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Fraught course (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Review of Sabarimala Verdict
Mains level: Balancing between Constitutional morality and Freedom of religion

Context

•  A five-judge constitution bench has deferred its decision on the review of the 2018 Sabarimala verdict until a larger bench examines a range of broader issues.

Complications with larger bench:

•  The parameters of review usually permit a narrow reconsideration in case of an error in the verdict or discovery of new evidence.
•  Apprehensions that the majority judgment on Thursday could open up new questions, instead of settling the old, go well beyond technicalities.
•  The court has clubbed together the question of the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple with others — the entry of Muslim women in the dargah/mosque and of Parsi women married to non-Parsis to the holy fireplace of an Agyari.
•  The female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community constitutes that religion’s essential practice.
•  It is possible to argue that each of these questions must be considered on its own ground, in its specificity.
•  Not content with putting together issues that may not belong in the same frame, the court has gone further, casting on the larger bench a responsibility that may not belong to it.

Constitutional morality vs. Freedom of religion:

•  The-seven-judge bench has been tasked with finding the balance between the right to freedom of religion and other constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
•  It is especially the right to equality, defining “essential religious practice” and “constitutional morality”.
•  This is a tall order, and not least because in a large and diverse democracy, spelling out judicial doctrines on these matters removes essential ambiguities.
•  It also usurps the space of other players and protagonists, and narrows the room for manoeuvre for them, for the court itself — and eventually, for justice.
•  The constitutional morality has been used to emancipatory effect in past cases by the apex court, not only in striking down the restrictions on women of a certain age in the 2018 Sabarimala decision, but also in another verdict the same year decriminalising homosexuality.
•  In both, the court upheld ideas of freedom and equality and the constitutional promise of a pluralistic and inclusive society, while redressing an injustice, even though its Sabarimala decision was seen by certain sections to rush into grey areas of tradition and its autonomy.
•  In setting itself the task of defining this constitutional morality, the court will now have to go into the question of its limits and boundaries, of its possible clash with religious beliefs and faith and what is essential to them.
•  In the process, it could not only be tying its own hands for the future, but also circumscribing individual freedoms and treading into the cleargy’s domain.

Conclusion:

•  The court has been inconsistent in applying the essential religious practice doctrine that it evolved in the 1950s.
•  It may be that the court’s push for expanding its remit and for hard clarity on complex questions is misguided and counterproductive.
•  In some cases, it is okay, even just, to keep to the narrow path, take it case by case.

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BIHAR State GK Questions (Set-37) for BPSC Exam

Q.1 : ग्रीष्मकाल में बिहार का कौन-सा शहर सर्वाधिक गर्म रहता है ?

(a) भागलपुर
(b) पटना
(c) मुजफ्फरपुर
(d) गया

Q.2 : बिहार में ग्रीष्मकाल की अवधि होती है ?

(a) मार्च से मध्य जून तक
(b) फरवरी से मई तक
(c) जनवरी से अप्रैल तक
(d) मार्च से जुलाई तक

Q.3 : ग्रीष्मकाल में चलने वाली गर्म हवाओं को बिहार में कहॉं जाता है ?

(a) गर्म मानसून
(b) गर्म वायु
(c) हारमेटन
(d) "लू"

Q.4 : बिहार में कहॉं के मानसून से वर्षा होती है ?

(a) अरब सागर
(b) हिन्द महासागर
(c) बंगाल की खाड़ी
(d) इनमें से कोई नहीं

Q.5 : बिहार राज्य में किस प्रकार के वनों को शामिल नहीं किया गया है ?

(a) शुष्क पर्णपाती वन
(b) तराई वन
(c) सदाबहार वन
(d) अर्द्धपर्णपाती वन

बिहार लोक सेवा आयोग प्रारम्भिक परीक्षा के लिए अध्ययन सामग्री

Study Kit for Bihar Public Service Commission Preliminary Examination

Five-in-one: On BRICS summit (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: BRICS summit
Mains level: Highlights of the BRICS summit outcomes

Context

•  With storm clouds gathering over the world economy, trading arrangements in disarray and questions over the relevance of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
•  The summit of leaders of Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) could not have come at a more opportune time.
  Highlights of the summit:
•  BRICS has proved its naysayers wrong since the idea of grouping the world’s “five emerging economies” was coined by a consultant two decades ago (BRICS was formed in 2006).
•  India and China have buoyed the grouping with their growth, and even though the idea behind BRICS has been dimmed by sluggish growth in Brazil and South Africa, and Russia’s sanction-laden slowdown, the group has adapted to the times and proven its resilience.
•  The five countries are heading in different directions politically, they found ways to build a common vision for the world’s economic future with an emphasis on multilateralism and a joint statement at Brasilia that decried “unilateral and protectionist” actions.
•  For India, in particular, the articulation of this vision comes at an important time, given that it faces its own economic crisis, and troubled trading ties with several nations.
•  The failure of officials to resolve issues in time to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) had raised questions about whether India is reversing its market liberalisation and openness to trade.
•  It is significant that Mr. Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping used the BRICS platform for continued talks on bringing India back into the RCEP fold and focused on resolving their trade issues through the recently launched mechanism led by Finance Ministers.

Acknowledge made by BRICS countries:

•  BRICS countries, which acknowledged the weakening of global economic growth in the statement, repeated their commitment to the WTO though the original promoter of the multilateral structure, the U.S., is retrenching its interest in the body.
•  They also presented a vision for “rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open, free and inclusive international trade.
•  While commending the BRICS-led New Development Bank, and the BRICS business council in ensuring that BRICS countries, major drivers of growth in the past decade, continue to represent “close to a third of global output”.
•  Where BRICS has failed its founders is in the vision of interdependence between the five countries; despite their combined population accounting for 40% of humanity, intra-BRICS trade still makes up just 15% of world trade.

Way forward

•  It is greater connectivity and more trade that will allow the BRICS countries to claim their rightful space, and provide the leadership and energy that the global economic order needs urgently.

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Disqualified, yet qualified: On Karnataka rebel MLAs (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Anti defection law
Mains level: RPA Act

Context

•  Even while upholding the Karnataka Speaker’s orders disqualifying 17 defectors this year, the Supreme Court has allowed the former legislators to contest the by-elections to Assembly seats.

Karnataka scene:

•  Most of them had tried to resign from their respective parties in July. It was seen as a ploy to bring down the JD(S)-Congress regime of H.D. Kumaraswamy.
•  The suspicion was that they would get ministerial positions as soon as BJP formed a BJP government. The then Speaker kept them at bay for days by refusing to act on their resignations.
•  Ultimately, he disqualified all of them and said the disqualification would go on till 2023 — the end of the current Assembly’s term.
•  The Speaker’s stance was quite controversial as it created a conflict between resignation and disqualification.
•  Now, his argument that resignation could not be an excuse to evade a disqualification has been accepted.
•  The Speaker was also hoping to keep the defectors out of any alternative regime as members disqualified for defection are barred from becoming ministers until they get re-elected.

