A first step — on NDA govt.'s Ayushman Bharat

he NDA government’s scheme to provide health cover of ₹5 lakh per year to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families through the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission has taken a step forward with the Union Cabinet approving the modalities of its implementation. Considering the small window, just over a year, available before the term of the present government ends, urgent action is needed to roll out such an ambitious scheme. For a start, the apex council that will steer the programme and the governing board to operationalise it in partnership with the States need to be set up. The States, which have a statutory responsibility for provision of health care, have to act quickly and form dedicated agencies to run the scheme. Since the NHPM represents the foundation for a universal health coverage system that should eventually cover all Indians, it needs to be given a sound legal basis, ideally through a separate law. This could be on the lines of legislation governing the rights to food and information. Such legislation would strengthen entitlement to care, which is vital to the scheme’s success. It will also enable much-needed regulatory control over pricing of hospital-based treatments. The initial norms set for availing benefits under the NHPM, which subsumes earlier health assurance schemes, appear to make the inclusion of vulnerable groups such as senior citizens, women and children contingent on families meeting other criteria, except in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households. The government should take the bold step of including these groups universally; the financial risk can be borne by the taxpayer.

Universal health coverage is defined by the WHO as a state when “all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them”. With its endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, India will have to constantly raise its ambition during the dozen years to the deadline. This underscores the importance of raising not just core budgetary spending every year, but paying attention to social determinants of health. Affordable housing, planned urban development, pollution control and road safety are some aspects vital for reducing the public health burden. Unfortunately, governments are paying little attention to these issues, as the quality of life erodes even with steady economic growth. In some of its early assessments on the road to universal health coverage, NITI Aayog advocated a State-specific approach rather than a grand national health system to expand access. But the NHPM has a national character, with States playing a crucial role in its implementation, and beneficiaries being able to port the service anywhere. It is a challenging task to make all this a reality, and the government will have to work hard to put it in place.

Principle & procedure: on the court ruling on AAP MLAs

The Delhi High Court verdict setting aside the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs in Delhi is a searing indictment of the manner in which the Election Commission handled the complaint that they held offices of profit while serving as parliamentary secretaries. For a body vested with the crucial power to determine whether lawmakers have incurred disqualification in certain circumstances and advise the President or the Governor suitably, this is an embarrassing moment. The court has not reviewed its decision on merits. Rather, it has ruled that the EC violated the principles of natural justice while adjudicating a lawyer’s complaint against the legislators. It failed to offer an oral hearing on the merits of the complaint and chose to hide under the specious argument that notices had been issued to the MLAs to respond to documents that the EC had summoned from the Delhi government. After saying in its order of June 2017 that it would fix a date for the next hearing, the commission issued two notices seeking replies but fixed no date; instead, it proceeded to give its decision on January 19, 2018. Further, Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat, who had recused himself at an earlier point, rejoined the process without intimation to the legislators. And another vitiating factor was that Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, who had not heard the matter and assumed office only in September 2017, had signed the order. It is a basic feature of judicial or quasi-judicial processes that someone who does not hear a matter does not decide on it.

The high court order scrupulously adheres to the core principles of judicial review of decisions made by a duly empowered adjudicatory body. Courts do not normally plunge into the merits of such a decision, but examine whether there has been any violation of natural justice, whether sufficient opportunity has been given to the parties and whether the proceedings were vitiated by bias, arbitrariness or any extraneous consideration. That a pre-eminent constitutional body should be found wanting in ensuring natural justice while answering a reference from the President is a sad comment on its functioning. It ought to have treated the matter with abundant caution, given the ease with which political parties tend to question the EC’s impartiality. The EC has an opportunity to redeem its name by more carefully considering the same question that has now been remanded to it for fresh adjudication. It could appeal to the Supreme Court, but a better course would be to hold a fresh and fair hearing. The high court has acknowledged the EC’s “latitude and liberty” in matters of procedure, but cautioned that any procedure should be sound, fair and just. In proceedings that may result in unseating elected representatives, fairness of procedure is no less important than finding an answer to the question whether they have incurred disqualification.

Karnataka elections: homestretch before Lok Sabha 2019

Karnataka was supposed to be the Bharatiya Janata Party’s point of entry into southern India. But after its historic victory in the 2008 Assembly election, the party lost its way in the State, and the Congress staged a comeback five years later. Now, far from expanding to the neighbouring States, the party is struggling to return to power in Karnataka in the face of a determined defensive battle by the politically savvy Congress Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah. A relatively new entrant to the Congress, he has created his own space in the faction-ridden party and in the wider public sphere by traversing caste divides and resisting communal polarisation. Thus, the single-phase election on May 12 could witness a face-off between the BJP and the Congress, with the Janata Dal (Secular) a distant third. The BJP’s challenge is mounted by the old warhorse B.S. Yeddyurappa, its most valuable asset and arguably also its greatest liability. If he won it for the BJP in 2008, he also ensured a defeat in 2013. After he resigned as Chief Minister following allegations of involvement in illegal mining and land deals, Mr. Yeddyurappa tried to run the government through handpicked men. When there was resistance to his meddling from the outside, he formed his own party, the Karnataka Janata Paksha, to down the BJP in 2013, but returned in time to help the BJP perform creditably in the 2014 election. In the absence of other evidence, it must have seemed to the BJP’s national leadership that it could win only with the active assistance of Mr. Yeddyurappa.

Mr. Siddaramaiah has used divisive tactics of his own. His government aided demands for religious minority status for Lingayats, a Shaivite section from which Mr. Yeddyurappa, and by extension the BJP, draw substantial support. And he indulged regional sentiments by unveiling a Karnataka State flag. Both decisions are awaiting the approval of the Centre, but the Congress believes that irrespective of what the BJP-led government at the Centre does, the dividends are for it to reap. Agitations against the use of Hindi in Metro stations are also being turned to the disadvantage of the BJP, which is trying to refurbish its image as a Hindu-Hindi party by stressing solely on the Hindu aspect. Karnataka will not be the last State to go to the polls before the Lok Sabha election of 2019, but it holds great importance for the campaigns of the Congress and the BJP in the run-up to 2019. A loss for either will be a dampener, and a win a great morale booster. Leaders of both parties need to convince themselves, more than anyone else, that they have their nose ahead as they near the homestretch......

