Chronical AnalysisNational Health Policy: It is formulated at MDG in global context. Changing context from the last policy. First, health priorities are changing. Focused action resulted in attainment of maternal and child mortality. Other health needs received scant attention. Growing burden of non-communicable disease. Secondly, growth of health care industry at 15%. Thirdly, Health expenditure is the major reason for poverty. Fourth, improvement in fiscal capacity of state due to growth. MDG: india will reach MDG on maternal(140) and child mortality(42). Population growth: 21 states achieved TFR of 2.1 and rest are also showing decline. Challenge is declining sex-ratio. Inequalities: across states and urban-rural. Quality of care: recent incidents of deaths after sterilization in Jharkhand SOPs are not followed during institutional deliveries. Performance in disease control programme: complete elimination of polio. Significant reduction in leprosy. Reduction in HIV. Challenge of TB with the problem of multi-drug resistance. There are significant reduction but still efforts are required. Development under NRHM: It was intended to cover all health needs and not just national programmes but it remain confined to national programmes in practice, low public spending, strengthening of health infrastructure. Ambulances, health workers, equipments, transport services, cash transfer to pregnant women. Burden of disease: over 75% of communicable diseases are not part of national programmes. Health programme for non-communicable disease have very short coverage. Urban health: no arrangement of primary care in cities and towns. NUHM in 2013 is set to change these disadvantages. Cost of health: national programmes cover all drugs and treatment cost with good coverage. Private market has little role in these areas. No financial protection for vast other health needs. NRHM extended free care to selected needs. Publically financed health insurance: like RSBY, low awareness about these schemes, denial of service by hospitals. Healthcare industry: policy initiatives for the growth of healthcare industry. Exemption from income tax for health insurance. Tax rebates, tax exemptions. FDI is made in this sector. Revenue through medical tourism. Private sector: 80% of outpatient care and 60% of inpatient care. AYUSH: mainstreamed in NRHM. HRD: expansion of medical, nursing, pharmacy and technical education. Little orientation to rural services. Skill problems of these courses. Challenges: limited R&D. Modest funding. Regulatory role of government: regulation of drugs through CDSCO, FSSAI for food, National council for clinical establishment and education through four councils. Regulation of drug prices under department of pharmaceuticals. Investment in health care: in 2011 4.1%. There is a need to increase this. The government spending is only 1.04%. Principals: equity, universal access, inclusive partnership with all stakeholders, pluralism: AYUSH, allopathic, accountability, affordability. Objective: improve health care setup, reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure, universal affordability to health care and drugs, secondary and tertiary care with public and private sector, influence private sector to align with policy goals. Vision: 4-5% GDP but 2.5% of GDP is achievable, health cess, high public expenditure will lead to more job opportunities, use of CSR, health to all, preventive and promotive care, behavioural change. Strengthening village health sanitation and nutrition committee and their urban equivalent, including in educational curriculum, occupational health needs attention, comprehensive medical care approach, strengthening and expanding role of ASHA, promotion of yoga. Approach: universal and free primary care then secondary and tertiary with public then not-for-profit then commercial private. Preventive care: comprehensive from selective and called as health and wellness centre, health card attached with primary health services, community participation with VSandNC supervised by panchayats, human resource, primary facility and a referral system, AYUSH will be included. Telemedicine, trained staff and doctor and PHC to reduce overcrowding and quality service, expanded and strengthened role of ASHA, development of urban infrastructure. Secondary care: expanding services offered, 1000 beds per million, manpower, support from private sector. Strategic purchasing by state will give policy direction to private sector. Public hospitals: prepaid care and not free care. Making right to health a fundamental right and making denial of health an offence. States may voluntarily adopt the act by assembly resolution. Free for poor and affordable for rest a universal health insurance scheme. Public health system as pre-paid service than social service. Contracting out to private sector. National health policy review: recent cuts in health expenditure. Health importance: demographic dividend, growth and capacity development. Instead of comprehensively elaborating the centre state relation in health delivery it only mentions that centres share to be increased to 40 from 30. Regulating private sector and revamping regulatory institutions are important before involving private sector in health in big way. Higher education: fast track and not thought out changes will ruin the institutions. A common syllabus for all central universities, common entrance test, faculty, student mobility and credit transfer. Schemes like gian, kushal and swayam are planned along with e-libraries and other online platforms. Common entrance test is only feasible for narrowly defined technical disciplines and will not work for wide ranges of other disciplines. Common curriculum aimed at eliminating quality problem but it ignores the root cause of improper implementation and not model curriculum. Mobility methods is a replica of European union, our institutions are already overcrowded making little sense of mobility. The mobility may be used as a token of reward and punishment. Greater reliance on MOOCs is worrisome. The issue of mostly English as medium of higher education is not addressed which a major hindrance in access to higher education. The method of API to access the performance of teachers is mechanical in nature and highly deficient. Land bill: rapid urbanisation, high prices are distorting the land acquisition. The difference between officially notified value and market value. Stamp duty, registration fee etc. are to be registered at lower guidance value creating black economy. Poor land record management and litigation increases costs. Reduction in stamp and registration fee to discourage their evasion. Minimum guidance value to be increased to market value in phased manner this will help eliminating the process of notification of guidance value. Nationwide data of land transaction should be created for dissemination of price related information. Release of land from government agencies which is lying un-utilized. FFC: government has accepted enhanced devolution to states from 32 to 42 %. Though the increase in not much as plan + non-plan together comes to 39-40%. The 42% is under non-plan and tax devolution. The conditional component rose high with years controlled by planning commission in the name of plan expenditure and normal central assistance calculated by gadgil-mukherjee formula. FFC has enhanced co-operative federalism by enhancing financial autonomy and independence. The plan expenditure was used to punish and reward states based on central power. Top-down and one size fits all approach has failed miserably. States should be seen as independent contributor in national growth and not appendage of union. The new guidelines will help centre to concentrate of big infrastructure projects. Nuclear Deal: direct nuclear trade will take time but it opened new areas for co-operation between two countries. Defence cooperation under DTTI. Ghost of fukushima. It is a leap of faith rather than giving and meaningful outcomes in near future. FFC: move away from scheme and grant based support to greater devolution from centres divisible pool of tax revenue. Useless schemes like for kerala with high literacy rate the scheme for primary education is not as much important similarly for a power surplus state like Gujarat scheme related to the sector are not needed. Some states have raised voices due to loss in their share with new formula but this is a consequence of their better health than others. The reduced fund will be given to less developed states. Railways: reforms are aimed at adequate investment in infrastructure. Central pay commission sets the pay of employees. Pension liability from its own earning. Cross-subsidisation of passenger tariff with freight tariff has its limits. The shock wave given by pay commission will remain till railways is a government undertaking. Converting it into government owned company is a reform measure but highly resisted by employees. This arrangement will also keep organisation from political interference. Entry of private in operation needs a fundamental shift where management and operations are to be separated. Same tracks can be used by different operators to generate competition. Ministry paper leak: being ahead of others to get government information temps corporate to indulge in such acts. Every government organisation has a habit of making every information as secret. Decision in this respect are taken at section officer level without putting any mind. After investigation permission of MHA is required for exection of OSA 1923. If offence is done without the knowledge of head of the company than he is not liable to punishment. NFSA: maternity benefit of 6000 to be given to women under act. Scheme needs to be formulated but did not happen. Reforms have been achieved in PDS. SECC is best available database for that purpose but still unavailable. Some state went with old list which is highly defective making the NFSA useless.HealthCare: long term financing options are not available. Only 4% have health insurance. Low penetration is due to its optionalness. Most insurance are for people with illness leading to more claims and unviability of business. Government can help to improve the coverage with policy initiatives. Tax incentives and exemption from service taxes will increase access to health providers. Long-term capital gain to be exempted from taxation under REIT. These measures will attract FDI in this sector. CSR could be exploited. Health Policy: efficient and corruption free implementation of programmes is the key. Absenteeism, private practice and corruption are the main problems. Health policy 2015 laid inadequate emphasis on the governance structure to improve service delivery. TN medical corporation to procure drugs free from interference and accountable to independent directors. Full of professional people in the corporation. Other states are following the same model now. Nuclear liability: NPCIL can claim compensation upto 1500 crore under right to recourse. Right to recourse exist independent of contract as per law which government is trying to wrongly interpret. The right to recourse is for license time which is 5 years while plant life is 60 years. This will water down the supplier liability by linking it with contract. Government contended that the amount to supplier cannot be raised in future which is against the law which provide for revision of cap with time as per inflation. It was also said that law itself takes away the right of people to claim tort which means that supplier are shielded even from criminal neglect. In US, suppliers are liable for accident and india is going all out to accommodate the concerns of suppliers making them above the law. High level shantaram committee: NFSA be curtailed to 40%. PDS be replaced by cash transfer to fold up FCI as states will no longer to procure and distribute food grains. India is today self-sufficient in food production unlike 1960s. This needs a change in FCI role. People are also moving away from cereals. The fact ignored is high mal-nutrition, poverty etc. is still prevalent. Changed production did not lead to food availability to poor. The food distribution is still important so does FCI. Vast majority of farmers are not aware of FCI, low collection centres of FCI, centres are situated in developed region neglecting farmers from weaker regions. Better procurement in regions with awareness and collecting infrastructure. States have showed considerable improvement in PDS leakage and it can be improved further. Excessive storage leading to rotting and wastage of financial resources is true which can be stopped by better targeting. Renewable energy: intermittent, location-specific potential generally away from grid and higher cost. Peak consumption in night when solar is not available relying on out storing capacity leading to increasing cost. In india there is a shortfall in load at the grid and load shedding is used to keep grid alive.