Welcome move

•  The court’s exposition of the law relating to the interplay between resignation and defection is quite welcome.
•  On the one hand, resignation does not take away the effect of a prior act that amounts to disqualification.
•  On the other, Speakers are not given a free pass to sit on resignation letters indefinitely. Under Article 190(3), a provision under which the Speaker has to ascertain the “voluntary” and “genuine” nature of a resignation before accepting it, the court is clear that it is a limited inquiry, only to see if the letter is authentic and if the intent to quit is based on free will.
•  “Once it is demonstrated that a member is willing to resign out of his free will, the Speaker has no option but to accept the resignation,” the court has said.

Way forward

•  This effectively ends the argument that the Speaker is empowered to consider the motives and circumstances whenever a resignation is submitted.
•  The verdict bemoans the fact that Speakers sometimes tend not to be neutral, and that change of loyalty for the lure of office continues despite the anti-defection law.
•  Identifying its weak aspects and strengthening the law may be the answer.

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In India, temple-building can be an antidote to the slowdown (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Relations between Tourism and Religion

Context

•  Karl Marx could not have got it more wrong when he reduced religion to “opium of the people".
•  The Chanakya sutra probably got closest to the truth. It held, among other things, that the basis of dharma is wealth (“dharmasya moolam artha"). Dharma and economic well-being, here, are inextricably intertwined.

Economic improvement

•  In a country struggling to create jobs for our millions, temple tourism offers one major focal area for investment with a huge job multiplier potential.
•  Unlike manufacturing, agriculture and even services, which are increasingly being automated, tourism is one sector where people and storytelling will always be important.
•  Add the infrastructure and commercial potential of other tourist spots, and one wonders why Ayodhya was such a contentious issue.
•  The temple’s construction will benefit both Hindus and Muslims.

Tourism as a sector of development

•  Tourism is driven by four key attractions: natural beauty, esoteric adventure and sports, historical monuments, and religion.
•  While the first three are driven by the quality of upkeep of the assets and attractions involved—something we have simply not managed to ensure—the last one, religious travel, is driven by the inner spiritual drive of individuals.
•  It needs no marketing.
•  The sheer fact that badly kept temples still draw the faithful by the million should tell us what a little bit of investment in better temples and well-managed charitable trusts can do to boost religion-related tourism and commerce.

Sardar Patel statue - A case study

•  A Gujarat state tourism official has been quoted as saying that the ₹3,000 crore Sardar Patel statue earned ₹57 crore from the sale of tickets to 2.6 million visitors between November last year and mid-September.
•  The Taj Mahal, in 2018-19, earned ₹78 crore from 6.8 million tourists, according to replies to questions in the Lok Sabha.
•  If an artificially created tourist spot like the Patel statue—the world’s tallest—can, in less than a year, draw revenues to rival the centuries-old Taj, consider the revenue that can come from religiously motivated tourism around the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
•  Not only the temple, but the entire ecosystem around it will generate huge revenues and jobs.
•  North India, in particular, has huge potential for religious tourism because it cradled the birth of major Indic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

Marx’s ideology on religion

•  The problem with the Left is that it thinks of religion as retrograde.
•  Marx’s big contribution was his materialist interpretation of history, but beyond basics, men are not driven only by economic motives.
•  The Left traces the evolution of modern-day India to political unification under the Mughals first and the British later.
•  But this view is highly questionable, for India is really a ground-up nation, a country created from below through a common and deep reverence for the sacred.
•  Diana Eck described India as “a sacred geography", one created by the footprints of pilgrims who traversed the length and breadth of India from ancient times in pursuit of the spiritual and the sacred.

Way ahead

•  In today’s situation of an economic slowdown, our economists prescribe antidotes like investment in infrastructure, and boosting jobs through rural employment guarantee boondoggles, or even direct cash payouts to the poor.
•  But the one thing they have not talked about is investment in religious places and related infrastructure.
•  When economists do not think about the culture they operate in, their remedies fail.

Conclusion

•  There has been much breast-beating about people being unable to buy cheap glucose biscuits or even undergarments in this slowdown, but they will be proved wrong when it comes to funding the Ram temple.
•  People and philanthropists will contribute to building the temple even in the midst of a slowdown.

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The curious case of a consumption decline (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: National Statistical Office
Mains level: Highlights of the National Statistical Office survey data

An absurd protest at BHU (Mint)

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level: Banaras Hindu University
Mains level: Communalism, Regionalism, Secularism

Context

•  Over the years, BHU lived by Malaviya’s ideals, but recent developments at the famed university should worry us all.
•  Some students of its Sanskrit Literature department have been protesting the appointment of a Muslim as one of its faculty members.

Background:

•  In 1916, Madan Mohan Malaviya established what is now known as Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1916.
•  They argue that adherents of the Islamic faith should not be allowed to enter the department building.
•  In support of this stance, they point to a plaque purportedly installed by Malaviya that says “non-Aryans" are not allowed in.
•  As a result, the department has held no classes since the man who’s the focus of their ire was appointed on 6 November.

Reasons behind the protest are called an outright shame:

•  It’s a violation of the Constitution to discriminate against anyone on the basis of his caste or religion.
•  BHU, like any other university, is governed by the rules of the University Grants Commission, and the professor in question has been appointed as per the criteria laid down for such appointments.
•  He holds a doctorate in Sanskrit Literature and has been awarded by the Rajasthan government for his scholarship.

Conclusion

•  Literature is literature, and Sanskrit is a classical language that’s open to anybody who wants to study or teach it. Its “Aryan" association is irrelevant.
•  The protesting students need only go back and read the Rigveda in order to shed their misgivings.
•  The classic text in Sanskrit says: Aah no bhadraah kartavyo yantu viswatah. Let noble thoughts come to us from every side.

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Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the ethanol from B-heavy molasses, consider the following statements:
1. Separate environmental clearance is required to produce additional ethanol from B-heavy molasses.
2. Molasses is a viscous product resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both 1 and 2
D. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: B
Mains Questions:
Q1. Do you think the recent protest in BHU is not holding the values set by the founder Madan Mohan Malaviya? Critically comment.

Never the twain shall meet: Why gap between WPI and CPI based inflation widening (Mint)

Mains Paper 3 : Economy
Prelims level : Wholesale Price Index
Mains level : Gap between WPI and CPI based inflation widening

Context

•  The retail inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) touched a 16 month high at 4.62% in October.
•  The wholesale price inflation measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is at the verge of entering the negative territory.
•  The gap between the two is currently the widest in two years.

