📰 ‘Privacy a fundamental but wholly qualified right’
Nine-judge Bench prods AG to make govt. stand clear
•The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that privacy was indeed a fundamental right, but a “wholly qualified” one.
•This led a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar on Wednesday to sum up Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal’s submission thus: “You are saying that right to privacy is a fundamental right. But not every aspect of it [privacy] is a fundamental right. It depends on a case-to-case basis.” Mr. Venugopal agreed to the court’s interpretation of the government stand.
•The acknowledgement from the Centre came after several hours of walking on the very brink of conceding that right to privacy is a fundamental right.
•Earlier, the court kept prodding Mr. Venugopal to make the government’s position clear.
•At one point, Chief Justice Khehar even said that the reference to the nine-judge Bench could be closed if the Centre agreed that privacy was a fundamental freedom.
•“Petitioners had argued that there is a fundamental right to privacy. You [Centre] had stalled them by saying that privacy is not a fundamental right. You quoted our eight and six judges’ Benches’ judgments to claim privacy is not a fundamental right. So, the five-judge Bench hearing the Aadhaar petitions referred the question ‘whether privacy is a fundamental right or not’ to us. Now if you are saying that privacy is a fundamental right, shall we close this reference right now itself?” Chief Justice Khehar asked Mr. Venugopal.
•The Attorney General explained to the Bench that the government did not consider privacy to be a single, homogenous right but rather a “sub-species of the fundamental right to personal liberty and consists of diverse aspects. Not every aspect of privacy is a fundamental right.”
•Some aspects of privacy were expressly defined in the Constitution, while some were not. Mr. Venugopal said there was a “fundamental right to privacy. But this right is a wholly qualified right.”
📰 ‘India-Israel ties can affect Al Aqsa conflict’
India must play a positive role: envoy
•India’s friendly ties with Israel could ‘interfere’ with the ongoing Israel-Palestinians conflict over the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, said the envoy of Palestine on Wednesday. The Ambassador, Adnan Abu Al Haija, termed Israel’s latest security measures in Al Aqsa compound a ‘religious war’ and said Palestine expected a “positive attitude” from the Indian government.
•“India’s present government is friendly to Israel. Previous governments were also close to Israel but this government is particularly so. India’s friendly ties with Israel could interfere with the present situation in Jerusalem,” said the envoy. “The Al Aqsa mosque is an Islamic place of worship. Jerusalem is a city of three religions and we respect all religions.” He, however maintained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Israel which excluded a visit to the Palestinian territory did not impact ties between two sides.
•The envoy said Israel had been trying to disturb the sanctity of the Al Aqsa mosque for a long time but for the first time since 1967 has begun the Judaisation process of the site which is holy to both Muslims and the Jewish. “The Judaisation campaign of Israel received a serious blow last year when UNESCO declared Al Aqsa mosque compound to be uniquely Muslim. This has infuriated Israel, which decided to go with the latest provocation,” he said.
📰 RCEP: Boost for India on easier visa norms
Some ASEAN nations back bid
•India’s push for easier norms on movement of professionals across borders for short-term work in 16 Asia-Pacific nations, including itself, under a proposed mega Free Trade Agreement (FTA) — is learnt to have found favour with some ASEAN-bloc members.
•The proposed FTA, officially known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), is being negotiated by these countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
•The RCEP technical level talks are currently going on in Hyderabad.
Travel card
•A few ASEAN countries are also understood to be supporting India’s proposal for an RCEP Travel Card to facilitate visa-free multiple short-term entry across the RCEP region for business and tourism purposes.
•Official sources told The Hindu that while some countries of the ten-member ASEAN bloc have supported India’s call for detailed discussions to have binding commitments on temporary movement of professionals as part of the RCEP agreement, Australia and New Zealand (who are RCEP members) are blocking the move. “These positions keep changing during the negotiations, but we (India) are trying (to secure India’s interests in the services sector),” an official privy to the negotiations said.
•India, which has a vast pool of services professionals, including from IT/ITeS, sector, had been leading the talks on easing restrictions on temporary movement of professionals.
