The Fall and Rise of a Merchant STORY 8

In a city called Vardhamana, lived a very dexterous(efficient,कुशल) and felicitous(prosperous,संपन्न) merchant. 

The king was aware of his abilities, and therefore made him the administrator of the kingdom. 

With his efficient and astute(intelligent,बुद्धिमान) ways, he kept common man very happy, and at the same time he impressed the king on the other side. Such a person, who can keep everybody happy, is rarely found. 

Later, there came a time that the merchant's daughter was getting married. He arranged for a opulent(lavish,खर्चीला) reception. 

The merchant not only invited the king and the queen, who obliged by attending, but he also invited the exhaustive(entire,सम्पूर्ण) royal household and all respected people of the kingdom. 

During the reception, he ensured to provide his guests with the best of treatments. He gave out gifts to guests to show them respect for attending to his invitation. 

A servant of the royal household, who used to sweep the palace, was not invited but attended the reception. 

He took a seat which was reserved for royal nobles, not meant for common invitees. 

This made the merchant very disgruntled(angry,गुस्सा). He caught him by the neck and ordered his servants to have him thrown out. 

The royal servant felt very insulted, and could not sleep all night. He thought, "If I can have the king to disfavour this merchant, I will have my vengeance(revenge,बदला). But what can I, a common fellow, do to detriment(harm,हानि) a egregious(powerful,प्रबल) person as him". Thinking such, he abruptly(suddenly,एकायक) had a plan. 

Several days later, the servant was sweeping the floor near the king's bed early in the morning. He observed that that the king was still in bed, half awake. The servant started mumbling, "Good heavens! The merchant has become so nonchalant(carefree,लापरवाह) now that he dared to embrace the queen!" 

When the king heard this lying in his bed, he jumped up and asked the servant, "Is it true? Have you seen the merchant embrace my queen yourself?" 

The servant at once fell at the king's feet, "O Master, I was gambling all night. I feel drowsy for I didn't sleep last night. I don't know what I have been mumbling, but I said anything fallacious(improper,अनुचित), please forgive me." 

The king spoke no more, but the servant knew he had sowed the seed of distrust. The king thought, "It can be true! The servant moves about the palace freely, and so does the merchant. It is feasible(possible,संभव) that the servant has seen something." 

The king was troubled with jealousy. From that day onwards, he withdrew his favours from the merchant and even forbade him to enter the palace. 

One day, when the merchant was entering the gateway to the palace, he was stopped by the guards. The merchant was surprised due to this sudden change in the king's attitude. 

The servant was nearby, and mocking shouted at the guards, "Ho Guards! That merchant is favoured by the king. He is a powerful person. He can have people arrested or released or even thrown out, just like he had me thrown out of his daughter's reception. Beware, for you may suffer the same fate." 

On hearing this, the merchant understood that the servant has caused all this trouble somehow. He felt melancholic(dejected,उदास), and returned home upset over the incident. 

He gave everything a second thought, and then he invited the royal servant to his house. He treated the servant with utmost respect, and flattered him with gifts and garments. He said kindly, "O friend, that day I did not have you thrown out due to anger, but it was improper of you to occupy the seat reserved for the royal nobles. They felt insulted, and out of compulsion I had to throw you out. Please forgive me." 

The servant was already flattered with all the gifts, and he was full of joy, "Sir, I forgive you. You have not only expressed your regrets, but also honoured me with utmost respect". 

He ensured the merchant, "I will prove you how clever I am. I will have the king favourable towards you, like he was before". The servant went back home. 

Early next morning, when he started sweeping the floors of the palace, he waited till when the king was lying half-awake. 

When the opportunity came, he started sweeping around his bed and started mumbling, "Our king is crazy, he eats cucumber in the lavatory!" 

On hearing this, the king was taken aback. He got up angrily and shouted at the servant, "What nonsense do you talk about? Had you not been by royal servant, I would have punished you dearly. Have you ever seen me doing such thing yourself?" 

Once again the servant fell on his knees and prayed, "O Master, please forgive me if I said something improper. I was gambling all last night and didn't sleep. I feel drowsy and I don't know what I have been mumbling." 

The king thought to himself, "I have never eaten a cucumber in the lavatory. What he mumbled about me is ridiculously false. Surely then, what he mumbled about my trusted merchant the other morning must have been ridiculously false too. It was improper of me to mistreat the merchant." 

He wondered, "After all he has been so efficient in the whole administrative system, that without him it has become slack." 

Thus, having considered carefully, the king invited the merchant to the palace and flattered him with gifts, jewels and garments. He re-appointed the merchant to his previously held position, and favoured his services as before. 

The wise indeed say:
One should treat one and all, even the lowest, with respect.

