Trivandrum Retains Top Slot in Governance Ranking

Introduction

New Governance index ranking list is out with few surprises. In 2016, for which the list was compiled by February 2017, national capital slips two points to 9^th position while southern city of Thiruvananthapuram retaining the top position. This index was prepared after a survey of 21 major cities across the country, covering a total of 18 states. This exercise was part of the Annual Survey of India’s City-System (ASIS) that evaluated major Indian states for this purpose. In this blog post, we will see the salient features of this survey compilation and their importance in the modern context for the benefit of readers.

City Governance Index

A non-profit organization by the name Janagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD) had undertaken a survey of Indian citizens from across the country to know about the governance in their respective states. As part of this exercise, a total of 21 major cities spread across 18 states across the country were covered.   As per the rules of this exercise, a city scores better if it is able to deliver a better quality of life to its citizens over the medium and longer periods of time. After Thiruvananthapuram, Pune occupied the second spot, followed by Kolkata at the third spot. In this survey, the Indian cities scored between 2.1 and 4.4 on a 10-point scale. The team that compiled the data set the cities such as London (9.3) and New York (9.8) as the benchmark cities for comparison purpose. These low scores imply that the Indian cities need to strengthen their City-Systems by updating their policies and quality of law being enforced to deliver a better quality of life for their citizens. This is a way to tell the politicians and officials what people in cities want or expect from them to do.

ASICS Report

This report is designed to help city dwellers point out issues in the urban governance in cities across the country. This enables the leaders in these cities to use these inputs to update the reform roadmap to make the city-based societies more liveable. The city-based societies are in modern civics termed as City-Systems. These are frameworks that channel the manpower and money for overall development. They consist of four distinct but inter-related parts, such as urban planning and design; urban capacities and resources; empowered and legitimate political representation and transparency, accountability and participation. Using these components, the governance can be made accountable to the people on daily basis.

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Are the Hospitals in India Fire-proof?

Introduction

Looking at the recent incidence involving the fire accident in Bhubaneswar hospital, we can safely surmise that the hospitals in our country are not fire-proof. It is not because of law paucity, but due to the callous attitude of the authorities who have to take steps to implement them. If the business houses have enough money to bribe the authorities, the culprits can easily walk free. Due to the business mind, the managements of the private hospitals do not have spare time to train the staff on the standard procedure that they need to follow during a fire accident. This is why we have a lot of fatalities and injuries when the fire accidents do happen in the hospital premises. In this article, we would be looking at the reasons for the frequent occurrence of fire accidents in Indian hospitals.

Causes of Fire Accidents in India

Most often the fire accidents seem to originate from the ages-old electric circuits in the hospitals. Normally, the managements have to get these electric circuits replaced every second or third year to make sure the safety of the inmates. However, this is not done or overlooked to save on money spent on repairing. Moreover, the authorities keep the inflammable materials packed inside the locked rooms. Since the hospitals have come up in the busy localities of the cities, they have been built as the vertical structures. Due to the lack of available space, the rooms are tightly packed with little or no ventilation. Such hospitals have the centralized air condition facility that asks for tightly closed doors. If the fire erupts, the smoke from them spreads in no time through the ducts before the people even become aware of them. If the accident occurred in a corner, the people have to rush through a designed route to reach outside. These hospitals do not have alternative fire-escape routes for people to come out of the fire-ravaged hospital. Though the authorities have rules to strictly carry out the fire-safety norms, the hospital managements do not always follow them.

Recent Fire Accident

The recent fire accident at the private hospital seemed to have started from the dialysis ward. The fire was so intense that the thick smoke emanating from it was making difficult for the fire fighting people to go near it. The thick smoke rendered these emergency people immobile and clueless while navigating through the corridors of the hospital. Moreover, the rooms compartmentalized to maximally use the available space. This also ensured the slow movement of people through the common pathway. Though the patients were ready for transport outside after removing the life-support systems from them, the staff could transport them outside only after a delay. So, many of them were brought dead in the nearby hospitals. This hospital had faulty smoke and fire management systems. Moreover, the employees at the casualty department were ill equipped to handle the fire accident when it did occur. The fire accident could have been averted had the management promptly repaired these systems.

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Uniform Civil Code Unraveled

Introduction

Recently, there has been a debate on whether Indians want Uniform Civil Code in the society. The idea is to bring people following multiple religions under one law that allows their peaceful coexistence. In the beginning of the twentieth century, a group of women who wanted to bring to an end their discrimination based on religion had put forward this as a proposal.  Right from the forwarding of the proposal, the minority communities have been vehemently opposing the move on various grounds. This is especially true in the case of Muslim community, which is dead against its implementation in the country. If we look at other countries, they have implemented this common civil code to bring the level playing ground for their citizens. The people of these countries have never voiced their concerns on its implementation.

