Click here to Download 9 PM Daily Brief PDF (8th Sept. 2016)
NATIONAL
[1].Water release to T.N. begins, State to file plea in SC
Context:- Amid protests from the farmers in the Cauvery basin area, Karnataka began releasing water from Krishnaraja sagar and Kabini reservoirs to Tamilnadu as per SC’s directive.
SC’s order
SC ordered Karnataka on 5th September, 2016 to release 15000 cusecs of water a day for 10 days to Tamilnadu
Karnataka’s hope
State hopes that once it presents its case before the Cauvery Supervisory Committee regarding the distressing situation prevailing in the state it will get respite from the SC’s current order. Committee is slated to visit the riparian states to assess the ground reality on 12th June
Decision to implement the apex court’s directive despite ongoing protests might go in favor of Karnataka when further hearings on the Cauvery dispute come up before the Supreme Court’s Special Bench on October 18
Share of different states as per Cauvery Tribunal’s directive (Source: rediff.com)
[2]. Publish FIRs online within 24 hours: SC
Context:- Supreme Court on 7th Sept ordered States and Union Territories to upload, on police or government websites, First Information Reports (FIRs) within 24 hours of their registration in police stations.
The court order came on a PIL filed by ‘Youth Bar Association of India’ that had sought directions to the Centre as well as all states and union territories to order uploading of FIRs within 24 hours.
Let us take look at the ruling in detail.
What did the ruling say?
Apart from making it mandatory to upload FIRs online, SC’s ruling further stated,
- Time limit till November 15th has been given to implement the ruling
- States located in difficult terrain or having poor internet connectivity have been given 72 hours instead of 24 to upload the FIRs
- The accused cannot take benefit before the courts of law from the fact that FIRs lodged against them have not been uploaded on the website.
- FIR denied in lieu of sensitive information:In case a copy of the FIR is not provided on the ground of being sensitive in nature, the court said, the aggrieved person should approach the superintendent of police, who would constitute a committee of three police officials to examine his complaint
- Exemption: The bench exempted police authorities from uploading FIRs on sensitive cases pertaining to insurgency and sexual offences against women and children, but said the decision not to upload the FIR shall not be taken by an officer below the rank of deputy superintendent of police or any person holding equivalent post.
Rationale behind the PIL
In the PIL, it was argued that when liberty of an individual is at stake, he should have the information so that he can take necessary steps to protect his liberty.
Union government’s stand
Government said that it will help states to set up the necessary mechanism under the Crime & Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS)
What is CCTNS?
The government launched the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project in 2009 in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks, with the aim of establishing seamless connectivity among 15,000 police stations across the country, and an additional 5,000 offices of supervisory police officers.
- CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt of India
Goals of CCNTS
- To facilitate collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, transfer and sharing of data between police stations and state HQs and central police organizations
- Will make interstate investigations easy and speedy for officials
- Integrated system of policing: Creating integrated system of effective policing through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide infrastructure of IT-enabled state of the art tracking system
- Registration of complaints: It will not only automate Police functions at Police station and higher levels but will also create facilities and mechanism to provide public services like registration of online complaints, ascertaining the status of case registered at the police station, verification of persons etc.
- National Database: Development of a national database of crimes and criminals
- Other Citizen friendly services: The Full implementation of the Project with all the new components would lead to a Central citizen portal having linkages with State level citizen portals that will provide a number of citizen friendly services like Police Verification for various purposes including passport verification, reporting a crime including cyber-crime and online tracking of the case progress etc.
- The project will enable National level crime analytics to be published at increased frequency, which will help the policy makers as well as lawmakers in taking appropriate and timely action
- Improved interstate tracking: It will also enable Pan-India criminal/accused name search in the regional language for improved inter-state tracking of criminal movement
Need of CCNTS
CCNTS is a brainchild of MA Chidambaram. As per him “the police of any state barely “talk” among themselves, or with the police of other states. Each police station is an island, where records are maintained manually. The National Crime Records Bureau and State Crime Records Bureaus were initial steps towards storage, sharing and accessing data, but the process was technologically primitive and cumbersome. A seamless, technology-driven network in which any police station could “talk” to another police station in real time, was the need of the hour.
Progression of CCTNS
- 19th June, 2009: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the project, with an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore.
- 2012: The initial deadline for setting it up was 2012, which was revised to March 2015.
- 18th Nov 2015: The Union Cabinet decided to revamp and fast-track the project, and complete its implementation by March 2017. A decision was also taken to implement the Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS) by integrating CCTNS with e-courts, e-prisons, forensics and prosecution in order to transfer data among the various pillars of the criminal justice system.
