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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    Bridging the health policy to execution chasm

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Public health and management cadre

    Context

    In April this year, the Union government released a guidance document on the setting up of a ‘public health and management cadre’ (PHMC) as well as revised editions of the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) — for ensuring quality health care in government facilities.

    Background

    • The need for a public health cadre and services in India rarely got any policy attention.
    • Limited understanding: The reason was that even among policymakers, there was limited understanding on the roles and the functions of public health specialists and the relevance of such cadres, especially at the district and sub-district levels.
    • However, the last decade and a half was eventful.
    • The initial threat of avian flu in 2005-06, the Swine flu pandemic of 2009-10; five more public health emergencies of international concern between years 2009-19; the increasing risks and regular emergence and re-emergence of of new viruses and diseases (Zika, Ebola, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic fever, Nipah viruses, etc.) in animals and humans, resulted in increased attention on public health.
    • National Public health Act: In 2017, India’s National Health Policy 2017 proposed the formation of a public health cadre and enacting a National Public Health Act.
    • The COVID-19 pandemic changed the status quo.
    • In the absence of trained public health professionals at the policy and decision making levels, India’s pandemic response ended up becoming bureaucrat steered and clinician led.

    Different cadres and its implications

    • Lack of career progression opportunities: At present, most Indian States (with exceptions such as Tamil Nadu and Odisha) have a teaching cadre (of medical college faculty members) and a specialist cadre of doctors involved in clinical services.
    • This structure does not provide similar career progression opportunities for professionals trained in public health.
    • Limited interest: It is one of the reasons for limited interest by health-care professionals to opt for public health as a career choice.
    • The outcome has been costly for society: a perennial shortage of trained public health workforce.

    Public health cadre

    • The proposed public health cadre and the health management cadre have the potential to address some of these challenges.
    • With the release of guidance documents, the States have been advised to formulate an action plan, identify the cadre strengths, and fill up the vacant posts in the next six months to a year.
    • A public health workforce has a role even beyond epidemics and pandemics.
    • A trained public health workforce ensures that people receive holistic health care, of preventive and promotive services (largely in the domain of public health) as well as curative and diagnostic services (as part of medical care).

    Revised version of IPHS and significance

    • This is the second revision in the IPHS, which were first released in 2007 and then revised in 2012.
    • The regular need for a revision in the IPHS is a recognition of the fact that to be meaningful, quality improvement has to be an ongoing process.
    • The development of the IPHS itself was a major step.
    • The revised IPHS is an important development but not an end itself.
    • In the 15 years since the first release of the IPHS, only a small proportion — around 15% to 20% — of government health-care facilities meets these standards. .
    • If the pace of achieving IPHS is any criteria, there is a need for more accelerated interventions.
    • Opportunities such as a revision of the IPHS should also be used for an independent assessment on how the IPHS has improved the quality of health services.

    Implementation challenges

    • The effective part of implementation is interplay: policy formulation, financial allocation, and the availability of a trained workforce.
    • In this case, policy has been formulated.
    • Financial allocations: Then, though the Government’s spending on health in India is low and has increased only marginally in the last two decades; however, in the last two years, there have been a few additional — small but assured — sources of funding for public health services have become available.
    • The Fifteenth Finance Commission grant for the five-year period of 2021- 26 and the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) allocations are available for strengthening public health services and could be used  as States embark upon implementing the PHMC and a revised IPHS.
    • Availability of trained workforce: The third aspect of effective implementation, the availability of trained workforce, is the most critical.
    • As States develop plans for setting up the PHMC, all potential challenges in securing a trained workforce should be identified and actions initiated.

    Conclusion

    The public health and management cadres and the revised IPHS can help India to make progress towards the NHP goal. To ensure that, State governments need to act urgently and immediately.

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    Back2Basics: Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS)

    • IPHS are a set of uniform standards envisaged to improve the quality of health care delivery in the country.
    • The IPHS documents have been revised keeping in view the changing protocols of the existing programmes and introduction of new programmes especially for Non-Communicable Diseases.
    • Flexibility is allowed to suit the diverse needs of the States and regions.
    • These IPHS guidelines will act as the main driver for continuous improvement in quality and serve as the bench mark for assessing the functional status of health facilities.

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  • Women Safety Issues – Marital Rape, Domestic Violence, Swadhar, Nirbhaya Fund, etc.

