ECONOMY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS P6

Changes in income-taxrules kick in todayThegovernmentwillgetmoreaccesstotaxpayers’incomeinformationfromSunday,whenaslewofBudgetannouncementssuchasanewlevyoncashwithdrawalandinterchangeabilityofAadhaarnumberandPANcomeintoeffect.Mostofthesechanges,suchaswideningthescopeofdeductionatsource,willhelpthegovernmenttrackincomeofassessees.About180million—orhalfofallPANcards—mayberenderedinvalid.

WORLD P8

YouTube fined $200 mn forchild privacy violationsGooglewillpay$200milliontosettleallegationsthatYouTubeviolatedachildren'sprivacy lawwhilegatheringdatatobettertarget itsadverts.TheUSFederalTradeCommissionagreedontheamountofsettlement. IfapprovedbytheUSDepart-mentofJustice, itwouldbethelargestsettlementinacaseinvolvingchildren'sprivacy.Privacygroupssaidtheplatformhadviolatedlawsprotectingchildren'sprivacybygatheringdataonusersundertheageof13withoutobtainingpermissionfromparents.

BANK MERGER P3

How regional synergiesdrove bank merger planFriday’smegaannouncementmergingfoursetsofbankswastheoutcomeofaprocessthegovernmenthadstartedaboutsixmonthsago,peopleworkingontheplanpointedout.ThebackstorysuggestsitwasinMay,daysbeforeresultsforthegeneralelectionswereannounced,thattheinformaldiscussionswiththeReserveBankofIndiatookplaceatameetinginNewDelhi.SOMESH JHAwrites

BANK MERGER P3

PNB board to meet onSept 5 over mergerPunjabNationalBank(PNB)onSaturdaysaiditsboardofdirectorswouldmeetonSeptember5toconsider theamalgamationofOrientalBankofCommerceandUnitedBankof India intothe lender. InaBSE filing,PNBsaid itwouldalsoconsidercapitalinfusionofupto~16,500crorebythegovernmentbywayofpreferential issueofequityshareandfixingdateofextraordinarygeneralmeeting (EGM) forobtainingshareholders'approval in this regard.

ICRA DOWNGRADESINDIABULLS HOUSING’SLONG-TERM RATINGCredit ratingagency ICRAhasdowngradedmortgage lender IndiabullsHousingFinance’s (IBHL’s) long-termdebtinstruments toAA+fromAAA,onaccountofrisingwoes fornon-banking financialcompanies (NBFCs)andhousing financecompanies (HFCs). TheNBFCandHFCsectorshavebeenplaguedby the increase incostoffundsandprolongedsqueeze in liquidity.The ratingof IBHL remainsunderwatchwith“developing implications” in lightof itsproposedmergerwithLaxmiVilasBank.“While theschemehas receivedapprovalfromtheCompetitionCommissionof India,keyapprovals fromregulators including theReserveBankof Indiaare still pending,”said ICRA. 2 >

A LONG WEEK IN BRITISHPOLITICS IN THE OFFING

WORLD P8

HACKERS TWEET RACIAL SLURSFROM TWITTER CEO’S ACCOUNT

WORLD P9

PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM BENGALURU, KOLKATA, MUMBAI AND NEW DELHI

www.business-standard.com

SUNDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 201914pagesin1section

MUMBAI (CITY)~10.00VOLUME XIII NUMBER 24

‘Demandineconomyhastomatchcreditexpansion’

India’s economic growth stood at a six-year low of 5 per cent in the April-Junequarter. Will the slowdown be arrested?Lookat it fromtwo-threedifferentangles.Growth is robust when it comes to theservicessector, aggregators invarioussec-tors, fintech, IT [information technolo-gy], etc. With more digitisation, we aremoving towardshigher value addition inbusinesses showingrobustgrowth.Whenit comes tosectors suchasmanufacturingor real estate or those related to infra-structure, one is takingawhole lotof con-sultations. The financeminister has alsoannounced a number of steps. It’s anongoing process. We will come out of it.

Canyouexplaintherationalebehindthemergerofpublicsectorbanks(PSBs),announcedonFriday?If you join the dots to what wehave been doing to the entireecosysteminthe financial sector,youwill findthat therewasaroadmap to clean them (PSBs), makethem robust in terms of higher recovery,and lowerNPAs (non-performingassets).Havingdonethat, thePCR(provisioncov-erage ratio) is at the highest, NPAs arereducing, recoveriesare large,and14PSBsare in profit in the first quarter. This wasthe right time to do the merger, which istechnology-driven, risk-protected,anditssize and scale is such that you can haveglobal aspirations, positioned to supportthe $5-trillion economy.

Demand in the economy hasto match credit expansion and that hasbeen enabled.

Buthowdothesemergersenablecredit?Aquestionbeingaskedis:“Is itmerelycollaborationbetweenbanks?”There are going to be huge efficiencybenefits.We can see this from themerg-er of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and

Dena Bank. If you are talkingfrom a position of strength, youcan invest in technology, get effi-ciency gains in cash manage-ment, among others. There istremendous amount of efficien-

cy gain through synergy and scale. Scalegives you heft, which can be leveragedfor credit and growth. Themerger exer-cise is coupledwith governance reformsand capitalisation. So, it is a well-planned roadmap.

DotherecapitalisationneedsofPSBsgodownbecauseofmerger?That’s agoodquestion.Mostbanks todayare maintaining the regulatory capitalrequirements.Hence, theneed forcapitalisnot toomuchandwehave takencareofit. Banks under the Prompt Corrective

Action require capital and we have pro-vided it to them.Thecapital requirementfollowing the merger certainly does notincrease. It actually goes down.

Turn to Page 4 >

FinanceSecretaryRAJIVKUMAR talksabout thegovernment’s thoughtprocessbehind thelatestmergerofpublic sectorbanksandhowithelps inachievingvariousobjectives, inaninterviewwithSomesh Jha. Editedexcerpts:

“THECAPITALREQUIREMENT(OFPSBs) FOLLOWINGTHEMERGERCERTAINLYDOESNOTINCREASE. ITACTUALLYGOESDOWN”

“THERE ISTREMENDOUSAMOUNTOFEFFICIENCYGAINTHROUGHSYNERGYANDSCALE. SCALEGIVESYOUHEFT,WHICHCANBELEVERAGEDFORCREDITANDGROWTH”

JOHN JURGENSEN31August

OnasoundstageinNewOrleans,adoorpockedwithbulletholesslamsinLaurenceFishburne’sface.Heplaysacoptryingtodefuseaviolentstandoffinthe$15milliondrama“#FreeRayshawn,”tobeviewedinchaptersunder10minutesandonlyonsmartphones.

TheshootispartofaHollywoodwagerthatthesmallestscreenmayfinallybereadyforthebigtime.“#FreeRayshawn”isoneofdozensofserializedshort-formatprogramsontheway,asthemovieandtelevisionindustryreachesforanaudienceoftime-killersgluedtotheirmobiledevices,withepisodesnolongerthanatypicalUberride.Attheedgeofthe“#FreeRayshawn”set,AntoineFuqua,theproject’sproducer,studiesavideomonitortosee

howthescenewilllookonaphonescreen.Hehasdirectedmoviesforthelasttwodecades,includingDenzelWashingtonpictureslike“TrainingDay,”andsayshe“hadtorejiggermybrain”tohelpbreak“#FreeRayshawn”intochunksforscreensthatviewerswillholdintheirhands.

“Theworldismovingsofast.Hollywoodhastoworkhardertobeinfrontofit,”hesays.

“#FreeRayshawn”wasfinancedbythemobile-videocompanygenerating

themostspeculationandinvestment:Quibi,namedfor

theprogramsitwilldoleoutin“quickbites”afteritsplannedlaunchinApril.

Ledbytwomogulsofmoviesandtechnology,JeffreyKatzenbergandMegWhitman,thecompanyhasraised$1

billioninfunding.Investorsinclude10Hollywood

studios,suchasDisney,MGMandWarnerMedia.Quibiisusingthatwarchesttofundanonslaughtofshort-formatprogrammingandrecruitA-listcreators.

Thefilmandtelevisionestablishmenthasaspottyrecordofcreatingshowsfortheinternetera’sshortattentionspans,includingaparadeofforgettable“webisodes”and

high-concept,low-budgetdigitalseries.Morerecently,mobileappsfromVerizonandVivendistockedwithquickprogrammingbothshutdownwithinseveralyearsoflaunch.

Turn to Page 8 >

SPECIAL

1.9 mn leftout of NRC

ARCHIS MOHAN & PTINewDelhi/Guwahati,31August

The updated final NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC),whichvalidateslegalIndiancit-izens of Assam, was out on

Saturday,withover1.9millionapplicantswhofailed tomake it to the list staringatan uncertain future. Equally uncertainwas the course of future politics in thestate,asneithertheNRC’sadvocatesnorits criticswere happywith the outcome.

There were several cases of retireddefencepersonnel,paramilitaryperson-nel, legislatorsandtheirfamiliesnotfind-ing theirnames in theupdated list.

A total of 33,027,661 people hadapplied to be included in the NRC, ofwhich 31,121,004 have been included inthedocument and 1,906,657 excluded, astatement fromtheNRCstate coordina-tor'sofficesaid.ThoseexcludedfromtheNRChave120daystoappealagainst itatforeigners’ tribunals.

TheAssamgovernmenthasruledoutdetentionofpeoplewhodonot figure inthe list “in anycircumstances”, until thetribunalsdeclare themforeigners.

If the Bharatiya Janata Party leaderssaid they were unhappy because many“Bangladeshi Muslims” had made it tothelistanddemandedareverificationinborder areas, the Congress leaders saidtheywere not satisfied sincemany gen-uinecitizenshadbeenexcluded.TheAllAssamStudentsUnion,whichhad led asix-yearmovement in the 1980s againstillegal immigration, which culminatedin the signing of the Assam Accord of1985,disapprovedoftheupdatedlist,say-ing it contained fewernames and that itwouldappeal in theSupremeCourt.

The NRC has been a key politicalplankoftheBJPinrecentyears,withpar-ty chief Amit Shah repeatedly saying inthe Lok Sabha election campaign thatillegal immigrants, or “termites” as hecalled them, will be thrown out of thecountry. BJP’s Bengal unit chief DilipGhoshreiteratedhisdemandforanNRCforWestBengal aswell. BJP stateminis-terHimantaBiswaSarma saidnamesofmanyIndiancitizenswhomigratedfromEast Pakistan as refugees prior to 1971had not been included in the NRCbecause authorities refused to acceptrefugeecertificates. Turn to Page 4 >

People check theirnames in the final list of theNationalRegisterofCitizens, inKamrup,Assam,onSaturday PHOTO:PTI

PRESS TRUST OF INDIANew Delhi, 31 August

AfterremovingfounderGautamThaparas chairman, the board of fraud-hit CGPower and Industrial Solutions hassacked the firm's chief financial officer(CFO) over alleged misconduct andbreachof trust.

The board, at its meeting on Friday,“terminated the employment of V RVenkateshaschieffinancialofficerofthecompany, with immediate effect”, CGPower said ina regulatory filing.

“TheterminationoftheemploymentofVenkateshisduetothegravenatureofthemisconductandbreachoftrustonhispart and having knowingly undertakenactions which were detrimental to theinterests of the company and its stake-holders,” it said.Venkatesh couldnotbecontacted for comment.

CEO and Managing Director K NNeelkant,whowassenton leaveonMay10by theboard toenableproper investi-gation into financial irregularities, con-tinues inhis role fornow.

Turn to Page 4 >

FRAUD-HIT CG POWER SACKS CFO

PeopleacrosspoliticaldivideinAssamcallthelistfaulty;thoseexcludedcanappealin120days

EDIT: AFTER NRC, WHAT NEXT? P11 THE ROAD TO NRC P12

IMAGING:AJAY NARVEKAR

Entertainmentindustryisspendingheavilytoreachagenerationgluedtotheirphones

Comingsoontoasmall screennearyou:Shortcuts

2 COMPANIES>

MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019

AVISHEK RAKSHIT

Kolkata, 31 August

The central govern-ment’s decision toallow 100 per cent for-

eign direct investment (FDI)in the coal sector, and to per-mit commercial mining, hasCoal India (CIL) worried.

The government-ownednear-monopolist is appre-hensive of losing consumersand its pricing power.Thermal power major NTPCis its largest consumer andcompany officials feel withthese latest two develop-ments, the former mightbegin to develop its ownmining capability.

If NTPC does so over thenext five to seven years, saida CIL official, his companywould lose 100-120 milliontonnes (mt) in annual sup-ply. Every year, CIL suppliesclose to 200 mt to NTPC.

“The demand for our coal

might fall once the sectorbecomes more competitiveand other players enter min-ing. There will be more sup-ply and some consumersmight prefer to purchasefrom other sources,” thecompany executive said.

Further, as the new min-ing entrants start operationsand attain economies ofscale, CIL would lose its pric-ing monopoly. At present, itnotifies the prices after con-sidering factors such as like-

ly supply and demand, glob-al trends and cost of electric-ity generation.

“We might not be able toincrease prices in the longrun based on the currentmechanism — others mightoffer at lower prices,” theofficial said.

And, noted that costshave been escalating andwage agreements are due forrenewal in the near future.On average, CIL’s currentcost of production is around

~1,300 a tonne; from fuelsupply agreements, its aver-age realisation is ~1,370 atonne.

Rupesh Sankhe, senioranalyst at Elara Capital, giv-en the coming liberalisedmining regime, CIL is likelyto try and have more controlon employee cost, now~38,000 crore annually. Pricetrends would, he thinks, bestill based on CIL’s notifiedprices — private commercialminers will have to sell at

those. He expects CIL to sell85-90 per cent of its produceat prevalent prices, with therest via e-auction, where itenjoys a 15-20 per cent pre-mium over notified prices.

CIL officials say withincreased coal availability, e-auction prices might be hit.Economies of scale willeventually determine howthe competition will fare.

An official said no othercompany can match the pro-duction volume of CIL, ofover 600 mt a year.

Higher volume playallows it benefits such aslower production costs, larg-er say in pricing and others.

“However, the smallercommercial miners might,eventually, scale up with theFDI boost, and then the sit-uation will become muchmore competitive. However,I don’t see it happeningbefore the next five years,”said a CIL executive.

Opening of commercial mininghas Coal India in tough spotCompetition expected to increase; firm apprehensive of losing customers, pricing power

Average realisation per tonne in

Q1, 18-19 Q1, 19-20 % chg

FSA 1,313 1,370 4.34

E-auction 2,399 2,155 -10.17

Total washed coal 2,427 3,171 30.66

Total average 1,476 1,515 2.64realisation All figures in ~except % change; Source: Coal India

KEY METRICS

ANEESH PHADNIS

Mumbai, 31 August

GVK Group on Saturdayawarded the Navi Mumbaiairport’s engineering pro-curement and constructioncontract to Larsen & Toubro(L&T). The deal size and proj-ect completion deadlinewere not disclosed in theannouncement, but peoplein the know have pegged thedeal at over ~6,000 crore.

GVK won the bid to con-struct the Navi Mumbai  air-port in 2017, and the conces-sion agreement for theproject was signed inJanuary last year.

A tender to select the EPCcontractor was floated inAugust last year. 

In June, L&T was selectedby the board of planningauthority, City and IndustrialDevelopment Corporationfor the job. The formal agree-ment was signed on Saturdayby GVK group founder andchairman G V K Reddy, andL&T Managing Director S NSubrahmanyan.

The scope of the projectincludes cut and fill works,

terminal works includingdeparture and arrival fore-courts, airfield developmentincluding runway, taxiway,roads, multi-level car park,utilities and support facilities.

The passenger terminalbuilding is being developedto initially handle a capacityof 10 million passengers ayear, which shall be subse-quently increased to 20 mil-lion, said the GVK group.

Navi Mumbai airport has

been plagued by delays andcost escalation over issuesrelated to land acquisitionand environment issues. 

The first phase projectcost is pegged at over ~14,000crore, and will be fundedthrough equity investmentand ~10,300-crore long-termdebt. While the state hopesthe airport will be ready bymid-2020, CRISIL, in itsreport in May-end, had saidoperations were expected tostart in 2023. 

GVK awards Navi Mumbaiairport contract to L&T

In June, L&T was selected by the board of planning authority,City and Industrial Development Corporation, for the job

SUBRATA PANDA

Mumbai, 31 August

Credit rating agency ICRA hasdowngraded mortgage lenderIndiabulls Housing Finance’s(IBHL) long-term debt instru-ments to AA+ from AAA, onaccount of rising woes fornon-banking financial com-panies (NBFCs) and housingfinance companies (HFCs).

The NBFC and HFC sec-tors have been plagued byincrease in cost of funds andprolonged squeeze in liquid-ity. The rating of IBHLremains under watch with“developing implications” inlight of its merger proposalLaxmi Vilas Bank.

“While the scheme hasreceived approval from theCompetition Commission ofIndia, key approvals from reg-ulators including the ReserveBank of India (RBI), are stillpending,” said ICRA.

The revision in ratings ofthe debt instruments has fac-tored in challenges in main-taining the asset quality,

which stem from the contin-ued slowdown in the realestate sector. The realty sectorhas been hit by subdued salesand rising challenges on thefunding front, said ICRA.

ICRA has downgradednon-convertible debentures(NCDs) of the company worth~45,200 crore to AA+ fromAAA. Similarly, its sub-ordi-nated debt programme worth~5,000 crore and retail bondprogramme worth ~15,000crore to AA+ from AAA. Itslong term bank facilities

worth ~47,000 crore were alsodowngraded.

However, ICRA reaffirmedits rating for the company’scommercial papers worth~25,000 crore.

The rating agency notedthat maintaining asset qualitywas a challenge, given theslowdown in the real estatesector. Indiabulls has, never-theless, managed to maintainhealthy asset quality despitesome deterioration in theJune quarter.

Gross non-performing

assets (NPAs) stood at 1.47 percent of the assets under man-agement (AUM), compared to0.88 per cent in March 2019.

“IBHL’s ability to achievetimely exits/refinancing of thereal estate exposure willremain important for main-taining the asset quality.IBHL’s healthy liquidity posi-tion provides comfort,” therating agency said.

Although IBHL has beenincreasing its retail portfolioand is sitting on cash equiva-lents to the tune of ~28,511crore that adequately providesfor debt obligations due tomature in the next 12 months,its growth prospects and abil-ity to maintain profitabilityare expected to remain con-strained over the near-to-medium term.

The contraction in thecompany’s loan book over thepast two quarters, coupledwith the higher cost of fundsand provision expenses,resulted in moderation of itsprofitability in the June quar-ter, ICRA said.

ICRA downgrades Indiabulls Housinglong-term ratings to AA+ from AAA

Poor manufacturing may cause downtime in IT industryDEBASIS MOHAPATRA

Bengaluru, 31 August

The manufacturing segment,which has been the growthdriver for the Indian ITindustry, is likely to hit theslow lane. This is because ofthe ongoing trade warbetween the US and China,apart from slowdownconcerns in countries such asGermany and the UK.

In the June quarter ofFY20, revenue from thissegment grew faster thanother key verticals for the topIndian IT players. Accordingto a report by Spark Capital, inthe June quarter, revenuefrom the manufacturingvertical grew 3.6 per centsequentially for the top sixdomestic IT companies.

Compared to this, thebanking, financial servicesand insurance (BFSI) sector

saw sequential growth of 0.6per cent, and retail and CPGvertical witnessed a growth of0.4 per cent in Q1 of FY20.

Revenue growth in thetelecom vertical was at 0.5 percent, while energy andutilities witnessed a growthof 0.9 per cent. The top sixdomestic firms include TCS,Infosys, HCL Technologies,Wipro, Tech Mahindra andL&T Infotech.

“Technology spend bymanufacturers has definitelypicked up in the recentquarters due to focus onIndustry 4.0 apart fromemergence of new agetechnologies such as Internetof Things (IoT) and machinelearning, among others,” saidPareekh Jain, founder ofPareekh Consulting and an IToutsourcing advisor.

