Yoga unlocks your energy

March 10, 2017, 12:59 AM IST Economic Times in The Speaking Tree | Edit Page, Li
festyle | ET
By: SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV
The term yoga , for many, means physical postures, and that too twisted, impossible
ones. But that s not what we re referring to as yoga. Yoga means to be in perfect t
une. Your body mind, spirit and existence are in absolute harmony. When you fine
-tune yourself to such apoint where everything functions beautifully within you,
the best of your abilities will just flow out of you.
When you re happy, your energies always function better. In fact, when you re happy,
you have endless energy. Even if you don t eat or sleep, it doesn t matter you can
go on and on. So, just knowing a little happiness liberates you from your normal
limitations of energy and capability. Yoga is the science of activating your in
ner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their h
ighest peak.
When your body and mind function in a completely different state of relaxation a
nd a certain level of bliss, you can be released from most suffering. You come t
o your office, and you have a nagging headache.
The throbbing pain takes away everything. But with the practice of yoga, your bo
dy and mind will be kept at their highest possible peak.
There is a whole technology of applying this energy for higher possibilities. Ea
ch one of us must explore and know this.
Otherwise, life becomes limited and accidental; you get to do only what you re exp
osed to. Once you start activating your inner energies, your capabilities happen
in a different sphere altogether Yoga is a tool to find ultimate expression to
life.

Imagine what can be achieved if all women are empowered to contribute

March 10, 2017, 12:36 AM IST Economic Times in ET Commentary | Economy, Edit Pag
e, India | ET
By Anil Agarwal
International Women s Day was celebrated on Wednesday. But millions of working wom
en across the country are yet to find a link with India s success story, particula
rly as entrepreneurs. India is poised to grow by as much as 7.5% this year. That
puts the country on track to become the second leading economy in the world by
2050.
It is the natural resources sector that holds the key to boosting manufacturing
and building infrastructure in remote geographies, generating large-scale employ
ment and significant revenue for the country. India s rich potential in minerals s
uch as coal, iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, chromite, natural gas, diamonds
, limestone and thorium is well documented. In making this sector inclusive to w
omen, we can tap the opportunity to transform their lives.
Even as we do that, it is time we realise the potential of our people, and more
so of India s women. The only way they will be integrated into the formal economy
will be when they are given a larger economic role to play.
Not just holding up but also carrying
Research has consistently pointed to the unrecognised contribution of women in a
griculture, animal husbandry and small businesses. It is time we harness this en
ergy in the form of entrepreneurship. We need to go a long way towards making ou
r vibrant startup space more inclusive for women.
As per a global ranking done by the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Inst
itute (GEDI), India found itself in the last five among 30 countries regarding t
he status of female entrepreneurs. As many as 73% of women entrepreneurs failed
to get funding from venture capitalists.
The case with getting bank loans has been similar. This calls for a push by the
private sector to enter the picture and provide the vital funding. Besides fundi
ng, entrepreneurship also involves knowing how to operate astartup and how to do
problem-solving. The government s Startup India, Stand Up India scheme was a righ
t step in that direction, aiming to educate potential entrepreneurs, including w
omen, about entrepreneurial resources and techniques.
It s heartening to see that several government websites promote rural women to sel
l their commodities on their platform.
However, the effort will be a success only if both the public and private sector
work together to make a difference. This will have far-reaching implications fo
r our economy. According to a new study by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI),
India can increase its 2025 GDP, estimated at $4.83 trillion, by as much as 60%
simply by enabling women to participate in the economy along with the men.
The idea of bringing women, especially in rural India, into the national mainstr
eam really holds huge potential. Their representation must go up. The United Nat
ions goal of bringing about gender parity needs to be looked at against a backdr
op of another of its set of goals: the sustainable development goals that includ
e providing gender equality and empowering women, and improving maternal health.
Clearly, development is incomplete without women being taken care of.
The starting point for meeting the goals must be the anganwadis: the courtyard sh
elters established by the government in 1975, to provide food and basic healthcar
e in villages. Anganwadis are the place where children gather along with their m
others who supervise them. So, these are the best places to teach the women esse
ntial skills so that they become occupied, independent and empowered in the real
sense, even as they continued to supervise their children.
If given proper training in vocationaland managerial skills, nothing will come i
n the way of women even from humble backgrounds becoming entrepreneurs in their
own right. The more a country empowers its women, the more prosperous it becomes
. In India s billion-plus population, there re over 600 million women. Imagine what
can be achieved if all women are empowered to contribute.

Making Aadhaar mandatory for free midday meals in schools is Orwellian

March 10, 2017, 12:31 AM IST Abheek Barman in Folk Theorem | Economy, Edit Page,
India | ET
Eight years ago, Indians on a whim and probably a prayer to our innumerable deit
ies, approved a potentially dangerous model of self-identification. Called Aadha
ar, it was promoted by folks who copy-pasted the US social security system on Ind
ia.
This model was supposed to wipe out graft in the subsidy system. Replace subsidi
es with cash, let the system be voluntary only poor, consenting adults need to j
oin. On the face of it, it was a benign order. Today, it stinks of all that was
wr
ong when Eric Arthur Blair wrote about this sort of thing.
You re the Meal
On February 28, the government through Prakash Javadekar, minister of human reso
urce development said every child with access to school education and a midday m
eal scheme should line up for Aadhaar.
So, children from Porbandar to Purulia and Gangtok to Guntur will have to get th
eir fingerprints and eyes registered electronically to get one meal from a gover
nment-sponsored school? Yes, if the ministry s fatwa is correct. Kids in Jammu & K
ashmir, Meghalaya and Assam are exempt, mysteriously, from this fatwa. Which mea
ns they can have lunch without logging into the all-seeing sarkari eye in the sk
y.
There are many things wrong with this. First, Aadhaar was designed to be a volun
tary scheme, which means only consenting adults could take part. And why not?
Innocent kids know nothing about costs, prices and subsidies, which is what Aadh
aar was supposed to be about. What does a 10-year-old know about cooking gas sub
sidies?
Eat their hearts out
Given that, what is the logic to link Aadhaar with primary school education? Or
a free lunch in school? Does the state have the right to deny a meal to a poor c
hild if she hasn t signed up to be fingerprinted?
Second, it is silly to assume, as the sarkar must have done, that it is better t
o dole out cash rather than fresh cooked meals at schools. Yes, the anganwadi or
crche system or the midday meal scheme can go wrong sometimes because of the lac
k of basic hygiene or awareness in the hinterland. But those events are outliers
. On average, the anganwadi system for young children and midday meal schemes in
schools are doing all right, thank you very much.
The midday meal scheme as well as the Right to Education Act, which GoI signed i
n 2009, ensured that kids landed up in schools, whatever the standard of teachin
g was. Across states, the level of government school teaching ranges from nothing
to good . Even assuming nothing is taught but a meal is served, the kids and their
parents are better off.
Suppose every child lines up to get fingerprinted and her retina recorded and th
e sarkar decides to reward her parents with cash equal to the value of the midda
y meal. Given the graft and porosity of states administrations, what is the guara
ntee that even a single rupee will come through? Is this a replacement for a gar
am meal at lunch in school?
Even if teachers don t teach much in sarkari schools, anganwadi workers land up ev
eryday, whatever the weather, to feed the kids their midday meal. This was a tra
dition that began in Madras (now Chennai) in the mid-1920s, when the first midda
y meal scheme was started in schools. That it continues today is a mark of its r
obustness.
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Three, replacing a midday meal with cash transfers will be a blow to skills of s
ocialisation and possibly national homogeneity. But does the government care?
In our society, where norms about how you eat and with whom are rampant and it s a
shame to share a cup of water with someone across a caste or class or religious
divide, a shared school meal makes a big difference. Why? Sharing a meal in sch
ool, without having to bother about the identity of the person sharing it with y
ou, can teach a lesson for life to young children. Not knowing or caring about t
he caste or religion of the person cooking the meal might help dilute narrow ide
ntities in young minds. Applied properly and voluntarily to the correct projects
and people, Aadhaar is an excellent idea. Imposed on poor, schoolgoing children
, to possibly deprive them of fresh lunch, socialisation and attendance will be
an abomination.
In that case, ask yourself why the sarkar wills this. The only logical answer I
can think of is to build a database of every child who will become an adult in 1
0 years or so. This is a frightening thought.
Eric Arthur Blair, born in Motihari, modern Bihar, officer in Burma, journalist
in Britain, volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, would probably have had a tellin
g phrase to describe this recent drive by the government. After all, under his p
en name, George Orwell, he wrote today s bestseller, Nineteen Eighty-Four. And he
coined the phrase, Big Brother is watching you .
The sarkar is snooping on you more and more
March 9, 2017, 3:44 PM IST Jug Suraiya in Juggle-Bandhi | India | TOI
Big Brother is watching you. And every day Big Brother is getting bigger and big
ger.
Big Brother is our sarkar. And it s keeping tabs on us all the time. It s keeping ta
bs on whether we pay our taxes, whether we are doing or saying anything which mi
ght be interpreted as anti-national or subversive, whether we are engaged in any
activity deemed to be illegal, such as gambling in any form, or drinking alcoho
l in a dry zone, or eating or dealing in prohibited food, such as beef.
India is arguably one of the most surveilled societies in the world, and its cit
izens are subject to the most intense scrutiny by the government.
And the government s capacity to snoop on us is set to increase significantly. In
the last Budget, the Centre has allocated funds to employ 2.8 lakh more personne
l, mainly as tax officials and in the police force.
Thanks to an amendment in the Income Tax Act, revenue officials can now conduct
raids on business or residential premises to unearth undeclared assets merely on
suspicion, and without having any evidence that such assets actually exist.
With the government vigorously pushing for an increasingly digitized country, al
most all your daily economic and financial transactions from buying groceries to
paying for a subscription to a particular magazine or periodical are open to of
ficial inspection, and possible investigation, should the authorities concerned
feel that there is something fishy in your choice of fast moving consumer goods
(FMCGs) or reading material.
If you have a Facebook or a Twitter account, that too is likely to be looked int
o by the censorious eye of the sarkar through its increasingly active and empowe
red electronic sleuths.
One way or the other, by one government agency or the other, we are constantly b
eing watched in all our dealings: how and what we earn, what we spend on, whom w
e associate with, what our political or ideological affiliations are.
Thanks to the unrelenting gaze of the sarkar, there is little or no shade of pri
vacy left in our lives.
And the tragic irony of this is that despite all it watchfulness the sarkar seem
s unable to protect us from violent crime, particularly against women. According
to a recent report, there is a rape somewhere in the country every four minutes
.
Even as he continues to watch us, Big Brother can turn a selectively blind eye t
o such inconvenient realities.