    On marital rape, regressive notions undermine autonomy of women

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Marital rape issue

    Context

    On 11 May, two judges of the Delhi High Court handed down separate judgments in RIT Foundation v Union of India.

    Background

    • Section 375 of the IPC defines “rape” as when a man has sex with a woman without her consent.
    • Exception to Section 375 of IPC:  An exception to Section 375 provides that it is not rape for a husband to have sex with his wife, regardless of consent.

    The two judgements

    1] Violation of rights:

    • In his judgment, Justice Rajiv Shakdher concluded that the marital rape exception violated the rights to life, equality, non-discrimination, and freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution.
    • There is no reasonable basis to distinguish between married and unmarried women.
    • Marriage is a relationship of equals, and women do not forfeit their agency and sexual autonomy upon marriage.

    2] Issues with Constitutional validity of exception

    • Justice C Hari Shankar took a different view, concluding that the marital rape exception is constitutionally valid.
    • First, the judge held that it is the wrong starting point to assume that a husband who has sex with his wife without her consent “commits rape”.
    • 1] Exclusion from definition argument: The judge noted that the effect of the exception to Section 375 of the IPC is that any sex between a husband and wife, whether or not consensual, is excluded from the definition of rape.
    • That analysis does not bear scrutiny.
    • It makes little difference whether the starting point is that non-consensual sex within marriage should be characterised as rape or, for example, sexual assault.
    • The critical question is whether it is unconstitutional to exclude non-consensual sex from the definition of rape.
    • 2] Preservation of marital institution argument: The judge held that the marital rape exception was “aimed at preservation of the marital institution, on which the entire bedrock of society rests”.
    • The difficulty with that proposition is obvious — is it the policy of the law that marriage is to be preserved at all costs?
    • If so, does that withstand constitutional scrutiny?
    • 3] Impact argument: the judge rejected the challenge to the martial rape exception based on the right to equality on the spurious assumption that the impact on a woman who is raped by her husband cannot “be equated with the impact of a woman who is raped by a stranger”.
    •  No evidence is cited in support of those claims.
    • They also defy logic. Being raped by someone in whom you have reposed trust is likely to have an indelible emotional impact.
    • 4] Reluctance to file complaint: The judge concluded that, as a practical matter, a “majority of Indian women” would be reluctant to file a complaint of rape against their husbands in any event.
    • Even if that were true, it is no reason to disempower, by the operation of the law, women who do have the resolve to make a rape complaint against their husbands from doing so.
    • 5] Creation of new offence: Justice Shankar held that it is not within the court’s power to create a new offence, and striking down the marital rape exception would have that effect.
    • There is no question of creating a new offence — the court would simply be striking down an exception carved out of an existing offence.
    • The only principled basis for the judge’s objection is that it may be unfair to punish someone for rape for conduct that was excluded from the definition of rape when it was undertaken.
    • But that is not a reason to avoid striking down the marital rape exception.
    • The easy solution is for the court to declare that its judgment will apply only to conduct after the date of the judgment.

    Conclusion

    Whether the marital rape exception violates fundamental rights under the Constitution is a question that falls within the Court’s core competency. There is only one reasonable answer to that question.

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  • The ‘Roe’ draft ruling could affect other civil rights

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Comparison Of The Indian Constitutional Scheme With That Of Other Countries

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Abortion rights

    Context

    The leaked Roe vs Wade draft opinion has been in the news for its possible impact on abortion rights, but it also paves the way for the erosion of gay rights in America.

    Background of abortion rights cases in the U.S.

    •  Almost 50 years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Roe vs Wade(1973) that it was unconstitutional for states to ban or restrict abortions before fetal viability.
    • Later, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs Casey (1992) reaffirmed Roe’s central holding on viability.
    • In December 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded oral arguments in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an ongoing case that looks at a 2018 Mississippi law (The Gestational Age Act) that bans most abortions after 15 weeks.
    • Keeping Roe and Casey in mind, lower courts permanently enjoined the Mississippi law, but the case eventually moved up to the Supreme Court, with the following question: are all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions unconstitutional?
    • This question (and the court’s acceptance to answer it) is at the heart of Roe and Casey because the Roe court had already decided that answer in the affirmative back in 1973; and this was re-affirmed in 1992 by the Casey court.
    • The leaked first draft of the court’s majority decision in Dobbs, however, departs from precedent and signals a completely different turn.