“However, events likerising trade tensions between

the US and China andslowdown fears in the globaleconomy can put brakes onthe discretionary spendsrelated to digital services,” headded. Reports suggestedthat the Sino-US trade warhas rattled much of the global

automotive supply chainsand affected big automakersincluding Volkswagen,Hyundai Motor Co andHonda Motor Co which havesupply chain operations inChina. Apart from trade war,economic contraction in two

major European economieslike UK and Germany havealso raised concerns.

While GDP growth in UKcontracted 0.2 per cent inApril-June quarter, thecontraction for Germanystood at 0.1 per cent duringthis period.

Major manufacturers likeRolls-Royce, Volkswagen,Daimler AG, Siemens, BMWGroup, Bosch, andContinental AG operate inthese two nations,whichspend billions of dollars astheir technology spends.

“There is a high likelihoodthat we will see revenuegrowth decline for the ITvendors as manufacturingclients cut back on spending.A no-deal Brexit, uncertaintyin Europe, the US-Chinatrade war, not to mention theupcoming US election will allimpact the revenues of

enterprises in this segment.The first area where we havehistorically observedspending cuts has been IT,”said Hansa Iyengar, senioranalyst at London-basedOvum Research.

“We can anticipate at least2-3 quarters of weak showfrom this segment,” headded.

Experts said firms likeHCL Technologies, Wiproand Tech Mahindra wouldface larger impact on theirrevenues from this vertical incase of any slowdown.In the quarter ended June,manufacturing segmentcontributed around 38 percent to HCL Tech’s totalrevenue while it was around20 per cent for Wipro.

Tech Mahindra drewaround 19 per cent revenuefrom this business segmentduring the period.

A Spark Capital report says revenue from the manufacturingvertical grew 3.6% sequentially for the top six IT firms in Q1

ANEESH PHADNIS

Mumbai, 31 August

Apollo Hospitals, Fortis, NarayanaHrudayalaya and other leading hospitalsare targeting an increase in internationalpatient admissions on the back of easiervisa norms and linkages with internation-al chains.

Foreign patients help hospitalsincrease occupancy, improve cash flow,build brand profile overseas, and serve asa hedge against currency volatility.

“Overseas patient admissions con-tribute to around 11 per cent of our rev-enue, up from 5 per cent four years ago.The growth has been due to opening upof new hospitals in Mumbai and Gurgaon,participation in medical camps abroadand liasioning with government agenciesin Africa and West Asia,” said Viren Shetty,executive director of Narayana Hrudalaya.

A Fortis Hospital spokesperson said10-12 per cent of annual revenue is con-

tributed by foreign patients; growth fromthe category is 4-5 per cent. Last year,Fortis received 11,000 overseas patientsand is focused on increasing the volumethrough tie-ups with foreign hospitals andstreamlining support services.

A majority of overseas patients to Indiacome from Bangladesh and Africa/WestAsia. According to a 2018 Ficci report,tourist arrivals from Bangladesh, Iraq andOman for medical purposes hasincreased over the last four years.

Apollo Hospitals treated around200,000 foreign patients last year and thisincluded both admissions and out patientdepartment cases. “Introduction of e-visas is a welcome move and it has cer-tainly helped to improve patient experi-ence in India. However visas for longerduration can be explored. Also e-visa facil-ity should be extended to Nigeria,Bangladesh, Democratic Republic ofCongo, Pakistan and other countries fromwhere patient inflow to India is signifi-cant,” an Apollo spokesperson said.

“Our hospitals treated over 3,500 over-seas patients in FY 2019. The revenue con-tribution from international patients isabove 6 per cent. This is 36 per centgrowth over the previous fiscal year. Thestrategic network of Aster DM Healthcarefacilities abroad is leveraged to providehigh quality and cost effective care tooverseas patients by our India hospitals,”said Alisha Moopen, executive director ofAster DM Hospitals.

Hospitals look west for patient growth

AVISHEK RAKSHIT

Kolkata, 31 August

Burger King is planning toexpand its restaurant chainby opening outlets at high-way stopovers. At present, ithas 212 restaurants across 50cities in the country.

Significant investment isbeing pumped into the coun-try’s highways and a lot ofthese are coming up withbuilt-in stoppages and restareas, which are being nowauctioned off. “This isbecoming a major develop-ment for us, especially in thenorthern part of the country.This is a major growthavenue that we are eyeing,”said Rajeev Varman, chiefexecutive officer at BurgerKing India.

The company will collab-orate with stopover manage-ment consolidators, who willparticipate in the bids todevelop food courts and restareas along the highways.Such stopovers will housemultiple restaurant brands.

This expansion will befunded internally by theinvestors in the Indian enti-ty of Burger King. Everstoneholds around 87 per cent inthe company while the US-based parent, Burger KingCorporation, holds around12 per cent. Varman alsoholds a stake.

The new focus area fol-lows the company’s decisionto enter east India recentlyafter finalising its distribu-tion centres and coming upwith several restaurantsacross high-traffic locationssuch as malls, airports, andstandalone eateries.

Since its entry into Indiain 2013, the US-based burgerbrand has built its networkchain across prominentmalls, high streets and metrostations in Delhi andMumbai. It is also present insome software parks. BurgerKing has also come up withits outlets in Mumbai,Hyderabad and Cochin air-ports. It is planning toincrease its presence in moreairports.

Varman said despite thesurge in cloud kitchens andonline delivery of food,Burger King would continueto focus on the brick-and-mortar model. In the lastfinancial year, Burger Kingopened 58 outlets. So far thisyear, it has opened 26 storesand 30 more will come up bythe end of December.

“We have a massivebrand and presence in over100 countries. We are notinterested in hiding thisbrand and we like to takelocations that are highly vis-ible and high traffic loca-tions,” he said.

Burger King plansto open outlets athighway stopovers

Rajeev Varman, CEO of Burger King India, said the firm seeksto take the brand to highly visible locations

The rating of IBHL remains under watch with “developingimplications” in light of its merger proposal LVB

Govt accepts resignation of SBI chief Anshula KantThe Centre has accepted theresignation of State bank ofIndia ManagingDirector AnshulaKant, followingher appointmentas MD and chieffinancial officerof the WorldBank.

“The govern-ment herebyaccepts the resig-nation of AnshulaKant, Managing Director ofthe bank, with effect from

August 31 in relaxation of thenotice period,” SBI said in a

BSE filing.Kant was

appointed as themanaging direc-tor and chieffinancial officerof the WorldBank.

As MD andCFO, Kant will beresponsible forfinancial and risk

management of the WorldBank Group. PTI

MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019 MEGA MERGER 3. <

SOMESH JHANew Delhi, 31 August

Friday’s mega announcementmerging four sets of banks was theoutcome of a process the govern-

ment had started about six months ago,people working on the plan pointed out.

The back story suggests it was inMay, days before results for the gener-al elections were announced, that theinformal discussions with the ReserveBank of India took place at a meeting inNew Delhi. RBI deputy governor M KJain, finance secretary Rajiv Kumarwere among the key officials whoattended that meeting.

While various permutations andcombinations were discussed includ-ing merger of several banks into one,the policy makers were convinced thatthe Bank of Baroda (BoB) model ofamalgamation was the best. The merg-er of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank withBoB came into effect on April 1.

“Integration of customer servicesfor numerous banks would have beendifficult. So, we decided to stick to theBoB-like model,” an official explained.

Key factors

Even as various aspects of the mergerwere being analysed, technology inte-gration was seen as a key driver whenthe banks were matched with each oth-er. Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman announced on Friday thatPunjab National Bank (PNB) will takeover Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC)and United Bank of India (UBI) tobecome the country’s second-largestlender after State Bank of India (SBI) interms of business. Canara Bank will sub-sume Syndicate Bank; Andhra Bankand Corporation Bank will merge withUnion Bank of India; and Allahabad

Bank will become part of Indian Bank.Public sector banks work on differ-

ent information technology platforms.According to a top government official,integrating PSBs with different IT plat-forms was seen as an arduous task.Bankers agree that the biggest chal-lenge during a merger is related tohuman resources and IT.

Going by the merger combinationsannounced on Friday, Syndicate Bankand Canara Bank were the only twoPSBs working on iFlex core bankingsystem. Both banks had regional syn-ergies too and their combination wasseen as ideal.

Even with the same IT platform inplace, the technological integrationtakes about one year, Canara Bankmanaging director and chief executiveofficer R A Sankara Narayanan toldBusiness Standard in an interview.

Narayanan has had his share of

experience in PSB mergers as he wasthe chief executive of Vijaya Bank whenit was merged into Bank of Baroda.

Similarly, Chennai-based IndianBank and Kolkata-based AllahabadBank operate on BaNCS platform anddespite their geographical diversitieswere decided to be merged. Indian Bankbeing the bigger bank, in terms of busi-ness size, was chosen to be the acquirerbank - a thumb rule in all these mergers.

Merger process

The government has been makingefforts for merging PSBs since August2017 when the Union Cabinet approveda mechanism for it.

As per the mechanism, “the propos-al must start from the boards of banks.”But instead of banks spearheading themerger process, as was envisaged, thefinance ministry took the lead.

“We found multiple issues in letting

banks take a decision at their boardlevels and coming up with merger pro-posals,” according to the official.

He said all PSBs would have wantedto become the anchor bank, that mayhave triggered a logjam.

“Also, there were technical difficul-ties. For instance, if banks get approvalsfrom their respective boards for a pro-posal to merge with other banks, theywere obliged to inform the public share-holders through the stock exchange.And if the proposal didn't come throughas it requires a series of approvals, merg-ers would have become a complicatedexercise leading to erosion of valuationin some cases,” the official said.

The government has set a target formerger of all 10 banks by April 1, 2020.“Announcing one set of bank merger ata time would have become a long-drawn process,” the official added.

But among six PSBs, a lender likeBank of India was left out of the merg-er process. “Bank of India came out ofRBI's PCA framework recently and itrequires time to be on its own,” financialservices secretary Rajiv Kumar said.

The final nod

A group of ministers including financeminister Nirmala Sitharaman and com-merce and industry minister PiyushGoyal gave the go-ahead for the merg-er last week.

The 10 banks were called for a meet-ing by the finance and financial serv-ices secretary on Wednesday. But themeeting was abruptly deferred toFriday afternoon, following which themerger move was announced bySitharaman, hours before the officialestimates of India's gross domesticproduct (GDP) were released showinggrowth rate touching over a six-yearlow of 5 per cent.

How tech, regional synergiesdrove bank merger plan

PNB will take over OBC and UBI to become the country’s second-largest lenderafter SBI in terms of business

What is your view about the merger?We are very happy. We didnot lose our identity andIndian Bank is rightly recog-nised for its self-drivengrowth. In this whole merg-er, Indian Bank is the onlymedium sized public sectorbank (PSB) taking overanother bank. This is arecognition of thebank’s strength, beit financial, assetquality or capital.In the last 18 years,there was not evena year without prof-it. Even in this kind ofvolatility and NPA (non-per-forming assets) problem inthe banking sector, IndianBank stands out.

How would the merger helpIndian Bank?In the current scenario, scaleis necessary to compete.Though Indian Bank is pan-Indian, the core businessand base strength lies in thesouth. Similarly, forAllahabad Bank, though it ispan-Indian, the core focuswas North and East. The

merger will give us the scale(of operations), which is nec-essary currently. It will be asmooth process to integrate.

Will there be any culturalissues, overlapping ofbranches and technologyproblems?There will be very little over-lap in terms of branches or

network, since thegeography focushas been differ-ent. So far as tech-nology is con-cerned, both thebanks are on the

same platform offered byTCS. Hence, it will not be achallenge. Cultural issues:Yes to some extent, theywould be there, but we canhandle them consideringboth the banks employeesare well spread. Employeeswill be taken care of interms of their package andtheir mobility. Employeeswill be getting better of thepackages from the twobanks. It should be a muchbigger exposure for theemployees with the bankbecoming a global bank.

(Merged entity will have42,814 employees)

Allahabad Bank has beenreporting losses and NPA isaround 5.22%. Since the RBIhas put a cap that net NPAshould not be more than 6%, how would it affect you?Indian Bank’s net NPA was3.75 per cent and AllahabadBank’s 5.22 per cent as ofMarch 2019. The amalga-mated bank’s net NPA

would be 4.39 per cent, so itwill not be an issue. Besides,both the banks are takingsteps to reduce the slippagesand improve recovery. Allloans above ~50 crore arewell provided in AllahabadBank, because they havebeen cleaning up since theywere under prompt correc-tive action. Allahabad Bankis in good shape comparedto what it was and aftermerger with Indian Bank,

we can take the combinedentity to new heights.

Any big advantage ofmerging with AllahabadBank?Allahabad Bank is strong inits CASA contribution at 49per cent, while IndianBank’s is 34 per cent. This isbig plus, and the presencein the North and East is alsoits forte.

What is your vision for theamalgamated bank?Post merger, it will be theseventh largest, going by thenumbers in March 2019. Weare expecting the merger totake place by March 31,2020. In two years from themerger, we want to make itthe fifth largest.

Does it require capital?Post the merger, CRAR (cap-ital to risk (weighted) assetsratio) ratio would be 12.89per cent (it will be the high-est among the four mergedbanks). We are looking ataround 15 per cent growth asa combined entity, whichwould require growth capi-tal. Besides the ~2,500 croregovernment capital, IndianBank was planning to raisearound ~2,000 crorethrough QIPs but that needsto be reviewed in the light ofthe proposal.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced the mergerof 10 state-owned banks to form four big banks. One among them wasAllahabad Bank’s merger with Chennai-based Indian Bank. Managingdirector and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of Indian Bank PADMAJACHUNDURUspeaks to T ENarasimhanon how the merger will benefitthe bank and the challenges ahead. Edited excerpts:

Move to boost Indian Bank’s scale of ops

The central government’sdecision to merge public sec-tor banks into four largebanks would increase the riskand is not an answer to thebad loan problem of thesebanks, said a top official of theAll India Bank Employees’Association (AIBEA).

The association is under-taking protests against themove, alleging that themerger would result in clos-ing down of branches. It mayalso impact the efficiency ofcustomer services in theremaining ones.

“While public sector banksmade a total gross profit of~150,000 crore for the yearended March 31, 2019, becauseof total provisions towards badloans, amounting to ~2,16,000crore, the banks ended in a netloss of ~66,000 crore. Will any-one believe that the merger ofbanks will result in recoveryof the huge amount of corpo-rate bad loans? Rather, as wehave observed after merger inSBI, bad loans have gone up.These banks are facing thesame risk,” said C HVenkatachalam, general sec-retary, AIBEA in a statement.

GIREESH BABU

Merger willresult in closure of branches, say unions

PRESS TRUST OF INDIANew Delhi, 31 August

Punjab National Bank (PNB)on Saturday said its board ofdirectors will meet onSeptember 5 to consider thelenders’ merger with OrientalBank of Commerce (OBC) andUnited Bank of India’ (UBI).

In a BSE filing, PNB said“the meeting of board ofdirectors of the bank isscheduled to be held on 5thSeptember, 2019” for consid-ering some key agenda.

The board will meet to“consider the amalgamationof the OBC and UBI intoPNB”, the statement said.

Besides, it will also consid-er capital infusion of up to~16,500 crore by the govern-ment by way of preferentialissue of equity share and fixingdate of extra ordinary generalmeeting (EGM) for obtainingshareholders' approval in thisregard at a price determinedin terms of SEBI (ICDR) Regul-ations, the bank's filing said.

Meanwhile, CorporationBank, which is going to bemerged with Union Bank ofIndia along with Andhra Bank,too said a board meeting willbe held to consider the merger.

In a stock exchange filing,it said “a meeting of theBoard of Directors of theBank to consider the amalga-mation will be convened bythe Bank in due course”.

The government on Fridayunveiled a mega plan to merge10 public sector banks intofour as part of plans to createfewer and stronger global-sized lenders as it looks toboost economic growth froman over six-year low.

PNB board to meet on Sept 5 toconsider amalgamation

VIBHA PADALKAR

In the past 19 years, the life insur-ance business has gone througha sea change. Gone are the days

when the head of the householdwould purchase a policy through thelocal insurance agent who wouldmostly be a relative or a friend.There has been a visible increase ininterest towards the product cate-gory, which can be attributed toincreasing preference for financialsavings. This, in turn, has increasedthe share of life insurance withinfinancial assets. The governmenthas launched various initiatives,which have further given an impetusto financial savings — implementa-tion of JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar andMobile) trinity, the launch of afford-able PMJJBY (Pradhan MantriJeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana) and PMS-BY (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha BimaYojana) social insurance schemes,the Atal Pension Yojana promotingpension and set up of small financebanks and payment banks toincrease financial inclusion.

Recent years have also seen achange in the way the product isbought as well as sold. The digital plat-form has made it easy to purchase lifeinsurance – the product can now bepurchased within minutes by eventhe non-savvy internet user. However,while the process of buying life insur-ance has become quick and straight-forward and the number of optionshas increased manifold, at times themyriad products offered by multiple

life insurers make you feel spoilt forchoice (or in most cases, leave youcompletely confused). Also, there willbe friends and family who could offeradvice based on experience or plainhearsay, adding to the confusion.

At such times, it is useful toremember that your decision-mak-ing process should be based on factsand your thought-through objectivemore than anything else becausewhen it comes to life insurance, one

size does not fit all.The following points should be

kept in mind while purchasing life insurance.

Life insurance is a long-term prod-uct. You need to consider a horizonof at least 10 years when you consid-er purchasing life insurance.Anything shorter, and you may becompromising on the returns onyour investment.

Ensure financial protection firstbefore planning for the future.Ensure that you first put in placepure protection plans for life, healthand retirement. It is an absoluteimperative, which will safeguard youand your loved ones against eventu-alities, and cover your liabilities.

Choose the product based on yourlife stage, risk appetite and your long-term financial goal.When it comes to savingfor the long term, lifeinsurance offers twotypes of products – tra-ditional and unit-linked.In case you have a lowrisk-taking ability, youcan go for conventionalproducts which primari-ly invest in debt instru-ments. If you are willingto maximise your returnsthrough exposure to equities, you canopt for unit-linked products.

Choose the term of the policy andthe premium amount based on yourcurrent ability and future financialgoals. It is essential that you under-stand fully what you are signing upfor. Many individuals allow theiragent / financial advisor to decidethe amount of premium and term ofthe policy, without realising thateither they may not be able to affordthat amount in future or for that longa tenure or both. This then leads todiscontinuance in premium pay-ments which typically result in low-er returns, as well as the inability towithdraw the money before the endof the lock-in, thus resulting in a dou-ble whammy to the customer.

When it comes to critical illnessplans, you need to ensure that theplan covers all stages of the diseases.This is necessary as various plansclaiming to provide all round cover-age do not cover early stages.Remember to check for the exclu-sions to ensure that your insureroffers you comprehensive coverage.

While purchasing a policy, remem-ber that the one with the lowest pre-mium may not necessarily be the bestoption. Remember, you are purchas-ing the policy for your financial secu-rity – avoid falling for offers, whichseems too good to be true. You areunder no obligation to purchase fromanyone merely because they helpedyou understand the product. Checkdirectly with the company in case ofan offer that sounds outlandish.

Disclose all financialand health informationaccurately and truthful-ly at the time of form fil-ing as this will have adirect impact on yourclaim settlement.

Read the policy fea-tures carefully and payattention to the frequen-cy of premium paymentthat you are signing upfor. The ECS / SI option

works best as it enables you to con-tinue premium payments uninter-ruptedly. Companies also make pre /post-sales calls for verifying the pur-chase, and some even have an app forthis. Ensure that you diligently com-plete the verification process. Thisenables you to have complete knowl-edge of what you have purchased.

Every life insurance policy comeswith a free look offer, which is typi-cally 15-day money back guaranteethat is not available with any otherproduct. In case you did not get theproduct you wanted, you are entitledto a refund from the life insurer. So usethis period to go through the KFD“Key Features Document” that mostcompanies have in their policy pack

Ensure you have a nominee. Incase of an eventuality, the nominee isthe official beneficiary of the pro-ceeds from your policy. In case yournominee is a minor you will need toname an appointee. Also, informyour nominee/family membersabout the policy.

Store your policy electronically. Thefacility to store life insurance policiesin a dematerialised format ensuresthat they remain safe and damage-free for the entire policy term.

