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India’s economic mobility and its impact on inequality (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Economic Mobility
Mains level: Key sources of economic mobility and its dimensions

Context

• There has been a phenomenal rise in economic inequality in India.

Major highlights

• A 2018 Oxfam study reports a significant increase in the consumption Gini index in both rural and urban areas from 1993-94 to 2011-12.
• According to the Global Wealth Report (GWR) 2017 by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, between 2002 and 2012, the share of the bottom 50% of the population in total wealth declined from 8.1% to only 4.2%. In the same period, the share of the top 1% of the total wealth increased from 15.7% to 25.7%.
• A recent survey pointed out that the mobility rate for the population is remarkably low. In 7 years, at least 7 in 10 poor households remain poor or remain in an insecure non-poor state.
• In a mobile economy, the households move more freely throughout the income/consumption distribution.

Key importance of the mobility

• Long-term welfare effects of rising inequality depend crucially on the level of economic mobility.
• Economic mobility or the lack of it can accentuate the adverse effects of inequality.
• An economy with much economic mobility will result in a more equal distribution of incomes and consumption than an economy with low mobility.

What are its key dimensions?

• Muslims are more vulnerable to falling below the poverty line over the seven-year period compared to Hindus or other religious groups.
• Compared to upper-caste groups and OBCs, SCs and STs are less likely to escape poverty and more likely to move into poverty.
• Between upper castes and OBCs, the latter is more likely to move into poverty and less likely to become secure non-poor.
• Rural households are more likely to remain in poverty compared to urban households.
• Inequality in India can be characterized as chronic since households belonging to the lower rungs of the economic ladder are likely to find themselves caught in a poverty trap.

Way ahead

• Poverty reduction efforts should focus on ways to improve the permanent economic status of households through the acquisition of assets and capabilities, rather than dealing with temporary volatility.
• There is also doubt on the efficacy of existing affirmative action and social programs to improve the economic status of marginalized groups in the country.

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Rethinking water governance strategies (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: Composite Water Management Index
Mains level: Measures adopted by the governments to boosts groundwater level

Context

• India’s severe ‘water crisis’ is in the news recently.
• India’s cities are running out of water. Chennai witnessed the worst drinking water woes.

Key facts

• Niti Aayog’s report ‘Composite Water Management Index: A tool for water management’ stated that 21 major cities are expected to run out of groundwater as soon as 2020, affecting nearly 100 million people.
• The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has been reporting on the increasing number of over-exploited blocks across India, labeled as the ‘dark’ category blocks. The recent annual book of CGWB has reported 1,034 units, out of the 6,584 units it monitors, as over-exploited.
• CGWB’s 2013 estimates say that the groundwater development in India is just about 62% of the utilizable groundwater reserves.
• A recent report by the Central Water Commission and ISRO asserted that India is not yet in “water scarcity condition”, but in a “water-stressed condition”, with reducing per capita water availability.

Way Forward

• To ensure adequate access to quality water, more so in urban areas where inequities over space and time are acute. With rapid urbanization, demand cannot be met by groundwater reserves alone.
• The groundwater meets just 10% of Delhi’s drinking water needs. The rest is met by surface water sources transported from outside Delhi.
• Water resource departments in States are following conventional approaches to supply augmentation. They should reorient themselves and deploy demand management, conservation, and regulation strategies.
• Centre and states should work towards an institutional change by building federal governance of water resources.

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A point to ponder over in the POCSO Bill (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: POCSO Bill
Mains level: Highlights the amendment in POCSO Bill 2019

Context

• The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed by both Houses of Parliament. It is all set to become the ‘law of the land’.

Key highlights of the bill

• The present bill is welcome in certain respects as it specifically defines what ‘child pornography’ is; ‘using a child for pornographic purposes’ and for ‘possessing or storing pornography involving a child’ is punishable.
• It has also widened the ambit of ‘Aggravated sexual assault’.
• This included the introduction of the death penalty for the rape of minors.
• The introduction of the death penalty may backfire in cases of child sexual abuse and even have a catastrophic effect.
• Often, the perpetrators of abuse are family members and having such penalty in the statute book may discourage the registration of the crime itself.
• Also, it may threaten the life of the minor as the maximum punishment for murder is also the death sentence.
• The Justice J.S. Verma Committee, which was constituted in 2013 in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya case, after due deliberations found itself against the imposition of death penalty in rape cases.
• The 262nd Report of the Law Commission of India, 2015, also provides for abolition of the death penalty except in terror cases.
• By introducing the death penalty, portrays itself to be strict and serious with regard to such offences.
• It largely diverts attention from the core issues of infrastructural apathy, procedural lapses and trial delays and conveniently evades the fact that ‘it is the certainty of punishment rather than its severity which has deterrence in real sense’.
• It is pertinent to note here that even a year-and-a-half after the passage of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which introduced the death penalty for rape of a minor girl, such incidents have not been under check.
• The debate here is not about retaining or abolishing the death penalty but the probable ramifications of its provision in the Act.

Court data

• The court has also observed that it intends having a ‘zero tolerance policy’ toward child rape. As data on sexual crimes against children collected by the court show, 24,212 FIRs were filed across India from January to June this year.
• According to National Crime Records Bureau data of 2016, the conviction rate in POCSO cases is 29.6% while pendency is as high as 89%. The prescribed time period of two months for trial in such cases is hardly complied with.
• The court has also taken note of the delay in trials, in turn directing the Central Government to set up special courts within 60 days of the order in each district having more than 100 pending cases under the Act.
• It is to be seen how long it takes to comply with the order.
• The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 introduced the death penalty for rape of girls below the age of 12.
• At the same time, the POCSO Act, under Section 42, provides that where the same act constitutes an offence under the said Act and any other law, then the offender will be punished under the Act or such law, whichever provides for greater punishment.
• This has created an issue as the effect of such an amendment was death penalty for rape of minor girls but not for assault against minor boys.

Conclusion

• The proposed Bill does away with such a discrepancy.
• It is gender neutral and provides for the death penalty for “aggravated penetrative sexual assault of a child”, thus bringing both these pieces of legislation on a par with each other in this respect.
• With these amendments and with the Supreme Court considering child abuse “intolerable”, there seems to be reasonable hope now that vulnerable children could be safer.
• The Bill is a step forward in preventing child abuse but the consequences of providing for the death penalty need to be closely observed.

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The imprint of a state juggernaut (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Lok Sabha
Mains level: Performance of 17th Lok Sabha

Context

• The 17th Lok Sabha, which was convened on June 17, held 37 sittings that extended over 280 hours till it was adjourned sine die on August 6.
• The Rajya Sabha, which met on June 20, held 35 sittings till it was adjourned sine die on August 7.
• The spokespersons of both Houses claimed that productivity was approximately 137% and 103%, respectively, denoting the hours of work put in.
• While the Lok Sabha spent 46% of its time in legislative business, the Rajya Sabha spent 51%, a record in recent years.

