current affairs newspaper analysis and …...but hard-left prime minister alexis tsipras, whose...

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Newspaper Analysis and Summarry– 24th February 2015

NATIONAL

Social spend needs Budget boost – The Hindu

Social sector spending has flatlined over the past few years, and massive spending

expansions are required to keep Prime Minister Narendra Modi‟s key promises, Budget

data show.

Social sector spending — expenditure on health, education, water supply, sanitation and

housing among others — has doubled over the past 10 years as a proportion of the Union

government‟s total expenditure. But the big expansion came between 2004 and 2007, and

more or less flattened at around 12 per cent of the total expenditure since then, show data

from the Economic Census for various years.

In its first Budget in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance government held allocations

for most flagship United Progressive Alliance schemes close to what the outgoing

government made in its last Budget, an interim one prior to the Lok Sabha elections.

However, the release of funds has slowed down sharply for some schemes such as the

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (earlier known as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan), while delays have

grown on the ground for others such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme, show data from Accountability Initiative, which monitors public

finances. A senior official of the Rural Development Ministry, however, attributed this to

“the usual friction during change in government,” which the official said would ease soon.

If the government is to follow through on its promises, the Union Budget to be presented on

Saturday should be a break from the past.

Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu pegged the cost of the Swachh Bharat

Abhiyaan at Rs. 2 lakh crore over five years, a sum yet to be formally budgeted. Should the

Budget reflect this expenditure, an allocation of Rs. 40,000 crore will be required, which is

10 times the allocation last year and two-and-a-half times the entire Budget for the

Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry for 2014-15.

From the first human genome, to a “great library of life” – The Hindu

Geneticist Eric S. Lander, one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project that

mapped the entire human genome in 2003, offered a rare glimpse into the genetic “library

of life” being created by a global community of scientists. This veritable catalogue has

already begun to help decode the genetic basis of certain cancers, heart disease and

schizophrenia.

A packed audience of students, scientists and medical practitioners heard Prof Lander speak

on “The Human Genome and Beyond: A 35 year Journey of Genomic Medicine at the fifth

edition of the Cell Press-TNQ Distinguished Lectureship Series at the All India Institute of

Medical Sciences here on Monday.

Over the last decade, genetic research has been revolutionised and the costs of genome

sequencing have dropped drastically. While mapping a single human genome (as part of the

Human Genome Project 1990-2003) costs $3 billion, today it costs less than $ 3,000.

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This breakthrough opens up enormous opportunities to understand diseases, he said. Today,

for instance, over 108 genes can be associated with schizophrenia, and particular genetic

mutations can be linked to heart attacks early in life.

And yet, “we have only scratched the surface,” Prof Lander said. “Discoveries require

studying huge samples for every major disease. And for that our healthcare systems have to

turn into learning systems.”

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health comprising 246 organisations in 28 countries

-- including India -- is one such endeavour to create a critical mass of data.

It is imperative, however that the data remains “shareable”, said Prof Lander, who is the

Founding Director of the Broad Institute (linking MIT, Harvard University and hospitals).

“But genetic data must belong to patients, who have the right to share it with their privacy

protected.”

India, with the “extraordinary size of its population” is, from the genetic point of view, “the

single most interesting population in the world”.

India expresses concern over „manhandling‟ of Nasheed – The Hindu

Dramatic pictures of former Maldives President Mohammad Nasheed being pushed to the

ground outside a Male court by the police prompted a statement from India, a day after the

islands were plunged into a fresh political crisis.

“We are concerned at recent developments in the Maldives, including the arrest and

manhandling of former President Nasheed,” said a statement from the Ministry of External

Affairs. The “manhandling” occurred when Mr. Nasheed, who was arrested on Sunday on

charges of terrorism, was brought to the criminal court in Male.

On his way in, Mr. Nasheed was seen stopping to speak to journalists, which the

accompanying security forces objected to. When Mr. Nasheed protested, he was dragged by

the police and was seen falling to the ground.

While India had not reacted to the arrest on Sunday, it is significant that Monday‟s

statement refers to concern over both the “arrest and manhandling” of the former President.

