27-12-2017 (Important News Clippings)
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Date:25-12-17
Smarten the budget
Fiscal loosening is not reform, boosting productivity and slashing red tape is
TOI Editorials
Proposals to deviate from government’s roadmap on fiscal consolidation are back on the table as a way to offset a slowdown. This is a bad idea and deserves to be rejected. Government runs a fiscal deficit, or borrows to spend more than it earns. Beyond a point, it has adverse consequences such as inflation and macroeconomic destabilisation. There is, therefore, a roadmap in place to curtail the relative size of deficit. We don’t have a reason to deviate from it as no durable solution to economic challenges, including agrarian distress and jobs shortage, will arise from borrowing more. The solution should instead focus on increasing productivity in agriculture, helping entrepreneurs create more jobs and reforming the creaking and middleman-dominated welfare system. An important challenge facing agriculture is that the technological revolution has passed it by. Government has a crucial role to play in creating a hospitable environment for new technology. In addition, it must permit farmers to contract with all kinds of players. There is enough evidence that private sector players are able to establish durable linkages with farmers which includes introduction of cutting edge technology. Today, the overburdened farmer puts up almost 80% of agricultural investment. Government needs to open the door for others to pitch in. Intertwined with agrarian distress is a jobs crisis. India simply does not generate enough decent jobs for its young. A robust manufacturing sector is essential to deal with this problem. The only way to bring this about is to drastically cut red tape which inhibits expansion of existing firms and entry of new ones. Reducing bureaucracy needs to begin at home. Thanks to an oil windfall, India’s subsidies as a percentage of GDP has declined over the last three years to 1.53% in 2016-17. This needs to be supplemented by hastening the rollout of direct benefits transfer, which will cut out middlemen and offer citizens choice in spending. These reforms should be the budget’s focus.
Date:25-12-17
Planned towns for public transport
ET Editorials
Prime Minister Narendra Modi did well to commend public over private transport. It has the potential to significantly reduce demand for petroleum products, speedily drive down crude oil imports, and lead to a host of related benefits like reduced pollution and better traffic flows going forward. It would also improve the trade balance, boost public health and help India meet its climate goals as well. However, public transport works best as part of integrated urban planning.
Far too often, investments in public transportation systems are carried out more as an afterthought, to simply try and cope with ever-burgeoning demand for commuting and transport. It results in haphazard transport planning, which, in turn, misallocates resources and overburdens the system. As India grows fast, with industry and service growing much faster than farm output, more and more people will migrate to towns — some 25 crore people, if half of India becomes urban over the next 15-20 years. They have to be accommodated in new towns: existing towns cannot absorb such huge numbers. These new towns must be planned to minimise commutes and use public transport for such commutes cannot be averted. Common payment means for bus, train, taxi and shared bike rides would encourage multimodal public transport. Dense, vertical towns with mixed land use would put residences, work, education, healthcare and entertainment spaces within close proximity to one another, and build in large playgrounds and green spaces as well. The way ahead is to plan and invest in metro rail systems in such urban centres, and also provide efficient feeder bus services for seamless multimodal transport. Planning must provide for energy-efficient personal transport for segments that cannot be catered to by trains and buses. Shared vehicles bring down energy consumption. Electric cars and bikes can be shared using a combination of geotagging and phone-based activation/aggregation. This, of course, will call for proactive policy for ubiquitous broadband access.
