LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

BUSINESS LINE

DECCAN HERALD

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

HINDUSTAN TIMES

PIONEER

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

TRIBUNE

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CONTENTS

CIVIL SERVICE 3-13

COMPUTERS 14

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 15-21

EDUCATION 22-31

ELECTRICITY 32-33

FORESTS 34

HEALTH SERVICES 35-36

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 37-41

JUDICIARY 42-43

LIBRARIES 44-46

POLICE 47-48

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 49-52

PRIMEMINISTERS 53-54

PUBLIC UTILITIES 55-56

URBAN DEVELOPMENT 57-59

WOMEN 60-64

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CIVIL SERVICE

STATESMAN, SEP 24, 2017Outlander’s intrusion~IRaghu Dayal 

In his two-part article, “Lateral intrusion” (8-9 September), Ashok Kapur seeks to thwart the entry of any outsider, other than the IAS, “for ‘prize’ positions of prestige and authority” in the government. Convinced as he is that the IAS alone is “trained and experienced exclusively for senior positions in the government”, he appears to be out of step with the times.

He chooses to ignore with disdain the concerted appeal made over the past 60 years by some distinguished members of the ICS and IAS as well as Administrative Reform Commissions, Pay Commissions and expert bodies of the vast potential gains of inducting appropriate officers from amongst various services and technocrats, professionals and entrepreneurs from outside into higher administrative echelons.

India has persisted with an old, colonial bureaucratic structure ~ obese and parasitical, producing a thicket of red tape, the civil service emerging as a corps d’ elite, the new class, “privileged persons divorced from the people and standing above the people”. The administration has been the Achilles’ heel, impeding the country’s ability to deliver.

The IAS, on the pattern of the ICS, has been in the vanguard. As viewed by Jawaharlal Nehru the ICS had some outstanding individuals, but it was “a symbol of inequality, casteism and amateurish dilettantism in our administration”. While the tasks it faces are those of the 21st century, the IAS continues to be fundamentally based on the old concept of the ‘amateur’, ‘all-rounder’, or ‘generalist’. This is clearly antithetical to public administration. The system is particularly fragile at the higher levels, bereft of leadership within. Chaucer said centuries ago, “If gold shall rust, what will iron do”?

A century ago, the government’s tasks were mainly passive and regulatory. Now it is engaged in a far more active and positive engagement in public affairs ~ location of a new airport, buying military supplies, pre-empting the looming scourge of climate change, fostering the brave new world of digital revolution, striking new energy policy.

These tasks call for civil servants to use new techniques of analysis, management and coordination. The Government’s overtures to unshackle the economy from regulations and controls demand a structural, indeed surgical, transformation in its instruments of governance. Law and order itself has become a critical management problem and it has a distant relation with development. Tribal, Dalit and gender politics have led to a development crisis.

Compared to the past, public administration and Parliament need greater foresight in matters of land development, the transport system and other resources. India’s post-1991 economic liberalization policy placed the civil service in a new trajectory, accelerating its pace of change and calling for necessary adjustments.

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Senior civil servants are called upon to negotiate with multinational corporations, testing their communication skills, and knowledge of international economics and trade. The new compulsions call for a departure from the prevalent generalist culture of the civil service.

A key challenge is that specialists continue to be underrepresented and under-valued at all levels of government. It was the specialist knowledge of the chief veterinary officer that made him ~ and not the secretary of state or permanent secretary ~ the most trusted source of advice during the foot-andmouth crisis in 2001.

Civil servants today need to keep pace with the rapid expansion of knowledge and they need to acquire new techniques to apply the same. The Civil Service needs to be staffed by men and women who are truly professional, with two main attributes ~ one, the job-skill from training and sustained experience; second, the fundamental knowledge of a particular subject. A generalist is one who is aware of the technique and processes involved in a factory or a technical undertaking or in administration, but he is not an expert. A specialist or an expert is a man whose special training makes him an authority in a particular field. The use of the specialist in government finds its most vigorous expression in the American Civil Service.

The skills needed to administer a vast continent, to develop its natural resources, to promote social and economic growth were specialised skills. The specialists in the British system have made some notable gains in science agencies, in public enterprises and in the welfare agencies. In the US, a generalist service recruited by competitive examination and known as the Junior Management Service has been created. The government in the UK encourages departments and agencies to advertise for posts at all levels, including the most senior.

There is also a substantial degree of exchanges from and to the Civil Service, interchange of staff between departments and between the departments and agencies. The British bureaucratic structure, which India has followed, is in tune with the Fulton Committee’s denunciation of “the cult of the generalist” based on the Northcote-Trevelyn and Macaulay reports.

It has introduced important innovations in the civil service ~ executive agencies for specific services like prisons, coast guard, passport offices, which function as corporate business entities, each under a CEO (many of them from the private sector) responsible to the Minister. Examples abound in India of the system producing a nonexpert minister assisted usually by a non-expert secretary to whom a non-expert head of department is adviser.

Senior engineers or other experts are called upon to brief civil servants about the intricacies of the work and in writing minutes on simple technical matters. Dr KL Rao, while analysing the administrative working of the DVC, found that non-technical administrators remained at the top rung of the project; there was no chief engineer for years; foreign consultants were brought in to advise the non-technical administrators at the top. As Cabinet Secretary, B.G. Deshmukh pleaded that “appointing people from outside at senior levels on contract basis would be invigorating for the civil service as a whole”. Indeed, an optimal share of generalists and specialists in India’s civil service has been advocated for over sixty years.

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Realising the crucial need for senior specialist officers to steer the government’s economic agenda, the Central Administrative Pool was put in place in 1957 for building up a reserve of officers with special experience of economic administration. Pretty soon it was reduced to irrelevance. An Administrative Reforms Commission was set up in November 1965. It recommended that all competent Class I officers from all services should have access to middle and senior management posts in the Secretariat, that preference for the generalist be replaced by a preference for those who have acquired competence in the field concerned.

The ARC-I spelt out eight fields of specialization ~ economic, industrial, agricultural and rural development, social and educational administration, personnel, financial, defence and internal security, and planning. It emphasised that specialization in skills and knowledge be built up in the services by allowing persons to continue in particular areas or fields of administration for a minimum period of 8-10 years.

The Surendra Nath Committee, 2003 likewise stressed the importance of providing “domain expertise”. It carved out eleven domains for officers under the Central Staffing Scheme. It envisaged that officers may be assigned a maximum of three domains.

The assignment of domains could be integral to the empanelment process at Joint Secretary/Additional Secretary levels.

(The writer is Senior Fellow, Asian Institute of Transport Development, and former CMD, Container Corporation of India)

(To be concluded)

STATESMAN, SEP 25, 2017Outlander’s intrusion~IIRaghu Dayal     

The second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC II) reinforced the logic of increasing professionalization of the Civil Service.

It suggested the specialization can be achieved through providing channels of (a) lateral entry; (b) liberal revolving-door policy; and (c) creation of a Senior Executive Service (SES) to which positions can be filled by applying the criterion of merit at higher levels and not just the entry level.

It recommended the setting up of a Central Civil Services Authority which would formulate guidelines for appointments at the senior management level in the Government. It would also identify posts which could be open for recruitment from all sources.

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For positions at a higher level, the Central Public Service Authority should, in consultation with the Government, earmark positions for which outside talent would be desirable.

The Sixth Central Pay Commission recommended that certain posts in the Senior Administrative Grade and Higher Administrative Grade requiring technical or specialized expertise and not en-cadred in any of the services be filled by suitable officers within the Government as well as by outsiders on contract.

It suggested a shift from careerbased to post-based selection in the higher echelons of the Government in order to get the best domain-based expertise.

In 1977, in an effort to break the IAS stranglehold, Prime Minister Morarji Desai inducted professionals such as MS Swaminathan as Agriculture Secretary, Lovraj Kumar the first chemist to serve as Petroleum Secretary, Manuel Menezes an engineer was appointed as Secretary for Defence Production.

On returning to power in 1980, Indira Gandhi set up a new Department of Environment, for which a reputed botanist T.N. Khooshoo was hired as its Secretary. Gradually the IAS fought back and reclaimed possession of the ministries it had lost control of.

In recent years, the IAS has not only protected its turf; it has steadily conquered new fiefdoms, expanded into new areas. It now virtually dominates even the Constitutional institutions, notably the Election Commission and the Information Commission.

Both are run by retired IAS officers. So also CAG and CVC. Then there are a range of other avenues ~ an array of commissions for human rights, for finance, SC and ST, governors and ambassadors, et al.

Public spirited and well-endowed professionals, social scientists, or serving Group ‘A’ Central Services officers are not allowed to be considered. The IAS has over time acquired a new trait ~ bureaucratic imperialism.

It has intruded into spheres that once legitimately belonged to the technocrats, educationists and other groups ( Jagmohan). Further, a large number of excadre posts have been created, a senior officer’s normal charge has been split up into three or four same level positions with nominal workload.

A number of insignificant posts have been arbitrarily upgraded to provide high level berths. The IAS began to encroach upon the legitimate premises of the specialized and technical services. Contrary to general belief, liberalisation has expanded the power of the bureaucracy, creating a permanent establishment that never retires.

Serving or retired bureaucrats have spread their tentacles over virtually every important decision-making institution. No less than nine among the twelve economic regulators that came into being since liberalisation owe their roots to the privileged coterie.

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No wonder that bureaucrats spend the last few years of their service career kowtowing for post-retirement lollies. This has had a debilitating effect on the civil service. The IAS dominates over the country’s entire administrative domain.

As the Chairman, Pay Commission-VII said, it has arrogated “to itself all power of governance”, relegating “all other services to secondary position”. The modus operandi is simple: like Humphreys of Yes Minister, astute members of the IAS control every commission or committee, “processes” all reform proposals with a vicious grip over the political masters.

As Jim Hacker rued in Yes Minister, the permanent officials force decisions the way magicians force cards on their audience in the three-card trick: ‘Choose any card, choose my card’. Many among Cabinet Secretaries, Chief Secretaries and those in the PMO facilitate the process.

When Mr Kapur dismisses a corporate executive as merely “manipulating the market”, with “no experience in executive decision-making”, he ought to acknowledge that, while in business administration, individual self-interest is checked and diluted by the fear of loss of sales and declining profit, bureaucratic behaviour is primarily determined by consideration of power, prestige, money, security, and convenience.

Max Weber, the bureaucrat’s favourite philosopher, once remarked that the bureaucrat was a kleber, using the German word for ‘sticky’, meaning the bureaucrat will stick to his chair, refusing to take bold decisions.

As Lord Bridges of the UK maintained, civil servants personify timidity and pusillanimity, indifference and apathy, perpetuating elitism among the highest echelons. The former Cabinet Secretary, TSR Subramanian recalls what UP’s Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said at a state level IAS officers’ conclave in 1990 ~ “Why do you come and touch my feet? Why do you come and lick my shoes? Why do you come to me for personal favours? When you do so, I will do as you desire and then extract my price from you.”

While reviewing Arun Shourie’s book, Governance and the Sclerosis That Has Set In, Edward Luce mentions how Franz Kafka would have had difficulty dreaming up some of the examples cited in the book.

It piles example upon example of bureaucratic tragicomedy on the reader, how a hostile bureaucracy won the day through obfuscation, missing files, and wonderfully baroque delaying tactics. “This way of doing things ~ a mindless, endless shuffling in slow motion ~ is not a device, it is more than a habit.

It has become nature”. Imagine how narcissistic Mr Kapur and his ilk appear with the claim that the IAS provides for “not merely good governance but the best”.

It would be pertinent to remind them of the testimonial that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had once advanced by way of a scathing indictment ~ “We have government servants who do not serve but oppress the poor and the helpless, who do not uphold the law but connive with those

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who cheat the state and the whole legions whose only concern is their private welfare at the cost of the society.

They have only a grasping mercenary outlook, devoid of competence, integrity and commitment.” They may well heed the sobering thoughts of Mr Ashok Mitra, ICS ~ “Knowledge has become more complex and specialized, which an IAS finds it hard to keep up with as he gets tossed about as a generalist from one field to another.

His stock of reasoned and systematic knowledge, acquired in his university days, lasts him, unless periodically replenished, for the first dozen years or so of his service life.

By the time he is in need of more he is reduced to such a rubberneck, hopping from one generalist job to another that he is denied the opportunity and leisure of acquiring more of it.

Thus an IAS runs the danger of lapsing into illiteracy so far as theoretical sophistication for policy making in concerned. The best of the IAS begin by being as good if not better, material than the best of the ICS, and that it is the system that rusts them so quickly.

Rule of thumb mumbo-jumbo is bound to be anti-intellectual.

(Concluded)

(The writer is Senior Fellow Asian Institute of Transport Development, and former CMD, Container Corporation of India)

PIONEER, SEP 26, 2017USE TECH FOR DEV: NAIDU TO BABUS4

5Maintaining that it is after many years that India has a stable Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday advised bureaucrats, whom he termed ‘future leaders’, to learn continuously and make use of technology in enabling overall development.