Wholesale price inflation

•  Wholesale price inflation dropped to 0.16% as compared to 0.33% a month ago.
•  Most analysts expect WPI inflation to decline further in coming months, weighed by a base effect.
•  Wholesale price deflation would signal that producers lack pricing power and may be offering discounts at a time consumer expenditure has dropped to an 18 quarter low in the April-June period.
•  Factory output data for September released on Monday also showed that production of both consumer durables and consumer non-durables contracted during the month, while overall output shrank to its lowest level at least in seven years.

Why is retail inflation then touching new heights?

•  It is mainly because CPI and WPI are two different sets of indicators with varied compositions.
•  Manufactured items have the highest weight of 64.23% in WPI, while fuel and primary articles have 13.15% and 22.62% weight, respectively.
•  On the other hand, food and beverages have the highest weight of 54.18% in CPI, while services sectors such as health, education and amusement have a combined weight of 27.26%.
•  So the supply shortage of onions and tomatoes due to floods and unseasonal rains has a disproportionate impact on the overall retail inflation than wholesale price inflation.
•  On the other hand, a spike in crude oil prices or rise in other commodity prices would drive WPI based inflation up faster than the CPI based inflation.

Way forward

•  However, retail food inflation often mimics the wholesale food inflation as the price rises are first reflected in the wholesale market than in the retail market.
•  In October, retail food inflation quickened to 7.89% following similar print in wholesale price inflation in September at 7.47%.
•  The WPI based inflation has lost the primacy that it once enjoyed in economic policy debates when RBI signed the monetary framework pact with the Centre in 2015.
•  Now, the RBI is mandated to only achieve the medium-term target for CPI inflation of 4% within a band of two percentage points.

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Sabarimala order: What is the ‘essentiality’ test in religious practice? (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : Sabarimala order
Mains level : Supreme Court’s doctrine of essentiality

Context

•  The Supreme Court’s decision to refer the Sabarimala temple case to a larger 7-judge Bench reopens not only the debate on allowing women of menstruating age into the Ayyappa temple but the larger issue of whether any religion can bar women from entering places of worship.
•  The larger Bench reference will also re-evaluate the “essential religious practice test”, a contentious doctrine evolved by the court to protect only such religious practices which were essential and integral to the religion.

Background

•  The court clubbed two cases — a decade old challenge by two Parsi women who married outside the community to enter the Tower of Silence and other religious places, and a plea seeking entry of Muslim women into mosques.
•  The majority opinion in the 2018 Sabarimala verdict had said that women have a fundamental right to equality in accessing public places which includes places of worship.
•  The review gives the ‘devotees’ and the Sabarimala temple authorities who have battled the Supreme Court verdict a foot in the door to have the verdict potentially overturned.

What is the Supreme Court’s doctrine of essentiality?

•  The doctrine of “essentiality” was invented by a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the ‘Shirur Mutt’ case in 1954.
•  The court held that the term “religion” will cover all rituals and practices “integral” to a religion, and took upon itself the responsibility of determining the essential and non-essential practices of a religion.
•  Last year, a Supreme Court Bench by a 2-1 majority declined to refer for reconsideration by a larger Bench the five-judge Constitution Bench judgment in ‘Dr M Ismail Faruqui and Ors vs Union Of India and Ors’ (October 24, 1994), which upheld the law under which the Centre acquired the disputed land in Ayodhya on which the Babri Masjid had stood.
•  The Constitution Bench had ruled in 1994 that “A mosque is not an essential part of the practice of the religion of Islam and namaz (prayer) by Muslims can be offered anywhere, even in open.”

How has the doctrine been used in subsequent years?

•  The ‘essentiality doctrine’ of the Supreme Court has been criticised by several constitutional experts.
•  Scholars of constitutional law have argued that the essentiality/integrality doctrine has tended to lead the court into an area that is beyond its competence, and given judges the power to decide purely religious questions.
•  As a result, over the years, courts have been inconsistent on this question — in some cases they have relied on religious texts to determine essentiality.
•  In others on the empirical behaviour of followers, and in yet others, based on whether the practice existed at the time the religion originated.
  The noted expert of the Constitution, Prof Faizan Mustafa, pointed out the following instances:
•  In the beginning, the court engaged with the question of whether untouchability, manifested in restrictions on entry into temples, was an “essential part of the Hindu religion”. After examining selected Hindu texts, it came to the conclusion that untouchability was not an essential Hindu practice.
•  Writing the five-judge verdict in ‘The Durgah Committee, Ajmer and Anr vs Syed Hussain Ali and Ors’ (March 17, 1961), Justice P B Gajendragadkar added the ‘secular’ requirement of rationality to the essentiality test. Durgah Committee denied validity to “practices (which) though religious may have sprung from merely superstitious beliefs and may in that sense be extraneous and unessential accretions to religion itself”.
•  In ‘Gramsabha of Village Battis Shirala vs Union of India and Ors’ (2014), a particular sect relied on the Shrinath Lilamrut to claim before the Bombay High Court that capturing and worshipping a live cobra during the Nagpanchami festival was an essential part of their religion. The court, however, put reliance on Dr P V Kane’s Dharmashastracha Ithihas, which referred to the general Hindu practice, to reject this contention.
•  In a case where a Muslim police officer challenged in Kerala High Court a regulation that did not permit him to grow a beard, the court, rather than looking at the question of essentiality of beard in Islam, rejected the petitioner’s plea by simply relying on the fact that certain Muslim dignitaries do not sport beards, and that the petitioner did not have a beard in his previous years of service. The court looked at empirical evidence of the practice, rather than at religious texts. However, despite empirical evidence to the contrary, courts have denied protection to the animal sacrifice among Hindus, terming the practice as barbaric.
•  In the First Ananda Margi case, the apex court relied on the doctrine of precedent to hold that tandava dance was not an essential practice of the Ananda Margi faith. It also said that the faith had come into existence in 1955, while the tandava dance was adopted only in 1966 — therefore, as the faith had existed without the practice, the practice could not be accepted as an essential feature of the faith.
•  Prof Mustafa pointed out that the idea of providing constitutional protection only to those elements of religion which the court considers “essential” is problematic in so far as it assumes that one element or practice of religion is independent of other elements or practices.
•  So, while the essentiality test privileges certain practices over others, it is, in fact, all practices taken together that constitute a religion.

How does essentiality square up against religious freedom?

