All English Editorial 03.01.2022

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6 EDITORIAL DELHI
MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2022

THE HINDU
This NSP cannot change Pakistan’s direction

Without cooperative ties with India, the Pakistan people may not have human security or a successful economy
whether it is willing to turn Pakis India as that was in its interest to of the previous century. Stoutly re
tan away, in the true sense, from do so. Instead, it decided to sus fusing to open up trade with India,
Fair and safe being a hard military security state
into a state where the military
pend the abridged commercial re
lationship that existed. Countries
Pakistan has looked to other eco
nomic and commercial partners
The ECI must ensure a fair election process competes for resources with other can adopt selective approaches to among whom China is by far the
state institutions and the final de register protests. A sacrifice of in most important. The security rela
that also limits public health risks Vivek Katju cision is taken by the political lea terests is especially futile where tionship was the anchor of the Chi
A
ll indications are that elections to five State As dership. The logic of giving prima such sacrifice does not yield re naPakistan ties. Now, Pakistan
semblies — Goa, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Utta cy to the economy is that national sults as it obviously has not, from hopes that China will offer its assis
A
t its 36th meeting on Decem policies will be directed through Pakistan’s standpoint, on J&K de tance to transform its economy. It
FILE PHOTO/AFP
rakhand and Punjab — will be held on time, re
ber 27, 2021, Pakistan’s Na resource allocation towards deve velopments, post 2019. looks to the mechanisms under
gardless of the rising new wave of COVID19. The tional Security Committee lopment. That would mark a fun While Pakistan’s ideology and the ChinaPakistan Economic Cor
threemember Election Commission of India (ECI) has (NSC) approved the country’s damental change in Pakistan’s di mindset prevents it from develop ridor (CPEC) to play a crucial role
visited four States over the past weeks to assess the pre “first ever” National Security Poli rection, for it would reduce the ing realistic ties with India, it also through connectivity, port deve
paredness, which is usually one of the last steps before cy (NSP). Seven years in the mak army’s demand for resources. what the brave Pakistani scholar has a bearing on its social develop lopment, power production and
the announcement of the poll schedule. Its visit to Ma ing, the NSP is designed to be a Ayesha Siddiqa terms as “Mil.Inc.”. ment and the economic manage other investments. All this may be
nipur is expected soon. Conducting an election in nor “Comprehensive National Security It’s the Army first That does not seem to be on the ment of the country apart from of some help but they cannot be a
mal times is one thing, but doing so in the midst of a Framework” and covers a fiveyear The Pakistan Army has always laid horizon. draining resources from develop substitute to be integrated with a
period from 202226. The NSP first claim on the country’s reve ment to defence. Pakistan aspires large neighbouring economy.
pandemic is quite another. On the ECI’s visit to U.P. last
seeks to ensure the “safety, securi nues. It has never allowed light to An ‘India obsession’ to become a society imbued with That can only come about with
week, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chan ty and dignity of the citizen of Pa fully shine on the defence expen In the NSP’s context, the question moderate Islamic faith. However, the opening of trade and connec
dra said that all parties wanted the polls to be on sche kistan”. To achieve this objective, diture. Nor, for that matter, does it that Pakistan also needs to ask it its security apparatus has actively tivity with India. Over 25 years
dule. He said the ECI would look into the enforcement it puts “economic security” at its allow scrutiny of its vast network self is this: can it ever achieve hu sought to use Islamism against In ago, Chinese President Jiang Ze
of COVIDappropriate behaviour in campaigning and “core”. Apart from economic and of business enterprises and real man security for its people and dia. This has led it to pander to vio min had, in an address to the Pa
voting after the schedule is announced. Once the Model military matters the NSP also cov estate for the benefit of its officers put the country on the path of nor lent sectarian groups and margi kistani Senate, spoken of the need
Code of Conduct (MCC) is in force, the ECI’s COVIDre ers issues relating to foreign poli and men. From time to time, some malcy and growth without radical nalise progressive elements of civil to temporarily shelve disputes so
cy, terrorism, water security and officers have laid stress on the im ly changing its India policy? As the society. The culture of Islamism is that they do not impact interstate
lated restrictions, first drawn up in August 2020 ahead
demographics. Pakistan Prime Mi portance of “geoeconomics” but product of the twonation theory, illustrated by the veneration of the ties. He may have mentioned this
of the Bihar Assembly elections, will also be in play. The nister Imran Khan, who chaired seldom has the army shown any Pakistan has defined its very iden grave of Mumtaz Qadri, the killer in the context of ChineseSouth
rules include mandatory wearing of masks during the the NSC meeting, called the NSP’s willingness to divert resources tity — to put it crudely but bluntly of Punjab Governor Salman Ta Asian ties, but these comments ap
whole election process, from campaigning to casting of approval a “historic moment”. Pa from defence to other areas. And, — thus: it is what India is not. Al seer. It is astonishing that Qadri plied to Pakistani approaches to its
votes, holding rallies in identified grounds with social kistan’s cabinet endorsed the NSP it has convinced the majority of most 75 years since its creation, who was executed for the crime of neighbours as well. But Jiang Ze
distancing measures in place, and reducing the number on December 28. the people that sacrifices have to Pakistan continues its search for a murdering one he was duty bound min’s words were simply ignored
of people allowed in roadshows. In the wake of the se be made for national defence be positive identity which will allow it to protect was lauded by millions by the Pakistanis. Today, with the
Marks a fundamental change cause of enemies external, princi to give up its India obsession. Its for serving the cause of Islam by regional and international context
cond wave of the pandemic in April 2021, the ECI put in
Significantly, a public version of pally India, and internal. socalled commitment to the killing Taseer who was perceived entirely changed, it is unlikely that
place more measures such as a longer silence period the NSP has not been released as More than 40 years ago during ‘Kashmir cause’ is a subset of its to be sympathising with a blasphe President Xi Jinping will give Pakis
before polling, reducing the time for campaigning. yet. According to a press release Pakistan President ZiaulHaq’s pe overall negative approach to India. my accused. There is another as tan the same advice. However, that
Going by the spree of inaugurations and ground by the office of the Pakistan Prime riod, a Pakistani comparing India This deepseated hostility has pre pect. Islamist forces are also allies does not erode the veracity of
breaking ceremonies for government projects by the Minister it will be done “in due to his own country told me that his vented it from adopting rational of feudal elements in the Pakistani Jiang Zemin’s views.
Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers, the elec course”. However, Pakistan’s Na country’s army controlled eve policies towards India. Rational political elite, and together they Thus, irrespective of what the
tion season has already begun. On January 2, the Prime tional Security Adviser, Moeed W. rything in the name of defence, approaches would have enabled it support inimical and irrational NSP may state, the Pakistan peo
Yusuf said on December 28 that it but “what is it really defending but to ‘legally’ adhere to its positions policies towards India, including ple can neither have human secur
Minister laid the foundation for the Major Dhyan Chand
will be done within a week to 10 itself”? Despite the passage of time but ‘practically’ have ties with In in economic and commercial sec ity nor a successful economy with
Sports University in Meerut, with a large, mostly mask days. Should it be released soon, it and the geopolitical global and re dia in areas that would be in its na tors. out cooperative ties with India.
less crowd in attendance. Huge gatherings organised by would show that a kind of consen gional transformation, the veraci tional interest. That the Pakistan Army and the
all parties are taking place in the pollbound States. Offi sus has been achieved between ty of my interlocutor’s assertion An example of its irrational ap China as anchor political elite are unwilling to
cial events are being turned into campaign opportuni the elected government and the holds true today too. Thus, if the proach is the position it has taken The natural economic partner for have. The NSP, therefore, cannot
ties by those in power, raising a different question of Pakistan Army on the NSP. A delay, NSP is to mark a substantial on the Jammu and Kashmir ( J&K) a country such as Pakistan is a change Pakistan’s unhappy
propriety. The MCC imposes special restrictions on the however, could be indicative of re change in Pakistan’s systems and issue after the constitutional large neighbour. This is especially direction.
maining difficulties. governance, the first step has to be changes of August 5, 2019. Pakis so in an era when economies are
party in power, which, it says, “shall ensure that no
But even if the army is ostensi transparency in actual military ex tan could have maintained its not barricaded as some were for Vivek Katju is a retired Indian Foreign
cause is given for any complaint that it has used its offi bly on board, the question is penditures and the dismantling of stand on J&K and yet traded with several decades in the second half Service officer
cial position for the purposes of its election campaign”.
Till the announcement of polls, however, it is only a
question of decency and propriety of those in power.
The lines between a political party’s rally and a govern
ment function continue to blur, to the advantage of the
State schemes can cast a lifeline to this welfare plan
BJP in most cases. Once the poll schedule is announced, Five years since its introduction, there is vast scope for improvement in the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
the burden will be on the ECI to be fair, and seen to be Centre for Policy Research 2019 rate of ₹202). In line with the Ma
fair. In the last round of elections, its conduct was ques 20), the target set by the Govern ternity Benefit Act, 1961 which
tioned on various valid grounds. The ECI must take pol ment was 51.70 lakh beneficiaries, mandates 12 weeks of maternity
itical parties into confidence and ensure an environ which is only 40% of the eligible leave for women with two or more
ment conducive to a fair election process that also population. This means that we children, pregnant and lactating
have an exclusion error of at least mothers should receive 12 weeks
limits public health risks.
Amar Patnaik 60% since 2017, as the target has of wage compensation amounting
remained unchanged over the to ₹15,000.
Patchwork policy years. Further, the enrolment and
I
ndia accounts for a fifth of the disbursements under the scheme Simplify the process
The temporary rollback of tax hikes on textiles total childbirths in the world, have witnessed a downward fall in Eliminate correction queues.
with a maternal mortality rate the last two years, as in the data Further, the implementation gaps
is a harbinger of challenges before GST regime of 113 per 1,00,000 live births. On provided by the Ministry of Wo in the PMMVY scheme lead to re
O
n New Year’s eve, nine hours before a new GST January 1, 2017, the Government men and Child Development duced coverage. These gaps stem
rate of 12% was to kick in for readymade gar rolled out the Pradhan Mantri Ma (WCD) in response to my parlia from a lack of awareness within
ments and fabrics, Finance Minister Nirmala tru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), mentary questions. In 202021, targeted beneficiaries and process
Sitharaman announced that the plan is off and the exist where a ‘cash incentive of ₹5,000 more than 50% of registered be level challenges. The current regis
is provided directly to the bank/ neficiaries did not receive all three tration form requires a mother
ing 5% rate will continue into 2022, or at least for its first
post office account of pregnant instalments and there was a 9% soaps, mosquito net and dresses, The predecessor scheme, the and child protection (MPC) card,
quarter. The decision was made at an emergency meet women and lactating mothers for drop in enrolment under the and the Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yo husband’s Aadhaar card, bank
ing of the GST Council, which had approved the higher the first living child of the family scheme. Maternity Benefit Scheme jana was applicable for two live passbook and registration form for
tax on textiles at its last meeting in September 2021 to (subject to fulfilling specific condi Despite the Government’s con (MRMBS) with relatively increased births. Of the total live births in In each of the three instalments, re
correct the anomaly of an inverted duty structure. tions relating to maternal and tinued emphasis on maternal and coverage and higher maternity be dia, 49.5% comprises firstorder sulting in delayed, rejected or
While the GST rate on manmade fibre is 18% and yarn child health)’. child health, the overall budget for nefits. Odisha’s MAMATA, for in births and 29.9% are secondorder pending applications. A simplifica
made from the same is taxed at 12%, the rate on the final It is aimed at improving health women and child development stance, has been offering a condi births, as per Sample Registration tion of the process can result in in
seeking behaviour and to compen was reduced by 20% for 202122. tional cash transfer of ₹5,000 as Survey 2018. creased registration of beneficiar
fabric was 5%, ostensibly creating a headache for textile
sate for wage loss for pregnant wo Additionally, Budget allocation for maternity benefit for up to two live It is imperative to include se ies.
producers which the Council had sought to alleviate. men, particularly in the unorgan the PMMVY has also been slashed births for more than a decade cond live birth under the materni To fulfill India’s commitment to
The move to raise that rate to 12%, along with that on ised sectors. However, the as it has been clubbed under SA now. ty benefit cover particularly for wards the Sustainable Develop
footwear costing less than ₹1,000 a pair, had been on performance of the scheme has MARTHYA along with multiple In a comparative analysis bet women in the unorganised sector ment Goal of improving maternal
the Council’s agenda for over a year but had been kept been deficient, necessitating ur other schemes such as Beti Bachao ween the PMMVY and MAMATA who are more vulnerable to eco health, an ambitious Prime Minis
on hold due to the COVID19 pandemic’s adverse effects gent need for improvement espe Beti Padhao, Mahila Shakti Kendra for 202021, the PMMVY shows nomic shocks and nutrition loss ter’s Overarching Scheme for Ho
on households. Explaining the rethink to hold off the cially when the novel coronavirus and Gender Budgeting/Research/ poor performance with a 52% for all child births. listic Nourishment (POSHAN) Ab
pandemic has resulted in econom Training. The overall budget of SA drop in the number of beneficiar There must be an increase in hiyan and a national maternity
rate hikes that were to become effective January 1, the
ic shocks for 260 lakh women who MARTHYA is ₹2,522 crore, which is ies covered while MAMATA show the maternity benefit amount. benefit scheme are promising in
Finance Minister indicated that the original decision deliver on an average a child each nearly equivalent to the budget of cased a 57% increase in women Since the primary objective of the itiatives by the Centre.
was arrived at after several parleys that explored, year in India. PMMVY alone in the previous fi who received all the instalments. PMMVY is to provide partial wage However, targets can be
among other things, the likely impact on consumers. nancial years. The scheme stands as a testament compensation, we need to revisit achieved only if we revisit the de
Yet, a letter from the Gujarat Finance Minister she had How the PMMVY fares to an inclusive and efficient imple the maternity benefit amount of sign and implementation of this
received on December 29, along with representations Since its inception, the PMMVY States show the way mentation of the maternity benefit fered under the scheme. Most wo scheme, drawing lessons from
from industry, prompted a review. has covered 2.01 crore women na While the Centre rolled out the programme, thereby serving as men continue to work during and States such as Odisha which are
tionally, disbursing a total amount PMMVY scheme at the national le promising evidence for the Centre postpregnancy since they cannot successfully prioritising maternal
Although the rate hike was aimed at helping produc
of ₹8,722 crore. But the annual es vel, States such as Odisha, Telan to improve the PMMVY in line with afford to lose wages; additionally, health and nutrition in a pragmat
ers get easier credit for taxes paid on inputs, that is not timate of the targeted beneficiar gana and Tamil Nadu, respective the Odisha government Scheme. they also spend on outofpocket ic manner.
how it was seen by several players in an industry that ies by the Government of India has ly, chose to implement expenses during pregnancy. The
has historically been one of India’s largest employment remained the same over the years. Statespecific schemes for mater Steps to take current entitlement of ₹5,000 pro Amar Patnaik, a Member of Parliament,
creators and contributes around 2% to the overall eco While the estimated eligible popu nity benefits in the form of MAMA Here is the way forward for the vided over one year amounts to Rajya Sabha, from Odisha, was Principal
nomy. Last month, many lathes in the textile industry lation of pregnant and lactating TA (2011) or the maternity entitle PMMVY. Extend the maternity be one month’s wage loss (as per the Accountant General under the
were left idling for a day, in what may be the first ever mothers in India was 128.7 lakh for ment scheme, the KCR Kit (2017), nefit under the PMMVY to the se Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Comptroller and Auditor General of India
strike that has not been triggered by industrial unrest in 201718 (as in a report by the which has items such as baby oil, cond live birth. Employment Guarantee Act wage (CAG). He is also an advocate
the sector that last witnessed debilitating strikes from
labour unions in the 1980s. Those protests, along with LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
some States’ missives to the Centre, warning of signifi
To read more letters
cant factory closures and job losses, had failed to move COVID-19 alert ■ People are lapsing back devotees killed, 15 injured in stakeholders. Devotees taken into account the online, scan the QR code
the needle and the industry had resigned itself to the The eruption of Omicron in into their old ways. I had Vaishno Devi temple should also ensure utmost certainty of an exponential
new rates. Perhaps, it was fortuitous that most State Fi other countries and the been to a place recently and stampede”, January 2). The discipline. rise in devotees on that China’s move
nance Ministers, who are members of the Council, were detection of cases of this found many without a mask possible reason highlights G. Ramasubramanyam, special day, especially now Chinese diplomats asking
variant in India should put or using a sanitiser. When I the callousness in ensuring Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh when ‘revengetourism’ is elected Indian
already expected in the capital for a consultation on the
all States and the Centre on asked why there was such order. It is beyond being witnessed at nearly all representatives to refrain
Union Budget for 202223. A ministerial group already
the alert. Mere nonchalance, the answer comprehension how such a ■ The incident is a lesson to places of interest. The from engaging with Tibetan
tasked with rationalising inverted duty structures announcements to adhere was, “There is nothing like huge crowd was allowed have a wellprepared task authorities could have placed diaspora is a marked
across products and reviewing the multiple rate slabs of to COVIDappropriate COVID19!” Many locals inside the cave temple force at such places of added restrictions on the infringement upon Indian
the GST regime, has now been assigned the additional behaviour are not enough. believe the entire thing to be without regulated queue gathering. When there is a numbers allowed for sovereignty.
task to suggest an appropriate structure for textile pro Concerted and strong fake news. The media needs systems. I am aware of the need to have COVID19 darshan during the An aberration from
ducts; it has two more months to finalise its report. It is actions are missing. Even to highlight, once again, temple layout and the protocols in effect, how was muchcoveted midnight hour longstanding diplomatic
unlikely that these broader corrections will take place election rallies are being COVID19 appropriate social intricate path leading to the such a largescale to prevent overcrowding. protocol, it is emblematic of
before the coming State Assembly polls conclude and allowed. This line by behaviour. cave’s sanctum sanctorum as congregation permitted in There should have been Chinese ‘wolf warrior
certain politicians — “If Anita, I had visited the temple a few the first place? The officials foolproof arrangements to diplomacy’. Such
this time could be used for wider consultations with in
COVID19 cases keep rising, New Delhi years ago. No amount of ex must be made accountable. monitor the flow of pilgrims aggressions — military,
dustry, consumers and States before pencilling in new there will be strict curbs” — gratia and expressions of Aanya Singhal, entering and exiting the diplomatic or cartographical
rates and avoiding such aboutturns. The course correc is odd. The ‘genie’ is Temple stampede condolences will bring back Noida, Uttar Pradesh passage at the mouth to the — represent China’s desire
tion needs to be navigated more deftly and with greater already out of the bottle. It appears that we have not the precious lives lost. The sanctum sanctorum. for regional hegemony.
purpose, if India hopes to revive private investments. K. Nehru Patnaik, learnt any lessons from incident should be an ■ One wonders whether the Kamal Laddha, Jacob J. Puthenveettil,
Visakhapatnam earlier accidents (Page 1, “12 eyeopener to the temple administration had Bengaluru Thiruvananthapuram
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YK
THE HINDU
MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2022
DELHI
OPED 7
From selective to universal engagement The crypto assets conundrum

In 2021, Indian diplomacy was characterised by a readiness to deal with friends and foes alike Why legalising crypto assets is dangerous
opolitical situation, India gave partic lue’. This value can only be in terms of the
ular importance to its presidency of expectation that crypto assets will eventual
the UN Security Council in August ly gain widespread acceptance as currency.
2021. Unprecedented in the history Such an expectation indeed has a good basis
of the UN, an event at the Security in the fact that crypto is preferred as a cur
Council was chaired by the Prime Mi rency by many powerful groups because it is
nister. India also brought global is Parminder Jeet Singh very private and less amenable to regulatory
T. P. Sreenivasan
sues of particular importance to the oversight. It basically removes the state from
agenda of the month. Significant in The Indian Government appears convinced its existing status at the heart of currency
The remarkable hyper activism of In puts were provided during discus that cryptocurrency is a dangerous proposi systems. The question then is: by legalising
dian foreign policy will be the legacy sions on issues like maritime securi tion. Cryptocurrency enables relatively in crypto assets, is the Government trying to
of 2021, though the COVID19 situa ty, peacekeeping and antiterrorism visible transactions, with serious implica promote this ‘underlying value’ of crypto as
tion was not congenial for travel, for active consideration in the future. tions for crime, terrorism, money a future currency with these ‘unique charac
highlevel meetings on sensitive mat Although it is illusory to believe that laundering, tax evasion, etc. Another worry teristics’? Evidently not, since it wants to ban
ters and protocol. Those who tra the way has been cleared for India’s is that a crypto mania is getting built of pure crypto as a medium of exchange precisely
velled ran the risk of falling sick in fo permanent membership of the Se ly speculative investments. The eventual because of these characteristics. So, in legal
PTI
reign lands. Every time I saw curity Council, India’s diplomatic bursting of such bubbles will badly hurt peo ly recognising crypto assets, the Govern
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishan capabilities and its commitment to ple. Further, crypto threatens the state’s ma ment is either promoting a dangerous ‘pure
kar braving it all with a mask that co tended funeral pyres put the country ing down of coal. UN reform was not the UN were demonstrated yet again. croeconomic role. On the other hand, the ly speculative asset’, which, when the
vered much of his stern and unsmil in the defensive and weakened its going anywhere and there was no The Foreign Secretary’s visit to Government wants to avoid any techun bubble bursts, will lead to allaround harm;
ing face, with the demeanor and credibility as it tried to contribute to need to concede on our position on Myanmar to engage the military jun friendly image. Caught in this dilemma, it or it is itself promoting the ‘underlying va
stride of a determined crusader, I the resolution of global issues. Every expansion of the Security Council. ta at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi proposes that cryptocurrencies be banned lue’ of crypto assets in terms of their unstop
whispered a prayer for my former global forum was compelled to find As for Indian democracy, the Prime and other opposition leaders are in but crypto assets be legalised and strongly pable eventual conversion to a currency.
colleague’s safety. At a time when di vaccines, medicines, masks and san Minister’s assertion that India is the prison may raise eyebrows in many regulated. This way, the problem of invisible
plomacy had retreated behind lap itisers when it met to deal with polit “mother of democracy” and the countries, but this is another in value transactions gets taken care of, the in Not a tech decision
tops, he unhesitatingly undertook ical and economic crises. EAM’s primacy of governance went stance of India’s readiness to engage terests of investors are protected, and the The argument that crypto assets need be le
extensive journeys, making him the For India, the biggest preoccupa uncontested at the political level. those in power to explore possibili tech industry’s demand is met halfway. galised for promoting blockchain technolo
most visible face of India last year. tion of 2021 was the effort to get Chi What made Indian diplomacy hec ties of friendship and cooperation. This ‘solution’, however, is based on a gies and being profuture is weak, if not bo
The activism was inevitable with na to disengage in areas in Ladakh. tic during the year was a distinct The intention is to prevent China flawed premise, rendering it unworkable in gus. Legalising crypto assets primarily to
geopolitics having turned topsytur Dialogue, military preparedness and change of style of openness and rea from having a field day in Myanmar. the medium to long term. The distinction support blockchain technology is like sign
vy not only by the pandemic, but al economic pressure met with limited diness to deal with friends and foes between an asset and currency may not be ing on to the use of space as a new frontier of
so by the events before and after it success. The sooner we achieve dis alike. From selective alignment, In Two major challenges so much legal as it is about the inherent cha war just because it would promote India’s
through periodical elections, which engagement in the remaining sec dia moved to universal engagement, Sadly, the extraordinary efforts made racteristic of what is considered an asset or space industry. Blockchain has thousands of
brought new dramatis personae to tors, the better it will be for India to even to the extent of convening by India have not been fruitful in the currency. Land, gold and stocks do not lend applications other than crypto. Various inno
the centre stage, and the volatility of be more effective in the other areas meetings with antagonists. Engage cases of China and Afghanistan. Chi themselves to becoming common mediums vations and services, including using block
the economic and political changes of concern. Much of the time for dia ments with the U.S. went beyond fa na has not shown willingness to dis of exchange because these assets are not ea chains and those in the realm of decentral
across the world. The pandemic logue with others must have been miliarisation with the new govern engage in Ladakh and withdraw to sily divisible and portable. On the other ised finance, are indeed possible over the
turned the wind of change into a spent on establishing the rationale of ment to increased commitment to the previous positions behind the hand, crypto is more divisible and portable top of a monopoly platform of a Central
whirlwind and it became necessary our position on the border. Quad and acceptance of AUKUS and Line of Actual Control. But the ex than even physical currency. Once legalised, Bank Digital Currency, as an alternative to
for nations to move fast even to stay Afghanistan turned out to be a big formation of the ‘western Quad’, pectation is that China will take a a crypto asset’s creep towards becoming a private cryptocurrencies.
in their positions. The paradigm shift ger crisis than expected, with the Ta with the U.S., Israel and the UAE. more reasonable approach once the medium of exchange would be unstoppable. The real decision that the Government
in foreign policy was palpable and liban’s walkover in Kabul. India ap The engagement with China at the current convulsions end with the be faces is not about supporting a new technol
the field was open to nimblefooted peared to be the sole defender of the level of commanders and diplomats ginning of another term for Presi Underlying value ogy. Certain groups and people want the
and decisive governments, not to Americans against Pakistan, China, was intense, and ministerial interac dent Xi Jinping. He cannot afford to The same argument can also be made in state to mostly be out of currency systems
hesitant, doubting, calculating ones. Iran, Russia and others. Bringing tion continued even when China tore show any sign of weakness in his ex another manner. Crypto assets are either because that serves their interests. Since the
A decisive Prime Minister and a sea some civility to the Taliban in Kabul up many fundamental agreements ternal and internal policies at this ‘purely speculative assets’ or they have some society is now at a fork to decide whether the
soned diplomat as the External Af became a high priority in the face of that sustained the dialogue for many critical time. underlying value, in which case such ‘value’ future of currency will be public or private,
fairs Minister (EAM) rose to the chal a PakistanChinaTaliban axis with years. Major agreements were signed As for Afghanistan, the haul may can consist only in their future as a medium what the Government has to decide is the
lenges of the times for India. some support from Russia and Iran. with Russia, despite the American be longer, given the stubbornness of of exchange. Both ways they are very proble side it would throw its weight behind.
Wherever the Prime Minister and threat of CAATSA against S400 mis the Taliban and its proclivity to en matic. A purely speculative asset has zero un The argument to let both public and priv
Priorities in 2021 EAM appeared either in person or on siles and the Russian inclination to danger its own people for the purity derlying value (unlike assets like land and ate currencies coexist, leaving it to ‘people’s
Coping with the change from Presi virtual platforms, priority was given align with China in the days to come. of faith. The international communi gold). Regulators watch out for the purely choice’, is also deceptive. The powerful re
dent Donald Trump to President Joe to Afghanistan and antiterrorism Patience, diligence and firmness ty is already moving in the direction speculative elements of any assets market, sent the distributive potential contained in
Biden and the consequent changes in rather than Chinese expansionism. rather than reaching conclusions of rescuing the regime by providing considering them dangerous. The 2008 fi public currency systems. They will all imme
U.S. policy were big enough to keep Climate change, United Nations re through concessions were the ingre humanitarian assistance even with nancial crash happened largely because diately lap up and push private currencies.
the world leaders on tenterhooks. form, and charges of India being only dients of Indian strategy. India at out any change in the repressive re some ‘assets’ lost all connection to any kind Their combined economic heft itself would
But even that appeared small against a partdemocracy also demanded at tended a Shanghai Cooperation Or gime. India has a formidable chal of underlying value. When this happens, it is ensure an overwhelming dominance of priv
the increased onslaught of the pan tention, but the Indian interest in ganisation meeting, where a lenge in Afghanistan, regardless of its just a bubble waiting to burst, gravely hurt ate currencies over the public currency.
demic. India suddenly became the these areas did not appear as urgent subgroup led by China took its own open and universal engagement with ing people. If the Government legalises a It is true that India’s decision alone would
epicentre of the tragedy after a rela and crucial as in the other areas. In decisions on Afghanistan. We also at all concerned. But India’s new style purely speculative asset, it provides a green not determine this issue. But with China hav
tively easy period which gave it the dia threatened to stand out of the tended a meeting of Russia, China of diplomacy will have an impact in signal to investors to invest in it and blow in ing already banned crypto, what India de
honor of being the pharmacy of the line on the matter of netzero emis and India. Such an approach de shaping the world of the future. to the bubble. When the bubble bursts, there cides at this stage would count for a lot.
world. The exposure of the ineffi sion target years, but succumbed to manded highlevel personal involve may be a heavy political price to pay for the
ciency of India’s health system and the pressure to commit more on pro ment at the senior levels. T.P. Sreenivasan is former Ambassador of ruling dispensation. Parminder Jeet Singh works with the Bangalore-based
the panic caused by pictures of unat moting renewable energy and phas Perhaps because of the unique ge India and Governor for India of the IAEA Or crypto does have some ‘underlying va NGO IT for Change
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
STATE OF PLAY CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
DATA POINT
Transport projects not on track FROM THE ARCHIVES
FIFTY YEARS AGO JANUARY 3, 1972
Rail project delays indicate that public transport is
not a priority of the Telangana Government PM rejects concept of superpower
V. Geetanath from the Majlis Party. Later, this was New Delhi, Jan. 2: The Prime Minister, Mrs.

completed according to the original Indira Gandhi, today made it clear that In
In November 2021, the ₹14,132 crore alignment save for the Old City route. dia had no ambition to become a super pow
Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR), built A committee headed by the Chief Se er and said it believed in the equality of all
on the publicprivate partnership cretary has been formed to “look into nations. Addressing a mammoth reception
(PPP) mode by the concessionaire, the issue” of providing compensation held here in her honour for leading India to
L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad), com to L&TMRH. The Centre too has not victory over Pakistan in the recent war, Mrs.
pleted four years. It is going to be a helped matters by withholding the Gandhi said the concept of super powers
while before the Telangana capital release of the balance amount of and the resultant balance of power were not
sees the next phase of metro rail. ₹254 crore of the ₹1,458 crore it had obsolete. These had no place in the present
The first phase of the 69.2km me assured for the project. world, she added. “We believe in equality of
tro passing through three dense cor Prior to the metro rail project, the all nations,” she said. She described the big
ridors of the twin cities of Hyderabad capital region was serviced by the power concept “as bullying of smaller na
and Secunderabad was until recently ground railbased MultiModal Tran tions and economic domination over them.”
the second largest metro rail network sport System (MMTS) built and run And said, “Times have changed and we will
after Delhi. It seems like it is going to jointly with the Indian Railways con never adopt a big brother role.” She had a
lose this tag soon as other cities are necting HyderabadSecunderabad dig at “certain rich nations” who, she said,
either extending or building new me FalaknumaLingampally. It was sermonised India dayin and dayout on re
tro networks at a rapid pace. launched in 2003. Phase II of the pro moving its poverty and backwardness. Why
Hyderabad is unlikely to improve ject has been stalled for the past did they not try to remove pockets of pover
the public transport system as three years with the State Govern ty still existing in their own countries, she
there is no progress in the ment inexplicably not releasing asked. Referring to the frequent war threats
proposed second phase of its share of about ₹500 crore. As held out by Pakistani leaders, including the
the metro linking Gachi a result, South Central Rail President, Mr. Z.A. Bhutto, Mrs. Gandhi said,
bowli to the Shamsha way has delayed imple “We do not know whether the war has really
bad International Air mentation des ended. We are ready. Our men and women
port. Three years ago, pite completing a in villages, cities and on the frontiers are all
the State Government majority of the alert and vigilant to meet any eventuality.”
had announced the ac work. And so, peo Mrs. Gandhi made it known to “those con
ceptance of Delhi Me ple on the outskirts and cerned” that India would not be taken by
tro Rail Corporation’s the surrounding villages are surprise if there is any attack on her. “It is
detailed project re being deprived of an affordable and difficult to say whether the war is over.
port to build a ‘fast me quick transport mode to and fro from There is a new threat every day. On one day
tro’ over 31 km at a cost of ₹9,000 the twin cities. The ticket for MMTS there is a threat, on the other day there is an
crore. But no steps were taken starts at ₹5 and the metro fare begins indication there there could be negotiations.
thereafter. from ₹10. These were projects initiat In our opinion the situation needs constant
Another proposal was to connect ed in united Andhra Pradesh. watch and our Army is alert,” the Prime Mi
Nagole and L.B. Nagar (5 km). This The Telangana Government nister said.
was to complete the circular route of sought a 32km extension of the Ghat A HUNDRED YEARS AGO JANUARY 3, 1922
the first phase of the metro rail con kesar line (part of Phase 2) till Raigir,
necting all the terminal stations. three km away from Yadadari, where Prices in Bombay
There was also promise of a new line redevelopment of the Sri Lakshmi
from BHELR.C. Puram to Lakdikapul Narasimha Swamy Temple is nearing The Bombay Labour Office estimates that in
(21 km). Till the COVID19 outbreak, completion, a project dear to the November the average level of retail prices
HMR was carrying more than 4 lakh Chief Minister. But tenders had to be of all commodities taken into account in the
passengers a day and saved an esti cancelled as the Government did not cost of living index for Bombay was one
mated 4.7 crore litres of fuel. release ₹290 crore of the estimated point or less than one per cent below that in
Last year, L&TMRH declared a loss cost of ₹412.26 crore. All this is October 1921. General index is still six per
of about ₹1,780 crore due to CO enough indication that public tran cent below the high watermark reached in
VID19induced lockdowns and sport is not a priority of the Govern October 1920. Wholesale prices of food arti
sought ‘suitable compensation’ as ment despite its proclamations. With cles stood at two per cent above the level of
project ‘delays’. These include, for the public sector TSRTC having its the previous month and non food articles
instance, the present ruling dispen own infrastructure limitations, citi four per cent below the October figure. Ac
sation demanding an alignment zens of the twin cities are still sadly cording to final figures the population of
change to protect the heritage at Sul forced to depend on private Bombay City at the last census stood at
tan Bazar and near the Legislative As transport. 7,60,000. Sex composition of the resident
sembly and disallowing the metro in population is highly abnormal, the ratio of
the Old City bowing to the pressure geetanath.v@thehindu.co.in males to females being 65 and 35.
This PDF was
CMoriginally uploaded English Newspaper platform(https://t.me/English_epaper_Backup) chennal@English_epaper_Backup A ND-NDE
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Lowly ones hope to enjoy carnal pleasures …
They build a facade of illusion and always
worry about the next act. They live in a frail Tondaradipodi
shell-like body and never realise it will give way Azhwar
06 HYDERABAD MONDAY 03 01 2022

� �
As 2022 begins, we should reflect on the year gone by, in

INDIAN EXPRESS IS NOT AN the tradition of Nachiketa in Katha Upanishad. This ancient
INDUSTRY. IT IS A MISSION. story may help us better understand the loss of loved ones
‘O DEATH, WHERE IS
— Ramnath Goenka
END CHARADE OF THY STING?’—LESSONS

NIGHT CURFEWS FROM THE PANDEMIC
TO COMBAT COVID
N
ow that someone as accomplished as Sou-
mya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the
WHO, has trashed imposing night-time MAKARAND R Professor of
PARANJAPE English at JNU
curfew to slow down the Covid pandemic,
policymakers ought to revisit their strate- SOUMYADIP SINHA
2
gies. “Things like night curfew, there is no sci-
021 was, in many ways, a terrible faced. By that token, we are doing he was Yamaraj, the embodiment austerity, “Tempt me not, O Death. each other. We need to move to-
ence behind it. One has to take evidence-based year. The Covid-19 pandemic, even much better today. Though our of Dharma. As the great equaliser, Having seen thy face, what use wards global government and the
measures,” she recently said. Such curbs can as I write this, has infected nearly world is quite confused and divid- he not only was impartial and fair, have I of gold and girls, or chariots management of our shared plan-
possibly be justified in cities with a throbbing 290 million people across the ed, not only into camps and alli- but also had impeccable manners. and palaces, of the things of this etary resources.
nightlife like Mumbai. They also served to emp- world, killing close to 5.5 million. ances, there is also sufficient evi- He said to himself, “This noble Earth. For I know that all these be- Some things are too important
ty beaches and places where people normally That is the official number. The dence of cooperation, even youth has come to my door before long only to you, O Death. Teach to be left to states and govern-
real figure is probably much high- collaboration, in the midst of con- his time. Moreover, I have kept him me, instead, that which will over- ments. We, the people of the world,
gather at the midnight hour to usher in the New er. Given that each human life is flict or competition. In fact, the waiting at my door, without food or come sorrow and death. Teach me need to reflect upon them and to
Year, as the highly contagious droplets of the precious, this is a devastating toll pandemic had illustrated the water for three days, hoping that the secret of everlasting life.” act. The time is now. If you ask me
Omicron variant find easy hosts in congrega- indeed. But it is important to put former in ample measure. he would return to the world of the Similarly, having seen the very how, I will say our collective will
tions. But elsewhere it made little sense other things in perspective. The number That is why as 2022 begins, we living. But seeing how persistent dire and dread face of death, we can create the requisite energy to
than creating the impression of a partial lock- of dead and wounded in World should reflect on the year gone he is, I must make amends.” cannot be expected to waste our bring about transformation. Trust
down while not affecting the economy or nor- War I is estimated to exceed 40 mil- by, quite in the tradition of Nach- Turning to Nachiketa, “Ask,” he time on trivialities. At once, we and not suspicion is what is re-
lion. If we add the deaths by the iketa in the Katha Upanishad, said, magnanimously, “for any must focus our attention on what quired today. We have spent many
mal life. The psy-ops conjured up the smoke- so-called Spanish Flu, an influen- the youth who was sent to the boon and it shall be granted to is of utmost consequence. And it is decades, even centuries, resisting
screen of the executive erecting its first barriers za epidemic that struck the world, house of death by his father. This thee.” Death thought Nachiketa this. We should be proud to belong and fighting.
against the invisible parasite while doing noth- the casualties go up by another 50 ancient story may help us better would ask for the most obvious to the race of Earthlings. We are Finally, we must not yield to de-
ing in real terms. It also gave the police a free million or so. understand the death of loved thing. Life. But the young man creatures of the soil of this planet, spondency or despair. Our destiny
pass to harass late diners and throttle the al- When it comes to World War II, ones in 2021 by making our peace said, “O Death, I do not desire life. terrestrial and Earth-bound. is magnificent, grander than what
the fatalities are easily double that with our losses. What is more, I have come to learn from you the This Earth is our home. We are any of us has imagined. We are
ready hobbled leisure sector. The problem with
of World War I. In addition, the such a reflection can teach us to secret of secrets. I want to realise born here and die here. This is our creatures of light, love and perfec-
such partial lockdowns is they are mindlessly horrors of the Holocaust, the nu- hope, prepare and work for a bet- that Truth knowing which all can only habitat, our holy ground. tion. We must stop at nothing short
imposed across the globe with little scientific clear bombings of Hiroshima and ter tomorrow. be free forever from this round of Let’s tread gently on it. Let us not of what we are really capable of at
reasoning. There are some theories that suggest Nagasaki, and the terrible Bengal The father had rashly told Nach- birth and death.” destroy this beautiful, green plan- our best.
the Covid droplets may not survive night-time famine, which claimed 2–3 million iketa when the latter questioned Death was taken aback. “So et, this mother of all life. From the The human story, despite its un-
temperatures in winter but they have not been lives and was a direct outcome of his actions, “Go! I give thee to young and yet so pure, so wise,” he creatures of the deep to those air- told tragedies and sufferings, is
imperial Britain’s enforced in- death!” Unfortunately, we still say wondered. “No, dear youth, ask borne, the Earth and her atmos- one great experiment in which all
conclusively established. volvement of India in the war, such things today to those we me for something else—anything phere sustains us all. So let us of us are involved. There is a
The bigger problem, of course, is that such make the numbers go up signifi- love—jao, maro, jo karna hai karo! else. Ask me for riches, power and cherish and protect this Earth, providence that shapes our ends
myopic directives give netas the licence to non- cantly. Soon after the end of the I’m sure there are equivalents in glory, for gold and girls, for chari- our mother. and an intelligence that guides
chalantly hold big election rallies before sun- war in 1945 was the terrible Parti- all our languages. The youth ots and palaces, kingdoms and em- Secondly, let us remember that our endeavours.
down. All Covid protocols of masking, public tion of the subcontinent. obeyed his father’s command liter- pires. Ask me for the overlordship to have lived as human beings has Nachiketa, the young man in
Then the colossal suffering of ally, which must have been so unu- of the Earth.” been a great privilege. Though the Katha Upanishad, was taught
distancing and frequent sanitising of hands are
Stalin’s and Mao’s totalitarian re- sual even in those days. The father, “No,” said the youth, whose face our life is short and full of hard- a sacred rite by Death himself. To-
completely ignored, what with the leaders on pression, which resulted in many too, was full of regret. Nachiketa shone with the light of truth and ships, we have the opportunities day, only the story remains, its se-
the dais, too, failing to lead by example of putting more millions of deaths. All told, left his father’s home and knocked to choose the right things. As a cret muffled in the folds of antiq-
on masks. It happened during the first wave in the 20th century was easily the on Death’s door. species, we can participate in and uity. But we who have faced Death
Bihar and the second wave in Bengal and else- most violent and brutal known to Death, it is said, was away in the co-create our world. Not just as or his shadow must learn to live as
where. The template is being repeated now, human civilisation. We must also world, busy as usual. Yes, even in passive spectators of the cosmic if each action of ours is consecrat-
not forget that the world popula- those ancient times, Death was game of dice, but as active partici- ed, as if everything we do counts—
when the third wave has just about begun. tion then was around 2.3 billion. very, very active. Then what to say Today, only the story of the young man pants. We are not merely Nature’s as much as if it were our last day
The EC’s ability to play neutral umpire would Which means that up to 10% of of corona-kaal? Remember all the remains, its secret muffled in the folds creatures but can be the masters on earth.
be shortly tested when it imposes the model the humans on the planet per- burning pyres and floating dead of antiquity. But we who have faced of our destiny. We must all strive together to
code of conduct in five states that are due to go ished from war or unnatural bodies during the devastating sec- Death or his shadow must learn Unfortunately, we have used our bring about a consciousness revo-
to polls around February. Its barks during the causes bang in the middle of ond wave right here in India? But to live as if each action of ours is powers mostly to destroy or domi- lution that will make this world of
second wave without any follow-up bite left it twentieth century. the young man, Nachiketa, was consecrated, as if everything we do nate one another, to establish our ours a better place for us all. This,
The last century was worse very wise and brave. He waited pa- supremacy over non-human spe- much more than a credo of per-
with a bloody nose. The EC cannot afford to slip counts—as much as if it were our last day
than this one, though we are still tiently for Death to come back. cies and over inanimate nature. sonal transformation, can actually
up this time around. As for night curfew, let’s only in its second decade. Looking For three days and three nights on earth. ... We must not yield to despondency This is a mistake. We need to pool be the prelude and precondition of
not fool ourselves. It’s time to end the charade. back can give us a better sense of he waited, without drink or food. or despair. Our destiny is magnificent, our energies so that the damage of global change.
the scale of human suffering and When Death returned from his er- grander than what any of us has imagined centuries can be reversed. We need (Views are personal)
tragedy that we have recently rands, he felt mortified. After all, to work together and not against (Tweets @MakrandParanspe)
AUSTERITY IS NOT
THE WAY FORWARD
WOMEN COMMANDOS BOOST FOR PROTECTION OF VIPs
T
he Centre’s reluctance to spend at a time
when the economy is still trying to emerge
from the shock of Covid-19 is baffling. The
numbers belie the tall claims of massive women commandos of the CRPF With the prospects of more fe- By 2010, ten battalions of com-
infrastructure spending to boost the econ- for VIP security. That selected male leaders being classified into mandos (CoBRA Bns) were read-
omy. In the first eight months (April-November commandos are going to be de- higher categories of security, ied by the CRPF. The Parliament
2021) of the financial year, the government has ployed only after an orientation based on threat perception and Duty Group (PDG) also has been
KV Former IG of CRPF, the author had a long course is reassuring. A comman- more representation of women in raised in the CRPF. Naturally this
spent less than 50% of its budgeted capital ex- MADHUSUDHANAN tenure in the Special Protection Group (SPG)
do is a commando in mental and the political leadership of the path-breaking role also would be
penditure of `5.54 lakh crore. Neither has it physical toughness, be it male or country, this decision has not successfully carried out by this
gone overboard with its revenue expenditures— female. The golden principles of come a day too soon. With gender Force, nearly disbanded in the
O
the cost of running the government, which in- n 21 May 1991, the precious life of that day. But any security agency dignitary protection such as body equality being universally ap- wake of Independence but for the
cludes money spent on salaries, pensions, subsi- a promising young leader could practicing or rather allowed to cover, access control, technical plied, women are claiming in- vision of Sardar Patel.
dies and grants to states. The Centre has so far have been saved had the security practise that professionalism checks/ sanitisation, etc., call for creased participation in all walks Coming back to women com-
agencies involved in the arrange- would have done the job. honing of several other skills. of life as a matter of right. Their mandos, we have some of the best
used 61.5% of the revenue expenditure budget
ments strictly implemented ac- The fact to be borne in mind is Hence there is no reason to con- considerable presence in the in every Force/Service. Should
(compared to 63.3% previous year). cess control. That the last minute that the adversaries have the time. clude that women commandos structure of adversaries is also to we deny them the opportunity to
Not that the government has been short of line-up at the alighting point near They can wait, try, fail and strike would be unequal to the task. I be reckoned with. make use of their potential—for
money—revenue collections have been splendid the Sriperumbudur public meet- again. My stress is on being ever have personally observed Mahila Now when it comes to tasking public good—just because of gen-
thanks to the RBI’s largesse of `99,000 crore and ing dais could be compromised alert. It is just not one day, one CRPF personnel doing as well as with pioneering assignments, the der or biological differences?
gross tax collections surged by 50% during the and the assassin could sneak in journey or one public meeting. men in ensuring security drills in government cannot think of a Then, there are nuances like the
first eight months. Yet, it continues with its fru- and succeed in her mission was The rut of routine is the deadliest the SPG. more versatile and seasoned force comfort level of women dignitar-
the mother of all lapses on that trap a complacent security man or than the CRPF. It had raised ies vis-a-vis women commandos
gal ways. Why is the Centre then keeping a tight fateful day. any cog in the chain can fall into peacekeeping elements to deal who can perform uninhibited se-
leash on its expenses? Is it worried about the Some experts attributed the at unimaginable cost. A changeo- with natural calamities, the gen- curity drills in the event of opera-
further worsening of the fiscal situation or are non-neutralisation of the threat to ver or rotation of personnel peri- esis of what today is known as the tional contingencies, including
there other reasons? Despite the fiscal deficit be- withdrawal of Special Protection odically will have to be ensured to NDRF. Then came their foray into medical emergencies. The best
ing 46% of the budgeted target of `15 lakh crore, Group cover from the then former tackle this. The induction of fresh The rut of routine is the deadliest trap a VVIP Security. out of these commandos chosen
many analysts believe the government may yet prime minister Rajiv Gandhi (as hands without lowering the bench- complacent security person can fall into at The Special Duty Group (SDG) and trained without lowering the
per unamended provisions of the mark is possible only by expand- was raised in the CRPF to comple- benchmark would definitely do
exceed the target by `30,000–40,000 crore given unimaginable cost. A rotation of personnel
SPG Act). I would moderate that ing the pool. So why should we shy ment the SPG. The raising of the very well and strive to prove
little likelihood of it being able to rake in and say the rigidity and no-non- away from picking up the best of periodically will help tackle this. The induction first Mahila Battalion in the coun- themselves in the new role as-
`1.75 lakh crore through disinvestment (its sense style of the SPG’s imple- women commandos? of fresh hands without lowering the benchmark try was done in the CRPF in 1986. signed to them.
budget target) and slowing down of tax collec- mentation of the security drill Rightly, the Narendra Modi gov- is possible only by expanding the pool Now there are six such battalions (madhukappuva
tion growth in the fourth quarter. There’s an- could have averted the tragedy ernment has decided to draft in the CRPF. @yahoo.co.in)
other view that the Centre’s devolution to states
from its tax pool has increased lately (doubling
in November to `95,000 crore), leaving little in
its hand. Of course, there are additional expens-
es (for fertiliser subsidy, export incentives, MN- Be always ready for rains filing due date beyond 31 December etc., are generally done by politicos development, after which he became become something of a non-entity in his
REGA and Air India’s debt repayment) of The TN government cannot hide behind 2021. But to dispute the existence of at the helm, apparently to protect unpopular among Indians. As the own country of creation, Pakistan. What
`3 lakh crore that it has now accounted for. the alleged failure of the IMD for the glitches in the new I-T portal right from political/religious interests. Cities editorial has rightly said, the monument relevance would he have in India then,
No matter what the reason is, the government shoddy handling of the rains last week day one of its launch is ridiculous. In like Trivandrum have been renamed stands testimony to history and apart from being known as the one who
by the civic administration. Rainfall every audit office, all staff members to Thiruvananthapuram, Allahabad to renaming it may not be prudent. divided us on religious lines?
should not hide behind the excuse of fiscal con- predictions may suffer from both false have been facing difficulties in filing Prayagraj, etc. There are myriad vital Ravi Varma Raja E, Ennakkad K R Parvathy, Mysuru
siderations to keep a tight control over spending positives and false negatives. But the I-T returns of almost all clients. The issues that need to be tackled, so why
at a time when the economy needs its full sup- civic administration needs to be ever- government not accepting this fault is focus so much attention on such topics? What is his relevance? Stop international flights
port to get back to normalcy. It should not repeat ready. After all, timely monsoons didn’t disrespectful to taxpayers. Thomas K M, Muvattupuzha The editorial highlighted the ruthless As the new Omicron variant has shown
the mistakes of many European countries that make the government take adequate S Ramalingam, Chennai vote-catching tactics of parties. BJP a surge in India, it is better that the
measures for relief and rehabilitation. Renaming not prudent leader Somu Veerraju’s appeal to people Centre stop all international incoming
embraced austerity measures after the financial Focus on vital issues
Ramkumar Narayan, email Jinnah was, of course, one of the to cast votes in the party’s favour by and outgoing flights as a precautionary
crises in 2008 and 2011. The self-imposed, and in
This is with reference to History cannot prominent freedom fighters under promising to provide cheap liquor is measure to prevent its spread in the
some cases forced, austerity delayed the eco- Disrespectful to taxpayers be erased by renaming public moments the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. abhorrent. But the renaming of the nation. We must be alert this time and
nomic revival and even harmed the economies The Centre may have its own valid (Jan 1). Renaming public roads, cardinal His intention to divide India and get historical Jinnah tower in Guntur cannot not repeat previous mistakes.
in the long run. reasons for refusing to extend the I-T places, government establishments, a separate Muslim state was a later be equated to this. Jinnah seems to have T Kailash Ditya, Hyderabad
THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS

