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Subject: Governance

Important aspects of Society

  • What the low rank on the Global Hunger Index means for India

    Context

    This year’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks India 101 out of 116 countries for which reliable and comparable data exist.

    Government’s stand

    • Is India’s performance on hunger as dismal as denoted by the index or is it partly a statistical artefact?
    • This question assumes immediacy, especially since the government has questioned the methodology and claimed that the ranking does not represent the ground reality.
    • This calls for careful scrutiny of the methodology, especially of the GHI’s components.

    Understanding the GHI methodology

    • The GHI has four components.
    • The first — insufficient calorie intake — is applicable for all age groups.
    • The data on deficiency in calorie intake, accorded 33% weight, is sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Suite of Food Security Indicators (2021).
    • The remaining three — wasting (low weight for height), stunting (low height for age) and mortality — are confined to children under five years.
    • The data on child wasting and stunting (2016-2020), each accounting for 16.6% of weight, are from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and World Bank, complemented with the latest data from the Demographic and Health Surveys.
    • Under-five mortality data are for 2019 from the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

    Issues with GHI

    • The GHI is largely children-oriented with a higher emphasis on undernutrition than on hunger and its hidden forms, including micronutrient deficiencies.
    • The first component — calorie insufficiency — is problematic for many reasons.
    • The lower calorie intake, which does not necessarily mean deficiency, may also stem from reduced physical activity, better social infrastructure (road, transport and healthcare) and access to energy-saving appliances at home, among others.
    • For a vast and diverse country like India, using a uniform calorie norm to arrive at deficiency prevalence means failing to recognise the huge regional imbalances in factors that may lead to differentiated calorie requirements at the State level.

    Understanding the connection between stunting and wasting and ways to tackling them

    • India’s wasting prevalence (17.3%) is one among the highest in the world.
    •  Its performance in stunting, when compared to wasting, is not that dismal, though.
    • Child stunting in India declined from 54.2% in 1998–2002 to 34.7% in 2016-2020, whereas child wasting remains around 17% throughout the two decades of the 21st century.
    • Stunting is a chronic, long-term measure of undernutrition, while wasting is an acute, short-term measure.
    • Quite possibly, several episodes of wasting without much time to recoup can translate into stunting.
    • Effectively countering episodes of wasting resulting from such sporadic adversities is key to making sustained and quick progress in child nutrition.
    • Way forward: If India can tackle wasting by effectively monitoring regions that are more vulnerable to socioeconomic and environmental crises, it can possibly improve wasting and stunting simultaneously.

    Low child mortality

    • India’s relatively better performance in the other component of GHI — child mortality — merits a mention.
    • Studies suggest that child undernutrition and mortality are usually closely related, as child undernutrition plays an important facilitating role in child mortality.
    • However, India appears to be an exception in this regard.
    • This implies that though India was not able to ensure better nutritional security for all children under five years, it was able to save many lives due to the availability of and access to better health facilities.

    Conclusion

    The low ranking does not mean that India fares uniformly poor in every aspect. This ranking should prompt us to look at our policy focus and interventions and ensure that they can effectively address the concerns raised by the GHI, especially against pandemic-induced nutrition insecurity.

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  • NEET hasn’t created the equality of opportunity

    Context

    The Tamil Nadu government has passed an Act seeking an exemption from treating NEET as the sole and mandatory requirement for medical admission in the state. The Act, which is yet to get approval from the President.

    NEET issue in Tamil Nadu

    • The Justice A K Rajan committee was appointed by the state government of Tamil Nadu to examine whether NEET is an equitable method of selection.
    • Its report lends credence to the belief that NEET tends to give an advantage to students from privileged backgrounds.
    • It also observed that NEET, in terms of orientation, is biased towards the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
    • In the section titled ‘Size of coaching market’, the report brings out two poignant facts.
    • One, by inadvertently creating a “market for coaching”, NEET has helped to create an “extractive industry of coaching” as an essential condition for clearing it.
    • Two, the coaching fees are not only high, but are beyond the reach of many, especially the poor and marginalised.
    • Acting upon the committee’s recommendation, the Tamil Nadu government has passed an Act seeking an exemption from treating NEET.
    • The Act, which is yet to get approval from the President.
    •  An educational intervention which was introduced as a solution to foster equality of opportunity has turned out to be the primary cause of deepening inequality of participation and opportunity.