    Originalist reading of the US Constitution

    • A running theme in this first draft of the Dobbs judgment was the court’s emphasis on originalism.
    • The very first page of the draft says that “the constitution makes no mention of abortion”.
    • On page 9 it reads “the abortion right, which is not mentioned in the Constitution, is part of a right to privacy, which is also not mentioned.
    • An originalist reading of the Constitution and an application of similar reasoning as the one applied in this draft opinion (minus the emphasis on protecting “life or ‘potential life”) could invalidate all rights for gay and lesbian Americans.

    Implications for other rights

    • Gay rights do not have any place in American history and tradition; it is quite the opposite with American history.
    •  Simply put, a rollback of Roe and Casey could allow state legislatures across the country to re-instate bans or restrictions on gay rights such as limitations on same-sex couple adoptions or sexuality education in schools.
    • Moreover, because the Constitution makes no explicit mention of “privacy”, “sexual orientation”, “gay”, “lesbian”, or “gay rights” anywhere, these rights could be challenged further.
    • The constitutional recognition of same-sex marriage is, after all, only a recent phenomenon, both globally and nationally.
    •  In 1992, the Casey court affirmed what was already decided two decades ago in Roe — namely, that women in America had the “liberty” to an abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment.
    • However, the Dobbs draft ruling discards this right to “liberty” just as it does the right to “privacy”.
    •  By specifically re-defining “liberty” and calling into question its applicability in the case of abortions, the court paves the way for potentially reviewing other “liberty” rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution — such as the right to travel ( Kent vs Dulles, 1958), the right to inter-racial marriage ( Loving vs Virginia, 1967), and the right to engage in same-sex activity in private ( Lawrence vs Texas, 2003), among others.

    Conclusion

    The bottom line is that if 50 year-old constitutionally guaranteed rights could be revoked today, then more recent and similarly, situated rights could also be revoked under an originalist reading of the Constitution.

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  • Delimitation fallouts

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters,Government Scheme/Policies,Parliament & State Legislatures

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Delimitation Commission

    Mains level: Paper 2- Challenges after delimitation freeze ends

    Context

    Four years from now, when the delimitation of the constituencies will take place, India’s electoral democracy will stand on an existential crossroads.

    Historical background of North-South tension

    • There was a time, not all that long ago, when English speakers in the south of India routinely referred to our north as ‘Upper India’.
    • The Imperial Legislative Council, with its Central Legislative Assembly as the Lower House and the Council of State as the Upper House, being located in Delhi pushed that upperness further up.
    •  Later, the Constituent Assembly continued the ‘India’s north as India’s peak’ image.
    • Role of Congress: The Indian National Congress was from the very start, aware of the need for India’s regions to be seen as equal, bereft of any asymmetry.
    • Its very third session after Bombay (1885) and Calcutta (1886) was held in Madras (1887, and many times later).
    • The All India Kisan Sabha, the peasant wing of the Communist Party of India, likewise, which had first met in a ‘founder-conference’ in Lucknow in 1936, met at its fifth session in 1940 in Palasa, Srikakulam.
    • These considered arrangements embody the opening Article 1 of our Constitution: India, that is Bharat.

    What would be the Impact of delimitation

    • A delimitation of the constituencies that will elect Members of the Lok Sabha, following the population figures returned by the next decennial Census, is to take place in 2026.
    • Need to increase number of members: We cannot have, should not have, the same number of Members of Parliament — 543 — representing a vastly increased population in the Lok Sabha.
    • Mathematically speaking, the higher the number of people per constituency, the lower the impact each voter has on parliamentary representation — clearly an undesirable situation.
    • Reduced representation to States that stabilised their population: Re-arranging and standardising the number of people per constituency through the scheduled delimitation exercise will inevitably lead to a reduced representation for States that have managed to stabilise their populations, and to a higher representation for States that have not stabilised their populations.
    • Considering the Census data for 2011, almost half (48.6%) of our population (of approximately 1.38 billion) is contributed by the States of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.
    • Issues with population-based marking: A population-based marking out or re-arrangement of constituencies, as envisaged in Article 82 of the Constitution, will have the effect of giving more MPs to the States and Union Territories that have let their numbers grow, and will give markedly less MPs to those that have held their numbers in some check.
    • Realising the anomaly that a delimitation based on Census data would cause, a delimitation freeze was put in position by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi through the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976. 
    •  This was extended by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee through the 84th Amendment.
    • It is this extension that is to end in 2026, placing us at a crossroads.

