Jute Workers Problems

The mills face competition from synthetic fibres and plastics coupled with poor implementation of centre’s pro-jute initiatives for mills functioning at less than capacity. The working hours have been cut for workers with reduced wages. The unwillingness to invest in modernisation even during good times is one of the reasons. Dominance of jute from Bangladesh in domestic market. The jute packaging act 1987 that made it mandatory to jute packing of foodgrains, sugar and cement is diluted gradually. Technological upgradation, competent management and fair labour relations are the need of the hour.

IB and NGO

Intelligence agencies are important for securing the internal and external securities of a country. But it is also important that the civil liberties are not encroached upon in this affair. In Indian context, political master have misused these agencies for their political gains(Gopal Subramaniyam). NGO receive foreign donation under FCRA and are required to submit periodic report to MHA. NGOs provide a public space where marginalised groups can raise their voice and assert their right for public services. These organisations also help in proper implementation of government programmes at the ground level. SC observed RTI as inherit in Art. 19 under a case filed by an NGO. ADR working for electoral reforms. Donations from foreign entities have led to change in the character of NGOs. The doner’s objective have came in conflict with the ruling party and hence they try to leverage their donations to create an environment with the help of these NGOs to further their ends. But this would be unjust to say that all NGOs are involved in this kind of activities. This is not confined to NGOs, political parties are also funded by foreign companies to further their needs in violation of RP Act and FCRA. The IB report on vendata bauxite mining project said that with foreign donations the NGOs are trying to stall the development projects without mentioning the rights of people so that government can take a balanced view. The reality is that the clearance are granted without letting the GS exercise its right under PESA and FRA. MoEF had appointed a committee that concluded that the

clearances are grave violation of the autonomy of 3rd tier. Later, GS revoked the project after involvement of SC. The accountability of NGOs is needed but these reports should focus on genuine concerns and not a blanket approach with one sided facts. NGOs provide public space for debates and empowerment of disadvantaged and hence should be promoted.

Environmental Regulator

Lafarge judgement 2011. SC asked government to constitute a regulator for forest policy and environmental clearance driving it from environment act. The body will be a proactive body unlike tribunal or courts. The problems with clearance are: 1) conflict of interest of MoEF with it playing multiple roles 2) Lack of expert project appraisal committee relying on data provided by developers 3) Absence of reliable independent data 4) Poor monitoring and enforcement of clearance conditions. The proposed regulator will carry out independent appraisal and approval of projects based on independent assessment and also post clearance monitoring. The main question is that will the regulator be any better than current structure. Keeping the new regulator separate from political interference in difficult in terms of appointment, funds and infrastructure provisions will certainly come from the government. Keeping the clearance procedure outside the democratically elected representatives will not be desirable because the clearance will have socio-economic impacts. Court did not debated on the crucial aspects of the proposed regulators working. The benefit of regulator will be that it will separate process from politics and will be based on scientific data and independent assessment. Incorporating the best practices in the new system will be simple instead of overhauling present structure from the bureaucratic inertia. The main problems with clearance process are: 1) The EIA is funded and completed by developer with the help of agencies affiliated by the government. This leads to conflict of interest 2) The appraisal committee meet for few days only and does not enough time to take comprehensive view of the report. The new regulator can fix this malaise. A simple replacement of the current process with regulator will not be the solution. Proper divided functions and power of regulator needs to be laid down. Amendment to

EIA notification in this respect is important which does not lay down the guidelines for EACs and who will prepare the EIA. Power to EACs for public consultation of EIA report should be given to EACs which it does not enjoy now.

Debt Management – Need For Separation

The new body will take a holistic view of public debt and manage it. It also establishes strategy for low-cost financing in the long run. RBI has conflict of interest as it sells government securities to get the necessary finance and also manages the debt. This will facilitate proper scrutiny, risk assessment, pricing, audit and approvals by parliament. This will ensure better co-ordination, accountability and responsibility. Role of this agency will be limited as it belong to state government. But it will undertake exercises which influence centre’s debt. The agency will support states in debt management. It was proposed in the FLSRC report that the agency will be under central government. This will loosen its power of independently conduct its business.