•Allaying the fears of many RCEP member nations that it would lead to migration of professionals from India and loss of jobs for locals, India has been saying that its demands on temporary movement of professionals and skilled workers should not be confused with permanent movement (or immigration).
•Meanwhile, Indian information technology industry body Nasscom informed the RCEP trade negotiators that the Indian IT-ITeS sector had supported 4.54 lakhjobs in the RCEP region (excluding India).
•Gagan Sabharwal, director, Nasscom, also said the Indian IT sector was facing many problems in the RCEP region with regard to temporary movement of professionals.
📰 India pressed to open up procurement
More RCEP nations seek commitments on market access, equal treatment of foreign and local firms
•Pressure is mounting on India to open up its more than $300 billion-worth public procurement market under the proposed mega Free Trade Agreement (FTA) called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
•Public/government procurement broadly refers to the process by which government (at the Central, State and local levels), its agencies/departments and State-owned enterprises procure goods and/or services only for their own use, and not for sale/resale commercially.
Binding commitments
•Official sources told The Hindu that an increasing number of countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as well as a few from the 10-member ASEAN bloc including Singapore and Malaysia, were pushing for binding commitments to mutually liberalise government procurement markets in the 16 Asia Pacific nations, including themselves and India involved in the mega-FTA talks.
•Incidentally, during the ongoing 19th round of the RCEP Trade Negotiating Committee meeting at the technical level being held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, the 16 countries agreed to constitute a Working Group on government procurement to take forward negotiations on the topic and include it as a separate chapter in the final agreement, sources said.
•They, however, said India would not give in to the demands from these countries for “market access and national treatment (equal treatment of foreign and local firms)” pertaining to government procurement in the RCEP agreement, and not even undertake any commitment on a “best endeavour basis.” Even in India’s separate FTAs with Japan, South Korea and Singapore (that are already in force), “market access and national treatment” have been kept out of the government procurement chapter. The maximum extent that India could go to, is to agree to ensure transparency and cooperation in government procurement matters (including information exchange and sharing of knowledge) as part of the RCEP agreement, they said.
•Sources said though RCEP member countries including Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore may not have a “PSU [Public Sector Unit] culture” as such, they had norms that indirectly made it difficult for foreign firms, including from India, to take part in their public procurement process.
‘Language barrier’
•Countries like China, Japan and South Korea, may outwardly have an open procurement market, but make it difficult for foreign firms to participate by phrasing requirements in local language, sources said.
•This ensures that domestic firms with a grasp over the local language get to submit the documents on time, unlike foreign firms who get hit by the language barrier, the sources said.
•India is not a signatory to the Government Procurement Agreement within the WTO framework because it wants to retain its policy space to meet its development needs through public procurement process. In May, the Indian government had brought out a policy providing preference in government procurement to local goods and services suppliers. This was to push the ‘Make In India’ initiative, ensure greater flow of capital and technology into domestic services and manufacturing, and in turn, boost job creation locally as well as promote small enterprises.
•Then in June, it came up with an order restricting or excluding from public procurement tenders in India, the firms from those nations where Indian suppliers are not allowed to participate and/or compete in government procurement process.
📰 Policy boosts care for blood disorders
Under Centre’s move, people with thalassaemia, sickle cell anaemia to be part of registry
•People living with thalassaemia, sickle cell anaemia and other haemoglobin disorders can now look forward to better screening and treatment, based on the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s new policy.
•The Ministry recently released a policy on the Prevention and Control of haemoglobinopathies in India.
•Supported by the National Health Mission, Blood Cell and the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, the guidelines provide for screening of pregnant women during antenatal check-up, pre-marital counselling at college level and one-time screening for variant anaemia in children.
•The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare) Anupriya Patel stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on July 18.
•Thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia are the most frequently encountered ‘rare blood disorders’ in the country and impose a significant economic burden on families.
•The policy aims at creating treatment protocol benchmarks, to improve the quality of life of patients.
•It is also a guide on prevention and control, which includes antenatal and prenatal testing to reduce the incidence of live haemoglobin disorder births (currently pegged at 10,000-15,000 live births a year).