Life insurance is a serious invest-ment – do keep the above in mind toensure that you make the best of it!

The writer is MD & CEO, HDFC Life

1. In the USA, the 'John Doe' Summons is usuallydeployed in the case of ___________________.A. Illegal migrationB. Financial misdemeanoursC. Carbon emissionsD. Violation of trade sanctions

2. Which of these variables is NOT part of the 'ImpossibleTrinity' conundrum?A. Exchange rateB. Capital controlsC. Monetary policyD. Fiscal policy

5. In the numberseries : 3,4,5,9,4,7,2,1 the 'Mode' is_____________.A. 1B. 9C. 4D. 7

4. 1. Which of these books is not written bya Governorof the Reserve Bankof India ?A. The Future of IndiaB. Fault LinesC. The Idea of JusticeD. Global Crisis : Recession & Uneven Recovery

5. Section 80TTA of the Income taxAct pertains tointerest earned on ______________.A. Savings bank accountsB. Fixed depositsC. Recurring depositsD. Government savings schemes

Financial literacy

The quiz master is head - marketing, PPFAS Mutual FundSend your queries and feedback at yourmoney@bsmail.in

Solutions

1. B. This provision assistsUStax authoritiespursuing“a particular person or ascertainable group or class ofpersons” whom they suspect of financial wrongdoing,but whose identities are unknown. If approved by acourt, thesummonscompelsbanks toreveal theidentities of the people behind the transactions.

2.D. It states that it is impossible to have all three of thefollowing at the same time : A stable foreign exchangerate, absence of capital controls and an independentmonetary policy. 'Fiscal policy' does not directly impactthis.

3.C.It is a statistical term that refers to the mostfrequently occurring number found in a set ofnumbers. In this case, it is '4'.

4.C. The author was Amartya Sen, an economist andNobel laureate.

5. A. Savings Account interest upto ~ 10,000 per annum isexempt u/s 80TTA

BS TUTORIALJayant Pai

INSURANCE

4 YOUR MONEY MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019 1>

Life insurance: Onesize does not fit allInstead of depending blindly on the agent, look at your needs

Ensure that youhave a life andmedical policy inplace. This willsafeguard yourfamily against anyeventuality andcover liabilities.The product shouldbe based on yourrisk-taking ability

NUMBER OF NEW LIFE POLICIES ISSUED (in million)RECENT REFORMS IN LIFE INSURANCE

Surrendervalue and revival period hiked intraditional plans

Premiums can be reduced by 50% after5 payments

Revival period hiked from two to three years inlinked policies

Minimum policy term forpure protection plansreduced from one year to one month

Insurers can collectpremiums three months inadvance instead of one month

Insurer 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

LIC 34.5 20.2 20.5 20.1 21.3

Growth (%) (-6.17) (-41.55) (1.86) (-2.02) (5.99)

Private Sector 6.4 5.7 6.2 6.3 6.9

Growth (%) (-14.11) (-9.79) (7.92) (2.13) (8.47)

Total 40.9 25.9 26.7 26.4 28.2

Growth (%) (-7.50) (-36.61) (3.20) (-1.05) (6.58)Note: Figures in brackets indicate growth over the previous year in per cent. Source: IRDAI

FROM PAGE 1ECONOMY>

1.9 mn leftout of NRC“Many names got includedbecause of manipulation oflegacy data as alleged bymany,” he said. Sarma said theSupreme Court should allowat least 20 per cent reverifica-tion in border districts of thestate, and 10 per cent reverifi-cation in the rest of the state“for a correct and fair NRC”.

BJP state unit chief RanjeetKumar Dass asked the Centreto prepare a national-level NRCand said his party would keepa close watch on the process ofappeal in foreigners’ tribunalsby the excluded persons andthe judgments of the cases. “Ifwe see that foreigners’ tri-bunals are delivering adversejudgments on the appeals bygenuine Indian citizens, wewill not wait for the entire 19lakh cases to be disposed of.We will bring in legislation andmake an act to protect them,”he said.

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee said the“NRC fiasco” had exposed allthose who tried to take politicalmileage out of it. “They have alot to answer to the nation. Thisis what happens when an act isguided by an ulterior motiverather than the good of thesociety and the lager interest ofthe nation.”

“My heart goes out to allthose, especially the largenumber of Bengali- speakingbrothers and sisters, who aremade to suffer because of thisbotched up process,” sheadded.

The final list was publishedat 10 am and the hard copies ofthe supplementary list of inclu-sions are available for publicviewing at the NRC SevaKendras (NSK), offices of thedeputy commissioner, andoffices of the circle officer dur-ing office hours, a statementby the NRC authority said.

Hundreds of people beganthronging these offices soonafter the list was released, withsome returning home happyand some disappointed.

Ramen Deka, a former BJPMP from Mangaldoi, said alarge number of illegal Muslimmigrants from Bangladesh hadmade the cut, while manyindigenous people did not.

Abdul Khaleque, theCongress lawmaker fromBarpeta, said he was “not fullysatisfied”. “A lot of genuinenames have been excluded,”he said.

One of the clauses of theaccord was “detection, deletionand deportation” of illegalBangladeshi migrants. “We arenot happy at all. It seems therewere some deficiencies in theupdatation process. We believethat it is an incomplete NRC.We will appeal to the SupremeCourt to remove all the faultsand descrepancies in thisNRC,” AASU General SecretaryLurinjyoti Gogoi said.Addressing a press conference,Gogoi said the final figure ofexclusion did not even comeclose to the figures officiallyannounced by authorities onvarious occasions.

The Assam Public Works(APW), the original petitionerin the Supreme Court whichled to the NRC updation, calledthe final NRC a “flawed docu-ment”. It said the citizenshiproll could not become error-free because the apex courthad turned down its demandfor a reverification. “The finalNRC has made it obvious thatthe problem of illegal immi-gration will never be resolvedin Assam. If this NRC had beencompleted flawlessly, it wouldhave gone down as a goldenchapter in Assam’s history,”APW President AabhijeetSharma said.

On July 30 last year, theNRC’s complete draft wasreleased that excluded over 4million people. An additional102,462 people were left out inJune this year, taking the totalnumber of ineligible personsto 4,110,169.

‘Demand in economy has to match credit expansion’By how much? Is there anyestimate, when you talkabout the latest round ofmerger? We have budgeted ~70,000crore for this year. This exer-cise (of merger) was going onsince that time. How muchsavings can be there? Wehave provided everything in~55,000 crore that we haveannounced to provide tobanks. Now, bank boardshave to assess the positionand come up with their sug-gestions. State Bank of Indiadoesn’t need capital.

Bank of Baroda wasrewarded for its stellar finan-cial performance and we arecapitalising it. But since riskand NPAs are reducing, it’sunlikely that there will beany further demand for cap-ital, especially after givingbanks so much strength.Banks also have to be on theirown and raise capital them-selves. It’s not a continuousexercise that you give themmoney. They are commercialentities and they should beearning for themselves now.

Therefore, I don't think we

need any extra capital.

The minimum publicshareholding is at 35 percent. But the government’sshare in PSBs has beengoing up. When will theexercise of shedding stakebegin?From the corporate gover-nance point of view, thereshould be adequate publicfloat in the market for checksand balances. You couldn’thave done it earlier when youweren’t in a sound position.

Having achieved that, inright time, they should defi-nitely have more public float.

What is the timeline?Let the merger process takeplace. We do not want anydisruption right now, whichis the first priority. When val-uation gains come, we willexamine at that stage.

Why did you leave out abank like Bank of India frommerger?Bank of India itself is a bigbank. It came out of the RBI’sPCA framework recently and itrequires time to be on its own.

What about IDBI Bank? The plan to privatise it wasshelved and, instead, LIC tookover the bank. IDBI Bank ismaking a lot of progress. It’smaking progress in terms ofbusiness synergy gains withLIC – cross-selling, bankas-surance, etc. If you see the lastresults, their net NPAs havegone down drastically —close to getting out of PCA.Its operating profit has also improved.

Fraud-hit CG Power sacks CFO However, some investors andlenders have questioned hiscontinuance, given that thefraud, involving some assetsof the firm being provided ascollateral and the moneyfrom the loans siphoned offby "identified company per-sonnel, both current and past,including certain non-execu-tive directors", happenedunder his watch.

The board-institutedinvestigation had also foundsome liabilities and advancesto related and unrelated par-ties being understated.

The company has restat-ed its financial results for theprevious fiscal, taking intoaccount the unstated liabili-ties, the filing said.

“Certainunauthorised/unapprovedbanking transactions in thenature of loans (unauthorisedtransactions/loans) taken

from banks/financial institu-tions (lenders)/a connectedparty aggregating to ~635crores were not disclosed inthe standalone financialresults of prior years/periodsby offsetting against certainrelated and unrelated partybalances," the company'sauditors said in the audit notefurnished with the restatedstatement.

It said interest expenses of~90.93 crore, which were serv-iced by the company in rela-tion to these unauthorisedloans, were accounted underdifferent heads in the stand-alone statement of profit andloss and "were mispresentedin the financialstatements/results of prioryears/periods".

"The company also hasloans including interestreceivables and advancesrecoverable from related and

unrelated parties, as reinstat-ed on March 31, 2019, aggre-gating to ~2,439.94 crore forwhich further interestincome aggregating to ~337.61crore is currently not record-ed as at March 31, 2019," itsaid.

On August 29, the boardremoved Thapar as chairmanof the company through a cir-cular resolution approved bya majority of the members.Thapar opposed the resolu-tion, while Neelkant hadabstained from voting.

Thapar, who had not com-mented on the issue since thecompany disclosed financialirregularities on August 20after a marathon board meet-ing on the previous day, hadin a statement after hisremoval said: “No promoteror promoter entity hasderived any undue benefit.There is simply no fraud.”

Cottonspinners bleedon lowreturnsDILIP KUMAR JHAMumbai, 31 August

Thousands of cotton spinningmills have shut shop in the lastthree months due to a sharpdecline in realisation from thedomestic as well as interna-tional markets following weakglobal demand.

A study by ratings agencyIcra said that the average reali-sation from cotton yarn stoodat ~212 a kg (for the 30s cardedvariety) in July, a decline ofaround 6 per cent from ~225 akg averaged in the quarterbetween April and June 2019.

During the last one year,however, the average realisa-tion was recorded at ~220 a kgfrom the 30s carded variety.

Similarly, realisation fromother varieties of cotton yarnalso declined.

The decline in average real-isation for cotton spinningmills have put pressure on theirsurvival due to the ever increas-ing fixed costs, includinglabour, interest on working cap-ital, land, plant and machinery.

A recovery in the overall sen-timent is not in sight. In fact,many small and medium sizedmills have shut, rendering thou-sands of workers jobless.

“In view of the sharp declinein exports, the spinning sectoris in a critical situation as manyproduction units are shuttingdown. The sector needs urgentpolicy support, including 3 percent of interest equalisation tocotton yarn.

“The policy support willhelp the cotton yarn sector andthe spinning industry at largeto minimise losses and regaincompetitiveness,” said K VSrinivasan, chairman of theCotton Textile ExportPromotion Council (Texprocil).

With expectations of a bet-ter crop in the ongoing kharifseason, cotton fibre prices arelikely to correct to a level lowerthan the average pricesobserved during the harvestseason ended March 2019.

Exports of cotton textilescontinued their fall, decliningby 24.5 per cent during April-July 2019.

Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar

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FIT & PROPERYour weekly health guide

Swift, squint correction

Squint is the misalignmentof the eyes, wherein both the eyes point towards dif-ferent directions. The mis-alignment may be constantfor a few, while it may inter-mittently occur for someothers. The deviation of theeye may be in any direction— inward, outward, upwardor downward. Squints maybe found in isolation, without any other eye-abnormality in children, inthe first one to two years oftheir lives. They are alsoassociated with high-specta-cle power or low vision dueto other eye abnormalitieslike cataract, glaucoma, reti-nal problems, tumours ormass lesions within the eyeball or in the bony orbit.Sudden onset of squintsshould always raise a suspicion of a neurologicalabnormality or an activeinflammation in the orbit,which needs urgent medicalattention.

Visual development inthe brain takes place in thefirst four to five years, withstereoscopic vision (abilityto see in 3D) developing inthe first two years. Afterthese first few years, visualdevelopment in the brainceases to occur.

We all need 3D vision tofunction — to assess depth,distance, and speed. If theeyes are not perfectlyaligned, the brain cannot seein 3D. As this faculty devel-ops in early years of ourlives, a child suffering fromsquint needs to be treated atthe appropriate time.Otherwise, a condition calledamblyopia or lazy eye may

occur, which eventuallyleads to maldevelopmentand low vision.

If the squint is treatedearly, a child can gain optimal vision. A child whohas a squint eye in the firstyear of life, should ideally betreated as soon as it isnoticed by the parent. Theaim is to give maximal visual output, and not justalign the eyes. At a later age,the visual impairment can-not be rectified and the correction of squint willserve a purely cosmetic purpose. Delay in treatmentconverts a functional prob-lem into a purely cosmeticblemish. The biggest myththat I fight as a strabismolo-gist is that any surgical inter-vention should be donewhen the child is “oldenough”. In spite of repeatedwarnings, parents andguardians tend to go on theback foot when surgicaloptions are discussed. Also,one needs to understandthat not all squints need sur-gery. Some will need justspectacle correction orrequire orthoptic exercisesto strengthen the musclesthat move the eyeballs.Surgery, if required, is doneon the muscles that movethe eyeballs. The surgery isusually a one-day procedurethat does not require anyover-night hospital stay. Thesurgery leaves no visiblescars, and is a safe and effec-tive procedure.

Correction of squints, inaddition to being valuablefor vision, often changes thebehaviour of children. I haveseen children blossom fromintroverted personalities tobright, chirpy, extrovertedchildren once the squint istreated. Often, a visibleabnormality can have a psychological impact on achild, compounded by peerswho tease.

A child with a squintneeds a specialist to screenhim or her and give theappropriate treatment at theright age before it becomes“just a cosmetic problem”.

VIDYA NAIR CHAUDHRYSenior Consultant, Ophthalmology &Refractive Surgery Aakash Healthcare Super SpecialityHospital, Dwarka, Delhi

SAUMYA JOSEPH 31 August

Women account foronly a little overone-third of

appointments at a major hos-pital in New Delhi, highlight-ing extensive gender dis-crimination in access tohealthcare services,researchers say.

Looking at outpatient vis-its to a large hospital in thecapital, the analysis foundthat about half of the womenwho ought to have receivedcare were “missing.” Womenunder age 30 and over age 60were the most conspicuouslyabsent, relative to their actu-al population numbers, thestudy team reports in BMJ Open.

Gender disparity inhealthcare is usually studiedby comparing mortality ratesof females versus males, saidstudy co-author MuditKapoor, an associate profes-sor of economics at theIndian Statistical Institute inNew Delhi.

However, missing out onhealthcare services may notalways result in death, so

death rates may not capturethe extent of gender disparity,he told Reuters Health in aphone interview.

For the current study,Kapoor’s team analysed data from morethan 2.3 millionvisits to NewDelhi’s All IndiaInstitute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) in 2016, across all departmentsexcluding obstet-rics and gynecology, made bymore than 880,000 outpa-tients. More than 90 per centof these patients were fromDelhi and three neighboringstates: Haryana, Uttar

Pradesh and Bihar. Theresearchers also used censusdata to characterise the pop-ulations of the four states bysex and age.

Overall, the ratio of maleAIIMS patients tofemale patientswas 1.69, meaningnearly two thirds ofthe outpatient vis-its were made by males.

But among chil-dren and adults up

to age 30, twice as manymales compared to femalesmade visits. Between ages 31and 59, there were about fourwomen patients for every 10men, then after age 60,

women started disappearingagain, with one woman forevery three men.

The gender disparity wors-ened for women living fartherfrom the hospital. The sexratio increased from 1.41 inDelhi to 2.37 in Bihar, which isfarthest from Delhi. This ratiois also much higher thanBihar’s overall sex ratio of 1.09,according to 2011 census data.

Disparities may be drivenby the perceived productivityof women across variousstages of their life, which ulti-mately determines whetherthey get to visit a healthcarecenter, the researchers note.

“If you’re in the middle-aged group, then you are auseful member in the family.The moment you become eld-erly or when you’re a child,you’re not a useful member tothe family, and as a result thisdiscrimination goes up,”Kapoor said.

Younger and older womenare also likely to rely on peopleto accompany them to thehospital, which may result inthem not getting timely care,noted Ambuj Roy, a study co-author and professor at AIIMS.

REUTERS

Women may be missing out onoutpatient care in north India CAROLYN CRIST

31 August

Higher levels of educationpromote health by helpingpeople avoid many environ-mental health risks, but thisbenefit may not extendequally to all races and ethnicities when it comes to second-hand smoke, a USstudy suggests

Overall, higher educationwas associated with lowerodds of secondhand smokeexposure at work, but theprotective effect was smallerfor black and Hispanic peo-ple, in particular, comparedwith whites, researchersreport in the Journal ofMedical Research andInnovation.

“Historically, the assump-tion has been that educationis the solution to health dis-parities, but the angle that isoverlooked is that otherresources don’t similarlypromote health and wellbe-ing,” said Shervin Assari ofthe Charles R DrewUniversity of Medicine andScience in Los Angeles, wholed the study.

Financial capital, familynetworks and communityresources play a major roleas well, he said.

“Your location in societyshapes how much you gain.At the top of society, if youget a good education andhave a lot of connections,you’ll get a good job,” he toldReuters Health by phone. “Ifyou’re at the bottom and aget a good education but lacka strong social network, youlikely won’t get greatemployment simply fromeducation. Plus, the labourmarket discriminates.”

As a result, highly edu-cated blacks and Hispanicpeople are more likely towork in lower-quality jobs,which increases their expo-sure to environmental fac-tors such as secondhandsmoke, the study teamwrites.

To examine this question,Assari and colleaguesanalysed data from the 2015National Health InterviewSurvey, which included asample of nearly 16,000employed adults. The aver-age age of participants was43, and they had an averageof 16 years of education.

Overall, higher education-al attainment was associatedwith lower odds of any sec-ondhand smoke exposure atwork and of daily exposure.

REUTERS

Second-hand smoke maynot affect people equally

KATE KELLAND31 August

A large scientific study intothe biological basis of sexualbehaviour has confirmedthere is no single “gay gene”but that a complex mix ofgenetics and environmentaffects whether a person hassame-sex sexual partners.

The research, whichanalysed data on DNA andsexual experiences fromalmost half a million people,found there are thousands ofgenetic variants linked tosame-sex sexual behaviour,most with very small effects.

Five of the genetic markers

were “significantly” associat-ed with same-sex behaviour,the researchers said, but eventhese are far from being pre-dictive of a person’s sexualpreferences.

“We scanned the entirehuman genome and found ahandful — five to be precise —of locations that are clearlyassociated with whether a per-son reports engaging in same-sex sexual behaviour,” saidAndrea Ganna, a biologist atthe Institute of MolecularMedicine in Finland who co-led the research.

He said these have “a verysmall effect” and, combined,explain “considerably less

than 1 per cent of the variancein the self-reported same-sexsexual behaviour.”

This means that non-genetic factors — such as envi-ronment, upbringing, person-ality, nurture —are far more signif-icant in influenc-ing a person’schoice of sexualpartner, just aswith most otherpersonality, behav-ioural and physicalhuman traits, theresearchers said.

The study — thelargest of its kind - analysedsurvey responses and per-

formed analyses known asgenome-wide association stud-ies (GWAS) on data from morethan 470,000 people who hadgiven DNA samples andlifestyle information to the UK

Biobank and to theUS genetics testingcompany23andMeInc.

Asked why theyhad wanted to con-duct such research,the team toldreporters on a tele-conference thatprevious studies onthis topic had

mostly been too small to offerrobust conclusions.

“Previous studies weresmall and underpowered,”Ganna said. “So we decided toform a large international con-sortium and collected data for(almost) 500,000 people,(which) is approximately 100times bigger than previousstudies on this topic.”