Last week, the Maldivian Foreign Minister, Dunya Maumoon, said in a statement that her

government had “no doubt that India will adhere to the principle of Panchsheel and will not

intervene in the domestic politics of Maldives.”

Modi likely to visit Male

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Male in mid-March, and the turmoil in

the country would have an impact on his visit. Speaking to The Hindu , Maldivian

Democratic Party (MDP) spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said: “We welcome the

recognition in India that the situation in the Maldives merits concern. But we hope it will be

backed up by action.”


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Mr. Ghafoor said the opposition wanted India to “send an envoy immediately” to mediate

in the current crisis, and warned that the internal security situation could have an impact on

Indian citizens based in the Maldives.

According to MDP officials, their plea for medical assistance to Mr. Nasheed after the

incident outside the court was denied. Mr. Nasheed‟s bail application was rejected and he

will be imprisoned till the end of his trial, where he will have to plead his own case. “This

arrest and detention is completely arbitrary and is clearly and blatantly politically

motivated,” Mr. Nasheed‟s lawyer Hisaan Hussein said in a statement.

The case against Mr. Nasheed dates back to when he was the President in 2011 and he was

accused of illegally ordering the detention of a judge. Several other members of his party

have been charged as well. In its statement, the MEA said India “urges all concerned to

calm the situation and resolve their differences within the constitutional and legal

framework of the Maldives.”

U.K. to honour Indian soldiers at WW I event – The Hindu

The U.K. will honour the Indian soldiers who fought alongside their British officers during

the World War I with special plaques to be unveiled at a war memorial next month.

The National Memorial Arboretum at Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England

will honour 11 soldiers from undivided India who were awarded the Victoria Cross for their

service alongside a total of 145 overseas-born fighters from Commonwealth countries such

as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and Canada at a commemorative

event on March 5.

“The First World War was a truly global war, one which pulled in people from every corner

of the earth. People from every background united in their shared values, fighting for

liberty,” said U.K. communities minister Stephen Williams.

Among some of the early stones already laid out in the lead up to the event is one for Sepoy

Chatta Singh, born in Kanpur or Cawnpore as it was referred to under the British.

“Despite the differences of culture and faith between Chatta Singh and his officer, he

recognised that what mattered was that his comrade was in danger.

He displayed exceptional compassion and bravery in risking his life for that of his fellow

man and we can still learn from his example 100 years later,” Williams said.

“Token of gratitude”

“The stone that we will lay in the National Memorial Arboretum for Sepoy Singh is a small

token of our gratitude and a recognition of all of our shared history. I hope that for many

years to come it will remind us of the gallantry of the brave men who fought for Britain and

their role in the history of the First World War.”

The 11 VC winners from undivided India include six from modern day India, three from

Pakistan and two from Nepal.


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Besides Singh, the other five Indian VCs were awarded to Ressaidar Badlu Singh, Naik

Darwan Singh Negi, Rifleman Gabbar Singh Negi, Lance Daffadar Gobind Singh and

Lance Naik Lala.

On the list of medal winners born on the Indian subcontinent during the Raj era also

include 11 British soldiers born in India and one born in Pakistan.

A VC is the highest military honour awarded for bravery on the battlefield.

A total of 628 VCs were awarded during World War I, of which 145 were awarded to

servicemen who fought for Britain but were born overseas.

The UK Department of Communities and Local Government has been laying

commemorative paving stones in the birthplace of each such VC recipient to honour their

bravery and to provide a lasting legacy within the communities of their local heroes.

The first Victoria Cross Paving stones were laid on August 23 last year to mark exactly 100

years to the day that the first VCs were awarded during World War I.

The last stones will be laid in November 2018. — PTI

INTERNATIONAL Greece presents list of proposed reforms – The Hindu

Greece‟s new anti-austerity government submitted a preliminary list of reform proposals to

Brussels on Monday in a bid to secure a four-month extension to its lifeline debt bailout, a

European source said.

If the measures fail to win the approval of Greece‟s EU creditors, the country‟s safety net

will collapse on Saturday leaving the government at risk of running out of cash, a run on

banks and even a eurozone exit.

