Innholdsfortegnelse for September 23, 2019 i India Today

The enduring mystery of the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) just became a little less mysterious last week. Or did it? The carefully coordinated near-simultaneous release of two long-awaited papers, analysing the DNA of ancient Harappans (and others), offers complex answers to the questions of who these people were, where they came from, what became of them and how they relate to the citizens of India today (NRC-certified or not). Despite the admirable clarity of both papers, it was only a matter of hours before they were being bowdlerised in the media and, of course, social media to suggest diametrically opposed conclusions. But history, they say, repeats itself. In this case, the contradictory narratives surrounding the two research papers in question had already been extensively aired. Recent years have witnessed a…

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has held a series of press briefings lately to announce measures to bring relief to the economy. The conferences have a secondary aim—to dispel the widespread notion in industry that the Prime Minister’s Office calls the shots in her ministry. That’s not quite true, we’re led to believe. The PMO was apparently not in the loop about the enhanced surcharge on foreign portfolio investors announced in the budget. Even after the finance minister announced the withdrawal of the additional surcharge on August 24, FPIs continued to withdraw money. Around Rs 1,000 crore had been pulled out by September 5. Under Sitharaman, the finance ministry also leans less on the PMO-favourite NITI Aayog than it did under her predecessor Arun Jaitley.…

Rahimbigha, nestled in the foothills of Khakhaunda Pa-had in Bihar, is a picturesque and mostly peaceful village in the Nawada district of Bihar. Especially when compared to its Maoism-hit cousin across the mountains, Koderma in Jharkhand. But every day, the women of this largely Dalit hamlet have to make a serpentine pilgrimage across its barren landscape. They are on their way to collect water from an abandoned stone quarry as the hand-pump the government installed in their village has run dry. This is because the water table has sunk dramatically after a poor monsoon. “Our women have to trek twice a day for water. It takes them an hour,” says Vijay Rajwar, a member of the village panchayat samiti. And in a twist of irony, some 225 kilometres away, in…

There was plenty riding on Vikram, India’s squat moon lander, before its precision landing on the lunar surface on September 7 went mysteriously awry. There was Pragyan, the compact rover with Ashoka emblems embossed on its wheels, to leave a permanent footprint of India’s presence on the moon. If the lander, which was named after the father of the country’s space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, had succeeded, it would have been a fitting finale to the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It would also have signalled to the world that India had come of age in space exploration and made the country only the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon after the US, the erstwhile USSR and China. Coincidentally, it would also…

The Journey So Far The government has announced the mergers of several public sector banks (PSBs), reducing the total number from 27 to 12 over the next few years. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the merger of ten PSBs into four entities, which would strengthen balance sheets and allow banks to take bold lending decisions. The government has also announced an upfront capital infusion of Rs 55,520 crore for PSBs to ease stressed balance sheets Governance reforms include the appointment of chief risk officers for PSBs and better succession planning for senior executive positions—as well as allowing boards more flexibility in decision-making for better functioning The government has announced a scheme to implement its budget announcement of a one-time partial credit guarantee of Rs 1 lakh crore for PSBs to…

The Journey So Far The Narendra Singh Tomar-led ministry of rural development (MoRD) aimed to complete 1 million natural resource management (NRM) or water conservation projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in its first 100 days. As of August 30, 661,003 NRMs had been completed. Under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), nearly 211,000 works in 1,146 selected rural blocks are to be completed. As of August 30, 157,688 had been finished. After Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) I and II , PMGSY-III guidelines are being finalised, with the objective of constructing 125,000 km of rural roads With women’s self-help groups (SHGs) becoming the new model for women’s entrepreneurship and female empowerment in rural areas, the MoRD has been focusing on converting nano enterprises run by…

The Journey So Far The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019, criminalising triple talaq, passed The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act, 2019, passed, with amendments, including death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children and stringent punishments for other crimes against minors Merged four codes—on wages; industrial relations; social security and occupational safety; health and working conditions—into Code on Wages, 2019, to simplify, rationalise and amalgamate various labour laws. Critics, however, claim the act is biased in favour of employers. Passed Consumer Protection Bill, 2019, which proposes, among other things, the setting up of a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class Is It Enough? Though the allocation for social welfare improved from Rs…