Reconfiguring the military: ability of a joint operation among different services is crucial. Indian forces in near future can be employed in expeditionary roles which makes the flexibility at command level for quick deployment. Overseas intervention means greater role for navy and airforce which required their capacity building. Chief of joint staff is necessary to advice PM and DM. Use of army in non-core activities like counter-insurgency, riots, natural disaster etc. blunts the armys war abilities. The size of all services should be brought to parity which reduces egoness and build co-operation. Converting army corps in marines for this purpose is an option. Air safety: 45 flight operations inspectors in place of 75 in india. shortage or ATC and engineering inspectors. Lack of rest breaks to pilots and air staff due to financial crunch faced by airlines in violation of regulations. DGCA is not able to fulfil its mandate. India is among worst in air safety on rating list. Renewable: Problem is with that the expansion is driven by subsidy to both consumers and producers. The RE is high priced as compared to conventional power. This can erode the competitiveness of domestic players. The technology is still evolving and committing huge resources would not be wise. In germany, price of the power has shot up leading to companies opting out of there. Carbon capture and store: it captures co2 at its origin of emission, compress it and store it permanently underground. There are doubts about the economy because it involves a lot of investment. But the cost involved is less than the consequences of climate change. CCS, the only technology that can capture 90% of the co2 from worlds largest producer. In Canada first CCS system has come up as boundary dam showing it is viable. UAE has initiated CCS in iron and steel sector. China is collaborating with US to develop capability in CCS. Judiciary economic bottleneck: streamlined court process and faster contract enforcement as paramount factor shaping efficient and effective business environments. Crores of case are pending regarding tax disputes in the courts in india. CJI has made mandatory to file verdict that also reflect qualitative assessment. UPA II had devised a plan to create 5000 supplementary courts to settle cases in order to bring down the litigation time to 3 from 15 years. Computerization and intelligent case management are cases in point. Each department can form a team under retired judges to deliberate on disputes and try to settle them before going to court. Disposition of cases by consensus is a way forward. Setting up of SC benches in other cities will also be helpful. FCI Restructuring: in 1960s, our requirement was to increase production and become self sufficient. MSP, subsidized input are provided to achieve this. The objective is now achieved and the whole system needs restructuring. The recent report proposed: 1) FCI to roll out from grain surplus states with developed infrastructure giving responsibility to states to procure the food grains on behalf of FCI and shifting its energy in eastern states for procurement to usher in 2nd green revolution and develop their capabilities. 2) developing warehouse system in PPP where farmer can store and get 80% return from banks and later sell at market price. This would reduce cost and wastage. 3) bonus be made uniform at 3% over MSP because these are to be financed by various levies to be charged from FCI. 4) Price distortion in fertilizer sector is holding back the investment. Moving to cash transfer will help reducing this distortion. This will also help in reducing smuggling of urea to neighbouring states. APMC Act: most states have amended APMC Act to allow for direct purchase by contract farming instead of going to mandis. Despite many licenses given there are no private wholesale market yet. Bihar has abolished APMC in 2006. There are private unregulated market have came up in the state where small and big farmers can come and sell directly for wholesale or retail purpose. The farmers are happy as they have a market near to their area which saves cost and time then going to regular APMC market. The individual charges reasonable fee from farmer and buyer. There are no auctioning here to create competitive pricing. Malprctices can not be stopped. 2% fee charges is absent in APMC mandis. It is said that denotification of fruits and vegetable from APMC will benefit farmers. This is not true as there is no oversight in these private market and also no auctioning to get competitive prices. There is no guarantee that these markets will keep working unlike APMC market. The supermarkets buy A grade produce directly from farmers leaving lower grades into APMC. The denotification will not help in this sense. Introduction of auction, more APMC market, liberalising APMC licensing and denotifying agents from mandis will go a long way. The APMC market are important as they can not attract large buyers for contract farming. Ailing ports: major ports come under ministry of shipping while non-major ports come under state maritime boards. Most ports come under major ports trust act 1963. Only one port is constituted under companies act. Port trusts have not able to take timely and effective decision leading to minimum development due to lack of investment because of bureaucratic hurdles. Kandla port under adani has developed more carrying capacity than trusts. This make a case for corporatisation of ports. This will give them more financial autonomy, attract private capital, management flexibility, take them out of control of tariff authority when working as public companies creating competition. All ports to be governed under companies act as it provides autonomy to ports under its purview. Indo-US Nuclear Deal: India need nuclear energy to fulfil its growing energy needs in a low GHG emission way. There is no problem to make concession to US as with their help we are able to procure technology and fuel for our reactors. The deal is a moral booster than any substantive benefit. The act itself keep liability at 300 million SDR or 2600 Crore rs. The figure is itself small looking at fukushima incident. US had implicated BP for its oil spill due to faulty well. It is impossible for anybody to go close to melted core and see what caused it and implicate the supplier. MEA said that section 17 can hold supplier responsible by operator if provided in the contract and not automatic. Why would one sign if not obligatory. Government said that NPCIL will insist on the clause in contract but if operator is private then what will be the scenario is not known. Government also said that tort claim in Indian court and class suit in foreign court is not allowed in the law itself to indemnify suppliers in the cloak of conforming with CSC 1997. National insurance pool of 1500 crore is minimum required. One tier of the pool is for operator while other 2 tier are for supplier who are already indemnified. The pool will be maintained by 50% of GIC and 50% by government and other insurance agencies. The immediate relief will be from this pool. Government would be liable for another 1100 crore before drawing from CSC fund that too after ratifying. Supplier will pay nothing except some premium. Medicine for TB: researchers at delhi have found drug candidate for TB and malaria. This facility is in place due to funding from international organizations and DBT. This is the result of push given in 1980s in biotechnology. This has global implications. It also helped india in developing processes to develop these kinds of drugs increasing indias capability. The centre has attracted researchers from around the globe back to india to work on the project. Robust research atmosphere, adequate funding and sound regulations to make drug after trials. Inadequate budget of DBT is a problem. Contempt of court: CPI(M) leader was sent to 4 weeks jail in kerala by its HC. For criticising the court judgement on banning rallies on roadside to help smooth traffic by calling judges as idiots. HC imposed 6 weeks and Sc reduced it to 4. This will suppress healthy criticism also. The court relied on the assumption that the statement will make court order in the eyes of public as court cannot be relied for justice. This is wrong assumption within a state of high literacy. SC said that due to their position judges cannot respond to criticism which is true but COC is to protect the dignity of court and not he judges. The judges inability is fulfilled by vibrant civil society. It is said that COC is imperial form as at that time authority of the court is to be maintained by these options on colonised public. It is also said that COC is