•Using public health awareness programmes and education, it highlights various haemoglobinopathies. The guidelines include the creation of a national registry to plan future patient services. The registry will also collect useful data, such as the location of patients to identify areas of high concentration, ethnicity or other characteristics, age distribution, records of deaths and their cause.
•Shobha Tuli, president of the Federation of Indian Thalassaemics, who contributed to the policy, said it was a big step to prevent haemoglobinopathies.
‘Provide all drugs’
•“Since not more than 20% of patients can afford treatment, the government should ensure that all patients get it free. Such free treatment is given in States such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka besides Delhi, and others should follow suit. All chelation drugs should be made available free because one drug does not suit all,” she said.
•The policy, however, makes no reference to carrier testing for relatives of patients.
•Namitha A. Kumar from the Centre for Health Ecologies and Technology (CHET), who is also living with thalassaemia said people with the genetic disorder unknowingly pass it on to their children, as preventive checks are not the norm in India.
•“In Pakistan, a law making carrier testing compulsory for relatives of thalassaemia patients was passed in February. A similar system is in place in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. I wish it could be made compulsory here too,” she said.
•Cecil Reuben Ross, Head of the Department of Medicine and Haematology in St. John’s Medical College Hospital, hailed the policy but said testing had to be voluntary.
•“There is more awareness about the condition now, especially after the Indian Council of Medical Research took up screening of 50,000 antenatal mothers and 50,000 college students a few years ago.
•“Testing cannot be made compulsory and people should opt for it. A concerted effort by people as well as government will help ,” Dr. Ross said.
📰 Panel for action against farmers using herbicides on GM mustard
Anti-GM activists question efficacy of such regulation
•The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee’s (GEAC) sub-committee has drafted several recommendations on GM mustard before it approved the crop for commercial release in May this year. These included a proposal for legal action on farmers using the glufosinate-based herbicide (Basta) on the crop unless otherwise approved by the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee.
•In response to an RTI query, the GEAC has provided minutes of the sub-committee’s May 11, 2017 meeting. The minutes, accessed by The Hindu, reflect an apprehension that farmers may use herbicides to kill weeds that grow in crops of herbicide-tolerant GM Mustard.
Detrimental to humans
•Glufosinate-based herbicides act as a neurotoxin and have adverse impacts on humans, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health.
•To a query on how the GEAC proposes to ensure adherence to its recommendations, GEAC sub-committee member C.R. Babu, also Director of the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems, University of Delhi, told The Hindu that the Ministry of Environment and Forests was contemplating setting up a system to monitor the planting of GM mustard seeds when commercially released.
Bt cotton lessons
•However, anti-GM activists question how effective such regulation will be, drawing attention to the experience with Bt cotton, the country’s first and only commercially released GM crop. The GEAC had recommended plant refuges wherever Bt cotton was planted to ensure pests did not develop resistance to the Bt toxin.
•“In the case of Bt cotton the government’s record of ensuring adherence to recommendations has been very poor,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, activist and convenor of ASHA (Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture).
•On Monday, the Centre submitted to the Supreme Court that it would file its affidavit on its preparedness for commercial release of GM Mustard on July 29. The Supreme Court has asked the government to stay the commercial release of GM mustard until it does so.
📰 ‘Bitcoins must be regulated’
The digital currency can be a boon for the country, the report says
•Bitcoins can provide a superior route to encourage digital transactions, a report by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said, adding it is essential to expand the regulatory framework for bitcoins to reinforce safety and security aspects.
•“Arguably, bitcoins can be a boon for the large population of the country which is still unbanked; it can provide them a superior and simple peer-to-peer digital currency trading platform through desktops and mobile devices,” the report, titled Industry Perspective on Bitcoins, said. However, it highlighted the importance of a regulatory framework and awareness programmes about benefits and dangers of bitcoins.
📰 CAC adopts Codex norms for three spices
•In a significant move, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) adopted three Codex standards for black, white and green pepper, cumin and thyme paving the way for an universal agreement on identifying quality spices in various countries.
•The CAC cleared these standards at its session held in Geneva recently.
•The adoption of Codex standards for the three spices, it is pointed out, will help evolve a common standardisation process for their global trade and availability.
