📰 Navtej Johar, a verdict for all times
The 2018 decision merits a rich tribute for its transformative constitutionalism
•Trapped in a frozen political process amidst heightened public passions, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was out of sync with contemporary values on gender orientation. It is the courts that have been used as the key to unlock social progress. In a historic judgment, in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018), the Supreme Court stepped into the public policy void created by the timidity of political parties to strike down Section 377 that had criminalised homosexuality as an unnatural offence.
Realigning public policy
•Dipak Misra was the Chief Justice of India from August 28, 2017 to October 2, 2018. The enduring legacy of the Supreme Court on social policy is in inverse proportion to the brevity of his tenure. In that compressed time period, the court delivered several far-reaching judgments. Those verdicts shone a light on the constitutional morality of contested and evolving social mores and the need to realign public policy to changing social contexts.
•Constitutionalism is the modern political equivalent of Rajdharma, the ancient Hindu concept that integrates religion, duty, responsibility and law. Every constitutional system of governance creates an apex court to be the final, authoritative arbiter of facts in dispute, to elaborate on the meaning of relevant laws and their applicability, and to ensure conformity of laws to the Constitution. The custodian of India’s collective constitutional conscience is the Supreme Court.
•A Constitution prescribes rules for the authoritative allocation of values. It strikes a balance of the different branches and layers of government, the liberty of citizens, the authority of the state, and the cohesiveness of society. Every Constitution is underpinned by a distinctive legal philosophy and embodies the social purposes of a political community. It subjects the fleeting political passions of the day to the scrutiny of constitutional constancy.
Correcting a basic error
•Instead of viewing prospective legislation as the solution, the court diagnosed the long history of legislative inactivity as the problem in the Section 377 case. Espousing the concept of the Indian nation and people as a pluralistic, diverse and inclusive modern society, the long-operating colonial law was judged to abridge constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and human dignity when applied to the private conduct of consenting adults. The burden of the penal law targeting sexual minorities was lifted.
•Derived from the text and purpose of the Constitution, the dignity and right of adults to have control over their individual behaviour in a modern, democratic society was reaffirmed. In 2013, in Suresh Kumar Koushal v. Naz Foundation,the Supreme Court had overturned an enlightened ruling of the Delhi High Court in 2009. The reversal of the 2013 Koushal verdict by the Supreme Court in Navtej Johar corrected a basic error of constitutional reasoning.
•In a modern democratic society, sexual orientation is nothing to boast about, nor is it something to be ashamed of. Judges sometimes find it difficult to understand and express the burden that law can cast upon women or minorities in their society. All over the world, LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex and queer/questioning) people are forced to pretend to be different from what they experience in reality. This has resulted in a forced silence that has denied the majority of the heterosexual community a full opportunity to understand and work through the lived experience of the LGBTIQ minority. The understanding, sensitivity and expression of legal principle in the Navtej Johar judgment was greatly moving and uplifting. The vital point made was that for constitutional purposes, the LGBTIQ minority is part of, and incontestably included in, the diverse plural Indian nation.
•The 2013 Koushal verdict was contemptuous of the LGBTIQ minority. By contrast, the approach of the court in Navtej Johar was respectful and inclusive. The LGBTIQ community’s small size is irrelevant. As the Supreme Court said, constitutional courts “are under an obligation to protect the fundamental rights of every single citizen without waiting for the catastrophic situation when the fundamental rights of the majority of citizens get involved.” The court emphatically rejected the subjection of a minority to “societal pariah and dereliction”, and said that Section 377 “mars their joy of life”.
•In the case of countries with similar constitutional and legal traditions, using a common language of decision-making and a shared tradition of analogous reasoning has cross-fertilising effects across different constitutional jurisdictions. Former Chief Justice Misra and colleagues made numerous references to contemporaneous decisions of constitutional courts in considering the validity of homosexual offences in India. Their written reasons contain important analyses describing the emerging constitutional jurisprudence of the U.S., Canada, South Africa, the U.K., and the European Court of Human Rights.
