New Delhi: “Centralisation (in India) appears to have reached its limit,” a piece in The Economist argues.
“Election results,” it says, have “cast doubts” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s centralisation approach. The editorial specifies two problems with the current system. One, “mega-cities lack autonomy” and “are typically part of states with large rural populations whom politicians tend to put first”. The second, is the massive population. “Uttar Pradesh (UP), the largest Indian state, has 240m people, more than Nigeria or Brazil,” The Economist notes.
“One-size-fits-all” centrally imposed policies do not always work, it further argues. Pointing out the benefits of the formation of Telangana, it says, “Telangana’s share of GDP has risen from 4.1 percent to 4.8 percent. Neglected when it was part of the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh, its rural areas now have regular power and water.”
The piece, titled ‘India should liberate its cities and create more states’, also notes the problems that might arise from the decentralisation it proposes. Creating more states and autonomous cities would necessitate synchronised elections, complicate resource distribution, and give rise to issues about parliamentary-seat boundaries, it says.
To support its argument, the magazine writes specifically about Telangana and how “with just 2.7 percent of India’s population, its share of the country’s annual output has increased nearly a fifth, to 4.8 percent” since its formation.
Titled, ‘Why India should create dozens of new states’, the piece talks about how the state made itself “attractive to investors”, and used to its advantage the abundance of tech opportunities in Hyderabad. “Electricity generation capacity expanded from 7.8 GW to 19.5 GW between 2014 and 2023. Several projects to boost water for drinking and irrigation were put in motion. Welfare schemes for farmers were rolled out.”
The K. Chandrababu Naidu (KCR) government was however not reelected because “the dominance of Hyderabad alienated rural voters”. The piece notes, “Telangana’s new government, led by the Congress party, has made it a priority to encourage growth elsewhere. It plans to promote investment outside Hyderabad. At the same time it has signalled that it will not reverse policies that are working well.”
Andy Mukherjee’s latest column in Bloomberg focuses on India’s NEET controversy. In his piece, titled ‘What a College Exam Scandal Says About Modi’s India’, he argues that a deeper fault line has been exposed.
“By controlling the choice of the nation’s doctors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is pushing its hard-right Hindu agenda into the heart of the nation’s health and education systems,” writes Mukherjee, and points out “progressive state” Tamil Nadu’s resistance to the medical entrance exam. “An exam that overlooks the differences in schooling offered by the boards of 28 states emaciates local education,” he further says, pointing to a “pro-rich bias” against students who cannot afford tutoring.
Mukherjee opines that the reason the NEET needs to go is the bid to “downgrade” state education boards” and “nudge families toward the national curriculum”, and “not just because of allegedly leaked papers”.
The BBC in its explainer titled ‘Why an exam has sparked national outrage in India’ also rounds up the NEET row.
“Millions of students take the exam every year, but only a small percentage get good enough marks to secure a college placement. But this year the challenge is somewhat different: too many candidates have got top marks, pushing down the ranking system and making it hard for even high-scorers to get admission,” writes Cherylann Mollan, while noting that “1,563 candidates were given ‘grace marks’ for delays at exam centres and because a physics question turned out to have two correct answers. “Notably, 50 out of the 67 top scorers achieved perfect marks due to these compensatory points.”
Mollan also points out “the intense pressure and fierce competition faced by aspiring candidates” and how lakhs of students compete for just 1.1 lakh seats, particularly the 60,000 affordable ones at government colleges.
Nikkei Asia in its report titled ‘India immigration crackdown sparks fear among outspoken diaspora’ notes the cancellation of “102 OCI cards between last year and 2014” — since Modi first came to power.
The Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) programme, established nearly 20 years ago, allows foreign citizens of Indian origin to live and work in the country indefinitely without a visa, but now their status can be revoked for actions deemed against India’s Constitution or security, putting critics at risk, the Japanese news magazine noted. It cites the example of Ashok Swain, a Swedish professor and former OCI card holder who was banned from his home country over “provocative speeches and tweets” about the Modi government.
Kanika Gupta in this report quotes the Human Rights Watch as saying, “It’s evident that the Modi government is focused on suppressing free speech both domestically and internationally by targeting Indian activists, academics, or those of Indian origin, both within and outside the country, to silence dissenting voices and criticism.”
Also read: Canada sees opportunity to engage with India on ‘keeping Canadians safe’ & India’s AI ambitions
Anti-semitism, French elections & South China Sea
With over 360 incidents of anti-semitism in France in the first three months of 2024, the most recent being the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl, has raised alarm in the western European country slated to elect a new president. To know more about how these can impact the election campaigns and results thereafter, read The New York Times report.
The Philippines has accused China of using bladed weapons during a standoff between the two nations in the South China Sea earlier this week. Tensions have been flaring up in the region with claims to the waters by various nations who are trying to fight Chinese dominance. Read CNN’s report to know why the South China Sea is important in geopolitics.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also read: Investors relieved as Modi 3.0 takes charge & it’s bread over bigotry for voters, say global reports