The results, published inthe journal Science onThursday, found no clear pat-terns among genetic variantsthat could be used to meaning-fully predict or identify a per-son’s sexual behaviour, theresearchers said.

“We’ve clarified that there’sa lot of diversity out there,” saidBenjamin Neale, a member at

the Broad Institute of MIT andHarvard who worked withGanna. “This moves ourunderstanding to a deeper andmore nuanced place.”

Sexual rights campaignerswelcomed the study, saying it“provides even more evidencethat being gay or lesbian is anatural part of human life”.

“This new research also re-confirms the long establishedunderstanding that there is noconclusive degree to whichnature or nurture influencehow a gay or lesbian personbehaves,” said Zeke Stokes ofthe US-based LGBTQ rightsgroup, GLAAD.

REUTERS

Scientific study finds genetic links to sexual behaviour

Women arelikely to rely onpeople to takethem to thehospital, whichmay delaytreatment

HEALTH 1>

6 ECONOMY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019 1>

Sexual rightscampaignerswelcomed thestudy, saying it‘provides moreevidence thatbeing gay orlesbian is anatural part ofhuman life’

CRISIL DRIP

ON A CUMULATIVE BASIS,rains at the all-India levelrecorded a surplus for thethird consecutive week as of

August 28, at 2% above thenormal or long period average.

The quantum of rain so far has beengood at the overall level. Indeed, judging byjust the quantum of rain, this could well bethe best rainfall season in six years.

But this year is also a classic case of howa distortion in the distribution of rains —both temporal and spatial — can playspoilsport.

The quick catch-up in southwestmonsoon this year has meant two oppositethings — first, excess rain in August in afew sub-regions, which has adverselyaffected the kharif crop, and second it hasimproved chances of healthy rabiproduction with the recharge ofgroundwater and higher reservoir levels.

The welcome recovery in July andAugust notwithstanding, rainfall has notbeen uniformly spread across regions andtime. While the rains were delayed in someparts, other parts had excess rains.Ascertaining the extent of crop damagethus becomes challenging.

Latest data shows rains have been themost abundant in central India, at 13%above normal, followed by the southernregion at 6% above normal. In thenorthwest, rains were in the normal zone,at 5% below normal, while in the east theyhave been weak at 17% below normal.

At the state level, though the overallsituation looks better than previous yearssince the unirrigated area in general hasreceived rains this year. But sub-regionalpatterns draw attention. West UttarPradesh is seeing a rainfall deficiency of26%, while Marathwada in Maharashtra islooking at a deficiency at 29%.

OVERALL RAINS IN EXCESS, BUT PAIN POINTS ABOUND

State-wise DRIP scores

WEST BENGAL

| 2017 | 2018 Average of last 5 years

0 10 15 2052.8

8.611.5

UTTAR PRADESH

0 10 15 2055.9

HARYANA

0 10 15 2053.8

2.8

TELANGANA

0 15 205

0

3.5

3.4

2.6

ODISHA

Source: Indian Meteorological Department, Ministry ofAgriculture, CRISIL

0 10 1554.9

02.3

4.5

109.2

SUBHAYAN CHAKRABORTYNew Delhi, 31 August

Non-oil and non-goldimports contracted forthe ninth straight

month in July, casting a shad-ow on recovery in industrialgrowth in the coming months.

Non-oil, non-gold (NONG)imports are considered abarometer for domesticdemand. It fell 9 per cent inJune, the steepest fall thisfinancial year (2019-20 orFY20). In April and July, it fell2 per cent each, and in May itfell by 1.3 per cent.

Economists do not see anyrecovery soon.

“The segment consists ofsome consumer goods and alot of raw materials and inter-mediate goods. At a time wheninvestment appetite in theeconomy has reduced andthere is a marked consumerslowdown, we do not see thesituation changing soon,” saidDevendra Pant, chief econo-mist at India Ratings.

Consumption is the mostimportant part of the Indianeconomy, comprising three-fifths of it. A sustained fall inconsumption growth hasbeen in tandem with NONGimports falling.

In 2018-19, NONG importrose by a lower margin of 3.4per cent — much lower than19.8 per cent growth in the yearbefore. But, it is not the tradewar between the US and Chinathat has hurt India.

“India is not yetentrenched in the global valuechain, to the extent of China orthe US. So, this hasn’t directlyled to slowing imports.However, it’s true that theatmosphere of uncertainty,created globally because ofgrowing protectionism andconcern over the trade hasaffected trade flows for India,”said Ajay Sahai, director general and chief executiveofficer of Federation of IndianExport Organisations (FIEO).

Earlier this month, theWorld Trade Organization’slatest quarterly outlook indi-cator suggested that “below-trend expansion in merchan-dise trade will persist in thecoming months”. It showedgrowth in global goods tradewould weaken further in thethird quarter of this year.

Rising tariffs in sectorssuch as telecom equipments,mobile phones and electron-ics, have also curtailedimports. India imported $52billion worth of electronics inFY18, led mostly by mobilephones and their components.

This was the third biggestchunk of imports after oil andgold. But as of July 2019,India’s overall electronic

import bill is about $17 billion.India’s gross domestic

product growth fell to a six-year low of 5 per cent in thefirst quarter of FY20.

Private final consumptionexpenditure, denotingdemand, fell to a 15-quarterlow of 3.1 per cent, while grossfixed capital formation grewby 4.04 per cent, slightly upfrom 3.4 per cent in the fourthquarter of FY19, driven largelyby the government invest-ments.

Experts pointed out slowerimports have also coincidedwith slowing production ofcapital goods in the country.

Denoting crucial invest-ments, the segment of theindustrial index of production(IIP) saw contraction deepenat 6.5 per cent, after a 1.6 percent contraction in the previ-ous month. Production in thesegment had risen by only 1.2per cent in the first month ofthe current financial year, aftertwo months of contraction.

Driven by machinery andheavy transport, capital goodsproduction had been on a sol-id upward swing till Octoberlast year. But since then, con-traction has become the normevery month, with the excep-tion of two months.

Low imports cast shadowon industry growthNon-oil, non-gold imports contract for 9th straight month in July

Govt-ownedAIC to launchreinsuranceservices abroadNAMRATAACHARYAKolkata, 31 August

Government-ownedAgriculture InsuranceCompany (AIC) plans tolaunch crop reinsuranceservices abroad, particular-ly in other South Asian coun-tries like Nepal, Sri Lanka,and Bangladesh and thePhilippines.

The company has gotapproval from the InsuranceRegulatory andDevelopment Authority(IRDA) for inward insurance(reinsurance services in a for-eign country). It is currentlyin discussions with interme-diaries to launch the productby January next year, themonth when most of thetreaties pertaining to cropinsurance are up for renewal.

“Our solvency ratio is 2.99compared to the regulatoryneed of 1.5 and our capitalbase is over ~3,500 crore.Given our expertise in cropinsurance, we want to be seenhelping other developingcountries in the area. We arewell equipped to provide rein-surance support to them,”Rajeev Chaudhary, managingdirector and chairman of AIC,told Business Standard.

AIC was set up by thegovernment as the soleimplementing agency for itsthen flagship crop insur-ance programme, NationalAgricultural InsuranceScheme.

After the launch ofPradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana, the domestic cropinsurance market has becomecompetitive with many pri-vate companies joining thebandwagon. However, AICcontinues to enjoy a majorshare — around 50 per cent— in the market.

This year, the premiumcollection is expected to bearound ~13,000 crore, saidChaudhary.

Changes in income-tax rules kick in todayDILASHASETH New Delhi, 31 August

The government will get moreaccess to taxpayers’ incomeinformation from Sunday whena slew of Budget announce-ments such as a new levy oncash withdrawal and inter-changeability of Aadhaar num-ber and PAN comes into effect.

Most of these changes, such aswidening the scope of deduc-tion at source, will help the gov-ernment track income ofassessees. An amnesty schemeto clear pending service tax andservice duty, from before theintroduction of the goods andservices tax (GST), will alsoopen for four months.

The Budget presented on

July 1 introduced a levy of 2per cent at source on cashwithdrawals of ~1 crore andmore. The new Section 194Nhas been introduced in the I-TAct.

Also, 180 million, or half ofall PAN cards, may be renderedinvalid, so their owners willneed to link their PAN toAadhaar, or cite their Aadhaar

number for purposes wherePAN was required earlier. TheBudget has made PAN andAadhaar interchangeable, butboth have to be linked bySeptember 1. If one files I-Treturns only with Aadhaar,without citing PAN, a new PANwill be generated.

As an anti-evasion meas-ure, the Budget fine print

revealed, the onus of PAN andAadhaar authenticity was onthe person receiving the docu-ments for transactions.

Individuals or HinduUndivided Families paying~50,000 for renovation ofhomes or other services in ayear will have to deduct 5 percent tax. But they will not needto obtain a tax deduction

account number.There will also be a 5 per

cent tax deducted at source onthe net income proportion oflife insurance maturity pro-ceeds. Net income is the totalsum received after deductingthe total premium paid.

Till now, this was exemptedfrom tax if the annual premi-um did not exceed 10 per cent of

the sum assured.The government has also

expanded the scope of report-ing requirement of financialtransactions by removing theminimum threshold of ~50,000.From September 1, banks andfinancial institutions could beasked to report even smalltransactions to the tax depart-ment to verify tax returns.

“India is not yetentrenched in the globalvalue chain, to theextent of China or the US.So, this hasn’t directlyled to slowing imports.However, it’s true thatthe atmosphere ofuncertainty, createdglobally... has affectedtrade flows for India,”

AJAY SAHAIDG and CEO, FIEO

MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019 IN DEPTH 7. <

WriteWrite down I am a MiyaMy serial number in NRC is 20,543I have two childrenAnother is coming next summerWill you hate him as you hate me?

These lines by Hafiz Ahmed, aMuslim poet of Bengali heritagefrom Assam, could potentially

land him in jail. Ahmed is part of a liter-ary movement called “Miya poetry”—Muslims of Bengali origin are referred toas “Miyas” in Assam—that, among otherthings, highlights the discrimination thecommunity faces in the state. On 11 July,a first-information report was filedagainst Ahmed, along with nine otherMiya poets, who were charged with crim-inal conspiracy and spreading socialdisharmony under various sections ofthe Indian Penal Code.

According to the local Assamese jour-nalist who filed the report, the poemstried to defame the Assamese people asxenophobic, at a time when the NationalRegister of Citizens was being updated inthe state.

The poets went into hiding. Several ofthem put out statements declaring theirloyalty to Assamese, a language in whicha few of them are pursuing or haveobtained doctorates.

Even before the FIR, Miya poetry hadalready come under the scanner, whenone of the most prominent “leftist”intel-lectuals of Assam, Hiren Gohain, wrotean article in an Assamese daily excori-ating the Miya poets for using their own“artificial” East Bengal dialects, ratherthan Assamese, in their poems. TheMiya poets in their statements clarifiedthat most of their poems were in the

socially and officially sanctioned lan-guage, Assamese, and not in any con-traband dialect. How does a state cometo perceive poetry as a crime? How dopowerful members of civil society get todictate in what language poetry is to bewritten? Why are poets having to dis-tance themselves from the dialects oftheir ancestors?

Assamese sub-nationalism privilegesthe language-based Assamese identityas “indigenous,” and has long castBengalis in the region as “outsiders,”even though there is scant evidence ofany sharp division between the two lin-guistic identities until well into the 19thcentury. The Bengali and Assamese lan-guages and cultures share many simi-larities, and the scripts differ by only oneletter. Surnames such as Dutta,Chakraborty, Bhattacharjee, Choudhury,Goswami, Talukdar, Gupta, Bhuyan andso on are common among caste Hindusin both communities, as are surnamessuch as Ahmed and Ali among Muslims.It is difficult even for Assamese andBengalis to tell each other apart, becausepretty much every Bengali who hasgrown up in Assam’s Brahmaputra val-ley speaks, reads and writes Assamese.

Nonetheless, this assimilation hasdone little to ease the anxieties ofAssam’s sub-nationalists, who in pastdecades have mobilised “indigenous”people by citing a threat to identities andlanguages from Bengali immigrants,allegedly pouring in from Bangladeshin the millions. This fear of the Bengalioutsider has dominated Assam politicssince at least 1979, and paid political div-idends for several Assamese sub-nation-alist leaders over the years.

The insecurity across northeastern

India about Bengalis as a communitylong precedes even the creation ofBangladesh, in 1971. It started first whenthe Bengali language was imposed onAssam during British colonial rule,between 1831 and 1873. Despite little evi-dence, many Assamese sub-nationalistsbelieve, to this day, that this impositionwas the handiwork of Bengali clerksrather than the British rulers themselves.

The British won Assam from theBurmese in 1826. The territories held bythe Ahom and Manipuri kings had beenoverrun and devastated by Burmeseforces in 1821. After their victory, theBritish appended Assam to the BengalPresidency.

At the time, a debate on the govern-ment’s language policy was raging acrossBritish India. In 1838, the judicial andrevenue department of the Company Rajordered that, in Bengal, the local vernac-ular was to replace Persian, the previouslanguage of administration in lowercourts and revenue offices. Since Assamwas now a part of the Bengal Presidency,the language of the province’s bureau-cracy and judiciary came to be Bengali.Meanwhile, American Baptist mission-aries made their way into Assam in the1830s and set up the first printing press innortheastern India at Sibsagar in UpperAssam. They translated the Bible into theSibsagar dialect of Assamese, which wenton to become the standard Assamese.This was a decisive turn in the region’scultural history, given the ancient centreof Assam was Kamrup, which had its owndialects. The missionaries also publishedthe first grammar and dictionary of theAssamese language, and the firstAssamese newspaper, and led protestsagainst Bengali.

The British administration remainedunmoved by the protests, until, in 1874,for mainly administrative reasons, a newprovince was constituted separate fromthe Bengal Presidency. The new provincecomprised districts that were originallyin the Ahom and Koch kingdoms; thethree largely Bengali-speaking districtsof Sylhet, Cachar and Goalpara; and theKhasi, Garo, Jaintia, Naga and Mizo hilldistricts.

The Baptist mission’s efforts, and thehardening of linguistic identities fol-lowing the introduction of a census dur-ing British rule, contributed significant-ly to a language-based politics that laidthe foundation for the politics of indi-geneity in Assam. The demotion ofBengali and the restoration of Assamesein 1874 did not end anxieties of outsidedomination, but led instead to anassertive politics of language. AsAssamese speakers gained power, themajoritarian character of the movementalienated local minorities. AfterIndependence, the Khasi, Garo, Jaintia,Naga and Mizo hills all broke off fromAssam, based on their own identity-based movements. Sylhet went to EastPakistan during Partition in a contro-versial referendum, but Cachar andGoalpara remained in Assam, despite along history of ethnic violence againstBengalis in the state.

Following the creation of EastPakistan, Assamese-Bengali tensionscame to be articulated in new terms. Theruling elites claimed to be the “indige-nous Assamese,” and cast Bengalis as“foreigners,” claiming illegal immigra-tion from East Pakistan, which laterbecame Bangladesh. The Bongal Kheda—“drive out the Bongals”—movement

began soon after Partition. From 1960,the smaller riots of Bongal Kheda turnedinto major riots aimed at evicting sup-posed outsiders from Assam. The word“Bongal,” which originally meant anyoutsider, had by then come to meanBengalis. The Bongal Kheda movementgradually changed its name to “BidekhiKheda”—“drive out the foreigners.” In1979, an agitation began to drive outthose considered foreigners, mostlyBengalis and Nepalis. It was called the“anti-foreigner agitation” and is now cel-ebrated as the “Assam Agitation.”

Initially, Bengali Hindus were the pri-mary targets. There were several mas-sacres — such as one in North Kamrup inJanuary 1980 in which roughly two hun-dred people, mainly Bengali Hindus,were killed, according to historianAmalendu Guha. The worst of the mas-sacres, however, eventually targettedBengali Muslims. As Sanjoy Hazarikareported in the New York Times, wellover 3000 men, women and childrenwere killed over night in what came to beknown as the Nellie massacre. Similarevents occurred on a smaller scale inShillong, where the violence againstdkhars — outsiders — continued intothe 1990s.

The discourse of protecting therights of indigenous people is so strongthat few intellectuals have condemnedthese attempts at ethnic cleansingagainst Bengalis. Not only do the“indigenous” people control the statemachinery, their civil-society groups,militant student organisations andarmed insurgent outfits pose a signifi-cant threat to the region’s minorities.The differences in position between theregion’s sub-nationalist groups are ofdegree, not kind.

The most extreme expression of theindigenous Assamese identity move-ment was the United Liberation Front ofAsom, which fought to establish an inde-pendent nation-state of Assam. TheULFA had supporters across the political spectrum, including journalists,lawyers, activists, politiciansand academics. Its armedstruggle was largely againstthe Indian government andbig tea-estate owners, notjust petty clerks and traders.Its former general secretary,Anup Chetia, now runs anorganisation called theNorth East IndigenousPeople’s Forum, an umbrel-la group of organisationsthat work for the rights ofthe indigenous people of the northeast.

Many former supporters of the ULFA,and similar other armed extremist move-ments in states such as Manipur andNagaland, have now become support-ers of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In thestruggle between the big nationalism ofHindutva and little regional nation-alisms, big nationalism has prevailed.Sarbananda Sonowal, once a leader ofkey bodies of the indigenous-Assamesemovement — the All Assam StudentsUnion and the Asom Gana Parishad — isnow the chief minister in Assam’s BJP-led government. The Assam BJP’s lead-ership predominantly comprises formerAssamese jatiyobadis — meaning prac-titioners of jati-based politics. The wordjati can be translated as race or caste.

The common aversion to “foreigners”meaning Bangladeshi migrants, helpedHindutva absorb jatiyobadis in Assam.Updating the National Register ofCitizens to identify foreigners is a com-mon goal for the BJP and the variousstrands of Assamese and other north-eastern nationalists. Under the exercise,the onus is on those living in Assam toproduce documents to prove their citi-zenship for inclusion in the NRC. Themedia has reported on numerous cases of

people who are evidently Indian citizens,but have been left out of the NRC due toerrors or documentation issues.Currently, 4.1 million people who are res-idents of Assam have been excluded fromthe NRC, and are at risk of statelessness.The central and state governments hadsought to carry out a sample re-verifica-tion of 20 per cent of the list in light of theevident errors, but their request wasturned down by the Supreme Court—ledby the current chief justice, Ranjan Gogoi,who happens to be from Assam.

According to procedures approvedearlier by the Supreme Court underGogoi, “indigenous” people were givena shortcut to inclusion in the NRC. Theycan be included as “original inhabi-tants” if they can satisfy the registeringauthority that they are Indian citizens.There is no definition of who is “indige-nous” or an “original inhabitant,” or howthe registering authority, usually a state-government clerk, is to be satisfiedabout citizenship. Thus, those belong-ing to an ethnic group consideredindigenous are more likely to bedeclared “original inhabitants,” whileanyone who happens to be Bengali orNepali is prone to being considered aforeigner—from Bangladesh or Nepal—until proven otherwise.

The BJP’s plan with the NRC is toeventually disenfranchise only theMuslims from those excluded. TheCitizenship (Amendment) Bill, expect-ed to be passed later this year, wouldease the path to citizenship for non-Muslims from this lot. This is whereHindu nationalism is in conflict withthe little nationalisms of the northeast,of which Assamese and Naga sub-nationalisms are the biggest. For thesenortheastern nationalists, providingcitizenship to non-Muslims — a largechunk of whom are Bengali Hindus —is unpalatable.

Largely, supporters of little nation-alisms support the NRC and oppose theCitizenship (Amendment) Bill. TheHindutva brigade supports both the

NRC and the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill. The onlypeople in opposition to boththe NRC, because of its evi-dent errors, and theCitizenship (Amendment)Bill, because of its discrimi-natory nature, are liberalsand sections of the Left. Thisis a tiny minority.Honourable exceptionsapart, there is a familiar,deafening silence even from

the local intelligentsia on violations ofthe human-rights of the excluded.