Chairman of the Board: Manoj Kumar Sonthalia Editor: G S Vasu Resident Editor (Telangana) : Ch V M Krishna Rao* Published by R K Jhunjhunwala on behalf of Express Publications (Madurai) Private Limited., at H.No.6-3-1113/1, B.S.Makta Lane, Somajiguda, Near Grand Kakatiya Hotel, Punjagutta, Hyderabad – 500 016
and printed by him at Sakshi Press, Plot No.D-75 & E-52, Industrial Estate (APIE), Balanagar, Medchal-Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Hyderabad: Vol. 46, No. 2 RNI Reg. No. 32179/77. Phone: 040-23413908. * Responsible for selection of News under the PRB Act
Copyright: Express Publications (Madurai) Private Limited., All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner, electronic or otherwise, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited.
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WKHWKLUGZHHNRI'HFHPEHU)UHVKFDVHVVXEVHTXHQWO\IHOOWRDURXQGD t’s election time in five States,
GD\H[FHSWLQWZRSURYLQFHV6RXWK$IULFDKDVQRZGHFODUHGWKDW´LWZDVDVKRUW
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LQJHIIRUWVGLGDZD\ZLWKTXDUDQWLQHDQGOLIWHGWKHPRQWKORQJFXUIHZ%\WKLV
I and both the print and elec-
tronic media enjoy it in
many ways. Even the inter-
national media focus has shifted
to these polls, primarily because
of Uttar Pradesh and its Chief
WLPH2PLFURQKDGFURZGHGRXWWKH'HOWDYDULDQWIURPWKHFRXQWU\1LQHW\ILYHSHU Minister Yogi Adityanath. He has
FHQW RI WKH QHZ FDVHV JHQRPH VHTXHQFHG ZHUH 2PLFURQLQIHFWHG 7KH impressed even his staunch
*RYHUQPHQWLVFRQILGHQWWKDWHYHQLIWKHGHFOLQHLQFDVHVVORZVGRZQDIWHUWKH opponents — they admit it only
UHOD[DWLRQVLWZLOOQRWOHDGWRDQRWKHUVSLNH2PLFURQLVFXUUHQWO\UDJLQJLQWKH8QLWHG in private — by ruthless action
against criminals. There could be
6WDWHVDQGKDVDFFRXQWHGIRUSHUFHQWRIWKH considerable substance in asser-
QHZFDVHV,QWKH1HZ<RUNDUHDLWSUHYDLOHGLQ tions that not only internal oppo-
SHUFHQWRIWKHFDVHVUHSRUWHG2PLFURQLVWKH sition, but also certain external
GRPLQDQWYDULDQWLQWKH8.DQGVHWWRWDNHRYHU elements would like him to be
out as his victory would herald
IURP RWKHU YDULDQWV LQ PRUH FRXQWULHV a death knell for the mafia, and
6FLHQWLVWVLQWKH86SUHGLFWDWRXJK-DQXDU\EXW that would include illegal off-
DOVRVD\WKDWWKHFDVHVZLOOTXLFNO\SHDNDQGIDOO shore money transactions and
IDVW 3UHVLGHQW -RH %LGHQ·V PHGLFDO DGYLVRU devious funding to NGOs
known to use it for unacceptable
$QWKRQ\)DXFLSUHGLFWHGWKDWWKH2PLFURQZDYH tasks. People are well aware of
PD\KLWLWVSHDNE\WKHHQGRI-DQXDU\ several other factors why there is itself in several ways, including flicting views? record of social cohesion. It
0HDQZKLOH,UHODQGDOVRLVFRQILGHQWWKDWWKH so much interest all around in the way the Houses of In a democracy, differ- was followed by the recently
FXUUHQW ZDYH ZLOO UHDFK LWV SHDN LQ D FRXSOH RI Yogi. There is a flood of surveys Parliament and Assembly ses- ences arising out of ideolog- concluded farmers’ agitation,
on the electronic media, and each sions are disrupted. All this is ical convictions deserve which inflicted immense
ZHHNV:LOO,QGLDQRZEHJLQQLQJWRVHHDQ2PLFURQVXUJHDOVRKDYHDTXLFNSHDN" one of these claims to be most certainly not congenial for the respectful attention of those hardships on millions of daily
7KHUHLVQRRIILFLDOZRUGRQWKLV2GLVKDLVWKHRQO\6WDWHWRGHFODUHWKDWLWLVSUHSDU accurate, with a wonderful health of a vibrant democrat- in power. When it comes to commuters, damaged the
LQJIRUDSHDNLQWKHWKLUGZHHNRI-DQXDU\5HVHDUFKHUVDW,,7.DQSXUSUHGLFWHG record of making right predic- ic setup which every alert, a calamity like Corona, or the livelihood of workers and
WKDW,QGLD·VWKLUGZDYHZLOOSHDNLQWKHEHJLQQLQJRI)HEUXDU\$OOSUHGLFWLRQVDUH tions in the past elections. Switch active and concerned Indian cowardly killing of 40 CRPF disrupted industrial activity.
over to the next channel, and aspires for. The manner jawans in Pulwama on Hundreds of nearby villages
EDVHGRQWKHIDFWWKDW2PLFURQ·VLQFXEDWLRQSHULRGLVVKRUWWUDQVPLVVLELOLW\LV they would be engrossed in the Parliament’s November- February 14, 2019, it was suffered damages of varied
KLJKDQGDVIUHVKFDVHVULVHUDSLGO\WKHUHFRPHVDSRLQWZKHQWKHYLUXVUXQV ‘biggest’ debate on UP elections! December 2021 session suf- shocking indeed to find state- kinds to their earnings,
RXWRIFRQWDFWVZKRFDQEHLQIHFWHG7KDWLVZKHQWKHFDVHVZLOOVWDUWWRIDOO6R Elections cast a shadow over fered adjournments and ments of certain Indian lead- dwellings and routine busi-
LWLVUHDVRQDEOHWRH[SHFWWKH,QGLDQZDYHWRFRQIRUPWRWKHSDWWHUQ,WLVDOVRSRV every important issue facing peo- expressions of bitterness, does ers praised in Pakistan. Yes, ness. Why should Parliament
VLEOHWKDWLQWKHDEVHQFHRIDQ\RWKHU6$56&29PXWDQWVVSULQJLQJDVXUSULVH
ple and the nation. And this hap-
pens rather every year, some-
not harmonise well with the
global expectations from India.
8C8BD=5>ACD=0C4 their stand was a definite
endorsement of Pakistan’s
not call a special session to
ponder this unprecedented
WKH2PLFURQYDULDQWKDVWHQVWKHHQGRIWKHSDQGHPLFRQFHLWUHSODFHVWKHH[LVW where or the other. India has now The India of yore was revered C70CC748340>5 stand. It was in sharp contrast takeover of public spaces by
LQJYDULDQWV+RZHYHUZHNQRZIURPWKHELWWHUH[SHULHQFHRIWKHVHFRQGZDYH enough experience on how elec- globally for its tradition of
7>;38=6?>;;B to the Opposition’s approach agitators, ignoring even the
WKDWWKHYLUXVFDQQRWEHWUXVWHG5HPHPEHUWKH'HOWDYDULDQWGDVKHGDOOKRSHV tions drain the nation’s time, exploring the secrets of nature to the Pakistani attack on Supreme Court’s orders? One
RIWKHYDFFLQHILJKWLQJRIIWKHYLUXV:HQHHGWRVHHWKURXJKWKHZDYHWDNLQJIXOO
energy and resources, and through dialogical pedagogy: B8<D;C0=4>DB;H November 26, 2008, that is afraid it sets a bad prece-
impede developmental plans and Prashna, Prati-Prashna, Pari- killed 209 innocent Indians. dent. Parliament needs to sit
SUHFDXWLRQVDQGDZDLWWKHFRQILUPDWLRQWKDW2PLFURQKDVVSDUHGRXUOXQJVDVLW programmes. There is a time-test- Prashna! It appears our parlia- 8B148=6>??>B43 One recalls the best example for extended durations to
KDVGRQHLQRWKHUFRXQWULHV ed alternative: All elections are mentarians have just decided 5>A?>;8C820; of the Government, dwell upon such national
held simultaneously after five to ignore it. They are not will- Opposition and the entire concerns that impede the
2>=B834A0C8>=B
?82D1<; years. It is unfortunate that this
is being opposed for narrow
ing to sit together calmly, dis-
cuss the national and interna- 8CF0B4G?4384=C
people coming together as in
the 1971 war. From there to
nation’s progress.
We are told the House of
political aspirations. It was expe- tional issues and take decisions Pulwama to Balakot surgical Commons has never wit-
dient on the part of media and an in the interest of people, the >=C74?0AC>5 strike of 2019 is a story of nessed such scenes, and has
ideologically unconstrained civil
society to deliberate upon such
prestige of India and its glob-
al standing. This is what they
<43800=30= sharp deterioration in the
comprehension of the
never been adjourned due to
disturbances caused by its
issues in depth and detail. did in the Constituent 834>;>6820;;H Opposition’s role. members. Astonishingly, it
Unfortunately, civil society Assembly, presided over by a Take another case which, has become a routine in our
appears in public through media luminary of the stature of Dr D=2>=BCA08=43 though of a different dimen- Parliament. If an MP could
only in the context of issuing cer- Rajendra Prasad. Who is not 28E8;B>284CHC> sion, has serious implica- throw the rule book at the
tain statements that clearly reflect familiar with the worrisome tions not only for the wellbe- Speaker or Chairperson, how
their bias. In fact, frivolous acts descent into the politics of neg- 34;814A0C4D?>= ing of every Indian but also can a schoolteacher find any
like award waapsi generate little ativity? Should the Indian edu- BD278BBD4B8= for India’s social cohesion fault with an adolescent
confidence among people as cation system not take respon- and religious amity. The throwing an object to hit his
such acts are a mere manifesta- sibility for its failure in equip- 34?C70=334C08; CAA-NRC protests caused principal? Would it not be
tion of negativity that emerges out ping the decision/law makers immense hardships to mil- unethical to punish him?
of the frustration generated when with empathy for the weak and lions of people daily, led to a (The author works in
certain individuals lament the loss poor, respect for divergent violent communal clash that education, social cohesion and
of being in the driver’s seat. views and ingenuity to forge a killed over 50 innocent peo- religious amity. The views
This negativity manifests solution from amongst con- ple. It was a scar on India’s expressed are personal.)
0?
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C74438C>A SOUNDBITE
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Sir — When ‘brave’, ‘dynamic’ leaders are
=QccWQdXUbY^WcQbUbUQ\\i\UdXQ\ f^\T]P]SR^\
8cVVUgd]ZWV
seen relentlessly beating their own trum- \d]P[WPcaTSfX[[
pet and engaging in shameless image- BPQPaX\P[P P]S ]^f Pc cWT EPXbW]^ 3TeX bc^_^][hfWT]h^d
building by squandering billions of State bWaX]TX]9P\\dP]S:PbW\Xa
money, there also dwells a Naveen bcP]SPVPX]bcXcX]
FT bW^d[S aTb_TRc TeTah aT[XVX^] P]S ^]Te^XRT
7KH9DLVKQR'HYLWUDJHG\LVDVWDUNUHPLQGHU Patnaik; silently serving the electorate
with utmost responsibility. In this per-
UPXcWQdcQhV^X]VêTaQ^PaSP]SadbWX]Vc^
cWTbTb_^cbSdaX]VbdRWPQdbhP]Sed[]Ta
WKDWSLOJULPVDIHW\LVWKH*RYW¶VUHVSRQVLELOLW\ spective, when Patnaik comes forward
with coffers of his not-so-prosperous
PQ[TcX\TSdTc^2>E83 (Xb[XZT[hcâTbd[c
2^]VaTbb[TPSTa
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7
X]PRRXST]cbfWXRWRP]aTbd[cX]XaaT_PaPQ[T
KH1HZ<HDUVWDUWHGZLWKDQDYRLGDEOHWUDJHG\DWWKH9DLVKQR'HYLVKULQHLQ State to financially support Missionaries [^bbCWTbcP\_TSTcWPcZX[[TS !_T^_[TX]
-DPPX6RIDUSHRSOHKDYHUHSRUWHGO\GLHGDQGDUHVHULRXVO\ZRXQG of Charity; it hardly evokes surprise given cWTEPXbW]^3TeXbcP\_TST^RRdaaTSSdTc^ FWT]8c^^ZÛUXRT
his magnanimity of heart. What the State
A
HGLQWKHVWDPSHGHWKHUH$QH[JUDWLDRICODNKKDVEHHQDQQRXQFHGE\ has failed to deliver to the poorest, mar-
T[XVX^db_[PRTbPRa^bbcWTR^d]cahPaT P°bRdUU[TQTcfTT]cf^Va^d_bÛ_X[VaX\b± ^daTR^]^\hfPb
WKH6WDWH*RYHUQPHQWWRWKHNLQRIHDFKRIWKRVHNLOOHGDQGDQLQTXLU\RUGHUHG ad]]X]VcWTWXVWaXbZÛSP]VTa^dbPRRX PRRâSX]V c^ cWT cWT <PcP EPXbW]^ 3TeX X]RaXbXb1dcêTa
ginalised and illiterate souls of the coun- ST]cbfWXRWcPZTPfPhX]]^RT]c[XeTbX] BWaX]T1^PaST\_WPbXbX]VcWPc^][h"$ cWT[Pbc \^]cWb
LQWRWKHLQFLGHQW:KDWOHGWRWKHWUDJHG\ZRXOGEHNQRZQRQO\DIWHUWKHSUREHLV try are instead being guaranteed by
cWT]P\TÛUPXcW?T^_[TX]eTah[PaVT]d\ _X[VaX\b fTaT P[[^fTS c^ _a^RTTS Uâ cWT fT³eTPSSTS]TPa[h
FRPSOHWHGEXWH\HZLWQHVVHVVDLGPRUHWKDQWKULFHWKHQXPEHURIGHYRWHHVWKDQ Christian missionaries with impeccable
QTabU[^RZc^bWaX]TbSdaX]VUTbcXeTbTPb^]c^ ³hPcaP´ PVPX]bc cWT ]â\P[ RP_PRXch Û bXg\X[[X^]Y^Qb
service in the sphere of education, health
FDSDFLW\KDGEHHQDOORZHGLQWRWKHVKULQHDUHD,WLVQRWWKHILUVWWLPHWKDWWKHVKULQH in remotest parts of India. bTTZQ[TbbX]VbUa^\6^S7^fTeTacWTXSTP $X]eXTfÛcWT_P]ST\XR5âcd]PcT[h
ZLWQHVVHGKHDY\UXVKRQ1HZ<HDU·V,W·VDOVRQRWWKHILUVWWLPHVXFKDVWDPSHGH QTR^\TbaTVaTccPQ[Tb^^]PUcTacWT\PbbXeT cWT]d\QTaÛ_T^_[TP[[^fTSfPb[TbbcWP] DB?aTbXST]c
When certain mandarins remain
Ra^fSX]R^]VTbcTSb_PRTbRPdbTbR^]UdbX^] cWT Ud[[ RP_PRXch Pc [TPbc cWXb Xb fWPc cWT ¯9^T1XST]
RFFXUUHGDWDUHOLJLRXVJDWKHULQJ%HWKDWDVLWPD\ obsessed with religious muscle-flexing
UXabcP]ScWTaTbd[cP]cbcP\_TSTfWXRWU^[[^fb PS\X]XbcaPcX^]bPhbâT[bTcWTSTPcWR^d]c
LW·VFHUWDLQWKDWWKHUHZDVKHDY\UXVKDQGDPDV offering nothing better than “grand”
shrines and corridors; the poor helpless ]TgcBdRWbcP\_TSTbWPeTWP__T]TSPc^cWTa R^d[SWPeTQTT]\dRWWXVWTa
8R[^bT\hThTbc^
VLYHPDVVRIGHYRWHHVZDVEHLQJDOORZHGLQZLWK receive their share of human rights and aT[XVX^db _[PRTb [XZT <TRRP :d\QPZ^]P\ <A9PhP]cWX| <d\QPX
^[ST]Sb>_T]\h
RXWSURSHUVDIHW\PHDVXUHVLQSODFH7KDW·VLW,W dignity thanks to the missionaries. Yet, far ThTbc^]TfQTVX]
ZDVDGLVDVWHUZDLWLQJWRKDSSHQ7ZHOYHLQQR from remaining indebted to the mission- rants and entertainment venues, the commonalities among these faiths. ]X]Vb7P__h]Tf
aries rendering unfathomable service to crowds surging at several tourism hotspots Wearing of burqa by women is a unique hTPaUP\
FHQWOLYHVZHUHORVWIRUQRIDXOWRIWKHLUV7KHFRP much deprived folks, how scandalously are definitely made things difficult for the Arabic culture and hence a mandatory
SHQVDWLRQDSDUWZKRWDNHVWKHUHVSRQVLELOLW\IRU the concerned authorities according step- administration. The very fact that the religious obligation is equivocal. 0Rcâ
WKHORVVRIOLYHVDQGWKHWUDXPDWKHGHYRWHHVZHQW motherly treatment to them by accusing Sawant administration has shied away Similarly, the custom of early marriage ¯:PYP[0VVPafP[
from imposing any serious curbs on the of girls is an apparent custom of Arabs and
WKURXJK" them of “conversions” and maintaining
events which were lined up to ring in the this ritual is totally inherited by Muslims.
stunned silence when they get physically
/HW·VIDFHLW:HKDYHEHFRPHLQVHQVLWLYHWR assaulted or churches vandalised. New Year more than explicitly explains the In a secular democracy, religious tenets =^\PccTacWT`dP[X
KXPDQOLYHVDQGEHOLHYHRQO\LQILOOLQJXSRXUFRI Kajal Chatterjee | Kolkata reluctance of the ruling dispensation to cannot eclipse secular clauses of the chÛcWT^__^bXcX^]
IHUV *RG GRHVQ·W GLVFULPLQDWH DPRQJ SHRSOH disturb a bustling hospitality sector. One Constitution for crucial reasons. Apart cWPcfTUPRTfT
EDVHGRQWKHLUHFRQRPLFVWDWXVRUFDVWHEXWWHPSOHPDQDJHPHQWVGR,WLVFRP 35<52B1D9?>C?F5BC814?GC165DI is vexed by the attitude of the Government from, a democratically elected RP]_dcd_P
Sir — As the world bid farewell to the old in flirting around with the rigidness of the Government is bound to exercise its UXVWcc^VTcWTaP]S
PRQNQRZOHGJHWKDWWKHUHDUHVHSDUDWHTXHXHVZLWKGLIIHUHQWDPHQLWLHVFDUU\ year and greeted 2022 with hopes of the safety protocols according to its whimsi- absolute power conferred under the
S^fT[[
LQJGLIIHUHQWSULFHWDJVIRUGHYRWHHVLQVRXWK,QGLD7KHWUXVWHHVDQGWHPSOHPDQ year bringing to an end the harrowing cal wants and needs. Constitution against any religious gang or
DJHPHQWVLQWKHQRUWKDUHQRGLIIHUHQW0RUHIRRWIDOOPHDQVPRUHPRQH\VRVFDQW spell brought about by a tiny microbe, Pachu Menon | Margao institution to protect the broad interest of
the country. All these restrictions/mea- 8]SXP]U^^cQP[[Ta
WKRXJKWLVJLYHQWRWKHVDIHW\RIGHYRWHHV%\WKHZD\WKH*RYHUQPHQWPXVWDOVR Goans planned to assuage the pandem- ¯<P]XbWP:P[hP]
ic miseries by immersing themselves in B??DC?6B5<979?EC45>?=9>1D9?>C sures are exclusively intended to safeguard
RZQUHVSRQVLELOLW\LQQHJOHFWLQJWKHZHOOEHLQJRISLOJULPVZKRFRPHIURPDIDU joyous festivities. When it comes to cel- Sir — Whenever there occurs a major the country from religious extremists.
MXVWWRSD\REHLVDQFHWRWKHGHLW\,WFRXOGQRWHYHQHQVXUHWKHLUVDIHSDVVDJH ebrating, it is said that there is no place clash of opinion in a particular religion, Nevertheless, all religious denominations CWTaTXb]^]TTSc^
EDFNKRPH$VDSRVVLEOHVROXWLRQWRWKHYH[LQJLVVXHZLWKRXWKXUWLQJUHOLJLRXV like Goa. And true to the aphorism, and a new denomination is formed with a invariably retain the basic characteristics _P]XRQdcfTWPeT
intent on ringing in the New Year with leader and some followers. However, the of the original principles, with nominal c^QTaTb_^]bXQ[T
VHQWLPHQWVWKHDXWKRULWLHVPD\FRQVLGHUDOORZLQJRQO\DOLPLWHGQXPEHURIGHYR grand celebrations all around, the State basic tenets of the severed group retain changes. Incidentally, Christianity has
WHHVSHUGD\RQWKHVKULQHFDPSXV)RUWKLVSXUSRVHRQOLQHSRVWDOERRNLQJVFDQ QhfTPaX]V\PbZb
hardly disappointed. It is, however, puz- the same of the original faith. Albeit, cor- more than 45,000 denominations appar-
P]SPe^XSX]VVPcW
EHPDGHDQGDQ\RSHQVORWVDYDLODEOHPD\EHRIIHUHGWRWKRVHDGYHQWXURXVVRXOV zling as to how Goa headed for a party ruption/nepotism, fiscal irregularities etc ently for the reasons stated above.
TaX]Vb
ZKRFKRRVHWRWURRSLQZLWKRXWDQ\ERRNLQJPXFKOLNHWKHDGYDQFHDQGFXUUHQW this festive season with the Omicron vari- are the vital causes for such clefts. As the Thomas KM | Muvattupuzha
ant set to spring loose anytime now. three Abrahamic religions viz Judaism,
WLFNHWVV\VWHPDWPRYLHWKHDWUHV,WZLOODOVRKHOSWKHWUDYHOOHUVDQGKRWHOLHUVSODQ With the State Government having Christianity and Islam have originated BT]Shh^daUUTTSQPRZcc^) 3T[WX2WXTU<X]XbcTa
IRUWKHMRXUQH\LQDQRUGHUO\DQGPHWLFXORXVIDVKLRQ announced a 50 per cent cap on restau- from the Gulf region, there are certain [TccTabc^_X^]TTa/V\PX[R^\ ¯0aeX]S:TYaXfP[
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tories from many ancient cultures
:
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S have described events like a great del-
uge which rinses out the continents
and readies them for a fresh recipe
of life. This time it's a rapidly melting polar
icecap. Seas rising to submerge some
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humanity gets rescued by a leader or a
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prince in a sizeable boat. This time around,
WKH&RURQDYLUXVUHODWHGWHUPLQRORJ\ it could well have to be a fleet of spacecraft.
7KH\HDUEHJDQTXLWHDPELWLRXVO\IRU,QGLDDVWKHQDWLRQZDV As fears of a large catastrophe rise on
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]HDOUHIOHFWHGHYHQLQWKHHQYLURQPHQWDOFRPPLWPHQWVWRDFKLHYHQHW]HUR whether a global disaster preparedness
HPLVVLRQVE\%XWWKHVHORIW\WDUJHWVZHUHOHIWLQDOXUFKDVWKH\ team can do something to mitigate its
ZHUHQRWIROORZHGXSZLWKVXLWDEOHDFWLRQVRQWKHJURXQG7KHGLOXWLRQ impact and save even 75 crore people,
which is about 10% of the current world
RIHQYLURQPHQWDOODZVJLYLQJSROOXWLQJXQLWVDIUHHUXQUHQGHUHGWKHVH population and be able to nourish them and
WDUJHWVPHDQLQJOHVV7KH\HDUDOVRVDZLQVWDQFHVZKHUHIRUHVWODQGZDV rebuild civilisation and restore it techno-
GLYHUWHGWRQRQIRUHVWXVHV logically, socially, and psychologically.
Let's also consider that about five lakh
people (considering a 25-year horizon, this
number could be at least tenfold if you add
twenty more years) will manage to leave on
space shuttles and similar long-distance
transport towards nearby satellites or C74<>BC
asteroids on which some habitation may be 8<?>AC0=C
managed.
Now if you had the money and are 1A40:C7A>D67
rather good at packing your family's trav- C70CF8;;14
el cases, which of these options would you A4@D8A43F8;; Flight operators also expect CNG bus services, electric bus for the Space Race, to be ahead or
pick? Which seems to you to be a better bet 14C70C>55>>3 that a trip to Mars could cost as lit- shuttles, solar panels, river cleaning, on par with the rest of the advanced
or the more appealing proposition? ?A>3D2C8>= tle as C7.5 lakh as economies of scale some reduction in plastic bags, world.
On the one hand, a familiar topogra- start to kick in. Also, on the accom- energy saving fridges... a beginning Planning for the first spaceport
phy, a sky whose clouds and colours are >DCB834C74 modation front, for those who does seem to have been made, but could give the whole thing a fillip.
7KHDPHQGPHQWRIWKH)RUHVW&RQVHUYDWLRQ$FWRIVWULSSHG usually reassuring and in which familiar 40AC7B want to experience a space holiday a lot more is needed urgently. Identifying a location with a sup-
DZD\WKHHFRORJLFDOSURWHFWLRQRIWKH$QGDPDQDQG1LFREDU,VODQGVDQG birds and a few airplanes fly. Ponds, wells, 0C<>B?74A4 before considering a shift of resi- More tree cover needs to be port zone around it, and creating
SXVKHGSDOPRLOFXOWLYDWLRQLQQRUWKHDVW,QGLDDQGWKH$QGDPDQDQG1LFREDU and reservoirs of water. On the other, an 0=HB8I401;4 dence outside Earth, a 12-day orbit- spared from the axe and so devel- the needed ancillary infrastructure
,VODQGV 7KH JRYHUQPHQW GLG PDNH XS E\ DQQRXQFLQJ WKH 1DWLRQDO escape far from the disastrous effects of an 2>;>=H>5 ing hotel stay package is already on opment plans will need to be for it will mean that some of the
+\GURJHQ0LVVLRQIRUFOHDQHQHUJ\DQGJOREDO6RODU*UHHQ*ULGVLQLWLD asteroid hit, nuclear blasts, submergence of offer. redrawn. Remember that shers are main global operators would start
many vast plains, overcrowding, food
C4AA4BCA80;B8= It's going to be several more the holders of the forest, and not taking interest in using our facili-
WLYHVWRZHDQ,QGLDDZD\IURPFRDO scarcity and social disintegration. Away and B?024F8;;70E4 decades before any of this is going your corporate shareholders. The ties. We have only to look back at
+RZHYHUWKHYDFLOODWLQJVWDQGVRQO\EDIIOHGHQYLURQPHQWDOH[SHUWV away into a challenging situation of inno- C>34?4=3>= to really get middle-class where we tendency in business circles to how humble the origins of the
DQGODLGEDUHWKHWUXWKWKDWWKH,QGLDQHQYLURQPHQWDOSURWHFWLRQDQGFRQ vation and adaptation. The further way for- BD??;84B will have our season tickets, and consider the ecological viewpoint as automobile industry were, or even
VHUYDWLRQLQLWLDWLYHLQZDVODFNLQJDFRKHVLYHVWUDWHJ\WRSURWHFW ward from an outbound flight or on a near- A40278=65A>< carry our own theplas and khakhras a nuisance that curtails profitabil- how the early days of aviation were,
WKHHQYLURQPHQWDJDLQVWFOLPDWHFKDQJH7KLVVWDWHRIDIIDLUVLVXQIRU by surface in our solar system will surely 40AC70=3C74 or our amla pickle on board ity has to be replaced with a will- to realise that we are not a whole
WXQDWHDV,QGLDKDVDOUHDG\H[SHULHQFHGWZRF\FORQHVDGHDGO\JODFLHU emerge under pressure. We will hope! though. On the other hand, the ingness to be flexible, and a com- century away at all from regular
The idea of getting elevated into a bet- 018;8CHC>B>;E4 clear and present dangers on Earth mitment to redemptive action space travel.
FROODSVHLQWKH+LPDOD\DVDVZHOWHULQJKHDWZDYHDQGNLOOHUIORRGV*LYHQ C74=DCA8C8>=0;
ter location in space also appeals to those are much closer to affecting us wherever there is a compromise. The most important break-
WKHVHFRQGLWLRQVLWZDVFULWLFDOIRUWKHJRYHUQPHQWWREHFOHDUDERXWWKH who note with concern that the countries BDBC4=0=24 drastically and push us to deal with In terms of upcoming opportu- through that'll be required will be
SRVLWLYHLPSDFWRILWVHQYLURQPHQWDOSROLFLHV which show 2.5% annual growth (nearly the @D4BC8>=F8;; them collectively. nity, given our advancement in that of food production outside the
7KHJRYHUQPHQW
VRQHVWHSIRUZDUGDQGWZRVWHSVEDFNZDUGDSSURDFK average for the African continent) or A great recent lesson in crisis Space programmes, when the world Earth's atmosphere. Any sizeable
?;0H0E8C0;
UHJDUGLQJHQYLURQPHQWDOFRQVHUYDWLRQFRQWLQXHGGXULQJWKH\HDUDQGLW higher in their population are also known tackling has come our way through boasts of some twenty spaceports colony of terrestrials in space will
DQQRXQFHGDQDPHQGPHQWWRWKH(QYLURQPHQWDO,PSDFW$VVHVVPHQW for backwardness and strife while the most A>;48=>?4=8=6 a global pandemic. Civic leaders which have regular departures and have to depend on some supplies
IUDPHZRUNZKHUHE\WKHUHTXLUHPHQWIRUDSXEOLFKHDULQJUHJDUGLQJDSUR advanced ones have less than 0.5% popu- D??>BB818;8C84B have had to take firm and swift arrivals, 2-3 of them could be reaching from Earth, and the abil-
MHFWZDVGRQHDZD\ZLWKLISHUFHQWRIWKHSURMHFWZDVFRPSOHWHG lation growth or even are in the negative. 5>ADB decisions and issue strict directives. located in India. This would mean ity to solve the nutritional suste-
As the pressure mounts, at least the elite There has been compliance to a transit passengers to cater to, and nance question will play a vital role
7KLVDGYHUVHO\LPSDFWHGWKHOLYHOLKRRGVRIWKHORFDOSRSXODWLRQDQGFRP may crave for a celestial sanctuary from the very great extent despite the mur- an opportunity for the airline sec- in opening up possibilities for us.
SURPLVHGHFRORJLFDOFRQGLWLRQV$QDPHQGPHQWZDVDOVRVRXJKWLQWKH rabble! It may all be an evolutionary push murs, conspiracy theories and a few tor to fly space travellers in and out It's soon going to be time when we
&RDVWDO5HJXODWLRQ1RWLILFDWLRQWRH[HPSWRLODQGQDWXUDOJDVH[SORUDWLRQ towards space travel to increase humani- claims made for quack remedies. If from these centres. think of Base Camps in space on
DQGGHYHORSPHQWDFWLYLWLHVIURPREWDLQLQJPDQGDWRU\SULRUFOHDUDQFHV ty's migration opportunities. only ecological perils such as air The way to prepare for this new our moon or on another
1HHGOHVVWRVD\WKLVKDVFUHDWHGDUHDOWLPHWKUHDWWRGHOLFDWHPDULWLPH Given the promising signs of success pollution, toxicity in water, soil chapter in history would include planet/asteroid in quite the way we
DQGFRDVWDOHFRORJ\ during the past year on the Space frontier, damage from pesticide, emissions, introducing space-related courses in operate an Antarctic station.
this could be a good time to give your mea- deforestation etc. could be attend- university curricula — there are When we realise the scarcity of
,QFRQWUDVW300RGLDWWKH&236XPPLW*ODVJRZOLVWHGRXWFRP surements for a space suit, and even put many aspects to research and human-habitable surfaces in this
ed to with similar alacrity the
PLWPHQWVRI,QGLDWRFRPEDWFOLPDWHFKDQJH7KHVHFRPPLWPHQWVYRLFHG aside Rs.5.5 lakhs for a family member to country would have much less design for, as it is an uncharted galaxy, we become more heedful
DEURDGPHDQDORWIRUDEHOHDJXHUHGHQYLURQPHQWEXWWKH\QHHGWREH gain some 'no gravity' experience in a flight. vulnerability to threats developing arena. A lot of engineering knowl- about ecological balance! The
IROORZHGXSE\VXIILFLHQWYHULILDEOHDFWLRQDWWKHKRPHIURQW Pay up about Rs.25 lakh and you can even (The writer is a creative from them. edge will have to be adapted for a countdown actually begins when
2QHRIWKHILUVWHQYLURQPHQWDOUHVROXWLRQV,QGLDFDQDGRSWIRU go on an orbit trip (like Frank Borman in director, advertising facul- In the last few years, segregation new context and a different set of and where we start to count. Both
1968 on the Apollo 8) around the moon - ty, and an amateur episte- of waste has got implemented, odd operating conditions. It's also an to save our environment from fur-
LVWRHUDGLFDWHVRFLDOLQMXVWLFH$UHFHQWVWXG\GHVFULEHGKRZUHGOLQLQJ mologist. The views
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and even number plates, sprinkler opportunity to gear up our think- ther degradation, and to reach the
eymoon cruise. irrigation in gardens, cab pooling, tanks, build planetariums and labs next horizon.
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he passage by the date the rise of the BJP. In pre- This led to the enactment the Article (25) ……covers all been anathema to the Hindu Gandhi concludes, "It was
T Karnataka Assembly of
the Protection of Right
to Freedom of Religion Bill,
independent India several
princely states restricted reli-
gious conversions by law.
of anti-conversion laws that are
now in force in eight out of
twenty-nine states; several of
religions alike….What is free-
dom for one, is freedom for the
other, in equal measure, and
mind because unlike other
religions, Hinduism has never
claimed an exclusive right to
impossible for me to believe
that I could go to heaven or
attain salvation only by becom-
2021 (or Anti-Conversion Bill) After Independence, the these were introduced by non- there can therefore be no such divinity. The ability to realize ing a Christian…."
has once again brought the Congress government in BJP governments, including thing as a fundamental right to that there could be more than Gandhi's views on conver-
contentious issue of religious Madhya Pradesh tasked the the Congress. convert any person to one's one way to God has pervaded sion were equally blunt: "I dis-
conversion to the forefront F9F5;6D<0BC4 Niyogi Committee headed by Article 25 of the Indian own religion." our scriptures for centuries. believe in the conversion of
compelling us to introspect on Bhawani Shankar Niyogi, a Constitution states: "Subject to Additionally, the apex Truth is one; the wise call it by one person by another. My
the matter. retired Chief Justice, to inves- public order, morality and court invoked the 'public order' different names is an old quote effort should never be to
First, is the right to convert tigate Christian Missionary Tribals and 'Harijans' are health and to the other provi- and highlighted the focus on from the Vedas. undermine another's faith but
a fundamental right enshrined activity. The Committee said: the special targets of aggressive sions of this Part, all persons 'forcible conversion' to uphold Mahatma Gandhi said: "I to make him a better follower
in the Constitution? Enormous sums of foreign evangelization for the reason are equally entitled to freedom the validity of both the came to the conclusion long of his own faith."
Secondly, does religious money flow into the country that there is no adequate proof conscience and the right Madhya Pradesh Dharma ago, after prayerful search and He was even against prop-
conversion conform to our civ- for missionary work, com- vision of hospitals, schools, freely to profess, practice and Swatantraya Adhiniyam, 1968, study and discussion with as agation: "But no propaganda
ilizational morality? prising educational, medical orphanages and other social propagate religion." and the Orissa Freedom of many people as I could meet, can be allowed which reviles
To fully evaluate an anti- and evangelist activities. welfare services in the sched- However, the right to Religion Act,1967 (two of the that all religions are true….. other religions. For that would
conversion bill (now in exis- Conversions are mostly uled or specified areas. propagate is not co-terminus first anti-conversion Bills). and whilst I hold my own, I be negation of toleration."
tence in eight other states), we brought about by undue influ- The Committee recom- with the right to convert. In the In short, the Constitution should hold others as dear as Anti-conversion bills are
need to understand its histor- ence, misrepresentation, etc., mended that "Suitable control case of Rev. Stainislaus vs State does not guarantee a funda- Hinduism…." therefore backed by the spiri-
ical background, test its con- or in other words not by con- on conversions brought about of Madhya Pradesh (1977), a mental right to convert and When one is willing to tual might of the Mahatma. He
stitutional validity and analyze (The writer is an academic viction but by inducements. through illegal means should Supreme Court Bench anti-conversion bills in gener- concede that all religions are once unequivocally declared:
its moral legitimacy. and political commentator Schools, hospitals and be imposed. If necessary unequivocally ruled: "It has to al have been scrutinized and equal, the concept of conver- "If I had the power and could
India has a long history of based in the USA. The views orphanages are used to facili- Legislative measures should be be appreciated that the free- validated by the SC. sion becomes redundant. legislate, I should stop all pros-
expressed are personal.)
anti-conversion laws that pre- tate proselytization. enacted." dom of religion enshrined in Conversion has always In another message elytizing.
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06 NEW DELHI, MONDAY 03 JANUARY 2022 Vol. CXXXXXVI 2
Incorporating and directly descended

Tax and Politics A MEMBER
OF THE
from THE FRIEND OF INDIA - Founded 1818

A clear message from the Kanpur episode is that the cash economy is alive and kicking. ASIAN VOICES
Two Presidents talk Probably, instead of outlawing cash, the Government should try to integrate the cash
Reduction of
I n an interaction that was somewhat reminiscent
economy in the formal economy. Also, Direct and Indirect Tax provisions should be harmonised.
of the Cold War era, President Vladimir Putin has
warned President Biden of what he calls “com-
That said, ersatz solutions like tinkering with tax rates cannot solve the deep-rooted personal income
structural problems of our tax system
plete rupture” of ties over the raging crisis in Ukraine.
To the extent that economic sanctions imposed on
tax for labourers
Russia if it moves to take military action against
Ukraine could result in a parting of ways between
unnecessary
the two nucear superpowers.
The world has been kept guessing about the
details of what transpired during the 50-minutes
telephone interaction, but the talks for now have
S ome say the Ministry of Finance
should consider reducing person-
al income tax (PIT) for labourers
affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
What is your view on this matter?
ended without clarity about Mr Putin’s intentions. According to the provisions of the
He has massed an estimated 100,000 troops on the current Personal Income Tax (PIT)
border with Ukraine and has demanded that Nato Law, only labourers with stable
and the United States pull back in the region. incomes from salaries and wages
The Kremlin has not decided whether to order an exceeding VNÐ11 million/month
invasion, however. At another remove, a White House must pay an amount of tax based on
statement said Mr Biden made it “clear that the Unit- the excess amount.
ed States and its allies and partners will respond deci- On the other hand, the time of
sively if Russia further attacks Ukraine”. Clearly, both calculation of PIT is the time when the
labourer is paid, that is, when receiv-
sides are trying to pave the diplomatic way for talks in ing wages and salaries of more than
Geneva on 10 January, followed by meetings in Brus- VNÐ11 million/month (for those who
sels and Vienna that will include Nato allies and then have no dependents) and over
Ukraine. VNÐ15.4 million/month (for those
During the conversation, Mr Putin repeatedly obliged to take care of one depen-
accused the United States and Nato of placing offen- dent).
A
sive weapons near Russia’s borders and endanger- For workers affected by the Covid-
ing the country’s security. It is a charge that Russian massive cash seizure, by thing related to GST, including close to their homes. Income-tax ry, income-tax rates were cut 19 pandemic, their income has also
officials have made repeatedly in recent times. Over the Directorate General laws, rules and rates, falls under Officer in moffusil towns kept drastically after the liberalisation been reduced to a very low rate, or
of GST Intelligence the purview of the GST Council. themselves well informed about of 1991. Consequently, collection even completely, let alone the amount
time, it has become increasingly clear that the Rus- (DGGI), from the Administration of GST at the the activities of taxpayers in their of direct taxes increased from of VNÐ11 million. Compared with the
sians are referring to nuclear and non-nuclear “glob- premises of a gutka manufactur- operational level is divided jurisdictions. Now with e-filing Rs.10,606 crore in FY 1990-91 to current PIT policy, I personally think a
al strike” weapons. er in Kanpur had the unintended between the Centre and States, and jurisdiction-less, faceless Rs.68,305 crore in FY 2000-01, to reduction of PIT for labourers affected
These include intermediate range nuclear mis- consequence of precipitating bit- with control over 90 per cent of assessments, local officers get lit- Rs.4,45,995 crore in 2010-11 and by Covid-19 is not necessary because it
siles that were barred by a treaty that Russia had vio- ter slanging matches on TV chan- taxpayers having a turnover tle information about business to Rs.11,37,685 crore in FY 2018- does not promote the full effectiveness
lated for several years and that President Trump had nels, between spokespersons of below Rs.1.5 crore vesting with activities in their area. 19. Applying this principle to the of the tax policy in supporting affected
abandoned. In the reckoning of US officials, Mr sundry political parties, with State tax administration and Previously, the Income-tax GST regime, reduction in rates, labourers.
Putin’s concern might provide some basis for fresh every speaker alleging links jurisdiction over the remaining Officer could conduct surveys – simplification of processes, mov- Moreover, because the beneficia-
negotiations with Russia not the least because there between the raided person and 10 per cent vesting with CBIC. a very effective intelligence gath- ing towards one slab of taxation,
rival political parties. The Taxpayers with turnover above ering tool and a potent weapon all may be required to increase
are no plans at this juncture to deploy a new range of
unsavoury spectacle had its Rs.1.5 crores are divided equally against tax evasion ~ and advise voluntary compliance.
such weapons in Europe. denouement in the PM, FM, UP between State tax administration the Investigation Wing about big- Another thing to be kept in ries of this policy are few, the goal is
President Putin is said to have conveyed CM, President of SP and other and CBIC. With such a complex ger cases of tax evasion. Present- mind is that Direct Taxes are pro- difficult to achieve, not to mention the
Moscow’s expectation that the forthcoming talks leading politicians joining the structure, and absence of tax pro- ly, surveys and searches are gressive, aimed at the rich, while additional administrative procedures
would lead “to legally formulated guarantees of secu- low-level debate. The public, fessionals at the top, administra- actively discouraged with the Indirect Taxes are regressive, and costs for changing the tax declara-
rity” for Russia. The interaction has arguably provid- always sceptical of the morality tion of the GST Act has become a power to order surveys and affecting the poor more than the tion system of the tax authority at all
ed a “positive background” for negotiations this of politicians, were left wonder- challenge. searches being vested with much rich. Advanced economies collect levels. It would be wasting the nation's
month. No compromises had been reached, however. ing if all allegations made by It does not help that GST is more senior officers. The result is most of their tax revenue from resources.
President Biden has attempted a two-track political leaders against each levied in five different tax slabs: 0 a paucity of local knowledge Direct Taxes. As the Indian econ- Recently, the Ministry of Finance
approach; he is trying to deter Russia with specific other were true! per cent, 5 per cent, which means that omy matured, Direct Tax collec- has submitted to the Government to
Creditably, the DGGI, and its 12 per cent, 18 per cases like the Kan- tion, which was only one fourth promulgate many support policies for
warnings about imposing a fresh cache of sanctions
parent entity, the Central Board cent and 28 per pur one go unde- of the Indirect Tax collection in taxpayers. In your opinion, how effec-
that would go far beyond what the West had agreed of Indirect Taxes (CBIC), kept cent. Additionally, tected. Probably, the 1980s, overtook Indirect Tax tive are these policies?
upon on 2014 after the Russian annexation of away from the raging controver- there is a special this is the price the collection in FY 2007-08, progres- In order to perform key and
Crimea. sy. Playing by the rulebook, both rate of 0.25 per cent Income-tax Depart- sively increasing to 56 per cent of urgent tasks, the whole political sys-
The new sanctions under consideration range CBIC and DGGI refrained from for rough, precious ment has to pay for total tax revenues in FY 2013-14 tem agreed, made efforts to promul-
from cutting Russia off from the system of global disclosing unnecessary details and semi-precious its emphasis on and FY 2014-15. Reversing this gate and implement many policies to
financial settlements to imposing new restrictions about the search, to the extent stones and 3 per centralisation of trend, the present Government support employees affected by the
on US and Western semi-conductors, which Russia that even the names of the offi- cent on gold. A cess information and increased GST rates across the Covid-19 pandemic, including the key
uses for the modernization of its military. Suffice it to cers involved in the search were of 22 per cent on ‘non-intrusive inv- board and imposed extortionate role of the Ministry of Finance through
register that Ukraine and its periphery are in ferment, not revealed. Perhaps, GST offi- top of 28 per cent estigation’ as op- levies on petroleum products, tax policies. This has contributed sig-
cials had learnt a lesson from the GST is levied on DEVENDRA posed to old school which did yield extra revenue but nificantly to supporting labourers
and Thursday’s telephone conversation has done but Mumbai drug bust, where a items like aerated SAKSENA intelligence gather- at the cost of inflation, a slowing through direct support, or indirectly
little to cool things down. The outlook for 2022 is as hunger for publicity had drinks, luxury cars ing. Even in the economy, and a distorted tax through businesses, to promptly solve
The writer is a retired
dire as it is uncertain. boomeranged, resulting in the and tobacco prod- Principal Chief Commissioner present technolog- structure, with Indirect Tax col- difficulties for labourers in the short
of Income-Tax
Zonal Director of Enforcement ucts. Multiple tax ically advanced lection consistently exceeding term.
Directorate being slandered by rates force busi- times, a mixture of Direct Tax collection after FY With a series of supportive poli-
Partner in Crime politicians while the accused,
aided by expensive lawyers, came
nesses to classify inputs and out- both may be required to catch tax
puts based on the applicable tax evasion. It may be added that the
2018-19.
A clear message from the
cies, labourers have overcome difficul-
ties during the time they had to stop
A decade-long quest for justice ended in a New

York court on Wednesday with the remarkable
fall from grace of the British socialite, Ghis-
laine Maxwell, who was found guilty by an Ameri-
out as lily-white victims.
According to information
available in the public domain,
wrong doing of the Gutka group
was unearthed consequent to
rate which makes compliances Income-tax Department is yet to
onerous for small businesses. come to grips with the new pro-
Further, to claim input tax cedures, with a number of cases
credit, a firm requires to match being filed in High Courts by
invoices between outputs and assessees alleging procedural
Kanpur episode is that the cash
economy is alive and kicking.
Probably, instead of outlawing
cash, the Government should try
to integrate the cash economy in
working to follow the requirement on
social distancing. These policies have
helped millions of labourers stabilise
their lives to come back to work when
the pandemic is over. To support
can jury of helping late financier Jeffrey Epstein sex-
interception of a truck with inputs; such exercises increase irregularities by AOs, in assess- the formal economy. Also, Direct workers affected by the pandemic,
ually abuse teenage girls. She was accused of recruit- defective papers in Gujarat. The the compliance burden and the ment proceedings. The Depart- and Indirect Tax provisions besides tax policy, do you think other
ing and grooming four teenagers between 1994 and modus operandi of GST evasion compliance cost, leading to eva- ment had to change the proce- should be harmonised. That said, support policies are needed?
2004 for Epstein, her former boyfriend, who killed was simple enough; goods were sion. Due to slow refund process- dure for dealing with appeals, ersatz solutions like tinkering I think that, in addition to tax
himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting under-invoiced by the Gutka ing, working capital gets locked comprehensively, after some with tax rates cannot solve the policies, the Government needs to
trial on sex abuse charges. group, so that e-Way Bills were up, and complicated administra- adverse observations by higher deep-rooted structural problems have other major programmes to
She was convicted on five of six counts, including not required for transportation. tive processes often lead to Courts. of our tax system. A Direct Tax recover and develop the economy in
one count of sex trafficking. Lawyers for Maxwell, Truck drivers carrying gutka con- frauds. Only 5 countries viz. India Voluntary compliance by Code has been in the offing since the coming difficult period. That can
who faces up to 65 years in prison, have vowed to signments collected sales pro- Italy, Luxembourg, Pakistan and taxpayers, which is the basis of 2010 and was last heard about in be a number of other programmes
ceeds in cash, which was used to Ghana have four or more GST the present tax regime, can only 2020, but nothing concrete has apart from public investment policies
appeal. Maxwell’s trial was widely seen as the reck- pay suppliers and employees. A rates. The World Bank’s India come about if the Government emerged, so far. for economic development.
oning Epstein never had and was one of the high- question naturally arises, as to Development Update 2018, collects revenue at a rate and in a In fact, looking to the These include programmes on
est-profile cases in the wake of the #MeToo move- why the local intelligence units called India’s GST regime too manner that is acceptable to tax- changes in the business environ- disease prevention and healthcare that
ment, which encouraged women to speak out about of the CBDT and CBIC were complex. Interestingly, India has payers. “Tax should be collected ment, a comprehensive tax code are carried out from the central to
sexual abuse by famous and powerful people. unable to detect the rampant tax the second-highest GST rate from people like a honey bee encompassing both Direct and local levels. These programmes should
During the month-long trial, jurors heard emo- evasion by the Gutka group, among the 115 countries studied draws nectar from a flower, with- Indirect Taxes is required. Great be proactively and flexibly imple-
tional and explicit testimony from four women who keeping in mind that Kanpur and by World Bank. out harming it”, wrote Chanakya, Britain, from where we inherited mented depending on the actual situ-
portrayed Maxwell as central to their abuse by Kannauj, are not exactly bustling Along with changes in the in Arthashastra, circa 300 BCE. our tax system, has integrated ation of each locality; ideas and meth-
Epstein. Three of the four said she herself touched with big businesses? Indirect Tax regime, the last few Studying the relationship bet- Direct Taxes (Inland Revenue) ods of pandemic prevention and con-
The answer may lie in the years have witnessed profound ween tax rates and tax collection, and Indirect Taxes (Customs and trol should be disseminated widely so
their bare breasts or took part in the encounters,
manner GST is administered. At changes in assessment and economist Arthur Laffer, con- Excise) under Her Majesty’s Rev- that every citizen is a soldier fighting
which often began as massages. the apex level, GST is adminis- appeal procedures of the In- cluded that tax collection is max- enue and Customs Board in 2005. against the pandemic.
The jury deliberated for five full days before tered by the GST Council consist- come-tax Department. Earlier, imum at a certain tax rate and a Similarly, the US IRS Code 1986
reaching the verdict. Maxwell's lawyer, Bobbi Stern- ing of the Union Finance Minis- the Income-tax Department had higher tax rate would result in encompasses both Direct and IN MEMORIAM
heim, told reporters the defense was disappointed ter and State Finance Ministers. a decentralised working model reduced tax revenue because Indirect Taxes. We have to pro-
with the verdict. “We have already started working The Revenue Secretary functions with Income-tax offices being people would not have enough ceed on similar lines so that the RAYCHAUDHURI-SATYA PRASAD
on the appeal, and we are confident that she will be as Secretary to the GST Council located at the remotest places for incentive to work hard. Rather, Indian tax system works as an ( January 3, 1986), RAYCHAUD-
vindicated,” Sternheim said outside the courthouse. while the Chairperson, CBIC, is a convenience of taxpayers, who there would be more incentive to integrated whole ~ not in sepa- HURI MIRA (September 12, 1997)
Maxwell will return to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan permanent, non-voting invitee to could file their returns and access evade taxes. rate silos of GST Council, CBIC — Fondly remembered by Mala, Bijoy,
Detention Center (MDC), where she has been held in the GST Council. Almost every- their Assessing Officer at a place Proceeding on Laffer’s theo- and CBDT. Ajoy and their families.
isolation since July 2020.
Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of British media
baron Rupert Maxwell, dated Epstein for several LETTERS TO THE EDITOR editor@thestatesman.com
years in the 1990s, when the pair attended high soci-
ety parties and travelled on luxurious private jets.
During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors bank
records indicating Epstein paid Maxwell millions of
Great Loss ety. It has also lost the last of
a generation of leaders who
engaged with public life not
Nobel Peace Prize, “Never
has a peace prize been so fit-
ting.” Like Gandhi, Tutu pro-
perhaps, be disappointed by
the slide in democratic valu-
es and declining respect for
are few leaders of Desmond
Tutu’s stature to lead future
Truth and Reconciliation
dollars over the years. SIR, This refers to the editor- the anti-apartheid struggle as a pursuit of political pow- vided a model for the con- diversity in so many parts of Commissions.
They said Maxwell was motivated to do whatever ial, “Desmond Tutu” (28 in South Africa and the Tru- er, but as a moral exercise structive role of religious the world today. Yours, etc., S SPaul,
December). With the death th and Reconciliation Com- aimed at expanding the dig- idioms in politics. He would, Now, unfortunately, there Nadia, 28 December.
it took to keep Epstein happy in order to maintain her
of Archbishop Desmond mission that has served as a nity and decency of human
luxurious lifestyle. Maxwell’s attorneys argued that Tutu, the world has lost a model to address historical beings. Archbishop Tutu’s SAVE FORESTS
prosecutors were scapegoating her because Epstein moral and spiritual voice, conflicts and the resentm- contribution to the anti-ap-
was no longer alive. “Epstein's death left a gaping one closely associated with ents they engender in soci- artheid movement began SIR, With reference to the report, “India must step up efforts to reduce deforestation” (22
hole in the pursuit of justice for many of these soon after World War II and December), the country is fast losing its forests. The Global Forest Watch, which is an
women,” her lawyers said. “She's filling that hole, continued till 1991. Perhaps open source web application to monitor global forests in real-time, says that India has
and filling that empty chair.” Damian Williams, the because of his leadership of lost 354-kilo hectares of tree cover over the last two decades.
US attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Anglican Church in Sou- Given that millions in rural India depend on forests for their livelihood, there is a
applauded the verdict in a statement that said th Africa, Tutu was not jailed need for regular monitoring to ensure a balance between development and conservation
Maxwell was convicted of “one of the worst crimes or exiled like many others ~ of forests. In this context, satellite data and analysis help in the fight against deforesta-
including Nelson Mandela. tion. You cannot stop deforestation if you cannot see it. Though forest guards play a crit-
imaginable.” Epstein’s arrest and suicide drew atten- For decades, he held a mirr- ical role in the fight against deforestation, it is expensive and time-consuming to moni-
tion to Maxwell’s role in his abuses, and to the or up to the South African tor extensive areas, let alone stop deforestation in time. Satellites, on the other hand, are
financier’s relationships with prominent figures like government and urged the a more effective tool to battle deforestation as they image vast areas of forests in a short
former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, global community to do time. For example, the Earth Scanner can capture an area of up to 40,000 sq. kms. in a
Britain’s Prince Andrew and billionaires Bill Gates more to end apartheid. As single pass, making it ideal for monitoring extensive forest areas.
and Leon Black. None has been charged with crimes Norwegian Prime Minister Yours, etc., Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai, 30 December.
related to Epstein. Jonas Gahr Store said of his
NEW DELHI, MONDAY 03 JANUARY 2022 07
Agenda for a safer,
100 YEARS AGO
OCCASIONAL NOTE
happier world
A few years ago the doctor in charge of a
large sanatorium for tuberculosis cases in
ing arrangements, by how they nur- Denmark published a paper which
ture their small gardens. showed that while the majority of his
Justice and equality are very patients increased in weight as the result
important for reducing distress in the of sanatorium treatment, the rate of
world on a sustainable basis and for increase was not constant but varied with
bringing hope in the lives of millions climatic conditions, being greater in sum-
of poor and deprived people. While mer and less in winter. It has occurred to
promoting equality and justice in the Superintendent of the Union Mission
everyday life and supporting such an Sanatorium at Arogyavaram in South
agenda, any direct interventions by India to make an investigation to see how
people, no matter how small, are these results compare with those of sana-
increasingly welcome in these times torium treatment in India and he has
when many more people have been published a pamphlet giving an account
pushed towards poverty and unem- of his observations on over 900 cases. It is
ployment. Selecting a village with satisfactory to find, in the first place, that
high levels of poverty and donating a judged by the very reliable test of increase
bulk amount of foodgrain plus some in weight, the results of sanatorium treat-
pulses, edible oil etc. will be helpful. A ment are as favourable in India as in
three-member committee of villagers Europe. The difference in average weight
can decide which households can has to be taken into account, and it is stat-
take food from here during the lean ed that the average weight of an adult in
season. An urban shelter for the South India is 25 per cent less than that of
homeless may not have any provision an adult in Northern Europe. When this
for food. One or more households difference is allowed for the increase in
can contribute to serve hot, cooked weight from week to week and month to
meals. There can be several such ini- month is about the same. A striking con-
tiatives. trast, however, is afforded by the influence
A question foremost in the of season and climate. In South India it is
minds of many people is that of the the winter season that favours increase in
pandemic. There is uncertainty and weight; the hot weather is unfavourable,
controversy. What can be asserted as heat and sunshine having opposite effects
a matter of common public interest in this country from what they have in
and on which there can also be con- Europe.
sensus is that the entire response
should be based on truth and trans- NEWS ITEMS
parency. Let all views be heard and
let all decisions be taken in condi-
tions of transparency in such ways HYMNS AND
that all facts, reasoning, and data are
available for discussion. There can be PRAYERS IN
some uncertainties and differences
of opinions but at the end it should
BANGALORE
be clear that only evidence-based The omission of the name of Christ from
public interest has guided important the book of hymns and prayers used in
decisions and no other narrow or the mission schools of Bangalore in order
selfish view has been allowed to pre- to avoid offending Hindus and Mahome-
vail. dans is said to have led to a serious con-
This is in the larger interests of troversy in the London Missionary Society
health but also in the larger interests owing to the deep uneasiness expressed
BHARAT DOGRA they provide encouraging conditions conditions of peace and cooperation continuing efforts for peace by ordi- of democracy. by subscribers all over the country. The
for our ability to contribute, no mat- at all levels. Unfortunately some nary people can contribute much Whether in health or in other question has been discussed on three
2
022 is arriving in rather diffi- ter in how modest a way, towards a forces continued to spread hatred more to preparing a strong base for important areas like food, agriculture occasions by the London Board, at the last
cult circumstances, which better and more just, protective, safer and discriminative thinking in soci- peace than is commonly realized. or information technology, there is meeting of which one member proposed
reinforces the need to not give world. Often, we take close relation- ety. We should check this to the extent In the context of protection of greater need for transparency and for a resolution declaring that the exclusion
up hope and increase efforts ships for granted; it may be more we can in our neighbourhoods, while environment and biodiversity, there taking people into confidence of the name and work of Christ from any
to create a safer, happier world. This thoughtful to keep trying to improve at the same time putting forward are even bigger possibilities of mil- regarding the decisions being taken, part of the Society's operations could not
needs thoughtful study and reflec- them. A kind and helpful attitude ideas which contribute to non-dis- lions of small, continuing efforts providing more evidence and rea- under any circumstances be sanctioned,
tion, together with efforts to reach towards all those who help and serve crimination, equality, and inter-faith making a big contribution to making soning and justification for deci- but the motion found only two support-
out and mobilise. We need to create us in various ways should of course harmony. In the international con- the world safer and healthier. These sions. This may take some extra ers. It is stated that many old and influen-
conditions of happiness and harmo- be an important aspect of our social text, spreading an understanding of efforts will achieve even more if more efforts, but at the same this will tial supporters of the Society are greatly
ny in which we can work hard and relationships. seeking friendship with people of all attention is devoted to having a bet- strengthen trust and thereby also concerned over the decision which is
contribute more over a long time In terms of our wider social role, countries while taking care to protect ter understanding of how we can create conditions for more coopera- bound to be challenged soon.
without getting disheartened or it is very important to try to con- our essential interests will contribute contribute best in our specific con- tion and participation of people,
depressed.
So, our immediate and close
tribute to peace and non-violence.
This was always very important, but
much to preparing a base for peace.
Many people say that these are
ditions and environs. We should be
innovative and create linkages, but
strengthening democracy.
AERIAL ARMY FOR
relationships are very important.
These should not only be protected
at a time when the world is faced with
increasing survival problems, it has
policy matters and they as ordinary
citizens do not have much of a role
even those more amenable to work-
ing on their own can contribute by
The writer is a journalist who has been close
to social movements. His recent books MESOPOTAMIA
but also nurtured in such ways that become vitally important to improve in these. But millions of small, quiet, their lifestyle choices, by their hous- include Man Over Machine and Planet in Peril. LONDON, JAN 2
Fruits of the conclusions reached by Mr.
IT CAME TO MIND | MANISH NANDY Churchill during his recent visit to
Mesopotamia will shortly be seen in the
The remnant of a treasure

