LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED
ASIAN AGE
BUSINESS LINE
BUSINESS STANDARD
DECCAN HERALD
ECONOMIC TIMES
HINDU
HINDUSTAN TIMES
INDIAN EXPRESS
PIONEER
STATESMAN
TELEGRAPH
TIMES OF INDIA
TRIBUNE
1
CONTENTS
CIVIL SERVICE
3-8
COMMUNALISM
9-10
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION
11
12-22
ENTERPRISES
23-26
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS
27-28
INDUSTRY
29-31
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS
32-34
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
35-38
LIBRARIES
39
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
40
PARLIAMENT
41-43
POLICE
44
POLITICAL PARTIES
45-47
POPULATION
48-50
RAILWAYS
51-54
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
55
TAXATION
56
TRANSPORT
57-63
2
CIVIL SERVICE
TRIBUNE, JAN 14, 2016
Punjab: Wait for pay panel to continue
Ruchika M. Khanna
With the “ballooning” salary and pension bill admittedly its biggest problem, cash-strapped
Punjab has not made any move towards setting up of a new pay commission, the announcement
for which was made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for 3.50 lakh employees more than a
month back.
Punjab’s poor fiscal health has forced the state government to wait and watch before setting up
the state’s Sixth Pay Commission. With the Government of India yet to accept the proposals of
almost 20 per cent wage hike for its employees, as recommended by the Central Pay
Commission, Punjab has decided to wait for the outcome.
The state is witnessing a period of slow revenue growth, “because of a negative economic
sentiment”, even as its expenditure continues to grow by over 15 per cent annually. Almost 65
per cent of its total revenue receipts are used up in salaries and wages of employees and pensions
and retirement benefits.
Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa admits that the state’s salary bill is too high, and any
new hike would hit the state’s finances badly. “Each year, the salary bill increases by over Rs
3,000 crore as dearness allowance rises each year. Often, other states like Himachal Pradesh, that
follow Punjab’s pattern of wage revision, complain that the salaries in the state are too high,” he
says.
Of the Rs 46,229.24 crore that Punjab is expected to earn during this fiscal (though considering
the current situation, the total revenue receipts will be less), Rs 25,536.35 crore is the state’s
salary and pension bill alone.
Official sources say that the terms of reference of the Sixth Pay Commission will be made in a
way that the percentage hike is minimal and wages will be brought at par with that of
government employees in other states.
Officially, the line taken by Dhindsa is that they are yet to decide on the terms of reference of the
wage commission. “The Cabinet has to collectively take the decision on who should be heading
the Pay commission. But personally, I feel that the salary and wage bills alone take up the major
chunk of our earnings, leaving very little room to carry on development activities,” he says.
3
Sources say that as and when the central pay commission recommendations are accepted by the
Centre, the state will set up its own pay commission. “But the recommendations will take almost
14-18 months to come by, and the process to implement it would take a total of two years. So,
the state government gets that breather for two years.”
HINDU, JAN 14, 2016
7th pay commission hike may be delayed
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of a panel of secretaries to process the
recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, implying that implementation of new pay grades
will be delayed further.
The government had promised to implement it from January 2016. The commission had
recommended a 23.55 per cent hike in government salaries last year which will pose a financial
burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore or 0.65 per cent of the GDP
Briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu
said the panel will be headed by cabinet secretary.
“The Empowered Committee of Secretaries will function as a Screening Committee to process
the recommendations with regard to all relevant factors of the 7th CPC in an expeditious detailed
and holistic fashion,” he said.
The commission’s awards are expected to put a burden of Rs 74,000 crore on the general budget
and Rs 28,000 crore on the railways budget.
ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 13, 2016
Haryana wants count of bureaucrats' horses
CHANDIGARH: In the age of odd-even schemes to beat car congestion, the Haryana
government has asked its employees to list the number of horses they keep for transportation.
All gazetted officers have also been asked to list their electronic goods.No, the government
doesn't want to know about the number of iPads the officers may have, it is more interested in
knowing the number of radiograms they own.
In case you didn't know what a radiogram is, it is the grandpa of today's radios and combined a
record player and a radio. Once considered a prized possession, it went extinct a good four
decades ago.
4
This information has been sought by the general administration department (GAD) in a
declaration form sent to all gazetted officers on December 8.
All heads of depart ments were asked to furnish details of properties, cash, jewellery, securities
and other valuables by December.
Retired bureaucrat R S Chaudhary said the unique demand has come from the government
perhaps because someone in the GAD did not bother to study a colonial era form before reissuing it.
"As a sub-divisional magistrate in 1975, I was entitled to a housemare allowance but did not use
a horse even then," he says. "Obviously, it is a futile exercise."
The babus are smirking. May be the government is hinting that they ride horses to beat global
warming, one of them said.
An officer of the agriculture department said the oldest mode of transportation in his family was
a Lambretta scooter used by his father. "The last time I rode a horse was at my wedding and that
too was a very brief ride," he added.
ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 13, 2016
Centre proposes change in child care leave policy for women
NEW DELHI: No woman government employee will be refused child care leave for at least five
days unless there are grave and extraordinarily compelling circumstances that warrant refusal,
according to a proposal by the Centre.
he Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has decided to modify necessary service rules
in this regard and sought all ministries comments.
"In cases where a female government servant applies for child care leave for at least five
working days, she should normally not be refused leave citing exigencies of work unless there
are grave and extraordinarily compelling circumstances that warrant refusal," the proposed
change in rules by the DoPT reads.
As per existing rules, women employees having minor children may be granted child care leave
for a maximum period of two years (i.e. 730 days) during their entire service for taking care of
upto two children whether for rearing or to look after any of their needs like examination,
sickness.
Child care leave shall not be admissible if the child is eighteen years of age or older, the rules
say.
5
All central government departments have been asked to send their comments on the proposed
policy by January 27, the DoPT said.
ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 13, 2016
Home Ministry explores whether IAS officer Chetan B Sanghi could be brought back to
Centre
By Rahul Tripathi
NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry is 'actively' examining the letter of senior IAS officer Chetan
B Sanghi and in the process of consulting the department of personnel and training (DOPT)
whether Sanghi can be brought back on central deputation or not. Sanghi, a 1988 batch IAS
officer of UT cadre, is serving as principal secretary in the vigilance department and has written
to union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi about the alleged "pressure" from various "stakeholders"
for naming some individuals, inc ..
Refusing to elaborate on the matter, a home ministry spokesperson said: "The issue of debarment
from central deputation raised by the officer in his letter is being examined. We are also
examining the service rules and plans to seek opinion from DoPT." Officials will also look into
the allegations of alleged pressure by speaking to other members of the panel that was
conducting inquiry into DDCA.
Besides Sanghi, IAS officer Punya S Srivastava and Rahul Mehra were on the committee. It was
on the recommendations of the Sanghi panel, the AAP government in December 2015 had set up
an inquiry commission to investigate the alleged irregularities in DDCA, including the period
from 1999-2013 when FM Arun Jaitley headed it. "There wasconsiderableemphasis on naming
who were at fault and in particular a certain VIP...," Sanghi wrote in a letter to Mehrishi. Since
the "formal mandate was not to do so", a tight rope walk was taken and the short time frame of
three
days
also
did
not
particularly
help
matters,
the
letter
reads.
ASIAN AGE, JAN 13, 2016
Principal secretary Sahai powers are ‘restored’
Making a U-turn on its order of last Friday, the AAP government has restored the “clipped”
wings of its principal secretary (home), S.N. Sahai. Mr Sahai had reportedly defended two
special secretaries of the home department — Yashpal Garg and Subhash Chandra — who were
suspended by the city government. Till date there has been no rectification of the order
pertaining to the two officers as they have been coming to office despite the city administration
not assigning them any work.
It is reliably learnt that the AAP government was still treating Mr Garg and Mr Chandra as
suspended despite the Union home ministry’s order declaring their suspension non est (nonexistent) and illegal.
6
The allocation of business rules categorically state that the Delhi government has no power to
issue any direction that comes under the jurisdiction of the Centre. The city minister’s order had
been termed illegal as the department of home is under the Centre.
While modifying his order, Delhi home minister Satyendra Jain said on Monday that deputy
secretary (Home IV) shall put up the parole case to principal secretary/secretary (home). Thus,
the deputy secretary (Home IV) has been directed to put up files pertaining to parole cases before
the Principal Secretary/Secretary.
As per earlier instructions, the deputy secretaries were looking into state subject matters, such as
Delhi fire services, licensing, jail, internal security, and others. The home minister had also
distributed a list with 42 subjects — including prosecution, internal security, criminal law and
others — among junior officials and asked them to report directly to him, not the home secretary,
on these issues. Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung also claims jurisdiction on some of these
issues.
The list also includes magisterial inquiries and enquiry commissions. At present the Delhi
government and the Union home ministry are on a collision course over whether the commission
of enquiry probing alleged financial irregularities in the DDCA is constitutionally valid.
A source said the provisions of manual of office procedures being followed by both Centre and
state government officials in Chapter 3 categorically mentions that the secretary to the
government of India was the administrative head of a ministry or department.
ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 11, 2016
Government brings web tools to promote use of Hindi among employees
NEW DELHI: Government has introduced web tools like audio-typing aid on computers and is
working on making available Hindi classic literature digitally to promote use of the language
among its employees, a top official today said.
"We have introduced e-tools to make learning and adaption of Hindi easier among our
employees. For their self-learning, we have also brought in audio-typing aid for their ease,"
Secretary, Department of Official Language (Rajbhasha) Girish Shankar said.
The senior bureaucrat said this on the sidelines of a function to mark the 11th 'World Hindi Day'
in the national capital.
"In our bid to promote usage of Hindi, we are also bringing classic works like those of
Premchand and others authors available on the web for our employees, who wish to read those
literature," he said.
7
The event was hosted by city-based organisation 'Vishwa Hindi Parishad' at the Constitution
Club of India, which was attended among others, by BJP Sitamarhi MP Ram Kumar Sharma and
noted novelist Narendra Kohli.
Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathor,e who was
scheduled to open the event, had to give it a miss due to some urgencies.
"I express my heartfelt wishes to one and all on the occasion of 'Vishwa Hindi Diwas'. It would
have been an honour to attend the programme but due to some urgent work, I couldn't move out
of Mumbai," he said in a Hindi message sent to the organisers.
First 'World Hindi Day' was celebrated in 2006 during the then UPA dispensation.
8
COMMUNALISM
TRIBUNE, JAN 12, 2016
Fanning the fire
Communal politics at play in Malda and Delhi
The BJP is making much song and dance about the denial of permission to its team to visit the
troubled Kaliachak town of West Bengal's Malda district due to the prohibitory orders imposed
there. It is a battle for votes in a state going to the polls later this year. Malda shares the border
with Bangladesh and has a 51 per cent Muslim population that has traditionally voted for the Left
and the Congress. Since these two parties’ hold in the area is weakening, Trinamool Congress
and the BJP are trying to win over the Muslim and minority Hindu votes respectively.
Malda hit national headlines after last week’s violence. A mob attending a rally organised by a
Muslim organisation, Anjuman Ahle Sunnatul Jamaat (AJS), turned violent and attacked a police
station to burn records of criminals facing action ahead of elections and torched two dozen
vehicles. The Muslim protest was against Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh
Tiwari's blasphemous remarks about Prophet Muhammad. Tiwari reacted to a statement by UP
Cabinet minister Azam Khan, who called RSS members homosexuals. It was a familiar
communal exchange between hotheads which spiraled out of control. The Mamata Banerjee
government erred by allowing the Muslim rally especially when it had denied permission to
established political parties to hold similar rallies. Further it helped criminals with police inaction
or bail. Communal politics is seeking to poison Malda, which had maintained peace even when
the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992.
The BJP has a limited presence in the area but is trying to comfort Hindu voters in a communally
charged environment. It is laying the entire blame on the Trinamool Congress without attempting
to rein in its own bands of fanatics. In Delhi a familiar mischievous BJP agenda is being
implemented by Subramanian Swamy with an eye on the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections. An
organisation under his charge held a seminar on the Ram Temple in Delhi University which
evoked protests from other student organisations. In this emerging bleak scenario, will the voters
in West Bengal and UP do a Bihar or fall prey to communal politics?
DECCAN HERALD, JAN 11, 2016
BJP team to probe Malda communal violence
Ahead of Assembly elections in West Bengal, a three-member BJP fact-finding team will visit
Malda district on Monday to submit a report on communal violence that had erupted last Sunday
post alleged blasphemous comments by a right wing leader.
Even Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh may visit Malda on January 18 for on the spot
9
enquiry, given reports that thousands of protesters went on the rampage in Kaliachak, setting
ablaze a police station and damaging vehicles.
Set up by BJP president Amit Shah, the enquiry team does not have party office-bearers from the
state or who are in-charge of West Bengal as its members. S S Ahluwalia, who is a member of
the panel, is an MP from Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
It will be headed by party national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav and
have former director general of police B D Ram as its third member.
The team will submit its report to Amit Shah after visiting the violence-hit area, a BJP press
release stated.
The Vishwa Hindu Prarishad has also decided to jump into the communal cauldron with its mass
agitations at the district levels as it alleged that it was not just a riot but a much dangerous
attempt to divide the nation. VHP general secretary (international) Dr Surendra Jain accused
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of shielding minorities “for a few votes”.
