantage of with his autocratic boldness. The revelations couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Congress, which seems frozen in a mess of its own making. And considering the way 23 of the party’s senior loyalists were sidelined in August for writing a "dissent letter" and pleading for inner-party democracy, the party’s first family, the Gandhis, have decided that their writ, that is no longer earned but rests solely on history, will not be challenged even if the party hurtles down the road to perdition. Still, some letter writers like Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad renewed calls to rescue the moribund party after its dismal performance in the Bihar Assembly elections. But like every other time, they have been called out for making intra-party matters public and subdued all over again. Through their letter, the leaders had only suggested ways and means of reviving the Congress, that too by staying within the provisions and democratic processes already laid down in the party’s constitution. The Congress last held CWC elections in 1998 and understandably this is the reason for the turmoil and impatience in the party where worthy leaders, who have worked their way up from the ground, have no say whatsoever.
The point is will the Congress ever give up its dynastic stubbornness and risk the anointment of Rahul Gandhi as Congress chief again on nomination or an election? Perhaps to neutralise the noise over the party’s future strategies and reel in allies to prop it up once more, Sonia has herself indicated her desire to step down as chairperson of the Congress-led Opposition bloc, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). And there is talk of former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar assuming that role, though he has denied it. Pawar could be the counterweight to the criticism of Gandhi dominance in matters political. Besides, the Maratha strongman is well-versed in managing coalition politics as he has largely managed to keep the ideologically divergent Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena frictionless. This in the face of rabid attacks by the BJP, still smarting at having lost out to the Sena. In fact, Pawar could very well be the adhesive that the Congress and its allies need. For though the Opposition mahagathbandhan was swept away by the Modi wave in 2019 because of its less-than-spirited unity, some images remain significant. Like that of NCP chief Sharad Pawar as sheet anchor, with chief organiser and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee constantly relying on his good advice and all regional leaders paying him obeisance. Surely the Maratha strongman and quintessential politician of the old guard would command respect and deference. Given his pan-India acceptability and recognition and the fact that there are suspicions and anxieties about the national leadership abilities of regional satraps, he could well emerge as the leader of a combined federal front, one who could be listened to. This is significant considering that many federal leaders are not comfortable negotiating with the younger Gandhi scions. And after the NCP’s consensus with the Congress in Maharashtra, the former Congressman is not being seen as a one-time rebel but as a newly-returned ally for the grand old party. Besides, he has held important Central ministries all along. Pawar likes to be a grandmaster and the Congress could do with his skills to bounce back with federal allies. Already, given that it dragged down the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, its prospective partners in the Bengal and Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the Left and the DMK, are worried about its vote-cutting rather than vote-harvesting capacity. Particularly in Bengal, it would only end up being a spoiler, assuming it does perform, or boost the BJP’s polarisation agenda. Yet Pawar can paper over rifts and misunderstandings. The Congress leadership has to respect the stakeholdership of its cadres first.
A completely new social and political standard has gained currency in India in the past few years, thanks to the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government
By virtue of being a father to two lawyers, I have the opportunity to come across certain legal parlance from time to time. One such legal construct is that of a “reasonable man”. This standard can be found in quite a few laws as well as judgments passed by judicial authorities in most jurisdictions. The reasonable man or woman standard is typically employed to examine the conduct of a particular person against what may be considered as “reasonable” according to most people. Cases that fall outside of this wide berth of reasonableness are ones that usually attract judicial or legal scrutiny.
In India, we have now been introduced to a completely new social or political standard, all thanks to the Bharatiya Janata Party and our Honourable Prime Minister. This new standard is that of the ‘Misled Man’. The concept is fairly easy to understand and apparently refers to all Indians who are being “misled” by either foreign powers or the Opposition or by experts when it comes to matters of opposing this Government’s poorly thought through policies.
One of the earliest applications of the Misled Man standard was during the Prime Minister’s now-infamous decision around demonetisation. We were told that demonetisation was a “surgical strike” on black money and targets only those people who have something to hide. Therefore, when renowned economists, public policy experts and members of the Opposition raised questions about the manner in which the policy was implemented without prior consultation and without expertise, we were told by the Prime Minister that the public was being misled. Similarly, when people brought forward evidence of how during demonetisation the only people who benefitted were corrupt bank officials or how there is just as much — if not more — counterfeiting with the new currency as with the old, the Prime Minister once again said that we were being misled. At no point, however, has the Prime Minister taken any questions from the Press or from the public or taken the opportunity to rescue our misled public. Instead all we got was an introduction to what future years proved was the BJP’s go-to explanation behind a protest or any sort of push back from the general public — that in reality there are no problems at all and that any sort of protest was a result of the lamb-like public being misled by people with vested interests.
