28th June 2022 – The Hindu Newspaper Analysis - SAMUNDRAGYAAN EDUCATION FOUNDATION

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28th June 2022 – The Hindu Newspaper Analysis

Page 1: ‘India’s gig workforce to reach 2.35 crore. by 2030’

The Centre’s policy think tank NITI Aayog has recommended steps to provide social security, including paid leave, occupational disease and accident insurance, support during irregularity of work and pension plans for the country’s gig workforce, which is expected to grow to 2.35 crore by 2029-30.

India requires a framework that balances the flexibility offered by platforms while also ensuring social security of workers. The consequent platformisation of work has given rise to a new classification of labour — platform labour — falling outside of the purview of the traditional dichotomy of formal and informal labour.

The report broadly classifies gig workers into platform and non platform-based workers. While platform workers are those whose work is based on online software applications or digital platforms, non-platform gig workers are generally casual wage workers and own-account workers in the conventional sectors, working part time or full time.

The report noted that at present, about 47% of gig work is in medium-skilled jobs, about 22% in high-skilled, and about 31% in low-skilled jobs, and the trend shows the concentration of workers in medium- skilled jobs is declining and that of the low skilled and high-skilled is increasing.

By 2029-30, gig workers are expected to form 6.7% of the non agricultural workforce or 4.1% of the total livelihood workforce in India.

The think tank has also recommended introducing a ‘Platform India initiative’ on the lines of the ‘Startup India initiative’.

Note :- Talaq-e-Hasan is a form of ‘triple talaq’ by which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by pronouncing ‘talaq’ at three separate intervals — the gap being least one month or one menstrual cycle. Bigamous marriage has been made punishable among Christians by Christian Marriage Act, 1872, amongst Parsis by Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, and amongst Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains by Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

Page 6: States, freebies and the costs of fiscal profligacy

Ideally, governments should use borrowed money to invest in physical and social infrastructure that will generate higher growth, and thereby higher revenues in the future so that the debt pays for itself. On the other hand, if governments spend the loan money on populist giveaways that generate no additional revenue, the growing debt burden will eventually implode and end in tears.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had in fact pointed out that in respect of some States ‘if extra-budgetary borrowings are taken into account, the liabilities of the government are way above what is acknowledged in the official books’.

The obvious motivation for States in expanding freebies is to use the exchequer to build vote banks. A certain amount of spending on transfer payments to provide safety nets to the most vulnerable segments of the population is not only desirable but even necessary.

The problem arises when such transfer payments become the main plank of discretionary expenditure, the spending is financed by debt, and the debt is concealed to circumvent the FRBM targets.

The more States spend on transfer payments, the less they have for spending on physical infrastructure such as, for example, power and roads, and on social infrastructure such as education and health, which can potentially improve growth and generate jobs.

In theory, the first line of defence has to be the legislature, in particular the Opposition, whose responsibility it is to keep the Government in line. But given the perils of our vigorous democracy, the Opposition does not dare speak up for fear of forfeiting vote banks that are at the end of these freebies.

Another constitutional check is the CAG audit which should enforce transparency and accountability. In practice, it has lost its teeth since audit reports necessarily come with a lag, by when political interest has typically shifted to other hot button issues.

The amount States borrow collectively every year is comparable in size to the Centre’s borrowing which implies that their fiscal stance has as much impact on our macroeconomic stability as does that of the Centre.

FRBM Acts of the Centre as well as States need to be amended to enforce a more complete disclosure of the liabilities on their exchequers. Even under the current FRBM provisions, governments are mandated to disclose their contingent liabilities, but that disclosure is restricted to liabilities for which they have extended an explicit guarantee. The provision should be expanded to cover all liabilities whose servicing obligation falls on the Budget, or could potentially fall on the Budget, regardless of any guarantee.

Under the Constitution, States are required to take the Centre’s permission when they borrow. The Centre should not hesitate to impose conditionalities on wayward States when it accords such a permission.

Constitution of India which allows the President to declare financial emergency in any State if s/he is satisfied that financial stability is threatened. This Brahmastra has never been invoked so far for fear that this will turn into a political weapon of mass destruction. But the provision is there in the Constitution for a reason.

Page 7: From higher to hire education

University Grants Commission has relaxed the norms and standards for setting up open universities. In particular, land requirement has been reduced from 40 acres to just five acres. This is likely to open the floodgates for private open universities.

Simultaneously, more universities are being enabled to offer courses in the distance, open and online mode, mostly in collaboration with EdTech startups and unicorns.

Higher education is now getting delivered by for-profit entities, in contravention of the long-held belief that education at all levels must be provided on a not-for-profit basis.

The idea of providing higher educational opportunities in a non formal mode is not new. Most mainstream universities in India have been allowing students, particularly women and working people, to learn on their own and take university exams as private candidates. Many have performed quite well.

Information Communication and Entertainment technologies, augmented and virtual realities, artificial intelligence and machine learning are being touted as technologies with immense possibilities for transforming the delivery of education.

Two years of COVID-19-compelled online education seems to have convinced them that in future, education, particularly higher education, will transform into a virtual space.

No wonder even the strongest proponents of online and virtual education feel that such programmes be subjected to stricter oversight, tighter regulations, and rigorous processes to ensure high standards and robust quality control.

Given the fact that the quality of higher education is inversely proportional to the intensity of regulation, designing and developing an efficient and effective regulatory mechanism often proves more challenging than imagined.

The open and distance mode of learning, including the latest model based on digital and virtual delivery, often finds favour with the government due to cost considerations. It is, however, wrong to assume that these are economical and cost-effective. To be effective, they not only require massive capital investment in infrastructure, but also demand a significantly higher recurring expenses on content development and their continuous updating and upgradation.