..

.Thanking you so much.

The bond rout is a warning as the Centre looks at ramping up spending ahead of elections

ore people are losing their love for Indian bonds. Foreign investors have been net sellers of over $1 billion in Indian debt this month, almost cancelling out inflows since the beginning of the year. Domestic investors were already spooked by a widening fiscal deficit, so foreign selling now has managed to add pressure on the market. The deserting of the Indian market by foreign investors comes at a time when the Centre is looking at tapping the bond market aggressively to finance its election-year spending. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond has risen by almost 100 basis points since late-July amid lacklustre investor demand. The rise in yields is due to a variety of reasons that have pushed both foreign and domestic investors to re-price Indian sovereign bonds. For one, the government is expected to step up borrowing ahead of elections; in fact, the fiscal deficit targets for the current as well as the coming fiscal year were revised upwards in the Budget. This has fuelled market fears about a rise in inflation. Further, the public sector banks, typically the biggest lenders to the government, have turned wary of lending. As the losses on their bond portfolios mount, they have turned net sellers of sovereign bonds in 2018. Another tailwind affecting bonds is the prospect of higher interest rates in the West, which has made Indian bonds look a lot less lucrative in the eyes of foreign investors. The weakening rupee, probably a reflection of higher domestic inflation and fund outflows in search of yields, has added to selling pressure.

Given these pressing concerns, it is no surprise that Indian sovereign bondshave witnessed a relief rally since news broke on March 26 that the Centre will trim its market borrowing during the first half of the coming fiscal year. The yield on the 10-year Indian sovereign bond has dropped by more than 20 basis points since that day. The Centre’s borrowing target for April-September was cut to ₹2.88 lakh crore, which is about 48% of the total budgeted borrowing for the year, in contrast to ₹3.72 lakh crore in the first half of this year. Interestingly, first-half borrowing was more than 60% of the annual borrowing target in each of the last two years. The government also announced a cut of ₹50,000 crore in the total amount of market borrowings for the year, opting instead to dip into the National Small Savings Fund to meet its funding needs. Cutting down on market borrowing is a decision linked to the market’s ‘decision’ to punish the government for profligacy. The bond rout should thus serve as a timely warning as it looks to ramp up spending ahead of elections. Lastly, with the vacuum created by the state-run banks, it may be time for the Reserve Bank of India to re-examine the rule limiting the role of foreign investors in the bond market.a

His visit strategically brings China into North Korea’s hectic diplomatic calendar.....

he timing of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s visit to China, his first foreign trip after assuming power in 2011, is not lost on anyone. After travelling to Beijing this week in an armoured train, he held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and re-emphasised his commitment to the “denuclearisation” of the peninsula, weeks before his scheduled April 27 summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. In May, Mr. Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to meet for a historic summit. By visiting Beijing now, Mr. Kim is sending a clear message: that he is serious about his offer of talks. The visit has also helped repair relations between Pyongyang and Beijing, which had come under some strain. China was not particularly happy with the North’s nuclear tests. Mr. Xi was under pressure from the West to exercise influence on Mr. Kim’s regime. And Beijing’s support for stringent UN sanctions on North Korea that have cut its exports of coal, seafood and other goods to China has dealt a blow to its already isolated economy. Mr. Kim reportedly rejected overtures from Beijing and purged officials who had close ties with the Chinese. But now, both leaders appear to have decided to set aside their differences.

China has historically played a role in inter-Korean relations. In 2000, Mr. Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, had visited China shortly before a summit with South Korea. In 2003, China launched the Six-Party Talks aimed at peacefully resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, which eventually failed. Mr. Kim’s visit to Beijing has reinstated China’s central role in talks over the Korean crisis, which both countries see as mutually beneficial. For the Kim regime, China’s experience and guidance could come in handy when it is preparing to engage with two of its biggest rivals. China, for its part, would not like to be bypassed by the U.S. and the North in any diplomatic process. If the Kim regime’s fundamental objective is its own survival, China’s interest lies in a peaceful resolution to the crisis in a stable political environment in its neighbourhood. This enables convergence of interest for both in the diplomatic process. But there is still much uncertainty over the peace process. Mr. Trump may have agreed to meet Mr. Kim. But since then he has inducted into his team two officials with hawkish views on North Korea — Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State and John Bolton as National Security Adviser. As of now, it is anybody’s guess what the U.S. would do next if the Trump-Kim summit fails to produce a breakthrough. In such a volatile context, robust multilateral intervention would be needed to stay the diplomatic course. The Xi-Kim meet could be a step in that direction if China agrees to be a balancing force and a facilitator of talks between the North and the U.S.

Testing exam: restoring trust in the CBSE exam process

The Central Board of Secondary Education faces a serious erosion of credibility with the leak of its annual examination question papers on Economics for Class 12 and Mathematics for Class 10. Thousands of students are naturally frustrated that their best shot at these papers has come to nought; they must now make another strenuous effort in a re-examination. Clearly, the Ministry of Human Resource Development failed to assign top priority to secrecy and integrity of the process, considering that its standard operating procedure was easily breached, and the questions were circulated on instant messaging platforms. Yet, the problem is not new. State board question papers have been leaked in the past. When the HRD Ministry was asked in the Lok Sabha three years ago what it intended to do to secure the CBSE Class 12 and 10 examinations, Smriti Irani, who was the Minister then, asserted the inviolability of the process, since the question papers were sealed and stored in secret places and released to authorised officials with a window of only a few hours. In addition, the board has dedicated secrecy officers for each region. But the protocol has failed, and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar should conduct a thorough inquiry to get at the truth and initiate remedial steps without delay. One of the options is to institute a National Testing Agency, although it was originally supposed to take charge of entrance examinations in the first phase. State school boards also need help to reform systems.