Demonetisation was just the beginning; we also saw the BJP and the Prime Minister rely on the same excuse when it came to the issue of One Rank One Pension or OROP, an issue that our servicemen have been fighting for. The BJP Government has come out and claimed that they have, in fact, implemented OROP. However, the former service men and soldiers who, one can safely assume, know enough about the issue, are staunchly of the view that OROP in fact has not been implemented at all by the BJP Government. Here too, we saw the Prime Minister say that the public is being misled on OROP.
The most recent application of this excuse has been the explanation for the huge protests by farmers that we have seen taking place in and around New Delhi. Since the introduction of the three Central Government farm laws that were passed in a controversial and frankly undemocratic fashion in the Rajya Sabha on September 20, the protesting farmers have consistently maintained their protest and have marched in large numbers demanding that the Central Government roll back the controversial farm laws. The Congress has highlighted and consistently support the fight of the farmers by arguing that the controversial farm laws take away any real support for the average farmer and give an open road for powerful industrialists and businesses to control the entire farming system and thereby expose farmers to great risk and barely any negotiating power. What the Congress has most significantly argued against is the manner in which these farm laws were passed without talking to the stakeholders who will actually be directly affected by the laws — the farmers.
There is widespread anger among farmer unions about the high-handed and arrogant manner in which the Central Government has conducted itself during this entire process. It should be obvious to the BJP and the Prime Minister that these concerns are genuine and which is why we see tens of thousands of farmers on the road demanding that the Government listen to their demands. However, here too the BJP and the Prime Minister could not resist relying on the old faithful theory that the farmers are being “misled”.
This pathetic explanation is forwarded by many in the present administration and not just by the Prime Minister. For example, a BJP Union Minister said that the farmer protests are essentially being motivated and sponsored by Pakistan and China. One cannot blame the Union Minister who merely decided to take a leaf out of the Prime Minister’s handbook. Such a response is unbecoming of a Government of a major democracy. It assumes that India is meant to be led by a ‘messiah’ who knows the one true path and that all of us are merely sheep who should have no say in the matter. It is antithetical to the basic tenets of a functional democracy which relies on peaceful protest and public participation while making laws. Perhaps, this is why Niti Aayog chief Amitabh Kant said that “too much democracy” makes law-making hard in India. The Government should realise that law-making is meant to be hard because it requires public participation of which peaceful protest is the last recourse. The first option for most people, if the Government had paid attention, is to be involved as stakeholders in the decision-making process. Instead by labelling the public, representatives of the public, our soldiers and now our farmers as “misled”, the BJP is insulting the intelligence of all Indians.
The Prime Minister is right about a few things though. We are currently not only misled but also misgoverned and misunderstood. If the Prime Minister wants to attribute blame on who is responsible for our pitiful state, his Government would be a good place to start.
(The author is former IPS and member of the Congress Party)
Besides debate on whether online teaching can make up for the loss of classroom teaching, the major challenge is how to develop mechanism to overcome the rigmarole of regulations to take effective decisions
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic the education system in India has been witnessing challenges with significant impact on higher education.
To deal with the situation, experts have talked about what should be the course of direction with regard to the pattern of completion of course work, methodology of teaching and examination.
The Higher Education Information System’s recent attempt to ensure high level of partnership among institutions through equity and access to all shows the level of insight in empowering and motivating students and faculty members.
Besides, the pursuit of the National Education Policy (NEP) to cover school, adult, higher education and efforts towards promotion of Indian languages and online education exhibit tremendous effort towards enhancement of overall educational scenario.
Indian universities are being encouraged to improve their performances by making a push towards a more merit based peer reviewed research and the chimera of fulfilling the aim of 6 per cent of GDP expenditure on education.
A few experts are of the views that we have at least got an opportunity to analyse and address the multidimensional issues in the education sector.
Whereas for some it is a welcome sign that we would draw a framework for key demands of the higher education while maintaining a synergy between various actors and stakeholders, there has been a section which strongly feels that the idea of online teaching can never replace the existing system of classrooms teaching. For many others, it is not clear that segregation of the practical and theory papers, particularly for MBA courses, can be a feasible option if the future trends compel us to follow the undesirable.
Ensuring proper monitoring of education sector on day to day basis as done by the authorities can ensure growth in changing circumstances.