Naidu was addressing senior IAS officers at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie during the inaugural session of 11th round of a three-week mandatory Phase-V Mid-career training programme that started on Monday.

 “Those who can learn continuously can make wonders. I am still a student. I learn from society, common man and administrators like you,” he said citing his own example.

Presenting Andhra Pradesh’s case study, Naidu shared with the officers his strategy to make the State the best in the country by 2029. Highlighting the importance of technology in development, he showcased the implementation of latest technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, drones, sensors and geo-tagging to improve governance. He also talked about the concept of ‘uberisation’ on how to utilise assets more efficiently.

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He pointed out that India has three advantages; demographic dividend, largest English speaking population and Information technology (IT)’. “One out of four IT professionals in the world is Indian and out of every four Indian IT professionals, one is from Andhra Pradesh,” he

outlined.

He further said, “Through Fiber grid, we want to reach the last mile by connecting every home in the State. AP is leading with steady growth rate. In the first quarter, AP has achieved 11.72 per cent growth rate while the country’s average is 5.6 per cent. We have selected ten sectors as growth engines contributing the maximum growth of the State,” he added.

He showcased the ‘CM Core dashboard’ built to facilitate real-time governance where the State can monitor welfare schemes and other Government services in real time. “To promote good governance, we are using CM Connect, Praishkara Vedika, Kaizala and People First applications to address public grievances. We want to ultimately achieve 80 per cent plus public satisfaction levels’, he added.

Outlining the importance of environment, he said the State is aiming to achieve 50 per cent green cover by 2029. “We are developing a smartwater grid by conserving water and linking of rivers’, he said. “Andhra Pradesh has achieved 100 per cent electrification and 24/7 power supply to every household. Now, we are going for smart power grid with the help of technology”, he added.

On his dream capital Amaravati, Naidu said,  “I had the fortune of building a brownfield city, Cyberabad. Now, I am building a Greenfield city, Amaravati. My State, Andhra Pradesh is a new State, only three years old. It is like a small child. I will nurture it carefully.”

BUSINESS LINE, SEP 25, 2017Rajiv Mehrishi takes charge as new CAGMehrishi will have a tenure of about three years.Rajiv Mehrishi took charge as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Monday. Mehrishi is a 1978 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan Cadre. Mehrishi, 62, retired after completing two terms as the Home Secretary in 2017.

The CAG is appointed for a term of six years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

Mehrishi succeeds Shashi Kant Sharma who was the defence secretary, prior to his appointment in 2013.

FINANCIAL EXPRESS, SEP 28, 20177th Pay Commission Report: Minimum basic pay of government employees set for a hike; will it be Rs 26,000? 5 things to know

The Central government employees have a reason to rejoice as the Modi government is likely to

increase their minimum basic pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000 per month soon.

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The Central government employees have a reason to rejoice as the Modi government is likely to

increase their minimum basic pay from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000 per month soon. According to

media reports, the National Anomaly Committee (NAC) is likely to meet next month for

reviewing the basic pay structure and may recommend a hike in the minimum basic pay from Rs

18,000 to Rs 21,000 per month as against the current demand of getting it increased to Rs

26,000. Here are five things to know about this development:

1.The Modi government had a few months back approved an increase in the minimum basic pay

of Central government employees under the 7th Pay Commission from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000

per month while the maximum basic pay was increased from Rs 80,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh.

2.Central government employees’ unions, however, were not happy with the hike in the

minimum basic pay and wanted it to be increased to Rs 26,000.

3.Keeping this in view, the National Anomaly Committee is likely to meet in October for

reviewing the basic pay structure. As per sources, the minimum basic pay is likely to be

increased from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000.

4.Along with this, the fitment factor for basic pay is also likely to be raised to 3 times from 2.57

times as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission.

5. Under the 7th CPC, the earlier system of Pay Bands and Grade Pay has been dispensed with

and a new Pay Matrix has been introduced. The CPC has introduced index of rationalisation for

arriving at minimum pay in each Level of the Pay Matrix depending upon the increasing role,

responsibility and accountability at each step in the hierarchy. In this context, the CPC has

enhanced the minimum pay from Rs 7000 to 18000 per month. With this the starting salary of a

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newly-recruited employee at the lowest level is currently Rs 18000 whereas for a newly-

recruited Class I officer, it is Rs 56100.

FINANCIAL EXPRESS, SEP 30, 20177th Pay Commission: Know what’s the latest development on pay hike of minimum salary

7th Pay Commission salary hike: The PM Narendra Modi led Union Cabinet which had earlier

approved the recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission panel is expected to meet once

again.

The PM Narendra Modi led Union Cabinet which had earlier approved the recommendations of

7th Central Pay Commission panel is expected to meet once again in the month of January. The

meet will take place to decide on the pay hike of the minimum salary of Central government

employees, according to a report in OneIndia.com. It was cited in various media reports that

Ministry of Finance is planning to raise the minimum pay hike from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000

under 7th Pay Commission.

Earlier, on September 12, it was reported that a committee has been formed to look into various

pay related anomalies arising out of the implementation of the Seventh Central Pay

Commission’s recommendations. The 22-member panel will be headed by Secretary,

Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and it will have members from both the official

and staff side, news agency PTI reported. It has been decided to set up the anomaly committee of

the National Council (Joint Consultative Machinery) consisting of representatives of the official

side and the staff side to settle any anomalies arising out of the implementation of the Pay

Commission’s recommendations, an order issued recently by the DoPT said.

From the government side, it will have Member (Staff) Railway Board, secretaries of

Department of Telecommunications and Department of Posts, as its members.

Besides them, Financial Adviser, Defence Ministry, two joint secretaries from DoPT and another

Joint Secretary (Personnel) in Finance Ministry will also be part of the panel. A Deputy

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Secretary of the DoPT will be Member-Secretary of the panel which has 13 people from the staff

side, the order said.

The Centre has accepted most of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, to be

implemented from January 1, 2016.

In the month of June, in a bonanza to 48 lakh central government employees, the Union Cabinet

approved recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission with 34 modifications.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 24, 2017Arvind Subramanian to continue as chief economic adviser for another year

Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian’s three-year term ends on October 16.

The government will extend the term of chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian by one year

till October 2018, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday.

Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was

appointed India’s chief economic adviser (CEA) in October 2014. His term was for three years,

which was to end on October 16.

Interacting with reporters on Saturday, Jaitley said Subramanian will get one year extension.

The BJP-led NDA government’s 5-year term ends in May 2019.

The CEA is usually the main go-to person for advice for the finance minister on macro-economic

matters, and primary responsibilities, among others, include authoring the mid-year analysis and

the Economic Survey.

Subramanian’s predecessor was Raghuram Rajan, who quit the position in September 2013 after

being appointed the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

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Subramanian graduated from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and got an MBA from the Indian

Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He obtained M Phil and D Phil from the University of

Oxford, UK.

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COMPUTERS

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 27, 2017Data protection is not negotiableNadella is right in saying tech firms should win users’ trust

The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, acknowledging that users of technology deserve better privacy and data security is a step in the right direction in the realm of cyber security. The thorny matters of cyber security are some of the most pressing and complicated legal questions of our time. Since

ourtake technology companies cater to users across geographical boundaries, protection of rights within online space becomes that much harder.

As most of our social and private lives are taken over by private companies that work through the almost border-less Internet, governing the millions of bytes of data that transfer huge amounts of information across the Internet becomes vitally important.Companies such as Google and Microsoft technically have access to user data ranging from personal emails to detailed location histories for every single user, across national boundaries. Law enforcement agencies, coercive governments, hackers, and others might all gain access to this information via various methods. Mr. Nadella is absolutely right in saying that technology companies must work towards making themselves more trustworthy to users. His advice to develop a “principled, transparent, and efficient framework” for Internet governance is critical not just to the future of the Internet but also to law enforcement and cooperation across the world. Promoting trust in technological companies is a vital first step, and ensuring that data collected from users remains secure is a fundamental concern.

Given the recent Supreme Court judgement that reads privacy as a fundamental right of Indian citizens, how this is enacted within cyberspace and with respect to technology companies will be one of the most important issues in India going forward. Stronger privacy protections for individuals, clear laws for data access to law enforcement and other agencies, and transparent legal frameworks for the collection of digital evidence must be worked out. While social media and online footprints can be effectively used in crime detection and prevention, it must be ensured that we don’t devolve into a surveillance society in which every individual is living in a veritable panopticon.

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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

TELEGRAPH, SEP 28, 2017Yashwant sticks to call for course correction in economy

New Delhi, Sept. 28 (Agencies): BJP veteran and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha stuck to call for a course correction in the economy despite a perceived bid by the government to field his minister son Jayant Sinha to rebut his criticism.

Yashwant, who had launched a blistering attack on Union finance minister Arun Jaitley that set off a political storm, said he had sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year so he could flag the issues but got none.

So he put forth his views through an article in a national English daily, he said.

”I found the doors were shut for me. Therefore, I had no option but to speak up (in media)...I am confident I have worthwhile suggestions to make (to the prime minister),” he told national TV channels.

Yashwant, 84, said any government of the day “should listen” when people like former prime minister Manmohan Singh or former finance minister P. Chidambaram, considered experts on financial matters, speak up, and advised against dismissing their views as “political rhetoric”.

The Bharatiya Janata Party veteran, now sidelined in the party, did not name the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government that ruled for two terms after the first BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in which he was a finance minister.

But, he said, Manmohan Singh’s government “cannot be blamed” for the tardy implementation of central projects as the NDA has been in power for the last 40 months.

Replying to a question about whether his “disgruntlement” led him to criticise the government, Yashwant said it was the “cheapest accusation” that could be levelled against him.

He insisted he “technically” continues to be a member of the BJP as the party has also not “thrown me out”.

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, who made a stout defence of the government's economic policies in a newspaper article on Thursday, got a lot of stick from his father.

Yashwant sought to know why Jayant was shifted from the finance ministry “if he was so competent” to answer the concerns raised by him.

Jayant was shifted out of the finance ministry in July last year.

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”There is a decline in the growth rate quarter after quarter. I decided to speak up when the problems in the economy were multiplying...I hope the government even now will take steps to correct the situation which has arisen,” he said.

Yashwant said he did not flag the issues out of “personal rancour”.

”If someone has asked him (Jayant) to write the piece, then it is a cheap trick to play...I have not spoken to him (on the issue). Will do it some time to find out (what exactly happened),” Yashwant said.

Yashwant said policy paralysis and corruption resulted in projects not moving forward under the UPA dispensation.  

TELEGRAPH, SEP 28, 2017

Economy a mess: Yashwant - Senior BJP leader slams demonetisation & GST

Our Special Correspondent

Yashwant Sinha

New Delhi, Sept. 27: Former finance minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today painted a grim picture of the economy and held finance minister Arun Jaitley responsible, angering the government and the party.

In an article in The Indian Express titled "I need to speak up now", Sinha wrote: "A hard landing appears inevitable. Bluff and bluster is fine for the hustings, it evaporates in the face of reality."

Although Jaitley bore the brunt of the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not escape unscathed.

"The Prime Minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister is working over-time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters," Sinha wrote.

Demonetisation and GST - decisions celebrated by the Modi government as its big successes - were blamed for adding fuel to the fire in the economy.

After the initial shock, the government came out in the afternoon to reject Sinha's assessment and claim the economy was on a firm footing.

"The world acknowledges India is the fastest-growing economy. No one should forget it. Our image at the international level is very strong," home minister Rajnath Singh said, asked about

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the article.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, India has become the world's fastest- growing economy for three years in a row," railway minister Piyush Goyal said.

The Indian economy grew at 7.1 per cent in 2016-17, putting it ahead of China which grew 6.7 per cent in 2016. But in the latest quarter India's growth rate has slipped to 5.7 per cent while China's has risen to 6.9 per cent.

"I shall be failing in my national duty if I did not speak up even now against the mess the finance minister has made of the economy. I am also convinced that what I am going to say reflects the sentiments of a large number of people in the BJP and elsewhere who are not speaking out of fear," wrote Sinha, whose son Jayant is a junior minister.

Privately, the party dismissed Sinha's comments and said the leader was venting his frustration because he had been sidelined. The scathing attack on Jaitley was blamed on old rivalry. A section also saw the comments as part of a game to clip the wings of Jaitley.

However, the BJP is angry because Sinha's comments would give credence to the attack by the Congress and others who have been arguing that demonetisation and GST had left the economy bleeding.

"Demonetisation has proved to be an unmitigated economic disaster, a badly conceived and poorly implemented GST has played havoc with business and sunk many of them and countless millions have lost their jobs," Sinha wrote.

He also took on Amit Shah, citing the largest public sector bank, the State Bank of India. "It (SBI) has openly contradicted what the BJP president said just a few days ago that the slowdown in the last quarter was on account of 'technical' reasons and will be corrected soon," he said.

The government could find it hard to dismiss Sinha's comments because several others in the Sangh parivar share his views. RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy and BJP MP Subramanian Swamy have both voiced fears about the slide in the economy.

