Researching education

Concern

India in a big need for research in education sector, to improve quality of education.

Research

• Two kinds of research can be done in education.
• Second type of research is usually done by economists, political scientists, sociologists and scholars from similar intellectual backgrounds.
• In India nobody is bothered about first type of research, very little can be seen, and second type of research gets disproportionate attention of policymakers and the public.
• It basically focuses on issues of peripheral importance to the reality of education.
• If research really want to help educational policy and practice, in improving the educational experience and attainment of the millions of students in our schools, we need to pay adequate attention to the first kind of research also.
• This type of research requires focus on understanding the two important elements in our education system.

1.The teacher

• Most teachers in India deal with heterogeneous student group
• That present complex challenges.
• Example
  • different age groups
  • A large number of these children would have parents who have never gone to school
  • and even for others, the brutal struggle for livelihood leaves little possibility of educational support at home.
  • Language issue: child knows different from the language used as the medium of instruction at the school.
  • For many of these children, the only full meal is the mid-day meal provided by the school. Before and after school, most of them are engulfed with their share of daily chores.

Now the questions arises:

• How does a teacher deal with this situation?
• How can she be effective as an educator?
• How does she tackle the issue of multiple languages?
• How does she provide required support to those children facing the most acute deprivation?
• What are her struggles in doing all this, day after day, for years?
• What support does she require and how can we make that happen?
• How can she deal more effectively with the local community?
• There is no one correct answer to any of these questions. There can be multiple valid approaches, influenced by factors factors, which may change over time.
• With experience and rigorous reflection, one can arrive at relevant operating principles that can help in multiple contexts and situations.
• Even these need constant critical interrogation, because of our dynamic social reality.
• Now arises second set of questions which requires deep understanding of education systems in their complex social setting.
• These type of questions take account of, the aims, values and concerns of education revealed by the first set with empathy.

Questions arises are:

• How can the capacity of our 8.5 million teachers, who have a full-time job, be improved within the constraints and diversity of our education system and social reality?
• How does community engagement with schools become effective?
• How can schools foster constitutional values?
• How should schools be governed, recognizing fully that simplistic, industrial-mindset governance mechanisms are not only ineffective but also harmful to good education?
• How do we deal with the rot in the pre-service teacher education system?

2.Individual educators and organizations

• Some have conducted systematic inquiry and they have been able to abstract the experience into shareable knowledge.
• And if we compare multitude of these matters and their complexity, such inquiry has been microscopic in India.

Conclusion

• Research in education must focus on the real and important issues within education.
• Educators themselves should adept at asking and answering research questions, rigorously and systematically.
• If educators take responsibility for research, it will definitely cause a quiet revolution in education research and education itself.

Govt. to set up sex offenders registry

News

Government is planning to set up a sex offender’s registry, on the lines of those maintained in western countries including the U.S. and the U.K.

What it will include?

1.Details of convicted sex offenders like their photograph,addresses, PAN card details, Aadhar card number, fingerprint details and DNA samples.

2.Even the details of juvenile Sex offenders will be included.

Where?

On the website of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)

Why is it needed?

• Citizens have the right to know whether a potential employee or a neighbour, for example, have a past record of conviction.
• Will be helpful for law enforcement agencies. Providing personal details on regular basis will ensure effective supervision of sex offenders and reduce future offences.
• It will bring fear in the minds of repeat sexual offenders.

Problems with such registry

• Alienation of convicts from the society after their release.
• Once on the list, all possibility for a convict to improve and move on in life will be lost.
• This will tantamount to double punishment.Sex offenders have already served a jail sentence, on their release , shaming by the society will be another punishment.

What are the government plans for this database?

