EPW January

KIIW EPW January 2015

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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

Content

From the Planning Commission to the NITI Aayog 1

Role and Functions of NITI Aayog 3

Long on Eloquence, Short on Detail 4

Improving Healthcare Services at Reduced Prices 5

Revenge of the East 8

Right to Abort in Surrogacy Contracts 9

Natural Disasters: Equity and Coordination 12

Still Searching for the GST 13

Massive Achievement 15

The Dead We Did Not Mourn 16

Volte-face on Food Security 17

No Transparency in Nuclear Deal 18

'Lima Call to Climate Action' 19

Mobama's China Spectre 22

The Academic Performance Indicators Regime and Its Follies 23

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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com Page 1

From the Planning Commission to the NITI Aayog Sat, Jan 24, 2015planning commission, EPW, economics, Niti Aayog,

The transition from the Planning Commission to the Niti Aayog reflects the completionof the transition from a state professing anti-imperialism to a neo-liberal state.NitiAayog will oversee a greater centralisation of powers in the central government, andwith the abolition of the National Development Council and its replacement by regionalcouncils, the limited say the states had on policies and the flow of funds stands furthereroded.

The idea of "national planning" had been in the air long before independence. Indeed,the Planning Commission established in the Nehru era was the descendant of the NationalPlanning Committee that Subhas Chandra Bose had set up at the suggestion of MeghnadSaha when he was the president of the Congress, with economist K T Shah at its head.

The idea of planning, in short, was closely linked to overcoming colonial exploitationand to redeeming the pledge of the anti-colonial struggle to the people of India (expressedinter alia through the Karachi Congress Resolution of 1931).It is a travesty, therefore, to see the Planning Commission as a relic of the "Soviet era",a sort of ideological baggage borrowed from the Soviet Union that has outlasted theSoviet Union. Only a person unaware of and unconnected with the anti-colonial strugglecan make such a claim. Though the Soviet achievements of the time may have inspiredthe particular course that "planning" took after its inception, the process itself wasembedded in the formation of the post-colonial state; it was a necessary legacy of theanti-colonial struggle.

Not only were the country's natural resources to be brought back under national control(which was the economic essence of decolonisation, and necessary for mobilising allavailable means for the nation's development, without any "drain" on account of thedominance of foreign capital), and the production pattern altered from what had beendictated by the colonial division of labour, but the benefits of all these measures wereto accrue to the people at large by ensuring that wealth and income inequalities werekept in check.

The fact that neo-liberalism entails a break with this perception, the fact that theneo-liberal state is qualitatively different from the postcolonial dirigiste state (evenwhen both promote capitalism in different ways), underlies the extinction of the oldPlanning Commission. Its extinction is not linked per se to the collapse of the SovietUnion (though it is obviously not unrelated to the change in the international scenariofollowing this collapse); it is linked directly to the abandonment by the Indian state ofany anti-colonial, or more generally any anti-imperialist, agenda, and to its embrace ofinternational capital with which the domestic corporate-financial oligarchy is closelyintegrated.

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It is not just the policy direction of the neo-liberal state that precludes a "planning"body of the type that the Nehruvian era had envisioned; the very structure of a neo-liberalstate, where the Ministry of Finance is elevated to a domineering status above all otherofficial organs and is in turn peopled by employees of the World Bank, the IMF(International Monetary Fund) and other institutions of finance capital, who are therebybasically put in charge of the economy, has little room for any such autonomous PlanningCommission.

Niti Aayog and Centralisation of Power

What does need discussion, since it has received little recognition as yet, is the tremendouscentralisation of economic power that the transition toNiti Aayog entails. The oldPlanning Commission had two serious failings. The first, an obvious one, was that inan economy in which the means of production were largely privately owned, there wereno effective mechanisms for the " realisation" of the plans formulated by it. And it wasnot even the case that plans could be "realised" only in the public sector but not in theprivate sector; the "non-realisation" of plans in the private sector also entailed in a"resource-constrained system" (whose being resource-constrained was in fact the signof a "good" plan, since it meant the absence of any "slack") the "non-realisation" ofplans in the public sector.

Various instruments were tried, such as a licensing policy, to make the private sectorconform to the overall plan. But these, as is well known from a host of official committees,were ineffective, which also resulted in a significant trend towards centralisation ofcapital, and hence an increase in wealth and income inequalities.

There was however a second flaw of the plan process. The Planning Commission,though it was meant to effect " national economic planning", was a central governmententity with no representation from the states. It thus went against the spirit of federalism,and gave expression to that strand of thinking within the Constituent Assembly whichsaw the central government as the continuation of the British imperium.

Further Control over States

Even so, however, the three bodies, the Finance Commission, the Planning Commission,and the Ministry of Finance, can be ranked in that order in terms of the looseness ofthe restrictions they impose on the transfers effected through them from the centre tothe states. The disappearance of the Planning Commission, which would mean thatwhat used to be plan transfers would now be doled out through the finance ministry,would entail both a possible reduction in the total magnitude of transfers, and a definiteincrease in the centre's control over states' plans.

There is a second reason for believing this to be so, and that has to do with the abolitionof the National Development Council (NDC), where the state chief ministers were

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represented. This, though not a constitutional body, had a commanding presence, wherethe states, deriving strength from one another, made a definite impact. Since its decisions,which included the ultimate approval of plans, were taken through a consensus, thecentre was often forced to yield on certain matters (though this did not prevent it fromflouting the unanimous views of chief ministers on some occasions, such as the fundingof the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan).

Role and Functions of NITI Aayog Sat, Jan 24, 2015NIti Aayog, EPW, economics, Planning Commission,

1 Demise of the Planning Commission

In the cabinet resolution passed on 7 January, the government has come out with thebroad contours of the new institution, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI).The remit and functioning of NITI Aayog will become clearer as it evolves over time.This note analyses the possible role it can take and the challenges it is likely to face incarrying out remit assigned to it.

. In fact, the previous prime minister himself had called for redefining its role to suitchanging realities. The planning exercise that was followed had hardly any relevancefor the market economy. It did very little to plan and implement even public sectorinvestments for infrastructure and its role in promoting public-private partnership wasmostly seen as obstructive. The whole exercise of giving approvals to state planssmacked of dispensing patronage.

There were two contradictions between the Indian development strategy and theinstitutional framework constraining economic environment over the years. The firstis the contradiction between the planning framework and the role of the market. Theinitial years after Independence required a planning frame to allocate the low levels ofsavings to invest in much needed infrastructure and priority sectors to overcome severeinfrastructure deficits and the lack of competitiveness of the economy.

The second contradiction was between the centralised command over resource allocationand the developmental role of the states in a federal polity. The end of single party ruleand the emergence of coalition governments and regional parties as members of thecentral coalition brought to the fore the contradiction between centralised planning ina federal framework. The response of the central government was to further centraliseeven by intruding into the legislative domains of the states by various means includingthe proliferation of CSS. The consequence of the above was that the two importantsources of economic dynamism, the private sector and the states, had to function in aconstrained environment.