CLICK HERE FOR STORY 7

Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill, 2017

Mere legislation is not adequate(enough,पर्याप्त) to eradicate(remove,हटाना) superstition from society, but laws do have the utility value of curbing(control,नियंत्रण)the prevalence(spread,फैलाव) of inhuman rituals and practices. The Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill, 2017 has been approved by the State Cabinet and is likely to be introduced soon in the Assembly. this as just an ‘anti-superstition bill’, as what it seeks to inhibit(prohibit,निषेध) are actions that offend human dignity, result in the exploitation(शोषण) of gullible(innocent,भोले) and vulnerable(weak,कमज़ोर)people or cause harm to them. Organising macabre(horrid,भयंकर)rituals, offering magical cures and threatening people, under peril(risk,जोखिम) of incurring divine or supernatural displeasure, are covered by this law, even though these can be treated as offences under the Indian Penal Code too.

It is not uncommon to read reports of disturbing rituals. Among the rituals the Bill outlaws is the practice of walking on fire, branding children, and piercing one’s tongue or cheeks. One must denounce(condemn,आरोप)acts that harm women in the name of exorcism(magic,जादू), it is education and awareness that can truly liberate a society from superstition, blind faith and abominable(hateful,घिनोने)practices in the name of faith. Until then, the law will have to continue to identify and punish acts that violate the people’s right to life, health and dignity.

Hitherto

Hitherto (Adj)(अब तक ):  it used in negative statement to describe a situation that has existed up to this point or up to the present time

synonyms:

previously, formerly, earlier, so far, thus far, before, beforehand, to date, as yet;  until now, until then, up until now, up until then, till now, till then, up to now, up to then uses: It's too much of a stretch that the golden city was hitherto undiscovered, despite being half a mile from a village. . This was the most glorious day which I have hitherto seen.

EXPUNGE

Expunge (V):- to eliminate completely; remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line.

Synonyms: excise, scratch, strike

Uses:- -I would like to expunge my ex-husband from my memory.

-The president has the power to expunge any person’s criminal history in order to give that individual a fresh start in life

When I received the diamond ring from my husband, I felt the need to expunge any anger I previously felt towards him.    

Lend aggressively but responsibly

Developing countries today target high growth through investments in infrastructure, modernization and expansion of manufacturing and service facilities, and in agriculture and allied areas. At the same time, they seek to enable disadvantaged sections to upgrade their standard of living. In this, the developing countries expect financial institutions to act aggressively as well as responsibly.

The global financial structure, as it is evolving, is a technological marvel. Assets originating at the base are securitized, packaged in different forms for sale to investors all across the globe. These assets, if infected with a high probability of default, will always carry the germs of a systemic crisis. The lending agencies therefore have an enormous(large,विशाल) responsibility; while a high-growth economy offers opportunities for profits, lenders need to be (despite insistent pressures from powerful borrowers and politicians) extremely cautious and desist from taking on high-risk assets.

A good example in this regard is the subprime crisis in the US during the decade just gone by. The lending ambience was congenial(favourable,अनुकूल) : a continually rising property market, a flood of liquidity fed by an upsurge in global savings and an accommodating credit policy. The lenders had two options: low profit, low risk from sound but relatively few mortgage assets, and high profit, high risk from high risk but abundant(excessive,अत्यधिक) mortgage assets.

Lending agencies chose the second option—a choice dictated by the inexorable(harsh,कठोर) logic of a profit-driven market economy. They lured(entice,लुभाना) subprime borrowers with a slew of “innovations” to create assets at any cost: progressively relaxing margin money, dispensing with the requirement of income investigation and dismissing borrower concerns about unexpected shortfalls in their disposable incomes. All this they did, not out of any philanthropic(generous,परोपकारी) zeal but out of the urge(force,मजबूर) (given the opportunity) to make quick profits. The major premise underlying their behaviour was that if the property market collapsed, leading to a systemic crisis, the state could not but step in, as it had indeed done several times in the past.

State intervention in a crisis is a must, but the challenge before any polity is to intervene before the crisis erupts and to do so in a manner that helps the lending agencies generate a sustainable level of good assets. Such intervention must be planned and designed such that a balance is struck between the aspiration of marginal borrowers (to create and own assets) and the continued viability of lending agencies—critical for the efficiency and stability of any financial system. If we are to grapple(fight,लड़ना) with the recurring problem of non-performing assets and continue uninterruptedly with pushing social sector lending and infrastructure development, the polity has to act innovatively: There has to be a partnership, so to speak, between the state and the financial system.

But what kind of a partnership? Two points need to be made here. The plea for state participation is not to seek a return to the “loan mela” days of political patronage, to open the purse strings for subsidies, to interfere with the credit decisions of lending agencies, or to justify the oft-talked about practice of lending at political behest. This is a plea for selective public investment aimed at enhancing(increase,बढ़ाना) the viability of private sector projects and the income and employment potentials for the disadvantaged sectors.

Take housing, for instance. Our desire to have a pool of affordable houses has hardly made any headway, primarily because of the prohibitive cost of land. The state has to do some out-of-the-box thinking to clear the hurdles(problem,बाधा) in the availability of land at a reasonable price. The flow of funds from the state and the lending agencies, made available in tandem(one behind other,एक के बाद एक) and planned and targeted at select locations, should be the basis for this partnership.