“There are allegations that the TMC is protecting anti-India forces in the state,” Jain charged
though Mamata Banerjee has denied communal tensions in the state. On the contrary, she
recently said that the threat of Maoists has also disappeared.
On Sunday, hardly-know local Muslim organization Idara-e-Shariya had hit the street, violently
protesting against Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari’s alleged hate speech
delivered in Uttar Pradesh.
The minority group demanded action against Tiwari for his derogatory remarks against Prophet
Muhammad.
10
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS STANDARD, JAN 8, 2016
Amitabh Kant appointed CEO of NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog officials to learn from China storyOdisha finance minister denied entry to Niti
Aayog meetNITI Aayog calls for further easing of start-up normsA-grade economic report card:
ModiOdisha seeks Rs 3,500 cr assistance via Niti Aayog
Amitabh Kant, secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion, has been
appointed the chief executive officer (CEO) of the NITI Aayog. He will take over the job after
his retirement from service in February end.
"The competent authority has approved the appointment...after his (Kant's) superannuation. The
terms and conditions of his appointment will be conveyed in due course," an order issued by the
department of personnel and training said on Thursday.
Amitabh Kant is known to be the brain behind two key campaigns of Narendra
Modi government - Make in India and the ease of doing business.
Kant has been appointed in place of former IAS officer Sindhushree Khullar, who was appointed
as the first CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog, a body that has
replaced Planning Commission, for a fixed one-year term beginning January 1, last year. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi is Chairman of Niti Aayog.
11
EDUCATION
STATESMAN, JAN 13, 2016
Government should think beyond IIMs
Hitesh Arora
Management education in India has traversed a long distance over the years and has established
itself as a powerful force capable of bringing about the manufacturing revolution in India
envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It provides the foundation to young managers to be
a part of the desired paradigm shift in the Indian growth trajectory. At present, management
education is imparted by universities, Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) and numerous
private institutes. These train future managers and global leaders.
The Indian Institutes of Management Bill 2015 if enacted by Parliament would “declare certain
institutes of management to be institutions of national importance with the view to empower
these institutions to attain standards of global excellence in management, management research
and allied areas of knowledge and to provide for certain other matters connected with such
institutions or incidental thereto”.
Though this move could mark the beginning of a new golden era of Indian management
education, concerns have been raised against the Bill by the established IIMs and the private
players, the latter resenting the unfair treatment being meted out to them. The proposed Bill also
contains provisions seeking to vest power in the government to take all decisions, thus diluting
the autonomy of the IIMs.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has put up a draft bill seeking to form a
‘coordination forum’ for the 19 IIMs across the country; this has sparked a debate over the
contents of the draft bill. The debate is being led by three major sets of players in management
education in India, namely, old reputed IIMs (IIM-A, IIM-B and IIM-C), new IIMs and private
institutes. The draft bill proposes to allow the IIMs to grant degrees instead of diplomas. As a
result, programs offered by the IIMs would be called MBA (in place of PGDM) and Ph.D. (in
place of fellowship). This proposal is being appreciated by the new IIMs as they feel that
granting of degree would help in building their brand in the market and would make their courses
more attractive to students. On the other hand, the reputed IIMs are opposing this move as they
believe that they already have an excellent brand due to better quality and thus, granting of
degree or diploma has no relevance for them.
In a bid to put to rest the concerns raised by the established IIMs, government has entered into a
‘discussion and consultation mode’ in order to arrive at a consensus. Unfortunately, no one is
12
looking at the situation of the private B-schools that have been offering PGDM diplomas and
have been creating a large pool of managers for many decades. Moreover, the proposal to allow
IIMs to grant degrees instead of diplomas would drastically skew the scales against the private
players. These institutes like FORE, IMI, MDI, SPJIMR, NMIMS, SIBM etc have been the
forerunners in imparting management education in India. Such institutes are no less than many of
the IIMs in terms of knowledge, skills, training and employability of their PGDM graduates. In
view of the globalized markets, these private players have acquired additional significance and
this ‘kill-bill’ would prove fatal to their existence.
At least two points stand out strongly in this entire debate revolving around the IIM Bill that
needs some clarity. First, the need to ‘regulate’ through this Bill is not clear. Generally, the
rationale for regulation is either economic or social. As far as the IIMs, especially the older and
the renowned ones, are concerned, they are characterized by innovative faculty that is selfmotivated, have superb state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities, extremely strong alumna,
abundant funds and are accepted centres of knowledge. Autonomy has played a pivotal role in
taking the IIMs to such commanding heights. Regulation would in no way improve the economic
or social efficiency of these institutes. Then why is the government putting stress on regulation?
In fact, regulation brings with it ‘political inefficiency’.
Second, connotation of ‘certain’ in “to declare certain institutes of management ….. incidental
thereto” is ambiguous. Does it mean that only some IIMs would be falling under the ambit of the
Act? The Bill seems to be a political agenda for some interested groups rather than being a
demand of market forces.
The IIM Bill is undesirable in its current form and ambiguities and confusion needs to be
addressed before such a ‘regulatory policy’ is put in place. A ‘Management Education Bill’
ought to be designed rather than an ‘IIM Bill’ to recognize all management institutes, be they
government-run, autonomous or private on the basis of their excellence. The agenda of
management education in the country should focus on re-orienting itself to meet the increasing
demand for professional managers through a fresh framework with a realistic model to
rejuvenate the Indian management education system, rather than only focusing on IIMs.
(The writer is Professor, Fore School of Management, New Delhi.)
STATESMAN, JAN 12, 2016
Irresponsibility at JU
It is a facile argument to suggest that the duration of the gherao of Jadavpur University’s ViceChancellor was an hour less than what his predecessor had suffered. Suffice it to register that for
51 hours, Prof Suranjan Das and the Registrar were targets of misplaced ire. Not least because
13
the decision to keep student union elections in suspended animation and not to conduct them in
February - as demanded by the students - was essentially a political fatwa of minister Partha
Chatterjee’s education department. There can be no dispute with the students’ clamour for
elections.
That said, it must be underlined that they cannot set a month of their choice. As a general
proposition, elections to the student body are better held at the start of a session (October, or
even earlier) rather than towards its end (February) as in campuses across the country. There can
be nothing exceptional about JU or any other university in Bengal. And yet by playing footsie on
the issue, the government has made a travesty of the university’s autonomy.
The VC, whether of JU or any other university, has little or nothing to do with framing the
campus election schedule. As it turns out in Bengal, it is essentially a political decision;
obvious too is the fact that the government does not want the campus tryst with democracy on
the eve of the Assembly elections.
The political class has made the waters murkier and Jadavpur’s VC has been reduced to cannon
fodder. This centre of excellence bears witness to turmoil exactly six months after a semblance
of normalcy was restored following a year’s turbulence.
The restive students at Jadavpur have betrayed the soul of irresponsibility. Not that they were
unaware of the source of the decision to defer the polls; by betraying far greater indignation than
they were entitled to, they have made it obvious that they were on the lookout for an easily
accessible punching-bag in an effort to buttress their demand.
The ugly incident must beg the question whether the government can instruct a university to
defer the elections, indeed making it obligatory on the part of the campus authorities to seek the
education department’s concurrence. The short point must be that the statute of Jadavpur
University accords it a free hand to run the administration and hold elections. The nub of the
matter is that the government’s “advisory” is not mandatory... whether or not the campus is
autonomous or under state control.
HINDUSTAN TIMES, JAN 8, 2016
Inspect lunch boxes to ensure students don’t eat junk: CBSE
In a latest circular, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked all the schools
affiliated to it to ensure that food items like chips, ready-to-eat noodles etc. are not available at
canteens and within 200 meters of the school premises.
14
“The schools can also inspect the lunch boxes of students to ensure they do not indulge in
unhealthy food,” said the CBSE, which had last issued an advisory on junk food to schools in
2008.
The board has mentioned that consumption of food high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) has been
found to be associated with many diseases including type II diabetes, hypertension among others.
The circular has also directed the schools to constitute School Canteen Management Committee
comprising up to 10 members, including teachers, parents, students and school canteen operators,
to implement the guidelines to ensure safe food in schools.
Refer ring to a report by the women and child development (WCD) ministry, CBSE secretary
said that the report gives insights into how the endemic problem of junk food consumption can
be controlled in schools.
As of now, schools have also been urged to take necessary steps in their capacity to ensure nonavailability of HFSS food in schools and nearby places, said a circular issued by CBSE Secretary
Joseph Emmanuel.
The circular also asked the schools to ensure they promote physical activities for students up to
Class X every day and rope in a nutritionist to guide students on life style modifications,
including yoga and healthy eating habits.
Besides, the board also asked the schools to not only track the height, weight and Body Mass
Index (BMI) of all the students but also counsel them and parents about good eating habits
during parent-teacher meetings.
In addition, the circular has suggested that awareness events such as celebration of Nutrition
Week and other such events should be organised throughout the year by the schools.
ASIAN AGE, JAN 8, 2016
‘Wards of Group B, C officers may get quota in Sanskriti’
The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that wards of government employees, other than
Group-A Central government officials, can also be provided admission under 60 per cent quota
earlier meant only for kids of this section in the prestigious Sanskriti School.
15
“The Union of India had already filed an affidavit in the Delhi high court in which we said that
the school has been advised to grant reservation in admissions to the wards of Group B and C
employees as well,” attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, told the bench
headed by Justice A.R. Dave, which fixed the matter for passing an interim order on January 11.
The government and the school administration had sought an interim order allowing the
institution to continue with the admission process under the old scheme till the matter was finally
decided by the apex court.
They said the nursery admission process under the local laws have begun on January 1 and the
school was already behind schedule.
They had challenged the Delhi high court decision to set aside the 60 per cent quota for wards of
group-A government officials, who are in the highest class of government servants, in the
prestigious school.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said he was
personally not in favour of granting 60 per cent reservation to wards of Group-A Central
government officials, but there should be some avenues for the wards of other officers also who
get transferred often to various places or sent to offshore assignments.
“This is a complex issue where you cannot find a solution in a day or two. May be a statutory
provision is needed,” Mr Sibal said, adding that a school run by a society may not grant 60 per
cent reservation and “this is the heart of the problem”.
Mr Rohatgi then said that certain schools like KVS, Sainik Schools gave reservation to the wards
of government employees and armed forces personnel besides not being backed by specific
statutory provisions.
Meanwhile, one Dheeraj Singh, father of an admission seeker, moved a plea through lawyer
Akhil Sachar for being made a party in the case, alleging the high court had already quashed a
2013 notification granting special status to the school and the order had remained unchallenged.
HINDUSTAN TIMES, JAN 11, 2016
New test for entry to engineering to be first conducted this October
Neelam Pandey
Learning by rote or attending coaching classes will no longer guarantee admission to popular and
premier engineering institutions in the country.
The Union human resource development (HRD) ministry will soon set up a National Authority
for Testing (NAT) to conduct a new entrance examination — starting this October — that will
16
replace the two-tier joint entrance examination (JEE) main and advanced tests for entry into
engineering colleges.
The JEE is a national common entrance examination conducted to provide admissions to several
engineering courses.
The focus now will be to standardise the test so that it can’t be cracked by coaching institutes or
“teaching shops” and learning by rote — which bring down the standard because such practices
fail to teach analytical and logical skills needed for scientific research.
The new system will test the logical and analytical abilities of students rather than knowledge on
subjects. The first such test from October will screen students aspiring for admission to the 2017
session, sources said.
Under the new system, students will be able to write the test online four times a year. About
400,000 students will then be shortlisted for the joint entrance examination (JEE), which will
follow the same pattern of the current advanced test and examine their knowledge of physics,
chemistry and mathematics. The score will be used for admission to IITs and NITs.
The NAT will be constituted after approval from the Union cabinet and registered as an
independent society under the HRD ministry.
The concept was given inprinciple approval by the ministry at a meeting last week, where
contours of the authority were discussed.
“The NAT is a general aptitude score like SAT and will be used for JEE,” said a senior official.
HINDU, JAN 11, 2016
Telangana becomes first State to make gender education compulsory
Telangana has become the first State to introduce compulsory gender education at the graduate
level; without repeating gender stereotypes in its bilingual textbook titled, ‘Towards a World of
Equals.’
The book introduced on a pilot basis in engineering colleges affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University (JNTU-Hyderabad) discusses gender in its composite form without
limiting itself to crime against women. From information on unacknowledged women writers of
17
Telangana to problems of sex selection and women’s work in politics and economics, the book
attempts to cover it all.
It also touches upon complex subjects like female-centric history and male-female relationships.
Structured in simple language and form to suit under-graduates, the book discusses different
strands of women’s movements across the world, introducing students to political movements of
Afro-American, Caribbean, African, Dalit and minority women.
And coupled with the book is a collection of visual teaching tools which include documentary
films.
The book is being taught over 14 weeks in a semester at the rate of two classes per week.
Credits earned in the end semester examination add up to students’ GPAs.
A nine-member, all-women, panel which drafted the syllabus and developed its content has
already held four training workshops for groups of 15 to 40 teachers and is expected to take up
yet another session this week.
What makes the textbook interesting is the gamut of reactions and classroom discussions which
it attempts to generate. For instance, in its first chapter on Socialisation, the book hints at
initiating a discussion in the classroom on “Are boys taught household work while growing up?