good for countries where courts are trying to gain legitimacy which is not the case in india. LAAR: ordinance dispensed with consent for 6 categories of projects and SIA. Without SIA it will be impossible to assess the affected people to whom compensation is to be given for non-land owners. It dispensed with the requirement that 5 years no development land can also be kept and penalties for non-complying officer. It is claimed that removal of SIA and consent will reduce cost and also windfall gain to land loosers. LARR takes circle rates to calculate compensation which takes into account the agricultural value of land and not the industrial value and is always below than market values. Before 1980, market was dominated by public sector and when land is acquired it was seen as for public purpose. In neo-liberal times land is acquired for private players on large scale. The land are acquired for any private purpose and given to private sector and culminated into SEZ. NITI Aayog: It will serve as a state of art resource centre to evaluate and monitor programmes and provide policy inputs. It also provide platform for co-operation between researchers and policymakers. The research on government policies is done by organisation but the finding are not included in policies due to absence of sound mechanism for this purpose. NITI can initiate pilot evaluation before letting go the policy full-fledged. Evidence based institutions are getting limelight around the world. Two challenges: 1) inviting high quality researchers from different fields to provide inputs 2) willingness among policy makers to learn and accept. IT Act 66A: the section mandated that anyone causing annoyance or inconvenience or offensive can be put to jail for 3 years. The section is mostly vague to bring everything into its ambit and giving arbitrary powers to police. School girls in Maharashtra, jadavpur university professor in Bengal, azam khan case in UP, azim trivedis cartoon are the cases of arbitrariness. Banking System: two challenges: 1) number of banks have failed to sustain. India has good record in this case with very few collapse. 2) india lack in financial inclusion and financial depth. RBI is cautious in granting license. First push in 1994 then in 2004. Still small business have very limited linkage with banks. In 2014 two more banks are allotted licenses. Previous attempts of co-operative banks, SHG, more commercial banks have failed because they are replicating same model and were overlapping. This created NPA and goals were partially met. New banks with differentiated mandates such as small and payments banks can make difference. 1) a system which can cover business cost is sustainable in india due to huge untapped population. 2) mPESA in Kenya is a successful example in point. Increased depth of mobile, AADHAR and broadband. 3) in conventional banks with high fixed capital it makes difficult to fund small business to recover cost. The payment banks apart from banking operation also helps them to hold their customer base. 66A IT: IT act 2000 provided immunity to platforms like googe, facebook because monitoring their content is not possible for them. The blocking rules also mentioned that content can be removed on the request of third party. SC has read down the content removal guidelines. Non-governmental parties have to take court permission now to remove a content. It is a good step as ISPs lack resources and incentives to identify the request as valid under the law or not. SC accepted that government blocking has several safeguards and left it mostly untouched but laid some guidelines before making orders. SC said that written reasons should be provided by the government before issuing any blocking order. If no provided ISPs can deny the request. SC also said that before making an order reasonable opportunity should be provided to the content originator. This will open the door for litigation if procedure are not followed and is a well laid safeguard. The originator due to geographical stretch of the globe may not be able to contact the originator and ISPs may not defend the content to save their resources makes the government blocking in practice still a arbitrary task. The blocking process is secret as per rules. The SC has ignored this part but at least a notice of government blocking be placed at the site so that originator can know about the issue. FCI: swaminathan committee report said to fix MSP with input cost + 50% profit. Central government has said the it will not procure food grains if bonus is given by states. It has also increased the MSP by only 3%. States have restricted their procurement owing to this leading to distress sale by farmers. SDG in place of MDG: eradication of extreme poverty by 2030. In times of dominance of private sector, environmental challenges previous method of giving aid to poor countries to feed their population will not work. Fund to achieve this should not be garnered only with aid but also with raising funds through own resources like reducing tax evasion etc. participation of poor countries in global trade is also important to generate revenue. Providing market access is an important issue. ASER Report: learning outcomes are declining consistently with 53 to 48% in 2014. Centre launched padhe bharat badhe bharat to inprove learning, writing and reading skills is I and II. Low student attendance, low teacher quality, low parental interest and lack of teacher accountability. When student of V can read II text only then instead of sticking to regular curricula with expectation to eventually catch up one should change it to the actual level of child. The policy making is based on data collected by district information system on education which does not involve any learning criteria. Decision making is based on inputs rather than outcomes. Centre has started initiative in this direction by starting state-level learning assessment. DTTI: india looks at US to get defence technology that others cannot provide. Exchange of defence personnel and partnership between Indian and US players. India should consider subsidiaries of firms in india. Rajashthan PRI laws: not below class 10. Sarpanch level class 8 and 5 in tribal areas. In this context with lower literacy rates marginalised will be kept out of power circles. It will have adverse effects on women participation. There are people who worked as sarpanch and learned to use basic IT services and performed well but without any class8 certificate. Literacy and intelligence has different meaning. Higher education: IIT delhi director resigned due to pressure of marginalisation from MHRD. This has little to do with real problems. DU VC is continuing regardless of cases of misdoings. His presence demoralises the academic staff. IGNOU faces crisis due to indiscriminate expansion. Its VC is also under scanner but still continuing. The erosion of autonomy is generic and not specific. JNU which has high reputation of research is now facing cases of plagiarism. More students under a professor against the established norms. The faculty run institutions outside where they work leaving little time to look into their duties. One size fits all and standardisation to achieve excellence is wrong. Mechanical API based promotion and recruitment has degraded the quality as no emphasis on quality of teachers. Fake journals have came up to provide more API rating. UGC has ex-officio VCs which are themselves involved in various wrongdoings. Expansion of institutions without recruitment of quality faculty. Ad-hoc appointment at low wages is demoralising and deteriorating the quality. Good faculty is reluctant to join new colleges due to lack of infrastructure. Movability of teachers will be used as punishment. Justice Joseph: In united states court work on good Friday but not on national holidays. Good Friday is not a federal holiday in US. The issue is thus not about religious holidays but national holidays. The argument that too many national holidays exist in india can be corrected by pruning the list of national holidays and adding more restricted holidays. The suggestion by CJI that judges can bring their family to delhi and fulfil professional and personal obligations is limiting. The constitution of india provides individual rights over common rights. This is why ambedkar rejected the idea of village as basic unit in place of individual. The priority of institution over individual is a tyrannical one as it impinges on the freedom of individual. The argument in favour is that this is not the first time that such a conference is organised on holiday, in past such conferences are organised on Independence Day also. Net neutrality