A second point. Admittedly, we have to push private sector investments into different types of infrastructure projects, industry and agriculture for sustaining growth and generating employment. In this regard, a good many projects are clearly viable and remain good candidates for institutional funding, even as several others continue to inhabit the penumbra zone. Given the technological complexities and demand in today’s dynamic global economy, and with the kind of in-house skills currently available, the projects of the latter variety do not lend themselves to easy appraisal. It is also next to impossible for individual lending agencies to cost-effectively build in-house skills for the accurate evaluation of these projects. If investments in all key sectors are to be pushed aggressively, we must have special institutions with the mandate to assess these projects and to provide such critical financial assistance as can induce the lending institutions to lend appropriately to them.

We had set up development finance institutions in the early stages of our industrialization in the 1950s and early 1960s; nearly 75% of the cumulate private investment was canalized through these. However, we committed the grievous(serious,गंभीर) mistake of scrapping these institutions in the 1990s. On the other hand, China, years after it had switched over to a market economy, set up its National Development Bank in 1995; the institution is estimated to have financed over 60% of the total private investment in that country since then. Brazil is another illustrious example in this regard, while even Germany and Japan are continuing with these types of development banks.

Back home, in India, we must recognize that, without the critical support, financial and otherwise, that such national-level development finance institutions can provide, our objective of creating a sustainable level of good assets and maintaining a steady rate of growth is bound to remain hamstrung.

 download monthly pdf of august

From Plate to Plough: Connecting the drops

Till June end this year, the government was worried about how to cope with back-to-back drought. But by the second half of August, the scene changed dramatically and several states were in the spate of floods. In Bihar, more than five million people have been affected and 6,50,000 displaced from their homes; in Assam 1.8 million people were affected with 2,40,000 displaced, and in UP 8,70,000 were affected. Floods also occurred in areas that were earlier not considered flood prone, such as the cities of Jaipur, Jodhpur and the southern districts of arid Rajasthan. Even in Madhya Pradesh, 300,000 people were affected.

There is a growing concern that floods cause large-scale damage to crops, cattle, property and even human lives, and this trend is increasing over time. As per the estimates of the Central Water Commission (CWC), the cumulative damage from floods during the period 2000-2013, converted at 2014-15 constant prices, stood at a whopping Rs 2,63,848 crore. While in 2003 alone the damage was Rs 23,045 crore, the same escalated(increase,बढ़कर)to Rs 46,802 crore in the 2009 floods (both at 2014-15 prices).

Most of the floods in India occur in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Barak basin as the distance between the world’s highest peaks in the Himalayas and the outlet at the Bay of Bengal is short and the contributing tributaries like Kosi, Gandak, Ghaghara and others disgorge large volumes and devastate(destroy,विनाश) the fertile plains of eastern Uttar Pradesh, northern Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. For these states, flood control is a developmental as well as humanitarian issue. The options are limited but need to be given a fair trial with adequate(enough,पर्याप्त) resources.

×

The key question, therefore, is: How best can the problem of floods and droughts be addressed so that the losses are minimal and the system becomes more resilient? In this context, one important point that needs to be noted is that India gets “too much” water (about 75 per cent of annual precipitation) during 120 days of the monsoon season (June to September) and “too little” for the remaining 245 days. This skewed water availability has to be managed and regulated for its consumption throughout the year. No wonder, leaders of independent India quickly embarked(entered,प्रवेश) upon a number of large multi-purpose river valley projects such as Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud, Nagarjuna Sagar, Rihand etc to store water for smoothening its supplies throughout the year. But, unfortunately, they lost interest in further developing such river valley projects very soon, partly due to changed priorities towards heavy industrialisation since 1956 and partly due to widespread inefficiencies and corruption in large irrigation projects. Later on, the issue of resettlement of displaced people became a rallying point for many NGOs to oppose these projects, leading to drying up of funds from the World Bank.

As a result, in 2015, India’s per capita water storage capacity through dams was abysmally(depressing,निराशाजनक) low at 194 cubic metre (m3). In contrast, China’s per capita water storage capacity was three times that of India at 590 m3 (2013). Amongst other BRICS countries, Brazil was at 3,370 m3, Russia at 5,587 m3 , and South Africa at 569 m3, all in 2015 (FAO). Further, USA was at 2,254 m3 and Australia at 3,395 m3 (see chart). So, it is amply(sufficiently,पर्याप्तता) clear that India is way below in storing water when it falls in abundance(excessive,बहुतायत), resulting in floods during monsoons and deficiency of water later. This also lowers cropping intensity (less than 140), meaning less than 40 per cent of India’s farm land is double cropped.

So, what are the policy options now? Nitish Kumar, in his meeting with the prime minister on the flood situation in Bihar, asked for de-silting of the Ganga and removal of the Farakka barrage, as it was causing accumulation of silt flowing from the Himalayan rivers and making the flood situation in Bihar grim. He had a point, but this seems to be only a partial and temporary solution.