Voter backlash possible

But hard-left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party swept to power in elections

last month, could also face a voter backlash if he fails to deliver on promises to ease the

pain of ordinary Greeks after years of swingeing government spending cuts.

In the latest in a series of dramatic showdowns over Greece‟s €240-billion-euro ($270-

billion) bailout, flamboyant new Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis secured the extension

from his 18 fellow eurozone partners in Brussels on Friday.

The tentative agreement boosted global markets as fears eased of a “Grexit” or eurozone

exit — which could have highly damaging wider ramifications — and stocks mostly rose in

Asia and Europe.

The deal however came with the proviso that Athens provide by Monday a list of measures

to quash concerns, not least in powerhouse Germany, that Greece might backtrack on its

commitments to cut spending and pass root-and-branch reforms. “Europe has some

breathing space, nothing more, and certainly not a resolution,” German Foreign Minister


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Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Bild daily on Monday. “The fundamentals — namely

assistance in exchange for reform — must remain the same.”

EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told France 2 television that

Greece‟s proposed reforms had to be “realistic”.

In Berlin, a finance ministry spokesman said the list needed to be “coherent and plausible”.

— AFP

BUSINESS Fulfil key reform promises for rating upgrade: S&P - The Hindu

Days ahead of the Union Budget, global rating agency Standard & Poor‟s, on Monday,

warned that India‟s weak fiscal and debt indicators, coupled with the low income levels,

„constrain‟ the sovereign rating.

“India‟s low income levels and weak fiscal and debt indicators constrain the country‟s

credit profile,” S&P said in a note.

Although it said that last year‟s election results have created conducive environment for

reforms with political stability, the agency termed the „governance effectiveness‟ as a

„neutral credit factor‟.

S&P said higher growth in real per capita GDP, stronger fiscal/debt metrics and an

improved external position as well as monetary policy setting are essential to enhance the

current „BBB‟ rating with a stable outlook.

“The government‟s ability to fulfil its promises on key reforms will, therefore, be critical,”

S&P credit analyst Agost Benard said.

The government‟s fiscal consolidation plan, which entails a gradual lowering of the fiscal

deficit over the next three years, will ease the debt and interest burden but “improvements

in India‟s weak fiscal balance sheet are likely to be gradual,” he added.

The government has promised to keep the deficit at 4.1 per cent for 2014-15, and is

targeting to bring it down to 3.6 per cent in 2015-16 and push it further to 3 per cent by

2016-17.

After comparing India with other BBB-rated peers like Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, the

Philippines, South Africa and Uruguay, the agency said the average income in India is

„significantly low‟ and the „government is also more heavily indebted‟.

“The country‟s stronger external balance sheet only partly offsets these weaknesses,” it

said. Flexibility on the monetary policy front, where the RBI has shifted to rate cuts, is

„moderately supportive‟ of the sovereign‟s credit-worthiness, it said.

Factors such as high savings and investment rates, together with favourable demographics,

where 87 per cent of the population is aged 54 or below, put the country in good stead to

achieve fast growth.


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Growth could touch the 7 per cent-mark by 2017, but a projected per capital income of

$2,404 in 2017 will still leave the country‟s wealth at about one-third of the average of

similarly rated countries, it said. Commenting on strong performance on the external front,

where some analysts are saying the current account could be in a surplus, the agency said

this is unlikely to lead to an upward rating revision.

“We believe any further improvement in external liquidity or balance sheet is unlikely to

lead to a higher credit rating,” it said.

The agency last year upgraded its outlook on the country to stable from negative.

It had earlier voiced concerns on the lack of growth, a sense of “policy paralysis” and the

high fiscal deficit, and also threatened to downgrade the rating to junk. — PTI

SPORTS National sports awards scheme revamped – The Hindu

In order to do away with controversies surrounding the selection process for the annual

National sports awards in future, the Union Sports Ministry has revamped the scheme.

According to the new provisions, the selection committee for the Arjuna Award will be

headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge, and not more than one

sportsperson/coach from a particular discipline shall be a member of the panel to avoid any

bias towards any particular discipline. A sportsperson of eminence/sports

administrator/sports expert belonging to para sports will now be a member of the Arjuna

Award selection panel.