    Important questions

    • There are at least two important questions.
    • Equality of opportunity: First, does NEET help foster equality of opportunity for everyone without unduly advantaging or disadvantaging anyone?
    • Second, is NEET’s bias towards CBSE justifiable in an immensely diverse country like ours, where varied school curricula coexist with a highly unequal access to financial and educational resources and opportunities?
    • The question here is: How can NEET promote parity of participation when aspiring first-generation students from marginalised and poor households participate from a highly unequal position in the first place?
    • NEET disregards the fact that the terms and conditions of participation are highly unequal and biased.

    Way forward

    • The National Education Policy (NEP 2020) envisions a curriculum and pedagogy which will promote holistic learning, social responsibility and multilingualism, among other things.
    • It is important, therefore, to significantly restructure the focus of NEET keeping in mind the spirit of NEP and varied school curricula in regional languages.

    Conclusion

    A restructured NEET, which does not require intensive and repeated coaching as a prerequisite and is not biased towards any board, can go a long way in promoting the parity of participation and nourishing the capacity to aspire, especially of the poor and marginalised.

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  • Why India’s bureaucracy needs urgent reform

    Context

    The bureaucracy that took India through the last 75 years can’t be the one to take it through the next 75 — we need a proactive, imaginative, technology-savvy, enabling bureaucracy.

    Role of bureaucracy and challenges it faces

    • The civil services, and the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in particular played important role in holding India together post-Independence.
    • Much of the impressive nation-building across sectors happened because of their dedication and commitment.
    • It is also forgotten that the bureaucracy, unlike the private sector, is a creature of the Constitution and is bound by multiple rules, laws, and procedures.
    • Understaffed: As per estimates compiled by the Institute of Conflict Management, the government of India (GOI) has about 364 government servants for every 1,00,000 residents, with 45 per cent in the railways alone.
    • About 60 per cent and 30 per cent are in Groups C and D, respectively, leaving a skeletal skilled staff of just about 7 per cent to man critical positions.
    • We are grossly understaffed.
    • Inaction: Further, faced with extensive judicial overreach reporting to an often rapacious, short-sighted political executive, and a media ever ready to play the role of judge, jury and executioner, the bureaucracy has in large part found comfort in inaction and ensuring audit-proof file work.

    Suggestions

    • Get out of business: That we need not be in many sectors is well-recognised — leave them to the markets — and politicians must get bureaucrats out of business, in more ways than one.
    • Prevent punitive actions: To increase the officers’ willingness to take decisions, one possible solution is to legally prevent enforcement agencies from taking punitive action, like arrest for purely economic decisions without any direct evidence of kickbacks.
    • Lateral entry: The toughest challenge is to change an inactive bureaucracy to one that feels safe in taking genuine risks.
    • Lateral entry needs to expand to up to 15 per cent of Joint/Additional and Secretary-level positions in GOI.
    • Recruitment process: Changes in recruitment procedures, like the interview group spending considerable time with the candidates, along with psychometric tests, will improve the incoming pool of civil servants.
    • Evaluation: Most importantly, after 15 years of service, all officers must undergo a thorough evaluation to enable them to move further, and those who do not make it should be put out to pasture.
    • Adoption of technology: Every modern bureaucracy in the world works on technology-enabled productivity and collaboration tools.
    •  India procures about $600 billion worth of goods and services annually — can’t all payments be done electronically?

    Consider this question ” The civil services held India together after Independence, but if the country’s potential is to be realised, existing problems of inefficiency and inaction must be fixed. In light of this, examine the factors reasponsible for inefficiency and suggest the reforms.”

