22nd December

Editorial

Finding the missing children

It is a national problem which needs to be tackled eciently and at the
earliest. Statistics show that over 60,000 children go missing every year in
the country. In the past year, 2,953 children have gone missing in Uttar
Pradesh. There are also concerns about the number of girl children who go
missing, which, besides being particularly high, is often connected to
human tracking.
Online tracking sites In 2012, non-governmental organisation Bachpan
Bachao Andolan which is run by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi filed
a writ petition in the Supreme Court on the issue of missing children,
consequent to which the court ordered State and Central governments to
periodically submit compliance reports in the court relating to the status of
missing children in their respective States. Pursuant to this order, the
Ministry of Women and Child Development also set up a website,
trackthemissingchild.gov.in. This interactive website has information
relating to missing children ineach State. This includes information relating
to police stations in every State and the number of children missing and
traced in real time. Another portal which was set up in June 2015 is
http://khoyapaya.gov.in where information relating to missing children can
be submitted. Setting up these portals has been an encouraging
development but greater awareness and specialised manpower are
needed to ensure that these websites perform the functions that were
envisioned for them.Additionally, despite the direction of the top court and
action taken by the governments, there are also predominantly informal
ways of dealing with the issue. For instance, images of missing children
are shared on social media in an attempt at increasing outreach and
tracing them
Human tracking According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),
incidents of human tracking are rising every year. This issue was also
addressed in the briefing book released by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
earlier this month.One of the areas where evidence pointed to the urgent
need for legal reform was the issue of tracing missing childrenand the
links with tracking. Between 2013 and 2014, at least 67,000 children in
India went missing; 45 per cent were minors who were victims of tracking
for prostitution. In tracking, several causes have been identified by the
NCRB. Primary causes are forced marriage, child labour, procuration of
minors as domestic help and sexual exploitation. According to an answer
to a question in the Lok Sabha in March 2016, a large number of minor
girls were rescued from domestic servitude in 2014-15. In 2015, 147 minor
girls were rescued from domestic servitude, with the largest number from
Madhya Pradesh.
Grey area of other reasons
A study by Bachpan Bachao Andolan putthe number of missing children as
much as 10 times more than what is stated in their findings and research

because the majority of tracking victims are not included in missing

cases nor is there any ocial record. Perhaps it is time to look further into
the links between missing children and tracking. Interestingly, in the
reasons identified by the NCRB for human tracking, the most
predominant cause was labelled as other reasons. Considering the
critically large number of cases that fell under this category, this issue
needs deeper study to find a targeted solution. To begin with, the reasons
behind children going missing need to be identified through specialised
studies, unique to dierent States. This is because the reasons dier
across the country. For example, in Madhya Pradesh, a key cause behind
children being kidnapped is because they areused as domestic labour,
which is not so in many other States.
Possible Solution
The issue of missing children of India, and in particular the rising problem
of children becoming victims of tracking frequently makes international
headlines and there is rising global concern about tracking. It is
worrisome that tracking syndicates are thriving in the country, and this is
a problem which must be addressed aggressively. The draft Tracking of
Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016,
which seeks to address loopholes in the legal system, impose stronger
penal measures and address issues of rehabilitation, was not taken up in
the winter session in Parliament this year. Hopefully it will come up in the
budget session. Strong, well-coordinated platforms are needed to deal
with the problem of missing children. Sound rehabilitation measures need
to be in place as well for the well-being and protection of rescued children
who have been victims of violence. There is still a long way to go for a
realistic solution to the problem.

Letters to editorial
An unkind postscript, Dec.21). It is obvious that the government did not
have a road map to begin with. The burden is now being borne by the poor
and downtrodden who find it dicult to keep themselves informed. Public
trust in the government has also been undermined. The problem lies not in
demonetisation but in the haphazard, unplanned and skewed way of policy
implementation.
In the entire debate surrounding demonetisation, hardly any attention has
been paid to the plight of bankers. With rules being altered every second
day, bankers are at a loss to understand the rules
The various acts and modifications made in regard to demonetisation
show that the decision made by the government was in haste and
palpably with the confluence of thoughts with the RBI Governor without
properly assessing the diculties which may arise. Once diculties arose,
the slogan of a cashless society was coined which is next to impossible to
achieve in India given the low levels of literacy. The problems of Internet
connectivity in rural areas were also overlooked. Small shop owners and
street vendors also refuse to accept PoPs, debit and credit cards as they
are not very confident. Attempts to strike at hoarders, the corrupt and

terrorists are laudable, but the method adopted was fraught with grave
consequences.
Pardon, the gender wage gap is showing
India had among the worst levels of gender wage disparity men earning
more than women in similar jobs with the gap exceeding 30 per cent,
the Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) revealed last week.
In contrast, Singapore had among the lowest, at 3 per cent.
Top 1 per cent
The ILO threw light on high income inequality. In India, the top one per
cent earned 33 times what the bottom 10 per cent did. The top 10 per
cent also earned 43 per cent of all wages
Tata was super controller of group, alleges Mistry
National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)
Also, despite not being a director at any of the companies, Mr. Tata had
demanded or procured commercially sensitive information, including
price-sensitive information.
Alarming rise in forest fires, says panel report (Interview)
With fires raging across Central Indian forests and the Himalayan Pine
forests, the frequency of such blazes has risen by a drastic 55 per cent in
the past year. The number has touched 24,817 in 2016, a really alarming
rise, from 15,937 fires in 2015, says the report by the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Science and Technology, headed by Rajya Sabha
MP Renuka Choudhary, submitted on December 16
10-fold increase in M.P. The committee has suggested a national policy on
managing forest fires. The increase is seen even though 2015, considered
a drought year, had seen a decline in the frequency of forest fires by
around 16 per cent.
Clearing pines The committee was formed after a series of devastating
forest fires earlier this year, including the prolonged one that charred
4,000 hectares of forest land across 13 districts of Uttarakhand. The report
primarily focusses on the prevention and containing of fires in the
Himalayan forests spread across Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and
Jammu and Kashmir. In Himachal and Uttarakhand, over 17,502 acres
have been ravaged this year due to forest fires a rise of over 171 per
cent. The committee has recommended the procurement of sweeping
machines to clear roadsides of Chir pine needles, while advocating largescale incentives and programmes (including under the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) to collect pines for use as
fuel, and other incineration. More drastically, the Uttarakhand government
has suggested thinning pine reserve forest areas to reduce the biological
load. The report suggests replacing these forests with broad-leaf plants.
The committee has also observed that a large number of posts of front line
forest sta were lying vacant, while fire-fighting equipment is rudimentary
in many cases.
The Parliamentary committee on S&T has suggested a national policy to
manage the fires

 SC criticises poor implementation of SC/ST Act

:Criticising the government for its indierent attitude towards the
implementation of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court has directed the National Legal Services
Authority to frame schemes for spreading legal awareness and free
consultations to members of the SC/ ST communities nationwide
Equality for all A Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, asked
the authorities to discharge their duties to protect the SCs/STs to attain the
constitutional goal of equality for all citizens. The constitutional goal of
equality for all the citizens can be achieved only when the rights of the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are protected. The abundant
material on record proves that the authorities are guilty of not enforcing
the provisions of the Act,
Nepal to hold military exercise with China

NEW DELHI: Beginning a new level of bilateral military engagement, Nepal

will hold its first ever joint military exercise with China on February 10,
senior military o- cials have told Nepali media. The focus of the military
exercise, named Pratikar-1, will be on training Nepali forces in dealing with
hostage scenarios involving international terror groups.

Unconventional move Analysts say that though the military drill with China
does not violate the 1950 India-Nepal treaty of peace and friendship, it
does appear unconventional

Nepal can conduct military exercises with other countries without

violating the agreement with India, but the upcoming exercise with China
is certainly unconventional and alarming as Chinas definition of terrorism
covers Tibetan agitators,

As it happened: Indias biggest boardroom coup

MUMBAI:Indias biggest boardroom coup to oust Cyrus Mistry as the Tata
Sons chairman on October 24 was planned months in advance. The Hindu
has details of what exactly happened and how Mr. Mistry was removed
within an hour of the meetings start. The minutes of the board meeting,
that started at 2 p.m. and concluded by 3 p.m., reveal that Mr. Mistry was
informed that Ratan Tata would join the board meet. Even before the
agenda items could be considered, Nitin Nohria, non-executive director of
Tata Sons, said that Tata Trusts had asked its nominees on the board of
Tata Sons to bring a motion to the board of Tata Sons. Amit Chandra,
another non-executive director, informed the board that a meeting of the
Trust directors was held earlier in the day and it was agreed to move a
motion to request C.P. Mistry to step down as the executive chairman of
Tata Sons Limited as the Trusts had lost confidence in him for a variety of
reasons.
Tatas request
Mr. Chandra also said that Mr. Tata had just met Mr. Mistry and had
requested him to step down. Mr. Chandra sought the views of Mr. Mistry on
the said motion. In response, Mr. Mistry sought 15 days notice for taking

up such an item for the consideration of the board and stated that the
present action was illegal. Mr. Chandra mentioned that the Trusts had
obtained legal advice stating that such a notice was not necessary. Mr.
Mistry said that he would like to obtain a legal advice since the legal
opinions were not made available to him and he did not agree with them.
Since Mr. Mistry was an interested party in relation to the motion, Mr.
Chandra requested Vijay Singh to act as the chairman. Mr. Chandra
proposed that Mr. Singh be elected as the chairman for the board meeting
in place of Mr. Mistry. The proposal was seconded by Venu Srinivasan and
a series of resolutions were put to vote.
Requisite majority
Mr. Mistry recorded his objections to move the resolutions by stating his
view that it was not legal for the resolutions to be taken up while Mrs.
Farida Khambata abstained from voting on the above resolutions. The
other directors voted in favour of the above resolutions and the resolutions
were carried by a requisite majority. After the resolutions were passed, Mr.
Tata said that it was important for the Group to move forward in as
seamless a manner. He said that it was Mr. Mistrys choice on whether he
would like to continue as the non-executive director of Tata Sons. Mr.
Mistry said he would continue on the board. Mr. Tata stated that the
developments at the meeting would need to be reported by way of a press
conference as far as the company was concerned. The board decided to
move ahead with the press announcement, since the developments were
material.
Opportunity for youngsters to learn from stars: Gopi Chand :
MUMBAI: There is a kind of friendly environment on the circuit and there
is also an exchange of views which helps. But when they face o in the
Premier Badminton League, it (competitiveness) remains the same, said
National coach P. Gopi Chand, chief advisor to the PBL

23rd Dec
Editorial

A little gain after more pain

Although the seizures are huge, these are not much more than the tip of
the proverbial black money iceberg. That black marketeers and corrupt
public servants have been able to quickly change so much of their underthe-radar wealth into new currency notes easily explains how most of the
notes out of the Rs.15.4 lakh crore that were in circulation before the
demonetisation have been returned to banks a week before the December
30 deadline. By all accounts, deposits in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
Yojana for black money disclosure are not very significant

Doing the right thing India must break its silence on the humanitarian
disaster in Syria, particularly Aleppo
India should have taken the initiative of tabling a resolution in the UN
Security Council, denouncing and deploring the goings-on in Syria
Chinmaya R. Gharekhan
Shiv Visvanathan has written an important article, Death in Aleppo (The Hindu, Dec.
16), describing Indias foreign policy with reference to the massacres in Syria,
particularly in Aleppo, as a piece of empty piety. He is anguished about and critical of
the silence that India has maintained over these killings. He says our foreign policy is
devoid of compassion. He is right.
The professor seems to be exasperated at what can at best be described as our a-moral
stand in the face of heartless and cold-blooded killings in that unfortunate land. India
has prided itself on its humane approach to issues. At the same time, it has been Indias
axiom to not interfere in the affairs of other countries, and not to be involved in events
in countries with which it is not directly concerned or which do not directly affect its
interests.
The moral imperative
As the principal architect of the policy of non-alignment, Jawaharlal Nehru was
determined to keep India aloof from conflicts elsewhere, so that the country could
devote its efforts and energy to the task of developing its economy. In this he was
largely successful by not lining up with either of the two politico-military blocs. At the
same time, he had declared, where peace was threatened or justice denied, India would
not keep silent. Here, his record was mixed. He spoke up strongly at the time of the
Suez crisis of 1956, but took a less-than-neutral stand on the Hungarian revolt the same
year. The contrast was stark. While his Hungarian policy was flawed on moral grounds, it
could be justified on the ground of national interest.

This writer, like many others of his fraternity in the Indian Foreign Service, is a strong
votary of the realistic or pragmatic school of diplomacy. National interest does and must
trump every other consideration. Often this approach seems, and is, of dubious morality,
but if national interest dictates it, the government of the day must pursue national
interest.
In the case of Syria, the situation is extremely complicated. The civil war is in its sixth
year. More than 4,00,000 lives have been lost, millions have been displaced, an entire
generation of children has gone without experiencing childhood and has been denied
education. The loss of priceless heritage of humankind can never be recouped. It is a
civil war, and at the same time it is more than a civil war. External elements, regional
and extra-regional, have jumped into the fray for their own agendas, without caring
about the Syrian people. Every single regional country is involved, and nearly all Western
nations as well as Russia have joined in. There is a difference of motives among those
who want Bashar al-Assad out. Nobody really knows just how many militia groups are
fighting in Syria; many are fighting among themselves, much to the delight of the
regime in Damascus. Ironically, there is now an unstated consensus that dethroning Mr.
Assad is not a priority; in fact, forget about him and concentrate on defeating the Islamic
State.
In such a situation, it makes sense for India not to get involved. The civil war will go on
for decades. Why should we stick our neck out? We have remained more or less neutral
though our stand was somewhat pro-regime in the past.
There is, however, no reason for India to show indifference to the merciless slaughter of
innocent lives in Syria. It is true that there is nothing we can do to influence the course
of events there. It is also true that the region is of importance to us; prolonged
instability, which might become even worse in the months ahead, with the change in
administration in Washington, is not in our interest. Thus, we have a legitimate reason
not to do or say anything that might upset any of our friends, such as we have. On the
whole, it seems to this writer that we ought to break our silence on the humanitarian
situation.
When Somalia was being racked by civil war in the early 1990s, India was a member of
the United Nations Security Council. There was a strong sentiment among the
international community that something had to be done to stop the massacres. We
joined in authorising the Council to take action that eventually did not produce the
desired result; nevertheless, India did support all the resolutions even though it
amounted to intervening in the internal affairs of a UN member state. And we did that
guided by moral or ethical grounds. Similarly in Syria, we ought not to fight shy of
condemning the terrible loss of lives. Expression of our outrage at the sufferings of the
Syrian people would be perfectly in order.
Crocodile tears

One problem in dealing with the Syrian situation has been that the major players are
only thinking of their interests and constituencies. Even resolutions that are being
proposed on humanitarian matters have unhidden political agendas. One side wants to
hold only the other responsible for the tragedy. One side is engaged mainly in propping
up the regime, and the other is interested only in toppling the regime; both sides are
shedding crocodile tears at the human suffering.
India could and should have taken the initiative of tabling a resolution in the UN Security
Council, denouncing and deploring the goings-on in Syria, at the same time scrupulously
abstaining from any language smacking of supporting or criticising any of the parties
involved in the conflict. We are not a member of the Security Council at present, but
there is nothing to prevent a non-member from introducing a draft resolution. Perhaps it
is a bit late for us to take this initiative now. But we must issue a statement, welcoming
the unanimity shown by the Security Council in adopting the Franco-Russian draft
resolution mandating the deployment of observers to monitor the evacuation from
Aleppo. And it is certainly not late to deplore the atrocities being perpetrated in Aleppo
and elsewhere in Syria. There is no reason for us to maintain our silence on this tragedy.
Chinmaya R. Gharekhan is a former diplomat

Cashless and worry-free in A.P. Kakuturivaripalem uses phones, PoS

machines for essentials
Author: S.Murali
ONGOLE: It may be a rarity, but a once unbanked village in Andhra Pradeshs Prakasam
district has gone cashless, with all of its 2,209 residents adopting bank accounts and
mobile phones.
All families in sleepy Kakuturivaripalem, 30 km from here, use bank accounts, RuPay
cards and phones to transact and make payments to milk suppliers and Kirana stores
equipped with electronic Point of Sale (e-POS) machines.
The hamlet has been declared a digital transactions-enabled model village by the
Prakasam district administration and Syndicate Banks Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank.
Grameena Bank helps
The road to cashless life began with the Centres Regional Rural Bank drive under the Jan
Dhan Yojana (PMJY). The A.P. Grameena Banks business correspondent V. Venkat Rao is
available at the rachabanda (village square) all day to help the villagers get used to the
digital way.
The number of such transactions doubled to Rs. 50,000 per day since demonetisation.
Unlike in other parts of the district, there are no queues for cash at Kakuturivaripalem,
says a young farmer, G. Ramesh Babu.

The cash crunch hampered sowing for the rabi crop. In response, the villagers made
funds transfers to accounts of workers and suppliers of fertilizers and pesticides, adds Mr.
Babu, who cultivates tobacco and Bengal gram in his five-acre plot.
He helps fellow villagers transfer cash through mobile banking: initially, nominal amounts
to friends and relatives, which helped develop self-confidence.
This is the second village in Prakasam and reportedly the third in Andhra Pradesh after
K. Pallepallem, and Dwarapaudi (Vizianagaram district) adopted by Union Civil Aviation
Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, for cashless banking.

When HC made it clear who really heads Delhi Jungs resignation

comes four months after historic verdict
With the verdict, all decisions by the CM and his Cabinet were to be sent to
the L-G for approval
Author: Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Najeeb Jungs resignation from the post of Lieutenant-Governor comes just
four months after a Delhi High Court verdict ruled that the L-G is the administrative head
of the city, which continues to be a Union Territory.
The verdict, given on August 4, had made it clear that it was mandatory for the Delhi
government to communicate all decisions to the Lieutenant-Governor.
Approval The judgement, passed by a Bench headed by Chief Justice G. Rohini, stated
that the L-Gs approval is required in relation to all services and that it is mandatory
under the constitutional scheme to communicate the decision of the Council of Ministers
to the L-G and an order thereon can be issued only where the L-G does not take a
different view.
Power tussle
Pointing out that the powers of the Governor of a Union Territory are not the same as the
L-G of Delhi, the Bench had said: In view of this fundamental difference in the powers
conferred upon a Governor of State and the L-G of NCT of Delhi, it is not possible to hold
that the L-G is bound to act only on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
With this verdict, all decisions taken by the Chief Minister and his Cabinet were to be
sent to the L-G for approval.
Huge ramifications

The verdict declared as illegal the commission of inquiry ordered by the Aam Aadmi
Party government into the CNG fitness scam in the transport department.
It also declared as illegal the commission of inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the
functioning of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), an issue over which the
Aam Aadmi Party was training its guns on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The verdict also deemed null and void the controversial appointments of the Delhi
Electricity Regulatory Commission chief, and the prosecutor in the transport scam.

Cancer of corruption and black money needed chemotherapy, says

Naidu
Author: Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: Terming corruption and black money the twin problems spreading like
cancer in the country, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu
on Thursday said, in reference to demonetisation, that a surgery was needed and was
being carried out.

Speaking at a press conference, where he released the Union government 2017 calender
on the theme Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai, Aage Badh Raha Hai, Mr. Naidu said the
cancer of corruption and black money needed chemotherapy. Some people, he added,
were saying that chemotherapy leads to hair fall, but if hair doesnt fall, you will fall.
There are problems in implementation and they are being addressed to from time to
time. Whatever is coming to our notice is being rectified also, Mr. Naidu said.
He added that demonetisation is most bold and radical step taken by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, adding that Mr. Modi never said that everything will be over by December
30. Not everything will be over, but corruption and black money will be reduced, he
said.

Good governance day

The Minister said that demonetisation was not a sudden move, as it was one of the main
issues before the 2014 general elections. He added that Mr. Modi received the mandate
in the elections and was now implementing the step.
Mr. Naidu also announced that December 25, the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, will be celebrated as Good Governance Day and a 100-day nationwide
campaign will kick-off from the day, during which Ministers and MPs will go among the
people to explain to them the initiatives taken by the Modi government.
Stating that the country needed a digital transformation, he said the government will
go among the people, from cities to villages, carrying out digital conversion.
He said meetings have been held with the Surface Transport Minister and that it might
become mandatory for buyers to first receive certification of availability of parking space
before registering a new vehicle.
This may become mandatory keeping in mind the growing vehicular population in cities
and the resulting congestion.
Press in India report
While releasing the press in India report 2015-16, Mr. Naidu said phenomenal growth of
print media sector has mandated changes in print media policy and guidelines in the past
years. The need to update policies keeping in mind the changing dynamics in the print
media sector, has resulted in evolving a robust mechanism for the Registrar Of
Newspapers For India (RNI) to maintain an updated list of publications in the country, he
said.
The Minister further said that the print industry had registered a growth of 5.13 per cent
over last year and 5,423 new publications had been registered during 2015-16.

Jet Airways said blue ice, a term used for frozen sewage material leaked
midair, as a rare occurrence which signifies a leaking toilet system,
leading to the formation of accumulation of ice in high altitude.

NGT bans open waste burning

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday imposed a complete ban on
burning of waste in open places and announced a fine of Rs. 25,000 on each incident of
bulk waste burning.
We direct that there shall be complete prohibition on open burning of waste on lands,
including at landfill sites.
For each such incident, violators, including project proponent, concessionaire, any
person or body responsible for such burning, shall be liable to pay environmental
compensation of Rs. 5,000 in case of simple burning, while Rs. 25,000 in case of bulk
waste burning, a Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said.
While directing every State and Union Territory to enforce and implement Solid Waste
Management Rules, 2016, the green panel also asked the Environment Ministry and all
States to pass appropriate directions in relation to the ban on PVC within a period of six
months. PTI

Centre spots 67.54 lakh taxpayers who did not file I-T returns
Author: Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The government has identified 67.54 lakh potential taxpayers in the FY15
who did not file income tax returns in the relevant assessment year.
The Income Tax Department has conducted the fifth cycle of data matching which has
identified an additional 67.54 lakh potential non-filers who have carried out high value
transactions in the financial year 2014-15 but did not file return of income for the
relevant assessment year i.e. A.Y 2015-16, the government said in a statement.
The Centre had introduced the Non-filers Monitoring System (NMS) to identify non-filers
with potential tax liabilities.
The information relating to the identified non-filers has been made available in the
Compliance Module on the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department, the statement
added. The information will be visible only to the specific PAN holder when they log into
the e-filing portal.
The PAN holder will be able to respond electronically and retain a copy of the submitted
response to maintain a record.

While the Government urges all tax payers to disclose their true income and pay taxes
accordingly, the Department would continue to pursue the non-filers vigorously till all the
high potential non-filers are covered.
Non-filers have been identified based on data analytics carried out by the Systems
Directorate of the Central Board of Direct Taxes about whom the information is available
in the databases of the CBDT.

Sun Pharma to acquire Novartis cancer drug

Author: Special Correspondent
MUMBAI: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Indias biggest drug company, has announced
plans to acquire a branded oncology product, Odomzo, from Novartis for an upfront
payment of $175 million (Rs.1,188 crore).
An agreement has been signed between subsidiaries of both companies and the deal will
close following anti-trust clearance and other closing conditions. Switzerland-based
Novartis AG will get an additional milestone payment from Sun Pharma as per the deal
while Sun Pharmaceutical will have to market the product globally. Odomzo was
approved by the USFDA in July 2015.
Odomzo is used for the treatment of locally advanced basal cell carcinoma (laBCC) in
adult patients that has recurred following surgery or radiation therapy, or those who are
not candidates for surgery or radiation therapy. Approximately 70 per cent of the
prescribers are dermatologists and the rest are oncologists for this class of drug.
According to IMS Health, the sales of the hedgehog pathway inhibitor grew by 40 per
cent in October 2016, compared with the same month a year earlier.
Skin cancer
Non-melanoma skin cancer is the most common form of skin cancer globally. BCC
accounts for approximately 80 per cent of non-melanoma skin cancers, accounting for
more than 2 million estimated cases in the U.S. alone, according to a statement from
Sun Pharma.
BCC consists of abnormal, uncontrolled growths or lesions that arise in the skins basal
cells, which line the outermost layer of the skin. It occurs most frequently on the head
and neck, with the nose being the most common site, according to the statement. Jesper
Jensen, Head, Biologics and Dermatology, Sun Pharma said, This acquisition has the
potential to leverage and expand the relationships that our Levulan sales team have with
the dermatologists that treat common pre-cancerous skin conditions.

Deborah rewrites record CYCLING / She competes in the

championship with a borrowed cycle
Author: M.R. Praveen Chandran

Thiruvananthapuram: She competed with a borrowed cycle yet Deborah Herold towered
over her rivals in her favourite 500m individual time trial event and breezed to a new
record on the second day of the 69th senior, 46th junior and 32nd sub-junior National
track cycling championship held at LNCPE, Velodrome here on Thursday.

Google offers new convenience: Find your way to public

toilets Service will be available on phones and desktops in
Delhi and Madhya Pradesh
New Delhi: Taking a step towards making India cleaner, Minister of Urban Development
M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday launched a Google Maps toilet locator to help people find
public restrooms.
Google Maps will provide information on thousands of public toilets in Delhi National
Capital Region and in Madhya Pradesh. Toilets can be located not just through the app on
mobile phones, but on desktop computers as well.
At the launch, Mr. Naidu that 504 cities and towns, which also include cities with
population over four million, have achieved the status of being free of open defecation. A
total of 739 cities and towns have committed themselves to achieve the target by March.
Mr. Naidu said that Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim have declared all cities and
towns Open Defecation Free (ODF) and Kerala is set to become ODF by March 2018.
Regular updates
Working in tandem with the Urban Development Ministry, Google provides the listings of
public toilets in Delhi NCR, including Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Noida and Faridabad, and
Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Information on the address and opening hours of
4,000 public toilets will be regularly updated.
Sanket Gupta, product manager, Google Maps, in a statement said, When you search
for public toilet on Google Maps in an area where the service is available, youll see a
list of restrooms near you, including the respective address and opening hours. For
instance, if youre travelling on the National Highway 8 in Gurugram, locating a public
toilet can be challenging and most often the only option is going to nearby restaurants
and cafes. Having this information handy can make things much easier.
The service will be accessible to users both in English and Hindi.
Google toilet locator is an attempt to making access to toilets easier by providing
information on their locations every 500 metres in more cities. IANS/PTI

24th Dec
Pranab against ordinance route to amend Enemy Property Act
The Amendment Bill aims to make changes to the Enemy Property Act to
guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people
who migrated to Pakistan and China after wars. Enemy property refers
to any property belonging to, held or managed on behalf of an enemy, an
enemy subject or an enemy firm. The government has vested these
properties in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India, under the Act in
1968, an oce instituted under the Central government
NITI Aayog rolls out health index
States to be ranked annually for various indicators
ealth indicators. It [the index] is meant to capture the annual incremental
improvements by States, rather than focus on historical achievements,
the Aayog said in a press release

Draft Central, State GST laws approved: Jaitley

The Goods and Services Tax Council has moved a significant step closer to
finalising the draft Central GST (CGST) and State GST (SGST) laws that

must be passed in Parliament along with two other laws to bring the
GST into implementation, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced
on Friday. The Council will meet again on January 3 and 4 to discuss the
contentious issue of cross-empowerment, the only major issue that is
lacking consensus, he added. At the next meeting, the CGST and SGST
laws would be being framed in legal language and placed before the
States. The CGST and SGST laws, a total of 197 provisions and five
schedules, have been approved, Mr. Jaitley said at a press conference
following the completion of the Seventh GST Council meeting. The legally
vetted copy of the drafts will be circulated to the States. Only issues of
dual control and cross-empowerment are left. Bi-monthly compensation
Regarding the compensation law, the Finance Minister said a few issues
were left to be settled, such as the source of the compensation fund. He
added that compensation to States for the loss of revenue, if any, from the
GST rollout, would be paid every two months

Editorial
Back to Class X Board exams (Uniformity vs creativeness)
T he excellence of a school education system must be assessed by the
creative individuals it produces. That principle can be the only meaningful
guide for the Central Board of Secondary Education, as it once again
tweaks its testing system to make the Class X Board examination
compulsory for all students from 2018. It is wrong to believe that students
in the CBSE system are not being assessed with sucient rigour: the
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) method that it follows is
aimed at identifying learning diculties periodically and instituting
remedial measures, rather than raising stress with a make-or-break public
examination at the secondary level. This philosophy helps students master
various topics and discover their aptitude in the course of a year,
eliminating the chances of a single rote-learning test that could produce
an aberrant result. The gains of such a system should not be thrown away
in the quest to bring about uniformity in the Class X education pattern
across the country. If anything, it is learning outcomes and creative
brilliance assessed through non-ritualistic aptitude tests that should rate
the capacity of an educational board. Such an approach would also
encourage teachers to innovate conceptually, rather than drill students to
face an examination. The argument in favour of a compulsoryClass X
Board examination made by Union Human Resource Development Minister
Prakash Javadekar is that its absence discriminates against candidates of
State boards. In fact, the Minister announced his intent of returning to a
compulsory Board examination well before the CBSE governing body
formally announced it. The logic, however, is flawed. Uniformity militates
against creative educational methods, and a test that is no more than a
straitjacket crushes the initiative of teacher and student. The CBSE would,
therefore, do well to avoid homogenisation, and retain sucient scope for
true learning. This can be done by giving the CCE system which the
Board calls a balance between incessant tests and a single annual
assessment equal weightage, even if all students take a Board
examination for Class X. As the CBSE puts it, overdependence on a single
examination deprives the learner of motivation and opportunities for
reflection on his or her work. It also does not find favour with the National
Curriculum Framework 2005 that emphasised greater flexibility for
teachers to decide on how to train students in concepts and help them
learn at their own pace. What India needs is a school-level assessment

method to identify actual learning that would remove barriers to students

freely migrating across State boards.

Well spun by Ashwin

R Ashwin has never been one to hide his ambition. When his international
career was still young, Ashwin said in an interview that he wanted to
dominate the game. There was no hint of braggadocio, just an unnerving
earnestness. On Thursday, the realisation of this dream was formally
recognised. Ashwin became the first spinner to win crickets biggest
individual prize, the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, since the award was
instituted 12 years ago. He is just the third bowler, after Dale Steyn and
Mitchell Johnson, to be named ICC Cricketer of the Year. He was also
adjudged Test Cricketer of the Year, only the second Indian after Rahul
Dravid to sweep both awards. Indeed, the voting period September 14,
2015 to September 20, 2016 does not fully describe his phenomenal
ascent to the top. In that time, he took 48 wickets at 15.39 and made 336
runs at 42 from eight Tests. He has added another 55 wickets (24.12) and
377 runs (37.70) in the eight Tests since. His influence was not limited to
one format; in the voting period, Ashwin had 27 T20I wickets in 19 games.
By any measure, Ashwin stands alone, an extraordinary comeback after
being dropped for the Adelaide Test in early 2015. Ashwins success has
been instrumental in India becoming the premier Test side this year. There
has been a perceptible change in culture and intent. Virat Kohli announced
it when he acknowledged that bowlers were the bosses in Test cricket.
He has backed it up, leading the batting group in shaping contests and
empowering his bowlers to win them. There was a minor storm on social
media when Kohli did not make the ICCs Test Team of the Year. But his
exclusion was easily explained: his magnificent run with the bat did not
coincide completely with the voting period. He certainly stepped up a level
against England, lifting his career average from the mid-40s to the highwater mark of 50. The context in which the runs came was more
impressive than the volume: every time a game needed seizing or settling,
Kohli attended to it. Teams tend to form themselves in the image of their
captains so, perhaps, it was not entirely surprising that India found a
hero equal to nearly any task. The experienced cricketers pulled their
weight. Those of more recent vintage K.L. Rahul, Jayant Yadav and
Karun Nair appeared to make the transition without missing a beat. The
side had to deal with injuries, which did not permit a settled playing
eleven. But the momentum was unaected. India will face stier
challenges, especially overseas, as it seeks to build a legacy as a worldbeater. For now, 2016 has been a good launch pad.

An equal music, a beautiful society

No aspect of life in India from the exalted heavens of the classical arts to
the most mundane pits of bodily waste can escape the totalitarian
structure of caste
The Magsaysay Award jury was astute in recognising the public
spiritedness of Bezwada Wilson and Krishna, and their concern
with the problem of caste
A recent event in Delhi brought together two Indian winners of the 2016
Ramon Magsaysay Award, Bezwada Wilson and T.M. Krishna, in a wideranging conversation about freedom of expression, nationalism and

inequality, issues of pressing concern. Both were outspoken against a

growing majoritarianism, and passionate about building an egalitarian and
just society through their respective fields. Wilson, 50, national convener
of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, is a campaigner against manual
scavenging; and Krishna, 40, is a prominent exponent of Carnatic music
and a public intellectual.
The two men share a commitment to free speech and equal
citizenship, to addressing entrenched forms of exclusion,
discrimination and violence based on caste, to democratic rights
and the Indian Constitution. They come from absolutely unrelated
areas of engagement, and from personal backgrounds that are far apart,
but what is remarkable is how they converge in their social activism as
well as their shared ability to communicate clearly and forcefully with
large audiences. The Magsaysay Award jury was astute indeed in
recognising the laudable public spiritedness of both Wilson and Krishna,
and their common concern with the problem of caste.
The annihilation of caste
Manual scavenging including the removal, carrying and disposal
by hand of human excrement, and the physical cleaning of
latrines, sewers and septic tanks, a task invariably assigned to
Dalits (including men, women and children) has been targeted
for eradication since Gandhi came back to India a hundred years
ago. It was the Mahatma who began to insist, in the face of tremendous
resistance, that all his family members and associates, regardless of caste,
class and gender, clean toilets themselves. An Act of Parliament in 1993
ocially banned the employment of manual scavengers and the
construction of dry latrines. And yet it continues today, perpetuating the
most extreme forms of indignity and oppression, causing disease and
death, reducing life expectancy, and making the occupation of thousands
of Indian citizens a living hell.
Wilson has been campaigning to put an end to this abominable practice
for close to thirty years. The turning point for him was around 1990-91, the
birth centenary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), that brought the life
and work of the great Dalit leader back into the mainstream of national
consciousness and forced the government of the day to implement the
Mandal Commission Report, expanding the scope of armative action
against caste-based social inequality. How can India proceed with its
ambitious economic and political agendas for growth, change and
prosperity, Wilson asks, when such an archaic form of caste discrimination,
a kind of slavery and a form of torture, continues to exist and to ruin
countless Dalit lives?
Krishna comes at caste from the direction of the arts, particularly Carnatic
music, for almost a century now the preserve of elite urban Brahmin men
whether as composers, singers, musicians, accompanists or listeners
in Chennai and other artistic capitals of southern India. He has been
arguing that what is now considered Carnatic classical music and what is
now called Bharatanatyam classical dance were both originally the
provenance of women, especially temple dancers and courtesans, and of
non-Brahmin holding communities like the Isai Vellalars. These groups
were sidelined and their art forms taken over by socially dominant

Brahmin practitioners and patrons, who cleansed the music and dance of
their vernacular, erotic, demotic and popular character, and reinvented
them as classical, religious, refined and urbane. The temple courtyard and
the noisy village square gave way to the kutcheri and the sophisticated
concert hall as performance spaces, which closed their doors to ordinary
people.
In 2015 Krishna announced his decision to stop performing in the
December concert season in the Tamil month of Margazhi of Chennai,
even though he has been the star of this vaunted annual cultural event
from a young age. He now organises a new wintertime music festival in
the small fishing village of Urur-Olcott Kuppam in Chennai, teaches music
and performs free concerts at corporation schools, trains girls and women
in Carnatic vocal and instrumental music, and extends the ambit of his
pedagogic outreach to tribal, rural and marginalised communities. He has
also expanded the repertoire of music that he himself sings, including
modern Hindustani and Bengali forms. Most recently he has made joint
appearances with the Jogappas, a transgender community of devotional
folk performers, associated with the goddess Yellamma, from northern
Karnataka and contiguous parts of the Deccan (Andhra and Maharashtra),
unimaginable in the hallowed halls of classical music for the Carnatic
orthodoxy
Self-purification and self-respect
Krishna and Wilson together, as a pair remind one of the late D.R.
Nagarajs insightful formulation of self-purification and self-respect as
the two modalities of a moral resistance to caste, especially
untouchability, flowing from Gandhi and Ambedkar, respectively. According
to Nagaraj, the caste Hindu and especially the Brahmin self must purify or
purge itself of its impulse to exclude or hurt the untouchable, while the
Dalit self must assert its intrinsic worth and inalienable dignity even in the
face of relentless discrimination.
Krishna, constantly aware of and critical about his own birth, training,
conditioning and privilege, has been advocating strenuously that Carnatic
music de-Brahminise itself, undertake some social re-engineering as
an act of self-purification to render itself less unequal and more inclusive.
The arts are after all a microcosm of society, reflecting and even
amplifying its inequalities. Wilson meanwhile states unequivocally that if
the Constitution guarantees the self-respect of Dalits, then an abhorrent
demeaning practice like manual scavenging simply cannot be allowed to
persist in todays India.
But what is more striking than this obvious dialectic of self-purification and
self-respect, which can be traced back to Gandhian and Ambedkarite
stances on caste, is how both Krishna and Wilson in their own ways
struggle to actualise what Ambedkar called social endosmosis. This is
the natural flow and exchange of ideas, values, practices, knowledge and
energies between and across groups that Ambedkar lamented could not
occur in the rigidly stratified and segregated Hindu social order. The
traditional caste system controls social reproduction through strict
endogamy, and places nearly insurmountable taboos on cohabitation,
commensality and other forms of conviviality and commerce between
dierent castes.

Ambedkar and social endosmosis

Untouchability may have been outlawed through Article 17 of the Indian
Constitution, but that is only the most extreme way to keep human beings
and fellow citizens apart. In fact, Indians of dierent castes even today
seldom eat together, live together, intermarry or in other ways participate
in each others life-worlds across the invisible yet impenetrable barriers of
caste. As Krishna has shown, in a manner that is all the more eective for
being so blunt, we cant even sing together, an indicator of how little we
hear the speech, the pain, the yearnings, the silences of others.
No aspect of life in India from the exalted heavens of the classical arts to
the most mundane pits of bodily waste can escape the totalitarian
structure
of
caste:
this
was
Ambedkars
rage
against
varnaashramadharma, the total society. From music to excreta, everything
is segregated, violating the basic principle of equal citizenship. Having
Krishna and Wilson come together on a common platform exemplifies
what Nagaraj characterised as the necessity for modern Indians to
address, simultaneously, the beauty and the horror of caste. My
journey began from the question of beauty, Krishna said. What is
beauty? For a moment this seems like a strange way to begin thinking
about the cultural politics of Carnatic music, or indeed any other art form,
but it turns out to be an enormously productive line of inquiry. As Wilson
points out, an equal society is the most beautiful thing that human beings
could make.
Why cant scientists, planners and bureaucrats come up with a way to end
forever the scourge of manual scavenging, Wilson demands, not just a
moral and political alternative but a technological and policy solution?
Krishnas path has been more challenging to interpret as a radical move in
the politics of aesthetics. In systematically educating himself and us about
the actual historical origins and forgotten trajectories of Carnatic music; in
abandoning the highest prosceniums for unexplored spaces and
unexpected audiences; in opening himself to the sounds and rhythms of
every kind of community populating the hum and hubbub of India; in
learning to listen and unlearning how he was taught to sing, he has
indisputably transformed himself as an artiste.
Articulate to a fault, Krishna reflects, writes, lectures and teaches
continuously about what he is doing. But even if he were not to talk about
it explicitly, any sensitive listener can hear in Krishnas voice as it
continues to evolve, over the past couple of years especially, a note of
compassion, empathy and sweetness that deepens immeasurably the
musical experience for singer and audience alike. This is not just amazing
virtuosity, which he has had from the very beginning. It is, rather, the
sound of virtue itself, the profoundly moving melody of an ethical music. Is
there only suering for the Dalit condemned to manual scavenging, Wilson
was asked. The fight for justice is itself the greatest happiness, he
answered.

Letters to editor

With poor literacy, connectivity and networking in villages, and an

inadequate density of banking in villages, is it feasible to fully embrace
going cashless? The country has the worlds largest population of illiterate
adults at 287 million, amounting to 37 per cent of the global total (UN
report, 2014), who cannot be wished away
Manipur to end blockade
Manipur is another State which has not known what normal life is ever
since the imposition of AFSPA, 1958 (Editorial Ending the Manipur
blockade, Dec.22). In spite of halfhearted attempts by the Centre to
present political solutions to the conflict between the Kukis, the Nagas and
the Meiteis apart from populist measures by the Ibobi Singh government,
there is no backbone in any of the measures. Corruption has eaten away
at the moral right of the States political leaders to work towards a
solution. The Centres response to a crisis is usually knee-jerk, till the next
crisis flares up. There is no political will to sort out Manipurs problems, so
people continue to migrate toDelhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Reports of
child tracking, prostitution by poverty-stricken women, drug addiction
and alcoholism are on the rise. These are the side eects of a
dysfunctional society left on the margins of Indian politics.

25th Dec
What is the Western Pacific Biotwang? It is the name of a newly
discovered whale call. The sound, which ranges from a low moan to a
screechy metallic tone, has puzzled researchers ever since it was first
recorded in 2014. This week, scientists have proved that it belongs to a
species called the minke whale. Oceanographers from Cornell and Oregon
State Universities, U.S., figured this out via passive acoustic ocean gliders
(autonomous vehicles that monitor underwater sounds) near the Marina
Trench of the Pacific Ocean. The call lasts 2.5 to 3.5 seconds and ranges in
frequency from 38 to 8,000 hertz (cycles per second). The Minke whale is
the smallest species of baleen whale, which gets its food by filtering krill
and small fish from the water through baleen plates in its mouth

Mapping disease with big data

Gagandeep Kang
Outbreaks of infectious diseases threaten lives, our health and the economy. In a world
where people make multiple contacts at work, home or in leisure activities, live in closebuilt environments, and where travel is frequent, outbreaks arise and spread rapidly.
Recent multi-country viral outbreaks such as Ebola and Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) claimed thousands of lives and cost billions of dollars.
When diseases are predictable, theoretically, health systems can be designed to manage
them. In India, this does not happen because hospital bed occupancy is high; but
planning ensures supplies and drugs.
But in a public health-care system that is already stretched, when new diseases emerge
recognition and response are slow and frequently inadequate in the early stages of the
outbreak. Once the outbreak has spread and is more widely recognised (especially if
there is political pressure), all available resources are brought to bear on the outbreak.
This results in a gross disruption of services available for routine health care, resulting
in unrecognised damage that can impact the structure of the system and delivery of
health care well beyond the outbreak.
Hits and misses
Recognising the importance of surveillance, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare set
up an Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) at the National Centre for
Disease Control that uses district and State-level systems to report weekly on outbreaks

of disease across India. Efforts have been invested in building the system and trying to
increase its capacity to generate actionable data. But even years after initiation, the
bulk of surveillance reports continue to be syndromic, with less than a third of outbreaks
laboratory confirmed.
Although 40 to 50 outbreaks are reported each week, the most common outbreak
reports are of diarrhoeal disease and food poisoning. Media scanning and analysis are a
part of the tracking system, but there are lacunae because the IDSP did not report
cases of chikungunya in September 2016 in Delhi.
A different parallel system for infectious disease surveillance has come from the National
Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP) which built a reporting system for 40,000 reporting
points. However, between the IDSP and the NPSP, the differences in focus and in
methods even in diseases that overlap between the two programmes lead to discrepant
data which can be challenging to address.
Using data
There has been a great interest in using data that is gathered incidentally to recognise
outbreaks early or predict the potential for outbreaks. For example, Google Flu Trends
launched in 2008, aggregated Google search queries to provide estimates of influenza
trends in 25 countries. When it was initially compared to the tracking systems at the
U.S.s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it predicted the influenza
season two weeks before CDC. However, it failed to predict the 2013 flu season and was
halted in 2015. Analysis showed how big data analytics requires caution and a changing
of algorithms over time. Nonetheless, the use of collated data sources for insights for
public good is a key challenge that needs to be overcome to build rapidly responsive
collaborations between industry, governments and academia, that share data while
protecting individual privacy.
The velocity, variety and volume of big data defined by time and location are a resource
that is currently underutilised in India because we have not yet built the systems for
collaborations for the analysis and the inference we need for public health. In fact,
chikungunya in Delhi was picked up by PromedMail and HealthMap, an online
aggregation system. Planning for the use of such networks should be a key strategy in
our plans whether it is for infectious disease outbreaks or other emergency situations.
Gagandeep Kang is Executive Director, Translational Health Science and Technology
Institute, Faridabad, Haryana

FOOD FORTIFICATION Getting right, the nutrient spike The

FSSAIs move on food fortification comes in the wake of concerns of
over-fortification
According to the proposed regulation, the target foods to be fortified also
include rice, maida, vanaspati and atta
Author: Jacob Koshy

In October, Indias Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a Union
Health Ministry body, took a decisive step towards tackling Indias malnutrition crisis. It
made public a draft Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations 2016
that specifies that all fortified food, manufactured, packed, labelled, handled, distributed
and sold, whether for profit or under a Government-funded programme, ought to
adhere to a minimum set of standards.
Need for standards
Salt-makers adding iodine to their ware and claiming it as fortified, would have to
ensure that no less than 30 parts per million (ppm) of iodine ought to be present when
manufactured. Also, the iron content of salt ought to be 850-1100 ppm. Similar
standards are specified for vegetable oil and milk to be fortified with vitamin A or vitamin
D. Moreover, every package of food, fortified with iron needs to state that it is is not
recommended for people with thalassemia and people on low iron diet.
The time is ripe for introducing fortification norms in India. The World Banks Nutrition
at a Glance research report states that India loses over $12 billion in GDP to vitamin
and mineral deficiencies; 48 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted, 43
per cent are underweight, 20 per cent are wasted, and more than 1 in 4 infants are
born with a low birth-weight. (FACTS)
According to the proposed regulation, the target foods to be fortified also include rice,
maida, vanaspati and atta, which would be enriched in different combinations by
iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin D, folic acid (vitamin B9), thiamine (vitamin B1),
riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), pyridoxine (vitamin B6) and cobalamin
(vitamin B12).
So far there is no requirement that certain foods undergo mandatory fortification, but
Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, FSSAI, told The Hindu that the option
was always open. Benefits apart, FSSAIs move comes in the wake of concerns of
over-fortification of food.
Concerns about too much
The U.S.-based Non profit Environmental Working Groups review of fortified foods
currently on the market found that young children are at risk of consuming too much of
three nutrients vitamin A, zinc and niacin.
In their analysis published in 2014, the group warned that fortified breakfast cereals
were a key source of excessive intake because all three nutrients are added to fortified
foods in amounts calculated for adults, not children. Pregnant women and older adults
may also be consuming too much vitamin A from other fortified foods, such as snack
bars. Vitamin A, zinc, and niacin are all necessary for health, but excessive doses can
cause toxic symptoms.

According to their investigation, routinely ingesting too much vitamin A from liversupplements can, over time, lead to liver damage, skeletal abnormalities, peeling skin,
brittle nails and hair loss. In older adults, high vitamin A intake has been linked to hip
fractures. Taking too much vitamin A during pregnancy can result in developmental
abnormalities in the foetus. High zinc intake can impair copper absorption and negatively
affect red and white blood cells and immune function. Niacin is less toxic than vitamin A
and zinc, but consuming too much can cause short-term symptoms such as rash, nausea
and vomiting.

Issue of implementation

However, Mr. Agarwal emphasised that over-fortification wouldnt be a problem in India.

The permissible range of nutrients that were allowed to be added are well below the
bodys maximum tolerable limits. So even if a person were to eat just over-fortified food
all day, it would still be below the required dietary allowance (or the minimum amount of
a nutrient that a person requires), he says, so we dont foresee a problem with that.
However, he has concerns about implementation. The top 10 to 12 manufacturers of
processed food may be able to comply with the requirement but cottage industries or
smaller manufacturers may be hard-pressed.
jacob.koshy@thehindu.co.in

Land of religious body can be acquired: HC

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a land belonging to a religious body
can be acquired for a public purpose while asking the Church of North India Association
and NHAI to work out modality for demolition or shifting of a church for construction
of a six-lane road.
Once there is public purpose for which land in question has been acquired, invoking
provision of the National Highways Act, 1956, then no relief can be accorded to the
petitioner, the court said, disposing the plea of the Church of North India Association
which had challenged a August 17, 2012, notification by which four plots of land were
acquired in Firozabad district for construction of a by-pass connecting Agra with Etawah.
A Division Bench comprising Justices V. K. Shukla and M. C. Tripathi, however, in its
December 19-order said that in view of Christmas festivities, the structures should not
be demolished for the period of one month but thereafter the aggrieved party and the
NHAI should work out modality for demolition or shifting of the same.
Violates rights: petition

The association had moved the court contending that the impugned notification hurts
the sentiments and religious conscience of the Christian community which violated the
right to freedom of religion and the freedom to manage religious affairs guaranteed
under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.
The petitioner had also argued that the acquisition of the land violated the Place of
Worship (Special Provisions) Act which safeguards all religious properties.
The court said that the Place of Worship (Special Provisions) Act only bars any person
from converting any place of worship of any religious denomination or different religious
denomination and that the provision had been introduced to see that communal
harmony is not disturbed and persons of one religious community may not take on the
other. - PTI

interviewl.v.sastry Payment services to be next game changer

Telcos need to enable the transition of millions of customers from
traditional to digital platforms
Author: Oommen A. Ninan
Telecom companies need to espouse the one digital strategy especially after
demonetisation to give a push to digitalisation, according to L.V. Sastry, VP & Business
Head, Mobile Banking and Commerce, Aircel Ltd, a provider of mobile and broadband
services. He dwells upon the next wave of growth in an interview. Edited excerpts:
How has demonetisation been for the telecom companies? Has it helped the industry?
Thankfully, the demonetisation move of the government has come as a boon for telcos
who want more and more customers to get used to digital platforms for availing services
and paying for them.
Telcos have tried for many years to transition their customers to digital store fronts for
availing and paying for services.
Already, a sizeable numbers of payments for telecom recharges and bills are being paid
online and digitally. In the next wave of the digital transition, we will see more and more
people getting on the digital bandwagon.
Hence, there is no doubt why the telcos are more than enthusiastic in rolling out
payment and wallet services.
This, surely, could be the next game-changer as far as customer retention and forging
stronger relationships are concerned.
The game has only just begun and its a long haul. There is no better player to play this
game than the telcos who already have 800 million customers.

Do demonetisation and digitalisation make sense for telecom companies to get involved
in mobile wallet and payment solutions?
The epoch-making revolution unleashed in India by the recent announcement of
demonetisation and the replacement of high-value notes by the government is being
perceived by telcos as the next wave of growth. With over 800 million users already
being served and over 200 million of them using mobile wallets, the current drive of the
government to push the use of digital and cashless payments is turning out to be a very
big fillip to new growth.
Telcos run and service 800 million customer relationships and hence mobile wallet and
payment services fit in very well in the one digital strategy for telcos.
Is there money to be made? How can telcos ensure digital transition for millions of
customers?
While this space has seen hyper-competition with over 25 active wallet service providers,
the biggest sweet spot for telcos has been cross-selling financial services.
The governments move of demonetisation has pushed the financial services agenda
within the telcos ambit and top telcos are well-placed to play a significant role in making
India a less cash society with nearly 100 per cent of adult population in India having a
relationship with one of the telcos as a customer.
As we have seen over last few weeks, the quantum of discounts and cashbacks offered
to online customers to use wallet services has been steadily coming down. The actual
use cases are coming to light and real-world problems getting tackled. We have seen
hoards of merchants now coming to accept small payments due peer-to-peer (P2P)
payments and a large number of big merchants coming on board and accepting wallet
payments. When we look at daily sundry payments where digital wallet payments can be
accepted, they include dairy products makers, newspaper vendors, cable TV partners,
quick service restaurant (QSR) chains etc.
What are the key challenges telcos are expected to face in transiting from traditional to
digital platforms?
For telcos, the biggest challenge in recent times has been to control churn and add value
to existing relationship with the customer. Over the last decade, this relationship was
fostered by way of Value-Added Services (VAS), additional talk time, additional data etc.
In the last couple of years, it has been seen that such offers and price-offs are not
enough to control the waning of customer loyalty.
Digital payments offer a new kind of VAS service opportunity for telcos to make an even
stronger pitch with a stronger bond.

For this to succeed, the telcos need to make the transition of millions of their customers
from traditional to digital platforms.
How can a telco add value to existing services and differentiate themselves from their
competitors using customer loyalty? The ARPUs (Average Revenues Per User) also need
to create a self-sufficient ecosystem?
To succeed in this fast-changing landscape driven primarily by technology disruptions
and regulatory innovations, there are three important imperatives for telcos to adopt:
First, telcos need to espouse the one-digital strategy. Today, a customer is confused over
multiple digital store fronts and properties from the same brand.
Typically, we have seen that telcos would have one digital customer front for telco
services and a different one for financial services.
Many a time, both these businesses within the company are competing with each other
for customer attention cross selling services.
So, today, it is very much possible for the customer using the website of the voice
services business to make payments and likewise, use a different website of the same
brand dealing with wallet services to avail of telco services. There is an urgent need to
simplify the life of the customer and integrate these websites in such a manner that they
converge into one.
Second, within telcos, there is synergy needed with both the teams working closely and
together in such a manner that a customer gets a unified experience and well-knit offers
from same brand.
The alignment of people, even rolling into one single functional head as part of one
digital strategy, is paramount.
Third, and most important, there is an urgent need for unified processes for customerfacing work-flows such as on-boarding, activation and servicing. Can the telcos on-board
a new customer at the same time with the same documentation both for telecom
services and wallet services? This is an important process change for telcos. There has
been a discussion to allow a unified KYC (know your customer) for both telecom and
wallet services. To some extent, this issue is resolved via the e-KYC route of Aadhaar.
However, the need for a different set of documentation as mandated by Department of
Telecommunication and the RBI separately needs to be done away with. Fortunately
again, the widespread seeding of Aadhaar will further help telcos in seamlessly onboarding customers for both telco services and payment services.

=============================================
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26-12-16

6,117 Kuchipudi dancers put A.P. in Guinness book Performers from

India, U.S., Dubai, U.K., Russia, Hong Kong create a record
Author: G.V.R. Subba Rao

VIJAYAWADA: With a spectacular Mahabrinda Natyam show, a dizzying array of 6,117

performers created a new Guinness World Record here on Sunday, for the largest
Kuchipudi dance.
The record-creating entry is Jayamu Jayamu, presented in unison, and the certificate
for the feat was handed over to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu by Guinness
adjudicator Rishinath.
The dancers were from various age groups: as young as 5 to more than 60 years old.
The record event was preceded by two days of Kuchipudi conferences, including lecture
demos for the budding artistes. Veteran dancers took part to encourage younger talent.

Jayamu Jayamu, is considered a rich example of Kuchipudi, choreographed by the

legendary Vempati China Satyam, and it was chosen for the record attempt Mahabrinda
Natyam. Dancers from across the country were joined by those from U.S., Dubai, U.K.,
Russia, Hong Kong and Mauritius.
Dancers of Chinese origin who had learnt the form came from Hong Kong. Sundays
performance lasted 13 minutes. The Guinness requirement is a minimum of 5 minutes to
attempt an entry into the records.
A similar performance was held a couple of years ago in combined Andhra Pradesh, in
Hyderabad, with a smaller complement of dancers. After bifurcation, the A.P.
government has been focusing on promoting Kuchipudi, which takes its name from a
village in Krishna district, 50 km from here.

Inspired by village

SiliconAndhra, a cultural non-profit organisation which has been building momentum for
the event in association with the Andhra Pradesh Government, staged it at IGMC
Stadium.
The Mahabrinda Natyam was part of the 5th International Kuchipudi Dance Convention
hosted by the state Department of Language and Culture. The audience was also treated
to Ananda Tandavam, another hallmark Kuchipudi composition by Vempati China
Satyam, presented by Madhavapeddi Murthy.
Mr. Naidu described the Guinness entry as a proud moment for Telugus and artists.
Inspiration for the artistes comes from the village, and they are enthused to excel, he
said.
The Chief Minister said the A.P. government had sanctioned Rs. 100 crore for promotion
of Kuchipudi dance.
It would appoint dance teachers to every school with an honorarium of Rs. 12,000
shortly. Parents should encourage children to learn the dance form as an extra-curricular
activity, he suggested.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu saw in dance one of
64 art forms the capacity to help promote peace and harmony. SiliconAndhra founder
and chairman Anand Kuchibhotla, eminent Kuchipudi gurus of yesteryear Raja and Radha
Reddy, Yamini Krishnamurthy and many others commended the performers, particularly
those from abroad, after they danced their way to the new record.

Rules tweaked as govt. is sensitive to feedback: Modi Changes also

meant to thwart the corrupt, says Prime Minister
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday defended the frequent changes in
cash deposit and withdrawal rules after demonetisation, terming these as signs of a
government sensitive to the peoples feedback as well as a response to the ways being
devised by the corrupt to thwart the governments drive.
Why are rules changed time and again? This government is for the sake of the people.
The government continuously endeavours to take feedback from them, Mr. Modi said in
his monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat. What are the areas of difficulty for the
people? And what are the possible solutions? The government, being a sensitive
government, amends rules as required, keeping the convenience of the people as its
foremost consideration....
This drive, this war is an extraordinary one. For the past 70 years, what kind of forces
have been involved in this murky enterprise of perfidy and corruption? How mighty are
they? When I have resolved to wage a battle against them, they too come up with new
tactics every day to thwart the governments efforts, he added.

New responses

To counter these new offensives, we too have to devise appropriate new responses and
antidotes. When the opponents keep on trying out new tactics, we have to counteract
decisively, since we have resolved to eradicate the corrupt, shady businesses and black
money. He said that while many rumours had been spread to criticise the move, the
faith of people had stood intact. Mr. Modi underlined that political parties were not above
the law of the land, saying he had wanted to discuss political parties and political funding
in Parliament.
He announced the formal launch of the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapaar
Yojana to promote cashless transactions as a Christmas gift for people.

Amaravati to host biodiversity park

Author: V. Raghavendra

VIJAYAWADA: Sakhamuru, a nondescript village in Thullur mandal of Andhra Pradesh will

host the single largest lung space in the States capital region in the form of a 200-acre
botanical garden.
The AP-Capital Region Development Authority (AP-CRDA) which is developing it, has
identified a 100-acre parcel of land for the garden and got it incorporated in the master
plan, official sources said.
The plan is to establish it across 200 acres, but for the time being, the initiative is
limited to half that area. The garden will expand at a later stage. The botanical reserve
will have a rich variety of plants intended to act a repository of diverse types of flora
from the region, said a senior project official.
When complete, the garden will serve as as a tourist spot and a place of interest for
school and college students.

Six plant nurseries

Besides, six nurseries set up by the landscaping and environment wing of the CRDA at
Mandadam, Kondamarajupalem, Navuluru, Penumaka, Velagapudi and Venkatayapalem
will help raise greenery across the region.
These facilities have a collection of 10 lakh saplings.
Two other big projects undertaken by the CRDA are those which will give Gannavaram
Ramavarappadu and Kanaka Durga VaradhiPottur (Guntur Rural Mandal) stretches of
the respective national highways a green look by raising plantations along the central
dividers.

Krishna green belt

Further, a 100-metre wide green belt is to be created along the course of the Krishna
river.

The CRDA gets designs for landscaping and avenue tree planting from the A.P. Urban
Greening and Beautification Corporation and hopes its green drive will help meet goals
and objectives on tree cover contained in Central and State laws.
The AP Biodiversity Board lists 2,800 plants as important, of which 1,800 are used in
traditional medicine.

Make justice system sympathetic to sexual abuse victims, says SC

Lodging FIR becomes more difficult when accused happens to be a family
member, observes apex court
Author: Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The time has come for criminal justice system to mould a survivor-centric
approach in dealing with cases of sexual violence, especially for victims of child abuse for
whom the trauma will scar them for life, the Supreme Court observed.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and A.M. Sapre said the criminal justice system needed
significant reforms to institutionalise a more sympathetic approach in which the sexual
abuse survivor was the focus.
It would be adding insult to injury to tell a woman that her rape claims will not be
believed unless it is corroborated in material particulars, the court observed in a recent
judgment.
The court was restoring the conviction of a man found guilty of raping his nine-year old
niece in 2009. He was sent to jail for 12 years.
The court found, in this case, positive proof and a credible sequence of events linking the
man to the crime.
The verdict, based on the appeal filed by the Himachal Pradesh government, dismissed
the defences argument that there was a delay in filing the FIR in the rape case, which
they claimed was fabricated.
It is not easy to lodge a complaint of this nature exposing the prosecutrix [victim] to
the risk of social stigma which unfortunately still prevails in our society, the court
responded. Moreover, it added that a decision to lodge FIR becomes more difficult and
harder when the accused happens to be a family member.
Justices Sikri and Sapre also observed that in many cases rape by family members was
not reported to the police by the victim or her immediate family, fearing social stigma.

2016 saw judiciary-govt. hostility

The genesis of this often overt hostility started when the SC struck down
the Centres NJAC laws
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: The year 2016 has been marked by the hostile interface between the
judiciary and the government like never before over delay in judicial appointments.
The genesis of this often overt hostility between the two constitutional branches of
governance in the worlds largest democracy started towards the fag end of 2015 with
the Supreme Court striking down the NDA governments NJAC laws.
Controversies refused to die down through out the year and reached its zenith with
rumours abound that the government is moving to put a spoke in the well-oiled
convention of making the seniormost Supreme Court judge, Justice J.S. Khehar, who led
the NJAC Constitution Bench, the next Chief Justice of India.
The notification of appointment of Justice Khehar was issued only days before January 3
despite Chief Justice Thakur sending his formal proposal recommending Justice Khehar
as his successor early in December.

Confident start

The year started on a confident note for the judiciary with Chief Justice Thakur declaring
it to be the Year of Appointments, thus making his intention clear to fill the hundreds of
judicial vacancies kept on freeze owing to the NJAC litigation in the Supreme Court
during the large part of 2015.
But in April, the world saw an unprecedented sight when an emotional Chief Justice
Thakur, during a public function attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accused the
government of stalling judicial appointments. This was the first of the several abrasive
and very public encounters the judiciary and the government would have inside and
outside the courtroom.
While the Chief Justice accused the government of trying to bring the courts to a
grinding halt, the government hit back in court that the judiciary itself was to blame for
the delay in appointment of High Court judges. When Chief Justice Thakur threatened
judicial action against the government for not filling over 440 vacancies, Law Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad parried by asking why the High Courts have not done anything to
fill over 4,900 vacancies in subordinate judiciary all over the country.

On Constitution Day recently, the tensions between the two flared up when the
government accused the Supreme Court of failing the nation during the Emergency
period and blamed the judiciary of indulging in judicial activism. In return, Justice
Khehar cautioned the government to not cross the Lakshman Rekha.
The year also saw a number of important judgments and timely interventions, especially
when it had compelled the Centre to conduct a floor test in the Uttarakhand Legislative
Assembly following the declaration of Presidents rule in the State and restored
democracy by putting the Congress-led Harish Rawat government back in power.
Its intervention had followed a Constitution Bench decision upholding the independence
of the Legislative Speaker by quashing the Arunachal Pradesh Governors decision to
advance the Assembly hearing. The Governors decision had triggered political unrest in
the sensitive border State and led to Presidents rule. The judgment led to the toppling of
the BJP-propped rebel government.

Tax on goods

A Constitution Bench, in a majority 7-2 verdict, also upheld the validity of States to tax
goods entering their territories, saying State governments are well within their rights
to design their fiscal legislation.
The court stood up for the farmers of West Bengal when it held the States acquisition of
land for Tatas Nano car factory under the emergency clause as unconstitutional. It
observed that the brunt of development should not be borne by the weakest sections of
the society.
The interventions made by the court crossed all sections of the society, from banning
liquor vends on highways; to ordering people to stand up for the National Anthem at
cinema halls to show respect; to whether online jokes about Sikhs was a slur on the
community; to questioning the governments resolve to bring the Kohinoor diamond.

Lodha committee

Sports also saw the impact of judicial intervention when the apex court ruled in favour of
millions of cricket lovers in the sub-continent by supporting the Justice R.M. Lodha
Committee recommendations to usher in transparency within the BCCI. Review petitions
of the Board against the ruling were dismissed.

The court further revived the single-window NEET exam for admissions to undergraduate
medical and dental courses. It upheld the right to clean environment by imposing a
blanket ban on the sale and manufacture of firecrackers in the National Capital Region. It
further levied a green cess on commercial vehicles entering Delhi and luxury diesel
vehicles to beat pollution.

Section 377

In a ray of hope for the LGBT community, the Supreme Court agreed to have a back-toroots and in-depth hearing of their legal struggle against the criminalisation of
consensual sexual acts under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
The court took an unprecedented step to test whether practices like nikah halala, triple
talaq and polygamy amounted to discrimination against Muslim women. While its
intervention led to Mumbais Haji Ali dargah authorities to modify their rules and allow
women devotees equal access like men, the court is hearing the ban on women of a
certain age group from entering the famous Sabarimala shrine in Kerala.
The Supreme Court stood firm by its resolve to ban Jallikattu, questioning the need to
tame a domestic animal like the bull.

Cauvery issue

The court intervened in the Cauvery river water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil
Nadu, ensuring that Karnataka released 2000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu. It further
dismissed the Centres plea that the apex court has no jurisdiction over the dispute.
The court allowed Italian marine Massimiliano Latorre to stay back in his native country
like compatriot and co-accused in the murder of two Kerala fishermen, Salvatore Girone.
In a significant ruling, the court stood up for victims of encounters with the police and
the security forces by holding that every death in a disturbed area, be it of a common
man or a militant, should be thoroughly enquired into by the CID at the instance of the
National Human Rights Commission.

A goods and services tangle

Soon after the seventh meeting of the Goods and Services Tax Council last week,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said only one difficult issue remains pending to enable the
implementation of the new indirect tax regime. The Centre is determined to introduce
the GST from April 1, 2017, and given the time constraints posed by that deadline, Mr.
Jaitley expressed hope that States would rise to the occasion and help resolve the issue.
It can be safely assumed he was referring to the turf battle between the Centre and
States on sharing administrative powers over taxpayers in the new system, even if this is
not the only hurdle left to cross. This was the first time the Council met after the
washed-out winter session of Parliament, with no movement on four enabling GST
legislations. Over two days last week, the Council managed to clear the current drafts of
the Centre and State GST Bills and agreed on a two-monthly compensation payout to
States, instead of a quarterly one, for revenue losses they might incur after the switch.
The trickiest tangle of cross empowerment or dual administrative control will now be
taken up in the first week of 2017, along with the model integrated GST Bill and the
legalese around compensation payments to States.
Even though an April 1 roll-out now looks increasingly unlikely, the Councils next
meeting is critical to enable the GST laws to make it to the Budget session of
Parliament. States have mooted a July 1 start for the GST regime, and that date could
be pushed as far as September 16, 2017, following which all existing indirect taxes will
lapse. Since it is a transaction tax, the GST can technically be started any time of the
year. Although that would be an accounting headache for firms, industry may be better
off with the extra time to prepare for the new order. Between now and then, the Centres
self-imposed 50-day deadline for reducing the pain caused by the demonetisation of
high-value currency notes would have passed too. States may harden their stance on
GST negotiations if the remonetisation process hasnt picked up by December 30. The
Centre has so far brushed aside demands from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal for
additional compensation to make good the revenue losses triggered by the slump in
demand in the ongoing currency crisis. But even BJP allies have begun to raise concerns.
It is unlikely to be a coincidence that soon after the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister spoke
out about the implementation of the demonetisation exercise, his representative in the
GST Council said the State would not accept the levy of a cess by the Centre in order to
reimburse States. The Centre may need to rise to the occasion as much as States do to
steer the GST regime forward.

Indictment by abstention

In what is yet another diplomatic blow for the two-state principle, the UN Security
Council, on Friday, passed a resolution with a 14-0 majority urging Israel to halt its
illegal settlements programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. The vote is notable

as Israels pre-eminent backer, the United States, chose to abstain. By doing so, the
Barack Obama administration bucked its earlier record of vetoing a similar resolution in
2011. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was prompt in promising a different response
once his tenure commences on January 20. He had sought to work behind the back of
Mr. Obama in trying to scuttle this resolution by reaching out to Egypt, which originally
drafted it but backed down from its nomination due to intense pressure. But it will be
difficult for the Trump administration to have this resolution overturned, passed as it was
without a veto. That said, the resolution, by way of its adoption under Chapter 6 of the
UN Charter, is not binding and comes only with recommendations. It therefore does not
affect the status quo in the occupied territories. Even so, its unambiguous language
stating that the settlements constitute a violation of international law offers hope for the
Palestinians who have filed a suit (that includes the construction of settlements) against
Israel in the International Criminal Court.
Israels reaction has been predictable. It has refused to comply with the terms of the
resolution. It has repeatedly sought to create new facts on the ground by continuing to
build settlements, imposing a blockade on Gaza, forcing international censure to only
keep apace with its latest violations. This outrageous behaviour has been made possible
by the unrelenting support provided by the U.S. in the past. While Mr. Obama has had a
testy relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his administration
continued to fund and arm Israel despite, for example, the atrocities in Gaza. The U.S.
had also recently worked out a deal that provides $38 billion in military aid over 10 years
to Israel, cementing long-established strategic ties. Seen in this light, the
administrations decision to abstain in the most substantive resolution on Israeli
settlements since 1980 is even more remarkable. It is also a possible parting shot by the
outgoing administration before the unambiguously partisan Trump team takes charge.
Either way, it is up to the international community to take the cue and find ways to check
and censure Israels brazen rule-breaking, and forge a fair solution for the Palestinians.

A grim outlook for Europe The world faces the prospect of increased
terrorist activity in multiple regions, especially in Europe. Intensified
surveillance of suspected groups or individuals can help only a little
There will now be more pressure on law enforcement to produce results
even if it means using methods which may not exactly pass the test of law
or ethics R.K. Raghavan

The assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey by a lone gunman at an

exhibition, in Ankara in Turkey last week, is clear evidence of the enlarging contours of
terrorism. Turkey is no longer a merely troubled country. Its geography and chequered
history make it a potentially very grave theatre of conflict. The perpetrator, who was
later shot dead by security forces, was a policeman said to have jihadist links. It is
naive to dismiss the Ambassadors killing as a mere act in reprisal for Russias direct

involvement in the Syrian offensive against its rebels. It is far more than that. The attack
reflects growing exasperation by a wide spectrum of forces in West Asia at gross
external interference. Therefore, the daring murder cannot be viewed in isolation and
has to be necessarily linked to the overall problem of terrorism across the globe.

Eyes on Russia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on the horns of a dilemma: whether to go the
whole hog and align himself with the extremist elements propping up the jihadist cause
in order to broaden his eroding support base in the country, or still pretend to be
moderate for the sake of conserving his fragile ties with the West. He seems
embarrassed and weighed down by the dynamics of a fast-evolving situation. Knowing as
we do of Russian President Vladimir Putins petulance and panache for high-handedness,
he may not be expected to take the killing of his envoy lying down. What form his
response will take is anybodys guess. With Mr. Putin showing no signs of reneging on
his pledge to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whatever more the Russian leader does
will further muddy the waters. He has already imposed a team of a Russian
investigators, and this might cause some resentment within the Turkish police.
Another attack, which saw a man drive a speeding tractor-trailer through crowds of
shoppers at a market in central Berlin, which killed 12 and injured many more, and yet
another attack by a lone shooter on a Muslim prayer hall in the Swiss city of Zurich in
which some people were injured almost simultaneous to the Ankara incident
strengthen the impression that lone wolf attacks have become the order of the day. That
jihadi groups prefer this modus operandi is logical if one reckons that it is swift and
efficient, requiring few other resources or any concerted or elaborate preparation.
Europe is possibly going to bear the brunt of future savagery that could energise a wide
spectrum of forces, such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State (IS) and a host of fringe outfits
which are smarting under growing restrictions of governments in the continent on
religious symbols such as the hijab and the hood.

Political fallout

Two leaders in particular are going to face the heat, with its own consequences to the
nations they lead. Mr. Putin, who already has a dubious record in Chechnya, may have
to face the impact of a dangerous, direct coalescence between rebels there and terror
groups in at least three countries, viz.,Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Not that there is no
existing active collaboration between Chechen elements and jihadist forces in West Asia.
There are several reports that point to a sizeable number of Chechens fighting from

within IS ranks. It may be recalled that an attack by armed Chechens on a theatre in

Dubrovka in Moscow, back in 2002, had resulted in 170 casualties.
An equally endangered personality is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is facing
what is billed to be a tough general election to decide whether she will get a fourth
term. Her decision to allow in a million refugees from West Asia has already led to
strong protests from the extreme right in the country, which is linking the recent Berlin
terror attack to her benevolence in providing sanctuary to far too many refugees. If she
has to win the nations mandate one more time, she may have to be seen as acting
tough, which could again be easily distorted as targeting Islam. If she acts excessively
tough in the process of proving her credentials as a German nationalist, there could be a
series of terror forays into the country.
The IS has claimed responsibility for the Berlin incident, but some analysts do not give
credence to this. It has been seen in the past year that whenever a terrorist act is
reported from any part of the globe, near or remote, the IS has been quick to take
credit. Alongside this phenomenon, we are aware that since losing its strongholds in
Syria and Iraq, the IS is under immense pressure to look outward and make its presence
felt through spectacular actions. The relatively freely available ingress into Europe of
cadres escaping from West Asia especially the liberal admittance to Germany
combined with the absence of internal borders, a major loophole of the Schengen
agreement, facilitate indoctrinated elements arriving in the continent to resort to terror
after an initial survey of the land and hiding behind the cover of some trade or the
other. The fact that apart from the recent attack on one of Berlins Christmas markets
there have been at least six previous instances of terror in Germany over the course of
a year makes sense that the latter country has a high vulnerability. German agencies
first suspected the involvement of a Pakistani immigrant who was seen at the scene by a
local resident. In quick time they realised that they were on the wrong track and
released him. The recovery of a few identification documents from the truck that was
driven into shoppers in the market led to a chase to apprehend a Tunisian national, Anis
Amri, who had arrived in Europe a few years ago seeking asylum. Amri was then traced
in northern Milan and shot dead by the Italian police. There is information that he could
have had links with virulent Salafist circles, especially Abu Walaa, a known Iraqipreacher based in Hildesheim in Germany. It is alleged that Walaa had recruited some
youths to the IS. Walaa was once detained briefly by the German police and then let off
for lack of evidence.