What is Uniform Civil Code?

In reality, the Uniform Civil Code is a set of proposals that aim at replacing the personal laws based on the religious teachings with common set of laws that govern every citizen, irrespective of his religious affiliation. These teachings come from the scriptures and customs that each religious community in India follow. The authorities proposed new set of laws to cover marriage, inheritance, divorce, adoption and maintenance. Each religious order has its own set of laws that work well with that community. Hence, the historians called the earlier laws as personal laws. The founders of our constitution have even made provision in it so that the future citizens of the country are bound by law to follow the rules specified in the Uniform Civil Code. For instance, the article 44 of the Directive Principles in India set its implementation as the duty of the state.

What is Its Status?

It is partly implemented in India. The Special Marriage Act of 1954 allows any Indian citizen to have a civil marriage outside the realm of the personal law coined by any religion. Following the cue, the state of Goa has implemented a Common Family Law in the state. In fact, it is the only Indian state to have a Uniform Civil Code. Broadly, Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI-M have come forward to support it. On the other hand, the national party Indian National Congress (INC) and Muslim scholars All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) have decided to fight against its implementation.

Brief History

Historically, the Personal Laws were first framed by British Authorities mainly for Hindu and Muslim citizens. However, they feared opposition from the subjects. Hence, they did not introduce it. Later, a group of women in the 20^th century raked up the Uniform Civil Code again to protect their rights for equality and secularism. However, their move did not fructify due to the stiff opposition from the orthodox section of people from both Hindu and Muslim communities. Only after the independence, the efforts to bring some dignity to women folks bore fruit. In 1956, the Indian Parliament passed this landmark legislation help the case of Hindu Widows. The historians call this legislation as Hindu Code Bill. Following the cue, three Indian Prime Ministers tried to bring in legislation to sanctify the Uniform Civil Code in the Indian Constitution. All these efforts did not meet the logical end due to the stiff opposition from different people. Hence, the authorities had to tone down their demand and finally add its reference to the Directive Principles of India.

Why it has Become a Politically Sensitive Issue?

It had become one of the controversial topics during the Shah Bano Case in 1985. During that time, the effort of introducing the provision for the Uniform Civil Code had become an important issue about Secularism in India. It was at this time the historical show off occurred between the Union Government and AIMPLB at the Apex Court. The Muslim Personal Law Board claimed that the Sharia Law formed the basis for Personal Law for Muslim. This Sharia Law has remained unreformed since 1937. This controversial law in fact permits unilateral divorce and polygamy in the community. Hence, the unreformed law gave upper hand to the male members of Muslim community, forcing the female members to stay in the mercy of their male counterparts.

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Why Muslim Bodies are Against Revocation of Triple Talaq?

Introduction

Recently, the Indian Government disposed before the honorable Supreme Court that it is against the Triple Talaq System as it does not want to see the Muslim women discriminated in the country.  Union Government reasoned that the so-called Talaq System stood against the constitution that ensures the equality for all. The central government gave its response when the apex court asked it to take a learned stance on the way the Muslim women get discriminated in the name of the obsolete Triple Talaq System.  A group of Muslim woman activists who wanted to put an end to this draconian law filed a review petition in the apex court of the country. Against this backdrop, we are going to delve deep into the historical reasons based on which the Muslim bodies are putting up collective resistance to the change in this law.

Triple Talaq System as Practiced in India

The Muslim bodies say that this system is a transparent system that ensures that there is no legal binding for the man and woman to stay in the wedlock after the uttering of the word ‘Talaq’ three times. According to these bodies, this practice is transparent, and it is applicable for both men and women. Another salient feature of this system is that the people can execute this law from anywhere.  This could be done via email, mobile call, SMS or before elders in a local mosque.  While women use less often, men use it most often when they see another beautiful woman in their neighborhood. This has become a curse of sort for those women who are forcefully married to bridegrooms from abroad. The so-called the guardians of Muslim society All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) always become a mute spectator when such cases come before them. We can see similar stories happening when the wealthy middle-aged men marry young girls coming from the poorer families. In most such cases the brides were as young as 12 or 13 years. Despite the law stating the marriageable age of girl as 18, most marriages involve the under-aged girls. Another plight of the matter is that the bridegrooms in such marriages often have their age above 50 years.