    Conclusion

    India cannot hope to get to a $5-trillion economy without a modern, progressive, results-oriented bureaucracy, one which says “why not?” instead of “why?” when confronted with problems.

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  • India ranked 101 in Global Hunger Index (GHI)

    The Global Hunger Index 2021 has ranked India at 101 positions out of a total 116 countries.

    Note the parameters over which the GHI is based and their weightage composition.

    Global Hunger Index (GHI)

    • The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
    • It determines hunger on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
    • It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
    • The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.

    For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:

    1. Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
    2. Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
    3. Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
    4. Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five

    India’s (poor) performance

    • India is among the 31 countries where hunger has been identified as serious.
    • Only 15 countries fare worse than India.
    • Some of these include Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111) and Somalia (116).
    • India was also behind most of the neighbouring countries.
    • Pakistan was placed at 92 rank, Nepal at 76 and Bangladesh also at 76.

    Reasons for such poor performance

    • Poor maternal health: Mothers are too young, too short, too thin and too undernourished themselves, before they get pregnant, during pregnancy, and then after giving birth, during breast-feeding.
    • Poor sanitation: Poor sanitation, leading to diarrhoea, is another major cause of child wasting and stunting.
    • Food insecurity: Low dietary diversity in India is also a key factor in child malnutrition.
    • Poverty: Almost 50 million households in India are dependent on these small and marginal holdings.
    • Livelihood loss: The rural livelihoods loss after COVID and lack of income opportunities other than the farm sector have contributed heavily to the growing joblessness in rural areas.

    Issues over credibility of GHI

    • India has ranked among many African countries while it is among the top 10 food-producing countries in the world.

     

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  • On Digital Health ID, proceed with caution

    Much recently, the Prime Minister had launched the Digital Health ID project (DHID), generating debate on issues related to the use of technology in a broken health system.

    Explained: Digital Health ID

    Good intents of the DHID

    • The key objective of DHID is to improve the quality, access and affordability of health services by making the service delivery “quicker, less expensive and more robust”.
    • The ambition is undoubtedly high. Given that health systems are highly complex, the DHID would hardly be able to address some of the issues plaguing it.

    Why need DHID?

    (a) Record maintenance

    • The use of technology for record maintenance is not just inevitable but necessary. Its time has certainly come.
    • A decade ago, the process to shift towards electronic medical records was initiated in the private sector.
    • It met with limited success, despite the strong positives.
    • With DHID, the burden of storing and carrying health records for every visit to the doctor is minimised.

    (b) Better tracking of medical history

    • The doctor has instant access to the patient’s case history –the treatment undertaken, where and with what outcomes — enabling more accurate diagnosis and treatment.
    • As the DHID enables portability across geography and healthcare providers, it also helps reduce re-testing or repeating problems every time a patient consults a new doctor.
    • That’s a huge gain, impacting the quality of care and enhancing patient satisfaction and confidence.

    (c) Better Diagnosis

    • DHID can have a transformative impact in promoting ecosystems that function as paperless facilities.
    • Paperless hospitals can promote early diagnosis before the patient reaches the doctor after spending long hours in queue.
    • The doctor can already go through the patient’s record and the pharmacist can make the drugs available by the time the patient reached its counter.

    (d) Promoting medical research

    • Digitisation of medical records is another important positive, given the problems related to space and retrieving huge databases.
    • Well organised repositories that enable easy access to records can stimulate much-needed research on medical devices and drugs.
    • This storehouse of patient data can be valuable for clinical and operational research.

    Given our population, would this be an idealistic expectation?

    • We need to conduct pilot studies to assess the use of technology for streamlining patient flows and medical records and thereby increase efficiencies across different typologies of hospitals and facilities.
    • While technology helps smoothen processes and enhance patient experience, there is a cost attached.
    • Investments have to be made upfront and results should not be expected overnight.

