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Type: Op-ed

  • Boosting manufacturing

    The article analyses the issues of increasing manufacturing in India while dealing with the constraints faced by it. It also suggests the important role States can play.

    Why companies are expected to exit China

    • In the aftermath of the pandemic manufacturing companies are expected to exit China due to three primary reasons.
    • 1) Realisation that relying heavily on China for building capacities and sourcing manufacturing goods is not an ideal business strategy due to supply chain disruptions in the country caused by COVID-19.
    • 2) Fear of Chinese dominance over the supply of essential industrial goods.
    • 3) The growing risk and uncertainty involved in operating from or dealing with China in the light of geopolitical and trade conflicts between China and other countries, particularly the U.S.

    Where India stands in comparison with China

    • China ranks first in contribution to world manufacturing output, while India ranks sixth.
    • Against India’s target of share of manufacturing in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 25% by 2022, its share stood at 15% in 2018, only half of China’s figure.
    • Industry value added grew at an average annual rate of 10.68% since China opened up its economy in 1978, India’s grew at 7% after India opened up its economy.
    • Next to the European Union, China was the largest exporter of manufactured goods in 2018, with an 18% world share.
    • India is not part of the top 10 exporters who accounted for 83% of world manufacturing exports in 2018.

    Constraints faced by manufacturing sector in India

    India faces numerous constraints in promoting the manufacturing sector.

    • They chiefly include infrastructure constraints, a disadvantageous tax policy environment, restrictive trade policies, a non-conducive regulatory environment, rigid labour laws.
    • Constraints also include high cost of industrial credit, poor quality of the workforce, Low R&D expenditure, delays and constraints in land acquisition, and the inability to attract large-scale foreign direct investment into the manufacturing sector.

    What role States can play?

    • They  can  contribute land: Federal government system in India demands the participation of States for the lasting solution to the constraints on the sector.
    • An important requirement for the development of the manufacturing sector is the availability of land area.
    • This could be one of the reasons why manufacturing activity is mainly concentrated in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
    • However, what is of concern is that some States that also have large land area contribute disproportionately little in manufacturing GSDP.
    • These states include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, and West Bengal.

    Way forward

    • Identify reasons: The reasons for less manufacturing activity in these States have to be carefully examined.
    • State-specific industrialisation strategies: Based on such reasons, State-specific industrialisation strategies need to be devised and implemented in a mission mode with active hand-holding by the Central government.
    • State specific reforms: Policy actions on the part of individual States would improve India’s overall investment climate, thereby boosting investments, jobs, and economic growth.
    • Policy actions of the Centre and the States should  be well coordinated: Strategy Group consisting of representatives from the Central and State governments along with top industry executives to instil teamwork and leverage ideas through sharing the best practices of the Centre and States could be formed.

    Consider the question “What are the constraints faced by the manufacturing sector in India? Suggest the ways to deal with these constraints highlighting the important role States can play in boosting manufacturing.”

    Conclusion

    Both the States and the Central government needs to work in tandem to boost the manufacturing in India and transform the economic landscape of India.

  • Seeking equilibrium with China

    The article analyses the India’s efforts to establish strategic equilibrium with assertive China and how that idea clashes with China’s desire to form an Asian order with itself at the top.

    Strategic equilibrium

    •  External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar articulated that India is seeking strategic equilibrium with an increasingly aggressive China.
    • It is hoped that with China’s growing differences with the U.S. China would pay attention to India’s sensitivities.
    • In achieving equilibrium with China, India has bravely been confronting a face-off in the Himalayas for the past several months.
    • India has been building issue-based alliances with the US and Asian majors like Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia, and Australia.
    • It has taken initiatives in the direction of economic de-coupling with China in the name of “atmanirbharata”.