Psychology of terror

Amris profile is interesting. The 24-year-old Tunisian was born in the central Tunisian
town of Oueslatia, in one of the countrys poorest regions, and dropped out from school
early. His failure to secure decent employment influenced him to sneak into Europe. He

was under German police watch while awaiting deportation to his home country.
Thereafter he went off the radar to commit his dastardly crime in Berlin. His family back
home refuse to believe that he had such a fanatical streak. This is the pattern seen in
many past instances across the globe. The immediate kith and kin of a perpetrator of
terror hardly vouch for an indoctrinated mind, confirming that indoctrination is an
invisible and subtle process difficult to detect even by the members of a well-knit family.
It is equally true that where an individual is reported by his day-to-day contacts, such as
neighbours or colleagues at an office, for displaying abnormality, the police find little
evidence that will attract the attention of the law. The hard truth is that one can scan the
physical body of a suspected terrorist, but you cannot unravel his mind to frustrate his
evil designs. This is the travesty that marks the world of terrorism in the present day.

The response

In more substantive terms, recent attacks make law enforcement officials believe that
terror groups have altered their tactics. Apart from encouraging individual sympathisers
to act spontaneously on their own, the groups seem to have endorsed the modus
operandi of using a motor vehicle to drive into crowds in order to create all round panic
and cause as many casualties as possible. We saw this in Nice in July when an armed
man who owed allegiance to al-Qaeda drove a truck through a crowd that had gathered
to watch Bastille Day celebrations in Nice. The explanation of some security experts to
this novel form of violence is that this kind of attack is easier in terms of logistics and
effortlessly evades the police eye. No great preparation is required. You need only to hire
a truck on payment by presenting false identification. This is an eye-opener that has to
be kept in mind while organising security arrangements on important national
celebration days.
In sum, we face the prospect of increased terrorist activity in multiple regions of the
world, and especially in Europe. Intensified electronic and physical surveillance of
suspected groups or individuals can help only a little. Therefore, there will be more
pressure on law enforcement to somehow produce quick results even if it means using
methods which may not exactly pass the test of law or ethics. This is as fundamental an
analysis as is possible in a terror-stricken world.

R.K. Raghavan is a former CBI Director.

Letters to editor
Sahithya M.A.,New DelhiKanika Garg,New DelhiSharha Firoz,New DelhiAkhil
Pandey,New DelhiDiwakar Prasad Tiwari,Bara, Satna, Madhya PradeshN.
Rajendran,PalakkadAnjali B.,ThiruvananthapuramSurya Rajkumar,Sonipat,

HaryanaShreyans Jain,New DelhiD. Manohara Rao,VisakhapatnamAshok

B.B.,Mysuru

Despicable practice

To read about an atrocity such as witch labelling and hunting still being practised in
India sends shivers down the spine (Ground Zero page The witches of Jharkhand,
Dec.24). The State administration has a huge role to play in preventing such inhumane
practices. Since people appear to be losing their lives over issues such as disease and
even insufficient rains, expeditious development activities are imperative to prevent
further victimisation. A portal where one can contribute solutions will be a good step
forward and help bureaucrats.
Sahithya M.A.,

New Delhi
Women in India continue to be the victims of age-old social evils shaped by
unchallenged and set gender roles. It is also quite ironic that when the nation is
dreaming about being cashless, digital and corruption-free, we have large segments who
are still fighting for the basic right to live. Illiteracy and a lack of general awareness
are at the core of such insane acts.
Kanika Garg,
New Delhi
It is sad that there are still large parts of India where there are a forgotten few who
experience the dark side of life.It is obvious that State legislation is ineffective. Perhaps
a beginning can be made by making schoolchildren aware of outdated beliefs and
superstitions which do not have a place in a modern India.
Sharha Firoz,
New Delhi

There are large parts of rural India in the grip of violence and crime being perpetrated
against those who are marginalised. It is clear that there is an unchecked mob
mentality, and the states weak institutional response is to blame. There must be a
social movement to check the herd mentality besides efforts to foster a scientific
temper.
Akhil Pandey,
New Delhi
When India is moving towards a digital economy, inhumane and irrational practices are
creating hurdles in the path towards inclusive development. I think that there is need
for awareness programmes through Anganwadis, panchayats and NGOs.
Diwakar Prasad Tiwari,

Bara, Satna, Madhya Pradesh

That such gory incidents are still taking place in a country which is robustly discussing
demonetisation and plastic money is one of lifes bitter ironies. The revelation of what
drives a group of men to commit such brutal acts is shocking that women with social
awareness and who are bold enough to rebel against injustice are singled out as
witches to justify the killings. Action against such savage offenders is a must.
N. Rajendran,
Palakkad
Illiteracy is the primary culprit behind this grotesque social evil, as are the paucity of
primary health-care facilities, poverty and a lack of awareness. The sustainable key to
expunging the practice lies in emancipation of tribal folk by improving their basic
amenities of health, livelihood, education and the like.
Anjali B.,
Thiruvananthapuram

The musical connect

I completely stand with Bezwada Wilson and T.M. Krishna in their contentions about
freedom of expression, nationalism and inequality (An equal music, a beautiful society,

Dec.24). However, I would like to react to some of the statements on Carnatic music.
Carnatic music in the past was never a provenance of women. It was only because of
singers such as M.S. Subbulakshmi and M.L. Vasanthakumari that the realm of Carnatic
music became open to women. Second, there is no factual validity to the point that
Brahmins cleansed the music and dance of their vernacular character. This is evident
as the evolution of Carnatic music dates back to the Vedic period and its development
became possible only because of the original work of Purandara Dasa and later the
trinity of saints, Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dhikshitar and Syama Sastri.
The Carnatic music art has also seen several non-Brahmins. With Carnatic music
increasingly becoming a a part of co-curricular activities in many schools, the art has
already become de-Brahminised. Nobody is ever stopped from learning Carnatic music.
Surya Rajkumar,
Sonipat, Haryana

Statue politics

That political parties lock horns in order to lay claim to the political and cultural legacy
of historical icons and build their own partisan narratives around their ideologies is not
new (Nothing can stop Shivaji memorial project: Fadnavis, Dec.24). The Bharatiya
Janata Party centred its politics around symbolism to appropriate the legacy of Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel and projected a politically unsound thesis to convert its own prejudices
into principles disguised as the Statue of Unity. Now, by laying the foundation stone for
the Shiv Smarak, the Prime Minister has seemingly conveyed a subliminal message.
But the costs of statue politics go beyond their unveiling ceremonies. In his address to
the Constituent Assembly, B.R. Ambedkar cautioned against following the path of
devotion or hero-worship, regardless of how great or tall the leader is.
Shreyans Jain,
New Delhi

An exam set to return

The decision to make the Central Board of Secondary Education Class X Board
examination compulsory from 2018 raises doubts about the autonomy of the countrys
premier educational body (Editorial, Dec.24). The CBSEs credibility has taken a severe

beating as it tweaks its testing methods evidently to suit the whims and fancies of the
people in the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Continuous and
Comprehensive Evaluation aims to destress students besides promoting creativity.
Over-dependence on a single examination robs the learner of motivation and an
opportunity to reflect on his or her work. The decision is a blow against educational
institutions pursuing creative methods, which are now blatantly downplayed in the name
of a uniform mode of testing.
D. Manohara Rao,
Visakhapatnam
An education system should not be centred around one board and its evaluation. For a
long time now, this system has spoiled the creative space of a child by pushing him or
her to focus on only scoring high marks. Continual evaluation is the key to making a
child aware of different possibilities. Besides reducing stress, it enables a child to
explore his talents. Going back to the same age-old system only for the reason of
ensuring similarity is no solution at all. The education system has to evolve with the
overall development of a child.
Ashok B.B.,
Mysuru

Continuity and change

The shift from monologues within echo chambers to dialogue brings out the
limitations of the closed circuit narrative of the social media A.S.
Panneerselvan

The demonetisation debate offers the perfect platform to bid adieu to 2016 and welcome
2017. If the queues for cash disappears by the end of this year, it would mean Prime
Minister Narendra Modi took the right policy decision but his government botched it up
with terrible implementation. If people are going to be subjected to cashless misery in
the new year too, it would mean the decision was wrong.
The immediate cash crunch and everyday difficulties are not without a positive fallout.
Some relentless letter writers, who take pride in finding fault with journalisms
interrogating aspect and its central creed to speak truth to power, have gone silent.
Instead, the letters we have been receiving since November 8 show a desire to
understand the implications of this policy decision. The personalised attacks on opinion
writers and reporters have given way to dialogue, discussion, and exchange of ideas.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs lead article in this newspaper, Making of a
mammoth tragedy (December 9, 2016), the responses to it in the comment section by
Bibek Debroy and S. Gurumurthy, and a rejoinder to the responses by Rajeev Gowda
were read widely. These discussions were not subjected to troll-like abuse. What we got
was either endorsement of a viewpoint or rejection based on individuals understanding
of the policys implication.
The sudden shift from monologues within echo chambers to dialogue brings out the
limitations of the closed circuit narrative of the social media and the enabling role of the
legacy media in forcing a debate during a crisis. This becomes even more important
when political parties fail to discuss the issue in Parliament, where the proceedings were
repeatedly stalled to score a political point this winter session. The Hindu is the site for
continuity and change it advocates the need for continuing ideas, policies and
practices that have worked and presses for changes in areas where the need for
transformation is acute. I hope this level of engagement, which has returned after a gap
of two and a half years, remains the mode of communication even in the new year.

Ethical obligation

The inquisitive nature of readers often forces me to spend more time in the archives and
the library. Their desire to know not only the facts but also the circumstances in which
the facts emerged is a reminder of the ethical obligation of writers and journalists of this
newspaper. K. John Mammen, a reader who still relishes writing in longhand and sending
mails through the Indian Post, sent us photocopies of two different articles published in
The Hindu and its sister publication Frontline on Albert Einsteins observation about
Mahatma Gandhi.
The Hindu article was a column by Shashi Tharoor, Was there such a one as this? (July
3, 2005). The other was a column by K. Natwar Singh in Frontline, A simple man and a
great leader (February 13, 2004). Dr. Mammen was intrigued by the two differing
periods attributed to Einsteins most cited quote about Gandhi: Generations to come, it
may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon
this earth.
According to Mr. Singh, Einstein said this in 1939 when Gandhiji turned 70. However, Dr.
Tharoor in his column attributes it to Einstein saying it upon learning of the death of the
Mahatma, which was in 1948. Dr. Mammen, who has photocopies of The Hindu that
cover the passing of Gandhi and the subsequent period, could not find any statement by
Einstein. I presume that Singh is exact and Tharoor is not. However, many go by
Tharoors quote as regards the occasion, he wrote. He wanted a credible clarification
from The Hindu to set the record straight.

The facts that emerge from the collected works of Albert Einstein are fascinating.
Einstein had lively and engaging conversations with three interesting Indian minds:
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and Jawaharlal Nehru
(1889-1964). In 1939, Einstein was asked to write for an anthology by S.
Radhakrishnan, then a professor of Eastern religions at Oxford University. Einstein gladly
accepted, and contributed to the Birthday Volume Gandhi (1939). But that did not
contain the famous quote.
However, for the same occasion, Einstein also issued a statement about Gandhi, which
was later published in his anthology, Out of My Later Years (1950), in which the famous
quote was the concluding statement. The text of that statement is: A leader of his
people, unsupported by any outward authority: a politician whose success rests not upon
craft nor the mastery of technical devices, but simply on the convincing power of his
personality; a victorious fighter who has always scorned the use of force; a man of
wisdom and humility, armed with resolve and inflexible consistency, who has devoted all
his strength to the uplifting of his people and the betterment of their lot; a man who has
confronted the brutality of Europe with the dignity of the simple human beings, and thus
at all times risen superior. Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a
one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. Einstein did write a eulogy
for Gandhi after his death but he did not repeat these words in it.
readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

Speak up for the Rohingyas How India responds to the crisis will give
a clue to its aspirations as a South Asian power
Do the Rohingyas have to belong to a particular religion to get the attention
and importance they deserve from India? Syed Munir Khasru

As a response to protests in East and South Asia and beyond over the deteriorating
Rohingya situation in Rakhine, Myanmar called for a special meeting with Foreign
Ministers of ASEAN last Monday in Yangon. The crisis has already killed 130 Rohingya
Muslims, and has left dozens of buildings in their villages torched. Around 30,000
Rohingyas have been displaced internally and thousands have tried to flee to
neighbouring countries, especially Bangladesh, through perilous routes. While leaders of
the European Union have proactively debated and responded quite positively to finding a
humane solution to the European migration crisis, emerging leaders in Asia such as
China and India have remained mostly passive on the long-standing Rohingya refugee
crisis, one that has direct geopolitical implications for both countries. China and India
share a border with Myanmar and have vested economic interests in the country owing
to trade and investment ties. And yet, the response of India, the most mature
democracy in Asia with much-touted pluralistic and secular ideologies, is rather
disappointing.

Selective help

The plight of the Hindu minorities in neighbouring Bangladesh is always taken seriously
by India. In June, when a priest from Bangladeshs Ramakrishna Mission received a
death threat, allegedly from the Islamic State, India swung into action, and the issue
was given high priority by the Ministry of External Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in Bangladesh was immediately contacted by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
Similarly, in the last five years, around 1,200 Hindus facing persecution in Pakistan have
been provided shelter in Delhi. However, the Rohingya issue, which is also the
persecution of minorities in a neighbouring state and on a much larger scale, has
garnered little attention from Indian policymakers. The inevitable question then is, do
the Rohingyas or any other minority group have to belong to a particular religion to get
the attention and importance they deserve from India?
In spite of them living in Myanmar for decades, the Rohingyas have no legal standing
and are seen as illegal settlers from Bangladesh. There are restrictions on them in areas
such as land ownership, marriage, employment, education, and movement. In the 2014
census, the first in three decades, Myanmar officials said they would not accept those
who registered themselves as Rohingyas. Buddhist nationalists threatened to boycott the
tally over fears that it could lead to official recognition for the Rohingyas. The temporary
ID cards which were given to the minority community were also revoked in 2015 as
result of protests from Buddhist majority groups.
India has a robust civil society, media, and human rights groups, but there are hardly
any voices on the pathetic plight of Rohingya Muslims. The only exception was in 2012
when civil society groups urged the then Indian Prime Minister to end violence against
the Rohingyas by engaging with Aung San Suu Kyis pro-democratic National League for
Democracy party. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
there are around 9,000 Rohingyas registered in Delhi and thousands more unregistered
living in other parts of the country.
If India wants to project itself as a regional leader, it has to rise above narrow economic
and geopolitical interests and take a stance consistent with the moral and spiritual values
with which it identifies. The crisis not only holds humanitarian significance, but also
bears security implications for India and the region. The persecuted Rohingya Muslims
are likely to provide fertile recruiting grounds for extremist groups. There have already
been reports of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan funding terrorist outfits in Myanmar. In 1971,
India provided shelter to millions of East Pakistani refugees. The end of the war also saw
one of the most orderly and peaceful return of refugees to their land from India.

The cost of turning a blind eye

This shows that India has a good track record of providing humanitarian assistance and
facilitating smooth repatriation of refugees from the neighbourhood. However, that spirit
seems to be missing today in the case of the Rohingyas. The legal conundrum faced by
the Rohingyas in their native land and their lack of access to bare minimum human
rights goes against the principles of the universal declaration of human rights. The UN
has declared the group as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. The
international community only speaks out when the refugee crisis reaches its worst stage
when villages are torched, or people are stranded at sea in search of land to take
refuge. The crisis, if left at its current precarious stage, risks spiralling out of control and
will have security and economic implications for its neighbours. Oversight and
nonchalance may prove to be costly in the long run.
Syed Munir Khasru is Chairman, The Institute for Policy, Advocacy, and Governance,
Dhaka. Email: munir.khasru@ipag.org

Soft border approach can bring India into CPEC

Indias objection to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor arises from its
passage through PoK
Author: Atul Aneja

BEIJING: A focus on establishing soft borders between India and Pakistan, rather than
a final settlement of boundaries in Kashmir, can lead to New Delhis rapid integration into
an expanded China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), says a top Chinese academic.
In an interview with The Hindu, Tsinghua University Professor, Li Xiguang said the
concept of soft borders, one that avoids a hard settlement of disputed boundaries,
offers a way forward for regional cooperation.
Earlier this month, Prof. Li was in Gwadar to participate in an international maritime
conference on CPEC. The conclave, sponsored by the Pakistani Navy, included
participants from China, Pakistan, Iran and the German Marshall Fund.
An endorsement of soft borders by New Delhi and Islamabad would address Indias
core objection to the CPEC its passage through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Endorsed by Manmohan

The concept of soft borders as a pragmatic solution to the Kashmir dispute is not new.
In 2005, shortly after a bus service from Srinagar and Muzaffarabad had started,
Pakistans former President Pervez Musharraf had called the opening of cross-border
transport routes as the first step towards converting [the Line of Control] into a soft
border. His remarks followed similar observations by former Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh. Short of secession, short of re-drawing boundaries, the Indian establishment can
live with anything, he told columnist Jonathan Power in a 2004 interview. He added that
we need soft borders [as] then borders are not so important. People on both sides of
the border should be able to move freely.
However, Prof. Li has extended the idea of soft borders to both Kashmir and
Afghanistan in order to impart regional inclusiveness to Chinas Belt and Road
connectivity project, manifested in the CPEC.
If Kashmir has a soft border, I think CPEC could unlock Kashmir and make it a part of a
much grander regional transportation network, with Srinagar as one of its important
nodes. Remember, in earlier times Kashmir used to be the terminal of the Silk Road it
was part of the route pursued by diplomats, connecting Central Asia, Kashgar, Ladakh
and Delhi.
Prof. Li also highlighted that Pakistan and Afghanistan should accept soft borders as the
touchstone for resolving their differences along the Durand Line.
The Chinese scholar stressed that Afghanistan is the heart of Asia. We already have
trains running from China to Uzbekistan and then across the Amu Darya into
Afghanistan. In the future, we can connect Afghanistan with Balochistan. He also
strongly advocated a common initiative by China and India to impart stability to
Afghanistan.
Instead of developing as rival hubs, Prof. Li strongly supported the Iranian port of
Chabahar, and Gwadar as sister-ports. Chabahar, which is being jointly developed by
Iran, India and Afghanistan, and Gwadar, are separated from each other by only around
100 km.
Asked whether it would be unrealistic to expect India to support the idea of sisterports, in view of apprehensions that China may build a military base in Gwadar as part
of its perceived consolidation in the Indian Ocean, Prof. Li said: During my stay in
Gwadar, ... [n]ot once did I hear any proposal about establishing a Chinese naval base in
Gwadar. No one talked about it. On the contrary there is much talk, especially from
businessmen about developing Gwadar on the Dubai model, which would be inclusive
and open. That is why Gwadar port will be an international hub not only for China and
Pakistan, but also for Central Asia, Iran and Russia, which has historically felt the need
for warm water ports.

Directors independence has been severely compromised

Author: L.V.V. Iyer

The recent tussle within the Tata Group has thrown up some interesting corporate
governance challenges.
One of them relates to independent directors. The institution of independent directors
has been one of the noteworthy innovations in the 21st Century, which has been initially
buffeted by big corporate frauds.
The bulwark of the institution of independent directors is the statutory nudge for
independence of these directors.
Recent corporate events in India betray the near-collapse of this principle. By being
enabled by statute to remove independent directors in the same manner as ordinary
directors, the cause of directorial independence has been severely compromised.
Schedule-IV to the Companies Act, 2013 contains the code for independent directors.
Clause VI of this code says that the resignation or removal of an independent director
shall be in the same manner as provided in Section 168 and Section 169 of the
Companies Act, 2013.

Simple majority

As far as resignation of an independent director is concerned, there is no difficulty in

complying with Section 168 of the Companies Act, 2013. The difficulty arises when
removal of an independent director is also in the same manner as provided in Section
169 of the Companies Act, 2013 for ordinary directors.
Under Section 169 of the Companies Act, 2013 (as was the case under Section 284 of
the Companies Act, 1956) a director could be removed by an ordinary resolution. An
ordinary resolution in law can be passed with a 51 per cent majority, which in other
words, means a simple majority.
Since the promoter shareholders in many companies, both listed and unlisted, can easily
muster 51 per cent support for removal of an independent director, this may act as a
deterrent for an independent director to act with independence on the boards of
companies. While the nascent institution of independent directors is yet to find its feet in
India, such deterrence is not desirable at all.

Performance evaluation

Clause VIII of Schedule-IV provides for performance evaluation in respect of independent

directors. According to this clause, performance evaluation of independent directors shall
be done by the entire board of directors, excluding the director being evaluated. It is on
the basis of this report of performance evaluation that the continuation or otherwise of
an independent directors term is determined.
Keeping the larger purpose in mind, the higher judiciary is legally justified in reading
down the removal provision in Section 169 to apply only for a removal pursuant to a
poor performance evaluation by the board of an independent director.
Like what is stated in Schedule-IV that contains the code for independent directors, since
the appointment of an independent director is proposed by the board, the removal of an
independent director likewise should also be recommended by the board of a company.
Only upon such a recommendation should the shareholders of a company have the
power to remove an independent director, by an ordinary resolution under Section 169 of
the Companies Act, 2013. This would prevent dominant shareholders from piloting the
removal of an independent director. The consensus at the board level along with the
majority of independent directors required for the removal of an independent director
would act as a bulwark against any capricious desire of the dominant shareholder to
remove independent directors.
Under the legal system, it is a settled position that a person who is authorised by statute
to do something is also deemed to be authorised to undo what is done. Therefore, it is
most desirable that Schedule-IV to the Companies Act, 2013 is amended by clarifying
that removal of an independent director should only be done on the recommendation of
the board including that of the majority of independent directors.
Effective corporate governance in Indian companies is absolutely necessary for growth
and economic resurgence. Without such a statutory backing, there is always an
existential threat to independent directors. If the hitherto venerable Tata group could
venture to remove an independent director in a seemingly capricious way, what could be
said of others?
(L.V.V. Iyer is a corporate lawyer and is the author of a standard book on company
directors.)

Russia offers technology to keep hackers at bay

Author: Peerzada Abrar

Russian Quantum Center (RQC) said that it is ready to collaborate with India and offer its
quantum technology that will prevent hackers from breaking into bank accounts. RQC
plans to offer 'quantum cryptography that could propel India to the forefront of hack
proof communication in sectors such as banking and national and homeland security.
We are ready to work with Indian colleagues. It (the technology) can't be bought from
the United States as it deals with the government and security, said Ruslan Yunusov,
chief executive at RQC, in an interview.
Established by Russia's largest global technology hub, Skolkovo, in 2010, RQC conducts
scientific research that could lead to a new class of technologies.
These include developing 'unbreakable cryptography' for the banks and the government
organisations. It also involves research in areas such as materials with superior
properties and new systems for ultra-sensitive imaging of the brain. The research is
mostly funded by the government money.

Quantum cryptography

The 'Quantum cryptography' created by RQC depends more on physics, rather than
mathematics. It is based on the usage of individual particles or waves of light (photon)
and their intrinsic quantum properties to develop an unbreakable cryptosystem,
according to TechTarget, a technology media firm. This is feasible as "it is impossible to
measure the quantum state of any system without disturbing that system," according to
TechTarget.
Mr. Yunusov, a PhD in Physics from Lomonosov Moscow State University, said that RQC is
willing to collaborate as Russia and India are part of BRICS, an association of five major
emerging national economies.
He also mentioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that India is Russia's
'privileged strategic partner'. I think if we start the work with the Indian partners, we
will be supported by our governments also, he said.

Banks hacked

Experts say that a technology like quantum cryptography is relevant at a time when
hacking targets are multiplying in India as the country goes digital. Researchers in India
at cybersecurity company FireEye recently discovered phishing websites created by
cybercriminals that spoofed 26 Indian banks in order to steal personal information from
customers.
In another incident, the security of about 3.2 million debit cards got compromised in the
country. Technology company Yahoo too faced a huge data breach when it discovered a
hacking attack dating back to 2013 that may have affected more than one billion of its
user accounts.
If IT giants like 'Yahoo' are vulnerable, we can well imagine the cyber risks that banks
or financial institutions can experience, with the current surge in digitisation," said
Trishneet Arora, an ethical hacker and chief executive of cybersecurity start-up TAC
Security, in a statement.
However, hacking attacks cannot only be performed using normal computers. Mr.
Yunusov of RQC said that as quantum computers get sufficiently powerful they would be
able to easily decrypt today's internet communication. Quantum computers exist today
but are experimental, small and include only few quantum bits.
Companies like Google, IBM, Intel and Microsoft are already working on it. This year
Google announced that it is working on protecting Chrome against possible attacks of
quantum computers. The search giant is doing this by deploying post-quantum
cryptography in an experimental version of the browser.

Decryption key

The traditional encryption depends on transmitting a decryption key along with the
secret information.
The recipient then uses that key for deciphering that secret data. But hackers can clone
this key and steal the information.
To address this problem the most promising application of quantum cryptography is
Quantum key distribution (QKD). RQC said that two users can establish QKD session,
that allows them to obtain a random private key. QKD is distinct as it encrypts this key
on light particles called photons.
A hacker trying to clone or read such a key would automatically change its state, due to
fundamental principle of quantum mechanics. It would also leave a hacker fingerprint.
This means the recipient and the transmitter can easily detect the attempts to read or
intercept the information.

Mr. Yunusov said the QKD solution developed by the RQC was used for establishing
quantum keys between two bank offices in Moscow.
RQC said the developed solution can be a central point of quantum-safe infrastructure
for banks, financial and governmental institutions ensuring absolute security of
communication.

27-12-16

India needs lower taxes, higher compliance: Jaitley

Payment of legitimate taxes is part of a citizens duty
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said India needs lower taxes to
compete globally and that voluntary tax compliance by citizens should be encouraged by
a friendly administration.
He was inaugurating professional training of the 68th batch of Internal Revenue Service
officers at the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics.
We have lived through the last seven decades in India under the impression that if
avoidance could be done of government revenue, then there was nothing immoral about
this. That was considered commercial smartness, Mr. Jaitley said.
Payment of legitimate taxes is part of a citizens duty, and non-payment is visited with
severe consequences.
According to the Minister, extraordinarily high taxation rates in the past have
encouraged people to evade taxes. What you need is lower level of taxation, to provide
services more competitive in nature, he said.
Competition is not domestic, it is global. This is one important change you will witness
while you will be in service.

Voluntary compliance

He said he foresaw an India where voluntary compliance increases. Tax authorities are
judged by the quality of what they write or decide. The level of fairness followed by
authorities will define the quality of interpretation of tax laws by authorities. The
voluntary compliance by citizens by payment of due taxes needs to be reciprocated by
authorities through a tax-friendly administration.
Mr. Jaitley also told the trainees that tax officers should have high integrity.

A museum to showcase yaadon ki baaraat The 25-lakh

project in Kozhikode will display rare photos, LP records of
Mohammed Rafi
Author: K.P.M. Basheer

KOZHIKODE: Yaadon. Yaadon ki baaraat. Memories, sweet, sour and lovesick. It was to
memories that Mohammed Rafi gave voice in a surprisingly large number of his film
songs. Now, 36 years after his life abruptly turned into a haunting memory for millions of
his fans, a museum is coming up to commemorate Rafi at Kozhikode, the city where his
voice is still a live presence.

Annual concert

The Kozhikode-based Mohammed Rafi Foundation announced the museum on December

24, the singers birth anniversary. Every December 24, the foundation holds a Rafi Nite
on the historic Kozhikode beach. Thousands of fans, mostly porters, hairdressers,
autorickshaw drivers, and small traders, show up, to listen to songs sung by well-known
Rafi singers. Ashish Srivastava from Mumbai was the key singer at last Saturdays Rafi
Nite, held on the sands by the sea under a star-lit night.
We plan to finish the Mohammed Rafi Museum and Studio by July 31, his death
anniversary, P. Prakash, general secretary of the foundation, told The Hindu.
It will contain rare photos, albums, LP records and whatever memorabilia we can get
hold of. All his songs would be available at the museum so that fans can walk in, select
their favourite song and listen to it in specially made listening slots. They can also get
their favourite songs recorded.
The 25-lakh project would be the first of its kind to commemorate Rafi, Mr. Prakash
said. The building to house the museum was provided by the heirs of the late Jaffer
Khan, businessman and philanthropist.

Rafi, football

Kozhikode people could perhaps be the most passionate Rafi fans anywhere in the
world, Ravi Menon, journalist and song historian, told The Hindu. Its amazing that the
devotion transcends generations. He points out that football and Rafi constitute the
common denominator of the Kozhikodans. These two bind people across the religious
and economic divides.

NGT notice to ministries on plea by six children

New Delhi: Affected by alarming levels of air pollution in west Delhi, six children have
moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT), prompting it to seek a reply from the Central
and Delhi governments.
A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices to the
Ministries of Environment and Urban Development, the Delhi government, the Delhi
Development Authority, the Central Pollution Control Board and others, seeking their
replies in two weeks. The matter is listed for next hearing on January 27.

Time-bound action plan

The NGT was hearing a plea filed by Umesh Kumar, Aditi Bhardwaj, Abdul Razzaq, Harsh
Dahiya, Prince Lakra and Vivekanand through their legal guardians seeking directions to
prepare a time-bound action plan to curb pollution in Mundka and Kirari.
The plea, filed through advocates Rahul Choudhary and Meera Gopal, states that the
presence of thousands of industries in the already over-congested area has worsened the
condition.
In addition to industrial pollutants, heavy vehicular movement is also witnessed in the
area, particularly due to presence of commercial area with big godowns warehouses,
which has further affected ambient air quality and the environment. It is submitted that
there is negligible green lung or buffer in the whole stretch to absorb the pollution. Also,
the tree count in the area is very low..., the plea states.

There were around 50 schools in the area, with more than one lakh students. Of these
students, many suffer from breathing problems especially during winters, as polluting
gases concentrate during this period.

Shocked to find Ghalib ki Haveli in an unkempt state

Author: Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: On the occasion of Mirza Ghalibs 220th birth anniversary, members of the
Ghalib Memorial Movement have expressed disappointment over the state of Ghalib ki
Haveli and blamed government agencies for not maintaining the premises.

Littered with rubbish

They lamented that the the memorial, restored by Firoz Bakht Ahmed, lies as dead,
defunct and forlorn two-roomed haveli in a mere 110 sq yards. Uma Sharma, eminent
Kathak proponent, said there are people who have become opportunistic enough to
cash-in on Ghalibs fame, but had failed to care for the haveli. Members of the Ghalib
Memorial Movement said they were shocked to find the place littered with rubbish on
December 25, as they gathered at Town Hall for a candle light procession. The haveli
houses a bust, some framed pieces of Ghalibs ghazals, some books on him, copies of his
handwritten letters and a few brass utensils from the poets time. The members alleged
that the inner cubicle, where Ghalibs statue is placed, is littered with empty cardboard
cartons, a blanket and the bag of the guard there who is hardly seen there.

Illegal structures

Besides, illegal structures, allegedly set up at the behest of the local MLA, have been
built recently on the first and second floors, the members alleged. In his plea for the
memorial, Mr. Bakht had demanded 400 sq yards, but was given just 110 sq yards.

Women who took loans from MFIs hit by note ban

Author: G Sampath

New Delhi: Women who have taken loans from micro-finance institutions (MFIs) have
been hit by demonetisation, said Ms. Mariam Dhawale, the newly elected general
secretary of the All-India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA), the womens wing
of the CPI(M).
MFIs deal with groups of 15 to 20 women. Every woman in the group takes a loan of a
few thousand rupees and has to make a repayment every week. If one of them is unable
to pay, the others have to make up for it. Many women have been unable to meet their
interest payments due to demonetisation either because they lost their jobs or because
they have not been paid wages. They are badly abused by other members of their group.
Unable to take the humiliation, many women have run away from their villages. Some
have even committed suicide, Ms. Dhawale said.

Request to RBI

Elected at the 11th national conference of the AIDWA held in Bhopal earlier this month,
Ms. Dhawale said that the association had approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
with a request to issue a directive halting the forced collection of loan repayments by
MFIs until the currency crisis is resolved. But there was no response from the RBI, she
added.
At our national conference, there were 788 delegates from 23 States. We heard stories
from women who had come from across the country. Women often save money without
their alcoholic husbands knowing. But when they go to a bank they are cross-questioned
and frequently sent back empty-handed. This is absolute harassment, she said.
Thanks to demonetisation, alcoholic husbands and wife-beaters have managed to claim
their wives hard-earned savings. Its an absolute disaster for households headed by
women. These women mostly work in the unorganised sector and are paid in cash. Since
many of them do not have bank accounts, how will they convert their money? They
stand to permanently lose their meagre savings, Ms. Dhawale said. In tribal areas,
where bank branches are few, adivasi women spend Rs. 150 to come to a bank, they
stand in a queue all day only to find that the money is over by the time their turn comes.
They spend another Rs. 150 to go back.
Focussing on tribal women
Ms. Dhawale, who is the Maharashtra State secretary of the AIDWA, has spent her
political life working among tribal women in the two districts of Thane and Palhgar.

She said that in the coming days AIDWA would concentrate on three issues hold the
government accountable for the losses and suffering caused to working women by
demonetisation, pressurise the BJP to fulfil its campaign promise of passing the Womens
Reservation Bill, and to vigorously counter the obscurantism and regressive, antiwomen ideas spread by the RSS and allied Hindutva outfits.
She also added that AIDWAs ongoing campaign for a comprehensive law against honour
killing would continue. We intend to mobilise nationally against the Haryana
governments panchayat law mandating minimum educational qualifications for
contesting panchayat polls. Similarly, restrictive laws have been passed by Rajasthan
and Maharashtra. It is only a matter of time before all BJP State governments follow suit.
This is a regressive and anti-democratic law that reflects the RSS mindset, according to
which a womans rightful place is within the home. In Haryana, nearly 70% of Scheduled
Caste women do not have the educational qualifications prescribed. This is mass
exclusion of marginalised women from a right guaranteed by the Constitution, she
added.

Rajasthan appoints panel on Gujjar reservation issue

JAIPUR:

In a fresh attempt to resolve the Gujjar reservation issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party
government in Rajasthan has appointed a high- level committee headed by a retired
High Court judge to reviewthe report of the State OBC Commission, on the basis of
which the quota in jobs and education was given to five communities last year.

Besides Justice Sunil Kumar Garg as the chairperson, the committee will have
academician Yogesh Atal and Rajasthan Universitys associate professor Rajiv Saxena as
its members.

It will work with the State OBC Commission to arrive at its conclusions and submit a
report to the State government, stated an official announcement.

The decision for appointing the committeewas taken in the light of the December 9
judgment of the Rajasthan High Court striking down a legislation of 2015, which had
provided five per cent reservation to Special Backward Classes, including Gujjars.

Demand sub- quota

Gujjars, who have led violent agitations on the issue since 2007, have demanded five
per cent sub- quota within the OBC reservation in order to ensure that it does not cross
the 50 per cent cap, because of which the High Court had struck down the 2015 Act.

The State government, assuring Gujjars that their rights would be protected, has sought
some time from the community leaders to explore legal options available in the matter.

The High Court has given six weeks time to the State government to file a special level
petition in the Supreme Court.

According to the official sources, members of a Cabinet sub- committee and Gujjar
representatives will meet again on January 15 to review progress in the matter.

To review report of the State OBC Commission

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The High Court has recently struck down a legislation which had provided quota to
Gujjars

Polavaram project gets Central funds This should quell A.P.s sense of
distrust towards the Centre over funding for the project: Jaitley
Author: Special Correspondent

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday released 1,981.54 crore, through the National Bank
for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard), for Andhra Pradeshs ambitious
16,000-crore Polavaram irrigation project along the Godavari river.

Releasing the amount, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said this should quell any sense of
distrust that the people of the State had developed towards the Centre over funding for
the project.
Stressing that returns on investments in irrigation projects for agriculture can be visible
by next season as opposed to investments in sectors such as manufacturing, where
returns take a reasonably long period to register, the Finance Minister said that such
projects also lead to social satisfaction and economic prosperity.
He was speaking at an event attended by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu
Naidu, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, where funding was also disbursed for
99 irrigation projects in Gujarat and Maharashtra under the Long Term Irrigation Fund
announced in Budget 2016-17.
Using water resources to its optimal level is one of our prime goals and it is important
that a very large part of funding goes to this, Mr. Jaitley said.
Stating that the people of Andhra Pradesh had been nursing a feeling of economic
discrimination and unfair treatment since the division of the State, Mr. Jaitley said it was
due to the BJPs efforts that the UPA government made some commitments, though
without any financial allocation.
The responsibility of fulfilling what we had said, fell on us. There are obviously
challenges, but we were clear from the very first day that every promise we had made in
the form of assistance would be satisfied, Mr. Jaitley siad.
Terming the issue of water in the States dry regions as very sensitive, he said that it
took some time for the Centre to find a way to fund the Polavaram project, but it had
finally done it.

Restoring trust

Not only is todays event a launch pad for a great project in Andhra Pradesh, it is also
restoring a sense of confidence and trust in the people of AP.
Referring to the lessons from Gujarat and Maharashtra, which he said had taken
significant strides on the irrigation front, Mr. Jaitley said: If you remember, Gujarat was
virtually dry in regions such as Saurashtra, Rajkot, Kutch, but they worked ahead of time
and over the last 15 years, its agricultural growth showed substantial enhancement.

Agni-V test-fired again from mobile-launcher Signals that countrys

nuclear deterrence capability has come of age

Author: T.S. Subramanian

CHENNAI: The test-firing of Indias most formidable ballistic missile, Agni-V, from the
Abdul Kalam Island, off the Odisha coast on Monday, was an unalloyed success,
signalling that Indias nuclear deterrence capability has come of age.
This is the fourth success in a row for Agni-V, which can carry a nuclear warhead
weighing about 1.5 tonnes over a distance of 5,000 km and plus. There were no issues
at all in the flight, officials of the Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) said. Agni-V is a product of the DRDO.
It was the second time that Agni-V was fired from a canister mounted on a massive
TATRA truck parked on the Island. A gas generator at the bottom of the canister kicked
out the long-range, three-stage, surface-to-surface missile that weighed 50 tonnes, was
17 metres long and had a two-metre diameter. The previous Agni-V flight from a canister
was on January 31, 2015. A missile launched from a canister mounted on a road-mobile
launcher gives it operational flexibility. This means it can be fired from a road in a city,
after stopping the traffic, giving reduced reaction time. The missile can be made vertical
in three minutes and the launch takes a few more minutes. After the lift-off, the truck
can speed away.
G. Satheesh Reddy, Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, said,
Todays Agni-V flight met all the mission objectives and proved many indigenous
technologies and capabilities.
The lift-off took place around 11 a.m. As Agni-V vaulted out of the confines of the
canister, it rose to a height of 20 metres. Then the first stage motor kicked in and the
missile soared to an altitude of 600 km and struck a parabolic path.
The two stages jettisoned and the missile accelerated as it plunged towards the earth.
Its re-entry systems worked perfectly. The heat-shield made of carbon-carbon
composites and encasing the dummy warhead, withstood a temperature of about 4,000
degrees Celsius. The on-board computer guided the missile towards its impact point in
the Indian Ocean. After a 20-minute flight, it fell near the Australian waters.

The bouquet of five Agnis form the bulwark of Indias nuclear deterrence capability.
While Agni-I has a range of 700 km, Agni-II 2,000 km, and Agni-III 3,000 km, Agni-IV
can take out targets 4,000 km away.

Remission power lies with State: SC

Author: Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Noting that the power to grant remission is exclusively that of the State
government and not the judiciary, the Supreme Court refrained itself from allowing any
reprieve to four convicts who have served 25 years of their life sentence for the murder
of an elderly couple in Kolkata in 1991.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and A.M. Sapre acknowledged, in its recent judgment, that
the convicts have suffered incarceration for more than 25 years and, therefore, there
should be a chance for remission of further prison sentence.
But the court declined to intervene, simply observing that this is a power which can be
exercised by the State.

The judgment is in sync with the Tamil Nadu governments review petition on the
question of who has the actual authority the Centre or the State in granting
remission for life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Tamil Nadu has sought a review of the Constitution Bench verdict in the high-profile
case.

Fire in the sky

The successful test-firing of the long-range ballistic missile Agni-V for the fourth time is
a significant step towards building a credible nuclear deterrence. With this test and the
recent commissioning of the indigenously built nuclear submarine INS Arihant, India is
inching towards creating a robust and world-class second-strike capability. For a nation
sworn to no-first-use of nuclear weapons, a reliable second-strike capability is an
absolute necessity. In the worst-case scenario, the country should have the ability to
withstand an enemy nuclear strike on its key locations and launch a successful second
strike. Agni-V rose up from a canister mounted on a truck stationed at Dr. Abdul Kalam
Island, Odisha, and went up a few hundred kilometres before following a ballistic
trajectory and splashing down near Australian waters, some 20 minutes after the
launch. This was the fourth test of the Agni-V missile, but the second from a canister
mounted on a road mobile launcher. With the four tests, Agni-V is now ready for
induction into the Strategic Forces Command, which already operates other Agni missiles
with a target range from 700 km to 4,000 km, besides Prithvi-II.
However, despite the impressive strides made by the security establishment in
developing nuclear weapons and delivery platforms, there is still a long way to go before
the nuclear triad is complete and competent. Just a few days ago, the Nirbhay land
attack cruise missile meant to carry nuclear warheads failed for the fourth time during a
test. On December 21, it veered off its designated flight path within a couple of minutes
of launch, and it had to be destroyed mid-air. There are several such gaps to be filled to
ensure a foolproof nuclear triad. A credible second-strike capability should also be
complemented by a modern, powerful military. The Indian military is in crying need of
modernisation across its three arms. The Air Force has a huge shortage of fighters; the
Navys submarine arm is far from meeting multiple challenges; and the Army needs an
array of new platforms. Most importantly, India also needs to consistently showcase itself
as a responsible nuclear power, and not just through a no-first-strike policy. India has a
mature political and military leadership today. In a complex global strategic environment,
where nations issue nuclear threats based on fake news and global powers threaten to
add to their already bulky arsenal, it is important to be recognised as a responsible
democracy.

Congos political battles

The ongoing political crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a reminder of the
countrys turbulent past. Since it became independent in 1960, no head of state has left
office peacefully after an election. By refusing to hold an election, which was due in
November, and clinging to power even after his term officially came to an end on
December 19, Joseph Kabila, the President of the DRC, risks repeating the mistakes of
his predecessors. Congos Constitution, which Mr. Kabila himself helped write after his
2006 election, bars the President from seeking a third term. But Mr. Kabila later changed
his mind and sought to amend the rules to stay on in power. After failing in such
attempts, he simply refused to hold elections, citing logistical problems. A court has
allowed him to remain President until the next elections are held, which the ruling party
says will only be in 2018. It is now evident that the President wants to delay the process
for as long as possible. But the going is not easy for Mr. Kabila, who was seen in his early
years in power as a young and energetic leader who could democratise the polity, offer
stability and lift the living standards of millions of its citizens. Not any longer.
Mr. Kabilas decision to delay the elections has triggered massive protests across the
country, in particular turning Kinshasa, the capital, into a battleground between security
personnel and protesters. Dozens of opposition activists have been shot dead and
hundreds arrested since September. The President is so unpopular in the capital that the
ruling partys headquarters in the city was burned down during Christmas week. As of
now, the army and the police stand behind the President and show no qualms in
shooting down protesters. But the question now is how long Mr. Kabila can stay on in
power by suppressing mass protests. Significantly, the weeks-long violent repression has
not turned the protesters away from the streets. Besides, the opposition has rejected
outright any bid by Mr. Kabila to stand for another term. If this stalemate continues,
Congo will plunge into a greater crisis, at a time it faces several other economic and
security challenges, including frequent cross-border attacks on civilians by Ugandabased rebels. Mr. Kabila should draw lessons from the countrys past. After the dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko was ousted in 1997, Congo was plunged into a deadly civil war,
leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead. Mr. Kabilas father, Laurent Kabila, who
spearheaded the protests against Mobutu, was assassinated. President Kabila should call
early elections and hand over power peacefully, thereby setting a precedent for his
successors.

Time to repeal the FCRA The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act,

2010, is nothing more than a tool to keep errant civil society
organisations on a tight leash. An autonomous, self-regulatory agency
for NGOs is the need of the hour
A political class that has no qualms taking foreign money is now anxious to
prevent discerning civil society organisations from accessing external
funding G. Sampath

In early November, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs rejected the licence renewal
applications, under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA), of 25 nongovernmental organisations (NGO). That means these NGOs can no longer receive funds
from foreign donors. Many of the affected organisations were rights-based advocacy
groups, with some involved in human rights work.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has defended its action by claiming
that these organisations had violated FCRA norms by engaging in activities detrimental
to public interest. But its decision has drawn criticism from different quarters.
Civil society members have issued statements condemning the move, charging the
government with abuse of legal procedures. Opposition MPs from six political parties
have written to the Prime Minister questioning the governments motives, and termed it
a decision motivated by the politics of vendetta, victimisation and an effort to bully
them into silence. The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the
Home Ministry, observing, Prima facie it appears FCRA licence non-renewal is neither
legal nor objective and thereby impinging on the rights of the human rights defenders in
access to funding, including foreign funding.
Despite the censure, the NDA regime has shown no signs of relenting. This mass
cancellation of FCRA licences is not the first time that the legislation has been used thus.
In 2015, the Home Ministry had cancelled the FCRA licences of 10,000 organisations.
Prominent international funding agency Ford Foundation, the environmentalist group
Greenpeace, and human rights advocacy group Lawyers Collective have all been targets
of FCRA-linked curbs on their activity, suggesting a larger pattern in the way the state
has used this law.

The origins of the FCRA

The original Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act was enacted in 1976 by the Indira
Gandhi-led government during the Emergency. It prohibits electoral candidates, political
parties, judges, MPs and even cartoonists from accepting foreign contributions. As the
inclusion of cartoonists under its ambit suggests, the intent was to clamp down on
political dissent.
The ostensible justification given for the law was to curb foreign interference in domestic
politics. This was the Cold War era, when both the Soviets and the Americans meddled in
the internal affairs of post-colonial nations to secure their strategic interests. Amid

suspicions of the ubiquitous foreign hand stoking domestic turbulence, the FCRA was
aimed at preventing political parties from accepting contributions from foreign sources.
As the years passed, India seemed to overcome its suspicion of the foreign hand. It
embraced foreign funding by opening up the economy in 1991. The Indian state had no
problem accepting contributions from foreign donors such as the World Bank or the
International Monetary Fund. With the state wooing foreign investment, Indian
businesses, too, helped themselves to foreign funds. And so did our political parties,
despite the FCRA, 1976, expressly prohibiting them from accepting money from foreign
sources.
Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress were pulled up by the Delhi High
Court in 2014 for violating the FCRA by accepting contributions from the Indian
subsidiaries of the London-based multinational, Vedanta. It ordered the government and
the Election Commission to take action against both the parties. To no ones surprise, the
BJP-led NDA government did not take action against the BJP. Nor did it do so against the
Congress, which, as the leading Opposition party, did not think it appropriate to protest
this flagrant flouting of a judicial directive.
Instead, earlier this year, the government quietly introduced a clause in the Finance Bill
that amended the relevant section of the FCRA, 2010, so that what was hitherto a
foreign company now became an Indian company. This amendment was introduced
with retrospective effect a brazen attempt to legitimise the FCRA violations of the two
parties. This amendment has also opened the doors for all political parties to accept
funding from foreign companies, so long as it is channelled through an Indian subsidiary.
It may be pertinent to point out here that it was the Congress, under the stewardship of
Manmohan Singh, that replaced the original FCRA, 1976, with a more draconian version
in 2010. But why the new law? To answer that question, we need to consider the
differences between the two legislations.

The new FCRA

Human rights activist Venkatesh Nayak draws attention to three changes that render the
new Act more stringent than the old one. Firstly, FCRA registration under the earlier law
was permanent, but under the new one, it expired after five years, and had to be
renewed afresh. This instantly hands the state a whip with which to bring errant
organisations to heel.
One may recall that earlier this year, 11,319 NGOs lost their FCRA licences without the
government having to either examine their records or suspend their registrations
individually their licences simply expired as the deadline for renewal passed.

Second, the new law put a restriction (50 per cent) on the proportion of foreign funds
that could be used for administrative expenses, thereby allowing the government to
control how a civil society organisation (CSO) spends its money.
The third and most important distinction is that while the 1976 law was primarily aimed
at political parties, the new law set the stage for shifting the focus to organisations of a
political nature. The FCRA Rules, 2011, framed by the United Progressive Alliance
government, has served the NDA well as a manual on how to target inconvenient NGOs,
especially those working on governance accountability. It helpfully enumerates the kind
of organisation that could be targeted under the FCRA as an organisation of a political
nature.
The list is revealing: trade unions, students unions, workers unions, youth forums,
womens wing of a political party, farmers organisations, youth organisations based on
caste, community, religion, language and any organisation which habitually engages
itself in or employs common methods of political action like bandh or hartal, rasta
roko, rail roko or jail bharo in support of public causes.

Institutionalising double standards

Put simply, a political class that has no qualms taking money from foreign sources, that
amended the FCRA to let itself off the hook for past violations, that opened the doors for
all political parties to accept foreign funding, that paved the way for Indian businesses to
access foreign capital, is now anxious to prevent CSOs from accessing foreign funds
because some of them question its policies in a democratic battle to protect
constitutional rights and entitlements.
Last April, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and
of Association undertook a legal analysis of the FCRA, 2010. He submitted a note to the
Indian government which stated unambiguously that the FCRA provisions and rules are
not in conformity with international law, principles and standards.
The UN Special Rapporteurs argument was fairly straightforward. The right to freedom
of association is incorporated under the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, to which India is a party. Access to resources, particularly foreign funding, is part
of the right to freedom of association. While this is not an absolute right and is subject to
restrictions, those have to be precise, and defined in a way that would enable a CSO to
know in advance whether its activities could reasonably be construed to be in violation of
the Act.
The report says that restrictions in the name of public interest and economic interest
as invoked under the FCRA rules fail the test of legitimate restrictions. The terms are
too vague and give the state excessive discretionary powers to apply the provision in an

arbitrary manner. Besides, given that the right to freedom of association is part of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 20), a violation of this right also
constitutes a human rights violation.
Does all this mean that the FCRA should be repealed? If yes, how then do we monitor
the foreign funding of NGOs?
Of course, NGO funding needs to be regulated. One cannot deny that corrupt NGOs
exist, or that unscrupulous NGOs that receive foreign funds may serve as conduits for
money laundering. But there are better ways to address these concerns than an FCRA
that institutes an Inspector Raj for the NGO sector.
In fact, a seven-member task force was set up way back in 2009 to create a nationallevel self-regulatory agency, the National Accreditation Council of India (NACI), that
would monitor and accredit CSOs. It was to be an independent, statutory body along the
lines of the Bar Council. The task force submitted its report to the Planning Commission
in September 2010. It was never heard of again. Instead, what we got in September
2010 was a more aggressive FCRA. Perhaps it is time to repeal the FCRA and revive the
idea of an autonomous, self-regulatory agency for CSOs.
sampath.g@thehindu.co.in

Letter to editor
A. Jainulabdeen,ChennaiK.R. Jayaprakash Rao,MysuruS.V.
Venkatakrishnan,BengaluruVikram Sundaramurthy,ChennaiA.
Thirugnanasambantham,CoimbatoreH. Ghouse Baig,TiruchiS.S.
Rajagopalan,ChennaiD. Sethuraman,ChennaiJ. Anantha
Padmanabhan,TiruchiGagan Pratap Singh,Noida, Uttar PradeshVeena
Shenoy,Thane, Maharashtra

Plainspeak on note ban

Its unfortunate that even after demonetisation has been criticised by leading economic
publications such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes [scheduled to be
published on January 24], such advice has fallen on deaf ears (Wont shy away from
tough decisions: PM, Dec.25). While the Prime Minister may choose to ignore criticism
by the Opposition in India, it would be wise to pay heed to international agencies as

they can be considered to be reasonably impartial. Further, as the short-time pain

period of 50 days is almost over, there are still no signs of long-time gain dawning.
A. Jainulabdeen,

Chennai
The government has been spending several crores of rupees on advertisements
promoting cashless payments. If the intent is to goad people to go in for this option,
then it is an exercise in futility. It may take decades before the kind of cashless
payments the government is contemplating becomes a reality. The offer of incentives
such as holding lucky draws is also a burden on the exchequer. These measures are
nothing but an attempt to divert attention from the abject failure that demonetisation
has become.

K.R. Jayaprakash Rao,

Mysuru
While the two reasons offered by the Prime Minister for demonetisation paving the
way for a less-cash society and introducing a digital economy may have caught the
fancy of economists, the common man is not very convinced. Had this not come as an
addenda but been introduced independently, it would have raised less scepticism and
found more acceptability. One is still unsure whether the government has initiated any
study on the increase in the use of digital modes of payment. There has to be a
structured campaign.
S.V. Venkatakrishnan,

Bengaluru
The Prime Ministers speech does reflect the extent of corruption and the need for it to
be dealt with an iron hand (Rules tweaked as govt. is sensitive to feedback: Modi,
Dec.26). However, there is still no clarity on the processes that would have to be put in
place post-demonetisation given that a cashless economy would be hampered by low
levels of digitisation.
Vikram Sundaramurthy,
Chennai

While the high and mighty walk away with crores of rupees in new denominations, the
common man is struggling to get even a paltry sum of Rs. 2,000. All the efforts being
made to make demonetisation a success are failing. So far the common man has put up
with many hardships in the fond hope that there will be an El Dorado at the end of this
phase of financial turbulence. The corrupt have to be weeded out.
A. Thirugnanasambantham,
Coimbatore
Even nearly 45 days after demonetisation, things are still not rosy. Banks and ATMs
are still cashless and the RBI is clueless. It is unfortunate that anyone who questions
demonetisation is immediately labelled as being corrupt. Why are corporate entities not
searched by enforcement agencies even when it is common knowledge that they are the
fountainhead of corruption? Given that it will take a long time for the new notes to be
printed, the Prime Minister can roll back his decision and reintroduce Rs. 500 and Rs.
1,000 notes printed from late 2014-early 2015. Heavens will not fall if he considers
this.
H. Ghouse Baig,
Tiruchi
Is the Prime Minister immune to the misery being caused to the common man? Neither
he nor any of his cabinet colleagues have chosen to meet people to understand firsthand the problems created by this move. And yet he warns of many more such
operations to come. When I am not able to withdraw money from my own savings bank
account, I lose faith in the banking system. The limits for withdrawal are not based on
realities and the needs of individual families.
S.S. Rajagopalan,

Chennai
It is upsetting that while the poor and the middle class are being made to run from
pillar to post to draw a permissible and meagre amount from their own savings, those
with high connections are able to siphon off new notes in bulk. Had the government
undertaken intensive searches and raids, as is being done now, unaccounted wealth
would have still been exposed even without implementing demonetisation.
D. Sethuraman,
Chennai

It is a matter of deep regret that a number of letters have appeared castigating the
banking system for their current financial woes. The government is cleverly deflecting
attention from the real issues by shifting the focus to the banking system. The cashless
economy being bandied about as an afterthought will hardly alleviate the all-round
suffering.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Tiruchi

Food fortification

India has one of the largest percentages of children affected with stunting and wasting,
the most vital cause of this being nutrient-deficit food and diet (Weekend Being page
Getting right, the nutrient spike, Dec.25). With inflation, most people dont have
access to pulses which are not only a staple food but also a food source with essential
proteins and micronutrients. Thus it is valuable to fortify our cereals and coarse
foodgrains. Our current pulse production is significantly low and there is a need for a
coherent policy to increase productivity and incentivise farmers to grow more pulses by
backing it with a robust procurement policy.
Gagan Pratap Singh,
Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Stampede again

The temple authorities at Sabarimala in Kerala should be squarely blamed for the
stampede which could have been easily avoided had they learnt their lessons and
adhered to laid-down norms (31 pilgrims injured in Sabarimala stampede, Dec.26). The
problem in India is that we do not learn from earlier mistakes. Staff at places of
worship should be well versed in disaster management. The police and volunteers
should also be well-equipped. Technology such as the use of drones could have been
used.
Veena Shenoy,

Thane, Maharashtra

Assessed, approved but scant attention to compliance

Environmental public hearings have been excellent open classrooms to
learn about the political economy of development Kanchi KohliManju Menon

September 2016 marked a decade of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

notification, a short, subordinate legislation whose powers far outweigh its text.
Promulgated first in 1994 under the Environment (Protection Act), 1986, and then reengineered in 2006, this legal tool is ostensibly our mechanism to arrive at a balance of
environmental priorities and developmental needs. The law provides for an informed
process for site selection and grant of approval for an industry or project in any area. It
involves the drafting of an EIA report with a statement of how impacts could be
mitigated or offset and under what conditions the project should be approved, if at all.
Like most environmental matters, this would have been an extremely technical process,
but for one reason: the process of public hearings and consultations.

The first phase of socialisation

One of the first environmental public hearings was held for the Enron project in
Karnataka in the early 1990s under police protection. At that time, the government
imagined it as a forum for seeking consent from the people who would live in the
neighbourhood of these projects. The public hearing process was made a part of the
1994 EIA notification only in 1997. This space is the legacy of a generation of activists
within and outside the government those who had a healthy criticism of the state and
what it could do in the name of public interest as well as those who felt that better
decisions came from dialogue. Despite legal amendments to restrict this forum and
cynicism on the part of the participants that they are being co-opted into an inherently
unjust project approval process, the public hearing process till date gets enormous
numbers of people to debate thorny questions of development.
Public hearings have been successful in drawing attention to the large-scale impacts
that projects have on communities and the environment. When projects have gained
approvals despite severe public opposition, these hearings have been excellent open
classrooms to learn about the political economy of development and the passing on of
risk to the poor and vulnerable. In several recent cases, these fora have been used to
negotiate the mandatory conditions under which projects should be given approvals.

The compliance gap

What happens after public hearings and a project is granted environmental approval?
This phase deserves urgent attention if we are to make any dent on the issues of air
quality, shortage of freshwater, and degradation of productive farms and fishing areas.
Every project granted approval from the Environment Ministry, the State departments, or
specialised bodies such as the Pollution Control Boards or Central Ground Water
Authority come with conditions that have to be followed. The regulatory regimes for
project approval pay scant attention to the compliance of these conditions.
Environmental compliance has been left to the vague and closed-door practices between
two parties the government and the project developer. With no third party to oversee
the process or the results of compliance, it remains a facile, bureaucratic exercise.
What this means is that in Janjgir in Chhattisgarh, coal-fired power plants dump noxious
fly ash on roadsides and farms routinely; in Odishas Keonjhar district, slurry from iron
ore mines have denuded paddy fields and freshwater streams for over 15 years; and on
the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, bauxite or limestone dust saturate the air. Over 12,000
projects all over the country have been given EIA approvals with conditions that are
meant to reduce harm to the environment and those who live around them. The number
is greater if pollution consents are added to the list. There are only a few independent
studies by researchers and the Comptroller and Auditor Generals office to show the poor
levels of compliance.
Environmental institutions collect some data on a regular basis through their monitoring
mechanism but these data are not accessible to citizens in any meaningful way. While
regulators complain that they have no organisational resources to do this well, it is also
true that there has never been enough reason for them to pay attention to the
compliance of projects that they once approved. After all the biggest-ever government
programme on clean-ups, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, has preferred to focus on how
citizens create filth rather than the environmental mess that state practice has produced
systematically since the 1950s.

A renewed engagement

As we close in on a decade of the new EIA notification, it is imperative to expand the

process of socialising environmental governance to the arena of compliance. Rather than
an empty legal or regulatory category, compliance needs to be seen as the minimum
acceptable standards of development through a social contract between projects,
governments and communities. It could tie the expectations of communities to be
protected against risk with their aspirations for development through production. In each
one of the scores of projects that are operational today, it is impossible to know if the

safeguards in their approval letters are adequate and what their upper limits are. These
issues can be addressed meaningfully only when communities that are forced to live near
these projects are allowed to engage with environmental regulators. The priority or value
setting that takes place at the time of public hearings has to be sustained through the
life of the project through the process of compliance. In addition, systematic data
collection and developing of public archives on the compliance of projects over time,
sectors and regions can go a long way in reframing the knowledge and regulatory
structures for environmental governance.
Manju Menon and Kanchi Kohli are with the Centre for Policy Research-Namati
Environmental Justice Programme.

The mother of all disruptions The tremendous power of the software

industry in India may help explain why the disruptive effects of
demonetisation are being taken lightly
The governments advertisements for cashless payment systems read like a
rehash of the private companies own rhetoric Jean Drze

Evidence is mounting of the disruptive effects of the recent move to renew currency
notes, known as demonetisation. Disruption is actually a mild expression. What is
happening is a catastrophe for large sections of the population. Farmers have dumped
vegetables by the roadside for want of a remunerative price. Migrant workers have
returned home after losing their jobs. Street vendors are struggling with a slump in
demand. And, of course, many people have died while waiting in queues outside banks
or committed suicide after unsuccessful attempts to get cash from the banks.
The disruptive effects of demonetisation also have other dimensions. The banking
system, for instance, has been severely disrupted. For one thing, the constant flip-flop
on rules and stringent restrictions on peoples access to their own accounts have
undermined the confidence of the public in the banking system. For another, it would be
surprising if the considerable powers that were given to bank managers in recent weeks
had not led to a spread of corruption in the banking system.
What is astonishing is how little concern this catastrophe is causing in the corridors of
power. Smug reference is made from time to time to the inconvenience faced by the
public, and people are asked to grin and bear it for the sake of the nation. Little is being
done to alleviate their pains.

The disruption lingo

To understand this inertia, it helps to remember that the word disruption has a positive
connotation in some circles, particularly that of technological innovation and especially
software innovation. For instance, when Nandan Nilekani stated in an interview with
Business Standard last August that disruption is waiting to happen in the banking
system, he saw that as a very positive prospect an opportunity for new financial
technologies to step in.
One possible reason why disruption is so popular among software developers is the role
of network effects in this field. New software typically becomes viable only if a
sufficiently large number of people use it. This may require displacing the dominant
product, and that, in turn, often involves a disruption of some sort. Displacing Google,
for instance, would definitely require some kind of tectonic shift in the world of search
engines. Similarly, cashless payment systems like Paytm and Mobikwik work best when
large numbers of people adopt these new products at the same time.
Seen in this light, there is something miraculously providential in the demonetisation
move as far as the cashless payments industry and its offshoots (including on-line
security services) are concerned. This must have been beyond the wildest dreams of the
wizards of cashless payments. Just a year ago, the idea of a cashless economy sounded
like utopian waffle. Today, it is the buzzword. Not only are cashless payment systems
riding on the wave of demonetisation, the government is also throwing its weight behind
the technology, mobilising numerous departments for this purpose and lending its
advertisement powers to the industry.

Disruption and opportunities

The problem with the disruption lingo is that it easily becomes a licence for inflicting
hardship on ordinary people and making a virtue of it. Bank premises are overcrowded?
Wonderful, thats disruption at its best. ATM queues are getting longer? Nothing like it.
People are losing jobs? Well, disruption can afford some short-term collateral damage. In
fact, objectively speaking, the more the disruption, the better for those who are trying to
use this situation as an opportunity to promote their new products. I am not saying that
they are responsible for creating the disruption, or applauding it, but it is a fact that they
benefit from it. Considering the tremendous power of the software industry in India, this
may help to explain why the disruptive effects of demonetisation are taken lightly.
Among the leading lights of this lobby is the Indian Software Product Industry Round
Table (iSPIRT) mentored by Mr. Nilekani, an association of black-belt innovators and
entrepreneurs. Take a look at their website (and also at indiastack.org) if you have time
it is an eye-opening exercise. These guys (and they are mainly guys) are smart, they
think big, and they have ideas. The question remains ideas for whom? The website

makes no secret of the fact that the ultimate purpose of iSPIRTs work is to create
business opportunities for the Indian software industry, not just at home but in the entire
world. Under the title Our Game Plan, for instance, the site explains that our
ambitious goal is to create an adoption wave for software products within the Indian SMB
sector. And guess what, the way to do this is to create a new generation of software
product companies and disrupt global markets, no less.
The first step, still according to the iSPIRT website, is smart demand side
evangelization (sic). Presumably, this involves things like selling Aadhaar to the public
as a voluntary facility, or claiming that the purpose of Aadhaar is is to improve welfare
programmes. In fact, as Reetika Khera has lucidly explained in a series of articles, it is
Aadhaar that has benefited from welfare programmes (by using them to push people to
Aadhaar enrolment centres), not the other way round. Quite often, the impact of
Aadhaar on welfare programmes has actually been disruptive, in the literal sense of the
term. For instance, the recent imposition of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication on
the Public Distribution System has caused havoc in several States, notably Jharkhand
and Rajasthan.

Converging interests

What is disturbing is how government policy is now aligned with the interests of these
business lobbies. The governments advertisements for cashless payment systems read
like a rehash of the private companies own rhetoric (as a private consultant recently
confided, our marketing costs have gone down because the government is doing the
advertising). The revolving door between government and corporations is getting wider
every day. And as mentioned earlier, the entire demonetisation drive is an uncanny
miracle for the software industry, as if the industry itself had written the script.
None of this is to deny that cashless payments may have some merits. But there is no
reason for state power to promote them single-mindedly, that too by crashing the
economy.
Jean Drze is Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics, Ranchi University.

Foreign policy, Act III The Prime Ministers entry on the world stage
was dramatic and full of surprises. Today, as the confusion of the
Shakespearean climax has gripped him, he is sadder but wiser
In the second act, when Mr. Modi began encountering complex issues,
rivals and adversaries, things appeared complicated T.P. Sreenivasan

Any contemporary situation appears to follow a pattern described by Shakespeare

centuries ago. The third act of his plays is the climax, which is characterised by acute
complications in the story, with no clear indication of future events. Having introduced
the dramatis personae in the first act and revealed their concerns and intentions in the
second, the Bard is at his creative best in the third act. The situation gets from good to
bad and from bad to worse and the spectators breathlessly watch things go wrong in a
bewildering manner. They have to wait for the fourth and the fifth acts to witness the
denouement, whether it is wedding bells or funerals.

Blistering start

Prime Minister Narendra Modis foreign policy in the middle of his term is very much like
the third act of a Shakespearean play. The entry was dramatic, full of surprises and even
exciting. He strode like a colossus on the world stage with his freshness, energy,
decisiveness and oratorical skills. India became visible, active and even assertive. His
optimism was contagious and the whole country began anticipating the good times he
promised. India would not be a mere spectator on the seashore of world affairs but a
participant, claiming its legitimate place on the table. He took the bull by the horns,
whether it was Pakistan, China or the United States. Lack of diplomatic experience
appeared to be an asset rather than a liability the first act was perfect.
But in the second act, when Mr. Modi began encountering complex issues, rivals and
adversaries, things appeared complicated. Hesitations of history loomed large and quick
fixes were not available. There were too many boxes crying out for standard solutions as
he searched for out-of-the-box outcomes. All the charms he tried on Pakistan and China
went unrequited. But there was joy in the progress made in certain countries, where he
followed the path laid by his predecessors.
In todays third act, Mr. Modi is sadder, but wiser. The confusion of the Shakespearean
climax has gripped him. On the one hand, he is receiving dubious praise from the world
that he is the one who set off the trend towards the Right in 2014, leading to Brexit and
Donald Trumps election as U.S. President. On the other hand, the advent of Mr. Trump
has brought the whole world to a standstill, jeopardising even the new symphony he had
painstakingly choreographed with President Barack Obama. An evergreen friend,
Vladimir Putin of Russia, appeared not just sulking, but also flirting with China and
Pakistan to spite Mr. Modi. He had to be pacified with huge military contracts and an
assurance that old friends are better than new ones. But, even at the recent Heart of
Asia conference in Amritsar, the Russian envoy stated that the allegations against
Pakistan by India and Afghanistan were totally baseless. It is clear that the fissure in
India-Russia relations remains serious.

Losing momentum

With Pakistan, neither the charm offensive nor the surgical strikes have made any
difference. The situation is worse than it was in 2014, when the ceasefire was in force
and the terror attacks were not frequent. The policy of the previous government that no
comprehensive dialogue was possible without ending terrorism, often violated by India
itself off and on, was completely disregarded by Mr. Modi when he invited Pakistans
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to India, proposed Foreign Secretary-level talks, held
National Security Adviser-level talks and sent the External Affairs Minister to Islamabad
to propose a comprehensive dialogue. The surge in terror attacks prompted the surgical
strikes, which Pakistan refused to even acknowledge. Intermittent shooting on the
border, expulsion of diplomats, and Indias open support to Balochistan and boycott of
the SAARC summit have brought the two countries to the brink of war. The lesson learnt
was that 70 years of animosity and conflict cannot be wished away without major
concessions on either side.
The whole castle in the air that Mr. Modi built in his first address from the ramparts of
the Red Fort about the progress to be achieved by the combined efforts of SAARC
countries lies shattered as the future of SAARC itself is uncertain. India invited BIMSTEC
(Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation)
members to interact with BRICS and not SAARC precisely to encourage a regional group
without Pakistan in it. Another latent issue in SAARC was the possible admission of
China. A majority of the members argued that since India and Pakistan were made full
members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a similar courtesy should be
extended to China. Had the Islamabad summit been held, India would have been alone
in opposing Chinas admission.
The bilateral scene with China looks less troublesome, but nothing has changed for the
better in India-China relations in the last 30 months. The China-Pakistan collusion
continues and the long-term measures being taken by Beijing such as the One Belt, One
Road initiative are designed to dominate the whole of Asia. Mr. Modi, on his part, has
made no secret of his inclination towards the U.S., Japan and Australia and his concerns
about the South China Sea. But happily, there have been very few incidents on the
border and the economic activities continue, though the balance of trade is in Chinas
favour.
The situation on the western front should be a matter of satisfaction for Mr. Modi. The
designation of India as a major defence partner has taken India-U.S. relations to a
higher level, which entitles India to the same facilities for technology transfer as the
allies of the U.S. Mr. Trump is unpredictable, but available indications are that except on
migration issues, India-U.S. relations will remain strong in the future. Mr. Modi has his
work cut out for him in befriending Mr. Trump in his fourth act.

All eyes on the endgame

The mixed picture on foreign policy that we see is an inevitable consequence of

extraordinary global developments and initiatives taken by Mr. Modi. The final judgement
on his foreign policy shall have to await the correctives he will apply in the remaining
part of his first term. The complications resulting from demonetisation have affected Mr.
Modis image, but his reputation as a man of decisive action has remained intact. Like a
Shakespearean hero, Mr. Modi appears entangled in a web of intricate issues in the third
act, but the remaining acts will determine his impact on the global scene.
T.P. Sreenivasan, a former Ambassador, currently heads the Kerala International Centre.

A shopping cart full of foreign guns and fighter jets Despite the
impetus to Make in India, the country continues to be dependent on
imports to modernise its military as big-ticket deals show
Author: Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI: Though the Union government has been pushing the Make in India
programme and bringing in new guidelines to simplify defence procurements and
promote domestic manufacturing, India continued to be dependent on imports to
modernise its military. Several big-ticket deals this year have shown that India will
continue to depend on imports for major platforms, and government-to-government
deals with foreign companies have emerged as the preferred route.
A major change on the fiscal side this year is that the Defence Ministry will utilise its full
budgetary allocation for capital procurements. The Finance Ministry has not asked for
any money to be returned, officials said. This will definitely cheer the Ministry as it has
to make initial payments for the deals recently signed.
In September, the government signed the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with
France for 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of 7.87 billion. In doing so, the government
has brought closure to the original Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest,
which began in 2007, for 126 jets under which Rafale was originally shortlisted.
Decks are now cleared for adopting the same method in a new avatar to select a fighter
jet to be built in India with significant technology transfer.

In October, India and Russia concluded IGAs for five S-400 Triumf air defence systems
and four stealth frigates and signed a stakeholder agreement for Kamov-226T utility
helicopters, together worth over $10 billion. The final contracts are yet to be signed. On
November 30, the Defence Ministry signed the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) for 145 M777
ultra-light howitzers in a deal worth $737million.
All these deals are between governments and have offset clauses under which the
companies are contract- bound to invest in India to source components. An IGA is
convenient as it is between sovereign governments and there is no room for controversy.
They also save time, one official said.

Missing guidelines

On the other hand, the Defence Ministry has brought in the new Defence Procurement
Procedure, 2016, which came into effect in April. It aims to give impetus to the private
sector and promote domestic manufacturing.
However, a key chapter in the DPP on forming strategic partnerships in critical sectors is
yet to be finalised. Hence big-ticket tenders have been held up.
For instance, the tender for six submarines under Project 75I to be built locally with
technology transfer and worth over 50,000 crore is awaiting policy clarity on strategic
partnerships. Similar is the case with the new fighter aircraft deal, officials told The
Hindu.
Submarine and fighter aircraft are some of the designated platforms for collaboration
under the strategic partnership model.