•“This (Codex standard) will bring harmony to the global spice trade and ensure availability of high quality, clean and safe spices to the world,’’ said Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a statement.
•“It may be a small beginning considering the number of commodities waiting in the ranks for the standardisation process. But what is really heartening is that spices have made a definitive entry into the league of commodities having Codex standards, and India played a key role in achieving this objective,’’ she added.
‘Food code’
•The Codex Alimentarius or “Food Code” is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Commission, also known as CAC, is the central part of the joint FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations)/WHO (World Health Organisation) Food Standards Programme.
•With the adoption of Codex standards, member-nations would now have reference points and benchmarks to align their national standards for spices with Codex.
📰 ‘GST, note ban to boost economy’
•Economic activity is expected to rebound due to a supportive monetary policy, the effect of the Goods and Services Tax, and the eventual formalisation of the economy due to demonetisation, according to a report by Fitch Ratings.
•The withdrawal of cash due to demonetisation had temporarily hurt economic growth in India, it said.
•“Nevertheless, we expect growth to pick up soon, helped by the supportive monetary policy of the previous two years — which was facilitated by a surge in bank liquidity due to demonetisation — and stepped-up structural reforms,” the report added. The report also highlighted uncertainty over the government committing to reducing its debt and the detrimental effect of farm loan waivers on states’ finances.
📰 Questions of age
The SC has done right in refusing to extend POCSO to adults with mental retardation
•The Supreme Court has shown due restraint in declining to apply the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act to mentally retarded adults whose mental age may be that of a child. It would have been tempting to give a purposive interpretation to the term ‘child’ under POCSO, which refers to those below 18 years of age, and rule that it encompasses those with a ‘mental age’ of a person below 18. It would have been compelling to acknowledge how similarly a child and an adult with inadequate intellectual growth are placed when it comes to sexual assault: both may show the same lack of understanding about the situation they are in and incapacity to protest. No doubt, any expanded definition to encompass both biological and mental age within the POCSO framework would have helped extend its beneficial features to another section of vulnerable persons. The court has chosen the challenging path of analysing the import of such judicial interpretation, along with the question whether expanding the notion of age is within its remit. It has ruled that it is outside its domain. POCSO is meant to protect children from sexual offences. To extend it to adult victims based on mental age would require determination of their mental competence. This would need statutory provisions and rules; the legislature alone is competent to enact them. Judicial conferment of power to trial courts to treat some adults as children based on mental capacity would, in the Bench’s opinion, do violence to the existing law protecting children from sexual offences. It noted that there may be different levels of mental competence, and that those with mild, moderate or borderline retardation are capable of living in normal social conditions.
•The case before the court related to the rape of a 38-year-old woman with cerebral palsy. Her mother was concerned about the absence of a friendly and congenial atmosphere before the trial court. She approached the courts for a direction to transfer the case to a special court under POCSO, a law that mandates child-friendly procedures and features during the trial, taking into account her daughter’s mental age, which she said was that of a six-year-old. In a fateful turn of events, the lone accused died during these proceedings, bringing the criminal case to an end. The implication of the Supreme Court ruling is that the onus is always on trial judges to keep in mind the degree of retardation of victims and their level of understanding while appreciating their evidence. It would be unfortunate if cases get derailed because of either the victims’ inability to communicate effectively or because of the court’s difficulty in understanding their words or gestures. It is now up to the legislature to consider the introduction of legal provisions to determine mental competence so victims with inadequate mental development may effectively testify against sexual offenders.
📰 Privacy in the public domain
The greatest challenge to privacy is from the private sector. It also stems from an indifference to our own privacy
•It is heartening to read the preliminary observations of the Supreme Court, made on July 19, regarding privacy as a fundamental right. Unfortunately, much of the debate on privacy seems to suffer from the leftovers of a certain traditional understanding of privacy and the private. In fact, it is no longer possible to decouple the idea of privacy from the mechanisms through which privacy is guaranteed. Since Aadhaar and many of the contemporary discussions on privacy are related to deep technological developments, the question of privacy should be rethought in the context of these technologies.