The adulation is manifest. As the grizzled chief minister leans out of his election campaign rath and chants his trademark “Haryana ek, Haryanvi ek (One Haryana for all Haryanvis)” line, hundreds jostle to shake hands with him. The so-called rath is in fact a massive outfitted bus equipped with a lift that takes him to the top to address bigger crowds. The 15-day, 3,000 km Jan Ashirwad yatra of Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, which wound through the state’s 90 assembly constituencies, will surely leave a lasting impression. With Haryana going to the polls in October, Khattar had launched the yatra to showcase his achievements and seek the blessings of the people—hence jan ashirwad. Khattar’s image change, from an honest but weak administrator to his current dominant position, took…

The release of Parikrama’s ‘Tears of the Wizard’ last month didn’t just mark their first official music video since ‘But It Rained’ in 2001, it heralded a drastic change in the mindset of the veteran Delhi-based classic rock group that had steadfastly maintained its policy of not recording their songs and letting fans freely download and distribute live versions of the tracks on the internet. Those fans can now expect a series of single releases, a few videos and even an album in the near future, says keyboardist Subir Malik, who, along with vocalist Nitin Malik and guitarist Sonam Sherpa, is one of the three founding members of the six-piece, which was formed in 1991 and currently includes guitarist Saurabh Chaudhry, bassist Gaurav Balani and drummer Srijan Mahajan. The decision,…

When you are desperate for success, here’s what you don’t do: find yourself a leader known for originality and ethics, at the cost of success. Leeds United Football Club (LUFC) did exactly that in 2018. It recruited a new manager, an Argentine called Marcelo Bielsa. Now, a docu-series on the LUFC, Take Us Home: Leeds United, on Amazon Prime, follows the club’s first season under Bielsa. Called ‘El Loco’, the mad one, Bielsa’s high-energy approach to football—relentless running and pressing the opposition players—has inspired the most successful coaches today. Nobody has had a greater influence on modern football and its entertaining pace. But Bielsa has hardly won any major trophies. He is famous for a thrilling start at new clubs, transforming the players dramatically; it almost always peters out at…

A recent response to an RTI request revealed that public sector banks, in the first quarter of this financial year alone, lost nearly Rs 32,000 crore through 3,000 cases of fraud. This, after a record-breaking Rs 71,500 crore worth of fraud was reported in FY19. The finance ministry has claimed to be turning around the situation with non-performing assets, and announced unprecedented rates of loan recovery. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, earlier this month, announced the mergers of several state-owned banks in a bid to create larger, stronger, more stable banks. But, in a sluggish economy, with the slowest growth in six years, the mergers may dampen credit activity and get in the way of an economic revival. We’ll also have to wait and see if larger banks have better mechanisms…

B.S. Yediyurappa, the new Karnataka chief minister, took over to helm a BJP government on July 26 after the fall of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition. With a thin majority to defend, a flood crisis in the state and thee deputy CMs crowding his turf, his task is by no means easy. The fourth-time chief minister talks to Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa about his plans. Excerpts: Q. With just 105 seats (in a 225 strong house; 17 opposition MLAs who crossed over have been disqualified), you are left with a wafer-thin majority. Aren’t you worried about the government’s survival? Not at all. The opposition Congress-JD(S) coalition will not last. I don’t think there will be any problem for us in the remaining 3.5 years of this assembly. Q. Are…

ROUGH BRAKING Vikram uses the brute force of four of its five engines to brake its velocity down to around 145m/s and bring its height to 7.4 km. This phase goes on for 10 minutes 20 seconds AUTONOMOUS POWERED DESCENT PHASE BEGINS Vikram is at a height of 30 km and travelling at 1,683 m/s when the descent phase begins. It is about 648 km away from its planned landing site ABSOLUTE NAVIGATION P PHASE In this phase, Vikram’s control system corrects any errors in calculation of key navigation parameters such as height and velocity; but at the end of rough braking, its horizontal velocity is much higher than planned TRANSITION TO FINE BRAKING PHASE Anomalies are noticed in the transition from the absolute navigation phase and the fine…

