Jun 27 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Q & A - `Women suffer sanitation absence most ­ also impacts economy'





One month after the horrific Badaun gang rape exposed how gravely at risk women and minors lacking domestic toilets are, India's sanitation scenario remains dire. Social worker and Padma Bhushan awardee Bindeshwar Pathak is founder of Sulabh Sanitation Movement, an organisation that helps build low-cost toilets across the country. Speaking with Fozia Yasin, Pathak discussed the socio-economic costs of lacking proper sanitation, practical ways to correct this ­ and the best and worst performing states in providing basic facilities: Recent crimes highlight a lack of basic facilities ­ how do you evaluate the situation?
Well, women really suffer the most because of an absence of toilets in rural areas. They have to go to open locations only before sunrise and after sunset. Unlike men, they simply cannot do so during the day. Apart from a vulnerabi c lity to rape, they are also prone to animal attacks and snakebites.
s What's more, many girls aren't even going to school because of s the lack of toilets there.There are also around 50 dis eases caused due to poor sanitary practices. This directly impacts the larger economic situation t with a number of workdays rou tinely lost and with growing healthcare costs.
Why isn't providing basic sanitation a prio basic sanitation a priority for a country aiming to be a superpower?
The provision of toilets and the abolition of manual scavenging was a priority for the previous government ­ but it could not implement the programme satisfactorily. Many promises made were never achieved.
Today, funds allocated for the cause aren't enough. Billionaires should chip in for a new sanitation movement in India.
With the help of 690 rich people, we could cover all the 690 districts of India.
Until then, a World Bank report says over 600 million people are forced to use openair locations. How to deal with this situation?
It's a shame. The country needs about 120 million more latrines now. We need large-scale construction of public toilets and urinals across towns and cities. In urban slums, inhabitants have no right on the land, so they can't even construct toilets inside their premises ­ for them, public toi lets with urinals, bathing facilities, laundry spots and a small health centre should be construct ed. Such toilets should be main should be main tained by municipal corporations free of charge.
India has a strong demo graphic dividend ­ how can its young people help?
Well, in rural areas, to begin with, five boys and girls in each block should be trained in the construction and maintenance of toilets. There are 5,924 blocks or talukas in India. Therefore, 30,000 boys and girls should be trained in this procedure. In urban areas, such young people should also be allowed to charge some mon ey for their live lihood, so that they can sustain themselves and work as group motivators. They should go house to house and educate people about the health hazards of open defecation, helping make facilities.
Which are three best and worst states in providing basic facilities to people?
Goa, Maharash tra and Uttarakhand are the top three states with good sanitation coverage.
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pra desh and Bihar are the worst.

Jun 27 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Row `unfortunate' & `unprecedented', say academics

Manash Pratim Gohain

New Delhi TNN





Eminent citizens, including former UGC chiefs, vice-chancellors and academicians, have termed the FYUP controversy “unfortunate“ and “unprecedented in the history of any Indian university“.Jawaharlal Nehru University's vice-chancellor, S K Sopory, and former UGC chairman Yashpal urged both parties on Thursday to sit down and “restore the admission process to safeguard students’ interest”.
Sopory said, “They should sit together instead of writing notes and resolve it. Autonomy is an issue, but we have to look at it from a broader perspective, not just in terms of FYUP.” On vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh’s silence, Sopory said: “Maybe he should have explained his position to UGC and students. Whatever is good for students should be done. All
stakeholders should have been consulted while introducing the reforms.” Yashpal, however, held Singh responsible for failing to deliver on his promises. “It sounded good when he spoke about the interdisciplinary approach, flexibility and employability. But he never kept his promises and, in fact, this is worse than what was in existence. We just can’t put students’ career at stake. This is not about breach of any administrative autonomy, students’ autonomy is supreme.” Experts and academicians are saying autonomy exists only if DU is fulfilling certain basic conditions. “There should have been proper preparation before rolling out such reforms as it has national impact. There should have been proper preparation at the national level.In England when Open University came, they had 10 years of preparation,” said Rajya Sabha member Mrinal Miri, who was a former member of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the highest advisory body on education for the central and state governments.Miri, who was also a member of UGC’s FYUP monitoring committee that had submitted its report last year, added, “It is sad that the university authorities are silent and UGC is trying to push things. Such a thing has never happened in the history of any Indian university.” On FYUP and its implementation, he added, “FYUP being a deviation from national education policy is a big issue and DU is not a standalone university.
Any reform in DU impacts other universities as well. Most importantly, all stakeholders should have been consulted.”