शहरीकरण में मेट्रो
संपादकीय
प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने दिल्ली से सटे नोएडा में मेट्रो सेवा के विस्तार के तहत उसकी एक और लाइन का उद्घाटन करते हुए मेट्रो की सवारी को पीढ़ी दर पीढ़ी फायदेमंद बताते हुए यह भी रेखांकित किया कि जल्द ही देश के 50 शहरों में मेट्रो का संचालन होने वाला है। उन्होंने भरोसा जताया कि मेट्रो के विस्तार के साथ ही आने वाले समय में भारत दुनिया के पांच सबसे बड़े मेट्रो नेटवर्क वाले देश में शामिल होगा। नि:संदेह दिल्ली और उसके आसपास के शहरों के साथ मुंबई, कोच्चि, हैदराबाद, जयपुर, लखनऊ आदि के साथ देश के अन्य शहरों में मेट्रो सेवा का विस्तार सार्वजनिक यातायात को सुविधाजनक बनाने की दिशा में एक बड़ा कदम है, लेकिन शहरों को संवारने के लिए और भी बहुत कुछ करने की आवश्यकता है। यह सही है कि विभिन्न राज्यों में मेट्रो सेवा के लिए होड़ दिख रही है और बड़े शहरों में मेट्रो के साथ सार्वजनिक परिवहन के अन्य आधुनिक साधनों के इस्तेमाल की संभावनाएं भी तलाशी जा रही हैैं, लेकिन आखिर क्या कारण है कि ऐसी ही होड़ शहरों के समग्र ढांचे को सुधारने के मामले में नहीं दिख रही है? यह सवाल इसलिए चिंतित करता है, क्योंकि शहरों का ढांचा तेजी के साथ चरमराता जा रहा है। वे बढ़ती आबादी के बोझ का सामना करने के साथ सामान्य नागरिक सुविधाओं के अभाव का भी सामना कर रहे हैैं। अगर यह सोचा जा रहा है कि शहरों को केवल मेट्रो सेवा से लैस करके उनकी दशा सुधारी जा सकती है तो यह सही नहीं। बेहतर हो कि राज्य सरकारें शहरों को साफ-स्वच्छ और सुविधाजनक बनाने पर भी ध्यान दें।
यह ठीक नहीं कि राज्य सरकारें जैसी ललक मेट्रो के प्रति दिखा रही हैैं वैसी शहरों को साफ-स्वच्छ बनाने अथवा प्रदूषण, अतिक्रमण, यातायात जाम, बेतरतीब विकास, झुग्गी बस्तियों से मुक्ति को लेकर नहीं दिखा रही हैैं। शहरों को संवारने के मामले में इससे संतुष्ट नहीं हुआ जा सकता कि केंद्र सरकार स्मार्ट सिटी योजना के तहत शहरों का चयन करने में लगी हुई है, क्योंकि फिलहाल यह योजना लक्ष्य से दूर ही नजर आ रही है। यदि शहरों के ढांचे को सुधारने पर ध्यान नहीं दिया गया तो आने वाले समय में वे और अधिक समस्याओं से घिर सकते हैैं, क्योंकि गांवों, कस्बों और छोटे शहरों से बड़े शहरों की ओर आबादी का आगमन बढ़ता ही जा रहा है। इसे रोकना संभव नहीं। एक अनुमान के तहत अगले कुछ वर्षों में देश की करीब आधी आबादी शहरों में निवास करेगी। इसे देखते हुए शहरों के आधारभूत ढांचे को दुरुस्त करने का काम प्राथमिकता के आधार पर होना चाहिए, लेकिन ऐसा मुश्किल से ही दिखता है। उपयुक्त शहरीकरण को सुनिश्चित करने वाले नियम-कानूनों की अनदेखी तो एक समस्या है ही, यह भी किसी संकट से कम नहीं कि शहरीकरण संबंधी योजनाएं बनाते समय तात्कालिक समाधान पर ही अधिक ध्यान दिया जाता है। शहरीकरण के ढांचे को बेहतर बनाने में मेट्रो सेवा की महत्ता से इन्कार नहीं, लेकिन हमारे नीति-नियंताओं को यह ध्यान रहे तो बेहतर कि केवल इसी सेवा के निर्माण और विस्तार के जरिये शहरों की सूरत को नहीं बदला जा सकता।
Date:24-12-17
Catching up on information statecraft
Delhi needs to build significant capabilities to counter cyber threats at home and abroad.
C. Raja Mohan (The writer is director, Carnegie India, Delhi and contributing editor on foreign affairs for ‘The Indian Express’.)
