THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH, 31, 2022
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Identity and
privacy Prisoners’ identification Bill, which
raises privacy, data safety concerns, requires scrutiny The Union government’s latest proposal
to enable the collection of biometric and biological data from prisoners,
besides the usual physical measurements, photographs and finger-prints,
raises serious questions about its legal validity. Such questions are
inevitable in an era in which people look at official efforts to gather
personal data with suspicion. The practice of recording the photographs and
fingerprints of prisoners is more than a century old in the country, backed
by a colonial law dating back to 1920. The Union government now proposes to
expand the idea of talking “measurements” to cover “finger-impressions,
palmprint impressions, foot-print impressions … physical, biological samples
and their analysis”, besides “behavioral attributes including signatures
[and] handwriting”. The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, which
embodies this goal, has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. Some Members have
argued that the Bill went against the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment
declaring privacy as a fundamental right in K.S. Puttaswamy. Some contended
that the Bill enabled coercive drawing of samples and possibly involved a
violation of Article 20(3), which protects the right against
self-incrimination. There are other concerns too, such as the means by which
the data collected will be preserved, share, disseminated, and destroyed. The
Bill allows the records to be preserved for 75 years, and to be destroyed
earlier if the person is discharged or acquitted.
The concern over privacy and the safety of the data is undoubtedly
significant. Such practices that involve the collection, storage and
destruction of vital details of a personal nature ought to be introduced only
after a strong data protection law, with stringent punishment for breaches,
is in place. The 1920 law enabled the taking of measurements from convicts
sentenced to a prison term of one year and above, and anyone arrested on a charge
that attracts such a prison term; and thirdly, one who has furnished a bond
for good behavior and peace. However, the present Bill includes all convicts,
and anyone arrested under any law in force or detained under any preventive
detention law. There is a provision by which an arrested person, not accused
of an offence against a woman or a child, or one that attracts a prison term
of seven years or more, may disallow the taking of samples. Not all detainees
may know that they can indeed decline to let biological samples to be taken.
And it may be easy for the police to ignore such refusal and later claim that
they did get the detainee’s consent. The Bill is controversial, as the
tendency to arrest activists, protesters and even innocent people and invoke
grave charges is on the rise. It would be in the fitness of things if it is
referred to a standing committee for deeper scrutiny before it is enacted
into law.
Shifting sands Arab countries and the U.S. should
seek détente with Iran A conference in Israel of the top
diplomats from the U.S. and four Arab countries would have been unthinkable a
few years ago. But on Monday, in Israel’s Negev desert, officials from the
U.S., the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt and Israel gathered to discuss security
partnerships, Iran and other issues, signaling a decisive shift in West Asian
geopolitics. Ahead of the summit, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went
to Egypt to meet President Abdel Fattah al-Si-si and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince
Moammed bin Zayed. The UAE and Israel, which normalized relations as part of
the Abraham Accords in 2020, have stepped up their economic and security
cooperation ever since. The Abraham Accords signaled that Israel’s continuing
occupation of the Palestinian territories was no longer an Arab-Israel
problem. Now, Arab-Israeli relations have gained a new dimension, with Mr.
Bennett reportedly proposing a “Middle East defensive envelope” featuring
Israel’s advanced missile defense systems. The Negev conference signals a new
era of security partnership between these erstwhile foes that are brought
together by regional and global developments.
America’s allies in the region face two challenges. One is the
shrinking U.S. security umbrella. The bedrock of the partnership between the
U.S. and its Gulf allies was America’s security guarantees in return for the
seamless flow of oil. But the U.S. security promises took a hit when Saudi
Arabia’s oil installations came under attack in 2019, for which the Saudis
and the Americans blame Iran. Oil production was hit but the Trump
administration chose to do nothing. Since then, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have
come under multiple attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and the U.S has offered little
help. Second, the Gulf kingdoms and Israel look at the Iran nuclear deal
differently from the U.S. While Washington sees the revival of the nuclear
deal – which would impose curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for
lifting sanctions, the Gulf kingdoms as well as Israel believe removing
sanctions would eventually strengthen Tehran’s standing in the region. Their
worry is that if Iran is allowed to reach its natural economic potential, it
would translate that economic might into conventional military capabilities
and step up support for its proxies, from the Hezbollah to the Houthis. Faced
with the U.S.’s declining security role and the possibility of a stronger
Iran, these countries are coming together to write a new collective security
model. There is nothing wrong in building partnerships based on pragmatic
realism. But that alone might not bring peace. If lasting peace and security
are their primary goals, Israel, West Asian counties and the U.S. should also
seek some kind of détente with Iran. |
India’s food
response as ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ Its journey from chronic food shortage
to surplus producer partnering the WFP has lessons for the developing world BISHOW PARAJULI Global hunger is on the rise, driven
by the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic shocks, conflicts, poverty, and
inequality. Millions are living in hunger and many more do not have access to
adequate food. More people are living in hunger than in 2015 when the member
states of the United Nations, including India, agreed to Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) that provide a shared blueprint for peace and
prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.
