THE BEAT EDITION 3

THE BEAT

Jobless Growth | P8

APRIL 2019

A SHARED FUTURE Will owning fewer things save the planet?

THE BEAT 1 An IIJNM PUBLICATION

Letter from the Editor In a world where rampant consumerism is fast depleting resources and taking a deadly toll on the environment, the emergence of the sharing economy offers hope of a marketbased solution in key areas such as mobility and accomodation. In our cover story, we look at how companies like Ola and OYO are putting our vehicles and living space to more productive use through creative business models.

In an election season, the jobs crisis has become an increasingly partisan wrangle over the reliability of data. But that’s no consolation for the millions of young people entering the workforce each year who lack skills for the jobs on offer and can’t find work suited to the skills they possess.

Despite legislation to end the inhumane practice, much of India’s sanitation still depends on manual sewage cleaning by some of our poorest and most marginalized communities. And, while most countries have banned female genital mutilation on the recommendation of the World Health Organisation, India continues to give this barbaric practice religious sanction.

In the third edition of The Beat this year we also bring you reports on India’s fraught relations with its neighbours, why our courts fail to deliver justice, the challenges faced by community radio, and the changing world of sport.

We hope you enjoy reading them.

Sounak Das Editor

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CONTENTS Cover Story

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Shared Economy Cars for everyone Hotel at home

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Jobless Growth Data don’t lie

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Clogged Courts Cost of delay

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Dirty Work Cleaning up after you

Focus

International Neighbourly love 10 Afghan long game Short-sighted in Nepal Law Health

Licensed Cruelty Sexual mutilation Development

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Lonely Voice Local radio

Business

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Fake Luxe High life on the cheap Bamboo Bones Cane prosthetics

Sports

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Next Big thing Women’s cricket ICC World Cup Indian summer?

Video Refree Soccer’s third eye

TV Review

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Troubled trio

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Mobility Drives the

The new economy, based on sharing rather than owning assets, is both more sustaina

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Credit:ZoomCar

or middle-class families, owning a car is aspirational and considered the benchmark of professional success. But over the past few years, as the cost of owning and running vehicle have soared even as prospects of a secure job have diminished, there is a dawning realisation that there are alternatives to ownership and better uses for one’s money.

With the advent of mobility applications, at least in India’s larger cities,commuting hasbecome hassle free and vastly cheaper. The bothersome procedure offinding a cab or auto and paying for the ride has now become little more than clicking on an app on your smartphone. In fact, the increase in the number of commuting apps have rendered traditional taxi services obsolete.

More significantly, these new companies have been founded on the premise that the convenience and low cost of their services will discourage use of personal cars and eventually make car ownership obsolete.

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As a commercial opportunity, shared mobility was still virgin territory in 2012 when Ola was launched. A year later, in August 2013, the US inventor of the business, Uber, launched its services in Bengaluru. What followed was a rapid surge in riding apps, as more companies realized the potential the business had to offer. Very soon, it began to expand beyond taxi aggregation to driver-hire and vehicle-hire services.

EziDrive, DriveU and DriveBud are rivals of cab-hailing services in that they use apps to hire drivers for fixed periods.

Charging by the hour is convenient to consumers as it’s economical and convenient. Trained drivers and insurance is an added advantage with these applications. A lot of testimonies prove the fact that these drivers are much more trustworthy than the old system of hiring drivers from agencies.

As DriveBud founder Nitin Sharma explains, “We as a company do not provide customers access to cars but drivers. It is mere collaboration. Give

your car, take my driver. The whole economy is moving towards collaboration, then why shouldn’t we? We may not make huge profits but the business is still growing. It is an untapped field, people are used to hiring drivers from local agents, not on their screens.”

Then came the next logical step.

Zoomcar, for example, is a platform where self-driven cars can be rented instead of spending a million rupees to own one. In a recent move, the company added a new feature called ‘Zap Subscribe’ where people who own cars,can rent them to those who do not. In an interview with Business Standard, Zoomcar India’s co-founder and CEO, Greg Moran, said, “We are confident of growing by at least 10% every year. The focus is on Zap, as there are good responses from users who share their cars on lease with us.” Moran, an alumnus of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, said that his numerous interactions with several Indian fellow students led him to zero in on India as a bankable commercial space. In his earlier avatar as an investment banker, he had gained first-hand experience of implementing several projects in India and they helped him gain knowledge of Indian commerce and its infrastructural inadequacies.

The transport sector was chaotic and had a void that Moran felt could be easily filled. Even a few years ago, an average middle-class family had to spend a fortune to own a car. The daily commute was an inconvenient and arduous task. Moran and his friend David Back came up with the idea of leasing unused cars and vehicles from people who didn’t require them all the time and renting them to consumers with no cars at low cost.

“The introduction of

Shared Economy

able and cost-efficient. It enormously benefits the consumer, says Akanksha Kashyap

Researchers believe that the concept of sharing is not just beneficial economically but also helps shape the society | Credit: DriveU

Zoomcar in a country like India plays a very vital role. It changed the whole industry. I find Zoomcars and Drivezys becoming more popular than I find selfowned cars in the country. The company in itself has made a good and promising revenue model but they have tapped into a section of our economy that really needs attention,” says Pradeep Kumar Mishra, economist and dean of Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata.

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oomcar gives middle-class consumers an opportunity to drive without buying a car. The company already has about 3,000 cars on the road. Zoomcar’s model is similar to the one followed

by China’s MoBike, which rents out bikes instead of cars. A report by global market-research firm Mintel found that almost 70% of China’s commuters were open to using services through sharing

applications. “It is easier for not only the economy to grow but also the citizens. It makes life easier for them and by sharing, it puts less burden on the economy but at the same time helps increasing the GDP,” adds Mishra.

The concept of sharing is by no means restricted to developing countries like China and India. The trend has taken root in Australia and Germany as well.

Sharing represents a tremendous saving of resources. The average privatelyowned car is parked either at home or at work for 95% of its usable life. Most cars are used by a single individual to make at most a couple of trips a day.

That represents a colossal waste of the resources consumed in manufacturing and maintaining them.

By contrast, a vehicle that is shared, whether as a taxi or under a lease, is likely to be used more frequently and by a number of people, and thus repre-

sents a more intensive use of existing resources. The benefits don’t end just there. The concept of sharing cars helps use resources in a very coherent manner.

Reducing traffic congestion, it is always better to have five people using one resource than having each one using their own and crowding the streets.

Researchers also believe that the concept of sharing is not just beneficial economically but also helps shape the society. People are more open to the fact that they can now collaborate and use thing collectively.

“It helps building the society,” says Anitha Kurup, professor, dean, and head of the education programme at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. “The same people who have always been restricted to just themselves are now opening up to others because they share the same services. It makes strangers do things collectively.”

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Room with a View

Credit:Pexels

Shared accommodation is the new trend sweeping the Indian hospitality industry, says Sayantan Sarkar

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irbnb provides experiences of a lifetime at affordable prices,” says Pranjal K, a businessman from Raipur, Chhattisgarh. “Holiday rental homes in exotic locations around the country are only possible in a shared economy. It is a fascinating marketing concept in the 21st century, which lets people stay in somebody’s unoccupied property.”

The sharing economy in the hospitality sector has become one of the preferred modes of renting homes and short stays. It is a highly flexible economic network where people exchange their non-used assets with one another while doing away with employment contracts and numerous transactionalcosts. From San Francisco-based Airbnb to Indian companies such as Stayzilla, OYO Rooms, Qik Stay and Zostel, theIndian hospitality sector is moving decisively towards the sharing economy.

The new system has proven beneficial for not only budget travellers but also hoteliers. Travellers are now spoilt

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for choice and those exploring similar business models are attracting a lot of funding. Says Pankhuri Srivastava,cofounder of Grabhouse, an accommodation and apartment-sharing platform based in Bengaluru, “Paying-guest and shared accommodation are picking up because young people are leaving their hometowns early and rentals in big cities are becoming unaffordable for them.”

The low cost of these living spaces makes them popular not only with young professionals but anyone who has to travel frequently. As of February 2018, Airbnb has served over 50 million guests globally since it was founded in 2008 and had a market capitalisation of over $30 billion according to a report by Vedatya Institute, the Gurgaon-based services-industry educator.This makes the company the largest accommodation firm in the world. Small boutique hotelsnow list their unused rooms on websites such as Airbnb, OYO and others instead of online travel agencies, thus saving themselves commissions of up to 20-22%.

Recent research by the Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute says that the sharing economy in India is driven by the cost-consciousness consumer. Especially in the hospitality sector, consumers look for variety.

Moreover, sharing reviews on a public platform is an essential step towards gaining trust of the consumers, which is as important as cost. Companies are thus shifting their business models towards a low-transactional cost system, which provides maximum value to both consumer and company.

The size of shared economy is difficult to measure as most of it is owned privately. Technology has played a key part in the rise of sharing rooms and apartments. With growing use of mobile phones and the internet, booking costs have been reduced. Mobile apps such as OYO, CoHo and others have a substantial advantage over traditional hotels and home stays because they give people the liberty to chose from exotic locations and plethora of apartments. According

to an article in Indian Folk, places such as Kodaikanal may have been limited to a few hotels in the past, but now due to the sharing economy model, travellers can choose from different apartments listed in the particular area.