TRAI consultation paper proposes either license to OTT or compromise net neutrality. Till now what is inside internet packets is not subject to regulation but bringing the content under OTT will spread regulatory power of TRAI. Internet has grown due to its open character and permission less innovation. TRAI argues that the fixed and mobile telephony is overwhelmed by the traffic. This is true but the reasons are: ISPs are not upgrading their infrastructure. They say that they are not generating enough revenue but the truth is that they are not regulated on tariff rates but still data services are cheap in india. TRAI should crack its whip and not compromise net neutrality. The issue is that internet companies are making tonnes of money so they should also get a share of it. The recent telecom auction show that ISPs have enough money as government has said even with high prices tariff will not increase much. The comparison are made by comparing time of skype and voice time but these are two different services and cannot be compared in this way as it is assumed that if skype was not to be there everybody use voice call. TRAI emphasized this as revenue gone. This may be true but the data rates have benefited ISPs. If net neutrality is compromised then ISPs will not expand their infrastructure and big companies will pay them to free up bandwidth for them leading to compromised field. Net neutrality in sense encourages them to expand infrastructure and restricts monopoly. This is rectified in FCC decree that puts internet services as public utility. All internet companies such as google and facebook use their home network to connect to Indian network. High fee could be imposed to generate extra revenue to connect external network to ISPs.Net Nutrality

