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  • Protecting freedom in era of technological transformation

    The article discusses the issue of growing influence of social media companies and response of the governments.

    Issues with the growing influence of social media companies

    • In the US the last two general elections in 2016 and 2020 have seen strong charges of political manipulation by social media companies.
    • But influence of social media companies is not limited ot elections, it envelops a range of domestic and international issues.
    • These issuesincludes: the concentration of economic power, individual rights against the state as well as the corporation, disinformation, the rise of digital geopolitics, and global digital governance.

    How governments are responding

    •  Democratic forces need to consult each other and collaborate in developing new norms for managing the digital world.
    • In the US, both the left and right are demanding that digital behemoths like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Twitter are brought under greater control if not broken up.
    • Last December, the European Commission proposed new rules to promote competition and fairness in digital markets.
    • The EU is likely to approve a Digital Markets Act next year.
    • Australia has decreed that Google must work out an arrangement with Australian newspapers to pay for the use of their content.
    • The current digital giants, however, are not easily amenable to political attack.
    • They are bigger than the biggest we have known.

    3 Issues with business practices of social media companies

    • Governments are now questioning the sharp business practices of the tech giants especially labour rights, taxes and politics.
    • While the tech giants have created a lot of new wealth, some of them have sharply squeezed the labour.
    • In California, trade unions are battling against the success of Uber and Lyft to turn employees into “contract workers” to deny them multiple benefits.
    • Digital giants have been aggressive tax evaders.
    • On the political front recently,Twitter and Facebook shut down President Donald Trump’s accounts.
    • European leaders raised important questions about social media’s actions against Trump.

    Way forward

    • Answer to deal with social media on political front lies in laying down a clear set of obligations and responsibilities for the digital giants.
    • This move will help in building digital sovereignty.
    • The world’s democracies must get together to discuss global digital governance.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges posed by the growing influence of social media companies in the democratic countries?” 

    Conclusion

    As governments push back against big tech, a new challenge presents itself — reining in the growing power of the state in the digital age. The answer lies in democracies modernising their laws to protect freedoms in the era of technological transformation.

  • [pib] National Creche Scheme

    The Union Minister of Women and Child Development have given information about the National Creche Scheme to the Lok Sabha.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017?

    1. Pregnant women are entitled to three months pre-delivery and three months post-delivery paid leave.
    2. Enterprises with creches must allow the mother a minimum of six crèche visits daily.
    3. Women with two children get reduced entitlements.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    National Creche Scheme

    • The Ministry of WCD implements the NCS for the children of working mothers as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme through States/ UTs with effect from 01.01.2017.
    • It aims to provide daycare facilities to children (age group of 6 months to 6 years) of working mothers.

    The Scheme provides an integrated package of the following services:

    • Daycare facilities including sleeping facilities.
    • Early stimulation for children below 3 years and pre-school education for 3 to 6 years old children
    • Supplementary nutrition (to be locally sourced)
    • Growth monitoring
    • Health check-up and immunization

  • MTP amendment Bill

    The article discusses the provision of the medical board in the MTP (Amendment) Act and issues with it.

    Proposal of medical board

    • The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill (‘MTP Bill’) passed in the Lok Sabha is scheduled to be tabled for consideration in Rajya Sabha.
    • The Act prescribes the setting up of medical boards in every state and Union territory (UT), consisting of a gynaecologist, paediatrician, radiologist or sonologist and any other members as proposed by that state or UT.
    • Each board will be responsible for diagnosing substantial foetal abnormalities that necessitate termination of pregnancy after a 24-week gestation period.
    • Medical boards are a form of third-party authorisation and were not envisaged in the MTP Act, 1971.

    Issues with the proposal

    • In the context of the current healthcare budgetary challenges, this proposal to set up infrastructure across the country to regulate medical termination of pregnancies is both financially unsound and practically impossible.
    • India’s healthcare system has neither the financial investment nor the infrastructure to sustain the operation and functioning of medical boards in every state and UT.
    • Due to the weak healthcare infrastructure in the country, it would be practically impossible to constitute these boards with the requisite specialists.
    • Even where they are set up, the accessibility of such boards for pregnant persons, especially those living in rural areas, remains a major challenge.
    • More importantly, subjecting people to multiple invasive examinations is a grave violation of their rights to privacy and dignity.
    • Requiring pregnant persons to navigate a bureaucratic web of authorisation will inevitably lead to delays and thereby impede access to safe and legal abortion services.