    Hierarchical Asian order with China at top

    • China is not interested in equilibrium with any of its Asian neighbours, least of all with India.
    • China’s efforts are clearly to build a hierarchical Asian order, with itself at the top.
    • It is acutely conscious of India’s economic strength, military modernisation and overall capabilities.
    • It knows that India is also far behind on these counts.
    • China is ruthlessly resisting India’s access to global governance bodies, such as the UNSC and NSG.
    • To keep India tied at that level, China is objecting to India’s growing strategic proximity to the US. I
    • It is encircling India strategically and economically through its strategic and economic corridors — BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar), CPEC and the Trans-Himalayan Connectivity Network.
    • It is raising issues like Kashmir at the UN and establishing footprints in the Indian Ocean.

    What should India do

    1. Adjust with China, at least tactically.

    • Such an adjustment could be based on mutual give and take.
    • For India, our first priority could be the resolution of the border dispute.
    • Secondly, since China has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan, it should be asked to prevail over Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue.
    • In return for these “takes” India could offer access to Chinese commercial cargos to sea, through the Nathula pass.
    • India could also join China’s BRI on mutually acceptable terms.
    • India may also show its willingness, at least tactically, to join CPEC as both Pakistan and China have asked for, provided, India is allowed to undertake projects in PoK and Balochistan.

    2.India should revisit its Tibet policy, which is a core irritant for China.

    Consider the question “China seeking to establish an Asian order with itself at the top comes in the way of India establishing strategic equilibrium with China. Comment.”

    Conclusion

    It is possible that this “give” and “take” may not be acceptable to China. Even if it does not work out as planned, India would have made a bold diplomatic initiative and a huge tactical move towards thinking through out-of-the-box solutions and displaying that it can undertake risks to pursue its long-term national interests.

  • India’s strategic autonomy and its evolution

    The article analyses the evolution of India’s approach to strategic autonomy from the unipolar world dominated by the U.S. to now when the Chinese threat has been looming large.

    Context

    • Addressing a Southeast Asian forum last week, external affairs minister outlined India’s new quest for “strategic autonomy” in its global economic engagement.

    Connection with Atmanirbhar Bharat

    • This new quest for “strategic autonomy” is the natural external complement to new economic strategy, described as “Atmanirbharata” or “self-reliance”.
    • The concept carries so much ideological baggage, its revival by Government inevitably raised many questions
    • Senior ministers and officials of the NDA government sought to reassure India’s partners that Delhi was not marching backwards.
    • When applied to the foreign policy framework, “self-reliance” becomes “strategic autonomy”.

    Evolution of the idea of strategic autonomy

    • America towered over the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
    • India’s past emphasis on strategic autonomy was in the context of the “unipolar moment” [dominated by the U.S.] that emerged after the Cold War.
    • On the one hand, India needed Western capital as well as technology and better access to its markets.
    • On the other hand, Delhi had to protect some of its core national interests from the threats of US intervention.

    India-U.S. Relations: Evolution after the Cold war

    • In the early 1990s, the Clinton Administration strong desire to resolve the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
    • The Clinton Administration saw the nuclear and Kashmir disputes as one and the same thing.
    • Indian diplomacy for the next two decades tried to change the US policy on both Kashmir and nuclear issues.
    • Under President George W Bush, the US discarded the long-standing temptation to insert itself in the Kashmir dispute.
    • The US also went out of the way to resolve the nuclear dispute with India by changing its domestic laws and international norms on nuclear proliferation.
    • The Obama and Trump Administrations have stayed the course since then.

    China challenge for India

    • On the atomic front, as the US sought to lift the prolonged atomic blockade against India, China sought to block the process.
    • China turned an obstacle to India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
    • China takes up the Kashmir issue regularly in the United Nations Security Council.
    • Today, India’s strategic autonomy is about coping with China’s challenge to India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
    •  China today is viewed in Delhi as a major threat to India’s economic development.
    • The bilateral trade deficit reached nearly $55billion in 2019.
    • India pulled out of an Asia-wide free-trade arrangement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership late last year, sensing the threat posed by China-led economic order.
    • Ladakh aggression forced India to go from a passive commercial withdrawal to an active economic decoupling from China.

