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The contentious Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which replaces the ordinance on control of services in the Capital and gives sweeping powers to the Lt Governor and bureaucrats, got Parliament’s seal of approval night when it cleared Rajya Sabha, four days after its passage in Lok Sabha.
The Bill was passed with 131 votes in favour and 102 against – the BJD and YSRCP, with 9 MPs each, voted with the ruling alliance while the Opposition was a few votes short of its estimate.
The Opposition INDIA alliance had marshalled all its resources – it even brought former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a wheelchair to the House and ensured that the ailing Shibu Soren was present for voting. But it could not prevent passage of the Bill.
Wrapping up a debate that stretched over eight hours with bitter and acrimonious exchanges between the Opposition and the Treasury benches, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on the Opposition, asserting that the Bill does not violate the judgement of the Supreme Court in any way.
The Bill replaced the ordinance that was promulgated after the Supreme Court ruled that the elected government had control over services in Delhi.
The AAP government challenged the constitutional validity of the ordinance and the Supreme Court referred its plea to a Constitution Bench.
SC intervenes in Manipur, names probe monitor, panel of ex-judges (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
In a significant intervention in violence-hit Manipur on the eve of a no-confidence motion debate in Lok Sabha where the Opposition is expected to corner the government over the situation in the state, the Supreme Court said it is appointing former Mumbai Police Commissioner Dattatray Padsalgikar to be the “overall monitor” of a CBI probe into the instances of sexual violence in Manipur.
It also named a three-member committee of former High Court judges, headed by retired J&K High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal, to look into the humanitarian aspects.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, said a detailed order is being issued in this regard, underlining that “our effort is to use whatever is within our power to restore a sense of confidence/faith in the rule of law” in Manipur “and to that extent bring a sense of trust and faith and confidence”.
In Parliament
LS passes personal data protection bill (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 was passed in Lok Sabha by a voice vote. The Bill has retained the contents of the original version of the legislation proposed last November, including those that were red-flagged by privacy experts, such as exemptions for the Centre. In its new avatar, the proposed law has also accorded virtual censorship powers to the Centre.
This is India’s second attempt at framing a privacy legislation, and comes after at least three previous iterations of a data protection law have been considered, and shelved, by the government. Next, the Bill will have to be passed by the Rajya Sabha before it becomes law.
According to the Bill, the central government will have the right to exempt “any instrumentality of the state” from adverse consequences citing national security, relations with foreign governments, and maintenance of public order, among other things.
Responding to concerns raised on various accounts, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that exemptions to the Centre were needed.
If there is a natural disaster like an earthquake, will the government have time to seek consent for processing their data or have to act quickly to ensure their safety? If the police are conducting an investigation to catch an offender, should their consent be taken?
He added that the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has 16 exemptions, but India’s Bill has four exemptions.
Editorial
The great unravelling (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
We’re approaching the 15th anniversary of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008. A grim milestone. Not because it reminds us of those fateful months of 2008. But because the chain of events the crisis engendered is likely to have profound consequences for our future.
What’s increasingly appreciated is that the rising tide of globalisation in the 1990s and 2000s lifted many boats, but also led to growing disenchantment in the West. The “China shock” had hollowed out blue-collar jobs and spawned increasing inequality.
What’s less appreciated is how the policy response to the crisis accentuated these cleavages. After the initial response, fiscal policy tightened dramatically, and injudiciously across the West.
“Structural” fiscal deficits in advanced economies tightened a whopping five to 10 percentage points of GDP from peak to trough between 2007 and 2017, as per the IMF.
Some of this was ideological (remember “the sequestration fights” in the US) and some of this was complex and inflexible European fiscal rules that unduly emphasised austerity.
Worried about public debt, fiscal policy was fighting the last war, even as the hysteresis from the GFC crisis was getting deeper and broader.
Given this fiscal tightening, it was unsurprising that advanced economies limped back from the crisis. By 2018, as Martin Wolf points out, the GDP gap from the pre-GFC trend was 13 per cent in France, 17 per cent in the US and 22 per cent in the UK.