Says R. Revnath, an entrepreneur from Delhi, “I recently travelled to Hyderabad with my family and was looking for a place to stay with culinary services. As regular hotels do not provide these services we decided to book an apartment on Airbnb.” Commenting on the process of his booking, he added, “Going through different apartments and rental homes on the website app is an easy way to find what you are looking for. It also provides the customers with affordable choices, wherethe person feels secure and comfortable.”

“Aggregation of opportunities have increased the number of offerings provided in the global market,” adds Joytsana Jha, a business analyst from Bengaluru. “Sharing economy under the hospitality sector also create more jobs, resulting in overall growth.” The sharing economy enables cross-platform and cross-industry tie-ups, that not only benefits the hoteliers but also satisfies consumers.

Concurs Jha, “Hospitality can be linked with travel and health. A host offering rooms and apartments in exotic locations will attract tourists from all over the place. Similarly a hotel can also provide health services. This model of business unlocks previously unrecognised economic opportunities in the market.” As Pedro Meduna, global CEO of Tripda told Business Today, “Thesharing economy is showing a lot of promise in the Indian market. Long term accommodation sharing is showing good signs of progressing as compared to short-term accommodation sharing,” However there are certain challenges in this new system. Consumers are concerned about three things, reportsBusiness Today:quality standards, customer protection and employee protection are on top of the list. Says Arunava Dhar, who works for IT major Cognizant in Kolkata, “I booked a homestay at Airbnb twice, they accepted it twice. Later the host of the facility called and declined the booking.” Dhar had booked a stay in Chennai twice in December 2018 for a work trip. “Assurances and quality are major factors when a consumer is booking for a stay.

Without a regulatory board, there will

be no guarantees in such instances,” he adds.

According to an article on the website Indian Folk, consumers who have bad experiences with their accommodation usually do not write a review.

As a result one does not get a realistic picture of the company. In India, Airbnb’s platforms lists 18,000 properties across 100 cities. OYO Rooms is thebiggest hotel chain in India with 143,000 rooms in over 180 cities. OYO also earns a 25% commission from the hotels they enlist.

“The biggest problem with sharing accommodation in the hospitality industry is the that customer safety is not always guaranteed. People need to feel secure and it’s the responsibility of the regulatory board. In most cases in rental homes the host is not directly responsible, which creates an issue,” adds Jha. India has a flourishing market for shared-hospitality services. According to a report by consultant KPMG, the hospitality sector in India is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 16.1% to reach Rs.2,797 thousand crore in 2022. Better regulation and greater transparency will help drive its growth as well as that of the overall economy.

Co-working spaces provide flexible working hours to freelancers, entrepreneurs, SMEs, and start-ups at an affordable price |

Credit: Airbnb

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FO CU S

A Question of Livehoods India’s vaunted demographic dividend could turn to disaster if the economy cannot create quality jobs for its young, says Yajush Gupta

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obs are a sensitive issue, never more so than in election season. The Congress has sought to make the lack of jobs central to its campaign while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is understandably coy, having singularly failed to deliver on its promise of creating 10 million jobs in its 2014 election manifesto.

India’s unemployment rate is the highest since 1972-73. According to the latest employment survey, which was leaked to Business Standard after the BJP-led government refused to release it, the country’s unemployment rate today stands at 6.1%.

The leaked National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data for 2017-18 have shown that the ‘open unemployment’ rate, which excludes disguised unemployment and informal poor-quality jobs, has jumped to 6.1% in 2017-18.

It had never exceeded 2.6% between 1977-78 and 2011-12. The report had been vetted by the National Statistical Commission.

Mahesh Vyas, CEO of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a premier research organization based in Mumbai, says the fall in the number of job seekers indicates a fall in the labourparticipation rate, which dropped to 42.7% in February from 43.2% in January 2019.

The labour-participation rate is the proportion of the working population in the age group of 16-64 in the economy currently employed or seeking employment. In short, as Mr. Vyas says, “people have started to lose hope about getting a job.”

“This number has seen a significant reduction after demonetization, and women have been the most affected.” says Mr. Vyas. The current job crisis raises questions about the veracity of the official GDP growth rate as much as it does about the quality of that growth.

By all indications, the claimed 7% growth rate has left behind its huge young workforce; people under the age of 35 make up 65% of the population.

The World Bank in its publication, South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2018:

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Jobless Growth, states, “India has been creating 7,50,000 new jobs for every one per cent rise in GDP. At an average of 7% growth, India should be creating at least 5.25 million jobs.” But where are these jobs? The declining labour-participation data, according to the report, owes largely to the exodus of women from the workforce.

Raghavan Jagannathan, editorial director of Swarajya, says that the double whammy of demonetization and GST could possibly have impacted the unemployment rate in India. “The Modi government has eased employment under the Apprentices Act, and also allowed all sectors to offer fixed-term labour contracts. But thus far, employers do not seem to have taken the bait,

possibly because many of them are still deleveraging and recovering from the double disruptions.”

Krishna R, a researcher at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru, believes that the net outcome of the two major decisions by the government had impacted the service and manufacturing sector in the worst way possible. “If you see the report released by ISEC in 2017, the number of small-scale companies that had to shut down increased by 23%.

Small and medium businesses were the worst hit by demonetization and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout.”

A staggering 95.5% of India’s 585 lakh business enterprises employ less than five employees each. Ap-

The unemployment rate in India has reached its highest in 45 years | Credit: Reuters

proximately 75% of India’s factories have fewer than 50 employees. Given their miniscule size, most of the Indian enterprises operate under a low capital, mostly cash-based business model. So, the sudden withdrawal of 86% of cash in circulation, followed by the imposition of GST, paralysed them and lead to massive job cuts as reflected in the NSSO and CMIE numbers.

There are reports of hundreds of young degree or even PhD holders applying for jobs they are overqualified for. According to a report prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University, unemployment among the well-educated is thrice the national average. There are approximately 55 million graduates in the labour market, out of which nine million are estimated to be unemployed.

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he high unemployment rate among the educated is both due to the lack of enough jobs and poor quality of education at most colleges.

This makes large numbers of graduates unsuitable for employment despite their qualifications.

Job losses have been most pronounced for casual workers in rural

India, and for women in both rural and urban India. These two, arguably, comprise the two most deprived sections of India’s work force. “Our GDP comes from three key areas which remain the biggest job creators -- agriculture, manufacturing, and services,” says Deepti Goel, assistant professor at the Delhi School of Economics. “Agriculture in India, whether at the production level or at the distribution and retail level, is not sufficiently organized and corporatized. We still have individual farmers tilling their lands, which get divided and sub-divided with successive generations.”

The result is diminishing levels of productivity and employment.

“The next big sector is manufacturing, which requires nothing less than a total revolution to create jobs. Given the red tape in setting up factories in India, we haven’t seen a manufacturing explosion like China did in the 1990s,” Goel adds. The Land Acquisition Bill of 2015 provoked vehement opposition. The actual land acquired would have been less than 1% of India’s agricultural land, as factories do not need more than that.

It could have ushered in a manufacturing revolution India.

The public sector is a major employ-

er. However, its share as a job provider has been shrinking despite government jobs being the preferred option for 80% of rural and urban youth Services is the one major sector which has accounted for strong job growth in the past decade. However, the best jobs are limited to people with a certain level of education. Aspiring Minds’ National Employability report states that 80% of engineering graduates are unfit for employment.

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similar percentage of graduates from other disciplines can’t sit a basic interview. Poor regulation of the education sector and lack of incentives for private capital to invest in education are some of the important reasons.

“Going beyond the electoral narrative of unemployment, India’s broken job machine amidst high growth may turn into a bigger economic problem. As economies, both domestic and global, are heading for another slowdown, the job crisis may deepen further in the next few years,” warns Dr. Mahadeshwara, deputy director, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, government of Karnataka.

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India’s Afghan Gambit India wisely refuses to get militarily drawn into the Afghan war, a quagmire that has consumed every outside power that has sought to interfere, writes Sounak Das

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t his first cabinet meeting of 2019, US President Donald Trump slammed India, Russia, and Pakistan for not doing enough for Afghanistan’s security. He mocked India’s contribution to the country’s reconstruction saying India had built a ‘library’ there, a complete irrelevance in a war-ravaged country.

While his characterisation is far from the truth (India has spent over $3 billion building roads and key infrastructure), Trump’s mythical library could be symbolic of the nature of India’s involvement in Afghanistan. India is vitally interested in Afghanistan’s security and long-term development. But instead of interfering in its internal politics, India has chosen to invest in building the country social infrastructure.

A stable Afghanistan is important for India. India has always been wary of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The reason is simple. Taliban has its roots in the Pakistani military establishment and will always play the cat’s paw by providing a safe haven for separatists and terrorists acting against India. Hence, India’s Afghanistan policy is not driven by ideological or humanitarian concerns but by the need to limit Islamabad’s influence there.

