Front Page / NATIONAL [The Hindu]
[1]. CAG to undertake audit of demonetization fallout
[2].Socialism missing from religion: SC
[3]. Supreme Court opens surrogacy window for singles
Editorial/OPINION [The Hindu]
[1]. No economy for women
[2]. How to tame our forest fires
Economy
[1]. You can switch from EPF to NPS
[2]. Meeting set to review postal imports
Indian Express
[1]. The compelling virtue of treason
Live Mint
[1]. Price control is a blunt instrument in healthcare
Front Page / NATIONAL
[1]. CAG to undertake audit of demonetization fallout
Context
CAG’s decision to audit demonetisation
What has happened?
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India will soon begin an audit of various aspects of demonetisation
Why
Demonetisation per se is a banking and money supply issue and as such, outside the CAG’s audit jurisdiction.
- But the CAG is well within its rights to seek audit of fiscal impact of demonetisation, largely its impact on tax revenues. That way the issue gets linked with the public exchequer
What would be covered?
- Linkages of demonetisation with the public exchequer like, expenditure on printing of notes, RBI dividend to the Consolidated Fund, etc.
- The huge amount of data generated by banks and the Income-Tax Department due to demonetisation.
- This banking transaction data and the follow-up by the Revenue Department can also be subjected to CAG audit.
- Various risks, such as errors and omissions in identifying the potential tax evaders, failures to pursue the identified suspects, selective and arbitrary pursuance of leads and consequences thereof.
CAG might also cover
- Cost of printing notes and errors in identifying tax evaders could be covered
[2].Socialism missing from religion: SC
Context
Musclemen taking over religious assets
What has happened?
The Supreme Court expressed concern at the threat of “musclemen” taking over charge of religious assets and properties
Observations
- The respect for the poor in religion is lost with the properties going into the hands of musclemen
- Money flowing in from “everywhere” and invested in religion might be “the problem or the only problem
Backdrop
Observations made by Supreme Court while hearing a dispute between two factions of a church in Kerala
[3]. Supreme Court opens surrogacy window for singles
Context
Latest Supreme Court order with respect to surrogacy
What has happened?
A Supreme Court bench has allowed a representation to be made before the parliamentary committee to consider including a “specific provision” in the Bill so as to facilitate single persons also to embrace parenthood through surrogacy.
Current Provision
The draft Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016, which is being examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, expressly allows only infertile and legally-wedded Indian couples to have children through surrogacy.
Backdrop
- The Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petitions on banning commercial surrogacy and the treatment of babies as a “commodity.”
- The Supreme Court had initially intervened some years ago on a petition filed by German couple Jan Balaz and SusaneLohle, who wanted Indian citizenship for their surrogate twins born of a Gujarati woman
Petitoner’s View
There is no specific provision about single parents in the Bill, but the Bill also does not specifically prohibit them
Salient Features of Surrogacy Bill
- The draft surrogacy Bill aims at regulating commissioning of surrogacy in the country in a proper manner.
- As per the 2009 Law Commission Report, the artificial reproduction treatment industry is Rs. 25,000 crore industry.
- The Bill aims to prevent exploitation of women, especially those in rural and tribal areas.
- The Bill promises to ensure parentage of children born out of surrogacy is “legal and transparent.”
- The new Bill proposes complete ban on commercial surrogacy.
- As per the Bill, only legally-wedded Indian couples can have children through surrogacy, provided at least one of them have been proven to have fertility-related issues.
- Foreigners, even Overseas Indians, are barred from commissioning surrogacy.
- A woman will be allowed to become a surrogate mother only for altruistic purpose and under no circumstances money shall be paid to her, except for medical expenses.
- Unmarried couples, single parents, live—in partners and homosexuals cannot opt for surrogacy as per the new bill.
- Surrogacy regulation boards will be set-up at Central and State-level like, National Surrogacy Board, State Surrogacy Boardand appointment of authorities for regulation of practice and process of surrogacy.
Draft Bill’s take on Altruistic Surrogacy
The draft Bill does not cover categories other than married Indian couples, like single women or men, gay or lesbian couples, etc. The window for “altruistic surrogacy” is only open for childless Indian married couple
Editorial/OPINION
[1]. No economy for women
Context
In stark contrast to worldwide trends, women in India are being forced out of the workforce
Issue: Declining rates of women participation in labor force
Low rates of labor force participation
According to a recent report by the International LabourOrganisation (ILO),
- India and Pakistan have the lowest rates of women’s labor force participation in Asia
- Nepal, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have the highest
- Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, the richer nations, fall in between
Worrying trend
The above mentioned low rate of labor force participation is declining further
- The National Sample Survey found that while in 1999-2000, 9% of all women worked, by 2011-12 this proportion had dropped to 21.9%
Global trend
Of the 185 nations that are part of the ILO database, since the 1990s, 114 countries have recorded an increase in the proportion of women in the workforce, and only 41 recorded declines, with India leading the pack.