• Plans is to publicise offenders photographs, addresses, PAN card details, Aadhaar card number, fingerprints and DNA samples through this database registry.
• As of now it will include registration of individuals convicted for offences like rape, voyeurism, stalking and aggravated sexual assault and also includes the possibility of registration of offenders below and above 18 years.
• According to the draft guidelines proposed, extensive information on the offender will be collected like:
• Inter-alia name and aliases, registration of primary or given name, nicknames, pseudonyms, telephone numbers, addresses including temporary lodging information, travel and immigration documents.
• Registry will also include information related to their jobs, professional licenses, information of school, college, institute with which they have been associated, vehicle information, date of birth, criminal history, current photograph, fingerprints and palm prints, DNA sample, driver’s licence, identification card, PAN card number, Aadhaar card number and Voter ID number.
• People can access this database through a Citizen Portal in the upcoming Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project.

Diffusing the judicial burden

The Supreme Court’s request to the Central government to consider the possibility of establishing a National Court of Appeal has elicited mixed reactions from the legal community. Bodies such as the Law Commission of India have given their considered opinion, and from these a solution must emerge.

The issue relates to access to justice, that is at the core of our constitutional values, and thus problems related to the issue have to be understood in their entirety and possible solutions must be deliberated upon and discussed by all stakeholders. The problem is essentially threefold.

The Supreme Court was meant to be a Constitutional Court. However, the sheer weight of its case backlog leaves the court with little time for its primal functions. In spite of recently accelerated rates of case disposal in the Supreme Court (in 2015 it disposed of 47,424 cases compared to 45,042 in 2014 and 40,189 in 2013), the backlog was still a staggering 59,468 cases as of February 2016.

A ”substantial question” of constitutional law has to be heard by five or more judges. According to a study by Nick Robinson titled ”A Quantitative Analysis of the Indian Supreme Court’s workload”, in the 1960s it was common for the court to decide over 100 such cases a year. He points out that in the past decade, because of the unreasonable workload borne by the court, the average is now fewer than eight constitution benches a year. In effect, therefore, the functions of the Supreme Court as a Constitutional Court have been seriously impaired.

Ease of access

Geographical proximity to the court is definitely an aspect of access to justice. The fact that the Supreme Court sits only in New Delhi limits accessibility to litigants from south India. Mr. Robinson’s study reveals ‘that of all the cases filed in the Supreme Court, the highest numbers are from high courts in the northern States: 12 per cent from Delhi, 8.9 per cent from Punjab and Haryana, 7 per cent from Uttarakhand, 4.3 per cent from Himachal Pradesh, etc. The lowest figures are from the southern high courts: Kerala 2.5 per cent, Andhra Pradesh 2.8 per cent, Karnataka 2.2 per cent and a mere 1.1 per cent from Madras High Court. There is therefore an urgent need to find a solution to such an inequitable state of affairs.

The Supreme Court, it must be acknowledged, has played its role as sentinelqui viveof the Constitution with aplomb. This does not, naturally, go down well with the other organs of the state and while their present proclivity to abide by the orders of the Supreme Court is creditable, it is but natural that attempts may be made to curtail the constitutional powers of the court. The problem of backlog may be a convenient handle for the other organs of the state to seek drastic curtailment of the court’s powers. Well-regarded leaders in stable democracies have attempted this in the past.

Franklin D. Roosevelt saw nothing amiss in using his presidential powers to attempt to ‘reorganise’ the American Supreme Court when it consistently dealt death blows to many of the legislations brought in under the rubric of the New Deal. The pendency of cases before the Supreme Court was at that time cited as the ostensible reason for the ‘reorganisation’ plans. In pursuance of the same, Senators William H. King and Warren Austin called upon Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes to appear as a witness in the Senate hearing and to outline the court’s ability to deal with its docket. Chief Justice Hughes refused, and instead sent a note which ultimately played an important role in thwarting the President’s plan to reorganise the court.

An institution which on a daily basis hauls up several other bodies for defects and deficiencies must place itself well above criticism of any nature. It is only such an unassailable stature that can add to its effective functioning.