First, economic liberalisation has created a vibrant private sector and the new institution

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should assist in policymaking to enable private entrepreneurs to unleash their animalspirits and not to constrain them. Second, horizontal and vertical competition in amultilevel fiscal system can be an important source of economic dynamism so long asa certain measure of "competitive equality" and "cost-benefit appropriability" areensured and predatory competition is prevented. "Laboratory federalism" can be asource of innovations, imitations and learning and facilitating this is important. Third,coordination costs are higher when there are coalition governments and the parties inpower in the states are different from that of the centre.

NITI Aayog: Role and Remit

The cabinet resolution lists 13 different tasks to it which may be grouped under fourmajor heads, namely: (i) fostering cooperative federalism by providing structuredsupport to states on a continuous basis; (ii) formulation of a strategic vision and long-termpolicies and programme framework both for the macroeconomy and for different sectors;(iii) acting as a knowledge and innovation hub and providing research inputs byundertaking and accessing globally available research; and (iv) providing a platformfor interdepartmental coordination. Each of these functions is discussed here in somedetail.

Long on Eloquence, Short on Detail Sat, Jan 24, 2015National Health Policy, social, EPW, health,

Over 63 million persons in India face poverty every year due to healthcare costs alonewith the share of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on healthcare as a proportion oftotal household monthly per capita expenditure being 6.9% in rural areas and 5.5% inurban areas in 2011-12. In view of this, the central government's draft National HealthPolicy (NHP) 2015, which is in the public domain and open to suggestions and commentsuntil 28 February, is particularly significant. The draft NHP intends to make health afundamental right and therefore its denial a justiciable matter.Undoubtedly, this is a welcome proposal but the right to education, which was declareda fundamental right in 2009, comes immediately to mind. The parallels with healthcareare many: the quality of education in government schools and the quality of servicesin public hospitals and primary health centres; the insistence, as a result, of even poorparents on their children attending private schools, however badly run; the beeline toprivate hospitals even by poor patients; and the small and large glitches in theimplementation of the law. The lesson is obvious: what looks excellent on paper becomesa different proposition when it has to be put into practice.

The draft policy proposes increasing the expenditure on healthcare from its presentlevel of 1.04% to 2.5% of grossdomestic product (GDP) in the next five years. Thedraft policy hopes to create a health cess (similar to the education cess) on liquor and

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tobacco products. One will definitely need to examine whether such a cess will be evenclose to adequate. Nevertheless, the draft policy promises that there will be universalaccess to free drugs and diagnostics in hospitals even as it notes the fact that the nationalhealth programmes leave out 75% of the non-communicable diseases and not allcommunicable diseases are covered either.

However, it does seek to broaden the definition of primary healthcare to accommodatereproductive and child health as well as some non-communicable diseases. The draftalso seeks to involve panchayati raj institutions in a big way and lists seven "priority"areas to get the community and media to participate. Among these are the Swasth NagrikAbhiyan (of which the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a part), the Nasha Mukti Abhiyan(anti-tobacco and alcohol measures), Yatri Suraksha (prevention of accidents) andNirbhaya Nari (against gender violence, sex determination tests, etc).The draft has just one paragraph on mental health noting that it needs urgent attentionsince the gap between service availability and needs is widest here with 43 facilities inthe nation and 0.47 psychologists per million people. It includes the Mental Health Bill(there are a few others too) among those that need to be reviewed. Considering the stateof the mentally ill in this country, this section needed to be much more comprehensiveand well thought out.

Ultimately, the devil is in the detail. India's public health services need so much morebasic infrastructure, medical and paramedical personnel, ironing out of the implementationwrinkles in the health insurance schemes like the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana,promoting computer-enabled systems to reach out to patients (like Tamil Nadu hasdone), straightening out of the corruption-ridden system of procurement and distributionof drugs, these among a long litany of requirements. The private sector needs a massivedose of regulation and monitoring in almost all aspects, from pricing to crookedthird-party administrators to patient-care standards. At the government level, there hasto be a deep commitment to make health-for-all a deliverable right, starting with pluggingthe leaks and poor utilisation of funds under various schemes.

Improving Healthcare Services at Reduced Prices Sat, Jan 3, 2015social, EPW, healthcare,

The key to improving the quality of healthcare services in India and reducing costs atthe same time can be found by enacting legislation which lays down minimum standardsof patient care. In the absence of such standards and the reluctance of health insurancecompanies to standardise either price or quality, healthcare services continue to beexpensive and of doubtful quality.

Expecting improved healthcare services at reduced prices seems contradictory. Surelyany improvement in any service must necessarily entail a rise in cost? While there is a

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need to increase expenditure on health there is also a dire need to cut down costs. Costescalation is needed where existing pricing systems have little slack.

Before doing that, we would like to say that existing high prices for facilities in theprivate healthcare sector are no guarantee of high quality just as the low prices offacilities in the public sector are no indicator of poor quality. he one factor that makessuch a contradictory state of affairs possible is the fact that there is no professionalconsensus on what constitutes good patient care, and nor is there any legislative mandateon delivering it or on establishing controls on how this is being done.

Self-regulation by the market just does not work where healthcare is concerned. Theexternalities in healthcare are too many. he main reason for the contradiction is this:clinically it may make better sense to conduct a normal delivery on a female or to givedrugs to angina patients but economically it makes better sense for the health facilityto conduct a costlier procedure like a caesarean section or an angioplasty. The onlyway to resolve this situation is to have transparent standards of patient care coupledwith effective regulatory mechanisms to enforce these.

Quite simply regulating healthcare means two things: first, drafting standards of patientcare, and second setting up implementation machinery for monitoring the same. Itsounds simple but as with all good things, it is rather difficult to do.

Standards of patient care would mean, among other things, pricing standards. Developingsuch standards means that the hospitals would need to work out the costs of carryingout any specific procedure.

Limited supply means that the facilities charge whatever they think the market can take.If poorer people are priced out altogether, that would not affect the hospitals much sincesupply is so scarce in the first place and they have sufficient takers.

Public hospitals could have prevented this by making independent calculations andthen making them public. They do not do so perhaps because this would put pressureon them to offer cashless transactions for a variety of ailments which they are unableto.

So the private sector will not and the public sector cannot take on the task of developingpackages for specific ailments. Here comes the third party in this transaction which isthe insurance company. The insurance companies say clearly that it is not their task toregulate the healthcare sector. Perhaps this is the single-most important reason for theinflated healthcare premiums which they charge and patients unwillingly pay.