Secrecy and security
•Privacy is not a concept like the other fundamental rights. Moreover, our notions of privacy have changed and will continue to change. If there is one major catalyst for this change, it has been technology. Built homes are a simple example of how we develop a sense of privacy which is influenced by a technological development. Once we have a conception of home, we also have conceptions of bedroom, living room, toilet and kitchen. These spaces and conceptions created by very simple processes of technology create specific ideas of privacy.
•Two common ways of understanding privacy are through secrecy and anonymity. We believe that our bank balance must be private. Companies do not normally make public the salaries of all their employees. Universities do not make public the marks or grades of their students in a way that violates the privacy of the student.
•These notions of privacy are based on the need for security and protection. We do not want to divulge certain things about our wealth or life practices since they may be used by others to potentially harm us. So privacy becomes a way of protecting individuals or groups. But we also often overthrow privacy arguments for security purposes. We do not object to giving our biometrics when we apply for visas or when we join some private jobs.
•Contemporary technology has made possible many new innovations that have changed the very meaning and significance of privacy. From smartphones to the darknet, the fundamental trajectory is one to do with privacy. However, there are two worrisome aspects. In any discussion on privacy, there is a deep suspicion of the government and state, most times rightly so. But this suspicion does not extend to technology and its private agents, those that are responsible for the breakdown of the value of privacy today.
•Today, in times of growing privatisation, the greatest challenge to privacy comes from the private sector. It also stems from an indifference to our own privacy. We do not seem to value privacy today as in earlier times. Social experiments have shown that people are willing to have private information about themselves made public if they receive some monetary advantage.
•We do this all the time. When we search for a book or a ticket, we start getting advertisements related to these searches in our supposedly private emails. What we read, search, buy, talk and perhaps even think get stored, used and circulated. Everything is tracked and rerouted. We have no clue to the amount of information about our private lives that is out in the Web. All because we get free emails and free Internet access! Today, privacy has been deeply compromised through the offering of ‘free’ goods.
The state and private players
•Very often when we worry about questions of privacy, it is about the role of the government or the state. The state too can do much with the information on individuals that it collects through various voluntary as well as coercive means. The concern about privacy thus was a concern about potential misuse of such information. However, information about individuals is arguably much more in the private domain today than it is within various governments. Moreover, the mining of this information is taken up far more assiduously by the private compared to government institutions.
•The idea of privacy has always had a troubled relationship with privatisation. Private companies often have rules that protect them from being transparent in hiring policies, in affirmative action or even making public the salaries of all their employees. Private groups know best the power of the idea of privacy. They use this notion to protect themselves from governments and the public. They also realise that the greatest market that is perennially available to them is the market of trading information on privacy.
•A related problem is that the government has begun to look more and more like the private sector. Today, almost all politicians are rich entrepreneurs and hold powerful business interests. The public-private binary does not function in any useful sense as far as the governing class is concerned. Thus, privacy is not only open to manipulation by the government but even more so by the private sector. This is so especially because it is the private sector that is at the forefront of developing technologies that facilitate this mining, storing and sharing of information.
No free lunches
•The Trojan horse through which the state and private players enter our domains of privacy is through contemporary technologies. These technologies have now come to be seen as necessary. The fact that we so unthinkingly buy into this story shows the success of how these technologies have colonised us so effectively.
•The price we pay for modern technologies is not only money. The economic model that runs consumerism of modern technologies is quite different from the model of selling groceries. We are seduced by the amount of free things we get in a technological gadget. The websites are free; we can download millions of books and songs for which we had to pay earlier. Why are we being given so much that is free? Like almost everything else in this world, there are always hidden costs. The major cost that we pay is the cost of our privacy — the information on each one of our private lives and, through this information, more effective control on how we act and behave.
•This raises deeply troubling questions about making privacy a fundamental right. How will the Supreme Court judges be able to give a judgment on privacy as a fundamental right without also making possession, and the making, of technology as ‘rights’? How can they do this without imposing controls on predator technologies that enter the social world in the guise of making our lives comfortable? Some might argue that technology is only an intermediary tool that enables certain things, both good and bad.
•But to hold this view is to be blind to the changing modes of technological domination through digital and Internet technologies. Technology is no longer outside human and social processes; it co-creates and co-constitutes the human and the social.