Besides, the new provisions want the nomination agencies to send nominations of

deserving sportspersons and coaches, irrespective of whether they have applied to these

agencies for this purpose.

The ministry, which has accepted most of the suggestions given by last year‟s Arjuna

Award selection committee headed by Kapil Dev, has said that more marks will be given

for medals won in individual events. “For team events, marks will be computed taking into

consideration the strength of the team.”

The ministry has reduced marks for weightage of performances from 90 to 80 per cent in

case of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dronacharya awards. From now, the

proceedings of the selection committees will be video-graphed, a detailed internal Standard

Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be followed to deal with nominations received from

National Sports Federations and views of experts of various disciplines will be obtained for

shortlisted nominations in team games.

EDITORIALS Secrecy and information theft - The Hindu

Government offices the world over are notoriously porous. Even those which boast of a

high standard of physical security sometimes do not have a matching ability to protect their

information systems. WikiLeaks is a striking example of how even one of the most

technologically advanced nations like the United States can be found wanting in this area.


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The appalling state of India‟s public offices is a case in point. The buildings that house

them take the cake for permitting shockingly liberal access to vandals and marauders. The

disgusting state of hygiene in most of them in itself bears testimony to their porous nature

and neglect, both of which certainly promote an ambience that is least conducive to a

security culture.

Porous and unsecured

While Central government offices are a shade better than those in the States in terms of

visitor control, there is no scope for being smug. This is despite the fact that the new

government at the Centre has done a lot to block unauthorised men, including lobbyists,

from visiting government offices. In a much less complicated universe, in the early 1950s,

Rajaji, as Chief Minister of the Madras State, successfully kept out ruling party men from

the sacred confines of Fort St. George. This has possibly not had the desired result as

reports of leakage of valuable information from a key Ministry in the nation‟s capital show.

All you need to secure entry into many government offices in our country is a reasonably

attractive-looking identity card, which may not necessarily be genuine or whose validity

has expired. Few questions are asked after one gains entry. There are no sequestered areas

which are out of bounds. Greasing the palms of security staff to secure unauthorised entry

is also not an unknown practice. Here again where there is deployment of Central Industrial

Security Force (CISF) guards, things are in fairly reasonable shape. Elsewhere, the security

staff are ill-trained and clueless and therefore abysmally inadequate.

Shastri Bhavan which houses many important Ministries — including Petroleum and

Human Resource Development — is the most prominent among the many administrative

buildings in the capital which usually resembles a kumbh mela on most working days.

Those found on its campus constitute a spectrum, which includes influence and information

peddlers and hangers-on, watching the hustle and bustle of the place. Those who are there

on genuine business form only a minority. The heist of documents from the Union

Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry should be viewed against this backdrop.

Corporate angle

We do not have an idea of what the stolen papers at Shastri Bhavan constituted. Speculation

is that they are on commercial data, apart from overall policy indicators. The report that a

few papers with national security implications were also stolen has no corroboration as yet.

What is feared as having been compromised is what is ready meat for corporate interests,

especially in the pre-Budget weeks. The temptation to pre-empt government decisions, and

overtake competitors is too much to resist in an ambience of sordid venality. This is true of

any firm which is low on ethics and largely profit-oriented. This is why we should not be

overly surprised about „Shastrigate‟. The phenomenon will keep repeating itself at periodic

intervals. The public focus should be on what the government does to identify the loopholes

to reduce the frequency of such successful raids on government information storehouses.

Early reports point to no great technology having been employed by the network that was

behind the conspiracy to breach Shastri Bhavan. The alleged disabling of CCTVs in the

building was at best vandalism. A few at the bottom of government hierarchy — who go by

the generic name „peons‟ — had possibly been bought over and the keys to the doors

leading into the offices secured for a price and duplicated to gain entry. It was as simple as


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that if press reports are true. This would mean that important documents had either been

carelessly left behind on tables or stored in cupboards with flimsy locks. If the Delhi Crime

Branch investigation ultimately confirmed this, the staff concerned (possibly the section

officer/under-secretary or above) are culpable, irrespective of whether they connived with

each other in the crime or not. They need to be disciplined if only for an obvious lack of

care in protecting valuable documents.