Among the critical features of 2017 has been the rapid commercial diffusion of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the fear that these technologies might pose an unprecedented threat to the future of humanity as a species. Scientists and entrepreneurs such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, have demanded that the United Nations ban killer robots.
Others like Microsoft’s Satya Nadella have called for new set of international norms — a cyber code of conduct — that will better protect individuals, companies and nations as technological transformation upends our world. While collective agreements among nations are far away, the technological advance is likely to be relentless in 2018 and beyond. The gap between the pace of technological change and the capacity of states to regulate it effectively within nations and between them has been part of our evolution. The digital revolution is no exception.
Even as calls for preventing the militarisation of AI get louder, governments have never stopped trying to find and exploit the strategic possibilities of new technologies. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that “artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind”. Underlining the opportunities and threats that AI presents, Putin added, “whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world”. Meanwhile, the inescapable fact is that the digital domain has already turned into a major political battlefield. While the problems associated with cyber threats to critical infrastructure has been debated in recent years, 2017 might be remembered for new awareness on the possibilities for significant interference in the political affairs of other nations.
Consider, for example, the arguments on alleged Russian meddling in the US presidential elections at the end of 2016. Hillary Clinton, the losing candidate and the Democratic Party that nominated her have insisted that Russia tilted the election in favour of Trump. That, in turn, has led to investigation of the personal and business connections between Russia and President Donald Trump and his family.Trump and Putin both dismissed these allegations as baseless. But the idea that you can use chatbots and algorithms to shape the politics of another country has certainly gained ground this year. The National Security Strategy (NSS) presented by the Trump Administration last week does not accuse Russia of interfering in the US elections. No surprise there. But it certainly underlines the potential threats from Russia’s information warfare. “Russia uses information operations as part of its offensive cyber efforts to influence public opinion across the globe. Its influence campaigns blend covert intelligence operations and false online personas with state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users,” the NSS says.
More broadly, the NSS argues that “America’s competitors weaponise information to attack the values and institutions that underpin free societies, while shielding themselves from outside information. They exploit marketing techniques to target individuals based upon their activities, interests, opinions, and values. They disseminate misinformation and propaganda”. Non-state actors too weaponise information. As the NSS puts it, “Jihadist terrorist groups continue to wage ideological information campaigns to establish and legitimise their narrative of hate, using sophisticated communications tools to attract recruits” and mount attacks. Even as the offensive use of the web has grown, some states are devising ways to limit and control access to the internet to domestic audiences.China’s great internet wall is one such example. According to the NSS, China “combines data and the use of AI to rate the loyalty of its citizens to the state and uses these ratings to determine jobs and more.” Russia has been talking about building an alternative internet to the one today that is centred in America.
Just a few years ago, it was widely assumed that the internet would favour Western democracies and undermine authoritarian regimes. Recall Hillary Clinton’s Internet Freedom Project announced in 2010, when she was the US Secretary of State. Today, Russia, China and some other countries continue to fear that the US will foment trouble within their societies. Moscow and Beijing have developed strong defensive capabilities against such intervention and demonstrated the capability for offensive operations in Western societies.The NSS recognises the new dynamic and calls it “information statecraft”. Disinformation and deception to undermine the adversary’s court and society have long been part of statecraft. What has lent information statecraft a new edge today are expansive reach of the social media and the awesome capability to analyse big data.
As a diverse society and chaotic democracy, India is indeed very vulnerable to hostile information operations. The NDA government has indeed devoted much energy to turn the Indian economy into a digital one. It has sought to access massive data on citizens for the declared purposes for better mobilisation of tax revenues and delivery of services.But there is no public evidence of a coherent strategy for the strategic use of information for internal and external security. Delhi needs to turn its attention in 2018 to creating significant domestic capabilities for information operations against threats at home and abroad. Unlike in many other countries, democratic India’s information statecraft must, however, be in full consonance with the rights of its citizens and subject to political oversight.