    Issues with DHID

    (a) A costly affair

    • In the immediate short run, DHID will increase administrative costs by about 20 per cent, due to the capital investment in data infrastructure.
    • Over the long run, the additional cost to healthcare is expected to be about 2 per cent.
    • Any scaling up of this reform would require extensive fiscal subsidies and more importantly providing techno-logistical support to both government and private hospitals.

    (b) Privacy concerns

    • Most important is the issue of privacy, the high possibility of hacking and breach of confidentiality.
    • The possibility of privacy being violated increases with the centralisation of all information.
    • Though it is said that the patient is the owner of the information, how many of us deny access, as a matter of routine, when we download apps or programmes that seek access to all our records?
    • How far is this “consent” practical for an illiterate, vulnerable patient desperate to get well?
    • So, taking refuge behind a technical statement that access is contingent on patient consent is unconvincing.

    Ground situation in India

    • Inherently unaffordable healthcare: The costs in the Indian context can be high and that should lead to a careful assessment of the project.
    • Digital divide: Such a scenario is not inconceivable and in the case of health, may cause immense hardship to the most marginalised sections of our population.
    • Infrastructure gap: A large majority of facilities do not have the required physical infrastructure — electricity, accommodation, trained personnel.
    • Usual nature of technical glitches: Cards getting corrupted, servers being down, computers crashing or hanging, and power outages are common in India.
    • Conformity over data synchronization: The inability to synchronise biometric data with ID cards has resulted in large-scale exclusions of the poor from welfare projects.
    • Accuracy of records: Besides, the efficacy of the DHID hinges on the assumption that every visit and every drug consumed by the patient is faithfully and accurately recorded.
    • Increased workload on Medical Professionals: Moreover, while electronic mapping of providers may enable patients to spot a less busy doctor near their location, it is simplistic to assume that the patient will go there.

    Plugging the existing gaps

    • Patient preference for a doctor is dependent upon perception and trust. Likewise, teleconsultations need a huge backend infrastructure and organisation.
    • Teleconsulting has certainly helped patients access medical advice for managing minor ailments, getting prescriptions on the phone and even getting drugs delivered home.
    • But in handling chronic diseases that necessitate continuity of care, teleconsultations have been problematic and cannot be substituted for actual physical examination.
    • Continuity of care is central to good outcomes in inpatient management of chronic diseases.
    • The one serious shortcoming of using teleconsultation for such management is the high attrition rate of doctors within the context of an overall shortage of doctors.
    • Technology can be of little use in the absence of doctors and basic infrastructure.

    Way forward

    • What is needed is building very robust firewalls and trust.
    • Seeing the frequency with which Aadhaar cards have been breached, it is not unreasonable to be concerned with this issue and the implications it has at the family and societal levels.
    • For this reason, instead of a big bang approach, it is better to go slow and steady.
    • That’s the only way to ensure that a good policy does not die along the way due to poor implementation.

     

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  • Reimagining food systems with lessons from India

    Context

    The first and historic United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) 2021 was held in September this year.

    Significance of food system transformation

    • Global food systems are the networks that are needed to produce and transform food, and ensure it reaches consumers, or the paths that food travels from production to plate.
    • Global food systems are in a state of crisis in many countries affecting the poor and the vulnerable.
    • In terms of larger goals, the food system transformation is considered essential in achieving the sustainable development agenda 2030.
    • This makes strong sense as 11 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) out of 17 are directly related to the food system.

    Achievements of the Food Systems Summit

    • The summit created a mechanism for serious debates involving UN member states, civil society, non-governmental organisations, academics, researchers, individuals, and the private sector.
    • The debate and response focused on five identified action tracks namely: Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all; Shift to sustainable consumption patterns; Boost nature-positive production; Advance equitable livelihoods, and Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress.
    • The Statement of Action emerging from the summit offers a concise set of ambitious, high-level principles and areas for action to support the global call to “Build back better” after the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Lessons from India’s experience with food systems