Security classification

There is nothing known to us till now which suggests that this was either a sophisticated

operation or an intricate form of cyber crime. Media reports refer to the stand taken in

official circles that this was conventional theft after taking advantage of the vulnerability

(read greed) of the lowest functionaries. There is also the claim that no great damage was

done because most sensitive information was stored in computer systems, and whenever

hard copies of crucial papers were required, the bare minimum was printed for circulation

on a need-to-know basis — as it should be in a modern-day office. If this stand is ultimately

upheld by the investigation, and the theft is proved as one confined to physical documents

— there is some extenuation that will go in favour of the higher officials.

Fundamentally, there is a need for a hard look at existing systems. There is also a case for

extending the high standards which have successfully protected information stored both in

the Prime Minister‟s Office and the Cabinet Secretariat, and possibly at the headquarters of

all three defence forces.

What the investigation will have to address next is whether the leaked information was

actually sensitive and classified. Without establishing this, it may not be possible to

successfully press charges other than that of theft and trespass against the conspirators. We

have a funny situation where many government organisations mark almost every other

document as either secret or top secret. Very often the decision to classify a document is

taken at the level of under-secretary/section officer in a mechanical fashion and without any

application of mind. The approval of the joint secretary, subsequently, is said to be routine.

Security classification is a double-edged weapon. It no doubt vests sanctity to a record/note

in circulation which it would not otherwise gain. At the same time it brings about a

ludicrous situation in which everything that a department possesses is converted into a

treasure that has to be protected every working day, without the means required for doing

so. When those who are accused in the Shastri Bhavan case are eventually charge sheeted

and taken to court, some of them could take advantage of a loose classification protocol,

and are liable to be discharged, if, at the minimum, the prosecution is unable to prove either

a role in the break-in or direct benefit from what was contained in the documents.

Investigation and justice

A lot of scrutiny and application of mind will be needed for successful application of the

Official Secrets Act (OSA). Incidentally, the OSA is of 1923 vintage and a complicated

piece of legislation. There is one strong school of thought which says that the OSA has no

reason to remain on our statute books after the Right to Information Act of 2005. An

indictment of the accused under the OSA, after thorough investigation, requires the scrutiny

of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and its approval, after which a complaint can be

filed in the competent court.


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A favourable outcome thereafter for the investigator is usually dicey. Interestingly, a person

in charge of and responsible for the conduct of business of a company is not liable to

punishment under the OS Act “if he proves that the offence was committed without his

knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such

offence” — Section 15 (1). A company under the scanner has already distanced itself from

one of its executives who has been arrested. These are the factors that make a swift delivery

of justice to the aggrieved party, viz. , the state, a near impossibility.

The Modi government deserves to be complimented for its proactive decision to have the

suspects under surveillance and later nabbing them. If it had lost some time in bringing

them to book, it is explained by the fact that delicate operations such as these have to be

well thought out and executed at an appropriate moment. There cannot be any kind of

heavy footedness in the matter.

There is the final question that should nag most of us. Should the investigation continue to

be in the hands of the Delhi Police, or should it be transferred to the Central Bureau of

Investigation (CBI)? In this, one cannot assume a categorical stand here. A lot will depend

on the kind of evidence that is ferreted out in the next few weeks. If there is a nationwide

conspiracy that emerges, or if investigation extends beyond our borders, there is a case for

the CBI stepping in. Otherwise, the Delhi Police are competent enough to proceed on their

own steam and carry out the inquiries to their logical conclusion. To see a ghost in the

MHA‟s alleged reluctance to call in the CBI will be unfair to both the Central government

and the Delhi Police.

More like a flood than a leak – The Hindu

It is akin to an organised industry. The systematic “pilfering” from the Petroleum Ministry‟s

office in the heart of New Delhi of documents which were then handed over to

“consultants” and interested corporate entities for a price, has revealed a frightening nexus.