    Poor public financing and privatisation of healthcare

    • At 1.6 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 India’s current level of public financing of health is one of the lowest in the world
    • This has meant that most health expenditure in the country is out of pocket (OOP) — borne by patients themselves.
    • OOP expenditure on healthcare is recorded at 58.7 per cent as per the National Health Accounts in 2016-17.
    • The central government has preferred to incentivise private players to set up or offer services, instead of building infrastructural and professional capacity.
    • Privatisation drives up costs of care and the handing over of public facilities to the private sector can have catastrophic consequences.
    • They additionally remain non-accountable to state authorities in terms of affordability or transparency for instance, through Right to Information enquiries, or to uphold fundamental rights like non-discrimination in treatment or employment, or even the fundamental right to health.
    • The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)’s 75th report shows that less than 20 per cent of the population is covered by health insurance in India.
    • According to the National Health Profile 2017, India has only one doctor for roughly 10,200 people in the public sector.

    Consider the question “Discsss the changes made by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill and the challenges its provision could face.”

    Conclusion

    Poor public health infrastructure and absence of specialists across the country have meant that most abortions do not happen in the public sector, but at private centres or at home. With overwhelming shortfalls in specialist availability, especially in rural and scheduled areas, it would be impossible to constitute boards with requisite specialist representation as contemplated under the MTP Bill.

  • Centre’s new labour codes to allow 4-day work per week

    The Centre under its new labour codes would soon provide an option for organisations to allow their employees to work for four days in a week.

    What is the news?

    • The proposed new labour codes could provide companies with the flexibility of four working days in a week.

    What does this mean?

    • The working hour’s limit of 48 hours for a week will remain unchanged.
    • This implies that there will be long working hours if the working days are reduced.
    • Having a reduced number of working days does not mean a cut in paid holidays.
    • Therefore, when the new rules will provide the flexibility of four working days, it would imply three paid holidays.

    Roll out of the proposal

    • The Ministry of Labour and Employment is likely to complete the process to finalise the rules for four labour codes soon.
    • The provision of flexibility to have reduced working days of four days in the labour code rules will mean that companies will not require prior government nod to enact it.

    Why such a move?

    • The well-being of employees improves with less workload. Working parents can spare more time for the childcare.
    • It helps the economy and the environment since power and fuel consumption is reduced.

    Ahead of Labour reforms

    • The ministry is in the final phase of amalgamating 44 central labour laws into four broad codes.
    • The four Codes include- Code on Wages, Industrial Relations, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) and Social Security Codes.

     

  • Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

    The government’s maternity benefit scheme, or Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, has crossed 1.75 crores, eligible women, till the financial year 2020, the Centre informed Parliament.

    PMMVY

    • The PMMVY is a maternity benefit program introduced in 2017 and is implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
    • It is a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating women of 19 years of age or above for the first live birth.
    • It provides partial wage compensation to women for wage-loss during childbirth and childcare and to provide conditions for safe delivery and good nutrition and feeding practices.
    • Under the scheme, pregnant women and lactating mothers receive ₹5,000 on the birth of their first child in three instalments, after fulfilling certain conditionalities.
    • In 2013, the scheme was brought under the National Food Security Act, 2013 to implement the provision of cash maternity benefit stated in the Act.
    • The direct benefit cash transfer is to help expectant mothers meet enhanced nutritional requirements as well as to partially compensate them for wage loss during their pregnancy.

    Eligibility Conditions and Conditionalities

    The first transfer (at pregnancy trimester) of ₹1,000 requires the mother to:

    • Register pregnancy at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC) whenever she comes to know about her conception
    • Attend at least one prenatal care session and taking Iron-folic acid tablets and TT1 (tetanus toxoid injection), and
    • Attend at least one counselling session at the AWC or healthcare centre.