LGBT

Court accepted that pre-constitutional laws if violate FR are unconstitutional but said that as parliament was close to amendment of CrPc but did not, which means it has accepted the law under law or pre-assumption. But union does not challenge the delhi HC order has not been taken into account and filed an affidavit in SC supporting HC judgement. SC also refused to apply the doctrine of severability to water down section 377. HC read down this law under this doctrine to apply it to only non-consensual sex. Justice verma report also asked for this amendment. SC judgement said it only criminalises acts and not identities or orientation of LGBT. 377 also valid under Art 14 as it classify natural and non-natural sex but who will define what is natural and what is not. The argument that it harasses LGBT community is not taken by court and it said that it is the misuse of the law and not the defect in law itself.

Cleansing Politics

SC has mandated that candidate should disclose their asset, educational qualifications and cases against them.

Parliament and Bifurcation

Art 3 violates federalism as consent is not needed while bifurcating. At the time of constitution writing the country faced the problem of unity and integrity which is not the case today. The supporting argument is that the bifurcation alters the relationship of union with states and not among states which is not under federalism. India is not federalism like US and hence consent is not needed.

New Green regulator

Administration is not sensitive to environment and recasting the institution will not make much difference. Involvement of local people and strengthening their institutions is important. The capacity building and no interference is the need of the day.

Undermining 5 th Schedule

Forest department harasses and undermine laws by not supporting and proving adequate information in time to PRIs for making judgements. Distrust exists between local population and government agencies. Government does not follow the laid procedure during the development projects which leads to increased discontent. Deforestation, land encroachment, illegal mining, suppression of voices leads to undermining the tribal culture and their rights. Creation of protective areas lead to displacement of tribal because they were not included in conservation process. The political decision by Zilla Parishads which involve MP and MLA does not take into account tribal welfare and overrule local bodies.

Inter-state water dispute

Historically adopted documents are prejudiced to one state. These documents have asymmetrical sharing taken from colonial times. The regional feeling bring this injustice to fore in terms of disputes. Limitation

of technology to predict the unevenness of rainfall in also a cause for dispute which with politics turns red on face of states. Lack of efficient and accurate monitoring mechanism can lead to misrepresentation of availability and use of water resources. Politics could well reduce the disputes. Political relation matter in mitigation of these disputes. Lack of institutional is a critical link missing in today’s apparatus. The problem is due to institutional and governance failure than the award itself. Politicisation helps in accentuating mutual independence and obligations. It also helps in addressing local discontent. Inter-state council is highly unutilised.

NJAC

Collegium is ridden with secrecy and favouritism. When CJI is under consideration then the two SC judges have to rescue themselves. Fitness of judges is not defined. Shortlisting, selection is also secretive in NJAC. No RTI is allowed in collegiums. Irrespective of merit seniority is the norm. Women, SC/ST were excluded. Collegium did not laid down any set of guidelines for selection of judges and no system to call for application. The judges faced impeachment threats who were selected under this system.

Planning Commission

PC encroached financially in state domain by allocating plan funds. After 1991, role of state in planning diminished with private became stronger. There is a need for co-ordinating bodies to consolidate the efforts of different ministries and settle their disputes. An agency is also needed for evaluating, monitoring the new policies to suggest changes after learning. Dismantling of PC will lead to centralization of power under FM and PMO. Government intervention in market can promote innovation and competition. Public goods and services cannot be left to profit driven private payers. Eliminatio of social ills cannot be left to CSOs. Government investments in capitalist countries are far higher. There is a chance in function needed and not dismantling. Appraisal of projects of various ministries should be retired. Monitoring of projects cannot be left

to ministries as it will cause conflict of interest. Top-down approach should be discarded.

Under Trials

In 2005, amendment was made in CrPc that if undertrials have bear half of the punishment that they can get should be freed. It was never implemented properly. SC has now ordered its enforcement. There are people who served full term but are still in prison because they are poor and cannot fight their cases. There is no mechanism to monitor the undertrials. Now SC has asked district judges to visit jails and maintain the data. It creates havoc in life of undertrials. Judicial posts are vacant, no money to pay for bail, harassement inside the jail, delayed investigation are the reasons. Police, judiciary and prison authorities together have to implement the new order.