A major leak such as the one that has hit the CBSE raises a question often debated in academic circles: is a high-stakes test the best option? To some sociologists, the use of a quantitative indicator with rising importance for social decision-making makes it more vulnerable to corruption pressures, and distorts and undermines the very processes it is intended to monitor. That seems to be an apt description of what has taken place. Today, what is needed is a credible testing method to assess a student’s aptitude and learning. But the answer may lie not in one all-important examination, but in multiple assessments that achieve the same goal. Such an approach will end the scramble for high scores in a definitive board examination, and the exam stress that the government has been trying to alleviate. It will also limit the fallout of a leak. These and other options need to be debated by academic experts. More immediately, the CBSE has to restore faith in its processes. The board went into denial mode when the leaks were first reported, but subsequently decided to acknowledge the problem and ordered a fresh examination in the two subjects. In the current scheme, the annual exercise is all-important to students. Everything should be done to inspire total confidence in the board examinations.

My autobiography the wisdom of life

When I Was Born there was different atmosphere and different surroundings of our family.

There is no good room for us no good dress no nutritious food.

In a little village of West Bengal no pissed Road No transport no good socio-economic conditions was there.

But still all deficiency and the contradict our family was better than other full family as per for normal.

As per natural life headstrong power to think Hai To assume higher to gain highest.

My respected and God equivalent for underage uplift our family with heart and soul tooth and nail.

I always did namaste in the foot of him .

Hi thanks for you support thanks for this belief and especially thanks for advice and good voice who is update my mind Ignite me and provide more confidence to achieve success.

Do some time I felt angry and I disagree to my activity of my father but his strength is his strong believe in his strong power of imagination and Eastern power to memorize a great helping hand to all every elemies.

I love my father so much and for him I can sacrifice my life to fulfill his voice hope and practice and Desire dream and crave.

Thank you dad and thank you my mother.

Om Namo pitaai and Om Namah Mata

First of all we have to celebrate that all fine and cities and concentrate on education toward the perfect sense of greatness.

Thank you God for providing such a beautiful life. Thank you dad providing such a beautiful life.

Thanks all for supporting.

Every time when we think about that the greedy and dignity of life we must provide and sacrifice all the human behaviour and cont you're the greatness of life.

New Delhi and Islamabad must address the tit-for-tat harassment of each other’s envoys

Regardless of the provocation or the sequence of events, there is an urgent need for India and Pakistan to address allegations of harassment of each other’s diplomats and interference in High Commission work. While surveillance of diplomats by intelligence agencies in New Delhi and Islamabad is not new, matters have escalated in the past month, and the treatment of diplomatic officials by both sides has dropped to new lows. The spark for this round of ‘tit-for-tat’ actions appears to be an incident in February, when alleged ISI agents roughed up Pakistani construction workers headed for the Indian mission’s new building site in Islamabad. While Pakistan’s foreign office claimed they did not have security clearance to enter the diplomatic zone, India saw it as an attempt to stop the work, adding that power and water connections were tampered with. Then, the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi claimed that Indian security personnel warned repairmen and electricians against entering its premises. Both missions said personnel were being targeted on the road, with cars stopped and drivers intimidated. Other instances on both sides include obscene phone calls, stoppage of milk and newspaper delivery to diplomats, and even 3 a.m. doorbell rings.

The timing is clearly more than just coincidence, and the incidents mark a deliberate policy by India and Pakistan to give their intelligence agencies a carte blanche to target the other side. It is unfortunate that things have come to such a pass, weeks after the two countries agreed to humanitarian measures for prisoners, with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif accepting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s proposals on the issue. The allegations of harassment are more serious than just shadow-boxing, and must be checked in order to avoid a further slippage in ties. They constitute technical violations of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and the subsequent Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963), which clearly state that a diplomatic agent’s person, premises and property are inviolable and must be respected and protected by the “receiving state”. The fear is that as a next step in this spiral, India and Pakistan may even take stronger measures, including sending back diplomats or scaling down their missions. India had declared Islamabad a non-family post in the wake of the terror attack on an army school in Peshawar; Pakistan may now follow suit by withdrawing its families from Delhi. At a time when bilateral dialogue has been stalled for years, and ceasefire violations are becoming the norm on the Line of Control, any escalation will impact the few lines of communication that remain. Cooler counsel must prevail.

The Chinese President further consolidates his power through an administrative rejig

Its no stranger to reform. Over the past three decades the structure of the government has changed at least half a dozen times. But the scale of reform pushed through this month is comparable to that of 1998 when Zhu Rongji as Premier shut or merged 15 ministries as part of a major liberalisation drive. This time, Prime Minister Li Keqiang has closed six ministries, two ministry-level agencies and seven vice ministry-level departments. Beijing has also created a powerful anti-corruption agency, while the Vice President, till now holding a ceremonial post, is expected to play an active role in policymaking. The stamp of Xi Jinping, re-elected President for five more years with no term limit, is visible in these reforms. A big decision is the empowerment of the Environment Ministry, which will fight air, water and soil pollution, a top priority for Mr. Xi. Two of his close aides have been appointed to key posts — Wang Qishan, an anti-corruption crusader, is now the Vice President, and Liu He, the President’s top fiscal adviser, is a Vice Premier. Mr. Wang is expected to play a leading role in China’s engagement with the U.S. at a time when fears of a trade war loom. Mr. Liu is to head the recently created Financial Stability and Development Commission, which will coordinate between the banking and securities regulators and work towards trimming China’s debt burden. This takes away some of the powers of the Prime Minister, who has traditionally been China’s top economic official. The National Supervision Commission, which is ranked above the judiciary, will have sweeping powers to fight corruption, including the power to detain suspects for up to six months without access to lawyers.