Successful test

On the domestic front, the Defence Research and Development Organisation successfully
tested an indigenously developed 155-mm 52-calibre howitzer called the Advanced
Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) recently. It was developed in partnership with
Bharat Forge, Tata Power and the Ordinance Factory Board.
If the gun passes all user trials and is inducted into the Army, it will be a major boost to
indigenous manufacturing.
The Army has a requirement for thousands of artillery guns to replace its older variants.

While this is the case with major platforms, the armed forces continue to struggle for
small but critical requirements. Repeated attempts by the Army to procure a basic rifle
for its soldier remain a mirage.
Deals for carbines, assault rifles, sniper rifles and Light Machine Guns (LMG) have all
been cancelled recently and are being re-initiated.

China tests prototype of fifth-generation fighter jet

The twin-engine jet, J-31, is Chinas answer to F-35, the most technically
advanced fighter jet

BEIJING: China has tested the latest version of its fifth-generation stealth fighter, state
media reported on Monday, as it tries to end the Wests monopoly on the worlds most
advanced warplanes.
The test comes as the nation flexes its military muscles, sending its sole aircraft carrier
the Liaoning into the western Pacific in recent days to lead drills there for the first time.
The newest version of the J-31 now renamed the FC-31 Gyrfalcon took to the air
for the first time Friday, the China Daily reported.

Better stealth capabilities

The so-called fifth-generation twin-engine jet is Chinas answer to the U.S. F-35, the
worlds most technically advanced fighter.
The new FC-31 has better stealth capabilities, improved electronic equipment and a
larger payload capacity than the previous version which debuted in October 2012, the
newspaper said, quoting aviation expert Wu Peixin.
Changes were made to the airframe, wings and vertical tails which make it leaner,
lighter and more manoeuvrable, Mr. Wu told the paper.
The jet is manufactured by Shenyang Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry
Corp of China (AVIC). The fighter is expected to sell for around $70 million, the article
said, aiming to take market share away from more expensive fourth-generation fighters
like the Eurofighter Typhoon.

AVIC has said that the FC-31 will put an end to some nations monopolies on the fifthgeneration fighter jet, the China Daily reported.

Weapons industry

China is aggressively moving to develop its domestic weapons industry, from drones and
anti-aircraft systems to home-grown jet engines.
In the past it has been accused of copying designs from Russian fighters, and some
analysts say the FC-31 bears a close resemblance to the F-35.
When completed, the FC-31 will become the countrys second fifth-generation fighter
after the J-20, which put on its first public performance at the Zhuhai Air Show in
November. AFP

Indias iron exports under scrutiny by EU, S. Korea

Author: Arun S

NEW DELHI: Indias exports of certain iron items to the European Union (EU) and
shipments of ferro alloys to South Korea have come under the scanner of local
authorities in those jurisdictions.
The European Commission (EC) has initiated an investigation into certain items of grey
iron and ductile cast iron from India on allegations that they were being dumped (or
sold below the price charged in the home market or below production cost) into the EU
region.
This, the EC probe suggests, is adversely affecting local industry as these articles are
used to cover and, or give access to ground or sub-surface systems.
Seven EU producers of the item including Saint-Gobain, together representing more than
a quarter of the total EU production of certain cast iron items, lodged a complaint with
the EC on October 31 that imports of such articles from India and China are being
dumped causing material injury to them.
The complainants also provided evidence of increase in imports (to the EU) of these
items in absolute terms and in terms of their market share in the EU.

Investigation period

Having determined... that there is sufficient evidence to justify the initiation of the
proceeding, the EC hereby initiates an investigation... the EC said in a notice on
December 10. The investigation will cover the period from October 1, 2015 to September
30, 2016. The examination of trends relevant for the assessment of injury will cover the
period from January 1, 2013 to September 30, 2016.
The EC said if the conclusions are affirmative, the investigation will examine whether
the imposition of anti-dumping measures would not be against the EUs interest.
Due to the potentially large number of exporters of these items from India and China
and a similarly large number of producers in the EU, the EC said it may limit the
investigation to a limited sample of such exporters and producers so that the probe can
be completed within the statutory time limits.
It asked all interested parties to provide information regarding the sample selection.
The EC had earlier imposed countervailing (anti-subsidy) duty and anti-dumping duty on
imports of tubes and pipes of ductile cast iron from India.
Iron, steel and their related articles have been among India's main exports to Europe.
However, shipments of iron, steel and their related items to Europe had fallen from $3.86
billion in FY15 to $3.07 billion in FY16. In the period between April and September this
fiscal, exports of these products were worth $1.82 billion.

Probe into dumping

Meanwhile, South Korean authorities have decided to initiate investigation into dumping
of ferro-silico-managese (used in the steel industry) from India, Vietnam and Ukraine
into South Korea, thereby allegedly causing injury to their domestic industry.
This was based on an application by local producers on November 18, 2016. The
investigation period on dumping is from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, while the
investigation period on injury to the domestic industry is from January 1, 2013 to June
30, 2016.
India's exports of ferro-silico-manganese to South Korea had fallen from $46 million in
FY13 to $34.1 million in FY14 and further to $32.3 million in FY15 and then down to
$19.5 million in FY16, according to data from the Indian commerce ministry.

Telecom wars to continue, consolidation seen

Author: Yuthika Bhargava

NEW DELHI: The era of paying for voice calls is ending, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani
had said while announcing the introduction of Reliance Jios services in September. While
there was no dearth of action in the telecom sector during the year, which saw the
biggest spectrum auction, the banning of Facebooks Free Basics and the merger of
Reliance Communication and Aircel, Mr. Ambanis long-awaited entry into the segment
turned out to be the most significant.
The announcement sent the existing operators in a tizzy, triggering a full-fledged war
between the incumbents and the new entrant. It also unleashed a fresh tariff war in the
fiercely competitive sector. Telcos, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and
BSNL, were forced to bring out similar offers to combat freebies offered by Jio, which
were denting their revenues.
Reliance Jio demonstrated how a deep-pocketed player can impact the market across
the country, even though it is a late entrant. However, it is yet to demonstrate significant
market share or force a large movement of customers to Jio, Mahesh Uppal, Director at
consultancy firm Com First told The Hindu.

Tussle over connection

The fight to grab a share of the booming telecom market, however, turned ugly over the
issue of interconnect points. Reliance Jio had alleged that its subscribers were unable to
make calls to other networks as other operators were not providing adequate
interconnection points. On the other hand, existing telcos said that Reliance Jios under
preparedness and insufficient testing efforts were to be blamed for network
connectivity issues.
Telecom regulator TRAI, which the Cellular Operators Association of India had alleged
was favouring Reliance Jio, and the Department of Telecom had to step in to broker
peace between Jio and the existing operators.
The regulator, in fact, proposed a heavy penalty of 3,050 crore on the top three telcos,
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea for violating their licence agreement and for denial of
interconnection to the new player.

Analysts expected the price war to continue in 2017, bringing data costs down by at
least 15 per cent.
(expect) at least 15 to 20 per cent decline in data tariffs, which could aid increase in
data traffic by 50-60 per cent along with... availability of cheaper 4G-compatible phones.
The industry will add at least 5-6 million smartphones each month, with the cheapest 4G
phone costing only $45-60. However, strong traffic growth may not translate into
revenue growth due to lower data tariffs, according to a report by Fitch Ratings titled
2017 Outlook: India Telecommunications Services.
Mr. Uppal added, Tariff war will continue at least till April. Jio is an ambitious player and
has limited options other than price to compete on. To keep people on their networks, we
could see another round of tariff war in the sector.
The year 2016 also saw the Supreme Court strike down TRAI regulation making it
mandatory for telcos to compensate subscribers for call drops; Manoj Sinha taking over
as the new telecom minister from Ravi Shankar Prasad; and, the merger of Reliance
Communications and Aircel, which created the country's fourth-largest phone company
in terms of customers and revenue. The year also saw the countrys biggest-ever
spectrum auction, in which mobile airwaves worth 5.6 lakh crore were put up for sale,
ending in a virtual failure with the government garnering revenues for only 65,789
crore. The auction of spectrum and entry of Reliance Jio were the two most important
events in the telecommunications sector. There were some interesting lessons in my
view. In the spectrum auction, for the first time we saw fairly rational bidding. The
operators were unwilling to pay for spectrum that was not readily available for use and
overly priced (700 Mhz). The auctions have succeeded in removing the long-felt shortage
of spectrum, which will lead to better quality services for customers. This will also help
the government better design auctions in the future, Mr. Uppal said.

Competition to intensify

According to the report by Fitch Ratings, competition in the sector is to intensify further
in 2017. In a report, Fitch said, Pricing power could be eroded as incumbents retaliate
against Reliance Jios cheaper data tariff and free voice and text.
The planned merger between Reliance Communications and Aircel India could raise
competition as they are likely to offer cheaper data services, given access to the efficient
800MHz spectrum assets.
The agency also pointed out that industry may see more consolidation in 2017 as smaller
telcos such as Tata Teleservices and Telenor India could exit or enter into merger deals to
strengthen their competitive position, as they lack financial flexibility and 3G/4G
spectrum assets.

Sanchit Vir Gogia, Founder & CEO of the research and advisory firm Greyhound
Knowledge Group said operators would focus more on the enterprise side to push
revenues.
Revenue is a challenge, particularly in the B2C space; we will see telcos focusing on the
enterprise segment (to) move up the value chain. In the enterprise space, too, a lot of
focus will be on cybersecurity. The focus will also be on Internet of Things (IoT), he
said.

Life and death for a tree and a friend

Author: Suvarna Suresh Poduval

She stood at the threshold of a new beginning. After coming back from Dubai, getting
the children admitted in school, setting into a new pattern of life, she surveyed the newly
constructed extension of her home with pride. Next will be a car park and garden in the
front yard.
Piles of discarded building materials lay on one side of the well in the corner of the
property. Something green jutted out from in between the pile. She bent closer to have a
look. A tender green sapling! She called out to the workers to pull it out. They confirmed
her worst fear: a mango tree was slowly taking root close to the well, close to the wall
and close to the house. Pull it out, shouted the old patriarch of the house. The leaves
were plucked and some hot soot was thrown over it. Buried and bruised, the little sapling
was forgotten. A beautiful garden was set in that area and bright flowers blossomed at
the edge.
Six months later at the same spot, a sapling was spotted again. She rushed to pluck it
out. Something stopped her. The tender leaves were swaying in the wind. They looked
back at her like a fresh-faced baby, saying, Hold me, let me be!
Years passed and the children went their ways. She was left alone with her mother.
Every morning she woke up to the chirping of birds. The dusk brought a silence, a calm,
to the place. She would sleep off thinking of the birds and the squirrels, content in the
knowledge that tomorrow is another day. The sun will shine, the worms have to be
picked at, the nests have to be made and the cuckoo will come to roost.
The tree branched out, the leaves shining in the morning sun trickling through them. The
chirping would start with gusto. Life begins, goes on each day, every month. The tree
started bearing fruit, luscious green mangoes. Grandma made the maid pick the tender
mangoes and every year made mouth-watering pickles. The children romped in every
year and would order her to produce the bounty of pickles. With rice and curd they licked
off the dishes made by her and grandma.

Every six months she was supposed to go back to Dubai to renew her residence visa.
She would leave her mother, her house and join her husband. The days would be spent
with house work. But by evening she would dream of the mango tree, her friends the
little chirping birds, bulbuls, the squirrels, the cuckoo birds nest and the gentle swaying
of the leaves in the evening breeze. The mango tree beckoned. She would tell her
husband she loved to lie down by the window looking at the mango tree early in the
morning. She told him that if ever she got laid down by disease or old age, she should be
allowed to lie on the same bed, in the same room, gazing at the same tree.
The mango tree soon posed a spot of bother. The neighbours drive would be full of
leaves. During the mango season ripe mangoes dropped on to the road, burst and the
orange pulp sprayed all over. Boys who stopped by to throw stones at the ripe mangoes
were promptly shooed away by grandma. Then came the man of the house, shouting
hot words at the tree, at her and generally complaining of what harm it would do to the
building.
It seemed to have understood the time had come to go. The branches bore the brunt of
old age and climate change. The branches actually grew grey, to her consternation. It
stopped bearing fruit. It stood there gazing at her from its lofty height. Then she decided
to cut the branches so the tree would die out.
The tree-cutter was summoned. He promised to cut the branches and gently lower them
with the help of a strong rope. He cut a few branches but one branch somehow slipped
his hold and touched the live wire going near it.
The cutter was shell-shocked and ran away with his life just in time by dropping the
rope. By evening, after the turmoil had subsided, she went to see the tree. It stood
there, proud and strong. It seemed to say, Hold me, let me be! Tears welled up in her
eyes. She hugged the trunk and silently told the tree, I allow you to be, my friend my
joy.

Now, the fall

The war of words continued between her and her husband. The mango tree stood a
silent spectator to her strife. One night she went to bed decisively coming to an answer
to the question, How long can I allow you to be?
She had a disturbed night. She woke up and opened the window by the bed. She saw an
unpleasant sight; the tree stood there sans its branches! The leaves were shrivelled up
as though some horrible venom had been spewed all over them!
The birds had disappeared. The squirrel was squeaking and going up and down the trunk
as though it had lost its very source of existence.

The cuckoo nest had fallen to the ground. No more sparkle of the early morning rays,
just the sun blasting on the house, the cool breeze gone.
An eerie silence prevailed
kartik.poduval@gmail.com

28-12-16

50 % reservation in judicial services in Bihar

The reservation will be in both Superior Judicial Services and Subordinate
Judicial Services
Author: Amarnath Tewary

PATNA: The Bihar Cabinet on Tuesday declared 50 per cent reservation in all judicial
services for aspirants belonging to the Extremely Backward Classes, Other Backward
Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The reservation will be in both Superior Judicial Services and Subordinate Judicial
Services.
According to the Cabinet decision, aspirants belonging to EBCs will get 21 per cent
reservation, OBCs will have 12 per cent reservations, Scheduled Castes will have 16 per
cent reservation and Scheduled Tribes will be provided 1 per cent reservation in all
judicial services of the State, D.S. Gangwar, principal secretary of general administration
department, said after the Cabinet meeting got over.
In all categories, he further added, there will be 35 per cent horizontal reservation for
women and 1 per cent reservation for disabled persons. In view of the Supreme Court
order in the State of Bihar versus Dayanand Singh case (September 29, 2016), and after
the approval of the Bihar Public Service Commission, the government has taken this
decision, said Mr. Gangwar.
Earlier in October, a Division Bench comprising Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Abhay
Manohar Sapre of the Supreme Court had asked the Bihar government and Patna High
Court to complete the exercise of providing reservations to backward classes in States
judicial services by January 1, 2017, and that the process of filling up vacancies in the
judicial services by June 30, 2017.

In view of the huge number of vacancies in the judicial services, it is desirable that the
whole exercise must be completed expeditiously, preferably by January 1, 2017.
Thereafter, the process for filling up the vacancies shall be taken up by all concerned and
completed by June 30, 2017, the Court said. The apex court has also ordered the
appointment of those backward class candidates whose appointments were withheld
after the Patna High Court quashed the State governments decision to provide
reservation in judicial services.

Antlers could end up in medicines Kerala to seek Union

governments approval for using deer antlers in Ayurveda
medicines
Author: K.S. Sudhi

KOCHI: Antlers of spotted deer and sambar may find their way into Ayurveda medicines
if a recommendation of the Kerala State Board for Wildlife (SBWL) finds favour with the
National Board for Wildlife and the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
SBWL, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday,
decided to approach the Centre for suitable amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act
for using the antlers for medicinal purposes.

Objection to the move

Though some board members objected to the recommendation, apprehending that such
a move would lead to hunting of the animals, the Chief Minister was of the view that it
shall be permitted as the clearance was sought for Oushadhi, an Ayurvedic medicine
manufacturing company owned by the Kerala government, said poet Sugathakumari,
who attended the meeting.
Antlers are the extensions of the deers skull. All three deer varieties found in Kerala,
including spotted deer, sambar, and barking deer, shed their antlers annually, said a
wildlife specialist.
The proposal, which was originally mooted a few years ago, was to collect the antlers
shed by the ungulates after the breeding season, he said.

Wildlife trophy

K. Binu, a member on the SBWL, said the suggestion to amend the Wildlife (Protection)
Act 1972 came at a time when the world was united against wildlife hunting. It may be
recalled that many countries had recently destroyed huge quantities of ivory seized by
them. Those countries could have earned money by allowing the use of ivory for various
purposes, he said.
In the long run, Mr. Binu feared, the recommendation on antlers would lead to hunting of
animals.
The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, has included antler in the definition of wildlife trophy.
A wildlife trophy is defined as the whole or any part of any captive animal or wild
animal.
Section 39 of the Act also states that no person shall, without the previous permission
in writing of the Chief Wildlife Warden or the authorised officer acquire or keep in his
possession, custody or control or transfer to any person, whether by way of gift, sale or
otherwise or destroy or damage such property.
Wildlife and wildlife trophies are considered to be owned by the government. The Act
prescribes imprisonment up to three years and a fine of 25,000 for offences involving
wildlife trophies.

Tribal development remains poor, says Ministry report

Author: Vidya Venkat

Chennai: The tribal population in India lags behind other social groups on various social
parameters, such as child mortality and infant mortality and womens health, says the
latest annual report of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Tribal population, with a vast majority engaged in agricultural labour, has the largest
number of anaemic women, the report states.
The community also registered the highest child mortality and infant mortality rates,
when compared to other social groups, the data indicates.
While educational achievement on the whole has improved, statistics cited elsewhere in
the report shows that the gross enrolment ratio among tribal students in the primary
school level has declined from 113.2 in 2013-14 to 109.4 in 2015-16. Besides, the
dropout rate among tribal students has been alarming.
While the overall poverty rates among the tribal population have fallen compared to
previous years, they remain relatively poor when weighed against other social groups.
Health infrastructure has also been found wanting in tribal areas. At an all-India level,
there is a shortfall of 6,796 sub-centres, 1,267 primary health centres and 309
community health centres in the tribal areas as on March 31, 2015, the report points
out.

Gaps in rehabilitation

Further, it exposes the gaps in the rehabilitation of the tribal community members
displaced by development projects. Of an estimated 85 lakh persons displaced due to
development projects and natural calamities, only 21 lakh were shown to have been
rehabilitated so far, the report states.
Responding to this figure, Sudhir Pattanaik, Odisha-based social activist and Editor,
Samadrusti, told The Hindu that even the 21 lakh resettlement figure in the report is
questionable as there is no way to verify this data.

Based on what he had witnessed in the case of displacement caused by mining plants
and captive power projects set up in the past in Angul, Koraput, Raigadh and Kalahandi
districts in the State, Mr. Pattanaik said it was tribal land acquisition and not tribal
development that was the focus of the government. Rehabilitation only happens on
paper, and any compensation for displaced adivasi folks is siphoned off by others in their
name, he said.

Passport to reform

The progressive changes introduced by the Centre to the rules governing grant of
passports were long overdue. They simplify, in great measure, the paperwork needed for
an Indian citizen to get the document. In order to screen applications to prevent
impersonation, some of the earlier rules may have made sense at some point of time,
but over the years the bureaucratic impediments that the cumbersome requirements
posed to genuine applicants were so severe that many had to knock on the doors of high
courts for remedy. Some rules were targeted at women. The most specious form of
harassment of women passport applicants related to those who were either separated or
divorced. Even something as routine as renewing a passport without any change of name
or detail or getting a passport in the name of a child was a laborious process, as
passport officials insisted on either the fathers consent or demanded a divorce decree.
Following the recommendations of an inter-ministerial committee comprising officials of
the Ministries of External Affairs and Women and Child Development, crucial changes
have been introduced. The application form now requires only the name of one parent,
not both. This will enable single parents to apply for passports for their children without
the name of either the father or the mother being printed in the document. The
stipulation that marriage certifications and divorce decrees should be provided has been
removed; the obsolete concept of getting documents attested by notaries or magistrates
has also been jettisoned, and self-declarations on plain paper would now be accepted.
A key reform is that a birth certificate is no more the main proof of date of birth, and
other official documents, including Aadhaar number and PAN card, which contain the
date, can be utilised. In the case of orphaned children, actual proof for date of birth has
been dispensed with and a declaration from the head of a child care home or orphanage
confirming the date is enough. In keeping with the times, adopted and surrogate

children can be issued passports even in the absence of the relevant documents, based
on a declaration on plain paper. Sadhus and sanyasins have been allowed to mention
their gurus in lieu of the names of their parents. The new rules address many irritants in
the process of getting a passport, but also make one wonder why these were not
introduced long ago. Ultimately, a passport ought to be every citizens right. Simplifying
the procedures in obtaining one should be an ongoing exercise.

Behind Pakistans CPEC offer

Days after a senior Pakistani General suggested that India should shun its enmity with
Pakistan and join the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, the Chinese
foreign ministry has called the offer a goodwill gesture, exhorting India to take it up. At
face value, the suggestion is odd. India has no dialogue with Pakistan at present, and
has opposed the project, bilaterally with China at the highest level as well as at the
UN. Relations with China have deteriorated considerably since President Xi Jinpings visit
to Pakistan to announce the project in April 2015. Initially, New Delhi sought to play
down its significance, as it was made just weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi
travelled to China, and the government would have hoped to dissuade Beijing from
pushing the more objectionable projects that run through disputed territory. However,
not only has the corridor taken shape rapidly, China and Pakistan have been drawn into
a closer embrace, with Pakistan investing considerable resources in securing Chinese
officials working on CPEC, and China redrawing its plans for the One Belt One Road to
Central Asia to incorporate Pakistans interests. China has defended Pakistan against
Indias efforts to pin it down with regard to support to terror groups, and to draw an
obstructionist equivalence with Indias Nuclear Suppliers Group membership application.
Given all this, the Generals suggestion can only be understood to have been made
rhetorically, especially as it was accompanied by allegations of Indias anti-Pakistan
activities and subversion in Balochistan.
While there can be little expectation of any room for India in CPEC at present, there is
space for India to step back and see where China and Pakistan want to go with it. The
offer to India was made along with offers to other neighbouring countries. Already, Iran
wants Gwadar to be a sister port to Chabahar, and Turkmenistan and other Central
Asian republics have shown interest in the warm-water port that will be a nodal point for
goods through Pakistan to the Chinese city of Kashgar. Further north, despite its
problems on terror from Pakistan, Afghanistan is becoming a nodal point for Chinas
connectivity projects to Iran. The meeting among Russian, Chinese and Pakistani officials
on Afghanistan this week, and Russian engagement with the Taliban, indicate much
more is changing in the region than just the alignment of highways and tunnels. While
India has done well to shore up relations with others in the region, it cannot afford to be
blindsided by their involvement with the OBOR project and Chinese plans. CPEC is no

longer a project in Pakistan, but one that runs through it, a project that will link 64
countries.

Afghanistan, India, and Trump Given his limited choices in

stabilising Afghanistan, which include supporting a national
election, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will find India to
be a reliable and trusted partner in this process
What Pakistan has been seeking is to exercise a veto over Kabuls relations
with New Delhi which the Afghans are unwilling to concede Rakesh Sood

On January 20, next year, Donald Trump will take over as the 45th President of the
United States of America, at a time when the U.S. remains engaged in the longest war in
its history the war in Afghanistan. He will be the third President to deal with the war
launched in 2001 by U.S. President George Bush and sought to be brought to a
conclusion by his successor U.S. President Barack Obama.
Even though Operation Enduring Freedom ended on December 28, 2014 implying an
end to formal combat operations by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
forces, the U.S. still maintains approximately 9,800 troops as part of the international
troop presence numbering over 12,000 under Operation Resolute Support. Primary
responsibility for fighting the insurgency was transferred to the Afghan National Security
Forces (consisting of the military and the police) two years ago but U.S. presence is
essential to provide critical domain awareness, intelligence and surveillance support, air
power and special forces.
For Mr. Bush, the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan was an integral
part of his war on terror, launched on September 20, 2001. The U.S.-led effort
enjoyed broad international support which continued even after Mr. Bushs ill-conceived
invasion in Iraq in 2003 in search of the non-existent weapons of mass destruction. The
Iraq invasion however diluted Washingtons focus on the challenges it faced in
Afghanistan.
In 2009, Mr. Obama drew a clear distinction between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
describing the latter as a war of necessity, a war that we (USA) have to win. He
ordered a troop surge in 2009 while simultaneously announcing the date for withdrawal
of the U.S. from combat operations. This flawed decision may have been the result of
domestic compulsions but it breathed fresh life into the insurgency.

Gains and losses

Much blood and treasure has been expended in Afghanistan. The U.S. alone has spent
more than $800 billion in Afghanistan, of which $115 billion has been spent on
reconstruction; more than the inflation adjusted expenditure under the Marshall Plan for
rebuilding Europe after World War II at $105 billion! The ISAF (consisting of over 40
countries) suffered 3,500 fatal casualties during the last 15 years, with the U.S. bearing
the largest loss at 2,400 lives. At the NATO summit in Warsaw earlier this year, it was
agreed to maintain the current international troop presence till 2020 while providing
annual financial support of $4.5 billion for the Afghan security forces.
It is clear that this is unlikely to bring about a material change in the situation in
Afghanistan. In fact, casualties among the Afghan forces and civilians have risen rapidly
in recent years. The total civilian casualties are estimated at 31,000; this year witnessed
a spike. The Afghan security forces have suffered significant casualties, rising from
21,000 in 2014 to about 30,000 today.
Out of 408 districts, the government writ holds in 258 while 33 have come under the
control of the insurgents, largely in the south. The remaining 116 districts are contested
zones.
It is true that some progress has been registered. Life expectancy has gone up from 40
years in 2002 to 62 years today. From 9,00,000 boys in school then, the number of
children in school is now more than 8 million, more than a third are girls. Literacy figures
have gone up from 12 per cent to 34 per cent in 15 years. Today, with a median age of
18 years, Afghanistan has one of the youngest populations with 60 per cent of the
population below 21 years of age. This progress can be sustained only if peace can be
restored.

Different political approaches

Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai realised early on that the key to restoring
peace and stability in Afghanistan lay in Pakistan. He described the Taliban as Pashtun
brothers and tried to improve relations with Pakistan. In many of his speeches, Mr.
Karzai referred to India as an old friend and Pakistan as a brother and conjoined twin.
The metaphor may not be apt because half the conjoined twins are stillborn and an
additional one-third die within 24 hours but it does capture Pakistans critical role.
Eventually, he became exasperated with Pakistan President Pervez Musharrafs rebuffs
and tried, unsuccessfully, to open up his own channels for dialogue with the Quetta
Shura, first with Mullah Obaidullah and then with Mullah Baradar, only to have them
successively neutralised by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Mr. Ghani went a step further. Having witnessed Mr. Karzais doomed efforts and
conscious of the political fragility of his National Unity Government, he swallowed his
pride and even called on the Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, at the GHQ, in
Rawalpindi in 2014, a departure from protocol that raised many eyebrows. He tacitly
accepted Pakistans demand that Afghanistan diminish the salience of its relationship
with India, in the expectation that Pakistan would play a positive role to ensure political
reconciliation. A new track was opened with the Quadrilateral Coordination Group
consisting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the U.S. However, Mr. Ghani too felt
betrayed when he learnt that the myth of Mullah Omar had been sustained for at least
two years and despite his pleading, the ISI went ahead with the anointment of Mullah
Mansour as the new Taliban leader. As insurgency grew, he publicly blamed Pakistan of
sending a message of war when he had held out a hand of peace.
In their own fashion, both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama saw the Pakistan problem but were
content to manage the situation rather than push for a solution. Mr. Bush ensured the
first round of peaceful elections in Afghanistan by laying down clear redlines for Gen.
Musharraf but during his second term, he was preoccupied with Iraq. Mr. Obama tried
diplomacy by appointing the high profile U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as Special
Representative for AfPak but eventually decided that the best way for the U.S. to address
the issue was to reduce its role and presence in Afghanistan. The Kerry-Lugar assistance
package for Pakistan turned out to be more carrot than stick.

Pakistans overreach

Given a porous border with Afghanistan with tribal linkages cutting across the Durand
Line, Pakistans legitimate interests can be understood as also the fact that it is critical to
any political reconciliation in Afghanistan. However, what Pakistan has been seeking is to
exercise a veto over Kabuls relations with Delhi which the Afghans are unwilling to
concede.
Pakistans policies towards both India and Afghanistan are determined primarily by the
Army which sees India as an existential threat. Looking at its relations with Afghanistan
through the India prism makes it inevitable that Pakistan can only have a relationship
with Afghanistan that is mired in mistrust, suspicion and hostility. Since relations with
India are unlikely to normalise in the foreseeable future, the only way out for Pakistan to
play a constructive role in Afghanistan is to accept the idea of Afghan sovereignty and
autonomy and refrain from making it a zone of India-Pakistan rivalry.
Unless Pakistan changes its attitude, political reconciliation in Afghanistan will remain
unlikely. The Taliban today is a fractured lot, neither a Vietcong nor even a Hezbollah.
Its fragmentation does not affect its ability to launch terrorist attacks in Afghanistan but
certainly makes it more difficult to get it to the negotiating table.

Meanwhile, the National Unity Government in Kabul is not a strong and united entity
thereby reducing its negotiating space. All this diminishes Pakistans ability to deliver the
Taliban too; it can ensure presence for a one-off meeting but lacks the political capital
needed to underwrite the reconciliation process.
The challenge for Kabul is that it has to engage in multiple reconciliation processes
with the Taliban and with the Pakistani army. The hardline Taliban represented by the
Haqqani network is determined to continue the fight militarily. However, even the more
moderate who are willing to talk demand the exit of all foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Not only could this bring about a collapse of the fragile coalition in Kabul but it would
also reduce the international financial support which is critical to keep the government
machinery working. Power sharing can be worked out, as demonstrated recently in the
accord with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, but no government in Kabul can accept this Taliban
redline.

The India factor

India has had the most effective economic cooperation programme, having spent more
than $2 billion and committed another billion dollars earlier this year. Indians have also
lost lives in deliberate attacks linked to the Haqqani group and the Lashkar-e-Taiba but
this has not diminished the Indian role. It has only cemented Afghan-Indian relations
which are now developing a military dimension. Never again will India be forced to close
down its embassy in Kabul as it happened during the Taliban regime.
When President-elect Donald Trump takes charge, he will find that he has little choice in
the matter. A complete withdrawal is out of question. His challenge will be to change the
calculus of the Pakistani establishment, increase capabilities of the Afghan security forces
to inflict attrition on the insurgents, and, in 2019, support an election in Afghanistan that
brings about a more cohesive government. In all this, he will find the Narendra Modi
government to be a reliable and trusted partner.

Letters to editor
Sukumaran C.V.,PalakkadR. Narayan,BengaluruManohar
Alembath,KannurH.P. Murali,BengaluruSwaminadhan
Krishnamoorthy,CoimbatoreArjun K.V.,BengaluruGaurav Singhal,Rewari,
HaryanaSushil Chilimbi,MumbaiV.R. Gopinath,Kozhikode

Its called disruption

In most democracies, government policy always stands covertly aligned with the
interests of the business lobbies. But it has never been so overtly aligned with corporate
interests as it is now in our country with such inhumane callousness towards the
interests of the common man vis--vis demonetisation (The mother of all
disruptions, Dec.27). This began ever since the economic reforms of 1991 which
were largely for the benefit of the corporate world. But even the government of the
time would not have been so immune to see the hardship being caused by disruptions
such as demonetisation.
Sukumaran C.V.,
Palakkad
The common man continues to suffer in the aftermath of demonetisation, as numerous
letters in this column point out. The government should do something about the issue
constructively without indulging in fruitless talk about the benefits.
Right now there is a need to infuse confidence in the common man who is taken aback
to see closed ATMs with no cash boards. When will this suffering end?
R. Narayan,
Bengaluru
Those who expected the Prime Minister to address some of their lingering concerns over
demonetisation during the last Maan ki Baat of the year stand badly let down as he
chose to indulge in generalities and platitudes. He carried on as if salvation lay only in
the adoption of digital payments and the creation of a cashless society. The issue of the
funding of political parties, widely acknowledged to be the prime source of corruption
and black money, was neatly skirted. To expect anything from the government on this
front is illusory if one is to go by how the FCRA was amended recently.
Manohar Alembath,

Kannur
The writer has focussed only on the negative side of demonetisation, which is a bold
decision that paves the way to put an end to black money, hawala transactions and
fostering terrorist activities. Nobody can deny that there is pain due to a rationing and
paucity of currency notes, but there is some progress.Most countries have hailed the

decision. The political Opposition should come up with practical solutions, something it
has unfortunately failed to do so far.
H.P. Murali,
Bengaluru
A number of letter writers, for want of a better word, appear to be whining about
demonetisation. I firmly believe that the rot, which began in 2014 as a result of UPA
rule, warranted drastic action and a courageous policy of correction. If we could put up
with scams and swindling for over a decade why are we so impatient and quick to
grumble for a 50-day wait? The policy is irreversible and readers must accept that.
They should expend their energy in offering solutions to the shortcomings which are
bound to exist in the implementation of this path-breaking move.
Swaminadhan Krishnamoorthy,
Coimbatore

Accessing external funding

The fact that there are many NGOs which misuse foreign funds is indubitable and there
is a need for better oversight (Time to repeal the FCRA, Dec.27). But this should not
become a tool in the hands of the government to stifle dissent. The ambivalence shown
by the BJP and Congress in bringing transparency in foreign funding for public bodies is
deplorable.
On one hand, they are imposing more restrictions and oversight over foreign funding to
NGOs while diluting the FCRA, thereby creating a conduit for foreign funding to political
parties. The way this is done with a retrospective validity is a brazen attempt to subvert
the Delhi High Court directive regarding accepting foreign funds from Vedanta in 2014.
In all this lies a strong case for more electoral reforms and giving more teeth to the
Election Commission.
Arjun K.V.,
Bengaluru
A majority of those being acted upon are the ones who have filed PILs against
government projects and even conducted hartals. By branding them as financiers of
political dissent, inciters of seditious activities, impediments in economic projects and
promoters of religious conversions, the government seems to legitimising its actions. It
is unfortunate that the social media is also being used to brand these groups and those

involved with them as anti-nationals. There could be some groups involved in

funnelling money to fund illegal activities, but to regulate these groups, we need an
independent body, of government appointees and independent, leading members from
civil-society groups. This is a task which cannot be delegated to bureaucrats.
Gaurav Singhal,
Rewari, Haryana

Bail for Tyagi

The sad state of the military fraternity, both serving and retired, is reflected in the
deplorable way in which former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi has been targeted and
treated (Delhi court raps CBI, grants bail to Tyagi, Dec.27). In the hierarchy of
precedence and position in the decision-making coterie in the AgustaWestland deal,
he must have been at the bottom of the rung, if at all he was involved in the decisionmaking. But when the moment of reckoning comes, it is only him who is in the the
stockade. Now, so-called accountability is also the burden of only servicemen.
Sushil Chilimbi,
Mumbai
Air Chief Marshal Arup Rahas statement on the arrest of ACM Tyagi is quite unfortunate
(Tyagis arrest dented image of IAF, says chief Arup Raha, Dec.27). What exactly is he
trying to say? That what ACM Tyagi did was wrong or that his arrest was wrong? To say
that the morale of the defence forces will be affected is incorrect. Our armed forces have
very high integrity and one is confident that they will certainly be able to discern right
from wrong.
V.R. Gopinath,
Kozhikode

Excluded from financial inclusion

The call for financial inclusion is an unfulfilled dream for disabled people
who continue to face harassment from financial institutions Avinash Shahi

Despite the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) repeatedly issuing circulars to all scheduled
commercial banks across the country to provide banking facilities to customers with
disabilities at a par with non-disabled people, the majority of disabled people continue to
be inconvenienced by the banks. The situation is especially grim in rural areas and post
the demonetisation announcement.
The hurdles for disabled people to access banking services are plenty. Many disabled
people, especially in rural India, find it difficult to sign bank documents, and are denied
ATM cards, cheque books and Internet banking. The majority of commercial banks have
archaic rules in their statute books which debar people with disabilities from opening
independent accounts. Persons with disabilities are compelled to produce witnesses
every time they visit banks to make online transactions through real-time gross
settlement and national electronic funds transfer.

Denial of banking services

The banking industry has classified its customers; it prioritises those it considers suitable
for the banks business, be it in terms of customer needs, interest in certain product
features, or customer profitability. Disabled persons are excluded. In this age of
technology, banks have embarked on a slew of innovative strategies to woo the general
public. We have been witnessing a lot of tailor-made financial products and services for
general customers. However, there is a common perception among bank officials that
disabled people do not require banking products and services. This is perhaps why most
bank websites are inaccessible. The majority of them offer graphical captcha to enable
customers to proceed on these sites. These make it impossible for a fully blind person to
access available services. Moreover, disabled customers are perceived as dependent on
their family members; they are seen as lacking independent agency to make their own
decisions.
In many rural areas, if a visually impaired person or a person with low vision walks into a
bank to open an account, most banks dont comply. Bank officials often insist that the
person should open a joint bank account with a person with sight, or open an account
with no ATM card/cheque book facility or both. The situation is worse for those with
hearing impairments and intellectual disabilities. If a person who is deaf visits a bank for
availing the benefits of a scheme or service, the branch more often than not lacks the
manpower to understand or interpret sign language. People with psycho-social
disabilities are the worst hit they require a guardian to sign a contract on their behalf.

The launch of the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in 2014 provided an impetus
for financial inclusion. Under the PMJDY, the mandate is not restricted to opening
accounts. The aim is to provide easier access to banks through the issuing of RuPay
cards, which, incidentally, carry an inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh.
Providing small-value overdrafts based on satisfactory conduct of account, availability of
low-cost life insurance (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana) and accident insurance
(Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana) and pension scheme (Atal Pension Yojana) are
also part of the PMJDY initiative. However, disabled people are denied loan facilities. A
majority of banks refrain from offering insurance to people with disabilities. The call for
financial inclusion has thus become an illusion for disabled people.

Demonetisation and disability

The demonetisation move has further aggravated the problem. First, the Prime Minister
uses a patronising term to refers to those with disabilities: divyang (those with divine
bodies). Second, there are long queues outside ATMs and banks, and disabled persons
find it difficult to avail of cash and services in such an environment, especially in rural
areas. Despite the RBI stating that banks have to take necessary steps to provide all
existing ATMs/future ATMs with ramps so that wheel chair users/persons with disabilities
can easily access them, most ATMs remain inaccessible. In the current environment, the
government has proposed that there should be separate queues for persons with
disabilities and for senior citizens, but the reality is starkly different.
The call for financial inclusion is a distant dream for disabled people who face
harassment from financial institutions across the country. Banks and companies that
offer insurance policies are not yet ready to accept disabled people as respected clients.
The monthly state-sponsored pension, which is the sole meagre monetary support for
many disabled people, hardly reaches them on time. The RBI and the government need
to take punitive action against those errant officials and banks that contravene the RBIs
guidelines for providing banking facilities to disabled people. We must uphold the spirit of
Article 41 of the Constitution (Right to public assistance for the disabled).
Avinash Shahi is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for the Study of Law and
Governance, JNU.

Chronicle of a conflict foretold In Manipur, everyone will

have to agree to a shared homeland if the crisis is to be
solved
Conflict resolution in such a scenario cannot be a bilateral matter between
the Central government and any single party Pradip Phanjoubam

The tragedy of the current communal flashpoint in Manipur is that for a long time there
has been a sense of foreboding that things were headed this direction, and few did
anything about it. What is surprising is the blindness on the part of all involved in the
business of peace-making, and those waging supposedly peoples struggles, to the fact
of a peculiar geographical destiny which has bound and still binds much of this troubled
frontier, and that any effort to break this unseen bondage will likely result in deadly
conflicts. This has been particularly true of multi-ethnic and multi-religious Manipur.
Indeed, if geography predetermines conflicts as Robert Kaplan explains in The Revenge
of Geography, Manipur would be a fine demonstration of this theory.
Thankfully, no ethnic carnage has happened. Although there have been pockets of arson
and violence, there have been no human casualties, which gives hope that better sense
can still hold. There are also signs now that the immediate cause for the heightened
ethnic tension that of the indefinite blockade along Manipurs two major lifelines, the
Imphal-Dimapur road and the Imphal-Silchar road, imposed by the United Naga Council
(UNC) since November 1 may end soon. Following commendable groundwork done by
a group of citizens calling themselves the Goodwill Mission, the UNC has indicated on
Monday that it is open to talks with the Manipur government on the matter. The latter on
its part had extended invitations to the former for such talks on several occasions. The
Central government too has woken up to the reality and has finally decided to send
4,000 paramilitary troops to open the highways in case the blockade remains.

Root of the crisis

The roots of any conflict can never been in black and white, but if a single overwhelming
reason for the current crisis is to be identified, it is the primeval notion of an exclusive
ethnic homeland so current in places like Manipur. The belief is that such homelands are
a given and have existed since time immemorial. Communities who claim to be natural
heirs and custodians of these homelands think of others as aliens. The trouble is, those
thus excluded, as all traditional ethnic communities, have their own notions of homeland,
and these more often than not overlap, and sometimes completely, with the ones in
which they are supposed to be aliens. Depending on the state of economic bases of the
communities in question, these homeland notions understandably vary. For instance,
settle agriculturists, shift cultivators and hunter gatherers will have different
relationships with land. Nagas, Kukis, Meiteis and many other smaller ethnic groups in
Manipur are thus in a web of overlapped homelands. Under the circumstances, the
unanswered question is, whose homeland is to be given precedence, especially when
they overlap? The lack of courage and imagination on the part of the enlightened civil

society as well as governments to address this question is what keeps places like
Manipur perpetually on the edge.
Furthermore, these homelands have undergone a great deal of skewing with the advent
of modern land revenue administration, brought in by the British beginning 1826. The
clear-cut division between the hills and plains in Assam and Manipur is one of these.
After the Treaty of Yandaboo, 1826 that concluded the Burmese occupation of Assam and
Manipur, the British annexed Assam and made it a province of Bengal, but left Manipur
as a protectorate state. No sooner, the British realised the need to demarcate revenue
from non-revenue lands in Assam and came up with the Bengal Eastern Frontier
Regulation in 1873, by which an Inner Line was drawn roughly at the base of the hills
surrounding the revenue-earning fertile Assam valleys. The non-revenue hills beyond
were left unadministered, except for occasional punitive expeditions to punish tribes who
raided the plains in the lean seasons.
This segregation of the hills from the plains continued till the time of Indian
independence. In the Government of India Act, 1919, the hills beyond the Inner Line
were termed as Backward Tracts and continued to be left unadministered. In the
Government of India Act, 1935, these Backward Tracts were redesignated and clubbed
into two categories: excluded areas and partially excluded areas. The excluded areas
were to remain unrepresented in the provincial assembly and governed directly by the
Governor of the province. The partially excluded areas were to have some
representations in the provincial government through representatives appointed by the
Governor.
Although the British did not draw an Inner Line in Manipur, they brought in the tried and
tested non-revenue space management norms from Assam. They left the fertile and
intensely cultivated revenue lands of the Imphal valley to be administered under modern
revenue norms while the sparsely populated non-revenue hills were generally left
unadministered, but under the charge of the British Political Agent in the then kingdom,
in his official capacity as the President Manipur State Darbar. This pattern of
administration soon came to be institutionalised and was retained after independence.
Today, the Imphal valley is under the modern revenue administration as defined by the
Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, introduced while it was still a Union
Territory in 1962, but not the hills, where customary laws continue to shape
administrative norms. In the valley, the state is deemed to own all lands, and individual
owners lease their small possessions and pay taxes in return. However, this principle of
eminent domain is disputed in the hills.

Different interpretations

Viewed against this backdrop, the UNC blockade should be open to different
interpretations. The UNC was demanding an assurance from the Manipur government
that what they deem as their ancient homeland or Nagalim, reflecting the vocabulary
of the Naga militant group, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) will
not be divided into districts without their consent. In particular, they did not want the
Kuki-dominated Sadar Hills given this status, as they consider Kukis as migrants who
settled in their land and who can only be their tenants. The Manipur government, which
was expected to create this district together with Jiribam, a small enclave of
predominantly non-tribal population, deferred the decision in the wake of the UNC
protest, but a December 8 midnight cabinet meet, for whatever its wisdom, decided to
go ahead and create not just these two districts but five more by splitting altogether
seven existing districts, thereby stiffening the UNCs blockade stance.
What then can be the way forward? First and foremost, conflict resolution in such a
scenario cannot be a bilateral matter between the Central government and any single
party, as it seems to be the case in the ongoing Naga peace talks. A chain can be as
strong as the weakest link, and the Centre will have to look for a broader and more
inclusive solution to suit what essentially is a multilateral issue. Second, everyone will
have to agree to a shared homeland. The lofty goal of shared sovereignty and
competencies being negotiated between the NSCN(IM) and the Centre cannot be the
solution to the problem of the region unless this sharing extends to all other stake
holders.
Pradip Phanjoubam is editor of Imphal Free Press and author of The Northeast
Question.

Nepal rejects Indias open sky offer

Author: Somesh Jha

NEW DELHI: Nepal has rejected Indias open sky offer to allow unlimited flights between
the two nations at a meeting held here on December 20, senior Civil Aviation Ministry
officials said.
Nepal said it was not yet ready for the agreement. India has been keen on countering
Nepals recent engagement with China on the road, railways and port connectivity.
Nepal said it was not yet ready for the open-sky agreement and it might consider the
proposal two years later, said a senior Ministry official.
Airlines from India and Nepal are now allowed to operate 30,000 seats from each side.
The official said both nations signed an MoU to set up a joint technical committee to
examine Nepals request for developing new air routes and air entry points at Janakpur,

Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj. The panel will meet in the first week of February to
examine the feasibility of the proposed routes, he said.
The latest development comes days after India signed a pact with Sri Lanka, Jamaica,
Guyana, Czech Republic, Finland and Spain to allow airlines to operate unlimited flights
to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
Nepal has long been pushing for new airspaces to ease congestion on the existing routes
and to save time and cost for air passengers.
Nepal is building an international airport at Bhairwaha, near UP border, and the airport
at Pokhara will soon be brought to international standards. We believe India and Nepal
should give each more access to the others skies and move with the times, Nepals
Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay told The Hindu.
(With Kallol Bhattacherjee)

India journeys from multilateral to bilateral

Frustrations at the U.N. and NSG were offset by agreements with the U.S.
and the Gulf nations
Author: Suhasini Haidar

NEW DELHI: Donald Trumps win in the U.S. presidential elections, Britains Brexit vote,
Russias successes in Syria, Chinese actions in South China Sea and North Koreas
testing of H-bomb parts in the uncertainty that 2016s most dramatic moments
unleashed on the world, Indian foreign policy took a decided step away from multilateral
platforms to focus on bilateral relations to shore up its place in the world.
From the United Nations (U.N.), to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), to the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) to BRICS, SAARC, SCO and others, the Modi government seemed
to make limited headway. This has led officials to argue that it was Indias bilateral
engagements that were propelling it forward, as with the U.S., West Asia, or Japan; or
holding it back, as with China and Pakistan.
Global blocs and alliances are less relevant today and the world is moving towards a
loosely arranged order, said Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar in an address to the press
this year, shortly before India announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was going to
drop out of attending the Non-Aligned Summit in Venezuela.
The decision was significant: except for one occasion in 1979, an Indian Prime Minister
has always attended the NAM summit, which it helped found. The decision seemed not
just bound by the decision to move away from the bloc, that has been seen as less

relevant in the post-Cold War era, but also not to upset Indias partnership with the
Obama administration that was at odds with Venezuelan President Maduro. At the
previous summit in Teheran in 2012, the UPA government had chosen to ignore pressure
from the United States to give NAM a miss.

Blocked at world bodies

With the U.N., the government has felt frustration at its inability to move on issues
important for India. No headway was made on Indias bid for a permanent Security
Council seat, on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, or on specific
requests to ban Pakistan-based terror group chief Masood Azhar, leading Indias envoy to
the U.N. Syed Akbaruddin to say the world body suffers from a mix of ad hocism,
scrambling and political paralysis.
Similar frustration was felt when Indias bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group was
scotched not once but twice in the year, due to Chinas objections. Despite making the
NSG membership the centre-point of all of Mr. Modis high-profile summits with countries
ranging from Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and Switzerland to New Zealand and other
members of the 48-nation body, the government will have to wait for next June to take
its request forward.
In an unusually direct statement, the MEA blamed the failure on one country that
created persistent procedural hurdles to Indias ambitions.
Meanwhile, Indias attempts to introduce Pakistan-specific anti-terror strictures into the
the BRICS declaration at the Goa summit came a cropper too, bringing into sharp light
Indias limited options when it comes to multilateral organisations such as BRICS, RIC
(Russia-India-China) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which are dominated
by the growing Sino-Russian partnership.

Bright spots

The bright spots for Indian foreign policy, instead, came from its strengthened bilateral
relationships: most notably with the U.S., that saw the Prime Ministers address to the
U.S. Congress, the signing of the Logistics Agreement, and Indias agreement to join the
Climate Change convention.
As the year drew to a close, President Obama signed the Defence Bill that names India a
major defence partner a designation that seems most akin to a strategic ally without

being one. Another leap forward came from Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
and the UAE, which are forging closer ties with India despite their OIC reservations, and
from Iran and Afghanistan.
Russia remains ambiguous, as 2016 saw it draw closer to Pakistan with military exercises
and an interest in the China-Pakistan economic corridor.

Not all quiet on the Kashmir front Starting with Pathankot

attack in January, the year witnessed heightened tensions
along the border
The year was less productive for Pakistan. There was a concerted effort to
push in infiltrators
Author: Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI: The year 2016 has been one of the worst in recent times for the Army in
terms of casualties in Jammu and Kashmir with major attacks on military installations
and heightened tensions along the border with Pakistan.
It began on a bitter note with an attack on the Pathankot Air Force station in the early
hours of January 2.
There were major attacks on Army bases in Uri and Nagrota in the latter part of the year,
resulting in significant casualties on security forces. There was also a dramatic spike in
cross-border firing after the Uri attack.
This year all parameters infiltration, ceasefire violations, terrorists killed and soldiers
lost have seen an increase over last year, an Army source said.
The Army lost 63 personnel in Jammu & Kashmir, almost double that of last year. In
2015, it lost 33 personnel and in 2014, 32.

Rise in infiltration bids

With increase in infiltration attempts, the number of terrorists killed has also gone up.
Over 140 terrorists were neutralised. There was also an upward trend in the number of
suicide attacks compared with the last two years.

The general assessment is that 2016 was less productive for Pakistan and so there was a
concerted effort to push in infiltrators and also keep the hinterland active, a senior officer
observed.
Things took a dramatic turn particularly after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist
Burhan Wani in July which plunged the Kashmir Valley into a spiral of protests and
violence.
The protests had severely affected the Armys target-specific operations in the hinterland
as intelligence gathering and movement were disrupted.
With normalcy restored, the operations in the hinterland have resumed now as local
police are cooperating again and intelligence is flowing, the officer added.

Active border

India on its part has toughened its response to provocations from across the border. The
ceasefire declared by India and Pakistan along the border in 2003 and which brought
relative peace came under severe stress this year especially after the Uri terror attack
which claimed the lives of 19 soldiers and the resultant surgical strikes carried out by
the Army along the Line of Control (LoC).
Both sides resorted to the use of 80mm and 120mm heavy mortars to target posts on
the other side, in addition to small arms and machine guns.
Each side has also accused the other of employing heavy artillery, though neither side
acknowledged having used it themselves.
The multiple attacks on military installations very close to the border have laid bare the
gaps in perimeter security in high-threat areas.
After the conversation between the Directors General of Military Operations of India and
Pakistan over the hotline in mid-November, the border has been largely quiet.
However security forces have reasons to be concerned about the situation in the
hinterland.

Increase in militant ranks

The number of terrorists in the Valley is estimated to be between 200-300. Army sources
said that after Burhan Wanis killing there is a rise in radicalisation among the youth and
more locals have joined militant ranks.
After Burhan Wani, recruitment is on the rise. New breed of militants are coming to the
fore, a senior officer said.
Tackling them will be a challenge for the security forces in the New Year.
The repercussions of this could be felt once snow melts next year.

FCRA licences of 222 NGOs cancelled this year

Despite the crackdown, petitions for fresh licences were received from
3,000 NGOs
Author: Special Correspondent

New Delhi: The Central government, on Tuesday, said that the Foreign Contribution
Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of 222 NGOs were cancelled this year and the licences of
another 11,000 NGOs had expired as they did not apply for renewal in time.
Last year, the Home Ministry had cancelled the licences of over 9,500 NGOs.
As reported by The Hindu on November 4, the licences of the 11,000 NGOs expired as
they did not apply for renewal in time or their documents were incomplete. A senior
Home Ministry official said expiry technically meant cancellation and the NGOs could no
longer receive foreign funds but they had been given time till February 2017 to send in
fresh applications. Despite the crackdown, in the past one year, the Ministry received
applications for fresh FCRA licences from 3,000 NGOs.

Review meet

The figures were shared at a review meeting chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on
Tuesday. In a detailed presentation, Mr. Singh was informed that of the 33,000 FCRA
registered NGOs, around 25,000 were up for renewal this year. Of these, 19,000 applied
for renewal in time and around 15,000 applications were cleared. The remaining 11,000
NGOs have time to apply afresh.

In addition to this, 300 NGOs are currently under prior permission category but not
registered under the FCRA, which means they need the Ministry nod whenever they want
to receive foreign funds. FCRA licences of 16 NGOs were renewed by the Ministry under
the automatic route and all the cases were reviewed thoroughly and except in two
cases, 14 NGOs have been put under the prior permission category while papers of the
two NGOs are under examination.
Since the FCRA licence is given for five years, this year all the NGOs had to apply for a
renewal and the last date was March 31. Last time, such an exercise was done in 2011
after the FCRA Act was amended in 2010.

China for strategic balance in S. Asia Foreign Ministrys

response comes a day after India tested long-distance
Agni-V ballistic missile
Author: Atul Aneja

BEIJING: China on Tuesday called for preserving the strategic balance and stability in
South Asia, following Indias successful test of the Agni-V ballistic missile.
China always maintains that preserving the strategic balance and stability in South Asia
is conducive to peace and prosperity of regional countries and beyond, said Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, without mentioning Pakistan.

UN restrictions on India

In her regular press briefing, Ms. Hua also signalled that there are restrictions imposed
by the UN Security Council on India for developing nuclear-capable missiles. We have
noted reports on Indias test-fire of Agni-V ballistic missile. The UN Security Council has
explicit regulations on whether India can develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying
nuclear weapons, she observed.
The successful test of the Agni-V inaugurates Indias entry into the small club of nations
that have developed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM).
The missile, with a range above 5,000 km, can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes, three
times the minimum weight of an atomic warhead. It is also more survivable to a
counterstrike, as it is mounted on a TATRA truck, which imparts mobility to the weaponsystem. Nuclear missiles launched from fixed silos can be more easily targeted.

The spokesperson stressed that India and China, as emerging economies, were not rivals
but partners. We also notice reports, including some from India and Japan, speculating
whether India made this move to counter China. They need to ask the Indian side for
their intention behind the move. On the Chinese part, China and India have reached an
important consensus that the two countries are not rivals for competition but partners
for cooperation as two significant developing countries and emerging economies, she
observed.
Ms. Hua pointed out: China is willing to work alongside regional countries, including
India, to maintain the long-lasting peace, stability and prosperity of the region.
She added: We also hope that relevant media can report in an objective and sensible
manner and do more things to contribute to the mutual trust between China and India
and regional peace and stability.
Responding to Chinas statement, Vikas Swarup, spokesperson at the Ministry of External
Affairs, said: Indias strategic capabilities are not targeted against any particular
country. India abides by all the applicable international obligations and hopes that all
others do the same. Indias strategic autonomy and growing engagement contributes to
strategic stability.
(With inputs from Kallol Bhattacharjee)

Simplify, reduce personal income tax: Economists

Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Leading economists urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to simplify and
reduce personal and corporate taxes in the upcoming Budget, as they called for a unified
import duty of about 7 per cent for the manufacturing sector.
Tax simplification figured quite a lot...on the direct taxation, both corporate and
personal income tax on simplifying, reducing exemptions, bringing down tax rate and
aligning tax system to make India competitive with international destinations, NITI
Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya said.

Inverted duty structure

In the meeting, the issue of inverted duty structure, in which import tariffs on
intermediates or inputs was higher than the final product, were also raised.
It was suggested that if the tariff is harmonised to a single rate of 7 per cent or soIf
all the products are subject to same tariff rate then nobody will have the complaint that
my component price is higherThe tariffs will be harmonised in a revenue-neutral
manner, Mr. Panagariya said after the meeting.
Currently, Indias average applied tariff for non-agricultural imports from all countries is
about 9.5 per cent.
Other budget-related suggestions included simplification of taxation in the areas of
corporate and personal income tax, strategic disinvestment, and listing of CPSEs,
increased use of DBT to rationalise subsidy expenditure and better systems for data
analytics of tax data to facilitate data-driven tax administration.

Advancing date

During the meeting, Mr. Modi said advancing the date of budget presentation would help
getting funds authorised for different sectors at the start of the financial year.
The government is proposing to present the budget for 2017-18 on February 1 instead of
the regular date of February 28.
Also, there will be no separate railway budget for the next fiscal as the government has
decided to merge it with the general budget.

Benefits of early budget

The Prime Minister said under the existing budget calendar, the authorisation of
expenditure comes with the onset of the monsoon which results in government
programmes remaining relatively inactive in the productive pre-monsoon months.
In the meeting, the major themes of discussion were agriculture; jobs, education and
skills, and the Budget.

Panel moots handling levy on cash payments It suggested

a cut in the threshold for quoting PAN numbers for cash
transactions from 50,000 and 2,00,000
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Union Budget 2017-18 should allow merchants as well as government
departments to levy a handling charge for cash payments above a certain limit, the
Committee on Digital Payments has advised the finance ministry.
It also recommended a reduction in the mandatory threshold for quoting PAN card
numbers for cash transactions from 50,000 and 2,00,000, applicable in different cases
currently.
The committee, headed by former Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal, proposed that
Aadhaar be used as an alternate for KYC for people who dont have a PAN. Permit
merchants, including government agencies to levy a cash handling charge for payments
in cash above a certain threshold. The cash handling charge so collected should be
exclusively used to fund new infrastructure for acceptance of digital payments (like PoS
devices).

PAN threshold

Gradually, the Centre should reduce the threshold for quoting of PAN, which is currently
mandated for banking transactions above 50,000 and merchant transactions of more
than 2 lakh, the panel suggested.
To create parity between cash and digital payments, the panel proposed that eKYC
requirements in digital payments should be in consonance with KYC norms for
transacting in cash. Transactions which are permitted in cash without KYC should also
be permitted on prepaid wallets without KYC, it said.
The committees report, on which public comments and suggestions have been invited
over the next fortnight, has also pitched for allowing tax payments by debit cards and ewallets, against the current option of net banking only. CBDT and CBEC should develop
an e-commerce based model where their web portals generate the tax challans and
accept payments from all electronic modes.

A recommendation has also been made to make Aadhaar numbers compulsory in Income
Tax returns, although the committee has stressed such an amendment must only be
made after seeking the Attorney Generals opinion. Income tax payers already have PAN
cards.
It further said that CBEC should issue necessary instructions to facilitate Service Tax
input credit on price of digital transactions. Amendments have also been mooted to the
General Financial Rules, 2005 and Central Government Account (Receipt and Payment)
Rules, 1983, to include digital modes of payment.
The panel also recommended that when government acts as a merchant, it should bear
the cost of electronic payments and not pass them on to consumers.
Digital payments for low value transactions, such as parking charges, toll charges or
health services at government hospitals and health centres, also need to be promoted.
The low value routine transactions need special attention. These are payments that
touch the lives of people every day.
Pushing for adoption of digital payments for all government transactions, it has also
proposed that utility bills and payments to government above a certain threshold be
made only in digital mode. Also, convenience or service charge levied by utility service
providers, petrol pumps, railways, airlines on electronic payments should be withdrawn.
Customs and excise duties on import of equipment which form a part of retail payment
system infrastructure must be cut in the Budget, it recommended. The list includes micro
ATMs used by business correspondents; fingerprint readers and biometric readers either
as spare parts or as integrated electronic data capture machines and point- of-sale (PoS)
terminals.

Cash heavy economy

India is a cash heavy economy, with almost 78 per cent of all consumer payments being
effected in cash. This imposes an estimated cost of 21,000 crore, without factoring in
other effects of cash reliance, such as counterfeit currency and black money.
Transitioning to digital payments was estimated to bring about a significant reduction in
costs incurred on account of inefficiencies associated with cash and other paper based
payments.
For instance, by certain estimates, transitioning to an electronic platform for
government payments itself could save approximately 100,000 crore annually, with the
cost of the transition being estimated at 60,000 to 70,000 crore.

Wadia alleges insider trading by Tata Sons Former

independent director writes to SEBI seeking a probe into
the purchase of Tata Motors stake
Author: Ashish Rukhaiyar

MUMBAI: Former Tata Motors board member Nusli Wadia has written to the Securities
and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) seeking a probe into Tata Sons purchase of shares
of Tata Motors ahead of the automakers December 22 extraordinary general meeting
(EGM).
Mr. Wadia alleged that Tata Sons, the conglomerates holding company, bought 50 lakh
shares of Tata Motors after the auto majors board decided to advise holders of American
Depositary Receipts (ADRs) to abstain from voting on the resolutions seeking the
removal of Cyrus Mistry and Mr. Wadia.

Requisite majority

Mr. Wadia, who has been removed as an independent director from the boards of Tata
Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals, alleged that the shares representing 1.7 per cent
of the share capital of Tata Motors were bought so that the resolution could be passed
comfortably with the requisite majority.
As on September 30, promoter entities, including Tata Sons, held only 33 per cent in
Tata Motors as per data available on the BSE.
According to Mr. Wadia, the board of Tata Motors met on December 12 and discussed
among other items the question of how the company would advise the depository of ADR
holders to vote at the EGM.
Mr. Wadia said that while the board decided to advise the ADR holders to abstain from
voting, it was also agreed that the boards decision would be be kept confidential. The
board also decided that no disclosure was required to be made to the stock exchanges,
according to the letter addressed to SEBI Chairman U.K. Sinha.
An email query sent to SEBI didnt elicit any immediate response.
Mr. Wadia also alleged that while the board meeting concluded at about 6:30 p.m., there
were media reports at 7:20 p.m. that Morgan Stanley had been authorised to purchase

the shares of Tata Motors on behalf of its client at a premium of 10 per cent to the
market price amounting to approximately 2,500 crore. On December 13, it was
publicly declared that Tata Sons had bought 50 lakh shares of Tata Motors through
Morgan Stanley, he wrote.

Confidential decision

The Wadia group chairman alleged that Tata Sons decision to buy shares of Tata Motors
was based on the confidential decision taken by the auto majors board.
This appears to merit a serious investigation on what appears be a clear violation of the
Insider Trading Regulations relating to material price sensitive information being used
and acted upon by Tata Sons to purchase the shares of Tata Motors, Mr. Wadia wrote.
However, an advisor on corporate law said Mr. Wadias letter did not prima facie seem to
have enough material for the regulator to start an investigation into the matter and that
the complainant may need to provide more information.
It does not appear to be a price sensitive information per se, said Sandeep Parekh,
Founder, Finsec Law Advisors. There does not seem much to investigate without more
information.

Samit Gohel carries the bat with 359! Gujarat enters the
semifinals on the strength of its first-innings lead
Author: Kamesh Srinivasan

JAIPUR: Opener Samit Gohel carried the bat with 359, the highest in First Class cricket
for Gujarat, as Odisha faded out of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals at the Sawai Man Singh
Stadium here on Tuesday.
Having virtually confirmed its entry in the semifinals with a 64-run first-innings lead,
thanks to a fiery spell of bowling by Jasprit Bumrah which won him the Man-of-the-Match
award, Gujarat opted to use the rest of the time in the five-day match for batting.

pro wrestling league Geeta and Babita ready to rumble for

UP Dangal
Author: Uthra Ganesan

NEW DELHI: With the second season of the Pro Wrestling League less than a week away,
the Uttar Pradesh franchise, on Tuesday, unveiled its new logo and team, christened UP
Dangal. Owned by real-estate company Investors Clinic, the team would be led by the
Phogat sisters Geeta and Babita besides Commonwealth Games champion Mausum
Khatri (97kg), Amit Dahiya and Amit Dhankar. Among the foreign signings in the ninemember team are Ukraines Andrey Kviatkovski, Cuban Livan Lopez Azcuy, Rio medalist
Elitsa Yankova from Bulgaria and Maria Mamashuk of Belarus.
As captain, Geeta admitted that it would be a big responsibility to lead the charge from
the front, specially as she was returning to the mat after being sidelined for the past few
months owing to injury.
We are happy to be part of the UP team and ready to defend the title. I assure everyone
nothing less than 100 per cent this time from me and the team. I am under a little
pressure as I am making a comeback after long time but I am confident as I have a very
strong base and never shy away from my training.
With the Delhi franchise signing up Rio bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, Geeta knows she
has a battle on her hands but insisted she was ready for any opponent.
Incidentally, Sakshi had got the chance to qualify for Rio at Geetas cost after the latter
was barred from participating in the final qualifier on disciplinary grounds.
Be it Sakshi or Tunisias Marwa Amri (who also won bronze at Rio), I am prepared. I
have been training. Sometimes it all boils down to a move or two and that makes all the
difference. One never knows how a bout is going to pan out and even in the last 2-3
seconds things can change. Its all about applying technique and I am working on it.

The team: Geeta Phogat (58kg), Babita (55kg), Mausam Khatri (97kg), Amit Dahiya
(55kg), Amit Dhankar (66kg), Andrey Kviatkovski (Ukr, 65kg), Livan Lopez Azcuy (Cub,
74kg), Elitsa Yankova (Bul, 48kg), Maria Mamashuk (Blr, 75kg).

Birds with larger brains survive climate change

London: Birds have evolved larger brains to cope in harsh environments where the tasks
of finding food, evading predators and finding shelter are more demanding, say scientists
who predict that smart creatures may cope better with climate change than less brainy
ones.
Researchers, including those from University of Bath in the U.K., used data from over
1,200 bird species to test whether large brains relative to body size are more prevalent
in a harsh and unpredictable climate than smaller ones. They found that birds that live in
highly seasonal environments have significantly larger brains than those that live on the
Equator.
They also found that birds living in habitats with an unpredictable climate, such as places
where there are extreme fluctuations in weather from one year to the next, also had
larger brains relative to their body size. Birds are amongst the brainiest creatures on
the planet they learn quickly, remember hundreds of locations and are capable of
using and making tools, said Tamas Szakely from University of Bath. So it is not
surprising that most birds have big brains compared to their body size, Mr. Szakely said.
These results have significant implications for climate change. Since fluctuations in
climate and the frequency of extreme events such as storms, floods and droughts, are
expected to increase in the coming decades, we predict that smart creatures may cope
better with the changes than the less brainy ones, he said. PTI

Ordinance to end RBIs liability Those holding old notes

after March 31 likely to face penalty, jail
Author: Yuthika BhargavaTCA Sharad Raghavan
Under Section 26 of the RBI Act, there is an obligation of payment of legal tender by the
central bank, the official told The Hindu. Now, old 500 and 1,000 have ceased to be
legal tender but the legal obligation on RBI also needs to be relieved. This ordinance
does that.

IS recruit from India killed in Syria

New Delhi: Security agencies have confirmed that one of the four Maharashtra men, who
left India in 2014 to fight for the Islamic State in Syria, was killed in Al Raqqah. The
death of Kalyan resident Aman Tandel, who was renamed Abu Umar Al Hindi in the IScontrolled territory, was reported on Wednesday by IS-linked websites.

Demonetisation a reckless move The Right to Food

Campaign slams decision as attack on right to life
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Right to Food Campaign has slammed demonetisation as a reckless
move that serves no clear purpose and is a major attack on the right to food and the
right to life.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Right to Food Campaign, an informal network
of individuals and organisations committed to the realisation of the right to food in India,
said that economists of all persuasions have exposed the governments claim that
demonetisation would curb black money.

Forgotten decisions

Questioning the governments seriousness about combating corruption, it observed that

three years after the Lokpal Act came into force, no Lokpal has been appointed, the
Whistleblowers Protection Act (passed in February 2014) awaits implementation, and the
government is still to introduce the Grievance Redressal Bill.
Pointing out that it does not require a PhD in economics to understand that when the
bulk of the population is strapped for cash, economic activity and employment take a
dip, it noted: Farmers have been dumping vegetables on the roads for want of a
remunerative price. Traders and vendors have seen their sales dive, often by 50 per cent
or more. Sales of durable goods have crashed across the board. Construction activity has
slowed own. And most importantly, workers have been laid off on a large scale.

Pension, wages woes

Observing that pensioners and MGNREGA workers find it difficult to secure their
pensions and wages at the best of times, it said: Now, with the banking system
jammed, millions of them are in danger of their lifeline being cut off for weeks or even
months.

Calling upon the government to compensate the people for the hardships caused by
demonetisation, the statement laid out a set of demands an immediate increase in the
annual budget of MGNREGA to Rs. 60,000 crore with effect from 2016-17, increase of
the Centres contribution to social security pension for widows, the elderly and the
disabled persons from Rs. 200 to Rs. 1,000 per month, immediate implementation of
the National Food Security Act provisions for universal maternity entitlements (Rs.6,000
per child), immediate central assistance for inclusion of milk, eggs and fruits in school
mid-day meals and ICDS, immediate compensation for all families of victims of
demonetisation-related deaths, and full disclosure of how, when, why and by whom the
decision was made to demonetise.

Food insecurity

The right to food protects the rights of all humans to be free from hunger, food insecurity
and malnutrition. It is derived from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, to which India is a party.

Rajasthan villages to sport a new look

Gyms, supermarkets, set to come up in villages following innovations of
cooperative societies
Author: Mohammed Iqbal

JAIPUR: Rural lifestyle in the desert State of Rajasthan is set to change with a number of
gyms, supermarkets, food joints and mini-banks coming up in villages.
Primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) are in the forefront of these innovations.
After providing agricultural credit to farmers for buying and selling of seeds and
fertilizers through an institutional system, PACS have come forward to provide new
facilities to meet the needs of their members in the changing scenario.

Pilot project

State Cooperative Minister Ajay Singh Kilak said here on Wednesday that he had given
instructions for listing out services needed in the rural areas. Under a pilot project

executed in Sriganganagar district recently, one PACS in each block was selected for
opening new facilities. The Gram Sewa Sahakari Samiti at Padampur block had
established a hi-tech supermarket and fast food centre, working on bar code basis with
full computerisation. Mr. Kilak said the store was making a sale of about Rs. 3.22 lakh
per month in the village comprising just 400 households.
Rural youths have been attracted to sports activities after gyms were opened by several
PACS. The gyms help the rural youth in getting rid of drug addiction and contributes to
their physical and mental health. The youth use the facility under the guidance of trained
instructors, he said.
Cooperative stitching centres make one more addition to the list of these innovations,
imparting training to women in sewing, cutting and embroidery. Besides, the Cooperative
Agricultural Yantralaya gives equipment on rent to the needy farmers, helping them in
reducing input costs significantly.

Financial assistance

Two PACS in Sriganganagar district were recently given financial assistance of Rs. 15.20
lakh and Rs. 19 lakh respectively for undertaking innovations to accommodate local
requirements.
Mr. Kilak said Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had recently visited Tamtiya village in the
tribal-dominated Dungarpur district to see a supermarket.

33 per cent rise in derailments

Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: There has been a 33 per cent rise in the number of train derailments this
fiscal compared to the previous year.
We have been able to reduce unmanned level crossing accidents to an extent. However,
accidents due to derailment have gone up to 68 this year from 51 in the previous year,
Railway Board Member Traffic Mohd. Jamshed told a press conference here on
Wednesday.
He, however, said the total number of train accidents went down from 121 in 2014-15 to
107 in 2015-16 and 87 till December 27 this year.

Various factors

We are putting our best efforts to improve the wheel-rail interaction which is important
in cases of derailment, the Railway Board Member said, adding derailments happen due
to various reasons, including rail fractures and because of issues related to rolling stock
and track maintenance.
However, he maintained that the cause for derailment of the Sealdah-Ajmer Express is
still unknown.
The Express got derailed on the Kanpur-Tundla-Delhi section that is one of the busiest
railway lines in the network, the official said.
Around 100 trains run on this section on a daily basis one way, Mr. Jamshed said. Train
services were impacted on Wednesday but were expected to be fully restored by
Thursday night.
The down track will be restored by 6 a.m. and the up track functional by 10 p.m. on
Thursday, Mr. Jamshed said.

Disunity in opposition

Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party was voted to power with a majority of its own in
the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Opposition parties have been trying to find an issue that
would resonate with the people, identify a rallying point that would put the Narendra
Modi government at the Centre on the defensive. But when such an issue did crop up
after Mr. Modi announced the demonetisation of high-value notes on November 8,
opponents of the BJP found themselves unprepared and unable to tap into the public
resentment at the seemingly unnecessary pain caused by the shortage of cash. The
demonetisation exercise did far more than divide the Opposition parties: it left them
confused on the approach to be taken against the government. They were unable to fault
the stated aims of the move: to curb black money, flush out counterfeit notes from the
economy, and thereby curb terror funding. And when Mr. Modi sought 50 days to ease
the cash flow, his opponents had no choice but to wait it out. Other than making noises
about long queues at banks and ATMs and the flip-flops in announcing new rules for
withdrawals and deposits and amending them in quick time, they had little to do. They
could not attack the move in principle without being seen as supporting the corrupt and
the devious. And they could not attack the manner of implementation without giving Mr.