Date:24-12-17
For kinder smart cities
Urban growth should address needs of children from poorer sections of society
Vishal Chowla (The writer is director, resource mobilisation, Save The Children)
However, while current smart city plans seem to focus on tangible outcomes that pertain to physical aspects of development, they fall short of addressing the requirements of the country’s human capital, including the welfare and well-being of all children. One such reality is the issue of migration from rural to urban centres. Such migrations almost always include children, many of whom get displaced and end up in street situations.India is urbanising fast with over 7,000 cities and towns of different population and sizes. The country’s cities and towns constitute 11 per cent of the world’s urban population. As per the UN’s projections, India’s share in the world’s urban population will rise to 13 per cent by 2030. Making smart cities inclusive is also consistent with Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
More than 3.6 crore children (in the age group of 0 to 6 years) live in urban areas, of whom at least 81 lakh live in slums. According to Save the Children’s recent report, ‘Life on the Street’, there are well over 20 lakh children on the streets of India. Various studies predict that 40 per cent of the country’s population will be living in cities and towns by 2030. This, unfortunately, could increase the number of street children manifold. Save the Children and The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights recently developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for children in street situations. The SOP has been endorsed by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and needs to implemented on a pan-India basis.
According to the UN’s Smart City Framework, a “child-friendly city” should be a multi-dimensional and comprehensive concept, where, children are active agents and their opinion influences the decision-making process. Save The Children’s report, Forgotten Voices notes: “A child-friendly city is one that has a system of local governance, and is committed to fulfilling children’s rights, which include influencing decisions about the city, expressing their opinion, participating in social life, receiving basic services, walking and playing safely, living in an unpolluted environment and being an equal citizen.”The focus needs to be on smaller towns and cities in India. This is important because 68 per cent of India’s urban population does not live in metros but in towns that have a population of less than 100,000. Reaping of the demographic dividend will require focus on urban governance, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and education.
The smart city concept in India is at a nascent stage. It could still include components that will make it amenable to children’s needs. It could aim to ensure that children do not end up in street situations. This would require comprehensive planning and partnership among various policy-makers and stakeholders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, on several occasions, said that the country’s young population is its biggest strength. But realising the full potential of this section will require including children from the most vulnerable and marginalised classes in the nation-building process.Addressing the needs of 20 lakh children in street situations, as well as other children across all smart cities, is not merely a question of their survival and dignity. It is also not merely a matter of moral responsibility: It is vital for ensuring a peaceful, prosperous and just India.
Tackling Maoism
A permanent solution lies in reversing the alienation of tribals
Rajinder Vij (Rajinder Vij is an Indian Police Service officer in Chhattisgarh. The views expressed are personal)
The Central Reserve Police Force lost 40 personnel in two Maoist attacks in the first half of 2017 in Sukma, the most severely Maoist-affected district of Chhattisgarh. Though the forces were jolted by these attacks, their spirit to fight back has not dampened. Rather, they continue to undertake challenging development work in these areas. This shows how the paradigm on tackling Maoism has changed over time. The government’s response has matured in terms of deliverance — from reactive it has become proactive, and from localised it has become holistic.
Proactive policing
Security forces are no longer reactive. When the Maoists decided to deepen their roots into Gariaband, the State government notified this division as a new district, which gave a fillip to development work. Many new police stations and security camps were set up to prevent any major Maoist attack. The cadre strength of the Maoists has consequently reduced. Similarly, a police action in Raigarh district eventually forced the Maoists to abandon their plan of expansion. The Ministry of Home Affairs, too, subsequently removed Raigarh from its Security Related Expenditure scheme.