An affirmation of human dignity
•The critical examination provided a powerful indication of the worldwide trend acknowledging the error of the approach previously taken in penal legislation like Section 377. By reference to this stream of jurisprudence, the Navtej Johar decision shows that laws such as Section 377 represent a serious overreach of criminal law. Such law is incompatible with constitutional notions of human dignity, equality and privacy. The verdict is a cornucopia of textual analysis, ancient and modern history, India’s political history, philosophical reasoning, and doctrinal application. It deserves a rich tribute for its transformative constitutionalism. In the pantheon of affirmations of human dignity and liberty in this world, this historic judgment, that Section 377 “denudes members of the LGBT communities of their constitutional right to live fulfilling lives”, will certainly be included.
•In turn, the particular identity of the IPC as the inspiration for other national penal legislation, especially in other former British colonies, makes it obvious that such countries must face and respond to the magisterial reasoning of the Supreme Court of India in this historic judgment.
•In an age where everything is temporary, this is a decision that will ring through the centuries — and not only in India.
📰 No blanket power to snoop, Home Ministry clarifies
Home Ministry official says no new agency or law is involved in interception
•The Central government has not given ‘blanket power’ to any agency to intercept information from any computer, a senior Home Ministry official has said.
•The agencies have to strictly adhere to the existing rules while carrying out such action, the official, requesting anonymity, told PTI.
•There is no new law, no new rule, no new procedure, no new agency, no blanket authorisation. It is the same law, same rule, same procedure and the same agencies, he said.
•“There is no change even in a comma or a full stop in the existing rules and regulations,” the official said.
•The December 20 Home Ministry notification, listing the 10 agencies, had set off a political storm with the Opposition accusing the government of trying to create a “surveillance state.”
•The official clarified that the 10 agencies mentioned in the notification were already empowered to intercept electronic communications since 2011.
•Further, while listing these agencies on December 20 this year, the Ministry had reiterated the Standard Operating Procedures of 2011, which mandates that every such interception requires prior approval of the competent authority — the Union Home Secretary or the State Home Secretary.
•The Central government has been maintaining that the rules for intercepting and monitoring computer data were framed in 2009 when the Congress-led UPA was in power and its new order only notified the designated agencies which can carry out such action.
•In a statement, the Ministry had said adequate safeguards are provided in the IT Act, 2000.
📰 Pak. beefing up border armoury
Ambitious plan to procure close to 600 battle tanks and Italian artillery guns
•Pakistan has drawn up an ambitious plan to procure close to 600 battle tanks, including T-90 tanks from Russia, primarily to bolster its military might along the border with India, intelligence sources said on Sunday. Most of these tanks will be able to hit targets at a range of three to four km, sources said.
•The Pakistan Army is also procuring 245 150mm SP Mike-10 guns from Italy of which it has already received 120 guns, they said.
•The sources said Pakistan was eyeing to buy from Russia a batch of T-90 battle tanks — the mainstays of the armoured regiments of the Indian Army — and that the move reflected Islamabad’s intent to forge a deeper defence engagement with Moscow. Russia has been India’s largest and most trusted defence supplier post- Independence. The sources said as part of the mega plan to significantly revamp its armoured fleet by 2025, Pakistan has decided to procure at least 360 battle tanks globally besides producing 220 tanks indigenously with help from its close ally China.
•Pakistan Army’s move to enhance its armoured corps comes at a time when the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed growing hostilities in the last one year. The Indian Army has been strongly retaliating to every unprovoked firing.
📰 HIV reality check
Two lives, of a donor and a recipient, are devastated by lapses in blood screening
•A 23-year-old pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu tested positive for HIV after receiving a unit of blood at a government hospital blood bank, indicating glaring lapses in screening procedures. The blood was donated on November 30 and transfused to the pregnant woman on December 3. Testing all donated blood units for a number of transfusion-transmissible infections, including HIV, is mandatory in India. The ELISA test used in all blood banks to screen for HIV has very high levels of sensitivity to diagnose samples positive for the virus. It can be said with certainty that the blood bank had failed to screen the blood for HIV. The question of testing the donated blood for HIV during the window period (the time between potential exposure to HIV and when the test reveals for sure if the person has HIV) does not arise as the donor’s HIV-positive status became known in 2016 when he donated blood at the same blood bank. Since 2004, prior to donation, all blood banks are required to obtain from donors written consent as to whether they wish to be informed about a positive test result. In case a donor tests positive for HIV, blood banks are required to refer the donors to designated voluntary counselling and testing centres (VCTCs) for disclosure and counselling. That the blood bank tried but failed to contact the donor in 2016 indicates that the donor had consented to be informed of a positive result. In a further tragic twist, he found out elsewhere that he was HIV-positive, and dutifully contacted the hospital on December 10, but his blood had already been transfused by then. On Sunday he passed away after consuming poison.
