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Friday, March 24, 2017

SUPER 6 CURRENT AFFAIRS- 24th MARCH 2017

1) World Tuberculosis Day- 24 March

•World Tuberculosis Day celebrated on 24 March each year. It is an opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and the status of TB prevention and care efforts.

•The theme for World Tuberculosis Day 2017 is 'Unite to End TB: Leave no one behind'. 2017 is the second year of a two-year "Unite to End TB" campaign for World TB Day.

2) India ranks 131 on Human Development Index, Norway No.1

•In the recently released Human Development Index by United Nations, India is ranked 131 out of 188 countries in the list.

•The list is topped by Norway followed by Australia and Switzerland on 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. India’s HDI value for 2015 is 0.624, which puts the country in the medium human development category but behind fellow South Asian countries like Sri Lanka (73rd)and the Maldives(105th).

•India’s improved HDI value is second among BRICS countries, with China (90th) recording the highest improvement 48%. In South Asia, countries that are close to India in HDI rank with a comparable population size are Bangladesh and Pakistan, which are ranked 139 and 147, respectively.

3) UP Assembly appoints Fateh Bahadur as its Protem Speaker

"Governor Ram Naik on the proposal of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has appointed Fateh Bahadur Singh as the Protem Speaker," a Raj Bhavan statment said.

•Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik today on the proposal of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath appointed BJP MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh as the Protem Speaker of the state Assembly.

•The Protem Speaker (officiating speaker), generally the senior-most member of the Legislative Assembly, administers oath to new MLAs.

•"Governor Ram Naik on the proposal of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has appointed Fateh Bahadur Singh as the Protem Speaker," a Raj Bhavan statment said.

4) Cabinet approves proposal for Amendments to the NABARD Act, 1981

•Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the following proposals:

(a) Amendments to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Act, 1981, include provisions that enable Central Government to increase the authorized capital of NABARD from Rs. 5,000 crore to Rs. 30,000 crore and to increase it beyond Rs. 30,000 crore in consultation with RBI.

(b) Transfer of 0.4 percent equity of RBI in NABARD amounting to Rs. 20 crores to the Government of India.

•The proposed increase in the authorized capital would enable NABARD to respond to the commitments it has undertaken, particularly in respect of the Long Term Irrigation Fund and the recent Cabinet decision regarding on-lending to cooperative banks.

5) MoU signed between Assam govt, SBI over housing, educational loan at subsidized interest rates

Assam govt signs MoU with SBI to provide housing, educational loan at subsidised interest rates

•The MoU was signed by Om Prakash Mishra, General Manager, State Bank of India, NE Circle on behalf of State Bank of India and Devajyoti Hazarika, Additional Secretary, Finance, on behalf of Assam government in the presence of state finance and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Secretary V K Pipersenia, PVSLN Murty, Chief General Manager, State Bank of India, Local Head Office Guwahati, V K Pyarelal, IAS, Addl. Chief Secretary (Finance), Dr Ravi Kota, IAS, Commissioner & Secretary (Finance) and Assam DGP Mukesh Sahay.

•The MoU ceremony commenced in the evening with lighting of lamp by the distinguished guests at NEDFi House, Dispur.

•The MoU has been signed for providing loans for Housing & Higher Education Loan to the State Government Employees at very nominal rate of interest.

•The government will provide interest subsidy at the rate of 3.50% for housing loan and at suitable rate to make education loan at 4%.

•Accordingly, the State government employees will get substantial benefit in terms of interest rates and reduced EMI. There are provisions for collateral free loan, Zero Margin, Zero Processing Fee with longer repayment tenure.

•Murty stated that, about the reach out of SBI across the state serving an average of 7 lakh people per day and wide spread network and infrastructure of the bank to meet the demands of State government employees within the short time.

•He also termed the scheme basically for the employee lower income group but applicable to all the employees of State government who has minimum age of 21 years and residual service of 5 years. Maximum limit of Housing Loan (named APON GHAR) is Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for High education loan (named BIDYA LAXMI). Various Distinguished guests from Govt and Bank have expressed their valuable views in this regards.