The only safe option for anyone insuch a situation is to claim the mantleof indigeneity, which confers citizen-ship, power and respect in society. If aperson of Bengali heritage is able toreinvent herself as “indigenous,” shecan immediately go from being a pow-erless outsider to a powerful insider.Many Duttas, Bhattacharjees,Choudhurys and Goswamis over thedecades have made this shift. TheMiyas, too, reinvented themselves as“new Assamese” after Partition, and arestill at pains to distance themselvesfrom their Bengali roots. In a recentinterview with The Wire, Hafiz Ahmed,who is also the president of an organi-sation of Bengali-origin Muslims inAssam, said, “We are Bengal-originAssamese Muslims. We are not Bengali.We are not Bengali Muslims.” Thewriter of the line “Write down I am aMiya” added, “We never asked to begiven the Miya identity.”

Perhaps this statement will absolvehim of his crime of poetry.

Reprinted with permission from Caravan, aDelhi-Press magazine

PETER COY

The inventor Buckminster Fulleronce described technologicalprogress as “ephemeralisation.”

Sunbeams and breezes are replacingcoal and oil as energy sources, brandsare more important than buildings tocorporations, and fiat money has sup-planted gold and silver. So it seems rea-sonable to conclude that the periodictable of elements—that wonky taxono-my of physical stuff such as copper, iron,mercury, and sulphur—is passé, nomore relevant than a manual type-writer. Except exactly the opposite istrue. Matter still matters. And on the150th anniversary of the periodic table’sformulation by the Russian chemistDmitri Mendeleev, it’s more importantthan it’s ever been.

True, technology has made theeconomy more virtual, but it’s also vast-ly increased the capability and sophis-tication of material objects. Much of theenhanced efficacy of jet engines, com-puter chips, and medicines comesdown to what they’re made of: the ele-ments. Need a superstrong magnet fora hard disk drive? Try neodymium. Amaterial to absorb neutrons in a sub-marine’s nuclear reactor? Hafnium. Aspark-proof wrench? Beryllium. A con-trast agent for magnetic resonanceimaging? Gadolinium. Even Fuller’sephemeral world of software and ideaslives on very real computers, servers,

and fibre-optic networks, which arebuilt from Mendeleev’s famous table.

Over the past century and a half, butparticularly since World War II, scien-tists and engineers have learned to treatthe periodic table like a banquet table —a bountiful spread from which to pluckwhat they need. There’s scandium inbicycle frames, tin (stannous fluoride) intoothpaste, tungsten in catheters, andarsenic in some computer chips. We arewell past the Stone Age, the Bronze Age,and the Iron Age, and into theEverything Age, because almost everyentry on the periodic table is being putto some kind of use in today’s economy(excluding synthetic elements that arecostly to make and highly radioactive,such as einsteinium).

Cellphones exemplify the com-plexification. The first ones in the1980s “were the size of a shoebox andconsisted of 25 to 30 elements,” LarryMeinert, US Geological Survey deputyassociate director for energy and min-erals, said in 2017. “Today, they fit inyour pocket or on your wrist and aremade from about 75 different ele-ments, almost three-quarters of the

periodic table.” That may include tan-talum from Rwanda, potassium fromBelarus, silver from Mexico, tin fromMyanmar, carbon from India, and ger-manium from China.

Nuclear medicine is another exam-ple, highlighted in a 2013 article in thejournal Resources, Conservation &Recycling by Thomas Graedel andAaron Greenfield of Yale’s Centre forIndustrial Ecology. In 1936 doctors usedisotopes of phosphorus and sodium totreat leukemia. In 1939 they pioneeredan isotope of iodine for thyroid imagingand treatment. In 1957, xenon for lungventilation studies. Around 1964, tech-netium for skeleton and heart muscleimaging. And so on up to 2008, when anisotope of lutetium came into use forprostate cancer applications.

In exploiting more of the elementsavailable to us, we’re following thecourse of our evolution as a species.Over millions of years, our body hasevolved to take advantage of 30 or moremembers of the periodic table, stufffrom the environment that’s nowincorporated in ourselves. Most ofwhat we are— 96 per cent—is carbon,

oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Butour bodies also use, and are composedof, calcium, chlorine, magnesium,phosphorus, potassium, sodium, andsulphur, plus trace amounts of boron,chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine,iodine, iron, manganese, molybde-num, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadi-um, and zinc, among others.

As our first factory, our bodies are agood role model for product engineersand materials scientists. One lesson isthat quantities matter. Cobalt, for exam-ple, is part of vitamin B12, which isessential to protein formation and DNAregulation. But in excess, it’s a poison.Another lesson is that there’s still a lot tolearn. Biologists are trying to figure outthe usefulness, if any, of a couple ofdozen other elements that are found inthe body in even smaller quantities.

Before “better living through chem-istry” became a slacker reference torecreational drug use, it was a slogan ofDuPont, an earnest invocation of put-ting the periodic table to good use.There was a lot to be proud of. Modernchemists are a big step up frommedieval alchemists, who futilely triedto transmute lead into gold.Mendeleev’s creation of the periodictable helped usher in a golden age ofchemistry, in which Germany was anearly leader. In 1910, German Carl Boschscaled up his countryman Fritz Haber’sprocess for reacting nitrogen from theair with hydrogen to make ammonia,the main ingredient in fertilizer. Cropyields soared, making it possible to feedmore people even with fewer peopleworking on farms. If you work in anoffice today rather than on a farm, thankHaber, Bosch, and the fixation of nitro-gen. (On the downside, Haber alsoweaponised chlorine as a poison gas inWorld War I)

BLOOMBERG

Why the periodic table is more important than ever

CONSOLIDATION OF PUBLIC SECTOR BANKSSSaaggaarriikkaa GGhhoossee@sagarikaghoseIndira Gandhi nationalised 14 major banks in1969. In 50th anniversaryofbanknationalisationModi sarkar has merged PSU banks into 4 giantentities thatwill be more, not less, amenable tocentral control.This is not reform, it’s back tocommand &control economy#banksmerger

RRaammeesshh SSrriivvaattss@rameshsrivatsFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman merges 10Public Sector banks into 4.We have moved from being an emerging economyto a merging economy.

PPrraasshhaanntt BBhhuusshhaann@pbhushan1As job losses grow& economytanks, a clueless FMannounces bankmerger to get economyto fly!

IIrraa DDuuggaall@dugaliraWaiting for someone to explain howbankmergershelp growth.If anything, the risk is thatmanagementbandwidth atbanks will be sappedby the merger process. Focus on bread-and-buttercredit creation mayactually take a backseatatthese banks.

SSaallmmaann AAnneeeess SSoozz@SalmanSozI am reasonably confident thatoperations of themerged banks will suffer mightily. As we haveseen in demonetization and GST, this govtdoesnot think its decisions through. As a result, get

ready fora prolonged slowdown.

INDIA’S GDP AT SIX-YEAR LOWKKiirraann MMaazzuummddaarr SShhaaww@kiranshawSouthern States can lead strong economic revivalfrom 5% GDP growth to the desired 8% with abalance between Govt led infra investmentncorporate led business growth supported bytechnology led agri growth. Govt can spur nationaleconomic turnaround with policymeasures

BBaarrkkhhaa dduutttt@BDUTTWorrying question is this : given thatquestionshave been raised over howGDP is computed,including by the former CEA, is this 5 percentGDPeven that?

RRuuppaa SSuubbrraammaannyyaa@rupasubramanyaNo it’s not. Even before @arvindsubramancame outwith his controversial findings, those ofus in touch with presentand former officials tooafraid to speakpublicly, had warned us it’s morelikely sub par 5%. The economy is in verybadshape.

VV SSuubbrraammaanniiaann@SubramanianKriQtly. GDP estimates showthat India’s GDP growth,while high, has shown some slowdown. This isdue to both endogenous and exogenous factors.Impact comes, especially, from global headwindsdue to deceleration in developed economies,Sino-American trade conflict etc. (1/4)

CLAMPDOWN IN KASHMIRSSaaddaannaanndd DDhhuummee@dhumeOn #Kashmir: 1. India’s heavy-handed actions,including shutting down the Internet, havecreated a PR disaster. 2. Thatanyone who pointsthis outon Twitter faces abuse makes India lookeven worse. 3. Anyone who thinks public opiniondoes notaffectUSpolicy is a clueless rube.

MMoohhaannddaass PPaaii@TVMohandasPaiAnybodywho believes thathuman lives are notimportant, jihadi terrorists should have a free runshould have his head examined

In the crosshairs

IMO

Mendeleev’s 150-year-old periodictable has become themenu for a worldhungry for materialbenefits

It is difficult even forAssamese andBengalis to tell eachother apart, becausepretty much everyBengali who hasgrown up in Assam’sBrahmaputra valleyspeaks, reads andwrites Assamese

Almost every entry on the periodic table is being put to some kind of use today

SSaammrraatt finds out how poetry became a crime in Assam

The insecurity across northeastern India about Bengalis long precedes the creation of Bangladesh. It started during the British rule in 1873

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

8 WORLD MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019 1>

REUTERSHong Kong, 31 August

Hong Kong police firedtear gas and water can-non on Saturday as

pro-democracy protestersthrew petrol bombs in the lat-est in a series of clashes thathave plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its worst politi-cal crisis in decades.

Police fired round afterround of tear gas and protesterstook cover behind umbrellasbetween the local headquartersof China’s People’s LiberationArmy and the government.Protesters also threw bricks dugup from pathways at police.

The water cannonunleashed blue-dyed water, tra-ditionally used elsewhere in theworld to make it easier for policeto identify protesters later.

Riot police then marched onfoot towards the neighbouringAdmiralty district, followed by20 police cars, where protestershad thrown fire bombs from fly-overs, some landing close topolice. Others shone blue andgreen lasers at police lines.

There were unconfirmedreports of an off-duty policemanbeing wounded.

In the Wanchai bar andrestaurant district, police foughtrunning battles with protesters,beating them with truncheons.

There were several arrests.

The protests, which at onepoint blocked three key roads,came on the fifth anniversary ofa decision by China to curtaildemocratic reforms and rule out

universal suffrage in Hong Kong,a former British colony that wasreturned to China in 1997.

“The government today saidrashly embarking on political

reform again will furtherpolarise society, which is an irre-sponsible act,” the governmentnews.gov.hk website said.

“It noted any discussions

on constitutional develop-ment have to be premised onthe legal basis, and be con-ducted under a peacefulatmosphere with mutualtrust in a pragmatic manner.”The People’s Liberation Armyon Thursday rotated itstroops in Hong Kong in whatit said was a routine opera-tion. Their Hong Kong HQwas the former base of theBritish military garrison.

Thousands took to the streetsof the Asian financial hub for alargely peaceful, meanderingrally in the afternoon rain. Manyof them joined a “Christianmarch” from Wanchai and con-gregating next to the LegislativeCouncil, stormed by activists inan earlier protest.

Other protesters, manywearing black and face masks,marched in the Causeway Bayshopping district. The crowdsgrew after dusk in Wanchai,where demonstrators built road-blocks and banged iron sticks.Firemen battled a huge blazeoutside a Methodist church inthe main Hennessy Road wherewater cannon moved in.

There were also standoffs inNorth Point and Fortress Hill,to the east of Causeway Bay, andtear gas was fired against pro-testers over the harbour in TsimSha Tsui. The protests havegone on for three months, some-times turning violent.

Hong Kong protests turn to chaosamid tear gas and petrol bombs

Telegram, a popular encrypted messaging app, will allow usersto cloak their telephone numbers to safeguard Hong Kongprotesters against monitoring by authorities, according to aperson with direct knowledge of the effort.

The update to Telegram, planned for release over the nextfew days, will allow protesters to prevent mainland Chinese andHong Kong authorities from discovering their identities in theapp's large group chats. Hong Kong's Security Bureau toldReuters it has "been acting responsibly to deal with the current

difficult time with a view to restoring the public order". REUTERS

SARAH FRIERSan Francisco, 31 August

Twitter Chief Executive OfficerJack Dorsey’s (pictured) accountsent out a stream of offensivetweets on Friday in what thecompany said was a hack.

More than 15 tweets, manycontaining swear words andracist comments, were postedshortly before 4 pm New Yorktime. The company starteddeleting the tweets fromDorsey’s verified Twitteraccount, which has more than4 million followers, about 20minutes after the messageswent viral.

“Yes, Jack’s account wascompromised,” Twitterspokesman Brandon Borrmanwrote in a tweet. “We’re workingon it and investigating whathappened.” The company latersaid there was “no indicationthat Twitter’s systems havebeen compromised,” but said itneeded to investigate furtherbefore saying what happened.

Some of the tweets used anti-black slurs, praised Hitler and

talked about a bomb at Twitter’sheadquarters. Many of them ref-erenced the Chuckling Squad, agroup that took credit for thehack of several YouTube andInstagram stars earlier thismonth, including JamesCharles, Shane Dawson, KingBach and Amanda Cerny. ATwitter spokesman said thecompany was unlikely to haveanswers about what happenedto its CEO’s account for a fewmore days.

After Dorsey’s hack, otherTwitter users expressed con-cern that an even more promi-nent and prolific user --

President Donald Trump —could be just as easily hacked,affecting global political rela-tions. Trump, who often usesthe service to publicize policydecisions, expressed little con-cern about that scenario.

“Well, I hope they’re nothacking my account, but actu-ally if they do, they’re not goingto learn too much more thanwhat I put out, right?” Trumptold reporters Friday evening ashe left the White House.“Shouldn’t be too bad.”

Twitter declined to com-ment on the security measuresDorsey uses.

Hackers tweet racial slursfrom Twitter CEO’s account

US President Donald Trumpsaid the US played no role inthe explosion of an Iranian mis-sile on its launchpad onThursday, tweeting whatappeared to be a photograph ofthe site with labels describingthe damage.

The explosion came justdays after Trump said he’d bewilling to meet IranianPresident Hassan Rouhaniunder the “correct” circum-

stances, and following FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron’sdecision to invite Iran’s foreignminister, Javad Zarif, to joinother leaders on the sidelines ofthe Group of Seven summit inBiarritz last weekend.

Tensions between the USand Iran have escalated sincethe president abandoned the2015 multilateral deal to stemthe Islamic Republic’s nuclearprogramme. BLOOMBERG

ROXANNE LIU & DOMINIQUE PATTONBeijing, 31 August

Factory activity in Chinashrank in August for thefourth month in a row as theUnited States ramped uptrade pressure and domesticdemand remained sluggish,pointing to a further slow-down in the world’s second-largest economy.

Persistent weakness inChina’s vast manufacturingsector could fuel expecta-tions that Beijing needs toroll out stimulus more quick-ly, and more aggressively, toweather the biggest down-turn in decades.

The Purchasing Managers’Index (PMI) fell to 49.5 in

August, China’s NationalBureau of Statistics said onSaturday, versus 49.7 in July,below the 50-point mark thatseparates growth from con-traction on a monthly basis.

A Reuters poll showedanalysts expected the AugustPMI to stay unchanged fromthe previous month.

REUTERS

China’s August factoryactivity shrinks again

NATASHA SINGER, JACK NICAS& KATE CONGER31 August

The Federal Trade Commission has voted tofine Google $150 million to $200 million to set-tle accusations that its YouTube subsidiary ille-gally collected personal information about chil-dren, according to three people briefed on thematter.

The case could have significant repercus-sions for other popular platforms used by youngchildren in the United States.

The settlement would be the largest civilpenalty ever obtained by the FTC in a children’sprivacy case. It dwarfs the previous record fineof $5.7 million for children’s privacy violationsthe agency levied this year against the owners ofTikTok, a social video-sharing app.

Politico first reported the amount of the set-tlement, which would have to be approved bythe Justice Department. The news of the FTC’ssettlement with Google comes at a momentwhen regulators and lawmakers in Washingtonand the European Union are challenging thepower — and the aggressive data-mining prac-tices — of tech giants like Facebook and Google.

Last month, the FTC announced a $5 billionfine against Facebook for abusing its users’ per-sonal data. Members of Congress this year havealso introduced at least dozen privacy and trans-parency bills to bolster protections for Americans’social media data, genetic data, facial recognitiondata and other kinds of information.

The FTC’s agreement with YouTube involvesa larger fine than in previous children’s privacysettlements, but the case has renewed com-plaints from consumer advocates that theagency has generally failed to require privacyviolators to make substantive change to theirdata-mining practices.

“Once again, this FTC appears to have let a

powerful company off the hook with a nominalfine for violating users’ privacy online,” SenatorEdward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts,said in a statement on Friday.

If regulators fail to take a tougher stand toprotect children’s privacy, the problematic prac-tices of social media companies will not change,said Josh Golin, the executive director of theCampaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, anonprofit group. “YouTube has reaped hugeprofits by ignoring federal children’s privacy lawand engaging in illegal data collection and tar-geted marketing,” Golin said.

The FTC, which is expected to announce thesettlement in September, declined to comment.YouTube declined to comment.

Google has faced scrutiny before over how itcollects and uses people’s data. It is already sub-ject to an FTC consent order from 2011 for decep-tive data-mining involving its now-defunctsocial network Buzz. That order required theinternet search company to institute a compre-hensive privacy program and prohibited it frommisrepresenting its data-handling practices.

In 2012, Google agreed to pay $22.5 million tosettle FTC charges that it had violated the con-sent order by deceiving users of Apple’s Safaribrowser about its data-mining practices.

© 2019 The New York Times News Service

YouTube fined $200 millionover child privacy violations

But the people now pouring resources intoshort-format claim the conditions arefinally right.

They cite the ubiquity of mobile screens,leaps in streaming-video technology, shift-ing business models and, most important-ly, a generational embrace of content inquick bursts.

On Snapchat, for example, a growingmenu of made-for-mobile shows is intend-ed to spur binge viewing and top-dollaradvertising. After first introducing a slate ofserialized originals last fall, Snap willannounce up to 10 more of these “highlyconcentrated” shows in September. Thecompany points to “The Dead GirlsDetective Agency” as a bellwether hit, inwhich deceased characters use lots ofphone-centric sleuthing to investigate theirown murders. If the five-minute episodesdon’t seem quick enough, viewers canalways tap the screen to leap forward a bit.Snap says 14 million unique viewerswatched the first season.

If short-form proponents are right, theymay be opening the next set of floodgatesafter streaming television. But impedimentsto their success are everywhere.

They’re vying for phone screens alreadydominated by a different form of “short”:YouTube vlogs, Instagram stories, loopingTikTok clips, and the like. What’s more,people already have a way to watch moviesand TV shows on the go in short doses—their Netflix app, for example—and itspause button.

Another wild card is whether users evenwant to break from the familiar structures—half-hour sitcom, hourlong drama, two-hour feature film—that have dictated theflow of our on-screen entertainment fordecades. The boom in streaming program-ming and services has only reinforced thesetraditional content units, with more plat-forms in the works from WarnerMedia,Apple and others.

Instead of competing for people’s couchtime with movies and TV shows, Quibi isoffering them an option on-the-go—and

betting that big Hollywood talent and budg-ets will seal the deal.

Quibi’s roster includes directors of thetwo most recent best-picture Oscar winners:Peter Farrelly, with a comedy about a guyattempting to live in the moment, andGuillermo del Toro, who is producing a zom-bie show. Steven Spielberg is writing a seriestentatively titled “After Dark,” a horror seri-al that can be viewed only after the sun goesdown, as determined by the viewer’s loca-tion. In “Action Scene,” comedy star KevinHart gets swept up in a string of stuntsequences. Don Cheadle and EmilyMortimer are set to star in a sci-fi dramaabout a high-schooler who may not behuman. Lorne Michaels and Seth Myers areproducing a comedy about a mystery writer( Paula Pell ) trying to solve small-town mur-ders. Quibi also has remakes from thelibraries of its studio partners, includingnew versions of “The Fugitive,” “VarsityBlues,” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”

Another startup, Ficto, expects tolaunch an app in November with about100 snack-size shows, including adapta-tions of young-adult novels. It helps thatmobile-video rights to these books are sig-nificantly cheaper than film and TV rights,says founder Mike Esola, a formerHollywood literary agent. The companysays one of its shows, based on the best-selling romance “Can You Keep a Secret?,”will allow viewers to make choices thatsend its characters down various paths ina branching story that plays out inepisodes of between four and 12 minutes.