Today, the RSS labour arm, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, said: "The present slowdown is the result of wrong direction of economy and job-displacing reforms followed as a continuation of UPA policies."

BUSINESS LINE SEP 28, 2017Jaitley takes on critics, defends govt’s record on economy

Taking on the criticism of government policies that are said to have impacted economic growth, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that initially the government was criticised for taking “incremental reforms” and is now facing flak for “Big Bang” measures.

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“Post demonetisation and especially after the Goods and Services Tax, the biggest criticism was that why did I do it so quickly,” he said at the launch of a book ‘India @70 Modi @3.5’, written by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy and Ashok Malik, Press Secretary to the President of India.

Jaitley’s comments come soon after senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram criticised the NDA policies that have led to first quarter GDP growth slowing to a three-year low of 5.7 per cent.

Referring to robust tax collection data, the Minister questioned criticism on the perceived slowdown in the economy. “The so called slowdown has now impacted the tax collections,” he said.

While direct tax collections have risen 15.7 per cent over last year, receipts from GST are on anticipated lines and are expected to increase further.

Jaitley said that with GST collections at over ₹90,000 crore in the first two months of its roll out and payments to States have been made. Noting that there have been teething troubles, he also promised easier compliance for small businesses under GST.

Dig at CongressTaking a dig at the Congress, Jaitley blamed them of policy paralysis and said it was keen to delay the roll out of GST.

Pointing out that India has been the fastest growing economy into the world, Jaitley said that every economy faces some difficulties.

Noting that demonetisation has had some impact on the economy in the short run, he said that it will have a positive effect in the medium and short term.

Another challenge has been some of the lagging private sector and promised that the government would take “decisive” measures to address it.

“The space of bringing a blend between a fast moving economy and making sure benefits percolate even to the poor has been the basic tenor of the government in the past three and a half years,” Jaitley stressed, listing out schemes like Saubhagya, Ujjwala and Jan Dhan.

The Minister said that the economic situation now is better than what was inherited from the UPA government.

While the fiscal and current account deficit are under control, foreign investments have been encouraged through opening up sectors and dismantling the FIPB.

On concerns over rising inflation, he said that some amount of inflation is good for the economy or else there would be recession.

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While retail inflation is now at about 3.36 per cent, Jaitley said under the UPA it was at about 9 per cent to 10 per cent.

(This article was published on September 28, 2017)STATESMAN, SEP 29, 2017Economic blightPK Vasudeva 

Faced with a worrying decline in GDP growth, industrial production and jobs, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley chaired an inter-ministerial brain-storming session on 19 September, with a view to create measures that could be speedily implemented in order to stimulate India’s economy.

Rail and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, top bureaucrats from the Commerce and Finance ministries, Niti Aayog chief Rajiv Kumar, and officials from the Prime Minister’s Office attended the session.

The key message that emerged was that the Narendra Modi government won’t steer economic policies in a new direction, but generate fresh measures to galvanise the economy and implement financial plans rapidly.

“The group discussed areas which need greater thrust. Exports, industrial production, infrastructure and job generation were discussed as zones which need speedy stimulus,” said an official. The group agreed that the government would have to provide the fiscal stimulus that the country needs.

They have realised that the private sector ~ which has remained indifferent to the Centre’s attempts to get it to open its cheque books ~ won’t change overnight.

All participating ministries presented the measures they had planned, as well as ideas on how to increase the speed of execution. For instance, the Railway ministry has a raft of infrastructure plans that could involve the private sector and generate employment.

The Commerce ministry has been asked to create a blueprint for incentivising exports to boost production and create jobs. The cash crunch post demonetisation reduced demand, which in turn stymied industrial production. This caused GDP growth to fall from 7.1 per cent in last year’s first quarter to 6.1 per cent in the corresponding quarter this year. The figure for Q2 is even lower: 5.7 per cent.

Various estimates say the note ban, touted as a crusade against hoarders of undeclared income and financiers of terrorism, has wiped out around 1.5 million jobs. Inflation has risen by almost 1 per cent this month alone; it was at an all-time low last month.

As regards India Inc., it remains averse to expanding the job market in the near future, given the doubts about the manufacturing sector. A quarterly survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers

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of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) shows that as many as 73 per cent of manufacturers had no plans to hire new personnel between July and October.

The government hopes the effects of demonetisation will slowly wear off, and that demand and manufacturing will increase again. But 74 per cent of the entities in FICCI’s report had no plans to add capacity in the coming months. The organisation recorded responses from over 300 companies from a wide array of sectors, with a combined annual turnover of Rs 3.5 lakh crore. Since private investment in manufacturing is likely to remain low for a few more months, the Modi government has decided to speed up whatever the public sector can do.

It hopes that in doing so, it will create a trickle-down impact, encouraging the private sector at a time when macroeconomic indicators are positive. Global growth is showing signs of revival, government revenues are improving, foreign exchange reserves ($400 bn) and oil prices are at reasonable levels, the money flow is encouraging, and a satisfactory monsoon is keeping food prices in check. Despite such feel-good factors, the Indian economy is heading for a “major depression” and it can “crash” soon if efforts are not put to revive it, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has said.

The Rajya Sabha MP claimed that a year and a half ago, he had written a 16-page letter to the Prime Minister warning him about the economy, which is in a “tailspin”. “We need to do a lot of good things to revive the economy.

Even a tailspin can be made to steady. If nothing is done, we are heading for a serious depression. Banks may collapse, factories might start closing,” he said. The Modi government needs to get its act together on the economy to prevent big slippages in growth as well as to keep inflationary risks well under control. Economic growth had eased to its slowest in 13 quarters in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal year and full year growth is expected to be around 7 per cent.

Much of the slowdown in the second half of the last fiscal year and the first quarter of the current fiscal is a result of the shock demonetisation that was announced on November 8 last year.

Growth in the current quarter and perhaps even in the next is expected to be impacted by the implementation of GST on July 1 this year. Both demonetisation and the GST implementation were disruptive moves, but the Government needs to be more proactive in relieving the pain caused by them.

What should concern the Government is that there is some despondency settling in ~ businesses continue to remain slow, save recovery in sales of automobiles. High frequency data points to several risks to India’s growth.

The index of industrial production for July was up 1.2 per cent and that is largely because mining output and electricity generation have been rising. Manufacturing sector growth remains insipid, expanding by only 0.1 per cent on a year-on-year basis in July.

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Inflationary pressures are returning and not merely on account of fruit and vegetable prices. Petroleum product prices too are responsible for the higher reading of both consumer and wholesale price indices. The wholesale price index for July shows petrol and diesel inflation climbed 24.6 per cent and 20.3 per cent respectively.

To compound the economy’s woes, exports have not been doing too well, even though growth has picked up in exports headed to the US and Europe. Gems and jewellery exports fell almost 26 per cent in August, compared to a year ago. Bank credit growth to industry has also been poor for several months now, a clear indicator that private investment is yet to pick up. The onset of the festival/ wedding season normally boosts demand, particularly for consumer durables.

Likewise, a good monsoon may prove beneficial for agricultural output. But these alone are not enough to get growth well over 7 per cent, a pre-requisite for job creation. In the short term, consumer and investor sentiments need to improve, and that can happen if the Government introduces a few feel-good policies.

Lowering taxes on petroleum products could be one such move. However, for more stable and rapid growth, the Government needs to address glitches arising out of the implementation of GST.

It also needs to address the problems of farmers, who are bearing the brunt of price volatility, rather than take kneejerk decisions on imports and exports.

In short, the Centre needs to demonstrate that it is still very much in charge of the economy.

(The writer is a retired Professor of International Trade and author of World Trade Organisation: Implications for Indian Economy (Pearson Education). He may be reached at vasu022@gmail.com)

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EDUCATION

STATESMAN, SEP 30, 2017Values & EducationValson Thampu 

One of the evident and consistent features of education in India is the growing unease about values-education, socalled. Invariably every report or document on education underlines the need for giving effect to this core component of learning. But values-education continues to languish. Here is a symptom of our diffidence about implementing values-education. We have tried and discarded various names for it.

Once upon a time it was called moral instruction. Then it was named values education. Then, in 2005, it was renamed as peace education. Now we do not know what to call it. Surely, there must be a reason for it. What could that reason be? I have interacted with teachers across the country ~ barring those in J & K ~ on values education.

The one thing common to all of them is palpable diffidence about the relevance and feasibility of orienting students towards values. They feel, without articulating it as such, that what they are made to do in classrooms is quaintly out of tune with the tone and temper of the times. They know, too, that values-education is really nobody’s baby.

Parents assume that their children will inculcate values from schools. Teachers, too busy wrestling with the syllabi, expect students to learn values at home. The managements, paranoid about producing outlandish results, consider values-education to be a distraction.

The State couldn’t care less for it largely because, given the “powergenius” of the State, values are an irksome liability. There is no values-system which does not insist on accountability and transparency, both of which exasperate those who wield power.

The State, irrespective of the parties that animate it, knows only one value ~ raw, unbridled power. It is not my contention that no school is attempting valueseducation. No, many are struggling to do what they can. But even they are diffident about the durability of the influence they exert on students. There is need, therefore, to attain some clarity on the status of values-education, deemed by every society and every philosophy of education as basic to a humanly wholesome education. Let us begin with the cliché: values are caught, not taught.

If values are caught, surely there must be an ambience, a matrix, from which they are caught? We catch fish from water; not from street or sky. The case of catching values is no different. So,

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what is the environment from which young people are to ‘catch’ values? In Plato’s work, Protagoras, Socrates wonders why it is rare to come across teachers of values, whereas instructors in swordsmanship, in equestrian skills, or performing arts are far easier to come by. Protagoras explains this anomaly by saying that virtues are not to be taught in the classroom by some teachers. They must be taught by ‘the whole community’.

I believe that is the meaning of ‘catching’ values. At any rate, this is the first principle. When it comes to values-education, the community ~ the society and the country ~ is the school. Perhaps, our teachers don’t know this; and they are disempowered by not knowing it. They know that they are under a misplaced burden. The work they do in classrooms is daily, hourly, contradicted by whatever happens in the society at large.

No surprise, if they do! Plato and Aristotle give us further insights into Protagoras’ idea of the ‘community’ as the school for values-education. Community ~ or, in our times, the society or the nation ~ has two components relevant to our purpose here: public opinion and politics. We think of the irresistible power of public opinion as a modern phenomenon. No! It is at least some three millennia old. The Greek philosophers knew that formal education ~ such as was then in vogue ~ stood no chance against the almighty force of public opinion and the moral norms of the given society.

Today, the media has cornered the right to shape public opinion as it deems most expedient. Wonder which media house or journalistic icon is aware of the duty to educate the society in terms of values? Which reporter or scribe is aware of such a duty?

Or, how many editors hold back their pens or cameras in view of the harm to the moral fibre of the society their advocacies are likely to inflict. In the mad rush after revenues-driven TRPs, concerns for the ethical and social health of the society is thrown overboard. Blind sensationalism and oneupmanship sweep aside social responsibility. No one wonders how a student exposed from day to day to chaotic and ill-mannered prime-time TV talk-shows bristling with falsehood, can be taught any values, morals or manners! The second pillar of valueseducation for the Athenians ~ this could surprise you immoderately ~ comprised legislators.

Far more than media Moghuls, legislators were crucial in shaping public opinion and social mores. In Politics, envisaged by Aristotle as a handbook for lawgivers, he assumes that legislators are ‘doctors of the State’! A law-giver is one who has a clear idea of what ought to be done and how the society is to evolve, if it is to be home to good living for citizens.

A legislator ~ to the Greeks, he is synonymous with a statesman ~ is not one who has perfected the art of capturing the helm of the State by hook or crook, but one who knows how to steer the ship of the State steadily and safely as conducive to the welfare of citizens. No legislator is qualified to do his work, unless he is ethically sound and holds himself accountable for the wholeness of the society. Wonder what our legislators would do, if reminded of this norm.

Be that as it may, it is imperative that we insist on the larger nuances of the roles of our MPs and MLAs. As of now, many of them thwart, albeit unknowingly, the cause of values-education

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simply by conducting themselves the way they think lawgivers should. Young India, soon to be New India could ‘catch’ values and become responsible citizens (cf. Article 51A), if our legislators become values-educators.

(The writer is former Principal, St Stephen’s College, Delhi)

DECCAN HERALD, SEP 25, 2017Tie-up with education NGOs welcome step

The Karnataka government has done well to join hands with four non-government organisations (NGOs) to improve the quality of teaching and learning in government-run schools in the state. It has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Pratham, the Azim Premji Foundation, Sikshana Foundation and Khan Academy to draw on their formidable expertise and experience in the field of literacy to jointly tackle some of the problems that confront education in the state. Pratham, for instance, has been a force behind the Annual Status of Education Reports (ASER) which have provided educators across the country with valuable insights into what ails our education system. Its reports have drawn attention to the fact that very little learning is actually taking place in our classrooms; children are not acquiring basic reading, writing and math skills. Pratham has now been roped in by the Karnataka government to implement its ‘Read Karnataka’ programme in 13 districts of the state. Drawing on its own material and methods, Pratham will work with teachers in government-run schools to improve learning outcomes among children. Over 500,000 students in 18,426 government schools will benefit. Shikshana will work with the government to implement its ‘Prerna’ programme, which is expected to improve student motivation by tackling issues such as fear of failing among students. This is likely to address the problem of school dropouts. While the Azim Premji Foundation will continue its programmes in capacity building and in-house training, the Khan Academy will provide e-content in Kannada to support the government’s Technology Assisted Learning Programme.