Registering Clinical Establishments

If developing standards is such a desirable process, how does one go about doing it?A first step has already been taken by the Government of India (GoI) in enacting the

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Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act in 2010.A word of caution here. The story of Indian governance is about a series of well-meaningmeasures which fail at the implementation stage. While embarking on this task, weneed to be sensitive to the reasons for the failure of the present legislation and to ensurethat these mistakes are not repeated.

One of the basic reasons why the existing Nursing Home Acts extant in some states donot function is that no machinery has been created for its implementation. The healthcarepersonnel in the service of various state governments are tasked with providing healthcare,not regulating it. For carrying out this function, separate machinery needs to be created.

Second, to make things simpler for all concerned, web-enabled applications are neededwith a user friendly interface to facilitate self-registration by the various clinicians andhospitals. This would ensure that the hospitals and clinics would not need to actuallyvisit any office unless there are some deviations from the standards proposed.

Finally, having citizen stakeholders on board in each of these authorities would certainlyhelp achieve more transparency and also provide a much-needed feedback mechanism.Currently a great problem in existing government functioning is that citizens are rarelyentrusted with civic duties which would give them some idea of the complexity ofproblems facing the state.

Some countries like Bangladesh have for decades implemented a drug policy emphasisinggenerics and have prohibited the manufacture of branded drugs deemed to be eitherhazardous or of no therapeutic value. As a result almost 80% of drugs sold in Bangladeshare generic drugs but this is not the case in India. And prices of branded formulationsare far higher than generic ones. Given the trajectory of development of the privatepharma sector in India, it seems difficult to enact legislation as Bangladesh has done.Still there is much that can be accomplished even given the adverse incentive structureof the pharma sector.

A way out for government hospitals is to use the single payer mechanism. To implementthis, the first requirement is to take away the burden of procuring all but emergencyitems from government hospitals. Staff in these institutions is over worked, less thanrequired, under constant pressure and ill equipped to handle the challenges of procurement.

Such procurement teams rarely exist in the government machinery; the result is thatthe same medicine is being procured by a variety of different hospitals in the samestate; the same medicine is procured under different budget heads and often onedepartment head has no idea what the other is doing. Each individual transaction addsits own price component to the final price.

To break this cycle, first an essential drug list needs to be drawn up by the procurementteam. This exercise when conducted in Rajasthan and Maharashtra showed that the

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actual list of essential medicines needed for all levels of care was fewer than 500 whileroutinely procurement was being done for over 2,000 drugs. This rationalises the entireprocurement exercise a great deal, saves much time and effort.

Problems with Insurance

Once some healthcare regulation is in place, bringing insurance premiums down ismuch more feasible. The logic of single payer systems remains valid for this just asmuch as for medicine prices. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have shown that for largepopulations running into crores, floating tenders for health insurance for a defined setof families fetched a per family premium of Rs 333 in Maharashtra and Rs 497 in TamilNadu for an annual coverage of Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively. These pricesalso include administrative charges. The reason for such low premiums is that whilesix out of 100 families may fall ill in any specific year, premium is paid for all 100.With these premiums and an average per claim cost of Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000, theinsurance company just about breaks even.

Revenge of the East Sat, Jan 17, 2015social, EPW, freedom of speech,

The resurrection of the debate on the freedom of speech - its ideology and its practicein the world today - is perhaps the best tribute that can be paid to those who were shotfor their writings and drawings.

Most people who had never heard of or read Charlie Hebdo reacted with disbelief atthese cartoons as these were, where they pertained to Islam and Muslims, clearlyprovocative and meant to lampoon. While the condemnations of the killings wereforthright, many started asking questions whether these cartoons were appropriate andcould be defended.

However, those who criticise Charlie Hebdo 's humour and contents point out thatlaughing at a group of people who are discriminated and marginalised is very distinctfrom lampooning those in power. There are also questions about the politics of itsaesthetics and the manner in which the caricatures reinforce racist prejudices againstan already stigmatised minority.

The differential treatment of Jews and Judaism, who are not caricatured in the samemanner as are Muslims and Islam, is used as an example to buttress the argument thatCharlie Hebdo is racist.

What has been quite unprecedented is how quickly this has become a global debate, aconversation over time zones and political, cultural and legal divides. It is not the firsttime that there has been such a global conversation but this may be the first time that

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it has happened in a world connected through social media. The ramifications - that arapidly growing number of people in the world are in something akin to direct conversationwith each other - are enormous and will take time for us, its participants, to fullyunderstand and appreciate.

To return to Charlie Hebdo , the question that has emerged at the centre of this globalconversation is whether the right to free speech is absolute or whether it is inherentlycontextual and conditioned by its genealogies stretching through capitalism andcolonialism. it is clear that both sides to the argument need to rethink and rework theirpositions. Just when the established middle ground of the old debates between rightsand responsibilities, and between the rights to equality and liberty were beginning toget clarified into their two pole positions, new ways of looking at these old debateshave begun to emerge.

The larger, long-term implications of this debate are still unclear to us, caught up aswe are in the heat and dust of the present intellectual and political skirmishes. Yet itdoes seem that the debate will only flourish in the days to come, opening up new waysof understanding our world and of building solidarities, despite, it must be added, allthe cynical attempts to appropriate the slogan of freedom of speech by those with bloodon their hands.

Right to Abort in Surrogacy Contracts Sat, Jan 10, 2015surrogacy, social, abortion, EPW,

Surrogacy is a contract for services which are highly personal in nature, and which areintended to bring social and familial contentment to the commissioning parents throughchildbirth. Artificial reproduction gives childless families a chance to fulfil a basichuman need, that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. However, surrogacycontracts raise several critical questions, abortion being one of them.

The issue of abortion is essential inasmuch as it constitutes a breach of contractualobligations. The commissioning parents contract with the surrogate and take significantsteps to set the gestational process in motion, by relying on the reasonable expectationthat there would be no abortion. If the contract is breached by the surrogate, the parentsare left without alternatives.

The draft Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill to regulate surrogacy whichwas introduced in Parliament in 2010 made an attempt to resolve the issue of abortionby mandating that any woman agreeing to act as a surrogate shall be duty-bound notto engage in any act that would harm the foetus during pregnancy, 1 thus offering somelegal "guarantee" to the commissioning parents.

This article's first contention to the anti-abortion clause in the draft bill is that it is in

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conflict with the constitutional rights of the parties to a surrogacy contract. Thecommissioning parents have a right to procreative freedom, which includes the rightto contract with collaborators for the purpose of bearing children. Likewise, the surrogatehas the right to make an intimate personal decision about reproduction, which wouldalso include abortion. Although not enumerated in the Constitution, both the right toprocreation and the right to abortion are two competing variants of the right to life andpersonal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, 2 they represent a woman's rightto choose whatever she does with her body 3 and hence, the choice to procreate or abortshould essentially belong to her if Article 21 has to have any meaning for her.