Over 11,600 police stations countrywide are now using the CCTNS software to register FIRs. More than 26 lakh FIRs were registered through CCTNS over the past year
So, what is the difference between NATGRID and CCTNS?
NATGRID was also conceived in the wake of 26/11 attacks to bolster India’s counter terrorism capabilities.
- The project aims to combine 21 sensitive databases relating to domains such as banks, credit cards, cellphone usage, immigration records, motor vehicle registrations, Income-Tax records and NCRB into a single database for access by authorized officers from 10 central agencies such as RAW, IB, CBI, DRI and ED so as to help them get a 360 degree profile of the suspect.
[3]. Riot victims live in ghetto-like conditions: Report
Context:- A report by social activists, titled “Living Apart: Communal Violence and Forced Displacement in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli” has thrown light on the depraved conditions of the resettlement colonies where Muzaffarnagar riot victims live
The report is based on a survey conducted between March and July 2016 by the NGOs AmanBiradari and Afkar India in 65 resettlement colonies of riot victims in the two districts of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, housing a total of 29,328 persons
Report states that,
- State government has not only failed to rehabilitate the victims but is actively encouraging Muslim refugees to relocate to Muslim majority colonies
- There is enormous pressure on the riot victims to revoke their statements in murder cases
- State’s inability to prosecute the accused resulted in increased fear among the villagers who had fled during riots. Such villagers sold off their property in the villages at poor rates vowing never to return again.
- The report pointed out that the State government’s announcement of relief package of Rs. 5 lakh for households that “undertook to live now only in villages with high Muslim populations” was in violation of the “norm of centuries – of mixed villages in which Hindu and Muslim residents lived in peace” and instead promoted “segregation of populations on religious lines, the ultimate success of the communal agenda.”
Condition of the colonies
- The colonies they now lived in lacked basic amenities such as Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centers, drinking water, sewerage, drainage, street lights, and public toilets.
- No one has a ration card in these resettlement colonies
- Nobody received old age, widow pension or disability pension
ECONOMY
[1]. ‘Centre racing against time for GST rollout’
Context:- As, GST Bill has been passed by both the houses central government is trying to fasten the process for fully implementing the GST regime by 1st April 2017.
What is GST?
Goods or Services tax is a consumption-based tax that will subsume in itself many taxes at local and central level to have a on unified tax rate.
Benefits of GST
- Elimination of cascading effect that existed earlier due to tax on tax system
- Boost exports: With removal of host of indirect taxes on goods, GST will boost exports by making Indian goods competitive in international market
- The simplification and harmonization of the indirect tax regime of the country will reduce the cost of production and lead to a seamless, integrated Indian market, thereby making Indian trade and industry more competitive
- Successful implementation of GST will lead to an increase in foreign investment to India
With all the above benefits, centre is gearing up so that GST is ready to roll out by April 1st 2017.
As of now, 17 states have cleared the GST Bill. It should be remembered that in order to successfully pass GST Bill, at least half of the states should ratify it i.e. 15 states are needed before the bill can be sent for presidential assent.
Currently centre is in the process of collecting the legislative proceeding of all the 17 states that have ratified the bill. Presently it has acquired proceedings of 11 states.
Why ratification of half of the states is required?
Because GST Bill is a constitutional amendment bill and any such bill has to be passed by both the houses of the parliament by 2/3rd majority plus it should also be passed by half of the state assemblies.
Why a constitutional amendment is needed for GST?
At present, centre cannot tax sales of goods while state cannot tax services because matters over which state and centre can impose taxes are separately listed under State and Union list under Schedule 7 of the constitution.
GST proposes to introduce a unified tax rate over such separately matters. So, constitution needs to be amended in order that this system can be implemented.
[2]. Canada hopes to supply more Uranium
Context:- In April 2015, Indian PM visited Canada and a pact was signed between Indian and Cameco (a Canadian company) under which it would supply 3000MT of Uranium to India over 5years at a cost of $254 Billion.
On 7th September 2016, Canadian Resource minister said that Canada was hopeful of reaching an agreement with India to supply it more Uranium than the 3000MT agreed earlier.
High-level Business delegation
- Canadian minister is leading a High-level business delegation from 7th Sep – 9th It includes representatives of leading Canadian technology and natural resource firms
- In Delhi, the Canadian resource minister will participate in Canada-India Energy Dialogue
- He will lay emphasis on Canada’s renewed commitment to innovation and clean technology, notably through Mission Innovation
- Canada and India are among the 21 Mission Innovation partners who have committed to doubling government investments in clean technology research and development and stimulating private sector investment in clean technology over the next five years
What is Mission innovation?