A reasoned solution

In considering the issues posed by the Supreme Court to it, the Central government has a rich repository of information which it must refer to in order to reach a well-reasoned decision. The 229th report of the Law Commission of India delved into this problem in depth and came up with the suggestion of retaining the New Delhi bench of the Supreme Court as a Constitutional Court and the establishment of Cassation Benches of the Supreme Court in the four regions at New Delhi, Chennai/Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The 2009 report pointed out that since Article 130 of the Constitution provides that ”the Supreme Court shall sit in Delhi or such other place or places as the Chief Justice of India may with the approval of the President, from time to time, appoint”, the creation of Cassation Benches of the Supreme Court would require no constitutional amendment. It also pointed out how this basic model with appropriate variations has worked very successfully in countries such as Italy, Egypt, Ireland, the U.S. and Denmark.

In coming to its conclusions and recommendations the report had also made extensive reference to the 95th report of the Law Commission titled ‘Constitutional Division within the Supreme Court — A proposal for’; the 125th Law Commission report titled ‘The Supreme Court — A Fresh Look’; reports of the parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice as also the 120th report of the Law Commission on ‘Manpower planning in judiciary’.

In addition to the above, Mr. Robinson’s report referred to earlier is also available to guide the deliberations of the government.

The Supreme Court has earlier rejected suggestions to have benches of the Supreme Court in other parts of the country. Given this fact, it is imperative we look at other options to the problem and seriously debate the possibilities. The solution may not even be the National Court of Appeal but a completely different idea which emerges during the course of deliberations and is found acceptable to the government, the Supreme Court and the stakeholders. It is, however, important that whatever may be the consensus, it must find a solution to the problems mentioned earlier.

As the saying goes, if we do not do something because it has never been done before, we will go nowhere. The law will stagnate while society advances, which is not good for both.

Joint parliament standing committee clears bankruptcy law

The joint parliament standing committee has cleared the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code and is likely to be discussed in the current budget session of parliament. The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in December 2015.

Also, to make the recovery process more efficient and expedient, the SARFAESI (Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest) Act and Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Act have been amended.

About the Bankruptcy Bill:

• The proposed Bill aims for a complete renovation of the current insolvency and bankruptcy system in India, which will help streamline the procedure of revival of companies facing financial distress.
• It also aims to improve the ease of doing business and attract more investment in the country.
• The Code will help Indian firms to exit an ailing business while banks stand to gain as they can recover their dues in time.
• The Bill proposes adherence to strict deadlines to decide whether to liquidate a sick company or not, wherein the decision to liquidate a company will have to be reached within 180 days.
• The Bill proposes the setting up of an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India to regulate insolvency professionals and agencies. It also proposes the setting up of a fund dubbed the –Insolvency and Bankruptcy Fund of India.

Significance of this Bill:

As of now, there is no single law that deals with insolvency and bankruptcy in India. A number of provisions spread across various statutes have rendered the insolvency and bankruptcy-related process a legal quagmire significantly hindering the ease of doing business in the country. The new Bill seeks to consolidate all of this into a single Code.

Background:

The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget Speech 2015-16, had identified Bankruptcy Law Reform as a key priority for improving the ease of doing business and had announced that a comprehensive Bankruptcy Code, meeting global standards and providing necessary judicial capacity, will be brought in fiscal 2015-16.

Accordingly, the Government had constituted the Bankruptcy Law Reform Committee to look into various Bankruptcy related issues and give its report along with a draft Bill on the subject to the Government.

With 10 branches, first small finance bank kicks off operations

Jalandhar-based Capital Small Finance Bank Ltd, India’s first small finance bank, has commenced operations. The bank kicked off operations with ten branches.

Capital Small Finance Bankhas been set up by converting the erstwhile Capital Local Area Bank Ltd. It was one of the 10 applicants to be given in-principle approval for setting up SFBs as announced by the Reserve Bank in its press release dated September 16, 2015.

Ten selected applicants include

• Au Financiers (Jaipur),
• Capital Local Area Bank (Jalandhar),
• Disha Microfin (Ahmedabad),
• Equitas Holdings (Chennai),
• ESAF Microfinance and Investments (Chennai),
• Janalakshmi Financial Services (Bengaluru),
• RGVN (Northeast) Microfinance (Guwahati),
• Suryoday Micro Finance (Navi Mumbai),
• Ujjivan Financial Services (Bengaluru) and
• Utkarsh Micro Finance (Varanasi).

