LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

ASIAN AGE

BUSINESS STANDARD

DECCAN HERALD

ECONOMIC TIMES

HINDU

HINDUSTAN TIMES

INDIAN EXPRESS

PIONEER

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

TRIBUNE

1

CONTENTS

CIVIL SERVICE 3-16

CONSTITUTIONS 17-18

DEFENCE 19

EDUCATION 20-23

LIBRARIES 24

POLICE 25

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 26-31

POVERTY 32-36

PRESIDENTS 37

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 38

SOCIAL PROBLEMS 39

TAXATION 40

TERRORISM 41-42

TRANSPORT 43

URBAN DEVELOPMENT 44-48

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION 49-50

2

CIVIL SERVICE

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 28, 2016Cabinet okays 2% DA ahead of DeepavaliMerged with basic pay after 7th Pay Commission

In a Deepavali gift to over 50 lakh central government employees and over 58 lakh pensioners, the Centre on Thursday approved 2% dearness allowance (DA) to be paid to them with retrospective effect from July this year.

Earlier this year, the government hiked DA by 6% to 125% of the basic pay. The DA was later merged with the basic pay following implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award.

The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both dearness allowance and dearness relief will be Rs 5,622.10 crore in the financial year 2016-17, though for the period of eight months (July to February 2017), it will be Rs 3,748.06 crore, an official statement said after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to a statement, the increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.

About 50.68 lakh government employees and 54.24 lakh pensioners will be benefited, it said.

Dearness allowance is paid to employees and pensioners to neutralise the impact of price rise on their earnings.

The central government employee unions, however, were not satisfied with the 2% hike and instead had pressed for a 3% increase.

The unions said that the average of consumer inflation for industrial workers in the past 12 months had worked out to be close to 3%.

PIONEER, OCT 28, 2016BP SINGH BECOMES MP’S CHIEF SECYAdditional Chief Secretary of Home department BP Singh has been appointed Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh.

The newly appointed Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh Basant Pratap Singh is an officer of Indian Administrative Services (IAS) of 1984 batch. A native of Uttar Pradesh, Singh was born on July 1, 1958. Singh has obtained PG degree in Philosophy from the Allahabad University.

Singh was initially posted as Assistant Collector Bilaspur in June 1985. Beside SDO of Sehora and Dharmjaigarh, Singh also rendered his services as Additional Collector Baikunthpur. Besides, Singh also shouldered the responsibility of District Collector of Panna, Durg and

3

Gwalior. Singh rendered his services as the Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Seeds Corporation, OPTEL and Laghu Udhyog Nigam.

Singh was also posted as Joint Secretary Ministry of Textile Government of India.

 Beside Divisional Commissioner of Indore Singh has also shouldered the responsibility of Principal Secretary Higher Education, Revenue and Forest during different service period. At present Singh is posted as Additional Chief Secretary Home from May 1, 2015.

During the service period Singh has received training in Change Management from London and on subject ‘Qualitative Methods and Operation Research for Public’ from Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 27, 2016Contractual staff must get at par wages: Supreme CourtBhadra Sinha

 |  In a far-reaching verdict that brings relief to lakhs of contractual employees working in government departments and agencies, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that temporary workers are entitled to wages at par with permanent employees.

A bench headed by Justice JS Khehar based its judgment on the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’. The rule, it said, constitutes a clear and unambiguous right vested in every employee — whether engaged on regular or temporary basis. The principle has been underscored in various judgments rendered by the SC and is law of the land, it said.

“Any one, who is compelled to work at a lesser wage, does not do so voluntarily. He does so, to provide food and shelter to his family, at the cost of his self respect and dignity, at the cost of his self worth, and at the cost of his integrity. For he knows, that his dependents would suffer immensely, if he does not accept the lesser wage,” read the verdict that came on petitions filed by temporary workers of the Punjab government.

The employees moved the SC after the Punjab and Haryana high court denied them the pay-scale entitled to a permanent employee.

The SC said India must follow the equal pay for equal work principle because it was a signatory of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

4

“In our considered view, it is fallacious to determine artificial parameters to deny fruits of labour. An employee engaged for the same work, cannot be paid less than another, who performs the same duties and responsibilities. Certainly not, in a welfare state. Such an action besides being demeaning, strikes at the very foundation of human dignity,” the bench said.

“There can be no doubt, that the principle of equal pay for equal work would be applicable to all the concerned temporary employees, so as to vest in them the right to claim wages, at par with the minimum of the pay-scale of regularly engaged government employees, holding the same post,” it said.

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 27, 2016WB report on ranking: PM seeks report from officers in a month

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked top secretaries to analyse areas that needed more reforms and report within a month after the latest World Bank report almost maintained a status quo on India’s ease of doing business.

 He also asked the Cabinet secretary to review the overall performance of the Centre and states in this regard. The latest report upgraded India just a notch above to 131 from last year among 190 countries.

 “The prime minister asked all chief secretaries and all secretaries of the Government of India to study the report, and analyse the potential areas where there is scope for improvement in their respective departments and states. He asked for a report from all concerned in this regard, within a month, and asked the Cabinet secretary to review the same thereafter,” sources in Prime Minister’s Office said.

 Modi aims to push the country in top 50 ranking in terms of ease of doing business in coming years.

 Earlier, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she was disappointment over the ranking.

 “I am a bit disappointed. Not only the government of India, but every state is so actively engaged and wants to ease the situation... But for whatever reason, it has not been adequately captured in the ranking,” she said. She, however, said that Centre and states will work with renewed focus and speed to improve the ranking further.

 On the target fixed by the prime minister to get within the 50th spot, she maintained that this goal is intact.

5

About steps to be taken in future to improve the ranking, the minister said the government has taken the right route in reforming and making ease of doing business a very important agenda for the Centre and states.

 “Now, it is important for us to interact with states even more to quickly identify many such things which are important so that its impact is visible at the ground level,” Sitharaman said.

TRIBUNE, OCT 27, 201632% hike in basic pay of Haryana staffFirst state to extend 7th pay panel benefits to staff

Revised pay package 2.5 lakh employees in Group A, B, C & D to get a hike of 32% over their basic pay as on

January 1, 2016 21 pay bands prescribed — 14 of these are the same as that of Central Government Pay matrix made simpler, and closer to Central Govt pay structure Pay of employees to be fixed uniformly by multiplying afitment factor of 2.57 Group D posts retained; Group D grade merged with higher pay grade of Rs 1,650 Risk allowance for police personnel to continue upto March 31, 2017

Haryana would be the first in the country to award the Seventh Central Pay Commission (CPC) benefit to its employees from January 1, 2016, Chief Minister ML Khattar announced here today.

Addressing a press conference after a Cabinet meeting, he said the state government had decided in principle to grant the benefit of the revised pay package to its employees broadly on the pattern of the pay package given by the Central Government to its employees.

Khattar said contractual employees, such as anganwari workers and data entry operators, and those engaged under the outsourcing policy would also be benefited for which departments would submit their proposals within a week.

Also, risk allowance given to police personnel would continue up to March 31, 2017.

About 2.5 lakh employees in Group A, B, C and D will get a hike of 32 per cent over their basic pay as on January 1, 2016. Against the 32 existing grades, 21 pay levels have been prescribed of which 14 are the same as that of the Central Government. The pay matrix is simpler, easier to understand and closer to the Government of India pay structure.

By introducing only 21 pay levels, inter-departmental disparities would be settled to a large extent and the demand of Group C employees for a wage pattern akin to that of the Central

6

Government met to a large extent. The pay of employees will be fixed uniformly by multiplying a fitment factor of 2.57.

Group D posts have been retained on the demand of employees' unions and to meet administrative needs. The pay grade of Group D (Rs 1,300 and Rs 1,400) has been merged with the higher pay grade of Rs 1,650. Their minimum pay now will be Rs 16,900.

Assured Career Progression (ACP) will be more attractive for Group C and D employees, benefiting about one lakh employees, — 40,000 in Group D and 60,000 in Group C.

The Haryana Cabinet today also approved the Haryana Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, and the Haryana Civil Services (Assured Career Progression) Rules, 2016.

It authorised the government to issue necessary instructions for disbursing arrears on account of revision of pay in a manner proposed in the report.

Meanwhile, the Haryana Government has constituted a three-member committee under the Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, P Raghavendra Rao, for revision of pension as per the recommendations of the pay commission.The other members on the committee are Anil Malik and Shrikant Walgad, IAS.

TELEGRAPH, OCT 26, 2016

Regulatory confusions - The regulatory process has not been too successful in India

Commentarao- S.L. Rao

Any discussion of what holds India back focuses on inefficiency and corruption, bureaucracy at all levels, lack of coordination, centralization of power, and non-delegation to municipalities and panchayats, investigation and police systems that are under political control, and the weakened state of the judiciary, to mention only a few.

However, the overseeing of the government and other functions are carried out through bodies created under the Constitution which are autonomous, independent and not expected to report to any government functionary. There are many created by legislation, mostly after 1991. The government appears to have given up some powers to these non-elected bodies. The constitutional bodies include the comptroller and auditor general of India, the Union Public Service Commission, the Finance Commission.

The governments transferred some of their regulatory powers, such as licensing, tariff setting, ensuring competitive markets, to regulatory agencies created by statutes. This was done for different reasons; among them is the technical nature of the subject under regulation, the need for clarity and transparency since large sums of money are involved, the need for a judicial approach, and sometimes pressure from international financing institutions. It was argued that the entry of the private sector after 1991 demanded more

7

transparency. For such regulatory bodies, jurisdiction, the extent of their powers, the manner of exercising them, penal powers and so on are laid down by the statutes that created them. They might be bodies with national or individual state jurisdictions.

None of the agencies was a model for the others. Each was created by the concerned ministry. Thus the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is a recommendatory body. The electricity commissions are still trying to get authority over their forward markets from the Forward Markets Commission. Penal powers for non-compliance are weak in most cases except in the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Competition Commission of India. Some have appellate tribunals; appeals from others go directly to the high courts.