Jun 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Slum redevelopment a CSR activity

Lubna Kably

Mumbai: TNN





Road Safety Awareness, Consumer Protection Services Also Eligible: Govt

Slum-redevelopment, road safety awareness and consumer protection services will be treated as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, according to clarifications issued by the ministry of corporate affairs in response to queries from stakeholders.BJP's election manifesto had promised to usher in a low-cost housing policy that would ensure every family in India a home by 2022. The ministry , in a circular, has clarified that slum-redevelopment or housing for economically weaker sections could be covered under the eligible CSR category of `measures taken for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups'.
Activities relating to road safety promotion, which is a dire need in India, are also likely to get a major fillip as the ministry has clarified these would also be treated as eligible CSR activities. Promoting road safety awareness through print, audio and visual media would qualify as a CSR activity under the broad head of `promoting education'; providing trainers to drivers would fall under `promoting vocational skills'; and social projects like giving medical and legal aid, treatment to road accident victims would fall under the eligible category of `promoting health care', explains the circular.
Any project meant for development of rural India will be treated as a `rural development' project and will be an eligible CSR activity . Likewise, supplementing government schemes like mid-day meals would also qualify as CSR for alleviation of poverty and malnutrition. Renewable energy projects would be eligible for promoting `environmental sustainability'.
Responding to a query from the Consumer Education and Research Centre, the ministry has clarified that consumer education and awareness related activities would also be eligible as CSR towards `promoting education'. Likewise, donations to IIM (A) for renovation of classrooms would be an eligible CSR activity to promote education. While the ministry has provided various illustrative clarifications, it has also stressed that the 10 categories of eligible activities outlined in Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2014 `must be interpreted liberally'. Activities outlined in this schedule are wide ranging and include those relating to promoting education, promoting preventive healthcare, rural development and even protection of national heritage, art and culture.
Salaries paid by companies to regular CSR staff and volunteers can also be factored into the project cost as part of the CSR expenditure. However, one-off events undertaken by India Inc, such as sponsoring marathons, awards, sponsorship of TV programmes, will not qualify as eligible CSR activities. Expenses incurred by India Inc for fulfilment of any regulations such as Labour Laws and Land Acquisition Act also would not count as CSR expenditure, adds the circular.
Even sustainable urban development and urban public transport system are not eligible CSR activities.
Experts point out that India Inc should proceed with caution. “The final rules to the Companies Act are clear that CSR activities do not include normal business activities. Thus, even if slum redevelopment qualifies as a CSR activity , a grey area would crop up, if a slum area is taken up for construction of villas and these slum dwellers are rehabilitated by the builder.“
The CSR provisions contained in The Companies Act, 2014, requiring large companies meeting certain financial criteria to either comply with the CSR spend or report non-compliance kicked in from April 1. These companies are required to spend 2% of their average net profit of the last three years on CSR activities. Fillip to trusts, societies xpenditure incurred by a foreign holding company for CSR E activities in India, if routed through its Indian subsidiary, will qualify as CSR spend of the Indian subsidiary. In addition, while the Rules to the Companies Act, 2014 had permitted India Inc to carry out CSR activities through a trust, registered society or non profit company, the circular goes a step ahead. Contribution by India Inc towards the corpus of such a trust, society or towards the capital of the not-for-profit company will also qualify as CSR spend. The conditions prescribed are that these entities should be created exclusively for carrying out CSR activities or the corpus should be created exclusively for carrying out eligible CSR activities.