Why Guardians of Muslim Society are against such Practices?

When the media persons ask such questions to them, the so-called guardians of Muslim society don’t have any answers to the plight of women who undergo this ordeal due to the distorted way of using the Talaq System. This mentality has forced some forward-looking and educated Muslim women to go for the legal remedies for this distortion. The Muslim woman activists allege that the Muftis and other religious scholars do not want the women to go out of their control. They further allege that the so-called guardians of the Muslim society wanted to keep the Triple Talaq System to practice the polygamy. If we look at the Muslim men from the past and recent past, many are found to practice the polygamy by forcing their first wives to submission under the threat of issuing Triple Talaq. Due to the fear of the stigma in the society, the Muslim women reluctantly allow their husband to go for second or third marriages. The guardians of the Muslim society who are primarily men do not want this practice questioned by any other authorities in the country. That is why the AIMPLB, which is an umbrella organization of Maulavis, religious scholars and other reputed people, do not want to even discuss this draconian practice in public. They fear that their stranglehold on women would disappear if they bring this system under the purview of the courts in the country. They fully know that they would not be able to stand before the Indian courts if the lawmakers bring changes in Indian constitution to include the Muslim law.

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Is it Worthwhile to Salvage the Home during Lean Period?

Introduction

It is worthwhile to help your father and mother during the lean time in their lives if you have a stable or government job. If your parents have kept nothing for you to bank on to salvage the house during the bad times, it is difficult to support them. One may not find many people doing that at the cost of their self-esteem. People need to think of supporting their parents during their bad times physically, mentally and financially.  They need to become financially strong to support their parents. If people could not reach that place by the time their parents become sick, the family will have to pass through a period of hardship. This article will help people in such a soup to tide over the crisis they are into.

Normal Situation

Youths start exploring various options when they have the financial backup from home. Normally, the parents of the youths are working in the government jobs and are earning money to support their wards in securing their lives. This is a sure short of getting the financial backup when the parents become susceptible to various diseases in their old age. After having helped the children settle in their jobs and families, the parents look forward to get the help from them when the situation arises. The children can certainly help their parents with money, mental support and physical backup. If the parents healthcare cost becomes more due to the complex medical treatments, including advanced surgeries, the land or house they own can easily be either pledged or sold to mobilize money. Whatever the situation, whole family would work as a unit to give support to the ailing parents. The daughters and daughters-in-law can stay at home or hospital looking at the ailing parents and the sons and sons-in-law can look for ways to arrange money and support the treatment. In short, every member of the family should contribute and support. 

Abnormal Situations

There are certain parents who do not believe in saving money for the future. They only look for the immediate requirements. They do not even see whether their children have landed in correct and stable jobs. They even don’t think of buying a house at suitable place. In the fag-end of the official life, they rush to buy a house that may have shortcomings. They don’t even clear the title deeds of the properties they have purchased for want of knowledge. They expect the children to do everything. The parents after the retirement normally go to alternative jobs to support their children if they had married late in their lives. These kinds of parents never do that, forcing the children to fend for themselves. In this scenario, children don’t get enough time to study and find a suitable job that can give stability in the later part of the life.  After the mandatory of graduation, such parents force their children to go for miserly jobs and waste their prime youth on them. This situation lands them in a bad state when their parents become susceptible to different ailments due to the old age.  The children who are better settled should take care of the ailing parents, leaving the less settled sibling aside so that he can prosper in life in time to support later in his life.  If the family members force less settled sibling to take care of everything, he would have to leave his job to look after the parents. This is especially true when his family is split between two places.

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Has Increase in Medical Colleges Improved Quality of Medical Education?

Introduction

Our governments have reasoned that they have tried the aspirations of students to become reputed doctors who mint money. With this in mind, many private medical colleges have come into being in private and public sectors. Many medical colleges in the private sector run in the self-financing mode. This means the children have to bear the cost of the medical education. Apart from this, the parents of wards seeking medical education in the private sector need to shell out extra money in the name of donation. Despite all these, has the medical education quality increased as the governments’ claims. As per the available data, the quality has not increased even a bit. Only the pocket-size of the owners of private medical colleges has increased. In this article, we would be looking at the reasons for the dismal situation of medical education in India.