•  Freedom of religion was meant to guarantee freedom to practice one’s beliefs based on the concept of “inward association” of man with God.
•  The apex court in ‘Ratilal Panachand Gandhi vs The State of Bombay and Ors’ (March 18, 1954) acknowledged that “every person has a fundamental right to entertain such religious beliefs as may be approved by his judgment or conscience”. The framers of the Constitution wanted to give this autonomy to each individual.

Conclusion

•  Scholars such as Prof Mustafa have argued that the essentiality test impinges on this autonomy.
•  The apex court has itself emphasised autonomy and choice in its Privacy (2017), 377 (2018), and Adultery (2018) judgments.

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Retail investors hurt in DHFL free-for-all (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Economy
Prelims level : Dewan Housing Finance Ltd
Mains level : SEBI’s (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations make it mandatory for all NCD issuers to obtain credit ratings from at least one rating agency and to disclose this in their offer documents

Context

•  The Dewan Housing Finance Ltd. (DHFL) saga has unfurled like a prime-time mega serial, with so many twists and turns to the plot that most folks have lost track of it.
•  But for any investor who dabbles in the Indian bond market, this case is a good illustration of how Murphy’s Law can operate on one’s investments.
•  Retail investors who were unlucky enough to participate in any of the multiple tranches of DHFL NCDs (non-convertible debentures), have found that none of the regulatory safeguards that were supposed to protect their interests have worked as they should.

Mercurial ratings

•  To help retail investors navigate the minefield of debt investing, regulators place considerable faith on the opinions of rating agencies.

•  SEBI’s (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations make it mandatory for all NCD issuers to obtain credit ratings from at least one rating agency and to disclose this in their offer documents.

•  But investors who bet big money on DHFL bonds based on their top-notch credit ratings have had every reason to rue their decision.

•  When DHFL issued its series of NCDs between 2015 and 2018, it enjoyed high investment grade credit ratings from not just one, but multiple rating agencies.

•  Then, CARE and Brickworks rated its NCDs AAA, while CRISIL and ICRA rated its commercial paper issues A1+.

Cobrapost allegations

•  After the Cobrapost allegations, in February 2019, the rating agencies sought to hedge their bets by lowering the NCD ratings to AA+, but they remained high investment grade, with hopes pinned on asset monetisation.
•  It was only in June 2019, after an actual instance of default by DHFL, that the rating agencies made bold to peg down its ratings to D (default grade).
•  The DHFL case is not the first where rating agencies have scrambled to bolt the stable doors after the horses have bolted.
•  Given that rating agencies can change their minds on the creditworthiness of an issuer any time after investors buy its bonds, it appears rather futile to place so much emphasis on ratings at the time of the issue.

Uncertain collateral

•  While investing in bonds, investors are often advised to prefer secured NCDs over unsecured bonds or fixed deposits, as in the case of any default the underlying collateral can be liquidated to meet one’s dues.
•  By this yardstick, most lenders to DHFL should have no reason to panic as ₹74,000 crore of its ₹84,000 crore debt, is from secured creditors.
•  The AMC also alleged that DHFL had ‘dealt with’ the collateral backing of its secured NCDs while inking new securitisation deals with banks.
•  Now, whether repayments by home loan-takers on DHFL’s securitised portfolios can really qualify as collateral for NCDs is a contentious issue.
•  After initially seeing merit in the AMC’s case and imposing a blanket freeze on DHFL repayments, the Bombay High Court has selectively relaxed it this week. Its final ruling is pending.

Lethargic trustee

•  Recognising that a dispersed bunch of bond-holders would find it difficult to hold big corporate borrowers to account, regulations place a heavy responsibility on debenture trustees to protect their interests.
•  SEBI rules require every NCD issuer to appoint a qualified debenture trustee, who is tasked with calling for periodic updates from the borrower, supervising the creation and adequacy of securities and enforcing them in case of default.
•  But in DHFL’s case, Catalyst Trusteeship — the debenture trustee — seems to have been quite lethargic in the performance of its duties.
•  It was only in June 2019, after DHFL had defaulted on a few obligations, that it disclosed the company’s failure to maintain adequate security for its NCDs of 2016-2018 vintage.
•  DHFL had also skipped maintaining the 15 per cent Debenture Redemption Reserve required by the Companies Act from FY18.
•  It was only after defaults surfaced that the trustee seems to have initiated legal action against DHFL for these slip-ups.
•  The trustee also proved less than forthcoming in its communications with bondholders. Writing to DHFL’s NCD holders for the first time in early August.
•  It sought their written consent for an inter-creditor agreement and a draft resolution plan, offering rather sketchy details of what the plan entailed.

Passive regulators

•  As this free-for-all has been playing out over the last nine months, both the National Housing Bank.
•  The sector regulator for housing finance and SEBI the de facto regulator for bond markets have been largely passive spectators, doing little to help retail investors caught in the cross-fire.

Way forward

•  Overall, the DHFL case goes to show that the regulation and functioning of the Indian market for bond issues is today at the same rudimentary state that its IPO market used to be in the mid-1990s.
•  Until the conduct of bond market participants and the enforcement of regulations are brought up to scratch.
•  Small investors must perhaps be discouraged from directly subscribing to NCDs, through a high minimum ticket size and prominent disclaimers on the risk of capital losses.

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Open, all the same: On CJI office and RTI Act (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : CJI office
Mains level : Inclusion of CJI office under RTI and its complications

Context

•  The declaration of assets by ministers and legislators, besides electoral candidates, has gone a long way in shedding light on public authorities and provided the citizenry more relevant information about their representatives.
•  Yet, judges of the Supreme Court had hitherto refused to share information on their personal assets, citing the express lack of public interest.
  Highlights about the ruling
•  The welcome ruling by a five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court that the office of the Chief Justice of India is a “public authority” under the RTI Act, as much as the apex court itself, now enables the disclosure of information such as the judges’ personal assets.
•  The judgment’s majority opinion, written by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, emphasised the need for transparency and accountability and that “disclosure is a facet of public interest”.
•  In concurring opinions, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud asserted that judicial independence was not secured by secrecy while Justice N.V. Ramana argued for the need of a proper calibration of transparency in light of the importance of judicial independence.
•  The Bench unanimously argued that the right to know under the RTI Act was not absolute and this had to be balanced with the right of privacy of judges.
•  But the key takeaway from the judgment is that disclosure of details of serving judges’ personal assets was not a violation of their right to privacy.
  Arguments behind implementing RTI Act into judicial matters
•  The main opinion also argued that information related to issues such as judicial appointments will also be subject to the test of public interest and procedures mandated in the RTI Act that specify that views of third parties (in this case, judges) must be sought.
•  While laying out the importance of the assessment of public interest in any RTI query besides bringing the office of the CJI under the purview of the Act, the decision has gone on to uphold the Delhi High Court verdict in 2010.
•  The RTI Act is a strong weapon that enhances accountability, citizen activism and, consequently, participative democracy, even if its implementation has come under strain in recent years due mainly to the Central government’s apathy and disregard for the nuts and bolts of the Act.