provision of 150 aeroplanes for the Air
Michael talking to each other, amica- Ministry for the purpose of maintaining
bly but distantly, like polite neigh- order in Mesopotamia. This means an
bors. I remembered the time when aerial army, each machine being capa-
W
e are used to seeing they started seeing each other and ble of carrying ten soldiers fully armed,
screen stars avow eternal dreamed of living together and the happy. No matter. Michael will always two machine guns and ammunition. The
love one week and many years they lived together and be a very special person for me.” control of Mesopotamia will be solely in
divorce the next week, had children. Is this all that remains? I remembered my discussion, the hands of the Air Service from Febru-
and follow up with unsavory stories Courtesy and quiet conversation? some years earlier, with a couple both ary. Experts assert that this fleet of aero-
about one another. This is not con- I spoke to Michael and Abigail of whom are well-known practicing planes could transport a battalion 200
fined to Hollywood. In big cities and later, independently. psychologists. They had each miles and quell revolts, thereby saving
small, in our close circles, the rupture Michael isn’t a loquacious per- divorced their spouses after a failed the hardships of forced marched over
of close relations is a common occur- son. Eventually he volunteered, “I felt marriage and met and married years arid country.
rence. We care for somebody, perhaps angry and humiliated when she left later.
deeply, as deeply as we know how,
and yet the relationship collapses at
me. It was no comfort that she wasn’t
leaving me for another person. It
“We did not know any better
then. Our marriages had seemed bur- MOMENTOUS
some point, leaving odious detritus.
The question is: What remains?
made it clearer, in fact, that she
would have no part of me. But you
densome, and we decided to end
them. Our spouses were decent peo- MEETING OF
Of an event that was of such prime
importance, what endures in our life?
can’t be angry all the time. It came to
me that she had struggled - and, in
ple, but our relationship had seemed
irrecoverable and hopeless. That’s the
DAIL EIREANN
I was recently in a club where fact, had had problems. I was a large way the cookie crumbled. LONDON, JAN 2
somebody invited me to play a game part of the problem. “Now, having counselled scores Nearly all the members of Dail Eireann
of table tennis. He was a very poor “So, four years down the line, of couples and seen their problems, are already assembled in Dublin for
player, but I discovered to my embar- when she told me that she was to we feel perhaps our relationships tomorrow's momentous meeting, the
Illustration: Debabrata Chakrabarty
rassment, I played even worse. This marry someone, I sincerely wished weren’t so ill-fated after all. Probably interest in which is only comparable with
was a memorable epiphany, because My years of loyal practice did not tune, the difference between good her well. I had briefly met the person, those marriages could have been the enthusiasm shown in the early days
I had played the game for years with a let me retain my proficiency in play- music and truly good music. and he seemed a decent person. I saved. One is never sure, but it is pos- of the truce. There appears to be an over-
fair degree of skill. I had entered coming a guitar or table tennis. I had lost Building a relationship with wanted them to find the happiness sible. We just didn’t know better.” whelming desire on the part of the public
petitions and even received lessons the skill, though fragments of the another person, or even living with that had eluded us.” Many leave their partners in to see the treaty ratified, but the nation is
from two world champions, Viktor know-how might have lingered. I him or her, is a much more impor- I am more comfortable talking acrimony, at least distaste. Fortunate in a state of nervous uncertainty in view of
Barna and Richard Bergmann. asked myself: What had remained? tant affair. When it ends, do we retain with Abigail, and she was more out- – but sadly few -- are those whose the possibility of unexpected happenings
Equally discomfiting was the In table tennis, the joy of learn- anything of value? spoken. relations end on a reassuring note and the fear that it will be impossible to
experience when a friendly woman ing from masters and playing against Recently I attended the gradua- “Michael was a special person and they can go their way with some- shake de Valera. There is some authority
showed me the acoustic guitar she wizards had faded, but I had learned tion ceremony of a young person for me, for a long number of years. I thing to treasure. for stating that efforts were made over the
had recently acquired. She showed the heady thrill of competing and, whose parents I have known for had a difficult time with him later on, We cannot all play guitar or good weekend to reach an understanding
me a couple of chords she had just more often than not, coping with the years. The parents, Michael and Abi- and the marriage became a burden table tennis all our life, but we can between the two parties, whereby the
learned, and I tried to show her a pain of losing. Playing in a band gail. divorced some years back, and instead of a joy or a support.” treasure what we have loved and agreement be approved but explanatory
couple more. I couldn’t. My fingers taught me, in a way I could not have Abigail attended with her current She looked at her present hus- learned. clauses might be submitted to ensure the
simply didn’t obey my arrogant will. It imagined, the real meaning of coor- husband and Michael came with his band and added, “I do not regret my status of Ireland as a nation.
was no use reminding myself that I dination, of doing things with others. new girlfriend. As we sat together decision to leave the marriage. It was The writer is a US-based international
development advisor and had worked with
was a guitarist in a band and had per-
formed in events and restaurants.
Even more, my ears learned the dif-
ference, even for a folk song or movie
after the ceremony, unaccountably I
felt a great sadness seeing Abigail and
the right thing to do. I was not happy,
and there was no way I could be
the World Bank. He can be reached at
mnandy@gmail.com LORD LYTTON'S
CROSSWORD NO 29137
PROGRESSIVE
OUTLOOK
LONDON, JAN 2
The appointment of Lord Lytton to suc-
ceed Lord Rolandshay is described by an
ACROSS 15 Irritable gut, etc, roundabout (5-2) 3 Why I cry? We have (5-3,5)
Anglo-Indian correspondent of the Man-
hypodermically controlled (6) 27 Mother went off course, corruption all over the place 14 What I did with exam after
1 Could make both meteor and
16 Ghost never returns a book reflected and stepped aside (5,5,3) bear persists (6,2,2) chester Guardian as a happy inspiration
woman pregnant (6-2-2)
6 Frightening cut to cause
(8) (4,3) 4 Walks poorly-rated by Sun (6) 17 Police track beginning with a on the part of Mr. Montagu. The writer
18 Member of pack cut without 28 Note about unconscious 5 Was appropriate to be guitar effect (4,4) says: During his short term of office as
permanent damage (4)
degree at Open University trend (4) almost more athletic in bed 19 Drained, sore internally
9 North American doctor
(3,5) 29 Having more money a wiser (8) having fought (7) Under Secretary for India Lord Lytton
thats preserving innocence
20 Musk, perhaps one worn by course of action (6-2-2) 7 Instrument online in case 21 Show how to change won the confidence of every Indian with
(7)
10 Artist gets in line with
the Prince Regent (6)
DOWN
accountant comes round reference book (4,3) whom he came in personal contact.
23/13 Salt spring? (6) (7) 22 Concert percussionist drawn Lord Lytton like Lord Ronaldshay
resistance weaker (7)
24 Character with antelope 1 Brand new herb (4) 8 Primed for action, gunners on time (6)
12 Made a lot of something pie-
from Australia (6,2,2) 2 Musical figure featured by surround country (6,2,2) 25 Greek dish of stodgy roulade belongs to the school of young Tory
lady put out (6,2,2)
26 Fox over there at Holly Mott the Hoople (7) 11 Pale pipe suggests neatness (4) politicians whose outlook on Indian
13 See 23
questions is thoroughly courageous and
progressive. He is a firm believer in the
reforms inaugurated by the Government
of India Act, and may be trusted to ren-
NOTE: Figures in parentheses denote the number of letters in the words required. (By arrangement with The Independent, London) der an excellent account of himself in
Bengal.
THE AVENUE MAIL, Jamshedpur COMMENT Monday, January 03, 2022 4
New Year to take cues from global Are the armed forces now more open
markets and control of virus to hard-hitting, objective writing?
By Arun Kejriwal
T
he last week of calendar year 2021 ended on a high with stock markets registering By Vishnu Makhijani Marshal P. C. Lal, who was everything has the nasty
gains and gaining ground to end the year with flying colours. BSESENSEX gained the Chief of Air Staff habit of coming back at us."
G
1,129.51 points or 1.98 per cent to close at 58,253.82 points while NIFTY gained eneral Ved (CAS) six years later, said The question is, having
350.30 points or 2.06 per cent to end at 17,354.05 points. The broader indices saw BSE100, Prakash Malik's that Chaudhuri treated the set the bar, will Shiv
BSE200 and BSE500 gain 1.97 per cent, 2.12 per cent and 2.26 per cent. BSEMIDCAP endorsement of whole business of fighting Kunal's two books now
gained 2.52 per cent, while BSESMALLCAP was up 3.85 per cent. Shiv Kunal Verma's epic Pakistan or China as 'his inspire a new generation of
The Indian Rupee recovered ground and gained 69 paisa or 0.92 per cent to close at Rs book, "1965: A Western personal affair, or at any writers - and a military
74.33 to the US Dollar. Dow Jones gained 387.74 points or 1.08 per cent to close at Sunrise" is a show stopper rate that of the army's alone, hierarchy that will
36,338.30 points. During the week it hit a new lifetime high on intraday basis of 36,679 in its own right. It's a classic with the air force a passive encourage its own junior
points and on closing basis of 36,488.63 points. For the year Dow Jones gained 5,731.82 case where some of the spectator and the navy out officers to study our own
points or 18.73 per cent to close the calendar year at 36,338.30 points. points being made by the of it altogether'," Gen. past in this manner?
If one looks at the performance of Indian benchmark indices in calendar year 2021, they former army chief, who Malik says. "I think we need to go
were better than the Dow and outperformed it. BSESENSEX gained 10,502.49 points or was at the helm of affairs in Can this acceptance of beyond that and look at
21.99 per cent to close at 58,253.82 points. NIFTY gained 3,372.30 points or 24.12 per cent 1999 when Pakistan's objective criticism spread reaching out to various
to close at 17,354.05 points. Bank Nifty was comparatively an underperformer and gained Northern Light Infantry, to other forms of writing segments of society," says
4,217.65 points or 13.49 per cent to close at 35,481.7 points. BSEMIDCAP gained 7,028.65 under the guise of the that focus on the defence Pankaj P. Singh of
points or 39.18 per cent to close at 24,970.08 points. BSESMALLCAP was the outperformer Mujahideen, ingressed into establishments, or will Chandigarh's The Browser
gaining 11,359.65 points or 62.77 per cent to close at 29,457.79 points. the Drass and Kargil some areas always remain Library and Bookstore,
December futures expired on Thursday the 30th of December and it was one of the Sectors, are perhaps as closed to public perception? who is venturing into
quietest expiries witnessed in a very long time. The net change for the day was a mere 10 interesting as Verma's book There are multiple publishing military history
points and the range between the high and low of the day was 118 points. The series expired itself. contentious issues, books under its BlueOne
with losses of 332.30 points or 1.89 per cent at 17,203.95 points. Since Independence, for especially when it comes to Ink imprint. "For a start, we
In primary market news, there were three listings which took place last week. The first was 75 years a lot of water has internal security matters, are looking at translating
HP Adhesive Limited which had issued shares at Rs 274 and listed on Monday. The share flown down the Indus and where the defence forces both the 1962 and 1965
closed at Rs 334.95, a gain of Rs 60.95 or 22.24 per cent. By the end of the week the share the Brahmaputra rivers. instinctively pull back books into Hindi, so JCOs
had gained further closing at Rs 407, a gain of Rs 133 or 48.54 per cent. With India's northern when something negative is and men can also be
The second share to list was on Tuesday from SupriyaLifescience Limited. Shares were boundary defined by the perceived to tar their image, brought into this loop.
issued at Rs 274 and ended listing day at Rs 390.35, a gain of Rs 116.35 or 42.46 per cent. geographical entity of the Verma's ruthless holding of reason why '1965: A especially when it is related Language versions will
By weekend, shares had gained further to close at Rs 483.50, a gain of Rs 199.50 or 76.46 Himalayas and the western a mirror to the leadership, Western Sunrise' is not on to AFSPA (Armed Forces hopefully be our next step.
per cent. frontier by the whimsical which some might say is a the list is that hadn't been Special Powers Act). Even We are certainly looking at
The third and final issue to list was from CMS Info System Limited which listed on the last machinations of the British bit opinionated, his released (at the time the list if contemporary events also expanding the
trading day of the calendar year. The company had allotted shares at Rs 216 saw its shares (the Radcliff Line), the immense research, his very for 2023-30 list was drawn require to be handled away coverage to other major
close day one at Rs 237.40, a gain of Rs 21.40 or 9.91 per cent. public at large never really detailed descriptions of up). By far the most lucid from the glare of public events that have impacted
The primary market has been on a roll in calendar year 2019 and over 1.19 lakh crore knew what happened in the each action with the and detailed account of the scrutiny, other events that the country's post-
have been raised through some 68 issues. Seeing the spurt in fund raise, SEBI has bloody conflict with background of the higher war, the book knits the are now a part of history Independence history," he
introduced some changes in the same at its recent board meeting. Pakistan in 1947-48, then political and military political, the military and perhaps also need to be adds. In the recent past,
Primary amongst the changes is the restriction in the amount that can be raised for with China in 1962, and leadership juxtaposed" the personal aspects in a objectively revisited. even the events relating to
undisclosed acquisitions and general corporate purposes. The new rule states that the then again with Pakistan in makes his writing very manner that the quagmire Krishna Kumar Candeth, Doklam and Eastern
amount as a percentage of the fund raise cannot collectively exceed 35 per cent under both 1965 and 1971. The interesting and his books of events become crystal whose uncle was an Army Ladakh are shrouded in
heads combined (acquisitions and general corporate purposes) and 25 per cent for complete lack of any very readable. clear. These two books set Commander in 1971, says mystery. More than
acquisitions as a standalone unless details are given. worthwhile objective Every year, the Indian the bar in military writing." in response to Gen. Malik's i n f o r m a t i o n ,
Secondly the price band has been specified at a minimum of 105 per cent of the price writing on these conflicts Army's Shimla-based So, are the Armed Forces observations: "The book misinformation seems to be
stated. This means that the minimum price band would be 5 per cent. For example, if the reflected the void that Training Command, better today more open to hard (on 1965) would've more the order of the day.
price stipulated is Rs 500, then the price band would be Rs 500-525 at the bare minimum. existed in India's thinking known as ARTRAC, after hitting, objective writing than served its purpose if it The Kargil War, now 22
Thirdly, the anchor allocation would include half the portion to be locked in for 30 days and when it came to researching the entire than before? Probably yes, leads slowly (beginning years old, remains the last
the balance for 90 days. Fourthly, there are restrictions on the number of shares that can be understanding geo-politics material available, suggest for earlier any criticism was with these articles and major conflict and some
sold through an offer for sale by investors. In case the holding individually or collectively is and matters military. books that are 'prescribed' met with either stony reviews) to a re- questions, continue to
more than 50 per cent, they can sell no more than 20 per cent of the shares. If, however As General Malik points and 'recommended' for silence or resulted in examination of the 1965 remain unanswered. Past
there shareholding is less than 20 per cent, they can sell only 10% of their holding. out, Shiv Kunal is the son entrance examinations for counter-charges, the Army war - the egregious governments, and in some
These measures have been introduced seeing many of the recent tech platform of Major General Ashok various courses. In its latest and the Air Force perhaps mistakes that were made cases even the Army
companies which have not followed these guidelines if they had been already introduced. Kalyan Verma. Having circular to all commands being the most sensitive of and which are quite likely leadership, have coloured
This would help the market see issues more realistic in price and have objects which are been born and bred in the dated October 20, 2021 the lot. It is the complete to be repeated if that re- events the way they wanted
more specific in nature rather than being generic. cauldron of the armed (incidentally the 59th lack of coordination and examination does not take to project them. Other
In term of newly listed shares, of the 20 that have listed since 15th November, 8 are forces, Shiv Kunal's anniversary of the PLA's planning (in 1965) between place." "Our military writers, usually themselves
trading below their issue price while of the 9 that have listed since 17th December, 3 are emergence as the country's attack on 2 Rajput positions Gen. J.N. Chaudhuri and history," says Darshan having been key
trading below the issue price. Clearly the pressure is telling on the listings and also speaks premier military history on the Nam ka Chu), "1962: Air Marshal Arjan Singh Singh, the Chairman of protagonists, have either
of the quality and pricing greed of promoters, P E Investors and merchant bankers 'sutradhar' is not surprising The War that Wasn't" has (the Army and Air Force Welham Boys' School in written self-exonerating
collectively. as "he not only has been prescribed for the chiefs at the time) that Dehradun who with Shiv versions or built up
The new mutant, ï¿½Omicron' is keeping people on their toes globally as the number of excellent sources but also Defence Services Staff repeatedly riles Verma in Kunal's help has initiated narratives whose veracity
affected people seems to be rising quite sharply. While fatalities or people being hospitalised the ability to separate the College (DSSC) and his book. Gen. Malik introducing the subject at can be questioned. There
has not seen any significant rise, the number of affected people has risen quite sharply. In chaff from the wheat when Defence Services Staff echoes the sentiment. "Shiv the school level, "has to be are umpteen cliches about
India, many states have launched precautionary restrictions including night curfews. Its time it comes to looking into the Course (DSTSC) for 2023- Kunal, in his narration, is an integral part of our history repeating itself and
to be cautious and prevent a third wave in the country. In terms of vaccinations, a total of fog of war and getting to 2030. Interestingly, Gen. highly critical of the education system. Most not learning from history.
145.52 crore vaccinations have been given of which 84.73 crore is the first dose and 60.79 what may have happened". Malik's "Kargil: From military leadership for poor importantly, it has to be Lessons can only be drawn
crore are fully vaccinated. Shiv Kumar's previous Surprise to Victory" also planning and operational shorn of jingoism and the if we are willing to face the
Coming to the markets, the rally over the last fortnight has set the markets in a very book, "1962: The War that makes the cut, with "Blood conduct during the war, students, be they be in reality of what happened -
interesting scenario. The trading range is roughly 200 points below the present level of Wasn't", published in 2016, on the Snow", written by with most of the blame schools or universities, and we must remember that
NIFTY and about 150 points higher than the present level. As long as these levels are not not only chronicled a Maj. Gen. Ashok Kalyan going to Choudhuri, need to be familiarized with in the rear-view mirror of
violated, markets would remain range bound. If, however the range is violated, markets terrible defeat, did not shy Verma, coming under the considered 'an impetuous the challenges we have time, objects are a lot closer
would breakout or breakdown and gain sharp volatility in the direction of the movement. away from looking at both 'recommended' category. and unthinking Army been faced with as a nation. than we think.
What would determine this movement is whether FII's continue their selling mode or the the civilian and military Air Marshal Chief'. The disdain We cannot move forward (Vishnu Makhijani can
new year sees a change. Secondly, how ï¿½Omicron' reacts going forward could be an leadership, and calling a DenzilKeelor who also has Chaudhuri had for the other unless we can look back be reached at
important factor. Thirdly, the movement of Dow after making a new lifetime high last week is spade a spade. As Gen. high praise for Shiv Kunal's two services was clear in and draw the lessons from vishnu.makhijani@ians.i
looking vulnerable. If Dow goes into a corrective mode, global markets would follow suit. Malik writes: "Shiv Kunal two books, says: "The only his handling of affairs. Air our past, for almost n)
The strategy in the coming week would be to take advantage of any large swings that may
happen with selling on rallies and buying on dips. While the breadth of the market has
Climate Justice: As flag-bearer for global south, India to push for 'Samagrata' at home
improved last week, it may have a lot to do with NAV of mutual funds. Whether this breadth
of expansion continues, only time will tell. With the budget due on 1st of February there is
every possibility of a pre-budget rally kicking in. Keep your eyes and ears on the market to
spot this as and when it happens. Finally, the IPO market would again begin its role with
issues gearing up for the small window, pre-budget launch. Let us see how many brave By Nivedita Khandekar global platforms. Much is left to be
hearts actually make it this time around. done for the poorest of the poor that
T
(Arun Kejriwal is the founder of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services. The wo global platforms - is inevitably the most vulnerable to
views expressed are personal) UNFCCC COP and UNSC the impacts of climate change.
- witnessed India's prowess India is committed to green
as not just good negotiators for energy as it acknowledges that the
safeguarding her own interest but solution to climate related problems
Here's how Musk hired also for the global south. In a way,
what India has been advocating all
along vis-a-vis climate change,
is within the renewable energy.
India has already committed to its
expansion. "India will be carrying
Indian-origin Tesla's autopilot head came to fruition in November and out the promises that the Prime
December 2021. Minister made at the COP. Our
"Year 2021 saw a steady stream programmes such as railways on
of UN-backed reports reinforcing a renewable energy, cutting down on
T
esla founder and CEO Elon Musk stark message: man-made climate highest per capita energy Russia and China - shot down a carbon emission and increasing
took to Twitter to reveal how he change is an urgent and even consumption. proposal to "Integrating Climate- share of renewables in the energy
chose Ashok Elluswamy from existential threat to life on Earth. Offering a new mantra and Related Security Risk into Conflict- mix are on track but at the same
India to work as an autopilot team director Will the international community's raising its pledge for combating Prevention Strategies." time we also believe that the
at his electric vehicle company. efforts to tackle the crisis, as seen at climate change, Prime Minister While stressing that India is developed countries need to
Elluswamy was actually the first the Conference of Parties (COP26) Narendra Modi had announced at "second to none" in addressing enhance climate finance and
employee to be hired for Tesla's Autopilot to the United Nations Framework the COP26 that India will target a climate action and climate justice, technology transfer," Yadav told
team, with Musk actually using Twitter to Convention for Climate net zero goal by the year 2070 and India stated that the Council is not IANS.
ask people to apply for the role back in Conference (UNFCCC), result in aim at increasing its non-fossil fuel the place to discuss either issue. Resilient infrastructure,
2015. meaningful action?" said the UN energy to 500 GW in its energy mix "Today's attempt to link climate adaptation, agriculture and
"I tweeted that Tesla is about to launch an release on the last day of 2021. by 2030. with security obfuscates a lack of afforestation are focus areas with
auto pilot team. Through that tweet, Ashok In November, at Glasgow, the Terming it as 'Panchamrut Ki progress on critical issues under the Nagar Vans (City Forests) function
was the first to be selected in the auto pilot UK, the last day of the COP was Saugat' - India's contribution to UNFCC process. The text would as carbon sinks in view of
team," Musk said in a tweet. when India - ably led by Union climate action called as Nationally constitute a step backward from increasing urbanization and
Before joining Tesla, he has worked with Minister for Environment, Forests Determined Contributions (NDCs), collective resolve to combat outside, maintenance of
WABCO Vehicle Control System and has and Climate Change Bhupender Modi had said, India will reduce its climate change," India's permanent wetlands/Ramsar Sites in rural
interned with Volkswagon Electronic Yadav - insisted on the use of the carbon intensity by 45 per cent by representative at the UN had said areas, increasing forest cover for
Research Lab. term 'phase down' coal instead of 2030 starting with reducing and also made it clear that mitigation are few others focus
He holds a bachelor's degree in 'phase out' in the Glasgow Climate projected carbon emission from "including climate change within areas for the Ministry.
Electronics and Communication Pact that 190 plus nations agreed to. now till 2030 by 1 billion tonnes the UN Security Council's mandate But going beyond this, Yadav
Engineering from the College of It was necessary insertion as the and committed to have renewable would exclude most developing brought in clarity on the regular
Engineering Guindy, Chennai and a in a major way," Musk tweeted along with rich nations, the principal polluters conflict between his Ministry and
a link to apply for the job. energy component of 50 per cent by countries from discussions."
Master's degree in Robotics System and high energy consumers, wanted 2030. Modi gave a new mantra for Unlike the UNFCCC - which that of Tribal Affairs as he said,
Development from Carnegie Mellon Interested candidates can apply by filling just the coal to phase out leaving "We believe that we cannot save
in fields like name, email, exceptional work sustainable development through works on consensus and gives
University. other energy sources in the fossil sustainable lifestyle, LIFE - equal weightage to each and every our forests without public
As per a LinkedIn endorsement from done in software, hardware or AI, dropping fuel basket untouched. It would participation. Livelihood of the
their resume in the PDF format and hitting 'Lifestyle for Environment' which, country that is party to it - the
Elluswamy's professor at CMU, John have meant that poorer countries he said, can be a mass movement UNSC is dominated by rich local community, sustainability of
Dalon, he was one of the top students and the Apply option. that are dependent on coal will have the local flora and fauna and
In a 2014 interview, Musk said he looked wherein instead of mindless and nations. Therefore, India putting its
showed initiative in learning a wide variety to forsake it at the same time that destructive consumption, there foot down came as a godsent for the protection of the wildlife are all
of topics. for "evidence of exceptional ability" in a richer countries do but sans the interdependent, not independent.
potential employee, rather than a degree should be mindful and deliberate global south - comprising mostly
Recently, Musk tweeted that he is hiring option of oil and gas as they have. utilization. poorer and developing countries So, we move ahead with Samagrata
Artificial Intelligence (AI) engineers who from a prestigious university. It is not that India only preached (comprehensiveness). Our ideology
"There is no need even to have a college The other platform was not a from South Asia, Africa and
are passionate about solving day-to-day but not practiced, unlike much of regular climate change related but Southern America. too believes in Samagrata and not
problems through AI. degree at all, or even high school," Musk the western world that may have in separatism."
said during an interview with the German the prestigious United Nations Having done all that, India now
"As always, Tesla is looking for hardcore cleaned up their air but have an Security Council (UNSC) where in has the onus to put into domestic (Nivedita Khandekar can be
AI engineers who care about solving automotive publication Auto Bild about his energy-intensive lifestyle leading to reached at nivedita.k@ians.in )
hiring preferences more broadly. December, India - with support of actions whatever it has said on
problems that directly affect people's lives
2 AHMEDABAD MONDAY 3/1/2022
From Bull run in equities to continue for

Editor’s few more years: ICICI Securities
New Delhi, on the following key obser-
Desk....... The ongoing bull mar- vations.” There have been
three mega bull cycles in the
ket in Indian equities is ex-
pected to extend for the past 35 years lasting for
next few years with three-to-four years time, it
multifold gains, brokerage added. The relative
house ICICI Securities said outperformance of midcap
Here’s to hope
in a report. The prediction stocks is in mid-cycle of
is based on historical evi- multi year bull phase, and is
dence from the past three expected to get further
decades. “Our Nifty target amplified. Besides, the bro-
for CY22 is 21000 based on kerage house said that some
of the top picks for 2022 are
A New Year's Eve party became out of the classical chart reading and
bottom up prognosis of HCL Technologies, United
question as the contagion loomed. Even Nifty constituents, wherein Spirits, ABB, Aditya Birla Fash-
the more staid dinner and a movie has strong support exists at the ion and Retail, Indian Hotel,
been made impossible by Omicron. 15500 zone,” the report SKF India, Jindal Stainless,
said. “While the midcap Transport Corporation of In-
At the end of 2020, there was hope that the horrors of space is expected to extend dia, Gabriel India. The IT sec-
annus horribilis were over. Vaccines were on the way, The Union Minister for Defence, Shri Rajnath Singh releasing the publication at the dedication to tor has been spearheading
the Nation 24 bridges and three roads, built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in four States its outperformance, we ex-
social life could resume, loneliness would be dissipated. pect IT to lead the rally sup- the ongoing bull run and
On New Year’s Eve, the young and the restless, the old and two Union Territories, through video conferencing from New Delhi. The Minister of State for HCL Technology has been in
Science & Technology and Earth Sciences (I/C), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & ported by cyclicals like capi-
and the jaded, had to stay home — nursing a solitary tal goods, BFSI, real estate a steady uptrend post its
drink, perhaps the pretence of a party over a video chat. Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh, the Chief of the Army Staff, General Manoj multi year breakout in 2020.
Mukund Naravane and the DG, BRO, Lt. Gen. Rajeev Chaudhry are also seen. and auto. Our thesis is based
Dreaming of parties, of hugs and music, seeing friends
again, many people held on to hope. As it turns out, annus
horribilis had a sequel, which makes for a depressing “new
normal”. A year later, faking it is that much harder.
A New Year’s Eve party became out of the question as India's monetary policy financially PHDCCI organizes webinar on post
inclusive by design: RBI DG Patra
the contagion loomed. Even the more staid “dinner and a
movie” has been made impossible by Omicron. The con-
servatives and the puritanical will rejoice at this prohibi-
Covid era Industrial training scenario
tion. Even for those who imbibe, it might be good to Mumbai, pears to have gone up, with sion, it is unambiguous that New Delhi, Shri Vikram Sharma, which can be easily man-
begin the new year sans a hangover. And then, as so many The country's monetary the level of the RBI's finan- financial inclusion is able to PHDCCI-Rajasthan Founder & CEO, Mystic aged and addressed by
continue to suffer the pandemic’s effects, isn’t celebrat- policy is, by design, financial inclusion index (FI-in- dampen inflation and out- Chapter organized a Brains Pvt Ltd.* and a re- proper training inputs.
ing a new year a tad selfish, even in poor taste? cially inclusive and this dex) rising from 49.9 in put volatility. This, he said, Webinar on Post COVID Era nowned trainer and moti- Change in Psychology
The answer to these questions, the balm for the guilt strategy will result in policy March 2019 to 53.1 in is achieved by smoothing Industrial Training Scenario vational speaker under- changes Physiology and
people might feel at having fun, is simple. Life under effectiveness and welfare March 2020 and further to consumption by enabling & Way Forward-Embracing lined the importance of this tendency can be effec-
Covid has been a constant oppression and a drink, a song, maximization going ahead, 53.9 in March 2021, he said. people to draw down fi- the New Opportunities on training in resolving day to tively used through proper
a bit of dancing, even a good conversation, can provide Reserve Bank of India's The index, which was nancial savings in difficult 24th December 2021. day issues and increasing training to increase produc-
relief. Before the pandemic, in good years and bad, the Deputy Governor Michael times for everyday needs. Digvijay Dhabriya, Chair, productivity of working tivity, problem solving and
celebration was not for the year gone by but the one to D Patra said. Speaking at In the process, it makes PHDCCI-Rajasthan Chapter hours in trade and busi- embracing the changes in
come, to put the past where it belonged. And, arguably, an event organized at In- people interest-sensitive. in his welcome address nesses. The COVID has in- businesses, Mr. Sharma
to fortify people to deal with the suffering that is bound dian Institute of Manage- Moreover, inflation tar- narrated dent of COVID-19 troduced many new normal added. Training has to be a
to ensue. But in the hardest years humanity has faced in ment (IIM), Ahmedabad, he geting monetary policy en- in the personal and social like importance of techno- regular intervention which
recent memory, the safety valve of blowing off some said monetary policy maxi- sures that even those at the life-styles and its adverse logical development and will empower work force to
steam has been taken away from us by disease and by mizes human welfare by fringe of financial inclusion impact on trade and busi- its adoption, increasing digi- effectively adapt to new
lockdowns. Yet, dear readers, we enter the new year with minimizing the deviations are secured from adverse nesses. Some of the tization, market disruptions, technology, methodology
hope that at the end of 2022, we can all, together, raise a of output from its potential income shocks that hit changes in thought process changes in supply chain and changes in business
toast. and inflation from the tar- them when prices rise un- and business practices scenario, flexibility, adapt- environment, Mr. Sharma
get. conscionably, the deputy seem to be of irreversible ability, self-management, added, referring to recent
The evidence is still governor said. nature and going to stay for work from home culture, recommendation at World
1,000 villages in UP mapped forming and strong conclu-
sions from its analysis may released in September
Looking ahead, as fi-
nancial inclusion rises
long, Mr. Dhabriya added.
He observed that it is high
stress management etc. Economic Forum.
by Garuda Aerospace drones be premature, but India's

monetary policy is, by de-
2021, takes values from 0
to 100 and implicitly sets
even further in India, con-
sumption volatility as a
time to identify proper
training needs for different RBI imposes penalty on One
Chennai, ownership,” Agnishwar sectors to effectively cope-
The Chennai-based Jayaprakash, Founder &
CEO, Garuda Aerospace told
sign, financially inclusive
and it will reap the benefits
the goal for the RBI – 100
per cent financial inclusion
source of output volatility
can be expected to wane, up with & embrace the Mobikwik Systems, Spice Money
Garuda Aerospace, a of this strategy in the future for India. providing headroom for changes in Post COVID Era Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has
Drones-As-A-Service IANS. According to him, the and convert them into new imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore each on payment system
group has completed the in terms of effectiveness Patra said although it is monetary policy to remain
(DaaS) startup is putting up and welfare maximization, empirically observed that focused on minimizing in- opportunities. operators One Mobikwik Systems Private Ltd and Spice
drone assembly units at digital mapping of Steel Shri Vivek Seigell, Assis- Money Ltd for deficiencies in regulatory compliance.
Authority of India Ltd’s Patra said. there is a two-way relation- flation volatility, which
Manesar in Haryana’s He said the financial in- ship between monetary brings welfare gains for all,” tant Secretary General, Giving details, the central bank said it observed that
Gurugram and Tamil Nadu’s (SAIL) plants at Durgapur PHDCCI quoting the two entities had not complied with the directions
and Burnpur. “We plan to clusion in the country ap- policy and financial inclu- he said.
Hosur at an outlay of $3 Shakespeare informed that issued by the RBI on networth requirement for Bharat Bill
million, said a top company have 1,000 drones next Human Beings hardly use Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs).
official. “We completed month. Each assembly unit
Govt to tweak subsidy policy to promote
2% of their brain capacity As these were offences of the nature referred to in a
mapping of over 1,000 vil- will have a capacity to in day to day life leaving Section of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007,
lages for Survey of India — make about 50 drones per huge untapped capacities notices were issued to the entities.
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh as
part of Prime Minister
day. Majority of the drones
will be for agriculture usage
and the balance will be in-
local production of P&K fertilizer which can be gainfully
used through proper train-
After reviewing their written responses and the oral
submissions made during the personal hearing, the RBI
Narendra Modi’s pet ing for increasing produc- concluded that the aforesaid charges of non-compliance
Svamitva Scheme — to pro- dustrial drones,” New Delhi,
The government de- tivity, innovation, techno- with the RBI directions were substantiated and warranted
vide digital records of land Jayaprakash said. logical development etc. imposition of monetary penalty, it said.
cided to make changes to
the existing nutrient based
subsidy (NBS) policy to pro-
CSCs prepare for ITR filing mote domestic production
of phosphatic and potassic
as deadline approaches (P&K) fertilizers amid a

sharp rise in global prices.
A decision in this regard
New Delhi, are giving special empha- was taken in a high-level
With the Income Tax sis this year and hope to see meeting chaired by Union
Return filing deadline com- 25 lakh citizens filing their Minister for Chemicals and
ing to an end on Decem- income tax return through Fertilizers Mansukh
ber 31, citizens can visit CSCs, Dr. Tyagi added. Mandaviya. pending on their nutrient period from October 2021
their nearest Common Ser- For e-filing the returns, In the meeting, it was content. till March 2022 for
vices Centers (CSC) to e-file citizens can visit the CSC decided to continue sup- Under this policy, maxi- Diammonium Phosphate
their returns seamlessly. with their PAN Card, port to the domestic indus- mum retail price (MRP) of (DAP) and three most con-
CSC, an SPV under the Min- Aadhaar, Residential Ad- try for production of P&K P&K fertilizer is fixed by the sumed NPK fertilizer.
istry of Electronics & IT, has dress proof, details of fertilizers and propose ad- fertilizer companies as per The government has
readied 75,000 centres source of income, and Bank ditional provisions in the the market dynamics at also included potash de-
mainly in urban and semi- Account Number. Once the present NBS Policy to pro- reasonable levels which is rived from molasses under
urban areas which are cur- details are uploaded by the mote domestic production monitored by the govern- the NBS scheme with ef-
rently giving this facility Village Level Entrepreneur of P&K fertilizers in the ment. fect from October, 2021.
across the country . managing the CSC, the citi- country, an official state- However, in the current The country imports
This year we have made zen receives a call from the ment said. 2020-21 fiscal, the govern- P&K fertilizer to meet its
this facility available at companies asking for addi- This decision will help ment notified NBS rates for domestic demand. Global
more than 75,000 CSCs tional details. in utilizing the unutilised P&K fertilizer twice in order prices of these soil nutri-
across the country. CSC has After complete details domestic production ca- to keep domestic prices of ents have increased con-
been engaged in assisting are submitted, the ITR is The Minister of State for Defence and Tourism, Shri Ajay Bhatt visiting
pacity of these fertilizer and these soil nutrients reason- tinuously since early this the KRC Woollens at Kumaon Regimental Centre, in Ranikhet, Uttarakhand.
citizens file their e-returns filed within 3-7 days and e- promote ‘Atmanirbhar able to farmers and ensure year.
since 2015 with the help of verified. The citizen then Bharat’, it added. adequate supply. For instance, global
companies, Tax2Win and receives acknowledgment Under the NBS policy, Keeping in account prices of DAP had in-
TaxGenius, said CSC Manag-
ing Director Dr. Dinesh
Tyagi.
of the ITR and the compu-
tation on mail. Customer
receives acknowledgment
being implemented since
April 2010, a fixed amount
high global prices, the Cen-
tre has also provided a spe-
creased to USD 730 per
tonne in September from More financial inclusion will help reduce
For the financial year
2020-21, around 10 lakh
and computation on mail.
Within 20-25 days, TDS
of subsidy which is decided
on an annual basis is pro-
vided on P&K fertilizer de-
cial one time package for
additional subsidy over
above the NBS rates for
USD 565 per tonne in May.
They have further risen
now from that level.
volatility in consumption, prices: Patra
citizens have so far availed money is refunded to the New Delhi, which excludes them, such When food prices rise, the
the ITR filing service from citizen in his/ her bank ac- The financial inclusion as core inflation. Financial extra income earned by the
Over 4.43 cr income tax returns

CSCs across the country. We count. rises further in India, the in- inclusion appears to be the financially excluded is not
cidence of disruptions in lowest in rural, agriculture- saved but instead con-
consumption are likely to dependent areas where sumption is increased, lead-
FIEO aims at USD 460-475
filed till Dec 25 for FY'21
wane, allowing monetary food is the main source of ing to higher aggregate
policy to remain focused income, Patra said. Flexibly demand, Patra said, adding,
bn exports next fiscal year New Delhi, 4,43,17,697 ITRs have a large number of small and
on minimising inflation
volatility, Reserve Bank of
determined food prices
have a critical role to play
The lower the level of fi-
nancial inclusion, therefore,
Over 4.43 crore income been filed up to 25.12.2021 medium taxpayers. Sahaj India (RBI) deputy governor in influencing real wages the stronger is the case for
tax returns (ITRs) for the including 11,68,027 ITRs can be filed by an individual Michael Patra said. and incomes of the ex- price stability being de-
2020-21 fiscal have been having been filed on the having income up to Rs 50 Patra observed that in cluded and hence their ag- fined in terms of headline
filed, which includes over day itself, the department lakh and who receives in- India, the issue of financial gregate demand. inflation rather than any
11.68 lakh returns filed on said. come from salary, one inclusion and its role in Interest rate change measure of core inflation
December 25, the I-T de- The department has house property / other shaping the monetary doesn’t matter so much. that strips out food and fuel.
partment said. been reminding taxpayers sources (interest etc.). policy reaction function
This comprises over to file their returns for ITR-4 can be filed by in- was recognized from the
2.41 crore ITR-1 and 1.09
crore ITR-4 getting filed for
FY2020-21 (Assessment
FY2020-21 by sending
SMSes and emails.
ITR Form 1 (Sahaj) and
dividuals, HUFs and firms
with total income up to Rs
50 lakh and having income
very outset while institut-
ing the flexible inflation
targeting framework. Ac-
Investors richer by over
Year 2021-22) till Decem-
ber 25, 2021. A total of
ITR Form 4 (Sugam) are
simpler Forms that cater to
from business and profes-
sion.
cordingly, price stability was
assigned primacy among Rs 8.58 lakh cr in 3 days
New Delhi, ports. Much will also de- the goals of monetary New Delhi, mirroring an upbeat mood
The Federation of In- pend on whether the policy, with output being a Investors' wealth has in the global markets led by
dian Export Organiza- world would be able to secondary objective to turn soared by Rs 8,58,979.67 gains in realty, financial and
tions (FIEO) said taking a contain Covid-19 to only after price stability crore in three days of mar- IT stocks, while broader
conservative approach, it through massive vacci- as defined numerically in ket rally, with domestic markets strengthened, said
will aim for USD 460-475 nation across the globe terms of 4% with a toler- bourses climbing in tan- Vinod Nair, Head of Re-
billion exports in the and be able to create ance band of +/-2% around dem with global equities search at Geojit Financial
next fiscal year due to the required vaccine it has been achieved. amid abating concerns over Services. PowerGrid was
emergence of new vari- manufacturing capacity. This has been largely the economic impact of the biggest gainer among
ants of coronavirus and Looking into the emer- achieved, but for the ex- the Omicron variant. The the Sensex constituents on
the existing supply side gence of the new vari- ceptional experience with 30-share BSE benchmark Thursday, gaining 3.40 per
challenges. During ants and supply side the pandemic, and looking Sensex jumped 384.72 cent, followed by ITC, Bajaj
2021-22, exports are ex- challenges at this point ahead, inflation is expected points or 0.68 per cent to Finance, Infosys and NTPC.
pected to reach USD of time, we would like to trend down over the close at 57,315.28 on Markets inched further
400 billion, FIEO Presi- to be a little conserva- next two years to converge Thursday. During the day, it higher and ended in the
dent A Sakthivel said. He tive and will aim for an to the target, he said. gained 559.96 points to green for the third succes-
said the spectacular in- export of USD 460-475 The deputy governor, in 57,490.52. In three days, sive session, tracking firm
crease in global trade by billion during the next charge of the monetary the index has gained global markets. After the ini-
about 22 per cent, fiscal, he added. He also policy department at RBI 1,493.27 points. The mar- tial uptick, the benchmark
buoyed by high prices of expressed hope that and a member of the mon- ket capitalization of BSE- remained range bound till
commodities, as wit- the global consumption etary policy committee listed companies has rallied the end, however move-
nessed in 2021 will not would go up substan- (MPC), argued in favour of by Rs 8,58,979.67 crore to ment across sectors kept the
be there to provide the tially in 2022, albeit the The Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi ad- targeting a gauge of infla- stand at Rs 2,61,16,560.72 participants busy, said Ajit
tailwind to India's ex- pandemic is controlled. dressing at the International Conference on Dara Shikoh, organised by tion which includes food crore. Domestic bourses Mishra, VP - Research,
Aligarh Muslim University, in New Delhi. prices rather than one continued to trade firm Religare Broking Ltd.
New Delhi, Monday, 3 J anuary, 2022
EDITORIAL THE SIKH TIMES 6
Afghan peace, stability China lurking, India walks tightrope on Myanmar

may stay elusive Myanmar needs to be handled carefully for geopolitical reasons amid the unrest prevailing in the country. China has always been
deeply entrenched in Myanmar. It has been a major supplier of weapons. Myanmar has been sourcing fighter jets, jointly
manufactured by China and Pakistan. Russia, another major player, has been contacted by Myanmar for the supply of weapons.
situation in the Northeast and bringing relative peace.
However, even today, at least six insurgent groups active
in India’s Northeast are believed to be operating from
Myanmar and China has shown its inclination to use these
to cause disturbance within India. Myanmar also needs
to be handled carefully for geopolitical reasons amid the
unrest prevailing in the country. China has always been
deeply entrenched in Myanmar. It has been a major
supplier of weapons. Only a few days ago, it gave a
For long, Afghanistan has been the less-favoured submarine to the Myanmar navy at a ceremony in
child of history. In this difficult journey, it has Yangon, presided over by coup leader Senior General
often been betrayed by the powers and people it Min Aung Hlaing. China is also engaged in infrastructure
trusted. Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, building as part of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
the US and its agent Zalmay Khalilzad are the Besides, Myanmar has been sourcing fighter jets, jointly
latest inclusions on this black list. The Taliban are manufactured by China and Pakistan. Russia, another
a natural fit. They had long anticipated their return major player, has been contacted by the Myanmar
to power, and had years to prepare for governance. authorities for supply of weapons. Russia is also looking
Once earlier, in the 1990s, they had wielded the
ruling stick in Kabul. Yet, they were caught for a port in this area, which can be used by its navy for
unprepared by the suddenness of their victory. The logistic purposes. Clearly, complex geopolitical
Afghan people, abandoned by their leaders, were developments are taking place in this region and any
quick to accept the new reality; that life under the fissures in the India-Myanmar relations would be used by
Taliban would be brutish for the general public forces hostile to India.
and short for the regime’s opponents. To add to The pro-democracy protests in Myanmar unfortunately
their misery, the country is already facing a have caused another security issue for India. Due to the
devastating humanitarian crisis and a free-falling crackdown of military on the pro-democracy protestors,
economy. some of them have escaped to the Indian states of
Yet, the Taliban remain fixed in their ways. This Mizoram and Manipur. The Indian policy in this regard is
means women are unlikely to get their place in Myanmar has been gripped by instability after the February Myanmar, Shringla, during his visit, urged the military to persuade these protesters to go back to Myanmar. It is
society and the girl child will continue to be 2021 coup which removed the Aung San Suu Kyi- leadership in the country to hold elections. The military believed that a persistent Covid infection in Mizoram is
denied her right to education. It also means controlled government from power. This coup in its wake junta in Myanmar has indicated that they might hold due to the crossing over of these protesters. To deal with
freedom of expression and democracy are terms brought western sanctions on Myanmar with the hope elections in 2023 and they are considering introducing
for farther shores. The media, such as it is, will the situation, India has donated one million vaccines to
that it will put pressure on the military junta to restore proportional representation along with direct elections. Myanmar, most of which will be used to vaccinate border
remain muzzled and the parliament building democracy. The coup has also posed a challenge before India has, however, suggested that Myanmar should opt
constructed by the sweat of Indian workers will populations. There is no doubt that a civil war-like
the biggest democracy in the region, India, to devise its for a system that is politically more acceptable to its situation in Myanmar is of great concern to India. If this
not host debates after the abolition of the Election people. India also urged the Myanmar authorities to
Commission by the Taliban. Unless there is a own policy towards the crisis in Myanmar. The recent situation worsens, the fighting might spill over to the
radical course correction, chances are that the visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla release political prisoners. Shringla had a meeting with bordering areas of the Indian side as well. The
Afghan economy will steadily regress towards the to Myanmar was aimed at constructively engaging the the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) to deterioration in situation might be used by China or
very bottom it had reached during the previous country that shares its borders with the Northeast and indicate that India considers the opposition party an Pakistan to revive a weakening insurgency in India’s
Taliban rule. Afghanistan’s economic figures tell where vital Indian interests are involved. important stakeholder. However, India can’t adopt the Northeast. There are already reports of intensified arms
an entire story. Throughout the Taliban rule, and India would prefer that democracy is restored in Myanmar western policy of imposing sanctions on the military smuggling in the area. Some of these arms could be easily
up to 2001, the Afghan GDP remained at around and the country moves towards a more federal structure junta in Myanmar. India shares a 1,700-km-long border transferred to the Northeast insurgents. At this stage,
$2.7 billion. From that rock bottom position, it based on its Constitution. New Delhi expressed its with Myanmar in its north-eastern part. This region has
climbed steadily over the years to achieve a GDP keeping the sensitivity of the situation in view, India can’t
unhappiness when ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu been plagued by insurgency and in the past, several north- afford to take sides and the pragmatic policy of engaging
of $19.5 billion in 2017. It was the same case in Kyi was found guilty by a court of charges of incitement eastern insurgent groups have operated from Myanmar
per capita GDP terms. From a low of $119 in 2001, with all stakeholders is the only option. The military junta
and breaching of Covid-19 restrictions. India criticised territory, with or without the support of the Myanmar in Myanmar seems to be going back to the old system that
it reached $550 in 2017. The exports reveal a authorities. In the last few years, due to better
similar picture; Afghanistan’s exports in 1996, the verdict and saw it as undermining the rule of law and prevailed before 2011. However, if this leads to a serious
during the Taliban rule, were a pitiable $90 democratic process. Still, it was careful not to be too understanding between India and Myanmar, these decline in the situation, either within Myanmar or in the
million. By 2017, they had reached a reasonably critical of Myanmar’s military rulers fearing that it might insurgents have been on the backfoot. The cooperation of bordering areas of India and Myanmar, then there might
respectable figure of $784 million. Now, with drive the country closer to China. To restore democracy in the Myanmar military has been crucial in improving the be a need to revisit this policy.
international sanctions in place, the slide to the
dismal state of the 1990s may not take long.
Rather, the conditions could worsen. During the
first Taliban rule, there was virtually no Polls amid Covid
opposition to the government. This time, the
government itself is divided between factions. Onus on the ECI to ensure safe elections
There are rumours of a growing rift between the
Haqqani network— a Taliban faction based in the The Election Commission of India (ECI) faces a roadshows organised by various parties
east — and a Kandahar-based faction of Taliban slew of challenges as it finalises the schedule for contributed to the fast-rising caseload as
co-founders in the south of the country. Moreover, the Assembly polls in five states — Uttar Covid protocols were blatantly violated.
ethnic minorities like the Hazaras are restless, and Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and The ECI had been accused of remaining a
the substantial population of Tajiks remains on Manipur — amid a fresh surge in Covid-19 mute spectator to the violations, even as
edge. There are also reports that the Taliban are cases. The ECI has already asked the Union the Madras High Court had held the poll
forcibly evicting hundreds of ethnic Uzbeks, Government to prod the poll-bound states to panel ‘singularly responsible’ for the
Turkmen and the Shi’ite Hazara minority from expedite their vaccination programme. The spread of the second wave in the country.
their homes and land. Separately, the Taliban are panel has also announced that the number of It is expected that the ECI would have
being undermined by the Islamic State-Khorasan polling booths will be increased and the voting learnt lessons from the 2021 experience
(IS-K) group. Gradually, and as frustration with time enhanced by an hour in UP in a bid to and will get its act together this time right
the hardline methods of the government grows, prevent overcrowding. With 403 Assembly at the outset. Though it may not be
other pockets of resistance could emerge. seats, UP will witness multi-phase polling. The feasible to impose a blanket ban on major
Discontent may also become more pronounced key question is: Will the ECI compress the rallies, detailed guidelines for
within the Taliban ranks, in part, because of the elections into as few phases as possible or streamlining these gatherings can be
Haqqani group’s domination in critical security stagger them, like it did in West Bengal last worked out. With the BJP expressing
positions. All these are formidable odds for a new year? Voting in West Bengal, which has 294 willingness to hold virtual rallies in view
government. Still, the Taliban’s discipline and Assembly seats, had been spread over eight of the worsening Covid situation, the ECI
resourcefulness might ensure that its regime phases and five weeks, leading to allegations can explore the option of encouraging all
endures. As for the outside world, its choices are from the Trinamool Congress and other parties parties to go for the online mode of
limited and not too pleasant. Still, some contact that the prolonged schedule was aimed at campaigning in a big way. The onerous
must be established so that the Taliban are favouring the ruling party at the Centre. Assam and Puducherry had coincided with the peak of the task of ensuring free, fair and safe elections will surely test
reminded from time to time of the expectations of The 2021 elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, pandemic’s devastating second wave. The rallies and the poll panel to the hilt.
the outside world.
The thriving hate industry