•Assam finance minister termed this event as an historic event as it is the only State governemnt to sign such MoU for the benefit of its employees.

6) Indian shooter Ankur Mittal wins gold at World Cup, also equals world record

•Mittal has delivered India’s nine-member contingent its first medal at ISSF World Cup

•Mittal beat the gold medalist at that event, Australian James Willet, on day three

•He had a strong day, ending second in qualification with a score of 138 out of a possible 150

The HINDU Notes – 24th March

the hindu notes

vision cse 13:35

THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 24 March

Budgetary allocation sought for Children’s Act provisions

•Organisations working for the rights of children, came together on Thursday under Childrights Network, to urge the State government to ensure that Goa becomes a safe haven for children.

•Nishtha Desai of Children’s Rights in Goa (CRG), said, “Make budgetary allocation to implement various provisions of the Goa Children’s Act (GCA), 2003.”

•“The Act is held up in national and international forums as a unique law. But most of its provisions are yet to be implemented as governments have failed to make any budgetary allocation for it,” Ms. Desai told The Hindu.

•She said the Act provides for health cards to children, early intervention for development disorders, gender sensitisation and rights awareness in schools, a child friendly tourism code, municipal and village child committees, and plans to address child labour, children in difficult circumstances, and rescuing children from sexual exploitation.

•The child rights network said the Act came into force 14 years ago. They also said that incidents of child abuse have risen in Goa, with as many as 324 cases reported between April 2014 and July 2015. “Only a handful of village child committees have been set up, but implementation of the GCA could build safety nets to prevent children from being abused or exploited in any way.”

•The 2017-18 State Budget will be presented in the Assembly by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday.

TB diagnosis, treatment sub-optimal in prisons

•Screening, diagnosis and treatment of people with tuberculosis is “sub-optimal” in Indian prisons, says a study published recently.

•Only 79 prisons (50%) screened new inmates at the time of entry, and 92 prisons (59%) carried out periodic or regular screening. As a result, the researchers from the Delhi-based International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) were able to diagnose 80 new TB cases by screening nearly 5,100 prisoners. These people “could have been missed in the existing [TB testing] system” in Indian prisons.

157 prisons studied

•The study was conducted in 157 prisons — central, district and sub-district — that housed 0.2 million inmates. There were 342 inmates with TB in 92 prisons when the study was carried out. The results were published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases .

•The study found an association between periodic screening and TB patients but no such association between the entry-level screening and TB patients.

•“Entry-level screening helps to identify TB patients among those prisoners/inmates who are new in the prison. Regular screening identifies TB patients among those who have been in the prison for certain duration and are at higher risk [owing to prison conditions]. Our study indicates that entry-level screening alone is not sufficient to diagnose all TB patients in prisons and needs to be supplemented with regular screening,” Banuru Muralidhara Prasad from The Union and the first author of the study says in an email.

•The WHO and The Union advocate regular screening. “In this study, regular screening was limited to a few central and district prisons,” the paper notes.

Diagnostic facility

•Entry-level screening is more in prisons which had a doctor and was the least in sub-district prisons. Though doctors are available in 129 (89%) prisons, only 65% were trained under the national tuberculosis programme.

•Though the availability of diagnostic facility in prisons ensures early diagnosis of TB, the study found the availability of diagnostic and treatment services had “no significant” relation to TB diagnosis. Central prisons, where inmates serve more than two years of imprisonment, had better facilities — doctors trained in TB programme (90%), periodic screening (73%) and availability of TB services (65%) — compared with district and sub-district prisons.

The compulsive patent hoarding disorder

•It takes money to make money. CSIR-Tech, the commercialisation arm of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), realised this the hard way when it had to shut down its operations for lack of funds. CSIR has filed more than 13,000 patents — 4,500 in India and 8,800 abroad — at a cost of Rs. 50 crore over the last three years. Across years, that’s a lot of taxpayers’ money, which in turn means that the closing of CSIR-Tech is a tacit admission that its work has been an expensive mistake — a mistake that we tax-paying citizens have paid for.