Conclusion

•  Despite this, the Supreme Court judgment paves the way for greater transparency and could now impinge upon issues such as disclosure, under the RTI Act, by other institutions such as registered political parties.
•  This is vital as political party financing is a murky area today, marked by opacity and exacerbated by the issue of electoral bonds, precluding citizens from being fully informed on sources of party incomes.

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Review and reference: On Sabarimala review pleas (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1 : Society
Prelims level : Article 25 and 26
Mains level : Sabarimala review pleas and its significance

Context

•  A reference to a seven-judge Bench for an authoritative pronouncement on the entire gamut of issues arising from Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution, which protect the religious freedoms of individuals and denominations, would have been welcome.
•  However, the order of a Constitution Bench in making such a reference, while delivering the verdict on petitions seeking review of last year’s judgment allowing women in the 10-50 age group to offer worship at the Sabarimala temple, is problematic.

About the order:

•  The order, passed by a narrow majority of three judges, with two dissenting, means that the review petition, as well as fresh writ petitions, on the issue will be kept pending until there is clarity on the nature of religious rights.
•  The majority, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, held that the petitions against the 2018 verdict, which laid down that the practice of keeping women of ovulating age out of the shrine is discriminatory and violative of the right to equality.
•  This have revived the question whether an individual’s right to worship can outweigh a religious group’s right to manage the affairs of its religion.
•  An issue resolved by a 4:1 majority is sought to be reconsidered by formulating fresh questions on the interplay between religious freedom and other fundamental rights, especially the right to equality.

Individual freedom and constitutionally-protected religious beliefs

•  The majority anticipates that similar basic questions on the conflict between individual freedom and constitutionally-protected religious beliefs may arise in other situations too.
•  It cites pending petitions concerning the entry of women into a dargah, the entry of Parsi women married to non-Parsis into an agyari, and the practice of female genital mutilation among Dawoodi Bohras.
•  It is shocking that the Bench includes the abhorrent practice of female genital mutilation in this genre.
•  It is well-established that freedom of religion, under Article 25, is subject to public order, morality and health, and it may not be difficult for any court to test the validity of the practice against the restriction on grounds of a woman’s health, and this may not require an exalted panel of seven judges.
•  In keeping the petitions on Sabarimala pending further, the court has displayed a disquieting inability to stand by its previous transformative judgment.

Way forward

•  It may lead to a repeat of the unsavoury incidents of last year when religious groups and political activists blocked and attacked women devotees.
•  Justices Fali Nariman and D.Y. Chandrachud, in their dissent, rightly call out such transgressions against the rule of law and, while rejecting the need for review, want all authorities to remember their constitutional duty to work in aid of the Supreme Court and the law laid down by it.
•  An omnibus reconsideration of all issues related to religious freedom was not the way out of the serious issues posed by the Sabarimala judgment.

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Indo-German Economic Ties (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : International Relations
Prelims level : Indo-German economic ties
Mains level : Significance of the Indo-German economic ties

Context

•  India and Germany signed multiple pacts and joint declarations of intent and exchanged agreements after bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in New Delhi on 1st November 2019.
•  The agreements were inked for cooperation in fields such as space, civil aviation, maritime technology, artificial intelligence, digital technology, medicine, defence, cyber security and education.

Background:

•  Prime Minister said the expertise of economic power houses like Germany could help in his government’s aim to build a “new India” by 2022. He invited Germany to also take advantage of opportunities in defence production in dedicated corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
•  Germany is India’s largest trading partner in Europe and more than 1,700 German companies operate in the country. Merkel said she was accompanied by a big German business delegation including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), who wanted to engage in business with India.

Significance:

•  In the context of the on-going flux of uncertainties in world economy and politics like the Policies of the United States and China which is dubbed as new world Imperialism the ties between India and Germany assumes importance in global affairs.
•  With certain commonalities like both countries i.e, Germany being the largest in Europe and India in South Asia and historical sufferings much in similarity like Germany had the challenge to rise again after the war and India after colonialism meets a great synergy in their objectives.

What is the cooperation of Germany to India in Economic context?

•  Germany owns 2.91% of total FDI in India between April 2000 to December 2017 making it the 7th largest foreign investor in India.
•  The famed SME sector in Germany, also known as “Mittelstand” are tied into the “Make in India” and have great potential for creating jobs, bringing in new technologies, etc.
•  The “Mittelstand” companies can help transform Indian manufacturing due to their expertise in technology which can boost up Indian manufacturing sector.
•  Both the countries have a win-win situation as Germany is an economic powerhouse and India is a promising market that is growing as well as developing.
•  Germany is an important trade and investment partner for India in particular with investment, technology, renewable energy, Infrastructure etc which is in boom.
•  With India and Germany being part of G-4 vying for a permanent seat at the UNSC they have opportunity to build ties and achieve their goals together.
•  With Brexit in place, Germany will be more important to India along with France who also considers economic ties with India.

What are the concerns?

•  The bilateral investment treaties which insist that an investor has to first exhaust all domestic legal options before it can take a case towards international arbitration is a point of concern for both India and Germany.
•  With US abandoning the principle of ‘Most Favored Nation’ status and India too imposing protectionist policies threaten the idea of Free and Fair trade.
•  Domestic politics in Germany is much more complicated in the last 4 years like the refugee problems and growth rate is of concern in the ties.

Way forward

•  Addressing the legal issue of the bilateral investment treaty can help the “Mittelstand” companies in India and around 140 Indian companies operating in Germany.
•  India and Germany can stand together and voice for Free and Fair trade which should be the main agenda in the ongoing global affairs.
•  With strong institutional mechanisms in place and regular consultations and meetings, the problems of Domestic politics can have the least impact on the ties.

Conclusion

•  India stands to gain from Germany which is an economic powerhouse and Germany from India, which is a promising market.
•  By handling judiciously the impacts of ‘Bilateral Investment Treaty’ and with more cultural and people-to-people ties, India can establish a strong institutional relationship with Germany which can give a robust boost to Indian Economy as a whole.

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India’s Act East Policy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : International Relations
Prelims level : Act East Policy
Mains level : Importance is East and Southeast Asia for India

Context

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who left for Bangkok on 2nd November, said India will consider whether its concerns and interests in trade in goods, services, and investments are being fully accommodated when he attends the meeting of the RCEP there.