In the first situation, a surrogate may want to abort, but the commissioning parentsdecide to defend their right to procreative freedom by bringing a suit for specificperformance of the contract. In this situation, it needs to be determined whether a courtwould impose an injunction upon the surrogate, for the reason that if a surrogate hasno right to abort, it amounts to battery and undue hardship in the form of physicalimposition of compulsory pregnancy and abrogates her right against exploitation.

the commissioning parents may wish to abort the foetus if they discover seriouscomplications in prenatal or postnatal health of the foetus or even for personal reasons.If the commissioning parents intend to get the foetus aborted, then the surrogate maytreat it as a breach of contract. But when the surrogate decides not to abort, then thedilemma that courts would face is whether it is just and proper to order an abortion-on-demand.Some proponents of surrogacy would argue that the surrogacy contract was enteredinto with the free will of the surrogate. Some others would argue that the surrogate isin a relationship of trust with the commissioning parents and such duty of trust andloyalty requires that a surrogate refrain from exercising her personal interests againstthe interests of the beneficiaries.

However, on a closer look, it is worth noting that in traditional reproduction, parenthoodis not derived from mere spousal relationship, but rather from the intention of the couple,which means that any decision to bear children is to be mutually agreed upon by bothpartners. At the same time, agreeing to an intercourse does not mean that the wife hasno right to abort. The law grants the decision to abort exclusively to the woman andshe can terminate the foetus, if she so wishes. If we were to treat traditional reproductionfrom the perspective of contract law, it would mean that for the reproductive processto be valid, free consent to carry the foetus should exist throughout the term of thecontract, not just at the time when the contract is made by the couple.The moment this underlying consent is lost, the contract of reproduction stands breachedand thereafter there is no contract between the couple. If that be so, then why should asurrogate, who is only a substitute carrier, be deprived of equal protection under lawfor the same act? A surrogate undergoes the same bodily conditions and mentalassociations with the foetus as is the case in traditional reproduction and it would be a

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legal fiction to claim that a surrogate woman is not in the same position as an ordinarywoman.

Test of Ethics

To fully answer the question of who holds the right to abort, one must also pass the testof ethics. Many critics have held that in surrogacy the interests of wealthy commissioningparents are better served than those of the surrogates. 4 Surrogates, especially in thethird world countries like India, belong to a lower socio-economic segment and themonetary compensation is necessary to motivate many women. As the United StatesSupreme Court had pointed out in the landmark case of Baby M 5 that the "essentialevil is...taking advantage of a woman's circumstances", an anti-abortion clause wouldtherefore impose a totalitarian intervention into a woman's life.

Hence, any disregard by the court of the decisions of a surrogate will ultimatelysubordinate the surrogate by establishing the notion that her reproductive capacity is amere mechanical device, and may create mala fide incentives to employ poor womenas providers of commercial service to consumers.

Can the Right to Abortion Be Waived?

The doctrine of waiver is based on the premise that a person is his best judge and beingso, he has the liberty to waive the enjoyment of his rights. From the literal meaning ofSection 34(23) of the bill, it seems that the intent of the law is to require the surrogateto irreversibly waive her right to abort in advance

In Basheshar Nath vs CIT, 1959 AIR 149 1959 SCR Supl (1) 528, it was held that therecould be no waiver not only of the fundamental right enshrined in Article 14, but alsoof any other fundamental right guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution. The Constitutionmade no distinction between fundamental rights enacted for the benefit of the individualand those enacted in the public interest or on grounds of the public policy.

A precondition to waive a right in advance by consent, is that a person doing so mustnot lack sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences ofthe waiver. The judge in the Baby M case indicated that surrogate never makes acompletely voluntary, informed decision because any decisions prior to the childbirthare compelled, by contractual and monetary concerns.

In addition to this, if the surrogate does not have the choice to exercise her bodilyintegrity and personal will during the time of service, then the commissioning parentsare not only purchasing the surrogate's labour, but also acquiring rights over her bodyfor their benefit. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the surrogate is not under abinding agreement because then the surrogate retains control over her body while usingit for the benefit of the other party.

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Commercial surrogacy has been a legal practice in India since 2002, and the ART Billallows the payment of any sum of money to the surrogate other than that which isneeded to meet her medical and insurance costs. I

In India's ART Bill it is settled that a surrogate must relinquish parental rights, 6 whichwill only logically follow when we presume that there is a sale of the baby.

The author believes that no rational parents who arrange for surrogacy would like toadmit either that the price paid is the price of the child, but rather this payment is justan end reward or fee for the services of the surrogate. Such an admission, however,leaves the commissioning parents with no remedy against the surrogate who abortsagainst their wish.

Some surrogacy proponents may argue that a reasonable monetary penalty should beimposed upon the breaching surrogate (as is the practice in many other contracts), butconsidering the subjective nature of a parent's association with a newborn child, theauthor believes that no amount of penalty would really leave the disheartened parentssatisfied.

Thus, simply put: where the surrogate's service gets interrupted by abortion, no damageswould probably be available to the parents; the latter should, from the time of enteringinto contract, compulsorily take on the risk that the surrogate may not carry the childto term. With regards to the sums already paid to the surrogate, it is unlikely that anyclaim for recovery will be sustained given that in a personal services contract, the partynot in breach "accepted" the performance of the party in breach until the date of breach,and has an obligation to pay for such performance.

In the circumstance where the surrogate ignores the parents' demand for abortion, thecommissioning parents should be absolved of their obligation to pay rewards, fees orany other costs for the surrogate, otherwise it would be highly inequitable for the parentswho no longer have a contract or expect to have a child.

Natural Disasters: Equity and Coordination Sat, Jan 3, 2015disaster management, social, EPW,

The controversies that followed the rescue and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermathof almost all these disasters put the spotlight on issues like early response, financingfor humanitarian response and long-term preparedness. Among the many ongoingdiscussions on what has changed in terms of the humanitarian response since the 2004tsunami, the issues of making humanitarian funding more equitable and increasing therole of pooled humanitarian funds are critical.

The 2010 Pakistan floods, for example, which affected around 20 million people failed

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to mobilise the level of generosity that was seen after the Indian Ocean tsunami. Thisis true of many other slow onset natural disasters and conflicts, one prime examplebeing the 2004 Bangladesh floods. In private donations (which roughly comprise onequarter of the international ones) a host of factors - the type of emergency, perceptionsabout the impact of donations and ability to identify with affected populations - comeinto play. On the other hand, government donors have stated commitments to providingimpartial, needs-based assistance. Yet, other factors - strategic geopolitical and economicfactors, international pressure and media coverage - continue to influence them.

Do we have enough funding for the multiple humanitarian - natural and human-created- crises? There are two parts to the answer. First is how the resources are controlledand allocated, and the second is how we gear up for the increasing level of insecurityand vulnerability. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictsrising wind speeds of tropical cyclones, increasing intensity of droughts, and an increasein heavy precipitation events, potentially increasing the frequency of floods.