The common thread in these changes is the strengthening of Mr. Xi’s full-blown control over party and government. Earlier this month, by amending the Constitution to remove the two-term limit on the Presidency that was introduced during Deng Xiaoping’s time, the Chinese Communist Party signalled that it was moving away from the “collective leadership” motto to a new era under Mr. Xi. With the latest measures, he is consolidating his hold. The political stability that China has enjoyed over the last two and a half decades was a result of high and sustained economic growth coupled with reform. By concentrating so much power in his hands, Mr. Xi has risked reversing the changes that have become institutionalised over the last three decades. He may enjoy a measure of popularity and have the support of the party for now, but such concentration of power is bound to engender opposition and criticism. His decision to lift presidential term limits has already triggered an uproar on China’s social media networks, prompting the authorities to censor a host of words and phrases, including Animal Farm, the title of George Orwell’s dystopian novel. Mr. Xi will ignore these intimations of discontent only at his own risk.

The controversy is a wake-up call to press ahead with a robust data protection law

The world has just learned how a data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested the data of 50 million Facebook users and used that information to feed strategies such as ‘behavioural microtargeting’ and ‘psychographic messaging’ for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the U.S. Chris Wylie, a former CA employee-turned-whistle-blower, set off a storm with revelations of how the company had deployed a ‘psychological warfare’ tool for alt-right media guru Steve Bannon to try to sway the election in Mr. Trump’s favour. CA chief executive Alexander Nix, who was suspended a few days ago following an undercover report by a British TV broadcaster, said the company has used other dubious methods in projects worldwide — including honeytraps to discredit clients’ opponents. The combination of using personal data without consent and tailoring slander campaigns, fake news and propaganda to discovered preferences of voters is a potent and corrosive cocktail. Facebook has said its policies in 2014, when a personality profiling app was run on its platform, permitted the developer to scrape data not only from those who downloaded the app but also from the profiles of their Facebook ‘friends’. Yet it did not make sure the data were destroyed by the app’s developer Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University academic, nor by CA itself when it came to light that Mr. Kogan had sold the data to CA, a third party. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has offered an apology and expressed willingness to cooperate with inquiries and potentially open up Facebook to regulation.

This episode has brought to light several issues that need to be addressed. First, companies have been collecting data and tailoring marketing campaigns accordingly. The issue here is particularly prickly because politics and elections are involved. Second, regardless of whether what Facebook and CA did was legal or not, something is broken in a policy environment in which the data of millions are taken and used when only 270,000 people knowingly or unknowingly gave consent. Third, technology is evolving at a rapid pace, raising the question whether laws need to be reframed mandating an opt-out approach universally rather than an opt-in approach. Individuals often share their data without being aware of it or understanding the implications of privacy terms and conditions. Fourth, there must be clear laws on the ownership of data and what data need to be protected. Personal data cannot be the new oil. Individuals must own it, have a right to know what companies and governments know about them and, in most cases, that is, when there are no legitimate security or public interest reasons, have the right to have their data destroyed. The CA issue is a wake-up call for India; the government is still dragging its feet on framing a comprehensive and robust data protection law.

As the U.S. continues to raise benchmark rates, India should take precautionary steps

The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to slowly pull away the punch bowl as the party gets going. This week the Fed raised its benchmark short-term interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.50-1.75%, the highest in a decade. While this is only the sixth rate increase since the financial crisis of 2008 — which pushed central banks to cut interest rates to historic lows — it portends further increases in global interest rates. Higher borrowing costs could squeeze both markets and the wider economy. If its dot-plot projections are considered, the Fed under its new Chairman Jerome Powell — who chaired the Federal Open Market Committee meeting for the first time on Wednesday — is expected to raise rates two more times in 2018. And with the American economy projected to grow at a fairly healthy clip amid quickening inflation, the increases in the Fed’s discount rate are expected to gather pace over the next two years. Now, as the Fed and other global central banks move towards normalising monetary policy, the impact on the wider credit markets is slowly beginning to show. This is particularly so in the case of the interbank lending market, which is directly influenced by central banks to affect interest rates across the board. The London Interbank Offered Rate, which is the rate at which international banks lend to each other and serves as a benchmark for lending rates, has risen for more than 30 consecutive sessions and is at its highest since the financial crisis. Its effect has spilled over into other markets, including the corporate debt market.

Rising rates amid improving global economic growth could adversely affect the capacity of private firms to service their debt. This risk of default by private borrowers has been flagged by various organisations, including the International Monetary Fund last month. It is, after all, no secret that private corporations attracted by ultra-low interest rates had heavily loaded up on debt over the last decade. Some companies borrowed heavily from across the borders, thus making them prone to exchange rate risks as well. Any widespread default on debt today would be reminiscent of the 2004-2006 period when the Fed’s raising of rates to tackle inflation led to a mass default on U.S. mortgage debt. Global markets on Friday witnessed a steep sell-off that was immediately linked to President Donald Trump’s recent decision to impose new tariffs on China. Trade wars clearly have a negative impact on global growth and corporate earnings. But the wider sell-off, under way since February, can also be linked to rising interest rates which adversely affect asset prices. India, which could be hit by fund outflows as overseas investors look homeward to benefit from the rising rates, would do well to take precautionary steps.