Attacks by hate-mongers have a lasting impact beyond immediate electoral gains
The saddest takeaway from the Dharma Sansad traditions and practices. Any person clad public speakers seek a Hindu Rashtra, they are
held at Raipur on December 25-26 is that wearing saffron, abusing Muslims and merely reiterating the reprehensible two-nation theory
fancy dress and cross-dressing qualify for proclaiming allegiance to the ruling party without realising that our society cannot afford nor does
scholarship in Indian traditions, history and now qualifies to be a man of religion. it have the stomach for another Partition. Gandhi need
politics. A man with flowing tresses, thick Hatred has almost hit us like Comet Dibiasky not be treated as a totem, but what he represents has to be
beard, a large bindi and an ochre robe abused of the latest DiCaprio-starrer satire, Don’t held sacred for an emerging economy like India. A
Gandhi. In a Gandhian Republic, everybody Look Up. If we do look up, what we see is a pandemic-induced lockdown broke our back and we can
who chooses to abuse Gandhi should have nation-killer comet of hatred targeting only imagine what a civil war would lead us to. Well, it
complete freedom of expression and every Indian. No one is safe and nobody could be argued — can a few illiterate hotheads in fancy
opportunity to do so, be it Pragya Thakur, would have a future if we allow this comet dress trigger a civil war? Won’t it only ring in the New
Arundhati Roy or Kalicharan Maharaj. In to hit us. The hate-speakers may have Year with a lot of electoral goodies, to be forgotten after
fact, the early symptoms of the ill-health of upped their volume for election-time the last voting machine is accounted for? No. The socio-
the Gandhian Republic were seen with the reasons, but each attack has a lasting cultural wounds that these hate-mongers inflict cannot be
ruling Congressmen setting up the offence- impact. Every time an entire community is healed.
taking enterprise by banning Salman threatened with ethnic cleansing and If it was so very easy for the colonial administration to prop
Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. It has now genocide, a valid reason is being offered to up Jinnah and create Pakistan 75 years ago, it would still
become a full-fledged industry with it to get armed and fight. For those who be easy to build bloodstained walls between
immeasurable political profits. spew venom, it could only be bravado communities in our districts and villages. After all, the
The hate speeches of Hindu supremacists are aimed at immediate electoral gains, but the Indian political Right has not moved an inch from where
actually an apology for not keeping the by her lover) or kaaneena (child of an unmarried woman) politics that they articulate is very old — as it was designed to be by the British. The situation has
country intact, and Gandhi was always their convenient or golaka (child of a widow)? Just as Indians have old as the Partition. The hate speeches of Hindu only become worse with liberal Indians progressively
villain. Without taking offence at Gandhi getting abused, separate names for maternal and paternal cousins and supremacists are actually an apology for not keeping the abandoning their cultural roots and offering the space to
the Dharma Sansad was still disappointing for another aunts, we have specific cuss words for every possible country intact, and Gandhi was always their convenient the national fancy dress competition. One can only
reason. Kalicharan did not use an Indian or Hindu word illegitimacy. Despite such great wealth of colourful villain. Of course, the essential contradiction in the marvel at the colonial brilliance as its allies still control
to abuse Gandhi. He had to borrow from Arabic and vocabulary, a man in saffron robes chose the most proposition does not occur to the Hindutvavadis seeking the grand Indian narrative from the perspectives of
Islamic practices to abuse Gandhi for not being Hindu pedestrian abuse, showing once again how Islam and an Akhand Bharat — or united Bharat — encompassing Jinnah, Savarkar, Ambedkar and even the imbecile
enough. Haram is an Arabic word and a concept integral words of Arabic origin have become an essential part of the present-day Pakistan. If Hindus and Muslims are two princelings against the lone man in loincloth. At the close
to Islam, meaning that which is forbidden. Harami, the Indian social intercourse for the lowest common nations, as Savarkar and Jinnah claimed for the benefit of of a terrible year of loss, the memory of the father of our
thereby, is an illegitimate child born of a forbidden denominator. In that sense, Kalicharan was totally their British patrons, how could they be united under a nation remains brutalised.According to Indian traditions,
relationship. Of course, a man of indigenous religions secular in his choice of words. But this complete descent Hindu government? Gandhi might have even dreamed of being an illegitimate child or harami is no big deal, as is
cannot be expected to proffer the sophistry and into ignorance of the popular Hindu clergy is very undoing the Partition through the example of love and illustrated by the great Mahabharata character Karna.
articulation of a Booker Prize winner or a Nobel laureate disturbing. The fact that any person with an illiterate or peaceful coexistence and was indeed planning a trip to But a father getting abandoned by his children causes the
like Churchill, who famously asked why Gandhi didn’t semi-literate past — in this case the person is a school Pakistan when he was assassinated. Akhand Bharat can gravest disgrace; for a son is the one who delivers the
die along with the millions who were starved to death by dropout — can get invited to a so-called Dharma Sansad be achieved only if both communities live happily and father from hell (put nama narakat trayate iti putra). Let
the British. But can’t Kalicharan at least learn a few cuss proves that the Hindu religion is in the hands of those peacefully together, a condition that is not available even us wish the father of our nation deliverance in 2022.
words in Sanskrit, like jaaraja (child of a married woman who have no clue about its many languages, literatures, in Jammu and Kashmir. Still, if semi-literate, saffron- Happy new year!
millenniumpost
NEW DELHI | MONDAY, 3 JANUARY, 2022 Editorial 7
EDITORIAL Aeschylus. Mephistopheles
Afflicting Into a New Year, why are we discussing this Greek tragedy author and a
Talking Shop
reverberations devil’s sidekick, 500-plus years on? Because history often repeats itself
I I
am burning the mid- death threats against them.
ndia stands at the cusp of another health emergency night oil. It is just a lark Anyway, Virat, Ajinkya Rahane
as the Covid cases continue to soar across the coun- beyond 12 am and we and Cheteshwar Pujara have
try. The situation today resembles the one we wit- have all just ushered in been out of form for a while
nessed in the initial months of the previous year. The New Year 2022, and this is how and deserve treatment. What
months that had followed February last year, culminating I am choosing to begin the next treatment? India-shtyle…
into the second wave, were forgettable and could safely be 365 days, sitting and staring at Should we even remember
termed as the worst. Entire country should strive collec- my laptop screen and typing the second wave that impaled
tively to avoid the same lethal mess in 2022. While in the away. What else can I do? All us in April and May of last
previous year, it was the Delta strain of the SARS-CoV-2 RAJEEV NARAYAN around me, idiots are burst- year? Or talk of the election
that had wreaked havoc, this time around it is coupled ing fire-crackers and Sivakasi rallies in West Bengal and else-
with three times more transmissible Omicron variant. rockets which are whining where that spiked cases (for-
The total Covid cases in the country have reached above and whistling into our already get the Kumbh Mela and the
27,000 and Omicron cases crossed the 1,500-mark. The dangerously-polluted skies and hundreds taking ‘dubkis’ in
lethal nature of Delta, coupled with high transmissibil- stratosphere. All we can hope our sacred rivers, puffing away
ity of Omicron, poses a dual threat. The advent of Omi- is that the next few months do at many things not allowed,
cron in the Western nations like the United States and not make us revisit Years 2020 sporting red ‘tikkas’ on their
the United Kingdom was made ahead of India and the and 2021. Why do I say that? blessed foreheads and claiming
prevailing situation there could offer insightful leads to Perhaps because we, as a peo- to be divine, perhaps because
India for handling the dual-strain threat. Overwhelm- ple and society, have simply their ‘chillums’ were full and
ing hospitals across the US is indeed a worrying sign. As lost patience – we have seem- blessed?)
per data by US Health and Human Services Department, ingly given up and just can- I do not know the answer
nearly 78 per cent of ICU beds in the country are in use, not take anymore of lockdowns and am quite powerless. What
with 22 per cent of those occupied by Covid-19 patients. and rules; we now give a damn I do know is that innocent
It won’t be wrong to expect that a similar overwhelming to basic sensibilities and civic civilians died because of a
healthcare facility could follow in India as well. Short- responsibilities. Present-day India appears to be characterised by Aeschylus’ tragedy and Mephistopheles’ devilish spirit mistaken encounter in Naga-
age of life saving-facilities like emergency wards, ventila- Why am I bringing in land. Inflation has reached
tors etc. were real factors behind the chaos and destruction Aeschylus and Mephistophe- watched on TV many year- demic, which has made but a was the Lakhimpur Khiri inci- levels that are confounding.
we had witnessed in 2021 during the second wave. Now les into a brand-new year, you end and new year-beckon- dent in our receding GDP and dent. Sometime before that, Our leaders are quite shame-
that things appear to go the same way, it is time that we ask? Well, for one, they were ing roundups, a summation is nowhere near being the real Rakesh Tikait shed tears and less, a.k.a. not wearing masks
avert the dangerous path through responsible actions and Much as the Greek, and that is the in-thing of what the year gone by was culprit, as I have stated before. became historical. As a nation, while advising us to do so,
head towards a safe and secure year. The countries in the now for the last nearly two like. This then is my own dif- Well before the novel Coro- we watched, gawked, reacted even as they admonish us if
West that are witnessing record number of Covid cases two named in years, as we use all their alpha- ferent take, all in yesteryear’s navirus became an intrinsic and erupted. We still have we don’t. And sometimes, our
— like the US, the UK, France, Germany, Spain etc. — the headline bets to describe a pandemic Eastman color, on what was part of our life, we were already Mahatma Mohandas Karam- leaders even wave while on
are also one of the leading countries in terms of vaccina- and scourge that refuses to go another miserable year, quite in economic doldrums, even chand Gandhi within us. As metro trains, especially when
tion. More than a quarter of the population in the said induced passion away. Then again, the historical a-brim with tragedy, hate and as we were buying dual ‘India were people like General Vipin they are passing through unin-
countries have already received a booster dose. This indi- and wreaked genres of these two gentlemen targeted malice. Sadly, Year One’ aircraft and cavalcades Rawat, our Chief of Defence habited places.
cates that vaccination has not to be the only area of focus have a startling resemblance 2021 followed in the footsteps of cars for our leaders, while Forces, lost last year in a heli- To commemorate Aeschy-
as it is not enough. Much will depend on how prepared havoc on a to what the world is witness- of Year 2020, forcing you and I every other Indian lady turned copter crash… My friendly lus and Mephistopheles, the
the healthcare infrastructure of a country is. The fact that tremulous society ing today. to live through a soul-scratch- her LPG cylinder into a place neighborhood media idiots heroes of this column, let’s cite
countries like the US and the UK are able to brace the situ- Aeschylus was the first of ing (or was it soul-less?) year. where we hang our clothes out chose to take the ‘conspiracy’ some possible upcoming trag-
ation somewhat confidently is due to the high standards
five centuries classical Athens’ great dra- Let me recap for a bit and pres- to dry, much as most affluent route, but were soon trashed, edies, mostly through elec-
of healthcare infrastructure they have. Whether the same back, humankind matists; he raised the emerg- ent you with my roundup of did to their treadmills. thankfully, as they should have tion rallies in Uttar Pradesh,
could be said for India is doubtful. On the positive side, and India are ing art of tragedy to new and Year 2021, one that needled Miseries galore been. One esteemed journal- Punjab, Manipur, Goa and
Omicron and overall cases have already peaked in Africa near-insane heights of poetry and rankled me as much as The year was rife and raft ist even called him by a differ- Uttarakhand. Eerily, these
and are on a downward trend — despite the fact that the reliving raw and theatrical power. Despite it did a billion others in my with things that went horri- ent name altogether, because will be similar to what hap-
continent is lagging far behind the rest of the world in tragedy yet all his proclivity though, only country and over seven bil- bly wrong. The impact of a he was so drunk while still on pened last year and led to the
terms of vaccination. A caveat must be put here that the seven tragedies attributed to lion worldwide. poorly thought-out demon- live television that he didn’t Second Wave. Let’s not for-
peak and decline in the number of cases in Africa has not again. Souls are him have survived; ‘The Per- A year of tragedy was Year etization and GST implemen- know what he was saying. To get the landslides in Uttara-
been a smooth journey. India doesn’t necessarily need to being bought sians’, ‘Seven Against Thebes’, 2021, though we thought it tation stalked us, even years give this fool his due, he later khand and the flash-floods
go through the rough patch if it can ramp up its healthcare ‘The Suppliants’, the trilogy would bring hope and suc- after their announcement apologized, claiming that he in Himachal Pradesh; or the
facilities well in time and vaccinate its population prop- and sold openly, known as ‘The Oresteia’ (three cor, especially with the arrival and implementation, as did had acute knee pain due and explosion of Omicron. In the
erly. Even though the highly-transmissible Omicron leads as we cast a tragedies ‘Agamemnon’, ‘The of a vaccine and some sem- the unforgiving protests by was on pain-killers, meds that UK, US, Europe and South
to less hospitalization when compared to delta, reports Libation Bearers’ and ‘The blance of erection (resurrec- un-assuaging farmers, bank- led his mind go astray. Indeed! Africa, where it began (or was
suggest that the old, immunocompromised and unvac- blind eye toward Eumenides’), and ‘Prometheus tion?) in India’s fast-receding ers and others affected by the Year 2021 was fateful indeed. reported first) – and in India…
cinated may still be at the receiving end. Another wrong fiefdom Bound’ (though the author- GDP. But no, we were stabbed blind economic overhaul that Losing to Pakistan Enough! Enough bad
news coming in from the US is that the pediatric hospi- ship of this last one is dis- in the back. While we managed led to this chaos. The powers- A column that starts with things… Let’s be happy in the
tal admissions in the country for Covid-19 are the highest puted). Mephistopheles, you over a billion doses of vaccines, that-be were turmeric, while Aeschylus and Mephistoph- New Year. Good news. India
they’ve ever been over the course of the pandemic. These ask? In a nutshell, he was all our GDP took a severe hit, yet the actual on-ground feeling eles has to delve deep and be beat South Africa at the Cen-
signs don’t augur well. The Indian government’s decision but carnivorous in his mali- again, a dive that now sees us was ‘lal mirch’, vitriol and acid. relevant, to pay heed to his- turion, the only Asian team to
to extend its vaccination program for children is laudable ciousness, buying and selling battle 14.23-per cent wholesale Sentimental bullets were let fly torical virtues, right? Nope. do so, ever. That bodes well for
in this respect, but then again, a lot more needs to be done. human souls for a living. All in inflation, unseen in over 40 and they impacted, leading to That’s because In Year 2021, the year we have entered, even
Furthermore, it is not just the action of the government all, the two were not very opti- years. The economic reforms anarchy, inwardly decimating India lost to Pakistan in the though this is but just a little
that matters. The pandemic is affecting every person and mistic or bright-future promis- of 1991 gave us direction and India and its brotherly history. World Cup opener. Moham- blip. May the Lord (and the
all must participate equally to fight against the virus, only ing blokes. Thus it is that over put our country on the world We let loose and cut loose. mad Shami was all but van- powers that are) bless India,
then the victory of the human race will be ensured. The the rest of this article, I shall map as one of the fastest-grow- So much so, that we started dalized. And why not, he is a the world and you and I. We
unmasked and reckless celebrations on the New Year eve stymie you a bit on why I am ing economies. Remember, we driving differently. While most Muslim! Indian cricket cap- certainly need some good
and some other recent events reflect a lack of seriousness reminded of them in this New were the second-largest emerg- of still affluent India went tain Virat Kohli stood up for news, cheer and mental vitality.
among a section of people. Undoubtedly, similar acts were Year and our brand-new India. ing economy globally till 2011. shopping for SUVs and MUVs, him on social media. Suddenly, The author is a communications
one among the major factors behind the advent of the sec- My yearly roundup Today, truth be told, we are some creative others took a Virat’s wife and nine-month- consultant and clinical analyst.
ond wave in India. Can we afford to have another such Over the last week, I a barely-surviving economy. drive through and over people old daughter had to be pro- Views expressed are personal.
catastrophe? Certainly not. With many scientific find- have read in newspapers and Don’t blame this on the pan- (all for sport, mind you!). That vided police protection after narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com
ings around the Omicron still being ambiguous, it is the
A new beginning
seriousness and the poise of the people that holds central
importance. Our actions will define our immediate future.
To end with a reminder: Everything can wait when hun-
dreds and thousands of lives are at stake.
DearEditor India’s Foreign Secretary’s first visit to Myanmar after the military coup has
A CHALLENGING YEAR AHEAD sparked the hopes for resolution of critical diplomatic and security concerns
I
As we enter the new year and bid adieu to the bygone year
which had been turbulent and devastating on account ndia’s Foreign Secre- The Indian FS also met a num- the military dispensation, it
tary (FS) Harsh Vard- ber of foreign Ambassadors in can be hoped there would be
of the brutal second wave of the pandemic that crippled
han Shringla, of late, has Yangon to get a first hand feel a noticeable decrease, if not
public health and the national economy. The New Year been undertaking cru- of the òn-ground’ situation. fully, in the cases of target-
not just brings forth hope but also multiple challenges SHANTANU cial trips to India’s immedi- Meeting such a wide range of ing of Indian security person-
such as repairing the social fabric of the nation, plugging MUKHARJI ate neighborhood, as part of people, including representa- nel along the Indo-Myanmar
learning gaps, boosting economic recovery, protecting the the South Block’s fresh and tives of civil societies, was no borders.
environment, improving public healthcare infrastructure, dynamic position in keeping mean task. Another critical area which
facilitating access to vaccine and booster doses, and its neighbours constructively Crucially, the most sen- was discussed between the
enhancing rural infrastructure for the country. India engaged. Such an engagement sitive issue of security was Indian FS and his hosts was of
missed the chance of vaccinating all the citizens by the is not only diplomatic, secu- also adequately addressed by the several thousand Myanmar
end of the year, but nearly two thirds of the country is rity-linked and geo-political, the visiting Indian FS. In the refugees currently sheltered
fully inoculated and around 90 per cent have received at but also welfare- and human- recent past, there have been in the state of Mizoram, ever
least one shot. 2022 is destined to be a watershed year itarian-oriented. These visits cases of Northeast insurgents since the military crackdown
have come after the vital over- launching ambushes and took effect. Hopefully, India’s
as India will complete 75 years of independence. Every tures made by India’s FS dur- offensives, particularly car- highlighting the issues would
living soul has a moral duty to maintain, protect and ing his trip to Dhaka last year, ried out by Manipur People’s eventually see the return of
uphold the high ideals that the Constitution has bestowed Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Shringla has set the tone for strong
preceding the high-profile visit Indo-Myanmar relations Liberation Army (MPLA) and the refugees to Myanmar at
upon the citizens of India. India is home to a vibrant, of Indian President to Bangla- its other affiliates. It may be the earliest possible. All said
multicultural and multireligious society, so it is also It can be hoped desh during Victory Day cel- elections. The reasons behind Amid these rapidly chang- recalled that not very long ago, and done, the only dampener
incumbent on the lawmakers and law enforcers to crack there would be ebrations. Soon after this, FS the coup, as justified by Myan- ing circumstances in Myan- a young Assam Rifles officer was the Myanmar establish-
down on communal violence and caste bias, and protect a noticeable Shringla had paid a brief but mar’s military, were far from mar, the Indian FS’s most along with his wife, nine-year- ment’s refusal to grant an audi-
the rights of marginalised sections of society. To quote the highly meaningful visit to Nay- convincing as it alluded that recent Myanmar visit assumes old son, and some Indian secu- ence to the FS with ASSK. Yet,
anti-apartheid icon of South Africa, Desmond Tutu, who decrease in pyidaw and Yangon. Crucially, ASSK was indulged in elec- immense importance. It was rity personnel were slain in an Myanmar watchers believe
passed away recently: “If you are neutral in situation of the cases of the FS also delivered one mil- toral malpractices and rigging. really a balancing act as Indian ambush, strongly suspected to that in the subsequent meet-
injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” These lion India-produced vaccine Subsequently, Suu Kyi was put stakes, both geo-political and have been carried out by anti- ings, such possibility of a
words are relevant and must form the basis of a free and
targeting of doses as a token of gift for the behind the bars on account of security, are quite high and any India insurgents with tacit meeting with ASSK could be
Indian security people of Myanmar. This was frivolous charges. `big brother’ attitude might backing from a section of the raised again. Notably, this is
just society, if we are to realise the dreams of our freedom indeed a humanitarian gesture. It is imperative to point affect the sensitivity of the bilat- Myanmar military that could the first high-level visit by the
fighters. Nutrition, mental health issues and plummeting personnel It is well known that for out that ever since the mili- eral relationship between the possibly be close to China. Indian FS to Myanmar after
learning outcomes owing to the closure of schools for the last one year, Myanmar’s tary usurped power in Febru- two countries. Shringla held Sensing that the FS would raise the military coup. So, the Tat-
two years will have to be urgently addressed in 2022. We along the internal political situation has ary last year, different global important discussions with top such issues seeking meaning- madaw may possibly be wary
must also not lose sight of the informal sector. Without Indo-Myanmar been uneasy, particularly since bodies sprang into action. The brass of the State Administra- ful security cooperation from of ASSK meeting requests. Yet,
the growth of informal sector workers, development will border the military coup in February Association of Southeast Asian tive Council (SAC) as well as the Myanmar military estab- it is felt that they will relent as
remain hollow. Moreover, our development journey will 2021, which also saw a bloody Nations (ASEAN) ushered in a with several political parties lishment, the host government the bilateral train is moving
have to be in harmony with nature. May this year bring crackdown on the anti-mil- five-point consensus doctrine, including the NLD. He also had handed over five cadres of on the right track. This seems
social harmony, peace and prosperity to the nation. itary protests and political but due to complete indiffer- met military strongman Min the MPLA preceding the visit. just a beginning and is a major
opponents opposing the mili- ence on part of the architect Aung Hlaing. According to This was a signal that Myan- breakthrough in the bilateral
— VIJAY SINGH ADHIKARI, NAINITAL via email tary takeover of a legitimately of the military coup, General veteran diplomats with expo- mar would cooperate with relations. It deserves to be fur-
elected civilian government. Min Aung Hlaing, the plan did sure to Myanmar, India’s stance India in not allowing Myan- ther carried forward.
millenniumpost.in The coup had dethroned the not take off. China initially appears to be in line with that mar territory to be used by the The writer is a retired
Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK)-led expressed its disappointment of ASEAN, like call for release Indian Northeast Insurgents, IPS officer, a security ana-
Log on to write letters to the editor or send them to National League for Democ- in losing ASSK but soon, as in of political prisoners, resolu- either for training and shel- lyst and a former National
letter2editor.mp@gmail.com. You can also send your comments to The Editor, racy (NLD) government which the past, warmed up to the new tion of issues through nego- ter or for supply of weaponry. Security Advisor to the Prime
Millennium Post, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002 came through a resounding military regime, extending full tiations, and appeal for an end With the FS having flagged Minister of Mauritius. Views
victory in November 2020 Chinese support. to all hostilities and violence. India’s security concerns with expressed are personal
MUMBAI
4 THINK BusinessLine
MONDAY • JANUARY 3 • 2022
0
xyz
monday, january 3, 2022

The time to privatise PSU banks is now
PSU banks lag behind their private sector counterparts in most metrics. But the political will to privatise them is absent
Start-ups to scale-ups HIMADRI BHATTACHARYA The pace of growth of retail credit their (yoy) CASA growth in
still remains below its preCovid September 2021 was 11.6 per cent
T
2021 was great for start-ups. It’s time to shift he RBI’s recently released level, though. compared to 22.8 per cent for PVBs
‘Report on Trends and In fact, the retailled credit and 17.2 per cent for FBs.
gears amidst financial uncertainty Progress of Banking in In growth model, which has been ad Further, the operating expenses
dia’ (RTPB) and the ‘Finan opted as a matter of strategy by of PSBs as a proportion of their total
T
he trends emerging from 2021 indicate cial Stability Report’ (FSR) provide most large banks in India, is now fa income have risen sharply from 18
goodquality information and ana cing headwinds. As revealed in the per cent during the fiveyear to
that India’s startup ecosystem is on its
lyses on the state of the banking FSR, delinquencies in the con 201213 to 24.4 per cent currently,
way to becoming a global hub for in system in India. sumer finance portfolio have risen, whereas this metric for both PVBs
novation and emerging entrepreneurs. There is no denying that the pan and the newtocredit segment, a and FBs has remained more or less
With over $38 billion in funding spread across demic has left deep scars on India’s key driver of consumer credit unchanged. These developments
2,055 rounds, 12 initial public offerings, and the banking system, and it is highly growth in the prepandemic bode ill for the ability of PSBs to
possible that the imperatives of the period, is showing a decline in compete on loan price, all else be
emergence of 40 unicorns, 2021 proved to be a pandemicinduced ‘new normal’ originations. Tough call Bank privatisation is a politically difficult decision PTI ing equal.
landmark year for India startups. Amidst rising will impact and influence the risk On the wholesale side, while
global investor confidence in Indian businesses, return landscape for most eco lending to the public sector entities Inadequate political capital
there are two other encouraging developments. nomic and business activities in is showing a decent rise, growth in The country needs bold policy initi
the years to come. Yet, these two credit to nonPSU nonfinancial en atives to privatise most PSBs within
First, startups are increasingly driving focus publications afford an opportunity tities witnessed a decline overall a timeframe. The rationale for do
more towards the businesstobusiness (B2B) to take a close look at the con continuously for almost two years ing so is simple and straightfor
space. Almost half of the country’s startups are of tinuum of performance and the now, with a modest positive growth ward: a capitalstarved country like
fering enterprisefocused services. This is a signi challenges faced by the banks in for AA and aboverated corporates. ours can illafford systematic ineffi
India. As for the reasons for lacklustre cient use of financial savings and of
ficant shift from the initial rush of young entre
credit growth, the RBI’s research, as taxpayers’ money that the govern
preneurs who were merely replicating successful Credit risk in the loan book revealed in the RTPB, confirms ment uses to recapitalise PSBs.
business models from Silicon Valley, primarily The loan portfolios of banks are re what is already known intuitively: A first step toward clearing the
aimed at retail consumers. While these businesses positories of 80 per cent or more of slowdown in industrial activity and political fog surrounding privatisa
have made services such as booking a cab or a their overall risks, reckoned by the investment constrained credit de tion would be to debunk the myths
regulatory capital required for this mand, while stressed balance June 2020. something more durable at work. that have been diligently nurtured
hotel room more affordable and convenient, the purpose. Credit risk exposurere sheets of banks limited credit In general, the portfolio of such Compared to when the pan over the years to justify the below
reality is that Indian startups are way behind in lated losses have overwhelmed, es supply. corporate borrowers has a demic appeared in March 2020, the par performance of PSBs.
terms of creating products as Google and Mi pecially the public sector banks A quintessential question that propensity of more rating down financial performance of PSBs, One such myth has been that
crosoft do. However, there has (PSBs) from time to time, the latest needs to be raised and answered in grades than upgrades, implying de PVBs and FBs has now significantly PSBs hold the savings of the com
being in the years following the the context of banks’ role as the terioration in the credit risk profile improved. But in the case of PSBs, mon people in trust and, hence,
Scan & Share now been a rapid growth in commencement of ‘Asset Quality principal intermediary between of the portfolio with the passage of even a modest shifting of the refer their privatisation would be violat
the number of deeptech start Review’ in 2014. the economy’s savers and borrow time. This appears to be the experi ence point to 2015 or beyond would ive of the social contract that un
ups and those focusing on un Despite this backdrop, a percep ers, is whether the credit risks of ence with wholesale credit for a tell a very different story: they, as a derlie the current arrangement.
derserved markets. There are tion has long been created, and par different types are properly as long time. group continue to be the laggards. Fortunately, the Supreme Court,
ticularly in the wake of the Global sessed by them using the latest Do the banks get paid for adverse Most significantly, the RoA (re in a recent order, has declined to ac
over 2,000 such companies in
Financial Crisis (200810) that the tools and whether the correspond credit risk migration propensities? turn on assets) of PSBs (see table) is cept the trusteeship concept. But
India engaged in highend en socalled brickandmor ing remunerations are No. There are reasons to believe not only much less than those of the popular perception doggedly
gineering, which is 70 per cent tar banking involving de adequate. Unfortunately, that riskadjusted return earned on PVBs and FBs, but is a little over half refuses to accept the debtorcred
Scan & Share
higher than the number of deep tech companies positmobilisation and the answers to both these corporate credit has been dismally of what was achieved, on average, itor relationship that exists
in 2018. loanmaking is inher questions are not unam low for a long time. This is particu during the fiveyear period to 2012 between a bank and its depositors.
ently safe and less risky biguously in the affirmat larly true of PSBs, whose current 13, the last financial year for which Also, the message one gets from the
The second major trend is the rising number of and any financial innova ive. stressed segment of the wholesale disaggregated business and per lastmoment dithering by the gov
startups that are becoming scaleups. According tion such as securitisa The FSR provides us credit at 12.5 per cent is way higher formance data on banks were pub ernment on the introduction of a
to Nasscom, the startup ecosystem is expected to tion and use of derivat with some interesting than private banks (PVBs) and for lished by the RBI. Similar is the case Bill on privatisation of two PSBs in
add additional 250 scaleups by 2025 in emerging ives for risktaking is clues to start pondering eign banks (FBs). for all other metrics. An important the justconcluded winter session
necessarily bad and unsafe, at best, on these issues: During the period What adds to the worry is that underlying fact in respect of RoE of Parliament is that political cap
areas like EdTech, Logistics, Automotive, FinTech and reckless speculation, at worst. March 2019 September 2021, the ra the feature of adverse credit risk (return on equity) of PSBs is that ital required for this purpose is cur
and HealthTech. Even though the time to scale is There has been a slow revival in tio of the number of rating up migration is now visible in the con they as a group are significantly rently in short supply.
expected at five years, faster funding and larger the credit offtake of banks in 2021, grades to rating downgrades of a sumer credit portfolios of banks. It more leveraged than PVBs and FBs,
ticket size rounds will accelerate future growth the latest print being a 7.1 per cent y select group of nonPSU nonfinan is not clear at the first sight if this is making them structurally more The writer is a former central banker
oy rise, most of which has been led cial corporates fell from 0.66 to a consequence of the pandemicre risky. On the business expansion and consultant to the IMF. (Through The
and valuations. While the pandemic disrupted
by the retail side of their business. 0.35, with a low of 0.06 reached in lated economic adversity or there is front, they have fallen way behind: Billion Press)
lives in many ways, it has also been the push that
many startups needed to propel their businesses.
That said, India’s startup ecosystem has miles to
go before it catches up with other countries like Is
rael, China, and the US. India has always had deep
technical and scientific talent which is not neces
sarily reflected in the patents issued. The best of
Indian minds look for better opportunities in
Development assistance in the pandemic era
other countries because there is a strong focus on The developing nations need a ‘Marshall Plan-like’ package to bolster their healthcare infrastructure
R&D there. Countries such as Israel decided early
to invest in intellectual capital and create a know RAHUL MAZUMDAR consensus on tackling this virus. Need for concerted effort Development assistance in the
This is disheartening as the priority Given the lack of coordination, the form of longterm concessional
I
ledgebased economy; as a result it has more hi t is again amply clear with the should be to make all human be broad contours of development as loans and grants, through invest
tech startups per capita than any other country. recent upsurge in Omicron ings on this planet secure from sistance need to be relooked, and its ments in healthcare infrastructure
Indian startups should focus more on solving variant across geographies, Covid19, rather than continuing to purpose needs to be attuned with would have a multiplier effect on
reallife problems in areas like agriculture, air that the global threat due to delve into means to make greater common fight against pandemic. the GDP growth, which could be
Covid19 pandemic does not recog profits. This could also be widened beyond combined with soft capacity build
purification and water management. Indian nise borders and can only be over It may be recalled, according to access to vaccines to creating health ing investment in the form of vac
founders should realise that profitability cannot come through coordinated global various news reports, the developed infrastructure. ODA recipients will cines. It may be noted that health
be neglected in the pursuit of valuation. In the action. Amidst this the importance economies had wasted millions of benefit significantly through such a care has always been recognised as a
rush to raise more funds and celebrate unicorn of development assistance assumes doses of crucial and much needed mechanism. necessary prerequisite for eco
significance to address the devastat vaccines since they got expired as It may be recalled that the nomic development and progress
status, startup entrepreneurs should not forget
ing health, social, economic and se people did not turn up. The irony is concept of aid, or ODA, has its roots and not a consequence.
the need to scale up with a sustainable business curity impacts on people around that the redistribution of such sur in the Charter of the United Na Many economies are bereft of any
model. A sudden reversal in funds emanating the world. plus vaccines in time to many of the tions, 1945, with the first such aid be support and to them development
from the VC/PE space in the wake of a turn towards During November 2021, the emerging or less developed coun ing provided by the US to its assistance is crucial amidst this pan
tighter monetary policy could leave some start OECD’s Development Assistance tries could have been of immense Global health Top priority /ISTOCKPHOTO European allies through the Mar demic. As the Omicron variant soars
Committee (DAC) met to discuss help to those countries. shall Plan. Results of this was suc globally, DAC along with other
ups high and dry. Startups need to do their home over how to treat and price donated The vaccine inequity gets further manufacturers, to make them af cessful with development finance emerging economies should take
work well in this scenario. Otherwise, the mo vaccines for purposes under aid. displayed through the number of fordable for greater good. and aid cooperation becoming a cognisance of the reality, for the be
mentum of the last 10 years may turn into a Consequently, on December 8, 2021 people immunised. In fact, in November 2021, prior to powerful tool to boost economic nefit of the whole world so that as
bubble. it issued a note where it proposes to More than a year into the pan OECD’s DAC meet, the G20 mem growth by augmenting productive many vaccines could be distributed
double the price per vaccine to demic, the African continent has bers met in Rome and responded to investment and technical as possible, while simultaneously
$6.72, from an earlier proposal of $3 been able to fully vaccinate just the Covid19 crisis by setting up a knowledge. creating heath infrastructure.
per dose. around 3 per cent, and lags far be Health and Finance Minister Task Today a similar effort would be re Hence a reasonable and a collect
Further the wealthy economies hind Europe (nearly 50 per cent), Force. The surprising thing was that quired towards healthcare for all. ive approach is required by coun
have also failed to decide whether to North America (44 per cent), South it was set up 24 months after the Most of the less developed coun tries which are genuinely inter
POCKET RAVIKANTH consider the donations of excess America (33 per cent), and Asia (32 pandemic broke out, and more so tries globally need capital to rebuild ested to make a difference.
Covid19 vaccines as aid. per cent). Given the huge scope for the Task Force failed to express any themselves as they deal with this
Almost two years since this pan inoculation in the months and financial commitments, immedi pandemic, where people have lost The writer is an Economist with India
demic broke out, and the global years ahead, it is important for DAC ate or future, to combat the lives, jobs, and are still reeling un Exim Bank; Views expressed are
community has still not come to a to work along with the vaccine pandemic. der lack of access to vaccines. personal
BELOW THE LINE

Too early to declare victory preparing to introduce the Bank given as Veth- vote for us in the next elections, we noted journalists of India, had
Bank union leaders are clearly able privatisation Bill in upcoming alaipaaku. promise you to provide cheap li covered many milestone events of
to read the pulse of this govern Budget session, say banking in Interest quor at affordable prices,” he said, independent India.
ment. So much so that they have dustry observers. Big message to ingly, Stalin’s addressing a public meeting. Finance Minister Nirmala
now warned the bank employees bank employees is that govern father and His statement comes in the wake Sitharaman recalled some of his as
and their comrades not to let their ment may have lost the recent former Chief of Jagan Mohan Reddy’s govern signments in the MV Kamath Cen
guard down in their ongoing fight battle (unable to move the privat Minister M Kar ment hiking the liquor prices signi tenary Memorial Lecture, organ
against bank privatisation. Don't isation Bill in Parliament), but it unanidhi al ficantly over the last two years. ised by Manipal Academy of Higher
call it a win too soon is the advice could still end up winning the war ways had a yel MK Stalin PTI As this clip went viral, the social Education, recently. She said that
from AIBEA General Secretary CH in the upcoming budget session! low shawl media platforms were flooded with Kamath was sent from Mumbai to
Venkatachalam, who has cautioned Action has clearly shifted to the around his neck. One wonders if memes and criticism, flaying the Delhi to cover the Constituent As
the bank employees that govern budget session. there is a connection between the BJP leader. Some even trolled him sembly debates even when it was in
ment not introducing Bank privat yellow shawl and the yellow bag. on Facebook and Twitter, adding the final stages of finishing the
Yellow bag in demand
isation Bill in just concluded 'sarai' (liquor) before his name. drafting of Indian Constitution. He
‘Cheap’ offer
Winter session — although a good The famous yellow bag — manjapai The BJP leader's tongueincheek also covered the trial of Nathuram
news for bank employees — does in Tamil — is back in demand in The President of BJP’s Andhra Pra comments caught the attention of Godse.
not mean that the Bill has been Tamil Nadu thanks to Chief Minis desh unit created a furore last week leaders beyond the two Telugu Kamath also covered the mid
shelved or will not be brought in ter MK Stalin last week starting a when he made a passionate appeal States as well. night of August 14 and 15 of 1947
future. movement to propagate the use of to liquor lovers to vote for his party In a damagecontrol bid, he later when India got Independence. He
The bank employees have been cloth bags instead of plastic bags to and get cheap liquor at just ₹75. explained that his comments were covered all these epochmaking
told to see this as just a temporary reduce pollution. The manjapai has “Why, if voted to power and misunderstood and that he just events when he was barely 26 years
reprieve, at the best. “Beware, it is always been associated with the tra things go well, we will offer it at just wanted to make liquor affordable old. He was one of the earliest to
just a reprieve and not a retreat,” ac ditional Tamil functions and it is ₹50,” Somu Virraju said, triggering for the poor. write the biography of Prime Minis
cording to Venkatachalam’s recent given to those who attended when an uproar. ter Narendra Modi also, she in
Journalist’s journey
message to bank employees. This is they leave and usually contains “There are about one crore formed the virtual gathering.
sage advice with the government coconut, betel leaves and nuts and people that consume liquor. Do The late MV Kamath, one of the Our Bureaus
Published by N. Ravi at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by N. Vaidyanathan at Dangat Media Pvt Ltd, No. 22, Dighe MIDC, Vishnu Nagar, TTC Industrial Area, Dighe, Navi Mumbai-400701 on behalf of THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Raghuvir Srinivasan (Editor responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act). ISSN 0971 - 7528
CM . ..... .. . ...BM-BME
YK
MUMBAI
BusinessLine
MONDAY • JANUARY 3 • 2022 THINK 5
BOOK REVIEW BOOK REVIEW NEW READS
A doctor’s handy assistant

A book that simplifies complex issues of immunology
Gripping tales of vaccine discovery
RAJEEV JAYADEVAN Dettmer describes a raging battle scene The telling of vaccine roll outs from HIV to SARS-CoV2 virus is a true adventure story of our times
where the first respondents are tired
I
magine you would go through the and rapidly losing heart. Chapter 15 de GAGANDEEP KANG where do not find a mention. switch from influenza to SARS
T
day, minding your business, and scribes how the macrophages (Dettmer he world has been There is also nothing on the CoV2, and Novavax and Moderna Title: Countdown: Can India
suddenly hundreds of thousands calls them black rhinos) are exhausted, through interesting many inactivated vaccines in as small companies, struggled to rebound from the meltdown
of flies covered your skin. This and almost defeated. “Suddenly thou times in the past 24 China, India and other parts of survive while continuing to push of the century
would be a horrifying experience, and sands of new soldiers arrive, which are months, and many the world or the newer technolo their science forward without Author: Anshuman Tiwari
for a bacterium, this process can cripple the T helper cells. A jolt of energy shoots books have been written for local gies that are still being evaluated. any licensed products at the time and Anindya Sengupta
and maim. And now imagine the flies through the macrophage’s bloated and global consumption that de they started to work on Covid19 Publisher: Bloomsbury
turning into wasps in the blink of an body. In a heartbeat, its spirit comes scribe the identification, track Intimate moments vaccines. India
eye. Another cascade is about to begin. back and it feels fresh again. Helper T ing and response to SARSCoV2, The tales that are told are grip The insights into the decision The book takes stock of how
This one will be deadly.” cells whisper magic words to the tired and there are going to be many ping, and the details that Zucker making of investors, how the pandemic-lockdown
This is not a paragraph out of some soldiers, motivating them to get them more that document this incred man incorporates in the telling, NoubarAfeyan and the Strung ravaged the Indian economy
horror novel, but the words Philipp selves together and engage the bacteria ible time in our history. provides intimacy with the cast mann brothers, who took risks and explores the most
Dettmer uses to explain the concept of again — with even more violence than Gregory Zuckerman’s A Shot to of characters. Gale Smith, the with Moderna and BioNTech, sustainable way out.
harmful bacteria being tackled by Com before. The specialist forces of antibod Save the World approaches the de North Dakota farm boy, whose and the descriptions of the com
pliment, a key player in the human im ies then arrive, like assassins with velopment of SARSCoV2 vac PhD in Texas leads to a protein ex Title: A Shot to Save the parisons of Theranos with Mod
mune system. The book ‘Immune’, 315 sniper rifles”. cines from a different viewpoint. pression system that is used dec World: The Remarkable Race erna, because of the personalit
pages long and beautifully illustrated, The 19 chronologically organ ades later to make the Novavax and GroundBreaking Science ies and projections of Elizabeth
provides a unique introduction into the Battlefield metaphor ised chapters start with HIV in vaccine, celebrates the US trial Behind the Covid19 Vaccines Holmes and Stephane Bancel as
intricacies of the subject. By using the metaphor of a battlefield 19791987 and end in Winter 2020 results with a dinner with his Author: Gregory Zuckerman CEOs, are unusual and provide
This book, written in plain English, in reference to the big toe wound, to Summer 2021 as vaccines were wife at The Inn at Little Washing Publisher: Penguin Business some understanding of the evol
has arrived at the right time. Dettmer is able to connect multiple rolled out, to create the recent ton. Price: ₹650 ution of the companies.
Immunology remains a formidable players of the immune system in se history of virology and vaccines, Adrian Hill, whose passion for The book builds a foundation
subject even for a medical doc quence. The intervening reaching Wuhan and the first de vaccines led to the establish who worked on them and the of science to describe the devel
tor. chapters explain the role of scription of the outbreak and the ment of the Jenner Institute at places where the work was done, opment of some of the vaccines Title: The Covid Spectrum:
Dettmer’s book, although each component. sequencing of the SARSCoV2 Oxford, is faced down by Joana sometimes over decades. Scient that have begun to be used Theoretical and Experiential
simplified to the extent pos The idea of introducing virus only in Chapter 14. This or Carneiro da Silva at a scientific ists who work on viral vaccines around the world. The portrayals Reflections from India and
sible, will take patient reading each player separately in ganisation of the chapters cre meeting, an unusual occurrence are few, and the same individuals of interesting characters and the Beyond
— especially for those who are chapters is thoughtful. ates a sense of anticipation, and for a scientist described as bril appear as the narratives evolve. interesting situations they Editors: Kanchana
not adept at immunology. The Dettmer describes the dend each chapter establishes a mile liant but savage and derisive. Barney Graham of the Vaccine found themselves in add value to Mahadevan, Satishchandra
the initial chapters helpfully ritic cell as an “intelligence of stone in the history of viral infec Dan Barouch, the wunderkind, Research Center at the National the accounts of scientific ad Kumar, Meher Bhoot, Rajesh
include a primer on cell bio ficer”, while he chooses to call tions, the science that informed who writes a paper in a weekend, Institute of Health (NIH) advises vances. Kharat
logy and evolution of the im a neutrophil “a chimp on vaccine development and the never watches television and has Jason McLellan to work on Luigi Warren, a software en Publisher: Speaking Tiger
mune system. Coke with a bad temper and a creation of companies and the practised the violin for an hour a coronaviruses when he gets his gineer who chose a second ca A range of scholarly essays
“Sadly, when your immune machine gun”. Helpful sum people that made it all possible. day since the age of four, and also faculty position and cannot get reer, struggles to make stemlike that raise philosophical and
system under or overcommits, death mar ies are provided at various The stories are mainly of the teaches his young daughters to funding, and then calls him to cells and get them to produce socio-economic issues
or suffering are the consequences”, points. ‘Immune’ would be a handy as vaccines developed or planned play. collaborate when the SARSCoV2 protein using mRNA, building related to the pandemic.
writes Dettmer, highlighting the sistant for medical students, doctors for testing under Operation The science that led to the in sequence becomes available. The on the work of Katalin Kariko
doubleedged trait of its powerful com and science enthusiasts. They will find Warp Speed, the Moderna and Pf sect cell expression of proteins, story of the weekend slog of Ni and Drew Weismann. Kerry Ben
ponents. In the last chapter, he makes Dettmer’s style refreshing. For someone izerBioNTech mRNA vaccines, the modifications of mRNA that anshuang Wang in McLellan’s enato is asked to ‘solve delivery’
an important comment about people who is curious to understand the im the Astra Zeneca chimpanzee ad allowed it to be used to produce lab that resulted in potential can for Moderna experiments to find
attempting to “boost their immune sys mune system, it is a mustread. enovirus vectored vaccine, the proteins in humans, the struc didates, which were sent to the perfect packaging for mRNA
tems”, frequently duped by advertise Although not a medical doctor or an Johnson & Johnson human aden ture based approach to stabil Kizzmekia Corbett, who worked and finds solutions in simplicity.
ments into purchasing supplements immunologist, Dettmer has studied the ovirus vectored vaccine and the ising a shapeshifting protein, with Barney Graham, is one that There are successes and failures,
that have no scientific merit. The truth topic in detail and consulted experts in Novavax protein vaccine. Other the development of viral vectors will go down in the annals of struggles and triumphs, inter
is, unlike our muscle mass or vocabu the field. Towards the end, he has in vaccines developed in the US that that could be safely and effect vaccinology. esting characters and an arc of
lary, immunity is not a commodity that cluded a basic introduction to certain ultimately were not taken for ively used in humans are laid out The scientists and the science discovery and development that
can be boosted. conditions such as cancer, allergies, ward or were developed else in the accounts of the people take centrestage, but vaccines capture attention. Title: The Kashmir
People familiar with the subject can autoimmune disease and Covid19. This are not made by scientists alone. If there is a fault, it is with the Conundrum: The Quest for
jump to chapter 7, when Dettmer de section is not only of practical relev MEET THE AUTHOR The investors, the executives and limitation to a US perspective of Peace in a Troubled Land
scribes a stroll through the woods on a ance, but also allows readers to apply the manufacturing experts that vaccines. Even with that, this is a Author: General N.C. Vij
Gregory Zuckerman is a special writer at the Wall Street
pleasant summer day, when a cut some of the concepts acquired while make the companies that make true adventure story for our Publisher: HarperCollins
Journal. He writes about business subjects like financial
wound occurs on our big toe. Using this reading the prior chapters. the vaccines, or try to, are in times. A comprehensive and
trades, hedge funds and privateequity firms, and about
basic template, he introduces the mul cluded in descriptions that de up-to-date account of the
innovation and cuttingedge science. He's a threetime winner
tiple players of the human immune sys The reviewer is a specialist physician and tail how large companies like Pf The reviewer is Professor, The Kashmir conundrum from an
of the Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honour in business
tem in the subsequent chapters. member of the National Task Force of IMA izer built on existing Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory, army man who has engaged
journalism.
Reminiscent of epic war movies, for Coronavirus pandemic partnerships with BioNTech to Christian Medical College, Vellore with it at the highest levels.
SHORT TAKE
BusinessLine
America’s hunger Why India should go for a manufacturing push TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY
pandemic is THIRUVANNATHAPURAM S
RAMAKRISHNAN
per cent, 3.3 per cent, 2.3 per cent,
1.9 per cent, 1.8 per cent and 1.5 per
20.2 per cent, 24.3 per cent and
53.9 per cent, respectively, of the
the government to push the
share of manufacturing.
January 3, 2002
getting worse
R
aghuram Rajan, former cent, respectively to world manu GDP of India. Fast growth is pro In 2018, India’s contribution to MP says FIs will discuss Birla buy of Ambanis' L&T stake
Governor of RBI and facturing. pelled first by the secondary sec world manufacturing was minis Mr Kirit Somaiya, Member of Parliament and President,
ADAM MINTER now an academic in the Each of these countries nearly tor, and thereafter by the tertiary cule 3 per cent, whereas our share Investors' Grievances Forum (IGF), today raised a
US, has been giving in contributed to the world manu sector. in the world population is 17 per controversy of sorts when he said that the heads of major
E arly in the pandemic, Amer

