💥Mains Ready By December. Smash Mains & Smash PYQ Admissions Open
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: Op-ed

  • A pandemic in an unequal India

    Context

    The official strategies to deal with the virus place the responsibility on citizens, a majority without privilege, to fight the virus.

    The poor disproportionately affected

    • If the COVID-19 pandemic lashes India with severity, it will not be just the middle class who will be affected.
    • India’s impoverished millions are likely to overwhelmingly bear the brunt of the suffering which will ensue.
    • Inequality and impact of a pandemic: The privileged Indian has been comfortable for too long with some of the most unconscionable inequalities in the planet.
    • But with the pandemic, each of these fractures can decimate the survival probabilities and fragile livelihoods of the poor.

    Inadequate capacity of the health system  

    • Low investment in public health: India’s investments in public health are among the lowest in the world, and most cities lack any kind of public primary health services.
    • A Jan Swasthya Abhiyan estimate is that a district hospital serving a population of two million may have to serve 20,000 patients, but they are bereft of the beds, personnel and resources to do this. Few have a single ventilator.
    • The poor left with meagre services: India’s rich and middle-classes have opted out of public health completely, leaving the poor with unconscionably meagre services.
    • The irony is that a pandemic has been brought into India by people who can afford plane tickets, but while they will buy private health services, the virus will devastate the poor who they infect and who have little access to health care.

    No planning and preparation by the state

    • Official strategies placing responsibility on citizens: Most of the official strategies place the responsibility on the citizen, rather than the state, to fight the pandemic.
    • No preparation by the states: The state did too little in the months it got before the pandemic reached India for expanding greatly its health infrastructure for testing and treatment.
    • This includes planning operations for food and work; security for the poor; for safe transportation of the poor to their homes; and for special protection for the aged, the disabled, children without care and the destitute.

    What must be done?

    • 25 day’s minimum wage: For two months, every household in the informal economy, rural and urban, should be given the equivalent of 25 days’ minimum wages a month until the lockdown continues, and for two months beyond this.
    • Pensions must be doubled and home-delivered in cash.
    • There should be free water tankers supplying water in slum shanties throughout the working days.
    • Double the PDS entitlement: Governments must double PDS entitlements, which includes protein-rich pulses, and distribute these free at doorsteps.
    • Provide cooked and packed food: In addition, for homeless children and adults, and single migrants, it is urgent to supply cooked food to all who seek it, and to deliver packed food to the aged and the disabled in their homes using the services of community youth volunteers.
    • Ensure prisons are safe: To ensure jails are safer, all prison undertrial prisoners, except those charged with the gravest crimes, should be released.
    • Likewise, all those convicted for petty crimes. All residents of beggars’ homes, women’s rescue centres and detention centres should be freed forthwith.

    Way forward

    • Commit 3% of GDP on health: India must immediately commit 3% of its GDP for public spending on health services, with the focus on free and universal primary and secondary health care.
    • Nationalise private healthcare: Since the need is immediate, authorities should follow the example of Spain and New Zealand and nationalise private health care.
    • An ordinance should be passed immediately that no patient should be turned away or charged in any private hospital for diagnosis or treatment of symptoms which could be of COVID-19.

    Conclusion

    While one part of the population enjoys work and nutritional security, health insurance and housing of globally acceptable standards, others survive at the edge of unprotected and uncertain work, abysmal housing without clean water and sanitation, and no assured public health care. Can we resolve to correct this in post-COVID India? Can we at least now make the country more kind, just and equal?

  • The art of China’s legalpolitic

    Context

    A resolution has been moved in the US Senate calling on the international community to inquire into the origins of the virus in China’s Wuhan province. Delhi could learn a trick or two from Beijing on how to make international law the keystone of India’s diplomacy, especially in the multilateral domain.

    Fixing responsibility for the outbreak on China

    • Compensation demand: Lawyers and activists have begun to sue China in US courts demanding compensation. Politicians are not far behind.
    • The U.S. Senate resolution: A resolution has been moved in the US Senate calling on the international community to inquire into the origins of the virus in China’s Wuhan province, quantify the damage inflicted on the rest of the world, and design a mechanism of reparations from Beijing.
    • Basis of the demand for compensation: The case for China’s culpability is based on the principles of state responsibility and Beijing’s alleged failure to respect the obligation, under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), to notify the world on the outbreak of the epidemic.
    • Is the basis valid? Many international jurists dismiss these claims by citing the principles of sovereign state immunity, the lack of precedent in holding states to account for the spread of infectious disease beyond their borders and the absence of provisions for reparations under the IHR.

    The interplay between legality, moralpolitik and geopolitics

    • Gulliver and Lilliputs of the world: On the face of it, China is too much of a Gulliver to be tied down by legal Lilliputs.
    • The Legalpolitik: Before we dismiss international law as not real law, “legalpolitik” can put some real pressure on big nations and contribute to the power play among them.
    • Role of public opinion: As public opinion began to intrude into diplomacy over the last two centuries, legality and moralpolitik have become an integral part of geopolitics.

    Difficulty in proving the case against China

    • The cost of a pandemic: Most world leaders know, whether they say it aloud or not, the international costs of the pandemic could have been far lesser if China had acknowledged the spread of the virus from Wuhan early on and informed other countries.
    • It is one thing to know but entirely another to prove it under the law.
    • The pursuit of claims is a waste of time: Most governments believe the pursuit of claims against Beijing is a waste of time.
    • Political heft of China: If Beijing can make the World Health Organisation toe its line and prevent the rest of the world, including US President Donald Trump, from describing COVID-19 as the “China Virus”, it is unlikely to be impressed by a few legal impresarios from the West.
    • Precedence of defying the law: After all, China had dismissed the unanimous verdict of the International Court of Justice in 2016 on Beijing’s territorial claims over the South China Sea.
    • Beijing did not even bother to appear in the case filed by the Philippines.
    • China had simply declared that the ICJ has no jurisdiction in the matter.