Highlights of the 17th Lok Sabha

• There were 40 Bills that were introduced during this session (33 in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha). While the Lok Sabha passed 35 bills, the number was 32 in the Rajya Sabha; 30 bills were passed by both Houses of Parliament.
• In the Lok Sabha, 183 starred questions were orally answered while 1,066 matters of urgent importance were taken up; 488 issues under Rule 377, that requires advance notice and approval of the Speaker, were attended to.
• The Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, repeatedly drew attention to the equality of the members of the House cutting across party differences, and extending opportunities to new and young members.
• Out of 265 first time members, 229, including 42 out of 46 women members, found an opportunity to express themselves in the House.

Legislative measures

• Parliament has to be credited for passing some bills that enjoyed a broad consensus such as the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, the Consumer Protection Bill, and the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, although questions have been raised on whether these bills and the way they were framed, were the most appropriate ways to further their intent.
• However, many of the bills passed by the Houses were matters that led to deep division and contention within the polity, such as the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, the Aadhar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment (UAPA) Bill, and the Codes on Wages.
• Some of the bills passed by the Lok Sabha such as the Inter State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill 2019, the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, and the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 definitely called for a wider and closer discussion.
• Many of the bills, such as the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which was passed by both the Houses, had bearing on powers of the States and tended to reinforce the powers of the Centre.
• The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 introduced in the Rajya Sabha surreptitiously, on the penultimate day of its working, and passed by the Lok Sabha on its last working day, changed the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, hitherto protected under Article 370.
• It split the State into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Institutional bearing

• The task of Parliament is not to discuss and debate, shape and reshape measures for public good, and ensure oversight, but merely play second fiddle to the executive leadership.
• Therefore, criticism and debate over the bills was kept to the minimum, if avoided altogether.
• There was no attempt to form the 24 departmentally related standing committees before the session, or early in its day, to which bills could be referred to for scrutiny and review or form subject committees for the purpose.
• The plea of some Opposition members of the Houses in this direction was all in vain.
• The formal legal equality of citizens would be on premium and all differential considerations on grounds of disadvantage or considerations of diversity would be suspect.
• Therefore, Articles 370, 35A, and Sharia provisions were sought to be modified, while commitment to human rights in general, was reinforced by recrafting the National Human Rights Commission through The Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill.
• There was an enormous strengthening of the surveillance and investigative instrumentalities of the State not merely through the UAPA, but also in bills pertaining to the economy and financial transactions. In these measures the ‘lethal machine’ of the State was on full display against the prevalent ascription of a ‘soft’ state.
• The legislative measures and amendments such as the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, highlighted the emergence of an institutional hierarchy, demoting key positions, involving transparency and accountability, to executive discretion.
• The institutional hierarchy of authority, where the higher rungs were cushioned from the lower ones, was vividly there to see in the way in which the name of the Prime Minister was invoked by Ministers and member after member of the ruling dispensation as the font of wisdom, foresight and concern.
• Clearly, the attempt to craft a docile Parliament had gone a long way.

Way forward

• There was also little to defend the way the Opposition had made a habit of boycotting the House and stalling its proceedings, although at times it was the most effective way of demanding responsiveness, and even to air popular grievances.
• At the same time, it should be said, Parliament was grappling with coming to terms with its own institutional working to be the voice of democracy.
• If the proceedings in the recently concluded session are a clue to its future, then Parliament has been securely chained to India’s state juggernaut.

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Dealing with doping: On BCCI consent to come under WADA (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: World Anti-Doping Agency
Mains level: Combat anti dope measures taken by World Anti-Doping Agency

Context

• Sport is expected to operate at a higher moral plane where the effort is honest and transparency remains an abiding principle.
• It is a utopian ideal leaning on pure performance, copious sweat and relentless training.
• But in a practical world greased with greed, besides match-fixing, there is another terrible offence: ingestion of performance-enhancing drugs.
• Athletes like Canada’s Ben Johnson were labelled as drug-cheats and rightly denied their Olympic medals.

About World Anti-Doping Agency

• The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), since its inception in 1999, has imposed stringent measures so that sport stays drug-free.
• In India, WADA’s rules have been enforced by the Government-run National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and almost all sports federations had fallen in line except one behemoth — the Board of Control for Cricket inIndia (BCCI).
• But that aberration was erased as the BCCI accepted NADA’s supervision following a meeting between its CEO Rahul Johri, General Manager Saba Karim and Sports Ministry officials led by Sports Secretary Radhey Shyam Julaniya.
• Indian cricket’s governing body finally agreed to subject its players to NADA’s testing routines. Before its turn-around, the BCCI had resisted NADA’s intervention.
• The main objection pertained to the ‘where-abouts’ clause, which made it mandatory for a player to reveal where he would be on a daily basis.
• The need for privacy was offered as an excuse.

Recent dope test incident

• Earlier, the BCCI had its in-house dope-tests but it only lent credence to the allegations about conflict of interest.
• The issue came to a boil when Prithvi Shaw was given a back-dated eight-month suspension after he tested positive for a banned drug, Terbutaline.
• The 19-year-old batsman, who was checked in February, claimed that the substance was present in an over-the-counter cough syrup.
• Shaw’s excuse and the BCCI’s quick acceptance of his self-medication, bred scepticism.
• It is either naivety or a classic cover-up from an Indian cricketer, who had been advised about the chemicals that have to be avoided even for therapeutic purposes.
• The silver-lining is that the episode hastened the BCCI’s move into the NADA’s ambit and also cleared the decks for the Indian women’s cricket team to compete in the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham.

Conclusion

• With the BCCI belatedly allowing NADA to monitor its domestic cricketers, by extension the International Cricket Council too has finally come under the WADA’s unerring gaze.
• In these hyper-kinetic times, it is a fallacy to stress that cricket is just a reflection of skill and that drug-enhanced muscular efficiency cannot influence match results.
• Sport has to be a level playing-field and it is finally one with the willow-game subjecting itself to universal drug-testing rules.

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The Yuan’s devaluation has made investors nervous (Mint)

Mains Paper 3:
Prelims level :
Mains level :

Context

• Chinese yuan broke the seven-to-one parity against the dollar for the first time since 2008. China deliberately devalued the Chinese currency after the latest tariff threats issued by US.

Two reasons behind China’s Yuan devaluation

Economic reasons

• China’s weakening manufacturing competitiveness is likely to strengthen with yuan-priced goods and services getting cheaper across supply chains in East Asia, parts of Africa, etc.
• It is likely to widen China’s trade surplus with the US in the immediate short run.
• It will also help China expand trade margins within its own region, especially with Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, etc.

Political Reasons

• The US’ own strategic engagement in Asia has weakened under Trump, who questioned the “value of US alliances with Japan and South Korea
• Japanese imposed trade restrictions on South Korea. China and Russia staged their first joint aerial patrols in the region, causing South Koreans to react militarily.
• China-US friction has offered significant economic and political leverage to smaller emerging nations like Vietnam and Indonesia within their respective regional spaces

Problems occurred

• Risk not only for those trading in the US and Chinese currencies or their stocks, but also for capital flows between emerging markets
• China, around 2015-16, tried something similar by letting the yuan depreciate; it led to a stock market crash in China, and billions of its dollar reserves disappeared in just a few days.
• That devaluation saw led to a massive capital flight from China, further weakening its external position.
• The debt denominated in foreign currencies has increased for global companies and developing nations across the world, and maybe vulnerable to a currency shock if the “currency war” continues.
• Most foreign investors switched to the safety of gold or other currencies like yen.