Jun 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Your friend's face can be your new password

London: PTI





A new authentication system that asks you to identify faces familiar to you could spell end of passwords. Decades of psychological research has found that humans can recognize familiar faces across a wide range of images, even when their image quality is poor. In contrast, recognition of unfamiliar faces is tied to a specific image -so much so that different photos of the same unfamiliar face are often thought to be different people.The new system, called Facelock, exploits this psychological effect to create a new type of authentication system whose details are published in the journal PeerJ.
Familiarity with a particular face determines a person's ability to identify it across different photographs and as a result a set of faces that are known only to a single individual can be used to create a personalized `lock'.
Access is then granted to anyone who demonstrates recognition of the faces across images, and denied to anyone who does not.
To register with the system, users nominate a set of faces that are well known to them, but are not well known to other people. The researchers found that it was surprisingly easy to generate faces that have this property .
For example, a favourite jazz trombonist, or a revered poker player are more than suitable -effectively one person's idol is another person's stranger. By combining faces from across a user's domains of familiarity -say , music and sports -the researchers were able to create a set of faces that were known to that user only . To know all of those faces is then the key to Facelock. The `lock' consists of a series of face grids and each grid is constructed so that one face is familiar to the user, whilst all other faces are unfamiliar. Authentication is a matter of simply touching the familiar face in each grid. For the legitimate user, this is a trivial task, as the familiar face stands out from the others. However, a fraudster looking at the same grid hits a problem -none of the faces stand out. Building authentication around familiarity has several advantages.
Unlike password or PIN-based systems, a familiarity-based approach never requires users to commit anything to memory .

Jun 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Beyond The Spoils System

Shailesh Gandhi





Why can't we select governors and key public servants on merit rather than patronage politics?

There is considerable debate underway on whether various statutory heads n the country should be replaced because of a change in political dispensation at the Centre. It is therefore the right time to discuss whether these highly paid public servants deliver significant value and how their selection process could be changed to enhance their value.While there is an active debate about whether present governors selected by the UPA government should be retained or pushed out, we hardly discuss whether they perform any useful functions. It is an accepted fact that most members and heads of various commissions and corporations are appointed as a consequence of their closeness to political leaders in government, and not because of their suitability for the job.
Governors and lokayuktas among many others, who head regulatory functions, are beholden to political masters who have gifted these jobs to them.
There is rarely any evaluation about their merit or suitability for the job.
Democracy operates at various levels and in a wide variety of ways. Apart from the legislature, executive and judiciary, it is felt necessary to have various other institutions to take care of special needs and to act as checks and balances in the system.
Most of these, whether created by the Constitution or by statute, have very important functions to perform. But the majority of those appointed to these positions are retired senior citizens who are physically and mentally incapable of working even 40 hours a week. They do not feel the need to be accountable and look at their jobs as sinecures and rewards, for having served some political masters and keeping them happy .
We have a peculiar situation where a police constable, driver or peon is employed by a due process of selection and evaluation for the job. When these are violated and selection is done arbitrarily we protest and sometimes get courts to intervene. On the other hand, at the highest levels of public office, jobs are doled out based on arbitrary political recommendations.
This writer's selection as a Central Information Commissioner was a random occurrence rather than a consequence of any process or evaluation. If some governors, lokayuktas, regulators, commissioners are good it is by chance rather than by design.
There are many senior bureaucrats and other power brokers who spend considerable time and effort to get the right recommendation to bag these jobs. Usually on offer is significant proof of personal loyalty in addition to political loyalty , as well as an implied promise of being willing to do the master's bidding when required.
Under such circumstances, these institutions have become largely ineffective. Even bright or honest people capable of working hard do not deliver because they have often been rewarded with a position for which they are not suitable.
It is time to demand a transparent process of selection for such high positions. It should generally start six months before a vacancy arises and should be an invitation for applications/nominations of persons along with a set of criteria for the relevant job.
Drawing up a list of requirements and suitability for different jobs ­ including that of governor ­ is not a very difficult task. Candidates could be shortlisted by a panel based on seeing which of them meet the objective criteria which are laid down. Such a shortlist of persons should be interviewed before people and media by an eminent pre-selection committee.
If this is done citizens would be able to see if the persons were basically competent, suitable and committed to the job they wanted to take up. It would act as a check on completely arbitrary choices made on the basis of patronage politics.
The pre-selection committee would recommend a panel which could be three times the number of persons to be selected.
The final selection from this panel could be done by the same political system which now operates. If this is done properly those occupying such positions would draw respect from every one and also have the required moral authority .
Besides a transparent process of selection it should be incumbent for all such bodies to display the work done by them on their websites. Citizens should be able to evaluate whether the various statutory bodies are delivering meaningful results in a satisfactory and time-bound manner.
This could be achieved by having a satisfaction evaluation of those who have approached these bodies every six months.
We must get the right persons willing to be accountable at the highest levels of public service.
Concurrently , distribution of plum jobs as political largesse must stop.
Once we do this we won't have the unholy spectacle of our governors and other authorities being shunted out whenever there is a change of the party serving at the Centre. The present practice is a reminder that these positions have been given as largesse and do not deliver any significant value to citizens and democracy .
The writer is a former Central Information Commissioner .