    Way forward

    • There are two alternatives before us:
    • 1] Onother freeze: One, we go in for another freeze, this time not for any specific period but for until all States have achieved population stabilisation.
    • 2] Mathematically equitable formula: Two, we request demographic and statistical experts to devise a mathematical model along the lines of the ‘Cambridge Compromise’ based on a mathematically equitable “formula” for the apportionment of the seats of the European Parliament between the member-states.

    Conclusion

    The population-stabilising States of India that is Bharat, which include all the southern States, must continue to enrich our legislative and parliamentary processes as they have been doing since the time of the Imperial Legislative Council, with no penalties having to be paid for their sense of responsibility. We need to limit population, not representation.

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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    Ensuring a sustainable vaccination programme

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Gavi

    Mains level: Paper 2- Future pandemic preparedness

    Context

    COVID-19, which disrupted supply chains across countries and in India too, marks an inflection point in the trajectory of immunisation programmes.

    UIP: Showcasing India’s strength in managing large scale vaccination

    • India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP), launched in 1985 to deliver routine immunisation, showcased its strengths in managing large-scale vaccine delivery.
    • This programme targets close to 2.67 crore newborns and 2.9 crore pregnant women annually.
    • Full immunisation: To strengthen the programme’s outcomes, in 2014, Mission Indradhanush was introduced to achieve full immunisation coverage of all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace — a commendable initiative.
    • India’s UIP comprises upwards of 27,000 functional cold chain points of which 750 (3%) are located at the district level and above; the remaining 95% are located below the district level.
    • The COVID-19 vaccination efforts relied on the cold chain infrastructure established under the UIP to cover 87 crore people with two doses of the vaccine and over 100 crore with at least a single dose.

    Why strong service delivery network is essential?

    • While we have, over the years, set up a strong service delivery network, the pandemic showed us that there were weak links in the chain, especially in the cold chain.
    • Nearly half the vaccines distributed around the world go to waste, in large part due to a failure to properly control storage temperatures.
    • In India, close to 20% of temperature-sensitive healthcare products arrive damaged or degraded because of broken or insufficient cold chains, including a quarter of vaccines.
    • Wastage has cost implications and can delay the achievement of immunisation targets.

    Measures and initiatives in strengthening vaccine supply chains

    • The Health Ministry has been digitising the vaccine supply chain network in recent years through the use of cloud technology, such as with the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN).
    • Developed with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and implemented by the UN Development Programme through a smartphone-based app, the platform digitises information on vaccine stocks and temperatures across the country.
    • This supports healthcare workers in the last mile in supervising and maintaining the efficiency of the vaccine cold chain.

    Way forward

    • Electrification: There is a need to improve electrification, especially in the last mile, for which the potential of solar-driven technology must be explored to integrate sustainable development.
    • For instance, in Chhattisgarh, 72% of the functioning health centres have been solarised to tackle the issue of regular power outages.
    • This has significantly reduced disruption in service provision and increased the uptake of services.

    Conclusion

    India has pioneered many approaches to ensure access to public health services at a scale never seen before. Robust cold chain systems are an investment in India’s future pandemic preparedness; by taking steps towards actionable policies that improve the cold chain, we have an opportunity to lead the way in building back better and stronger.

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  • Freedom of Speech – Defamation, Sedition, etc.

    On Section 124A Supreme Court has aligned itself with the collective conscience

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary,Parliament & State Legislatures

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- The SC aligning with collective conscience of India

    Context

    The Supreme Court’s seminal intervention in a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of section 124A of the Indian Penal Code is a watershed moment in the progressive expansion of human rights jurisprudence.

    Abuse of sedition law

    • The slapping of sedition charges against political opponents and others in Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have confirmed that the abuse of the sedition law is no longer an aberration.
    • It has become a norm that has hollowed out the constitutional guarantee of fundamental rights and exposed individuals to the rigour of draconian laws unjustly invoked, outraging national sensitivities as never before.