Medical Education in India

In the olden days, the medical education was in the government sector. The children who slog hard and understand the concepts only used to cut the cake during the entrance examination. Hence, only the serious-minded people used to get the seats in the medical colleges. Hence, the physicians coming out of these colleges were good. Hence, they were deployable as successful doctors in different medical colleges across the country.  With the opening of the medical education, many business-minded people have started medical colleges to make quick money. These medical colleges admitted both the students with right attitude and others. As a result, the quality of young doctors who come out of these colleges has decreased steadily over time. Looking at the lucrative market, the owners of private medical colleges have slowly increased the fees over time.  As a result, the medical education has become out-of-bounds for the children who genuinely want to study medicine.

Steady Decline in Quality

When the authorities revise the medical education fee structure upwards every year, people expected the infrastructure to improve steadily. Instead of increasing, the quality has come down due to various reasons. The primary reason is that the private medical colleges seem to have no interest in providing quality education. Since the owners of such medical colleges are spendthrift, the quality of teaching has come down.  In order to keep good teachers, the managements of these medical colleges need to shell out few extra bugs. They are not ready to do that as they want all the money collected for themselves. Moreover, they ignore other requirements such as good library, lab facility, etc. in the name of austerity. Many students who get the seats in such medical colleges either don’t have interest in medicine or don’t have right aptitude. As a result, the young physicians who get trained in modern medical practices flunk in the all India Medical Eligibility Test conducted by the Medical Council of India (MCI). The students need to pass this test to get MCI registration. In India, the MCI registration is necessary to start practicing as a doctor. According to the latest data, only 12% of the total registered medical graduates pass this test every year. The MCI has even lowered the standard of questions to enable the students to pass this year. Despite this, the pass percentage in this exam has only improved marginally this year.

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Should Indian Government Have Publicised Surgical Strike?

Introduction

The previous governments had also given nod for the Indian army to cross the Line of Control (LOC) and International Border (IB) and inflict maximum damage to the enemy positions that support the incursion. These cross-border surgical strikes were also undertaken to avenge the beheading and killing of Indian soldiers by the Pakistani rangers in the past. During those times, the governments that ordered the surgical strikes chose to stay mum to keep secrecy. The decision to keep the idea of surgical strikes under wraps was to help the army to do the cross-border attack on the enemy post in stealthy way so that greatest damage could be inflicted on them. The defense experts are of the belief that the surprise elements also enable the armed forces to come back after the surgical strike to the original place.  In this article, we would be looking at the reasons why the earlier governments kept these moves away from the media limelight.

Recent Surgical Strike

Two weeks back, the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP)-led Indian government decided to give nod for a surgical attack across the border in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). This nod was given to avenge the attack on Indian soldiers residing in Uri Army camp. The decision was to kill the terrorists assembling at launch pads near border.  During the reconnaissance, the Indian Army intelligence unit had found that Pakistani rangers were assisting the terrorists to move across the border. The unit watched the foreign army soldiers and terrorists for a week to plan the attack. After the successful completion of the task, the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) arranged a meeting with the media to tell the world about the surgical strike. Since then, the political parties have engaged in the slug-fest to take the credit for the attack, especially the BJP and the Indian National Congress (INC). This has given the fodder for the Pakistani civilian and military leaderships to trade charges against the Indian government. They alleged that Indian government unnecessarily transgressed the border and caused damages to their properties near the international border. This also enabled the enemy army to stay ready for further attacks by the Indian forces.

Previous History of Cross-border Attack

Recently, a reputed national daily “The Hindu” came out with an editorial claiming that it has a document revealing the earlier surgical attacks against the Pakistani army posts across LOC and IB. Citing the documents, the daily stated that the previous attacks against the enemy army positions was undertaken to avenge the beheading of Indian soldiers by the Pakistani rangers. The reputed daily showed through the document that the previous surgical strikes took place in the year 2011. In response to the beheading of the two Indian soldiers, Indian soldiers attacked an army formation across the LOC in the enemy territory in the early morning and killed 7 or 8 enemy soldiers and planted a grenade below a dead body to further cause the damage. The Indian soldiers came back to the Indian Territory without any injury. However, it was not made public to keep the operation as secret.  Therefore, enemy country could not claim the damage for the fear of getting trapped aiding the terrorist incursion. This enabled the Indian army to plan and execute such attacks at will. 