There is little research on their numbers and their comparative powers and performance. The list below covers most but some might have been missed. On a rough count, these are the following regulatory agencies in place today:

For transportation there are four, including waterways, highways and the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority; energy - 27: the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, 25 state electricity regulatory commissions, one for each state, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board; communications: Trai; markets - three: the FMC; the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority, and the CCI; finance - four: the Reserve Bank of India, Sebi, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

Then there are others. For education - two: the University Grants Commission, and the All India Council for Technical Education; food - one: the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

There are over 24 self-regulated bodies by legislative charter. For sports there are the Indian Olympic Association, the All India Tennis Association, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and others.

Other self-regulated bodies include the Medical Council of India, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, the Indian Institute of Architects, and the Bar Council of India.

It is generally accepted that the self-regulated institutions are not satisfactory. There are allegations of malfeasance against almost all of them. The professional ones (like the ICAI or the MCI) are not known to take stringent actions against violators. The sports organizations tend to have people running them almost for lifetimes and there are doubts about their financial integrity. Sport has been poorly served by self-regulated bodies.

A few, like the FMC, were created earlier - the FMC in 1952, the RBI in 1935, the ICAI in 1949. But the majority were created after economic liberalization in 1991.

In the cases of electricity, telecommunications, competition, securities, the appeals against the orders of the concerned commissions are made to appellate tribunals, and not directly to

8

the high courts. This has often led to delays and the dilution of the original intent of the commissions. This is especially the case with competition where the commission received far stronger penal powers than the other regulatory bodies. It used its financial penal powers to impose heavy penalties on enterprises that violated the law. However, the competition appellate tribunal has, in almost all cases, either stayed the orders or made the penalties negligible. Trai is always subject to being overruled by the ministry since it is a recommendatory body.

With such extensive powers over their sectors, one would expect that government departments in the sectors would have diminished greatly in size. This has not happened. They continue to influence most regulatory bodies and monitor them closely for their consonance with government policies.

Indeed, the government departments in many cases, particularly state governments, are able to get the regulatory commission to act according to their wishes and not independently.

One reason for this is the nature of the selection process of chairmen and members of the regulatory bodies. The selection committees specified in the legislation are invariably composed of administrators, many from the concerned ministry. Almost invariably, a retired government servant is selected. Many times they come out of the same ministry the sector of which they are to regulate. Thus they bring to the regulatory assignments the baggage of the administrative mindsets of their years in administration, and the procedures and rules that go with them. They are over 60 years of age, and many do not exercise the independence that the law has given them, nor do they have the courage to do so. They have little commercial or management aptitude. Their decisions are often pedestrian and do not include an articulation of desired outcomes, provisions for closely monitoring achievement, ordering mid-term corrections, and evaluating the enterprise's performance for future orders. The government servants appointed as regulators do not consider these as their duty. Hence the sectors function under orders that lose them money and are reviewed only in the following year.

With most regulatory bodies the staff are on deputation from other departments of the government. They do not regard themselves as having a career in regulation. Few, if any, rise to become members or chairmen of regulatory bodies.

The regulatory bodies are invariably subservient to their ministries and follow their dictums. Thus no state electricity regulatory commission has ever objected to the free power given to agriculture and other select vote blocs. These loss-making supplies have to be met by cross-subsidies, that is, higher tariffs to other consumers. This has led to wrong cropping patterns, depletion of ground water and growing salinity of land. The Electricity Act mandates open access in order to optimize use of available electricity in the country. State governments prefer to get the supply from local electricity generators. No regulatory commission has protested against the prevention of open access of electricity between states.

There are of course regulatory bodies like the RBI and Sebi that have had much impact on the economy by their decisions. Most regulatory bodies are content with submitting to state

9

government desires.

Has the statutory regulatory process been successful? I would say that it has not done what was expected from it, namely create transparency and clarity in licensing, tariff setting, and so on. This is mainly owing to the key positions in these bodies becoming post-retirement perquisites for retiring bureaucrats and government servants and resulting in little independence, courage or knowledge in regulating the concerned sectors.

Where appellate tribunals have been created, they might have been better replaced by special benches in the high courts which would focus on law and leave ascertaining facts mostly to the commissions.

It would have been better if all the commissions had uniform structures and authorities and if they followed each others' orders to ensure that there is a body of regulatory law and precedents that could enrich the whole business of regulation.

The author is former director-general, National Council of Applied Economic Research

PIONEER, OCT 25, 20163.24L GOVT EMPLOYEES’ DATABASE ONLINE NOW

The State Government on Monday claimed that Odisha has become a leading State in uploading database of a large number of employees in the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) software which is further linked with the Litigation Management System (IMS) software.

It was discussed at the Board of Governors meeting of the Center for Modernising Government Initiatives (CMGI) held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the State Secretariat here.

Linking of HRMS and LMS software would capture latest position of various Government cases being tried in High Courts and administrative tribunals. Padhi directed to capture latest court orders. It was decided that the services of a professional agency in Delhi would be utilised to collect all orders of the Supreme Court.

So far, the database of 3,24, 000 regular employees of the State Government have been updated in the HRMS. The salary bills and other financial transactions are being made through this automated system. The annual increment, GPF advances and leave matters would also be put to auto mode through this software. 

In compliance with the earlier orders of the Chief Secretary CMGI has developed the Common Application Portal (CAP) for electronics delivery of G2C and G2B services under Odisha Right to Public Services Act.

It was decided that the CAP would be put in Odia very soon. Padhi directed to complete the task within this week. The CMGI was also asked to use simple Odia words as used in day-to-day life for better understanding of the people. The work plan for 2016-17 with estimated expenditure of Rs 8.50 crore was approved in the meeting to carry forward these activities

10

PIONEER, OCT 26, 2016CANDIDATES’ PROTEST FOR APPOINTMENT

4

As many as 200 candidates, who had been selected in the Accountant (contractual) recruitment test protested against the state Government and Vyapam on Monday at the Ambedkar Park. Candidates sought permission for committing suicide enmasse as  vyapam has not issued the appointment letters for these candidates.

Notably, Vyapam had conducted the recruitment of accountant recruitment test on April 5, 2015 for 2208 posts of accountants in the State Education Centre. Vyapam had announced the result of the test on July 8, 2015. The counseling was likely to take place within three months of the result, but the Vyapam has still not proceeded the further process.

While taking to the The Pioneer here on Monday, Amar Singh, who has been selected in the accountant recruitment test said, “It has been 16 months since the result of the test was announced but the Vyapam has still not announced anything regarding the counselling. we all are depressed due to this and we all feel deceived by the Government. we urge the Government to immediately conduct the counseling and order the appointment of the selected candidates.”

Another selected candidate, Siddharth Markham told that General Administration Department (GAD) had instructed that the  appointment orders of the selected candidates should be issued within three months. He said that vyapam had also conducted six other recruitment tests for various departments along with the accountant recruitment test. The candidates, who had been selected in these recruitment tests had been appointed six months ago.  All the selected

candidates are jointly demanding the permission for euthanasia as they have been exploited by the state government.

 PIONEER, OCT 26, 2016DIWALI BONANZA: PUNJAB OK’S REGULARISATION OF 30K STAFF

The SAD-BJP Government on Tuesday not only presented more than 30,000 employees the gift of regularisation in service, but also brightened up its own prospects in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Describing it as “Diwali bonanza”, the Punjab Cabinet has put its stamp of approval to regularise the services of over 30,000 employees, working on contract or other ad-hoc basis in various departments, boards, corporations and societies.

The “landmark decision”, which comes into force with immediate effect, came barely three months before assembly polls are due in which the ruling SAD-BJP combine is fighting anti-incumbency of two consecutive terms.

The Cabinet has also decided to “adopt” all employees, who have been taken through private outsourcing agencies or contractors.

“These employees will no longer be on contract with the private contractors but would be shifted straightaway to a direct arrangement with the Government...They now become Government’s

11

own contractual employees and will be eligible to benefits which were normally available to other contract employees in their respective categories,” said the Government spokesperson.

The proposal for regularisation of employees was cleared on Monday at a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.

Spokesperson underlined that the last decision on regularisation of employees was also taken during the SAD-BJP Government in its last tenure “when more than 45,000 contract employees were absorbed as regular members of the Government staff...whereas, no employees were regularised during the 2002-2007 tenure of the Congress Government headed by Captain Amarinder Singh”.

“On the contrary, the Amarinder Government had slapped a blanket ban on fresh recruitments and regularisations,” said the spokesperson.

The services of Group A, B and C employees working on contract, ad-hoc, daily-wages, temporary, work-charged basis, who have completed three years of continuous service, fulfilled educational qualifications and age limit at the time of initial appointment, and were recruited in a transparent manner, would be regularised.

“They would continue to draw their existing salary for three years. Another category of such Group-D employees, who have already completed three years of service, would also be regularised,” said the spokesperson.

At the same time, the cabinet also directed the state Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal to ensure that all the cases related to employment on compassionate grounds in all departments should be decided within three weeks.

Besides, the Cabinet decided that the entire backlog of posts, related to all reserved categories, should be immediately filled up through a special recruitment drive.

“Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal also intervened to ensure that the employees were given benefits of the services they have already put in and must not be taken in as fresh recruits. They will be given pay protection and will be allowed to draw pay equivalent to the last pay drawn by them,” said the spokesperson.

In another “goodwill gesture”, the Cabinet formally approved the special grant-in-aid of Rs 50 lakh to be given to war widows or legal heirs of the valiant soldiers who had laid down their lives in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars and 1962 Indo-China war.

The grant would be payable in three half yearly instalments of Rs 20 lakh, Rs 15 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.

The Cabinet also gave nod to amend Fiscal Incentives for Industrial Promotion (Revised)-2013, thereby now considering the incentives like exemption from Mandi Fee or Rural Development Fee (RDF) already given to the established or under construction Basmati Processing Units from December 2013 to September 2015, as a part of basket of incentives, the sum total of which should not exceed the approved fixed Capital Investment.