The more lasting solution lies in a “buffer stocking of water” during the monsoon months and releasing it during lean seasons. This “buffer stocking of water” can be done over ground through dams, or underground, by recharging aquifers. Recent studies by the World Bank indicate that about 18 per cent of the peak flood volumes can be safely stored in the existing and planned dams along the Indo-Nepal border. A holistic approach at basin level, encompassing credible resettlement policy for displaced people, and supported by pro-active hydro-diplomacy amongst riparian(onshore,तटवर्ती) countries can render(give,देना) rich dividends.

The time is also ripe to crank up the Ganges Water Machine through Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI), where surplus flood water is directed to aquifers through well-designed structures placed in ponds and other depression areas and evacuated through large-scale pump irrigation during the dry season. Flood control strategies also need to include the use of smart geo-spatial techniques for flood forecasting and construction and strengthening of embankments at critical locations. The Modi government is also talking of inter-linking of rivers. A beginning can be made at intra-state level, particularly within Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Further, on the demand side, there is a need to promote flood-tolerant “scuba rice”, sugarcane, jute and high-value aquatic crops in this region; access to affordable crop, livestock and asset insurance products; and education and preparedness to live with the floods. Finally, with increasing urbanisation, agriculture will have to shed its current share of 78 per cent in water to, say, 70 per cent by 2030. This calls for focus on “more crop per drop”. Research indicates that rainfed areas covering pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals can give high productivity if they get even two irrigations.

Cascading(flow,व्यापक) check dams, drips and sprinkler irrigation can help. PM’s Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) talks of all this, but with paltry(small.तुच्छ) resources (Rs 5,767 crore), one wonders how many years one will have to wait to see the objectives of “har khet ko paani” being met.

 courtesy:indian express

click here for official link

download monthly pdf of august

Do we need a minimum wage law?

+In April this year, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya announced that thegovernment will raise the minimum wage for contract workers to Rs.10,000 per month. It would do so, he said, through an executive order. The executive order never came. What did, however, were news reports on industry’s opposition to the proposal. In July, the proposal had been shelved.

This week, in a bid to get trade unions to call off their All India strike on September 2, the governmentagain announced a hike in minimum wages, but only for unskilled non-agricultural workers, from Rs.246 to Rs.350 per day, or Rs.9,100 per month. The central trade unions, barring the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), have dismissed the hike as meaningless and announced that they will proceed with the strike.

This chain of events raises many questions: What is an appropriate minimum wage? How does one arrive at it? Does India still need something like a minimum wage?

Many reasons have been adduced(mention,उल्लेख) for scrapping the minimum wage. The most important one is the doxa of liberalisation, which dictates that the market and not the government should determine prices so as to preserve efficiency and competitiveness. This was the objection raised by industry and heeded by the government.

The second reason to scrap the minimum wage, especially now, is that it contradicts the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative. For foreign capital to make in India, Indian labour has to remain cheaper than Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Bangladeshi labour.

Third is a logic that is popular among economic reformers: scrap it if it’s not working. Neither industry bodies nor the state nor unions can claim that the Minimum Wages Act (MWA) is seriously implemented. India anyway has still not ratified the United Nations’ Convention No. 131 (adopted in 1970) on Minimum Wage Fixing. So why not scrap the MWA?

Why have a minimum wage?

MWA is one of the first laws of independent India, legislated in 1948, even before we had a Constitution in place. Why was it enacted?

The real motive was to buy peace on behalf of a national bourgeoisie(capitalist,पूंजीवर्ग) that had to manage a working class that was far more militant in those days. But there were other reasons as well. India was a poor country with a major surplus of labour. There were too many jobs where labour did not have the bargaining power to demand a wage sufficient to survive on. Conditions where employers get away with paying workers too little generate several social costs, such as poverty, malnutrition, endemic(native,स्थानिक) debt leading to bonded labour, and child labour, which could be avoided through fair wages.

Three levels

The Tripartite Committee on Fair Wages, appointed in 1948, defined three different levels of wages: a living wage, a fair wage, and a minimum wage. Living wage is what a human being needs to get the basic essentials of food, shelter, clothing, protection against ill-health, security for old age, etc. A fair wage is lower than the living wage and takes into account efficiency, from the employer’s perspective. Minimum wage is similar to the fair wage except in two respects: it is even lower, and has a statutory dimension. Today, there is broad consensus(agreement,सहमति) among patriotic businessmen and nationalist policymakers that mandating a living wage or even a fair wage for Indian workers is a ridiculous idea not worth discussing. What’s left on the table is the minimum wage. How much should it be?

The resolution passed at the 15th Indian Labour Conference in 1957 mandates taking into account five factors for calculating the minimum wage: 1. The wage must support three consumption units (individuals); 2. Food requirement of 2,700 calories a day; 3. Clothing requirement of 72 yards per worker’s family; 4. Rent for housing area similar to that provided under the subsidised housing scheme; 5. Fuel, lighting and miscellaneous items of expenditure to constitute 20 per cent of the minimum wage. In 1991, the Supreme Court called for adding another 25 per cent to the wage yielded(give,देना) by the above calculation in order to take into account children’s education, medical requirements, etc.