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Politics Over Indian Surgical Strikes

Introduction

After a long wait, the Indian government decisively gave node for the Indian armed forces to clinically strike the terror launch pads across the Line of Control separating country with its troublesome neighbor Pakistan. The neighboring country is nurturing a hostile attitude towards India since its separation from the British India on religious grounds. As per its state policy of bleeding India on one pretext or another, that country has allowed the terrorist organizations operating against India to flourish without any impunity.  The Indian surgical strike marks a paradigm shift in its policy towards the cross-border incursions and violence against its armed forces and civilians. Instead of supporting the armed forces for the work they undertake at the hostile border with Pakistan, the Indian politicians have begun to play narrow political mind game to garner few votes in run up to the general elections coming in some North Indian states. This is highly deplorable trend. In this article, we would be looking at the responses made by major political parties at the cost if Indian armed forces that guard our borders and deplore them.

Changing Flavor of Politics

In Indian polity, it is natural to expect the opposition parties to tear into the good works of the party in power to extract the political mileage. This has happened even when the national prestige and security were in stake after the Indian surgical strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Indian armed forces resorted to the surgical strikes to destroy the terror launching pads across the Line of Control separating the two countries after the terrorists struck the Army Camp in Uri district of Jammu and Kashmir. Initially, all the political parties across the political spectrum sided with the Indian government and Indian Army. The political parties even congratulated both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the top brass of Indian army for undertaking the decisive action against the terrorists coming across the border. Later, these political parties changed their stance and asked the government and military to share the video of the surgical strikes to corroborate the country’s claim. Some members of national parties even labelled the claim by Indian armed forces as fake strikes to extract the political mileage. 

Effects of Political Bickering

The claims and counter claims by the political parties have portrayed the Indian Army in poor light, labeling them as a bunch of liars who want to keep the public in a state of foolery. The belligerent stance taken by the so-called responsible political parties have in fact played into the hands of Pakistani media that lost no time to highlight these responses to bolster their case in the international forums. This has not only showed India in poor light but also brought down the moral of armed forces that are risking their lives to guard the borders. In reality, the subjects of India should have thanked their government for siding with the soldiers and giving full support to them for undertaking whatever steps necessary to teach the enemies of the country a lesson.

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Change in Political Landscape in India

Introduction

Since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the political climate across the country has been changing in favour of one-party rule. After a decade-long era of coalition politics, the electorate is seeking to install the single-party government at the Center and the States. Perhaps, the lack of governance and more of coalition management has forced the people to look for the single-party alternatives when it comes to the elections to center and the states. Another feature is the emergence of the Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) as the national alternative to Indian National Congress (INC). This election has also seen the emergence of local parties as decisive factors in the national politics.

Political Landscape

After the Lok Sabha elections of 2014,  the political landscape has changed significantly in favour of single party disposition at the centre. The local parties were not interested in the national issues and they played the kingmaker roles in previous governments at the center. So the funding for various projects went to those areas from where the respective ministers have come. For instance, Mamata Banerjee as the Railway Minister had brought development in West Bengal. . This has led to the people to think of single-party dispensation, both at the center and states.

Paled INC in Coalition Politics

Under the INC-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule, the regional satraps called the shots in the key ministries and brought bad reputation to it. During its tenure, the UPA government had sullen its image due to the emergence of a number of Scams including infamous 2G Scam, Augusta Scam, Adarsh Scam, etc. The senior party INC in the coalition could not contain such issues, leading to its total routing in the subsequent elections. Moreover, the INC culture of protecting the first family has not gone down well with the electorate. The ministers of the erstwhile UPA government became more rude in their behaviour and failed to listen to the people at the root level.

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Real Story Behind Kolkata Flyover Collapse

Introduction

On March 31, 2015, there was a huge tragedy on the streets of Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal. The flyover that was meant to be completed according to the first deadline in the year 2010 fell down with a loud sound, bringing underneath it several people and vehicles. It is confirmed that as many as 24 people have so far lost life, leaving scores injured. Many of the injured people are in various hospitals with serious injuries. Whom should be held responsible for such a tardy work that brought death and destruction to many people in the city? In this blog post, let us see the real story behind the flyover collapse.

Bridge Collapse

A day after the collapse of a flyover in Kolkata, many details have started coming out about its tardy progress. This flyover construction was meant to be over by 2010. Its construction had started in the year 2008-9 period. Its constructions had missed at least 3 or 4 deadlines, the last of the deadlines would have been the end of this year (2016). Due to several extensions, the cost of the construction of this flyover quadrupled over a period of 7 years. Despite several extensions, the 2.2KM-long bridge was nowhere near completion. The flyover was being constructed by a Hyderabad-based infrastructure development company IVRL. The immediate response from the construction company was “the act of God”. The callous attitude of the construction company was severely criticized by people from all walks of life. Under fire due to the bridge collapse, another company official tried to explain away the expression “the act of God”.