In the midst of argumentation and generation of discourse it is imperative to look at the process from neutral stand. But at times different point of views creates insights about the way in which the ideas and emotions get translated into effective decision-making process.
The Union Ministry of Education has opened up conceptual and scholastic discussions which may result in the creation of exquisite thoughts and a new vision for the growth of a stupendous education system even during the crisis of unprecedented magnitude. It is high time we realised the gravity of challenges encountered by the higher education.
The importance of education for the physical, intellectual and moral will always be on high pedestal because education frees a person from the clutches of darkness and bigotry.
But many a times the questions and desires of competition, comparison and personal greed leads to the problem of manipulation and taking recourse in shortcuts. The Right to Freedom of Expression in democratic societies has been debated many times. Recent developments in academic world have posed new challenges about the changing nature of problem and the huge competition quagmire that still lurks.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has shown serious concern over the increasing number of predatory, cloned and substandard publications and emergence of a number of web opinion sites coupled with arrangement of predatory conferences. In a highly proactive step, the UGC has issued strict directions and created high quality list of journals to be considered the only valid publication category.
As a result of the long quest for excellence the UGC established Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics (CARE) to ensure and promote pious academic integrity and quality research and teaching.
This would help in broadening the ethical horizon and enhancing the decision making capabilities but also letting new generation know what is ethically and morally correct.
When it comes to ethics it means going beyond the set clichés and moving from paradigm to paradigm shift. We ought to try our level best to kindle the flame by ensuring the sensitisation of students and faculty members in this direction. It is difficult to change the direction of the wind, but we can do our bit in adjusting ethical sail towards the path of development of ethos.
The major challenge will be its dealing with professional institutes. How to develop mechanism to sensitise the stakeholders of these institutes to overcome the rigmarole of regulations, and take decision.
It is daunting task to deal with the emerging challenges due to mushrooming of a number of private educational institutes. There is a strong need to identify new ways to judge the qualitative competence of candidates by laying a lot of importance on improving analytical and observatory qualities of the candidates through cognitive discourse and seeking multiple options and viewpoints in order to help in forming an integrated texts and questionnaire.
(The author is a professor and expert on strategic affairs)
The saddest part of the Rohingya crisis is that no one is focusing on the repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar. Why the whole world is mum over this matter? Why are we all putting pressure on Bangladesh to resettle these refugees in an unsafe and vulnerable island? It seems Bangladesh has accepted the responsibility of relocating the Rohingyas and looking for their future settlement. Precisely, they all must be sent back to Myanmar as early as possible
Today the Rohingya Muslims are nowhere. More than one million of them left their homeland of Rakhine Province, Myanmar, in 2017 after their ethnic cleansing at the hands of Myanmar Army.
Most of them descended in the neighbouring Bangladesh and stayed in makeshift camps in the Cox Bazar, a coastal town located near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border area of the country all these years.
Many of them have crossed the turbulent sea to get into other South East Asian nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Their future hangs on international intervention from nations concerned and human rights agencies. Despite an urgent urge from the UN and the case being heard in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague (Netherlands), they continue to languish in the ill-managed refugee camps in Bangladesh. But recently Dhaka took a decision to shift a large number of the Rohingya refugees to an island named Bhasan Char, in a phased manner. However, the spread of the news in the beginning of this month among the distraught Rohingyas evoked mixed feelings — many of them are quite excited to go to their new abode, thinking this could be a better place, while others are worried about their permanent dislocation from the current camps.
To unearth the root cause of the Rohingya exodus in 2017 from Rakhine to Bangladesh, we need to focus on the recent political happenings in Myanmar. The UN says the Myanmar Army demonstrated “genocidal intent” while conducting operations against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in 2017.
According to the authorities, this operation targeted to flush out the Islamists and to bring back law and order in the Rakhine Province. But the central issue is that Myanmar does not want to recognise the Rohingyas as citizens and it sees them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. That is why the Burmans, the major ethnic group of the country, consisting of the Army, the rest of administrative ranks and the leadership, simply do not want the Rohingyas to stay in the country.
Much before 2017, the clashes used to break out between the majority Burmans and the local Rohingyas. But in that year, the ARSA killed nearly 20 police officers and security forces of the Myanmar Army. And on August 25, the ARSA, previously known as the Harakah al-Yakin, immediately provoked a counter-insurgency operation from the federal Army of Myanmar in Rakhine Province. The Government says the ARSA is a terrorist organisation. Its leader Ata Ullah was born in Pakistan and raised mostly in Saudi Arabia. The group also released a report in 2016 according to which it is led by Rohingyas living in Saudi Arabia.