These staggering shortfalls cannot be attributed to more slow-moving forces like demography. Fiscal policy had clearly amplified any secular stagnation.
But the excessively tight fiscal policy was only half the problem. It induced excessively loose monetary policy that was struggling to combat post-crisis economic malaise.
Central bank balance sheets exploded, forward guidance promised “low forever” and monetary policy soon became the only game in town.
Explained
Havana syndrome (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The Central government has told the Karnataka High Court that it will look into the matter of the ‘Havana Syndrome’ in India, in response to a Bengaluru resident’s recent petition.
A single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Dixit disposed of the petition on July 27 after the Centre’s counsel agreed to examine the case. It directed the Centre to do so within three months.
The petitioner had approached the court requesting a writ of mandamus for an enquiry on Havana Syndrome in India and the prevention of high-frequency microwave transmission in India.
Havana Syndrome refers to a set of mental health symptoms that are said to be experienced by United States intelligence and embassy officials in various countries.
It is worth noting that in general, the word ‘syndrome’ simply means a set of symptoms. It does not mean a unique medical condition, but rather a set of symptoms that are usually experienced together whose origins may be difficult to confirm.
What is known as the Havana Syndrome typically involves symptoms such as hearing certain sounds without any outside noise, nausea, vertigo and headaches, memory loss and balance issues.
The hardening trade stance (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In 1981, a landmark report by a committee headed by Prof V Rajaraman of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) proposed concessions for the import of computers against software exports.
The recommendation was to effectively reverse what was until then the stated policy of the Government of India — to impose physical controls on these imports with the sole objective of protecting the turf of the state-owned Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.
The Rajaraman Committee report set the stage for the import of computers and their parts, the subsequent computerisation of the Indian Railways passenger reservation system, and the progressive entry of computers into India’s financial sector, eventually catalysing India’s IT revolution.
The Centre’s sudden move on August 3 to “restrict” the imports of personal computers, laptops, palmtops etc., and to allow their imports only against a valid licence for restricted imports, marks the reversal of the broadly consistent policy adhered followed by successive governments since the Rajaraman Committee.
What data protection bill say on privacy, Centre’s powers right to info (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday by a voice vote. The Bill has retained the contents of the original version of the legislation proposed last November, including those that were red-flagged by privacy experts, such as exemptions for the Centre. In its new avatar, the proposed law has also accorded virtual censorship powers to the Centre.
This is India’s second attempt at framing a privacy legislation, and comes after at least three previous iterations of a data protection law have been considered, and shelved, by the government. Next, the Bill will have to be passed by the Rajya Sabha before it becomes law.
According to the Bill, the central government will have the right to exempt “any instrumentality of the state” from adverse consequences citing national security, relations with foreign governments, and maintenance of public order, among other things.
Responding to concerns raised on various accounts, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that exemptions to the Centre were needed.
Economy
Domestic Companies raised Rs. 9.8 lakhs cr from mkts: SEBI (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Domestic companies raised Rs 9.8 lakh crore from capital markets in the fiscal 2022-23, which was 4.6 per cent higher than the amount raised in the fiscal 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in its annual report.
The capital markets regulator said that corporates or infrastructure entities raised funds via instruments such as equity (public, rights, preferential, QIP), debt (public and private placement), Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs).
Of the total resources mobilized, equity and debt segments accounted for Rs 9.2 lakh crore of capital formation, SEBI said in its annual report for 2022-23.
The previous fiscal saw some moderation in in fund raising through equity route due to volatility in the secondary markets, uncertain macroeconomic environment and relatively subdued performance of many listed equities
In the debt segment, the primary source of resource mobilization was private placement of debt, which rose 28 per cent over funds raised in FY2022.
SEBI said in FY2023, the commitment raised by AIFs logged a growth of 30 per cent to Rs 8.34 lakh crore from Rs 6.41 lakh crore at the end of 2021-22.
The amount of funds raised and investment made increased by 16.5 per cent and 19 per cent respectively in the last fiscal.