Apples iOS is anything but neutral. It blocks flash. App developers pay Apple to be listed on the App Store. Nor do we care about which apps are promoted by Apple. All we care about as consumers is the experience as it ought to be. Information Technology Act, 2000 nor any rules and regulations made thereunder, have any reference to net neutrality. Net neutrality is a principle that is dedicated to making the Internet a neutral platform for the proliferation of all kinds of services offered by all stakeholders. Any enhancement of billing for a lay Internet or mobiles user is not only going to intrinsically harm the financial interests of the Indian consumer but could also impact the further penetration of Internet apart from prejudicially impacting the confidence and trust that users have in the Internet regulation regime. Internet services were stated by VSNL in 1995. In 1998 government opened the sector for private sector with liberal conditions with no license fee and free to decide the cost of these services. 98% subscribers are with top 20 ISPs while remaining is either un-operational, stagnated or declining and also misused. Internet telephony called grey market is causing revenue problems for licensed ISPs. ISP telephony services are allowed from 2002 and from 2006 6% revenue share was imposed on ISPs earned from internet telephony. Telephony service technology under present license is not user friendly and required prior knowledge of computer causing its limited unpopularity which has now become popular due to improved devices. Uses of these devices is not allowed under present ISP license and created grey areas. These restrictions have now been removed. In 2006, government has provided uniform access services to provide unrestricted internet telephony but still services are not started. Clauses of ISP license needs to be revisited in present context of new technology and internet services. Cost of laying broadband infrastructure is high and hence not viable for small ISPs. Dial-up is costly than broadband. There is no adequate return on investment made in extending infrastructure for broadband expansion. ISPs with limited services under license are losing revenue. Separate license is needed for providing IP TV, IP VPN etc. The conversion of voice in data and sending over internet as new technology violates ISPs license conditions. Defence production