The National Health Protection Mission requires a bold, holistic approach

The NDA government’s scheme to provide health cover of ₹5 lakh per year to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families through the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission has taken a step forward with the Union Cabinet approving the modalities of its implementation. Considering the small window, just over a year, available before the term of the present government ends, urgent action is needed to roll out such an ambitious scheme. For a start, the apex council that will steer the programme and the governing board to operationalise it in partnership with the States need to be set up. The States, which have a statutory responsibility for provision of health care, have to act quickly and form dedicated agencies to run the scheme. Since the NHPM represents the foundation for a universal health coverage system that should eventually cover all Indians, it needs to be given a sound legal basis, ideally through a separate law. This could be on the lines of legislation governing the rights to food and information. Such legislation would strengthen entitlement to care, which is vital to the scheme’s success. It will also enable much-needed regulatory control over pricing of hospital-based treatments. The initial norms set for availing benefits under the NHPM, which subsumes earlier health assurance schemes, appear to make the inclusion of vulnerable groups such as senior citizens, women and children contingent on families meeting other criteria, except in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households. The government should take the bold step of including these groups universally; the financial risk can be borne by the taxpayer.

Universal health coverage is defined by the WHO as a state when “all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them”. With its endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, India will have to constantly raise its ambition during the dozen years to the deadline. This underscores the importance of raising not just core budgetary spending every year, but paying attention to social determinants of health. Affordable housing, planned urban development, pollution control and road safety are some aspects vital for reducing the public health burden. Unfortunately, governments are paying little attention to these issues, as the quality of life erodes even with steady economic growth. In some of its early assessments on the road to universal health coverage, NITI Aayog advocated a State-specific approach rather than a grand national health system to expand access. But the NHPM has a national character, with States playing a crucial role in its implementation, and beneficiaries being able to port the service anywhere. It is a challenging task to make all this a reality, and the government will have to work hard to put it in place.

In a plastics world — on safe bottled water

Plastics are now widely present in the environment, as visible waste along coastlines, in lakes and rivers, and even in the soil. The recent finding that microplastic particles are found even in ‘safe’ bottled water indicates the magnitude of the crisis. There is little doubt that the global production of plastics, at over 300 million tonnes a year according to the UN Environment Programme, has overwhelmed the capacity of governments to handle what is thrown away as waste. Microplastics are particles of less than 5 mm that enter the environment either as primary industrial products, such as those used in scrubbers and cosmetics, or via urban waste water and broken-down elements of articles discarded by consumers. Washing of clothes releases synthetic microfibres into water bodies and the sea. The health impact of the presence of polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate and other chemicals in drinking water, food and even inhaled air may not yet be clear, but indisputably these are contaminants. Research evidence from complementary fields indicates that accumulation of these chemicals can induce or aggravate immune responses in the body. More studies, as a globally coordinated effort, are necessary to assess the impact on health. It is heartening that the WHO has come forward to commission a review of the health impact of plastics in water.

Last December in Nairobi, UN member-countries resolved to produce a binding agreement in 18 months to deal with the release of plastics into the marine environment. The problem is staggering: eight million tonnes of waste, including bottles and packaging, make their way into the sea each year. There is now even the Great Pacific Garbage Patch of plastic debris. India has a major problem dealing with plastics, particularly single-use shopping bags that reach dumping sites, rivers and wetlands along with other waste. The most efficient way to deal with the pollution is to control the production and distribution of plastics. Banning single-use bags and making consumers pay a significant amount for the more durable ones is a feasible solution. Enforcing the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, which require segregation of waste from April 8 this year, will retrieve materials and greatly reduce the burden on the environment. Waste separation can be achieved in partnership with the community, and presents a major employment opportunity. The goal, however, has to be long term. As the European Union’s vision 2030 document on creating a circular plastic economy explains, the answer lies in changing the very nature of plastics, from cheap and disposable to durable, reusable and fully recyclable. There is consensus that this is the way forward. Now that the presence of plastics in drinking water, including the bottled variety, has been documented, governments should realise it cannot be business as usual.

Curbing misuse: on SC ruling on the anti-atrocities law

Protecting innocent persons is fine, as long as the SC/ST Act is not de-fanged

Will laying down procedural safeguards to curb false accusations work against the interest of protecting the oppressed from discrimination and caste-based atrocities? This is the salient question that arises from the Supreme Court verdict that has taken note of the perception that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, is being rampantly misused to settle personal scores and harass adversaries. On the face of it, it is difficult to fault the court’s approach. It is settled law that the mere scope for misuse of an Act is not a ground to invalidate it. Constitution courts seek to preserve the spirit of such legislation on the one hand and to evolve guidelines to prevent its misuse on the other. This is precisely what the two-judge bench has aimed to do. It has ruled that Section 18, which bars grant of anticipatory bail to anyone accused of violating its provisions, is not an absolute bar on giving advance bail to those against whom, prima facie, there is no case. In addition, the Bench has prohibited the arrest of anyone merely because of a complaint that they had committed an atrocity against a Dalit or a tribal person. In respect of public servants, no arrest should be made without the written permission of the official’s appointing authority; and for private citizens, the Senior Superintendent of Police in the district should approve the arrest.

In doing this, the Supreme Court has sought to strike a balance between protecting individual liberty and preserving the spirit of a law in favour of oppressed sections. Without any doubt, atrocities against Dalits are a grim social reality, necessitating a stringent law to combat it. The Act was amended in 2015 to cover newer forms of discrimination and crimes against Dalits and tribals to add teeth to it. It is true that conviction rates under the Act remain low. The lackadaisical approach of investigators and prosecutors to bring home charges against perpetrators of such crimes among the dominant castes is reflected in statistics. Even if courts are right in taking note of the tendency to misuse this law, society and lawmakers must be justifiably worried about the sort of messaging contained in their rulings and observations. In an ideal system, as long as every charge is judicially scrutinised and every investigation or prosecution is fair and honest, one need not worry about misuse and its adverse effects. However, social realities are far from being ideal. It ought to concern us all, including the courts, that some laws designed to protect the weakest and most disempowered people do not lose their teeth. Words of caution and rules against misuse may be needed to grant relief to the innocent. But nothing should be done to de-fang the law itself.

