Table of Contents
One year after
• There have been serious implementation issues.
• But we also witnessed the administrative will and flexibility to address
most of these, with the Centre and States working together in the GST
Council.
• Gradually, the number of goods under the 28% bracket has been
brought down to 50 from around 200.
• The new tax has taken firm root and is altering the economic
landscape positively.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled out a single tax rate but hinted at
lower rates for more items.
• ₹90,000 crore a month
• Finance Minister Piyush Goyal is confident that the average monthly
collections this year could touch ₹110,000 crore.
• There must be a road map to bring excluded products — petroleum,
real estate, electricity, alcohol — into the GST net.
The strongman’s dilemma
• Mustafa Kemal ‘Atatürk’, the founder of the Turkish republic.
• The collapse of the Ottoman empire with the end of World War I was the tectonic event that had enabled the founding of the Turkish republic and empowered Atatürk to transform Turkish society.
• He imposed Western norms of dress, Roman script for the language and a European legal system and calendar, converting the former Islamic caliphate into a secular republic.
• Under Mr. Erdoğan, Turkey has softened its secular image by giving greater importance to Islam. His antiWest rhetoric, sharper after an unsuccessful coup in July 2016, marks a significant shift from a Western oriented.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
member state negotiating for European Union (EU) membership to one seeking to join a Russia-China dominated Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
The Khilafat Movement
• Traditional elites in the judiciary, military and civil service, often described as those identified with Kemalism and belonging to the urban, secular, Western-oriented intellectual classes, are being replaced by the more religiously oriented, conservative, provincially t oriented elite.
• Theoretically, the parliament is empowered to investigate
wrongdoings by the President to impeach him with two-thirds majority
but this requires approval by the Supreme Court, where 12 of the 15
judges are presidential appointees.
• In the embargo coordinated by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt against Qatar, Turkey has come out
strongly in support of Qatar.
• Nearly three million Syrian refugees entered Turkey, creating
challenges for the EU which is committed to paying Turkey billions to
man the barricades amid growing tensions.
• Turkey cracked down hard on the Kurdish militants (PKK) just when
the U.S. was equipping the Syrian Kurds (YPG) to take on the IS in
northern Syria Reforming higher education.
• The draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill is now in
the public domain.
• The HECI will replace the main regulatory authority, the University
Grants Commission (UGC)
• Aim: “provide for more autonomy and facilitate holistic growth” of
this sector and offer “greater opportunities to Indian students at more
affordable cost”.
• The new commission will cover all fields of education except medical
and, presumably, agriculture, and institutions set up under the Central
and State Acts, excluding those of national importance.
• The main point of departure: clear separation between academic
functions and grant-giving ones
• The academic functions include promoting the quality of instruction
and maintenance of academic standards, as also fostering the
autonomy of higher education institutions for, inter alia,
comprehensive and holistic growth of education and research in a
competitive global environment in an inclusive manner.
• In other words, the HECI will be bestowed with comprehensive and
overriding powers, including ordering the closure of institutions, in all
academic and related matters while the purse strings will be
controlled by the MHRD.
• As Professor Furqan Qamar and others have shown, for almost a
century after the first three universities were set up in 1857 till the
UGC Act became operational in 1956, universities worked reasonably
well without any outside regulator.
• The funding scheme of State universities, which account for more
than 50% of the student enrolment, requires to be clearly worked out.
• If it is sought to be done through the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha
Abhiyan, or RUSA, a clear and transparent mechanism should be spelt
out.
• As regards the structure of the HECI, there will be a chairperson, vicechairperson
and 12 members of whom which the first two shall be wholetime
salaried individuals.
• The chairperson will be of the rank of Secretary to the Government of
India.
• The secretary of the HECI will be an officer of the rank of joint secretary
and above or a reputed academic and will serve as its member-secretary.
• Will she have voting rights as a member, as she will be appointed by the
HECI?
• Besides, the secretary, higher education is envisaged to don many hats,
serving as a member of the search-cum-selection committee of the
chairperson and vice-chairperson, then processing their appointment as a
key functionary of the government, and finally acting as a member of the
HECI.