    Way forward

    • The logic of strategic autonomy from China nudges India to look for strong security partnerships with the US, Europe, Japan and Australia.
    • On the economic front, India is exploring various forms of collaboration with a broad group of nations that have a shared interest in developing trustworthy global supply chains.

    Consider the question “Delineate the evolution of India’s approach towards the idea of strategic autonomy. How it differs from the past?”

    Conclusion

    Threats to either territorial integrity or economic prosperity are powerful enough on their own to compel drastic changes in any nation’s policies. Coming together, they promise to make strategic autonomy from an assertive China an enduring theme of India’s economic and foreign policies in the years ahead.

  • The missing large in MSMEs

    MSMEs in India has huge untapped potential. This article suggest the ways to tap it and make the MSMEs major contributor to India’s growth.

    What is an issue with MSMEs

    • Despite MSME contributing 20% of the GDP and employing about 110 million workers,  we have failed to make bold policy-moves to make it more productive and competitive.
    •  MSMEs are not becoming ‘larger’ and more dynamic, with 99% of the estimated 60 million being micro-enterprises with limited aspirations.
    • At the core of this lack of competitiveness is a structural issue.

    Addressing the structural challenges

    Size

    • Consider  India’s largest textile cluster vs Bangladesh’s largest.
    • More than 70% of the units in Tirupur are micro-enterprises with less than 10 employees while only 20% of the units in Narayanganj in Bangladesh have less than 10 employees.
    • This factor makes the cluster in Bangladesh more competitive and helping Bangladesh’s exports grow faster than India’s.
    • Though  Bangladesh has other advantages also, but this structural difference is critical.

    Relation between size and productivity

    • Productivity data from manufacturing MSMEs in OECD show that the productivity of medium firms (50-250 people) could be as much as 80-100% higher than that of micro firms (<9 employees).
    • Growth in scale allows them to invest in people to improve skills, in better technology & processes, and in innovation.
    • The most-competitive of them grow from their small beginnings to become world-beaters.
    • This push to grow and improve capabilities and productivity is central to dynamism of any country’s industrial structure.
    • This dynamism of micro-enterprises has been one of the less-reported policy levers behind China’s rise as an industrial powerhouse.

    What stops MSMEs in India from growing?

    • Our policy-legacy of highly restrictive asset-based definition which has only recently been relaxed, coupled with a mindset, and, policies, to support the ‘small is beautiful’ narrative.
    • Overly complex regulatory regime doesn’t differentiate enterprises on their scale, other than the really tiny ones, in terms of compliance needs.
    • For example, if a unit has more than six employees, the trade union law becomes applicable, If a unit has more than 10 employees, the Factories Act is applicable.
    • Small enterprises thus face the same multitude of regulatory requirements as larger ones, and end up having compliance costs account for a higher percentage of revenue.
    • For the tiny/micro units, there is simply no incentive to grow and enter the formal economy.

    Policy intervention needed

    1) Getting MSMEs into formal credit system

    • To do this, we need to adopt an approaches that can help banks and NBFCs move away from asset-backed lending, towards some form of cash-flow-based lending.
    • Small retailers are outside the formal credit system, unable to invest, modernise and grow, given they lack fixed ‘assets’.
    • But, all of them are linked to, and sell, brands of well-known, large companies.
    • If banks and NBFCs work with these companies and use anonymised data on sales and credit-performance to develop credit-scores for lending to them?
    • Similar innovative ways could help cover other micro-unit segments.

    2) Simplified tax and regulatory regime

    • The second policy intervention needed is to de-average and implement a simplified tax and regulatory regime for MSMEs.
    • This would also reduce the cost of compliance.

    3) Development of digital platform

    • The third intervention, appropriate for digital era, is to develop a comprehensive ‘digital platform’ for the sector.
    • This will call for a mandatory, unique identifier for all.
    • The platform will have to be linked to different relevant databases.