When the Maoists decided to create a new zone in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, the target districts were immediately put on alert, so as not to allow them to gain ground. Security forces were redeployed to ensure better territorial command. As the Chhattisgarh police have experience in tackling Maoists in Bastar, they are now coordinating with the bordering States to strengthen intelligence and ground presence. Such coordinated proactive policing will dampen the Maoists’ plans.The Maoist problem is not merely a law and order issue. A permanent solution lies in eliminating the root cause of the problem that led to the alienation of tribals in this area. The focus now is to build roads and install communication towers to increase administrative and political access of the tribals, and improve the reach of government schemes. The government has enhanced the support price of minor forest produce like imli (tamarind). More bank branches have been opened to ensure financial inclusion. All India Radio stations in the three southern districts of Bastar will now broadcast regional programmes to increase entertainment options. And a new rail service in Bastar is set to throw open a new market for wooden artefacts and bell metal.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said in the latest annual report report on ‘Children in Armed Conflict’ that the Maoists are providing combat training to children in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Despite the Maoists not wanting their children to study and get government jobs, remarkable work has been done in the field of school education and skill development. Earlier, the hostel of the Ramakrishna Mission in Narainpur was the only place where children could get quality education. Then, an educational hub and a livelihood centre in Dantewada district sprang up. Seeing its success, the government has now opened up livelihood centres, known as Livelihood Colleges, in all the districts. If the youth are constructively engaged by the government, the recruitment of youth by the Maoists will slowly stop.
Role of civil society
However, winning a psychological war against the Maoists remains an unfinished task. Though the government’s rehabilitation policies have helped the surrendered cadres turn their lives around, security personnel are still accused of being informers and are killed. To end this, civil society must join hands with the government in realising the villagers’ right to development. Loopholes in implementing government schemes must not be used as a tool to strengthen the hands of the Maoists. Indian democracy is strong enough to absorb even its adversaries if they abjure violence.The last two major attacks call for some serious introspection on the tactics used by the forces and their fitness to prevent any future attacks. The two-pronged policy of direct action by the security forces combined with development is showing results — the government has already made a dent in most of the affected districts and is determined to check the expansion of Maoists. The paradigm of proactive policing and holistic development should ensure more such significant results in the future.
Date:24-12-17
Power of the collective
Self-help groups can help address the problem of intimate partner violence
Tara Nair
Nandita Bhatla
(Tara Nair is Professor, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, and Nandita Bhatla is senior technical specialist at the Asia Regional Office of the International Center for Research on Women)
Violent acts, at the hands of a husband or a partner (intimate partner violence, or IPV), are distressingly common worldwide. These stem from the belief that women who don’t obey or don’t perform their set gender roles deserve to be beaten. Intimate relationships are important sites where violence against women is used to perpetuate patriarchy. The World Health Organisation estimates that almost one-third of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner, which affects their physical and mental well-being. Boys who witness parental violence are more likely to use it in their adult relationships; girls are more likely to justify it.
Strategies to address IPV have included legal reforms, awareness creation drives, and strengthening of women’s civil rights. As criminal justice solutions have largely been inaccessible to socially precarious women, a more inclusive alternative is to have collective-based resolution mechanisms. The potential of large-scale groups of women, such as self-help groups (SHGs), becomes critical in the Indian context.
India has experimented with many models of community dispute resolution mechanisms — the Nari Adalats (women courts) in various States, Women’s Resource Centres (Rajasthan), Shalishi (West Bengal), and Mahila Panchayats (Delhi) — which have seen IPV as a public issue rather than a personal problem. Several NGOs have co-opted these models so that women can resolve cases of violence without getting entangled in tedious legal processes.
SHGs are the most widely present collectives across regions. The experiences of large-scale programmes offer valuable insights into action for IPV redressal within SHG-led development models. These, as well as previous models, provide two key lessons — one, collectives of women need adequate investment for building their capacities; and two, mediation of IPV requires specialised structures to avoid manipulation by kinship relations and political affinities.
Not all groups of women become safe spaces to discuss violence. SHGs must first become enabling spaces where the economic and social concerns of women are stated as priorities. Freedom from violence must be stated as a necessary component of empowerment. It takes time for most women to recognise that violence is unacceptable. To enable them to understand this, there must be investment in specific training, and gender analysis processes. SHGs are mostly seen as administrative entities. Their social role can be enhanced to tackle the widespread problem of IPV.