19-07-2017 (Important News Clippings)
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Date:19-07-17
Focus on distribution, not power generation
Editorial
It is rampant revenue loss in distribution and moribund finances of state power utilities that stultifies offtake and demand. In a shocking illustration of the problem, engineer Abhimanyu Singh was killed and four of his colleagues injured while fleeing a mob attack in southwest Delhi on Monday, where they had gone for spot inspection of power theft. The powers that be must immediately resume CISF protection for theft detection teams, which was questionably withdrawn in 2009. The fact is that despite showcase power reforms in Delhi, large pockets continue to experience massive theft and recurring non-payment with 25-50% of power unaccounted for.The point is to clamp down on political patronage of theft and non-payment for power in the states. It is true that of late, 25 states have issued bonds under the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana for over Rs 2 lakh crore, to clear state power utility losses. But in tandem, we need revamped institutional mechanism and improved governance to stem revenue losses in distribution. The way forward is to mandate stringent norms to boost transparency. For starters, distribution results need to duly be complied and published widely on a quarterly basis. Utilities can provide steady returns for the long term, and the Narendra Modi government needs to put distribution reforms at the core of its reform agenda.
Date:19-07-17
नियामकों की भूमिका में होनी चाहिए और स्पष्टता
सोमशेखर सुंदरेशन (लेखक वरिष्ठ अधिवक्ता और स्वतंत्र विधि परामर्शदाता हैं)
सवाल यह है कि क्या भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक फंसे हुए कर्ज की वसूली के बारे में गठित एक अद्र्ध-न्यायिक निकाय के सामने शर्तें थोप सकता है? गुजरात उच्च न्यायालय ने भी हाल ही में यह पूछा कि क्या रिजर्व बैंक के पास अधिकरणों के नियमन की शक्तियां मौजूद हैं? रिजर्व बैंक का यह सोचना अधिक महत्त्वपूर्ण नहीं है कि वह एक अद्र्ध-न्यायिक निकाय को अपनी शर्तें मानने के लिए बाध्य कर सकता है। उससे अधिक महत्त्वपूर्ण या शायद डरावनी बात यह है कि हमारे सार्वजनिक संस्थानों के कामकाज में भूमिका की स्पष्टता किस तरह आसानी से आधिकारिक रूप से गलत हो सकती है।सबसे बड़ी गलती राष्ट्रपति के अध्यादेश के जरिये रिजर्व बैंक को दी गई वह शक्ति है जिसमें उसे फंसे हुए कर्ज की वसूली के बारे में वाणिज्यिक बैंकों को निर्देश देने का अधिकार मिला है। यह प्रावधान केंद्रीय बैंक के डीएनए में गलत नीतिगत चयन के रूप में परिलक्षित होता है और यह भूमिका की स्पष्टता को भी धूमिल कर देता है। यह एकतरफा नीतिगत समाधान का बेहतरीन उदाहरण है।
Date:18-07-17
The People Are Watching
Government has an opportunity to enhance use of social audit to monitor schemes
With its roots in rural Rajasthan, social audits refer to a legally mandated process where potential and existing beneficiaries evaluate the implementation of a programme by comparing official records with ground realities. The public collective platforms of jansunwais or public hearings that social audits conclude with remain its soul. In the course of a social audit, individuals and communities get empowered and politicised in a way that they experience the practical potential of participatory democracy.The proceedings cannot be scripted, and the entire social audit is often a dramatic process of redistribution of power based on evidence and fact. For instance, when it is publicly read out that many workers who worked under the MGNREGA are still waiting for their wages, whereas family members of the sarpanch who never visited, let alone worked on a NREGA worksite, receive uninterrupted wage payments into their bank accounts, the reaction could range from anger to a firm determination for answers.
It is important to build on the current momentum. Where social audits have been able to take place effectively, they have served as an important tool to detect corruption and influence redress. Nearly Rs 100 crore has been identified as misappropriated funds through social audits under the MGNREGA, out of which nearly Rs 40 crore has been recovered. Nearly 6,000 field personnel have been implicated/removed from duty based on findings of social audits. The impact of continuous cycles of social audit in deterring potential corruption is beyond quantification.However, not all is rosy and hurdle free. Institutionalisation on the ground has been inadequate, and has faced great resistance from the establishment. The lack of adequate administrative and political will in institutionalising social audit to deter corruption has meant that social audits in many parts of the country are not independent from the influence of implementing agencies. Social audit units, including village social audit facilitators, continue to face resistance and intimidation and find it difficult to even access primary records for verification.