Two different explanations
Author states that the above trend might be due to the following reasons,
- Explanation 1: With rising incomes, women have the opportunity to escape harsh labor in farms and on construction sites, and focus on their families
- Explanation 2: With declining farm sizes, rising mechanization, and consequently dwindling labor demands in agriculture, women are being forced out of the workforce
Challenges
Two challenges that need to be addressed in augmenting women labor force participation rates,
- Creating opportunities in non-agricultural farm work: In view of shrinking farm work, there is a need to create opportunities for women to move from agricultural to non-agricultural manual work
- A positive work environment: We must foster a work environment that allows more women, especially urban and educated women, to take up salaried jobs
- Creating an accommodative work environment: The prevalence of a rigid work environment in India and the dearth of family-friendly work institutions create impediments to women’s access to white-collar jobs in the formal sector
- Reducing work-home distance: Long distances between the home and the workplace increase both commuting time and work burdens, leaving workers with even less time for family duties.
How construction of roads facilitates uptake of non-agricultural work?
In her research, Lei Lei, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, finds that
- In villages where roads were constructed between the first (2004-05) and second (2011-12) waves of IHDS, both men and women were more likely to undertake non-agricultural work but this effect was greater for women
- Cascading effect: Such work has a cascading effect as construction of concrete roads also improves transportation services such as buses, which, in turn, could facilitate movement of the rural workforce, especially women, into non-agricultural work in neighboring villages and towns
Decline in fertility rate
Article cites the problem of decline in fertility in West & India but goes on to state the reason behind it is vastly different for both.
- West: The decline is fuelled by a desire of self-fulfillment of both men & women wherein they are not opting for children or are opting out of marriage in lieu of better career prospects
- India: Here the fertility rates have declined but due to a desire to have smaller families in lieu of better prospects of education for their children
The way out
The only way this conundrum can be addressed is by encouraging workplaces to become more responsive to family needs and to promote sharing of household responsibilities between both genders — something that Scandinavian countries have emphasized
Work life balance
Author states that with increasing global competition, work life balance has gone out of the window, with attendance being required even on Saturdays and Sundays.
Millennial Careers: 2020 Vision
An interesting repercussion of this work dynamic is reflected in a recent study titled ‘Millennial Careers: 2020 Vision’, by ManpowerGroup, conducted across 25 countries and encompassing 19,000 working millennials and 1,500 hiring managers.
- The study found that young workers in India worked 52 hours per week as against, say, 42 hours by their counterparts in Canada
Conclusion
The result of above circumstances is that often women have to take a back seat wrt their careers and at times even dropping out of the workforce
Way forward
Citing economic survey which highlights a decreasing demographic dividend, article states that it is time that we focus on gender dividend by making our workforce gender sensitive and equitable
[2]. How to tame our forest fires
Context
The roots of the crisis lie in the implementation of India’s no-fire forest policy
What has happened?
A forest guard in Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve died due to a forest fire
Tropical dry forests
The bulk of forest fires in India occurs in the tropical dry forests of our country, an umbrella category encompassing scrub, Savanna grassland, dry and moist-deciduous forests.
- Almost 70% of forests in India are composed of these types
Important factors that maintain ecosystem
- Fire occurrence
- Light availability
Author’s contention
Author states that many tree species distinct to dry forests have co-evolved with fires and have developed fire-resistance features like thick, spongy bark, and can re-sprout from rootstock in response to fire but forest management still believes in keeping forest production systems free from fire
- The roots of our current fire crisis lie squarely in the blanket implementation of a no-fire forest policy
Why a blanket implementation of no-fire policy is wrong?
This approach is incompatible with the ecology of India’s tropical dry forests.
For example, the fires in Bandipur Tiger Reserve were immensely difficult to control because of ample fuel supplied by the alien invasive species Lantana camara.
- Recent research from the neighboring BiligiriRangaswamy Tiger Reserve indicates that a no-fire policy was likely responsible for the spread of Lantana in the first place
- frequent, low-intensity forest fires possibly prevented the proliferation of Lantana in the past
Are frequent, small forest fires preferable to infrequent, catastrophic fires?
Forest-dwellers seem to favor small frequent fires.
Scientific view
Early dry season fires burn less hot, and are far less detrimental to vegetation than peak dry season fires which burn much hotter.
Who sets the fires?