High dropout rates and poor learning outcomes are among the many problems facing Karnataka’s government-run schools. Children do not want to remain in these schools or are not interested in learning because teaching is uninspiring and curricula unimaginative and unrelated to the reality of children’s lives. The few children who persist with schooling do not perform well in examinations. The performance of students in government schools is dropping year after year. Consider this: the percentage of government schools where no child passed the SSLC exams rose from 52% last year to 60% in 2017.

Karnataka is India’s science and technology capital and is known for its institutions of higher learning. Its government-run schools, however, are in shambles. Clearly, there is a need for a radical transformation of pedagogic methods and curricula in these schools The MoUs with the four NGOs open up space for the state to usher in this transformation. The government must follow up the MoUs with strong support to its NGO partners to implement their programmes.

TELEGRAPH, SEP 24, 2017

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Target' leash on varsities- Fears on autonomy asgovt plans yearly goals

Basant Kumar Mohanty

New Delhi, Sept. 23: The Centre has quietly begun a process to fix binding targets for central universities, a move many academics fear will reduce the autonomy these institutions enjoy under the acts of Parliament that established them.

The finance ministry has asked the human resource development ministry to get the central universities to sign a tripartite memorandum of understanding with the HRD ministry and the University Grants Commission, specifying yearly targets for each varsity.

The HRD ministry has already circulated a draft memorandum among all the 43 central universities asking each to spell out its targets for 2017-18. At the end of the academic year, each university is likely to be rated on the basis of how well it achieved its targets apart from certain other parameters.

Delhi University executive council member Rajesh Jha feared the government might use the ratings to reduce funding and push the universities towards financial self-sufficiency, leading to fee hikes that would hurt students from poor families.

Indeed, a sentence in the draft memorandum says: "The central university shall ensure that the user charges/fees charged by it for its various courses recover the maximum cost of providing services."

A committee has been set up under University Grants Commission member Inder Mohan Kapahy to meet the vice-chancellors and persuade them to sign the memorandum, whose other signatories will be the higher education secretary and the commission secretary.

"Department of expenditure, ministry of finance, has asked MHRD to finalise the MoU with the respective central universities," says a letter dated July 13 that commission joint secretary J.K. Tripathi issued to the vice-chancellors.

"Therefore you are requested to kindly fill up the forms, duly enclosed herewith, with the targets for next year and send back the forms within a week's time."

Over a dozen universities are understood to have already sent the filled-in forms to the commission.

For now, the targets will be set on matters such as student-teacher ratio, filling vacant faculty posts and improving placements. Many academics fear that even these innocuous-sounding targets could be used to turn the screws on the universities, and that additional targets could be introduced in subsequent years.

"This will take away autonomy from the universities, each of which has an academic council, executive council and a board of studies to decide on academic matters. If the government gives binding directions, what is the relevance of these bodies?" Jai Rup Singh, former vice-

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chancellor of the Central University of Punjab, said.

He said the acts of Parliament through which the universities had been set up empowered them to decide their academic matters - funding agencies like the government or the commission could advise but not dictate targets.

Jha said the memorandum does not require the vice-chancellors to hold discussions in university forums before signing it, thus running counter to established procedure.

Abdul Wahid, former vice-chancellor of the Central University of Kashmir, said that committing targets would tie the vice-chancellors' hands.

"The vice-chancellor is one of many people working to improve the university's performance - the university may fail despite his efforts. Setting targets will make him vulnerable and prompt him to take wrong decisions."

Wahid added that by requiring a vice-chancellor to sign the memorandum with the commission secretary, the government seemed to be equating the two positions, thereby undermining the vice-chancellor's higher rank.

The draft also lays down the "objectives" for universities, from the standards and modes of teaching to the quality of their publications and research output, to industry-driven initiatives and innovative courses.

Some academics see this too as an intrusion, for each university's objectives are laid down in the act of Parliament that created it.

A university will be rated as outstanding if its consolidated score is above 90 per cent, excellent (70 per cent), very good (60), good (50), fair (40) or poor.

First, the university will evaluate itself and submit the report to the executive council, whose recommendations will be sent to the commission along with the report for the final evaluation.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 28, 2017Delhi cabinet approves regularisation of 15000 guest teachers

The Delhi cabinet on Wednesday approved regularisation of 15,000 guest teachers working in its schools and a bill will be presented in the Assembly next week.

The Delhi cabinet on Wednesday approved regularisation of 15,000 guest teachers working in its

schools and a bill will be presented in the Assembly next week.

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“Approximately 15,000 guest teachers are teaching in the schools of the Directorate of

Education(DoE) and have played a crucial role in some of the flagship programmes including

summer camps, chunauti, and reading campaign,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said

after the cabinet meeting.

“The cabinet approved regularisation of these teachers and a draft legislative proposal has been

formulated, which will be brought in the ensuing Delhi Vidhan sabha session to be convened on

October 4 for approval,” he added.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s education minister, said the guest teachers played a crucial role in

Delhi government’s education reform process as they had the skills and experience required to

teach in government schools.

“If the guest teachers who are currently teaching in our schools were to be replaced with fresh

candidates, DoE would suffer quite a setback to our education reform process and we would

need to re-start the process from scratch,” he said.

“Apart from the training programmes that we have invested in, guest teachers have, over the

years, acquired skills and competencies essential to working in government schools and if we

lose their services the benefit of their experience will also be lost,” he added.

TELEGRAPH, SEP 25, 2017

Call for parity between CA certificate and MCom

Basant Kumar Mohanty

New Delhi, Sept. 24: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has demanded that the Chartered Accountancy certificate be treated as equivalent to an MCom degree to improve the best chartered accountants' chances of teaching or going into research.

The Union human resource development ministry has decided to set up a committee of academics to examine the demand, which for now appears to have divided educationists.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) does not meet the definition of a

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university, as contained in the University Grants Commission Act. It's a statutory body set up by Parliament to regulate the profession of chartered accountancy in India.

According to the act, degrees can be awarded only by universities, which are set up by Parliament or state legislatures, and deemed universities.

An ICAI official said that 106 universities did recognise the CA course as equivalent to an MCom programme and allowed CA certificate holders to pursue PhD courses.

The Association of Indian Universities, set up by the universities to decide on equivalence, such as between Indian degrees and foreign certificates, too considers the CA certificate as the equivalent of an MCom, the official said.

But the University Grants Commission, the higher education regulator, refuses to accept this, prompting the majority of universities too to take the same stand.

A commission official explained: "If a certificate granted by an institution other than a university is treated as equivalent to a degree, the sanctity of the university system will be at stake."

Some 15,000 students are awarded the CA certificate every year which allows them to practise as chartered accountants. But those who prefer teaching or research find their options restricted.

Ministry officials said that many certificate courses are indeed accepted as equivalent to master's programmes.

Under the ministry's instructions, the Association of Indian Universities has granted such equivalence to the diploma courses offered by the Indian Institutes of Management and some other institutions, such as the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.

R.K. Chauhan, vice-chancellor of the Haryana-based Lingaya's University and former University Grants Commission secretary, opposed the ICIA proposal on the ground that "many little-known institutions may demand such equivalence in future".

But he agreed that the CA course was as rigorous as a degree programme and suggested the government "come up with a mechanism to enable the ICAI and other such deserving institutions to award degrees".

Educationist and legal luminary N.R. Madhava Menon supported the ICIA proposal. "Equivalence is not the same as recognition as a degree; it only means that a particular certificate is treated as equal to a degree for a specific purpose. There's nothing wrong in awarding equivalence in deserving cases," he said.

An ICAI official said the CA course had three stages: foundation level, intermediate level and final level. Students who have cleared Class XII can take up the four-paper foundation level,

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after completing which they are promoted to the seven-paper intermediate level.

Commerce graduates with 55 per cent marks and other graduates with 60 per cent marks can secure direct admission to the intermediate level. The final level has eight papers.

The ICAI has also demanded that Class XII graduates who secure admission to the foundation level should, after clearing the intermediate level, be treated as equivalent to BCom degree holders.

DECCAN HERALD, SEP 29, 2017Becoming world-classS. N. HEGDE

Across the world, varsities are conceived to be citadels of scholarship, cradles of creativity and incubators of inquiry.

In the true spirit of federalism, our Constitution empowers both the central and state governments to establish and maintain educational institutions, including universities. Karnataka has been a leading state in the domain of higher education, with the University of Mysore having been founded by the erstwhile ruler of the princely state, Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, in 1916. To fulfil the aspirations of the people of different regions and to promote higher learning and research in various areas — both traditional and emerging — the government is currently supporting nearly 27 universities in the state.

When the statutory Inter-University Board was replaced by its new version — the Karnataka State Council for Higher Education — it was widely held that the latter would be a very effective interface between the government and universities in formulating broad policies and designing sound frameworks to nurture academic pursuits of quality and relevance. However, it seems that there exist a lot of confusion, conflicts and controversies in the relative onus of the government, on the one hand, and that of the universities, on the other. Against this disturbing but avoidable situation, an attempt is made here to briefly highlight the complementary roles of the two major stakeholders of higher education.

Role of governmentThrough appropriate legislation, the government creates state universities. By virtue of this action, it naturally becomes their chief benefactor. While extending financial support as a mandate rather than as an obligation, the government interacts with the universities in the implementation of its policies on admissions, appointments and social justice.

Certainly, it is reasonable for the government to expect the universities to churn out graduates with productive knowledge and requisite skills. It has the authority to review the functioning of universities, especially with respect to reservation policy, financial accountability and transparency in adherence to the provisions laid down in the legislation. It also has the

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privilege to inform universities from time to time of its expectations and priorities. Thus, the government functions as a coordinator and watchdog.

It is relevant to mention that nowadays, the prime minister’s office is of the firm view that in the present scenario of globalisation and intense competition, what is required is more facilitation and benevolence and less regulation and restriction. The authorities of state higher education departments would do well if this ethos is translated into action while dealing with university matters.

First and foremost, the government should ensure that eminent and competent persons — regardless of caste, community, religion and region — are appointed as Vice Chancellors (VC) through a mechanism that is both transparent and expeditious. Second, it should allow the VC to fill up all the sanctioned faculty positions as and when vacancies arise. Third, it must nominate only academic stalwarts, financial wizards, industrial magnates, management experts and institution builders to the Executive Council (Syndicate). Fourth, by progressive and pragmatic steps, it should let universities function with full autonomy to bring in diversity and quality. It could be made explicit in the legislation that while the universities will enjoy utmost freedom, the government expects them to perform well and demonstrate results. However, in cases of serious irregularities and gross violation of the provisions of the legislation, the government would continue to have powers to institute due inquiries and, if the lapses are proved, to take stringent action on the functionaries, including the removal of a VC. Such recourses will send a clear message across that academic freedom cannot and should not be abused or misused.

While there could be commonalities between universities in administrative matters, academic programmes of different universities should be strikingly different in structure and scope. It is well known that such uniqueness attracts talented students and faculty from different places which, in turn, will enhance the reputation of a university. This has been the hallmark of world-class universities. Therefore, the government must assume the role of a pace-setter and harbinger, rather than being an advocate of uniformity.

Role of universitiesUniversities are not to be likened to local or regional institutions of mere teaching and examination. They cannot be complacent with just the power to award degrees, either. Across the globe, they are conceived to be citadels of scholarship, cradles of creativity, crucibles of novelty and incubators of inquiry. They are borderless in their operations. Our own history tells us that the ancient Indian universities of Nalanda and Takshashila had this kind of international milieu for universality of learning without geographical barriers. Against this glorious legacy of higher learning, our universities must open up and operate to attract scholars, regardless of their nativity. Greater internationalism and a cross-cultural learning ambience are the distinguishing features of new and emerging universities in Russia, China, Korea, Singapore, Thailand and even Taiwan.

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Self-governance and self-reliance should be the guiding forces of universities. Absolute autonomy should allow them to frame statutes, regulations, ordinances, rules and to establish healthy traditions and conventions to develop a system of higher learning and research to the fullest potential. With an accountable and transparent framework, they must design their road map of growth and shape their destiny. Essentially, universities must be regulated from within, and not by external forces.

Higher education is increasingly becoming not only globally competitive but also expensive. Hence our universities should restructure and reorient their governance to accept new challenges of sustaining quality and employability. Their autonomy should enable them to be both aggressive and progressive in academic endeavours. Through their unique functional modalities, they should earn wider recognition and make their patron (the government) and other stakeholders proud. Unless and until our universities attain global benchmarks of quality and innovation, they will not figure in the list of the world’s best universities – even if they have gone through silver, golden, sapphire, platinum jubilees and centenary celebrations!