•Studies show that blood banks in India have a success rate of less than 50% in contacting donors who have tested positive for transfusion-transmissible infections. Under the 2004 National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Action Plan, VCTCs are required to inform the blood bank of a donor’s HIV-positive status to stop the person from donating blood in the future only when the confirmatory test done at the VCTC too is positive. Since only half of the consented donors are contactable and even fewer visit a VCTC, it is imperative that NACO finds a viable alternative without compromising the donor’s identity. The focus should also be on creating awareness among donors to visit a VCTC to confirm their HIV status when alerted by blood banks. After all, timely confirmation helps donors start on early treatment to keep the virus under check and take precautionary measures to reduce the risk of infecting their partners and others through sexual and other kinds of contact and through blood donation. After winning a protracted battle to keep away professional donors from donating blood by encouraging voluntary donation, it is time blood banks and NACO worked to make safe blood availability a reality at all times.
📰 Lifelines beyond farm loan waivers
In addition to reforming the credit system, agriculture should be made profitable
•Rural agrarian distress is firmly at the centre of the national discourse today, triggered by the recent Assembly election results in the Hindi heartland as well as continuous farmer agitations in the past two years (picture). Just a month ago, the farmers’ march in Delhi highlighted the reality of their deprivation, anger and resolve. Quite remarkably, their presence rallied the urban middle classes to march in solidarity, and leaders of major political parties to pledge support.
Cry of distress
•A farm loan waiver was among the first steps taken by the three new governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and has understandably set off a debate about its usefulness. In fact, this is only the latest round of loan waivers. Since 2014, there have been similar moves in Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, which are States run by various parties. The political system is essentially responding to a cry of distress by addressing the direct point of pain. It is their mounting debt burden that is pushing farmers to despair and suicides. The NSSO Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households (2013) shows that 52% of farming households are indebted, with rates as high as 89-92% in some States. The quantum of debt has increased enormously, especially from informal sources. Indebtedness has become the elephant in the room that cannot be ignored.
•A loan waiver is only an element of immediate relief. It is an acknowledgment that farmers have been pushed into debt due to the systemic failures of the government. The burden on farmers on account of just three items (lack of compensation during drought and disasters, the failures of the crop insurance scheme, and the deficit due to prices falling below the announced Minimum Support Prices) runs to tens of thousands of crores every season. Farmer organisations can justifiably claim that it is the nation that is indebted to the farmers, and not the other way around.
Bill to tackle indebtedness
•But the key questions are: how can one ensure that its benefit reaches small and marginal cultivators who are the ones who really require relief? And how does one guarantee that the same situation is not replayed five years later? Repeated loan waivers used every few years as election sops may be in the interest of political parties but are not in the interest of farmers. Immediate relief should be accompanied by a long-term systemic solution to indebtedness.
•The unique aspect of the ongoing farmers’ movement is that their demand goes beyond a one-time loan waiver — they want enactment of a law for freedom from indebtedness. The Bill, which has been developed by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, incorporates two key elements of reform: a functional institutional credit system which is accessible and accountable to all cultivators, and protection from debt trap in bad years.
•First, it guarantees all farmer access to institutional credit; this covers not only land-owning farmers but also sharecroppers, tenants, adivasi and women farmers, and animal-rearers. It requires the registration of all cultivators and providing them Kisan credit cards. This is critical because marginal and landless farmers are mostly excluded from institutional credit, thereby putting them at the mercy of predatory lending by moneylenders and input dealers. Tenant farmers who lease land from other land owners are especially vulnerable. A study by Rythu Swarajya Vedika in June 2018 showed that 75% of farmer suicides in Telangana are by tenant farmers. The NSSO Situation Assessment Survey (2013) showed that the average debt from institutional sources for small and marginal farmers was only ₹17,570 per household, and ₹1,41,804 for medium and large farmers. The Reserve Bank of India did issue guidelines in 2014 for extending loans to Bhoomi Heen Kisan (landless farmers) and for a debt-swapping scheme to convert informal loans of farmers into bank loans, but they have remained on paper.