- Forest dwellers: Forest dwellers set fire to forests to clear walking paths, to collect non-timber forest products like gooseberry and mahua flowers, and to encourage the fresh growth of grass for their livestock, and sometimes as a part of ritual practice
- Agriculturists: They set fire to hill forests so that the fertilizing ash from fire washes down to their fields with the monsoon rains
Role of forest department
The forest department, on the other hand, has historically prevented fire in order to protect timber stocks, and constructed a system of fire-lines around valuable timber ‘compartments’ or coupes. By burning the fire-lines (so that no vegetation is left on them to burn) before the onset of summer, forest fires, if they occurred, could be confined to a few compartments.
- More recently however, fire has been used as a management tool to increase the density of herbivores in tropical dry forests
- Fresh grass: The logic for this kind of burning is also related to the creation of fresh grass, but this time for consumption by wild herbivores rather than by cattle.
Conclusion
Author rightly concludes that instead of viewing forest fires as being purely destructive in nature, forest managers should perhaps expand their world view and be more inclusive to information from ecological and local knowledge systems that view fires as being both rejuvenating and revitalizing
Economy
[1]. You can switch from EPF to NPS
Context
Regulator notifies procedure for move
Budget announcements
- Employees will have an option to leave EPFO and opt for NPS
- Employees below a certain level of monthly income could decide if they wanted to stop their own contributions to the EPF.
Why such announcements?
The deductions toward EPF & ESIC are high and workers’ income suffer due to that
- Presently, 24% of an employee’s salary is diverted to the EPF as a mandatory retirement saving scheme
What has happened?
PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory &Development Authority) has notified the procedure for the employees to transfer their investments to National Pension System (NPS)
Notified rules
- Active NPS account: The subscriber looking to transfer funds from EPF to NPS must have an active NPS Tier-I account, which can be opened either through the employer where NPS is implemented or online through eNPS on the NPS Trust website
- Non-taxable: The amount transferred from a recognized Provident Fund or superannuation fund to NPS would not be treated as income of the current year and hence, would not be taxable
- The subscriber, either a government or private sector employee, must approach the concerned PF office where their money resides, through her or his employer and request to transfer their savings to an NPS account.
[2]. Meeting set to review postal imports
Context
Meet to focus on e-commerce, security amid seizures of drones, fake currency and PM’s concern
What has happened?
The Finance Ministry will convene an inter-ministerial meeting next week to review a surge in postal imports of consumer goods through e-commerce as well as related security issues following seizures of high-altitude drones, bullion and fake currency in such parcels
- Meeting further aims to address inadequacies in data capture as the availability of comprehensive figures on imports by post and courier, facilitated by the e-commerce route, is currently lacking
CBEC measures
CBEC (Central Board of Excise & Customs) has already begun a holistic review of norms covering imports & exports through post
Prospective measures
- The measures include a move to tighten security by upgrading x-ray machines for non-intrusive scanning of mail parcels, they said. These steps will have an impact on the procedures for clearance of goods imported through post
Indian Express
[1]. The compelling virtue of treason
Context
For democracy to survive, the national conversation must include dissenting voices
Not relevant. A historical and philosophical take on recent frees peech controversies.
Give it a read if you have time or you can skip it entirely
Live Mint
[1]. Price control is a blunt instrument in healthcare
Context
There must be a comprehensive regulatory framework that looks beyond price caps to ensure quality healthcare coverage for all citizens
A policy mismatch
In the first few paragraphs author refers to the Feb 14th decision by NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) wherein prices of stents (a medical device) were reduced significantly to the benefit of the patients.
- Author states that while India already has some of the lowest drug prices in the world, yet the average Indian’s out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare is as high as 61%, not to mention the millions who are routinely deprived of life-saving drugs.
Clearly, there is a mismatch in the policy framework.
Author’s contention
There is a need for a more comprehensive regulatory framework that looks beyond price caps to ensure quality healthcare coverage for all citizens
Dependence on Chinese imports
Presently, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in many commonly used drugs and front-line medications come from China.
- A recent report by the Boston Consulting Group and the Confederation of Indian Industry has flagged the risks of such dependence on Chinese imports and noted that any threat to the supply chain in China, as evidenced before the Beijing Olympics, could affect the manufacture of critical drugs
Is India repeating its drug-manufacturing mistakes with medical-device manufacturing?
Struggling for balance
Author states that with the focus of the current government on ‘Make in India” it has sought to achieve a balance between providing reasonably priced medicines to the general public &having a business- and innovation-friendly environment for the healthcare industry but like previous regimes, it has also struggled so far
Suggestions
Author suggests that,
- Government look at other key elements of the healthcare system, such as extending the insurance coverage (currently at 25%) and increasing healthcare infrastructure
- Industry transparency: Manufacturing industry should also reach out to the public and explain how there is more to its pricing strategy than just profits
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