9 PM Daily Brief -5 July 2016

Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation

What is 9 PM brief?

• GS PAPER 2
  1. NDA, Sainik schools to be thrown open to women, says Parrikar {Governance}
  2. Right, not charity {Bills and Laws}
  3. Delhi steps up security dialogue with Africa {Foreign Policy}
• GS PAPER 3
  1. Rethinking rules of the game {Economy}
  2. Harmonising RTE with minority schools {Education}
  3. Where to after 25 years of reforms? {Economy}

---

GS PAPER 2

---

[1]NDA, Sainik schools to be thrown open to women, says Parrikar

The Hindu

Context

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has announced that the govt. is planning to open National Defence Academy (NDA) and Sainik Schools (across India) to women.

Analysis

• NDA and Sainik Schools are the two biggest sources that provide officers to Indian military.
• While NDA provides almost 600 cadets every year to Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, Sainik Schools are instrumental in sending a number of cadets to NDA every year.
• Opening these institutions to women will definitely lead to a better representation of women in Indian defense forces.
• Apart from this, steps are also being taken to moot all-women battalions in the Indian military.
• All- women battalions are already present in paramilitary forces and Central Police forces but not in military forces.
• Recent happenings such as inducting the first batch of women fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force has set a huge example for other defense forces and has also lead to breaking up of the psychological barrier that exists.

Conclusion

Such steps would ensure gender parity in armed forces and will also be a big boost for the morale of women in India.

[2]Right, not charity

Indian Express

Context

Supreme Court has again reprimanded the government for taking an evasive approach over the 3% quota which is entitled to  differently abled people.

Analysis

• Since the year 2012, when the directive was made to offer 3% quota applicable to promotions in govt jobs for differently abled persons, there has been no action taken by the government.
• 3% quota is already applicable to reservation of govt jobs and posts but for the promotions, the government tried to evade this by restricting the applicability of this quota only in Group C and D jobs.
• For this government cheekily cited the Indira Sawhney judgement in which SC directed that there should be no reservation in promotion in Group A and B jobs.
• However, the court has now ruled that Indira Sawhney verdict was only applicable to backward communities and not the disabled.

This ruling by SC has now dissipated all the confusion over the job reservations and promotions.

Is this enough?

Reservation in jobs and promotions for differently abled is a welcome step but is not enough.

• Differently abled people have to face hardships day in and day out in our country. From public places to public transports, they have to face trouble as these do not cater to their needs.
• So, while quotas are significant , steps must be taken to create an overall enabling environment and friendliness for the differently abled.

[3]Delhi steps up security dialogue with Africa

The Hindu

Issue

• India-Africa relations

Key points

• Indian citizens and members of the diaspora have traditionally faced threats such as coastal piracy in Africa.
• But the recent attack in Mali, the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, and abductions in Libya point to growing terror threats that can affect India’s interests in the region.
• So, there is a need  to exchange information on terror and security related issues that affect both India and African countries.
• The India-Tanzania Joint Working Group on Counter Terror was set up last June during the visit of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete which was boosted by the pledge on strategic cooperation in India-Africa Forum Summit.
• India is stepping up security cooperation with partner countries in Africa as the PM is ready to  cover Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa and Kenya in his upcoming Africa visit.

 

---

GS PAPER 3

---

[1]Rethinking rules of the game

Indian Express

Context

For India to tread the path of higher growth, it is imperative that it has regulatory mechanisms (across the sectors) which are based on collaboration, are simple and do not overlap.

How to improve India’s regulatory mechanisms

1. A good regulator mechanism is one which comes out of the collaborative efforts of Government, Public and Industry:

• However, in case of India, majorly a top-down approach is followed and govt. hardly consults public and industry.
• This is precisely the reason why India’s startup sector is always troubled. Entrepreneurs and investor both have to face red-tapism and ambiguous regulations related to business and foreign ownership etc.
• This would not have been the case, has the regulatory mechanism been collaborative, taking advices and opinions from private sector, public.

2. Regulatory agencies must do Impact assessments:

• In case of regulations which can have huge monetary effects, impact assessments should be made mandatory.
• These impact assessments should check the trade-off of these regulations.
• Also the assessment should not be carried out only by the agency proposing the regulation as it would lead to conflict of interest. Various stakeholders must be involved.

In case of India various environmental legislation has affected large business without achieving much, this could have been avoided had there been better impact assessment.

3. No overlapping of regulatory agencies.

• Many agencies deciding on a similar regulation without any information exchange and cooperation between them often leads to overlapping of rules and norms, which leads to confusion, ambiguity, red-tapism and loss to the business and industry.

In case of India, often many agencies come up with similar regulations perpetuating confusion.

Conclusion

In present scenario when so much focus has been put on liberalizing FDI and attracting foreign investments, it becomes imperative to sort out the regulatory mechanism and move towards growth.