The small finance bank will primarily undertake basic banking activities of acceptance of deposits and lending to unserved and underserved sections including small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and unorganised sector entities. There won’t be any restrictions in the area of operations of small finance banks.

The minimum paid-up equity capital for small finance banks shall be Rs 100 crore. The promoter’s minimum initial contribution to the paid-up equity capital of such a small finance bank should at least be 40 per cent and gradually brought down to 26 per cent within 12 years from the date of commencement of business of the bank.

”Make in India” not at cost of IPR: US

The US Trade Representative’s annual Special 301 report, that identifies trade barriers to U.S. companies and products due to a foreign government’s intellectual property regime, has placed India on the Priority Watch List, the same as last year.

What is special 301 report?

Under Section 301 of US Trade Act, the office of US Trade representative (USTR) prepares a list of countries whose Intellectual property right regime (IPR) has negative impact on American products. Among such countries, special attention given to two groups:

Priority watch list countries	Priority foreign countries
USA uses ”carrot” policy to incentivize IPR reforms e.g. funding, training, capacity building, bilateral exchanges and conferences.	”sticks” policy to force IPR reforms e.g. putting trade sanctions, approaching WTO dispute resolution.

Why is India kept in the Priority Watch list, in this report?

India is kept in Priority watchlist because

• Report has raised multiple concerns, particularly related to the potential erosion in IP standards due to its push for promoting domestic manufacturing.
• It is concerned about actions and policies in India that appear to favour local manufacturing or Indian IPR owners.
• According to the report, India has not taken the opportunity to address long-standing and systemic deficiencies in its IPR regime and has endorsed problematic policies.
• It said India was the source of a lot of pirated and counterfeit goods reaching the U.S shores.
• It has asked for clarity from the Government of India regarding the compulsory license decision-making process, as it affects U.S. stakeholders.
• India doesn’t have separate Anti-Camcording law to combat video piracy.
• India doesn’t have special takedown procedures against piracy websites.
• India is the top supplier of counterfeit pharmaceuticals to USA. Patent holder lose billions of dollar each year due to counterfeit / pirated products.
• Thus, India’s IPR regime is not conductive for innovation by foreigners- at least in USTR’s interpretation, hence put under ”Priority watch list” of Special 301 report

Compulsory Licencing

• Compulsory licensing is when a government allows someone else to produce the patented product or process without the consent of the patent owner.
• It is one of the flexibilities on patent protection included in the WTO’s agreement on intellectual property — the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement.
• The compulsory licensing provision arms the government with the power to ensure that medicines are available to patients at affordable rates and has so far been used in Brazil, Thailand and South Africa.
• It gives the government the right to allow a generic drugmaker to sell copycat versions of patented drugs under certain conditions, without the consent of the patent owner.
• The TRIPS Agreement does not specifically list the reasons that might be used to justify compulsory licensing.
• However, the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health confirms that countries are free to determine the grounds for granting compulsory licences.

Stand of the Indian Government

• The government of India does not engage with the process as it considers it an infringement on the country’s sovereignty.
• Indian official sources pointed out that the categorisation is arbitrary and mostly a political decision, in order to reward or punish a target country.

Shyam Benegal committee submits recommendations on film certification

A committee chaired by eminent filmmaker Shyam Benegal has submitted its recommendations to the government.

Background:

• The committee had been set up by the Ministry on January 1 this year to lay down norms for film certification that took note of best practices in various parts of the world and gave sufficient and adequate space for artistic and creative expression.
• The committee was also asked to lay down procedures and guidelines for the benefit of the CBFC to follow and examine staffing patterns with a view to recommending a framework that would provide efficient and transparent user friendly services.

Important recommendations made by the committee:

• The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) should only be a film certification body whose scope should be restricted to categorizing the suitability of the film to audience groups on the basis of age and maturity.
• The CBFC should refuse certification only when a film contains anything that contravenes the provisions of Section 5B (1) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952 or when its content crosses the ceiling laid down in the highest category of certification.
• The categorisation of films should be more specific and apart from U category, the UA Category can be broken up into further sub-categories - UA12+ and UA15+. The A category should also be sub-divided into A and AC (Adult with Caution) categories.
• The recommendations broadly cover the areas related to Film Certification Process and its simplification, Restructuring staffing pattern of Central & Regional censor advisory panels and Recertification of films for purposes of telecast on television and measures to preserve the identity of Indian Cinema.