    The second transfer (six months of conception) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:

    • Attend at least one prenatal care session and TT2

    The third transfer (three and a half months after delivery) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:

    • Register the birth
    • Immunize the child with OPV and BCG at birth, at six weeks and at 10 weeks
    • Attend at least two growth monitoring sessions within three months of delivery

    Additionally, the scheme requires the mother to:

    • Exclusively breastfeed for six months and introduce complementary feeding as certified by the mother
    • Immunize the child with OPV and DPT
    • Attend at least two counselling sessions on growth monitoring and infant and child nutrition and feeding between the third and sixth months after delivery

    Before judging this factual information, take this PYQ form 2019:

    Q.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017?

    1. Pregnant women are entitled to three months pre-delivery and three months post-delivery paid leave.
    2. Enterprises with creches must allow the mother a minimum of six crèche visits daily.
    3. Women with two children get reduced entitlements.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

  • Amendment to the CSR Rules

    The Corporate Affairs Ministry has amended the rules for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure to allow companies to undertake multi-year projects, and also require that all CSR implementing agencies be registered with the government.

    Q.What do you mean by CSR? Discuss the role of CSR activities in social transformation.

    What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

    • CSR is a type of business self-regulation that aims to contribute to the societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethically-oriented practices.
    • It rests on the ideology of “give and take” i.e. to take scarce resources from the environment for running a business, and in turn to contribute towards economic, social, and environmental development.

    CSR in India

    • India is the first country in the world to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory, following an amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 in April 2014.
    • Businesses can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality, and hunger as part of any CSR compliance.

    All companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more, are required to spend 2 per cent of their average profits of the previous three years on CSR activities every year.

    What are the new amendments?

    • The amended CSR rules allow companies to set off CSR expenditure above the required 2 percent expenditure in any fiscal year against required expenditure for up to three financial years.
    • There lies an ambiguity whether the rule would apply for expenditure undertaken prior to the amendment.
    • The government is thus allowing corporates that have in good faith incurred excess CSR expenditure in the past to set it off against future CSR expenditure requirements.

    Other key changes

    • The amended rules require that any corporation with a CSR obligation of Rs 10 crore or more for the three preceding financial years would be required to hire an independent agency to conduct an impact assessment of their entire project with outlays of Rs 1 crore or more.
    • Companies will be allowed to count 5 percent of the CSR expenditure for the year up to Rs 50 lakh on impact assessment towards CSR expenditure.

    What are the changes required for implementing agencies?

    • The new amendment restricts companies from authorizing either a Section 8 company or a registered public charitable trust to conduct CSR projects on their behalf.
    • A Section 8 company is a company registered with the purpose of promoting charitable causes, applies profits to promoting its objectives, and is prohibited from distributing dividends to shareholders.
    • Further, all such entities will have to be registered with the government by April 1.

    Impact of the move

    • The change would impact CSR programs of a number of large Indian companies that conduct projects through private trusts.
    • It would mean such private trusts would either have to be converted to registered public trusts or stop acting as CSR implementing agencies.

  • [pib] PMKVY 3.0

    The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 3.0.

    Note the differences between all three versions of PMKVY.

    PMKVY 3.0

    • PMKVY 3.0 envisages training of eight lakh candidates over the scheme period of 2020-2021.
    • This phase three will focus on new-age and COVID-related skills.
    • The 729 PM Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs), empanelled non-PMKK training centres and more than 200 industrial training institutes under Skill India will be rolling out under it.
    • On the basis of the learning gained from PMKVY 1.0 and PMKVY 2.0, the MSDE has improved the newer version of the scheme to match the current policy doctrine and energize the skilling ecosystem.

    Implementation

    • PMKVY 3.0 will be implemented in a more decentralized structure with greater responsibilities and support from States/UTs and Districts.
    • District Skill Committees (DSCs), under the guidance of State Skill Development Missions (SSDM), shall play a key role in addressing the skill gap and assessing demand at the district level.
    • The new scheme will be more trainee- and learner-centric addressing the ambitions of aspirational Bharat.
    • PMKVY 2.0 broadened the skill development with the inclusion of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and focus on training.
    • With the advent of PMKVY 3.0, the focus is on bridging the demand-supply gap by promoting skill development in areas of new-age and Industry 4.0 job roles.