Banking the unbanked: Is the NDA govt s flagship initiative Jan Dhan Yojana bearin
g fruit on the ground?
March 9, 2017, 2:00 AM IST Pulak Ghosh in TOI Edit Page | Edit Page, India | TOI
Sumit Agarwal, Shashwat Alok, Pulak Ghosh, Soumya Ghosh, Tomasz Piskorski, Amit
Seru
There is a big debate about the role of financial markets and products in shapin
g consumer welfare and real economic activity. In developed economies, there is
an increasing discussion that financial sector may have become inefficiently lar
ge and products offered to households may have become excessively complex. In co
ntrast, in many developing countries, like India, there has been a significant p
ush to increase the usage of financial products to complete the market. While ther
e is some empirical literature on the former, evidence on the latter is scant.
To address this we conducted an extensive scientific study of the largest outrea
ch programme in the world, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY). JDY was lau
nched in India on 28 August 2014, with the objective of providing banking servic
es to a large proportion of the unbanked population in India.
Our study has two modest objectives. First, we document the initial uptake and s
ubsequent usage of banking services that includes a savings account, overdraft f
acilities, and insurance benefits by the unbanked targeted by the programme. Sec
ond, we exploit the regional variation in pre-JDY financial access to explore ho
w expanding access to financial services is related to broader outcomes such as
lending, GDP growth, and consumer prices.
Several economic theories predict that financial inclusion programmes can direct
ly benefit lower income households at the micro level through savings, spending,
and reduction in transaction costs. What does the evidence say? We begin by doc
umenting substantial outreach of the programme that led to 255 million formerly
unbanked individuals getting access to formal banking services by November 2016.
About 77% of the new accounts maintain a positive balance with the average mont
hly balance of Rs 482, which is about 60% of the rural poverty line in India.
Overall, our micro-evidence suggests that there was substantial uptake by househ
olds under JDY. Moreover, both savings and transactions go up over time for indi
viduals banked under the programme. This evidence is consistent with learning by
individuals that results in an increase in usage over time as they gain familia
rity with banking services. The initial usage is also more frequent among marrie
d account holders.
We also note that financial inclusion programmes such as JDY can also have broad
er regional implications through at least two channels. First, such a programme
could allow new capital to come into the formal banking system by means of new d
eposits, relaxing the capital constraints. This would allow banks to increase le
nding to their clients.
Second, information asymmetry between new customers and lenders or other costs i
n acquiring new customers may imply that a programme like JDY may allow banks to
meet the unmet demand for credit for some households. To the extent that this i
ncrease in credit is large, one would see such programmes stimulating local econ
omic growth through increased consumption, investments, and employment.
To investigate such broader effects, we exploit spatial (regional) variation in
implementation of this programme to explore how access to consumer savings accou
nts is related to broader economic outcomes such as lending and local GDP growth
. To do this, we construct four pre-programme measures of JDY exposure that refl
ect the number of adults per branch in a region, the fraction of branches owned
by the state-owned banks in a region, the percentage of unbanked households in a
region, and a comprehensive index capturing the degree of financial inclusion i
n a region.
In districts with high ex-ante exposure to JDY, using aggregate data provided by
the central bank of India, we observe an increase in aggregate lending in areas
with greater ex-ante JDY exposure. We verify these effects are present in our m
icro data and find an increase in both the number of new loans granted and the a
mount of loans granted in regions with greater JDY exposure relative to those wi
th lower exposure. Our findings suggest that JDY may have allowed banks to meet
the unmet demand for credit for some households that did not have prior access t
o formal banking products.
We also examine the impact of JDY on a number of other macroeconomic outcomes at
 the regional level. Here we do not observe an economically significant change i
n the GDP growth rate in more affected areas. However, given our near-term focus
due to the short time series of data, it is possible that the overall impact of
the programme on GDP growth rate will manifest itself over the longer term.
We do find some evidence suggesting that the programme was associated with an in
crease in investments, though the data underlying this test is very limited. Imp
ortantly, we do not observe any significant relative change in the inflation rat
e in more exposed areas. This suggests that one of the common concerns that the
programme may have led to substantially higher price level due to a higher circu
lation of money and creation of additional demand may be unwarranted, at least i
n the near term.
Overall, our research has shown that a financial inclusion programme like the JD
Y can have a very meaningful impact on the number of households using formal ban
king services. Our results also suggest that JDY has led banks to cater to the n
ew demand for formal banking credit by previously unbanked borrowers, which coul
d have a positive impact on the broader economy in the long run.
Authors affiliation is as follows: Agarwal, Georgetown University; Alok, Indian S
chool of Business; Pulak Ghosh, IIM Bangalore; Soumya Ghosh, State Bank of India
; Piskorski, Columbia University; Seru, Stanford University.

For a new humanity

March 9, 2017, 12:42 AM IST Economic Times in The Speaking Tree | Edit Page | ET
By: OSHO
The most important need of humanity today is to be made aware that its past has
betrayed it. There is no point in continuing with the past, for doing so will be
suicidal.
The new humanity will not be asociety in the old sense, where individuals are on
ly parts of it. It will be a meeting of individuals where individuals are the ma
sters and society is to serve them. It will not have so many religions, it will
have only a religious consciousness. The individual, for the first time, will no
t be programmed; he will be helped to be himself. He will be given only tremendo
us love for freedom, so that he can sacrifice everything, even his own life but
he cannot sacrifice freedom.
There will be no marriage; love will be the only law. Unless everyone is well-ed
ucated and has at least a bachelor s degree, he will not be allowed to vote. There
will be a no-party system because people will vote directly for individuals. Th
e government, unlike now, won t have any power; it will be simply functional. It w
ill serve society in the real sense, not just in words. Life has so many dimensi
ons, but politics has dominated them all. Looking at a newspaper, someone on ano
ther planet would find it difficult to conceive what kind of people live on eart
h: only politicians? Murderers? Rapists? Criminals? Because the media reports ar
e full of these people and on top of everything is the politician. Newspapers sh
ould be full of creativity and positivity; only 10% should be given to the polit
icians and the negative elements.
Why Modivian politics will change India
March 12, 2017, 12:33 AM IST Economic Times in ET Commentary | India, politics |
ET
By Saubhik Chakrabarti
In responding the way it did to Narendra Modi, India s largest state has given Ind
ia s Prime Minister an opportunity that comes only to a few leaders in democracies
anywhere: the chance to refashion politics.
To radically transform politics in a country that arguably has the world s most br
utally competitive electoral marketplace, a leader needs two qualities. First, t
he courage to take big risks to induce systemic change.
Second, the ability to convince voters that those risks were worth taking. UP de
monstrates that Modi possesses both those qualities.
From here on, Modi whose seriousness of purpose is doubted only by those who thi
nk Rahul Gandhi is still a young leader with promise has enough political capita
l to take three transformative steps.
First, he can radically change BJP s work culture to one where ONLY performance co
unts. This process has begun. But it can and should intensify.
Every BJP cabinet minister, chief minister and general secretary should know tha
t their place is secure only because they deliver. Ruthless culling of non-perfo
rmers is uncommon in Indian politics. Modi is the one Prime Minister who can mak
e it a part of our political culture.
Second, by staunchly opposing identity politics, he can make the polity and the
economy more efficient. Modi isn t winning elections by appealing to Hindu sentime
nts you don t get 286 seats in Lok Sabha and 324 seats in UP by doing that. And as
UP has shown, pitted against a determined campaign based on the planks of gover
nance and development, the old maths of caste and community can go awry.
Of course, identity politics won t die. But if Modi campaigns the way he has been
doing on big, bold themes and the BJP keeps notching up wins, the logic of the p
olitical marketplace will weaken the sales pitch of identity politics.
Third, Modi can kill the false narrative that pits entrepreneurs against the poo
r. He s already started this. The PM who makes ease of doing business a priority is
also the PM who tells India Inc he s not interested in corporate lobbying.
And the PM who can convince the poor he s for them and against the crooked rich is
also the PM who can persuade Apple to manufacture in India.
If this is remarkable, post-UP Modi can go further. He can open the tap on radic
al economic reforms, keep building his pro-poor platform Jan Dhan, Aadhaar-based
welfare payments, subsidised insurance schemes and keep pushing the message of
aspiration.
Nehruvian politics shaped our democracy. Modivian politics can reshape it for th
e better.

Happiness and bhakti yoga

March 11, 2017, 12:21 AM IST Economic Times in The Speaking Tree | Spirituality
| ET
By Yogacharya Kundan Kumar
To attain jitendriyata is to achieve full control over one s senses. This leads to
what is called God-realisation. In this controlled state, all pain and sufferin
g cease permanently. The shortest and most suitable path ordained in this Kali Y
uga is bhakti yoga. This form of yoga, and all others, come under astanga yoga,
or the eight-fold yoga, which comprises the following:
* Yama, or ahimsa, satya asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha, meaning non-violen
ce, truthfulness, non-stealing, continuous meditation or remembrance by salutati
on to God and non-accumulation of nonessential things.
* Niyama, or sauch, santosh tapas, swadhyaya and ishwara pranidhana, meaning cle
anliness, both internal as well as external, contentment, rightful penance, self
-study and selfsurrender to God.
* Asana, or body postures in the yogic tradition.
* Pranayama, or control of prana.
* Pratyahara, or withdrawal of sense organs within.
* Dharana, or contemplation.
* Dhyana, or meditation.
* Samadhi, or total union with God.
Apractical thing to opt for is a practice of the eight-fold yoga with a special
stress on bhakti yoga. Bhakti yoga acquires greater potency when it combines wit
h some kriyas of astanga yoga like trataka neti and its various forms, according
to the needs of the practitioner.
However, all yogic kriyas should be learnt and performed under competent guidanc
e to avoid unpleasant results.

GST is the super expressway India must take to become an economic superpower
March 11, 2017, 12:18 AM IST Economic Times in ET Commentary | Economy, India |
ET
By Sachin Bansal
Almost 20 years ago, a pathbreaking infrastructure project that connected India
like never before took off. In more ways than one, the Golden Quadrilateral high
way network has contributed in a major way to our economy through increased trad
e, mobility and accessibility. This month, the blueprints of an expressway just
as important, if not more, may finally become a reality. The new highway goes be
yond the Golden Quadrilateral.
This not just connects major cities but reaches the entire country, every nook a
nd corner, and touches every single person within. Enter the goods and services
tax (GST).
The GST is nothing short of a super expressway with the power to create anationa
l market that works equally well for farmers in villages, families and businesse
s in small towns, and youngsters in corporate India. The problem is that the tol
l gates are down.
As Parliament meets for the second phase of the Budget session this month, legis
lations that bring the GST into effect must be in the forefront. It s no longer ju
st desirable but imperative if India is to emerge from the present global econom
ic rut as a more powerful and equitable economy. Already, there are major headwi
nds for the world economy from the US and Europe to larger emerging economies, a
nd the failure to pass the GST this session would release a deluge of ambiguitie
s towards consumers, businesses and investors.
It is commendable that the central and state governments have ironed out the fin
al few remaining details over the past few days. By all indications, the July 1
launch date will be met. GST is one of those rare economic reforms that enjoys m
ultipartisan support and has been worked upon by successive governments.
It is also reflective of the follies of current indirect taxes, with over a doze
n central and state levies choking interstate trade, and have led to imprecise c
lassification of products and services, high cost of compliance and the cascadin
g effect on prices from taxes on taxes. The value added tax (VAT), introduced in
2005, intended to fix many of those ills. But it achieved little in its diluted
, uneven form with states setting their own rules and rates.
SMEs Place Under the Sun
With the GST, we have the chance to relegate all of that to history. A product c
an then move from Kashmir to Kanyakumari without fear of double taxation or havi
ng to comply with state-by-state tax laws. Producers will find it easier to main
tain accounts as it s all digital, and consumers eventually benefit from lower, un
iform prices across the country.
The entry restrictions we face for e-commerce goods in over a dozen states will
also be a thing of the past. In fact, the tax predictability will add to million
s of formal jobs, besides raising productivity, output and consumption all posit
ive factors that could raise GDP by around 2 percentage points.
India s destiny lies in services, domestic consumption and small and medium enterp
rises (SMEs), unlike China s manufacturing and exports-fuelled growth. With the GS
T, SMEs can hope for a boost to their business. They can scale up without fears
of tax complexity or predatory regulation.
They can even hire more and pay more wages as the tax incidence reduces. SMEs ar
e our best bet if we have to empower millions of our youngsters to find work and
lift millions more from the clutches of extreme poverty.
So, government policies must work in their favour, even if SMEs lack a collectiv
e voice or tend to yield low bargaining power.
To that end, the provision of tax collected at source (TCS) actually works again
st SMEs that want to expand by selling online. It mandates that online marketpla
ces not traditional, offline retailers must deduct a percentage of the amount pa
yable to sellers and remit it to the government, which sellers can claim credit
for at a later stage.
While the decision to cap TCS at 1% is a welcome move, the provision in itself t
hrows up new challenges for SMEs, especially those operating on thin margins.
Besides, TCS chips away at one of the GST s core principles: that it would be indu
stry-agnostic. TCS also counters GoI s digitisation drive.
If, for example, a mobile shop owner in Ludhiana sells a phone screen guard wort
h Rs 100 through an e-marketplace, the GST draft law states that Rs 1 should be
withheld from the seller as TCS. However, if he has only earned Rs 5 from the sa
le, implying a notunusual 5% margin, the TCS freezes 20% of his working capital.
Multiply that by crores of rupees and the number is staggering.
The Tax Trap
TCS is not only a disincentive for sellers to move online, making a part of thei
r operations formal with clear audit trails, it also wrongly assumes they favour
tax evasion when selling online. If the objective is to increase compliance, th
e 1% rate can arguably be pruned down to 0.25%. That would be equally effective.
The next phase of the country s growth is likely to come from the millions of SMEs
closer to real India . By empowering SMEs through a favourable GST, we can reach t
he levels of society that are yet to reap the benefits of globalisation.