On Netflix, the absence of ads and sched-uling blocks encouraged some TV producersto supersize their episodes, and now they’reshrinking them, too. In recent months sev-eral Netflix originals rolled out with episodesclocking in around 15 minutes. They include“Special,” about a character with cerebralpalsy navigating the gay dating scene, and“It’s Bruno,” about a New Yorker’s neighbor-hood doings with his puggle.

Netflix says it has no plan to promoteshorter shows in their own category. Still,

the format did help the streamer this yearachieve its highest tally of Emmy nomi-nations so far—both “Special” and “It’sBruno” were nominated for “outstandingshort-form comedy or drama series,” anEmmy category created in 2016. Othernominees include “State of the Union,” aSundanceTV series written by NickHornby ; the 10-minute episodes revolvearound one couple’s conversations beforemarriage-counseling sessions.

The Disney+ streaming service launch-ing in November will feature multiple cap-sule shows, including a new vehicle for theMuppets, which will join the long-formmovies, series and specials Disney hasannounced, including a new vehicle for theMuppets, which will join the long-formmovies, series and specials destined forDisney+. In September, cable channel FXXintroduces “Cake,” a late-night showcasefor animated and live-action shorts, andintended as an incubator for larger-scaleshows.

Long before Quibi, and during his 22-year tenure with DreamWorks studios, Mr.Katzenberg was preaching the value of

“snackable” video stories. Just as the dot-com bubble was bursting, he created a com-pany for short films, animations and othervideo “pops” on the web. Partners includedhis DreamWorks SKG co-founders (Mr.Spielberg and David Geffen ) and ImagineEntertainment’s Brian Grazer and RonHoward. But their Pop.com folded beforethe site even launched.

“It was a very short-lived short-form con-tent company,” Mr. Katzenberg says. “In1999, you could not make a dime monetiz-ing anything on the internet.”

Quibi says it has sold more than $100million in advertising (with $50 million stillavailable) to six companies, includingGoogle and Procter & Gamble, that areexclusive ad partners for Quibi’s first year ofoperation. The company will also rely onsubscriptions, with or without ads, for about$5 or $8 a month, respectively.

That business model is what will allowQuibi to keep paying for premium-qualityshows with budgets much larger than thatof typical digital content, Mr. Katzenbergsays, drawing a parallel to HBO and its abil-ity to outspend ad-supported TV networks.

Skeptics argue that even awesome-look-ing shows from name-brand creators won’tcarry the clout with mobile audiences thatQuibi is expecting. “It’s not about product.It’s about minutes, the number of ways peo-ple can spend the next 15 minutes [on theirphones], which is just going up every day,”says Forrester Research media analystJames McQuivey. The growing number ofstreaming platforms competing for month-ly user fees exacerbates the challenge, hesays. “If you’re the fourth or fifth subscrip-tion service people pay for every month,you’re as easy to leave as to try.”

Episodes of Quibi’s shows, from newsroundups and docuseries to high-endscripted series will all be between sixand 10 minutes long. That length isbased on research showing thatmillennials and Gen-Zers spendtime on their phones through-out the day in sessions averag-ing 6½ minutes at a time.

“That happens to be consistentwith what TV writers are used to writing,”says Ms. Whitman, Quibi’s chief executiveand the former head of Hewlett PackardEnterprises Co. and eBay Inc., referring tothe typical time span between commercialbreaks on television.

Cliffhangers come in various forms in“#FreeRayshawn,” directed by Seith Mannand produced by Fuqua Films and SonyPictures Television. An Iraq war veteranplayed by Stephan James (of the AmazonTV series “Homecoming” and the Oscar-winning film “If Beale Street Could Talk”)flees from cops after his attempt to sell agun goes wrong. He barricades himself athome, inadvertently trapping his wife andson in an armed standoff with police.Rayshawn uses social media to communi-cate with the public watching his situationunfold. Some episodes end with a spike inthe action, or revelations intended to keepviewers in suspense over whom to trust,Rayshawn or Mr. Fishburne’s character.

Mr. Katzenberg compares“#FreeRayshawn” to “Dog Day Afternoon,”

the gritty 1975 Al Pacino hostage film direct-ed by Sidney Lumet. This is one key to hisrecruitment pitch to Hollywood’s elite: Quibiis backing the kind of mid-budget, character-driven stories that franchise-focused moviestudios rarely buy now. “We’re using a newform of film narrative to return to an era ofmovie storytelling that was phenomenallysuccessful for 20 years,” Mr. Katzenberg says,reeling off a list of classic films, from“Chinatown” to “Rosemary’s Baby.”

On the set of “#FreeRayshawn” this sum-mer, however, the title mentioned mostoften is “House of Cards,” the streaming TVseries that in 2013 helped put Netflix on itspath to industry behemoth.

o Mr. Fishburne, “#FreeRayshawn”looked like an opportunity to get in on the

next wave. “This is written, editedand shot to appeal to the personwho watches on a small screen,”says the “Matrix” and “ApocalypseNow” star. “I don’t watch things ona small screen—I much prefer a

larger screen—but it’s fantastic for mywork to be present there.”

Quibi’s other selling point to producersis financial: Each project is licensed toQuibi exclusively for seven years as ashort-form series, but after two years, itsproducers have the right to repackage itand shop it elsewhere. “Jeffrey said to me,make this thing and in a couple years, youown it,” says “#FreeRayshawn” executiveproducer Mr. Fuqua, who got his startdirecting music videos and commercialsin the 1990s, and has recently producedTV and documentaries. “To own intellec-tual property that someone else is payingfor? That just doesn’t happen.”

As he watched another take of the door-slamming scene, Mr. Fuqua asked the direc-tor to capture reactions on the actors’ faces.The producer would need such transition-al footage later. He plans to eventually re-edit “#FreeRayshawn” and sell it to a differ-ent distributor in a more familiar format, asan uninterrupted feature film.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Coming soon to a small screen near you: Short cuts

Trump denies involvementin Iranian missile explosion

SLOWDOWN PANGSAug manufacturing PMIslips to 49.5 vs 49.7 in July

Factories continued toshed jobs amid uncertainbusiness outlook

Aug services PMI rises to53.8 vs July's 53.7

Telegram moves to protect protesters’ identity

Large crowds, many in their signature black T-shirts and under a colourful canopy of umbrellas,snaked through Hong Kong, blocking roads and chanting slogans PHOTO: REUTERS

SPECIAL

> FROM PAGE 1

TRUMP TWEETED THISPICTURE, APPEARINGTO BE A PHOTO OF THESITE WITH LABELSDESCRIBING THEDAMAGE, RAISINGCONCERNS THAT HEDISCLOSED CLASSIFIEDINFORMATION

MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019 WORLD 9. <

Asia's biggest cities, fromShanghai to Dhaka, arestruggling to manage theimpact of decades of growth.Some are sinking. Most aretraffic-choked. And almost allstruggle with chronic airpollution. Worst of all, coastalcities face the threat of beinginundated by rising seas.

Indonesia’s capital Jakartasuffers these urban ills moreacutely than most, which iswhy President Joko Widodoannounced a plan last week toshift the government 900miles away, to a relativelyundeveloped sectionof Borneo. Indonesiaisn’t the first Asiancountry to move itsofficial capital andwon’t be the last. Butevacuatinggovernment officials and theirfamilies won’t solve theproblems of Jakarta, Bangkok,Dhaka or any other megacity.

The challenges faced byJakarta and other developingAsian cities were seeded in the1970s as countries across theregion liberalized theireconomies. In Indonesia,land-use controls wereaggressively deregulated inthe 1980s while entire sectorsof the economy were openedup to direct investment.Economically, the results werespectacular: Factories,shopping malls and housingdevelopments sprouted upacross Jakarta and the

surrounding region.Meanwhile, Indonesians,

keen for opportunity, flockedto the city. Between 1970 and2000, the population of thegreater Jakarta region —which now encompasses 12municipalities or regencies —grew from roughly 5 millionpeople to over 20 million. Andfrom 2000 to 2010, it addedanother 7 million people,making it the world's fastest-growing urban region outsideof China. By 2030, greaterJakarta will be home to 35million people, topping Tokyo

for the title of world'smost populous city.

The results arewell-known. Jakartais home to some of theworld's worst trafficjams; drivers are

accustomed to spending twohours to move three miles.That traffic accounts for 75 percent of Jakarta's air pollution,which also happens to beamong the world's worst.

Meanwhile, 60 per cent ofJakarta's residents rely uponoften illegally pumpedgroundwater, in part becauseof how polluted other sourcesare. That’s caused the land tosubside: Since the 1970s, partsof Jakarta have sunk as muchas 13 feet, at a rate of almost 10inches per year. Today,roughly 40 per cent of the cityis below sea level and floodsare a regular occurrence.

BLOOMBERG

Elon Musk meetsofficials in China

ASHIS RAYLondon, 31 August

After swinging throughout theday’s trade on Friday, the poundwas down 0.2 per cent against

the US dollar. The FTSE 100 index wasup only 0.32 per cent, having depreci-ated 3.8 per cent in the past year. If aweek is a long time in politics, nextweek promises to be one of the longestin British politics and that too, a topsy-turvy one. It is touch-and-go on theUnited Kingdom departing theEuropean Union with or without a deal.

Opponents of Prime Minister BorisJohnson, who has — unprecedented-ly in modern times — proroguedParliament to apparently prevent MPsand peers from thwarting a no-dealdivorce from the EU, are expected toembark on a multi-pronged resistanceto outmanoeuvre him in the legisla-ture and the judiciary. Mass publicprotests are being planned as well.

The British Parliament will resumeproceedings on September 3 after asummer recess and, given the proro-gation, there is a narrow window ofprobably six days apiece in September

and October to pass binding legisla-tion to halt Britain’s exit (Brexit) fromthe EU without an agreement. Thiscould happen if Johnson allows thisby default, since the UK is, unlessrevised, set to leave on October 31. MPscould also send him packing with ano-confidence motion against hisextremist Conservative party govern-ment.

It is an unusual no-holds-barredconfrontation between Parliament andthe judiciary in the mother of democ-

racies. House of Commons SpeakerJohn Bercow, holidaying in Turkey,described the government’s move as a“constitutional outrage”.

But opposition parties, led by theLeft-wing Labour party, would needto coalesce with a chunk ofConservative rebels to specificallyreject a no-deal Brexit. This is atightrope walk wherein they perhapsneed to focus on stopping no-dealrather than contesting prorogation.The groups are divided on issues of ageneral election and a second referen-dum. In a plebiscite in 2016, Britonsvoted to leave the EU by 51.9 per cent to48.1 per cent.

Johnson notified prorogation ofParliament for five weeks inSeptember and October. Three chal-lenges to this move — in London,Edinburgh and Belfast — will be heardnext week. Significantly, the applica-tion at the High Court in London, filedby activist Gina Miller, will be joined byformer prime minister John Major, aConservative predecessor of Johnson.

“I intend to seek the court’s per-mission to intervene in the claimalready initiated by Gina Miller,” Major

said, adding: “I intend to seek to assistthe court from the perspective of hav-ing served in the government as a min-ister and prime minister, and also inParliament for many years as a mem-ber of the House of Commons.” Such aballistic intervention is almostunheard of in the UK’s history.

In Edinburgh on Friday, Judge LordRaymond Doherty ruled against aninterim injunction on the prorogation.He, however, ordered a full hearing ofthe case on September 3. The suit hasbeen brought by 75 MPs. Their lawyer,Aidan O’Neill, argued Johnson shouldprovide a sworn affidavit under oath,setting out why he needed to prorogueParliament. He also stated he reservedthe right to call Johnson to give evi-dence in court.

Major demonstrations againstJohnson’s decision are expected totake place in about 50 cities and townsover the weekend. A foretaste of thiswas felt on Wednesday — the day theannouncement was made — whenspontaneous protests mushroomednear the iconic office-cum-residenceof the British prime minister at 10Downing Street.

A long week in British politics in the offing

Hurricane Dorian approaches the coast of Florida, US, in this August 30 NASA handout satelliteimage. Dorian became a Category 4 storm as residents and tourists alike hunkered down in oneof America's biggest vacation destinations PHOTO: REUTERS

HURRICANE DORIAN POWERS TOWARD FLORIDA

TIAN YING & DANDAN LI Beijing, 31 August

Tesla’s Chief Executive OfficerElon Musk visited China’s topmarket watchdog during atrip to the country on Fridayand promoted his ground-dig-ging business, according to anofficial.

Musk met Xiao Yaqing,head of China’s StateAdministration for MarketRegulation, said Liu Weijun,a department head of theagency, speaking at an autoforum in Tianjin in northernChina. Musk shared withChinese officials his vision ofmanaging traffic by movingthings underground, accord-ing to Liu, who also attendedthe meeting.

Tesla won exemption froma 10 per cent purchase tax onthe vehicles it sells in China,scoring a significant breakdespite trade tensionsbetween the country and theUS. The exemption, whichtypically is reserved fordomestic makers of electricvehicles, affects all Tesla mod-

els sold in China, the nation’sindustry ministry said Fridayon its website.

Musk’s trip to China thisweek included a visit to a newTesla site, and he also madean appearance at the WorldArtificial IntelligenceConference in Shanghai onThursday.

BLOOMBERG

Asia should fixits megacities,not move them

File photo of vehicles stuck in a traffic jam during rush hour in Jakarta PHOTO: REUTERS

Afive-member team of school girls hasdeveloped an app—Maitri—that wonthe bronze medal at the

Technovation Challenge, the world’s largesttechnology and entrepreneurship pro-gramme for girls, held in San Francisco, last month.

Maitri—a mobile App that connects children at orphanages with seniorcitizens in old-age homes, aims atbringing together individuals suffering from loneliness anddepression and those lacking thenurturing love of elderly role models, said the all-girl team ‘Tech Witches’. The app was devel-oped by team leader AnanyaGrover, who lost two grandparentsin quick succession, and the resultant sense of loss and loneliness she felt.

The app, available for free onGoogle playstore, also allows usersto volunteer and donate to old-age homesand orphanages, they said. The developersinclude Ananya Grover, Vanshika Yadav,Vasudha Sudhinder, Anushka Sharma andArefa, all Class 12 students of AmityInternational School in Noida.

“We want to break the stereotype thatgirls don’t belong in the fields of Artificial

Intelligence [AI] and technology. They canpursue careers in technology which is notgender-specific,” Ananya Grover said.

“Maitri allows old-age homes andorphanages to sign up and organise meetings, thus facilitating children and sen-ior citizens to spend time together. The apphas seen over 1,000 downloads till date and

has 13 old-age homes and 7orphanages connected through it,”said Ananya.

“During our initial phase we arefocussing on Delhi-NCR area onlybut plan to take this App pan-Indiaby getting more and more orphan-ages and old-age homes registeredon it. Maitri allows only validatedfacilities to register and providescontact details and map locationsfor assistance,” she added.

Citing statistics on elderly people and children beingincreasingly abandoned, the stu-

dents said the idea for their App originatedfrom their shared passion for social welfare.

Technovation Challenge is the world’slargest technology and entrepreneurshipprogramme for girls, which runs across 100+countries, supported by Salesforce.org,Google.org, the Adobe Foundation, Uber,Samsung, BNY Mellon as well as UNESCO,

the Peace Corps and UN Women, accordingto its website.

The Maitri developers are now looking tocrowdfund $40,000, the investment neededfor the first year of their operations.

“Donations received through CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) funding will alsohelp the team recover their operation costs,”said one of the team members.

The teamAnanya Grover: I am the CEO of TechWitches, involved in every aspect of our project from developing the app to makingour business plan and pitch, but perhapsmost importantly—holding the team together! I’m the Founding Editor of a globalonline magazine for High School studentscalled Reflections Magazine (http://reflec-tionsmag.in), an Indian classical dancer, and a Menstrual Health activist andresearcher. My academic passions lie in CS and Economics, especially at their intersection.Anushka Sharma: I am a commerce studentof grade 12 and I am the Chief FinancialOfficer in the team. I was involved in themaking of the business model, stating thefinancial projections and budget, and devel-oping the marketing strategies for the pro-motion of our app.

Arefa: I am the Chief Technical Officer ofTech Witches. I was mainly involved in thecoding of our app. I also carried out the paper prototyping and created thepseudocode, which included deciding uponthe functionality of our app. I am currentlylearning Java. With a passion for coding anddesigning I strongly believe that an amalgamation of the two can and must beused to change the world for the better andsolve various social issues. I also love participating in MUNs and art competitionsat my school.Vanshika Yadav: I am the Chief Marketingand Analytical officer in the team. I wasmainly involved in the making of the busi-ness plan. I also carried out pilot surveys forour platform and analysed them. I partici-pate in activities in my school. Moreover, Ialso volunteer at an NGO to help the under-privileged.Vasudha Sudhinder: I am the Chief Designand Communications Officer in the team. Iinterviewed caretakers at orphanages andold-age homes to gather their perspectivesand came up with a brand identity for theMaitri app based on colour theory and aes-thetics. I study science in school, and enjoydoing Yoga and Zumba.

With inputs from PTI

10 DEMOCRACY AT WORK>

MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019CH

ATTE

RBOX

‘I think they cando it themselves’Trump: Thank you very much. It’s great to be with PrimeMinister Modi of India. Incredible country and he’s an incred-ible man. Just had a tremendous election victory and he reallyis a man who’s loved and respected in his country.

We’re talking about trade and we’re talking about military.We’re talking about many different things, and we’ve had somegreat discussions...Modi: (As interpreted) Today, I’m meeting my friend and therepresentative of the oldest democracy in the world, PresidentTrump. It’s a very important meeting for me. And wheneverwe’ve had the opportunity, we’ve always met.

... India and the United States are countries who have —which have shared democratic values. And we work for the wel-fare of the world. And whatever contribution we can make, inwhichever way, we have these common values and we work forthe progress of humanity, for the world, for continuous progress.We have continuous discussions on these issues.

India and the United States, we have been discussing on acontinuous basis various economic trade and commercial rela-tion issues. And on many of these issues, we have welcomedUS suggestions. Together, we are working in the area of trade.We are making efforts to take this forward...

Mr President, can you clarify your position on whether youwill mediate on Kashmir, please?Trump: Well, we spoke last night about Kashmir. And the primeminister really feels he has it under control. I know they speakwith Pakistan, and I’m sure that they will be able to do some-thing that will be very good. We spoke about it last night atgreat length.

Mr Modi, do you want to add?Modi: Between India and Pakistan, there are many bilateralissues. And after Imran Khan became prime minister ofPakistan, I called him up to congratulate him. And I told himthat Pakistan needs to fight poverty; India too. Pakistan needsto fight illiteracy; India too. Pakistan needs to fight disease;India too.

And so, together, let us join our forces to fight poverty andall the ills that are facing our two countries. Let us work togetherfor the welfare of the people of our two countries. And this isthe message that I keep giving my counterpart in Pakistan.Along with President Trump, we also keep talking about thedifferent bilateral issues between us.

Mr. Modi, would you like to have President Trump be involvedin negotiating between Pakistan and India?Modi: India and Pakistan have — all the issues are of bilateralnature. And we do not want to give pains to any country in theworld — to, in fact, try to do anything in this, because theseissues are bilateral. And I trust that before 1947, when we wereone country, that even afterwards we can find solutions throughdiscussions.

Mr. President, is that offer still on the table?Trump: I’m here. Look, I have a very good relationship withboth gentlemen, and I’m here. If for any reason — but I thinkthey can do it themselves very well. They’ve been doing it for along time.

Mr president, what are your latest thoughts on your threat onpulling out of the WTO? And if you do, can I also ask Mr Modiwhat’s your response to that, in terms of how it will affectIndia’s trade strategy?Trump: Well, we haven’t been happy with the WTO, but nowwe’re winning cases. We won the big Airbus case, as youknow. And it’s a tremendous case. I mean, it’s billions of dol-lars. That was a very recent victory. And we’re winning casesnow. We’re being treated more fairly now in the WTO, whichwe appreciate.Modi: (Speaks Hindi; no translation provided.)Trump: He actually speaks very good English. (Inaudible) don’twant to talk with us. (Laughter.)Modi: I think — I think you should let us —Trump: That’s funny.Modi: (As interrupted) — discuss these things and when wefeel the need, we will communicate to you. (Laughter.)