Jun 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

60% of NREGA work must be agricultural

Subodh Ghildiyal

New Delhi:





The Centre is likely to make it mandatory that 60% of work in a district under the job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, should be linked to agriculture.The rural development ministry will incorporate the mandatory clause in Schedule-1 of the MGNREGA so that every state has to follow the norms designed to give a fillip to agriculture through labour-intensive work under the job scheme.
Rural development secretary LC Goyal said, “The proposal has been sent to the states for comments. It would be decided soon.” The move would inextricably bind MGNREGA with farm activities, thereby focusing the creation of assets in the farm sector. According to the plan, a minimum of 60% of work in a district should be “in the nature of productive assets linked to agriculture through the development of land, water and trees”.
The fine-print suggests that if it is implemented, it could push overwhelming activity under the job scheme towards agriculture. The 60% floor limit is “in terms of costs”.
Given that many works permitted under MGNRE
GA, like road construction, are capital-intensive because of the material costs, the stress on 60% minimum expenditure on farm-related activity would compel the authorities to discourage other work. According to estimates, construction of roads forms 37% of works done under MGNREGA, with Rs 8-10 lakh spent on every km of road.The refocusing of the job scheme towards farming marks a new chapter in the chequered history of the pro-poor scheme that was brought in by UPA to provide distress labour to the poor.
Over last seven years, the scheme was found to be riddled with corruption and inefficiency while also failing to creating durable assets.
The BJP was widely perceived to be in favour of disbanding the scheme. But after coming to power, it seems to have steered clear of any drastic action, possibly because of the negative message it would send to the vast section of the rural populace. Instead, redirecting the scheme towards boosting the farming activity seems to be an acceptable improvisation.
“The shift would lead to better community assets and also provide employment to the needy,” Goyal said.

Jun 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

France to salute SRK with its highest honour

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





France has decided to honour Bolly wood actor Shah Rukh Khan with Legion of France, its highest distinction civilian or military. Sources here said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius will travel to Mumbai next week to confer the award of Officier de la Legion d'Honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour) on Khan for his contribution to cinema. The only Bollywood actor to have received the same honour was Amitabh Bachchan in 2007. The “Légion d'Honneur“ is the highest distinction that can be conferred in France on a French citizen as well as on a foreigner. Lata Mangeshkar and Satyajit Ray are other notable winners of the honour from India.Fabius will start his three-day visit to India on June 30. His meeting with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj will be the first high-level interaction between the two countries since the NDA government assumed power. “After his meetings in Delhi on June 30 and July 1, the minister will travel to Mumbai for business meetings and give the highest French honour to the actor,“ said a source.
Fabius had earlier called up Swaraj to congratulate her after she took charge as external affairs minister. During his stay in India, Fabius will also participate in a discussion on “Sustainable Growth in Response to Climate Change“ along with environment minister Prakash Javadekar.
For India, France remains one of its most cherished strategic partners. It was the first country with which India entered into a civil nuclear cooperation agreement following the waiver given by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, enabling India to carry out nuclear commerce despite not having signed NPT.