As Mohammed Ayoob, professor of international relations at Michigan State University, wrote in The Hindu, ‘’The Indian endorsement of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan provided Pakistan greater scope to curry favour with Afghanistan’s largest and traditionally dominant ethnic group,’’ the Pashtuns. The resurgent Taliban is driven by the quest for Pashtun dignity and revenge. This might affect India negatively. Ayoob adds, ‘’Depending on the US, itself on the verge of cutting its losses in Afghanistan, or on other powers such as Russia and Iran to protect Indian interests in that country will be foolhardy and counter-productive.’’

French political scientist, Olivier Roy, writes in a paper titled Why War Is Going on in Afghanistan: The Afghan Crisis in Perspective, ‘’The continuation of war

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in Afghanistan is a good opportunity for the Russians to keep their influence in Tajikistan, while for India it is one of the few potential leverages it can use to put

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For India, the continuation of the Afghan war is a leverage point to put pressure on Pakistan in retaliation for its rising interference in Kashmir

” pressure on Pakistan in retaliation for Islamabad’s growing use of the Kashmir issue.’’

Afghanistan is an important country for India in many ways and their relationship has evolved steadily. Their association is amply noticeable in the Strategic

Partnership Agreement (SPA) of 2011 which is one of the major achievements of India’s neighbourhood policy. Under this agreement, India has agreed to assist in the training and equipping of Afghan security forces. Moreover, under a 2017 pact, India took up hundreds of development projects in Afghanistan in areas including agriculture, water, education, health, etc. India has aided humanitarian relief work and capacity building programmes in Afghanistan for the past 17 years. Trade and technology cooperation have grown considerably.

Afghanistan has always been accommodative of India’s diverse interests. The landlocked country could well become India’s gateway to Central Asia. Afghanistan has also served India’s maritime interests by partnering with Iran. As Prof.

Partha Pratim Basu of the department of international relations at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, explains, ‘’The triumvirate’s Chabahar port project is probably the best example. The project, to which India has committed $500 million, will connect India, Iran, and Afghanistan with Central Asian countries. Some phases of it are already in operation. Even though there have been issues with execution, the development of the port was undertaken to promote maritime, rail, and road connectivity. Such a project is expected to attract investments and give a fillip to infrastructure and energy projects in the region. And India is to gain significantly from it. Furthermore, this port is seen as a diplomatic and inconspicuous military step taken by India to counter China’s development of Gwadar port in Pakistan.’’

Afghanistan has already begun exporting its goods to India through the Chabahar port. India also established a direct air freight corridor with Afghanistan. This programme has allowed cargo planes to fly between the two countries every week, providing Afghanistan greater access to Indian markets.

The Iran-Afghanistan combine is crucial to India, now more than ever. To

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian PM Modi: India has made huge investments to build roads and key infrastructure in Afghanistan | Credit: BBC

gain a foothold in the region, India is doing all it can by strengthening its relationship with Iran. However, it is not enough, believes Prof. Anindya Majumdar, also from Jadavpur University. Says Prof. Majumdar, “India is the second largest buyer of Iranian oil. Only China buys more. But, unfortunately, India’s engagement with Iran revolves around this particular interest. India should start looking beyond oil.

A persistent problem with us is that we have always considered Iran and Afghanistan to be gateways to other regions. Our policy makers should shun their narrow outlook and utilise the good relations we have with these two nations. Only then can we truly broaden our ambit of leverage.”

A key extra-regional player here is the US. It has acted as an impediment to the development of India-Iran relations, and by extension, Indo-Afghanistan relations. The US reneged on the Iranian nuclear deal of 2015 after President Trump took office. Since then, the US has kept

threatening those countries which buy oil from Iran with economic sanctions. India was arm-twisted to reduce oil supply from Iran by one third.

India has confined itself to the role of an observer when it comes to security in Afghanistan. In fact, India has failed to ensure even the safety of its own citizens in Afghanistan as the 2008 attack on its Kabul embassy showed. Nevertheless, India presented Afghanistan with Mi-24 military helicopters last year in addition to the three Cheetah helicopters it had previously delivered.

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ndia has invited Afghanistan to join 122 countries in the International Solar Alliance, a brainchild of the Modi government, that aims to generate 100GW of solar power to provide electricity to the most unconnected villages and communities. On the cultural side, the government of India had donated $1 million in 2014 for the construction of the Kandahar International Cricket Stadi-

um. With its recent success on the world stage Afghanistan is increasingly becoming a cricket-crazy country.

Education is the primary ingredient of development. Realising its exigency in the war-ravaged nation, India has directed its energy and efforts at building Afghanistan’s educational capacities. Playing a pivotal role in enhancing such capacities, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has provided around 1,000 scholarships to students from Afghanistan.

The body’s initiatives have helped thousands of Afghan students to study in various universities in India. Most important, India is imparting training to Afghan women on sustainable livelihoods through NGOs and quasi-government organisations. Women, who have suffered the worst of atrocities at the hands of the previous Taliban government, are the best bet against the extremism that threatens to undermine the gains of the last few years.

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Best of Both Worlds Nepal should leverage its privileged position between India and China to its own advantage, writes Pranay Prakash

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hile India and China seek eachother’s co-operation in their bilateral relations, one area where they fail to see eye to eye is their equations with Nepal. India has always been a major player in Nepal, whetherin its domestic politics, international relations or trade. China, although starting later than India, has made deep inroads into the Nepali calculusthanks its deeper pockets and efficiency in executing large-scale infra projects in a time-bound manner.

India, which has mostly played catch-up in the race to invest in Nepal, has fallen by the way side due to an absence of a nuanced understanding of the collective Nepali psyche and a failure to read the Nepali situation.India’s clumsy response to Nepal’s bid to assert its independence in writing a new constitution, without accommodating India’s informally communicated demands delivered through back channels to the who’s who of Nepali politics, raised hackles across Nepal.

As Kanak Mani Dixit, a renowned journalist and activist for South Asian regionalism and cooperation, observedin an article The Hindu newspaper,“Perhaps because of global pre-occupations, New Delhi seems to constantly underestimate Kathmandu’s fierce sense of self. The stratagem over the decades has been to try to influence Kathmandu’s politicos, forgetting that they too survive within the milieu of Nepali politics.”

While the Indian government, in a last-ditch effort to get the Nepali parliament to play ball, dispatched foreign secretary, S Jaishankar to lay down the unofficial diktat of the Modi dispensation, Nepali politicians paid lip service to him and proceeded to do what they wanted:writing a constitution which India considered to be non-inclusive.

Completely ignoring India’s demand that Nepal postpone the promulgation of its new constitution in September 2015,Nepali politicians decided to walk

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PM Modi with Nepali Prime Minister K P Oli and Chineese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in Goa in 2016

an independent path, which resulted in an unacknowledged economic blockade imposed by Indian authorities at the border check-posts. The five-month blockade was particularly inopportune as it crippled the ongoing reconstruction efforts following the massive earthquake which had rattled the mountainous country.

Much of India’s diplomatic manoeuvres in Nepal are based on a

flawed theory of a patron and supplicant relationship.As Kunda Dixit, editor of Nepali Times opined in a South China Morning Postarticle about a few months ago, “90% of Nepal’s trade is with India, so they’ll just have to get on with it. Besides, (prime minister) Oli is not as anti-Indian as he is made out to be. Much of his supposedly pro-China moves such as inking deals with Beijing was plain playing to the gallery. But the

blockade undoubtedly created an opening for China to deepen its interests in Nepal, which are basically two – Tibet and trade. It is in particular pushing very hard for a railway connection with India through Nepal.”

While China pursues its agenda with single-minded determination, India lags far behind due to its lackadaisical approach and a flawed understanding of events. The old channels of communication having disappeared with the

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complete course correction is immaterial at this point. The Nepali people are already heavily invested in a future where they see themselves as a counterweight to international pulls and pushes, stuck as theyare between two emergent powers vying for a place at the high table of world politics.

Dixit argued for a Nepal which is recognised by Indian and China alike as a sovereign country hungry for foreign investment and a desire to leave behind

Credit: PicsWe

demise of Nepali politicians who shared a cordial working relation with leaders in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives, the confrontation that India and Nepal found themselves in during the fivemonth long border blockade turned the tide of perceptions against the Indian government.

Whether the Indian government recognises its mistakes and makes a

a past of empty promises and missed deadlines.

Nepal politics is seeing a rare period of relative calm after two decades of internal turmoil and faces sustained but pressure to establish a functioning state to start the process of resolving any and all outstanding issues. The country has already benefited from Chinese investment in different sectors of the economy.A case in point is the

easy accessibility of broadband connections since fibre-optic cables were laid between China and Nepal. Its one of the numerous examples of India failing to live up to its promises made to its northern neighbour.

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ne finds numerous projects promised by India at different times, ranging fromroad construction projects, dam construction projects, airports, hospitals, fuelpipelines among various other support measures that have been hanging fire for decades now due to various reasons.

On the other hand, while projects allotted to Chinese companies also faced similar difficulties, the number of projects allotted to and completed by Chinese companies has grown over the years in comparison to those allotted to Indian firms.

The report in the South China Morning Post also reported that three roads are being built between Nepal and China along with the extension of the Qinghai-Tibet railway to Kathmandu.

China has already started work to extend the line to Shigatse and then Kyirong in Tibet, which is 75 kms from Kathmandu.

Stuck as it is between two competing powerhouses like China and India, experts argue that the best course of action for Nepal is to chart its own course while maintaining a balance between its relations with the two giants at its borders.