Reason for the Collapse

The main reason for this accident is the callous attitude of Bapus and the political leaders who patronize them. The Hyderabad-based company was in fact a blacklisted one. Despite its dubious work record, the task of building the flyover over a busy junction in the heart of Kolkata city was handed over to this company. Now the political parties are now involved in the blame game, each one is trying to absolve itself while blaming others. Despite of presents of standard rules and procedures, the government staffers have overlooked certain criteria and awarded the work to this dubious company. The staffers and their patronizing politicians would have got huge commissions for that from this company. It has to be probed to bring the justice to people who have lost life in this gruesome accident.

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Truth About the World's Cheapest Smartphone Freedom 251

Introduction

There has been a trend in the social media circles and in the internet about the launch of a new Smartphone that is the cheapest one till date. The promoters of this Smartphone have named it as Freedom 251. Since this mobile is marketed under the Make in India initiative, it has been named as Freedom. The number 251 depicts the amount one needs to heave out from the pocket to own it. This mobile phone was put on sales after a big fanfare launch near New Delhi yesterday, i.e., on February 18, 2016. In fact, many people, including dignitaries, ministers and former ministers, attended the launch event. Lots of marketing has gone into this product prior to its launch. Prior to the launch, there were lots of advanced bookings. Numerically, over 30,000 bookings have been done from the company's website that has been created specially for this purpose. Hence, it would be prudent to take stock of the situation and gather some facts about this much hyped product.

Freedom 251

It is in fact the cheapest Smartphone available in the world. If this offer turns out to be successful, it no doubt become quite popular with Indians. According to the current estimate, only less than 14% of the total Indian population have the access to the luxury of owning a Smartphone due to higher costs. The company that has come out with the cheapest Smartphone is Noida-based Ringing Bells. As before, many people have raised the doubt about this product as it is coming from a hitherto unheard of company. Therefore, the event was met with a mixed bag of excitement and skepticism. As soon as the news about the launch of the product spread, the website is flooded with the requests for advanced booking through a new website. Adding the cost of its shipping, the set comes with a total cost of Rs. 291. At one point, the server hosting the company website did crash as it could not cater to more than 6 lakh hits per second. Before the website crash, about 30,000 people could do the advanced booking. As a result, the Ringing Bells could garner an amount of Rs. 8, 730,000 in the first few hours of mad rush.

Why People Raise Doubt About this Product ?

Though the news of the launch of Freedom 251 is trending in social media, it is slowly snowballing into a scam. Some people have in reality started seeing this product and event as the prelude of a scam. In this blog post, let us see whether we can find substance in them.

1. Copyright Issue: If we look at the home screen, one can easily find the striking similarity of it with that of the iPhone from Apple. The whole User Interface appears to be copied from that of Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Even the executives of the Noida-based firm Ringing Bells have acknowledged that.
   
   

   
   
2. Website Pitfalls: It has no contact details, instead it has a contact form. On the whole, the site looks like amateurish and appears to be hard-coded. On the website analysis, the site appears to be less than 10 days old. The customers can even buy the sets in half quantities!!!
   
   

   
   
3. Unauthorized Reselling: The front portion of the set comes with an Adcom label. In many sets, it has been either overwritten with Freedom 251 or hidden with a whitener. It seems Adcom has taken note of this. The company saying it has not manufactured any product for Ringing Bells.
   
   

   
   
4. Shipping Date: Despite the advanced booking, the shipping dates are four months away. Despite of having many options for seeking help from e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon, and from the crowd funding for marketing and the product development, the Ringing Bells chose to go for a brand new website to handle its requirements.
5. No Investment: It seems the promoters have not put their monetary stake in this business. This was the response the news scribe got on posing a relevant question to the organizers. The promoters have further added that the funding for the project came through equity and debt investment. Hence, the promoters have nothing to lose if the product fails to take off.
   
   

   
   
6. Cost Factor: Using the current technology, it is possible only to make simplest of Smartphones at the cost of Rs. 3800 (even after including subsidies). At the time of launch, the Noida company had claimed that it did not get any government subsidy for this product. Hence, the magic wand for bringing the cost down is unclear.
   
   

   
   
7. Service Centres: Though the company site claims that it has put in place 650+ service centers across the country, it has not given any information on them, let alone their addresses.
8. More Promises in Making: The promoters of this Smartphone come with more offers, prompting people to go for a last minute run even after the official window period for advanced booking is over. Some crook elements are making use of this fact to extract more money and give their receipts to customers.