Discuss your experiences at home.”
Optimistic
Editors of the textbook published by the Telugu Academy are optimistic about the results.
“We have received a lot of good feedback from teachers,” said A. Suneetha, one of the editors.
The book discusses construction of gender stereotypes through pictures on male and female
hairstyles, clothing and discussions on popular songs like ‘Kolaveri’, advertisements and films.
TIMES OF INDIA, JAN 11, 2016
Bar Council asks DU to shutdown evening law colleges
NEW DELHI: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has asked the Delhi University to shutdown
colleges offering law courses in evening shifts, saying such programmes does not ensure proper
quality of legal education.
18
"Taking into account that proper quality of legal education cannot be ensured if classes are run
during evening and night hours, the Bar Council of India has taken a policy decision to dispense
with the evening colleges.
"Two of your law colleges are offering classes beyond 9pm which is in violation of the BCI
directive...whatever may have been the reason for running these colleges, the same cannot be
permitted henceforth," a BCI communication sent to DU said.
The BCI also asked DU to issue a notification stating that no admissions be made for evening
classes from the next year.
In an unprecedented move, the BCI, the apex regulatory body for legal education and legal
profession in India, had in 2014 decided to derecognize DU's law course after it failed to seek
timely extension of the affiliation of its three centres, namely Campus Law Centre, Law Centre-I
and Law Centre-II.
However, it was granted a provisional extension of affiliation for the 2014-15 session after DU
had proposed to shift to a new building which it claimed "had adequate space" for the faculty to
run properly.
However, after a fresh inspection by a BCI panel, the council had noted that besides fresh
violations, the illegalities earlier highlighted remain unattended.
Following this, the BCI issued it a show-cause notice to explain the "illegalities" in its
functioning including more than permissible student strength, lack of infrastructure and faculty.
It also directed the university to send an undertaking of compliance with rules rectifying the
anomalies within four weeks.
Meanwhile, DU's Dean of Faculty of Law Ashwini Kumar Bansal was not available for
comments on the issue.
Eminent figures like finance minister Arun Jaitley, former HRD minister Kapil Sibal, Supreme
Court Judge Rohinton Nariman, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati and former
Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi are among the the Faculty of Law alumni.
19
INDIAN EXPRESS, JAN 11, 2016
HRD ministry urges state, central school boards to consider open-book tests at board level
Open-book assessment allows students to refer to their notes or textbooks while answering
questions.
Written by Ritika Chopra
Batting for significant assessment reforms, the HRD Ministry has urged state and central school
boards to consider introducing open-book tests in secondary- and senior secondary-level
examinations.
Open-book assessment allows students to refer to their notes or textbooks while answering
questions. The focus is not on memorising information, but on applying that information.
Examinees are expected to not merely reproduce textbook material, but to interpret it in the
context of specific questions and scenarios.
School Education Secretary S C Khuntia suggested this at a meeting of 42 education boards held
on October 28 last year. Consequently, the HRD Ministry set up an eight-member committee to
work on “common design of questions papers”. The inclusion of open text-based assessment (or
OTBA) in board examinations is one of the key action points of the committee.
E P Kharbhih, executive chairman of Meghalaya Board of School Education, C Arthur W,
chairman of the Council of Higher Secondary Education in Manipur, N R Prasanna Kumar from
the Board of Intermediate Education in Andhra Pradesh, Professor Y Sreekanth, head of the
Educational Survey Division of NCERT, K K Chaudhary, CBSE’s Controller of Examinations,
along with representatives of the school education departments in Karnataka, Rajasthan and
Madhya Pradesh are members of the committee, which has been asked to submit its report by
January 29.
20
According to the minutes of the October 28 meeting, accessed by The Indian Express, the OTBA
proposal was first made by Sanjay Patwa, a representative of the Madhya Pradesh Board, who
felt that it could help reduce the influence of coaching institutes. Endorsing his suggestion, the
school education secretary asked boards to “consider integrating OTBA as a section of their
question papers” for classes IX to XII.
“Dr Khuntia stated that the conceptual clarity should be tested in the exams rather than rote
memory of the students. The purpose of education is to make students more conscious and aware
of surroundings as well as be able to lead their life in a better way. He said that Open Book based
examination is a good point for consideration as the testing will not be on memory but on
comprehension and understanding. In such a format, rote learning will not work as the pattern of
questions will focus on thinking,” state the minutes of the meeting.
Following Khuntia’s suggestion, a CBSE official shared the process OTBA currently followed
by the board for classes IX and XI. In CBSE schools, students in classes IX and XI are provided
the text material months ahead of their final examination. They are allowed to refer to this at the
time of taking the test.
Referring to the tendency of some boards to award progressively higher academic grades, the
school education secretary also stressed on the importance of adopting a consistent evaluation
process across state boards and balancing question papers with easy, moderate and difficult
questions. (30 per cent easy + 40 per cent moderate + 30 per cent difficult).
“The question paper should be such that it can help distinguish between highly meritorious
students and less meritrious students. Easy question papers make it difficult to distinguish on
merit as a large number of students score high marks,” the minutes of the meeting quote Khuntia
as saying.
21
The government also suggested that the boards should avoid giving grace marks to students, and
they should prepare a policy for awarding grace marks. The HRD Ministry has set up four
committees of state board officials which will have to submit reports on adopting common
curriculum, common question paper design, teacher capacity building and sharing information
between boards by the end of this month.
22
ENTERPRISES
TELEGRAPH, JAN 8, 2015
The lie of change: - To tempt capital, West Bengal must alter its politics
Rudrangshu Mukherjee
The global business summit that begins today in West Bengal has set for itself a long and
arduous climb. The meeting aims to mobilize business and investment for the state. Nothing in
the present, whatever be the present's promise or pretensions to change, can be divorced from the
past. "Time past and time present are both perhaps present in time future.''
With that in mind, it is worth looking at the present government's track record in attracting
investments. According to figures made available by the ministry of industries of the government
of West Bengal, between 2011 and September 2015, Rs 6,871 crore was invested in West
Bengal. By the processes of simple arithmetic this works out to Rs 1,374 crore per year. In the
same period, Gujarat, which leads the field, received investments worth Rs 1,12,880 crore, that
is, Rs 22,576 crore per year. The gap is surely more than numerical.
The gap, however, is not just between the investment figures of Gujarat and those of West
Bengal. There is a more significant gap: between the actual figures of investments in West
Bengal cited above and the claims made by the finance minister of the state, Amit Mitra. The
latter's claim is that, over the last five years, around Rs 80,000 crore has been invested in West
Bengal. These figures projected by Mr Mitra explain why delegates to the global summit businessmen and potential investors - have a long and arduous climb ahead of them. They have
to reach the peak of Rs 80,000 crore and then surpass it. The finance minister has brought the
mountain before them. Their only comfort is that the mountain is an illusion: a figment of the
minister's wishful thinking or, worse, of his dissembling.
Even without going into dry-as-dust statistics, the impression is unavoidable that West Bengal is
starved of investments. Amartya Sen, who, as Mr Mitra himself will admit, knows a thing or two
about economic growth and development and also about statistics, commented recently on the
scarcity of investments in West Bengal. Industry has fled from West Bengal. This flight is not
recent. A look back at what was happening in the 1990s will provide a glimpse of this flight.
Between 1991 and 2000, when Jyoti Basu was the chief minister, the total investments amounted
to Rs 17,580 crore; this figure improved slightly in the next decade, when, under Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee, the state attracted an investment of Rs 48,104 crore. These were paltry amounts in
the world of big business but nonetheless somewhat higher than the performance of the present
government. What is much more important than the comparison between this government and
the Left Front government is the undeniable conclusion that the investment outlook for West
Bengal has been persistently gloomy. Capital does not see West Bengal as its preferred
destination.
One crucial factor in this process of industrial decline is a particular kind of political practice that
has come to dominate West Bengal. The practice began in the 1950s when West Bengal was
23
under severe pressure in the aftermath of Partition and the influx of refugees. West Bengal
became an economy of shortages: foodgrains, housing and jobs. The decade witnessed
strikes, hartals, and mammoth political rallies at the forefront of which were tram workers, bank
employees and students - all under the flag of the Communist Party. The politics of the street
became the dominant mode of political activity. The focus shifted from the legislature and
Writers' Buildings to the main thoroughfares. Calcutta saw large-scale destruction of public
property, followed by police repression. Calcutta and, following it, the districts entered a vicious
cycle of violence that became the hallmark of the state's political life. The pattern continued in
more aggravated forms through the 1960s and the 1970s.
It was this violence and the politics of the street that propelled the Left, led by the Communist
Party of India (Marxist), to power in West Bengal first in the late 1960s and then again for an
inordinately longer period in the late 1970s. Apart from the violence the Left introduced another
feature into Bengal's social and political life that was anathema to industry. This was
irresponsible trade unionism. The historian, Edward Gibbon, recalling his Oxford days,
commented that his tutor remembered he had a salary to collect but forgot he had a duty to
perform. That comment could easily have been the description of what the trade unions
institutionalized in West Bengal. Workers and government employees were guaranteed their pay
packets and their annual bonuses irrespective of whether they did any work or not. Violence and
a workforce that was reluctant to work and escalated its demands under political patronage
ensured that capital never returned to West Bengal.
Once in power, the Left went about establishing its dominance and control in every sphere of
Bengal's life - from the rural world to the university, from the bureaucracy to the police. The
party replaced the government. Sycophancy replaced governance. Even though this lasted for
three decades, realization dawned that this could not be permanent. An effort was made by
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, too short-lived but worth noting, to woo investment. There was the
promise of a turnaround with the setting up of a small car factory by the Tatas in Singur.
This proved to be a turning point. The Tata project was destroyed by an agitation led by Mamata
Banerjee whose cutting edge was anti-industry. In the wake of this agitation, she came to power
with the promise of paribartan or change. Now at the fag end of her first term in office, it is clear
that paribartan is a chimera. Nothing has changed in West Bengal. Violence has become an
everyday affair, only this time around it is with the open connivance of the police. Party loyalists
defy the law, boast of being murderers, threaten rape and defraud the common people. The entire
administration kowtows to the chief minister who functions according to her own whims and
fancies, often squandering the state's scarce monetary resources in acts of shameless populism. In
all of these the present government treads the path made by the Left. Change is a change of
names and colour.
Under these circumstances, tall claims regarding investment and substance-less rhetoric in a
business summit only invites ridicule. Investors will demonstrate their faith in West Bengal not
because of the misleading figures presented to them but when they are convinced that the nature
of politics and governance have perceptibly changed in West Bengal.
The way to hell, to quote Virgil, is easy. It can also be paved with lies.
24
BUSINESS LINE, JAN 11, 2016
Business summit: Bengal gets Rs. 2.5 lakh crore commitments
West Bengal has secured investment commitments to the tune of at least Rs. 2,50,104 crore,
Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday.
Speaking at the concluding day of the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit, Banerjee said
discussions were on for further investments in the State.
“A rough estimate suggests that investment proposals received this year were to the tune of at
least Rs. 250,104 crore. However, this figure may go up in the coming days as some discussions
are under way,” she told mediapersons.
According to Banerjee, the State has not considered Central government projects and proposals
of around Rs. 40,000 crore that are currently proposed or under way.
“If we consider that, then, the amount will go up further,” the Chief Minister said.
In the first edition of the summit, held in 2015, Bengal had secured investments to the tune
of Rs. 243,000 crore; of which proposals worth Rs. 95,000 crore have materialised; and the
remaining are under process. In 2017, the summit will be held on January 20-21.
Manufacturing and infrastructure remained the focus areas with proposals coming in to the tune
of Rs.116,000 crore.
Power, IT and telecom and transport department remained the other big draws with the three
accounting for investments to the tune of Rs. 26,350 crore.
Technical education remained another major gainer with proposals worth Rs. 2,000 crore.
Investment proposals were also made in other sectors like travel and tourism, fisheries,
healthcare and education among others.
Big corporates
Amongst the major corporates which committed to investments, Purnendu Chatterjee’s The
Chatterjee Group was the top draw with a Rs. 22,000 crore refinery project.
This apart, telecom majors like Reliance Jio and Airtel too committed to investments. Other
major companies include Amity University, ITC Ltd, Shriram Group, Mitsubishi Corporation,
Ambuja Neotia and others.
Logistics hub
25
The State Transport department, meanwhile, has entered into a MoU with the Calcutta Goods
Transport Association to set up a logistics hub at Baidyabati, some 40 km north of the city.
Coming up over 150 acres of land, thehub will entail an estimated investment of Rs. 5,000 crore.
It will be completed in another four years.
The State also entered into a MoU with China’s Zhongtong and Dedico Transport Pvt Ltd to set
up a bus manufacturing unit at Andal. The Rs. 1,500 crore facility will come up at the industrial
park of BAPL’s Aerotropolis project.
MoUs were also entered into with various skill development councils and Maruti Suzuki for
technical training of local youths. German technology and services major Bosch and US tech
giant Hewlett Packard also entered into agreements for various projects.
While Bosch would on a pilot basis try out a traffic management app (mobile application),
Hewlett Packard would look to work on tele-medicines.
(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated January 11, 2016)
26
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS
DECCAN HERALD, JAN 11, 2016
Red tape plagues Central schemes
Budgeting is a tricky affair in Central government departments. Bureaucrats need to factor in
national priorities, political realities and institutional capabilities to prepare a realistic annual
plan. Miss any one of these factors and the plans are almost certain to remain on paper for years.