•Recently, CSIR’s Director-General Girish Sahni claimed that most of CSIR’s patents were “bio-data patents”, filed solely to enhance the value of a scientist’s resume and that the extensive expenditure of public funds spent in filing and maintaining patents was unviable. CSIR claims to have licensed a percentage of its patents, but has so far failed to show any revenue earned from the licences. This compulsive hoarding of patents has come at a huge cost. If CSIR-Tech was privately run, it would have been shut down long ago. Acquiring Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) comes out of our blind adherence to the idea of patenting as an index of innovation. The private sector commercialises patents through the licensing of technology and the sale of patented products to recover the money spent in R&D. But when the funds for R&D come from public sources, mimicking the private sector may not be the best option.

Patents and moral hazard

•While it’s true that it costs lakhs of rupees to get a patent in India, government-funded research organisations are likely to spend more money on patents so long as they are not asked to bear the risk. Reckless filing of patents using public funds may be explained by the economic concept of moral hazard. According to economist Paul Krugman, it happens in “any situation in which one person makes the decision about how much risk to take, while someone else bears the cost if things go badly”. In the case of public-funded research, the reckless filing of patents without due diligence results from the moral hazard of the government bearing the risk of patents that don’t generate revenue. In the insurance sector, moral hazard refers to the loss-increasing behaviour of the insured who acts recklessly when the loss is covered by another. Insurance companies check moral hazard by introducing copayment from the insured. Dr. Sahni’s statement that CSIR laboratories need to bear 25% of expenses for their patents acknow

ledges the moral hazard.

•The National IPR Policy released last year does not offer any guideline on distinguishing IPR generated using public funds from private ones — it views every IPR with private objectives by insisting on commercialisation. Dissemination of technology to the masses, participation in nation-building and creating public goods are rarely objectives that drive the private sector. The IPR policy of some publicly-funded research institutions allows for 30-70% of the income generated through the commercialisation of the patent to be shared with the creators of the invention, i.e., scientists and professors on the payroll of the government. Such a policy could promote private aggrandisement and may work against public interest. In contrast, the IPR policy of private companies does not allow for a payback on the share of royalties earned by patents.

Possible solution

•The fate of CSIR-Tech is proof that the current model of commercialisation does not work with respect to publicly-funded research. So, how do we ensure that public-funded research reaches the masses and check the excessive filing of patents without due diligence? A possible solution to preserve the objective of publicly funded research is to devise an IPR policy wherein patents are initially offered on an open royalty-free licence to start-ups. Once start-ups commercialise the inventions successfully, the royalty-free licence could be converted into a revenue-sharing model.

•It is predominantly taxpayers’ money that goes into public-funded research. When research is commercialised by private entities, it tends to be sold back to the public at a price. America is in the midst of such a conundrum, where talks are going on of granting French pharmaceutical company Sanofi exclusive licence for the drug against the Zika virus — a drug which has already cost the American exchequer $43 million in R&D. Granting Sanofi this would defeat the purpose of public funds expended on research as the company would charge the American public again for the life-saving drug.

•Putting granted patents on an open licence can be testimony to the commercial viability of the things we are patenting using public money. Not only would it bring a sense of accountability to the managers who run the system but it would also open up publicly-funded research to a whole lot of people, especially start-ups, who can now test, verify, work and put the patented technology into the market.

Jobs impact of ‘Make In India’ under review

•The Centre is working on a ‘compliance report” of its flagship ‘Make In India’ (MII) initiative that attempts to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub as well as generate large-scale employment.

•The objective of the exercise, among other things, is to find out whether the government departments and agencies implementing the MII programme are meeting the deadlines envisaged in the ‘MII Action Plan’ of December 2014.

MII initiative

•The MII initiative covers 25 focus sectors ranging from automobiles to wellness. The ‘MII Action Plan’ had set short-term (one year) and medium-term (three years) targets “to boost investments in the 25 sectors” and to “raise the contribution of the manufacturing sector to 25% of the GDP by 2020.”

•At a national workshop held in December 2014 on these 25 sectors, an Action Plan was finalised with the help of Secretaries to the Indian Government as well as industry leaders.

•As per the National Manufacturing Policy, “the share of manufacturing in India’s GDP has stagnated at 15%-16% since 1980 while the share of comparable economies in Asia is much higher at 25%-34%.”