icans lined up for hours out
side of food banks, awaiting
terviews regularly on how the In
dian economy should be steered.
In his December 2021 inter
facturing much more than their
share in the world population.
China implemented economic
Services sector surge
India was in the grip of the li
cent. India has a great scope and
potential in manufacturing,
given our demographic dividend,
financial institutions would "discuss the issue" of the
acquisition of Ambanis stake in L&T by the A.V.Birla Group.
Mr Somaiya told newspersons that the heads of IDBI and
their chance to collect groceries. views, he has suggested ways to reforms in the late seventies and cense and quota raj till 1991 and reasonably cheap labour, con UTI had assured him that they (the institutions) would
Many of them had experienced help the Indian economy grow at became the number one contrib hence the secondary sector was trolled inflation, and hence re discuss the issue on January 6 at a meeting of the Higher
food insecurity before Covid19. 89 per cent in the coming years, utor to world manufac artificially suppressed duced interest rates on loans, Investment Management Committee of FIs. However,
Tens of millions of others were to generate employment for turing only in 2010. In the despite great demand scope for mobilisation of funds when contacted, FI officials could not confirm schedule of
new to such assistance. youth. preceding decades, the for consumption of for expansion through equity, im any such meeting.
Only thanks to emergency fed His view was that India should US, Japan, Germany, Italy, goods and allied activ proving transport and energy More Madhavpuras in the making
eral intervention was a serious not go for increasing the share of France, and UK were ities. However, even infrastructure. The spectre of the Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative
hunger crisis averted in manufacturing in the overall GDP dominating the manu after liberalising the Change is required, where it Bank (MMCB) has come back to haunt the people of
2020.Unfortunately, even as the like the way China has been doing facturing world. Did economy partially has been long overdue, whether it Gujarat with a vengeance in the New Year. If it was the turn
pandemic has eased by some and should continue to concen these countries adopt au from the clutches of li is aggressively promoting manu of the General Cooperative Bank (Genco) to have itself
measures, a range of factors is trate on the services sector. thoritarian means? So cense and quota raj, In facturing or farm laws that would indefinitely suspended from clearinghouse by the Reserve
still preventing many Americans According to him, China seen from this perspect dian entrepreneurs in bring crop rotation and diversi Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday, "the Anandbased Charotur
from finding enough to eat. achieved success in manufactur ive, Rajan’s analysis seems faulty. vested heavily in the service fication of crops. Cooperative Bank followed suit on Wednesday. And there
Those stresses continue to fall on ing due to its authoritatarian re In 1951, the primary sector of sector as it gives a quick return on When economists share their may be a few more such bank failures waiting to happen as
the nation’s food banks. As Covid gime, and hence democratic In agriculture and allied activities investment visavis the manufac views on how to take the national some 20 cooperative banks out of 358 operating within
drags on, their mission is becom dia should not aim the same. It is like forestry, fishing contributed turing sector. An example is the economy forward, the govern Gujarat are said to be in pretty bad shape.
ing harder and more expensive. true that China’s share of contri to 56.4 per cent of India’s GDP, the proliferation of TV channels in In ment would listen. Stand-off clouds SAARC meet
To ensure that the lingering ef bution to world manufacturing secondary sector of manufactur dia in the 1990s and 2000s. But the views should be based With terrorism high on the agenda, the South Asian
fects of the coronavirus don’t in 2018 was 28 per cent, the ing, construction, mines, and As a result, the service sector re on national interests and what Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Foreign
lead to sparse dinner tables this highest among all countries. But quarry contributed 15.01 per cent placed the agriculture sector as the nation requires in the short, Ministers today began their twoday meeting here with the
winter, Congress should step up in the same year, the US, Japan, and the tertiary sector of services the dominant sector, as the latter medium, and long term. host, Nepal, urging all member countries to collectively
for the charities that keep Amer Germany, South Korea, Italy, contributed 28.59 per cent. was completely ignored. meet "new challenges" and ensure a more meaningful
icans fed. France, UK, and Mexico contrib In 2021, the primary, secondary Only in the last five years has The writer is a macro economic regional economic cooperation by finalising South Asian
In 2019, 10.9 per cent of Amer uted 16.6 per cent, 7.2 per cent, 5.8 and tertiary sectors contributed there been concerted efforts by analyst Free Trade Area (SAFTA) at the earliest.
icans, or roughly 35 million
people, lacked access to enough
food to live a healthy life. Gov
ernment programs like SNAP
(formerly known as food
stamps) helped reduce those
numbers. easy bl two-way crossword 2034 not so easy
So did food banks. Even with
such help, though, food insecur ACROSS DOWN ACROSS DOWN
ity persisted. When Covid and its 01. Mood of conviviality 02 . A judge (7) 01. Happy communal outlook 02. Judge how Academician
economic disruptions hit, (56) 03. Vehicle on runners (4) Tories, say, take with will get up to something
already vulnerable demograph 07 . Hug (7) 04. Girl's name signifying whisky (5,6) snappy (7)
ics found themselves in particu 09. In good health (4) 'Peace' (5) 07. Double act that sets me 03. It may be drawn with the
lar need. So too did the newly un 11. Singular of data (5) back before two (7) runners (4)
05. Unwanted plants (5)
employed, those whose hours 12. Bar, save (6) 04. Girl who will escape from
06. Wind instrument (5) 09. Is it fit to be sunk? (4)
were cut substantially, and par 14. Criminally fire, nearly (5)
ents suddenly forced to stay 08. Armlets, brassards (8) 11. Line on board is given a 05. Tares donned by a lady
treacherous (11)
home due to closed schools and 10. Grew, spread out (8) classical form (5) bereft (5)
18. Tenyear period (6)
daycares. 13. Summit (3) 12. Save, one will leave it out 06. Loud, plucky old thing be
20. Assuage thirst (5)
The impact on food banks was 15. Time not working (7) (6) blowed! (5)
dramatic. According to the char 22. Charged particles (4)
16. Allow, let in (5) 14. About a son being taken in 08. Brassards giving the
ity Feeding America, the number 23. Fieldwork enclosed on
17. Move over ice (5) by board for being orchestra guns (8)
of people needing food assist all sides (7)
treacherous (11) 10. Deep and, around ten, it
ance soared to 60 million in 24. With hands hardened 19. Division of long poem (5)
18. For some years a rotter has grew (8)
2020, up 50 per cent from the by toil (56) 21. Roguish (4)
been in the river (6) 13. Shoot up the circus tent (3)
previous year. Congress respon 15. Lie about and be certain to
ded with a range of emergency 20. Five hundred are on the
get time off (7)
measures, including expanded SOLUTION: BL Two-way Crossword 2033 ice: one can take it in (5)
16. It might be mad first to
SNAP benefits and schoolmeal 22. Particles charged so in the confess to it (5)
delivery programs. But for food ACROSS 1. Unhappy 5. Scrub 8. Laggard 9. Offer 10. Gradually confusion (4)
12. Erg 13. Rhino 17. Let 19. Stockings 21. Quaff 22. Changed 17. How to proceed icily with
banks, the most important step 23. Once again be uncertain of
24. Expel 25. Retorts the fish (5)
was a $1.2 billion injection to the inner last retreat (7)
DOWN 1. Ullage 2. Haggard 3. Pea 4. Yodel 5. Storybook 6. Rifle 19. Unable to do a round song?
Emergency Food Assistance Pro
7. Borage 11. Unrestful 14. Manager 15. Claque 16. Asides 18. Tramp 24. Henry had Don upset by (5)
gram, under which the Depart
20. Oscar 23. Art this mark of manual 21. Feature that leaves space
ment of Agriculture buys food
from farmers and distributes it labour (56) underfoot (4)
to states. BLOOMBERG OPINION
CM .. .... .. .....BM-BME
YK
>
OPINION 9
STAY INFORMED THROUGH THE DAY @ WWW.BUSINESS-STANDARD.COM
VOLUME XXVIII NUMBER 184 ILLUSTRATION: AJAY MOHANTY
NEW DELHI | MONDAY, 3 JANUARY 2022
A year of caution
Liquidity tightening will affect financial assets technological wave in a direction that could have
affected them and society positively?
T
he investment outlook for 2022 is mixed. Global growth could plateau as For instance, in the current era we live in, suc-
base effects from the recessionary 2020 wear off, inflation is sticky, and cess is defined as “bigness”. The bigger the size of
the pandemic continues. The Federal Reserve has said it will accelerate a business, the more it receives adulation. On the
the pace of its ongoing taper and hike policy rates. Other major central converse side, small businesses, ones employing
a few dozen people, are seen as objects of pity,
banks are likely to adopt similar policy measures, cutting down liquidity and trig-
waiting to be rescued from their smallness. Whole
gering higher bond yields. While the US could see strong growth rates driven by its committees of governments and trade associations
infrastructure development plans, China is expected to deliver lower growth as it are devoted to rescuing these “poor small and
focuses on emission control and tightens the regulatory grip on real estate and medium enterprises” from their smallness. Where
tech. There are fears of defaults by Chinese real estate giant Evergrande triggering did this obsession with bigness come from? I guess
a wider financial meltdown. India is also expected to see slower growth in 2022-23. it’s because, economics as a science, which also
Globally equity valuations could see “risk-off” corrections, as hard currency came of age in the same period as the industrial
liquidity tightens. This is especially relevant for India since it is the most highly- age, equated bigness with efficiency — the theory
valued of emerging markets. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) may be cautious of “economies of scale”, which became a central
Unravelling what
belief in economics, in policymakers’ minds, and
about India exposures through calendar 2022. Several major global investment
gradually universally in even the common man’s
banks have announced cutbacks on India allocation, and the first nine months of mind. Yet, it is one theory that is in the process of
FY22 saw net equity sales by FPIs. The Reserve Bank of India is expected to continue being debunked.
the policy normalisation process, and that may lead to a “risk-off” attitude from What matters most then, you may ask. The
domestic investors as well. In 2021, equities across the world produced strong
returns, as did gold. Debt instruments did well early in the year but plateaued
towards year-end, as it became apparent that inflation was rising. The benchmark
Indian market index, the Nifty 50, returned about 24 per cent in calendar 2021.
This was justified to some extent by a strong revival in profitability across listed
awaits us in 2022 answer is “connectedness”. What matters in the
network age is whether the “node” of your activity
is “linked” to other nodes that matter in the space
of your activity, whether your activity is a business
(like a bank or a consumer goods manufacturer),
companies and many firms took advantage of the benign interest rate regime and As the industrial era wanes, the network era looms a social enterprise (like an NGO), or a public insti-
tution like a high court.
higher profits to deleverage and strengthen balance sheets.
I
woke up one day this week, the eve of the new Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, my head The thing is nodes and links may not be as
The higher profits have come from tax cuts and cost-reduction measures year, with a nightmare: A vision of Bombay’s stuffed with theories of sociology and economics innocent as the one I just described. There can be
forced by the pandemic. If we discount base effects, revenues have not risen by cluster of high-rise buildings at that centre of and operations research — was looking to apply nodes who are securities traders and while most
commensurate amounts, indicating consumption is still weak and there has been India’s financial heart, the Bandra Kurla Complex, these to the real world I lived in. I guessed imme- of their links with fellow securities traders may
little increase in corporate investment, or expansion in bank credit. Hence the like- in an abandoned and decrepit state, resembling diately that it was the invention of synthetic fibres be innocent, there can be links with nodes who
lihood that earnings growth rates will plateau. It’s interesting to consider asset what happened in front of my eyes to Parel’s boom- like nylon, polyester, and cloth made from these are powerful corporate executives who then pass
classes in this scenario of plateauing growth and higher interest rates. Equity may ing textile mills in the 1970s. My wakeup and jump synthetic fibres that was winning over the cotton on insider information for trading. Suddenly, net-
from bed were so abrupt that my little dog who textiles made by Bombay’s textile mills. But who- work analysis techniques become crucial for enti-
take a bit of a back seat, given the current elevated valuation levels. Debt in general
sleeps next to me jumped up, whin- ever I asked — be it business jour- ties like the Securities and Exchange Board of
does not give good returns in an inflationary scenario. Gold is a traditional haven ing in alarm. nalists, or social activists, or tech- India to spot insider trading.
against inflation but it may be hurt by a stronger dollar after delivering an excellent I pinched myself to awake fully. nologists —had only one answer. Viewing the world using the network lens may
performance in 2021. Alternative assets like cryptocurrencies (the best performing Was this nightmare a sign of what Bombay’s fabled textile mills were bring new insights. For example, seen from the
class of 2020 and 2021) are surrounded by regulatory uncertainty apart from doctors call an REM (rapid eye destroyed by the unending strikes industrial era viewpoint, the spectre of large US
inherent volatility. movement) disorder, when dream- led by Datta Samant. Even 20-odd and Chinese tech companies in e-commerce,
Industrial commodities present an intriguing investment case and may be a ing is not merely a mental activity years later, when I finally man- social media, and fintech running up enormous
focus area for speculation. Crude oil will be in supply surplus by February 2022 as but also physical? Was it a sign that aged to meet and chat with Mr losses in their Indian operations are applauded
I should make a quick visit to my Poddar, by then in his late for their large-heartedness and for the foreign
production ramps up in the US and Canada. Lower growth in China spells lower
doctor and get it fixed by popping nineties and whose Poddar Mills exchange they bring into India, but a network era-
demand for metals and energy. But it also means lower metal production since a couple of pills? Or was it an out- was the icon of Bombay’s textile based competition law will reveal the true nature
China is the dominant player in steel, copper, aluminium, zinc, and tin and it is come of reading and researching AJIT BALAKRISHNAN mills, his answer to me was: Datta of these actions: They are “subsidising” one side
consciously cutting back on the high-carbon processes required to produce metals. obsessively about the effects of Samant! When I gently prodded of the network (it could be customers or suppliers)
At the same time, the Joe Biden administration’s infrastructure thrust (and India’s technology on society? him about the role of synthetic to gain market share and thus guilty of abuse.
to a lesser extent) could drive demand for metals. Hence, metals demand could As I got up and switched on our electric kettle, fibre invention, he dismissed it out of hand — in Dialogue in this new networked world will
exceed supply. Investors will need to weigh the pros and cons of this evolving sce- poured the hot water into a cup with an Assam his mind there was only one culprit: Trade union revolve around concepts like degree centrality,
nario, and, of course, there is the threat of yet another high-mortality wave of the teabag in it, took my cup of tea, sat on my easy leader Datta Samant, who organised workers to betweenness centrality, assortativity, network
pandemic. But 2022 looks to be a year when caution trumps optimism when it chair on my balcony overlooking the Bombay har- demand impossibly high wages and go on strikes modularity, to name a few.
bour to watch the sun rise, I asked myself whether and gheraos. An urgent updating of many of our governance
comes to asset allocation.
I was becoming over-obsessed and over-alarmed I guess that’s what my nightmare was about. How laws and not just securities and competition Acts
by the role technology plays in society. could highly intelligent and thoughtful people like may need to be undertaken so that India does not
Picture of health Take one element of my nightmare, for the mill owners and top executives of the cotton
instance, the decline and collapse of 100-odd tex- mills of the 1970s have missed the signs of a new
miss this epochal shift to a network economy.
Welcome to 2022 and the new world of networks!
tile mills in Bombay’s Parel area, which happened technological wave seeping through the society they
Health index needs a rejig in the first few years of my working life in Bombay lived in, missing the possibility of their interventions The writer is an internet entrepreneur
T
he NITI Aayog’s fourth Health Index report for the year 2019-20, published in the 1970s. I — then recently graduated from the that could have guided the path and impact of that (ajitb@rediffmail.com)
in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, ranking
states on a weighted composite score based on 24 indicators, offers a
useful granular picture of the state of Indian health care. Based on three
broad domains —health outcomes, governance and information, and key inputs
and processes —the index is reasonably comprehensive, covering not just standard
health indicators such as child mortality but also factors such as modern contra-
ceptive prevalence, the TB treatment success rate, and the average occupancy of a
2021 retail investing boom has lessons
S
ince early June 2020, the stock market has one frenzied week in February that year, 78 com- Four factors were behind this retail boom: One,
chief medical officer in districts for the last three years. Information for this exhaus-
been on a major bull run. We have had bull panies went public, crowning a financial year of online sign-ups for broking and demat accounts;
tive list comprises a combination of data from the Ministry of Health and Family runs before, but these 18 months have been 1,400 issues, most of them small and shady com- two, continuously booming capital markets in
Welfare’s database as well as other state government reports. The fact that the rank- revolutionary in one aspect. It is the first time in panies that vanished with investors’ money. When India and around the world; three, retail investors
ings are largely on expected lines, with the southern and wealthier western states almost three decades that the Indian retail investor you consider the period between 1998 and 2001, having more time, money, and the opportunity to
doing far better than the economically more backward ones, attests to the veracity has come to dominate trading on the Indian bours- when only 219 companies went public, you begin trade as they were forced to stay at home; and four,
of the data. But some tweaks in emphasis could serve to make this ranking a more es. And there is a big irony and a lesson in that. to see the farce of the 1994-95 IPO boom. The reg- for the first time an explosion of easy to consume
useful and meaningful tool for health policy and resource allocation within states After all, “reviving capital markets” and “increasing ulation of the primary and secondary markets was information on stocks, including videos. The net
rather than a source of competitive federalism. retail participation” have been the so lax that just about anybody effect was enormous. For the first time in decades,
The ranking shows how states stand in relation to each other. But here, too, constant refrain of policymakers could raise money with false state- retail investors as a group came to dominate cash
the information is limited by the fact that the states are ranked within three for decades, especially when the ments and rigged-up prices in the market trading — some 45 per cent in FY21. The
categories — 19 larger states, eight smaller states, and seven Union Territories — market is down in the dumps, usu- thriving pre-IPO grey market. Sebi share of foreign institutional investors and domestic
ally due to a series of policy errors. refused to act despite many of us institutional investors is down to single digits. In all
which can be misleading in itself. For instance, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were the
In the mid-1990s, not a day pointing this out. this, there is a lesson.
top two states in terms of overall performance, whereas Uttar Pradesh came in last. passed without policymakers “Poor retail participation” Policymakers often have a top-down approach
Yet, when it came to incremental performance, UP ranked first, and Kerala and addressing seminars or making became endemic. There was no to issues, engaging only with peers. This puts them
Tamil Nadu ranked 12th and eighth, respectively, among the larger states. There public comments on the twin objec- trust in the system. While the mar- out of touch with what is happening on the ground.
are several problems here, not least because there is a danger of interpreting the tives of reviving markets and ket went through a boom in 1999 For example, easy online account opening would
data to suggest UP would soon become a model of health care delivery — a fact increasing retail participation. I had and then again in 2003-07, retail have certainly increased retail participation much
tragically contradicted by the year gone by (which is outside the period of this written in a column for this paper IRRATIONAL CHOICE participation refused to budge more even before the pandemic. To draw an anal-
index). Since UP starts from a very low base, any improvement will show up in in 1995 that two weeks after D R much. Retail quotas in IPOs ogy, savvy consumer internet marketing tries to
Mehta took over as chairman of the
DEBASHIS BASU were barely subscribed until remove all obstacles in users’ journey so that
terms of a disproportionate bump in the incremental score. Further, the artificial
division of states by size also skews the picture. Several smaller states and Union Securities and Exchange Board of recently. That apart, one of the rea- they can get to reach their goal with a minimum
India (Sebi) he began to lament about how small sons adduced for poor retail involvement directly hitch. For instance, the big boom in retail algo trad-
Territories registered far higher changes in incremental scores than UP — Mizoram,
investors had been pushed out of the market. In a in the stock markets was the rise of the mutual ing is precisely because complex, discretionary,
Meghalaya, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, and Puducherry, for instance. conversation with me, he talked about a doctor fund industry. The conventional wisdom was and emotional decisions based on trial and error,
Any ranking of human development indicators also offers a static picture and friend from Jaipur who wanted to invest ~1 lakh that retail investors should invest through the are taken out of trading.
can be exploited for partisan ends unless they are measured against a standard. As through initial public offerings (IPOs) but hadn’t mutual fund route. This process of staying focused on the partici-
far as the health index is concerned, the more pertinent measure is the “distance to got any allotment of good stocks. He raised the This endemic problem was solved by a pandemic. pants’ issues will be the most effective tool for any
frontier” — or the differential between the maximum score (100) and each state’s issue again in a meeting with merchant bankers. Covid-19 did what innumerable seminars on investor policymaking too — follow the journey of citizens,
individual score. This has been given far less attention, yet it shows much more Those days, policymakers worried endlessly about education could not do for over two and a half investors, and consumers, and, through continuous
clearly that India is not in the pink of health. Nearly half the states and Union “poor retail participation”. decades. In a snap, the sinister virus that brought feedback, address their obstacles/fears. We can save
Territories did not pass the halfway mark in the composite overall index score (the The main reason for this was inefficient market the whole world to a halt and forced people to work all the time and money uselessly spent on seminars,
“frontier” in this case) and even the top four states showed quite a distance to infrastructure and poor regulation. Prior to dema- from home turned into the fuel for new demat papers, meetings, speeches, etc. I am not sure poli-
frontier. Kerala, which has been feted by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for its health terialisation, the transfer of physical shares was accounts. In the two decades till 2019-20, some 40.8 cymakers are even thinking along these lines. After
very cumbersome. The abolition of control of cap- million demat accounts were opened. And in just all, by not bothering to talk to participants, they
care system, registered an overall index score of 82.2, for instance. This suggests
ital issues removed all checks on IPOs, allowing a 20 months after the 2020 lockdown, that figure had were clueless about the rise of retail algo and did
there is considerable room for improvement even in India’s best state. By that yard- free for all. The IPO market peaked in February almost doubled to 74 million at the end of November not think of this needed oversight.
stick, UP has a very long journey to make —its overall reference year index score 1995 with the infamous price rigging and misstate- 21. As Vladimir Ilyich Lenin said in a different con-
being just 30.57. The Covid-19 year indices may offer a more realistic picture. ments in the prospectus of MS Shoes. In January text: “There are decades where nothing happens, The writer is the editor of www.moneylife.in
1995, 145 equity issues opened for subscription. In and there are weeks where decades happen.” Twitter: @Moneylifers
The ins and outs of cocktails cryoextraction, heat exchangers, sour

mash and water-bath stills. The vagaries of
distillation cover nine pages. Long and
sometimes sleepy essays cover the world
bartending, of the sort Tom Cruise
demonstrated in the 1988 movie
Cocktail. The exception to this rule, I
would stipulate, is Sam’s ability, in
Elsewhere, Mr Wondrich — in
photographs he vaguely resembles a
St. Bernard, of the sort that arrives
with a little keg of brandy strapped
cocktail-vending friend, you’ll likely decent spirits, your restaurant has a region by region. “Cheers,” to slide a glass of beer around under its neck — skewers “birdbath-
receive one in return. cocktails list and your liquor store carries These passages will allow you to the corner of his bar. sized” martini glasses, inevitably served
The Oxford Companion to Spirits and 60 varieties of whisky — spell it without the convince yourself, and perhaps even The martini is considered at length. I with “a pigtail of pithy lemon peel
Cocktails is an enormous and authoritative “e,” this book insists — where it once your spouse, that your interest in getting like mine shaken because they always floating in it.”
work of scholarship, nearly a decade in the carried six, Mr Wondrich and his 150 wasted is an academic pursuit. seem colder and because the ice crystals He is excellent on the “cultural detritus
making. The book covers, in some 1,150 contributors For every such that swim briefly on the surface are from which cocktail history is constructed
BOOK REVIEW entries across 834 pages, nearly every deserve a measure THE OXFORD entry, however, ethereal. I also like mine extremely dry. — a heterogeneous mass of bartender’s
aspect of its subject matter, from absinthe of thanks. COMPANION TO there’s a tight, witty I was secretly pleased to read, in guides, nightlife columns, marketing
DWIGHT GARNER spoons to maceration to the Zombie. As one profile of a the 2018 Times obituary of Tommy brochures, diaries, pulp novels, liquor-
SPIRITS AND
You enter as if through batwing saloon participant, Lauren COCKTAILS forgotten Rowles, a longtime bartender at store advertisements and the like.”
D
o you know what a doors. Buy a copy for the curious drinker in Viera, writes, “once bartender or a Bemelmans Bar, that his secret was to Photographs from his own collection of
“boomerang” means, your life and perhaps he or she will a person has had a
Editors: David remote but omit vermouth entirely. “A bottle of this material illustrate the text. Like a crate-
in bar terms? boomerang one back to you. truly well-made
Wondrich with brilliant bar from vermouth,” he said, “you should just diving disc jockey, he is on a mission to dig
Before I read The Oxford Companion Mr Wondrich, a former English cocktail, it’s hard to Noah Rothbaum the 1930s or a open it and look at it.” deep and geek out over his discoveries. He
to Spirits and Cocktails, edited by professor, is a long-time drinks historian go back.” Publisher: Oxford neglected writer or Modern cocktail orthodoxy is not kind wants to promote the best ways of doing
David Wondrich with help from and writer, notably for Esquire. His books If this University Press a spirit worth to me, or to Tommy. Saunders complains, things, which usually but not always are
Noah Rothbaum, I didn’t. Now I do, include Imbibe! (2007), which was the first movement has investigating. in an entry on atomizers that spray a mist the old ways.
and the information has cheered cocktail book to win a James Beard Award. spun off some
Price: $65 Classic cocktail of vermouth, about those who “mistakenly I sometimes pick up a new book and
me up considerably. He’s been a key player in the cocktail preachiness and Pages: 834 recipes are revised believed that the best martinis should think about all the cups of coffee, trips to
A boomerang is a drink sent by a renaissance of the past few decades, pretension (waxed and updated. contain only a whisper of vermouth.” the bathroom and nose-picking that
bartender in one bar to a bartender in alongside such figures as the mixologist moustaches, affected tattoos, pinstripe Gleanings, like garnishes, are tucked As to shaking versus stirring, attended the writing of it.
another. The glass will be sealed with Dale DeGroff and the bar owner Audrey vests, cutesy drink names, inflated bills), in. In the entry for Galliano, the sweet Ms Saunders is cagey about whether Holding this book, I thought of the
cling wrap and, because the practice Saunders, both of whom contribute to it’s been a small price to pay. herbal liqueur, for example, we learn why “bruising” gin is a thing, but you lose mornings after. If I have one complaint,
is more or less illegal, tucked into a this book. In a properly run country, Some of the material in The Oxford it’s a must-have in bars: The long-necked silkiness if you shake, she argues, it’s that there is no entry titled:
paper bag or go-box. Customers act DeGroff’s face would be on a Companion to Spirits and Cocktails is bottle is ideal to grab when a bartender and worse, you get bubbles and “Hangover, the.”
as couriers. The name derives from the postage stamp. relatively heavy going. There are entries needs impromptu self-defense. over-dilution. Ms Saunders is among my
fact that if you send a nice drink to your If your bar now uses fresh juices and on, for example, charcoal filtration, The editors are opposed to “flair” heroes, but here we momentarily part ways. ©2022 The New York Times News Service
MONDAY | JANUARY 3 | 2022 | BHUBANESWAR power post P6
FOCUS POLITICS
Higher always higher! Let us
never be satisfied with what is
MAMATA IN GOA
accomplished.
THE MOTHER
M
amata Banerjee’s Goa well as a liability for the party. As
China & Religion campaign is built less

on real strength, more
on bravado. She has
travelled from the east to the west
a party known for defending the
interests of religious minorities it
would seem natural for it to start
building its base with Christians
S
ince Karl Marx coined the phrase, it has become an axiomatic truth for to prove that if she can defeat the who are the largest religious mi-
Communists of all denominations to consider religion as ‘the opium of BJP in Bengal she can defeat it nority in Goa. However, there it has
the masses.’ The logical corollary to it for Communist countries is to anywhere. But every state is not to compete with the Congress. The
remove all vestiges of religions and subject people following religious faiths Bengal. And on top of it, she has Christians have been largely with
to different forms of repression. This has been the case in China too which blazed blindly and brazenly into the Congress for the past several
is now at the centre of an international conflict over its handling of religious the battle, without any time on years, and have come even more
groups in the country, including the Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and her hands, without much prepa- closer to it in the years of ascen-
Catholic Christians in Hong Kong. The tension between China on the one ration. Who has built a political dancy of the BJP.
hand and the USA and Europe on the other has got exacerbated by the party in a new state in a hundred This ascendancy has unleashed
USA’s recent decision to ban entry of products from China made with the days? A political party that claims a pestilence of vigilantism whose
labour of the Uyghurs settled in its Xinjiang province. In response, China itself to be capable enough to cap- victims have been Christians in sev-
has banned internet discussions of religions, rituals such as burning incense ture power in the next sixty days? eral places across the country, a phe-
and followed it up with an unprecedented move to directly engage with the Only Mamata Banerjee can do it. Mamata has come to Goa as a ‘sky-fighter’. She nomenon that has alienated even
Christians of Hong Kong. The new measures have clearly spelt out the dos Arun Sinha She has the magic wand. is in the political sky, not on the political ground the small section of Goan
and don’ts in this regard. They stipulate that except for licensed religious But the way Mamata has used Christians who voted for the BJP
groups, religious schools, temples and churches, no organisation or individual her magic wand in Goa is totally of Goa. She did not have time to build a strong in the past few elections owing to
may preach on the internet, conduct religious education and training and WHO HAS BUILT contrary to the way she did it in organisation before making a bid for power in their admiration for the vision
publish or repost preachers’ comments. Organising and conducting religious A POLITICAL her state. There she worked hard and governing ability of Manohar
activities and live broadcasting or recording of religious ceremonies such for years to build an organisation. the state. The 2024 clock was ticking. So she Parrikar. The present Chief
as worshipping the Buddha, burning incense, chanting, mass and baptism PARTY IN A NEW She was on the street, on the decided to build the party from the top Minister Pramod Sawant’s decla-
stand banned. Further, no organisation or individual is permitted to raise ground. So much so that she ac- ration that he would restore the
funds in the name of any religion on the internet. STATE IN A quired the iconic image of a ‘street- temples destroyed by the
The new rules, titled Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious HUNDRED fighter’. In sharp contrast, Mamata central pillar on which she could hook more leaders. Portuguese has only deepened
Information Services, state that anyone applying for a licence to disseminate has come to Goa as a ‘sky-fighter’. build her castle in Goa, supported T h e n t h e re w a s t h e G o a their alienation. They know how
religious content online must be an entity or individual based in China and DAYS? She is in the political sky, not on by a few more pillars. It has since Forward Party (GFP), a party the BJP has raked up skeletons
recognised by Chinese laws, and its main representative should be a Chinese the political ground of Goa. She did proven to be an overestimation. with three MLAs, with whom from history to fill Hindus with fear
national. State security authorities will manage domestic organisations and not have time to build a strong or- Luizinho Faleiro does have his Mamata’s negotiators had sev- and hatred of Muslims. They shud-
individuals and prevent them from ‘conspiring’ with foreign bodies to use re- ganisation before making a bid followers and has been elected an eral rounds of discussions. They der at the thought of the same
ligion to conduct activities that pose a threat to national security on the internet. for power in the state. The 2024 MLA several times from his home could have been a handsome catch, happening to them.
Under the rules, applications must be made to the religious affairs department clock was ticking. So she decided constituency of Navelim, but he but the GFP leader Vijay Sardessai The threat to the Christians is
of the local government for a licence that will be valid for three years. to build the party from the top. lacks a pan-Goa appeal. He cannot refused to accept their condition big, and therefore they are likely
Content prohibited under the rules include those which use religion to “in- She would recruit leaders first; draw crowds. His performance as that he merge his party with the to stay on with the Congress which
cite subversion of state power, oppose the Communist Party’s leadership, un- workers would follow. chief minister was far from im- Trinamool Congress. He insisted has a wide base in the state, instead
dermine national unity and social stability and promote extremism, terrorism As in the rest of the country, pressive and his tenure as Goa on an alliance, and what was of the Trinamool Congress which,
or national separatism.” political loyalty in Goa has come Pradesh Congress Committee pres- more, on a number of seats despite its strong secular creden-
Realising the international build-up against the perceived persecution of to be like gold: some preserve it for ident only exposed his poor lead- Mamata’s negotiators were not tials, is a new and small party and
religious groups, China’s President Xi Jinping early December adopted a per- life, some sell it when they can ership skills. willing to give him. has no roots and may end up only
suasive tone to present his views on the state’s religious policies that is get a good price. During the months Hunting for more pillars, At length, by the third week of with a marginal presence.
now known as ‘sinicisation’ which is religion with Chinese characteristics. before an election, the loyalty-gold Mamata’s men held negotiations December, after three months of re- An additional disadvantage of
His detractors, however, call it ‘Xification’ of religion, meaning Xi’s meth- bazaar gets bustling with more with several leading politicians lentless shopping, the Trinamool the Trinamool Congress is that it
ods of curbing religious freedom. What is unprecedented is the move by Chinese sellers and buyers. There are leg- across parties—with Prashant Congress had got three MLAs— is seen as a party of outsiders.
bishops and religious leaders to brief senior Hong Kong Catholic clergymen islators who find the avenues of up- Kishor, the Indian Political Action three precast pillars to build the Mamata has tried telling Goans, “I
on President Xi Jinping’s vision of religion. This is being construed as ward mobility blocked for them in Committee head and her election party’s castle in Goa upon. It was may be branded an outsider, but
Beijing’s most assertive move yet to influence Hong Kong’s diocese, which their party; there are organisa- strategist acting as her chief am- not an insignificant gain for a I want to tell you that I have not
is answerable to the Vatican and has some high-ranking leaders known for tional leaders who are denied bassador and negotiator—but in party that had started with zero come here to become your chief
their credentials for defending democracy and human rights in the semi-au- scope for getting nominated as most of the cases the deal could not presence in the state. Yet it re- minister. Your government will
tonomous territory. So long, mainland China contented itself by interact- party’s candidates in elections: work out, because the target often mained doubtful how strong and be run by your own people.” But
ing with Catholic leaders of Hong Kong unofficially. But, it is the first time they sell their gold. priced himself extravagantly. reliable those pillars were going to it is not working. Also, because
the two sides have met formally. Mamata’s men began to hunt for There was one who wanted to be prove to the party. Other than the perception is unmistakable
The outcome of the meeting is deliberately kept under wraps. Interestingly, the Goa bazaar. They were over- declared as the chief minister can- Luizinho Faleiro, they got Alexio among Goans that she has not
as reports suggest, mainland speakers were careful not to mention Xi’s joyed when in their very initial bar- didate of the party. Mamata’s men Reginaldo Lourenco from Congress come to improve their lives but
name at the meeting or issue any instructions or orders. They craftily ex-
plained that Xi’s policy of ‘sinicisation’ reinforces Vatican policies of ‘in-
culturation’, which means adapting Christianity in traditional, non-Christian
cultures. The diocese has doubts about the wisdom of the Vatican’s concil-
iatory attitude to Beijing. The thrust of China’s arguments is that the pol-
icy of religion with Chinese characteristics means closer ties between re-
ligious groups and the party and state. It includes tying religions more
@Shakti Rath gains they got Luizinho Faleiro, a
veteran Congressman who had
been a chief minister, the party’s
state president and an all-India
general secretary. The price he
demanded for his gold was a Rajya
Sabha seat, which Mamata agreed
shrewdly calculated that if they
projected anyone as the chief min-
ister candidate, the man might
repel rather than attract others
to join the party. This is because
the man might carry historical
baggage. It was better to leave the
and Churchill Alemao from the
Nationalist Congress Party. Both
Lourenco and Alemao do not have
influence beyond their con-
stituencies.
And all the three MLAs the
Trinamool Congress has got are
her life. Her Goa campaign is not
for Goa, they say, but for adding one
more step to the ladder she is mak-
ing to climb up to the Delhi throne.
The author is a journalist

and writer based in
closely to Chinese culture, patriotism and goals of the ruling Communist to pay, because she saw him as a leadership issue open in order to Christians. That is an asset as New Delhi.
Party and state to achieve Xi’s ‘Chinese dream.’
This is a clever ploy to impose China’s authority on religious bodies with-
out trying to appear too dogmatic. The political agenda behind it is for all to
see and no one seems to be taken in by such pronouncements. The Hong Kong
side also reciprocated by not adopting a confrontationist posturing. The
SPECTRUM EDUCATION
meeting was held just weeks before the ordination this month of the new Hong
Bottlenecks in creative process

Kong Bishop Stephen Chow who is a moderate Vatican appointee. Two ear-
lier attempts to fill the post had failed due to pressure and opposition by Beijing.
While some of Hong Kong’s government and commercial elites are Catholic
and pro-Beijing, including the city’s leader Carrie Lam, other Catholics have
long been active in the pro-democracy and anti-government movements.
A
The Hong Kong engagement is a desperate attempt by Xi to balance the test is conducted to assess readers and critics interpret the ence, poetry shouldn’t decline. routes are available. They never
relationship between religion and politics. An official white paper released or evaluate the perform- lines and thoughts in different The NEP 2020 advocates compe- realise the direst consequences
in 2019 said China has about 200 million believers - majority were Buddhists ance of the learner, but it’s ways even the writers have not tency-based learning and strongly of shortcuts in the long run. In fact,
in Tibet. Others included 20 million Muslims, 38 million Protestant Christians not altogether through objective thought of. The same has been discourages the cramming of facts there is no substitute for text-
and 6 million Catholic Christians. There are 140,000 places of worship in China. type questions. Objective type confessed by writers in many in- and information. This is the time books. The contents are elabo-
Xi, widely expected to remain in power for life, has been trying to reori- questions in the form of multi- terviews. Rather writers allow for inculcation of life skills like self- rate, comprehensive, meticulous
ent religions so that they can function under the guidance of the Communist ple-choice options not only mar di- critics or readers to interpret what awareness, empathy, critical think- and logical in textbooks. On the
Party of China (CPC) and he can continue to rule without too much inter- vergent thinking but also pave they understand from different ing, creative thinking, problem contrary, the reference books are
national interference with his religious policies. Cajoling and cudgelling through the way for cramming of infor- perspectives. solving and decision making in the littered with vague, obscure and
internet ban appear to be his tools to push his religious policy. mation. The Term-I examinations The nature of literature is never Twenty-first Century children. objective questions with answers.
These moves of Xi cannot be termed as purely Communist reactions to- conducted by different boards are objective and to give a question Each child is unique in his/her Instead of blaming children’s
wards religious movements. These are his personal requirements to rule over over and some are underway. This with only four options in exam way. Open ended, essay type and undue obsession for these so-called
China for an unspecified time. The desire to use religion or to suppress it time, question patterns adopted by is not at all justified. The cre- extrapolative questions are the objective reference questions, the
stem from a similar need. That need is the naked desire to remain in power.
Bijaya Kumar Parhi most of the boards are almost the ativity and the fecundity of imag- ideal ones in the examinations to modalities of questions must be
same. Multiple-choice question ination get squeezed. How far are justify Bloom’s Taxonomy. Human changed. The contents like age-ap-
OPEN-ENDED, patterns have become the way of multiple-choice questions in lit- life is not objective and variety propriate lessons are usually de-
WISDOM CORNER ESSAY TYPE AND conducting tests during these pan-
demic times. It has been experi-
erature justified? Apart from this,
setting multiple-choice questions
in the approach to life adds spice
to life. Subjective questions are
signed by the panel of educa-
tionists. The teachers and learners
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not EXTRAPOLATIVE enced that multiple-choice ques- is ag ainst the principles of the only ideal way to tackle knotty transact the lessons in the class-
love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone tions in literature subjects like National Education Policy (NEP) problems. Let the learners jus- rooms accordingly. Correct peda-
that he is really free. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER QUESTIONS Odia, English and Hindi are not 2020. As a result, the creativity of tify their view point in their own gogy is also adopted by the teach-
In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and ARE THE IDEAL free from ambiguity. Setting the learners is at stake. The present thoughts. ers to make the teaching-learning
question papers in the form of system of examination and eval- The number of children read- process enjoyable. If all the ques-
learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth
can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
ONES IN THE multiple-choice type is really chal- uation is urging children to adopt ing textbooks meant for a partic- tions are of objective type that
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
EXAMINATIONS lenging. This is quite natural as rote learning which hinders free ular grade is very less. Cheap too multiple choice, the class-
each line in a poem or prose can and insightful thinking. Most of kinds of key books available in the rooms will become monotonous.
Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as
by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to
TO JUSTIFY be interpreted in different ways. the questions in literature should markets have taken the place of Blueprints of the question papers
Literary interpretations vary from be set as open-ended so that cram- textbooks on the bookshelves and should be redesigned for Term-II
you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. KAHLIL GIBRAN
BLOOM’S reader to reader and from critic ming of facts can be strongly dis- in school bags. The most embar- so that children’s creative poten-
TAXONOMY to critic. So setting multiple-choice couraged. Learners are expected rassing situation is that children tial can be judiciously evaluated.
WORDSWORTH questions in literature leads only
to convergent thinking. The lit-
to appreciate the beauty of the
language and critically examine
carry these key books even to the
classrooms. The learners claim The writer is a
erary creation of any author, pieces of literary art. that they don’t have time to read teacher of English.
Raparee writer or poet is quite personal. But With the advancement of sci- the long texts when the shortcut Views are personal.
T his might look like one of the many words ending in -ee for a person
affected in some manner by the action of the associated verb, such as
L
employee, inductee, internee, interviewee, or licensee. But the ending is Tragic beginning Irrational exuberance Another wave
accidental, as in dungaree, squeegee and jamboree. A raparee was once an
etters
Irish foot soldier, armed with a weapon that in Irish was called a rápaire. Sir, The stampede at the famous Mata Sir, The economy is chugging along nicely, and we Sir, After reporting
This is a cousin of English rapier, though not the same sort of weapon, the Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu & Kashmir should catch up to the levels of 2019 (although we have the minimum active
Irish one being a short pike. The Irishmen so armed were an irregular in which 12 devotees, including two women, lost two years in between). While it is good news, cases of COVID-19 for
soldiery who fought on the Catholic Jacobite side during the war that perished and 15 others injured, was avoid- the last couple of years have seen the economy tum- the last 19 months
William III waged in Ireland in 1689-91. During and after the war, many took able. The incident occurred near Gate No ble. And the growth we are seeing now is on a lower December 27, 2021,
up thieving and banditry, which is why their name is thought also to contain TO THE EDITOR 3 in the wee hours when many devotees were base. It would require a similar almost double-digit India has reported a
another Irish word, rapaire or ropaire, a violent person, irregular soldier or Readers of Orissa POST queuing up for darshan inside the cave growth for us to be on the same level as 2019. One of rise in the cases at a
robber. Raparees became a menace and in 1695 the government passed An are most welcome to contribute letters shrine on the Trikuta hills on the New the biggest positive outcomes of China’s role in the fast pace. The growth
Act for the Better Suppressing Tories, Robbers, and Rapparees. Tory, the (200 words), articles and Year. It is believed that a scuffle between two pandemic is that the world is looking at alternatives in infections in
columns (between 750-1250
nickname of members of the Conservative Party in the UK, is from Irish words). Contributors are groups and the massive rush triggered the to China and India has emerged as a frontrunner. While Maharashtra, Delhi,
toraidhe, a highwayman or outlaw, and initially referred to Irish peasants requested to send their stampede. Unfortunately, most devotees this is a good development, it would require political Gujarat and
dispossessed by English settlers and living as robbers. It was taken up as a contact numbers and full died in a narrow area that witnessed peo- will, industrial drive and quick decision making for Chhattisgarh is more
postal address/email ID. They may also
term of political abuse in the 1680s for those who opposed excluding the
send in their valuable comments, opinion
ple running helter-skelter without know- us to benefit. Stock market is galloping, notwith- than other states. Strict
Catholic James from succeeding to the English crown. Raparee is now solely and suggestions, preferably by email, ing why. While our hearts go out to the standing any obstacles in its way. Many more mil- measures are needed to
of historical interest, but this modern example demonstrates that its to: edit@orissapost.com dead and their families, the temple au- lionaires have emerged in India, courtesy the stock be taken to control a
relevance soon spread far beyond Ireland: We were building a schooner from thorities would do well to manage the exchanges. This is indeed what we call an irrational possible third wave of
the wreckage when a horde of ill-favoured raparees attacked us — Dyaks smooth flow of pilgrims and ensure that such exuberance. And any irrational act only meets with the pandemic.
and Malays led by a nasty confident quean, a bloody-minded covetous B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,
incidents do not recur. a disastrous outcome. Gopal Mittal,
froward strumpet (The Nutmeg of Consolation, by Patrick O’Brian, 1991). Bhubaneswar-751010 NJ Ravi Chander, BANGALORE MR Jayanthi, MUMBAI BHUBANESWAR
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For TV, e-paper & news visit: www.live7tv.com
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Kolkata, Monday
3 January 2022
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�� PUNJAB TO BE MAJOR
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PRABIR PURKAYASTHA daily or seasonal fluctuations.
Unfortunately, the EU is a strong
T
he current crisis in Europe of believer that markets magically solve
spiralling gas prices, coupled all problems. It has moved away
with a cold snap, brings out from long-term price contracts for
that the transition of any part gas and into spot and short-term
of the world to green energy is not prices; unlike China, India and
going to be easy. It also brings out Japan which all have long-term con-
the complexity in such a transition, tracts indexed to the oil price.
that energy is not simply choosing Why does the gas price affect the
the right technology, but that it has price of electricity in the EU? After
economic and geopolitical dimen- all, natural gas accounts only for
sions as well. about 25 per cent of the EU's elec-
The European Union has made tricity generation. Unfortunately for
its problem of a green transition the people, not only gas but also the
worse by choosing a completely electricity markets have been "liber-
market-based approach for gas pric- alised" under the market reforms in
ing. As we saw in Texas earlier, such the EU. The energy mix in the grid is
policies fail during vagaries of determined by energy market auc-
weather, pushing gas prices to levels tions, in which electricity producers
where the poor may have to simply bid their prices and the quantity
turn off their heating. In winter, gas they will supply to the electricity
prices skyrocket in European Union, grid. These bids are accepted, in
as they did last year and again this order from lowest to highest, until
year. the next day's predicted demand is
For India and its electricity grid, fully met. The last bidder's price
one lesson is clear. Markets do not then becomes the price for all pro-
solve the problem of energy pricing, ducers. In economists' language, this
as they require planning, long-term is its "marginal price" discovered
investments and stability in pricing. through the market auction and,
The electricity sector will face a dis- therefore, the "natural" price of HARIHAR SWARUP none of these state elections will offer in a state that comprises 25 per cent year for Congress as several of these
aster if it is handed over to electrici- electricity. much opportunity for opposition par- Christian and 8 per cent Muslims vot- state elections are technically
A
ty traders as is being proposed. This At present, the marginal produc- s the year draws to an ties to work together. Three of the ers. In Punjab, alleged sacrileges and 'winnable'. Should it retain Punjab,
is what the so-called separation of er is natural gas, and that is why the end, one can risk a little seven states - Gujarat, Uttarakhand mob retaliations at sacred sites have Manipur and perform well in Goa,
wires from the electricity they carry price of gas also determines the speculation about what and Himachal Pradesh - going to the raised the fear of the campaign being Congress can hope to change the ter-
means in the Modi government's price of electricity in Europe. This we can expect from poli- polls are bipolar states in which communalised. In Manipur, finally, minal decline narrative that that has
proposed amendment to the existing explains the almost 200 per cent rise tics in India in 2022. As Congress is on its own. In the four BJP will seek to use religion as an bogged it down since 2019. Some
Electricity Act. in electricity price in Europe last its national government remaining states - UP, Goa, Punjab instrument of conquest, a method good news could help the party reor-
Let us look at the current prob- year. This year, according to the EU, crosses the mid-term point, BJP will ganise itself ahead of the three key
lem of gas in Europe, particularly of "Gas prices are increasing globally, fight the opposition in seven state Hindi belt elections it won in 2018 -
the European Union (EU). The EU but more significantly in net elections. �� Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
has chosen gas as its choice of fuel importer regional markets like Asia
for electricity production, as it goes and the EU. So far in 2021, prices
Uttar Pradesh, of course, will be �� Chhattisgarh - and help reaffirm its
the most keenly watched election. position as a necessary cog in any
off coal and nuclear while also tripled in the EU and more than Here, BJP's challenge is not so much �� future national coalition of the oppo-
investing heavily in wind and solar. doubled in Asia while only doubling to defeat a divided opposition but to �� sition. Holding its presidential elec-
The argument advanced is that gas in the US. (Italics author's).
would provide the EU with a transi- The coupling of the gas and the
maintain the dominance it achieved �� tions ahead of the currently sched-
in 2017. Five years ago, BJP swept uled time of September 2022 will
tional fuel for its low carbon emis- electricity markets by using the mar- the state, winning 77 per cent of the �� probably help Congress get a grip on
sion path as it produces less emis- ginal price as the price of all produc- seats in a victory that helped forge its �� itself and quieten its internal feuds.
sions than coal. ers means that if gas spot prices
As I have written earlier, the triple as they have currently, so will
image of electoral invincibility in the �� Last, the coming year will provide
Hindi belt. Since then, BJP has lost a recomposed Election Commission
problem with green energy is that it electricity prices. No prizes for more state elections than it has won, �� an opportunity to assert the institu-
requires a much larger capacity guessing who gets hit the hardest and it needs to retain its hold over the �� tion's autonomy, which was eroded in
addition that planners are not taking with such increases! Though there heartland state if it wants to the hands of their predecessors. The
into account. In higher latitudes, has been criticism of using marginal approach the 2024 general election in expected third wave of Covid is likely
during winter, days are shorter, and price as the price of electricity for all a strong position. This election will to disturb the electoral schedules and
we, therefore, get fewer hours of suppliers irrespective of their also be an important stepping stone and Manipur -- there are simply no that already enabled it to win new will require EC to mandate parties to
sunlight. This seasonal problem with respective costs, the neoliberal for UP chief minister's prime ministe- provisions or space for pre-electoral political ground across the Northeast. curb campaign activities. They also
solar has been compounded in beliefs in the god of the market have rial ambitions, raising the stakes fur- alliances. Instead, regional parties in Communalisation of politics will should reduce the phasing of elec-
Europe with low winds this year, ruled supreme in Europe. ther. these states seem determined to fight deepen in 2022 not simply because of tions against parties' wishes.
reducing the electricity output of Russia has long-term contracts as Punjab will be a major test for both Congress and BJP. BJP's own inclinations and strategies, Whether EC chooses the protection of
windmills. well as short-term contracts with EU Congress, battered from all sides and While it is too early to start specu- but because opposition parties will lives over parties' interest will be a
The European Union has banked countries. Putin has mocked the split internally. Retaining power in lating on election results what mat- seek to fight BJP on its own terrain critical test of its will to assert its
heavily on gas to meet its short and EU's fascination with spot prices and one of its last regional strongholds ters beyond their outcomes is the contrasting their version of 'good autonomy.
medium-term goals of cutting down gas prices and said that it is willing will indicate whether it can overcome manner in which they will be fought. Hinduism' versus BJP's 'bad As 2021 ends in a spike of com-
greenhouse emissions. It is another to supply more gas via long-term internal strains and get its act togeth- In a context of Covid uncertainty and Hinduism. munal tensions, it raises the fear that
matter that gas is at best a short- contracts. Though the European er in an election that should have economic hardship, it seems already By doing so, they will fall for the politics in 2022 will be further
term solution as it still emits half as Commission authorities agree that been a cakewalk. Instead, Punjab will clear that religion and nationalism Hindu nationalists' trap, validating marked by violence. The current
much greenhouse gas as coal. Gas Russia has honoured its long-term have its most unpredictable race will be at the core of each of these the Sangh Parivar's claim that reli- stance by opposition parties show
can be stored to meet short term commitments, it claims that Russia ever, with a four-corner battle turning elections. gion does lie at the core of India's pol- that while BJP may face increasing
and seasonal needs, and even pro- could do more to meet the EU's into a five-corner one, since farmers There is a further uptick in com- itics. There are virtually a handful of political challenges, 2022 will be the
duction increased easily from gas short-term needs, which are causing announced that they would contest munal tensions in UP and political leaders left who even men- year that confirms whether it has
fields with requisite pumping capaci- their huge spike in gas prices. The the election on their own platforms. Uttarakhand. Major contenders in tion the need to preserve India's sec- won its cultural 'war', with lasting
ty. All this requires advanced plan- question here is that you either As far as opposition unity goes, Goa are openly pandering to Hindus, ularism. 2022 will also be a critical effects on India's democracy.
ning and investment in surplus believe in the efficiency of the mar-
capacity to meet the requirements of kets or you don't.
��
��
��
��
OMICRON-FORCED DELAY
��
��
FURTHER COMPLICATES DECISION
�� ARJAVI INDRANEESH productive while caring for their
�� workforces.
��
O
micron has put a spoke in But the lessons learned during the
�� the plan by companies to pandemic only go so far in helping
�� switch back to normal office leaders address the next great experi-
�� work. As the new variant ment: hybrid working. A hybrid
�� threatens to unleash a model is more complicated than is a
�� 'Covid tsunami', as forecast by the fully remote one. At scale, using it
�� World Health Organisation, several will be an unprecedented event in
�� companies have already delayed the which all kinds of norms that have
�� switch back and asked their staff to been accepted practice for decades
�� continue working from home. will be put to the test. Leaders are a
�� Following the decision by global long way from knowing how it will
�� giants such as Google, Apple, Ford work.
�� and others to delay resumption of McKinsey say the question of how
�� work from office, several Indian com- many days in office per week are best
�� panies have also put their plans to is the most obvious one to answer,
�� resume normal working on hold. but it isn't the only question, and it
�� Vedanta, Panasonic, Cognizant, may not even be the right one to
�� KPMG, BigBasket have all announced answer first. There will likely be a
�� a wait and watch approach and the great work-from-home experiment that working from home through the bevy of questions to address: What
�� line is swelling. was surprisingly effective, they also stress of the pandemic has driven work is better done in person than
�� The companies have a serious believe that it hurt organizational cul- fatigue, difficulty in disconnecting virtually, and vice versa? How will
�� dilemma on hand. The big question is ture and belonging. They are hungry from work, deterioration of their meetings work best? How can influ-
�� whether they should persist with the for employees to be back in the office social networks, and weakening of ence and experience be balanced
�� hybrid system of combining work and for a new normal that's some- their sense of belonging. between those who work on site and
�� from home and work from office even what more flexible but not dramati- According to McKinsey, organiza- those who don't?
�� if things are back to normal after cally different from the one we left tions have learned many things, How can you avoid a two-tier sys-
�� Omicron or any future variant, which behind. including how to be more productive tem in which people working in the
�� is considered a given in the emerging But McKinsey also reported that In in an operating model that was jerry office are valued and rewarded more
�� situation, comes under control. stark contrast, nearly three-quarters rigged in a rush to meet the constant than are those working more from
�� More than three-quarters of C- of around 5,000 employees the con- challenges and uncertainty of the home? Should teams physically gath-
�� suite executives recently surveyed by sultancy queried globally preferred to COVID-19 crisis. Employers couldn't er in a single place while tackling a
�� McKinsey report that they expected work from home for two or more stem the human tragedy of the pan- project, and if so, how often? Can
�� the typical 'core' employee to be back days per week, and more than half demic, of course. But many worked leadership communication to off-site
�� in the office three or more days a wanted at least three days of remote with their people to figure out ingen- workers be as effective as it is to
�� week. While they realize that the work. Many employees also reported ious ways to keep their companies workers in the office?
MYK
4
mail us at >> desk@thegoan.net
log on to thegoan.net @thegoaneveryday Facebook.com/thegoaneveryday The Goan (Playstore) Instagram.com/thegoaneveryday Monday January 3, 2022
Pain doesn’t give a home but helps build one