    The relation between power and law in international relations

    • Power prevails: That power tends to prevail over law is certainly truer in international relations than domestic politics.
    • Law in the domestic domain: In the domestic domain, the state as the highest authority compels citizens to abide by the law, with force if necessary.
    • Law in the international arena: In the international arena, no single actor has a monopoly over the instruments of force.
    • We have multiple sovereigns but no “world government” that can compel deviant states to conform to rules.

    Role of the UNSC

    • In theory, the members of the UN Security Council can authorise coercion — in the form of economic sanctions or military force.
    • This, in turn, involves building a consensus among major powers, including the five permanent members of the UNSC who wield a veto.
    • In reality, then, the UNSC can’t act against one of the five permanent members.
    • Beijing, which was so eager to get the UNSC to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir since last August, has simply blocked all suggestions for a discussion on the corona crisis in recent days.

    Are laws meaningless in the global arena?

    • Legal narratives have the weight of their own: While outcomes in international conflicts tend to be defined by power, the international discourse on any conflict today is framed in legal terms.
    • Whether it is a conversation between a state and its citizen or among governments or in a country’s outreach to the global society, legal narratives have a weight all of their own.
    • Delhi, for example, has struggled in recent days to counter the global interpretation of its domestic actions.
    • Importance of legal argument: Winning the legal argument, China has learnt from the history of great power relations, is very much part of great power jousting.
    • The negative lessons are from the Soviet Union that dismissed the Western legal arguments during the Cold War as based on the logic of capital and empire.
    • That did not convert many beyond the choir.
    • The positive lessons are from Great Britain and the United States.
    • The enduring Anglo-Saxon hegemony is rooted not just in economic and military power. It has always been underwritten by a powerful legal tradition that shapes the global narrative on most issues.
    • China developing own narrative: As it mounts a massive propaganda offensive against the US on the corona crisis, China’s state lawyers have filed a case in the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court last week accusing various US government agencies of covering up the origin of the coronavirus.
    • China’s own narrative: It is no longer about China defending against a powerful international narrative; it is developing one of its own.

    Conclusions

    • 1. Make international law keystone of diplomacy: India has been at the receiving end of China’s legalpolitik — most recently on the quest for the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the constitutional changes in Kashmir.
    • Delhi could learn a trick or two from Beijing on how to make international law the keystone of India’s diplomacy, especially in the multilateral domain.
    • 2. Reinvest in the geo-legal arts: If China could emulate US and Britain on leveraging legalpolitik for strategic ends, India should not find it too hard to reinvest in the geo-legal arts that Delhi inherited from the Anglo-Saxons but seems to have lost along the way.

  • Regulating the Private Health Sector to Eliminate COVID-19

    Context

    The current COVID-19 crisis that India is battling has brought into sharp focus the public health system’s inadequacy to cope with it.

    Contradictory scenario between public and private healthcare delivery

    • The contrast between public and private: Hospitals with state-of-the-art equipment rivalling five-star hotels in their facilities are mushrooming mostly in cities even as the overburdened public hospitals are valiantly fighting to cope. 
    • Dismal picture in rural areas: As far as the rural areas are concerned, the community health centres and primary health centres and sub-centres present an even more dismal picture in terms of availability of medicine stock, trained para-medical staff, and doctors and nurses.
    • However, it is not as if urban hospitals offer patients excellent care. A common and widely held general misperception is that the private healthcare system is better than the public one.
    • Why private is not always better? Complaints of non-transparent billing, demanding exorbitant sums in advance even in a medical emergency, and cutting corners in services are all too familiar, as are cases of the denial of services.
    • In semi-rural areas and towns, the private sector is not necessarily similar to hospitals in cities.
    • The private hospitals in these areas are small and have basic infrastructure and limited medical and non-medical staff. Unlike the cities, the power and water supply in these areas also constitute a problem to the functioning of these hospitals.

    Problems in the public healthcare system

    • Within the public sector health system, there are a number of trends again that add to the dismal picture.
    • A high number of patients: Doctors in the public hospitals deal with an overwhelming number of patients majorly from the poor and marginalised sections.
    • Issue of contractual staff: Health activists have also pointed out that the growing trend of contractual hiring of paramedical and allied staff leads to an insecurity among them, and thus affects overall caregiving to patients.
    • Consequently, the poor patients’ families, frustrated by the lack of infrastructure and services, turn their anger upon the doctors and nurses.
    • What are the implications? The constant vilification of the public hospital staff coupled with starving these hospitals of resources has led to the view that the private hospitals are “much better” despite their exorbitant rates.

    State-wise variation in healthcare

    • States subject: Health is a state subject, and it is well known that the health delivery systems are not uniform across states.
    • Kerala a role model: Kerala is often held up as a role model generally, and even now in the manner in which it has dealt with the COVID-19 crisis.
    • The dismal system in North India: As it is, certain states in North India have abysmal healthcare systems, and a couple does not have any testing facilities, the media has reported.