Dixit, while hailing the investments made by China, had a word of caution for India when he said in a South Asia Defence and Strategic Reviewarticle that,“Even if India managed a ‘swing back’ to its relative advantage for the time being during the September 2016 visit of prime ministerPrachanda, China’s investments in developing its relations with Nepal are large and hold enormous potential for the future. The long-term advantage could well be on the side of the Dragon.”

As the Nikkei Asian Review sums up this tri-lateral relation,“Nepal wants a good working India-China relationship from which it can benefit and it also wants to reduce reliance on New Delhi; Beijing is keen for a transit route via Nepal to access the Indian market; India wants to contain China’s influence over Nepal.” In other words, Nepal can benefit from its unique geographic location location and relative political calm by soliciting investments from the two economic giants while it puts its house in order.

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LAW

The Cost of

The rule of law rests on the swift and fair delivery of justice, a t

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ndia’s judicial system is facing its gravest crisis ever. Both the criminal and civil branches are in urgent need of a complete overhaul. A country that cannot effectively deliver justice cannot enforce the laws of the land. The problems that afflict our criminal and civil justice system include inordinate delay in the disposal of cases, poor prison conditions, a lack of trained police personnel and most importantly, a lack of accountability.

Says well-known Bangalore criminal lawyer Shivshankarappa, “I have been handling criminal cases which are pending from the past nine years, all of which are petty cases. In one instance, the next evidence date is May 9, 2019 and until now four judges have heard this case.

Now the fifth Judge will handle this case.

Instead of disposing them, these cases are unnecessarily running.”

Our justice system is still colonial in its approach.Contrary to the AngloSaxon tradition on which our laws our supposedly based and which holds that

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Credits: IndiaLegaladvice.com

a person is innocent until proven guilty, the law in effect places the burden of proving one’s innocence on the accused.

And, the government of India has barely begun the work of overhauling ourcolonial-era laws. Every legal scholar agrees that a fast and efficient justice system is absolutely essential for a country a vast and diverse as India to be rule governed.

However, our judiciary has become quite the opposite – tedious and slow. Even our laws and their interpretation have caused massive confusion and uncertainty amongst litigants.

India has one of the largest number of undertrial prisoners in the world. They languish in jail not because they have been found guilty or sentenced to prison but because the crimes they have been charged with are too severe for grant of bail or they simply can’t afford bail – but principally because most have not even been charged!

Better investigation is necessary in order to deliver justice. We have seen people being falsely accused and are put

behind bars for years. Even if they succeed in clearing their cases, their careers are jeopardized,their lives are ruined.

Usually in such cases, the central or the state governments provide them with compensation. However, not everyone receives it.

Many lawyers in Bangalore attribute the large number of pending cases to the lack of judges. Bangalore has only 148 judges to deal with nearly two lakh pending criminal cases, data from The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) reveal. The data shows that, every judge in Bangalore has to hear approximately 1,200 cases to clear pending cases.

Quite recently, the High Court of Karnataka selected only 33 candidates for 101 civil judge posts. Bengaluru sees nearly 6,500 criminal cases registered a day, reveals NJDG. The Law Commission of India stipulates that there must be one judge for every two-lakh people.

Apart from judges, Karnataka faces a shortage of public prosecutors and courts, lawyers say. Out of the 20 family

Sloppy Justice

truth India’s rulers ignore at their own peril, writes Subhana Shaikh courts that the city has, only eight are working.

Lack of public prosecutors is particularly damaging. The number of pending criminal cases in the state’s trial courts have gone up to 6.3 lakhs and shortage of public prosecutors is a major contributing factor to this. With approximately 40% of public prosecutor postslying vacant in Karnataka, the prosecution of criminal cases isincreasingly becoming a game of chance. Figures from the department of prosecutions and government litigation reveal that there are 293 vacant posts out of a total of 773 sanctioned posts for prosecutors or an almost 38% vacancy rate.

Says HC Chandramouli, a state public prosecutor in Bangalore, “It puts a lot of burden on current public prosecutors who have to travel from one district to another for hearings. Also, sometimes judges have to postpone hearings because of unavailability of public prosecutors.” The government had recruited public prosecutors in 2014, but because of a scam in the entrance examination, they were not given charge of their posts.

Says P Prasanna Kumar, a special public prosecutor for the National Intelligence Agency in Karnataka, “The government should not wait for a decision on those 154 prosecutors.Rather, they should step up their efforts and fill

“

Sometimes judges have to postpone hearings because of unavailability of public prosecutors.

” up these vacant posts quickly. This will at least help ease the current situation.”

The government says that the notification for new vacancies has already been sent out andrecruiting will commence shortly. Certain norms are required to safeguard, protect, and strengthen the judiciary. Many sitting and former judges are of the view that the citizenry should

More than 3 crore cases are pending in courts all over India, many of these cases are pending for more than 10 years. | Credits: The Companion

have access to an independent judiciary.

Only then could free and fair justice be delivered and the rights of people upheld. The judiciary itself will be on trial if its process is wrongly used to achieve political objectives.

E

xperts believe that criminal cases, especially those involving rapes and sexual abuse, need speedy trials and should be resolved as soon as possible to keep people’s faith in the judiciary intact. Any delay in the delivery of justice can cause irreparable damage to the victim’s psyche not to mention trust in the system to punish wrongdoing. They also say that it is urgent to bring in certain judicial reforms in the country. There is a need to increase the working hours of the courts, at least by half an hour.

Says retired Supreme Court judge, Varun Gopal Gowda, “There is a flagrant violation of Article 21 of the Constitution if a plaintiff does not receive speedy justice. Criminal cases should get urgent attention from the judiciary. Today, one public prosecutor is looking after three cases simultaneously, especially in metropolitan India. If we don’t have the required number of prosecutors, the trial and justice delivery system will take a hit. And this is the present situation.

Therefore, the judicial exigency is to fill up vacancies at the earliest.” He adds that with regard to judicial reforms, it is necessary to follow the recommendations of 230th and 245th Law Commission Report surgently.

In a democracy, the focus should always be on streamlining criminaljustice system as it directly impinges on the rights and liberties of the individual.

As the judiciary is one of the three pillars of a democracy, it is equally important to protect the independence of the courts and their officers, first by securing their budgetary and personnel needs and second, by insulating them from political interference. The anomalies in India’s present judicial system has undermined faith in the judiciary and eroded respect for the rule of law.

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H E ALT H

Cruelty in the

Female genital mutilation is a crime against humanity

W

hile many countries around Bohra community say that mostly they would come to remove some extra skin the world have banned female from my lower private part,” recalls are subjected to clitoridectomy. The genital mutilation (FGM), procedure is carried out by a religious Salima. “When the day came, my grandIndia surprisingly hasn’t outlawed this mother and my mother were holding me leader, community elder or a medical horrendous practice. FGM is the physical tight on the bed so that the lady could professional with limited training. removal of theclitoris in the belief that The clitoridectomy is performed in cut the clitoris. I was seven years old at itreduces a woman’s sexual pleasure. a ceremonial manner with music, food, that time. I remember those days when Communities that persist with this meand gifts. Lacking any medical trainI would siton the toilet and cry because dieval practice say it promotes chasing, the operators cut the clitoris using of unbearable pain. My mother kept tity and is essential for a girl’s proper knives, clippers, or scissors. Sometimes telling me not to worry as every girl in upbringing and marriage and thus brings our society undergoes this procedure. hot objects are used for the removal. honour to the family.

Girls are encouraged to be brave and not There is an absence of a sterile environDoctors warn that FGM can cause to cry during the procedure because it ment required for such procedures; and, severe injuries including excessive bleed- would bring shame to their family. Only in many cases, the operator does not ing, complications during childbirth, give the child an anaesthetic. Instead women are allowed to be present in the problems while urinating and menstruat- ceremony.” her mother treats her with a homemade ing, problems while having sex, mental ointment using herbs, milk, eggs, ashes, FGM is practisedin many parts health issues, and even lead to death. sugar and even animal excrement. of the world, but predominantly in 30 According to the World Health Organicountries. There are four types. The first GM is not a religious practice, even zation, more than 200 million girls and is clitoridectomyor the removal of the though it’s prevalentin Christian, women in countries in Africa, the Middle clitoris. The second is excision, which East, and Asia have undergone female Islamic and, Jewish societies. Alis the removal of the clitoris and labia. genital mutilation. though there’s no mention of this ritual The third is infibulation, which means The Supreme Court, in July 2018, in any of the holy scriptures, it is often narrowing the vaginal opening through questioned the practice of circumcision presented as religiously sanctionedin stitching. The fourth and most harmof minor girls in the Bohra community. order to assert power over women. ful type includes pricking, stretching, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the prac“Sometimes there are cases of scraping, and even using acid to mutilate tice of FGM causes irreparable harm to vaginal infection in women because of the parts of the genitalia. Girls from the the girl child and should be banned.

Twenty six countries in Africa and the Middle East have banned the practice of FGM while women in India are still fighting in court against it. There are several petitions pending in the apex court seeking a ban.