Background:

•  PM Modi is in Bangkok to participate in the 16th ASEAN-India Summit on November 3.
•  He will also attend the 14th East Asia Summit and the 3rd Summit meeting of nations negotiating a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement on November 4.

Significance:

•  In his departure statement, Prime Minister said ASEAN related Summits are key elements of India’s foreign policy, most notably our Act East Policy.
•  Highlighting the importance of East Asia Summit, Prime Minister said it gives an opportunity to present our vision for the Indo-Pacific region. The Prime Minister added that during the visit, he will also hold bilateral meetings with a number of other world leaders present in the Thai capital for related summit meetings.

What importance is East and Southeast Asia for India?

•  Since 50s India is active in this area and took fillip in 1992 when PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister and he initiated the ‘Look East Policy’.
•  In 1994 India joined ASEAN as a member of the forum and we continued with being
  part of East Asia summits.
•  The region is mainly of India’s interest cause of trade which is approximately $600 million and is mounting onwards.
•  Security is also a major dimension in this policy as securing Indo-Pacific region and securing India’s status in the Indian Ocean region is equally important for us.

What is the History behind?

•  There has been imbalance historically but has progressed in time with the 10 ASEAN Countries which were 6 when we launched the Look East policy in 1992. The bilateral trade was about $2 billion.
•  After the negotiations of free trade area in 2003 the trade was $12 billion which was progressively compounded rate of growth was around 12%.
•  From 2003-2010, when we finalized the FTA in goods the trade had increased very significantly.
•  By 2012 when we marked the 20th anniversary as a dialogue partner with the ASEAN and 10th anniversary as the summit relationship our trade had grown to $72 billion that means there was an annual progression of around 23% from 2003.

What are the issues related?

•  The trade balance with ASEAN is a major concern as we had trade balance of $8 billion in 2012-13 when we signed FTA in goods which today is in the tune of $22 billion.
•  The $107 billion out of the total global trade deficit of India which is in the tune of $180 billion is a huge number.
•  The FTA with China will increase the trade deficit as without FTA itself we have a trade deficit of $55-70 billion that simply means we are throwing out our doors open to cheap low quality Chinese goods coming into the country.
•  If in the area of steel, where China has 50% of global capacity or textile or pharma or plastic or aluminum or chemicals the trade with China is a matter of concern to Indian companies and manufacturers.
•  It is also a concern for dairy products as signing RCEP will allow dairy products from Australia hit the local farmers badly.

Why RCEP is significant?

•  India is on anonymous interest of ASEAN countries for its huge market since the inception of RCEP.
•  It is also the interest of India to connect with these countries not only for trade and commerce but for the 4 pillars/ 4 Cs - Connectivity, Culture, Commerce and Capacity Building.

Way forward

•  Reducing trade deficit with 16 ASEAN members through RCEP in a macro level. Getting positive response for services and skilled labour movement which should be free and fair to reduce the trade deficit.
•  Making Indian goods and prices competitive to face the challenges of cheap imports.
•  To make changes in domestic policy to make business more easily comparatively.
•  Use for full potential the informal meetings to work out trade deals like the Mamallapuram informal meeting between India and China.
•  India has to look at the entire region very carefully to play a significant role and counter Chinese influence.
• Look at the niche areas of India’s interests like civilizational, cultural like the Cholas empire in the 10th century, support for India’s independence, shift from interstate to inter social linkages etc.
•  Integrate the North east states for better connectivity with the ASEAN region.

Conclusion

•  With one year time for signature procedures for RCEP, India as well as ASEAN have ample amount of time to accommodate the demands of all .
•  With India seeing success in West Asia, it should be more conscious and geographically construct its relations between the ASEAN nations to counter the China wave.

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Lack of transparency in High Courts (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : RTI Act
Mains level : Issues related with RTI Act

Context

•  A study by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy has found that there is a large gap between the judiciary’s pronouncements on the Right to Information (RTI) Act and the manner in which the High Courts are implementing it.

About RTI Act

•  The Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.
•  Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.
•  The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.

What are the issues?

•  The RTI rules of several High Courts provide for a relatively inconvenient procedure when compared to the RTI rules of the Government of India.
•  The lack of good quality proactive disclosures by several High Courts marks the failure of the High Courts to discharge a specific statutory obligation imposed under Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act(Mandates automatic disclosure for public entities for certain matters.)
•  Lack of administrative transparency, especially financial transparency, within High Courts is a matter of grave concern.
•  The report found that several High Courts have included patently illegal clauses in their RTI Rules.
•  It pointed out that despite Section 8 of the RTI Act restricting the number of grounds for denying information to citizens, the RTI rules of several High Courts have included additional grounds for rejecting requests for information.
•  Several High Courts did not recognize convenient modes of payments.
•  Additionally, the report stated that the Gujarat High Court does not mention any mode of payment, which increases uncertainty for RTI applicants.
•  On the convenience index, not a single High Court was able to match the convenience offered by the Government of India’s RTI Rules.

Conclusion:

•  It should be a matter of concern to see the judiciary lagging behind the Centre when it comes to abiding by the letter and spirit of the RTI Act.
•  Transparency is something the judiciary itself must reflect and act on rather than be pushed on the matter by lawmakers and civil society.

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Gujarat Anti-Terror Bill (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : Gujarat Anti-Terror Bill
Mains level : Highlights the provisions of the Gujarat Anti-Terror Bill

Context

•  Gujarat got the presidential approval for its controversial law aimed at fighting terrorism and organised crime (GCTOC) as President gave his assent to Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bill, passed by the state assembly in 2015.

Background:

•  The contentious Bill first introduced by then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2003, failed to get the presidential nod thrice.
•  In 2015, the Gujarat government reintroduced the Bill by renaming it the GCTOC, but retained a few controversial provisions .Sixteen years after the first version of it was passed by the Gujarat
• Assembly, the Gujarat GCTOC has finally become law

Whether a state law needs presidential assent?

•  The Seventh Schedule to the Constitution includes three categories of subjects: ones on which only the centre can legislate, under List I; ones in which only the states can, under List II; and ones on which both the state and the centre can legislate concurrently, under List III.
•  This means that the state of India can legislate on any matter in List II. It can also pass laws to override central laws on subjects in List III, as long as it receives the president’s assent, under Article 254 of the Constitution ( which provides that if a State law receives presidential assent after due consideration, then it can apply in contravention to the Central law in that particular State.)

What are the controversial provisions?