Modi the time he wanted to deal with what could not but have been a crisis in cash
supply.
It was probably inevitable that the Opposition parties would speak in different voices on
an issue like this, but it was inexplicable that the main Opposition party, the Congress,
did little to forge a united front in Parliament and outside. When Opposition parties were
planning to petition President Pranab Mukherjee on the demonetisation issue, Congress
vice-president Rahul Gandhi met Mr. Modi with a delegation of party leaders to request a
waiver of farm loans. Leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the
Left parties were unhappy with the Congress approach. Not surprisingly, at a joint press
conference of Opposition parties called by Mr. Gandhi, only Trinamool Congress leader
and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was at hand to attack Mr. Modi. The
other participants were mostly long-time allies of the Congress. The Janata Dal (United),
whose leader Nitish Kumar had nice things to say about demonetisation initially, did not
participate in a maha dharna organised by the RJD against demonetisation. The JD(U)
stand was that it would rather wait for the 50 days before judging the move to be a
failure or a mistake. Far from bringing together Opposition parties, the demonetisation
move appears to have driven apart parties already in alliance.

Statesmanship at Pearl Harbor

Conspicuous gestures of reconciliation between nations to heal the deep emotional

wounds of wars will have connotations that go beyond the symbolic. Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, through his visit to Pearl Harbor this week, and U.S. President
Barack Obama, with his homage at the peace memorial at Hiroshima earlier in May, have
undertaken this bold and difficult journey on behalf of their peoples more than 70 years
after atrocities were committed against each other during World War II. That so much
time should have been lost in both instances to put the painful past behind them only
speaks to the powerful presence of nationalist sensibilities that invariably distort the
moral force of reconciliation. That this should have occurred only now, despite the
enduring economic engagement of several decades between Washington and Tokyo,
merely underscores their ticklish nature and the strong political overtones involved. In
the case of Japan, the conservatives have long regarded any attempt to own up the
slaughter of hundreds of U.S. marines at Pearl Harbor in 1941 as nothing but a betrayal
of the national interest. In fact, in comparison, earlier visits to the naval base by
Japanese leaders were relatively low-key affairs.
As for Washington, veterans of the war have seen little justification in the claim that the
devastation caused by the twin nuclear bombings had to be condoled. In their view, the
horror in Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war to a close sooner than it might
otherwise have been. They have also sought to repudiate the narrative that the dropping
of the atom bomb was a calculated demonstration of U.S. and western military

superiority in a Cold War scenario. These competing nationalistic accounts have possibly
helped the current generation in the two countries to see such views with a healthy dose
of scepticism. Messrs Abe and Obama have displayed a statesmanlike readiness to rise
above partisan accounts, emphasising instead the need to bridge the gulf that neither
history nor geography could have narrowed. President-elect Donald Trumps pre-election
rhetoric painted a picture of Japan as a nation that ought to be prepared to invest more
in its own defence. The favourable public opinion in both countries towards each other
will possibly prove critical in consolidating upon the current strengths in the economic
partnership and weathering the uncertainties of the future. Prime Minister Abe and
President Obama have shown how history can be revisited in a realistic manner. It
remains for countries grappling with their own complex pasts to draw the right lessons
from this.

Tel Aviv on tenterhooks The UN resolution condemning

settlement activity in the occupied territories is not what
Israel fears. What troubles it is that the resolution opens
the door to a full criminal investigation into Israeli excesses
Israel continues to eat into the potential Palestinian state. Neither does it
want a two or one-state solution It continues to harbour dreams of a
Greater Israel Vijay Prashad

On December 23, the United States Ambassador to the UN abstained on UN Security

Council resolution 2334, which condemned Israels settlement activity in the occupied
territory of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The language is tentative. It does not call
the settlements illegal, but only having no legal validity. In the world of international
law, the difference might not be significant. Israel pressured Egypt to withdraw the
resolution, which it did, and it pressured the U.S. to veto it, which it did not. Malaysia,
New Zealand, Venezuela and Senegal sponsored the resolution, which passed with 14
votes in favour and one abstention (the U.S.). Ambassadors around the table hoped that
the vote would push towards the two-state solution, the common aspiration of the
international community, said Chinese Ambassador Wu Haitao.

The resolution and the occupation

Five years previously, during the high point of the Arab Spring, the U.S. had vetoed a
similar resolution. Then U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that her country
rejects in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity. So

then why veto the resolution, which the U.S. would abstain on five years later? In 2011,
Ms. Rice said that the resolution would not further the negotiations between Israel and
the Palestinians. Israel, the subtext read, would lash out against the Palestinians. This is
precisely what the Israelis now promise to do: build more settlements, fully annex the
West Bank and East Jerusalem and thereby annul any prospect of a two-state solution.
The UN resolution important as it is in itself is not what Israel fears. What troubles
Tel Aviv are the steps that would come after this resolution, particularly from the
International Criminal Court (ICC). In January 2015, the ICCs Prosecutor Fatou
Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation into Israels actions during the 2014
bombing of Gaza and into the illegal settlements. Ms. Bensouda has since made it clear
that she would not move forward to a full criminal investigation without substantial
political clarity from the UN Security Council. Resolution 2334 produces the political will
for such a move by the ICC. With Palestine as a recognised state in the UN as of 2012,
and as a member of the ICC since 2014, and with this resolution now in force, the ICC
could move in the next few months to a rigorous investigation of Israeli criminality. This
would threaten the settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but it would also
pressure Israeli soldiers to refuse to serve in any future criminal bombardment of Gaza.
Whether the Palestinian leadership has the courage to insist on this remains to be seen.

In 1967, Israel seized the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip parts of
Palestine that had been outside its control. The UN Security Council passed a series of
resolutions (242, 252, 298) within the next decade, asking Israel to withdraw from this
land and in resolution 446 (1979) to desist from building settlements on the
occupied territory. The U.S., which had already become the shield for Israel, abstained
from the major resolutions.
It was on this occupied territory that it was then assumed against Israeli opinion
that a Palestinian state would be built. The two-state solution, the international
consensus for the Israel-Palestine conflict, is premised on Israeli withdrawal from this
land occupied in 1967. No wonder that the UN has periodically returned to censure Israel
for its ongoing occupation and in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention the
construction of settlements on occupied land.
The first major UN resolution to define the terms of the Israeli occupation was 242,
sponsored by the United Kingdom and passed in November 1967 with unanimous
approval. There was no abstention and no veto used by the permanent members. U.S.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk said at that time that despite the U.S. and Israel being
sharply divided on the issue of territory, the U.S. made no commitment to assist Israel
in retaining territories seized in the 1967 war. Even when the administrations in
Washington defended Israels annexationist policies such as during the term of Ronald
Reagan the U.S. did not veto to defend the settlements.

The element of criminality

The Oslo Accords (1994) put in place the possibility of a Palestinian state, although it did
not have an explicit statement to end settlement activity. Israel continues to eat into the
potential Palestinian state. Neither does Israel want a two-state solution nor a one-state
solution. This negative approach to the peace process means that Israel is committed to
a permanent occupation of the Palestinians. It continues to harbour dreams of a Greater
Israel (Eretz Israel).
Four years after Oslo, the international community passed the Rome Statute for the
establishment of the ICC. It was this new development the ICC rather than the Oslo
Accords that increased the vetoes exercised by the U.S. in the UN Security Council to
protect Israel. The Israeli establishment worried that the ICC would legitimately turn its
gaze on issues such as population transfer and war crimes. The ICC under pressure to
investigate crimes outside the African continent could find that Israeli actions provide
a legitimate site of inquiry. The vetoes from Washington prevented any legal foundation
for ICC action against Israel.
Prosecutor Bensoudas investigators visited the West Bank and East Jerusalem in October
this year. The ICC said that this was not part of its preliminary investigation, but it is
hard to imagine that this is true. The new UN Security Council resolution harkens back to
more radical postures from it in 1979 and 1980 as well as to the International Court of
Justices 2014 finding that the apartheid wall that entraps the West Bank is illegal.
Pressure will mount on her to take her investigation forward.

Tel Avivs triumphalism

The tone of Israels rejection came when Ambassador Danny Danon said that Tel Aviv
has the right to build homes in the Jewish peoples historic homeland. The settlements,
for the Israeli government, are essential for their own project. They see nothing short of
as Ambassador Danon put it a Jewish State proudly reclaiming the land of our
forefathers. Ambassador Danon is fully in agreement with Washingtons incoming
Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who believes in a Greater Israel and denies the
existence of Palestine. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to undo the
resolution and threatened to end U.S. funding to the UN.
Antnio Guterres, the UNs new Secretary-General has indicated that he will send a UN
Support Mission to push for a two-state solution. Mr. Guterres and Ms. Bensouda will
have to thread the needle between the consensus of the international community (a twostate solution) and Israels own illegal territorial ambitions. Optimism for progress would
be unwarranted.

Vijay Prashads most recent book is The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab
Revolution.
Letters to Editor

J.P. Reddy,Nalgonda, TelanganaK.R. Srinivasan,SecunderabadV.

Lakshmanan,Tirupur, Tamil NaduAnand Aravamudhan,ChennaiDinesh
Kumar,Beri, Jhajjar, HaryanaAnil Kalaga,ChennaiA. Jainulabdeen,ChennaiS.
Nallasivan,Tirunelveli, Tamil NaduR.S.V. Subramanian,Pinnachikuppam,
PuducherryK.M.K. Murthy,SecunderabadVairamani Shanmugam,Karaikudi,
Tamil NaduV.N. Gopal,ChennaiH.N. Ramakrishna,BengaluruMonika
Singh,Sonipat, HaryanaSriharsha S.,Chennai

Politics over demonetisation

It is strange that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees charges levelled against
the Prime Minister were given importance while the Prime Ministers speech on the fight
against black money and corruption was confined to a column. (Will PM quit if cash
flow does not ease, asks Mamata, Dec.28).
In the past, Indira Gandhi, when Prime Minister, made tall promises such as Health for
all and Garibi Hatao. But what happened? Did any one demand her resignation?
Economic reforms to tackle black money and high-level corruption are not something
that can show results overnight. All this is a gradual process with slow yet fruitful
results. The economic reforms that were initiated by P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan
Singh, as joint efforts, are a good example of this.
J.P. Reddy,
Nalgonda, Telangana
The Oppositions onslaught against the government may be growing by the day but what
is baffling is how certain Opposition leaders are demanding the Prime Ministers
resignation when they are alleged to be tainted themselves. As far as the joint press
conference is concerned, the Congress vice-president has still to master the art of
politics.
K.R. Srinivasan,

Secunderabad
The exercise of demonetisation is fast losing its sheen. It is pathetic to see long
queues outside bank ATMs even at unearthly hours. Because of a shortage of lowerdenomination notes, commerce and trade has taken a beating. It is unfair to keep
people guessing. Is the government clueless about what to do?
V. Lakshmanan,
Tirupur, Tamil Nadu
Despite opinion in the form of write-ups and insights from experienced economists and
thinkers, how can the Prime Minister continue to claim that demonetisation as a
financial strategy has more supporters than dissenters? In a democracy, was he not
bound to hear a section of opinion before he took such a decision? The 50-day timeline
is an eyewash. One wonders if a new timeline is being scripted as part of the plot. The
callousness displayed by the government towards the sufferings of the poor, daily wage
earners and the illiterate smacks of arrogance while bordering on hostility towards
literate dissenters. This is not Achche din.
Anand Aravamudhan,
Chennai
It is now Ms. Banerjee who has taken over from the Congress to lead the Opposition
flock against demonetisation. While the general opinion is that there are cracks in the
so-called Opposition unity, the fact is that Ms. Banerjee is slowly testing her acceptance
as a national leader. She may be getting there if the dynamics of the joint press
conference were an indication.
Dinesh Kumar,
Beri, Jhajjar, Haryana

Bureaucrats ire

I am shocked by the former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretarys claims and his lashing out at
the Central and State governments, calling the recent income tax raid on his house and
official chamber in the Tamil Nadu Secretariat as a constitutional assault on his office
(Dec.28). His statements made him look like the Chief Secretary of a political party.
He has a lot of explaining to do: how did wealth that was unaccounted for find its way
to his home in the first place? He should have explained this first rather than cry foul
and allege a conspiracy. The law should be allowed to take its own course.

Anil Kalaga,
Chennai
The claim by the former Chief Secretary that he still holds office reminds me of what a
senior official said when he was sacked as chairman of the Railway Board: I am only
tired and not retired.
In this instance, the gentlemans questioning the raids and name-dropping are
unwarranted and an insult to the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The only sticking
point is of why paramilitary forces were used in the raids.
A. Jainulabdeen,
Chennai
When the Income Tax department had concrete evidence, it had the right to conduct
searches. How can anyone have large amounts of unaccounted wealth? The gentleman
needs to be reminded that he was at the top of the administrative hierarchy and should
have conducted himself with dignity. The only course open to him is to seek remedy in
a court of law. Airing his grievances before the media in an emotive tone and tenor
does not help him in any manner. His additional claim that he is still the Chief
Secretary is again unacceptable as his successor has already assumed charge and
begun her duties.
S. Nallasivan,
Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu
What a contrast between former Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, now out on bail, and the
bureaucrat. The dignity of bearing that ACM Tyagi has displayed even after his arrest
and custody, and which he continues to maintain even now, is in sharp contrast to the
emotional outburst of the former Chief Secretary before the media. Have some of those
in the civil services imbibed some of the lumpen characteristics from their close
association with the political class?
R.S.V. Subramanian,
Pinnachikuppam, Puducherry
One of the most comprehensive statements of what constitutes ethical standards for the
holders of public office comes from the Committee on Standards in Public Life in the
United Kingdom, popularly known as the Nolan Committee, which outlined seven
principles of public life. The first, on selflessness, says: Holders of public office should
take decisions solely in terms of public interest. They should not do so in order to gain
financial and other material benefits for themselves, their family or their friends.

K.M.K. Murthy,
Secunderabad
The press meet was uncalled for and the briefing was very political in its nature. It is
shocking that he said had Jayalalithaa been alive such a raid would never have
happened. I am very sorry, Sir. You have to face the law of the land and prove yourself.
Vairamani Shanmugam,
Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu
Prima facie, the bureaucrat convening the press meeting explaining his version of the
raids is itself in contravention of disciplinary rules of a serving public servant. Further, he
has unnecessarily brought in the names of political leaders for their political support.
V.N. Gopal,
Chennai

Pakistans CPEC offer

Just as China is sensitive about the One China policy, so too is India regarding One
Kashmir. China is aware that the CPEC passes thorough the disputed territory of
Kashmir (Editorial, Dec.28). It will amount to legally accepting the infiltration/occupation
by both Pakistan and China. The CPEC connects the economy of Pakistan with the
economy of the Xinjiang province, which is not the principal economic centre of China as
most manufacturing hubs are on the east coast. The east coast of China is served by
many ports and sea transportation is far lower cost-wise than the land route. Some
analysts are of the view that the project is for a naval station. Others say that given the
volatile situation in Balochistan, China is seeking the protection of the Pakistan Army for
the execution, maintenance and safety of the project.
H.N. Ramakrishna,
Bengaluru
It appears only to be a strategic attempt to compact Indian influence in the region.
The use of words by the Pakistani general suggesting that India should shelve antiPakistan activities and subversion clearly isnt the most polite invitation. India should
be given an assurance that its concerns will be taken seriously.
Monika Singh,

Sonipat, Haryana

Going the rhino way?

The proposal being put forth by the Kerala government for suitable amendments to the
Wildlife Protection Act to use deer antlers for medicinal purposes is fraught with danger
(Antlers could end up in medicines, Dec.28). The fate of the rhinoceros is well known;
in the name of traditional medicine, it is being decimated. It would be next to
impossible to find out if antler powder in a concoction is from antlers that have been
shed naturally or the result of some unfortunate deer being made to shed its antlers.
Sriharsha S.,
Chennai

Stories of notebandi Anger and frustration dominate discussions on

demonetisation at a jan sunwai in Beawar, Rajasthan
Satish Deshpande Narendra Modiji has chosen to ride the tiger of notebandi
and will eventually be eaten - Anil Gupta, a local businessman

About five-six hundred people are crowded in and around a small shamiana-covered
triangle, like the apex of the letter A. The two arms of the A are busy streets typical of
small-town India, a press of pedestrians and two-wheelers punctuated with foraging
cows, goats and impatient cars and tempos. Including the shopkeepers and hangers-on
across the two roads, this meeting a jan sunwai or public hearing called by the
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) on December 26 probably involves a
thousand people. Roughly one-fourth are invited outsiders, but the vast majority are
citizens of Beawar, a town in Rajasthan with a population of three and a half lakh,
famous as the birthplace of the movement that gave India the Right to Information Act
as well as the now ubiquitous device of the jan sunwai. In fact, we are at Chand Gate, at
the very spot of that historic 1995 dharna, but the subject of this jan sunwai on the day
after Christmas is demonetisation, better known as notebandi.

Everyday struggles

The 40-odd speakers heard during the course of an almost-hot winter afternoon include
an economics professor, a senior business journalist, and three or four representatives of
political parties and community organisations. But the point of the jan sunwai is to
provide ordinary people with a platform to speak about their own experiences of
notebandi. Those with positive experiences of notebandi are also invited to speak, but
only one young man takes up the invitation towards the fag end of the afternoon. All the
other speakers are frustrated and angry with demonetisation and express it in their own
ways.
Anil Gupta, a local businessman, describes how his daughters wedding was turned
traumatic by notebandi. Even to withdraw money for the officially approved purpose of a
family wedding, he was asked to produce individual affidavits from each vendor or
service provider declaring that they did not have bank accounts. Narendra Modiji has
chosen to ride the tiger of notebandi and will eventually be eaten, he says. Ram Singh, a
retired Havaldar of the Indian Army, causes a flutter by beginning with a firm Sanatana
dharma ki jai, but quickly returns to the theme of the day, detailing how he is unable to
draw enough money from his own pension to manage his large household. Akhlaq, a
retired railway police constable, provides a startlingly sophisticated analysis of how the
governments narrative kept shifting from corruption to terrorism to counterfeiting to a
cashless economy. Both Kanku Devi, a disabled middle-aged woman, and Tarachand, a
tall 80-year-old man beginning to stoop, have been denied their pensions because the
fingerprint-reading machine mandated by the Rajasthan government for verifying
identity refuses to recognise their thumbprints. Though his problem is not directly
related to notebandi, Tarachand is sharp enough to point out the connections a basic
mistrust of humans and excessive faith in machines.
Meanwhile, on one of the streets, some vegetable vendors are bantering with two of the
policemen on duty, one of whom is jokingly demanding change for an obviously fake Rs.
500 note he has. A vendor with a long face vaguely resembling Jeevan, the 1970s Hindi
film villain, invents a new game with the note. He folds it into a neat rectangle showing
only the face of Mahatma Gandhi and drops it on the road. As they all wait for someone
to pick up the fake note, Jeevan is providing a running commentary on the people
walking up the street, and predicting the likely winner: urban youngsters dream big
these days, looking only to get out and up; only older villagers bent with the burdens of
family and farming will walk with downcast eyes, he says. Moments later, he exchanges
low fives with the policemen as a middle-aged man in rural Rajasthani dress complete
with a white saffa darts to pick up the note, quickly palms it, and hurries away even as
Jeevan and his mates jeer at him.
Back at the jan sunwai, Ratanlal, a daily wage labourer from Narpatkhera village, is
recounting how he could not find work for several days following notebandi. Ladu Singh
from Dhapda in Bhilwara is explaining how his inability to make daily payments to the
farm women who supplied him milk has reduced his dairy business from 350 to barely
200 litres a day. Mukkadar (from Pali) tries to capture the growing collective anger with a
couplet: Log toot jaatey hain ek ghar basaney mein, tum taras nahi khatey bastiyan

jalaney mein (People are broken by the effort of making a single home, but you burn
down neighbourhoods and feel no pity).

Businesses hit

For much of this time, I have been chatting with Jeevan who is shaking his head at the
goings-on, but in an oddly indulgent way. He insists that notebandi is a good thing, but
just looks away when I urge him to go up to the mike and say why he thinks it is good.
He wont tell me his name, but willingly admits that his business (a green peas and garlic
cart) has halved since notebandi, from around Rs. 800 to only Rs. 300-400 a day. We
can still manage, but they (he tilts his head at the shops behind him) have been hurt. I
look at the modest little shops Baba Handlooms, a mobile phone Mini Store, Mohan
Watch Corner with an all-Hindi board, Prakash Sports and realise that I dont
understand. The same Jeevan (like many of the shop-owners) takes proprietary pride in
the history of this site and the RTI struggle. Hamney intezaam kiya tha (we made
arrangements) he says distractedly about the 1995 dharna, but I know that he means
much more than the literal meaning of his words.
These are the parallel stories of notebandi that occupy the same time and space and are
presumably related, but yet seem strangely separate. By exposing the hidden social
nature of money, notebandi produces not only suffering easily understood as
unnecessary and unjust, but also an opaque uneasiness about the moral side of material
life, about who deserves what and why.
As the jan sunwai ends and the crowd disperses, someone behind me is scolding the
organisers for neglecting a dari that has been soiled by the cows, and I know without
turning that it is Jeevan.
Satish Deshpande teaches Sociology at Delhi University.

Still frowning upon intermarriages A survey in two diverse areas

shows that the desire to stop other people from having inter-caste or
inter-religious marriages is not as uncommon as we might like to think
The only demographic factor that is strongly associated with support for
laws against inter-caste marriage is education Diane Coffey Amit Thorat

As 2016 draws to an end, it may seem that inter-caste marriages arent as uncommon
as they used to be. Maybe youve even met someone whose spouse is from another

religion. Do these salient examples mean that the times are changing? Are the divisions
of caste and religion less sharp than they once were?
These are important questions. As B.R. Ambedkar pointed out, the social ban on
intermarriage is the most fundamental idea on which the whole fabric of caste is built
up. Ambedkar, and many others who have studied the stubbornness of caste, think it
will only be annihilated when people marry across caste lines.
A new survey called SARI (Social Attitudes Research for India) investigated what people
think about inter-caste and inter-religious marriage. SARI uses a sampling frame based
on mobile phone subscriptions, random digit dialling, within-household sample selection,
and statistical weights to build representative samples of adults 18-65 years old. So far,
weve interviewed 1,270 adults in Delhi and 1,470 adults in Uttar Pradesh.

Home truths

We asked people whether they would oppose their children or close family members
marrying people from other social groups. People from all backgrounds said that they
would raise objections to such marriages.
Nearly 50 per cent of the non-Scheduled Caste respondents in Delhi and 70 per cent in
Uttar Pradesh said that they would oppose a child or close relative marrying a Dalit.
There was even greater opposition to inter-religious marriages. In Delhi, about 60 per
cent of Hindus said they would oppose a child or relative marrying a Muslim; a similar
fraction of Muslims would oppose a child or relative marrying a Hindu. In Uttar Pradesh,
the opposition was even greater: about 75 per cent of Hindus opposed marriages with
Muslims, and only a slightly lower fraction of Muslims, about 70 per cent, opposed
marriages with Hindus (see graph 1).
The media often covers stories of khap panchayats brutally punishing young people for
marrying outside their caste. Yet, for those living in Indias metros, these stories may
seem distant or irrelevant to their own lives. Unfortunately, the SARI data suggest that
the desire to stop other people from having inter-caste marriages is not as uncommon or
distant as we might like to think. The survey asked respondents whether they thought
there should be laws to stop marriages between upper castes and lower castes. About 40
per cent respondents in Delhi and more than 60 per cent in rural Uttar Pradesh said that
such laws should exist (see graph 2)!
Laws against intermarriage had backers among the lower castes as well as the upper
castes. A higher fraction of women than men in each of Delhi, urban Uttar Pradesh, and
rural Uttar Pradesh said they would support laws against inter-caste marriage. Women
may be more willing to legislate their own beliefs on this topic than men are, or, they
may just be less likely to give the interviewer a socially desirable answer.

The idea that laws should prohibit inter-caste marriages was not confined to older
generations. The only demographic factor that is strongly associated with support for
laws against inter-caste marriage is education.
At every level of education, reported support for these laws is higher in Uttar Pradesh
than in Delhi. As with the differences between men and women, there may well be real
differences in support for inter-caste marriage bans in these three regions, or it may be
that people in Delhi are just more likely to give the answer that they think the
interviewer wants to hear.
Although education is associated with fewer people being willing to bring the state into
others marriage choices, a high fraction of people who had passed Class 10 or higher
nevertheless said that they support laws against inter-caste marriage. In Delhi, about 25
per cent of highly educated people said there should be a law against such marriages; in
Uttar Pradesh, it is about 45 per cent (see graph 3).

Marriages for unity

The finding that even many educated people think there should be laws against intercaste marriage raises serious questions about our education system and whether it is
doing enough to reduce caste and religious prejudice. It is telling that many of the youth
passing out of the premier technical and medical institutions still depend on their parents
to choose their spouses.
Of course, in a society that is so divided on caste lines, inter-caste or inter-religious
marriages can make a person an outcast among his family and neighbours. He may even
be barred from family inheritance. Even when families are not adamantly opposed to an
inter-caste marriage, there is a strong belief that it is more convenient to settle down
with a socially and culturally familiar person.
Thankfully, despite popular support, no actual Indian law prohibits inter-caste marriage.
If anything, on paper, the government approves of these marriages: each year, the
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment makes available 500 monetary awards to
inter-caste couples. The small size of this programme makes it more of a symbolic
gesture than an actual incentive, but it is nevertheless a good idea.
The government should be doing much more to promote inter-group marriage and to
protect those who seek them. In practice, officials in the courts and the police often
enforce divisive social norms rather than enforcing the laws. They may discourage or
intimidate couples who try to marry across caste or religious lines. Lack of government
support in the face of family disapproval may be one reason why the India Human
Development Survey found that only 5 per cent of marriages are inter-caste. Will any

political party have the courage to take up support for inter-caste marriages as an
agenda item?
Diane Coffey is a visiting researcher at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi; Amit Thorat
is Assistant Professor at Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU. This is the
first of a four-part series on prejudice.

IS recruit from India killed One of four Maharashtra men who joined
terror ranks killed in Syria fighting
Officials confirm death of Kalyan resident in Raqqah; IS pays tributes on
Telegram
Author: Vijaita Singh

New Delhi: Security agencies have confirmed that one of the four Maharashtra men who
left India in 2014 to join the Islamic State in Syria had been killed while fighting for the
terrorist outfit in Al-Raqqah.
The death of Kalyan resident Aman Tandel, who was renamed Abu Umar Al Hindi in the
IS-controlled territory, was reported by various IS-linked websites.
On November 28, an anonymous caller informed Tandels family that he had been killed.
However, a member of Terrormonitor.org, a Europe-based non-profit watchdog which
tracks the online activities of terror groups such as the IS, told The Hindu that the outfit
confirmed the death on December 26. The member said Tandel was killed on December
25.
On Wednesday, speaking to The Hindu, at least two officials in the security establishment
confirmed Tandels death, hours after the ISs official media wing paid tributes to him in
a statement on Telegram, a social networking application.
The Telegram message said Tandel had been killed in Al-Raqqah during clashes with
Syrian democratic forces.
We cannot say when and how it happened, but on the basis of accounts provided by the
family and other foreign agencies, it is confirmed that Tandel died in clashes in Syria, an
official said.
The Telegram message said Tandel fought briefly for the group.
During his brief jihad in Syria, Tandel participated in several clashes with Syrian
democratic forces west of Al-Raqqah city. Tandel was killed when these forces attacked
the ISs positions west of the Tabaqa dam in the Al-Raqqah Governorate, the IS
message on Telegram said.

Second death

Tandel, an electrical engineer, left India with three other Kalyan men Areeb Majeed,
Fahad Sheikh and Saheem Tanki on the pretext of going on a pilgrimage to Iraq in
June 2014. While Areeb Majeed returned and was arrested by the NIA, it was learnt that
Sheikh was running a pro-IS Twitter handle, @magnetgas, which was suspended by the
microblogging site on Indias request. Saheem Tanki is said to have been killed in August
2015.
The three men had featured in a 22-minute propaganda video released by the IS in May
this year. The video shot along Lake Homs in Syria shows groups of militants on board
small motorised boats brandishing Kalashnikovs with an IS black flag in the background.
The Arabic-subtitled video, The Land of Hind Between Pain and Hope, was distributed on
Web-based applications such as Telegram and Twitter on May 19.
The men called on Indian Muslims to travel to IS-held territories in its Caliphate and
vowed to return to avenge killings of Muslims.

New draft could help Indias NSG entry

Washington: A new draft proposal circulated among Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
member-states early this month could pave the way for India to become a member of
the elite club, but this is unlikely to happen before the end of the Obama presidency next
month.
The American push for India to become a full-fledged NSG member would now have to
be pursued by the incoming Trump administration as the outgoing Obama administration
is unlikely to fulfil its promise made to the Modi government before its term expires on
January 20, informed sources said.
A draft formula for NSG membership to countries like India and Pakistan, that are not a
signatory to the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), was submitted by Rafael Mariano
Grossi, the former NSG Chair, who prepared the report on behalf of South Korea, the
current NSG chair. PTI

CCEA approves road project for Maoist areas

Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved a

11,700-crore project to improve rural road connectivity in the worst-affected left-wing
extremism (LWE) districts.
The scheme, named Road Connectivity Project for LWE Affected Areas, will be
implemented under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in 44 districts.
Under the project, construction or upgradation of 5,411.81 km road and 126 bridges or
Cross Drainage works will be taken up at an estimated cost of 11,724.53 crore, an
official release said, adding the roads will be operable throughout the year irrespective of
weather conditions.
The Centre will fund 60 per cent of the road project and the rest will come from States.
However, in the north-east, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the
Centre will provide 90 per cent funding.

Aviation sector may fly into red in FY17

Author: Lalatendu Mishra

MUMBAI: The Indian civil aviation sector, which registered a record combined profit of
$122 million in financial year (FY) 2016 for the first time in a decade, may return to
losses of between $250 and $300 million in FY2017 and $380 to $450 million in FY2018,
according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), an aviation think tank.
The era of industry profitability is likely to be short-lived, according to CAPAs outlook
for FY2018.Traffic growth is being stimulated above its underlying demand as a result of
excess capacity and competitive fares. The downward pressure on yield, combined with
cost creep, is expected to push the consolidated industry result back into the red for the
12 months ending March 31, 2017.
Indigo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GoAir and Air India Express are all expected to remain
profitable, but at levels lower than FY2016. Jet Airways will be the only profitable full
service carrier in FY2017. Losses are projected to increase at Air India, AirAsia India and
Vistara and total industry level losses could reach $250 to $300 million, CAPA added.

According to the forecast, with project cost expected to go up by 10 per cent and yields
likely to decline by 5 to 7 per cent, the industrys combined loss would widen further to
up to $450 million as oil prices would be hovering in the range of $55-60 per barrel.
However, despite this most low cost carriers would remain profitable.
Indian carriers would raise about $1 billion capital next year, led by Jet Airways at $300
to 400 million. Besides AirAsia India and Vistara would require significant
recapitalisation.

Domestic demand to grow

Domestic traffic could grow by 25 per cent in FY2018 and reach 130 million passengers
and international traffic would grow by 10 to 12 per cent in FY2017 and FY2018. The
international growth remains below its true potential because of bilateral restrictions, it
said.
Low cost carriers could grow more aggressively on international routes from next
summer.
Though the Indian market creates tremendous opportunities for airlines the inadequate
infrastructure, skill shortage, flawed policy initiatives and weak regulatory oversight have
emerged as major stumbling blocks.

Digital payments attract one crore rural citizens

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Electronics and IT on Wednesday said it had enrolled more
than one crore citizens and three lakh merchants for digital payments in rural areas
through its DigiDhan Abhiyan campaign launched following the Centres demonetisation
move. M.P. and Chhattisgarh have enrolled the highest number of rural citizens at 15
lakh and 12.5 lakh , respectively. Additionally, Chhattisgarh and U.P. recorded the
highest number of merchant enrolments at more than 60,000 each. Special
Correspondent

2017 may ring curtains on many mines About 317 applicants across 12
major mineral States, including Tamil Nadu, risk forfeiture of rights
Author: Vikas Dhoot

NEW DELHI: The mining sector is bracing itself for a dark new year, with two difficult
deadlines set under laws governing forest conservation, forest dwellers rights and the
mines and mineral development and regulation law of 2015 looming over hundreds of
existing and proposed mines.
Industry body FICCI has written to the Mines Ministry to request an extension of the
December 31, 2016 (for forest clearances in mineral-rich Odisha) and January 11, 2017
(for converting letters of intent issued by states for mining operations before January 12,
2015, when the new MMDR law kicked in) deadlines to provide a lease of life to these
mines.
I would like to bring to your attention the issue of two immediate deadlines for mining
leases where it is not practically possible to obtain requisite clearances under the Forest
(Conservation) Act of 1980 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006, FICCI secretary general A. Didar
Singh has said in a letter sent to Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar last week.
The deadline is December 31, 2016 for Shabik and Hal settlement of land records in
Odisha and the other issue pertains to Letter of Intent (LOI) issued by state
governments before January 12, 2015, covered under section 10 A 2(c) of the MMDR Act
of 2015 for which deadline is January 11, 2017, Mr. Singh has pointed out.

The Odisha problem

For existing mining leases in Odisha, the problem arises from the forest conservation law
which came into effect on October, 25, 1980 and environment ministry guidelines on
mines in areas designated as forest under the law.
While the forest land within mines was labelled as forest in government records from
1980, such areas were recorded as non-forest or hal land while processing approvals for
the use of forest land under the law.
The state governments may allow concerned user agencies to continue, for a period
ending December 31, 2016, mining in such already broken forest area which were or are
recorded as forest in the government record after October 25, 1980, according to the
guidelines.

Miners with forest areas within their operational lease, had sought the requisite green
nods to continue beyond the end of this year, but a number of cases recommended by
the state government as well as the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) or Regional
Empowered Committee are yet to be approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forests
and Climate Change.
Moreover, during its meetings in November, the FAC imposed two additional stipulations
for miners to comply with obtaining a certificate under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) to
get a Stage-I forest act approval and proposing a suitable scheme for compensatory
afforestation on an equivalent degraded forest patch.
Getting a FRA certificate from a Collector alone takes at least three months. Hence,
securing that as well as stage-I and stage-2 clearances under the Forest Act is virtually
impossible before the end of December, according to FICCI.

Since the 2015 mining law requires all mining rights to be auctioned, in a bid to do away
with the discretion enjoyed under administrative allocations done in the past, all miners
who had secured an LoI for a mine from a state government before January 12, 2015,
were given a two-year window to execute and register their mining leases. This requires
obtaining all necessary green clearances as well. Where the leases couldnt be registered
before the deadline, the applicants right over a mine would be forfeited as per the new
mining law. There are about 317 such cases across 12 major mineral States such as
Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Even in these cases, the environment ministry clearances are delayed, partly because
the FAC was dissolved in August 2016, reconstituted in October and a new online
application process for forest clearances was introduced in November. Although it later
allowed processing of existing offline applications being processed at the State or Central
level, the FRA and compensatory afforestation norms mentioned earlier have also been
made a pre-condition for the green approvals necessary to execute new mining leases.
Meeting the January 11 deadline seems implausible for most mines.

Centre invites comments on new redressal body

Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Centre has invited public comments on a report for the creation of a
Financial Redressal Agency (FRA) to address the grievances of retail consumers against
all financial service providers in an easy, transparent and cost-effective manner.

The report, while pointing out substantial inadequacies in the current redressal system,
suggested that the design of the FRA offer a simplified resolution process, allowing retail
consumers in distant and remote locations to pursue effective remedies without imposing
significant costs on them.
The report also calls for a new financial consumer protection and redressal legislation
and recommends an initial budget of 100 crore for the setting up of the FRA.
The average consumer is put under unnecessary stress when required to approach
different redress agencies based on the nature of the product, according to an official
statement based on the report. This stress is further amplified due to varying levels of
consumer protection across regulators.
In some instances, regulated financial service providers (FSPs) are not covered within
the scope of the concerned regulators redress functions, according to the statement.
Further, there is a lack of powers to award compensation in some cases, pushing
consumers to courts or consumer forums.
The report also added that there is little room for specialisation as present systems do
not have a specialised cadre of redress professionals and it highlighted the possibility of
a conflict of roles between the various redressal agencies.
It (the proposed FRA) will try to resolve all complaints through mediation. Cases where
the parties are unable to reach a settlement would be resolved through a light-touch
adjudication process. It will discourage court-like processes. The FRA will establish a
front-end presence in diverse locations for consumers to submit complaints.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his budget speech of 2015-16 announced the
creation a sector-neutral FRA, following the recommendations of the Financial Sector
Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), which had, in 2013, recommended an FRA as
part of the regulatory framework aimed at fostering customer protection and regulator
independence and accountability.

Vijay Goel felicitates junior mens team Hockey / Players left

disappointed at not being able to meet the Prime Minister
Author: Uthra Ganesan

NEW DELHI: The World Cup-winning Indian junior mens hockey team was felicitated by
Sports Minister Vijay Goel here on Wednesday.

Even though the players appreciated the gesture and thanked the ministry for the
recognition, it was a let-down for most of them who had been told that the team would
get a chance to meet the Prime Minister in the morning.
The entire squad and coaching staff had gathered in the capital for the felicitation that
also saw Goel announce a cash incentive of Rs. 3.70 lakh each for the players.
Several players, while in Kolkata for the Beighton Cup, had been quoted saying they
would seek job assurances from the Prime Minister at the meeting.
But the team remained cooped up in rooms at the DLTA before arriving for Goels
felicitation in the evening. We were told we would be meeting the Prime Minister and we
were excited about it, but there was nothing.
We dont know whether it was a late development or some kind of miscommunication,
but all of us were given to believe the same. Even our families were looking forward to
our meeting Mr. Modi. It would have been a big honour for us, most of the players said.
They, however, welcomed the reward announced by the ministry.
Its a great encouragement for us to be recognised for the achievement. It reassures us
that the government is behind us in our efforts, they said.

Physio quits
Meanwhile, Shrikant Iyengar, who had been associated with the Indian hockey teams for
almost eight years as physio, gave in his resignation letter on Wednesday citing personal
reasons.
Shrikant was largely credited with ensuring the players fitness and successful
rehabilitation after injuries, and was seen as a permanent fixture with Indian hockey,
working with both men and women.
Hockey India has accepted his resignation and will look for a replacement in the coming
months since the national side has no assignment scheduled till March.

30th Dec

Peace on track in Colombia

Colombias government now knows only too well that there is many a slip between the
cup and the lip. In October, a referendum to ratify a painstakingly negotiated peace deal
it had signed with the long-time insurgent organisation, the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), was narrowly defeated. A more piecemeal, less ambitious and
sequenced process since then has helped Bogota notch its first significant victory in
effecting the peace deal with the rebels. Now, Colombias Congress has unanimously
approved an amnesty law granting immunity to FARC fighters from prosecution for
committing minor crimes, clearing a major hurdle in effecting the revised peace accord.
Those accused of major crimes will be tried by a special tribunal. The main difficulty in
passing this measure was the intransigence of the leading opposition, the right-wing
Centro Democratico led by former President Alvaro Uribe, who had led a vigorous
campaign first against talks between the government and the rebels, later during the
referendum and also when a revised accord was eventually signed and ratified by
Congress on December 1. The party abstained during voting both during the ratification
and when the amnesty law was introduced. The law helps overcome a key sticking point
for those who voted No in the October referendum and who felt that the government
was being too lenient with those among the FARC commanders accused of severe
crimes. The law will reassure the rebels, who are moving to special demobilisation
zones, marking a breakthrough in the five-decade-long civil war that has taken more
than 2,20,000 lives.
Without doubt, the Nobel Peace Prize given to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
gave him the necessary ballast and international support to carry out these steps. But
there are other laws to be passed, including those addressing FARCs demands for
agrarian reform and compensation to victims of the civil war. There is still some distance
to go before FARC converts itself into a political party to participate in the contested
polity. Amendments to the peace accord include requirements from FARC to share
details about any involvement in drug production and declaration of assets. But there is
a clear commitment towards peace shown by both the government and FARC, especially
after the initial accord was signed. If things go as per the governments plan, the rebels
should become civilians by May 2017, culminating in the end of a process that began
with negotiations four years ago.
Letter to editor

Shyami Govind,ThiruvananthapuramS.S. Rajagopalan,ChennaiRemus

Noronha,Nellikode, Kozhikode, KeralaBalaji Akiri,HyderabadHemant
Kumar,Ambala City, HaryanaKaushik Pandey,VaranasiThirumeni
Jayaraman,TiruchiN. Jan Mohammed,ChennaiShivam Dwivedi,Lucknow

Old note ordinance

The frequent political recourse to the ordinance route manifests the sorry state of our
democratic institutions (Ordinance to end RBIs liability, Dec.29). The winter session of
Parliament was a washout and there is no solution to the political stalemate. Such
politics of obstruction has only caused loss to the public exchequer and delayed the long
overdue passage of essential pieces of legislation. Its high time that parties discard their
maximalist positions and arrive at a consensus on the modalities to resolve the
demonetisation impasse. Failure to do this in a timely manner can only become a pretext
for high-handed moves by the government.
Shyami Govind,
Thiruvananthapuram
It is shocking that the possession of defunct currency denominations might result in a
hefty fine being imposed and/or a four-year prison sentence. One can understand this if
such notes are put in circulation. But how can keeping notes at home be considered a
crime? There are avid notaphilists who may be dealing with a certain volume of old
notes. The ordinance is draconian in nature. The government is well-advised to
withdraw it and instead concentrate on its primary duty of infusing a sufficient amount
of replacement denominations into the banking system.
S.S. Rajagopalan,

Chennai

India vs. Norway

With accusations against Norwegian child protection services in the case of a five-yearold boy being separated from his parents going viral, it is necessary to examine whether
the agency was justified in its action instead of heaping insults on it. (Groundswell of ire
against Norway move, Dec.29).

The justification often given by Indian and Indian-origin parents in foreign countries for
physical or emotional abuse of children is that it is the Indian way of disciplining children.
If so, then it is implied that hitting a child or verbally abusing it is part of our national
culture and an act that must therefore be justified and promoted. Even if one were to
accept child abuse as integral to our culture, if it is prohibited under the law of the land,
parents have no right to continue such practices.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajs statement that she does not think foster
parents can look after a child better merely because they would not know his dietary
habits is pointless. The real question here is what defines a parents right to their child
and whether relationship of blood is enough to justify all acts taken by a parent with
respect to their childs welfare.
Remus Noronha,
Nellikode, Kozhikode, Kerala
India should not interfere in the internal affairs of Norway in the matter of getting back
the child to its natural parents. Norway has its own child welfare rights and action would
have been taken according to the law of the land. Assaulting a child physically is not an
Indian way of bringing up the child and we should not defend those actions. Norway has
stringent child welfare rights according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
and India should bring in some of those reforms to make proper laws to protect child
freedom.
Indian children are often exposed to violence in homes as well as in schools. Physically
assaulting a child is not uncommon in Indian schools and child welfare authorities turn a
blind eye to these incidents due to weak laws. Most Indian parents try to impose a code
of strict discipline on their children and create stress in their sensitive minds. In the
process, they think that anything extreme is acceptable.
Balaji Akiri,
Hyderabad

Property act

Ever since the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 has been duly strengthened,
the government appears to be highlighting it as another master stroke against the
menace of black money. In this narrative, the governments assertion that it was the one
which notified the 1988 law seems to have been promoted.

The 1988 Benami law was put in place by the Rajiv Gandhi government as a
promulgation of an ordinance followed by its due enactment in Parliament. It was
implemented the same year although it is a different matter that the rules as mandated
under then Section 8 therein were not framed in all these years, which resulted in such
a law not fulfilling its purpose and objective in letter and spirit. This government, apart
from amending the same with framing of such rules, has even renamed it as the
Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.
UPA-II more than five years ago had also taken the initiative in this regard. Instead of
amending the 1988 law, as has been done now, it substituted it with a fresh law. The
Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill, 2011 was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Pranab
Mukherjee, then Union Finance Minister. This Bill was even referred to a Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Finance, headed by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, which
submitted its report in June 2012, suggesting recommendations. Unfortunately, this
Bill lapsed as it could not be passed in the 15th Lok Sabha.
Benami appears to be a misnomer. This Persian-borrowed word literally means
nameless or without name whereas the law in which it is used denotes a transaction
which is done by a person without using his own name. This is a grey area that must be
examined.
Hemant Kumar,
Ambala City, Haryana

Off the rails

Yet another railway accident. The derailment of the Sealdah-Ajmer Express which has
left 62 passengers injured (Dec.29) only shows that lip service is being paid to
enhancing railway safety. The Railway Budget should focus on safety rather than
talking big about bullet train projects.
Kaushik Pandey,

Varanasi
There seems to be no end to the number of such railway accidents. Once again the
Commissioner of Railway Safety of the circle concerned will visit the accident site, have
a press briefing, order a thorough probe and the matter will end. Commissioners
should step up routine checks at regular intervals. Safety teams need to make
inspections.

Thirumeni Jayaraman,
Tiruchi

Palestine and its identity

Modern history tells us that Jews comprised just two per cent of the population of
Palestine, the rest being Arab-Palestinians. Within 30 years the demography of
Palestine changed; Jews were more than 30 per cent. By 1948, Jews comprised more
than 40 per cent of Palestine. Now, entire Palestinian villages have vanished, their
fertile lands confiscated and they have been rendered homeless. They have become
refugees in their own land. Israel may want nothing short of a Greater Israel, but it will
remain a dream. Israel has to recognise the legitimate rights of the Palestinians and
pursue a realistic policy for a lasting peace in West Asia (Tel Aviv on tenterhooks,
Dec.29).
N. Jan Mohammed,
Chennai
The denial of compliance with UNSC resolution 2334 not only highlights the expansionist
intention of Israel but also dilutes the UNSCs enforcement powers. The Oslo Accord or
the act of mere recognition of PLO have been the veils behind which Israel has been
committing crimes.
It is probably time for next UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and chief prosecutor
of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda to sharpen their stances. Palestine is
too weak a state to work for its own liberation. Therefore, the international community
should join hands to help it. West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip are disputed
not only because they are claimed by two nations but also because of the complacency
of the international community.
Shivam Dwivedi,
Lucknow

Notes to remember If even the United States has not yet

given up on cash, should India?
A Pew survey found that 60 per cent Americans try to make sure that they
have at least some cash on hand, just in case they need it T. Ramachandran

If three-quarters of the population in an advanced economy like the United States

appear to either favour cash payments or a mix of both cash and non-cash payments
while making purchases, how challenging will it be for a developing country like India to
transition to a so-called cashless economy?

Cash use in the U.S.

A survey on online shopping and e-commerce conducted by the U.S.-based Pew

Research Center revealed that nearly a fourth of Americans use cash for all or almost all
of their purchases during a typical week, in an economy that is overwhelmingly
dominated by non-cash payment options, unlike India. Less than a quarter of those
surveyed go for non-cash or cashless purchases and more than half tended to use a mix
of both cash and cashless payment modes, according to the survey findings released in
December.
The Pew survey also found that 60 per cent Americans try to make sure that they have
at least some cash on hand, just in case they need it, while another 39 per cent dont
particularly worry about having cash on hand at all times.
There are other interesting revelations in the survey that might hold lessons for India
(i) Income has a bearing on payment preferences: the more affluent folks tend to favour
non-cash payments while the less affluent tend to use cash (those with annual
household incomes of $75,000 and $30,000 respectively in this case); (ii) demographics
too had a bearing on the situation: African-Americans tend to favour cash payments
more, Latinos and whites less; (iii) age makes a difference: compared to older people,
the young are less worried about not having cash on hand.
What this survey reveals is that cash has not vanished from most peoples lives in the
U.S. despite non-cash options being widely available. Other reports too suggest that
while the share of cash in total consumer transactions has declined in the U.S., it is
nowhere near being written off as a significant option.
For instance, a report released in November by the Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco makes four points: cash continues to be the most frequently used consumer
payment instrument in retail transactions; it is widely used in a variety of circumstances;
it dominates small-value transactions; and the average value of cash holdings has
grown. The report, The State of Cash: Preliminary Findings from the 2015 Diary of
Consumer Payment Choice also does say that cash is facing competition from other

payment instruments: In 2015, 32 percent of consumer transactions were made with

cash, compared with 40 percent in 2012.

Indias rush for cashless

Compare this with the current rhetoric in India about going cashless: the governments
drive seems to focus on virtually eliminating cash in a wide range of payment situations,
even in small-value transactions.
And also note this: currency in circulation has been steadily increasing in the U.S., and
demand for higher denominations has grown since the 2008 financial crisis. Despite
innovations in smartphone technology and mobile payment apps, Fed data on the
amount of currency in circulation suggest that demand for cash is strong, the November
report says.
The big picture, as outlined in the Finance Ministrys Committee on Digital Payments
medium-term recommendations (released in December), reveals that Indias cash to
GDP ratio of 12.04 per cent is considerably higher than comparable countries. Cash to
GDP ratio of Brazil, for instance is 3.93 per cent, Mexico, 5.32 per cent and South Africa,
3.72 per cent.
The committee quotes estimates suggesting that the dependency on cash costs the
country about 21,000 crore on account of various aspects of currency operations
including cost of printing new currency, operating currency chests, maintaining supply to
ATM networks, and interest. Some estimates indicated that the net cost of cash
(including cost of currency operations, as well as other costs borne by households,
businesses and banks in handling cash) as 1.7 per cent of Indias real GDP in 2014-15,
its report said. These figures do not reflect other costs in relation to counterfeit currency
and black money.
But at what pace and how far do we go the cashless way? The committees vision will
involve the reduction of cash to GDP ratio to about 6 per cent in three years time, which
means that the value and quantum of cash in circulation will have to be brought down
significantly during this period. Correspondingly, the digital payments landscape should
develop to the extent that an ordinary Indian should have the choice to be able to
safely, reliably and conveniently transact money digitally at a price which is affordable
and at a place where needed. It also means that financial inclusion should engulf almost
the entire population.
This is quite an uphill climb. The report acknowledged that there was no reliable indicator
of the share of digital transactions as a proportion of total transactions. Available data
indicated that it could be about five per cent of total personal consumption or two per

cent of total transactions. Some other estimates pegged the share of retail transactions
as high as 22 per cent.

Some number crunching

Figures released by the Reserve Bank of India show that it took 16 years from 1978-79
for the value of notes and coins in circulation to increase from about 100 billion to
1,000 billion. It has accelerated thereafter: from 1,046 billion in 1994-95 to 5,042
billion in 2006-07, 10,663 billion in 2011-12 and 16,634 billion in 2015-16.
Notes of 500 and 1,000 denomination accounted for 14,179 billion of the 16,634
billion of notes and coins in circulation in 2015-16. Post-demonetisation, it is this
currency space that has shrunk to a fraction of its original size, making a difference,
sometimes very huge, to the lives of ordinary Indians. It has severely restricted, and
maybe eliminated, the option to transact in cash in many situations.
How will the cash option shape up in the future? Will it remain a meaningful option at
all? The Committee on Digital Payments is clear about this people should have the
choice to decide whether they want to use cash or go digital while making transactions.
We do not know the future but it is not the intent of the Committee to replace all cash
transactions with digital ones. It is for the people to have the incentives to decide
whether it makes sense for them to transact in cash or in digital form. It is important for
them to have this choice. This choice must be a real choice.
ramachandran.t@thehindu.co.in

Talking to children about untouchability Rather than deny

its existence, it is time for parents, teachers, and even the
government to start talking to children about ending such
practices today
Just as children are able to learn to have a separate glass for the maid, they
are also able to learn what discrimination is... it is hurtful Diane Coffey Amit
Thorat

Many of us, especially in urban areas, think about caste only in the context of
reservations or when we come across media reports of Dalits being attacked, as it
happened recently, in Una, Gujarat. It may seem that caste hardly plays a role in

modern society. People may think: I certainly dont discriminate based on caste.
Unfortunately, our research suggests that caste discrimination is far more commonplace
than most educated urbanites would care to acknowledge.
We set out to measure attitudes towards Dalits in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh using the
same method used to measure social attitudes in other countries for decades:
representative phone surveys. A new survey called SARI (Social Attitudes Research for
India) uses a sampling frame based on mobile phone subscriptions, random digit dialling,
within household sample selection, and statistical weights to build representative
samples of adults between 18-65 years old. A small research team carries out the
interviews. In Delhi, we interviewed 1,270 adults; in Uttar Pradesh, the figure was
1,470.
What we found about peoples attitudes towards their Dalit neighbours is sobering:
among non-Dalit Hindus in Delhi, a third said that someone in their household practises
untouchability. In Uttar Pradesh, half of adults said that someone practises it.
How could these numbers be so high? Didnt Article 17 of the Constitution abolish
untouchability? Wasnt untouchability made punishable under the Untouchability
Offences Act, 1955? Hasnt India had decades of reservations to include Dalits in the
government and in schools?
All this is true, yet, when you ask a representative group of non-Scheduled Caste (SC)
Hindu adults the question: Kya aapke parivar me kuch sadasya chuachut ko mante
hain? (Do some members of your family practise untouchability?), many of them
unabashedly say Yes.

Admitting to untouchability

How many people in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh practise untouchability? Knowing that
someone in a household practises untouchability doesnt mean that she does it. Is it
the case that only older people engage in such discriminatory practices?
Unfortunately, that is not what we found. If a respondent said that someone in the
household practises untouchability, we asked whether he or she practises it. In Delhi,
half the adults in non-SC Hindu households, where someone practises untouchability,
said they themselves practise it; in Uttar Pradesh 70 per cent did. The graphic shows
that there are actually very few age variations in reported untouchability: in neither
Delhi and U.P. are young people much less likely to practise untouchability than their
parents or grandparents.
As surprising and disappointing as these numbers are, we dont think that they capture
the full extent of the problem. That is because some people know that it is not politically

correct to admit practising untouchability to a stranger. The graphic separating data

into Delhi, urban U.P., and rural U.P., gives us some idea of the extent to which answers
to this question are affected by social desirability bias.
Even though women and men live in similar households, women are more likely to report
untouchability in the household. This suggests that either men are uninformed or they
are giving a socially desirable, but incorrect, answer. Women may be more likely to
report untouchability where it exists because they are less aware that it is not a
politically correct thing to say. Another reason why women may be more likely to report
untouchability is it is often practised in the context of food, utensils, and domestic help.
Women are more likely to work with food and utensils than men, and so they are
probably more likely than men to enforce untouchability.
If we use womens figures, which are likely more accurate, we find that 40 per cent of
non-Dalit Hindu households in Delhi report practising untouchability. In rural Uttar
Pradesh, this figure is over 60 per cent! Of course, even this high figure will be an
underestimate if some women do not admit to practising untouchability or do not
recognise some of the things they do in their interactions with Dalits as untouchability.

Creating awareness in children

Many urban families find themselves talking explicitly about caste only when their
children are trying to get admitted to colleges. Some children want to know what
reservation is. Why do some social groups have this so-called privilege and not others?
Yet, the fact that women are particularly likely to report practising untouchability, and
the fact that mothers are often the first and most influential teachers of their children,
suggests that childrens first impressions of caste differences may be ingrained at a
much younger age. So, rather than simply denying the existence of untouchability, or
hoping it will disappear as this computer-using generation of youngsters becomes more
educated than the previous generations, it is time for parents, teachers, and even the
government to start talking to children about ending these practices today. Just as
children are able to learn to have a separate glass for the maid, they are also able to
learn what discrimination is, to understand that it is hurtful, and to have kinder attitudes
towards people from different groups. A study of primary school students in the United
States found that white students who read about both the accomplishments of and the
discrimination faced by black Americans later displayed less biased attitudes towards
blacks than white children who had merely read about accomplishments.
To end untouchability will mean that everyone, from government official, to teacher, to
young mother has to make an effort. Everyone needs to admit that untouchability is still
a widespread problem, not only in rural India but also in urban India. Even people who
dont agree with the practice of untouchability themselves need to talk with children in

their lives about where it came from, what it feels like, and how it can be stopped. If
they dont, their neighbours, many of whom do practise untouchability, may end up
teaching their children to perpetuate these archaic, hurtful social norms.
Diane Coffey is a visiting researcher at the
Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi; Amit Thorat is Assistant Professor at Centre for the
Study of Regional Development, JNU. This is the second of a four-part series on
prejudice. The first appeared on December 29, 2016.

Faint but unmistakable echoes of IS

Currently, 450 persons are under watch for alleged links with the IS, up
from 250 last year
Author: Vijaita Singh

New Delhi: By the end of this year, 50 young men had been arrested by various
investigating agencies for their alleged links to the Syria-Iraq-based terrorist outfit, the
Islamic State (IS).
In another instance, a group of 21 persons, which includes women and children, quietly
left the country to live in Afghanistan, where the terrorist outfit is said to have gained a
foothold.
Investigators insist the number of Indians leaning towards the terrorist group is
miniscule in proportion to the Muslim population and much less when compared with
countries such as France, the U.K, Russia and even China.
Most of them were caught before they could execute their plan. Almost all of them told
us that they were asked to target vital installations, religious places around them as
travelling to the IS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq had become difficult, said a
senior NIA official.
Recently, during a presentation at the annual Directors-General of Police conference in
Hyderabad, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) informed the participants that there had been
more than a 100 per cent jump in the number of people under watch in India for their
links and leaning towards the IS.
For now, we have adopted a wait- and-watch policy. There is an unsaid policy to not
press for arrests until we are sure of their plans to carry out an attack. Currently, 450
persons are under watch for their alleged links with the IS, up from 250 last year, said a
Home Ministry official.

Last year, 18 persons were arrested for being inspired by the terrorist group, while this
year 50 such arrests were made.
Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir informed Parliament earlier this month that 50
people were arrested by security agencies in 2016; 11 were from Maharashtra, 11
(Telangana), seven (Karnataka), four (Uttarakhand), six (Kerala), two each were from
West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu and one each from Madhya Pradesh, Jammu
and Kashmir, Bihar, Delhi and Rajasthan.

Social media policy

The Home Ministry has already prepared a blueprint and a national social media policy to
counter cyberthreats in relation to the terror outfit. It is estimated that at least 25
Indians have already travelled to Syria to fight alongside the IS.
The NIA said a former Indian Mujahideen operative, Shafi Armar, a resident of Bhatkal in
Karnataka, was a common handler in at least 70 percent of the arrests made this year.
Though the IS has many foreign fighters, investigators were surprised at the meteoric
rise of Armar.
The interrogation of the arrested men has revealed that Armar asked them to target not
only Hindu political leaders, government officials, RSS workers but Shia Muslims as well,
one of the charge sheets filed by the NIA said. Investigators suspect that the recent
propaganda video featuring six Indians in Syria was shot by Armar. The NIA said in its
report that after he fled India in 2008 amid the crackdown on IM operatives, Armar is
said to have lived for a few days in the UAE.
He then reached Afghanistan via Pakistan and with the help of Al-Qaeda raised an
organisation called the Ansar-ul-Tawhid (AuT), with his elder brother Sultan Armar, who
was killed in a drone strike in Syria in 2015. AuT later on pledged allegiance to the IS.

RBIs autonomy back in focus

Author: Manojit Saha

MUMBAI: 2016 will be remembered as the year that saw bad loans at public sector banks
scale new peaks as former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajans push

to clean up lenders balance sheets resulted in PSU banks posting record losses in the
fourth quarter of 2015-16.
The year also saw the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
opt out of a possible second term at the central banks helm and pass on the baton to
one of his then deputies Urjit Patel.

Milestone reform

Still, Dr. Rajan had laid the foundation for yet another milestone reform. Following the
Centres decision to implement the recommendations of the committee headed by Dr.
Patel, the RBI for the first time in its history, switched to a rule-based approach to
monetary policy formulation with an explicit target set for inflation.
So in October, a newly constituted six-member monetary policy committee (MPC)
decided the policy outcome at the RBIs fourth bimonthly statement for 2016-17, cutting
the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points at its maiden sitting.
While the RBI Governor is the Chairman of the committee and has the casting vote in
case of a tie, the governor does not enjoy a veto power. Apart from the governor and
deputy governor in-charge of monetary policy, a third committee member is
recommended by the central banks board.
The other three members of the MPC are from outside the central bank and are
appointed for a four-year, non-renewable term.
Introduction of inflation targeting framework and a MPC-based approach, have
increased the accountability and transparency of monetary policy making, said Rupa
Rege Nitsure, group chief economist, L&T Finance Holdings, who was a member of the
Patel committee.
It not just helps RBI stay focused on a specific inflation target but the final policy
decision is an outcome of the consultative discussions covering several views and
experiences. It ensures balanced representation of various sections of society and is
hence more democratic in essence. The publication of the minutes informs general public
about the actual thought processes supporting the decision. This helps create a good
feedback mechanism, Ms. Nitsure wrote in e-mailed comments to The Hindu.
The spotlight was back on the central bank by the end of the year following Prime
Minister Narendra Modis November 8 announcement on the decision to withdraw legal

tender status of the old series of 500 and 1,000 banknotes, which constituted 86 per
cent of the currency value in circulation at the time.
Piyush Goyal, a minister in the BJP-led NDA government had informed members of the
upper house (Rajya Sabha) that the demonetisation decision was taken by the central
bank at its board meeting, prior to the Prime Ministers announcement.

No agenda

Central bank sources indicated that a board meeting was convened on November 8 for
which no agenda was circulated just hours before Mr. Modi announced the decision to
the nation.
While the RBI has not made public the deliberations of the November 8 board meeting,
former Finance P. Chidambaram had questioned the sequence of events, suggesting that
the short time intervals between the RBI board decision, the Union Cabinets meeting
and the Prime Ministers announcement seemed to indicate that the move was well
orchestrated. Mr. Chidambaram is reported to have demanded that the central bank
ought to share the minutes of the board meeting and let the public know who were the
directors who attended it.
The RBI boards decision, observers said, brought the issue of the central banks
autonomy and independence back in focus.
By statute, RBI is supposed to have autonomy, Anil Kakodkar, a former chairman of the
Atomic Energy Commision who was a member of the RBI board till 2015, told The Hindu.
There are certain policies for which the RBI is responsible and there are certain things,
which are done in tandem with the government. So, there is specified composition of the
RBI board which allows RBI to do that function.

Autonomy has been provided in the statute. It is for the board to remain conscious of it
and act as per the objectives and functions of RBI, Mr. Kakodkar said.
Indira Rajaraman, an economist and another former RBI board member, pointed out that
the board has been operating at less than full strength.
The central board of RBI is not operating at full strength. Four vacancies for external
directors are yet to be filled. This is a serious matter since, by the RBI Act,
recommendations regarding currency issuance and currency recall have to emanate from
the Central Board. Since the three external members of the MPC have received all

necessary clearances, they could immediately be inducted into the Board. Ms.
Rajaraman said.

Huge vacancies

The large number of vacancies, rather than the central banks board not being at full
strength, was a concern, according to Mr. Kakodkar.
Board composition is dynamic because terms of members expire at different points in
time. So, it is rare that the entire board is full at any point in time. But there should not
be a case when there are a large number of vacancies, he said.

Centre meets PMUY target of 1.5 crore LPG connections

Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said that it had met the 1.5-crore target for
LPG connections to be added in this financial year under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala
Yojana (PMUY) and therefore increased LPG coverage across the country to 70 per cent
as of December 1.
Target of 1.5 crore connections fixed for the current financial year for Pradhan Mantri
Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) has been achieved within a span of less than eight months and
the scheme is being implemented now across 35 States/UTs, the government said in a
statement. It is also noteworthy that with the implementation of PMUY, the national LPG
coverage has increased from 61 per cent (as on January 1, 2016) to 70 per cent (as on
December 1, 2016), the statement added.
The top five States with the highest number of connections are Uttar Pradesh (46 lakh),
West Bengal (19 lakh), Bihar (19 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (17 lakh) and Rajasthan (14
lakh).
These States constitute nearly 75 per cent of the total connections released. The
households belonging to SC/ST constitute the large chunk of beneficiaries with 35 per
cent of the connections being released to them. The statement also said 14 States/UTs
with LPG coverage less than the national average, such as J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal

Pradesh and all North-East States, have been identified as priority States for
implementing PMUY.

Financial data management body mooted

In 2015, RBI had objected to the idea as sharing data with the body would
be a confidentiality breach
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A committee set up under the Department of Economic Affairs has
recommended the creation of a statutory body that will standardise data from all
financial sector regulators in a single database and provide analytical insights based on
the data.
The report of the committee to study the financial data management legal framework in
India, made public on Thursday, suggests the passage of a Bill in Parliament the
Financial Data Management Centre Bill 2016 to create the statutory body, as
recommended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Subject to the provisions of this Act, or any other law for the time being in force, it shall
be the duty of the Data Centre to take measures to standardise data from regulators in
consultation with the regulators, enable financial service providers to submit data in a
standardised electronic format, analyse the data and maintain a financial system
database, according to the proposed Act.
The powers of the Financial Data Management Centre (FDMC) will include the
establishment, operation and maintenance of the financial system database along with
collecting financial regulatory data and providing access to it. The body will also provide
analytical support to the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) on issues
relating to financial stability.
In 2015, when the FSDC first suggested the creation of such a body, the Reserve Bank
had objected to sharing company-specific data with the body as it was not statutory in
nature, and sharing such data would be a breach of confidentiality.
In the absence of any statutory or other legal basis which empowers FDMC to compel
furnishing of confidential information to it, disclosure of any such information by Reserve
Bank may not be justified as it may not fall within the recognised exception of
compulsion of law, the banking regulator had said at the time.
Even the Department of Legal Affairs said that the majority of the financial sector
regulators being statutory in nature, it is not clear from the proposal how the nonstatutory FDMC will collect data from such regulators.

Keeping these concerns in mind, the Department of Economic Affairs re-examined the
issue and obtained the Finance Ministers approval to establish a statutory FDMC,
following which a committee was formed to recommend the way forward.

Power sector sees 6% fall in coal supply from CIL

NEW DELHI: The supply of coal to the power sector by the stateowned CIL saw a fall of
6 per cent at 33.7 million tonnes last month even as the government claimed in October
that the demand for the fossil fuel has started picking up.
The despatch of dry fuel by Coal India Ltd (CIL) to the power sector in November last
year stood at 35.9 million tonnes (MT), according to government data.
The supply of coal by CIL in AprilNovember period of the ongoing fiscal also dropped
by 4 per cent to 250.7 MT over 261.4 MT in the corresponding period last fiscal. The
supply of coal by Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) during the April November
period was almost flat at 31.3 MT against 31.1 MT in the yearago period.
SCCL is a government coal mining company jointly owned by Telangana and the Centre
on a 51:49 equity basis.
The government, in October, had said that there were no plans to cut down coal
production as the demand had already picked up.
In October, the demand started picking up for both coal and power sectors, it had said.
CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, is eyeing 598
MT production in 201617. CIL has a target to produce 1 billion tonnes of fossil fuel by
2020. PTI

For China, a year of purge and unity

Chinas refusal to isolate Pakistan has collided head on with Indias
approach towards Islamabad
Author: Atul Aneja

BEIJING: Unanswered questions about Chinas rise peaceful or otherwise continued

to grab headlines throughout 2016. After decades of cooperation, it was clear that the

relations between the worlds largest and second largest economies, the U.S., and China
were souring.
The question was: How far had they gone downhill or were likely to do so once
President-elect Donald Trump entered the Oval Office? In 2016, the China-India
relationship, in some way, became a subset of the shifting ties between China and the
U.S. with both countries seeking a definite, but elusive, Indian pivot in their
direction. The optimism generated by the two famous visits President Xi Jinpings
journey to India in 2014 and its quick reciprocal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi less
than a year later, had significantly abated in 2016.
Chinas refusal to isolate Pakistan in fact its insistence, on the contrary, to deepen its
engagement with Islamabad has collided head on with Indias approach to counter
Pakistan as a global sponsor of terrorism. In fact, the divergent approach towards
Pakistan by the two neighbouring countries has emerged as a standout contradiction in
Sino-Indian ties in 2016.

There is a complete communication meltdown here. China wants to engage both India
and Pakistan, not one versus the other. This is necessary for the success of our Belt and
Road Initiative, says a Chinese diplomat, who did not wish to be named.
It is Chinas bid to impart stability to Pakistan through economic largesse and political
support that is the common thread explaining its position on three controversial issues
sponsorship of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, preventing the imposition of a UN
ban on Masood Azhar, the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad, and refusal to admit India alone
in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Domestic focus

Despite the media focus on big-picture geopolitics, or the impact of an economic

slowdown in China on the global economy, the real story in Beijing in 2016 was clearly
domestic, not international.
Specifically it was about the elevation of President Xi Jinping as the core leader and a
thorough and systematic revamp of the Communist Party of China (CPC), woven around
him.
The core leader was a term coined by Deng Xiaoping to ensure that the Party was fully
behind Jiang Zemin, when he became CPC General Secretary in 1989. It was also a
period of great transition when Chinas ageing leadership was giving way to the new,
says Roger Wu, a Beijing-based analyst.

It is tempting to read President Xis core leader anointment in the image of Mao
Zedong or Deng, as Chinas return to authoritarianism. But many analysts see the
elevation of President Xi as a unifying figure to consolidate the CPC, which has been
shell-shocked by a relentless anti-corruption campaign carried out throughout 2016.
Even the powerful military has not been spared in this exercise.

31st Dec

Talk now of cash inflow, not flight overseas, says Modi PM

launches simplified digital payments app BHIM
Author: Special Correspondent

New Delhi: Fifty-two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi deployed a shock and awe
tactic on the nation by scrapping high value 500 and 1,000 notes , he lashed out at
critics of the strategy, saying,Three years ago, the dominant theme in the news was
how much money was lost in scams. Now its about what is coming back.
Addressing a meeting on Digidhan Mela on Friday, Mr Modi refuted the comments of
former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram that demonetisation has produced only a
mouse in terms of black money after digging a mountain, saying finding a mouse is
needed as it consumes the wealth of the poor.
The Prime Minister also launched an indigenous digital payments app BHIM named after
Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar. The Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is a simplified
payment platform designed to make Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and USSD payment
modes simpler and usable across feature phones and smart phones.

Cash limit hiked

Late on Friday, the RBI announced that the cash withdrawal limit from ATMs was
increased to Rs. 4,500 from Rs. 2,500, effective January 1.
(With inputs from PTI)

Rlys. may bring back cess to raise safety fund

Author: Somesh Jha

NEW DELHI: The Railways may bring back a cess on tickets to finance its proposed 1
lakh crore Rail Safety Fund after a rise in derailments this year.

The Railways had asked the Finance Ministry to sponsor almost 93 per cent of the fund.
However, the Finance Ministry agreed to contribute only 25 per cent and asked it to raise
the rest.
In 2001-2007, a Special Railway Safety Fund of 17,000 crore was created. The
Railways raised 5,000 crore through safety surcharge on passenger fare and the
remaining 12,000 crore came from the Finance Ministry. We are thinking on the same
lines again, said a senior Railway Ministry official, on condition of anonymity.
The 2001 move was based on recommendations of the Railway Safety Review
Committee. The fund was also meant for improving safety of rolling stock, upgrading
training facilities, and simulators for locomotive drivers, among other things.

Surcharge

During 2001-2007, the Railways levied a fee of 1 for second class ordinary trains and
2 for second class Mail or Express trains per person. For other classes, the surcharge
had ranged between 10 and 100 depending on the class and distance of journey.
Recently, the Railway Ministry requested the Finance Ministry to create a non-lapsable
safety fund named Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh worth 1,19,183 crore. It asked the
Finance Ministry to provide 1,11,683 crore for safety improvement.

11 dead, over 50 trapped as Jharkhand coal mine caves in

Incident occurred when layers of earth and unwanted
material were being removed
Author: Shiv Sahay Singh

Godda, (Jharkhand): Eleven persons were killed and more than 50 trapped when an
open cast mine caved in on Thursday evening at Rajmahal in Jharkhands Godda district.
The cave-in occurred when layers of earth and other unwanted material, referred to as
overburden dump, were being removed.

5 bodies identified

Five bodies have been identified so far. The dead are mainly contract workers from
adjoining Bihar.
Officials of the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) described the subsidence as
unprecedented. Several payloaders and dumpers including mining machinery also lie
buried.
Prima facie, it is observed that the incidence is unprecedented, since a 300 m x 110m
solid floor of the overburden dump area has slid down by about 35 m, involving around
9.5 million cubic metres of earth material, ECL officials said.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force have joined the rescue operations, being
supervised by senior ECL and State government officials.
An inquiry has been ordered by the Director General of Mines Safety. A high-level
Committee of Experts has been constituted by Coal India Limited to investigate the
accident.
A compensation of 5 lakh has been announced for the family of the deceased.

Managing risk in banks

The Reserve Bank of Indias biannual Financial Stability Report has once again flagged
the fact that risks to the banking sector remain worryingly high. That the risks have
stayed elevated due to continuous deterioration in asset quality, low profitability and
liquidity, in the central banks assessment, is cause for concern. Given the central role
commercial lenders have in the financial system serving to harness public savings
and direct the flow of crucial credit to the most productive industrial and infrastructure
sectors any systemic risk to the banking industry has the potential to ripple across the
entire economy. There has been no perceptible improvement in the health of domestic
banks, even six months after the RBIs previous report had highlighted the sectors high
vulnerability on account of the increase in capital requirement and worsening asset
quality, spotlighting the need for urgent policy interventions. Some measures have been
initiated and others are in the pipeline, including a draft Financial Resolution and Deposit
Insurance Bill to address bankruptcy situations in banks and other financial entities. Still,
there is every reason to prioritise the restoration of the sectors health as some of the
risks inherent in banks may already be getting transferred to other segments of the
financial markets, according to the RBIs report. A survey, of experts and market
participants, conducted by the RBI in October-November reveals that among institutional
risks, credit growth and cyber risk were seen as two key high risk factors.