•Second, it establishes farmers’ distress and disaster relief commissions at the national and State levels, based on the model of Kerala’s Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission. Based on incidences of natural disasters, extensive pest attack and such calamities, the commission can recommend declaration of certain areas or crops as distress-affected in any particular year. Thereafter, it has the power to order measures of debt relief, which may include loan rescheduling, interest waiver, one-time settlement, discharge of debt in instalments, or, in an extreme situation, immediate discharge of debt. The State-level commission is also empowered to pass orders regarding non-institutional loans of distress-affected farmers.
•The principle is that farmers who suffer losses due to circumstances entirely out of their control deserve to be protected. Given that agriculture is a key national enterprise, the concepts of limited liability and bankruptcy protection need to be adapted to the farming sector. This approach provides targeted protection to distressed farmers when they require it, rather than allowing debt, distress and suicides to accumulate until an election year. At present, crop insurance with its inadequate coverage and payout is unable to fulfil that role, but distress relief would include any payout from crop insurance.
Act on solutions
•In addition to reforming the credit system, agriculture should be made profitable by ensuring fair remunerative prices, lowering the cost of cultivation, and promoting viable farmer collectives and sustainable models of agriculture.
•The challenge before political parties and governments is to deliver on the institutional solutions demanded by farmers. The farming community is not likely to relent if governments adopt a business-as-usual approach and kick the can down the road for the next term.
📰 Plan before making a bid
The Indian Olympic Association must consider several issues if it wishes to host the 2032 Olympic Games
•India has expressed interest to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games, apart from the 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games and the 2030 Asian Games.
•The Olympic Games have been designed to leave an indelible mark on host cities, with long-term benefits. However, the Games have proven to be more of a liability than an asset. They have daunted countries even from submitting complete bids. Understanding that bidding itself can be tedious and expensive, the International Olympic Committee introduced a more streamlined mechanism through the Olympic Agenda 2020 and the New Norm. Till now, Olympic bids were made keeping in mind a single city as the venue for the Games. Today, it is almost impossible to find a metropolitan city which can sustain the enormous influx of people and build the infrastructure required to host the Games. In view of this concern, multi-city bids are now welcomed.
•The Indian Olympic Association must consider several issues if it wishes to host the Games. First, to be considered a sporting powerhouse, India must leave a mark at the 2020 Olympic Games to convince the world that it takes sports seriously. Second, India has hosted only a handful of multisport events, with none really matching up to the grandeur and scale of the Olympic Games. Hosting multisport events in the coming years may prove to be key in cementing its prowess to pull off the mighty event. Third, typically, the Olympic Games are funded through public and private money. Designing a long-term investment plan will ensure high participation from the private sector, reducing the burden on government funds. Fourth, the government should make the most of this opportunity to tackle issues of the environment, waste management, public health, and sanitation, to ensure clean and safe facilities for the Olympic athletes. Fifth, any government would like the prestige of having hosted an Olympic Games during its tenure. Working together with a stable democratic polity would prove to be a huge attraction for participating countries. Finally, identifying locations for hosting the games early on will help create facilities that have a longer life span and would also help reduce costs.
•Considering India’s pressing issues, the need to host the Games is an unending debate. However, creating an Olympic bid with an outlook of primarily channelising development efforts for the country will prove to be a win-win situation. It is only when we view the Games as a long-term development enabler that it can be made a sustainable proposition. Hopefully, a 2032 bid for the Olympic Games by India would prove to be a classic scenario of trusting the process.
📰 Hard lesson: funds not enough to attract teachers to government schools
This despite States increasing their budgets for school education in the past three years, says a study conducted across six States by two NGOs
•State governments have increased their budgets for school education in the past three years, but the allotment of funds has not been enough to attract permanent qualified teaching staff to government schools, finds a recent study conducted across six States.