Panel suggests fine or jail for celebs in misleading ads

In its report on the Consumer Protection Bill 2015, a parliamentary panel has suggested legal teeth to make celebrities accountable for misleading advertisements.

• The panel has suggested legal teeth to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to curb misleading ads, besides proposing severe penalties, jail and cancellation of licence of those involved in food adulteration.

Details:

• According to the committee, the existing laws are not deterrent enough to discourage manufacturers or publishers from using such personalities for misleading ads. Therefore, it recommends that stringent provisions may be made in the bill to tackle misleading advertisement, as well as, to fix liability on endorsers/celebrities.
• The committee recommends that for first time offence, the offender may be penalised with either a fine of Rs 10 lakh or imprisonment up to two years or both. For second time offence, a fine of Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment of five years. For subsequent offences, the penalties may be increased proportionately based on the value of sales volumes of such products or services.
• The panel also suggested the government to clearly and comprehensively define the word ""endorsement"" in the bill so that there is no room for any misinterpretation or ambiguity.

Background:

Some celebrities have come under fire for endorsing brands misleading consumers. Recently, Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni had to resign as brand ambassador of Amrapali after residents of a housing society started a protest against the builder and the cricketer on social media.

About Consumer Protection Bill 2015:

• Consumer Protection Bill 2015 seeks to replace the old consumer protection law and proposes to set up a regulatory authority which will have powers to recall products and initiate class class suit against defaulting companies, including e-tailers.
• The key features of the new bill include establishment of an executive agency ''Central Consumer Protection Authority'' (CCPA) which will protect and enforce the rights of consumers.
• The authority will intervene when necessary to prevent consumer detriment arising from unfair trade practices and to initiate class action including enforcing recall, refund and return of products.
• The bill has provisions for ''product liability'' if product/services causes personal injury, death or property damage and will take action against defaulting manufacturers or service providers.
• For speedy disposal of court cases, the bill proposes ''mediation'' as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. The mediation will be under the aegis of consumer courts.
• The bill also has a provision for setting up of a ''circuit bench'' to facilitate quicker disposal of complaints and there is an enabling provisions for consumers to file complaints electronically and file complaints in consumer courts that have jurisdiction over the place of residence of the complainant.

FDI financing: short-term gain, long-term pain?

According to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, foreign direct investment (FDI) into India reached the ''highest ever'' mark of $51 billion in April-February of fiscal year 2015-16. This exceeds the $47 billion peak of FDI inflow in 2011-12; as a fraction of gross domestic product, FDI inflows are now about 2.1% against 1.8% then. One hopes that such record breaks are perpetuated ahead as India needs large investments—foreign as well as domestic—to meet its vast requirements.

That said, the issue of treating FDI inflows as stable financing for the current account deficit needs serious qualification. In theory, it is indeed secure foreign financing. FDI is into plant and equipment, factories which eventually produce tradable goods that then generate foreign exchange resources to help repay past borrowings or debts.

Therefore, over time, a country's current account balance stabilizes or becomes self-sustaining because foreign currency receipts increasingly match or offset payments.

In practice, however, there can be deviations.

For example, FDI inflows could seek the domestic market instead of being export-oriented; concentrate in the relatively more profitable, non-tradable sector, leading to little or no transfer of technology. It may boost consumption and imports that could exceed exports, thus creating trade deficits instead of surpluses; and FDI-associated income and principal payments could rise over time. If export earnings are insufficient to counter any, or a combination of these features, the current account imbalance could actually worsen instead of improving.

What is India's track record so far- The trend of widening merchandise trade deficit is well-known. So here, we focus on just FDI-related repatriations or outflows, i.e. net investment income, which is payment on account of royalties, technological know-how fees, etc. against the income receipts from overseas investments by residents.