Digital delivery and technology integration in education may undoubtedly serve a useful purpose. Technology can be effectively leveraged as a quality-enhancement tool. It would, however, be a blunder to regard technology-mediated teaching learning as an alternative to face-to-face education. Technology can supplement and not substitute teachers.

No world-class universities, including those with a high degree of technology integration in their teaching and learning processes, are planning to cut down their faculty cost or their number any time soon. On the contrary, they envision hiring more of them to attain greater excellence.

Page 7: Modi’s two summits: UAE trumps G7

India is a ‘special invitee’ at the 48th G7 Summit at Schloss Elmou in Germany.

If the U.S. is exempted, no G7 country comes close to the UAE as India’s trading partner, exports market, Indian diaspora base and their inward remittances. Foreign Direct Investment data, the UAE invested more in India in 2021 than Germany and France combined.

Unlike the UAE, none of the G7 countries has yet signed a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India. Their bilateral trade grew by 68% in 2021-22, growing to a new record.

As the UAE collects petrodollars, India, the world’s fastest growing major economy, could be a lucrative market for investments in areas such as petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, renewables, infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, start-ups, etc.

The two sides can collaborate for the eventual reconstruction of the war-ravaged regional countries such as Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. In the bilateral political domain, the two sides have cooperated efficiently on security and anti terrorism, but they need to do more to fight money laundering and the flow of illicit narcotics.

India, the UAE’s second-largest trading partner, and largest source of tourists and manpower, can be a useful ally.

Note :- Today, a huge market for clean energy technologies is emerging in India. G7 countries can invest in research, innovation, and manufacturing in this field. The scale that India can provide for every new technology can make that technology affordable for the whole world

Page 9: When defection is a mere detour for an MLA

The most prominent case of political defection was that of Haryana’s Gaya Lal, originally an independent MLA who, in 1967, juggled between the Congress and Janata Party for two weeks. The recurrence of this phenomenon led to the 1985 Anti Defection Law.

The Anti-Defection Law provided a safeguard for defections made on genuine ideological differences. It accepted “split” within a party if at least one-third of the members of the legislative party defect, and allowed the formation of a new party or “merger” with other political party if not less than two-thirds of the party’s members commit to it. The 91st Constitutional Amendment introduced in 2003 deleted the provision allowing split. ∙ The Karnataka byelection results have widely put to display the ineffectiveness of the Anti-Defection Law.

Legislation empowers the presiding officer of the House (i.e. the Speaker) to decide on complaints of defection under no time constraint. The law originally protected the Speaker’s decision from judicial review. However, this safeguard was struck down in Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu and Others (1992). While the SC upheld the Speaker’s discretionary power, it underscored that the Speaker functioned as a tribunal under the anti-defection law, thereby making her/his decisions subject to judicial review. This judgment enabled judiciary to become the watchdog of the anti defection law, instead of the Speaker, who increasingly had become a political character contrary to the expected neutral constitutional role.

The 91st Amendment also barred the appointment of defectors as Ministers until their disqualification period is over or they are re elected, whichever is earlier. But, obviously, such laws have not put to rest the trend of defections.

Defection can only be stopped by extending the disqualification period from re-contesting and appointment to Chairmanships/Ministries to at least six years. The minimum period limit of six years is needed to ensure that the defectors are not allowed to enter the election fray for least one election cycle, which is five years.

Page 12: World Bank approves $250-mn loan to boost India’s road safety

The World Bank has approved a $250 million loan to support the Government of India’s road safety programme for seven States under which a single accident reporting number will be set up to better manage post-crash events.

The India State Support Programme for Road Safety, financed by the World Bank, will be implemented in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

The project will also establish a national harmonised crash database system in order to analyse accidents and use that to construct better and safer roads. The project will also provide incentives to States to leverage private funding through public private partnership (PPP) concessions and pilot initiatives.

Page 12: India, EU resume FTA negotiations

India and the European Union (EU) resumed negotiations, after a gap of over eight years, for a comprehensive free trade agreement, a move aimed at strengthening economic ties between the two regions.

India had started negotiations for a trade pact with the EU in 2007, but the talks stalled in 2013 as both sides failed to reach an agreement on key issues.

Page 12: Sikar in Rajasthan tops school grading index at district level

Ministry of Education’s Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) for 2019 has been released.

It studied 83 indicators grouped in six categories. These categories are outcomes, effective classroom transaction, infrastructure facilities and student’s entitlements, school safety and child protection, digital learning and governance process.

The PGI-D grades the districts into 10 grades with the highest achievable grade being ‘Daksh’, which is for districts scoring more than 90% of the total points in that category or overall.

‘Utkarsh’ category is for districts with score between 81-90%, followed by ‘Ati-Uttam’ (71-80%), ‘Uttam’ (61-70%), ‘Prachesta-I’ (51-60%), ‘Prachesta-II’ (41-50%) and ‘Pracheshta III’ (31-40%).

The lowest grade in PGI-D is called ‘Akanshi-3’ which is for scores up to 10% of the total points.

There are 12 States and Union Territories which do not have even a single district in the ‘Ati-uttam’ and ‘Uttam’ categories and these include seven of the eight States from the North East region.

Page 14: NATO to raise response force from 40,000 to 3 lakh troops

NATO will increase the strength of its rapid reaction force nearly eightfold to 3,00,000 troops as part of its response to an “era of strategic competition.

In NATO’s new strategic concept, the alliance is also expected to address for the first time the security challenges posed by China.

Page 14: G7 vows support for Kyiv ‘as long as it takes’

The Group of Seven most industrialised countries vowed enduring support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

Team ULF