    Back2Basics: PMKVY 1.0

    • PMKVY is a skill development initiative scheme of the Government of India for recognition and standardization of skills launched on16 July 2015;.
    • The aim of the scheme is to encourage aptitude towards employable skills and to increase the working efficiency of probable and existing daily wage earners, by giving monetary awards and rewards and by providing quality training to them.
    • For this qualification plans and quality, plans have been developed by various Sector Skill Councils (SSC) created with the participation of Industries.
    • National Skill Development Council (NSDC) has been made coordinating and driving agency for the same.

  • Improving the diet of low income households to address malnutrition

    The article suggests the ways to deal with the menace of malnutrition in the country.

    Findings of the first phase of NFHS-5

    • Recently, the first phase of the NFHS-5 survey was published.
    • The deteriorating nutrition and anaemia indicators, especially among children is a cause for concern.
    • More deterioration in nutrition indicators following the COVID-19 pandemic is feared in the next phase of NFHS-5.
    • This deterioration would be on account of loss of livelihoods, reduced food consumption among the poor and disruption of government nutrition programmes.

    Challenges

    • Unlike a disease outbreak there may not be any popular demand to address malnutrition — the public, by and large, does not have adequate information about the damage malnutrition causes.
    • Hence, in the Indian context, it becomes the responsibility of the government/civil society to first provide information and awareness to the community about malnutrition.

    Steps to be taken

    • The government should examine the current nutrition-related programmes, and analysing why they are not able to reduce malnutrition faster.
    • Additional interventions could be introduced in pockets, identified as high-burden districts.
    • There should be different norms and more intensive interventions within the ICDS for these chronically malnourished pockets.
    • We need to know if the National Nutrition Policy 1993 is still operational.
    • If not, it seems that we are attempting to address this problem without a policy framework or plan of action.

    Addressing the root cause of malnutrition in India

    The following three deficits are the root cause of malnutrition in India.

    1) Dietary deficit

    • There is a large dietary deficit among at least 40 per cent of our population of all age groups, shown in— the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau’s Third Repeat Survey (2012), NFHS 4, 2015-16, the NNMB Technical Report Number 27, 2017.
    • Our current interventions are not being able to bridge this protein-calorie-micronutrient deficit.
    • The NHHS-4 and NFHS-5 surveys reveal an acute dietary deficit among infants below two years, and considerable stunting and wasting of infants below six months.
    • Unless this maternal/infant dietary deficit is addressed, we will not see rapid improvement in our nutritional indicators.

    2) Information deficit at household level

    • We do not have a national IEC (information, education and communication) programme that reaches targeted households to bring about the required behavioural change regarding some basic but critical facts.
    • For example, IEC tells about the importance of balanced diets in low-income household budgets, proper maternal, child and adolescent nutrition and healthcare.

    3) Inequitable market conditions

    • The largest deficit, which is a major cause of dietary deficiency and India’s chronic malnutrition, pertains to inequitable market conditions.
    • Such market conditions deny affordable and energy-fortified food to children, adolescents and adults in lower-income families.
    • The market has stacks of expensive fortified energy food and beverages for higher income groups, but nothing affordable for low-income groups.

    Conclusion

    Raising the diet of our people from subsistence level to higher levels of nourishment by overcoming the triple deficit is the only way to improve the nutritional indicators of our population — amongst children, adolescents and adults.

  • Personal Data Protection Bill 2019

    The Personal Data Protection Bill (2019) has several provisions which could have implications for the privacy of an individual. The article examines such provisions and highlights the need for further debate on the Bill.

    Evolution of privacy as a fundamental right

    • The Supreme Court in MP Sharma v. Satish Chandra (1954) and Kharak Singh v. Uttar Pradesh (1962) had declared that while in certain circumstances the privacy of individuals was to be protected, there was no constitutional right to privacy in and of itself.
    • However, in Puttuswamy v India (2017) the Supreme Court accepted privacy as a fundamental right.
    • This was an important development.

    Rising importance of data

    • The rising importance of data has pushed over 80 countries to pass national laws protecting the collection and use of their citizens’ data by companies and the government.
    • The DPB will have huge commercial and political consequences for India.
    • In India, the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 (DPB) is currently under consideration by a parliamentary committee.
    • According to Ernst and Young, emerging technologies in India will create $1 trillion in economic value by 2025.
    • Much of this value will be founded on the creation, use, and sale of data, and the DPB will have immense implications as firms scramble to meet new privacy regulations.

