Dear Members,
April was a remarkable month with a golden
lining. At BCAS, we celebrated the golden anniversary of our monthly journal –
BCAJ. And India celebrated a sporting victory as it struck gold 26 times at the
21st Commonwealth Games in Australia. After a dismal performance at
Rio, India showed its true mettle by winning 66 medals and surged to the third
place behind Australia and UK. The 200 strong Indian contingent fought hard and
performed brilliantly, ensuring a steady stream of good news in the media. In
addition to many veterans, there were many first timers that did India proud.
BCAS extends its congratulations to all the sports people, coaches and
officials who kept the Indian flag flying high!
It has been a dream for millions of Indians
in lakhs of villages. A dream that was shared by Prime Minister Modi too! On 28th
April, that dream became a reality with Manipur’s Leisang village getting
connected to India’s mainline power supply network. Now all of India’s approx.
6 lakhs inhabited villages scattered across the length and breadth of the
nation have access to power. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister proudly
revealed, with a sense of satisfaction and achievement that, “we fulfilled a
commitment due to which the lives of several Indians will be transformed
forever.” Overcoming numerous obstacles and defying tremendous odds, the
Government left no stone unturned in ensuring all villages get electricity in
1000 days, starting 15th August 2015. The next step is providing
connections to all households and ensuring adequate supply to the villages.
Last year the world was on the edge, as North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un defiantly tested nuclear devices and missiles. The
geopolitical tensions had stock indices plummeting, erasing trillions in equity
markets. The recently concluded Inter-Korean Summit seems to have dissolved a
lot of those tensions. North Korea’s Kim has declared to President Moon of
South Korea that he will abandon nuclear weapons, if the US would formally end
the Korean war and agree not to invade his country. Last week, Kim and Moon
signed a joint declaration recognising “a nuclear free Korean peninsula and
complete denuclearisation” as a common goal of both Koreas.
However, Kim has a long way to go in winning
the world’s confidence. Critics have discounted the genuineness of Kim’s
actions and are sceptical of Kim’s sugary overtures – underlining that he never
publicly renounced his nuclear weapons. It is hoped that Kim will be sincere in
his actions and help his impoverished country to progress as the region enjoys
greater stability.
There are many reasons why India’s justice
delivery is becoming rigid and unresponsive — there are over 3.2 crore cases
pending across courts, of which over a quarter are pending for over five years
at the district courts and the high courts. Judicial-strength gaps are one. The
Government clogging the courts with mindless litigation are another. The fact
that 46% of all pending cases have been filed by the Centre and State
governments makes the “State” the most prolific litigant in the country.
Noting how frivolous and prolific litigation
by the Government has clogged justice delivery, the SC advised the Union
Government to be mindful of the burden on ordinary litigants who have to fork
out “a small fortune” to get justice, thanks to long drawn trials. To be sure,
fixing the government’s ‘fondness’ for litigation needs a raft of policy
changes.
The National Litigation Policy 2010—which
talked of making the Government an “efficient and responsible” litigant—is
hanging fire. The 2015 review was supposed to remove the anomalies of the 2010
proposal, by including provisions such as fines for officers engaged in drawing
the Government into needless litigation. But with the policy itself pending,
there seems to be no template with which the flow of government litigation can
be fixed.
On the economic front too, India has been
inching upwards! The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest “World
Economic Outlook” has projected that India will grow at 7.4% in 2018 and ascend
to 7.8% in 2019. IMF acknowledges that India’s growth is the direct result of
the continued implementation of structural reforms that will raise productivity
and incentivise private investment.
India’s biggest challenge in the months ahead
is to broaden inclusiveness. Efforts have also to be directed towards achieving
fiscal consolidation and budget deficit targets. Key to sustained growth will
also revolve around the Government’s ability to ease labour market rigidities
and reduce infrastructural bottlenecks. Clearly the best is yet to come!
Data is the ‘new gold’. This surprising
revelation has surfaced in the aftermath of the data privacy scandal that has
sent shock waves across the world, even India. The crux of the matter revolves
around the unethical compilation and analysis of personal data from Facebook,
without the permission of the users. Applying complex algorithms, data
scientists were able to unlock the psychographics of the targeted people, who
were then bombarded with appropriate content to alter their preferences. This
process of personality profiling is extremely subtle and has been used to
manipulate minds during elections.
Clearly the need of the
hour is stringent regulation that will ensure that data privacy is
uncompromisingly safeguarded and not viciously employed to manipulate
commercial or political success.
In keeping with his aim of building and reinforcing relationships with
countries across the world, Prime Minister Modi made his second trip to the UK
this year. PM Modi had bilateral meeting with British PM, Theresa May where
India and the UK signed multiple agreements and MoUs. Both countries decided to
deepen ties, especially in the areas of technology, trade and investment. The
PM also attended the Commonwealth Summit – making him the first Indian PM to
attend in a decade. As UK gets ready to exit the EU, the summit is seen as an
opportunity for Britain to boost its trade and increase its diplomatic clout
with all Commonwealth countries.
For India, visa liberalisation was on top of
the agenda. New Delhi has been pushing for many years an increase in the number
of student visas and the simplification of the process. India’s participation
at the summit was also useful as it gives it the chance to talk to other Asian
countries without China ‘being in the room’. Britain is keen on signing a trade
agreement with India, as it has to aggressively explore new markets once it
leaves the EU.
By the time this edition of the Journal
reaches you the exams for the CA IPC and Finals must have resumed. I take this
opportunity to request you to convey my best wishes to all the students
connected with you for these exams.
Please feel free to
write to me at president@bcasonline.org
With kind regards
CA. Narayan Pasari
President