This is exactly what happened with as many as 10 schemes of the Union health ministry, as
pointed out by the department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family
Welfare in its report tabled in the winter session. Some of these stalled projects relate to
strengthening of government medical colleges, providing better health insurance for the common
man and improving the supply of good quality medicine at an affordable cost – schemes that are
essential to reduce out of pocket expenditure, which is one of the world’s highest in India and
pushes lakhs of Indians below the poverty line every year.
One of the schemes that didn’t take off was setting up an integrated vaccine complex in
Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu and a Medi Park. This was conceived in UPA-I period when PMK
leader Anbumani Ramadoss was the Union health minister. In subsequent months, three public
sector vaccine producing units were shut down and reopened; and health ministry purchased
large quantities of vaccines from the private sector for its routine immunisation programme at
higher cost. With little domestic manufacturing, India continues to import bulk of the medical
devices. But there is little movement on the Chengalpattu front, where it was planned to establish
a vaccine production and medical device manufacturing complex. Other important policy
decisions that needed to be taken to realise this goal were not taken. One such pending decision
is on the modification of tax structure because existing duties make import of medical devices
more lucrative rather than local manufacturing. This is known to governments for many years
with barely any action. Another sloppy piece of planning is on the purchase of equipment for the
six new AIIMS on which Rs 979 crore is locked due to slow progress in capital works.
On several schemes, the health ministry conveniently shifted the blame either to the
state governments – health being a state subject, they have to be on board – or other Central
departments. The ministry, however, maintained a stoic silence on a simple question – why those
factors were not taken into account in the planning stage itself. All these factors are known for
years, yet the ministry commits the same mistake repeatedly. The House panel has asked the
department to “realistically assess” the fund requirements so that scare resources are not blocked
and can be used in other projects. The ministry must act on this recommendation.
DECCAN HERALD, JAN 8, 2016
Overseas ministry to merge with MEA
The government is set to merge the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs with the Ministry
of External Affairs.
27
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved merger of the two ministries in accordance with a
proposal from his Cabinet colleague Sushma Swaraj, who at present holds both the portfolios.
“Hon’ble Prime Minister has kindly accepted my proposal. So MOIA (Ministry of Overseas
Indian Affairs) will now be part of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA),” Swaraj posted on
Twitter on Thursday.
The MOIA was set up as a separate ministry in 2004 with the objective of connecting Indian
diaspora worldwide with India. Swaraj is the first Union minister to be assigned the portfolios of
both MEA and MOIA.
“As Minister for External Affairs & Overseas Indian Affairs, I realised that substantial work of
MOIA (Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs) is done through our missions abroad,” she tweeted.
The MOIA has been holding the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in January every year as a flagship
event for connecting with the Indian diaspora.
The government in October 2014 announced major change in the format of the Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas, which would now be held every alternate year with smaller events focused on outcomes
to be held every other year.
External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said that administrative process for decision to
merge the MOIA with MEA was taken in line with the government’s “overall objective of
minimising government and maximising governance”.
He said that the process of merger had already begun and the exercise was being personally
supervised by the External Affairs Minister.
Swaraj will deliver the keynote address on the occasion of first smaller scale Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas in New Delhi on Saturday.
28
INDUSTRY
TELEGRAPH, JAN 12, 2016
Fragments of other facts: - The decline of industry in West Bengal is not a simple story
First Person Singular A.M.
Interpreting economic history is a tricky business. It is particularly so when the period under
focus is relatively proximate to our times. Notion is often described as reality. For instance, it is a
pet assumption that the decline in industrial investment in West Bengal from the late 1950s was
the consequence of the rise of the aggressive labour movement under the auspices of the
communist party. Could it not be an effect enshrined as the cause?
In most of the current discussions, a crucial development which took place in 1956 is left
unmentioned. T.T. Krishnamachari was then the Union finance minister. He had business and
industrial interests in Tamil Nadu. He knew what policies would hasten industrial growth in the
south and did precisely what he wanted to do.
The development of machinery and machine tools-producing industries is vital for the growth
and expansion of all other kinds of industrial products. Besides, steel is basic to the production of
machinery and machine tools; steel output is facilitated by the conjunctive availability of iron ore
and coal. It was British capital which took the initial steps towards introducing modern industry
in India. The narrow region comprising the borders of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa had under the
soil ample supplies of iron ore as well as coal. The foundation of the steel plant at Sakchi by
Jamshedji Tata enthused industrial investors. The railways had already arrived in this part of the
country. With the assured supply of steel from Jamshedpur, clusters of machinery and machine
tool-producing units, big, medium and small, came up in Calcutta and its outskirts, Howrah,
Serampore, Burdwan, all the way up to the Asansol-Raniganj belt - and Kharagpur. What was
additionally interesting was that while scores of small machinery repairing shops and small
contractors supplying umpteen requirements for these units began to flourish on either side of the
Hooghly river, skill in handling machinery and the art of improvisation got installed among
novices who did not even know the letters. Such skill formation was a tremendous boost in
fostering an industrial climate in the entire area.
TTK got approved by the Union cabinet an innocent-looking resolution equalizing the freight all
over the country of only iron ore and coal; no other industrial raw material was, however,
touched. The locational advantage the eastern region had till now enjoyed in the machinery and
the engineering industries got forfeited overnight. This also brought to an end the flow of
investment into West Bengal.
The relevant data clinched the point I am making. True, the communists were slowly expanding
their base; the huge influx of refugees from the then East Pakistan, the consequent overcrowding
in Calcutta and the districts, and rising demand for housing and jobs led to a spectacular
strengthening of the Left movement. Rising commodity prices without adequate adjustment of
salary and allowances aggravated the discontent with the Congress regime. None of these factors
affected capital investment in the 1950s.
29
The freight equalization changed the picture altogether. What was boom for the rest of the
country became the curse for the eastern region, particularly West Bengal. B.C. Roy was then the
chief minister of the state; his dominating personality made pygmies of other local politicians.
He commanded equal deference at the Centre, including from Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime
minister. None in West Bengal, even amongst the so called intelligentsia, was aware of what a
calamity the state was facing. The Calcutta academia was crammed with economists of the
highest calibre; they, too, were seemingly unaware of the implication of the freight equalization
announcement. It was left to an émigré Bengali in Bombay, Sachin Chaudhuri, who had a few
years ago floated the Economic Weekly. The journal was leading a hand-to-mouth existence; his
personal finances were equally precarious. Chaudhuri, nonetheless, spent out of his own pocket
to buy a return ticket and arrived in Calcutta. He wangled through friends an interview with B.C.
Roy and tried to make the state chief minister aware of the peril underlying the TTK resolution.
The eminent chief minister was the least concerned: he was going to build "his" West Bengal in
his own manner, he was not interested in such piffling thing as freight equalization, let the Centre
do what it wants to do, Jawaharlal has promised him a steel plant at Durgapur, he could not be
happier. The proposed plant in Durgapur was part of the grand design envisaged at the moment
as an integral entity of the heavy industry expansion programme in the public sector under the
Second Five-Year Plan. A curious coincidence, once more not any academician loaded with
knowledge of economic planning, but the honorary statistical adviser to the government, P.C.
Mahalanobis, the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, was the author of the great dream.
Both B.C. Roy and Mahalanobis belonged to the Bengali Brahmo community. But the twain
never met.
A rebuffed Sachin Chaudhuri returned to Bombay totally broken-hearted. He nonetheless
continued with his campaign and kept writing editorial pieces, week after week, drawing
attention to the gross discrimination against the eastern region. TTK was soon forced to quit as
finance minister in the wake of the Mundhra scandal, but the freight equalization policy
remained as a permanent edifice.
The other legacy of industrial enterprise bequeathed by the British to West Bengal was jute
manufacturing. Raw jute was mostly produced in districts which became part of East Pakistan
while almost the entire jute processing units were in West Bengal. Shortage of raw material
affected the industry in the immediate post-Independence years and jute exports dropped
dramatically. Rapid growth in raw jute cultivation took place in some of the West Bengal
districts from the 1960s. But global circumstances had meanwhile changed, the use of plastic
material caused a death blow to the demand for traditional jute bags. The global factors affected
East Pakistan no less, but there was enough official initiative to diversify products from out of
raw jute and the industry has continued to play a substantially important role in Bangladesh.
The story, however, would not be complete unless another blatant piece of official discrimination
is placed on record. The Centre set up the Cotton Corporation of India and the Jute Corporation
of India almost simultaneously; the purpose was to protect the interest of farm growers by
offering them minimum support prices at which the government would purchase the fibres. The
class factor, though, has cast a shadow here. Cotton growers in western India are by and large
owners of large holdings, and have organic links with the manufacturing and exporting groups.
In contrast, jute in West Bengal is mostly grown by small farmers who have little resources, little
30
organizational acumen and therefore are in no position to exercise adequate political influence.
The consequence has been severe. The Cotton Corporation has been extraordinarily enthusiastic
to purchase raw cotton at prices even much, much higher than the officially announced
procurement prices. On the other hand, year after year the Jute Corporation has failed to buy raw
jute even at prices that were lower than the announced minimum support prices. No wonder the
jute industry is gradually fading away. With supplies of raw jute altogether uncertain and at the
mercy of the whims of speculators, world demand keeps declining and prospects of innovative
new manufacturing directions are thin.
It is the totality of such developments which has contributed to intensify the gravity of the
industrial crisis in West Bengal. One has to mention yet another factor. A certain listlessness has
featured in the last decade of Congress rule in West Bengal; one result was no expansion in
power production capacity during this period. Power shortage became an additional alibi for
capital to stay away. The Left Front government tried to correct the situation by allocating by far
the largest proportion of budgetary expenditure to electricity generation. One objective of its
drive to alter Centre-state relations was to garner extra revenues for the state which could be set
aside for industrial investment in the public sector. All this is by now a well-trodden story.
In fairness, retrospectively viewed, the decision of the last found regime to invite at the
beginning of the century the Tatas to set up the small car project was not altogether unsound.
Had the Singur plant become a reality, the capital flow to the state might have resumed. It was,
however, the lack of competence of the state authorities that put an end to the venture: the land
acquisition process could have been completed by adopting more democratic methods and there
was perhaps no need to be so effusively generous while negotiating terms with the Tata Group.
To add to the government's woes, its public relations, too, were abominably poor. The lady who
spearheaded the resistance to the project and is now the state's chief minister shouted month after
month that four hundred acres out of the total one thousand acres of land acquired at Singur were
from unwilling farmers. The then government's response was diffuse and too much on the
defensive; it is only now that the people in the state have been made aware that it was a very
small minority of farmers owning barely forty acres of land who remained adamant. The vast
majority had accepted the government's offer and quietly departed with the cheques offered as
compensation for the sale of land.
The tragedy of Singur cannot, however, be obliterated. After the Tata nightmare and the present
chief minister was indelibly marked as the person who was responsible for the episode, no
capital from outside the state would arrive here as long as she stayed in command. All the claims
she has been recently making of a gush of new investment in different spheres in the coming
years are eyewash. There is one exception though. The amount she hopes would flow into real
estate business will perhaps coincide with reality. Till very recently, gold was supposed the
safest of outlays for speculative capital. China has destroyed that notion by its sudden manoeuvre
to sell the metal in such huge quantities as to halve its global price within 24 hours. No similar
possibility threatens investment in real estate. World population is bound to grow with each
decade; speculative capital which fails to get an outlet in the real estate sector in Mumbai, Delhi,
Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, is likely to migrate to Calcutta and its neighbourhoods. That
would hardly contribute towards lessening the state's industrial and employment problems.
31
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS
TELEGRAPH, JAN 11, 2016
Around a restless sea: - India in the Asia-Pacific
Krishnan Srinivasan
The Asia-Pacific, like Asia, emerging Asia or South Asia, is a fungible term and not easy to
define. In the 1980s, the term was associated with membership of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation initiative, but after the Barack Obama visit last year, it apparently includes India, at
least in the strategic thinking of the United States of America.
Nothing over the past few decades has changed the global economy like the rise of China, which,
with the industrialization and modernization of some other parts of Asia, has led to a remarkable
transformation over the past three decades, and is the reason for the reorientation of the global
economy towards the Asia-Pacific. From being recipients of manufactures to exporters of a
competitive variety of goods and services, emerging Asia now impacts global financial markets,
production networks and pricing of commodities, apart from having an increasing bearing on
global political strategies. Four Asian countries, apart from Japan, are in the top 16 of the World
Bank's gross domestic product table for 2014 - China, India, South Korea and Indonesia, and
there are many positive Asian trends to be discerned, political, institutional, technological and
educational among them. Indian, Chinese and South Korean cultures, especially popular culture,
have gone global and added immensely to soft power perceptions.
If these trends in basic indicators continue, the Asian element in the Asia-Pacific's political and
economic influence will increase, but the Asian rise requires technology and specialized skills to
climb the value-added chain and avoid the middle-income trap. The unsettled relationship among
rising and established powers, and between the rising powers themselves, may delay the advent
of any 'Asian century', although dire predictions of the implosion of China and the descent of
India into dystopia have proved wrong, and there is growing optimism among the Asian capitals.