If calculated using these parameters, some estimates put the minimum wage at Rs.26,000 per month. This is the amount Central government employee unions are demanding from the Seventh Pay Commission, which had fixed their minimum wage at Rs.18,000.

Minimum wage via pay parity

But figures such as Rs.26,000 or even the Rs.10,000 mooted by the Labour Ministry sound fantastical in comparison to the official minimum wage in some parts of India, which can dip as low as Rs.1,650 a month (Puducherry, agriculture, 2013). Typically, the actual minimum wage is close to or less than Rs.4,800, currently the National Floor Level Minimum Wage.

Ironically enough, despite the MWA not being taken seriously by anyone, even a pro-reform government such as the one in power dare not speak of scrapping it, preferring instead to undermine it.

As A.K. Padmanabhan of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) puts it, “If a government is serious about ensuring that contract workers get better wages, it would amend the Minimum Wages Act to stipulate that permanent and contract workers get the same pay for same work. But this government has not touched the Act.”

Even in post-liberalisation India, no industry lobby can openly argue that contract workers should be paid less than permanent workers for the same work. The NDA government has a brute(strict,कठोर) majority in the Lok Sabha. No party in the Rajya Sabha will oppose an amendment mandating pay parity between permanent and contract workers. So, if there is one ‘labour reform’ that can be said to have universal consensus as well as logic on its side, it is this simple amendment. In one stroke, it would raise the minimum wage of contract workers by bringing it on a par with permanent worker wages, and encourage their regularisation. But neither the United Progressive Alliance in its time nor the NDA now is interested in passing such an amendment. It is not hard to fathom why, or who benefits from this pay differential.

 courtesy:the hindu

click here for official link

Weighing the burden of proof

 “An honest civil servant should not be harassed by anybody or agency or institution while in service or after retirement. It would make the civil servants working in the system nervous and edgy, which would not be in the interest of the country,” Sanjay Bhoosreddy, Honorary Secretary of the Central IAS Officers Association has said.

Ponderous(burdensome,कष्टकारक) words indeed in the context of former Union Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta, who is facing trial in several Coalgate cases, choosing not to have any lawyer to defend him. Mr. Gupta told the trial judge recently that he did not have the money to hire a lawyer. He also turned down an offer of state aid made by the judge. In all likelihood, he will argue his own case. This is an extraordinary decision that could prove to be a double-edged weapon. The skill required to defend an accused in a criminal case is a specialised one. In my view, Mr. Gupta is taking too big a chance out of desperation and disgust at the way things are taking shape around him.

Appeal to good senses

Mr. Gupta is obviously outraged(angry,गुस्सा) at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) action. He probably understands that the law on the subject is against him, and he would therefore appeal directly to the good senses of the judge, something bordering on an attempt to play on emotions. Not for him the technicalities of what he is accused of. In his own eyes, he has done nothing wrong, and cannot be placed in the company of the corrupt and wily. He is only partly right.

Many in government and outside may dismiss him as a maverick(unorthodox,अपरंपरागत). From whatever I have heard of him, Mr. Gupta was an outstanding officer with a reputation for integrity. Remember also that the formal charge sheet against him by the CBI do not allege that he ever obtained any gratification for showing favour to the private companies that had received licences to operate a few coal mines. The charge sheet indicts him only as part of a ‘conspiracy’ to confer undue favour on private parties, and which caused loss to the public exchequer. This implied that he was negligent(careless,लापरवाह), and there was no application of mind on his part when the screening committee headed by him decided to examine the licence applications in question. There is no recorded evidence, however, that hedissented(disagreement,असहमति) from the majority opinion which favoured the grant of licences to some firms.

The conclusions of his committee were purely recommendatory in nature. That the final authority here was the Coal Minister, who, at that point of time, was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and that he was not prosecuted by the investigating agency, is not very relevant to Mr. Gupta’s defence — although the CBI decision, possibly backed by legal opinion, smacked of double standards. Remember, in Bofors, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi figured posthumously in the charge sheet as ‘accused not sent for trial’ only because he held charge of Defence. There was no charge that Bofors made any payment to him. Interestingly, what many of us would look upon as a moral or constructive civil liability comes to be defined as ‘criminal misconduct’ under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which was enacted to lend more deterrence(obstacle,अवरोध) to what was being considered for long as a weak and toothless — the 1947 law against public servant corruption.