Penalty on customers: A myopic move by public sector banks

March 10, 2017, 11:55 PM IST ET Edit in ET Editorials | Economy, Edit Page, Fina
nce | ET
The State Bank of India s (SBI) move to reintroduce penalty on depositors who do n
ot maintain a minimum balance in savings account is short-sighted. This is so fo
r three reasons. One, the justification offered, of having to recoup the cost on
no-frills Jan Dhan accounts, is less than convincing. Two, if public sector ban
ks (PSBs) are seen to be mercenary in their treatment of customers, depositors m
ight well migrate to private banks that offer superior returns, if not service,
and deprive PSBs of their huge cushion of current and saving accounts (Casa). Th
ree, banks stand to lose goodwill, of which they will need oodles, when their ba
d loans are restructured, involving haircuts and perceived concessions to defaul
ting borrowers, deemed, for the most part, to be dodgy types. Of the 27.84 crore
Jan Dhan accounts opened so far, holding Rs 64,228 crore, PSBs account for abou
t four-fifths of the number of accounts and of the deposits. With increasing pro
portions of the government s subsidy expenditure being transferred to these accoun
ts as cash, banks stand to enjoy a float of a few lakh crore.
If they still feel they incur a net cost on Jan Dhan accounts, they are welcome
to satisfy a relevant committee of Parliament that they deserve a budgetary subv
ention for performing this public service. They should not endanger their Casa c
ushion. Casa account for about 47% of the total deposits in SBI and 37.4% of the
deposits in the other PSBs, yielding them a huge margin between the rates offer
ed on deposits and those charged on loans. If penal charges force customers to d
o a hard commercial comparison between PSBs and private banks such as the paymen
t banks that promise ubiquitous access and vote with their feet, PSBs would be l
eft with egg on their face, and some petty change in penalty collections, of cou
rse.
These banks are sitting on a pile of bad loans that need to be restructured. The
y also require more capital infusion. When public money is used to bail out a ba
nk, the public is likely to be more kindly disposed towards a benign fuddy-duddy
who makes mistakes than towards a Shylock who privileges tycoons.

Who tucks children into bed? This International Women s Day, let s talk about men an
d how much care work they (don t) do
March 8, 2017, 2:13 AM IST Antara Ganguli in TOI Edit Page | Edit Page | TOI
We need to talk about men. Women need to talk about men and men need to talk abo
ut men. Children need to start seeing men. Outside schools waiting to pick them
up, in doctors chambers on sick days, at football grounds and dance studios, walk
ing them to the park every day and tucking them into bed every night.
We need to see more men in kitchens. We need to see more men with mops. We need
to see more men with toddler puke on their shirts, hair greasy and eyes shadowed
. We need to talk about men on International Women s Day because until men inhabit
women s worlds we will never stop having the need for an International Women s Day.
For centuries women have fought for the right to inhabit paid, public worlds tha
t still belong to men. Women are now in space and in boardrooms, we head univers
ities, laboratories, battalions, surgical teams and UN agencies (although not th
e UN).
Women are outnumbering men in colleges and universities around the world. Often
there are only a few of us and at decision-making levels, men-only discussions a
re often still the norm. But we are there. We are no longer invisible.
Illustration: Chad Crowe
But in this time, men have barely stepped into the domestic, unpaid worlds that
remain the realm of women. Ask a pre-school teacher how many fathers come at noo
n to pick up children. Ask geriatric doctors how often their weekday waiting roo
ms fill with sons. See how many detergent advertisements feature men. Women are
taking up men s work but men are not taking up women s work. Not enough men and not
enough of the work.
The men who are stepping in are bitter about the low value and power of private,
unpaid work. A friend who is a primary caregiver for his toddler said that his
friends assume he is still looking for a real job. Another friend said he feels le
ss valued as a man because of his caregiving. These men are finding out that in
the race to gather assets and power (that is public, paid work), absence hurts.
Unlike these two men, women often don t even notice it.
When i asked a group of 17-year-old girls and boys in a village in Telangana if
their lives were equal they all nodded enthusiastically.
On further questioning it turned out that the girls wake up at four thirty in th
e morning to fetch water, chop vegetables, cook breakfast and lunch, pack lunch
and get a younger sibling ready for school. The boys wake up at seven. Forget ab
out counting the extra two and a half hours of sleep the boys get, the girls did
not even count the two and a half hours of work they do.
Beyond the moral imperative of gender equality, we need men to take on care work
for many reasons. First, they need to take on care work so that we are not lyin
g to girls when we tell them that they can be anything which we never qualify by
adding that they can do anything while also doing the dishes and staying up all
night with a teething child.
Men are often surprised by women s bitterness. Perhaps they do not see the dissona
nce we face as adults between the dreams we were sold as children and the lives
we now live, where we stay up nights, like our grandmothers and mothers before u
s, wondering what to tell our daughters. (The clever ones tell their sons.)
Second, we are losing out on half the population learning to nurture, learning t
o empathise, learning to love the feeling of caring for the vulnerable. If fathe
ring is socially reproduced in the same way that mothering is, it is not unimagi
nable that the wars of the world would diminish and the peacekeeping tables grow
larger, more diverse and more successful.
Finally, changing gender norms for men would lend greater mass to questions on t
he growing encroachment of livelihoods into lives. Many women choose to take time
off not to or not only to bring up a child but to enjoy life more than they did
in an office.
When men take time off too or at least demand different modes of contributing to
an economy, the employers of the world will be more likely to sit up and take n
otice, not just because of numbers but because it will no longer be reductive to
biology.
There will come a day when work and the power and happiness associated with work
is not gendered. When i do not worry what it means for my next job interview th
at the woman who had the role previously, quit after having children. When all-m
en meetings happen in pre-schools between teachers and parents and no one notice
s.
When poverty is not feminine and national censuses do not need to count women-he
aded households separately. When children can cry because they are children and
being strong is just holding on to the bars in the playground as long as you can.
None of this can happen without men doing a lot more than they currently do and
are currently allowed to do. I look forward to the day when International Women s
Day is like a national memorial of a freedom struggle against colonialism an imp
ortant reminder of a civilisational battle, fought and won and already history.

Spread the net: To radically expand internet access, Trai must make full use of
Wi-Fi networks
March 8, 2017, 2:00 AM IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page, India, Tech |
TOI
Internet access can enable Indians to leapfrog stages in development. A good ind
icator of its growing importance is the promise of free access made by politicia
ns in Uttar Pradesh s elections ending today.
Given this backdrop, telecom regulator Trai needs to be complimented for catalys
ing a public debate over the last eight months on ways to enhance broadband pene
tration through wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, networks.
India s internet penetration is not only poor with less than 30% of the population
having access, it ranks poorly in terms of affordability. These problems can be
overcome if Trai creates a conducive environment for internet penetration.
Today, internet in India is accessed mostly through mobile phones. With the adve
nt of Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, Wi-Fi networks have emerged as the most impor
tant source of getting Indians connected to internet. Wi-Fi networks have the ad
vantage of allowing many users to share the same internet connection.
Given these advantages, a Trai consultation paper has estimated that under some
assumptions cost per MB in Wi-Fi networks could be less than 2 paise, as compare
d to around 23 paise for data usage in cellular networks. Affordability lies at
the heart of any attempt to enhance internet access.
Trai s attempt to invite public participation in suggesting ideas to enhance acces
s has been underpinned by a broad description of public Wi-Fi networks.
The regulator is looking at not just traditional telecom and internet service pr
oviders, but also a new class of entrepreneurs who see an opportunity in providi
ng this service.
It is the right approach as competition has always worked in favour of customers
. It spurs innovation and eventually improves access.
But it is important that when Trai gives its recommendations on the subject, it
avoid a prescriptive approach. Access is best guaranteed when market forces prev
ail and regulators focus on protecting consumer interests.
The Narendra Modi government has made Digital India one of its focus areas and h
as pushed a transition to a less-cash economy. But if they are to be more than m
ere slogans, it is important to remove obstacles in the way of widening and deep
ening internet access in India.
In this context, Trai s recommendations will have salience and it is for the gover
nment to make necessary legal changes to actualise its slogans. When Wi-Fi techn
ology offers advantages, regulatory obstacles which prevent its rapid spread sho
uld be eliminated.

In praise of women
March 8, 2017, 12:38 AM IST Economic Times in The Speaking Tree | Edit Page | ET
By: Sumit Paul
Woman has been the primary source of intellectual inspiration for man. When Muha
mmad was disturbed by the divine voices echoing in his mind and doubted their au
thenticity, it was Khadija, his wife, who assured him that those voices were ind
eed from God. She was not only the first woman to embrace Islam but also the fir
st person to accept it from Muhammad.
When Edison was driven out of the school for being unintelligent , his mother knew
that her son was destined to become great he went on to become arguably the grea
test inventor of all time. Napoleon Bonaparte would have remained an ordinary so
ldier; his mother s faith in him made a diminutive man to become one of the greate
st military geniuses of warfare.
Interestingly, the Romans and Greeks preferred female soldiers. Alexander had an
army of female soldiers, who fought alongside men and were often better cavalie
rs. Roman historian Catallus observed that when women brandished swords as caval
iers sitting on horseback, they could control themselves better than men because
of their anatomical advantage. Cleopatra had female soldiers and female general
s in her army. She herself was a good swordswoman. Amazon is a Greek word for ex
pert fighter woman.
Closer home, Lakshmibai, Chandbibi of Ahmednagar, Razia Sultan and Chittoor s Quee
n Chenamma are examples of valiant female soldiers. Kalhan s Rajatrangini describe
s how the king of Kashmir had an army of women. He also had women philosophers i
n his court.

The problem is that the flaws tend to get magnified after a loss and overlooked
after a win. These problems had manifested themselves earlier during the series
against the England touring team and became very apparent at Pune.

Women s Day: Burst the bubble

March 7, 2017, 7:00 AM IST Bhagyashree Dassani in Back2basics | India, Lifestyle
| TOI
As Women s day approaches, I am often asked what are my thoughts about it . Why do
we need to celebrate Women s day? Is it for the women to be glad to have one day d
edicated to them to feel special or is it for the men to officially show a littl
e more understanding and acceptance of their fellow humans on that one day in th
e year? Either which way, it is condescending. Sorry to burst the bubble today i
tself, but aren t we living in fool s paradise trying to believe what we all hope fo
r a world where women can walk with men side by side?
We talk of the level of intolerance in our country, we say freedom of speech is
restricted, we say we live in a world of disparity, we talk about minorities, ab
out reservations, about religious and social differences that create strife and
yet we forget to address the most fundamental rule of life, treating all human b
eings alike. Why is there a need for voices to be raised for gender equality? Wh
y are there marches and epilogues on feminism? Why is the safety and position of
women all talk and no action?
Education, we say, is the first brick to the foundation of a civilized society.
Are we not lacking in that basic teaching if women still have to raise their voi
ces to be heard? The movie, Pink recently gave rise to the statement, No is NO! Wome
n have to constantly battle out their desires, their accomplishments, keep their
head above the water, have a sword hanging overhead, after all it s a Man s world.
So women get that one day to celebrate Women s day and shout out their achievement
s, pour out their grievances, list out their wants .. and then 9th of March everyt
hing becomes exactly the way it was before.
Too pessimistic you will say, but I m not far from the truth. Honestly, ask yourse
lves: Except for sales of jewelry and clothes, make up tips and food recipes onl
ine, award functions and recognizing achievements for media televised events, wh
at is a concrete change?
Do the women feel any safer? Are they given more opportunities? Do the men readi
ng this actually start treating the women in their lives with more empathy, more
grace, more acceptance, more pride?
I am not a bra burning feminist, and I do want the men in my life to be chivalro
us but I would still want my thoughts, my wishes, achievements to be held on par
with a male equivalent.
Instead of saying: let the best Man win why can t we say let the best person win. Le
t it begin at home where every individual is treated with the same respect, dign
ity, affection, graciousness as the so called Man of the House . This authoritative
position in every household should be given out of love, mutual respect and not
demanded out of fear. Let s mend the social fabric of every house to weave a soci
ety of love and peace for all.

