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Inquiring about the “mechanism” through which former IAS officer Arun Goel was appointed Election Commissioner last week, the Supreme Court directed the government to produce the file relating to his appointment and said “if you are in the right, as you claim, that there is no hanky panky, then there is nothing to fear”.
Hearing petitions seeking reforms in the appointment of Election Commissioners, a five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Justice K M Joseph and comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar, told Attorney General R Venkataramani that there was an application before it from Advocate Prashant Bhushan who had sought interim orders against filling up the post vacant since May.
Therefore, we would like you to produce the files relating to the appointment of this officer. So that if you are in the right, as you claim, that there is no hanky-panky, then there is nothing to fear.
The bench said it wanted to know the mechanism that was followed. It asked the government to produce the file on Thursday when it will hear the matter again.
“What is the mechanism by which this officer was picked up? Can it be made when the matter was being considered by this Court?” Justice Joseph asked.
The Editorial Page
Fixing the election commission (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court is creating a minor buzz by hearing a case pertaining to the appointment of the election commissioners. In terms of maintaining the integrity of the electoral process, the case pertaining to electoral bonds is far more consequential than this one.
It will be the real test of the Court’s commitment to the integrity of the electoral process. Issues pertaining to the appointment of election commissioners are, at best, pocket change in this story.
The Court and the public should not be misled by erroneous and purely lawyerly framings of the issue. What you might end up with, as is often the case, a simulacrum of reform, while substantive issues go unaddressed.
The Election Commission (EC) has evolved over time. Like so many constitutional evolutions, including that of appointments of the Supreme Court itself, change has produced anomalies.
Article 324 envisaged that the Commission be led by a single CEC (Chief Election Commissioner), though the President can appoint more commissioners.
As the wonderful chapter on the Election Commission by E Sreedharan and Milan Vaishnav in Public Institutions in India documented, there are several unresolved issues.
The number of commissioners the EC can have is not specified. In principle, a government can enlarge the Commission sometimes with a view to undermine the authority of existing commissioners.
The Supreme Court itself left this matter hanging when it put its seal of approval on the expansion of the Commission in 1995.
The Ideas Page
Poverty uncensored (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Issues related to poverty and hunger)
Children often declare a game over when they happen to be on a winning streak, just to be able to claim victory. That seems to be what Surjit Bhalla is trying to do in a recent article, co-authored with Karan Bhasin make startling claims of runaway poverty decline under the Narendra Modi government, and proceed to state without false modesty that this “unambiguous and strong conclusion” allows them to “close this debate”. Problem is, their figures are very misleading.
B&B’s central claim is that poverty decline accelerated under Modi across the full range of 10 deprivations used in the calculation of “multidimensional poverty” (MP).
The claim is based on a set of figures presented by B&B as deprivation-specific “headcount ratios” (HCRs) — the percentage of deprived persons in the population.
The deprivations of interest are those commonly used in MP calculations, and relate to three distinct domains — health, education and household amenities (also called “living standards”).
HCR estimates for 2005-06, 2015-16 and 2019-21 are presented, based on successive National Family Health Surveys. The authors also insert, in this series, 2011-12 estimates based on the second India Human Development Survey (IHDS-2).
B&B then compare the annual rate of decline of deprivation-specific HCRs before and after 2011-12. The results are startling. Across the board, the rate of decline of HCRs was higher after 2011-12 — even “eight times higher” on average. Wow!
But here is the rub. The 2011-12 figures are plain wrong, as B&B graciously admitted by email. They are actually 2005-06 figures from an outdated MP series, copy-pasted by mistake.
So, the alleged comparison between 2005-06 and “2011-12” is actually a comparison between two different sets of estimates for 2005-06 (indeed, the respective figures are very close to each other), and the comparison between “2011-12” and 2019-21 is actually a comparison between 2005-06 and 2019-21. No wonder B&B found that HCR decline was so slow before “2011-12”, and so rapid after that!
Reading inflation the tea levels (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Over the past several months there has been much concern, and rightfully so, over the trajectory of inflation. The most recent data, however, seems to indicate that retail inflation has possibly peaked and is now likely to trend downwards.
But, it would be wise to exercise caution. The latest data, while providing useful nuggets of information about price trends in the economy, challenges some of the widely held conceptions about inflation, and gives mixed signals about its trajectory. Five broad trends emerge.
First, much of the discussion on the causes of high inflation in India has in recent months centred around the Russia-Ukraine war.