Mr President, what would be your message to the Americanpeople in terms of what is your biggest achievement at thisG7?Trump: Well, we’ve had a lot of achievements. We have anachievement with Prime Minister Modi because we’re doinggreat trade. We’re doing a lot of trade with India; that’s anachievement.

I think, obviously, the Japan deal is a tremendous achieve-ment because it’s one of the biggest trade deals and it affectsdirectly our farmers. Even the fact that he’s taking all of theexcess corn that China didn’t take — hundreds of millions ofdollars’ worth of corn — and he’s buying that. Japan is buyingall of that corn at a fair price. And, you know, that was great. Sothat was very important.

I also think that unity is very important... You saw me withChancellor Merkel, you saw me with all of them. We had — therelationship is great. We have seven nations. In addition to that,we have other nations, like India and others that came in.Australia came in — Scott. We have a lot of people came in.And I’ll tell you, it’s been total unity. And there’s been no dis-sension.

Mr President, on the Afghanistan peace talks, do you have anupdated timeline? Are there any snags?Trump: No timeline. Whatever it is. And we’re in no rush. Imean, we’re there. We’re really a police-keeping force more thananything else, frankly...

Edited excerpts from remarks by US President Donald Trump and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi before a bilateral meeting in Biarritz, France,on August 26

Southward Ho for BJP!Spurred by the Lok Sabha performance in Telangana, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)is looking to conquer the south, beginning with Telangana.Dozens of leaders had crossed over to the BJP from the Congress, the Telugu DesamParty (TDP) and even the Telangana Rashtra Parishad (TRS) at a convention titled‘Namo Bharat-Nava Telangana’ held at Nampally Exhibition Grounds in Hyderabad,earlier in August.

At this convention, working president of the BJP JP Nadda declared that the BJPwould settle for nothing short of occupying the space of ruling TRS in Telangana.

Nadda, like Shah a few weeks ago, made it clear that the BJP leadership had nosecret pact with TRS chief and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). Nadda wasreferring to the doubts expressed by some senior leaders about KCR’s recent moves ofbacking the Modi government in Parliament on several crucial bills, including the abro-gation of Article 370.

Nadda told his party seniors that KCR’s cooperation with the Modi government waspart of the floor management by BJP to run its parliamentary needs. It had nothing todo with the party’s ambitions to come to power in this southern state.

Launching a frontal attack on KCR, Nadda called upon to remove TRS from poweras it was in the grip of a “family rule”. “KCR has monopolised all the power like amedieval feudal lord and wants to impose his son and daughter on people of the state.The BJP can alone liberate Telangana from the clutches of KCR and his family,” saidNadda, to the cheers from the crowd.

DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?

“I will tell you one secret. I do yoga, pranayamand bank upon Ayurveda. I make full use of thesetherefore I am able to manage.”Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi via videoconference, telling Haryana CM ML Khattar how to handle laryngitis.

CHECKLISTGROUP OF MINISTERS: A POTTED HISTORYn Five days after Prime Minister Narendra Moditook oath of office on May 26, 2014, heabolished what had come to symbolise theearlier Congress-led government’s policyparalysis: innumerable groups of ministers.n The National Democratic Alliance (NDA)government, in a notification on May 31, 2014,abolished the then existing nine EmpoweredGroup of Ministers (EGoMs) and 21 Group ofMinisters (GoMs). n Within a few months, the government set upan alternative mechanism for selling minoritystakes in central public sector enterprises(CPSEs), another one for strategic disinvestmentand one for privatising Air India.n A few months later, a GoM, structured as analternative mechanism, was set up under thethen Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to considerand oversee mergers among the country’s 21

public sector banks. Jaitley said an alternativemechanism facilitates quick decision making. n A GoM was constituted to oversee the Centre’sdirective to fertiliser companies to lower non-urea rates in the interest of farmers. Itcomprised the then fertiliser minister AnanthKumar, former agriculture minister RadhaMohan Singh and former urban developmentminister M Venkaiah Naidu. n The first GoM, under the second term of Modias Prime Minister, was set up last week.Designed to speed up decisions on thedevelopment of Jammu and Kashmir and Leh-Ladakh after they were bifurcated, the GoMhas law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, socialjustice and empowerment minister ThawarChand Gehlot, agriculture minister NarendraSingh Tomar and minister for the PMO JitendraSingh on it.

OPINIONDONALD TRUMP AND NARENDRA MODI

Professor Mustafa, let us start with Article370. It has not been abrogated as manypeople believe, but its provisions have beenused to deoperationalise Article 370 itself.Can you start by explaining how exactly thisis being done?Article 370 permits the president of India tomake modifications and exceptions in otherArticles while they are made applicable toJammu & Kashmir. So they used this powerto insert a clause in Article 367 and changethe meaning of some of the crucial wordswhich have been used in Article 370. One is‘constituent Assembly of Jammu andKashmir’ which, they said, will now meanLegislative Assembly. The other is ‘govern-ment of state’ which will now mean governoracting on the advice of the council of minis-ters. So basically, the text of (Article) 370 large-ly remains the same but when we interpretthem, we will use 367 to arrive at an entirelydifferent interpretation.

And because they reinterpreted the word‘Constituent Assembly’ to mean ‘LegislativeAssembly’, when they apply thatinterpretation back to Article 370, it meansthey can deoperationalise Article 370: Notwith the concurrence of the ConstituentAssembly but now with the concurrence of

the Legislative Assembly. And thisreinterpretation has permitted them todeoperationalise Article 370…It was a very innovative way. I think we mustcompliment the government for finding a wayto deoperationalise Article 370 without deleting370 from the Constitution.

Let’s come to this innovative interpretation.As you pointed out, Article 370 permits thecentral government to enforce otherArticles of the Constitution in Jammu andKashmir with modification oramendments. Did the framers of theConstitution ever intend that this power tomodify or amend Article 370 itself?No, because words used in Article 370 are‘other provisions.’ So there are provisionsmentioned in Article 370 which are Article 1and 238. 238 does not exist anymore, so it isonly Article 1. So they cannot use it to changeArticle 370 itself.

So the very phraseology of Article 370 makesit clear that the power of Article 370 to amendexists to amend ‘other provisions’; not toamend itself.Because the expression used is ‘other provi-sions’ — which the president of India, withsuch modifications and exceptions, would like

to apply to Jammu & Kashmir.

So then, this attempt to use 370 to modify oramend 370 itself, is actually a form ofconstitutional sleight of hand.Yes, you can say that.

In 1973, in the Kesavanand Bharatijudgement, the Supreme Court ruled thatParliament cannot amend what was calledthe ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution. Thiswas a limit placed on Parliament’s capacityand power to amend the Constitution. Does asimilar statute of limitation exist about theextent to which Article 370 can be used toamend the Constitution?Whatever Parliament can do will be muchmore than what the president can do. Thepresident is the executive, Parliament is thelegislature. If the limitation applies onParliament, how can the President not bebound by the basic structure?

So, there is also a statute of limitations whichdetermines the extent to which you can useArticle 370 and the government has ignoredthat as well?I would say, at least the implied limitationshould apply because 370 is not just an ordinary Article of the Constitution. It is anoutcome of an agreement between two sovereign states.

As one of India’s leadingexponents of law, do you believethat there is a chance that theSupreme Court could strike thisdown as unconstitutional?No one can predict what the out-come of the legal challenge in theSupreme Court will be. But ourexperience has been that whenyou have governments with mas-sive majorities, courts stay awayfrom political questions. Whenthere are coalition governments, they asserttheir power a little more and I have a feelingthat when it comes to their own powers, theyjealously guard them. But when it comes tothe Constitution, citizen’s liberties, the samekind of anxiety is not demonstrated by thecourts. So at best… the matter will be decidedafter two or three years. By that time, it willbecome redundant.

Let us come to a second critical aspect ofwhat happened -- the manner in which thecentral government has split Jammu &Kashmir into two and then demoted bothparts into UTs. Ordinarily, the Constitutionrequires that this can only happen after firstseeking the opinion of the state Assembly. Asyou know the Assembly doesn't exist, thegovernment has said that under President’srule, the powers of the state Assembly standtransferred to Parliament and as a result, thegovernment can consult Parliament ratherthan have to consult the Assembly. Do youagree with that line of logic?Not entirely, because you have to look at thetimeline. The timeline is that thePresidential order comes on August 5. On 5August, in the Rajya Sabha, this Bill is intro-duced and passed. Now, before August 5, youhad Article 3(1): One exception created forJammu and Kashmir which said ‘concur-rence’ is needed of the Legislative Assembly.Not ‘ascertainment of views’. So when beforeAugust 5 was this Bill referred to theLegislative Assembly?

Two, the expression used says after August5, it becomes an ordinary state and like anyother state, views of the Assembly are to beascertained. Now, ‘views’ are not ‘powers’.There is a distinction between views andpowers. Parliament can exercise the ‘power’on behalf of the Assembly. But here theexpression of ‘views’ of people’s representa-tives of that state must come to public fore.

And that hasn't happened.That hasn’t happened.

You are making a very important distinction:Under President’s rule Parliament canexercise the powers of an Assembly butParliament cannot express the views of theAssembly. And since the Constitutionrequires that before you change the bordersor the status of a state, you ascertain theviews of the Assembly, those views have notbeen ascertained and what the governmentclaims as a process for doing so, is, therefore,a second sleight of hand?Definitely. Just recall Telangana. The Bill wasreferred in 2013 (December) to the AndhraPradesh Assembly. 84 members in Assembly,54 members in Council participated. 9,000amendment Bills were moved. They rejectedit. Still, Parliament enacted the law. But therewas an expression of views. There is a differ-ence between an individual’s freedom ofspeech, which is subject to reasonable restric-

tions, and Parliament or theAssembly’s privilege to speak,which is absolute.

Under President’s rule,Parliament can assume thepowers of an Assembly but itcannot express the views of theAssembly and if theConstitution requires the viewsof the Assembly be expressed,that has not been fulfilled.

“Power” means your capacity to change thelegal relation. Say you have the power toarrest or not arrest, the power to pass a lawor not pass a law. Assembly’s expression ofviews is not power because those views can-not change anything. Parliament can ignoreits opinion. It is an opinion.

Can, in the first instance, Parliament,assuming the powers of an Assembly, act insuch a way as to actually abolish the state?And if it can, then it follows the all the otherstates of the Indian Union are in potentialdanger of being arbitrarily reduced to UnionTerritories if Parliament so wants to do… Yes. They will first impose the President’srule, then Parliament will act as a stateAssembly but I don't think that this is as perthe spirit of the constitution.

What are the chances that the Supreme Courtwill strike this down?If the court makes a distinction between theexpression of views and power, it must bestruck down. And already there was a talk inDeccan Chronicle — there was big news thatHyderabad is going to become the next UnionTerritory.

Do you believe the Supreme Court will makethis distinction between powers andexpression of views?It will depend on how lawyers who are chal-lenging this re-organisation of Jammu&Kashmir argue their case.

‘People’s views mustcome to the fore’

With a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court all set to hear petitions challenging therevoking of the special status of Jammu & Kashmir and its bifurcation into two Union Territories inOctober, Faizan Mustafa, vice chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, tells Karan Thapar that there areimportant legal issues around the central government’s decision on Article 370. Edited excerpts:

FAIZAN MUSTAFAVice chancellor, NALSAR University of Law

Conquering loneliness through ‘Maitri’

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THE OTHERINDIA

A group of schoolgirls has developed an app that will put the very old in contact with the very young andprovide companionship that both crave. Aditi Phadnis looks at a solution that is also a business model

The final version of the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) in thestate of Assam has now beenreleased by the authorities. In the

new NRC list, 1.9 million people have been leftout, including the about 380,000 who were inthe previous draft but did not submit claimsfor inclusion; 190,000 objections were alsoreceived against names in the first version.This means that the claims of about 2.2 millionpeople who had been excluded from the ear-lier draft have been accepted, but over six percent of Assam’s population is now subject todisenfranchisement and loss of citizenship.

Altogether, however, the number of theexcluded is considerably smaller than wouldhave been expected by either the leaders of theerstwhile “Assam movement” or by many inthe ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which isalso in power in Guwahati.

Indeed, the latter is not pleased with theresults, with senior leader Himanta BiswaSarma telling the media that it will not solvethe “foreigner” problem that has plagued thestate for decades. The NRC process has even-tually pleased nobody — neither the Assamesenationalists, disappointed at the low num-bers, nor the BJP, angry that many Hindus

have reportedly also been excluded, or peopleelsewhere in the country such as Bengal whofear that the NRC is being used to justify reli-gious and ethnic divisiveness.

The almost 2 million people not on theNRC are not immediately rendered stateless.They will be able to appeal against the NRC’sjudgments to special tribunals. However, thesetribunals have been severely criticised in thepast for violating the principles of natural jus-tice. In the end, the regular court system mayhave to decide in many cases. The SupremeCourt, which has overseen the NRC process forsome years, will no doubt take an interest inensuring that no citizen or resident of India hashis or her rights violated. That said, it is farfrom certain that the appeals process willresult in a substantial diminution in the num-ber of people excluded from the NRC. Even ifthe proportion who did not submit claims for

inclusion — individuals who may well havemigrated out of Assam to other parts of India— are ignored, there is still a vast number ofpeople who might be rendered stateless.

The question then is what the next stepwill be. What rights that Indian citizens have w-ill be denied them? Presumably, they will be di-senfranchised. Will they also be excluded fro-m government welfare schemes? Will theirchildren also be so excluded, and how will thatexclusion be carried out on the ground? Will t-heir physical freedom be curtailed? There are i-ndeed reports about detention camps being bu-ilt but surely it is impossible to put between oneand two million people into permanent camps.That would be both administratively infeasibleand morally repugnant. “Repatriation” to Ban-gladesh or Nepal is also impossible. Dhaka hasconsistently refused to take such individuals in— and, in any case, the Indian external affairs

minister has officially stated during a visit toDhaka that the NRC is India’s “internal matter”.

The task therefore is to find a way out ofthis impossible situation. Individuals who can-not be deported or interned will have to begiven some appropriate legal status withinIndia. Work permits are a possible option, withrights to access certain government pro-grammes (especially if exclusion would beexpensive and inefficient). Nor can a perma-nently excluded class be created. Clearly, thereneeds to be a path to citizenship at least for thechildren of those excluded from the NRC.Given the cut-off date of 1971 for the NRCprocess, there are children excluded whoseparents and grandparents might both havebeen born in India. Eventually, the childrenborn in India will have to be accepted as full cit-izens, and both process and law must beamended to reflect this necessary conclusion.

ANAND MADHAVAN

Despite being one of India’s longest-running devel-opment finance pilots, India’s municipal bond(muni-bond) market has remained shallow. Since

the early muni-bond issuances in the mid-1990s, therewere over 20 such issuances (including a few pooled bondissuances) that collectively raised nearly ~1,500 crore,modest relative to India’s burgeoning urban investmentneeds. Even cities that did tap capital markets mostly didso in the form of one-off “testing-the-water” issuancesrather than as a resource mobilisation stream to addressfinancing gaps sustainably.

Given this backdrop, the spurt in muni-bond issuance inrecent years — over ~1,400 crore by seven cities since 2015— is a green shoot that needs to be nurtured a bit differently,to secure dramatically better outcomes in future, comparedto what we have to show from the past. Two factors havespecifically helped.

First, there has been a concerted policy push by the gov-ernment of India. Support to credit ratings of cities andinterest subsidy incentives to cities issuing muni-bondshave helped. In December 2016, no less than the primeminister emphasised that at least ten cities should access thecapital markets within a year’s time, reinforcing the strongpolicy commitment.

Second, there have been positive moves from regulators.In 2015, the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi)released its “Issue and Listing of Debt Securities byMunicipalities” regulations to provide specific guidancefor municipal bodies seeking to tap the capital markets.Earlier this year, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have beenallowed to invest in muni-bonds. Recent press reports sug-gest further measures in the offing, including removingthe distinction between revenue and general obligationbonds for public issuances, changes to limits on privateplacements, allowing entities other than city governments(including SPVs and para-statal agencies) to issue muni-bonds, and so on.

Notwithstanding these positives, very few Indian citiesstill consistently meet creditworthiness thresholds that

hard-nosed capital market investors look for. Of the 94cities assigned a credit rating until December 2017, only 16cities secured ratings above A. Three constraints underpinthe credit weakness of city governments.

First, barring exceptions, revenue reforms in UrbanLocal Bodies (ULBs) and civic agencies have been frus-tratingly slow to come by. Own source revenues are rarelybuoyant. Few states have set up effective State FinanceCommissions and even where these have been present,their recommendations rarely get implemented in letterand spirit.

Second, the relatively higher flow of government grantsin recent years to ULBs has not been backed by commen-surate institutional capacity to build infrastructure in a

timely manner and to effectivelydeliver services. Even as cities facefinancial constraints to borrow toplug larger infrastructure gaps, theyparadoxically end up not even util-ising funds made available to themas grants.

Third, despite initiatives on accru-al accounting for over two decades,many cities have relapsed into cash-based accounting and informationdisclosures remains poor. Delays inaudits of accounts, and poor har-monisation of accounting practicesfurther compound information gaps,

effective analysis and targeted problem-solving. Given that the universe of “near-to-capital market

access” cities is a small consideration set, it may be worth-while for the government of India to direct a transformationeffort directed at a few relatively capable cities: 1.Akin to countries identifying better sporting talent andtaking it through a rigorous multi-year training effort forOlympic success, the central government should direct itsefforts on a select shortlist of about 30 relatively more capa-ble cities that meet minimum fiscal fitness thresholds. City-level credit ratings undertaken recently could be a useful cri-terion for short-listing cities. With AA being a threshold

level of ratings to successfully tap capital markets in India,cities selected should ideally have a rating of A-and-aboveand definitely not below BBB. 2. Short-listed cities, with the support of the central gov-ernment and the respective state governments, should beextended a programmatic multi-year support for structur-al reforms to better their credit standing, including: (i)Fostering stable and buoyant revenues through tax reforms,rationalisation of user charges and a predictable devolutionregime; (ii) shifting from static annual budgets to rollingmulti-year investment plans; (iii) strengthening institu-tional capacity, including dedicated teams/cells for projectpreparation and debt management; and (iv) implementingrobust financial management, accounting and informa-tion disclosure standards. 3. Enlisting the support of state governments will be crucial.Apart from states having the decision-making power tooperationalise these reforms, they will be critical to repli-cating this transformation effort in other cities as early ben-efits from this programme creates peer pressure for othercities to join the bandwagon.

When 20 ULBs are transformed into bankable entitiesequipped to raise and service a modest ~500 crore of debtannually, the result is a ~10,000-crore muni-bond market.Even if five state governments raise an additional ~2000crore each through pooled financing entities, a ~20,000crore annual muni-bond market can possibly open up in afive-to-eight-year timeframe. The multiplier effect at thisscale can be immensely transformational and will drivefaster and wider replication.

Many urban infrastructure projects have sizeable via-bility gaps and require complementary grant financing andfinancing from other sources, such as private investment,bank loans, non-profits, and development financing insti-tutions. Muni-bonds are thus just one element of financing.However, what sets it apart is that a scaled-up muni-bondmarket is a sure shot marker of a relatively more efficient,transparent and accountable civic services ecosystem,something that India’s citizens truly deserve.

The writer is Director, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory

SUSHIL KUMAR ROONGTA

Aluminium is a strategic met-al for the Indian economy.The aluminium industry, in

keeping with the anticipation of rap-idly growing demand, has investedmore than ~1.2 trillion to build itsproduction capacity. Currently, thesector is struggling to stay afloat dueto an unprecedented spike inpower costs.

The aluminium sector is one ofthe more power-intensive indus-tries, where power accounts for 40per cent of the production cost. Thepower cost itself has increased byabout $280 per tonne, triggering a 16per cent increase in production costin the last three to four years.

Even the NITI Aayog, the policythink tank of the government, hastaken cognisance of the surgingpower cost. It has conceded in areport that the domestic alumini-um sector is struggling due toincreasing production cost, which isthe highest among all the large alu-minium making coun-tries in the world. Thecost of power, it agrees,is a key responsiblecomponent.