LoP

Its by convention and not law that 10% criteria was devised. There are instances in history where no LoP was appointed. Conventions are to supplement legislation and not to become legislation. LoP carries lot of responsibilities. Salaries act defines LoP and no other law mentions it. 10% convention is not binding on speaker.

Ganga Clean

There was no engagement of local community and urban planners in efforts to clean ganga till now. We should ensure that incentives to implementing agencies as they are the ones who use and maintain these facilities. PPP should be included.

Nachiket Mor Committee

Payment bank if pay interest will it be viable because they cannot lend money. If they will charge commission on payments then it will defeat the objective. When full banks are available then why customers will go for payment banks.

Bitcoins

Traditional currencies are secure and easily verifiable but become problem over long distances. Trust on third party such as banks is needed but once trust has built then transaction charges may increase. Bitcoins combine both these features as recipient can check the validity of transaction and transfer cost is low. It is a distributed system and rent seeking is impossible. There is high volatility in the value of bitcoins on exchange rate of currencies. Transfers work only on promise of the users. It is anonymous and difficult to track. State can track real side of the transaction. FBI unearthed one such racket so it is difficult but not impossible.

Dilution of Labour Laws

Amendment to IDA in 1982 decreased the limit on workers in an organization for retrenchment. But it also changed the definition of retrenchment by including the termination of services due to non-renewal of contract. This gave firms flexibility in hire and fire regime. In 2003, another amendment was introduced to allow firms to hire employee for limited period. Social security facilities are not available to these employees and hence reduced their bargaining power. IDA also does not come into effect if enterprise is transferred to some other location. Labour is in concurrent list, taking the cue several states have increased the workers limit, exempted SEZ from IDA etc. leading to continuous dilution. Casual labour act fine is very low and employers do not bother about paying it. There is no enforcement of core and non-core services. Changes in trade union law are done in 2001, by these amendments the constitution of trade union has been changed to include more employees from the employing company which has lowered the bargaining powers of these trade unions. Mandays are lost due to lockouts and not strikes. The inspector raj argument for factories act is untenable as the staffs are highly deficient to conduct the inspections. The rate is only 15-20%. Judiciary favour to capitalist has given a severe blow. Kerala high court in 1997 had said that calling for bandh by any political party, association is illegal and unconstitutional. SC order to quash automatic absorption of contract

workers was a major blow. SC also said that illegally terminated employee is reinstated will not be entitled for back-wages. Workers cannot go to labour court as they lack money power to hire lawyers.

R&D in India

There are three kind of research. First, in academic institutions funded by government for creating knowledge in terms of publications and cannot be exploited by industry. Second, in government labs for specific purposes. Third, in-house in private and public sector. At independence there was minimal or no R&D. There are now numerous labs for the purpose but spending is still low in comparison to international standards. Only very few companies are listed in innovation list worldwide from india. Advantages that india has are: demographic dividend, good institutions in science and technology, English proficiency for global exchanges and lower cost of R&D. Growing domestic market with favourable factors have increased the private R&D centres in india. Increasin investment in india is also reversing brain drain. But the R&D services are beneficial to parent companies of MNCs and hence are little beneficial to india. Low hingly qualified personnel for R&D in india. Late awakening in india about the benefits of R&D. Higher govt. allocation is needed. Low academia-industry collaboration in india. Scaling up manufacturing contribution will help in growth of R&D. Venture capital funds should be made available. Private participation in terms of in-house R&D is needed. Aggressive patenting regime should be put in place. Tax and other forms of government support is needed.

Decentarlised power generation

Off-grid pay high tariff than their counterparts owing to high input cost. The support system in terms of maintenance is poor in india. Rural areas lack manpower and infrastructure. This lead to dumping of off-grid installations after sometime. Pre-payment meters and smart grids helped the entrepreneurs to collect metered money easily. Mobile technology helps consumer to pay with ease. Grid failure can be avoided in decentralised way. Reduction in cost and increased manufacturing in domestic market are the reasons. Low transmission cable means low loss.