One account says that a night guard would “steal” the documents while a peon would

switch off CCTV cameras to facilitate the alleged acts of corporate espionage, some details

of which are now in the public domain. In addition to some low-ranking staff members of

the Ministry, two “consultants” and representatives of five top business houses have been

arrested by the Delhi Police in the case. Budget inputs, minutes of a Cabinet meeting on

disinvestment and detailed documents on the petroleum sector, were among the documents

that were allegedly stolen by the ring. The brazen manner in which these were pilfered from

Shastri Bhavan in Lutyen‟s‟ Delhi goes to show that government departments can easily be

subverted by vested interests for corporate gains.

This rot might well extend to other ministries and departments. While the facts of the

present case will have to be established in a court of law, it is unlikely that company

representatives were acting in their personal capacity. If it is proved, the top corporate

groups who are alleged to have benefited from the documents that they procured through

this organised system of espionage will have much to answer for. It is likely that the Delhi

Police crackdown on the ring was triggered by the concern expressed by National Security

Adviser Ajit Doval in October 2014 at how “secret” information made its way to the media.

Mr. Doval‟s letter spoke of the need for firm action to prevent the media from publishing

secret documents that impinged on the country‟s national security. The NSA pointed out in

his letter, which was published in the media, that leaks often emanated from government

departments. While a distinction must be made between this kind of pilferage and


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documents being leaked to the media in the public interest by whistleblowers, corporate

espionage must be dealt with in a strong manner. Public interest journalism and corporate

theft of government information cannot be weighed on the same scale. In a statement, the

Aam Aadmi Party pointed out that the actual beneficiaries were still to be identified by the

police. The party hoped that the culprits “who subverted the system to get undue benefits

will be booked and interrogated in custody”. The Modi government must be commended

for the actions taken by the Delhi Police. But it will be closely watched, on whether or not

this investigation is taken to its logical conclusion. For far too long, the big fish have

escaped criminal justice.

Not a make-or-break budget – The Hindu

Both India‟s executive decision making and policy thought are on a roll. Dynamic, steady

incremental steps have been chosen as the way forward by the leadership. This makes sense

when growth is on an upward move, and, no matter what, it‟s not going to take off into

orbit just because we wish it. Therefore, a solid platform that opens doors to long-term

sustained economic and social progress is imperative. Yet, all kinds of views are surfacing,

branding the imminent Budget as a make or break occasion. In differing with this analysis,

I echo Shakespeare — “striving to better, oft we mar what‟s well.”

Can we, for a moment, view the Budget as analogous to a corporate annual report? Both

occur because they are required once a year, to take stock of the financial situation and lay

out perspectives for short and long terms. Rarely does one find this report covering all

policies, tactics or actions required to run a company, or giving a solitary decisive signal to

markets; in other words, this annual event is not a make or break occasion.

Strategy for Finance Minister

The key signal from this government to global business and investor space is a capability

for financial discipline and prudence.

The last Budget followed a fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of GDP — a clear challenge

— and an aspiration to bring this lower. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seems to be

indicating comfort with a long-term target sub -3 per cent. Such a road map is one obvious

anchor for the Budget, even with some dilution in the short term. An astute balance

between pushing for a public investment-driven growth, while domestic and global market

growth remain an issue, and ensuring that subsidies are relevant, effective and delivered

efficiently — more bang for less bucks — can be a cornerstone of his strategy.

Expansion of revenue base, particularly through well-organised implementation of GST is

another. The Finance Minister may have to loosen purse strings to attend issues created by

inverted duty structures and other levies or costs which make India uncompetitive.

Intentions to simplify the direct tax regime and administration require concrete translation

to avoid ad-nauseam discussion for another year or more. Meaningful expansion of

taxpayers without burdening existing ones is a tightrope walk requiring political will. The

war on unaccounted monies must intensify, but one will have to be judicious in not creating

a new set of problems by turning the clock back to revisit dismantled draconian concepts. If

just writing tough laws ensures ethical behaviour, we would never have had problems under

the FERA regime, for example, when much distortion actually took place.


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The question persists if our expectations are running ahead of realities. Growth beyond the

anticipated 6-7 per cent is needed to fill underutilised capacities and this could take time.