    Getting the private sector involved in COVID-19 testing

    • Undoubtedly, at present, the private sector must be involved in screening, tests and treatment for COVID-19.
    • The highly trained professionals in this sector can contribute enormously by helping scale up the testing efforts.
    • Importance of large-scale testing: In South Korea too, it was large-scale testing that was instrumental in reducing mortality rates.
    • The pricing issue: Services across sectors must not be priced differently at a time like this. The media has reported that there is a difference of opinion between the government and private sector on the price of COVID-19 tests flowing from the prices of test kits.
    • Need for the protocol: A clear and non-negotiable protocol for the private sector must be established regarding the present crisis and how the government is going to help financially and otherwise in dealing with it.

    Way forward

    • Regulate the testing, screening and treatment facilities: The experience with the government offering subsidies to hospitals, especially in urban areas in terms of land and other concessions, has not borne out desired objectives such as better care for the poor.
    • Taking a cue from this, the testing, screening, and treatment facilities must be regulated in terms of pricing and quality.
    • Focus on strengthening the public health system: The Supreme Court has held healthcare to be a fundamental right under Article 21. The biggest lesson of the current crisis is that political will must focus on strengthening the public health system.

    Conclusion

    The finance minister has announced a package of `1.7 lakh crore to deal with this catastrophic situation. This is welcome, but long-term resource allocation to invigorate the public health system must be a continual and parallel process.

  • Amid the Lockdown, How can we efficiently manage our Agriculture and Livestock sector

    Context

    Amid lockdown, we need an action plan to manage our agriculture, livestock sectors.

    Need for an immediate action plan to manage the agriculture and livestock sector

    • The country produces around 52 crore litres of milk daily.
    • There are also 80 crore-odd live poultry, both broilers and layers, at any given time, supplying meat and eggs to consumers.
    • Link with the other producers: These birds and animals, in turn, support the livelihoods of poultry and dairy farmers, as well as those producing maize, soybean, mustard, groundnut, cotton and other coarse grains that are ingredients for livestock feed.
    • It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that farmers are able to keep their animals alive and market the crop that has been, or will be, harvested during the lockdown period.
    • We need an immediate action plan to manage our agriculture and livestock sectors in the interest of both producers and consumers.

    Issue of implementation

    • Ensuring free movements: The first thing is to ensure free movement of farm produce, livestock feed and veterinary medicines.
    • Implementing the already taken decision: It is obvious that not all issues can be addressed overnight. But the minimum the government can do is to ensure ground-level implementation of already-taken decisions.
    • The problem of implementation: Many essential services, for instance, were kept out of the purview of the lockdown. Food, feed and agricultural inputs have been specifically notified as essential services.
    • But there are several problems at the level of implementation that are coming to notice.
    • The Centre has issued various directives/notifications, many of them brief and general in nature.
    • Many of these have either not reached the local authorities and police personnel or are not clearly worded. As a result, the smooth movement of essential items has been affected.
    • There are also reports of conflict between the police and citizens, including people involved in the transportation and delivery of food as well as inputs to farms.
    • Why good food supply line matters? The government must do to ensure that people don’t go hungry and the measures it must take to make sure people don’t crowd a few outlets, increasing the chances of the virus spreading.
    • The government has announced that the beneficiaries of the public distribution system can avail three months’ ration at one go.
    • The challenge of delivery: The challenge is to ensure that fair price shops deliver the provisions in an orderly manner and their supply lines remain intact.

    Issue of poultry and maize farmers

    • Sharp fall in poultry items: In such times, prices of essential food items are known to shoot up. But in India, prices of food items like chicken meat and eggs have registered a sharp fall.
    • In Delhi’s Gazipur Mandi, for example, the price of broiler chicken has fallen from Rs 55/kg in January 2020 to Rs 24/kg in March.
    • This has also pushed the maize prices down as poultry is largely fed packaged maize.
    • The government may have to think of compensating poultry and maize farmers in due course.

    Suggestions for improving the implementation issue

    • Issue a single notification: The Centre must issue a single notification relating to food items in a standard format and uniform language so that all ambiguities are removed.
    • This needs to be finalised after consultations with the stakeholders and the state governments can release it to officials working at the grassroots.
    • The focus should be to address the problems arising from restrictions on the transport — between and within states — of agri-produce and inputs related to them.
    • Invoke the ESMA: Another suggestion is that the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) be invoked for the delivery of all essential services relating to food to prevent disruption of supplies.
    • Home delivery option: Home (street) delivery of these provisions, to avoid crowding, is a good option.
    • Roping in civil society: This is also an occasion to rope in civil society. NGOs, resident welfare associations, religious organisations and paramilitary forces can be engaged for orderly and safe distribution of food — both pre-cooked and fresh.
    • NGOs with experience in food preparation and distribution, such as Akshaya Patra, could guide local authorities.
    • People involved in this endeavour should be provided with safety gears.
    • The challenge of supplying perishables: These perishables-like fruits, vegetables and milk- must be sold in a packaged form in mobile vans. The weekly markets need to be temporarily suspended lest they spread the virus.
    • Vegetable vendors can work with civil society organisations as well as e-commerce players to do this job in a safe manner.
    • Retail distribution lines: Retail distribution lines need to be seamlessly linked to wholesale supply lines.
    • How to manage rabi season procurement? Procurement operations for rabi crops are around the corner.
    • Training and safety measures: The FCI and other procuring agencies need to be trained about safety measures and supplied safety gear.
    • Providing incentives to farmers for staggered selling: Farmers could be given Rs 50/quintal per month as an incentive to stagger bringing their produce to the market — say after May 10.
    • They will also need to be screened, given training and equipped with safety gear.