    Consider the question “MSMEs in India continues to play an important role in India’s development yet it suffers from structural challenges which hinders it from fueling India’s growth. In light of this, examine the challenges MSMEs faces and suggest the policy interventions.” 

    Conclusion

    As India launches the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to reignite growth of the economy for a post-COVID world, building such a globally-competitive MSME has to become one of the initiative’s core pillars. Only then can our industry improve and sustain its global competitiveness.

    Source-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/the-missing-large-in-msmes-a-globally-competitive-indian-mittelstand-is-the-need-of-the-hour/2063155/

  • How GST created single market

    The article analyses the instrumental role played by the GST in transforming nation into a single market dismantling the barriers across the states.

    Reduced tax burden on consumers

    • In the pre-GST era, the total of VAT, excise, CST and their cascading effect led to 31 per cent as tax payable, on an average, for a consumer.
    • In its first two years, as the collections improved, the GST Council kept reducing the tax burden on consumers.
    • Most items have been brought in the 18 per cent, 12 per cent or even 5 per cent category.
    •  Most items of daily common use are in the zero to 5 per cent slab.
    • An analysis by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) observes that since the roll out of GST, the rate changes have brought down the GST incidence from 14 per cent to 11.6 per cent.
    • This explains the revenue loss stated above. The consumer pays less tax now under the GST.

    Flexibility and increased compliance

    • Taxation threshold for goods was increased to Rs 40 lakh.
    • The composition limit was increased from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore.
    • For manufacturers, composition tax rate was lowered from 2 per cent to 1 per cent.
    • The composition scheme was extended to services as well.
    • Special lower rates without Input Tax Credit (ITC) were prescribed for construction and restaurants.
    • As per an RBI calculation, the weighted GST rate at present is 11.6 per cent.
    • The revenue-neutral rate determined at the time of GST introduction by its own committee was 15.3 per cent.

    Widened tax base

    • Today, there are 1.2 crore GST assessees compared to 65 lakh at the time of introduction of the tax regime.
    • The average revenue collected per month for the nine months (July-March) in 2017-18 was Rs 89,700 crore in  2018-19 it rose by 10 per cent to Rs 97,100 crore.
    • In FY 2019-20, the revenue per month was Rs 1,02,000 crore.
    • This steady increase was despite the various concessions and rate reductions mentioned above.

     Simplification

    • GST is an IT-enabled platform.
    • Accounting and billing software is provided free to the small taxpayers.
    • Those with nil return to file can do so with an SMS.
    • Since the registration is completely online, the refund process is also fully automated.
    • The Centre is the only refund disbursal authority and no physical interface is required.

    Agriculture sector under GST

    • Concessions are extended to the agriculture sector under GST, agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, machinery have seen a considerable reduction in rates.
    • Other inputs such as cattle/poultry/aquatic feeds are kept at the nil rate.
    • Agricultural produce such as vegetables, fruits, flowers and foodgrains are exempt from GST.
    • Dairy products — milk, curd, lassi, buttermilk and minor forest produce such as lac, shellac and sisal leaves are also exempt.
    • Silk cocoon, raw silk, wool, jute fibre are nil rated.
    • In the pre-GST era, many of these were in the 5 per cent slab.
    • Service inputs to agriculture are similarly treated.
    • Before the introduction of GST, many such items were taxed at a standard rate of 15 per cent.

    MSME  under GST

    • Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have consistently received sensitive treatment under the GST regime.
    • Items that have large employment creating activities, rough diamond/precious stone sorting and polishing for example, have seen a GST reduction from 3 per cent to 0.25 per cent.
    • Services rendered by MSMEs have also received such sensitive treatment.

    Concerns

    • Tax reduction in some cases has led to an inversion of duty structure.
    • Manufactured goods in lower slabs have suffered due to inversion in the duty structure.
    • With lockdowns and consequential deferrals in tax payments, compensation payments to the states is a concern that the Council has taken cognisance of.

    Consider the question “Elaborate on how the GST has been benefiting the various stakeholders and helped in transforming India into a single market?” 