The future levels of 7-8 per cent need deep structural reforms which will not happen

overnight. Corporates face poor top-line growth so far; analysts see many top companies as

overleveraged. Small and medium businesses are in tight spots. Indian manufacturing is not

in the pink of health and a recovery time frame is not certain. Zeal for fresh investment is

inhibited.

Measured expectations

In the circumstances, the Budget can surpass reasonable expectations if it achieves a blend

of strengthening consumer sentiment; creating a sound expenditure management and fiscal

road map; addressing supply side inflation; proper channelling and timely implementation

of public spending; ensuring that life is not further complicated for taxpayers and seriously

address industry competitiveness. While it is correct and appropriate for us to retain high

confidence in the aggregate, we also owe it to hold measured expectations from a single

event.

The rise of the liberal-right intellectual – The Hindu

Professor Romila Thapar in a recent article (“To Question or Not to Question? That is the

Question”) laments the decline of public intellectuals in India. She accuses them of

remaining silent in the face of authoritarian governance and narrowing liberal spaces,

noting that “...books are banned and pulped...syllabuses changed under religious and

political pressure...Established publishers are beginning to suffer from a paralysis of the

spine. Why do such actions provoke so little reaction among many academics and

professionals?” Public intellectuals for Professor Thapar are a moral and rationally driven

group who question and challenge authority. Professor Thapar‟s public intellectual is not a

Socratic or Christ-like gadfly with a raging death drive, but is embodied in the figure of the

Buddha. To revive our currently dismal state of public intellectualism, she insists that we

turn to our own historical resources to acknowledge the presence of critical, rationalist

schools of thought such as the Carvakas and the Buddhists.

Professor Thapar‟s public intellectuals are inspiring, but her analysis of public

intellectualism in India is only partly true. What she points out as the decline in public

intellectualism paints only half the picture. The decline is not of public intellectualism in

general, but of the left-liberal variety of intellectuals only. What she does not discuss in her

analysis are two points: first, the revival of the liberal-right in India post-Modi victory, and

second, changes in the neoliberal market for public intellectuals after 1991. Hence, to

properly analyse the state of public intellectualism today, we have to account for three

conditions: the decline of the left-liberal, the revival of the liberal-right and the broader

neoliberal academic conditions that underscore these changes.

Renewed self-consciousness

Public intellectualism post-Modi is marked by the rise of the liberal-right. This is best

illustrated by two recent articles: Shekhar Gupta‟s “Saving Indian liberalism from its left-

liberal elite” and the other is the launch of Swarajya magazine, the rationale of which was

articulated by Sandipan Deb, Editorial Director of Swarajya , in an interview with The

Hindu (“In the cause of right-wing liberalism,” January 29). Reading these two together, it

will not be an exaggeration to suggest that this liberal-right aggregation has gained a

renewed self-consciousness. It has given itself a historical narrative, and has constructed a


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self-recognition based on its opposition to the left-liberal camp. It proclaims its “rightful”

place in India‟s future, the “vanguard of a new Indian renaissance.” The post-independence

history of the liberal-right, it suggests ironically, is one of repression by the elitist lefties.

Along with the poor and marginalised, it too is laying claim to being the intellectual

minority, whose aspirations were apparently thwarted by the left. The liberal-right‟s

liberation theology seems to be based not on Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru or B.R.

Ambedkar, but on C. Rajagopalachari and Narendra Modi. Invoking Rajaji‟s Swatantrata

Party, “where much of the old Congress-right collected,” Mr. Gupta notes that this party

was ultimately pushed out by Indira Gandhi in the late 60s. Mr. Gupta says the “right was

purged, artfully by Nehru and then crudely by his daughter.” As per this narrative, the right

was repressed by the Congress-backed elitist lefties, reducing “liberalism to a left

monopoly... [while the] right merged into saffron.”

Our universities and intellectuals, dominated by the left, are implicated in these accusations

and are accused of being pro-Congress. Mr. Deb suggests that the economic ideologies of

the right-liberals are not guided by cultural or religious politics, but are divorced from

Hindutva and other external circumstances. This may be their ideal but is historically untrue

given that the liberal-right has always been pitted as anti-Congress, and is now avowedly

pro-BJP, as is evident in some of Mr. Deb‟s own writings.