    Suggestions to prevent post-lockdown chaos

    • What will happen after the lockdown ends? Many plants are now shut or working at low capacity utilisation. Consumption by hotels and other institutions, too, is low. Nor is any export or import happening. But once the lockdown ends, there will be a rush to procure raw material, trucks and rail rakes.
    • Smooth recovery: Smooth recovery from the lockdown is as important as managing supplies during the lockdown.
    • Here are a few suggestions to ensure that the common man does not have to suffer hardships during and after the lockdown:
    • First– Place all food items, agri-inputs, packaging material and transport services under ESMA for a six-month period to prevent profiteering.
    • The MRP that was applicable in February should remain till October.
    • In the case of farm produce, it helps that we are looking at a bumper crop, which makes it all the more necessary to ensure its smooth marketing.
    • Second-Suspend APMC (agricultural produce market committee) laws for the next six months.
    • Traders with APMC licence are bound to act as cartels during rush hour, which will hurt both farmers and consumers.
    • Third-ESMA should apply to all utilities and transport services. State governments can make exemptions on a case to case basis: These exemptions should be subject to public scrutiny under the Right to Information Act.
    • The government should announce the above measures well in advance.

    Conclusion

    The government must start planning now to prevent post-lockdown chaos, especially profiteering in the event of shortages. Smooth recovery from the lockdown is as important as managing supplies during the lockdown.

     

  • A smarter supply line

    Context

    The government must ensure that people don’t go hungry and take measures to make sure that people don’t crowd a few outlets, increasing the chances of the virus spreading.

    Need for the package to compensate losses

    • Welfare package: The government has announced relief measures. Last week, the Finance Minister announced a welfare package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore.
    • This is too small to cope with the onslaught of the virus.
    • How much a comprehensive package would cost? A package to compensate all losses, including business losses, should amount to at least Rs 5 to 6 lakh crore, if not more.
    • How will the government find funds for this package?
    • Funds accrued as a result of oil price crash: The windfall gains that have accrued to it as a result of the crash in crude oil prices could come in handy.
    • Diver all the subsidies and development funds: The government could divert all subsidies and some development funds to fund this package and ask the country’s corporate leaders to help with funds.
    • Issue clarion call for voluntary donation: The prime minister could even issue a clarion call to those with a fixed income (say above Rs 50,000/month) to voluntarily donate at least 10 per cent of their salaries to fund the battle against the virus.

    Focus on supply lines of food and ways to achieve it

    • Why good food supply line matters? The government must do to ensure that people don’t go hungry and the measures it must take to make sure people don’t crowd a few outlets, increasing the chances of the virus spreading.
    • The government has announced that the beneficiaries of the public distribution system can avail three months’ ration at one go.
    • The challenge of delivery: The challenge is to ensure that fair price shops deliver the provisions in an orderly manner and their supply lines remain intact.
    • Home delivery option: Home (street) delivery of these provisions, to avoid crowding, is a good option.
    • Roping in civil society: This is also an occasion to rope in civil society. NGOs, resident welfare associations, religious organisations and paramilitary forces can be engaged for orderly and safe distribution of food — both pre-cooked and fresh.
    • NGOs with experience in food preparation and distribution, such as Akshaya Patra, could guide local authorities.
    • People involved in this endeavour should be provided with safety gears.
    • The challenge of supplying perishables:  These perishables-like fruits, vegetables and milk- must be sold in a packaged form in mobile vans. The weekly markets need to be temporarily suspended lest they spread the virus.
    • Vegetable vendors can work with civil society organisations as well as e-commerce players to do this job in a safe manner.
    • Retail distribution lines: Retail distribution lines need to be seamlessly linked to wholesale supply lines.
    • Buffer stocks: The government godowns are overflowing with wheat and rice — about 77 million metric tonnes (MMT) on March 1, against a buffer stock norm of 21.4 MMT on April 1.
    • How to manage rabi season procurement? Procurement operations for rabi crops are around the corner.
    • Training and safety measures: The FCI and other procuring agencies need to be trained about safety measures and supplied safety gear.
    • Providing incentives to farmers for staggered selling: Farmers could be given Rs 50/quintal per month as an incentive to stagger bringing their produce to the market — say after May 10.
    • They will also need to be screened, given training and equipped with safety gear.

    Challenge of mandi operations for fresh produce in large mandis

    • This pertains to mandi operations for fresh produce in large APMC mandis like Azadpur in Delhi and Vashi near Mumbai.
    • These mandis are usually overflowing with fruits and vegetables and the labour force at these centres usually handles the produce without safety gears.
    • The challenge of screening and providing safety kits to these workers is doubly daunting. The country is not fully prepared in this respect.
    • The safety of workers in mandis — and other workers who handle agricultural produce — should be accorded as much priority as the safety of frontline health warriors.
    • Suspend the APMC Act: We should also use this opportunity to suspend the APMC Act and encourage NGOs, civil society and corporate houses to directly procure from farmers.

    Issue of poultry and maize farmers

    • Sharp fall in poultry items: In such times, prices of essential food items are known to shoot up. But in India, prices of food items like chicken meat and eggs have registered a sharp fall.
    • In Delhi’s Gazipur Mandi, for example, the price of broiler chicken has fallen from Rs 55/kg in January 2020 to Rs 24/kg in March.
    • This has also pushed the maize prices down as poultry is largely fed packaged maize.
    • The government may have to think of compensating poultry and maize farmers in due course.

    Conclusion

    When things settle, it will be worth knowing how the virus spread from Wuhan to Iran, Italy, Washington, India and other parts of the world. Which organisation or nation failed to blow the whistle and alert the world in time? Was it China’s failure? Or that of WHO? Or was it the failure of all governments around the world to respond quickly to the outbreak? We need better global governance for pandemics to avert the next crisis.