•Government sources said a detailed study is also being undertaken on the impact of the MII initiative including a sector-wise assessment regarding job creation and foreign direct investment inflows using the National Industrial Classification Code.

RBI, CSO data

•Data from the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Statistics Office are also being looked into in this regard, they said, adding that inputs are being sought from the State governments as well.

•The compliance report is being monitored and evaluated at the highest level, including by the Prime Minister’s Office, the sources said. Recently, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce wanted an assessment to be done on how the MII initiative has helped the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises.

•It recommended that dedicated steps should be taken to ensure that FDI promotes the MSME sector, and sought to know the factors behind the Foreign Portfolio Investments turning negative and its impact on the Indian industry. The panel also wanted to learn if the MII initiative has seized the opportunity of demographic dividend in the country.

$1 trillion by 2025

•According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), “India’s manufacturing sector has the potential to touch $1 trillion by 2025. There is potential for the sector to account for 25-30% of the country’s GDP and create up to 90 million domestic jobs by 2025.”

•“FDI inflows in India’s manufacturing sector grew by 82% year-on-year to $16.13 billion during April-November 2016,” according to the IBEF, a trust formed by the Commerce Ministry to promote of the ‘Made in India’ label overseas.

•It said, “The government has an ambitious plan to locally manufacture as many as 181 products. The move could help infrastructure sectors … that require large capital expenditure and revive the $27.75 billion Indian capital goods business.”

Do we need a presidential system?

•This debate is academic. A switchover to the presidential system is not possible under our present constitutional scheme because of the ‘basic structure’ doctrine propounded by the Supreme Court in 1973 which has been accepted by the political class without reservation, except for an abortive attempt during the Emergency by Indira Gandhi’s government to have it overturned. The Constituent Assembly had made an informed choice after considering both the British model and the American model and after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had drawn up a balance sheet of their merits and demerits. To alter the informed choice made by the Constituent Assembly would violate the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution. I must clarify that I have been a critic of the ‘basic structure’ doctrine.

Abuse of power worries

•A presidential system centralises power in one individual unlike the parliamentary system, where the Prime Minister is the first among equals. The surrender to the authority of one individual, as in the presidential system, is dangerous for democracy. The over-centralisation of power in one individual is something we have to guard against. Those who argue in favour of a presidential system often state that the safeguards and checks are in place: that a powerful President can be stalled by a powerful legislature. But if the legislature is dominated by the same party to which the President belongs, a charismatic President or a “strong President” may prevent any move from the legislature. On the other hand, if the legislature is dominated by a party opposed to the President’s party and decides to checkmate him, it could lead to a stalemate in governance because both the President and the legislature would have democratic legitimacy.

•A diverse country like India cannot function without consensus-building. This “winner takes it all” approach, which is a necessary consequence of the presidential system, is likely to lead to a situation where the views of an individual can ride roughshod over the interests of different segments.

What about the States?

•The other argument, that it is easier to bring talent to governance in a presidential system, is specious. You can get ‘outside’ talent in a parliamentary system too. Right from C.D. Deshmukh to T.A. Pai to Manmohan Singh to M.G.K. Menon to Raja Ramanna, talent has been coming into the parliamentary system with the added safeguard of democratic accountability, because the ‘outsiders’ have to get elected after assuming office. On the other hand, bringing ‘outside’ talent in a presidential system without people being democratically elected would deter people from giving independent advice to the chief executive because they owe their appointment to him/her.

•Those who speak in favour of a presidential system have only the Centre in mind. They have not thought of the logical consequence, which is that we will have to move simultaneously to a “gubernatorial” form in the States. A switch at the Centre will also require a change in the States. Are we ready for that?