The sharp rise in commodity prices as a consequence of the war is considered to have been largely responsible for the spurt in inflation this year, pushing it beyond the upper threshold of the RBI’s inflation-targeting framework.
There is some truth to this. For instance, India’s crude oil import price rose from $84.67 per barrel in January to $112.87 in March, and further to $116.01 in June. The ripple effects of higher commodity prices have been felt across the economy.
But, thereafter, commodity prices have been on a downward trend.
Case in point: India’s crude oil import basket price has fallen by around 20 per cent since then to less than $92/barrel in November. Yet, over the same period, core inflation has edged upward.
If high core inflation in the months after the beginning of hostilities was an outcome of the passthrough, either in part or completely, of the war, then the decline in commodity prices since then should have led to a moderation in core inflation. But that does not seem to be the case.
If anything core inflation has firmed up in recent months — from 6.1 per cent in June to around 6.6 per cent in October. Perhaps, the effects will be visible with a lag.
Second, there are indications that inflation is getting more generalised across both the formal and informal segments of the economy.
One indication of this comes from the clothing and footwear category — a highly fragmented industry with the presence of both formal and informal segments. Inflation in this category has averaged 9.7 per cent over the past eight months (March-October), up from 7.7 per cent in the eight months before that.
A win-win deal (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The ratification of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) by the Australian parliament on Tuesday demonstrates India’s skill in trade negotiations.
The deal sailed smoothly through the Australian parliament, despite the fact that it was negotiated when the Liberal Party was in power and signed on April 2, 2022, and Labour came to power in May.
This is salient also because most free trade deals New Delhi has negotiated and entered into have been mostly with South Asian countries and hardly served India’s trade interests. Rather, they became counterproductive.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal and his counterpart, Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister of Australia, Don Farrell need to be complemented for striking the first trade deal with a developed country in a decade.
On the one hand, it provides an opportunity for Australian exporters to tap the vast Indian market of 1.4 billion consumers, on the other, it provides an opportunity for Indian exporters to market their value-added products.
Considerable preparation and hard work had gone into finalising the negotiating agenda. Indian negotiators must be complimented for managing to get exclusions for the most sensitive sectors, and dairy and agriculture.
These provide employment in rural areas to about 50-55 per cent of its population with small landholdings and 1-2 cattle per farmer.
This is in sharp contrast to Australian agriculture and dairying. This bone of contention had stood in the way of a free trade deal.
India and Australia both are Commonwealth countries, and parliamentary democracies with similar legal systems. Besides, India and Australia also are members of the Quad, a trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
Explained
On Assam-Meghalaya border dispute, the shadow of recent killing (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Both Meghalaya and Assam said they would seek a probe from a central agency into the Assam Police firing that killed six people on Tuesday along the states’ border.
The incident comes ahead of the second phase of talks scheduled for this month-end between the two states to resolve their boundary dispute, and there are concerns its shadow will loom large over the negotiations.
What exactly is the incident, and what is the border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya? How is it likely to impact the upcoming talks? We explain.
Six people, including an Assam Forest Guard, were killed and several others injured during an alleged clash between the Assam Police and a mob, around 3 am Tuesday in an area bordering the West Karbi Anglong district of Assam and Mukroh village in Meghalaya’s West Jaintia Hills. The Assam Police has claimed they opened fire in self defence after a mob surrounded them when they were trying to intercept a truck allegedly smuggling timber.
Five of those killed are from Meghalaya. The incident drew a sharp reaction from Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who termed the Assam Police’s actions “inhuman” and said the state will set up a judicial commission and a Special Investigation Team to probe the shooting until a central agency takes over.
On its part, Assam has announced a one-man inquiry commission under a retired High Court judge. The West Karbi Anglong Superintendent of Police has been “transferred”, and the Jirikinding police station officer-in-charge and Forest Protection Officer of Kheroni Forest Range have been suspended.
While Sangma in a press briefing condemned the Assam Police and forest guards for “entering Meghalaya” and resorting to “unprovoked firing”, Assam, in a statement announcing the setting up of the inquiry commission, said the incident took place in the West Karbi Anglong district, which is in Assam.
Telstar, Azteca, Jabulani, Al Rihla: A short history of World Cup balls (Page no. 13)
(Miscellaneous)
FIFA claims that Al Rihla, the official match ball for the Qatar World Cup, travels faster than any other in the tournament’s history.
It is still early days in the tournament to sit in judgment on that claim. However, it’s a good time to understand the nuances of the 14th successive ball created by Adidas for Fifa World Cups, starting from Mexico 1970, as well as the history of match balls for the showpiece event.