  • Ayyappa and the Court

    Context

    In the several cases with potential significance, there was no effective hearing at the interim stages which created fait accompli. And which results in the status quo cementing itself.

    The Sabarimala case and ‘balance of convenience’ principle

    • Review petition pending: Millions of disciples have protested the Court’s 2018 verdict where gender equality was held to trump the tenets of the faith and rejoiced at the November 2019 order of the Chief Justice’s bench granting their cause a fresh lease of life.
    • As things stand, their review petitions are kept pending until the questions of law are determined.
    • Please to enter the temple declined: In December 2019, fervent pleas on behalf of certain women devotees to enter the temple were declined, although the 2018 verdict continued to hold the field.
    • Why declining the plea for entry matters? This was justified by the Court on a “balance of convenience”, thereby laying down a new principle for not directing the implementation of its own judgement.

    Pendency of Article 370 challenge case hearing

    • Nine judge bench: This year it was decided to put together the nine-judge bench to hear the cases on an urgent basis.
    • Kashmir case on the backburner: But with two judges from the ongoing Kashmir/Article 370 challenges also a part of the Sabarimala case, it would mean that the Kashmir issues would be put on the back burner in the middle of its hearing.
    • This is despite the advocates representing the right of women’s entry stating that they had no objection to the Kashmir cases being heard first.
    • Then, barely a day into the hearing, a strain of swine flu reached some of the members of the Bench, leading to a postponement of hearings till the middle of March.
    • Now, with a fierce pandemic enveloping the globe, the case is adjourned indefinitely.

    Criticism of administrative functioning of the SC

    • Over the last few months, the Supreme Court has been besieged by criticism of its administrative functioning.
    • Delay in the hearing of important cases: Cases that have customarily been heard with alacrity, like those concerning personal liberty, law and order and criminal investigation, have been posted after long intervals with the Government being granted the luxury of time to respond.
    • No effective hearing in cases with immediacy: Where immediacy is pre-eminent so that fait accompli may not be created, as with the validity of the Kashmir notifications, the CAA and the electoral bonds, there have been no effective hearings at the interim stage.
    • Thus, the status quo slowly cements itself.

    Reason for problems in administrative functions of the SC

    • Dual role played by the CJI: Since the early years of the judiciary, one person has been given the onerous dual charge of heading both the administrative and judicial functions of the court.
    • As a result, apart from sitting every day, reading briefs, hearing arguments and delivering detailed judgements, the Chief Justice has to also act as the final authority for all service-related matters of the Court’s 2,500 employees, issue office orders to streamline the registry.
    • The CJI also supervise measures for security and infrastructure, chair committees, correspond with and entertain judicial delegations, attend symposia, delegate subject matters among colleagues, constitute benches of varying strengths and interview candidates for the various courts.
    • In the old days, when the burden of cases was modest, these tasks would not have been challenging.
    • But in the present time, not only are they overwhelming, but they also bring in their wake a host of attacks on the person who occupies that high office.

    Need for the Chief Executive Officer in the SC

    • Administrative functioning of the SC: In all the administrative tasks, the Chief Justice is assisted by a team of registrars, who are headed by the secretary-general.
    • As they are junior judicial officers, they neither have the training nor the complete independence to take steps towards course correction.
    • The requirement of CEO: This is why the Supreme Court sorely requires a chief executive officer – an independent professional who is equipped with the day-to-day management of the Court and is not beholden to the judges in any way.
    • How it will help? The CEO will be charged with the entire mission of running the Court so that the judges can concentrate on what they are trained and experienced to do – adjudicate.
    • Operational autonomy: The CEO will, of course, have to be given adequate operational autonomy and be answerable to a committee of the Court, comprising judges and bar representatives, thereby providing for a professional process, much like in the corporate sphere.
    • With this, the judges will at least be spared the charges that they have had to withstand over the last few years.

    Conclusion

    It is only for politicians to concern themselves with public opinion, not for judges. They are weaponised by the Constitution to serve the cause of justice, and in this, as per Article 144, all civil and judicial authorities are enjoined to cooperate. Just a few blows of the gavel to any misadventures would be sufficient to send the message loud and clear: That the Court offers no sanctuary to the executive knaves.

  • After the lockdown

    Context

    Lockdown announcement has not been matched by national strategy — on containing fallout for poor.

    Two arguments advanced against lockdown

    • India’s decision to lock down was necessary. Two arguments are being advanced against it.
    • The first argument: India is a poor economy, with millions at the margins of subsistence, who cannot bear the consequences of a lockdown. The density and living conditions in India make social distancing difficult in many cases.
    • The second argument: It is that the extent of community transmission does not justify such drastic measures.

    What are the justifications for the lockdown?

    • The only hope: Precisely because millions in India are vulnerable and will not later have the possibilities of quarantining or medical care, the only hope we have of securing their lives is to slow down the spread of the virus as much as possible.
    • And the only shot you have at it is when community transmission is possibly still at manageable levels.
    • There is, therefore, a bit of bad faith in using the poor as the basis for expressing scepticism at the need for a lockdown. That is the most insidious form of privilege.
    • The risks of any catastrophic spread will be even more incalculable for the poor.