It remains an open question whether the Asian rise will lead to emerging Asia constituting a new
group of world powers, though clearly China is already on the way to that status with its yuan
becoming a reserve currency and the main currency in Zimbabwe, besides the Belt and Road, the
Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific initiatives.
While Chinese interests have acquired a global character, the rest of emerging Asia is mainly an
economic and cultural phenomenon, although Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore show that
with right interventions, developing countries can catch up with the advanced world.
Most emerging Asian countries are allergic to the view that outsiders should prescribe policy
preferences for them, but they do not yet present a rival ideology to the West. Over time they
might offer an alternative discourse of modernity, such as questioning the free market and
democracy with a form of Sino-style semi free-market model within an authoritarian framework,
but there is little conformity or parallel timelines across the concerned countries. The Asians are
32
busy stressing their differences rather than their commonalities, especially in South Asia, and
even big and ancient Asian civilizations like India and China have not articulated any world view
apart from the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and Xi Jinping's four principles of great
power relations which are too vague to build upon.
The other side of the coin is that emerging Asia remains the home of every conceivable
instability. With huge concentrations of population, big increases in the aspirational middle class,
concerns over terrorism and proliferation of nuclear weapons, inter-state and intra-state tensions,
abject poverty and climate-change fears, the region enjoys neither political nor economic unity,
with systems of government ranging from communism to liberal democracy. There are many
unresolved territorial disputes. The Korean peninsula is the most heavily armed region in the
world, North Korea is a nuclear weapon state and so are India and Pakistan. The strategic rebalancing exercise of the US regarding the Asia-Pacific is understandably seen by China as
unhealthy containment. If there is any outbreak of warfare in Asia, the negative impact on the
global economy would be immeasurable.
The political map is not the same as the economic map, and Asian integration will depend on
relations between China, Japan and India, the big three on whom any new Asian architecture
would need to be based. But they are too domestically preoccupied and still have too little say in
global institutions. In spite of the disputes, emerging Asian economies are likely to focus on
economic growth without external adventures. India and China account for half the global
economic growth, with high savings and investment rates, although India's economy is too
closed to incorporate with any of the deep-integration free trade areas of Asia. China keeps
interest rates low in the West even as it makes the difficult transition from manufacturing to
services, high investment to higher consumption, and State-driven decisions to free market
determination. In spite of foreign exchange reserves of $7.29 trillion, emerging Asia is unusually
dependent on consistent high growth to address inequalities, mitigate environmental degradation,
compete for finite natural resources and ensure food security. The economic boom is essential
for the authority of the Communist Party of China, and increasingly important for re-election in
democratic countries like India.
Asian cooperation, as seen in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum, the
Asean or the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, is in the spirit of Asian norms,
in other words, good platforms for economic cooperation but falling well short of robust political
engagement. Rhetoric about 'win-win' cooperation and attempts to craft a common narrative have
not provided the commonalities needed for these countries to construct the appropriate
architecture for political cohesion or to settle disputes.
China's interests as a rising state can clash with those of the other trans-Atlantic power, the US,
and competition for global resources and political and military tensions generate causes of
concern. The age of US primacy in Asia as the non-resident power is drawing to a close but
China cannot displace it while the US has decided to reassert its influence in Asia. It is difficult
33
to find evidence of any real pivot for Asia, and its central component might comprise the TransPacific Partnership, which is limping towards the finishing line; negotiations took more than six
years and there may not be political support for the TPP in the US Congress.
Economic interdependence fosters cooperation, and the benefits of deep integration are too
strong for the parties to resist. American allies in Asia, like Japan, South Korea, Philippines,
Taiwan, Singapore, and supporters like Vietnam and Thailand, all have stronger economic ties
with China than with the US. Political cooperation will grow on the back of increasing intraregional economic flows, and there have been remarkable initiatives to address decades of
hostility in the recent meetings between the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea and
between China and Taiwan.
Now that, courtesy the US, India has become an honorary member of the Asia-Pacific, where
does it stand in this scenario? India has had no involvement in the unfolding tensions in the AsiaPacific, the China/Japan and Korea/Japan strife-strewn histories, the islands disputes, Korean
unification or the Taiwan Strait. There can be no question that China is the flying goose that
gives the upthrust to economies all over the Asia-Pacific, but India is not without its assets. It is
diminished by its incessant quarrel with Pakistan, but its disorderly politics, though Indians
despair of it, is admired by all countries, like Myanmar and Nepal, attempting to move in a
democratic direction. India is advantageously placed in spite of its low-income status because no
big power can afford to ignore India. Its rise is considered benign, and its future full of promise.
India should maintain friendly relations with major powers, but avoid too close an identity with
the US strategic agenda which is fickle. It should actively pursue normalization of relations with
China, including by educating its public. In no country in the world is China regarded with
greater ignorance and hostility, with the result that every Chinese activity in South Asia is
wrongly interpreted as Indo-centric. There will be no international support for India in any
conflict with China or Pakistan; this calls for faster movement towards determining the line of
control with China and fresh thinking on Pakistan, which has become the 'indispensable nation'
to Afghanistan, China, the US and many countries in the Arab peninsula. New Delhi cannot
expect third countries to pull its chestnuts out of the fire. It should forget about South Asia or the
Indian Ocean being an exclusive sphere of Indian influence, but concentrate on our legitimate
security interests and encourage partners to be stakeholders in our economic growth. As T.N.
Ninan has affirmed in The Turn of the Tortoise, economic growth is India's best foreign policy.
The author is a former foreign secretary of India
34
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
STATESMAN, JAN 13, 2016
Consistent diplomacy
Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy towards Pakistan is under fire from its opponents alleging
a lack of consistency, clarity and coherence. Apart from the alliteration which makes for good
rhetoric, it is worth examination whether consistency is necessarily a positive factor in foreign
policy. British Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston in 1848 best expressed the contrary view; “I
say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal
ally or the perpetual enemy … We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our
interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”
A foolish consistency is in fact the enemy of a sound foreign policy, because it implies a slavish
following of the same path handed down by tradition or predecessors, and prevents the flexibility
of response that is required. Good foreign policy practice is alive to any opportunity despite the
deepest deadlocked situation, and it is an act of statesmanship to depart from precedent to exploit
such opportunities.
If consistency was the invariable ingredient of good policy, we would not have had Nixon going
to China, Gorbachov abandoning the Soviet satellite states or Obama’s outreach to Cuba. History
is replete with instances where a bold and unorthodox decision was able to turn the tide and
influence future events positively. Modi’s visit to Lahore could be the turning point in relations
with Pakistan if the momentum is sustained.
Since 1947 no Indian government has been able to develop a working policy on Pakistan.
Keeping channels of communication open, showing willingness to cooperate to mutual benefit
combined with readiness to demonstrate strength and using force in worst-case scenarios have
been given different weight in different historical contexts. The result is that no neighbourly
cooperation for mutual benefit, let alone lasting peaceful coexistence, has been established.
The history of India’s Pakistan policy is one of trial and error and New Delhi has no option but
to keep trying, hoping that one day this might lead to more than a temporary détente. Given the
Talibanization of Pakistan after Zia-ul-Haq, India faces the nigh-impossibility of placating
various rival sources of power there; the only hope lies in Pakistan establishing a political system
under civilian central command, redefining its national interests, and understanding that hostility
to India has resulted in nothing but damaging Pakistan. If India Rs apart from setting an example
Rs can contribute to this development, it is by showing readiness for dialogue. The most dire
scenario for India would be an imploding neighbour possessing nuclear arms and New Delhi
would be well-advised to support stability and better living standards across the border.
35
Modi’s initiative has been welcomed by public opinion in Pakistan and India and by foreign
offices the world over; it gives a glimpse of what might be achieved for the two countries if
normality could be restored to the relationship. There are influential circles in both countries who
wish to keep each other at arm’s length, to ignore the geographic and economic compulsions of
the relationship, and they include the military establishment in Pakistan which sees tension with
India as self-justifying.
On the other hand, there is also a constituency for peace in Pakistan as there is in India, and it is
this group that would be strengthened by closer ties between the two countries. This factor makes
it even more important that the moment should be seized by both India and the civilian elected
authority in Pakistan to build a coalition with the international community to combat and
eliminate the terror cells based in Pakistan, and not to give the terrorists a veto on the negotiation
process.
Congress Party critics of Modi’s approach to Pakistan have conveniently forgotten that under the
Congress government of the time, official talks were conducted with Pakistan in the early 1990s
despite the Hazratbal and Babari Masjid fall-out, the Pakistan-stoked violent upheaval in
Kashmir, and the Dawood Ibrahim inspired riots in Mumbai. Critics claim that it is under
Western pressure that Modi has embarked on a dialogue with Pakistan. There is no need of
external pressure for India to pursue its national interests, though it is undeniable that foreign
governments, especially in North America and Western Europe, have always urged the two
countries to resolve their differences through negotiation, and this has been the case whether a
Congress or non-Congress government has held power at the Centre.
History shows that not talking to Pakistan has served no purpose. It has not given India any
greater security, and has only encouraged the militant factions and extremist ideological
elements in Pakistan. It is only through confidence-building with Pakistan that existing terror
cells, the influence of the Pakistan military and the looming threat of the Islamic State, which has
already spread its tentacles to Afghanistan, can be arrested and rolled back.
The Pathankot attack was not unexpected. In fact it must have been planned for weeks if not
months before it took place; such incidents cannot be engineered on the spur of the moment. It
would be correct to surmise that the sponsors of such terror from Pakistan did nothing to abort
the operation despite the bonhomie between the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers evident at
Lahore. It is precisely these malevolent elements in Pakistan that need to be eliminated, and it is
necessary for Pakistan to take action on India’s evidence of Jaish-e-Mohammed’s involvement.
Such action would be evidence that the Pakistan Prime Minister can take charge of the military
and his personal commitment to the peace process. It has to be hoped that such action will be
36
forthcoming and the proposed series of talks can proceed. There could no more fitting response
to the Pathankot terrorists.
As for the repeated invocation of consistency by Modi’s critics, who have highly limited or
negligible experience of the actual practice of diplomacy, they would do well to find alternative
grounds for criticism.
STATESMAN, JAN 11, 2016
Sustain the ‘nerve’
There are times when seeking a positive passage through a vexed relationship, ridden with the
potholes and baggage of history, requires rare moral fibre. It is so much easier to fall back on the
“prestigious” positions of yesteryear and end up not moving anywhere. India and Pakistan find
themselves in such a situation yet again, but with the Prime Ministers of both countries having
made recent attempts at rapprochement they are now required to sustain their ‘nerve’ and take
that process forward. Stuttering, stumbling on their way perhaps; but declining to take the easier
way out and falling back to hostile, confrontationist, stand-offs. That “Pathankot” did not trigger
another round of customary belligerence is welcome, what is awaited is New Delhi’s
assessment/reaction to the outcome of high-level meetings in Islamabad. Having indicated a
degree of patience and flexibility when “putting the ball in Pakistan’s court” there is no reason to
have sought a “soft” lob that could be easily smashed. The domestic compulsions that provoke
strident positions in New Delhi operate in Islamabad too-it would be naïve to expect (as some
“experts” do) Pakistan to overtly crack down on anti-India terror outfits, signs of covert pressure
on them ought to suffice to keep the dialogue on track. A jingoistic response-which the BJP
favoured when it was an opposition party-and calling off the scheduled meeting of the foreign
secretaries would be handing “victory” on a silver platter to the terrorists.
They would have breached more than the perimeter of the military facility. There would,
however, appear to be mature reasoning to the suggestions that those talks be deferred a trifle,
preceded by an early meet of the NSAs (accompanied by border management officials?) to plug
the gaps being exploited by terrorists and smugglers. The dialogue can be delayed, not
abandoned. The “hawks” would be disproving the theory of superior vision if they did not
perceive some subtle differences in Pakistan’s post-Pathankot position. It did not come up with a
blanket denial, held two high-level security meetings and repeated its promise of “action”. And it
has been quiet on the LOC. Is that good enough? It would be wishful thinking to hope that it
would accept the Indian “information” as a plan of action.
37
And to be fair, the details being “fed” to the media by the NIA and other investigation agencies
are rather far-fetched. If New Delhi cannot rein in its cops and ensure investigations that are
more professional and less publicity-oriented can it demand that the police in Pakistan be
directed to silence anti-Indian tirades? Mr Narendra Modi “stuck his neck out” on 25 December,
now he must prove “tall” enough not to emulate a turtle when complexities arise.
38
LIBRARIES
INDIAN EXPRESS, JAN 13, 2016
Swapan Dasgupta likely to head Nehru memorial
Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma declined to confirm or deny the appointment and said a
decision will be taken “shortly”.
Sheela Bhatt
Official sources said as Director of NMML, Dasgupta will enjoy the status of a Minister of State.
Commentator Swapan Dasgupta is likely to be appointed Director of the Nehru Memorial
Museum & Library (NMML) in New Delhi. He is currently a member of the NMML Society
which is presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
When Dasgupta was reached for comment, he said: “I don’t know.”
Official sources said as Director of NMML, Dasgupta will enjoy the status of a Minister of State.
“The government is in the process of upgrading the status of the Director of NMML as part of its
effort to make relevant the life and works of Jawaharlal Nehru,” an official said.
Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma declined to confirm or deny the appointment and said a
decision will be taken “shortly”.