Grid extension can be avoided. With improved CFL and LED lights the load on grid has decreased leading to improved efficiency. With gradual withdrawal of diesel subsidy solar looks more promising. High capital cost is needed for setup. Business model is difficult to sustain in rural areas. Crowd funding is a boon for this.

Inflation Targeting

6% by 2016 with a band of +-2%. Inflation targeting was goal of central banks across the world before eurozone crisis. It neglect assest price and obsessed with low inflation. It did not anticipate the crisis. When asset price goes up banks neglect them but when it slides down they have to act. Single CPI does not capture the substantial inflation in food and fuel. There is a trade-off between inflation and output and RBI cannot abandon it. Cut in monetary policy rates lead to cut in interest rates hence one cannot be sure of inflation targeting. Inflation targeting does not consider cost-push inflation and targets only excess demands with interest rate policies.

Gold Monetisation Scheme Under Budget

India has high demand of gold putting pressure on Fiscal Deficit. This move is an important instrument to contain the impact of high demand for gold. Gold is imported in final form or unfinished form which is then refined in the country generating employment and revenue for government. Banks lack in assessing the quality of gold to put it in meaningful use. This is why there is limited success of gold mobilization policies. The import of unfinished gold provides infrastructure for assessing quality of gold, transport etc. for success of new gold mobilization scheme: 1) assessing the quality of gold. 2) secure storage and transportation 3) end-to-end resource planning software. There is no standardised assessing technique of gold. First thing is to open assessment centres. After assessing the quality equivalent amount of gold to be added into the depositor’s account instead of 90 day lag under gold deposit scheme right now. For redemption in short period, standardised set of gold to be made available to bank to reduce time. The gold transfer can be inter

or intra state. Hence CST should be abolished on them. There is no IT on interest earned on gold asset as well as capital gain tax.

Fourteenth Finance Commission

Union is giving more than half of its revenue to state before FFC but most part of it is outside the statutory grants. Uncertainty in fund flow will reduce and fiscal autonomy of state will increase. Union is restructuring its revenue by: 1) changed pattern of funding to CSS 2) Abdicating some CSS 3) schemes to be fully financed by union. It has impact on union health and FFC recommendation are not neutral. Augmenting of union revenue by additional surcharges and cess which is not under divisible pool. FFC makes the governments to have expenditure priorities right. Now union has to be extra cautious to announce new CSS which can best be delivered by states.

66A IT Act

Court not only stuck down the act but by its reasoning it clarified that mere discussion or advocacy of a cause howsoever unpopular is not restricted under Art. 19. Only when such cases reaches a level of incitement can these restrictions come into picture.

Inclusion of men in gender quality

Men remain the holder and broker of power in community and hence they should be involved in order to have sustainable benefits. Challenges to men are coming from women and have involvement of both is necessary. In neo-liberal times men’s space over resources is shrinking and hence men’s anxieties need to be addressed because it may lead to more blockade to women and children. Without men, the sole responsibility of change dumps on women. It is no true that all men are powerful over women. Patriarchy not only sets rules for women but also for men. To challenge it both have to work together. NGOs working for women see serious backlash with women only approach as practical solutions to problem are not possible without them. Aggressive advertisement that masculinity is to protect women and not harass them is also a part of the problem. Family planning initiatives cannot work without involvement of

men. Women organisation says that they have carved a little space for women and will not let men hijack this space by their involvement as there is a fight over resources between men and women. UN agencies and bilateral organisations are beginning to work with men and men’s organisation for gender development. Donor support is shifting away from women’s movement building and pressure to bring men under their umbrella. In india, dowry act, domestic violence and sexual assault laws have given preference to men. Organisations to get the men’s privilege back are also started to work.

Curbing NGOs

Priya pillai is policy officer with greenpeace. She was offloaded from London bound flight after look out notice. Right to go abroad is personal liberty under Art. 21 under menaka Gandhi vs UOI in 1978. India is a signatory of UN human right defenders. MHA states in court that USA also has no flying list but failed to mention that the list is facing legal hurdles and also this list does not include peaceful protesters. Protest when rules are not followed under FR act and fraud signature of gram sabha are taken is seen as anti-national. The truth that consultation is not done properly is also put forward by HLC on socio-economic, health and educational status of tribal communities in 2014. In neo-liberal regimes, not letting the people to raise voices is not right. Prosecution was not granted to CBI in ishrat jahan case against IB officer.