Arc to West Asia

•By hosting the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Israel, the two heavyweights in West Asia that do not have formal diplomatic relations, in consecutive weeks, Beijing has sent yet another signal on its growing appetite to deepen ties with the region. During the visit of King Salman last week, China and Saudi Arabia announced an investment cooperation deal worth $65 billion that will boost partnerships in fields such as energy, finance and aerospace. Days later, Chinese President Xi Jinping met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Beijing, where both leaders vowed to strengthen cooperation in the technology and agriculture sectors. Over the years China has built strong economic ties with countries in West Asia, while staying clear of the region’s several crises and hostilities. It is one of the top buyers of oil from Saudi Arabia and a key trading partner of Israel. For Iran, Beijing remained a trusted ally even during the time of sanctions. China was one of the few countries that continued to buy oil from Iran when most others, including India, either halted trade or implemented massive cuts in imports under American pressure. China’s economic ties with West Asia assumed greater significance after Mr. Xi unveiled the One Belt, One Road initiative. West Asia plays a major role in this Silk Road revival plan, which the Chinese believe will fortify their global standing.

•Of late, China has shown a greater interest in expanding its engagement with the region beyond the economic sphere. Its relationship with Iran has already acquired strategic dimensions. It is one of the supporters of the Bashar al-Assad regime in civil war-stricken Syria. In the UN Security Council, China, along with Russia, has consistently vetoed U.S.-backed resolutions on Syria, while at the same time offering to broker peace between rival factions. China has also recognised Palestine as a state and offered support for the Palestinians. During his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Xi said peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine would be good for both parties and the region. The Chinese have also urged Saudi Arabia and Israel to work together to attain peace. All this indicates that China is ready to end its strategic reluctance in dealing with West Asia and to adopt a gradualist proactive policy that suits its profile as a fast-rising global power. But there are risks as well. Unlike the U.S. and Russia, China has traditionally played a risk-free global role, staying focussed on economic development. It lacks experience in navigating the political, religious, sectarian and tribal tensions in West Asia, both among states and within countries. The three major pillars of China’s West Asia policy — Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel — are rival powers. The challenge before Beijing, if it wants to enter the troubled political waters of West Asia, is to maintain a perfect balancing act.

SUPER 6 CURRENT AFFAIRS- 23rd MARCH 2017

SPORTS

VisionIAS 16:03

1) Nation paying tribute on 86th martyrdom day: 23 March

•Nation is paying tributes to freedom fighters -Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on their 86th martyrdom day (23 March).

•On this day in 1931, British rulers had executed them in Lahore for their revolutionary activities against the British rule. They were hanged a day before the scheduled date of execution.

2) PM to inaugurate India’s longest road tunnel in J&K on April 2

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation, the country’s longest road tunnel named Chenani-Nashri tunnel, built on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, which will cut short the distance between Jammu and Srinagar by nearly 30 km.

•The Prime Minister will inaugurate the 9.2 km long twin-tube tunnel on JK highway on April 2, 2017. The work on tunnel, which is part of a 286-km-long four-lane project on the highway, started on May 23, 2011 in the lower Himalayan mountain range, and cost Rs. 3,720 crore.

3) NABARD launches water conservation campaign in Karnataka

•NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) will help Karnataka with low-cost technologies for water conservation and efficient use of water in the drought-affected districts.

•The main focus of the save water programme would be to create awareness and to cover maximum number of villages in the districts.

4) Major Rohit Suri awarded Kirti Chakra

•Major Rohit Suri, from the Parachute Regiment who led the army team that carried out a surgical strike in PoK last year, was presented the second highest peacetime gallantry award Kirti Chakra by President Pranab Mukherjee.

•Corporal Gursevak Singh of Indian Air Force was posthumously conferred the Shaurya Chakra for putting up a valiant fight against terrorists who had attacked the frontline Pathankot air base. Naib Subedar Vijay Kumar of Indian Army was conferred the Shaurya Chakra.

5) Shri Upendra Tripathy Appointed as Full Time Interim Director General of ISA

•Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, Government of India and Ms. Ségolène Royal, Minister for Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs Government of France jointly decided to appoint Mr. Upendra Tripathy, as the Interim Director General (IDG) of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on a full time basis.

•Mr. Upendra Tripathy was the Former Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

•The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was launched on 30th November 2015 as a coalition of the solar resource-rich countries jointly by Shri. Narendra Modi and Mr.François Hollande, President of France.