We can see in the accompanying chart that net outflows on investment income and principal payments approximately doubled in eight years to 2008-09; these quadrupled in the following six years, i.e. by 2014-15.

In the last two years, the deficit on this current account component is about $25-26 billion, which is nearly the size of the overall current account deficit in 2014-15 ($28 billion).

In 2012-13, when oil prices were at higher levels, the net investment income deficit was one-fourth the overall current account deficit ($88 billion).

Can we then regard FDI inflows as unqualified, stable financing for the current account It would be prudent to separate current FDI inflows from related outflows in future that contribute to current account deterioration instead. What is secure financing now could be just a short-term gain.

If past patterns are any guide, this could well morph into a future drag upon the current account. While celebrating the stability of FDI-financing as against that from erratic short-term portfolio capital, it's important to note that the nature and structure of FDI matters for the evolution of the current account deficit. This needn't necessarily become self-sustaining in the long run.

China's water hegemony in Asia

Severe drought has occurred in south east asia and the main reason for this is rapid construction of dam by China at upstreams. Now Beijing is trying to legitimatise it by releasing water to drought hit nation in Lower Mekong river basin i.e. China is touting the utility of its upstream structures in fighting droughts and floods.

Analysis

• It shows China's newfound power to control the flow of a life-sustaining resource and thus increasing lower basin Nation's dependence on China's goodwill and charity.
• Moreover with a further 14 dams being built or planned by China on the Mekong, this dependence on Chinese goodwill is set to deepen.
• This has given edge to China to push its Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) initiative as an alternative to the lower-basin states'' Mekong River Commission.

What is Mekong River Commission?

• The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an intergovernmental body concerned with the Mekong River basin and charged ''to promote and co-ordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries'' mutual benefit and the people's well-being by implementing strategic programmes and activities and providing scientific information and policy advice.
• But China has spurned it over the years. China is only dialogue partner and not member of it whish shows its intention to take part in discussions but not to take on any legal obligations.
• China's refusal to join the 1995 Mekong treaty, which created the commission, has stunted the development of an inclusive, rules-based basin community to deal with water- and environment-related challenges.

What is its Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) initiative?

LMC, a political initiative emphasizing Chinese ''cooperation'', is intended to help marginalize the commission, an institution with legally binding rules and regulations.

The LMC project is also designed to overshadow the US-sponsored Lower Mekong Initiative, which seeks to overcome Chinese opposition to the Mekong treaty by promoting integrated cooperation among Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

How China is in the process of establishing its hegemony?

• By forcibly absorbing the Tibetan plateau (the giant incubator of Asia's main river systems) and Xinjiang (the starting point of the Irtysh and the Illy), China became the source of transboundary river flows to the largest number of countries in the world, extending from the Indo-China peninsula and South Asia to Kazakhstan and Russia.
• Along with this it is continuously constructing dams. Before the communists seized power, China had only 22 dams and now it has more than 90000 dams.
• Now, country's dam builders, in fact, are shifting their focus from the dam-saturated internal rivers (some of which, like the Yellow, are dying) to the international rivers.

Conclusion

Despite its centrality in Asia's water map, China has rebuffed the idea of a water-sharing treaty with any neighbour. Against this background, the concern growing among downstream neighbours is that China is seeking to turn water into a potential political weapon. After all, by controlling the spigot for much of Asia's water, China is acquiring major leverage over its neighbours behaviour in a continent already reeling under very low freshwater availability.

Thus the only hope that could temper its dam frenzy is a prolonged economic slowdown at home and flattening demand for electricity due to China's already-slowing economic growth

National court of Appeal

Why NCA is a good idea:

1. The Supreme Court will maintain its place as the apex court of land and ? like England, Wales and the US ? only rule on matters that are of constitutional importance or set new legal precedent. This will allow the Court to dedicate more time to develop the law.

2. It will make geographical sense to have different benches to hear appeals. As of now, all appeals have to be heard in New Delhi, inconvenient for cases originating in other parts of the country.