In spite of challenges, social audit moved tentatively, but surely towards becoming an accepted part of audit, and a discipline in itself. Nothing demonstrates that better than the fact the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2016 laid down “auditing standards” for social audit. This, as the CAG office states in the introduction is, “the first ever such exercise for the formulation of standards for social audit in the world”. It is indicative of a remarkable trajectory in the expanding theoretical and practical framework of social audit over the past two decades.In an age where phrases such as open data and open government are used in any conversation around governance, social audits should serve as a critical point of reference. An open and transparent system involves the presence of real platforms for people to be informed by official statements and records, with an opportunity to compare that with ground realities. Websites and twitter handles run by the government cannot replace the responsibility of the state to set up, fund, and foster practical processes and mechanisms.
The government can decide to use these interventions and harness peoples’ energies in facing the vast challenge of implementation and monitoring. Or it can choose to be reluctantly pushed along. Social audit is no longer a choice. Along with other transparency and accountability platforms, it is a legal, moral, and democratic necessity The writer works with peoples’ campaigns and government on social accountability practices. She has worked with the Ministry of Rural Development on social audit
A concert at sea
Malabar-17 demonstrates enhanced interoperability among the navies of Japan, India and the US — and a shared determination to safeguard a free and open Indo-Pacific
On the near horizon, Japan’s largest helicopter destroyer JS Izumo and India’s aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya were engaged in their respective parts of the operation. The sea was calm yet windy. I was on the US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to attend the ship tour of the trilateral naval exercise, Malabar-17. Right in front of me on the ship board, US Fighters were taking off and landing one after another.
Malabar-17 is the “largest maritime exercise ever conducted in the vast Indian Ocean” as President Donald Trump put it on the occasion of the successful summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. Indeed, it is the debut of JS Izumo in an exercise with other navies. It is also the first time that India has fielded an aircraft carrier to Malabar. Sixteen ships, two submarines and more than 95 aircraft are conducting the historic joint exercise in the Bay of Bengal.It was exactly 10 years ago when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a speech titled “Confluence of the Two Seas” at the Indian Parliament. He stated “the Pacific and the Indian Ocean are now bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity”.
As he anticipated, the Indo-Pacific region has become the centre of geo-political and geo-economic gravity in a decade. It is blessed with opportunities, encompassing India, ASEAN and Africa with full potential, as well as matured economies like Japan and US. At the same time, this region faces serious challenges including attempts to change the status quo by force, coercion or intimidation, and influx of radical elements, to name a few.
Last summer, Prime Minister Abe launched the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy,” as Japan’s response to such challenges and opportunities. In essence, this strategy regards the Pacific region and the Indian Ocean region as one big strategic domain, and aims to improve inter- and intra- region connectivity and to promote fundamental values such as rule of law. The strategy is also a statement of intent that Japan is ready to play a greater role in the Indian Ocean region with the banner of “Proactive Contribution to Peace.”It is against this backdrop that JS Izumo and JS Sazanami participate in Malabar-17. The main objective of the exercise is to strengthen inter-operability as well as sharing of best practices between the three navies, but what it demonstrates is something beyond maritime cooperation. It is the expression of unshakeable determination shared by the three democracies to safeguard and solidify a rules-based international order and to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific.
If you take a look at recent joint statements agreed to by the leaders of the three countries, including the most recent one between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump, you will find it evident that “rule of law” is the key phrase emphasised in all statements. The title of Prime Minister Abe’s keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2014 was “Japan for the rule of law. Asia for the rule of law. And the rule of law for all of us.” Indeed, ensuring rule of law is critical for the coexistence of big countries and small countries as well as the continued prosperity of future generations.
International law prescribes the order, particularly order governing the seas. Its history is very long, stretching back to the days of ancient Greece. By Roman times, the seas were already kept open to all, with personal possession and partitioning of the sea prohibited. As history moved on, the wisdom and the practical experiences of a great many people involved with the sea, accumulated into common rules. This is what we now know as the international law of the seas. This law was not created by any particular country, nor was it the product of a particular group. Instead, it is the product of our own wisdom, cultivated over a great many years for the well-being and prosperity of all humankind.The critical importance of the rule of law at sea, including the freedom of navigation, is apparent from the same tenets underlying the activities of the three navies and the Malabar exercise. Japan, India and the US are forces with common values, common vision, and common objectives, closely united to safeguard a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Malabar-17 is certainly a milestone of such concerted efforts, but we can also say that it only marks the beginning of enhanced trilateral cooperation. Based on the robust outcomes of summit meetings between Prime Minister Modi, President Trump and Prime Minister Abe, we will see more to come, because the benefit of our trilateral partnership is something that not only the people of the three countries but the people of like-minded countries in the region can rely on, in this age of great uncertainty.