(The writer is former vice chancellor, University of Mysore.)

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ELECTRICITY

BUSINESS LINE, SEP 25, 2017PM launches ‘Saubhagya’ scheme to provide power to all

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a Rs. 16,320-crore scheme — Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana ‘Saubhagya’ — to provide electricity connections to over 4 crore families in rural and urban areas by December 2018.

“Rs 16,000 crore will be spent to bring a monumental change in the lives of the poor,” Modi said while launching the ‘Saubhagya’ scheme here.

The prime minister regretted that even after 70 years of independence 4 crore out of 25 crore families did not have access to power.

Under the scheme, the government proposes to provide electricity to all households by December 2018, ahead of the earlier target of March, 2019.

All villages would be electrified by December this year ahead of the scheduled deadline of May 1, 2018.

“This is a reflection of working style and will power,” Modi said adding, power connection will be provided free of cost to all poor families under the scheme.

He said that earlier there used to be breaking news regarding power outages and shortage of coal to power plants but now situation has changed and the nation is moving from a scenario of power shortage to surplus.

The prime minister also called upon ONGC to use its Rs. 100 crore start up funds to develop user friendly electric cooking appliances saying it would help in reducing the fuel consumption.

According to an official statement, the total outlay of the ‘Saubhagya’ project is Rs. 16,320 crore while the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) is Rs. 12,320 crore.

The outlay for the rural households is Rs. 14,025 crore while the GBS is Rs. 10,587.50 crore. For the urban households the outlay is Rs. 2,295 crore while GBS is Rs. 1,732.50 crore.

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The Centre will provide largely funds for the scheme to all States/UTs.

The beneficiaries for free electricity connections would be identified using Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data.

However, it said that un—electrified households not covered under the SECC data would also be provided electricity connections under the scheme on payment of Rs. 500 which shall be recovered by DISCOMs in 10 instalments through electricity bill.

The solar power packs of 200 to 300 Wp with battery bank for un—electrified households located in remote and inaccessible areas, comprises of Five LED lights, One DC fan, One DC power plug.

Beneficiaries shall be identified and their application for electricity connection along with applicant photograph and identity proof shall be registered on spot, the statement said.

The Gram Panchayat/Public institutions in the rural areas may be authorised to collect application forms along with complete documentation, distribute bills and collect revenue in consultation with the Panchayat Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies.

The Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) will remain the nodal agency for the operationalisation of the scheme throughout the country.

The government has been working hard to electrify all villages in the country and also want to achieve 24X7 Power for All by March, 2019, the statement said.

In 2015, the prime minister had announced to electrify the remaining 18,452 unelectrified villages in 1,000 days in his Independence Day speech. However, the Power Ministry is expected to electrify all habited villages by December this year.

According to GARV portal, out of the 18,452 villages, 14,483 villages have been electrified so far. The electrification work is in progress on 2981 villages while 988 villages are uninhabited.

The portal also indicates that out of the 17.92 crore households in rural areas, 13.87 crore families have got electricity connections. As many as 4.05 crore families are yet to be provided electricity connections.

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FORESTS

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 27, 2017Forest service officials ‘divert’ afforestation fund for private eventDebabrata Mohanty

THE EVENT TO MARK GOLDEN JUBILEE OF THE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION COST ₹30 LAKH, WHICH INCLUDED LUNCH, DINNER AND A CULTURAL PROGRAMME

BHUBANESWAR: Officials of Indian Forest Service (IFS) in Odisha used interest accrued from the funds meant for compensatory afforestation for hosting an event to mark 50 years of their service, official documents have revealed.

The golden jubilee of service was celebrated in a hotel in Bhubaneswar on April 28 and 29 where chief minister Naveen Patnaik was the chief guest.

Official documents accessed by HT revealed that the two-day event organised by Odisha chapter of IFS officers association, cost ₹30 lakh including ₹7 lakh for lunch, dinner and a cultural programme and ₹6 lakh for over 350 souvenirs.

Documents of the event’s preorganising meetings have revealed that money for the event came from the interest accrued from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund, though the ministry of forest, environment and climate change issued no approval for the same. Odisha has received roughly ₹1,600 crore since the fund’s inception.

CAMPA funds are meant to be used for compensatury afforestation to make up for loss of forest land that was diverted for non- forest purposes. Started after a Supreme Court order in October 2002, the CAMPA Act stipulates that the agency which would use the forest land, has to pay the net present value of the diverted land calculated for a period of 50 years.

Former principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and current director general (DG) of forests Siddhant Das, who attended the event, told HT he had no knowledge about the event’s funding. However, he said if funds from CAMPA had been used, “there was nothing wrong with it.” Ajit Patnaik, chairman of the event’s organising committee, also said he did not know anything about the monetary aspects of the event.

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Prabhat Mohanty, secretary general of Odisha Karmachari Sangram Samiti, a body of state government officials, said, “How would the event help afforestation activities in Odisha? The IFS officers association is a private body and the members could have organised the event from their personal contributions...”

Noted wildlife conservationist Praveen Bhargav said, “CAMPA is blood money which has accrued after losing valuable forests. Every paisa must be utilised to consolidate forests. Activities like felicitation that are not even remotely connected with forest protection should never be spent on (from the fund),” he said.

HEALTH SERVICES

TRIBUNE, SEP 28, 2017Retirement age of central government doctors raised to 65

The government on Wednesday decided to increase the retirement age of central government doctors, including those working under the AYUSH ministry and in the railways to 65.

The retirement age of doctors in some departments is 60 and in some others it is 62.

The decision was taken by the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Terming the decision as people-centric and pro-patient, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said it would address the problem of shortage of doctors in the country.

“The decision will help utilise the services of experienced doctors. It will also help in retaining the existing strength of e

Nadda said the decision might not have much financial implications as a large number of posts are lying vacant and the present incumbents would continue to work in their existing capacity against sanctioned posts.

Around 1,445 doctors of various ministries and departments of the central government would be benefited, he said.

The superannuation age of doctors working under AYUSH ministry, department of Defence (civilian doctors under Directorate General of Armed Forces Medical Service), department of

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Defence Production (Indian Ordnance Factories Health Service Medical Officers), dental doctors under ministry of Health and Railways and of doctors working in higher education and technical institutions under Department of Higher Education has been enhanced to 65.

The Union Cabinet has approved ex-post facto, the increase in retirement age of doctors working in central universities and IITs (autonomous bodies) under Department of Higher Education to 65.It also approved enhancement of superannuation age of doctors in major port trusts under the Ministry of Shipping.

As per the decision, doctors shall hold administrative posts till attaining the age of 62 and thereafter they will work in non-administrative positions.

In July, the government had given nod for the increase of retirement age of medical officers working in central armed police forces like the CRPF and BSF from 60 to 65.

The retirement age of doctors working with Assam Rifles was also raised from 60 to 65.

The age of superannuation of the specialists of non-teaching and public health sub-cadres of

Central Health Service (CHS) and general duty medical officers of CHS was also extended to 65

in May last year. 

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

STATESMAN, SEP 27, 2017Sniper attacks at UNSalman Haidar 

As is customary, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj used her visit to the UN General Assembly to present some of the important preoccupations of the government and to seek international support and sympathy for what it was trying to achieve. She spoke of the strategy for economic advancement and mentioned several of the programmes to alleviate poverty that the government has initiated.

Among broader issues of global significance she made specific mention of climate change, which has become one of the important issues before the government. No less customary was the Indian minister’s reference to the need to reform the UN and enlarge the Security Council, which is a cause that has been actively promoted for a few decades by India and a few other like-minded nations. Currently UN reform does not have a high profile either at the UN, where other issues command greater salience, or in India’s foreign policy goals where other considerations are more prominent. Re-statement of established foreign policy purposes like UN reform was therefore a useful reminder of India’s goals and targets in this field.

What made the headlines, however, was not reiteration of established and traditional directions of policy but the vigour of the Minister’s remarks aimed at Pakistan. She drew a pointed contrast between India’s success in establishing major institutions of learning like its IIMs and IITs, while Pakistan had only set up instruments like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e Mohammed. This was a strong rebuke, all the more striking for being essentially correct in contrasting what the two countries had been able to achieve.

She had a good deal more to say on terrorism, on which India has repeatedly tried to rally international opinion and encourage concerted international action to curb the menace. Ms. Swaraj spoke of the long-pending convention on international terrorism that lies before the UN but is yet to achieve consensus, and called for agreement on defining the issue more concretely so that joint action can become more attainable.

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Speaking in Hindi, as she did also a year ago, she made her points effectively and also replied to what the Pak Prime Minister had said about India the previous day. The UN grants the right of reply and the Pak Permanent Representative spoke on behalf of her country in response to the Indian Minister.

This did not go quite as might have been intended, for in her speech she showed a photograph of a young woman injured by pellet shots that were wrongly said to have been fired by Indian security forces in Kashmir though the picture was of an incident in Palestine. This embarrassment to Pakistan should not obscure the deterioration in relations that the exchanges at the UN showed. The Indian Minister referred to the repeated efforts by her Prime Minister to reach out and be in touch with Pakistan which did not get very far owing to lack of reciprocity.

At the UN, Pakistan kept repeating its demand for discussion on Kashmir if comprehensive dialogue was to recommence while India did not see a way forward without unconditional effort to bring a halt to terrorism.

These are familiar positions of the two sides and the exchanges at the UN only showed how wide is the gap between them. To add to the matter, there were several incidents along the Line of Control instigated from the Pakistani side even while the diplomatic procedures of the UN were in train. As so often in the past, the spoilers were active and tried to ensure that there should be no drawing closer, which in any case seems a remote possibility in current circumstances. The exchanges at the UN have become highly ritualized and are important more for what they show of the current state of relations than for any expectation of change.

The domestic audience will expect their representatives to put their case effectively as was done in New York, and speaking in Hindi, as has now become the norm, means more immediate communication with the domestic audience at home. The hard boiled delegates to the UN are unlikely to be swayed by rhetorical flourishes and would be more likely to wish to assess the speeches for what they reveal of possible innovation and policy shifts.

There was not much of that to observe when the Indian Minister and the Pak PM before her spoke. While these events from the subcontinent were occupying the stage, rather more insistent and dangerous matters were also being talked about, relating to North Korea and the USA. India and Pakistan had sharp words for each other but what hey had to say pales in comparison with the rhetorical blows exchanged between Pyongyang and Washington.

Not since the darkest days of the Cold War has the General Assembly chamber resounded to the sort of disdainful, personalized insults that were to be heard from these two countries. The Heads of the two States were personally involved in the exchanges, which is unusual, for indulgence in rhetorical excess is usually left to less prominent spokespersons. This fiery, toplevel name-calling was tinged with uncertainty about where it might be leading. North Korea has perhaps deliberately created an image of unpredictability, and has built up its armed strength after breaking through to the level of a nuclear power with formidable missile capacity.

The recent tests it has conducted have given some sort of substance to its taunts against the unassailable super power USA, which in turn has not been slow with threats of its own. India

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may not be in the direct line of fire but it is bound to be uncomfortable with these developments and their regional ramifications. India’s ‘Act East’ policy is an important initiative, the recent visit of Japanese Prime Minister Abe underlines the growing importance of India’s eastward links, so it is very much in Indian interest that matters in the Far East should calm down and not become a constraint on its emerging policy.

Events having developed as they did, India can take satisfaction from how matters went in New York. The exchanges with Pakistan were sometimes fierce and there was no letup in the hostile arguments, but still neither engaged in warlike rhetoric ~ the contrast with the give-andtake between the USA and North Korea speaks for itself.

Speeches at the UN can sometimes magnify differences between countries because leaders are customarily speaking to their domestic audiences who often demand tough talk from their representatives. Beneath the smooth exterior of its diplomats the UN has been described as a dangerous place, and some of its dangers were to be seen during the engrossing recent events involving our own and other senior world leaders.

(The writer is India‘s former Foreign Secretary)

TELEGRAPH, SEP 28, 2017Friendly and secure- An India-Japan partnership is a strategy directed against China

Kanwal Sibal

The prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, received a grandiose reception in Gujarat during his September 13-14 visit. This would not have been possible in Delhi where the protocol and ceremonies for visiting foreign leaders are set and any significant departure creates a troublesome precedent for the future. Shifting the visit to Gujarat allowed the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to display special regard for Abe and solidify their personal chemistry. Modi gave a much grander welcome to the Japanese leader than to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at Gandhinagar, conveying a diplomatic signal, especially in the context of the current state of India-China relations and the China factor in the evolving India-Japan ties.

The three biggest powers in Asia are China, Japan and India. Both New Delhi and Tokyo have problems with Beijing's territorial claims and its military muscle flexing. Both would have a shared interest in curbing China's increasingly apparent hegemonic ambitions. Japan has so far relied exclusively on its alliance with the United States of America to manage the China threat. Although it still considers this alliance as the anchor of its security policies, the unwillingness or the inability of the US to sufficiently restrain China's disruptive conduct in the East China and South China Seas both under Barack Obama and under Donald Trump has no doubt led leaders like Abe to explore the option of widening the base of the country's security by strengthening strategic ties with a country like India, Asia's second largest and a growing economic and military power with an independent capacity to impede China's sway over Asia. Under Abe, Japan has begun visualizing India as a security partner for developing a regional

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security architecture for Asia.