• Such multiplicity of roles may create difficulties and conflict of interest.
• Also, the power of the government to remove the chairperson and members
is rather overwhelming and should be constrained.
• Funding flows can also be used as a tool to incentivise quality.
• UGC’s quality assessment and accreditation body, NAAC, having
audited just 40% of universities and 20% of colleges by 2016 – despite
being in existence for over 20 years – attests to the failure of bureaucratic centralization.
• Allowing competent, independent agencies to undertake this
accreditation function – the US has pursued this model for decades –
would ensure constant monitoring and accelerate progress towards
the regulator’s quality goals.
• Light touch regulation with built in incentives is the best way to reform higher education.
How to list cases better
• Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra recently flagged rising pendency in appeals lying with High Courts based on the findings of the Supreme Court’s Arrears Committee.
• He has since directed High Courts to prepare action plans for disposal of five and 10-year-old cases.
• He has also asked for High Court Arrears Committees to periodically review the situation.
• While it is crucial that a disposal review mechanism is put in place,
the manner in which judicial performance is measured and
accountability is exercised must be carefully revisited.
• Performance is measured by: number of cases pending
• Problematic situation: quality of adjudication
• The discourse on case pendency has largely revolved around delayed
appointments and vacancies.
Impact of listing techniques
• First, listing patterns were generally erratic, with the number of matters
listed for the same courtroom ranging from 1 to 126 a month. In some
courtrooms, it was 80-120 cases for a month.
• Second, a large number of cases listed in a day meant that inevitably,
matters listed towards the end of the day remained left over. Thus, cases
in the final stages of hearing most often clogged the case pipeline.
• Third, old pending matters barely made it to court.
Spurring case movements
• Courts must assess their performance based on the actual number of
cases being heard.
• Cause list preparation can be made more scientific if supported by a
consistent study of the variance in the number of cases listed across
courts, identifying the exact stages at which cases are clogging the
pipeline for the longest duration, and the nature of cases left over.
• This will also ensure that only as many cases as can be reasonably
heard will be listed on a daily basis.
• A senior counsel of the Supreme Court emphasised the need to tweak
listings such that final hearings are the first matters a judge hears in a
day as it requires his complete attention.
• Third, disposing of old and pending matters must be prioritised.
• The quality and efficiency of court functioning can be improved with
simple tweaks.
• Therefore, it is time that the judiciary as an institution opens itself to
the services of competent external agencies that can help them
record, manage and analyse their data better, to build and sustain a
healthy institution.
Important News
• Cauvery authority directs Karnataka to release water
• The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), at its first meeting here on
Monday, directed Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu and other States, but
did not discuss Karnataka’s decision to challenge the constitution of the CWMA in
the Supreme Court.
• Rijiju tells States to fight fake news
• 2021 census data to be stored electronically
• Interpol Red Notice against Nirav Modi
• SC seeks steps for appointing Lokpal
• Mehta panel recommends setting up AMC for large, stressed loans
• The Sunil Mehta Committee, set up to look into the faster resolution of stressed
assets, has recommended the creation of an asset management company for the
resolution of stressed loans worth more than ₹500 crore, Finance Minister Piyush
Goyal announced on Monday.
• The committee had also laid out a plan to resolve SME loans within 90 days.
• The idea is to resolve SME loans of less than ₹50 crore in less than 90 days.
• In addition, the committee had recommended the setting up of a “robust
monitoring and review mechanism” to track resolution with clear escalation
metrics for breached timelines.
1. Which country hosted the 15th Asia Media Summit (AMS2018)?
A) Singapore
B) India
C) Malaysia
D) China
2. The Supreme Court has struck down which state’s legislation
allowing former Chief Ministers to continue occupying
government accommodation?
A) Haryana
B) Uttar Pradesh
C) Karnataka
D) Jharkhand
Answers-
1. When was national technology day held?
A) May 11
B) May 12
C) May 9
D) May 10
2. Which country launched new satellite to monitor air
pollution?
A) China
B) Russia
C) Japan
D) India
Questions-
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