However, the concern is that striking at the ARSA is not going to solve the core issue i.e. denying citizenship to the Rohingyas. For decades, the Rohingyas have been residing in Arakan known as the Rakhine Province. Interestingly, earlier, they were given the right to vote. But with the coming of the Tatmadaw to power, gradually the basic political rights and freedoms of the Rohingyas were curtailed. Thus, the Rohingya anger has grown against the Myanmarese State fully controlled by the majority Burmans.
Many security experts opine that the ARSA may have received backing from jihadists who have fought in battlegrounds of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, etc. The main purpose of the ARSA is to defend, salvage and protect the Rohingyas from the State repression in the line with the principle of self-defence. But the official view from Naypyidaw is that the Army operation in the province was against the terrorists, and to restore law and order in that area. Even the locals and various newspapers in the regions emphasise more on the terror attacks and the plight of the others who had to flee the area because of the clash between the Army and the Rohingyas.
It is very clear that the majority Burmans have a long-held prejudice against the Rohingya Muslims, who are not regarded as the citizens of the country. These Rohingyas are called as “Bengalis”. And most of the nationalist groups view them as a threat to their country. This is the background of the harrowing conditions of the Rohingyas that has sparked a bitter debate between Bangladesh and Myanmar, but without any credible outcome.
And anytime in future, the global jehadi groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda might plant their agents to sponsor full-time Islamic terror movements in Myanmar. The Tatmadaw must be ready to face such an onslaught from these global monsters and accordingly should keep a close watch on the activities of the ARSA in the region.
The root of the plight behind the current Rohingya crisis lies in Myanmar itself. It can well be regarded as a systematic and forced migration of these people from their home province. And it is the Tatmadaw i.e. the Myanmar Army that has led a vicious and brutal campaign against the hapless Rohingyas over the years. It all started in 1978 when then Burmese Army carried out an operation called “Operation Ngamin” to drive out the Rohingyas from Rakhine.
Again, in 1982, a new law was passed by Myanmar to deny citizenship right to the Rohingya Muslims. And finally, they were excluded from the list of the country’s 135 ethnic groups. For years, Myanmar has pursued institutionalised discrimination policies like these and cornered the poor and minority Muslim Rohingyas to a point of no return to the mainstream of country.
The role of Nobel laureate and the present State Counsellor of Myanmar is highly questionable on the question of the repatriation of the Rohingyas. The suffering of the Rohingya itself is a tragedy. But the way it was carried out by the Tatmadaw had crossed all civilisational limits. Suu Kyi does not control the military and even if she wants she can’t do so. Also the military does not trust her at all.
It’s very simple because all her life she has fought against the repressive military and demanded to restore basic freedoms in the country. But today she has almost forgotten the very core of the basic freedoms for which she once bravely fought. It’s painful and sad. This time her party National League for Democracy won more seats than what they had won in the elections of 2015. But even if she could have condemned the actions of the Tatmadaw, it would not have gone to this extent.
The world knows very well what Suu Kyi said in the International Court of Justice at the Hague in December 2019. She bravely defended her country’s military against the allegations of genocide. These all have rightly signalled that she is a true politician and no more a votary of democratic rights.
The recently concluded parliamentary election has once again excluded the Rohingyas from the much awaited political process in the country. Further, because of the fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army, the November Parliamentary Election had to be cancelled in the Rakhine Province.
The saddest part of the Rohingya crisis is that no one is focusing on the repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar. Why the whole world is mum over this matter? Why are we all putting pressure on Bangladesh to resettle these refugees in an unsafe and vulnerable island? It seems Bangladesh has accepted the responsibility of relocating the Rohingyas and looking for their future settlement. Precisely, they all must be sent back to Myanmar i.e. Rakhine Province, as early as possible.
The UN, the UNHRC and various other global humanitarian agencies must build up enough pressure on Naypyidaw to take back all the Rohingyas. Now a new Joe Biden administration must devise a strategy to convince the Tatmadaw for the same. Else, the Generals back home in Myanmar will take it for granted that such heinous crimes could easily avoid international attention. Though Bangladesh is assuring the repatriation of the Rohingyas in the Bhasan Char, the international community must be aware that it is a very vulnerable area to shift millions of these refugees in the days to come.
(The writer is an expert on international affairs)
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