Professor Thapar notes the turn to neoliberal India as a cause for the decline of public

intellectuals. But again this is only partly true. More specifically, the neoliberalism of the

90s transformed the left while also providing the conditions for the revival of the right. The

following section briefly discusses the larger conditions that are determining the nature of

public intellectualism in India. Public intellectuals are not just morally and rationally driven

voices. They are especially not to be romanticised as Socratic figures rendered outcast and

embracing martyrdom for the sake of higher truths. Rather, they are creatures determined

by demand and supply market forces. Richard Posner suggests that public intellectuals have

to be seen as “symbolic goods” in the market place, “goods, the principal content or

function of which is expressive or informational: art, propaganda, journalism and

scholarship are all examples.” These intellectuals are “information goods,” “solidarity

goods” as well as “entertainment goods.”

Ethical appeal

In India, the media has been substantially growing since the 1990s. With print media,

television, websites, blogs, twitter and a competitive publishing industry, there is a growing

demand for opinions and comments on matters of public concern. Television channels are

criticised for giving more opinion than reporting facts. Opinion pages in newspapers have

an extremely wide readership, in print and digital. There is a growing demand on the

Internet for alternative media, and blogs are becoming influential platforms for critique and

dissent.

The public intellectual market is only partly about the content; it‟s a lot more about

reputation and credibility. Mr. Posner refers to the Aristotelian category of “ethical appeal”

in the public intellectual rhetoric. Ethical appeal is an appeal to authority, credentials and

character rather than the merit of the argument. For instance, some Nobel laureates who

would‟ve spent much of their lives in isolated research in laboratories, suddenly, on

winning the prize, find a voice to comment on peace and social welfare. India has some

famous „IIT-IIM graduates turned novelists turned public intellectuals‟ who do the same.


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The same logic also grants legitimacy to the several IT moguls and business tycoons to

impose their ideas of politics, welfare and justice, even when the content of their arguments

deserves no merit.

This raises two important considerations. One is that we need to understand the special

nature of this neoliberal demand in order to think about the skewed nature of supply. The

nature of this demand is so highly commodified and overwhelmingly materialistic that

sometimes the intellectual class resists acting in bad conscience, refusing to be objectified

by such a market. The demand for intellectuals in mainstream media is not for a critical or

radical politics, but for tacky commentary.

The second point is that younger academic intellectuals are yet to grapple with their

identity in these growing, private and wealthier academic spaces. The dilemma is between

our cultural baggage of the „jhola carrying left-liberal professor‟ imagination, vis-à-vis the

privileged, consumptive careerism in private universities and think tanks, travelling for

international conferences. Until we grapple with this dilemma of identity and location in

the academic markets, our actions will continue to be confused and fickle. The silence of

scholars that Professor Thapar laments is due to the staleness and failure of the left-liberal

scholars to stand up and face these new challenges.

WHO calls for „smart‟ syringes to stem deadly diseases – The Hindu

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on health-care providers around the

globe to switch to syringes that can be used only once in order battle deadly diseases that

are spread by needle sharing.

In new guidelines released Monday, the UN health agency “detailed recommendations

highlighting the value of safety features for syringes, including devices that protect health

workers against accidental... injury.”

Accidental infection

Dangerous injection practices led to the accidental infection worldwide of 1.7 million

people with hepatitis B, 3,15,000 with hepatitis C and as many as 33,800 with HIV in 2010,

according to a 2014 WHO-sponsored study.

The new “smart” syringes recommended by the organisation WHO include features that

prevent them from being used a second time. Some have a plunger that breaks if someone

tries to pull it back out following an injection. Others have metal clips that prevent the

plunger from being pulled back after it is used and another type has a needle that retracts

into the syringe after a shot.

“Adoption of safety-engineered syringes is absolutely critical to protecting people

worldwide from becoming infected with HIV, hepatitis and other diseases,” said Gottfried

Hirnschall, head of WHO‟s HIV/AIDS department. — AFP


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