    Underscoring the importance of federalism and decentralisation

    • States responding in innovative ways: One of the more encouraging things has been the way in which several state governments like Punjab, Odisha, Kerala, Delhi and others have come into their own, innovating under difficult circumstances.
    • Role of panchayat and local officials: The much-neglected panchayat and local officials are key nodes in keeping track of possible cases and the creation of quarantining infrastructure.
    • Role of frontline workers: It would also be churlish not to acknowledge the ways in which most of the frontline workers of the state are responding, learning and innovating in this situation.
    • Federalism and decentralisation: If anything, this crisis is bringing home the importance of both federalism and decentralisation as central to a resilient governance architecture.

    The preparation and follow-up of the lockdown

    • But the national preparation and follow-up to take full advantage of the lockdown do not inspire full confidence.
    • Lack of strategy: The announcement of the lockdown has not been matched by a commensurate national strategy.
    • This is manifest, in the early signals on the following two important aspects:
    • Containing the economic fallout for the poor.
    • Building up the health infrastructure.
    • It is, admittedly, early days; but the signs are not good.

    Economic fallout for the poor

    • Focus is not on the poor: In the entire framing of the problem, the poor have been at best an afterthought, at worst expendable damage.
    • Steps taken not adequate: Steps like health insurance cover for frontline workers, increased food rations, are welcome steps. But a crisis of this magnitude required assurance to the most vulnerable that no stops will be pulled to secure their futures.
    • Instead, what you got was incrementalism of the worst kind, masquerading as a big commitment.
    • Low cash transfer: The cash transfers, in particular, through different schemes, are shockingly low.
    • Need for the unprecedented social security support: This crisis is one of the rare instances where economists and even bankers, from across the political spectrum, have rallied around the intellectual argument for unprecedented levels of social security support.
    • So the government’s “support by stealth” strategy is even more mystifying.
    • Impact of lockdown on migrant labour: The magnitude of the crisis unleashed for migrant labour could have been avoided with a little forethought.
    • What could have been done? Early announcement of cash transfers, shelter and food availability, would have obviated the need for migration.

    Opacity on the health infrastructure side

    • Issue of testing: Opacity is often a consequence of scarcity. And nowhere is this more manifest than in our discussion of testing.
    • Underutilisation of capacity: Everyone understands that India has the scarce testing capacity, though it seems it is also under-utilising what it has.
    • No clear testing strategy: The government is procuring more testing kits. But what is worrying is that there seems to be no publicly articulated statement of what exactly our testing strategy is, given the scarce resources.
    • But there is still no sense of how we plan to put a testing strategy in place (not just numbers of tests, but where can they be optimally deployed), that will minimise the need for future lockdowns.
    • What objectives is it trying to meet? There is more than a whiff of suspicion that there is a view that more testing might spread more panic.
    • Or it might put more pressure on the health care system than it can handle.
    • India has never understood that health expenditure is not an expenditure; it is an investment.
    • Building up of health infrastructure: The success of the lockdown strategy is premised on an unprecedentedly vigorous building up of health infrastructure to fight the pandemic.
    • There is a commitment by the Centre to infuse an extra Rs 15,000 crore in this sector. Some steps are being taken in building up capabilities, including ramping up production of ventilators and masks.
    • Need for warlike mobilisation: This is an area where India needs almost a warlike mobilisation, to make sure we have enough testing, tracking, frontline workers, logistics and equipment in place to make sure that the duration of a lockdown is minimised or a repeat is not necessary.
    • The creation of this kind of infrastructure will pay huge dividends even in non-pandemic times.

    Conclusion

    The prime minister is constantly asking the citizens to mobilise, and most of them respond. But it about time the state mobilises: On an economic stimulus that is truly meaningful and health infrastructure push that inspires confidence.

  • What the RBI has done to provide relief for the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak in India

    Context

    The RBI’s Governor’s ‘bazooka’ announcement earlier today has seen the usually conservative institution and its head pull out the big guns in word and action.

    Four steps taken by the RBI

    • One, increase the liquidity in the system.
    • Two, make sure the lower policy rate is transmitted. Steps one and two are linked.
    • Three, give a three-month window for a payback on all term loans.
    • Four, take steps to reduce volatility and provide stability.
    • Big cut in repo rate: He announced a big cut in the repo rate by 75 basis points (100 basis points make a per cent, so three-quarters of a percentage point) to 4.4%.
    • What is the repo rate? Repo rate is the rate at which the banks borrow from the RBI. Banks give ‘eligible securities’ they hold for cash that RBI gives as an overnight loan.
    • Banks pay the repo rate as interest for this borrowing.

    First two steps of the RBI: Increasing liquidity and ensuring policy rate transmission

    • Why lower repo rate matters? When the repo rate is high, banks find it costly to borrow and in turn raise the price of loans to their borrowers.
    • Reducing interest for the system: A low repo rate has the overall effect of reducing interest rates for the system. Lower rates make it easier for entrepreneurs to take loans for working capital and for households for homes, vehicles and so on.
    • Issue of policy rate transmission: Previous rate cuts have not been ‘transmitted’ by the banks who have not reduced lending rates and have preferred to keep money with the RBI at the ‘reverse repo rate’.
    • What is reverse repo rate? This is the rate at which banks lend to the RBI.

    How RBI is ensuring transmission now?

    • The RBI has now reduced the reverse repo rate by 90 basis points to 4%.
    • This cut in reverse rape sharper than the one on the repo rate to encourage banks to borrow from the RBI rather than lend to it.
    • How reverse repo rate matters? Banks have preferred to deposit money with the RBI rather than lend it out with an average daily amount of ₹3 trillion being kept with the RBI.
    • A reduction of the reverse repo to 4% makes it unattractive to banks to park it with the RBI and banks will be nudged to lend.
    • Why bank lending matters for business? Bank lending provides the needed oxygen to businesses for their working capital and longer-term loans.
    • Read this as a measure to help banks take the decision to lend rather than play it safe by keeping money with the RBI.