Conclusion

• China’s weakening of its currency to hurt US economic interests for political gains will only make other Asian countries more vulnerable to a political crisis that could quickly escalate to a financial crisis induced by either a dollar currency crash or waves of capital flight.
• Any markets responding cautiously to the latest devaluation are correct in issuing a “fragile" alert for investors for now.

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Taken for a ride: on India’s gender-blind transport system

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level : Not much
Mains level : Measures to improve public transport system

Context

• Economy by New-Delhi based NGO Jagori revealed that 51% of women in the capital faced harassment inside public transport, and another 42% while waiting for public transport.
• Ola’s survey ahead of International Women’s Day 2019, highlighted how only 9% of the surveyed women commuters in the country felt safe in public transport, but still used it due to the lack of other options.

How to make public transport safe for all?

• Rope in traffic police at large bus depots, MRTC railway stations,
• Provide functional and responsive helplines,
• Ensure elevators and escalators are functional,
• Better footpaths and clean subways,
• Create safe and usable cycling tracks,
• Set up the gender advisory committee,
• Most importantly, educate and sensitize men.

Major problems

• As per a 2017 report by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, women may turn down better employment opportunities further away from home in favor of lower-paid local jobs when the public transport system is unreliable or unaffordable.
• This holds true especially for those belonging to lower-income groups, thus impacting their access to better jobs, education and basic necessities
• The report also states that over 84% of trips by women are by the public, intermediate public and non-motorised modes of transport
• Efforts to improve our crumbling public transport systems — used by a majority of the population — haven’t been addressed.

Motor Vehicles Bill 2019

• The bill provides some relief to passengers as far as app-based taxi-hailing services go.
• It gives power to the Centre to regulate these services and set ground rules on safety and surge pricing, and get them to invest in customer care teams .
• It points out issues of road safety, heftier fines for errant drivers, vehicle recall norms.
• There’s no mention of better roads or infrastructure development.

Way forward

• The government’s Smart Cities Mission aims to create walkable localities, promote mixed-land uses, develop green spaces and technology-centric pan city proposals such as CCTV cameras.
• But unless we have gender-responsive plans for urban transport in place, our cities will be far from inclusive.

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Climate on the farm (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level : IPCC
Mains level : Key highlights of the IPCC report

Context

• A report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that better management of the world’s farms and forests is necessary to tackle climate change.

Background

• Land use has always been part of conversations on climate change and activities like afforestation have held an important place in the fight against global warming.
• Discourse on combating global warming has given more thrust to curbing vehicular and industrial emissions.

Crucial highlights of the report says

• The IPCC report warns that clean energy, clean transport and reducing emissions alone will not cut global emissions enough to avoid warming beyond 2 degrees Celsius.
• It points out that the global food system is responsible for 21 to 37% of the world’s GHG emissions.
• About a quarter of the Earth’s ice-free land area is subjected to “human-induced degradation”.
• Rapid agricultural expansion has led to the destruction of forests, wetlands and grasslands and other ecosystems.
• Soil erosion from agricultural fields is 10 to 100 times higher than the soil formation rate.
• When land is degraded, it becomes less productive, restricting what can be grown and reducing the soil’s ability to absorb carbon.
• Agriculture and allied activities like cattle rearing are major sources of methane and nitrous oxide and are more dangerous GHGs than carbon dioxide.

Way ahead

• It raised a key scientific input for future climate negotiations, such as the CoP of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the UNFCCC CoP25.
• It could pressure developing countries like India to ramp up their global warming mitigation targets.
• India should pay heed to the IPCC report’s recommendations on curbing land degradation and soil erosion by improving knowledge systems.

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Incisive interventions that blunt the RTI’s edge (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level : RTI
Mains level : Challenges faced by amendment of RTI

Context

• When we describe India as a democracy what do we really mean?
• Are we referring merely to a system of popular sovereignty founded in universal adult franchise?
• Or are we suggesting something more — perhaps an assurance, grounded in the Constitution, of a set of rights, of the rights, among others, to a freedom of expression, life and personal liberty, and equal opportunity and status?

Constitutional framework

• It is to this end that India’s Constitution provides a framework for governance by pledging to people a set of inviolable guarantees.
• But realising the full value of those guarantees at times requires a parley with the state.
• It was one such long battle, fought over nearly two decades, driven by the unstinting efforts of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, that resulted in the enactment in 2005 of the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).
• By any account, the law proved transformative to India’s democracy; it revolutionised the citizen’s ability to engage with the state, arming people with a mechanism to ferret out some of the truth from the government’s otherwise secretive operations.

Deep-reaching amendments

• Today, though, the kernel of the RTI Act is under threat. New amendments have been passed without subjecting the draft law to scrutiny by a parliamentary committee.
• A feature common to every law enacted by Parliament in its present session, this portends the reduction of governance to a form of democracy by crude acclamation.
• The changes made include an alteration to the term in office of the information commissioners (ICs) and to the manner of determination of their salaries.
• In place of the existing five-year term accorded to the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) and the various ICs the law grants to the Union government the power to notify their terms through executive regulations.
• The amendment deletes the RTI Act’s mandate that the salary paid to the CIC and the ICs ought to be equivalent to that paid respectively to the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners (ECs). Now, the salary, allowances, and terms and conditions of service of the CIC and the ICs will be determined by executive guidelines.

Ferreting out the truth

• This freedom to secure information that the law provides has, in many ways, redesigned the structure of India’s democratic governance. It has helped open the government up to greater scrutiny.
• It is when a plea for information goes unheeded that the CIC and the ICs play an especially vital role.
• Should the initial request for information made to a public information officer, designated by each public authority, fail, the petitioner is entitled to lodge an appeal to an authority within the department concerned.
• Should that entreaty fail too and it often does since this is a virtually illusory remedy a further appeal can be made to the office of the CIC or the State Information Commission.

Granted an acceptable level of independence

• Until now, the RTI Act granted an acceptable level of independence to ICs.
• By placing their terms of service on a par with those of the ECs the law insulated the ICs from political influence.
• This protection was not dissimilar to the autonomy accorded to members of the higher judiciary.
• The basic idea remained the same: security in office is imperative if members must intervene without fear or favour to ensure that the law’s mandate is met.
• It could well be argued that the RTI Act, in its original form, was far from flawless, especially in that it did not do enough to open up public authorities to complete scrutiny.
• But the present amendments, far from strengthening the existing regime, subvert the independence of the information commission.
• The delegation of the power to fix the tenure and the salaries of the CIC and the ICs to the political executive places the information commission’s autonomy in a state of peril.

Way forward

• With the withering of that independence, the right to freedom of information also begins to lose its thrust.
• Therefore, the new amendments represent a classic piece of totalitarian legerdemain. Democracy, to borrow the American philosopher Cornel West’s conception, demands a “leap of faith”.
• If the new amendments are allowed to stand, making that leap becomes all the more implausible.