An increasing amount of international humanitarian assistance is now channelled throughpooled funds. These funds are designed to aid flexibility and speed when respondingto humanitarian crises and to make funding more impartial.

The 2004 tsunami marked a watershed in terms of the scale of response and the numberof agencies that stepped in. It has arguably shaped the way humanitarian responses areplanned and executed while bringing home the importance of comprehensive regionaland global coordination - not just during disasters but at all times.In an increasingly vulnerable world, natural disasters and humanitarian crises affectthe lives and livelihoods of millions with many disasters having far-reaching socioculturalconsequences. That it is the socially and economically vulnerable who shoulder thebrunt of the after-effects and slip deeper into poverty and misery has been proved overand over again. In fact, poverty spells greater vulnerability towards natural disasters.Even as developing countries strive to better coordinate efforts and resources to dealwith such disasters, the global community too must continue to work towards adequate,needs-based funding.

Still Searching for the GST Sat, Jan 10, 2015EPW, economics, GST,

While there has never been any disagreement between the central and state governmentson the benefits of a comprehensive Goods and Services Tax (GST) to replace thecomplex indirect tax system currently in operation, differences on a number of issueshave meant that a proposal announced in the 2007-08 Budget has taken more than sevenyears to fructify into another legislative bill on GST. The introduction of the Constitution(122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 in the Lok Sabha in the winter session to facilitate

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introduction of the GST regime from 1 April 2016 indicates some progress. If in spiteof the unresolved issues another bill has been drafted, the expectation seems to be that,however imperfect, enactment of the legislation would simplify the tax system, end thecascading effect of current taxation, foster development of a common domestic market,and result in revenue buoyancy and higher growth of the economy.

The 2014 bill visualises a dual GST that would be levied both by the centre and thestates on an overlapping tax base. It provides simultaneous power to union and statelegislatures to legislate on the GST. The centre would levy a Central Goods and ServicesTax (CGST), the states a State Goods and Services Tax (SGST), and the centre wouldlevy and collect the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on all interstate supplyof goods and services, and distribute the IGST proceeds among the states. The GSTBill seeks to create a system of seamless flow of input tax credit from one state toanother.

All goods and services other than alcohol (for human consumption) are to be under theGST which is a welcome move to reduce selectivity in taxation in a GST regime. Thedraft legislation proposes that the rate of the GST will be uniform across the countrywith a limited amount of flexibility to vary the CGST and SGST rates within a narrowtax band above a floor rate. A uniform rate across the country appeals to trade andindustry. However, the question is if such harmonisation should be at the cost of fiscalautonomy. A state's ability to levy a tax should mean the ability to fix the tax rate aswell. In order to harmonise rates, the power to fix tax rates is to be given up almostentirely under the proposed legislation. It needs to be noted that tax harmonisation doesnot only mean harmonisation of rates but harmonisation of many other processes withinthe tax system to facilitate easy tax compliance by business and industry. A uniformrate is no guarantee of creation of a common market, if the tax compliance processesremain very complex and different across states.

A huge compromise in the design of the GST is the proposal to impose a "non-VATable"additional tax of not more than 1% on the supply of goods in the course of interstatetrade. This tax is to be collected for a period not exceeding two years, or for longer asrecommended by the GST Council. This essentially means the current origin-baseddistortionary Central Sales Tax (CST) system will continue in the initial years of GSTif not abolished after two years, resulting in significant tax exportation from the richerproducing states to the poorer consuming states.

The architecture of GST as it now stands is definitely not ideal. It is a compromise toaccommodate the conflicting interests of the states and the union. Although the mostsignificant aspect of the GST Bill is the inclusion of petroleum products under thepurview of the tax at a future date, a non-VATable CST levy of 1% is another compromiseon the application of a destination-based principle and continues the element of thecascading effect of indirect taxation in place.

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All said and done, the speedy implementation of GST calls for a resolution of the mostcontentious and critical issue of the rates at which CGST and SGST are to be applied.The "flawless GST" proposed by the Thirteenth Finance Commission recommendedan abysmally low combined 12% GST rate. Given much higher current rates of indirecttaxation, it is certainly not possible to have a GST of 12%. Rigorous independent studieshave shown that a combined GST that will minimise revenue loss initially to the states(and thereby reduce the compensation that the centre will have to pay) must be around20%.

Massive Achievement Sat, Jan 17, 2015EPW, international, Sri Lanka,

In what was a remarkable result in Sri Lankan presidential elections, strongman MahindaRajapaksa of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has been defeated by MaithripalaSirisena, the candidate of a united opposition. It was barely a month and a half ago thatSirisena, a member of Rajapaksa's ministry, announced his defection from his parentparty. In this short period, a realignment of the opposition forces took place. The leadingopposition party, the United National Party (UNP), declared its support to Sirisena, andmore defections from the SLFP - most notably, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga- coincided with withdrawal of support to Rajapaksa from the Buddhist party, theJathika Hela Urumaya. The tacit support from the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramunafor the opposition and the announcement by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) andMuslim parties that they too favoured Rajapaksa's opponent turned Sirisena into astrong candidate against the president who had enjoyed two terms in office.The choice of Sirisena as a candidate was itself dictated by the fact that this memberof the Rajapaksa cabinet, with agrarian roots and having served previously in theministries of agriculture and health in earlier regimes, enjoyed vast support among theSinhala rural populace. The TNA and other Tamil parties gave their support withoutany preconditions on devolution of power as these parties realised that this was a uniquepolitical moment that they too should be part of and contribute to the ousting of Rajapaksa.Following the triumph of the Sri Lankan government forces in the war against theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Rajapaksa regime had the opportunityto promote reconciliation and foster a post-war democracy. Instead, the regime embarkedupon a programme of further militarisation - enhancing the presence of security forcesin the north and expanding the role of the military into economic sectors - and greaterconcentration of executive powers in the presidency.

The Rajapaksa regime had also presided over a rapid shrinking of the space for dissentand had sought to control the media, even resorting to a violent suppression of criticalvoices in the press. The rise of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism had also alienated other

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minorities such as the Muslims who were at the receiving end of several incidents ofviolence over the past year which had been orchestrated by right-wing organisationssuch as the Bodu Bala Sena and which had received overt support from officials in theRajapaksa regime.For the Tamils and other minorities who have sought greater devolution of power andfederalisation, the defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa is not necessarily going to advancetheir agenda. Sirisena and other leaders among the new coalition have explicitly ruledout any moves towards devolution of power and they are also wary of any adversebacklash from the Sinhala majority. Yet, the defeat of Rajapaksa opens up new spacesof political engagement for the Tamils and the Muslims, as they, along with sectionsof the Sinhala electorate, had played a decisive role in defeating the Rajapaksa regime.