Democracy remains the key to women s equality

March 8, 2017, 12:32 AM IST ET Edit in ET Editorials | Edit Page, India | ET
International Women s Day serves to remind us, lost, as we tend to be, in the hurl
y-burly of daily toil, of a vital goal of equality that has not only not been ac
hieved ever since it was recognised as a vital part of social emancipation but a
ppears as remote today as it was a decade ago.
Gender equality should not be the concern of women alone, but of all citizens wh
o want to live in a democratic polity and an equitable society. Sure, this canno
t be achieved by dedicating one day to the cause. But that one day should serve
to re-examine the work agenda towards equality and rededicate every organisation
to this goal.
In India, the next step towards gender justice varies, depending on one s location
. In some parts, it is ending female foeticide and getting girls into schools. I
n some circles, it is progressing to paternity leave. In some religions, it is e
nding bias rooted in personal law, in others, it is bringing tradition and pract
ice in line with reformed laws. In a place like Nagaland, customary law preclude
s women from political leadership, putting it at odds with the basic spirit of t
he Constitution. Unlike in countries with a relatively more even spread of socia
l development, in India, the relative liberation of working women, especially th
ose in the organised sector, from the drudgery of unpaid, unrecognised domestic
work comes at the expense of less fortunate women, who are still redeemed from a
bject poverty by the menial jobs they perform at other people s homes.
But all women live under the shadow of sexual violence in India, whether actress
es, call centre executives working late in the office or returning home at dusk,
rural women stepping out to relieve themselves or just about any woman deemed,
as per the norms of patriarchal tradition, to be transgressing codes of propriet
y in terms of dress, place, time or the gender of her companion.
Yes, there are horrid acid attacks by spurned men, but there are also women who
increasingly break the glass ceiling or fight back against sexual harassment at
the workplace. Stronger democracy is what all women need, along with men.

Don t link school meals to Aadhaar

March 8, 2017, 12:35 AM IST ET Edit in ET Editorials | Edit Page, India | ET
Requiring schoolchildren turning up for their midday meal to flash their Aadhaar
cards is absurd. Aadhaar makes sense in many subsidy schemes, because by transf
erring cash to the intended beneficiary s bank account, much fraud and waste can b
e eliminated. But this would not work with the midday meal scheme implemented na
tionwide in 2008.
If the aim is simply to make sure that more and more people enrol in Aadhaar, th
is would be the wrong way to go about it. Without coercion, more than a billion
Indians have already obtained their Aadhaar numbers. Forcing young children to e
nrol themselves for Aadhaar to get their free meal at school would make any kind
of sense only if the idea was to transfer money to the beneficiaries, instead o
f serving them a wholesome meal. But cash will not do in this case.
The midday meal scheme has multiple goals. It incentivises attendance, whatever
the standard of teaching. Some teachers do teach and the improvement in attendan
ce after the midday meal scheme came into place, has done more good than bad. Tr
ansferring cash, in the hope that the money would be spent on a nutritional meal
 for the child, does not guarantee either the meal or school attendance.
If Aadhaar and cash transfers, in place of midday meals, are inflicted on poor a
nd very young Indians, it would mean backtracking from two other goals. Midday m
eals make children mix with others from different backgrounds. It is also a way
to break down barriers of caste and religion differences that infest society tod
ay.
A meal shared among kids, irrespective of what neighbourhood or mohalla they hav
e come from, and irrespective of the caste or community of the cook, can break d
own artificial walls set up by the Manusmriti or new, divisive politics. Aadhaar
-linked transfers are not everything.

Is celebrating Women s Day, a kind of mockery in India?

March 6, 2017, 9:06 AM IST Barsha Nag Bhowmick in Life-n-Style | Lifestyle | TOI
We are about to celebrate Women s Day yet again. Is it that a concept like Women s D
ay is of very little significance in India? A few months back, a woman s head was
shaved off by her husband and in-laws, because she has given birth to second gir
l child. Most significantly this is at a time when the central government is emp
hasizing on empowering and securing the girl child with the slogan Beti bachao be
ti padhao .
In June last year, The Telegraph reported, an Indian woman was allegedly set on f
ire and killed by her husband s family because she was too dark-skinned and they w
anted him to remarry a fairer bride.
So people across middle and lower-middle classes in remote villages of India, an
d in cities also, are deeply rooted into age old ideas, superstitions and concep
ts, where women are never allowed to take the centrestage. Secondly, women s liber
ation in an Indian society and its celebration is restricted to the urban elite
pockets which organize female solidarity march , female only lunch , kitty parties , etc.
to celebrate Women s Day.
In remote villages of India, life is really tough for women. The real India, whi
ch reels under poverty, struggles for survival and earns daily bread to sustain
life, is least concerned, bothered and impacted by such events like Women s Day. S
o to say, women empowerment is really non-existent in rural India.
Travel less than a hundred kilometres from any of the cities and towns, and cave
man s mentality would appear intact. Women have to do most of the family chores, b
ut have no exposure to growth opportunities or health facilities. Most girls, no
t boys, handle household chores from childhood, at the cost of going to schools.
Women are suffering from malnutrition, neglected health ailments, domestic and
sexual violence.
It s a scenario where a woman owns nothing, not even herself. She has no income, n
o possessions. She is oppressed. It seems women, particularly in rural India, wi
ll never be able to experience even a semblance of equality with their male coun
terparts.
Under such circumstances, it would not make sense for an Indian to celebrate wom
en empowerment citing the success of female bureaucrats, journalists or business
tycoons. The fact that innumerable women in vulnerable social circumstances toi
l under the sun and which barely secures them two square meals, should make our
heads hang in shame. So is it not, that celebrating Women s Day is a mockery of op
pression suffered by women in various parts of India, and especially the rural c
ounterpart?

Solar energy: Now is the time for India to catch the sun
March 7, 2017, 12:41 AM IST Economic Times in ET Commentary | Edit Page, India |
 ET
By: Ashok Jhunjhunwala & Bhaskar Ramamurthi
The recent tenders for setting up and operating solar and wind power generation
farms show that the price of renewable power is now approaching that from greenf
ield coal-based power plants in India. It will not take too long for solar photo
voltaics to become the cheapest source of power.
But solar power is generated only during the day, that too intermittently. Simil
arly, wind power is generated during certain months and the power output also va
ries. If energy storage was inexpensive, one could have dealt with this intermit
tency by storing excess energy generated to be used when needed. Since grid-conn
ected energy storage continues to be very expensive, generated power needs to be
consumed instantly.
As the consumer demand for power also varies with time-of-day and season, there
is a problem of matching demand to supply, both of which vary independently. One
option would be to have excess capacity and get the non-renewable power generat
ors, which are under our control, to back off when needed. However, this strateg
y has to be adopted judiciously, as it will increase the cost of non-renewable p
ower.
Demand management, where the customer is incentivised to use more power when ava
ilable and consume less when there is a shortage, will help and will, indeed, be
come necessary. Smart buildings and factories will take us towards implementatio
n of demand management in time.
But what would really enable renewable power to become an unfettered dominant su
pplier is some kind of largescale storage. The electric vehicle (EV) is precisel
y such an application, where the cost of energy per km, including the cost of it
s storage, has to be only lower than the corresponding cost of a petroleum-based
vehicle, to be economically viable.
EVs use distributed storage. Growth of renewable energy in India, thus, has an E
V compulsion, as it requires EVs to grow in the country and provide the first la
rge-scale storage that the growth in renewables needs. In energy terms, if all v
ehicles in India were electric today, they would use up 15-20% of India s electric
ity generated.
The glasses are half full
If their batteries are charged intelligently, EVs could help overcome the interm
ittent nature of renewable-power generation. But are EVs in themselves economica
lly viable in India today? The EV needs batteries to store energy needed for its
operation. As battery prices fall steadily and the efficiency of motors grows t
o deliver higher mileage per unit of energy, there is a crossover point when EVs
with sufficient range per battery charge become a more cost-effective option th
an diesel, petrol or CNG based-vehicles. Left to itself, it may take three to fi
ve years for prices to fall enough in international markets for EVs configured f
or use abroad to emerge as a better alternative for consumers in India.
This, however, implies that India would be importing EV subsystems from the star
t, and it will be difficult to establish any kind of technology leadership. We m
ay later see local manufacturing of at least some of the subsystems. Nevertheles
s, there is the real possibility that the value of imports of EVs and EV subsyst
ems will match the oil import bill today and leave us no better off than today.
But there is another option towards large-scale EV adoption. The key elements of
EV technology are available today at the right prices for several types of vehi
cles widely used in the Indian market. With an innovative, coordinated and marke
t-oriented effort by industry and the government, certain EVs can be produced in
India today. Adoption can be rolled out rapidly in a fully market-driven manner
.
In these specific segments, India could attain a globally competitive leadership
position in three to five years. This effort will simultaneously encourage loca
l intellectual property (IP) generation and the manufacture of most EV subsystem
s or substantial parts of them. India can move towards substitution of oil impor
ts with locally produced energy and EVs including subsystems.
Apart from these intrinsic benefits of early adoption of EVs, it forces the simu
ltaneous growth of renewable energy production in India. This slew of reasons sh
ould drive us to single-mindedly pursue immediate efforts in a mission mode to e
nable early adoption of EVs in India.
Alaissez-faire attitude will negatively impact the indigenous manufacturing of I
ndia s future automobiles and subsystems as well as India s import bill. It will als
o slow down the integration of renewable energy sources into the grid at scale.
Jhunjhunwala is adviser, minister of power, coal, new and renewable energy, and
Ramamurthi is director, IIT-Madras

It s high time to jump from film censorship to classification

March 4, 2017, 12:16 AM IST ET Edit in ET Budget 2017 | Entertainment | ET
It is time to revamp the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The problem
is not just with its current illustrious chief rather, the problem is with the
entire body.
While the name of this statutory body suggests that its job is to certify films,
its guidelines mandate it to act a censor. It does not take more than a glance
to appreciate the total inanity of the guidelines, drawn up, clearly, by someone
who lacks any understanding of cinema or the arts in general.
The current controversy over two films Lipstick Under My Burkha and Ka Bodyscape
s, both of which have been denied certification stems from the illiberal and ant
i-constitutional right of the state to censor films. This should change. What we
need is certification, to guide people to avoid wrong choices for juvenile audi
ences.
The guidelines call upon the CBFC to make sure that a film being cleared for exh
ibition offers clean and healthy entertainment; artistic freedom and creative ex
pression are not unduly curbed; does not depict abuse of children; does not depr
ave the morality of the viewer; etc.
Clearly, the author of the guidelines either has no conception of the role of ar
t in society or does not think of cinema as art. Films are just for entertainmen
t, of the clean and healthy variety, a criterion that even a Tom and Jerry cartoon
might well fail in these times of politically correct squeamishness over violen
ce.
If the guidelines are to be observed strictly, no film can engage with the harsh
reality of life in unequal, hierarchical, misogynist India.
Only vacuous, singsong melodrama would pass muster. The government should follow
the recommendations of the Benegal committee, give up the mission of censorship
and merely classify films as regards their suitability for particular age group
s.