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Taking on the mob: On Rajasthan law against mob lynching (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level : Mob Lynching law
Mains level : Significance and provisions of the Mob Lynching law

Context

• It is possible to argue that there is no need to create new criminal offences for ‘lynching’ and ‘honour killing’ because they remain plain murders.
• These are already punishable with death or life imprisonment.
• Yet, mob lynching and murderous attacks on young couples in the name of preserving family or community honour have emerged as preponderant social evils.
• It is but inevitable that societies come up with new ways of combating such hate crimes.

Background

• Rajasthan has made bold to grapple with these two crimes by passing special penal laws.
• Vigilante mobs have unleashed a wave of crimes in the name of cow protection and preventing the sale of beef or transport of cattle;
• The spread of rumour and attempts to establish sectarian dominance have also contributed to this disturbing phenomenon.
• The Supreme Court zeroed in on the nub of the trend when it spoke of “rising intolerance and growing polarisation” in a judgment last year.
• It also mooted a special law to criminalise it and “instil a sense of fear” among those too quick to form a lynch mob.

Mob lunching law in various state

• The passage of the Protection from Lynching Bill, 2019, makes Rajasthan the second State, after Manipur, to implement the suggestion.
• A positive feature is that it closely resembles the Manipur law in the way “lynching” is defined.
• It covers any act of violence, whether spontaneous or planned, by a mob on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, language, dietary practices, sexual orientation, political affiliation or ethnicity. And two  persons are enough to constitute a ‘mob’.

Highlights of the bill

• According to the State’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister, 86% of mob lynching incidents reported in India after 2014 were in Rajasthan.
• The Bill says that when a mob attack ends in death, it is punishable with life imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹5 lakh.
• There are lesser terms for causing injuries. As directed by the Supreme Court, the Bill provides for appointment of a nodal officer to prevent lynching and for district police chiefs to act as coordinators.
• It ensures compensation to victims and rehabilitation measures for those displaced.
• The party’s fulmination against the other Bill that prohibits interference in the “freedom of matrimonial alliances in the name of honour and tradition” was equally bereft of substance, as it cited societal norms and cultural practice to oppose the progressive law. In effect, it was batting for khap panchayats that seek to interdict inter-caste marriages.

Conclusion

• The Bill provides for both death and life imprisonment for killing in the name of honour, but it is doubtful if courts will look at all such murders as among the ‘rarest of rare cases’ that warrant the resort to the death penalty.

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There is a requirement of silver lining in services (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: FMCG
Mains level: Industries growth and infrastructure

Context

• The high frequency indicators that are believed to capture the ECG graph of the Indian economy have been flat-lining.
• Some analysts have used these data points on IIP, vehicle and FMCG sales to conclude that domestic consumers are now in dire straits, putting the economy at risk of a cardiac arrest.
• But the assessment would be less pessimistic if one looks at the services leg of the economy. Most high-frequency indicators in India are designed to track consumer demand for goods and sales of manufactured products.
• Yet, industry today chips in with just a fifth of India’s GDP while services is three times as big with a 60 per cent contribution.

Services holding up

• Three big-picture data points indicate that services may be holding up better amid the industrial slowdown.
• One, bank credit to the services sector, according to the RBI, grew at 20 per cent plus year-on-year every month between March 2018 and February 2019, closing FY19 18 per cent higher.
• In the same months, credit offtake for industry grew at 1 to 6 per cent, rounding off the year at 7 per cent.
• Two, while listed industrial firms have delivered poor sales growth in the January-March 2019 quarter at 5 per cent, services firms have grown fast at 16.5 per cent.
• This is derived from results of 175 NSE-listed services companies and 240 industrial ones that have so far reported their numbers.
• Services companies have also steadily improved upon their revenue growth in the last five quarters, starting out at 8 per cent in January-March 2018 and doubling the pace since.
• Three, consumer price inflation trends for the past two years show the price rise for services such as housing, health, recreation, education and personal care has remained elevated even as goods inflation has collapsed.

Retail rebound

• India’s retail sector registered a revival of sorts in FY19 after stalling the previous financial year.
• Trade analysts put the sector’s growth at 8-10 per cent in FY19, with organised retail growing faster.
• Listed retail players have clocked a 21 per cent revenue growth in the latest March quarter and value retailer Avenue Supermarts clocked same-store sales growth of 17.8 per cent for FY19, rebounding from 14 per cent in FY18.
• If demand for premium mall space is an indicator of the sector’s health, consultant JLL noted that retailers, who absorbed 3.9 million sq ft of mall space in 2018, were looking to double that to 7.7 million sq ft in 2019.
• But while organised retail seems to be back on its feet, it is difficult to know if the mom-and-pop stores which make up most of the sector are mirroring this rebound.

Hospitality warm-up

• Holidaying in exotic spots seems to top the bucket-list of affluent Indians and that’s showing up in demand for hotel rooms consistently outpacing supply in the last five years.
• Indian Hotels checked out of FY19 on an upbeat note, recording a 10 per cent revenue growth and its highest profit in 11 years.
• It shared industry data showing that demand for hotel rooms grew by 3.4 per cent in FY19 even as supply expanded 2.6 per cent.
• Occupancy rates have climbed from 57 to 65 per cent in five years. Should this sustain, players expect to take hikes in their room rates that they have been putting off for five years now.
• After battling activist regulators and reluctant buyers between 2013 and 2017, real estate players saw some light at the end of the tunnel in 2018. Knight Frank noted that 2018 was the first calendar year in a decade, in which sales of new homes in key cities increased (they rose by 6 per cent to 2.42 lakh units).
• The pick-up helped the industry’s unsold inventory recede from 7.2 lakh units in 2014 to 4.7 lakh in 2018. RBI data reiterates healthy home loan growth at 19 per cent in FY19.

Demonetization effect

• Banks, insurers and mutual funds reaped a windfall in inflows between FY16 and FY18, thanks to demonetisation.
• But with the spell wearing off in FY19, bank deposits have registered just a 10 per cent increase, life insurers have collected just 6 per cent more in individual life premiums and mutual funds have seen their net inflow halve compared to FY18. But this doesn’t put these players in particularly difficult straits, as their flows remain well above pre-note ban levels. On the credit front, listed banks saw a 16 per cent growth in the latest March quarter, while many NBFCs braked due to the liquidity crunch.
• Telecom players certainly don’t face a demand problem, with their internet customers soaring by 82 per cent between 2015 and 2018 and their data usage jumping from 136 MB to 8.7 GB per month, even though the mobile subscriber base has stagnated. But with competition denting tariffs, revenues of players have dipped in this period, with analysts now expecting a shakeout to rescue profitability.
• Consumers also seem to be splurging without a care on other forms of entertainment. Listed players in the multiplex and content space saw a 22 per cent expansion in their takings in the March 2019 quarter, on top of a 26 per cent growth last year. India’s DTH subscriber base has jumped from 56 million to 71 million in the last three years.
• Transport is one of the few services to have lost speed lately, with commercial vehicle sales, a proxy for road transport, slowing sharply in the second half of FY19. Air passenger traffic has also seen a drop-off from January moderating FY19 growth to 13 per cent, from 19-20 per cent earlier.