[2]Harmonising RTE with minority schools 

The Hindu

Issue

• Conflicting judgements of Supreme Court and High Court over the issue of harmonisation of Right to Education with minority schools.

Stand of Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court has exempted minority schools from the purview of the RTE Act in Pramati Education and Cultural Trust v. Union of India (2014).

Stand of the High Court (Kerala)

• In its judgement in Sobha George v. State of Kerala, it ruled that Section 16 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), that mandates schools to not detain any child before s/he completes elementary education, is applicable to minority educational institutions as well.

Has High Court overruled the decision of Supreme Court?

• No.
• The High Court located this obligation not in the Act but under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees right to life and liberty.
• It ruled that no-detention policy (NDP) is in the “best interest” of the child and could independently be considered a fundamental right.
• The court observed that  RTE Act has no application in a minority school, whether aided or unaided. However, the Court has to examine whether Section 16 of RTE Act is a mere statutory right or can be treated as a fundamental right expressed in the form of statutory provision.
• A key takeaway from this judgment is the recognition that certain provisions of the RTE Act have a universal appeal, even if the Act lacks it.

RTE Act and minority rights

• Article 21A recognises the right of all children aged between 6 and 14 to free and compulsory elementary education.
• The RTE Act operationalises this right by elucidating supporting rights, identifying the duty-bearers and establishing administrative structures to enforce these rights.
• The generic scope of right to education seems to conflict with the specific contexts of the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice under Article 30. That right, however, is not absolute.
• Freedom to ‘administer’ a school cannot include ‘mal-administering’ it.
• Regulations for maintaining academic standards, ensuring proper infrastructure, health and sanitation, etc. could be imposed on minority schools as well.
• Further, a government-aided minority school cannot discriminate against students on grounds of religion, race, caste, language in the matters of their admission (Article 29(2)).
• RTE Act also has provisions on infrastructural norms, pupil-teacher ratio, prohibition on screening tests and capitation fee and ban on corporal punishment.
• Far from annihilating the ‘minority character’, these provisions benefit both the students and community.

Bigger Issue

• The bigger issue is the obligation of the superior court in laying down a clear binding law for all subordinate courts.
• Conflicting judgments adversely affect realisation of rights of all children.

Road ahead

It is hoped that Supreme Court:

• (i) re-examines the positive (establishing and administering educational institutions for the welfare of minorities) and the negative (protection against imposition of majority language or culture) aspects of educational rights of minorities; and
• (ii) appreciates the special case for guaranteeing right to elementary education universally and equitably.

[3]Where to after 25 years of reforms?

Livemint

Issue

• It has been 25 years since 1991 reforms but economic reforms in India is still a work in progress.

Politics and economics

• Until recently, reforms at the national level had either been compelled by crisis, as in 1991, or attempted stealthily by a few leaders in successive governments.
• In addition to many other hurdles, they had to battle their own parties and coalitions, often unsuccessfully.
• The political dynamics surrounding economic reforms have been evolving.
• The past 15 years have already seen a metamorphosis at the regional level, with many state-level leaders repeatedly demonstrating that better economics leads to better political results.
• At the national level, after a deadlock of a dozen years, there is traction once again.
• Parliament has recently passed several bills of consequence, with others on the horizon.
• A breakthrough on the biggest of them all, the goods and services tax (GST), is beginning to look feasible.

Work in Progress

• The economy has begun to sizzle again, being lauded worldwide as the fastest growing among the bigger ones.
• Many sectors, including telecom automobiles, air travel,etc.  has seen transformations from scarcity to plenty which has impacted India positively.
• Investment has also picked up and foreign direct investment (FDI) is pouring in.
• India’s strengths in services holds great promise for the future, and in fact are already contributing immensely to growth.
• But job creation remains far behind what is needed.
• The main reason for this is India’s relatively middling manufacturing sector.

Manufacturing sector

• Despite having made big strides in some areas such as automobiles, India lags behind many middle income countries, with manufacturing contributing only 17% to the gross domestic product, compared to 30% in China and 28% in Thailand.
• Some of the traditional barriers to manufacturing growth, like infrastructure, have seen much improvement.
• Though still behind countries like China, progress on highways, ports, airports and metro rail systems is noticeable.
• But other barriers like obsolete labour laws still hurt job creation.
• For manufacturing to truly take off, labour laws will need to be modernized.

We need some heretical (holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted) steps

• As there are clear signs of mismanagement in the functioning of the public sector banks, we need to privatised some loss-making state banks.
• The longer we delay taking such heretical steps, however, the further we delay our arrival at the next staging post of development, that of a full fledged middle-income country.
• Reforms that complement economic reforms
• The nation is in desperate need of many reforms that, though not strictly economic, will also indirectly boost growth, and in any case are essential for transitioning out of developing country status.
• These include judicial, police and administrative reforms, and empowered urban and local governments.