The GDP maze

March 3, 2017, 2:00 AM IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | India | TOI
Modi government must not neglect the economy, whatever message it puts out polit
ically
The latest headline number on the speed at which India grew between October and
December suggests that demonetisation did not have a significant impact on econo
mic activity. Government can thus claim the economy is fine. This conclusion is
misleading. While GDP grew 7%, a rate faster than some expected, details put out
by the Central Statistics Office also suggest the Indian economy has been losin
g steam for a year. Therefore, it is important that the Modi government continue
s to focus on both managing immediate economic challenges and carrying forward t
he process of reforms which alone can enhance long-term productivity.
India s large informal sector makes the task of calculating the level of economic
activity and its year-to-year growth challenging. Consequently, numbers are revi
sed for up to two years or more as a greater quantum of data for the informal se
ctor becomes available with the passage of time. For example, GDP data for 2015-
16 was recently revised upwards from 7.6% to 7.9%. In similar vein, given that d
emonetisation s negative impact would have fallen largely on cash intensive inform
al sectors, it is reasonable to assume there will be revisions.
Even the early data shows that growth of economic activity as measured by value
addition has been slowing down. For example, quarterly data on gross value added
growth has been slowing down for a year, recording 6.6% in the period between O
ctober and December. This suggests that even before demonetisation the economy w
as being held back by challenges. A serious concern is that public sector banks
are in bad shape. Reviving them may be the most important challenge finance mini
ster Arun Jaitley faces.
A resolution to the public sector banks bad loan problem is also a prerequisite
to revive private sector investment activity in the economy. This challenge requ
ires the government to expend political capital as there is a danger of any solu
tion becoming ensnared in populist rhetoric about crony capitalism. In addition
to dealing with this critical immediate challenge, India needs considerable refo
rm in land and labour markets, and in its regulatory architecture. It is only th
ese reforms which will make us a more productive economy and create jobs of suff
icient quality and quantity for the million young people who join the work force
each month. The first estimate of third quarter GDP of 2016-17 should not make
us lose track of the economy s needs.Hills Vs Valley

How Indian TV universe expanded

March 3, 2017, 1:16 AM IST Economic Times in ET Commentary | Entertainment | ET
By Partho Dasgupta
Growing affluence across India has also brought about an important social change
: an increase in nuclear families, the single-biggest change that has influenced
the ownership and viewing habits of India s growing TV universe.
This fact came out of a Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) study that co
vered 3,00,000 homes, 590 districts and 4,300 towns and villages with an overall
66% urban coverage.
From 153 million TV households in 2015, the Broadcast India study recorded a 19%
increase to 183 million TV households. The critical difference is that while th
e absolute number of TV households may have grown, the number of TV individuals
increased only by 16%, from 674 million to 780 million, during the period.
Sixteen years ago, one-third of Indian households had TVs. Today, close to two-t
hirds of households own TV sets. Two factors need to be looked at
One, 96.5% of these 183 million are single-TV households. This conveys that affl
uence may have led to the purchase of other consumer durables than opting to pur
chase a second TV.
The unique Indian habit of the entire family sitting together prevails. Two, urb
an India may have 84 million of the total 183 million TV households, with a pene
tration of close to 87%. But rural India has overtaken it with 99 million TV hou
seholds, even as TV penetration remains 52%.
This points to an opportunity for exponential growth in the coming years. Intere
stingly, it is the pre-youth segment (15-21years) where TV individuals have incr
eased by 13%.
The study also shows changes in demographic trends according to Barc s New Consume
r Classification System (NCCS).
Across India, NCCS D and E homes (classified according to urban socioeconomic se
gments) shrunk by 19%. Which means people are moving up the affluence chain. The
relative share of NCCS A homes has also come down due to the rise of nuclear fa
milies.
Which is why TV has grown faster in NCCS B and NCCS C homes as these middle-clas
s households have increased at a faster pace compared to others.
As the TV universe has grown, the type of connections households have has also c
hanged. Largely a terrestrial and analogue cable-led country, the advent of digi
tisation has seen direct-to-home (DTH) take a 35% market share, while digital ca
ble has 23%.
Analogue cable still stands at 40% of the total TV households and terrestrial ha
s significantly reduced to 2% market share. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, wit
h the highest growth (59%) in TV individuals, have seen this spurt be cause of t
he huge improvement in infrastructure like power.
According to the National Family Health Survey 2015-16, close to 90% of househol
ds in MP have electricity.
The contribution of good power supply is critical. Indians love for entertainment
is something known globally, the reason why some of the lower-strata NCCS D and
E homes have access to TV. In fact, while three in 10 NCCS D and E homes have a
TV set, only two in 10 NCCS D and E homes have gas stoves.
While close to all NCCS A homes have a TV, of the other durables, only 20% house
holds have air-conditioners, 62% have washing machines, and 92% have refrigerato
rs a figure that is still less than TV ownership. India is changing fast and the
pace will increase in the coming years.
Here is what one can see happening in the very near future after gleaning facts
from the Barc study: 100% digitisation of TV households; rising disposable incom
es and expanding middle class ensuring that durables keep growing and households
will move across the NCCS; propensity to consume will increase; urban TV penetr
ation will slowly grow; and rural TV penetration will rise multifold.

FDI policy needs careful consideration, not just easy announcements

March 3, 2017, 12:58 AM IST Economic Times in ET Commentary | Economy | ET
By Vivek Gupta
Over the last five years, more than a dozen changes to India s foreign direct inve
stment (FDI) regime have been announced. Each time with much fanfare. Each chang
e has found itself labelled with various adjectives, ranging from transformationa
l and big ticket to the more sedate progressive and meaningful . Relaxations have occur
ed across sectors.
Retail has been a favourite. But others such as real estate, defence, financial
services, pharma and even media have also seen some action. Budget 2017 even sig
nalled the abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) itself.
Attention Seeker
We now find ourselves on the cusp of another such big government announcement.
And as speculation mounts, unnamed sources provide insights and breaking stories
emerge virtually every day on what GoI is likely to do, one core question arise
s: what will the actual impact and longevity of each such change be?
FDI policy is a vital governance area that has to reflect carefully considered t
hought, a reasonable vision, and occur on the foundation of basic principles tha
t have on-ground endurance. Notwithstanding the social media success that each s
uccessive announcement generates, the government must resist the temptation of s
eeing this FDI policy area as an easy announcement to make.
Let me take an example. Retail was opened to FDI in 2012 by the UPA government,
with a policy that came with ahost of limiting conditions. Even as it became cle
ar that the stated policy did not really allow for a feasible economic model, on
ly marginal relaxations and incremental clarifications kept emerging from the go
vernment.
The result: despite India s large market opportunity, foreign investors have staye
d away from taking multibillion-dollar bets in this physical retail space. Yes,
some interesting plays have occurred, but confined mostly to single-brand retail
and nowhere close to the billions expected.
Contrast this to e-commerce where, fortunately or unfortunately, the policy has
not been as prescriptive and GoI has been a silent spectator. There is actually
one detailed announcement which was more or less post facto and, to some extent,
forced by the Delhi High Court and the litigation initiated by the retailers ass
ociation.
And what do we have on the ground? Perhaps close to $20 billion of FDI in that s
pace today, with an equal amount anticipated over the next five years. Ancillary
industries around this sector have spawned a new generation of entrepreneurs. L
ocal businesses have been empowered with reach and markets have, perhaps, become
more competitive and perfect.
As policymakers think through how India s FDI policy should be shaped, one must re
cognise that the current global situation is unique. We are seeing the return of
nationalism and domestic populism in a manner that hasn t been seen before, at le
ast in recent history. Britain, the US and parts of Europe confirm this current
trend.
The worrying aspect, particularly for an emerging economy like ours is that this
return to nationalism is now as much an economic call as it is political. And s
o, over the next couple of years, one expects to see attempts by governments in
these countries to execute some degree of trade barriers, incentivise economic a
ctivity within their territories through tax cuts and disincentivise overseas acti
vity in a variety of ways.
Cerebral Policy
It is in this environment that it becomes extremely critical that any step India
takes on the FDI policy route is something that offers and creates a model on t
he ground that is economically feasible.
If companies need proper intellectual property (IP) protection for their high-en
d defence technology and that means that super majority controlling rights shoul
d be available to a foreign company in its joint venture agreement then if India
wants foreign investment in that area, the relaxation must be made.
If a foreign retailer needs to be able to create a normal supermarket store that
not only retails food items but also stocks some usual non-food items, it follo
ws that if we want the investor to come in, we will need to allow that
The policy decision that GoI needs to make is largely which areas it wants to op
en up for FDI. Once that decision is made, if the policy contains unreasonable r
estrictions that economics cannot support, then the change or the liberalisation
will not work. Experience has shown us that.
This is not to say that all sectors be fully opened up. Actually, far from it. G
oI needs to obviously balance societal sensitivities, political compulsions and
national interests while devising policy. What GoI should do is apply the same r
igour and comprehensive approach it has shown it can apply in other areas of eco
nomic activity like the entire policy framework around the coal sector, for inst
ance to the FDI policy as well.
Clear decisions for each sensitive sector must be made on both parameters: where
are we open and where all big-ticket investment is likely to enter India. And t
hen, a policy framework that supports economic activity in a way that we can com
pete aggressively for capital flows should be made and announced. That will be t
ruly transformational.

RBI, scrap these cash transaction charges

March 3, 2017, 12:52 AM IST ET Edit in ET Editorials | Economy | ET
In February, the government said that 20 million new zero-balance bank accounts
had been created, ostensibly to get India s underbanked citizens into the formal f
inancial system.
Less than a month later, three of the country s largest private sector banks ICICI
, HDFC and Axis have imposed costs on consumers for transactions in cash at bank
branches.
Only four cash withdrawals or deposits would be free per account in a branch. Fr
om the fifth transaction, a minimum of Rs 150 would be added on as cost.
ICICI Bank would levy an additional Rs 5 every Rs 1,000 transacted. ATM transact
ions are exempt, they say: only branch transactions are affected. Oh, really?
A country of 1.33 billion people has less than 2.2 lakh ATM machines, mostly con
fined to metropolitan sites.
Everybody else in the vast hinterland has to operate through branch banking. Res
tricting third-party cash transactions to Rs 25,000 per day as HDFC Bank propose
s, or Rs 50,000 per day, as ICICI Bank will have it, along with these new cash t
ransaction costs, can destroy small and medium business, the informal and farm e
conomy, and slam the brakes on growth.
Zero-balance and salary accounts have not been spared the four-transactions-per-
month rule by private banks. If the government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) d
o not step in immediately to stop private banks from imposing these transaction
costs, state-owned banks might also follow suit.
If that happens, then the hope of extending formal banking to most of India will
be proved a farce. A new banking apartheid, which favours wealthy customers and
large transactions and excludes the small person from the banking system, will
become the norm. The aim should be to make digital transactions so easy and cost
less as to make use of cash look foolish.