The ‘E’ factor

• Online aggregators who have enabled Bharatvasis to buy groceries, hire conveyance, order food, book hotel rooms and call in the beautician at the swipe of a smartphone managed scorching growth rates in the last three years.
• Redseer Consulting estimates that e-tailing platforms shipped out 2.5 million packages a day in 2018, compared to 1.5 million in 2016.
• Food-ordering apps have set the cash registers ringing at neighbourhood eateries by clocking gross business volumes of $1700 million in 2018, from $300 million in 2016. Daily rides hailed on online taxi apps have jumped from 2 million to 3.5 million.

Need to be read with caveats.

• One, while most of the above metrics capture growth for corporate services firms, well over half of India’s services economy is made up of informal mom-and-pop outfits on whom there is precious little information.
• Two, a lot of the services growth seems to be powered by the creamy layer of India’s population.

Conclusion

• For more inclusive services such as telecom, loss-leader pricing has played a big role in driving demand, suggesting that the growth could peter out if the economy doesn’t deliver income increases.
• Collecting more data on the informal sector and designing a monthly index on services, like the IIP.
• It can help ensure that commentators on the Indian economy, like the seven blind men, don’t have to guess at the shape of this elephant by feeling its trunk.

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Our notions of motherhood (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Altruistic surrogacy
Mains level: Implication of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019

Context

• The Lok Sabha passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019 on Tuesday.
• The Billl aims to regulate the practice of surrogacy in India and allow only “ethical altruistic surrogacy”.

Background

• The Bill was first introduced in the lower house in November 2016, then referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.
• It was introduced and passed by the Lok Sabha again in December 2018 without incorporating most of the recommendations of the Committee, but lapsed. The 2019 Bill is identical to the Bill of 2018.
• It showcases the state’s heavy reliance on criminal law for managing social issues, criminalisation of choice and prejudiced ideas of what constitutes a family.
• The Bill disallows single, divorced or widowed persons, unmarried couples and homosexual couples from pursuing surrogacy to have children.
• It stipulates that only a man and woman married for at least five years, where either or both are proven infertile, can avail of surrogacy. This is blatantly discriminatory and arbitrary.

Recognition of India’s jurisprudence

• India’s jurisprudence recognises the reproductive autonomy of single persons, the rights of persons in live-in relationships and fundamental rights of transgenders.
• In Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India, Supreme Court, having decriminalised consensual same-sex between consenting adults, held that the law cannot discriminate against same-sex partnerships and that it must “take positive steps to achieve equal protection”.
• Single persons have the right to adopt children in India. The Bill is out of step with these developments.

Objectives of this bill

• The Bill and its immediate ancestors significantly diverge from earlier, more rational policy positions.
• Guidelines issued by Indian Council of Medical Research in 2002 and the draft Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bills 2010 and 2014 had permitted commercial surrogacy.
• The shift to altruistic-only surrogacy was made in the context of sensational news reports about cases of surrogate babies being abandoned and exploited — surrogate mothers being kept in “surrogacy brothels” and rich foreigners using the bodies of poor Indian women to have children.
• There is undoubtedly a danger of exploitation and abuse in commercial surrogacy.
• The cases that have come up establish that possibility. But formulating a law on the basis of exceptions is ultimately counterproductive.
• Exploitation takes place because of the unequal bargaining power between the surrogate mother and the surrogacy clinics, agents and intending parents.
• This can be addressed by a strong regulatory mechanism that introduces transparency and mandates fair work and pay for the surrogate mothers.
• Viewing commercial surrogacy as inherently exploitative and banning it only expands the potential for exploitation as it would force the business underground.
• Further, criminalisation of commercial surrogacy is a refusal by the state to actually consider the exercise of agency that leads a woman to become a surrogate mother.
• Interviews with women who chose to provide gestational services for a fee have shown that it is a well-considered decision made in constrained economic conditions.
• A ban on commercial surrogacy stigmatises this choice and reinforces the notion of the vulnerable “poor” woman who does not understand the consequences of her decisions and needs the protection of a paternalistic State.

Ethics behind commercial surrogacy

• As per the Bill, the surrogate mother must be a “close relative” of the couple.
• This is premised on the mistaken belief that exploitation and vulnerability do not exist within the family.
• Knowing the reality of patriarchal families in India, the stigma of infertility, the pressure of producing children to maintain lineage and the low bargaining power of women, it can be expected that young mothers will be coerced into becoming surrogates for their relatives.
• The Bill moves the site of exploitation into the private and opaque sphere of the home and family.
• The severance of commerce from pregnancy is also tied in to the notion of motherhood being something natural, sacrosanct and above considerations.
• To be paid for the reproductive labour evokes unease and claims of “dehumanisation” and “commodification” in certain opponents of commercial surrogacy.

Way forward

• The Bill mandates the commissioning couple to only pay for the medical expenses and an insurance cover of sixteen months for the surrogate mother.
• The Standing Committee had recommended a model of compensated surrogacy which would cover psychological counselling of the surrogate mother and/or her children, lost wages for the duration of pregnancy, child care support, dietary supplements and medication, maternity clothing and post-delivery care.
• The Bill should, at the very least, incorporate these provisions.
• The Bill, as it stands, is a poor attempt at regulating reproductive technologies and preventing exploitation of women.
• Surrogacy is an important avenue for persons to have a child through a willing surrogate mother who can also benefit monetarily from the process.
• The Bill, that gives short shrift to women’s agency, does little to extend this possibility.

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Economic milestone and a poignant anniversary (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Nationalisation of Banks
Mains level: Background and significance of the nationalization of banks

Context

• The nationalisation of banks in 1969 was a watershed moment in the history of Indian banking.
• From July 19 that year, 14 private banks were nationalised; another six private banks were nationalised in 1980.
• It is certain that one cannot locate a similar transformational moment in the banking policy of any country at any point of time in history.

Background

• India’s rural financial system was marked by the domination of landlords, traders and moneylenders.
• In 1951, if a rural household had an outstanding debt of ₹100, about ₹93 came from non-institutional sources.
• From the 1950s, there were sporadic efforts to expand the reach of the institutional sector, particularly in the rural areas.
• Despite these measures, the predominantly private banking system failed to meet the credit needs of the rural areas. 

Class to mass banking

• India’s banking policy after 1969 followed a multi-agency approach towards expanding the geographical spread and functional reach of the formal banking system.
• As a part of a new branch licensing policy, banks were told that for every branch they opened in a metropolitan or port area, four new branches had to be opened in unbanked rural areas.
• As a result, the number of rural bank branches increased from 1,833 (in 1969) to 35,206 (in 1991).
• The concept of priority-sector lending was introduced. All banks had to compulsorily set aside 40% of their net bank credit for agriculture, micro and small enterprises, housing, education and “weaker” sections.
• A differential interest rate scheme was introduced in 1974. Here, loans were provided at a low interest rate to the weakest among the weakest sections of the society.
• The Lead Bank scheme was introduced in 1969. Each district was assigned to one bank, where they acted as “pace-setters” in providing integrated banking facilities. Fifth, the Regional Rural Banks (RRB) were established in 1975 to enlarge the supply of institutional credit to the rural areas.
• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was constituted in 1982 to regulate and supervise the functions of cooperative banks and RRBs.
• The share of institutional sources in the outstanding debt of rural households increased from just 16.9% in 1962 to 64% in 1992.