Off-grid electricity delivery

Till 2003, policy was to just carry the grid extension to villages to consider them electrified. In 2004, 10% household with connection and village electricity infrastructure was made as benchmark. Off-grid electricity are for remote habitations where people are economically weak and also lifeline tariff is lower than cost of supply. DISCOMS are reeling under loses hence they do not resort to off-grid extensions. MNRE under remote village electrification programme and village energy security programme filled this space. NGO with aid and CSR also progressed to this end. In recent times, this area has become lucrative for private and PPP modes. Initial cost is subsidised but operational and maintenance cost is still high.

Tariff is subsidised for grid consumers but no subsidy is there for off-grid customers. USOF can be used for this purpose.

FFC

Increasing share of states suddenly is not welcome as state are not prepared to reorganise themselves and also CSS which are valuable have to be quickly altered. The increase should be phased. Union has in principal accepted the recommendation to give revenue deficit grant to 11 poor states conditional on the point that they should adhere to fiscal discipline. This is in violation of Art. 275(1) where FFC can allow these grant when required. Union has not put forward anything on FFC recommendation of empowering inter-state council, reform of fiscal transfer and institutional mechanism necessary.

Health Policy 2015

Policy said that 70% of the population will be financed from taxes for free primary care with strategic purchase for secondary and tertiary sector from public and private sector. Health insurance policies will also be aligned with this view. It also said public service should not be seen as free but as pre-paid from taxes. Policy aims at reinforcing competition between private and public hospitals. Public services will be assessed for cost efficiency in monetary terms i.e., basic cost of salaries, infrastructure is met from budgetary support but remunerative cost will be based on the quantifiable data of patient offload. This approach means that if a new facility is opened in the start the rate of patient cure is low which means according to this policy it will receive fewer funds as there will be low measurement of efficiency. Making public facilities to work with private criteria is not right. The idea is that funds in public facilities are not used efficiently. NHP is fostering private criteria in public facilities. Health sector is receiving huge FDI as venture capital. This is welcome as it promotes medical tourism and also generates employment but shaping the growth is required but there is nothing on this in policy. Corporate health care is becoming dominant, policy says that in making strategic purchase primacy will be given to public sector but it also says that in urban areas as private has more presence collaboration will be done with profit and not

for profit entities. There are issues with insurance mechanism such as denial of service, preference to tertiary and secondary services over primary, fraud practice etc. there is no mention of how to tackle these. Policy indicates dominant role for public sector but there is no listing of ways to augment the infrastructure, personnel and quality of services in them. Policy acknowledge that private players lack regulation and these are necessary but only mention some proposed changes in clinical establishment act by way of accreditation and setting standard but this is voluntary. It also put forward the concerns of private institutions regarding the act as intrusive without expressing the concern of civil society. On issue of reforming the educational sector of medical the policy only use general words like reforming the system etc. without putting forward concrete idea or roadmap to stop capitation fee which distort the system. There is nothing solid for pharmaceutical industry which is facing flak from multinational which are trying to dilute the Indian patent act. There is also no serious mention of pricing of drugs. The essential medicine list is very small and covers very low percentage. Rest of the medicines are sold at very high prices. Though policy says that NELM will be revised regularly along with price control on generic drug but most drugs are branded and not generic. The policy has left the UHC issue to the background.

Cheap oil and climate change

Increase in real income, low inflation and lower cost of production. Most countries are not passing all the benefits to customers but trying to improve fiscal condition, coping with increasing social spending, eliminate energy subsidy etc. countries are moving to higher efficiency regimes with low dependence on oil. Worldwide oil has 5% share in electricity generation. Moving to public transport, high speed rail are competing with air fare on short routes, reduction in cost of renewable energy sources etc. have gained much strength and lowering of oil prices will not change this scenario significantly. India has much to gain in short term. In long term it should support clean initiatives. National electric mobility plan should be strengthened, supporting industry to move to stringent standards of fuel

from the surplus of oil import, funding in infrastructure etc. adding more renewable power.

Introducing petroleum, gas and electricity in GST