•The report, prepared jointly by Child Rights and You (CRY) and the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), examines budgeting for school education in six States — West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra — during the 14th Finance Commission recommendation period, which started in April 2015.
•The study finds that there has been an overall increase in revenue with the States following the 14th Finance Commission recommendations. This was a result of an increase in the share of the States in the divisible pool of Central taxes from 32% to 42%. At the same time, a reduction in the Union government’s contribution to the States for Central schemes in social sectors forced the States to improve their tax revenue collection. The study analyses whether the availability of additional funds translated into prioritising of school education in these six States.
•Between 2015-16 and 2017-18, there was a net decline in the share of school education budget in the total State Budget for three of the six States, according to the detailed demand for Grants and State Budget documents. Bihar saw a dip of 3.1%, Maharashtra a drop of 1% and West Bengal 0.9%. On the other hand, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh saw an increase in the size of school education budget by 0.4%, 2.6% and 3.2%, respectively.
•The report examines whether the increase in the size of school education budget was more than the rise in size of the total budget, indicating a higher priority for the sector. It concluded that between 2014-15 and 2017-18, Uttar Pradesh saw a 98.8% increase in budget for schools, whereas its total budget increased by 63.3%. West Bengal’s budget for school education increased by 49.4% while its total budget increased by 48.2% and in Tamil Nadu, the former increased by 38.7% but the total budget increased by 38.5%, indicating that school education was a priority for these three States.
•At the same time, all the six States showed an increase in the magnitude of per-child and per-student spending for education between 2014-15 and 2016-17.
•Despite a varying level of commitment towards school education across the six States, all of them struggle with a shortage of teachers. The report cites data from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to show that as on March 2017, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have from 19% to 34% of total teacher positions at the elementary level vacant. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were relatively better with 5.9% and 2.6% posts unfilled.
•Data from the District Information System for Education show that at the upper primary level, there is a severe paucity of subject-specific teachers required under the Right to Education Act — 77% upper primary schools in Maharashtra, 46% in Uttar Pradesh, 40% in West Bengal and 37% in Bihar do not have subject teachers.
Single teacher
•More than one lakh schools in India are run with only one teacher and all the six States surveyed have shown the number of such schools on the rise. The shortage of teachers is more acute at the secondary level — Bihar has 20,494 teaching posts vacant, Chhattisgarh 8,278 and Uttar Pradesh 12,008.
•The figures don’t entirely capture the severity of the shortfall as they do not reflect the shortage of subject teachers.
📰 Of financial debacles and rating agency models
A case of barking up the wrong tree?
•The spotlight is on credit rating agencies (CRAs) once again, this time triggered by the crisis at, and default by, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (ILFS). In this, the ‘issuer pays’ business model of CRAs seems to have borne the brunt of criticism.
•While this appears to be an intuitive response, a comparison of other possible CRA business models would indicate that the problems lie elsewhere.
•The tendency to associate CRAs with financial failures dates right back to early 20th century. The most incisive of such inquiries followed the global financial crisis of 2008, conducted by financial regulators including in the US and India.
•What is pertinent, however, is that, after detailed deliberations, the issuer pays model of the CRAs was left untouched by all the regulators. This was an implicit endorsement of the model’s relative superiority, or at the very least, of it being the lesser evil.
•It is normal that credit ratings change over time. The primary concern surrounding ILFS’ ratings is about timeliness, abrupt and steep transitions, slow/inadequate change even after evident distress, and inadequate use of ‘outlooks’ – that handy rating prognosis tool.
•That warrants questioning of the CRAs concerned in recent cases – CARE, ICRA and India Ratings – and also of others culpable in other instances.
•To be sure, the inherent conflict of interest in the issuer pays model is undeniable, since the rated entity is paying for the rating. But it is instructive to consider some nuances.
•Any CRA business model must facilitate two objectives: 1) ensure ratings are of high quality, and 2) ensure all market participants have access to such ratings at a reasonable cost. Additionally, the models must involve minimal or no conflict of interest. ‘Minimal’ is a considered usage here since conflicts cannot be entirely eliminated.
The issuer pays model
•Under this, the issuer pays the initial and subsequent surveillance fees to CRAs, and the ratings are publicly and freely available. Market dynamics determine the fees and issuers are contract-bound to afford CRAs access to business and financial details, which facilitates better analysis. The cost to investors is virtually zero. For issuers, rating fees count among the smallest components of issue costs.