Abe's reaching out to India is consistent with his aspiration to revive Japan's effaced regional role, for which, in addition to using the economic tools at his disposal, he is trying to widen the country's military role in a big political and psychological departure from the past. His active promotion of the Indo-Pacific concept which, by linking the security of the western Pacific to that of the Indian Ocean, presupposes a Japanese role in the Indian Ocean in conjunction with India, a country that geographically dominates the sea lanes of communication in the Indian Ocean and is equipped with a strong and growing navy. But this enhanced Japanese role in the Indian Ocean remains underpinned by US naval strength in the Indo-Pacific region, which explains why Japan has wanted to join the India-US Malabar exercises and make them trilateral in scope. Improved India-US strategic understandings as represented by the Obama-Modi Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Regions, reiterated in substance in the joint statement issued with India on the occasion of Modi's US visit in June, have, in turn, opened the political space for Abe to build security ties with India.

India and Japan have now an annual defence ministerial dialogue, the national security advisers' dialogue, the "2+2" dialogue, the defence policy dialogue and service-to-service staff talks. The first defence industry forum was held in Tokyo on September 5. Maritime security cooperation has expanded in scale and complexity. The Indian navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force are engaged in specialized cooperation that includes anti-submarine warfare and maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region. The possibility of joint field exercises between the Indian army and Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force in 2018, and reciprocal visits by air assets to each other's country, are being considered. Cooperation on defence equipment and technology includes the surveillance and unmanned system technologies and commencement of the technical discussion for future research collaboration in the area of Unmanned Ground Vehicles and Robotics. The sale to India of Japan's US-2 amphibian aircraft could not be clinched during Abe's visit and discussions will continue. If this costly acquisition paves the way for an assured transfer of advanced and dual-use defence technologies to India and assists in building an indigenous defence electronic base, for instance, that would no doubt facilitate decision making. However, one should not ignore the long standing internal resistance in Japan to any major expansion of its defence role. This has constitutional implications and relations with India do not as yet occupy centre space in Japanese foreign policy.

China's shadow is visible in other parts of the Modi-Abe joint statement too. Respect for sovereignty and international law - notably the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - in the Indo-Pacific region, the resolution of differences through dialogue and without resorting to the threat or use of force, freedom of navigation and overflight find mention. So does strengthening a rule-based order for which the intention is to align Japan's Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy with India's Act East Policy, including through enhancing maritime security cooperation, improving connectivity in the wider Indo-Pacific region and strengthening cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In the area of connectivity, the joint statement takes an implicit swipe at China's Belt and Road Initiative by underlining the importance of all countries ensuring the development and use of connectivity infrastructure in an open, transparent and non-exclusive manner based on international

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standards and responsible debt financing practices, while ensuring respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, the rule of law, and the environment. The importance of "quality infrastructure" which, among others, ensures alignment with local economic and development strategies, safety, resilience, social and environmental impacts, and job creation as well as capacity building for the local communities is mentioned as an indirect critique of China's approach. The reference in the joint statement to the importance of holding accountable all parties that have supported North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes points a finger at both China and Pakistan.

The joint statement mentions India-Japan cooperation in developing India's North Eastern Region as part of developing synergies between India's Act East policy and Japan's Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, noting in this context the setting up of the India-Japan Act East Forum. It is surprising that the Chinese foreign office has objected to this part of the joint statement, gratuitously referring to the unsettled India-Tibet border and advising third parties not to interfere (and this in spite of Japan having clarified on an earlier occasion that Arunachal Pradesh is not covered in these developments plans). By suggesting that any Japanese involvement in the Northeast is objectionable China is, as usual, guilty of double standards as it rejects India's objection to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and China's physical presence in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

In evaluating the China factor in India-Japan relations, the reality of the massive Japan-China trade relationship should be recognized, which at $279 billion dwarfs that of India-China at $71 billion, not to mention the decline in India-Japan trade from $18.61 billion in 2012-13 to $13.48 billion in 2016-17. Because of its huge economic stakes in China and compulsions of neighbourhood, Tokyo will endeavour to keep its differences with Beijing under control. One way of doing that would be to signal the build-up of a coalition of interests in partnership with India to challenge China's expansionism and hegemonic ambitions, which is a strategy that suits India too.

The author is former foreign secretary of India sibalkanwal@gmail.com

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JUDICIARY

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 25, 2017Government wants future laws to have mechanism to reduce litigationThe legislations must also include ways of settling disputes before they reach courts, it has said.Jatin Gandhi 

To reduce the mounting number of cases pending in Indian courts, the Union law ministry has

proposed a sweeping change to all future laws and amendments: it wants ministries to

incorporate mechanisms to reduce litigation within all proposed laws.

The new legislations must also include ways of settling disputes before they reach courts, it has

said.

“Countries like the US have provision for pre-litigation meeting before a dispute reaches court.

This saves both time and costs,” a top functionary of the law ministry told HT.

Laws are drafted by different ministries, vetted by the law ministry and the drafts discussed in

the cabinet before they are brought to Parliament to be passed by both Houses.

In a note sent to cabinet secretary PK Sinha earlier this month, the ministry has asked that all

ministries while drafting new laws or amendments to existing ones must introduce a “litigation

potential clause” in the proposed legislation.

“This will help the government assess if a proposed legislation is going to lead to an increase in

litigation and check that problem at the inception stage,” a senior official in the law ministry told

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HT. “Laws are sometimes drafted to correct an anomaly but a poorly drafted clause in the law

can lead to a string of litigation.”

The ministry wants draft laws to not just anticipate the volume of possible litigation that might

arise out of the new law but even incorporate the measures to resolve such litigation.

“It would be apt that the piece of legislation which would eventually form part of the legal

framework of the country itself contains the mechanism for early resolution of disputes (using

ADR or other mechanisms),” the note, sent by the minister of state for law PP Chaudhary to

Sinha, reads.

ADR or alternative dispute resolution includes resolving disputes through arbitration and

mediation.

The proposal is the outcome of a high-level brainstorming session in the ministry’s department

of justice on July 27. The session which included ministers and secretaries was held to come up

with ways to help the government reduce litigation, the official said.

“At present, there are more than 3.28 crore cases pending in the courts,” the official said.

In March this year, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had written to his cabinet colleagues and

all chief ministers asking them to ensure “litigation is the last resort” for government

departments. The government is party to nearly half of all cases pending in court.

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LIBRARIES

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 24, 2017US journal blocks access for IIT Bombay after unusually large downloads

The American Physical Society restored access after a couple of days, following a request by the institute to the publisher.

Musab Qazi 

A United States-based scientific organisation blocked access for students and researchers at the

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) to its journal, after a student was allegedly found

to have downloaded a large number of papers from their website. 

The American Physical Society (APS) restored access after a couple of days, following a request

by the institute to the publisher. Meanwhile, the institute has launched an investigation into the

incident, even though the student, who is from IIT-B's electrical department, has denied any

wrongdoing, revealed sources. 

Though IIT-B did not give details about the date of the incident, sources said that it happened

around two weeks ago.

Colleges subscribe to various academic journals to help students with their research work. While

the students are allowed to access these journals online and download papers published in them,

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the publishers usually put restrictions on the number of downloads to prevent distribution of

these papers to non-subscribers.

IIT-B also has a policy in place regarding usage of online content. 

The APS journal has been described as a “lifeline” for researchers of many departments. The

librarian of the institute had to “plead” with the publishers, before the access was finally

restored, HT has learnt. 

Varsha Apte, the head of IIT-B’s computer centre, said that as soon as the institute learnt about

violation of its policy, it suspended the online account of the erring student, and a probe was

launched to look into the incident. “The abuse of the journal facility took place from within the

campus,” she said. 

When the authorities confronted, the student insisted that he is innocent. Apte, nevertheless, has

taken all the information regarding his mobile and laptop for further investigation. 

 A large number of downloads by a student often suggests that its being done for the purpose of

illegally distributing to researchers outside the campus. “The students sometimes download the

papers from journals in IIT-B for their friends who don’t have access to these publications. They

either do it manually or use computer programmes designed for mass downloads. There’s a

possibility that these papers could have been freely made available on online portals,” said PhD

scholar from the institute. 

One of the famous cases of unauthorised downloading of academic articles involved internet

activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in 2013. Swartz had connected a computer to the

computer network at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, and set it to download

academic journal articles systematically using a guest user account issued to him by MIT.

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Earlier this year, a New York district court awarded a publisher of scientific journals US$15

million in damages for copyright infringement by several websites publishing pirated papers. 

Apte said that the publishers raise a flag when they detect unusually high rate of downloads from

a particular account. “When the publishers find that the rate downloads has crossed a particular

limit, they suspect that the student is doing it for someone else, and not for his own reading,” she

said. 

In April, IIT-B was served a notice from a major proprietary software developer because

many people inside the institute were using its software in an unauthorised manner.

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POLICE

DECCAN HERALD, SEP 28, 2017Govt unveils new Rs 25,060 cr police modernisation schemeShemin Joy

Keeping in mind the internal security scenario, the Cabinet has earmarked Rs 10,132 crore from the central outlay of Rs 18,636 crore for internal security related expenditure for Jammu and Kashmir, north-eastern states and Naxal-affected states. PTI file photo

The government on Wednesday unveiled a Rs 25,060 crore umbrella scheme for the 'Modernisation of Police Forces' (MPF) with a special emphasis on tackling internal security issues in Jammu and Kashmir, north-east and Naxal-infested states.

Of the Rs 25,060 allocation, Rs 18,636 will be the centre's share and Rs 6,424 crore will come from the states. The scheme was cleared by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for expenditure between 2017-18 and 2019-20.

Keeping in mind the internal security scenario, the Cabinet has earmarked Rs 10,132 crore from the central outlay of Rs 18,636 crore for internal security related expenditure for Jammu and Kashmir, north-eastern states and Naxal-affected states.

The government had earlier wrapped up the police modernisation scheme following a 14th Finance Commission recommendation but it decided to come up with a new scheme keeping in mind the challenges faced by states.

"We have cleared this umbrella scheme keeping in mind the internal security situation. We will do whatever needed to ensure a safe and secure India," Home Minister Rajnath Singh told a press conference.

47

Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad described the decision as "perhaps one of the biggest modernisation scheme on internal security".

Under the scheme, special provisions have been made for internal security, law and order, women's security, availability of modern weapons, mobility of police forces, logistics support, hiring of helicopters, upgradation of police wireless, National Satellite Network, CCTNS project and E-prison project.

Singh said new initiatives are being introduced to provide assistance to states for upgradation of police infrastructure, forensic science laboratories, institutions and the equipment available with them to plug critical gaps in the criminal justice system.

Police stations will be integrated to set up a national database of crime and criminals' records and it will be linked with other pillars of criminal justice system such as prisons, forensic science laboratories and prosecution offices.

Tackling issue of underdevelopment in 35 worst Naxal districts, Singh said a scheme if Special Central Assistance (SCA) has been introduced with an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore.

During the three years, another Rs 100 crore is earmarked for improving police infrastructure, training institutes and investigation facilities in the north-east.

The scheme also provides for setting up of a state-of-the-art forensic science laboratory in Andhra Pradesh's Amravati and upgradation of Sardar Patel Global Centre for Security, Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Insurgency in Jaipur and Gujarat Forensic Science University in Gandhi Nagar.

"Implementation of this scheme would bolster the government's ability to address challenges faced in different theatres such as areas affected by Naxals, Jammu and Kashmir and north-east effectively and undertake development interventions which will catalyze in improving the quality of life in these areas and help combat these challenges effectively at the same time," an official statement said. (ENDS)

Police Modernisation Scheme 2017-18 to 2019-20** Total outlay Rs 25,060 crore

-- Central share Rs 18,636 crore, States' share Rs 6,424 crore** Rs 10,132 crore from central share for internal security related expenditure for JK, NE and Naxal-infested states

** Rs 3,000 crore Special Central Assistance (SCA) for 35 worst Naxal-infested districts to tackle underdevelopment

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** Rs 100 crore for NE states for police infrastructure upgradation, training institutes, investigation facilities

** Police stations to be integrated to set up a national database of crime and criminals' records.

** Special provision for internal security, law and order, women security, availability of modern weapons, mobility of police forces, hiring of helicopters, National Satellite Network, CCTNS project, e-prison project

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

TELEGRAPH, SEP 25, 2017Manufacturing an icon - The Deendayal Upadhyaya blitzkrieg

WORM'S EYE VIEW-MANINI CHATTERJEE

The people of Assam deserve our congratulations for calling out a truth that many others are too meek to utter. A number of groups in the northeastern state vociferously protested against the move by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to name several new district-level colleges after the ruling party's current favourite icon - Deendayal Upadhyaya. With even ally Asom Gana Parishad backing the protests, the state government was forced to rescind the decision.