    • India’s long journey from food shortage to surplus food producer offers several lessons for other developing countries.
    • The learnings encompassed elements of nutritional health, food safety and standards, sustainability, deployment of space technology, and the like.
    • Safety nets: One of India’s greatest contributions to equity in food is its National Food Security Act 2013 that anchors the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the Mid-Day meals (MDM), and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
    • Today, India’s food safety nets collectively reach over a billion people.
    • Food safety nets and inclusion are linked with public procurement and buffer stock policy.
    • Challenge of climate change: Climate change and unsustainable use of land and water resources are the most formidable challenges food systems face today.
    • The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has set the alarm bells ringing, highlighting the urgency to act now.
    • Nutrition and food diversity: Dietary diversity, nutrition, and related health outcomes are another area of concern as a focus on rice and wheat has created nutritional challenges of its own.
    • India has taken a bold decision to fortify rice supplied through the Public Distribution System with iron.
    • Low nutrition: Despite being a net exporter and food surplus country at the aggregate level, India has a 50% higher prevalence of undernutrition compared to the world average.
    • But the proportion of the undernourished population declined from 21.6% during 2004-06 to 15.4% during 2018-20.
    • Food wastage: Reducing food wastage or loss of food is a mammoth challenge and is linked to the efficiency of the food supply chain. Food wastage in India exceeds ₹1-lakh crore.

    Need to eliminate hunger

    • ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’ report, estimates that around a tenth of the global population was undernourished last year.
    • Hunger and food insecurity are key drivers of conflict and instability across the world.
    • The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 conferred on the United Nations WFP highlighted the importance of addressing hunger to prevent conflicts and create stability.

    Way forward

    • Collaboration: We must collaborate to invest, innovate, and create lasting solutions in sustainable agriculture contribution to equitable livelihood, food security, and nutrition.
    • Lessons from India: India has so much to offer from its successes, and learning also, to prepare itself for the next 20 to 30 years.
    • There is a need to reimagining the food system towards the goal of balancing growth and sustainability, mitigating climate change, ensuring healthy, safe, quality, and affordable food, maintaining biodiversity, improving resilience, and offering an attractive income and work environment to smallholders and youth.

    Conclusion

    We are on the cusp of a transformation to make the world free of hunger by 2030 and deliver promises for SDGs, with strong cooperation and partnership between governments, citizens, civil society organisations, and the private sector.

  • What are the concerns of digital health mission?

    The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), was recently launched by the PM.

    About Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

    • The pilot project of the National Digital Health Mission was announced by PM Modi during his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort on August 15, 2020.
    • The mission will enable access and exchange of longitudinal health records of citizens with their consent.
    • This will ensure ease of doing business for doctors and hospitals and healthcare service providers.

    The key components of the project include

    • Health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application,
    • Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR)
    • Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine

    How will it work?

    • In order to be a part of the ABDM, citizens will have to create a unique health ID – a randomly generated 14-digit identification number.
    • The ID will give the user unique identification, authentication and will be a repository of all health records of a person.
    • The ID can also be made by self-registration on the portal, downloading the ABMD Health Records app on one’s mobile or at a participating health facility.
    • The beneficiary will also set up a Personal Health Records (PHR) address for the issue of consent, and for future sharing of health records.

    Major privacy issues involved

    • Informed Consent: The citizen’s consent is vital for all access. A beneficiary’s consent is vital to ensure that information is released.
    • Data leakages issue: Personalised data collected at multiple levels are a “sitting gold mine” for insurance companies, international researchers, and pharma companies.
    • Digital divide: Other experts add that lack of access to technology, poverty, and lack of understanding of the language in a vast and diverse country like India are problems that need to be looked into.
    • Data Migration: The data migration and inter-State transfer are still faced with multiple errors and shortcomings in addition to concerns of data security.

    Other challenges

    • Existing digitalization is yet incomplete: India has been unable to standardise the coverage and quality of the existing digital cards like One Nation One Ration card, PM-JAY card, Aadhaar card, etc., for accessibility of services and entitlements.
    • Lack of healthcare facilities: The defence of data security by expressed informed consent doesn’t work in a country that is plagued by the acute shortage of healthcare professionals to inform the client fully.
    • Lack of finance: With the minuscule spending of 1.3% of the GDP on the healthcare sector, India will be unable to ensure the quality and uniform access to healthcare that it hoped to bring about.