    Conclusion

    The states have shown maturity and understanding. The spirit of collective responsibility and statesman-like thinking have kept mutual trust and confidence high. The much talked about cooperative federalism is actually in action in the GST Council.

  • Increasing age of marriage will be exercise of carceral power by state

    The article examines the issue of the age of marriage of girls and its relation with their education level and economic status.

    Trends in early marriage

    • The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) data 2015-16 points to certain trends in early marriages:
    • That rural women are likely to marry earlier than their urban counterparts.
    • The higher up a woman is on the wealth quintile, the later she marries.
    • Most importantly, it establishes a direct causal link between education levels and delayed age of marriage.
    • Women with 12 years or more of schooling are most likely to marry later.
    • Only 8 per cent rural girls who drop out in the age group 6 to 17 years cite marriage as the reason.

    Impact on STs and SCs

    • According to the wealth quintile data, the poorest households are concentrated in rural India.
    • The lowest quintile, which is most likely to marry off their girls early out of socio-economic necessities, have 45 per cent of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and 25.9 per cent Scheduled castes.
    • The NFHS-4 data on women aged 15-49 by number of years of schooling completed shows that 42 per cent ST women and 33 per cent SC women have received no schooling.

    Issues

    • Marriages in India are governed by various personal laws which set varying minimum ages for girls as also the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, where it is 18 years for girls and 21 for boys.
    • This is compounded by The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, that increased the age of consent, from 16 years to 18 years.
    • Several studies have shown how this has criminalised self-arranged adolescent marriages as parents often misuse it to punish couples marrying without their approval, especially in cases of inter-caste marriages.

    Way forward

    • The National Human Rights Commission showed how higher education levels lead to a lower likelihood of women being married early and recommended that the Right to Education Act, 2009, be amended to make it applicable up to the age of 18 years.
    • Noting the law’s patriarchal underpinnings, the 18th Law Commission report (2008) asked for uniformity in the age of marriage at 18 years for both men and women and lowering the age of consent to 16 years. Government could act on such a recommendation.

    Consider the question “What are the advantages of increasing the minimum age of marriage for girls. Also, examine the issues with the move.

    Conclusion

    The median age at first marriage for both men and women in India has registered a significant decadal improvement with more people now marrying later than ever before. Any attempt to leapfrog through quick-fix and ill-conceived punitive measures will only considerably reverse these gains.

  • Naga peace process

    The article analyses the issue of Naga peace process and the problem of identifying the stakeholders in the process.

    Naga Polity and aspirations

    • The  Nagas family comprises over 25 tribes.
    • Each of these is a proud owner and inheritor of a distinct culture, language, tradition and geography, supporting a distinct world view.
    • However, many Nagas aspire to Naga unity, and they view those tribal loyalties as residues of a premodern past and an obstacle to Naga solidarity.
    • Naga nationalism is connected with the idea Naga homeland  that includes contiguous areas in a number of Northeastern states, and even parts of Myanmar.

    “Unique history” formulation

    • The source of the phrase can be traced back to a joint communiqué that NSCN-IM General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and former Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah signed in Amsterdam on July 11, 2002.
    • Meaning of the phrase “unique history” is not self-explanatory.
    • Despite the lack of clarity, it is adopted by officials and political leaders intended to accept two things-
    • (a) the characterisations long favoured by security bureaucrats of the Naga political struggle as a separatist insurgency or a terrorist movement that makes false claims to Naga unity, are inaccurate and
    • (b) rejecting those labels [ such as separatist insurgency or terrorist movement] is a necessary condition for negotiations based on mutual respect.
    • Those are significant achievements that should not be allowed to wither away.

    Negotiating with NSCN-IM and issues with it

    • NSCN-IM had declared the Shillong Accord of 1975 a sellout, and a betrayal of the Naga cause.
    • But it emerged as a serious political force precisely because it stood for Naga unity.
    • However, it is argued that NSCN-IM’s appeal is limited to the Tangkhul tribes of Manipur only.