Growth spurring

• India’s nationalisation experience is an answer to mainstream economists who argue that administered interest rates cause “financial repression”.
• According to this view, if the government administers interest rates, the savings rate would decline, leading to a rationing of investment funds.
• India’s nationalisation led to an impressive growth of financial intermediation.
• The share of bank deposits to GDP rose from 13% in 1969 to 38% in 1991.
• The gross savings rate rose from 12.8% in 1969 to 21.7% in 1990.
• The share of advances to GDP rose from 10% in 1969 to 25% in 1991. The gross investment rate rose from 13.9% in 1969 to 24.1% in 1990.

A retreat

• The Narasimham Committee of 1991 recommended that monetary policy should be divorced from redistributionist goals. Instead, banks should be free to practise commercial modes of operation, with profitability as the primary goal.
• The Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to open and close branches as they desired.
• Priority sector guidelines were diluted; banks were allowed to lend to activities that were remotely connected with agriculture or to big corporates in agri-business, yet classify them as agricultural loans.
• Interest rate regulations on priority sector advances were removed.
• The outcomes were immediately visible.
• More than 900 rural bank branches closed down across the country.
• The rate of growth of agricultural credit fell sharply from around 7% per annum in the 1980s to about 2% per annum in the 1990s.
• This retreat of public banks wreaked havoc on the rural financial market. Between 1991 and 2002, the share of institutional sources in the total outstanding debt of rural households fell from 64% to 57.1%.
• The space vacated by institutional sources was promptly occupied by moneylenders and other non-institutional sources.

A to and fro

• In 2004, a policy to double the flow of agricultural credit within three years was announced.
• Only public banks could make this happen.
• So, in 2005, the RBI quietly brought in a new branch authorisation policy. Permission for new branches began to be given only if the RBI was satisfied that the banks concerned had a plan to adequately serve underbanked areas and ensure actual credit flow to agriculture.
• By 2011, the RBI further tightened this procedure. It was mandated that at least 25% of new branches were to be compulsorily located in unbanked centres.
• As a result, the number of rural bank branches rose from 30,646 in 2005, to 33,967 in 2011 and 48,536 in 2015.
• The annual growth rate of real agricultural credit rose from about 2% in the 1990s to about 18% between 2001 and 2015.
• Much of this new provision of agricultural credit did not go to farmers; it largely went to big agri-business firms and corporate houses located in urban and metropolitan centres but recorded in the bank books as “agricultural credit”.
• For this reason, the share of institutional credit in the debt outstanding of rural households in 2013 stood at 56%, still lower than the levels of 1991 and 2002.
• Yet, in achieving the high growth of credit provision, the expansion of public bank branches was pivotal.
• After 2005, public banks also played a central role in furthering the financial inclusion agendas of successive governments.
• Between 2010 and 2016, the key responsibility of opening no-frills accounts for the unbanked poor fell upon public banks.
• Data show that more than 90% of the new no-frills accounts were opened in public banks. Most of these accounts lie dormant or inactive, but it is unmistakeable that the fulfilling of the goal required the decisive presence and intervention of public banks.
• The same public banks were also India’s vanguard during the global financial crisis of 2007 when most markets in the developed world, dominated by private banks, collapsed.

Way forward

• However, despite such a stellar track record, the macroeconomic policy framework of successive governments has hardly been supportive of a banking structure dominated by public banks.
• In times of slow growth, the excess liquidity in banks was seen as a substitute for counter-cyclical fiscal policy.
• Successive governments, scared of higher fiscal deficits, encouraged public banks to lend more for retail and personal loans, high-risk infrastructural sectors and vehicle loans.
• Here, banks funded by short-term deposit liabilities were taking on exposures that involved long-term risks, often not backed by due diligence.
• Consequently, banks are in crisis with rising non-performing assets. The same fear of fiscal deficits is also scaring the government away from recapitalising banks.
• The solution put forward is a perverse one: privatisation. The goose that lays golden eggs is being killed.

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Knee-jerk: On Pakistan expelling Indian envoy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: India-Pakistan relations
Mains level: Post aftermath effect on withdrawing article 370

Context

• Pakistan’s decision to expel India’s High Commissioner, snap trade relations and observes August 15 as a black day in supposed solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir is a serious setback for diplomatic relations.
• The announcements appear to be a knee-jerk reaction to the mounting pressures on the Pakistani establishment to respond to India’s executive-legislative actions that whittle down Article 370.

Effects on Pakistan of withdrawing Article 370

• India’s actions in its own territory are reflective of muddled confusion.
• This is the first time Islamabad has articulated that Article 370 was aligned with the interests of the Kashmiri people.
• Every Pakistani government and the country’s permanent establishment have continued to peddle the myth that they could unilaterally alter the status quo in J&K.
• Now, they feel compelled to respond to the expectations that they have themselves raised in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
• Sections of Indian civil society have legitimate concerns about the actions of the BJP Government in emptying out Article 370 and the continuing lockdown of the Valley, but this does not license Pakistan to interfere in what the MEA correctly described on Thursday as India’s internal matter.

Key diplomacy policies followed by India

• India can expect Pakistan to raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations, mobilise the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and send envoys to friendly capitals.
• India is well placed to deal with Pakistan on the diplomatic front given the changed international context.
• India’s economic clout has grown enormously in the last couple of decades, and given doubts in the Western world about Pakistan’s overt and covert support to Islamist terror, New Delhi has the space to deal with Islamabad’s efforts to “internationalise” the Kashmir issue.
• Downgrading diplomatic relations between troubled neighbours is never a good idea.
• Neither is snapping trade and transport links.
• India withdrew its High Commissioner to Pakistan after the 2001 Parliament attack, but chose not to send back the Pakistani envoy at the time.
• Pakistani High Commissioner was expelled by India after the Kaluchak terror strike in 2002.

Conclusion

• It’s interesting to note that despite all the troubles the two countries have had, High Commissioners have been able to return to their jobs since full diplomatic relations were restored in 1976.
• In fact, even after the 2001 Parliament attack, India and Pakistan managed to have their High Commissioners back in place by March 2003.
• Diplomacy is a mechanism to ensure that channels of communication remain open.
• While India and Pakistan have used back channels in recent years, the presence of seasoned diplomats in Delhi and Islamabad has always benefited the two countries. Pakistan needs to comprehend this.

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Cycle of extremes: On droughts and floods (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: Climate Change
Mains level: Climate changes impact affecting environment and economy

Context

• After a worrying pre-monsoon phase between March and May, when rainfall was scarce, the current robust season in most parts of coastal, western and central India augurs well for the entire economy.
• Aided apparently by beneficial conditions in the Indian Ocean, very heavy rainfall has been recorded, notably in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, the northeastern States, Karnataka, the Konkan coast, hilly districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• This pattern may extend into Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bengal and other eastern regions.

Indicating unbalanced monsoon

• A normal Indian Summer Monsoon is bountiful overall, but as last year’s flooding in Kerala, and the Chennai catastrophe of 2015 showed, there can be a terrible cost in terms of lives and property lost, and people displaced.
• Distressing scenes of death and destruction are again being witnessed.
• Even in a rain-shadow region such as Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, the collapse of a railway parcel office after a downpour has led to avoidable deaths.
• What this underscores is the need to prepare for the rainy season with harvesting measures, as advocated by the Centre’s Jal Shakti Abhiyan, and a safety audit of structures, particularly those used by the official agencies.