Last September, Mahesh Rangarajan, appointed NMML Director by the previous UPA
government, stepped down after Sharma called his appointment “unethical and illegal”.
The government accepted his resignation.
39
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
STATESMAN, JAN 8, 2016
NK’s Big Bang
Direly unnerving data, if inadequate, has been advanced to the world; North Korea being North
Korea, much also alas has not. Nothing is as yet definite about the “hermit kingdom’s” New
Year gift, but Wednesday’s “breaking news” of an underground nuclear test has been profoundly
distressing most particularly for China and the US, and generally alarming for the rest of the
comity of nations. The reported test of a hydrogen bomb would without question serve to
enhance the country’s belligerence; and it would be no exaggeration to suggest that the ultimate
objective is a nuclear missile that “could provide it with a defensive weapon against America”, to
quote the television broadcast. This is a terrifying prospect, by any reckoning. Indubitably, it
marks an intrepid flexing of the muscle by the world’s last Stalinist state; what may yet be open
to conjecture for a while is whether a hydrogen bomb has indeed been detonated, more
specifically whether there is a link between the H-bomb and the “hermit kingdom”. America has
been fairly firm, if guarded, in its reaction, which has been clothed with a warning of
“appropriate action in the event of any or all provocations”. The move is as defiant as it is
astonishing, and further comment must await confirmation of whether it really signifies a
quantum jump in Pyongyang’s essay towards beefing up its nuclear arsenal. Palpable is the
sudden ratcheting up of tension on either side of the Atlantic. “Let the world look up to the
strong, self-reliant nuclear-armed state,” was Mr Kim Jong-un’s hand-written note of celebration
displayed by state television.
For all its cordial equations with Beijing, nuclear antics by the North can threaten China’s
economic renaissance, specifically by damaging relations with the US and putting investors off
the whole region. Substantial also is the risk of China’s citizens being exposed to radiation.
Furthermore, geopolitics has changed over time; while Beijing wants Pyongyang to behave
responsibly, it has surprisingly little leverage and relations are worsening. The cancellation of a
concert in Beijing by the North Korean pop group, Moranbong-of the Spice Girls variety-has
been the latest spat within the Communist world. Yet China can scarcely afford a slide in its
relations with President Kim not least because of the possibility of the North Korean leader
courting Russia. There is little doubt that the country has upped the ante, and Wednesday’s
announcement is an ominous reminder of the “hermit kingdom’s” threat to world peace. Small
wonder that 15 members of the Security Council, including China-a potential UN ally-have
stoutly condemned the nuclear test as “a clear threat to international peace and security”. Kim
though couldn’t care less.
40
PARLIAMENT
TELEGRAPH, JAN 14, 2016
History rebuilt - Does India need a new Parliament building?
Ashok Sekhar Ganguly
Like many of my fellow citizens, I am alarmed at the proposal of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha
for building a new Parliament House. This is an idea that had been raised earlier. In 2008, the
then Speaker of the Lok Sabha, had mooted a similar proposal but, thankfully, it did not find
many takers and faded away. The danger, this time, is that even though major political parties
have differences about important national issues, there seems to be a silent consensus among
these parties regarding the need for a new Parliament building, with some notable exceptions.
Although these may be early days, a wedge has already been created with the idea of building a
new Parliament building, the logic of which is not at all clear. The argument for a new
Parliament building is supposed to be based on the idea that the present premises have become
inadequate and that a new and modern edifice will somehow ease the functioning and enhance
the efficiency of the members, as appropriate in a digital age.
Lutyens' Delhi, the headquarters of the British raj, is one of India's architectural and iconic
wonders, whose planning and construction commenced in 1921. The building of the present
Parliament House was completed in 1927, alongside the rest of Lutyens' structures on Raisina
Hill. The surrounding premises of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, North and South Block, all stand
today as a symbol of the majesty of the Indian democracy. The other surrounding buildings of
the Parliament library and the annexe in the Parliament House complex were built in later years.
Well-known structures such as the Lodhi Gardens, Humayun's Tomb, the Qutab Minar, Jama
Masjid and several other historical structures and minarets are strewn across Delhi and, like
Raisina Hill, bear witness to the legacy of more than a thousand years of history of former rulers
and builders of this great Indian city.
Indians naturally feel resentful about foreign invaders, but the facts of history, sadly, cannot be
denied. Although the recent destruction of the historically famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in
Afghanistan by the Taliban and the ravages of the Islamic State obliterating the museums and
historical monuments in Iraq and Syria are not exactly in the same category, they are
contemporary events of vandalism, of the obliteration of history in hate and haste.
The Archaeological Survey of India is a premier institution, established in the 19th century. It
deserves a mention here for its excellent record of work and its contemporary role as preserver of
the icons of India's rich history. This, in spite of constraints on its resources, maintaining and
guarding India's ancient structures and artefacts from the predatory spread of our exploding
population, is indeed a huge task.
Be that as it may, the proposal to build a new Parliament House will not solve the genuine
problems beleaguering the present premises, because the appropriate solution is not creating
more space, but making significantly better and more effective use of the space and facilities of
41
the existing Parliament building.
There are numerous and visible challenges with respect to the poor repairs, maintenance and
upkeep, and utilization of space of the present Parliament House, which may, in fact, be no
different than the state of upkeep of the rest of Lutyens' Delhi and other government buildings in
and around it. The issue of the maintenance and upkeep of public structures and spaces is not
peculiar to Delhi, but is a malaise across the government premises in the states as well. Returning
to the subject at hand, the poor state of upkeep, maintenance and services in the existing
Parliament House and its surroundings is, to put it mildly, primarily owing to the inadequate
accountability, management, supervision, planning and systematic maintenance.
The principal service providers in Delhi, the public works and associated departments are
manned by dedicated, qualified and a committed group of professionals and service employees.
The state of disrepair of the Parliament House is a mute testimony to inadequate utilization of
funds, human resources, management and accountability, which cannot be remedied by building
another edifice. The visibly poor state of service lines, civil structures and fire safety is yet to be
paid attention to.
In contrast, the secretariat of the Parliament provides services to the members, both in the House
as well as outside, in a highly professional and dependable manner. In other words, if there is
appropriate organizational focus and accountability, there is no reason why the repairs,
maintenance and upkeep of the physical and related service structures of the present Parliament
House cannot be of the same high standard and quality. That the premises need modernization in
phases, as well, cannot be denied.
During the periods when the Parliament is in session, services to members in the central hall of
Parliament House, the dining room, the reading room and security services are also of very high
standard and are uniformly reliable and dependable. Similarly, the surrounding grounds and the
cleanliness and upkeep of the washrooms in Parliament House, for example, are indeed of a very
high and consistent standard. The parliamentary offices and committee rooms around the
circumference of the two floors of the Parliament building would significantly benefit from
improved maintenance, upkeep and modernization.
It may be worthwhile for the Parliament administration to consider enlisting the services of
professional architects, engineers and management consultants to modernize, upgrade and
significantly raise the maintenance standard and level of safety in the existing Parliament
building in a cost-effective and appropriate way. This would be the best way to ensure a modern
working environment for all the members as well as for those who manage and administer this
great Indian institution.
Providing more computer facilities, moving into a paperless working environment and more
space to members can be effectively achieved in the existing Parliament building with the
professional services of experts and, in all probability, at no excess expenditure.
Modernizing the structure, appearance and functioning of the existing Parliament House to levels
of 21st-century standards is a unique opportunity for the elected representatives of our people to
42
demonstrate how to preserve and upgrade the iconic Parliament House, as a symbol of India's
history and heritage. I would not have been able to express my views as forthrightly as I have
tried to do, if I did not have the unique privilege of having personally seen and experienced what
I have narrated, as a member of the Rajya Sabha, for the last six years.
In frequent bouts of populism, our country discards the old and historically important to seek
something new. Renaming cities and streets, instead of finding ways to improve the lives of our
citizens is a malaise across India and needs to be discouraged. Re-crafting historic edifices,
instead of caring for and preserving them, would amount to erasing important parts of our rich
heritage and substituting them with something that may look more modern - but to what end?
43
POLICE
INDIAN EXPRESS, JAN 13, 2016
IPS officer’s service terminated over 5-yr leave
This is the second incident in the past two years when an IPS officer was asked to leave the
service due to his alleged unauthorised leave.
Written by Satish Jha
In a setback to IPS officer Samiullah Ansari, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has
terminated his service, stating that his absence for the past five years from the duty should be
treated as “deemed to have resigned”.
This is the second incident in the past two years when an IPS officer was asked to leave the
service due to his alleged unauthorised leave. The other IPS officer was Himanshu Bhatt, who
was asked to quit in 2014. Interestingly, both the officers had left Gujarat following the 2002
riots.
Bhatt was SP of Banaskantha district, while Ansari was DCP (Traffic) of Ahmedabad city when
the riots broke out.
The Indian Express had reported on December 29 that the MHA had refused voluntary
retirement scheme to Ansari and held that he was on an unauthorised leave from September
2010. The MHA’s reply filed before the Central Administrative Tribunal on December 10 stated
that Ansari is “only trying in one way or another to prolong the eventuality of his deemed
resignation”. The reply was based on a petition moved by Ansari after his VRS plea was rejected
by the state government.
The 1992-batch Gujarat cadre officer had joined IIM-Bangalore to pursue a one-year course soon
after the riots.
44
POLITICAL PARTIES
HINDU, JAN 8, 2016
The Left’s bumpy road to revival
SRINIVASAN RAMANI
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) held an organisational plenum for the first time since
1978, in Kolkata. The plenum, a platform to thrash out a reorientation of organisational strategy,
was held at a time when the CPI(M) — and the rest of the mainstream Left — is at its weakest
organisational and political strength in decades. This is more so in the State of West Bengal,
where the party has undergone a precipitous decline, reflected in election after election since
2009.
Much of the talk around the event has centred on whether or not the CPI(M) will seek an alliance
with the Congress in West Bengal — with cryptic but dissonant voices on the subject emerging
from the previous general secretary of the party and the incumbent. Former general secretary
Prakash Karat, in a recent article in the party organ, Peoples Democracy , had stressed the need
for expanding the party’s independent strength through mass mobilisation and a change in its
organisational functioning in this regard. Current general secretary Sitaram Yechury, on the other
hand, also stressed the need for flexible “united front tactics” to exploit “differences in ruling
class parties” — a euphemism for a possible tie-up with the Congress against the Bharatiya
Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress.
Specifically in regard to West Bengal, the talk of an alliance with the Congress is nothing new.
For long, even before the first electoral debacle for the CPI(M) in parliamentary elections in
2009, sections of its West Bengal leadership have suggested this as a way to tackle the
formidable and growing might of the ruling Trinamool Congress. Now the talk of an alliance has
emerged again in the run-up to the State elections in 2016, as the CPI(M) faces not just a strong
incumbent in the Trinamool but also the threat of a rising BJP. The Congress itself is in a slump
of its own in the State and faces a similar conundrum; while the State unit prefers a tactical
alliance with the Left Front, the party’s central leadership has reportedly given the green signal
for a tie-up with the Trinamool. If that indeed happens, the strident debate within the CPI(M)
would be rendered pointless.
Dissecting the decline
While the talk of an alliance or a lack of it did dominate the coverage of the plenum in media
discourse, the CPI(M) has rightly noted that an overhaul in its organisational functioning and
direction of its “mass line” is in order for its revival. After all, the decline in the party’s fortunes,
especially in West Bengal, had been not just due to policy or governmental failures but also due
to serious organisational issues that had piled up over the years.
Political scientist Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya in a recent book, Government as Practice , has in
this author’s opinion come up with the most plausible explanation for the Left’s sudden decline
45
from a very strong position of strength as late as 2006 in West Bengal. The author takes on the
varied explanations for this change in fortunes before coming up with his own. The
“functionalist” explanation suggests that the party suffered defeats and a lack of confidence
among the electorate because of a fall in standards of governance. This does not explain why the
electorate has reinforced its confidence in the present Mamata Banerjee-led government which
has not been effective in bringing any vital change in governance for the better. The
“structuralist” explanation alludes to the fall in support due to the failure of the Left Frontinstituted client-patron system to arrest corruption and malfeasance by local patrons associated
with the front. This does not, however, explain why the very same patrons seem to have shifted
to the Trinamool and have delivered favourable electoral outcomes for the ruling party in the
State.
The “ideological” explanation, most prominently offered by Left intellectual Prabhat Patnaik,
argues that the reduction of the CPI(M) and the Left’s work into “mundane and pedestrian
politics” in order to perpetuate its rule and its ignorance of its larger ideological project of
transformative politics transcending present-day capitalism, was responsible for its overall
decline. Mr. Bhattacharyya counters this by suggesting that the CPI(M) did not do enough in the
task of transcendence that was possible in the “politics of small change” — in the way the party
regulated the affairs of the State as a party of government in West Bengal. His argument is that
the CPI(M) was so caught up in the process of preserving power that it refused to reinvent a
process of change that came about after the reforms it initiated in the 1980s. Rather than utilising
the quotidian nature of its engagement with the people to further change — by expanding the
benefits of land reforms to improve the status of landless agricultural workers; by organising and
working towards the improvement of livelihoods in the unorganised sector; by focussing on
primary education and health; by involving its cadre from the lower segments of society in a way
that they could be taken into higher leadership — the party was merely reduced to an arbiter of
sorts, with decisions taken in a top-down manner, leadership remaining ossified and dominated
by the upper castes and the focus restricted to winning elections.