6) Madhabi Puri Buch appointed as SEBI whole time member

•The government has announced Madhabi Puri Buch as new whole time member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

•She will be in the office for period of three years. She is currently serving in the New Development Bank, Shanghai.

•This is the first time that a women and a person from private sector has been chosen for a key post with the market regulator.

The HINDU Notes – 23rd March

the hindu notes

VisionIAS 12:02

THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 23 March

Law coming to enforce dam safety regulations

•The Centre is contemplating an institutional mechanism to improve safety in India’s 5300-odd dams. Currently, guidelines in this regard are not effectively enforced by the States. The new law, which has been vetted by the Union Law Ministry and will now go to the Union Cabinet for approval, proposes a Central authority and State-level bodies that will enforce regulation. Dam and project proponents falling short could face a fine, though they are unlikely to face imprisonment.

•“We have had discussions with all the States and most of them have been fairly supportive,” said Amarjit Singh, Secretary, Water Resources Ministry.

•There are around 4900 large dams in India and several thousand smaller ones. About 300 are in various stages of construction. However, large reservoirs and water storage structures, in the past few decades, are not seen as a model of safety. Kerala, for instance, continues to fight with Tamil Nadu over threats posed by the Mullaperiyar dam on the river Periyar. More recently, the Chennai floods of 2015, due to unusually-heavy winter rains, were thought to have been compounded by an unprecedented release of water from the Chembarambakkam dam into the Adyar River. In 2014, an unscheduled release of water from the Larji hydroelectric project into the Beas river drowned 25 students from Hyderabad.

•According to a Water Ministry official familiar with the dam safety bill, recent analysis of the state of India’s dams found that half of them did not meet contemporary safety standards. “This does not mean the dams are unsafe, but that we have much stricter safety criteria now than we did when these dams were built 50 or 100 years ago,” the official told The Hindu.

•The safety criteria include increasing the spillway (a design structure to ease water build-up) and preventing ‘over-topping’ in which the dam overflows and causes it to fail. The 1979 Machchu dam failure in Morbi, Gujarat, is estimated to have killed at least 25,000.

Superpower dreams

•India’s rank of 131 among 188 countries on the UNDP’s Human Development Index for 2015 and its ‘medium’ performance pose the uncomfortable question: would not the score have been significantly better if the higher economic growth trajectory of two and a half decades of liberalisation had been accompanied by a parallel investment in people? Few will argue that the rise in incomes that came with a more open economy has not translated into a higher quality of life for many Indians and raised overall life expectancy at birth by more than 10 years from the 1990 level, to reach 68.3 years. Progress has also been made in raising awareness about issues affecting women’s empowerment, such as public safety, acid attacks, discrimination in inheritance rights and lack of equal employment opportunity. Policy reforms have been instituted in some of these areas as a result. But as the HDI data show, significant inequalities persist, particularly between States and regions, which act as major barriers to improvement. The percentage of women in the workforce is the lowest in India among the BRICS countries, and the national record on the population that lives in severe multidimensional poverty is also the worst in the bloc. These are clear pointers to the lost decades for India, when universalisation of education and health care could have pulled deprived sections out of the poverty trap.

•A central focus on social indicators is necessary for India to break free from its position as an underachiever. The fiscal space now available has been strengthened by steady economic growth, and more should be done to eliminate subsidies for the richest quintile — estimated by the UNDP to be $16 billion in 2014 in six consumption areas including gold and aviation fuel. The rise in revenues from all sources should go towards making public education of high standards accessible to all and delivering on the promised higher budgetary outlay for health care. Bolstered by a conscious effort to help traditionally backward regions, such policies will help eliminate the losses produced by inequalities that lower national human development indices. One crucial metric that gets insufficient attention in the measurement of development is the state of democracy, reflected among other things in access to justice. It is relevant to point out that India has not ratified UN conventions on torture, rights of migrant workers and their families, and protection against enforced disappearance. This is a serious lacuna for a country that otherwise has a commitment to democracy and the rule of law. With the growing realisation that development is a multidimensional achievement, the gains of economic reforms must help build capabilities and improve the health of all sections. Sustaining and improving the quality of life will depend on policies crafted to handle major emerging challenges such as urbanisation, the housing deficit, access to power, water, education and health care.