Women belonging to the Bohra community in India say that girls, as young as seven or eight,are taken to a family barber who cuts the hood of the clitoris. Known as khatna in the Bohra community, FGM is a non-medical procedure. “In our Dawoodi Bohra community, almost every family follows this tradition,” says Salima, a 23-yearold victim of FGM from Bengaluru.

“The process of cutting the clitoris is very painful. A girl cannot say no to her family. This only happens before puberty. It often causes infection and bleeding.”FGM is a passage to womanhood and its goal is both to ensure premarital virginity and reduce a woman’s desire for extramarital sex.

On 10 December 2016 (Human Rights Day), a group of Dawoodi Bohra women started an online petition calling for FGM to be banned. | Credit:NVVN.NL “My mother told me that a lady

F

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e Name of God

y that India tolerates to this day, says Aakriti Valecha

Credit: Healthline

removing of the clitoris,” says Prabha Murthy, a gynaecologist in Bangalore.

“But not only physical harm, many girls suffer from psychological damage also.

It affects the natural functioning of a woman’s body. It leads to excessive bleeding, genital sores, and other sexual disorders.

Many women claim that their lives have not been affected by FGM. But that’s not the point. They were all minors and unable to make their own choices,” The practice of FGM violates the right of girls to equality and nondiscrimination. It infringes the right to security and physical integrity, and most importantly, it violates the right to life.

In most developed nations of the world, FGM is recognized as a harmful practice but people follow this tradition blindly in India.

“In Mumbai and Delhi, many victims filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2017 to ban FGM,” said Muzaffar Ahmed, an advocate practicing in

‘‘

FGM is a rather sensitive issue and many people do not come out to speak about this

’’

the Karnataka High Court. “Articles 21 and 15 of the Constitution guarantee the protection of life and personal liberty. These articles prohibit discrimination in the name of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.”

“I filed a petition in 2017 in the Supreme Court. FGM is a very sensitive topic and many people do not come out to speak about this,” says Sunita Tiwari, a Delhi High Court advocate. “Many girls from the Bohra community told me that they did not want to speak about it because if the head of the community got to know, he would stop providing money for their education. While researching for my case, I came to know that there is no mention of FGM in the Quran. In spite of this, the people from the community say that this is their culture.The evil hand of politics plays a very big role.

The number of such cases is going up and that is a cause for concern.”

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DE VE L O P M E N T

A Chamber of Horrors Manual scavenging is a disgrace that belies India’s claims to modernity as much as to its humanity, writes Ayanti Bera

Scores of sanitaion workers die each year from asphyxiation while removing waste from underground drains | Credit: Down to Earth

“I

f the septic tank in your house is filling up, and its walls are turning black, call me, I’ll clean it anytime,” Muniyappa says whenasked about his profession. He seems to be in his late twenties, early 30s at most. He is wearing a pastel shirt, neatly tucked into his trousers, both tattered testimonies to hisutter poverty. Thrice a week he sits on a rock in front of Hari Lakshmi Traders, an abandoned building in Wilson Garden which has turned into a giant garbage dump. The stench of rotting piles of garbage pervades the air but does not bother Muniyappa anymore. He says that this is where ‘manual scavengers’ or manual-sanitation workers ‘hang out’ in the day, waiting for work, alongside oth-

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er rag-pickers and daily wage-workers.

Muniyappa is one of 1,721 manual scavengers inthe six-districts of Karnataka that wererecently surveyed and thenearly 22,000 such workers in the whole country, according to the government.

The Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), an NGOworking to eradicate this degrading and dangerous profession, says governments have always under-reported the number of scavengers. According to their surveys, there are 1,60,000 scavengers in thecountry and nearly 10,000 in Karnataka alone.

Two Acts have been passed, one in 1993 and the other in 2013, to eradicate manual scavenging by making its employment a punishable offence, with

a term extending to two years and fine upto two lakh rupees. But in reality, neither has their employment stopped nor has any person or authority been convicted for employing a person for this kind of work. A major focus of The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, is the provision of alternative livelihoods for these people.

Rehabilitation includes a one-time cash assistance of Rs. 40,000,scholarship for their children, a subsidised loan to begin a sustainable alternative profession, financial assistance for house construction and vocational training in any livelihood skill. As a first step, the act mandated the CEO every municipality

The 2013 Manual Scavengers Act enlists 44 items of protective gear and safety devices to be mandatorily given to manual scavengers | Credit: Hindustan Times

to conduct a survey of people working as manual scavengers in the area. Each of them has to be registered with the municipal corporation to benefits from the Act. Muniyappa hasn’t heard about the Act or its rehabilitation benefits.

“The corporation has never asked us for any registration, or helped us in any manner with getting any other jobs,” he says. “The few people that we are in this union, we divide the work we get so that everyone can at least earn a little.”If he manages to get work, he’s paid between Rs.100 and Rs.200 rupees, based on the size of the chamber. At mostly he can make Rs.300, as chambers of individual houses are not that large, he explains.

The rules under the 2013 Act enlists 44 items of protective gear and safety devices to be mandatorily given to anyone who manually cleans a sewer or septic tank, besides 14 other cleaning devices. All Muniyappa has when he enters a septic tank are a broom and a bucket. In the last 10 years, 68 manual scavengers have died in Karnatakadue to asphyxiation while cleaning sewers or septic tanks, all whom worked without any protective gear or safety device.

Naveen Gautam, a lawyer at the Centre for Social Justice, says, “The vocational-training workshops being given to scavengers are all a sham. All they do is set up a programme near a slum one day, call on the nearby residents and put on a show, feed them and send them back. The data on these

government websites that claim to have trained so many scavengers and given cash assistance to such and such numbers are absolutely unreliable.” He goes on, “Most of the time they are unaware of such rehabilitation measures. Even if someone has told them, they don’t know where to go to get such assistance.

There are people I know who have been trying to get the assistance money for a long time and all they are stuck with is the tiny first instalment.”

To understand why manual scavenging as a profession is so difficult to eradicate, one must look to the politics of a deeply hierarchical and castedivided society. Manual scavenging is a caste-exclusive profession. Dalits, or the traditional untouchables in our society, havethrust into this profession. After a few generations it became impossible for them to quit the‘traditional profession’ of their ancestors and be socially accepted in any other line of work. A similar case is that of crematorium workers, where a few families, generatio after generation, are stuck in the same profession of burning dead bodies and collecting their ashes. They are unable to find a way out of the rut, because of the social hierarchy and government indifference.

Naveen says, “I know a guy in Delhi, who works as a cleaner in a posh residential complex. He cleans almost anything, from garbage to septic tanks. He is an amiable guy, quite dear is everyone in that complex so the people there have

nick named him ‘kachra’. Because every time there is any kachra(trash) that needs to becleared, they just have to call on ‘kachra’. What dignity can a man have when his identity has become synonymous with the garbage he cleans?”

Naveen has a point.Even if Muniyappa wanted to train himself in any other livelihood skill, his identity as a scavenger is pretty much set. In any other version of his life, he will probably still see himself sitting on that rock on the corner of that road, in front of that building, waiting for a job call that might not come. It is thus imperative to see the problem of manual scavenging not only as an economic issue but asa social issue, a caste issue and as a gender issue. In most cases, the job of collecting and carrying human waste is put on the womenfolk. Every provision of both the 1993 and 2013 Acts have laid the ground for eradication of manual scavenging as a profession and the rehabilitation of these workers intodignified jobs. But the agencies of the government that are responsible for implementing the provisions of the Act are unconcerned and apathetic. Add to this to the indifference of the people in society, especially the privileged and those who lack any social conscience. Combine all this you have a situation where the hundreds and thousands of manual scavengers all over the country are trapped, like generations before them, in a veritable chamber of horrors.

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A Voice in the Wilderness

Credit: Cultural Survival

Community radio is the cheapest way to raise awareness in rural India but finds no place in corporate social responsibility budgets, says Anurag Maan

F

ans of Sarthi Jhalak, a community radio channel 90.4 FM,has been missing some of their favourite programmes of late. ArogyaKhajana, a programme that invites medical experts as panelliststo discuss health issues, has not been aired for the past two months.

Instead, songs are being played to fill that particular time slot.

The sharp drop in programming is because the station’s staff strength has fallen to just two in the past two months.“We had a team of nine people till November, but seven people have quit their jobs in the last two months reducing our employee strength to two.

We have not received our salaries since January of this year,” says Sunil, an RJ at Sarthi Jhalak, based in in Anugondanahalli villageof Hoskete Taluk.

The radio station is popular in nearby villages for its programmes on education, health, agriculture, women security, sanitation and government

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schemes buthassteadily been losing its audience.“These days due to fewer programmes, very few people listen to our channel,” laments Ramsha, another RJ at the channel.Villagers are also not happy with disruption in broadcast of SarthiJhalak.

Says Nagappa M, who has visited the radio channel’s officenumerous times to express his displeasure,“Programmes on agriculture were beneficial as they kept us apprised of such important things as government subsidies and produce prices. We also used to get expert advice on other farmrelated issues.”

Community radio survives on donations from big organisationsincluding IT companies,from government bodies like Labour Ministry, Health Ministry etc. andSarthi Jhalakis no exception. But, the flow of funds stopped abruptly. “There was a similar pecuniary crisis in 2016.

But at that time villagers came out in our

support us with funds collected by them.