As a result, Assam stood out as an oasis of resistance to an epidemic sweeping across BJP-ruled states in the country at the express command of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

The deification of Deendayal Upadhyaya began soon after the Modi regime came to power in 2014. But it began to develop into a monstrous State-sponsored creed exactly a year ago, on September 25, 2016 that marked the birth centenary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader who was also the co-founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the earlier of avatar of the BJP.

To mark the occasion, the government embarked on a year-long commemoration of Upadhyaya. Since then, BJP-run states as well as Central ministries have been in a mad rush to transform a relatively obscure politician into a towering ideological deity of modern India. Social welfare schemes in state after state are being launched in his name; ports, towns, and educational institutions are being named after him; statues are being erected, and commemorative coins of Rs 10 and Rs 5 are being issued.

There is more. State government schools in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are holding quiz

49

competitions on the man and his message, state libraries in Maharashtra and Rajasthan have been ordered to stock his books, and all government offices in Uttarakhand must carry his photo and logo.

There has also been a spate of articles by RSS and BJP members extolling the "simple life" and "profound vision" of the man who the RSS chief, M.S. Golwalkar, apparently described as "a 100 per cent swayamsevak".

And, of course, India's new president, Ram Nath Kovind - also from the RSS stable - chose to salute Deendayal Upadhyaya in his first speech and pointedly avoided taking the name of Jawaharlal Nehru.

In doing so, the president of India revealed the real intent behind the Modi regime's zeal in manufacturing an icon out of a modest party leader. Beneath the crassness and vulgarity of the exercise lies a canny and well thought-out project to wipe out the legacy of the builders of modern India and replace it with a mythology that suits the sangh parivar.

The two arguments offered to justify the new Deendayal Upadhyaya cult make this intention clear. The first involves "correcting" the wrongs of history. BJP and RSS leaders insist that the Congress, which was at the forefront of the freedom struggle and then ruled the country for several decades after Independence, chose to focus only on its leaders - the Nehru-Gandhi family in particular - and neglected scores of other stalwarts who contributed to the making of India.

This argument has some validity since a great number of institutions and government schemes in the country were named after one or other member of the Congress's ruling dynasty. This trend became particularly distasteful during the two terms of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance when far too many state projects were named after Rajiv Gandhi.

But Jawaharlal Nehru is a different matter. He was not just a leading freedom fighter but as the first and longest serving prime minister of independent India, he ensured that the foundational ideals of the Indian Constitution and robust democratic practices struck deep roots.

Indira Gandhi, much more controversial than her father, also left a deep mark on the nation. That both she and Rajiv were assassinated also gives them a special place in the country's history.

The excessive use of their names to perpetuate the family's hegemony may be problematic but their contribution - and particularly Nehru's - cannot be denied. For the RSS, though, Nehru is a much bigger hate figure than anyone else because he was not just a person but an embodiment of ideals - secular, socialist, democratic - that it abhors.

But to pit Deendayal Upadhyaya against Jawaharlal Nehru is a travesty of both history and common sense. Upadhyaya may have been a committed RSS pracharak and he may have been central to setting up and expanding the Jana Sangh, but his contribution to nation building was,

50

to put it politely, limited.

Those who call him a "visionary" cite his advocacy of antyodaya and his doctrine of 'integral humanism' as proof. It is a testament to the RSS's skills at fabricating myths that antyodaya - a concept championed by Mahatma Gandhi who acknowledged the influence of John Ruskin's Unto This Last behind it - is now being attributed to Upadhyaya.

As for "integral humanism", a close reading of the four lectures that Upadhyaya gave in 1965 to explain the concept shows that it is essentially drawn from the writings Golwalkar and other Hindutva ideologues. But while Golwalkar and V.D. Savarkar were explicit in extolling the supremacy of a Hindu rashtra, Upadhyaya - writing at a time when the RSS was viewed with great suspicion - chose to be more elliptical.

"The ideals of the Nation," he wrote, "constitute Chiti, which is analogous to the soul of an individual... The laws that help manifest and maintain Chiti of a Nation are termed Dharma of that nation. Hence, it is this 'Dharma' that is supreme... If Dharma is destroyed, the Nation perishes. Anyone who abandons Dharma betrays the nation."

The rest of the doctrine is a hotchpotch of pedestrian platitudes, diatribes against "western" ideas, and a defence of the four-fold caste system as the epitome of social harmony.

Upadhyaya became president of the Jana Sangh in December 1967 but could not play a bigger role in the turbulent politics of the late 1960s and 1970s since he died under mysterious circumstances soon after his elevation. He was found dead on February 11, 1968 on a railway track near Mughalsarai station - a rather odd reason for now renaming the famous railway junction after him.

His death has never been explained. The Jana Sangh leader, Balraj Madhok, who preceded Upadhyaya as president, accused his colleagues in the RSS-Jana Sangh of conspiring to kill Upadhyaya and even put this down in writing in the third part of his autobiography.

We will never know the truth. But what we do know is that Upadhyaya led no progressive movement for social change, fought no battles for social justice. The list of non-Congress leaders who enhanced the idea and reality of India is long. It includes Babasaheb Ambedkar and Ram Manohar Lohia, E.V.R. Periyar and E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Jayaprakash Narayan and Charan Singh, V.P. Singh and Karpoori Thakur, and many others. Deendayal Upadhyaya, by any objective criterion, does not make the cut.

That brings us to the second argument advanced by those who support the obsessive efforts to make Upadhyaya a supreme national hero. It is summed up in a much used quote: history is written by the victors. This is certainly true when it comes to medieval conquests or 20th century revolutions. The conquering invader or the victors in a bloody revolution obliterate all signs of the past, erect new statues, rewrite old texts - entirely unmindful of facts or the achievements of the vanquished.

But India is a functioning electoral democracy where parties win and lose power every five

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years. Every government tries to push its agenda but within the ambit of certain collective assumptions. The Modi regime has sought to break that tradition. And the RSS to which it belongs has viewed the 2014 result more as a conquest than an election victory. The assault on the values of the republic, the rewriting of history, the fabrication of new icons and the decimation of the old stem from this conqueror mindset.

Upadhyaya displacing Nehru is only a curtain-raiser. Golwalkar, the Manusmriti and the Bhagwa Dhwaj wait in the wings - to replace Mahatma Gandhi, the Constitution and the tricolour, unless the new conquerors are forced to beat a retreat...

TELEGRAPH, SEP 25, 2017Mukul Roy quits Trinamool, is suspended for 6 years

Calcutta, Sept. 25 (Agencies): Trinamool Congress veteran Mukul Roy on Monday resigned from the party and was shortly afterwards suspended for six years for ‘anti-party’ activities.

Roy, one the TMC’s founding members with Mamata Banerjee, said he would quit the working committee and resign from the Rajya Sabha, as well as from the party's primary membership, after the Durga Puja festival.

“I was one the signatories when the party was founded. I am announcing with a heavy heart that I will resign from the party's working committee today,” Roy said. The TMC was founded on January 1, 1998, and was registered with the Election Commission in December 1999.

“And after the Durga Puja festival, I will resign from the Rajya Sabha and also from the primary membership of the party,” Roy said at a press conference.

Last week, the TMC had censured Roy for allegedly hobnobbing with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and said it was keeping a close watch on him.

Roy, once the second-in-command in the party after Mamata, said he would explain why he was leaving the party and why he was “forced to do so” —but after the Durga Puja festival.

Shortly afterwards, TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee said Roy has been suspended for “anti-party activities”.

“He (Roy) has been trying to weaken the party for quite some time,” Chatterjee said. He said the party’s disciplinary committee had recommended Roy’s suspension to Mamata.

Chatterjee also questioned Roy’s statement that he would give up his Rajya Sabha membership and other posts after Durga Puja.

”If he (Roy) wants to leave, why isn't he leaving now? What is stopping him?” Chatterjee

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asked.

Roy, when he had been asked if he planned to join the BJP, had said he would reveal his plans after the Durga Puja.

“Whatever I have to say. I will say it after Durga Puja. But I would like to mention that people of Bengal don't like political controversies during Durga Puja,” Roy had said.

Durga Puja ends on September 30 this year, but the government will reopen only after Lakshmi Puja on October 5.

Roy, once the second-in-command in the party after Mamata, was absent from an event to unveil the Durga Puja edition of the party’s mouthpiece, Jago Bangla, on September 19.

Mamata and the entire TMC top brass, barring Roy, was present at the event.

Roy was recently removed as the TMC vice-president after the party decided to restructure its committee. He was earlier removed as the party's points man for Tripura, where the TMC made inroads till its members switched over to the BJP earlier this year.

PRIMEMINISTERS

TELEGRAPH, SEP 27, 2017Former Thai PM Yingluck gets 5yr jail term for knowing about scam but doing nothing about it

Yingluck Shinawatra reviewing a guard of honour in Delhi during her visit to India in 2012 as Thailand's Prime Minister. File picture.

Bangkok, Sept. 27 (Reuters): Thailand's Supreme Court sentenced former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in absentia to five years in prison on Wednesday for mismanaging a rice subsidy scheme that cost the country billions of dollars.

Yingluck fled abroad last month fearing that the military government, set up after a coup in 2014, would seek a harsh sentence.

For more than a decade Thai politics have been dominated by a power struggle between Thailand's traditional elite, including the army and affluent Bangkok-based upper classes, and the Shinawatra family, which includes Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also ousted by a coup.

Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison for negligence over the costly scheme that had helped get her elected in 2011.

Yingluck had pleaded innocent and had accused the military government of political

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persecution.

Nine judges voted unanimously to find Yingluck guilty in verdict reading that took four hours, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

The court said Yingluck knew that members of her administration had falsified government-to-government rice deals but did nothing to stop it.

“The accused knew that the government-to-government rice contract was unlawful but did not prevent it ...,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.

“Which is a manner of seeking unlawful gains. Therefore, the action of the accused is considered negligence of duty,” it said.

A former commerce minister in her government was jailed for 42 years last month for falsifying government-to-government rice deals in connection with the subsidy scheme.

Norrawit Larlaeng, a lawyer for Yingluck, told reporters outside the court that an appeal was being discussed.

The Shinawatras had commanded huge support by courting rural voters, helping them to win every general election since 2001, but their foes accused them of corruption and nepotism.

Under the rice scheme, Yingluck's government bought rice from farmers at above-market prices, leading to stockpiles of the grain and distorted global prices of the commodity. Losses amounted to $8 billion, the military government has said.

Three members of Yingluck's Puea Thai Party declined to comment when contacted by Reuters after the court gave its verdict.

Dozens of supporters had gathered outside the court to hear the verdict on Wednesday.

That was far fewer than on August 25, when the court was originally scheduled to deliver its verdict, only to find out that Yingluck had fled the country.

Though her whereabouts has not been disclosed by either her aides or the junta, Reuters reported last month that she had fled to Dubai where Thaksin has a home and lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for corruption.

Neither Yingluck or Thaksin commented publicly immediately after the verdict. Nothing has been heard from Yingluck since she fled the country, and one of her lawyers, Sommai Koosap, told Reuters outside the court on Wednesday that she has not been in contact.

The leader of the military junta, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, said on Tuesday he knows where Yingluck is but would not reveal it until after the verdict is read.

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Thai authorities investigating how Yingluck escaped said last week they have questioned three police officers who admitted to helping her.

PUBLIC UTILITIES

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 25, 2017In Delhi, public services may come to your doorstep for an extra fee of Rs 50

The Delhi government plans to deploy specialised representatives who would apply on your behalf, collect the required documents and deliver the approved certificate to your house.

Sweta Goswami 

From next year, you could be spared the trip to a government office for getting your birth

certificate or the RC of your vehicle. For a fee of Rs 50, these documents will be personally

handed to you right at your doorstep.

The Delhi government plans to deploy specialised representatives who would apply on your

behalf, collect the required documents and deliver the approved certificate to your house.

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A person will be able to avail of the optional service either through a mobile app or simply by

calling on the government’s helpline numbers.

The service is likely to be launched in three months’ time.

“After rigorous discussions with departments over the past two months, the proposal is finally

ready. The initiative will first be run on a pilot basis for services like getting OBC/SC/ST

certificate, birth certificate, income certificate, RC of vehicles, no-objection certificates and

change in address,” minister for administrative reforms Kailash Gahlot told Hindustan Times.

The pilot project is going to take off from the revenue and transport departments — which would

mean people will not have to visit offices of the sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) or motor

licensing inspectors.

At present, even though e-district services are available, applicants are still required to visit the

district office of their locality for verification of documents. The government has also found that

despite the application process being completely online, the majority of people still visit the

SDM’s office to get their work done.

“But under this (project), people will just have to make a call or tap on their phone and a

representative will visit the person’s home within a day or so and get everything done.

Everything will be in a time-bound manner and the company deploying these agents will also be

liable to penalty in case of delay in delivering the service,” an official said.

The project, titled “Doorstep delivery of public services through mobile CSC”, was ideated by

chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and will now be put up before the cabinet.