As the U.S. continues to raise benchmark rates, India should take precautionary steps

The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to slowly pull away the punch bowl as the party gets going. This week the Fed raised its benchmark short-term interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.50-1.75%, the highest in a decade. While this is only the sixth rate increase since the financial crisis of 2008 — which pushed central banks to cut interest rates to historic lows — it portends further increases in global interest rates. Higher borrowing costs could squeeze both markets and the wider economy. If its dot-plot projections are considered, the Fed under its new Chairman Jerome Powell — who chaired the Federal Open Market Committee meeting for the first time on Wednesday — is expected to raise rates two more times in 2018. And with the American economy projected to grow at a fairly healthy clip amid quickening inflation, the increases in the Fed’s discount rate are expected to gather pace over the next two years. Now, as the Fed and other global central banks move towards normalising monetary policy, the impact on the wider credit markets is slowly beginning to show. This is particularly so in the case of the interbank lending market, which is directly influenced by central banks to affect interest rates across the board. The London Interbank Offered Rate, which is the rate at which international banks lend to each other and serves as a benchmark for lending rates, has risen for more than 30 consecutive sessions and is at its highest since the financial crisis. Its effect has spilled over into other markets, including the corporate debt market.

Rising rates amid improving global economic growth could adversely affect the capacity of private firms to service their debt. This risk of default by private borrowers has been flagged by various organisations, including the International Monetary Fund last month. It is, after all, no secret that private corporations attracted by ultra-low interest rates had heavily loaded up on debt over the last decade. Some companies borrowed heavily from across the borders, thus making them prone to exchange rate risks as well. Any widespread default on debt today would be reminiscent of the 2004-2006 period when the Fed’s raising of rates to tackle inflation led to a mass default on U.S. mortgage debt. Global markets on Friday witnessed a steep sell-off that was immediately linked to President Donald Trump’s recent decision to impose new tariffs on China. Trade wars clearly have a negative impact on global growth and corporate earnings. But the wider sell-off, under way since February, can also be linked to rising interest rates which adversely affect asset prices. India, which could be hit by fund outflows as overseas investors look homeward to benefit from the rising rates, would do well to take precautionary steps.

A first step — on NDA govt.'s Ayushman Bharat

The National Health Protection Mission requires a bold, holistic approach

The NDA government’s scheme to provide health cover of ₹5 lakh per year to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families through the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission has taken a step forward with the Union Cabinet approving the modalities of its implementation. Considering the small window, just over a year, available before the term of the present government ends, urgent action is needed to roll out such an ambitious scheme. For a start, the apex council that will steer the programme and the governing board to operationalise it in partnership with the States need to be set up. The States, which have a statutory responsibility for provision of health care, have to act quickly and form dedicated agencies to run the scheme. Since the NHPM represents the foundation for a universal health coverage system that should eventually cover all Indians, it needs to be given a sound legal basis, ideally through a separate law. This could be on the lines of legislation governing the rights to food and information. Such legislation would strengthen entitlement to care, which is vital to the scheme’s success. It will also enable much-needed regulatory control over pricing of hospital-based treatments. The initial norms set for availing benefits under the NHPM, which subsumes earlier health assurance schemes, appear to make the inclusion of vulnerable groups such as senior citizens, women and children contingent on families meeting other criteria, except in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households. The government should take the bold step of including these groups universally; the financial risk can be borne by the taxpayer.

Universal health coverage is defined by the WHO as a state when “all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them”. With its endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, India will have to constantly raise its ambition during the dozen years to the deadline. This underscores the importance of raising not just core budgetary spending every year, but paying attention to social determinants of health. Affordable housing, planned urban development, pollution control and road safety are some aspects vital for reducing the public health burden. Unfortunately, governments are paying little attention to these issues, as the quality of life erodes even with steady economic growth. In some of its early assessments on the road to universal health coverage, NITI Aayog advocated a State-specific approach rather than a grand national health system to expand access. But the NHPM has a national character, with States playing a crucial role in its implementation, and beneficiaries being able to port the service anywhere. It is a challenging task to make all this a reality, and the government will have to work hard to put it in place.

Karnataka invests in people’s welfare and Centre allows loot of people’s wealth, alleges Rahul Gandh

'Modi government, which waived Rs. 2.5 lakh crore for a handful of corporates, has refused to extend a similar gesture to farmers.''

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that in contrast to Karnataka Congress government's investments in people’s welfare, the Central government was allowing the ‘loot’ of the country’s wealth.

Addressing a rally at Chamarajanagar, Mr. Gandhi said the money looted by the likes of Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya belonged to the people of the country. Half of the amount spent by the Modi government on Scheduled Castes' and Scheduled Tribes' welfare in the country was spent by the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka alone,. The State government had distributed 5 lakh free cycles to students and books to 61 lakh students.

''The Modi government, which waived Rs. 2.5 lakh crore for a handful of corporates, has refused to extend a similar gesture to farmers. Though I requested the Prime Minister to waive farm loans, he has not even bothered to reply,” he said. ''In contrast, Mr. Siddaramaiah announced a waiver of farm loans within 10 days of my request to him.”

 

Demonetisation

Mr. Gandhi criticised Mr. Modi for demonetisation and accused him of allowing the rich people to convert their black money into white on the sly. “Did you see any crorepati standing in the queues in front of banks [to deposit the demonetised currency,” he asked.

Recalling his interaction with students of Maharani’s Girls College earlier in the day, he said a student told him that demonetisation brought no change or benefit to the country. A questioner also pointed out that the country's GDP was doing well and wondered why several slabs were needed for GST. “When 18-to-20-year-old girls can understand economics, why can’t our Prime Minister,” he said.

Earlier, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP had no moral right to accuse the Congress government of corruption when its chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa and other BJP Ministers went to jail on corruption charges.

TDP’s exit from NDA ‘purely guided by political considerations’, says Amit Shah in letter to Chandrababu Naidu

BJP president Amit Shah has replied to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s letter to him following the Telugu Desam Party’s exit from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), saying the move was “purely guided wholly and solely by political considerations rather than developmental concerns.”

