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Pratap Mehta on govt obsession with big bang reforms, Brinda Karat on India’s rape reality

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The real big bang reform 

Pratap Bhanu Mehta | Contributing editor
The Indian Express

Mehta claims that the “concern expressed by the GST Council” should “remind us of just how deep a hole the Indian economy has dug itself into”. He lists three reasons explaining why the central government “reneging on its financial commitments to the states is a terrible idea”.

First, the government’s “credibility on economic promises has been severely battered”. Further, “if the fiscal contract with the states is also no longer considered sacrosanct, then all credibility bets are off”. Second, “if the state finances suffer unexpected shortfalls, the impact on frontline delivery of services and growth will be severe”. 

Third, “in light of centralisation of power in our system that GST has produced, expect even the fig leaf of cooperative federalism to turn quickly into federal anarchy”. 

Mehta argues that this crisis “underscores the unreality of our reform discourse”. Even after suffering “two big bang reform shocks” like demonetisation and GST, India is still obsessed with “big bang reform”. He explains that “most of what passes off as big bang reform will do very little to revive”. The state “should focus on how” the economy can be made competitive, writes Mehta.

He maintains that the “real problem is not the absence of big bang reform” rather it is the “misdiagnosis over what our priorities should be and where scarce governance needs to be deployed”.

The draft seeds bill favours the industry over farmers 

Suman Sahai | Founder chairperson of the Gene Campaign
Hindustan Times

Sahai states that “there is a draft seeds bill awaiting Parliament, which seeks to replace the old Seed Act of 1966”. She argues that a “law regulating seed production and trade is needed to ensure that farmers are protected against spurious seeds, and that seed producers are obliged to put only seeds of good and reliable quality on the market”. 

The “current draft bill leans towards the interests of the seed industry rather than the farmer”. The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer Rights Act (PPVFRA) protects farmers’ interests and this bill “aims to neutralise many enabling measures granted in the PPVFRA”. 

In conclusion, Sahai maintains that the “current bill bears the imprint of the seed industry, which never masks its displeasure at the enabling provisions granted to farmers in the PPVFRA, in recognition of their enormous contributions as breeders and conservers of genetic diversity”. Further, the government “cannot possibly allow the passage of a bill that strikes at the very roots of farmer survival”, she argues.

Rape, impunity and state of denial

Brinda Karat | CPI(M) Politburo member
The Hindu

Karat writes that “the week of dreadful sexual crimes brings home the reality that there is a national emergency in India as far as” sexual crimes against women are concerned. However, “the government is in a state of denial” and the annual “National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB)” reports have been suppressed.

The 2017 report was postponed and released in 2019. On an average, “93 women were victims of rape every day”, out of which one-third were minors.

She writes that these figures “reflect only a small percentage of the crimes against women” as “most cases go unreported”. The present government “prefers to suppress or to rubbish statistics that reveal its failures”. It has “deliberately turned attention to the issue of extent of punishment, instead of focusing on the urgent steps required for the prevention of such crimes”.

The NCRB reports reveal that the backlog of cases is huge. For “all crimes against women, the pendency of cases is as high as 89.6%”. This “utter failure to reform the justice system and ensure conviction leads to an increase in the impunity with which crimes against women are committed”, she says.

Further, Karat argues that “under the present regime, retrogressive approaches to women’s rights have become more prominent”. One way forward is “through public action for social change and enforcement of a code of accountability”.

Forget the icon, focus on the issue

Somasekhar Sundaresan | Advocate and independent counsel
Business Standard 

Sundaresan urges policymakers and the press to discuss issues “without being distracted by who raised them and in what forum”.

The latest example is industrialist Rahul Bajaj’s complaint about the climate of fear in corporate India.

He describes this climate where bank employees see their former colleagues being arrested for lending decisions, those in financial services sector feeling reluctant to take decisions and borrowers feel anxious under “liquidity crunch[es]”. Is the general slowdown in economic activity synonymous with recession, he asks. The government needs to “instill greater confidence in banks and financial institutions to loosen their purse strings” so that a recession can be avoided, he writes.

Sundaresan briefly raises the issue of manipulated government data. He calls out a certain “commentator” who argued in favour of this. The commentator “who also writes in these pages”, recently said “every party in power has a right to manipulate statistics to keep a semblance of normalcy around”.  

Beating the challenges to the job market 

Suchita Dutta | Executive Director, Indian Staffing Federation
Financial Express 

As India slips into a recession with an employment shortfall, it is important to note that not all job-creating sectors have been hit, explains Dutta. This means that India needs to focus on training “well-groomed, easily accessible, economical and future-proof talent who can survive the slowdown”, she adds.

Hiring has reduced in sectors like automobiles but “e-commerce and food tech have seen a spike or a continued demand for new hires”, she says. To maintain this, employers need to “deliver the right messaging to their employees”, reorient business strategies to combat the slowdown, writes Dutta. Through “organised flex-staffing”, employees should be skilled or retrained so that they are aware of changing economic trends and technologies, she adds. The government should issue “national licences and a single universal enterprise number” to such staffing companies.

Dutta also recommends the government rectify wages and re-evaluate the minimum wage code in order to “spur demand and savings”.

Karvy’s clients have a legitimate right to their shares 

Jagvir Singh | Founding partner, Jupiter Law Partners
Mint

The Karvy “saga” is an example of grave misdemeanour by a “disingenuous custodian”, writes Singh.

Karvy, the brokerage, was meant to “keep the fully-paid-for securities of its clients in separate beneficiary accounts” but instead “expose[d] thousands of hapless and unsuspecting investors” to lose their hard-earned savings. Not only is it “deceitful”, but such actions are “prima facie illegal”, violate the SEBI Act and can “merit criminal investigation and prosecution”, he writes.

Karvy’s lenders should have also been more cautious and “conducted appropriate due diligence on the ownership of the pledged securities”, explains Singh. Before lending to a company who deals with securities “on behalf” of several retail investors, “banks ought to … ensure that the collateral they are accepting is actually owned by the pledgor”, he writes.

In the case of investors getting securities safely in their accounts, lenders can take civil and criminal action against dishonest borrowers. They can even resort to opening up insolvency proceedings, adds Singh.

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