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Apex Court Asks Centre to Enact Separate Law for Child Rape

Introduction

Last year, there was a large drama being enacted in the streets of New Delhi when the Nirbhaya juvenile convict was allowed to go free. The last minute representations in the apex court did not have any effect. At that time, many saw the last-ditch effort of the National Commission of Woman (NCW) to reason with the bench of the apex court to extent the police or judicial detention, citing the threat to the society, did not yield results. Citing the absence of laws to deal with juvenile doing heinous crimes, the apex court bench ordered the release of the Nirbhaya convict.  Whom should we blame? As many would agree, the irresponsible and insensitive lawmakers are to be blamed. Again, the apex court has reminded the Executive of the state the need of a law to handle juveniles doing the heinous crimes. On January 11, 2016, the honourable Supreme Court has asked the central government to come up with a separate law to treat juvenile convicts.

Need for Separate Law to Try Juvenile Convicts

Hearing public interest litigation against the release of juvenile Nirbhaya convict after three years of simple detention at the Juvenile Correction Home, a bench of Supreme Court led by Justice Dipak Mishra asked the centre again to come up with a separate law to try heinous crimes involving juveniles in our country. While entertaining the issue during a hearing, Justice Mishra sought to differentiate between minors and the children below the age of 10 and asked the central government to define the word ‘child’ in terms of heinous crimes such as rape.  He further added that even judges are human beings and understand the pain and distress caused to a child who is getting sexually abused. He was appalled at the emergence of news items involving rape in our country wherein even the infants as young as 28-day-old are not spared.  He termed the rape of infants who don’t know anything about sex and rape as brutal perversion. Therefore, he asked the central government to come up with a separate legislation to combat this menace that is sweeping the society at the earliest.  He suggested that the relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) could be amended for this purpose.

Current Law on Sexual Abuse

At present, there is a section in the IPC that talks of age of a woman. The section 376 (i) of the IPC considers the women below the age of 16 as minor girls. This section has no separate provision for girl children below the age of 10 years. It also grossly neglects the plight of infants. Moreover, the definition of a minor is grossly inadequate, giving amble space for people to manoeuvre and distort the law for their own benefits.  This is the reason why Justice Dipak Mishra has asked the lawmakers to come up with a law that is devoid of all the loopholes.

Way Forward

Citing the shortcomings in the definition as given in the IPC, the bench of apex court led by Justice Dipak Mishra asked the central government to come out with a separate legislation to deal with crimes involving minors on children as young as 28 days. Justice Mishra asked the Attorney General who represents the Indian government to ask the lawmakers to draft stringent laws to dissuade the minors from doing heinous crimes. Replying to the observation, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the apex court bench that the child rape can never be tolerated and agreed with its observation to tell the government to draft appropriate legislation.  The Executive has to sit together and bring a suitable amendment to the relevant sections of IPC to make a stronger legislation against child sexual abuse. The constitutional amendment requires the support of 2/3^rd majority in both the houses of parliament. We have to wait and see how things unfold in the coming days.

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Centre Overrules Supreme Court Observation on Jallikattu Citing Culture

Introduction

On Friday, January 8, 2016, the Indian government at the centre revoked the apex court-endorsed ban on Jallikattu, which is a sports event in Tamil Nadu. Along with this, the central government also allowed in principle the bullock cart race in the states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat, etc. This move is seen by many as the steps taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appease All India Anna Dravida Munnreta Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu where the party has no presence. Incidentally, the state is going to the polls sometime in the next year. Many in the country have denounced this move as these sports promote the cruelty to animals, which is against the principled view of the apex court. However, the political parties like BJP and Indian National Congress (INC) have made only muted response to this move due to the political stakes they have in states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

New Notification

Citing culture, the BJP-led government at the centre has decided to bring back the performing sports like Jallikattu and bullock cart race. On January 8, 2016, the central government brought certain amendments to the law to permit the performing sports using animals. The political parties of Tamil Nadu have been lobbying for the lifting of the ban for some time.  This revised notification has been issued just in time before the commencement of Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu. The present notification permits Jallikattu and the bullock cart races in the country. The move by the centre overlooking the advice given by the Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi against the amendment in light of the Supreme Court ruling has the political overtones. While retaining the general prohibition on the use of certain animals, this new notification subjects the conduction of these performing sports to the permission of local administration based on certain conditions. The local authorities have to ensure that these sport activities are conducted at appropriate places and the bull released is tamed within the radial distance of 15 metres from the enclosure.

