Do it yourself

The government introduced three bills in the recently concluded monsoon session of the Parliament. These bills propose to replace the Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC), The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), and The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (IEA). The objectives of these bills are: ·           Streamline provisions relating to offenses and penalties; increase the scope of summary trials; make various offenses gender neutral; deal effectively with the problem of organized crimes and terrorist activities, new offenses of terrorist acts and organized crime have been added in the Bill with deterrent punishments, and introduce community service as punishment for first time petty crimes; ·           Increased use of technology and electronic communication in the investigation of crimes and the trial process; ·           Provision to include electronic and di...

  Three of the major impediments to India’s sustainable development and faster socio-economic growth could be listed as (i) Blatant disregard for the law due to a pathetic justice delivery system; (ii) Jugaad mindset of people and (iii) total disregard for the social and regulatory compliance norms. Let me explain my point with the help of the following examples: Bail is acquittal I recently visited Chaubeypur Village in the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh. A decent sized urbanized village located about 25 km from Varanasi city, Chaubeypur is representative of the unplanned and unsustainable urbanization of numerous Indian villages. In Chaubeypur, I met Chote Lal (name changed) who is accused of 2 murders, arson, land grabbing, extortion, and rape of a middle-aged woman. Presently out on bail, he gleefully boasted to have committed some of these crimes. When I tried to discuss the law and order situation in the area with Vimal Saxena (Name changed), a lecturer at Law Col...

  India rates: Liquidity update (Nomura Securities) Liquidity update: Over the past few months, liquidity in the interbank market has been relatively range bound, largely tracking the normal inter month seasonal patterns. However, overall system liquidity, including the government’s cash balance, has increased because of the larger-than-expected RBI dividend and the liquidity infusion from the INR2,000 note’s withdrawal. As of 26 July, interbank liquidity was approximately INR1.24trn, while overall system liquidity was INR3.6trn on 14 July. As a percentage of NDTL, interbank liquidity is approximately 0.7%, while overall system liquidity is 2%. Despite the increase we have seen MIBOR spike above the MDF rate on various occasions. What has been affecting INR liquidity? Currency in circulation (CIC) has been decreasing since the RBI announced that the INR2,000 note would be withdrawn . Since the announcement, CIC has declined by INR1.36trn up to 14 July. This is in line with ou...

India shall complete the seventy-sixth year of its independence from British colonial rule in a couple of weeks. The nation has progressed materially on various fronts in these years. However, the direction of progress has not been on the most desirable path. Of course, coming from much behind, India has joined the world’s leading economies in terms of the size of GDP. The development of physical infrastructure has been remarkable in the past couple of decades. India has attained strong positions in the areas like IT services, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, etc. However, the development of social parameters has not gathered the desired momentum. The regional and household disparities have remained wide and deep. Income and wealth inequalities have continued to widen despite a strong affirmative action plan in terms of reservation in education and government jobs for the backward castes and communities. The constitutional guarantee of “Equal Rights” is far from fully implemented. The...

“It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. It is, therefore, in the palm of our hands. But such Swaraj has to be experienced, by each one for himself. One drowning man will never save another.” “I believe that you want the millions of India to be happy, not that you want the reins of government in your hands. If that be so, we have to consider only one thing: how can the millions obtain self-rule?” [M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj] Over the past seven decades, the political structure has taken the shape of a pyramid form, whereas the social structure in the country continues to be in a ladder form. In a pyramid structure, the space at the top is limited. The people are continuously at struggle with each other. Those who have reached the top fight with each other to stay there. They have also to fight with a multitude of other people who are trying to reach the summit. To survive at the top, you need to push all others down. The concepts such as mutual trust, harmony, cooperation,...

  Try and imagine a situation where a postgraduate class of literature is given a question paper of quantum physics to solve within the stipulated three hours with no outside help. It would be fair to assume that most students will leave the answer sheets blank and leave the examination hall, distraught. Some may try to test their ingenuity and offer random literary solutions to complicated problems, still hoping to score zilch. A few audacious ones may contend that being literature students, they are naturally the only genius around. These few would offer detailed literary explanations which may not make any sense to the conventional students of physics or literature and still insist that the solutions offered by them are the best. Hoping to pass with distinction, they might also take this opportunity to ridicule the students of physics and celebrate their superiority. The last category mostly includes politicians, and often politically motivated bureaucrats. I am inclined to ...