Impacts from the unbalanced monsoon

• The long-term trends for flood impact in India have been one of declining loss of lives and cattle since the decadal high of 1971-80, but rising absolute economic losses, though not as a share of GDP.
• It is important, therefore, to increase resilience through planning, especially in cities and towns which are expanding steadily.
• Orderly urban development is critical for sustainability, as the mega flood disasters in Mumbai and Chennai witnessed in this century make clear.
• It is worth pointing out that the response of State governments to the imperative is tardy and even indifferent.
• They are hesitant to act against encroachment of lake catchments, river courses and floodplains.

Steps need to taken by the government

• The extreme distress in Chennai, for instance, has not persuaded the State government against allowing structures such as a police station being constructed on a lake bed, after reclassification of land.
• Granting such permissions is an abdication of responsibility and a violation of National Disaster Management Authority Guidelines to prevent urban flooding.
• In drafting their management plans, States must be aware of the scientific consensus: that future rain spells may be short, often unpredictable and very heavy, influenced by a changing climate.
• They need to invest in reliable infrastructure to mitigate the impact of flooding and avert disasters that could have global consequences in an integrated economy.

Conclusion

• As a nation that is set to become the most populous in less than a decade, India must address its crippling cycles of drought and flood with redoubled vigour.
• Scientific hydrology, coupled with the traditional wisdom of saving water through large innovative structures, will mitigate floods and help communities prosper.

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New ideas for the rejuvenation of old pharma brands (Live Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level : Pharma Sector
Mains level : Rejuvenation of old pharma brands

Context

•  The Indian pharmaceutical industry is currently passing through a tough phase. In these challenging times, companies are resorting to multiple measures to keep their financial books strong.
•  Among other things, they are selling off non-core businesses, opting for general restructuring exercises, rationalizing their workforce and research and development budgets, and improving their product mix.

Key challenges in pharma sector

•  The main challenge is market growth. An industry that is used to growing at 14-16% annually is showing only single-digit growth.
•  In such a situation, one of the wiser things for the industry to do is focus on revitalizing mature brands, rather than launching new ones.
•  Mature brands are several decades old, still selling but not growing much—which drags industry growth and profitability down.
•  With a revival strategy, a mature brand could turn into a high-selling product once again, generating handsome returns with negligible marketing expenses.
•  In contrast, ensuring the success of a newly launched product or brand is a tougher task.
•  It requires huge marketing expenditure for several years, and even then the outcome is uncertain.

Need of revitalization old brands

•  The revitalization of old brands involves their remodelling by changing the product composition, undertaking new clinical trials, adopting revised marketing strategies and reworking brand communication (with doctors as the primary audience).
•  Mature brands have a starting advantage in the brand heritage associated with them, which means they already have a strong image in the minds of consumers.
•  Some of them are considered not just effective, but also the gold standard in a particular therapeutic area, with their tried-and-trusted safety profile acting as a bonus.
•  Examples of mature pharmaceutical brands include Crocin, Betadine, Betenovate, Hepatoglobin, Dexorange, Benadryl and Novamox.
•  For rejuvenation, various models can be adopted. Internationally, many brands have been revitalized.
•  In non-pharmaceutical markets, the stories of Colgate, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz and Nescafe stand out, to name a few.
•  These brands are no longer what they once were and have transformed themselves to expand their appeal over the decades.

Process of revitalization of old brands

•  Product innovation is one way out. This could involve reformulation, a shift in product composition to deliver added benefits, or a new drug delivery mechanism. New markets could also be identified.
•  Many brands have gained from a rural push.
•  The generation of new data from recent clinical trials, accompanied by scientific papers, meta-analysis and repurposing molecule could also grant a brand a fresh lease of life.
•  Improving communication with doctors can also make a big difference to sales.
•  In some cases, it helps to identify a younger and trendier audience for the brand’s message. Realigning the product proposition to suit today’s digital era could be part of the marketing thrust.
•  A company may also try playing up a legendary brand story by using its heritage to its advantage.
•  Some medicine manufacturers prefer to outsource the sales and marketing of a brand to an external agency, which may have fresh ideas on how it can be repositioned to regain its relevance.

Conclusion

•  Mature brands are part of a company’s heritage. Revitalizing them can raise its capacity to invest in development by offering cash flow support, while also strengthening the bottom line.
•  Some brands do get outmoded and fade away, but good brands have the capacity to last and last.

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Revocation of 35A may ring alarm bells in other states (Live Mint)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level : Article 370
Mains level : Effects of the Article 370 revocation process

Context

•  Discussions over splitting of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) into Union territories under the direct control of New Delhi.
•  Indeed, with seismic developments over Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution earlier this week, it seems incredible that the BJP had actually entered into an alliance of convenience with PDP after a fractured mandate in assembly elections in J&K in 2014.
•  A couple of backgrounders on the matter—the split of the state and, implications of the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A.

Background

•  This logic has also existed beyond right-wing silos for several years.
•  Article 370 and, in particular, annulling Article 35A on account of being “discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Jammu and Kashmir" and it being “an obstacle in the development of the state" has outstanding issues.
•  Some analysts have pointed to Article 370’s effective demise proving to be a point of concern for other states, particularly in North-East India.
•  But it’s not Article 370 that reflects various provisions and concerns in North-East India, but Article 35A, which resembles such provisions.

Highlights of the various special provision

Article 35A

•  Article 35A, among its various provisions, granted special rights to permanent residents of J&K for:
•  (i) employment under the State Government;
•  (ii) acquisition of immovable property in the State;
•  (iii) settlement in the State …" and, of course, defining such residents.

Article 371A

•  This closely resembles Article 371A of India’s Constitution that permits for Nagaland primacy of “religious or social practices of the Nagas".
•  “Naga customary law and procedure", “administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law", and “ownership and transfer of land and its resources". Besides government jobs and such.

Article 371C

•  Article 371C provides for administrative safeguards for the tribal “Hill Areas" of Manipur; while local laws safeguard the land and customary rights of tribal folk.
•  Article 371G applicable to Mizoram is nearly a mirror of the provisions for Nagaland. Arunachal Pradesh restricts access, residency and ownership of property to outsiders.
•  Special provisions also govern the rights of tribal folk and forest dwellers—although the latter is under severe stress on account of policies of the current central government in other North-Eastern states such as Assam and Meghalaya.
•  Indeed, ownership of property is also reserved in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and parts of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, among other states.
•  This discrepancy has been noted by such states.
•  If Article 35A prevented development of J&K, and is therefore cauterized, then how can similar provisions aid development elsewhere?

Conclusion

•  There are already vocal concerns about such matters in North-East India, where it is being linked to concerns of erosion of autonomy, property and livelihoods, at a time of great political flux in the region, with volatile immigration issues and several peace talks with rebel groups in progress. New Delhi will need to provide answers.

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RBI’s Goldilocks cut: On repo rate cut (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level : Repo rate
Mains level : Significace of the Repo rate cut process

Context

•  Faced with slowing GDP growth and encouraged by benign inflationary trends, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has delivered a Goldilocks cut of 35 basis points in the benchmark repo rate.
•  A rate cut was a foregone conclusion ahead of the monetary policy announcement, the expectation was of either a 25 or 50 basis points one.