    Consider the question “The issues of identifying the stakeholders in the Naga peace process is at the root of the solution to the peace problem. Also, examine the other factors which make the resolution elusive. Suggest the measures to resolve the issue.”

    Conclusion

    That a more nuanced negotiating strategy is now emerging is a positive development. But the fundamental question about who all the stakeholders in the Naga conflict are, still needs a satisfactory answer, one that is based on an in-depth mapping of the conflict. Only then can we expect peaceful dialogue and patient negotiations to end the conflict and bring about a durable peace.

  • Increasing the age of marriage for girls and related issues

    The article analyses the issues with objectives of increasing the age of marriage for girls.

    Poverty of mother: Important factor

    • Raising the age of marriage is the could be the way to improve the health and nutritional status of mothers and their infants.
    • An article published in the journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health analyses data on stunting in children and thinness in mothers in the latest round of the National Family Health Survey 4 (2015-16).
    •  The authors examine the strength of the association between many different causal factors.
    •  As it turns out, the poverty of the mother plays the greatest role of all by far.
    • Instead of early pregnancy causing malnourishment, they may both be the consequences of poverty.
    • The best way to go about breaking such a cycle would be to pick the factors perpetuating it, it would be the poverty of the mother in this case.

    Declining fertility rate in India

    • India’s fertility rates have been declining to well below replacement levels in many States, including those with higher levels of child marriage.
    • This could be the reason for the shift from fuelling fears about booming populations to expressing concern for the undernourishment of children.
    • So, the problem of “populations explosion” is not the real problem as the demographic data suggests.

    Concern

    • The change in the marriage age will leave the vast majority of Indian women who marry before they are 21 without the legal protections.

    Conclusion

    The proposal and the objective to be achieved through raising the age of marriage needs reconsideration for the reasons cited above.

  • Three areas to work on to put India on the path to growth

    The article suggests the three areas on which country should work on to make it resilient in the future. These three areas include the labour laws for informal employment, conditions of our cities and the strength of our rural economy.

    Background

    • The Prime Minister, while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) annual meeting urged to think big and partner with the government in putting India on the path to growth.
    • There is much that we can be achieved if government and industry work towards the same objective, and in a spirit of mutual trust.

    Let’s look into some areas

    1) Employment

    • Over 85 per cent of employment in India is in the informal sector.
    • The Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) estimates that between mid-March and mid-April, 120 million people lost their jobs.
    • With this unemployment rise to an all-time high of 27 per cent.
    • There was reverse migration on an unprecedented scale — some 10 million people abandoned cities to return to their native villages.
    • As economic activity has restarted in cities, CMIE reports that unemployment is now down to around 9 per cent.

    3 Problems we must address

    1) Need for labour regulation

    • We have stringent labour laws to protect workers, but this covers only the 15 per cent formal sector employment.
    • The 85 per cent of our workforce who are informally employed have almost no protection, and employers have almost complete flexibility.
    • We need to address both the formal and informal labour spectrum to get the balance right between flexibility and protection for all labour.

    Way forward

    • Everyone must have a minimum level of protection, and every employer a minimum level of flexibility.
    • This calls for a new social contract to define a well-calibrated social security system.
    • This huge project demands good faith and strong leadership by industry, labour and government.

    2) Living conditions of our cities

    • We need a massive private home-building programme.
    • It probably needs much more liberal land-use regulations — our cities have among the least generous floor-space indices (FSI) in the world.
    • New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo have an FSI five times Mumbai’s.
    • Again, this is a multi-year project, and it involves state and city governments partnering with private developers.
    • India is unique in having 70 per cent of our population still residing in rural areas.
    • We must encourage the migration of people to higher productivity occupations in our cities.
    • And we must ensure that clean, affordable and accessible housing is available for all in our cities.