In Arabic, Al Rihla means ‘the journey’. The name is believed to be a reference to a travelogue written by Ibn Battuta, the 14th-century explorer who travelled around Asia, Europe and Africa.
Al Rihla is the first World Cup ball to be made exclusively with water-based inks and glues, as sustainability was a key priority for the makers, according to a Fifa statement.
Its bold and vibrant colour is inspired by Qatar’s culture, architecture, iconic boats and flag, the game’s governing body noted after revealing the ball in March this year.
The main design features of the ball, according to Fifa, are a CRT core and a speedshell. The core provides speed, accuracy and consistency for fast-paced action and precision, with maximal shape and air retention, as well as rebound accuracy.
The speedshell is a textured polyurethane skin with a new 20-piece panel shape, improving accuracy, flight stability and swerve.
Fifa has used for the first time a semi-automated technology for off-side calls in this World Cup. It uses 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof of the stadium to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating their exact position on the pitch.
Al Rihla, Fifa says, provides a vital element for the detection of tight offside incidents as an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor is placed in the centre of the ball. This sensor sends ball data to the video operation room 500 times per second, allowing a very precise detection of the kick point.
World
Iron Dome: Israel’s best guard against enemy rockets, always on duty (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Be it rockets or mortars from Gaza in the South amidst the Israel-Palestine conflict, or the Hezbollah in Lebanon from the North, or even Syria, the Iron Dome has helped Israel spot and intercept every projectile fired at it since 2011.
According to some Israeli military diplomats, the Iron Dome air defence system, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, has intercepted over 3,000 projectiles in the last 10 years.
“With both Hamas and Hezbollah developing long range capability, 3.5 million Israelis are vulnerable to such attacks,” says Lt Col Jonathan Conricus (retd) a military diplomat of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Conricus claims intelligence inputs have shown that Hamas has amassed 30,000 rockets, while the Hezbollah has more than a lakh.
According to Conricus, the most recent major attack Israel faced was in May 2021, when Hamas fired more than 4,360 rockets and mortars, killing 13 people in 11 days.
A typical Iron Dome battery or unit comprises three missile launchers, each with 20 interceptors. “It (the Iron Dome) scans Gaza five times a second and the moment a projectile is fired, the radar picks it up a second and half later, figures out its trajectory, and the place it’s going to hit.
Based on the radar findings, the Iron Dome fires its own missiles that intercept the enemy rockets. Each interceptor hits the rocket mid-air and destroys it.
With the intercepting missiles costing USD 50,000 each, it’s an expensive solution but has a success rate of around 96 per cent. Our experts are working to scale down the cost, they have already halved it from USD 100,000.
At NetivHaAsara, a moshav (a cooperative settlement) 400 metres away from the edge of the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya, the mobile dome, which has a range of up to 70 kms, is a godsend, although it has not made the ubiquitous bomb shelters obsolete. Every home has one bomb shelter, so do schools, offices and businesses. The ones most visible are the ones next to bus stops, colourfully painted.
Economy
What is the GST panel on taxing online gaming, casinos, and racing likely to recommend (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The ministerial panel formed for casinos, race courses and online gaming under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is likely to reiterate its earlier stance of a uniform 28 per cent tax rate for the three categories, irrespective of whether it is a game of skill or chance.
The final call about the valuation mechanism, however, will be taken by the GST Council as the GoM members have differed on whether it should be levied on the platform fee or the entire amount paid by the participants.
The panel, which met on Tuesday (November 22), is likely to fall back on the initial report presented before the GST Council in June.
This would imply a hike in tax rates for online gaming, as online gaming platforms currently pay 18 per cent GST on platform fee alone, and not on the full value including prize money.
The online gaming industry grew exponentially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Online gaming currently contributes more than Rs 2,200 crore of GST, as per a recent study by EY and Assocham.
As per a KPMG report, the online gaming sector would grow to Rs 29,000 crore by 2024-25 from Rs 13,600 crore in 2020-21.
Most states in the GoM are learnt to have converged in favour of a 28 per cent tax rate, but they differ on the valuation mechanism. While West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh support taxing the total value, Goa has recommended a tax on the entry point for casinos.
The views of all states will be incorporated in the final version of the report, which will be presented before the Council in its next meeting.
The GST Council has not met since June. State finance ministers will meet Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday for pre-Budget discussions, where GST-related issues are likely to come up.