Law and Injustice
Razia Patel | Head of minority cell at the Centre for Educational Studies in Indian Institute of Education, Pune.
The Indian Express
Patel writes that the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2019 might have been hailed a “gender justice” victory, but its intention and content need to be closely examined.
The Bill’s first provision states that oral or written pronouncement of talaq by a man will be considered voice and illegal. Already deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2017, the law could have been drafted on just this one section. The second provision says the husband could be imprisoned for up to three years along with a fine. The first provision says triple talaq will be declared void, yet it has been made punishable under this clause. This is the first time that criminal provisions have been specified for marriage and divorce-related issues. The next provision on how the husband has to provide subsistence to the wife is also problematic, as a jailed person cannot be expected to provide money.
Created to serve BJP’s political purpose, this law could be misused to harass Muslims and further add to the suffering of Muslim women. “A common gender-just law could be a solution”, concludes Patel.
Writing out a clean Bill on health
Sumant Narain | A civil servant and ex-director, NITI Aayog. The views expressed are personal
The Hindu
Narain writes that the National Commission Medical (NMC) Bill is good for reforms. He addresses five main concerns that have been expressed against this Bill.
First, examinations– the government is implementing a ‘One-Nation-One-Exam’ system in which it will consolidate different medical exams at the undergraduate level with NEET. Second, the “limited licence to practise for community health providers” is actually to address the gap between the large number of villages and a small number of doctors, health services. The Bill seeks to utilise modern professionals other than doctors to provide primary and preventive healthcare.
Third, the NMC will put in place a transparent fee structure which will help regulate private seats and “support poor and meritorious students”. Fourth, the bill tackles the problem of representation in NMC by providing “transparent search and selection process” with a diverse group of elected and nominated representatives in the search committee and commission.
Lastly, the clause of “overriding powers in the Centre” is to ensure that the government can address critical issues, especially in public emergencies. This will allow the NMC to align with government policy.
Reading the slowdown
Soumya Kanti Ghosh | Group Chief Economic Adviser, State Bank of India
The Indian Express
Soumya Kanti Ghosh answers three questions related to the present state of the Indian economy. Have banks stopped lending, thereby causing a disruption in demand? Is the current slowdown structural or cyclical? And what are the reasons for the current demand slowdown?
First, he writes, that “the slowdown in bank credit, if any, is primarily the result of credit to industry, that first declined in FY17, barely managed a positive number in FY18, but has somehow picked up pace in FY19”. Bank credit, thus, can’t be blamed for the current demand disruption, he writes.
Then he argues that the current slowdown is a combination of both structural and cyclical reasons. He suggests that the most important structural factor that is impacting demand is the slow growth of urban and rural wages. Among the cyclical factors, he notes that “private investment is currently a significant laggard in total investment”.
Another Game of Dice
Anup Sinha | Former Economics professor at IIM Calcutta
The Telegraph
Sinha writes that while India’s attention has been on Kashmir, there a “gloom quietly descending” on India’s economy. The government has expressed no urgency in regards to this, with the PM promising projection of a five-trillion-dollar economy in the near future. Sinha lists three urgent short-term problems.
First is crisis in the agrarian sector. As the share of agriculture, forestry and fishing in the GDP continue to fall, there are far too many people in the agrarian workforce, but few alternatives for people who want to migrate out of the sector. Second, animal spirits are low and confidence of private investors needs to be restored. The finance ministry should note that “fiscal profligacy” is comparatively better than austerity, the RBI’s lowering rates of interest and cost of borrowing is not the solution. Third, negligence of education and health sectors remain to be a big problem.
The government must prepare for future problems, namely the economy’s lack of preparation to manage future technologies and “the volatility of global financial flows” as there is no international regulator. Climate change is also a big cause of concern and we need to move to a low carbon economy.
Decarbonise the Economy
Vinod Thomas | The writer is visiting professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
The Economic Times
Vinod Thomas discusses the negative impact that climate change is having on the world right now. He writes that the Kerala floods of 2018 took nearly 500 lives and the ever-increasing global warming poses an existential threat to India’s coastlines. He writes that it is thus important to invest in climate adaptation and cites examples of Japan, Netherlands and Singapore which have led the way in building defences against rising sea levels. He writes how it is important that India also increases its spending on disaster management.
He also says that all these adaptive measures, however, should be accompanied by steps to mitigate climate change. He suggests that the world should reduce its dependency on coal-based power plants. He concludes by saying that “to avert a full-blown catastrophe, economies, especially China, the US and India, need to decarbonise radically by switching from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources”.
A stimulus is needed but does the auto sector deserve one?
R. Jagannathan | Editorial director, ‘Swarajya’ magazine
Mint
R Jagannathan makes a case against giving tax cuts to the auto sector. First, he writes that once a tax benefit is given to any particular sector, it is difficult to take it back even when conditions in that sector improve. He cites the example of indirect tax cuts which were given to the auto sector in 2008 and could only be removed in 2014. Second, he says that success of India’s auto sector was a result of some of the country’s public policy failures – underinvestment in public transport and spatially spread out urbanisation. He writes that India, which is yet to become a middle income country, is overdependent on cars and motorbikes and more tax breaks will make our urban areas congested and unliveable.
He encapsulates the problem of giving tax break to one sector as follows: “You can’t boost one sector and not hurt another if you want to maintain tax revenues, and you can’t let the fiscal deficit slip so badly that it impacts the cost of money for everybody”.
Thus, he recommends that any tax incentive should be across the board and given to all sectors.
The popularity and regulation of competitive eSports
Rahul Matthan | Partner at Trilegal and author of ‘Privacy 3.0: Unlocking Our Data Driven Future’
Mint
Rahul Matthan discusses the globally emerging eSports industry and argues that it should have a central governing organisation and a regulatory structure. He provides details of the huge amounts of prize money which is on offer in eSports tournaments and the high viewership they command.
He writes that most of the players who participate in these tournaments are very young and their parents also have very limited idea about eSports. Further, this industry has also now started to face problems related to betting and match-fixing. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is also becoming a problem. Because of all these factors, a central governing organisation becomes important.
He mentions that even though the craze of eSports is yet to pick up pace in India, it’s just a matter of time. Thus, India should have a regulatory structure in place for it.