India is the biggest importer of arms. It has to pay for purchase as well as maintenance of the equipments. This is due the lack of capability of its defence PSUs. FDI is defence sector is seen as solution to this problem. The reasons forwarded are: even after decades defence PSUs are not able to meet the requirements of forces and situation becomes serious in the wave of global military developments. Superior management culture of foreign companies will result in adherence to timeline and budget. Despite the contracts for TOT, none has come significantly because security forces are in urgency for modernisation. Hence FDI will bring technology and also generate jobs. None of the argument will solve the problem of self-reliance in defence production and reduce import dependence. Drawbacks: FDI means long-term presence and assured contracts to get adequate return on investment. It will not happen in military purchases and there will always be a gap of few years. This forced dependence on purchase will put pressure on government same as it is feeling because of import. DPP currently mandates 30% local offset, which means money is used in india but still components with significant technology are always imported just in case of automobile industry in india. This will not be significantly different from offset guidelines even if foreign companies come to india. All foreign companies protested and forced government to dilute the offset guidelines. So, it is wrong to assume that FDI will bring in technology. They wary of sharing technology with Indian partners especially with PSUs as their bargaining power is larger than private sector. The failure of Rafael deal is over work allocation to HAL. The main aim is technology transfer. Recipient should ensure that it gets and absorbs technology and build it indigenously. Offset policy should not be seen in financial and number of jobs created but in terms of technology absorbed by scientists and companies. If self-reliance is to be achieved then we have to develop institutions of excellence with political support and provide financial and infrastructure to pursue the development of high-end technologies. Environment dilution