3. A court of appeal can work as an excellent mechanism to sieve cases. If there are areas of law that are particularly unsettled and need clarification, the court of appeal can club them together and send these forward to the Supreme Court. Not only can a number of individual cases be disposed of but areas of law can also be settled and a clear precedent set.

4. If the Supreme Court only deals with crucial cases, the process will become streamlined and will save a lot of time and expense, for both litigants and the courts.

Why is it a bad idea:

1. It will not reduce the litigation.Apex courts are not clogged but subordinate courts are.
2. It will merely add another layer of adjudication.
3. It is constitutionally impossible because hearing of appeals is a basic structure (which will be affected)
4. It would be a boon only for advocates.

Stand of the Government

• NCA will add one more level of adjudication and will not help decrease litigation. It will only end up being a boon to advocates. It will mean more hardship to the litigant.

Stand of the Supreme Court

• It has sent a clear signal to the government that it intended to push hard and pronounce a judgment on the constitutional viability of having an NCA.

Centre's nod for NIMZ in Medak

The government has granted the final approval to the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) at Zaheerabad in Medak district, Telangana.

The estimated total investment by the manufacturing industry by the end of the ultimate phase of the NIMZ's development is Rs.17,300 crore and the employment generation is about 2.77 lakh.

What are National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs)?

1. The National Investment & Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs) are an important instrumentality of the National manufacturing policy. The NIMZs are envisaged as integrated industrial townships with:
2. State of the art infrastructure.
3. Land use on the basis of zoning.
4. Clean and energy efficient technology.
5. Necessary social infrastructure.
6. Skill development facilities etc.

Aim: NIMZs aim to provide a productive environment for persons transitioning from the primary to the secondary and tertiary sectors.

What the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) says?

The National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) has the objective of enhancing the share of manufacturing in GDP to 25% and creating 100 million jobs over a decade. The NMP provides for promotion of clusters and aggregation, especially through the creation of national investment and manufacturing zones (NIMZ).

The National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) provides for:

• Relief from Capital Gains Tax on sale of plant and machinery of a unit located in a National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) in case of re-investment of sale consideration within a period of three years for purchase of new plant & machinery in any other unit located in the same NIMZ or another NIMZ.
• Rollover relief from long term Capital Gains tax to individuals on sale of a residential property (house or plot of land) in case of re-investment of sale consideration in the equity of a new start-up SME company in the manufacturing sector for the purchase of a new plant and machinery.
• Simple and expeditious exit mechanism for closure of sick units while protecting labour interests.
• In respect of environmental laws/regulations, inspection by specially trained/designated/notified agencies for third party inspection to supplement the inspection by the Government agencies for compliance monitoring.

Some notable points:

• NIMZ can be proposed with land area of at least 5000 hectares.
• Land will be selected by state governments and preference would be given to uncultivable land.
• NIMZ will be managed by Special Purpose Vehicle, headed by. Govt. officials and experts, including those of environment.
• To enable NIMZs to function as self governing autonomous bodies, they will be declared by the state government as industrial townships under Article 243 Q (c) of the constitution.
• NIMZs will be notified by the central government.

Centre steps in to expedite patent approvals

The government is taking measures to reduce the time to examine patent applications for clearing them at the earliest.

What's the target?

• Now the time is between 5 and 7 years for the first examination of patent applications. The target is to bring it down to 18 months, which is the benchmark in the U.S. for the first examination after the applications are filed.

What is being done to achieve this?

• To bring down the examination time, government will be setting a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and an annual benchmark. In addition to the existing strength of 130 examiners of patents and designs, the government recently hired 458 new examiners. An additional 263 examiners will soon be recruited on a contract basis.
• Also, online examination has begun to reduce pendency. The government has already hired around 100 new examiners for trademarks. Examination time for trademarks has been reduced from 13 months to 8 months. And the new target is to bring this time down to one month by March 2017.

Present scenario:

• The pendency in patent applications and trademark registration as on February 1, 2016 was around 2.37 lakh and 5.44 lakh respectively. One of the main reasons for this situation was shortage of manpower.