GDP slowdown in the third quarter has hit important sectors of industry and serv
ices very badly
March 2, 2017, 12:15 PM IST Pyaralal Raghavan in Minority View | Economy | TOI
The much awaited quarterly numbers on GDP growth has surprised many. Contrary t
o expectation of cynics the GDP slowdown has been marginal with growth moving do
wn from 7.9% in the third quarter of 2015-16 to 7.1% in the third quarter of thi
s year a decline of just a few decimal points rather than the massive slowdown a
nticipated.
And the advance estimates brought out earlier in the year has indeed projected a
slowdown in the second half of 2016-17 even without incorporating the impact of
demonetization which meant that third and fourth quarter growth had to be defin
itely below the 7.2% and 7.4% clocked in the firs two quarters of the year.
However, the numbers on growth of value added, which is the real income generate
d and exclusive of net taxes levied, indicates the slowdown has been even less s
evere with growth rates dipping from 7% in the third quarter of the last year to
jut 6.6% in the current year. However, more detailed investigations across sect
ors show that some of the most important sectors have been badly affected. One o
f the worst hit has been the manufacturing sector, where growth has slowed down
from 12.8% in the third quarter of the last year to 8.3% in the corresponding pe
riod of the current year, a huge decline of 4.5 percentage points.
This is significant given that almost a third of the output of the manufacturing
sector originated in the unorganised or informal sector which was worst hit by
the demonetization drive. The small production units with many workers working i
n households would have been unable to function with traders, dealers and other
intermediaries starved off cash.
The other major sectors affected include two of the three segments of the servic
es sector. Of this two the worst affected was financial, real estate and profess
ional services where growth slowed down 10.4% to 3.1% over the two quarters, whi
ch indicates a decline of more than 7 percentage points.
The fall in trade, hotels, transport and communication was slower with the growt
h decelerating by a little over 2 percentage points from 9.6% to 7.2% during the
period. However, in the case of public administration and defence growth accele
rated from 7.5% to 11.9% indicating that the government had boosted spending to
the maximum to minimize the impact of demonetization.
Other sectors affected are mining and quarrying and construction. With small sca
le mining and quarrying almost wholly in the unorganised sector it is no big sur
prise that the production was badly impacted in both segments. However, the impa
ct of this extensive deceleration in growth across major sectors has been neutra
lized to a large extent by the pick up in production in the electricity and gas
segment and in agriculture.
In the case of electricity and gas production picked up from 4.1% in the third q
uarter of the last year to 6.8% in the third quarter of the current year. But ev
en more impressive is the pick up in agriculture where the good monsoon has boos
ted production to pick up by 6% as against the 2.2 decline in the same period of
the previous year.
The sharp surge in agriculture output has come at the right time as it would hav
e boosted the income in the rural sector where most people reside. And given tha
t agriculture employs around half the population in employment the boost from ag
riculture would have been significant especially since it comes on the back of t
wo successive years of drought.
The impact of the good performance of the agriculture sector on the economy is e
vident from the consumption figures which show that the share of private consump
tion spending went up from 58.7% in the third quarter of 2015-16 to 60.7% in the
third quarter of 2016-17. The large government expenditure incurred including o
n the pay commission recommendations has pushed up share of government spending
and boosted growth from 10% to 11.2% during the period. So the major thing that
has saved the economy from a sharp slowdown in the third quarter is the higher c
onsumption spending by the households, following the boost to agriculture and ru
ral incomes, and the government both of which helped avert a more massive meltdo
wn.

Will India be able to bridge the growing gap in infrastructure investments?

March 2, 2017, 4:43 PM IST Pyaralal Raghavan in Minority View | India | TOI
Infrastructure deficit has been one of the major hazards that had weighed down
growth of the Indian economy. This is despite the fact that the country has been
able to boost infrastructure spending to more than 5% of the GDP, which is far
higher than most other Asian nations, but far below that of China which spends a
s much as 7% of the GDP on this segment. Estimates show that while India spends
as much as $ 118 billion on infrastructure each year while China spends as much
as $686 billion.
This is highlighted in the report brought out by the Asian Development Bank (AD
B) titled Meeting Asia s Development Needs which estimates that the funds required
for building infrastructure in Asia would be much higher than previously antici
pated. According to these estimates maintaining current growth momentum would re
quire that Asia Pacific countries spend as much as $ 22.6 trillion in the 2016-3
0 period or $ 1.5 trillion annually. However, if climate change and adaptation c
osts are considered the amount touched $26 trillion or $ 1.7 trillion annually.
While the baseline scenario would push infrastructure costs to 5.1% of GDP the c
limate protection scenario would raise it further to 5.9%.
However, what is of concern to us is that is that India has one of the toughest
challenges, something even greater than China. According to the ADB estimates I
ndia would require to invest as much as $4363 billion during the 2016-30 period
or an annual amount of $ 291 billion, or to 7.4% of the GDP, which is way above
that of all major economies and many fold larger than the $ 118 billion currentl
y spent. However, mitigating climate change would require that India spend $ 575
2 billion over the fifteen year period which amounts to an annual outlay of $ 34
3 billion or 8.8% of the GDP.
This is a huge outlay when compared to that needed by other countries including
 China. According to the ADB estimates though China would need infrastructure in
vestments of $ 13,120 billion during 2016-30, which is three times that of India
in nominal value, the size of this investments relative to its GDP is only 5% a
s compared to 7.4% that India needs. Similarly if China is raising its infrastru
cture investments to $ 15267 billion to meet the needs of adapting to climate ch
ange its value in relative terms of the GDP will still be only 5.8% much lower t
han the 8.8% that India needs.
So the big question is how India will be able to raise additional resources for
the huge infrastructure needs of the economy in the next decade and a half. Eve
n meeting basic requirements demand that India more than double its infrastructu
re investments from the current level of $ 188 billion to $ 291 billion. But eve
n more formidable is the task of raising infrastructure investments for adapting
to climate change which would require India to almost treble annual investments
to $ 343 billion. This is a gigantic task which the Indian government should ta
ckle at the earlies

ndia would do well to heed OECD s advice on comprehensive tax reforms to promote i
nclusive growth
March 2, 2017, 12:10 PM IST Pyaralal Raghavan in Minority View | Economy | TOI
The OECD s most recent report on India is profuse with praises on the achievements
in the economic sphere. Pointing out that India still remains the fastest growi
ng G20 economy the OECD report says that this can be attributed to a number of r
easons. The foremost among them are the acceleration of structural reforms, stri
cter adherence to a rule based framework, which is economic speak for less corru
ption, and low commodity prices.
However, the OECD does not baulk when it comes to the critique on the problems b
esotting the economy. In fact it ascribes the current investment slowdown to a h
ost of problems including the high corporate tax rates, non availability of adeq
uate amounts of land, stringent regulations, infrastructure bottlenecks, weak co
rporate balance sheets and high non performing assets of the banking sector.
Most importantly it also puts a big question mark on fiscal consolidation achiev
ements by pointing out that despite all tall claims the debt GDP ratio continues
to go up. So it calls for better fiscal management by going for sharper subsidy
reform to divert funds and increase allocations for social and physical infrast
ructure and also by increasing tax collections by mobilizing more resources from
personal income taxes and increasing property tax rates. It wants that energy a
nd water prices to reflect the economic costs and replace subsidies with targete
d financial support. However, it also wants that electricity and water infrastru
cture to be upgraded and their access improved to all sections.
Thus unlike the World Bank and IMF policies, which normally focused on cut in bo
th subsidies and tax rate, the OECD approach is more nuanced. While it recommend
s that subsidies be replaced with targeted financial benefits and corporate tax
rates reduced it also focuses on raising the tax GDP ratio. This it points out i
s due to the small number of tax payers and low property taxes.
Not only does the OECD study recommend higher property or real estate taxes for
better resource mobilization of the urban bodies but it also calls for removing
tax expenditure or tax exemptions that favor the rich. However, to prevent the c
ontinued exodus of income tax payers from the tax net it also wants the governme
nt to freeze the minimum income threshold at which taxes apply.
Other tax reforms recommended is the removal of uncertainty about tax rules whic
h frequently results in long drawn tax disputes. Other handicaps highlighted on
the tax front are the inadequate staffing of the tax administration and poor tra
ining levels which create additional hurdles for tax payers and also erodes tax
mobilization efforts. Such reforms would raise more revenues promote social equi
ty and help sub national government to respond better to local needs says the OE
CD and that is sound advice that the government should heed.
Sense and censortivity: The secret fantasy of the Central Bored of Film Certific
ation
March 2, 2017, 2:00 AM IST Bachi Karkaria in Erratica | Edit Page, Entertainment
, Humour, India | TOI
It was my secret desire to put on lipstick and throw away my burkha. But I ve obed
iently thrown away the first and modestly put on the second because the Central
Board of Film Certification has said stories cannot be lady oriented, their fanta
sy above life . Great faith I have in Censor-ji, trusting him sau taka to preserve
India s culture, traditions, morals, secular fabric and nozone layer. So, instead
of that dangerous film, I m settling down to watch another Prakash Jha production
, Pahlaj-lal Ke Haseen Sapne .
Yes-ji, this film is lady oriented , but, no-ji, it is not about any fantasy-mantas
y. Indian women don t even know how to spell that word; in fact their spelling is
almost as bad as Shri Nihalani s. But why bother about his spelling when he is so
good at dictation?
This pure-as-desi-ghee film opens with a wide angle shot of disgustingly modern
girls in offices, malls, pubs, etc. The camera sweeps over them, as frontal as a
male gaze; a remix of Choli ke peechhey throbs. Clever CG pixelates this image, a
nd a small figure emerges in slo-mo. It pans to reveal a woman. She wears a tigh
t martyred look. As the details emerge we see that she is in chains. No, no, not
those kinds of chains, buddhu. This is not some S&M film with contanious sex sce
nes .
She s not chained to a bed, but to a stove. You see, ladies exist only to satisfy
the appetites of men. Yes, yes, she can steam up some sex makkhanwala, so long a
s it s only the male who is getting the makkhan.
In Nihalani s earlier B Grade films, the buxom heroines cavorted khullam khulla wi
th leering heroes, and emerged from pools in revealing, clinging saris. But this
is the new, improving, washes-whitest Pahlaj-lal, remember. So, in his Haseen Sa
pne there s nothing revealing. Nothing except stupidity.
Mad-or-wot? After her stuff is done, his lady does not light a cigarette. In our
chaste arya-nari culture, there s no smoke without a censor s ire.
P.S. Nihilism, c.1900, found nothing to approve of in the established social ord
er. Nihalaniism, c. 2016, finds nothing to approve of in films that question the
established social order.

Is India Well? While health indicators improve, more needs to be done to shore u
p Indians health
March 2, 2017, 2:00 AM IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page, India | TOI
India s health indicators have made significant improvements over the last decade.
Indices such as infant mortality are down while institutional deliveries and se
x ratio are up. Data gathered during the fourth phase of the National Family Hea
lth Survey show that even a state like Haryana has experienced a commendable cha
nge in its sex ratio at birth it went from 762 females per 1,000 males in 2005-0
6 to 836 females per 1,000 males in 2014-15. India s total fertility rate also dec
lined to 2.2 close to the replacement rate of 2.1 from 2.7 over the decade.
Add to this the increase in immunisation coverage across the country with almost
70% of children fully immunised, compared to 44% in 2005-06. There was also a s
ignificant 10% decline in stunting while the percentage of underweight children
reduced from 42.5% to 35.7% in eight years. All of this shows that even moderate
investments in the health sector backed by good policies such as the Universal
Immunisation Programme can make a significant difference to society. If current
standards of awareness and infrastructure can bump up institutional deliveries f
rom 38.7% to 78.9% over a decade, then imagine the positive output if the govern
ment outlay for health was made commensurate with global levels.
Government expenditure on healthcare is a little over 1% of GDP today. In contra
st, the world average healthcare outlay stands at 5.99%. While there does exist
quality private tertiary care in urban areas, public hospitals are poorly staffe
d, overburdened and saddled with inadequate infrastructure. The situation is wor
se in rural hamlets. This dichotomy has made access to healthcare expensive and
hugely cumbersome for the vast majority of the people. Add to this a shortage of
nearly five lakh doctors in the country. Thus, while progress in health indicat
ors is commendable, much more needs to be done to universalise access to quality
healthcare in India.