In 2019, 650 million people around the world suffered from chronic
hunger – 43 million more than in 2014. Since the onset of the pandemic, the numbers
of people on the brink of starvation have doubled from 135 million people,
pre-COVID, and a year ago to 270 million. India’s outreach The title invokes the concept of Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam, ‘Earth is One Family’, from India’s traditional philosophical
outlook that has gained huge relevance over the past 75 years since being
cited in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to underline the
collective nature of the crises and a matching response that is needed.
At the core of the concept is ‘Vasudha’, which means the planet
earth, and describes how different nations form one collective and cannot escape
the common connection of concern and humanity.
In his 2014 UN General Assembly address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
said, “India’s traditional outlook
sees the world as one family and that is linked to its Vedic tradition of Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam” – underlining its relevance not just for global peace,
cooperation, environment protection but also for humanitarian response
including rising global hunger and leaving no on behind.
The number of people in need of urgent food assistance – estimated at
270 million in 2021 – because of the pandemic will grow significantly with
the crisis in Afghanistan and the ongoing war in Ukraine. The fallout of the
war is driving food and fuel prices that will add to the burden to the
millions (especially the poor and marginalized) who are struggling.
Sadly, the global burden of malnutrition remains enormous, with almost
150 million children stunted, nearly 50 million wasted, and every other child
– as well as two billion adults – suffering from micronutrient deficiencies. Helping
Afghanistan India’s recent and ongoing
humanitarian food assistance to the people of Afghanistan, through the United
Nations Food Programme (where half of the population needs urgent food
assistance to avert a famine) is an example of its commitment and commendable
steps towards humanitarian crises.
The 50,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) of food assistance in the form of wheat
committed by India is being sent in installments to Jalalabad, Afghanistan,
through Pakistan. The first consignment, part of India’s in-kind contribution
to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), was flagged-off on February
22 in a ceremony at Amritsar’s Attari border crossing, by India’s Foreign
Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India Farid
Mamundzay. I was honored to be a part of the historic and timely support by
India.
It is important to put this assistance in the context of the need in
Afghanistan. Over 22.8 million people – half of the population – are projected
to be acutely food insecure in 2022; this includes 8.7 million at risk of
famine-like conditions. Nearly 4.7 million children, pregnant and lactating women
are at risk of acute malnutrition in 2022. All 34 provinces are facing a
crisis or emergency levels of acute food insecurity.
The WFP in Afghanistan has in place a massive supply chain and
logistics infrastructure, with hundreds of trucks and staff ensuring that
food assistance reaches those who need it the most and no one is excluded. This
makes each contribution and partnership with the Government of India, a
lifesaving one for children, women and men in need.
India has been a strong ally of the Afghan people, traditionally, and
has extended over a million metric tonnes in the past, including 75,000
metric tonnes last year in partnership with the WFP.
In the past two years, India has provided aid to several countries in
Africa and the Middle East/West Asia to overcome natural calamities and the
COVID-19 pandemic. I have been a party to India’s support to Yemen and
Zimbabwe in the past. From sufficiency
to assistance India has made enormous progress in
food production over the years, with an inspiring journey towards
self-sufficiency in food production, marked by the Green Revolution. In 2020,
India produced over 300 million tones of cereals and had built up a food
stock of 100 million tones. The country has registered record harvests over
the last few years, with several enabling policies and incentives to farmers.
In 2021, India exported a record 20 million tonnes of rice and wheat.
As India’s food grain surplus continues to grow, along with its
footprint as a key humanitarian food assistance player, underlining its
partnership with the WFP, it is also important to highlight the story of is
transition from receiving food aid to now providing food aid to those in
need.