The Dead We Did Not Mourn Sat, Jan 24, 2015Nigeria, EPW, Boko Haram, international,

Some deaths are mourned by thousands, even millions; others go unmourned, unnoticed.This is the tragedy of our modern times. So even as more than a million people turnedout on the streets of Paris in January to mourn the deaths of the 17 people killed duringand after the attack on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo , the deathof around 2,000 people at the hands of the Boko Haram in northern Nigeria wentvirtually unnoticed by the rest of the world.

Whatever the reasons, it is time we woke up and took note of what is happening inNigeria and attempt to understand the genesis of the crisis a part of the country faces.

To begin with, we have to understand Boko Haram, how it rose and grew and what ithopes to achieve. The group's official name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awatiWal-Jihad, which means, "People committed to the propagation of the Prophet'steachings and jihad" the group was founded in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf who focusedon the poverty and deprivations faced by the largely Muslim population in the area.Despite its oil wealth, Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in Africa and also highlyunequal. The group (Boko Haram) itself is an effect not a cause; it is a symptom ofdecades of failed government and elite delinquency finally ripening into social chaos."

Ethnic violence in a country with 350 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages, and almostequally divided between Christians and Muslims, is nothing new. Yet, while some ofthese differences have been negotiated in the past, the challenge thrown up by BokoHaram appears to have gone beyond that.

Since 2009, international human rights groups estimate that around 13,000 people havebeen killed by Boko Haram and almost 1.5 million people displaced by the violence.The world community did note some of its more egregious crimes, such as the kidnapping

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of over 200 schoolgirls last year. Nothing is known about them except Boko Haram'sclaim that they had been married off to their fighters.

Although the US government has declared Boko Haram a terrorist group, its links withother Islamist groups have yet to be established. What is known is that many peopleliving in northern and eastern Nigeria, even if they do not support Boko Haram, dohold a grudge against the leadership ofNigeria's Christian President Goodluck Jonathan.Instead of accepting that the North and the East's social and economic grievances needaddressing, the Nigerian government prefers a military solution to the challenge posedby Boko Haram.

Volte-face on Food Security Sat, Jan 31, 2015social, EPW, food security, National Food Security Act,

Shanta Kumar happens to be the chairperson of the High Level Committee on Reorientingthe Role and Restructuring of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) (hereafter "HLC"),which submitted its report earlier this month. The HLC report, aside from calling forsweeping changes in the mode of operation of the FCI, makes strong recommendationsaimed at downsizing the NFSA. These include reducing the coverage of the publicdistribution system (PDS) from 67% to 40% of the population, raising issue prices tohalf of the relevant minimum support price (instead of Rs 3/kg for rice and Rs 2/kg forwheat), and a gradual transition to cash transfers.The crux of the committee's argument is that PDS leakages are unacceptably high, andthat cash transfers would save money. The report disputes the view that the recent PDSreforms have led to reduced leakages and cites an alarming figure of 47% leakage in2011-12. Indeed, the decline of PDS leakages over time is particularly clear in statesthat are known to have implemented bold PDS reforms in recent years, e g, Chhattisgarh,Odisha, and - more recently - Bihar.

Signs of improvement emerged from 2011 onwards, notably with the introduction ofa system of tracking coupons. Further progress was achieved in the past two yearswithin the framework of the NFSA. Broad coverage (about 75% of the rural population),low issue prices (Rs 3/kg for rice and Rs 2/kg for wheat), clear entitlements (5 kg perperson per month), and - last but not least - political competition in the run-up to thisyear's assembly elections, all contributed to stronger public pressure for a functionalPDS. For instance, households with a ration card (74% of the sample) were able tosecure close to 80% of their PDS entitlements during the month preceding the survey.Major irregularities remain, and the battle is far from won, but, nevertheless, Bihar'srecent experience suggests that effective PDS reform is possible even in the worst-governedstates.

The HLC report pays little attention to the wealth of recent evidence on these matters.

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Instead, it pronounces a summary sentence on the PDS based on tentative leakageestimates from NSS data. The report is equally casual in its wholesale endorsement ofcash transfers as an alternative to the PDS.

This is not to deny that there are valid arguments for cash transfers as a possiblealternative to the PDS, especially in urban areas and the richer states. The HLC report,however, does not shed much light on the appropriate timing and modalities of thistransition.

Meanwhile, the implementation of the NFSA is being held up in many states due toprolonged delays in the release of Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data.State governments need SECC data to identify eligible households.

Finally, it is important to remember that NFSA entitlements are not confined to subsidisedfoodgrains under the PDS. There are also important entitlements to nutritious food foryoung children, and to maternity benefits for pregnant women. Maternity benefits ofRs 6,000 per child have been a legal entitlement of Indian women since July 2013, butnothing has been done about it. The central government seems to think that it is abovethe law.

No Transparency in Nuclear Deal Sat, Jan 31, 2015Nuclear Liability Act, EPW, international, nuclear deal,

American objections to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA), 2010,have centred on two provisions that open the possibility for US vendors to be held liablefor accident claims. The overall scheme of the CLNDA is to hold the operator of anuclear plant strictly liable for an accident regardless of whose fault the accident is.This liability is capped at Rs 1,500 crore. Section 17(b) of the Act gives the operatorthe right to recover whatever he pays out as no-fault liability from his supplier, if theaccident for which strict liability was channelled to him had resulted from an act of thesupplier or his employees, including the "supply of equipment or material with patentof latent defects or sub-standard services". Obviously, exercising this "right of recourse"would require the operator proving his charge in a court of law.

If the channelling of no-fault liability to the operator is intended to ensure that victimsreceive immediate compensation without going to court, the quantum of this liabilityis capped at Rs 1,500 crore to compensate the operator for taking on the burden of anaccident that others might have contributed to. But Parliament wanted to make it clearthat the rights of the victims went beyond and were not compromised by the government'sunwillingness to compensate them for their loss and suffering. That is why Section 46says the CLNDA will be "in addition to and not in derogation of other laws in force"(such as ordinary tort law against anyone the victims feel is responsible for an accident),and that payment of civil damages would not exempt the operator from other proceedings,

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such as the filing of a criminal case.

The US administration says Section 17(b) of CLNDA lies outside the scope of theConvention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC), which India agreed to ratify, aclaim the Indian government has always disputed. The US has also echoed the viewsof its companies that Section 46 will expose them to potentially unlimited damages inthe event of an accident. While the proposed insurance pool is what has led the US todrop its objections to Section 17(b), it seems the Modi government has committed itselfto providing a written legal assurance to the US that Indian victims will not be allowedto sue American suppliers under Section 46 of the CLNDA.

Since US suppliers always had the option of buying insurance cover from any provider,the attractiveness of the proposed Indian pool probably lies in the low premium thatmight be charged. The lower the premium, the greater the extent to which Section 17(b)loses its effectiveness. it is essential that the prime minister make public all assurancesgiven to the US, and that the insurance pool idea also be subject to proper public scrutinyto make sure the Indian taxpayer does not end up subsiding Westinghouse or GeneralElectric for an accident caused by defective equipment.