But they are poor, and we cannot expect much from them. We have also written to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) to help us.Sadly, we haven’t heard anything from them, yet,” says Samantha M, founder of Sarthi NGO of which runs Sarthi Jhalak.

The idea of public-ownership of broadcasting channels enteredthe Indian media industry after the Supreme Courtdeclared airwaves or frequencies as public property on February 9, 1995. This verdict came after a dispute between the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), where CAB, as well as the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), claimed rights to broadcast sports events with an agency of their choice. The apex courtgave the verdict in favour of the CAB. The first policy for community radio was approved in the year 2002. Initially,

the system only allowed educational receivedRs.31,46,811 under this scheme with older equipment which develop institutes to set up community-radio in 2016. The government further revised glitchesduring broadcast.’’

As Bishwajith points out, their operchannels. In 2006, the government inthe guidelines in terms of eligibility ations depend on advertisements, which troduced a new community radio policy criteria, amount of grant, and proceto allow agricultural and educational inare not easy to get. “We get advertisedure for release of awards etc. in 2018. stitutes, NGOs etc. to set up community ments from government departments Rs.25crorewas allocated for this scheme radio. The idea behindcommunity radio like agriculture, health, labour etc. They and will be distributed in 2018-20. was to reach audiences that do not have give us yearly contracts ranging from access to and participation in the promajor problem with the scheme Rs.20,000to Rs.2 lakh. However, the flow duction of media content. It was made is that it requires the applicant to of money is not timely and continuous. for local people to teach them about apply for grants after purchase It generally gets stuck at different levels,” development goals for health, nutrition, and installation of equipment, somehe says. “We also approach various education etc. thing station owners findchallenging. companies for advertisements, but they According to the Government of Another issue is that a station is eligible are more interested in advertising with India’s Grant of Permission Agreement to buyrequired equipment only oncea big urban radio channels due to their vast reach. Our coverage is small. Weask (GOPA) holders’ list, there are 304 year. community radio channels in India, of them to help us under any of their Says Bishwajith, who runs a comwhich 238 are operated by educational Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) munity radio station in Odisha, “The institutes, non-governmental organisaprogrammes.” government only gives us money after tions (NGO), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Says Noopor Sinha, a member of we have settled a bit, which is absurd. and State agriculture institutes (SAU) of the CSR team at Infosys Bangalore, “We We should receive something to start. It the country. is tough at the initial stages of setting up are in touch with a few organisations like The Ministry of I&B has been quite ECSIA which involves us in these CSR aca station. The policy also forbids us from vocal about promoting community tivities. We mostly cover areas like child applying for new equipment before six radio by organising community radio education and health and sanitation. But years. However, the electronic equipawareness workshops. They also started ment does not come with more than 2-3 we do not have any particular policy to conducting annual National Community focus on a specific field like community years of warranty.To add to our distress, Radio Awards from 2012 to encourage radio. There is nothing special menin case of a system malfunction, we cantioned in our CSR policy as well for such these radio stations. not get the equipment repaired every time. Consequently, we are still running initiatives.”

But funding has been a majorproblem. Ministry of I&B came up with an advertisement policy in 2009 totackle this issue.

Accordingto the policy, operational stations may seek advertisements/sponsored programmes from Central and State governments.

But the prescribed rate of Rs.1 per second, that was increased to Rs.4 in 2011, proved unviable.

The stations struggle to maintain even a minimum balance in their bank accounts.In another jolt, the government hikedthe spectrum fee from Rs.19,700 to Rs.91,000 in April 2012, which added to the woes of these stations.

The government tried to compensate them by introducing a Community Radio Support Scheme (CRSS) in 2013. According to data released by the Ministry of I&B, only 9 out of Community radio is still in its infancy in India depite emerging in 2002. It needs people’s avid involvement to strengthen it 238 community radios

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B USI N E S S

Welcome to Fakeistan With an aspirational middle class and few controls, India is a counterfeiter’s paradise, reports Anuradha Sriram

I

ndia is a hotbed of counterfeit luxury goods. Every city in the country has at least one popular destination for premium brands which sell at non-premium rates, for instance, Gaffar Market in Delhi or Vardhan Market in Kolkata.

Customers for these fake luxury products are drawn from an increasingly aspirational middle class that appreciates highvalue brands but won’t pay for them. ‘’It’s called wilful counterfeiting,” says Dinesh Anand, partner and leader of forensic services at PwC India.

“Consumers in India can easily get away with it since we don’t have laws that can get one arrested for purchasing fake premium products. Several reports have indicated how counterfeiting has been spreading to online luxury portals as well. A quarter of all the products available online would be counterfeit.”

According to a report by FashionUnited, over 80% of the duplicate goods sold in India comes from China and Taiwan. They include branded clothes, perfumes, watches, handbags, shoes etc.

The increasing popularity of shopping online and the advent of e-commerce have given an impetus to the sale of fake goods.

It’s even hard to differentiate between the original goods and the duplicate ones. The duplicates are such true copies of the originals that it’s hard to tell the difference between a fake

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Rs.3,500 Lady Dior bag and the real one which would cost anywhere between Rs.1 lakh and Rs.5 lakh.

Anil Awasthi, a resident of Delhi’s Vasant Vihar, bought a Chanel perfume from a nearby departmental store for Rs.2,000. An authorised Chanel store would have sold the same bottle for not less than Rs.8,000. However, only after using the product did he realize that he had bought a fake product. “It caused a burning sensation on my skin the first time I used it. I developed a skin allergy later,” Awasthi complains.

Bengaluru’s Brigade Road is one of the hubs for the sale of fake goods.

One can ask for cheap variants of highend goods which are otherwise hidden because of fear of police raids. Another popular destination for fake products is New Market in Kolkata where you can find replicas of luxury products.

It is, however, better to accompany a person who has knowledge of such places and the way they operate so you can bargain and assess the quality of a product, even if it’s fake.

There are many online marketplaces that remain unpoliced. These websites are abused by counterfeiters where they often exploit anonymity to sell fake items without fear. Sites ending with URL extensions like ‘.tld’ and ‘.brand’ are the usual suspects. These are the websites which generally go unnoticed

by an ordinary user. No wonder all the major e-commerce brands are creating measures to check the penetration of fake sellers on their sites.

Delisting is the standard response to companies that misuse online platforms to sell fakes and companies like Amazon do it regularly. Flipkart recently delisted 100 sellers. They also undertake ‘mystery shopping’ where employees buy products to check how fake-proof the system is.

Consumers who buy luxury goods are not only logo-crazy middle class people. Even people belonging to the richer sections of society walk around the famous markets on the streets of Delhi or Mumbai to add ‘D-items’ to their carts.

D

elhi accounts for 75 % of all counterfeit goods sold in India.

In 2015, a study by industry association Assocham revealed that the fake luxury market in India is growing at an astonishing 40-45% a year. The study also found out that the internet has evolved as the most powerful means for counterfeiters to reach buyers. It provides them with multiple channels to promote and sell fake products to consumers, a hydra-headed marketing network that cannot easily be closed down.

BUS INES S

The Versatility of Cane Cheap, cane-based prosthetics bring hope to India’s disabled poor, writes Renuka Thakare

People with physical disabilities preparing for Cybathlon 2019 |

“I

lost my leg in an accident a year ago and I searched for many options but they were all very expensive. It’s difficult for lower middle class people to spend so much money and I thought that I would never be able to walk again,” says PG Prasad, a patient.

That was till he discovered the miracle of cane-based prosthetics.Technology is rapidly changing every aspect of our lives but it appears to have created few affordable optionsfor disabled people in India.

For recovering the use of damaged limbs, the options available in the market are very expensive. A 3D-printed prosthetic, made of lightweight metal and plastic, costs aroundRs.1.5lakh in the country.However, a Bengalurubased start-up, Rise Legs, has set out to change that by manufacturing low-cost prosthetics using cane. These prosthetics only cost Rs.20,000 for below knee prosthetics and Rs 40,000 for above knee prosthetics. Arun Cherian, founder and CEO of the company, hit upon the idea of revolutionizing the making of prosthetics in India quite by chance. He was in Kerala for his sister’s wedding in 2014 when it struck him that the cane

Credit: www.riselegs.com

furniture in their house could support body weight and yet be extremely flexible and durable. Cherian wondered if the strength and durability of cane could be used to make prosthetics. He approached a few artisans and enquired if cane could be moulded into the shape of a leg.

“We tested different species of cane to ascertain which would be the most suitable for making prosthetics,” says Cherian. “We also talked to multiple cane artisans for the very same purpose.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru,had performed tests on cane with machines to push and pull.

We followed in their footsteps by testing it clinically at St. John’s Hospital and all went very well.” The results were promising so they proceeded with the idea. The team which makes cane prosthetic includes a cane artisan, a prosthetic stand a technician to monitor the process.

Prosthetic legs can be attached to differently affected legs, over the knee and below the knee. Prosthetic legs are made individually for every patient.

Every patient has a different leg measurement and it is impossible to use

one-size-fits-all techniques. A wrong size can also lead to discomfort and pain in the legs for the patient.

The process of making prosthetics starts from taking the measurement of the affected leg and test the strength of the leg muscles. After that, they roll a plaster of Paris (POP) bandage around the amputee’s leg to make a mould.