  • 2nd phase of SBM-U and AMRUT Mission

    The PM has launched the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.

    What are the missions?

    [A] Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0

    The Mission will focus on ensuring complete access to sanitation facilities to serve additional populations migrating from rural to urban areas in search of employment and better opportunities over the next 5 years.

    • Complete liquid waste management in cities in less than 1 lakh population to ensure that all wastewater is safely contained, collected, transported, and treated so that no wastewater pollutes our water bodies.
    • Source segregation- Under Sustainable Solid Waste Management, greater emphasis will be on source segregation.
    • Material Recovery Facilities and waste processing facilities will be set up, with a focus on phasing out single-use plastic.
    • Construction & demolition waste processing facilities will be set up.
    • Mechanical sweepers deployed in National Clean Air Programme cities and in cities with more than 5 lakh population.
    • Remediation of all legacy dumpsites will be another key component of the Mission.

    [B] AMRUT 2.0

    • Water management: It will build upon the progress of AMRUT to address water needs, rejuvenate water bodies, better manage aquifers, reuse treated wastewater, thereby promoting circular economy of water.
    • Water supply: It would provide100% coverage of water supply to all households in around 4,700 ULBs.
    • Sewerage: It will provide 100% coverage of sewerage and septage in 500 AMRUT cities.
    • Rejuvenation of water bodies and urban aquifer management: It will be undertaken to augment sustainable fresh water supply.
    • Recycle and reuse of treated wastewater: It is expected to cater to 20% of total water needs of the cities and 40% of industrial demand.
    • Pey Jal Survekshan: It will be conducted in cities to ascertain equitable distribution of water, reuse of wastewater and mapping of water bodies.

    Back2Basics:

    All about the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

     

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  • [pib] DigiSaksham Initiative

    The Ministry of Labour and Employment has launched DigiSaksham Initiative.

    DigiSaksham

    • It is joint initiative with Microsoft India is an extension of the Government’s ongoing programs to support the youth from rural and semi-urban areas.
    • Through DigiSaksham initiative, free of cost training in digital skills including basic skills as well as advance computing, will be provided to more than 3 lakh youths in the first year.
    • The Jobseekers can access the training through National Career Service (NCS) Portal.
    • DigiSaksham will be implemented in the field by Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSP-I).

    Training offered

    • Under the initiative, there will be basically three types of training viz. Digital Skills – Self paced learning, VILT mode training (Virtual Instructor led) and ILT mode training (Instructor led).
    • The ILT training which is in person training would be conducted at the Model Career Centres (MCCs) and National Career Service Centres (NCSC) for SCs/STs across the country.
    • Students will be able to access training in areas like Java Script, Data Visualisation, Advance Excel, Power Bi, HTML, Programming languages, software development fundamentals, Introduction to coding etc.

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  • PM-CARES

    We all know that the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund doesn’t come under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI). This oped seeks to discuss certain aspects of this issue.

    Present context

    • In a recent affidavit, the Delhi High Court was informed that the PM CARES Fund is not a Government of India fund and that the amount collected by it does not go to the Consolidated Fund of India is strange.
    • This petition is seeking the PM-CARES fund to be declared as the “State” under Article 12 of the Constitution.

    Intriguing facts about PM-CARES fund

    • PM CARES has been created not by law, not by notification, but by the mere creation of a webpage, and set up last year in March to raise funds for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • The page lists its structure, functions and duties in an arbitrary manner. The official appeals for funds are made under the national emblem.
    • The most significant lie of this sworn statement is that the Government has no control over the Fund.

    What is the case?

    • The PM-CARES Fund was not subject to CAG audit since the Supreme Court regarded it as a public charitable trust.
    • It is not under public scrutiny. Also contributions to it were 100% tax-free.
    • It is accused that there was statutory fund already in existence under the Disaster Management Act of 2005 to receive contributions to finance the fight against a calamity.