Cabinet also approved to constitute a Finance Management Cell in the state Food and Civil Supplies department, comprising one Additional Director (Finance), one Joint Director (IT), to

12

monitor the accounts related to all procurement agencies on one hand and to ensure proper accounting of funds given to the agencies and the recoveries or payments made by them on the other.

In view of allotment of liquor vends for 2016-17, the Cabinet also gave a green signal to make certain amendments for the issuance of L-1A licence in pursuance with the directions of Punjab and Haryana High Court. 

From now on, any eligible person or firm could obtain L-1A license directly from the department, after fulfilling the necessary conditions.

Conceding the demand of 1984 riot affected families, the Cabinet also approved to execute conveyance deed of the houses or booths allotted to them on allotment rates instead of collector rates.

To attract huge investments in industry, trade and housing sector, Punjab Cabinet approved amendments in the earlier policy approved by the Council of Ministers in its meeting held on February 27, 2008. The Cabinet also decided that the District Labour Court, District Consumer Forum and the office of District Social Welfare should be set up at Pathankot.

 

INDIAN EXPRESS, OCT 25, 2016Jharkhand: IAS officer gets showcause over Facebook post

The comments were posted by the officer on October 20, when Chief Minister Raghubar Das,

while addressing an audience in Dumka.

The Jharkhand government has issued a showcause notice to a secretary-level IAS officer asking

her to explain a Facebook post that questioned the issue of religious conversions being raised

during a government function.

The comments were posted by the officer on October 20, when Chief Minister Raghubar Das,

while addressing an audience in Dumka, reportedly asked people to inform police about those

indulging in conversions through allurement. The officer was present at the programme.

Watch what else is making news:

13

Secretary Panchayati Raj, under the Rural Development Department and an IAS officer of the

1996-batch, Vandana Dadel had posted: “Does a tribal have no right to choose a religion of

his/her choice with respect.”

A government spokesperson said Monday: “A showcause notice has been issued on the reported

comments on the part of the officer. She has been given 15 days time to respond. The

proceedings will move further after we receive the reply.”

When contacted, Dadel said that she would not like to react on the development. “A showcause

has been issued. I will study and submit my reply. There is nothing more to say,” she said,

adding that she had neither removed nor changed the said post.

ASIAN AGE, OCT 25, 2016Privileged babus of Telangana

The formation of Telangana has been a boon to junior bureaucrats and Group 1 officials. They have risen to higher positions faster than when Andhra Pradesh was not divided.

Following the reorganisation of districts, many junior IAS officials, some from them 2012 batch, have been posted as collectors. The seniormost appointee was Adilabad collector Jyothi Buddha Prakash from 2002 batch, and there were six others from the 2011 and 2010 batches. The juniormost were from the 2012 batch.

In the old days they recall, it used to take nine to 10 years for officers to become collectors and six years of IPS officers to become superintendent of police in the districts. But due to the increase in districts the need arose to appoint more IAS officials as collectors has arisen. Good for the young babus but their lack of experience in some cases may be of worry to the Telangana government.

CBI gets cyber-savvy

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is handling several high-profile cases like 2G, coal and chit-fund scams is now bolstering its capabilities to investigate financial crimes. The department of personnel and training (DoPT), which acts as a nodal authority for the agency, has reportedly approved a proposal to set up a special Centralised Technology Vertical (CTV) at a cost of Rs 100 crores.

14

Sources say that the idea was proposed by CBI director Anil Sinha, who last year had urged the government for “real time support to investigations” with access to data warehouses and help from professionals in digital forensic analysis, forensic accounting and fraud examination. It would help the agency in fast and timely conclusion of its investigations. At present, the CBI takes help of officers from other services like Indian Revenue Service, besides independent experts and professionals to investigate financial crimes.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a conference on asset recovery in November last, had also said that a “Centralised Technology Vertical to focus on combating new age crimes like cybercrimes, is also being planned” by the government. Now that CTV has come to pass, it may even help the agency, often derided for its long winding and occasionally fruitless probes, to refurbish its reputation.

Karnataka: From Babus to netas

Elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly are nearly 18 months away, but several retired bureaucrats have announced a plunge into active politics, ostensibly to continue their “public service”. In less than a week, two retired IAS officers — K. Shivaram and C. Somashekar — joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mr Shivaram, who unlike officers of his ilk has acted in 10 Kannada films, joined the Congress in 2013 soon after retirement, but within six months, moved to JD(S) where he unsuccessfully contested the 2014 general elections.

Mr Somashekar, a close aide of BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa, is also culturally “active” in his community’s organisations.

Bureaucrats entering politics is not new in Karnataka. After retirement, many senior IAS and IPS officers have opted to join national or regional parties. Former IPS officer K.C. Ramamurthy recently became a Rajya Sabha MP. Former IAS officers Ashok Kumar Manoli and S. Puttaswamy joined the Congress just before the 2013 elections. In the same league are former BBMP commissioner S. Subrahmanya, former police officers G. Shankarnarayana, Subhash Bharani, and Shankar M. Bidari. Former top police officers H.T. Sangliana and P. Kodandaramaiah have won parliamentary elections. In all, the hop from administration to lawmaking seems to be becoming increasingly popular with babus.

ECONOMIC TIMES, OCT 25, 2016Centre refuses to share report on civil services exam's rejig

NEW DELHI: The Centre has refused to share a report of Baswan committee, that has suggested

changes in civil services exam pattern. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had

constituted the expert committee under the chairmanship of former Human Resource

15

Development Secretary and retired IAS officer BS Baswan, to review the scheme of civil

services examination, in August last year. Replying to an RTI query, the Department of

Personnel and Training (DoPT) said that the report of Baswan committee has been submitted to

the government on August 11, 2016. "No further information specific to your query can be

shared at this stage," it said. The DoPT was asked to give copy of the report and details of action

being taken on it. The committee is understood to have recommended reduction in upper age

limit of 32 years to appear in the civil services exam, official sources said. Lakhs of aspirants

appear in the civil services examination conducted annually by UPSC in three stagespreliminary,

main and interview to select officers for Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign

Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others. The Baswan committee has

examined the plan of examination, number of papers, their structure and duration, marking

scheme, weightage of marks and system of evaluation among others, the sources said. As per

existing norms a candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the

age of 32 years to appear in the examination. The upper age limit is further extendable for

candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes, and those

who had ordinarily been domiciled in Jammu and Kashmir during the period from January 1,

1980 to December 31, 1989

16

CONSTITUTIONS

TRIBUNE, OCT 24, 2016The cornerstones of our ConstitutionTKA Nair

At the root of the conflict between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature is the very core of our parliamentary democracy: where does the sovereign power of the state rest? An informed national dialogue is needed on all facets of the constitutional issues involved in the developments leading to the NJAC verdict.

THE  circumstances leading to the enactment of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and the subsequent developments, culminating in the face-off between the executive and the judiciary, are too recent to be recapitulated. Eminent jurists, academics, retired judges and the media have commented upon different aspects of the development. Viewed in the historical perspective of our constitutional law, the NJAC verdict is the latest manifestation of a simmering conflict between the judiciary on the one side and the executive and the legislature on the other. 

Shrouded in the niceties of constitutional law as it has evolved over the years with judicial pronouncements made in different contexts, is the tussle for supremacy in the governance of the State. At the root of it is the very core of our parliamentary democracy: Where does the sovereign power of the State rest and which is the ultimate authority to decide it and exercise it.

We, the people of India — acting through the Constituent Assembly —gave ourselves the Constitution which is the foundation of our parliamentary democracy. The Constitution lays down in detail the institutional mechanisms and processes for exercising the sovereign power of the State through the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The division and separation of powers amongst these three pillars of the State is fundamental to our parliamentary democracy. Each one is supreme in its constitutionally defined domain but integral to the scheme of governance as provided in the Constitution. 

Thus the duly elected legislature, representing the will of the people, exercises the power to lay down the laws of the land and the executive, accountable to the legislature, exercises the power of implementing them through appropriate institutions and mechanisms. The judiciary exercises the power to ensure that both the legislature and the executive function in accordance with the provisions in the Constitution and the laws laid down by the legislature.

Ever since the Constitution came into force, the governance of the country has been carried out in accordance with the scheme of separation of powers envisaged in it. From time to time, the Supreme Court, exercising its power of judicial oversight, has struck down as unconstitutional

17

legislative enactments and executive decisions. Significantly, some of the enactments were aimed at breaking free from certain constraints imposed by judicial pronouncements. The latest and the most telling instance has been the NJAC verdict which negates a legislation passed by Parliament and ratified by state legislatures, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution itself. The impact of this verdict goes far beyond the NJAC to the very fundamentals of our parliamentary democracy.

The doctrine of the “basic structure of the Constitution,” enunciated by the apex court in the Kesavanand Bharati case, has been the most decisive turning point in our constitutional history. Without clearly defining what the basic structure is and spelling out what constitutes it, the apex court held it to be one of the inviolate cornerstones of the Constitution. Shorn of legal jugglery, the basic structure of the Constitution is in effect what the majority verdict of a Constitution bench of the apex court pronounces from time to time, the latest being the law of the land till it is modified or overruled by a larger bench of the Court. 

The NJAC verdict sharply reflects this position, with its consequences going far beyond the crafting of a Memorandum of Procedure (MOP) for appointment of judges through a courtroom process. Over a period of time, the perception that through its interpretation and application of the doctrines of “judicial review” and “basic structure,” the apex court has positioned itself as the sole final arbiter of governance in our parliamentary democracy, has gained ground. The words of wisdom and caution of AK Ayar in the Constituent Assembly and Chief justice Kania in the AK Gopalan case have been obscured and rendered outdated. At the same time, with the steady decline in the standing of the legislature and the executive, the judiciary has emerged as the most credible and durable repository of the power of the State.