    Significance of the move

    • In what is seen as a first in judicial history, the Supreme Court has virtually rendered redundant the provision of a criminal law without expressly declaring it as unconstitutional.
    • In an example of judicial statecraft, the court has shielded individuals against a harsh law without trenching on Parliament’s legislative remit or the executive’s command over policy decisions.
    • Plenary jurisdiction: Exercising plenary jurisdiction, the Supreme Court is expected to see through its suggestions/orders to the government, particularly when these concern the non-negotiable fundamental rights of citizens.
    • Suggestive jurisdiction: As an organ of the state, the Supreme Court’s suggestive jurisdiction is clearly in accord with its declared law (Nagaraj, 2006) that the state (of which the court is an integral constituent), is under a duty not only to protect individual rights but is also obliged to facilitate the same.
    • Validating the nations role: The court-inspired initiatives would also validate the nation’s preeminent role in the shaping of a new world order.

    Implications of the law

    • Nudging the government towards anti-lynching law: As with the sedition law, it can nudge the government to enact an anti-lynching humanitarian law as suggested by it and a comprehensive law against custodial torture.
    •  Law against custodial torture: The absence of an anti-custodial torture law, a glaring gap in the architecture of the criminal justice system, is inexplicable considering the command of Article 21, recommendations of the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha (2010), the Law Commission of India (2017) and the Human Rights Commission and the judgments of the Supreme Court (Puttaswamy, 2017; Jeeja Ghosh, 2016; and Shabnam, 2015).
    • Implications for the UAPA: It is expected likewise from the court to intervene suitably and read down the UAPA and other criminal laws that have been repeatedly misused to trample upon the civil liberties and rights of the people.

    Conclusion

    This is indeed the moment to seize, as the government reviews the nation’s legal structures. The initiatives suggested above are in aid of democracy anchored in the inviolability of human rights and would enhance India’s soft power in our engagement with the international community.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-SAARC Nations

    For a better South Asian neighbourhood

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Buddhist circuit

    Mains level: Paper 2- Regional cooperation

    Context

    Recent developments — in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan — underline the geographic imperative that binds India to its neighbours in the Subcontinent.

    Need for intensive regional cooperation for managing the new dangers

    • Working with the logic of geography has become an unavoidable necessity amidst the deepening regional and global crises accentuated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
    • As higher oil and food prices trigger inflation and popular unrest across the region, more intensive regional cooperation is one of the tools for managing the new dangers.

    Hope for transcending internal divide between India and Sri Lanka

    • India’s relations with Sri Lanka underline the importance of continuous tending of political geography.
    • Tradition of hosting political exile: India has had a long tradition of hosting political exiles from the region.
    • Whether it was the Dalai Lama from Tibet or Prachanda from Nepal, Delhi has welcomed leaders from the neighbourhood taking shelter in India.
    • Negative consequences: There is a dangerous flip side to this positive tradition in the Subcontinent.
    • India has paid a high price for the decision in the early 1980s to train and arm Sri Lankan Tamil rebels.
    • Hope for transcending internal divide: The current crisis in Sri Lanka raised hopes for transcending the internal ethnic divide in the island nation and rebuilding political confidence between Colombo and Delhi.
    • Material and financial support to Sri Lanka: Delhi’s unstinting support — both material and financial — for Colombo during this unprecedented economic and political crisis has generated much goodwill in Sri Lanka.

    Relations with Nepal and role of cultural ties

    • Possibilities in cultural geography: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha in Nepal, highlights the immense possibilities of cultural geography in reshaping the Subcontinent’s regional relations.
    • The idea of a “Buddhist circuit” connecting the various pilgrimage sites across the India-Nepal border has been around for a long time.
    • India and Nepal have come together in developing the Buddhist circuit.
    • Religion and culture are deeply interconnected in South Asia.
    • Developing all religious pilgrimage sites across the region, and improving the transborder access to them could not only improve tourist revenues of all the South Asian nations, but could also have a calming effect on the troubled political relations
    • That China has built a new airport near Lumbini and Modi is avoiding it points to the turbulent triangular dynamic between Delhi, Kathmandu, and Beijing.
    • Revitalising the shared cultural geography inevitably involves better management of economic geography.
    • Infrastructure development on Indian side: The last few years have seen the Indian government step up on infrastructure development on the Indian side and accelerate transborder transport and energy connectivity in the eastern subcontinent.