Reason behind the rate cut

•  Given the extent of the slowdown in the economy, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) deemed the former as too low but taking into account factors such as the turbulence in the global financial markets and the rupee’s fall in the last few days, the latter was seen as too high.
•  The MPC settled on a median and unconventional 35 basis point cut, which keeps the powder dry for further cuts this financial year.
•  The RBI has cut rates in four consecutive policy announcements beginning February this year, aggregating to a total of 110 basis points.
•  But the transmission by banks to lenders has not been even a third of this.
•  The central bank says that banks have passed on just 29 basis points which is poor indeed.
•  One factor inhibiting transmission was the tight liquidity conditions until June when the RBI flooded the market in fact, the last two months the central bank has had to absorb excess liquidity floating around.
•  There is, therefore, reason to hope that transmission from hereon would be quicker.

Highlighting the growth projection

•  The repo rate at 5.40% is now at a nine-year low and is headed lower in the next few months and could well settle at 5% or very close to that by the time this rate cutting cycle plays out.
•  Supporting this theory is the fact that inflation is projected to be benign for the next one year.
•  Growth, on the other hand, is expected to be weak and the MPC has revised downwards the projected GDP growth rate for this fiscal to 6.9% from 7% earlier, with downside risks. Even this appears optimistic given the current impulses in the economy and it is very likely that GDP growth this fiscal will be closer to 6.5%.
•  With the latest cut, the RBI has signified that it is willing to do the heavy lifting.
•  But this alone will not suffice as cost of capital is just one aspect that determines investment. The government has to play its part too in boosting growth.

Conclusion

•  The space for fiscal concessions is limited given the overall revenue scenario, but the government can certainly push for further reforms to incentivise investment without impacting its fiscal arithmetic.
•  The slowdown now is part cyclical which can be addressed by a rate cut and part structural, for which reforms are an absolute necessity.
•  Therefore, unless the government responds with its own measures, the RBI’s efforts to support growth may go in vain.

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Blackout: On Kashmir lockdown (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Security
Prelims level : Not much
Mains level : Various security related measures taken on Kashmir situation

Context

•  Jammu and Kashmir remains entirely cut off, ironically, as part of the efforts at effecting its “complete integration” with the rest of the country.
•  The BJP government at the Centre in its wisdom thought that annulling the special status accorded to J&K in the Constitution and demoting and dividing it into two Union Territories were essential steps towards national integration.

Ground situation highlighted

•  Information flow to and from J&K has been restricted to almost nil, and media platforms reported on the momentous changes abruptly announced by the Centre without any independent account of the situation on the ground.
•  That the world’s largest democracy could clampdown on information to the public in such a cavalier manner may appear incomprehensible under ordinary circumstances.
•  But then, muzzling voices from J&K was only a corollary to a far more consequential directing of discourse.
•  People in J&K even missed the Prime Minister’s tweet on how the new scheme of things would be helpful for them, as they were, and continue to be, snapped off the Internet.
•  Reporting from conflict zones is not new to Indian media. Journalists have covered riots, insurgencies and wars for decades in the country, and governments have allowed them to do so.
•  By and large, state agencies have even enabled reporting from conflict zones and sites of natural disasters with curfew passes and special communication facilities, though there have been exceptions.
•  Accurate information is always the best counter to misinformation and treacherous rumours.

Key measures taken by the government

•  The announcement on the withdrawal of the special status of J&K was preceded by a flurry of reporting sourced to government officials that terror threats were the reason for additional troop deployment.
•  The Amarnath yatra was discontinued and the Valley was emptied of tourists owing to these threats.
•  Quite likely, irrespective of the nature of the threat alerts, these measures were linked to the Centre’s decision on removal of the special status. Even before the clampdown on communication facilities, the government had been tight-fisted with information.
•  The same attitude was evident subsequent to other critical decisions it made in recent years: official communication with the public has been strictly a one-way process, through press releases, radio monologues, and social media posts.

Conclusion

•  Parliament, which ended a highly productive session in terms of business transacted, has been reduced to endorsing executive decisions with little meaningful discussions.
•  The government must address at the earliest, it must start with the immediate removal of all restrictions on movement of people and communication in J&K.
•  Only security concerns under exceptional circumstances, and not aversion to democratic dissent in the normal course, can justify choking the information flow.

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The big picture on tigers (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level : Tiger Conservation
Mains level : Improving infrastructure on animal conservation process

Context

•  The tiger, which once sat crouching, is now roaring in India. Results of a once-in-four-years estimation of tiger numbers show us that India has about 3,000 of them. This is relevant not only nationally, but also globally this is a majority of the world’s wild tiger population, of around 4,000 tigers.

Scope of the tiger population increase

•  Each year, the tiger estimation increases its scope.
•  Camera trap images, findings of foot surveys and other evidence on tigers and their prey species are collected.
•  The latest estimate says that we have approximately 2,967 tigers in India, up from 2,226 as per the 2014 count.
•  The scope of the effort was different this time: while the 2014 count included tigers that were over 1.5 years of age, this one included tigers as young as one-year old.

Widening of rail, road networks

•  Relaxations in norms to allow for a widening of highway and railway networks are the new threats, adding to the old ones of retaliatory poisoning and poaching.
•  A report on management effectiveness of tiger reserves was also released on World Tiger Day.
•  The report rated Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh as the best in terms of good management practices.
•  This is fairly commensurate with its tiger numbers. Central India is one of the best tiger nurseries in India.
•  Of all States, Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers, over 500 of them.
•  Yet, tiger reserves cannot control what is around them; and the Pench tiger faces a new threat.
•  The National Highway 7 (NH7), which connects Pench and Kanha tiger reserves, has just been widened. Tigers, as well the animals they prey on, find it hard to cross roads; for instance, a tiger died near Dehradun in 2016 after being hit by a speeding vehicle.
•  It may have been from Rajaji Tiger Reserve, an area that needs more male tigers.
•  After sustained pressure from citizens and protests from the Madhya Pradesh forest department, authorities built underpasses meant for wildlife through NH7.
•  But go down the spanking new highway in Maharashtra, and it has barriers on the road.
•  It isn’t much of a surprise then that a tiger was recently seen climbing the barrier to cross the road.
•  To put this incident into perspective, most National Highways are slated for widening and upgradation, and most tiger reserves have State or National Highways around them.
•  Each year, thousands of animals die on the road. Apart from highways, railway and irrigation projects are coming up in tiger reserves, and the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project will submerge 100 sq. km of Panna Tiger Reserve.

Way forward

•  The story is beyond and around the reserve boundaries that tigers have to cross.
•  The numbers should also give pause to the plans being made discounting the presence of tigers.
•  This is a time for thoughtful growth. Highways and railways should not be expanded to encroach into tiger areas; irrigation projects should also avoid the areas.
•  Cost-benefit analyses need to take into account the needs of wild animals.
•  At the moment, highways are not even able to do away with barriers, and it is assumed that tigers can swim through dam-submerged areas.
•  So, to live, tigers are being made to swim across dams, cross highways, dash across railway lines, not eat livestock, and avoid people.

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