The Hindu Editorial Newspaper Analysis Free PDF Download

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For more equity

 The 10% long-term capital gains tax should be revised by allowing indexation
 Centre‟s decision to bring back the long-term capital gains tax (LTCG) on equities, which was
scrapped in 2004-05,
 Seems to be a hasty move to plug widening •fiscal de•cit ahead of an election year.
 Investors in equities enjoying terrific returns over the last few years,
 Become targets for the government to secure additional revenue.
 10% tax on gains of over •1 lakh made on any form of investment in listed equities and mutual funds with a holding period of over one year will hit the average middle class investor
 Not surprisingly, the sharp fall in both the Nifty and the Sensex after Budget day has been
linked to the new tax
 One legitimate concern is whether raising the tax burden on equities, rather than lowering tax
 While this might serve to improve liquidity Indian markets and add to the govt‟s revenue
 Securities transaction tax (STT)
 Being the only country in the world impose both the STT and LTCG, India is also likely to
become a little less attractive to foreign investors

Making health insurance work

 Unusual for a health programme to become the most prominent feature of a Union Budget
 Budget of 2018, with commitment to universal health coverage, strengthening of primary
health care (especially at the subcentre level),
 stepping up Financial protection for health care through a government funded programme
that merges Central and State health insurance schemes.
 Health is now in spotlight of politically attractive policy pronouncements(घोषणाओं)
 From now on, no government can ignore people‟s legitimate aspiration to get the health
services they desire and deserve
 Scheme will provide cost coverage, up to •5 lakh annually, to a poor family for hospitalisation
in an empanelled public or private hospital
 National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY),
provided limited coverage of only 30,000
 NHPS addresses those concerns by sharply raising the coverage cap
 The National Health Policy (NHP) asks the States to raise their allocation for health to
over 8% of the total State budget by 2020
 NHP goal of raising public expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP by 2025?
 NHPS needs a buy-in from the States, which have to contribute 40% of the funding
 Will they agree to merge their programmes with the NHPS, with co-branding?
 For the sake of all Indians, let us hope an allparty consensus develops around
how to design and deliver universal health coverage, starting with but
not stopping at the NHPS.

Courting the rankings

 India moving into the top 100 in the World Bank‟s Ease of Doing Business global rankings,
which is credible, acknowledgement of our dismal performance in one key component in
the indices that make up these rankings;
 if there is a component that still has a dismal ranking it is one about “enforcing contracts”.
 A nation‟s ranking in the “ease of doing business” index is based on the average of
10 sub-indices which are:
 1)-Starting a business; 2)-Dealing with construction permits;
 3)-Getting electricity connections; 4)-Registering property;
 5)-Getting credit; 6)-Protecting minority investors;
 7)-Paying taxes; 8)-Trading across borders;
 9)-Enforcing contracts; and 10)-Resolving insolvency.
 “enforcing contracts” is directly dependent on a country‟s ability to provide an effective
dispute resolution system.
 The report says that it takes an average of 1,445 days (or nearly four years) to enforce
a contract in India
 In this, the distance to frontier (DTF)
 India‟s DTF score was 56.05 in 2017 and is projected to improve to 60.76 in 2018 in the
overall ease of business rankings,
 Unfortunately, in „enforcing contracts‟ our score was a dismal 38.90 in 2017.
 Projected to improve feebly to 40.76 in 2018.
 India‟s ranking in “enforcement of contracts” has not appreciated much.
 Five aspects that relate to the working
 1)-First, while the Act contemplates the “appointment” of commercial court judges in districts
 2)-Presiding officers are appointed to commercial courts, it must be ensured that they
have experience in dealing with commercial disputes,
 3)-Respective State govts must, in consultation with HC, establish necessary infrastructure
 4)-State government is to establish facilities providing for the training of judges who may
be appointed to these courts
 5)-Statistical data regarding the functioning of these courts are to be displayed on the
website of respective High Courts

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

 Page-1- „When 2 adults marry, none should interfere‟
 Parents, society and khaps have no right to harass them: SC
 Two adults are free to marry and “no third party” has a right to harass or cause
harm to them, said CJI Dipak Misra, speaking against honour killings on Monday.
 Page-1- Maldives government declares emergency
 The Maldives government on Monday declared a state of emergency for 15 days, amid
a spiralling political crisis that followed a surprise Supreme Court ruling last week.
 Development comes five days after the Supreme Court ordered the immediate release of nine
 Opposition leaders, including exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed.
 Page-5- Rasagola battle in Orissa HC
 The battle between Odisha and West Bengal for Geographical Indication (GI) tag
on “Rasagola” is not yet over.
 Centre repackaging UPA schemes, says Azad
 Apple raises iPhone prices by up to 3.6%
 Within days of the government increasing customs duty on mobile phones,
tech major Apple has raised prices of the iPhone by up to •3,210 across models
 Google unveils three-step safety campaign for users