The legislature, the executive and the judiciary are equally fundamental to our constitutional framework of governance. Beyond courtroom battles, they are partners in sharing and exercising the sovereign power of the Indian State for pursuing the common objectives set forth in the Preamble to the Constitution and the Directive Principles.  Differences of convictions and perceptions on issues of governance amongst them are inevitable and even welcome in the context or the incredible diversity of our country. Dissent, discussion and consensus constitute the very essence of democracy. Viewed in this perspective, wisdom lies in opening an informed national dialogue on all facets of the constitutional issues involved in the developments leading to the NJAC verdict. A comprehensive Presidential reference to the Supreme Court could trigger the process, hopefully leading to better appreciation of the spirit of the Constitution and its restoration in the functioning of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. We the people of India look forward to it. 

18

DEFENCE

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 31, 2016Government restores status quo on disability pensionThe central government has restored the status quo on the disability pension for the armed forces till an independent panel takes a fresh look at the new formula, proposed by the Seventh Pay Commission.

The defence ministry on Saturday stated the implementation of the disability pension as per the new methodology had been referred to the Anomaly committee.

“The disability element which was being paid to pre-2016 defence forces pensioners as on December 31, 2015 will continue to be paid pending decision on the recommendations of the Anomaly committee,” the ministry said in a statement. The new formula — proposed by the Pay Commission and accepted by the defence ministry — triggered a row with a section of the military veterans and political leaders accusing the government of ill-treating the armed forces.

The pay panel recommended cutting the disability pension of the three armed forces. Earlier it was calculated at 30% of pay for 100% disability for both civilians and military. But now a slab based system has been suggested for the military, while the old system is retained for the civilians.

19

EDUCATION

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 28, 2016UGC asks universities to provide PhD programmes in AYUSH disciplines

Grants Commission (UGC) asked all central universities to start a doctorate degree programmes under AYUSH disciplines.

On June 24, AYUSH ministry had written a letter to the UGC requesting it to issue an advisory to educational institutions on the same. AYUSH has announced PhD programmes in AYUSH disciplines from the concerned research council.

The research councils in the field of Ayurvedic Sciences, Homoeopathy, Yoga and Naturopathy among others also conduct clinical and basic research studies and they want to extend research opportunities through PhD fellowship programme for the development of AYUSH.

UGC has asked all central universities to set up a system for enrolment of candidates in the PhD programme and providing them an opportunity to avail fellowship from the concerned research council. The councils will sponsor 200 candidates: 125 postgraduate of Ayush and 75 of science and technology streams for pursuing PhD on Ayush research topics.

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 28, 2016Make IAS officers admit their kids to govt schools: reportPrakash Kumar

A Centre-sponsored study recommended making civil servants and other officials admit their children to government schools in their respective areas of posting to improve quality of the public education.

“The government employees, right from the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer to the peon, and public representatives must get their children enrolled in government schools to improve the quality of public education,” Niti Ayog-sponsored study noted in its report. The study was conducted by Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies, based in Amritsar. Though it was a “diagnostic analysis” of elementary education in rural Punjab, the study team made its recommendation for making public servants admit their children to government schools across the country.

The students’ learning outcome across the country has remained “unsatisfactory and far below than the expectations,” the study team noted in its report to the Niti Ayog.

20

“The goal of universal elementary education remains elusive and a distant dream. Education department must review the process and come out with a foolproof model,” principal investigator Gursharan Singh Kainth of the study team suggested in the report.

This comes a year after the Allahabad High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to work out modalities to ensure that all government servants send their children to primary schools run by the state basic education board.

In the executive summary of the report, Kainth also highlighted some “harsh realities” that the education system of Punjab and other states were faces.

“There is a lot of political interference in the functioning of schools, resulting in rewarding of non-deserving and punishing of non-sycophants. A grievous shortage of teachers in schools has done an irreparable harm to the system. No detention policy just helps the government show literacy figures, without imparting actual literacy,” he underlined.

The study team recommended for strengthening the government schools, making a strong pitch for lending “the required financial support” to the privately managed schools as well, instead of “leaving their fate to the market forces.”

“Sadly, most successful persons today have had their education from private schools. Today, if a teacher applies for a government job, it is only because she or he knows that the work there is less and the salary good. They need to work hard, like the teachers of private schools,” Kainth noted in the report.

DECCAN HERALD, OCT 28, 2016Cabinet approves setting up of academic depository

The Centre on Thursday approved the establishment of a National Academic Depository (NAD) for safe deposit, retrieval and verification of the certificates of students within next three months with plans to roll out the facility in 2017-18.

At its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Cabinet also gave approval to funding and other provisions for a newly established Indian Institute of Science and Education and Research (IISER) in Odisha.

Running of the institute, which started with its first batch from a temporary campus in Behrampur, Odisha, from August 1, will cost an estimated Rs I52.79 crore to the public exchequer during the initial three years.

“The Cabinet’s approval to the establishment of the NAD is an important milestone in higher education because it will bring transparency. Problems like tampering (of academic certificates),

21

fake degrees will become a thing of the past," Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters, after the meeting. The depository would be operationalised by the NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) and CDSL Ventures, Limited (CVL) – two of the wholly owned subsidiaries of the depositories registered under Securities Exchange Board of India (SebiI) Act, 1992.

Reward scheme 

The Centre on Thursday approved a new productivity-linked reward (PLR) scheme for port and dock employees for the period 2015-16 to 2017-18.

“The Union Cabinet, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval to a new productivity-linked reward scheme for all major port trusts and dock labour board employees/workers for the years 2015-16 to 2017-18,” an official statement said.

Cabinet nod for cadre review 

The Centre on Thursday approved first cadre review of Indian Posts and Telecommunications Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TAFS) Group, DHNS reports from New Delhi.

 The decision will lead to reduction of the total strength of cadre from 420 to 376.

The decision of the cadre review was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The cadre review includes creation of the post of Controller General of Communication Accounts (CGCA), creation of some additional higher administrative grade level and senior administrative grade level posts, reduction of junior administrative grade level posts, besides the creation of 46 posts, which will be operated as reserves, said a statement.

TRIBUNE, OCT 26, 2016No to no-detention, states can go back to exams for classes 5 and 8CABE resolutions

Learning outcomes in every class to be codified, making clear what every child should know in reading, writing and arithmetic in each class

Fixing accountability of all stakeholders — teachers, education institutes and government — to improve learning outcomes

Complete training of untrained teachers in next five years. A committee to look into girls’ education.

22

Seema Kaul

Exams for students of classes 5 and 8 are set to return in some states like Punjab and Delhi with the Central Government preparing to amend the Right to Education Act to allow states to make the required changes. The earliest the exams can resume is the 2017-2018 session.

The decision to amend the RTE Act was conveyed by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar today after a daylong meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), attended by 28 ministers from 21 states. “Students can give exams in April and those who fail will be given a second chance in June or July to clear the class. So, students get a second chance,” said Javadekar while explaining the resolutions adopted during the 64 CABE meeting.

Several states had sought a review of the no-detention policy. However, there was variation among states as to which classes exams should resume, besides whether exams should resume at all. The decision on exams has thus been left to the states. 

The CABE also agreed to codify learning outcomes in every class — clear definition of what every child should know in reading, writing and arithmetic in every class.

23

LIBRARIES

HINDU, OCT 31, 2016Key posts vacant at Kolkata librarySOUMYA DAS

In a recent letter to the Ministry of Culture (MoC), the National Library authorities admitted that key posts at the library are lying vacant as “no eligible candidates” can be found.

The Director General (DG, Additional Charge) Arun Kumar Chakraborty states in the letter, that the MoC has already given its nod for filling key posts. The development comes after The Hindu reported that more than 53 percent of the sanctioned posts at the library are vacant.

“The posts of the Principal Library and Information Officer-Librarian(2), Senior Administrative Officer (1) and Administrative Officers (2) are advertised (for recruitment) but could not succeed since no eligible candidates are available,” Mr. Chakraborty says in the letter.

The Library and Information Officer looks after the archiving and preservation of books and documents at the library, whereas the Senior Administrative Officer is the overall in charge of the administrative matters. The Administrative Officers are responsible for financial and staff-related affairs.

Speaking to The Hindu , Congress MP in Rajya Sabha Pradip Bhattacharya, who raised the issue in Parliament, said the “matter has come to my notice after The Hindu reported it. The Staff Unions have also pointed it out to me.”

According to government documents, copies of which are with The Hindu , the library is functioning without a DG for 18 months.

24

POLICE

HINDU, OCT 24, 2016IPS forum demands pay parity with IAS cadre

The Indian Police Service (Central) Association has said it expects the government to address its “legitimate needs.”

At its annual general body meeting held on Saturday, the association highlighted the issue of the delay in granting the IPS officers the pay and promotion parity with their IAS counterparts, as recommended by the Seventh Pay Commission. “The quantum of pay is never a consideration for IPS officers. Facing complex internal security and law enforcement challenges, IPS officers look to the government to take care of their legitimate needs so that they can work without distraction. The officers, however, have a genuine reason to feel concerned when the delays in granting recommended, and sometimes even entitled, service benefits become too frequent, accentuating inter-service disparities. When the beneficiaries of such disparities occupy the role of advising the government, apprehensions of conflict of interest are bound to arise unless extra steps are taken to make the process transparent, time-bound and objective,” the association said in a statement.

The association said that after the Pay Commission acknowledged the importance and challenges of the work done by the IPS officers and recommended parity among services in the pay, empanelment and opportunities to compete for senior positions, it was endorsed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the cadre-controlling authority. The proposal was pending with the Department of Personnel, it said.

“The meeting resolved to submit a memorandum to the government to demand early implementation of the remaining recommendations of the Pay Commission,” the statement said.

25

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

TRIBUNE, OCT 27, 2016Can Bihar be replicated in Uttar Pradesh?CP Bhambri

Will the leaders in Uttar Pradesh learn from the successful experience of Bihar, and form an anti-BJP alliance or separately get defeated? They would then allow the BJP and forces of Hindutva to march forward. Fragmented politics provides space and openings to a monolith like the BJP to vanquish the opponents who are divided.