Becoming vulnerable to pain doesn’t mean we are succumbing to it… it means
A people free to choose will always choose peace
we are giving a chance to better us or perfect us in a way
Ronald Reagan
>Carlos Luis is a
Licence to harass:
priest belonging to
the Society of the
Catholic Apostolate
(Pallottine) cur-
FCRA licencing
rently an Assistant
Professor at St.
Vincent Pallotti
needs transparency
College, Chellikere,
Bengaluru
FR CARLOS LUIS
T W
he Government of India earlier last week quite abruptly an- hether you belong to our or any
nounced that the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act li- other universe, pain is something
that we all have to undergo. At
cences belonging to more than 6,000 organizations and the times we think we su�er more than the
NGOs to receive foreign funds was no longer valid prompt- others, the degree might di�er but all of
ing a controversy over the government’s motives in trying us do go through some pain at some point
in our lifetime. And it is this pain if han-
to su�ocate the NGOs, many of whom are doing stellar work in the dled carefully can strengthen or shatter
social �eld. us.
The licence that is mandatory for any organization in India to re- In a recently released superhero movie, mer Coleman (as Michelle Jones-Wat- is perhaps not what they wanted. Peter
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Tom Holland son) and Jacob Batalon (as Ned Leeds) Parker at the advice of his aunt decides
ceive funds from abroad can lapse if the organization doesn’t apply (as Peter Parker / Spider-Man) su�ers decide to press the button of the hyper- to help them save themselves. He utiliz-
for renewal or it can even be cancelled if the government believes the loss of his aunt, Aunt May (played by cube representing the caged cosmic en- es his pain to transform the other’s pain
there are ‘irregularities’ being conducted by the organization. Marisa Tomei), but remembers her words ergies. But then Ned uses the sling ring and change them for the better. He is
clearly, “with great power, there must to locate Peter Parker but instead calls able to nurture the ability to see through
In the recent cycle besides the much publicized cancellation of the also come great responsibility,” that help in the alternate versions of Peter Park- the past and correlate it with the present
licence of the Missionaries of Charity, 5789 organizations saw their him to change the world that surrounds er, which were again summoned by the and decipher the future.
licence suspended which included more famous organizations like him. magic of Dr Strange. Both the versions Peter Parker was given a purpose
Although it is hard to believe that it is meet Peter Parker and they exchange although in between he lost control of
Oxfam India, Common Cause, Jamia Millia Islamia, Nehru Memorial possible to cure the villains, he tries it ideas and narrate stories about losing it, his two versions reminded him of it.
Museum and Library (NMML), Kolkata-based Satyajit Ray Film and with a gadget or chemical compound and their loved ones and how it made them They gave him the courage and motiva-
Television Institute and the India Islamic Cultural Centre (IICC). succeeds. His pain when channelized in stronger every day. They also narrate tion he needed to achieve it for himself
the right manner leads him to do what how the loss didn’t allow them to retreat and the world. At �rst, he feared that he
Others include the Indian Institute of Public Administration others would not want him to do. as Peter Parker was initially wanting to will become insigni�cant if everyone
(IIPA), National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), Delhi At �rst, Spider-Man wants everyone to do. They made the best use of this pain forgot who he was, but later he under-
forget his tarnished identity. He goes to Dr and served humanity. stood that that’s exactly what needed to
College of Engineering, Goa Football Association, Press Institute of Stephen Strange for help and he suggests The anger of Peter Parker needed to keep him rooted and moving forward.
India, The Lepra India Trust and Indian ‘The Runes of Kauf-Kaul’ spell which will be channelized and that’s exactly what In the end, therefore, he agrees to Dr
The need of the hour Institute of Management (Calcutta), Med- erase people’s memories of Spider-Man or the two versions support him to do. Pe- Strange and allows him to cast the spell
therefore is to have a ical Council of India, Emmanuel Hospi- atleast who Spider-Man was. Dr Stephen ter Parker regains courage to cure the of the Runes of Kauf-Kaul.
tries the spell amidst villains along with the two versions of When we become insigni�cant we
transparent mechanism tal Association, which runs over a dozen disturbances from Spider-Man, and himself and they intend to do it at the realize that we have not achieved as
by which licences are hospitals across India, Tuberculosis As- fails to cast the spell but manages to con- statue of liberty. The statue of liberty much to consider ourselves great. Our
granted and renewed sociation of India. tain it. But the spell invites the villains of symbolizes the world’s policeman that vulnerability, therefore, helps us get rid
and not a system that Coming at a time when several of In-
Spider-Man from varied universes to vis- either keeps the peace or breaks it. In of our egos that suppress the possibility
it the universe that Dr Stephen and Spi- this case, it is certain to bring peace by of plunging into challenging situations
relies on the whims der-Man are present in. Their presence is curing the villains and then letting them and possibilities. Becoming vulnerable
dia’s social sectors and hunger index and
and fancies of the a threat to people although they do not re- retreat to their respective universes. The to pain doesn’t mean we are succumb-
government in power poverty rankings have been falling con- member who Peter Parker is. Thus, at the pain, therefore, needs to be channelized ing to it. It means we are giving a chance
sistently, such moves will only serve to request of Dr Stephen, Peter Parker aka in a proper manner. A positive look at to the pain to better us or perfect us in a
further widen the gap between help that Spider-Man brings them altogether but When we who caused you the pain and why it’s way. Although perfection is something
is available and the people who need it the most.
later realizes that he ought to cure them become important. The villains due to their egos that we aren’t certain of.
instead of just sending them back to their insigni�cant wanted to achieve godly traits but failed It is no way home because you are
Most of these organizations have been working in the �eld of so- universe. And exactly at this time, when as their end wasn’t right. They gained not returning back to your comfort
he thinks the best, the villains realize that we realize power and used it pessimistically for zone, your home. You are returning
cial welfare, legal advocacy, human rights and similar causes. In
this is Spider-Man’s move to make himself that we have their own good rather than for the peo- a transformed being to another state
the past Amnesty International too faced similar hounding from the superior and God-like. So they retaliate not achieved ple. Therefore, they met the fate they of life where you ought to make your
government over its activities in India that were seen to be embar- and aunt May dies, leading Spider-Man
as much to deserved. Peter Parker through aunt home. And the walk through the path
rassing to the government. sad and upset at the loss. May is able to see this responsibility of of pain builds that shield that you
Thinking that Spider-Man has failed in consider taking care of the villains and curing deserve and desire to hold your altered
In the absence of the licence organizations will have to rely on do- this noble attempt Zendaya Maree Stoer- ourselves great them. Because what they have become personality.
nations from within the country to carry on their work with funds
from abroad.
The manner in which the government has been hounding organ- THE INBOX >> I
izations that have been doing good work o�en in areas where the
government’s own agencies cannot reach, reeks of malice. Prevent �re mishaps in with drugs, it is taking a toll on lives and
Rather than encouraging such organizations -- whose work does temporary structures NGOs FCRA licences: Govt’s witch hunt? football. Coastal Goa’s culture of EDMs
and drugs, pub hopping, junk food,
The registration of 6000 NGOs including Oxfam India, Jamia no restrictions on sale of alcohol and
not cost the government a single penny -- the government appears A major �re in the early hours of Saturday Millia Islamia, National Foundation for Communal Harmony etc. drugs to minors, the NYE partying in Goa
destroyed 14 shops on Calangute’s Hol-
to be acting only out of small minded malice and pettiness while si- iday Street at Gauravaddo. A tea shop
is deemed to have been expired under the FCRA Act 2010. despite logic on Omicron demanding
multaneously quickly renewing the licences of those NGOs who are Renewal applications of 179 organizations have been rejected otherwise, is rampant.
in an adjoining house was also partially and the rest had ‘purportedly’ not applied for continuation. Ronaldo does not drink alcohol or junk
favourable to it. damaged in the �re while a car parked at This has rendered the a�ected NGOs ineligible for receiving any ca�eine so� drinks. He hits the gyms
the spot was gutted.
For the rest the government can come up with whatever excuse it It was by providence that there was
foreign funds or utilising their previous receipts from abroad. instead of the pubs! His personal chef
E�ectively activities of 25% of the 22, 800 NGOs, most doing disclosed his diet: veal, avocados and
wants to if it wants to deny a licence including national security, au- no loss of life. It is seen that several sterling work for the underprivileged and downtrodden in the
temporary structures come up along the black rice with all food cooked in coconut
dit irregularities, working against the interests of India, etc. country have ground to a standstill. oil and plenty of puri�ed water.
roads leading to the beaches in the State
The need of the hour therefore is to have a transparent mecha- which sell clothes, bags, shoes and
As per amended FCRA guidelines the validity of all NGO licenses Well, is this not the crying inspiration for
has been curtailed to a period of �ve years which was not the all Goans today? Far from promoting just
nism by which licences are granted and renewed and not a system trinkets. Most of these stalls probably do case earlier.
not have �re safety clearance and they the sport it is doing much more! Should
that relies on the whims and fancies of the government in power. The government seems to be on a witch hunt especially against not this inspire Goans to ‘push aside’ the
are given temporary electricity connec- Christian and Muslim run NGOs and snu� out all goodwill they
The government needs to quickly realise that in a bid to protect tions probably without taking necessary crooked beer companies that resort to
enjoy in society. surrogate advertising?
its image it is only harming its own citizenry the very people whose precautions. The FCRA has become just another convenient tool in the hands
welfare it is claiming to improve. Hence a �re breaking out due to of this vindictive government to beat institutions which it per- R FERNANDES, Margao
short-circuit cannot be ruled out. Such ceives as a danger to its vote banks or divisive ideology.
stalls come up during the local church
feast and other occasions and are crowd-
‘Na kaam karengey, na karney dengey’ seems to be the sarkar’s Anomalous pattern
ed with people. Any tiny �re in one of
motto when it comes to do gooders. Remember Missionaries of
Charity? of deaths, infections
the structures can spread quickly to vast Covid-19 infections and death rates
areas and can lead to �nancial losses REKHA SARIN, Benaulim around the world make for chilling read-
OPEN SPACE >> and even result in burn injury to people ing. However what is most disconcerting
which can end in fatality. is that the so-called developed world has
These stalls are run by those belonging su�ered the bulk of the pandemic tolls.
Politics now turning into to the lower-income group who may
have started the business with their of the culprits sometimes covered and The total world toll of infections and
deaths is 28.8 crore and 54.4 lakh
a business venture life-savings. All precautionary steps need occasionally not? It would be sensible to
cover the cops’ faces so that the public respectively. It may be stressed that
to be taken by the authorities concerned vaccinations in certain countries have
in order to prevent such �re incidents. would not recognise them and it will be
U
easier to catch o�enders. reached the stage of booster doses being
nless the Omicron escalates, in less than two months Goa will have elect- It would be desirable for the government administered, hence why is there such
ed its 40 new MLAs. In recent years the political game has transformed to provide �nancial assistance to all The culprits’ faces should be exposed to
help the people to be wary and perhaps an anomalous spread?
into a business venture. Now for an assembly constituency you need to be those who have su�ered loss in the �re Out of these, the US which is a super
spending at least Rs 20 crores to have a reasonable chance of winning. incident at Calangute. even be informants to the cops. Of
course, everyone likes their 15 minutes power has seen 5.48 crore infections and
Candidates would have to start sending their voters on pilgrimages to Shirdi, 8.24 lakh deaths so far. Brazil and Russia
Vailankanni or wherever they wish to go on a jaunt while also having to organ- ADELMO FERNANDES, Vasco of fame, but are there any protocols for
too have a whopping infections and fa-
ize all sorts of sports tournaments to keep the youth in good cheers. the photo-shoot by the law enforcers?
They may also have to start paying the electricity, water and telephone bills of Protocols for photo-shoot SRIDHAR D’IYER, Caranzalem Send your
talities. UK which is an advanced country
has seen 1.29 crore infections so far and
their voters and not be surprised if medical and other bills are also stacked on of policemen with culprits letters to us 1.49 lakh lives have been lost.
top.
From now to polling day candidates will have a hectic schedule attending bap- Frequently we see in newspapers the Will Ronaldo’s stature at editor@
It is an irony that developed countries
with very sophisticated and advanced
tisms, �rst holy communions, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, house inau- photos of cops with their prize catch of
culprit/s of both genders. Ever so o�en inspire Goans? thegoan.net. health care systems should have faced
gurations and funerals as they cannot a�ord to miss any.
Today elections have become an investment gamble with everyone and the cops are sitting and culprits are The statue of a living football legend Letters must the brunt of infections and fatalities.
Cristiano Ronaldo installed in Calangute Reasons why such high infection rate
everything having to be paid for. The voters also know that they will only be able standing, sometimes vice-versa!
has raised a hue and cry! Strangely, this
be 150-200 and fatalities is since these countries
At times all are either sitting or standing!
to next squeeze their candidates in �ve years so they milk the cow as deeply as
The stolen items or implements used statue was not installed by ‘mass’ forces words and do not follow SOPs such as avoiding
they can. This is the stark reality of elections and the scene can only get worse. mention the crowding, social distancing, wearing of
during the crimes are sporadically dis- from inside and outside Goa like that of
AIRES RODRIGUES, Ribandar played as in a museum. the Maratha King installed in Mapusa! writer’s name face masks.
The important point is, why are the faces Alcohol abuse is rampant in Goa. Along and location ELVIDIO MIRANDA, via email
Printed and Published by: Pramod Acharya on behalf of Fomento Media. Editor: Joel Afonso (Responsible for selection of News under PRB Act). Disclaimer: Except for the editorials above, all columns and letters represent the views of the
Printed at: Elegant O�set Printers Pvt Ltd, Plot No 2/3/4, Thivim Industrial Estate, All Rights Reserved. concerned authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of The Goan Everyday’s Editor,
Karaswada, Mapusa, Goa. Editorial O�ce: Third Floor, Fourth Estate (Kamat Metropolis), St Inez, Panaji 403 001, Goa. Publisher and Owners.
Published at: Villa Flores da Silva, Erasmo Carvalho Street, PO Box 31, Margao 403 601, Goa. Ph: (0832) 240 5950 or mail us at editor@thegoan.net For circulation issues, please call (0832) 2450000 or mail: circulation@thegoan.net
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12 NEW DELHI
MONDAY
JANUARY 03, 2022
Opinion
{ OUR TAKE }
E STA B L I S H E D I N 1 9 24
Reforming the
A churn in the Foreigners Tribunals
caste cauldron A 2021 Gauhati High
Court judgment is
res judicata, according to which, once of times.
a court has decided a particular issue The high court’s reasoning, how-
between two parties, it cannot be ever, was deeply flawed. First of all, it
Recent developments show the centrality of significant because it reopened before the same forum. The is difficult to understand why an
principle of res judicata is fundamen- entire legal paraphernalia around
the representation of OBCs in electoral battles infused a modicum tal to the rule of law, not only because Foreigners’ Tribunals has been set up
of procedural fairness of the need for finality in a legal sys- in Assam, if the purpose was just to
L
ast week, the Centre told the Supreme Court tem, but also to prevent the continued issue “opinions” that have no other
in an affidavit that it should hold off on into the tribunals harassment of citizens at the hands of force or value in law. Second, the For-
the State, or at the hands of other eigners Tribunals are empowered to
scrapping reservations for other backward process in Assam. But powerful parties. return a finding on one of the most
classes (OBC) in local body polls in Madhya much more is needed A two-judge bench of the Gauhati important issues concerning an indi-
High Court — relying upon recent vidual: Their citizenship status. There is detailed empirical evidence, collected over many years, which
Pradesh. This came after the top court nullified
O
n December 13, 2021, the precedent from the Supreme Court — Citizenship has often been demonstrates that the functioning of the Foreigners Tribunals in Assam
similar reservations in Maharashtra and Madhya Gauhati High Court agreed with Hasina Bhanu’s argu- described as the “right to have rights”: falls well short of the basic standards that are expected of institutions
Pradesh, and its ruling prompted the Odisha High passed an important ments, and set aside the second pro- Not only because many of the Consti- taking such far-reaching decisions about citizenship status SUBHENDU GHOSH/HT
judgment in a case con- ceeding as illegal. While this tution’s guarantees are avail-
Court to ask the state government to denotify seats cerning the functioning would appear to be a com- able only to citizens, but also how India was facing “external which demonstrates that the func-
earmarked for backward communities in its local of Assam’s “Foreigners mon-sense outcome, it is, because — under the For- aggression”, “demographic threats” tioning of the Foreigners Tribunals in
body elections. Tribunals”. The case involved an indi- actually, a significant judg- eigners’ Act — non-citizen- and a danger to its “integrity” because Assam falls well short of the basic
vidual — Hasina Bhanu — who had ment, not least because on a ship exposes an individual to of “illegal Bangladeshi immigration”. standards that are expected of institu-
Seen in the backdrop of the growing rumblings of been referred to the Foreigners Tribu- prior occasion, different various forms of punitive Regrettably, such loose language tions taking such far-reaching deci-
the caste census and the impending churn over the nal by the government, on the suspi- judges of the Gauhati High Gautam State action, such as deten- recurs frequently in the court’s judg- sions about citizenship status.
push to subclassify the OBC grouping, this is a cion that she was not an Indian citi- Court had refused to set tion or deportation. In this ments on these issues, despite the fact It has been shown that excessive
zen. In August 2016, the tribunal aside such dual proceedings. Bhatia context, the high court’s that the available data on immigra- executive control over appointments
significant development, and makes it clear that found that she was, indeed, an Indian Back in 2018, the court had holding that the tribunals tion supports none of these claims. and conditions of service, as well as
political representation for OBCs and some citizen, and issued an opinion in her handed down a very surpris- were issuing mere “opinions” Such judicial rhetoric, however, then skewed procedures, have created a
dominant communities will be the new battleground favour. ing judgment, where it had held that that were not subject to res judicata becomes a smokescreen to justify situation in which tribunals are
This, however, was not the end of — formally — Foreigners’ Tribunals was essentially a case of having your depriving people of even their basic incentivised to declare individuals as
in the shifting sands of Indian electoral politics. The Hasina Bhanu’s travails. In 2017, do not render “judgments”, but only cake and eating it too: On the one rights to procedural fairness, on the foreigners.
Centre’s framing in its affidavit made it clear. The another proceeding was initiated issue “opinions”, on the basis of which hand, an adverse finding by the tribu- mere assertion by State authorities Thus, while the high court’s judg-
government told the court that implementing the against her before the same tribunal the government decides what to do nal could lead to an individual being that they are foreigners. ment is welcome, what is needed
— and this time, in March 2021, the with the individual concerned. On the deported or detained, while on the It is in this context, therefore, that today is a thoroughgoing review —
Supreme Court’s order will be a grave miscarriage of tribunal returned a contrary opinion basis of this, the high court had then other hand, a positive finding by the the high court’s 2021 judgment comes and reform — of the entire tribunals
justice and deprive OBCs of their rightful share. The that she was not an Indian citizen, but effectively held that even if a tribunal tribunal provided no respite at all, as a relief, and does infuse a modicum system, so as to ensure that immigra-
affidavit called it a question of political a foreigner. found that a particular person was since at any time the whole process of procedural fairness into the tribu- tion cases are conducted in a manner
Hasina Bhanu carried the case to not a foreigner, that person could still could be started all over again, with nals process in Assam. that can at least approach — if not
representation and said denying it will be a violation the high court, where she argued that be dragged back before any of no guarantee of the same outcome. It is important to note, however, accomplish — constitutional justice.
of the constitutional mandate. Though there has the second proceeding against her Assam’s (many) Foreigners’ Tribu- The high court in its 2018 judgment that this is only the tip of the iceberg:
been no formal enumeration of the communities was illegal from the outset. This was nals, and be forced to prove their citi- substantiated this gross asymmetry By now, there is detailed empirical Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based advocate
because of the basic legal principle of zenship all over again — any number by making various remarks about evidence, collected over many years, The views expressed are personal
since Independence, government and unofficial
estimates say OBCs easily form more than 50% of the
country. It is no wonder, then, that their support is
hotly contested by political parties, and their impact { STRAIGHTFORWARD } { NARENDRA MODI } PRIME MINISTER
on elections and policy is only set to grow.
Shashi Shekhar
The developments make three things clear. One,
the decision to extend reservations in local body
P
It is very important that our youth
A range of challenges
elections to OBCs falls in line with the trend of using
reservations as an instrument to alleviate socio- should have faith in sports and they
economic problems. The phenomenon of dominant should be encouraged to choose
communities — Jats, Gujjars, Patels, Marathas,
among others — demanding quotas seems here to
stay. Two, given the apex court’s straightforward
awaits the world in 2022 sports as a profession. This is my
resolve and my dream as well, I want
reasoning in deciding cases involving caste-based eople across the world have unprec- This year we are going to see a new race our youth to see sports like any
quotas — the judges ruled that quantifiable data
gathered by an independent commission will be
necessary — it is likely that political compulsions
will clash with judicial dictum in the future as well.
P edented expectations of 2022, and I
use the word unprecedented advis-
edly. If we look at the biggest disas-
ters of the last century — the Spanish Flu,
World War I and World War II — and now
in space. US-based companies such as Spa-
ceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic have
already taken the lead, and China has joined
the fray. Its astronauts addressed school-
children last month from a space shuttle.
A
other profession.
the Covid-19 pandemic, we see that the next This space race is going to add new tensions
And three, with the government and Opposition challenge is always just around the corner. to the relationship between the US and
formations vying for the support of OBCs, expect
more fireworks around the demand of a caste census
— which will formally count OBCs and likely lead to
Just when we thought the pandemic
might be in retreat comes the Omicron vari-
ant, and it is little comfort that the pan-
China.
The intense economic competition
between China and the US is also expected
Government data negates
demic may become endemic, as some scien- to reach the next level this year. If we are
a realignment in caste power structures — and the
report of the central commission looking into
tists predict. We may soon get pills to com-
bat Covid, the economic revival may gain
momentum, and perhaps the world as we
heading to a new Cold War era, what will
India’s role in it be? This year will give us
some answers. The challenge for New Delhi
the need for laws to control
subclassifying OBCs that is likely to see resistance
from dominant communities. The churn in India’s
caste cauldron appears to be just beginning.
know it, may change forever. In the year
gone by, manufacturing was seriously
affected as supply chains were disrupted.
in relation to China is to keep our borders
safe, and the Galwan clashes of 2020 show
us how important it is to remain vigilant at
India’s population growth
This led many, including former German all times.
chancellor, Angela Merkel, to call for an end This year is going to be challenging for irst conducted in 1992-1993, the right to life — but government data negates
Vaishno Devi: An
to dependence on factory output from China
and India.
India with its vast resources, diverse cli-
mate, and young population is ideally suited
the Indian establishment. The protesting
farmers may have gone home after assuran-
ces from the government, but they are not
satisfied. Will the government be able to sell
F National Family Health Survey (NFHS) the need for them.
is a nationwide demographic and The data from NFHS-5 shows that TFR for
health report. The findings from the Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka and UP are
NFHS-5, released in November 2021, give pos- at 1.9, 3.0, 1.9, 1.7 and 2.4 respectively. While
avoidable tragedy
to become self-reliant. When the seeds of its reforms to them? The peasant movement itive data on numerous aspects. Bihar and UP are above the replacement rate
British rule were planted in India, after the has given an impetus to trade unionism. The most significant highlight is sex ratio of 2.1, data from NFHS-4 shows a gradual
Battle of Plassey in 1757, our growth rate India needs rapid economic reforms to keep improvement — 1,020 females per 1,000 decline where they stood at 3.4 and 2.7
vis-à-vis the world was about 27%. Add pace with China, but reforms are creating males. Child vaccinations have also improved respectively. Generally, states witness decline
t least 12 people died and over a dozen were China to this and almost half the global unrest among a section of workers. In 1991, with 94.5% of children between 12-23 months gradually without coercive measures.
A injured in a stampede at the Vaishno Devi

shrine, atop the Trikuta hills, about 50
kilometres from Jammu, on January 1. The Jammu
growth was in these two countries. Are
things going into the reverse now?
A recent survey by Future Forum in the
United States (US) has found that our offices
when Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh
came up with economic reforms, we saw the
extent of the uproar among unions and
workers.
getting vaccinated at a public health facility; TFR for every religion has declined in every
95.9% of pregnant women received mother successive NFHS as well, including Muslims,
and child protection cards. However, there whose TFR declined from 4.41 in NFHS-1 to
was also worrisome data such as an increase 2.62 in NFHS-4. According to a recent Pew
and Kashmir administration has set up a panel, are going to change; only 3% of non-White India has done well so far in the fight in anaemia. Also, gender-based vio- Research Center report, while they
workers in the US want to return to office against Covid-19. The economy is slowly lence in the 18-49 years group wit- remain the community with the
headed by the Union Territory’s principal secretary full time, compared to 21% of their White returning to normal. In this year full of so nessed minimal improvement with highest fertility rate among major
(home) Shaleen Kabra, to investigate the incident colleagues; 97% of non-White workers are many expectations, will we be able to spousal violence dropping from religious groups, Muslims did see a
and directed it to submit its report in a week. The looking for a model where they could do achieve the expected growth rate? Will the 31.2% to 29.3%. decline in TFR. Therefore, coercive
their jobs from remote centres. Experts unorganised sector and small and medium The total fertility rate (TFR), or measures that ostracise a commu-
tragedy happened “due to a scuffle between two believe that in 2022, skilled youth who are industries regain their lost momentum? the number of children per woman, nity and allow public perception to
Prakhar
groups of pilgrims”, the shrine’s board said. open to flexible work patterns will get more Without this, we cannot battle unemploy- is 2.0, which is somewhat lower believe in some kind of population
While this is the first tragedy at the shrine, there jobs. This could well increase gender, eth- ment and recession. than the replacement rate. Except Raghuvanshi explosion has the potential to fur-
nic, and age disparities in the workplace. The year 2022 will be a litmus test for all in countries with high infant and ther the communal divide.
have been several instances of similar accidents in However, some sociologists are not in political parties. There are elections in five child mortality rates, the replace- Furthermore, the use of family
temples. The worst accident happened near agreement with a largely work-from-home states over the next few months. Of these, ment rate averages out to 2.1, indicating that planning methods among married women of
Ratangarh temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia district system. They believe this will increase lon- Uttar Pradesh (UP) is the most important. the country’s population has stabilised. 15-49 years is increasing as well. While 53.5%
eliness, depression, even suicide. This explains why Prime Minister Narendra The NFHS-5 data hits the propaganda of of women use any method of family planning
on October 13, 2013, which left 115 people dead and Modi has thrown all his energies into the population control at its root. The Uttar Pra- in NFHS-4, the number stands at 66.7% in
100-plus injured. Most stampedes are often a result battle for the state. Is this a calculated risk? desh (UP) State Law Commission released the NFHS-5. Every method, from female sterilisa-
of administrative mismanagement, the police’s He is an astute and canny politician. He draft of the UP Population (Control Stabiliza- tion to injectables to pills, has shown a little
knows that even after this, if the Bharatiya tion and Welfare) Bill, 2021, in July last year. increase in use. Of these five states, Bihar saw
inability to control crowds, and the failure of Janata Party does not get a clear majority in The bill aimed at the two-child policy and the most encouraging increase in the use of
pilgrims to follow movement protocols. In this UP, the party could be adversely affected in used debarment from contesting local body family planning methods from 24.1% in
episode, too, people allege that pilgrims were the 2024 general elections. There may not polls, applying for government jobs, and 2015-16 to 55.8% in 2019-21. However, male
be any visible public disenchantment with removing subsidy benefits as coercive tools. A sterilisation stands at an abysmal low of 0.3%
allowed without registration; there were no UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s govern- similar two-child coercive policy was intro- compared to 37.9% in women.
barricades to demarcate those going in and out of ment. duced in Assam. Other states with Bharatiya Considering that India spends merely 1.26%
the sanctum sanctorum’s narrow gate; and the lathi But, there a huge crowds at Samajwadi Janata Party (BJP) or BJP-coalition govern- of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on public
Party leader Akhilesh Yadav’s meetings. ments such as Karnataka, Gujarat and Bihar health care and about 3% on education, the
charge by policemen once they found the crowd Yadav has got his caste calculations right, were considering the same. improvement is remarkable. It indicates the
going out of control. Before the pandemic, the which is why the election has become two- Population control measures are not potential of quick major improvements if the
annual yatra drew over 10 million pilgrims. In 2021, pronged. The Bahujan Samaj Party and the merely based on the Malthusian theory of government spends the right amount. Since
Congress have so far made little headway. “too few resources and too many mouths to data outlaws the need for population control
the daily cap was lowered to 25,000 due to Covid-19. These factors and the possibility of the spill- fill”, but is also used as a tool against one com- incentives, perhaps the government and rep-
This new year, 35,000 people were officially allowed over of discontent among farmers are issues munity — Indian Muslims. Muslims, due to resentative can turn their attention to meas-
despite the early signs of a third wave. that will decide the course of the all-impor- relatively low ranking on socioeconomic and ures that will ensure stable and healthy family
tant UP elections. health factors, have a higher fertility rate than planning. These measures include basic edu-
The probe panel must investigate and reveal the We are in a year full of hopes, fears and other communities in India. cation, marriage at median age, increase in
reasons behind the tragedy. The administration expectations. Let us welcome it and hope for In light of the judgment of the Supreme employment and income.
must learn from the mistakes, punish those who India has done well in the Covid fight. The the best. Court in the Puttaswamy case, not only are
economy is slowly returning to normal. In population control laws and practices uncon- Prakhar Raghuvanshi is a constitutional law
failed to perform their duties, and set up systems this year, will we achieve the expected Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan stitutional — because of the constraints of pri- honours student, National Law University, Jodhpur
that prevent such tragic loss of lives. growth rate? SHUTTERSTOCK The views expressed are personal vacy, discrimination, proportionality, and The views expressed are personal
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Editor: KUNAL PRADHAN

4 EDIT DELHI MONDAY 3 JANUARY 2022
LETTERS
North India polls: Will Telugu netas take cue? Need for greater caution
e lection fever seems to have gripped
north India as the stage is set for as-
sembly elections in five states – uttar
ensuring the victory of the party in uP
since it happens to be the most crucial state.
He has been visiting the state very fre-
BSP supremo Mayawati, both former CMs
of uttar Pradesh, are also leaving no stone
unturned to woo the voters. But akhilesh
may help aaP expand its footprint beyond
Delhi.
let us hope that by the time the polls in
I ndia reported more than 20,000 cases and the experts estimates that
nearly half the emerging cases are likely to be Omicron variant and
that is causing concern. Omicron multiplies 70 times faster than Delta
Pradesh, uttarakhand, Manipur, goa and quently in the name of inaugurations and seems to be still caught the in the old mould the cow belt are over, the leaders of the two and the original SarS-CoV-2 strain in human bronchus tissue in the
Punjab. e stakes are high for BJP since the foundation-laying ceremonies and has been of campaign style i.e., making cheap remarks. Telugu states will also learn a lesson and stop lab. yet it replicated nearly 10 times less efficiently in lung tissue than
first four are ruled by it, while Congress is utilising all available platforms to showcase e interesting factor in this campaign so the use of vulgar language and cuss words the original strain, which may be an indicator of lower disease severity.
in power in Punjab. It is also being specu- the development of the state during the far is that no leader has crossed limits during as also misuse of police. e police which While Omicron symptoms range from mild to severe, the most com-
lated that even Telangana may go in for early yogi regime.  BJP rhetoric is confined to their political speeches. Fortunately, unlike does not find any violation of Covid-19 mon symptoms associated with the first 43 Omicron cases investigated
elections, maybe towards the end of 2022. the performance of the SP government. in the two Telugu states, no leader is abusing norms when rallies organised by ruling par- in the uS are cough, fatigue, congestion and runny nose. It is time to be
is speculation is not baseless as the deci- Modi on Sunday referred to the crime sit- one another in foul language. ties take place without following any kind cautious as before and follow the government guidelines strictly.
sions like IT Hub in nalgonda, putting other uation in the state during the regime of SP, e simplest style of campaign is that of of protocols, jump into action and slap cases C K Subramaniam, Mumbai
developmental activities on fast-track etc., how criminals had a free run and land grab- aaP. It is keeping its speeches simple, on opposition parties, alleging violation of
point in that direction. bing was a common thing, how houses were straight and short. It doesn’t talk of caste, Covid norms. e police did not find any
Coming back to north, though the elec- burnt during riots etc. community, religion or crime. is certainly violation when a bike rally was taken out by II
tion Commission is yet to announce the poll
schedule, major political parties, BJP, Con-
gress and aam aadmi Party (aaP), which
From Congress side, its senior leader
Priyanka gandhi Vadra is spearheading the
campaign. She is addressing rallies across
is a good sign. aaP is making basic promises
like transforming schools into best educa-
tional centres as was done in Delhi, con-
TrS activists in Chityal to welcome TrS
working president K T rama rao though
none of them was wearing a mask, but they
n otwithstanding uncertain future staring at everyone, celebrations
took place all over with people of all ages and without gender dis-
crimination gathering with the sole purpose to create a new spirit of en-
is testing the waters for the first time in Pun- the length and breadth of the state, promis- struction of hospitals, free electricity health- arrested BJP activists in Karimnagar to foil thusiasm with a good omen that new year would hopefully bring in
jab and contesting in other states as well, ing to bring a change if her party forms the care services, jobs, unemployment allowance the attempt of state president Bandi Sanjay "new normal". is is a fact and belief among Indians because celebra-
have started flexing their muscles. next government. To what extent the elec- to youth, rs 1,000 per month to women. If to hold a night-long Jagaran, saying the party tions are set to rejuvenate one's feelings, thoughts and emotions paving
Prime Minister narendra Modi seems torate will repose trust in the party has to be reports are any indication, this style seems had violated Covid norms. are all not equal a path to create a new kind of experience and giving direction to people
to have taken the major responsibility of seen. Samajwadi Party's akhilesh yadav and to have gone down well with the people and before law? to lead a normal happy life in the new year. all in all, it is a time to re-
flect on the changes we all want to make and look forward to a radiant
2022 leaving behind sullen and horrific memories of 2020 and 2021.
K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad
THE CHALLENGE OF 2022: INEQUITY Crowd management failure

led to Vaishno Devi tragedy
THE WAY AHEAD
T a
he gST col- propos, "12 dead in stampede amid heavy rush at Vaishno Devi,"
lections are The challenge of 2022, therefore, is (e Hans India, Jan 2). e tragic death of 12 devotees caused by
buoyant, twofold. First, the infatuation with the stampede in Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu is painful. While the re-
share market is ris- formalisation of economy should be ports suggest "Scuffle" between two groups of devotees entering the nar-
ing, rupee is stable abandoned. Our conditions are different row gate no. 3 outside the sanctum sanctorum caused the stampede,
and India has been than those of the developed countries. mismanagement coupled with improper and inadequate arrangements
recognised to be the We have a large workforce which cannot hindering smooth flow of the devotees in queue line is the primary
fastest growing be employed in the formal sector. We cause. e popular Hindu shrine attracts tens of thousands of devotees
economy among the should give more respect to the on regular basis. While the shrine board refutes the allegations of mis-
major economies of non-formal sector and enable people to management made by the devotees on the spot and attempts to pin the
Dr Bharat the world. However, earn their livelihood so that the cost of blame on huge crowd, it can't shirk the responsibility for failing to make
Jhunjhunwala despite these momos produced by them is less and the the arrangements for a huge crowd obvious on a special days like new
achievements, the GDP increases. Second, the government year.
total consumption in the economy is less should make comprehensive assessment N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru
than the pre-Covid levels and the Prime of the costs and benefits of policies such
Minister himself has said that unemploy-
ment is one of the greatest challenges facing
as lower pollution norms from thermal
plants so that the damage to the
II
the country. The roots of this problem lie
in the thinking of the nITI aayog.
In 2018, the aayog had come up with a
economy because of pollution is averted
and the GDP increases and human
I t is sad that the year 2022 has begun with a tragedy and as usual at the
temple. e poor devotees oen go to pray to keep them safe and
happy. It is a different matter, such tragedies always end up with the
document on the vision of India at 75 years distress is reduced PM, President and others sharing grief followed by compensation and
of Independence which placed two objec- then we wait for another such tragedy. e present government oen
tives in front of the country. The first ob- become more than the cost of momo pro- Such has been seen across the world. Indeed, (as an aside, the increase in the cost of treat- talks of building "Bhavya" (Magnificent or grand) temples but have
jective was to promote labour-intensive duced by a formal shop. the government cannot directly prevent ment adds to the gDP for a short time). failed to focus on safe passage to temples located in difficult terrain.
production. The second objective was to us, the formalisation of labour leads to global warming within our country since it e challenge before the government is Our Dharam Sansad has plenty of time and money to spread venom
encourage formalisation of labour. These an increase in the cost of labour and makes is a global phenomenon but, at the same to implement such policies that assess the among followers but don't devote their time and energy to make our
two objectives are contradictory in our sit- the formal shop competitive. ese shops time, there is much that it can do within. costs and benefits of pollution comprehen- temple safe for the pilgrims.
uation. employ lesser number of workers for the For example, the government has recently sively. at is, the costs of disasters and N Nagarajan, Hyderabad
Formalisation means that instead of same amount of production because of the diluted the norms for pollutant emissions health and the benefits of cheap electricity.
working on standalone individual basis like use of machines like dish washers and auto- by thermal power plants. inking is that en it will become clear that many policies
a street corner momo seller, the workers matic ovens. In the end, formalisation leads allowing thermal plant to pollute the air will supposedly leading to economic growth are Poor tend to go by welfare sops
may be made part of a formal system such
as fast food centers located in a shop.
The difficulty is that formalisation leads
to erosion of the competitive advantage of
labour and forces the economy to move to
capital-intensive production. is leads to
reduce the cost of pollution control equip-
ment and will enable these plants to produce
cheap electricity and will help obtain eco-
actually leading to lower economic growth
and more human distress.
e challenge of 2022, therefore, is
M ost of the elite people of andhra Pradesh oen express their aver-
sion and displeasure in various debates that the Jagan Mohan
reddy government is ruining the State financially and shows unethical
to an increase in the cost of labour. For ex- increase in unemployment as has been high- nomic growth. is much is true. However, twofold. First, the infatuation with formali- attitude towards political adversaries. To some extent this cannot be
ample, if we bring all the street corner lighted by the Prime Minister. the same higher level of pollution imposes sation of economy should be abandoned. condemned. However poor and mediocre public are not aware and can-
momo sellers under a formal umbrella and Demonetisation and gST have not three types of cost on the economy. First, it Our conditions are different than those of not understand also the debt-ridden status of the state, but they admire
require them to register with the govern- helped. e small standalone businesses leads to more global warming and economic the developed countries. We have a large Jagan reddy for implementing several welfare schemes and distribution
ment, then they would have to comply with came to a halt for about two months aer disasters and the government has to spend workforce which cannot be employed in the of freebies, the latest one being raising pension to rs 2,500 per month
weights and measures inspectors, health demonetisation. One driver of Ola confided larger amounts to provide compensation to formal sector. We should give more respect from January 2022. Hence this majority lot bestows its vote bank on
inspectors, adhere to timings, use better to me soon aer demonetisation that he had the affected persons. a Minister from Ma- to the non-formal sector and enable people this party only as witnessed in recent elections to local bodies, etc., de-
packaging material, pay provident fund for been earning his livelihood for the last 30 harashtra said that the payment of such com- to earn their livelihood so that the cost of spite agitations against privatisation of Vizag Steel Plant, amaravati cap-
their helpers and follow minimum wage years by employing three women to do em- pensation had become a major burden on momos produced by them is less and the ital, etc.
requirement. This will lead to increase in broidery. is came to a halt because he the budget of the state in 2021. Second, the gDP increases. Second, the government Dr NSR Murthy, Secunderabad
cost of the momos produced. The advan- could not obtain payments in cash; and the production of certain produce like tomatoes should make comprehensive assessment of
tage that the non-formal street corner buyers were not willing to make payments decreases. is directly leads to lower growth the costs and benefits of policies such as
momo vendor enjoys today vis-à-vis the by cheque. He had to close down his busi- because agriculture adds less to the gDP. lower pollution norms from thermal plants Kerala cops' highhandedness
momos of the same quality manufactured
by large companies by automatic machines
will be eroded. Today, the cost of a momo
ness and survived by becoming a driver.
erefore, formalisation is against labour-
intensive production and it is leading to
additionally, this leads to increase in the
price of tomatoes and inflation. ird, pol-
lution imposes a huge health cost on the
so that the damage to the economy because
of pollution is averted and the gDP increases
and human distress is reduced.
T he action by the police at Kovalam in iruvananthapuram against
a Swedish national who was carrying three bottles of liquor he had
purchased from BeVCO outlet was irresponsible. He had to drain them
produced by a street corner vendor may death of employment itself. Confronting this people. Peoples living near Singrauli in uttar into roadside bushes as the police threatened a criminal case. is un-
be rs 5 while that produced in a formal problem is the major challenge before the Pradesh are suffering from multiple diseases (The author is former Professor of warranted action by the police will bring discredit to the Kerala police,
shop may be rs 7. The customer may want economy in 2022. such as bronchitis and cancer because of the Economics at IIM, Bengaluru) as the state is gearing up to become tourist-friendly, inviting more and
to buy momos from the street corner seller e second challenge is that of environ- high level of air pollution from large number (The opinions expressed in this column more people from within the country and abroad to visit ‘god's Own
because it is of same quality but cheaper. ment. I am told that the price of tomato in of thermal power plants in that area. is are those of the writer. The facts and Country.’
The cost of the momo produced by the the recent times has increased because global loss of health reduces their capacity to pro- opinions expressed here do not reflect the K V Raghuram, Wayanad
street corner momo shopkeeper may now warming has led to damage to the crops. duce and increases the cost of treatment. views of The Hans India)
thehansreader@gmail.com
Make growth environmentally sustainable

VIIVECK VERMA Consciousness towards this also THE
Accelerated decarbonisation has to be promoted. environmental
SuSTaInaBIlITy and environ- could bring significant benefits assets and the natural capital are a
mental concerns continue to make to India and the world. India major component of national and
headlines in the contemporary could use the transition to a global wealth. general awareness
world order, contrasting with re- low-emission footing to about the consequences they can
portage of Covid-19 resultant eco-
nomic contraction. as we move to-
wards economic recoveries and
restructure its economy towards
growth in advanced industrial
sectors, leveraging lower-cost
cause will position citizens to pur-
sue sustainability and demand the
same from authorities. Citizens can
KMF denies printing Puneeth’s
resurgences, it is essential that we
take account of the linkages be-
tween the two - a domain relatively
clean energy export markets, as
the region experiences a rapid
increase in energy demand over
truly integrate social, economic
and environmental dimensions of
our existence and give economies
image on milk packets
untalked about. It is critical to un- the coming years and nations ideal conditions for Bengaluru: e Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) officials on Sunday
derstand that environmental ac- Our general indifference and inability to treasure nature, progress. education towards this denied printing an image of late actor Puneeth rajkumar on their milk
countability and climate action can alongside greed to exploit the environment without giving it nomic progress without sustain- end alongside regular powerful packets. For the past three days a milk packet carrying the image of the
fuel our economic futures. time to replenish its reservoirs have cost us a lot. ability is a myopic phenomenon campaigns can prove instrumental late actor went viral on social media claiming that KMF introduced a
as per OeCD, the links between Environmental accountability is thus interminably significant and needs to be addressed. in this regard. Better legal regimes new milk packet with an image of Puneet rajkumar as a mark of tribute
the economy and the environment because it produces real benefit and also bolsters our On a policy level, several to ensure conformity to environ- to him.
are manifold: the environment pro- commitment towards the future of humanity changes have to be made to ensure ment-friendly standards of eco- e post attracted lakhs of people across the State wholeheartedly laud-
vides resources to the economy, this, beginning with promoting nomic activity are also necessary ing the KMF’s move. Puneet was a KMF brand ambassador for more
and acts as a sink for emissions and invigorate economic progress in an accelerated decarbonisation quality research and study on the in the same vein. International en- than a decade, but he did not take any remuneration for this. even his fa-
waste. natural resources are essen- environmentally conscious manner could bring significant benefits to same. While the predominant fac- vironmental laws require restruc- ther late Dr rajkumar also promoted KMF products free as it would be
tial inputs for production in many while attempting to achieve inter- India and the world. India could tors connecting the economy and turing to effectively manage prob- helpful for farmers.
sectors, while production and con- generational equity. use the transition to a low-emission the environment are qualitatively lems pertaining to population,
sumption also lead to pollution and With these observations put to- footing to restructure its economy known, assessments of environ- biodiversity, climate change, ozone
other pressures on the environ-
ment. Poor environmental quality
gether, it is easy to understand that
sustainable development is directly
towards growth in advanced indus-
trial sectors, leveraging lower-cost
mental policies are oen hampered
by a lack of consistent quantitative
depletion, air, land and water pol-
lution, conservation of marine re-
Notorious thief nabbed
in turn affects economic growth
and wellbeing by lowering the
correlational to several economic
benefits. For instance, as Hindustan
clean energy export markets, as the
region experiences a rapid increase
metrics to compare the costs and
benefits of policy changes, or by a
sources and related concerns.
Curbing ecological crises and for 17th time
quantity and quality of resources Times reports, India can gain $11 in energy demand over the coming more general lack of empirical ev- using long routes to economic ac- Bengaluru: e city police have arrested a notorious burglar Karthik
or due to health impacts and so on. trillion in economic value over the years. environmental accountabil- idence. a statement by OeCD complishments can secure our fu- Kumar alias ‘escape’ Karthik. He is said to have committed at least 80
From this standpoint, the con- next 50 years by limiting rising ity is thus interminably significant notes how the economic costs of tures while giving us ideal condi- burglaries in many parts of Bengaluru, Tamil nadu and andhra Pradesh
cept of sustainability becomes all global temperatures and realising because it produces real benefit and biophysical and environmental tions to pursue sensible and and is notorious for escaping from the police, earning him the epithet
the more significant to consider. its potential to ‘export decarboni- also bolsters our commitment to- consequences of policy inaction, conscious development. Sustain- ‘escape’ Karthik. gold ornaments worth rs 11.43 lakh have been seized
Sustainable development aims to sation’ to the world, a new study wards the future of humanity. yet, and the associated benefits of new able development has its own wor- from him.
optimize the net benefits of eco- by Deloitte economics Institute economies have consistently failed policies, are oen not quantified. thy rewards and understanding the Karthik started as thief at the age of 16 in 2005 when he had stolen or-
nomic activities, while sustaining show. e study infers that if India the environment. erefore, economic discussions nexus between the environment naments from a house. aer coming out on bail, he continued to commit
humanity’s stock of productive as- doesn’t act now to mitigate the ef- as a consequence of our general are oen dominated by the very and the economy is crucial to this several burglaries. In 2008, Karthik managed to escape from Parappana
sets - physical, human and envi- fects of climate change, it could lose indifference and inability to treas- visible costs of policy action and mission. agrahara Central Prisons in a food van and was caught aer 45 days.
ronmental - over the years and en- $35 trillion in economic potential, ure nature, alongside greed to ex- consequently, it is essential to im- (e author is Founder, Upsurge
suring a social safety net to meet which could be 12.7 per cent of its ploit the environment without giv- prove the toolkits that economists Global, and President SAHE
the needs of the economically vul- gross domestic product (gDP), by ing it time to replenish its use to assess the benefits of envi- (Society for Advancement of Read more at
nerable. Simply put, it attempts to 2070. reservoirs have cost us a lot. eco- ronmental policies. Human Endeavour)
https://epaper.thehansindia.com (Bengaluru edition)
EDIT
THE ASIAN AGE | MONDAY | 3 JANUARY 2022 | NEW DELHI
pg 5
Subhani
3 JANUARY 2022
Get back to basics to fight

Covid 3rd wave, Omicron
W
ith the share of Omicron variant in the new daily infections of
Covid-19 shooting up and the threat of a new wave overwhelming
the hospital infrastructure in the country appearing closer to
reality than feared, it’s time the Union and state governments
moved with alacrity to make the results of containment measures optimum.
At present, the Omicron variant forms less than five per cent of the total
daily infections but signs are such that the share will go up. Even though the
new variant is said to be less virulent, there has been no dramatic fall in the
percentage of patients who require hospitalisation. This means, the nature
of the variant offers little reason to feel relieved.
Covid-19 has been there for the last two years, and has impacted normal life
beyond recognition. So any containment measure that can have an impact
on the livelihoods of people must be introduced with extreme care. Most
states have now imposed night curfew to control the amassing of people for
celebrating New Year. It must have played its purpose but the returns from
an extension of the controls are unlikely to match the cost it would incur.
True, the night curfew would instil a sense of
The governments emergency in most people and remind them
must hence revisit that they continue to live under the shadows
of the virus. But there is little logic in allow-
the most effective ing the same people to congregate in the day
ways of stopping the without many restrictions.
pandemic — wearing The other restrictions that will have a direct
of masks, social impact on people’s livelihoods include those
A bumpy ride for govt, but LETTERS
NOT JUST FOR KICKS
distancing and the on the entry of people into shops, restaurants
and entertainment zones. However, there is
use of sanitisers. little control on crowding elsewhere, includ-
They have been ing political events and religious functions.
there for the last This makes little sense. Political and religious
Modi 2.0 focused on 2024 The government is were told that the whole
Indian tipplers becoming
quality conscious is a good
sign as it shows that the
drinkers are getting more
two years... events are important in our country but they
cannot get precedence over economic activity of the adult population mature and their tastes
for over a long period of time. The governments may find it easy to impose Parsa not too worried that
nearly five lakh
would be vaccinated by
the end of the year. The
more sophisticated. Earlier,
Venkateshwar
economic controls as the stakeholders will be legally obliged to obey them only the kick mattered. The
but the government will have to proactively move if it were to impose curbs have died in India second wave of Covid-19
due to Covid-19 in cheaper brands were being
on the other events. If it can deploy police to restrict access to markets, then
the same police may be used to restrict massing of people elsewhere. Rao Jr the 2020 and 2021
was at its peak in April-
June 2021, and more peo- consumed more than the
From the various advisories the Union government has been issuing to the ple died — more than two
state governments, it is reasonable to expect that they have learnt their calendar years. Or lakh — than they did in premium ones. However,
lessons from the past and are bracing themselves up for the next wave. The that migrant 2020. But the government wine drinking needs to be
P
governments have got sufficient time to rework their strategies so that the rime Minister and the micro, medium workers suffered in seemed happy that encouraged as it would
nation will not have to watch the horrendous sights of people dying for want Narendra Modi and small industries terms of economic unlike in the nationwide
of oxygen or of the bodies of Covid-19 victims floating on rivers. It is also and his govern- (MSME) sector in August lockdown imposed from dissuade many from con-
deprivation. March 25, 2020 till end of
hoped that the facilities to treat children got a facelift. ment have and September. It is now sumption of hard liquor
Go back to the basics when in doubt, they say. The governments must crossed the recognised all around May 2020, when econom-
hence revisit the most effective ways of stopping the pandemic — wearing of halfway mark of their that the economy had with Chinese troops. The ic growth plunged by 24 and would be beneficial to
masks, social distancing and the use of sanitisers. They have been there for second five-year term in slowed down much Chinese, however, did per cent, at the height of the health of the con-
the last two years and experts vouch for their efficacy till today. It is expect- office in December 2021. before the outbreak of not disclose the deaths on the second wave in the
ed that the next wave will peak in mid-February. This would mean that the The first six months in Covid-19 in December their side. summer of 2021, more
sumers. The MVA govern-
governments have time to push such basics once again to limit the spread of the second half of 2019 2019 and reached Indian The government was people might have died ment in Maharashtra has
the virus. saw the government flex shores by the end of caught on the wrong foot. but the economy did not taken some welcome steps
its political muscles after January 2020. The Prime Minister went sink.
it had won an impressive The years 2020 and 2021 to Ladakh a little later The government is not to encourage wine con-
300-plus majority in the have been spent by the and addressed the sol- too worried that nearly sumption and other states,
Lok Sabha. Mr Modi’s Modi government in diers. The government five lakh people have
particularly where grapes
A man-made, avoidable tragedy confidante, Mr Amit
Shah, who functioned as
the BJP president from
responding to the Covid-
19 pandemic, fumbling
now, moving decisively
kept insisting that there
was no Chinese intru-
sion, a view that became
died in India due to
Covid-19 in the 2020 and
2021 calendar years. Or
are grown, would do well
to follow its example. It
I
t’s a great human tragedy that a manmade disaster was created on New 2014 to 2019, came into in fits and starts, as in quite hard to sustain. that migrant labourers
Year’s Day. There is none to blame but the people of India. To them the government as the imposing a nationwide Defence minister Raj- had suffered in terms of would be a win-win for
rules and regulations mean nothing. When watchfulness is called for as home minister. He lockdown as a precau- nath Singh had to make a economic deprivation. It everybody.
crowds gather at public places, caution is thrown to the winds and a devil- moved two controversial tionary measure to stop detailed statement in the is of course not the gov-
may-care attitude becomes pervasive. bills, one which disman- Covid-19 in its tracks on Lok Sabha during the ernment’s fault that Anthony Henriques
The stampede at the Vaishno Devi shrine on January 1 was, by all tled Article 370 of the March 25, 2020. By the Monsoon Session of Covid-19 spread like a Mumbai
accounts, a product of irrational crowd behaviour stemming from a disre- Constitution that gave a end of May 2020, the lock- Parliament in July 2020, bushfire all across the
gard for rules and overlooking of covid protocol-related social distancing. special status to Jammu down had to be tapered giving the complex back- country. But the govern-
Where at the most 35,000 pilgrims were supposed to be allowed there were and Kashmir. He further off as the infections
spread and grew. The
ground to the undemar-
cated boundary between
ment refuses to accept
that these two years have
NAVEEN’S EXAMPLE
more than two lakh people, according to eyewitnesses. Mayhem was said relegated the state to that
to have been created by groups of boys fighting with each other for access of a Union territory, governments — at the the two countries. been traumatic for the AMIDST THIS DARKLY intolerant sce-
to the temple at an overcrowded entrance. under the direct control Centre and in the north- The Covid-19 infection people of the country. nario in “New India”, Naveen Patnaik
The call for a probe is like a ritual and a panel will meet and submit a of the Central govern- ern states of Uttar figures slowly went down For Mr Modi and his resembles that rare beacon of hope and
report. It would be unsurprising if anyone but the authorities is blamed ment. And it was divided Pradesh and Bihar — in November-December colleagues, it continues sanity who offers funds from the trea-
when administrators in charge are supposed to ensure crowd behaviour into two, Jammu and stumbled when they did 2020, and Prime Minister to be politics as usual. sury of not-so-prosperous Odisha to the
does not get out of hand at such huge gatherings. Why blame crowd con- Kashmir on one hand, not know what to do with Modi wanted to proclaim The Prime Minister and Missionaries of Charity whose foreign
trol when people are unwilling to follow a modicum of orderly collective and Ladakh on the other. the migrant labourers. that India had defeated Union home minister funding has been blocked by the high-
behaviour? Faith can move mountains, they say, and it seems to have done Then came the Citizen- They were barricaded Covid-19 without a vac- Amit Shah are on the est authorities of the land. What a ges-
so in this case, too, as the people moved on to the shrine to worship even ship Amendment Act from moving till the end cine. But in January 2021 campaign trail for the ture of responsibility towards those
as the victims of the stampede lay in hospitals, some in its morgue. 2019, which promised cit- of April 2020, and then came the announcement Assembly election in silent workers who are sacrificing their
New Year’s Day is a special occasion on which people tend to visit places izenship to the religious allowed to go. Tens of of the India-made vac- Uttar Pradesh, Uttara- own lucrative careers and comforts and
of worship and it means little to them that a pandemic is still raging. There minorities — Hindus, thousands and more cine, Covaxin of khand, Goa, Himachal risking their own lives, too, in this viti-
was a huge crowd at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, too, and it was just Sikhs, Jain, Buddhists walked along the high- Hyderabad-based Bharat Pradesh, Punjab and ated environment for the welfare of the
good fortune that nothing untoward happened there, as well as in other and Parsis — in the ways back to their vil- Biotech, in collaboration Manipur. Yes, the PM downtrodden! None other than Mother
places to which people were drawn at the dawn of 2022. Another tragedy Muslim-majority coun- lages in Uttar Pradesh with the National addressed the nation on Teresa is surely blessing Naveen
will soon be forgotten in a typically Indian sense of fatalism. Such behav- tries of Bangladesh, Pak- and Bihar. Institute of Virology television at least half-a- Patnaik from high above for his excep-
iour is best summarised in one line that defines all of us — We are like this istan and Afghanistan. The two states’ chief (NIV) of the Indian dozen times in connec- tional humanity!
only. Of course, the Tamil ministers did not want Council of Medical tion with Covid-19 and he Kajal Chatterjee
minority in Sri Lanka the migrants back initial- Research (ICMR), and has been closely monitor- Kolkata
was not included. There ly, though arrangements the India-manufactured ing the situation in his
were made to get back Covishield by Pune’s meetings with officials
BRAVO, YOUNG GUNS
were anti-CAA protests,
especially by Muslim middle-class students Serum Institute of India and chief ministers.
women in Delhi. The who were stuck in the IIT (SII), based on Oxford- However, for him the
protests across Jammu entrance exam coaching AstraZeneca’s research. much more important IN ALL THE excitement of the
and Kashmir were pre- town of Kota in The Central govern- engagement was the Centurion victory, we have forgotten
empted by arresting Rajasthan. ment announced a West Bengal Assembly that Indian boys have won the Asia
thousands — about 4,000, The Central govern- phased and sequential election last summer, Cup defeating the Sri Lankan U-19
according to official fig- ment tried to make up for vaccination programme. and the UP election this team. The victory is particlarly impor-
ures — of people, who its ineptitude by It floundered with the February-March. tant as India was defeated by Pakistan
were later released. The announcing free rations state governments being This has been a bad in a league match. The victory will be a
J&K decision is in a to the poor people and unable to directly pro- first half of the second moralebooster as the U-19 World Cup is
THE ASIAN AGE shambles. And no brown- cash sops for farmers. cure the vaccine from the term in office for Mr set to start from January 14. The
ies points accrued from The poor were not manufacturers, either in Modi. He is the Teflon Indian cricket team had very little
KAUSHIK MITTER K. SUDHAKAR the CAA 2019 either. offered any cash. They India or abroad. The Prime Minister. The practice because of incriminating
Editor Printer & Publisher
The election victory, were given free food- Prime Minister inter- trauma of the people is weather. Well done, young guns.
THE ASIAN AGE office is located at: however, did not help grains. vened in June 2021 to say just a blip in the eye of D.B. Madan
New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110002. Phone: finance minister Nirm- Then came the military that the Central govern- his mind. He remains New Delhi
(011) 23211124. ala Sitharaman. Her first clash with China in east- ment would procure and focused on 2024.
Published and Printed on behalf of and for ern Ladakh in May and distribute the vaccines
`500 for the best letter of the
Budget in July 2019 had
◗ Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg,
to be supplemented by June, and on June 14, free of cost. The country The writer is a week goes to Arun Gupta
New Delhi 110 002 at BFL Infotech Ltd., C-9, Sector-III, Noida -201301.
◗ London: Quickmarsh Ltd, 8th Floor, Block 2, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London, SE1 7NQ. stimulus packages for 2020, 20 Indian soldiers had lost six months of Delhi-based commenta- (Dec. 27). Email:
RNI Registration number: 57290/94 the automobile, housing were killed in a clash valuable time, and we tor and analyst asianage.letters@gmail.com.
W
ell, if I didn’t know it was tamed. This is the time of the year when the ter, who is tipped to be Prime Minister if vides a pleasant touch, much valued in this
Christmas — it would have diffi- maximum amount of money is made by Boris ever quits, had obviously set the ball very crucial year. Good news for Mr Modi
cult to believe it! It was the restaurants and shops — and so economically, rolling on her recent visit to India. Now before the upcoming state elections! And
warmest we had ever known it to this would be the worst time to close down any- another minister, Anne Marie Trevelyan, is good news for all Punjabis for sure who will
Kishwar Desai be, and even New Year’s Day passed off at a
glorious 15 degrees, with bright sunshine. Is
thing. So we go through the daily routine of
masking-up, socially distancing and sanitising
following it up. For many this outreach to
India was bound to happen as Europe has
now start queuing up as soon as the reformed
visa regime is announced!
this autumn, queried people in the park, hands once more — and hoping that we do not distanced itself. Where is UK going to get the
London Diary
G
cycling by in T-shirts and jeans. bump into a Covid carrier. workers it needs so desperately, when Brexit osh! To think that, soon, anyone can
If this is climate change — then most of us And so while the last day of the year was has made most Europeans flee? write a play about Winnie-the-Pooh, or
would welcome it with open arms! However, balmy and mild, fireworks scattered across Aren’t you impressed by how much the even try a film! As the copyright on
what has not been welcome is the rule of the night sky as midnight struck. Last year’s world has changed in 100 years? From a this much-loved character is lifted this week
Omicron, the wretched infectious mutant silent gloom was forgotten when the New colony that was once suppressed brutally, in the US — and will expire in a few years in
which leaps from person to person — and last Year rolled in —as the sky bloomed with India is now on the top of the league to be the UK, too — one is certain there will be
Market defeats we counted, one in 25 had been caught by it.