Mission Innovation was announced on November 30, 2015 on the sidelines of the Paris summit, by the leaders of 20 countries that have a shared desire to accelerate global clean energy innovation.
Central components of Mission Innovation include
Government leadership: Each of the 20 participating countries and the European Union will seek to double its governmental and/or state-directed clean energy research and development investment over five years.
Private sector and Business Leadership: Investments from entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses world over to drive innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace
Implementation and information sharing: Participating countries will implement Mission Innovation in a transparent, effective, and efficient manner. Working with existing international institutions, participating countries will cooperate and collaborate to help provide governments, private investors, and technology innovators with the data, technology expertise they need to for commercialization of clean energy technologies
EDITORIAL/OPINION
[1]. Triple whammy
Context:- Shayarabano a Muslim woman, has filed a PIL in SC seeking a ban on the practice of Triple Talaq asit violates the fundamental rights of Muslim women guaranteed in the constitution. In this article author tries put forth arguments as to why the practice should be rightfully abolished.
What is triple Talaq?
It is the practice followed by Muslim men wherein they can divorce their wives if they say the word ‘Talaq’ three times. Consent of the woman doesn’t matter.
SC has declared arbitrary Triple Talaq as invalid (not illegal)
In the landmark judgement in Shamim Ara vs State of UP 2002 SC has declared that,
Arbitrary triple Talaq is invalid
Court observed in that case,
‘“None of the ancient holy books or scriptures mention such form of divorce. No such text has been brought to our notice which provides that a recital in any document, incorporating a statement by the husband that he has divorced his wife could be an effective divorce on the date on which the wife learns of such a statement contained in an affidavit or pleading served on her”
Various High Courts have also delivered judgements to declare the practice as invalid.
If such judgements exist, then why are they not used for justice by the victims?
Most women do not know about such judgements or even if they know them they had to accept the circumstances owing to the conservative sections of the society.
Views of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB)
AIMPLB has come out and said that SC has no right to challenge the religious practices of the Muslims. In favor of Triple Talaq system, its views are,
- Triple Talaq is a way to avoid long-running court proceedings
- In the absence of triple Talaq, a husband may resort to murdering or burning alive his wife because of the time-consuming legal proceedings that might otherwise be involved.
- Indian society is patriarchal and personal laws of all communities are based on this notion of patriarchy. It defends the right to grant divorce to the husband alone because as per its view, men have greater power of decision making
- Lastly, it justifies Polygamy by resorting to dwindling sex ratio in the country
The reality
Quran gives no sanction to the practice of instantaneous Triple Talaq. It prescribes various remedial steps before a divorce actually happens.
Situation wrt Triple Talaq at global level
This practice has been either explicitly de-recognized in Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Iran and Tunisia or implicitly in countries such as Pakistan, which provides for a mandatory arbitration procedure after the pronouncement of Talaq.
Conclusion
Neither in Quran, nor in our constitution the practice of Triple Talaq has been sanctioned so it is high time that SC makes use of this opportunity and rid our society of this malaise.
[2]. Sri Lanka conquers Malaria
Context:- Sri Lanka has been declared Malaria-free by World Health Organization (WHO) on 5th September, 2016
When a country is declared disease free?
A country is declared free of any specific disease when,
- There is a ZERO locally transmitted cases for 3 consecutive years or as the WHO puts it, the chain of local transmission is interrupted for 3 consecutive years.
Last case of Malaria in Sri Lanka was reported in 2012
Steps Sri Lanka took to prevent emergence of any new case of Malaria
- Tight watch: With no new cases of local transmission since 2012, Sri Lanka focused on the prevention of return of Malaria from the outside, esp from countries where Malaria is endemic like India
- Vector & parasite targeting: Sri Lanka adopted a two-pronged strategy of targeting both vector and parasite.
Vector: An organism which itself doesn’t causes disease but acts as a carrier to spread the deadly pathogens from one host to another. In case of Malaria, the mosquito is the vector which transmits the parasite, Plasmodium Falciparum and others, which cause Malaria.
Sri Lanka targeted both, by regular screening of populations for residual parasite carriers even if Malaria was absent
- Early detection and treatment of asymptomaticparasite carriersthrough steps like house visits and mobile clinics in high-transmission areas, real-time monitoring through effective surveillance systems, community awareness and mobilization helped in breaking the chain of transmission.