THE forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections at the beginning of 2017 are quite crucial and critical for major political formations of the state like Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party, Mayawati's  Bahujan Samaj Party and all-India parties like the Congress and the BJP. The impact of the consequences of these elections will not only determine but also decide the future of the secular, plural and socially accommodative democracy in India.  

The major political competitors in Uttar Pradesh are aware of the fact that these elections are extremely significant for their political career and relevance. It is only the BJP and the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh that clearly understand the all-India significance of these elections for the consolidation of the idea of the Hindu rashtra, is the real goal of the RSS-led Sangh parivar and the BJP.  

A few facts may be mentioned.  First, the BJP has already become a big player in Uttar Pradesh politics when it won 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 elections. Not only this, but the BJP's percentage of votes in the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh was 42.63 per cent, while local state political formations not only obtained quite a low percentage of votes like the Samajwadi Party (22.35 per cent) and Bahujan Samaj Party (19.77 per cent) only.  The BJP has already strengthened its base as compared to its local competitors like the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. The Samajwadis won only five out of 80 seats and the BSP showed zero victory.  Secondly, the BJP has held many organisational meetings and mobilised many of its tall leaders to mobilise its supporters and sympathisers.   The BJP decided to hold the meeting of its national executive at Allahabad on June 12-13, this year. There, Rajnath Singh, the Home Minister, asked the people of Uttar Pradesh to end the 14-year-long exile of the BJP from the state in 2017.  Narendra Modi has claimed in every meeting in Uttar Pradesh that he is a “UP wallah” since he won the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi and his first meeting in 2016 was in Saharanpur on May 26, 2016, an important place for Muslims becaue Darul Uloom Deoband is located here.  

26

It is not without reason that Narendra Modi decided to attend the Vijaya Dashmi celebrations in Lucknow, where the city was painted by the BJP depicting him as a "hero" of surgical operations of September 29. Further, Amit Shah, the BJP President, beginning June 2016, jumped in to organise the BJP election campaign when he held “booth-level meetings” of the BJP workers, including the committed RSS cadre. Shah has divided UP into six regions for election purposes by spreading the party's network in all 403 assembly constituencies.  

The organisation of the election campaign by a political party is an essential first step in the mobilisation of voters and supporters.   Second,  the BJP and the RSS-controlled Sangh parivar has activated it ideological political agenda of the targeting of Muslim religious minority through Bajrang Dal's  gau rakshaks and by taking up the issue of  “the slaughter of the holy cow and eating of beef” by the Muslims.  The BJP and all affiliated organisations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have spread themselves throughout Uttar Pradesh — both for electoral mobilisation of the Hindus and for dividing society with a view to polarising it on religious and communal lines.    

The “surgical strikes” by the Army across the Line of Control on September 29 to avenge the killings of 19 Indian soldiers by Pakistanis has become the real “talking point” during the elections in Uttar Pradesh, with a view to convey the message to the voters that Bharat Mata is safe in the hands of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  Successful “surgical strikes” by the Army  under the leadership of Narendra Modi give the assurance that a lesson will be taught  to the enemies of Bharat Mata, that is to the Muslim Pakistan.  

The critical question here is: How are the two state-level political parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party and the all-India Congress Party strategising their campaign for the forthcoming UP Assembly elections in 2017? A related question is: “Can these three parties on their own and on the basis of their individual effort win the Assembly elections?”  The answer to the second question is in the negative.  

The ground reality in Uttar Pradesh and empirical data of electoral performance of these three political formations, beginning with 2014, clearly show that “none of these three parties, the SP, the BSP and the Congress on their own in multi-cornered elections win a sizeable number of seats in the assembly of  403 members.” 

 The social dialectics of Uttar Pradesh is quite complex and extremely contradictory.  If on the one hand, an average and ordinary inhabitant of Uttar Pradesh is highly aware about the happenings around, on the other hand, the whole society is  as if "frozen in history" of caste-

27

based and religion-based identities and the residents of UP live and breathe caste or religious feelings.  

Hence, caste-based loyalties or communal-based politics have always determined the reality of UP politics even when the socially all-inclusive Congress party was winning the elections.   However, it is expected of political leadership to confront the fresh challenges by evolving new strategies to meet the emerging political situations.

Nitish Kumar, Laloo Prasad and the Congress in Bihar showed the way and defeated the BJP in the 2015 state Assembly elections by forming an  “anti-BJP alliance”.  Will the Uttar Pradesh leaders like Mulayam, Akhilesh, Mayawati and the Congress leadership learn from the successful experience of Bihar and form an anti-BJP alliance? Or will they separately get defeated and allow the BJP and forces of Hindutva to march forward?

The intra-family feud within the Samajwadi Party when the elections are round the corner, irrespective of any patchwork resolution, has weakened every "member of the party".  Hence, it is a compelling reason for the internally divided Samajwadis to immediately make every effort to form an anti-BJP alliance with the Congress and the BSP and save Uttar Pradesh's secular social fabric. 

Fragmented politics provides space and openings to a monolith like the BJP and the Sangh parivar to vanquish opponents who are divided and fragmented.  Political leaders and parties have a choice either to form a limited "anti-BJP alliance" or sink by making elections multi-polar.  It is not the Jan Sangh or the RSS of the early 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s or the 1990s. Can the leaders in UP draw the correct lessons, move forward and save secular, plural and democratic India?

 The writer is  Professor Emeritus, Centre for Political Studies, JNU.

STATESMAN, OCT 26, 2016Is Mulayam planning a coup?Arati R Jerath

Is Mulayam Singh Yadav planning a coup against his son Akhilesh? Power corridors in Lucknow and in Delhi are buzzing with speculation that Papa Yadav is threatening to take over as chief minister, even though it means ousting his son, unless Akhilesh falls in line.The reason he is thinking of this, say political circles, is because Akhilesh may be plotting a split in the Samajwadi Party. The only way to stop this, Mulayam feels, is to take over the reins of power himself. No SP MLA would dare to rebel against the big boss.

28

What has sparked off fears that Akhilesh may be planning a split is secret talks by his camp with constitutional lawyers and other political parties. One of the parties he has been in touch with apparently is the Congress from which he hopes to get support just in case he is unable to rustle up the numbers to retain his government.

Remember, there have been signs of warmth between Rahul and Akhilesh recently with both complimenting each other. The Congress is at yet undecided about tying up with Akhilesh. It is waiting and watching to see how ugly the family feud gets and what the youthful chief minister, who is in a rebellious mood, will ultimately do.

Tensions within the family are running high, as evident from the screaming match that took place between father, son and uncle in full view of the party top brass in Lucknow. Although it seems that Akhilesh may back off right now, those close to him say that it may be just a strategic retreat. The war in the SP is unlikely to end soon and it could dramatically alter the election scenario in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.

The Chidambaram effect

The Congress party’s decision to replace P Bhattacharya with P Chidambaram as chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs is threatening to blow up into a major controversy. There is talk that BJP MPs who are members of this committee may boycott its meetings in protest against Chidambaram.

The first warning of trouble came when maverick BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramaniam Swamy shot off a letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat raising questions about Chidambaram’s appointment. He protested that the Chidambaram’s nomination created a conflict of interest because of his role in the Ishrat Jehan inquiry case which has been reopened by the home ministry.

Recalling that Chidambaram was home minister when the Ishrat Jehan inquiry began, he said the appointment should be scrapped. Who has put him there, he demanded.

Initially, it was thought that Swamy had flagged the issue because of his long standing private war with Chidambaram. But his argument seems to be gaining traction not just with the BJP but with some other smaller parties as well, the most prominent one being AIADMK which too has an old grouse against the former Congress minister.

29

The controversy could land not just Chidambaram in a soup but Sonia Gandhi as well. After all, as president of the Congress party, she authorised Chidmabaram’s nomination. The chairmanship of the standing committee on home affairs falls in the Congress quota. So it is the prerogative of the Congress to nominate the chairman.

With Parliament opening in mid-November for the winter session, Swamy is sharpening his knives to raise the matter. Political circles are bracing for a stormy start to the Rajya Sabha.

Fireworks ahead?

While Swamy has trained his guns on Chidambaram, BJP circles are buzzing about the recent appointment of Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma as chairman of the parliamentary committee on law, justice and personnel. The Congress nominated him after the previous chairman S Natchiappan finished his term in the Upper House.

Like the committee on home affairs, the committee on law, justice and personnel has also been put in the quota of the Congress party. BJP circles feel that both committees give their chief rival party a political advantage as they look into the functioning of two sensitive ministries.

The committee headed by Sharma is particularly sensitive as it looks into the functioning of the CBI which comes under the personnel ministry. The previous chairman Natchiappan was a low profile MP. He was a Congressman but he rarely stoked controversies. Sharma, on the other hand, is a high profile Congress leader and very close to the Gandhi family as well.

With Swamy goading the CBI to investigate his allegations against the Gandhis, BJP circles are bracing for fireworks in the Sharma-led standing committee.

On guard

Ailing Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa’s closest associate Sasikala has ensured that no visitor is allowed on the first floor which houses the ICU in which the CM lies.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s envoys, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley, were given the same treatment when they visited Chennai last week. Like all other visitors, they were politely refused permission to go to the first floor. They were forced to stay put on the ground floor.

Sasikala did not even bother to come down to the ground floor to greet them. She has made it a rule to never meet any visitors, even VIP ones. So Shah and Jaitley had to make do with a

30

briefing on Jaya’s health from the top boss of Apollo Hospital, Dr Pratap Reddy and a team of senior doctors.

AIADMK circles say that Sasikala guards Jaya fiercely. No one is permitted to come near her, not even the CM’s stand in O Panneerselvam. Even TN governor Vidya Sagar Rao was denied permission to visit the ICU, they pointed out. Sasikala and her nieces and nephews are on 24x7 watch outside Jaya’s ICU.But the story that has set the Tamil press on fire is a report that Sasikala’s husband, M Natarajan, was recently spied entering Jaya’s Poes Garden mansion. He was banned entry by Jaya some years ago after they fell out.