•Two aspects need reflection regarding potential conflicts, whereby a CRA might systematically assign inflated ratings to satisfy issuers.
•One, if a CRA consistently indulges in such a practice, it will be harakiri, for sooner than later, it will lose credibility, which is a critical success factor in the business.
•Two, typically, CRAs collect upfront 100% of the non-refundable rating fee even before beginning the exercise. This eliminates payment risk and significantly reduces the incentive to assign favourable ratings. Even if an issuer delays or defaults on annual fees, the CRA is obligated to monitor and disclose rating changes. Therefore, despite the inherent, and potentially subversive, conflict in the model, these two aspects considerably mitigate the risk of malfeasance in practice.
•The analytical competencies and standards of CRAs are a different matter altogether, but these are not frailties attributable to the issuer pays model. Three specific statistics lend support to this argument: One, out of ~35,000 ratings currently outstanding in India, nearly three-fourths are in the ‘non-investment grade’ category. Two, during fiscal 2018, Indian CRAs downgraded over 2,400 ratings. Both these suggest CRAs haven’t shied away from assigning lower ratings or downgrading those who pay for the assessment.
•Third is the ‘ordinality’ expectation in ratings default performance (higher rated firms expected to have a lower rate of transition-to-default, than lower rated firms). This is a key yardstick of ratings quality. The four largest Indian CRAs have systematically demonstrated lower default rates for higher ratings. So while CRAs have erred in specific instances, this statistic reflects overall good quality and consistency.
The ‘investor pays’ model
•The investor pays model has the advantage of precluding the issuer-CRA nexus. But it poses another, equally serious, conflict involving the investors themselves. Private placements of debt account for about 90% of issuances in India, and the secondary market is subdued. Therefore, if investors are the payees, they can influence CRAs to give lower-than-warranted ratings to help them negotiate higher coupon rates. After placement, too, investors can resist downgrades of the securities they hold, as it can trigger mark-to-market losses. The scope for this conflict is real.
•Then there are other problematic issues. One, only those who pay for a rating can access it. Two, the cost of rating can be exorbitant since only a few investors may seek it, and the public would likely be the most deprived. Lastly, under investor pays, issuers may not always share full information with CRAs, which can, ab initio, jeopardise the quality of ratings. Therefore, on all counts, the investor pays model is decidedly inferior.
The government (or regulator) pays model
•Conceptually, the ‘government or regulator pays’ model can eliminate bias in ratings because there is no pecuniary incentive for the CRA (public sector entities could be an exception). Here, the regulator can also mandate free dissemination of ratings to all. So far, so good.
•But this model introduces other complexities. One, the choice of the CRA and the payment mechanism are extremely problematic, as it is difficult to conceive of either the government or the regulator exercising a choice regarding CRA quality beyond a minimum threshold, or paying market-determined/ negotiated fees for ratings.
•On what basis would the regulator pick a CRA when the value proposition fundamentally differs from that of auditors? Two, if fees are not market-determined, CRAs would be hard-pressed to build capability and retain sharp analysts. Moreover, once business is assured, there may be little incentive for quality and excellence.
•The most serious problem with this model is the ‘moral hazard’ wherein all ratings can be seen as regulator-endorsed. This is antithetical to efficient market practices, and can pose potentially disastrous consequences for the government/regulator in the event of poor rating calls.
•Which means, operational and moral hazard issues overshadow the intuitive appeal and advantages of this model.
Conclusion
•Sure, each model has its pros and cons, and conflict/moral hazard potential. It’s imperative, therefore, to pick the model that best meets the primary objectives of credit rating – high quality and open access – when offering the best opportunity to manage any conflict.
•By those yardsticks, the issuer pays model recommends itself.
•These arguments do not seek to absolve CRAs of poor judgement, lack of timeliness or the incompetence they have exhibited from time to time.
•But the cause of serious concerns that typically surface during financial debacles (and therefore solutions) lie elsewhere.
•Structurally and behaviourally, there is a need for a deeper understanding of credit rating process, related systemic issues, and a more enlightened approach to evaluation of CRAs. That would facilitate greater transparency, high quality ratings, and healthy competition.