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Once approved, a tender will be floated to select the intermediary agency that would engage the

service representatives (mobile customer service centres), manage their operations as well as

coordinate with the corresponding departments, call centre and software development teams.

The official added that the other methods of applying for certificates will continue to be in place,

and that this will only be an addition to the existing system.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

STATESMAN, SEP 26, 2017India’s model villageLet new India arise out of the peasant’s cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper.~ Swami Vivekananda

The village has for long been viewed as a convenient entry-point for understanding Indian society. At the beginning of the 20th century Mahatma Gandhi had emphatically declared: “The soul of India lives in its villages”.

In his reckoning, the village represented ‘authenticity’, for Jawaharlal Nehru it was centre of backwardness, and for B R Ambedkar the village was a place of oppression where the institution of caste presented itself in its most brutal and inhuman form. Notwithstanding their differences

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on the nature of the Indian village, there are many ways in which the three great visionaries seemed to agree. ‘Village’, for them, represented the real India.

Indeed, the Indian village had a pan-Indian structure. Even after 70 years of Independence, in the wake of urbanisation, villages are at the core of the economy, society and politics. Professional sociologists and social anthropologists regard a village as India in microcosm, ‘an invaluable observation centre’ where one examines the ‘real’ India, its social organisation and cultural life. By studying a village, one can generalise on the social processes and problems that are witnessed in large parts of the country.

In terms of statistics, more than 70 per cent of the country’s population live in villages. The majority are extremely poor and dependent on manual labour. They are directly dependent on agriculture. Since Independence, peasant societies have emerged with four core features ~ the family is the basic unit of production and consumption; land husbandry is the major source of livelihood; a distinct traditional culture is linked to the community; and an elite group dominates over the peasantry.

As in every other country, the poor villagers have been subjected to gross exploitation, but over the years they have evolved a strategy which has enabled them to survive a variety of predators. Villagers are silent but not without ideas, who remain uneducated but are politically literate and increasingly aware of their citizenship rights. Given an opportunity, a village has the potential to be rich… socially, scientifically, economically and environmentally. Mahatma Gandhi was the ideologue of the village.

Though he was not born in a village and did not even have ‘an ancestral village’ to identify with, he was preoccupied with the concept since his days in South Africa. He toured the villages extensively and much of his social and political philosophy revolved around the idea of the village. He celebrated the village life as no one else did.

A champion of participatory democracy and grassroots development, Gandhi believed that making villages self-contained and sustainable was the first step towards empowering India. He visualised self-reliant villages and wanted to ensure that every village is organically linked to the larger spatial bodies. They must have the freedom to decide on the affairs of the particular area.

He wanted political power to be distributed among the villagers for building the structure of pure democracy ‘inch by inch’ directly from below. He preferred the term Swaraj (Self-Rule) to describe what he called true democracy where people’s power rests on the individuals and each one realises that he or she is the real master of one’s self.

However, Gandhi could not rest by merely formulating his ideas on rural reconstruction. Beginning with his visit to Champaran in 1917, he tried to practise the same. He settled in a village called Segaon (later renamed as Sevagram near Wardha) and successfully implemented on an experimental basis his ideas on rural reconstruction. The idea of alternative India, more precisely rural reconstruction, has been best spelt out by Gandhi himself in Harijan (1942). He wrote: “My idea of village swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent of its neighbours for its own vital wants, and yet interdependent for many others in which dependence is a

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necessity.” For the benefit of members of the Congress, Gandhi first presented a concrete programme in the form of a booklet in 1942, which was further revised by him in 1945.

Even on 29 January 1948, the day before his assassination, he advised the Congress in his ‘Last Will and Testament’ to go into voluntary liquidation and asked Congressmen to devote themselves wholly to the education and organisation of the masses for Swaraj. In the system that he contemplated, the individual is at the centre and the village, and the group of villages encompassing each other in concentric circles, In the structure composed of innumerable villages, there will be ever-widening, never-ascending circles (‘Oceanic Circle’). Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom.

The individual will rise to the occasion and be prepared to sacrifice everything for the cause of his/ her village. Gandhi emphatically said: “Under such a decentralised structure governing rural India, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle, but will give strength to all within and derive its own strength from it.

If there ever is to be a republic of every village in India, then I claim verity for my picture in which the last is equal to the first, or in other words, no one is to be the first and none the last.’ (Harijan, 28 July 1946). Gandhi was explicitly antiutilitarian. In his opinion, the doctrine of utility sacrifices the interests of the minority in order to promote the greatest good of the greatest number. Fundamental to the Gandhian social and political thought is the contention that true freedom can be ensured in human society only by the greatest good of all.

Every individual represents an end-initself, and the curtailment of freedom of a minority of individuals leads to a qualitative deterioration of the freedom of the whole society. To such a concept of universal freedom, Gandhi gives the name of Sarvodaya (the rise of all), a Sanskrit word used by him as the title for his Gujarati translation of Ruskin’s Unto This Last. He believed that Sarvodaya involves the promotion of the greatest good of all. Gandhi’s dream of establishing an ideal non-violent sociopolitical and economic order assures the participation of the masses in the discussion of their own affairs through the three levels of the Panchayat Raj system.

He advocated decisions by consensus as the main thrust of democratic functioning. His concept of consensus does not mean that there should not be two opinions on an issue or that people must think identically. It envisages the resolution of all differences so that the minutest may not feel ignored or tyrannised. Gandhi’s concept of rural development envisages the creation of model villages for transforming ‘Swaraj’ (self-rule) into ‘Su-raj’ (good governance). As part of the scheme, the villagers will prepare their own development agenda, plan activities and fix targets for achievement.

He visualised his model village as: ‘An ideal Indian village will be so constructed as to lend itself to perfect sanitation. It will have cottages with sufficient light and ventilation built of material obtainable within a radius of five miles of it.

The village lanes and streets will be free of all avoidable dust. It will have wells according to its needs and accessible to all. It will have houses of worship for all, also a common meeting place,

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a village common for grazing its cattle, a cooperative dairy, primary and secondary schools in which industrial education will be the central fact, and it will have panchayats for settling disputes. It will produce its own grains, vegetables and fruit, and its own khadi.

This is roughly my idea of a model village.’ (Harijan, 9 January1937). More than seven decades have passed since Mahatma Gandhi framed his constructive programme and successive governments have also undertaken programmes for socio-economic development in rural areas. But the lack of spatial planning and convergence of various schemes programmes have unfortunately not yielded the desired impact.

A major reason for the failure is that our development model has been supply-driven. Gandhi had recommended a demand-driven model. There should be an urge towards that end within the village itself.

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)

WOMEN

HINDUSTAN TIMES, SEP 28, 2017Contraception is not a woman’s responsibility alone, it must involve men as well

According to the latest National Family Health Survey, female sterilisation remains the preferred method of contraception across India (36% of married women aged 15-49 years), while male sterilisation is extremely low (0.3%). Women and men are both responsible and should participate equally in family planning, yet women continue to bear the brunt of this burden. Men need to share this responsibility with women and make informed choices about family planning.

Milind Soman 

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Every 12 minutes a woman in India dies from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications. If

these women were given information about reproductive health and had access to reproductive

healthcare, these deaths could have been prevented. Although it is a woman who carries a child,

ironically, she is often not given the freedom to decide whether, when and how many children

she wants. Enabling women to exercise this right can ensure that every pregnancy is wanted.

Family planning is a key health intervention which has a direct impact on the health of mothers

and children by ensuring that women have access to birth spacing methods. When couples use

family planning, they are able to care for their families better. Every family should prepare

themselves to meet the needs of mothers and children and have the necessary financial resources

to ensure the health of the family. If this is not properly addressed, it adversely affects the ability

of the mother to access and ensure her reproductive health, subsequently impacting the health of

the child.

However, family planning is not only about contraceptive use. Women should also have access

to information and to a range of contraceptive choices. This means that women need information

and access to safe, effective and affordable methods of birth control. In addition, access to

reproductive health services and education programmes that stress on the importance of family

planning for safe pregnancy and childbirth, would improve the health of mothers and their

children.

On September 26 every year, we observe ‘World Contraception Day’. This global initiative aims

to raise awareness about family planning and envisions a world where every pregnancy is

wanted. In India, there is a disproportionate burden on women to use contraception, across all

sections of society. According to the latest National Family Health Survey, female sterilisation

remains the preferred method of contraception across India (36% of married women aged 15-49

years), while male sterilisation is extremely low (0.3%). Women and men are both responsible

and should participate equally in family planning, yet women continue to bear the brunt of this

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burden. Men need to share this responsibility with women and make informed choices about

family planning.

Women and girls deserve the opportunity to make their own decisions about their health and

their futures. No country can reach its full potential if half of its population is disempowered.

When women and girls are empowered to plan their families, they are more likely to stay in

school, advance in their education, participate in their communities, join the workforce and

empower future generations of women. Women’s health, empowerment and family planning are

all inextricably linked. We cannot advance the former without investing in the latter.

Milind Soman is a model, actor and fitness promoter

The views expressed are personal

TELEGRAPH, SEP 28, 2017

Women get licence to drive in last place on earth- 'Historic day' for ultraconservative Saudi Arabia as it lifts ban, crown prince gets credit

Sept. 27: Saudi Arabia's decision to allow women to drive for the first time marks a leap forward for human rights in the ultraconservative country.

King Salman issued the order in a decree last night, catching his subjects by surprise. It is the only place where women are banned from driving. A committee would study the issue and the reform would take effect next June.

Women were banned from driving because conservatives argued that it would lead to promiscuity. One cleric even suggested that driving would damage women's ovaries.

Saudis credited the young and recently promoted crown prince for the reform. Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 31, who was made heir apparent in June, has long been regarded as a progressive force. He had hinted that he would be willing to drop the driving ban.

Saudi men and women took to social media to congratulate the ageing king. "We did it," tweeted Manal al-Sharif, an activist who started the women's campaign to drive in 2011 and has been jailed several times.

Despite trying to cultivate a more modern image in recent years, the driving ban had been a

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longstanding stain on Saudi Arabia's international image.

The royal decree ordered the formation of a ministerial body to give advice within 30 days and then implement the order by June 24, 2018, according to state news agency SPA.

It stipulated that the move must "apply and adhere to the necessary Sharia standards". It gave no details but said a majority of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, Saudi Arabia's top clerical body, had approved its permissibility.

For more than 25 years, women activists have campaigned to be allowed to drive, defiantly taking to the road, petitioning the king and posting videos of themselves behind the wheel on social media. The protests brought them arrest and harassment.

Latifa al-Shaalan, a member of the Shura Council, an advisory body, said the decision would strengthen women's employment in the private sector.

"This is an historic day and I cannot find the words to express my feelings and the feelings of thousands of Saudi women," she said on Arabiya TV.

An hour after the official announcement in Saudi Arabia, a jubilant Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Khaled bin Salman, said it was "an historic and big day in our kingdom".

"I think our leadership understands that our society is ready. I think it's the right decision at the right time," the ambassador said.

Prince Khaled said women would not need permission from their guardians to get a licence or have a guardian in the car and would be allowed to drive anywhere in the kingdom, including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Women with a licence from any of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries would be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, he added. He said the interior ministry would have to decide whether they could be professional drivers.

Positive reactions quickly poured in from inside the kingdom and around the world.

The US state department welcomed the move as "a great step in the right direction".

President Donald Trump commended the decision, the White House said in a separate statement that pledged US support for a plan the kingdom announced last year for economic and social reforms.

"This is a positive step towards promoting the rights and opportunities of women in Saudi Arabia," the White House statement said. "We will continue to support Saudi Arabia in its efforts to strengthen Saudi society and the economy through reforms like this and the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030."

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Women will, however, continue to be subjected to a crushing guardianship system that forces them to seek permission from male relatives to do everything from opening a bank account to travelling and even medical treatment.

"In terms of international PR, this is the biggest overnight win that Saudi Arabia - and particularly MBS (Mohammed bin Salman) - could possibly have," said Jane Kinninmont, senior research fellow at Chatham House, a think tank based in London.

The position of Saudi women gradually improved under late King Abdullah and since King Salman took over in 2015, the kingdom has been opening more areas for women through the government's modernising reforms.

That has sparked tensions with influential clerics upon whose support the ruling family relies.

Not all Saudis were delighted with the announcement. One man called Raig tried to start a hashtag titled "You Shall Not Drive".

Critics took to Twitter to denounce the decision, accusing the government of "bending the verses of Sharia".

"As far as I remember, Sharia scholars have said it was haram (forbidden) for women to drive. How come it has suddenly become halal (permissible)?" another user wrote.

Asked whether he was worried about a conservative backlash, Prince Khaled said: "On these changes some people will be in the driver's seat... some people will be in the back seat, but we're all going to move forward."

He added: "It's not women must drive, it's women can drive. So if any woman do not want to drive in Saudi Arabia, that's her choice."

Crown Prince Mohammed has become the face of reform in the kingdom in the past few years.

Many younger Saudis regard his ascent as evidence that their generation is taking a central place in running a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of the old and blocked women's progress.

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