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 1. Overdue correction: A relook at the overly
harsh provisions of the Companies Act must
yield action
2. Football fever: It may not have been the best
A. World Cup, but it was not short on surprises
and excitement
R 3. A redemptive moment: It matters little what
the final ruling will be in the Section 377 case.
T There will be no return to the original
scoreboard
I 4. Dark clouds over the RTI: Any move to amend
the RTI Act must involve public consultation
C 5. Playing the anti-Nawaz Sharif game : The
Pakistani military, with help from the superior
L judiciary, is trying to ensure that the election
E goes its way
6. Fix the pothole problem: The Motor Vehicles
S (Amendment) Bill, which attempts to address
the issue of liability for road defects, must be
passed
7. Tipping rightward: The prognosis for Trump’s
SCOTUS nominee is grim for progressives
. PRASHANT MAVANI
MSc. in Management, University of Surrey (UK)

P Senior Faculty: StudyIQ

R
O https://www.facebook.com/PrashantTMavani/
F https://twitter.com/PrashantMavani
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Download PDF notes of this lecture from my FB Page
 Dark clouds over the RTI
• Government’s unwillingness to operationalise the Lok Pal, the
Whistleblowers Act and the Grievance Redress law

• Item 14 in the legislative agenda of the monsoon session of Parliament

(from July 18): It says: “To amend The Right to Information (RTI) Act
2005 — for Introduction, Consideration, and Passing.”

• The government will proclaim these proposed amendments to be

“PROGRESSIVE”

A. RTI Act has helped transform the relationship between the citizen
and government
B. Dismantle illegitimate concentrations of power
C. Legitimise the demand for answers
D. Assist people in changing centuries of feudal and colonial
relationships.
• Public servants , troubled by accountability, have seen this as
interference: constant threat over RTI

• But public has resisted its dilution.

• This time, it seems as if the government has decided to avoid all

norms of transparency and consultation in trying to impose its
undemocratic will.

• Any amendment to the law should have been discussed before it went
to the cabinet, as in the “pre legislative consultation policy” of the
government of India.

• Major pieces of legislation, including those that affect the

transparency regime, are being pushed through without being sent to
multi-party standing committees.
• In the garb of money Bills government has kept opposition view out of
many important items.

• Under Section 4(2) of the RTI Act, which has been poorly
implemented, it says: “It shall be a constant endeavour of every
public authority... to provide as much information suomotu to the
public at regular intervals... so that the public have minimum resort
to the use of this Act to obtain information.”

• The Lokpal debate, for example, highlighted grand corruption, but

those who protested across India were personally fed up with the
inefficiency of public servants and their impunity.

• Accountability to the people should have been institutionalised

through a strong social accountability and Grievance Redress Act, as
promised by the BJP.
• The use of the RTI has led to more than 70 citizens fighting corruption
losing their lives, but the government remains unaffected.

• People have been demanding a strong whistle-blower protection law,

but like the Lokpal, the Whistle Blowers Protection Act has been
ignored, with attempts to amend the law that will completely negate
its intent.

• Secret amendments to a law fashioned and used extensively are

deeply suspect.

• This time round, it is far more critical that all of us rally together
again for the people of India cannot afford to lose what has been
gained through the RTI.
 Overdue correction
• Corporate Affairs Ministry appointed a 10-member committee to
revisit several provisions of the Companies Act, 2013.

• The 2013 law entailed the first massive overhaul of India’s legal
regime to govern businesses that had been in place since 1956 and
was borne of a long-drawn consultative process.

• Act imposes stiff penalties and, in some cases, prison terms as well,
for directors and key management personnel.

• It will also examine if offences punishable with a fine or imprisonment

may be re-categorised as ‘acts’ that attract civil liabilities.

• It will allow trial courts to devote greater attention to serious

offences
 Fix the pothole problem
• In 2016, potholes claimed six lives every day in India.

• According to official statistics, potholes claimed 11,836 lives and left

36,421 persons injured in India from 2013 to 2016.