The long journey from chronic food shortage to surplus food producer
offers several valuable lessons for other developing counties in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America in land reforms, public investments, institutional infrastructure,
new regulatory systems, public support, and intervention in agri markets and
prices and agri research. I witnessed some of this transformation as an
agronomy student at the Punjab Agricultural University around four decades
ago. We also saw this aspect being highlighted through the UN Food Systems
Summit 2021 process. Safety nets One of India’s greatest contributions
to equity in food is its National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 that anchors
the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the Mid-Day meals (MDM), and
the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Today, India’s food safety
nets collectively reach over a billion people.
Food safety nets and inclusion are linked with public procurement and
buffer stock policy. This was visible during the global food crises of 2008-12,
and more recently during the COVID-19 pandemic fallout, whereby vulnerable
and marginalized families in India continued to be buffered by TPDS which
became a lifeline with a robust stock of food grains.
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) introduced in
2020 to provide relief to 800 million beneficiaries covered under the NFSA
from COVID-19 induced economic hardships has been extended by another six
months up to September 2022. The total PMGKAY outlay so far add up to 2.6
trillion rupees.
India’s support to its neighbors and other counties that struggle with
food emergencies and food insecurity must continue its growth trajectory.
For instance, in Afghanistan itself the need is immense. Over half of
all Afghan people – 23 million – now need emergency food assistance. The
latest WFP food security data show that 95% of Afghans consume insufficient
food, with the number rising to almost 100% among households headed by women.
Two-thirds – 66% - are resorting to desperate coping measures such as
borrowing money or skipping meals to feed their families, a six-fold increase
since August last year.
Humanitarian food assistance and partnerships that help create robust
policy innovations by way of food safety nets and resilient livelihoods, will
contribute towards global peace.
It is not just important to respond to the hunger and the food
security needs of communities affected by conflicts but also to consider
addressing them as a global community to avoid human suffering and the
massive humanitarian assistance needs that it creates. A peace catalyst Research undertaken by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) points to WFP programmes
contributing to creating conditions for peace in four areas including ‘bolstering
social cohesion, strengthening the link between citizen and state, and
resolving grievances within and between communities’.
The Nobel Peace Prize to the WFP in 2020 cited the WFP’s role and the
importance of access to food in maintaining peace.
India has made major progress in addressing hunger and malnutrition,
but a lot needs to be done and we must continue this path as the trailblazer
in access and inclusion through public policies and systems. For over five
decades the WFP has been partnering with India and seen its transition from
being a recipient to a donor.
However, we must take note of the fact that India can do more and is
doing more on delivering the goal of Zero Hunger and equity globally.
As the World’s largest humanitarian agency, the WFP, and India, as the
largest democracy, can leverage this partnership to contribute to addressing
food emergencies and strengthening humanitarian response, embodying the
spirit of ‘leave no one behind’ and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. A parliamentary
Bill the ICAI needs to take note of If done well, the changes proposed
will strengthen the ICAI’s accountability, governance, and administration R. NARAYANASWAMY The Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved a
Bill to amend the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, the law that governs the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). It also amends the Cost
and Works Accountants Act, 1959 and the Company Secretaries Act 1980.
Introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17, 2021, and titled and Chartered
Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries
(Amendment) Bill, 2021, the key changes it proposes are: Discipline: the ICAI’s
disciplinary committee and board of discipline will be chaired by
non-chartered accountants (CA), and its elected council members will no
longer be in a majority in them. And then, governance and administration: the
term of the ICAI’s Council will be raised from three to four years, and the
maximum number of consecutive terms for its elected members will be reduced
to two from the current three; the ICAI’s Secretary will replace the ICAI’s
president as its chief executive and perform the functions to be specified;
the ICAI will appoint its auditor from the Comptroller and Auditor-General of
India’s panel of CA firms; and the Government will form a coordination
committee for the ICAI and the Institutes of Cost Accountants and Company
Secretaries of India.