    Conditions for access to data and issues

    • The bill establishes a number of conditions for companies to follow.
    • For one, it would require digital firms to obtain permission from users before collecting their data.
    • It also declares that users who provide data are, in effect, the owners of their own data.
    • So that the users will be able to control the data their online selves produce, and may request firms to delete it, just as European internet-users’ “right to be forgotten”.
    • But the bill stipulates that critical or sensitive personal data, related to information such as religion, or to matters of national security, must be accessible to the government if needed to protect national interest.
    • Critics have suggested that such open-ended access could lead to misuse.
    • Even B N Srikrishna, who chaired the committee that drafted the original bill has also expressed concerns about this provision.
    • Other major concern is about Data Protection Authority (DPA).

    Concerns about Data Protection Authority

    • The bill outlines the establishment of a Data Protection Authority (DPA).
    • The DPA will be charged with managing data collected by the Aadhaar programme.
    • It will be led by a chairperson and six committee members, appointed by the central government on the recommendation of a selection committee.
    • But this selection committee will be composed of senior civil servants, raising questions about the board’s independence.
    • The government’s power to appoint and remove members at its discretion also stokes fears about its ability to influence this independent agency.
    • Unlike similar institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India or the Securities and Exchange Board, the DPA will not have an independent expert or member of the judiciary on its governing committee.

    Consider the question “Discuss the various provision of Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 for the protection of individual’s privacy. What are the concerns over the various provisions of the Bill?”

    Conclusion

    The DPB is a unique opportunity for India, a country with some 740 million internet users, to forge a pathbreaking agenda that will act as a standard-setter in the still-developing field of national data protection legislation.

  • Issues with U.P. religious conversion ordinance

    The article examines the provision of U.P. governments religious conversion ordinance and issues with these provision.

    Power to promulgate an ordinance

    • As per Article 213(1) of the Constitution of India, there are three pre-conditions to be satisfied before the Governor promulgates an ordinance, these are:
    • 1) The State Legislature should not be in session.
    • 2) Circumstances should exist for promulgating an ordinance and importantly.
    • 3) Those circumstances must warrant immediate action.

    Scrutiny of the circumstances

    • There is no established practice requiring the Governor (or the President under Article 123) to state the circumstances for promulgating the Ordinance.
    • The reason for immediate action is, as yet, not justiciable.
    • But the Supreme Court of India has held that the existence of circumstances leading to the satisfaction of the Governor can be inquired into.
    • A healthy convention should develop and the preamble to any ordinance should state the immediacy for promulgating it when the Legislature is not in session.
    • This would greatly enhance transparency in legislation.
    • This would also help legislators to understand why they are by-passed and why a procedures in the Legislature could not be awaited.

    Issues with the U.P. ordinance

    • The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance records the satisfaction of the Governor of the existence of circumstances and the necessity for “him/her to take immediate action.
    • If one fraudulent or coercive inter-faith marriage is taking place, the police can certainly prevent it.
    • An ordinance is not required for it.
    • Section 3 prohibits conversion or attempt to convert any person from one religion to another by coercion or fraud etc. or by marriage.
    • But, nobody gets converted by marriage.
    • The offense of attempting to convert poses a bigger rights issue.
    • Under Section 7, on receiving the information a police officer is authorized to arrest a person without orders from Magistrate or warrant.
    • The nature of information includes an allegation of allurement which includes an offer of any temptation in the form of a gift or gratification.
    • Under Section 8, if someone genuinely desires to convert but not get married, that person would have to inform the District Magistrate (DM) two months in advance of the plan through a declaration.
    • Assuming conversion is not objected to, even thereafter the DM must be informed by the converted through a declaration under Section 9.
    • Section 12 provides that the burden to prove the conversion was not on account of coercion, fraud, etc., or by marriage will be on the person who has caused the conversion.
    • But, how the person causing the conversion expected to know the mind of the converted?

    Conclusion

    The ordinance vilifies all inter-faith marriages and places unreasonable obstacles on consenting adults in exercising their personal choice of a partner, mocks the right to privacy and violates the right to life, liberty, and dignity. In short, it is unconstitutional.