Element of ‘abuse of office’

Several judgments over the years had exposed the lacunae(lack,खामिया) in the 1947 Act, which enabled the corrupt to get off scot-free on being given a benefit of the doubt. Significant was the Supreme Court observation inM. Narayanan Nambiar v. State of Kerala, that under Section 5(1) (d) of the 1947 Act, an element of abuse of office was a necessary ingredient while trying to establish that a public servant used corrupt or illegal means to obtain pecuniary(financial,धन संबंधी) benefits. And ‘abuse of office’ was too vague(unclear,अस्पस्थ) an expression that let many corrupt officers off the hook. In several other judgments on the subject, courts had narrowed down the circumstances under which a public servant could be prosecuted for corruption. This is the background to the promulgation of the 1988 Act, which, under Section 13(1) (d), laid down five forms of criminal misconduct by a public servant. Finding that some officers were giving in too easily to corrupt demands from above — and did not do anything to resist such demands under the belief that as long as they were not beneficiaries, no criminal liability was liable to be attached to them — the government decided that such kind of abetment(incite,उकसाना) of graft in high places had to be penalised. This accounts specifically for Section 13(1) (d) (iii), according to which, a public servant commits the offence of criminal misconduct if he, “while holding office as a public servant, obtains for any person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage without any public interest”.

The tirade of the IAS and several senior servants belonging to other superior services against Section 13(1) (d) (iii) is on the ground that the burden of proof in criminal cases, which normally rests with the prosecution, shifts here to the public servant arraigned by law, and the latter had to prove to the satisfaction of the court that he did not at all benefit from the transaction under probe. This incidentally is germane(relevant,सार्थक) to the defence of H.C. Gupta. This criticism is not true, although on a superficial(external,सतही) reading it appears as if the prosecution had no responsibility at all to establish the guilt of an accused.

Several decisions related to the 1947 Act and expert views on the 1988 Act clarify that court presumption of any accused’s guilt contemplated here is not automatic. Such presumption follows only after the prosecution had done its duty of presenting evidence that the accused had “obtained or (has) agreed to obtain for himself or for any other person gratification (other than legal remuneration)”. Also, Section 20 of the 1988 Act, which deals with the circumstances under which a court can raise a presumption against an accused is specific to habitual offenders and not to others. Besides, the presumption is one of law and not facts. These interpretations alone should allay(reduce,कम) the misgivings and fears of an honest civil servant that he would be hauled up for transparent decisions which stand the risk of going wrong and causing loss to the exchequer.

Amendment before Parliament

An amendment to the PC Act of 1988 is before a select committee in Parliament. It deals with Section 13(1) (d). It is just possible that this subsection may be eventually substantially diluted or wholly deleted. If this happens, the logical question would be one of how to introduce deterrence against a civil servant who, though honest, would like to just drift and permit himself to cave in against a dishonest Minister. This is a serious issue that negates(invalidate,नकारना) the basic concept of civil service accountability. This would actually promote the tendency of the executive to choose weak civil servants who may be personally honest but are known to be extremely timid(afraid,डरा हुआ), and from whom no resistance at all to dishonest decisions could be expected. The malady(illness,रोग) is particularly prevalent(popular,प्रचलित) in some States where dishonesty is the order of the day.

The popular impression now is that in our country there is no fear of the anti-corruption law on the part of government officials. When this is the hard reality on the ground, concerned citizens would do well to collectively protest against any dilution of anti-corruption safeguards as the proposed amendment seeks to do.

A final word. What is the IAS Officers Association doing to promote integrity among its members? I would like to ask the same question of those holding positions in other associations, such as those for the IPS and IFS. Such groups cannot be mere trade unions fighting for rights. Their obligations include a stout(strong,मजबूत) advocacy of adherence by their members to ethics while serving the public. Whatever I hear on the subject may not however be music to the ears of those who currently stand for probity.

 courtesy:the hindu

click here for official link

Remaking the bank

Three years ago when he came in as RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan had proposed a five-pillar approach that prominently featured reform of India’s banking system. This was in September 2013 when there was a slow build up of bad loans — a legacy of decisions taken in the days when economic growth averaged 8 per cent between 2003-04 to 2008. Rajan formed a committee headed by P.J. Nayak to recommend measures to improve governance in state-owned banks. Since then there have been attempts to address the issue of bank governance as also to clean up the balance sheets of government-owned banks — with the RBI setting a target of March 2017 for banks to make full provisions and to present a true picture of their health. It is perhaps the enormity(immensity,विशालता) of the challenge that prompted Rajan, who is set to depart in three weeks, to flag the issue again. The RBI governor has proposed sweeping changes in the functioning of PSU banks, including empowering the boards of these listed banks, granting them the freedom to finalise business strategies and to reduce overlapping jurisdictions of the regulator and the dominant shareholder of state-owned banks — the government. He has also made out a robust(strong,मजबूत) case for withdrawing the nominees of the RBI from the boards of PSU banks.

For a start, the government has sought to address part of this challenge by forming the bank boards bureau — on the assumption that it is more a governance than an ownership issue. But the menace(trouble,संकट) with a sub-optimal solution is that the longer the delay in addressing the problems of these banks, the wounds will fester. Recent data shows that bad loans of banks have almost doubled to over Rs 6,00,000 crore in a year — some of it of course because of the directive by the banking regulator to make adequate(enough,पर्याप्त)provisions for over 100 stressed loan accounts. In February this year, Rajan had said that banks may require deep surgery to clean up their balance sheets. He is right. But sporting clean balance sheets next year alone isn’t going to help. Carrying out the kind of governance changes which are critical to the well being of India’s state-owned banks will mean taking a labyrinthine(difficult,मुश्किल) political call on divorcing ownership from management of banks — either by giving up ownership or through a structure such as the Bank Investment Company or BIC, a holding company which controls ownership on behalf of the sovereign.