HLC on restructuring of environmental laws. First, speed up the process of identifying project activities and their impacts. This is to be completed within 10 days otherwise it should be left with project developers. Second, this identification should be limited to initial stage only, which means if it is found that further deep inquiry is needs that cannot be granted. Third, public hearing not to include settlements which are far from project. Most of the projects effect far flung areas. Even this public hearing should be restricted to directly affected people which means in case of dam, the downstream affected people are not to be included. Fourth, fast track approval of linear projects which may cause significant damage even after their narrow area of influence.

NGOs and crackdown

National accreditation agency for NGOs can change the scenario. The NGOs share diverse purpose, nature and approach. The accreditation is based on set of standard set of criteria. This approach is not purposeful because it is difficult to measure diverse NGOs based on standard criteria. The ratings are helpful to donors because it will cut their transaction cost based on financial health and adhering to legal rules. This though is not going to work well with organisations which are making government accountable. The accreditation though help in improving public perception, investor confidence and guidance. Credibility alliance which is a group of NGOs in india has come forward in this field but still this field in immature. NaxalsTwo prolonged strategy: Enhancing security and improving development. Reasons for attacks: failure and procedural lapses and lack of co-ordination between centre and state. The local intelligence is missing. In most cases standard operating procedure were violated such as informing SP before troop movement. Security forces are superior but will to wipe out naxals is lacking. State police leadership is incompetent. Centre-state discontent is demoralising the security forces. State asks for more battalions but more troops are not the answer. State police has to take a lead and security forces can only play a supportive role.

Public Procurement Bill

Benefits: 1) Institutional mechanism of procurement based on rules and regulations. 2) Fiscal saving from procurement expenditure 3) it will generate fiscal space 4) it will enhance flexibility to channel expenditure into growth enhancing areas. The bill will be applicable to all ministries/departments and companies where government has more than 50% stake. It will not be applicable to state and local governments. Bill in current from excludes the post-tendering steps from its purview such as monitoring, contract management, payment etc. These should be included in the bill. Bill in its current from also dilutes the accountability. Judicial dispute delays the process and hence non-judicial dispute redressal is needed. Bill established a central procurement agency but it should be reconciled with decentralised committees. Bill is not applicable to procurement less than 5 million rupees and also to emergency procurement in disaster management and national security. Bill provides to exempt procurement from certain guidelines and also limit competition to attain certain objectives in public purpose. But certain other requirements such as advance contract award notice, risk management techniques should be incorporated in these cases. For proper implementation of the bill, data management and standardisation must be enhanced. Data is needed for both bidders and procurement agencies to enhance transparency. Professional personnel with enhanced capabilities are needed for proper implementation. The training programmes should be organised to achieve this. Climate Change and Agriculture