The appointment of Viral Acharya as Deputy Governor overseeing monetary policy at

the RBI, therefore, comes at a crucial juncture. A former member of the Advisory
Committee of Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, he brings substantial
expertise in both identifying and dealing with systemic risks in the banking sector.
Having authored a number of papers on the risks lenders could pose to the wider
financial system and even the sovereigns credit standing, he will have his task cut out. A
proponent of sequestering and separately dealing with the stressed assets and bad loans
on a lenders books, Mr. Acharya had in an interview suggested that the unhealthy
parts of the troubled banks could be separated from the healthier assets and put into a
bad bank to prevent systemic contagion. With the RBI pointing out that banks saddled
with bad loans were likely to remain risk-averse and find themselves lacking the
capital needed to lend more to meet credit demand in the economy, the regulator and
the government will need to work in close concert to expeditiously resolve this vital
legacy issue.

A new dawn for Syria?

The ceasefire reached between Syrias government and Opposition, with the mediation of
Turkey, Russia and Iran, could be a turning point in the countrys civil war. Unlike the two
previous failed ceasefires this year which were negotiated between Russia and the
U.S. the latest one is sponsored by countries directly involved in the conflict. The
positive reaction from both the Syrian regime and rebel commanders to the
announcement of the ceasefire by Russian President Vladimir Putin also suggests that
the warring parties are willing to give diplomacy a chance. For the Syrian government,
this is an opportunity to announce it is ready for a peaceful settlement. Though President
Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly claimed that he would retake the entire territory from
the rebels, a military solution appears to be illusory. A prolonged conflict will exhaust the
regime forces further and multiply the humanitarian costs. On the other side, after the
victory in Aleppo, the regime could now negotiate with the rebels from a position of
strength. For the rebels, the momentum is gone. Their support is limited to certain
parts such as Idlib, Daraa and the outskirts of Damascus. The question they face is
whether they should continue fighting a never-ending war of attrition or seek to gain
leverage from whatever military influence they are left with.
There is a convergence of interests for Turkey and Russia in finding a peaceful solution.
Having seen the U.S. interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia doesnt want to get
stuck in Syria. By promoting a negotiated deal, it could retain its core interests in Syria
while at the same time projecting itself as a power broker in West Asia. Turkey wants to
limit the spillover effects of the war on its soil and stop Kurdish rebels from capitalising
on the chaos in Syria. This explains why Turkey and Russia have come together now
despite their bitter relations last year. But these objective conditions alone may not
produce sustainable peace. It is still not clear which rebel groups have agreed to the

ceasefire. Turkey supports only some of the rebel groups, while several other groups get
support from Gulf monarchies. There are jihadist elements as well in the Opposition,
such as Fateh al-Sham, that could play the spoiler by carrying out attacks on
government positions. Besides, the Kurdish question remains unaddressed. If Kurds are
invited for talks, Turkey might withdraw its support for the peace process. For now,
however, if the ceasefire holds at least till next months Astana summit of the related
parties, it could be a new beginning for Syria.

2016: The Supreme Courts report card Collectively, the

courts choices this year have shown us that any
independence it enjoys hasnt guided it towards concerted
courage in decision-making
There have been instances of the court using what it perceives to be a
power to do complete justice to achieve precisely the converse Suhrith
Parthasarthy

The Supreme Court finds itself at a curious juncture. It has spent much of the year
lodged in a widely broadcast battle with the Union government over judicial
appointments. Led by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, who retires on January 3, 2017, the
court has fought this contest presumably to assert its independence from executive and
legislative control. But, somewhat counter-intuitively, the wrangle has had a deleterious
impact on the courts moral authority. The court has not only been intransigent in
allowing the executive no say in matters of appointments, despite the Constitutions
clearly contrary mandate, but it has also failed to make the existing system selections
through a collegium of senior judges more transparent and democratically
justifiable. Whats worse, while constantly stressing on its apparent autonomy, the court
has often appeared to cave in to the very majoritarian impulses that it is tasked with
refuting.
While it is no doubt difficult to make grand assertions about the Supreme Court given
that it doesnt sit en banc, as one, and given that it comprises judges who can be
disparate in their outlook and attitudes towards what constitutes a proper judicial role,
collectively the courts choices in 2016 have shown us that any independence it enjoys
hasnt guided it towards concerted courage in decision-making. On the contrary,
particularly in enforcing fundamental rights which it ought to see as its most
important function the court has, barring a few notable exceptions, scarcely served as
the keeper of the countrys conscience.

Tussle between judiciary and executive

The present battle lines between the judiciary and the executive were drawn in October
2015 when the court delivered its verdict in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record
Association v. Union of India. Here, the court struck down the 99th Constitutional
Amendment and consequently the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC),
which had been created to replace the collegium. Four of the five judges who heard the
case (Justice J. Chelameswar dissented) found that the primacy the collegium enjoyed in
choosing the countrys judges was a part of the Constitutions basic structure. According
to the majority, the NJAC a body that was to comprise the law minister, two eminent
laypersons, and the three senior-most judges, including the CJI in removing the
primacy that the judiciary enjoyed in selecting its own members infracted the basic
structure, and, therefore, had to be quashed.
Although this is a decidedly bizarre conclusion when you consider that the collegium
finds no mention in the bare text of the Constitution, many political observers believed
that it was a verdict that was necessary to ensure the independent functioning of the
judiciary. But not even the most ardent supporters of the judgment backed the existing
status quo. The collegium system indisputably required reform. To this end, in December
2015, the Supreme Court, after receiving a slew of suggestions on how to improve the
collegiums functioning, directed the executive, whose sovereign power to make
appointments it had divested in its verdict, to prepare a draft memorandum that would
lay down the procedure for the collegiums functioning.
Since then, there has been a constant back and forth between the two wings, with no
end apparently in sight. But if the court were so loath to giving any leeway to the
executive in the process, it makes one wonder why the task of preparing the draft
memorandum was assigned to the government in the first place. Making things worse,
one of the collegiums members declined to participate in a meeting of the group in
September this year, on grounds purportedly of a lack of transparency in its working.
Whatever one might think of Justice Chelameswars methods in expressing his demur, his
objections only made it clearer that there was something broken at the core of the
system: the collegium, in his assertion, was simply functioning in a manner beyond the
remit prescribed for it by the courts own judgments.

Two flawed decisions

While enshrouding the process of appointing judges from any reasonable standard of
candour and accountability, the court has simultaneously made choices that only show
that the present system doesnt necessarily produce the kind of counter-majoritarian
judiciary that a democracy requires. Two decisions from the past year exemplify the
courts remarkably unflattering outlook on fundamental rights. The first, rendered in May

 Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India rebuffed a challenge to the colonial-era

criminal defamation law and upheld Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code.
Judges, under any sensible interpretation of their role, are required to apply rules
derived from precedent, statutes, and the Constitution, in checking legislative or
executive excesses. But the court in Subramanian Swamy did none of this. It brushed
aside legitimate concerns about the chilling effect that the criminal defamation law has
had on speech with a frightening disdain for tradition and precedent. Justice Dipak Misra,
who wrote the judgment, in holding that the law constituted a reasonable restriction on
the right to freedom of expression, made no effort whatsoever in relying on any of the
constitutionally sanctioned limitations to free speech. Instead, he appealed to his own
distinct sense of what ought to constitute the law, by carving out of the ever-malleable
Article 21, which guarantees a right to life and personal liberty, a right to reputation.
Worse still, he conceived a concept of constitutional fraternity, hitherto unknown to
Indian law, which, he ruled, demanded an assurance of mutual respect and concern for
each others dignity. This reasoning is flawed on many counts. But chief among them is
the fact that neither of the precepts relied upon by Justice Misra finds mention in Article
19(2), which contains the legal basis for restricting speech. The consequence of the
judgment is vastly damaging: it has the effect of placing values that rest on individual
predilections above the right to freedom of speech, which, by any equitable
interpretation of the Constitution, ought to stand on firmer footing.
The second decision, delivered on November 30, extraordinarily takes rights even less
seriously. In an interim order on a public interest litigation filed by a supposed social
activist from Bhopal, the court directed that all cinema halls in India play the national
anthem before the screening of any film, and that persons present in the hall
compulsorily stand up to show their respect for the anthem. Quite apart from indulging
in rule-making that ought to be the prerogative of Parliament, the order sidesteps its
complete disregard for basic liberties by offering no reasons whatsoever. In doing so, the
court simply assumed the role of a super legislature, having tasked itself with the power
to impose its own brand of distorted nationalism.
There have been other instances in 2016 of the Supreme Court using what it perceives
to be a power to do complete justice to achieve precisely the converse among other
impacts, these verdicts set a poor example for high courts which are concomitantly
tempted to extend the use of their writ to perform what are principally legislative
functions. But whats been even more damaging to the Supreme Courts legitimacy has
been its dithering under pressure. Despite issuing interim orders as early as in 2013
making the securing of the Aadhaar card optional, the court has failed to adequately
enforce its directions seemingly every day the government and its various agencies
appear to extend the use of the unique ID linking it with the provision of a number of
essential services. The court can be excused for failing to haul up the government for
contempt of its orders were it to expedite its hearing of the basic challenge to the UID
scheme. But the Constitution Bench established to determine whether Indias citizens
have a fundamental right to privacy, which the Aadhaar policy quite clearly appears to
contravene, is yet to hear concrete arguments on the issue.

Challenging demonetisation

In similar vein is the challenge to the policy of demonetisation. A number of petitioners

have not only questioned the procedural validity of the governments and the Reserve
Bank of Indias various notifications, but have also contended that the policy infracts
significant fundamental rights. Early this month, in Contours of a challenge (The Hindu,
Dec.2), I had said that the manner of the Supreme Courts treatment of these petitions
will tell us a great deal about the checks and balances that our democracy purports to
provide. We now have a very quick answer, and its not a good one.
After many false beginnings, on December 16, the court directed the establishment of a
five-judge bench to rule on the constitutional validity of the demonetisation notifications
and on the legality of the policys implementation. If we were to go by the example of
the Aadhaar case, it is entirely likely that this policy too would be rendered fait accompli
by the time the court gets around to hearing the challenge. In many ways, these acts of
wavering in the face of public pressure showcase a Supreme Court lacking in moral
courage. The harm in consigning to the academic challenges to laws that have an
immediate bearing on our lives, which invade into our cherished liberties and into our
ability to function as equal beings, is enormous. An independent judiciary, properly
understood, far from being one that appoints its own members, is one that possesses
the will and the conviction to resolve swiftly hard cases, uninfluenced by societal
perception, in a manner that enriches the finest values of our constitutional tradition.
Suhrith Parthasarthy is an advocate practising at the Madras High Court
Letters to editor

C.G. Kuriakose,KothamangalamR. Murali Kumar,ChennaiD. Manohara

Rao,Visakhapatnam V.V.N. Murthy,HyderabadR. Ganesan,ChennaiE.S.
Chandrasekaran,ChennaiM. Jeyaram,Sholavandan Arpit Jain,New Delhi

New face of the AIADMK

V.K. Sasikala becoming the General Secretary of the AIADMK is no surprise (Sasikala
rising, Dec.30). Her status as Jayalalithaas closest friend naturally left no rival for the

post. Only an adverse verdict in the disproportionate assets case can stand in her way of
further solidifying her position as the most powerful person in Tamil Nadu.
As of now, how effectively a self-effacing person like Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam
can function as Chief Minister in the shadow of an almost omnipotent General Secretary
is a pertinent question. An extra-constitutional authority in the State is the last thing
Tamil Nadu needs. Meanwhile, that AIADMK members are seeking the Nobel Peace Prize
for the late Chief Minister is ludicrous.
C.G. Kuriakose,
Kothamangalam

Given that Jayalalithaa did not appoint anyone within the AIADMK to be her political heir,
it is natural that a popular and charismatic person in the party would take the lead. Ms.
Sasikala seems to be the right choice for leading the party. By virtue of her long
association with Jayalalithaa, she has been admired and recognised by the leaders of
other political parties too. Sitting in the backseat, Ms. Sasikala was perhaps trained by
Jayalalithaa for administering both the party and the State. This decision will prevent the
party from disintegrating.
R. Murali Kumar,
Chennai

Ms. Sasikalas nomination speaks volumes about the dwindling values in the functioning
of political parties. The sole criterion for her elevation is her strong association with
Jayalalithaa. It is baffling that seniority, experience and integrity of other leaders dont
stand a chance in the way of sycophancy.
D. Manohara Rao,
Visakhapatnam

50 days of demonetisation

I disagree with the Minister that the exercise has been successful (Jaitley sees green
shoots after demonetisation, Dec.30). It seems as though everyone except those with
black money have been put through misery. While some have managed to happily get
hundreds or thousands of Rs. 2,000 notes, others have struggled to get one or two Rs.
2,000 notes even after standing for hours in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs.
Without assistance from bankers, it is impossible for corrupt people to acquire such large
amounts of money in new notes. This in itself is sufficient to show that corruption still
thrives despite the Prime Ministers promise to eradicate it.
And what right does the government have to impose curbs on the quantum of money to
be withdrawn from our own accounts? It looks like it will take at least another three
months to restore normalcy.
The government has constantly changed its tune from eradicating black money to
counterfeit notes to transforming the economy into a cashless one. I hope the Prime
Minister doesnt aspire for a second term.
V.V.N. Murthy,
Hyderabad

People may suffer due to demonetisation but many still like the Prime Minister for
attempting to unearth black money and eradicate corruption. Every Indian is interested
to hear the Prime Ministers speech on New Years eve. Let this be telecast in all
languages. I pity those politicians who oppose Mr. Modi just for the sake of opposing
him.
R. Ganesan,
Chennai

Demonetisation has drawn resentment from all quarters. People feel the government did
not do its homework before making the announcement. It is now a sit-and-watch game.
Normal lives have been thrown out of gear, no doubt, but the moot point is whether
black money has been retrieved post-demonetisation as the government claims.
E.S. Chandrasekaran,
Chennai

Exhuming the body

The Madras High Courts statements are wholly justifiable (HC: Should Jayas body be
exhumed to know the truth? Dec. 30). From the day the former Chief Minister was
hospitalised until the day she died, a cloud of secrecy shrouded her health, leading to
wild speculations and rumours among the people. Now a vacation Bench of the Madras
High Court has also voiced its concern over the failure of the Tamil Nadu government to
dispel all the doubts surrounding her death. The truth should never be buried. Hopefully,
the judiciary will order an independent inquiry into this and solve the mystery.
M. Jeyaram,
Sholavandan

An inhuman practice

When I was young, I saw that when any upper-caste child touched a Dalit, he was often
made to take a bath (Talking to children about untouchability, Dec. 30). I have seen
tea shops offering tea in separate cups to people from lower castes. While the media,
laws and civil society can play a big role in eradicating these practices, we must first talk
to our children about them.
Arpit Jain,
New Delhi

Ever the stormy petrel, Mamata wont pass up a fight

Author: Suvojit Bagchi

Kolkata: At the end of 2015, the Opposition in Bengal was brimming with confidence,
ready to checkmate Mamata Banerjee, the incumbent Chief Minister and chairperson of
the Trinamool Congress. The united Opposition was expecting that closer to the

Assembly elections in the State in the summer of 2016, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
will encircle Ms. Banerjee with the chit fund scam investigation, facilitating victory for the
Left-Congress combine.
A year later, the Congress is unsure about its future in the State, with party vicepresident Rahul Gandhi coordinating anti-demonetisation moves with Ms. Banerjee, while
the Left is still counting its mistakes in the State. The BJP, the only party to have made
some progress in West Bengal, is expected to grow in 2017.
For Ms. Banerjee, the first quarter of 2016 was unsettling. The Opposition the CPI(M)
and Congress had stitched a reasonable electoral understanding; the cash-on-camera
scam surfaced and an under-construction flyover collapsed in Kolkata, killing many. A
listless Ms. Banerjee appealed to electors to vote for her, and not the candidates, in all
the 294 Assembly seats. The voters backed her in 211 of the seats.
Within 90 days, Ms. Banerjee ruthlessly cut her detractors to size. The ruling party
negotiated deals with members of the non-Trinamool civic bodies to wrest control over
panchayats and municipal bodies, ensuring an Opposition-free Bengal, mirroring an
emerging political trend in the country.
At least half-a-dozen Opposition MLAs joined the Trinamool and many are in the waiting.

Sole power

Ms. Banerjee transferred officers whom she disliked, celebrated the victory of the court
verdict on land in Singur and made it evident to top bureaucrats, powerful Ministers and
influential editors that there was only one one tune in Bengal and she controls its beat.
Once her complete control was established, the Trinamool chief needed a fresh challenge
as she is known for strong resistance against good opposition. The challenge was
missing in the State till the demonetisation exercise was announced by the Prime
Minister, providing Ms. Banerjee an opportunity to forge an alliance of anti-BJP parties.

Unexplained turnaround

Ms. Banerjees wholehearted attack on the Prime Minister when the Trinamools
relationship with the BJP was reasonably steady remains unexplained. There are several
theories doing the rounds offsetting the chit fund probe, setting up a career in
national politics or an attempt to counter the BJPs steady rise in Bengal.

If the move to work closely with the Congress and other parties to weave a national antiBJP front on demonetisation works, Ms Banerjee will emerge a star, as in 2016. If not,
she will have to defend herself against a resurgent BJP and that would be bad news for
her. And the Chief Minister is fully aware of the risks in the gamble.

Note ban trips economic momentum Economists see a

slowdown in growth in the last two quarters
Author: TCA Sharad Raghavan

NEW DELHI: The Centres decision to withdraw high value banknotes couldnt have come
at a worse time for the recovering Indian economy as the cash crunch that resulted from
the sudden demonetisation crimped all-round demand and tripped up the economic
momentum that had steadily gathered through 2016, according to economists.
Starting 2016 on a relatively weak base with gross value added (GVA) growth at 6.9
per cent and gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.2 per cent in December 2015
economic momentum recovered towards the middle of the year. GDP growth in March
accelerated to 7.9 per cent and GVA growth rose to 7.4 per cent.
Although the upsurge hit a hurdle in June, with GDP growth for the second quarter of
FY17 falling to its slowest rate in six quarters at 7.1 per cent, a good monsoon and an
imminent pick-up in demand seemed to have placed the economy in a sweet spot for
higher growth, investments and, possibly, job creation.

On the verge

We were on the verge of seeing a revival in consumer spending, which was already
witnessed in September and October in particular, where the festival season demand had
picked up, Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist at Care Ratings said. Overall, the Indian
economy was poised to move towards the eight per cent growth rate mark.
The Centre's move to withdraw high value currency notes in November altered that
script, though the government is confident that deferred consumption will still spur
growth once the initial shock of the move is absorbed.
Mr. Sabnavis said that the policy environment had been positive leading up to the
demonetisation announcement with the Centre sticking to its infrastructure spending
target and the Reserve Bank of India expected to reduce interest rates due to the

expectation of easing inflation. However, since demonetisation, consumption demand has

slumped, which has halted the expected recovery in private investment.
Post demonetisation, there have been distortions that have been be caused, he said.
Even though the effect will be temporary, it will still be a dampening effect on the
economy over the rest of the year. Even though we have low interest rates, that basic
pick-up in demand for investment, which had been expected, has been deferred by
another two quarters. Therefore, there will be a slowdown in the economy in Q3 and
Q4.
On the infrastructure side, the main sticking point non-performing assets remains a
problem independent of the effect of demonetisation, with banks not willing to lend for
such projects.
So, that probably wouldnt have taken off, but definitely investment from the
manufacturing side should have taken off, Mr. Sabnavis said.

IIP index

The index of industrial production on average contracted by 0.1 per cent over the
January-to-October period, with private investment faring very poorly and any growth in
the index being mostly driven by consumption. The index reached its lowest level in the
year in July, when it contracted 2.55 per cent. The best performance was in the
preceding month, when the index grew 2.18 per cent.
The IIP will likely contract in the first quarter of calendar year 2017, said D.K.
Srivastava, Chief Policy Adviser, EY India.
Such a contraction has been happening in investment demand, and now post
demonetisation, it is visible in consumption demand as well. This would require a major
fiscal stimulus on the part of the central government early next year, as soon as
possible.

Inflation slows

Retail inflation slowed significantly over the year, while the contraction in wholesale
prices reversed. This meant that the growth rates of the Consumer Price Index and the
Wholesale Price Index converged coming the closest to each other in November, when
the CPI grew at 3.6 per cent and the WPI at 3.15 per cent.

Inflation will be trending downwards in 2017, especially since the demonetisation effect
will hit consumption demand, and hence prices, Mr. Srivastava said. The effect will be
seen in sectors as far and wide as food articles and real estate. This will give the RBI
room to reduce its policy rates, and will also give banks room to pass these rate cuts on
to the customers.

GVA growth

Growth in gross value added has been slowing since the fourth quarter of the previous
financial year (quarter ended March 2016), when it was 7.4 per cent.
GVA growth for the second quarter of this financial year was 7.1 per cent, which is the
lowest it has been since the quarter ended December 2015. That was before the
demonetisation announcement, which economists said would dampen growth in the last
two quarters of the fiscal.
The gross value added in the next year will come in even lower, as it will be hit by the
demonetisation process, said EY Indias Mr. Srivastava. GVA growth, since it is the
output side, will respond with a little lag. It would probably for the year as a whole be
limited to about 7 per cent, but demand as a whole will fall so GDP will be lower than
GVA and will be about 6.8 per cent or so.

Current Account Deficit

The current account deficit has contracted sharply over the last two years, with the
amount touching $3.4 billion in September 2016, down from $10.9 billion in September
2014.
The CAD touched a more than two-year low in the quarters ended March and June,
coming in at just $300 million.
The current account deficit will be very comfortable. Although exports have started
recovering, the growth is near zero, and imports have fallen quite sharply and therefore
there will be balance or near-balance in the current account deficit, Mr. Srivastava said.

1-1-17

Modi thanks people for enduring note ban pain Unveils

relief package for farmers, women, senior citizens
Author: Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday unveiled a relief package for
farmers, senior citizens, small enterprises, women and the rural poor as a return gift of
sorts for enduring the pain caused by the Centres decision to scrap the legal tender
nature of old 500 and 1,000 notes. He also acknowledged that crores of citizens had
to stand in queues for hours to withdraw their own money.
Linking the surge of black money to the unavailability of affordable housing for the poor
and the middle class, Mr. Modi announced a special scheme under the Pradhan Mantri
Awaas Yojana to provide an interest subvention of 4 per cent on loans up to 9 lakh and
3 per cent on loans up to 12 lakh for urban housing.
A similar scheme would be rolled out for the rural poor to get a house-building loan of up
to 2 lakh at a 3 per cent lower interest rate.
While appreciating the endurance of the people at large in supporting the governments
move to replace old currency despite facing genuine hardships, the Prime Minister said,
The lack of cash in the economy is very painful, but an abundance of cash is also
problematic. Our attempt is to seek a balance on this front.
Guaranteed interest rate
Promising to convert three crore Kisan credit cards to Rupay cards in the next three
months, the Prime Minister flagged the inconvenience posed by Kisan credit cards which
require farmers to go to the bank to withdraw cash against their credit limit. With a
Rupay card, they will be able to make transactions for farm inputs without visiting the
bank, he said.
Mr. Modi also announced a guaranteed 8 per cent return on bank deposits up to 7.5
lakh made by senior citizens for a period of 10 years.

Farm sector credit

He also announced a virtual doubling in the credit flow to the farm sector via district
central co-operative banks and primary societies, with the Centre bearing the interest
cost for 60 days on existing loans availed by farmers.

2-1-8

Obamas parting shot at Russia

President Barack Obamas decision to slap more sanctions on Russia and sack 35
diplomats from the U.S. is the latest flashpoint in the bilateral relations of the former
Cold War foes. Though the immediate trigger for Mr. Obamas action are the cyberattacks
on Democratic Party systems, which U.S. intelligence agencies believe were carried out
by Russians to influence the results of the presidential election, the action must be seen
against the deteriorating relationship between the two countries. Ironically, Russia-U.S.
relations have hit the lowest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union under a
president who had promised a reset of ties. At home Mr. Obama faces criticism for not
acting decisively against Russian interventions that go against American interests. The
sanctions the U.S. and its European allies have imposed on Russia after it annexed
Crimea had little impact on Moscows foreign policy decisions. In Syria, Russia made a
military intervention to boost the regime of Bashar al-Assad against armed rebels who
had U.S. support. Mr. Obama remained largely a spectator when Russia reshaped the
Syrian conflict, first through a brutal military campaign and then through multilateral
diplomacy. Ties plunged to a new low with the allegations of hacking into the Democratic
Party systems. By taking the toughest actions yet against Russia in his final weeks in
office, Mr. Obama may be trying to mute criticism of his Russia policy.
But Mr. Obamas policy will have long-term implications for U.S.-Russia ties. The rising
tensions have reignited fears of a new Cold War. Though todays Russia doesnt have the
economic resources of the Soviet Union, its actions in Syria and Ukraine show that
Moscow is not afraid of upping the ante in a unipolar world. Second, Mr. Obama is
further complicating matters of foreign policy for his successor. Given that Presidentelect Donald Trump had promised during the campaign to have better relations with
Russia and closer coordination in the fight against the Islamic State, Mr. Obamas lastminute intervention is being interpreted as an attempt to tie Mr. Trumps hands. The
Washington establishment is also happy with the Presidents decisions. For now, Mr. Putin
has deftly avoided a tit-for-tat response, saying that Moscow will assess the policies of
the next administration. The question is, what will Mr. Trump do? If he goes completely
against the Obama administrations policies, he will upset the establishment, including
leaders from his own party. If he doesnt, he will fail on his promise of reshaping ties
with Russia and potentially raise tensions further. Either way, Russia is back as a top
challenge on the U.S. foreign policy landscape.

Playing the angles, with Russia If Donald Trump succeeds in

what Barack Obama failed to do, which is resetting ties

with an aggressive Russia, it could trigger a cascade of

geostrategic realignments across the world
Mr. Trump has some unflinching notions about Americas role in the postCold War era, though they dont add up to a full picture of his view of the
world, yet Varghese K. George

John Kerry, U.S Secretary of State, and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov, met 14 times and spoke on the phone numerous times in 2016 as both countries
sought to work together on some intractable global issues. The relationship between the
two has been an extraordinary one, producing a range of outcomes. At one end of the
spectrum is the Iranian nuclear deal that both Russia and America agree has capped the
Shia regimes nuclear capabilities. At the other end is the collapse to abyss of Syria, a
bloody and grim reminder of the limits of their cooperation. Meanwhile, each consecutive
commentary on U.S- Russia relations said they were at the lowest point since the end of
the Cold War.

A new low

The flashpoint in the relationship last week when President Obama announced the
expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. had been building up for a while. In
July, U.S newspaper reports citing anonymous intelligence sources accused Russia
of trying to influence the outcome of the U.S presidential election. The reports said
hackers working for the Russian government obtained the emails of Democratic Party
functionaries, which were published by WikiLeaks. Subsequently, emails of John Podesta,
the chief of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons campaign, were hacked
and appeared in the public domain. These leaked emails revealed some details about the
internal functioning of the Democratic Party and exposed some facts for instance, a
few paragraphs from one of the several paid speeches Ms. Clinton made to Wall Street
firms that her campaign had tried to conceal.
The Obama administrations response to the alleged hacking grew progressively strident.
The anonymous allegation was made official. From initially terming it as an attempt to
discredit the U.S electoral process, the administration concluded that the attempt was to
engineer Republican candidate Donald Trumps victory. And then, Russian President
Vladimir Putin was personally held responsible, an allegation that Mr. Obama himself
made publicly. All this culminated in a raft of retaliatory measures. The Russian
diplomats were given 72 hours to leave. A special Russian plane flew them out from
Washington.

The notion of an irreconcilable enemy figure, in a binary world of good and evil, has been
the hallmark of American foreign policy for most part of the last century. First it was
Nazism, and then Communism.

Reviving Cold War logic

The end of the Cold War made such a distinction difficult to sustain and when George W.
Bush declared in 2001, youre either with us, or against us, it was an attempt to
resuscitate a dead Cold War logic in the new context of terrorism that would soon
invalidate most strategic theories that then existed. As the complexities of the world
grew, friends and enemies mutated and fused among themselves to form a galaxy of
frenemies around America. Meanwhile, the new threat of Islamism, its rise aided by Mr.
Bushs policies, is not territorially confined as the earlier enemy ideologies, Nazism and
Communism, were. For a country used to partners swaying to its will and being able to
force enemies to fall in line, this was an unfamiliar world. The U.Ss struggle with this
post-Cold War world has been singularly pronounced in its wobbly relations with Russia.
Succeeding Mr. Bush, who set out to change the world according to his vision, Mr. Obama
started in 2009 with a scholarly appreciation of the way the world is and spoke about the
need for the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. The Republicans ridiculed his
approach as apologising for Americas success. President-elect Trump accused him of
surrendering American leadership in the world, throughout the campaign last year.

The Russian view

But that is not how Russia and its aggressive leader, Mr. Putin who has crossed many
red lines of international engagement see Mr. Obamas tenure. A document titled
Foreign Policy Concept released by the Russian Foreign Ministry on December 27 noted
that the entire world has to pay a high price for the attempts of a limited number of
countries to retain their global leadership at all costs, in a clear reference to the U.S
and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partners. The terrorist threat in the
belt of instability ranging from North Africa to South Asias borders has taken on a
systemic dimensionthe international community clearly saw the... nature of a unipolar
hegemony and... unilateral approaches, the document said, while calling for a
polycentric world order,
It said Russias relationship with the U.S. was complicated by an aggressive US policy
of systemic containment of Russia, which included the build-up of sanctions pressure,
the deployment of Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) components and provocative military

activities on Russias western borders and in the Black Sea. It said the wellorchestrated campaign to accuse Russia of interference in the presidential election in the
United States was designed to whip up anti-Russia sentiments.
In subsequent explanations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova
held Mr. Obama personally responsible for the degeneration in bilateral ties and singled
out Mr. Kerry for praise. Terming Mr. Obamas advisers a group of foreign policy losers,
bitter and narrow-minded, she wrote on Facebook, Out of this group of spoilers, I pity
only Kerry. He was not an ally. But he tried to be a professional and maintain his human
dignity.
Ms. Zakharova was alluding to the collapse of a ceasefire that Russia and America sought
to enforce in Syria, once in February and again in September, before the current deal
among Iran, Turkey and Russia began taking shape. The September ceasefire plan was
to have a Joint Implementation Centre of Russia and America that would have
coordinated a military campaign against identified jihadi groups. The February ceasefire
lasted for a few days; the September one could not even begin. Russia and the U.S
accused each other of being responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire. A fact,
however, is that the Pentagon was less than enthusiastic about joint operations with
Russia, a line Mr. Kerry has been promoting since late 2015.
At the core of the Pentagons discomfort with Russia is the fact that the NATO alliance is
based on Cold War logic or the pre-Islamism logic if you will and the U.S military
industrial complex has developed accordingly. Technologies and weapons more suitable
for combating non-state actors are now developing at a fast pace but not at the cost of
more advanced fighters and missile systems. With its continuing military aggression on
the border of NATO, Russia qualified to be considered enemy by the U.S. In Warsaw in
July, the last NATO summit during the Obama regime, resolved that the alliance has to
deal with two distinct threats on the east from Russia, and on the south and southeast
from Islamist groups. On Russia, there is a remarkable convergence between the
Republican and Democratic security establishments. Mr. Obama appears to have come
around to his 2012 opponent Mitt Romneys view which he then contested that
Russia is the U.Ss number one geopolitical foe.

Trumps global perspective

Mr. Trump has some unflinching notions about Americas role in the post-Cold War era,
though they dont add up to a full picture of his view of the world, yet. He believes that
NATO has to repurpose itself and focus on fighting Islamist threats. He believes that he
can cut a deal with Mr. Putin. He isnt much bothered about Russias human rights track
record or its expansionist posturing. Unlike Mr. Obama, Mr. Trump believes that Islamist
terrorism is an existential threat to America, a point on which the Democrats and

Republicans diverge. Mr. Trump will challenge his Republican colleagues in the U.S.
Congress to choose what to fight first Russia or the jihadis. Addressing the UN in
September 2015, Mr. Putin called for a genuinely broad alliance against terrorism, just
like the one against Hitler, and Mr. Trump is in complete agreement with this position.
An unstated, but equally important reason that Mr. Trump is seeking a partnership with
Russia is China. The Obama years have witnessed an increasing closeness between
Russia and China, and Mr. Trump wants to reverse that by tying up with the former. Mr.
Putin sent Mr. Trump a year-end greeting card hoping to take their interaction in the
international arena to a whole new level, in a constructive and pragmatic manner. This
pragmatic deal being proposed by Mr. Putin could span a vast range of regions and
issues.
Unlike Mr. Obama, Mr. Trump may have no problem in allowing the Assad regime in Syria
to continue as a part of a settlement. The problem areas could be Iran and Afghanistan.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he would scrap the Iranian nuclear deal. Mr. Putin,
meanwhile, has been using Pakistan and Iran to strengthen Russias contacts with the
Taliban in Afghanistan.
While Mr. Obama theorised the polycentric world, Mr. Putin appears to have done a good
job navigating it, striking strategic and commercial deals with a multitude of countries
and gaining influence in the trouble spots of West Asia, far disproportionate to its
tumbling economy and ageing military hardware.
Mr. Trump, in an unusual move for a President-elect, said on Twitter, I always knew he
was very smart, responding to Mr. Putins decision not to expel American diplomats in
retaliation last week. The Russian leader said he would wait to see the direction of the
incoming Trump administration. Mr. Obamas measures against Russia, which were
welcomed by the Republican Congressional leaders, appears at least in part aimed at
restricting Mr. Trumps latitude when he assumes office on January 20. But if he manages
to reset Americas ties with Russia which was attempted by the Obama administration
with limited success it could trigger a cascade of geostrategic realignments across the
world.
varghese.g@thehindu.co.in

Letters

B. Suresh Kumar,CoimbatoreN. Jan Mohammed,ChennaiGagan Pratap

Singh,Noida, Uttar PradeshB. Prabha,Varkala, KeralaG. David
Milton,Maruthancode, Tamil NaduN.S. Venkataraman,ChennaiB. Kumaran
Ravi,Tiruchi

Rift in the SP

The high voltage political drama that has unfolded within the Samajwadi Party in Uttar
Pradesh is only a continuation of the intense, bitter and desperate power struggle that
happened a few months ago in the party (Mulayam revokes Akhilesh, Ramgopal
expulsions, Jan.1). The incidents are reminiscent of the adage that kingship knows no
kinship. Rather than being done out of a spirit of genuine political reconciliation, the
revocation of the suspensions of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav by
party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has resulted from a realisation of ground-level
political realities that Akhilesh Yadav has outgrown him and has a tall political
stature. Despite the political stock of the Chief Minister being made evident, one
wonders whether the Akhilesh factor alone will be sufficient enough to help the party
win back power in the upcoming Assembly elections. The inner feuds have certainly
sullied the partys image as a disciplined and coherent one in the public eye.
B. Suresh Kumar,
Coimbatore

After the 50 days

In the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary election, Narendra Modi was very generous in
his poll promises and was quite clear about blaming the UPA government for all the ills
the country was facing. His mantra was economic development, assuring the electorate
that he would bring back black money stashed abroad, promising to create millions of
jobs and guaranteeing clean, transparent and good governance. In short, it would be
Achhe Din. In 2016, Mr. Modi has completed half his tenure. No real development has
taken place, there have hardly been any attempts at job creation and no black money
stashed abroad has been brought back. The politician in him has adopted demonetisation
as a diversionary tactic. There is no relief from this thoughtless and impulsive decision
even after 50 days (Modi thanks people for enduring note ban pain, Jan.1).
N. Jan Mohammed,
Chennai

Since the exercise of demonetisation is now complete, it is the governments

responsibility to release all data about the amount of cash deposited, black money
unearthed and the number of new notes pumped into the system. None of this was clear
in the Prime Ministers speech. Short-term pain is over but lets hope that the long-term
gain now percolates to the marginalised sections who were affected the most.
Gagan Pratap Singh,
Noida, Uttar Pradesh
The relief package announced will not reduce the pain of the common man. Mr. Modi
has admitted that most of us suffered a lot due to the lack of homework in implementing
the policy. It is evident that nothing will improve in the first quarter of 2017. His stoic
silence on the quantum of black money collected and the steps to minimise the financial
crisis and anarchy underlines this.
B. Prabha,
Varkala, Kerala
By Prime Minister Narendra Modis standards, his televised New Year-eve address was
an insipid performance sans verve and vitality. For once his political messaging looked
pedestrian. His comparison of the demonetisation drive to a movement for honesty
was a bid to assume the role of a moral crusader. If the people initially seemed
favourably disposed to the move, it was because they were under the misapprehension
that it was aimed at curbing black money and would not cause them immense distress
and prove to be a pointless exercise as it did.
The slew of schemes, or rather sops, for the poor announced were crumbs. We
couldnt help noticing that the Prime Minister cleverly sidestepped the specifics of the
demonetisation scheme and failed to demonstrate with data that his prescription
achieved the desired effect. He disappointed those of us who were all ears to hear from
him how he was going to plug the sources of black money. The government is not
empowered to meddle with the savings of citizens in a manner it does with tax revenues.
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
The redeeming fact after the demonetisation exercise is that the people are still willing
to stand by Mr. Modi in his battle. They do expect him to continue to take the lead in
fighting corruption. His speech has certainly made people take note that we have a
Prime Minister who has the courage to say that dishonest and corrupt officials will not be
spared.
N.S. Venkataraman,

Chennai

Taking charge in the AIADMK

Though undesirable, the rise of V.K. Sasikala as the new general secretary of the
AIADMK is hardly unexpected (Sasikala takes charge as AIADMK general secretary,
Jan.1). As B.R. Ambedkar forewarned, hero worship plays a part in politics. It is a sure
way of degradation and eventual dictatorship. This is particularly true in the case of the
Dravidian parties which were founded on sound ideological principles but later suffered
erosions while making a transition to populist measures and a personality cult-based
propaganda in order to buy peoples allegiance. Another crucial dimension is the caste
factor. As long as these factors dictate politics, there can never be acche din.
B. Kumaran Ravi,
Tiruchi

Not just about a quota We need to educate children in

schools about caste, ethnic, gender and regional diversities
and have public policy interventions to make society more
equal and fair
In many countries, reservation or other types of affirmative action are used
to try to overcome human prejudice and encourage representation Amit
Thorat

Should jobs, schools, and universities promote diversity with reservations or quotas?
This question has long evoked strong and passionate responses. People come to the
debate with preconceived ideas and stands, and rarely change their minds. As a result,
India is left with little consensus on the reasons for reservations and whether or not
reservation is a useful policy.
A new survey called SARI, Social Attitudes Research for India, investigated what people
in cities, towns, and villages think about reservations. SARI uses a sampling frame based
on mobile phone subscriptions, random digit dialling, within-household sample selection,
and statistical weights to build representative samples of adults 18-65 years old.

Divided by background

We asked respondents whether or not they support reservation. In Delhi, about half of
the respondents say they do not support it. Responses vary by social category, and
support is more common among people from reserved categories. The graph shows
differences in opposition to reservation by social categories. As expected, the lowest
opposition is among respondents from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward
Classes (OBC), while the highest opposition is found among general caste respondents.
These results indicate that a majority of the most educated and historically well-to-do
communities in Delhi do not feel that people from marginalised groups should get
government support for representation in social and public spheres. But why?
Among respondents who had heard of reservation before the survey, we further asked
those who opposed reservation why they were opposed. The responses that we got from
general caste respondents are shown in the graph.
We examine the top three reasons for Delhiites opposition to reservation one by one.
When people say that jobs and seats in schools should be allocated on the basis of
merit, they are referring to the fact that people from reserved categories are often
given a concession of a few points on exams and in interviews. This view overlooks the
important disadvantages that people from reserved categories face in going to school or
getting a job today. Reservation is a useful tool to level the playing field: we cannot
expect groups who have been historically deprived of education, skills, and access to
other means of economic mobility to suddenly start competing with those from groups
who have had access to these means for centuries.
Social transformation and building of economic and cultural capital takes time to be
passed on from one generation to another. It is an all too commonly held belief that
people from general castes are meritorious inherently. Yet, the ability to decipher test
answers or speak confidently in an interview is often the result of being nurtured in an
environment that is a result of accumulated economic, social and cultural capital.
Children who grew up in a dominant caste household are often encouraged, supported,
and helped to succeed by other members of their caste groups, while reserved category
students rarely have such networks to draw on.
It is also important to reconsider what is meant by merit. The ability to answer test
questions correctly is certainly not the only, or even the best, predictor of how well
someone will perform in school or on the job. It is worth noting that many reserved
candidates have reached schools and jobs in spite of economic and social disadvantage
as well as overt exclusion and discrimination. Because they have succeeded in the face
of adversity, they bring a different and desirable kind of merit to a school or workplace.
Some of the respondents said that they opposed reservation because they believe in
equality. However, reservation is a policy tool that promotes equality rather than

undermines it. The primary reason why reservation was written into Indias Constitution
was to ensure representation of all social groups in positions of power. When people from
all social groups are represented in government, higher education, and in business, it is
less likely that traditionally marginalised groups will continue to be denied fundamental
rights and access to their fair share of societys resources.

Not an anti-poverty plan

Finally, some people say that they oppose todays reservations because they believe
reservation should be made on the basis of income rather than social background.
However, reservation is intended not to be an anti-poverty programme. The government
has many programmes which are, in principle, accessible to all poor people. Reservation
exists because, in addition to being more likely to be poor than general castes, Dalits,
backward Muslims, and Adivasis face social discrimination and exclusion that poor people
from general caste backgrounds do not face. The fact that the right to education, the
right to own land, the right to conduct business, or to pursue a well-remunerated
occupation has been reserved for men from high caste backgrounds for generations
means that government must take steps to correct the unequal distribution of rights.
Reservation is a policy tool that is used not only in India. In many countries, reservation
or other types of affirmative action are used to try to overcome human prejudice based
on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, caste or any other group identity, and to encourage
representation of and participation by groups traditionally excluded and discriminated
against. One way to make these measures more acceptable and help people better
understand the historic, social and cultural background behind reservation would be to
educate children in schools about caste, ethnic, gender and regional diversities and the
need for public policy interventions to make society more equal and fair.
Amit Thorat is Assistant Professor at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development,
JNU. The first and second parts in this series, with Diane Coffey, appeared on December
29 and December 30, 2016.

In Coxs Bazaar, Rohingyas huddle together in shacks in a

harsh winter
The Bangladesh district struggles to provide amenities to the refugees from
Myanmar
Author: Suvojit Bagchi

Kolkata: Describing the influx of refugees from Myanmar to southeast Bangladesh as a

forgotten crisis, Sarat Dash, chief of mission of the International Organisation for
Migration in Bangladesh, has said the crisis is worsening in the Rohingya refugee camps.
Mr. Dash, who visited the camps in Coxs Bazaar district with the Foreign Ministers of
Indonesia and Bangladesh, said 34,000 refugees had moved from Myanmar to
Bangladesh since the recent spate of ethnic violence in Rakhine state of Myanmar. While
at least half-a-dozen international humanitarian agencies were working in the area, the
situation was worsening with the advent of winter, Mr. Dash said.

Difficult times

With severe crisis of shelter and food [as] the winter is approaching, there is a serious
need of winter clothes; also an urgent need of medical assistance and psycho-social
help, Mr. Dash said. He said a lot of the refugees are visibly depressed [as] they had
traumatic experiences.
Since the beginning of an anti-Rohingya cleansing drive in parts of Myanmar from the
early 1990s, three lakh to five lakh refugees have settled in southeastern Bangladesh,
according to the National Strategy on Myanmar Refugees report by the Bangladesh
Government in 2013.
Besides the 32,000 officially registered refugees, there are nearly 50,000 in the
makeshift settlements near the camps, says the Prime Ministers National Strategy
report.
The report also says that another three lakh to five lakh undocumented Myanmar
nationals are living across Coxs Bazaar. They are mainly settled in the upazilas (subdistricts) along the 62-km western bank of the Naaf river.
The Foreign Ministers and Mr. Dash visited these sub-districts and the IOM has concluded
that 34,000 more refugees have arrived since early October.

Influx on

The condition of the refugees already settled is not any good. But since they are staying
over a period of time, they have managed to somewhat put together their lives. But
these new people came empty-handed and without resources and thus their living

condition is worse than pavement dwellers in Kolkata. Unlike the pavement dwellers,
they are living in forest land or uninhabited land, Mr. Dash said.
As the Rohingya refugees, many of whom speak Bengali, are pouring in large numbers,
on an average of 500 a day, the sub-districts are getting crowded by the hour, increasing
pressure on hygiene, sanitation and security.
But do we have an option other than to give them shelter in our tiny plastic thatched
boxes, asked Mahmudulla, a schoolteacher. Mr. Mahmudulla came to Coxs Bazaar in the
early 1990s and speaks urban Bengali.
He has documented the violence on the Rohingyas in Rakhine state on the other side of
the Naaf river.
The villages on the other side at least 20 are decimated and we could only see the
smoke, hear them screaming for help. It is gut-wrenching as I had experienced similar
attacks a quarter century ago, Mr. Mahmudulla told The Hindu on the phone from Coxs
Bazaar.
The photographs mutilated bodies, charred corpses covered with banana leaves and
burning villages that Mr. Mahmudulla received on his mobile phone, describe the
trauma that the Rohingyas are experiencing. Nearly 90 people are officially killed till last
week. While the killings are denied by the Myanmar government, Rohingya refugees in
the camps in Bangladesh said they had now stopped counting the bodies of their family
members.

Horrible stories

Two of my family were killed and my daughter was raped in front of her mother, said
Arshad (name changed), a farmer from Khawar Bil village near Muang Daw town in
Rakhine. Mr. Arshad checked in to his cousins house in the Nayapara refugee camp in
Ukhia sub-district.
Mr. Dash said the refugees were staying with their distant relatives or acquaintances.

15 to a room

It is locally called doubling as the refugees are entering the semi-permanent shack of
another refugee family, which perhaps arrived few years ago, Mr. Dash said. The space

shortage was acute. Fifteen or 16 persons living in a tiny room which has only plastic on
all sides.
At night, the men take their turn to rest in the local mosque.
The temperature is dropping and there is an immediate need to provide some basic
comfort, especially to children, Mr. Dash said. One in every three children was severely
malnourished.
The IOM has set up medical camps, provided drinking water and set up toilets in the
camps.
Yet Mr. Dash called it a crisis which has been forgotten.
He expects the situation to improve in the New Year.

5.5 lakh for each PoK refugee Relief package for Hindu
migrants was announced by Prime Minister last year
Sum will be directly credited to their account; those from west Pakistan too
demand package
Author: Vijaita Singh

New Delhi: The Centre will deposit 2,000 crore into the bank accounts of 36,000 Hindu
refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), a senior Home Ministry official said on
Sunday.
The compensation package for the Hindu refugees was announced by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi last year, and it got the clearance from the Union Cabinet in December.
These refugees migrated to Jammu and Kashmir in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
Currently, violent protests have erupted in the Valley against domicile certificates being
issued by the State government to 19,000 west Pakistan refugees, mostly Hindus, who
came to India after Partition, but are yet to be given any voting rights or financial
package.
Each PoK refugee would get 5.5 lakh in his or her bank account, and the Centre will
bear the cost, the official said.

Resettlement fund

The west Pakistan refugees have been demanding a similar package, but the previous
Omar Abdullah government had vehemently opposed the move. However, packages for
PoK refugees were cleared by the Union Cabinet on November 30 and the resettlement
fund will be disbursed once the figures and data of refugees are compiled.
The Home Ministry has sought bank account details of all the families from the State
government as it intends to transfer the money directly into their accounts instead of
giving it to the State government.
Once we get the details of the bank accounts, we will release the funds in batches. This
is for the first time that the Centre has allocated 2,000 crore for providing relief instead
of setting up a State-Centre committee first to examine their demands, the official
further explained.
This will largely cover PoK and Chhamb refugees, said an official, adding that the move
has also caused discontent among the refugees of West Pakistan who are yet to get the
governments attention. The Mehbooba Mufti government has agreed to sanction 1.2
crore in the 2,000-crore package as the amount pledged by the Centre fell short by a
few hundred rupees per person.
Since the PM has announced a package of 2,000 crore, we asked the State
government to chip in as the benefit for each family was a little less than the 5.5 lakh,
said an official.

Jan Dhan deposits double to 87,000 cr., come under I-T

lens

New Delhi: Deposits in Jan Dhan account have more than doubled to 87,000 crore in 45
days post demonetisation, prompting the tax department to dissect information
relating to such deposits, a top government official said.
Besides, the tax department also has data on small cash deposits between 30,00050,000 made in 4.86 lakh accounts totalling to 2,000 crore.
Between November 10 and December 23, 2016, the total deposits reported is 41,523
crore in 48 lakh accounts. This, together with the total deposits of 45,637 crore as on
November 9, takes the aggregate amount in Jan Dhan accounts to over 87,100 crore.
All these information are being dissected. If money deposited in these accounts belong
to some other persons, necessary action will be taken at appropriate time, the official

said. Cash deposit between 30,000 and 50,000 have been reported in 4.86 lakh
accounts till November 30, taking the total deposits in such quantum to 2,022 crore.
The official further said that inflows of funds into Jan Dhan accounts was the highest in
the first week after demonetisation at 20,224 crore, but after that the deposits went
down substantially.
The inflow of funds in the accounts after the first two weeks was below 5,000 crore a
week and then it reduced to about 1,000 crore per week, the official said.

Demonetisation alters economys recovery path

Author: TCA Sharad Raghavan

NEW DELHI: The Centres demonetisation move has hurt private consumption and
impacted sectors such as real estate, automobiles and FMCG, which in turn has altered
the economys recovery path in the short-term, economists said.
But it could yield some benefits in the medium- to long-term, provided follow-up
measures are taken and theres no return to an era of inspectors and tax terrorism,
according to economists.
One big reason for the slowdown post-demonetisation is that it came in at a time when
the spending cycles should have started, which have now slowed down on account of the
shortage of currency, which has affected quite a few industries especially consumer
goods, automobiles, real estate, FMCG goods, and textiles, Madan Sabnavis, chief
economist at Care Ratings told The Hindu.
Several sectors that rely on household consumption have been affected by
demonetisation; therefore, there will be a push-back on the overall growth of industry.
Mr. Sabnavis added that even spending by the farming community, which was expected
to pick up due to the higher kharif output and the stronger monsoon, has been squeezed
due to despair sales taking place because of the unavailability of cash and the fact that
all mandi transactions are carried out in cash.

Demand hit

The sector-specific immediate effects of demonetisation have been mostly negative,

Rajiv Kumar, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research said. Demand has taken a
hit, whether it is in automobiles, motorcycles, real estate, or construction. Except, of
course, as the Finance Minister pointed out on Thursday, unexpectedly, the airlines have
shown improvement.
In the run-up to the demonetisation announcement on November 8, private sector
investment was on the cusp of a recovery on the back of recovering household demand,
easing inflation, and the boost to agriculture due to the stronger monsoon. This
momentum has since been lost, and will likely begin to return only in the next financial
year.
It looked like consumer spending would continue to improve in October and November
and so private investment could pick up, Mr. Sabnavis said. But that is something that
has gotten thwarted.
Private investment prior to demonetisation was subdued, but we were on the precipice
of seeing something happening, Mr. Sabnavis added.
A major reason investment is not taking place is because we have surplus capacity. We
have surplus capacity because there is low demand for products. So if demand picks up
then capacity utilisation can improve and thats when you go in for fresh investment.

Message against graft

Mr. Kumar, however, believed that demonetisation will have medium-to-long term
benefits for the economy as an increasing share of economic activity gets formalised, not
to mention the message such a policy move will send against corruption and blackmoney hoarders.
If this move has been successful in capturing a part of the informal, black economy,
which is estimated to be 40 per cent of GDP, those numbers will now be reflected in the
formal GDP numbers, so that will likely lead to an increase in the growth numbers, Mr.
Kumar said. So, the effect could be an uptick in the GDP numbers in the third or fourth
quarter.
However, its success will be dependent on the follow-up measures which have to be
persistent and yet not heavy-handed, so that we dont need an emergence of inspector
raj or tax terrorism in the country, Mr. Kumar added.

Goa gears upfor folk and handicrafts fest

Author: Special Correspondent

PANAJI: An exquisite mixture of folk art forms and handicrafts from across the country
will be on display at the Darya Sangam Kala Academy here at the annual 18th Lokotsav
2017, which will be held from January 6 till January 15.
Around 500 folk artists are set to present folk dances and music of their States, while
about 600 artisans will display their handicraft items during the festival, said Prasad
Lolienkar, Goa Director, Art and Culture, here on Sunday.
Folk dancers from Jharkhand will perform on January 8 on the occasion of Jharkhand
Divas. Folk dancers from the International Group of Germany will put on a performance
on the concluding day of the festival.

Artisans will get a perfect platform to showcase and sell their works. The festivals
popularity is increasing rapidly, said Mr. Lolienkar.

3-1-17

Seeking votes on religious basis a corrupt act: SC

Relationship between man and God is an individual choice
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: Terming religion a very private relationship between man and his God, a
seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Monday, in a majority judgment, held that
an appeal for votes during elections on the basis of religion, caste, race, community or
language, even that of the electorate, will amount to a corrupt practice and call for
disqualification of the candidate.
Election is a secular exercise and therefore a process should be followed The
relationship between man and God is an individual choice and state should keep this in
mind, the Supreme Court held in a majority judgment of 4:3. The court was interpreting
the pronoun his used in Section 123 (3) of the Representation of the People Act.
The provision mandates that it would amount to a corrupt practice if a candidate or his
agent or any other person, with his consent, appeals for votes on religious or such
grounds.
The question referred to the Constitution Bench led by CJI T.S. Thakur on a batch of poll
petitions was whether the word his only meant a bar on appeals made in the name of
the candidate or his rival or his agent or others in his immediate camp. Or, does the
word also extend to soliciting votes on the basis of the religion, caste, community, race,
language of the electorate as a whole.

SC bowls out top BCCI bosses Thakur, Shirke declared

unfit to continue at the helm
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: Noting that its diktats are not written in sand and are meant to be
complied with, the Supreme Court on Monday stripped BCCI president Anurag Thakur
and secretary Ajay Shirke of their posts and ordered them to forthwith cease and
desist from associating themselves with Indian crickets most powerful body.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y.
Chandrachud declared Mr. Thakur and Mr. Shirke unfit to continue at the helm of the
BCCI for their obstructionist attitude and specious pleas in court about their incapacity
to make affiliated State associations fall in line with the Justice Lodha reforms.
The court primarily referred to how Mr. Thakur had washed his hands of a duty and
obligation to ensure compliance with the Lodha panel reforms, citing the excuse that he
had been rendered totally incapable and without any authority to compel the members
to comply with the orders of the court. The BCCI bosses not only made unfortunate
comments about the Lodha panel in public but also ended up hurting the dignity of the
Supreme Court with their attitude, it noted.

Guilty of contempt

Besides, the court found Mr. Thakur prima facie guilty of both contempt of Supreme
Court proceedings and perjury (fabrication of false evidence), adding that such a person
does not deserve to continue as BCCI president. The court held that Mr. Thakurs
attempts to solicit ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar in Dubai for a letter to undermine
the judgment of July 18, 2016 which upheld the Lodha panel recommendation to include
a CAG nominee on the Boards apex council prima facie amounted to sheer contempt.
The court concluded that Mr. Thakur had apparently acted to garner evidence that the
Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committees interventions in the working of the BCCI
amounted to governmental interference.
The court further said Mr. Thakur was prima facie guilty of placing on record fabricated
minutes of a BCCI Working Committee meeting held on August 22, 2016 in order to lend
support to his version that he had only sought a clarification from Mr. Manohar and not a
letter. This claim was later found untrue when Mr. Manohar, in a communication to the
Supreme Court on November 2, clarified that the BCCI president did ask him for the
letter. It found that Mr. Thakur had also filed affidavits making false statements.

SC extends judicial review powers

It can now examine whether the President or the State Governor was
spurred by an oblique motive
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: In a blow to Ordinance Raj, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court
widened the boundaries of judicial review to the extent that it can now examine whether
the President or the State Governor was spurred by an oblique motive to bypass the
legislature and promulgate an ordinance.
In case the apex court concludes that the President or the Governor was influenced by
ulterior motives to promulgate the ordinance, such an act by the two constitutional
authorities would amount to a fraud on their respective powers, the apex court held on
Monday.
The satisfaction of the President under Article 123 and of the Governor under Article
213 is not immune from judicial review, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud wrote in a common
judgment with Justices S.A. Bobde, A.K. Goel, U.U. Lalit and L. Nageshwara Rao.
Justice Chandrachud observed that the apex court would scrutinise whether the
satisfaction of the President or the Governor to promulgate an ordinance was based on
relevant material or whether it amounted to a fraud on power or was actuated by an
oblique motive.

Seminal question

The seminal question that came up in reference before the seven-judge Constitution
Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur dealt with the constitutionality of seven
successive re-promulgations of the Bihar Non-Government Sanskrit Schools (Taking Over
of Management and Control) Ordinance of 1989.
The State government had approached the Supreme Court after the Patna High Court
declared that repeated re-promulgation of the ordinances was unconstitutional after
relying on the D.C. Wadhwa judgment on the dos and don'ts of promulgation of
ordinances by another Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 1986.

M.P. lost 33 tigers in 2016

Bhopal: Once home to tigers, Madhya Pradesh now appears to have turned into an
enemy territory for them as the State witnessed the highest number of feline deaths in
2016, when it lost 33 big cats, taking the toll to 89 in the last five years.
From 2011 to 2016, as many as 89 tigers, including 11 cubs, died in the State due to
various reasons including poaching, territorial clashes or natural reasons as cited in the
data obtained from the M.P. Forest Department.
The data revealed that 2012 witnessed the death of 16 felines which reduced to 11 next
year (2013). Subsequent years proved more fatal for the wildcat when the State saw 14
and 15 deaths respectively in 2014 and 2015.
And, then came 2016, the worst of all when the figures (of feline deaths) were almost
double the average of the previous five years.
On an average, 14 tigers had died every year from 2012 to 2015, but the death toll went
up to an alarming level of 33 in 2016.
As for the reasons, the deaths of 30 of the 89 tigers were attributed to territorial clashes,
while 22 of them had fallen prey to poachers, who killed them either by poisoning or
through electrocution.
The remaining 37 tigers are said to have died either due to old age, illness or some other
reasons.
Amid all these dismal reports about dwindling wildcats population, State forest
authorities claimed that there was some encouraging news too for tiger conservationists.
The State has recorded a growth in their population as more cubs were born during this
period.

The tiger population was reduced to 257, according to the census carried out by the
National Tiger Conservation Authority in 2011. However, in 2014, the tiger population in
the State went up to 308, MPs Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Wildlife, Jitendra
Agrawal said. - PTI

Sharmila to contest against Manipur CM

Author: Iboyaima Laithangbam

Imphal: Rights activist-turned-politician Irom Sharmila announced on Monday that she

would contest the coming Assembly elections against Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi
Singh from the Thoubal constituency.
She accused Mr. Singh of turning a blind eye to her 16-year fast for lifting the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In his 15 years of chief ministership, precious little
was done in this direction. Ms. Sharmila ended her fast unto death on August 9 last
year, disappointing many of her supporters who expected her to continue until the
objective was achieved.
My objective to campaign against the AFSPA remains unchanged. I have decided to
fight it from a political platform since the authorities were lukewarm to my fast, she
said.
Reacting to Ms. Sharmilas announcement, Mr. Singh told The Hindu that it was her
democratic right to contest elections from anywhere. I have no comment to make,
except wish her the best of luck, said Mr. Singh.
Membership for Ms. Sharmilas political party, the Peoples Resurgence and Justice
Alliance (PRAJA), formed in October, has so far not been very significant.

Agni-IV test a grand success

Author: T.S. Subramanian

CHENNAI: New Year 2017 began on a happy note for the Strategic Forces Command
(SFC) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with the flighttesting of Indias long-range, strategic ballistic missile, Agni-IV, turning out to be a
grand success on Monday.

The SFC, which is entrusted with the launching of nuclear weapon delivery systems, fired
the missile around 12 noon from a road-mobile launcher positioned on the Abdul Kalam
Island, off Damra village on the Odisha coast. The two-stage, surface-to-surface Agni-IV
can carry a nuclear warhead weighing one tonne over a distance of more than 4,000 km.
But on Monday, the SFC fired it for a range of about 3,100 km only, informed sources
said. The missile impacted in the Indian Ocean.
Agni-IV had been tested twice earlier for ranges between 3,000 and 3,500 km instead of
its full range of more than 4,000 km. The DRDO conceived, designed and developed the
Agni-IV.

Lower range

Asked why the missile is repeatedly tested for a range that is much lesser than it is
capable of travelling, sources said the SFC had its own requirements and they will fire
the missile according to the requirements.
Besides, the SFC would like to test Agni-IV for its capability. The SFC has its programme
in testing the missile for a lesser range. They are sticking to it, the sources said.

Normal explosives

On Monday, the missile carried normal explosives to test the sequence of the flight, the
sources added. Radars and range systems tracked it.
The latest victory, coming in the wake of the spectacular success of the Agni-V mission
on December 26, 2016, confirmed Indias nuclear deterrence capability for, both the
missiles can cover the entire area on the other side of the border. Agni-V can carry a
nuclear warhead weighing 1.5 tonnes over a distance of 5,000 km and plus.

Sixth success

Agni-IV has already been deployed by the Army. It is 20 metres long and weighs 17
tonnes. Solid propellants power its two stages. It had been flight-tested five times earlier

 in 2011, 2012, twice in 2014 and in 2015. All the five missions were successful. This is
the sixth success in a row.

Centre stalling judicial transfers: SC Recommendations of

the Collegium cannot be allowed to languish on
somebodys desk, says CJI
You cannot allow this kind of an attitude; the government needs to be
taught a lesson: Jethmalani
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday accused the Centre of allowing transfers of
Chief Justices and judges of various High Courts to languish on somebodys desk for
months together, even as senior advocates, including Ram Jethmalani, told the apex
court that it is time the judiciary taught the government a lesson.
Appearing before a Bench of Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur and Justice D.Y.
Chandrachud, Mr. Jethmalani and senior advocate Yatin Oza referred to the case of
Justice M.R. Shah of the Gujarat High Court, whose transfer to the Madhya Pradesh High
Court had been kept pending since February 2016.
Why has the government not cleared this one file when other files dated prior, post and
simultaneous to this file have already been processed, asked Mr. Oza, interrupting
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi who said Justice Shahs transfer was under process.
Mr. Oza called the phrase under process an ornamental reply. I do not want to say
anything more in the presence of journalists in this courtroom, but I am compelled to
inform Your Lordships that the Gujarat judiciary has gone to the dogs because of all
this.
Why is the government so anxious to keep that man [Justice Shah] there? Mr.
Jethmalani asked. You cannot allow this kind of an attitude from the government. The
government needs to be taught a lesson.
In an intervention, counsel from Karnataka stood up to say that the State High Court
was functioning with only about a half of its sanctioned strength of 62 judges.
Chief Justice Thakur then addressed Mr. Rohatgi. What is happening? The
recommendations of the Collegium cannot be allowed to languish on somebodys desk. If
you do not agree with a name, send the file back to us.

Status report sought

Chief Justice Thakur wanted to know why the government had stalled the transfers of
High Court Chief Justices and judges. How will a litigant view a judge who is continuing
his judicial work when he is already under transfer to another High Court? The litigant
will think somebody wants him to do so.
Seeking a status report from the Centre on the pending transfers of HC judges in the
next three weeks, the court noted that the delay on the part of the government had
given rise to grave apprehensions and misgivings within the legal community.
Mr. Rohatgi said there were no files pending with the government. The judiciary of the
State High Courts was largely to blame for the delay in filling up the vacancies. The High
Courts tended to start the process of judicial appointments late, sometimes sitting on
vacancies for years, he said.
Mr. Rohatgi said 43 of a total of 77 names were returned to the Collegium by the
government for reconsideration. The Collegium had reiterated its recommendation for 37
in November last year. Of the remaining six names, decision had been deferred on three
and a decision on three others was pending with the Collegium.

The price of defiance

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has only itself to blame for its present
predicament. Its president and secretary have been removed for defying the Supreme
Courts order to accept reforms suggested by a court-appointed committee. And its
president, Anurag Thakur, now faces legal action for contempt of court as well as
prosecution for perjury. None of this would have happened had the BCCI shown some
sense of responsibility and a vision for the future, and recognised the fact that the
highest court was only seeking to reform the manner in which cricket is administered in
the country. In the courts view, the appointment of the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee
and adoption of its recommendations were part of a project to bring transparency and
accountability to the BCCI. While the court expected cooperation and compliance, the
BCCI responded with obstructionist tactics and defiance. It was therefore inevitable that
the court would seek to send out a message that it will not brook any wilful defiance.
Despite the court making the Lodha panel reforms binding on the BCCI through its July
18 verdict, the BCCI appeared to defy it. It cited as one reason difficulties in getting its
affiliated State units to accept the reforms, but at the same time made at its Annual
General Meeting in September some decisions that were not in tune with the panels

recommendations. The price of such defiance is clear: the Supreme Court is now going
to appoint a committee of administrators to supervise the boards affairs.
Mr. Thakurs position is especially unfortunate. As a young sports administrator, he was
presented with a great opportunity to lead cricket administration into a new era in which
Indian crickets on-field achievements would be matched by the Boards transparent and
accountable functioning. If only he and other affiliated units had accepted the reforms,
influential individuals who had held sway for decades would have been replaced by fresh
talent, and the seemingly unending tenure of some would have been cut short. However,
by defying the court in the name of protecting the sports autonomy, Mr. Thakur has
courted a double blow: the loss of power and authority as well as imminent punishment.
His equivocation on whether he invited the International Cricket Council to say there is
governmental interference in the BCCIs affairs has led to the court hardening its stance
against him. It is not clear what course of action, if any, would now mollify the Supreme
Court and help them escape its wrath. A bitter lesson has indeed been taught, but it is
uncertain if it has been learnt.

New Years-eve tragedy in Turkey

The New Years-eve attack on an Istanbul nightclub that killed at least 39 people, mostly
foreigners including two Indians, is yet another reminder of the rapidly deteriorating
security situation in Turkey. It comes days after the Russian ambassador to Turkey,
Andrey Karlov, was shot dead in Ankara by a lone gunman. In 2016, there were dozens
of violent incidents, both by the Islamic State and Kurdish rebels, which have raised
questions about the governments ability to provide even basic public security. The
attacks have also badly hit the tourism economy, which makes a sizeable contribution to
Turkeys GDP. The Istanbul attacker, who the IS has called a heroic soldier of the
Caliphate, has followed a similar pattern. He chose an upmarket nightclub in the
western part of Istanbul where foreign tourists had gathered to welcome the New Year.
But why is Turkey being repeatedly targeted? Or, how has the country, till a few years
ago politically stable with a booming economy, descended into instability and chaos? In
part, it is a blowback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogans Syria policy, which turned out
to be a monumental failure. Like many of his Western allies, Mr. Erdogan also initially
thought that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was about to fall, and offered help to the
anti-regime rebels. Ankara also inadvertently helped the rise of the IS by allowing
jihadists to cross into Syria via the Turkish border. By the time the government realised
its folly and started attacking the IS, the group had grown into a real terror machine.
Mr. Erdogans decision to relaunch the war with Kurdish rebels was also linked to his
policy debacle in Syria. When the rebels started building an autonomous Kurdistan in
Syria in the wake of the governments withdrawal from the border region and emerged
as battlefield allies of the U.S. against the IS, Mr. Erdogan saw it as a long-term

challenge to Turkey, given the long history of fighting between the Turkish state and the
Kurdish militants. He abandoned a ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers Party, kicking off
a new phase of the civil war. Mr. Erdogan is now in a tight spot. The country faces
constant threats from the IS, a group that it once ignored. The civil war with Kurdish
rebels, which Mr. Erdogan might have hoped would curtail the nationalist ambitions of
the Kurdish minority, is growing out of control. Besides, Mr. Erdogans authoritarian
tendencies and the crackdown on dissent and opposition parties are deeply polarising the
country. It is this fragility of the security architecture in Turkey that is frequently being
exposed by the attackers.

Letters
K.V. Raghuram,Wayanad, KeralaC.V. Venugopalan,PalakkadNimbulal
Manjhi,Darbhanga, BiharR. Javed,Hazratganj, LucknowArpit Jain,New
DelhiY.G. Chouksey,PuneVedant Mishra,Unnao, Uttar PradeshArvind Kumar
Choudhary,New DelhiBontalakoti Sankaranarayana,MangaluruS.K.
Khosla,Chandigarh

Wrestling for power

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh has grossly underestimated the potential of
his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who has bounced back despite
the hurdles placed before him. Mr. Akhilesh seems to have pre-empted all these moves
and has now left his father high and dry.
Dynasty politics has its disadvantages. Seniors in the party must have some inkling of
the working style, skills and expectations of younger leaders who are in power. There
could be meaningful course correction on some vital issues without significant
interference from them, but for them to expect to remote control the administration
altogether can prove dangerous. Politics is a different animal.
K.V. Raghuram,
Wayanad, Kerala
The Samajwadi Party appears to be nearing implosion before the crucial U.P. elections
with daggers drawn before the final countdown. With neither Mulayam Singh Yadav nor
Akhilesh Yadav willing to blink, there could be trouble ahead. A break-up could

completely rejig what was till now a three-way contest between the SP, the BSP and
the BJP. The Congresss chances can be ruled out. Akhilesh Yadav has become the new,
urbane face of the party, and is at the head of a generation of techno-savvy youth who
speak the language of progress and development. However, he should not forget that in
the elections, it will be the BJP and the BSP that matter.
C.V. Venugopalan,
Palakkad

On reservation

While reservation is an effective tool for social mobility, we cannot remain oblivious to
the fact that it has strengthened and institutionalised a caste-based identity (Not just
about a quota, Jan.2). Dr. Ambedkar had himself said that reservation cannot be for an
unlimited time, but due to vested interests, no authority or organisation has been
willing to judge the efficacy of reservation in terms of enabling its intended benefits and
examining its percolation to the marginalised sections. The monopolisation of
reservation has to be looked into. To imply that people from the reserved category face
discrimination is a bit far-fetched. There are many in the unreserved category who
continue to face exploitation.
Nimbulal Manjhi,
Darbhanga, Bihar
The seeds of discrimination were sown a long time ago. The issue that should have
been highlighted is that the realities at the village level are far different from those in a
metro. A clearer picture will emerge when the real sufferers, irrespective of their caste,
tell their true stories.
R. Javed,
Hazratganj, Lucknow
The fight against inequality requires a holistic approach of which the quota system is
only a small part. The condition of poor Dalits, minorities, transgenders and other
marginalised sections is far from satisfactory. Their uplift requires ethical governance
and sound policies that are monitored periodically followed by adequate implementation.
How every citizen is made aware of the complexities of discrimination is complex.
Perhaps there can be consistent campaigning by NGOs, civil society, the media, and

educational institutions to create awareness about the need for sensitivity and
responsibility.
Arpit Jain,

New Delhi
One way of breaking the resistance of the general category to the continuance of the
quota system for the downtrodden in (government) jobs and educational institutions
could be to intensify the socialisation process in affected institutions. An induction
programme for new recruits which highlights the synergetic effects of diversity and the
need to reduce the baggage of social discrimination should be an integral part of
learning. The income criteria should be applied in the case of the SC and ST categories
so that the benefits accrue to the more needy. Besides these, an analysis of the causes
which have made the quota system continue, as it were, needs to be studied. The fact
that quota has been extended further to OBCs makes it appear as if the system will run
perpetually. This was not the intention of our Constitution.
Y.G. Chouksey,
Pune
The term backward section has also undergone change. Every section which is poor
and unable to support itself is backward. In todays world it is not only an SC person
who faces discrimination but also a poor general person. Are there any policies to end
the discrimination he faces? Granting reservation merely on the basis of a persons
caste is not a correct method to increase inclusion of these backward sections. There
should be some provision for a creamy layer in the case of SCs and STs.
Vedant Mishra,

Unnao, Uttar Pradesh

I am a general candidate. To put it plainly, I am not against reservation but resent
some of its provisions that are applied in the field of education: the difference in cut-off
marks for selection. A reserved candidate can avail of concessions such as age
relaxation, an increased number of attempts and even financial rebates. But when it
comes to competing in an examination, he must be subject to only one cut-off level.
By diluting cut-off marks, we are not only inducing complacency but also indirectly
making India weak.
Arvind Kumar Choudhary,

New Delhi
I hail from a backward class. Even decades after the adoption of the worlds most
comprehensive Constitution, we have achieved very little success in ensuring the uplift
of the marginalised. The younger generation has hardly any idea about the intention
of reservations and is misinterpreting it. We can ensure equal and fair justice for all
only when there is adequate representation for all communities.
Bontalakoti Sankaranarayana,
Mangaluru

Fuelling more misery

The new year is beginning on a dismal note for millions in the form of a fuel price hike
(Petrol, diesel and LPG to cost more, Jan.2). They are already experiencing pain as a
result of quixotic demonetisation. The price increase is steep and after considering VAT
would be even higher. All this will have a cascading effect on peoples livelihoods.
Despite the downward spiral of crude prices, the government has not passed on the
benefits.
S.K. Khosla,
Chandigarh

What is special about special courts?