So far, the NDA government has appeared to be reluctant(unwilling,अनिच्छुक)to rock the boat when it comes to PSUs. The trouble with such an approach is that the tab for reviving such state-owned firms or banks must ultimately be picked up by taxpayers in the form of regular recapitalisation. There is a cost to such capital. More importantly, India needs more well-run banks without the crutches of the government when the economic rebound happens.

courtesy:indian express

click here for official article 

Don’t blame it on Rio

Even as the Union sports minister, Vijay Goel, and his unruly cohort(group,समूह)bring disgrace upon the nation by bullying their way into prohibited spaces at Rio, our sportspersons have brought us little glory. Although hope lies undying within the human breast, it is highly unlikely that we will match our tally of the last Olympics.

I hasten to add that this is not in the least the fault of our sportspersons. It is the inevitable consequence(result,परिणाम) of our never having had a comprehensive sports policy aimed at developing a sporting culture to make ours a sporting nation. Indeed, sports policy, such as it is, has been wholly concentrated on funding sports bodies and administrators who are intent on living in style while hoping that Lady Luck will produce some athlete or team that will compensate for our being the worst performing large country in the world of sport. If we do happen upon a Milkha Singh or a Dutee Chand, it is more chance than an earnest search for catching them young and then assiduously(laboriously,परिश्रम से)  nurturing them to a world-class showing at the Olympics.

Indeed, what our sports administrators wish to concentrate on is hosting mega-sporting events on which government, for reasons of false prestige, goes out of its way to shower its largesse. We saw this with devastating consequences at the Commonwealth Games, 2010, that did more to sully our good name the world over than any failure in field and track.

×

The worst job I have ever held was as Union sports minister, 2006-08. CWG ‘10 was under preparation and everyone expected me to be a complaisant team player although I discovered within a few days of taking the assignment that what it meant was that I ask the government for more and more money while keeping prescribed financial procedures at bay as far as possible. I repeatedly protested my reluctance(unwillingness,अनिच्छा) to be part of these shenanigans and was eventually sacked — to my intense relief.

But before I was shown the door, I was instructed to prepare a “comprehensive sports policy” to replace the few pages of clichés prepared by the previous government. I got my 72-page document ready within weeks but the Indian Olympics Committee got all sports bodies to boycott the effort. I, therefore, submitted the paper as it was. A discussion on it in cabinet was scheduled but, with a day or two to go for the discussion, I was eased out and my successor’s first task was to withdraw the paper. When the new government was formed in 2014, the new BJP minister (who has since been elevated to chief minister, Assam) requested me for a copy. I sent it to him. I was then asked for another copy by Vijay Malhotra of the IOA, who, as the longest-serving sports administrator in the country, has been responsible for more sporting disasters than several of his colleagues combined. However, I complied post-haste with his request. That is the last I have heard of it.

The gravamen of my paper, based on constitutional provisions relating to sports, numerous(many,बहुत से) expert committee reports since Independence, repeated parliamentary standing committee recommendations, the Olympics Charter and a host of UN declarations on education and sports to which we have subscribed, and recent and earlier policy statements at the level of PM and below, was that we cannot win medals before first becoming a sporting nation. Instead of waiting for talent to appear out of the blue, we must create a national sports culture, fostering(nurture,विकसित) a nation-wide sports consciousness and building a reservoir of sporting talent by providing universal access to sports, as other comparable countries have done.

The paper drew on 2000 data (this now needs updating) to show that China had created 6,20,000 sports facilities with 3,50,00 popular sports instructors and another 1,00,000 part-time trainers, working through some 40,000 grassroots sports associations, to involve an estimated 37 per cent of its population in physical education and sports activities stretching across all age groups. India, on the other hand, was estimated to have provided access to sports to no more than 5 crore out of its 77 crore population of youth and children. In consequence, where China had won a total of 379 medals in recent Olympic and Asian Games put together, India’s tally stood at a meagre 55.

The paper pointed also to little Cuba’s astonishing(surprising,आश्चर्यजनक)

 score, in the Olympics and Pan-American Games put together, of 179 medals, amounting to an average of 157.2 medals for every 10 million of its population as against India’s 0.5 medals for every 10 million of our population. It was stressed that out of some 11.5 million people, Cuba had 2 million “recognised athletes”, of whom 23,000 were in the “high performance” category spread over 38 sporting disciplines, trained by 1,20,000 retired sportspersons and 48,000 professionals, leading to this tiny island inhabited by fewer people than are to be found between the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the Yamuna Sports Complex at Surajmal Vihar, New Delhi, becoming one of the best performing countries in the Olympics.