Timing of New Notification

The move is considered by many as the appeasement by the ruling dispensation to win the hearts of the Tamil regional parties like Dravida Munretta Kazhagam (DMK) and the AIADMK. The saffron party BJP does not have any presence in Tamil Nadu. The think tank of the saffron party wants to open its account in this state with the help of any of these parties. There has been widespread political opinion in that state in favour of the Jallikattu. That is the main reason why the NDA government at the centre has conceded to their demand.  There is also pressure from the western state of Maharashtra to restore the bullock cart race. The union Environment Minister Prakash Javedkar hails from this state. He also might have put pressures on the central government to revoke this performing sport. The political reaction to this new development is rather muted as they wanted to tread cautiously on this issue due to the political stakes involved. They crafted their response both in support of the safety of people and animals and the tradition.

Landmark Legislation on Animal Rights

The previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Indian National Congress (INC) had brought a landmark legislation banning all types of sports in the country that harm the health and well beings of animals in 2011. When certain parties from the state of Tamil Nadu raised the objection in the apex court, citing the quashing of the order by the state high court, the division bench hearing the petition chose to endorse the ruling in 2014, upholding the rights of animals to live in dignity just like human beings. At that time, barring the people from the states of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, all other parties, including political parties, welcomed the decision by the apex court. According to this law, the exhibition, training the creatures and using them as performing animals is prohibited.  The animals that come under the ambit of law include bulls, bears, tigers, monkeys, panthers and lions.  Effectively, this legislation brought an end to the performing sports that have been organized in different parts of the country during various festivals. This move by the centre was hailed by the animal right activists in the country.

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Have political parties become more intolerant?

Introduction

Time and again, it has been seen that low-rung leaders and rank and file of the parties would be suspended, later dismissed from the parties, if they raise a voice against the obvious conflict of interests of their top leaders, citing the anti-party activities. Over the years, this has emboldened the top leaders to indulge in nepotism and corrupt practices to favour a few around them. Fearing the suspension or dismissal from the parties, the rank and files keep quiet and even endorse the activities, in certain cases cashing in on the favouritism given to them by the senior party leaders. The mood of the hour is the voluntary resignation of Arun Jaitley from the post of Union Finance Minister to face the probe.

New Episode on Intolerance

A new instance of intolerance to the corruption has come out in the national party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that boasts of itself as non-corrupt party with its mascot Narendra Modi telling this in every political meeting he presided over. One of the close lieutenants has got his image blemished after the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) scam surfaced. Close on heals with this allegation, a new one has surfaced from the other sports body Hockey India (HI). In the eye of storm is none other than the Union Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley who happened to be at the helm of affairs of DDCA for a period of 13 years and a member of HI for a considerable period of time. The first allegation was levelled by his party colleague and Member of Parliament Kirti Azad. Incidentally, Mr Kirti Azad is a former cricketer who represented India in test and one day formats internationally and won accolades for it. He is also the son of former Bihar Indian National Congress (INC) president and Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mr. Bhagwat Jha Azad. This shows the contempt among the top leaders of BJP for other leaders if others raised voice against them. It is not clear whether the second-rung party leader Kirti Azad had indeed crossed the line to be construed as an anti-party leader. The top party leaders believe that he is siding with the leaders of rival parties such as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and INC.

Another Claim

Almost corroborating the claim, the allegation of the corruption has come against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley from the former chief of the other sports body in which he is the member. Despite his tall claim that none of his family members were associated with the administration of sports bodies, another allegation had come from the previous head of the HI Mr. M.S. Gill. He claimed that Mr. Jaitley appointed his daughter as a legal counsel of the sports body HI and there was an instance of conflict of interest involved. Mr. M.S. Gill was a stand-upright police officer who had fought for the removal of corruption malice from the society when he was serving the country. Though the incumbent head of Hockey India has given clean chit to Mr. Jaitley, the law should probe on this allegation and come out with the truth on this issue. Till then, the needle of suspicion would always point to the man in the eye of the storm today.

Public Opinion

As in the past, the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should step down from the incumbent post and wait outside till all the allegations against have been negated. This precedence was followed in the case of other leaders like L.K.  Advani in the party. If he sticks to his post, he would be seen doing more damage to the party in terms of its credibility. The top leaders, including the party president, should not be seen shielding him. Otherwise, it would further erode their support base, especially the youths of the country. The top leaders of the party should bear in mind that they came to the corridors of power only on the planks of good governance and corruption-less administration promises. Otherwise, the rank and file of the party would not be able to defend the deeds of its leaders on the ground, further eroding the base of the party across the country.

 

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