•  It allows a confession to be recorded before a police official of Superintendent of Police rank to be admissible in the trial against the accused or any of the other accused in a case.
•  It allows evidence collected through the interception of wire, electronic or oral communication” admissible in court against accused.
•  It allows for the period of investigation to be extended from 90 to 180 days so that the police have more time to keep an accused in custody.
•  It provides immunity to the state government officials so that no suit or prosecution can be initiated against it for anything which is done in "good faith"
•  It prevents an accused from getting bail while in custody.
•  The act also provides for death penalty as maximum punishment.

Criticisms:

•  The evidence of electronic intercepts is seen as an intrusion on the privacy of citizens (Article 21).
•  The accused may be subject to torture by the police to extract confession. Besides confessions made to police is not admissible in court even under the Indian Evidence Act.
•  The vague definition of terrorism under the bill leaves scope for misuse as has happened with Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

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BRICS strategic partnership for global stability, shared security and innovative growth (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : International
Prelims level : BRICS group
Mains level : BRICS strategic partnership importance

Context

•  On November 13-14, 2019, Brasilia will host the 11th BRICS Summit.
•  The current Brazilian BRICS Chairmanship managed to achieve serious progress in all main pillars of cooperation — political, economic and humanitarian.
•  Russia supports its Brazilian friends in their efforts to improve the practical impact of our multifaceted interaction on the prosperity of our states and people.

Aligning to global changes

•  Today, alignment of efforts of our countries is particularly important.
•  Global politics continues to reel. Various regions of the planet still retain significant conflict potential.
•  The arms control architecture is deliberately undermined — the U.S.’s unilateral withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was a rather dangerous step. Structural imbalances in the world economy are yet to be overcome.
•  A serious threat to global economic growth is posed by such unfair competition practices as unilateral economic sanctions, trade wars and flagrant abuse of the U.S. dollar status as the world reserve currency.
•  The international community is yet to find effective responses to a whole number of critical challenges of our time — from terrorism to climate change.
•  Multipolarity is not a recipe for competition and chaos in international relations, as some of our critics say.
•  On the contrary, this is the only order attuned to present-day realities, which should promote the comprehensive development of all states — both big and small — and enhanced mutually beneficial cooperation among us on the basis of shared interests.

Common goals

•  Russia, as other BRICS countries, rejects diktat and pressure, blackmail and threats, let alone the use of force without the UNSC’s decision.

•  It proposes to follow the path of a mutually respectful dialogue aimed to reach the consensus that takes into account the interests of all actors in inter-state relations.

•  Any agreements on most important issues on the global agenda should be reached with the widest and equal participation of all stakeholders and be based on universally recognised legal norms.

•  The BRICS countries are firmly committed to democratisation of international life and its development under the principles enshrined in the UN Charter.

•  The principles of respect for cultural and civilisational diversity of the world, and the right of peoples to forge their destiny themselves.
  BRICS act like a Magnet

•  The group protects values of multilateralism, supports transparent, non-discriminatory, open, free and inclusive international trade, and rejects unilateral economic restrictions and protectionist measures in developing international economic ties.

•  The meeting on the margins of the G20 Summit in Osaka last June, the BRICS leaders explicitly indicated their willingness to protect the pillars of the equitable multilateral trading system and the role of the World Trade Organization as its centre, and to advocate International Monetary Fund reform.

•  The New Development Bank (NDB) created by the BRICS countries — one of the promising multilateral development institutions — works successfully.

•  Only this year, the NDB Board of Directors has approved 12 new investment projects in the BRICS countries. And since the start of its operation in 2015, 42 investment projects worth over $11 billion have been approved.

•  The work to strengthen the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) is ongoing. Its total capital of $100 billion is to be a guarantor of the BRICS financial stability in case of crisis.

Russia’s turn next

•  In 2020, Russia will take the helm of BRICS. We intend to ensure continuity and harmonious transition from the Brazil chairmanship to the Russian one.
•  We will continue the policy of progressive and comprehensive enhancement of the strategic partnership of the BRICS countries.
•  We are interested in increasing financial and economic cooperation among the participating countries, effective industrial interaction and practical cooperation in developing and implementing new joint energy, telecommunications and high-tech projects.
•  Our priorities include enhanced foreign policy coordination within leading multilateral fora, primarily in the UN, which will turn 75 next year.
•  The BRICS ‘ship’ will steer a steady course and further contribute significantly to maintaining international stability and ensuring global economic growth.
•  The Brasilia Summit is aimed to be another important milestone in pentalateral cooperation and on its way to new prospects.

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What we owe to the Mahatma (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1 : Society
Prelims level : Not much
Mains level : Secularism

Context

•  Two related but equally distinctive conceptions of secularism developed in India:
•  one constitutional, the principled distance model;
•  The other, the communal harmony model, attributed to the Mahatma.

Secularism in India and Europe

Secularism in Europe

•  The background of the emergence of political secularism in Europe is profound religious homogenisation — dissenters, and adherents of non-dominant religions, were expelled or exterminated during and after the wars of religion.
•  Rulers publicly confessed allegiance to one of the many churches in these predominantly single-religion societies, thereby consolidating a strong alliance between state and the dominant church.
•  Trouble began, however, when this church became increasingly politically meddlesome and socially oppressive.
•  The key issue then was how to tame the power of this church. The state’s disentanglement from the dominant church (church-state separation) was necessary to realise a number of goals, including the enhancement of individual liberty and equality.
•  But for this secularism, tackling religious diversity was simply not an issue, because it had already been liquidated in all kinds of ethically undesirable ways.

Secularism in India

•  By contrast, in India, deep religious diversity was not an optional extra but part of its social, cultural and historical landscape.
•  Gandhi understood this and never tired of stating it: India is “perhaps one nation in the ancient world which had recognised cultural democracy, whereby it is held that the roads to one and the same God are many, but the goal was one, because God was one and the same.
•  The roads are as many as there are individuals in the world... The various religions were as so many leaves of a tree; they might seem different but at the trunk they are one”.
•  Gandhi dismissed the idea that there could ever be one religion in the world, a uniform religious code, as it were, for all human kind.

Deep sociability

•  This was viable because for Gandhi, all humans had a fundamental desire for what might be called deep sociability.
•  They value human relations as an end in itself. They desire a constructive relationship with others.
•  The world’s religious diversity, the impossibility of there ever being one religion for humankind, makes mutual respect, equal regard and communal harmony a necessity.
•  Gandhi believed that this can become a reality by virtue of the human quality of deep sociability.

Gandhian secularism

•  Gandhi felt that a large part of the responsibility for maintaining communal harmony lies with communities themselves.

•  But there are times when this communally sustained harmony is disturbed, even breaks down.

•  When this happens, the state has to step in. And for this to be possible, it cannot already be aligned to any one religion but must be distant from all.

•  Secularism then marks a certain comportment of the state whereby it distances itself from all religio-philosophical perspectives in order to promote a certain quality of sociability and fraternity between communities.