The Journey So Far The commerce ministry has circulated a cabinet note to phase out the Merchandise Exports from India scheme. It will be replaced by one more compatible with World Trade Organization rules. The government has raised customs duties on several items by 2.5-10 percentage points. These items together accounted for an import bill of Rs 86,000 crore in FY 2018. This is expected to rein in the current account deficit and boost the rupee. The SEZ Amendment Bill allows any entity to set up a unit in special economic zones. This is expected to boost exports. Is It Enough? Whether one considers the increase in import duties or the lack of proactive measures to take advantage of the US-China trade war, the lack of policy coherence (and structural…

The Journey So Far To realise the goal of ‘Housing for All’ and increase the supply of affordable homes, developers of such projects have been given a tax holiday on profits. For consumers, interest payments up to Rs 2 lakh on housing loans for self-occupied properties are allowed as tax deductions under Section 24B of the Income Tax Act. In her July budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman allowed a further deduction of up to Rs 1,50,000 on interest paid on loans taken up to March 31, 2020, for houses valued up to Rs 45 lakh. In all, those purchasing affordable homes are eligible for deductions up to Rs 3.5 lakh. On August 23, Sitharaman announced a financial package aimed at improving market sentiment, boosting demand and making credit more freely…

The Journey So Far The PM-Kisan scheme (Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support) has been extended to cover all farmers. By August 29, three instalments had been released: the first instalment covered 62.9 million beneficiary farmers, second 36.3 million and third 721,982 The agriculture ministry has secured approval for a scheme to create 10,000 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) A proposal for the revamp of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has been forwarded to the states (since agriculture is a state subject) Enrolments for the pension scheme for small/ marginal farmers started. By August 30, 536,637 were enlisted. Is It Enough? According to a NITI Aayog paper, in real terms, farmers’ incomes grew at just 0.44 per cent per year between 2011 and 2016. Consider the snail-like progress…

The Journey So Far The K. Kasturirangan committee has submitted the Draft National Education Policy, 2019. The new education policy could come in November. Five public universities have been given the ‘Institution of Eminence (IoE)’ tag; five private varsities have received letters of intent for the same. In all, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended IoE status for 15 public and private institutions, respectively. The HRD ministry has launched the National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancements (NISHTHA) programme with the aim of training over 4.2 million teachers across the country The Shagun portal will integrate over 230,000 educational websites, including those of 1,200 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 600 Navodaya Vidyalayas, 18,000 other Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-affiliated schools, 30 State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs)…

The Journey So Far The National Medical Commission Bill, 2019, has been passed by both houses of Parliament, heralding a new era in medical education The ministry of health and family welfare, through a notification, has put in the public domain the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, and the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012, adopted by 11 states and six Union territories, to help check issues of over-billing and medical negligence The Healthcare Service Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019, has been drafted. It proposes to make acts of violence against healthcare professionals a cognisable and non-bailable offence. It also seeks to provide compensation for injuries to healthcare personnel (nurses, midwives, doctors, medical students, ambulance drivers and helpers) and for…

SPAIN www.campusspain.es The 2019 QS World University Rankings has seven Spanish universities in its Top 50 under 50, with three in the Top 10 Global MBA rankingsinEurope. Spain is now a major destination for international students. One concern is the language barrier—most subjects at public universities are taught in Spanish—which means students need to be fluent. The comprehensive language, culture and adaptation to university course (LCA) by Campus Spain is specifically designed for this. Spoiled for Choice There are about 50 public and 35 private universities in Spain. Bachelor’s degree programmes are popular with Indians, with postgraduate courses also seeing interest. The most popular undergraduate courses are law, visual arts, design, tourism, filmmaking and engineering. MBA courses are highly favoured by postgraduate students. Gonzalo Martinez, director, Campus Spain, says, “Some…

The constitutional developments of August 5, which revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, effectively demolished the efficacy of the slogan ‘Kashmir banega Pakistan’. Not surprisingly, Pakistan is hitting out wildly, trying to find a suitable narrative and an action plan that can force India to reverse the decision and also assure its own people that the government and the army are doing something about it. Pakistan’s focus has been on diplomacy, peaking at the just-concluded session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), where the Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has led the charge. It will get another boost at the forthcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) later this month. Despite this, imperceptibly, Pakistan is also considering the hard-core terror and military options.…