States have more autonomy than ever before, must stick to fiscal rules for their
own good
March 2, 2017, 1:00 AM IST Hema Ramakrishnan in Exchequer | Edit Page, India, po
litics | ET
Many Indian states will grapple with public finances as they present their annua
l budgets this spring. Top on the agenda of elected governments will be to spend
money to fulfil poll promises.
The list free electricity for farmers, loan waivers, mobile phones to ration car
dholders, distribution of laptops, etc varies from state to state. While doles l
ike the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act are needed, other
s can hurt state finances and the country s macroeconomic health.
Four years ago, the Supreme Court had criticised the practice of prepoll sops be
ing announced by political parties. Yet, Tamil Nadu s new chief minister Edappadi
K Palaniswami now vows to implement the Amma Two-Wheeler Scheme from this year.
And you got to tighten your own belt
In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, NChandrababu Naidu has to set aside money for un
employment doles. North Indian parties in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab will also go
on a spending binge. States should realise that they cannot live beyond their me
ans, especially when the economy is yet to really zip along.
This year s Economic Survey rightly underscored the need for market discipline, sa
ying macroeconomic conditions will not be as favourable to states as they were i
n the mid-2000s. Its suggestion that the Centre should reward fiscal prudence by
states, acting as a model through its own fiscal management, makes sense.
State budgets account for more than half of general government spending. This me
ans their combined deficit would have a bearing on the overall macroeconomic sta
bility.
To be fair, five states Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab
adopted the Fiscal Responsibility Legislation (FRL) ahead of the Centre s law. The
goal was to limit the overall deficit to 3 per cent of the gross state domestic
product (GSDP) and wipe out revenue deficit by 2008-09. The global financial cr
isis halted progress for two years.
Remarkably, states achieved fiscal targets right away, and progress was reasonabl
y durable. The Survey s comparison of 11pre-FRL years to 10 years afterwards showed
that fiscal deficits fell by almost half: from an average of 4.1 per cent of GS
DP to 2.4 per cent of GSDP. Revenue deficits also fell sharply. Higher growth an
d more transfers from the Centre also helped.
Start Target Practice
The picture has changed. Weak private investment, uncertain global economic envi
ronment and tepid exports pose a challenge for states as well.
A special report by Ind-Ra on the budget performance of 23 states projected that
budgetary targets are likely to be missed in 2016-17. And at an aggregate level
, states are likely to have had a revenue deficit for a third consecutive year i
n 2015-16 they have to borrow to fund their expenses that do not create capital
assets.
Concerns over continuance of revenue deficits in relatively high-income states s
uch as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana are not misplaced. Structural reform
is the answer to reverse the trend.
Take the power sector. Jammu and Kashmir, which has already presented its budget
, admits to having the highest transmission and distribution losses in the count
ry. Reckless politically mandated tariffs and open theft of power must end.
Giving away power for free has wrecked many state utilities. Generating companie
s are wary of selling electricity to states whose utilities are broke.
Without tariff increases, warns the OECD s 2017 Economic Survey on India, the cent
ral government s Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana may simply add to the debt burden o
f state governments, while liabilities at distribution companies build up again.
People must pay for power and water they consume as states need revenues to spe
nd on education, health and infrastructure.
Reform in land and labour market rules is also overdue. Low uniform stamp duties
across states will help boost revenues. The case to bring the real estate secto
r under the goods and services tax (GST) is compelling to curb evasion.
Finance commissions have repeatedly recommended more discipline: lowering the de
bt-to-GDP ratio for the Centre and states combined, zero revenue deficit and eme
rgence of revenue surplus. The combined debtto-GDP ratio stood at 69 per cent in
2015-16. Ahigh debt-to-GDP ratio, despite the Centre s fiscal consolidation, make
s it imperative for states to put their fiscal house in order.
The popular perception that sops help governments reap political rewards makes f
iscal prudence a tough goal. No state should have a perverse incentive to stay b
ackward either. Those that strive the best should be rewarded the most. States ow
n tax effort, progress in physical and social infrastructure creation and other
measures must be used to devolve funds.
States share of tax devolution increased to 42 per cent from 32 per cent of the d
ivisible pool, based on the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. But
many centrally sponsored schemes were withdrawn. The net result: states have mor
e autonomy now in deciding how to spend money. They should do so wisely.
Freedom to Change
Comprehensive tax reform, building up on the GST laws, would lift all boats, say
s the OECD, rightly. GST subsumes all indirect duties and levies, and will preve
nt cascading of taxes. States will also gain from being able to tax services.
Will they slack off on revenue collections as the Centre has guaranteed compensa
tion for revenue losses during the transition? States must not do so. They must
ensure that they follow fiscal discipline for their own good.

Are Indian women born unequal?

March 1, 2017, 10:05 AM IST Sunil Sharan in Strategic Insights | India | TOI
In a land where female infanticide has become a pandemic, a landmark judgment of
the Supreme Court of India and another of the Delhi High Court give hope.
A federal law comes into being when it is passed by Parliament and signed into l
aw by the President. Another way for a federal law to come alive is when the Sup
reme Court (or a high court) interprets an existing statute or a group of existi
ng statutes in a certain way.
A federal law applies to every nook and cranny of the land, and to every person
residing within it. It can be disputed, but once again the judgment of the Supre
me Court is final and binding. On such basis abides the Republic.
Just like the caste system, dowry has been an inescapable custom in India from t
ime immemorial. In days gone by, dowry or lack therefore was a scourge that made
countless women perish in flames. As women started entering the work force, dow
ry deaths seem to have lowered in frequency, if only because the bride earns now
, what she earns counts as part of her dowry, and why kill the goose that lays t
he golden egg.
Another phenomenon is becoming increasingly apparent in India. In the past, the
bride s family bore the brunt of the wedding expenses, in addition to footing all
of the dowry. Now, the groom s family chips in quite often and quite handsomely to
 the wedding s cost. In addition they gift the bride a considerable amount of mone
y and jewellery. The groom then is in effect bringing his own dowry to the marri
age.
So far so good. But one practice has by and large remained unchanged: that only
sons get a father s property. The Supreme Court changed all that in 2005 by bequea
thing daughters equal share in the ancestral property of a father. The father mu
st not have been deceased before 2005 for this law to take effect.
Whoa! Here was the panacea to making daughters equals. But not so fast. Objectio
ns arose. Does ancestral property only mean the property that a deceased father
inherited or bought with means from his father, or does it also include property
that the deceased father created all by himself?
Even if property created by the deceased father all by himself doesn t count as an
cestral property, it has been an axiom of Indian life that tens of crores of son
s grow up in their father s estate, which the father inherited from his own father
, and when the father passes away, the sons have traditionally been sole claiman
ts to what is ancestral property as defined by by the Supreme Court.
Educated Indians rant and rail against khap panchayats. How can these illiterate
villagers defy the laws of the land with near-total impunity? But when it comes
to their own selves, the elite and middle classes are no less law-bending. Witn
ess how the 2005 law is being subverted.
A father, who had a son and two daughters, died in 2006. He had considerable anc
estral property, land inherited from his own father. But he doted on his son, an
d willed all the ancestral property to him. The daughters protested, wanting the
ir rightful share. No way, Jos. The daughters rebellion was quelled with a pittanc
e of money and every type of no-objection certificate.
The daughters complied, not wanting to disrupt family harmony. But isn t the the
law of the land supposed to reign supreme here, and not just the wishes of a par
ochial father? This story is being repeated in countless cases across the land.
Then in 2008, the Delhi High Court allowed a female member of to become the Kar
ta of a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). The Karta is the boss of the family and ca
n take any and all property decisions on its behalf. Previously, when a father,
who obviously was the Karta of an HUF, died, the oldest son became the Karta. Bu
t this practice became open to widespread abuse.
Now the widow of the father can become the Karta. But in a case that I know of,
the mother adored the older son. Upon her husband s passing, under one false prete
xt or another, she got the younger son to sign paperwork making his older siblin
g the Karta.
When the younger son realized the subterfuge, he asked his mother to become the
Karta, just as the 2008 law allowed her to become. That way at least his brother
would not get his dibs into all the family property. But in the autumn of her m
atriarchy, the mother refused: she said that she was too old and close to dying.
And the younger son should stop being greedy and a whiner.
Property issues are fraught with emotion in India. But all that faux tango is st
uff and nonsense. It s really all a fight over cold, hard cash. Fine. But then why
demonize and calumnize the other party? And if the excuse is that dowry is give
n to a woman in lieu of property, then don t give the dowry. Just give her her sha
re of the property. As it is, in most cases, the dowry is given to the groom and
his family, leaving the poor bride with little to show for herself.
With the 2005 and 2008 judgments, the higher judiciary has tried to redress the
imbalance against women: you are all siblings, all of you will get equal share i
n property. It is so unfortunate, and also so typical, that Indians of almost ev
ery strata are busy coming up with their own nefarious schemes to derail the Sup
reme Court s will.
Nehru hailed the Hindu Code Bill as his greatest achievement. Polygamy was banne
d and divorce allowed. Orthodox Hindus vilified Nehru. But half a decade later,
the same orthodox Hindus accept divorce, even if grudgingly, and polygamy is pra
ctically unheard of within Hindus.
After the Hindu Code Bill, the 2005 and 2008 judgments must rank as the most pat
hbreaking in the cause of women. Will India that is Bharat follow the Court, or
will it, out of sheer prejudice as well as force of habit, turn itself into one
giant khap panchayat?

On Cyber Security
February 28, 2017, 1:17 AM IST Economic Times in ET Citings | Economy, World | E
T
By Piotr Kaminski et al
The idea that some assets are extraordinary of critical importance to a company
must be at the heart of an effective strategy to protect against cyber threats.
Because in an increasingly digitised world, protecting everything equally is not
an option.
The digital business model is, however, entirely dependent on trust. If the cust
omer interface is not secure, the risk can become existential. Systems breaches
great and small have more than doubled in the last five years, and the attacks h
ave grown in sophistication and complexity. Most large enterprises now recognise
the severity of the issue but still treat it as a technical and control problem
.
These defences, furthermore, are often designed to protect the perimeter of busi
ness operations. Our research and experience suggest that the next wave of innov
ation customer applications, business processes, technology structures and cyber
security defences must be based on a business and technical approach that prior
itises the protection of critical information assets.
We call the approach digital resilience , a cross-functional strategy that identifi
es and assesses all vulnerabilities, defines goals on an enterprise-wide basis,
and works out how best to deliver them.
A primary dimension of digital resilience is the identification and protection o
f the organisation s digital crown jewels: the data, systems and software applicat
ions that are essential to operations.