•  This makes Gandhian secularism distinctive.

•  Unlike modern Western secularisms that separate church and state for the sake of individual freedom and equality and have place for neither community nor fraternity.

•  The Gandhian conception demands that the state be secular for the sake of better relations between members of all religious communities, especially if they are mutually estranged.

•  The Gandhian conception is indispensable in times of religious disharmony.

Way forward

•  Yet, the realisability of Gandhian secularism depends on faith in popular wisdom traditions which in turn is sustained by a certain idea of popular moral agency.
•  When good, god-loving, ordinary men and women free from the trappings of power, wealth and fame — precisely what makes them ordinary and good — get together, they release non-violent creative energies that morally sustain and improve our world.
•  It seems that such men and women have gone missing in our times.

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Nurturing start-ups: Policymakers must adopt an ecosystem approach (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Economy
Prelims level : NASSCOM report
Mains level : Key outcomes of the NASSCOM report

Context

•  The trends emerging from the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) report on the country’s tech start-up ecosystem indicate that India is on the right track to becoming a global hub for innovation and emerging entrepreneurs.

B2B space

•  There are two big shifts in the start-up space that are encouraging.
•  One is the increasing focus on the business-to-business (B2B) space.
•  The second, and more important shift, is the rapid growth in the number of deep-tech start-ups as well as start-ups focussing on the underserved markets.

Leveraging towards deep-tech

•  Over 18 per cent of all start-ups are now leveraging deep-tech, which means there are over 1,600 such companies in India engaged in high-end engineering.
•  Only 8 per cent of all start-ups were involved in deep-tech in 2014.
•  These are significant changes from the initial rush of young entrepreneurs who were merely replicating successful business models from the Silicon Valley primarily aimed at retail consumers.
•  While these businesses have made services such as booking a cab or a hotel room more affordable and convenient, the reality is that Indian start-ups are way behind in terms of creating products like Google and Microsoft do.
•  This could be a thing of the past soon with more number of Indian start-ups now focussing on creating solutions using deep-tech such as artificial intelligence, analytics, augmented reality/virtual reality, blockchain and the Internet of Things, among others.
•  India desperately needs these deep-tech start-ups in order to take digital transformation to the next level.
•  Current digital technologies such as mobile and cloud help enterprises in their digital transformation journey.
•  The solutions are based on deep-tech add another layer on this transformation to solve real-life problems in areas like health care, fintech, agriculture and water management.
•  The big worry though is that the current approach by policymakers and investors mostly focusses on funding but not on scaling up.
•  As a result, the number of unicorns that are engaged in deep-tech is still minuscule.

Need to focus

•  This is where the Start-up India mission needs to focus more on providing an ecosystem that enables start-ups to grow.
•  There are still some niggling issues on exemption given to start-ups on Angel Tax.
•  Once the exemption from ‘Angel Tax’ is given, the end-use restrictions will disallow a start-up from acquiring a smaller company to expand its business or from giving advances to their employees.
•  Rather than micro-managing how start-ups operate, the government should promote entrepreneurship.
•  Corporates and established entrepreneurs should also step in to provide mentorship and guidance to promising start-ups.

Way forward

•  India has its share of challenges when it comes to food, energy, water and national security.
•  It badly needs many large companies to develop platforms to address these issues at every nook and corner of the country at a low cost.
•  These solutions will also be useful to address similar problems globally.
•  Start-ups focussing on using deep-tech to provide solutions to such problems should be given all the support needed if India wants to have the next big technology company emerging from its shores.

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The future of work (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3 : Economy
Prelims level : Gig economy
Mains level : The state of employment in Indian cities

Context

•  Karnataka Labour Minister S. Suresh Kumar announced on October 21 that the State government will work towards framing guidelines for workers of digital platforms like Uber, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy and UrbanClap.

Background

•  It has to ensure all relevant labour benefits for those working in the ‘gig economy’.
•  Details of implementation are awaited but the Karnataka government is following the tone set by the Centre, which proposed a new draft code on social security this year.
•  Active moves to bring digital labour platforms within the purview of new or existing employment and labour regulations in India have been sorely missing.
•  The Karnataka government’s move to add benefits is welcome and can provide a degree of public welfare assistance to a significant and growing workforce in India.

Creating jobs

•  Governments now actively acknowledge that platforms provide work to the growing demographic of youth in the country.
•  At the moment, the manufacturing sector in India is unable to provide employment opportunities to the youth.
•  There is thus a mismatch between education and jobs skills in the market. Governments have also been unable to create viable public work schemes in urban areas for those continuously migrating into cities and towns.
•  Private tech, however, has been able to do this, and the government seems to be aware of its potential.
  Platform companies responsibility
•  MoUs signed between platform companies and various State and Central Ministries over the years show that governments have actively invited companies to create work, entrepreneurial opportunities and skill development.
•  For example, Uber partnered with Ayushman Bharat to facilitate free healthcare for drivers and delivery partners.
•  UrbanClap partnered with the National Urban Livelihoods Mission to generate jobs with minimum assured monthly wages for the urban poor.
•  In cases of informal jobs where it was difficult to identify workers for whom protection was to be given, platforms became vehicles to serve this purpose.

Creating public utlities

•  The ecosystem of public policy, platform work, and the government together can suggest an urban ‘Jobs for All’, a financialised employment guarantee scheme.
•  The work created by these companies could easily be regulated as public goods in the coming years because it creates mobility and facilitates the movement of goods.
•  An increasing number of these jobs has been created through incentivised demand using cashbacks, coupons, low fares, and even free services rather than through natural demand.
•  Platforms have created public utilities that may not have been needed before via what is often low-skilled and poor quality work, but it is work that brings in some earnings.
•  They have given urban workers a financialised, self-driven, optional economic safety net of ‘having a job, having a gig’.

The state of employment in Indian cities

•  The strength or ability of labour regulation to push companies to deliver full formal employment in a financialised world of work seems poor.
•  If the relationship between platform companies and national and State government continues this way, where do labour institutions and workers unions stand?
•  Platform companies rely on city markets for their workers to populate the platform and to hopefully eventually turn a profit just as much as governments look to platforms to generate work opportunities.
•  The Karnataka Social Welfare Department signed an MoU with Uber last year to create work opportunities for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe youth.

Conclusion

•  The platform ecosystem mature and contend with having to turn a profit as demand dips and stabilizes.
•  This mutual dependency take the urban resident who uses these platforms to earn a living.
•  It imply an even further reduced importance of ‘employment’ as a way for social security to be delivered.
•  It could also herald a time where platforms can be asked to perform more public functions like implementing a minimum wage.

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