Q. What is the significance of finding the lander on the moon’s surface? A. There is no significance, we are unable to communicate with it. We have located it, that’s all. Q. What do the photographs from the orbiter show? A. It has not soft landed. All we know is that there is an object on the moon’s surface that was not there when we attempted to land Vikram. We know it’s not a new crater; so, by deduction, we know it is Vikram. We cannot say anything beyond that. Q. Have you determined why communication with Vikram failed? A. The analysis is going on, I can’t say anything more now. Q. Was it a propulsion or control problem? A. We are analysing the data and we are still trying…

The Journey So Far IRCTC is leasing out the Lucknow-Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express trains to private players. Onboard services are being outsourced through an open bidding process; ticketing will stay with the IRCTC. The Indian Railways has identified 25 more routes and will offer 5 per cent of the total 2,800 rakes on lease to private players Infra projects to accelerate the speed of passenger trains (up to 160 kmph) on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah stretches cleared. Projects will be completed by the end of FY 2023. Work on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) between Delhi and Mumbai accelerated and the 1,506 km stretch may be ready by 2020 end. In the DFC connecting Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni in West Bengal, the PPP plan for the 538-km…

The Journey So Far The government merged the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation with the ministry of drinking water and sanitation to form the Jal Shakti ministry, with an aim to integrate resources and provide clean drinking water to all homes A countrywide 3D aquifer mapping project is on to study the layers of water-bearing rocks and assess groundwater levels in the country A feasibility study for the proposed linking of 31 rivers has been started Is It Enough? Supplying clean drinking water to all households is a complex issue as a mere 18 per cent of households have access to piped supply. Sikkim, Goa, Gujarat, Puducherry and Punjab are the only states where over 50 per cent of homes have such access. The Unfinished Agenda…

The Journey So Far Pending nearly for two decades, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally announced the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a single-point military advisor to the government, in his Independence Day speech this year. Ratified by the Cabinet Committee on Security, it has set the stage for India’s biggest post-Independence military reform. The government has decided to corporatise the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) 41 ordnance factories which make everything, from clothing to armoured vehicles, rifles to artillery pieces, for the Indian army. The decision is yet to be formally announced, but the process has already begun. The factories function as attached offices of the Department of Defence Production, which is a part of the MoD. Together, they comprise the world’s largest defence department and operate under…

Q. Before coming to power in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP swore by the slogan ‘Na bhrashtachar, na goonda raj (Neither corruption nor rule of goons)’. Has the Yogi Adityanath government lived up to this call? A. One needs to see our government’s achievements in the light of what we inherited from the Akhilesh [Yadav] regime. We inherited anarchy, chaos, corruption and a culture of murder and loot. The public’s trust stood shattered. The courts had put a stay on [various government] recruitments. There was corruption in recruitments and transfers and postings [of officials]. Nepotism, casteism and communal riots had come to be the state’s identity. After almost two-and-a-half years of BJP rule, we can firmly say that under the guidance of our visionary prime minister, we have changed this perception…

WEAVING A STORY PALAK SHAH, 28 Founder, Ekaya, Delhi Brimming with ideas and a winning attitude, it’s tough to imagine Palak Shah as a timid young girl. But time spent first at boarding school, and then at King’s College London in the UK for her bachelors in business management, and later for an MBA in entrepreneurship at Babson College in the US, shaped her personality and outlook on life. “I travelled alone for the first time to the UK in 2009. During those three years, I learnt to make my own choices” says Shah. Eye on the Future Shah launched Ekaya, a bespoke luxury label helping to preserve Benarasi weaves, in 2012. In 2015, she went to Babson College and it was as a college project that she conceived Ekaya…

GAURAV GILL THINKS THAT, LIKE MANY OTHER COUNTRIES, INDIA SHOULD CONSIDER WAIVING TAX AND DUTY ON MOTORSPORT EQUIPMENT TO GIVE THE SPORT A BOOST HERE For rallyist Gaurav Gill, winning the Arjuna award was a “shocker”. He says he is still overwhelmed. Gill, however, does not seem to measure the impact of this prize in strictly personal terms. His success, he feels, might have a positive outcome for the future of his relatively niche sport: “I believe it will make a difference. I now see a change in the commitment of other drivers. I see how they are pumped up. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Many are talking about adopting this as a full-time career.” Gill, a three-time winner of the FIA Asia-Pacific-Rally-Championship (2013, 2016 and…