The adaptive capacity of farmers is limited due to subsistence agriculture and low formal education. Emission of Co2 is more from tilted soil that undisturbed soil. Decline is soil fertility due to change in temperature which affects humus content, water scarcity, low yield due to increase in temperature, with rising temperature insects, pest and weeds become more abundant. Mitigation: 1) scientific water management 2) improving organic matter management 3) efficient nutrient management 4) carbon sequestration by manipulating soil moisture and temperature. Soil management practices such as reduced tillage, manuring, residue incorporation, improving soil biodiversity, micro aggregation, and mulching can play important roles in sequestering carbon in soil. Some technologies such as intermittent drying, site-specific N management, etc. can be easily adopted by the farmers without additional investment, whereas other technologies need economic incentives and policy support. Adaptation: 1) Developing climate ready crop for draught, flood and salinity by genetic engineering. 2) Crop diversification: moving to high-end farm products will increase income and also result in reduced water and fertilizer usage. It is capital intensive and a balance between income and techniques needs to be established. 3) Change in land use pattern: changing growing, harvesting seasons with the changing climate. 4) Efficient use of resources: The resource-conserving technologies (RCTs) encompass practices that enhance resource- or input-use efficiency and provide benefits. zero-tillage (ZT) can allow farmers to sow wheat sooner after rice harvest, so the crop heads and fills the grain before the onset of pre-monsoon hot weather. 5) Relocation of crop in other areas 6) Improved pest resistance. 7) weather forecasting and crop insurance. Problems: 1) Due to MSP: shift from low water food crops to water intensive mono cultivated food crops. This led to loss of good practices such as mixed cropping, inter-cropping and crop rotation. This led to loss of soil fertility and poor nutrition to farmers. 2) Farm bunding is useful in minimising soil erosion and water run-off, improves soil moisture and raising water table. Use of tractors due to high labour cost led to destruction of bunds leading to more irrigation. This led to extensive exploitation of ground water. 3) Moving to high-end crops led to lack of fodder and decrease in livestock.

Watershed management is crucial to making agriculture climate resilient.

Bankrupcy LawStronger bankruptcy law protect interest of borrowers and lenders. It make the risk and collection procedure explicit. This will help credit flow and investment. Average time in insolvency proceedings in india is 4.5 years. Early recognition of financial distress and timely intervention are needed.

Juvenile Law

Three flawed assumption: 1) children are as culpable as adult 2) it is scientifically possible to determine the mindset maturity beyond doubt 3) trying them as adult will deter crime. Mind grows between 16 to 18 and upto 20. At this stage, mind knows what is wrong but there is lack of foresight and risk assessment capability is low. Their capability to understand legal norms and make decision is low. Children can be negatively influenced in this period but they can also be rehabilitated due to transitional nature of thinking. Scientific assessment of children is not possible scientifically. Transfer policies instead of reducing crime are increasing them. Coming out of adult prison will increase risk. This is seen in US context also which is now closing prison and funding the caring centres for children. Parliamentary standing committee has pitched for not treating them as adult.

Smart CitiesUrban transport, e-governance and land tilting. Urban transport: very few cities have in-place bus transport services. Even those have, lack proper bus capacity. Loss making, depleting fleet size, inadequate resources, poor service quality and ignorance about modern technology. Statutory authority will help planning and initiating transport systems. Efficient enforcement of traffic rules and real time information regarding bus location, online fares and ticketing. Finance is critical, advertisement, congestion tax fund etc. will help. Urban titling: high land prices is leading to unaffordable housing, tedious clearance process. IBSA

Influence of china to give more attention to BRICS than IBSA. India joined too many association with little time available to official to keep them alive. One reason is that the prime objective of bringing reforms in UNSC is not more compelling. Other areas of co-operation are maritime security, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism in south atlantic and Indian ocean region.