    What is RTI?

    • RTI is an act of the parliament which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens’ right to information.
    • It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002.
    • Under the provisions of RTI Act, any citizen of India may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within 30.
    • In case of the matter involving a petitioner’s life and liberty, the information has to be provided within 48 hours.

    About PM CARES Fund

    • The PM CARES Fund was created on 28 March 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
    • The fund will be used for combat, containment and relief efforts against the coronavirus outbreak and similar pandemic like situations in the future.
    • The PM is the chairman of the trust. Members will include the defence, home and finance ministers.
    • The fund will also enable micro-donations. The minimum donation accepted is ₹10 (14¢ US).

    The other funds

    (1) National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF)

    • The statutorily constituted NDRF was established under the Disaster Management (DM) Act of 2005.
    • The NDRF is mandated to be accountable, and answerable under the RTI Act, being a public authority, and auditable by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

    (2) Disaster Response Fund

    • The DM Act also provided for a Disaster Response Fund — state and district level funds (besides the national level).
    • It also collects and uses the donations at the local level, with mandatory transparency and audit provisions.

    (3) Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund

    • There is the PMNRF operative since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. It was established with public contributions to assist displaced persons from Pakistan.
    • The resources are now utilised primarily to render immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities and to the victims of the major accidents and riots.
    • However, it has the President of India and the Leader of Opposition also as trustees.

    Issues over PM-CARES Fund

    • No defined purpose: It is deliberately ignored while a new, controversial, unanswerable, and ‘non-accountable vehicle is created; its character is not spelt out till today.
    • Non-accountable: The government seems to consider statutory provisions for enquiry and information seeking to be embarrassing obstacles.
    • Centralization of donations: It centralises the collection of donations and its utility, which is not only against the federal character but also practically inconvenient. The issue is seeming, the trusteeship of the fund.

    Questions and gaps

    • Law/statute: The PM CARES Fund was neither created by the Constitution of India nor by any statute.
    • Authority: If that is the case, under what authority does it use the designation of the Prime Minister, designated symbols of the nation, the tricolour and the official (gov.in) website of the PMO, and grant tax concessions through an ordinance.
    • Collection and dispensation: The amount received by the Fund does not go to the Consolidated Fund of India. If it goes to the CFI, it could have been audited by the CAG.
    • Uncontrolled: The This Trust is neither intended to be or is in fact owned, controlled or substantially financed by any instrumentality of the any govt even being chaired by the PM.

    Issue over tax benefits

    • Income tax: An ordinance was promulgated to amend Income Tax Act, 1961 and declare that the donations to the PM CARES Fund “would qualify for 80G benefits for 100% exemption”.
    • CSR Funds: It will also qualify to be counted as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013.
    • Foreign donations: It has also got exemption under the FCRA [Foreign Contribution Regulation Act] and a separate account for receiving foreign donations has been opened.

    What can be inferred from all these?

    • The Centre now considers it as another obstacle and has created a new trust with the Prime Minister and his Ministers only.
    • The manner in which the PM CARES Fund was set up — with its acronym created to publicise the point that the PM cares for people — shows a bypassing of the statutory obligations of a public authority.

    Query and response: Again ironical

    • After initial denials, the Government has conceded it to be a public charitable trust, but still maintains that it is not a ‘public authority’.
    • The point is that the PMO operates the Fund, but says it cannot supply any information about the PM CARES Fund because it is not a public authority.

    Severe interpretations: Is it an Office of Profit?

    • If the PM CARES Fund is unconnected with the Government, then the Fund could become an office of profit.
    • And that could disqualify him and the three Ministers from holding those constitutional offices.

    Conclusion

    • In order to uphold transparency, the PM CARES Fund should be declared as a Public Authority under the RTI Act, and all RTI queries answered truthfully.
    • The fund should be designated as a “public authority” under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.

     

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