• The irony of the situation is that instead of booking cases against

contractors or engineers for shoddy maintenance of roads, police
reports often blame the victims or drivers for ‘death due to
negligence’.

• Negligence on the part of road owners or maintenance authorities is

rarely brought to book.
•-
• The Indian Road Congress has prescribed over 100 sets of guidelines to
ensure standardised road construction, maintenance and
management, including guidelines for repairing potholes.

• The existing legislation for road safety, the Motor Vehicles Act, has no
provisions to ensure accountability of road authorities for defects in
the engineering, design and maintenance of roads.

• Thankfully, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which seeks to

strengthen the Act, has attempted to address the issue of liability for
road defects.

• But a fine, even if it is a small amount, is a step in the right direction.

• Road safety is a multisectoral issue.

•-
 Finance World
• The government may infuse about ₹8,000 crore in five or six state-run
banks that are likely to fall short of regulatory capital requirements, a
senior finance ministry official said.
• A high level of bad loans and widening losses have made it difficult for
banks to service these bonds, raising the risk of default.
• Reserve Bank of India’s prompt
corrective action (PCA) framework
is meant to encourage banks to
avoid certain riskier activities and
focus on conserving capital so that
their balance sheets can become
stronger.
• The infusion is part of a ₹2.11 lakh
crore plan announced last October.
The government will provide ₹1.35
lakh crore through recapitalisation
bonds, while banks will need to
raise ₹58,000 crore on their own.
• High food and fuel prices drove India’s wholesale
inflation to a four-and-a-half-year high in June,
cementing the case for the Reserve Bank of India
to increase interest rates.

• Inflation measured by the Wholesale Price Index

(WPI) was 5.77% in June, accelerating sharply
from 4.43% in May and 0.9% in June 2017,
according to data released by the commerce and
industry ministry on Monday.

• “The lagged transmission of higher crude oil

prices, an uptick in cotton prices and electricity
tariffs, the hardening of inflation for
manufactured products as well as an unfavourable
base effect, led to the sharp pickup in the WPI
inflation to a 54-month high in June,” said Aditi
Nayar, principal economist at ICRA.
•-
•-
 Important News
• Trump sees no reason to believe Russian meddling
• Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held a historic
summit on Monday, vowing to forge a reset of troubled relations
between the world’s greatest nuclear powers.
• “I think it’s a good start: very, very good start for everybody,” the
U.S. leader told reporters after meeting Mr. Putin for more than
two hours with just their interpreters present, and just before
they were joined by their national security teams.
•-
• India, Iran pledge to maintain trade levels
• New Delhi strikes a defiant note against demands by the U.S. to cut oil imports
from Tehran to ‘zero’
• External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also travel to Tehran for the next
Joint Commission meeting in November, an official statement said, which is the
month U.S. sanctions on energy trade would go into effect.

• IMF cuts India growth forecast for 2018 by a notch to 7.3%

• Country continues to outperform China, whose growth is projected to
moderate
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday projected a growth rate of 7.3%
in 2018 and 7.5% in 2019 for India as against 6.7% in 2017, making it the fastest
growing country among major economies.
• However, the latest growth rate projection for India is slightly less — 0.1
percentage point in 2018 and 0.3 percentage points in 2019 — than its April
projections.
 Answers-
1. Which space agency conducted successful flight testing of its
Crew Escape System on July 5?
A) CNSA
B) ISRO
C) Roscosmos
D) NASA
2. Which app was launched by the Election Commission of India
(ECI) for people to report model code violations?
A) cVigil
B) mForesee
C) eDastak
D) Khan Prahari
 Questions-
1. Which country’s law commission has recommended
legalisation of sports betting?
A) India
B) Pakistan
C) South Africa
D) Australia
2. Who is the Master of Roster, as per the recent ruling
of the Supreme Court?
A) Chief Justice of India
B) Finance Minister
C) Prime Minister
D) President
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