Special courts are seen as a quick remedy to delays in trials. But an
absence in the number set up shows a contrast to such an objective Sakshi

The legislature has introduced special courts on many occasions through various laws,
usually with the intention to enable quick and efficient disposal of cases. But an
examination of the laws that require setting up of special courts compared to the actual
numbers that have been set up reveals the extent to which reality and intent are
mismatched.
In a short study by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, 764 Central laws enacted and amended
between 1950 and 2015, excluding laws that were repealed in this period or that may
have been amended after 2015, were examined to determine the frequency of their

occurrence. We looked in these statutes for only mentions of special or designated

courts or judges, that is, courts or judges established to ensure effective trial and that
have powers of district or sessions courts. Forums like quasi-judicial bodies, tribunals,
and commissions were excluded. It was found that only three statutes provided for
special courts between 1950 and 1981, whereas between 1982 and 2015, 25 statutes
mandated the establishment of such courts.
What are the reasons for this drastic change in legislative policy? The five-year period
from 1982 to 1987 witnessed an unexplained spurt in the number of laws creating
special courts. A similar increase was seen between 2012 and 2015. Several such courts
were created in response to specific incidents. For instance, the 1992 securities scam led
to the Special Court (Trial of Offences Relating to Transactions in Securities) Act, 1992.
The largest number of special/designated courts were created between 1982 and 1992.
However, there is no categorical rationale for these developments.

Setting up and designating special courts

Laws interchangeably use the terms set up or designate with respect to special courts.
Setting up a special court may require new infrastructure and facilities, whereas a
designated court merely adds additional responsibilities to an existing court. In our
study, of the 28 statutes enacted between 1950 and 2015, three provided for both, 15
set up special courts, and 10 empowered the competent authority to designate a court.
However, implementation of the law does not necessarily follow this distinction between
setting up and designation. Despite providing for setting up special courts, State
governments have designated courts under most of the legislations. Out of the 15
statutes which specifically provided for setting up of special courts, only one has been
enabled with them by few States.
Based on the nature of legislation and primary subject matter dealt with, we divided the
statutes into five clusters of economic offences, regulatory offences, law and order, social
justice, and national security. The objective of special courts has been unclear. It is not
very revealing whether specific legislations which provide for special courts necessarily
intend quick disposal of cases. The statutes which have been recently enacted, mostly
those falling under the cluster of economic offences, have provisions for special courts
although older legislation, like the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989, or the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, have
a huge backlog of cases waiting to be cleared.
We studied three statutes from three clusters, based on the availability of data, to
observe the nature and frequency of institution of special courts: The Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (POA), 1989; National Investigation
Agency Act, 2008 (NIA Act); Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (POCA).

The pendency rates in courts for cases filed under POA are huge. While the national
average is 84.1 per cent, States like Maharashtra and West Bengal have pegged their
respective pendency rates well above the average. The number of cases being registered
from these States has also been significant. However, the absence of exclusive courts in
these States has been stark. On the contrary, there have been several special courts and
fast track courts being set up under POCA although the total number of cases registered
is nearly 1/10th of cases under POA. Under the NIA Act, in spite of mandating special
courts, all the courts set up have been designated courts.

No exclusivity

From the available data, it is fairly conclusive that there is no exclusivity in special
courts. Laws enacted in the last three decades have considered special courts as quick
remedy for questions of delays in trial. However, a striking absence of number of special
courts set up provides a glaring contrast to such an objective. Notably, in most instances
where existing courts are designated as special courts, the original intent of speedy
disposal of cases seems to have been defeated. Questions of pendency have often
surfaced, thereby rendering the point of efficiency of the institution moot. Absence of
rationale in both selective insertion of provision for special courts and actual setting up of
courts appears to have rendered the notion of special court superfluous.
Poor quality or complete absence of data remains a major concern for this study. Official
websites (for instance, nodal ministries) did not always have the latest updated versions
of statutes. The status of these laws is difficult to assess as information about the
number of courts set up or designated under various laws is not always available.
However, this study does reveal much scope to expand the areas of enquiry for research.
For instance, what is so special about special courts if they only provide an additional
forum to dispose cases? Is this purpose still served if existing courts are merely
designated as special courts without any new infrastructure being created? Can
inferences be drawn about the state of the judicial system where special courts have
been introduced by way of amendments to parent laws? Is the legislature monitoring the
health of special courts and examining whether their original stated purpose continues to
be served? These are questions which future studies could explore.
Sakshi is a Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi. Views are
personal.

The rediscovery of urban India After long years of neglect

and alienation, cities are feeling empowered under the
rewritten rules of urban planning. The early results are
already visible

The PMs home State or the two States where my mother tongue Telugu is
spoken cant get even a rupee over and above their entitlement M.
Venkaiah Naidu

India is moving away from villages and is set to soon become more urban. To meet this
demographic transition, experts say that we need to build 22 new Bengalurus besides
recasting the landscape of the present 4,041 cities for a better living. The past is not
encouraging. But can we make the future perfect?
Long years of vacillation since Independence about our approaches to urban
management and dilemma over the relevance of urbanisation to our socio-economic
context with the adjunct weak policy approach have taken a very heavy toll of life in
urban areas as one sees now. This, despite the universal acknowledgement that
urbanisation drives economic growth due to the attendant advantages of urban
agglomerations.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) launched in 2005 was no doubt
the first concerted effort to make a difference to the urban chaos. However, by the time
it was wound up by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in March 2014,
the JNNURM fell much short of intentions. Out of the total of 1,631 projects sanctioned
under this for improving urban infrastructure with central aid of about Rs. 39,000 crore,
only 710 projects, i.e. 43 per cent, were completed during the 10 years. Why was it so?
Of the 275 JNNURM projects sanctioned during 2012-14, a huge chunk of 43 per cent
went to just one State from where the then Urban Development Minister hailed. It was
clearly with an eye on the 2014 general election. Such an approach did not get the votes
expected but only wrecked the mission. A clear case of political expediency with
disastrous long-term consequences.

Participatory urban planning

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in 2014 that there would be no more playing of
politics with development. Under the new paradigm shift set in motion, clear and
objective ground rules have been laid down. Objectivity and transparency in selection of
cities and allocation of central resources under new urban missions are now the rule of
law. This is based on urban population and the number of statutory urban local bodies in
each State. The Prime Ministers home State of Gujarat or the two States where my
mother tongue Telugu is spoken cant get even a rupee over and above their entitlement.

Till 2014, every project needed for a city was being appraised and approved in Nirman
Bhawan in New Delhi. With this top-down planning, there was no sense of involvement
in and ownership of new schemes by city and State governments. Consequently, project
and investment approvals were being accorded in the last two quarters of a financial
year causing implementation delays. Citizen participation in urban planning and project
prioritisation are now made mandatory. About one crore citizens contributed to the
making of smart city plans. Urban planning is now made bottom up and the results are
showing.
Rules of urban planning have now been rewritten. States just cant send half-baked and
shoddy projects to Delhi as the financial year draws to a close. Under the Atal Mission for
Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart Cities Mission meant for
improving urban infrastructure, there shall be a comprehensive assessment of
infrastructure deficit before drawing up city-level action plans. Cities have been
empowered to add to their technical capabilities. And now there is clear evidence that
cities are rising to the occasion by rediscovering themselves.
The first priority under AMRUT is to ensure water supply connections to the 2.25 crore
urban households that are deprived of them, followed by improving sewerage networks,
drainage and non-motorised urban transport. Developing one park in each city every
year is mandatory. The Smart Cities Mission seeks to ensure core infrastructure,
including health care and education, in an identified area besides improving service
delivery across the city through information and communications technology-based
solutions. The focus has shifted from a project-based approach to area-based outcomes.
Since the fund entitlements of each State and city-wise infrastructure deficits are known
in advance, why should we wait to approve projects till the last quarter of the fiscal?
With city governments rising to the occasion over the last and this fiscal, the Ministry of
Urban Development has started approving investments for the next three financial years
under AMRUT during this year. With this, projects for five years of 14 States stand
approved and this would be done for the remaining in a month or so. This enables city
and State governments to realise mission targets by the stipulated time through advance
planning.
After long years of neglect and alienation, cities are now vying for credit rating, which
encompasses the entire gamut of urban governance, including the mindset of politicians
and the city officials. Over 80 big cities have almost completed this exercise. Pune and
Ahmedabad are set to issue municipal bonds very soon. Release of funds is now linked to
progress of mandated governance reforms under all new urban missions including the
housing mission. Online integrated single-window clearance for construction permits is
being put in place to improve ease of doing business. Cities are now looking at publicprivate partnership and value capture financing with a changed mindset.

Results on the ground

Involvement of citizens, increased sense of ownership of new urban missions by city and
State governments coupled with delegation of powers are yielding results. Under the
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), construction of about 15 lakh affordable houses is
being financed as against only about 12.50 lakh during 10 years of UPA rule. Under
AMRUT, 86 per cent of mission investments stand approved and a large number of
projects are off the ground. Since the announcement of the first batch of smart cities in
January this year, a large number of projects have already come to be implemented.
Over 500 cities and towns have already become open defecation-free. Andhra Pradesh,
Gujarat and Sikkim have already declared all cities and towns as open defecation-free as
the Swachh Bharat Mission gains momentum as a peoples movement.
For the resource-starved cities, investment of over Rs.2.75 lakh crore has been approved
in just a year. As against the UPA governments Rs. 39,000 crore of central assistance
for basic urban infrastructure, this government has committed Rs. 50,000 crore under
AMRUT, Rs. 48,000 crore for smart cities and Rs. 14,643 crore for making cities clean.
Besides, Central assistance of Rs.1.50-Rs.2.30 lakh is being given for each house for
urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). The resource kitty of cities
has been given a further boost by earmarking Rs. 83,000 crore for urban local bodies
under the 14th Finance Commission recommendations as against only Rs. 27,000 crore
earlier. States have also been empowered to spend more on cities further to devolution
of 42 per cent of divisible resources, a hike of 10 per cent over earlier sharing.
The early shoots of urban renaissance are quite visible with a new churning among cities
that are thinking and acting differently. Making a perfect urban future is a daunting task
but a definite beginning has been made over the last two and a half years. The new year
shall see much more happening on the ground.
M. Venkaiah Naidu is Minister of Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty
Alleviation, and Information & Broadcasting.

When women eat last In households with a limited food

budget, or where there is no refrigerator to store leftover
food, the person who eats last very often gets less or lower
quality food
Diane Coffey

India has a major child malnutrition problem. The Rapid Survey on Children (2012-13)
found that about 4 in 10 children are stunted. On average, children who are stunted do
less well in school, earn less, and die sooner than children who are not.

There are many causes of child stunting. Addressing poverty and improving education
would help, but development is not the only factor. Research shows that poor sanitation
spreads diseases that sap childrens energy and stunts their growth. Also, the health of a
childs mother matters critically for whether or not the child is stunted.
The first two years of life are the most important time for a childs physical and cognitive
growth. During this time, she depends heavily on her mother for nutrition. As a growing
foetus, she gets all her food from her mothers bloodstream, and after birth, is ideally
breastfed for at least six months.
Unfortunately, research shows that many Indian women start pregnancy underweight
and gain little weight during pregnancy. This leads to low birth weight babies, high rates
of neonatal mortality, and less successful breastfeeding. Womens undernourishment
contributes substantially to Indias unacceptably high rates of child stunting.
Why are Indian women so malnourished? Here, too, poverty and sanitation play a role.
But a recent survey that I conducted with a team of economics and sociology
researchers suggests that widespread discrimination against women in their own homes
likely plays an important role too.

Measuring discrimination

Social Attitudes Research for India (SARI) is a new phone survey that seeks to interview
representative samples of 18-65-year-olds. Recently, we interviewed 1,270 adults in
Delhi and 1,470 adults in Uttar Pradesh. One of the things SARI measures is
discrimination against women.
In India, girls are less likely to survive infancy than boys, and if they do, parents invest
less in their education. Women are far less likely to work outside the home and have
their own bank accounts than men. Many report little decision-making power over their
own lives.
One aspect of discrimination against women that matters for health is whether women
eat less or worse quality food than men. In order to measure discrimination in womens
food intake, SARI used a question that was previously tested and used by the India
Human Development Survey (2011): When your family eats lunch or dinner, do the
women usually eat with the men? Or do the women usually eat first? Or do the men
usually eat first? Answers to these questions have implications for nutrition because in
households with a limited food budget, or where there is no refrigerator to store leftover
food, the person who eats last very often gets less or lower quality food than people who
eat before her.

The IHDS 2011 survey interviewed married women aged 15-49 and found that one in
five women in Delhi and half of the women in Uttar Pradesh said they ate after men did.
When we decided to include the same question in the SARI survey five years later, we
found even higher numbers. One in three adults in Delhi, and six in ten adults in U.P.
said they lived in households where men eat first. Why are these numbers even higher
than what the IHDS found in 2011?
Part of the reason is that SARI and the IHDS asked different people. The IHDS asked
only women, while SARI asked both women and men. The graph shows the SARI results
for this question broken up by sex. In U.P. (but not in Delhi) men were significantly more
likely to say that they eat first. We do not know why men in U.P. reported more often
than women that women eat last. Studies of discrimination in other contexts suggest
that where discrimination is severe, it is often easier to get people to admit to engaging
in acts of discrimination than to experiencing it.
Nor do we know for sure why even among women, the SARI figures are higher than the
IHDS figures. It may have to do with how respondents react to a phone survey versus a
face-to-face survey. The women surveyors who conducted IHDS interviews may have
been seen by respondents as progressive women having jobs and moving around
without their family members. For a respondent in a conservative household, it may be
easier to admit discrimination to a stranger on the phone than to a progressive woman
sitting in front of her.

What can be done about it

No matter what the exact figures, it is clear that the practice of making women eat last
is widespread in Delhi and U.P., and that it has important implications for a childs health.
What is unclear is how to address the problem.
While the government cannot force people to give women an equal share of food, it
could do a lot more to promote gender equality. It could publicise and condemn this
practice. It could also more aggressively pursue policies to address discrimination
against women in other domains. Encouraging girls education, discouraging dowry,
supporting marriage choice, and encouraging female labour force participation would all
give women more power to challenge this damaging practice.
Diane Coffey is a visiting researcher at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi. This is the
last of a four-part series on prejudice. The first, second and third parts, with Amit
Thorat, appeared on December 29 and December 30, 2016, and January 2, 2017.

It will be a disservice to the little man: SC The minority

judgment pointed to the historic discriminations and
deprivations suffered by the masses
Canvassing on the basis of religion will amount to mixing religion with
State power
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

New Delhi: The Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur had to decide
on whether the pronoun his in Section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act
implied a blanket ban on any appeal, reference, campaign, discussion, dialogue or
debate on the basis of religion, race, caste, community or language, even if such a
debate was on the deprivations suffered by the voters due to these considerations.
The majority on the Bench the Chief Justice and Justices Madan B. Lokur, S.A. Bobde
and L. Nageshwara Rao interpreted that Parliament meant by his a complete ban on
any reference or appeal to religion, race, community, caste and language during
elections. This meant the pronoun extended to the social, linguistic and religious identity
of the voter also.
Chief Justice Thakur said appealing on the basis of religion would amount to mixing
religion with State power.
Elections to the State legislature or to the Parliament or for that matter any body in the
State is a secular exercise just as the functions of the elected representatives must be
secular in both outlook and practice, Chief Justice Thakur observed in his separate
judgment, throwing his lot with Justices Lokur, Rao and Bobde.

Legislative aim

Justice Lokur said the primary legislative aim of Section 123(3) of the Representation of
People Act is to curb communal and separatist tendencies in the country. Justice Lokur
said that by allowing a candidate to take advantage of the voters religious identity
merely to gain votes would be a disservice to the little man and against public interest.
Quoting Winston Churchill, Justice Lokur said: At the bottom of all tributes paid to
democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a
little cross on a little piece of paper...

Justice Bobde summarised that Section 123 proscribed all appeals based on sectarian,
linguistic or caste considerations during election campaigns in order to infuse a
modicum of oneness, transcending such barriers.
He borrowed, in this context, Rabindranath Tagores phrase that election campaigns
should transcend the fragmented narrow domestic walls.
Dissenting with the majority and delivering a scathing retort, the minority judgment
authored by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud pointed to the historic discriminations and
deprivations suffered by the masses on the ground of religion, caste and language.
Justice Chandrachud wrote that these were social realities in our country that the Indian
addresses.

Cannot be barred

How can this be barred from being discussed in an election? Religion, caste and
language are as much a symbol of social discrimination imposed on large segments of
our society. They are part of the central theme of the Constitution to produce a just
social order. Electoral politics in a democratic polity is about social mobilisation, Justice
Chandrachud wrote in his separate judgment supported by Justices A.K.Goel and U.U.
Lalit.
Hence, it would be far-fetched to assume that in legislating to adopt Section 123(3),
Parliament had intended to obliterate or outlaw references to religion, caste, race,
community or language in the hurly-burly of the great festival of democracy, Justice
Chandrachud observed.

SC bowls out top BCCI bosses

The court has issued notice to Mr. Thakur for his response on why he should not face
both contempt proceedings and criminal prosecution for perjury.
The order, authored by Justice Chandrachud, fully supported the Justice Lodha panel
recommendation to oust BCCI office-bearers and administrators of affiliated State
associations who are above 70 years old, who are insolvent, government ministers and
servants, office-bearers of other sports and athletic associations, those who have already
enjoyed a cumulative period of nine years at the BCCI helm and those charged with
criminal offences. Several office-bearers both of BCCI and the State Associations
continue to hold posts although they stand disqualified in terms of the above norms ...

the turf of the cricket field is not a personal turf or fiefdom, the Supreme Court
observed.
The court said a committee of administrators would be appointed to run the BCCI. The
Bench sought objective assistance from senior advocate Fali Nariman and amicus
curiae and senior advocate Gopal Subramanium to choose persons of experience and
integrity for the committee. The court asked the senior advocates to submit their report
in two weeks.
Meanwhile, till the committee was formed, the court ordered the seniormost vicepresident of the BCCI to take over as BCCI president and the joint secretary to replace
him.
The Supreme Court, here, referred to how it had in 2014 appointed retired cricketer
Sunil Gavaskar as interim BCCI president in relation to IPL 2014 when it had found the
then BCCI president, N. Srinivasan, incapable of performing his duties. The court said
other BCCI administrators, excluding Mr. Thakur and Mr. Shirke, shall continue, provided
they do not fall under the categories the Lodha panel recommended for immediate
ouster. Such administrators who remain after the filtering should provide an
unconditional undertaking in four weeks that they will comply with the Lodha panel
reforms.
Once the committee of administrators is formed, the Lodha panels job will be confined to
overall policy-making. The next hearing is scheduled for January 19.

SC extends judicial review powers

Confirming the High Court's view, Justice Chandrachud, supported by Chief Justice
Thakur in a separate judgment, held that re-promulgation of ordinances is a fraud on
the Constitution and a subversion of democratic legislative processes.
The requirement of laying an ordinance before Parliament or the State Legislature is a
mandatory constitutional obligation cast upon the government, Justice Chandrachud
held in the common judgment.
It observed that laying of the ordinance before the legislature is mandatory because the
legislature has to determine, among other factors, whether there is a need at all for the
ordinance.
The ordinance-making power does not constitute the President or the Governor into a
parallel source of law making or an independent legislative authority. Consistent with the
principle of legislative supremacy, the power to promulgate ordinances is subject to
legislative control. The President or, as the case may be, the Governor acts on the aid

and advice of the Council of Ministers which owes collective responsibility to the
legislature, Justice Chandrachud held.
Here, Justice Madan B. Lokur, in his separate judgment, struck a discordant note by
observing that though re-promulgation of an ordinance should not be a mere
mechanical exercise, it is not mandatory that the ordinance should be laid before the
legislature. Justice Lokur said there may be exigencies requiring the re-promulgation.
Chief Justice Thakur said the question of law should be left open.
Though the apex court held that an ordinance has the same force and effect as a law
enacted by the legislature, the rights created by the ordinance does not necessarily
survive after the lapse of the ordinance.
The court was at this point dealing with the rights of the 400-odd teachers of the private
Sanskrit schools who were absorbed into the State government. They had demanded the
same salaries and perks even after the ordinance lapsed in 1992. Noting that there is no
express provision creating such enduring rights on a lapsed ordinance, Justice
Chandrachud held that rights created by the ordinance can live on provided it is required
so in public interest and is a constitutional necessity. Plus, the same test applies to see
whether such rights have assumed an irreversible character.

Alienation growing in J&K: Vohra

Author: Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar: As Opposition parties staged protests against the Peoples Democratic PartyBharatiya Janata Party government on the first day of the Assembly session this year on
Monday, Governor N.N. Vohra warned against increasing alienation of youth and called
for an early India-Pakistan dialogue.
No responsible society can afford to stand by and see the alienation of its youth. A
worrying concern is that the younger generation, especially in the Valley, is less engaged
civically, exhibits less social trust and confidence and, consequently, has a weaker
commitment to the inherited value systems. We need to engage them, said Mr. Vohra in
his speech, which was disrupted by repeated protests by the Opposition parties,
including the National Conference and Congress.
He said it was important that the Indo-Pak dialogue gets resumed early. What has
been happening on the streets in the past months in Kashmir is a manifestation of our
political problems. New political discourse has to move away from being exclusivist to be
effectively inclusive. Unless we act with determination, senseless violence may become a
way of life and ruin our future, the Governor said.

Cong. denies charge

Meanwhile, Congress Legislative Party (leader Rigzin Jora said the ruling parties were
misinforming the people of the State that the Opposition had disrespected the
national anthem in the Assembly.
There is no question of disrespecting the national anthem, he said.
There was din and confusion in the House that the national anthem was almost
inaudible and the Governor also walked out from the hall amid confusion and chaos.
We as representatives of the Congress will continue to play our role and make the voice
of the common man of the State resonate in both houses of Legislature", he said.
(With PTI inputs)

Demonetisation is yielding results, says Venkaiah

Author: Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: While acknowledging that Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation

exercise has been painful in the short-term, Union Minister for Urban Development and
Information & Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Monday that the move has
started to yield results like reduction in interest rates by banks.
Money is coming into the system. Whether the old notes are deposited into the bank or
not, notes are now coming into the open, he said at an interaction with journalists at
The Hindu office here. More money is coming into the system and into the tax net. More
people coming into the tax net means tax rates will come down. The government was
determined to go after errant people, scrutinise unusual deposits and plug leakages. But
Mr. Modi did not have a magic wand to eradicate leakages, he said.
Though he admitted that it was painful to see people waiting in queues to get their own
money, he believed that people had now forgotten the pain. Their confidence in Mr. Modi
had increased.
Mr. Naidu also dismissed speculations that the government intended to put money into
peoples accounts as an incentive after the demonetisation exercise.

Though, I am not the final word, knowing the Prime Ministers mind, he is not for giving
anything free. He is for incentivising schemes for development. Already, he has
announced interest subvention for housing.
Mr. Modi, he said, believed in giving more power to the States as part of cooperative
federalism. The system has changed now. States come forward with their development
plans and the Centre sanctions the plan if it is in accordance with the guidelines, he
explained.

Pravasi Divas this year to highlight social innovations

Under the new PBD format of the govt., issues faced by overseas Indians to
be addressed
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017, annual global convention for the Indian
diaspora, will focus on social innovators, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.
The January 7 to 9 conclave to be held in Bangalore will be the first full-fledged festival
of diaspora Indians under a new format adopted by the government of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in 2016.
The event will be attended by more than 4,000 delegates and high-power delegations
from Mauritius, Malaysia and Qatar.
Highlight of the PBD 2017 is social innovations by Indians. Twenty social innovations will
be highlighted. There will also be a contest of innovators and the winner will get an
award of 1 lakh, said Secretary, Overseas Indian Affairs, Dhyaneshwar Mulay.
All sessions of the mega event will be in plenary format and will be interactive, which will
allow delegates from overseas to convey their suggestions to the government directly.
The sessions will focus on immigration and the role of diaspora organisations, said Mr.
Mulay. The idea behind the new format was to make the celebration more responsive to
the problems faced by the Indian diaspora abroad. The highpoint of the event would be
the award for the pravasi achievers (Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards) that will be
conferred by President Pranab Mukherjee on January 9.
The current format of the PBD 2017, which was first announced by External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj during the annual conference of 2016, generated interest as
reports had indicated participation by delegates who trace their origin to Pak-occupied
Kashmir.

Mr. Mulay on Monday, however, declined to confirm participation from the Gilgit-Baltistan
region of Pakistan.

It is a trilateral partnership of India, U.S. and Israel

Author: Varghese K. George

WASHINGTON: The optics of the U.S.-Israel relations will change for the better under the
incoming Donald Trump administration and this will have a positive impact on Indias
relations with both, said a senior functionary of the American Jewish Committee (AJC),
an influential advocacy group.
Jason Isaacson, AJCs Director of International Affairs, who recently returned from Israel,
said he expected Indian and Israeli Prime Ministers to exchange visits in 2017.
Describing President Pranab Mukherjees visit to Israel last year as Indias coming out of
the closet on ties with Israel, Mr. Isaacson said: There is less hesitation in India on
embracing Israel. It started before Mr. (Narendra) Modi, and it is a bipartisan position in
India, but it is more public under Mr. Modi that Israel is a natural ally of India and there
are mutual benefits.
Talking to The Hindu at the 110-year old organisations headquarters in Washington, Mr.
Isaacson, who is an advocate of increasing cooperation between Indian and Jewish
diasporas across the world, described the ties among India, Israel and the U.S. as a
trilateral relationship. We will work together, to demonstrate the benefits of what is
really a trilateral relationship, between India, Israel, and the U.S., he said, about AJCs
attempts to coordinate with the Indian Americans. The AJC had pulled its weight in
support of the India-U.S. civil nuclear deal.

Political voice

A regular visitor to India, Mr. Isaacson said Indian Americans and Jewish Americans
could do a lot more together. Asked about the ambition of several Indian-American
initiatives that try with limited success to emulate the Jewish model of intervention in
American politics, Mr. Isaacson said: The way you can be effective in this society is
gather people together, make an agenda, raise funds, hire staff. If you are going to have
a community that has a political voice, it has to be treated as a business. America is
welcoming to that kind of political activity. But you will have to take that job seriously.

Asked about Indias relations with Iran and how this may impact its ties with Israel and
the U.S., Mr. Isaacson said the AJC would like to see the energy partnership [between
India and Iran] diminished over time.
In meetings that I have had with Indian officials in Delhi, in New York and in
Washington, Iran has come up, and I will not hide from you the concerns that AJC and
our community have regarding Iran and its ambitions. We also recognise that Iran is
Indias neighbour and an important trading partner and energy supplier... We also hope
that India can use its relationship with Iran to influence its behaviour regarding Israel,
their Gulf neighbours and their support for terrorism. Iranians should feel some heat
from their trading partner, India.
Mr. Isaacson said while the incoming Trump administration has given clear signals
regarding its Israel policy, several other questions remain open, particularly the way
forward on the Syrian civil war.

Demonetisation hits manufacturing sector Firms saw new

work, output dip for the first time in 2016
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November has begun to hit
the manufacturing sector, according to a private sector survey.
The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index fell to 49.6 in December, the
first time it hit below the 50-mark in 2016, from 52.3 in November. A reading below 50
implies contraction while one above 50 indicates expansion. PMI data for December
indicated that the rupee demonetisation took a toll on manufacturing performance, the
report by Nikkei said.

Higher input costs

Companies saw new work and output dip for the first time in 2016. In turn, quantities of
purchases were scaled back and employment lowered. Meanwhile, input costs increased
at a quicker rate, whereas output charge inflation eased.
Having held its ground in November following the unexpected withdrawal of 500 and
1,000 notes from circulation, Indias manufacturing industry slid into contraction at the
end of 2016, said Pollyanna De Lima, Economist, HIS Markit and author of the report.

Shortages of money in the economy steered output and new orders in the wrong
direction, thereby interrupting a continuous sequence of growth that had been seen
throughout 2016.
Cash flow issues among firms also led to reduction in purchasing activity and
employment, Ms.De Lima added. The respondents said that the withdrawal of high-value
rupee notes caused the downturn in December since shortage of cash had resulted in a
lower number of new orders.
Rates of contraction in new work and production were marginal overall, but in both
cases the reductions were the first in 2016, the report added. Businesses also
highlighted challenging conditions in external markets, with a fall in new business from
abroad ending a six-month sequence of growth.
Order backlogs rose for the seventh consecutive month but at the slowest rate in this
sequence, according to the report.
As the survey showed only a mild decline in manufacturing production in the last month
of the year, the average reading for the October-December quarter remained in growth
terrain, thereby suggesting a positive contribution from the sector to overall GDP in Q3
FY17, Ms. De Lima said. With the window for exchanging notes having closed at the
end of December, January data will be key in showing whether the sector will see a quick
rebound.

Core industries output growth slows to 4.9 per cent in

November
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The eight core industries recorded a year-on-year growth in output of 4.9
per cent in November 2016, slower than the previous two months that is, a 6.6 per
cent increase in October and 5.01 per cent in September.

Electricity, coal grow

Output in electricity and coal posted healthy growth rates of 10.2 per cent and 6.4 per
cent respectively in November as against 2.85 per cent and (-) 1.5 per cent respectively
in October 2016, according to government data released on Monday. In November 2015,

electricity and coal production posted a growth of 5.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent
respectively.
The 10.2 per cent growth in output of electricity in November is the highest since 14.68
per cent in April 2016. The eight core industries comprise close to 37.9 per cent of the
weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and electricity has the
maximum weight (of 10.32 per cent) among the eight sectors. The coal sector posted a
positive growth after three consecutive months of contraction in output, and the 6.4 per
cent growth in November was the highest since 12.05 per cent in June 2016.
Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economic Advisor, State Bank of India, said: The impact of
the cash crunch, triggered by the demonetisation exercise, on the core sector data will
be seen only from December. He said it was becoming difficult to expect a one-to-one
correspondence between core sector growth and overall IIP growth, adding that even if
the core sector posted a healthy growth, there was no guarantee that the IIP would also
register a similar robust growth as the credit growth has not been very significant.
Steel production slowed to 5.6 per cent in November 2016, down from about 17 per cent
growth during the August-October 2016 period. The 5.6 per cent growth was also the
lowest since 6.15 per cent in April 2016. In November 2015, steel output had contracted
by 6.8 per cent. Crude oil and natural gas output have been shrinking for several months
now, and the trend continued in November 2016 as well.

Crude output shrinks

Crude oil production contracted 5.4 per cent in November 2016 shrinking for the ninth
consecutive month. Natural gas production shrank 1.7 per cent in November 2016,
falling for the fourth straight month.
Fertiliser production rose 2.4 per cent in November 2016, up from the 0.8 per cent
increase in October, but slower than the 13.9 per cent in November 2015. Refinery
output rose only by two per cent slower than 15.1 per cent in October 2016. Cement
production also went up by only 0.5 per cent in November, against a contraction of 1.7
per cent in November 2015 but slower than 6.2 per cent in October 2016.

Centre to meet fiscal deficit target despite PMs New Yeareve sops: Suresh Prabhu
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Centre will meet its fiscal deficit target of 3.5 per cent of the gross
domestic product (GDP) for 2016-17 despite a slew of sops announced by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi last week, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Monday.
The voluntary income disclosure scheme has already given us some revenue and this
(demonetisation) scheme will also bring in some revenue so we will be able to meet the
(fiscal deficit) target. The Prime Ministers announcement will be definitely honoured in
terms of ensuring fiscal adherence to all our commitments as well as fiscal prudence,
Mr. Prabhu informed the media while elaborating on the governments anti-corruption
measures days after the deadline to deposit old 500 and 1,000 currency notes in
banks ended.

Relief package

Mr. Modi on Saturday announced a package for farmers, senior citizens, small
entrepreneurs, women and the rural poor along with a housing scheme for the poor and
the middle-class in a bid to provide relief from the impact of demonetisation of highvalue currency notes which he had announced on November 8. The government has
exercised the highest form of fiscal prudence. We have met each one of our fiscal deficit
targets so far, the Minister said.

Widening deficit

The Centres fiscal deficit remained high at 4.6 lakh crore, which was 85.8 per cent of
the budget estimates for the entire financial year, till the end of November this fiscal
year. Till October, the deficit was slightly lower at 79.3 per cent of the full fiscal deficit
target. The Union Budget had estimated fiscal deficit at 5.33 lakh crore for 2016-17
which works out to 3.5 per cent of the GDP. The fiscal deficit widened in November
mainly due to muted gross tax revenues.
The Minister also said that high bank deposits due to demonetisation would lead to more
savings that would in turn lead to higher investments. Much of the money coming in(to)
the banking system will enable banks to lend more. When money comes into the banking
system, the savings rate of the economy will increase and more money will be spent on
infrastructure. China has seen high economic growth because of good savings rate, he
said.

People and patience, post-demonetisation Fortitude and

composure in the face of trials have marked the general
popular mood over the past weeks
Author: Ritwik Banerjee

Patience is hardly an attribute that is associated with the Indian psyche, particularly of
the male variety. Instances of road rage at the slightest pretext, leading even to death,
are far too common. A flock is way more common a formation than a queue. Even if a
queue is to be formed, violators run amok in total disregard of the conscientious and
often the geriatric in the waiting. The urban phenomenon of delirious honking is another
manifestation of patience running thin.
The recent past, however, has thrown up a remarkable exception: the general attitude in
demonetised India.
As we near the two-month mark, a consensus seems to be emerging among economists,
from both sides of the ideological spectrum, that demonetisation will lead to significantly
lower real GDP growth in the transition phase than expected but will have no effect in
the long run. Estimates from academics and financial analysts suggest that
demonetisation may lead to a decrease in annual real GDP growth of anything between 1
and 2 percentage points than had been expected.
One of the many crucial assumptions of course is that the national accounting norm
remains the same. Irrespective of what the exact number is, evidence suggests that
demonetisation has left behind a trail of economic consequences in terms of job loss and
diminished economic activity, particularly in the informal sector, and will continue to do
so in the near future.
Besides the pure economic cost, the psychological cost of having to wait in serpentine
queues for a couple of thousand rupees is enormous. And queueing up may not yield
rewards anyway as ATMs continue to run dry, especially in the semi-urban and rural
areas. Initial reports suggested that the queues in the second month have been
significantly shorter than those in the first. Now it seems the shorter queues have a
different explanation people have a fair sense of how long cash will last, if at all, and
rational as they are, do not wait if they think their turn will not come. All this for their
own money, and this makes demonetisation even more exasperating and psychologically
costly. For the pain that has thus been inflicted, the aam aadmi has shown extraordinary
restraint and patience. There has been no major threat to public order despite
considerable hardship, there has been no major protests, let alone violent ones. This is
quite unlike other instances of sudden and unexpected economic downturn across the
world the Argentinian riots in 1989 were largely attributed to sustained hyperinflation.

The 1991 structural adjustments-driven economic reforms in India led to considerable

labour unrest in the mid-1990s. The Arab Spring, which promised to change the political
landscape in West Asia earlier in the decade, was partly attributed to the widespread
unemployment and economic hardship of the Arab youth.
Further, research suggests that negative income shock across the world leads to greater
conflict in fact even scarcity of rainfall, which is entirely natural and thus exogenous,
has been found to have a strong effect on violence and conflict in India. It is remarkable
that the overall sentiment post-demonetisation continues to be largely positive, despite
its obvious immediate economic impact. So much so that there is hardly any wind in the
Oppositions sails. The moot question is, why.
Some have argued that the idea of sacrifice is seen as the hallmark of Indian civilisation
and the current dispensation has effectively appealed to it. It has given an impression
that any act that is critical of demonetisation is in effect a violation of the spirit of
sacrifice, which is an elemental part of our history and culture.
But this is only partly true. While sacrifice in itself provides a moral tone, sacrifice for a
greater common good offers the temporal foundation.
And that temporal foundation was initially to eliminate black money and it is now to
engender a cashless society. But that is not all. The government and its social media
allies have gone a step further to situate demonetisation on the tried and tested plank of
nationalism.
So a dissent to demonetisation is being treated as a dissent to the idea of Indian nation
state. In fact, the Indian military, which till now had been the most luminous emblem in
the pantheon of nationalism, has been replaced, however temporarily, by the bank teller.
The automatic tellers have been rendered substantially ineffective, and the hardworking, resilient and ever-alert human tellers have been accorded the status of the
jawan. An unfortunate death in the ranks of bank personnel has been conveniently coopted into the narrative of martyrdom.

This is impressive

It is true that the cashless, opinion-making, upper-middle India has not faced the brunt
of demonetisation. But even the section of the people that has been directly hit as a
result of the policy, has displayed an impressive composure, often found wanting on
other occasions.
Understanding how human behaviour can be changed is a fascinating academic
discipline. A lot of advances have been made here in the recent past, but none as

spectacular as the effect of a generous dose of nationalism, however devoid that idea
may be of the very people who constitute the nation.
(The author is an
Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore)
ritwikbanerjee@iimb.ernet.in

Nobody can escape the verdict from the highest court of

the land: Lodha
Author: G. Viswanath

Not much has changed since the Supreme Courts decision to validate the Justice Lodha
committees report on reforms in cricket which proposed a complete makeover of the
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in order to rid the system of a group of
individuals who had held on to power for a long time.
In the last five and a half months, the Supreme Court and the member committee of
Justice R.M. Lodha, Ashok Bhan and R.M. Raveendran found that the majority of the
BCCI members did not show any inclination in complying with the recommendations
before the deadline of December 15, 2016. The Lodha Committee filed three Status
reports explaining the impediments faced by it in implementing its own
recommendations as mandated by the Supreme Court.
Twice, the Committee proposed to the apex court that the principal office-bearers of the
BCCI be replaced by a panel of administrators from within the Board. In its last Status
report, the Committee stated that since the Supreme Court had accepted its
recommendations almost in toto, those who came under the purview of its
recommendations stand disqualified or cease to exist.
On Monday, the Supreme Court, acting on the third Status report and also on the
previous ones, removed president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke from their
posts.
Justice Lodhas statement sums up the whole episode in totality. Nobody can escape the
verdict from the highest court of the land, this is the logical consequence. Once the
recommendations were accepted by the court, it had be implemented. There were
obstructions, there were impediments. Obviously, this had to happen, and it has
happened. The Supreme Court itself has ensured that its order of July 18 is now
enforced. Its a victory for the game of cricket and it will flourish; administrators come
and go, ultimately it is for the game, he said after Mondays verdict.

Its expected that, most probably on January 19, the Committee of Administrators will
come into existence. They will ensure that the BCCIs Memorandum of Association, Rules
and Regulations is replaced by the one authored by the Justice Lodha Committee.
Clearly, the Supreme Court wants the BCCI itself to be part and parcel of the
implementation process with the Committee of Administrators playing the facilitator role.

between wickets Supreme Court brings Indian cricket into

the 21st century
The BCCI brought about its own downfall, aided by nothing more than its
hubris and cavalier disregard for the laws of the land
Author: Suresh Menon

The worlds most successful secret society has been given a lesson in transparency and
that is cause for celebration.
No tears need be wasted on the panjandrums who have been running the Board of
Control for Cricket in India and its State associations like personal fiefdoms.
The Supreme Court finally reeled in the long rope it had given the BCCI, and so tripped
up its senior officials. If there was contrition among the officials, these remained
unexpressed. Yesterdays powerhouses will be tomorrows forgotten men, their frown
and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command erased forever.
Inevitably, some good men will be thrown out with the bad, and there will be much
churning as the old order makes way for the new. The saner elements of the board will

wonder if it had to come to this, when, with greater maturity and common sense, the
BCCI might have emerged with some dignity.
For the BCCI brought about its own downfall, aided by nothing more than its hubris and
cavalier disregard for the laws of the land. You cannot ignore a Supreme Court
judgement, as the BCCI did, and hope that nothing will change. It wasnt just arrogance,
it was foolishness of the highest order.
Would past presidents like Chinnaswamy and Sriraman, Gaekwad and Bindra, Dungarpur
and Dalmiya have allowed things to come to this pass? It is convenient to believe they
wouldnt. But there is false memory at play here, a harking back to a golden era that
never existed. Ghulam Ahmed, former off spinner and board vice-president, put it
succinctly, There are no values in the board.
The Anurag Thakurs and Ajay Shirkes are paying the price for the culture that men like
those mentioned had brought into the BCCI. These men ran the best sports body in the
country, and somehow believed that they had a divine right to do so. Players kowtowed
to them, politicians and businessmen chased them, and they clung on to power with a
touching desperation.
The current dispensation extended that culture and refined it. They, like their
predecessors, failed to understand the connection between actions and consequences.
At any time in the BCCIs eight-decade history, the Supreme Court could have stepped in
and ruled as it did now. Accountability and transparency were never in the BCCIs
handbook for officials, but public scrutiny was not as intense as it is now, and in some
cases the good that an official did outweighed the bad, and all was forgiven.

Benevolence betrayed

Brinkmanship a tactic much favoured by the BCCI to bring other cricket boards and
indeed the International Cricket Council to its knees is not a strategy guaranteed to
impress the Supreme Court. That the highest court gave the BCCI more than six months
to comply with its order when it could have acted even as deadlines were ignored is a
testimony to its benevolence.
But how did a three-time Member of Parliament, which is what Anurag Thakur is, and
sundry other luminaries, misjudge the seriousness of the situation? Was this a proxy war
fought on behalf of his political masters by Thakur, or was the Board, recognising the
inevitable, preparing for a scorched earth response? The first will have to remain in the
realm of speculation till a lead actor in the drama spills the beans. We shall soon know
about the second.

The BCCIs death wish has been one of the features of the whole saga. Thakur came in
as the bright, young face of the board. There was an energy about him which makes his
fall a disappointment. At 42 he was the man who replaced the old guard. Yet, within
weeks, the cozy club he had tried to break up when N. Sinivasan was in charge, quickly
reshaped itself into a new cozy club.

Good out of the bad

His fall is a cautionary tale for those who set out to change the system but is absorbed
by it. The Supreme Courts ruling will also impact other sports which have been resisting
change like the BCCI. And that is good news for Indian sport.
The domestic season has been unaffected by the BCCIs problems. This has been the
case traditionally, and is one of the true blessings of Indian cricket. There are enough
dedicated officials to ensure that the show goes on.
A generational change has been forced upon the BCCI, which is otherwise happy to
continue with sons and nephews (never daughters and nieces) and other relatives
keeping everything in the family.
Now State associations will have to change their registrations where necessary, holding
general body meetings in order to advance this. Legal procedures need to be followed.
There is a temptation to believe that cricketers make the best administrators. This is a
common fallacy. There are cricketers who have made excellent administrators, but being
able to play the square cut is no guarantee of managerial skills. The names of corrupt
cricketer-officials are well known.
There is a long road ahead, mostly uncharted. But a start has been made. The new
system may not be perfect, but it is better than the old one. Accountability ensures that.

What else could we have done: Shirke

Author: Amol Karhadkar

Hours after he was eventually axed as the BCCI secretary along with president Anurag
Thakur, Ajay Shirke stuck to his stand and said the duo couldnt have handled matters
any other way.
Could the BCCI have done anything differently during the legal tussle?

What different? Let me reiterate that the directive of the Lodha Committee to us was to
call the members and get the new constitution adopted. But our members refused to
adopt the constitution in its entirety.
Please understand, who are you calling the members? The likes of Railways, Services,
CCI, NCC and Universities, they are sitting in the meeting and they were supposed to
say in the meeting how the hell can I be a part of the BCCI. I should keep myself out.
Please kick me out of this organisation. Is it possible?
Three-fourth members had to say something like this if you have to go as per the law of
the land. If you dont have to go as per the law of the land, the Supreme Court or Lodha
Committee should have empowered us or told us even if the members are not agreeing,
we are giving you directions that tomorrow onwards, this will be your new constitution.
They neither did that or this. Now I am glad in a way that the Court has taken it upon
itself to get this implemented, so its good that it will be implemented now.
How would you differentiate your own position between your resignation as BCCI
treasurer in 2013 and since you returned as secretary in 2016?
I resigned in 2013 because of the bad handling of the IPL betting and match-fixing
scandal. We didnt handle it properly because Mr. N. Srinivasan kept on giving Mr.
Gurunath Meiyappan a clean chit and that is why I resigned.
As for this, what could I have done differently. We have called the members, not once
but three times. When we were told that the payments of the members could be
stopped, we called them again and told them if you dont implement this, your payments
will be stopped. They still said we dont want to go ahead with the new rules, so what
else could we have done?
Would you say that the BCCI office-bearers missed an opportunity to sit across the table
with the Lodha Committee?
I have sat across the table with the Lodha Committee. When they had called us, I had
gone and they told us this has to be implemented and there cannot be any discussion on
this. When Anurag Thakurji couldnt come when the Parliament was on, I had gone and
met with them. And later on, when the Supreme Court had given directions to them, we
sought an appointment with the Lodha Committee but we did not get one. What else
could we have done?
Has Mondays sackings further damaged the BCCIs image or has it ushered the
beginning of a new era?
Look, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. What we are trying to end is a proven 87year-old track record. Let us see what happens in the next eight and a half months and
then see if it changes for the better. Let the reforms come in, let them be implemented
and ultimately the deliverables will decide whether it has worked or not.

Going full monty to save the pythons

Author: Special Correspondent

PANAJI: Goa-based herpetologist and wildlife photographer, Nirmal Kulkarni, has

launched Living with Pythons, a nationwide initiative beginning this year to create
awareness and instil appreciation about the countrys three Python species.
These include the Indian Rock Python (Python molurus), Burmese Python (Python
bivittatus) and Reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus).

The largest species

Together, these snakes represent some of the largest snake species of the world, says
Mr. Kulkarni, who is also a Member of the Goa State Biodiversity Board and of Goa State
Wildlife Advisory Board.
The Indian Rock python, the species found in Goa and across the Indian mainland
commonly, is a highly threatened one.
The initiative aims to promote acceptance, awareness and understanding about the
python species through conservation outreach and field based herpetology techniques,
Mr. Kulkarni said on Monday.

4-1-17

Plan to convert mandis into e-markets cleared

New wholesale market to be constructed at Tikri Khampur at a cost of 800
crore
Author: Staff Reporter

New Delhi: In a bid to modernise trade and business in the Capital, the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) government on Tuesday decided to facilitate the conversion of existing mandis into
e-mandis.
A proposal has also been approved to construct an e-mandi at Tikri Khampur in west
Delhi at a cost of 800 crore within two-and-a-half years.

Review meeting

Development Minister Gopal Rai announced the steps following a review meeting with
the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board (DAMB).
The budget passed by the board for 2017-18 stood at 371.18 crore for the estimated
income while the expenditure proposed was 434.19 crore.
Our main objective is to usher in more transparency and accountability in this business.
We also want to ensure that farmers get fair value for their goods, the Minister said.
Taking note of demonetisation blues, Mr. Rai added said that the Delhi government had
installed 38 POS machines in mandis to reduce hardships faced by traders and
customers.
The conversion of the mandis, the Minister said, was being done in collaboration with the
NAM Group.

New market

The new mandi, the government said, will be developed over an area of 70 acres and will
be equipped with modern facilities.
A special consultant will also be roped in to facilitate the conversion of the Azadpur
mandi to relieve congestion. Changes are also in the offing for the Ghazipur mandi
where a four-storey building with modern facilities is being constructed.
The flower market at Ghazipur will also be modernised. The budget allocated for this
makeover is 140 crore, said a senior government official. The market will feature 432
shops with cold storage facilities

More revamps

A three-storey building will be constructed at the poultry market in Ghazipur at a cost of

120 crore. The Mongolpuri fodder market is set to be replaced by a sabzi mandi soon,
added the official.
The Azadpur cement warehouse area will also see some changes with the reconstruction
of three sheds and an upgrade of the existing drainage system at a cost of 20 crore.

No freedom from poverty for kin of martyr Udham Singh

New Delhi: Though nationalism and patriotism are evoked often in the national discourse
today, the great-grandnephew of iconic revolutionary Udham Singh is struggling to
secure the job of a peon with the Punjab government, which had been promised to him
by former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh 10 years ago.
The promise of the Congress government did not materialise after the regime changed.
The repeated pleas of Jagga Singh, the great-grandson of Udham Singhs elder sister Aas
Kaur, to the Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP government have not yielded any results.
Udham Singh had avenged the massacre of hundreds of people in Jallianwala Bagh on
April 13, 1919 by General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer by killing Michael ODwyer, who
was the Governor of Punjab when the massacre took place, in London 21 years later.
Charged with murder, he was hanged to death in 1940 in a prison in London.

Jagga Singh works at a cloth merchants shop for 2,500 a month, to sustain a family of
six including his 60-year-old father, Jeet Singh.
Hoping to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath
Singh, 30-year-old Mr. Singh has been holding a dharna for the last four days at the
Jantar Mantar here.
But neither the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is ruling at the Centre, nor the Shiromani
Akali Dal in the State have offered anything concrete. We are not begging from the
government to give us money; we are just asking for a job, which is our right and not
wrong demand, he said. PTI

Secularising the election

The Supreme Court has grappled with the question whether a provision in electoral law
that makes it a corrupt practice to use religion, race, caste or language as a ground for
canvassing votes in an election is a bar limited to the groups to which candidates or their
rivals belong, or whether it is a general prohibition on sectarian appeals. Section 123(3)
of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, as amended in 1961, gave rise to this
doubt. By a four-three majority, a seven-member Bench has ruled that it is a general
prohibition on the use of religion or any other communal or sectarian value in the
electoral arena. The minority favoured limiting the ambit of the sub-section to cover only
candidates who sought votes on such grounds, or the rivals they wanted the voters not
to back on similar grounds. That secularism is the bedrock of our democracy is
undisputed. That the electoral process ought not to permit appeals to the electorate on
these narrow grounds is equally beyond doubt. Against this backdrop, it is only logical
that the Supreme Court should decide that it is a corrupt practice for candidates to use
any caste or communal parameters to canvass for votes or to discredit a rival, regardless
of whether the candidates themselves belong to such religious, communal or linguistic
groups.
It is interesting that the dispute turned on a single pronoun, his, that was introduced in
the 1961 amendment. The majority opinion favours a purposive interpretation, holding
that it covered the candidates as well as the voter. It finds support in legislative history
and our constitutional ethos. The purpose of the amendment was to widen the scope of
the particular corrupt practice. Given that secularism is a basic feature of the
Constitution, it has been interpreted in the light of Parliaments intention to prohibit any
religious or sectarian appeal for votes. There is a justifiable worry that a wider
interpretation may lead to eliminating from the poll discourse political issues that turn on
religion, caste or language. After all, this is a country in which sections of society suffer

deprivation and historical injustices based on religious or caste identity. But the overall
message is clear. It is left to the wisdom of judges dealing with election cases to draw
the line between what is permissible and what is not, and look at the context in which
some statements are made before deciding whether they constitute a corrupt practice.
The majority verdict will find resonance with all those who swear by the primacy of
secularism in the public domain. The minority view nuances this with a reminder that
legal issues need to be seen in their social context.

A nudge to borrowers

The State Bank of Indias decision to cut its marginal cost of funds based lending rate
(MCLR) by 90 basis points is a timely nudge to borrowers, especially given the sharp
slowdown in credit growth in the current fiscal year. The timing of the cut is not
surprising, given that the countrys largest commercial lender is awash with funds held in
current and savings account (CASA) deposits following the Centres decision to withdraw
high-value banknotes and impose withdrawal curbs on account-holders. With demand
across sectors having taken a knock in the wake of the resultant cash crunch, the SBIs
decision to reduce borrowing costs is likely to spur some credit-fuelled buying including
in sectors such as automobiles. Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India show that
growth in bank credit decelerated to 1.2 per cent in the April 1-December 9, 2016
period, compared with the 6.2 per cent pace witnessed in the comparable period in
2015. Deposit growth, on the other hand, almost doubled in pace, accelerating from 7.1
per cent in the same period in 2015 to 13.6 per cent in 2016. Banks have thus found
themselves in an unenviable situation where their liabilities (the money they owe
depositors) have jumped sharply, while their assets (the loans they give) have instead
almost stagnated. This has added to their woes at a time when mounting bad loans have
pushed most public sector banks to post record quarterly losses. The demonetisation
decision has willy-nilly ended up providing banks with the windfall of low-cost deposits
that could potentially serve as the launch pad to a credit-backed demand stimulus in the
economy.
Other banks have also cut lending rates, and lenders are now vying with each other to
innovatively structure credit products, including home loans, in a bid to capitalise on
what they hope will be an enduring revival in the appetite for borrowing. Still, the
constraint of needing to fund the substantially higher interest commitments on deposits
that have swelled the banks liabilities have also forced the SBI to raise the spread it
applies on home loans the additional markup interest it charges over the benchmark
one-year MCLR to a minimum of 50 basis points from 25 basis points earlier. The
question is whether this reduction in borrowing costs will be enough to restore consumer
confidence. With the Union budget less than a month away, the coming weeks could well
serve to provide clear signals on the potential need for a fiscal stimulus to reinvigorate

flagging economic growth, especially if a revival in credit growth is going to be slower

than anticipated.

Two takes on democracy This week, a divided Supreme

Court placed before us two visions of the public sphere,
pitting the ideal of the universal citizen against citizenelectors situated within their social contexts
The dissents crucial insight was this: after centuries of structural and
institutional discrimination, markers of identity had acquired a certain
social salience Gautam Bhatia

Do fair elections require that certain kinds of statements such as appeals to religion,
caste, and language be taken off the campaigning table altogether? Can the state
prevent adult citizens from being exposed to certain ideas before they vote? Can a court
decide that only certain kinds of interests count in a democracy? Does secularism
mandate the complete exclusion of religion from the public sphere? And must identities
based upon religion, caste, and language always be treated as evils to be fought and
eradicated? Or can they sometimes become sites of emancipation, markers around which
citizens organise themselves and seek liberation through the attainment of political
power?

A landmark judgment

These questions, fundamental to understanding the foundations of our republic, were

answered by a divided Supreme Court on Monday. The seven judges hearing the case
split four to three, revealing the complexity of the issues involved, as well as an
inevitable collision of constitutional values. And it all began with a disagreement over a
single word: his.
Section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act, Indias omnibus election law,
defines a corrupt electoral practice as follows: The appeal by a candidate or his agent or
by any other person with the consent of a candidate or his election agent to vote or
refrain from voting for any person on the ground of his religion, race, caste,
community.... The question before the Supreme Court was deceptively simple: did the
underlined word his qualify only the electoral candidate (and his agent, or persons
speaking with his consent)? Or did it also qualify the person to whom the appeal was
addressed (the elector)? A quick glance at the text of the section will tell us that,

although the former reading is more plausible, language alone cannot answer the
question: the section does not specify whether his refers to the speaker seeking votes,
or the audience from whom votes are being sought. To select one interpretation over the
other, we must ask ourselves: what is this law trying to achieve?

The majority view

Four out of seven judges held that the law was trying to achieve the purity of elections,
and that the purity of elections required that appeals to caste, religion, language, and
community be kept out of the electoral process. In the view of the majority, an election
that was fought and decided on these issues was a distortion of democracy. And it was
distorted because of two reasons: one, that for democracy to survive, there must be
agreement on certain basic essentials which could unite and hold citizens together.
Religion, language, caste, etc were precisely the kind of divisive markers of identity that
threatened this fragile consensus; and two, while democracy depended on voters
exercising their franchise on the basis of rational thought and action, appeals to religion,
language, and caste were inherently emotive and irrational in nature. To substantiate
this, the majority also marshalled the legislative history behind the section, holding that
its basic purpose was to curb communal, fissiparous and separatist tendencies.
Therefore, to restrict Section 123(3)s prohibition only to electoral candidates would be
contrary to public interest.
Furthermore, in his separate, concurring opinion, Chief Justice T.S. Thakur added another
string to this bow. The Chief Justice held that secularism required the complete exclusion
of religion from public life: Religion can have no place in such [secular] activities for
religion is a matter personal to the individual with which neither the State nor any other
individual has anything to do.
Consequently, according to the majority, the word his in Section 123(3) was to be
understood broadly, referring to both the speaker as well as the audience. In effect, it
prohibited appeals to the prohibited grounds (religion, caste etc) during the electoral
process.
At the heart of the majoritys vision of the democratic public sphere was the ideal of
abstract, universal personhood. To enter the public sphere as citizens, we must leave our
messy markers of personal identity at the door, embracing our disembodied citizenselves. And once in the public sphere, we must participate as rational individuals,
deliberating about the public interest, unencumbered by the baggage of our religion,
caste, language, or community. But because our markers of identity are a constant
temptation, the state must help us out. It does this by passing laws that prohibit certain
kinds of election speech, speech that appeals to the prohibited markers of identity.

In this way, the state prevents the distortion of democracy, and helps us to become true
citizens. To some, this might sound like a noble and inspiring vision of democracy, and of
the Constitution.
But it was not the vision that the dissenting judges held. At the heart of the
disagreement between the majority and the dissent was a disagreement over the idea of
citizenship, and the value of identity. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, the author of the
dissenting opinion, wrote: The Constitution... recognises the position of religion, caste,
language and gender in the social life of the nation. Individual histories both of citizens
and collective groups in our society are associated through the ages with histories of
discrimination and injustice on the basis of these defining characteristics... [and] access
to governance is a means of addressing social disparities. Social mobilisation is a
powerful instrument of bringing marginalised groups into the mainstream. To hold that a
person who seeks to contest an election is prohibited from speaking of the legitimate
concerns of citizens that the injustices faced by them on the basis of traits having an
origin in religion, race, caste, community or language would be remedied is to reduce
democracy to an abstraction.

Universal citizen does not exist

The dissents answer to the majoritys construction of the universal citizen was that such
an individual did not, and could not, exist. Human beings are always situated within their
social contexts, and in India, these contexts have been characterised by religion,
language, caste, and community. These are, and have been, the sites of inclusion and
exclusion, privilege and oppression, domination and resistance, power, pleasure,
discrimination, and suffering. In the dissents view, constitutional law could not be
oblivious to this history. It could not wrench the individual out of her context, and set her
down, abstract and disembodied, to deliberate in the public sphere. And most
importantly, it could not say to those who, for centuries, had been denied dignity and
rights on the very basis of their caste, religion, language or community that they were
now precluded from organising around those very markers to liberate themselves.
In the last analysis, the dissents crucial insight was this: after centuries of structural and
institutional discrimination, these markers of identity had acquired a certain social
salience that is, a certain visible significance. For all these years, this social salience
had been used to arbitrarily exclude and marginalise those who fell on the wrong side of
it. But now, with the advent of democracy, it was precisely this social salience that
allowed the oppressed to organise around the site of their prior oppression, and use that
to gain political power. It was that which allowed B.R. Ambedkar to form the All India
Scheduled Castes Federation, a political party exclusively devoted to Dalit emancipation.

For this reason, the dissent held that Section 123(3) had to be construed narrowly. The
phrase his religion referred only to the religion of an electoral candidate, and not the
religion of the voter. Section 123(3) prohibited statements like I am a Hindu, vote for
me, or My opponent is a Hindu, dont vote for her. Such a law was permissible,
because a candidate was supposed to represent her entire constituency, and not just a
subset of it. But, the dissent held, this far and no further. The same logic could not be
extended to citizen-electors, when they participated in the electoral process.
On Monday, the Supreme Court placed before us two visions of the Constitution, of
democracy, of citizenship, and the public sphere. As a matter of law, the majority carried
the day; but it is for each of us to ask ourselves which vision we find more convincing,
and truer to our uniquely plural and diverse democracy, and to its eventful and
tumultuous history.
Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based lawyer.

Letters To Editor
K.R. Srinivasan,SecunderabadPrem K. Menon,MumbaiM.Y.
Shariff,ChennaiAbhinav Bhatt,Ludhiana, PunjabSeshagiri Row
Karry,HyderabadS. Viswanathan,TiruchiAmanvir Singh Tiwana,Patiala,
PunjabJ.S. Acharya,HyderabadGanapathi Bhat,Akola, MaharashtraS.
Ramakrishnasayee,Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

No room for religion

The split ruling by the Supreme Court bench has far-reaching consequences as most
political parties have been winning elections by soliciting votes on the basis of religion,
caste, creed and language (Seeking votes on religious basis a corrupt act: SC, Jan.3).
However, it is a blow for parties which have been fighting elections on the development
plank. One needs to see how far the Election Commission can effectively implement the
ruling considering the rough and tumble of Indian politics. How the forthcoming
Assembly elections will be fought needs to be seen.
K.R. Srinivasan,
Secunderabad

The ruling should have come a long time ago keeping in mind general welfare, peace
and harmony in the country. Elections need to be fought on the basis of the past
performance of the candidate/party and the strategy, agenda and ideology of the party
concerned. Religion is sacred to every individual and personal. Mixing religion with
politics will not only divide the electorate, much to the detriment of the countrys secular
fabric, but will also go against the fundamental right to practise, propagate and profess
the religion of ones liking. The sanctity and significance of the electoral process to select
a candidate without any pressure or influence on the basis of religion and caste cannot
be sidelined.
Prem K. Menon,
Mumbai
This judgment has come at the right time especially when elections to some of the State
assemblies are round the corner, re-emphasising that secularism and only secularism is
the bedrock and hallmark of democracy in India. Nowhere in the world are politics and
governance mixed with religion and caste except in our country, which seems to have
lost its way as far as secularism and peace are concerned. Mixing religion with politics
will only lead to hatred, hostility and violence including communal and sectarian
violence, chaos and anarchy, and cause hurdles and impediments in the smooth
functioning of the government. One hopes that saner political leaders will take the cue
from the judgment.
M.Y. Shariff,
Chennai
A diverse society such as India still lags behind in terms of the real ethos of pluralism.
However, this should not be confused with the opportunists who exploit religious
sentiments to gather votes and end up doing nothing to ameliorate the conditions of the
minorities. In a society where the social consciousness of people is still based on
dogmatic religious propaganda, conflict is bound to emerge. In this case, protecting
their interests can be achieved if the intentions of political leadership are wellcommunicated to the people. There needs to be a debate on this important public issue
which can build consensus among the people.
Abhinav Bhatt,
Ludhiana, Punjab

Clean bowled

Enough is enough is the passionate reaction of an average cricket fan (SC bowls out
top BCCI leaders, Jan.3). It is time the game of cricket is cut to size, stripped of its
disproportionate power, pelf and lucre and shown its rightful place in the league of other
sports. One needs to recall the step-motherly attitude towards other sports.
Seshagiri Row Karry,
Hyderabad
As the only sports body that is autonomous, the BCCIs barons have surpassed the
great ideals of sport. Cricket, a high order game, has been reduced to cheerleader
tamasha. Even leading cricketers of yesteryear are reduced to playing second fiddle to
these rulers. The respective State associations should abide by the Lodha Committee
recommendations in toto.
S. Viswanathan,
Tiruchi
Sports administration organisations are almost all headed by politicians or those who
have political connections despite their lack of knowledge of sports and being
completely unconcerned about the well-being of the sport or sportspersons. Although it
may take a while to see qualified and experienced people heading these organisations,
a beginning has been made. Many a biopic on sportspersons shows the apathetic
attitude of the administration and how it is by individual effort that sportspersons
excel. The development should also pave the way to nurture facilities for sports to
flourish in the country.
Amanvir Singh Tiwana,
Patiala, Punjab

Battle for the bicycle

While U.P.s politics is wide open for now, what is clear is that a new leader has emerged.
In this stand-off, if the father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, was depicted as a prisoner of the
old order, with its disreputable associations and allegiances, the son, Akhilesh Yadav, was
portrayed as a purveyor of clean politics and a practitioner of vikas. Mr. Akhilesh may
have been U.P.s Chief Minister for a while, but he is being touted as the leader of the
youth, eager to tap the raw and restless energy of young voters while his father
believes he needs to be at the helm to ensure the old party faithful do not stray away.

At the core is the father who is unable to accept the inevitable generational
transformation (Mulayam stakes claim to SPs bicycle symbol, Jan.3).

J.S. Acharya,
Hyderabad
It is very unfortunate that the Samajwadi Party, which called itself a democratic socialist
group, now finds itself in the midst of an ugly family war. What is intriguing is how
Mulayam Singh Yadav, a battle-scarred veteran with much experience in politics, could
have allowed things to spiral out of control. A free Akhilesh Yadav may have his way and
tie up with the Congress, but the BSP and the BJP look like they are running all the way
to the vote bank.
Ganapathi Bhat,
Akola, Maharashtra

Service charge waiver

The Central government has said that the consumers (in hotels and restaurants) need
not pay service charges if they feel the service is not satisfactory (Hotel service charge
optional, says govt. Jan.3). How can the government not be oblivious to the fact that
hotel owners can easily increase the prices of dishes they supply and compensate the
loss? In a country such as India, where the consumer awareness is low, sellers rule the
roost.
S. Ramakrishnasayee,

Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

The Court reigns Supreme

The BCCIs biggest achievement in many ways is its biggest downfall
success, clout and profitability Desh Gaurav Sekhri

On January 2, in an order that surprised no one except perhaps the Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI), the Supreme Court set the record and the status of Indian
crickets governing body straight. Widely expected yet unprecedented, the court took the
BCCI and its top leadership to task, removing the president, Anurag Thakur, and the
secretary, Ajay Shirke, from their respective positions. Accepting the Justice Lodha
Committees concerns set out in the earlier status reports, the court reaffirmed its July
18, 2016 verdict, signalling the end of cricket administration as we have known it.

Price of non-compliance

Effective immediately, any BCCI and State associations official must be eligible as per
the Lodha Committees eligibility criteria. The senior-most eligible vice-president will be
the interim president of the BCCI, and the joint secretary will be the interim secretary for
the next two weeks. The court also appointed two senior advocates to propose names for
a committee of administrators that will essentially govern cricket and simultaneously
ensure implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations. In what is expected
to be the final order on this matter, on January 19 the Supreme Court will release the
names of the committee of administrators, and the transition to the court-appointed
administration era will officially commence.
For the BCCI, the conclusion to what has been a series of unfortunate events laced with
ill-advised moves and baffling periods of silence could not have been more hard-hitting.
Eligible officials must provide a declaration that they will be in compliance with the Lodha
Committees directives. For Mr. Thakur, things have become rather uncomfortable. In its
order, the court declared the leadership of Mr. Thakur (and Mr. Shirke) ineffectual basis
his stated inability to force the State associations to comply with the courts orders. The
court also implied that Mr. Thakur could face contempt charges for obstructing the
implementation of the courts orders, and most troubling of all it has recommended
pursuing a perjury charge for lying under oath and allegedly falsifying the BCCIs
minutes from August 22 in which an account of Mr. Thakurs version of his interaction
with the International Cricket Council is documented. However, with both Mr. Thakur and
Mr. Shirke seemingly having accepted their ouster, a more likely outcome is the court
requiring a written or oral apology from Mr. Thakur and putting an end to this once and
for all.
The BCCI and its State associations will probably rue the day the Indian Premier League
(IPL) spot-fixing scandal began in 2013, but in all honesty, there have been so many
opportunities for them to stem the rot that it is difficult to pinpoint how it all went so
wrong. Increasingly, the BCCI has become isolated and waged a battle that has seemed
strategically unsound. There was a major disconnect between how far the Board really
believed the court would go and the ground reality. What may also have escaped the
BCCIs notice is the changing perception of governance in sport and not just in India. The

Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has seen an invasive

overhaul recently, and in India, the Sports Ministrys vocal chastising of the Indian
Olympic Associations controversial appointments is a case in point.
So used to being left to its own devices, the BCCI may have lost perspective and
context. A little flexibility and the appearance of genuine reform would have gone a very
long way. Perceived arrogance and insularity aside, the Board has done what it is tasked
to do unlike any other sports federation in the world, let alone India develop and
promote the sport itself. Its biggest achievement in many ways is its biggest downfall
success, clout and profitability. The IPL is in serious limbo, and theres no telling if theres
been an adverse impact on the media rights value.

The road from here

At some point there could be serious questions asked of this latest order. By replacing
the Board with an unelected and subjectively appointed committee, optically what would
have changed is the nature of appointment and the appointing authority. An interim
committee tasked solely with the implementation of the courts verdict and to oversee a
transparent and fair election would have been ideal, and perhaps that is what will
actually happen.
There remain some unanswered questions, and now it appears that we may never know
whose names were mentioned in the sealed envelope submitted by the Justice Mudgal
Committee in its report on the spot-fixing scandal that triggered this entire stand-off.
And despite the BCCI seemingly having accepted the verdict, there is a growing buzz
that some State associations may yet file appeals now that Justice T.S. Thakur would
have retired as Chief Justice of India. So, there may be some twists along the way, but in
a legacy judgment, Justice Thakur has brought reform to cricket in a way that few ever
could have envisioned. An overhaul of this nature has never been attempted before, at
least not successfully. This could turn out to be a template for sports governance
globally, or just the opposite; its far too soon to know.
The Supreme Court and the Lodha Committees work here, as the saying goes, is done.
But the real challenges and work towards ensuring not just a successful governance
regimen but an equally successful on- and off-pitch tenure for the new leadership has
just begun.
Desh Gaurav Sekhri is a sports attorney and author of Not Out! The incredible story of
the Indian Premier League.

Death of a naturalist Peter Jackson was instrumental in

nature and tiger conservation in India

In part, Peter Jacksons communications skills helped create the impression

that in the 1970s, tiger conservation in India was due to the WWF Jairam
Ramesh

Peter Jacksons death last month in England after a prolonged and sad illness went
virtually unnoticed in this country. This is a pity given his lifelong association with India
and his two signal contributions to nature conservation, one in Haryana and the other in
Gujarat.
Jackson came out to India in the early fifties as a correspondent for Reuters and was
among the first to report the ascent of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing
Norgay in May 1953. Subsequently he became Secretary of the Delhi Bird Watching
Society, which had been established in May 1950 under the chairmanship of Mahatma
Gandhis close associate Horace Alexander, with Indira Gandhi as one of the foundermembers. She had got interested in birdwatching while jailed in Naini between
September 1942 and May 1943. Her father, who was himself then in Ahmadnagar Prison,
had sent her the second edition of Salim Alis The Book of Indian Birds which she read
and used both in prison and after.

Protecting the Sultanpur jheel

In November-December 1969, the International Union for Conservation of Nature held its
Tenth General Assembly in New Delhi. Over 300 of the worlds biggest names in
conservation congregated for the event. Indira Gandhi had made a forceful inaugural
address on November 24, 1969. Thereafter, Peter Jackson wrote to her on March 29,
1970: During the IUCN Conference, I took a number of distinguished wildlife experts
and ornithologists to the jheels at Sultanpur in Gurgaon district, about 25 miles from
Delhi. They were astonished at the wealth of wildlife and decided on the spot that efforts
should be made to have the jheels protected...
All of us interested in the Sultanpur jheels feel that your interest would add immense
impetus to the creation of this Nature Reserve of a kind which few, if any, capitals in the
world boast within a short distance.
We know the heavy demands on your time, but, as you are a founder-member of the
Delhi Bird Watching Society, we wondered if you would like to slip away for about three
hours one morning to see the Sultanpur jheels...

Two days later, Indira Gandhi noted on his letter: I could. How long will the birds be
there?
On April 1, 1970, Moni Malhoutra, her undersecretary and aide on environmental
matters, after speaking to Jackson, informed her that the flamingos and pelicans would
be around for a few more weeks though the ducks were already beginning to migrate.
He suggested that the Prime Minister visit the Sultanpur jheel on Sunday, April 5, 1970,
to which she responded the same day in her own hand: US [undersecretary] seems be
innocent so far as security arranged are concerned. I am very much afraid that the
sanctuary may be ruined.
Subsequently, Indira Gandhi sent Malhoutra to visit Sultanpur and brief her. The papers
that Jackson had sent her were passed on to the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bansi Lal,
who wrote to her on September 25, 1970 that he had initiated action to develop the
jheel into a bird sanctuary and a tourist destination. Four days later, she complimented
the Chief Minister for the steps he had taken, adding: I hope one day to visit them [the
jheels] myself, quietly and without fuss.
The sanctuary was notified on April 2, 1971 and the formal inauguration took place on
February 6, 1972. Indira Gandhi sent a message: The development of the Sultanpur
jheel as a bird sanctuary will be widely welcomed by all lovers of wildlife and
conservationists. The potentiality of the jheel, which attracts a large variety of birds, was
first noticed during the IUCN Conference in Delhi. I congratulate the Government of
Haryana for having acted so quickly to preserve and develop this great natural asset.
The proximity of the sanctuary to our capital city will make it an obvious tourist
attraction for all who are interested in our natural heritage. To the people of Delhi in
particular, it will afford easy escape from the monotony of urban life, and the joy of
observing some of natures most beautiful creatures in their own habitat.

Abandoning the park plan

Peter Jackson left India in mid-1970 and joined the World Wildlife Fund in Switzerland.
But he kept up with India regularly. He visited Porbandar a decade later. During that trip,
according to his own account, he spotted a small lake where over 4,000 Lesser
Flamingos were gathered. When he was told that that the lakes days were numbered
and it was soon going to be filled up to construct a park, he approached Indira Gandhi.
The Prime Minister immediately spoke to Madhavsinh Solanki, the Gujarat Chief Minister,
who assured her that the park plan would be abandoned. This paved the way for the
notification of the bird sanctuary in the Mahatmas birthplace in November 1988.
Jackson was also closely associated with WWFs Operation Tiger, which was launched to
support Indias own Project Tiger launched on April 1, 1973. It is generally believed that
in the seventies, tiger conservation in India was due to the WWFs efforts. In part, Peter

Jacksons communications skills helped create this impression. The WWF certainly helped
raise the international profile of Indias programme but in the first six years of Project
Tiger covering nine reserves, the total investment was about Rs. 6 crore, of which just
about 13 per cent came from WWF. That such an amount was set aside when the
finances of the Centre were in a precarious position was entirely due to the Prime
Minister herself.
Jairam Rameshs Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature will be published by Simon and
Schuster India in mid-2017.