They then insert the cane including the foot section at an angle of ninety degrees, before attached the assembled socket covering the entire prosthetic with skin-coloured material.

C

ane prosthetics is an entirely new and innovative idea. Owing to its newness, not many people know about it, including a few doctors. “It is definitely a new idea but I doubt if it would be durable,” says Dr. Mohammed Faizan, an orthopaedic surgeon, practising in Bengaluru.

“The use of cane can significantly reduce the cost of prosthetics, I admit.

Most people spend so much on artificial support equipment. However, we will have to wait. It is too early to say anything for sure. Only time will tell how beneficial cane can be in this.”

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SPO RT S

In a League of their Own After years of struggle, women’s cricket is on the threshold of a dream, says Anurag Maan

W

orld Cup 2017 was a massive success for international women’scricket as it saw a record 80% jump in global viewership over the previous edition. The UK registered an increase of 51%, India 47% and Australia almost 300%. It was watched by 50 million people on their television screens, generated a total of 32 million hits on the ICC app and garnered 75 million views on the ICC’s website.

These statistics indicate how rapidly women’s cricket has evolved from a sideshow to a major fixture in the international sports calendar. T20, the most exciting and entertaining form of the game, has contributed greatly to bringing about this change. Tournaments like Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and Kia Super League (KSL) are now almost as popular as the men’s tournaments.

After the Indian women’s team defeated Australia in 2017 to reach their second World Cup final, captain Mithali Raj, told a press conference, “Women’s cricket in India will have a brand of its own.It will not require anything to support or promote itself. This win will encourage young girls to take up the sport back home. I think the time is propitious for a women’s edition of the super popular IPL.” “The way in which our girls have performed only lends credence to what I think,” she added. “We have seen how players like Smriti and Harmanpreet have benefited from exposure in the WBBL. Likewise, if other youngsters in the side also get exposed to the same culture, the game will get a fillip both internationally and domestically.”

Not too long ago, women’s cricket

Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur were great finds in World Cup 2017 | Credit:crizbuzz

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was hardly followed in Indian households. Players like Anjum Chopra, Jhulan Goswami, and Mithali Raj were the only known faces. However, World Cup 2017 turned the fortunes of Indian women’s cricket. The girls, by their doughtiness, impressed everyone. They beat topclass teams such as Australia and New Zealand to reach the final. Though they succumbed to England, they won many hearts back home.

Players like Smriti Mandana and Harmanpreet Kaur were great finds.

Harmanpreet Kaur’s splendid knock of 171 not out against Australia in the semifinals drew applause from across the globe. That innings gave a small glimpse of the capability women cricketers possess. It helped convince many sceptics that they were at par with their male counterparts. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which took over the management of the women’s game in 2006, responded to the team’s World Cup success by trebling the value of player’s contracts. Another boost to women’s cricket in India came from a new platform for T20 cricket. Two teams, Trailblazers and Supernovas, led by Smriti Mandana and Harmanpreet Kaur respectively, produced a great contest at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai before Qualifier 1 of the tournament.

The exhibition match was immediately followed in 2018 by the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy, the first of its kind, where all top players from across the country participated.

With this, women’s cricket embarked upon a journey to mass popularity.The BCCI’s initiative was widely appreciated and requests followed for a second season. Says Saba Karim, former Indian

Indian women cricketers made their Test debut in 1976 against the West Indies; and their ODI debut at the 1978 World Cup | Credit: DNAIndia

cricketer and current BCCI general manager (Cricket Operations), “This is the right time for us to give an impetus to women’s cricket. We organised an exhibition match last year. This year we are putting up three teams who will be playing four matches against each other.

It will be a mini-series during the playoffs of the IPL with a similar concept of four international players in the team. However, it will not exactly be like IPL where a franchise buys teams and players.

Instead BCCI will manage the process.

Depending on the response of spectators and TV audiences, we might think of starting an IPL for women soon.”

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pectators are one of the primary sources of revenue for any sport.

Men’s cricket is highly popular and lucrative in India because of its ardent followers. Since the 1983 World Cup win, it has surpassed every other game in the country. One will never find seats empty in a stadium when a home series is going on. This, however, cannot be said of the

women’s game. Despite outstanding performances, women’s cricket rarely attracts crowds. For instance, the muchpraised exhibition match could only attract 1,000 spectators.

Experts feel that India, despite its outstanding women players, still lacks a quality domestic competitive structure.

Even the introduction of tournaments in the IPL-format will not be able to do wonders. Says Shayan Acharya, senior cricket correspondent at Sportstar, “We still lack quality players at the domestic level. We have talent but talent needs to be nourished adequately. Coaches fail to bring the best out of players, which is their job. In our domestic T20 competitions, the average score still hovers around 100. This shows how poor the standard is. Only when curators make pitches that are batting friendly, do batters score more than 150 in a match.’’

The domestic cricket circuits of countries such as Australia and England are stable and thus provide quality players to their T20 leagues. As a con-

sequence, good quality cricket attracts a large number of spectators. ‘’In our country, if we plan to start a tournament, similar to BBL, with six teams, it will be difficult to find a pool of good domestic players to fulfil slots of 25 players on each side. And even if they play, it will be quite hard for them to match up to the game-level of international players in their teams,’’ Acharya adds.

In their initial years, both WBBL and KSL were flop shows. Their domestic circuit took time to grow and develop quality players who could entertain. But they persisted with the tournament, and despite incurring losses, made them successful over time.

It is high time that the BCCI started to think on these lines. It needs to take some bold steps, analyse the situation, spend money and come up with a tournament which might not initially succeed. But just the effort, and the commitment it advertises, will definitely inject new energy into women’s cricket in India.

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In Fighting Form India has a strong chance of winning the 2019 World Cup if they learn lessons from their recent defeats, says Tanmay Tiwary

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he invaluable experience of having played in England over the past couple of years and, thus, being acquainted with English conditions should be a major criterion for selection in India’s World Cup squad, saysVedam Jaishankar, a senior sports journalist.“The players should have been part of the senior national team or should have at least represented India A during their tour of England last year,” But the BCCI had its own ideas.

Chief selectorMSK Prasad announceda15-man squad consisting of Virat Kohli (cap), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk),

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Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, Rohit Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav.Young power hitter Rishab Pant lost his place to themore experienced Dinesh Karthik and debutant Vijay Shankargrabbed Ambati Rayudu’s spot.

Prasad’s explanation that Vijay Shankar was a three-dimensional player elicited a bitter tweet from Rayudu: “Just ordered a new set of 3D glasses to watch the World Cup.” The Men in Blue are fresh and full of energy. They have, time and again, proven their worth by winning diffi-

cult matches, in India and aboard. This hunger and drive of the current squad to win each and every game is a good sign before the World Cup. Because of this attitude, India has emerged again as one of the favouritesto win the tournament.

Between the conclusion of the 2015 World Cup and July 2018, India played 59 matches and won 39,across all formats.The present team under the leadership of Virat Kohli has come out as a strong contenderbecause of their successful run against various teams in difficult conditions postthe 2015 World Cup. In 2018, India started off their campaign on a decent note by winning the ODI series 5-1 and T20 series 2-1 against the mighty Proteas. They, however, lost the Test series 1-2, owing to a poor batting display. In March of that year, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka played a triangular series in Sri Lanka. India did not face much competition since Sri Lanka’s batting woes continued from the previous year. Also, the series witnessed a dramatic turn.The net run rate helped Bangladesh set up a clash with India in the final in Colombo. Sri Lanka had to exit. As expected, India emerged victorious in that encounter.

However, when the Men in Blue arrived in England to get accustomed to the swing-friendly conditions and gain some momentum before the World Cup, they were left in tatters by the English pace duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. The Indian batsmen failed to implement proper techniques to counter swing. The Test series was a nightmare for the Indian side.They lost it 1-4 to the hosts, which was just a little better than what the Indian side under Dhoni had suffered during their previous visits.

Kohli and co. could only manage to win the T20 series. The tour was seen as a big blow to India’s preparation for the forthcoming World Cup.TheEngland series put a dent in Virat Kohli’s captaincy because he had had a successful stint as a captain prior to that.

After a poor performance in England, India hosted West Indies.

Barring one defeat in the ODIs, India won all the matches and effectively, all the three series.

This helped somewhat in restoring their confidence.

Eventually, their morale got a big boost when they defeated Bangladesh to win the Asia Cup. After the Asia Cup, India toured Australia where they found, as usual, fast and bouncy tracks with a little grass on top to assist the pacers. Much to the surprise of many, theIndian pacers used the conditions really well and gave the Australians a very tough time.

The Australian side was still recovering from the ban of David Warner, Steven Smith, and Cameron Bancroft, who were found guilty of ball tampering.

This factoralong with a good overall performance allowed India to pulloff a historic test series win -- their first on Australian soil.India continued their victory run in the ODIs as well, wining the series 2-1, and drew the T20 series 1-1.

India travelled to New Zealand from Australia. The pitches of New Zealand offered a slightly extra bounce than the Aussie ones. But the Indian batsmen tackled the bounce quite well. The tour saw India winning the ODI series and the Kiwis clinching the T20s. Both the series had three matches each.