Drawing from the experience of China and Cuba, the paper laid out a strategy for adopting their methodology to the Indian reality. The Action Plan comprised nearly a hundred steps to be taken, and is too detailed to be summarised in this article. It broadly aimed at securing “sports for all” through promoting universal access to sports. Besides schools from the primary level upwards, the three-tier Panchayati Raj system was to be involved through the already-launched Panchayat Yuva Khel aur Krida Abhiyan and the 2.5 lakh clubs of the Nehru Yuva Kendras (since abandoned(leave,छोड़ना)by the BJP ministers). Scientific talent-spotting was to be encouraged through district and sub-district sporting competitions, followed by an elaborate system of specialist sports training with suitable nutrition at special education institutions that combined normal school and college education with overwhelming emphasis on sports for selected sportspersons of exceptional talent. Promotion of indigenous sports and the preparation of a sports grid and sports mapping to monitor what disciplines of excellence were emerging in which parts of the country was emphasised. That, not squandering(waste,व्यर्थ) tens of thousands of crores on hosting mega-sports events, is the way forward to medals and to national glory.

courtesy:indian express

click here for official article

An experiment with power

On a visit to Manipur, I asked several people which aspect of their lives had changed the most from the perspective of governance and/or delivery of public goods and services. This wasn’t meant to be a systematic sample survey and was more of a dipstick indicator. Manipur has a population of 2.86 million and nearly 30 per cent of it is urban. The people I spoke to were from Imphal, so there is a bit of a bias(unfair,पक्षपात) in the sample. The Imphal agglomeration(mass,ढेर), not just the municipal area, has a population around 5,50,000. This gives you some idea of the possible sample bias.

Electricity distribution found the top mention in the people’s responses. Electricity supply has three aspects: Generation, transmission and distribution. Generation will be a major issue in Manipur, especially in times other than the rainy season. Much of the power will have to come from outside the state — Arunachal Pradesh (Lower Subansiri), Assam (Bongaigaon) and Tripura (Palatana) — even if hydroelectricity generation from the Loktak project increases.

The responses of the people I spoke to had to do with distribution, not generation. They talked of prepaid electricity. Manipur is not the only state to experiment with such an idea. Haryana was the first state to introduce prepaid electricity. Lucknow, in UP, has prepaid electricity vouchers. These vouchers require a prepaid electricity meter, so that consumers can be alerted when a recharge is requisite(necessary,आवश्यक). Such meters make life easier. In addition, the Lucknow electricity supply authority offered a tariff rebate to encourage the switch. Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh has a similar scheme, though there has been resistance in the state with consumers complaining that their monthly bills have increased. Their complaint is understandable. After all, the purpose of prepaid meters and prepaid vouchers isn’t only to make life easier. They also intend to reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses (ATC), a part of which is euphemism for theft.

×

In Manipur, the idea of prepaid electricity was targeted at clandestine(illegal,अवैध) power connections. Seen this way, the resistance to meters in Itanagar does not seem odd. That there were no reports of resistance in Imphal appears bizarre(strange,अजीब).

Some towns and some types of domestic consumers in Madhya Pradesh will also have prepaid connections once the MP Electricity Regulatory Commission approves the scheme. Chandigarh is also slated to have a similar scheme, so are Pune and Mumbai. Telangana plans prepaid meters for government offices.

To get back to Manipur, the Manipur State Power Distribution Company Limited has plans to provide meters to all consumers. People unfamiliar with Manipur may not realise that the state has two distinct geographical regions: The valley— where 60 per cent of the state’s population lives — and the hilly areas. Access to public goods and services is much more arduous(difficult,कठिन) in the hilly regions, terrain being a major constraint. There will be 1,00,000 electronic meters outside the valley, but except for district headquarters and towns in the hills, these will not be be prepaid.

The experiment with prepaid meters has begun in four districts: Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur. The government did not embark(start,प्रवेश) on the project in all the four districts at one go. Prepaid meters were first installed in central parts of Imphal because the government wanted to gauge if the experiment would work.

People have been jailed for stealing electricity and tampering with meters. The power situation has improved. Collections from payments of electricity bills have increased. At the same time, demand for electricity has reduced by 50 per cent and tripping incidents have become rarer. The number of consumers has also gone up. One should reiterate(repeat,दोहरान) that this is an increase in the number of legal consumers. There is better planning — on the supply side — and there is no need for VIP lines (those guaranteed uninterrupted power supply regardless of what was happening in the rest of Manipur).

My respondents — not just people who work for the government — told me all this with a sense of pride. If consumers know exactly how much electricity they are consuming (there are instant alerts) and how much that costs (not quite the same with post-paid bills), they are more judicious in using electricity.

Although the connection is somewhat distant, the prepaid metering experiment reminded me of an anecdote in Prafulla Chandra Ray’s (1861-1944) autobiography — it has not been translated into English. It was published in 1937. Ray studied BSc (physics, chemistry, biology) at Edinburgh University. At that time, Edinburgh University didn’t have a system of tuition fees. If a student liked the lecture, he/she left some money for the lecturer while leaving the lecture hall. I wonder if we will ever have prepaid vouchers for higher education, specific to the lecturer.

courtesy:indian express

click here for official link