    3) Strength of our rural economy

    • Reverse migration is also an opportunity to collaborate in spreading the geography of development.
    • We need a three-pronged approach:
    • 1) As Ashok Gulati has often argued, the easiest way to grow farmer incomes is by having them grow more value-added crops.
    • Exports of fruits and vegetables must be consistently encouraged.
    • The cultivation of palm plantations with potential for huge import substitution, we need corporate farming as the gestation period of seven years for the first crop is too much for the average farmer to handle.
    • The Atmanirbhar agricultural reforms, which permit contract farming, and open up agricultural markets, are major medium-term reforms. Implemented right, they can transform agricultural markets.
    • 2) We need to encourage agro-processing near the source.
    • Fostering entrepreneurship in rural and semi-urban areas would combine nicely with local processing.
    • 3) We need to invest even more massively in rural connectivity.
    • Today, we would add digital connectivity to road connectivity to level the playing field for all regardless of where they live.

    Consider the question “What are the vulnerabilities in our economic structure that were highlighted by the covid pandemic? Also suggest the measures to make our rural economy strong and resilient to such shocks.”

    Conclusion

    The task is huge, and only collaboration between all levels of government (Union, state, and city) and our dynamic private sector can hope to make substantial progress.

  • Right to possession to women and issues

    The Supreme Court in its latest judgement clarified that women’s right to their parents’ property is their birthright and clarified the air of confusion surrounding the issue due to previous judgements.

    What was said in the judgement

    • The judgement highlighted the patriarchal practices of the Mitakshra School of Hindu law — the guiding force of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
    • It settled the confusion created by two of its own antagonistic judgments.
    • In Prakash vs Phulawati (2016), it had ruled that the amendments to the Hindu Succession Act (2005) applied only to women whose parents were alive on September 9, 2005, the date of the notification of the act.
    • In Danamma @ Suman Surpur vs Amar (2018) cases, it inferred that coparcenary rights were birthrights.
    • The Supreme Court has now set forth the idea that coparcenary rights are birthrights free from limitations imposed by the dates of any legal notifications.

    Issues that need to be addressed

    1) Stree dhan issue

    • Section 14 (1) of the Hindu Succession Act 1956 provides that women can acquire property as a full owner, and it can be carried over or retained post marriage as stree dhan.
    • There are cases where the movable property may have been given to a daughter by her father as an intentionally undeclared and informal settlement between his descendants.
    • At the same time, it is quite true that stree dhan over time gave way to the unethical and illegal practices of dowry.
    • But the issue of stree dhan needs to be explained further in the light of this judgment.
    • The ruling might impact dowry transactions that continue despite stringent anti-dowry laws.

    2) Issues in claiming the right to property

    • In the rural context, where most of the property is in the form of agricultural land claiming the property may not be easy.
    • With patriarchy, it is doubtful if male heirs will share property-related documents, information.

    3) Challenge of societal change

    • On occasion, the law and courts may turn out to be progressive.
    • However, we can not expect society to readily accede to progressive reforms.
    • The challenge for economically dependent women in far-flung rural areas who are denied literacy, dignity and, sometimes, even a name and identity, in securing their rights is immense.
    • In parts of Bihar, there are areas where women are still addressed by their village names or more commonly as someone’s wife.

    Conclusion

    Women are asserting their rights, both in conjugal and property matters. However, there are significant cultural, religious, educational barriers and caste and class inequalities that require a massive overhauling of social attitudes to overcome.

    Back2Basics: Mitakshra School of Hindu law

    • In the Mitakshara School, the allocation of parental property is based on the rule of possession by birth.
    • Moreover, a man can leave his property in his will.
    • The joint family property goes to the group known as coparceners.
    • Ther are the people who belong to the next three generations.
    • Hence, the joint family property by partition can be, at any time, converted into a separate property.
    • Therefore in Mitakshara School, sons have an exclusive right by birth in the joint family property.

    Coparcener

    • Coparcenary is a term often used in matters related to the Hindu succession law, and coparcener is a term used for a person assumes a legal right in his ancestral property by birth.