Mr. Naidu had cited neglect of his State’s demand for resources as the main reason for the exit.

The nine-page letter, dated March 23, was released on March 24 morning.

Mr. Shah’s general tone in the letter has been to point out how the BJP and the Central government had done its utmost to help the residual State of Andhra Pradesh but that Mr. Naidu and his party have ignored this for political calculations.

“You may recall that during the previous Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, when your party did not have adequate representation, it was the BJP that set the agenda and ensured that justice was done to hard-working Telugu people in both States,” he said.

After coming to power, the Centre has done more than its share of allotting funds and resources to Andhra Pradesh. “A perusal of these would reaffirm what you already know but do not admit — that the Central government has fulfilled its obligations and that the BJP is a genuine friend true well-wisher of the people of Andhra Pradesh,” he said. He then goes on to enumerate various allocations done for the State, including initiating action in five out of eight infrastructural projects mentioned in the Andhra Pradesh States Reorganisation Act.

Mr. Shah termed “fallacious” the Andhra Pradesh government’s claim of a revenue deficit of ₹16,000 crore for the financial year 2014-15 as it includes expenditure on farm loan waiver and pensions. “Our party-led State governments have made similar expenditure on loan waivers but from their own resources. The Central government cannot make these payments as they discriminate between States,” he said.

The BJP chief cited the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission that precludes the granting of Special Category Status to any State. He pointed to the fact that despite this allocation, gaps were sought to be filled with regard to Andhra Pradesh. “It is regrettable that some political parties are whipping up sentiments instead of engaging in informed debate,” he said.

“But unfortunately the joint mandate received by our two parties for the development of Andhra Pradesh is being squandered for political reasons,” he concluded.

SPONSORED CONTENT| BRANDHUB Education and its role in a healthy future for India's kids

Sanitation is recognised as a basic human right. The UN General Assembly in July 2010 had adopted a resolution officially recognising sanitation – “access to, and use of, excreta and wastewater facilities and services” - as a human right. For most of human history, people defecated in the open. But in the last century, a lot has changed with toilets becoming an integral part of homes in most parts of the world. Increased access to sanitation is one of the sweeping changes in humanity's ‘Great Escape’ as Nobel laureate Angus Deaton put it. The simple flush toilet is often taken for granted in higher income homes, but a lot of low income homes in India don’t have access to toilets. Denying access to sanitation is denying basic human rights. This is the spirit and idea behind focussing on increasing access to sanitation as part of the Swachri Bharat Abhiyan.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on October 2nd, 2014. As of February 2018, we are nearing 80 per cent of the Swachh Bharat target in construction of toilets in rural India with more than 6.25 crores of toilets constructed. No country in world history has ever built so many toilets at one stretch and provided access to sanitation to its people at this scale. It is an achievement that every Indian can be proud of. According to the Union budget, the Swachh Bharat Mission has made tremendous progress; sanitation coverage has gone up from 42 per cent in October 2013 to 60 per cent now.

But while infrastructure solves a part of the problem, it cannot completely solve another-behaviour change. Open defecation in India is not just about toilet coverage, it is also about deeply inbuilt cultural practices. In a lot of homes in India's heartland, a toilet in the front yard of the home- an area earmarked for the holy tulsi plant- is considered an unholy idea and so, is detested. Toilets are considered impure and a reason for that can be found in India's millennia-old caste system. According to Diane Coffey and Dean Sears, authors of Where India Goes, the reason for this aversion to toilets comes from the tact that manual scavenging was traditionally the job of the oppressed castes. Even with many people in positions of power and responsibility-ministers and bureaucrats-showing the way by emptying toilet pits themselves, this hostility toward toilets remains in rural India. Deep-seated ideas about hygiene are not limited to just toilets. There is a very strong belief in the idea that water that looks clean is fit enough to drink. Water filters or boiling water is not considered to be a necessity. It may have been truer centuries ago when water sources were not polluted, but post industrialisation and population explosion, groundwater and other sources are polluted almost everywhere. Hand washing is another aspect where deeply ingrained belief systems stop people from adopting a healthy habit. Using soaps to wash hands is not considered essential in most of rural India. We are losing out as a nation because of these unscientific but deeply held beliefs. While the rest of the world is moving towards a healthier future, India may lose out. For the demographic dividend to be an asset, we need healthier young people, not unhealthy individuals.

To change millennium-old beliefs, we need to look at creating lasting change in the minds of people. And behaviour change works best when it is done early. If you are a keen observer, you’ll notice an interesting change taking place in many villages in rural India. First generation school goers are more likely to ignore caste boundaries.

Education holds the key to long-term change in sanitation behaviour change. The next generation must learn about the need for hygiene and sanitation at the place where they learn the other important lessons of life-school.

The schools have changed them for good. The old rules that prohibit inter-mingling and inter-dining do not hold up in schools where friendships extend beyond artificial boundaries like caste.

Education holds the key to long-term change in sanitation behaviour change. The next generation must learn about the need for hygiene and sanitation at the place where they learn the other important lessons of life-school. We need to build a generation that doesn’t hold on to mistaken beliefs on sanitation, but understands the need for toilets, clean water, hygiene, cleanliness etc. Hygiene is as important, if not more important than arithmetic, reading and writing.

The Swachh Aadat curriculum is a 21-day curriculum that is created to teach children, between the ages of 5 and 10 years, the importance of hygiene. The curriculum teaches children about germs and the three important habits-washing hands at five critical occasions throughout the day, drinking purified water and using toilets and keeping them clean. The curriculum is taught in classrooms with the help of teachers for approximately 20 minutes for 21 days.

To make the curriculum interesting for children, who are the target group for this intervention, characters like Chamatkari Sonu (a superhero) and Kitabyutor (Kitab + Computer), activities, games etc are used effectively. The curriculum combines classroom teaching with practical demonstrations to influence children positively. Children are not only encouraged to learn for themselves, but also transformed into change agents bringing a sanitation revolution in their communities. The curriculum is taught in schools through books or e-curriculum where the required technological infrastructure is already present.