📰 Pradhan launches sanitary pad-making initiative
Plan to set up 100 units; to cost 2.94 cr.
•The Ujjwala Sanitary Napkins initiative by three oil marketing companies – IOCL, BPCL and HPCL – was launched by Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan here on Sunday.
•The three companies will set up 100 manufacturing units at the Common Service Centres (CSC) covering 93 Blocks across 30 districts of Odisha at an estimated cost of ₹2.94 crore.
•Mr. Pradhan said the mission, which forms part of the CSR initiative of OMCs in Odisha, is aimed to educate women on female hygiene and health, improve accessibility to low cost eco-friendly sanitary pads and boost rural employment and economy.
•At least 10 Ujjwala beneficiary women will get employment at each CSC. Each facility will have a capacity to produce 1,200-2,000 pads per day and will have a sterilisation room to ensure that the napkins are sterilised before they are packed for use by rural women.
•The CSCs are also being provided with raw material, enough to make 45,000-50,000 pads. These napkins will be priced at ₹40 per pack, each containing eight pads. The Ujjwala pads will be made of virgin wood pulp sheet, non-woven white sheet and a gel sheet which are all biodegradable in nature and will leave minimal carbon footprint.
📰 The return of the native rice variety
Farmers benefit from low input costs
•R. Yuvasenthilkumar, a post-graduate in organic agriculture, near Modakurichi in Tamil Nadu, used to raise paddy varieties such as IR 20 and ADT 38 on his two-acre farm till 2012.
•Having developed an interest in native varieties — specifically, ones that grow without the use of fertilizers — he went on a quest for almost a year looking for such paddy varieties. He tried cultivating varieties from the delta areas. However, the yield was not satisfactory. Then, he learnt from elders in his locality that before the 1970s, they used to grow varieties such as Tiruchengode Sambha and Ayan Sambha. However, the seeds for these varieties were not available locally.
•In 2014, he got 50 gm of seed imported by the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University from the International Rice Research Institute, Manila, for each of the 33 varieties native to the middle Cauvery basin.
•The seeds were tried out and it was decided to go in for Tiruchengode Sambha and Ayan Sambha.
•In four years, 45 acres belonging to 12 farmers came under the Tiruchengode Sambha native variety of rice in the Erode-Kodumudi-Tiruchengode belt. Last year, the variety was grown on 11 acres for commercial use. The average yield per acre was 1,700 kg and it was a 135-day crop. “We do not use even green manure,” he said. This year, this variety of paddy would be raised on 33.8 acres for commercial purposes.
•Farmers are able to get viable price for this rice in the market. One of the advantages for them is that they do not have to spend on fertilizers or pesticides. The paddy straw, got after the harvest, is almost double the quantity compared with the normal varieties, he said.
One more variety
•Mr. Yuvasenthilkumar and a group of his friends formed the River Basin Foundation in 2014 mainly to promote the native varieties. This year, they have sown Ayan Sambha on one acre on a trial basis.
•Native varieties of paddy are highly localised. They grow in a particular area during a particular season in a year. For instance, for the Tiruchengode Sambha, the seeds should be sown between August 15 and October 15, he claims.
•The foundation plans to promote native varieties of paddy, pulses and oilseeds by identifying interested farmers and expanding area under these. It helps sustain the local varieties, he says.
•According to B. Shivakumar, a businessman-turned agriculturist and founder of Madras Iyer Thottam, who grows several traditional varieties of vegetables on 12 of his 70-acre farm in Sathyamangalam, yield in terms of number of vegetables per kg is higher in these varieties.
•For instance, one kg of traditional brinjal will have 40 to 45 pieces against 18 to 20 in a hybrid variety grown with chemicals. He switched over to organic cultivation and traditional varieties over three years ago. “In the case of brinjal, we tried six to seven varieties and decided to go in for the Sathyamangalam brinjal as it is the most accepted and disease resistant,” he says. Farmers will not spend on fertilizers or pesticides and the price realisation for the produce is also relatively higher in the market. “The nutritional value is high in these varieties of vegetables and farmers will gain in the medium to long term,” he says.