It is worth notingthat the burden ofrenewable purchaseobligation (RPO) alonehas driven the produc-tion cost up by about$50-60 per tonne, andthe continuing short-age of renewable ener-gy certificates (REC) in the market isexpected to further aggravate con-ditions by another $40-50 pertonne. Along with other tariffs likecoal cess and electricity duty, thecumulative cost of production hascrossed $100 per tonne.

Some of the manufacturing andenergy-intensive industries areowners of captive power capacities.These captive capacities have beenset up keeping in mind the exactrequirement of power in theseindustries. With the mandate ofpurchasing a portion of the powerfrom renewable sources, theseindustries are left with idle capaci-ties that currently amount to 30,000Mw. Moreover, procuring renewablepower from other generators entailshigh cross-subsidy charges. For thealuminium sector, which cannotpass on the additional cost, thesefactors put them at the risk ofbecoming unviable.

In addition to these, the ministryof power’s recent decision toincrease the RPO target to 21 percent by 2022 and market dynamicstriggering a spike in REC prices, is

putting added pressure on the alu-minium sector. Surprisingly, whilethe cost of renewable generation hascome down in recent years, theindustry is paying a high price topurchase RECs in the skewed mar-ket, fraught with faulty regulatorymechanisms.

This condition is not unique tothe aluminium sector. It has afflict-ed almost all industries that areenergy-intensive in nature. As aconsequence, various industryassociations have raised the issueof exorbitant power costs with thegovernment, and have emphasisedthat the survival of these sectors isat stake.

However, the biggest possibledilemma in this matter is the acuteshortage of installed renewablecapacity in the system. As per thegovernment mandate, the 225,000Mw of thermal capacity that existsin the economy requires 120,000Mw of renewable energy for offtake.Yet there is only 80,000 Mw of totalinstalled renewable capacity, which

leaves about a deficit of40,000 Mw. Similarly,the 30,000 Mw ofindustrial power con-sumption is obligated topurchase 15,000 Mw ofrenewable power,which too is not avail-able in the market.

If one takes note ofthe gravity of the situa-tion, it will becomeclear that there is anurgent need for the gov-

ernment to intervene and providespecific relief to the power-inten-sive industries, especially thosewhere renewable energy is not a fea-sible option.

The industry acknowledges thatthe recent relief provided by thegovernment to captive power plant-based industries (by pegging renew-able obligations to the date of com-missioning) is a step in the rightdirection. They now expect the gov-ernment to see this through with aslew of policies that will create afacilitative environment for the sec-tor. Specifically, for the aluminiumindustry, the government needs totake immediate steps to provide areprieve from multiple carbon taxa-tion to help them remain globallycompetitive. It needs to be borne inmind that in future, Indian alu-minium’s role in nation-buildingwill be paramount, and a self-suffi-cient aluminium industry will pro-pel India to a global leadershipposition.

The writer is former Chairman of SteelAuthority of India Ltd

On Wednesday, the NDA government announced a slew ofmeasures aimed at facilitating greater foreign investment inthe country. Under the new rules, it has provided for a relax-ation of the contentious sourcing norms which have been amajor deterrent for foreign investment in single-brand retail.Further, the government has allowed 100 per cent FDI in con-tract manufacturing and in coal mining and related activitiessuch as washeries, handling and separation. With the trade warbetween the US and China showing no signs of resolving, for-eign companies are increasingly reassessing their operations.So far, India has not been able to take advantage of this ongo-ing relocation of production facilities out of China. But, thesechanges in the rules should gradually facilitate foreign firmssetting up manufacturing bases in India, providing a boost toboth employment and exports.

Allowing 100 per cent FDI in contract manufacturingthrough the automatic route will also attract global playerslooking to set up alternate manufacturing hubs — diversifyingaway from China. Adding exports to the local sourcing normsis also likely to encourage the building of larger productionfacilities, providing a much-needed fillip to the country’s sub-

dued exports. These initiatives are an attempt to create a man-ufacturing ecosystem, establishing value chains with bothupstream and downstream linkages. But they need to be accom-panied by reforms, especially factor market reforms, thataddress the structural issues plaguing the economy. The con-tinuing overvaluation of the rupee also needs to be attended to.

The Indian Express, August 30

Scaling up municipal bond issuances

After NRC, what next?Children born in India should be citizens

A well-developed municipal bond market is a marker of an efficient, transparent and accountable civic servicesecosystem, something that India’s citizens truly deserve

Govt does well to relax rulesfor foreign investmentBut reforms that address structuralissues hurting the economy are needed

The Supreme Court’s deci-sion to form a five-memberConstitution Bench to exam-ine the validity of the abro-gation of the special statusgiven to Jammu andKashmir puts an end toapprehensions that itsresponse to the Centre’s legalmeasures since August 5 willonly be one of quiet acqui-escence. The petitions beforethe court cite many groundsfor challenging thePresident’s August 5 Order,by which the Order of 1954,which set out the constitu-tional provisions applicableto J&K, was superseded. Asubstantial question is onthe validity of the substitu-tion of the concurrence ofthe Governor for that of thegovernment while underPresident’s Rule; in effect,

the Centre is taking its ownconsent to alter the status ofthe State.

It does appear that thereis widespread popular sup-port for the government'sdecision to declare Article370 inoperative and to dividethe State into two UnionTerritories. Yet, the court isduty-bound to examine thelegality of the measures tak-en by the President andParliament on August 5 and6. The challenge before thecourt is to give a reasonedverdict on these questions ofconstitutional importance,with far-reaching implica-tions for democracy and fed-eralism, without beingswayed by the popular moodin J&K or the rest of India.

The Hindu, August 30

J&K case challenging for SCIt must not be swayed by popular mood

On Wednesday, during thebail hearing of VernonGonsalves and other activists,the Bombay High Court askedMr Gonsalves to explain whyhe had “objectionable mate-rial” in his house. Initialreports indicated that JusticeSarang Kotwal was referringto Mr Gonsalves’ copy of LeoTolstoy’s literary masterpieceWar and Peace — a classicwhich captures Russia duringNapoleonic wars, and a CDtitled Rajya Daman Virodhi(in protest against Stateoppression). On Thursday,subsequent reports suggest-ed that the judge was refer-ring to War and Peace inJunglemahal. Mr Gonsalveswas arrested along with otheractivists by Pune Police lastyear, on the grounds thatspeeches by them at Elgar

Parishad, a commemorativeDalit conclave, on December31, 2017, led to subsequent vio-lence in and around Bhima-Koregaon. The “damning”evidence that the police haveused to make the case againstMr Gonsalves, are books, CDsand other reading materialfound in his house.

From writers who fearbook bans, the scanner isnow on readers, with thegoal of ascertaining thedegree of their patriotism.Citizens in a democracy relyon the judiciary to upholdand protect their basicrights. The State cannot, andmust not, decide whatcitizens read, and possess-ing literature is in no way acrime.

Hindustan Times, August 30

Possessing literature no crimeScanner now on readers, not writers

Why the aluminiumindustry is havinga hard time

> OTHER VIEWS

OPINION 11>

Volume XIII Number 24MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019

The spurt inmunicipal bondofferings inrecent years —over ~1,400crore by sevencities since 2015— is a greenshoot that needsto be nurtured,to secure muchbetter outcomesin future

Aluminium isa highlypower-intensiveindustry, withpower accountingfor 40 per cent ofthe productioncost. Most otherenergy-intensiveindustries havebeen similarlyaffected

14 MUMBAI | 1 SEPTEMBER 2019 1>

SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEENew Delhi, 31 August

In 2007,Bimal Jalanhadwrittenacommentaryofwhathe saw inParliament. Itwas aperiodofbitterdivisions inboth theHouses andthe formerReserveBankgovernorbluntly expressedhis shockas theRajyaSabha, in themidst ofutterpandemonium,pass ina jiffyhundredsof “papers, includingannual reports of public sectororganisations, outcomeandperformancebudgets, action-takenreports, andnotifications issuedbyvariousdepartmentsbyadozenministers”.

These commentson thisderelictionofparliamentarydutywere captured inhis book IndianPolitics:AViewfromtheBackbenchpublished in2007.Hehasgoneon towrite several otherbooksbefore andafter but thiswasthemost acerbic.

“Threeof thehighest offices ofthe state—thoseofpresident, vice-president andprimeminister—arenowheldbypersonswhowerenominatedat the lastminuteby theleader of the largest party in themulti-party coalition inpower.Theelected representatives of thepeople inParliament andstatelegislatureshadnoprior knowledgebutdulyvoted,wherevotingwasrequired, to confirm thedecisionofa select groupofparty leaders”.

Jalandoesnotpull his punchesdespitehis low-keydemeanour.Thatwas evident in the reportsubmittedby theexpert committeehechaired to review theextanteconomic capital frameworkof the

RBI.The issuehadbeena febrileone for thegovernment for somemonths, especiallywith theunderperformance in tax revenuesraising theask for funds transfersfromthecentral bank.

Oneof the reasons Jalancanafford tobe forthright is thathehasseen it all inhis 78years.Hehassuccessivelyheld theposts of chiefeconomicadvisor, bankingsecretary and then the financesecretary in theGovernmentofIndia in 1981-90beforehewentontobecome theexecutivedirector forIndia at the InternationalMonetaryFund (IMF) from1991-93. Itwas themost significantperiod in India’seconomichistorywhen thenationlurched into thebalanceofpayments crisis.

Incidentally, Jalan is theonlybureaucrat in Indiawhohasbeenexecutivedirector at both the IMF

and then theWorldBank,successively.Afternegotiating theIMFbailout aspart of India’seconomic crisismanagement teamunderManmohanSingh, Jalan’snext assignmentwas to convincetheWorldBank to standby Indiainsteadofputting in spanner in theworksby imposing stiff conditionsin its aidprogrammes.By the timehe returned to India fromtheseassignments, itwaspossiblyinevitable thathewouldbemadethegovernorof theRBI in 1997.Hewas there for the longest termforanygovernor and resignedwhenhewas selectedby theAtalBihariVajpayeegovernment tobecomeanominatedmemberof theUpperHouse in2003.Thecurrentprincipal secretary in thePrimeMinister’sOffice,NripendraMishra,wasoneof thedirectorsreporting to Jalanwhenhewas

finance secretary.It is not surprising thathewas so

disillusionedwhenhe sawhowParliamentwasunable todiscusseven theBudget. “As in thepreviousyear and theyearbefore, theUnionBudget for 2007–08wasalsoapprovedby the twoHousesofParliamentwithina fewminuteswithoutdiscussion in themidst ofscuffle anddisruption.”

All the same,his experienceacross thebureaucrat-politicianspectrumcertainly stood ingoodstead,makinghimthego-tomanevennowformostpolitical parties.Hewasappointed to theRBIby theDeveGowdagovernment, andwasgivenanextensiononhis seat bythe firstNationalDemocraticAlliancegovernment.TheKolkata-born studentofPresidencyCollegewasa favourite of theLeft Front,too.He subsequentlywenton toearnhisPhD fromelsewhere.Hehas studiedatbothUniversity ofCambridgeandatOxfordUniversity.

Jalanhas thismonth releasedhis latest book,Resurgent India.

Booksby formergovernorsof theRBI includinghis successorYVReddy,DSubbaRaoandRaghuramRajanhavebecome theprismthroughwhichcommentatorsnowdescribemuchof India’s economichistory.Thelaunchof eachof themhavealsobecome the forums for incumbentgovernments to get a taste of thepublicmoodonkeyeconomicpolicies. Jalandidnotdisappoint.

Speakingabout theproposal forsovereignbonds, he said thegovernment shouldborrowonlylong-termfund fromtheoverseasmarket, and theamount shouldnotexceed 1.5per cent ofGDPunderanycircumstances.This, just afterRajanandReddyhadcriticised theproposal announcedbyFinanceMinisterNirmalaSitharaman inherBudget speech.

BIMAL JALAN: CHAIRMAN, EXPERT COMMITTEE TO REVIEW RBI’S ECONOMIC CAPITAL FRAMEWORK

Thego-toadvisoracrossthepoliticalspectrumPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Guwahati,31August

The Assam governmentonSaturdayclaimedthatmanygenuineIndiancit-

izens have been left out of thefinal National Register ofCitizens (NRC) but they neednot panic as they can appeal totheForeignersTribunal (FT).

Thegovernmentwillprovidelegal support to the excludedpeople, Assam ParliamentaryAffairsMinisterChandraMoha-n Patowary said. “One thing issurethatmanygenuineIndianswere left out of the NRC.” he

said.“Wehaveincreasedthenu-mber of FTs to 300 from 100.TheadditionalFTswillstartfun-

ctioning from Monday,” saidPatowary, also the spokesper-son of the Assam government.

Many Indian citizensleft out: Assam govt

People check theirnameson the finalNRC list at aDTPcentreinBuraburiBazar (Morigaon),Assam PHOTO: PTI

THE ROAD TO NRCThe final NRCwas published onSaturday, but the road to ithas been long andchequered

1950: Immigrants(Expulsion from Assam)Act comes into forcefollowing influx ofrefugees from then EastPakistan after Partition

1951: First Census ofindependent India; firstNRC compiled based onCensus

1957: Immigrants(Expulsion from Assam)Act repealed

1964-1965:Disturbances in EastPakistan lead to influx ofrefugees

1971: BangladeshLiberation War; moreinflux of refugees

1979-1985: Assamagitation, spearheaded

by the All AssamStudents’ Union (AASU)and All Assam GanaSangram Parishad(AAGSP) for detection,disenfranchisement anddeportation of foreigners

1983: Massacre atNellie; 3,000 dead.Illegal Migrants(Determination byTribunals) Act passed

1985: Assam Accordsigned by the Centre, thestate, the AASU and theAAGSP in the presence ofthen prime minister RajivGandhi. Among otherthings, it made aprovision for theexpulsion of foreigners onor after March 25, 1971

1997: Election

Commission decides toadd “D” (doubtful)against names of voterswhose claim to Indiancitizenship is doubtful

2005: The Supreme Court(SC) strikes down IMDT Actas unconstitutional. Thetripartite meeting amongCentre, the state govt andthe AASU decides toupdate 1951 NRC

2009: Assam PublicWorks (APW), an NGO,files case in the SCpraying for deletion offoreigners’ name inelectoral rolls and updateof the NRC

2010: Pilot project startsin Chaygaon, Barpeta.Project successful inChaygaon; four killed in

Barpeta violence.Project shelved

2013: The SC takes upAPW petition, directs theCentre and the state tobegin the process forupdating NRC. NRC statecoordinator’s office set up

2015: NRC update begins

2017: Draft NRCpublished on December31 midnight with namesof 19 million people of32.9 million applicants

2018: Another draftpublished on June 30,with 4 million of29 million excluded

2019: Another draftpublished on June 26

August 31, 2019:Final NRC released

Source: PTI

PRESS TRUST OF INDIASrinagar,31August

Restrictions were lifted frommost parts of Kashmir onSaturday, a day after strictcurbs on the movement ofpeople were imposed in viewof Friday congregationalprayers, officials said.

Restrictionshavebeen lift-ed from most areas of theValley on Saturday morning,the officials said.

They said barricades havebeen removed from the roadsin most areas of the city andelsewhere intheValleytoallow

themovement of people.However, deployment of

security forces con-tinued on theground to maintainlaw and order, theofficials said.

Strict restric-tions on the move-ment of peoplewere imposed acr-oss the valley onFriday in view ofapprehensions of law andorder problems after congre-gational prayers.

Only ambulances and peo-ple in emergency situations

wereallowedtomove.Theoffi-cialssaidthesituationremained

peaceful on Fridayand no untowardincidentwas report-edfromanywhereintheValley.

However,normallife remainedaffect-ed across the Valleyforthe27thconsecu-tivedayonSaturday.

Themarketscon-tinued to remain shut, whilepublic transport was off theroads, the officials said, addingschools also remained closed.

The officials said landline

telephone services have beenrestored in most places acrosstheValleyinviewoftheimprov-ing situation, though the serv-ices continued to remain snap-ped in Lal Chowk and PressEnclavehere.

The mobile services andinternet, including BSNL’sBroadbandandprivate leased-line internet, remainedsnapped since August 5 aftertheCentreannounced itsdeci-sion to abrogate Jammu andKashmir’s special statusunderArticle 370 of the Constitutionand reorganised the state intotwoUnion territories.

Restrictions liftedinmostpartsofKashmir

However,deployment ofsecurity forcesstayed on theground tomaintain lawand order

Environment-friendly idolsbeingdistributedamongdevotees aheadofGaneshChaturthi, inBengaluru, onSaturday.The festival is alsobeingcelebrated inMaharashtra inabigway. Inabid to save citizens fromtraffic jams, theKalyanDombivaliMunicipalCorporation inThanehas comeupwithaplanwhere residents can immerse idols in truck-mountedwater tanksnear theirhouses. InMumbai, thepolicehave issuedageneral alert inviewof the festival andover40,000personnelwill bedeployed for security in themetropolis.Also,more than5,000CCTVswillmonitor activities, anofficial said PHOTO: PTI

FESTIVE MOOD 13 killed inexplosionsat chemicalfactory inMaharashtraPRESS TRUST OF INDIAMumbai,31August

Thirteenworkers, includingsix women, were killed and64 others injured in explo-sions of nitrogen gas cylin-ders at a chemical factory inNorth Maharashtra’s Dhuledistrict on Saturday morn-ing, police said.

Preliminary proberevealedthatachemical leakcausedafirewhichledtoseri-alexplosionsat thefactoryofRumitChemsynth, locatedatWaghadi village in Shirpurtehsil, at around 9.45 am, aseniorpoliceofficer toldPTI.

By evening, the fire hadbeendoused,andsearchwason formore bodies, if any, inthedebris, he said.

“At least100workerswerepresent in the factory at thetimeoftheincident,” theoffi-cer added.

Teams of fire brigade,police, and the StateDisaster Response Forceconducted the relief andrescue operations.

The deafening sound ofexplosions caused panic inthe vicinity, prompting peo-ple to rushout ofhouses.

Chief Minister DevendraFadnavisexpressedgriefoverthe deaths, and announced~5 lakh compensation to thekinof thedeceased.

“(District) GuardianMinister, Collector, SP(SuperintendentofPolice)onspot. SDRF teamreached....CM DevendraFadnavis also announced ~5lakh to the kin of deceased,”the Chief Minister’s Office(CMO) tweeted.

RumitChemsynthmanu-factures chemicals used inthepharmaceutical industry.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIAMumbai,31August

Flight services of flag carrierAir India, including those forHajpilgrimage,maybehitpar-tially after Indian OilCorporation (IOC)-led oil marketingcompanies (OMCs)threatened to sus-pend fuel suppliesat two more air-ports—Hyderabadand Raipur — overnon-paymentof dues.

Thestate-ownedOMCs have already stoppedsupplying fuel to Air India atPune, Vizag, Cochin, Patna,Ranchi, and Mohali sinceAugust 22.

The three OMCs — IOC,Hindustan Petroleum andBharat Petroleum— togetherhave around ~4,300 crore indues fromAir India.

Though Air India is oncash-and-carry mode since

April this yearand making apayment of ~18crore per daytowards daily jetfuel bill, theOMCs havesoughtclearanceof all dues at theearliest.

“The OMCshaveaskedAir India tomakealump sum payment towardsoutstanding amount includ-ing interest at theearliest, say-ing if the carrier fails to do so,

they will extend the suspen-sion of fuel supplies toHyderabad and Raipur air-ports as well from September6,” a sourceprivy to thedevel-opment toldPTI.

He said thatAir India doesnot have international opera-tions from the six airportswhere the OMCs have notbeen supplying jet fuel to itsflights since August 22.

“However, if it is stoppedinHyderabad as well, there willbe severe impact on some ofour overseas flights as well asHaj operations in addition todomestic operations,”he said.

“Air India’s total fuel billdues were ~4,600 crore as ofMarch 31, 2019 which camedown to ~4,300 crore by July31,” the source said.

OMCswarnAir Indiaof stoppingsupplyat twomoreairports

OMCs at someairports havealreadystoppedsupplying fuelto Air Indiasince August 22