31

POVERTY

TRIBUNE, DEC 25, 2016A roti in every handJayshree SenguptaBasic income scheme will be a good start to fight hungerFamished: In India, the percentage of ‘wasted’ children is 15% and stunted 39%.

INDIA has been self-sufficient in food since the Green Revolution. Yet hunger persists in some parts of India and surfaces in the form of starvation deaths. In a few years, India will be the most populous nation, with a population of 1.4 billion, and if hunger is not eradicated, it will not be able to meet the UN’s second Sustainable Development Goal. 

In cities, people with money have access to a variety of food and cuisines from all across the world. There is plenty of food which gets wasted. Even with so much food around, people queue up for free food in front of temples and hospitals daily because they are hungry.

It is somewhat shocking to learn that India is ranked lower than some sub-Saharan African countries, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China in the Global Hunger Index. It is a national shame that India has slipped from the 83rd position in 2000 to the 97th position in 2016, among 118 countries, even though we have climbed up four places in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index in the last one year!

Hunger index is based on parameters such as shares of undernourished population, wasted and stunted children aged below five years and infant mortality rate. Amidst so much progress on many fronts and having the highest rate of GDP growth in the world, to have millions of undernourished children is something inexplicable and shows the extent of inequality of incomes and callousness towards the poor. 

‘Wasting’ refers to underweight children in relation to their height and reflects acute undernourishment. Stunting of children refers to lower height achieved in relation to age that reflects chronic undernourishment.  In India, both types are prevalent in large numbers and 15 per cent of the population is undernourished. The percentage of ‘wasted’ children is 15 per cent and stunted 39 per cent.

What could be the reason? Lack of good quality food is one reason, but low quantity of food intake is also an important reason. When both are present, children grow up abnormally as ‘wasted’ or stunted.

32

Children living in an unhealthy environment with problems in access to safe drinking water suffer from water-borne diseases and diarrhoea which lead to underweight children and subsequent wasting. Infant mortality is also high at 4.8 per cent due to the same reasons of undernourishment and poor healthcare.

Hence undernourishment can be attributed to a large number of reasons, but perhaps the main reason could be persistent low incomes of households as well as lack of sanitation, potable water, and regular health checkups.

Since income is a major causal factor of the undernourishment index, is it possible to implement the much-talked about universal basic income scheme to battle the problem? In this scheme, a minimum amount, say, Rs 10,000 per year (Rs 11,664 per person per year defines rural poverty line) will be deposited in the bank account of all citizens and it will guarantee each individual a basic income and will eliminate the problem of selection. There are still around 370 million poor struggling to feed their families with nutritious food. They would benefit from the cash to buy food on a regular basis. 

Some questions can be raised about how to finance this kind of a safety net which several economists are now supporting. It could be done by cutting out non-merit subsidies — the ones that do not reach the people and are poorly targeted, and saving money to the extent of 9 to 10 per cent of the GDP. In addition, raising money from additional taxes and removing various tax exemptions for the rich can lead to additional income for the government. A tax on agricultural incomes cannot, however, be imposed because of political reasons. Many have argued that this cash handout will act as a disincentive to work and that women will withdraw from the labour force. But all such arguments get weakened when we realise the kind of deprivation that still is prevalent in the poorest sections of the population in both urban and rural areas. At least with a minimum amount of cash in the bank, people will be able to buy food for their hungry children. Undernourishment will then be reduced. 

Every effort should also be made by the states to increase the efficient delivery of health, sanitation and educational services to the poor through higher investments in these areas. The universal basic income cannot replace the government’s investment in the provision of basic amenities to the population, but it can give cash in the pockets of the poor for food. Of course, many people who are poor and irresponsible will use the money for alcohol and drugs, but most people would use it for the welfare of their families as has been the case in many countries.

In terms of human rights, universal basic income guarantees each person the right to food. The seriousness of the problem of undernourishment should be highlighted and tackled at the national

33

level because states alone cannot handle a problem of such enormity. The Integrated Child Development Scheme, for children up to seven years of age, is the biggest Central child welfare scheme. Yet the many loopholes and ineffective implementation of the scheme leaves much to be desired in the way children are looked after in anganwadis. Many are without proper facilities like toilets and play spaces. The other scheme for providing nourishment to schoolchildren — the midday meal scheme — is also lacking in strength. In some states, they have been successful and children have benefited, but in many states, there is rampant corruption in the operation of the scheme. The scheme should be refurbished because very often it is the only meal that a child coming from a poor household has during the day. To climb up the hunger index ought to be the top priority for India which is staking its claim to becoming a global power.

HINDU, OCT 31, 2016Still seriously hungry and poorAMIT KAPOORSANKALP SHARMA

a lot on our plate:“India is placed at a dismal 97th rank among the 118 countries considered for the global hunger index.” Children eat a mid-day meal at a government school in Allahabad.Photo: AP

Economic growth alone is not enough to achieve key Sustainable Development Goals. It must translate into jobs for the poor and marginalised

34

India is the fastest growing large economy in the world today. Despite this, one in every five Indians is poor. Multilateral agencies as well as governments are playing an active role in understanding problems relating to poverty and hunger and finding solutions to them. But these challenges are pervasive and weeding them out will require clear evidence-based data-driven solutions.

Goal 1 and 2 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envision eradicating poverty and ending hunger by 2030. A brief look at the statistics tells us the extent of the problem. An astounding 767 million people in the world are poor while the those who do not have enough to eat are estimated to be close to 800 million.

Poverty is a multidimensional concept, which involves reduction in choices to pursue freedom. So is hunger. Two recent reports try to clear the haze on measurement and yield some pertinent insights on poverty and hunger. These are the the Global Hunger Index (GHI) of the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Pathways to Reducing Poverty and Sharing Prosperity in India (PRPSPI) of the World Bank.

Improvement but not enough

The GHI tries to capture the hunger level across countries. The index is constructed using four component indicators: percentage of undernourished in the population, percentage of wasting in children under five years old, percentage of stunting in children under five years, and under-five mortality rates. The index has been calculated since 2006 and the oldest back calculations on the index go back to 1992. The overall methodology is similar to development of other composite indices like the Human Development Index. The overall scale of the index is from zero to 100 where 100 represents ‘absolute hunger’ and zero represents ‘zero hunger’. Countries and regions are also classified in terms of the level of hunger. Those falling in the <= 9.9 category are classified as having a ‘low’ level of hunger, those in the 10.0-19.9 category are ‘moderate’, those in the 20-34.9 bracket are ‘serious’, those between 35 and 49.9 are classified as ‘alarming’, and those <50 are ‘extremely alarming’.

There are some pertinent points in this year’s global hunger report. First, developing countries have a major stake in reducing hunger levels. Overall hunger has come down by 29 per cent since 2000 in these countries. Second, there are distinct regions, the ones with the highest GHI scores, which can help in fulfilling the SDGs. On the 2016 index, Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia have the highest GHI scores (30.1 and 29.0, respectively). Thus they are placed in the ‘alarming’ category on the GHI. Third, India is placed at a dismal 97th rank among the 118 countries considered for the index. The country has improved its score from 46.4 in 1992 to 28.5 at present, which is considerable, but its overall level continues to be ‘serious’ on the index.

Decline in poverty

Related to hunger is poverty, which has been one of the most critical issues in international economic development. PRPSPI, the World Bank Group report, looks at India’s development experience. Four main points emerge.

35

First, the report notes that poverty in India has declined considerably from 1994 to 2013. Over the commensurate time frame, those below India’s official poverty line have reduced from 45 per cent to 22 per cent. This means that 133 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Despite this the report notes that India’s growth has not been very inclusive. It is because roughly two-thirds of the countries’ inclusive growth performance is better than India’s in the 2005-2012 period.

Second, some population groups in India are substantially worse off than other groups. These include the Scheduled Tribes (STs), 43 per cent of whom were below the poverty line in 2012, and the Scheduled Castes, 29 per cent of whom were below the poverty line. Poverty also seems entrenched among the STs, with the pace of poverty reduction slower than that witnessed in other groups between 2005 and 2012.

Third, poverty seems to be present in certain geographical locations. The top States for poverty in absolute terms in India are Uttar Pradesh (60 million poor), Bihar (36 million) and Madhya Pradesh (24 million). The top seven States account for roughly 62 per cent of India’s poor. Also important is the rural-urban divide in poverty. Almost one in five Indians is poor and out of every five poor people, four live in rural areas. Also, the poverty rate is just 7 per cent in big cities with a population of more than 1 million.

Growth and redistribution

Finally poverty has a bearing on choices and the well-being of individuals in a society. The poor also own fewer assets and spend more on food, fuel, and light. This reduces the percentage they have for spending on critical things like education and health, and it makes them prone to a vicious poverty trap. Another important insight is that for poverty levels to go down, the States will have to grow faster. The States which have lagged behind on growth rates are also the ones where there are low GSDP (gross state domestic product) per capita and in turn higher levels of poverty. Thus both growth and redistribution are necessary for poverty alleviation.

Over the next decade and a half, the goal of citizens and policymakers in India should be improvement in Goals 1 and 2 of SDGs. Growth alone will not be enough but must get translated into jobs for the poor and marginalised for it to become truly inclusive. This will not be easy considering the pressure that automation and newer technologies are putting on jobs and employment. Newer skills will hold the key for translating growth into jobs over the coming decade.

AmitKapoor is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness and Editor of Thinkers. Sankalp Sharma is a senior researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India. The views expressed are personal.