Ever since the 1960s, the manufacturers of nuclear equipment have been exemptedfrom accident liability worldwide. While an "infant industry" argument might have hadplausibility back then, there is no justification today for nuclear suppliers to be subsidisedin this manner. The Indian Nuclear Liability Act broke ground by attempting to forcesuppliers to internalise the risk of an accident, just as companies operating in otherhazardous industries must do. This might well lead to higher projected tariffs for theelectricity their reactors will produce but given the kind of expenses involved in theclean-up of an accident - the final bill for the Fukushima disaster stretches anywherefrom $15 billion to $100 billion - it is best that policymakers be aware of the true costof nuclear energy when planning for increased capacity.

'Lima Call to Climate Action' Sat, Jan 3, 2015environment, EPW, lima call to climate action, Lima, climate change,

The United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru, were important as the last preparatorymeet ahead of the Paris talks in late 2015, where a new global agreement to combatclimate change is to be negotiated. the Lima call represents progress and will standcountries in good stead as the drum roll for Paris begins.

The United Nations climate negotiations in Lima, December 2014, marked an importantmoment in the ongoing negotiations towards the 2015 climate agreement due to beconcluded in Paris. That the Lima Conference was able to arrive at an outcome, howeverweak, is in itself remarkable, given many countries had come to Lima determined notto foreclose options for themselves in the 2015 agreement, even if it came at the cost

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of failure in Lima.

Durban to Lima and Beyond

The international climate change regime consists principally of the 1992 United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 1 the 1997 Kyoto Protocol 2and the decisions of Parties to the UNFCCC (hereafter "the parties") under theseinstruments. Although these instruments are important first steps towards addressingclimate change and its impacts, they are widely regarded as inadequate and inadequatelyimplemented. At the Durban Conference 2011, the Parties launched a process to negotiatea climate agreement that will come into effect and be implemented from 2020. 3 Thisprocess, christened the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for EnhancedAction (ADP), is intended to craft the agreement that will govern, regulate and incentivisethe next generation of climate actions. The ADP process is expected to conclude itswork and yield agreement by 2015. 4 The international community has, since Durban,engaged in intense negotiations, both in the context of this process and in othercomplementary plurilateral and multilateral fora, to inform and design an agreementthat builds on, complements and may even replace part of the existing climate changeregime. To assist them in meeting the 2015 deadline and managing their negotiatingtime, the Parties decided at the Doha Conference, 2012 to erect milestones along theway. Parties agreed to consider "elements for a draft negotiating text" no later than theLima Conference 2014, "with a view to making available a negotiating text before May2015". 5

At the Warsaw Conference in 2013, the Parties were invited to prepare and submit"intended nationally determined contributions" in 2015. The ADP was also mandatedto "identify...the information that Parties will provide when putting forward theircontributions". 6 These two outcomes resulted from the general agreement betweenthe Parties that they needed to engage in 2014 in the domestic preparations necessaryto arrive at commitments that can be inscribed in the 2015 agreement or be part of the2015 package. This was deemed necessary not just to arrive at realistic and realisablecommitments but also to generate ownership of and responsibility for them. There wasalso general agreement that these commitments would need to be accompanied byinformation sufficient to generate clarity about the nature, type and stringency of thecommitments, such that it would assist in comparability across commitments andassessments of adequacy.

There were thus two key deliverables for the Lima Conference: countries were taskedwith arriving at the "elements of a draft negotiating text" for the 2015 agreement; and,the ADP was tasked with identifying the information that must accompany the intendednationally determined contributions the Parties would submit in 2015.

the carefully negotiated language of the Warsaw decision raised two further sets ofissues that would also need to be addressed before countries submitted their contributions.

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The first set of issues relates to the scope of the intended nationally determinedcontributions. The Warsaw decision left it unclear whether contributions would onlycover mitigation or also adaptation, finance, technology and capacity building. Whethermitigation would be a compulsory or optional component of a Party's contribution?Whether the Parties could submit conditional contributions - conditioned on the provisionof support or on action by other parties - or only unconditional ones? The second setof issues relates to the possibility of an ex ante assessment process that would apply tothese contributions once they are submitted. The Warsaw decision contained no explicitreference and thus only the flimsiest of hooks for such an ex ante assessment process.The use of the word "intended" suggests that the nationally determined contributionsof the Parties are expected to be provisional in that it may not be a Party's eventualcontribution inscribed in the 2015 agreement. This created two possibilities - that theintended contribution could be revised by the Party itself, or as a result of a multilateralassessment process.

The Lima Call to Climate Action

The Elements Text for the 2015 Agreement: Parties did arrive at an "elements text",albeit a 38-page text littered with options and alternatives with little of it representingagreed language.

Scope of Contributions: The second of the Lima deliverables - identifying informationto accompany countries' intended nationally determined contributions - proved harderto deliver, and the Lima decision provides only limited guidance to states as they prepareto submit their contributions next year. The issue of accompanying information isinextricably linked to the issue of scope as different types of contributions would requirethe submission of different types of information. There proved to be irreconcilabledifferences on the issue of scope. There were a range of views cutting across north-southlines, with some states insisting that contributions should only cover mitigation, andothers arguing that mitigation and adaptation should be accorded legal and materialparity.

There are, however, two general reassurances provided in the initial paragraphs of thedecision relating to the treatment of issues other than mitigation. First that the 2015agreement will address mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development andtransfer, capacity building, and transparency of action and support, in a balanced mannerAnd, second, urging developed countries to provide and mobilise enhanced financialsupport for ambitious mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries

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Mobama's China Spectre Sat, Jan 31, 2015USA, EPW, international, pivot to asia, China,

The New York Times (NYT) (26 January 2015) reported that the first 45 minutes ofthe first meeting that Obama had with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi weredominated by just one issue, China. And, to their delight, Obama and his aides foundthat Modi's assessment of China's rise and its impact in the Asia-Pacific, and the IndianOcean, seemed so close to that of their own. Modi was as concerned as Obama is aboutChina's influence in the region and of how to jointly (with the US) counter it. Whatresulted was the "US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and the IndianOcean". This joint strategic vision statement said "Regional prosperity depends onsecurity", going on to "affirm the importance of safeguarding maritime security andensuring freedom of navigation and over flight..., especially in the South China Sea "(our emphasis). The statement particularly calls attention to resolution of territorial andmaritime disputes in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea (UNCLS).Modi's first bilateral US-India summit also made explicit references to the South ChinaSea and all the rest of the issues just mentioned, as also the commitment to work moreclosely with other Asia-Pacific countries to advance India's "Act East" policy and theUS's "rebalance to Asia" (better known as "Pivot to Asia") strategy, all parroted in anAmerican idiom.

