Not in the spirit of the Constitution
Tahir Mahmood, distinguished jurist chair and professor of eminence, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity University
The Indian Express
A Supreme Court bench recently made two remarks with regard to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) — there have been no attempts to frame a UCC that’s applicable to all, and that the state of Goa is exemplary in how the UCC has been applied. This is “inconsistent with the letter and spirit of Article 44”, writes Mahmood.
Goa and Daman & Diu’s 152-year-old Portuguese civil code is not applied uniformly. When Goa assimilated with India and was made a state in 1987, the 19th-century Portuguese legal code was not thrown out. What is the point of retaining an “archaic law of foreign origin” 58 years later, asks Mahmood. The court glorified the code, but Goa and Daman & Diu’s majority communities along with their Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs deserve to have modern family laws like the rest of India.
The Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act repealed local family laws and replaced them with central laws, and the same should be done with Goa, Daman and Diu, and even Pondicherry. The judiciary must play a “proper role” in achieving the constitutional goal of a UCC.
What Puranic historians won’t accept
Devdutt Pattanaik, writes and lectures on mythology in modern times
The Hindu
A recent study says there is no evidence of Steppe genes existing in Harappa, leading to claims that Harappa was “100% Indian”. Puranic historians extend this belief about lack of foreign influence to the Vedas as well, writes Pattanaik.
Puranic historians date the Vedas to 7000 BCE (9,000 years ago), and the events of the Ramayana and Mahabharata to 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, respectively.
But according to archaeologists, the domesticated horse can be traced to 5,000 years ago in Eurasia, and the spoke-wheel chariot to 4,000 years ago in the same region. This means the “oldest horse-drawn spoke-wheel war chariot” in the world was actually younger than the Harappan civilisation. How then could the Vedas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have had knowledge about horse-drawn spoke-wheel war chariots, Pattanaik asks.
So, why is Trump courting Modi?
Seema Sirohi, author
The Economic Times
Sirohi writes that US President Donald Trump’s plans to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Houston rally, and a bilateral meeting with him in New York, should concern China and Pakistan.
Trump could be supporting Modi in order to win over Indian-Americans, who are traditionally Democrats. But Sirohi points out that US wants India by its side as it doesn’t want China to gain more control around the Arabian Sea.
Pakistan’s military intelligence should reconsider plans to “disrupt Modi’s rally”, she argues. India and the US are also set to announce a trade deal if all goes well.
Trump’s polarising presence at “Howdy Modi!” will be a “PR bonanza”, as it comes right after New Delhi’s move in Kashmir. Trump’s presence at the rally has concerned many Democrats, leaving them with the question of whether they should “anger the base, or please an Indian-American donor”. BJP’s “best friend” Tulsi Gabbard has already backed out. US lawmakers and their staffers are also confounded with thousands of protest emails against Modi’s Houston rally, with no way of knowing whether they are from Kashmiris or Pakistani-Americans pretending to be Kashmiris.
Austerity for Growth
Duvvuri Subbarao | Former RBI governor
The Indian Express
In a letter addressed to the Finance Minister, Subbarao advises Nirmala Sitharaman against a fiscal stimulus to tackle the economic slowdown since there is no “fiscal space for it”. He argues that the actual fiscal deficit is much larger than what is being revealed and “it is irrational to not admit the true fiscal deficit”. The numbers are not fooling anyone, least of all potential investors.
There is very little hope that that this year’s budgeted fiscal deficit will be met and even the tax growth projected is unrealistic, Subbarao writes. He also calls for a need to focus on revenue deficit, and notes that “public borrowing to meet current expenditures is never sustainable”. In such a scenario, he argues, a fiscal stimulus will be extremely harmful to the economy.
He debunks three key arguments of fiscal stimulus supporters — according to him, the idea that the “egregious impact of fiscal excess” such as high inflation and high interest is manageable is a misnomer, the idea that India’s debt-to-GDP ratio is low compared to its peers is not supported by data, and that cyclical fiscal adjustment is a good theory but will not work in our economy.
The spectre of Malthus
T.V. Mohandas Pai | Chairman, Aarin Capital
Nisha Holla | Technology Fellow, C-CAMP
The Financial Express
Pai and Holla write on the changing global demography and how India might soon lose the demographic dividend advantage. With global population growth down to 1.1 per cent from 2 per cent in 1970, “On average, the population is ageing.”
This is especially true for the developed countries, with fertility rates reducing dramatically in Russia, Europe and the US. China, too, is facing the problem of “a shrinking workforce, and an ageing population”.
According to Pai and Holla, India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) decreased from 3.39 in 1990-92 to 2.18 in 2013-15. Since India is already below the “average global replacement rate of 2.3”, it is projected that the TFR will fall below 2 in 2019.
Pai and Holla also argue that since the decadal growth is projected to fall steeply this decade, “India’s population is ageing” without a doubt. They suggest that India’s population growth might stabilise soon and, as a consequence, “we are soon going to have a large ageing population, supported by a gradually-shrinking workforce”. They call for greater attention to areas of the economy that will be affected imminently – “from staffing primary schools and teacher training, to improving workforce productivity and instituting special programmes for the 60+ age groups”.
The PMO needs more power to achieve a $5 trillion economy
R. Jagannathan | Editorial director, Swarajya
Mint
Jagannathan makes a case for a stronger Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), chief minister’s office (CMOs) and mayoral offices (MOs) if India is to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024. The current PMO, a “triumvirate which rules the country under Modi”, has been able to “get big things done” due to a concentration of power and accountability.
The IAS “exists for itself” and only works to protect its power, which is why projects that are not “guided from the top” either fail or become irrelevant, writes Jagannathan. Ministries also often perform poorly because “rival departments do not fully buy into the idea”. Take the Defence Ministry’s research and development branch, he says, which “lacks the clout to get things done”.
The PMO, however, forces departments to work together. A few examples are Vajpayee’s Golden Quadrilateral project headed by MoS Maj. Gen. B.C. Khanduri and Narasimha Rao’s “big-ticket economic reforms” propelled by sharp bureaucrats like A.N. Verma.
Our economy needs a systems thinking-based solution
Arun Maira | Member of the erstwhile Planning Commission
Mint
Maira calls for a holistic policy process to revive and sustain economic growth. In his piece, which is peppered with medical metaphors on how to improve the economy’s “health”, he demystifies the idea that more free trade will solve the economic slowdown. Free trade across the board will be like performing surgery on the Indian economy with a “blunt instrument”, he writes, and can jeopardise sectors that are not strong enough. Therefore, any trade policy must be supported by an industry policy and any trade agreement that India enters must entail job creation and increased exports, writes Maira.
So far, solutions to the slowdown have been “stalled by ideological differences”. Industry policy should, therefore, include diverse expertise and “listen to people on the ground”, he suggests. It should be driven by “systems thinking”, which is to see connections between various parts of a whole and understand how they all work to maintain the whole, explains Maira. “Knee-jerk solutions” in response to the demands of lobbyists are not a viable option.