    Recent trends in India-Pakistan relations

    • Cultural ties: Despite their frozen bilateral political relationship, Delhi and Islamabad had agreed to open the Kartarpur corridor at the end of 2019 across their militarised Punjab border.
    • There is much more to be done on reconnecting the Subcontinent’s sacred geographies — including the Ramayana trail and Sufi shrines.
    • While parts of the region are aligning their policies with the geographic imperative, Pakistan would seem to be an exception.
    • Ignoring the geographic imperative: Given the depth of its macro economic crisis and massive inflation, one might have thought Pakistan would want to expand trade ties with India in its own economic interest.
    • But Pakistan’s politics are hard-wired against the logic of geography.
    • Delhi had little reason to believe that Pakistan’s new government can alter its self-defeating policy towards India.
    • But it must continue to bet that the geographic imperative will eventually prevail over Islamabad’s policies.

    Conclusion

    Realists might want to argue that current trends in the Subcontinent point to India’s growing agency in shaping its neighbourhood and that Pakistan will not forever remain an exception. For Delhi, the policy question is whether India can do something to hasten the inevitable change in Pakistan.

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  • Freedom of Speech – Defamation, Sedition, etc.

    In abeyance of Section 124A, a provisional relief

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Article 19

    Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with Section 124A

    Context

    In a brief order delivered in S.G. Vombatkere vs Union of India, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India effectively suspended the operation of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.

    What was the basis for the reconsideration?

    • This direction was issued after the Union government filed an affidavit informing the Court that it had decided to re-examine the law.
    • The Bench believed that the offer to reconsider the provision, if nothing else, showed that the Government was in broad agreement with the Court’s prima facie opinion on the matter, that the clause as it stands “is not in tune with the current social milieu, and was intended for a time when this country was under the colonial regime”.

     Section 125A and issues with it

    • Section 124A defines sedition as any action — “whether by words, signs, or visible representation” — which “brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in India”.
    • The word “disaffection”, the provision explains, “includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity”.
    • The adopted Constitution did not permit a restriction on free speech on the grounds of sedition. 
    • In the 1950s, two different High Courts struck down Section 124A as offensive to freedom.
    • But, in 1962, in Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court reversed these verdicts.
    • The Court paid no heed to the debates that informed the Constituent Assembly.
    • Instead, it found that Section 124A was defensible as a valid restriction on free speech on grounds of public order.
    • However, while upholding the clause, the Court limited its application to “acts involving intention or tendency to create disorder, or disturbance of law and order, or incitement to violence”.
    • Vague terms: The decision failed to recognise that terms such as “disaffection towards the government”, which are fundamentally vague.
    • Marginalised sections affected: Since then, in its application by law enforcement, the limitations imposed in Kedar Nath Singh have rarely been observed.
    •  As is often the case with abuses of this kind, it is the most marginalised sections of society that have faced the brunt of the harm.
    • Reading of fundamental rights changed: Since 1962, when the judgment was handed out, the Supreme Court’s reading of fundamental rights has undergone a transformative change.
    • Time to reconsider Kedar Nath: This altered landscape meant that when fresh challenges were mounted against Section 124A, the time to reconsider Kedar Nath Singh had clearly arrived. 
    • In the long run, the decision in Kedar Nath Singh will require a clear disavowal.
    • But in nullifying Section 124A, albeit for the present, the Court has provided provisional relief — allowing those accused of the offence to both seek bail in terms of the order, and to have their trials frozen.

    Conclusion

    To protect our democracy, we must ensure that the constitutional guarantees to personal liberty and freedom do not go in vain. For that, each of our penal laws must be animated by a concern for equality, justice, and fairness.

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  • Economic Indicators and Various Reports On It- GDP, FD, EODB, WIR etc

    Brace for higher interest rates

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Inflation challenge

    Context

    Inflation has now remained above the RBI’s upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent for four months in a row.

    Broad based inflation

    • The second-order impact of higher fuel prices is also visible as inflation in transport and communication surged to nearly 11 per cent, from 8 per cent in the previous month.
    • The latest data also indicates that inflation is becoming broad-based. 
    • With demand rebounding, the pass-through of higher input costs is also gaining momentum.
    • Considering that demand for goods recovered faster than services, goods producers passed on input costs to consumers.
    • But as services recover, there will be greater pass-through of prices to consumers in the coming months.
    • While there may be a slight moderation, inflation is expected to remain above the RBI’s threshold of 6 per cent in the coming months.
    • The Ukraine conflict continues to impact markets for foodgrains and vegetable oils.
    • Rising fertiliser prices are likely to push up farmers’ production costs, leading to high food prices.
    • While the government has extended price support through higher subsidies, if this will be enough to cool prices needs to be seen.