Breathing life into health care

•The new National Health Policy (2017) released last week presents a clear vision of how India’s sluggish health system can be galvanised to deliver health and well-being to all by 2030, to meet the Sustainable Development Goal on health. The real challenge lies in its operational amplification and effective implementation which call for cementing consensus, catalysing commitment and channelling close coordination for steering Centre and the States together to deliver on this vision.

•After a gestation period of over two years, that saw extensive public comment and sharp debate within the government, the policy has finally emerged as a well-crafted document that lays the path for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Though the right to health proposed in the earlier draft has been disappointingly deleted, effective implementation of the various measures proposed in the NHP should place us on the path towards the realisation of that right. While espousing a strong public health approach and commitment to strengthening the public sector, the policy aims to draw upon the diverse systems of medicine and the different sectors of health-care providers that characterise our mixed health system, for providing much-needed health services across India.

A rise in spending

•The policy acknowledges the need for increasing the level of public financing for health, stating that the government must spend 2.5% of GDP by 2025. While this is sub-optimal and projects a farther date than public health advocates had hoped for, the promise to double public financing over next eight years is still welcome, given that government funding was virtually stagnant for several decades. However, Central budgets from now on must reflect a steady rise annually, to give credence to this promise. It also remains to be seen how States will conform to the recommendation that spending on health must rise above 8% of their budgets by 2020. Primary health care is rightly prioritised for two-thirds or more of all public funding. Free drugs, diagnostic and emergency services would be provided to all in public hospitals.

•There is an assurance of primary health services which are needed for comprehensive care and promotion of well-being. These are to be available anywhere in the country on the basis of a family card, which also connects them to a ‘health and wellness centre’ that provides basic services, referral linkages and performs a gatekeeper function for advanced care. AYUSH systems would be mainstreamed. The much-delayed National Urban Health Mission is to be imparted speed and scale to address the unmet needs of urban primary health care while reaching out to the urban poor.

•Secondary and tertiary health care will be provided through strengthened public services, with gap filling through strategic purchasing of services from private providers. While a ‘capitation’ fee model — of fixed annual payment for full health care of a person — has been proposed for primary health care, a ‘fee for service’ system has been proposed for secondary and tertiary care. It remains to be seen how these will gel in an integrated model.

Strengthening health care

•District hospitals are to be strengthened, to provide several elements of tertiary care alongside secondary care. Sub-district hospitals too would be upgraded. A National Healthcare Standards Organisation is proposed to be established to develop evidence-based standard management guidelines. A National Health Information Network also would be established by 2025. A National Digital Health Authority would be set up to develop, deploy and regulate digital health across the continuum of care.

•Expanded institutional capacity as well as new courses and cadres are proposed to overcome the shortages of skilled human resources in the health system. Public Health Management cadres are to be created in all States. BSc in Community Health and MD in Family Medicine are marked for scale-up and a variety of specialised nursing and paramedical courses are proposed, even as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) can career-track to become auxiliary nurse midwives.

•A variety of disease control measures and targets have been proposed to tackle challenges ranging from HIV-TB co-infection to trauma and screening for chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and common cancers. Control of indoor and outdoor air pollution has been accorded high priority with water, sanitation and nutrition, while multi-sectoral action will be aided by analytic capacity for health impact assessment.

•All of these augur well for moving the health agenda forward. However, the real challenges lie in how quickly the government can strengthen the public sector, how well it can regulate the partnering private sector, how effectively it can ramp up the health workforce to reach all sections of the population and how efficiently the Central and State governments can team up. Fingers crossed!

Bankruptcy board spells out ‘eligibility’

•The first order issued by the recently-established Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) is expected to set in motion a chain of events at many firms, including well-known consultancies that are eyeing the huge market for stressed assets and debt resolution.

•In its March 2 order, IBBI rejected an application for registration as an Insolvency Professional (IP) by an individual who works with one of the so-called Big Four consultancy firms. “... an IP must not ‘engage in any employment’, repeat ‘any employment’. It envisages that a person must not play two roles — profession and employment — simultaneously,” according to the order.