    How lock-down slows down the economy?

    • Rush to safety for money: If people are in a lock-down, the wheels of the economy begin to grind down and there is a rush to safety for money in the system.
    • Freezing of the markets market: Investors begin to redeem their shares, bonds and mutual funds. These redemptions cause a fire sale of assets. Finally, when there are no buyers, markets begin to freeze.

    What are the measures taken by RBI to stabilise the market?

    • To keep the wheels of the markets well-oiled with cash, the RBI has made ₹3.74 trillion available. This it has done using four weapons.
    • The first measure: It has used targeted long-term repo operations.
    • RBI will lend money to banks (a total of ₹1 trillion) that can be invested in bonds and other forms of lending instruments.
    • What is a hold-to-maturity way? Under the hold-to-maturity way, the portfolio is valued not on the market price but on what the price should be given the rate of interest of the bond, the holding period and the rating of the bond.
    • Basically, it allows trades to happen at a price that is not confused with the current pandemic in the market.
    • The second measure: The RBI reduced the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by a full percentage point down to 3% for a year.
    • The CRR is the percentage of demand and time deposits banks have to keep with the RBI.
    • Why CRR and not SLR was reduced? There is another 18.25% of deposits that is also not used for lending under the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), further reducing the money banks have to lend.
    • RBI has reduced the CRR to 3%, freeing up ₹1.37 trillion for banks to lend. CRR has been chosen rather than SLR because this increases ‘primary liquidity’ with the banks a bit better.
    • Not only is there CRR rate down, banks now need to maintain 80% of the limit on a daily basis instead of 90% till June 26, 2020.
    • The third measure: ₹1.37 trillion will be made available under the emergency lending window called the marginal standing facility (MSF).
    • Banks will now be able to borrow 3% of their deposits under this window, up from the current 2%. Basically, RBI is willing to lend more than before.
    • How much more? ₹1.37 trillion under this window.

    The third step of the RBI: Regulatory forbearance

    • What is the regulatory forbearance?

      What this means is that as economic activity grinds to a slowdown, people will not be able to pay back the loans they have taken for no fault of theirs.

    • This could be businesses with loans, households with EMIs on home loans and others with what are called ‘term loans’.
    • RBI will allow a moratorium of three months for loan repayment.
    • This is a relief especially for small entrepreneurs who have been forced to shut shop and for employees whose incomes have stopped since their place of work is shut.
    • It is good that the RBI has looked at the retail part of the market along with the corporate sector for once.
    • Working capital loans don’t come under the ‘term loan’ category, and these borrowers can defer paying interest for three months till June 2020.

    The fourth step of the RBI: Measures to reduce volatility in the exchange rate

    • Fourth is a measure to reduce the volatility of the price of the rupee in international markets by allowing banks to deal in off-shore non-deliverable rupee derivative markets.
    • It looks like reform using the crisis to bring about this long-awaited change.

    Conclusion

    We don’t know if measures taken by the RBI and the government are enough. But what is comforting is that the government and the RBI are working in tandem to deal with this giant killer of a virus.

  • Let’s use follower’s advantage

    Context

    How this coronavirus pandemic threat will pan out no one knows but what we do know is that the intensity of the challenge and its impact on our well-being will depend greatly on how we reach out to ordinary people, and the policies we implement.

    Historical perspective and comparison

    • Compared to the fatality numbers of some earlier pandemics, such as the Asian flu, 1957-58 (1.1 million dead) and Hong Kong Flu, 1968 (2 million dead), the fatality numbers of the current coronavirus pandemic are, as yet, nowhere near.
    • One of the most comprehensive studies on the pandemic, by the Imperial College of London, shows that the “case fatality rate”, or fatality among those who get coronavirus is 0.9 per cent — this means a 99.1 per cent survival rate among the people who get it.
    • What makes this pandemic special is that it is happening in the age of digital connectivity and greater scientific knowledge than we have ever had.
    • We can inform people quickly and take big steps to contain it.
    • But this also has a danger we have never faced.
    • Policy actions can have a mega backlash on the economy.
    • We are in uncharted territory — never before have we taken the kind of collective action against a pandemic as we are doing now.

    Time to collectively confront our common humanitarian challenge

    • Using the experience of South Korea: There is some evidence from history, and from the country that has been the most successful in dealing with this pandemic —South Korea.
    • The country’s success has saved lives, protected the economy from undue damage, boosted the popularity of the Korean President Moon Jae-In across political divides and raised the global standing of South Korea.
    • France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven have consulted Moon Jae-In for advice.
    • We have some evidence and estimates about the kind of damage this pandemic can do.
    • China’s industrial production in January-February 2020 declined by 5 per cent compared to a year ago.
    • Goldman Sachs has estimated that the US’s GDP growth could decline 24 per cent for the second quarter this year.
    • Data are coming in on recent US unemployment claims climbing by 30 per cent.
    • This is clearly time to put political differences aside, and collectively confront our common humanitarian challenge.