The other instrument to advance the objective of containing the rise of China is the new"2015 Framework for the US-India Defence Relationship", a top secret, 10-yearagreement that will replace the 2005 Defence Framework pact that expires later thisyear. Already the US stages more joint military exercises with India's armed forcesthan with the militaries of any other country, and these are going to be stepped up andmade more intensive.

The US-India Defence Trade and Technology Initiative is going to get a big boost withthe Pentagon establishing a "dedicated rapid reaction team" to move the various weaponsprojects in the pipeline forward, including those involving co-production and evenco-development. If this succeeds, India's military will become more and more dependenton the US military-industrial complex, displacing Russia, New Delhi's long-standingcollaborator in defence equipment and technology.

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The Academic Performance Indicators Regime and Its Follies Sat, Jan 31, 2015UGC, EPW, higher education, science & tech,

The University Grants Commission does not seem to view higher education and researchas having anything to do with the culture of intellectual activity. Rather it looks atresearch as a matter of regulation, monitoring and measurement of academic "output".

Measuring Academic Performance

The point is technological infrastructure is a necessary, but not a sufficient conditionfor strengthening academic performance, if we do not have a way to cultivate humanabilities along with technological provisions. Measuring academic performance throughquantitative measures of output cannot ensure that the output is of good quality unlesswe have a social mechanism like the formation of academic community and peerinfluence to motivate people to conduct serious research. Equating material infrastructureand sheer output with academic excellence is not good for any science, definitely notfor the social sciences

In the past, societies have fostered cultural and intellectual creativity by promoting bothinstitutional norms and non-institutional channels as part of an atmosphere for learning.But the UGC does not seem to view higher education and research as having anythingto do with the culture of intellectual activity. Rather it looks at research as a matter ofregulation, monitoring and measurement of academic "output".

Language Issues

One of the key problems of the API system of measuring academic performance in theuniversity system is that it treats capabilities in social science and natural scienceresearch as the same. Social sciences rely more on language skills than the naturalsciences; they require far more reading ability as part of training and research and thefelicity with language to bring out observed complexities of social life.

There is little or no translation of social science writings in most regional languages;there is very little even in Hindi, which is the national language. South Indian studentsfrom upwardly mobile communities resolve the language problem by either avoidingthe social sciences altogether in favour of vocational or professional courses or, adoptthe survey method and bring out statistical results that could be discussed with limitedlinguistic skills in English. But this may not be adequate for disciplines like socialanthropology and sociology and the enrolments for philosophy and literature aredwindling. This is not a good sign because a narrow growth-centred education system,where social sciences are reduced to surveys evaluating government projects, willcompletely undermine the civilisational future of this country Several generations ofsocial science professors in India have addressed the gulf ingeniously by using classroom

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teaching as an "epistemological bridge" between the world that the student is familiarwith and the world that the social science books represent. Teachers also often explainseveral arguments in the regional language. But these things are not written up forpublication and so there is little available by way of social science books and articlesin the regional languages, except probably in Malayalam and Bengali.

History of ideas shows that the quality of social science research is deeply linked tothe social thought of a region, namely, the literary, cultural and political debates outsidethe university. There are vibrant debates in literary and cultural circles in languageslike Tamil, Marathi and other languages which deal insightfully with the subject matterof the social sciences, but academic social science departments in the university mostlykeep themselves aloof from these initiatives. Where the curriculum and teaching is ableto establish the link between the social thought and social science, we have pockets ofcreativity. Students with weak knowledge of English also do exceedingly well, whileworking upon materials in their language, rather than researching on a textbook topicin an unknown language.

Need of a Well-Thought-Out Pedagogy

While there is a lot of emphasis on the bureaucratic requirements of affirmative actionand reservations in the academy, there is scant attention to the need for an informedand well-thought-out pedagogy for a heterogeneous classroom as in the Indian university.At best UGC may focus on infrastructure like chairs, tables, buildings and amountsanctioned for remedial classes in English. There is generally no reference to strengtheningthe human element of teacher-student relationship and between student interactions.

It is common for us to hear about the expansion of higher education in purely quantitativeterms, as an expansion of the number of central universities or Indian Institutes ofTechnology (IITs). Rarely does the discussion venture into substantive issues aboutwhat kind of abilities do the MA or PhD in social sciences are expected to create, whatthe non-tangible (social) benefits of social science education are and how to assessthem. The UGC policy on higher education does not seem to be based on an engagementwith issues of pedagogy, translation of reading material and their connection to academicperformance in the social sciences.

Today the government directives in public education do play a significant role in shapingthe modalities of learning and research and there are no powerful cultural and intellectualmovements to counter the bureaucratisation of higher education. There is no doubt thata purely managerial approach to higher education will have an adverse impact on theintellectual culture of this subcontinent.

An education system that places high premium on academic performance in terms ofmarks and focuses heavily on technical education marginalises the social sciences andhumanities also. This eliminates the possibilities of sensitising youngsters to think

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critically about prevalent social practices in a growth-driven economy. Youngsterscould take to cutting-edge science and technology while remaining uncritical of socialinequalities and deprivation. The official bodies of social science on their part havereduced the social sciences into mute degree-producing disciplines in which thecurriculum has little connection to the linguistic and cognitive universe of the students.

The urban middle class is already alienated from the idea of tradition as knowledge ofbody, ecology, proverbs, folk tales, etc, and largely experience tradition in terms ofcaste rules or religious rituals. Youngsters who are more and more estranged from theregional knowledge traditions of their region in the broader sense - mother tongue,dialects, music, dance, literature, folk arts, medical lore and philosophy - end up holdingon to narrow religious identities and practices in the face of economic prosperity.

This is happening in other Asian countries which have adopted growth-centred andmanagerial models of development in the education sector. While their universitieshave all the amenities, there is little work in social science and virtually no possibilityof contribution to philosophy, literature and creative arts from the university system,nor any link between university education and social thought outside the formal system.

The system of global ranking of universities is oblivious to the social and cultural roleof the university as an institution in heterogeneous societies of the global South. Themanagerial approach to higher education is devoid of a vision of intellectual and creativepotential of the people and will lead to a lopsided civilisation.

In Conclusion

This does not mean that evaluation is not desirable, but that the criteria should becontext-sensitive and the interventions should take human and cognitive aspects oflearning along technological and administrative considerations. Holding separateworkshops to collate suggestions from teachers in the humanities, creative arts and thesocial sciences, strengthening students' participation in curriculum design and supportingreading and discussion groups could be some steps in these directions. But this ispossible only under two conditions: the narrow mindset that privileges science andtechnology and neglects the significance of philosophy, linguistics, arts, social sciences,etc, has to go and the managerial approach of reducing everything to tangible quantitativemeasures and to encashability has to be substituted by a more inclusive approach.

EPW January

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