Over the next decade and a half, the goal of citizens and policymakers in India should be improvement in Goals 1 and 2 of SDGs

36

PRESIDENTS

ASIAN AGE, OCT 26, 2016Government plans salary hike of President, VicePresident, Governors

NEW DELHI: Salary of President and VicePresident may go up to three times as the Union

Home Ministry has prepared a proposal for raising the emoluments of the country's two top

functionaries. The move comes following the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission's

recommendations which has created an anomalous situation in which the salary of the President

is Rs 1 lakh less than that of the country's topmost bureaucrat, the Cabinet secretary. The

proposal is expected to be placed before the Union Cabinet for its approval soon, official sources

said. At present, the President gets Rs 1.50 lakh per month, the VicePresident Rs 1.25 lakh and

Governor of a state Rs 1.10 lakh. As per the proposal the President's salary may go up to Rs 5

lakh and VicePresident's up to Rs 3.5 lakh, sources said. After the implementation of the 7th Pay

Commission's awards, the Cabinet Secretary, who is the topmost bureaucrat in the country, gets

Rs 2.5 lakh per month and a Secretary in the Union government draws Rs 2.25 lakh per month.

After the Cabinet gives its nod, Bills to this effect will be tabled in Parliament, possibly in the

coming Winter session, for passage. Salaries of the President, VicePresident and Governors were

last hiked in 2008 when Parliament had approved a threefold increase. Till 2008, the President's

salary was Rs 50,000, the VicePresident's Rs 40,000 and a Governor's Rs 36,000. In addition,

proposals are also expected to be moved for raising the pensions of former Presidents, spouses of

deceased Presidents, former VicePresidents, spouses of deceased VicePresident and former

Governors.

37

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

STATESMAN, OCT 28, 2016PM forms Groups of Secretaries to focus on specific sectors

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday decided to form 10 Groups of Secretaries which will work on various sectors like agriculture, energy and transport and submit their reports by the end of next month.

The decision was announced as the Prime Minister met all Secretaries to the Government of India here. Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State for Independent Charge were also present at the meeting.

At the meeting, Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha made a brief presentation on the work done, as a follow up to the reports presented by 8 Groups of Secretaries to the Prime Minister in January this year, a PMO statement said.

The rapporteurs for two out of the eight groups also made presentations on the status of implementation of the recommendations of their groups, the statemnet said.

"Ten new Groups of Secretaries are being formed, who will submit their reports on various Governance issues, by the end of November," the PMO said.

"As compared to the earlier groups, which worked on specific themes, the focus of the groups this time will be on sectors, such as agriculture, energy, transport etc," it added.

Addressing the Secretaries, Modi complimented them for the work done by them as part of the 8 thematic groups in the month of January.

He urged them to undertake a critical review of the work done by the Union Government in the respective sectors that they will be studying. He also asked them to engage young officers to research related issues, the PMO statement said.

Speaking of demographic dividend, the Prime Minister said all groups must prioritize harnessing the strengths of the 800 million youth of India as part of their recommendations.

He said the team of Secretaries to the Government of India, has the collective wisdom and experience to create policies to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of India s people. He exhorted them to put their best foot forward to the task ahead, the statement said.

38

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

PIONEER, OCT 27, 2016RS 5 K FINE FOR DRINKING IN PUBLIC; JAIL FOR NUISANCE Rajesh Kumar

Drinking liquor at public places will attract a fine and offender creating nuisance may even be

arrested. The AAP-led Delhi Government has decided to strictly enforce the Excise Act post

November 7 under which consuming alcohol at public places will attract a fine of Rs 5,000 and if

the offender creates nuisance then the fine will be up to Rs 10,000 with a jail term of three

months.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds charge of the Excise Department, issued

a warning on Wednesday to the worshippers of Bacchus and said, “Public nuisance, violation of

rules will be under the radar of  teams which have been asked to immediately start these

inspections. They will also inspect shops in the city to ensure whether terms and conditions of

licence are being followed.”

39

TAXATION

BUSINESS STANDARD, OCT 25, 2016Salaried taxpayers to get SMS alert on TDSArun Jaitley has launched the service. Central Board of Direct Taxes or CBDT will soon offer this facility on a monthly basisArup Roychoudhury & Dilasha Seth  Arun Jaitley

Early to say companies are not doing well: Rani Singh NairRevenue officers seek autonomy for CBDTHow to avoid TDS on your investmentsGive importance, respect to CBDT: IRS officers body to FMArun Jaitley: Keeping reform process on

The income-tax department will now send SMSes to salaried taxpayers on their tax deducted at

source or TDS. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday launched the service. Central Board of Direct Taxes

or CBDT will soon offer this facility on a monthly basis.

Jaitley said the salaried class cannot afford to pay tax twice or indulge in litigation; hence they

should be updated on TDS.

"So, they can match the office salary slip and the SMS and at the end of the financial year be

clear about any possible tax dues," Jaitley said.

He asked CBDT to take grievance redressal system forTDS mismatch online. Jaitley said e-

Nivaran is working well for taxpayers and CBDT is taking several taxpayer-friendly initiatives.

CBDT will soon extend this SMS facility to another 44 million non-salaried taxpayers. "The

frequency of SMS alerts will be increased, once the process for filing TDS returns is streamlined

to receive such information in real time," CBDT said. CBDT Chairperson Rani Singh Nair said

the tax department is encouraging people to register their mobile number on the electronic-filing

website. She said taxpayers will initially receive a welcome message from CBDT informing

them about the facility; after that, each assessee would be sent messages informing them about

their TDS. In case of a mismatch, they can contact their deductor for necessary correction.

Besides, SMS alerts will also be sent to deductors who have either failed to deposit taxes

deducted or failed to e-file TDS returns by the due date.

40

TERRORISM

STATESMAN, OCT 28, 2016Reviving NCTC?

It comes as no surprise that it has been left to home ministry officials to do some loud thinking, actually test the political waters, on resurrecting the proposal to establish a National Counter Terrorism Centre. No minister would have wished to re-float a proposal for an organisation of that nature: not after Narendra Modi, when chief minister of Gujarat, had been among the most strident of objectors when the UPA government did the groundwork for it after the terror outrage in the nation’s financial capital. Several non-Congress state governments had then insisted that the NCTC (conceived on the pattern of an American system created after 9/11) would infringe upon their rights, and the union government would acquire “backdoor” control over law-and-order -- which the states consider a cherished right under the Constitution, but do little to effectively discharge their responsibility.

At a recent meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, the home secretary is reported to have said “no final decision” had been taken. Another official of the ministry said elsewhere that “the NCTC is not dead and buried”; but officials are wary of saying more on the politically sensitive issue. Given the reality that under the NDA administration the political divide has been exacerbated, a new nomenclature and altered powers could be a way out of the impasse that had caused the initial effort (former home minister P Chidambaram was said to be its architect) to be shelved.

Whether Modi and Mr Rajnath Singh will be able to come up with an acceptable alternative is a query only time might answer -- provided they take the hard decision home ministry officials are dropping hints about.

Most counter-terrorism “professionals” lament the absence of a centralised unit that would collect and collate various intelligence inputs necessary to mount a comprehensive war on terror -- the need for which is underscored by Pakistan’s continued ignoring of international opinion and using terror as an instrument of state policy. No state-level agency can tackle the problem on its own.

Many experts apprehend that merely sharing of intelligence is not enough: some information may actually be leaked. Or, that the time-lag between receiving an input and acting upon it could render the input useless. Hence the initial proposal to empower the NCTC to make arrests, to which the states are so bitterly opposed -- perhaps because of the unhappy experience of the

41

Centre misusing the CBI (and other enforcement agencies) for political ends. If and when an equivalent of the NCTC does take shape it 

would be worth estimating how much was “lost” while the proposal was hanging fire. It will indicate the price the nation paid for its petty politicking.

42

TRANSPORT

PIONEER, OCT 27, 2016YOU NO LONGER NEED TO PAY DND TOLL

Bringing cheers to millions of commuters in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday declared the Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) Flyway toll-free. Now, there will be no toll collected henceforth from those using the 9.2-km-long, eight- lane DND Flyway,  which connects Delhi on the west bank of the Yamuna with Noida and East Delhi.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Arun Tandon and Sunita Agarwal passed the order while allowing a public interest litigation filed by the Federation of Noida Residents’ Welfare Association. The PIL, which was filed in 2012, had challenged the “levy and collection of toll in the name of user fee by Noida Toll Bridge Company”.

Hours after the judgement, thousands of vehicles sped past the toll gate unhindered without paying any levy as they cheered the court verdict. The HC had on August 8 reserved its judgement on the plea. In an over 100-page judgement, the court held, “The user fee which is being levied/realised is not supported by the legal provisions relied upon by the Concessionaire (Noida Toll Bridge Company), Infrastructure Leaning and Financial Services (promoter and developer of the project) and the Noida Authority.”

It said that the “right to levy and collect user fee from the commuters as conferred upon the Concessionaire under the concession agreement suffers from excessive delegation and is contrary to the provisions the UP Industrial Development Act”. The court noted that “the Concessionaire, according to their own financial statements, has recovered Rs 810.18 crore (approx) from toll income from the date of commencement of the project till March 31, 2014, and after deduction of operation and maintenance expenses and corporate income tax, the surplus was Rs 578.80 crore (computed before interest, depreciation, and lease rental received by the Concessionaire)”.

“They have further realised user fee/toll two-and-a-half years thereafter between 01.04.2014 and 30.09.2016 which, as per the collection of user fee in the year 2013-14 would work out to an additional sum of Rs 300 crore (approx). We are, therefore, more than satisfied that the Concessionaire cannot now recover the user fees from the users/commuters of the Noida Toll Bridge the DND Flyover,” the high court said.  