Road to rectification
In the last six years, the CPI(M) has had the opportunity to analyse and rectify its structure and
organisational thinking in a changing West Bengal. Yet, it has been unable to move away from
the logic of what Mr. Bhattacharyya calls “governmentalism”. This has meant the limiting of the
party’s work to sterile critiques of the Trinamool and its inability to mobilise opposition to the
ruling party in the form of mass actions against corruption (the Saradha scam, for example) or
failures in governance. In this regard, the plenum’s resolution to focus on categories such as the
urban poor by forming neighbourhood associations, for example, suggests atleast a serious
rethinking, which requires to translate to actions on the ground.
Two years ago, this writer had the opportunity to visit the Marxist, writer and former West
Bengal Finance Minister Ashok Mitra at his apartment in Kolkata. Mr. Mitra bemoaned the weak
stature of the Indian Left and was sad that his prognostications about the precipitous fall in its
46
popularity following the land acquisition controversies in West Bengal in the late 2000s came
true. When asked as to what could possibly be a way out for the Left to win the support of the
people in the State, he hearkened back to the early 1940s. The communists in Bengal were
discredited for having taken an antagonistic position against the Quit India Movement by
adopting an abstract political line that sought to support the Allied powers as the Soviet Union
was under threat from fascism. Mr. Mitra reminded us how as a teenager then, he and his friends
decided to engage in relief efforts during the Great Bengal Famine by organising under a generic
student banner. Slowly but steadily by the dint of their work, the young communists managed to
win back their standing among the people, he said. These are sage words, even if from a strong
dissident voice and a critic of the CPI(M), that the mainstream Left party should heed.
47
POPULATION
TRIBUNE, JAN 8, 2016
S Subramanian
India’s population concerns: Growth should contribute to human resources
WITH a population of about 1,277 million, India is the second most populous country in the
world today. This distinction is all set to be erased — and bettered: in less than a decade’s time,
India should overtake its neighbour China as the globe's single largest country. As might be
expected, there are both benefits and burdens associated with having a large population; and a
pressing onus on the State is to display a consistent engagement with well-defined, humane plans
designed to enhance the benefits and alleviate the burdens of carrying an increasing population.
A major potential benefit to be had from a rising population, when it is accompanied by
reductions in the fertility rate wrought by declining birth and death rates, is that the dependency
of the very young and very old populations on the working-age population will decline, while the
latter itself will increase in size, thus contributing productively to the process of growth. This is
the so-called ‘demographic dividend’ that population experts speak of. Clearly, growth in
aggregate output per person is an essential component of the demographic dividend. If a large,
healthy, educated and skilled work-force is essential for growth, then growth also is essential for
ensuring the good health and knowledge — and skill — levels of a burgeoning work force. For
human resources to contribute to growth, we require that growth should contribute to human
resources.
In particular, the fetishism of a numerically targeted growth goal of 7.5 or 8 (or whatever) per
cent — much evident in official policy pronouncements — is barely adequate to realise the
potential of a demographic dividend. Much also depends on the nature of growth envisaged and
planned for. In particular, while it would be foolish to deny the essential centrality of growth in
the scheme of things, a growth that is relatively jobless and absolutely dis-equalising, can
scarcely be expected to compensate for impressively large rates of growth, per se. Unfortunately,
this (jobless and non-inclusive growth) is largely the sort of growth that India is witnessing.
The ‘total dependency ratio’ of a population is the ratio of the young (less than 15) and the old
(above 64) populations to the population in the working age group (15-64). It is true that this
ratio has declined over time (from 75 per cent in 1981 to 56 per cent in 2011), while the
proportion of the working-age population has risen (from 56 per cent in 1981 to 63 per cent in
2011), pointing to the potential benefits to be had from a demographic dividend. However, in a
time of rising population levels, it is wise to be guided by the arithmetic of ratios as well as of
48
absolute numbers. While the dependency ratio has declined between 1981 and 2011, given that
India's working-age population has also risen over this period, from 373 million to 750 million, it
can be inferred that the absolute number of the dependent population has increased from 280
million to 420 million. We need increases in the absolute quantum of resources to meet this
increase in the absolute quantum of dependency. Has there been such a commensurate increase
in resources?
Consider the case of hospital beds as an example: the number of these vital health resources has
increased from 5,46,400 in 1981 to 8,47,000 in 2011. From 1981 to 2011, the number of
dependents in India has risen by a factor of 1.5; while, over the same period, the number of
hospital beds has risen by a factor of 1.55. The implication is straightforward. Despite a decline
in the dependency ratio, the country has to run faster and faster in order to stay in the same place.
Hence the vital importance of a concern with the nature of growth in per capita income apart
from only the magnitude of growth.
Declines in the death rate, especially in the infant mortality rate, are an undeniable aspect of
India's post-Independence demographic transition. However, when it suits our purpose, we tend
to stay content with observing secular declines in the 'bad' (the infant mortality rate, for instance)
and secular increases in the 'good' (income per capita, for instance). But have we not arrived at a
stage where we must also ask if the rates of improvement in the demographic and standard-ofliving indices are commensurate with the country’s potential for improvement; with the
country’s needs; and with the performance of other comparably poor countries?
Viewed in this light, India has plenty of population matters to be seriously concerned with.
Consider the nutritional status of the country. The International Food Policy Research Institute
has come up with a Global Hunger Index, which is a simple average of three distinguished
headcount ratios — of undernourishment, under-5 wasting and stunting, and under-5 mortality.
The Index is rated as ‘low’ in magnitude if it is less than 9.9, and ‘serious’ if it lies in the range
of 20-34.9. For 2015, the Global Hunger Index Report indicates that China had a ‘low’ score of
8.6, while India occupied the upper reaches of the ‘serious’ category, with a score of 29. The
World Bank data suggest that for 2015, China's infant mortality rate was 9 per 1000 live births,
while India's was 38. According to the same data source, China's maternal mortality rate (number
of pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births) was 27 in 2015, while the figure for India
was 174. The median age of the population (that is, the age which splits the population into two
halves below and above it) was 36.8 years for China in 2014, and 27.3 years for India. The
expectation of life at birth for the period 2010-2015, according to the United Nations, was 80.3
years for China and 64 years for India. The examples can be multiplied, but the tendency must
49
surely be quite clear. It suggests, at the least, that India could be productively occupied by
competing with China on more than the single matter of a seat in the UN Security Council.
Other population worries for India must relate to distress — or ‘push’ —induced factors leading
to rural-urban migration and the swelling of the ranks of the urban ‘informal’ sector. It would be
nice to learn that the provision of basic infrastructure in our towns and cities — shelter, potable
water, roads — is an important preoccupation with our planners and policy-makers. What we do
know of their pre-occupation is an expensive inanity that goes by the name of ‘Smart Cities’.
This strikes one as being another instance of the ambition of bridging the distance between
Madhubani and Shanghai without the effort of any patient and essential intermediate steps.
At least one more major population worry is — or should be — the skewed and declining sexratio of the population, particularly at birth and amongst juveniles. Space constraints prevent
further elaboration of the issue here. But what is available on record, surely, is a challenging
enough set of real population concerns to have to deal with. The pity is that these real and
pressing demographic concerns are being renounced in favour of dangerously diversionary and
imaginary concerns having to do with the ‘demographics of religion’ — on which more on
another occasion.
— The writer is a retired Professor of Economics
50
RAILWAYS
INDIAN EXPRESS, JAN 13, 2016
7th Pay Commission Expenses ‘Burdened’ railways rings FinMin, but govt ain’t sharing
the load
Railways has said that the part of the burden on its revenues by way of discharging its “public
service obligation” be picked up by the government.
Written by Avishek G Dastidar
Railways has said that the part of the burden on its revenues by way of discharging its “public
service obligation” be picked up by the government.
ITS FINANCES in a precarious position, the Indian Railways has now demanded that the
government share its burden of remaining affordable to the poor. The cost of that burden has
crossed a never-before Rs 32,000 crore.
The impact of the 7th Pay Commission kicking in on salaries and pension, the input cost of rail
operations is slated to shoot up beyond viable levels next fiscal. The finance ministry has
categorically stated that it will not be able to help railwayss on matters of salaries and pension.
Internally it is contended that the refusal by the government to lend a helping hand is tantamount
to pushing the railways to the brink of a steep fare hike next financial year. Now, railways has
taken a principled stand that the part of the burden on its revenues by way of discharging its
“public service obligation” as a national transporter be picked up by the government and it has
engaged with the Ministry of Finance for the same.
The problem faced is that there is no official definition of what constitutes public service
obligation for a government-owned transporter. Therefore, it has locked horns with the finance
ministry over working out such a definition for the first time.
51
As per documents accessed by The Indian Express, the finance ministry has said that it wants an
independent body to work out an official definition of “public service obligation”, while the
railways ministry prefers an inter-ministerial committee to do the same and work out its
monetary impact on its revenues.
According to the railways, the financial burden of its public services — commodities carried at
sub-cost rates, a range of myriad concessions to various categories of passengers etc — has
touched a never-before high of Rs 32,067 crore. “Till the committee frames a long-term formula
… the government revenues may bear a certain percentage of losses for the year 2015-16 as an
interim measure,” the Railways has told the finance ministry as well as the Railways Convention
Committee of Parliament. It was also highlighted this in the Railways Consultative Committee,
chaired by railways minister Suresh Prabhu, which consists of MPs and secretaries of some other
ministries.
52
It is learnt that railways has informed the finance ministry that it offers 53 types of concessions
including free travel to several categories of passengers. It has further argued that the total
revenue forgone towards concessions was Rs 1,423 crore in 2014-15, up from Rs 759 crore in
2010-11.
It also carries essential commodities — like fruits, vegetables, paper etc. — at below-cost so that
their market prices are not adversely affected. It claims that its loss on account of essential
commodities last year was Rs 53.31 crore.
Amid all this, the Pay Commission burden of an additional Rs 32,000 crore will kick in at a time
when railways is trying desperately to decrease the cost of its operations by way of lowering the
cost of the power and diesel it procures and bringing down its Ordinary Working Expenses.
Although no official move has been made yet, the idea of a fare hike to aid finances next fiscal
has started doing the rounds in top circles of the railways board. The problem with such a move
is that a hike in fares of long-distance services would make low-cost flights a direct competition
of the AC classes. Moreover, at a time when railways is losing suburban passenger numbers,
officials feel it could be unwise to make local train travel expensive.
Even if it hikes passenger fares, subject to a political nod, railways has said that it cannot
increase its freight rates just to earn more.
“Freight segment, which yields 65 per cent of the revenue, is already overpriced both relative to
the passenger fares and benchmarked to any comparable countries in the world … Any further
increase in freight rates would not only out-price railways freight and lead to erosion of its
market share, it would also have a severe impact on the country’s environment and transport
network,” it has said.
53
PIONEER, JAN 8, 2016
RAILWAYS TO LEASE LUGGAGE COMPARTMENTS, BOOST REVENUE
The loss-making Railways recently got a financial boost from the Supreme Court, which
approved the Government’s decision to lease out spaces in its luggage compartments that
ensured optimum revenue from the running of trains.
The Court’s verdict has come as a huge relief for the cash-starved railways that took a policy
decision way back in the year 2000 to lease spaces in the Front Second Class Luggage Rake
(FSLR) and Ventilated Parcel (VP) Van. Interestingly, the Indian Railways Act 1989 has no
provision for leasing out spaces in compartment to a third party. It was this reason that prompted
a grape trader from Karnataka to challenge the Railways’ move. The HC dismissed the petition
that prompted an appeal by him in apex court.
Dealing with the law, the bench of Justices Vikramajit Sen (now retired) and Shiva Kirti Singh
said, “While it may be both pragmatic and sagacious to auction FSLR and VP, it can be done
with an objective of gathering optimum revenue.” However, while permitting the Railways to
delegate its functions to a third party, the Court put a rider. It directed the lessee not to charge
carriage prices in excess of those prescribed in the coaching tariff. Perishable goods are charged
Rs 2.38 per kg on the Delhi-Karnataka route. The rates differ for different trains.
Making an exception for the Railways, the bench was impressed by the submission by Rail
authorities that though Railways is a social vehicle aimed at public interest, it also is a
commercial undertaking that must take steps to make its operations financially viable. The
decision to lease out space was taken to buck the trend of long distance trains running empty
parcel vans and luggage compartments.
The bench observed, “Railway tariff no doubt has to be realistic and keep pace with time and if
the State so perceives, need not be a losing financial proposition.” The Court did not wish to
interfere with the policy making power of the executive but asked the Railways to bear in mind
that while delegating power to a third party (delegate or sub-delegate) it must lay down
principles for guidance of the third party. In no case, howsoever, the Court said that public
interest must suffer.
The Railways had assured the Court that the FSLR is the first compartment after the engine and
only half of the space in the wagon is used for carrying luggage or parcel.
The VP van is an additional compartment that gets added to the train in place of a passenger
bogey only when the occupancy in the train is thin. However, the Railways will not hesitate to
add another wagon to meet general needs of the public, an affidavit filed by Railways disclosed.