T

he last series against Australia prior to the World Cup showed chinks in India’s armour when they lost both the T20 and the ODI series in their own backyard. The team lost the

momentum it had gained after defeating New Zealand in New Zealand. A below par performance by the middle order along with the inability to stop the leakage of runs during the power plays cost India heavily. They lost to the Australians 2-0 in the T20s and 3-2 in the ODIs. Despite faring poorly in the England tour and getting outplayed by Australia at home, the side is high on confidence since they have an effective and reliable top order with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli.All the three have been the leading run-getters in recent times. KL Rahul has been kept as back-up. They also have a quality bowling attack comprising ofJasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who have proved their worth against batsmen around the world with their speed, accuracy, and consistency.

Furthermore, India has crafted its way to the top of the ICC rankings in the most hallowed format of the game – Test cricket.They have also attained the 2nd spot in the other two formats.Many experts are of the opinion that India, England, Australia, and New Zealand have the highest chances of playing in the semifinals. The unpredictable West Indian side, too, has got some serious match winners and power hitters who can turn around a game in a short span of time.

Michael Vaughan tweeted: “100 days till England go about winning the World Cup. Beating India in the finals is my prediction.” Says Deepanshu, a cricket aficionado, “Looking at the current form of the teams and especially, the Indian side, I think India and England are the top contenders to lift the trophy.”

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Soccer’s Third Eye

Credit: HindustanTimes

Soccer fans and pundits alike are divided over the merits of video-assisted refereeing, says Sayantan Sarkar

I

n the 2018 FIFA World Cup group stage match between Portugal and Iran, there was an unexpected game changer. It was neither a player nor a coach, but a technology. The video assistant referee (VAR),being usedfor the first time in a football World Cup, made its presence felt. He stopped play to review a tackle inside Portugal’s penalty box and awarded a penalty to Iran. The penalty was successfully taken by Karim Ansarifard, which not only drew the game 1-1, but also denied Portugal a top of the table finish ahead of Spain in Group B. Portugal’s next encounter was withdangerous Uruguay, who beat them 2-1 to end theCristiano Ronaldo-led team’s hopesof lifting the trophy.

“It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the VAR drama took centre stage in the World Cup and it continues to create a lot of hullabaloo in football leagues across the globe,” says Debjit Majumder, who plays for ATK in the Indian Super League (ISL). “Sometimes the

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beautiful game suffers due to the stop and play nature of VAR. Though it helps the on-field referee in a major way, it still has space for improvement.”

VAR has been approved by UEFA, football’s governing body in Europe, since its introduction in 2018. It’s currently being used in the knockout stages of both the Champions League and Europa League. Top football leagues around the world are also using this particular technology to enhance and improve referee decisions.

The English Premier League will introduce the system in its 2019-20 season. The video referee monitors the play sitting in a control room.From here he contacts the on-field referee and communicates to him the potential error. The on-field referee can also trigger this process, if he requests the VAR to conduct a check.

After being contacted by the VAR with regard to a potential error, the head referee might choose to change the call

or conduct an on-field review on the sidelines with the help of a monitor that shows him replays from various angles.

This is a time-consuming process and disrupts the flow of the game. Statistics from World Cup 2018 show that reviews on the field took an average of 86.5 seconds to be completed. A total of 455 incidents were assessed by VAR, out of which only 20 were actually checked.

This means that there was only one intervention in every 3.2 games.

However, the stats also show how the technology has helped in calling 99.35% of ‘match changing decisions’ correctly.So far in this year’s Champions League round of 16, the VAR has already been used quite a few times to make accurate decisions. Thus the question which crops up here is: does the positives of VAR outweigh the fact that it breaks the flow of the game?

“Football is a game of moments where one second can affect the outcome of the match. If that moment is

marked by a wrong decision, then it is much more detrimental to the game than a pause of a few minutes,” says Arijit Das, a diehard football fan in Kolkata.

VAR improves the quality of decision making, as was witnessed in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. But how realistic is its adoption in the domestic football leagues, which are played over a period of more than 6 months each calendar year? Howard Webb, a former English Premier League referee, who was also in charge of the 2010 World Cup final

checked by the technology.

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as adds, “I think the advantages of VAR outweighs its impact on the natural flow of the game.

Players will still ‘go down’ to get an advantage at a particular moment.But gradually technology will start picking up these kinds of on-field tricks to influence the referee, so players will think twice before they go down to win a foul.”

Though VAR was one of the major attractions of last year’s World Cup, it

technology and the manner in which it is used. NilendraMullick, a football fan in Bengaluru, says: “I do not like the idea of video assistant referee. Eventually, it is being used and monitored by humans and humans are not infallible.Somethings are best left untouched. VAR takes away the essence of football.”

In terms of decision making, the 2018 World Cup saw the largest number of penalties awarded by referees.

The credit for which goes to VAR. With this particular technology, people

The VAR team has access to 33 broadcast cameras: eight of which are super slow-motion and four for ultra slow-motion recordings |

told the BBC that video assistant referee is a significant addition to the world of football.

“In major league soccer, we have seen almost 100 errors being rectified by the use of video review. Those errors would have been significant as they directly relate to red cards, goals, penalty kicks, and essential fouls,” said Webb in an interview with the BBC. He was also of the opinion that VAR would significantly increase the standards of referring. He points to its advantages in preventing stoppages in play on account of close off-side decisions. Assistant referees now have the liberty to delay raising the flag, as any mistake would be

had its fair share of criticism as well.

Most notably, fans voiced their disapproval of the technology when it failed to flag a penalty which enabled Switzerland to score against Brazil. Another such instance was when France was awarded a penalty in a match against Australia. It cost France the match. In a match between Tunisia and England, fans questioned the efficiency of VAR for it failed to award a penalty to Harry Kane.

The England captain was pinned to the ground twice in the match. Ironically, Tunisia was awarded a penalty for a similar foul in the same match. This questions the predictability of the

Credit: La Gaceta

would want to review everything that is questionable or doubtful. When a VAR process is underway, there is generally a lot of confusion among players and fans alike.VAR, though, is here to stay. It has enough positives to back its existence in the world of football. The technology needs to be used sparingly as extensive use will result in acceptance of the technology by everyone. Arsene Wenger, the legendary manager, once commented upon the use of VAR, saying, “Video will help the referee, not question their authority. It will give them more credit, more authority, and fewer mistakes.”

Ardent football fans will certainly want the same.

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Tedious Trio Despite some clever direction, the second season of The Tripling is a big disappointment, says Renuka Thakare

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he most awaited web series of recent times, TVF Media Lab’s The Tripling is back. The story of the unique bond between three siblings over the course of an unplanned road tripwas a big hit in 2016. The story was written

by Sumeet Vyas and Akash Khurana and beautifully directed by Sameer Saxena.

The story in Season 1 ended with them reaching their parents’ house in Manali. In the second season, the siblings meet after ayear, having had no contact with each other since they parted after season one. Each of them is in a different position now.

The elder brother Chandan (played

by Sumeet Vyas) is the successful author of a book being made into a movie, Chitvan (played by Amol Parashar) is now the father of his girlfriend’s child, and Chanchal (played by Maanvi Gagroo) has entered politics. Unlike the first season where they embark on an unplanned journey, this time they go in search of Chanchal’s missing husband Pranav (played by Kunal Roy Kapur). Chandan’s book proved controversial as it was based on the first season’s adventures.

In one scene in the book, Chitvan refers

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Credit: The Quint

to his sister’s husband,saying“Jijaji baanjh hai” (brother in law is infertile).

His remark causes Pranav to disappear, apparently out of shame. Influenced by suggestions made by Pranav’s sisterNirmala, people suspect Chanchal might have killed and buried Pranav to usurp his position in the political party.

What’s common between the two seasons is that in both the trio is running away from something painfully embarrassing. In the first season it was Chitvan’s inability to pay his car loan dues on time that made him flee while in the second, Chanchal runs away because she wanted to disprove nasty rumours about herself and find her husband.

The hunt takes them to various places following clues they get, from Lucknow to Kolkata and then Gangtok. In the course of the journey they encounter several characters, who despite the writers best efforts, only add to the tedium.

The plot starts to wander and, with the sub-plots and tales within tales, the writer seems to lose sight of the original story. It certainly cannot hold the viewer and despite the huge fan following that Maanvi, Sumeet and Amol have created,

that’s unlikely to help make the second season as entertaining as the first.

The season started with saas-bahu daily soap twists when Nirmala enters, goes through a detective searching for Pranav and then ends like a Shahrukh Khan romance where two lovers meet.

However,the direction of the episodes makesthe scenes interesting. The funloving character, Chitvan continues to entertain with his sense of humour. His song ‘Ma Da Fa Qa’ in the first season was a smash hit. His one-liners are famous.

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verall the episode could have been better with the writing. The characters acting is not at fault in this case. Everyone in the show does a good job and Chitvan’s girlfriend Sheetal (play by Kubbra Sait) is particularly impressive. Kubbra displays the extraordinary talent she did inthe Sacred Games.

The first season set a benchmark for the web series but the second sadly has a hard time living up to that. Don’t expect too much sympathy from a public that’s increasingly spoilt for choice and becoming more discerning by the day.

The Beat Editorial Team

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Credit: Tanmay Tiwari