Scissor Happy: Pahlaj Nihalani has become a liability for BJP

February 27, 2017, 8:30 AM IST Rudroneel Ghosh in Talking Turkey | Entertainment
, India | TOI
Censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani s explanation for not certifying the film Lipst
ick Under My Burkha once again highlights how unfit he is to be holding his posi
tion. Nihalani actually had the temerity to state that the Censor board is not o
nly responsible for certifying films but also accountable for preserving the cul
ture and tradition of India.
Nihalani couldn t be more wrong. The Central Board of Film Certification certainly
isn t a body tasked with upholding Indian culture or tradition. True, it can reco
mmend cuts to a film for certification if it feels it doesn t meet general standar
ds of decency or morality. It can even refuse to pass a film if it is deemed a t
hreat to the security and sovereignty of India. But this doesn t give the body the
right to behave like a film Nazi.
The board is supposed to work with filmmakers to help them release their movies.
But under Nihalani it has become an authoritarian inspector of films. Lipstick
Under My Burkha was rejected because it is lady oriented and contains abusive wo
rds. This is absurd. Such flimsy grounds for refusing to certify a film is uncon
scionable. Plus, it shows up the board as a regressive body.
In that sense, Nihalani is actually doing real damage to the image of the BJP go
vernment at the Centre. He is contributing to the perception that this governmen
t is backward-looking and out of sync with modern society. That s certainly not wh
at Prime Minister Narendra Modi would like to project. Nihalani is a liability f
or his political masters. He must go.
Learning to learn?
February 27, 2017, 7:00 AM IST Santosh Desai in City City Bang Bang | India | TO
I
If it needed education to use a pen, an angootha chhaap can operate a computer to
day , said the animated young man in Kolkata. He was referring to his facility wit
h a mobile phone and the doors that it opened for him by the mere twiddling of h
is thumbs. As part of a study examining the social impact of technology in the c
ountry, we had run into this school drop-out in a small shopping complex where h
e was selling costume jewellery that he had taught himself to make by watching Y
ouTube videos. He had learnt to navigate the world that the phone gave him first
by learning English on his own, which allowed him to use the smartphone with li
ghtning speed, and then by teaching himself ways to earn a living. More than any
thing else, he exuded confidence about being able to learn on his own.
(Reuters photo used for representation)
He is not alone. Elsewhere, 10 year olds are at the forefront of technology, usi
ng it as their primary sense organ. A young kid in Nashik attributed his amazing
facility with the digital world to the surround . Technology has become a form of
oxygen- it is everywhere and gets absorbed without any apparent effort. Across t
he country, we heard different kind of voices that indicated that a new kind of
learning was beginning to take place. Some housewives spoke of their new found a
bility to expand their range of skills, beginning with the culinary, thanks to v
ideos and WhatsApp groups. A section of retired people spoke of how learning to
use the internet gave them a new lease of life- the world suddenly opened out. O
ld interests were revived, new ones discovered.
Once a certain minimum threshold of familiarity is crossed, the phone becomes an
instrument of exploratory travel and discovery. The wonderful thing about a sea
rch engine like Google is that you need to know nothing in order to use it. To a
vail of it, all one needs is to confess one s ignorance- one needs no qualificatio
ns or any prior knowledge or expertise in a subject to begin educating oneself o
n it. In the digital world, one can always start at zero and chase one s curiosity
thereafter.
Traditionally, learning in India has been a tedious affair. Learning by rote has
been the norm, and the mental model is that of dense knowledge struggling to pe
netrate our brains. Most of us immediately forget what we have allegedly learnt
once the exams are over- ask any educated person a question about basic high schoo
l Physics or Geography and chances are that no answer will be forthcoming. The o
nerous formality of education creates a barrier to those outside its ambit. It a
ll looks and feels too difficult; besides, it is far from clear as to what use w
ould one be able to put the things that one learns in school. Its relationship w
ith real life is tenuous at best.
Attempts to promote vocational education have traditionally met with limited succe
ss, partly because of the manner in which they were conceived and delivered and
also because in the caste system of education, these courses were regarded as be
ing inferior. Things are changing, however. Across the country, traditional idea
s about what constitutes good education are beginning to change; computer traini
ng institutes, airhostess academies, media and event management schools, persona
lity development courses- these are the emerging faces of education in the count
ry.
With technology, it is possible to imagine an even more radical redefinition of
the idea of learning. The ability to find one s own way through the thickets of kn
owledge provides an exciting alternative to the engineered formality of educatio
n. Instead of a linear, step-by-step process which is determined by those who al
legedly know better, education comes an exercise in discovery of those bits of k
nowledge that are of immediate and direct relevance and interest to the seeker.
The intimate universe existing of an individual and his/her smartphone has creat
ed a new pathway to learning, one where no one else is watching or interfering.
Through trial-and-error and with the help of youtube videos, friends on social m
edia and the magic of Google, people across the country are figuring out things
for themselves. This is education in its rawest form, directly feeding a thirst
for knowledge. Learning happens without embarrassment or self-doubt, and is auto
matically aligned to the individual s ability to absorb it.
Otherwise, today education is something that gets injected into us without our c
onsent and without any sense of need. It is a socially legitimate form of conscr
iption; we enlist into a system at a stage when we have no idea of what we are d
oing and why. We learn because we have to, because it is what everyone must do a
t a certain stage of life.
And yet, there is nothing intrinsically sacred about the process we think of as
education. All of us need teachers, we need texts of one kind or another, and we
need some repetition and reinforcement in order to learn, and all of these can
potentially be made available outside the formal system of education. We also ne
ed to be able to learn all of our lives, and not cram education in a fifteen yea
r period at the beginning.
Education is being liberated from its stifling correctness, and is being set fre
e to be stumbled upon. Knowledge will flow in unpredictable non-linear ways as t
hose outside its ambit will grab whatever they find useful. The demand-led view
of education can give it a new sense of energy and purpose. In a larger sense, p
erhaps it is time to rethink our traditional approach to education and harness t
his new capacity we have developed to learn on our own, along the axis of our cu
riosity. What might help is the development of self-learning modules that are de
signed to aid the process of discovery using principles of storytelling and gami
fication. We are learning to learn in a new way, and that is very good news inde
ed.

Sack Pahlaj Nihalani: In its latest act of tyranny, CBFC refuses to certify a fi
lm for being lady oriented
February 27, 2017, 2:00 AM IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page, Entertain
ment, India | TOI
The film Lipstick Under My Burkha is written and directed by women, and stars em
inent actors Ratna Pathak Shah and Konkana Sen Sharma. Like its title its traile
r makes no bones about the film being provocative and bold, inviting the audienc
e into a hidden world of women s fantasies and desire.
As the opinion essay on this page elaborates, our quest to become a modern and e
qual society demands liberating female fantasies from puritanical shackles. But
the Pahlaj Nihalani led Central Board of Film Certification has refused to let I
ndia watch this film. He must be fired and the board must be reformed.
Director Alankrita Shrivastava understandably suspects that CBFC members don t und
erstand cinema. After all it must be surreal for her that while Lipstick Under M
y Burkha is being celebrated at festivals abroad, at home it is being denied cer
tification because it is lady oriented .
This is as baffling as why 89 cuts were demanded of Udta Punjab or why double mea
ning was declared objectionable or indeed countless other acts of scissoring by C
BFC. While films live in fear of being cut and mutilated, the censors never face
any repercussions for their arbitrariness, incompetence or brutality.
The tyrannical writ of this sanskari CBFC has run too long. There must be no furth
er delay in reforming it as recommended by the Shyam Benegal led committee. In e
ssence this means the board should stop scissoring or obstructing films and rema
in restricted to classifying them like suitable for over 12 years of age or over
18.
As Benegal points out in a free democracy where all adult citizens have the powe
r to choose their government, why should anyone usurp their power to decide what
film to see and what not?
ime has come to enact strong privacy protection law
February 27, 2017, 12:59 AM IST ET Edit in ET Editorials | Edit Page, India | ET
The Unique Identification Authority of India, which issues Aadhaar cards, has re
gistered a complaint of someone making use of stored biometric information for A
adhaar authorisation, raising concerns over how securely information collected f
rom citizens to build Aadhaar, the unique identity number, is stored and used. T
he Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Ser
vices) Act says that impersonation or intentional copying of Aadhaar data is a c
riminal offence.
Those found guilty must be punished. Security of personal information goes beyon
d Aadhaar. India should not delay an unambiguous law to protect citizen s privacy,
given the judicial interpretation that privacy is a derivative of fundamental r
ights.
It must be modelled on the European Union s approach to privacy. The EU has common
rules to ensure that personal data enjoy a high standard of protection across i
ts member states a citizen has the right to complain and obtain redress if her d
ata are misused anywhere within the EU, and organisations that collect and manag
e personal information are mandated to protect it from misuse. Rightly, Aadhaars
eeded bank accounts are now used to transfer benefits directly to the beneficiar
y.
People must share information as it is in their interest to do so, but absence o
f a separate law on privacy raises the chance of Aadhaar being misused, for exam
ple to connect the separate silos in which medical, financial, legal information
is stored. Indian residents need a guarantee that their personal data would not
fall into the wrong hands.
A telling example is the reported sale of phone numbers of girls at mobile recha
rge shops in Uttar Pradesh to men who then stalk these girls. Call records or tr
ansactions stored on assorted messaging applications also pose a threat to priva
cy, underscoring the need for a strong law. It should specify the circumstances
in which privacy can be breached by the state, and separate silos must be merged
only for national security and after following due procedure that includes judi
cial sanction.

Banking & digital risk

February 27, 2017, 12:56 AM IST Economic Times in ET Citings | Edit Page | ET
By: Saptarshi Ganguly Et Al
Digitisation has become deeply embedded in banking strategy, as nearly all busin
esses and activities have been slated for digital transformations. The significa
nt advantages of digitisation, with respect to customer experience, revenue, and
cost, have become increasingly compelling. The momentum to adopt the new techno
logies and operating models needed to capture these benefits continues to build.
The risk function should be no exception. Indeed, we are starting to see digital
transformations in risk create real business value by improving efficiency and
the quality of risk decisions. A digitised risk function also provides more effe
ctive regulatory compliance.
Experience shows that the structural changes needed to bring costs down and impr
ove effectiveness in risk can be accomplished much like digital transformations
in other parts of the bank. The distinguishing context of the risk environment,
however, has important implications. First, risk practitioners in most regulator
y jurisdictions have been under extreme pressure to meet evolving regulatory req
uirements and have had little time for much else. Second, chief risk officers ha
ve been wary of the test-and-learn approaches characteristic of digital transfor
mation, as the cost of errors in the risk environment can be unacceptably high.
As a result, progress in digitising risk processes has been particularly slow.

Drive in India can generate more jobs than Make in India

February 26, 2017, 12:10 AM IST SA Aiyar in Swaminomics | Economy, India | TOI
Around 13 million people enter the job market every year. Few find jobs that the
y want. Narendra Modi came to power promising jobs aplenty through his Make in I
ndia campaign. Alas, Labour Bureau data reveals very limited job creation. Howev
er, another much neglected area can yield a million jobs per year or more truck
driving.
Many sectors (agriculture, construction, trucking) face an acute shortage of wor
kers, because of their low status and lack of dignity. India also has an acute s
hortage of quality jobs, leading to job quota agitations by once-dominant rural
castes (Patels, Jats, Marathas and Ahoms). Many have useless college degrees and
so are rejected by quality employers, yet refuse to do low-status jobs.
One solution is to upgrade the status and social attraction of what are consider
ed low-quality jobs to attract more workers. Trucking is an excellent example.
Life on the road: A new relay system could transform the truck driver s lifestyle
and social status
Life on the road: A new relay system could transform the truck driver s lifestyle
and social status
Truck drivers spend 25 days a month away from home, sleeping in their trucks and
taking several days for each journey. They are constantly humiliated, abused an
d exploited by the police and road transport officials, and have to pay bribes a
t several points per day to survive. Some studies suggest that a quarter of truc
k drivers do not get married, since their lifestyle greatly reduces their attrac
tion in the marriage market. An even greater proportion suffer from HIV/AIDS, co
ntracted from brothels along their driving routes. They have a high injury and d
eath rate from road accidents, and respiratory diseases from polluted air. Many
switch to city driving jobs as fast as possible.
The driver shortage means the idling of many trucks, delays and cancellations, a
nd poor truck availability in remoter areas. Small truck companies give drivers
80 litres of diesel to thwart any stealing of fuel while moving cargo from Delhi
to Mumbai. Drivers respond by driving at just 45km/hour to minimise fuel consum
ption, and sell any surplus diesel. Those that don t get a fast-delivery bonus tak
e long breaks. All this greatly increases delivery times and export competitiven
ess.
Deepak, Garg, founder of Rivigo, a new-generation logistics company, aims to rev
olutionise the lifestyle and attraction of becoming a truck driver. Today, he sa
ys trucking is the 37th caste in a village hierarchy, really low down. Solution: c
reate a system where truck drivers return home every night, like other workers.
This will transform their lifestyle, social status and marriage eligibility.
Many long-distance trucks have two drivers, taking turns to sleep. Other trucks
have only one driver, fighting sleep (often with drugs). Garg has replaced this
with a relay system. Each driver drives 4.5 hours to a company pit stop, and han
ds over to another driver who again drives 4.5 hours to the next pit stop. The r
elay continues till destination. This cuts delivery time for Delhi-Chennai from
96 hours to 48, and for Bengaluru-Kolkata from 110 hours to 44. This is twice th
e speed of some courier companies, and maximises truck utilisation.
From a pit stop, each driver catches a truck in the return direction to get home
by night. The driver suddenly becomes a normal worker with a full family and co
mmunity life. He gets a cellphone and good wages by village standards. His truck
is air-conditioned, improving comfort and social status.
The relay system promises to make a once-despised occupation respectable and des
irable. It can end today s chronic shortage of drivers, and stop veterans from swi
tching to city driving jobs. Villagers with limited education are being trained
both inhouse and in institutes to become skilled, safe drivers. Cellphones and e
lectronic monitors enable managers to monitor every aspect of truck movement and
solve problems.
The model looks to become the future of trucking. It can replace today s mostly un
organised, inefficient trucking with a modern system that delivers goods just in
time to factories and consumers, slashing warehousing costs and space.
India s road network is still very limited, and will increase hugely soon. The imm
inent Goods and Services Tax will eliminate most checkposts, reduce delays and b
ribes, and enable the elimination of thousands of state-level warehouses. A KPMG
study in 2010 estimated that a modern transport system could by itself raise In
dia s GDP by 1-2%.
But in social terms the most important benefit may be the creation of over a mil
lion jobs per year carrying good social status and decent pay. Drive in India coul
d become a more powerful job creator than Make in India.