But for once, we weren’t hurtling down a
lockdown like one year back. Though the fig-
colourful streaks. Finally, the last of the
Covid memories were kicked away as
Londoners with boosters began dreaming of
wooed and welcomed as a valued partner.
The credit, of course, goes mostly to the hard
working Indo-British community here,
many attempts to re-work the bear. A.A.
Milne created Pooh based on his son’s teddy
bear — and it became a household name.
ures keep climbing, and over one lakh people a better year! which is viewed as educated and law abiding. When Disney took it over — it morphed into
‘mild’ Omicron have been infected daily — the only plus The Cabinet also has three ministers of an 80 billion dollar industry! Just a little
B
point is that the infection remains mild. ut while Britain is not very popular Indian origin — though unsurprisingly behind Mickey Mouse! Even though A.A.
with some of our neighbours — espe- enough they want to distance themselves Milne never any of this saw amazing fortune,
on ‘warmest’ A nd so far, the government has stood

firm, repelling calls for more stringent
measures — though many have been
cially France where we are no longer
welcome because of Omicron — surprisingly
it is India which is the flavour of the New
from this visa largesse. Even Priti Patel, the
home minister would apparently not like to
be too close to this gambit — as immigration
we can’t say Pooh to that, can we?
Kishwar Desai is an award-winning

advising a far more cautious path. The govern- Year in the UK. Suddenly, after years of high is an issue which can boomerang anytime. author, who heads the trust that is setting
New Year’s Day ment health advisors would rather play safe
than be sorry in February (when the expected
consequences of not putting any restrictions
visa entry fees, and tight immigration rules,
a red carpet is being planned for Indians.
Possibly this will happen as a gift towards the
Anyway, it is interesting to see three
women at the heart of this issue. Now we
have to see how the Indian government will
up a cultural hub at the Dara Shikoh
Library in Old Delhi. The library will also
host the second museum in the world on the
on us right now are supposed to manifest). But 75th anniversary of India’s Independence react. Undoubtedly, the fact that the erst- Partition of India and the first one in the
it is the market forces which are refusing to be (and Partition). Liz Truss, the foreign minis- while rulers are laying out a red carpet pro- world on Dara Shikoh.
2 January 3, 2022, Monday, The Hawk, Haridwar Analysis www.thehawk.in
epaper.thehawk.in
facebook.com/thehawk
twitter.com/thehawk
The Hawk New Year Starts With Stampede, PM Modi To Visit...

In Manipur, the Prime Minister will inaugurate 13 Projects worth around Rs. 1850
Narvijay Yadav
Terror And Tax crores and lay the foundation stone of 9 projects worth around Rs 2950 crore. These
projects relate to diverse sectors such as Road Infrastructure, Drinking Water Supply,
year. An altercation caused troubled by inflation. Covid Health, Urban Development, Housing, Information Technology, Skill Development,
Lifespring The new year began with a stampede killing more has already broken the back Art and Culture, among others. In line with the countrywide projects to improve con-
sweet and sour experiences than a dozen people and of industries, but now these nectivity, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of construction of five
"Mental anguish is only that of which I allow it to National Highway Projects to be built at a cost of more than Rs 1700 crore. The con-
be. I refuse to stand immersed in darkness; instead this time. People could not injuring around twenty. traders and entrepreneurs
celebrate the arrival of the The stampede happened af- will be able to move forward struction of these highways with a cumulative length of more than 110 kilometres, will
I fearlessly stand taller than my own shadow savor- ter 2.30 am. The Vaishno towards the goal of be a major step to improve the road connectivity of the region. Another important
ing the elegant light that I emit." —Unknown new year openly as before.
Partying was not allowed in Devi Temple Trust had not Atmanirbhar Bharat. infrastructure that will enhance seamless year-round connectivity to Silchar from
many cities and states in- made adequate arrange- Even though the de- Imphal and reduce traffic congestion, is the construction of Steel Bridge built over
The Eyes Of The Beholder-I cluding Delhi, Bangalore
and Mumbai. However,
ments to control the crowd,
due to which this tragic in-
cident took place. With the
cision to increase the GST
on clothes has been deferred
till next month, it has been
Barak River on NH-37 built at a cost of over Rs 75 crore. This Steel Bridge will be
inaugurated by the Prime Minister during the Programme. Prime Minister will also
Democracy, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. there was no such restriction dedicate, to the people of Manipur, 2,387 mobile towers built at a cost of around Rs
When US President Biden called the virtual Summit in Himachal Pradesh, so beginning of the new year, increased to 12 percent on 1100 crores. This will be a major step in further boosting the mobile connectivity of
more than 20 thousand tour- some sour and sweet devel- footwear, which will make the state.
for Democracy last month, he recognized in his clos- opments came to the fore on shoes 7 percent more expen-
ing speech that “Democracy is what makes it possible ists reached Shimla. Actu- Prime Minister’s endeavour to provide clean drinking water to every household
ally the tourists were invited the economic front as well. sive. Fortunately shoes are
for hope and history to rhyme”, but also that democ- The move to increase GST not bought every now and will get a boost with the inauguration of the drinking water supply projects in the state.
by the Himachal Tourism The projects being inaugurated by the Prime Minister include the ?280 crore worth
racy must deliver and be accountable. This last view Department through adver- on textiles was pulled back then, whereas clothes are
coincides with China’s White Paper on China: Democ- after protests by finance needed more. In another de- ‘Water Transmission system of Thoubal Multi-purpose project’, which will provide
tisements via radio and
racy that Works – “there is nothing wrong with de- other mediums. But the ministers from Delhi, velopment the common drinking water supply to the Imphal city; the Water Supply Scheme project by Water
mocracy per se. party was spoiled by an in- Gujarat, West Bengal, man is going to suffer. Now Conservation, for Tamenglong Headquarters built at the cost of Rs 65 crore, to pro-
Some countries have encountered setbacks and telligence input that Pak Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. withdrawing money from an vide safe drinking water to residents of ten habitations of Tamenglong district; and
crises in their quest for democracy only because their terrorists were planning to The Home Textile Export- ATM will cost more. Banks the ‘Augmentation of Senapati District Headquarter Water Supply Scheme’ built at a
approach is wrong.” So who is right? The American blow up the Ridge Maidan ers Welfare Association spend a lot of money on cost of Rs. 51 crore to provide regular water supply to the residents of the area.
thinktank Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2021 in Shimla with a bomb. Fol- (HEWA) had also opposed maintenance and security of In an effort to strengthen the health sector in the state, Prime Minister will lay
report “Democracy under siege”, noted that since 2005, lowing this input, suddenly the proposal to raise the ATM machines, hence, for the foundation stone of ‘State of the Art Cancer Hospital’ in Imphal worth around
their democracy score declined for 15 years in a row. at 7.30 pm the police force GST slab from 5 per cent to transactions beyond the free Rs. 160 crore on PPP basis. This cancer hospital will greatly benefit the people of
instructed the tourists to re- 12 percent from the very permissible limit (five times) state in reducing the out of the pocket expenditure, who otherwise have to go
Swedish V-Dem Institute’s Democracy Report 2021 beginning. HEWA director from the bank's own ATMs,
“Autocratization Turns Viral” noted that autocracies turn to their hotels and by 8 outside the state for availing cancer related diagnostic and treatment services.
pm the Ridge and the Mall Vikas Singh Chauhan had now Rs 21 will be charged Further, to boost the Covid related infrastructure in the State, Prime Minister will
are now home to 68 per cent of world population and Road wore a deserted look. written a letter to Prime Min- per transaction. Earlier this
that “the level of democracy enjoyed by the average inaugurate ‘200 Bedded Covid Hospital at Kiyamgei’ which has been set up at a
However, tourists were told ister Narendra Modi request- charge was Rs 20. However, cost of about Rs. 37 crore in collaboration with DRDO. A step towards realiza ion of
global citizen in 2020 is down to levels last found in that the Omicron variant ing him not to increase the extra charges are always the Prime Minister’s relentless efforts for the rejuvenation and transformation of
1990.” was the reason to remove GST on clothes. Thanking imposed when you use an- Indian cities, will be the completion of multiple projects under the ‘Imphal Smart
The British Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), everyone from the Ridge. the Finance Minister other bank’s ATM. As of 31 City Mission’. Prime Minister will inaugurate three projects of the mission, devel-
which published a Democracy Index 2020, divides All the shops were also Nirmala Sitharaman, he said March 2021, there are
oped at a cost of more than Rs 170 crore, including the Integrated Command and
countries into five categories: electoral process and closed by 8.30 pm. Hence, that due to increase in GST, 1,15,605 onsite and 97,970
shopkeepers, micro, small offsite ATM machines in Control Centre (ICCC)’, ‘Development of Western Riverfront on Imphal River (Phase
pluralism, the functioning of government, political par- the fun turned into a crisis. I)’ and ‘Development of Mall Road at Thangal Bazar (Phase I)’. The Integrated Com-
ticipation, political culture, and civil liberties. Based On the other hand, in and medium enterprises the country. The first ATM
Jammu district, a huge (MSME) and traders would in the country was installed mand and Control Centre (ICCC) will provide a variety of technology based services
on these, countries are divided into four types: full in the city, including traffic management, solid waste management and city surveil-
democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and au- crowd gathered inside the have suffered huge losses in Mumbai by HSBC Bank
Vaishno Devi temple com- and ultimately the common in 1987. lance. Other development projects under the mission will boost tourism & local
thoritarian regime. In 2020, the EIU found that 75 economy and provide employment opportunities.
plex to celebrate the new people would also be —The Hawk Features
out of 167 countries live in some sort of democracy, The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of ‘Centre for Invention,
of which only 8.4 per cent of the world live in full
democracy. Not surprisingly, the rich countries of Continued From Page 1 Innovation, Incubation and Training (CIIIT)’ to be built in the state at a cost of
about Rs 200 crore. This project is the biggest PPP initiative in the State and will
North America and Western Europe are in the cat- provide a boost to the Information Technology sector, besides creating employ-
egory of full or flawed democracies, but since 2016,
the US has been classified under flawed democracy,
PM Lays Foundation... ment opportunities in the state.
The Prime Minister noted the change of ethos in the state of Uttar Pradesh where earlier Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for construction of Manipur
with France, Belgium, Italy, and Portugal in the same Institute of Performing Arts at Gurgaon, Haryana. The idea of such a cultural institute
category. In essence, all three studies suggest that de- criminals and mafias used to play their games. He recalled the period where illegal
occupation, harassing daughters used to go scot free. He remembered the insecurity of Manipur in Haryana was first mooted in 1990 but it could not materialize for the
mocracy has been declining across Sub-Saharan Af- last many years. The institute will be built at a cost of more than Rs 240 crore and will
rica, Middle East, Latin America, with India rated by and lawlessness of earlier times. He lauded that now the Yogi government is imposing
fear of law among such criminals. This change has brought confidence among the promote the rich art and culture of the state. Further strengthening the rich cultural
V-Dem as an “electoral autocracy”. heritage of the state, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the refurbished and reno-
Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade daughters of bringing laurels for the entire country. The Prime Minister said youth is
the cornerstone and also expansion of New India. Youth is the shaper and also the vated Govindajee Temple at Imphal. He will also inaugurate the INA complex at
and Industry (REITI) visiting fellow Yusuke Narita leader of New India. Our youth today have the heritage of antiquity and also have a Moirang that will showcase the significant role played by Indian National Army
recently examined “The Future of Democracy: Supe- sense of modernity. And so, where the youth will go, India will also move. And the (INA) in India’s Independence Movement.
riority is waning and headed for collapse.” He noted world is going to go where India goes. The Prime Minister highlighted that in the last In line with the mantra of ‘SabkaSaath-Sabka Vikas-Sabka Vishwas’, Prime Min-
that since the Arab Spring democratic movement in few years, his government has given top priority to the Indian players to get four tools ister will lay the foundation stone of 72 Projects worth more than Rs 130 crore under
the Middle East fizzled out after 2011, democracy has - resources, modern facilities for training, international exposure and transparency in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram. These projects will provide the infrastructural
suffered defeat after defeat. Using the V-Dem Institute’s selection. The Prime Minister stressed that for sports in the country to thrive, it is support in health and education sectors for holistic development of the minority
democracy index, he correlated democracy with mean necessary that the youth should have faith in sports and should be encouraged to take communities. To strengthen the handloom industry in the State, Prime Minister
GDP growth rate between 2001-2019 and found that up sports as a profession. “This is my resolve, and my dream too! I wish our youth to see will lay the foundation stone of two projects worth Rs. 36 crore namely, ‘Mega
democracies have remained stagnant in growth, sports like other professions”, he said. The Prime Minister remarked that the govern- Handloom Cluster’ at NongpokKakching in Imphal East District, which will ben-
whereas non-democracies have achieved remarkable ment linked sports with employment. Schemes like Target Olympics Podium (TOPS) efit about 17,000 weavers in Imphal East District and ‘Craft and Handloom village’
growth. He concluded that “the lost two decades of are providing all support to top sportspersons to compete at the highest level. Khelo in Moirang which will help the weaving households, harness the tourism potential
democracies” is a truly global phenomenon.” Further- India Abhiyan is recognizing talent very early and all support is being given to groom of the Moirang and adjoining Loktak Lake and generate employment for the local
more, he also looked at the impact of Covid and found them for international level.India’s recent performance in Olympics and Para-Olym- people.
that “in democratic countries, the number of deaths pics, said the Prime Minister, is a proof of a new India’s rise in the play field. With the Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for the construction of Gov-
from Covid-19 are higher, and the economic down- advent of sporting infrastructure in villages and small towns, there are a rising number ernment Residential Quarters at New Checkon to be built at a cost of around Rs 390
turn in 2020 compared with 2019 was steeper in de- of sportspersons from these towns. crore. This will be an integrated housing colony with modern amenities. He will also
mocracies than in autocracies.” What he feared was The Prime Minister said in the new National Education Policy, priority has been lay the foundation stone of a ropeway project at IbudhouMarjing, Imphal East. Other
that “democracies are malfunctioning in crises as well given to sports. Sports have now been kept in the same category as science, commerce projects being inaugurated by the Prime Minister include the new Industrial Train-
as in normal times.” or other studies. Earlier sports were considered as extra curricular activities, but now ing Institute (ITI), Kangpokpi under Enhancing Skill Development Infrastructure
sports schools will have it as a proper subject. The Prime Minister said that the sporting (ESDI) and a new office building of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations.
TMC MP Abhishek... eco-system comprising sports, sports management, sports writing, sports psychology
JK Separatists Duped...
medical colleges have come up. I challenge you to etc, creates new possibilities. He said this generates trust in the society that moving
bring out the statistics. Compare what the Modi gov- towards sports is the right decision. With resources, a sporting culture takes shape and It is the first chargesheet filed by the SIA, a newly carved-out unit of J&K Police,
ernment has done and what the Mamata Banerjee gov- Sports University will play a big role in this, he added. Talking about the sporting which named nine people, mostly separatists, for allegedly selling MBBS seats in
ernment has done in Bengal in the last 10 years. I will culture of Meerut, the Prime Minister pointed out that the city exports sporting goods Pakistan to Kashmiri students and using the money to spread unrest in the Union
answer. In the whole country, the TMC is the only to more than 100 countries. This way, Meerut is not only vocal for local but also territory, officials said. "Parents would comply with such diktats of these Paki-
party which is fighting the BJP.” Abhishek also inau- turning local into global, the Prime Minister said emphasizing the need for making the stan-based Hurriyat leaders or terrorists of Kashmiri origin (who had exfiltrated to
gurated a party office in Teliamura on Sunday. He country Aatmnirbhar in the sector through the emerging sports clusters. Pakistan for arms training during the outbreak of militancy) to seek admissions to
later visited and had lunch at a party worker's house in The Prime Minister mentioned that the double-engine government in Uttar Pradesh MBBS at Pakistan. "This accumulated money under a well-knitted conspiracy/
Bazar Joynagar, Teliamura. is establishing many universities. He listed Mahayogi Guru Gorakhnath Ayush Univer- secrecy would land in the hands of active terrorists, families of killed militants and
The TMC accused the BJP of denying space to the sity in Gorakhpur, Dr Rajendra Prasad Law University in Prayagraj, State Institute of stone pelters through some Hurriyat leaders and their associates to further terror-
opposition, despite TMC having prior permission for Forensic Sciences in Lucknow, Raja Mahendra Pratap singh State University in Aligarh, ist/secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir," the SIA said, adding that in a
Maa Shakumbari University in Saharanpur and Major Dhyan Chand University in few cases, students and parents were completely duped by the accused and their
all events in the state. Abhishek’s planned meeting with Meerut. “Our goal is clear. The Youth should not only become role models but also
a non-political tribal community at Baramura Eco Park hard-earned money was never or partly returned.
recognize their role models”, The Prime Minister commented. The SIA submitted the chargesheet in a special court here on Thursday against
and the subsequent interaction with party workers was The Prime MInister informed that under the Svamitiva scheme more than 23 lakh
denied permission at the last moment by the Tripura the nine, including Mohammed Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Bhat, a constituent of the
titles (Gharauni) have been given in 75 districts. Farmers of the state have received Hurriyat Conference. It alleged that some students and their parents were also
Police. Banerjee, however, remains steadfast and crores of rupees in their account under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. Farmers of the state
claimed that Biplab Deb’s “dooare gunda” model had duped of their money on the pretext of having professional seats arranged in Paki-
have also benefited by the record payment to the sugarcane farmers. Similarly, 12 stan. The SIA said students were made to appear in a National Talent Search
run long past its expiry date. “The TMC won’t be thousand crore rupees worth of ethanol have been purchased from UP, the Prime Min-
conceding any space for BJP in Tripura. Within 3 ister informed. The Prime Minister remarked that the role of governments is like that of (NTS) test at Hurriyat office in Pakistan as a "dupe tactic" to make them believe
months, we have become the principal opposition in a guardian. The government should encourage those with merit and should not try to that they were writing a pre-qualifying test which would lead to their admission in
the state,” he added. justify mistakes as follies of youth. The PM congratulated the current Uttar Pradesh professional colleges in Pakistan.
It said such tests were mostly facilitated by the people or relatives of the
Delhi Police Arrests... government for creating a record number of Government jobs for the youth. Thousands
of youth who got training from ITI have been given employment in big companies. He accused, who had exfiltrated to Pakistan and were settled in the country or in
A large consignment of Heroine, over 15 kg valued at added that lakhs of youth have benefited from National Apprenticeship Scheme and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), who were utilising their Kashmir-based con-
Rs 60 crore, was recovered from Shahjad and Amir. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana. Meerut is also becoming the hub of connectiv- tacts to aid and abet terrorism in J&K.
Further 520 gm high grade heroin valued at more than ity by Ganga expressway, Regional Rapid Rail Transit System and Metro. During investigation, the SIA said it surfaced that as part of a larger con-
Rs 2 crore in the international market had been recov- spiracy, the accused used to motivate gullible parents of students aspiring for pro-
ered from Baboo Khan. During further investigation, Modi Can't Claim... fessional courses, especially for MBBS, to apply to Pakistan through valley-based
consultancies, without their knowledge, assuring cost-effectiveness in comparison
prime contact of the cartel in Delhi was identified as On December 28, media reported pictures of a Rs 12 crore car for Prime Minister
Nadeem Khan and efforts were made to nab the ac- Modi. A person who calls himself a fakir, a pradhan sevak, uses a foreign made with other South Asian or Middle East countries offering such courses.
cused. On January 1, a tip-off was received that the car," Raut said. The prime minister's security and comfort are important, but from The SIA said it came to light that the accused were affiliated with the Hurriyat
accused Nadeem would come to supply huge consign- now on, the pradhan sevak should not reiterate that he is a fakir (ascetic), the Rajya chapter of Kashmir and Pakistan and were illegally making money under a planned
ment of heroin to his contact at ISBT Kashmiri Gate. Sabha member said. conspiracy. "...while recording statement, it came to fore that the accumulated
Accordingly, a raiding party was set up which laid a A Mercedes-Maybach S650 Guard was recently added to the prime minister's money was ploughed into militancy and to create law and order problems by
trap and arrested the accused from the spot. "The ac- cavalcade by the Special Protection Group. The price quoted for a Maybach car in disturbing peace, damaging public property, striking terror among the common
cused was then produced before a concerned court and a section of the media is over Rs 12 crore. masses and creating potential threat to the sovereignty of India.
police custody has been taken for further investigation," However, government sources had said the new car was a replacement of the "Money raised through this process was also distributed among the families
the DCP informed. The official said that further inves- BMW used by the prime minister as the German carmaker stopped production of of killed terrorists as a token of incentive for such families and families of active
tigation in the case is being carried out and efforts are the vehicle. Official sources had also said the SPG security detail has a six-year militants to boost their morale and carry forward anti-national, subversive and
on to establish identity of other suppliers and receivers norm to replace vehicles used for the protectee and that Modi has not given any radical activities against Union of India," the SIA said.
to unearth complete chain of this drug syndicate. preference on which cars to use. They also said that the car costs about one-third of A case was registered in July last year by the Counter Intelligence Kashmir
(CIK), a branch of the police's CID which was later designated the SIA, after
Govt-Mafia Alliance... the price quoted in the media. Raut on Sunday said Modi, who started 'swadeshi'
initiatives like 'Make in India' and 'Start-Up India', is using a foreign manufac- receiving information through reliable sources that several unscrupulous people,
made any announcement for the families of those who tured car. Praising Jawaharlal Nehru, the Shiv Sena's spokesperson said the country's including some Hurriyat leaders, were hand in glove with educational consultancies
lost their lives and the injured in this incident. This first prime minister, despite security threat after the partition, always used an In- and were selling seats of MBBS and other courses in Pakistani colleges and univer-
shows the insensitivity of the state government. The dian-made Ambassador car. sities. Besides Bhat, chairman of Salvation Movement, a constituent of moderate
Congress party demands that Rs. 25 lakh as assistance He also said that (former PM) Indira Gandhi, despite a threat to her life, did Hurriyat Conference, the chargesheet named his brother Altaf Ahmad Bhat along
be released to the families of each person who lost his not change Sikh security personnel deployed for her security. Besides, (former with Manzoor Ahmad Shah (both living in Pakistan), a religious leader from
life due to the fall of the mountain and Rs. 10 lakh be prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi mingled with crowd in Tamil Nadu and got killed Anantnag Qazi Yasir, Fatima Shah, Mohammad Abdullah Shah, Sabzar Ahmad
released to the injured. Kumari Selja said that the by the LTTE, he said. He (Rajiv Gandhi) should not have dared to mingle with the Sheikh and Mohd Iqbal Mir of Mahaz Azadi Front and Syed Khalid Geelani.
Aravalli's mining in Dadam was done as a part of a well- crowd. But, he did, Raut said. While five people, including Bhat, were lodged in Central Jail, Altaf Ahmad
planned conspiracy. No mining company or mafia has Targeting the Centre over night curbs in the wake of the rise in COVID-19 Bhat, Qazi Yasir and Manzoor Ahmad Bhat were absconding. A process had been
the guts to hollow out a mountain on their own. There cases again in parts of the country, the Sena leader said the Union government has initiated by the SIA declaring them absconders. The ninth accused, Geelani, would
are fixed stakes in it. Therefore, along with the general imposed such restrictions at night, resulting in financial losses. PM Modi, Union be charged only for cheating. According to the SIA chargesheet, the accused were
public, there is a ban on the entry of media, cameras and Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minis- demanding huge amounts of money from parents for getting their children admit-
drones in the Dadam mining area. All this was done so ter Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party head Akhilesh Yadav address rallies ted in different technical courses in Pakistan and would also arrange recommenda-
that they could tear the mountain at their own will which which are attended by lakhs of people. But, the restrictions are only for the com- tion letters from Hurriyat and other valid travel documents from Pakistan Em-
resulted in the fall of the mountain.—JMT. mon man, Raut said. —PTI bassy, New Delhi to facilitate their visit to the neighbouring nation for admission.
www.thehawk.in
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twitter.com/thehawk Economy January 3, 2022, Monday, The Hawk, Haridwar 3
PM Releases 10th Instalment Of PM-KISAN

New Delhi (The Hawk): In NABARD support, they “today the growth rate of our edness in our decisions.”
line with the continued formed FPO to get better economy is more than 8%. The Prime Minister
commitment and resolve to prices and the FPO is fully Record foreign investment said that PM Kisan Samman
empower grassroot level owned and operated com- has come to India. Our forex Nidhi is a big support for
farmers, Prime Minister Shri pletely by women. They in- reserves have reached record India’s farmers. If we include
Narendra Modi released formed the Prime Minister levels. Old records have also today’s transfer, more than
10th instalment of financial that Sorghum is being pro- been surpassed in GST col- 1.80 lakh crore rupees have
benefit under Pradhan duced due to the weather lection. We have also set been transferred directly to
Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi conditions of the area. The new records in the matter of the accounts of the farmers,
(PM-KISAN) scheme today Prime Minister said Nari exports, especially in agri- he said.
via video conferencing. Shakti’s success is indica- culture.” He said that in 2021 The Prime Minister
This enabled the transfer of tion of their indomitable will transection of more than 70 said that through FPO’s
an amount of more than Rs. power. He asked the farmers lakh crore rupees was done small farmers are feeling the
20,000 crore to more than 10 to take benefits of millet on UPI. More than 50 thou- power of collective strength.
crore beneficiary farmer farming. sand start-ups are working in He pointed out five benefits
families.During the FPO from Gujarat India out of these 10 thou- of FPOs for small farmers.
programme, Prime Minister talked about natural farming sand came up during last six These benefits are increased
also released equity grant of and how cow-based agricul- months. bargaining power, scale, in-
more than Rs. 14 crore to ture can reduce the expense Year 2021, the Prime novation, risk management
about 351 Farmer Producer and stress on soil. Tribal Minister said, was also the and adaptability to the mar-
Organizations (FPOs), which communities of the region year of strengthening India’s ket conditions. Keeping in
will benefit more than 1.24 are also benefitting from the cultural heritage. Initiatives mind the benefits of FPO’s
lakh farmers. Prime Minis- concept. like beautification and de- the government is promot-
ter interacted with FPOs dur- Speaking on the occa- velopment of Kashi ing them at every level.
ing the event. Union Minis- sion, the Prime Minister of- Vishwanath Dham and These FPOs are getting help
ter Shri Narendra Singh fered his condolences for the Kedarnath Dham, Renova- of upto 15 lakh rupees. As a
Tomar and Chief Ministers, victims of stampede at Mata tion of Samadhi of Aadi result, FPOs like Organic
LGs, Agriculture Ministers Vaishno Devi shrine. The Shankaracharya, restoration FPOs, Oil Seed FPOs, Bam-
and farmers from several Prime Minister also in- of stolen idol of goddess boo clusters and Honey
states were linked to the formed that he talked to the Annapoorna, construction of FPOs are coming up all over
event. LG Shri Manoj Sinha regard- Ram Mandir in Ayodhya the country. “Today our People flout COVID-appropriate behaviour as they visit a crowded wholesale market amid
Interacting with FPO ing the arrangements for the and getting World Heritage farmers are benefitting from concern over rising Omicron cases, on a cold winter morning in Gurugram. —PTI
from Uttarakhand, the Prime injured. status for Dholavira and the schemes like ‘One Dis-
Minister inquired about the The Prime Minister Durga Puja festival are trict One Products’ and mar-
choice of organic farming by
them and the ways of certi-
said that today when we are
entering the new year, we
strengthening India’s heri-
tage and enhancing its tour-
kets, both nation and global,
are opening for them”, the
UK Planning To Offer Cheaper, Easier Visas
fication of the organic prod-
ucts. He also talked about the
marketing of the organic
need to embark upon a new
journey taking inspiration
from the achievements of the
ism and pilgrimage poten-
tial.
Year 2021 was an year
Prime Minister said. He said
that reliance on imports is
being reduced by schemes
To Clinch Trade Deal With India: Report
London: The UK is plan- new system in place, with GBP 95 respectively. that there was an accep-
products of the FPO. The past years. The Prime Min- of optimism for the Matra- like National Palm Oil Mis- ning to relax immigration work underway in the These are in sharp contrast tance by ministers that the
FPO also told the Prime ister recalled the nation’s ef- Shakti also. Sainik Schools sion with a budget of 11
Minister how they arrange fort in fighting the pan- were opened for girls along thousand crore rupees. rules by offering cheaper High Commission in Lon- with visa fees for coun- price of a trade deal with
for organic fertilizers. The demic, vaccination and with the doors of National The Prime Minister and easier visas for Indian don and the Ministry of tries such as China, who India would be to make a
Prime Minister said that it making arrangement for the Defence academy. In the talked about the milestones tourists, students and pro- generous offer on visas.
has been the efforts of the vulnerable sections during year just gone by, attempts that were achieved in the fessionals, in an attempt The tech and digital space
government that natural and the difficult period. Country were initiated for raising agriculture sector in the re- to clinch a trade deal with in India are still hugely
organic farming is widely is spending 2 lakh 60 thou- marriage age for girls be cent years. Food grain pro- India, a media report said protectionist and if we
promoted as it reduces the sand crore rupees on mak- raised to 21, equal to boys. duction touched 300 mil- on Saturday. UK Interna- could open up even a
reliance on chemical fertil- ing ration available to the Indian sports persons also lion tonnes, similarly Horti- tional Trade Secretary slither of access, it would
izer and improves the in- vulnerable sections. The brought glory to the nation culture and floriculture pro- Anne-Marie Trevelyan is put us ahead in the game,
come of the farmers. Prime Minister said that the in 2021. India is making duction reached 330 million expected to travel to New a government official was
The FPO from Punjab governemnt is working re- unprecedented investment tonnes. Milk production Delhi this month, when quoted as saying.
informed the Prime Minis- lentlessly to strengthen its in the sporting infrastructure also increased almost 45 per formal negotiations on a The UK government
ter about the ways of dispos- medical infrastructure. He of the country, the Prime cent in last 6-7 years. About proposed India-UK free has repeatedly said it
ing off the parali without listed efforts like new oxy- Minister informed. 60 lakh hectare land was trade agreement (FTA) wants a deal that slashes
burning. They also talked gen plants, new medical col- Leading the world brought under micro irriga-
about the superseeder and leges, wellness centres, against climate change, In- tion; more than 1 lakh crore are expected to begin. barriers for doing business
help from government agen- Ayushman Bharat Health dia has also set a target of were given in compensation Trevelyan is expected to with India. According to
cies. The Prime Minister Infrastructure Mission and Net Zero Carbon Emission under Prime Minister use this visit to open the the Department for Inter-
wished that their experience Ayushman Bharat Digital in front of the world by 2070. FasalBimaYojna, whereas prospect of relaxing im- External Affairs in New have to pay significantly national Trade, prepara-
of Parali management Health Mission in the direc- Many records of renewable premium received was just migration rules for Indian Delhi. However, under less. tions for the launch of ne-
should be emulated every- tion of revamping medical energy, the Prime Minister 21 thousand crores. Ethanol citizens, a key demand further immigration plans Indian-origin peer gotiations for the UK-In-
where. infrastructure. said, are being met by India production increased from from New Delhi, The reportedly in the works, Lord Karan Bilimoria, the dia FTA remains under-
FPO from Rajasthan The country is moving before time. Today India is 40 crore litres to 340 crore Times newspaper re- one option being looked president of the Confed- way' since the conclusion
talked about the honey pro- with the mantra of working on hydrogen mis- litres in just seven years. The ported. at is a scheme similar to eration of British Indus- of bilateral working
duction. They said that con- SabkaSaath, Sabka Vikas and sion, taking lead in electric Prime Minister also in- While she has the that agreed as part of the try, has been among the groups.
cept of FPO has been very SabkaPrayas. Many people vehicles, he pointed out. formed about the backing of Liz Truss, the UK's FTA with Australia, most vocal advocates for Trevelyan and her
useful for them with the help are spending their lives for The Prime Minister contin- Goberdhan Scheme to pro- Foreign Secretary, who which would allow young lowering visa fees for In- Indian counterpart, Com-
of NAFED. the country, they are build- ued and said that PM mote bio-gas. If there will be has put securing closer ties Indians the chance to dians. That FTA, I hope, merce and Industry Min-
FPO from Uttar ing the country. The Prime Gatishakti National Master value in cow dung, he said, with India on top of the come and work in the UK will benefit in enhancing ister Piyush Goyal, had
Pradesh thanked the Prime Minister said that they used Plan is going to give a new the non miltching animals
Minister for creating FPOs as to do this work earlier also, edge to the pace of infrastruc- will not be burden on farm- government's agenda to for up to three years. bilateral trade and be as also held talks during the
foundation of the prosperity but now there work is being ture construction in the coun- ers. The Government has es- counter the growing in- Another option comprehensive as pos- G-20 trade ministers
of the farmers. They talked recognized. “This year we try. “Giving new dimensions tablished Kaamdhenu Com- fluence of China, Home would be to cut visa fees sible. Movement of meeting in Sorrento,
about their process of help- will complete 75 years of our to Make in India, the coun- mission and is strengthening Secretary Priti Patel is for students, thereby al- people; reduction of du- Italy, last October to dis-
ing the members with seeds, independence.This is the try has implemented ambi- dairy sector infrastructure. opposed to this move, the lowing them to stay in the ties and tariffs the tariff cuss final preparations for
organic fertilizers, variety of time to start a new vibrant tious plans for new sectors The Prime Minister report said. In May last UK for a period after they on Scotch whisky is 150 the launch of India-UK
horticulture products. They journey of the country's re- like chip manufacturing, once again pushed for pro- year, Patel had signed a graduate, possibly build- per cent, that's got to be FTA negotiations this
also talked about helping solves, to move forward with semiconductor”, he added. motion of natural farming. He bespoke' and reciprocal ing upon the Graduate reduced drastically; aca- year. We look forward to
farmers with getting benefits renewed vigour”, he said. The Prime Minister said that chemical-free farming Migration and Mobility Route visa under the demic collaborations and launching negotiations
of the government schemes. Elaborating on the power of summarized the mood of is a major way of protecting Partnership (MMP) with points-based immigration cross-border research is early this year. India is
They are getting benefits of collective effort, the Prime today’s India saying the health of soil. Natural farm- External Affairs Minister rules currently in place, going to be huge between projected to become the
e-Nam facilities. They prom- Minister pointed out “when “devotingto the nation with ing is a key step in this direc- S. Jaishankar to have the report said. There our countries and world's third largest
ised to fulfil the Prime 130 crore Indians take one the spirit of 'Nation First', is tion, he said. He asked for mak- around 3,000 students and could also be reductions partnering on a Green in- economy by 2050, and
Minister’s vision of dou- step, it is not merely one step becoming the sentiment of ing every farmer aware of the
bling the farmers income. but it amounts to 130 crore every Indian today. And that processes and benefits of professionals a year access in the fees for work and dustrial revolution. There a trade deal will open
The Prime Minister said that steps.” Speaking about is why, today there is unity natural farming. The Prime work experience benefits tourism visas. is a vast array to really huge opportunities for
the confidence of the economy, the Prime Minis- in our efforts and in our Minister concluded by call- in either country. At present, it can ramp up business and UK businesses to trade
country’s farmer is the key ter said that on many param- resolutions.There is impa- ing upon the farmers to keep Under the MMP, cost an Indian citizen up trade between our two with India's GBP 2 tril-
strength of the country. eter, Indian economy is look- tience for accomplishment. on doing innovation in farm- both sides have agreed to to GBP 1,400 for a work countries, he had said. lion economy, a UK gov-
FPO from Tamil Nadu ing better than pre-covid Today there is consistency ing and support the move- work towards an April visa, while students pay A senior government ernment spokesperson
informed that with days. He pointed out that in our policies and farsight- ment like cleanliness. 2022 timeline to bring the GBP 348 and tourists source told 'The Times' said. —PTI
HDFC Life Completes Impact Of Regional Comprehensive Economic Part- Hero Motocorp’s Tata Motors' December
Acquisition Of Exide Life nership On Taiwan Likely To Be Limited: Experts Sales Fall By 11% Sales Up 24% YoY
New Delhi: HDFC Life Insurance has completed the
acquisition of Exide Life by allotting over 8.7 crore
Taipei (Taiwan): The 15-
member Regional Com-
that was introduced during
the 19th ASEAN meet held
major platform for eco-
nomic and trade coopera-
In December 2021 New Delhi: Automobile manufacturer Tata Motors on
New Delhi: Two-wheeler Saturday reported a rise of 24 per cent in its domestic
shares of the company to Exide Industries, the insurer prehensive Economic Part- in November 2011. The tion in East Asia, said sales in Decem-
said on Saturday. nership (RCEP) trade talks, however, kick-started China's Ministry of Com- major Hero MotoCorp on
Saturday reported a fall of ber 2021 on a
The Capital Raising Committee of the board has agreement, which came in 2012. It was signed by merce on Saturday. year-on-year
vide its resolution dated January 1, 2022, allotted into effect on Saturday, is several ASEAN and non- Meanwhile, Lee has 11.75 per cent in its total
sales during December basis.
8,70,22,222 equity shares of the company to Exide on likely to have a limited ASEAN nations to pro- said that it is unlikely Tai- The do-
a preferential basis, and the company has completed 2021.
impact on non-member mote trade in the Asia Pa- wan would join the RCEP The company sold mestic sales
the acquisition of 100 per cent shareholding of Exide anytime soon but he added rose to 66,307
Life from Exide, HDFC Life Insurance said in a regu- 394,773 units of motor-
that the ties between China cycles and scooters last units during the
latory filing. and Taipei are at standstill, month under
Accordingly, Exide Life became a wholly-owned month from an off-take of
according to Focus Taiwan. 447,335 units in December review from
subsidiary of the company with immediate effect -- Many Taiwanese ex- 53,430 units
from January 1, 2022, it said. 2020. In December 2021,
porters had relocated their the company’s total sales sold during De-
The deal was announced in September 2021. investments in the South- cember 2020.
sequentially grew by 13
The shares were issued at an issue price of Rs east Asian market, said Lee, per cent over the month of The company’s total commercial vehicle sales rose
685 per scrip and a cash payout of Rs 726 crore, ag- adding it is expected to help November 2021 when the to 31,008 units in December 2021 from 29,885 units
gregating to Rs 6,687 crore. Taiwan assuage the impact company had sold 349,393 sold during the corresponding month of the previous
"The acquisition will accelerate the scale-up of of its exclusion from the units. year. Total passenger vehicle sales rose by 50 per cent
the proprietary channels, strengthen presence in South RCEP. “Our new strategy of to 35,299 units from 23,545 unit off-take in Decem-
India and across tier 2 and tier 3 locations. The merger Stating that Taipei R4 – Recalibrate, ber 2020.
of Exide Life into HDFC Life will be initiated shortly," should keep focusing on Revitalise, Revolutionise, “Tata Motors PV business growth journey con-
HDFC Life said. With this, Exide Industries now holds joining the Comprehensive Revive – has already tinued and set several new milestones during the quar-
a 4.1 per cent stake in HDFC Life. and Progressive Agreement started yielding results for ter despite witnessing a shortfall in production due to
Exide Life's agency based distribution model, a for Trans-Pacific Partner- us. The volumes in our glo- the ongoing semi-conductor crisis,” said Shailesh
strong presence in South India and experience across Taiwan, reported local me- cific region. ship (CPTPP), he said that bal markets in the calendar Chandra, President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit,
tier 2 and tier 3 locations complements HDFC Life dia. "Since Taiwan already This agreement is one Taiwan should have a bet- year 2021 is in line with Tata Motors.
and will help expand its market and bolster its propri- enjoyed a tariff-free status of its kind for Japan as it ter understanding of what our plans, keeping in mind “The overwhelming market response to Tata
etary distribution, it said. for 70 per cent of its ex- enters into a mega trade deal the CPTPP member states the constraints in global Punch launched in October 21 is further boosting de-
Vibha Padalkar, MD and CEO, HDFC Life, said, ports to RCEP's members, with countries like China expect from the trade logistics and supply chain mand for the company’s ‘New Forever’ range of cars
We are extremely happy to welcome the Exide Life the impact on Taiwanese and South Korea. This deal agreement in a bid to se- on account of the prevail- and SUVs,” he added.
family into ours. This first-of-its-kind acquisition is a exporters would likely be is most certainly going to cure admission into the ing Covid-19 pandemic,” Chandra also said that the ever-increasing de-
reflection of our intent to build a stronger India by limited," Focus Taiwan be a major one for Japan trade bloc. With regard to said Sanjay Bhan, Head – mand for Nexon EV and Tigor EV as well as progres-
providing a financial safety net to more people". quoted Roy Chun Lee, se- with the deal reducing the RCEP, the country's Minis- Global Business, Hero sive revival of the EV fleet segment were instrumen-
She said this acquisition is an important mile- nior deputy CEO of the tariff that the nation pays try of Economic Affairs has MotoCorp. “We are well on tal in driving this steep growth. “Going forward, semi-
stone towards the company's strategic objective of Taiwan WTO and RTA on its exports significantly. also stressed that Taiwan's track to meet our target of conductor supplies will remain the key source of un-
bringing more people into the fold of financial pro- Center at the Chung-Hua Beijing would fulfil industries are unlikely to feel garnering 15 per cent of the certainty. Additionally, the impact of the new strain of
tection. She also thanked the outgoing MD and CEO Institution for Economic its commitments to the any short-term material im- company’s total volumes Covid needs to be closely tracked. We will continue to
of Exide Life, Kshitij Jain for his stellar leadership in Research, as saying. RCEP and aimed to build pact from the trade agree- from our global business by work on business agility plan and take proactive ac-
helping build a strong institution. —PTI RCEP is a trade deal the free trade bloc into a ment. —ANI 2025.” —IANS tions to mitigate these risks,” Chandra said. —IANS
STATE OBSERVER OBSERVER IDEAS JAMMU || MONDAY 03 JANUARY 2022 6
STATE OBSERVER
Dalit-Bahujan Women in politics
FINGERS
CROSSED and the missing Narratives
W On BR Ambedkar's
E are still bracing for the
surge of Omicron to turn into
the third wave in India and
there is already talk in other countries death anniversary, a
as well of the latest Coronavirus variant
peaking quickly. How is that possible?
South Africa reported the first known
look at the 'invisible'
confirmed B.1.1.529 infection from a
specimen collected on November 9, history of Dalit
2021. The country reported over 27,000
new cases a day till the third week of Bahujan women in
December. Fresh cases subsequently
fell to around 15,000 a day, except in
two provinces. South Africa has now
Indian politics
declared that “it was a short wave not KALYANI K in Patiala. Similarly, there
unexpected in epidemiology that a very has been a reported case
T
steep increase, like what we saw in HE contribution of where the Dalit women
November, is followed by a steep Dalit-Bahujan President was forcibly made
women in demo- to sit on the floor in
decrease”. The Government also cratic and progressive poli- Therkuthittai Panchayat of
stopped tracing efforts, did away with tics is often systematically Tamil Nadu.
quarantine and lifted the 21-month-long erased from the collective The absence of Dalit-
curfew. By this time, Omicron had memory of the mainstream Bahujan women in politics
Indian political imagination. can be largely be seen as the
crowded out the Delta variant from the The forgetting of Dalit- consequence of violent caste
country. Ninety-five per cent of the new Bahujan history is because structures that have made
cases genome sequenced were Omicron- there is a lack of recognition Dalit-Bahujan women’s
of Dalit-Bahujan women as presence in Indian politics
infected. The Government is confident a social category. Caste inaccessible. While the
that even if the decline in cases slows identity has doubly margin- structures of patriarchy have
down after the relaxations, it will not alized Dalit-Bahujan rendered women as ‘irra-
lead to another spike. Omicron is cur- women by excluding them tional and emotional’ to
across the social, cultural, make political decisions, the
rently raging in the United States and and political realm. Even if structures of caste-patri-
has accounted for 73 per cent of the new their presence in politics has archy have further seen the
cases. In the New York area, it prevailed made a useful dent in the presence of Dalit-Bahujan Rani, Nirmala Dasua, too simple woman to be part the rise of New Dalit- rience for the Dalit-Bahujan
in 90 per cent of the cases reported. political dynamics, their women as a threat that could Darshana Devi, Kusum of the politics. It was Saheb Bahujan women and the women who have political-
contribution is limited as undermine the structures of Meghwal, Rachana Devi, (Kanshiram) who took me anti-caste social movement, ly participated in the best of
Omicron is the dominant variant in the something in-passing or as a caste hierarchies. etc. as well, to mention a out of household chores like the Dalit-Bahujan women their capacities. The mod-
UK and set to take over from other vari- matter of vote-bank equa- The political sphere is a few. These women fought making dung cakes and have got new space to ern views of Dr Ambedkar
ants in 80 more countries. Scientists in tions and alignments. space that gives visibility to election and were dedicated cooking. He showed me the reimagine their identities. promoted through constitu-
Before one engages with one’s identity by empower- to BSP in ensuring its elec- dream of an egalitarian soci- While their political partici- tionalism have created
the US predict a tough January but also the presence or absence of ing them to have bargaining toral victory. ety”. She considered that pation remained limited but social consciousness among
say that the cases will quickly peak and Dalit-Bahujan women in power for their rights and The Indian political imag- Dalit-Bahujan women not absent. Their presence Dalit-Bahujan women.
fall fast. President Joe Biden’s medical politics, there is a need to dignity. If one situates the ination has failed to account deserved a better life than must be acknowledged as a Social movements like
advisor Anthony Fauci predicted that understand the social cate- presence of Dalit women in for Dalit-Bahujan women was given to them under a significant entry point to Bahujan Andolan in North
gory of Dalit-Bahujan political representation, they beyond a handful of key fig- caste-ridden system. unveil the historiography of India can be considered as a
the Omicron wave may hit its peak by women. The Dalit-Bahujan are hardly given any repre- ures. An ethnographic study The access to political Dalit-Bahujan women. big push to the socio-cul-
the end of January. women face hierarchies of sentation outside of the of the active women in poli- positions facilitated by a To explore the unexam- tural ideas that were already
Meanwhile, Ireland also is confident caste, class, and gender in reserved constituencies. tics reveals their unique political party like BSP par- ined genealogy of Dalit- set in by Dr Ambedkar.
the public sphere. Among Even within the reserved struggles and what political ticularly in their initial Bahujan women’s political In the contemporary
that the current wave will reach its peak women, Dalit-Bahujan constituencies, their repre- emancipation has meant for phase encouraged women participation there is a need political situation, with the
in a couple of weeks. Will India, now women are at the periphery sentation remains minimal them in their everyday life. for political participation. for acknowledging the electoral weakening of
beginning to see an Omicron surge, also of receiving development in comparison with men. For example, Darshana Devi The access to the public untold and undiscussed nar- BSP, the political participa-
have a quick peak? There is no official benefits, whether it is gov- The Absence/Presence of who fought assembly elec- sphere by Dalit-Bahujan ratives of the women from tion of Dalit-Bahujan
ernment schemes or benefits Dalit-Bahujan Women tion from Mukerian con- women made them inclu- the margins. The standpoint women has taken a back
word on this. Odisha is the only State to of women’s reservation. The But do such absences stituency of Punjab in 2007 sive in the public opinion of Dalit-Bahujan women in seat. However, the New
declare that it is preparing for a peak in Dalit women face systemat- mean that Dalit-Bahujan said “I along with my hus- and also in the decision- this regard is significant as Dalit-Bahujan women are
the third week of January. Researchers ic exclusion even within the women do not have a politi- band, have given our entire making process. It allowed their political participation exploring the political alter-
legal framework as there is cal stake or are still outside life to BSP politics. After my them to transgress domestic and inclusion have not been natives through Azad Samaj
at IIT Kanpur predicted that India’s no acknowledgement or the political decision-mak- husband’s death, I struggled space. The social move- comfortably bestowed to Party and other political
third wave will peak in the beginning of reporting of caste violence ing process? It will be too alone. I would manage my ment, one like the Bahujan them but it has been a long- collusions based on
February. All predictions are based on that they are subjected to. naïve to assume that. The children, my school and movement facilitated Dalit- drawn process of their con- Ambedkarite ideology. It is
the fact that Omicron’s incubation peri- The Vulnerability of Dalit-Bahujan women did party politics”. Despite the Bahujan women to come testation with the hegemon- significant to mention that
Dalit-Bahujan Women in make important political struggle, Darshana partici- out and express solidarity ic Brahminical practices. the roots of political awak-
od is short, transmissibility is high and, Politics contributions that are often pated in the Bahujan politi- with the Bahujan communi- The social difference that ening for Dalit-Bahujan
as fresh cases rise rapidly, there comes BR Ambedkar Death ignored or missed out of cal struggle because it gave ties. Dalit-Bahujan women face women are ideological and
a point when the virus runs out of con- Anniversary: Whose political discourses. For her a worldview in which The Missing Narratives in their everyday life has socio-culturally rooted.
tacts who can be infected. That is when Ambedkar Is He Anyway? example, if one looks into she could reinstate her digni- While it is an undeniable made them the ‘transgres- With elections around the
The vulnerable position of Kanshiram led Bahujan ty despite being a Dalit- fact that Dalit-Bahujan sive subjects’ to question corner in Uttar Pradesh, a
the cases will start to fall. So, it is rea- Dalit-Bahujan women is movement of the late 21st Bahujan woman. women’s political participa- the structures of caste. state riven with caste and
sonable to expect the Indian wave to also reflected in the day-to- century, Dalit-Bahujan Similarly, Nirmala Dasua tion was very much limited Dr Ambedkar in his writ- vote-bank politics, the polit-
conform to the pattern. It is also possi- day governance practices women have given their who fought the assembly up until the 1980s in North ings and speeches empha- ical participation of Dalit-
and social boycott they face major contribution. The election from Garhdiwala, India. Unlike upper-caste sized the progress of Bahujan women needs to be
ble that in the absence of any other by the dominant caste. One Bahujan movement wit- Punjab, in 2002, considered women, they lacked social women, together with the understood not merely in
SARS-COV-2 mutants springing a sur- such case was of a Dalit nessed the participation of electoral participation as a capital and ‘privileges’ that need to educate, agitate and terms of vote-bank politics
prise, the Omicron variant hastens the woman Sarpanch who was Dalit-Bahujan women from way to imagine a better life. could have pushed them to organize. The ideological but the systemic struggle
end of the pandemic once it replaces the beaten up by upper-caste stalwarts like Mayawati to Recalling her political par- reach the echelons of politi- influence of Dr Ambedkar that they are going through
men for taking up a decision other women like Sheela ticipation, she said “I was a cal power. However, with has been an enabling expe- to ensure such participation.
existing variants. However, we know
from the bitter experience of the second
wave that the virus cannot be trusted.
Remember, the Delta variant dashed all
hopes of the vaccine fighting off the
virus. We need to see through the wave
taking full precautions and await the
Water on earth came from outside water come on the earth? And came, then And 3 minutes after the birth of the universe, cracks. (Source – Reuters)
confirmation that Omicron has spared why on earth? the first and simplest atom was born – Later this water evaporated from the
our lungs, as it has done in other coun- But first of all we should know about hydrogen. Helium is formed by the collision heat inside and came out to the top. By
tries. water. Not your own water, but the water of (fusion) of hydrogen at high temperatures. then the Earth's atmosphere was ready.
chemistry. Then the fusion of hydrogens and helium Clouds formed in this atmosphere.
As if I am H2O, if not, then running water made the rest of the elements. One of Meaning that water rained from the
IMPRINT LINE We can see water flowing from time to
time, ice frozen in the freezer and steam
them was oxygen.
Timeline after Big Bang. There is also a
clouds and it came on the earth.
The second theory – outside water
coming out of the tea pot. Chemistry sees a TV series named Big Bang Theory. But The second theory says that the water on
Editor, Publisher, Owner and Printer : chemical substance called H2O. And the that is not a science series. (Source – the earth came from outside. The heat was
Mohammad Yasmeen molecules of H2O are visible. Wikipedia) only in the planets near the sun. The rocks
206 A1, IInd Floor, North Block Bahu Plaza, Jammu Molecule means unit of chemical sub- Later, when the atmosphere cooled down away from the sun (asteroids and comets)
Printed at stance. Just as a country is made up of its a bit, hydrogen and oxygen chose to live were cold. Here the water was saved.
citizens, so chemical substances are made up together. This is called bond making in Later, asteroids and comets came and hit
Printed at: Early Times Printing Press of its molecules. chemistry. Oxygen held the fingers of two the earth. And bring water with you.
Samadhian Road, Jammu In this photo we see two states of water. free hydrogens with his two hands. The One theory says that the reason for the
Phones : 7889735298, 0191-2473076 Liquid and Solid. (Source – Reuters) molecule was formed and named H2O. extinction of dinosaurs from the earth is
Fax No. : 0191-2473086 I have three names. name of school. The This is the story of the arrival of H2O in also the collision of an asteroid. (Source –
e-mail : stateobserver@gmail.com name of the house and the name of the the universe. But how did H2O come to Reuters)
mohd.yasmeen@rediffmail.com maternal. H2O also has three names. Earth? The second theory is more accepted in
According to its three states, H2O is called There is no definite answer to this ques- the circle of science. Most scientists
All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction by three different names. tion. There are some theories which try to believe that water came to the earth in
If it is liquid then water find out the way for water to reach the both ways, but more water came from out-
D
of competent courts and forums in Jammu only. ELUGE. Let's say a terrible flood, if it is solid then ice earth. We take a look at two popular and side.
which we find in Hindu religious gas is steam interesting theories. Why is there only water on earth?
stories. The Matsya Purana tells the H2O i.e. water is made up of three atoms. The first theory - water inside There is a lot of liquid water on earth.
DISCLAIMER story of King Manu of the Dravidian
Empire. Manu built a boat to escape the del-
uge. And went out in search of a safe place.
Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.
That is why it is named H2O.
The Big Bang happened 13.8 billion
years ago. The Earth and the Sun formed
Because the temperature of the earth is
very right for the existence of water.
State Observer does not take responsibility for the The structure of water molecules is visible 4.6 billion years ago. When the Earth was Mercury and Venus are very close to the
About 60% of our body is water. And 71% in the image, with proper measurements. forming, the water molecules got deposit- Sun. Live very hot. Mars is farthest from
contents to the advertisements of the earth's surface is filled with water.
(Display/ Classified) carried in this newspaper. The paper (Source – Wikipedia) ed on the rocks from which the Earth was the Sun. Keeps cool. Earth is at perfect
does not endorse the same. Readers are This is the reason why we call our planet as When Nothing Was There - Big Bang forming. The earth was very hot. The sur- distance. So the temperature here is very
requested to verify the contents on their own 'Blue Planet'. No other planet in our solar According to science, the creation started face dried up. Whatever water was left right and the water here is very right.
before acting there upon. system has this amount of water. with a bang. About 13.8 billion years ago. was saved inside the earth. VIJAY GARG RETIRED PRINCIPAL
Your question is, from where did all this The name of this explosion is Big Bang. Steam emanated from volcanoes and
STATE OBSERVER EDIT JAMMU || MONDAY 03, JANUARY 2022 7
What is The Future of the Liberal Arts in Asia?
SAIKAT MAJUMDAR
F
OR many of us teaching
in the new liberal arts col-
leges and universities
across Asia, the Yale-NUS split
came as a shock.
On 27 August, 2021, as was
widely reported, Yale-NUS
College - a collaboration between
Yale University and the National
University of Singapore (NUS) -
announced that it will close and be
merged into a new interdiscipli-
nary honours college within NUS
called New College. From 2025,
Yale will have only an “advisory”
role.
announcement brought a jolt of
historical irony. Back in 2015, I’d
heard Peter Salovey, the then pres-
ident of Yale, speak on liberal arts
education in Asia. At the time, I
was in the process of moving from
California to Delhi, to be part of
the early cohort of faculty at the
new Ashoka University, and to set
up a department of creative writ-
ing. After Salovey’s talk, hosted in
Delhi by Ashoka, I asked him why
Singapore, a state not particularly
known for free thought, was col-
laborating on the American model
of liberal education. His response
had struck me as prescient: that
the government of Singapore
knew that a messy kind of democ-
racy was coming to the country
soon and that a liberal arts educa-
tion was the best way to prepare
its citizens for it. There was a new
excitement for innovative liberal
arts education across the Pacific,
and I felt a part of it myself.
More specifically, I recognised
a culture of interdisciplinary cre-
ativity such as I’d seen in my pre-
vious institution, Stanford
University, translated into a new
Asian demand for innovative mul-
tidisciplinary education. At the
heart of this sharply felt demand
were the professional needs of
rapidly evolving knowledge
Across Asia there are deeply entrenched obstacles to a mode