54
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
DECCAN HERALD, JAN 14, 2016
Castration as deterrent barbaric
No one would disagree with the Supreme Court’s observation that rape of and sexual assaults on
infants and children below 10 years are a result of mental perversion. The court has suggested to
Parliament to enact a separate law providing for harsher punishment for such offences. It also
wants a separate definition of “child” in the context of the offence of rape. Courts are
increasingly making suggestions concerning legislation to Parliament. This is not a good trend.
The court has done well to state that it is not for it to direct Parliament to legislate on a particular
issue in a particular way. But it has given its mind away by stating that it wants harsher punishment for child rapes. However, it is for Parliament to decide what laws it should frame. It is not
appropriate
for
courts,
which
later
may
have
to
examine
these
laws, to dictate what the law should be.
The issue came up before the court in a petition seeking chemical castration as an additional
punishment for child rapists. There has been discussion of such punishment in the past few years.
The J S Verma Committee which reviewed the laws relating to sexual crimes had categorically
rejected the proposal for chemical castration, as it felt that it amounted to a violation of human
rights. Such a punishment is retrograde and uncivilised. Sexual offences result not from high
libido and a strong sexual urge but from the urge for power and domination. Castration does not
address this problem at all and so is not a solution. In most countries where castration is
prescribed for convicted offenders it is voluntary and administered on demand from the convicts.
What is sought in India is mandatory castration as a punishment. This has arisen from moral and
emotional outrage, which is very valid and justified, but cannot be the basis for law.
More stringent penalties cannot be a deterrent against crimes. It is the certainty of punishment
and not its severity that can deter criminals. This has been proved by the increasing incidence of
crimes for which penalties have been made more and more harsh. The system has been found to
be incapable of handing out the punishment as prescribed now to those involved in crimes. The
conviction rate in cases of sexual abuse of children is a dismal 1 per cent. An increase in the
severity of punishment cannot change the situation, especially when the stricter punishment does
not address the basic reasons for the crime. Effective implementation of existing laws through
better prosecution and judicial action is a better option.
55
TAXATION
HINDU, JAN 12, 2016
Now professional tax on south Delhiites
DAMINI NATH
Cash-strapped South Delhi Municipal Corporation floats proposal to impose new tax in an
attempt to bridge deficit
acing mounting expenditures, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has decided to
consider imposing a new ‘professional tax’ on residents from the next financial year.
The Standing Committee of the SDMC on Monday decided to put the ball in the court of the
House, saying that a proposal for imposing professional tax will be deliberated by the House in
the next budget session.
“We have not passed or rejected the Commissioner’s proposal. The House will decide on the
matter,” said Standing Committee chairperson Radhey Shyam Sharma.
As per Article 276 of the Indian Constitution, State or local governments can impose taxes on
professions, trades, callings and employments up to Rs.2,500 per person annually.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation officials said the exact rate of the professional tax has not
been finalised yet, but its collection could net the corporation between Rs. 20 to Rs. 40 crore a
year.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is already collecting professional tax, and the SDMC will
study that city’s experience before coming up with a detailed proposal. The tax will be collected
from professionals, including doctors, lawyers and accountants.
During the budget session last year, the Commissioner had proposed a Rs.2,000 professional tax,
but it was rejected by the ruling-BJP in the corporation.
This time, however, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation is anticipating a deficit and is trying
to increase its revenue.
56
TRANSPORT
HINDU, JAN 12, 2016
Trying and testing the car formula
RUKMINI S.
SAMARTH BANSAL

While the Delhi government’s spirit of experimentation is to be lauded, theright lessons need to
be learnt from the odd-even trial
It is now amply clear that no credible data supports the Delhi government’s claim that the oddeven trial has reduced pollution or improved air quality. In fact, the quality of air in the first
week of January was worse compared to previous weeks. Data obtained from the National Air
Quality Index (NAQI) portal shows that air has been toxic all through this winter. While
averaging the AQI values across eight pollution-monitoring stations in Delhi, for which adequate
data was available, we found that November had seven days in the ‘severe’ category, 19 in the
‘very poor’ category, and four in the ‘poor’ category; December saw 20 days fall under the ‘very
poor’ category and 11 days under the ‘poor’ category. In the first week of January, all seven days
fell under the ‘very poor’ category. Even the peak value of PM2.5, which the government claims
has been lowest during the odd-even trial compared to earlier peaks this winter, is either
comparable or just slightly lower to peaks observed from the beginning of December,The
57
Hindu ’s analysis shows. On average, AQI values for Delhi for the first week of January were 20
to 25 per cent worse than during the preceding week.
Findings from other studies
Similar trends can be observed from data from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s
System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research’s monitoring stations, which
showed that the quality of air continuously deteriorated from December 25, with pollution levels
being “severe” on four out of the first eight days of January, worse than the previous week. Data
from either the Delhi Pollution Control Committee or the Central Pollution Control Board could
also not show any improvement in air quality.
It should be clear that the scheme did not worsen air quality; meteorological conditions did, but
the scheme was not able to mitigate this impact. For one, wind, which disperses pollutants, has
fallen consistently in speed since December. On the other hand, though higher temperatures —
the case this year compared to the same time last year — usually improve air quality, the
concentration level of particulate matter in January 2016 is twice as much as it was during
January 2015.
Simply put, it is disingenuous for the government to claim either that the odd-even trail has
improved air quality or that, but for its scheme, the air quality would have been worse given the
weather conditions, as Transport Minister Gopal Rai has claimed, since it has simply no way of
establishing this without better modelling.
Vehicular pollution
More worryingly, it now seems quite clear that this is what we should have expected. What is
clear from data about sources of air pollution in Delhi is that cars are not the major polluters. The
draft report of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, which was commissioned by the Delhi
government in 2013, on the sources of particulate matter finds that vehicles contribute to 20 per
cent of PM2.5 concentration. Among them, trucks and two-wheelers together contribute to 80
per cent of pollution; cars, 10 per cent. This means that the contribution of four-wheelers to air
pollution in Delhi is just 2 per cent. On a given day, when half the cars are taken off the road
during the odd-even trail, with additional exemptions, only a 0.5-1 per cent reduction in pollution
can be expected. This could be marginally higher depending on the impact of the wind.
Similar findings have been reported previously. In 2008, a study by the National Environmental
Engineering Research Institute attributed only 6.6 per cent of particulate matter emissions to
vehicles. At the more generous end, SAFAR at the beginning of the odd-even experiment
estimated that a 15 per cent reduction in PM2.5 levels could be expected. Despite being in
possession of these reports, the government repeatedly claims that cars are the main cause of
Delhi’s pollution.
58
None of this is to say that the experiment should not have been conducted; on the contrary, in
fact. India’s federalism allows for a vast array of public policy experiments, and the Delhi
experiment is one of the few related to environmental pollution in India. The Aam Aadmi Party’s
ability to take bold steps, convince people to take ownership of these steps, and force both a
conversation and behavioural change is truly remarkable. But an experiment must be built
around an open-ended question, which has not been the case so far. The government has not
honestly answered the question, “Did this scheme improve air quality?” The answer is, at worst,
a ‘no’, and at best, ‘we cannot say’. The government has instead made a virtue of decongestion,
which was not the stated objective of the experiment and is an obvious outcome.
Implementing other measures
The government, in the spirit of experimentation in which it initially announced the scheme
along with a series of other measures, must continue to try to see what improves Delhi’s air
quality. Perhaps the odd-even scheme will show a positive impact in the coming weeks, though it
should be declared a success only after weather conditions are incorporated into the analysis. An
odd-even trial in the summer months might be more useful to isolate its impact. The
government’s proposal to vacuum-clean roads in April is promising, given that the IIT Kanpur
study attributed 38 per cent of pollution to road dust. During Beijing’s ‘red alerts’ issued in
December 2015 and January 2016 over levels of particulate matter that Delhi regularly
experiences, restrictions on car usage were only a part of a bouquet of emergency measures
imposed. Other measures included temporary controls on industry and construction, and banning
the use of fireworks. Delhi would do well to react similarly on multiple fronts.
There are other lessons to be learnt from the odd-even experiment. Perhaps the increase in use of
public transport by the elite could put pressure on the government to improve it (though this
lesson is to be learned more by the Delhi Transport Corporation’s bus system than the metro
system, which is already used more than buses by the rich). Can the AAP’s remarkable
community-organising abilities drive further behavioural change away from single-use cars? The
greatest success of the scheme has undoubtedly been the fact that emergency levels of pollution
are now being hotly discussed by citizens. The AAP government has before it a unique
opportunity, which it should not squander away by asking the wrong questions or refusing to
hear the answers to its questions.
rukmini.s@thehindu.co.in and samarthbansal42@gmail.com
The scheme did not worsen air quality; meteorological conditions did, but the trial was not able
to mitigate this impact
BUSINESS STANDARD, JAN 11, 2016
Premium bus service in Delhi soon
59
Odd-even plan in Delhi will run its trial-period length: Gopal RaiDelhi govt to come out with
foolproof plan on driving rule by Dec 25NGT orders states to check crop burningSchool kids
take pledge in Delhi CM presence on odd-even schemeNetizens mock at Delhi govt over curbs
on plying of private vehicles
The Delhi government has proposed to start a ‘Premium Bus Service’ for the elite class with
higher
fares,
a
step
aimed
at
encouraging
them
to
use
public
transport.
According to the plan, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) may run air-conditioned premium
buses for those who can afford higher fares.
“Delhi government will launch Premium Bus Service for elite class, most of whom use their cars
to go to their offices as of now. The fares of this service will be higher in comparison to normal
bus service. These buses will ply only on selected routes where elite class is residing and
working.They can also book their seats in these buses online,” Delhi Transport Minister Gopal
Rai said.
Drop in pollution levels
Air quality in Delhi improved considerably on Saturday, mainly due to strong winds and sunny
conditions, with level of particulate matter settling 50 per cent less than the average readings
since the enforcement of the odd-even car rationing measures, the Delhi government today said.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), which collected samples from 18 locations
across the city, said PM 2.5 and PM 10, respirable particulate matters that cause harm to the
respiratory system, saw an average reduction of 50 and 30 per cent respectively.
"PM 2.5 air pollution levels on Saturday at these 18 locations showed recordings of less than 100
micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) at nine locations, which is more than 50 per cent less than
average recordings since the odd-even regulations were put in place for four-wheeled vehicles
since January 1," an official statement said.
60
Experts had put yesterday's air quality in
the 'moderate' category, which is a rarity
during the city's winters, notorious for
soaring
levels
of
pollutants.
Persistently high levels of PM 2.5 and PM
10 and smog largely owing to hostile
weather conditions over the past one week
had put questions marks over the efficacy
of
the
odd-even
scheme.
The safe limits of PM 2.5 and PM 10, a
product of vehicular emissions and dust
among others, are 60 and 100 each.
Anything beyond that is harmful as the
particles get embedded deep into the
lungs and, subsequently, enter the
bloodstream.
Of these total 18 locations, the lowest
measurement was at 59 (Jhilmil Colony, Shahdara) and the highest at 301 (Kazipur, Najafgarh).
DPCC's mobile vans have so far collected samples from around 150 locations.
In 18 locations measured on Saturday, even the PM 10 air pollution levels have shown a "marked
decline", the government said adding that it have been recorded between 135-475.
"Scientists have been consistently predicting that the moment weather conditions improve, the
results of odd/even formula for four-wheeled vehicles will show immediate results," the
statement said.
TIMES OF INDIA, JAN 8, 2016
E-ticketing machines in 20 DTC buses
Rumu Banerjee
New Delhi: Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has taken the first step towards an integrated
mobility card for buses and the Delhi Metro. Since Wednesday, DTC has installed electronic
ticketing machines (ETM) in 20 buses on route number 901. Over the rest of this month, it will
install ETMs in 100 buses each at two depots: Rajghat and Rohini, said DTC spokesperson, R S
Minhas.
61
DTC has been trying to install ETMs for some time. It was mooted way back in 2010, but could
not take off due to several reasons. The state bus agency hopes to install ETMs in all its 4,500
buses by the end of June. "And by the end of this year, we hope that the common mobility card
will become a reality," added Minhas. At present, the ETM will produce a regular printed ticket.
"The commuter will have to enter the destination and a ticket will be issued," added Minhas. He
added that the feedback so far has been positive.
According to the DTC, once the ETM system is stabilised, a smart card will be introduced. DTC
hopes that ETMs will plug revenue leaks that have beset the agency for decades. They will also
cut down on ticketless travelling. Said a senior official, "ETMs will ensure that operational costs
are brought down," said an official. Officials say that the biggest benefit of the electronic
ticketing machine will be in revenue collection, as well as cutting down substantially on
ticketless travel by commuters. The ETM will ensure that fare for every ticket sold is accounted
for, which at present is done manually. Combined with the fact that all DTC buses are on GPS,
officials are hoping that leakage of revenue will be tackled, as the GPS ensures that buses go on
the designated route, and don't miss stops.
In 2011, the union ministry had launched the More card, which was a common mobility card that
allowed anyone to travel on any mode of transport across the country. The idea was that the card
would enable a commuter to travel seamlessly through any mode of transport, without having to
carry separate cards for the different transport systems. Access to bus, metro or rail would be
possible through a single card. Even parking payments and paying traffic challans through the
were discussed as possible features. However, the card failed to take off due to lack of an
automated fare collection system on most public transport agencies. The More card works in the
Delhi Metro only at present.
62