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Special guest and aspiring civil servant Bhushan Shah joins me to talk about 30 days of the new Uttar Pradesh Government and a look at the increasing foreign investment being picked up by state governments recently.
Links:
Bhadra Sinha, reporting for Hindustan Times:
For the first time in the Supreme Court’s history, three constitution benches of five judges each will sit during the summer break. These would be in addition to the two regular vacation benches set up every year to hear urgent matters.
Music to my ears.
The historic Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime today came a step closer to meet its July 1 target of rollout, with the Lok Sabha approving four supplementary legislations.
The Central GST Bill, 2017; The Integrated GST Bill, 2017; The GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017; and The Union Territory GST Bill, 2017 were passed after negation of a host of amendments moved by the Opposition parties.
Someday I’ll look back and remember how I watched the live stream of much of the debate and the vote, much like the passing of the 122nd Constitutional Amendment that made GST a reality.
Finance Minster Arun Jaitley’s speech in Lok Sabha addressing various questions raised and before he moved the bills is available here.
Mary Achkhanian, reporting for Gulf News:
Indian passport holders with a valid American visa or a Green Card will now be eligible to obtain a UAE visa on arrival, as per the decree approved by the UAE Cabinet, it was announced on Wednesday.
The visa will be valid for 14 days, with a single extension possible for a fee.
Lovely news that follows the UAE Crown Prince H. H. Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan being chief guest at India’s Republic Day 2017 celebrations.
The time taken for trade mark examination has been reduced to less than one month, down from 13 months. As of February 2017, 28,889 applications are pending for examination, while 7.92 lakh applications are pending at all stages, due to lack of manpower according to the Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Earlier this month, the new Trade Mark Rules 2017 were introduced. Trade mark applications now require 8 forms (down from 74), and a 50% incentive for startups. The entire process can now be completed via e-filing and video conference support is available.
https://airtable.com/shrcxDzUV745X5FyLMoushumi Das Gupta and Neelam Pandey, reporting for Hindustan Times:
The 12-digit Aadhaar number has helped states strike off 4.4 lakh “ghost students” from schools across Jharkhand, Manipur and Andhra Pradesh, for whom the government had been earmarking funds under the mid-day meal scheme.
This is no small number. Those raising a large hue and cry over the Government’s decision to introduce Aadhaar verification of students availing the benefit need to understand the numbers, and the leak at stake.
For instance, Andhra Pradesh — which linked all its 29 lakh government school students to Aadhaar — had 2.1 lakh claimants who existed only on paper.
It might look small at 7.2% but remember that’s 2,10,000 fake students. And this is just one state.
In Jharkhand, the names of 2.2 lakh non-existent students have been deleted from school records. So far, 89% of the 48 lakh students enrolled in the state’s government schools have availed of Aadhaar numbers.
4.4 lakh fake students in just 3 states implies a large leak within the mid-day meal scheme, especially since the way the process works is that a state government receives a contribution from the Centre (Northeastern states receive 90% from the Centre, all other states get 40%) against the number of students receiving the subsidy. In 2015–16, 10.3 crore students availed the subsidy. Even at 7%, the number of ghost students could be 72,00,000!
The cost incurred by the Central Government is Rs. 4.13 per child per day for primary and Rs. 6.18 per child per day for upper primary. Even at the Rs. 4.13 cost level, we’re looking at estimated leakages amount to Rs. 1000 crores across the Country, and this does not include spending by the states.
Clearly there is a large leak within the mid-day meal scheme, add to already immense Rs. 49,000 crore estimated to be saved by controlling leakages in LPG subsidy, MNREGA, scholarship and pension schemes.
This doesn’t even begin on the teacher’s problem:
A pilot study conducted by Kerala’s department of general education in 2014, after Aadhaar numbers were integrated with the student database, found its schools to have an excess of 3,892 teachers.
In terms of total numbers:
At present, only 30% of the 11 crore students enrolled in class one to eight at government schools across India possess Aadhaar cards.
Remember that the Government has clarified that it will not deny benefits for lack of Aadhaar, but will continue to encourage larger enrollment to help weed out the problem.
M Kalam, writing for the Tech Observer:
After launch of its India manufacturing operations in October last year, global hardware networking giant Cisco has finally delivered the first made in India router under ‘Make in India’ initiative. As gesture the Cisco handed over the first Made in India Router valued under $1500 to the Union electronics & IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Good to see B2B businesses, especially one with Cisco’s might, begin manufacturing in India. This will result in a quieter but substantial change for locally manufactured products.
Harish Damodaran, writing for The Indian Express:
When urea is applied to the soil, it is first hydrolysed or broken by water into ammonium ions (NH4+), followed by oxidation to nitrite (NO2-) and, then, nitrate (NO3-) forms. This nitrification process is what makes the nitrogen, which is 46 per cent in urea, available to the crops.
[…]
Neem oil basically acts as a ‘nitrification inhibitor’ when coated on urea. By slowing down urea hydrolysis and nitrification, it allows a more gradual release of nitrogen, which can be used by the plant. “Neem-coating increases nitrogen use efficiency. Also, since the urea action is prolonged, the plants stay greener for a longer time. Farmers apply urea when they notice the leaves turning yellowish. But if the crop here is retaining greenness for an extended period, they would reduce the frequency of application. Instead of three bags for an acre of paddy or wheat, they might be using only two now”, Prasad points out.
Some science behind the ‘magic’ behind neem-coated urea, which might explain the contradiction that although food grain output is rising YoY, fertilizer sales are in fact, down, including that of urea. Good read.
Daniel Twining, writing for Foreign Policy:
Americans suffering a crisis of confidence about the future of their country’s democratic institutions under President Donald Trump could use a dose of Indian-style optimism.
[…]
India’s experience offers a useful antidote to Western pessimism — and a reminder that democracy can offer solutions to the growth and governance dilemmas that afflict the United States and Europe.
Twining takes a view on the ‘feeling’ side of the political debate, crediting Modi with ‘doing something’ with his strong political mandate which, in the context of the thumping victory in Uttar Pradesh, seems to be creating an undercurrent of optimism in India. He highlights FDI reform, overall growth cross 7% per year, the upcoming Goods & Services Tax, bankruptcy bill, demonetisation, Jan-Dhan Accounts and Direct Benefit Transfer, and the Modi Government’s foreign policy.
He also makes an interesting point regarding India’s constant election situation:
At the same time, aspirational Indian voters increasingly manifest a tendency to reward governments that deliver growth and toss out politicians who do not meet performance tests. Strong anti-incumbency instincts keep politicians on their toes.
I think that the cost and constant election cycle are more detrimental than good, but perhaps the corollary to India constantly analysing everything from an election perspective is that politicians also have to be ‘on their toes’.
It’s an interesting take overall, correctly grasping the optimism among Indians since 2014, against the overall pessimism in the US since their last election.
The Center for Strategic & International Studies has a high level scorecard tracking the Modi Government against 30 “big reforms” that would help restructure India’s economy, updated each month. CSIS indicates only 9 have seen no progress so far, with over two years to go in the current term.
For those looking for a simple and clear overview of what can be considered progress, worth a look.
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Chirag Desai