43

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

HINDU, OCT 24, 2016Making cities inclusive

The challenges of a rapidly urbanising world and of providing people with equal opportunities in

cities were the central themes at the just-concluded UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable

Urban Development, Habitat III, in Quito, Ecuador. As a once-in-a-generation event, the Habitat

conference sets a guiding compass for member-countries for the next 20 years, and attracts wide

governmental and civil society participation. Yet, the process has to be strengthened to evaluate

how countries have fared since the two previous conferences on issues such as reducing urban

inequality, improving access to housing and sanitation, mobility, and securing the rights of

women, children, older adults and people with disability. Moreover, as services come to occupy

a dominant place in the urban economy, the divide between highly paid professionals and low-

wage workers, the majority, has become pronounced. All these trends are relevant to India,

where 31 per cent of the population and 26 per cent of the workforce was urban according to

Census 2011, with more people moving to cities and towns each year. Urban governance

policies, although mainly in the domain of the States, must be aligned with national

commitments on reduction of carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement, and to achieve

Sustainable Development Goal 11.

India’s ambition to harness science and data for orderly urbanisation is articulated in a set of

policy initiatives, chiefly the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and

Urban Transformation. There is little evidence so far that these could achieve the scale needed to

address the contradictions of building 21st century cities for 20th century industrial technologies.

Today, these conflicts are reflected in the lack of adequate parks and public spaces, suitable land

for informal workers who offer services in a city, egalitarian and non-polluting mobility options

and new approaches to low-cost housing. In the national report prepared for the Quito

conference, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation identified subsidised

redevelopment of slums (which represented 17 per cent of urban households in 2011) involving

private agencies, and low-cost, disaster-resistant, prefabricated constructions as key to the

‘Housing for All’ policy. This important programme should be pursued with a vigorous annual

review that ranks States on the basis of performance. The Centre should also take its own

44

National Urban Transport Policy on developing cities around mobility networks seriously, and

liberate cities from the tyranny of traffic. UN Habitat plans to review country-level progress on

its New Urban Agenda in Kuala Lumpur in 2018. India’s performance on improving the quality

of life in its cities will be watched.

STATESMAN, OCT 24, 2016New urban agendaTathagata Chatterji

Representatives from 193 countries met between 17 and 20 October  this year  for the Habitat III Conference at Ecuador's charming capital, Quito, to sign the Quito Declaration, adopting the United Nations' New Urban Agenda. Although legally not binding, the agenda provides a roadmap on how to turn our urban future in a more positive direction to create more jobs, provide cheaper housing, cleaner energy, better transportation and greater social equity, indeed issues that are of crucial importance to a fast urbanising country like India.

The previous Habitat Conference was held in Istanbul in 1996. Between then and now, the number of people living in urban areas worldwide has increased from 45 per cent to 55 per cent. It is projected that by 2030, two-thirds of the global population and 40 per cent of India's population will be urban. Cities today generate 80 per cent of global GDP, but also 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Every sixth urban resident lives in a slum. Land conflicts are erupting with the haphazard spread of the urban footprint over its rural periphery and urban social divides are widening.

The New Urban Agenda attempts to address the opportunities and challenges associated with the global urban turn, explained Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat. It also takes into account recommendations of the Paris Declaration on Climate Change, World Urban Forum 2014, and of course Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets, including SDG 11 of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

However, human rights activists expressed strong disappointment at the dilution of the contentious 'right to the city' clause in the draft agenda finalised earlier in New York, in the run-up to the Quito conference. 'Right to the city' recognises access to urban space and civic services (like water and sanitation) as a basic human right for all, including people living in slums and squatter settlements and engaged in informal economy like street vending. The controversial clause was backed by Brazil and various Latin American countries. It was, however, strongly

45

opposed by India, which has a colossal slum population of 65 million Rs larger than the population of Britain.

The new agenda acknowledges urbanisation as a transformative force. It calls to treat urbanisation as an engine of sustained and inclusive economic growth, social and cultural development and environmental protection. This is a belated acceptance of the ground reality (since 2008, more than 50 per cent of the global population has become urban).Nevertheless, it is important. Many governments in Asia and Africa, especially those of countries which are still predominantly rural, see urbanisation in a negative way. Several others see urbanisation as a routine process, adopt a hands-off approach and seldom prepare for the outcomes.

This belated recognition about the economic, cultural and social roles of cities could be a potential game-changer and impact the way urban and rural development programmes are designed and funded.   Also implicit in this acknowledgment about the economic, social and cultural role of cities  is the necessity to treat urban space as an integrative platform. Various sectoral policies related to industrial location, employment generation, transportation, energy usage, housing, disaster mitigation, gender relations, safety and health care come together in the city.

Therefore, by "readdressing the way cities and human settlements are planned, designed, financed, developed, governed and managed", the New Urban Agenda attempts to "end poverty and hunger in all its forms and dimensions, reduce inequalities, promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls … improve human health and well-being, as well as foster resilience and protect the environment".

The new agenda is based on hard evidence-based research from across the globe over the past 20 years. Its most important takeaway point  is the importance of urban (or spatial) planning as a process to manage urbanisation and its various implications in a more systematic and orderly way.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation recently launched the India Habitat III National Report, 2016, which declared the government's intention to steer India's urban transformation in line with the objectives of the New Urban Agenda. While that intention sounds great, the question is whether we would be able to rise to the challenge.

46

The devil is in the detail. According to the Census projections, between 2015 and 2030, India's urban population is going to jump from 428 million to 606 million. That means over the next 15 years, India needs to build 22 more cities of the size of Bangalore to accommodate the new urban residents.  The question before us is whether India wants to urbanise in a planned or unplanned way. Does it want rapid urbanisation to turn its cities into growth engines and lift millions out of poverty as was done in China? Or does India want the drift to continue and let the teeming millions turn its habitats into ghettos of deprivation?

The number  of urban planners in India is microscopic. Britain has 38 planners per 100,000 people. In India, the figure is just 0.23. There are several urban local bodies without a single qualified urban planner. There are hardly twenty planning schools. Barring the top two or three, the rest are highly understaffed and the syllabus archaic. The institutional structures of planning are weak and are dominated by an engineering bureaucracy, whose world view frequently hovers within the ambit of 'tender-contract- project cycle', with hardly any scope for long-term strategic thinking.

Until recently, urban issues never figured prominently in India's public policy discourse, as the Gandhian maxim Rs 'India lives in villages' Rs held sway. The scenario started to change slowly with the launching of the JNNURM programme in 2005, and then in 2015, the  Modi government launched a plethora of urban-centric schemes, including the ambitious Smart Cities Mission.

However, if India wants to make the urbanisation process truly sustainable, it needs to get rid of its preoccupation with short-term projects with fancy acronyms and focus more on the fundamentals of urban management, through an overarching policy regime that would take into account its enormous regional diversity in settlement patterns.

India needs to strengthen its urban governance and management systems by overcoming chaos and confusion due to multiplicity of authorities with overlapping jurisdictions, by building city-specific data-sharing platforms, integrating various government departments and private utility providers as Brazil has started developing.

India also needs to substantially scale-up the ambit of planning, beyond the existing urban areas and over a larger geography, as China started doing long back and South Africa started recently. This would help it to develop greater harmony between economic investments and their spatial outcomes, strengthen backward-forward linkages between cities and their rural hinterlands, protect fertile agricultural belts and ecologically vulnerable regions.

47

Above all, to implement the New Urban Agenda, India needs to develop a high degree of operational synergy between the national,  state and municipal governments. Are  we ready for that?

The writer is a Professor of Urban Management and Governance at Xavier University, Bhubaneswar.

HINDU, OCT 24, 2016Haryana issues notification changing name of Gurgaon

The Haryana Government has issued a gazette notification to this effect

Gurgaon city has now officially been renamed Gurugram. More than six months after the process to rename the city was initiated, the Haryana Government has now issued a gazette notification to this effect.

However, the process to rename Gurgaon district is still in pipeline and it may take another week for it to be notified.

The notification to change the name of Gurgaon city had been sent for printing over a week ago after the Haryana Government got a No-Objection Certificate from the Union Government in this regard earlier this month. However, the Haryana Cabinet approval to change the name of Gurgaon district came only on October 18 delaying the process to rename it. “We wanted to rename, both the city and the district, at the same time to avoid confusion. But the approval for the district came late. Now it has been sent to the legal department and the notification may take a few more days after it is cleared by the said department,” said a senior Haryana Government official.

48

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCT 27, 2016Half of India’s wildlife in danger of extinction: Living Planet Report 2016Chetan Chauhan

 |  With wildlife disappearing at an “unprecedented” pace across the world, the Living Planet Report 2016 identifies India as an ecological black spot where around half of the wildlife lives in the danger of being wiped out.

The biennial report that tracks over 14,000 vertebrate populations of over 3,700 species from across the world highlights the pressure on water and land India faces because of unsustainable human activities.

Around 70% of surface water is polluted and 60% of ground water will reach critical stage -- where it cannot be replenished -- in the next one decade, the report prepared by World Wide Fund for nature (WWF) with other research institutions said.

The biggest reason for contamination is industrial and municipal waste.

It also pointed out that one-fourth of India’s total land is facing desertification and about a third of land is getting degraded primarily because of depleting forest cover.

“Our consumption patterns and the way we look at our natural world are constantly shaping the future of our planet…We need to come together as a global community and address the threats to biodiversity to protect our environment, as well as our economic and social structures,” said Mr. Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO, WWF-India.

The Living Planet Index showed that 58% overall decline in vertebrate population abundance between 1970 to 2012. “Population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, dropped by more than half in little more than 40 years. The data shows an average annual decline of 2% and there is no sign yet that this rate will decrease,” the report said.It also said that global wildlife populations could decline by an average of 67% between 1970 - 2020, as a result of human activities, it said, adding that the populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have already declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012. This places the

49

world on a trajectory of a potential two-thirds decline within a span of the half-century ending in 2020.

“Wildlife is disappearing within our lifetimes at an unprecedented rate,” said Dr. Marco Lambertini, International Director General, WWF. “This is not just about the wonderful species we all love; biodiversity forms the foundation of healthy forests, rivers and oceans. We have the tools to fix this problem and we need to start using them now if we are serious about preserving a living planet for our own survival and prosperity.”

Looking ahead, 2020 is also a year of great promise as commitments made under the Paris climate deal will kick in, and the first environmental actions under the globe’s new sustainable development plan will come into force.

50