If done well, these changes should strengthen the ICAI’s
accountability, governance, and administration. The Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Finance has endorsed these changes and has further recommended an
end to the ICAI’s monopoly in certification. Training,
disciplinary record Exams and Articleship are the rites of
passage for CA aspirants. The examinations are reputedly hard to crack. The
three-year Articleship gives hands-on training. That said, senior industry
managers be-moan that many CAs do not have what it takes to succeed in the
corporate world, i.e., analytical ability, critical thinking, appreciation of
the business context, grasp of technology, and communication and presentation
skills. CA students do not have in-class interaction. Also, the coaching is
focused on cracking examinations rather than facilitating understanding and
application. Of course, the unpredictability of examination outcomes does not
help. Further, today’s school leaver thinks about ‘cool’ careers such as
pursuing an MBA, law, AI/ML, (artificial intelligence and machine learning),
data science and web design. So, it is no surprise that CA student enrolment
in 2021 was a third lower than in 2010.
The ICAI’s record in disciplining its members is even more
problematic. There have been persistent complaints that the ICAI is lax in
acting against errant members. On the occasion of Chartered Accountants Day
on July 1, 2017, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was critical of the CA
community for its lack of quality and integrity. It was a serious indictment
of the ICAI’s self-regulation. In 2018, the Government had set up the
National Financial Reporting Authority as India’s first independent regulator
of accounting and audit. The proposed changes in the composition of the ICAI’s
disciplinary arms will further limit its role. As a result, the ICAI will be effectively
reduced to an examination board. Historical baggage Chartered accountancy is an odd fusion
of medieval, colonial and license raj institutions and practices. Articleship
is a source of cheap and time labour for some practitioners. The idea of
training by members of a trade association goes back to medieval guilds. Much
of the work that CAs does and clamours for is a remnant of the license raj.
Many businesses and professions have changed beyond recognition as a result
of the economic reforms initiated in 1991. The demutualised and
technology-driven National Stock Exchange of India has transformed
stockbroking. Indian IT and pharma companies now compete successfully with
the best in the world. India’s entertainment industry has a worldwide
audience. Even in a licensed profession such as law, the five-year degree has
become a sought –after qualification.
In contrast, CA has not kept pace with the changes in India’s dynamic
economy and changing society. The ICAI was set up in 1949, largely as the
Indian version of the U.K. institute. Its evolution since then has mirrored
the rise of the license raj that was characterized by uncompetitive capital,
product and labour markets, worthless for-filling and box-ticking, and
incredibly high tax rates. The focus of Indian business back then was on how
to make money by improving efficiency, relevance and competitiveness. CAs
greatly benefited from that system. They kept beseeching the government for mandatory
work such as issuing import utilization certificates, tax audit, public
sector bank branch audit, concurrent audit, and so on. Most of such work is
of dubious value. Ironically, among CAs, “professional development” does not
mean skill up-gradation but is a code for getting low-value work from government
entities. Elected council members have no reason to rock the boat. This is
not sustainable. AI/ML is already playing a significant
role in medical diagnosis and legal drafting and case analysis. Accounting
and auditing are more amenable to the replacement of humans by technology.
AI, robotics, and other technological advances are likely to reduce the need
for human intervention in accounting. Also, recent administrative reforms
aimed at enabling ease of doing business and ease of living, such as faceless
tax assessment, easy filing of tax returns, prompt refunds, rising threshold
for tax audit, and abolition of Goods and Services Tax audit have greatly
reduced the availability of captive, government-mandated, make-work business
for CAs. Puzzlingly (or perhaps not), overseas accountancy qualifications
such as the Association f Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) are gaining popularity
in India, perhaps because they are recognized worldwide, are more relevant to
current and future needs, and are accepted even in India by global companies
and global accounting firms. Having Has The Parliamentary Committee’s
suggestion to set up a string of Indian Institutes of Accounting (IIAs) on
the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian
Institutes of Management (IIM) is innovative. The IIAs will offer a five-year
full-time and broad-based degree in accounting, auditing and related areas
and heir graduates. At one level, they will end the ICAI’s statutory monopoly
over certification. More competition should result in better quality and
higher standards of conduct. Thought the ICAI and the IIAs are different,
they have to compete for the same talent pool. At another level, the IIAs can
greatly enhance the quality of education with a wholesome curriculum. BY
broadening access, they can make the accounting community more inclusive and
socially diverse.
Accounting institutes in other countries including the United Kingdom
have changed. The Bill and the Parliamentary Committee’s report can be seen
as efforts to drag the ICAI to the contemporary world, kicking and screaming
if needed. The ICAI’s leadership needs to ponder and explain the reforms to
its membership. It would be wise to read the proposed changes as a warning
and respond maturely. |