After Saradha scam, Rose Valley came under scrutiny

Author: Special Correspondent

Kolkata: It is often said that in the eastern and central Indian States the biggest reserve
of private cash is in a company which has multiple identities, the Rose Valley Group.
According to the estimates of the investigating agencies the group had collected upwards
of 17,000 crore from the market. The small depositors association puts the figure
around 40.000 crore.
The organisation allegedly violated guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India and other
related financial fraud control acts, meant to regulate such companies raising small
investments.
However, a company spokesperson told The Hindu in 2013 that the company does not
have any investment scheme [and] does not sell any financial product.
The spokesperson claimed that the Rose Valley Group is in the business of time share
of hotels and had acquired about 50 properties in the country. It had multiple other
investments especially in media, film and jewellery.
According to investigating agencies the money, however, was primarily accumulated by
raising small investments in the rural areas of at least half a dozen States. Interestingly,
unlike the other big chit fund company, Saradha, the Rose Valley was not a defaulter in
Bengal as it was paying interest to its depositors.

SCs instruction

But after the Saradha scam opened a Pandoras Box, the Supreme Court instructed the
investigating agencies, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) to probe all the companies involved in raising funds from small
depositors. As a part of that process, the Rose Valley Group was investigated.
A CBI release said on Tuesday that the case was registered in June 2014 under Section
420 [cheating], 408 [breach of trust], 409 [criminal breach by public servant], 120-B/34
[criminal conspiracy] of IPC and various sections [4, 5 and 6] of Prize Chits & Money
Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, on the orders of the Honourable Supreme
Court dated 09.05.2014.
The order was passed on a writ petition against the then Chairman of a private Group of
Companies and others on the allegations that the said company had collected around
17,000 crore illegally from the general public after enticing them with the false promise
of paying higher rate of interest.
Gautam Kundu, the chairman of the group, and other officials were arrested in March
2015.
Presumably after interrogating the officials of the group, TMC MPs Tapas Paul and Sudip
Bandyopadhyay were arrested.

Union Budget to be presented on February 1

Author: Special Correspondent

New Delhi: Departing from convention, the Union Budget will be presented in Parliament
on February 1, a month earlier than the usual, and the Economic Survey will be tabled
on January 31, the same day President Pranab Mukherjee addresses the joint Houses of
Parliament.
Presided over by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary
Affairs met on Tuesday morning, and recommended the decision to the President. The
first part of the Budget session will run from January 31 to February 9. The Union
Cabinet had earlier decided to end the practice of a separate Railway budget.
Senior sources in the government also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold
an all-party meeting just before the session to discuss poll reforms.
In his address to the nation on December 31, Mr. Modi had said that parties needed to
shed the holier than thou attitude when it came to poll reforms and understand the
anger of the people with regard to poll funding, a source said.

Modi for scientific connect PM inaugurates 104th Indian

Science Congress, calls for best training to youth
Author: A.D. Rangarajan

Tirupati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined the need to inculcate the concept
of scientific social responsibility, akin to corporate social responsibility, to connect the
leading institutions with all stakeholders, including schools and colleges.
The idea is to create an environment for sharing of ideas and resources by providing
opportunity to the brightest and best of brains in every corner of India to excel in
science.
This will ensure that our youth get high-end training and exposure to the best of science
and technology to make them job-ready in a competitive world.
Delivering the inaugural address at the 104th Indian Science Congress on Sri
Venkateswara University campus here on Tuesday, on the theme Science and
Technology for national development, Mr. Modi announced all form of support to the
scientific and research organisations, and in turn, told scientists to leave no stone
unturned in ensuring that the fruits of science reached the marginalised sections of
society.
Pledging his government's support to building a strong S&T infrastructure that is
accessible to academia, start-ups, industry and R&D labs, the Prime Minister sought to
address the problems of ease of access, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of
expensive equipments.
In this connection, he mooted the idea of establishing professionally-managed centres in
Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode to house high-value scientific equipment.
Mr. Modi exhorted national laboratories to establish a connect with schools and colleges
to develop appropriate training programmes.

Hub and spoke model

Laboratories, research institutions and universities in each major city and region should
be interlinked to function on a hub and spoke model. The hubs will share major
infrastructure, drive our national science missions and be the engines that link discovery

to application, he said, while asking institutes to consider involving NRI Ph.D. students
and outstanding scientists from abroad for long-term research association.
Referring to the constraints involved in securing and completing research projects, the
Prime Minister indicated the need to ensure ease of doing science as an empowering
factor for scientific delivery.

Ensure 40% of currency reaches rural areas

Author: Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has directed banks to ensure that at least 40 per
cent of the supply of banknotes should reach rural areas while currency chests and
automated teller machines in such areas should have 500 and 100 denomination
banknotes. The banking regulator has observed that banknotes, being supplied to rural
areas, at present, are not commensurate with the requirements of rural population.
In a circular, RBI said banks should advise their currency chests to step up issuance of
fresh notes to rural branches of Regional Rural Banks, District Central Cooperative Banks
and commercial banks, white label ATMs in rural areas and post offices on a priority
basis.
Of the 4,000-odd currency chests in the country, most are managed by public sector
banks. Chests should issue banknotes in denominations of 500 and below. In particular
ATMs, including white label, may be issued 500s and 100s and among ATMs category,
Off-site ATMs should be allocated higher proportion of cash as against on site ATMs as
they are more important in last mile currency connectivity.
The RBI added that chests operating in a district should maintain the proportion on a
weekly average basis.

Prospects of April 1 GST rollout diminish further

Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The deliberations of the Goods and Services Tax Council inched forward on
Tuesday with the critical issue of cross empowerment not being discussed and Finance
Ministers of several States voicing their doubts about meeting the April 1 deadline for the
rollout of GST.

The first day of the two-day meeting saw several ministries and industry representatives,
including the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Railways,
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and industry bodies such as
NASSCOM, making presentations to the Council on their expectations from GST.
Dual control was not discussed in today's meeting. I don't think the April 1 deadline is
doable, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia said after the meeting.
This was reiterated by Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, who said an April 1 rollout
of GST was definitely not possible.
Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said, Many constitutional issues of
interstate GST were taken up at the GST Council meeting. Dual control may be taken up
tomorrow.

Cross empowerment

Following the previous meeting of the GST Council, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
had said the majority of the issues surrounding the other draft legislations the Central
GST and State GST had been solved, and that the only issues remaining had to do
with cross empowerment.
The Civil Aviation Ministry in its presentation to the GST Council requested it to keep tax
rates on air tickets at the present level to ensure airfares do not rise, Civil Aviation
Secretary R.N. Choubey told The Hindu. At present, airlines pay service tax of nine per
cent on business class tickets and six per cent on economy class tickets. The Ministry has
further asked the Council to ensure that there is no impact of GST on import or leasing
of aircraft engine or spare parts, Mr. Choubey said.
Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she had sought complete exemption for the
leather sector from GST.She added that the current taxation for cement is very high, and
that this needed a review under GST.
Regarding GST refunds, Ms. Sitharaman said that calculations showed GST refunds could
take up to eight months, and hence had requested that exporters be exempted from
paying input tax upfront.
There are several open issues for the service sector and the industry would hope that
these are addressed in the final legislation, Pratik Jain, Partner and Leader, Indirect Tax,
PwC India said. The key issue of dual control was not taken up which is the crux of the
contention. Any movement forward would be contingent upon the agreement on this
issue.

CAG gearing up for role in BCCI

Author: Josy Joseph

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which is set to have a
significant role in the administration of cash-rich cricket bodies in the wake of the Lodha
Committee recommendations, is gearing up to nominate its representatives to the BCCI
and State associations.
The CAG is yet to receive a formal communication from the Lodha Committee, or the
Supreme Court. We are awaiting that to begin the process, said a senior CAG source.
As per the recommendations, the CAG will have a nominee in the Apex Council that
would oversee the administration of cricket in India. CAG would also have a nominee on
the IPL Governing Council. Besides, the CAG nominees are also expected to find a place
in the State bodies.
For the National-level Apex Council, an officer of the rank of Deputy CAG or a retired
senior official of that rank could be nominated. At the State-level, officials junior to that
rank could be considered.

general Sports policy should revolve around athletes, says

Pankaj Advani
Author: Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: In the backdrop of the Supreme Court tightening the noose around the BCCI
to implement Lodha Committee reforms and the demand for revision in the National
Sports Code for other sports bodies, 16-time World champion cueist Pankaj Advani said
sports organisations should be athlete-centric to produce champions on a regular basis.
The Supreme Court order on the BCCI and the Indian Olympic Associations controversial
move to appoint Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Chautala, who are facing corruption charges,
have triggered the demand for transparency and good governance in sports bodies.
Particularly in the context of the BCCI, Advani said even though he could not comment
on what happened with the cricket body he would like the sports policy to revolve
around athletes. Until then dont expect anythingWe will have champions coming out
because of their own motivation, effort, own support staff etc. But champions coming out

of the system as part of a structured policy, dont expect that, said Advani, who was
here to take part in the Kolkata Open snooker championship.
Advani said India had a long way to go to be like China, Australia and America in sports.
He said in India sporting excellence was measured on the basis of performances in
quadrennial events, such as the Olympics and the Asian Games. Sport is about
consistency Ask Roger Federer and he would say Wimbledon over Olympics
Celebration of a person finishing fourth or winning a bronze in the Olympics is much
more than a multiple World title or someone who has won a medal no one else has.
I definitely feel there is a big difference in the way we celebrate achievements in
quadrennial events compared to those in year in and year out. I am not complaining.
This is our perception. If we have to change our perception, we have to look at sport
from a different angle.

5th of JaN 2017

Pollution problem: rules tough but implementation weak

Experts say the issue must be tackled in a comprehensive
and concerted manner with tailor-made solutions for every
source of pollution
The Pollution Control Boards in India are designed to be toothless... they
dont have adequate legal authority to do much about pollution, nor do they
have the financial and administrative capacity
Author: Samarth Bansal

New Delhi: Winter has set in and pollution levels are once again soaring in Delhi. Even
after a slew of measures were announced by the government, little seems to have
improved. So what is it that is missing, or hinders, our fight against pollution?
Two things are paramount to understand this issue. First, there are several different
sources of pollution, each of which needs a separate solution. Second, pollution doesnt
know borders: pollutants are carried for hundreds of kilometres which means that not all
of Delhis pollution originates in the capital. And likewise, it also contributes to pollution
in nearby regions.

Weak State capacity

Experts say that one of the critical constraints that plague pollution control in India is its
weak State capacity, defined as the ability of the government to administer and its
capacity to design and implement rules or policies.

Even though we are able to push certain legislations and adopt the principles needed for
sustainability, the big gap lies in the implementation, says Anumita Roychowdhury, head
of Centre for Science and Environment's clean air programme.
Environmental laws are pretty strong but it does not necessarily lead to enforcement
and implementation. Institutions and mechanism of implementation are weak or have
not matured.
For instance, as per a study by IIT Kanpur, road dust accounts for 38 per cent of Delhis
pollution.
To reduce the dust, municipal corporations will have to manage their construction
activities a lot better and contractors will be required to spray water to eliminate dust,
cordon off construction areas, complete projects in a time-bound manner, use drilling
instead of digging among other things
Regulating all this would require a PWD that is a lot less corrupt and a lot more
competent. In order to get there, the government would have to start by imposing
regulations and raising penalties for non-compliance and disciplining engineers who did
not enforce the rules. All of this is difficult because corruption is built into the
construction business from top to bottom, says Dr. E. Somanathan, professor at the
Indian Statistical Institute, who researches the economics of environment and
development.
Shubho Roy, legal consultant at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
(NIPFP), reckons that we fail to curb pollution as the pollution control boards (PCBs)
dont really have any features of a modern regulator, apart from some legislative powers.
The PCBs in India are designed to be toothless... they dont have adequate legal
authority to do much about pollution, nor have the financial and administrative capacity,
Mr. Roy says, adding that there is no mechanism to ensure transparency or
accountability.

Role of the government

So, does the responsibility to fix air quality issues lie with the government alone?
Mr. Roy believes that not only should governments protect the environment, but
classical economics predicts that only governments are in a position to do so. This is
because citizens cant coordinate their actions.
I pollute when I drive a car or use electricity, but most of that pollution harms someone
else. I would prefer everyone else to stop polluting. But there is no practical way for

citizens to coordinate on a solution except through the government, says professor

Somanathan.

Judicial interventions

Here, Mr. Roy argues that legislative and executive actions are the way forward, and not
judicial interventions. Judicial intervention through the National Green Tribunal seems to
be the only way we are intervening to protect the environment. I feel it is
counterproductive and will harm the environment and the judiciary.
Ms. Roychoudhury, however, says that the judiciary does not work on its own.
It responds when people go to the court to seek relief from a problem. Public Interest
Litigation is an empowering tool for the civil society. If citizens are having issues and
being hurt, they have the right to seek redressal from the judiciary.
Environment vs economics
Further, it is important to consider the political costs of cleaning the air. While economic
activity leads to pollution, it pulls people out of poverty in the short term, Mr. Roy
explains, adding that democratic organisations prefer short term gains which have long
term losses (associated with the gains). This means we have a trade-off between
economic growth and environment protection.
Such trade-offs exist across India's multiple goalswhether economic, social,
environmental or institutionalare inherent to policy making, especially in emerging
economies, said Radhika Khosla, fellow at the Center for Policy Research.

Federal problem

Another characteristic of the air quality problem is its federal nature, which requires
various State governments and the Centre to work together.
This is best demonstrated by the crop-burning issue in Punjab and Haryana. The
potential political costs of preventing farmers to burn crops, which requires strict
enforcement of law and incentives for alternatives, wont be borne out by the ruling
party in Delhi, but controlling that is necessary to have clean air in the Capital.

As competing political interests may not put pollution on priority for all governments,
public pressure becomes crucial. When people make a noise, governments respond.
This is where consciousness would help, says prof. Somanathan.
But apart from this bottom-up pressure in times of crisis by the public and the judiciary,
several actions have been taken from the top-down, where policies have changed due to
executive action, says Ms Roychowdhury. This includes revision of emissions of thermal
plant standards, regulation on construction and demolition waste and Delhi decongestion
plan.

Citizens interest best served when public money is not

wasted: HC
Court sets aside decision by govt. to reject low bid of security firm in
tender process
Author: Akanksha Jain

NEW DELHI: Public interest is best served when public money is not unnecessarily
expended, the High Court said on Wednesday while setting aside a decision of the Delhi
government that rejected the bid of a security service provider for quoting a very low
agency charge.
Noting that there was no condition regarding agency charges in the notice inviting the
tender, a bench of Justices Ashutosh Kumar and Badar Durez Ahmed said: An authority
cannot supplant its views and has to go by the express terms and conditions of the
tender document. The authority has to abide by the results of the tender the authority
is subject to restraints.
In the present case, the Delhi governments Directorate of Education (DoE) had invited
e-tenders from firms that could provide trained security staff at government schools and
field offices of the DoE for two years.
Petitioner Orion Security Solutions Pvt. Ltd. was one of the bidders and had quoted the
lowest agency charges of Re.1. The DoE asked for clarifications to ensure feasibility and
viability of the petitioner in carrying out the work on such low charges.

Hybrid business model

Despite explaining the hybrid business model, which involves redirecting funds received
by the firm under various government-sponsored deployment linked skill development
programmes for security work, and the fact that the company maintained an elaborate
infrastructure in Delhi, its bid was rejected on the ground of non-feasibility of carrying
out the tender requirements at the price.
The company challenged the rejection before the High Court while the Delhi government
said the court can intervene only if the decision affects public interest.

Safety and security

As far as public interest in this matter is concerned, it would primarily be referable to

the public money, which would be spent for the contract for safety of the persons for
whom security is to be provided. Public interest is best served when public money is not
unnecessarily expended, said the court.
The petitioner submitted its annual statement showing its financial worth and explained
the source of funding. There is no reason to doubt that the petitioner will be able to
provide security as per the terms, the court added.

Ken-Betwa river linking project faces new hurdle Lack of

clarity on funding pattern of the first ever such initiative
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A new hurdle has come in the way of the marquee Ken-Betwa river interlink
project in its terms of financing.
The NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) has recommended that
Madhya Pradesh contribute 40 per cent of the project cost, with the Centre contributing
60 per cent. The Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has opposed this and requested
that 90 per cent of the funds be routed through the Centre.
Senior officials of the ministry have discussed the matter with the NITI Aayog but a final
decision has not been been taken yet. We have made our case to the vice chairperson
(Arvind Panagariya) and they have appreciated our view, said Amarjit Singh, Secretary,
MoWR.

A lack of clarity on the funding pattern could mean more delays to the Rs. 10,000-crore
project that would be the first ever inter-State river interlinking project. The project was
given a go-ahead by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) at a meeting chaired by
Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Anil Madhav Dave, last August. An
environment clearance panel has, according to officials in the water ministry, also cleared
the project on 30th December.
A separate committee that determines forest clearance to such projects, is yet to take a
call.
The toughest bit was the wildlife clearance...once the funding mechanism is clear, it
would take seven years for the project to be ready, said Water Resources Minister Uma
Bharti.
This will be the first time that a river project will be located within a tiger reserve.

Submerging tiger habitat

The Rs. 10,000-crore Ken-Betwa project will irrigate the drought-prone Bundelkhand
region but, in the process, also submerge about 10 per cent of the Panna Tiger Reserve
in Madhya Pradesh, feted as a model tiger conservation reserve.
The main feature of the project is a 230-km long canal and a series of barrages and
dams connecting the Ken and Betwa rivers that will irrigate 3.5 lakh hectares in Madhya
Pradesh and 14,000 hectares of Uttar Pradesh in Bundelkhand.

Bengalurus night of horror

It is being called a mass molestation. With all the creepiness and collective menace
that the phrase conveys, the sketchy facts of the events of New Years-eve in downtown
Bengaluru once again hold a mirror up to Indian society. Thousands of revellers had
gathered in and around Mahatma Gandhi Road and Brigade Road to ring in 2017, as is
something of a tradition in the city. But, according to reports that subsequently emerged,
a large number of women were sexually assaulted around midnight. While no complaint
had been filed, Bengaluru police have taken up an investigation based on the reports of
women being groped and physically attacked. Another incident, reportedly also of the
early hours of January 1, has come graphically into the public domain, with CCTV footage
showing a woman being grabbed as she makes her way home in a residential street
before she pulls herself free and escapes. This is unconnected to the so-called mass

molestation, but reinforces the horror of the night in Bengaluru. In an aftermath that
has echoed with Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwaras effort to blame the
violence on western culture, it is easy to understand why no women came forth, at
least initially, to register an offence. All too depressingly and predictably, the Minister has
closed the loop to show how state and society fail to ensure the safety of women.
Mr. Parameshwaras insinuation that for women to wear western dress and be out and
about having a good time is to invite sexual harassment, ironically, explains the
reluctance of women to register offences. For, to do so is to very often court an
accusatory glare, and be made to answer why they were out in a lonely street, after
dark, in a place teeming with boys or put simply, why they did not know better. The
Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, passed after national outrage over the Delhi gang
rape of December 16, 2012, had sought to bring clarity to the continuum of sexual
offences and to simplify procedures for women to bring them to the attention of the
police. To truly convince women that the state is on the same page, every crime against
a woman must be regarded as a horror. But without an administrative ethos that does
not flip an accusation on a woman and instead asserts a womans right to bodily integrity
no matter where she is and what she is doing, no amount of law-making can significantly
change things. This is the challenge before the Bengaluru police as they look for women
to come forward and assist in the investigation.

Letters to editor
K.M.K. Murthy,SecunderabadHarshit Gupta,New DelhiSudha Ravi
Shanker,ChennaiChetan Digal,Belagavi, KarnatakaRohi Rajbar,New
DelhiA.E. Charles,CoimbatoreSunil Choudhury,BengaluruLivia
Poonacha,BengaluruS.V. Venugopalan,ChennaiS.R. Viswanathan,Chennai

Fair elections

The unmet demand for justice in the country has many dimensions political, social,
economic and so on. Discrimination and the denial of elementary justice in these
dimensions weaken and sap the practice of secularism (Two takes on democracy,
Jan.4). Any concept favoured by religious extremism flagrantly denies this equalityfairness-and-justice principle. It is doubtful whether India has kept its tryst with
destiny. In 1947, India began its journey in trying to address underdevelopment and
extreme deprivation in a highly populated and poor country within the framework of
parliamentary democracy. But the experiment seems to have largely failed Nehrus

litmus test of ending poverty and ignorance, and also disease and the inequality of
opportunity.
K.M.K. Murthy,
Secunderabad
As a citizen who has grown up in Uttar Pradesh, I have seen caste politics at its peak.
Even though the arguments made by the dissenters led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud are
quite compelling, they tend to oversee the misuse of the narrow definition of the word
his in Section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act. Our aim to create a
secular and egalitarian society can be achieved by setting some idealistic benchmarks
for our political leaders to follow.
Harshit Gupta,
New Delhi

Bengalurus shame

What surprises me is the audacity with which unruly elements molest women in the
presence of the police. The weakest point of security for women is when the
perpetrators of crime against women know for sure that they can get away. Women
have a right to demand security from the police. Fear should be created in the
perpetrators of crime that they are being watched. It is not just about laws but about
infrastructure that helps create a safe environment using a whole system of measures
(States duty-bound to protect women: Rajnath, Jan.4).
Sudha Ravi Shanker,
Chennai
More than the outrageous act of the molesters, it is the horrendous analogy made by
people in power which encourages such acts that are reprehensible. India needs to
educate its politicians first. The Minister is question needs to understand that illthought-out remarks have no place in a modern society. Many of us youngsters are
deeply anguished by what the Minister said (I was misquoted: Parameshwara, Jan.4).
Chetan Digal,
Belagavi, Karnataka

State of the Army

The appointment of Gen. Bipin Rawat has been done keeping in mind his experience and
expertise in the issues of counter-insurgency along the Line of Control (Alls not well in
the Army, Jan.3). The border area is always trouble-prone and has erupted time and
again over the past one year. His role as a chief coordinator and strategist would be
buoyed by his hands-on experience in this field which would also help the forces react
better in the face of aggression. While the politicisation of the armed forces must be
avoided at all costs, there are times when certain steps need to be taken keeping in
mind the situation at ground zero.
Rohi Rajbar,
New Delhi
Officers in the defence forces often get overlooked or superseded at some stage or the
other given the pyramidal structure of promotion. Hence to harp on the point of
discontent is baseless. Senior officers have the privilege of choosing their own staff
officers who are selected on performance, merit and, yes, regimentation. It is never on
the lines of caste, creed or religion. The Infantry division is the largest component of the
army, so there are bound to be more generals from this division.
A.E. Charles,

Coimbatore
The article raises certain important issues about promotion, policy and procedures in the
army that deserve consideration at the appropriate military and political levels. In the
context of the appointment of Gen. Rawat, the writer is right in questioning the decision
made by the government. Is it trying to reduce the Indian Army to being a counterinsurgency force? The government seems to be economical with the truth behind these
seemingly questionable supersessions. However, the suggestion that promotions to the
higher levels be vetted by an empowered parliamentary panel deserves outright
rejection as it would amount to politicising the entire selection process.
Sunil Choudhury,
Bengaluru

Demonetisations narrative

The common man has been easily led to believe that demonetisation is what the country
needs (Open Page People and patience, post demonetisation, Jan.3). Is it but clever
talk equating resilience and the hardship of demonetisation to nationalism that has
subdued the voice of the poor man to a whisper? Demonetisation hasnt affected the
wealthy. The pain is being borne by the poor. Instead of flagging off such exercises,
there must be a focus on stronger laws, ensuring fruitful working of Parliament and
even conscription. A code of conduct and ethics for all political leaders and those in
government service should be implemented with sincerity.
Livia Poonacha,
Bengaluru
It would be incorrect to say that people accepted the narrative behind
demonetisation which kept changing from hunting for black money to weeding out fake
currency to turning ours into a cashless economy. The fact is that the nation was deeply
stunned by the intensity of the announcement on November 8. Before one could gauge
what was happening, there were countless notifications issued in the most
incomprehensible and illogical manner, and much of it which went over ones head. The
bullying tactics of the government were like a classic case of manufacturing consent.
S.V. Venugopalan,

Chennai

Forgotten journeys

The article (Open Page Steam engines, dream machines, Jan.3) reminded me of the
time when my father was station master at Bezwada (now Vijayawada) and
Arakkonam. Our railway quarters were in Vijayawada near the engine shed. My elder
sister and brother, who were in school, would board the train from the town where they
were studying. The engine driver knew them and he would let them travel in the
engine. They would enjoy the hospitality as the engine driver used to roast groundnuts

and give them a feast. On reaching our quarters, he would sound the whistle and let
the family know that they had reached.
When we moved to Perambur we lived near the railway grounds. I made friends with a
number of Anglo-Indians steam engine drivers. I used to envy them but did not know
how driving a steam engine was a tough job.
S.R. Viswanathan,
Chennai

Arms and the region

More allocation for the defence sector is needed in the 2017 budget to
overcome the neglect of the past Manmohan Bahadur

It is time to look ahead at the challenges that Indias security planners face in 2017.
Spillovers from 2016 and the forthcoming leadership change in the United States will
make the environment very challenging in Indias security calculus.
For the U.S. certainly, and for India too, January 20 could turn out to be a day like no
other in the recent past. If U.S. President-elect Donald Trump sticks to his
twitterwords, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be history, U.S.-China relations
may become even more tenuous, while Americas interaction with Russia may become
interesting. While Mr. Trump has not talked about India, his fantastic Pakistan may
see some more tensions developing with Uncle Sam, as the general thrust of Trumpism
has been to take a tougher line on terrorism. After his Israel tweet on the UN Security
Council resolution on Israeli settlements and outright condemnation of the Iran nuclear
deal, one can expect U.S. involvement in West Asia to increase. Would that imply a
reversal of President Barack Obamas Pivot to Asia? Will Mr. Trumps views change
once he is in the saddle? What does this scenario portend for India?

China rising

India has to factor in the enhanced aggressiveness of China, which has taken on a new
hue and trajectory; shorn of diplomatese, the peaceful rise has become an ominous
one that is transforming the challenge of China into a threat from China. Its recent
moves, of positioning air defence weapons on a reclaimed island in the South China Sea,
forays by fighters and bombers over the East China Sea, and even sending its aircraft

carrier Liaoning to Hainan via the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and Philippines, have
sent an unwelcome message to its neighbours. It may not be long before Liaoning makes
its foray into the Indian Ocean. If not for power projection (which is still some time
away), it may be to just announce to the world that a new world power has arrived.
Though these activities are far removed from the India-China border, these
developments can be co-related with the reorganisation of its military into Theatre
Commands, local media hype about large-scale, realistic joint training exercises, and
aggressive diplomatic reactions to events that impinge on its stated positions (the Dalai
Lamas visits to Mongolia, and later Arunachal Pradesh). If Mr. Trump gets on the front
foot with China, then it (the U.S.) would require India to be firmly with it. With its
placing of India as a major defence partner and the Defense Technology and Trade
Initiative (DTTI) in place, Indian planners would have to tread a narrow path between
getting close to the U.S. and being classified as a major cog in the American scheme of
things. The key dictum to follow would be to ensure that Indias interests are insured
against reversals in power politics, as Pakistan faced to its discomfiture when the Cold
War and the Soviet presence in Afghanistan ended.

The Pakistan factor

Pakistan can be expected to continue meddling sub-conventionally in Indias affairs.

Thus, support to terrorism would continue, with the Pathankot and Uri attacks being
pointers of actions to be expected. Indias guard cannot be lowered and eternal vigil is
the need of the times. Hopefully, the relative quiet along the border is indicative of
some backchannel diplomacy at work. That there is a new Pakistan Army Chief and the
top brass there has been overhauled sends out a feeling of hope that the civilian
leadership may be exercising a greater say in security and foreign affairs. But havent
we seen this, which we have fervently wished for, many times before?
On this broad security canvas before India, there also lie the subtle but understated
strokes of Indias relations in the neighbourhood. Even as China and Pakistan make
forays in these countries, especially with arms sales and economic aid, we can ill-afford
to neglect them; they constitute our vital interests. To be influential in world affairs,
words need to be backed by deeds claims of historical cultural relations do not work
in realpolitik. Thus, the commitment to develop the Chabahar port in Iran gains
importance, even as a new relationship develops between Russia, China and Pakistan.
The buzz is that this friendship is around Chinas China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
initiative but astute observers can sense something more to be brewing. Similarly,
economic and military commitments to Afghanistan have to be met, the geographical
disconnect notwithstanding.

Budgetary support before 2019

History has proven that a strong military is the foundation for resolute action in the
economic and diplomatic fields. The demonetisation exercise may have ensured extra
money in the governments coffers as its statements have proffered. A year from now,
the nation will be in the final stretch of the race for the 2019 general election, when
priorities for budgetary allocations are bound to change. Hence, a greater allocation for
the defence sector is needed in the 2017 budget to enable the services to overcome the
neglect of the past decade and enhance their capability to support government aims at
influence-building in the neighbourhood. In parallel, the building up of a defence
industrial base should gather greater momentum from the snails pace it is now.
Getting a firm footing in the near abroad, to use a Russian term, is a sine qua non for
aspirational Indias ambitions in the coming years; 2017 would be decisive in more ways
than one.
Manmohan Bahadur, a retired Air Vice Marshal, is Distinguished Fellow at Centre for Air
Power Studies, New Delhi.

For a level playing field While the stories of women

wrestlers may well help create a more equal society, they
are often satisfying ends to what at the outset was driven
by pure love of sport
Wrestling, in general, has had to fight a battle of perception. Rarely is it
considered as an art form in which physical skills are honed over years N.
Sudarshan

Ever since Sushil Kumar won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, wrestling
has, without doubt, grown by leaps and bounds. A series of successes followed, from
Yogeshwar Dutt to the Phogat sisters to Sakshi Malik.
What was until then a sport predominantly of the hinterlands received wider recognition
as television and newspapers began discovering it. Now, it has reached a stage where
Sakshis Olympic bronze is expected to do to womens wrestling what Sushils did to
wrestling in general.
Even to the uninitiated, the sports rich moral, philosophical and mystical heritage with
links first to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata through the likes of Hanuman and
Bhima, and then to the Mughals and Maratha kings, who were huge patrons of the sport
has always appealed.

Also, independent Indias first individual Olympic medal winner was a wrestler: Khashaba
Dadasaheb Jadhav, who bagged a bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Games. This aided
wrestling in securing a prominent place both in the minds of the countrys citizenry as
well as in its yet-to-thrive sporting ecosystem.
The Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal, which narrates the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat and
his daughters Geeta Phogat the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and first
Indian women wrestler to qualify for the Olympics and Babita Kumari, was perhaps
the icing on the cake.
That Sakshi and the Phogats came from Haryana, a State infamous for its skewed
gender ratio (879 women for every 1,000 men), even boosted the narrative of the sport
now being a tool for breaking gender stereotypes. And rightly so.

Battle of perception

But what has completely been left unexplored is the allure of womens wrestling as a
sport in itself. This is seen in the fact that mens freestyle wrestling was introduced at
the St. Louis Olympics in 1904 but it took a whole century for the womens competition
to be included. In 2013, when wrestling was dropped from the Olympic programme
initially before being reinstated, one of the prime reasons was that it discriminated
against women athletes by giving them fewer medal opportunities.
Wrestling, in general, has had to fight a battle of perception. As a combat sport it has
often been cannibalised. Cruder as it seems than most other disciplines with a strong
emphasis on physicality, wrestling is seen as the ultimate symbol of masculinity;
something which glorifies violence. Rarely is it considered as an art form in which
physical skills are often honed over years.
So, if a woman tries to stake an equal claim to the sport, it is often seen as an attempt
by her to prove that she is masculine enough. After all, didnt Geeta have to first
defeat the boys in her area to gain legitimacy as a capable wrestler?
With heavyweight wrestling, people are expecting this Helga type of woman, obese and
going there on the mat to try to smash peoples heads, Adeline Gray, a three-time World
Champion from the U.S., told ESPN. Its so much more than that the weight is really
low, so its about technique. Its skill, strength, power and executing that in a very
precise way.
She said: I would hear, years later, Yeah, that guy was afraid of you in high school.
Why? Im nice! I just dont understand where that came from. Its like saying a boxer

just goes around hitting people all the time. Ive never been in a fight, Ive never hit
anybody. I never challenged anyone at a party. So I don't know why that fear exists:
Oh, she can beat me up if she wanted to! Yeah, but... I dont really fight people.
Robert L. Simon, in his book Fair Play: The Ethics of Sport, raises an important question
with respect to the kind of stigma that plagues contact sports. The key ethical question
in fair competition may be whether the use of force takes advantage of an opponents
physical vulnerability, he asks.
But acts of violence on a sporting field dont necessarily render the sport violent. In
wrestling, athletes do have the capacity and opportunity to inflict severe harm on their
opponents. They can dislocate limbs and break fingers. However, they are taught to not
exert such physical force and confine their moves to legitimate ones.
Wrestling is safe, said Adeline. I love that its head to head and it truly tests us. But
there is no need to worry that someone is going to get hit in the face. In wrestling,
youre not going to get hit in the head.
The very fact that this stigma has been allowed to remain so deeply entrenched is
largely because those who participate in sports perceived as violent are rarely asked to
express what draws them to these sports and to describe their experiences on the
playing field.
Surely one cant imagine every fan and player saying, for example, I love wrestling so
much because it breaks gender stereotypes. Even for Mahavir Phogat, womens
emancipation was the last thing on his mind. Didnt it take a while for him understand
that a gold medal was a gold medal irrespective of who won it a boy or a girl?
Ever since we won an international medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, women
have started to recognise the medal potential in the sport, said Vinesh Phogat, gold
medallist in the 2014 Glasgow Games. The Olympic medal also added to the
excitement. But wrestling allows women to express their level of skills and strength. So
its a huge attraction. Also, with the league coming in and corporates like JSW investing
in sport, women have started to recognise wrestling as a sustainable career option.
Sport helps in sensitising and uniting society, and this is something to be valued.
However, social outcomes cannot always explain why a person took to a sport or her
passion for it. The stories of Geeta, Babita, Vinesh and Adeline will certainly help in
creating a more equal society. But they are often satisfying ends to what at the outset
was driven by pure love of sport and a bit more.
sudarshan.narayanan@thehindu.co.in

J.S. Khehar sworn in as Chief Justice

Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court,
was sworn in as the 44th Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee on
Wednesday.
Justice Khehar will have a tenure for over seven months till August 28, 2017. He
assumed office as a judge of the Supreme Court on September 13, 2011.
On his first day in office, Justice Khehar presided over courtroom 1 with Justices N.V.
Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud flanking him.
Justice Khehar is known for his firm and decisive approach to cases. His appointment
comes at a time when the relationship between the government and the judiciary
remains tense over an unprecedented number of judicial vacancies (400) in the HCs and
eight in the SC.
Even on his last day at work, Justice T.S. Thakur, the current CJIs predecessor, had
accused the Centre of letting the Supreme Court Collegiums recommendations of judicial
appointments and transfers languish on somebodys desk.
It will be on Chief Justice Khehars shoulders now to resolve the differences of opinions
about the draft memorandum of procedure (MoP) for judicial appointments with the
government.
It was a Constitution Bench led by Justice Khehar which had pushed into motion the
exercise of re-drafting the over two-decade-old MoP in a bid to bring in transparency and
accountability into the judicial appointments process. Justice Khehar, whose name is
synonymous with the voluminous majority judgment he authored scrapping the
governments NJAC law to revive the Collegium, has now to contend with dissent inside
the Supreme Court Collegium itself.
Justice Jasti Chelameswar, a member of the Collegium, does not attend its meetings. As
the lone dissenting judge on the Constitution Bench which scrapped the NJAC law,
Justice Chelameswars dissent was historic.

GST: No accord on dual control

Author: Special Correspondent

New Delhi: The eighth meeting of the Goods and Services Tax Council failed yet again to
reach a consensus on the critical issue of dual control, a major roadblock in the
finalisation of the draft GST laws, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.
The Council will meet again on January 16.
Mr. Jaitley, briefing reporters on the two-day meeting, said he expected both direct and
indirect tax collections at the end of the year to exceed the budget estimates.
After the first day of the meeting on Tuesday, several State Finance Ministers said the
April 1 deadline for the rollout of GST looked unlikely, with the likelihood of a July or
September rollout increasing.
The legal drafts of the draft laws with gaps have been sent for legal vetting and will be
presented before the GST Council, Mr. Jaitley said.
The gaps refer to two broad areas. The first is the definition of the word territory, and
the second has to do with the issue of dual control and cross empowerment.
The territory issue is a complex one. The area of 12 nautical miles from the India coast
is Indian territory, he explained.
Service tax in this area has been levied by the Government of India. But fishing in these
areas has been taxed by the States.
The answer to this is not political, it is purely a constitutional issue, Mr. Jaitley said.
One other issue raised by the States was the compensation, and how this amount should
be increased due to the hit to State revenues caused by the demonetisation of high
value currency notes.
I have asked the States to give their revenue projections for the month of November,
and also for the last two to three years, and then we will look into the matter, Mr. Jaitley
said.

Pre-Budget meeting

The Union Finance Minister also held a pre-Budget consultative meeting with the State
Finance Ministers following the GST Council meeting. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit
Mitra walked out in protest from the meeting stating that the Union Budget has become
a meaningless exercise.
The Prime Minister delivered a part of the Budget speech. He covered most of the
important sectors [during his New Years Eve speech], Mr. Mitra said, outside the

meeting venue. This has never happened before. What is the role of the Finance
Minister?
However, before leaving the meeting, Mr. Mitra made his presentation to Mr. Jaitley.

Chinas stance on terror self-defeating: India

New Delhi wants Beijing to help blacklist Pak.-based terror mastermind
Masood Azhar
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday said that China is following double standard on
terrorism and asked Beijing to support its campaign to blacklist Pakistan-based terror
mastermind Masood Azhar.
Addressing the mid-term press conference of the MEA to mark two-and-a-half years of
the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of State for External Affairs
M.J. Akbar said Chinas block at the 1267 committee of the UN Security Council that
prevented India from blacklisting the terror boss was self-defeating.

Listen to worlds voice

China should listen to the voice of the world and we hope that Beijing can be persuaded
to see the evil of the menace, said Mr. Akbar and added, as a responsible and mature
nation, China will understand the double standards of this self-defeating purpose, said
Mr. Akbar.
Reiterating the governments position on terror, Mr. Akbar said India had zero tolerance
for terrorism. Talks and terror do not, cannot go together, he said, emphasising that
the government would consider dialogue with Pakistan only after cross-border terror
ends.
The press conference, led by both Ministers of State for External Affairs, V.K. Singh, and
Mr. Akbar projected the diplomatic trajectory of the Modi government since May 2014
and acknowledged that despite tranquillity on India-China border, there remained
divergences in bilateral ties, including Chinas stand on Pakistan-based terror outfits
such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

Mr. Akbars was the first Minister-level response from India after China blocked Indias
New Year eve bid to blacklist Masood Azhar under the counter-terror 1267 committee of
the UN Security Council. Following the block, Pakistan had criticised Indias move as
politically motivated.

Surgical strike, a message

India, however, was not in favour of stalling dialogue with Pakistan on the need to stop
cross-border terrorism as it had delivered the necessary message to Pakistan and the
world, with the surgical strike of September 28, Mr. Akbar said.
You can see the situation in our neighbouring country. It is a regrettable situation, said
Mr. Akbar, referring to Pakistan.
Mr. Singh also highlighted that the surgical strike of September 28, ten days after the Uri
attack, had delivered the expected results.
The aim of the surgical strike was we have sent a message to the whole world that
terrorism will not be acceptable as the new normal, said Mr. Singh.
The press conference highlighted the governments campaigns at the UN, and the
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and stated that it remains focused on the smooth
implementation of the neighbourhood first policy to ensure better ties with Nepal,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other members of the region.

State media cautions China over Indias labour cost edge

Author: Atul Aneja

BEIJING: Anticipating Indias rise as the next workshop-of-the world, a Chinese daily
affiliated with the Communist Party of China (CPC) is strongly advocating that Beijing
should rapidly shift to high-end manufacturing, and take advantage of the low labour
costs that are still available in its less developed zones.
An op-ed in the Global Times on Wednesday highlighted the likelihood of Apple shifting
manufacturing to Indiaas well as its larger implications for China.

If Apple expands in India, more global tech giants may follow suit and China is likely to
see a further transfer of the supply chain given Indias abundant supply of working-age
labour and low labour costs.
It added: China cannot afford to lose manufacturing jobs while it has not made a major
breakthrough in upgrading its industry and while (U.S. President-elect Donald) Trump
plans to draw manufacturing jobs back home.
The daily points out that Indias low-cost labour give it an unrivalled edge for integrating
with the global supply chain. Industrial competition between China and India comes
down to the labour force, where costs and the level of skills are two major factors that
influence business decisions.
Although China has an edge having nurtured skilled workers over past decades, a
majority of Indian states have an absolute labour cost advantage over China. Today,
labour cost is still a significant part of the complicated equation for business success.

Preferential policies

In order to plug in the hole if manufacturers continue to move elsewhere, the op-ed
advocated that China should take advantage of the low labour costs in its central and
western regions. Certainly China has options. The countrys central and western
regions, with cheaper labour, could become an investment haven for manufacturers as
these regions need capital to boost the local economy and are certainly ready to offer
preferential policies to attract investment. It will be easier for these areas to replicate the
success of the country's eastern coastal region as a manufacturing hub.
The article also proposed accelerating the manufacturing upgrade through
restructuring and reorganisation of technologies, talents, capital and other resources.

6-1-17

NGT raps Environment Ministry

Tribunal was hearing a plea that sought quashing of a notification issued on
December 9
Author: Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: You cant commit legal blunders and get away with it, the National Green
Tribunal said on Thursday as it pulled up the Ministry of Environment and Forests
(MoEF).

A Bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said that the MoEF had
not applied its mind while amending a notification published on December 9, 2016,
exempting construction projects from the process of environment impact assessment
(EIA) and prior environmental clearance.
The MoEF, in a recent notification, had exempted real estate projects from obtaining prior
environmental clearance. It had even put in a self-declaration clause for smaller
projects (less than 20,000 sq metres). For bigger projects, the environmental clearance
(EC) and building permission would be given by urban local bodies as part of an
integrated format.

Legal blunder

Why dont you [the MoEF] do something constructive for the system? There is a way of
doing things. We dont understand why do you do these funny things....If you wanted to
amend the notification, you could have simply said that though the new projects are not
required to take EC, each project once cleared by local authorities would come with
certain conditions. You tell your Ministry and all others not to act under the new
notification, otherwise we will stay the notification. You cant do legal blunders and get
away with it, the Bench said, granting the petitioners liberty to approach the NGT if a
single permission is granted under the new notification.
The matter has now been listed for hearing on January 12.
Earlier, the green panel had refused to stay the December 9 notification and issued
notices to the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Urban Development, seeking a
reply before January 4.
The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by the Society for Protection of Environment and
Biodiversity, which sought directions for the notification to be quashed on the ground
that it contravened provisions of the EIA notification, 2006, and the Environment
Protection Act, 1986.
The plea alleged that the notification tried to circumvent the EIA Notification, 2006, in
the name of ease of doing business.

Ban on import of exotic skins

Author: Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI: In a landmark decision that will spare the lives of tens of thousands of
animals from the exotic leather industry, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade has
banned the import of skins of reptiles and fur of minks, foxes and chinchillas.

Cruelty-free alternatives

Animal rights bodies have hailed the decision by the Centre to ban such imports, saying
that the country is now emulating other nations across the world in adopting crueltyfree alternatives to exotic skins.
The notification issued on January 3 comes in the wake of campaigning for a ban by
People for Animals (PFA), Humane Society International/India (HSI/India) and People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Union Cabinet Minister of Women and Child
Development Maneka Gandhi wrote to Nirmala Sitharaman, the Minister of State
(Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry on banning import of exotic skins.
The Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change, and the Animal Welfare
Board of India had supported the ban proposal.

Animals not fabric

The trustee of PFA and HSI/Indias government liaison, Gauri Maulekhi, said: We
commend the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and MoEF for its commitment in
abolishing import of exotic skins.
With so many alternatives available ... there is no need or justification for wearing
animal skins or fur. Animals are not fabric and we commend the government for
recognising that, said Nikunj Sharma of PETA India.

NHRC notice to TN on farmers deaths

Author: Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Terming the case a matter of concern, the National Human Rights
Commission on Thursday issued a notice to Tamil Nadu authorities over the reported
deaths of 106 farmers within the span of a month.

Over 100 in a month

The NHRC took suo motu cognisance of media reports that said over 100 farmers had
died in Tamil Nadu in one month. The NHRC issued a notice to the Chief Secretary in the
Tamil Nadu government and asked for a report within six weeks.

Low rainfall

As per reports, farmers had been hit by inadequate rainfall and falling groundwater
levels. According to a report in a Tamil daily on Tuesday, 83 farmers had died of heart
attacks and many had committed suicide. A 53-year-old farmer, Panneerselvam, in
Nagapattinam district and 50-year-old farmer, Murugan, in Viluppuram district had
committed suicide. The paper then reported on Thursday that the number of deaths had
reached 106.
Quoting media reports, the NHRC said that the worst-affected districts were Thiruvarur,
Nagapattinam, Viluppuram, Pudukkottai, Ariyalur, Cuddalore and Thanjavur.

Inaction by State

The NHRC said the issue was not only about the right to life and dignity of the farmers
but indicative of failure and inaction by the State agencies.

Elephants outsmart technology, enter Gudalur dump yard

Author: Rohan Premkumar

UDHAGAMANDALAM: Elephants of Deivamalai in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu, have stunned

environmentalists, forest staff and conservationists with their intelligence, ingenuity and
problem-solving skills. They have repeatedly broken into a dump yard, earlier believed to
be elephant proof, to gain access to the vegetable waste inside.

Those who have seen visuals of the elephants making their way into the dump yard are
amazed by their perseverance in gaining entry to the four-acre land where the Gudalur
Municipality's waste is dumped. Speaking to The Hindu, H. Madhusudanam, a local
conservationist who played an important role in getting a solar fence installed at the
yard, said more than 20 elephants visited the dump yard every day at the beginning of
last year.
Conservationists and the municipality soon came up with a solution by fixing tentacles
or outward protrusions on the solar-fence. The tentacles from the main fence would
send out a minor shock, and discourage the animals from getting within a few feet of the
fence, said Mr. Madhusudanam. The new measures initially seemed to work, with most
of the female elephants and calves moving away to the surrounding forests in search of
food.
However, the pachyderms soon found a way around this problem, with four male
elephants in particular figuring out the weakest links around the security system.
They began targeting the front entrance. Videos show one elephant using his tusk for
extra reach, while keeping the more sensitive portion of his trunk coiled around his head.
The cameras at the yard capture the footage of a male elephant using his tusks to deftly
reach over the tentacles, and snap the solar fencing using his tusks, thereby creating
an opening. The elephant does not seem to feel a major shock when using his tusks to
snap the fence.
The animals, after managing to breach the defences on numerous occasions, began
demolishing the rest of the fence from inside, as there were no problems once they were
inside the yard.
Since August 2016, onceagain the elephants began feeding on the vegetable waste in
the facility. Elephant dung at the site shows that the animals are ingesting plastic, along
with vegetable waste, heightening concerns of a grave health risk. The Gudalur
Municipality is once again getting the help of conservationists to build a fence around the
yard, with a three-tier security system.
The Gudalur Division of the Nilgiris Forest Department, meanwhile, has called for the
dump yard to be shifted, citing concerns that the endangered animals and people, are at
risk from the health hazards arising from the waste dumped there.

Brief economic slowdown likely: Pranab Demonetisation will

immobilise black money and fight corruption, says
President
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday that the demonetisation
aimed at fighting corruption may lead to a brief economic slowdown.

Competitive populism

Demonetisation, while immobilising black money and fighting corruption, may lead to a
temporary slowdown of the economy. We all will have to be extra careful to alleviate the
sufferings of the poor, which might become unavoidable for the expected progress in the
long term, he said in his New Year address to Governors and Lt. Governors through
video-conferencing.
The recent package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would provide some
relief to the poor, he said.
Referring to the coming Assembly elections, Mr. Mukherjee spoke about the ill-effects of
competitive populism and vote bank politics.
As we have all experienced, elections are usually marked by competitive populism,
electoral rhetoric and vote bank politics. Noisy debates can deepen the fault-lines in the
society. You, as Governors and Lt. Governors, command respect and attention of the
people of your State. Through your interaction and wise counsel, you can play an
important role in easing the tensions in society, he said.

Traditional values

Goodwill must prevail between different communities. At times, harmony may be put to
test by vested interests. Communal tensions may rear their ugly heads. The rule of law
must form the sole basis of dealing with any such challenging situation.
Quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, he said India was a country held together by strong but
invisible threads. Tolerance, he said, was a core civilisational value for India. In a
pluralistic democracy like ours, tolerance, respect for contrary views and patience are a
must. Indias strength lies in her diversity. The multiplicity in culture, faith and language
is what makes India special, he said.

You can, through your calm influence, inculcate amongst the citizens of your state this
fundamental ethos of our civilisation, the President said.

SC asked to resolve conflict over rape definition in two

laws
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: A chink in the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC) condoning sexual
intercourse and exploitation of a 15-year-old child wife has been brought to the
Supreme Courts attention.
An exception to Section 375 (rape) in the IPC allows a man to go scot-free despite
having sex with his 15-year-old wife.
This exception ensures that he will not be charged with rape even though child marriage
is a crime.
Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, through his organisation Bachpan Bachao
Andolan, appealed to the Supreme Court on Thursday for help to end this statutorilybacked crime against children.
In a petition before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, the organisation
said an estimated 47 per cent of children in India were married off before they turned
18, according to the United Nations.
The illegal practice was a serious deterrence to the physical, social, psychological and
moral well-being of children.
The petition said the IPC condones the rape of a 15-year-old by her husband despite the
fact that the more recent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012
qualifies those aged below 18 as children.
POCSO has specific penal provisions against penetrative sexual assault and aggressive
penetrative sexual assault on children below 18.
Section 6 of the Act enunciates the punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual
assault as rigorous imprisonment of not less than 10 years to life imprisonment. Mr.
Satyarthi wants the apex court to clear the anomaly in law. The IPC terms children as
those aged under 15 years while POCSO terms children as those aged under 18.

Status denied

Despite being a child by definition (under the age of 18), provisions of POCSO are not
applied. The benefit of a Special Act (POCSO) is not afforded to children when they are in
married relationship but over the age of 15. Therefore, a childs status as a child till she
attains the age of 18 is denied to her once she is forcefully or otherwise wed, the BBA
contended.
The apex court directed the government to address the issue within four months. The
Bench asked Mr. Satyarthi to approach the court on the same grounds for immediate
resolution if he is not satisfied with the governments response.

Cashless economy is a boon

Author: Sumit Bhattacharjee

VISAKHAPATNAM: Cashless economy is a boon, Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen

Bank and winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, has said.
Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of an international symposium organised by
Andhra University here on Thursday, he said demonetisation had to come some day.
What is needed is to add incentives to the cashless model to make it successful. Most
important, demonetisation has brought the rural and unorganised sectors into the
banking fold.
The Nobel laureate added: Demonetisation kills black money and has increased
liquidity.
Micro-credit was a social business. It was all about trust between the banker and the
customer, he said.
Prof. Yunus was awarded the Nobel for successfully taking micro-credit and micro-finance
to the doorstep of poor rural women in Bangladesh. The concept of micro-credit is built
on mutual trust between the banker and the beneficiary. We do not have the thought of
collecting any documents or things as collateral security or guarantors. And despite that,
we have a repayment rate of 99.5 per cent, he said. Grameen Bank that was founded in
1976 to take banking to the doorsteps of rural women, had a customer base of over 90
lakh today, he said.

Reading between the lines The Supreme Court verdict on

electoral malpractice ensures that future legal challenges

to election victories based on identity politics will walk the

fine line of text, context and subtext
While examining the contentions, much of the differences between the
majority and the minority turned on their reading of the parliamentary
debates Sanjay Hegde

Sometimes, the destiny of nations is cast in stone by a single judicial vote. In 1973, it
was a 7:6 plurality of the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharati case that gave
India its doctrine of the basic structure of the Constitution. Similarly a 5:4 majority of
the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore inflicted George W. Bush upon the world in the
year 2000. This new year has begun with a 4:3 verdict of the Indian Supreme Court that
sweeps into the laws clutches a lot of sectarian political discourse which has been the
bane of Indias democracy.
It must be clarified that the Supreme Court has not gone into interpreting, clarifying or
overruling its earlier three-judge Bench decision on Hindutva (1995) in the context of
electoral appeals. During the hearings, the court had made it clear that the order of
reference to the seven-judge Bench had not included that question and hence it would
not be gone into. Given the temper of the times, the court probably saw the wisdom of
Justice Louis Brandeiss dicta that the most important thing we do is not doing, and
that the court should not formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required
by the precise facts to which it is to be applied.
Thus the new judgment in Abhiram Singh v. C.D. Commachen has only interpreted
Section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, which penalises as a
corrupt practice in an election the appeal to vote or refrain from voting for any person
on the ground of his religion, race, caste, community or language.

Split over a word

The question therefore turned only on the interpretation of the pronoun his which is
used in the section. Does the appeal to his religion mean an appeal to the religion of
the candidate alone? Or does it qualify appeals made to the religious sentiments of all
participants in the electoral battle, including the candidates, voters, election agents and
the like? Under the narrower interpretation, a candidate would not be entitled to say, I
am a Hindu, you are Hindus and hence should vote for me. The broader interpretation,
which has been accepted by the majority, would penalise even an appeal which tells the
voter, You, as Hindus, know that I alone can defend your interests.

Justice D.Y. Chandrachuds minority judgment for himself and Justices A.K. Goel and U.U.
Lalit records, Quibbles over the meaning of a word apart, the interpretation that will be
adopted by the court will define the boundaries between electoral politics on the one
hand and individual or collective features grounded in religion, race, caste, community
and language on the other.
The basic arguments seeking a narrower interpretation urged that the sub-section must
be given a literal interpretation since severe civil consequences like disqualification from
elections flowed from a finding of corrupt practice. It was also urged that a broad or
purposive interpretation might fall afoul of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. It was
submitted that departing from a literal or strict interpretation would mean unsettling the
law accepted over several decades and that the Supreme Court had no such strong
reason to do so. While examining these contentions, much of the differences between
the majority and the minority rested upon their reading of the parliamentary debates.

The original intent

A.K. Sen, who was the Law Minister in 1961, explained the reason for the introduction of
the word his in a speech in the Lok Sabha: I added the word his in the Select
Committee in order to make quite clear as to what was the mischief which was sought to
be prevented under this section after all, it is the right of a person to propagate his
own language, his own particular culture and various other matters. But that does not
mean vilifying another language or creating enmity between communities.
You cannot make it an election issue if you say, Do not vote for him. He is a Bengali or
Do not vote for him. He is a Khasi. I made it unequivocally clear that it is the purpose
and design of this House and of the country to ensure that. No man shall appeal only
because he speaks a particular language and should get voted for that reason; or no
man shall appeal against a particular person to the electorate solely because that
opponent of his speaks a particular language.
But we are on a very narrow point, whether we shall extend the right to a person, to a
voter, to say: vote for me because I speak Hindi, I speak Garhwali, or I speak Nepali or I
speak Khasi; or in the alternative, do not vote for my opponent because he is a man who
speaks this particular language, his own language. It is on that sole narrow point that
the prohibition is sought to be made.
But the problem is, are we going to allow a man to go to the electorate and ask for
votes because he happens to speak a particular language or ask the electorate to refrain
from voting for a particular person merely on the ground of his speaking a particular
language or following a particular religion and so on? If not, we have to support this.

The minority judgment of Justice Chandrachud, speaking for himself and Justices Goel
and Lalit, holds that the speech of the Law Minister, who moved the Bill, leaves no
manner of doubt that the expression his referred to the religion of the candidate (or his
caste, community, race or language) for whom votes were sought or of the candidate
whose election was sought to be prejudicially affected by an appeal to refrain from
voting.
The majority judgment authored by Justice Madan B. Lokur, speaking for himself and
Justice L. Nageswara Rao, with separate concurrences by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and
Justice S.A. Bobde, examined the same speech in the context of other amendments
moved to Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code.
Law Minister Sen had also said: We feel, and I think it has been the sense of this House
without any exception, that even a stray appeal to success at the polls on the ground of
ones religion or narrow communal affiliation or linguistic affiliation would be viewed with
disfavour by us here and by the law. Therefore, I think that when we are grappling with
a very difficult disease, we should be quite frank with our remedy and not tinker with the
problem, and we should show our disfavour openly and publicly even of stray cases of
attempts to influence the electorate by appealing to their sectarian interests or passions.
I think that this amendment follows as a consequence of the amendment which we have
already made in the Indian Penal Code I think that these two provisions, if followed
faithfully, would go a long way in eradicating or at least in checking the evil which has
raised its ugly head in so many forms all over the country in recent years.

The purposive approach prevails

The lead judgment of the majority relies upon the principle of purposive construction of
statutes to hold that the Representation of the People Act, 1951 is a statute that
enables us to cherish and strengthen our democratic ideals. To interpret it in a manner
that assists candidates to an election rather than the elector or the electorate in a vast
democracy like ours would really be going against public interest.
Chief Justice Thakur in his concurrence with the majority ruled that while interpreting a
legislative provision, the Courts must remain alive to the constitutional provisions and
ethos and that interpretations that are in tune with such provisions and ethos ought to
be preferred over others. Applying that principle to the case at hand, an interpretation
that will have the effect of removing the religion or religious considerations from the
secular character of the State or state activity ought to be preferred over an
interpretation which may allow such considerations to enter, effect or influence such
activities. Electoral processes are doubtless secular activities of the State. Religion can
have no place in such activities for religion is a matter personal to the individual with
which neither the State nor any other individual has anything to do The State can and

indeed has in terms of Section 123(3) forbidden interference of religions and religious
beliefs with secular activity of elections to legislative bodies.
To my mind the dilemma answered by the court is best illustrated by these lines from the
end of Faiz Ahmed Faizs Hum Dekhenge: Bas naam rahega Allah ka / jo ghayab bhi
hai haazir bhi / jo manzar bhi hai naazir bhi / uthegaa ina-l-haqq kaa naaraa / jo main
bhi hoon aur tum bhi ho / aur raj karegi Khalq-e-Khudaa / jo main bhi hoon aur tum bhi
ho (Only the name of God shall remain / Who is both absent and present / Who is the
spectacle and the spectator / The cry I am He will arise / Of which I am a part and so
are you / And the people of God will rule / Of which I am a part and so are you).
The lines, read in isolation, seem to be a direct invocation to the establishment of a
Caliphate. But those who know the context of Faiz the poet, the man and his work
correctly interpret it as a communist vision of life, with the dictatorship of the proletariat
prevailing. Similarly, future challenges in court to election victories based on identity
politics will now walk the fine line of text, context and subtext.
Sanjay Hegde is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court.

Letters to editor
Nisha Yadav,Dahina Balasubramaniam Pavani,Secunderabad J.P.
Reddy,NalgondaV. Lakshmanan,Tirupur K.A. Abdul Kader,PodakkudiR.
Sivakumar,ChennaiN. Nagarajan,SecunderabadFazeen Rasheed A.K.,
Kozhikode

Women still unsafe

The ridiculous remark by Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara reminds me of the

2016 Bollywood film Pink, which rightly pointed out the problems with the questions
asked of women who are molested or raped (Bengalurus night of horror, Jan.5). These
questions always accuse the woman of something: why she went out at a particular
time, why she was dressed the way she was, why she went with one friend and not
another or why she didnt go out in a group, and so on. The men who commit terrible
acts dont seem to be questioned in this manner. How can such heinous acts be justified
and blamed on clothes? Its shameful, especially given that it is coming from a Minister.
Nisha Yadav,
Dahina

Women cant be safe in crowds; women cant be safe when they are alone. So, where
should they be? These kinds of horrifying incidents need to be probed at the highest
level and the culprits must be punished severely. It is strange that in India we worship
women and equate them with goddesses even as crimes against them seem to be
increasing. We always concentrate on making laws more stringent, but what is the point
of doing that if implementation of laws is so poor? There doesnt seem to be fear of the
law in this country! The police need to be made accountable first.
Balasubramaniam Pavani,
Secunderabad

Farewell, captain

It is regrettable that Mahendra Singh Dhoni has called it a day as captain of the Indian
team across all formats (Dhoni steps down as skipper, Dec.5). Dhoni is a special name
in Indian cricket. He is humble, Mr. Cool, and disciplined. He may have received many
bouquets and brickbats for his performance as both player and captain but, as rightly
said by Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni was a steady and decisive captain with aggression in his
play. We must appreciate him for all that he has done, and for paving the way at the
right time for a young and energetic captain like Virat Kohli. Hats off to Dhoni for a
wonderful innings as one of the most successful captains that Indian cricket has ever
produced.
J.P. Reddy,
Nalgonda

There have been hints in the past of Dhoni quitting, considering his recent performances.
He seemed to have lost his magical touch as a dependable finisher. That was the reason
why he promoted himself in the batting order to play in the middle overs. When
international cricket is all about agility and sharp reflexes, a marginal deficiency in the
performance of a player can have a bearing on the outcome of a limited-overs match. I
will not be surprised if Dhoni retires from international cricket after the series against
England. The relinquishment of captaincy is only a precursor to this intention. Dhoni is
practical enough to realise that age had slowed him down appreciably. But what is

surprising is that he stepped down as captain after he was named captain by the
selectors.
V. Lakshmanan,
Tirupur

Indian cricket has seen many stalwart captains. But Dhoni was certainly an extraordinary
one in many ways. As skipper, he mainly focussed on cultivating team spirit and creating
opportunities for young players. Team India now has players such as R. Ashwin, Ravindra
Jadeja, Suresh Raina and, of course, Virat Kohli largely because of Dhoni. His field
placements and bowling rotations have been commended by experts. Dhoni was a risktaker and he proved that those risks were worth taking. Outside cricket, he always
maintained a low profile. He also maintained a good rapport with the media. He will be
missed, but the good news is that he will still be available for selection as a player for
the ODI and T20 series against England.
K.A. Abdul Kader,
Podakkudi

The rising son

The elevation of M.K. Stalin as the working president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
has been long overdue (Stalin at the helm, Jan.5). It cannot be said with conviction
that had Mr. Stalin been elevated to this position prior to the Tamil Nadu Assembly
election last year, it would have helped the party win the election. However, neither can
that be ruled out, for the party seems to have lost a good opportunity, largely perhaps
due to this reason.
Mr. Stalins rise assumes greater prominence given that it comes a few days after V.K.
Sasikala taking charge as the general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam. With Stalin versus Sasikala, the battle lines have been drawn in Tamil Nadu
politics. An imminent change in the political landscape in the State appears to be on the
cards.
R. Sivakumar,
Chennai

The elevation of Mr. Stalin as working president of the DMK was expected as parties in
India often function like private companies with succession within families almost a
constant. I really hope the DMK does not go the Samajwadi Party way.
N. Nagarajan,
Secunderabad

The people of Tamil Nadu were hoping for some new generation leaders. However, with
Mr. Stalins and Ms. Sasikalas elevation, it looks like that is not possible any time in the
near future. But Mr. Stalin has the advantage of political experience over Ms. Sasikala
who has never been at the forefront of politics. This will be a golden opportunity for the
DMK to rise again under his leadership.
Fazeen Rasheed A.K.,
Kozhikode

Keeping the streets safe The criticism levelled against the

Bengaluru police is instructive for law enforcement
nationwide
Imaginative day-to-day interaction between the higher echelons and
policemen at the grass-roots level will alone help R.K. Raghavan

In a seminal paper, Complexities of 21st Century Policing, published last year, Professor
David Bayley of the State University of New York, Albany was categorical that the
traditional notion of police professionalism was dead, and that the plea for policing with
consent must be rethought. In the paper, Prof. Bayley, whose association with the Indian
police goes back 50 years, makes a plea for new institutions within the police so as to
draw benefit from public inputs, accompanied by the engendering of a new
professionalism based on rigorous evaluation of existing strategic and managerial
policies. Reliance should be more on institutional wisdom and memory rather than on
individual experiences. In sum, he argues for taking the police out of the rut it had got
into the world over, through a break from past practices which were becoming
dangerously archaic in a divided and strife-ridden world.
What Prof. Bayley says has immediate relevance for the Indian police, especially after
what we saw in Bengaluru on New Years Eve, when an already poor image of the Indian

police deteriorated further because of an apathetic urban police force standing by even
as some women were being molested. It was not just the Bengaluru police that failed
that night; the criticism levelled against it applies to the police at large, even while giving
allowance to varying standards of policing in our megacities.
Without intending to be caustic or uncharitable, I am afraid the Karnataka State Police is
slipping up far too often for our comfort. Its handling of riots last year over the Cauvery
water dispute is too fresh in our memory to be ignored or forgotten. Distressingly, the
Kolkata Police is fast catching up in the matter of giving licence to thugs.
My objective here is not to berate one particular State police, but to warn others in the
country against complacence, and to learn from the obvious mistakes committed by
Bengaluru law enforcement, once known for its quality policing.
In specific terms, what is required now is to restructure existing police arrangements for
special occasions such as New Year celebrations. The average law-abiding, tax-paying
citizen cannot any longer be expected to be passive or to condone sloppiness in
maintaining law and order. He is tired of alibis for non-performance, especially in dealing
with uncivilised brutes going on a rampage without any provocation whatsoever. This is
especially so at a time when even the most insensitive and uninhibited politician in the
country will refrain from exploiting a New Year celebration to promote his cause. The
Bengaluru police stand alone in this hour of ignominy.

Outnumbered on the street

Even assuming that media reports have exaggerated what happened, there is video
evidence of at least another incident that happened in Kammanahalli, where a woman
was groped and pushed onto the road by motorcycle-borne miscreants. There is still no
evidence of what took place on M.G. Road and its vicinity in the upmarket heart of the
city. There is nothing to suggest that the police were surprised at the happenings or
were unprepared. There was indeed substantial deployment in traditional hotspots,
taking into account past experience. What is now learnt is that the police were
outnumbered in a few places, where the congregation of revellers was more than usual.
The local police stations could have possibly made an assessment late in the afternoon
so that extra policemen could have been directed to localities where the crowds were
pouring in. There was therefore an element of failure on the part of city police
intelligence.
The police were reluctant to use force against the antisocial elements. Their response is
a moot point; policemen at the spot are shy of employing strong methods without the
approval and direction of senior officers going all the way up to the numero uno in this
case the Commissioner. This unfortunate situation has developed over the years because
of many complaints of police excesses and the judicial enquiries ordered as a sequel.

This is where politics creeps in. Many belonging to the Opposition lose no time accusing
the police of overreaction, only to embarrass the ruling party even where there is
consensus that the situation on the ground did warrant police opening fire or using
batons. Unless this situation changes, one will continue to hear complaints of police
failures.

Leadership deficit

There is the other factor of inadequacies of police leadership that have become glaring
over the years. They look up to the Chief Minister or Home Minister for approval of even
minor and routine field decisions. Even where there is an enlightened Chief Minister who
stays away from field decisions, a weak DGP or Police Commissioner takes no chances.
Can there be anything more damaging to the swift handling of explosive threats to
peace? Is not granting more autonomy to the police a futile exercise if there are such
hesitant DGPs and Commissioners?
In the ultimate analysis, it is only strong public opinion that can bring a sea change to
the styles of policing. In the Bengaluru incidents, the citizenry has a significant role to
play by bringing enough pressure on the government to identify the accused and bring
them to book. If they do not rise to the occasion, not much will happen.
This brings me to the fundamental question of enhancing police sensitivity to the task of
protecting our women. There was a lot of noise after the horrific Delhi gang-rape case of
2012. There was also a laudable effort to make the law on sexual assaults on women
more stringent. Whether this has helped to improve the quality of police protection to
women is debatable. New methods of training will certainly help, but only moderately.
Imaginative day-to-day interaction on the subject between the higher echelons and
policemen at the grass-roots level will alone help. How often do Commissioners of Police
and the numerous deputies visit police stations and talk to the constabulary? That is a
chasm that will remain un-bridged as long as senior IPS officers believe that it is enough
to pander to the ego of a Chief Minister for going up the ladder.
R.K. Raghavan is a former CBI Director.

Teaching peace to humanity Why education is more than a

way of being it is an art of becoming
The effort to peacebuilding is accompanied with a freedom from prejudice,
exclusion and domination Ramin Jahanbegloo

What is the priority of pedagogy for peace in the 21st century? Do we teach cultures and
philosophies of peace at schools and universities around the world only to start new wars
and conflicts? Is education for peace still a top priority in universities and colleges? And
finally, does education help us to live a peaceful life and to bring peace around the
world? These questions need to be in our awareness on a daily basis. Only then can we
treat people, nature and most life itself in a more empathic manner.
In this light, education by definition is an ethical enterprise. In other words, education is
more than a way of being; it is an art of becoming. It is not only a process of nurturing
the human soul, as the ancient Greeks understood it through the notion of paideia,
meaning the acquisition and transmission of excellence, but also what philosopher
Bertrand Russell defines as a certain outlook on life and the world. The ancient Greeks
understood paideia as the essence of culture and communication in a good society. The
aim of paideia, Aristotle argues in Politics, is to enable members of a community to
decide the political organisation of society. Therefore, we need to assess the paideic
dimension of peacebuilding. This describes the ethical and spiritual foundations of the
process of rebuilding peace in or among societies.

Not just about security

As such, peacebuilding is not only about the security-sector reform of a society emerging
from conflict; it is the medium- to long-term process of educating humanity with a
special focus on the importance of promoting peace. In other words, in a world truly
concerned about the happiness of future generations, peace and the process of taming
violence in and among societies are continual, concrete, and the daily results of
education as a learning process. In this process, the importance of autonomy and the
nobility of spirit, which are primarily intellectual virtues, cannot be underestimated.
Therefore, the main concern of education is to engender a certain character in human
beings and to teach them the nobility of spirit and the moral common ground of actions.
If that is the case, the aim of education is not solely an academic pursuit; it is a pursuit
of moral wisdom.
Immanuel Kant, in his Lecture Notes on Pedagogy, says the aim of education must be
the moralisation of man. The educational theory advocated by him is closely related to
his belief in the moral progress of humanity which is a self-articulated and self-realised
process of attaining intellectual maturity. However, Kant considers this self-educating
process of humanity as a slow and gradual cosmopolitan process. Our only hope,
affirms Kant, is that each generation, provided with the knowledge of the foregoing one,
is able, more and more, to bring about an education which shall develop mans natural
gifts in their due proportion and relation to their end, and thus advance the whole human
race toward its destiny.

There was a time when education was the highest task of human culture. However, in
todays world we have become dulled to what it means to be fully cultured or welleducated. Our modern world is without a vision of human society encompassing these
two experiences. Likewise, peace, as a dominant idea for moral education in the past,
has gradually experienced its isolation in the two fields of politics and international
relations. As a consequence, the peacekeepers of today are diplomats and soldiers.
Moreover, the peace education promoted today by institutions such as UNESCO and the
UN General Assembly is far from being sufficient to prepare the future generations
against war and violence.
As a matter of fact, teachers and educators teach values such as fairness, compassion,
truth and freedom to Others, but they also confront these values while transmitting them
in classrooms. Furthermore, every form of value education is the foundation for mutual
evaluation of moral and social principles. To transmit moral, political and social values
from one generation to another is not an ideological process. Schools and universities
are not supposed to be ideological institutions where individuals learn to become loyal
and obedient. Here resides the difference between Tagores Santiniketan and Hitlers
National Socialist German Workers Party. While Tagore invites us to consider the nature
of education through a conscious relationship with nature and creativity, and as a path to
bridge the gap between the educated and those who have not been educated, Nazi
officers like Adolf Eichmann carried out mass murders while never permitting their
consciousness to rise above the level of following rules and obeying orders.

Looking for moral leadership

Building peace and transcending regional and global conflicts cannot be left entirely to
the action and volition of political leaders. What is necessary herewith is not political
governance, but moral leadership. Moreover, moral leadership cannot prevail by
instrumental reason, namely, to work with the elements as means to an end. What we
need here is a massive pedagogical enterprise as a mode of cultivation of humanity.
The effort to peacebuilding is, therefore, accompanied with a freedom from prejudice,
exclusion and domination. An essential part of a definition and practice of a culture of
peace is through education of non-violence that develops the quest for mutual
understanding. This raises questions concerning the value of civic upbringing, as an
individual process and as a process that a community goes through. Here education is
not about learning facts, but to cultivate ones judgment in order to be able to
distinguish between the mediocre and the spiritually noble. If this is how things are in
the context of the political, then education is not about repeating and imitating the
already inherited values that are collectively accepted, but also about being able to
create new values and norms in an autonomous way. It is certainly not ideological, but
philosophical since it is exploration of constantly new questionings and a reactivation of
the process of thinking. Such a process is an effective strategy for peacebuilding in

todays world where pedagogy for peace is not something that is currently articulated
and practised by the mainstream politicians, practitioners and researchers of
international relations.
Ramin Jahanbegloo is Director, Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Peace, Jindal Global
University, Sonipat.

Repayment of micro loans hit by note ban

Every third MSME is facing delays in receivables, which hampers their
ability to repay creditors
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Demonetisation of high-value currency notes has hit repayments of micro
loans, Rating Agency ICRA said.
Separately, a CRISIL study showed that 9 per cent of micro enterprises are facing
trouble servicing debt and paying salaries and unorganised players are expected to
suffer most due to lower growth expectations in the second half of this fiscal.
ICRA in a report said that non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) inability to accept
repayments in old currency, the shortage of valid currency among borrowers, and the
disruption in borrowers regular business resulted in an adverse impact on the collection
efficiency in the various retail loan pools securitised by NBFCs.
ICRA pointed out that micro loans, MSME loans and tractor loan pools witnessed sharp
decline in collections.
The collection efficiency in ten pools (of micro loans) dipped to less than 70 per cent...
all these pools had sizable share of contracts originated in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya
Pradesh, where collections were adversely impacted following political intervention by
some local leaders and rumours of loan waivers, according to ICRA.
While collection in micro loan sector is almost entirely in cash, collections in case of
MSME loans of smaller ticket size and tractor loans also largely happens in cash, ICRA
said.
Median monthly collections of micro loan pools declined to 91 per cent from 99.8 per
cent till September 2016. Collections of some pools declined to 50-70 per cent levels, it
said.
Collections in MSME loan pools also witnessed a sharp decline to 83 per cent from 95
per cent in the previous month, the research agency said.