•Practitioners in the segment say that the order has made it clear that IBBI is not going to grant registration to individuals in such a scenario and so entities that want to be registered will have to form a separate subsidiary with dedicated resources related to insolvency and bankruptcy work.

Dedicated resources

•“Most firms, including ours, are considering forming a separate entity or an LLP where we have such dedicated registered resources,” said Ashish Chhawchharia, Partner, Grant Thornton Advisory. “The law does allow insolvency professional entities or IPEs wherein the majority of partners are registered IPs.”

•In a similar context, Sumit Khanna, Partner and National Head Corporate Finance & Restructuring Services, Deloitte said that while it was too early to comment on the possible restructuring that firms would have to undertake to participate in this segment, they had already started strengthening their in-house resources.

•“Deloitte is one of the most active players in this segment though it is too early to conclude if we need to set up a separate entity to house the practice as the final engagement will be in the name of a registered IP only,” Mr. Khanna said. “We will take a call once business reaches a critical threshold. We are augmenting our strong domestic team with in-house expertise in this practice area from overseas markets such as U.K. and U.S., where we are large players in this segment.”

•It is clear that the firms are betting big on a segment that is showing enough signs of having a huge business potential. In the one-year period ended September 2016, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of gross advances jumped to 9.1% from 5.1%, as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.

•“This segment is going to be extremely large in the future. There is around Rs. 6.6 lakh crore worth of recognised NPAs in the banking sector as of today,” said Mr Khanna. “While the smaller loans could go to the regular firms, large stressed assets would require the expertise of large firms. The initial number of cases could well over be 2,000.”

‘Same direction as SEBI’

•Legal experts say that the first order from IBBI has set a tone on how it is going to interpret the provisions of its regulations and is in line with the views of other regulators.

•“It has held that the insolvency professional work requires full time attention and would not countenance an IP riding two horses or more at a time,” said Sumit Agrawal, Partner, Suvan Law Advisors. “The order brings clarity on eligibility norms to be an IP and is in the same direction as SEBI or other regulators expect a person who is a registered intermediary.”

Russian connection

•The first open hearing into the alleged links between the campaign of Donald Trump and unnamed parties associated with the Russian government kicked off this week, even as the President put out a series of social media posts that seemed to mischaracterise statements coming out of that hearing. Ground-shaking revelations have come from the grilling of FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Michael Rogers by the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee. The first was from Mr. Comey, who confirmed that the FBI was investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election, including links between specific individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Last month Mr. Trump’s nominee for National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned from his post after it emerged that he had withheld information about being in contact with Russia’s Ambassador in Washington prior to Mr. Trump’s inauguration. This month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the probe into alleged Russian meddling when it came to light that he had met the Ambassador prior to the election. Yet he continues to head the institution charged with the inquiry. Mr. Comey revealed that the FBI investigation began in July 2016, when evidence emerged that the Democratic National Committee had been hacked by Russia-related entities and emails handed over to WikiLeaks.

•Even as the U.S. intelligence community scrambles to put together the pieces of the Trump-Moscow puzzle, it has, ironically, found itself in the crosshairs of exposure. Earlier this month WikiLeaks released a trove of confidential CIA documents , a series labelled “Vault 7”, which showed the Agency’s penetration of the security systems of household electronic devices that could then be used for covert surveillance. While such timed “leaks” are meant to target his political opponents, Mr. Trump’s own tweets are at odds with revelations in the House hearing. In early March, he accused former President Barack Obama of ordering wiretaps on Trump Tower — yet Mr. Comey said neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice had any information to support that allegation. Mr. Rogers dismissed the White House suggestion that Mr. Obama had asked British intelligence to spy on Mr. Trump, a claim the U.K. has denied. The last straw came when the U.S. President’s account tweeted, as the hearing proceeded, “The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process,” only to have this statement debunked by Mr. Comey at the hearing, live on TV. Mr. Trump’s tendency to resort to unsubstantiated, even misleading, claims to stall a probe into alleged collaboration with a foreign power is not helping his credibility, which is already low in the eyes of so many Americans.

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