economies. It was the kind of
interdisciplinarity that went
beyond narrowly technocratic or
financial aptitude that was the
of higher education that is liberal in multiple senses – disci-

core mandate of specialized
schools of business or technology
and entered a broader domain of
human thought, behavior, and
plinary and epistemological but also social and political

knowledge. It evoked the human-
centred business models of Peter
Drucker, who, back in 1959,
coined the term “knowledge
worker”, predicting the future cor- ative synergy; nothing like this ment in liberal arts education was tion. In these countries, too, access cussed on American campuses.” liberal in multiple senses – discipli- challenges of its own. Except per-
poration as an entity that had to has quite happened in other major not intended so much to produce to liberal arts education in the He feels that one “certainly would- nary and epistemological but also haps in South Korea, such a har-
balance equally significant social, Asian countries. active citizens or independent crit- newly opened universities is large- n’t find this outside of the campus social and political. Smaller monious combination of local and
economic, and human dimensions Since the handover in 1997, ical thinkers in the Western sense ly limited to the elite. They are, in Qatar”, and in fact, this unique bureaucratic restrictions about cur- global forces has been largely
and the talents and lifestyles Hong Kong has been moving as to cultivate and promote tradi- writes Shafeeq Ghabra, professor social and political climate is “part ricula are sometimes symptoms of absent in Asia.
described by Richard Florida in away from the British system of tional Chinese culture and thought of political science at Kuwait of the appeal of GUQ”. Yet it also larger ideological resistances. The The liberal arts model requires
his imagination of the “creative single-subject degrees towards a in the Confucian tradition. University, “colleges for the privi- means that the “campus has a rep- Gulf campuses, Yale-NUS and the significant freedom and a certain
class”. more broad-based liberal educa- “China wants to know what the leged”, partly because “profit- utation, amongst local Qataris, of private universities in India have so amount of decentralisation – insti-
This liberal arts model, with tion. The most obvious reasons West already knows and to take based universities have limited robbing students of their Islamic far only been able to exist as tutions and faculty must have the
obvious corporate enthusiasm were those I have already advantage – not to be converted to scholarship opportunities and do beliefs and making them cynical islands. This is a serious limitation liberty to choose their own curric-
behind it, was inevitably elite and described: the country’s projec- liberal education but to appropri- not offer student loans”. about everything”. In any event, in itself, but it gets aggravated ula and adapt them to local needs.
expensive. It was generously sup- tion of itself as a service- and ate Western liberal education in Significant insulation from life out- the alienation of the American beyond repair when resentment But with freedom comes responsi-
ported by philanthropic entrepre- knowledge-based economy, and order to set up their own system of side their rarefied campuses - a campus from the local socio-politi- about their insulated existence bility. I’m not sure many institu-
neurs from the new digital econo- an economic mediator between education,” agrees Walter consistent feature of the new liber- cal climate is very stark. deepens in the world outside and in tions and their faculty want that
my. It evoked suspicion as well as the East and the West, which Mignolo, William Hane al arts universities across Asia - is In some contexts, systemic, the government and begins to cor- responsibility. I have seen col-
differing levels of enthusiasm called for a population with a Wannamaker distinguished profes- possibly also what maintains cer- structural and social factors all rode their protected status. This is leges in India gain autonomy and
within the larger Asian landscapes sor of Romance studies at Duke tain freedom within these institu- present a challenge to the new lib- partly what happened at Yale-NUS,
more well-rounded education. yet change practically nothing in
of colonially structured, govern- University, with reference to tions and protects them from the eral arts model. Writing about her and has been happening to my own
This was what attracted the sup- social prejudices and governmental experience of setting up Effat institution, Ashoka, from the their curriculum and pedagogy.
ment-directed systems of higher port of business figures such as Po Duke’s campus in Kunshan. “It is And many governments remain
education of raggedly uneven clear that the government is not restrictions in the world outside. College (later University) for uproar over the Kashmir petition in
Chung, the co-founder of the Asia Ian Almond, professor of world women at the request of Princess 2016 to the controversial resigna- keen to centralise higher educa-
quality. But it was fairly clear why Pacific branch of the shipping westernising.” tion and unwilling to grant signif-
Ethnic chauvinism was also literature at Georgetown Lolowah al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, tion of two senior faculty members
an economically ambitious and giant DHL. In 2003, liberal stud- University, has taught at Marcia Grant outlines the barriers earlier this year. The genuine icant liberties to institutions.
technologically progressive state obvious in the invocation of a tradi-
ies were introduced as a mandato- Georgetown Qatar for the last eight to allowing students to gain a enthusiasm for multidisciplinary I think it’s fair to say that the
such as Singapore was interested tion of liberal arts rooted in classi-
ry subject in Hong Kong. This cal Hinduism which was set out in years. “We’re in a bit of a broad, cross-disciplinary educa- universities in India’s National honeymoon period for the liberal
in it – and why it also appealed to offered a model of critical think- Washington bubble,” he told me, tion. Since students in Saudi Arabia Education Policy 2020 is poorly arts in Asia is over. Such educa-
the forms of private philanthropic the 2020 National Education
ing through the social sciences Policy initiated by the BJP-led “our VPN on campus is set to are streamed into either the sci- matched with the state’s consistent tional initiatives are still very sus-
higher education emerging around and has often been the subject of Washington! – and I’m not sure ences or the humanities before high suppression of student dissent on tainable, if only for historical rea-
government in India. Indeed,
some of the major cities of India. intense controversy. Pro-China debates about the meaning of free I’ve had any interference that I’ve school, it was very difficult for campuses across the nation. sons – the rising youth population
The most striking success story leaders have criticised the course speech, and the right to dissent on noticed.” Once, he recalls, they had them to experience knowledge and American liberal arts education (compared to a declining college-
comes from South Korea. In a sig- as an instigator of student unrest – university campuses, were explod- a debate on “whether God is a practice across the disciplinary developed as humble, local and age population in the US), signifi-
nificant discussion, Martha especially since the protests of ing just at the time when disci- woman”, which the dean had to divide as Effat had intended, fol- provincial. While closely linked to cant student talent sharpened by
Nussbaum, Ernst Freund distin- 2014 – while others have lauded it plines were opening up to another cancel “as he got a lot of heat”, but lowing the liberal arts model. the church, it was free from the the traditional Asian attention to
guished service professor of law as an exemplary curriculum that kind of freedom in elite higher edu- the cancellation annoyed even the The segregation of disciplines, larger structures of government. education, the expanding middle
and ethics at the University of broke away from the rote-learning cation spaces. While student conservative students, since “the reports Grant, went with the “seg- Without the cosmopolitan ambi- class and its increasingly ambi-
Chicago, argues that the founda- curricula of the mainland. It is protests and brutal state suppres- Georgetown brand is ‘sold’ in regation of sexes”, which decreed tions of the medieval European tious vision for higher education.
tion of this success lie in the coun- interesting that liberal studies sion raged through the public Qatar on the basis of a free-speech that “no men could enter the cam- university, “the American college The needs of business and corpo-
try’s long-held Confucian tradi- were introduced by a Beijing-con- Jawaharlal Nehru University in campus”. But while government pus while students were at the in the nineteenth century was a rate interests in the new global
tion of humanistic education. trolled regime, but as Robert Delhi in 2016, I could not help interference in his teaching has school”. (This vigilance extended hometown entity,” writes educa- economy also point to employees
Japanese domination in the 1940s Spires has pointed out, it may wondering, in these very pages, been almost nonexistent, Almond to ensuring that “the buildings tion historian David Labaree. In a shaped by a broad, multidiscipli-
represented a violent onslaught on have been intended as a minor what right there would be to such feels that self-censorship might be were constructed in such a way that land of competing churches, nary education. But it’s also clear
this tradition, when Koreans were concession to deflect attention dissent on the new private campus- a bigger issue. “I still try to show men could perform repairs to the founding a college was an effec- that liberal arts institutions are
limited to low-level vocational from larger forms of administra- es. Little did I know that Ashoka, films which have explicit scenes overhead air conditioning system tive way to “plant the flag and likely to encounter much envy,
education and schools were only tive authoritarianism. that very summer, would be bitter- without editing them,” he says, without walking on the campus”.) promote the faith”. A college put a
“although I realise that now if a The hiring of male professors in suspicion and even hostility within
allowed to use Japanese. The cru- If we look at Asia more generally split over a petition about mili- sleepy country town on the map, their own societies. In nations with
cial recovery of national identity ly, it is clear that the liberally edu- tary activities in Kashmir, leading film has too many such scenes, I the women’s college was initially
would probably choose judiciously impossible, though this problem so that it could demand a railway histories of state-sponsored,
involved an invocation of cated graduate, as opposed to one to the resignation of some of those stop, the county seat, or even the socialist education, institutional
Confucian humanistic education, professionally cast in a single involved. which sections to show. I know was later circumvented by obtain-
many of my colleagues experience ing permission from the students’ state capital, and thus raise the models based on private philan-
but in a newly democratised form direction, has a great appeal for The stark opposition between value of local real estate. This pos-
economic openness and political some version of this.” families and using closed-circuit thropy are unwelcome to the left-
that made space for women and employers in a new century where sibly explains the remote and ist intelligentsia. To some degree,
the working classes. American restriction in parts of east and If the bulk of higher education in television to deliver lectures on
many skills and careers seem to be the Gulf, as Gabra writes, “remains screen in the classrooms. provincial locations of so many this suspicion is justified. The
missionaries played a deeply con- ephemeral. But “liberal” is a trou- south-east Asia – and now increas-
ingly, in south Asia – explains the highly centralised, with the govern- Though neither students nor liberal arts colleges in the US. very nature of liberal arts educa-
structive role in helping this mod- blingly expansive word that refus- Later in the century, two very tion makes it resource-intensive;
contradictions experienced by the ment controlling curriculums, their parents wanted this kind of
ernising process. es to stay within an apolitically different elements were imported the perpetual challenge is whether
project of liberal arts education in admissions, and recruitment”, the segregated experience, as Grant
Though the educational success conceived disciplinary frame- socio-political climate inside a points out, Islamist members of from Europe that would blend sur- it can be both intellectually exclu-
story of Korea is also driven by these countries. Looking further
work. campus such as Georgetown Qatar Parliament and the University prisingly well with the institu- sive and socially inclusive at the
government initiatives such as west, the Gulf countries have also
We can see some of the contra- seen substantial investment in lib- (where about only half the students Council continued to insist on it. tion’s foundation in the local com- same time.
universal secondary education, dictions when authoritarian are Qatari) speaks of a very differ- “Mixed with these deadening munity: the German research uni-
eral arts education and collabora- As it is currently conceived, lib-
Nussbaum ascribes significant regimes seek to institute liberal ent world. “It is strange,” Almond effects,” she goes on, “are funda- versity and the British undergrad-
tion with American universities. eral arts education is likely to con-
credit to what she calls “a produc- arts education for various reasons wrote to me, “the extent to which mental flaws in a tertiary education uate college. This was an unex-
There we find not so much the tinue in institutions that exist as
tive synergy between Confucian of their own. Anushka Prasad, a direct suppression of free thought what people, rightly or wrongly, system that depends upon an ill- pected, even accidental develop- islands across Asia. Yet if the mis-
nationalism and American pro- current candidate for the dual and speech – against which at least perceive as ‘woke’ vibes in the US suited consultant army; a dearth of ment: three very contradictory trust between the islands and the
gressive education”. “The result,” MBA/M.S.Ed at the University of the American overseas campuses reappear on our Qatar campus – locally generated, relevant learning forces – populist, elite and practi- oceans surrounding them stretches
she writes, “has been the widely Pennsylvania describes a conver- are more or less protected – but here on the other end of the planet, material; and a myopic educational cal, as Labaree calls them – com- beyond a certain point, the com-
democratized, pluralistic, and sation with Gan Yang - the dean of various other kinds of unfreedom there are very similar arguments focus”. ing together to shape one of the pact, whether tacit or explicit, will
market-driven education system Xinya College at Tsinghua which reflect the political climate amongst our students about Black It is clear that across Asia there most formidable institutional break. That is what seems to have
that obtains today.” This, howev- University - who pointed out that as well as a certain traditional and Lives Matter, trans rights, colonial- are deeply entrenched obstacles to forces of the 20th century, though driven the disintegration of Yale-
er, has been a rare instance of cre- the Chinese government’s invest- bureaucratic mindset about educa- ism and all the issues that get dis- a mode of higher education that is one currently facing aggravating NUS.
6 comment & analysis the daily guardian
monday | 03 january 2022
new delhi
BuilDinG BriDGeS
India needs to tap Oman,

boost economic, strategic ties
There are immense possibilities of strengthening mutually beneficial ties
between the two countries that New Delhi must leverage.
to survive in Muscat you
must know Malayalam and
Hindi, more than Arabic.
Likewise, Indians settled
opinion there have high regard for
the culture and traditions
of Omanis.
ATIR KHAN It is perhaps the only
country in the Gulf region,
which has three temples,
three gurdwaras, and three
churches. Some of these re-
tested friend for India. A ligious places have existed
multi-pronged approach there for more than a cen-
to solidify economic, cul- tury. At the Shiv Mandir
tural, and military ties with puja, materials like kalava,
the country could be de- prasad, and statues are sold
sirable. Oman is a trusted by the local Omanis. Peo-
friend which can help India ple can also buy religious
achieve its long-term objec- books and like Ramcharit-
tives. manas available at the local
Dr. Waiel Awwad, a se- book stores. A crematori-
nior journalist from West um for Indians operates in
Asia, says, “India as a grow- Muscat.
I
ndia and Oman have ing world power must have A big maidan has been
had strong civilisation- influence and dominance allocated for Garba and
al ties and strengthen- in the region. Ties with Dandiya in Muscat during
ing this relationship could Oman are very important Navratri. Indians are run-
lead to more fruitful eco- not only in trade and access ning restaurants and ap-
nomic, cultural, and strate- to the Red Sea but also in parel and electronic goods
gic relations. The relations anti-piracy operations and shops in Muscat.
between the two countries oil security. Military coop- Omanis trust Indians so
have been cordial and with eration with Oman could much that while their in-
little effort, the handshakes give an upper edge to India telligence officials enter all
could turn into embraces. in future.” Indian diplo- religious gatherings to keep What makes Oman a suitable country for enriching the ties is its progressive nature and its people have great regard and respect for the Indians.
There are lessons in the mats though believe New an eye on, they are quite le-
mistakes of the past. Back Delhi cannot rely on Oman nient with Indian temples
in the 1950s, the Sultan of for hydrocarbons. and don’t even enter the be improved for a greater
Oman had offered Gwadar However, Oman’s proxim- buildings. The divorce laws Oman’s proximity with India is so much so that people could travel between strategic advantage.
Port as a gift to India. But ity to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman are quite similar The Indian Ambassador
India refused to accept it makes it strategically im- in certain ways to the Hin- Muscat and Gujarat by sea in a very short span of time. The flying time between to Oman is quite an influen-
and with the help of Prince portant for economic and du Marriage Act. In case of Muscat and Mumbai is a little over than the Mumbai to Delhi flight. State-run tial person. Former Ambas-
Agha Khan, it went into the military security. A third of divorce proceedings, even sador Anil Wadhwa says, in
hands of Pakistan and is the world’s liquified natural Muslim couples have to Oman Airlines makes more profit in the Indian sector than any other country. the turnaround facility we
gas and almost 25 per cent observe a one-year waiting have not gone forward be-
now being used by China.
While Pakistan is not a of the total global oil con- period before it is validated.
There are about 16 flights from Oman to India every week connecting Delhi, yond the basic agreement.
major contender in the resumption passes through Oman’s proximity with Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Kolkata. The ship repair facilities
gion, China of late has de- the strait, making it a high- India is so much so that have to be enhanced.
veloped economic clout in ly important strategic loca- people could travel be- Indians must also try to
the region. And it is known tion for international trade. tween Muscat and Gujarat get land leases in Oman for
to have been converting its What makes Oman a suit- by sea in a very short span had studied in Mayo Col- airport. which have shared inter- a gateway to a wider mar- farming to supply sugar
economic strength for get- able country for enriching of time. The flying time be- lege, Ajmer, where even Oman is a great business ests. Admissions in Indian ket. About 160 CEOs of the and wheat on a regular
ting an edge in realising its the ties is its progressive tween Muscat to Mumbai is today you will find Oman destination as there is no School, DPS, and Amity are companies based in Oman basis. Oman has the big-
military ambitions. China nature and its people have a little over than the Mum- House, which reminds of income tax, even the cus- most sought after in that are Indians. They work in gest landmass among Per-
has even started develop- great regard and respect for bai to Delhi flight. State-run strong bonds. Syed Naseer- toms duty is very low. Till country. companies owned by the sian Gulf countries.
ing defence ties with the re- the Indians. They prefer In- Oman Airlines makes more uddin Chishti, president the early 1960s Indian ru- India and Oman had Omanis and need to be Another important aspect
gion. There were reports of dians for jobs and business profit in the Indian sector of All India Sajjadanashin pee was a valid currency planned joint ventures in tapped for enriching busi- is the training of Omanis of-
it helping Saudi Arabia in opportunities over citizens than any other country. Parishad says his ancestors in the country. According the sector of power genera- ness relations. So far there ficials in India which needs
building missile facilities. A of any other Asian country. There are about 16 flights have told him that the Sul- to Rajan, a chartered action, railways, and fertilis- has been no substantial to be further developed. In
few weeks ago, the US red- Former diplomat J K Tripa- from Oman to India every tans were generous with countant who has served ers. Unfortunately, a few outreach to them. the past Omanis have been
flagged China for trying to thi says, “Before Oman goes week connecting Delhi, their donations for the Dar- in a private company in projects were lost due to the The Indian Navy cooper- trained in the Indian for-
control a port in the region. the other way, we should Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mum- gah Sharif Khawaja Gharib Muscat says there are mu- oversight in the ministries. ates with the Royal Navy eign training institutes but
China’s growing economic try to keep Oman with us. bai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Nawaz. tually beneficial business Experts are of the view that of Oman on many fronts of late they have preferred
presence is likely to pull It is comparatively easier Lucknow, and Kolkata. Former President Dr. interests between the two the business opportunities that include operational to go to the West. Coopera-
it into wider engagement for us.” The Royal family of Oman Shankar Dayal Sharma countries as well. Oman Oil between the two countries interactions and training. tion in the training of the
with the region in what He adds that Oman has is so fond of India that the had taught Sultan Qaboos› Corporation runs an oil re- are underexplored. Take Recently India and Oman armed forces could also be
could impact several coun- more than eight lakh ex- British described its Sultan grandfather and that’s finery in Madhya Pradesh, for instance Brazil, it is the have signed a pact to boost explored.
tries in the world. Though pats from India. Some Gu- Qaboos bin Said as the In- why the family of Sultans KRIBHCO has a fertiliser largest exporter of iron maritime security coop- To sum it up, there are
at the moment it is not chal- jarati traders have been dian King. Every monsoon hold him in high regard. factory in Oman. One of the ore in the world and it has eration. The Port of Salalah immense possibilities of
lenging the US-led security living in Muscat for gen- the Sultans would come So much so that when Dr. shareholders of the HDFC made Oman its hub for has been used for naval strengthening mutually
architecture in the region. erations and Omanis have to Mumbai to spend time Sharma once visited Oman, Bank is the Bank Muscat. doing business with Asia. cooperation between the beneficial ties between the
Great civilisation ties given them the special title there. The grandfather of Sultan Qaboos personally Likewise, there are vari- Similarly, India and Oman two countries. Experts say two countries that New Del-
with Oman make it a time- of Sheikh. It is said that late Sultan Qaboos bin Said went to receive him at the ous banks and institutions could look at each other as Military ties could further hi must leverage.
PERSPECTIVE
HUMAN ERROR?
Tri-ServiceS inquiry inTo General rawaT’S chopper craSh virTually over

Lack of depth perception lance as “controlled flight short flight, such an error do not travel together to from such irresponsible year’s Republic Day where
by the pilots could have into terrain (C-FIT) factor.” should not have normally avert any kind of wrong- hypothesis and wait for the the might and prowess of
contributed to the Heli- This means that a mishap taken place but did not rule doing. complete report to be out. our armed forces shall be
copter crash that killed takes place when the pilot out the possibility given the There was speculation to General Rawat was an on full public display. The
General Bipin Rawat, his gets disoriented or loses weather conditions that begin with that some exter- outstanding soldier who Central government shall
wife, Madhulika and 12 situational awareness and were prevalent. The flight nal power could have had a was not scared to speak his hopefully by then make the
others near Coonoor in unintentionally hits the data recorder and the black hand in the crash but with mind out and had on sever- delayed announcement re-
Tamil Nadu last month. ground, a mountain, a tree box of the Helicopter were such a high-level inquiry al occasions, reiterated the garding his successor. Sev-
The Tri-services probe or a water body or any oth- recovered from the crash ascertaining the cause of country’s preparedness to eral names have been doing
headed by Air Marshal er obstacle despite being in site and must have pro- the incident, this was both even fight a two-front war, the rounds and General
Manvendra Singh is in its full control of the machine. vided useful inputs to the pre-mature and uncalled implying that our forces M.M.Naravane, the Army
final stages and before the The Helicopter that took probing team. It goes with- for. The Indian Armed had the capability of tak- Chief and senior most
findings are made public, off from Sulur, went down, out saying that all aspects Forces know how to protect ing on both Pakistan and amongst the three Service
the legal processes shall seven minutes before it was including internal and ex- their officers and borders China, if the need arose. He Chiefs, has emerged as the
have to be also completed. to land at the Wellington ternal sabotage must have and such conjectures, may also had pointed out that front runner. However, the
Reports published in some Staff College, where the been thoroughly examined fuel conspiracy theories China was the country’s official declaration would
leading newspapers sug- Chief of Defence Staff was by the tri-services panel to but have to be substanti- greatest enemy at this junc- clear the air regarding the
File Photo of CDS General Bipin Rawat. ANI
gest that the crash may to address the officers. Air rule out any kind of foul ated by facts and evidence. ture. General Rawat shall appointment.
have occurred due to what Force veterans are of the play. Obviously, some new carrying VVIPs must have that in future the core team Therefore, the media in be greatly missed when
is described in military par- view that during such a protocols regarding flights been reviewed to ensure and the senior most officers particular must refrain the nation celebrates this —Pankaj Vohra
t h e da ily gua r dia n
m o nday | 03 ja nua ry 2 0 2 2
new de l h i legally speaking 7
In Court
SIGnIFICAnt SuPrEME Court

JudGEMEntS In 2021
analysis
SURYA PRATAP
SHARMA VS UNION OF
INDIA
The Hon’ ble Supreme
Court of India is hearing an
appeal against a decision
of the High Court of Judi-
cature of Patna, which re-
fused the seaman’s claim for
disability compensation by
referring to clause 21 of the
National Maritime Board
In the Court of Justice, both the Agreement. The appellant
parties know the truth, it’s the joined the Shipping Corpo-
judge who’s on trial ration of India’s (SCI) off-
Justice JR Midha shore section in 1988, and
after eight years, he was
I
n the year 2021, the Su- freed and transferred to a
preme Court of India is- foreign-going vessel with a
sued a slew of decisions. new registry in 1996, at his
The key pronouncements own desire. He joined the
are briefly reviewed in this crew in September 2009
article. and was dismissed in June
2010 after being declared
VIKASH KUMAR VS permanently unsuitable
UPSC for sea service owing to
The decision in Vikash Ku- Dilated Cardiomyopathy mation Report was filed as Committee (APMC), to The “Maratha” is a Hindu
mar is forward-thinking. after 9 months. The appel- With the passing of the farm laws and intensified farmers’ a result. Both the mother’s govern contract farming, community that is primar-
By overturning Surendra lant argued, citing an ar- and daughter’s testimony and to restrict the supply ily found in Maharashtra.
Mohan’s decision, it rec- ticle, that cardio vascular agitation, several petitions challenging the constitutionality are consistent and valid of particular food items in Following the implementa-
ognises that people with
impairments may perform
illness is one of the many
occupational ailments that
of farm laws were filed. Soon, petitions in support of the under section 6 of the Evi-
dence Act, implying that the
emergency situations such
as war and famine.
tion of the Indian Constitu-
tion, the President of India
their tasks if reasonable seafarers face, and that in- farm laws were also filed. In the hearing on January 12th Res gestate principle would With the passing of the constituted a 13 Commis-
accommodations are made jury does not have to pre- apply. farm laws and intensified sion under Article 240 to
available to them. There sent itself outwardly or in 2021, the three-judge bench led by CJI Bobde stayed the The Court also considered farmers’ agitation, several investigate the status of all
that as per the definition of
have been numerous ex-
amples of judges with dis-
the form of blood oozing,
but should also include an farm laws. Bemoaning the lack of progress, the Government ‘sexual assault’, a ‘physical
petitions challenging the
constitutionality of farm
such socially and educa-
tionally backward commu-
abilities properly carrying
out their duties in various
impeded heart. It was also
claimed that SCI violated
has made to resolve this crisis. The Court set up a four- contact with sexual intent
without penetration’ is es-
laws were filed. Soon, peti-
tions in support of the farm
nities. The Supreme Court
overturned provisions of a
places around the world. Section 47 of the Persons member Committee to negotiate between the farmers. sential ingredient for the laws were also filed. In the Maharashtra law that gave
In a session organised by with Disabilities (Equal Op- offence and the Court be- hearing on January 12th the Maratha group reser-
the Nyaya Forum of NAL- portunities, Protection of lieved that stronger proof 2021, the three-judge bench vation, pushing the state’s
SAR University of Law, Rights, and Full Participa- and severe allegations are led by CJI Bobde stayed the total population above the
Justice Chandrachud stated tion) Act, 1995 by failing to necessary. The Court also farm laws. Bemoaning the 50% threshold imposed
that current technology accommodate the sailor in stated that whether the ac- lack of progress, the Gov- by the court in the 1992 In-
has helped impaired peo- an alternate work that was cused removed the top of ernment has made to re- draSawhney decision. “The
ple to the point where there suitable for his condition. the prosecutrix or inserted solve this crisis, the Court half-standard... is to achieve
is almost no difference be- his hand while groping her set up a four-member Com- the correspondence’s goal
tween them and the general SAURABH SHARMA of face masks is important the girls minor before dis- to remove her salwar just breasts is unknown, which mittee to negotiate between as engrafted in Article 14,
population today. He also VS DIVISIONAL whether a person is vacci- posing of petition based as her mother approached would not constitute a di- the farmers and the Gov- of which Articles 15 and 16
stated that the first visually MAGISTRATE & ORS. nated or not”. on live-in relationship, the his house. Her mother and rect physical contact or ernment with the following are facets... “To modify the
impaired Supreme Court Writ petitions challenging court has to give notice to their neighbour investigated “Skin-to-Skin” contact members: 50% is to have a general
judge must be appointed as the Delhi government’s SUJATA VS STATE OF the parents. (2) Find out his house and discovered between the accused and ( 1 ) Bhup i n de r S i n gh public that isn’t founded
soon as possible. imposition of penalties on PUNJAB whether she has under- her daughter imprisoned in the victim as per the sec- Mann, National President, on equality but on the rank
In the judgment, Jus- those who did not wear This case is about a live-in stood the consequences of a room. The daughter then tion 7 of POCSO Act. The Bhartiya Kisan Union and principle,” a five-judge Con-
tice Chandrachud cautioned masks when travelling relationship with a girl of a filling the protection peti- told her mother about the act committed by the ac- All India Kisan Coordina- stitution Bench led by Jus-
against perpetuating the alone in their automo- young age. “The Court is the tion. (3) whether she is ca- incident, and they went to cused would apparently tion Committee tice Ashok Bhushan said in
negative imagery around biles were dismissed by a Guardian of Tender Aged pable of taking independent the police station to report fall under the definition of (2) Dr. Parmod Kumar four separate decisions. The
disability: “When com- single-judge bench led by Girls Who File Protec- decision. it. Because the case involved “Outraging the modesty of Joshi, Agricultural Econo- concept of popular govern-
petent persons with dis- Justice Prathiba M Singh. tion Pleas Without Know- the POCSO Act, the police a women” provided under mist, Director for South ment is an important part
abilities are unable to real- According to the Court, the ing The Consequences,” SATISH RAGDE filed a charge sheet with Section 354 of the Indian Asia, International Food of our Constitution and our
ise their full potential due to mask functions as a “Surak- according to the courts. A VS STATE OF the Special Court. After Penal Code. Policy Research Institute fundamental foundation.
the barriers posed in their sha kavach,” protecting protection petition based MAHARASHATRA recording his conviction The bench acquitted the (3) Ashok Gulati, Agricul- If the reservation exceeds
path, our society suffers, as both the person wearing it on a live-in relationship ‘Satish Ragde,’ the accused, under Sections 342, 363, accused under section 8 of tural Economist and For- the 50% limit... It will be a
much, if not more, as do the and those around them. The should be filled out with attempted to sexually abuse and 354 of the Indian Penal POCSO Act and convicted mer Chairman of the Com- slippery slope, as the politi-
disabled people involved. court further said that “Sci- dignity and caution. The a 12-year-old girl. The at- Code, as well as Section 8 of him for outraging the mod- mission for Agricultural cal pressure makes scaling
In their blooming and blos- entists and international petitioner was ordered to tacker, who had been en- the POCSO Act, the Special esty & wrongfully confining Costs and Prices back an equal difficult.”
soming, we all bloom and governments have advised appear before the inquiry ticed to the victim’s house Court sentenced the ac- the prosecutrix under sec- (4) Anil Ghanwat, Presi-
blossom.” wearing of a mask. The officer within 10 days and in order to present her with cused to three years of soli- tion 354 & 342 of IPC for a dent, Shetkari Sanghatana ELECTION
challenge of the pandemic was granted temporary guava, touched the little tary confinement and a fine period of 1 year of rigorous Following the stay order, COMMISSSION
NAWAL KISHORE was huge and the wearing bail. Courts view- (1) Where girl’s breast and attempted of Rs.1500/-. imprisonment and a fine of no hearings were held. On OF INDIA VS
The accused went to Rs500. Also, a non-bailable a different bench, Khan- VIJAYABHASKAR
the Bombay High Court, warrant was issued against wilkar J, who was hearing The Supreme Court was
where J. Pushupa Ganedi- the accused. the KisanMahapanchay- hearing a case in which
wala acquitted him under at’s request to hold protests the Election Commission
section 8 of the POCSO Act RAKESH VAISHNAV at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, sought the Hon’ble court
and found him guilty of & ORS. VS UNION OF wondered whether the to order the media to re-
outraging the modesty and INDIA & ORS. farmers’ right to protest en- frain from broadcasting
wrongfully imprisoning the Farmers (Empowerment compassed occupying pub- remarks made by Madras
prosecutrix under sections & Protection) Agreement lic areas indefinitely while High Court justices against
354 and 342 of the IPC for a of Price Assurance & Farm the issue was before the Su- the election commission, in
year of rigorous imprison- Services Act, 2020, Farm- preme Court. Farmers, on which they were accused
ment and a fine of Rs500. In ers Produce Trade & Com- the other hand, continued and held guilty for the sec-
addition, the accused was merce (Promotion & Fa- to demonstrate in various ond wave. The Supreme
served with a non-bailable cilitation) Act, 2020, and parts of the country. The Court correctly stated that
warrant. The learned coun- Essential Commodities Prime Minister revealed an open court ensures that
sel was unable to prove (Amendment) Act, 2020 the Union Government’s judges behave in accord-
from the record that the (‘farm laws’) were passed plan to repeal the farm laws ance with the law. The Su-
minor girl’s mother and the by Parliament in Septem- in the forthcoming Winter preme Court stated that
little girl’s evidence could ber 2020. The agriculture session of Parliament in a media reporting of judicial
not be considered or that laws were promulgated as national address on Novem- proceedings falls under the
they were not competent ordinances on June 5th, ber 19th, 2021. The consti- fundamental right of free-
witnesses, according to the 2020, before being adopted tutional challenge will be dom of speech and expres-
Court. The girl’s responses by Parliament. The agri- moot if a repeal is enacted. sion, and that it is a part of
to the questions were not ir- cultural laws aim to make press freedom. The election
rational. Furthermore, she it easier for farmers to sell JAISHRI commission has a history of
informed her mother about their output outside of the LAXMANRAO PATIL being a self-governing or-
the incident as soon as it oc- state-designated Agricul- VS CHIEF MINITER ganisation, and it should
curred, and the First Infor- ture Produce Marketing OF MAHARASHTRA continue to be so.
8 policy & politics the daily guardian
monday | 03 january 2022
new delhi
Society
BomBay Hc aSkS Govt to conSider makinG

Section 498a a compoundaBle offence
analysis
SANJEEV SIROHI
W
e all saw how Simply put, the Bench
j u st r e c e nt ly then specifies in para 3
on December that, “The learned counsel
21, 2021, the Bombay High for the Applicants and the
Court in a learned, laudable, Respondent No.2 jointly
landmark and latest judg- request that the F.I.R. filed
ment titled Siddhivinayak by the Respondent No.2 be
Umesh Vindhe Vs The State quashed as the Respondent
of Maharashtra & Anr. in No.2 has given her consent
Criminal Application No. and Affidavit to that effect
647 of 2021 with Criminal is filed.”
Application No. 27 of 2021 Of course, the Bench then
asked the Maharashtra State brings out in para 4 that,
Government to consider “There are two Applica-
making offence punishable tions seeking to quash the
under Section 498A of IPC a same F.I.R. Application No.
compoundable offence. The 647 of 2021 is filed by the
Court also pointed out that husband of the Respondent
Andhra Pradesh is already No.2. Application No. 27
taking this approach. Very of 2021 is filed by the Ap-
rightly so! plicant No.1 sister-in-law,
According to a Bench of Applicant No.2 brother of
Justice Nitin Jamdar and father-in-law, Applicant
Justice Sarang Kotwal mak- No.3 father-in-law and Ap-
ing the offence compound- plicant No.4 mother-in-law
able will be beneficial for of the Respondent No.2.
courts as well as litigants. The Respondent No.2 filed
The Bench very rightly ob- an F.I.R. alleging mental (emphasis supplied) 498-A of IPC compound-
served that, “The parties and physical cruelty by the Equally significant is what is then envisaged in para 11 that, “The parties These recommendations able under Section 320 of
can save expenses, time Applicants and that she are eloquent. It would be in Cr.P.C., with permission
and energy in approaching was subjected to demands can save expenses, time and energy in approaching the High Court. It the interest of all the parties of the Court, as was done
the High Court. It will also
free up the already crowded
of dowry.”
Going ahead, the Bench will also free up the already crowded docket of this court. Most of these concerned if the offence un-
der Section 498-A of IPC is
by the State of Andhra
Pradesh.”
docket of this court. Most of
these connected proceed-
then states in para 5 that,
“The learned counsel for the
connected proceedings can be put to rest and the parties can resume made compoundable with
permission of the Court
As it turned out, the Bench
then mentions in para 12
ings can be put to rest and
the parties can resume
Applicants and the Respon-
dent No2. state that the di-
normal life. It would be in the interest of the parties in such matters if with certain safeguards.”
No less significant is what
that, “The learned Advocate
General assured the Court
normal life. It would be in vorce petition has been filed the offence is made compoundable with permission of the Court.” is then propounded in para that the State will ascertain
the interest of the parties bearing Marriage Petition 10 that, “When there is a whether the State of Maha-
in such matters if the of- No. 117 of 2021 in the court discord between husband rashtra will also consider
fence is made compound- of Civil Judge, Senior Divi- and wife, it leads to various amendment to the Schedule
able with permission of the sion, Pandharpur, wherein, litigations. Invariably pros- appended to Section 320 of
Court. Therefore, we are of consent terms have been compoundable offence with of Ramgopal v. State of M. After the application for the aggrieved woman to file ecutions are launched un- Code of Criminal Procedure
the opinion that the Gov- executed. It is stated that, permission of the Court P. in SLP (Crl.) No. 6494 compounding an offence an application revoking her der Section 498-A of IPC; to include Section 498A of
ernment of Maharashtra in the light of the same, the with certain stipulations.” of 2010 (Order dt. July 30, under S.498A of Indian earlier offer to compound the proceedings under the the IPC as a compoundable
should consider this aspect dispute is settled.” Most significantly, the 2010), observed that the of- Penal Code is filed and on the offence on sufficient Protection of Women from offence with the leave of the
and consider making the of- Truth be told, the Bench Bench then lays bare in fence under S, 498-A should interviewing the aggrieved grounds.” Domestic Violence Act; the Court. We hope and trust
fence under Section 498-A then specifies in para 6 that, para 9 that, “Shri Aradhye, be made compoundable. woman, preferably in the (emphasis supplied) proceedings for mainte- the State of Maharashtra
of IPC compoundable under “Considering this statement learned counsel for the Ap- However, there is sharp Chamber in the presence In the 154th Report of the nance under Section 125 of will take positive steps in
Section 320 of Cr.P.C., with made on oath and in person plicants has ably assisted divergence of views on the of a lady judicial officer or Law Commission also there the Code of Criminal Proce- this regard.”
permission of the Court, before us, we find that the the Court on legal position point whether it should be a representative of District was a clear recommenda- dure, divorce proceedings As a corollary, the Bench
as was done by the State of case for exercise of extraor- at short notice. He places made a bailable offence. It Legal Services Authority or tion to make the offence etc. On most occasions, all then holds in para 13 that,
Andhra Pradesh.” dinary jurisdiction of this before us the extracts from is pleaded by some that the a counselor or a close rela- compoundable. Justice Mal- these proceedings are gen- “Reverting to the Applica-
It would be pertinent to Court is made out. The dis- the Law Commission Re- offence should be made bail- tion, if the Magistrate is sat- limath Committee on Crimi- erally pending in different tions at hand, in the light of
mention that the Court pute led to filing of an F.I.R. ports and Committees. The able at least with regard to isfied that there was prima nal Justice Reform also rec- cities and, therefore, it is what is discussed above, the
made these relevant obser- is a matrimonial dispute relevant discussion in 243rd husband’s relations and in facie a voluntary and genu- ommended that it should be difficult and expensive for Applications are allowed in
vations during the hear- which is now resolved. It Report of the Law Commis- respect of the cases failing ine settlement between the made compoundable. In the the parties to approach the terms of prayer clause (b) in
ing of a petition that was does not have repercussion sion is as follow: under second part of the parties, the Magistrate shall Committee of Petitions (Ra- High Court for getting the both the Applications.”
filed by one Siddhivinayaj on the society at large.” “ There is preponderance Explanation Clause (b) to make a record to that effect jya Sabha) Report presented FIR and other proceedings Finally, the Bench then
Virdhe and his wife who To put things in perspec- of opinion in favour of mak- Section 498-A. and the hearing of applica- on 7th September 2011 re- under Section 498-A of IPC concludes by holding in
sought quashing of an FIR tive, the Bench then ob- ing the offence under S.498- As regards compound- tion shall be adjourned by garding this issue, following quashed under Section 482 para 14 that, “Copies of this
registered against him in serves in para 7 that, “There A compoundable with the ability, the Commission has three months or such other were the recommendations of Cr.P.C. If the offence un- order be sent to the office of
Solapur. It also deserves is however a wider issue. We permission of the court. given a comprehensive re- earlier date which the Mag- under the heading “Making der Section 498-A of I.P.C. learned Advocate General
mentioning that the couple note that very large num- Even those (individuals, of- port (237 th Report) under istrate may fix in the inter- the offence under Section is made compoundable and learned Public Pros-
submitted that they have ber of applications and writ ficials and organizations) the title of “Compounding ests of Justice. 498-A IPC compoundable” : with permission of the ecutor.”
resolved the dispute and petitions are filed in this who say that it should re- of IPC Offences”. The Com- On the adjourned date, “The Committee notes Court, the Magistrate can In sum, the Bench of Jus-
requested the court to quash Court for quashing of F.I.R. main a non-bailable offence, mission recommended that the Magistrate shall again that the offence under Sec- interact with the parties. tice Sarang V Kotwal and
the FIR registered under filed under Section 498A have suggested that the of- the offence under Section interview the victim woman tion 498A IPC is essentially Parties can apply to the Justice Nitin Jamdar of the
domestic violence charges. of Indian Penal Code, on fence should be made com- 498A should be made a in the like manner and then a fallout of strained mat- local Courts. Quite often Bombay High Court have
It cannot be glossed over the ground that the parties poundable, subject to the compoundable offence with pass the final order permit- rimonial relationship for Applications under the been considerate enough
that the court did accept the have settled their dispute. permission of court. Some the permission of Court. ting or refusing to com- which there might be vari- Protection of Women from to take the absolutely right
couple’s request for quash- These proceedings are then States, for e.g., Andhra The Commission has sug- pound the offence after giv- ous considerations. Since Domestic Violence Act are step of asking the Maha-
ing the FIR but remarked quashed by the High Court Pradesh have already made gested the inclusion of the ing opportunity of hearing there can be various causes also filed from the same rashtra State Government
rightly that a large number in its extraordinary jurisdic- it compoundable. The Su- following sub-section in to the accused. In the inter- leading to an offence under dispute, which are triable to consider making Section
of writ petitions and appli- tion. We had requested the preme Court, in the case S.320 Cr.PC: regnum, it shall be open to Section 498A IPC and par- by the Magistrate. If Sec- 498A of the IPC a com-
cations are filed in this court learned Advocate General ties to the marriage could be tion 498A of IPC is made poundable offence which it
seeking to quash FIR under to assist the Court to ascer- responsible for the same in compoundable the same must do urgently on a war
Section 498A of IPC by stat- tain whether Section 498A varying degrees, it would Court can settle the dispute footing. This will ensure
ing that parties have settled. of IPC can be made com- be appropriate if the rem- comprehensively.” that its misuse is contained
To start with, the ball is set poundable with permission edy of compromise is kept Equally significant is what to a large extent! It brooks
rolling in para 2 of this brief, of the Court. We were of open to settle a matrimo- is then envisaged in para 11 no more delay!
brilliant, bold and balanced this prima facie opinion, in nial dispute. In this context, that, “The parties can save It would not be incongru-
judgment authored by Jus- the light of the fact that the the Committee feels that expenses, time and energy ous to say that even the Cen-
tice Nitin Jamdar and Justice State of Andhra Pradesh by in case of any marital dis- in approaching the High tre should also not sit idle
Sarang V Kotwal wherein it amendment in the Code of cord which has reached the Court. It will also free up and similarly consider this
is put forth that, “The Re- Criminal Procedure by Act stage of a complaint under the already crowded docket seriously and act accord-
spondent No.2 is present in of 11 of 2003 has amended Section 498A IPC, it would of this court. Most of these ingly so that the misuse of
the Court and she is appear- Section 320 of the Code of be better if the parties have connected proceedings can this notorious Section 498A
ing in person along with her Criminal Procedure and in- the option of a compromise be put to rest and the par- of IPC is minimized to the
father Rajendra Manohar serted Section 498A of the where after they can settle ties can resume normal life. maximum possible extent!
Deshmukh who is prac- IPC in the table appended down in their lives appro- It would be in the interest of This is the crying need of
ticing advocate at Madha, to Section 320 of Code of priately for a better future the parties in such matters the hour also! This alone
District Solapur. Consider- Criminal Procedure.” rather than diverting their if the offence is made com- explains why the Bombay
ing the affidavit tendered As we see, the Bench then energies negatively by pur- poundable with permission High Court has been so vo-
by the Respondent No.2 points out in para 8 that, suing litigation. The Com- of the Court. Therefore, we cal in asserting in its favour
and that Shri. Deshmukh “Learned Advocate Gen- mittee recommends to the are of the opinion that the as we see while having a
is a practicing advocate, we eral accepted that the State Government to consider Government of Maharash- cursory look at this notable
have permitted Respondent of Andhra Pradesh had al- whether the offence under tra should consider this as- judgment!
No.2’s father to represent ready made the offence un- Section 498A IPC can be pect and consider making
her.” der Section 498-A of IPC a made compoundable.” the offence under Section Sanjeev Sirohi is an advocate

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