Due to currency shortage, farmers either faced a loss of income due to reduced off-take
(for perishable food items like fruits and vegetables) or delayed realisations (many
farmers were forced to deposit their produce with the mandis on credit), according to
ICRA.

Debt repayment

According to a CRISIL survey, which covered more than 1,100 MSMEs between
November 24 and December 24, demonetisation has had an impact on liquidity of
MSMEs. At least 9 per cent of those surveyed, accounting for 6 per cent of outstanding
debt of the sample, said they will face issues in debt repayment. Most of these are micro
enterprises with revenues below 2 crore.
Manish Jaiswal, Head-SME Ratings, CRISIL said, Every fifth MSME surveyed planned to
raise additional funding in the coming months, half of it for working capital. Interestingly,
with unsecured loans from friends and associates drying up, 3 out of 4 respondents plan
to approach banks for loans, while the rest will rely on internal accrual. That opens up a
massive opportunity to banks currently awash in liquidity.
CRISIL said every third MSME was also facing delays in getting receivables from clients,
which has curbed their ability to repay creditors on time.

New norms likely for top PSU bank posts The roles will be
given to those with at least six years of service remaining,
says Vinod Rai
Author: Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Banks Board Bureau is working to ensure that leadership roles in
state-run banks would only be given to those with at least six years of service left, in
order to ensure accountability of their actions, the organisations Chairman Vinod Rai
said on Thursday.
Mr. Rai also said that public sector bank employees compensations would become more
competitive in 2017-18, with increases in the variable pay component.

Instilling accountability

An attempt will be made to introduce accountability in the system, to ensure that you
appoint a whole time director or a CEO (chief executive officer) at an age where he has
got a minimum of six years more to go in the institution so that he can be held
accountable for the decision, Mr. Rai said while speaking at an Assocham event.
The former Comptroller General of Accounts said that the main principle behind banking
management should be transparency in the accounting process and transparency in the
decision making process.
In some ways the compensation package of these public sector institutions needs to be
improved, Mr Rai said while speaking at an Assocham event.
We may not be able to do much about the fixed component but we can change the
variable component. From the next financial year, we should be able to introduce
bonuses, E-sops, and performance linked packages. The idea is to provide monetary and
non-monetary incentives to attract professionals.
Mr. Rai added that these incentives would apply to positions across all levels, not just to
the middle and senior management.

Filling up vacancies

He also said that the Banks Board Bureau is in the process of filling up vacancies in the
top management of the public sector banks.
We are looking for the right people, and we are trying to ensure that we choose the
best and not the second-best, he said.
We are in the business of trying to collate people who are from different walks of life
and who will be willing to join boards of PSBs and be able to provide that kind of
expertise which these banks have not had in the past and the effort is to ensure that it is
these boards which run the banks.

Corporate debt

Mr. Rai said that the Corporate Debt Restructuring Cell was created with noble intentions
in the early 2000s, but it soon found itself unable to cope with the high volume of
stressed assets in the system.
He said that while there were innumerable cases where project reports were inflated,
balance sheets were manipulated and funds siphoned off, there was an equal number of
cases where irresponsible or lazy lending took place, where due diligence was not
performed and supervision was perfunctory.

GDP may slump to 5% in third quarter on demonetisation

NEW DELHI: Indias GDP is likely to have grown at a much slower-than-expected pace of
5 per cent in the October-December period and may see a 6 per cent growth in the
following quarter due to a slow down in manufacturing and services sectors post
demonetisation, says an HSBC report. According to the global financial services major,
activity data across manufacturing and services as well as consumption and investment
have clearly taken a hit after November 8, 2016, when the government announced
scrapping old 500/1,000 rupee notes.
We expect GDP to grow 5.0 per cent in the October-December quarter and 6.0 per cent
in the January-March quarter, about 2 percentage points lower than we had expected
before the demonetisation was announced, Pranjul Bhandari, Chief Economist, HSBC
India said in a research note.
Post the March quarter, the economic growth is expected to normalise gradually towards
the 7 per cent level, it added. Thereafter (after January-March period), we expect
growth to normalise gradually towards the 7 per cent ballpark, but remain shy of the 7.5
8 per cent range in FY18. PTI

7-1-17

GDP growth expected to be slower at 7.1% this year Note

ban impact to be factored into Feb. 28 estimate report
Author: Special Correspondent

New Delhi: Indias gross domestic output is expected to grow at a slower pace of 7.1 per
cent in 2016-17 compared to the 7.6 per cent clocked in the previous year, Chief
Statistician TCA Anant said on Friday.
But this doesnt factor in the impact of the Centres decision to scrap high-value currency
notes on November 8.

Data from seven months

Stressing that this estimate, which is in sync with the Reserve Bank of Indias economic
growth forecast, is largely based on data from the first seven months of the year, Mr.
Anant said outcome-based numbers from the September to December quarter would be
captured in the next growth projection to be released on February 28.
On growth forecasts by analysts emphasising a negative impact of the note ban, Mr.
Anant said, We dont produce ad hoc estimates in general As a conscious approach,
we do not use untried, unverified or unsubstantiated methods to make adjustments to
GDP.

Two options

In the absence of data, there are only two options: you can stay with existing structures
and forecast them or, as a lot of people have done, make assumptions about what the
structures are. But those are not statistical exercises so it is difficult to argue what the
level of confidence in them would be, he said.
The gross value added (GVA) is estimated to grow 7 per cent in 2016-17 compared with
a growth rate of 7.2 per cent in 2015-16. The agriculture sector saw significant growth

with its GVA estimated to grow 4.1 per cent in 2016-17 up from 1.2 per cent in the
previous year. The service sector in aggregate is expected to grow 7.9 per cent in 201617, slower than the 8.1 per cent seen in the previous year.
Manufacturing, on the other hand, is expected to witness a slowdown, with the sectors
GVA to grow 7.4 per cent in 2016-17 down from 9.3 per cent in 2015-16. The projection
also factors in a huge jump in Government Final Consumption Expenditure, which is
expected to grow 23.8 per cent in 2016-17 compared with 2.2 per cent in 2015-16, part
of which could be on account of rise in wage and salary payments, he explained. As for
the impact of demonetisation on the next growth estimate, Mr. Anant said: I dont think
there is any method available that would lead to a higher level of confidence than what
we have done. People have lots of expectations but it is a safe practice to stay with
whatever is reflected in actual outcome-based data.

SC stays transfer and sale of 2G spectrum by Maxis Firms

owner, three others had not complied with CBI court
summons
Author: Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed all transfer and sale by Malaysiabased Maxis group of companies of 2G spectrum, originally allocated to Aircel in
November 2006.
A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, then gave Maxiss
controlling owner, Ananda Krishnan Tatparanandam, and three others a two-week
deadline to appear in court.

Besides Mr. Krishnan, the other three are M/s. Astro All Asia Networks Limited, M/s.
Maxis Communications, based at Berhad in Malaysia, and Augustus Ralph Marshall, a
director in Maxis and Astro. All four face charges in a case linked to the multi-crore 2G
spectrum corruption scam, which is under trial before a Special CBI court in Delhi.
These four were among eight named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its
charge sheet filed on August 29, 2014. They had not complied with repeated summons
from the CBI court over the years.
To compel the appearance of the accused, the Bench proposed to pass a restraint order
against the accused from earning revenue from the use of their allocated 2G spectrum in
case they did not turn up in court within the next fortnight. We cannot tolerate a person
using rare national resources like spectrum and not honouring the courts notice, Chief
Justice Khehar observed.

Directive to Ministry

The Bench asked the Ministry of Communications to work out the modalities in case the
restraint order is enforced, besides ensuring provisional arrangements for Aircel
subscribers to get uninterrupted services from some other network provider.
The Bench proposed that, in case the accused chose not to appear in court, no monetary
claims for the loss of its allotted 2G spectrum would be entertained.
It is imperative to ensure, in our considered view, that the process of law should not be
permitted to be frustrated by non-serving of summons on the accused, the six-page
order of the Bench explained.
The court further asked the government to publish its order in two leading newspapers of
Malaysia so that Maxis and others are officially apprised of the mandate. The Bench
posted the next hearing on February 3.

Veteran actor Om Puri takes his final bow

Author: Kennith Rosario

Mumbai: The final rites of critically acclaimed actor Om Puri known for being a prolific
performer in parallel cinema as well as mainstream films were conducted on Friday
evening at the Oshiwara crematorium.

The 66-year-old veteran actor died of a heart attack at his Andheri residence in the
morning. The news was first tweeted by Puris close friend, filmmaker Ashoke Pandit.
A senior doctor at Cooper Hospital said the actor was brought to the hospitals casualty
department around 10 a.m. on Friday by his ex-wife Nandita Puri. He was immediately
examined and declared brought dead, said the doctor.
Condolences from the Hindi film industry and political circles poured in on social media
for the bereaved family members of the actor. Members of the Hindi film industry who
paid their tributes included actors Shabana Azmi, Vidya Balan, lyricist and poet Javed
Akhtar, and film-makers Prakash Jha and Shyam Benegal.
Always a favourite of critics and viewers alike, Puri starred in over a hundred films,
including several international projects. Balancing parallel with mainstream cinema, Puri
acted in a diverse range of movies like Aakrosh (1980), Ardh Satya (1983), Jaane Bhi
Do Yaaro (1983) and Dharavi (1992).
Puri had last lent his voice to one of the first releases of 2017, a small budget film
Prakash Electronics. The Padma Shri awardee will also be seen in Konkona Sen Sharmas
directorial debut, A Death In The Gunj, which will release later this year.
Born in 1950 in Ambala, Puri graduated from the FTII, Pune, where actor Naseeruddin
Shah was his senior. He was also an alumnus of the 1973 class of the NSD, where Shah
was a classmate.
(With Jyoti Shelar)

Om Puri: The face of the common man Synonymous with

parallel cinema movement, he was an acting giant
Author: Namrata Joshi

MUMBAI: It was just yesterday that I met Om Puri at the movies, on the big screen,
albeit as a disembodied voice in a small film called Prakash Electronics. His booming,
gravelly intonation was unmistakeable in the films voiceover. Among the many things
about him, as one of Indias foremost actors, I cant shake off the impact of his strong,
emotive, expressive voice, especially as the cop Anant Velankar in Govind Nihalanis Ardh
Satya (1983), rendering aloud Dilip Chitres poem and slowly realising how it actually
reflected his own doubts and dilemmas:
Ek palde mein napunsakta,
ek palde mein paurush,

aur theek taraazu ke kaante par

ardh satya.
(Impotence balanced on one side of the scale,
Masculinity on the other,
And right on the needle in the middle of the weighing scale,
A half truth)

Face of the marginalised

Ironically, the performance that made the viewers take note of Puri and implanted him in
the viewers consciousness most strongly and everlastingly was the one in which he
barely spoke save that last, haunting scream of anguish. His vacant eyes, gritty face and
sheer intensity of presence told the tale of extreme oppression of the underprivileged,
victimised tribal Lahanya Bhiku, the role he became one with in Nihalanis Aakrosh
(1980).
Those were the days of the zenith of Indian parallel cinema and Puri rode splendidly on
the wave alongside virtuoso talent like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil
among others, and supported by directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Ketan
Mehta, Kundan Shah and Sudhir Mishra. He and Naseeruddin Shah have been a prime
example of healthy rivalry and positive competition when it comes to cinema, both
feeding off and contributing to each others growth as actors. Both came with the
thespian training of two rock solid institutes behind them the National School of
Drama in Delhi and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. The niggling personal
issues, if there were any, cease to matter now in retrospect.
He was like water, taking the shape of every vessel he was put in. He soaked in the
generosity and creative influences in his life, remembers a friend. Some of Puris most
significant performances in this time were all about the deprived and the disadvantaged.
Perhaps Puris own struggles in childhood and youth in Punjab brought them alive with a
rare verity. Take for instance, the control and dignity with which he essayed the trauma
of an untouchable shoemaker in Satyajit Rays TV film Sadgati (1981). Or the
desperation of the poor land tiller in Shyam Bengals Arohan (1982).
The imperfect face, which was initially perceived as his biggest drawback, eventually
became his calling card, the blemishes only adding to the strong personality and depth
of expression. It was in this ordinariness that gave Puri a face and identity to the
common man on screen.

Staggering diversity in roles

When the parallel cinema movement ebbed, he was able to switch effortlessly to the
mainstream as well. One of his earliest memorable roles was that of the cop in Rajkumar
Santoshis Ghayal (1990) and then again in Rajiv Rais Gupt (1997). Just as much as the
intensity he got identified with, Puris perfect comic timing made him win as many
hearts. Most prominently as the corrupt, inebriated builder Ahuja in Kundan Shahs
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983), especially in the one long scene with the dead body of
Commissioner DMello (Satish Shah). Assuming DMellos coffin to be a broken down car,
he tows him away to his farm house, a moment that makes one double up in laughter till
date. He was as insanely funny as the womaniser Banwari Lal in Kamal Haasans Chachi
420 (1997).
The strength of good actors lies not just in bringing author-backed roles to life but in
how they make their presence felt even in smaller roles and cameos. One of my
favourite Puri performances is in Sai Paranjapes Sparsh (1980). As the blind man Dubey,
never once does he turn the disability into a caricature, as Bollywood is prone to, but
lives his visual impairment physically, with all the inner turmoil and anxieties. Then he
towered in the climactic moments of Ketan Mehtas Mirch Masala (1987), as Abu Mian,
the guard of the spice factory, who gives refuge to Sonbai and is the only man standing
with the women against the arrogant subedar and the submissive village. He was the
powerful Sanatan in Maachis (1996), the pivot on which rested Gulzars problematising
of the insurgency in Punjab, on how innocent youth were forced to turn terrorists at
the altar of the system.

Overseas triumphs

Puri was instrumental in being the ambassador of realistic Indian cinema abroad and
ended up being part of a number of reputable and also some smaller foreign films,
starting with a small role in Richard Attenboroughs epic Gandhi (1982). In Roland Joffes
City of Joy (1992) he is the unlikely poor migrant pal of Max, played by Patrick Swayze.
In Ismail Merchants In Custody (1993), he is the Hindi professor who loves Urdu
poetry. He acted alongside Jack Nicholson in Mike Nichols Wolf (1994). Two smaller but
significant turns were in Udayan Prasads My Son the Fanatic (1994) where he is the
liberal father of a hardliner son. And then in Damien ODonnells East Is East (1999),
where he is the conservative Pakistani father unable to deal with the generation gap and
cultural rift with his half British kids.
Last, but not the least, Puri was at the head of the quality content on television, in the
glory days of Doordarshan, be it the sprawling Partition epic Tamas, Bharat Ek Khoj,
Yatra, or the betel-chewing netaji in Kakaji Kahin. Somewhere in the midst of it all, the
original platform theatre took a backseat. The last a friend remembers seeing him

on stage was in a Punjabi adaptation of the play Tumhari Amrita, called Teri Amrita, with
Divya Dutta.
Friends remember him the most as a caring person and a dogged nurturer to his son
Ishaan, who has a visual impairment. Sadly, the last few years for Puri had not been
great. The explicit revelations in the book, Unlikely Hero: The Story of Om Puri, by his
second wife Nandita Puri, broke him and the marriage as well. There was also a
concomitant, unfortunate personal dissolution.
The only consequential presence in film of late was as the blacksmith sutradhar
(narrator) in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehras Mirzya last year. And the last straw, perhaps,
was how he was humiliated publicly for his contrarian views on the Indian armed forces
on television.
But some good is still to come even in his absence. He is in perfect tune laidback,
natural and full of good humour as Bakshi Uncle with his onscreen better half, Tanuja,
in Konkona Sen Sharmas upcoming debut feature as a director, A Death In The Gunj.
Meanwhile, my abiding memories of him are of a close encounter way back in 2010 at a
film festival in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana. He was pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming
number of women in the audience, pointed out that there were more devis than
devatas in the hall. Though he was a bit guarded while speaking of the sex and nudity
scenes in his own film My Son the Fanatic, he was extremely happy at the response of
the politically aware audience to film-maker Seema Kapoors (also his first wife) film
Haat - the Weekly Bazaar, on the Rajasthani custom of Natha Pratha. Its ridiculous to
assume that small-town audiences are not ready for serious cinema. We have to give
them an opportunity, he said. The audience lapped it up and went berserk clapping.
After all, it was Puri walking the talk on what he has been the best on screen their
face, the face of the common man.

Clamping down on ordinance raj

Both superior courts and constitutional functionaries have routinely deprecated the
propensity of governments to take the ordinance route for mere political expediency.
The temptation to use the power vested in the President and the Governors under
Articles 123 and 213 of the Constitution is generally a result of one of the following three
reasons: reluctance to face the legislature on particular issues, fear of defeat in the
Upper House where the government may lack the required numbers, and the need to
overcome an impasse in the legislature caused by repeated and wilful disruption by a
vociferous section of the Opposition. The verdict of a seven-member Bench of the
Supreme Court breaks new ground in highlighting the constitutional limitations on the
cavalier resort to ordinances. The Supreme Court had already declared in 1986, in D.C.

Wadhwa, that repeated re-promulgation of ordinances was unconstitutional. Now, in

Krishna Kumar Singh v. State of Bihar, it goes deeper and concludes that the failure to
place an ordinance before the legislature constitutes abuse of power and a fraud on the
Constitution. It noted in this case that a 1989 ordinance by which the State government
took over 429 Sanskrit schools in Bihar was promulgated several times until 1992, but
not once tabled in the State Assembly.
The judgment widens the scope of judicial review of ordinances. The court can go into
whether the President or Governor had any material to arrive at the satisfaction that an
ordinance was necessaryand to examine whether there was any oblique motive. The
judgment will be welcomed by those who believe in constitutional propriety, legislative
control over lawmaking and the larger ethical basis for the exercise of power in any
circumstance. However, it is not always that the ordinance route can be neatly explained
as a cynical move to privilege political expediency over parliamentary accountability.
While contending that ordinances should be issued only to meet certain exigencies and
under compelling circumstances, it is equally important to understand that disruption as
a parliamentary tactic plays a significant role. A dysfunctional House sometimes
constitutes a compelling circumstance in itself. Generally, it is the combination of
Opposition obstructionism and government obstinacy in not making any concessions to
those across the aisle that derails legislative business and leads to ordinances. The
courts can only define the boundaries between the use and abuse of power, but it is up
to parties in the legislature to observe the limits of constitutional propriety and show
that they have both the time and the will to enact laws.

A remarkable captain

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is regarded as one of the countrys most dashing cricketers, but
his flamboyance is founded, almost ironically, on an inexplicably cool and calculated
head. There are no means of divining why he chose to relinquish Indias limited-overs
captaincy when he did; his natural reserve ensures that his cards are almost always
played close to his chest. In the context of where Indian cricket is at this juncture, it
appears like an exceptionally clear-sighted decision, brave and selfless in equal measure.
He has effectively said he will earn a place as a wicketkeeper-batsman. He has given the
team management time to build to the next World Cup, in 2019; if he is not a part of
that vision, he will not hold down a spot merely by virtue of being skipper. Given Dhonis
standing, he is probably the only one who could have made that call. It is unlikely that
any selection panel will have summoned the courage to drop him. While his glove-work
has not dipped significantly he remains a predatory presence behind the wicket his
aura as a finisher has dimmed. Although he is no less capable with the bat, the almost
eerie certainty one had that he will get the job done has dissipated. With age Dhoni
turns 36 this July the greats do not necessarily lose their skill. But the consistency of
execution suffers.

The legacy Dhoni bequeaths Virat Kohli is a team secure in its skin, certain it can win
from any position. There was no better captain in the games shorter forms than Dhoni
during his time. He is the only skipper to have won all three major trophies the World
Cup, the World Twenty20 and the Champions Trophy. Michael Clarke and Brendon
McCullum had greater attacking verve. They were certainly superior Test captains. But in
the art of managing a finite innings, reading a contests rhythm and its tactical contours,
Dhoni had no equal. He had an intuitive feel for what could happen and the ability to get
the best out of his resources, however bare. His greatest strength was his nerve. Where
others tried to finish things quickly to pre-empt panicking, he took games deep. He
raised the stakes, knowing he would not blink before his opponent. Remarkably, he
managed to transmit this sense of composure to his team. He asked his bowlers to relax
and stick to the plan; the responsibility of the result was his to bear. Few cricketers have
stayed in the present as successfully as he has. Fortunately for Indian cricket, his
successor is every bit as impressive. Kohli, moreover, will have access, should he choose,
to all of Dhonis considerable powers.

When banks are awash with cash In an environment

characterised by slowing growth, poor investor sentiment
and NPA-strapped banks, the government has its task cut
out. When private investment is skittish, public investment
must step in
Unless firms are impressed with the demonetisations potential, they are
unlikely to unburden the banks of the deposits that have so copiously
flowed in Pulapre Balakrishnan

There are many lessons to be learned from the two months of turmoil that we have
witnessed since November 8, but one stands out. The government not only
underestimated the capacity for inefficiency and wrongdoing of our commercial banks,
but also appears to overestimate their ability to turn around a shocked economy. Up until
the deadline of December 30, from across the country, we have had reports of money
meant for release to the public in exchange for the old notes being siphoned off to the
influential and those with the capacity to pay for this. So, while the ordinary citizen
queued for hours over days, Indias rich and powerful have had the newly issued
currency notes in multiples of crores delivered at their doorstep. This could not have
happened had bank officials not collaborated in this sordid exercise. On this score, the
demonetisation, held out by the government as a means to ending corruption, faltered at
the very outset. The diversion of notes meant for the public is only a variation on a
theme that we have long witnessed in India whereby a commodity in short supply is
cornered by those in charge of its distribution and sold to the highest bidder. During the
Second World War it was food, then as the Indian economy quickened it was cement,

and now, with the government reminding us that it is the fastest growing economy in the
world, it is something as easy to manufacture as paper money.

Maximum government?

So the demonetisation meant to eliminate black money led directly to a black market for
currency notes. A government claiming to provide maximum governance has lost
credibility. What is far more unfortunate though is that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
has got embroiled in the mess. Not only has it managed the transition with extraordinary
incompetence, its Governor having announced on November 8 that it had ramped up
production of the new notes, but its officers have had to be suspended for abetting
money laundering. The public had viewed the RBI as above the sectarian calculations of
the political class and the brazen corruption associated with the government machinery.
This has now been shattered. The Narendra Modi government has succeeded in turning
one of our most precious institutions into yet another government department.
If this government is unwilling to acknowledge its responsibility for governance, we may
turn to a consideration of its grand strategy. In a flexible narrative following the
exchange of much of the demonetised notes, which belied the hope of their extinction,
we are told that the exercise is actually a grand success as its intention was to bring the
money into the banking system! We may overlook the apologia and look only at the
arguments made by the governments spokespersons. Two are made. First, that a larger
volume of deposits will spur lending and increase investment. And second, that once
most of the cash has come into the system, financial transactions can be tracked by
the government.
That with banks flush with funds their lending will increase is based on a fallacy. For, so
long as the bank is not loaned-up, i.e. its loans-to-deposits ratio is not at the maximum
permissible, the volume of lending will be determined by the demand for loans. In fact, it
is not obvious that even a lowering of the interest rate will lead to this. The economics
profession has long recognised this. It had first been noticed in the U.S. during the
1930s. The rate of interest fell but private investment did not increase, precisely because
there was a paucity of willing borrowers. It is this that had led Keynes to characterise the
use of monetary policy to revive an economy as pushing on a string. Or, you may recall
the proverb, you can take the horse to the water but you cannot make it drink.
Essentially, private investors compare the cost of capital, represented by the rate of
interest, to the expected rate of return on the project. In times of uncertainty the
expected rate of return would have to quite high for a project to be chosen. As there is
so little that is objective to go by, expectations are now reduced to mere animal spirits.
Recent experience should have given us some idea of what to expect at present. Credit
growth had been sluggish even before November 8. In fact, private gross fixed capital
formation has been depressed for a couple of years at least, even though the RBI has

lowered the policy rate twice in 2016. This had led the World Bank to remark that recent
growth in India was being driven, quite unusually, by public investment and private
consumption. Unless firms are so impressed with the potential of the demonetisation,
they are unlikely to unburden the banks of the deposits that have so copiously flowed
into them since.
But let us return to the role of banks. Well before suffering the ignominy of having some
of their officers found with hands in the till, so to speak, they had piled up bad loans
termed non-performing assets (NPAs). Laffaire Vijay Mallya has shown them to be of
poor judgment when not actually corrupt. Can we now expect them to wake up and start
lending efficiently on a scale high enough to make a difference to the economy? The
timing of the announcement of a lower lending rate by the State Bank of India (SBI)
should leave us wary of the possibility that the government will exert pressure on the
banks to lend to boost demand and raise the level of activity in the economy. A political
business cycle with government pump-priming the economy before elections is said to
occur in western democracies. In India the government has an extra lever in the form of
a nationalised banking sector that can be forced to dance to its tune. The very poor
lending decisions of public-sector banks commencing in UPA II have resulted in a high
level of NPAs. Hopefully at least now the RBI will caution banks against throwing good
money after bad to please their political bosses.
The current priority is to remonetise the economy, and fast. The RBI and the banks must
eliminate the cash crunch that has resulted in livelihood loss, especially in rural India.
One would expect that this alone should keep them busy for much of the rest of the
financial year. NPAs come in the way of banks expanding their loan portfolio. The
government is yet to address this issue or to give its view on one of the solutions
proffered, that of a bad bank, which must perforce be a public undertaking.

A task cut out

In an environment characterised by slowing growth, poor investor sentiment and NPAstrapped banks, the governments task is cut out. Dogma alone stands in the way of one
recognising it. The macroeconomic strategy should now make use of fiscal policy. An
occasion is presented by the budget for the year 2017-18. When private investment is
skittish, one would reasonably expect public investment to step in. The budget for the
present year did little for aggregate demand with the fiscal deficit down and the
allocation for public investment merely inching forward. With the sops announced by the
Prime Minister in his speech on New Years Eve, there is the possibility that in its
eagerness to display commitment to fiscal consolidation, the government may cut public
investment. This is not mere speculation. In the year 2015-2016 capital expenditure had
ended up at less than what had been budgeted.

Altogether, this government appears reluctant to expand public capital even though it is
in short supply in the economy. For every demonstration that India has a higher cash-toGDP ratio compared to the rest of the world, we can point to its lower level of public
services, not to mention human development compared to even some of our neighbours.
The governments zeal for squeezing cash out of the system is not based on any serious
economic analysis of what the economy needs right now. Moreover, the Prime Minister
had come promising minimum government. In this vein, he should leave the decision on
the use of cash to the market, as his government is happy to do in some other crucial
instances. There is nothing to say that the honest citizen should leave her money with
the bank rather than under the mattress so long as she pays her taxes. The state must
strive for accountability, always.
Pulapre Balakrishnan is Professor of Economics at Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana,
and Senior Fellow, IIM Kozhikode, Kerala.
Letters to Editor

Hemant Kumar,Chandigarh G. David Milton,Maruthancode, Tamil NaduS.V.

Venugopalan,Chennai Kudur Rashmi,Mumbai Veda Patil,GulbargaV.N.
Mukundarajan,ThiruvanathapuramBharath Bhushan
Akkera,HyderabadNidhish Kumar,GhaziabadAnjali B.,Thiruvananthapuram

RIP Om Puri

The sudden demise of actor Om Puri is shocking and unfortunate (Veteran actor Om
Puri passes away, Jan.6). Since childhood, I have been an avid fan. I still vividly recall
him in Tamas, a television film in the late 1980s, though I was still in school then. Puri
may not have been the most attractive person but he still attained great success, notably
in Bollywood, not as a hero or a superstar but as an actor who could essay every kind of
role with perfection. His success story is an inspiration to those who dont have a modellike physique or conventional good looks, which are often demanded in the film industry.
He proved that good acting can alone win one success.
Hemant Kumar,
Chandigarh

Om Puri was a representative of the wealth of talent in Indian theatre and cinema.
Acting was his forte; it came naturally to him. His memorable performances in Sadgati,
Ardh Satya, Aakrosh, Maachis, AK-47, Disco Dancer and East is East and his cameo role
in Gandhi are still etched in our memories. He was a stage and screen actor, not a
larger-than-life superstar with a huge fan following. His roles were essentially depictions
of ordinary individuals, and they did justice to the human condition. With like-minded
peers like Naseeruddin Shah, Puri redefined the grammar of acting and made new-wave
parallel cinema a significant medium of entertainment and edification despite his
presence in mainstream commercial cinema too.
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Oh, what a fine actor Om Puri was! Inimitable in his looks and body language, he had an
extraordinary voice. While his role in Mirch Masala is unforgettable, his performance in
Govind Nihalanis Tamas was beyond description. He will be missed.
S.V. Venugopalan,
Chennai

Protecting our girls

Introducing self-defence in schools can help girls protect themselves in such situations
(Four arrested in Bengaluru molestation case, Jan.6). It looks like women will always
be blamed, no matter what the situation, while no derogatory remarks will be made
against the men who commit such horrifying acts. Imposing more rules on girls isnt the
way to go, as many suggest, but we can equip them with the skills to fight back.
Kudur Rashmi,
Mumbai

There are several laws made to protect women in India, but implementation is really
weak. We dont need more laws, we need to change our attitudes. Every mother in this
country should sensitise her son to respect women. Politicians and the judiciary should

be setting examples by punishing culprits instead of doing things like blaming

westernisation.
Veda Patil,
Gulbarga

Police reform

The author seems to suggest that reforms within the police force could infuse
professionalism into it (Keeping the streets safe, Jan.6). The basic flaw in law
enforcement is that the police are under the control of the ruling party. It is futile to
expect the lower echelons of the police to act impartially when some senior officers are
not immune to political interference. Moreover, the politicisation of crime and
criminalisation of politics are a toxic mixture that has weakened the independent
functioning of the police. The only way to make the police accountable to the public and
to insulate personnel from political interference is to implement the police reforms
initiated by the Supreme Court in 2006.
We must also ask ourselves whether neighbourhood communities and society at large
have no role in protecting women from harassment. The police cannot be present in
every nook and corner of every city although patrolling can be intensified in the night.
Civic responsibility to deter crime and report its occurrence is something we seldom talk
about. Community policing a partnership between local communities and the police
can also be tried as a strategy to prevent crime.
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvanathapuram

Filtering out fake news

The spread of fake news through Facebook seems to be increasing day by day (Being
factual in the post-truth era, Jan.6). But its not just Facebook; I see government
orders, or what people believe are government orders, being shared on WhatsApp and

other social media platforms every other day. People share information without
verification, which can be dangerous. All social media platforms have a moral
responsibility to filter out fake news.
Bharath Bhushan Akkera,
Hyderabad

This editorial reminds me of the 2013 communal riots in Muzaffarnagar. A video clip
showing men, who were purportedly in a particular communitys attire, lynching two
boys was circulated on social media, inciting violence. It was later found that the incident
did not take place in Muzaffarnagar.
In another instance, a video of a woman being beaten and burned alive by a mob was
circulated to project the behaviour of an Indian mob. Again, it turned out that the video
was not from here, but from Guatemala.
In both instances, there were undesirable consequences on the public psyche. In a
country like India that already has communalism, religious polarisation and patriarchy,
the post-truth world presents a momentous challenge which needs to be curbed in its
initial stages before the country goes digital, a phenomenon which will bring about its
own set of challenges.
Nidhish Kumar,
Ghaziabad

The goal of education

Moral degradation has spread its tentacles far and wide, including in our education
system (Teaching peace to humanity, Jan.6). The future generation is left to
mechanically absorb factual knowledge, not wisdom. This rat race is a dangerous
predicament. The ultimate goal of education that of emancipating oneself is wholly
overlooked in the strictly syllabus-oriented education system of today. It is high time our
educational setup underwent a massive revamp taking a cue from Indias ancient
Gurukul system, of holistic development encompassing physical, mental, societal and
spiritual elevation of the soul.
Anjali B.,

Thiruvananthapuram

The sisterhood of wrestlers A thousand akharas are

blooming in Haryana as the State promises to nurture girls
inspired by the Phogats and Sakshi Maliks, reports Damini
Nath
From the time my daughters started wrestling to now, I can see some
change. But its not the majority that has changed. Many still wish for a boy
to be born, and take the birth of a girl in their family as a burden - Daya
Kaur, wife of Mahavir Phogat

Its 3.30 p.m. on a clear day. Balali village, in the Bhiwani district of Haryana, is slowly
whirring to life after the siesta. Theres a whiff of mustard in the air as the fields of
yellow sway in the gentle breeze. The serenity, however, barely seeps in to a hall
adjoining the rabi crop where 11-year-old Komal Sangwan is giving the mats a hurried
sweep. In minutes, the hall would be packed with 20-odd children, Komal included, first
warming up and then straining their sinews to instructions yelled out from the doorway.
The tough taskmaster in question: Mahavir Singh Phogat, father and coach to golden
grapplers Geeta and Babita. The father-daughters exploits, known in sporting circles for
over half a decade, have entered the national conversation with the Aamir Khan-starrer
Dangal, the Bollywood blockbuster thats scripting a new collections high at the box
office each passing day.
The high notes have been years in the making, literally. When he started training his
two eldest daughters in 2000, Mahavir quickly became the black sheep of Balali. My
relatives, even my parents, would ask me, Arent you ashamed that you are making
pehelwans (wrestlers) out of girls? When I used to say that my daughters would make a
name for themselves and make the country proud, people used to laugh, says Mahavir,
as he sits outside the wrestling hall, Roxy, his pet pug, sleeping at his feet.
They laughed then, but the laughter turned to applause as Geeta and Babita went on to
win the gold and silver medals respectively at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Their sisters and cousins, Priyanka, Ritu, Vinesh and Sangita, also followed them into the
sport, winning medals at international and national-level competitions.

Winds of change

Along with the Phogat sisters and Sakshi Malik, bronze medal winner at the Rio Olympics
in 2016, young girls in the State are increasingly taking to the sport as evidenced by the
throng at the small wrestling centre Mahavir built on his land, complete with a running
track through the fields, and elsewhere in the State. When I started training my
daughters there werent any akharas that allowed girls. Now, there must be at least 50
akharas that train girls, he says.
Its not just that attitudes are changing, the State has also been investing in sports
infrastructure, even allocating Rs.1.5 crore in the 2016-2017 budget for wrestling mats
and weight-training equipment for akharas. Apart from the State governments wrestling
centres, the Sports Authority of India also has three training facilities for the sport in
Haryana in Hisar, Bhiwani and Sonepat. But there is a lot more to be done. With the right
assistance, Mahavir says he can churn out many Geetas. The Haryana Sports
Department itself estimates that Rs.2.5 crore is needed to strengthen akharas.
At any rate, in a State with the lowest sex ratio in the country and where women have at
different points been banned from using cell phones and wearing jeans, the sight of
girls wrestling and excelling at the sport has started a conversation. Daya Kaur, Mahavirs
wife, has seen it first-hand. From the time my daughters started wrestling to now, I can
see some change. But its not the majority that has changed. Many still wish for a boy to
be born, and take the birth of a girl in their family as a burden, she says, as she peeks
into the wrestling hall while bracing up for the evening chores.
Nine-year-old Neha Sangwan, the daughter of Balali sarpanch Amit Kumar Sangwan, has
been training with Mahavir for two years. She can do 600 push-ups, says a village elder
who is sitting outside and playing cards with friends. Its more like 100, clarifies Neha
sheepishly.
Sarpanch Sangwan says the fact that young parents like him are encouraging their
daughters to train with Mahavir pehelwan is an indication of change in the village. Its
not just wrestling, but girls in the village are getting jobs in the paramilitary forces, in
aviation and the government services. Wrestling will open up opportunities for my
daughter, he says.
For girls like Neha, the next step is to move to a town as training centres there offer
better facilities.
The Haryana Sports Department runs wrestling centres across the State, with the one at
Rohtaks Chhotu Ram Stadium boasting of many famous students, including Sakshi
Malik.
About 100 students, including 30 girls, train twice a day for up to six hours at the centre.
With photos of Sakshi Malik, double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and London 2012
medal-winner Yogeshwar Dutt hanging on the walls, the students arent short on
inspiration.

Most of the girls are aged 16-24 and have come from villages across the State, with their
families funding their stay. They live by themselves in Rohtak, in single rooms on rent. A
typical day starts at 5 a.m., with the morning training session spanning from 6.30 a.m.
to around 9 a.m. Then its back to the room, where they cook, clean and rest before the
afternoon session from 3.30 p.m. to around 7 p.m., and back home in time for dinner.
Sunday is the only respite from this gruelling schedule, with the luxury of a few extra
hours of sleep.
For 18-year-old Reena, who has been wrestling for seven years, while attitudes of those
around her may be changing, society still needs to. When I started winning medals, the
people in my village started looking at me differently. The biggest change was after
Sakshi didis bronze medal in the Olympics. But I feel its superficial support, they dont
really believe in us, she says.
Back home, girls are married off as soon as they finish Class X, says Reena in the
middle of a training break. Their mindset has not changed overall. My village is about 2
km away, but my parents insist that I rent a room in Rohtak just to keep out the taunts
of others, she says.
The coach at the centre, Mandeep Singh, who also trains Sakshi Malik, however, insists
attitudes are changing. Just from talking to parents, we can see the change, he says,
as girls as young as eight years old are being dropped off and picked up twice a day at
the centre by eager parents.

The wrestling boom

If the number of girls who are starting to take up the sport is any indication, then
wrestling is booming in Haryana. Coaches and training centres are finding it difficult to
accommodate the rush.
At Rohtaks Maharshi Dayanand University, about 100 students train under former
national-level coach Ishwar Chand Dahiya, who used to run the Chhotu Ram Stadium
centre till his retirement a few years ago. It was there that he encountered Sakshi Malik
and became her first coach.
At a cold early morning session at the universitys wrestling hall, Kiran Ahlawat cant wait
to get back on the mat. The 16-year-old injured her shoulder trying to impress the coach
and now has to look on while the others practise. Wearing a pink hoodie and matching
socks that peep out from a small hole in her shoes, Kiran is among 14 girls who train
under Dahiya. When I started training girls in 2003, even my relatives used to say hes
gone mad. But I did not treat girls and boys differently, says the genial coach as he
watches over the students morning session.

One of the beginners at the centre is 11-year-old Sakshi Malik. After her illustrious
namesake became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal for wrestling, Sakshi
decided that she wanted to follow in her footsteps. Every morning before school, and
every afternoon after classes get over, she makes her way from her village, Kharawar,
which is about half an hour away.
For the twenty-somethings, the wrestlers are grappling with the pressure to get married,
but not in the same way as their peers. Their families insist that they focus on their
game, win accolades and then think of settling down. Medals will give them an upper
hand when it comes to prospective suitors, says a coach. For now, the mat is where
their focus is.
Sudesh Malik, 22, who is from Bhainswal Kalan village in Sonepat district but lives and
trains in Rohtak, knows exactly how things have changed for her ilk. Her parents had
forced her to stop wrestling when she was younger. Only an intervention from her coach
could get them to agree. When I started winning, they stopped objecting. Now they
support me completely. In fact, when I meet my friends from the village, they tell me
that I have it the best. Theyre all married. They tell me not to get married, she says.
For Sudesh, who competes in the 74-kg weight class, the growing participation of girls
has meant more competition. Earlier, there used to be only five to seven girls in my
weight class. Now, at national-level events, there are up to 25, she says.

Grappling with ground realities

Another wrestler at the session, 23-year-old Seema, says though wrestling gave her a
new life, life back in her village has not changed much. They talk about us behind our
backs. They say things like wonder what she is up to and what kind of clothes must she
be wearing, she says.
But the villages the girls come from are a world away from the mats. During an evening
session, Dahiya shows the students some techniques. The entire hall gathers around as
he tackles a student to the ground. As he stands on the sidelines giving instructions, he
is interrupted by a girl asking permission to leave early. The hostel warden isnt allowing
me to stay late, says the undergraduate student. The hostel she stays at has a fixed
curfew for girls, 6 p.m., while boys are not required to adhere to any deadlines. The
coach says he will figure it out, speak to the authorities and ask for permission.
Meanwhile, Sudesh and Seema are grappling on one side of the mat when they bump
into two young men who have also just gone to the ground. Move to your side, yells
one of the boys, pointing to the edge of the mat where the girls are supposed to
practise. Seema and Sudesh roll their eyes and carry on.

Towards the end of the session, the young men and women practise with each other, as
the coaches make sure that the doors and windows are closed. I dont let anyone, apart
from parents, hang around the hall. If they see girls and boys wrestling with each other,
theyll create a ruckus. If this (points towards a girl and boy grappling) was happening in
a village, there would be murder, says one of the coaches.

League of aspirations

In some time, its Sudesh who asks to leave. The second edition of the Pro Wrestling
League a bid to professionalise the game on the lines of similar franchise models for
cricket, hockey, badminton, kabaddi, etc. is starting and she wants to catch the first
match on TV. Coach Dahiya agrees, and tells all his students to watch kushti on TV as
he wraps up the session.
The girls cycle frantically to Sudeshs one-room house to make it in time for the opening.
With three teddy bears hanging on the wall and two dumb-bells on the floor next to the
bed, Sudeshs room is far removed from the staid wrestling hall where she spends hours
each day.
As Sudesh peels amlas (gooseberries) and a beetroot for juice (its good for you after
practice, she says), the programme begins. Seema and Sudesh watch the bouts, talk
about which of their favourites could win. As the day winds down, Sudesh gets a call
from her father. She assures him that shes taking care of herself and not exerting too
much she hasnt competed in a big competition in about two years due to a knee
injury. But Im getting better, getting the strength back, she says, as images from the
K.D. Jadhav stadium in Delhi play on in the background.
For many of the young girls in Haryanas wrestling centres and akharas, getting to
compete alongside international stars in a televised league is a new opportunity,
complete with money, fame and the opportunity to learn. But life is no breeze for the
young women who appear to have made it.
Kiran and Indu Chaudhary have just completed their bouts on day three of the league.
With the deafening roar of cheering fans and drums still ringing in their ears, the
Haryana Hammers teammates catch a breath. If we give our best, then young girls and
their families can see the possibilities. It promotes the sport for the next generation,
says Indu, who is from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Indu has had a tough bout and ended
up injured. Injury toh wrestler ka gehna hai, says Kiran, to which Indu nods.
Whether it is in the wrestling centres or the akharas or under the floodlights of a Delhi
stadium, the assembly line coming out of Haryana augurs well for Indias sporting
ambitions in the global arena even as it equalises opportunities and alters societal
attitudes along the way. Theres a new-found can-do spirit stemming from the successes

of the Phogat sisters and Sakshi Malik. Even in faraway Balali, where Neha Sangwan has
set her sights on winning an Olympic medal. Like Sakshi didi, she says. Only two
notches better.
Gold.

GDP growth likely to be slower this year

The problem, he pointed out, is that there is no formal indicator used in GDP estimates
directly based on the nature of money supply. The impact of demonetisation will operate
through a variety of indicators.
The effect of demonetisation is very complicated and to talk about what the effect would
be, when it would show itself, and how much it would be, to comment on that would be
difficult at this time. The effect can be long term also, since if the economys structures
change, if behavioural practices change, or if we move towards a less cash system, then
there will be changes in quite a lot of processes over time, he observed.
The Central Statistics Office has consciously not used data for credit flow and bank
deposits for the month of November and has made projections using the figures from
April 2016 to October 2016.
At the moment, the assessment we are giving on growth is that it is not possible to say
if this drop is attributable to a particular policy change or not. What we are saying is:
this is the growth we are estimating now with the data that is available. This is the besteffort estimate for the full year, he said.
On the projection, rating agency CRISILs research division said that it is likely to have
an upward bias, especially in terms of government consumption growth and government
services growth [of 12.8 per cent].

160% rise in killings of Naxals in 2016

Author: Vijaita Singh

New Delhi: The Home Ministry flagged the operational efficiency of security forces in the
Maoist-affected areas as one of its biggest achievements during a presentation before
Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week.

The Ministry informed Mr. Modi that since the NDA government came to power in May
2014, there had been a 45 per cent increase in the efficiency of Central forces in
operations against the Maoists. Mr. Modi has been conducting review meetings of 10
groups of secretaries as the NDA government completed two-and-a-half years in office.
In a presentation made by Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Mr. Modi and other officials
were informed that the number of Naxal cadres killed in 2016 had been the highest ever
in six years. Eighty-four Maoist cadres were killed in 2015 and in 2016, the number
swelled to 218, which was an increase of 160 per cent. There was also an increase in the
number of police encounters, from 237 in 2015 to 316 in 2016.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh told a press conference earlier this week that
demonetisation had increased the problems of Maoists and that they had weakened.

Violence down

He also said that Maoist-related violence was down by 40-50 per cent and the Ministry
expected the situation to be normal in the next two-three years.
After the NDA government came to power, the Home Ministry sent an additional 14
battalions of Central police forces to the Maoist-affected districts. In all, 104 battalions
(each battalion has approximately 1,000 men) of Central forces are currently deployed in
the affected areas, besides a large number of State police personnel.
We consider the progress made in the Maoist-affected areas as one of the biggest
achievements of the Ministry and that is why it was showcased in front of the Prime
Minister.
There are other areas also where the Home Ministry has performed well but we consider
this as the most noteworthy, said a senior Home Ministry official.
The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has already given the go-ahead for an
ambitious road project in the 44 worst-affected districts. Under this project, the
government proposes to construct 5,412 km of roads and 126 bridges and it would cost
11,725 crore.

Redrawing Red Corridor

The government is redrawing the Red Corridor the area affected by Left Wing
Extremism (LWE) and may soon take off 20 districts from the list of Maoist-affected
areas. The 106 districts which span 10 States Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh constitute the Red Corridor. Of these, 44 districts are said to be the
worst affected. India has a total of 683 districts.

India lacks plan for global rescue: Study Evacuation

missions depend on quick-fix solutions
Author: Kallol Bhattacherjee

NEW DELHI: The governments plans for conducting emergency large-scale international
evacuation is ad hoc and depends on quick-fix solutions, a major think tank paper
has stated. The paper authored for Carnegie India has revealed that despite conducting
nearly 30 international evacuations, South Block does not have a standard operating
procedure (SOP) for such missions and continues to depend on individual sacrifices from
civil aviation, military and diplomatic services.
As more than 11 million Indians now reside abroad, and more than 20 million now
travel abroad each year, the government will no longer be able to rely on heroic, ad hoc
efforts and quick fix solutions, said the author of the paper Constantino Xavier, pointing
out the urgent need to craft an SOP on emergency evacuation.
Mr. Xaviers paper which coincided with the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (7-9 January,
Bengaluru), stated that the U.S., the U.K., and the NATO have institutionalised noncombatant evacuation operations (NEO) doctrine. Among the developing countries, Brazil
too has institutionalised an SOP. However, India is yet to do the needful even as public
scrutiny increases on international crisis situations.
When the lives and assets of Indians are at risk abroad, civil society organisations
mobilise and lobby elected representatives and regional authorities to pressure the
Central government to take a more proactive stance, which may hinder quiet diplomacy
efforts further endanger the safety of overseas Indians, the paper said, cautioning
that public scrutiny of ad hoc plans could jeopardise missions.
The paper has suggested that the government consider setting up quick reaction teams.

Railways may get 6% increase in Budget Finance Ministry

pegs budgetary support at 48,000 cr.
Author: Somesh Jha

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry may grant the Indian Railways a more than six per
cent increase in gross budgetary support to 48,000 crore, a figure that the operator of
the worlds fourth largest railway network wants raised further, according to official
sources.
The Finance Ministry has pegged the budgetary support at 48,000 crore for 2017-18.
The Budget, which is likely to be presented on February 1, will be the first time that the
state-owned Railways will have its allocation announced in the Union Budget as the
colonial-era practice of a separate Railway Budget has been dispensed with.
While the public utility had sought 60,000 crore for the coming fiscal to rev up
investments, the Finance Ministry had pointed out that the Railways wont have to pay
any dividend from the coming year.
The Finance Ministry has informed us in writing that they will be able to provide a gross
budgetary support (GBS) of 48,000 crore for 2017-18, said a senior Railway Ministry
official, who did not wish to be identified. However, we had asked for a higher budgetary
support of 60,000 crore and we are still negotiating with them.

Dividend waiver

The GBS will, however, be more than six per cent higher than 45,000 crore provided by
the Finance Ministry in 2016-17. The increase in budgetary support is significant as the
Indian Railways will no longer be required to pay dividend to the Finance Ministry for the
capital invested in it following the Budget merger from 2017-18.
The dividend waiver will allow the Railways to step up investment towards track renewal,
maintenance, station improvement and passenger amenities.
In 2016-17, Indian Railways is budgeted to pay 9,731 crore as dividend, whereas the
subsidy claimed by the Railways towards loss-making routes is estimated at 4,301
crore. As a result, the net dividend payment to the Finance Ministry is estimated at
5,430 crore in 2016-17 against the gross budgetary support of 45,000 crore.
The Indian Railways meets its planned expenditure through a combination of GBS,
market borrowings and internal revenue generation.
Over the last five years, the GBS provided to the Railways has been substantially lower
than its actual requirement. While the Railways had sought from the Finance Ministry

budgetary support of 2, 29,399 crore from 2012-13 to 2016-17, the actual GBS
(including diesel cess) was 25 per cent lower at 1, 67,511 crore. Railway Ministry
officials opine that providing budgetary support lower than its demands might impact
investment in key infrastructure projects planned for 2017-18. An official said the
Railways is planning a plan outlay of about 1.35 lakh crore for the next financial year,
higher than a record plan outlay of 1,21,000 crore in 2016-17.

Generate surplus

It is a well accepted fact that due to inability of Railways to generate surplus and
inadequate Gross Budgetary Support projects have been languishing leading to vicious
cycle of time and cost overruns, the Railway Ministry told a Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Railways that recently presented its ninth report in the Lok Sabha.
However, the Committee noted that annual plan sizes of the Railways had been
disproportionate in the last four years due to lower generation of extra budgetary
resources, lower materialisation of internal resources along with lower allocation of gross
budgetary support.

Centre plans to amend Plantation Labour Act

Author: Indrani Dutta

KOLKATA: The Centre is planning to amend the Plantation Labour Act (PLA), 1951 in a
major way to exclude in kind components being regarded as wages.
It may be mentioned here that under the PLA 1951, plantation workers get various
benefits either subsidised or free. These include rations, housing, education, firewood
and medical facilities.
Accordingly, a large section of the mainstream tea industry bears the cost of providing
these services. The industry does not pay statutory minimum wages, saying that the
monetised value of the facilities provided compensates for this.

Daily pay-out

The tea industry , which is the largest among the plantation sectors (which includes
coffee, rubber and spices), pays 137 in cash in Assam and 132 in West Bengal, with
the industry maintaining that taken with the value of the perks, the daily-payout stands
between 272 and 284.
In 2014, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had come down hard on the tea
industry for not paying minimum wages.
The proposed amendment is now seeking to exclude from the definition of wage the inkind benefits that were being hitherto included, an industry source told The Hindu.
The Central and State governments rolled out a clutch of social sector schemes which
can be implemented in the tea estates. This, they felt, would obviate the need for the
industry to extend these benefits. The Centre now wants the plantation industry to share
this cost with the government under the amended PLA.
Responding to these proposed changes, Azam Monem, chairman of the Consultative
Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA), told The Hindu that it was good that the
PLA had been brought to the discussion table.
The Indian industry had long been saying that PLA puts them at a cost-disadvantage visa-vis international rivals. A 2009 Report of a Committee on the Cost Competitiveness of
India Tea Industry, too had pointed out that the PLA had added to production costs and
lowered competitiveness. Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, Chairman of the Confederation of
Small Tea Growers ( part of whom are under PLA) said that any additional burden would
kill the small growers-cum-owner segment.
We are happy that the Centre is now discussing the PLA, but we will send in our
comments by January 20 to propose that the changes are looked at from the employers
view point too.

Double delight from Indian telescope data

Washington: Astronomers, using data from Indias Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope
(GMRT), have discovered two of the most powerful phenomena in the universe a
supermassive black hole and the collision of giant galaxy clusters about two billion light
years from Earth.
The two phenomenon have combined to create a stupendous cosmic particle accelerator,
researchers said.
By combining data from NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Giant Metrewave Radio
Telescope (GMRT) in Pune and other telescopes, researchers found what happens when

matter ejected by a giant black hole is swept up in the merger of two enormous galaxy
clusters.
We have seen each of these spectacular phenomena separately in many places, said
Reinout van Weeren of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics (CfA) in the
U.S., who led the study.
This is the first time, however, that we see them clearly linked together in the same
system, said Mr. van Weeren. This cosmic combination is found in a pair of colliding
galaxy clusters called Abell 3411 and Abell 3412 located about two billion light years
from Earth.

Clusters massive

The two clusters are both very massive, each weighing about a quadrillion or a million
billion times the mass of the Sun. The comet-shaped appearance of the X-rays
detected by Chandra is produced by hot gas from one cluster ploughing through the hot
gas of the other cluster. Optical data from the Keck Observatory and Japans Subaru
telescope, both on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, detected the galaxies in each cluster.
First, at least one spinning, supermassive black hole in one of the galaxy clusters
produced a rotating, tightlywound magnetic funnel. The powerful electromagnetic fields
associated with this structure have accelerated some of the inflowing gas away from the
vicinity of the black hole in the form of an energetic, high-speed jet. PTI

8-1-17

NHRC notice to Chhattisgarh govt on sexual assault by

cops Commission finds prima facie evidence of assault on
16 women
Author: Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Sixteen women were prima facie found to be sexually and physically
assaulted by Chhattisgarh Police personnel, as per the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC), which issued a show-cause notice to the State government on
Saturday.

News reports, complaints

The NHRC was hearing the matter of alleged sexual assault by police personnel in
Chhattisgarh, based on complaints that it received in 2016, as well as a news report
from November, 2015 that it took suo motu cognisance of certain news reports. As per
the reports and complaints, several women were assaulted by police personnel in the
Bijapur, Sukma and Dantewada districts of Chhattisgarh. Looking at the gravity of the
allegations, the full Bench of the NHRC considered the matter on February 22, 2016 and
ordered an investigation into the case. The NHRC team recorded the statements of some
of the security personnel and victims, but was unable to reach out to all the victims
mentioned in the FIRs filed in the cases.

Monetary relief

While it is yet to record the statements of 20 of the women, the NHRC has found that 16
of them were prima facie assaulted by police personnel. Issuing a notice to the
Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary, the NHRC asked why it should not recommend an interim
monetary relief of 37 lakh for the 16 victims. The amount includes 3 lakh for each of

the eight victims of rape, 2 lakh for each of the six victims of sexual assault and
50,000 each for the two victims of physical assault.

State is liable

The Commission has observed that it is of the view that, prima facie, human rights of
the victims have been grossly violated by the security personnel of the government of
Chhattisgarh for which the State government is vicariously liable, said an NHRC
statement.
The statements of the remaining victims would be recorded within a month, either by a
new NHRC investigation team or the magistrate concerned.
What is 3D Graphene? Graphene is one of the strongest materials known to man, but so
far it hasn't lent itself to practical use because it is extremely thin. However, researchers
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said they had designed a 3D
version of the material by compressing and fusing flakes of graphene, a two-dimensional
form of carbon. One of the variants of the lightweight material is only 5 per cent as
dense as steel, but 10 times stronger. The scientists, reporting their work in the journal,
Science Advances, also said that creation of the new porous, 3D form had less to do with
the material itself and more to do with the unusual geometric configuration employed.
This could lead to more lighter, stronger materials with similar geometric features.

Health-care data is ailing

Author: Samarth Bansal

Data pertaining to health care in India, evidence shows, is significantly compromised in

terms of its quality, its periodicity and coverage. In addition, there is a visible
discrepancy between the type of information available and what is required by health
planners, medical scientists and researchers, says a recent paper by the Health Team of
the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi.
It has been well recognised and acknowledged by the government officials that data
collection system in India needs to be completely revamped as different data sources
lead to different conclusions. So if you want to know the proportion of births that were
delivered by caesarian section in a private health facility of Andhra Pradesh, National
Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 will say it is 57 per cent but the Health Information
System of the National Rural Health Mission 2015-16 pegs it at around 42 per cent.

Data gaps

In an issue brief published by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), four major data
gaps were identified. First, there is a lack of data at the sub-State or the district level,
making it difficult to plan for targeted interventions. Second, data is collected at irregular
intervals, which doesnt allow for mid-course policy correction. For example, the fourth
round of NFHS was conducted after a gap of nine years. Third, data remains incomplete
in many surveys and tools, especially in administrative data at hospitals and nursing
centres in smaller towns and districts. Fourth, which is a problem across the board, is
data quality. The issue brief mentions that the lack of an independent quality control
body limits the quality of available data, especially given that the information passes
through various layers before reaching the stage of evaluation and analysis.
In order to ensure that we get credible and reliable data, systemic concerns must be
taken into consideration. Figuring out why the data was collected often hints towards
how it was collected.

Lack of health-care data from the private sector is another major caveat. The NIPFP
paper finds that the National Health Profile published by the Central Bureau of Health
Intelligence, New Delhi, remains severely compromised in terms of health expenditures
incurred at private facilities even though 70 per cent of the health expenditure is
reported at those institutions.
Evidence-based, informed health policies require data. But there is more to it: good
quality data is quite crucial for efficient allocation of our limited resources.
However, good quality data itself has no value if people dont make use of it. Even when
quality has improved for certain data sets such as the Health Management Information
System (HMIS), stakeholders havent started using it much. Offtake is low by the policy
community at large, and much lower by administrators, which in turn drives the lack of
enthusiasm to further improve the data systems.

The way forward

To strengthen data quality, the NIPFP paper makes four suggestions. First, the definitions
for various indicators need to be standardised across surveys, even if conducted by
different organisations. Second, the best way to data is to ensure routine capturing of
disaggregated data, without duplication of forms and formats to reduce the efforts of
data producers. Third, stakeholders and decision- makers will have to place a positive
value on data in order to use it in decision-making. This can be generated by building a
positive experience using information to support a decision and through proper training.
Fourth, the capacity building of staff needs to be a focus area, providing them with
necessary skills.

samarth.bansal@thehindu.co.in

FIGHTING tb Indias refusal to scale up bedaquiline is really

the worlds problem An 18-year-old girls legal battle puts
the spotlight on the need to widen access to the new
wonder drug for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
Author: Vidya Krishnan

An 18-year-old girl has taken the Indian government to court after being refused access
to blockbuster tuberculosis drug bedaquiline (BDQ). The girl has extensively drugresistant tuberculosis or XDR TB and her case is emblematic of the desperation of TB
patients in India, as the Health Ministry has delayed the roll-out of the life-saving drug
beyond six centres in the country. As the case comes up for hearing on Monday, Jennifer
J. Furin of Harvard Medical School, who is also an expert witness in the court case, tells
The Hindu in an e-mail interview that the decision will have a far-reaching impact on
Indias tuberculosis patients. Excerpts:
How worried are you about the Indian governments delay in rolling out bedaquiline?
First of all, the delayed roll-out and restrictive criteria are resulting in the unnecessary
loss of life for thousands of people living in India. Before we had limited options for
them, but now with bedaquiline we do, and all citizens of India (and of the world) have a
right to health and life and access to this medication. Second, the delay means that little
is being done to stop the ongoing spread of MDR-TB (multidrug-resistant tuberculosis).
By denying people access to this drug which doubles the chances of cure they are
allowing MDR-TB to spread unchecked throughout the country. And this also affects the
international community given that MDR-TB is an airborne disease.

Will improving access to bedaquiline result in antibiotic resistance, as the government

fears?
Some degree of responsible use is necessary. You dont want BDQ available in all the
drugstores or on the open market. But the severe restrictions the Indian government has
placed on BDQ with officials saying it should only be used for the worst, most resistant
cases actually increase the chance of generating BDQ resistance. Data from South
Africa show that the sooner a person is offered access to BDQ, the better the outcome
for the individual patient and for the community.
Denying this young woman access to BDQ weakens the publics confidence in the public
health system, and they will continue to go to private services until quality care is
available to them elsewhere.
What are the implications for the rest of the world if India does not show urgency in this
matter?
There have been cases of persons travelling to India and becoming infected and sick with
MDR-TB, so Indias refusal to scale up BDQ is really the worlds problem. India desires to
be more prominent on the international stage, but their continued refusals to address
the public health crisis of TB and MDR-TB really will limit such global aspirations. India is
clearly abdicating its responsibility on the TB front, and other countries have noticed this
and are not happy about it.
Do you think Indias TB management policies are not in sync with the countrys disease
burden?
The management policies are completely out of sync with the burden of TB and MDR-TB
in the country. TB is an emergency in India and needs to be treated as such. India is
such a leader in health and technology, it is baffling that they continue to report the
highest rates of TB and MDR-TB in the world.
Are you hopeful that the 18-year-old girl will get access to bedaquiline in time?
I am always hopeful that we will do a better job in providing persons living with TB and
MDR-TB with the care they need and deserve.
A decision must be made urgently, though, because she is very sick right now. We can
no longer be satisfied with protecting a drug when we should be protecting peoples
lives.

India can emerge a superpower: Suriname

Author: Special Correspondent

Bengaluru: Suriname vice-president Michael Ashwin Adhin has said that India should
transfer nature-friendly technology to Suriname to enable it to compete in the global
market.
Transformation of India implies an influential India at the global-level and there has to
be a greater economic and technological cooperation. Any contribution by the Indian
diaspora to India should be mutually beneficial, Mr. Adhin said during his keynote
address at the inauguration of the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here on Saturday.

Balance of power

Quoting from the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, the 36-year-old vice-president recited
verses in Sanskrit during his nearly 15-minute address on the Role of diaspora youth in
the transformation of India organised as part of the Youth Pravasi Divas.
Urging to minimise monopoly in businesses, he said that new nations should be
encouraged to grow to bring balance of power. India should emerge as superpower not
only because it has the potential, but also because it has spirituality and values that
define a Vishwa Guru world teacher, he said.
Recalling the arrival of Indians at Suriname as indentured labourers from Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar between 1873 and 1916, he said currently, Indians accounted for 30 per cent
of the countrys population and held key positions in society. They did not forget their
roots. They brought along with them knowledge of medicinal plants, plant seeds and
musical instruments, he said.

ATM, credit cards will become irrelevant by 2020, says Kant

Every Indian will be able to transact just by using thumb
and mobile phone
Author: Staff Reporter

BENGALURU: With the adoption of technology and the kind of disruption happening in
the digital payments space, ATMs, cards and PoS devices would become redundant by
2020, said NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

Mr. Kant, who spoke at a session organised as part of the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas,
also said the country can use technology to leapfrog various challenges in areas such as
education and health.
India is in the midst of huge disruption in the world of both financial technology and in
terms of social innovation, Mr. Kant said.
In my view within the next two-and-half years India will make all its debit cards, credit
cards, ATM machines and PoS machines totally irrelevant, Mr. Kantsaid.
Speaking at a session on Start-ups and innovations which have social impact in India,
he also said that start-ups can work on various issues and social innovation can help
empower the weaker sections of the society.
Cards will become redundant in India as every Indian will do transactions just by using
his thumb and mobile phone. The transaction would be done in just thirty seconds
through Aadhar-enabled technology.

Demonetisation push

Due to demonetisation there is a huge push towards digital payments. India is the only
country in the world with a billion mobile connections and a billion biometrics, he added.
Mr. Kant also said more than 85 per cent of the transactions were in cash and only a few
were paying taxes in the country.

Formal economy

Stressing on the need for digital transactions and for enlarging the size of the formal
economy, he said it was vital that a bulk of the business transactions be brought from
the informal, black economy into the fold of the formal economy, as otherwise it would
not be possible for India to sustain its growth.
Mr. Kant said that start-ups could become job creators and would be able to help in
boosting GDP growth.
The NITI Aayog CEO also emphasised the need for creating more women entrepreneurs.
On GDP growth he said, India was growing at about 7.6 per cent per annum and it was
an oasis of growth in the midst of a very barren global economic landscape.

Demonetisation hits MUDRA loan disbursals

Hyderabad: Loan disbursals by Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA)
slowed down in the third quarter of current financial year following demonetisation of
high-value currencies, an official said on Saturday.
We have disbursed 80,000 crore (from April 1 to December 31, 2016). There has
been some lull during the last two months because of currency exchanges and those
kind of things, Jiji Mammen, CEO of MUDRA, said.
Otherwise, we would have reached much more than this (disbursal figure), Mr.
Mammen said.
Mr. Mammen was talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a function, where a portal
of industry body ASSOCHAM to provide online access of funds to Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) was unveiled.
Asked if he was confident of reaching the disbursal target of 1.8 lakh crore for FY17,
Mammen replied in the positive.
We are hopeful. We will wait and watch how things shape up, Mr. Mammen said and
noted that loan sanction is generally extremely well in the last quarter.
The agency was established by the government with an initial corpus of 5,000 crore.
PTI

Indian companies optimistic of economic recovery in

2017
Author: Special Correspondent

KOCHI: Indian businesses are optimistic about an economic recovery in 2017, according
to the latest Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) survey.
India ranked second on the optimism index during the third quarter (July-September
2016) and has taken a further leap to first position this quarter with 88 per cent of the
respondents voting for it.

The country continues to retain its number one position in the fourth quarter of 2016, a
trend that was seen in the corresponding period in the year 2015 and 2014 as well,
according to a statement by Grant Thornton.
The findings are based on a global business survey conducted quarterly.
The recent survey had 2,600 businesses in 37 economies.
The rise in optimism in India can also be gauged from the fact that India tops the chart
on expectations of an increasing revenue (89 per cent) where it slipped to third position
in the July-September quarter.
The country also ranked number one on the parameters of employment expectations (62
per cent) and selling prices (68 per cent). India Inc.s profitability expectations further
moved to second position from rank three in the third quarter and fourth position during
the second quarter of 2016.

High on expectations

India continues to stand out as the one economy which has huge potential to continue
to grow and this is reflected in the survey where Indian businesses are most optimistic
and high on expectations of increasing revenue, employment, profitability.
This is a great time for the policy makers to look at unleashing the next generation of
reforms, apart from GST, mostly focussed on ease of doing business and minimum
government, maximum governance, said Harish H.V., Partner India leadership team,
Grant Thornton India LLP.
However, Mr Harish said, that requires a change in mind-set among the policy makers
and implementing reforms in the legal system and contract enforcement (Indias poorest
ranking is in contract enforcement in the doing business ranking).

Pessimism on exports

While business confidence in India is rising, the optimism for an increase in exports has
plummeted. According to the survey report, 28 per cent of the respondents expect an
increase in exports, which is 10 points lower than previous quarter (38 per cent voted for
an increase in exports during third quarter of 2016).

Although India ranks third on citing regulations and red tape as a constraint on growth,
there is a constant decline in the number of respondents citing this as an impediment to
growth.
Fifty-seven per cent of the respondents have quoted this as an obstacle against 59 per
cent and 64 per cent, in the third and second quarter of 2016, respectively.
The survey highlighted that lack of strong ICT infrastructure, shortage of orders,
unavailability of workforce and shortage of finance were the biggest concerns for
corporations in India.

Higher R&D

According to IBR, 38 per cent of the respondents are expecting an increase in

investment in R&D activities. Though it shows a decline from the last quarter (43 per
cent), on an average, there is an increase in optimism for R&D activities in 2016.
The survey showed no change in the confidence of an increase in investments in new
buildings from the last quarter. Forty-two per cent of the respondents were expecting an
increased investment in new buildings in this quarter as well. When it comes to
investment in plant and machinery, 50 per cent respondents expect a rise as against 46
per cent in the third quarter.

Frankly Speaking The spark that will ignite cricket for the
better
The reforms will dismantle the monopoly of the BCCI
Author: Makarand Waingankar

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is a well-known fact and a popular topic of

discussion about the rich and the mighty corrupting the system in cricket.
The googly here is the Supreme Courts decision to shake things up. By sticking to its
earlier stand in the order of 2nd January, the BCCI has been stumped. Following the
judgement, the associations have to implement all the reforms quickly.
At this stage, the Supreme Courts decision to restructure the system to eradicate
corruption is perspicuous.

In my experience, it was not infrequent to witness high-level politics in BCCI. But, the
officials never allowed the game to suffer. Alas, that is not the case anymore.
Money is power, they say. The massive ego that came along with it led each office-bearer
to outsmart the other. There was no action taken against any of these errant
associations.
Barring a few, some associations have not even maintained accounts. But how can there
be an action taken against them when some of these gentlemen were the BCCI bosses
themselves! There have been charge-sheets filed against many office-bearers of the
association, some were even arrested. But, the politics involved in the voting has made
one of them the chairman of the most important committee!
The financial state of the association determines the commitment of elected officials to
the game in their jurisdiction. Why then didnt the BCCI adhere to transparency and
make the Deloitte audit report public?
Again, barring a few associations, others have indulged in group politics giving rise to
nepotism that has killed potential careers. Even the entry of former cricketers was
stalled due to the high financial benefits involved in the voting system.
In an interview for my Ph.D. thesis, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Sunil Gavaskar
suggested that the managing committee of each association must have a certain
percentage of its past cricketers. The voting rights could go to the cricketers
constituency of former State players and not the clubs or individual members in the
association.
The reason being some of the voters in the association were people who had never
played the game! Why should a player with repute beg for a vote from a person who
hasnt even played tennis-ball cricket?
In fact, only the Karnataka State Cricket Association, in the year 1999, gave voting
rights to its former players. Until then, the greats, B.S. Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna
and others, didnt even have the right to vote! The lure of money didnt allow any other
association to think about the reforms needed for its players to get into its
administration.
Till date, most of the officials have misused their power in every way. In Mumbai, the
market value of an affiliated club is about 2.5 crore. Every voter gets eight memberships
of Garware Club House at Rs. 10,000 though the official rate is 12-15 lakh per
membership.
Similarly for MCA Recreation Club at Bandra Kurla Complex a voter gets three
memberships at Rs. 10,000 and for Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana at Kandivali a voter gets
four memberships at the same rate when official rates at both the clubs is Rs. 12-15 lakh
per membership! And each voter is eligible for 15 memberships!

Imagine the amount each MCA voter can make by selling these memberships. When
these are the figures, why would any club want to give representation to a State
cricketer? This is why political parties have cornered clubs. Sharad Pawar, who did a lot
for Mumbai cricket couldnt change the voting pattern.
Accounting malpractice, an improper process in tendering, nepotism were some
examples of the substandard administration. Corrupt officials had no interest in running
the administration effectively. Without restructuring, there is no other way to set this
appalling situation right.

No uniform constitution

The BCCI is the richest sporting body. However, there is no uniform constitution. Every
State has a different constitution which suits the ruling group. There are quite a few
associations run by families for decades. Some have family members, trusted friends,
relatives and employees of their establishments as voters.
One association even has drivers and canteen staff as voters! With this structure, its no
wonder that Kapil Dev lost the election of Haryana Cricket Association.
Even with such unscrupulous administration and governance, the operations staff should
be applauded for their meticulous planning and implementation of the programme.
The Supreme Courts impending decision of complete overhaul was long overdue. With
politicians, public servants and government employees debarred from the association,
the Lodha Committee has restrained the funding of the candidates. The Apex Council of
the State will have an official from the Office of the Accountant General to monitor the
finances.
Implementation of the reforms might cause teething problems. But, in the larger interest
of the game, the reforms will dismantle the monopoly of the BCCI and Indian cricket will
witness a paradigm shift. Here is the spark that will definitely ignite the gentlemans
game for the better.

China setting up highest altitude telescopes close to LAC

Beijing: China is setting up the worlds highest altitude gravitational wave telescopes in a
Tibet prefecture close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, with a budget of

$18.8 million to detect the faintest of echoes resonating from the universe, which may
reveal more about the Big Bang theory.
Construction has started for the first telescope, code-named Ngari No. 1, 30 km south of
Shiquanhe Town in Ngari Prefecture, said Yao Yongqiang chief researcher with the
National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Parts of Nagri is last Tibetan prefecture at Chinas border with India.
The telescope, located 5,250 meters above sea level, will detect and gather precise data
on primordial gravitational waves in the Northern Hemisphere.

To be operational by 2021

It is expected to be operational by 2021, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Mr. Yao said the second phase involves a series of telescopes, code-named Ngari No. 2,
to be located about 6,000 meters above sea level.
He did not give a time frame for the construction of Ngari No. 2. The budget for the
two-phase Ngari gravitational wave observatory is an estimated 130 million yuan ($18.8
million).
The project was initiated by the Institute of High Energy Physics, National Astronomical
Observatories, and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology,
among others, the report said.
Ngari, with its high altitude, clear sky and minimal human activity is said to be one of
the worlds best spots to detect tiny twists in cosmic light.
Mr. Yao said the Ngari observatory will be among the worlds top primordial gravitational
wave observation bases, alongside the South Pole Telescope and the facility in Chiles
Atacama Desert.
Gravitational waves were first proposed by Albert Einsteins theory of general relativity
100 years ago, but it wasnt until 2016 that scientists with the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational-Wave Observatory announced proof of the waves existence, spurring fresh
research interest among the worlds scientists.
Last September, China commissioned the worlds largest radio telescope in a
mountainous region of southwest Chinas Guizhou Province to search for more strange
objects space, gain better understand the origin of the universe and to boost the global
hunt for extraterrestrial life.

The installation of the telescopes main structure a 4,450-panel reflector as large as

30 football pitches was built at unique valley in Guizhou Province. PTI

8-1-17