    Inflation targeting by the RBI

    • With sticky crude oil prices and continuing supply-side disruptions amplified by the Covid-induced lockdowns in China, the RBI has rightly reverted its focus on inflation targeting.
    • This is needed as central banks around the world are pursuing tight monetary policies to counter inflation.
    • The US Fed followed its 25 basis points hike by another 50 basis points rise in May.
    • These will be followed by hikes of similar magnitude in the coming months.
    • In its April policy, the RBI announced the withdrawal of excess liquidity but did not raise the policy rate.
    • Rate hikes by RBI: The RBI is now likely to respond with aggressive rate hikes to prevent the price spiral from getting entrenched.
    • The continued strength of the dollar index and sharp rupee depreciation in the last few days could impose further pressure on prices through higher imported inflation.
    • Withdrawal of liquidity support: In addition to calibrated rate hikes, the RBI needs to fast-track the withdrawal of the ultra-accommodative liquidity support provided during the pandemic.

    Implications

    • Discretionary spending: Rising inflation will cut back discretionary spending and adversely impact consumption that had only just started picking up.
    • Recession concerns: There are concerns about a recession in advanced economies as rising prices have started manifesting in a decline in purchasing power and a fall in consumer sentiments.
    • The demand destruction could trigger a moderation in prices.
    • Base metals prices have eased from the peak seen in the last few months.

    Conclusion

    Monetary policy support needs to be accompanied by fiscal support measures. The policy response will have to be tailored to the evolving geopolitical situation and the paths of commodity and food prices while balancing the imperatives of fiscal consolidation.

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  • Food Procurement and Distribution – PDS & NFSA, Shanta Kumar Committee, FCI restructuring, Buffer stock, etc.

    Inflation in India

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Issues Related To Farm Subsidies & Msp

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: CPI

    Mains level: Paper 3- Tackling food inflation

    Context

    Recently, the RBI raised the repo rate by 40 basis points (bps) and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 bps with a view to tame inflation.

    How effective would be the rate hike in taming the inflation?

    • High inflation is always an implicit tax on the poor and those who keep their savings in banks.
    • Will the increases in the repo rate and CRR control inflation, especially food inflation?
    • The RBI has been behind the curve by at least by 4-to 5 months, and its optimism in controlling inflation in the earlier meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee was somewhat misplaced.
    • The reason for this is that food prices globally are scaling new peaks as per the FAO’s food price index.
    • The disruptions caused by the pandemic and now the Russia-Ukraine war are contributing to this escalation in food prices.
    • India cannot remain insulated from this phenomenon.

    Opportunities and challenges for India

    • Record wheat export: For the first time in the history of Indian agriculture, cereal exports have already crossed a record high of 31 million metric tonnes (MMT) at $13 billion (FY22), and the same cereal wonder may be repeated this fiscal (FY23).
    • Among cereals, wheat exports have witnessed an unprecedented growth of more than 273 per cent, jumping nearly fourfold from $0.56 billion (or 2 MMT) in FY21 to $2.1 billion (or 7.8 MMT) in FY22.
    • Rice exports have crossed 20 MMT in FY22 in a global market of 50 MMT.
    • Some of the concerns on the wheat front are genuine, and we need to realise that climate change is already knocking on our doors.
    • With every one degree Celsius rise in temperatures, wheat yields are likely to suffer by about 5 MMT, as per earlier IPCC reports.
    • This calls for massive investments in agri-R&D to find heat-resistant varieties of wheat and also create models for “climate-smart” agriculture. We are way behind the curve on this.

    Need for rationalising food subsidy

    • India distribute free food to 800 million Indians, with a food subsidy bill that is likely to cross Rs 2.8 lakh crore this fiscal out of the Centre’s net tax revenue of about Rs 20 lakh crore in FY23.
    • Reducing coverage: What needs to be done targeting only those below the poverty line for free or subsidised food and charging a reasonable price, say 90 per cent of MSP, from those who are above the poverty line.
    • Giving an option to beneficiaries to receive cash in their Jan Dhan accounts (equivalent to MSP plus 20 per cent) in lieu of grains can be considered.
    • This is permitted under NFSA and by doing so, he can save on the burgeoning food subsidy bill.

    Conclusion

    Indian farmers need access to global markets to augment their incomes, and the government must facilitate Indian farmers to develop more efficient export value chains by minimising marketing costs and investing in efficient logistics for exports.

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