    Designing policy to deal with the pandemic

    • Economic implications: In designing policy, it is important to realise that all interventions to contain the pandemic have economic implications.
    • Some people react to this by saying that our first priority is to save lives, not the economy. This is a mistake. The two are not separate matters.
    • A poorly-executed policy can damage the economy and this can end up taking more lives than the original problem.
    • Examples of policy doing damage to lives: We have examples of the damage policies can do from history. In 1958, Mao Zedong initiated the Great Leap Forward to boost China’s production. This unleashed the biggest famine in modern times, which resulted in 20 to 40 million deaths.
    • The Bengal Famine of 1943 occurred with no decline in food production but there were disruptions in supply chains from the farms to those who needed food.
    • The death toll was two to three million. Such evidence from the past warns us that policies not designed well can cause more deaths than the pandemic itself.

    Three lessons from South Korea

    • We already have three lessons from Korea, which are being widely discussed in newspapers and the media around the world.
    • First, you need strong leadership.
    • Second, it is critically important to have trust between society and government. There is only that much you can do if people do not cooperate.
    • Third, the need is for nuanced policies, with the government having the courage to make course correction as it goes along.

    Way forward

    • First, trust can be a casualty with the lockdown. There are reports of the police wielding the baton too quickly on ordinary vendors, small grocers and sellers. They need to explain to people so that they begin to actually cooperate, instead of complying only when under observation. That is the key difference between a trusting society and a trustless one.
    • The government cannot be a substitute for the private firms: To believe that small traders and private firms can be substituted by the government is the mistake Communist China made in the 1960s and 1970s, before the arrival of Deng Xiaoping.
    • An example of the importance of specialised knowledge — this applies to the US as well — pertains to the role of cash grants to the poor. Such grants work well in normal times but may need to be supplemented with the direct support of food and medical services.

    Conclusion

    Some say that the Korea analogy is of no use to us because it is a relatively small country. It is true that everything will not apply here. But on the other hand, Korea and Hubei province of China are very comparable. Korea’s population is 52 million, Hubei’s is 58 million. The number of people who died of the virus in Korea is 126. The figure for Hubei is 3,160. Korea, of course, had the follower’s advantage since the virus struck there later. But we too have that advantage.

  • Mind your own economic health

    Context

    The fragility of the global economy has been exposed twice within the last two decades. In 2008, the collapse of a financial services firm in the US triggered a global financial meltdown. In 2020, the emergence of a novel virus in a food market in Wuhan has done it again.

    The global economy and system theory

    • Systems theory: It that systems take various forms. Broadly speaking, there are three types of systems-1. Chaotic systems. 2. Engineered Systems, and 3. Complex self-adaptive systems.
    • As the weather in a storm, chaotic systems are unpredictable and uncontrollable.
    • The global economy is behaving like a chaotic system.
    • Engineered systems, on the other hand, can be controlled quite tightly, like machines.
    • However, they are dull. A nuclear power plant is a well-engineered system. We would want it to do just what it is supposed to and not produce any surprises.
    • In contrast to these systems is the design of nature. It is a complex self-adaptive system. It produces myriad innovations. It evolves. Yet, its fundamental stability is very reassuring.
    • The realisation that mankind’s technologies and engineering marvels are disrupting nature’s stability, has raised alarms about the architecture of global economic governance.
    • More about self-adaptive systems: The architecture of complex self-adaptive systems is formed by essential design principles. One is “permeable boundaries”.
    • The many parts of a complex self-adaptive system have permeable boundaries between themselves. Each part has its integrity. The parts exchange information and energy across their boundaries as required.
    • When there are no boundaries within, or they are too weak, an accident at one end will soon sink the whole ship.

    Consequences of boundarylessness within the global financial system

    • The drive for boundarylessness within the global financial system since the 1990s caused the sloshing around of contagion during the global financial crisis in 2008.
    • Whereas global economic growth has undoubtedly been enabled by global supply chains, the vulnerability of economies everywhere to their disruption has become painfully evident with the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • Complex adaptive systems exhibit “fractal-like” shapes. Their parts are complex, combining the same diverse energies that permeate across the whole.
    • Social forces, economic forces, and environmental forces combine within all countries, and in parts within countries too, albeit in different ways.
    • Though the parts are similar to each other, they are not the same. Therefore, the same solutions will not fit all.
    • An insight from systems theory is that global systemic problems such as climate change, persistent economic inequality, among others, will require local systems solutions.

    Six reforms for reshaping Indian economy

    • Stress test: Crises create stress tests for the health of systems. The financial crisis of 2008 exposed the fragility of an inter-connected and under-regulated financial system.
    • The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the architectural weaknesses in the global economy.
    • Instead of worrying too much about the reversal of globalisation, national leaders should now focus on the well-being of their citizens and the health of their own economies.
    • Six reforms are essential for reshaping the Indian economy.
    • First, focus on the provision of universal social security, rather than on the misdirected demand for even more “flexibility” in labour laws
    • Second, respect the “informal” sector which provides the majority of Indians with opportunities to earn incomes, and give it more strength. It is also a great source for practical innovations and widespread entrepreneurship.
    • Third, change the economic paradigm from “trickle-down” to “build up”. Build the internal engine of growth of India’s economy by increasing incomes of India’s citizens.
    • Fourth, strengthen public health services. Medical tourism may put India’s private hospitals on the global map. However, they are not the solution to India’s huge health problems.
    • Fifth, reform and strengthen the public education system. It will contribute greatly to creating a level playing field for all children.
    • Sixth, strengthen local governance in India’s towns and districts to develop and implement local systems solutions. The well-being of Indian citizens will be improved, and India’s economy will be more resilient too.

    Conclusion

    • All governments are asking their citizens to increase “social distancing” between themselves to prevent the spread of a health contagion. It would be wise for countries to maintain sufficient “economic distancing” amongst themselves too. They should mind the health of their own economies. Thereby, they will improve the health of the global economy too.