The Swachh Aadat curriculum will create a generation of Indians that grows up understanding the importance of hygiene during their formative years ensuring the long term-success of the initiatives in water, sanitation and hygiene.

THE NEW TRICKS OF Yogi govt

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister added the BJP had learnt its “lessons” and exuded confidence that it will perform better in future polls.

The BJP’s defeat in the recent Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur cannot be termed a “referendum” on the policies and programmes of the party’s governments at the Centre or in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday.

He, however, added the BJP had learnt its “lessons” and exuded confidence that it will perform better in future polls.

“I don’t see the results as a referendum,” he said at an event here.

He said the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party (SP-BSP) combine had not made any dent in the party’s vote bank. The SP-BSP understanding was not an alliance but a “political deal” and everyone knows how these two parties have “damaged” the state, he said.

During the campaign for the bypolls, the chief minister had launched a frontal attack on the two parties calling them “snake and mole”.

On Sunday, when it was suggested it was not appropriate for him (Mr. Adityanath is also a religious leader at the Gorakhnath temple) to use “foul words” against his rivals, the he said, “Whatever I have said is right, and I still stick to it.”

“Both the SP and BSP were private limited companies, one-man show and undemocratic, as these were family-based organisations,” he said.

To another question, he said Congress president Rahul Gandhi might ride the ‘elephant’ (BSP’s election symbol) after leaving the ‘cycle’ (SP’s election symbol).

On Saturday, BJP chief Amit Shah had also said the bypoll results were not a referendum on the party’s dispensation in the State. In his first reaction after the party’s loss in the by-elections, Mr. Shah said the UP government was one of the best among the BJP dispensations in the States.

The party has taken it (the bypoll outcome) seriously and will minutely analyse the results of these polls,” Mr. Shah had said in a television interview.

The hypocrisy of Darkest Hour

When Gary Oldman won the Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, it was no big surprise. He was heavily favoured to win. What was surprising though was that the win meant Darkest Hour returned to movie theatres in some parts of India for a second innings. In a country where we are happy to take offence at the drop of a hat, Darkest Hour has escaped unscathed. Yet here was a real-life villain far more deserving of umbrage than fictional characters in a novel, a character whose misdeeds are still in living memory unlike a 21st century film based on a 16th century poem about a 13th century princess who may or may not have existed.

Yet there was hardly a peep out of those always itching for a fight to protect our national honour. Winston Churchill should have been a man we could all rally around, united in our distaste.

Shashi Tharoor has listed Churchill’s sins in a scathing piece for Washington Post. He was a man who was in favour of “terror bombing”, who wanted to use “poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes” and decreed that all who resisted the superiority of the British race would be “killed without quarter”.

The statesman

Churchill reserved particular bile for Indians — “beastly people with a beastly religion” and as Madhusree Mukerjee has documented in her book Churchill’s Secret War, while millions starved during the Bengal famine, he diverted food supplies to replenish European stockpiles and complained about Indians “breeding like rabbits”. Infamously, when Delhi sent a telegram to Churchill about the famine, he wondered peevishly why Gandhi had not died yet. There have been quibbles about whether Mukerjee was too single-minded in her focus on Churchill, but none deny Churchill’s odious racism. Yet he remains the “greatest Briton of all time” according to a 2002 BBC poll, a leader whose state funeral was attended by representatives from 112 nations.

The embarrassing fact is that too many of us in India also swallowed that war hero hype hook, line, and sinker perhaps because we are such suckers for that grandiose “we shall never surrender” oratory. I think it’s some hangover from elocution contests in school. I remember as a boy choosing one of Churchill’s books as a prize for something at school. It was probably his memoir, My Early Life, and I remember nothing of it. That I chose that book feels embarrassing now, but what feels even more cringeworthy is that I went through my entire education in India without learning the truth about Churchill.

Post-Independent India was ready to knock many burra sahibs off their pedestals, but Churchill seemed unassailable. Otherwise why in this day and age, in independent India, would there be a gastropub called Churchill’s Restobar in Bengaluru which describes itself as “very British. Very cool. Very you”? Or the Churchill Bar, a “perfect place for your pubbing while you rendezvous with modern art” in an upscale Moradabad hotel? Or a Café Churchill in Colaba serving up grilled sandwiches, peach iced tea and nostalgia? Would anyone have dared name a gastropub after General Dyer, the man who ordered troops to fire in Jallianwala Bagh?

But Churchill is A-OK as a brand. India is not the only place with a Churchill bar. Churchill has had bars named after him in Guangzhou, Marrakesh and Dubai. The U.S. named a naval destroyer after him. As soon as Donald Trump moved into the White House, he returned a bust of Churchill to the Oval Office, telling British prime minister Theresa May “It’s a great honour to have Winston Churchill back.” Barack Obama, whose Kenyan grandfather had been imprisoned for two years without trial and tortured under Churchill’s watch, had quietly removed the bust.

Never surrender?

One can understand Churchill’s appeal, especially in a time of strongmen. His cigar-smoking, blunt-spoken ways personify a kind of gruff no-nonsense ““victory at all costs” leadership, the kind that could come with a 56-inch chest.

Instead of films like Darkest Hour about Churchill the hero, it’s surely time for films about that other Winston Churchill, the man who was as much an English bully as some beloved English bulldog. It is possible that some day someone in London or Los Angeles might make that film. Such a film should have a great box office showing in India if the success of Madhusree Mukerjee’s book or Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness is any indication.

Of course, it does not mean Indians have any appetite for a dispassionate warts and all look at their own heroes. Imagine anyone daring to show the darkest hour of an Indian icon, especially one currently in vogue, living or dead. Their bhakts will fight in the fields and in the streets, they will fight in the hills and they will never surrender.