- Asymptomatic parasite carriers are those patients who carry the parasite of Malaria within them but experience no symptoms of the disease itself
Note: Sri Lanka joins ranks with 34 countries that have been declared Malaria free since 1960
Malaria in South-East Asian region
- 40% of the global population at risk of malaria lives in the WHO South-East Asian region
- Malaria is endemic in 10 of the 11 countries of the region: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. Maldives was declared polio free in 2015
Conclusion
Though vastly smaller in size and extent as compared to India, Sri Lanka has shown that framing right policies and pursuing them further through a proactive approach can lead to effective results. India should emulate Sri Lanka to target Malaria elimination because such diseases besides adding on to the health budget bring poverty and socio-economic backwardness to millions of our citizens.
[3].The foreign hand isn’t enough
Context:- With government pushing for FDI reforms like never before author questions seeing FDI as a panacea to all our problems.
Rationale for FDI
Author states that,
- Shortage of domestic investment: There is no theoretical (a priori) reason for favoring FDI over domestic investment in normal conditions but if a country is facing shortage or crunch of domestic investment then it is alright to focus on FDI for a short time
- Diffusion of technology: FDI results in introduction of new technology and its subsequent diffusion but author is quick to point out that it is not certain that diffusion of technology will take place because it is profitable for the company to not share the profitable technology. Moreover, even if company is willing to share, then also it will be difficult in a country like India where physical and human capital are not at par with advanced countries.
Definition:Technology diffusion can be defined as the process by which innovations are adopted by a population. Whether diffusion occurs and the rate at which it occurs is dependent on several factors including the nature and quality of the innovation, how information about the innovation is communicated, and the characteristics of the population into which it is introduced
Why we should no rely too much on FDI?
Author puts forward his argument that one critical factor that our policy makers are missing while relying heavily on FDI is that it is volatile.
- Volatility: It is volatile because, investors are always in search of more profitable avenues which can offer better economic concessions thereby higher profits
Example: In 2014, Nokia, a Finnish firm stopped its phone-manufacturing factory in Sriperumbudur, a suburb in Chennai. One of the reasons that was put forward was that Vietnam provided Nokia with an even cheaper economic landscape with higher tax concessions and lower wages.
- Worsens income inequality: Competition for the foreign capital is on the rise with many countries offering economic concessions to the investors like providing land at less-than-market prices, weakening workers’ rights, easing the patenting of ideas and processes.In India they are currently being given in the name of ‘Make in India’ and ‘ease of doingBusiness’.This international competition for foreign capital amplifies income inequality that already exists in majority of the world.
- FDI is making rich regions richer in India: Mumbai and Delhi receives close to 50% of the overall FDI inflow in India whereas Odisha receives less than 1 per cent. FDI inflows therefore worsen existing regional inequalities by making the rich regions richer and poor regions poorer (as the workers migrate in search of employment)
What should be done to boost domestic investment?
Author contends that instead of overreliance on FDI, we should concentrate on pushing domestic private investment. This can be done by,
- Substantial public investment in education, health and environment, which will not only improve India’s socio-economic condition but also increase domestic private investment
Employment through investment
Effect or contribution of FDI on the employment will depend on two factors,
- In which region FDI is invested? Different areas have different economic
- In which sector FDI is invested? – It is obvious that FDI will generate more employment in labor intensive sectors like construction rather than in capital intensive sector like oil production
Labor intensive industries are those which require a large number of human capital to produce goods or services. Example: construction, agriculture, mining, hotels etc.
Capital intensive industries are those which require a large number of money or other financial resources to produce goods or services. Example: Transportation, oil production and refining etc.
Kind of employment is generated like skilled, unskilled and semi-skilled also depends upon the sector in which FDI is invested
FDI scenario in India & why pursuit of full employment of labor cannot be left to private sector?
Trend: In 2015-16, the services sector received the largest FDI inflow; this sector includes services such as finance, banking, insurance and outsourcing and predominantly employs skilled workers.
Area of concern: Sharp reduction in FDI inflow in construction sector => Employment generation in this sector will be low
Uneven sector-wise FDI: Overall FDI inflow has increased between 2014-15 and 2015-16 but there have been changes in the composition of FDI meaning some sectors like services are getting much more FDI than other sectors like construction. This is bound to happen as the main motive behind private investment, whether domestic or foreign, shall always be profit maximization.
So, it is because of this reason that pursuit of full employment of labor cannot be left to private sector either domestic or foreign.
Conclusion
Relying on FDI for the long-term will be a folly for Indian policymakers as it leads to increased income inequality, ecological destruction and uneven employment generation as shown above. So, public investment is the key. Government should focus on pushing up public investment so that India witnesses economic development and not just economic growth.
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